Dr Greg Bahnsen - The Fruit of the Spirit: Patience (Part 6)

This recording has been released into the public domain by the Bonson Institute, where we aim to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. We're going to continue our study of the fruit of the Spirit by turning to Galatians 5 and reviewing what Paul has to say about that, and then spending our time this evening focusing on the fruit of patience. So turn in your Bibles to Galatians chapter 5, and I'll begin reading at the 16th verse. Hear what God says to you. So I say, live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. The acts of a sinful nature are obvious. Sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. Thus far, the reading of God's word. Remember the Galatian situation. There's dissension in the congregation. There's heresy, legalism, all kinds of problems. Tensions over whether you have to live like a Jew to be saved. This is quite a distressing situation. And Paul has already told the congregation. Verse 15 is a good summary. If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out, or you'll be destroyed by each other. And then he sets in contrast the life of the sinful nature that is living out of our own natural desires and tendencies, and life in the Spirit, which is something that doesn't come natural. It's by the grace and the power of God. What does the Spirit bring forth? We were talking before we started this evening. The Spirit brings forth things which we can't in ourselves produce. We know that as we talked about the fruit of the Spirit over these few weeks, I'm sure you've seen in many, many ways, whether it's with Respect to love or joy, or with respect to being a peacemaker. You've seen things in your own life that they're so hard to conquer. And if only the grace of God, the Spirit working through you, that will be able to bring that about. This is especially true of patience. How do we get patience? You know the tongue in cheek prayer, Lord, please give me patience and give it to me right now. We find that kind of tension or contradiction within ourselves when we want to be more patient people. And who here tonight's not going to admit we need more patience. Each of us does. But we want that patience to come, like, immediately. If we rest on our own resources, if we think, I'll be able to walk this up inside me, you know, if I just think positive thoughts or whatever, I'll be able to become a patient person with just more and more frustration. We really need to beseech God to change us radically, change us inside and have his spirit work through us where we're going to accomplish patience. Let's talk about impatience for a minute or two, see if that gives us any help and insight. Impatience is rarely arbitrary. I want you to think about that for a second. Impatience is not very often arbitrary. When people act. When you act, when I act impatiently, there's almost always a reason for that. We don't just go around looking to be impatient. What's the significance of that insight? It really has some profound consequences if you stop and think about it. The significance is, I use myself as an example here when I'm impatient and it comes to my attention either through somebody else, you know, embarrassingly, or I just realized myself I'm being very impatient. The first tendency I think I have is to see the reason why I'm being impatient. Well, there's a reason for this. You know, so and so shouldn't be doing or this and that, or there's a reason for this. But you often think about it. Impatience is not the sort of thing that is going to be without a reason, without a trigger, without some kind of cause. And impatience almost always has its. Not justifying reason, but its causation. There's always something that causes me to be impatient or you to be impatient. Then it's really irrelevant, isn't it, when we start thinking of what that reason is? Well, I was caused to be impatient by that bad traffic tonight or whatever it may be. So what did you expect, impatience to just kind of jump out arbitrarily from you? It doesn't. The point is there's a reason why you're being impatient and you're not handling that reason in a Christian manner, in a spiritual manner, there's almost always going to be something wrong that distresses us and makes us impatient. There's an injustice that takes place or continues or perceived plan that we had has been disturbed. Our hopes are dashed. And when we take things into our own hands, we become short tempered. When we see those things that cause us to be impatient, what we need to do is immediately turn them over to God. We need to immediately say, God's in control. God is pulling the strings. He's calling the shots. He's running the show here. You know, when I'm not feeling impatient and I'm calm and I've prayed and I'm walking with the Lord, I can say these things. It seems so obvious, almost like, well, does that need to be said? And yet it's that simplest thing that we don't do. When the problem comes up. We don't immediately say, God, I know you're in control. And if we could say that, if we could just train ourselves to say that. Let me say something about training ourselves. And I say this from experience as well with others, from a pastoral standpoint, from my own life too, I think we don't train ourselves with the consistency and perseverance that we might because we get discouraged. And the first or second time we trip up and we say, okay, well, it's a waste of time. I'm obviously not learning this lesson. But let's say that tomorrow something happens to you. Let me take the traffic as an illustration again. You get caught in traffic, you're going to be late to work or to an appointment or something like that. And you don't say immediately, God, you're in control, I'm turning this over to you. Or you don't say it for maybe 30 seconds after you've been fuming and frustrated and so forth, you finally say, oh, I remember. But the pastor said last night, I've got to pray that prayer. I've got to do that. I've got to mentally turn this over to the Lord. Okay, now something else happens later in the day or the day after. And again you don't immediately turn it over to the Lord, but this time you come to your senses in 20 seconds rather than 30. I'm making this up, but my point is you will see if you will do what I'm telling you, you will see progress. And you've got to condition yourself that when you cross the threshold of problems where anger is coming on you, you've got to condition yourself to feel that and say, I know I'm crossing the threshold of anger and turn it over to the Lord immediately, and you will see progress. But the fact that it takes you 30 seconds or two minutes and it's not immediate shouldn't stop you from saying, I'm still going to do it. I blew it for 2 minutes or 30 seconds, but I'm going to change my attitude now. The next time it will take you less time to get control of yourself and less and less. And eventually you will so sensitize yourself that you'll feel the anger coming on. You say, God, in one sense I have an advantage because I can almost feel my blood pressure go up because it's so high to begin with, I guess. But I started having those kind of physical sensations inside me when I'm getting angry. I wish I could say 100%, but more and more I'm learning when I feel that, say, okay, it's got to stop and pray. Let's stop and say, God, I don't know why this is happening, but I know you, and I know you're in control of everything. Impatience comes to expression, I think, especially in three circumstances. Let me talk about each one of them. First of all, impatience with God's timetable. John Sanderson, in his book the Fruit of the Spirit, talks about the weeds that correspond to each one of the fruit of the Spirit. And with respect to patience, obviously the weed is impatience. But there are three particular kinds, he points out. First, impatience with God's timetable. It's like God's not doing things in our life according to our preconceived plan. He's not helping us move along toward our goals, and he doesn't meet our agenda. I realize that when I put it in those words. No one is tempted to be like that. But I'll bet you that as much as it doesn't sound enticing to act in that way, if you look at your own behavior, you do act that way. If you look back at it, you realize God has planned everything out and I'm fighting his plan. I'm saying, God, you're not bringing this about the way I want you to in the time I want you to do it. Remember Saul? Saul wanted sacrifice to be made. God told him to wait for Samuel to appear to do it. Saul got impatient. He finally made the sacrifice himself. Without the priests of God there was, and for that he lost the kingship over Israel. Impatience with God's timing. Secondly, impatience under trial. It's another way in which our impatience is seen when things are pressing on us and we just don't hold up. Well, look at James, chapter five, James five. I want to read the first six verses to begin with. Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look, the wages you failed to pay. The workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on the earth in luxury and self indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered innocent men who were not opposing you. So James here talks about the way in which rich people are persecuting the weaker people who are poor people who have not even opposed them or done anything bad to them, and they've done such wicked things and it's gone as far as murder. This is how the powerful in society take advantage over the weak. Now look at verse seven. Be patient then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm because the Lord's coming is near. It's interesting. James calls believers to be patient under the circumstance of trial and injustice, even to the point of the weaker being killed and defamed and defrauded by those who are powerful and rich in society. He says, be patient in these circumstances until the Lord's coming. When there are trials that come upon us, we should focus our thoughts all the more on the fact that Christ will return and set everything straight. Are we willing to wait for justice at that point? Usually not. We want it now dished up immediately. James says, be patient until the Lord's coming. And then thirdly, the Bible warns us about impatience with the weakness of others. I'm not only impatient with God that he doesn't make things happen the way I want to, and impatient with the trials and injustice of this world. But other people get on my nerves. Why don't they learn? This week I had a great example come up. You know, this little tape recorder that I try to use that is just the right size, has auto reverse on it. It's just really great. But it has this wine in it that was getting on the tape and made them Unusable and so forth. And so on August 31st, I took this to an authorized Sony repair place, okay? I don't have it back yet. They've done this, they've done that. They've ordered this part, this on and on and on. Finally they said, we can't fix it, okay? So then I call Sony and I tell them, one of your authorized dealers has done this, has done that, da, da, da, da. And so now I guess there's a reason why they have to do this. But it's okay, we've got your report. Now we have to call them, get their report. We'll get back to you. So then I went and I wait and I wait, and finally I call them, say, okay, I've been waiting for a call. They say, well, this other person has not called back and given us this information, okay? So now I'm just, you know, I'm going to see the question, why do I, the customer, have to get the two of you to work together to get this thing worked out? That's an example of what I'm talking about. Impatience with the weaknesses of others. Do I have a right to be a little put out about this? I think waiting that many months is more than reasonable. But my point is, the reason it's getting my blood pressure up is because I'm not willing to live in a world where other people are weak or ineffective or disorganized or something like that. And so the weed of impatience over against the spiritual fruit of patience comes up. When I'm not satisfied with God, I'm not satisfied with the way things are going in my life. I'm not satisfied with other people. James 5, 9. You can still have your finger in that passage says, don't grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The judge is standing at the door. So I have to learn to accept God's timing. I have to learn to look to the return of Jesus Christ, to set things right in a world full of trials and injustice. I need to remember patiently, graciously to deal with those who are letting me down. I don't have the right to judge. And when I try to judge other people and I'm impatient with them, what James says is, God's judging me or God's judging you, if you're like me in that regard. Okay, so we know impatience is bad. We see three repeated illustrations of that in our lives. Impatience with God's timetable, trials, or with the weakness of others. Before we talk about true patience, it'd be good for us, as John Sanderson does in his book, to stop and think about the artificial fruit of patience. Sometimes I can give the impression that I'm being patient, but it's artificial. It's not the real thing. It's not the genuine article. Sometimes what we offer in the place of patience is laziness. We're just too lazy to react. We're just too fed up, and we're not going to be bothered by things. It looks like we're being patient, placid, but in fact we're just being dead to the situation. Too lazy to react to something, too worried to respond to criticism. We don't even want to deflect it. So I'll be patient. It's like I'm not going to care what this person says and what the truth is. I'm not going to even be bothered by it. Sometimes that's not a good attitude, because what it really is indicating is an apathy which is displeasing to God. Another way in which we have artificial patience, I think, is by having a Stoic attitude. Can I talk to you about philosophy for a minute here? In ancient Greek philosophy, there was a number of attitudinal schools, or philosophies of life, as it were, that were taught. You had the sophist who were kind of peddlers of whatever would be helpful to get what you want in society. They'd be like the lawyers of our own day, who just learn the tricks of the trade and show you how to get what you want in this world. And as far as they are concerned, there isn't any truth or any principle or morality. It's just a matter of learning how to manipulate the council or the court or your neighbors to get what you want. The cynics who were kind of like back to nature people, they distrusted civilization. You had the Epicureans who said, we have to live for pleasure, but if you live for wild pleasure, you'll suffer for it tomorrow. So you ought to live for gentle pleasure. And the hedonists who said, no, it's the quantity of pleasure. Party all night. That's the way to live your life. So there are all these different attitudinal schools, but one, the one that probably had the longest history and the greatest influence on the ancient world, was Stoicism. The Stoics believed that there was something like the logos, the reason or word that structured everything in the world. There was a reason that flowed through nature. This would be very similar to what has come to be a secular version of natural law in our day, that there is kind of a law in what happens in the natural world. There's a reason for what happens. And the stoics realized that we can't alter the course of nature. Okay, you get on the freeway. If you get on the 405 when there has been an automobile wreck at 4:45 in the afternoon, you are not going to move. Okay, so now how can you handle this? Well, one thing you can do, you've seen people like this, you know, the darting in and out. One more car up here, you know, and a little over on the shoulder here and you know, just whatever. They fudge me. So I push, but let's see if we can get through that. And then there are other people who get nasty and honk their horn and use various gestures to show their dissatisfaction and so forth. And then there are people that try to turn up their radio and just kind of forget that they're in the situation and drowned it out, you know, by thinking of the thoughts. The stoic said, you can either change the external world, you can change the internal world. Since you can't change the external world, then what's left to you is to change you. So when you're sitting there in traffic and you know you're going to be late to an appointment and there's nothing you can do about it, they said grin and bear. That's why we still today talk about being stoic. You know, be stoic about the stiff upper lip, just live with it. Now, some Christians have the idea that that is a fruit of the spirit, to be stoic about things, and they confuse that with patience. But stoicism is not patience. Stoicism is a psychological technique. It's an attempt to almost well be in denial that there is a problem that you have to deal with. Stoicism does not see the world in a Christian fashion. It's not a matter of turning yourself over to God and saying, God, I'm in your hands. I trust you, which is very personal. Stoicism is kind of an impersonal, well, hey, this is just the way things are. That's the course of nature, and I've got to fit in if I'm going to be rational about this. We want to get beyond apathy and laziness and stoicism to true patience. How can we do that? How can we cultivate true patience? Let's begin by looking at Matthew 18:21, Matthew 18: at the 21st verse. Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, lord, how many Times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me up to seven times? Then Jesus tells a story to help Peter understand the answer to this question. And in verse 33, Jesus gets to his answer. He says, shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you? You know how the story ends that the point being made is if God has forgiven us so much, how can we fail to forgive our fellow man for minor offenses that they commit against us? Jesus tells Peter that he's not to forgive his brother simply seven times. This is verse 22, I tell you, not seven times, but 77 times according to my translation here. Or others will say 70 times 7 and I'm not going to. Please don't worry your minds about that textual variation. The point is the same either way, isn't it? There is no upper limit because it would be silly. It would reduce to absurdity the teaching of Jesus if what we thought is we're to carry around a pad with us. You know, okay, now start keeping score. We are supposed to forgive and to forgive and to forgive. It's one of the characteristics of God according to Exodus 34,6, that he is slow to anger. And this is what Jesus is trying to teach us here. And we will be slow to anger if we realize there is no ceiling on our forgiveness. You know, anger starts welling up and we think, okay, I've had enough, right? Well how much are you supposed to have when you've had enough? Four or five times in one day? Six? Peter says even seven. Jesus says, no Peter, you have wrong. 77. Can you really imagine forgiving somebody 77 times in a day? Just do the math as to how many minutes there would be between each offense and your forgiveness. Again, this is like a camel going through the eye of the needle remark. Jesus is saying something so absurd we're supposed to laugh at that. So it's like 77 times really in one day. Well, if there is no upper limit, if there is no ceiling, then there's no time that we should feel we've had enough. The bank account on forgiveness is open ended for us because God is forgiven so much in our own lives. Another text to help us learn patience. 2 Timothy 3, verse 10, 2nd Timothy 3, 10. Paul says, you however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecution, sufferings. What kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. And then in the same book 2 Timothy. Look at chapter 4, verse 2. Preach the word, be prepared in season and out of season. Correct, rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instruction. Here the word patience takes in both of these verses we've looked at takes the sense of steadfastness and perseverance. Paul says, you know my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience. He means my steadfastness, my sticking to it. And as he tells Timothy to preach in chapter four, verse two, it says, be prepared in season, out of season. Correct, rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instruction. You need to be steady at this. You need to persevere. You need to press on what will produce in us the ability to press ahead and do the right thing when it's not easy. Do plants learn to deal with hostile environments by being kept in the greenhouse all the time? No, it's trouble that that teaches us patience. Look at Romans 5:3. Paul says, not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance or steadfastness. When suffering and trials and difficulties come into our lives, we resist them. We don't want them. But God says, this is your trembling training ground for patience and steadfastness. So the next time trouble comes into your life, you should remember the way in which God brought you through your previous problem. You should remember that it wasn't as bad last time as I first thought that it was. You should remember that God did give you hell and that you turned out the better for it. Remember that it wasn't as bad as you thought. God did help you and you grew by it. You say, but what if I don't remember that I grew by that? Well, then we need to go back to step one. Are you turning over every situation to God, saying, I know you're in control? Are you learning patience with the weakness of others? Are you willing to see trials and temptations as an opportunity to grow? But I'll bet that part of that is true, that if you look back at things that got you really upset previously, you know that you got more upset than you needed to. So now, as you're starting to get upset, remember that saying, I have a tendency to get overly upset with things. I don't have proportion here. God does offer help. And through suffering, I learned steadfastness, steadiness, perseverance. I learned patience. And before we end tonight, I want to give you three examples of patience from the fifth chapter of James, because James is concerned to have that instilled in us, he sets before our eyes three examples of patience. James 5. We'll look at verses 7, 10 and 11. James 5, verse 7. Be patient then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. First example of a patient personality is that of a farmer. Ask yourself, am I being more like a farmer today? And what do we mean by that? Well, the farmer can't expect to go out and plow the fields and put the seed down and then tomorrow harvest everything. The farmer's got to wait. He's got to hope that the rains come. He's got to do his fertilizing and his weeding and his preparation. He's just simply got to wait for the crop to grow. Are you willing to be a farmer to do the right thing, even when all you see is the seed level of doing that? That is, you only see seed, you only see the planting. You don't see the crop right now, and you wait for the crop to grow. The second example is that of a martyr. James gives the example in verse 10 of a martyr. Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Remember the prophets of old who spoke the truth. You know that it's the truth. You're committed to the same truth after the fact. You look back at it and you know that they were on the right side. But at the time they were going through it. They had all kinds of people against them, who opposed them, and even in many cases, killed them for what they were saying. Are you willing to be that steadfast and patient? Do you have a martyr's attitude? Not just the farmer's spirit, but the attitude of the martyr who says, I'll stick with this because it's true no matter what. In this connection, look at 1st Peter 2, 1920, 1st Peter 2, 1920. For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. Man, what a passage. Peter says, you want commendation before God? Then of course, bear up under the pain of unjust suffering, knowing that God is aware of your situation. That earns the favor of God, he says. But if you put up with it when you know you're being punished for what you Deserve. Big deal. Okay, then Back to James 5. The third example he gives of patience is in verse 11, and that's the patience of Job. James 5, 11. As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. The patience of Job. Boy, there's an example. What didn't Job lose his family, his health, his wealth, his home, his reputation? Now, sometimes people have trouble with this verse because they say, well, it seems like Job failed. I mean, he didn't have a rugged attitude. But I think probably James is reflecting on, and it was proverbial in his day. The patience of Job. When you look at the story, they're thinking about the fact that every time Job wavered, the fact is he learned his lesson and came around and he persevered. He kept with it. Kept with it even to the point when finally God rebukes him at the end, he puts his hand over his mouth and he says, it's not my place to question God. This is wrong. So remember the perseverance of Job, that every time he faltered, he came back. He trusted God. He listened to the word of God and submitted himself to it. Those would be three good examples to begin every day with. I don't know how long your resolve to do that will continue, but try this tomorrow, before you go to work, before you go out to do your chores for the day, think about how farmers have to be patient, how martyrs must persevere, how even Job had to submit to God's way of doing things and to testify to the sovereignty of God in all matters. If we would use those as our models and examples, farmers, martyrs, and Job, then it would help us to exercise patience in the minor affairs and setbacks that we have to run into in our own lives. Any questions? Any comments on patients, inpatients, artificial patients? We all have a lot to ask God's forgiveness for tonight. And also that his spirit will work in us to start making us more patient people. Wouldn't it be a remarkable thing to be in a congregation where 90% of the people were characterized by patience? Nothing can shake that kind of a group. It's impatience. When you think about it, it's impatience, finally, that brings you down. We could learn to bear with each other and wait for God's timetable and everything. Churches would be a lot stronger in our testimony, would be a lot sweeter to the world as well. Okay, next time we'll continue through the spirit, and I'll try to give you some idea of how far we'll get. If you'd like to be reflecting on this or reading on your own, I think we can do kindness, goodness and faithfulness free, because they all tend to run together when you stop thinking about it. But I'll explain more to you next time I'm with you. This recording has been released into the public domain by the Bonson Institute. Duplication, sharing and distribution is encouraged. For more information about the life and Ministry of Dr. Greg L. Bonson, visit our website, bonsoninstitute.com where we aim to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.