Romans: Christian Duty, Authority, and Brotherly Peace

The Source of Patience

Transcript: AI Transcript

Professor: John Weaver

Subject: New Testament Studies

Genre: Sermon

Dictation Name:

Date: 2024-12-01

Synopsis: Pastor John Weaver preaches on the necessity and source of biblical patience from Romans 15 and other scriptures. He explains that patience is linked to God's grace and mercy, and that believers must learn patience from five sources: the sovereign God, the Scriptures, the saints, the Spirit, and the Son of God. The sermon emphasizes that patience is developed through tribulation and is essential for unity, hope, and glorifying God.

[John Weaver] All right, let's look at our Bibles, the Romans chapter 15, if you would please. And let's begin reading there with verse one. We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good edification. For even Christ pleased not himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproach thee fell on me. For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Now the God of patience and consolation grants you to be like-minded one toward another according to Jesus Christ. Note, if you would please, we have read so far about patience a couple of times in this passage.

[John Weaver] So I want to deal this afternoon with something that each of us needs, and that happens to be biblical patience. When we think of patience, we ought to also be thinking of what is known as grace and mercy. Someone has rightly said that grace is that which gives us that which we do not deserve. And mercy is that which keeps us from getting what we do deserve. And patience enables God to hold off before he indeed gives those exactly what they do deserve. But we're going to be looking at patience. We're going to be looking at long-suffering as well.

[John Weaver] I tell everybody I'm just as Honest as I can be when I confess the fact that I guess, in the strictest sense of the word, I am impatient. I guess everyone is impatient. I think mine sometimes is more frustration than impatience. Because Alice and I have lived long enough to know when things used to be different. For instance, Casey, when we were young, you would pull up to a filling station, a gas station, Someone would run out and ask, fill it up, sir.

[John Weaver] Yes, they'd put it in. And while the tank is filling, they would wash your windshield. They would check the oil. They would check the tires and the air in the tire. Sometimes they'd even vacuum out something, check your headlights. And all of this, when gas was $0.25 a gallon. I mean, when you look at things the way they used to be and the way they are today, and talk about service frustration.

[John Weaver] Alice and I have told many people that when we were teenagers, we could go into any department store in town, pick out three or four outfits. They would say, which one do you want? Well, I'm not sure. And my parents probably didn't make the choice. And they said, well, would you like to take them out on approval? Yes. And so all they would do is write your name down.

[John Weaver] And of course, everybody knew everybody. And what you took, and guess what? You could take those clothes home. You could try them on. You could let your parents see them. What you didn't want, you took back. What you wanted, you kept. No, there were no charge cards. There were no charge accounts per se. But everybody knew everybody. And so when I was a teenager, young man, If I wanted something and I was uptown and I didn't have any money, all I would do is say, charge this to D.J. Weaver. And they'd charge it to my dad and send him a bill for it. It's just that simple. But I'm just simply saying times have really changed. And it seems like the more they change, the more impatient we really become.

[John Weaver] You know, the Bible tells you in the book of Luke, chapter 8 and verse 15, that we're to bring forth fruit with patience. Now, when you start thinking about a garden, when you start thinking about crops, it takes a great deal of patience, because obviously, once you plant that seed, it's got to come up. Once it comes up, it has to mature. Once it's mature, it has to produce the fruit.

[John Weaver] And then finally, there's a harvest. So he says that you and I are to bring forth fruit in our lives with patience. We have to understand that fruit is not always going to fall into our hands immediately. There has to be patience in that. And then the Bible commends us in 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 11, follow after patience.

[John Weaver] Now that's an interesting concept. Follow after patience. In other words, we are to go in the way of patience. And then I love the one that you find in Hebrews 10 and verse 26. Brethren, you have need of patience. And I certainly believe that is true. Each of us have need of patience, that is for sure. And how about this one? In Hebrews chapter 12, in verse 1, the Bible tells us, let us run the race with patience. Now, how in the world do you run a race with patience? Well, I remember when I was young, I used to run about two or three miles at one time. And I knew one thing about running two miles, you could not start off at a full breakneck speed and continue that.

[John Weaver] You had to be steady. You had to have a steady gait, a steady speed, and finally you would make it. So the Bible tells us we're to run our race with patience.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to note something in verse five of Romans chapter 15. The Bible says, Now the God of patience and consolation grants you to be like minded one toward another, according to Christ Jesus. I want you to note in verse five that God is called the God of patience. God is called the God of patience. Now, if you will skip down to verse 13, look at this. Now, the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost has been called the God of patience. Now it's called the God of hope. Now, if you look in verse thirty three, He says, now the God of peace be with you all. Amen. So here it is. You have to know God is the God of patience. Before you can know him as the God of hope, you have to know him as the God of hope before you can ever know him as the God of peace.

[John Weaver] Now, in the not too distant future, Lord willing, I'm going to be preaching on this text in greater detail. I preached a message on this text many years ago. which i just simply title christian protocol uh... this next message i'm going to be preaching is how do you wish to be received because the bible tells us how that we are to receive what another what that means but i want you to notice something uh... that the bible says in romans chapter fifteen i may be able to put this out a little more detail later but look at this after he tells us that we must have patience Look in verse six. After he talks about the God of patience, he says that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive you one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God. That's the text I'll be using. But look, if you would please, in verse eight. Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers."

[John Weaver] So, what you're going to see in these few verses, first of all, is that in patience, we are to have one mind. That's what he said, that you may with one mind. So here's how you get one mind. You study the scriptures and you submit to the Word of God. You're taught the scriptures, and you submit to the teaching of the Word of God. In other words, if you've got one mind, you think alike.

[John Weaver] It's what it amounts to. You have the same thoughts.

[John Weaver] Now, years ago, when Alice and I were younger in our church, we used to have a family night once a month on Friday night. And we would always play the oldie wed game, Dinah. Not the newlywed game, the oldywed game. Did anybody ever see the newlywed game? Well, we played the oldywed game. And so finally, our people said, Pastor, you and Alice can't play anymore. Because we'd always win.

[John Weaver] Because they'd ask things about it, and we just knew. But we hadn't been married all that long back then, but that was it. So when you have one mind, you think alike. But notice what he said, that you may with one mind and one mouth. So when you think the same way, you say or you speak the same truths, the same thoughts. So you cannot have one mouth without having one mind. So it's going to take patience, is what he's saying, until we can get one mind so that we can have one mouth. Now watch this. Here's the third thing in verse six, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, that's one motive, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. How many churches do you know that have one mind, one mouth, and one motive?

[John Weaver] Everything is done for God's honor, God's glory. How many families do you know like that? And then he says, notice if you would in only one mind, one mouth, one motive, But notice one mission, because he said, in verse eight, now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. And then he goes on that the Gentiles might glorify God. So we should have one mission, and that is not only to glorify God, but to confirm the scriptures in every area of our lives.

[John Weaver] And that indeed does indeed take patience. Now, here's what I want to ask today. How do you get patience? Where do you get patience? How do you become patient? Well, I can give you the answers. I can't apply them, but I can certainly give you the answers. You have to apply them yourself. First of all, note, if you would, back in verse 5 of Romans 15, we learn patience from the sovereign God. He said in verse 5, now the God of patience and consolation grant you, look at this, to be like-minded one toward another according to Jesus Christ. So patience then stems first and foremost from the sovereign God when he grants us not only consolation, but that we should be like-minded. Now, if you would hold Romans 15 and turn right over in your Bibles, to the book of Colossians, the book of Colossians chapter one. And let's look beginning there, verse nine. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Colossians one, verse nine. And let's read through verse 11. Colossians one, verse nine.

[John Weaver] For this cause, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you. and desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Look at this now, strengthened with all might according to His glorious power unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness, giving thanks to the Father, which has made us meet to be partakers of the inherited of the saints and light. So he says in this prayer for the Colossian Christians that they might be strengthened with all might according to his glorious power unto. All patients and long suffering with joyfulness.

[John Weaver] Now, I want to point out just a few things. when we talk about learning patience from the sovereign God. You remember that passage in Genesis chapter 6 and verse 5, where God saw the imaginations of the hearts of the sons of men that they were only evil continually. And the Bible said it grieved God and God destroyed the world, sent the flood. But Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord. Would someone like to tell me the length of time that God waited before he sent the flood? Do you remember? 120 years. You'll find that in 2 Peter where Noah was a preacher of righteousness, the Bible said, and 120 years was given. So here God saw the wickedness of man, and every thought of the imagination of his heart was only evil continually. And yes, God did destroy them, but God still waited 120 years before he did so.

[John Weaver] Also may I point out the fact, look at Solomon and Gomorrah. Look at it, Admon, Zeboim, the cities of the plain. When you read Genesis chapter 18, God comes to Abram and he says, I'm not going to hide from Abram that which I'm about to do. And of course, Lot had pitched his tent towards Sodom. Lot was in there. And God revealed he's going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.

[John Weaver] But he said, the cry of it has come up to me. How long God waited before he destroyed them? I do not know. The Bible does not tell us in that particular instance. But I do know that when God got Lot out through those angels, and his daughters, God destroyed the city. So here's the patience of God. And Alice and I have often talked about this. I just told her this morning, I just read yesterday, where some 60-something-year-old man grabbed a little nine-year-old girl while her grandmother was in the bathroom. He grabbed this little nine-year-old girl, raped her, Twice.

[John Weaver] Finally, the cops were called. They went to chasing him, and he was killed in a car wreck. And I said, good. I mean, that's fine with me. I'm just, you know, and Alice and I were thinking, why does God not strike some of these people down instantly? And then you stop to think, well, you know, we're sinners as well, and why has God not struck us down instantly as well? So, God has been patient with us. I'm going to point that out a little bit more. But may I also point out, and I've already went through Jonah with you, someone tell me if you remember approximately how long did Nineveh exist after Jonah before God destroyed it? 150 years. 150 years. God did destroy it.

[John Weaver] You can read about it in Habakkuk and Nahum. but probably 150 years because the people repented.

[John Weaver] Now, there's an interesting thing. If you look in your Bibles to the book of Genesis chapter 15, we're still talking about the patience from the sovereignty of God. But if you look in Genesis chapter 15, let me see if I can find the verse. Okay. Okay. Verse 13. Let's skip there. Genesis 15, verse 13. So God has entered into a covenant with Abraham. And verse 13, and he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years. Now here's the question. Why did Israel have to be in Egypt four hundred years? Here's the answer. God says in verse 14, And also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, And afterward they shall come out with a great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace. Thou shalt be buried in a good old age." Look at this.

[John Weaver] But in the fourth generation, they shall come hither again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. So the Amorites were Canaanites. They dwelt in the land of Canaan. And what did God do when he brought Israel out of Egypt? He put a sword in their hand and said, kill everyone. The astounding thing is that God lived a hundred years before He destroyed them, and yet He did. Look if you would at the nation Israel. God said, even in the book of Numbers, while they were in the wilderness, these ten times have they provoked Me. And how many times did God say to Moses, step aside that I may consume all of them in a moment, and I'll make a greater nation out of you. And yet, there was a northern kingdom that went into captivity in 722 B.C. Judah, the southern kingdom, went into captivity in 586 B.C. Finally, in 70 A.D., he destroyed the nation. But look at the time. So the point I'm trying to make is very simple.

[John Weaver] God is patient, and we should learn patience there. I want you to turn in your Bibles, if you would. I want you to apply this to each one of us. Look in the book of Romans, chapter 2, and look at who would please at verses 4 and 5. Romans 2, verses 4 and 5. This is an amazing passage. Look what he says in verse two. But we're sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judges them which do such things and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?

[John Weaver] Watch what people do, and we've done it as well. or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. Then he says in verse five, but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasures up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Now, I want you to look in verse four He says, or despises thou the riches of his goodness.

[John Weaver] You know, there's a passage, I believe it's Psalm. Psalm 105, I think. Where the Bible says, oh, that the sons of men would praise the Lord for his goodness to the children of men. Three times in one Psalm. When you stop and think about the goodness of God to each one of us, he allows us to live. He gives us health. He gives us friends. He gives us family. He supplies our needs. He feeds us. He allows us to breathe his air. What happens when we despise the riches of God's goodness? God does not instantly smite us, strike us down. Notice what happened. He forbears. He forbears.

[John Weaver] His forbearance comes into play. Well, what happens then when his forbearance is taxed to the limit? Then comes in his longsuffering. Then comes in his long-suffering. I just finished a message this week, which I'll be preaching, hopefully, in the not-too-distant future. And I titled it, Friday is Not Always God's Payday. And it's not. But notice he said, the long-suffering of God comes in.

[John Weaver] I think I remember the Greek word. I think it's macrophobia. But long-suffering is related to what we call being long nostrils. How does that work with being long suffering? For instance, you notice when a man gets exceedingly angry, what he begins to do is he breathes with great difficulty, with great hardness, and you can see his nostrils flare. You know when those nostrils are flaring, He's grabbing for more air. He's getting angry. He's ready to act. The problem is this. When someone has a long nose or a big nose, it's harder to detect a flare in the nostrils.

[John Weaver] So when God's goodness is despised, his forbearance comes into play. When his forbearance is despised, his long suffering comes into play. And people think, well, God's not going to do anything, but they just cannot discern the flare in the nostril because God is getting ready to do something. And he says what they're doing is they're treasuring up wrath upon themselves into the day of wrath.

[John Weaver] Now, there's another passage, and you've heard me quote this so many times. In fact, I try to quote this passage every day. I don't always succeed, but most of the time I do. Because when I wake up in the morning, I thank the Lord for allowing me to live through the night. And when I go to bed at night, I thank the Lord for allowing me to live through the day. The Bible tells us that we're to show forth His loving kindness every morning and His faithfulness every night. But the passage that I'm thinking about is Lamentations 3, 22 and 23. It is the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed because His compassions, they fail not. They're new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. So we're to learn patience in, first of all, from the sovereign God.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to look in your Bibles to the book of Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. And here is our failing, I can assure you. Because usually when we're impatient, we're impatient with each other. We're impatient with the ones that we love because we know we can get away with it with them. It's what it amounts to. You can't be impatient with some people that you don't know because they may knock you down. They may slap you around, you know. But those that we love, we take advantage of. But look what he said in Ephesians 4, verses 31 and 32. He said, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. Now look at this.

[John Weaver] And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. So he says, we're to let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. And be kind one to another. Years ago, I was preaching in Alabama. And we were invited, the pastor and his wife and myself were invited to one of the homes of his members for supper before preaching that night.

[John Weaver] And so the lady of the house had her hair done the way the antebellum ladies wore their hair. It was beautiful. You know, the ring that's cascading down like that. And so I just simply said to this lady, I really like your hair. And I really did. I mean, it was an honest compliment. The little boy, her son, I guess he was eight or nine years old, he said, it ain't hers. She turned red. And I looked at him, I said, now, son, whether she grew it or whether she bought it, it does belong to her.

[John Weaver] He said, you should have seen the fight she had with Daddy over it. And the woman trying to salvage the situation, she said, now, son, you know Mama and Daddy don't fight. He said, oh, you should have heard them hollering at each other. The more she tried to get out of it, the more she stepped into it. All because I complimented her on her hair. So this is what I'm talking about. We take advantage of each other because we know we can get away with it.

[John Weaver] But the children always tell on the parents, that is for sure. So patience first and foremost comes from the sovereign God.

[John Weaver] Secondly, I want you to look in Romans chapter 15. This may surprise you, but patience also comes from the scriptures of God. Look in Romans chapter 15, verse 4. For whatsoever things were written aforetime, we're talking about the Old Testament, were written for our learning. Everything in the Old Testament was written for our learning that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope. Wow. Do you realize the scriptures are designed to give us patience and hope? If you look in your Bibles to the book of James, chapter one, Hebrews, James, look at this James chapter one.

[John Weaver] And notice, if you would please, verses three and four. James chapter one, verse three. The Word of God says, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect or mature and entire or mature and complete, wanting nothing. So it says, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. Wow.

[John Weaver] Now, if you will turn back, To Romans chapter 5, there's another passage here. Romans chapter 5, look at verse 1.

[John Weaver] Now he said, the trying your faith worketh patience. He says, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Look at this. And not only so, we glory in tribulation also. Why? Knowing that tribulation worketh patience. And patience experience and experience hope. And hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us. So when's the last time you gloried in tribulation? When's the last time you really enjoyed having financial difficulties, or you really enjoyed being sick, or you really enjoyed having things go absolutely wrong in every area, in every aspect.

[John Weaver] This is what he's saying. He said, patience teaches us to glory in tribulation. Why? Because that tribulation is designed to give us more patience, and patience is designed to give us more hope, and hope is designed to make us not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. by the Holy Spirit. So, many times when we pray for patience, God sends us tribulation to produce patience. So, that's the way God does. He gives us patience. But we are to learn patience from the Sovereign God, from the Scriptures of God.

[John Weaver] Now, if you look back in Romans chapter 15, there's a third place that we're to learn patience from. You'll find that in verse 2. That is, we're to learn patience from the saints of God. He says, let every one of us please his neighbor for his good edification. Then he tells you in verse 3, for even Christ pleased not himself, which I'll talk about that momentarily. But he said, let every one of us please his neighbor for his good edification. So we're to learn patience from the saints of God.

[John Weaver] Now, in light of that, I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of James, chapter 5. James, chapter 5. And I want you to look there beginning, if you would please, at verse 7. Look at this, James, chapter 5, verse 7. And we'll read several verses. He says, Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. behold the husbandman waited for the precious fruit of the earth this is our lord and have long patience for it until he received the early in the latter rain now of course in the old testament in canaan land there was an early in the latter rain that was related then to the crops and both were needed and like i pointed out earlier anybody that grew a garden or crop had to have patience so he's using this illustration be patient therefore brethren In other words, things are not going to happen immediately. Look if you would now at verse 8. He says, Be you also patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

[John Weaver] Now look. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold the judge standing before the door. Here we go. Take, my brethren, the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering, affliction, and patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. You have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercies." Now, he says, take my brethren, the prophets, as an example of suffering, affliction, and patience. We could talk about Job. And in fact, he's used Job in verse 11. And he said, you've seen the end of the Lord. The Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercies. Look, if you would, how God blessed and rewarded Job for being patient. I love that passage in Job chapter one. When he lost all of his children, he lost all of his possessions, and the Bible says in all of this, Job sinned not with his lips nor charged God foolishly. Wow. Think about Isaiah.

[John Weaver] what he suffered and how he was rejected by his own people. Now, you remember in Hebrews chapter 11, the Bible talks about some of those who were sown asunder, and that is what tradition says happened to Isaiah. They put him in a hollowed log, and then they sawed him in two while they were sawing the log. Think about Jeremiah. Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet. Look how they hated him. Look how they tried to kill him. Look how they imprisoned him, threw him into dungeons.

[John Weaver] Take my brethren, the prophets. Think about Ezekiel.

[John Weaver] Now, before I leave this, I've got another passage I want to show you and tell you, but I want to call your attention. Since we're talking about patience, look in verse seven. He said, Be patient, therefore. Now look in verse eight. Be you also patient. Now, he says in verse nine, Grudge not one against another brethren. Do you know what it is to grudge? I want to give you an illustration that you won't forget.

[John Weaver] When I was a boy, of course I was raised on a farm, we had hogs as well as cows, mules, chickens. But there was a five-gallon bucket that stayed on our back porch. It was called the slop bucket. So any coffee that was not drunk at breakfast went in that bucket. Any toast that was not eaten or eggs, it all went in that bucket. It was slop. When dinner came, Any piece of corn or cornbread or whatever was not eaten, everything went in that bucket.

[John Weaver] The same thing at supper. Every bit of the liquid that was left over, every bit of the food that was left over that had been nibbled on or not usable anymore, all of it went in that bucket. Usually by the end of the day, that five-gallon bucket was full of what we call slop. So we would, not we, I, I would take that five-gallon bucket out to the hog pen, and there was a trough. I would pour that slop in that trough, and here come all of those old big hogs running as fast as they could to get to that trough. And they would stick their nostrils and their mouth in that slop, and you could hear them. They'd be doing this. They'd just be sucking it up.

[John Weaver] And all of a sudden, you remember this, don't you? All of a sudden, one of them would hit a piece of corn or something solid. And you know what he would do? He would take that solid piece of food and turn and run. You know what the rest of the hogs did? They chased him and tried to take it away from him. They wouldn't keep drinking their slop and eating until they found something. You know why they chased him?

[John Weaver] Because they grudged what he had. They didn't have it. Grudged not one against another brethren. So let me put this out. I know I've seen people go through this. I've seen young people get married. And they say, well, why can't we have a new car? Mom and dad have a new car. Why can't we have a big, fine house? Mom and dad have a big, fine house. Why can't we have furniture, new furniture? Mom and daddy have new furniture. Yeah. Mom and daddy may have all those things. Well, those young people don't understand it took them 50 years to get those things.

[John Weaver] And so they run out and go in debt. And now the next thing you know, everything's going to pot and fall into pieces. Because they're begrudging the fact of what their parents have or what Some older couple has, and they don't have. This is what God is saying. You be patient until you find your own piece of corn in the slob is what you do. You work and you wait. This is what you learn patience from the saints of God.

[John Weaver] Look at how they suffered. Look at what they endured. And look how God brought them out in the end. So God is telling us very plainly, we are to learn from the saints of God. If you would Take the time to read Fox's Book of Martyrs. There's some interesting stories in there, one that I read years and years ago. I forget the individual's name. But they were going to torture him, and what they did, they took sharp knives and flayed his hide, flayed his skin.

[John Weaver] They made cuts all in his legs, all in his body. And then they took the hard rock salt and was rubbing it into the wounds. Not only would that hard rock salt hurt just being rubbed in the wounds, but it was salt, which means it was stinging at the same time. And so they were telling this wonderful Christian man, deny Christ and we will wash the salt out of your wounds.

[John Weaver] And you know what he said? Salt on. For God's sake, salt on. I'm not going to deny Christ. Polycarp, who was a disciple of the Apostle John, when he was called upon to deny Christ, he said, lo, these 86 years have I served him, and he's done me no wrong. Must I now be called upon to deny my Lord and Savior? I will not, and I cannot. And of course, they tortured Polycarp, and he died rather quickly because of his advanced age of 86.

[John Weaver] So God tells us in Romans chapter 15, we're to learn patience from the sovereign God. We're to learn patience from the scriptures of God. We're to learn patience from the saints of God. And now, if you will look in your Bibles, please, to the book of Romans chapter 15, you will also find that we are to learn patience from the Spirit of God. Wow. Now think about this.

[John Weaver] I want to go back in just a second and make something. I'm going to deal with this. Let me go back and cover the Spirit of God. Let me go back and cover one other thing. Learning patience from the saints of God. I want you to look in your Bibles very quickly to Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10. I came across this verse, I don't know, a multitude of years ago, and it really, really dealt with my heart. And I want you to look at this. Here we go. Mark chapter 10, verse 1, talking about Jesus Christ, and he arose from thins and cometh into the coast of Judea by the farther side of Jordan.

[John Weaver] And the people resort to him again. Look at this, same people. the people resort to him again and as he was wont he taught them again so he taught the same people possibly the same truths again you know we have a saying that repetition aids learning I had a dear friend he's been dead for many years now but he asked me to explain something to him and I did and About a day or so later, he asked me the same exact question again. And I answered it the same way the second time. Day or two later, he asked me the third time the same question. I looked at him and I said, John, how many times do I have to answer that question for you? I've already answered it twice. And he looked at me, and he said, I'm sorry. I guess I'm just stupid. I looked at him. I said, John, you're not stupid.

[John Weaver] You don't owe me an apology. I owe you an apology. I'm going to answer it for you again. And if you don't understand it, you ask me again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day, until God opens your eyes, just keep asking me. This is what he's talking about. Our Lord taught these same people, again, possibly the same truth. So this is why he's saying we're to learn patience from the saints of God. I'm going to point out, fourthly, we're to learn patience also from the Spirit of God. So let me ask you a question. We know the Holy Spirit of God is the agent of conviction, regeneration, conversion. So here's my question. How many of you were converted the very first time the Holy Spirit convicted you? Well, nobody can really raise their hand, because you don't even know the first time the Spirit convicted you.

[John Weaver] The Bible said, God speaketh once, yea, twice, and man perceiveth it not. I could ask this question again, how many times, how many of you were converted the second time the Holy Spirit convicted you? Or the third time? Or the fourth time? Or the fifth? You don't really know. And the truth of the matter is this, when we were under conviction, most of the time we tried to ignore it. We tried to run from it. We tried to continue our lives as if nothing was happening. So here's my question to you, what if What if the Holy Spirit had been convicting you and convicting you and convicting you? And finally, the Holy Spirit said, what?

[John Weaver] I'm just not going to deal with you anymore. What? Where would you be if that actually happened? It will not happen. It cannot happen. But I'm just pointing out the fact. Look how many times he convicted us and we were totally unaware of what was happening in our lives. And I remember I can tell you right now, and Alice may remember, but when the Lord got a hold of me, I actually thought I was dying. I really did. I thought I was dying.

[John Weaver] It was so heavy, I could not believe it. The point I'm trying to make is, God the Holy Spirit continued to deal with us even when We were ignorant of His dealings, even when we tried to smother Him. No, I'm so thankful that the Spirit of God cannot be successfully resisted. He may be resisted, but not successfully. And He continued to deal with us until He brought us to the end of ourselves, and we saw our sin, and we saw the Lord Jesus Christ, and He enabled us to come to him by faith.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to go back in your Bible to Romans chapter 15. I want to show you the fifth place that we are to learn patience. We've pointed out we're to learn patience from the sovereign God, the scriptures of God, the saints of God, the spirit of God. Now, in verse three, we're to learn patience from the son of God. He says, for even Christ please not himself but as is written the reproaches of them that reproach thee fell on me now you know the bible tells you in first peter chapter two verses twenty one through twenty five that christ is indeed our example i want you to turn in your bibles if you would to the book of matthew chapter twenty seven Matthew chapter 27. I want to read a few verses for you just to show you something. Look at Matthew chapter 27. And let's begin with verse 44.

[John Weaver] Well, I'll tell you what. Let's begin with verse 36, let's read there. And sitting down, they watched him there. So Jesus Christ is crucified. And they set up over his head this accusation written, this is Jesus, the king of the Jews. Then were there two thieves crucified with him, the one on the right and another on the left. And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads and saying, Thou that destroy'st the temple and build'st it in three days, save thyself." Now look at this. If thou be the Son of God, ha ha, if thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests mocking him with the scribes and the elders said, he saved others, himself he cannot save. If he be the king of Israel, let him come down now from the cross and we will believe him. He trusted in God, and let him deliver him now, if he will have him, for he said, I am the Son of God. The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his feet."

[John Weaver] Now, here's my question. Jesus Christ has been wrongfully tried, wrongfully condemned. He's been flogged. He's been beaten. He's crucified. And now here are these people walking up and down, mocking him, reviling him, accusing him of being a false messiah. And he said, thou that destroyest the temple and the buildings in three days, save thyself, if thou be the Son of God. Come down from the cross. And likewise, the chief priest said, he saved others. He cannot save himself. Here's what they're saying. If you're the Son of God, come down and we will believe you.

[John Weaver] Well, let me tell you something. He could have come down. He could have come from that cross any time he so pleased. But you know what he did? He endured all of this patiently. With that in mind, I want you to turn to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. And I want you to look, please, beginning there with verse 1. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1. This is absolutely astounding to me. Hebrews 12, verse 1.

[John Weaver] Wherefore, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us." Now, wait a minute. Let us run the race with patience. Where do we learn patience? From the Son of God. looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. What did he say? Let us run the race with patience.

[John Weaver] What is going to make us patient? Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. He endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down on the right hand of God. Patience. Most of us are like the woman who finally realized her impatience was sin. And so she started praying for patience. She said, Lord, I'm impatient. I know, Lord, impatience is a sin. And Lord, I want patience. And I want it right now.

[John Weaver] That's the way we are. But you don't get patience right now. You get patience from the sovereign God, from the scriptures of God, from the saints of God, from the spirit of God, and from the son of God. Because God is a God of all patience. And here's the thing. If he has been so patient with us, we need to learn to be patient with each other.

[John Weaver] I can stop and think back in my life hundreds of times that I should have died and should have been killed, and I wasn't. And the only reason I'm as old as I am is because of the grace and the mercy of God. Because God was not only grace was given to me and mercy, but God was a We want God to strike down all of our enemies instantly, but we don't want him to strike us down instantly. But I can assure you, if we're patient, we will see him strike down all of his enemies.

[John Weaver] That's what he said in Psalm 58. The righteous shall see the vengeance and shall rejoice. Revelation 19. The smoke of their torment ascended up forever and ever, and the righteous said, hallelujah, glory to God. But we need to learn patience, and we can only learn it from these five sources. Be ye patient. For the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to thee.

[John Weaver] We thank you for your word. We thank you for your truth. And we ask, Lord, for your grace and your mercy in our lives. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

[John Weaver] so so

The Source of Patience

John Weaver | YouTube

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	YouTube
Media ID	QDgh8flryrw
Subject	New Testament Studies
Course	Romans: Christian Duty, Authority, and Brotherly Peace
Genre	Sermon
Date	2024-12-01
Dictation Name
Book	Book 133: Romans: Christian Duty, Authority, and Brotherly Peace — Chapter 7
Source Timed Segments	75

Formatted Transcript

Introduction: The Need for Patience

Weaver introduces the topic of biblical patience, relating it to grace and mercy, and confesses his own impatience, using nostalgic examples of changing times to illustrate growing impatience.

All right, let's look at our Bibles, the Romans chapter 15, if you would please. And let's begin reading there with verse one. We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good edification. For even Christ pleased not himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproach thee fell on me. For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Now the God of patience and consolation grants you to be like-minded one toward another according to Jesus Christ. Note, if you would please, we have read so far about patience a couple of times in this passage.

So I want to deal this afternoon with something that each of us needs, and that happens to be biblical patience. When we think of patience, we ought to also be thinking of what is known as grace and mercy. Someone has rightly said that grace is that which gives us that which we do not deserve. And mercy is that which keeps us from getting what we do deserve. And patience enables God to hold off before he indeed gives those exactly what they do deserve. But we're going to be looking at patience. We're going to be looking at long-suffering as well.

I tell everybody I'm just as honest as I can be when I confess the fact that I guess, in the strictest sense of the word, I am impatient. I guess everyone is impatient. I think mine sometimes is more frustration than impatience. Because Alice and I have lived long enough to know when things used to be different. For instance, Casey, when we were young, you would pull up to a filling station, a gas station, someone would run out and ask, fill it up, sir. Yes, they'd put it in. And while the tank is filling, they would wash your windshield. They would check the oil. They would check the tires and the air in the tire. Sometimes they'd even vacuum out something, check your headlights. And all of this, when gas was $0.25 a gallon. I mean, when you look at things the way they used to be and the way they are today, and talk about service frustration.

Alice and I have told many people that when we were teenagers, we could go into any department store in town, pick out three or four outfits. They would say, which one do you want? Well, I'm not sure. And my parents probably didn't make the choice. And they said, well, would you like to take them out on approval? Yes. And so all they would do is write your name down.

And of course, everybody knew everybody. And what you took, and guess what? You could take those clothes home. You could try them on. You could let your parents see them. What you didn't want, you took back. What you wanted, you kept. No, there were no charge cards. There were no charge accounts per se. But everybody knew everybody. And so when I was a teenager, young man, if I wanted something and I was uptown and I didn't have any money, all I would do is say, charge this to D.J. Weaver. And they'd charge it to my dad and send him a bill for it. It's just that simple. But I'm just simply saying times have really changed. And it seems like the more they change, the more impatient we really become.

Biblical Commands to Be Patient

Scripture commands believers to bring forth fruit with patience, follow after patience, and run the race with patience, emphasizing that patience is essential for spiritual growth and endurance.

You know, the Bible tells you in the book of Luke, chapter 8 and verse 15, that we're to bring forth fruit with patience. Now, when you start thinking about a garden, when you start thinking about crops, it takes a great deal of patience, because obviously, once you plant that seed, it's got to come up. Once it comes up, it has to mature. Once it's mature, it has to produce the fruit. And then finally, there's a harvest. So he says that you and I are to bring forth fruit in our lives with patience. We have to understand that fruit is not always going to fall into our hands immediately. There has to be patience in that. And then the Bible commends us in 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 11, follow after patience.

Now that's an interesting concept. Follow after patience. In other words, we are to go in the way of patience. And then I love the one that you find in Hebrews 10 and verse 26. Brethren, you have need of patience. And I certainly believe that is true. Each of us have need of patience, that is for sure. And how about this one? In Hebrews chapter 12, in verse 1, the Bible tells us, let us run the race with patience. Now, how in the world do you run a race with patience? Well, I remember when I was young, I used to run about two or three miles at one time. And I knew one thing about running two miles, you could not start off at a full breakneck speed and continue that.

You had to be steady. You had to have a steady gait, a steady speed, and finally you would make it. So the Bible tells us we're to run our race with patience. Now, I want you to note something in verse five of Romans chapter 15. The Bible says, Now the God of patience and consolation grants you to be like minded one toward another, according to Christ Jesus. I want you to note in verse five that God is called the God of patience. God is called the God of patience. Now, if you will skip down to verse 13, look at this. Now, the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost has been called the God of patience. Now it's called the God of hope. Now, if you look in verse thirty three, He says, now the God of peace be with you all. Amen. So here it is. You have to know God is the God of patience. Before you can know him as the God of hope, you have to know him as the God of hope before you can ever know him as the God of peace.

God as the God of Patience, Hope, and Peace

Romans 15 reveals God as the God of patience, hope, and peace, and that knowing Him in these aspects leads to unity of mind, mouth, and motive in the church.

Now, in the not too distant future, Lord willing, I'm going to be preaching on this text in greater detail. I preached a message on this text many years ago, which I just simply titled Christian Protocol. This next message I'm going to be preaching is how do you wish to be received, because the Bible tells us how that we are to receive one another, what that means. But I want you to notice something that the Bible says in Romans chapter fifteen. I may be able to put this out a little more detail later, but look at this after he tells us that we must have patience. Look in verse six. After he talks about the God of patience, he says that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive you one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God. That's the text I'll be using. But look, if you would please, in verse eight. Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers.

So, what you're going to see in these few verses, first of all, is that in patience, we are to have one mind. That's what he said, that you may with one mind. So here's how you get one mind. You study the scriptures and you submit to the Word of God. You're taught the scriptures, and you submit to the teaching of the Word of God. In other words, if you've got one mind, you think alike. It's what it amounts to. You have the same thoughts.

Now, years ago, when Alice and I were younger in our church, we used to have a family night once a month on Friday night. And we would always play the oldywed game, Diana. Not the newlywed game, the oldywed game. Did anybody ever see the newlywed game? Well, we played the oldywed game. And so finally, our people said, Pastor, you and Alice can't play anymore. Because we'd always win.

Because they'd ask things about it, and we just knew. But we hadn't been married all that long back then, but that was it. So when you have one mind, you think alike. But notice what he said, that you may with one mind and one mouth. So when you think the same way, you say or you speak the same truths, the same thoughts. So you cannot have one mouth without having one mind. So it's going to take patience, is what he's saying, until we can get one mind so that we can have one mouth. Now watch this. Here's the third thing in verse six, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, that's one motive, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. How many churches do you know that have one mind, one mouth, and one motive?

Everything is done for God's honor, God's glory. How many families do you know like that? And then he says, notice if you would, not only one mind, one mouth, one motive, but notice one mission, because he said, in verse eight, now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. And then he goes on that the Gentiles might glorify God. So we should have one mission, and that is not only to glorify God, but to confirm the scriptures in every area of our lives.

Learning Patience from the Sovereign God

Patience is first learned from God's own character, demonstrated in His longsuffering with sinners, such as waiting 120 years before the flood and delaying judgment on nations.

And that indeed does indeed take patience. Now, here's what I want to ask today. How do you get patience? Where do you get patience? How do you become patient? Well, I can give you the answers. I can't apply them, but I can certainly give you the answers. You have to apply them yourself. First of all, note, if you would, back in verse 5 of Romans 15, we learn patience from the sovereign God. He said in verse 5, now the God of patience and consolation grant you, look at this, to be like-minded one toward another according to Jesus Christ. So patience then stems first and foremost from the sovereign God when he grants us not only consolation, but that we should be like-minded. Now, if you would hold Romans 15 and turn right over in your Bibles, to the book of Colossians, the book of Colossians chapter one. And let's look beginning there, verse nine. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Colossians one, verse nine. And let's read through verse 11. Colossians one, verse nine.

For this cause, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Look at this now, strengthened with all might according to His glorious power unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness, giving thanks to the Father, which has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. So he says in this prayer for the Colossian Christians that they might be strengthened with all might according to his glorious power unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness. Now, I want to point out just a few things. When we talk about learning patience from the sovereign God, you remember that passage in Genesis chapter 6 and verse 5, where God saw the imaginations of the hearts of the sons of men that they were only evil continually. And the Bible said it grieved God and God destroyed the world, sent the flood. But Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord. Would someone like to tell me the length of time that God waited before he sent the flood? Do you remember? 120 years. You'll find that in 2 Peter where Noah was a preacher of righteousness, the Bible said, and 120 years was given. So here God saw the wickedness of man, and every thought of the imagination of his heart was only evil continually. And yes, God did destroy them, but God still waited 120 years before he did so.

Also may I point out the fact, look at Sodom and Gomorrah. Look at it, Admah, Zeboim, the cities of the plain. When you read Genesis chapter 18, God comes to Abram and he says, I'm not going to hide from Abram that which I'm about to do. And of course, Lot had pitched his tent towards Sodom. Lot was in there. And God revealed he's going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.

But he said, the cry of it has come up to me. How long God waited before he destroyed them? I do not know. The Bible does not tell us in that particular instance. But I do know that when God got Lot out through those angels, and his daughters, God destroyed the city. So here's the patience of God. And Alice and I have often talked about this. I just told her this morning, I just read yesterday, where some 60-something-year-old man grabbed a little nine-year-old girl while her grandmother was in the bathroom. He grabbed this little nine-year-old girl, raped her, twice.

Finally, the cops were called. They went to chasing him, and he was killed in a car wreck. And I said, good. I mean, that's fine with me. I'm just, you know, and Alice and I were thinking, why does God not strike some of these people down instantly? And then you stop to think, well, you know, we're sinners as well, and why has God not struck us down instantly as well? So, God has been patient with us. I'm going to point that out a little bit more. But may I also point out, and I've already went through Jonah with you, someone tell me if you remember approximately how long did Nineveh exist after Jonah before God destroyed it? 150 years. 150 years. God did destroy it.

You can read about it in Habakkuk and Nahum. But probably 150 years because the people repented. Now, there's an interesting thing. If you look in your Bibles to the book of Genesis chapter 15, we're still talking about the patience from the sovereignty of God. But if you look in Genesis chapter 15, let me see if I can find the verse. Okay. Verse 13. Let's skip there. Genesis 15, verse 13. So God has entered into a covenant with Abraham. And verse 13, and he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years. Now here's the question. Why did Israel have to be in Egypt four hundred years? Here's the answer. God says in verse 14, And also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterward they shall come out with a great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace. Thou shalt be buried in a good old age. Look at this.

But in the fourth generation, they shall come hither again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. So the Amorites were Canaanites. They dwelt in the land of Canaan. And what did God do when he brought Israel out of Egypt? He put a sword in their hand and said, kill everyone. The astounding thing is that God waited a hundred years before He destroyed them, and yet He did. Look if you would at the nation Israel. God said, even in the book of Numbers, while they were in the wilderness, these ten times have they provoked Me. And how many times did God say to Moses, step aside that I may consume all of them in a moment, and I'll make a greater nation out of you. And yet, there was a northern kingdom that went into captivity in 722 B.C. Judah, the southern kingdom, went into captivity in 586 B.C. Finally, in 70 A.D., he destroyed the nation. But look at the time. So the point I'm trying to make is very simple.

God is patient, and we should learn patience there. I want you to turn in your Bibles, if you would. I want you to apply this to each one of us. Look in the book of Romans, chapter 2, and look at who would please at verses 4 and 5. Romans 2, verses 4 and 5. This is an amazing passage. Look what he says in verse two. But we're sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judges them which do such things and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?

Watch what people do, and we've done it as well. Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. Then he says in verse five, but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasures up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Now, I want you to look in verse four. He says, or despisest thou the riches of his goodness. You know, there's a passage, I believe it's Psalm 105, I think. Where the Bible says, oh, that the sons of men would praise the Lord for his goodness to the children of men. Three times in one Psalm. When you stop and think about the goodness of God to each one of us, he allows us to live. He gives us health. He gives us friends. He gives us family. He supplies our needs. He feeds us. He allows us to breathe his air. What happens when we despise the riches of God's goodness? God does not instantly smite us, strike us down. Notice what happened. He forbears. He forbears.

His forbearance comes into play. Well, what happens then when his forbearance is taxed to the limit? Then comes in his longsuffering. Then comes in his long-suffering. I just finished a message this week, which I'll be preaching, hopefully, in the not-too-distant future. And I titled it, Friday is Not Always God's Payday. And it's not. But notice he said, the long-suffering of God comes in.

I think I remember the Greek word. I think it's makrothumia. But long-suffering is related to what we call being long nostrils. How does that work with being long suffering? For instance, you notice when a man gets exceedingly angry, what he begins to do is he breathes with great difficulty, with great hardness, and you can see his nostrils flare. You know when those nostrils are flaring, he's grabbing for more air. He's getting angry. He's ready to act. The problem is this. When someone has a long nose or a big nose, it's harder to detect a flare in the nostrils.

So when God's goodness is despised, his forbearance comes into play. When his forbearance is despised, his long suffering comes into play. And people think, well, God's not going to do anything, but they just cannot discern the flare in the nostril because God is getting ready to do something. And he says what they're doing is they're treasuring up wrath upon themselves into the day of wrath.

Now, there's another passage, and you've heard me quote this so many times. In fact, I try to quote this passage every day. I don't always succeed, but most of the time I do. Because when I wake up in the morning, I thank the Lord for allowing me to live through the night. And when I go to bed at night, I thank the Lord for allowing me to live through the day. The Bible tells us that we're to show forth His loving kindness every morning and His faithfulness every night. But the passage that I'm thinking about is Lamentations 3, 22 and 23. It is the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed because His compassions, they fail not. They're new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. So we're to learn patience in, first of all, from the sovereign God.

Learning Patience from the Scriptures of God

The Scriptures are designed to produce patience and hope, and tribulation works patience, which leads to experience and hope, as taught in Romans 5 and James 1.

Now, I want you to look in your Bibles to the book of Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. And here is our failing, I can assure you. Because usually when we're impatient, we're impatient with each other. We're impatient with the ones that we love because we know we can get away with it with them. It's what it amounts to. You can't be impatient with some people that you don't know because they may knock you down. They may slap you around, you know. But those that we love, we take advantage of. But look what he said in Ephesians 4, verses 31 and 32. He said, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. Now look at this.

And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. So he says, we're to let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. And be kind one to another. Years ago, I was preaching in Alabama. And we were invited, the pastor and his wife and myself were invited to one of the homes of his members for supper before preaching that night. And so the lady of the house had her hair done the way the antebellum ladies wore their hair. It was beautiful. You know, the ring that's cascading down like that. And so I just simply said to this lady, I really like your hair. And I really did. I mean, it was an honest compliment. The little boy, her son, I guess he was eight or nine years old, he said, it ain't hers. She turned red. And I looked at him, I said, now, son, whether she grew it or whether she bought it, it does belong to her.

He said, you should have seen the fight she had with Daddy over it. And the woman trying to salvage the situation, she said, now, son, you know Mama and Daddy don't fight. He said, oh, you should have heard them hollering at each other. The more she tried to get out of it, the more she stepped into it. All because I complimented her on her hair. So this is what I'm talking about. We take advantage of each other because we know we can get away with it.

But the children always tell on the parents, that is for sure. So patience first and foremost comes from the sovereign God. Secondly, I want you to look in Romans chapter 15. This may surprise you, but patience also comes from the scriptures of God. Look in Romans chapter 15, verse 4. For whatsoever things were written aforetime, we're talking about the Old Testament, were written for our learning. Everything in the Old Testament was written for our learning that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope. Wow. Do you realize the scriptures are designed to give us patience and hope? If you look in your Bibles to the book of James, chapter one, Hebrews, James, look at this James chapter one.

And notice, if you would please, verses three and four. James chapter one, verse three. The Word of God says, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect or mature and entire or mature and complete, wanting nothing. So it says, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. Wow.

Now, if you will turn back, to Romans chapter 5, there's another passage here. Romans chapter 5, look at verse 1. Now he said, the trying your faith worketh patience. He says, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Look at this. And not only so, we glory in tribulation also. Why? Knowing that tribulation worketh patience. And patience experience and experience hope. And hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us. So when's the last time you gloried in tribulation? When's the last time you really enjoyed having financial difficulties, or you really enjoyed being sick, or you really enjoyed having things go absolutely wrong in every area, in every aspect.

This is what he's saying. He said, patience teaches us to glory in tribulation. Why? Because that tribulation is designed to give us more patience, and patience is designed to give us more hope, and hope is designed to make us not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. So, many times when we pray for patience, God sends us tribulation to produce patience. So, that's the way God does. He gives us patience. But we are to learn patience from the Sovereign God, from the Scriptures of God.

Learning Patience from the Saints of God

Believers are to learn patience from the examples of the prophets and Job, who endured suffering and affliction, and from the patience of fellow believers in the church.

Now, if you look back in Romans chapter 15, there's a third place that we're to learn patience from. You'll find that in verse 2. That is, we're to learn patience from the saints of God. He says, let every one of us please his neighbor for his good edification. Then he tells you in verse 3, for even Christ pleased not himself, which I'll talk about that momentarily. But he said, let every one of us please his neighbor for his good edification. So we're to learn patience from the saints of God.

Now, in light of that, I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of James, chapter 5. James, chapter 5. And I want you to look there beginning, if you would please, at verse 7. Look at this, James, chapter 5, verse 7. And we'll read several verses. He says, Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold the husbandman waited for the precious fruit of the earth, this is our Lord, and have long patience for it until he received the early and the latter rain. Now of course, in the Old Testament in Canaan land, there was an early and the latter rain that was related then to the crops and both were needed. And like I pointed out earlier, anybody that grew a garden or crop had to have patience. So he's using this illustration. Be patient therefore, brethren. In other words, things are not going to happen immediately. Look if you would now at verse 8. He says, Be you also patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

Now look. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold the judge standing before the door. Here we go. Take, my brethren, the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering, affliction, and patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. You have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercies. Now, he says, take my brethren, the prophets, as an example of suffering, affliction, and patience. We could talk about Job. And in fact, he's used Job in verse 11. And he said, you've seen the end of the Lord. The Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercies. Look, if you would, how God blessed and rewarded Job for being patient. I love that passage in Job chapter one. When he lost all of his children, he lost all of his possessions, and the Bible says in all of this, Job sinned not with his lips nor charged God foolishly. Wow. Think about Isaiah.

What he suffered and how he was rejected by his own people. Now, you remember in Hebrews chapter 11, the Bible talks about some of those who were sawn asunder, and that is what tradition says happened to Isaiah. They put him in a hollowed log, and then they sawed him in two while they were sawing the log. Think about Jeremiah. Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet. Look how they hated him. Look how they tried to kill him. Look how they imprisoned him, threw him into dungeons.

Take my brethren, the prophets. Think about Ezekiel. Now, before I leave this, I've got another passage I want to show you and tell you, but I want to call your attention. Since we're talking about patience, look in verse seven. He said, Be patient, therefore. Now look in verse eight. Be you also patient. Now, he says in verse nine, Grudge not one against another brethren. Do you know what it is to grudge? I want to give you an illustration that you won't forget.

When I was a boy, of course I was raised on a farm, we had hogs as well as cows, mules, chickens. But there was a five-gallon bucket that stayed on our back porch. It was called the slop bucket. So any coffee that was not drunk at breakfast went in that bucket. Any toast that was not eaten or eggs, it all went in that bucket. It was slop. When dinner came, any piece of corn or cornbread or whatever was not eaten, everything went in that bucket.

The same thing at supper. Every bit of the liquid that was left over, every bit of the food that was left over that had been nibbled on or not usable anymore, all of it went in that bucket. Usually by the end of the day, that five-gallon bucket was full of what we call slop. So we would, not we, I, I would take that five-gallon bucket out to the hog pen, and there was a trough. I would pour that slop in that trough, and here come all of those old big hogs running as fast as they could to get to that trough. And they would stick their nostrils and their mouth in that slop, and you could hear them. They'd be doing this. They'd just be sucking it up.

And all of a sudden, you remember this, don't you? All of a sudden, one of them would hit a piece of corn or something solid. And you know what he would do? He would take that solid piece of food and turn and run. You know what the rest of the hogs did? They chased him and tried to take it away from him. They wouldn't keep drinking their slop and eating until they found something. You know why they chased him?

Because they grudged what he had. They didn't have it. Grudged not one against another brethren. So let me put this out. I know I've seen people go through this. I've seen young people get married. And they say, well, why can't we have a new car? Mom and dad have a new car. Why can't we have a big, fine house? Mom and dad have a big, fine house. Why can't we have furniture, new furniture? Mom and daddy have new furniture. Yeah. Mom and daddy may have all those things. Well, those young people don't understand it took them 50 years to get those things.

And so they run out and go in debt. And now the next thing you know, everything's going to pot and fall into pieces. Because they're begrudging the fact of what their parents have or what some older couple has, and they don't have. This is what God is saying. You be patient until you find your own piece of corn in the slop is what you do. You work and you wait. This is what you learn patience from the saints of God.

Look at how they suffered. Look at what they endured. And look how God brought them out in the end. So God is telling us very plainly, we are to learn from the saints of God. If you would take the time to read Fox's Book of Martyrs. There's some interesting stories in there, one that I read years and years ago. I forget the individual's name. But they were going to torture him, and what they did, they took sharp knives and flayed his hide, flayed his skin.

They made cuts all in his legs, all in his body. And then they took the hard rock salt and was rubbing it into the wounds. Not only would that hard rock salt hurt just being rubbed in the wounds, but it was salt, which means it was stinging at the same time. And so they were telling this wonderful Christian man, deny Christ and we will wash the salt out of your wounds. And you know what he said? Salt on. For God's sake, salt on. I'm not going to deny Christ. Polycarp, who was a disciple of the Apostle John, when he was called upon to deny Christ, he said, lo, these 86 years have I served him, and he's done me no wrong. Must I now be called upon to deny my Lord and Savior? I will not, and I cannot. And of course, they tortured Polycarp, and he died rather quickly because of his advanced age of 86.

So God tells us in Romans chapter 15, we're to learn patience from the sovereign God. We're to learn patience from the scriptures of God. We're to learn patience from the saints of God. And now, if you will look in your Bibles, please, to the book of Romans chapter 15, you will also find that we are to learn patience from the Spirit of God. Wow. Now think about this.

Learning Patience from the Spirit of God

The Holy Spirit's persistent conviction and patient dealings with sinners, even when resisted, demonstrate divine patience and lead to conversion.

I want to go back in just a second and make something. I'm going to deal with this. Let me go back and cover the Spirit of God. Let me go back and cover one other thing. Learning patience from the saints of God. I want you to look in your Bibles very quickly to Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10. I came across this verse, I don't know, a multitude of years ago, and it really, really dealt with my heart. And I want you to look at this. Here we go. Mark chapter 10, verse 1, talking about Jesus Christ, and he arose from thence and cometh into the coast of Judea by the farther side of Jordan.

And the people resort to him again. Look at this, same people. The people resort to him again and as he was wont he taught them again. So he taught the same people possibly the same truths again. You know we have a saying that repetition aids learning. I had a dear friend, he's been dead for many years now, but he asked me to explain something to him and I did. And about a day or so later, he asked me the same exact question again. And I answered it the same way the second time. Day or two later, he asked me the third time the same question. I looked at him and I said, John, how many times do I have to answer that question for you? I've already answered it twice. And he looked at me, and he said, I'm sorry. I guess I'm just stupid. I looked at him. I said, John, you're not stupid.

You don't owe me an apology. I owe you an apology. I'm going to answer it for you again. And if you don't understand it, you ask me again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day, until God opens your eyes, just keep asking me. This is what he's talking about. Our Lord taught these same people, again, possibly the same truth. So this is why he's saying we're to learn patience from the saints of God. I'm going to point out, fourthly, we're to learn patience also from the Spirit of God. So let me ask you a question. We know the Holy Spirit of God is the agent of conviction, regeneration, conversion. So here's my question. How many of you were converted the very first time the Holy Spirit convicted you? Well, nobody can really raise their hand, because you don't even know the first time the Spirit convicted you.

The Bible said, God speaketh once, yea, twice, and man perceiveth it not. I could ask this question again, how many times, how many of you were converted the second time the Holy Spirit convicted you? Or the third time? Or the fourth time? Or the fifth? You don't really know. And the truth of the matter is this, when we were under conviction, most of the time we tried to ignore it. We tried to run from it. We tried to continue our lives as if nothing was happening. So here's my question to you, what if the Holy Spirit had been convicting you and convicting you and convicting you? And finally, the Holy Spirit said, what?

I'm just not going to deal with you anymore. What? Where would you be if that actually happened? It will not happen. It cannot happen. But I'm just pointing out the fact. Look how many times he convicted us and we were totally unaware of what was happening in our lives. And I remember I can tell you right now, and Alice may remember, but when the Lord got a hold of me, I actually thought I was dying. I really did. I thought I was dying.

It was so heavy, I could not believe it. The point I'm trying to make is, God the Holy Spirit continued to deal with us even when we were ignorant of His dealings, even when we tried to smother Him. No, I'm so thankful that the Spirit of God cannot be successfully resisted. He may be resisted, but not successfully. And He continued to deal with us until He brought us to the end of ourselves, and we saw our sin, and we saw the Lord Jesus Christ, and He enabled us to come to him by faith.

Learning Patience from the Son of God

Christ's endurance of the cross, despising the shame, is the ultimate example of patience, and believers are to look to Him to run their race with patience.

Now, I want you to go back in your Bible to Romans chapter 15. I want to show you the fifth place that we are to learn patience. We've pointed out we're to learn patience from the sovereign God, the scriptures of God, the saints of God, the spirit of God. Now, in verse three, we're to learn patience from the son of God. He says, for even Christ pleased not himself but as is written the reproaches of them that reproach thee fell on me. Now you know the Bible tells you in First Peter chapter two verses twenty one through twenty five that Christ is indeed our example. I want you to turn in your Bibles if you would to the book of Matthew chapter twenty seven. Matthew chapter 27. I want to read a few verses for you just to show you something. Look at Matthew chapter 27. And let's begin with verse 44.

Well, I'll tell you what. Let's begin with verse 36, let's read there. And sitting down, they watched him there. So Jesus Christ is crucified. And they set up over his head this accusation written, this is Jesus, the king of the Jews. Then were there two thieves crucified with him, the one on the right and another on the left. And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads and saying, Thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself. Now look at this. If thou be the Son of God, ha ha, if thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests mocking him with the scribes and the elders said, he saved others, himself he cannot save. If he be the king of Israel, let him come down now from the cross and we will believe him. He trusted in God, and let him deliver him now, if he will have him, for he said, I am the Son of God. The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth.

Now, here's my question. Jesus Christ has been wrongfully tried, wrongfully condemned. He's been flogged. He's been beaten. He's crucified. And now here are these people walking up and down, mocking him, reviling him, accusing him of being a false messiah. And he said, thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself, if thou be the Son of God. Come down from the cross. And likewise, the chief priest said, he saved others. He cannot save himself. Here's what they're saying. If you're the Son of God, come down and we will believe you.

Well, let me tell you something. He could have come down. He could have come from that cross any time he so pleased. But you know what he did? He endured all of this patiently. With that in mind, I want you to turn to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. And I want you to look, please, beginning there with verse 1. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1. This is absolutely astounding to me. Hebrews 12, verse 1.

Wherefore, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Now, wait a minute. Let us run the race with patience. Where do we learn patience? From the Son of God. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. What did he say? Let us run the race with patience.

What is going to make us patient? Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. He endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down on the right hand of God. Patience. Most of us are like the woman who finally realized her impatience was sin. And so she started praying for patience. She said, Lord, I'm impatient. I know, Lord, impatience is a sin. And Lord, I want patience. And I want it right now.

Conclusion: Application and Prayer

Weaver concludes that since God has been patient with us, we must be patient with one another, and he prays for grace and mercy to apply these truths.

That's the way we are. But you don't get patience right now. You get patience from the sovereign God, from the scriptures of God, from the saints of God, from the spirit of God, and from the son of God. Because God is a God of all patience. And here's the thing. If he has been so patient with us, we need to learn to be patient with each other. I can stop and think back in my life hundreds of times that I should have died and should have been killed, and I wasn't. And the only reason I'm as old as I am is because of the grace and the mercy of God. Because God was not only grace was given to me and mercy, but God was patient. We want God to strike down all of our enemies instantly, but we don't want him to strike us down instantly. But I can assure you, if we're patient, we will see him strike down all of his enemies.

That's what he said in Psalm 58. The righteous shall see the vengeance and shall rejoice. Revelation 19. The smoke of their torment ascended up forever and ever, and the righteous said, hallelujah, glory to God. But we need to learn patience, and we can only learn it from these five sources. Be ye patient. For the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to thee.

We thank you for your word. We thank you for your truth. And we ask, Lord, for your grace and your mercy in our lives. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

Study Guide

Major Themes

The Nature of Biblical Patience

Summary: Patience is defined in relation to God's grace and mercy, enabling Him to withhold immediate judgment and allowing believers to endure trials.

Evidence: Weaver explains: 'grace is that which gives us that which we do not deserve. And mercy is that which keeps us from getting what we do deserve. And patience enables God to hold off before he indeed gives those exactly what they do deserve.'

God as the Source of Patience

Summary: God is called the God of patience, and believers must know Him as such before knowing Him as the God of hope and peace.

Evidence: Romans 15:5, 13, 33 are cited: 'Now the God of patience... Now the God of hope... Now the God of peace.' Weaver states: 'You have to know God is the God of patience. Before you can know him as the God of hope...'

Patience Through Tribulation

Summary: Tribulation produces patience, which leads to experience and hope, and believers are called to glory in tribulations because of this process.

Evidence: Romans 5:3-5 is quoted: 'tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope.' Weaver asks, 'When's the last time you gloried in tribulation?'

Christ as the Example of Patience

Summary: Jesus Christ endured the cross and shame patiently, and believers are to look to Him as the author and finisher of faith to run their race with patience.

Evidence: Hebrews 12:1-2 is cited: 'Looking unto Jesus... who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.' Weaver emphasizes, 'He endured all of this patiently.'

Unity Through Patience

Summary: Patience leads to like-mindedness, one mouth, and one motive in the church, enabling believers to glorify God together.

Evidence: Romans 15:5-6 is explained: 'that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify God.' Weaver notes, 'So you cannot have one mouth without having one mind.'

The Patience of the Holy Spirit

Summary: The Holy Spirit patiently convicts sinners repeatedly, even when resisted, demonstrating divine longsuffering in bringing people to salvation.

Evidence: Weaver asks, 'How many of you were converted the very first time the Holy Spirit convicted you?' and concludes, 'God the Holy Spirit continued to deal with us even when we were ignorant of His dealings.'

Key Arguments

Patience is essential for Christian living and is commanded in Scripture.

Summary: The Bible commands believers to bring forth fruit with patience, follow after patience, and run the race with patience, indicating its necessity.

Evidence: Luke 8:15, 1 Timothy 6:11, Hebrews 12:1 are cited. Weaver says, 'Each of us have need of patience, that is for sure.'

God's patience is demonstrated in His dealings with sinners throughout history.

Summary: God waited 120 years before the flood, delayed judgment on Sodom, and gave Nineveh 150 years to repent, showing His longsuffering nature.

Evidence: Examples from Genesis 6, Genesis 18, and Jonah are given. Weaver states, 'God saw the wickedness of man... and God still waited 120 years before he did so.'

The Scriptures are a primary means of producing patience and hope.

Summary: Romans 15:4 teaches that the Old Testament was written for our learning to produce patience and comfort, leading to hope.

Evidence: Romans 15:4 is quoted: 'that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.' Weaver says, 'Do you realize the scriptures are designed to give us patience and hope?'

The examples of the prophets and Job teach patience through suffering.

Summary: James 5:10-11 points to the prophets and Job as examples of suffering and patience, showing that endurance leads to God's blessing.

Evidence: James 5:10-11 is cited: 'Take, my brethren, the prophets... for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.' Weaver mentions Job, Isaiah, and Jeremiah.

Christ's endurance on the cross is the supreme model of patience.

Summary: Jesus did not please Himself but bore reproaches, and He endured the cross patiently, providing the ultimate example for believers.

Evidence: Romans 15:3 and Hebrews 12:2 are cited. Weaver says, 'He endured all of this patiently.'

Impatience often manifests in relationships, and believers must learn to be patient with one another.

Summary: Ephesians 4:31-32 commands kindness and forgiveness, and James 5:9 warns against grudging, illustrating the need for patience in the church.

Evidence: Ephesians 4:31-32 and James 5:9 are cited. Weaver uses the illustration of hogs grudging to explain the concept.

Scripture References

Romans 15:1-6

Context: Introduction to the passage, emphasizing patience and unity.

Luke 8:15

Context: Command to bring forth fruit with patience.

1 Timothy 6:11

Context: Exhortation to follow after patience.

Hebrews 10:36

Context: Statement that believers have need of patience. (Note: Weaver says Hebrews 10:26, but context matches 10:36.)

Hebrews 12:1

Context: Command to run the race with patience.

Romans 15:5, 13, 33

Context: God is called the God of patience, hope, and peace.

Romans 15:6-8

Context: Unity of mind, mouth, and motive through patience.

Colossians 1:9-12

Context: Prayer for strength unto all patience and longsuffering.

Genesis 6:5

Context: God's patience before the flood, waiting 120 years.

Genesis 18

Context: God's patience with Sodom and Gomorrah.

Genesis 15:13-16

Context: God's patience with the Amorites, waiting 400 years.

Romans 2:4-5

Context: God's goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering leading to repentance.

Lamentations 3:22-23

Context: God's mercies are new every morning, showing His patience.

Ephesians 4:31-32

Context: Command to put away bitterness and be kind, forgiving one another.

James 1:3-4

Context: The trying of faith works patience, leading to maturity.

Romans 5:1-5

Context: Tribulation works patience, experience, and hope.

James 5:7-11

Context: Exhortation to patience, using the prophets and Job as examples.

Mark 10:1

Context: Jesus taught the same people again, showing patience.

Matthew 27:36-44

Context: Christ's patience under mockery and suffering on the cross.

Hebrews 12:1-2

Context: Looking to Jesus as the example of endurance to run with patience.

Historical References

Noah and the Flood (120 years of preaching)

Context: God waited 120 years before sending the flood, demonstrating patience.

Sodom and Gomorrah

Context: God delayed judgment on Sodom until Lot was removed, showing patience.

Nineveh's repentance and later destruction (150 years)

Context: After Jonah's preaching, Nineveh repented and God waited about 150 years before destroying it.

Israel's 400 years in Egypt

Context: God waited for the iniquity of the Amorites to be full before bringing Israel into Canaan.

Fox's Book of Martyrs (unnamed martyr)

Context: A Christian was tortured with salt in wounds but refused to deny Christ, saying 'Salt on.'

Polycarp, disciple of John

Context: Polycarp, at 86, refused to deny Christ, saying he served Him 86 years and He did no wrong.

Important Quotes

grace is that which gives us that which we do not deserve. And mercy is that which keeps us from getting what we do deserve. And patience enables God to hold off before he indeed gives those exactly what they do deserve.

Significance: Defines the relationship between grace, mercy, and patience, setting the foundation for the sermon.

You have to know God is the God of patience. Before you can know him as the God of hope, you have to know him as the God of hope before you can ever know him as the God of peace.

Significance: Establishes the progression of knowing God's attributes, with patience as foundational.

tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope.

Significance: Summarizes the biblical process of spiritual growth through trials.

Take, my brethren, the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering, affliction, and patience.

Significance: Calls believers to learn patience from the Old Testament prophets' endurance.

Salt on. For God's sake, salt on. I'm not going to deny Christ.

Significance: Illustrates extreme patience and faithfulness under torture from Fox's Book of Martyrs.

Lo, these 86 years have I served him, and he's done me no wrong. Must I now be called upon to deny my Lord and Savior? I will not, and I cannot.

Significance: Polycarp's testimony of lifelong faithfulness and refusal to deny Christ.

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Significance: The ultimate example of patience, focusing on Christ's endurance.

Lord, I'm impatient. I know, Lord, impatience is a sin. And Lord, I want patience. And I want it right now.

Significance: Humorous illustration of the human tendency to demand instant patience.

Discussion Questions

How does understanding God's patience with sinners change the way you view His delays in judgment?

Context: Weaver discusses God's patience in waiting 120 years before the flood and delaying judgment on nations.

In what ways have you experienced tribulation producing patience in your life, and how did it lead to hope?

Context: Romans 5:3-5 is explained, showing the chain from tribulation to hope.

Which of the five sources of patience (sovereign God, Scriptures, saints, Spirit, Son) do you find most challenging to learn from, and why?

Context: The sermon outlines five sources of patience, each requiring different responses.

How can the example of the prophets and Job help you endure suffering with patience?

Context: James 5:10-11 points to the prophets and Job as examples of patience in affliction.

What does it mean to 'grudge not one against another,' and how can we overcome this in our relationships?

Context: James 5:9 is explained with the illustration of hogs grudging over food.

How does looking to Jesus' endurance on the cross help you run your race with patience?

Context: Hebrews 12:1-2 is cited, focusing on Christ as the ultimate example.

Why is it important to have one mind, one mouth, and one motive in the church, and how does patience contribute to this unity?

Context: Romans 15:5-6 is discussed, linking patience to like-mindedness and glorifying God.

How can you cultivate patience in your daily life, especially with those closest to you?

Context: Weaver emphasizes that impatience often manifests with loved ones, and Ephesians 4:31-32 commands kindness.

Applications

Learn patience from God's character

Summary: Reflect on God's patience in history and in your own life, and let His longsuffering lead you to repentance and patience with others.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'God has been patient with us... we need to learn to be patient with each other.'

Embrace tribulation as a means to patience

Summary: Instead of despising trials, glory in them knowing they produce patience, experience, and hope.

Evidence: Romans 5:3-5 is quoted, and Weaver asks, 'When's the last time you gloried in tribulation?'

Study the Scriptures for patience and hope

Summary: Regularly read the Bible, especially the Old Testament examples, to gain patience and comfort.

Evidence: Romans 15:4: 'that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.'

Follow the examples of patient saints

Summary: Read accounts of the prophets, Job, and martyrs to learn endurance in suffering.

Evidence: James 5:10-11 is cited, and Weaver mentions Fox's Book of Martyrs and Polycarp.

Yield to the Holy Spirit's patient work

Summary: Recognize the Spirit's persistent conviction and cooperate with His leading rather than resisting.

Evidence: Weaver notes, 'God the Holy Spirit continued to deal with us even when we were ignorant of His dealings.'

Look to Jesus as the model of patience

Summary: In times of suffering or impatience, fix your eyes on Christ's endurance on the cross.

Evidence: Hebrews 12:2: 'Looking unto Jesus... who endured the cross.'

Practice patience in relationships

Summary: Put away bitterness and anger, and be kind and forgiving, especially with family and fellow believers.

Evidence: Ephesians 4:31-32 is cited, and Weaver illustrates with the story of the boy exposing his parents' argument.

Avoid grudging and envy

Summary: Be content with what you have and wait patiently for God's provision rather than envying others.

Evidence: James 5:9 and the hog slop illustration teach against grudging.

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T03:45:41Z

Clean Transcript

The Source of Patience

Clean readable transcript. This view follows the Commentary.net cleaned segment text while preserving timestamps for audio follow-along.

All right, let's look at our Bibles, the Romans chapter 15, if you would please. And let's begin reading there with verse one. We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good edification. For even Christ pleased not himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproach thee fell on me. For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Now the God of patience and consolation grants you to be like-minded one toward another according to Jesus Christ. Note, if you would please, we have read so far about patience a couple of times in this passage.
#1 | 0:11 to 1:07 | cleaned
So I want to deal this afternoon with something that each of us needs, and that happens to be biblical patience. When we think of patience, we ought to also be thinking of what is known as grace and mercy. Someone has rightly said that grace is that which gives us that which we do not deserve. And mercy is that which keeps us from getting what we do deserve. And patience enables God to hold off before he indeed gives those exactly what they do deserve. But we're going to be looking at patience. We're going to be looking at long-suffering as well.
#2 | 1:08 to 1:50 | cleaned
I tell everybody I'm just as honest as I can be when I confess the fact that I guess, in the strictest sense of the word, I am impatient. I guess everyone is impatient. I think mine sometimes is more frustration than impatience. Because Alice and I have lived long enough to know when things used to be different. For instance, Casey, when we were young, you would pull up to a filling station, a gas station, someone would run out and ask, fill it up, sir.
#3 | 1:51 to 2:28 | cleaned
Yes, they'd put it in. And while the tank is filling, they would wash your windshield. They would check the oil. They would check the tires and the air in the tire. Sometimes they'd even vacuum out something, check your headlights. And all of this, when gas was $0.25 a gallon. I mean, when you look at things the way they used to be and the way they are today, and talk about service frustration.
#4 | 2:29 to 2:56 | cleaned
Alice and I have told many people that when we were teenagers, we could go into any department store in town, pick out three or four outfits. They would say, which one do you want? Well, I'm not sure. And my parents probably didn't make the choice. And they said, well, would you like to take them out on approval? Yes. And so all they would do is write your name down.
#5 | 2:56 to 3:24 | cleaned
And of course, everybody knew everybody. And what you took, and guess what? You could take those clothes home. You could try them on. You could let your parents see them. What you didn't want, you took back. What you wanted, you kept. No, there were no charge cards. There were no charge accounts per se. But everybody knew everybody. And so when I was a teenager, young man, if I wanted something and I was uptown and I didn't have any money, all I would do is say, charge this to D.J. Weaver. And they'd charge it to my dad and send him a bill for it. It's just that simple. But I'm just simply saying times have really changed. And it seems like the more they change, the more impatient we really become.
#6 | 3:25 to 4:09 | cleaned
You know, the Bible tells you in the book of Luke, chapter 8 and verse 15, that we're to bring forth fruit with patience. Now, when you start thinking about a garden, when you start thinking about crops, it takes a great deal of patience, because obviously, once you plant that seed, it's got to come up. Once it comes up, it has to mature. Once it's mature, it has to produce the fruit.
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And then finally, there's a harvest. So he says that you and I are to bring forth fruit in our lives with patience. We have to understand that fruit is not always going to fall into our hands immediately. There has to be patience in that. And then the Bible commends us in 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 11, follow after patience.
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Now that's an interesting concept. Follow after patience. In other words, we are to go in the way of patience. And then I love the one that you find in Hebrews 10 and verse 26. Brethren, you have need of patience. And I certainly believe that is true. Each of us have need of patience, that is for sure. And how about this one? In Hebrews chapter 12, in verse 1, the Bible tells us, let us run the race with patience. Now, how in the world do you run a race with patience? Well, I remember when I was young, I used to run about two or three miles at one time. And I knew one thing about running two miles, you could not start off at a full breakneck speed and continue that.
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You had to be steady. You had to have a steady gait, a steady speed, and finally you would make it. So the Bible tells us we're to run our race with patience.
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Now, I want you to note something in verse five of Romans chapter 15. The Bible says, Now the God of patience and consolation grants you to be like minded one toward another, according to Christ Jesus. I want you to note in verse five that God is called the God of patience. God is called the God of patience. Now, if you will skip down to verse 13, look at this. Now, the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost has been called the God of patience. Now it's called the God of hope. Now, if you look in verse thirty three, He says, now the God of peace be with you all. Amen. So here it is. You have to know God is the God of patience. Before you can know him as the God of hope, you have to know him as the God of hope before you can ever know him as the God of peace.
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Now, in the not too distant future, Lord willing, I'm going to be preaching on this text in greater detail. I preached a message on this text many years ago, which I just simply titled Christian Protocol. This next message I'm going to be preaching is how do you wish to be received, because the Bible tells us how that we are to receive one another, what that means. But I want you to notice something that the Bible says in Romans chapter fifteen. I may be able to put this out a little more detail later, but look at this after he tells us that we must have patience. Look in verse six. After he talks about the God of patience, he says that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive you one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God. That's the text I'll be using. But look, if you would please, in verse eight. Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers.
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So, what you're going to see in these few verses, first of all, is that in patience, we are to have one mind. That's what he said, that you may with one mind. So here's how you get one mind. You study the scriptures and you submit to the Word of God. You're taught the scriptures, and you submit to the teaching of the Word of God. In other words, if you've got one mind, you think alike.
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It's what it amounts to. You have the same thoughts.
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Now, years ago, when Alice and I were younger in our church, we used to have a family night once a month on Friday night. And we would always play the oldywed game, Diana. Not the newlywed game, the oldywed game. Did anybody ever see the newlywed game? Well, we played the oldywed game. And so finally, our people said, Pastor, you and Alice can't play anymore. Because we'd always win.
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Because they'd ask things about it, and we just knew. But we hadn't been married all that long back then, but that was it. So when you have one mind, you think alike. But notice what he said, that you may with one mind and one mouth. So when you think the same way, you say or you speak the same truths, the same thoughts. So you cannot have one mouth without having one mind. So it's going to take patience, is what he's saying, until we can get one mind so that we can have one mouth. Now watch this. Here's the third thing in verse six, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, that's one motive, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. How many churches do you know that have one mind, one mouth, and one motive?
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Everything is done for God's honor, God's glory. How many families do you know like that? And then he says, notice if you would, not only one mind, one mouth, one motive, but notice one mission, because he said, in verse eight, now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. And then he goes on that the Gentiles might glorify God. So we should have one mission, and that is not only to glorify God, but to confirm the scriptures in every area of our lives.
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And that indeed does indeed take patience. Now, here's what I want to ask today. How do you get patience? Where do you get patience? How do you become patient? Well, I can give you the answers. I can't apply them, but I can certainly give you the answers. You have to apply them yourself. First of all, note, if you would, back in verse 5 of Romans 15, we learn patience from the sovereign God. He said in verse 5, now the God of patience and consolation grant you, look at this, to be like-minded one toward another according to Jesus Christ. So patience then stems first and foremost from the sovereign God when he grants us not only consolation, but that we should be like-minded. Now, if you would hold Romans 15 and turn right over in your Bibles, to the book of Colossians, the book of Colossians chapter one. And let's look beginning there, verse nine. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Colossians one, verse nine. And let's read through verse 11. Colossians one, verse nine.
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For this cause, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Look at this now, strengthened with all might according to His glorious power unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness, giving thanks to the Father, which has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. So he says in this prayer for the Colossian Christians that they might be strengthened with all might according to his glorious power unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.
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Now, I want to point out just a few things. When we talk about learning patience from the sovereign God, you remember that passage in Genesis chapter 6 and verse 5, where God saw the imaginations of the hearts of the sons of men that they were only evil continually. And the Bible said it grieved God and God destroyed the world, sent the flood. But Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord. Would someone like to tell me the length of time that God waited before he sent the flood? Do you remember? 120 years. You'll find that in 2 Peter where Noah was a preacher of righteousness, the Bible said, and 120 years was given. So here God saw the wickedness of man, and every thought of the imagination of his heart was only evil continually. And yes, God did destroy them, but God still waited 120 years before he did so.
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Also may I point out the fact, look at Sodom and Gomorrah. Look at it, Admah, Zeboim, the cities of the plain. When you read Genesis chapter 18, God comes to Abram and he says, I'm not going to hide from Abram that which I'm about to do. And of course, Lot had pitched his tent towards Sodom. Lot was in there. And God revealed he's going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.
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But he said, the cry of it has come up to me. How long God waited before he destroyed them? I do not know. The Bible does not tell us in that particular instance. But I do know that when God got Lot out through those angels, and his daughters, God destroyed the city. So here's the patience of God. And Alice and I have often talked about this. I just told her this morning, I just read yesterday, where some 60-something-year-old man grabbed a little nine-year-old girl while her grandmother was in the bathroom. He grabbed this little nine-year-old girl, raped her, twice.
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Finally, the cops were called. They went to chasing him, and he was killed in a car wreck. And I said, good. I mean, that's fine with me. I'm just, you know, and Alice and I were thinking, why does God not strike some of these people down instantly? And then you stop to think, well, you know, we're sinners as well, and why has God not struck us down instantly as well? So, God has been patient with us. I'm going to point that out a little bit more. But may I also point out, and I've already went through Jonah with you, someone tell me if you remember approximately how long did Nineveh exist after Jonah before God destroyed it? 150 years. 150 years. God did destroy it.
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You can read about it in Habakkuk and Nahum. But probably 150 years because the people repented.
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Now, there's an interesting thing. If you look in your Bibles to the book of Genesis chapter 15, we're still talking about the patience from the sovereignty of God. But if you look in Genesis chapter 15, let me see if I can find the verse. Okay. Verse 13. Let's skip there. Genesis 15, verse 13. So God has entered into a covenant with Abraham. And verse 13, and he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years. Now here's the question. Why did Israel have to be in Egypt four hundred years? Here's the answer. God says in verse 14, And also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterward they shall come out with a great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace. Thou shalt be buried in a good old age. Look at this.
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But in the fourth generation, they shall come hither again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. So the Amorites were Canaanites. They dwelt in the land of Canaan. And what did God do when he brought Israel out of Egypt? He put a sword in their hand and said, kill everyone. The astounding thing is that God waited a hundred years before He destroyed them, and yet He did. Look if you would at the nation Israel. God said, even in the book of Numbers, while they were in the wilderness, these ten times have they provoked Me. And how many times did God say to Moses, step aside that I may consume all of them in a moment, and I'll make a greater nation out of you. And yet, there was a northern kingdom that went into captivity in 722 B.C. Judah, the southern kingdom, went into captivity in 586 B.C. Finally, in 70 A.D., he destroyed the nation. But look at the time. So the point I'm trying to make is very simple.
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God is patient, and we should learn patience there. I want you to turn in your Bibles, if you would. I want you to apply this to each one of us. Look in the book of Romans, chapter 2, and look at who would please at verses 4 and 5. Romans 2, verses 4 and 5. This is an amazing passage. Look what he says in verse two. But we're sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judges them which do such things and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?
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Watch what people do, and we've done it as well. Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. Then he says in verse five, but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasures up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Now, I want you to look in verse four. He says, or despisest thou the riches of his goodness.
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You know, there's a passage, I believe it's Psalm 105, I think. Where the Bible says, oh, that the sons of men would praise the Lord for his goodness to the children of men. Three times in one Psalm. When you stop and think about the goodness of God to each one of us, he allows us to live. He gives us health. He gives us friends. He gives us family. He supplies our needs. He feeds us. He allows us to breathe his air. What happens when we despise the riches of God's goodness? God does not instantly smite us, strike us down. Notice what happened. He forbears. He forbears.
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His forbearance comes into play. Well, what happens then when his forbearance is taxed to the limit? Then comes in his longsuffering. Then comes in his long-suffering. I just finished a message this week, which I'll be preaching, hopefully, in the not-too-distant future. And I titled it, Friday is Not Always God's Payday. And it's not. But notice he said, the long-suffering of God comes in.
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I think I remember the Greek word. I think it's makrothumia. But long-suffering is related to what we call being long nostrils. How does that work with being long suffering? For instance, you notice when a man gets exceedingly angry, what he begins to do is he breathes with great difficulty, with great hardness, and you can see his nostrils flare. You know when those nostrils are flaring, he's grabbing for more air. He's getting angry. He's ready to act. The problem is this. When someone has a long nose or a big nose, it's harder to detect a flare in the nostrils.
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So when God's goodness is despised, his forbearance comes into play. When his forbearance is despised, his long suffering comes into play. And people think, well, God's not going to do anything, but they just cannot discern the flare in the nostril because God is getting ready to do something. And he says what they're doing is they're treasuring up wrath upon themselves into the day of wrath.
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Now, there's another passage, and you've heard me quote this so many times. In fact, I try to quote this passage every day. I don't always succeed, but most of the time I do. Because when I wake up in the morning, I thank the Lord for allowing me to live through the night. And when I go to bed at night, I thank the Lord for allowing me to live through the day. The Bible tells us that we're to show forth His loving kindness every morning and His faithfulness every night. But the passage that I'm thinking about is Lamentations 3, 22 and 23. It is the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed because His compassions, they fail not. They're new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. So we're to learn patience in, first of all, from the sovereign God.
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Now, I want you to look in your Bibles to the book of Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. And here is our failing, I can assure you. Because usually when we're impatient, we're impatient with each other. We're impatient with the ones that we love because we know we can get away with it with them. It's what it amounts to. You can't be impatient with some people that you don't know because they may knock you down. They may slap you around, you know. But those that we love, we take advantage of. But look what he said in Ephesians 4, verses 31 and 32. He said, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. Now look at this.
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And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. So he says, we're to let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. And be kind one to another. Years ago, I was preaching in Alabama. And we were invited, the pastor and his wife and myself were invited to one of the homes of his members for supper before preaching that night.
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And so the lady of the house had her hair done the way the antebellum ladies wore their hair. It was beautiful. You know, the ring that's cascading down like that. And so I just simply said to this lady, I really like your hair. And I really did. I mean, it was an honest compliment. The little boy, her son, I guess he was eight or nine years old, he said, it ain't hers. She turned red. And I looked at him, I said, now, son, whether she grew it or whether she bought it, it does belong to her.
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He said, you should have seen the fight she had with Daddy over it. And the woman trying to salvage the situation, she said, now, son, you know Mama and Daddy don't fight. He said, oh, you should have heard them hollering at each other. The more she tried to get out of it, the more she stepped into it. All because I complimented her on her hair. So this is what I'm talking about. We take advantage of each other because we know we can get away with it.
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But the children always tell on the parents, that is for sure. So patience first and foremost comes from the sovereign God.
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Secondly, I want you to look in Romans chapter 15. This may surprise you, but patience also comes from the scriptures of God. Look in Romans chapter 15, verse 4. For whatsoever things were written aforetime, we're talking about the Old Testament, were written for our learning. Everything in the Old Testament was written for our learning that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope. Wow. Do you realize the scriptures are designed to give us patience and hope? If you look in your Bibles to the book of James, chapter one, Hebrews, James, look at this James chapter one.
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And notice, if you would please, verses three and four. James chapter one, verse three. The Word of God says, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect or mature and entire or mature and complete, wanting nothing. So it says, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. Wow.
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Now, if you will turn back, to Romans chapter 5, there's another passage here. Romans chapter 5, look at verse 1.
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Now he said, the trying your faith worketh patience. He says, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Look at this. And not only so, we glory in tribulation also. Why? Knowing that tribulation worketh patience. And patience experience and experience hope. And hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us. So when's the last time you gloried in tribulation? When's the last time you really enjoyed having financial difficulties, or you really enjoyed being sick, or you really enjoyed having things go absolutely wrong in every area, in every aspect.
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This is what he's saying. He said, patience teaches us to glory in tribulation. Why? Because that tribulation is designed to give us more patience, and patience is designed to give us more hope, and hope is designed to make us not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. So, many times when we pray for patience, God sends us tribulation to produce patience. So, that's the way God does. He gives us patience. But we are to learn patience from the Sovereign God, from the Scriptures of God.
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Now, if you look back in Romans chapter 15, there's a third place that we're to learn patience from. You'll find that in verse 2. That is, we're to learn patience from the saints of God. He says, let every one of us please his neighbor for his good edification. Then he tells you in verse 3, for even Christ pleased not himself, which I'll talk about that momentarily. But he said, let every one of us please his neighbor for his good edification. So we're to learn patience from the saints of God.
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Now, in light of that, I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of James, chapter 5. James, chapter 5. And I want you to look there beginning, if you would please, at verse 7. Look at this, James, chapter 5, verse 7. And we'll read several verses. He says, Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold the husbandman waited for the precious fruit of the earth, this is our Lord, and have long patience for it until he received the early and the latter rain. Now of course, in the Old Testament in Canaan land, there was an early and the latter rain that was related then to the crops and both were needed. And like I pointed out earlier, anybody that grew a garden or crop had to have patience. So he's using this illustration. Be patient therefore, brethren. In other words, things are not going to happen immediately. Look if you would now at verse 8. He says, Be you also patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
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Now look. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold the judge standing before the door. Here we go. Take, my brethren, the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering, affliction, and patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. You have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercies. Now, he says, take my brethren, the prophets, as an example of suffering, affliction, and patience. We could talk about Job. And in fact, he's used Job in verse 11. And he said, you've seen the end of the Lord. The Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercies. Look, if you would, how God blessed and rewarded Job for being patient. I love that passage in Job chapter one. When he lost all of his children, he lost all of his possessions, and the Bible says in all of this, Job sinned not with his lips nor charged God foolishly. Wow. Think about Isaiah.
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What he suffered and how he was rejected by his own people. Now, you remember in Hebrews chapter 11, the Bible talks about some of those who were sawn asunder, and that is what tradition says happened to Isaiah. They put him in a hollowed log, and then they sawed him in two while they were sawing the log. Think about Jeremiah. Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet. Look how they hated him. Look how they tried to kill him. Look how they imprisoned him, threw him into dungeons.
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Take my brethren, the prophets. Think about Ezekiel.
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Now, before I leave this, I've got another passage I want to show you and tell you, but I want to call your attention. Since we're talking about patience, look in verse seven. He said, Be patient, therefore. Now look in verse eight. Be you also patient. Now, he says in verse nine, Grudge not one against another brethren. Do you know what it is to grudge? I want to give you an illustration that you won't forget.
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When I was a boy, of course I was raised on a farm, we had hogs as well as cows, mules, chickens. But there was a five-gallon bucket that stayed on our back porch. It was called the slop bucket. So any coffee that was not drunk at breakfast went in that bucket. Any toast that was not eaten or eggs, it all went in that bucket. It was slop. When dinner came, any piece of corn or cornbread or whatever was not eaten, everything went in that bucket.
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The same thing at supper. Every bit of the liquid that was left over, every bit of the food that was left over that had been nibbled on or not usable anymore, all of it went in that bucket. Usually by the end of the day, that five-gallon bucket was full of what we call slop. So we would, not we, I, I would take that five-gallon bucket out to the hog pen, and there was a trough. I would pour that slop in that trough, and here come all of those old big hogs running as fast as they could to get to that trough. And they would stick their nostrils and their mouth in that slop, and you could hear them. They'd be doing this. They'd just be sucking it up.
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And all of a sudden, you remember this, don't you? All of a sudden, one of them would hit a piece of corn or something solid. And you know what he would do? He would take that solid piece of food and turn and run. You know what the rest of the hogs did? They chased him and tried to take it away from him. They wouldn't keep drinking their slop and eating until they found something. You know why they chased him?
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Because they grudged what he had. They didn't have it. Grudged not one against another brethren. So let me put this out. I know I've seen people go through this. I've seen young people get married. And they say, well, why can't we have a new car? Mom and dad have a new car. Why can't we have a big, fine house? Mom and dad have a big, fine house. Why can't we have furniture, new furniture? Mom and daddy have new furniture. Yeah. Mom and daddy may have all those things. Well, those young people don't understand it took them 50 years to get those things.
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And so they run out and go in debt. And now the next thing you know, everything's going to pot and fall into pieces. Because they're begrudging the fact of what their parents have or what some older couple has, and they don't have. This is what God is saying. You be patient until you find your own piece of corn in the slop is what you do. You work and you wait. This is what you learn patience from the saints of God.
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Look at how they suffered. Look at what they endured. And look how God brought them out in the end. So God is telling us very plainly, we are to learn from the saints of God. If you would take the time to read Fox's Book of Martyrs. There's some interesting stories in there, one that I read years and years ago. I forget the individual's name. But they were going to torture him, and what they did, they took sharp knives and flayed his hide, flayed his skin.
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They made cuts all in his legs, all in his body. And then they took the hard rock salt and was rubbing it into the wounds. Not only would that hard rock salt hurt just being rubbed in the wounds, but it was salt, which means it was stinging at the same time. And so they were telling this wonderful Christian man, deny Christ and we will wash the salt out of your wounds.
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And you know what he said? Salt on. For God's sake, salt on. I'm not going to deny Christ. Polycarp, who was a disciple of the Apostle John, when he was called upon to deny Christ, he said, lo, these 86 years have I served him, and he's done me no wrong. Must I now be called upon to deny my Lord and Savior? I will not, and I cannot. And of course, they tortured Polycarp, and he died rather quickly because of his advanced age of 86.
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So God tells us in Romans chapter 15, we're to learn patience from the sovereign God. We're to learn patience from the scriptures of God. We're to learn patience from the saints of God. And now, if you will look in your Bibles, please, to the book of Romans chapter 15, you will also find that we are to learn patience from the Spirit of God. Wow. Now think about this.
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I want to go back in just a second and make something. I'm going to deal with this. Let me go back and cover the Spirit of God. Let me go back and cover one other thing. Learning patience from the saints of God. I want you to look in your Bibles very quickly to Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10. I came across this verse, I don't know, a multitude of years ago, and it really, really dealt with my heart. And I want you to look at this. Here we go. Mark chapter 10, verse 1, talking about Jesus Christ, and he arose from thence and cometh into the coast of Judea by the farther side of Jordan.
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And the people resort to him again. Look at this, same people. The people resort to him again and as he was wont he taught them again. So he taught the same people possibly the same truths again. You know we have a saying that repetition aids learning. I had a dear friend, he's been dead for many years now, but he asked me to explain something to him and I did. And about a day or so later, he asked me the same exact question again. And I answered it the same way the second time. Day or two later, he asked me the third time the same question. I looked at him and I said, John, how many times do I have to answer that question for you? I've already answered it twice. And he looked at me, and he said, I'm sorry. I guess I'm just stupid. I looked at him. I said, John, you're not stupid.
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You don't owe me an apology. I owe you an apology. I'm going to answer it for you again. And if you don't understand it, you ask me again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day, until God opens your eyes, just keep asking me. This is what he's talking about. Our Lord taught these same people, again, possibly the same truth. So this is why he's saying we're to learn patience from the saints of God. I'm going to point out, fourthly, we're to learn patience also from the Spirit of God. So let me ask you a question. We know the Holy Spirit of God is the agent of conviction, regeneration, conversion. So here's my question. How many of you were converted the very first time the Holy Spirit convicted you? Well, nobody can really raise their hand, because you don't even know the first time the Spirit convicted you.
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The Bible said, God speaketh once, yea, twice, and man perceiveth it not. I could ask this question again, how many times, how many of you were converted the second time the Holy Spirit convicted you? Or the third time? Or the fourth time? Or the fifth? You don't really know. And the truth of the matter is this, when we were under conviction, most of the time we tried to ignore it. We tried to run from it. We tried to continue our lives as if nothing was happening. So here's my question to you, what if the Holy Spirit had been convicting you and convicting you and convicting you? And finally, the Holy Spirit said, what?
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I'm just not going to deal with you anymore. What? Where would you be if that actually happened? It will not happen. It cannot happen. But I'm just pointing out the fact. Look how many times he convicted us and we were totally unaware of what was happening in our lives. And I remember I can tell you right now, and Alice may remember, but when the Lord got a hold of me, I actually thought I was dying. I really did. I thought I was dying.
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It was so heavy, I could not believe it. The point I'm trying to make is, God the Holy Spirit continued to deal with us even when we were ignorant of His dealings, even when we tried to smother Him. No, I'm so thankful that the Spirit of God cannot be successfully resisted. He may be resisted, but not successfully. And He continued to deal with us until He brought us to the end of ourselves, and we saw our sin, and we saw the Lord Jesus Christ, and He enabled us to come to him by faith.
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Now, I want you to go back in your Bible to Romans chapter 15. I want to show you the fifth place that we are to learn patience. We've pointed out we're to learn patience from the sovereign God, the scriptures of God, the saints of God, the spirit of God. Now, in verse three, we're to learn patience from the son of God. He says, for even Christ pleased not himself but as is written the reproaches of them that reproach thee fell on me. Now you know the Bible tells you in First Peter chapter two verses twenty one through twenty five that Christ is indeed our example. I want you to turn in your Bibles if you would to the book of Matthew chapter twenty seven. Matthew chapter 27. I want to read a few verses for you just to show you something. Look at Matthew chapter 27. And let's begin with verse 44.
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Well, I'll tell you what. Let's begin with verse 36, let's read there. And sitting down, they watched him there. So Jesus Christ is crucified. And they set up over his head this accusation written, this is Jesus, the king of the Jews. Then were there two thieves crucified with him, the one on the right and another on the left. And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads and saying, Thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself. Now look at this. If thou be the Son of God, ha ha, if thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests mocking him with the scribes and the elders said, he saved others, himself he cannot save. If he be the king of Israel, let him come down now from the cross and we will believe him. He trusted in God, and let him deliver him now, if he will have him, for he said, I am the Son of God. The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth.
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Now, here's my question. Jesus Christ has been wrongfully tried, wrongfully condemned. He's been flogged. He's been beaten. He's crucified. And now here are these people walking up and down, mocking him, reviling him, accusing him of being a false messiah. And he said, thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself, if thou be the Son of God. Come down from the cross. And likewise, the chief priest said, he saved others. He cannot save himself. Here's what they're saying. If you're the Son of God, come down and we will believe you.
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Well, let me tell you something. He could have come down. He could have come from that cross any time he so pleased. But you know what he did? He endured all of this patiently. With that in mind, I want you to turn to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. And I want you to look, please, beginning there with verse 1. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1. This is absolutely astounding to me. Hebrews 12, verse 1.
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Wherefore, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Now, wait a minute. Let us run the race with patience. Where do we learn patience? From the Son of God. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. What did he say? Let us run the race with patience.
#69 | 50:46 to 51:35 | cleaned
What is going to make us patient? Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. He endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down on the right hand of God. Patience. Most of us are like the woman who finally realized her impatience was sin. And so she started praying for patience. She said, Lord, I'm impatient. I know, Lord, impatience is a sin. And Lord, I want patience. And I want it right now.
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That's the way we are. But you don't get patience right now. You get patience from the sovereign God, from the scriptures of God, from the saints of God, from the spirit of God, and from the son of God. Because God is a God of all patience. And here's the thing. If he has been so patient with us, we need to learn to be patient with each other.
#71 | 52:33 to 53:09 | cleaned
I can stop and think back in my life hundreds of times that I should have died and should have been killed, and I wasn't. And the only reason I'm as old as I am is because of the grace and the mercy of God. Because God was not only grace was given to me and mercy, but God was patient. We want God to strike down all of our enemies instantly, but we don't want him to strike us down instantly. But I can assure you, if we're patient, we will see him strike down all of his enemies.
#72 | 53:14 to 54:02 | cleaned
That's what he said in Psalm 58. The righteous shall see the vengeance and shall rejoice. Revelation 19. The smoke of their torment ascended up forever and ever, and the righteous said, hallelujah, glory to God. But we need to learn patience, and we can only learn it from these five sources. Be ye patient. For the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to thee.
#73 | 54:03 to 54:40 | cleaned
We thank you for your word. We thank you for your truth. And we ask, Lord, for your grace and your mercy in our lives. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
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so so
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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T14:54:10Z

The Source of Patience

John Weaver | Freedom Ministries

Pastor John Weaver preaches on the necessity and source of biblical patience from Romans 15 and other scriptures. He explains that patience is linked to God's grace and mercy, and that believers must learn patience from five sources: the sovereign God, the Scriptures, the saints, the Spirit, and the Son of God. The sermon emphasizes that patience is developed through tribulation and is essential for unity, hope, and glorifying God.

Introduction: The Need for Patience

Weaver introduces the topic of biblical patience, relating it to grace and mercy, and confesses his own impatience, using nostalgic examples of changing times to illustrate growing impatience.

Biblical Commands to Be Patient

Scripture commands believers to bring forth fruit with patience, follow after patience, and run the race with patience, emphasizing that patience is essential for spiritual growth and endurance.

God as the God of Patience, Hope, and Peace

Romans 15 reveals God as the God of patience, hope, and peace, and that knowing Him in these aspects leads to unity of mind, mouth, and motive in the church.

Learning Patience from the Sovereign God

Patience is first learned from God's own character, demonstrated in His longsuffering with sinners, such as waiting 120 years before the flood and delaying judgment on nations.

Learning Patience from the Scriptures of God

The Scriptures are designed to produce patience and hope, and tribulation works patience, which leads to experience and hope, as taught in Romans 5 and James 1.

Learning Patience from the Saints of God

Believers are to learn patience from the examples of the prophets and Job, who endured suffering and affliction, and from the patience of fellow believers in the church.

Learning Patience from the Spirit of God

The Holy Spirit's persistent conviction and patient dealings with sinners, even when resisted, demonstrate divine patience and lead to conversion.

Learning Patience from the Son of God

Christ's endurance of the cross, despising the shame, is the ultimate example of patience, and believers are to look to Him to run their race with patience.

Conclusion: Application and Prayer

Weaver concludes that since God has been patient with us, we must be patient with one another, and he prays for grace and mercy to apply these truths.

We thank you for your word. We thank you for your truth. And we ask, Lord, for your grace and your mercy in our lives. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

The Source of Patience

John Weaver | YouTube

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	YouTube
Media ID	QDgh8flryrw
Subject	New Testament Studies
Course	Romans: Christian Duty, Authority, and Brotherly Peace
Genre	Sermon
Date	2024-12-01
Dictation Name
Book	Book 133: Romans: Christian Duty, Authority, and Brotherly Peace — Chapter 7
Source Timed Segments	75

Lecture Guide

Outline

Introduction: The Need for Patience: Weaver introduces the topic of biblical patience, relating it to grace and mercy, and confesses his own impatience, using nostalgic examples of changing times to illustrate growing impatience.
Biblical Commands to Be Patient: Scripture commands believers to bring forth fruit with patience, follow after patience, and run the race with patience, emphasizing that patience is essential for spiritual growth and endurance.
God as the God of Patience, Hope, and Peace: Romans 15 reveals God as the God of patience, hope, and peace, and that knowing Him in these aspects leads to unity of mind, mouth, and motive in the church.
Learning Patience from the Sovereign God: Patience is first learned from God's own character, demonstrated in His longsuffering with sinners, such as waiting 120 years before the flood and delaying judgment on nations.
Learning Patience from the Scriptures of God: The Scriptures are designed to produce patience and hope, and tribulation works patience, which leads to experience and hope, as taught in Romans 5 and James 1.
Learning Patience from the Saints of God: Believers are to learn patience from the examples of the prophets and Job, who endured suffering and affliction, and from the patience of fellow believers in the church.
Learning Patience from the Spirit of God: The Holy Spirit's persistent conviction and patient dealings with sinners, even when resisted, demonstrate divine patience and lead to conversion.
Learning Patience from the Son of God: Christ's endurance of the cross, despising the shame, is the ultimate example of patience, and believers are to look to Him to run their race with patience.
Conclusion: Application and Prayer: Weaver concludes that since God has been patient with us, we must be patient with one another, and he prays for grace and mercy to apply these truths.

Major Themes

Key Arguments

Patience is essential for Christian living and is commanded in Scripture.

The Bible commands believers to bring forth fruit with patience, follow after patience, and run the race with patience, indicating its necessity.

Luke 8:15, 1 Timothy 6:11, Hebrews 12:1 are cited. Weaver says, 'Each of us have need of patience, that is for sure.'

God's patience is demonstrated in His dealings with sinners throughout history.

God waited 120 years before the flood, delayed judgment on Sodom, and gave Nineveh 150 years to repent, showing His longsuffering nature.

Examples from Genesis 6, Genesis 18, and Jonah are given. Weaver states, 'God saw the wickedness of man... and God still waited 120 years before he did so.'

The Scriptures are a primary means of producing patience and hope.

Romans 15:4 teaches that the Old Testament was written for our learning to produce patience and comfort, leading to hope.

Romans 15:4 is quoted: 'that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.' Weaver says, 'Do you realize the scriptures are designed to give us patience and hope?'

The examples of the prophets and Job teach patience through suffering.

James 5:10-11 points to the prophets and Job as examples of suffering and patience, showing that endurance leads to God's blessing.

James 5:10-11 is cited: 'Take, my brethren, the prophets... for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.' Weaver mentions Job, Isaiah, and Jeremiah.

Christ's endurance on the cross is the supreme model of patience.

Jesus did not please Himself but bore reproaches, and He endured the cross patiently, providing the ultimate example for believers.

Romans 15:3 and Hebrews 12:2 are cited. Weaver says, 'He endured all of this patiently.'

Impatience often manifests in relationships, and believers must learn to be patient with one another.

Ephesians 4:31-32 commands kindness and forgiveness, and James 5:9 warns against grudging, illustrating the need for patience in the church.

Ephesians 4:31-32 and James 5:9 are cited. Weaver uses the illustration of hogs grudging to explain the concept.

Scripture References

Romans 15:1-6: Introduction to the passage, emphasizing patience and unity.
Luke 8:15: Command to bring forth fruit with patience.
1 Timothy 6:11: Exhortation to follow after patience.
Hebrews 10:36: Statement that believers have need of patience. (Note: Weaver says Hebrews 10:26, but context matches 10:36.)
Hebrews 12:1: Command to run the race with patience.
Romans 15:5, 13, 33: God is called the God of patience, hope, and peace.
Romans 15:6-8: Unity of mind, mouth, and motive through patience.
Colossians 1:9-12: Prayer for strength unto all patience and longsuffering.
Genesis 6:5: God's patience before the flood, waiting 120 years.
Genesis 18: God's patience with Sodom and Gomorrah.
Genesis 15:13-16: God's patience with the Amorites, waiting 400 years.
Romans 2:4-5: God's goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering leading to repentance.
Lamentations 3:22-23: God's mercies are new every morning, showing His patience.
Ephesians 4:31-32: Command to put away bitterness and be kind, forgiving one another.
James 1:3-4: The trying of faith works patience, leading to maturity.
Romans 5:1-5: Tribulation works patience, experience, and hope.
James 5:7-11: Exhortation to patience, using the prophets and Job as examples.
Mark 10:1: Jesus taught the same people again, showing patience.
Matthew 27:36-44: Christ's patience under mockery and suffering on the cross.
Hebrews 12:1-2: Looking to Jesus as the example of endurance to run with patience.

Historical References

Noah and the Flood (120 years of preaching): God waited 120 years before sending the flood, demonstrating patience.
Sodom and Gomorrah: God delayed judgment on Sodom until Lot was removed, showing patience.
Nineveh's repentance and later destruction (150 years): After Jonah's preaching, Nineveh repented and God waited about 150 years before destroying it.
Israel's 400 years in Egypt: God waited for the iniquity of the Amorites to be full before bringing Israel into Canaan.
Fox's Book of Martyrs (unnamed martyr): A Christian was tortured with salt in wounds but refused to deny Christ, saying 'Salt on.'
Polycarp, disciple of John: Polycarp, at 86, refused to deny Christ, saying he served Him 86 years and He did no wrong.

Important Quotes

grace is that which gives us that which we do not deserve. And mercy is that which keeps us from getting what we do deserve. And patience enables God to hold off before he indeed gives those exactly what they do deserve.

Defines the relationship between grace, mercy, and patience, setting the foundation for the sermon.

You have to know God is the God of patience. Before you can know him as the God of hope, you have to know him as the God of hope before you can ever know him as the God of peace.

Establishes the progression of knowing God's attributes, with patience as foundational.

tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope.

Summarizes the biblical process of spiritual growth through trials.

Take, my brethren, the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering, affliction, and patience.

Calls believers to learn patience from the Old Testament prophets' endurance.

Salt on. For God's sake, salt on. I'm not going to deny Christ.

Illustrates extreme patience and faithfulness under torture from Fox's Book of Martyrs.

Lo, these 86 years have I served him, and he's done me no wrong. Must I now be called upon to deny my Lord and Savior? I will not, and I cannot.

Polycarp's testimony of lifelong faithfulness and refusal to deny Christ.

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

The ultimate example of patience, focusing on Christ's endurance.

Lord, I'm impatient. I know, Lord, impatience is a sin. And Lord, I want patience. And I want it right now.

Humorous illustration of the human tendency to demand instant patience.

Discussion Questions

[Question]

How does understanding God's patience with sinners change the way you view His delays in judgment?

[Context]

Weaver discusses God's patience in waiting 120 years before the flood and delaying judgment on nations.

[Question]

In what ways have you experienced tribulation producing patience in your life, and how did it lead to hope?

[Context]

Romans 5:3-5 is explained, showing the chain from tribulation to hope.

[Question]

Which of the five sources of patience (sovereign God, Scriptures, saints, Spirit, Son) do you find most challenging to learn from, and why?

[Context]

The sermon outlines five sources of patience, each requiring different responses.

[Question]

How can the example of the prophets and Job help you endure suffering with patience?

[Context]

James 5:10-11 points to the prophets and Job as examples of patience in affliction.

[Question]

What does it mean to 'grudge not one against another,' and how can we overcome this in our relationships?

[Context]

James 5:9 is explained with the illustration of hogs grudging over food.

[Question]

How does looking to Jesus' endurance on the cross help you run your race with patience?

[Context]

Hebrews 12:1-2 is cited, focusing on Christ as the ultimate example.

[Question]

Why is it important to have one mind, one mouth, and one motive in the church, and how does patience contribute to this unity?

[Context]

Romans 15:5-6 is discussed, linking patience to like-mindedness and glorifying God.

[Question]

How can you cultivate patience in your daily life, especially with those closest to you?

[Context]

Weaver emphasizes that impatience often manifests with loved ones, and Ephesians 4:31-32 commands kindness.

Applications

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T03:45:41Z