“The LORD is longsuffering”
The Bible says in Numbers
14:18, “The LORD is longsuffering, and of great
mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the
guilty.” The LORD Jehovah Jesus is longsuffering. Lo! Behold! Lift up
thine eyes unto the heavens listen with thine ears to the words of God and
consider the word longsuffering. Longsuffering is a fruit of the Spirit. It is
the 4th of 9 fruits of the Spirit.
Galatians 5:22 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” Of
the 7 Spirits of God what is emphasized in this age of grace is the Spirit of
grace which has gone forth in this age of grace and filled heaven and earth.
The longsuffering of the Spirit of God’s grace has lasted over 2000 years. The
LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and
transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty.
What is longsuffering?
Look at the word longsuffering: long and suffering. It means more than
patience. It means to suffer for a long time and to endure that suffering while
waiting for God’s judgment.
Doeth not the LORD Jesus
and the Spirit of Jesus fill heaven and earth? Is not Jesus Jehovah the great I
am set up from everlasting; from the beginning or ever the earth was? When
there were no depths there was God. When there were no foundations abounding
with water still there is God from everlasting to everlasting. In the beginning
God created the heavens and the earth. The Spirit of God moved upon the face of
the waters. Before the beginning God is from everlasting. Before you or I was
given life by God God; Christ is from everlasting.
What is longsuffering?
Think about the everlasting to everlasting I am that I am, Jesus Christ
Jehovah. To know the 4th fruit of the Spirit, longsuffering, let us
think about the longsuffering of God before we think about ourselves and our
own suffering. Oh, yes, indeed God has suffered. God has waited patiently for
that day when God shall wipe away all sin and complete His perfect work in the
hearts of men through Christ Jesus. How long did God wait to create the world?
Lo, behold! God is from everlasting. God has waited from everlasting. And from
everlasting He then created the world in the wisdom of His timing. From
everlasting He sent forth His Son Jesus to die for the sins of men that those
who turn from their sins to Jesus might receive eternal life and the
righteousness of Christ.
Longsuffering. Oh yes longsuffering is
patience; but longsuffering is also to suffer patiently for a long time. How
can you have longsuffering as fruit of the Spirit without understanding the
longsuffering that God has had on the world from everlasting? How long is
everlasting? How long has God waited? You will never know the length you will
never understand how long has waited in His longsufferinga. You will only know
that it is from everlasting. Thus said God in Job 38:4, “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding?”
The word longsuffering
means slow to anger, it means a withholding of judgment. The word longsuffering
implies a patience and forbearance. Longsuffering implies that God’s timing is
perfect when it comes to when He hands out both mercy and judgment. Oh, yes,
sin greaves God. O yes, the cruel violent, vile injustices and abominations
that men do to each other and against God grieve God and cause Him suffering.
God suffers and God knows the sufferings of His children. God knows the
injustices of the world. God knows the anguish of the broken hearts. God hears
the cries of those whom have lost loved ones to the world and to its violences.
Yet God waits longer than man would expect. God withholds judgment sometimes on
those that we know deserve destruction because God is longsuffering.
2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men
count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance.” Romans 9:22 says, “What if God, willing to shew His wrath, and to make His
power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to
destruction.”
God will judge sin. The day of judgment is coming. The name of the
LORD cometh from afar burning in His anger. God is longsuffering. But
longsuffering is not a lack of judgment. Longsuffering is itself a judgment of
God; judgment in the sense of discernment. Only God knows the hearts of men.
Only God knows when a man has become so blasphemous against the Spirit of God
that that man will never repent of their sins to Jesus. God is longsuffering.
The vessels of wrath fitted to destruction that is to say, those who refuse to
repent of their sins to Jesus when Jesus calls to them, God endures with much
longsuffering these vessels of wrath because God is willing to shew His wrath
and to make His power known. In time the longsuffering of God will reveal the
power of God and even the judgment of God. The name of the
Lord cometh from afar burning in His anger.
The more
of the fruit of the Spirit, longsuffering, that you have, the more you will wait
on the LORD and His judgment when you are in circumstances that are not within
your power or authority to do anything about. All things work together
for good to them that love God but sometimes we must wait with longsuffering to
see those things work out for good. God hath spoken and God shall make it good.
The promises of God are good. God is good. The greatest evils and injustices of
this world God will turn around into something glorious for the Gospel of
Christ if only you will trust in Him and in His longsuffering.
To have more of the fruit of longsuffering in
your life will result in you doing a greater work for the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. With longsuffering a Christian can keep a fervent love for lost souls
and a joy of one’s own salvation. There is forgiveness of sins in Jesus. Jesus
died for all. Jesus wants to forgive all men of their sins.
Jeremiah 15:15 says, “O LORD, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and
revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in thy longsuffering: know that
for Thy sake I have suffered rebuke.” Jeremiah was a prophet of God. And
he desired for God to revenge him of his persecutors. It is not a lack of love
to desire such. It is not an injustice to desire justice against the wrongs
done you. How many are those whom name the name of Christ whom have gone to and fro upon this world,
whom have seen children raped, ravaged, murdered, cast into slaveries, or have
had their lives stripped bare because of
greedy and dishonest and vengeful men. There are many, who like Jeremiah, have
been called crazy and cast into prisons and mental facilities because they give
forth the Words of God. Persecution will never stop the truth of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ. Yet even for those who love Jesus and who suffer as a soul under
the altar suffers they should know that it is just and it is good to say as
Jeremaiah said, “O LORD, Thou knowest: remember me,
and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors.”
To wait on the LORD one
needs the fruit of the Spirit; longsuffering. To have the seven Spirits of God
and to shine forth in this world like a sardine stone of the Gospel one needs
to be longsuffering just as God is longsuffering. Yes you will suffer and it
may be for a long time while waiting to see God turn things around from the
horrible injustices that have been done to you. Simply waiting on justice can
be a suffering.
Just remember that God is
longsuffering. God is from everlasting. Jesus is the I
am that I am. Behold consider the word everlasting when you think of the fruit
of the Spirit: longsuffering. The covenant of God is an everlasting covenant.
The
Psalms 86:15 says, “But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious,
longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.” If God is withholding
His judgment on someone it surely is because His longsuffering will result in
the gospel of Jesus Christ touching someone’s heart somewhere in the world and
leading them to be redeemed of their sins so that they might have eternal life.
Yes there are vessels of wrath fitted for destruction. You may know some
vessels of wrath. Perhaps you have seen the abominations of those who do things
to evil to even to be spoken of. Those who have done such works may indeed be
vessels fitted for the fires of hell. Their day shall come. Just remember God
is longsuffering not willing that any should perish. The longsuffering of God
will have it’s perfect work in this age of grace for
grace in which grace increases in this world. And when that perfect work is
complete we shall see the 69 of law and grace through Christ Jesus: The great
turn around of God turning around and making all things good.
Lo, Behold O LORD, Thou
knowest: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors. The LORD has passed by before us and proclaimed in His rising up
and in His exalting, “The LORD God, merciful and
gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.”
Thus
said God in Job 38:4, “Where wast thou when I laid
the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding?” I will sing of mercy
and judgment unto Thee O LORD Jesus will I sing from sea to sea on two wings of
a great eagle shall I sing of mercy and judgment of law and grace and the good
news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ who died for the sins of the world. God is a
God of longsuffering. Therefore I know God shall avenge me of my persecutors.
The name of the LORD shall come from afar burning in His indignation and the
Gospel of Christ shall touch the hearts of all men in this world. O! that you would turn from your sins to Jesus and receive
eternal life.
Revelation
6:9-10 says, “And when he
had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were
slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they
cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not
judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” Yes those that are slain
for the word of God and for the testimony which they hold cry out for God’s
vengeance and God’s justice. Jeremiah cried out, O LORD, avenge me of my
persecutors. Yet we know that God’s grace never goes to waste. It only
increases in this world. The longsuffering of God shall with certainty see
souls turn from their sins to Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 3:9, “The
Lord is not slack concerning His promises, as some men count slackness, but is
longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all
should come to repentance.”
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Copyright; 2013 by Bruce
Creech
All Rights Reserved