Let me invite you to take God's Word and turn to Psalm 86. Psalm 86, the Psalm of David. I want to read from the 7th verse of the Psalm. And as we read the chapter, pray to God that God will minister to your heart even through the reading of God's Word. Maybe a promise that you could claim. Maybe some encouragement you could find. Maybe some counsel or instruction for your heart. You pray that God will even minister in and through the reading of God's precious word. So we're reading from the seventh verse of Psalm number 86. It is a prayer of David. And David said, in the day of my trouble, I will call upon thee, for thou wilt answer me. Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord. Neither are there any works like unto thy works. All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord, and shall glorify thy name. For thou art great, and doest wondrous things. Thou art God alone. Teach me thy way, O Lord, and I will walk in thy truth. Unite my heart to fear thy name. I will praise thee, O Lord, my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify thy name forevermore, for great is thy mercy toward me, and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. O God, the pride arisen against me, the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul, and have not set thee before them. But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, gracious, long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. Turn unto me, and have mercy upon me. Give thy strength unto thy servant, and see of the son of thine hand made. Show me a token for good, that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed. because thy Lord has opened me, or helped me, and comforted me. Amen, what a tremendous prayer, what a tremendous comfort for even our hearts today as we meet together in God's house. Let's unite in prayer, let's unite our hearts to fear God's name, and may God minister to lives and hearts. Let's seek God for that purpose. as we come to preach the word. Our loving Father, we come to Thee in the day of trouble. We call upon Thee, O God, we do not in the day of trouble forsake prayer, but even, dear God, these days drive us to the throne of grace. We thank Thee that we are assured that God will answer me. Lord, we pray that Thou wilt answer us in our day of trouble. O God, do we realize that the nations are perplexed God, we confess, Father, that there is much disillusionment in society at large. Lord, we look to our God. We lift our eyes from the world. We lift our eyes to the very throne of God, where our God has been reigning and ruling from eternity past and shall reign forever and forever. So dear God, our confidence is in thee. Come and minister to our hearts. Help this preacher. Fill me with thy spirit. Guide me in the truth today as it's preached. And Lord, speak to my heart even as I minister in the pulpit and grant every heart to be open to God. We pray these are prayers in and through Jesus, precious and worthy and wonderful name. Amen and amen. Patience is a virtue. Possess it if you can. Sell them in a woman. Never in a man. I'm sure if you've never heard that, men folk, just wait a little while and you'll hear that at times quoted to you. Whether we are male or female, I would have to be right in saying that we are not very patient beings. If you doubt that, just place yourself in a queue in the post office, find yourself sitting in a traffic jam for a few moments, stand in line at a bank ATM, Position yourself behind some person at the grocery store counter rummaging around trying to find their money while they had all the time in the world to find it while they were waiting to be served. That's just a little gripe that I have. And you'll soon become aware and it will soon become apparent to you that you're not a very patient person. It'll become aware to you you're not as patient as you think yourself. to be. We live in a I want it now generation. Commercials on televisions have to be quick to grab the attention of the impatient viewer or else they will flick over to the other side. Restaurants have to be quick in the delivery of the food or people will murmur and complain. Everything must be quick. Such are the times in which we live. If we're not careful We can soon get caught up in this I want it now or I am in a hurry mentality. Patience is certainly not something that we naturally possess. We know that to be so because patience or to use the biblical term long-suffering is a fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5, 22 and 23 we read, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law. The Christian grace of long-suffering or patience is therefore not in us by natural birth, but rather it becomes our possession when we experience the new birth, when we are saved by grace and indwelled by the Spirit of God. In contrast to us who are so impatient, there is our God who is patient. He is called the God of patience in Romans 15 in the verse 5. Now the God of patience and consolation grants you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus. It seems to be that within the church in Rome that there was impatience among the saints. Individuals who were impatient with other believers. And now Paul, as he brings the book of Romans to a close, he brings their attention to the God of patience and encourages them to exhibit the patience that God has with them among each other. This attribute of God's patience is one of those that has been neglected by and large by many Christian writers. Little has been written on the patience of God, the long suffering of God, as compared to the other perfections of God. And yet the limited references to the patience of God in God's word must not cause us to conclude that God's patience is in any way a lesser attribute of God. It's no lesser an attribute of God than His holiness, His goodness, and His truth. You see, the patience of God must be understood as much one of the divine perfections as His wisdom, and as His power, and as His holiness. And such is to be admired and revered by us. A.W. Pink, I've quoted him quite a lot in this series of messages, but he comments on the patience of God and he says, true, true, the actual term will not be found in a concordance as frequently as the others, but the glory of this grace shines forth on almost every page of Scripture. The glory of this grace, the grace of patience, shines forth on almost every page of Scripture. We see the outworking of God's patience. It is most assuredly evident as we read through the word of God. And so for the time that we have together, and God granting you patience, even in the hearing of God's precious word, I want us to think then about this much overlooked attribute of God, and encourage you to behold your patient God. Behold your patient God. The first thing I want to consider together is God's patience defined. Now, in my mind, the words patient and longsuffering are synonymous terms. They refer to the same meaning or to the same thing. Some have tried to decipher or to discriminate between the two words of patience and longsuffering, but at least for our study today, we want to consider those words as meaning the same thing. Now, Octavius Winslow, in answering the question, what is the patience of God? He said, it is the power of God over himself. It is the power of God over himself. God's patience is that power which God exercises over himself, allowing him to bear with sinners, forbearing long in the punishment of them. Another preacher defying God's long-suffering as that patient breath of love, His forbearance that withholds judgment so that grace and mercy might be offered to sinners. William MacDonald in his book Alone in Majesty, the attributes of a holy God wrote, the long-suffering of God is his willingness and ability to show restraint and self-control in dealing with human sin, provocation, and rebellion. MacDonald went on to add this comment, and I want you to think about this comment. I want you to take it home with you. I want you to meditate upon it this week, because MacDonald said, in light of our sin, The fact that any of us are here to tell the story is a tribute to the longsuffering of God. That any of us are here to tell the story is a tribute to the longsuffering and to the patience of God. But for the infinite restraint that God puts upon Himself, This fallen, this sinful, wicked world would not exist for another moment. It is because God is patient. It is because He is long-suffering that this world has been spared on to this day. Spared from the judgment that it rightfully deserves as it continues to defy its Creator. The dam, as it were, that withholds the waters of judgment back is a dam of God's patience. and the dam of God's long-suffering. As we consider these words, patient, long-suffering in the scriptures, it sheds a little light on what is meant by them. The word patience in Romans 15 verse 5, I've quoted it to you already, translates to mean a cheerful or hopeful endurance, patient continuance. The word longsuffering means to forbear, slowness in avenging wrongs. It comes from a root meaning what means with long enduring temper. The Hebrew word longsuffering means to be slow to anger, literally to be long of nostril. or to be long of nose, by which anger finds a cooling ventilation. As we bring the threads together, we can say that God patiently continues to forbear with the wickedness of sinners and thereby exhibits to the world His patience and His longsuffering. I remind you today that God the Father is infinitely patient. God the Son is endlessly patient. God the Holy Spirit is immeasurably patient. He is slow to anger. He is long-suffering. He suffers long. He waits to be gracious. He waits to be kind. This is what we mean when we speak about then the patience or the long-suffering of our God. The second thing that I want us to consider briefly is God's patience declared. I said the word patience in relation to God appears only once in Scripture, Romans 15 in the verse 5. However, there are other related terms and phrases that bring to our attention this attribute of God, this attribute of God's patience. The terms I think of, I've already mentioned one at least, long-suffering. The other phrase is slow to anger. And I want to give you just a number of references that show to you that God is long-suffering. We sang about that in our second hymn. He's slow to chide and swift to bless. Slow to chide. He's patient. He's slow to anger. Exodus 34, verse 6. And the Lord passed by before him. and proclaim the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth. Numbers 14, verse 18, the Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and the fourth generation. Psalm 86, we read this Psalm together. Verse 15, if you're still there, but thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. Psalm 103, verse 8, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. Psalm 145, verse 8, the Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great mercy. Nahum 1, verse 3, the Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked. One reference in the New Testament, 2 Peter 3 verse 9, The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness but as longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. The biblical narrative clearly sets before us that our God is a patient, longsuffering God who is slow to anger. We're going to see that. We're going to see that truth as we continue in this message that God suffers long. God is patient. And because He is, that ought to be the theme of every person in this house, regardless of your spiritual state today. This thought that God is patient, that He's long-suffering, it ought to be the very theme of your praise today. And we'll think about that as we move now into the third point. I want you to see God's patience demonstrated or displayed. God's patience demonstrated. The demonstration of God's patience can be traced from the commencement of the biblical narrative Through church history to this present day, the 18th of March 2018, God has exhibited great patience. He has demonstrated how long-suffering that he is when it comes to his dealing with the fallen sons and daughters of Adam's sinful and cursed race. come to understand the immensity, the greatness of God's patience when we consider who He is and what we are not. Because He is wise and we are so foolish. He is holy. We are so unholy. He is just. We are unjust. He is good. We are wicked. He is true. We are untrue. He is faithful. We are unfaithful. And when we come to understand who our God is, and that's what we've been trying to do within this series of messages, when we come to understand who He is, then we come to understand how patient He must be with us. who are the complete antithesis, the complete opposite of what He is. Is it not the case that you meet with someone in your life, you become impatient with them because they do not do what you want them to do? They are rebellious to your counsel? Ah, what must God feel as He looks into this congregation, as He looks into this pulpit? He beholds the individual standing there, and all the times that he has resisted the movings of the Spirit of God, when he has rebelled against the Word of God, has not lived his life in accordance to the Word of God, how patient God has been with me, how patient He has been with you. He's borne long, has He not? He's been long-suffering, He's suffered long. Now before we look at three groupings of people whom God shows his patience toward, I want to remind you just of a few examples that we have in scriptures in which we see vividly the patience of God demonstrated. Can I say in the first place, God's patience was demonstrated in his dealings with our first parents, Adam and Eve. He gave them to the cool of the day. They had sinned against him, were taken off the forbidden fruit, But instead of swift execution of judgment, instead of ushering them into God's eternity and creating another man and creating another woman, no, God patiently waited until the cool of the day, and even when they did not return to Him to confess their sin, He went looking for them. By that he displayed and demonstrated his patience. Justice was stayed, grace extended, God dealt patiently with earth's first sinners. Yes, the process of death commenced immediately, but actual physical death of Adam and Eve was postponed to a further day to show to mankind that our God is a patient as a long-suffering God. What about the people of Noah's day? For over a century, 120 years to be precise, Noah preached concerning righteousness. He preached concerning the sinner's deficiency in righteousness, and he also preached about the Savior's sufficiency of righteousness. The masses rejected the message, and yet God stipulated seven more days. seven more days of preaching. And then the door of the ark would be shut and the flood would come. Matthew Henry made this comment on that phrase in Genesis 7 verse 4, for yet seven days, this is what he said, God grants them a reprieve. for seven days longer, both to show how slow he is to anger and that punishing work is his strange work, and also to give them some further space for repentance, but all in vain. These seven days, Henry said, were trifled away. After all the rest, they continued secure and sensual until the day that the flood came. Those seven days showed to the people of Noah's day that God was a patient God. God waited for them. We find that. You find that recorded in words in 1 Peter. Let me read them to you. 1 Peter 3, verse 20, "...which sometime were disobedient when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a-preparing wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water." The longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, what about the citizens of Nineveh? It is another example of the patience of God. Their sins were great, their wickedness was unjustified, and yet God patiently bore long with the citizens of Nineveh. God showed His mercy by sending them a reluctant prophet, and Jonah, his message was simple. Judgment is coming. repent, turn from your wicked ways and yet in wrath God remembered mercy because judgment didn't come the next day. Jonah didn't arrive at the city gates of Nineveh and he wasn't given one day to preach. He was given 40 days. What was his message? Yet 40 days. And then if I shall be overthrown, why not a week? Why not a day? God had patiently borne with him, but he's going to give them another 40 days. to display even to the Gentile that God is patient, that God is long-suffering, and that He would have men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of a truth. He showed them that He was patient. God gave them time and space to repent, and we know the history. We know the record of Scripture. We know that they repented and they turned from sin. I think of another individual in whom God showed His patience and long-suffering to, Judas Iscariot. Judas Iscariot, it will be a name that will be forever associated with the death of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Judas Iscariot. Judas Iscariot betrayed the Savior for 30 pieces of silver. When Judas approached the Son of God there in Gethsemane's garden, Jesus Christ said to him this word, friend, friend. Wherefore art thou come? Matthew 26 verse 50, referring to Judas by the term friend, I believe exhibited at least the patient love that Christ had for even his enemy, Judas. Oh, what a picture of perfect patience we have in the Savior's response to the poisonous hypocritical embrace of Judas Iscariot. God showed patience to Judas. They are but four examples. We lean from the Word of God whereby we see God's patience to individuals and to groupings of people. Let me address you on three groupings, general groupings of people whom God shows his patience towards on a daily basis. And one of these groups you are found in. Every person in this house, you're found in one of these three groups. Can I say in the first place that God exhibits his patience with the unsaved, the unconverted. This attribute of God's patience sheds light, I believe, on one of life's great mysteries. Why does God not destroy sinners the moment that they defy him and they cast aside his law and his commandments? Why does God not take them from this world. It is because God is a long-suffering God. It is because God is patient, that divine justice is not executed speedily against the sinner. Now the sinner, as they think of that, causes them to think that God will never punish them. They pursue on the patience and the long-suffering and the goodness of God. And therefore, because execution of judgment is not executed speedily, their hearts are set upon to do evil. That's what it says in the Scriptures, or it is paraphrased for you. And so they go on in their sin. But because they do so, they are They are waiting for God because God is going to judge. They store up for themselves wrath until the day of wrath. Pink, he thought of God's patience with sinners. He wrote this. He says, it is truly amazing that God does not instantly strike dead those who so brazenly defy him. Why does he not suddenly cut off the haughty infidel? and the blatant blasphemer as he did to Ananias and Sapphira. Why does he not cause the earth to open its mouth and devour the persecutors of his people, so that, like Dathan and Aberam, they shall go down alive into the bottomless pit? And what of the apostate Christendom, where every possible form of sin is now tolerated and practiced under the cover of the holy name of Christ? Why does not the righteous wrath of heaven make an end of such abominations? Ping said this, only one answer is possible, because God bears with much longsuffering, the vessels of wrath fed it to destruction." Romans 9, verse 22. To every sinner gathered in this house today, I want to remind you that God has been very patient with you. Your sin is offensive to a holy God, and yet He, in patience, has given you ample time to repent of that sin. But instead of repenting of sin, you have added sin to sin. But I warn you, sinner, that sooner or later, the wrath of God that has been treasured up against you will overtake you and overwhelm you. It will be wise for you then, sinner, who, while God patiently bears with you, to turn from that sin and to fly to Christ for salvation. Don't be like those that Paul spoke over there in Romans 2 verse 4, who despised the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering. not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. We quoted that verse with respect to the goodness of God, but mingled with God's goodness is also His long-suffering and His forbearance. He's bearing long, sinner. He's bearing long so that you might come to Him. He's suffering long with you. He's being patient with you. But someday that patience is going to end. Someday that patience is going to cease and God will no longer be long suffering towards you. Fly to Christ. Pursue not on another day of God's patience, lest this day He take you away with a stroke and a great ransom cannot deliver thee. God has been patient. God has spared you another seven days. Despise not his patient dealings with you, but be saved from sin without any further delay. God not only exhibits his patience with the unsaved, but he exhibits his patience with the backslidden. Backsliding is a great evil. It is described as being such in Jeremiah. He called it an evil thing and bitter. In Jeremiah chapter two, verse 19, It is a sin that causes great damage, great damage to the name of Christ. Aye, and it brings great dishonor to the cause of Christ. When David departed from God and sinned with Bathsheba, Nathan the prophet told him that his sin and his departure from God had given the enemies of Jehovah great occasion, great occasion to blaspheme him. That's what his sin as a believer did. It gave the enemies of God great occasion to blaspheme him. And yet the wonder of it is that God patiently holds out his hands to the backslider and sends messages via his servants to encourage such wandering ones to him again. All the day long have I held out my hand Romans chapter 10 to Israel, all the day long, return, return on to me, that's what the image is, come back, return, cease your wanderings, forsake your idolatry, return on to the true and living God, all the day long. How patient God is with the backslider, but I say it again, God's patience will someday cease with the backslider. Therefore many of you sleep. 1 Corinthians chapter 11, with respect to the communion supper, we find the words of challenge with respect to those who have ate and drunk unworthily unto the Lord. We find it written there, For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." Judgment upon the backslider. Continuing on in your sin and in your wonderings, God will make sure that you're brought to judgment. You'll not lose your salvation. We don't believe that to be so. Oh, but you lose influence, you lose testimony. Octavius Winslow, again, when he said this about the backslidings of God's people, he said this, how patiently he bears with their ungrateful repentings, with their secret rebellion, with their cold love, with their cruel unbelief, with their continuous and aggravated backslidings, truly the patience of God. Listen to this, truly the patience of God after grace. is greater than his patience before grace. How this should, he said, humble us in the dust, how it should subdue our rebellious spirit, break our hard heart, and lead us in every fresh remembrance to the blood of Christ to wash in the open, the fountain open for sin and for uncleanness. Maybe your love for God, maybe your love for his people, Maybe your love for the house of God has not been as it should have been in recent times. Maybe there's been a departure from God on your part. It may not be a great departure, but if it goes unchecked, you may go further from God than you ever imagined you would go. And so to such a one today, I would say that your patient God, he seeks your return all day long as he stretched forth his hands. Think of those hands. Those hands are nail scarred hands. He stretches forth his nail scarred hands to remind you of Calvary, to remind you of what he did for you. Return to him. before He comes and chastens you sore to bring you back unto Himself. God has been long-suffering to the backslider. God not only exhibits His patience with the unsaved and the backslidden, but He also exhibits His patience with the saved. Even those who are walking with God, even those who attempt to live their lives as God would have them to live their lives, Such people know something of the patience of God in their lives, and I say it for this reason. With all the light they have been given, with all the privileges that they have enjoyed, and all of the truth that they have been taught as God's people, we should be much further on in our Christian walk with God than what we actually are. And yet God bears long God bears long with such people. He continues to be patient with them, because as their father, he desires their conformity to the likeness of his own dear son. Christian, take a little time today when you go home, if God spares you to then, and thank God for his patience toward you, his patience towards you. Now the follow on from God being patient with us in our Christian lives is that we ought then to be patient with our brothers and sisters in the family of God. Paul exhorted the brethren in 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 14 to be patient toward all men, not only those inside the church. I talk about the church blood bought. I speak about those outside the church. The sinner, the ungodly, we are to be patient toward all men. But when he wrote to the saints of God in Ephesus, Paul gave this counsel to the Ephesian saints in chapter 4, verse 1 and 2. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all loneliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love. He would write again similar sentiments in Colossians 3 verse 12 and 13. Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bonds of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, forgiving one another. Are you an impatient Christian? with other believers. We are to exhibit this Christ-like grace, this patient forbearing, praying that God will help and encourage the saints of God as they progress in their Christian lives. This rashness, this flying off the handle, within not only the church of God but outside the church is not a Christian grace. We are to be patient and long-suffering and to exhibit that to the world beyond the four walls of this congregation. And by showing patience with our fellow man, and showing patience with our fellow Christians, we show around us that the love of God is in us. How do I know that? Because in 1 Corinthians 13, verse 4, I read that this love or charity suffereth long. Charity suffereth long. And I say when you as a Christian, when you do not retaliate as a believer, when someone wrongs you or maybe mocks you or hurts you at school or in your place of employment, do you know what you're doing? As you show that individual patience and long-suffering, aware that within them, they space the ungodly, their minds are darkened, they're in the ignorance of their sin. As you show that patience and long-suffering with them, and you do not retaliate, you show to the ungodly world that your God is a patient God, and your God is a long-suffering God. You are His representative, His ambassador here on earth. You are to reflect what He is. You are to follow His example. We have considered God's patience defined, God's patience declared, God's patience demonstrated. I close with this brief sobering thought. God's patience discontinued. God's patience discontinued. Now God bore long with the people of Noah's day. He bore long with the citizens of Nineveh. He bore long with Judas Iscariot. But judgment finally overtook them, because God's patience has a limit to it. There is a limit to the patience of God. Patience of God and its discontinuation, I believe, is aptly illustrated in the parable of the barren fig tree that the Lord Jesus Christ told in Luke chapter 13. We have thought about that parable. The owner of the fig tree came three years. He came seeking fruit and he found none. His immediate response to that was to cut it down because it cumbered the ground. But the vine dresser stepped in and he persuaded the owner of the vineyard to leave it a year in which there would be the digging of it and the dunging of it. There would be a year of intense cultivation. And if by the end of that year there was no fruit found on, then he would be within his rights to cut it down. The parable. Highlights many truths to us, but the greatest truth that is drawn to our attention in that is the patience of the fig tree's owner. His patience, I believe, is a picture of the patience that God exercises towards those who show no fruits of righteousness in their lives. He gives an extra year, then he cuts them down. Sinner learn well the lesson, even the patience of God may be exhausted. Even the patience of God may be exhausted. To linger on in your sin is an abuse of his patience. Reverend Edward Belko said, it is possible to weary out the patience of God himself. It is possible by a hard and impenitent heart to let the day of grace go by. There may, there will come a time when mercy shall cease to plead and leave room for judgment only, when Christ himself will give up his intercession. Oh, awful state, he said, when the Savior himself withdraws, when the spirit grieved, resisted, quenched, finally quits the stony heart. Sinner, God's patience is not inexhaustible. It has its bounds. It has its limits beyond which it will not pass. And maybe today, maybe this day, you will reach the limit of God's patience. What a solemn thought. What a solemn thought to think upon. With such a sobering thought, let me close with a familiar poem of Joseph Addison Alexander. He said, there is a time we know not when, a point we know not where, that marks the destiny of men to glory or despair. There is a line by us unseen that crosses every path. The hidden boundary between God's patience and his wrath. To pass that limit is to die, to die as if by stealth. It does not quench the beaming eye or peel the glow of health. The conscience may be still at ease, the spirit lithe and gay. That which pleases still may please, and care be thrust away. But on the forehead God has set Indelibly a mark unseen by men, for men as yet are blind and in the dark. And yet doomed man's path below may bloom as Eden bloomed. He did not, does not, will not know or feel that he is doomed. He knows he feels that all is well, and every fear is canned. He lives, he dies, he wakes in hell, not only doomed but damned. Where is that mysterious burn by which our path is crossed? Beyond which God himself has sworn that he who goes is lost? How far may we go on in sin? How long will God forbear? Where does hope end and where begin the confines of despair? The answer from the skies is sent, ye that from God depart. while it is called today, repent and harden not your heart. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Sinner, God has been so patient with you. He's given you this day, this opportunity to trust in Christ. Lay hold of Christ. Seize upon the opportunity. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Backslider, he's been patient. Believer, he's been so patient with you. May God help us to strive after God. May we prove that our loving Heavenly Father, even through life's journey, will continue to be ever patient and long-suffering with us, with all of our follies, with all of our silliness, with all of our rebellion. But let us not grieve Him. Let us obey Him as much as we can, the light by which He gives us. May God help us to strive on for the prize. high calling in Christ Jesus, our loving Father, our gracious God in heaven, we thank thee that God is a patient God, a God who suffers long with us. What a mercy it is. We are aware that if God were not patient, none of us would be here on earth today We thank Thee that Thou art the God of patience and the God of consolation. Show Thy patience, we pray, to the unconverted for another moment. Give them that moment to cry to Thee for mercy as they cross the line between God's patience and God's wrath. Answer prayer and help us to leave this service today with hearts full of praise and thanksgiving concerning, O God, this great perfection of God that we have thought about. And may we, dear God, show and exhibit that patience to the ungodly around us and to the body of Christ. Grant us help in this aspect of living, for we pray these, our prayers, in and through Jesus' precious name. Amen and amen. Thank you.