Welcome to you all from Fife's pulpit here in Fife in Scotland and welcome to our Lord's Day morning sermon and study. I want to read just one text to you and then base my study upon one word within that text, a well-known text in Galatians, chapter 5, verse 22. After the apostle has laid down all the various fruits of the wicked heart, He goes on in verse 22 to say, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. The law is not against such things. And that's a tremendous text. But I want to just take one word, one fruit, if you want, out of that. Now, normally, when I'm preaching in a church situation, then I would do a thing called Bible exposition, which is going through a book, verse by verse, and sometimes word by word. And you're in the hands of God then, and God will will speak to people according to the text. But now it's a little different. So every week I ask the Lord why and what does he want me to teach next? I know that he knows who will listen, he knows you, he knows me and what your needs are. And as an exercise, I often ask our fellowship what they think would be helpful to them. So often they'll come up with something they believe would help them in their Christian walk. Now the suggestion when I asked them for this week, at the beginning of the week, after a particularly stressful time, was the subject of patience, one of the fruit of the spirit. Now I'm not sure if they were referring to the length of my sermons or just me generally, but patience is a thing that they asked me to speak upon. And there's also a very strange feature of my life and probably the same with many preachers, is it that I seem to get tested during the week on the topic I'm speaking on at the weekend. So I've had endless times this week where it seemed that I actually needed patience and God stretched me a little bit and I had to exercise this patience. So young preachers beware because God has a habit of doing that with you. However, as I thought about this, I began to understand that this simple aspect of our character is a wonderful grace that affects our relationship with God, with the world, and with each other. So I hope you will exercise this God-given grace of patience with me as I try and help you with this. Patience, or long-suffering, what a lovely word, isn't it, is a God-given fruit of grace. which operates from the fullness and the inner work of the Holy Spirit of God. It is accompanied by many other graces and listed as a fruit of the Spirit. The fruit which has its root in the Spirit is divided like this in the verse. The first group has to do with our thoughts of God, love, joy, peace. The second group has to do with each other. Patience, oh, long-suffering, kindness and goodness. And the third group seems to be referring more to ourselves. Faithfulness, gentleness, that is meekness before God, and self-control. All these are wonderful God-given graces that mark us out from the world as Christians. Now some time ago we already looked at meekness, that is towards God, and gentleness towards men. The word is translated differently in different contexts. Sometimes it's meekness towards God, which in turn brings a gentleness to men. Now this is supplemented, this particular fruit in 1 Corinthians 13, where it is listed as being brought by agape love. and something that Paul told the Corinthians to desire as a far more excellent way than the way that they were going at the moment. There it is seen as an aspect of agape of Christ, shed abroad in our hearts by his spirit. And this is really one of the expressions of the character of God, the character of our Lord Jesus Christ. If this grace comes from God, this patience, and is bought by love in 1 Corinthians 13, and produced by the Spirit in Galatians 5.22, it is therefore a supernatural thing. Whilst the unregenerate do display a measure of patience that can never be disputed, depending upon their character, upbringing and circumstances, some are more patient than others. but Christian patience, I believe, is despite these things. And when you grasp this fact, you will understand how wonderfully precious this grace of patience is. Now on the other side, we see in the Scriptures how impatient the enemies of God are. They're always on the prowl like their father the devil. As the patient Lord stood before the religious authorities, they became impatient with him. They became annoyed with him and finally lusted. But as an example of godly patience, of course, the Lord stood by them, with them in silence and patience. Pilate, for instance, got irritated with the Lord and wanted him to answer. You know, don't you realise I've got power to crucify you, power to release you? And Jesus says, you've got no power over me at all except that it's given to you. But Pilate was getting a bit irritated by it. The Pharisees often seemed to lose it when Jesus wouldn't answer their trick questions. Throughout our Lord, the perfect man, showed us how to be patient, not only with our enemies, but even more so in many ways with his disciples, who fought and bickered and argued, and failed to grasp and understand. Divine patience was clearly seen in the Lord's dealings with his children. And also our Lord's amazing quiet patience, with events that he knew were gradually leading him to the cross. So we have the example of Jesus clearly displayed in the Gospels for us. There is much more I could say about that, of course there is. But he is so gentle and so patient and so kind in the Gospels and with us. And he has graciously, lovingly given us this same grace. When he left for heaven, after finishing his work for us, He said, that I will send another one of the same, the spirit of truth, and he will lead you into all truth. So when the spirit came, he gave us the precious graces that Jesus had manifest as a human being. One of these was patience. And I'll show you what this patience is by looking at the original meaning of the word. And I don't need to show you this patience in God himself, That is clearly seen in his dealings with us throughout scripture. I've referred to it already in Christ, but this study is not so much about the fountainhead of patience, but of this grace and how we are to bask in the stream of it. But I will show you it's exercised by us in regards to God's providence, in regards to events, and in regards to each other. So you might need a lot of patience, as I have a long way to go. I'd have even further to go if I were to deal with the scriptural principle of the divine patience throughout scripture. Now, what is this word? What does it mean? Is the biblical understanding of patience the same as ours? Well, yes, but it also carries other things with it. The word is makruthumea. Makruthumea. And it's a word used by the Holy Spirit for patience. Now remember this, and always remember this, that it is the spirit that gives it, so he chose the word to explain what it is for us. And the word literally means long-necked, or long-suffering, or long-tempered. And it's entirely opposite to short-tempered, which is a pagan thing. to be quick-tempered and short-tempered, losing it, and going off on one, as they say nowadays. Now, as with the Greek language, that God chose to bring the truth of salvation is very rich. So is this word. Joseph Thayer, the well-respected New Testament Greek scholar, says that this word carries with it a slowness to avenge wrongs. which is the opposite to some Greek philosophers, I think it was Aristotle that was a great proponent of this idea, who saw and taught that to be able to hit back hard was a virtue a man should have, should be a man and hit straight back. John MacArthur, in an early excellent exposition of 1 Corinthians 13, I recommend it. He goes through the words well, with vigour and with excitement. He says that the word, that word means that a person who has the power to strike back and to strike back or destroy, but he does not do it. Of course we see that in our Lord, don't we? Who when mocked, beaten, remains silent. But he had the power to strike back, but he did not. One problem is suppose you have been a rough guy or a rough lady in the past, before conversion, you would have laid somebody out flat when they annoyed you. When they are converted, it's often very hard to restrain oneself from thumping someone. But God's grace of patience works in us. And when we bring all things into our Christian lives, there are past weaknesses that we bring in, but God is able to overcome them. So if you're somebody who used to lose your temper quite readily as a non-Christian, there is plenty of grace in God for you in this grace of patience. But grace works a new fruit in our lives, one that comes from Jesus through his spirit, to our hearts on regeneration. Now a wee story to keep you awake. I remember when I was a young Christian, just six months or so, maybe a year, I was in the Navy, Royal Navy in Rosyth in Scotland, and my best pal Maurice who became my best man in the end. We used to meet together and go to Corrubbers Mission in Scotland. And on a Sunday afternoon after the service, we used to go and witness and talk to people on the mound in Edinburgh. Now on the mound he had preachers who preached. We were unable to preach. We didn't know how to do that in those days. But we used to mingle amongst the crowds, witnessing to people, talking to them and asking what they thought of the sermon and things like that. Well one afternoon we met this Hare Krishna chap. And he was there wearing a silly kind of flower makers hat. He had rather goofy teeth. Now before you hasten to report me, I'm not goofy-phobic, I'm just describing the chap. And as we were speaking to him, he replied from side to side occasionally, but he swayed from side to side, one way, the other way, as we spoke with him. And he kept on bursting out into a chant, Hare Krishna, and all of that kind of thing. Now my friend Morris, who was quite a tough guy in many ways in the old days, I could see him clenching his fists and I could see that Maurice was mighty irritated with this chap and he was in danger of losing it. And Maurice had the grace of God was working on him and he recognised this and he said to me, brother, he says, I want to lamp him, brother, if he doesn't stand still. But Maurice didn't lamp him, he didn't hit him. God's grace won through and we realised that this was just a temptation of Satan. But you see how easy it is to lose our rang, even in the midst of all of these things. So then the opposite to Christian patience is seen in the unregenerate. They're the ones who storm out of the room, slam the door, constantly, constantly criticising others that irritate them. They're impatient. This is the opposite to patience. They're impatient that others won't take their advice. If they get in a car they become erratic and impatient and at times even violent. They are irritated at the slightest thing that disturbs them. For them, if they butter toast and it falls to the floor, it will always, always, always land butter side down. They cannot settle to anything, for everything irritates them. In short, they have no Christian grace and need to experience a radical inner change in conversion. Romans 16, towards the end, Paul says, Avoid such people. They are not serving Christ. And this is what happens with non-believers. They are irritated by things. Now then, what about this beautiful grace? I want to show you how it affects our faith. Firstly, we need patience with the will of God and his providence. God does not always conform to our personal timetable. Have you noticed that? Isaiah 55 verse 8 says these famous words. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. So because we don't know what God is doing in our lives, it can take an awful lot of patience to wait for his plans to unfold. One reason I am sure that God gives us that grace for that very reason Because we want things instantly, especially in today's modern society. But God does not always conform to our personal timetable. I think you might have discovered that by now, haven't you? Peter was always opening his mouth before he was thinking. He was often impatient. One instance was by the campfire, when he lost his patience when questioned about Jesus. In fact, after three times he began to curse and say he didn't know him. He just lost it in front of the maid. In John 21, just a little later, when Jesus told them to wait for him in Galilee after the resurrection, Peter got fed up. He got fed up with waiting and then decided, he burst out, he couldn't wait any longer, I'm off fishing. In other words, I don't want to wait around like this, but I need to do something I understand. So he went fishing. But of course he caught nothing, because he should have been patiently waiting. Instead he was fishing, so he caught nothing. Some Christians spend their lives chasing their own dreams, and they catch no fish. when they should have waited in Galilee for instruction and power. Is this you? Rushing ahead at your own speed without waiting for God, thinking you know best. Wait in Galilee until you receive the orders and power from on high. This grace of patience is given to enable us to wait on God. Isaiah 40 verse 31, a text that maybe I'll preach on one day. It's a great text. But they who wait for the Lord shall promise. Renew implies a flagging of spirit. Their strength implies a weakness. They shall mount up with wings like eagles and they shall run and not be weary. they shall walk and not faint. The concept of waiting on the Lord God is throughout scripture, throughout the Old Testament and new. Waiting on the Lord is something the godly do. It is about holding on tight, hoping with expectation and trust, even despite your sin. knowing that our Lord is not making us wait just to see how long we can take it. There are times when God will delay his answer, and we will at times wonder why he seems so reluctant to intervene in our affairs. Psalm 69, 3. You know I get a psalm in somewhere. I am worn out, calling for help. My throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God. We trust that you will come at the perfect moment, not a second too soon or a second too late. Are you waiting right now? Getting worried? Look at your fingernails, check them out. Are they getting lower? Has God forgotten you and put you on the bottom of his in tray and he keeps dealing with more important things and you keep staying on the bottom? You feel neglected. But remember, even a mother can forget the child she bore. But Isaiah says God will never forget you. You're like a polished arrow, polished, taken out of the quiver, polished, looked at, straightened, prepared. Then it's not time yet. Put back in the quiver until the time is right. and you are taken out and fired to the intended target. So rest and wait in the Lord. It is not a passive waiting, but an active waiting. Keep on doing good in the Lord, but wait. Lovely hymn, let me read it to you. Be still my soul, the Lord is on your side. Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain. Leave to your God to order and provide. In every change he faithful will remain. Be still, my soul, your best, your heavenly friend. Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end. Be still, my soul, your God will undertake. to guide the future as he has the past. Your hope, your confidence, let nothing shake. All now mysterious shall be bright at last. Be still, my soul, the waves and winds shall know. his voice who ruled them while he dwelt below. One day he will say, be still, the time is now. He will fix the arrow into his bow and fire it where he wants it to go. So waiting on the Lord takes patience and God has given us the spiritual gift of patience so that we can wait upon the Lord. And I found that having patience and waiting on the Lord is always, always a time of learning and change. Now if any one of you thinks you don't need to change, then I think you're probably not in the right place. We all need to change, every one of us. And our patient waiting is not passive, for God is working all the time. And so are we. We are to be abounding in the work of the Lord, even when we're waiting. Waiting doesn't mean you're sitting in your bedroom upstairs, looking out the window at your apple tree and listening to the birds. And you do that every single day until God moves. No, that's not what waiting on the Lord is. You wait, you work, you pray. But you wait. It is not passive. then he may give us what we patiently wait for but we might and most certainly need changing to receive it. Supposing you have a bright and wonderful car but you can't legally drive that car till you have taken and passed the test. My dear, you cannot take up that ministry until you have legally passed that test. Wait, wait upon the Lord. God knows what you want and what you need and you need to exercise patience and learn many things before you get it. Are you like this right now? Are you learning who you really are? Are you learning patience, long suffering? to pray, to rest in Him? Are you discovering even sins that you never knew you could do? Well, that's good in that sense because God is actually preparing you and showing you who you are and causing you to be more dependent upon Him. And He is preparing you for what He has for you. And He is heating up the furnace, burning off the dross as it bubbles and burns off and all the rubbish in the heat. till it reveals pure gold, until he can look down at your life and see himself reflected back at him. Wait patiently. It is a wonderful grace that God has given to us. Wait upon his providence. I know it's hard. We want it like yesterday. But we wait. Secondly, We are given this grace to enable us to endure situations. There is a very telling text, a small little text in the Song of Solomon, chapter 2, verse 15. It says this. Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom. In short, when you are trying to bloom and bear fruit, Watch out for those little foxes that can come in and spoil your fruit. Life is full of little foxes. They are like little fleas that irritate us. Someone once asked me why God created fleas and humorously I think that he created fleas to irritate us and to remind us of those irritating little sins that never seem to leave us and get us to lose our temper. In my experience, it is the little foxes that test our patience. We butter the toast and it falls butter side down. The paint pot is knocked over just when we want to get on with some painting. The driver that suddenly cut in front of us, he did that deliberately, I know he did. Those little foxes. The phone ringing when we want to be quiet. computer that keeps on crashing. I have on my laptop the letter A and it popped out the other day and one of the little connectors is broken so I put the A upside down. It seems to be working fine now but those little things can easily irritate you. That happened this week and maybe there was a little fox trying to irritate me. The car alarm that keeps going off at night. The neighbour's dog barking. The kitchen door, all this is. It's a terrible small little fox. How that kitchen door seems to jump out in front of you deliberately and bang you across the head. So it goes on. It's actually called life. The life of little foxes. But these things do need patience to endure. They are only little foxes, but they can and do spoil your fruitful vines. In fact, I would say this, that it is the small things that show us who we really are. And I know this week, I've had a similar experience with a kitchen cupboard door. It wasn't exactly like that, but certain things that happened, like the key of the laptop. And these sort of things were happening, and I had to exercise patience. I had to say, John, take a deep breath. It's not the end of the world. It's not affecting your salvation. Just breathe and breathe easily and relax. I've often told our fellowship before of my friend who was a navigating officer on HMS Sheffield when HMS Sheffield was hit with an Exocet missile during the Falkland War and it was sinking. An HMS Arrow came alongside And my friend, who was quite long, he was about six and a half foot, a very long person, jumped across and went onto the arrow, but he missed his jump and he just managed to grab hold of the robin streak or the part of the of the ship just beneath the rails and he was hanging on there by his hands and his whole ship and the arrow were coming closer together and he was going to be crushed in that until some sailors' hands reached out and pulled him up. But he said to me, you know, John, he says, I felt amazing peace and patience with God at that time. It didn't rile me. I said, Lord, my times are in your hands. Whatever, I am here. But then he says, you know what happened when I got home after all this was over on leave? One morning I cut myself shaving and that ratted up my whole day. I was angry all day. I lost my cool and it all came pouring out of me. It is the small foxes that spoil our witness. Beware of the little foxes because they show your heart up. It is true that the word Makramuthia has more to do with people and God than it has to do with events. But let me move on to now something else. Thirdly, not only is this grace enabled us to endure those small foxes, those quick moments, but thirdly, we need to exercise this precious grace, and here's a big one, amongst ourselves. Galatians 5.22, this grace heads to other graces, kindness and goodness, that have to do with our relationship with other people. We know it's hard to wait patiently upon the Lord, but somehow in the back of our hearts we know that God is in command. And it's hard to be patient in those annoying little situations that jump upon us rather quickly. But it is on a daily basis with people that grace is needed, and often a lot more grace. Remember, people also have to have grace with you, but you tend to forget that, don't you? We're all rough stones, says one Peter, in the temple. And the picture there is each of us are living stones placed in the temple. And the way that they would place them in the temple is that they cut them nearby and they would place one in and then they would place another one on top and two others by the side. And the way to get these to fit is that the men would rub these stones together, Rub them, rub them, rub them. So that you were rubbed together with the one on your right and the one on your left and the one above you would be rubbing down on your head and you'd be rubbing down on the one beneath you. Get the idea, don't you? And they're all rubbed together so that the fit is perfect. So we fit perfectly. This is the need we have for fellowship. Rebuke. Support. We are told in Galatians 6.2 to carry each other's burdens. And the word there means a weight or heaviness or bulk which is oppressive to someone. And this calls for patience. Often we can see the solution that their stone is a bit crooked in one particular area but they can't see it. It means we need patience with each other and we need to rub up with them and get closer and make the stones fit. That's the hardest bit. We need patience when someone comes into the church and sees themselves as God's gift. We've all seen these kind of people. Maybe I'm talking about me or you, but they're God's gift to the church. Galatians 6.3 covers that. It says, if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Everyone sees it, and we all need patience to handle such a person. as it's been said of some people, that they are sent amongst us to make us more like Jesus. They are sent amongst us to sanctify us, to exercise so that we have to exercise grace when they come amongst us. Now be careful because that could be you, I'm talking about it could be me. but they are hard to correct, and they may storm out or cut you off, so long-suffering is needed in a fellowship, is needed both collectively and individually. Long-suffering. And this is one reason why the grace is given. For some stones are rougher than others. The problem, of course, is that you, right now, think you're already perfectly smooth. You're a perfectly smooth stone. And you're probably the one that everybody has to exercise this gift with. You're a blessing to everyone, do you know that? People are having to exercise this gift of patience with you. Remember, God chose you. and put you in the church or fellowship you are in. He is sovereign, absolutely sovereign. Every breath we take is given by Him. Every direction we make is governed by Him. And he wants you to interact and grow with others like stones fitting together. It's much easier to pull ourselves away from that and then think, well, we'll grow on our own. But it doesn't work that way. God has not put it that way. He's put us in fellowships. And these fellowships are a way of expressing God's wonderful grace with us. as people that you wouldn't normally get on with you rub together with and you make a fighting unit like the disciples just look at them what a mismatch of folks they were but God brought them together and by grace this is a big subject I've just highlighted some areas for you and it might get your juices moving to think about these things there are many other areas James 5 10 to 11 says, as an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remain steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness or patience of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. So in other words, we need patience in suffering and persecution and difficulties. Maybe today we need patience to wait and understand what is happening in our country, whether the Bible that I read from is shortly going to be banned and outlawed. to allow our God-ordained government in Westminster to do what is right, before we jump in and protest and rip our masks off and speak of Christian freedom as if we are being killed by the sword. We're not at the moment. That may come in the future. But still, until then, we rest on thee, our shield and our defender. And be patient. Our time to act may come. Dear ones, God has got this. Finally, and I've only touched the hem of the garment of this marvellous concept of patient. Finally, we wait patiently for the Lord's return. 1 Thessalonians 1, 2 to 3. We give thanks to God always for you, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God our Father. The word patience here speaks of holding ground regardless of pressure and hoping in the Lord's final vindication. The epistle later on is speaking of the hope of his coming, and this is the hope that Paul is talking about, that we are to patiently wait But always in the New Testament, while we wait patiently, we are to be engaged in loving one another, witnessing to the lost and living in this godless society, a godly life. We wait patiently for the Lord's return. The scriptures tell us this one solid fact, that a thousand years with the Lord is but a day. So he's only been gone two days. So far, we do not know when he'll return. So the hour of his coming, no man knows. We are not to speculate, but patiently wait, knowing that it could be soon, or it could be a long time. We wait patiently. So my advice to us all is to exercise this vital fruit. Wait patiently as the wheels of providence slowly turn in your favour. Be patient with the chastening of the Lord. Wait for his coming. Meanwhile, watch for those little foxes that spoil your fruit. Be patient with each other. Have long necks, not short fuses. and let us show everyone, everyone, what a true Christian is. The love of Christ brought through his spirit in the form of a godly patience with people, with God, with circumstances. I know the temptation is to say, Lord, give me patience, but hurry. But learn this grace, take a deep breath, Count to ten. Or better still, instead of counting to ten, recite the Ten Commandments. And by then you'll have calmed down and been probably convicted as well. Now please forgive me for not showing you this grace in its fountainhead. That is how God himself exercised it. But I think that is obvious from scripture and probably obvious if you're like me, from your own life, how patient God is with you but my pastoral concern has been its simple operation in you and I. In any case, I have drawn on the vast picture of God's patience with us. If I'd have done that, then you would have had to exercise patience because it would have taken three and a half hours at least to get through that. So I've been very kind to you and not put you through that. But you can get that from scripture. Just read it. You'll find the amazing patience of almighty God with his rebellious children. And yet he goes on loving us. So, dear folks, this Lord's Day, have patience. Drive out those little foxes that spoil your harvest vines and exercise macromuthia, patience, God's providence with other people in affliction and waiting for the Lord. Amen. If this has been a help to you, then please Tell us. Contact us through sermon audio. We'd love to hear from you and we could pray with you also. If you need more patience, ask us and we will pray with you and help you. Now a blessing. Now may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord turn his face towards you and may the Lord be very gracious to you and grant you amazing patience. and may the blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit rest and abide upon each one of you, both now and for evermore. Amen and thank you for your patience.