Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / The Apostasy of Impatience

Transcript

The Apostasy of Impatience · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Well, the vanity of self image is what we looked
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: at last time. Today we look at impatience. An older
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: man who faithfully listens to the podcast writes into us
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: with this question, Pastor John, Hello, Can patience, though a
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: fruit of the spirit, ever be faithfully lost? That is,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: can a Christian who sincerely loves God and walks in
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: obedience find their patience wearing thin or even seemingly gone,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: and still remain within the bounds of spiritual faithfulness. We
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: understand patience not merely as a human virtue, but as
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: a grace, a manifestation of the Spirit's life within us,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: a quiet but powerful testimony to the reality of Christ
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: in the soul. In Galatians five twenty two to twenty three.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: It is by nature enduring, yet life often stretches us
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: far beyond what we imagine we could endure. There are times,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: even in our most earnest devotion, when the behavior of
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: an another wounds us repeatedly, or when a particular hardship
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: persists for months or years, grinding away at our resolve.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: At times, the waiting itself, whether for healing, resolution, clarity,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: or deliverance, becomes a wilderness of its own, and we
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: find ourselves crying out in that moment, not from rebellion,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: but from exhaustion. How long? Oh Lord?
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: My first response to this question is that it is
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: beautifully written. Serious thought went into the question and into
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: how to put it into words, and I appreciate that.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: And my sense is listening carefully, is that there is
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: a beautiful soul behind the beautiful words, and I dare say,
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: a sorely tried soul. There's no simple answer to the question.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Can a Christian I'm quoting now, can a Christian who
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: sincerely loves God and walks in obedience find their patience
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: wearing thin or even seemingly gone, and still remain within
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: the bounds of spiritual faithfulness. I'm saying there's no simple
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: answer to that. Of course, I'm tempted to say that
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: the answer is easy. I mean, yes, yes, that's possible.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: We all stumble into impatience, and through repentance and confession
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: we find forgiveness. But that's not a satisfactory answer, because
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: patience and impatience are not simple things. They are complex.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: So let me try to explain what I mean by
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: this complexity and why the answer is not simple. There
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: are two words for patients in the New Testament. One
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: is makrothumia, which means long suffering. You can hear the
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: word macro long suffering.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: The fuse is.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: Long before the firecracker goes off. The other word is
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: hubel monet and means bearing up under, bearing up under, endurance, fortitude, perseverance.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: When you do a word study, which I did to
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: get ready for this, when you do a word study
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: and look up all the uses of those two words,
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: what you find is that there are at least there
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: are more, but at least six different answers to the
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: question long suffering before what. You say long suffering, you
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: say like does it have an end? Yes, probably has
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: an end before what? Or enduring until what? And depending
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: on how you answer those questions, the issue of impatience
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: will be more or less serious or dangerous. So here
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: there here the six instances of answering the question a
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: long suffering before what. Number one be long suffering before
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: you get angry James one, nineteen. Let every person be
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, For
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: So long suffering till what till you get angry. Don't
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: get angry quicker than you should. Number two, be long
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: suffering before you forsake the Christian faith Hebrew six twelve.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: Be imitators of those who, through faith and patience inherit
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: the promises or Romans eight twenty four. In the hope
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: of redeemed bodies, we were saved. So if we hope
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: for what we do not see, we wait for it.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: That is, we wait for our salvation in the end
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: with new bodies. We wait for it with patience or
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: James five seven. Be patient, brothers until the coming of
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: the Lord or Mark thirteen thirteen. He who endures to
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: the end will be saved. Number three, be long suffering
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: before you stop doing good Roma's two seven. To those who,
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: by patience patience, in well doing and doing good seek
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: Orgulatian sixty nine. Let us not grow weary in doing good,
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: for in due season we'll reap eternal life if we
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: don't give up. Number four, be long suffering before you
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: return hurt for hurt or evil for evil two Timothy
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: two twenty four. The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently, and enduring
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: evil one Peter two twenty. If you do good and
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: suffer for it, you and endure. This is a gracious
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: thing in the sight of God. Or verse Corinthians four twelve.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: We when reviled, we bless. When persecuted, we endure. When
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: slandered we entreat or Romans twelve nineteen. Vengeance is mine
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: I will replace, says the Lord. If your enemy's hungry,
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: feed him. Number five, be long suffering before you cease
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: to forgive another Glossians three twelve. Put on then, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness,
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving each other
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: as the Lord has forgiven you. Be long suffering before
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: you cease to forgive. Number six, be long suffering before
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: you leave a relationship. First Thessalonians five fourteen admonish the idle,
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: And yet Titus three ten, as for a person who
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: stirs up division, after warning him once, then twice, have
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: nothing more to do with him. So now you can
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: see why there cannot be a single simple answer to
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: the question. Can a Christian who sincerely loves God and
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: walks in obedience find their patients wearing thin or even
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: seemingly gone, and still remain in the bounds of spiritual
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: faithfulness because the answer is going to be no in
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: some tests of patience and yes in other tests of patience. So,
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: for example, if wo one says, my patience has given
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: out and I will no longer forgive you, or I'm
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: done returning good for evil from now on, it's tit
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: for tat evil for evil, eye for eye, you better
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: watch out. Or my patience has given out and I
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: will no longer seek to do good it doesn't pay.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: I'm giving up, I'm out of here. Or I'm no
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: longer going to be patient and hold fast to my
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: faith while I wait for the coming of the Lord.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: I don't think he's coming. And I'm done with this
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: Christianity thing. I'm in a deconstruct I'm done, I'm out
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: of here. I would say, in all four of those cases,
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: we dare not cease to be patient. You lose your soul.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: It will cost us our soul if you cease to
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: be patient in those four kinds of ways. If we
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: will no longer forgive as we've been forgiven. If we
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: will no longer return good for evil, if we will
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: no longer do good, if we will no longer endure
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: the hardships of this life without giving up on Christ,
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: we will be lost. Patience in those cases is absolutely essential.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: You can't give up. But it's not the same with
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: anger and leaving a relationship. Jesus looked around on the
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: hard hearted critics who cared nothing for the crippled, and
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: he was really angry and grieved in his heart Mark
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: three to five. And so it is with Christ's people.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: We are worn to be slow to anger slow, since
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: it's often a sign of sinful impatience. I need to
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: be told, Piper, be slow because you've got a hair trigger.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: But it's not always wrong. It's not always wrong to
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: be angry. Be angry, and do not sin the Phesians
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: four twenty six. So patience has a limit in some cases,
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: and so it is with relationships. There are limits. It's
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: crinstance five eleven. I am writing to you not to
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: associate with anyone who bears the name of Brother if
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: he's guilty of sexual morality or greed, or is an
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: idolator or reviler. Or drunkard or swindled, not even to
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: eat with such a one. Paul says, So there's a
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: limit to anger free patience, and there's a limit to
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: relationship enduring patience. One last thing. Patience is not a
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: chipper thing. The very words make that plain, long suffering endurance,
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: those are not chipper words. So when our friend asks,
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: what if we find ourselves crying out not from rebellion
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: but from exhaustion, how long, o Lord? I certainly do
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: not hear sinful impatience. I hear painful endurance. It sounds
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: more like Jesus in Gethsemane than job in rebellion.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: If we will no longer forgive as we've been forgiven,
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: if we will no longer return good for evil, if
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: we will no longer do good, if we will no
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: longer endure the hardships of this life without giving up
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: on Christ, we will be lost sobering. Thank you, Pastor John,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: thanks for joining us today. If you have a question
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: to ask Pastor John, find a link to email us
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: and find our complete episode archive at the same place.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: Ask pastor John dot com. Speaking of not giving up
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: on relationships, what about the very hardest relationships? In the
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: world's very hardest challenges. The relationships face in the world.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: A marriage torn by infidelity, marriage survival after betrayal. That's
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: up next time. I'm Tony Rank. We'll see you on Thursday.