2. The second general point is that there are abundant blessings of
desire for it to produce fruit. "Oh, when will it bear fruit?" God asks (Jeremiah 13:27).
(3) Lastly, longsuffering is another attribute, which can be seen as an extension of patience, but patience extended further. This occurs when God has been patient, restraining Himself and waiting for people to repent, not for three years but perhaps for thirty or forty years, and yet they remain unrepentant. At this point, His patience may seem to be wearing thin, and His anger appears to be arising.
He might say, as in the case of the unfruitful tree, "Why does it still waste the soil? Cut it down" (Luke 13:7). Yet, He continues to spare the person for another year and many more years thereafter. As Romans 9:22 states, He "endures with much patience" the vessels of wrath, enduring to a remarkable extent, surpassing all expectations and patience. This is longsuffering.
2. The second general point is that there are abundant blessings of God's goodness, patience, and longsuffering bestowed upon us.
These blessings are rich in themselves, both in terms of their abundance as they come from God, and in regard to their valuable usefulness to us if we make good use of them.
Firstly, in themselves, these blessings are rich. Consider that during this time, God expends not only His power to sustain and uphold all things, including us, which costs Him nothing. He upholds and creates everything by the word of His power (Hebrews 1:3). But when
He sustains us sinners, it goes beyond His power. His glory is expended and diminished for a while. He loses infinite glory every day because of our sins, and He is aware of it. Every sin diminishes
His glory and dishonors Him. He upholds the world, but He remains unknown, unserved, and even disgraced in the world. Sin, the devil,
and wicked men receive all the glory, exalting themselves and taking glory away from Him. This expenditure requires great riches.
Secondly, consider the multitude of sinners who live upon and exhaust these riches. God needs an abundance of patience because
He forbears not just one, but all sinners. When we see one wicked person and wonder why God does not punish them, we should be even more amazed at God's forbearance toward the entire world. If the richest man in the world had millions of people in debt to him, it would ruin him. Yet, the whole world is indebted to God, accumulating more debt each day, and still He remains unbroken and does not destroy them.
Furthermore, to demonstrate the abundance even more, consider not only the multitude of sinners He forbears but also the length of time
He has done so. God has been patient and out of pocket since the beginning of the world, for five thousand and a half years already, and we do not know how much longer until the day of judgment. Yet,
His patience and bountifulness are as present now as they were in the early days. Even the apostle Paul, who considered himself the chief of sinners, marveled at God's longsuffering towards him, having been converted after only a short time of living in sin. If Paul, a small vessel, was so richly laden with God's patience, how much more is the vast ship of the world laden with these riches, sailing through the immense sea of time?
Finally, consider the extravagant wastefulness of all these sinners throughout history. Every sinner spends something, and people are prodigal with their oaths. The thoughts of men's hearts are continually evil from their youth. Every sin is a debt.
Secondly, these blessings are rich in their preciousness and usefulness.