Preached by the late Rev. D. MACFARLANE,
on Sabbath, 5th May, 1918.
“For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.”—(Heb. x. 36).
THE Apostle in the latter part of this chapter gives several exhortations to the Hebrews to persevere in their profession of the Christian religion and warns them of the danger of turning back from it. “God says if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him” (verse 38). In persevering in their profession many difficulties, opposition, and trials were to meet them which called for the exercise of patience, and the Apostle who had experience of these trials told them that they had need of patience. In another chapter of this epistle he exhorts them “to be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Heb. vi. 12). In times of suffering the graces of faith and patience are to be exercised in order to persevere to the end. The word patience implies suffering and is in scripture spoken of in connection with tribulation. “Tribulation worketh patience” (Rom. v. 3). “Patient in tribulation” (Rom. xii. 12). Job was notable for his patience but when God tried him with sufferings he had need of all the patience he had and as his sufferings increased he sometimes manifested impatience under them. When we are free from trouble we think we are very patient, but when trouble comes we discover how impatient we are and what great need we have of patience. The Lord’s people have many trials and sufferings to meet in this world and they have need of patience to endure them.
Lot in Sodom had need of patience when his soul was vexed with the filthy conversation of his wicked neighbours—”For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds” (II Peter ii. 8). When the people of Israel were oppressed in Egypt they had need of patience before they were delivered from their bondage and when their posterity afterwards were in captivity in Babylon they had need of patience before they were brought back from captivity. Through unbelief and impatience they were coming to dark conclusions concerning themselves—”Behold they say, our bones are dried, and our hope is lost, we are cut off for our parts” (Ezek. xxxvii. 11). The Lord’s people in the early Christian Church suffered much by persecution and had need of patience so as to persevere in the faith in these circumstances. There is need of patience when they are suffering from the temptations of Satan. When the Apostle Paul got a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him, he prayed for its removal and his prayer, not being granted, he still prayed again and again for its removal and it was not till God said to him: “My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in weakness” that he was reconciled to his condition. We have the greatest example of patience in Christ in His state of suffering. He suffered like a lamb and opened not His mouth—”He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so, He openeth not His mouth” (Is. liii. 7).
There is need of patience in waiting for the fulfilment of God’s promises.
A promise given by God may take a long time before it is fulfilled. Christ was promised early in the history of the human race but it took four thousand years before it was fulfilled, so that the Old Testament Church had need of patience. You may receive a promise from God which may take a long time before it is fulfilled and this calls for the exercise of patience in waiting upon the Lord for the fulfilment of the promise. There are many instances of this to be seen in the Scriptures, in the case of individual believers to whom God gave promises of either spiritual or temporal blessings, or both. It was promised to Simeon that he should see the Lord’s Christ before he died, and he waited patiently for the fulfilment of the promise which was fulfilled to him in his old age—”And behold there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just, and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for Him according to the custom of the law. Then took he Him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said: Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen of thy salvation which thou hast prepared before the face of all people. A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel” (Luke ii. 25-32). It is promised that the time is coming when “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Is. ii. 4). Although this is far from being the case in our day the promise shall be fulfilled in due time and patience is required in waiting for its fulfilment. In connection with this state of peace and as the cause of it, it is promised that “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Is. xi. 9).
In waiting upon the Lord for an answer to our prayers there is need of patience.
The psalmist prayed for deliverance from the pit and miry clay, but he had to wait patiently for an answer to his prayer—”I waited patiently for the Lord and He inclined unto me and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And He put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God” (Ps. xl. 1-3). Our time for prayer is always ready but God has His own set time to answer prayer. Some who are convinced of their sins and lost condition may be praying that God would save them and as they do not get an answer to their prayer as soon as they expected they are apt to conclude that they shall be left to perish in their sins. These have need of patience and if they continue to pray they shall receive an answer to their prayer in God’s own time though it might be the eleventh hour. We have need of patience in seeking to be made perfectly holy. To be made perfectly holy is God’s purpose regarding His people and it is also their own desire.
When we preach the gospel and see no fruit in the conversion of sinners we have need of patience in our work.
We are sowing the seed of truth from which a rich harvest may yet be reaped. The farmer does not expect to reap a crop from the field the day he sows the seed but he waits patiently for the fruit of the seed he sows—”The husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and the latter rain” (James, v. 7). So it is with ministers who preach the gospel. It is not vain work for their glorious Master says: “For as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goeth out of my mouth, it shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it” (Is. lv. 10, 11). There are, however, exceptions to the rule of not reaping the same day when the seed is sown as on the day of Pentecost when three thousand were converted under the preaching of the word of God.
If God gave us the hope of glory, the hope of getting to heaven we have need of patience before we get to that holy and happy place.
When Jacob found himself at the gate of heaven perhaps he desired to be allowed to enter into heaven at once, but he had to go through much trials before he was prepared for entering in. He had need of patience. The Lord’s people have need of exercising patience towards one another—”And be ye kind one to another tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Eph. iv. 32). How long are they to exercise patience? “Till after they have done the will of God.” They are to do the will of God by doing and suffering. They are to begin to persevere and to finish all the work that God has given them to do, in their several vocations in the Church, and they are also to endure all the sufferings and trials which God has appointed for them, and when God has finished His work in them by the Holy Spirit they shall then receive the promise,—that is all that He has promised to them in the world to come when they are put in full possession of the blessings of glory they shall have no further need of patience, their patience having then its perfect work and there is no more need of it.
The present evil time is a time when we need patience, but whatever trials we may have to pass through let us seek grace to do God’s will and when our end in this world comes we shall receive the promise.