Fruit of The Spirit: Peace, Long Suffering

Peace is a familiar word today, a familiar topic. My, we read about bombings and murders and kidnappings and all these terrible things that are going on, but even if you move off of the national and international scene and just simply move into homes, you'll find that there's a great deal of peace missing in our homes today and in personal lives. Years ago, Henry David Thoreau said, "The masses of men are living lives of quiet desperation." That person you live with may be all wrought up down inside, worrying and fretting, and there may be someone you know who's contemplating ending his or her own life. Why? No peace down inside. 

Now peace comes from Christ; peace does not come from the world. Oh, there are false kinds of peace you can get from the world. There's the peace that comes from innocence. Here's a little child in the mother's arms, and that child is at peace. Why? Because the child is innocent; it knows nothing about good or evil, knows nothing about the problems of the world. It's just innocent. One of these days, it will turn the corner and discover it is living in a very real world. I don't want the peace that comes from innocence. 

Nor do I want the peace that comes from indifference. There are those who wear blinders, who put their hands over their ears, and they say, "Now don't tell me about it. I don't want to hear the news. I don't want to know what people are going through." It's the peace that comes from indifference. That's a very selfish way to live, isn't it? 

And then there's the peace that comes from ignorance. The false prophets have a way of getting people into a false peace. Jeremiah talked about that centuries ago, Jeremiah 6:14: "They," meaning the false prophets, "have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace." This is the peace of ignorance. 

We don't want the peace that comes from indifference or the peace that comes from ignorance. We want the peace that comes from the Lord Jesus Christ. In John 14:27, our Savior said, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." 

Now how does the world give peace? Well, the world gives peace by substituting something else, by distracting us, by changing the circumstances. But the Lord Jesus said, "I don't give peace that way. I give peace on the inside." We have to look at life from within. And the Lord Jesus said, "I'm going to give you peace. It's my bequest; it's a part of my will. I'm going to give you the gift of my peace, and I want your hearts to be at peace." 

Now peace is not complacency. Peace is not comfort. Peace, as I said, is not indifference or indolence or ignorance. Peace is the possession of adequate resources to face life. I like that definition; I borrowed it from George Morrison, the great Scottish preacher. Let me repeat it: Peace means the possession of adequate resources. When you have adequate resources within you, when you can say with the Apostle Paul, "I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." 

Now what causes unrest in our lives? Let's not talk about international situations or national problems. Let's just talk about your heart today. What is it that robs us of peace? Well, to begin with, sin always robs us of peace—guilt. We read in Isaiah 57:20-21: "But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." 

You know, if you and I have sin in our lives, we certainly are not going to have any peace. Listen to Isaiah again, this time Isaiah 32:17. Now listen closely: "And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places." 

Now what's the foundation for all of this? Righteousness. You see, when the first man and woman sinned, they lost their peace; they hid in fear from God. And then the Lord had to kill some animals to get some skins to clothe them—a picture of what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross. You see, when you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior, that takes care of righteousness. God erases your record, and on your record, he puts "righteous in my Son." The Bible calls that justification. Justification means that we are declared righteous by God, that He no longer is keeping a record against us. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God." 

Now the only way to have peace with God is to have the witness of the Holy Spirit of God down within. Without the witness of the Holy Spirit of God, you cannot be sure that you are even saved. Because when you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior, the Holy Spirit of God is given to you. Romans 8:9: "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." You see, the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ comes to live within us. Romans 8:15: "For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear"—fear of what? Fear of God, fear from our guilt, fear of judgment—"but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." And so when you have the witness of the Spirit, you have peace with God. The Holy Spirit gives us peace through His witness. 

But secondly, the Holy Spirit of God gives us peace through His walk. He walks with us. We read in Galatians 5:25: "If we live in the Spirit"—that's salvation—"let us also walk in the Spirit"—that's sanctification. Not only do I need the Spirit to witness, but I need the Spirit to walk. And the Holy Spirit of God gives us peace as we walk in the Spirit. Now why is this so? 

Well, to begin with, when you're walking in the Spirit, the Spirit is teaching you His Word. "Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them," or nothing shall cause them to stumble. Psalm 119 tells us that. There's always some beautiful new truth to learn from the Word of God. 

Secondly, as we walk in the Spirit, we have peace because the Holy Spirit of God gives to us a spiritual mind; we think the way God wants us to think. You see, too many times God's people think the wrong way. They don't think the way Christians are supposed to think. You say, "Well, how are Christians supposed to think?" Well, just read Philippians 4:8 and you'll find out. "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue"—excellence—"if there be any praise"—something worth bragging about—"think on these things." The Holy Spirit of God gives us the mind of the Spirit. You know what causes a lot of unrest in people's lives? They think wrong thoughts. And the Holy Spirit of God, as we walk in the Spirit, enables us to think as we ought to think. 

Thirdly, when we walk in the Spirit, the Holy Spirit not only teaches us His Word and helps us to think God's thoughts, but the Holy Spirit helps us in our praying. The Holy Spirit of God intercedes for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. Romans 8:26 tells us that. As we pray in the Holy Spirit, God's peace comes down to our hearts. Yes, we have His witness, the witness of the Spirit; we have peace with God. And as we walk in the Spirit, we have the peace of God. 

But thirdly, the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. You see, apart from the Holy Spirit's wisdom, we cannot make decisions day after day. I don't know about you, but I have to make a lot of decisions day after day. We all do. And we have the wisdom of the Holy Spirit of God to guide us. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not." 

Now there is a wisdom of man that is wrong. There is a wisdom that comes from hell. James 3:15: "This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish." And that wisdom always creates problems. But James 3:17 says, "But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits." You see, when you have the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, you have the peace of God in your heart. 

The fruit of the Spirit is peace. Do you have the witness of the Spirit in your heart that you're truly born again? Are you walking in the Spirit so that He can give you that peace through prayer, through the Word, through right thinking? Do you have the wisdom of the Spirit as you make decisions? Then you will know in your own life the fruit of the Spirit is peace.

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering." We read these words in Galatians 5:22. What is long-suffering? Long-suffering is that beautiful quality of being able to endure people, what they do, what they are like, what they say, without revenge and without fighting back. 

By the way, they certainly needed long-suffering in the Galatian churches. When you put yourself under law, as they were doing, it brings out the worst in you. Law is just like a magnet that draws from within all the worst that is in us. We're told in 1 Corinthians 15:56, "the strength of sin is the law." Now the law doesn't stop sin, it strengthens sin. You say to your little child, "Now don't go near that mud puddle." Well, you're just tempting him because he's going to say, "Oh, you're telling me I can't do that," and he'll just go do it. God says, "Thou shalt not," and we say, "Oh yes, we will." 

In Galatians 5:20, you have some of the fruit of the flesh mentioned—no, the works of the flesh. Listen to this list: "Hatred," that means hostility, enmity; "strife," war; "jealousy," "wrath," "factions," "seditions," "heresies," "envyings," "murders." That doesn't sound like a very happy church family, does it? Oh, you say those things don't go on in Christian homes and Christian churches. Yes, they do. Do you know why? We are not long-suffering toward one another. 

Now let's just consider several basic truths about this beautiful fruit of the Spirit, long-suffering. First of all, this is God's attitude toward us. Exodus 34:6. God is speaking to Moses: "And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth." Nehemiah 9:16-17: "But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to thy commandments, and refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them; but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage: but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not." You see, He's a God who's slow to anger. 

That word long-suffering literally means long-tempered. Now temper can be a good thing. If a person cannot get angry, you wonder if there's something wrong with his blood pressure or his own soul. There are things in this world we need to get angry about. Anger needs to be mixed with love so it becomes anguish of heart. But you see, when that anger turns into temper, and especially a short temper, then you've got trouble. When steel is tempered, it's stronger. When people have temper, they're stronger, but don't lose that temper. That's the whole idea. 

The word long-suffering means long-tempered. Now our God is a holy God, and He does have a righteous anger, but our God is a God of long-suffering, and He does not burst forth in temper tantrums the way we do. He's very patient and long-suffering. Psalm 103:8: "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger," there's the word, "and plenteous in mercy." 

Now how does God show His long-suffering to us? Well, listen to Romans 2:3-4: "And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?" It's not the badness of man that brings us to repentance, it's the goodness of God. God is long-suffering toward us, and He proves it by being good to us. 

Romans 9:22: "What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?" You see, God's holy nature is stirred by the wickedness of man. Don't think that God is complacent, that God is just a sort of a quiet iceberg. No, no, God in His very being is stirred, and He can judge us, but instead He is long-suffering toward us. And it's a good thing He is, or nobody'd ever get saved. 2 Peter 3:15: "And account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation." 

That is God's attitude toward us. Now, that being the case, we should have that same attitude toward each other. The book of Proverbs has a lot to say about people being long-suffering toward one another. For example, we read in Proverbs 14:29: "He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly." Hasty of spirit means short of spirit. A long-tempered versus the short spirit. You know, when you get hasty of spirit, you say things you shouldn't say, and then you're sorry about it. 

Proverbs 15:18: "A wrathful man stirreth up strife: but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife." Keep your temper under control by the power of the Holy Spirit of God. Proverbs 16:32: "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city." You may not conquer a continent, but if you can keep your own temper under control through the power of the Holy Spirit, you are a victor. 

Proverbs 19:11: "The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression." Sometimes we just need to have a deaf ear and a blind eye. Proverbs 25:15: "By long forbearance is a prince persuaded, and a soft tongue breaketh the bone." Don't be too quick to fight back. You see, it is long-suffering that gives the church unity and harmony. It takes long-suffering to keep the church family happy together. We also read that we need long-suffering when it comes to this matter of winning the lost. You can't win the lost just by doing anything you please. You need to have patience and long-suffering with them. This should be our attitude toward one another. 

The third fact I want to share with you is this: that the Holy Spirit of God helps us to develop long-suffering. Now how does He do this? Well, through prayer. Colossians 1, we have a beautiful prayer that Paul prayed for the Colossians. In verse 11, he prayed that they might be "strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness." Not long-suffering with complaining—long-suffering with joyfulness. 

Now how do you get that? Through the Holy Spirit of God when you pray. We read in Colossians 3:12: "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering." Now how do you show this long-suffering? "Forbearing one another, forgiving one another." Oh, it's a beautiful thing if we allow the Holy Spirit of God to change clothes in our lives, to put off the old garments and put on the new garments. "Love suffereth long, and is kind," 1 Corinthians 13:4. May the Lord help us to develop this beautiful grace of long-suffering. You grow when you practice long-suffering. Don't fight back. Let God take care of your enemies.