Theological term
Longsuffering
4 sermons · All terms
The Gratitude of God's People
Colossians 1:10–14 presents Paul's apostolic prayer as a template for Christian growth, identifying four marks of a walk worthy of the Lord: fruitfulness in good works, increase in the knowledge of God, divine strengthening for patience and longsuffering, and giving thanks to the Father. The sermon argues that justification by faith alone issues necessarily in sanctification, and that gratitude is not an optional emotional response but the fitting conclusion of a life shaped by the gospel. Believers are called to thankfulness on the basis of three specific gospel realities Paul enumerates: qualification for a heavenly inheritance, deliverance from the dominion of darkness, and transfer into the kingdom of the Son of God's love — all grounded in the redemption accomplished by Christ's blood.
The Gospel Committed to Paul
What does it mean that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners? Expounding 1 Timothy 1:15–17, this sermon traces the faithful saying of verse 15 from its roots in the eternal decree of God through the covenant of grace to its historical execution in the incarnation and atoning work of Christ. Paul's own conversion is examined as a paradigm of sovereign mercy — not a unique case, but a pattern establishing that even the chief of sinners may obtain grace — and the sermon closes with Paul's doxology as the only fitting response to the gospel of free and sovereign grace.
True Doctrine, Proper Conduct Part 2
Colossians 3:12–14 calls believers to put on the virtues that characterize the new man in Christ — not as a program of moral self-improvement, but as the necessary outflow of sovereign election, regeneration, and union with Christ. This sermon works through three things concerning the new man: his identity as the elect, holy, and beloved of God; his character as defined by five virtues (tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, and longsuffering) expressed in community through forbearance and forgiveness; and his supreme obligation, which is love — the bond that gives luster and coherence to all the other graces. The controlling argument is that conformity to Christ begins not with behavioral resolve but with fixing the mind on Christ seated at the right hand of God, so that mortification of sin and putting on of virtue follow as fruit of knowing him.
The Church at Thyatira
Revelation 2:18–29 records the longest of the seven letters to the churches of Asia Minor, addressed to the smallest city — Thyatira. Christ presents himself to this church as the Son of God with eyes like flame and feet like burnished bronze: omniscient judge and certain executioner of his threats. The church is commended for real growth in works, love, service, faith, and patient endurance, yet condemned for tolerating a false prophetess called Jezebel who seduced believers into sexual immorality and idol-food — the precise sins forbidden by the Jerusalem Council. The letter closes with a call to hold fast until Christ comes and a promise that overcomers will share in his royal rule over the nations, receiving Christ himself as the Morning Star.