Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3154
“Or do you despise the riches of His goodness and forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” Romans 2:4.
[Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon upon the same verse, are as follows—Sermons #1714, Volume 29—EARNEST EXPOSTULATION and #2857, Volume 49— GOD’S GOODNESS LEADING TO REPENTANCE.]
IT is a great sign of love on God’s part that He condescends to reason with men. When they had offended against Him, He might have said to them, “I will punish you for your offenses,” and He might have gone His way until the day for carrying out His threat arrived. But instead of doing so, He is unwilling that any should perish. According to His own declaration, He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but would rather that he should turn unto Him and live. And, therefore, He pauses and expostulates. When a man has been greatly offended by another and is very angry with him, he does not usually stay to reason with his opponent—his anger is too hot for that. But if he is of a meek and gentle spirit, and anxious that the quarrel should be ended, he begins to reason with the other man and says to him, “Why did you act so unkindly towards me? Why did you treat me thus? You have acted most unjustly—have you no sense of right? I have not deserved this at your hands—why, then, did you thus deal with me? Come now, do you utterly hate or despise me, or why do you thus continue to annoy and provoke me?” In such a fashion as this, but with Infinite tenderness, the Lord reasons with sinners. So, dear Friend, if you are still unconverted, regard it as a clear proof of God’s loving kindness toward you that He again sends to you the word of expostulation! Take it for granted that he desires your good and wishes you well, otherwise He would not have bid His servant say to you, “Do you despise the riches of His goodness and forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?”
From the connection of our text, it would appear that there were some, in Paul’s day, as there are in ours, who, seeing the great wickedness of mankind and observing that God did not at once destroy the ungodly, gathered from that fact that they, themselves, might sin with impunity. Seeing that God did not launch His thunderbolts at even the most gross sinners—and strike them with immediate and total destruction by pestilence, famine, or sword—these people wickedly said, “What does it matter what sins or crimes we commit? Evidently God is asleep, or winks at such deeds as these. Or perhaps there is no God at all! Anyhow, let us live in sin and take pleasure therein, for there will be no evil consequences to us if we do so. We may eat the fat, drink the sweet and enjoy ourselves to our hearts’ content and there will be no one to call us to account.” So that from the very fact that God was merciful and gracious, they inferred that they might be sinful and rebellious! And because God’s foot was slow to come in vengeance, they imagined that God’s hand would not be heavy when He did come, and they said, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!” It was to a sinner of this sort that Paul put the question, “Do you despise the riches of His goodness and forbearance and long-suffering?” I am going to put that question to you who are here—and I pray that the Holy Spirit may put it to the conscience of every unconverted man and woman!
I. Now first LET US HONOR THE GOODNESS, FORBEARANCE AND LONG-SUFFERING OF GOD.
The description given by the Apostle is threefold. “The riches of His goodness and forbearance and long-suffering.” I shall probably not be wrong in saying that God’s “goodness” may refer to the way in which He has overlooked all our past sins, so that He has not yet dealt with us in justice concerning them. His forbearance may refer to our present sins, the transgressions of this day and hour, and His long-suffering may refer to our future sins, for He knows that we shall
continue to sin, yet He does not destroy us, but still bears with us. What a heavy weight is upon my mind and heart as I think of the forbearance of God towards the impenitent with regard to their past sins! Why, there are some of you who have committed sins that you would be ashamed to have mentioned—sins against light and knowledge, too, which you knew to be sins, not merely one or two, but very many! It would have been the easiest possible thing in the world for God to have destroyed you, yet He has not done so. How long can you keep your temper when you are provoked? Five minutes? Half an hour? “That is a long time,” you say. Suppose you were insulted to your face, how long would you hold your peace and bear it? An hour? I fear there are not many of you who would do that, but that you would soon give an answer to the man who had dared thus to challenge you. What, then, shall I say of God, who has borne with some here thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, perhaps 80 years, in which the mere fact of their living has been an insult to Him, for they have lived in opposition to His will and His Law and have often defied Him to His face? And in their provoking blasphemy have even invited Him to damn their bodies and souls! Oh, the amazing mercy of a God who can bear with a sinner for 12 months, who can even bear with him for 50 times 12 months and can still stand—and in tones of pity and entreaty say, “Come now, come even now, and let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”