Romans 2:4

God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.

And as I've said, God's kindness there stands for his patient kindness. The kindness that he shows in an ongoing way to sinners, which as we've seen is his patience. So we could also say God's patience is meant to lead us to repentance. That's what it does. And I want to think for a moment about three ways that it does this. So first, God's patience is meant to lead us to repentance by affording time. It affords us time to repent, time to come to our senses, time to return to him, time to reflect on what we've done and realize how wrong we were. And this is a great kindness because whenever we sin, it is always better for us to take the initiative and confess our sins to God instead of just waiting for Him to come to us in judgment. I mean, every parent knows that it is much better for your child when they do something wrong for them to come to you and apologize to you than for them to hide it, deny it, lie about it. And God in his patience, he immediately knows what we've done. And yet how kind he is to give us the opportunity to come to him in repentance. Remember God in the garden calling to Adam and Eve, where are you? Not because he doesn't know where they are, he's inviting them, come to me, tell me what it is that you've done. And friends, he gives that same opportunity to us. As 2 Peter 3 says,

the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

That all would come to him and repent so that he might forgive and receive us. Second, God's patience is meant to lead us to repentance by eliciting conviction. by eliciting conviction. That's because every day instead of fire and brimstone falling on our heads like we deserve, we're given rain, sunshine, food, water, families, clothes, I mean all sorts of wonderful blessings. And what a juxtaposition that should form in our minds as we think about the way we've treated God versus how he's treated us. I mean, it should be for us, I mean, kind of like the parable, the prodigal son. Just think about how the father treats the prodigal son and think about how he treated the father. And God shows us that kind of kindness, that kind of patience. Why? So that like the prodigal, we might eventually in time come to our senses and remember there's food in my father's house. How kind God is to us. how wrong I was to run from him, to turn from him, to choose sin instead of obedience to him. His patience should elicit conviction. Third, God's patience should embolden confession, should embolden confession. You see, it's one thing to feel convicted, to realize how wrong you are, to feel guilty, but that could also make us want to run from God. You know, to just feel like he is so holy, he is so good, and I am so bad. I just need to run from him in fear and shame. But you see, God's patience and his kindness is meant to lead us to repentance by assuring us that if we return to him, he's not going to cast us out. That he is a God who stands ready to receive us, to freely forgive us. You see, by patient kindness, God cries out,

Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Friends, God is saying he is patient. He is kind because that's just who he is. He's not like us. He doesn't think like us. He doesn't act like us. He is as far above us as the heavens are above the earth. He is love. He is full of kindness. And by his patience, he is inviting us to come to him. He is emboldening us to know that we can return to him even though we've sinned. And he stands ready to receive us. And so let us let God's patience have its intended effect by leading us to repentance. But thirdly, we do need to consider a third aspect of this verse, which in some ways is kind of the main thing that Paul is concerned about here, which is our propensity to misinterpret this. So number three, how God's patience gets misinterpreted. Notice Paul says here, or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? I mean, tragically, as good of news as this is, Paul is aware that that sinful man in presumption. So often misinterprets God's patience and arrogantly jumps to conclusions about it that are completely wrong and so it doesn't have its proper effect. And so, how might we misinterpret God's patience? Well, I think there's two ways in particular. First, we might misinterpret his patience as laxity. Misinterpret it as if God just, he doesn't really notice, he doesn't really care. It's like we sin and then we go hide. But nothing happens, and we sort of come back out and we look around and still nothing happens. And then we just think, phew, I guess God didn't notice. I guess he doesn't really care, right? And so without repentance, we just think, I've escaped the consequences of sin. Look what Paul says in the very next verse. He says,

but because of your hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.

So he's warning, if we misinterpret God's patience as laxity, it's sort of like staying at a fancy resort and just putting everything on the tab and you're going around and just, I'm not getting a bill, I guess. I'm in the clear and you just keep adding it up. And Paul's warning that, look, you're actually storing up wrath for the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment is revealed. Because as much as God's patience flows from who he is as the God of love, so does his wrath. God's patience will not last forever because God will be faithful to himself as the righteous judge. And so it would be tragic to mistake God's patience for laxity. To think that just because God doesn't judge your sin now, he won't judge it ever. Every debt will be settled in the end. Paul says we can be assured of that. So let God's patience lead you to repentance. Let it lead you to the Savior who can take your sin away. The Savior who bids us to repent and to believe in him. Not to conclude that there is freedom from consequence without repentance. But there's a second way we can misinterpret God's patience, and that's as approval. Notice a little more of the context here in Romans 2, especially just before this. Paul's talking to those who judge others, I think especially Jews, those who had the law. who had this wonderful access to God's temple, who were the covenant people of God, who had been chosen, who had experienced all these special kindnesses and blessings from God. And you see, Paul's concern is that instead of that patient kindness that God had been showing the Jews in this extraordinary way, instead of that motivating them to repent, it had actually made them smug in sin. It had encouraged them to look down on the Gentiles. You know, to assume we are approved in the sight of God because we have all these special blessings, and they must be less than us. And friends, you know, think about ourselves. I mean, we too, kind of like the Jews, have experienced so many extraordinary kindnesses and blessings of God. I mean, here we are, gathered in this place, hearing the Word of God taught, and we hear from many other people God's Word taught faithfully. Praise God for sound doctrine of teaching. Praise God for the kind of fellowship we enjoy, and what a wonderful blessing it is to get to be part of this congregation with brothers and sisters who love us so well. What general prosperity we have. God has given us so much. What freedom we have here in America. We have many unique blessings. And how wrong we would be to misinterpret these circumstantial blessings as God's approval when we sin. I mean, how wrong we would be to look around at others that we think, oh, well, they're in a much less healthy church or they're suffering or struggling in this way. And the fact that I have these blessings, that must be the sign of God's approval of me. You see, in other words, the measure of our holiness, the measure of our standing for God in terms of his approval of us is not how we circumstantially compare with others. It's how our lives and our hearts compare with God's word. And where there's conformity to scripture, to obedience to the Lord, yes, we can be assured of God's approval. Even if you're called to bear a cross in the midst of great suffering, you can be assured of God's approval as you live a life in faithfulness to him. But where there's disobedience, where there's lack of conformity to God's word, And yet, in spite of that, there's all these kindnesses and blessings from God that he is patiently showing us. Friends, we need to interpret that the right way. It's meant to lead us to repentance. Not to just confirm us in sin. It's God giving us time to repent. It's God's meaning to elicit conviction. It's God meaning to embolden our confession. So that we would respond to his great kindness, to his great patience with repentance. And by looking to the Savior, the one who can truly take away our sin. Friends, let God's patient kindness lead us to Christ and repentance. And as I said at the beginning, God's patience should make us more zealous to repent, not less. It shouldn't just make us feel comfortable in sin. Oh, it should make us so much less comfortable in sin. And so as we conclude, I just want you to think to yourself, I mean, where might there be uncontested sin in your life? Sin that you've just sort of made peace with. Sin you've gotten used to. Sin you're okay with. Sin you've come to just feel comfortable about. Look to the riches of God's kindness and forbearance and patience. Let it lead you to repentance. Because that is what it's intended to do. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we praise you tonight as the God of patience, The God who is so full of love, so full of kindness, that you show such amazing patience to sinners like us. God, I pray for any who are here who are feeling deep conviction. Lord, I pray that even now you would embolden confession in them, that they would see your goodness and your kindness and not run from you, but run to you in Christ. Lord, I pray for others of us that have just grown so comfortable in sin. I pray that you would help us to reflect on your patience and that it would lead us to deeper and fuller repentance. And I pray that all of us would celebrate the great work of Christ and the hope of the gospel, that we would rejoice in that more fully tonight. We pray this for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.