God's kindness leads you to repentance.

Romans 2:4

King James Version

Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,

a. Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering: Paul points out that the moralist himself is presuming upon the goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering of God, which all should have brought the moralist into a humble repentance instead of an attitude of superiority.

i. Goodness may be considered God’s kindness to us in regard to our past sin. He has been good to us because He has not judged us yet though we deserve it.

ii. Forbearance may be considered God’s kindness to us in regard to our present sin. This very day - indeed, this very hour - we have fallen short of His glory, yet He holds back His judgment against us.

iii. Longsuffering may be considered God’s kindness to us in regard to our future sin. He knows that we will sin tomorrow and the next day, yet He holds back His judgment against us.

iv. Considering all this, it is no surprise that Paul describes these three aspects of God’s kindness to us as riches. The riches of God’s mercy is measured by four considerations:

His greatness - to wrong a great man is a great wrong and God is greatest of all - yet He shows mercy
His omniscience - if someone knew all our sin, would they show mercy? Yet God shows mercy
His power - sometimes wrongs are not settled because they are out of our power, yet God is able to settle every wrong against Him - yet He is rich in mercy
The object of His mercy, mere man - would we show mercy to an ant? Yet God is rich in mercy
v. Knowing how great God’s kindness is, it is a great sin to presume upon the graciousness of God, and we easily come to believe that we deserve it.

b. Men often see the forbearance and longsuffering of God as a weakness in God; they say things like “If there is a God in heaven, let Him strike me dead!” When it doesn’t happen, they will say, “See, I told you there was no God.” Men misinterpret God’s forbearance and longsuffering as His approval, and they refuse to repent.

i. “It seems to me that every morning when a man wakes up still impenitent, and finds himself out of hell, the sunlight seems to say, ‘I shine on thee yet another day, as that in this day thou mayest repent.’ When your bed receives you at night I think it seems to say, ‘I will give you another night' s rest, that you may live to turn from your sins and trust in Jesus.’ Every mouthful of bread that comes to the table says, ‘I have to support your body that still you may have space for repentance.’ Every time you open the Bible the pages say, ‘We speak with you that you may repent.’ Every time you hear a sermon, if it be such a sermon as God would have us preach, it pleads with you to turn unto the Lord and live.” (Spurgeon)

i. Men should see the goodness of God and understand:

- God has been better to them than they deserve
- God has shown them kindness when they have ignored Him
- God has shown them kindness when they have mocked Him
- God is not a cruel master and they may safely surrender to Him
- God is perfectly willing to forgive them
- God should be served out of simple gratitude