Anger - Examples of It - 2/2

Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise, The praise of my God and King, the triumphs of his grace.

This is LeSare Bradley Jr. welcoming you to another broadcast of the Baptist Bible Hour. Come and rejoice, ye saints of God, sing unto him above. Tell how he gave his Son love for us, to prove his endless love, my brother. Come and rejoice, ye saints of God, sing unto his Word divine. He whispers of redeeming grace and love, and gives us peace of mind. Come and rejoice, ye saints of God, sing unto him above. We should be faithful to his call, blessed by the Holy God, my sister. Come and rejoice, ye saints of God, sing unto his Word so sweet. God, who has paid you his anointed bond, you shall his praise repeat. We continue with our study on the subject of anger.

We're looking at examples of it in Scripture. I would appreciate hearing from you. If you want us to continue on your station, we must hear from our listeners. We depend upon you for support. Our mailing address is Baptist Bible Hour, Mach 17, 037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. And I know a lot of people today would much prefer sending a message by way of the internet, so you can do that at our website, baptistbiblehour.org, and also make a donation there to help keep the program on the air. Blessed Jesus be we sing, thou of life eternal spring, thou art worthy thou alone, thou the rock and cornerstone. Tis from thee salvation falls, this the ransom sinner knows, thou of Christ art all is clean, when he sees his poverty. None shall glory in thy side, of their labors ere so bright, all who talk by thee shall know, living faith from God must flow. Great shall be thy lovely theme, free redemption, glorious King, this will be the song above.

Praise to Jesus, bleeding love. What a tragic account, but how better could the picture be vividly painted of what can happen when people give way to anger. When they are so selfish and self-centered, that what they want is their way or else.

They're willing to violate any law, they're willing to harm any individual, they're willing to lie, they're willing to cheat in order to get their way. Now you say that might be an exaggeration. Not everybody that gets upset because they don't have their way is willing to go to that extreme. No, but when you see that's the path, that's where it leads, when's the time to stop it? Way back up here in the beginning where he says, let not the sun go down on your wrath.

You get it settled today. You get angry today and then you pick up today's anger tomorrow and you pick up that anger the next day and before long you're full of it. You're full of anger. Bitterness has set in and you may do things you never thought you could or would do because you have allowed that sin to permeate every part of your being. See, this is a tremendous lesson here, touching many parts of life. It's a lesson for parents. Parents need to learn the appropriate procedure in discipline, not allowing children to assume that they can manipulate their parents, that they can pout and go to bed hungry and whatever other method they might employ to ultimately get their way. When parents give in to that they have helped to create the kind of individual that we see here in Ahab. And anytime you cooperate with it, whether it's with children or your husband or your wife or friends or whoever else, you're going to let them by their anger, by their selfishness, their self-will, their determination to have their way to manipulate and maneuver everybody in sight.

You haven't helped them. You've helped to entrench them in their sinful action. This led to disaster and the judgment of God being meted out upon it. Now the third example is in the book of 1 Samuel chapter 18.

You see in these examples how closely connected jealousy in thee is to anger, how it instills anger and promotes it in the heart of an individual. This concerns King Saul in 1 Samuel 18 verse 7. And the women answered one another as they played and said, Saul hath slain his thousands and David his ten thousands. Now here's King Saul feeling like he's the most important man, the biggest man, the strongest man.

He's the king. He's to be recognized and adored by all and he passes by and hears these women playing their instruments and singing and they sing, oh yes, Saul has slain his thousands but David his ten thousands. How do you suppose he reacted to that?

You think he was a strong enough man just to pass on by and say, well, I'm not going to let that affect me. That's all right. They may have miscalculated this thing but you know what somebody says, thinks about me, doesn't make any difference to me. That's perfectly all right. I'm not going to let it upset me at all. Verse 8, and Saul was very rough and the saying displeased him and he said, they have ascribed unto David ten thousands and to me they have ascribed but thousands and what can he have more but the kingdom? Oh, he's upset.

What's coming next? Here they are singing about this shepherd lad that goes down there and kills the giant and here they're singing his praise instead of mine while the next thing I know he'll be wanting the kingdom. And Saul eyed David from that day forward. He was jealous. He was controlled by envy.

He was continually seeking David's life over an extended period of time. What was the problem? He was jealous. What a terrible sin is jealous and how painful are the results of it. A jealous person cannot rejoice in the success or prosperity of anybody else. When they see somebody else get something, they think, why didn't I get that? They see what another person has, they say, I ought to have something that good or better. See somebody else having a good time, think, well those people ought not even have a good time because I'm not having a good time.

I ought to be able to have a good time but they're going to have a good time. I mean it just gets down to the smallest most insignificant things in life and they're jealous. How many human relationships have been terribly disrupted because of jealousy? How many friendships have been destroyed? How many churches have been divided over jealousy? How many preachers have fought one another because of jealousy? Jealousy is as cruel as the grave.

That was the concern here. They're praising David more than they're praising me. I ought to be getting most of the praise. I ought to be the one that's respected above everybody else. He was angry. He was angry.

And then turn to the 20th chapter and the 30th verse. This shows you how when a man becomes jealous and becomes angry, he may assume in the beginning this anger that I feel is for this young man David that I perceive to be an enemy. I think he's out to get my position and he may have felt perfectly justified to be angry but see you once become angry. You let anger get out of control and then you'll bring it home with you.

And now let's look what happens. Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan. First he's angry at the women for their song. He's angry at David and jealous of him. Now he's angry at his own son. And he said unto him thou son of a perverse rebellious woman.

My, what inappropriate language. You're the son of a perverse rebellious woman. Do not I know that thou has chosen the son of Jesse to thine own confusion and under the confusion of thy mother's nakedness. Upset because of the friendship that there was between Jonathan and David. For as long as the son of Jesse liveth upon the ground thou shalt not be established nor thy kingdom. Wherefore now send and fetch him unto me for he shall surely die. He's ready now to kill David if he has the opportunity. Don't you understand he says to his son you can never be king as long as David's alive. I want to kill him. I want to get him out of the way.

I want my family to be established. But he's angry at his own son that he says on one hand I want him to be king. But notice again the confusion of mind that often exists when a person is giving in to sin and is angry. And Jonathan answered Saul his father and said unto him wherefore shall he be slain? What hath he done? And Saul cast a javelin at him to smite him. He's so angry at his son Jonathan and he says his desire is to see Jonathan ultimately become the king and he wants to remove David so there's nothing standing in the way. But he's so mad at the son that he says he wants to live and be king.

He throws a javelin at him and would have killed him. Now there's how sin starts at one level and continues to get bigger and bigger and bigger till there's no stopping place. Person under the control of this old Adamic depraved nature saying I want my way or else we'll stop at nothing. I feel like my plans are being thwarted. I feel like I'm entitled to the things that I want. I want my plans to be carried out. I want the recognition I'm entitled to. I want the approval. I want the prestige. I want the power. Whatever it is, I want it.

I'm entitled to it and if I don't get it here's what I'm willing to do. And in that confused state of mind he threw the javelin at his own son whereby Jonathan knew that it was determined of his father to slay David. So Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger. You see when the father is angry he passes that on to his children. He starts this angry ordeal and now Jonathan is leaving the table in fierce anger and had eaten no meat the second day of the month for he was grieved for David because his father had done him shame. What a tragedy.

Say this is a depressing thing to be looking at these examples. Well I hope you can see the seriousness of giving way to sin. Sin always has dark consequences whatever the sin. Whether it's sinful anger, whether it's pride, self-righteousness, lust, worldliness in whatever form when we pursue a sinful course the consequences are dark.

One more example. Luke chapter 15. This portion of scripture records that wonderful account.

I feel like it's a beautiful story of a prodigal coming home. That boy had wandered far, had wasted his substance and right his living. But when he came to the end of himself he said I'll arise and go to my father. Not going to go back and make any demands and say here's what I'm entitled to receive. He'd already squandered what had been given to him.

He had no rights to demand, no claims he could make. But I'll say I have sinned against heaven and of thy sight and I'm not worthy to be called thy son. Will you make me one of the hired servants? And the father sees him coming and he doesn't run out there and lecture him and talk to him about going on probation or any of the methods that people so often advise today. He just runs to him, hugs his neck, kisses him, calls to the servants and says bring forth my robe and put it on his back, put my ring on his finger, my shoes on his feet, kill the fatted calf, we're going to have a feast because my son is back. This is a happy, happy time. What a joy it was. Seeing that boy sitting at the table he didn't look like a prodigal.

Why? He had on the father's robe. Isn't that wonderful? I believe that illustrates for us what God does by sovereign grace. When we're sitting at the banqueting house of God's mercy we don't even look like what we were. We look like sons of the father because we got on the father's robe, the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ.

We got on the ring, the seal of the covenant of his grace, ordered and sure before the foundation of the world. Somebody said well that boy doesn't deserve it. Absolutely right. You got the picture. He doesn't deserve it. Do you deserve to be at the table of God's love and grace?

No. It's undeserving sinners that are there. Say look at his past. Yeah, look at it.

Not a good thing you can say about it. You talk about somebody that had messed up royally. Everything he'd done, every decision he made, everything he'd been involved in over a long period of time was absolutely wrong and sinful but here he is.

He's sitting at the table. I don't understand that. Well there was somebody else in the household didn't understand that either and that was his brother. He came in and observed that scene and you talk about somebody that was upset. Verse 25 of Luke chapter 15. Now his elder son was in the field and as he came and drew nigh to the house he heard music and dancing and he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant and he said unto him thy brother is come and thy father hath killed the fatted calf because he hath received him safe and sound and he was angry oh my he was seething he was red hot my brother that low down good for nothing rebel in this house sitting at my father's table a feast for him he was angry and would not go in there comes that pouting business again say well okay i'm not going in i'll have nothing to do with him no sir i'm not i'm not going to be in the same room with that guy i'm not going to speak to him you ever see conditions like that around you in life people in the same family that say i'm not going to speak to them they don't have anything to do with them look at the things they've done well while you're looking at what they've done look at what you've done see jesus warned us that before we go getting that little speck out of other people's eye we need to look at that big beam in our own eye that'll that'll give you a whole change of attitude they were saying i'm i'm justified let me tell you you just don't know what all this person did you don't know what they did to me you don't know how they hurt me how badly do you suppose the prodigal had hurt the father but the father forgave him the father put him at his table and think about how you have offended your heavenly father but he still loves you and forgives you when you confess your sins to him but this brother says i'm not going in he was angry and therefore came his father out and entreated him and he answering said to his father lo these many years do i serve thee neither transgressed i at any time thy commandment and yet thou never gave us me a kid that i might make mary with my friends but as soon as this thy son was come which hath devoured thy living with harlots thou hast killed for him the fatted calf and he said in him son thou art ever with me and all that i have is thine it was meet that we should make mary and be glad for this thy brother was dead and is alive again was lost and is found what was the problem this stay-at-home brother says i am entitled to the best of treatment if there's going to be any festivities around here if there's going to be any merry making it ought to be for me look at what i've done look at my loyalty look at my faithfulness look at my clean life i'm the one that's entitled to the best and instead of that i've been passed over you've ignored me and look what you've done for this low down renegade that's been wallowing in the filth and mire of sin i'm mad and i've got every reason to be mad oh how many times that's the seed of anger somebody says look at me i'm a i'm a pretty decent person i mean i might have my faults but there's just a lot of things i haven't done i'm better than a lot of people now why on earth should i be passed over maybe it's being upset because you didn't get a promotion at work there's not a person in that plant that's worked any harder than i have it's not fair it's not right i'm angry i'm entitled to be angry oh i'll go back on the job monday morning but they're not going to get a hundred percent out of me anymore when i walk in the door everybody there will know i'm mad and i'm going to stay mad nobody's going to talk me out of it see that person has forgotten who they work for you serve not with eye service as men pleasers but unto jesus christ so you have no right to be mad say look at our family situation here mother always favored this child father always favored this one and i'm not saying that favoritism is appropriate because when jacob favored joseph that created some problems that helped to stir up the jealousy that was in that family and brought about the complications but how many times that becomes a problem look why shouldn't i have gotten that and people who are of the same household let mother and daddy pass off the scene and they all immediately converge on the courthouse to sue each other because i didn't get my share i was entitled to more look look what i should have had it's not right it's not fair i'm mad i'm justified in my anger was this anger appropriate no it was sinful anger it was a jealous anger i'm entitled to everything this boy's entitled to nothing i didn't get what i should have gotten and so i'm mad do you not see that to be the very basis of many of the horrendous things that are occurring in our society today where somebody walks into a place of business and takes a gun and kills several people it's been done right here in our city because somebody's angry i lost my job i wasn't treated right i wasn't given the promotion i wasn't paid enough people didn't respect me people didn't uh pay enough attention to me i'm mad i'm mad at people i'm mad at society i'm mad at those that used to work for them sometimes it happens within families man in the southern state not long ago went to a place where he'd been employed killed several supervisors but before he left to kill them he killed his own family see that's anger going unchecked now hopefully nobody that's hearing me speak has ever been to the point that anger was at that level but let's apply it back in the earlier stages are there people you won't speak to are there members in your family where you're just like this brother that says when they're in the room i'm going to stay outside i'll let everybody know what i think how i feel i'm mad i've been mad for 25 years not anybody talked to me because i'm settled in i intend to die mad you know i i guess there are some people when they die the undertaker is going to need a picture of earlier years because if they get one from recent years they're going to have to fix their face where they look mad when they die stayed mad all while they live children will be mad when they die anger say well you haven't painted a very pretty picture here well i'm not the artist i'm just the expounder bible truth i'm just setting the picture up here that's already painted it's in the inspired word of god here's what anger looks like when you see it let go and worked out in people's lives and we're going to be able to deal with it come to the same conclusion we came to in the message earlier the same chapter ephesians chapter 4 after telling us when you're angry don't sin catch it in the early stages don't let the sun go down upon your wrath and then he comes on to tell us how we deal with it grieve not the holy spirit of god let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and in contrast be ye kind one to another have to start out by simply being kind being gracious watching what you say checking on your attitudes that you have toward other people forgiving one another forgiving say but oh i've got this long list of things forgiving what about the long list of sins that were to your account and you've been forgiven by god for christ's sake can you not then forgive others but i hope that there's lessons in this for all of us and that we can realize that god's people ought to be living in a way totally different than the way the ungodly world's living we must not give in to anger we must cease from anger living righteously and godly in this present evil world to the praise of our savior jesus christ well as you can see while we've looked at examples of anger and scripture it's a big subject that covered a lot of territory i hope the study is helpful to you we'd love to hear from you you can respond by going to our website at baptistbiblehour.org till we greet you next time this is lacerre bradley jr pinning you goodbye and may god bless you praising my savior oh