Anger - Righteous and Sinful 3/3

Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise, Thou forest of my God and King, Thou triumphs of His grace.

This is Lecair Bradley, Jr., welcoming you to another broadcast of the Baptist Bible Hour. Heiress, Lord Jesus, ruler of all nature, O thou of God and man the Son, Be will I cherish, Be will I honor, Thou my soul's glory joy and crown. There are the meadows, there still the woodlands, Gold in the blooming dark of spring. Jesus is forever, Jesus is ruler who makes the woeful heart to sing. There is a sunshine, there still the moonlight, And all the twinkling starry glows.

Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer Than all the angels can boast. We continue with our discussion and the message today on the difference between righteous and sinful anger. If you'd like to help with the support of the program, you can make a donation at our website BaptistBibleHour.org, and also send us a note if you want to convey a message to us. And I hope that you will enjoy many of the new features that we are making available now.

It is the new home of the Baptist Witness, so that you'll visit BaptistBibleHour.org. And he speaks of those who are envious against the workers of iniquity. One reason many people are angry is because somebody has something they don't have. I'm angry at the rich because they're rich and I'm not. I'm angry at the person that got the promotion at work because I deserved it, but they got it.

Envious of those who have more, seem to be receiving greater recognition and praise. This is sinful, this is selfish. And he says, fret not thyself in any wise to do evil, because if you continue in anger, then ultimately you're going to feel justified to do something evil. You're going to feel that I am justified in retaliating. How many times we've read in recent years about somebody who allowed anger to fester over an extended period of time because they lost a job and one day they walked into the place with a gun in their hand and killed the man that fired them and maybe several innocent bystanders as well.

It's happened with tremendous frequency. Cease from anger. Fret not thyself to do evil.

Be not envious against the workers of iniquity. How often do you find yourself fretting, brooding over things? You're thinking about things that upset you six months ago. You're thinking about somebody that made you mad five years ago.

Some people have got a memory like an elephant. They remember everybody that ever upset them and they're still mad over all of it. And they fret about it.

And they pout and they brood. It says not to fret. Not to brood over it. Not to let it remain. Cease from anger. Some of these who are fretters just keep the thing stirred all the time and this is condemned in Proverbs chapter 30 verse 32.

Now notice carefully this language. Proverbs chapter 30 verse 32. If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or if thou hast thought evil, lay thine hand upon thy mouth. Heard the old expression about biting your tongue. Well, the scripture doesn't say bite your tongue, but does say put your hand on your mouth.

You know that might be a good place for some people to start. They can't control things any other way. Just put your hand over your mouth. Just learn not to speak. Now surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter and the ringing of the nose bringeth forth blood.

So the forcing of wrath bringeth forth strife. What's this say? You churn milk long enough and it'll bring forth butter. I can remember doing that a few times when I was traveling around my younger days and some dear old sister out in the country said, you ever churned butter? I said, well, no, I never did. Well, would you like to try?

And dumb me said, yes. And I mean to tell you friends, it takes a long time. You just, you keep working at that and you think this milk isn't going anywhere. There's not going to be any butter, but you keep churning it. You keep going at it and you find little, it'll turn into butter.

Well, friends, what's this text says? Just as much as the churning of milk bringeth butter, so the forcing of wrath bringeth forth strife. You keep churning your wrath. You keep mulling it over. You keep bringing it up.

You keep thinking about it. You keep thinking about that no good renegade that said what they said, what they did. Just surprises me the Lord hadn't struck them down.

I just don't know why the Lord's delaying. You know, I was foolish even to have let them get by with it. I should have done something more at the time.

I should have retaliated. Well, if I ever get the chance, I'll make them wish they hadn't. See, and they keep mulling that over and they're fretting and they're fuming and they get where they want to tell everybody about it, everybody they get with. Oh, how I've been harmed, how I've been mistreated, how I've been maligned, poor old me. See, right along with anger comes self-pity and right along with self-pity and anger comes depression. Not all depression is a result of anger, but some of it is because they're churning. All of this is seething inside of them.

They keep mulling it over. It's just not fair. Why have I had such a rough life? Why didn't I have better parents? Why didn't they have more money?

Why didn't I have easier circumstances? All kinds of churning of anger and it brings forth strife. Now, chapter 25 of the book of Proverbs tells us that we are to control our anger. Verse 28 of Proverbs 25, He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls. You have no rule over your own spirit.

As the expression goes today, just let it all hang out, just let it fly, you know, whatever you feel, whatever you think, just let it go because it might give you ulcers if you hold it in. Friends, it might give you ulcers if you let it out in an ungodly sinful way. Man that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that's broken down. One of the evidences of grace, a part of the fruit of the spirit, is moderation which is self-control. Anytime you're out of control, you're saying things that you say you can't help, you're waving your arms and you're throwing things and you're screaming and you're out of control, that's not the fruit of the spirit.

Those are the works of the flesh and they're dishonoring to God. Look at chapter 16 of the book of Proverbs, verse 32. He that is slow to anger, not getting upset quickly, not easily offended. See, some people wear a chip on their shoulder all the time. It just doesn't take but a little bit just doesn't take but a little bit to get them upset.

You kind of tiptoe around wondering, well, when's it going to be next? He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh the city. If you got control of what you say, control over your own spirit, that's better than the power and might of one that could conquer a city.

Oh, and I know I hear somebody saying, well, you just don't understand. I just can't help it. I just can't control it.

Now, let's analyze that just a minute. Let's say you're having a real bad day at home. Nothing is going right. As a matter of fact, it seems that things haven't gone right for several days and this has been building up.

And now comes the straw that breaks the camel's back and you are letting everybody in sight have it. Man comes home from work. He's had a bad day on the job. He's upset with people that haven't dealt with him very well. He's upset with the people that haven't dealt with him very kindly there. So, instead of asking the Lord to give him grace to come home and be the kind of godly example he ought to be, he comes in the door mad. Trips over a few toys and throws those across the room and tells his kids how many times have I told you that you're to pick these toys up. Goes in and barks out orders to his wife. And the more he gives way to this anger, the hotter he becomes. And the more things he thinks of that he's got reason to be angry about. And so, according to his testimony, I'm out of control. I can't help it. But the telephone rings.

One of the kids ducks whatever's going across the room and tries to get over to the phone and picks it up and says, Dad, it's your boss. My, hey, hello there. How are you?

Good to hear from you. My, a whole change. Here he's been yelling, throwing things, mean as a snake. Letting all of his anger hang out. I can't help it. I can't control it.

Oh, he can sure tone down to the boss. Or let that mother in the middle of the day, when those kids have driven her to distraction and she's yelling to them and she wonders why they're so loud. Why are my children so loud? Not realizing that she is a screamer and she's constantly yelling and all that, but she's constantly yelling at all that, but she's trained them. They've developed to be just like she expected them to be. Screamers just like you. But see, then one of her girlfriends called and here she is.

Hello. Tell me she can't control it. Sure she can. Immediately she gets everything under control.

Just sweet as pie. See, we just make excuses when we say we can't control it. It is not to control us, according to Proverbs chapter 19 and the 19th verse. A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment, for if thou deliver him, yet thou must do it again. A man that is letting anger control him. A man of great wrath.

You help him out of this predicament and next thing you know he's right back in it again. Some people become known as being angry people. Their whole life is dominated by anger. You see, first thing that we've learned here is that we are to control anger and the second thing is that we are not to let it control us.

Don't become a bitter angry person. A person who is constantly turning and mulling over and thinking about those things that have disturbed, fretful, laying out charges and accusations against others. All of this is a sinful, ungodly way of dealing with a human emotion that can be channeled and put to good and proper use. Because if you're stirred about a situation that has a righteous purpose as much as Jesus was stirred when he drove the money changers out of the temple, you can be guided in some very positive things if your anger is righteous. But when it is sinful, when it is out of place and dishonoring to God, you have harmed others and you have grieved the Holy Spirit. After observing the fact that there is such a thing biblically as righteous anger, after seeing something about the sinful anger that often plagues us and looking at the various admonitions that are given to the scripture pertaining to it, let's remember that in the latter part of this chapter, Ephesians chapter 4 from which our text is taken and you talk about a portion of scripture that just deals so completely with this. But in verse 31 he says, Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice.

And you may say, I can't. There may be people here today, maybe you're one of them, holding grudges. You're angry at people. You've been angry for a long time. You say, I'd like to turn loose of it because I know it's caused me a lot of trouble. But I'm just having a lot of difficulty letting go. Look at that last verse of the chapter, And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

Now that's the key in this whole issue. Has anybody ever been able, even if they try, to offend you in the manner in which you have offended God? I say it's impossible because God is absolutely holy. And even when we feel like we have been done an injustice, we have to recognize that because of the frailty and sinfulness of our own nature, there may be times that we've provoked a little bit of it.

Some of the things we said and did might have brought it about. God in His holiness has never done anything to provoke rebellion and sin on the part of man. As a sinner, you have offended God. As a member of this human race, you were enmity against Him. You were going your own way, violating His law, living in ungodliness. But by His grace, He reached you. He touched your life. He turned you around. He convicted you of your sin.

He broke your heart. But what a blessing it was that your heart was broken over sin. Because you then saw that the only hope for such a sinner is in the grace of God.

Through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And when you consider that God for Christ's sake has forgiven you every sin, every sin that you can remember, and even the ones that you can't, every sin that you were aware of it being a sin, but even the sins of omission, the sins that you may not recognize, He has forgiven you your sin. He has forgiven you your sin. There may be people who will not forgive you of certain things, people who still hold resentments and grudges against you, but God has forgiven you. On that basis, can you not forgive? I believe forgiven people love to forgive.

They count it a blessing and a joy. May we learn to deal with anger on a biblical basis, seeing that we do not dishonor God and that righteous indignation is put to a useful purpose. And may we realize, as the closing words of this chapter so clearly indicate, that our hope alone is in the grace of God given us through our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, I'm not here just lecturing you about a philosophy of life.

I'm not here quoting Plato and Socrates. I'm here preaching to you the Word of God. All of these principles are related to the person of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. May we renew our commitment to Him, seek to live to His honor. Jesus, I come to thee. Out of my sickness into thy health.

Out of my want and into thy wealth. Out of my sin and into thyself. Jesus, I come to thee.

Out of my shameful failure and loss. Jesus, I come. Jesus, I come. Into the glorious gain of thy cross. Jesus, I come to thee. Out of earth sorrows into thy balm. Out of thy storms and into thy calm. Out of distress through jubilant song. Jesus, I come to thee.

Out of unrest and arrogant pride. Jesus, I come. Jesus, I come. Into thy blessed will to abide. Jesus, I come to thee. Out of myself to dwell in thy love. Out of despair into raptures above.

Upward foray on wings like a dove. Jesus, I come to thee. Out of the fear and dread of the tomb. Jesus, I come. Jesus, I come. Into the joy and light of thy home. Jesus, I come to thee. Out of the depths of ruin untold.

Into the reefs of thy sheltering fold. Never thy glorious face to behold. Jesus, I come to thee. Never thy glorious face to behold. Jesus, I come to thee. I come to thee. Glad you've been with us today. Hope you will be back with us tomorrow at this same time.

Until then, this is LeSary Bradley Jr. bidding you goodbye and may God bless you. It is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story.

This is my song. Praising my Savior. Praising my Savior. Praising my Savior all the day long.