Anger At God III - Part 1 of 3

Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise, Thou for it's of my God and King, Thou triumphs of his grace. This is Lecce Bradley, Jr. welcoming you to another broadcast of the Baptist Bible Hour. O to Jesus I surrender, O to him I freely give.

I will ever love and trust him, In his presence daily live. I surrender all, I surrender all, All to thee my blessed Savior, I surrender all. O to Jesus I surrender, Humbly at his feet I bow.

Worldly pleasures all forsaken, Take me Jesus, take me now. I surrender all, I surrender all, All to thee my blessed Savior, I surrender all. O to Jesus I surrender, Make me Savior, Holy Thine. Let me feel thy Holy Spirit, Truly know that thou art mine. I surrender all, I surrender all, All to thee my blessed Savior, I surrender all. O to Jesus I surrender, Lord, I give myself to thee. Fill me with thy love and power, Let thy blessings fall on me.

I surrender all, I surrender all, All to thee my blessed Savior, I surrender. I hope that you will tell others about this program if it proves to be a blessing to you, reminding them at this same time each day on this station they can hear the teachings that we bring from the Word of God. We're continuing with our study on the subject anger at God.

It's a big subject and the Scriptures have a lot to say about it, so I hope the message will be a blessing to you. Gentle Shepherd, come and lead us, For we need you to help us find a way. Gentle Shepherd, come and lead us, For we need your strength from day to day.

There's no other we can turn to Who can help us face another day. Gentle Shepherd, come and lead us, For we need you to help us find a way. Gentle Shepherd, come and lead us, For we need your strength from day to day. There's no other we can turn to Who can help us find a better way. Gentle Shepherd, come and lead us, For we need you to help us find a way. Gentle Shepherd, come and lead us, For we need your strength from day to day.

We've been bringing a series of messages on the subject of anger. We started in the book of Ephesians chapter 4. We'd like to look at that once again as we continue today, reading Ephesians chapter 4 verse 26. Be ye angry and sin not, Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, Neither give place to the devil. We first looked at righteous anger. The text says be ye angry and sin not, indicating that there is a possibility of being angry for the right reason and the right way without sinning. But because of the weakness of our human nature, we are very apt to sin when we are angry.

So immediately the admonition is given that we are to sin not and we are to resolve matters before the sun goes down. Not allowing our anger to fester and to develop into bitterness which has further devastating effects. We've talked then about sinful anger, how to get rid of it. And then have been discussing the issue of anger at God. There are those professing themselves to be Christian counselors today who suggest that it is alright to be angry at God. That it can be appropriate for you to vent that anger and just let God know what you think about the circumstances of your life and how you feel that you've been dealt with unfairly. Some go so far as to say that you may have to forgive God for the things that he has done to you. Now a correct view of God and his sovereignty will certainly make us quickly recognize the fallacy of such thinking.

But before we concluded this series, I wanted to deal with one further issue relating to it. In talking about anger toward God, we've talked about the cause and the cure and now we want to talk about the complaint. I use that term not in the sense of complaining as we would normally think of it as murmuring, but as it is defined to mean to utter, to muse, to talk with. You see, when we talk about God's sovereignty and how important it is for us to resign ourselves to his will and be submissive to him and praise him in every and all circumstances. There are those who immediately react by saying, well in this concept there is a lack of compassion. We just fail to understand how deeply people have been hurt by the events that have disrupted their lives. We don't understand the struggles.

We don't understand what's going on inside of them. Consequently it may be necessary to turn to some other approach entirely and to come at things from the humanistic direction to say that you may express yourself in any way you feel to be appropriate. And if you feel that you're entitled to be angry at God, you may well be justified in your feeling and you may well have to forgive God for what he has done. But when we begin to examine the scriptures we see that this whole issue is not left unaddressed. To believe what the scriptures teach about God, the sovereignty of God, does not leave us with a cold hard principle in which there is no love or grace. God is the God of all grace. No one understands our hurts and our struggles any better than God does. He understands them better than we understand them ourselves. He knows all about us. He knows us from inside out.

He knows our past, our present, and our future. So when we begin to look at the Word of God, we see that we're not left in the position of the stoic to say, Alright, trouble has come. I'm extremely frustrated. I'm terribly upset because I have prayed and it seems that my prayer has been ignored.

And so I'll just have to grit my teeth and get through this ordeal. See, as we've already pointed out, there are people who become angry at God because they've prayed, Lord, heal my sick loved one. And that prayer isn't answered.

That precious family member dies. The person says, Why? Why did God let this happen? I prayed. Isn't God a prayer answering God? Why didn't he answer my prayer?

Somebody else says, I've prayed. God, give me a wife. Give me a husband.

And he hasn't. I feel lonely. I feel like life is passing me by.

I feel like I've left out of many things. Why doesn't God answer that prayer? A young wife says, I wanted so much to have a family. Why is it that there are so many people that have children that don't really want them? And I want a child more than anything. And I can't have one.

I'm perturbed. Now does that mean that we say to such individuals, just hang in there. Just stand strong. Just ignore all of the emotions that are connected with these experiences.

Not at all. You can't read the Bible and come to the conclusion that our emotions are overlooked and ignored. The scriptures certainly make it clear that we're not to be controlled by our feelings.

It wouldn't take but just a little analysis to determine that if you always did just what you felt like doing, or you failed to do anything you didn't feel like doing, your plight today would be far worse than it currently is. We have to base our decisions in life on the truth of God and walk by faith, not by sight and not by feeling. And yet emotions are a part of us.

And they are clearly recognized in the Word of God. So it's not just a matter of gritting our teeth. It's not a matter of saying, I'm strong. I can handle it. I come from a tough stop.

Our people have always been able to get through a crisis. We just are tough. We just hang in there.

No. Fact is, you're not strong. And the sooner you come to grips with the reality of the fact that you're weak, and you need the Lord in the midst of every trial, the better off you're going to be. This is not a matter of saying, I'm just going to be tough.

I'm just going to ignore the situation. You know, a father may say to his son, men don't cry. We don't show our emotions.

Let's prove how strong we are. That's not the lesson. And then there are others that try to deal with it by making false claims of joy. They feel that this is true Christianity. Then no matter what comes, they feel like they've got to wear a broad smile, and say, I'm exceedingly happy. Everything's great.

Everything's wonderful. People look at them and think, maybe they don't understand the situation. It's evident to me that their life has fallen down around them, and they say they're gleefully happy. Now, there's a difference in rejoicing in the Lord, and in having this fluff on the surface, where we're trying to smile our troubles away. You ever been just really down? I mean, you weren't just having a blue Monday. You were having a depressing week, and maybe it had gone on into a month or longer. And somebody comes up to you and says, hey, why don't you smile? That really helped, didn't it?

You say, you know, you may have bit your tongue and didn't say it, but you thought, why don't you go away and leave me alone? If you were experiencing what I'm experiencing, you wouldn't want to smile either. I don't feel like smiling. I'm not smiling on the inside, so I'm not going to paint one up here on my mouth and be a hypocrite. I'm miserable.

I'm going through a tough time. So we're not talking about denying the struggle. We're not talking about making false claims that everything is going well when it's not.

That's what we're talking about. We are saying that as we address our complaint to the Lord, not one of murmuring, but simply musing as to our circumstances and being ready to utter to the Lord and talk with Him, expressing what our needs and burdens are, that it's all right to pour out our heart to the Lord. Now that's a lot different than being angry with God or being so brazen as to say, I'm going to forgive God. Let's look at Psalm 62 and the 8th verse. Trust in Him at all times, ye people.

Pour out your heart before Him. God is a refuge for us, Selah. People say, well I just need somebody to talk to. And there's no doubt about it that there are moments we need a loved one, a special friend, a brother or sister in Christ that we can just talk to. We just want to share with them some of our struggles and we ought to be ready to bear one another's burdens. But the child of God is never without somebody to talk to. You may feel to be all alone. The psalmist said, when mother and father forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.

You may not have a friend that understands, but you can always pour out your heart before Him. Trust in Him at all times. Who is our refuge? God. God is a refuge for us. He is a hiding place. He is one to whom we can turn and expect that He will hear us.

He's promised to do it. So you say, there are just some things I don't understand. Yes, as much as I wish the question wasn't in my mind, I have to admit that the question is there. Why, Lord? Why did this happen? Why did it happen to me?

Why did it happen at this time? I read Thy word. There's the promise.

All things work together for good to them that love God to them who are called according to His purpose. Lord, I don't see any good in this situation. I feel the pain of it. I feel the loss. I feel the hurt. I don't think I'll ever be the same person again. How am I going to recover?

How am I going to get through this? Where do we go? We go to Him.

We pour out our heart before Him. Now let's look at some examples of it. Let's turn here to the book of 1 Samuel, chapter 1.

And here we find an example of one of the points that we have talked about. And that is, there is a woman who wants very much to have a child and does not have one. Now that was even a more significant issue in the day in which this woman Hannah lived than it might be today. Because in olden times it was certainly looked upon to be a great blessing to have children.

And if one was not able to have a child, it was often viewed that that individual was under a curse. Now, Hannah was one of two wives of Elkanah. And the other wife had both sons and daughters. And as if that wasn't enough, she was continually putting it in the face of Hannah.

She was rubbing it in. You know, to be bad enough, here's Hannah thinking, why is it that I can't have any children? Here is Peninnah having sons and daughters. I would love to have a child. Why can't I have one?

But it's even worse when perpetually this woman is telling Hannah, I've got children and you don't. You know, little kids do that periodically. Look, I've got a toy and you don't. Look at me. Look who I am. Look what I've got.

You don't have it. Haha. Here's a grown up child rubbing it in. Look what I've got.

I've got all these children and you don't have any. And the reaction was understandable. She was miserable. So, we read here beginning with the fourth verse. And when the time was that Elkanah offered, he came to Peninnah, his wife, and to all her sons and daughters portions. That is, he gave to them portions. But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion, for he loved Hannah, but the Lord had shut up her womb.

Now there wasn't any guess work about this situation. You want to know why Hannah didn't have any children? The Lord had shut up her womb. There's the sovereignty of God.

You say, well I can't put that together. Doesn't the scripture say to go forth and replenish the earth, happy is the man that has his quiver full of them that children are a blessing? Well, if children are a blessing, why had God shut up her womb that she couldn't have a child? See, those are the perplexing questions that cause us to feel anguish inside.

And if not channeled correctly, lead people to become angry at God and feel totally justified in that anger. I can't tell you what God's sovereign purposes were in this, but God had shut up her womb. And her adversary also provoked her sower for to make her fret because the Lord had shut up her womb. Provoked her, made her fret. Have you ever been fretful? You talk about a little child having a day. He sure is fretful today. Well, some adults are rather fretful on certain days. Everything is out of sort.

Nothing suits them. They're upset. They're disturbed. Hannah was made to fret as a result of the situation. And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, so she provoked her, therefore she wept and did not eat.

See the sequence of these events here? She's fretting, she's weeping, and now she says, I'm not going to eat. Have you ever seen anybody like that? They're so upset. They say, I don't even want to eat.

I don't care whether they live or die. I might as well starve to death anyway. I'm just going to quit eating. I'm upset.

I'm withdrawing. I'm disturbed. Then said Elkanah her husband to her, Hannah, why weepest thou and why eatest thou not?

And why is thy heart grieved? Am not I better to thee than ten sons? Husband finally said, well, you know, this is disturbing to me that you're so disturbed. Aren't you satisfied with me? You got me as your husband and I'm not more important to you and better to you than if you had ten sons? So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh and after they had drunk. Apparently after her husband speaks to her in this manner, she decides, well, I better get with it. I better eat.

I need to go on with life. Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the Lord and she was in bitterness of soul. Here's the emotion. Hannah didn't just grit her teeth and say I'm going to ignore this whole situation. She was emotionally distraught. She was in anguish of spirit. She felt this whole situation very deeply. Wasn't a matter of saying, well, if you feel any emotion at all, that means that you're not a true believer in God.

No, that wasn't the case. She was in bitterness of soul, but what was her next step? Did this bitterness of soul cause her to come before God and say it's just not fair, it's just not right? I'm giving up on God. This is my last prayer. I'm signing off, Lord. You're not going to hear from me anymore?

No. She prayed unto the Lord and wept sore. Now there, you see, is the key to the real difference as to how the world approaches things and how the scriptures direct us to approach things. I'm glad you've been with us today. If you would like to help with the support of this broadcast to keep us on the air, you can make a donation at our website BaptistBibleHour.org.

Till we greet you next time, this is LaSara Bradley, Jr. bidding you goodbye and may God bless you. Praising my Savior! Praising my Savior! Praising my Savior! All the day long!