Anger At God I - Part 1 of 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 Lisea Bradley Jr. welcoming you to another broadcast of the Baptist Bible Hour. There is a holy city, a happy world above, Beyond the starry regions, built by the God of love, An everlasting temple, and saints arrayed in white. They serve their great Redeemer, they dwell with him in light. It is no world of trouble, the God of peace is there. He wipes away their sorrows, he vanishes their care.

Their joys are still increasing, their songs are ever new. They praise the eternal Father, the Son and Spirit too. The host of saints around him proclaim his work of grace. The patriarchs and prophets, and of the godly race, Who speak of fiery trials and tortures on their way. They came from tribulation to everlasting day. Now with the holy transport they tell their suffering's o'er. Their tears and their temptations and all the pains they bore, They turned and bowed to Jesus who gained their liberty. Amid our fiercest dangers, our lives are hidden in Thee.

In our study on anger, we come now to a very important part of that study, talking about anger toward God. I hope that this part of the study will be particularly beneficial to you. If you want the broadcast to continue on your local station, we certainly would appreciate your support. You can make a donation by going to our website at BaptistBibleHour.org. And I do hope you will visit the website.

Our new website is up and our new feature is available, and we hope that you will visit us there. I suppose that all of us have at times asked the question, Why? Some trouble comes to our life, some unexpected affliction. We just don't understand.

Why did this thing come to my life or why did it come now? Very often we are unable to really get a clear definitive answer to that question. We are left to travel by faith, trusting God, committing our way into His hands, concluding that He knows best and we are going to rest all with Him.

But with some, this questioning goes much farther. It's not just a matter of saying, Lord, I don't understand. I'm perplexed, I'm disturbed, I'm anguished. It begins to settle in with a resentment against God. Many people are angry at God. And in this day when great many religious leaders are encouraging the integration of Christianity and psychiatry, the integrationists are telling people in their counseling rooms, It's all right to be angry with God. He can take it.

Tell Him about it. Tell God what has upset you. Tell God why you're angry. And in fact you may have to forgive God for some of the things that have happened to you. Now it doesn't take but just a moment of contemplation on such advice if you have any deep insight into the principles of the Word of God to know that the idea of forgiving God is just preposterous. To say that I'm going to forgive somebody means they have done something wrong. God has never done anything wrong.

So we don't have to forgive Him for anything. There is no justification, no excuse, no way we can condone and justify being angry with God. So as we continue these messages on the theme of anger, that's the subject I want to now deal with, anger at God.

First of all we're going to talk about the cause. And as we have done already in other parts of this message, we're going to look at some biblical examples. We earlier looked at the experience of Cain with respect to his anger against his brother Abel and the fact that his anger led him to murder. But we're going to look at that again in this connection, seeing that in effect the real anger that Cain had was against God. Genesis chapter 4 verse 5, But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect, and Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth, and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door, and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. Can anybody possibly look at this account and imagine a counselor telling Cain, It's all right to be angry with God.

I understand how you feel. You have been deeply hurt. Your brother was accepted. His offering, his sacrifice was approved. Yours was not.

No wonder you're depressed. We understand that. All we have to do is examine the lesson that's before us and we see what the problem was. Because God defined the problem. Verse 7, God says, If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?

What was the real problem? Cain was disobedient. He was rebellious. God had made it clear that the sacrifice to be offered was a blood sacrifice. It was necessary that it might typify the coming redeemer, the Lamb of God that would be slain at Calvary.

Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. The offering of the fruit of the field, as beautiful as it may have been, was not acceptable. It did not represent the right lesson. Cain, though, like many in our time, reasoned that since it was his effort, it was kind of a personal thing with him.

He was a tiller of the soil. Why wouldn't God receive something that was important in his mind? But people talk like that today. I just believe that if you're sincere about it, God is going to accept whatever you do. You know, let's not be picky about the details of religion. Let's not get down to specifics, like Jesus said, that they that worship must worship in spirit and in truth.

Let's just do what we feel comfortable with. I wonder sometimes when I pass the billboards of churches and see signs out saying contemporary worship. I wonder sometimes what that means. When I read after some of the church growth people today, who say that churches need to survey the community and find out what people want, and then build a church to meet their need. I wonder how that fits into the explicit testimony of the word of God, which lays out for us what we're to believe and how we're to serve. When the tabernacle was built in Old Testament times, did God suggest that the people get together and just have a conference meeting and discuss what they might like? Somebody well could have come and said, you know, there's some things over here in this religion that I admire.

And there's some people over here that really are pretty outstanding people, and I'd like to incorporate a little of theirs. In fact, if we get enough things from a variety of religions, then those people are going to feel very comfortable to come with us. We're not going to offend anybody, so let's make it piecemeal and we'll just bring it all together. Is that the plan?

No. God said, you're to build the tabernacle according to the pattern that was shown thee in the mount. God told them what kind of a structure to build. He told them what kind of materials to use. He gave them the dimensions. He told them who was to do the building of it. He told them who was to move it after it was built.

Some very specific instructions given on that. They couldn't just ask for volunteers. There were people in specific tribes that were given certain responsibilities. They were to do what was expected and required of them. Sacrifices were to be made. What kind of sacrifices? Just what anybody desired to bring?

No. There was to be a lamb slain. There was to be a red heifer slain on the brazen altar. There were to be various sacrifices at appointed times and all of this was to be carried out in explicit detail as God had given it.

Nobody had the right to say, I feel more comfortable with another plan. We today are to believe the word of God. There's no book like the Bible. The 66 books of the Bible are given us by divine inspiration. Preserved by divine providence. Brought to us today as our only guide and rule.

The only authoritative source that we have. The doctrine that we're to believe is laid out in this book. The kind of life that we're to live is laid out in this book. The manner in which we're to serve God is laid out in this book. But Cain didn't like that approach. He said, here's the way I want to do it. And when God did not receive His sacrifice, He was angry.

Very wroth. And His countenance fell. You could see it in His face. He was clamming up. He was pouting in the most severe form.

Angry at God. If somebody was there, He might well have said, you know, it just doesn't seem fair. It just doesn't seem right.

I just don't appreciate this. How can this be? And He was so angry. As you know, He took His brother's life. But what did God say was at the heart of the whole problem. If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted. Cain, if you would do it right, if you would simply do what I said, do it my way, all would be well.

Not any problem. But the problem is, you have set your will up against mine. You're determined I'm going to do it my way, no matter what. I think I've got a right to choose. I want my way. Isn't that the biggest problem with most human beings? Including you and me? Basically, if we could just have our way all the time, well, I started to say we'd be happy, but we wouldn't.

We'd really be miserable. How many times have you just been set on having your way and finally you got it and now you said, oh Lord, have mercy on me. Get me out of this predicament. I've now had my way and I see what it's brought me. But oh, that part of our human nature. I want my way. I don't want anybody to be able to challenge me, criticize me, tell me that I'm wrong. I just want to do things my way.

And that thinking is encouraged in today's society. Be independent. Be your own person.

Go for it. What do you want? What do you want to be? How do you want to think? How can anybody possibly judge your thinking?

You've got to write. Chart your own course. Think as you want to think. Believe as you want to believe. That was Cain's problem. God said, if you do well, you're going to be accepted. There won't be this problem.

This conflict won't be here if you'll do well, if you'll do the right thing. How many times do you suppose there have been individuals who were extremely angry? Maybe they were not ready to come right out and say, I'm angry at God, but you could clearly see that anger was eating them up.

And they started their long list of complaints. Oh, let me tell you about what happened to me back here so many years ago. Let me tell you about this tragedy and that.

Let me tell you about how this person harmed me and this person imposed upon me and this person mistreated me and on and on the long list goes. And if you just scratch the surface a little bit, right underneath is a thought, why did God suffer all this to happen to me? Where was God when all this was going on? Why wasn't God doing something? Why isn't God doing something now? Now I recognize that there are troubles and trials that touch our life over which we have no control and which we did not instigate.

And we'll talk more about that as we proceed here. But in some instances, if we really probe down to the depth of the matter, we discover that the real issue is we got ourselves into a lot of difficulties because we were so headstrong we said, this is the way I want to do it. Many people today who live with gigantic problems in their lives on a day-to-day basis are reaping the consequences of broken marriages and a disregard for an approach to financial matters that would be biblical in its basis. Having lived on a very selfish, greedy course and now there are many, many complications and it's like, Lord, why don't you get me out of all this mess?

I just don't understand. Why isn't God blessing me to have a smoother life? In fact, I remember talking to an individual some time ago who said, you know, I just really am going through a bad time. I was brought up to believe in God and basically I've always believed in Him, but I look at all the trouble there is in the world and all the things that have happened to me in my life and it really makes me wonder. I really start questioning, if there is a God, why doesn't He straighten all this mess out? And the more I talk to this individual and the more I found out about his life, God was not the one that had entangled his life. He had done that all by himself.

He didn't have to have any help. As a matter of fact, he had become an expert at making bad decisions and he was reaping the consequence of it and this was bringing him to question the very existence of God. Why doesn't God straighten out all these consequences?

Simple truth is, you do well and things will go well. I'm not saying that living obediently means you're never going to have any trials. We've dealt with that at other times. The child of God may at times walk in darkness even when he is obeying the voice of the servant and God has a sovereign purpose in all that. But it's clear from what we observe in this passage that when somebody is rebellious and determined to have their own way and do things their way and ignore what God says, there are going to be some consequences. And so Cain was angry at God.

Now let's turn to 1 Chronicles chapter 13 and see another vivid example. See what the cause of anger is. There's several examples in the scripture where it is clearly evident that somebody was angry against God. And as I wanted to prepare for this subject matter that we've been bringing you, if I was able to find a place in the Bible where God ever said to somebody, it's all right to be mad at me, I wanted to find that. Because I know that there are people giving out that kind of advice today. And so I don't want to speak against that if it's not wrong.

I've searched and I haven't come across a case like that. But I've come across several cases where people were very angry and when you trace down the real reason, they were out of step with God. They decided we're going to do it our way. All right, that's what we'll look at here in 1 Chronicles chapter 13. In the first verse, 1 Chronicles 13, it says, And David consulted with the captains of thousands and hundreds and with every leader. And David said unto all the congregation of Israel, If it seem good unto you that it be of the Lord our God, let us send abroad unto our brethren everywhere that are left in all the land of Israel, and with them also to the priests and to the Levites which are in their cities and suburbs, that they may gather themselves unto us, and let us bring again the ark of our God to us, for we inquired not at it in the days of Saul. All right, David says it's time for us to bring back the ark. What ark is he talking about? The ark of the covenant. That ark that was part of the furniture that was in the tabernacle and later the temple. That place which was the representation of the very presence of God, where the Shekinah glory, that great fire that continuously burned, was a designation that God is here. For about fifty years, the ark had not been in Jerusalem where it rightly belonged. David said, I believe it's time for us to bring it back. In the days of Saul, the ark was not given its proper place.

And now let us bring it again. In verse four, and all the congregation said that they would do so, for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people. All right, what do we have here unfolding before us? An account of a leader desiring to do the right thing.

People who respond. That's wonderful. A man has a burden about something that is appropriate and right and calls upon God's people to be involved and participate and they favorably respond and say, that's a good idea, we want to join with you. We want to see the ark brought back. Now since it had been an extended period of time, since they had moved the ark, they evidently were not mindful of some of the regulations and requirements that God had given. There was no reason not to be.

David, the leader, was very knowledgeable of the law in many other areas. But you know, it's easy for us as time passes to decide that some things are not all that important. Even though God said it, we just kind of shift it over here in the background and say that's not really all that important. The important thing is getting the ark back.

Now the details of how we're going to get it here, who's going to move it, the mode of transportation, is anybody really concerned about that? Aren't we concerned about the end result? I hear that all the time these days. People say, look at the success over here.

Look at the positive results. Oh yes, there may have been false doctrine involved. There may have been a psychological approach instead of a biblical one, but if you get where you want to be, doesn't that make it right? Doesn't that justify it? That thinking just responds in human nature. That makes sense to me?

Is that what we're concerned about? The end result? I know somebody that was greatly helped. We talk about people being overly medicated, but I know somebody that's got a whole new personality. But how many times a person will point over here and say, well here's an individual who's got a whole new personality. That must mean everything's alright.

Whatever personality they have may be short lived and if it's coming out of the medicine bottle, it will dry up one of these days or turn sour. You see, just because a person says something positive has been accomplished, doesn't mean that it pleases God. Our concern must not be our immediate comfort, getting rid of the pain, removing the discomfort, accomplishing the end result of what we want to see. Our primary concern must be in all things to glorify God.

That means we've got to do things God's way. I'm glad you've been with us today and hope you'll come back tomorrow as we continue this study on the subject of anger at God. If you'd like to write us, our address is Baptist Bible Hour, Box 17037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217.

Until we greet you next time, this is LeSary Bradley Jr. beating you goodbye and may God bless you. Praising my Savior. Praising my Savior. Praising my Savior. All the day long.