Slow To Anger, Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. It's just like the light on your dashboard. Engine warning. Is there any problem with the light on your dashboard? If your light's flashing on your dashboard, will that do harm to your car? Just in itself?

No, not at all. Some of you don't like the light. You kind of view it that way. If I put a piece of tape over it, then everything will be fine.

But it won't, will it? Because the whole idea is it's telling me, it's warning me. Anger is a secondary emotion. There's always something primary going on.

Rejection, in this case jealousy, there's always another reason that you're angry. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. This week I'm going to start the sermon with the exact same question I asked you last week. You angry today? Have you been angry this week? Angry.

Webster's dictionary said it's a strong feeling of displeasure or hostility. And last week what I did is I made the foundation from the book of Proverbs, the wisdom literature of God. And Proverbs told us three things about anger. One is there are dangerous consequences when we mishandle it. Two, there are spiritual benefits when we express anger correctly, sort of a kind word turns away wrath. And then three, but most importantly by far, to handle anger correctly, you have to see life as God sees life. And that for us is the problem. That's the rub.

We don't. If you remember last week in Matthew five, I just went to what Jesus said. Jesus said, love your enemies.

OK. How easy is that for you? And he also said, pray for those who persecute you. So if you're being persecuted by someone, do you pray for them? You've got to be honest here. That's not who we are. That's not how we act. We don't act like that at all. We get angry. Because we don't see life the way God sees life. And so the Bible uses terms anger and wrath hundreds of times throughout the whole Bible.

But when you read it, you'll notice something. God is angry. He handles it in one way. When we get angry, we handle it in very, very different ways. One of the worst things about our anger that's totally misguided is we always believe that our anger is justified. And I used the example last time of Jesus cleaning out the money changers in the temple, you know, and that Jesus confronted the Pharisees for stealing the kingdom of God. But Jesus never showed anger like that to the Romans, to sinners ever. But we, no matter how we show anger, we justify it in our mind. And so I want to look at today, continue this thought and look at how humans express anger in the Bible. And I want to start right in the beginning. Genesis Chapter four in verse three.

Genesis four. The first emotion that comes after the fall. Is anger.

That's how fast that shows up. In fact, because of our fallen nature. One of the manifestations of our fallen nature is our anger.

And though even though anger can be under certain conditions acceptable, most of the time, it's not. And it's the way that we express it. So we come to the story of Cain and Abel. And it says in verse three, so it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground. Now, Cain's the firstborn. His name is Cain in Hebrew.

We anglicized it and call it Cain. And what's interesting about it, it means from the same as. That's his name. I'm from the same as you say.

What's that mean? He's from his parents. He's the first child ever.

I'm just like them. You see, he's the first one. Eve names him Cain. And her thought is that God made man. And now with God's help, I'm making a man.

And so there's a lot of hopefulness with Eve when she names Cain. Notice he came and brought an offering to God. And it was from the fruit of the ground. Because after the fall, some things changed. One is you have to till the ground now. Before the fall, you didn't have to do that. You didn't pull weeds.

You didn't do anything. It was there. And secondly, you have to care for sheep. And the reason is not just for what sheep offer for wool, for meat and all that. But sheep becomes the offering to God for sin.

In fact, the scripture says without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. And so you have Cain and Abel making this minha, this offering. And it says Abel on his part, it says brought the firstlings of his flock of their fat portions.

That reads bad in English. Hebrews says this. He brought the fattest of the fatlings of his flock.

And fat would be considered very good. So he bought the best sheep he had. And then it says that the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering. But for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. So here's the first offerings, Cain and Abel. God regards one high, the other one not at all.

Now, the question is, why did he respond like that? We're not sure exactly because the scripture doesn't say that. But my thought is God never asked us to do anything that he hasn't told us how to do it or what to do. So I'm pretty well convinced personally he told Cain and Abel what an offering would be. Cain ignored it. I'll just offer him what I want to offer.

Clearly, for sure, their attitudes are different. Notice that Abel gives him the best the best offering he has. Cain's view might have been, that's just the duty. Look, I'll just take some plants, give it to God, he'll be happy. And God said, I won't regard that because one of the things about offering to God that applies even to today, you come in here today and you're worshipping. And you say, I'm giving this as an offering to God. If your heart's not in it, you didn't give anything to God. He completely disregards what you do. You can't do things and say the external thing I do will make God happy.

It won't. That's just religiosity in one form or another. And God always rejects it because he only looks at your heart. And so consequently, the attitude that Abel has is completely different than the attitude that Cain has. So it says when he had no regard, so Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. So here's our first example of human anger. He's very angry and he's mad because God had rejected it.

Now, that's interesting. The next verse is God said, why are you angry? Why is your countenance fell? Now, understand, God never asked a question to find an answer.

It's always rhetorical. God only asked questions for your sake. He never asked him, so he'll know. He says, what are you angry about? He said, if you do well, will your countenance not be lifted up?

This is interesting. God knows he's angry. Cain knows he's angry. And God said, look, it'll be okay if you do well now. God offers him grace and forgiveness. There's an offering.

If you do well, you'll feel fine. Well, what ended up happening, he said, if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. It's desires for you and you've got to master it. Now, let's take the sin and equate it with what's going on, anger. Anger is always crouching at the door. You either master your anger or your anger will master you. In fact, for some of you, your primary identity is you're an angry person.

You're just angry. He said, you let it master you. Now, we know this, and he says to Cain, you have a choice to make here. It's up to you. So Cain told his brother, Abel, his brother.

You've got to love that. God has this conversation, Cain and Abel go out together, and Cain tells Abel about the conversation he had with God. Now, think about it from another point of view. How many other people could Cain talk to? I mean, just your parents.

How much do you want to talk to your parents for the rest of your life? So that he said, hey, God said this to me. It's an interesting statement. He tells his brother, and it came about then when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and he killed him. He murdered him in the first degree. Now, we know that part of the issues for him here is that he's not just rejected by God, but he's jealous of his brother. You see, he's jealous of his brother. God accepted that. He didn't accept mine.

I feel rejected. Now, please understand as we go along here with anger. Anger is just like the light on your dashboard. Engine warning. Is there any problem with the light on your dashboard? Does the light have anything? If your light's flashing on your dashboard, will that do harm to your car? Just in itself?

No, not at all. Some of you don't like the light. You kind of view it that way.

If I put a piece of tape over it, then everything will be fine. But it won't, will it? Because the whole idea is it's telling me, it's warning me. Anger is a secondary emotion. Anger is secondary.

There's always something primary going on. Rejection, in this case, jealousy. There's always another reason that you're angry, and that becomes an important way in understanding it. So, Cain has these issues. He apparently didn't care or didn't think about what God said. Secondly, he felt rejected by God even though God gave him an opportunity to come back. Thirdly, he's jealous of his brother.

And so, fourthly, he murders his brother. And that's what we say. Well, they say that's terrible.

That's just terrible. See, you may say I'm angry, but I wouldn't murder someone. It won't matter.

Really, not my opinion. Hold your place here and go with me to Matthew 5, verse 21. Jesus is speaking. Matthew 5, 21. Jesus says something we all know first. He said, you have heard that the ancients were told you shall not commit murder, and whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.

Jesus said it's always been the case. You shall not commit murder. That's one of the Ten Commandments, right? And if you do, you're going to get justice, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

If you commit murder, it's a capital offense that will cost you your life. Jesus said that. But what's what Jesus says next? But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty, he says, before the court. And whoever says to his brother you good for nothing shall be guilty before the Supreme Court. And whoever says you fool shall be guilty enough to go into fiery hell.

Wow. You ever said harsh words to someone when you're mad? I mean, you see how this works?

We should know. See, the problem with Cain was he murdered him. No, the problem with Cain was he had anger.

And see, remember what I said. You have to see life as God sees life. God sees life, sees anger, in this case is sin. You see, and what does sin do? It separates me from God.

He said that's how serious sin is. See, we have a tendency to say, look, you know, I get angry a lot, but I haven't killed anybody. I get angry a lot, but I wouldn't hit somebody. Maybe you don't have to.

How many people have been abused for most of their life because someone in their life is verbally abusing them all the time because they're angry? You see, Jesus says anger to me is a way more serious issue than it is to you. As I said earlier, you have to see life the way God sees it.

That becomes a perspective. So we go back to what Cain enabled in Genesis. So verse nine, the Lord said to Cain, Where's your brother?

Now the Lord knows. Where's your brother? Cain said, I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper?

Now, when there's only two brothers on earth, you kind of know when your brother is, you know, a pretty easy answer. He said, notice what he does. He has disdain for God.

What's that tell you? He's angry at God. He said, Am I my brother's keeper?

What are you asking me for? By the way, he's also now lying. He's lying to God.

He knows right where he is. He said to him, What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground. I gave you a chance, Cain.

You wouldn't take it. Now you lie to me and you mock me. He says, Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you cultivate the ground, it shall no longer yield strength to you. You shall be a vagrant and a wonder on the earth.

Things are going to get harder for you. And let me ask you something. What could have God done to him right then, justly? Executed him.

In fact, that's in the law. He could have been executed. God says life's going to be a little harder for you. Now watch Cain's response. He said to the Lord, My punishment's too great to bear. It was unbelievably hard on me. You killed your brother.

That's hard. I'm going to wonder around. He goes on. He says, Behold, you have driven me this day from the face of the ground and from your face I shall be hidden and I shall be a vagrant and a wonder on the earth. And it will come about that whoever finds me will kill me. Or take a while, there's more children have to come along.

There's a lot to go on before that, he said. So the Lord said to him, Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken in him sevenfold. What's that, Grace? Cain, you're not going to die. But does this tell you something about Cain's personality? How self-absorbed is this man? How selfish is this man?

How proudful is this man? And notice how he manifested anger. He manifests this out of his anger. So it's not just the underlying things for Cain. Cain is his selflessness, self-centeredness, his pride. That's why he killed his brother.

His jealousy and he ends up killing him. All because of one thing, he didn't see life at all like God did. He saw life like fallen man sees life.

Diametrically opposed to how God does. Next example, Jonah chapter 4. Jonah chapter 4.

We'll start in chapter one, so if you just get to the book, I just want to read a couple of verses to you. Now, Jonah is a prophet. So he's been set aside by God to be a prophet.

It's a big time job. And Jonah is a prophet and God has a message for him. In verse one of chapter one, he says, The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai and said to him, Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.

Now, that's all he told him. Arise, go to Nineveh, and please understand, Nineveh is the capital of Assyria. The Assyrians are the cruelest people on earth. They have conquered everybody and no one has done it with the cruelty of Assyrians.

Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, for a long time on the major roads from each direction that came into the capital, for as long as 10 to 20 miles, depending on the historian you read, the road would be lined with single stakes up through a person's crotch, up into their neck area, and they crucified them and they lined their highway with it to let you know you're coming to Nineveh. And this is what Nineveh does to their enemies. And so he tells them, You're going to go there.

Their evil has come into my... And go and tell them that. Now, what's interesting, what Jonah doesn't do is what you and I might do. I'm not going there.

You know, this is... What? No, I don't think. But he's not full of fear. He's full of hatred. He's prejudiced. You see, he's prejudiced. And so notice when God told him to do that... And by the way, when God tells a prophet to do something, what should a prophet do?

That. He doesn't. It says here, Jonah rose up the fleet of Tarshis from the presence of the Lord. God said, Go a few hundred miles northeast. Jonah went a thousand miles west. In fact, he went to Spain, the furthest... He thought that's the end of the world. So he got as far away from what God told him to do as he could possibly do.

Now, you also know what happened. He got on the boat. There was this fish, the great fish, all that stuff. So I want to go to chapter 3 now, second time this happens, verse 1. Now, the word of the Lord came to Jonah second time and said, Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim to it, he said, The proclamation which I'm going to tell you. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days walk. Big city across. Likely around 600,000 people.

That's a gigantic city for the ancient world. Now, this time he went. I remember he had a rough time of it.

He's in the belly of the great fish, got spooked out. You know, he's going to go. So then Jonah began to walk through the city one day's walk, and he cried out, and he said to him, Forty days from now, Nineveh's going to get overthrown.

Let me paraphrase. Forty days from now, and you're all going to die. That's his message. Forty days, you're all dead. Now, if you're trying to lead a revival, does that sound like a really good message?

But it was a true message. Now, Jonah had the same. He hates these people. He just says it.

OK, did we ask? First five, then the people of Nineveh believed in God, and they called a fast. They put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. And when the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne.

He laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and set on the ashes. He issued a proclamation, and it said, In Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles, do not let man, beast, herd, flock taste a thing, nor let them eat or drink water. Now, that's what half a million people say. How many animals?

How do you keep animals from not drinking water? I mean, just think of the logistics. See, you're going to have to do this, and it goes on. And he says, but both man and beast must be covered in sackcloth. Here, kitty, kitty. Or how about this? Hey, you see that big bull oxen? Go put a sackcloth on him. King said so.

You can just imagine what this is. It says, and let the men call on God. And he said earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way. And he said, and from the violence, he said which is in his hands.

Who knows? God may turn and relent and withdraw his burning anger so that we shall not perish. And when God saw their deeds and that they had turned from their wicked way, he relented concerning the calamity, and he declared that he would bring upon them.

He did not do it. The greatest single revival, one day revival ever. Notice what revival is. It's very much a God thing.

How clever was this, the approach Jonah took? 40 days, and you're all getting it. Sometimes you'll tell me things like this. I'd really like to share the gospel with the neighbor or the guy at work.

You know, I don't have any idea what to say, though, because they might ask questions, and I just feel so inadequate. The greatest revival ever done with this pig in a country that ever existed, he said one sentence, 40 days, and you're overthrown, and they all converted. It's a God thing.

It's not a you thing. Look, if you know enough to be saved, you know enough to lead any human being to Christ, because it's not your work. It's his. At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word, 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana, 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org. That's F-B-C-N-O-L-A dot O-R-G. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives and the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word. .