WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.440 So, we're going to look this morning at, go back to the book of Proverbs, which is in 00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:13.519 the Old Testament, and it is kind of the best way to describe it, maybe, is God's book of 00:00:13.519 --> 00:00:14.519 common sense. 00:00:14.519 --> 00:00:21.760 It is a lot of wisdom that comes from God teaching us in the light of grace and in the 00:00:21.760 --> 00:00:25.800 light of His covenant, how to live in very practical ways. 00:00:25.800 --> 00:00:27.800 So it deals with very practical stuff. 00:00:27.800 --> 00:00:34.359 So I'm just going to pick, because it's a book that is full of very short one-off sayings, 00:00:34.359 --> 00:00:40.240 it's easier to look at it in themes rather than maybe reading through a chapter of Proverbs. 00:00:40.240 --> 00:00:45.240 And the theme this morning is anger, because the Bible is quite a lot to say about anger, 00:00:45.240 --> 00:00:46.240 and we're going to look at... 00:00:46.240 --> 00:00:51.840 Well, I'm going to pick out three Proverbs to read at the moment, and you'll see the theme 00:00:51.840 --> 00:00:53.240 coming through from that. 00:00:53.240 --> 00:00:57.200 And then we'll kind of look at wider... 00:00:57.200 --> 00:01:00.520 There'll be quite a lot of looking at wider scripture today as well. 00:01:00.520 --> 00:01:04.799 So there's three readings, three verses from Proverbs. 00:01:04.799 --> 00:01:10.079 The first is Proverbs chapter one, which some of you may well know, and some of these Proverbs 00:01:10.079 --> 00:01:15.680 have actually come into just everyday language and everyday life for us. 00:01:15.680 --> 00:01:21.560 Proverbs 15 verse one, which maybe will come up, there we go. 00:01:21.560 --> 00:01:27.719 A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. 00:01:27.719 --> 00:01:33.799 And then the second one is Proverbs 22, verse 24, make no friendship with a man given to 00:01:33.799 --> 00:01:37.240 anger nor go to a wrathful man. 00:01:37.240 --> 00:01:42.840 And then 30, verse 33, my favorite one of my favorite verses, the whole Bible, for pressing 00:01:42.840 --> 00:01:50.760 milk produces curds, pressing the nose produces blood, and pressing anger produces strife. 00:01:50.760 --> 00:01:57.760 I think in the NIV it says, twisting the nose produces strife, and I can't remember what 00:01:57.760 --> 00:02:03.800 it says, but it's slightly funnier in the NIV. 00:02:03.800 --> 00:02:13.040 But nonetheless, it's really saying that anger can easily be provoked, and when it's provoked 00:02:13.040 --> 00:02:16.800 in the wrong way, it causes strife and division. 00:02:16.800 --> 00:02:23.080 So these are three of the Proverbs, I'll be dipping into various other verses from Proverbs, 00:02:23.080 --> 00:02:26.480 I'll mention them. 00:02:26.480 --> 00:02:32.400 Actually the NIV one is, for churning cream produces butter and twisting the nose produces 00:02:32.400 --> 00:02:35.680 blood, so stirring up anger produces strife. 00:02:35.680 --> 00:02:43.120 So anger is a huge subject, and I'm going to try and be practical because Proverbs is 00:02:43.120 --> 00:02:51.080 a very practical book, and it is bringing our relationship with Christ as Christians, 00:02:51.080 --> 00:02:57.280 what Christ has done for us, into a very practical realm, into the way He wants to change our 00:02:57.280 --> 00:03:02.000 heart and some of the issues that we have in our hearts. 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:03.439 So an anger is one of them. 00:03:03.439 --> 00:03:05.640 I want to know what you think of when you think of anger. 00:03:05.640 --> 00:03:09.840 There's lots of different things, maybe it may be injustice, maybe bad temper, which 00:03:09.840 --> 00:03:15.800 you've spoken about there, maybe scary people are being hurt, or maybe you think of the 00:03:15.800 --> 00:03:21.560 Incredible Hulk, or maybe if you're Scottish you think of Ballistic Bob from Turing the 00:03:21.560 --> 00:03:28.120 Fat, who used to just lose it after so much when they tried to open the cellotape at Christmas 00:03:28.120 --> 00:03:33.920 time and just throw in the whole room and knocking over everything because he just lost 00:03:33.920 --> 00:03:34.920 his temper. 00:03:34.919 --> 00:03:41.159 Or maybe the film, the classic film, one of my all-time favourites, 12 Angry Men, or maybe 00:03:41.159 --> 00:03:46.439 you're immediately thinking, move towards social media, which can be so vicious with 00:03:46.439 --> 00:03:51.759 personal insults and with rage, and maybe particularly post lockdown, we've seen that 00:03:51.759 --> 00:03:53.799 spilling into society. 00:03:53.799 --> 00:03:57.679 We've seen it in our neighbourhoods and we've seen it on our streets, increasingly. 00:03:57.679 --> 00:04:03.639 Great amount of impatience, and we see a great deal of ugliness that comes from angry hearts 00:04:03.639 --> 00:04:10.000 that spill out into our public relationships with one another. 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:15.839 Maybe particularly today you feel affected by anger, maybe the anger of other people, 00:04:15.839 --> 00:04:21.319 maybe you've been the victim of people who have been very angry in what you regard as 00:04:21.319 --> 00:04:25.639 a very unjust way, or maybe you yourself. 00:04:25.639 --> 00:04:32.599 And if we're all honest, I think, and I certainly would recognise that welling up of an unrighteous 00:04:32.600 --> 00:04:38.920 anger that sometimes we experience, and we have a problem with our temper, with a problem 00:04:38.920 --> 00:04:40.600 of being in control of that. 00:04:40.600 --> 00:04:48.720 So it's a huge sociological, I think, physiological, philosophical, theological issue, but I'm 00:04:48.720 --> 00:04:53.080 going to be mainly practical in the short time we have together. 00:04:53.080 --> 00:04:59.480 But I think it's important to stress at the beginning about the reality of anger that 00:04:59.480 --> 00:05:00.760 God has anger. 00:05:00.759 --> 00:05:06.240 Now, we might want to walk away from that concept, because what I'm not saying is that 00:05:06.240 --> 00:05:09.959 we have a… as a lot of people who maybe are not Christians think that we've got an 00:05:09.959 --> 00:05:19.000 angry God, a God who's capricious and full of rage and just full of wild temper. 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:24.439 That's not what the Bible describes a tall of God, and it's not what God is in His character. 00:05:24.439 --> 00:05:31.800 But in John 3, verse 36, we've got, not long after the very famous verse about, for 00:05:31.800 --> 00:05:34.879 God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not 00:05:34.879 --> 00:05:36.759 perish but have everlasting life. 00:05:36.759 --> 00:05:40.759 We have these words, whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. 00:05:40.759 --> 00:05:45.240 Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on Him. 00:05:45.240 --> 00:05:49.800 So the Bible often speaks about the wrath of God in terms of His anger. 00:05:49.800 --> 00:05:56.400 And so the Bible clearly displays a God who is wrathful and angry. 00:05:56.400 --> 00:06:05.040 We sung about it in Psalm 90 and also in the hymn just before the sermon there that we 00:06:05.040 --> 00:06:08.840 sung in Christ alone. 00:06:08.840 --> 00:06:14.759 And the Bible makes clear that God is perfect, that God is good, and He is an unchanging 00:06:14.759 --> 00:06:15.759 character. 00:06:15.759 --> 00:06:24.000 He is infinitely holy and just and loving, and He's the author of all of life, and that 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:27.120 is His great glory. 00:06:27.120 --> 00:06:36.839 But His anger is a reflection of His justice and of His love, of His perfection and of 00:06:36.839 --> 00:06:38.519 His holiness. 00:06:38.519 --> 00:06:43.719 Because if you don't have perfect anger, then you can't have perfect justice or perfect 00:06:43.720 --> 00:06:55.960 love because His anger is a recognition and a response to His hatred of evil and of sin. 00:06:55.960 --> 00:07:03.440 Because evil and sin are destructive of who God is and what He has created, which is life 00:07:03.440 --> 00:07:08.000 and the world in which we live. 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:12.600 So it's a reflection of His justice and it's a reflection of His character. 00:07:12.600 --> 00:07:19.080 It's never moodiness, it's never capricious, it's never bad tempered, it's never a flash 00:07:19.080 --> 00:07:20.280 of heat. 00:07:20.280 --> 00:07:22.320 It doesn't change. 00:07:22.320 --> 00:07:23.879 It's fixed. 00:07:23.879 --> 00:07:33.960 It is a fixed and rational and reasonable response to all that is dark and black and 00:07:33.960 --> 00:07:37.800 evil and sinful. 00:07:37.800 --> 00:07:43.280 And it will always, because God is God and because He's eternal and infinite, it will 00:07:43.280 --> 00:07:45.120 always be meted out. 00:07:45.120 --> 00:07:52.240 His justice, His judgment will always be meted out on sin and on evil because sin and evil 00:07:52.240 --> 00:07:56.240 is destructive of who God is and of what He's created. 00:07:56.240 --> 00:08:04.720 And sin and evil is destructive of us and of life and of love and of goodness. 00:08:04.720 --> 00:08:11.280 Something that usurps God and His glory and His truth and His love and His life will be 00:08:11.280 --> 00:08:16.880 judged and the consequence of all of that, and we've seen that and we know that from 00:08:16.880 --> 00:08:22.760 the progressive revelation that we have in Scripture of what our condition is, the consequences 00:08:22.760 --> 00:08:23.760 of death. 00:08:23.760 --> 00:08:28.560 So that immediately kind of brings everything that we're looking at today into our own personal 00:08:28.560 --> 00:08:35.720 space because we're all people who experience anger and no anger, but we also are people 00:08:35.720 --> 00:08:39.080 who are mortal and we all die. 00:08:39.080 --> 00:08:45.600 And therefore dying is not just a natural thing, it is as a consequence of our sin and 00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:47.919 rebellion against God. 00:08:47.919 --> 00:08:49.840 So we have this reality of who God is. 00:08:49.840 --> 00:08:52.919 I'll say a little bit more about that as we go on. 00:08:52.919 --> 00:08:59.120 But taking that then into what the Bible goes on to say of us as being image bearers. 00:08:59.120 --> 00:09:02.240 So we are image bearers of this God. 00:09:02.240 --> 00:09:10.639 So anger is part of being image bearers of God, and that's important to remember. 00:09:10.639 --> 00:09:13.000 It's core to our humanity. 00:09:13.000 --> 00:09:17.319 Every single one of us deals with and faces anger in our lives. 00:09:17.320 --> 00:09:25.040 It's something that comes from God, but it's been bruised and broken and disordered because 00:09:25.040 --> 00:09:30.440 of our sin and our rebellion against God and losing relationship with God. 00:09:30.440 --> 00:09:39.040 But that means that our anger in all its wrongness is redeemable and can be good. 00:09:39.040 --> 00:09:42.840 So I want you to remember that and just keep that with you just for the rest of the sermon. 00:09:42.840 --> 00:09:47.840 There is something good and redeemable, or redeemable and good about anger, but we need 00:09:47.840 --> 00:09:52.960 to look at it and see it in the context of Christ and grace and the changed hearts that 00:09:52.960 --> 00:09:56.480 He works within us as believers. 00:09:56.480 --> 00:10:00.399 But as image bearers, we get that, don't we, about anger? 00:10:00.399 --> 00:10:05.160 I hope, even if you're not a Christian today, I hope you get the fact that when we think 00:10:05.159 --> 00:10:13.120 of God and anger, that's not a bad thing because we imperfectly get that in our own anger. 00:10:13.120 --> 00:10:18.439 We get angry when we see something that's really bad and wrong. 00:10:18.439 --> 00:10:25.480 When we are faced with injustice, anger wells up within us, and that's not a bad thing. 00:10:25.480 --> 00:10:27.360 We recoil from evil. 00:10:27.360 --> 00:10:29.959 We are protective of good. 00:10:29.959 --> 00:10:31.399 We hate wrongdoing. 00:10:31.399 --> 00:10:33.720 Sometimes it's maybe wrongdoing in our own terms. 00:10:33.720 --> 00:10:40.639 But nonetheless, every one of us hopes that evil will be held to account, not our evil 00:10:40.639 --> 00:10:45.080 maybe, but everyone else's, especially bad, bad evil. 00:10:45.080 --> 00:10:46.960 We really want that to be taken into account. 00:10:46.960 --> 00:10:49.120 We want there to be justice. 00:10:49.120 --> 00:10:51.360 We don't want people to get off with things. 00:10:51.360 --> 00:10:58.440 We don't want evil and sin and wrongdoing in others far away from us just to be let 00:10:58.440 --> 00:10:59.440 off. 00:10:59.440 --> 00:11:04.520 We fight out against injustice, and it does make us angry. 00:11:04.520 --> 00:11:10.120 So we do imperfectly get the whole concept of righteous anger. 00:11:10.120 --> 00:11:14.800 But maybe what we struggle with a bit more is what God says in His Word, is that we're 00:11:14.800 --> 00:11:15.800 part of... 00:11:15.800 --> 00:11:18.240 We're actually part of the problem as well. 00:11:18.240 --> 00:11:22.880 Not just the injustice and the evil that we see around us or in other people, but we're 00:11:22.880 --> 00:11:24.240 part of the problem. 00:11:24.240 --> 00:11:29.960 Very single, one of us are part of the problem because by nature and by choice and by our 00:11:29.960 --> 00:11:32.480 life we want to take God's place. 00:11:32.480 --> 00:11:35.879 We want to take God's centrality and God's glory. 00:11:35.879 --> 00:11:37.080 We want to be independent. 00:11:37.080 --> 00:11:38.480 We want to be the decision makers. 00:11:38.480 --> 00:11:40.560 We want to decide what's right and wrong. 00:11:40.560 --> 00:11:46.320 We'll decide what we'll get angry at or what we'll get happy with. 00:11:46.320 --> 00:11:48.000 And we don't want God. 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:50.399 We don't want His perfect goodness. 00:11:50.399 --> 00:11:54.600 He's all seeing eye, exposing our hearts and our motives. 00:11:54.600 --> 00:11:55.600 No thanks. 00:11:55.600 --> 00:11:57.120 We don't want that. 00:11:57.120 --> 00:12:04.959 We don't even necessarily want His justice and His love, naturally, because we are sinners 00:12:04.959 --> 00:12:14.279 before a holy God and we face, without Christ, without the gospel and without all of that 00:12:14.279 --> 00:12:19.600 which we'll come to look at, we face God's righteous wrath. 00:12:19.600 --> 00:12:21.040 Because we've fallen short. 00:12:21.040 --> 00:12:24.240 I've fallen short of my own standards. 00:12:24.240 --> 00:12:26.720 How much more of a therefore fallen short of God's. 00:12:26.720 --> 00:12:29.519 And I think we can all associate with that. 00:12:29.519 --> 00:12:37.240 And as believers we recognize that and we recognize that our death in this life, a physical 00:12:37.240 --> 00:12:42.840 death is also symptomatic of a spiritual death that will separate us from God eternally 00:12:42.840 --> 00:12:44.600 under His judgment. 00:12:44.600 --> 00:12:51.200 But sin does distort what we think and how we think about God and it's twisted and distorted 00:12:51.200 --> 00:12:59.080 so that we're angry with Him, we reject Him and we go our own way and we set our own standards. 00:12:59.080 --> 00:13:02.639 Now that is bad news. 00:13:02.639 --> 00:13:04.320 It's really bad news. 00:13:04.320 --> 00:13:06.600 It's dreadful news. 00:13:06.600 --> 00:13:10.720 And sometimes we just recoil from sharing that with people who aren't Christians because 00:13:10.720 --> 00:13:16.000 we think, well, they're never going to turn to Jesus Christ and become Christians if they 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:18.240 hear that kind of stuff. 00:13:18.240 --> 00:13:26.080 But it's until we see that stuff, we're never going to look for and seek out for how remarkable 00:13:26.080 --> 00:13:33.519 the good news of the gospel is and why it's such an amazing thing to trust in Jesus Christ. 00:13:33.519 --> 00:13:39.440 Because we remind ourselves of what Jesus has done for God so loved the world He gave 00:13:39.440 --> 00:13:44.160 His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him has eternal life. 00:13:44.160 --> 00:13:48.600 So what is it that He did with regard to anger and wrath? 00:13:48.600 --> 00:13:58.640 Well, He internalized it because for us, because God knew that we could never make ourselves 00:13:58.640 --> 00:13:59.640 right. 00:13:59.640 --> 00:14:00.640 We could never change our own hearts. 00:14:00.640 --> 00:14:04.220 We could never make ourselves pure and perfect and holy before Him. 00:14:04.220 --> 00:14:08.520 So He says, well, I'm going to have to do it on their behalf. 00:14:08.519 --> 00:14:10.079 He internalized it. 00:14:10.079 --> 00:14:17.840 When you see the cross, what you're seeing is God internalizing His own wrath on Himself, 00:14:17.840 --> 00:14:23.399 on the person of His Son, God the Father, on the person of the Son, taking the punishment 00:14:23.399 --> 00:14:29.079 due to us so that we can be forgiven and redeemed. 00:14:29.079 --> 00:14:33.960 In the big, long words of the children's chagism, He died in our place. 00:14:33.960 --> 00:14:35.639 He was our substitute. 00:14:35.639 --> 00:14:40.759 He took our place and on the cross, it's the only... 00:14:40.759 --> 00:14:41.759 And it's a mystery, isn't it? 00:14:41.759 --> 00:14:42.759 It's a mystery to me. 00:14:42.759 --> 00:14:48.039 I get so frustrated because I can't explain it to myself, let alone to everyone else. 00:14:48.039 --> 00:14:49.960 But what we do have is... 00:14:49.960 --> 00:14:55.399 One of the psalms speaks about the love of God and the justice of God, kiss mutually 00:14:55.399 --> 00:15:00.519 at the fruit of the cross because it's the only place where His great love for us and 00:15:00.519 --> 00:15:08.720 His great justice and wrath against our sinfulness can be dealt with because He becomes our substitute. 00:15:08.720 --> 00:15:10.120 God takes the price. 00:15:10.120 --> 00:15:16.960 God the Son has the Father's wrath poured out on Him. 00:15:16.960 --> 00:15:21.199 So it's an internalization because of God the Son is God, God the Father is God, God 00:15:21.199 --> 00:15:28.319 the Holy Spirit is God, the Trinity together for everyone who will believe in what Jesus 00:15:28.319 --> 00:15:29.319 has done. 00:15:29.320 --> 00:15:38.840 It's this triune decision, willing, voluntary, free, that has always been part of His unchanging 00:15:38.840 --> 00:15:39.840 plan. 00:15:39.840 --> 00:15:44.160 It was always His plan because He knew we could never make ourselves right with God. 00:15:44.160 --> 00:15:51.640 In the infinitude of His love, He's paid the price for our sins and He's taken the wrath 00:15:51.640 --> 00:15:54.640 that is due to us on Himself. 00:15:54.640 --> 00:15:55.640 And so we always need to... 00:15:55.639 --> 00:15:59.639 If we're looking at anger which we are this morning, we always need to see it through 00:15:59.639 --> 00:16:02.559 the lens of the gospel. 00:16:02.559 --> 00:16:04.279 So that brings us on then. 00:16:04.279 --> 00:16:07.600 In the light of the gospel and the light of what Jesus has done to say a few things, 00:16:07.600 --> 00:16:08.679 one is the anger. 00:16:08.679 --> 00:16:13.080 We remember anger can be good when it is redeemed. 00:16:13.080 --> 00:16:21.480 Through faith and in the power of the Spirit, prayerfully, it can become more Christ-like. 00:16:21.480 --> 00:16:24.039 And we're going to come back to that just at the end. 00:16:24.039 --> 00:16:32.959 But we recognize that in our lives as Christians as well, that sinful selfishness destroys 00:16:32.959 --> 00:16:36.120 the outworking of anger from our hearts. 00:16:36.120 --> 00:16:37.599 We've seen that in the Bible. 00:16:37.599 --> 00:16:40.399 We see it from the very beginning. 00:16:40.399 --> 00:16:45.199 That Adam and Eve, in the very beginning misdirected their anger. 00:16:45.199 --> 00:16:50.439 It should have been poured out on Satan, they poured out on God. 00:16:50.439 --> 00:16:51.599 It was put in the wrong place. 00:16:51.600 --> 00:16:57.759 They were angry with God and sadly all of us, all of humanity, if we had stood in their 00:16:57.759 --> 00:17:00.960 place would have done exactly the same. 00:17:00.960 --> 00:17:05.400 And then Cain in his anger, rage kills Abel. 00:17:05.400 --> 00:17:08.160 And then Moses gets angry and murders the Egyptian. 00:17:08.160 --> 00:17:14.120 And then we have the story of Balaam and Ahab and Haman and Esau and Absalom and Jonah. 00:17:14.120 --> 00:17:16.000 Jonah, great son of Jonah. 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:17.799 Who does he get angry with? 00:17:17.799 --> 00:17:22.960 He gets angry at a wee shrub that comes up and then withers away, raging, raging at the 00:17:22.960 --> 00:17:29.200 shrub, raging at God for bringing up this and then taking it away, anger, out of control, 00:17:29.200 --> 00:17:30.200 temper. 00:17:30.200 --> 00:17:35.200 And then we see the Proverbs, some of which we've read and there's some other ones about 00:17:35.200 --> 00:17:36.359 being tempered. 00:17:36.359 --> 00:17:39.359 A hot tempered person stirs up conflict. 00:17:39.359 --> 00:17:45.480 But the one who is patient calms a quarrel, Proverbs 15, 18, Proverbs 17, 17, 27. 00:17:45.480 --> 00:17:50.200 The one who has knowledge uses words with restraint and whoever has understanding is 00:17:50.200 --> 00:17:51.200 even tempered. 00:17:51.200 --> 00:17:56.319 Proverbs 29, 22, an angry person stirs up conflict. 00:17:56.319 --> 00:17:59.880 A hot tempered person commits many sins. 00:17:59.880 --> 00:18:06.200 So this constant recognition in the Proverbs that anger often spills out into just bad 00:18:06.200 --> 00:18:12.599 temper and being out of control and damaging other people and raging at God. 00:18:12.599 --> 00:18:17.599 And we also see in the New Testament there's a couple of verses which highlight anger in 00:18:17.599 --> 00:18:21.399 terms of sinful practices. 00:18:21.399 --> 00:18:29.679 So Ephesians 4.31 says, get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander and every 00:18:29.679 --> 00:18:31.679 form of malice. 00:18:31.679 --> 00:18:37.519 We know these lists that the New Testament apostles have for our practical outworking 00:18:37.519 --> 00:18:40.119 of grace in our lives. 00:18:40.119 --> 00:18:45.119 Colossians 3, 5, 8, put to death therefore whatever belongs to earthly nature, sexual 00:18:45.119 --> 00:18:49.879 immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed which is idolatry. 00:18:49.879 --> 00:18:52.399 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 00:18:52.399 --> 00:18:57.799 So it's interesting you've got wrath of God in the same context as our misplaced anger. 00:18:57.799 --> 00:19:02.559 You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived, but now you must also rid 00:19:02.559 --> 00:19:08.839 yourself of all such things as these, anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language from 00:19:08.839 --> 00:19:09.839 your lips. 00:19:09.839 --> 00:19:15.319 It's all connected to a heart that's out of control, a heart that's still raging against 00:19:15.319 --> 00:19:19.000 God and raging against other people. 00:19:19.000 --> 00:19:23.759 And we see that so often that it's other people's problems, isn't it? 00:19:23.759 --> 00:19:27.439 When our anger gets out of control, it's because someone else is to blame. 00:19:27.439 --> 00:19:32.000 Might be God, it might be our neighbor, it might be our husband or wife, it might be 00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:34.559 our colleague, but it's always someone else. 00:19:34.559 --> 00:19:40.839 And it always gives us a reason to be self-righteous in our anger. 00:19:40.839 --> 00:19:43.799 We know it, don't we, from experience, our irritability. 00:19:43.799 --> 00:19:47.919 How out of perspective our anger can be. 00:19:47.919 --> 00:19:51.759 You know, we rage when we can't control the situation. 00:19:51.759 --> 00:19:53.559 The red, trafficked light. 00:19:53.559 --> 00:19:55.599 We can't control it. 00:19:55.599 --> 00:19:56.599 The time keeping. 00:19:56.599 --> 00:19:59.240 Why can't they be on time? 00:19:59.240 --> 00:20:00.740 And we get so angry. 00:20:00.740 --> 00:20:04.640 The untidiness that we see around us in the office or whatever it is. 00:20:04.640 --> 00:20:08.640 Why can't everyone be tidy and neat like me? 00:20:08.640 --> 00:20:13.960 Or when we argue, so much of our arguing is because maybe someone says something to us 00:20:13.960 --> 00:20:23.039 and so we feel accused, we feel defensive and we get angry. 00:20:23.039 --> 00:20:32.159 How many families in the world have stopped speaking to each other for generations over 00:20:32.159 --> 00:20:41.000 something they can't even remember the start of, or maybe over land or over inheritance? 00:20:41.000 --> 00:20:45.440 And these things become massive or bitterness. 00:20:45.440 --> 00:20:52.319 The church, theological differences where, oh, and this is the worst one, isn't it? 00:20:52.319 --> 00:20:54.879 Or we all feel, well, God's on my side, clearly. 00:20:54.879 --> 00:20:57.000 God must be on my side because I'm a believer. 00:20:57.000 --> 00:21:01.639 And we forget that everyone else is believers and that actually God's on nobody's side. 00:21:01.639 --> 00:21:03.200 That God is God. 00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:07.759 We become personal and vindictive with our theological differences. 00:21:07.759 --> 00:21:09.000 We take the place of God. 00:21:09.000 --> 00:21:12.639 We don't act with grace and with forgiveness and with gentleness for others. 00:21:12.639 --> 00:21:15.559 We just rage at them because they're just not like us. 00:21:15.559 --> 00:21:25.000 No sense of our own frailty or sin, violence, drink unleashing anger and violence, low opinion 00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:33.440 of other, passive aggressiveness, manipulative anger, political anger, self-righteous anger 00:21:33.440 --> 00:21:39.720 where we take the position of judge, truthkeepers and use the anonymity of online to express 00:21:39.720 --> 00:21:42.440 our rage. 00:21:42.440 --> 00:21:44.319 Why is that the case? 00:21:44.319 --> 00:21:50.799 Why is anger so much of an issue and so much of a problem for us, even as believers? 00:21:50.799 --> 00:21:59.200 Well, that passage we read in James was interesting because it reminds us of our motives. 00:21:59.200 --> 00:22:04.319 And there's a couple of, there's two things from the James passage in James chapter 4 00:22:04.319 --> 00:22:05.319 at verse 12. 00:22:05.319 --> 00:22:09.919 It said, there is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and destroy, but who are 00:22:09.919 --> 00:22:11.599 you to judge your neighbour? 00:22:11.599 --> 00:22:17.159 So part of it is because we still have a tendency to act like God and we want to take God's 00:22:17.159 --> 00:22:22.839 place so we feel justified in being angry at everyone else if they don't meet our standard. 00:22:22.839 --> 00:22:26.199 God says, vengeance is mine. 00:22:26.199 --> 00:22:34.199 It's sinful rebellion really so often against His lordship, against His governance, against 00:22:34.199 --> 00:22:38.959 His sovereignty, against what He has brought into our lives. 00:22:38.960 --> 00:22:45.079 It really is often saying it's, you know the Lord's prayer, Thy will be done, your will 00:22:45.079 --> 00:22:47.400 be done in heaven and on earth. 00:22:47.400 --> 00:22:52.319 But usually anger comes from the fact that we've changed that prayer and we say, my will 00:22:52.319 --> 00:22:53.319 be done. 00:22:53.319 --> 00:22:56.600 It's about me and not about God. 00:22:56.600 --> 00:23:01.519 And if I don't get what I want, if I don't get my way, then I'll be angry. 00:23:01.519 --> 00:23:03.079 I'll be angry with others. 00:23:03.079 --> 00:23:06.840 Primarily I'll probably be angry with God because He hasn't given me what I want, what 00:23:06.839 --> 00:23:09.759 I deserve, what I ought to have. 00:23:09.759 --> 00:23:17.159 And we miss, we're misunderstanding grace and our position as sinners deserving nothing 00:23:17.159 --> 00:23:21.599 before a holy God and yet He's poured out everything in His blessing on us. 00:23:21.599 --> 00:23:23.079 There's only one lawgiver. 00:23:23.079 --> 00:23:26.079 So we act sometimes as if we are God. 00:23:26.079 --> 00:23:30.439 And I think the other thing that James, that passage we read together earlier on, was it 00:23:30.439 --> 00:23:32.439 reflects what we truly value. 00:23:32.439 --> 00:23:35.879 You know, what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you. 00:23:35.880 --> 00:23:40.560 It's not this, is it not this that your passions are at war within you. 00:23:40.560 --> 00:23:45.680 You desire, you do not have, so you murder, you covet, you cannot obtain, so you fight 00:23:45.680 --> 00:23:48.080 and quarrel, you do not have because you do not ask. 00:23:48.080 --> 00:23:54.640 So there's that whole thing about it reflects what we truly value. 00:23:54.640 --> 00:24:02.600 If we truly value getting somewhere on time more than anything else, if we truly value 00:24:02.599 --> 00:24:09.839 everyone respecting my opinion before everything else, if we truly value being in control, 00:24:09.839 --> 00:24:17.319 getting our own way, being at the center of our lives, even our happiness and our pleasures, 00:24:17.319 --> 00:24:24.679 even justice and goodness as I understand it, if we've displaced God from that and His 00:24:24.679 --> 00:24:32.079 Lordship, we're still battling with fundamentally selfish and proud motives. 00:24:32.079 --> 00:24:36.199 And that's an ongoing battle in my life. 00:24:36.199 --> 00:24:40.839 And it's an ongoing battle, if we're honest, in all of our lives as Christians. 00:24:40.839 --> 00:24:47.639 But I conclude with, when we think of these motives, I conclude with the fact that as 00:24:47.639 --> 00:24:54.079 believers today, we have no excuses because grace calls us to change and empowers us to 00:24:54.079 --> 00:24:55.079 change. 00:24:55.079 --> 00:24:58.079 We have the power of the gospel. 00:24:58.079 --> 00:25:05.639 So we're not to do what we're mostly tempted to do today to think about, I'll be a great 00:25:05.639 --> 00:25:08.639 sermon for that guy next to me. 00:25:08.639 --> 00:25:11.839 I would love them to hear that sermon. 00:25:11.839 --> 00:25:16.639 But as we read God's Word and as we hear God's Word, and as I hear it, I've got to say this 00:25:16.639 --> 00:25:23.039 is something that I have got to deal with and allow Christ's power and gentleness to 00:25:23.039 --> 00:25:29.480 transform me and deal with my anger and make it righteous. 00:25:29.480 --> 00:25:31.279 So we've got the example of Christ. 00:25:31.279 --> 00:25:36.319 So you've got the example of Christ's physical life that we have in the gospels. 00:25:36.319 --> 00:25:37.319 He did get angry, didn't we? 00:25:37.319 --> 00:25:39.240 We see that at different times. 00:25:39.240 --> 00:25:44.720 We see him getting really angry when God's house was turned into a commercial buying 00:25:44.720 --> 00:25:47.680 and selling and was being misused. 00:25:47.680 --> 00:25:52.519 He got angry at the hypocrisy of the religious people, a great challenge for us. 00:25:52.519 --> 00:25:58.279 He got angry at His own disciples when they kept the children from coming to Him. 00:25:58.279 --> 00:26:01.000 He got angry at these things. 00:26:01.000 --> 00:26:08.240 He never lost His temper or got angry when things were done against Him personally. 00:26:08.240 --> 00:26:10.519 He remained silent. 00:26:10.519 --> 00:26:13.000 He forgave His enemies on the cross. 00:26:13.000 --> 00:26:17.680 As He was being crucified, He said, Father, forgive them because they don't know what 00:26:17.680 --> 00:26:19.480 they're doing. 00:26:19.480 --> 00:26:24.519 There was controlled perfect strength in His displays of anger. 00:26:24.519 --> 00:26:25.839 Now, I'm going to say a little bit. 00:26:25.839 --> 00:26:30.200 I hope there's not overlap this evening, but this evening our theme is meekness from the 00:26:30.200 --> 00:26:34.839 Beatitudes and that is who Christ was. 00:26:34.839 --> 00:26:39.759 But we also see the importance of being angry well in the wider New Testament teaching. 00:26:39.759 --> 00:26:43.799 Ephesians 6, 26 says, In your anger, do not sin. 00:26:43.799 --> 00:26:45.799 Do not let the sun go down while you're still angry. 00:26:45.799 --> 00:26:48.400 Do not give the devil a foothold. 00:26:48.400 --> 00:26:51.720 So it says, In your anger, do not sin. 00:26:51.720 --> 00:26:54.720 So there is anger and we can be angry and not sin. 00:26:54.720 --> 00:26:55.720 It's not easy. 00:26:55.720 --> 00:26:58.200 But how do we do it? 00:26:58.200 --> 00:27:00.560 We take our anger to God. 00:27:00.560 --> 00:27:03.160 Don't let it fester. 00:27:03.160 --> 00:27:06.240 Don't let it become selfish. 00:27:06.240 --> 00:27:07.880 Don't let the sun go down in your wrath. 00:27:07.880 --> 00:27:16.519 That's a great piece of practical advice in marriage, in relationships. 00:27:16.519 --> 00:27:21.960 Don't let anger go undetect with if it's important enough, deal with it if it's not important 00:27:21.960 --> 00:27:25.039 enough, love covers over a multitude of sins. 00:27:25.039 --> 00:27:27.639 Recognize your motives. 00:27:27.639 --> 00:27:29.359 Be angry at wrongdoing in the right way. 00:27:29.359 --> 00:27:31.839 Now, each of us will need to work out how to do that. 00:27:31.839 --> 00:27:34.240 There's so much that is unjust, isn't it? 00:27:34.240 --> 00:27:37.000 But what are we going to do? 00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:42.639 I think we're reminded from Proverbs as well, not just to take the example of Christ and 00:27:42.640 --> 00:27:49.960 be angry well from Ephesians, but also Proverbs, the first text we read, a gentle answer turns 00:27:49.960 --> 00:27:52.720 away wrath but a harsh word stirs it up. 00:27:52.720 --> 00:27:59.000 So in other words, speaking about controlling our emotions, controlling our anger, being 00:27:59.000 --> 00:28:06.040 gentle and not in a soft weak way, but in a strong way, thinking before you respond. 00:28:06.040 --> 00:28:10.480 Now, so much of our bad temper comes from a quick fiery response, doesn't it? 00:28:10.480 --> 00:28:15.880 And we just ping out something because we're frustrated and angry. 00:28:15.880 --> 00:28:18.200 Be constructive in our dialogue. 00:28:18.200 --> 00:28:19.400 Be patient. 00:28:19.400 --> 00:28:21.759 Be spiritually self-aware. 00:28:21.759 --> 00:28:22.759 Ask the questions. 00:28:22.759 --> 00:28:27.799 You know, when you prepare a sermon like this, you know, I'm not thinking about you guys, 00:28:27.799 --> 00:28:28.799 I'm thinking about me. 00:28:28.799 --> 00:28:34.640 And I'm thinking, why do I get angry when I'm just coming up to a crossing that I have to 00:28:34.640 --> 00:28:38.839 get across in the car and the lights changed to red? 00:28:38.839 --> 00:28:41.720 I've got a immediate thought, okay, I'm going to amber gamble. 00:28:41.720 --> 00:28:45.359 I'm going to go through the red light because it's really important that I get through there. 00:28:45.359 --> 00:28:50.519 And if I then I realized the car in front has been law giving to the last degree and 00:28:50.519 --> 00:28:52.159 has stopped at the amber. 00:28:52.159 --> 00:28:55.359 And so I slam on the brakes and have to stop behind him. 00:28:55.359 --> 00:28:56.359 Why am I angry? 00:28:56.359 --> 00:29:00.959 So I have to ask myself, why am I angry in that situation? 00:29:00.959 --> 00:29:03.799 Why do I rage at that situation? 00:29:03.799 --> 00:29:08.359 And that's when we need to take God's word and allow it to soak into our hearts and say, 00:29:08.359 --> 00:29:09.359 why am I angry? 00:29:09.359 --> 00:29:12.359 Why do I feel the need to control that situation? 00:29:12.359 --> 00:29:17.559 Why am I frustrated at a law keeper when I'm tempted to be a law breaker? 00:29:17.559 --> 00:29:22.240 I know that's a maybe an insignificant example. 00:29:22.240 --> 00:29:26.159 Maybe it's not if I went into the back of the guy because I wasn't thinking, but be 00:29:26.159 --> 00:29:31.399 spiritually self aware and also be aware of others. 00:29:31.399 --> 00:29:37.079 Be angry while control our emotions, keep learning to love. 00:29:37.079 --> 00:29:39.799 And I think that's probably the key to everything. 00:29:39.799 --> 00:29:45.679 First Peter 4 verse 8 says, above all, love each other deeply because love covers a multitude 00:29:45.679 --> 00:29:47.879 of sins. 00:29:47.879 --> 00:29:53.919 So that means that when we recognize grace and what God has done for us, we look at other 00:29:53.919 --> 00:29:56.199 people and God differently. 00:29:56.199 --> 00:30:01.279 And we recognize that our love covers a lot of the minor issues that we would otherwise 00:30:01.279 --> 00:30:02.279 get angry at. 00:30:02.279 --> 00:30:08.440 It's an antidote to grumbling that we spend our lives showing mercy and charity and patience 00:30:08.440 --> 00:30:14.160 and forgiveness, making moral evaluations about, is this worth getting angry about or 00:30:14.160 --> 00:30:15.639 in love and in grace? 00:30:15.639 --> 00:30:20.559 Can I cover over this because of God's mercy towards me? 00:30:20.559 --> 00:30:26.279 You know that great passage in 1 Corinthians 13, love, it doesn't dishonor others, it's 00:30:26.279 --> 00:30:27.279 not self seeking. 00:30:27.279 --> 00:30:30.559 It's not easily angered. 00:30:30.559 --> 00:30:32.440 It's not easily angered. 00:30:32.440 --> 00:30:35.599 So grace is not easily angered and we need to work at that. 00:30:35.599 --> 00:30:39.480 We need to grow that grace in our lives. 00:30:39.480 --> 00:30:43.559 It's that love, I'm speaking about, it's not the love of the wrong comes, I'm not meaning 00:30:43.559 --> 00:30:44.559 that. 00:30:44.559 --> 00:30:49.480 It's that loving your enemies, those that you're angry with maybe. 00:30:49.480 --> 00:30:54.720 And we don't repay evil with evil, but we look for ways to redeem the offender and to 00:30:54.720 --> 00:30:57.119 love them and to bring them back. 00:30:57.119 --> 00:31:03.799 And last, last couple of things, get serious about prayer in terms of anger. 00:31:03.799 --> 00:31:12.759 Think again of the Lord's prayer, letting God do His will rather than us doing our own. 00:31:12.759 --> 00:31:17.639 Recognizing that our anger has often separated us from God and also from one another and 00:31:17.639 --> 00:31:19.759 asking for forgiveness and dealing. 00:31:19.759 --> 00:31:24.559 Wrestling with God in prayer about your own heart, about my own heart, about my struggles 00:31:24.559 --> 00:31:26.559 with anger. 00:31:26.559 --> 00:31:29.839 If you recognize you're struggling with anger, that's a great thing. 00:31:29.839 --> 00:31:36.119 It's a great start because then you're looking for an answer and help and for change. 00:31:36.119 --> 00:31:40.679 And Christ is the only one who can deal with that and who can change your heart. 00:31:40.679 --> 00:31:42.240 Seek His forgiveness. 00:31:42.240 --> 00:31:44.440 We're never static. 00:31:44.440 --> 00:31:50.639 Allow the surgeon's knife to cut out the cancer of sin and anger in our hearts. 00:31:50.639 --> 00:31:53.240 And lastly, be obedient. 00:31:53.240 --> 00:31:58.319 So you've got these two verses from Ephesians and Colossians, get rid of, put to death. 00:31:58.319 --> 00:32:03.160 Get rid of bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander, malice. 00:32:03.160 --> 00:32:06.720 These things that well up from within us, we can't do it on our own. 00:32:06.720 --> 00:32:08.279 We need God to help us. 00:32:08.279 --> 00:32:14.599 Put selfish anger to death, not other people metaphorically anyway in our lives. 00:32:14.599 --> 00:32:21.039 Unrighteous anger is really about changing people or situations outside of us. 00:32:21.039 --> 00:32:26.399 And grace asks the question, why are we angry and how can I change? 00:32:26.399 --> 00:32:31.200 So if I would recommend one book, which is, would say a lot more than I've been able to 00:32:31.200 --> 00:32:37.279 say and say a lot better, it would be a book called Good and Angry, Redeeming Anger, Irritation, 00:32:37.279 --> 00:32:40.279 Complaining and Bitterness by David Pauluson. 00:32:40.279 --> 00:32:42.159 Really great book. 00:32:42.159 --> 00:32:44.839 If you want details about that, just let me know. 00:32:44.839 --> 00:32:50.639 But it's a much more in-depth look at this issue of our hearts and changing our hearts. 00:32:50.640 --> 00:32:57.880 So the practical reality of the gospel touches every one of us and it touches every one of 00:32:57.880 --> 00:33:03.280 us to see our need of a Savior and the need of the only one who loves us so much that 00:33:03.280 --> 00:33:09.920 he's taken the wrath of God in our place and also loves us enough to redeem our own hearts 00:33:09.920 --> 00:33:15.080 and the anger that makes a mess of so much. 00:33:15.080 --> 00:33:16.080 Let's pray. 00:33:16.080 --> 00:33:20.560 Father, we pray and ask that you would help us to follow you, serve you and love you. 00:33:20.559 --> 00:33:27.359 Forgive us for how often we can get really angry at tiny little things like Jonah did 00:33:27.359 --> 00:33:33.480 and justify it and be so proud and so righteous in ourselves. 00:33:33.480 --> 00:33:41.079 Forgive us for not seeing your great holiness and justice and wrath, an unpleasant concept 00:33:41.079 --> 00:33:45.960 for us in the 21st century to think that we're not in control of our own destiny but we are 00:33:45.960 --> 00:33:52.880 rather guilty before the living God yet in your great love you have paid the price in 00:33:52.880 --> 00:33:56.000 our place and simply want us to follow you. 00:33:56.000 --> 00:33:57.000 Help us to do that. 00:33:57.000 --> 00:34:04.000 If you've been Christians for a day, a week or 40 years, help us to do that again and 00:34:04.000 --> 00:34:10.920 again and may your word challenge any who might not be Christians to think about the 00:34:10.920 --> 00:34:14.880 gospel and Jesus and the truth of God's word. 00:34:14.880 --> 00:34:15.880 We ask it in His name. 00:34:15.880 --> 00:34:44.880 Amen.