Sins of the Spirit: Anger

Sins of the Spirit: Anger

Well, on Sunday evenings we’ve been looking at sins of the spirit, but also, well, this is our fourth week. Not that all of those have been consecutive weeks. But we’ve seen the sin of gloominess, of unthankfulness, of jealousy, of prayerlessness, of faithlessness, of yielding to temptation. And tonight I want to look at the sin of anger in our spirits, the sin of anger.

So let’s turn to James, chapter one, please. James 1:18. Let’s look there. It says, of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

Tonight I want to remind you, I know I’ve preached on this before, that there’s two, two different words that are translated wrath or anger in our New Testament. And one of those words, just very briefly for the moment, is the word ὀργή (or-gay). In the Greek, it means “a slow burning wrath.” It’s a building wrath. It’s a wrath that is sustained. It’s a vengeance type of wrath. We might say that Herodias had a ὀργή, vengeance kind of wrath against. Not that it was a righteous vengeance, but it was a vengeance against John the Baptist because of the message that he preached. And she was waiting for an opportunity to express that anger, that wrath toward him. We see there’s another kind of wrath, which is the word θυμός (thoo-mos’). In the Greek, it literally means this kind of fiery outburst, momentary kind of. It just boils over, explodes, maybe more so, an exploding kind of wrath. It’s a passionate, impulsive kind of wrath. In our text tonight, we read about this wrath of man. Worketh not the righteousness of God. Is that ὀργή wrath, It’s a slower building vengeance kind of wrath that we see here. But if you notice in verse 20, or verse 19, rather, we’re told that we’re to be slow to wrath. We’re to be slow to wrath, slow to speak, swift to hear. Don’t be hasty in your spirit to be angry, right? Don’t be hasty to be angry, but instead be swift to hear.

And we’ve got to remember the context once again that James is talking about the trial of our faith, right? It’s when we’re under the trial, the fiery trial of our faith, you know, when the Lord puts us through the fiery trial. It’s kind of like the blacksmith. What is he hoping to do? What is he wanting to do. He’s wanting to shape and conform our lives, but he needs heat in order to do that. And we must keep in mind that the Lord is the one that’s in control of the trial. Like we mentioned even this morning, back in verse 18, we read tonight of his own will begat he us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. And we are to respond differently to the pressures of life. Because the purpose of the pressure in our lives as Christians, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose. The purpose is to purify and purge us of the dross and to shape us and conform us to the image of Christ. That is the purpose of the pressure and of the heat and of the trial that God brings in our lives. Our tendency when we are placed under pressure though is. Well, we might have multiple tendencies, but one of them is to get angry, to get wrathful at times, maybe even to get upset with the medium or the tool that God is using in the process of purging and working in our lives. That might be. That might be cancer. It might be a messenger of Satan to buffet us. It might be some form of financial woe. It might be some form of, you know, it could be a relative or a fellow employee. That is an antagonizing us in some way in our lives. It could be any number of things that God is using to place that pressure on us. And we just say, I wish I could just be out of this. I wish I could be over this, past this, through, through this, beyond this. And yet we’re in it, right when we pass through the fiery trials of life.

So in verse 20 it says, for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Well, we’re told in verse 19, having been already in verse 18, we’ve been begotten with the word of truth, so that we might be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear. Because our tendency is to be swift to speak, right? But slow to speak and slow to wrath. Listen, let God have His way with us. The same word that he begat us with is the word that he speaks to us through. The same word that we need to be hearing. Especially we need to be listening to what God’s saying to us through his word is. Especially when we’re going through the fire, right? Listen, listen to me. You slow down, don’t you speak so much, you be sure to know what I’m saying to you and then you speak, but speak with care what you know to be true from my word. Oftentimes we regret when we are quick to speak, right? We are quick to quick to say, quick to have that knee jerk kind of reaction in speaking or in acting. Slow to wrath, though. Slow to wrath. Breathe, count to whatever you’ve got to count to. I mean, you know what I mean. When we say with our children, sometimes, you know, somebody, one of them is instigating the other one, you need to stop, you need to pause. Don’t just throw it back at them. Think through what you’re going to say and ask the Lord to help you in your response. Don’t, don’t just say whatever comes up in anger, right?

Well, so we have that statement in Proverbs 25:28. Let’s look over there. Proverbs 25:28 says, he that hath no rule over his spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls. He has no temperance, no self control. He can’t control his anger. Don’t we even now they offer these anger management classes, right, for rehabbing people that have gone off on somebody. Maybe in the workplace, anger management or in a, you know, domestic situation, anger management. Well, the only way we can manage our anger is to let God have his way with us.

God wants and he commands us. In fact, if you look over in Ephesians 4:31, he tells us something very specific that we are to. We are to allow to happen in our lives. Ephesians 4:31. We’re commanded here to let. Isn’t that something, a command? That’s a passive, right? Let, allow, yield, permit. Basically, let him have his way with us, right? Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. Let it be put away from you with all malice. Well, what are we to do when we let those things be put off? We’re to receive with what meekness the engrafted word. We’re, we’re to let the Word of God dwell in us richly. The Word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, so that then we can speak, teaching one another psalms and hymns, spiritual songs. That’s what Paul would also tell us in Ephesians. But we’re to let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly, though. And then we see this word back in our text, though. Is, as I mentioned, the word ὀργή. It tells us back here in James 1:20, that the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Literally. The idea here is it does not accomplish. It does. It does not accomplish the righteousness of God or it does not work, it does not serve to accomplish his righteous purposes. God cannot use, he says, give place to wrath. Right. Make room for me to carry out wrath. I don’t need you to carry out your wrath. I’m going to carry out my own wrath. But anytime there’s anger in our lives. Want to read another passage? In a minute. Anytime there’s anger in our lives, it must of necessity be turned into some other form, something else in our lives. But it cannot remain anger because, you know, it’s kind of like David said, what time I am afraid. Fear is a real human emotion. I will trust in this. What time I’m afraid, I cannot stay in fear. I must let it be turned into trust. What time I am angry? You might say we don’t have any verse that David gave specifically what time I am angry, I’m going to be whatever. But when I’m angry, when you feel the emotion of anger coming in your heart, there might be a just reason that there is anger there.

You know, when I saw my father in law sent me a text the other day and said that Charlie Kirk had been shot. So I looked the video, looked up for a video and I saw it happen. And you know, I felt anger when I saw that. I’m not justifying everything about Charlie Kirk and saying that I 100% agree with him on everything. But you know, that made me angry when I saw that. And yet I am not going to go out and start a revolution over that. That’s not what God’s called us to do. He’s called us, if anything. I got a text from that evening about the fact that it made him angry when he saw what happened. And I proceeded to send, I think I told you this Wednesday, I proceeded to send him a voice message and tell him what that basically what our response as Christians should be to that though our response is is not to now let’s reach out the flesh says retaliate against, you know, and go out and do the same. No, you know, you think about the Bible says that before we were in Christ, we were hateful and we were hating one another. We have this term now in our world called hate crimes. Right, hate crimes. You know, a lot of times what will happen In a hate crime, some things get labeled hate crimes. It’s a way of manipulating people sometimes. But there’s true hate crimes. I understand that somebody hates somebody from one race, kills somebody from another race. And then there’s a retaliation, almost like a gang mindset, a retaliation killing some innocent person of a certain color from another race, whether it be a Jew, a Muslim, an Arab, or a black and a white or whatever the case may be. There’s a retaliatory. And yet two wrongs never make a right. Two wrongs never make a right. We might say in that situation, it might be more of a. It could be more of a θυμός kind of anger. Like I’m just going to. Before I even think about it, I’m just going to go out and I’m so angry, I’m going to do something terrible. You know, we might say, well, I wouldn’t do that, but we must. The wrath of man. Think about that. The ὀργή wrath of man does not accomplish. It does not work the righteousness of God. God is specifically telling us, don’t be like you used to be and don’t be like the world. Living and being motivated by wrath. That’s not the right way to live. That’s not going to accomplish my will.

In fact, look in. We were just mentioning Ephesians a moment ago in chapter four, but look back over in Ephesians 4 a little bit earlier. In that passage, it says in Ephesians 4:26, Be ye angry and sin not. Be ye angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Neither give place to the devil. You know, the devil likes to utilize, and he works well through. The wrath of man doesn’t accomplish the righteous purposes of God. It does not glorify him. But the devil sure can use it. We see that it says here, neither give place to the devil. Be ye angry. This seems to indicate that there is a certain limited degree to which we can be angry. Don’t let the sun go down upon your wrath. Be angry and sin not. Because anger, if it’s not guided, directed of the Lord, you know, our anger, we could. Instead of. If we are angry, you know, angry at what? Maybe I’m just giving the example because it’s the most recent thing, obviously, but I was angry when I saw that what happened in my heart, how could they do that? I thought about his family. I mean, because I’m thinking of this guy. He’s what, seven years younger than I am. I’m Thinking about he’s got a young family at home and they’re never going to see their dad again. You know, his wife’s, you know, and you put yourself in the shoes of that person. I can’t imagine. But at the same time, what do I do with that anger? Well, I certainly need to pray. I need to realize that life is short. I need to realize that. I mean, I looked at Brother Cereghin and how the Lord took him. Not that that was a thing to be angry about. But, you know, we have reminders fairly often that we may not live to the ripe old age of 80 years old or 90 years old or whatever it may be. The Lord could take us at 50, the Lord could take us at some other age. And some of you might say, well, I’m past that. Well, whatever the age is for you. But the main thing is that we cannot pass our days in anger. We cannot pass our days in anger.

In Psalm 10, here’s one way that David, when he became angry, what he did with it. Look in Psalm 10:14. We read here, thou hast… Well, let’s go back to verse 13. Wherefore or why doth the wicked contemn God? He hath said in his heart, thou wilt not require it. We just mentioned that the other week, didn’t we? Just last Sunday, I quoted this verse, the wicked thinks God is not going to judge. The wicked thinks he’s going to get away with it. Thou hast seen it, David. David expressed a wide range of emotions. Sometimes he said, rivers of water run down my eyes because they keep not thy law. You know, he was even the Lord is angry with the wicked every day. Right? But we know that, David. We have some imprecatory prayers, don’t we? But he would say, here, thou hast seen it, Lord, for thou beholdest mischief in spite, to requite it with thy hand. The poor committeth himself unto thee. Thou art the helper of the fatherless. Same thing we read in James. Be patient. I see. I see the injustices. I see the evil. I see the wickedness that’s being perpetrated upon those that are being taken advantage of. I see those who work for a certain wage, and that wage is being withheld. I see it. I will require it, even though the wicked doesn’t think it will be required. They may find legal financial loopholes to get away with this kind of stuff, but I will not overlook it. He says here, the poor committeth himself unto thee. When you’re angry, commit yourself to the Lord. Thou art the helper of the fatherless. Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man. You can pray against the wicked and pray that the Lord would defeat their schemes and. And confound their purposes. Seek out his wickedness till thou find none. It’s one thing that we see. The Lord is king forever and ever. The heathen are perished out of his land. And yet we also see a man like the prophet Jonah, don’t we? He got so upset and was angered in his spirit towards the Ninevites that God granted them repentance. I mean, we see that he was over there sulking and pouting, and God was. They were over there repenting in sackcloth and ashes. We must pray for God to judge, but we must pray even God have mercy upon their soul. Because God is not only a God of justice, he’s a God of mercy as well. With as cruel as the Assyrians were, he couldn’t imagine how God could be merciful, even to them. But once again, we’re all criminals in God’s sight. If we haven’t actually pulled the trigger on a gun and we hadn’t murdered somebody we have hated. We’ve been angry with our brother in our heart.

In fact, you know, in Luke Matthew 5:21, Ye have heard that it was said of them of old time, thou shalt not kill. But down in verse 22. But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. Even anger in the heart. Anger. The Lord is equating that with the sin. He’s saying it may not have actually manifested in the murder of anyone, but anger in the heart. We say sometimes if looks could kill. If looks could kill, what is the thought? What is the sin in the spirit? That’s what the Lord is getting at. He says, in fact, it is out of the heart proceed murders right out of the heart proceed adulteries. You could. You could sin and commit adultery in your spirit without actually committing the act of adultery. And the Lord is looking upon the heart. Man looks upon the outward appearance, but God looks upon the heart. Thank God that he’s kept us from doing some of the things that perhaps we have thought to do in our minds before. I remember Cain, I. Obviously he acted upon his thoughts towards his brother, his envy and jealousy and anger towards his brother, and he murdered him. We have the sin of Esau. Well, God kept him. God kept Esau from murdering his brother. They needed some time Apart and some time to cool off. But he kept Esau from murder. He kept David from murdering Nabel. Yes, Nabel was a foolish man, but he didn’t necessarily do anything deserving of murder. And David was planning, in his anger, θυμός, he was planning to take out Nabel. He’s ruffled my feathers. He’s got me all upset and I want to take him and all his men out. Abigail intervened. God sent Abigail. We might say cooler heads prevailed. Cooler heads prevailed. And in that situation, David acknowledged, lord, you kept me from a great sin here in the act of sinning. But in his heart, he had already murdered Nabel. In his heart, so to speak, he had already done that. But he recognized his sin and he recognized God’s mercy in that particular. In that particular matter.

Thank God. When he’s angry, when he has wrath, his wrath is perfect. His justice is perfect. He is not a sinner like we are, that he should be biased and unfair in his judgments. He’s perfect and holy and righteous in his judgments. And that’s why we commit judgment to the Lord, because he’s the only one who can righteously judge. We have to remember God is also ready to forgive, though he’s merciful and gracious. Psalm 103:8 tells us, Slow to anger, he’s merciful, he’s gracious, he’s slow to anger. And plenteous in mercy, we might say. You know, have you ever watched one of these police videos where, I mean, maybe there’s some cops out there? I mean, they’re trigger happy. There’s some of them, you know, I mean, I can understand the pressure of the situation, but sometimes in that split second, they jump the gun, so to speak. And of course, their imperfections are recorded for the world to see, right? And then you see others, they go as far as they can trying to de escalate a situation, talking the person down, you know, and backing away, keeping the gun trained on it. Finally, finally, finally they have to shoot the person, right? And because the person, there’s no reasoning with them, there’s no talking through it. That sort of reminds me of how God does not want the wicked to perish in their sins. God wants. He’s not willing that any should perish. That should be certainly our mindset. We should not be wishing the death of even our worst enemy. We should pray that God would save them. But the time may come where, and I believe in our country, that God has given many over, even now to a reprobate mind. Their past feeling they have gone To a point where it’s not that there’s no hope in God, but that they have come to a place where they won’t turn back to God. They have made a final choice against God. And so God will judge. But he wants all to repent. He’s not giddy about and he’s not quick to judge and quick to carry out his wrath. He’s slow to wrath, plenteous in mercy. Just remember that our wrath and sin are never far apart. Our wrath, our anger and sin are never far apart. And when you feel anger rising in your spirit, let God’s word be swift to hear. Be quick to hear what God’s word says. Spirit of God, my teacher, be showing the things of Christ to me. We are in no position to challenge Satan in our own wrath because it’s not our place to judge him. We’re not to go around rebuking Satan. We’re not going around challenging Satan. We’re weak. Satan is much stronger than we are. But we must resist him. Steadfast in the faith. The scripture says we must resist him. Only the word. Like Martin Luther wrote in that hymn. One little word shall fail him like a tree, like a great tree. Only God’s word is our defense against the devil.

And when we look at our Lord Jesus Christ, he is meek and lowly. We think about Moses response when, what was it? Korah and those men that were with him rose up against him. He meekly, he didn’t get into a war of words per se, but he fell down before the Lord and asked the Lord appeal to the Lord to judge in this situation and look to the Lord. Surely Moses got tired of all the opposition that he faced when he was trying to lead those people. And it was not certainly the easiest thing to do. May we, instead of being angry and swift to wrath, may we be meek. May we be slow to wrath. May we be patient as James says. May we be making space for God to judge this man, that or whatever he is that they have identified as the supposed shooter this past week. There are a lot more people behind the scenes than whatever that guy is. I mean that. Look at all these people that were just. I mean regardless of what anybody thinks of Charlie Kirk, I don’t care if it was my worst enemy, but people who. What kind of a demonic mindset to just celebrate giddily the death of the cold blooded murder of a father and a husband. I mean, what a terrible place we’ve come to in that. But God will judge. God will judge. His justice is Holy. It is not our place to bring that judgment ultimately. So let’s be slow to wrath. Let’s be swift to hear, let’s be slow to speak. We need that more. I need that more now than ever in this world in which we’re living in, because there’s a lot that is provocative.

We’re told as parents, as fathers to be provoke not our children to wrath. We’ve got to be careful not to provoke one another to wrath, right? But to provoke one another to love and to good works. That’s one of the ways we do that is we let no corrupt communication proceed out of our mouths, right? But that which is good to the use of edifying, right? And that all starts back in the heart, in the spirit. Let’s not be angry one with another. Let’s not be angry with our spouse. Let’s not be angry with our brethren. Let’s not be angry with our fellow employees. Let’s not be angry. Let’s not live in anger. Even if we have a righteous anger that comes to our hearts at times, may it only embolden us to trust and obey the Lord more fervently to pray for the salvation of these souls, to pray for justice.

You know, what has the Lord given us in the model prayer? Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, but thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth, on earth as it is in heaven. We need to pray for his kingdom to come. We’re not going to bring in the kingdom. We’re not going to establish the kingdom ourselves. We pray for him to bring his kingdom. We pray for his kingdom to come. Some people think that we’re going to reform the earth. No, we’re not going to reform it. Jesus Christ has got to come back. He’s going to come back. And we believe, as the scripture teaches in a way, that he’s only going to come for his own first, and then he’s going to come back with his own. He’s going to come for us in a rapture. In a moment we’re going to be caught up to be with the Lord and then we’re going to be coming back riding on what, white horses. I think that’s what we read in Revelation. And so we see that the Lord is going to to right all the wrongs. So let’s not be angry in our spirits. Let us be putting off all anger and wrath as we read in Ephesians. And let us have the meekness of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let’s pray Heavenly Father, thank you for these moments we’ve had tonight. We thank you for the time that we have been able to gather around your word. We pray, Lord, that you would just help us even when we are angry at times because of maybe legitimate reason to be angry. Lord, help us to remember our place. Help us to remember our place. Help us to remember that just as we don’t know the day or the hour, we can’t project ourselves to say that we know the day and the hour that Christ will come back. Neither is it our right to take justice into our own hands. And we thank you that you have given us a means in our country even to have some form of justice in the form of some, at least at times murderers and thieves and so on and so forth get their just deserts. But Lord, we know that that justice in this world is imperfect and it sometimes doesn’t come to fruition. It gets bogged down with legalities and so many things. And murderers get away with murder and we see that thieves get away with thieving. But one day there will be perfect justice. And Lord, help us to trust and be patient. Waiting on you. We pray these things now guide us and bless us as we sing this final hymn in Jesus name, Amen.