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The Sin of Anger

July 25, 2007

Bob Bradley

_________________________ 

 

Matthew 5:21-26

 

21 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:

22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;

24 Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

25 Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.

26 Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.

 

I know that when we read that, it may be a little bit confusing sometimes.  With the Lord being our helper, there is something that I want to look at for a few moments. 

 

How many here think that murder is a good thing?  None of us does.  We know that murder is wrong.  We know that when we look at what God said in the Law.  The sixth commandment says, “Thou shalt not kill.”  When we go back to Exodus 20, we can read that.

 

When we look at the scriptures, we know that God placed a penalty upon those that kill.  If you turn over to chapter 21, you will find out that God says if a man sheds innocent blood or takes another man’s life then he is also to give his life.  In other words, if you murder someone then you are also to be put to death.  I know today, in the day that we are living in, that is a subject that is highly debated.  It is a subject that many don’t like for you to talk about or to mention.  If our judicial system, if we would go back to some of the things that God has said and the things that God has laid down in the book for us to live by and to judge people by then we would not have the crime rate that we have today.  We would not have the murders that are being committed today.  We would not have the violent crimes in America every four, five or six seconds today that we have a violent crime in America.  We would not have that going on.

 

Our crooks and our criminals know that our judicial is very weak.  They know that they kill all kinds of people and do all kinds of things and most generally, they won’t be put to death. 

 

God looks at things different than we do.

 

We look at murder.  Jesus said:

 

21 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:

 

Jesus is talking to the people that are here and they had been taught some things.  He was reminding them of some things that they had been taught, some things that they had been taught of old, and about what the Word of God said.  Even though they knew some things about what the Word of God said, even though they knew that, they were not living and doing those things that they were suppose to be doing.

 

As we look at murder and look at that crime, it is a horrible crime.  You could never justify murdering someone else.  It cannot be justified. 

 

I know that we have war and I know that people are killed in war, but that is not murder.  There is a difference.  There is never a time that we can justify murder.

 

Look at what Jesus says here.  We look at murder as being something horrible and it is, but look at what Jesus says here.

 

22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

 

Now Jesus has just said here that murder is wrong.  It says that you have been taught in old time here how that you should not kill.  You know what the Law is.  You know what the commandments and Law say. He says I want to tell you something that is just as bad as killing someone or murdering someone and that is being angry with someone without a cause.  That is what Jesus is saying here.  He is telling us something here that is just as horrible, bad and deadly as killing someone and that is being angry.

 

Did anybody in here ever get angry?  We all should raise up both hands and both feet because we all sometimes get angry.  When I was younger, I got mad and angry a whole lot more than I do now.  I thank God that He has helped me along with that, but there are times that I still yet get angry and you do too.  I have talked to some of you.  I know you do.  There are times that we get angry. 

 

Jesus is talking about something that is just as bad as murder.  He says that if we are angry with our brother without a cause that we are in danger of judgment.  If we get angry with our brother without a cause, we are in danger of the judgment.

 

Anger is something that we don’t think about sometimes as being deadly.  Anger is something that we don’t think about as being near as bad as murder.  We look at murder, it is an external thing, we kill people or we kill someone and they die, but we don’t think about being angry with someone as being as bad. 

 

Do you know why we do that?  It is because many times people may not know that you are angry.  Many times people may not know that.  Anger that Jesus is talking about is an anger that is filled with malice.  It is an anger that does not forget. Have you ever heard people talk about, this guy did me wrong 25 years ago and I never forgot about it.  Or This guy did me wrong, or kicked my dog, and I have never forgot that.  That is anger that we have toward people many times.

 

As Christian people, we should get to the place in our lives that we can get beyond that.  We should grow up enough; we should get to the point, the spiritual maturity of my life that everybody doesn’t have to like my dog.  Everybody doesn’t have to like my cat.

 

I was at someone’s house the other day sitting there.  This cat comes running and put its paws around me and bit me.  If I could have got my hands on the cat, it would have been dead.  They probably would have got mad about it.  I didn’t take my anger out on them.  I didn’t get up and say, “You have a dumb cat.” 

 

We should get to the point in life that little like that does not cause our emotion of anger to get out of control.  Many times, we do things in the heat of the moment and say things in the heat of the moment when we are mad that we would never say most generally.  We get out of control and it is dangerous.  Anger is something that has caused many people to murder people.  Anger is an emotion that if it is not kept under control when it is uncontrolled will get us in trouble.  Anger has got me in trouble many times before, sometimes before I got saved and sometimes after I got saved, but anger has got me in trouble.  Anger has brought me into some things that I couldn’t get out of.  I wished that I could have backed up and changed things a few minutes later because of being angry but I could not do that.  Anger that Jesus is talking about is dangerous.  It is something that when it is not kept under control, it will destroy us. 

 

He says:

 

22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

 

There is a time that we can be justified by being angry.  When I see people that are saved people commit sin, I get upset about that.  That concerns me.  I get angry.  When I look at myself in the mirror sometimes and see some of the stupid things that I do, I get angry because of some of the stupid things that I have done.  Did you ever do that?  It is okay to get angry at sin.  It is okay to get angry about those things but I have no right to harbor malice in my heart.  I have no right to have a spirit about me of revenge about me.  I have no right at all to do that.  If I am living my life in that kind of a life style where that I am mad at people.  I am holding grudges.  I am out to get someone.  I will not forget, and I will not forgive; when I am living like that then I am in prison.  I am going to be there until I pay the debt that I owe.

 

I don’t know of anybody here that is mad at anybody.  If I did, then I would be talking to you at the house.  I wouldn’t be talking about this here. This is for some of us; I don’t know who it is for.  Maybe it is for those who are viewing the website or listening to the tapes.  I don’t know who it is for.  I am saying something tonight that the sin of getting angry, the sin of being angry with people without any just cause of being angry; it is dangerous. 

 

When we get angry the first thing that we lose control of is our mouth.  There wasn’t anybody that said anything about your feet or your hands.  Everybody said your mouth.  Do you know why?  It is because we all know that.  We all know the first thing that we lose control of when we get angry is we lose control of our tongues. 

 

22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

 

What Jesus is saying here is that when we get angry sometimes we look at people and we say that these people are worthless.  We say that these people are completely empty, they are vain, and they are worthless.  We look down upon people because of something they may or may not have said or done to us and we look at them at say that they are useless and we despise them.  We cannot stand them.  We don’t want to be around them.  We say all kinds of thing like that.  Remember, when I take that kind of an attitude, I am in danger and you are too.  He is talking to His disciples here.  He is talking to some people here that know some things about the truth.  He says here:

 

22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

 

If I go out here and murder someone today, premeditated, cold-blooded murder them, then you know what they are going to do to me.  I am going to be judged.  They are going to take me down and I am going to go through the court system.  I am going to be sentenced and if they prove me guilty then I am going to go to jail.  That is where I should be.  If I pre-meditated kill someone, then they should take me down to Lucasville prison, strap me in a chair, and burn me.  That is what should happen. 

 

That is not the worst thing.  It is a bad thing.  However, when we look at people and we despise people and when we say that people are useless because they don’t agree with us or whatever the reason may be; when we say that people are useless and they are no account, no good, useless and airheads; those words being motivated by anger.  When we tell people that they are useless, worthless, we despise them, we cannot stand them, they are no account at all, and they are fools; then Jesus said that you are in danger of hell fire. 

 

The word here in the Greek is “Gehenna.”  …

 

“Gehenna,” or “Gehenna of fire,” is the Greek equivalent of the “valley of Hinnom,” a deep glen of Jerusalem where the idolatrous Jews offered their children to Moloch (2 Chr. 28: 3; 2 Chr. 33: 6; Jer. 7: 31; Jer. 19: 2-6). It was afterwards used as a place for burning the refuse of the city (2 Kgs. 23: 10), and in that way became symbolical of the place of torment (Matt. 5: 22, 29-30; Matt. 10: 28; Matt. 18: 9; Matt. 23: 15, 33; Mark 9: 43, 45, 47; Luke 12: 5; James 3: 6). Expressions about “hell-fire” are probably due to the impression produced on men’s minds by the sight of this ceaseless burning, and are figurative of the torment of those who willfully disobey God.   

 

*  http://scriptures.lds.org/en/bd/h/32

 

Jesus knew what Gehenna was very well.  Hell is a real place.  Hell is a place of heat.  Hell is a place of fire.  Hell is a place of smoke.  Hell is a place where people are going to go, where the Bible says that the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched.  When we go to the lake of fire, we are never going to get out from there.  We will be there forever.

 

When I look at people with malice, with anger, and say that they are worthless and useless and I despise them and all kinds of things when I do that, I am in danger of being cast into the lake of fire.  You might say that is harsh.

 

God loves you and me.  God loves everybody.  Before we run our mouths about the people that sit in the pews, the people we see in the grocery store, those that are laying down on the riverbank tonight; we had better examine where we came from and where God has brought us from.  Examine where we would have been had it not been for the grace of God.  You have no right to despise or to hate or to be angry or say that anyone is useless; you don’t have that right.  If you are saved, had you not been saved tonight, then you could have been a whole lot worse than what some of these people are.  Not everybody is going to agree with you.  Not everybody is going to agree with me.  I understand that.  Though we may disagree on things, my love and my devotion for Christ has to be greater than you and I not getting along.

 

If my love for Christ and my devotion, my relationship with Him; if it is not greater than my petty feelings because you don’t like me or because you don’t get along with me, or you don’t like it because I like Chevrolets.  If our relationship with God is no bigger than that then we don’t have much of a relationship with God.  We get mad about all kinds of things that absolutely don’t make any difference. 

 

I have been in board meetings before and I thank God that we don’t have those kind around here and I have been in business meetings before that would start at 7:00 and still yet be going on at midnight.  I have been there.  I picked up the kids and went home and it was still yet going on over things that absolutely did not matter one bit.  It was nothing about scripture or doctrine.  It was nothing about doing what was truth or righteousness.  It wasn’t anything about that.  It was about what kind of stove we were going to put up or what kind of carpet we were going to put down.  Our relationship with God has got to bigger than that.

 

23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;

 

These people knew what it was to bring a gift to the altar.  Every time they came to the temple, they were to bring a gift or to bring something to offer.  Jesus says if you bring your gift and you come to the altar to get your gift offered and you remember that your brother has an ought against you then you are to leave your gift here and go and be reconciled to your brother. 

 

Jesus knew that we could not worship Him and have an ought or have someone have an ought against us.  Jesus knew that we could not honestly, truly, and sincerely worship Him.  When we come  to church being mad and upset being all tore up having an ought against someone, do you think that you can offer anything to God that God is going to accept?  There is no way.  If you are going to worship a spiritual God, then you have to be spiritual.  Your life cannot be filled with hatred, malice, and envy and expect to come to God’s house, bring something to the altar and expect God to accept it.  That is not going to happen.  We may go through a lot of emotions, but if you have got an ought on your heart against your brother, or your sister; if you are mad at someone, you can bring all the gifts you want to and pile them all up and God will never accept any of them because your heart is not right with God.  God want us to be right.  I cannot be right with Him and not be right with you.  It is impossible for me to be right with God and harboring ill feelings towards you.  The Bible tells us this very plain.  If we hate our brother whom we have seen then how can we love God whom we have not seen?  That is very plain.

 

I cannot be in a right relationship with God and be angry with you.  You cannot be angry with me and have a right relationship with God.  If you are going to come to the house of God and to worship Almighty God and bring a gift that God is going to accept then you have to be right with Him.  The only way that you can be right with Him is when you are right with your brothers and sisters.  If you are not right with people, then you cannot be right with God. 

 

I have had to sit down and talk to people before.  Sometimes I have been wrong.  Sometimes they have been wrong.  Sometimes we have both been wrong.  There have been times that I have tried to reconcile with people.  I have tried.  I have said I’m sorry.  I have said that I should not have said that or went that direction or whatever.  You can shake hands, you can hug, you can pray, and you can go on.  That is what God expects.  I cannot make you forgive me.  You can’t make me forgive you.  God expects us to go the extra mile to try to reconcile with someone that has a problem with us.  We do all that we can do.  That is all that God expects out of us.  Some people will never forgive us probably. 

 

God expects that if I am going to bring a gift here to this altar, if I am going to come here to this house to worship Him then he expects my heart to be right with you guys and when my heart is right you guys then my heart can be right with Him.  If you have a heart that is filled with malice, envy, or hate you are wasting your time trying to offer something to God because God is not going to accept it. 

 

The Bible says this

 

24 Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

 

That makes things very plain.  If your brother has an ought against you, Jesus is telling us that we need to make that right.  Go be reconciled to thy brother.  Go be brought back into a right relationship with our brother.  Let us get anger out of the way.  Then we can come and offer our gift that we brought to the altar.

 

25 Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.

 

In other words, if somebody has a problem with us and we know that we have a problem with somebody else then we need to take care of that problem today.  We don’t need to wait a week.  We don’t need to wait a month.  We don’t need to wait a year, but if I wronged you today and I know that I have wronged you today then I need to make things right today.  If you have wronged someone today and you know that you have wronged someone today, then you need to make it right today.  You don’t need to sweep it under the rug.  It will just grow.  It will get you in trouble after a while.

 

25 Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.

 

Look what happens here.  When we sin, when we get angry, when harbor feelings that we should not have and when we don’t reconcile quickly then our adversary delivers us to the judge, the judge delivers us the officer, and then we are cast into prison.  We get ourselves into a horrible shape.  We don’t like anything.  We don’t like anybody.  We can’t stand anything.  We simply need to go and say I’m sorry, please forgive me.  If we won’t do that then we are going to get ourselves into a mess.

 

26 Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.

 

Jesus is saying if you come to church and remember that someone has an ought against you, leave your gift and go be reconciled to your brother and then come back and offer your gifts.  He said to be reconciled with your adversary quickly. In other words while he is close to you, while you have time, while things are fresh get things fixed.  He says if you don’t that you are going to be cast into prison.  Jesus says here that you are not going to come out of prison until you have paid the whole debt that you owe. 

 

We talked this morning about being in Babylon, in a far away land.  We talked about being a long way away from home because of our sin.  Murder is a bad thing. 

 

Being angry with people with no reason whatsoever is just as bad as murder.  Jesus says that there is no difference in it.  Some of us may be in prison today.  We may be locked up, and chained up. There may be big bars over the doors.  We may not have no freedom whatsoever simply because somewhere along the line we have sinned and harbored feelings that we should not have harbored.  We got mad.  We done things and said things that we should not have done because of our own pride we just won’t say I’m sorry.  You are going to stay in prison until you pay your debt.  That may be a whole lot longer than you are willing to stay. 

 

We talked this morning about the children of Israel who were going to be in Babylon for 70 years.  Even though the false prophets said that they were going to get out in two years, God says that you are going to be there for 70 years.  Don’t die in prison.  Don’t spend the rest of your days being in prison simply because you are so proud in your heart to say, hey, I’m sorry.  God will forgive you.  Some of the greatest friends that I have today are people that I have had problems with before. Some of the greatest friends that I have today are people that I have had to go to and they have come to me and said I’m sorry. 

 

A friend is somebody that will stand beside of you.  He/she is somebody that will be there with you through thick and through thin.  A friend, you don’t need to get rid of them and you don’t need to throw them away.  You don’t need to cast them away because friendship and friends are hard to come by.  Friends that will stick with you, stand beside of you, cry with you when you need to cry, pray with you when you need to pray, counsel you when you need to be counseled, tell you that you are wrong when you are wrong, pat you on the back and praise you when you need praise; are friends that you had better do everything you can to guard your friendship with them.  People like that are worth something to you.  You are going to need them.  It would be awful to lose a friend simply to be too proud to say I’m sorry. 

 

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