God’s Anger
God is a God of love, and we all like hearing and talking about that.
But there is another side of love-one that is less pleasant, but no less essential-that is God’s anger.
God gets angry because He loves, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
First, I think it’s important that we establish that God gets angry.
Vance Havner said
The devil is not fighting religion. He's too smart for that. He is producing a counterfeit Christianity, so much like the real one that good Christians are afraid to speak out against it. We are plainly told in the Scriptures that in the last days men will not endure sound doctrine and will depart from the faith and heap to themselves teachers to tickle their ears. We live in an epidemic of this itch, and popular preachers have developed “ear-tickling” into a fine art. Today the art is to avoid negative preaching, and to accentuate only the positive.
As Chuck Smith said
“So many people go to church today in order to feel good about themselves. They want to feel comforted in their sinful state, rather than be convicted of their sin”. . . we rightly preach & teach that God is love, however, we point out that is not the whole story. God is a God of justice. God is a god of judgement. . .” from “the Man God Hates”
In the Old Testament there are dozens of passages you might think of as examples of God’s anger. I’d like to look at just one, at the end of the nation of Israel, as God spoke through the prophet Ezekiel and proclaimed His plan to judge and punish Israel for their evil.
Ezekiel 5:13
The context: Israel had rejected God, embraced idolatry, allowing corruption in government, injustice in the streets and even sacrificed their children to Molech. Therefore God sent judgment through nations that would invade Israel, and leave devastation in their wake.
12 A third of your people will die of the plague or perish by famine inside you; a third will fall by the sword outside your walls; and a third I will scatter to the winds and pursue with drawn sword.
13 “Then my anger will cease and my wrath against them will subside, and I will be avenged. And when I have spent my wrath on them, they will know that I the LORD have spoken in my zeal.
This may serve as an example, but not the only one.
Exodus 15:7; Deuteronomy 9:7; Numbers 16:46; Joshuah 22;20; Psalm 2:27; 7:11, 78:38, 49; 106:23; Ezekiel 22:31; 25:17, 33:11; ; 2 Kings 17:18 Isaiah 13:13; 26:21 Nahum 1:2-6;
So,
God gets angry.
And this is not a teaching relegated to the Old Testament. The wrath of God is very much a New Testament teaching.
Matthew & Luke 3:7 (John the Baptist), Luke 21:23, John 3:36 Romans 1:18, 2:25; 3:5; 4:15; 5:9; 9:22; 12:19; 13:4-5 Ephesians 2:3, 5: Colossians 3:4-10 1 Thessalonians 1:10, 2:16, Hebrews 3:11, 4:3, Hebrews 10:26-31
Revelation (most of the book-chapters 6-19, 6:16-17, 11:18, 14:10; 19:15, etc.
Ephesians 5:3-6
Colossians 3
4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.
7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.
8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.
9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices
God Gets Angry . . .
Why?
1. Because People Sin
What is sin?
When we think of sin we may think of a breaking of the Law-like disobeying the 10 Commandments. But sin is more comprehensive than that- & includes all injustice and abuse of others. God hates sin not because He is some Cosmic Killjoy in the sky, intent on ruining the fun of humans everywhere, but because sin steals, kills & destroys. We may think of getting drunk as some kind of fun or indulgence, but God sees it as dissipation (imagine trying to do something truly beneficial to society while drunk-the image doesn’t work). So, am I saying getting drunk is a sin? Yes. Why? Because it prevents us from being and doing all God has designed and called us to. This is only one example, but it serves as a pattern for understanding why God hates sin. God wants to focus our lives. Sin dissipates. God wants to bless our lives; sin curses. God wants to use our lives as a blessing, sin uses us as a curse.
All the previously sited verses describe the judgment of God for sin, so let’s move on.
Possibly the worste sins are committed by people who use their spiritual position or authority to meet their own needs. We’ll talk about that later in this message. But one of those needs is the need to feel and to be perceived as spiritual. Such false spirituality leads to religion that actually alienates people from God
God gets angry
2. Because “Spiritual” People Keep People From God
Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there.
2 Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath.
3 Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.”
4 Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent.
5 He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.
6 Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.
Matthew 23
13 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.
15 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.
God gets angry because
3. Those He has created for FRUITFULNESS are Fruitless
18 Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered. Matthew 21
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. John 15
What is the fruit He expects? 1. People . . .
Out of the abundance of the LIFE Jesus pours into our lives, all those around us are blessed and transformed
& 2. . . Character
Ephesians 4:31 let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice
Colossians . . . 3:8 but now put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
God gets angry because
4. His disciples (leaders in the church) cause “little ones” to sin/stumble
Matthew 18
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.
6 “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. 7 Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come! 8 If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell. (to whom was Jesus speaking?)
Three Stories (the initial drive for this message)
I personally know three people who have spoken to me about scandals they are personally and intimately impacted by.
1. There is a bishop of a denomination I’ll not name, who has used church funds to purchase huge swaths of property for himself and his cousins, aunts and uncles. An accountant in his office realized what was happening and blew the whistle, reporting to the police. The bishop used his influence to have the accountant arrested. The person I know was the accountant’s friend. He was called in by police to give testimony concerning the case.
2. I know a lady (more than one, actually) who’s father is a leader in her church. When she was young her father would come home drunk every day and beat whoever happened to be there. He broke a number of her fingers.
3. I know a girl whose mom had become single. A well-known evangelist came and lived with them for a few months. He used the young girl to meet his sexual needs.
Jesus is warning his own disciples here-the founders and leaders of the Church, to take sin seriously-that it would be better for Peter James and John to have a one-ton stone tied around their necks and for them to be thrown into the sea than for them to do what these three men I just described have done.
In other words, there is a specially hot place in hell for such people.
Personally, I feel this message is not preached enough in the church.
God is an angry and just God. He will punish most severely those who abuse their position of power to meet their own greed, or ego, or libidinous needs. Such people cannot expect a place of honor in heaven. Just the opposite.
I think we all may be surprised when we get to the courts of heaven who is there and who is cast out to where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. God’s anger is coming against all those who do such things, and His judgement will be swift and irrevocable.
But, He is not merely an angry God.
God gets angry
5. So We Can be Gracious, Forgive, & Love
Back to our base passage, Colossians 3 (& Ephesians 5)
4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
Every time we harden our hearts, and are angry at one another, unforgiving, unloving, we become less of what our LORD wants us to be.
He gets angry so we don’t have to. We have to trust in His anger, His wrath, His justice, His goodness to right the wrongs in our lives. Resting in Him we can be at peace, and leave vengeance to Him.
I’ll confess. I heard the stories of these precious people who were caught up in wrongs done by leaders in the church and I was deeply disturbed. It was difficult to pray. But I’m not the first one to experience this. David went through it too.
Psalm 37
Let’s read Psalm 37 together (NIV)
I’ll read the 1st and odd numbered verses, and the congregation can read the 2nd and even numbered verses, and we’ll read the last, verse 40, together.
Psalm 37
Of David.
The Dogs @ BC
I asked a few of the students at the Conservatory what they thought of when they thought of God’s anger.
One said when she feeds the stray dogs on our campus, often they fight with each other concerning the food.
She said she gets angry and feels like punishing them, but doesn’t want to hurt them.
Then, she said, “we’re the dogs”.
So God gets angry
1. Because People Sin
2. Because “Spiritual” People Keep People From God
3. Those He has created for FRUITFULNESS are Fruitless
4. His disciples (leaders in the church) cause “little ones” to sin/stumble
5. So We Can be Gracious, Forgive, & Love
To sum up
God gets angry BECAUSE HE LOVES US
I’ll confess something else. This was a difficult message for me to prepare. Because when I look to our LORD and think about His anger, I know I deserve His anger. This, to, is part of the point of Scripture. We all need to live in the constant awareness that we, dusty, dirty humans, can anger Almighty God. This awareness should not cause us to live in constant guilt and depression-those are traps. But we should live in the fear of God-fear that this good, loving, gracious, kind, generous Father will be hurt by our sin, by our false spirituality, by our failure to produce fruit for His kingdom, and by our ability and tendency to cause little ones to stumble.
He loves us like a mother loves her little child.
If your 3-year old child is about to run into a busy Bangalore street, do you laugh and say, “aww, how cute! Go ahead, sweetie!” Or do you run, catch the kid, and correct him, warning him never to do that again?
God loves us that way.
Moses, 3,400 years ago, wrote a song about this. I don’t know the tune, but the words are Psalm 90.
Life is Short
Moses, who was called a friend of God, who knew more than God’s actions, but also knew His “ways”-His character, said this in his great song:
7 We are consumed by your anger and terrified by your indignation.
8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.
9 All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan.
10 Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
11 If only we knew the power of your anger! Your wrath is as great as the fear that is your due.
12 Teach us to number our days,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
13 Relent, LORD! How long will it be?
Have compassion on your servants.
14 Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love,
that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
Living in the constant awareness of God’s anger reminds us that life is brief. We don’t have time to waste with petty arguments and insisting on our way. We only have time to live God’s dream for our lives-a life of love and generosity and joy and peace. This is His desire for us, and this is the fruit He demands of us.
Botham Jean was, by testimony of everyone who knew him, a good man. He preached and sang at his church, and had given his life to Jesus for ministry.
I’ll read from yahoo news: https://www.yahoo.com/gma/jury-deciding-sentence-former-police-officer-amber-guyger-202841301--abc-news-topstories.html?utm_source=The+Daily+Article&utm_campaign=edf86a663b-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_04_16_05_39_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_51f776a552-edf86a663b-273532189&mc_cid=edf86a663b&mc_eid=9fcb014ec2
"Former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger was sentenced on Wednesday to serve 10 years in prison for the fatal 2018 killing of an innocent man she shot when she mistakenly entered his apartment believing it was her own.
But in a remarkable act of kindness, the brother of the victim took the witness stand and spoke directly to Guyger, saying, "I love you like anyone else," and later hugged her in the courtroom before she was led off to prison.
The Dallas County jury reached a unanimous decision on the sentence just before 4 p.m. Central Standard Time, after deliberating for a little over an hour.
Judge Tammy Kemp ordered Guyger and her attorneys to stand as she read the jury's decision on sentencing.
Guyer was turned over to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to immediately begin her sentence. She could be eligible for parole in five years.
The sentence appeared to initially disappoint the family of the victim, Botham Jean, who had hoped for far harsher punishment for Guyger. Several members of the family broke down in tears, shaking their heads as if in disbelief of the jury's decision. . .
Many supporters of the Jean family standing outside the courtroom said the sentence was like a "slap in the face" to the family and began chanting, "No justice, no peace!"" . . .
(This was a natural response. It seems like justice was not served.
But inside the courtroom, the story wasn’t finished.) -kh
"Jean's 18-year-old brother, Brandt Jean, took the witness stand and spoke to Guyger, saying, "I know if you go to God and ask him, he will forgive you."
"I love you just like anyone else and I'm not going to hope you rot and die," Brandt Jean told Guyger. "I personally want the best for you. I wasn't going to say this in front of my family, I don't even want you to go to jail. I want the best for you because I know that's exactly what Botham would want for you. Give your life to Christ. I think giving your life to Christ is the best thing Botham would want for you."
Brandt Jean then asked Kemp if he could give Guyger a hug, a request the judge granted.
He stepped off the witness stand and met Guyger in front of the judge's bench and embraced as Guyger broke into tears.” (Yahoo news Oct 3, 2019)
God loves us. That’s why He gets angry. He has unleashed the anger and judgment due our sins on His Son Jesus. He is angry, and takes care of judgment, so we can be forgiving and kind and gracious, and tender hearted.
