Good afternoon everyone. Um, I will be<\/p>\n
preaching in English today. So if you<\/p>\n
need translation,<\/p>\n
I don't know where that is. You ought to<\/p>\n
go find it yourself.<\/p>\n
But you know to do it now. So did my<\/p>\n
part. um<\/p>\n
at uh grace fellowship raet which is the<\/p>\n
church where I serve now I or we have<\/p>\n
been uh in this series called umamusk<\/p>\n
in the psalm Saturday uh emotions in the<\/p>\n
psalms emotions in the psalms where<\/p>\n
we've been kind of surveying how the<\/p>\n
psalms help us not only to think but to<\/p>\n
feel because we are humans who have<\/p>\n
emotions and we have to deal with those<\/p>\n
emotions and so we believe that this<\/p>\n
psalm Psalms,<\/p>\n
particularly the Psalms, help us to<\/p>\n
learn how to feel. Sorry to I'll give<\/p>\n
you a second. I know there's I see a few<\/p>\n
people putting on headphones here.<\/p>\n
Either you're listening to music or<\/p>\n
trying to get the the sermon. Either way<\/p>\n
is fine. I understand.<\/p>\n
Today, we're going to talk about anger.<\/p>\n
We're going to talk about anger.<\/p>\n
And um I want to start by asking<\/p>\n
everybody a question. Um because this is<\/p>\n
I've gotten different answers as I've<\/p>\n
preached this sermon, but I want to ask<\/p>\n
y'all and you can respond. This is<\/p>\n
interactive here.<\/p>\n
Is anger necessarily a bad thing?<\/p>\n
Is it a bad thing?<\/p>\n
Okay. Okay. I see a lot of people saying<\/p>\n
no, shaking your head. Nobody's like<\/p>\n
brave enough to say no. But everybody's<\/p>\n
like, \"Okay, that's f that's fine. I get<\/p>\n
it. I get it. That's the right answer,<\/p>\n
by the way.\" Um [laughter]<\/p>\n
um<\/p>\n
I believe anger is something and we will<\/p>\n
see this in the scriptures. Anger is<\/p>\n
something that can be and really should<\/p>\n
be holy,<\/p>\n
should be righteous, but often in our<\/p>\n
experience is not. See, anger often<\/p>\n
feels like a negative or a bad emotion<\/p>\n
because we so rarely see it expressed in<\/p>\n
a way that's helpful, that's holy or<\/p>\n
good. And and if I'm honest, and I'm<\/p>\n
confessing sin here a little bit.<\/p>\n
When I look back, often when I look back<\/p>\n
on my anger, it's almost never holy or<\/p>\n
righteous. It's almost always something<\/p>\n
that I feel ashamed of or that I regret.<\/p>\n
Anybody else feel like that?<\/p>\n
All right, everybody's doing the right<\/p>\n
answer again. Good job. You guys are<\/p>\n
smart.<\/p>\n
But if we read the scriptures, and I<\/p>\n
think I think it's important to to to<\/p>\n
note this. If we read the scriptures, we<\/p>\n
see and whether whether we read in the<\/p>\n
Old Testament or the New Testament, we<\/p>\n
see anger, righteous anger from a<\/p>\n
righteous God. In uh Psalm 7,<\/p>\n
in Psalm 7, we read, \"God is a righteous<\/p>\n
judge<\/p>\n
and a God who feels indignation every<\/p>\n
day.\" And so often when we read in the<\/p>\n
scriptures, it uses the word indignation<\/p>\n
or wrath is a common word that we see in<\/p>\n
in the scriptures about God's anger. Um<\/p>\n
and and we read that a lot when we come<\/p>\n
to like the day of the Lord. When we<\/p>\n
come to almost any of the prophets, you<\/p>\n
see God's anger burning against either<\/p>\n
his people or the nations who are<\/p>\n
rebelling against him. And you might<\/p>\n
say, \"Okay, well that's Old Testament.<\/p>\n
that's the way God supposed to be in the<\/p>\n
Old Testament, right? That's who he is<\/p>\n
in the Old Testament. But that's not<\/p>\n
true. When you come to the New<\/p>\n
Testament, we find Jesus angry,<\/p>\n
indignant, raging even. And in fact,<\/p>\n
when you get to the end of the Old<\/p>\n
Testament, he's really angry. That's the<\/p>\n
way he comes out. That's what we talked<\/p>\n
about last time I was here. The day of<\/p>\n
the Lord, Jesus himself pours out wrath<\/p>\n
upon the nations, upon the upon the<\/p>\n
earth. But just a few examples if you<\/p>\n
don't believe me. All right. Mark 3,<\/p>\n
Jesus is angry at the Pharisees because<\/p>\n
they're putting religious ritual above<\/p>\n
human needs. You can go back and look it<\/p>\n
up later, but Mark 10, he's angry at his<\/p>\n
disciples. Do you remember why? Because<\/p>\n
they blocked the little children from<\/p>\n
coming to him. He was angry at his own<\/p>\n
disciples, his own people, the ones that<\/p>\n
he chose. He was angry at them. And then<\/p>\n
in all of the gospels actually we can<\/p>\n
read about Jesus going into the temple<\/p>\n
and doing what? Flipping over the tables<\/p>\n
uh whipping people with with cords and<\/p>\n
and he's angry because they're turning<\/p>\n
the house of the Lord into something<\/p>\n
that's not supposed to be. They're<\/p>\n
keeping people from the worship from the<\/p>\n
right worship of God<\/p>\n
in Mark one. Now you can make a case<\/p>\n
here. Now that the word that that is<\/p>\n
used um isn't anger in this context, but<\/p>\n
in the Greek it actually is the word<\/p>\n
anger. Jesus is angry at leprosy.<\/p>\n
That you can make a case for this. And<\/p>\n
in John 11 it says that Jesus is angry<\/p>\n
at death. And the words in Greek again<\/p>\n
are words that mean indignant, angry,<\/p>\n
troubled. He rages against these things.<\/p>\n
Okay. So<\/p>\n
what is the difference then between<\/p>\n
God's anger and our anger?<\/p>\n
Why<\/p>\n
when we look upon anger, especially our<\/p>\n
own anger? When we we look back, we're<\/p>\n
often regretful. We're often even<\/p>\n
ashamed of the way we acted or the<\/p>\n
things that we said in our anger. But<\/p>\n
then we see God is often angry. I mean,<\/p>\n
in Psalm 7 again, he says, \"God is a God<\/p>\n
who is angry. He feels indignation every<\/p>\n
single day.\" That's a lot of That's a<\/p>\n
lot of anger considering how old God is.<\/p>\n
He's pretty old. He has been angry every<\/p>\n
day since sin has entered the world.<\/p>\n
God's anger, as we will see, is holy.<\/p>\n
It's pure. It's completely righteous. It<\/p>\n
is a completely righteous response to<\/p>\n
evil<\/p>\n
and it's proportionate.<\/p>\n
Our experience with anger and this is<\/p>\n
why good anger is actually pretty hard<\/p>\n
for us to imagine.<\/p>\n
We hold grudges.<\/p>\n
We're bitter. We seek revenge.<\/p>\n
Anger often looks violent to us.<\/p>\n
physical abuse, emotional abuse, verbal<\/p>\n
abuse.<\/p>\n
It's often it does harm to others. It it<\/p>\n
produces broken relationships.<\/p>\n
See, our anger is often volatile,<\/p>\n
unpredictable,<\/p>\n
disproportionate. You ever felt that?<\/p>\n
You ever come out of a situation and<\/p>\n
thought, \"Whoa, that escalated way too<\/p>\n
quickly. My anger was not proportionate<\/p>\n
to the situation.<\/p>\n
And because of these things, our anger<\/p>\n
often feels and is scary and even<\/p>\n
sinful.<\/p>\n
But I I believe that the scriptures<\/p>\n
actually give us a way to feel anger<\/p>\n
that is righteous and holy. Psalm 4, and<\/p>\n
Paul quotes this in Ephesians as well.<\/p>\n
Psalm 4 says,<\/p>\n
So be angry and do not sin. Be angry and<\/p>\n
do not sin.<\/p>\n
See that God knows that there are things<\/p>\n
that happen around us. There are things<\/p>\n
that happen in our communities, in our<\/p>\n
world that should actually produce real<\/p>\n
anger,<\/p>\n
holy righteous anger.<\/p>\n
And God gives us a way to deal with<\/p>\n
these things, to deal with our own<\/p>\n
anger.<\/p>\n
But dealing with our own anger takes<\/p>\n
wisdom. It takes humility and it takes<\/p>\n
um some perspective that we don't often<\/p>\n
have.<\/p>\n
So today we're going to focus on Psalm<\/p>\n
139. The end of Psalm 139 gives us I<\/p>\n
think a good blueprint for when we're<\/p>\n
angry. And so we're going to look at<\/p>\n
verses 17 through 24 of um Psalm 30 139.<\/p>\n
And uh what we're going to look at here<\/p>\n
is uh<\/p>\n
uh verses um the first couple of verses<\/p>\n
give us the right perspective for anger,<\/p>\n
the right perspective. The second uh<\/p>\n
section gives us the right reason for<\/p>\n
anger. And the third section gives us<\/p>\n
the right posture for anger. So before<\/p>\n
we dive into this, let's take a a second<\/p>\n
and just pray that God would help us to<\/p>\n
understand his word in this.<\/p>\n
Father, you are a good God, a holy God,<\/p>\n
a righteous judge as we just read. And<\/p>\n
therefore, you are a God who feels<\/p>\n
indignation every day.<\/p>\n
And that's pretty scary for us. That's<\/p>\n
not something that is comfortable for us<\/p>\n
because our experience of anger is often<\/p>\n
so negative and so<\/p>\n
colored with sin. Father, we ask that<\/p>\n
you would help us<\/p>\n
from your word to understand what<\/p>\n
righteous anger could look like so that<\/p>\n
by understanding and by embracing your<\/p>\n
word, embracing the gospel, we could<\/p>\n
actually somehow achieve righteous anger<\/p>\n
against things that are evil. That our<\/p>\n
heart would be more like yours. That our<\/p>\n
our anger would be more like yours.<\/p>\n
Father, teach us from your word. Send<\/p>\n
your Holy Spirit teach us. Amen.<\/p>\n
So, um, so first let's look at, uh, the<\/p>\n
right perspective<\/p>\n
for anger.<\/p>\n
Um, the right perspective. So, let me<\/p>\n
read verses 17 and 18 from Psalm 139.<\/p>\n
How precious to me are your thoughts, oh<\/p>\n
God. How vast the sum of them. If I<\/p>\n
would count them, they're more than the<\/p>\n
sand. I awake and I am still with you.<\/p>\n
So I think the first way that we're<\/p>\n
going to deal with our anger according<\/p>\n
to this passage is we're going to make<\/p>\n
sure that our perspective is right. And<\/p>\n
that's a perspective about life,<\/p>\n
perspective about everything. Often the<\/p>\n
way that we respond to any situation in<\/p>\n
life, we respond to anything actually<\/p>\n
depends on our perspective in life. And<\/p>\n
this is true also of our anger. Uh as we<\/p>\n
discussed earlier, see our anger often<\/p>\n
tends to focus on ourselves. So we like<\/p>\n
to focus on how we have been wronged. We<\/p>\n
focus on what has happened to us. How we<\/p>\n
have lost faith. How we have been<\/p>\n
shamed. Maybe on what we have lost. On<\/p>\n
the fact that the things that we want to<\/p>\n
happen aren't happening when we want<\/p>\n
them to happen.<\/p>\n
We focus naturally on ourselves. If you<\/p>\n
don't believe this, just have a kid.<\/p>\n
Watch that kid. It'll happen. You'll see<\/p>\n
it clearly. And so when we focus so<\/p>\n
thoroughly on ourselves<\/p>\n
on on us on our needs and our wants our<\/p>\n
anger then actually makes us feel more<\/p>\n
important than others. In fact it makes<\/p>\n
us in our own minds central the most<\/p>\n
important person in the univer it makes<\/p>\n
us God actually in our own minds and we<\/p>\n
may not say it this way but we are kind<\/p>\n
of our own God. So therefore in our<\/p>\n
anger we often hurt others. we're in<\/p>\n
order to protect what we love most which<\/p>\n
is ourselves.<\/p>\n
We tend to think of ourselves as central<\/p>\n
as most important and therefore<\/p>\n
whenever something or someone threatens<\/p>\n
what we love. So whether that be our<\/p>\n
comfort um whether it be our happiness,<\/p>\n
our desires, our view of ourselves,<\/p>\n
we can't help but get angry. We have to<\/p>\n
get angry. And this is, by the way, this<\/p>\n
is universal. This happens anywhere on<\/p>\n
earth. It's not something that's just<\/p>\n
us. It's anywhere on earth. Wherever<\/p>\n
there are people, this happens. And the<\/p>\n
problem is we are all little people who<\/p>\n
think we're big. We're all fallen,<\/p>\n
sinful people who think that we're<\/p>\n
pretty good. We're we're all prone to<\/p>\n
say, \"My will be done, not yours.\"<\/p>\n
And because of this,<\/p>\n
we build our own little kingdoms and we<\/p>\n
feel like we have to protect those<\/p>\n
little kingdoms. We have to micromanage<\/p>\n
and protect everything in our lives, our<\/p>\n
own honor, our own happiness.<\/p>\n
And we go to war with anything or anyone<\/p>\n
that threatens that.<\/p>\n
Because from our perspective,<\/p>\n
when we focus so thoroughly, so<\/p>\n
completely on ourselves, on our<\/p>\n
happiness, on our being, on our on our<\/p>\n
honor, on our righteousness,<\/p>\n
that's all we have. When you are the<\/p>\n
center of everything, when your desires,<\/p>\n
when you only live once rules your life,<\/p>\n
when your desires and be true to<\/p>\n
yourself rules your life, that's all you<\/p>\n
have. You don't have anything else. you<\/p>\n
just have making yourself happy,<\/p>\n
guarding what you are, guarding what you<\/p>\n
And so you have to get angry because<\/p>\n
it's all you have in this world. So how<\/p>\n
do you correct that perspective?<\/p>\n
And I think this passage gives us a way.<\/p>\n
I think it's by loving and submitting to<\/p>\n
his to his perspective to God's<\/p>\n
perspective. So the psalmist here, he's<\/p>\n
praising God for his thoughts. How<\/p>\n
precious to me are your thoughts, oh<\/p>\n
God. How vast is the sum of them.<\/p>\n
So<\/p>\n
he's reminding himself that it's God and<\/p>\n
not man, not himself that is infinite,<\/p>\n
eternal, and perfect. And he's<\/p>\n
submitting himself to the fact that God<\/p>\n
and not man is the center of all things.<\/p>\n
And he's beginning to align his own<\/p>\n
perspective about everything<\/p>\n
to God's perspective. When we begin to<\/p>\n
love God's perspective, when we love and<\/p>\n
meditate on his thoughts, and it it does<\/p>\n
these things. First of all, it frees us<\/p>\n
from having to obsess over the ways that<\/p>\n
we have been wronged and on the things<\/p>\n
that have made us so angry.<\/p>\n
Second of all, it frees us from needing<\/p>\n
to lash out in anger to protect<\/p>\n
ourselves, to protect our reputation,<\/p>\n
our honor, our image, our happiness, our<\/p>\n
position in the community. And then it<\/p>\n
frees us to entrust our souls to a<\/p>\n
faithful creator while doing good as as<\/p>\n
Peter says, when we are tempted to<\/p>\n
sinful anger, to lash out at others. And<\/p>\n
how does it do this? How does taking on<\/p>\n
or adopting God's perspective, loving<\/p>\n
his thoughts, meditating on his laws,<\/p>\n
how does that help us in this way? First<\/p>\n
of all, when we saturate our hearts and<\/p>\n
minds with God's thoughts, when we take<\/p>\n
on his perspective, we realize that most<\/p>\n
of the reasons why we get angry are<\/p>\n
small,<\/p>\n
are finite,<\/p>\n
they're fleeting,<\/p>\n
and they're often self-centered and not<\/p>\n
even important. Secondly, when we adopt<\/p>\n
or submit to God's perspective, we are<\/p>\n
accepting the fact that God himself<\/p>\n
burns with anger in a righteous way<\/p>\n
against all sin, against all wickedness,<\/p>\n
against all injustice.<\/p>\n
And so, the more that our perspective<\/p>\n
actually is in line with God's, the more<\/p>\n
our own anger is sanctified. And then<\/p>\n
third, this perspective actually shows<\/p>\n
us that God hasn't forgotten us.<\/p>\n
He's not absent when evil things happen<\/p>\n
to us. He's not absent when evil things<\/p>\n
happen in the world. It allows us to<\/p>\n
trust this often repeated promise<\/p>\n
throughout the scriptures<\/p>\n
that God will not be mocked, that he<\/p>\n
will judge evil, and that he w will pour<\/p>\n
out his wrath upon all evil. So first of<\/p>\n
all, we need to have perspective that<\/p>\n
God's knowledge, God's wisdom,<\/p>\n
God's perspective encompasses all<\/p>\n
things. He sees everything.<\/p>\n
We don't have to get angry and lash out<\/p>\n
at everything. Second of all,<\/p>\n
we need a right reason for anger. A<\/p>\n
right reason. Verse 19. Oh that you<\/p>\n
would slay the wicked, oh God. Oh men of<\/p>\n
blood, depart from me.<\/p>\n
They speak against you with malicious<\/p>\n
intent. Your enemies take your name in<\/p>\n
vain. Do I not hate those who hate you,<\/p>\n
oh Lord? And do I not loathe those who<\/p>\n
rise up against you? I hate them with<\/p>\n
complete hatred. I count them my<\/p>\n
enemies.<\/p>\n
So this is a hard passage actually um<\/p>\n
especially when we realize that this is<\/p>\n
like these are the prayers the hembook<\/p>\n
of God's people when u Tim was asking me<\/p>\n
what songs to pick I was I said give me<\/p>\n
some songs about killing God's enemies<\/p>\n
if you have any of those available you<\/p>\n
know we don't really have any of those<\/p>\n
kind of songs because those are those<\/p>\n
are really hard thing the impregatory or<\/p>\n
the the anger the anger psalm psalms. I<\/p>\n
mean there's and there's a few of them.<\/p>\n
There's quite a few of them. They're<\/p>\n
hard for us because again anger is not<\/p>\n
an easy thing for us to imagine as good.<\/p>\n
And so the the psalmist here is saying<\/p>\n
please God kill the bad guys. Kill those<\/p>\n
who hate you.<\/p>\n
I hate them. Kill them.<\/p>\n
Now that's hard. That's hard for me to<\/p>\n
say. That's hard for me to pray.<\/p>\n
Can Can this be right, though? And<\/p>\n
that's that's the question. Can praying<\/p>\n
like this be right?<\/p>\n
Again, the reason why this kind of<\/p>\n
language is so hard for us is that we<\/p>\n
have so rarely seen or experienced truly<\/p>\n
righteous anger. Again,<\/p>\n
we get so angry about these little<\/p>\n
things.<\/p>\n
I might have said this last time I was<\/p>\n
here, but I have this fantasy<\/p>\n
when I'm driving in Thailand where I<\/p>\n
have a you know what a bushcraft knife<\/p>\n
is? It's a really thick knife. It's it's<\/p>\n
it's used for like splitting. It's like<\/p>\n
a redneck outdoors thing. But I think<\/p>\n
like if I could just go by and like<\/p>\n
puncture tires of people who are parked<\/p>\n
and blocking lanes.<\/p>\n
All right. Now I get I get angry about<\/p>\n
this and all it's doing is it's making<\/p>\n
me slow down and I'm I'm arriving<\/p>\n
somewhere two minutes later but I get<\/p>\n
angry about these things. This is why<\/p>\n
it's so hard for me to pray God will you<\/p>\n
kill that person because I know that I<\/p>\n
would be praying it about whoever parks<\/p>\n
besides the gui I'll stand at my house.<\/p>\n
What does righteous anger look like<\/p>\n
though? So what does it look like for<\/p>\n
anger to be holy? To answer that<\/p>\n
question, we have to ask ourselves,<\/p>\n
what makes God angry?<\/p>\n
That's it. We just have to ask<\/p>\n
ourselves, what is it that makes God<\/p>\n
angry?<\/p>\n
Now, there's a lot in the scriptures,<\/p>\n
but you can just even put it in<\/p>\n
categories here. Here's a few.<\/p>\n
oppression,<\/p>\n
injustice,<\/p>\n
idolatry,<\/p>\n
unbelief, rebellion against him.<\/p>\n
Jerry Bridges, and this is really good.<\/p>\n
Um, you might want to take a picture of<\/p>\n
this and then chew on it later. It's<\/p>\n
really good, though. God<\/p>\n
by the very perfection of his moral<\/p>\n
nature cannot but be angry at sin.<\/p>\n
Not only because of its destructiveness<\/p>\n
to humans, but more important because<\/p>\n
its assault on his divine majesty.<\/p>\n
This is not the mere petulence of an<\/p>\n
offended deity because his commands are<\/p>\n
not obeyed. It's rather the necessary<\/p>\n
response of God to uphold his moral<\/p>\n
authority in the universe. And though<\/p>\n
God's wrath does not contain the sinful<\/p>\n
emotions associated with human wrath, it<\/p>\n
does contain a fierce intensity arising<\/p>\n
from his settled opposition to sin and<\/p>\n
his determination to punish it to the<\/p>\n
utmost. Now, just in case you don't<\/p>\n
remember this or don't go back and read<\/p>\n
it, what he's saying is is that God<\/p>\n
would not be good if he didn't get angry<\/p>\n
at sin,<\/p>\n
at oppression, at idolatry, at<\/p>\n
corruption, at all forms of evil. He<\/p>\n
would not be God. He would not be good<\/p>\n
if that<\/p>\n
if he didn't do that, if he didn't get<\/p>\n
angry. And then Sinclair Ferguson says<\/p>\n
it really simply. God's holy wrath is<\/p>\n
poured out on what he hates<\/p>\n
because it damages and destroys what he<\/p>\n
loves.<\/p>\n
Now<\/p>\n
you have probably felt righteous anger.<\/p>\n
You may may not have known it, but have<\/p>\n
you ever have you ever seen someone<\/p>\n
mistreat your child?<\/p>\n
Or have you ever seen<\/p>\n
someone hurt and innocent or someone who<\/p>\n
was<\/p>\n
we when we love something when we love<\/p>\n
someone to see that person<\/p>\n
hurt<\/p>\n
uh oppressed<\/p>\n
uh diminished in any way causes us<\/p>\n
righteous anger. Now sometimes the<\/p>\n
expression of our anger isn't good.<\/p>\n
God is completely righteous.<\/p>\n
He is completely right to be angry at<\/p>\n
anything that diminishes his glory or<\/p>\n
desecrates his creation.<\/p>\n
And so when the when the psalmist prays<\/p>\n
this way, he's totally in the right.<\/p>\n
He sees the injustice, the oppression,<\/p>\n
the rebellion against God around him. He<\/p>\n
sees powerful people, powerful nations<\/p>\n
oppressing weak nations. He sees people<\/p>\n
worshiping false gods. And he prays for<\/p>\n
justice. He prays for God to establish<\/p>\n
justice and righteousness on the earth.<\/p>\n
And so the anger that God desires for<\/p>\n
us, and this is not easy to to to get,<\/p>\n
it's not easy to to feel this sometimes,<\/p>\n
but the anger that God desires for his<\/p>\n
people is a holy anger that opposes evil<\/p>\n
and protects the weak. It's an anger<\/p>\n
that flows out of the holiness of God.<\/p>\n
It's an anger that hates the dishonoring<\/p>\n
of his name.<\/p>\n
It hates the diminishing of his glory.<\/p>\n
and it hates the degrading<\/p>\n
of his creation.<\/p>\n
So when we see injustice, when we see<\/p>\n
people made in the image of God being<\/p>\n
oppressed, being being stepped on, being<\/p>\n
exploited, when we see corruption,<\/p>\n
exploitation, God calls us to be angry<\/p>\n
with a holy, righteous anger. And so may<\/p>\n
our hearts learn to love what God loves<\/p>\n
so that we might learn to be angry<\/p>\n
without sin.<\/p>\n
But again, how are we going to do that?<\/p>\n
How are we going to guard ourselves<\/p>\n
against unrighteous anger? And let's go<\/p>\n
to the last point, the right posture for<\/p>\n
anger. The right posture. And I I love<\/p>\n
the way this passage kind of walks us<\/p>\n
through it because it it first of all,<\/p>\n
it starts us off with a bit of wisdom<\/p>\n
saying that God is infinite. God sees<\/p>\n
all and knows all. God understands<\/p>\n
everything. His perspective is<\/p>\n
all-encompassing. yours is not. Cling to<\/p>\n
that perspective. Second of all, it<\/p>\n
says, \"Here are righteous reasons to be<\/p>\n
angry, the unjust, the unrighteous,<\/p>\n
those who hate God.\" And then third,<\/p>\n
he gives us a prayer that will help us<\/p>\n
before we get angry, while we are angry,<\/p>\n
and after we get angry.<\/p>\n
So right after praying for justice for<\/p>\n
the destruction of those who hate God<\/p>\n
and who are oppressing God's people, the<\/p>\n
psalmist humbles himself. So let me read<\/p>\n
this passage. It's 23 and 24. You<\/p>\n
probably know this by heart already.<\/p>\n
Search me, oh God, and know my heart.<\/p>\n
Try me and know my thoughts and see if<\/p>\n
there be any grievous way in me. Lead me<\/p>\n
in the way everlasting.<\/p>\n
So the psalmist again, he realizes he's<\/p>\n
not God. He doesn't know or understand<\/p>\n
everything. He doesn't have eternal<\/p>\n
perspective as God does. What's more, he<\/p>\n
knows that he's actually himself prone<\/p>\n
to sin. He knows that his anger often<\/p>\n
focuses on small, useless, finite<\/p>\n
things, things that aren't important and<\/p>\n
that he is, like all of mankind, prone<\/p>\n
to simply seeking revenge when he gets<\/p>\n
angry. And he knows that he doesn't see<\/p>\n
everything from God's perspective. And<\/p>\n
so he asks for help from God. And and in<\/p>\n
fact more than that, he's actually he's<\/p>\n
banking on this help. He's banking on<\/p>\n
the fact that God is a God who helps<\/p>\n
those who cry out to him. He's sure that<\/p>\n
this is the God who is with his people,<\/p>\n
who knows and understands their<\/p>\n
weaknesses. If you read the the first<\/p>\n
part of the psalm, you'll see this is a<\/p>\n
this is a a a man, the psalmist, who<\/p>\n
knows who God is, who knows that God is<\/p>\n
intimately acquainted with all of our<\/p>\n
needs, who knows all of our sin, who<\/p>\n
knows how we were formed in the womb<\/p>\n
even.<\/p>\n
And he he's banking on God being a God<\/p>\n
who listens to his people.<\/p>\n
He knows himself.<\/p>\n
He knows that he's a sinner. He knows<\/p>\n
that he's prone to selfishness, that<\/p>\n
he's prone to even idolatry.<\/p>\n
He knows that he is actually<\/p>\n
deserving of God's wrath and anger.<\/p>\n
But he asked for God's mercy here. He<\/p>\n
asked for God's help. And I think I<\/p>\n
think this is a model for us when we're<\/p>\n
angry.<\/p>\n
What if the next time you get angry<\/p>\n
at your spouse, at your children,<\/p>\n
at your boss, at your co-workers,<\/p>\n
whoever, what if we before we said a<\/p>\n
word,<\/p>\n
before we go in swinging, you know, were<\/p>\n
to pray this prayer,<\/p>\n
search me, oh God, know my heart, try me<\/p>\n
and know my thoughts and see if there be<\/p>\n
any grievous way in me and lead me in<\/p>\n
the way everlasting.<\/p>\n
I mean, it would it would change the way<\/p>\n
you get angry.<\/p>\n
It it has for me this week. I didn't<\/p>\n
like it either. [laughter] I just wanted<\/p>\n
to be angry and sin, but I had to<\/p>\n
examine my own heart.<\/p>\n
This prayer actually softens the effect<\/p>\n
of our anger.<\/p>\n
And the reason why it changes our anger,<\/p>\n
the way the reason why it changes the<\/p>\n
way we get angry is it is it shows<\/p>\n
that we are all prone to do things that<\/p>\n
make God angry. We know we have grievous<\/p>\n
ways in us. It's almost rhetorical the<\/p>\n
way he says is<\/p>\n
see if there is any grievous way. We<\/p>\n
know there's grievous ways in us. We<\/p>\n
know every hour of every day we are<\/p>\n
seeking ourself over God.<\/p>\n
And this prayer shows that the psalmist<\/p>\n
knows that unless God is merciful,<\/p>\n
then he himself deserves the exact same<\/p>\n
judgment that he asked God to execute<\/p>\n
upon the wicked.<\/p>\n
So the ironic thing that we see here is<\/p>\n
that we cannot actually feel or<\/p>\n
experience righteous holy anger<\/p>\n
until we understand that we ourselves<\/p>\n
are deserving of God's holy anger.<\/p>\n
Until we stand amazed that the wrath<\/p>\n
that we deserve has been poured out upon<\/p>\n
Christ. That God himself has absorbed<\/p>\n
his own anger on our behalf.<\/p>\n
I'm going to read this quote from the<\/p>\n
late great John MacArthur.<\/p>\n
It's a great quote. Again, the quotes<\/p>\n
are better than the sermon.<\/p>\n
Infinite wrath.<\/p>\n
This is God's wrath. Infinite wrath<\/p>\n
moved by infinite righteousness releases<\/p>\n
infinite punishment on the infinite son<\/p>\n
who can absorb an eternal hell for all<\/p>\n
who will ever believe in just three<\/p>\n
hours talking about the cross. It is<\/p>\n
here that he bears in his own body our<\/p>\n
sins. It is here that he has made sin<\/p>\n
for us who knew no sin.<\/p>\n
It is here that he is wounded for our<\/p>\n
transgressions, crushed for our<\/p>\n
iniquity. It is here that he is made a<\/p>\n
curse for us. These are the three hours<\/p>\n
of the wrath of God upon him.<\/p>\n
And then listen to how the Apostle Paul<\/p>\n
says it. But God demonstrates his own<\/p>\n
love for us in this. While we were still<\/p>\n
sinners, Christ died for us. Since we<\/p>\n
have now been justified by his blood,<\/p>\n
how much more shall we be saved from<\/p>\n
God's wrath through him? So, ironically,<\/p>\n
ironically,<\/p>\n
it's only through experiencing and<\/p>\n
understanding and embracing the gospel<\/p>\n
that we can even have a posture that<\/p>\n
allows for righteous indignation, for<\/p>\n
righteous anger.<\/p>\n
When we fully understand the gospel that<\/p>\n
Jesus himself willingly took the wrath<\/p>\n
that we deserve, our hearts begin to<\/p>\n
love the God who saved us. Our hearts<\/p>\n
begin to align with his heart. We begin<\/p>\n
to love what he loves. We begin to be<\/p>\n
angry at the things that make him angry.<\/p>\n
We begin to lose the need to make<\/p>\n
ourselves big and to make others small.<\/p>\n
We begin to lose the need to protect our<\/p>\n
own little kingdoms.<\/p>\n
because we finally see things from God's<\/p>\n
perspective. And our anger when that<\/p>\n
happens therefore<\/p>\n
becomes more and more holy. It becomes<\/p>\n
more and more God- centered<\/p>\n
and it becomes more and more loving<\/p>\n
actually as we begin to follow God. So<\/p>\n
therefore,<\/p>\n
if you want to feel truly righteous<\/p>\n
anger, if you want your anger to be<\/p>\n
truly holy, if you want to be angry yet<\/p>\n
do not sin as the psalmist and as Paul<\/p>\n
commands us,<\/p>\n
that only comes through the gospel. That<\/p>\n
only comes through the the knowledge of<\/p>\n
one who has taken God's anger on your<\/p>\n
behalf.<\/p>\n
May our hearts be so captivated and<\/p>\n
aligned with the God of the gospel that<\/p>\n
our anger becomes pure and holy like<\/p>\n
his. Let's pray.<\/p>\n
Father, you<\/p>\n
are a God who feels anger every day. As<\/p>\n
we just talked about, as we just heard,<\/p>\n
you're a God who um has not left us<\/p>\n
without help<\/p>\n
when we feel anger because we feel it<\/p>\n
every day.<\/p>\n
Help us not to feel angry at such small<\/p>\n
unimportant things. Give us eternal<\/p>\n
perspective. Let us love your thoughts.<\/p>\n
Let us love your perspective. Let us<\/p>\n
zoom out and even look at things the way<\/p>\n
you do.<\/p>\n
Let us love the things that you love so<\/p>\n
that we are truly offended and angry at<\/p>\n
things that either diminish your glory<\/p>\n
or desecrate your creation.<\/p>\n
And Lord, humble us in our pride.<\/p>\n
Let us remember every day that we<\/p>\n
all who believe were once vessels of<\/p>\n
wrath. we are are those who deserve your<\/p>\n
wrath,<\/p>\n
but that you crushed Jesus. You poured<\/p>\n
out your wrath upon him so that we might<\/p>\n
be counted righteous and might be your<\/p>\n
children.<\/p>\n
Sanctify our anger. Draw our hearts<\/p>\n
closer to you in Christ's name. Amen.<\/p>","english_search_text":"","":"","original_publish_date":"20250814","video_url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CZZDh2D6vGU","video_id":"CZZDh2D6vGU","video_duration":"34:36","channel_name":"Grace City Bangkok"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracecity.machakosconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracecity.machakosconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracecity.machakosconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracecity.machakosconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracecity.machakosconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=145"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gracecity.machakosconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146,"href":"https:\/\/gracecity.machakosconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions\/146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracecity.machakosconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracecity.machakosconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracecity.machakosconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracecity.machakosconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}