“He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly”
Proverbs 14:17
A plot to murder a third grade Center Elementary School teacher in Waycross, Georgia, was thwarted Friday, March 28th when a student told authorities about the plan just before the start of the school day. The students -
Eleven of 12 students, girls and boys (8 and 9 years old), schemed to murder their teacher, Belle Carter, taking with them to school a steak knife, a roll of duct tape, handcuffs, ribbon and a heavy crystal paperweight.
The detailed plan gave to the students specific assignments, such as taping paper over windows and wiping up blood after it was all over.
Why would they want to do such a thing? Because they were angry at the teacher for scolding one of the students, who stood in a chair.
We live in an angry society.
An important business executive boarded the New-Orleans-to-Washington train. He was a heavy sleeper, and he needed to be awakened in order to get off the train in Atlanta about 5 o’clock in the morning. He found a porter and told him, "I want you to awaken me in order that I might get off the train at five o’clock in the morning. Now I’m a heavy sleeper," he said. "It doesn’t matter how much I fret and fuss and fume or what I do to you — I have to get off the train in Atlanta. If you have to remove me bodily," he said, "you get me off that train in Atlanta."
Well, the next morning he awakened about 9 o’clock, having slept all night and having missed Atlanta, speeding toward Washington. He located the porter and really poured it on with all sorts of abusive language, almost attacking the poor guy bodily.
After he left, someone said to the porter, "Wow! That the maddest man I ever saw!"
The porter said, "That ain’t nothin’! You think he was angry-you should’ve heard that guy I put off in Atlanta this morning!"
Ben Franklin once said, "Anger is never without a reason, but seldom a good one."
I want us to look at three angry men in the Bible and see what we can learn from each one.
I. THE ANGRY SINNER (2 Kings 5:11,12)
"A great man ... but he was a leper."
Now, leprosy was so terrible disease that the basest slave in Syria would not change places with him even if they might have his greatness.
Leprosy is an illustration of sin. When God wants to picture the awfulness of sin, leprosy is used.
A leper was considered unclean. God’s law for Israel required lepers to cry, "Unclean, unclean" to warn people of their presence.
Anyone who has ever seen pictures of those in an advanced state of leprosy knows how terribly disfiguring leprosy can become. What was once beautiful and attractive becomes grotesque and loathsome. The leprosy took all the luster off Naaman’s accomplishments.
Leprosy numbs the feelings. Lepers have been known to have parts of their bodies (fingers and toes) chewed off by rats as they slept because they could not feel the rat chewing on them. Naaman would eventually be unable to feel the sword in his hand.
In Israel the leper would be banished from society regardless of whom they were. Leprosy would separate one from family and friends.
Leprosy dooms an individual to a premature death, for in Bible times man had no remedy for it. A leper was beyond any human aid.
A leper was a walking sepulcher. The only cure for them was found in God.
Any garment that was found defiled with leprosy was burned. Leprosy destines things for the fire. There is only one place for sin, and that is in the fires of God’s judgment. It is sad to think of millions of spiritual lepers being consigned to the eternal fires of hell because they have never trusted Christ as their Saviour.
Naaman is a picture of thousands today, fellow men and women, decent, moral, kind, but they have sinful hearts. They are unbelievers and are therefore spiritually diseased and doomed without Christ.
Elisha tells Naaman what to do about his leprosy. In verse 11, Naaman became very upset.
A. The reasons for his anger
1. Upset concerning the Man of God
Naaman didn’t receive the proper respect from the preacher he thought he should have got. He should “come out to me.”
2. Upset concerning the Message of God
He was upset because he was told to wash in a dirty river. He was an important military officer. The Jordan River was offensive to his pride; the cross is offensive to man’s pride today.
Naaman WISHED TO BE TREATED LIKE A GREAT MAN THAT HAPPENED TO BE A LEPER; Elisha treated him like a leper that happened to be a great man.
Naaman thought more of his dignity than he did his cure.
Naaman thought he could pick and choose the river he wanted. He liked his river better than the one God picked out
B. The results of his anger
1. His Rejection
He turned; not TO God, but AWAY from God’s man and God’s help.
We often mistake polite rejection as favorable and think that we are getting somewhere with an individual. However, the person who is more violent in their rejection is oftentimes more likely to be saved. Polite rejection is often from the most adamant in unbelief.
a. Anger in seen in his expectations
b. Anger is seen in his excuses
c. Anger is seen in his exit
Where was he going????? To an early death if he does not return.
Salvation is God’s plan, and our plan will not bring salvation but only damnation.
2. His Return (14)
His servants reason with him. They were kind and thoughtful in their pleading with him.
a. He submitted to his servants
b. He submitted to the stream
c. He submitted to the saying
II. THE ANGRY SON (Luke 15:28)
A news story from Liberal, Kansas, told of an elderly lady driving a big, new expensive car. It seems that she was preparing to back into a parking space when suddenly a young man in a small sports car zoomed into the space ahead of her. The lady, angrily, asked why, he had done that when he could not tell that she was trying to park there. His response, "I’m young and I’m quick."
When he came out of the shopping center a few minutes later, he found the elderly lady using her big new, expensive car as a battering ram, backing up and then ramming into his car. He ran up to her and angrily asked her why she was wrecking his car. Her response was, "Because I’m old and I’m rich." There are times in life when things happen to us that we resent and oftentimes we react by venting our feelings in destructive ways. There are times when our reaction gets us into trouble.
There is no doubt that the behavior of the older son is horrible and selfish.
A. The action that disturbed him
There was a celebration, and it disturbed him. He did not care about all this rejoicing for the return of his brother.
He had a grievance against his father and his brother.
B. The anger that dominated him
"He was angry and would not go in."
He becomes the pouting son at what his father does for the younger son.
Angry because he had a
1. Deformed vision
"I.....me.....my....." 5 times
Here was a man whose vision was filled with the importance of his own self, and in life usually the soul that is filled with a grievance is someone with a grievance about how they were treated. He was self-centered.
2. Distorted values
"Thou never gavest to me a kid." All he could see what the fatted calf and yet the father said “All that I have is thine.”
3. Doctored virtue
"Neither transgressed I at any times thy commandments."
This was not the truth. He had an inflated sense of goodness. He had no realization of his sinfulness.
Anger distorts things. Anger distorted his conception of himself.
"Father, I don’t need to ask you for forgiveness, I haven’t done anything. But I’ll tell you something, you need to ask me for forgiveness for what you’ve done."
How proud this angry son was!
Anybody can become angry.
Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it’s stored than to anything on which it’s poured.
WHAT’S YOUR BOILING POINT? An old proverb says, "The emptier the pot, the quicker it boils." The less water in the pot, the quicker you reach a boiling point. You are aware that
WATER in the Bible is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. In other words, the less the Holy Spirit has of you, the quicker you act like you don’t have the Holy Spirit.
III. THE ANGRY SERVANT (Jonah 4:1)
If the book of Jonah ended at chapter 3, Jonah would have went down in the pages of history as the world’s greatest evangelist. After all, he had preached one sermon, consisting of 8 words, and an entire city came to faith in God. However, we come to chapter 4 and see that Jonah is not a distinguished prophet, but a displeased prophet.
Jonah has gone from a preaching prophet to a pouting prophet. It reminds me of a little story of Sunday school class who were studying the book of Jonah.
The teacher asked, "Can someone tell me the lesson we have learned from the book of Jonah?" A little boy raised his hand and said, "I know what I have learned from the book of Jonah: backsliders make whales sick!"
A. The limit which Jonah has prescribed for his concern for men
Many people have a problem with the way God does His work. They have a problem with God being concerned for all people in our world.
Some even try to tell God how to run the universe and get upset because God doesn’t listen to them. Jonah was a person that tried to show God who He should love and who He should not.
Simply put, Jonah was not just angry, he was absolutely furious over what God had done in the land of Nineveh.
This was not just a matter of theological disagreement; but, Jonah was in total opposition to God in this matter. Jonah had done what God wanted, but God had not done what Jonah wanted. Thus, he was enraged and outraged over the fact that God had shown MERCY and compassion to the Ninevites.
He did not want God to deliver THEM; he wanted God to destroy them. The Ninevites were the most brutal people on the face of the earth, and an arch-enemy to Jonah’s people, the children of Israel. However, God delivered them, forgave them, and saved them from impending destruction.
Thus, this chapter should begin with Jonah giving a testimony about the work that God had wrought in the lives of a pagan people. However, it begins with Jonah’s heart full of resentment and rage over God’s compassion.
We hear a lot in the news, and media today about discrimination today. But, can I tell you where the most, and worst discrimination takes place today? It is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
While we look at color, God looks at Calvary. While we look at creed, God looks at Christ! While we look at black, God looks at the blood! Oh yes, ’red, yellow, black and white; they’re all precious in His sight!’
May we observe in Jonah’s conduct a few simple things about anger.
1. Anger destroys our peace
2. Anger diminishes our productiveness
Twice in verse 5 we read that Jonah “sat.” He was angry so he just sat and soured.
B. The lesson which he must perceive about his concern for men
Jonah as well as the believer today must learn that God loves the world and sent his Son to be the Saviour for the world.
1. There is no difference in the desire of God for all men
God does not take more delight in the salvation of some and the damnation of others.
II Peter 3: 9, "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
The disease of sin can go no wider than the desire of God for all men. I Timothy 2:4 "Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth."
Isaiah 45:22, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth."
John 3:16 "For God so loved the world...."
The loving heart of God longs to see all men saved regardless of where they come from, what they look like, or what the depths of sin they are in.
2. There is no difference in the deliverance of God for all men
God has but one plan of salvation for all men. God has but one way to deliver men from their sin. Salvation is needed by all, provided for all, but supplied by one. Acts 4:12, "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."
There is not a way for the carpenter and the mechanic and another way for the king and the queen. There is only one way to Heaven.
The Gospel is the one message whereby men can be saved, and it is the only message that the Lord wants all men to hear.
Conclusion:
We have seen three instances of anger this morning.
ANGRY SINNER
ANGRY SON
ANGRY SERVANT
In which class do you see yourself?
Confess Our Anger
Consider Our Anger
COUNT THE COST of your anger.
"A lady once came to Billy Sunday and tried to rationalize her angry outbursts. "There’s nothing wrong with losing my temper," she said. "I blow up, and then it’s all over."
"So does a shotgun," Sunday replied, "and look at the damage it leaves behind!
Control Your Anger
You say, "I can’t control it." Oh, yes you can. One day you may be having one of those discussions that can be heard about two blocks away and suddenly the phone ring rings. One of you stomps over to the phone, jerks it off its base, and says, "Hellooooo." Now, don’t tell me you can’t turn it on and off.
You have more control over your anger than you think.
