“…and do not sin.”
Text: Psalm 4:1-4
I. Welcome
II. Introduction
With so many ladies and teens gone, I thought I’d focus on the most likely group remaining – the men. Of course, the lesson will be applicable to all but it’s probably a sin more prevalent among males or, at least, is more visible. The reading came from the 4th Psalm this morning but I really had another passage in mind when I was choosing my subject and sermon title for this morning – one that cites this passage. So I hope you’ll open your Bibles this morning to Ephesians 4:25-32 as we begin our study this morning – “…and do not sin.” Then I pray you’ll be like the Bereans in Acts 17:11 and search the scriptures daily this week to make sure I’ve preached the truth.
III. Lesson
Ephesians 4 is one of the great chapters of the Bible as it outlines the seven ones – one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all and in you all (verses 4-6). As we move toward the text we want to examine, we encounter the new man in verse 17 and following who has been buried with Christ in baptism – created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. I don’t know about you but those last two descriptions of who I’m supposed to be stun me – righteous and holy. But let’s now continue by reading beginning in verse 25 about what this new man should be doing: Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another. “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Brothers and sisters, do these verses describe us? And, if they don’t, we need to make some changes in our lives. But the sin I want to focus on is anger as mentioned in verse 26 – “Be angry, and do not sin.” Or, as many of us learned it: “Be ye angry, and sin not.” Women and children have to wrestle with anger but it’s the men who most often let their anger get out of control. Statistics of beatings, fights, murders, road rage, assaults, spousal abuse and child abuse attest to the propensity of men to anger. Before we look deeper at this sin, I want us to notice two things. 1st of all, anger was near the top of the list in Ephesians 4:31 but is at the top of the list in Colossians 3:8. As we read this verse, notice the close association of all these terms. For example, when do men and others really make a scene with their cursing and blasphemy? Isn’t it when they’re angry and losing their tempers? As in Ephesians, Paul is addressing those who are Christians – those who have put on the new man – those who were raised with Christ after burial with Him in baptism – Colossians 2:12 and 3:1. Now notice verse 8: But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Yet, secondly, anger in and of itself is not a sin. The exhortation in Psalm 4 cited by Paul in Ephesians 4 is “Be angry, and do not sin.” Even Jesus got angry. Turn with me to Mark 3:1-5 and let’s read these verses together: And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand. So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. And He said to the man who had the withered hand, “Step forward.” Then He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they kept silent. And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other. I like J.W. McGarvey’s comments on the 1st part of verse 5: Anger, when rightly directed and controlled, is not a sinful feeling; but it is a dangerous one, because it is very likely to end in sinful speech or action: hence the admonition of Paul, “Be angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down on your wrath.” In this case Jesus showed anger only in his look: there was none in his words. With this framework of anger, let’s delve into our lesson with three main points. First of all, do not let your anger control you. While we could probably cite several examples from scripture of those who had difficulty controlling their anger, I’d like to go to the first example of this in the Bible – in Genesis 4:1-8. This is very familiar account but is a perfect example of someone who let anger control him instead of controlling his anger. Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the LORD.” Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the LORD. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the LORD respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.
So the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”
Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Even after being warned by God to control his anger, Cain murdered his brother instead of controlling his anger. The wise man Solomon gave some good advice about controlling anger in Proverbs 16:32 –
He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty,
And he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.
Controlling one’s anger requires one to rule his spirit or to exercise self-control – and self-control is a fruit of the Spirit we must cultivate as part of our Christian growth. Even the apostle Paul had to work on this – to rule his spirit – to keep his body under control along with his anger – 1 Corinthians 9:27 – But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. If we don’t learn to control our anger but let it control us, we could miss heaven. Not only must we not let our anger control us, secondly, do not let your anger consume you. What I mean by this is that we become so absorbed in our anger that we are not able to function properly. The Bible contains a good example of a man consumed by anger and his name is Jonah. We all know the story of Jonah – how God told him to go preach to the city of Nineveh. Instead, Jonah tried to flee from the presence of God and ended up in the belly of a whale. After three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, Jonah was ready to obey God and made haste for the Assyrian city. He began preaching to this wicked city with the simple message, Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” Surprisingly, the people believed God and repented. Therefore, the Lord decided not to destroy the city as Jonah had preached would happen. Now let’s pick up with the 1st verse of Jonah 4 – But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. So he prayed to the LORD, and said, “Ah, LORD, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm. Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!”
Then the LORD said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would become of the city. And the LORD God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very grateful for the plant. But as morning dawned the next day God prepared a worm, and it so damaged the plant that it withered. And it happened, when the sun arose, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he grew faint. Then he wished death for himself, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “It is right for me to be angry, even to death!” We really don’t know how this story ends but anger consumed Jonah. To make matters worse, it was anger at God! Sadly, there are folks today letting anger consume them – even blaming God to the point of not serving Him. Thus far, we have observed that we should not let our anger control us or consume us. Finally, our third point is: Do not let your anger condemn you. Probably everyone in this audience has wrestled with the first two points of this lesson but we cannot afford to succumb to this third point. We must resolve not to let our anger condemn us to an eternity in hell. You may be thinking that you would never murder anyone like Cain did and you certainly wouldn’t blame God because you didn’t approve of something He did. But listen carefully to the example coming from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:21-24 – “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” We often concentrate on outward manifestations of anger as the sins to be eliminated. But Jesus goes to the heart of the matter and condemns us for our attitudes. Perhaps we would never kill someone or even strike them. And maybe we can control our tongues and never say anything hurtful. But anger in our hearts at a brother or sister in Christ can ultimately condemn us and it can also interfere with our worship of God. Let’s make sure our anger – even anger that is hidden from our fellow Christians – does not condemn us and keep us out of heaven.
IV. Conclusion/Invitation
This morning we’ve shared three points in this lesson from scripture. These points were given as warnings about our anger. 1st, do not let your anger control you. Secondly, do not let your anger consume you. And, finally, do not let your anger condemn you. Anger is a very powerful emotion that has led to some of the most horrible tragedies in history. Let’s strive as Christians – as those who have experienced the new birth – to control our anger – whether of outbursts or thoughts.
