Amen. Thank you so much. We are looking this morning at the theme of practical kingdom righteousness. Those who've been in the class know that, may remember possibly, it's been quite a few weeks now, but that we are looking at Matthew chapter 5. So if you would go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter 5, keep your finger there, and then we're going to be going to Ephesians chapter 4. We'll be primarily in Matthew, but we'll begin in Ephesians chapter 4. The Sermon on the Mount, as you may remember from the introduction which we looked at several weeks ago, is based on a theme of Matthew chapter 5 verse 17 where the Lord Jesus said that, except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven, into the kingdom of God. The Sermon on the Mount is both dealing with unsaved people and with believers. And depending on the context of what Christ is preaching in that sermon, you can clearly identify that. For example, he says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. Who's he speaking about? He's talking about believers. Because no lost person in his natural condition hungers and thirst after righteousness. Other passages, he talks about judgment upon those who have sin in their life and they don't repent. He's talking about unbelievers. So this sermon, like many sermons that would be preached, have an application both to believers and unbelievers. Well, this morning we're beginning the emphasis on some very practical points primarily for believers. Christ in the passage that we're looking at has given us two metaphors. We saw them the last two lessons. He said we are to be the salt of the earth. We're to have an influence, a spiritual influence on people by being like salt. And we talked about that. And then also spiritual illumination. We are to be the light of the world. He's talked about that in the context of that which we're looking at. So Christ is saying, you need my righteousness and after you're saved, you are to be salt and you are to be light. And in that context, He moves into some very practical applications for us. And that's really what the series is about. I've called it Practical kingdom righteousness. These are areas that we have problems in, that we have danger to fall into if we're not careful. And so we're going to be looking at these very practical subjects. And this morning we're looking at the one that I've entitled, Unrighteous Anger. So let's talk about anger. I want to begin in Ephesians 4. You've got your finger there in Matthew 5. But look at Ephesians chapter 4. And I want to establish that the Bible teaches that there is something called righteous anger, okay? So there is righteous anger. But the question is, what is that? Paul writes, Ephesians chapter 4, we're going to begin in verse 26, he says, Be ye angry and sin not." It's a command. It's an imperative. Be angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Neither give place to the devil. So Christ is saying there is something called righteous anger. He says, be angry but don't sin. Well, what is the context? Anytime we look at the Bible, we've got to identify what the context is. Well, just look over the passage. Verse 18, he talks about the Gentiles who have their understanding darkened. Look at verse 21. If so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that ye put off concerning the former conversation of the old man." He's talking about righteous living. He's talking about being filled with the Spirit. He's talking about putting on the new man in verse 24. He's talking about putting away lying in the context of hating sin, walking in the Spirit, standing true to God, he says, be ye angry and sin not. So you put those concepts together, you find that righteous anger is first of all spiritual indignation against sin, greed, pride, and lust. All four of those entities are identified in the passage in Ephesians 4. So if we're wanting to be righteously angry at something, what should we be angry at? Our own sin, our own greed, our own lust, our own pride, and being angry with our failure to be righteous. That's what the context is talking about. Remember back in Matthew 5, and we'll go there in a moment, The Lord Jesus makes it clear that we are to have the imparted righteousness, not only the imputed righteousness of trusting Him as Savior, but the imparted righteousness of walking with Him. He talks about that much in Matthew chapter 5. So here he's talking about being righteously angry. Now, let's talk about righteous anger. I put it in my notes. Righteous anger has a safety valve. Notice what he says here. Be ye angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath. If you have righteous anger, it is short-lived toward the thing that you're indignant about. For example, if you fail the Lord in a certain area, you get really angry at yourself. Or you see someone who is doing something wrong, maybe something that's happening in government, and your righteous anger is incensed toward that. He says, it is right to be angry against sin and lust and greed and pride, but don't let the sun go down upon your wrath. In other words, don't carry that anger in your soul forward to the next day. So this is a safety valve. If you find yourself angry today about the same anger that you had yesterday and the same anger you had the day before, it's probably not righteous anger. It is probably a very dangerous bent toward bitterness, okay? So there is a safety valve. Also, I wrote down that righteous anger is like medicine. It is a blessing when it is properly used, but if it is wrongly appropriated, it becomes a deadly poison. You know, we can get angry against sin, maybe in our government. But if we let it stay in our soul and fester and we overexercise it in an unbiblical way, it becomes a poison. So this matter of righteous anger is a very fine line that we need to be careful about. But there is righteous anger. An illustration of that is that it's spiritual indignation against hardness of heart and hypocrisy. Christ spoke about this In Mark chapter 3 verse 5, he dealt with the Pharisees and there he looked around about him with anger. Christ was angry. And he grieved for the hardness of their hearts. You know, Christ was angry in the temple when he overturned the tables of the money changers. But you don't find him the next day walking around with an angry attitude. He is going about doing good. And so this righteous anger that we can have is spiritual indignation against sin, greed, pride, and lust. And ultimately it's about hardness of heart and hypocrisy. It's about not being righteous. That's what we should be angry about. Not being righteous. And the whole focal point Here in Ephesians 4 is for ourselves. Now back to Matthew chapter 5 and we're going to read here beginning in verse 21 and set the context because Christ is going to say that unrighteous anger is murder. Okay? And so let's look at it. Again, you cast your eyes on the passage. You have the Beatitudes. You have in verse 17, The theme down through verse 20, Christ talking about His righteousness. He deals in the middle of the section with salt and light. And then He says, the first practical application of righteousness. 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. But I say unto you," What's he doing? He is exceeding the righteousness of the law. He is making righteousness not just something that is outward, but something that is inward as well. So he's going beyond the righteousness of the law which he fulfilled. 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 Rekha shall be in danger of the council. But whosoever shall say thou fools shall be in danger of hellfire. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother have aught against thee, and leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way. First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whilst 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. Verily I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing." So he is not talking in this section about righteous anger but unrighteous anger. So notice in this passage there is a sinful progression to unrighteous anger and he deals with it. And it really explains why an attitude of our heart is viewed by Christ as murder. Because out of the heart are the issues of life. As a man thinketh in his heart, So is He. So He does. And Christ here gives us a progression of anger that if you do not check that anger, if you do not stop that anger, if you do not repent of that anger, it can lead you to actual murder. Christ says, if you do this, you've actually murdered someone in your heart. And that is a violation of His kingdom righteousness. So, this sinful progression. Notice in verse 21, Christ lays the foundation. You've heard, under the law, that thou shalt not kill. Now folks, let me point out that thou shalt not kill does not refer to stepping on an ant. Thou shalt not kill does not refer to deer hunting. Thou shalt not kill does not refer to putting down stray animals. There's lots of wrong use of that commandment by the world in their ignorance and sometimes it's very willful ignorance. It literally in the Hebrews, Thou shalt do no murder. It is the concept of one person taking the life of another person unlawfully. Now, there is the lawful taking of the life. We call it capital punishment. And that does not violate. Again, it's one of the world says, you know, we can't be for capital punishment. The Bible says, thou shalt not kill. But folks, don't we understand that Genesis 6, which is the foundation of human life, establishes capital punishment as a righteous form of killing? That's not a violation of this passage. But Christ said, you've heard that thou shalt not murder. But I'm going to take it further. He said, you are not even to be angry in your heart toward your brother without a cause. Now, if you are angry towards your brother and it's a righteous anger, if there is a just cause, if he is sinning or he is lusting or he is greedy, and you grieve over him and that causes you to have a righteous anger, there's a way to deal with that. But you're not to have anger without a cause. So there is a three-fold progression. It begins with this guy. I found this guy somewhere on the internet. I had to put him in. I just want to point out that righteous indignation is not the same as being a hothead. You know, there are people who get mad every day. I mean, they're angry about this and they're angry about that and they have a short fuse. And to justify themselves, they make everything to be righteous indignation. Well folks, that is a lie from the pit. This guy is not righteously indignant. This guy, and it may be you, are following the downward It really would be a digression, we should say. But the way anger progresses in our life when we do not deal with it, first of all, there is silent anger. The sin of silent anger, we find it in verse 22. Notice it, he says, But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, It is clear based on the next two statements that this is unspoken anger. It is silent anger. It is that fuming. It is the flashing of the eyes. It is the trembling of the body, but no spoken words. It is unrighteous, unjust, internal, inflamed anger without a cause. And, you know, that's the way it is. Sometimes we think, you know, well, it's okay for me to get angry as long as I don't do anything about it because the Bible says, be angry and sin not. No, that's talking about righteous anger. Unrighteous anger is not to be tolerated even without a cause. There was a dear Christian lady. Perhaps you know her. I won't mention her name. It's not my wife. Certainly I wouldn't do that. Or my mother-in-law, just to make sure you know. But this righteous lady was very unkindly treated. And someone went up to her afterwards and said, I just want to commend you. You were unrighteously treated. but you handled it so graciously." And she said to them, yes, but you didn't see the boiling that was on the inside. And you know, we all have that, don't we? I'm going to be very transparent. I try to be careful about getting angry. I mean, there are many times that my flesh rises up and anger is a fruit of the flesh that's connected to that passage in Ephesians 4. And my anger rises up. But there is one place where I have more trouble with anger than any other place rising up in my soul. And that is dealing with people on technical support on the phone. It honestly does something to me when you call them and they say, you know, your call is very important to us. They're lying through their teeth because you're on hold for an hour. And then they thank you for being a loyal customer and then they tell you they won't do what they promised to do. And you know, I want to throw the phone through the wall. It's just now you could say, well, that's righteous indignation. It has a cause. Well, I'm not sure that it is. It may be, but if I dwell on it the next day then it's not righteous because let not the sun go down upon your wrath. But nonetheless, here is this inner boiling even if we don't express it. It's silent. You don't need to turn back there, but let me read to you what Paul said about five verses later after that passage we just read about being angry and sin not. Paul says this, "'Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice.'" And he's talking about an internal attitude, not just a spoken word. So he's dealing there with unrighteous anger. So the sin of silent anger. But the second progression is the sin of slanderous anger. Look at verse 22. "'But I say to you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say," here's the first spoken form of anger, "...whosoever shall say to his brother Rakeh shall be in danger of the council." Now this word Rakeh is a very difficult word to translate because it not only has a literal meaning, but in the Syrian language, the Syriac language that came really originally out of Chaldean, the old Chaldean language, It's a language that has guttural intonation and it's not just what you say, but how you say it. And literally, the word Rekha in the Syrian language from which it comes means a lewd or a base fellow. You're calling him a lewd or a base fellow. but you're speaking it with contempt and a hiss in your voice. That's the idea. So you're saying of a brother in Christ, you're saying, Rekha, you lewd, contemptuous, vile person and you're saying it with the hatred of Satan in your voice. The person who says that is in danger because they're murdering. Stephen Oldford was a Southern Baptist evangelist. He's now with the Lord. of all the Southern Baptists that I've known, one of the most fundamental in the group. And I really have loved his writings and I've studied a number of his sermons. And actually, he's got a wonderful series on Matthew 5, which I enjoyed studying for this. But in his commentary, he talks about another great servant of the Lord, W.E. Vine. Vine wrote a collection of Greek word studies. And Vine was also a pastor and he told about a man that he knew who had been maligned in his church, in Vine's church. And the man was so grieved by the slander of a Christian brother in the church that the man suffered a heart attack, a breakdown of his health, and he actually was dying. And so Vine told the story about this brother who was dying who had been falsely accused by another believer. The other believer made it right and came to the man when the man was on his deathbed and said, Will you forgive me? And the man who was dying said, Yes, I'll forgive you for lying against me and for speaking evil of me. He said, But I want you to do something. And the man said, What? He said, I want you to take this feather pillow under my head and I want you to cut it. open and scatter the feathers to the wind." And the man did. And then the dying brother said, I want you to gather up all the feathers. He said, because your slander, your malice, your speaking evil of me, your hatred of me, your anger toward me is like all of those feathers and it's done horrible damage to the church. You know, folks, when we are angry and we speak angry words, we slander, we say about some other brother, he is a lewd, contemptuous fellow, and we do it in anger, we are murdering. We're murdering the brother's testimony. We're murdering the church's unity. We're murdering much. And it is a very, very serious sin. But then there's the third progression here, a third part, and that is going from silent anger to slanderous anger, saying, Rekha, to scorning anger. And that's found in verse 22. But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, This is unrighteous anger. "...shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother Rakeh shall be in danger of the council. But whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hellfire." Now this statement, Thou fool, is the idea that you go beyond calling him a lewd-faced fellow to the point where you say, he's not even saved. He is a fool. He is a liar. He doesn't know Christ. and you impugn his testimony of salvation based on your anger toward him. And what is implied here, and it's not implied that a Christian who gets angry loses his salvation, but it is implied in our Lord's Word, at least this is the consensus of agreement. If you say, That man, I'm so angry at that man, he's not a believer, he's a fool, and you impugn the genuineness of his salvation, you are in fact impugning the genuineness of your own salvation. And you may be in danger of hellfire because maybe you're not really saved. That's how serious our Lord takes this matter of unrighteous anger. So, that is the downward progression of a hothead unrighteous anger. Now we're going to look at the solemn pronouncements that Christ made. And what's interesting to me is there are three of these in the same way. In verse 22, there are three actions, the silent, the slanderous, the scornful, but they're also tied to three forms of pronouncements or judgments. Verse 22, he says, notice, the first one will be in danger of the judgment, the second one will be in danger of the counsel, and the third one will be in danger of hellfire. They're all three dangers which relate to pronouncements against unrighteous anger. Now what do these refer to? We're going to look at what the meaning was in Christ's actual sermon. Now remember, when we interpret the Bible, every approach to interpreting the Bible must be done in context. That is, what did Christ mean when he said those words? What would the hearers have understood him to mean? What would an Old Testament prophet have meant when he said those words? What would his hearers have understood him to mean? Well, that is the context. Well, what is he referring to? The judgment that the Jew would have understood what Christ was saying was actually the local tribunal of the local synagogue. In every Jewish city there was a synagogue. There's a whole history behind the synagogue movement coming out of captivity. But in any synagogue there were from 3 to 23 men based on whether it was a small village or a large city. There were 3 to 23 men that the Jews authorized to be judges. And if a guy got angry with his neighbor and smacked him up the side of the head or did something that would cause a problem, they would bring them to the synagogue court. and he would be in judgment. So that's the first statement of the idea of the Jewish people themselves judging. Then the council, the second danger, was the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was a 70-member Jewish court at Jerusalem that would have been like what we would call the Supreme Court. If something happened on a local level and it needed to go to the Sanhedrin for judgment, primarily they dealt with religious issues, but it was also the last religious word in Israel. It was the council. And then in danger of hellfire, the word hellfire is translated from the Greek word Gehenna. And in a number of months ago, I was speaking on this subject and I pointed out that Gehenna is the valley of the son of Hinnom. It's on the southwest side of the city of Jerusalem. It's the place where they had the pagan worship under Solomon. It was defiled by Josiah and it became the city garbage dump. It was the place where they burned the trash continually and the fire was continually burning and they would throw the bodies of dead slaves and the worm died not. There was continual corruption in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom. That's what's being spoken of. So Christ used that word Gehenna as a picture of what we know to be literal eternal hell. So what is the application? Now, anytime we interpret the Bible, we understand what the hearers understood. But then we make application. Now, we don't have tribunals today and synagogues, okay? But we can make an application. We don't have a Jewish Sanhedrin today, but we can make an application. Certainly there is still hell today. So what is the application? Number one, the Word of God condemns unrighteous anger. And that is pictured in this judgment of the tribunal. The local synagogue would have judged according to the Old Testament law. They used the Word of God. So we need to judge unrighteous anger using the Word of God. And there is much in our New Testament that commands us not to be unrighteous in our anger. So the Word of God pronounces condemnation upon unrighteous anger. Hebrews 4.12 says, The Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. So it's the Word of God. Number two, the Church of God condemns unrighteous anger. And that is seen in the Sanhedrin. Now we don't have a Sanhedrin. But in the New Testament, we have church discipline. Matthew chapter 18 lays out the format and it is from private to public. If there is a private sin that is to be dealt with that is destroying the life of the church's body, by the way, that's what murder does, doesn't it? If it is destroying the life of the body, it is to be dealt with in a private way and then eventually in a public way. It's church discipline. So you say, Brother Stedman, in church discipline, should every person who gets mad about anything be brought publicly before the church? And the answer is no. You know, it is a very interesting study. When I taught for 19 years a block class for upper-level preacher boys at Bob Jones, and they discontinued that program last year. I think it was a financial decision. They restructured some things. But for 19 years, I had a week with upper-level preacher boys. And one of the key things I dealt with, it was on shepherding, it was on pastoring, was church discipline. And I would ask them questions and it was really interesting to see college students who thought they were called into the ministry, some were, some weren't, deal with what the Bible said about church discipline. And it was a lot of fun. I told them the story when I did that of a friend of mine. He is a missionary in Asia, has nothing to do with Pat or Asia, so don't let that reflect on him. But in his church in Asia, every person who has every sin that they've that they've gotten right, they have to come and confess it publicly before the church. Every Sunday in his church, he has people coming forward to tell the church the sin that they've confessed and gotten right that week. I think the guy is a nut, okay? I think he's saved. I think he loves the Lord. He's not a fool. But I think he is a little bit of a nut, okay? Because that's not what the New Testament teaches. So we're not to be parading people forward. You know, I got mad at Pat this week. He slammed the door. Or I got mad at Mike Martin. He unplugged the Christmas tree. By the way, he did unplug the Christmas tree at the mission and I had to joke with him about it, which he wasn't supposed to do. So, you know, if those things, we would have a continual parade on Sundays. That's not church discipline. But folks, if someone gets angry, And they begin to voice that and they begin to act in such a way that it damages the life body of the lifeblood of this church, then they need to be biblically disciplined. The New Testament is clear. You know, the Apostle Paul, when he was dealing with a couple of men named Hymenaeus and Alexander, he called it blaspheming. And they went to the point of blasphemy. They did Paul much evil as did Alexander the Coppersmith. And so Paul said, let them be delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. So there is the judgment of the people of God in the church. And then thirdly, the throne of God condemns unrighteous anger. This word Gehenna. It is hell. It is the place of the damned. And he is saying that if you go so far in your unrighteous anger as to say that another brother is not a believer and you do it in anger, you may not be truly born again. It's a warning. And eternity, the throne of God condemns it. So, how are we to deal with unrighteous anger? We've got to hurry. There is a simple prescription here and it's found in verses 23 through 26. So let's notice it. And I'll read those again. Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar. It's talking about religious service, offering our offerings to the Lord. The Jews would come up to the temple to offer their offerings. Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee. In other words, there's anything between you and your brother. The context here is being angry at your brother. Well, you're not going to be angry at him over something you did. It's going to be anger toward him over something you perceive that he did to you. So that's why he said, if that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way. First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, the one that you view as the adversary, that you're angry about, whilst thou art in the way with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, to that tribunal. and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto you, thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing." Okay, so what's he talking about? He's talking about reconciliation. First of all, he points out we must have a sensitive conscience relating to God and our brother. You know, On the day of Pentecost, when Peter was preaching there on the south side of the city of Jerusalem, he was in Zion, the upper room. It was just a stone's throw from the southern steps where the Jews would have come to the baptismal pools. They had the ritual baptism. They would go and dunk themselves and then they would go up those steps and enter into the temple complex with their gift, with their offering. And Christ is saying from that place that you can actually see from where the upper room is. He's saying when you come to go up those steps and you've got your gift, You need to be sensitive in your conscience to God and to your brother. You're coming to worship God. You need to be sensitive toward any unrighteousness in your heart and life, anything that's wrong between you and a brother. And if you think about that and you're sensitive in your conscience toward God and your brother, and there's anything wrong with your brother, in conflict with your brother, before you bring your gift, Before you come to worship me with your offering, you go and make it right with your brother. So he's talking about a spiritual sensitivity. So let me ask you a question. How many times when you come to church, and you enter these doors, and you're going to sing the hymns, and you're going to put your offering in the plate, and all of it really corporately is not just the money going in the plate, but it's our corporate coming together to worship with our gift. How many times do you think, you know, is there anything wrong between me and a brother in the church? You know, years ago in a church that I pastored, actually two churches that I pastored, both of the senior pastorates, there were some real significant problems when I took both of those churches relating to division between people in the church. And it was so difficult for me to have wonderful Christian people sitting in the pew who wouldn't speak to each other. And I worked overtime and hard and I gave scores and hundreds of hours to helping heal those relationships as the pastor. Now I don't want to neglect my responsibilities, but can I say, I shouldn't have had to do that. Those people, when they came into that church, if they had ought against any brother, should have gone to them. And notice who takes the initiative here. It is the one who is angry at somebody else who's done something. They perceive that person's done something to them. They're the one who's to go and make it right. It doesn't say, okay, that guy's done you wrong and you're angry at him, so you go to church and you wait for him to come to you to be reconciled. No. You go to him and you make it right. We're to have a sensitive conscience toward God and the brother. And then number two, we're to have a scriptural conduct in making things right. And I came across this picture. I think it illustrates it. Here could be a husband and a wife. It could be a father and a daughter, a mother and a son. It's male and female. And there's a Bible between them and they're kneeling. And they're obviously making things right. And that is the attitude of the scriptural conduct. There are four things Four elements here. Number one, we're to be reconciled personally. Look, verse 24, leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way. First be reconciled to thy brother. It doesn't say you send them an email. It doesn't say that you text them. It says you go to them. It is a face-to-face personal reconciliation. Secondly, it is to be reconciled penitently. The whole idea of this word reconciliation is repentance. It is return. Now folks, we don't have time to develop the concept of reconciliation theologically this morning. But God is putting on you the responsibility of being right with your brother. I mean, they may have done something to you that really was unjust. And you may have, to a degree, a cause. But God puts the burden of reconciliation on you. Then thirdly, we are to be reconciled promptly. He says, agree with thine adversary quickly, verse 25. Well, in the context, who is the adversary? It's that guy you're angry at. You say, well, I'm mad at them and I don't want to talk to them. Well, then you're not righteous. You're not right with God. You need to get right, and you need to go to them, and you need to forgive them if they have sinned against you. And if they haven't sinned against you, you need to ask their forgiveness for wrongly judging them. They need to make things right. You're to be reconciled promptly. And then lastly, to be reconciled prayerfully. Because notice what it says, Agree with thine adversary quickly whilst 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. Verily I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing." What's he saying? You are to go to that brother before you offer your gift, you're to make it right, and then you come back to offer your gift. That's verse 24. And if you don't do that, you're in danger of judgment. And when God puts you in judgment because of your unrighteous anger, that prison that you'll be in, it may be an emotional prison of bitterness, it may be a different type of financial prison because of broken relationships that have affected your family, but when you are unrighteous in your anger and you don't make it right, you'll be in prison. until you pay the uttermost farthing, ultimate judgment. So what do you do? You prayerfully forgive and you go get it right with your brother and then you come and offer your gift. So let's bring it all together. Christ's righteousness is the theme of this sermon. It is imparted to us when we receive Christ as our Savior. Christ's righteousness is the theme of this sermon. It's the practical righteousness. It is imputed to us as we walk with Christ. What's the key to unrighteous anger? Walk with Christ. Have His righteousness. If you stay close to the Lord, you can't be wrong with your brother. That's the whole point of the sermon. We need to make it right. Let's pray together. Father, I pray that you would take your word this morning in this very practical way. Apply it to our hearts. Lord, we all struggle with getting angry. Father, I pray that we would, by your grace, seek to only be righteously angry. And Father, not to carry it forward. But Father, in that unrighteous anger that we all struggle with, I pray that you would help us to be biblical, to have a sensitive conscience toward you and our brother, and to really make those things right before we come to worship you. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.