Join us now for the chapel hour coming to you from the campus of Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Today's message was preached during a recent Sunday morning worship service held on the university campus. Our speaker is Dr. Gary Reimers of the university Bible faculty. The title of his message is, The Only True Answer to Anger. The text is from Matthew 5, verses 21 through 26. The message will be brought by Dr. Gary Reimers, Bible and seminary faculty. He's asked that we read Matthew chapter 5 verses 21 to 26 in preparation for that message Matthew 5 21 to 26 You have heard that it was said by them of old thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment 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 fool shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar and there rememberest that thy brother have 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 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." May God bless the reading and the preaching of His Word to our hearts this morning. We may well marvel at the grace of God and realize that it is not just for our salvation that we needed that grace. We need God's grace for every challenge we face, for every time we open God's word and he has something else that he wants us to deal with. Something else, once again, that we do not have the strength to deal with on our own. We have to turn to God and ask him for that grace to obey his word. To open our Bibles again now to Matthew chapter five, let's take just a moment and ask God for the grace that we need to respond to this portion of his word in a way that would please him. Father, we are thankful for the grace that has provided our free and full salvation. We're grateful as well that that grace is effective and able to help us get victory over the sin that remains in our lives. Father, we ask that you would deal with us today from your word. Help us to look there honestly and openly, ready to let you tell us what is wrong with our lives. Father, for every instance, a conviction of sin that you bring to our hearts through the work of your spirit this morning, we pray that you would see a corresponding response, a plea for your grace, for your forgiveness, for the help that we might get victory. We ask in Jesus' name, Amen. On Tuesday of this past week, USA Today and a front page story reported a number of incidents of anger taking place across the country. Two shoppers were in a grocery store when suddenly a new checkout lane was opened up. and to decide which one of the two were going to be the first ones into that lane, a fistfight broke out. A youth baseball coach in Hollywood, Florida, disputed a call in a high school game and broke the umpire's jaw. Two cars on a highway in San Jose, California, became involved in a fender bender after both cars pulled over to the side of the road. The driver of one car reached into the other car and pulled out the small white dog he found in the backseat and threw it into the oncoming traffic. The article goes on to say that leading social scientists believe that our nation is in the middle right now of an anger epidemic. Bad tempers are on display everywhere, the article said. Experts searching for causes. We don't often put much stock in the opinions of these experts, but I think they might be on the right trail in this case. Experts searching for causes blame an increasing sense of self-importance. The widespread feeling that things should happen my way. In other words, people are self-centered. We believe we are entitled to have people do and say things that please us and meet our expectations in life. And when they don't, we become angry. The anger is usually a self-centered response to things that don't please us. It's a response that causes serious harm in our relationships with other people. Of course, this problem is not limited to secular society. The fact is, even God's people get angry. Perhaps resisting the urge to strike out at others physically because of our anger. Yet we often succumb to the temptation to express our anger verbally, lashing out at anyone who might be in our way. that you may know from experience what it feels like to be angry, what it feels like to express that anger toward others, and then what it feels like afterward. To know the tension, the hurt, the guilt that results from expressing that anger. There may be some here this morning that have expressed anger in the very recent past. You're thinking about an instance right now in which you demonstrated anger in front of others. You might still be enduring the tension and the problem that results in a in a relationship with somebody else that you've offended very seriously by your anger. You might even be wondering what is there to do about it. You know, if you wait long enough, eventually the anger seems to dissipate. But sometimes the effects can linger for a very long time. The resentment, the alienation. What is there to do about it? Is there a cure for anger? That is exactly the topic that Christ chose to preach on here in the midst of the Sermon on the Mount, the passage we're looking at in Matthew chapter five. And he provides in this passage the only true answer to anger. That answer is this. Selfish anger is sin. You have no hope of getting victory over anger until you acknowledge it for what it is. Selfish anger is sin. So you must seek forgiveness and the grace that only Christ can provide. to get the victory. Let's look at how Christ delivered this message. Verses twenty one and twenty two, he's going to give us in this passage, the six verses, three reasons why we must seek forgiveness for anger. The first one in these first two verses is because anger disobeys your God. Verse twenty-one, Christ has a very unusual way of quoting the Old Testament. He says, Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill. In fact, it wasn't just the ancient people, the Jewish scribes all through the centuries that said this. God said this. I think the reason Christ said this in such an unusual way, rather than saying, Thus saith the Lord, he says, Thus you have heard it said. is that the people that they have heard at that point talk about anger. This was all they said. God prohibits murder. And as long as I don't murder anybody, as long as my anger doesn't result in actually causing any physical harm, it's OK with God. Christ was pointing out on that occasion that that was a misunderstanding of what God meant when he said thou shalt not murder. In fact, what he meant was that God prohibits anger. In verse twenty two, when Christ left, I didn't finish first twenty one. Let's let's read through the rest of that. Whosoever shall kill or murder shall be in danger of the judgment. Verse twenty two, Christ, with all of his rightful authority, could say, But I say unto 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 fool shall be in danger of hellfire. Christ is not adding to the Ten Commandments here. He's not saying number eleven is thou shalt not be angry. He is saying that when God said, Thou shalt not murder. He also meant. You shall not be angry. Without a cause. God prohibits anger. Now, we're well aware that there's a verse in the New Testament that actually commands us to be angry. Paul in Ephesians 426 says, Be ye angry. We find it very easy to remember that part of the verse and very easy to forget that there's another phrase following that. Be angry and sin not. Now, we have a little phrase that we use to justify almost every instance of anger in our own lives, we call it righteous indignation. It is right for me to be angry and we can even cite instances where Christ was angry. There is a case where in the synagogue, the disciples were there with him and the Jews and the leaders of the Jews and a man in the midst with a withered hand. Christ asked him to stand up and pose the question to the leaders. And when they refused to respond, it says in Mark that he looked at them with anger. On another occasion, also recorded in Mark, the disciples were prohibiting the children from coming to Christ. And Mark tells us that Christ was angry about that because he wanted the children to have free access to him and to his ministry. Yes, Christ was angry on occasion. Do you notice that in both of those instances, Christ was not concerned for himself, for his personal advantage, nor any injury that he had suffered at the hands of someone else. His concern was entirely for other people and how they were being affected. And he and anger could stand up for them to protect them and to obtain for them opportunities to receive ministry. On the other hand, almost every time that we indulge in instances of anger. We're concerned about somebody else, not the other people. We're concerned about self. Someone has said something to me and I don't like it. Someone has done something that I don't like and I rise up in anger far from anything we should rightly be able to call righteous indignation. I think we would be much closer to call it selfish anger and in doing so we violate Ephesians four twenty six. Be angry and send not if I'm angry because how something affected me. I'm sitting against God already. Verse 22 says, Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause. I maintain that we almost never have a cause, a right cause to be angry. which means that for almost every time that we indulge in anger, we need to know the message of the rest of that verse. Christ has said not only that God prohibits anger, but in verse twenty two, that God punishes anger. And he says that in three ways, he says, whosoever shall be angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. We might wonder what is this judgment? Let's read on. And whosoever shall say to his brother, Rekha, that roughly corresponds to our blockhead or empty head or any kind of derogatory term we might use to describe someone that we think just did something stupid. And then and that person, he says, shall be in danger of the council and third, but whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of hellfire. Now, we see a sequence of three. It's very tempting to look for an order and an increasing intensity. And we have what we think here is increasing intensity when the last one is hell fire itself. In fact, literally, this is the word Gehenna. This is talking about the lake of fire eternity in hell. I'm not sure we really have justification for seeing any progression here at all. I don't think that he's saying here, well, if you if you get angry, you're just going to be in danger of the judgment. And if you say Rekha or some such thing, you're going to be in danger of the council. If somehow that's worse and hellfire is the worst. I think actually what we have here are three synonyms. This is not progression from human judgment to God's judgment. All three of these refer to God's judgment. And the point of this verse is that when you indulge in anger, you are liable for God's punishment. And he has some serious punishment in store. In fact, that is exactly the point, that God takes anger far more seriously than we do. And Christ's desire in preaching this message, the Sermon on the Mount, is that somehow he might urge us to approach God's level of concern about the anger in our lives. The offense is serious. And so the danger, even to God's people, not that we are in danger of hellfire because God forgives sin. But that's what Christ is saying. Let's all recognize that anger is sin. It deserves eternity in hell. And the only way we escape that is by turning to Christ, asking for his forgiveness, confessing it for what it is, not covering it up and giving it a different name by confessing it for what it is. And asking for his help to get victory over a sin that we are powerless to get victory over ourselves. I was in an airport about six weeks ago now. I was returning from a trip overseas. And was going through the check in procedure at the X-ray machine where I popped my carry on bag on and expected everything to go well. It had gone fine all that day. I was in the Atlanta airport. And suddenly the buzzers and lights started going off. And typically, well, they just check things out. Everything's all right. But there was a note of alarm in the faces of the technicians standing there. And I realized it was my bag that was setting off the alarm. Well, I was a little flabbergasted, a little intimidated by that. Well, they took me off to a side room and started unpacking my bag. Well, I was just a little bit distressed at that because it was very carefully packed and there wasn't a square millimeter of space left in there and everything had to go down. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get it all back in, but I needed to know what's the problem. I had somebody slip something into my bag that I didn't know about. And I got all the way down to the bottom of the bag and they pulled out a crystal egg. Well, Poland, where I was a few weeks previously, is very well known for its lead crystal, about 28 percent lead, I think. And on the X-ray machine, that looked like a hand grenade. Ah, they are all relieved. But as they were relieved, I began to get a little upset about it. And I pointed out to them, I had been through two international flight checkpoints already that day, Frankfurt and Brussels. And they hadn't had any problem with my egg. And I started putting things back in the bag again, and they just walked away. And I had all kinds of reasons why I felt I had a right to be angry. I had been up almost 24 hours at that point. Everything had gone fine from Germany and so forth. And just to get from Atlanta to Greenville, I had to unpack my bag, put it all together again. But it wasn't too many minutes afterward that my travel partner, Dr. Ken Frederick, pointed out that, you know, I'd rather have them be more picky in that X-ray machine than to go easy and have somebody slip a gun onto my plane. Yeah, I guess you're right. I guess I was a little angry, wasn't I? And well, I didn't get the names of the of the two men and I'll probably never see them again. I don't think I actually said anything to them, but I knew that they could tell. But you know what I had to do at that moment? Standing there waiting to board the next plane. Oh Lord, that anger was sin. I'm sorry for that. I am weak. I have no excuse. But I have to ask you to forgive me for being angry just then. The reason I had to do that is because anger disobeys My God. Who in this passage and many other passages prohibits anger. That is exactly the procedure we all need to follow. When we violate God's command prohibiting anger. Identify it as sin. Confess it to him. Agree with God. He thinks it's sin. Confession is just saying, I agree with you. It is sin. Typically, we argue with God and try to excuse it in some way. Confession is, I agree, it is sin. Please forgive me on the basis of the shed blood of Christ. He's always happy to do so. But with that prayer, forgiveness should also come a plea for grace, because I don't want to commit that sin again. Oh, Lord, would you help me? by your grace to get victory. The next time I'm tempted to be angry. There's a second reason Christ is why we must seek forgiveness for anger. Verses twenty three and twenty four. He states that reason as this anger hinders your worship. Verse twenty three. Therefore, if I'll bring my gift to the altar. The altar here in the Jewish culture is in the temple. An individual is about to worship God, and he has a gift prepared, whether that is an animal for sacrifice or one of the other kinds of sacrifices they could give, or whether it was a gift of money that was also an appropriate gift to God. Whatever it was, they were in the act of worship or about to begin that worship. And he says, while you're there, you remember that your brother have fought against me. And in context, he's still talking here about anger. The implication is that you have been angry with somebody else. You have committed sin and it has affected others, at least one other person. And you remember that incident. Christ's direction for us upon that kind of remembrance is surprising. He says in verse 24, leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way. First, be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift. Verse 23, Christ is saying that worship requires a clean heart. And anger defiles a clean heart, anger disqualifies from worship. Something else he implies here in verse twenty three, that if you there remember that your brother has ought against you, let's just pause for a moment and consider where might that memory come from? I think we ought to conclude that it's the Holy Spirit at work. If the Holy Spirit brings the convicting power of God into your heart and you think, oh, yes, that's right. I did say that, and it did have this effect, and there is a breach in my fellowship with someone else because I've done wrong. We can be sure we didn't drum up that thought ourselves, and certainly Satan didn't bring it to mind. The only alternative left is God has brought that to mind. I'd like you to think about that as we continue in this message this morning. Somehow, some thought might occur to you of something you've said something you have done in anger and already you're thinking, oh, I think I might have to do something about that. Realize that's the Holy Spirit talking, and yes, you do have to do something about that. I also realize that some may say now we believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible, don't we? So we have a pause in the service right now and give an opportunity for people to get up and leave that need to go take care of this. It's tempting. But here's why we're not going to do it, because at this moment, as Christ was teaching this, he did maintain the right to finish his sermon before he dismissed the crowd. So, I am planning on finishing my sermon. If you are under such compulsion that you have to get up, well, we'll excuse you if you have to leave, but there's not going to be a general invitation to leave the service at this moment. We'll have that a little later. But here is how seriously God takes anger. Anger is so serious in his sight that it hinders your ability to truly worship God. God's opinion is that your spiritual condition as an angry person is unacceptable to him. What do you do about that? Verse 24, Christ says, Reconciliation provides a clean heart. Get reconciled with that individual. Confession, he says, comes first and then your worship will be welcome. Now, this is not a matter of priorities. He's not saying that worship is somewhere down the list. They'll take care of the most important things first. Now, there is nothing more important than our worship to God. That is true in God's sight. It ought to be true in our opinion as well. We are doing right now the most important thing that we do all week. He is not suggesting differing priorities. What he is saying is you can't worship God until that anger is taken care of. You can't do the most important thing in your life until you first deal with the sin of anger. There's a little boy and his father sitting in their living room waiting for dinner to be ready. When a little boy posed a thought provoking question to his father. Dad, he said. How does fighting and war get started? Well, the father began slowly. How can I help you understand? Well, let's take the First World War as an example. That got started when Germany invaded Belgium. And suddenly from the kitchen, his wife interrupted and said, Tell the boy the truth. It started when somebody got murdered. Rising up with an air of superiority, the father said, Am I answering this question or are you?" And with a huff, the wife turned her back on him and stomped out of the room and slammed the door as hard as she could. Well, there was a long, tense silence in the room. Then the little boy spoke up with a quiet voice. He said, Thanks, Dad. I think I understand now. Unfortunately, many children understand exactly how anger and resentment can destroy the harmony of a home, because they see it demonstrated between their parents right in front of their eyes. Isn't it amazing how even God's people can come to think that Anger is tolerable in God's sight and tolerable in a Christian home. We teach them to violate God's word by our example. An example that God deplores. You are not even fit to worship God when you have unrepentant and unresolved anger. existing between you and your mate. I know you could say, well, you don't know what it's like to live with him or to live with her, and I don't, but God does. The same amazing grace that the soloist sang about this morning is able to enable you to get victory over this sin. The third reason why you must seek forgiveness for anger. In the last two verses, twenty five and twenty six. Which say that anger binds your soul. It not only disobeys your God and hinders your worship, it binds your soul and Christ has some imagery here for us to understand how serious this is. Verse twenty-five agree with an adversary quickly. That is the person that you have offended by your anger. While dollar in the way with him left at any time the adversary deliver the to the judge and the judge deliver the to the officer and I'll be cast into prison. Barely I say into the thou shall by no means come up thence. till thou has paid the uttermost part. Verse twenty five wrath in this verse is like an unpaid debt. This has a rough correspondence to debtors prison back in the Middle Ages and back even in Bible times. But there's something about these two verses that It comes close to describing a real situation, and we can almost picture two individuals walking along and then one of them accusing the other before the judge. Except that this was not a valid accusation in the court of law, even in those days, someone couldn't say he was angry at me, lock him up. That wouldn't happen. The crisis using a bit of the imagery, but he's really talking about the spiritual reality. That is where there are two individuals walking on, going along their way, the daily routine of life. There has been anger between them. One of them is guilty. And that individual is in danger of being bound. Not by the civil authorities, but bound by the guilt that God controls. Yes, again here, this is how seriously God takes anger. You are liable as an unpaid debt. You are liable to spend time in debtor's prison. The urge here, the urgency in verse twenty five, is because your opportunity to get this right may be brief. And if you don't take the opportunity to get this anger right, to confess it, to ask God's forgiveness and to be reconciled with the person to whom you were angry. If you don't take that opportunity soon, he says, your confinement may be long. A long time to spend confined by guilt. Unusable in God's service. because you refuse to acknowledge what God says is a very serious. Verse twenty-six, thou shalt by no means come out then still thou has paid the uttermost part. How do you pay the uttermost part? God, I admit to you that that anger was sin. Please forgive me through Jesus Christ. That is the only way to get out of jail. You must pay the debt in full. That means you can't dance around it with terminology that makes it sound like it wasn't really so bad. You pay the whole debt, you acknowledge the whole thing. and you ask for forgiveness. In April 1994, a man was driving a van in a far left lane of Chicago's Northwest Highway. Suddenly, a white Cadillac drove up behind him, wanting to get by him and to let the driver in the van know that he came up within inches of the van's bumper. Well, surely he wasn't going to get pushed around. The man in the van, instead of pulling over to the right to let him pass, slowed down. That just infuriated the man in the Cadillac, so he swerved into the right lane, darted past him, and then swerved right back into the left lane and made the van slam on its brakes to avoid a collision, and with a laugh went speeding off down the highway. Well, the man in the van wasn't about to be showed up like that, so he accelerated. caught up with the Cadillac, and for a couple of minutes, the two of them were gesturing and shouting back and forth at each other. The man in the van had his whole family with him, watching all that was taking place. And as the gesturing went on, suddenly the man in the Cadillac took out a handgun and fired one shot into the van. That one bullet went through the left ear of the little girl sitting in the back. That girl lost her hearing, she's partially blind, and for the rest of her life is going to endure extreme physical pain and handicaps. One of those men is in jail because of that. But both of those men are in prison. both of them to endure the prison of guilt for the result of their anger. Until such time as one or either one of them. Insert the key into that prison door of confession and a plea for forgiveness and grace for victory. That's the prison Christ is talking about. That is the seriousness of the sin of anger. That is why Christ preached this message. That is why you must acknowledge anger, selfishly motivated anger as sin. And that is why you must confess it. Get it right with God. Get it right with the individual to whom you are angry and plead for God's grace. This is so serious. Please grant me the grace to get victory over this. Several years ago, Jan and I were apartment hunting and were thrilled when God opened up the opportunity for a spacious two-bedroom, second-floor apartment. And within just a couple of days, we were moving in. At the same time, downstairs, there was a family moving out, and they were packing up and loading their U-Haul. So we had only a day or two when our residency overlapped, but in those two days, we learned much about their family. and about the destruction of anger. That evening, as Jan and I were eating dinner in our little dining room, down below us, the most horrible sounds of shouting and anger were coming up. And as we listened, we realized it was the father and a twelve-year-old boy shouting, calling each other names. expressing their anger, their bitterness, even their hatred for each other. And it seemed that some of the other family members joined in, the din was such that we couldn't really tell who was saying what. It wasn't long before it all quieted down and we were not hearing anything anymore. We could hardly finish our dinner. It was so upsetting. Then, as they drove away in their U-Haul the next day, We're saying to each other, how could people live like that? It's a miserable way to live. To have the gaping wounds of anger all around us, the result of our own doing, and so often to the people that are closest to us. How can people live that way? I'm afraid what happens is that we come to tolerate as acceptable. What God says is deplorable. I don't think that family knew the Lord. Those that do. Have no excuse. Wonder if God has convicted you of instances of anger. Between husband and wife. Between parents and children. children angry at parents. Brothers and sisters angry at each other. And once the incident blows up and calms down, we just try to go about our businesses. If everything will be all right. No anger requires confession and forgiveness. With our heads bowed, I wonder if the Holy Spirit has been at work in this service. And more specifically, I wonder if he's been at work in your heart. There may be a very recent incident in which you were angry. It may have been a few weeks ago, but you're thinking about it right now. And that means the Holy Spirit has been at work. The only question that remains, then, are you going to work? Are you going to respond to what the Holy Spirit wants you to do? Are you going to respond to what the word of God tells you to do? Or not? You can take your chances and see if maybe that anger really didn't cause any problems. Maybe it really wasn't so serious. Or are you willing to take God's word for it? Treated as sin. Confess it. And get it right. If that's your choice right now, there's something specific the Holy Spirit has spoken to you about. And you're ready to agree with God. Without anybody else looking around, I just see your hand quickly, you just put it up. God bless you. Yes, you can put it right down again. Anyone else to join these? God bless you. Yes. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that when Christ preached this message so many years ago. That he knew that we would be here today. Although we believe this message from your word is for us. Thank you for the work of your spirit. Many want to respond. Many want the grace that you provide, the grace of forgiveness and a grace they need for victory. Although we ask that you would provide that grace and abundance, because in many cases the need may be great. Although we ask that you would deal with each of us, help us to be alert to the temptation to express anger. Father, how we look forward to the day when we might be able to anticipate it, cut it off before it starts, to choke off those words of anger. And Father, to do that, we know, would be just another example of the amazing grace of God, for which we give you praise in Jesus' name. Amen. On today's chapel hour you've heard Dr. Gary Riemers, professor of Bible at Bob Jones University. You may order a cassette copy of this Bible message delivered at a recent morning worship service held on the Bob Jones University campus. You send a check for $6.50 to the campus store Bob Jones University, Greenville, South Carolina 29614. The message is also available at this station's website, wmu.com. We hope you'll join us again tomorrow at this time for the Chapel Hour, sponsored by Bob Jones University.