Welcome to Unveiled Faces, a Redeemer Presbyterian Church podcast. Please enjoy our feature presentation. Proverbs 12, verse 16. The vexation of a fool is known at once, but the prudent ignores an insult. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, We thank you for your Holy Spirit. We thank you for your Son, Jesus, and we thank you for being our God. And Father, we pray that as we consider today the words of Proverbs 12, 16, Father, may they be the words of truth to us. May they be the words of life. May we see them as the wisdom of God. And Father, may they show us Jesus Christ. We pray this in his name, amen. Well, the proverb that serves as our sermon text this morning is about anger. And anger is an emotion that everyone experiences. You experience it, I experience it, Moses experienced it, David experienced it. The Bible even tells us that God experiences it. Anger, therefore, is not an inherently sinful emotion. It's not an inherently sinful emotion. In Mark 3, Jesus had entered the synagogue on a Sabbath day, and he saw a man there who had a withered hand. And we're told that the Pharisees were watching Jesus to see if he was gonna heal the man that had the withered hand. And the Pharisees thought that this would be a sin. if Jesus were to heal on the Sabbath. And so they were hoping, actually hoping he would, so that they could catch him doing something wrong. And basically the Pharisees had set up a sting operation. They were using the man with the withered hand to trap Jesus for the purpose of trying to catch him committing sin. But Jesus could see the sting from a mile away. And he knew exactly what the Pharisees were up to. And verses three and four tell us that Jesus called the man with the withered hand to come over to him and then he looked at the Pharisees and he asked, Jesus asked a question. Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill? And when Jesus asked this question of the Pharisees, they were silent. It's not that they didn't know how to answer Jesus's question. They remained silent because they knew that by answering Jesus's question, they would expose themselves as the people who were sinning on the Sabbath. And while they were so concerned about Jesus doing good on the Sabbath, these Pharisees were guilty of doing harm on the Sabbath. And the harm being that of setting a stumbling block before Jesus, hoping that he would sin. And so when the Pharisees refused to answer Jesus's question, we read in Mark 3, 5, that Jesus, quote, looked around at them with anger, end quote. He looked around at them with anger. And the fact that Jesus in his sinless humanity was able to experience and express anger demonstrates that anger is not necessarily a sinful emotion. And to be sure, there is a sinful form of anger. I think all of us are well acquainted with this particular sin. But not all anger is sin. And there is a righteous anger, which Jesus is experiencing here in Mark 3. And the difference between righteous anger and sinful anger can be discerned by paying attention to what provoked the anger. In Jesus' case, we know that his anger was righteous. But to better understand this, we ask ourself, what provoked Jesus to be angry? Was it because the Pharisees wanted to answer his question? No, actually that's not it. That's not what provoked Jesus to anger. In fact, shortly after this incident, there would come a time when the Pharisees would ask Jesus a question and he would refuse to answer them. And so it's not about whether the question was answered. Mark 3.5 tells us that the provocation of Jesus's anger was the hardness of the Pharisee's heart. That is to say, Jesus's anger was incited by and directed at sin. Therefore, the defining characteristic of righteous anger is that it's provoked when the holiness of God is transgressed. Righteous anger is that which is provoked when the holiness of God is transgressed. And so when you hear about Things like Planned Parenthood killing the tiniest image bearers of God and then selling their bodies to the highest bidder, that is something to be righteously angry about. Why? Because it's a direct violation of God's holiness. In fact, what Planned Parenthood is doing is an attack, a direct attack upon God because it's a direct attack upon God's image bearers. When Jesus drove the moneylenders out of the temple, it's safe to say that he was righteously angry. We can answer, and why? Why was he righteously angry? Well, because. Let's look at the provocation. What is it that provoked Jesus to anger? What provoked Jesus to anger was that the money lenders or the money changers were making the house of God into a house of commerce. And this is what we read about in John 2.16. After Jesus had fashioned the whip, turn over the tables, it says in John 2.16, he then told those who sold the pigeons, take these things away. Do not make my father's house a house of trade. Then his disciples remembered what is written, zeal for your house will consume me. There are times in which anger is the righteous response to a situation, but that's only when your zeal is for the holiness of God. Sinful anger is different. When righteous, wherever, Whereas righteous anger is aroused because of the holiness of God is being transgressed, sinful anger is aroused when your personal agenda is being transgressed. In other words, sinful anger is provoked because a situation isn't going the way that you think it ought to go. All of us live our lives by setting goals and making plans. That's just a condition of living. We all do it. And most of us have plans and goals that are completely reasonable. But you always need to remember that the plans that you make for your life must always be in submission to the plans that God makes for your life. And when your plans don't work out the way that you want them to do, then the righteous response is to acknowledge that this so-called change of plans is what God's will is for your life. But that's hard for us to do. We like our plans. We grow attached to our plans. We think our plans are really good plans. And so when God's sovereign governance over the affairs of this world make changes to our plans, it's not uncommon for us to respond to those changes with sinful anger. For example, you turn the key to start your car in the morning and the car won't start. Was that part of your plan? I don't think so. So how are you going to respond to this change of plans? Are you going to become angry? Or you go shopping and you expect the other people in the stores that they're going to be courteous to you, but they aren't. They stand in the middle of the aisle, blocking you, ignoring you. They jump in front of you in the checkout line. How are you gonna respond to those situations? Are you gonna become angry? You're at home, you lie down to take a nap, and just as you fall asleep, the delivery man rings a doorbell. Do you respond in anger? You're driving down the road and the man in front of you isn't driving quite as fast as you think he ought to be driving. Do you respond in anger? Understanding what provokes your anger is a necessary step to identifying the type of anger that you're experiencing. Not all anger is sinful, but let me warn you, most of the anger you experience in the course of your life is probably sinful anger. While it's true that this world provides a variety of opportunities for our righteous anger to manifest itself, we often miss those opportunities. Eve, who had been created to experience righteous anger, should have been angered by the lies that were told to her in the garden by the serpent. When Satan set up a sting operation for Eve, very much like the Pharisees had done with Jesus, Eve should have responded to Satan the same way Jesus responded to the Pharisees. Eve should have looked at the serpent with righteous anger and said to him, get behind me, Satan, be gone. Likewise, when you hear that the name of the Lord is being blasphemed in our society, that's sinful. That's a violation of God's holiness. And it's not sinful to be angered under those circumstances. And when you see justice being distorted by those that God has placed in position to uphold justice, it's not sinful to be angered. When you see a father abusing his child, or when you see a con artist defrauding a widow, or when you see a husband cheating on his wife, these are all good and legitimate reasons for you to experience righteous anger. Why? Because the holiness of God is under attack. But when anger is incited because your personal agenda is under attack, that's when anger is sinful. You have no reason to believe that the plans that you make for your life will not be altered according to the plans that God has made for your life. And so if God sees fit that your car will have a dead battery in the morning, then what right do you have to be angry about that situation? That's the question. What right do you have to be angry? How is a dead battery a violation of God's holiness? It's not. So if you become angry at this situation, then the only violation of God's holiness that is in this situation is the way that you're responding to the situation. And there's no denying that a dead battery is an inconvenience. So I'm not saying that you need to look at every adverse situation with a grin and a smile. But what I am saying is that anger is not the righteous response to adversity. And if we really apply the promises of God to our life, then we have to conclude that somehow, even in situations where the car won't start because there's a dead battery, somehow God's gonna use that minor adversity in our life for our good. How do you know that the time that it takes you to jumpstart the car isn't God's way of protecting you from an accident? Had your car started when you wanted it to, then you would have been driving right through a particular intersection when the other car coming the other way ran through the red light. But God, in his goodness towards you or your family and all those people that love you, he spared you that tragedy by delaying your travels with a dead battery. And how do people like you and I so often respond to these type of gifts from God? Sinfully. We become angry. We begin to mutter unsavory words under our breath. This reaction is what the Bible describes as vexation. It's the open display of sinful anger. And our sermon text says, the vexation of a fool is known at once. Meaning, a person demonstrates his foolishness to everybody around him when he allows his sinful anger to manifest itself in words and attitude and behavior and even his countenance. A perfect example of this vexation is what we see so often at sporting events. We've all seen the coaches and the athletes explode into anger because of a call. Something didn't go the way that they wanted it to go or the way they thought it should go. And this behavior, according to our sermon text, is the mark of a fool. So when you see the tennis player violently smashing his racket into the ground, you need to understand that this tennis player is showing himself to be a fool. And when you see the hockey players burst into a spontaneous fist fight, you should appreciate that they are marking themselves as fools. And when you see the golfer throw his club halfway down the fairway, that exhibition of anger depicts him to be a fool. Vexation, the vexation of a fool is known at once. Or, as Proverbs 29, 11 puts it, a fool gives vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back. Or, as Proverbs 14, 17 puts it, a man of quick temper acts foolishly. Now, I can understand how an unsaved person would be given over to sinful anger, I can understand how an unsaved person would discover that his car battery is dead and suddenly fly off the handle. But how do we explain the Christian who acts this way? After all, the Christian is a person who possesses the Holy Spirit. And if the Holy Spirit resides within a person, then the fruit of the Spirit will be evident in that person's life, right? Well, what does the fruit of the Spirit look like? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control? How does a quick temper fit into this list of virtues? How does a Christian who's supposed to be exhibiting self-control suddenly break out into a sinful expression of anger? When the Apostle Paul listed the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, he also gave us a list of the deeds of the flesh, which are intended to serve as examples of how those who are not led by the Spirit live their lives. There, we see 13 examples of the deeds of the flesh listed in Galatians 5, and among them is fits of anger. Fits of anger are deeds of the flesh. So how do we explain the Christian who has fits of anger? How do we explain the Christian who throws his golf clubs and lets profanity fly out of his mouth when things don't go his way? The answer to this question, requires us to be good students of the Bible. And what I mean by this is that we have to be diligent, careful, and even meticulous about studying the word of God, everything that God has written to us, so that we can understand how he accomplishes our salvation. And there's a certain attitude among some Christians that likes to rest in the most simplistic view of the gospel. Jesus died for your sins. Jesus died for your sins, they say. And they go on to say that Jesus dying for your sins is the pure essence of the gospel, and that's really all a person needs to know. But this position begs the question, when they say Jesus died for your sins, who or what Jesus are they talking about? Who do they say Jesus is? Are they referring to the Mormon Jesus, who began as a mortal man and had to work his way into the pantheon of gods? Are they referring to the Aryan Jesus, who is nothing more than a created angel? Are they referring to the New Age Jesus, who serves as a spirit guide to show us the way? or the Arminian Jesus who sits outside the door of your heart persistently knocking, hoping that you will open that door before the day you die? Or is it the reformed Jesus that kicks the door down and triumphantly marches in? And when they say Jesus died for your sins, what do they mean by died? Is it physical death? Is it spiritual death? And did he stay dead or did he rise from the dead? And when they say that Jesus died for your sins, do they mean that the sins of the whole world or just the sins of God's elect? And if Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, then what sin does God punish in the unbelievers? Or did God punish Jesus for everybody's sin, but then punishes those same sins again for those who pass from this world without having placed their faith in Jesus? And the point that I'm trying to make by raising these questions is that the gospel is not as simplistic as many people would like it to be. If you, If you do the diligent, careful, meticulous study that God requires of you, then you will come to the realization that the gospel saves God's elect in three tenses of the word. That is, the gospel saves in the past, present, and future tenses. It's proper, therefore, for any of us who are justified by God's grace to say that the gospel has saved me, the gospel is saving me, and the gospel will save me. Let me repeat that. For any of us who have been justified by God's grace, it is proper for us to say the gospel has saved me, the gospel is saving me, and the gospel will save me. And those who only know the simplistic view of the gospel, can say that the gospel has saved me in the past tense. But that's really the end of their understanding of the gospel. The simplistic view of the gospel only has a single function evangelistic message that Christians preach in order to move people from the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of God. But once that has been done, according to this simplistic view, the gospel is no longer a relevant part of the Christian's life. At best, hearing the gospel preached is a good reminder for how grateful we ought to be for God, all that God has done for us in the past. But when we move beyond this simplistic view by allowing the word of God to open our understanding to all the riches that the gospel actually does bring into the life of God's people, then we will have the necessary framework for understanding how a Christian who's truly saved and genuinely indwelled by the Holy Spirit can still struggle with fits of anger. Earlier in today's worship service, I read the assurance of pardon. It was from Ephesians 2, verses four and five. And those two verses are an excellent description of the way in which the gospel has saved, past tense, those who have received God's grace. So let me read those verses again. God, being rich in mercy, Because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead on our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved. That's past tense. You have been saved. It's done. It was accomplished. But there's more to the gospel of salvation. Not only have you been saved, but you are presently being saved. Listen to 1 Corinthians 1.18. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. Or again, in 1 Corinthians 15, verses one and two. But now I remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, present tense. And the biblical teaching of being saved is the inward man being renewed day by day, as Paul writes about it in 1 Corinthians 4.16. It's the process that the Bible refers to as sanctification. Whereas the work of the gospel in the past is your justification, the work of the gospel in the present is your sanctification. And it's necessary that we distinguish between these two functions of the gospel because justification and sanctification are not just some that describe obscure theological doctrines. They are terms which describe the real life experience that every true and genuine Christian, including those who struggle with anger, experience. So let me, let us make sure that we understand what these terms mean. This will go a long way towards moving us from the simplistic view of the gospel into an understanding of why we continue to struggle with sin and how we are then to overcome it. Justification, as I've already said, is the past tense work of the gospel. Justification is a, here's a big word, forensic declaration. And what that means is that it's a legally binding courtroom verdict where God, who is the judge in the courtroom, pronounces the verdict of innocent upon the person who has been justified. And so if you've received the saving grace of God, then that means that that his legally binding courtroom verdict has already been rendered for you. You've already stood the trial in God's courtroom. And because of the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ, you've been pronounced innocent. God's forensic declarations are immutable. Meaning they can't be changed and everlasting, they stand forever. So there's no appeal process. Nobody can file a motion to overturn God's verdict. So if you've been justified, then your pronouncement of innocence is a done deal. Your name is written in the book of life and nobody can take that away from you. But if that's all the gospel does, then I'm still going to be living on this earth like a pagan. Why? Because justification is what happens in the courtroom. My verdict of innocence is only on a piece of paper, so to speak. And the only reason I was pronounced innocent in that courtroom is because God judged me according to how Jesus lived his life and not according to the way I'm living my life. And therefore, if I'm actually going to live my life in a manner which is pleasing to God here on this earth, then I need something more than a piece of paper that tells me I'm innocent. I need somebody to transform my life from being self-focused to being God-focused. and that somebody is the Holy Spirit. This is what the Bible means when it describes God's people being saved in the present tense, being saved. The Holy Spirit operates within all believers, systematically working within the hearts and the minds of each person, sanctifying them, making each person's thoughts and words and deeds progressively more and more righteous. And it's the Holy Spirit who empowers us with the faith to want to please God. It's the Holy Spirit who strengthens us to withstand temptation. And it's the Holy Spirit who equips us to put to death the deeds of the flesh, which include putting to death anger, including fits of anger. Paul writes about this process of sanctification in Colossians 3. He begins in verse five by describing the necessity for the justified Christian to mortify or put to death his sin. Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Then in verse seven, Paul reiterates the responsibility we have to put our past sins behind us. He writes, in these you too once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away. And what is the first of these former sins that Paul lists that a man of God must put away? Anger. Anger. In fact, Paul not only lists anger as a first sin to put away, but then he tags on several manifestations of anger, the type of things that we do or say when our tempers flare. But now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. For Paul to say that you must put these away is only half the solution to overcoming sinful anger. To get rid of some bad behavior and not replace it with a good behavior just leaves the door open for that bad behavior to return again and to bring seven of his bad friends with him. Maybe you've experienced this. Maybe you've unsuccessfully tried to manage your anger in the past, only to discover that counting to 10 really doesn't work. That's because the biblical model for making permanent and lasting changes is to not only put off, but to then put on as well. So verse 12 describes what we need to put off. You need to put off your sinful anger. And then it goes on to describe after you have put off your sinful anger, what is it that you put on? What is it you replace it with? Compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. These are the replacements for sinful anger. These things take place, take the place of sinful anger. And so when a provocation comes your way, the type that used to drive you to sinful anger, now you have something else to respond with. So when your neighbor throws his trash out and it blows into your front yard, you show compassion. Rather than stomping over to his house and telling him how careless he was with his trash, you show compassion and you pick it up, throw it away. When the lady with a scowl on her face speeds up in order to get in front of you at the checkout line, respond with patience. Use those extra minutes to silently pray for her conversion. Pray that the Lord might give you, even at that very moment, the words to say to witness to her. When somebody insults your pride, don't rise up and defend yourself. Rather, show some humility. Overlook it. Our sermon text says that the prudent ignores an insult. Colossians 3, nine through 10 teaches us that when we put off the old self and we put on the new self, then we are being renewed in knowledge after the image of our creator. And to say that we're being renewed after the image of our creator is an enlightening description of what is happening when we are being saved in the present tense, being saved by the gospel. Or to use familiar terminology, this is an enlightening way of describing what it means to be sanctified by the gospel. As you know, Adam and Eve were, when they were first created, they were made in the image of God. And this means Adam and Eve were given all the communicable attributes of God, that meaning the ones that God can communicate to others, namely humans. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. These are all the virtues. that originate within the person and character of God. And when he created mankind, he created us with these same virtues. Hence, we are like God in this particular way. Man's nature was made in the image of God's nature. But when Adam sinned, man's nature suffered corruption. And while we still bear God's image in our nature, we no longer reflect God's communicable attributes in the perfectly righteous manner in which we had been created to reflect those things. Well, the gospel is what reverses that marring of the image of God. The gospel not only justifies us from our sin, but it then sanctifies us by progressively restoring all the communicable attributes of God within the nature of redeemed man so that Each one of us is then able to bear his image before the watching world in a more faithful and righteous manner. This restorative work of the gospel will continue throughout your entire Christian life, never being fully perfected here on earth. never being fully perfected until the gospel finally saves you, future tense, through the means of your glorification. And this will happen when Jesus returns to this earth the second time, raises the bodies of the dead, and then he escorts all his redeemed, both body and soul, united together, into the new heavens and new earth. But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. We're not there yet. While that will certainly be a glorious day that we ought to be looking forward to, we are presently living in a glorious day as well. It's glorious because we're seeing more and more people being saved from their sin. And it's glorious because we see those who have been saved from their sin now being transformed into men and women whose character reflects the image of God in greater and greater clarity and fidelity. But the glory of all this belongs to the triune God because it's the gospel of Jesus Christ that accomplishes these things. Our justification, our sanctification, even our glorification are all accomplished by the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel, therefore, is what we need for all of life. And this is why I have such concerns about those who are content to rest in the simplistic view of the gospel. The simplistic view of the gospel does not drive the person who's struggling with sin to the foot of the cross. The simplistic view of the gospel does not hold forth to transforming grace of sanctification. All the simplistic view of the gospel offers is a get out of jail free ticket. Beyond that, you're on your own. How many people have tried to overcome anger on their own? And how did that work? But when you understand the sanctifying power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, you now know that the only truly effective solution to overcoming anger, as well as any other sin you may wanna throw in here, is through the restoration of God's image within you. It's through the restoration of God's image within you. And this comes through the Holy Spirit who empowers you to put off the deeds of the flesh and to put on those communicable attributes of God. With so many of the temptations that we struggle with, this means that we completely abandon, as we put off, we completely abandon anything and everything that's associated with that sin. But dealing with sinful anger is a little different. Remember, anger in and of itself is not sinful. What is sinful is when you're provoked to anger because your life isn't turning out the way that you thought it should. And amongst other things, this is the sin of idolatry because it's really, in essence, what you're doing is you're setting yourself up as the sovereign who determines the affairs of your little world instead of allowing God to do that. But along with that, Sinful anger gives expression to all sorts of related sins, wrath, malice, bitterness, slander, profane speech, and such expressions of anger are really an abuse of the righteous attribute of anger that God had created man with. Think about that for a moment. God created us sinless, and yet he created us with the ability to experience anger, the righteous anger, of course, like Jesus experienced. But in our fallen nature, we misuse the emotion of anger for selfish and sinful expressions. In fact, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that some people knowingly and willfully misuse anger. Anger is an effective motivator. It can make other people do the things that you wish that they would do. So anger is a great tool for manipulation. Get angry, start yelling at people, throw your hands up, people will start to do the things you tell them to do. A mother yells at her kids because that's the only way she's gonna get them to clean up their room. A boss yells at his employees in order to get them to work harder. A husband yells at his wife, a customer yells at the store manager. Expressions of sinful anger are an effective motivator for those who understand how to manipulate other people into performing actions that they wouldn't have otherwise done. So when addressing the topic of sinful anger and how to overcome it, the question really needs to be asked, do you want to overcome it? Do you really want to overcome your anger? For some people, anger is their number one defense against accountability. Do you know somebody in your life that you would be afraid to go up and talk to about a sensitive issue because you would be afraid that they would erupt like a volcano of anger? That's a person who's learned how to use anger as a defense against accountability. Not everybody wants to overcome anger. Some people depend upon it. Those people need to be informed of what our sermon text teaches us, that their outbursts of anger are identifying them as a fool. They need to be challenged to deal with life in a righteous way, to put off sinful anger, and to put on compassion, and kindness, and humility, and meekness, and patience, and all the other communicable attributes of God. All God's children need to embrace the gospel as the mechanism by which the image of God is being renewed within us. Which means, as it pertains to the emotion of anger, we are not looking to eliminate this emotion from our lives. As ironic as that may sound, we are not looking to eliminate this emotion from our lives, rather we are looking to have our anger restored to the righteous emotions that we were first created to experience, like Jesus. We should not withhold our anger when the holiness of God is under attack. Our righteous emotion of anger should motivate us into defending the holiness of God. Now I know this sounds alarming to many ears, I know this can be a frightening proposition, particularly for those who have had to live with a person who's abusively angry. But when I say that Christians should seek to restore anger to its proper place and not withhold anger when God's holiness is under attack, I'm only reiterating what Psalm 4.4 says. Be angry and do not sin. Righteous anger is a command from God. Of all the emotions God has created man to experience, anger is one of the most powerful. And for this reason, God put a warning label on that emotion. He tells us that to be angry righteously, but then he immediately, immediately warns us from allowing our anger to lead us into sin. And there are wisdom principles that need to guide our experience of righteous anger. Be slow to anger. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. Ponder in your hearts on your beds and be silent. In other words, not every experience of righteous anger needs to be verbally expressed. Wisdom must prevail. Each experience with anger must be handled according to the way God would require you to handle that, with the wisdom of God. And so yes, I understand that some Christians would rather hear a sermon that advocates the complete elimination of all forms of anger. Anger's bad, period, get rid of it. But that wouldn't be faithful to God's word. I also understand that some Christians will attempt to justify their sin, their sinful anger, by making it sound like an expression of righteous anger. The mom who screams at her kids for not cleaning up the room can attempt to justify her behavior by saying, well, doesn't the Bible say that the children are supposed to honor their parents? If the mother was really truthful with herself, however, she would have to admit that the reasons she is angry is not because the children have broken the fifth commandment. The reason she's angry is because the children have broken her commandment, her instruction to go clean the room. And this goes back to the question of provocation. Why are you angry? Righteous anger will always find its provocation in God's holiness being attacked. If it's your reputation that's being attacked, if it's your plans that are being dismantled, if it's your instruction that's being ignored, then to respond with anger is sinful and foolish. There are other responses to those situations that are not sinful and foolish. And as people who are being sanctified by the gospel of Jesus Christ, you should always be looking for those righteous responses. You should be putting off the sins of anger, malice, slander, bitterness, and profane speech. And you should be putting on the virtues of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. And when you do this in the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, then the image of God will be renewed in you. And you will more clearly reflect those communicable attributes of God in your life. And moreover, you will be increasingly able to resist the temptations that sin, those sins that so easily entangled you just a few years ago. You now have mastery over those things. You now are able to withstand those temptations. And you will be increased in your knowledge and love for the triune God. This is your sanctification. This is what God has in store for you, and this is how the gospel continues to function in your life. It speaks then to the necessity of placing ourselves under the gospel, where the gospel is proclaimed by reading the gospel and by taking advantage of all the means of grace that God has so liberally given to us in the body of Christ. So may he empower each one of us to overcome the sins that are in our life, particularly the sin of unrighteous anger. And may he give us the eyes to see when righteous anger is an appropriate response and the wisdom and how to express that anger. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for being a gracious God. And in your grace, you've given to us your word And you did not give us a simplistic description of the gospel, but Father, you gave us a complex and detailed description of how the gospel functions in our life. And for this, we are most grateful, because Father, we understand the dynamics, the spiritual dynamics that are at play in the life of your redeemed people. We understand what it means to have been saved once and for all, entirely, and to have our eternal security established at a moment in our past, our history, so that we can know the certainty of our future. But Father, we also can understand, because of your revelation, what it means to be in the process of being saved, and that being our sanctification, that you are continuing to renew us into the image that you originally created us, your image, that we may reflect all your holy attributes to this world. And Father, we even have the glorious expectation of being saved in the future when you will glorify us and that you will usher us into the eternal state in which we spend all eternity in fellowship with our kind God. Father, this is a glorious declaration of the gospel and it's this gospel to which we cling for our sustenance as Christians. And Lord, as we look into our lives and we see vestiges of our former self, of the sin that we used to walk in, Lord, we have confidence of knowing that these things can be put off and that we can then put on those wonderful virtues that you have communicated to us through the gospel and that through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, that these would have a binding and permanent effect upon our lives. And so Lord, give us the strength to persevere through trials. Give us the eyes to see our sin. Give us the heart of humility to repent of our sin and to desire to put off the sins. For Father, we know that there are sins in which we have grown accustomed to, sins that have become handy for us. And Lord, we pray that we would trust only in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. and that we would pursue Him through the Holy Spirit. And so, Father, we pray all these things in His name, our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. This has been a presentation of Redeemer Presbyterian Church. For more resources and information, please stop by our website at visitredeemer.org. All material here within, unless otherwise noted, copyright Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Elk Grove, California. Music furnished by Nathan Clark George. Available at nathanclarkgeorge.com.