Welcome to the For the Gospel Podcast, where we provide sound doctrine for everyday people. I'm your host, Kasti Hinn, and I want to welcome our listeners on Apple, Spotify, and those enjoying this on our YouTube video podcast format. If you have not done so already, go to our YouTube channel at ForTheGospel, click that subscribe button, and you will not only get this video podcast, but a load of other free teaching videos and our previous series and a lot of short videos as well on sound doctrine that will bless your life and spark your spiritual growth. On today's episode, I want to kick off a three-week series on anger, beginning with first understanding anger, second, sinful anger versus righteous anger, and then third, how to deal with anger. In that episode, we're going to get real practical about ways you can deal with or address your anger issues. These episodes will help you diagnose sin, but also help you develop a game plan for addressing anger issues and help others who struggle with this prevalent sin. And therein lies the first of four starting principles I want to lay out, and then we'll dig deeper. Number one, anger is a prevalent sin. What I mean by this is that anger is common. Many people wrestle with anger. And while it is common, let me be clear, anger should never be downplayed. It is a very serious sin and it can lead to a wide variety of very harmful actions. Number two, anger is a destructive sin. It manifests itself through outbursts, harsh words, vicious deeds, passive aggressive behavior comes from anger, vindictive behavior, you have slander, and then, of course, abuse in verbal, physical, and sexual forms. All of these reactions are meant to inflict damage on a target. There was a lady who once came to Billy Sunday and she tried to rationalize her angry outbursts, saying, There's nothing wrong with losing my temper. I blow up and then it's all over. To which Sunday replied, Yeah, so does a shotgun, and look at the damage it leaves behind. It's a great reminder that anger is not benign. It wounds and it scars. Number three, anger is not always sin. While there is a prevalent dark side to anger, the Bible speaks clearly about righteous anger and provides us with a roadmap for Christians regarding righteous anger. There are things that we should be angry about, but there's a way in which we should handle and eventually hand over all of that anger to God. And we'll get into that in the next episode in the series. Number four, anger is not a respecter of persons. All Christians experience anger and have to rely on the Holy Spirit through the Word of God to manage these emotions. I remember many years ago, right after my true conversion, I struggled to figure out what was righteous anger and what was sinful anger. In that season, I remember it like it was yesterday. I went through waves of emotions as I processed false beliefs, spiritual abuse, deception, and the notion that, you know, liars and deceivers were seemingly just getting away with leading people to hell and lying for a living. But at the same time, I was becoming a biblical pastor, an actual real, genuine pastor, and going through training to become a real pastor. And I knew my mandate included calling out false teachers and preaching the truth. So, with all of those emotions, I had to process like many people do. How can I do that in a way that's truthful and zealous for the glory of God, but also under control? And, you know, do you just leave things alone and then, you know, don't get too worked up? How do you deal with issues but not get embroiled in controversy? And, you know, if you do get embroiled in controversy, you know, what's the right way to handle yourself? If you get lied about and slandered, all those things. And then, you know, how do we balance passages that are in the Bible that tell us to overlook a transgression while also obeying commands to mark divisive deceivers? All of these questions involve emotions, processing anger, righteous anger, but even potentially sinful anger. Why do some people seem to get really angry all the time? Where as others seem balanced and bold, not petty, and not stooping to the low of people they're dealing with. Now the details may change in any given situation, but the principle is the same. All of us, no matter who you are, will struggle with anger at times. When we're talking about emotions like anger in particular, the book of Proverbs is always helpful and it has a lot to say about anger and how it relates to our self-control. So I want to start there and give us an overview from Scripture on how the wisdom of God presents the sin of anger. We'll walk through four passages and then one from the book of James. So four in Proverbs, one in James, and that'll help prime the pump for the series and the episodes ahead. The first passage is Proverbs 25, 28. It says, like a city that is broken into and without walls is a man who has no control over his spirit. This particular proverb is set in the context of other proverbs, which are comparing things and situations and helping us understand the vulnerability and lack of protection that results from letting our emotions rule our reactions. Anger is an emotion. And when it is left unrestrained and without self-control, it leads us to being our own worst enemy. Believers are those who God has given the ability to have control over our spirit. So it's very important that we understand anger and our call to self-control. In Proverbs 14, 29, we read, He who is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who is quick tempered exalts folly. The word exalts here means to promote or make a public display of something. And with verse 28 in that chapter, being about kings and princes, there's some connection here between being an example. Leaders who are slow to anger model maturity and understanding, while others they display publicly their immaturity and their foolishness in their reactions. This is convicting for leaders and pastors. If you're a parent, a teacher, or an employer or any other kind of leadership position in some sphere of society, Christians have a key role in being examples with how we handle our emotions. We're always modeling. So are you and I in our reactions modeling wisdom or foolishness? Are you and I temperate or are we a tyrant? Proverbs 29:11 says a fool always loses its temper, but a wise man holds it back. A fool always loses his temper. A wise man holds it back. This proverb really doesn't need a lot of unpacking. It's a vivid picture there. And the verb that means holds it back is the idea of calming a storm. A fool just lets it fly all the time. A wise man will still experience the turbulence of emotions like anger, but instead of explosively letting it out, he's able to bring himself or bring herself under control and overcome the anger, not merely shove it under the rug to erupt later on when triggered again. The storm, if you will, has been calmed. Very important tactic to learn when managing our anger. Next, Proverbs 15, 18, which says a hot tempered man stirs up strife, but the slow to anger calms a dispute. The focus here is on words, even though it doesn't specifically mention words, it says dispute. So obviously there's some wrangling about with words. And if you are someone who is slow to anger, you're going to calm disputes rather than stir up more strife. Angry, hot-tempered people are like volcanoes. They erupt and they begin burning everyone around. And that only stirs up others to react with anger, and next thing you know, chaos ensues. Whereas the person who's slow to anger is a peacemaker, he or she calms disputes rather than pouring gasoline on an already lit flame. Finally, James chapter 1, verses 19 to 20 is the final passage I want to lay out for you here. And it's a very important one to consider. In the context, James is talking about the way people receive the Word of God and how one ought to respond to God's truth when it exposes our sin and it pierces our hearts. He writes, This you know, my beloved brethren. He starts out with a loving statement, it's a familial term, it's as if to draw someone in to say, Hey, hard truth is coming. Understand, I love you, my beloved brethren, but everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. For, or you could say the Greek word also could mean because, for or because the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. James's point is that believers should receive God's truth with a submissive heart, hearing it, not arguing with it, not talking over it, and not reading their own opinions into it and debating it as it comes, but rather receiving it submissively. And then slow to anger is not reacting to conviction from the Holy Spirit and the truth with rebellious anger against the truth. Look, the truth hurts. And sometimes we're tempted to run from conviction instead of running to conviction. This is how many people respond to the truth. Once they get past a shallow version of Jesus who they think is just going to make them happy, healthy, and wealthy, like the rocky soil in Jesus' parable about the four soils, many will sprout up quickly, but they have no deep roots. They hear a truth about maybe homosexuality or gender or marriage or sin or serving or giving or submitting or loving, correcting, or discipling some aspect of really living true Christian faith, and suddenly they think, you know what? I'm out. Either that's too hard or that's not loving, or no God that I believe in is going to teach that or tell me I have to believe that. Forget it, I'm out. This is the anger that does not produce the righteousness of God. Anger towards God's truth does not lead to righteousness, holiness, maturity, or unity. So even in this series, as we're talking about these things and you're hearing the word of God, instead of running from your anger issues, run to God's truth. I recently read about the self-destructive nature of anger. The author explained, of the seven deadly sins, anger is possibly the most fun. Listen to this. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor the last toothsome morsel, both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back in many ways. It is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback, though, is that what you're wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you. Anger, friend, will eat you alive. Anger, undealt with, will destroy your spiritual life. It will steal your joy and lead to nothing but pain. Nothing would bring me more joy than to see those of you in our church and our for the gospel family spiritually healthy because you, by the power of the Spirit, through the Word of God, have put anger in its place. I want you to experience the joy of overcoming anger and thriving in your walk with the Lord and your relationships with others. And so let's face anger. Let's understand God's truth and let's walk in self-control. In the next episode, I'll walk you through what God's word teaches about sinful anger, and we'll look at it from multiple angles, and then we'll look at righteous anger and even what God would have us do with what is rightfully frustrating us because of his name. And then we'll move on from there and get practical in the third episode. Thanks for listening and watching. If you haven't already, subscribe to our YouTube channel and be sure to check out www.forthegospel.org. That's our website. You can take full advantage of our free resources there, or become a gospel patron and help us produce these resources completely free for people both here in the US and all around the world. I'll be back next Monday with another episode. For now, keep on living for the gospel.