Take your Bibles and turn with
me to the book of Acts chapter 23. Acts 23. I began in this particular passage
of Scripture, the first five verses of the 23rd chapter of
Acts last time. And I would like to pick up where
I left off, but in picking up where I left off, I'm going to
go to another passage of Scripture in the book of Ephesians, which
I'll share with you in a moment. And actually, what I would like
to consider this evening is the the concern, the attitude that
a believer has toward the honor and the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The attitude. I've entitled this
message, Be Angry and Sin Not, but I read Actually, what happened
to the Apostle Paul when he was standing before this group of
the council? Verse 1 says, And Paul, earnestly
beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived
in all good conscience before God until this day. Paul, as I said last week, before
he was converted. He had in his own heart what
he called gain to him was nothing more than the attitude of a self-righteous
religionist who looks upon himself and builds a building, a foundation
upon which he thinks he's going to stand before God. All the while walking in this
world, as Jonathan Edwards once said in a message that he preached,
God Almighty and His heiress of wrath flying through the air
at any moment. People being struck down and
taken out of this world. And the false religionist stands
there and doesn't realize What just went right past him? Missed
him and hit somebody else over here and took them out. They'll say, well, it was an
accident. It didn't happen to me. Never knowing that they stand
just moments away from eternity. Paul had in his own estimation
a hope. But after being powerfully regenerated
by the grace of God Almighty, after the Lord had caused him
to see the fallacy of that wicked attitude, thinking that a man
can do something to merit salvation before Almighty God, when Paul
realized by the grace of God that God had in mercy and compassion,
the Father, the Father of all mercy, had chosen to set His
affection, loved Him, and chose Him in the Lord Jesus Christ,
God Himself, the Son, who committed to be the surety. I will answer."
And the Spirit of God who in that everlasting covenant said,
I will call them out of darkness, those that the Father has chosen,
the Son has redeemed. I the Spirit, He said, will call
them. I'll give them life. And I'll
teach them what has been done. And I'll seal them marked the
property of God Himself. by the power of God brought to
God. Paul said, when I saw that, all
of that other was done. Paul says, I have lived in all
good conscience before God until this day. It says the higher
priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him
on the mouth, slap his face, And then Paul said unto him,
God shall smite thee, thou whited wall. For sittest thou to judge
me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to
the law. And they that stood by said,
Revilest thou God's high priest? Then said Paul, I wish not, brethren,
that he was the high priest. For it is written, Thou shalt
not speak evil of the ruler of thy people. Paul was aware. who this charlatan was. He knew
who he was. But he knew that Christ was the
end of the law for righteousness. And he knew that this right here
was a charade. They told him, Do you revile
God's high priest? Paul says within his heart, God
forbid that I should revile God's high priest. But this ain't him.
at one high priest, and he's exalted into heaven. He's saying,
actually, if this was God's high priest, I wouldn't revile him.
I'll tell you that. You ain't him. That's what he
said. He knew who he was. Well, what I would like to consider
for a few minutes is the attitude of this believer and the attitude
of Every believer, when you're brought to a point to where you're
crossed by your path or with your path or on your path with
someone in their arrogance and pride and disrespect before God
Almighty, I want you to turn to Ephesians 4.26. This is what
I'd like to speak on for a few minutes. 426. Be ye angry, and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon
your wrath, neither give place to the devil. Paul's attitude exhibited a great exhibition, let me say it like
that, of God's grace and God's mercy. They walked up to him, Bob, when
he said, I've lived in all good conscience before God. That stung. Slapped his face. And Paul's attitude, words out
of his mouth, he said this, God will fight you. Three commands out of Ephesians
4.26. Number one, be ye angry. That is the first command, be
ye angry. Now obviously there is an anger
which is not sinful. Be ye angry and sin not." There
is an agitation of the righteous soul that is jealous for the
glory of God. You don't have to drive past
very many church signs. You don't have to go very far
before you see a big smiley face. at the end of this road right
here. And I think to myself, you see bumper stickers, one
that says, my master or my ruler or something
like that's a Jewish carpenter. And I think mine's not. Yours
may be, mine's not. Be angry. You read things that
are so disrespectful. As I've said before, if you're going to tell me a
joke, don't make it a joke that has any reference whatsoever
to God Almighty. It has no reference whatsoever
to the pearly gates. Just tell me anything, but don't
tell me that. It's not going to be funny. It's
disrespectful. You say, oh, Marvin. Well, go
tell somebody else. It won't be funny to me. Be angry. The disrespect that this world
has before God Almighty, the foolish chatter of this world
when they speak, and they speak, they think of the God of this
Bible. But the God that they're talking
about is not the God that I worship. The Scripture speaks of Job and
Sodom out of 2 Peter 2.8, for that righteous man dwelling among
them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to
day with their unlawful deeds. He was tormented. He watched
them. He heard them. He listened to
that foolishness and disregard and no respect, no respect of
God. Be ye angry, be angry. Anger, the scripture bears out
that anger is associated with God himself. Listen to this,
Exodus 4, 14, And the anger of the Lord was kindled against
Moses, and he said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? Listen
to Jeremiah 15, 15, O Lord, thou knowest, remember me and visit
me and revenge me of my persecutors, take me not away in thy long-suffering
that is your anger. Know that for thy sake I have
suffered rebuke." I got to reading, I got to thinking on that. The
anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. Wow! I thought, the anger of
the Lord? was kindled against Moses? What does that say about me? What does that say about me? I couldn't leave that alone.
I had to look it up. I had to know. I couldn't go
anywhere from there, Neil. I had to know. Where do you go
from there, Gary? The anger of the Lord. I looked
up the word anger. And it meant the face and the
longsuffering. The anger of the Lord toward
His elect is actually His longsuffering for Christ's sake. Anger on God's
part without a substitute is actually wrath. So when that
word anger is used in association toward one of God's elect, it's
long-suffering toward one of God's non-elect, the vessels
of wrath. It is actually that. It's wrath. Now let me tell you how it's
exhibited. God had told Moses to go down
into Egypt And whenever the Lord told Moses
to go down into Egypt, Moses began to give God excuses. I don't talk well. There's something
about his mouth. I'm slow in speech. I don't know
exactly what it was, but there was something about it that Moses
began to speak, give an excuse for. And it says the anger of
the Lord was kindled against Moses. But when you begin to
realize the long-suffering of God, this is the way the Lord
graciously handled him. The word is interpreted anger,
but it's the face of the Lord. God Almighty, toward His elect,
in dealing with them, in drawing them back from their Well, wandering
spirits knows how to get their attention by giving them the
attitude, as Maurice Montgomery said to me one day, God may put
you on a limb and make you think He'll leave you there. He was longsuffering toward Moses. That's what the word meant, the
anger, the longsuffering of the Lord. He dealt with Moses in
a long-suffering manner, in chastisement, but in kindness. Whenever my
children were disobedient, they knew. I sometimes had just look
at them. I told someone one time, if you
didn't think, I think I've told you this before, that there's
a language of silence. if I was on the phone and two
of my kids or three of them or one of them or any of them came
running through that house and screaming and hollering and was
running right there and I was on the phone, when I looked at
you, they knew. And they knew as soon as I got
off that phone. We're getting ready to talk about this. Almighty God dealt with Moses
in long suffering. The face of the Lord, the anger
of the Lord, that's what it was, was kindled against Moses. Almighty
God lets you think that he'll put you out on a limb and leave
you there. And you think, Lord, I don't
want to be here. I want to be where you are. I
want to be in your presence. So anger in the sense of God's
attitude toward his elect, for Christ's sake, is not anger as
it is in wrath toward the vessels of wrath. Be angry. That word is longsuffering. Be angry. Oh, but that word wrath
toward those that know Him not, that God's never known in everlasting
love. Psalm 212, kiss the Son lest
He be angry and you perish. from the way when his wrath is
kindled but a little, blessed are all they that put their trust
in him." So anger, anger that is not sinful. Be ye angry. Concern for the glory of God.
Concern for the honor of God. There is an anger. It's a righteous
anger because it says, does it sin? Be ye angry. So anger that is not sinful,
it must proceed from a new heart for it not to sin. Be ye angry
and sin not. Because only that new creation
doesn't sin. That's the second point. It says,
be ye angry and sin not. Now, if that was not a command that was actually accomplished,
not by me. I can tell you that. I'll tell
you in a moment how it is accomplished. But if it was not a truth that
was actually so, it wouldn't have been put in there. Be ye
angry and sin not. Listen to this. 1 John 3.9 says,
Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin. For his seed,
his life, by the Spirit of the living God that springs forth
by the grace of God and mercy of God through and by the Word
of God, his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because
he is born of God. Now, I've got two natures. And
I'm telling you, there's one that does nothing but sin, and
I've got one that cannot sin. So for there to be an anger,
a righteous jealousy for the honor of Almighty God, and for
that anger to not be a sinful anger, it must proceed from a
new heart, a new creation. that sinneth not, that new nature
that cannot sin, the seed that is the very life of God, that
new creation. What is that new creation? We
talk about the new man born again. What is the essence of the new
man? The new man, the new creation,
born from above, What is it? It's this. It is the very life
of Christ united to the soul of that new man, a new creation. It's the life of Christ. The
life of Christ Himself. Listen to these Scriptures. Galatians
4 and 19, My little children of whom I travail in birth again
until Christ be formed in you." Paul said, When it pleased God,
who separated me from my mother's womb, to reveal His Son in me. Christ. Romans 8, verse 8 to
10 says, So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit. If so, be that the Spirit of
God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you,
the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit of life because
of righteousness." There is a new man created in righteousness,
in Christ, the very life of Christ. We talk about life. True life. Life. Listen to John 14, verse
6. The Lord Jesus Christ says, I
am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life. Just like He told Martha when
she said, My brother will rise again in the resurrection, the
Lord says, I am the resurrection. I am the life. That new life,
that new man in you, that's Christ in you. The hope of glory. Why does it not sin? Because
His seed, His life remains in you. That holy residence. there by
His blessed Spirit. I'll tell you this, I don't want
to try to elaborate on things that are so high and so lofty
and things that I cannot with absolute articulation speak upon. I don't want to overdo what I
cannot absolutely say, but I tell you
this, I don't want to avoid what the Scriptures clearly reveal.
It's Christ in you. Why is there life? Why is there
no sin in that new man, that new nature? It's the life of
Christ united in the new man, the new soul created in righteousness
Why does it not sin? Because he doesn't sin. Why is
it alive? Because he's alive. Christ, be
angry. Sin not. I have no ability in myself. I have no ability in myself to
not sin. Oh, wretched man that I am. But
Paul says, I see in me. I see in me a mind that serves
the law of God. Who served the law of God? He
did. If He's there, I have a hunger
and a thirsting after the righteousness that has been wrought by Him
and imputed I have a vital interest in that. I want to know something
about that. Tell me something about Him who
has taken up residency in me. Know ye not that ye are the temple
of the living God? If Christ dwelt in you, be ye
angry and sin not. John said, We know that whosoever
is born of God sinneth not. But he that is begotten of God
keepeth himself, that is, by faith he is kept by God. And that wicked one toucheth
him not. 1 John 5, verse 19, We know that
we are of God. I read that Scripture today and
I thought, Oh, tell me, tell me, tell me how I know that. I want to know. We know that
we are of God. How? Tell me, John. He says in verse 20, he says,
We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding
that we may know Him that is true, even in His Son, Jesus
Christ. Believers know, being taught
by God's Spirit, that the Lord Jesus Christ has been sent to
redeem his sheep. He said, we know that we are
of God because we know that the Son of God has come. Let me ask
you something. Do you believe that the Father
has sent the Son into this world, as Brother Scott just said a
moment ago, came into this world to obey God Almighty as the federal
head of His people? Representing all that were in
Him. Now you think about this. Chosen
in Him before the foundation of the world. As He obeyed, we
were still right there. Right where God put us. I like
what Scott said, where God put us, He kept us right there. As
He obeyed, we obeyed. As He lived, we lived. As He
died, we died. As He was buried, we were buried.
As He was raised, we were raised. As He ascended, we ascended. You say, I don't understand all
that. Oh, I don't understand it all either, but I tell you
this, bless God, I believe it. If He tells me that He chose
me in Him and kept me in Him, I want to hear that one more
time. Tell me one more time how? God didn't wait on me to do anything
to save myself. And He saved me and kept me and
then told me, tell me one more time, because I love to hear
that story. I love to hear that truth. I
love to hear that gospel. We believe that Christ has come. God's people are sensitive to
their former lost estate being born in Adam. where they were,
and they know that who He is and what He has done and where
He is now, He has done for them. And He has put away their guilt
and has established their righteousness by Him being obedient, righteous
as their substitute. So the only type of anger that
is not sin is that arousal within that new man that's concerned
with the glory of God. And that anger does and reacts
in a certain way. Be ye angry and sin not. Now, I got to thinking about
that. Be angry. I can understand that
part of it. I don't have any problem understanding that part
of it. And sin not. How? You ever notice how many
times I've come up with these hows? It's because that's what
I think. I think that way, so I think.
If I think that way, I think most believers think that way
too. Because I think they're just like me. I need to be taught. I want to be taught. How? Be ye angry and sin not. How? Listen to this. Jude 1.9. Well,
there's not but one chapter in Jude, but it's Jude, verse 9. Let's see. Yet Michael, the archangel, when
contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses,
durst not bring against him A railing accusation, but said, the Lord
rebuke you. Listen to Romans 12, 19. Let
me read this for you. Romans 12, 19. Dearly beloved,
avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it
is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. How is it I can understand seeing
something, hearing something that causes me to have a jealousy
for God's honor, God's glory? But how is it that I can have
that anger and not sin? Here's what it is. Leave it to God Almighty to deal
with. Leave it to Him. Leave it to
Him to rebuke the offender. Because I'm going to tell you
something. I don't know how to handle it. I'm not going to do
the right thing. If you make me mad, I'm going to say something or
I'm going to do something, I'm going to have a ... I don't know how to handle it." Even Michael, when contending
with the devil about the body of Moses, didn't bring a railing
accusation against Satan. He said, the Lord rebuke you.
Vengeance is mine, I will repay. There is an attitude within a
believer that hates sin found in the flesh. Oh, wretched man
that I am! But that righteous anger is meek, and it admits, I am
but a frail creature, and I don't know how to handle it. The Lord
will rebuke you. That's what Paul did. They came
up there and slapped his face, and he said, God smite you. In His flesh, I can only imagine
what He thought, but I can tell you this, submission to the will
of Almighty God who does all things well. Vengeance is mine.
I will repay. Be ye angry, sin not. Leave it in the hands of Him
who does right. Thirdly, here is that last command.
And let not the sun go down of your wrath." Why is that? Well, I just told
you a minute ago. That was the reason. Because
I don't have the ability to control myself. There is in this flesh,
I'm in a body. Here's an amazing thought. There's a new man created in
righteousness. And I am living in a body. I'm living in a fleshly body
in which I was born in sin. And I have a nature about me
that is absolutely in rebellion against God, the one in which
I was born. It's never been reformed, never
will be reformed. I've got a bad attitude being
born in Adam. I've got a bad attitude. And
in me, that is, in my flesh, there's nothing good. And this
old nature about me that I can truthfully tell you, I despise. I will find myself at times trying to seek the Lord in prayer. And there's times, Brother Scott,
that I'll catch my mind. I'll just wander off. And you
know what I know? That's me. That's me. And I find and recognize, I know
what's going on. And I will then cry. I'll say, Lord, I'm so sorry. Forgive me. Trying to speak to the God of
all mercy and grace. And I'll find myself just flipping. And then all of a sudden I thought,
what did I just say? I don't even know what I said. I hate myself. I hate me. I can't even think with a right
attitude. This flesh influencing me. Don't let the sun go down on
your wrath. Why? Like I said a while ago, you
can't handle it. That old man has that attitude
of rebellion and pride. I will find myself. I'll see
something or hear something and I'll be angry. And I'll tell
you what I think. Oh, sorry, so-and-so. They make
me sick. Boy, I'd like to give them a
piece of my mind. I'd like to just tell them, would you please
show me in the Bible? And boy, I'll tell you what,
I mean, I've got me a good speech prepared to take care of it. Be you angry and sin not. That
old man's attitude is nothing more than pride. That's all it
is. Don't let the sun go down on your wrath. Because of the
frailty of this flesh, I'm not going to control it. Someone
would say, yeah, but I'd want to maintain that anger that doesn't
sin. Well, that's a good attitude,
I guess, but it's not realistic. I'd want to be able to control
it. I'd want to have an attitude that is jealous for God's honor
and God's glory and God's praise. and have that consistency of
an anger that's jealous for God and have a constant attitude
of letting the Lord take care of it. It's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. Oh, how God has brought us to
see something of the frailty of His flesh. There's a war going
on. The Lord said, be angry, be jealous, and sin not. Leave it in the hands of God
Almighty whose right alone it is to take vengeance. That's
not your place. That's not your place. Don't
let the sun go down in your wrath. It's not my place to handle it
because I couldn't. You know what I'm going to do?
He's going to bring me to bow before Him who is my Lord and
my God. He's teaching me by His grace
and by His long-suffering. Without me, you can do nothing. I can't even maintain a right
attitude for God's honor. One did that. And in Him, God
was well pleased. And having imputed to me His
righteousness, and realizing that I stand before God Almighty
in Him, I can say it is only by the grace of God that I am
what I am. Because had He not kept me from
the time He redeemed me, had He not kept me, I'd have fallen
a billion times.