Overcoming Anger

Lord, thank you for the day. It's cold, but it's sunny. This is a day that you've made.

We choose to rejoice and be glad in it. Lord, we're grateful that you're with us. Circumstances don't govern our relationship with you.

Lord, we commit ourselves to continue to walk with you, to become faithful, to overcome, and to confess you with confidence before a man in Jesus' name. Amen. Read something from the book of Numbers about Moses.

Maybe I'll share Moses' story as the children of Israel went through Jacob, through the 12 patriarchs to Egypt because there were no provisions where they were, and God led them into Egypt. And Joseph, he had prepared him to be a deliverer for his brethren and for the nation. And so the people of Israel, through Jacob, they flourished there.

They grew in multitude of numbers. In the process of time, the Pharaoh forgot about Joseph, and they saw that the people of God were becoming more numerous, and so they made them slaves. And the people cried out to God that he would deliver them from the bondage.

And in the process of time, Moses was born. And during that time, the Pharaoh said, these people are too numerous. We're going to kill all the males.

When they're born, there was instruction to the doulas. They were supposed to kill the males. And Moses was born during that time.

And then a report came that the babies were flourishing still, and there were still lots of them. Moses was hidden in a basket, put out during the day into the reeds to hide him so they wouldn't kill him. And they did that by faith.

The parents, the mom, the family, they did it by faith. Then when the Pharaoh came to those doulas and said, what happened here? Why are so many? They said, well, these women, they lied like nothing else. These women are very vigorous, and before we even get there, these children are born.

But you know, what they did was righteous, because to preserve life is greater than to lie. And that's why he speaks also of Rahab, when she protects the spies, protecting the lives of the to save life. We have to look at the law of love.

The law of love surpasses the written law in certain instances. Greater love has no one than to lay their life down for their brother, for their friend. And that's why it's written of these things as an exception, not as a rule in Hebrews 11, where Rahab is there.

And her life changed because by faith she did these things. And these doulas, by faith, they did these things. The righteous shall live by faith.

The just shall live by faith. And their consciences didn't bother them, because God didn't allow it to bother them. So Moses grew up as God's deliverer.

In the process of time, he grew up in Pharaoh's house, because the princess there saw Moses in the reeds, and she took him in. And he was raised in all the ways of Egypt. But he had to choose between his brethren, or the good lifestyle he had in Egypt.

And one day he took his stand, and he fought against an Egyptian who was harming his brother. And God allowed that to happen, and it became known that he killed an Egyptian there. And he fled into the wilderness.

And when his desire to do something for God was completely done, then God appears to him in a bush, and calls Moses to a task. Maybe 40 years after he'd been in that wilderness, he had married some Midian priest's daughter. They weren't even serving the same God.

His children were not circumcised. He had become disillusioned in the way. But God remembered that he was preparing him for this very purpose.

And when Moses couldn't seemingly do anything for God, he said he couldn't speak anymore. He had a lot of zeal when he was young, but when he came to a place where he himself could do nothing, then God could rise up and show himself powerful. And that's how God works in our lives.

He brings us through all our zeal, and all of our what we can do for God, and all of our trying to do something for God, and making him a house. And then when we're fully done with all that, and we're willing to let go of it all, then he comes and he calls us and says, now that my power may be displayed through you. Even Moses said, I can't even speak.

He said, well then your brother will speak. He'll be my spokesman. And God begins to show his power through those boys, through those men.

You're men now. And he led them through the plagues. He led them into the wilderness to be tried and tested.

And he brought them to a place where they were to enter the promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey. But they were unwilling, because 10 out of the 12 spies brought back a bad report. They said the land is fantastic.

The grapes are good. The pomegranates are great. It's awesome, but you can't have it.

10 of those men robbed the faith of the people. They robbed their hope. But two of them, Joshua and Caleb, they were men of another sort.

They gave a good report. They said, yes, the land is good and fantastic, but God will give us the land. And the deciding factor were the giants.

10 men saw the giants as something that was impossible for man. And that part was true. But they forgot about what God said.

God had said, immediately go and I will be with you. Joshua and Caleb sought to build the faith of the people of God, while the other 10 spies robbed the faith, saying the giants are too great, we're going to die there. And the people, this is our tendency, we tend to believe the numbers.

Well, if 10 of them said it's impossible, and two of them say that it's possible, I have to go with the numbers. The wept and believed the bad report. And they said they would not go.

And they cried all night. And then God was angry. You know how many times God got angry? He was angry and he said, you know, he swore in his anger, they will never enter his rest.

When he said he swore, he's not saying bad words, he made an oath to himself that these guys that I said I was going to bring in, I've changed my mind. I'm not bringing them in, I'll bring their kids in, but they themselves are not going in. Because how many times these people with their unbelief, their hearts are evil, they always stray, they want to go back to Egypt.

And there's a verse that comes to mind that says in your anger, don't sin. So did God sin by telling them that they were not allowed to enter his rest after he once said that they would? Well, he's God. A lot of times when God says things they come, the promises come with conditions.

And very oftentimes, we forget the conditions that it comes with. And then when things don't go our way, we blame God. So in the process of time that when the 10 commandments came, the people were sinning.

And here these commandments come written by the finger of God and Moses has these tablets. And God says, you get down there, your people are sinning, these people are. And he goes down there, he smashes the tablets, because the people were sinning.

And he stood in the gap, because God sought to destroy his people, the ones that he saved, he sought to destroy. And Moses pleaded with God, God said, I'll make you a nation, Moses, I'll start fresh, we'll wipe them all out. And we'll start with your descendants, just kind of like what he did with Noah.

And Moses interceded for the people. Because the people were always going astray in their hearts. And God relented from doing harm, because Moses stood up and dealt with the sin in the house.

As men of God, we have to deal with the sin in our families, we have to deal with the sin that we have, we have to deal with the sin in our house. We have to say something about it. There's a process by which it has to be said.

So God spares the nation. And there's a plan to bring the people, the second generation into the land of rest. But I want to read in Numbers, in chapter 20, where we see that Moses sinned.

There's times when God got angry, and he wiped out a bunch of people. And here we see Moses getting angry. But in his anger, he did not hallow the Lord.

He allowed the Lord and his great name to be shamed there, before the people. And that's what it says. And so we'll read here in Numbers 20, verse 1. Then the children of Israel, the whole congregation, came to the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh.

And that's where Miriam died, and she's buried there. Now there was no water for the congregation, and so they gathered together against Moses and Aaron. And the people contended with Moses and spoke, saying, if only we had died when our brethren had died before the Lord.

Why have you brought us up, this great assembly of the Lord, into the wilderness, that we may and our animals may die here? And why did you make us come out of Egypt in the first place, to bring us to this evil place? It is not a place of grain, or figs, or wines, or pomegranates, nor is there any water to drink here. And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the meeting place of the tabernacle. They fell on their faces, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them, and the Lord spoke to Moses.

How many times these people were a thorn in Moses's side. And how many times that guy must have thought, you know, I had a zeal for this, but I was done with it all, and now you call me, and now you put this great burden on me. I never signed up for this, but you appointed me a deliverer.

And how many times I've stood in the gap for these people before you, so that you wouldn't kill them. And he had a moment where these people got to him, and it went ill for him here. It cost him dearly here.

And it can happen that it can cost us dearly, if in a moment of anger, we speak our mind. And we need the Lord's grace to help us, so that we don't suffer a shipwreck, or get derailed in our walk with the Lord. So Moses, they told Moses and Aaron off.

They grumbled against them again, and again, and again, and it seemed to have gotten to Moses. And the Lord speaks to Moses in verse 8, and he says, take the rod, you and your brother Aaron, gather the people together, and speak to the rock before their eyes. And it will yield its water, and thus you shall bring water out of the rock for them, and give them drink to the congregation and to their animals.

Now an interesting thing, in a time before when there was, they were grumbling, complaining against the Lord, and there was no water. The Lord spoke to him when he had sought the Lord, and he said, I want you to go to that rock, that certain rock, and I want you to take your rod, and I want you to hit the rock, and water will come out. And at that time, that's what Moses did.

He went to the rock, and he hit the rock once with his rod, and water came out from the rock, and watered the people. Well this time it's interesting, he tells him to take his rod, but he tells him to speak to the rock. I think God knew exactly what was going to happen, that that law that came through Moses could not redeem.

It wasn't going to be Moses that was going to bring them into the land of rest. And so what we see here is a picture of the rock. It says in 1st Corinthians, I may say 2nd Corinthians, I can't remember exactly for sure, maybe 1st Corinthians 10, it says that that rock that accompanied them was Christ.

Jesus was that rock. And the first time they were in the wilderness there, he brought water out of the rock, he said take that stick and smite the rock. And we know that Jesus was smitten for us.

Right, and Jesus stood up that last day of the feast, that great day of the feast, and he said all you who thirst, come to me and drink, and out of your innermost being will flow rivers of living water. The only reason that water flowed from him was because before the foundation of the world, Christ was crucified. It was predestined that he was going to die on such and such a day for our sins.

And because of that, those who had believed in God before the crucifixion were justified by faith, kept for the faith. Because the law came 400 years afterwards when he spoke to Abraham. And it says Abraham believed God and it went on to his account for righteousness.

You see, it's always been a righteousness by faith. It's never been a righteousness by keeping of the law. Because by the works of the law, no flesh can be justified.

But the law was necessary when he brought the Ten Commandments down and many other commandments that followed to show them those tablets had to be smashed to show them that they were lawbreakers and that there was a judgment for breaking God's law. But now he said that when we get born again, he's going to write his laws on the tablets of our heart. So then why then after he writes the laws on the tablets of our heart, does he still instruct the brethren that they should abstain from blood and that they should not commit sexual morality and that they should, you know, not eat food, sacrifice animals, and if you do those things, you'll do well.

Because we need some guidance on what righteousness looks like. It's not just we have freedom to live however we like, like the the dogs and the cats and the pigs. God has still a holiness and we need the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us into what is right and wrong.

So if a doula lies to save a life, that's righteousness, right? But if you lie to save your skin, you'll, that's wickedness. Because the word says all liars have their part in a lake that burns with fire. So how do you reconcile that with the law? It's the law of love.

What does love look like in every situation? To preserve life rather than to kill. Because the word of God also says thou should not kill. And it says thou should not lie.

So what does love look like in the situation? This is why we need the Holy Spirit. So here Moses goes out and he's ready to speak the word of God. But when he saw those people, something was aroused up in him and he had had enough.

I can just see it. Moses took the rod, verse 9, from before the Lord as he commanded. And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock.

And he said to them, here now you rebels. This is how he starts his conversation. He calls them all a bunch of rebels.

Must we bring water out of the rock for you? And in his anger, when he was calling them rebels, he took that stick. He probably wanted to beat some of them with it. And in different times he did beat some of them probably.

And he did send the sword out and kill a bunch of them when they were breaking the commandments there. When they had a golden calf and they were committing sins there in the wilderness. Moses lifted up his hand and he hits that rock.

And nothing happens. And so he hits it a second time with his rod and water came out abundantly for the congregation. Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, because you did not believe me.

You see, in his anger, he lost faith and he acted in unbelief. And he did what he did the last time and he hit the rock. He lost his mind there for a second in his anger and he hit the rock a second time.

The first time he hit it and the water came out like in the beginning. But the second time he hit it, the water came out like at the first. And he speaks to them straight away, God does.

And he says, because you did not believe me and you did not hallow me in the eyes of the children of the congregation. He said, therefore, you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given you. You will not cross over.

You are not going into the promised land. One act of disobedience were in through unbelief. The disobedience was from unbelief because it says, you didn't believe what I told you.

Instead of speaking to the rock, he smote it a second time. Now Christ was smitten once for us, but if we crucify him afresh and put him to open shame by willfully sinning, and we hit him, we crucify him a second time. It's smiting him a second time.

We don't, we trample the son of God underfoot. We shame God. We count the blood of the covenant by which we were sanctified.

We were sanctified a common thing, and we insult the spirit of grace and the consequence of willful sin is no atonement in the new Testament. And for Moses, it constitutes the same thing. And that is why the devil came and fought with the angel and said, he's mine.

That's why they disputed over his body because he said, he's mine. Willful sin, he's got no leg to stand on. And they wrestled over the body of Moses after he died.

This was the water of Meribah, which means bitterness because the children of Israel contended with the Lord and he was hallowed among them. Even holy men can struggle with anger, but the consequences are real. Let's look in the book of Ephesians in chapter four.

I think at times we've all struggled getting angry. We've gotten angry with our children, just like Moses got angry with the children of Israel. We've gotten angry with coworkers.

We've gotten angry with our bosses. We've gotten angry with our husbands, been angry with our wife. We can get angry at life.

We can angry that we got humbled. We can get angry because we're proud. We can get angry for many reasons.

But in our anger, we're not to sin. We need the Lord to show us what that looks like. God gets angry.

He's created us in his likeness. We get angry. People are sinning.

Sometimes we get angry, but we have to be careful that God is hallowed when we get angry and we don't sin in our anger. Ephesians in chapter four, starting verse 17. This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk or live the way the world walks.

The Gentiles walk in the futility of their minds. They don't have a renewed mind. They're still walking in the carnal mind.

We shouldn't walk that way. Having their understanding darkened. You know, when Job was there and he was speaking and one of his friends said, who is this who darkens counsel? In other words, he was saying, Job, you don't have a clue what you're talking about.

These unbelievers have darkened counsel that they go by. They think it's wisdom that they're walking in, but they don't have the wisdom of God. So they're walking in worldly wisdom, which is darkness, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart.

So they call bittersweet and they call darkness light. And they call evil good. This is why they think it's wise to kill babies and all this, because, you know, whatever the mother wants, and then they use some kind of human wisdom to justify all kinds of unclean things.

It says who being past feeling they have no conviction, they have no conscience, have given themselves over to lewdness to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ. We have to make sure that it's good to examine our own motives and our own intents.

It's good to look in the mirror and say, you know what, am I justified by the way that I'm living by what I'm doing? Just because I'm not convicted about it doesn't necessarily make it right. Even if my conscience doesn't bother me, I'm not justified by this. God judges the heart, God's able to convict his brother shared already.

The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin of righteousness and of judgment and he can mix us also. So we have to have a heart that is able to hear to feel not hardened. You have not so learned Christ if indeed you have heard him.

If indeed you have been taught by Christ as the truth is in Jesus. Now here's the exhortation verse 22 that you put off. These are the grave clothes.

These are the things that we have to put off concerning our former conduct, the old man, the flesh, the sinful nature which grows corrupt according to deceitful lust. This is what we have to reckon ourselves dead to. This is what we have to die to pick up our cross.

This is what we have to deny self in doing those things the way we once walked, the way we used to live. You say well you're supposed to be led by the Spirit in these things. Yes, but the Spirit's obviously not speaking to the Ephesians and Paul has to help them out a little bit by pointing them to the right attributes of Christ and showing them the devil's attributes the way the world walks so that they remind themselves of the way that is right and the way that is not right.

So that you put off your former conduct and that you be, verse 23, renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man. So there's a taking off of the dirty clothes like Joshua in the Old Testament, the priest, and putting on the righteous garments. Taking off the flesh, putting on the righteousness of Christ and not just positionally but living according to that righteousness.

Being led by the Spirit of God, denying self, picking up the cross and walking in his ways. That you put on the new man which was created before God in true righteousness and holiness. Now he goes to explain, verse 25, therefore put away lying.

I was talking to a fellow yesterday and someone asked him are you a liar? He said yes. Well praise God you admit it. Because you know what? That's Bible.

All men are liars. But doesn't mean that we should continue to be lying. We have to put away lying and that's what the exhortation is.

Put away lying. Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor for we are members of one another. So we as believers in Christ, we admit that we're liars.

Does that mean we should stay liars? No. We should start speaking the truth in love. Be angry and do not sin.

It says it's okay to be angry. Things in life are going to make us angry. People are going to be doing things that are going to make us angry and people are going to be sinning and stuff.

And just like they were in the time of Moses, he maybe you would have called them rebels but he would have spoke to the rock and water would have come out. That's what God said. You see he was smitten for us once at the cross and the way to deal with sin as a believer is we need to pray.

We need to go to Christ and pray and ask him to forgive us sins. Ask him to bring times of refreshing. Ask him to help us.

Ask him for spring rain, right? And if we sin, ask him to change our hearts and give us a soft heart. If we need wisdom, it says anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God. And so we need to speak to Christ.

We need to speak to the rock. Because he was smitten once for us. But if we sin in our anger or we sin in other areas of our life, then it's like hitting the rock twice.

That's willful sin. And then we blaspheme the name of God among the Gentiles. The Gentiles see that, ah, he calls himself a Christian.

Look at what he's doing there now again. He has no Christian. And who gets blaspheme? Is it your reputation or should we be more concerned about his reputation? It's his reputation that's been blasphemed because of our sins.

And so as believers, we want to learn and grow and put off and put on the righteousness of Christ, which is not just positionally, but walking in that light as he is in that light, as he teaches us being led by the spirit, be angry and don't sin. Well, what if you do get angry? What are we supposed to do with that anger? We have to be willing to forgive and release. We have to give it to the Lord.

Do not let the sun go down on your anger. I was reading this morning from Peter. It says, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

You know, when the sun comes up in the morning, you watch a sunrise, it's darkness. Then you start to see light, but you're not seeing nothing until that thing starts peeking over the mountains. And that thing hits you in the eyes.

You can't look steadily at it. It's too bright. But that's not the sun that he's speaking about.

He's talking about the day dawning in our hearts. When the heart begins to warm to the things of God and the morning star rises, and we see Christ in the lightness and the brightness of his coming. But the opposite of that, which some of us don't always believe, is the setting of that sun, is the smiting of the rock a second time or in our anger.

And if we sin and we don't repent in the process of time, the sun can go down in your anger. It's not talking about a natural day. It's talking about the spiritual day.

Because if it goes down in your anger, you know what you've done? You've given place to the devil. It says, nor give place to the devil. Because the devil comes to rob from you, to steal from you, and to destroy.

So if you're angry and the sun starts to go down in your anger, you're going to become bitter. You're going to become resentful. You're going to become unforgiving and hateful.

And if that sets in on you, there'll be a spirit that settles on you that doesn't work on your shoulder, but it works in the sons of disobedience. And the Word of God says we should not be partakers with them, the worldly people. We have the Holy Spirit living inside of us.

But if you allow sin to reign in your mortal body, to obey it in its lust, sin will reign in that body. The Holy Spirit will leave, just like David said, don't take your Holy Spirit from me. We need to repent.

We need to ask the Lord to give us clean hands and a pure heart. We need to speak to the rock. We need the rock to wash us so that times of refreshing can come from the Lord.

It also speaks of stealing. I was speaking with a brother yesterday, mentioned, and I was also talking about a time when I had stolen and the brother had stolen. We've all been thieves.

You know, sometimes even as Christians, we come up here to the pulpit and we rob God of His glory. We want people to see us and our gifts and we want Him to share a little bit of His glory with us, but He will not share His glory with flesh. We are just instruments and spokesmen declaring the goodness of God.

That's the goal. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands that he has something, working with his hands what is good. Sometimes people work with their hands, they work evil.

There's evil ways to make money. That he may have something to give to him who has need. That we would continue to be generous, not looking only out for our own interests, for me and mine, but also the interests of others.

We have to be hospitable and generous. Some people have a gift of generosity, but we as believers have to be generous. For God so loved the world that He gave and we also have to be a people who give.

Because the Word of God said it is more blessed to give than receive. You want to know who likes to receive? Children love to receive at Christmas time, at birthdays. If you go on a vacation, you come home and they come running to the garage.

What did you get me? What did you get me? If you go to the store, the Costco and you come back with a sweet. Oh did you get me a sweet? Did you get me a treat? Children love to receive, adults love to give. If we have a good heart, it's more blessed to give than to receive.

To see someone have joy in receiving. No, it's not just monetary things I'm speaking of. If you can bring an encouraging word to someone and someone receives it and you refresh them, it's more blessed for you than for them.

If you share a word and it encourages someone or someone repents, even though you were sad that they were made sorry, but you're so glad because their sorrow led to repentance not to be regretted. So we are giving and receiving counsel, advice, monetary things, everything that we've received, we give. We can't give what we haven't received.

So we need the Lord to continue to pour into us so that we can be a blessing to others. But you know, I heard of this guy called Howard Hughes. I don't know the truth of it all, but he lived like he was poor, but he was filthy rich, but he was a miser.

A lot of us, we sit at home and we listen to sermons, we load up on audio Bible, we fill up on all the good worship, and we are spiritual misers. We hoard it all for ourselves. And you know what can happen is you can think that you become spiritual, but it can turn to maggots.

All of the manna that you gather for yourself has to be used or given away. And tomorrow gathered fresh, not just for yourself, but to gather extra for others who have not gathered. That's why it is important in the measure of faith you have to share your faith with people, to share your faith with your children if you have opportunity, to share your faith with someone, to send someone a text if you're a shut-in, to maybe make a phone call, to share a scripture, something that edifies spiritually.

You who water will yourself be watered by doing that. You'll find refreshing things coming from the Lord. Verse 29, let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth but what is good for necessary edification that it may impart grace to the hearers.

A corrupt word isn't necessarily a swear. It can be a swear, but a corrupt word is an inaccurate word. It's a word to hurt.

It's a word to cut down. And so we want to be careful that we use our words carefully. Can also refer to gossip or slander.

We want to use the words that we share to build up. If we share things about one another, for the purpose of prayer, not to gossip, the Lord judges the motives of the heart. That it might impart grace to the hearers because we can grieve the Holy Spirit.

Verse 30, do not grieve the Holy Spirit by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. We do not want to grieve the Holy Spirit because of our conduct. So we have to make things right.

If we sin, we have an advocate with the Father. 31, let all bitterness, let all wrath, let all anger, let all clamor, and let all evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ has forgiven you.

In chapter 5-1, therefore be imitators of God as dear children. We have Jesus as an example to be imitators of God. Walk in love as Christ also loved us and has given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet aroma.

Verse 3, fornication and uncleanness and covetousness. Let it not even be named among you as is fitting for saints, neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor coarse joking, which are not fitting but rather giving of thanks. For this you know, no fornicator, unclean person, or greedy, covetous person who is an idolater has any inheritance in the kingdom of God in Christ.

Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of the anger of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them.

For you were once darkness, but now you're light in the Lord. Let's walk as children of light. I won't go into the fruit of the Spirit, but we know the fruits of the Spirit start with love and joy and peace.

And the number one attribute of love is patience. God has been so patient with us, we need to be patient with others and kind and tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ has forgiven us. Ask the Lord to help us to become these kind of people.

And when we're not this kind of people, we need to ask the Lord to change us, to help us, to overcome, because we are powerless on our own efforts alone to overcome. We need the Holy Spirit to help us. I was speaking with a brother about the law, the difference between law and grace and obedience.

Under the law, without the power of the Holy Spirit, it's like going behind the car and pushing that car from point A to point B. You can get there. You may have many stumbles along the way. You may exhaust yourself completely.

It might be possible, but you'd have something to boast about if you actually got it done. But grace is like pushing on a gas pedal where the engine is working and there's fuel in the engine. There's still an effort to push, but compared to pushing from behind the trunk, the effort is completely different.

You still may have to do some steering, but compared to trying to steer from behind the car, the effort is completely different. May the Lord give us an understanding that we need the power of God and the grace of God so that our obedience would come from the power of the Holy Spirit with a little bit of self-will and the most part done by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now those who say, well, there's absolutely nothing you can do.

If He softens your heart and He calls us to repent and He gives the ability to sin, He's faithful just to forgive. You have to open your mouth to do that, but He has to move your heart to be willing. May the Lord give us understanding in these things in Jesus' name.