Oh, my, I was going to talk to you for a few
minutes on anger, but after all that good time
of fellowship and good music, it's kind of hard
to sit down and talk about getting mad, you know
what? But we do. All of us. Sooner or later,
sometime or another, there are times when we
display our... Anger. Yes, sir. I don't care
what a nice, sweet disposition you have. Sooner
or later, something's gonna happen and something
will rise up within you. And we call it anger.
We're gonna have a little heart -to -heart talk
for the next few minutes. And I pray that...
This portion of the Word of God, it's so brief.
It's only one little verse, that's all. And sometimes
I think it's so misunderstood. There's much confusion
in the human mind as to exactly what was meant
in these words. Fourth chapter of Ephesians,
the 26th verse. Be ye angry. And sin not. Let
not the sun go down upon your wrath. Let's go
back again. Be ye angry and sin not. We know
very definitely then that there must be two kind
of angers. A righteous anger, a good anger. anger
and a bad anger. We know immediately then that
it is possible to become angry and not sin. There
is definite proof here that one therefore can
become angry and sin. Now what's the difference?
How are we going to know? Let's pause a minute.
If anger is to be constructive, it must be harnessed
to a great cause or to great causes. It must
be like the explosions in the engine of your
automobile. These explosions are under control
of purpose and will drive you to your destination.
But if... Instead of harnessing the explosions,
you lighted all the gasoline in your tank all
at once. With one great blow -up, you'd blow
yourself and the car to pieces. It's one thing
to have that gasoline harnessed, and it's another
thing to have that gasoline unharnessed. It's
one thing to have the gasoline controlled in
a tank, and it's another thing to throw the gasoline
all over the car. And if the gasoline is ignited,
there'll be terrific tragedy. Yet in both cases,
the thing that's involved is gasoline. One horned,
one controlled, and one unhorned. uncontrolled.
Let me go a little deeper. Take Jesus. Jesus
was an example of controlled anger. When he was
about to heal the man with the wounded arm, he
saw the hardened faces of religious men who opposed
the act because of being done on the Sabbath
day. And the scripture says he looked around
on them with Anger. Oh, sure. I can give you
other scriptures that will substantiate the fact
that Jesus became very angry. If you will, please,
read it. It's there in Matthew when he became
so angry, so enraged. Jesus literally got mad
when he entered the temple and saw they were
misusing the temple. So angry did he become that
he called them. everything he could lay his tongue
to. But the scripture also says that the day
came and he turned around and challenged the
whole world and said, which of you convinces
me of sin? He never sinned. He became angry and
he sinned not in his anger because it was a righteous
anger. Go back again to that incident. He looked
around about on them with anger, being grieved
for the hardness of their hearts. Here his anger
was not personal. It was not a wounded egotism.
It was grief at the hardness of men's hearts
to think that they could block the healing of
a poor unfortunate. His anger drove him to oppose
these men on behalf of the underprivileged. It
was therefore a righteous anger. Watch it. It
is absolutely a possibility for one to not become
angry and sin. You'll say, Miss Cormorant, what
in the world? That is a statement that... Are
you sure you know what you said? Yes. If you
do not feel something on the inside of you when
you see sin, if you can hear men and women, if
you can stand by and hear people use the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ in vain, if you can
stand silently by and keep your mouth closed,
and feel nothing. When some man is so near to
you that you can hear him take the name of the
one that you love with all of your heart, the
name of the one who died that you might have
life eternal, if you can hear someone take the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ in vain and not
become incensed and become angry over it, there
is some... wrong with you and your Christian
experience. And it's just like that. That's right.
What then is sinful anger? I'll tell you what
it is. It is when self and selfishness are projected
in the matter. When somebody says something about
you and you get your feelings hurt. The whole
matter pertains to self. This, therefore, is
when there is sin in anger, and that is where
most of us manifest our anger, when it centers
around ourselves. We become angry when our feelings
are hurt. We're so self -centered and when something
touches us, hits our selfishness, hits us as
an individual. Sure. It's them, beloved. If we
display our anger, that anger is sin. You know,
bad anger is poison. And it's just like that.
Some doctors very recently put a tube down through
the nostrils of a man and down through the nostrils
into the man's stomach. And do you want to know
something that they discovered? They discovered
that when that man became angry, the digestion
completely stopped. All of his digestive organs
stopped immediately when that man became angry.
One night when I was preaching on this subject
of being angry, I dismissed the congregation
and walked off the platform. And a young daddy
who has absolutely a dearest little girl, just
the one child, little Ruthie, I think she's five
years of age now, he said, you want to know something?
He said, my little girl taught me one of the
greatest sermons that I've ever been taught.
He said, unknowingly, I had gotten into the habit
that sooner or later at the dinner table, I would
become very cross with her. I would correct her
for something. I'd be very loud about it. And
he said, the other night at the dinner table,
I did the same thing. Right in the middle of
our meal, I said, Ruthie, and became very angry.
He said she just looked at me. She has beautiful
dark eyes. He said she just stopped me cold when
she looked at me and said, Daddy, when you talk
like that to me, My food don't taste good. When
you talk like that to me, my food don't taste
good. In a child's way of expressing it, she
was saying exactly what the doctors discovered
when they put that tube down through the nostrils
of a man into his stomach. When that man became
angry, the digestive organs completely stopped.
Do you want to know something? It is a proven
fact that stomach ulcers are often caused by
anger and resentment. There's a certain form
of arthritis caused by anger. Anger literally...
dims the eyesight a doctor will not examine a
patient's eyes he will not fit a person for glasses
if he knows that that one is angry it's just
like that beloved be careful you may find that
those fits of or upsetting your entire physical
body. I'll go a little further. It's a truth.
A physician will verify what I'm saying to you.
He could not find the cause of a little baby's
illness. He tried everything. Stopping in the
home one night, he saw the mother sitting there
nursing the baby. And as she was nursing the
baby, she was throwing a fit of anger, having
become enraged with her husband. The doctor threw
up both hands. He said, I see why your baby is
ill. Let me give you the scripture. Watch it.
For you become angry like that. You are your
own worst enemy. Amen.