Sunday Morning, October 13, 2019 AM Part 2

Managed Anger and God’s Holy Wrath

Those with whom he is angry. I think it's important to remember that Jeremiah is understandably upset about this whole situation. He's been preaching for decades by now. He's seen five different kings upon the throne, been imprisoned several different times.

He is faithfully preaching God's truth and every single promise that Jeremiah preaches from God comes true. But nobody listens to him to repent and believe. They'd rather beat him and throw him in jail.

And here at the culmination of his ministry, Jeremiah is looking back at what he has to show for it. And what is it? He owns his cousin's land, which he may think fondly upon from his jail cell as the Chaldeans pour over the walls to murder and destroy.

All this because the people Jeremiah preached to, all this because the people he expended his life in service to, tuned him out and chose the way of destruction. It's enough to make you spit. So while we might understand why Jeremiah is upset, and we can see that in the way that he prays, especially at the very end of this last passage, verse 25, you can just hear how upset Jeremiah is.

You have said to me, O Lord God, buy for yourself the field with money and call in witnesses, although the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans. But you know as upset as Jeremiah was, the one who was really angry and had far more reason for it is God Almighty himself.

And he had holy anger. And this provides the right standard by which Jeremiah is to understand his own. So what's his aim? Does God get angry with people? No, Kaefluff tells us. He only gets angry at the sins of people which cause such distress, such unsettling things in our world.

The Bible is full of scripture passages which tell us that the God of Kaefluff does not exist. He gets angry at people. He gets angry at sinners and their sin. He gets angry at whole people groups. He even gets angry at places.

In his holiness, in his righteousness, in his wrath. Notice who he's aiming his anger at. First, look at the people he's aiming at. First of all, the families. Look at verse 29. The Chaldeans are fighting against the city.

Will enter it and set the city on fire and burn it. Notice, with the houses where people have offered incense to bale on their roofs and poured out drink offerings to other gods to provoke me to anger.

God says, I'm giving the city into the hand of the Chaldeans and they are going to burn it down. Why? Because the city is filled with houses, homes upon which people burn incense. In those days, the home was very much a square box with some stairs on the outside, a flat roof.

You would climb the stairs to the flat roof in the evening and enjoy yourself some cool breeze. Except lately and for more than one generation, family devotions were not centered around the Shema or the Ten Commandments or instruction from the Torah or stories about God's faithfulness in every generation.

No. Families would gather in the cool of the evening upon their roofs to worship and adore the stars, the moon, to call them gods and goddesses, to pour out offerings to demons and light fires and burn incense to them.

That was the family cornerstone. That's what they came together to do in the evenings. And God said, all this does is provoke me to anger. His anger is at the families living in the houses upon which they are offering sacrifices to idols.

He's also angry at individuals. Verse 30. Indeed, the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah have been doing only evil in my sight from their youth. For the sons of Israel have only been provoking me to anger by the work of their hands, declares the Lord.

The situation was so bad. At one point, God had called Jeremiah to make a search in all of Jerusalem. Go to and fro throughout Jerusalem. Find me just one person who loves my word and lives righteously.

It was a failed expedition. Jeremiah 5 .1. Roam to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem. Look now and take note. Seek in her open squares. If you can find a man, if there was one who does justice, who seeks truth, then I will pardon her.

But alas, the city was like in the days of Noah. The wickedness of man was great on the earth and every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. It was like the days after the floods.

Well, after the flood, God said of man, the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth. Every single one of them was provoking God to anger. Well, the leaders as well. You know, when individuals and families are provoking God to anger, perhaps the leaders might intervene.

Perhaps they could intercede, you know, like Moses and Aaron did on more than one occasion. Yet the situation now is one in which the priests and the prophets, the wise men and the kings, were all equally in rebellion to God.

And their rebellion to God was just exactly what the people wanted it to be. Jeremiah 5 .30 and 31. An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land. The prophets prophesy falsely, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love to have it so.

But what will you do at the end of it? These are the people that God takes aim at in his anger. They have provoked him. Also, there are places that God is furious at, and he is going to be pouring out his wrath on places.

Many people find God's anger at places as silly as they would find uncomfortable as anger at people. But the people and the places are connected. After all, when God makes a covenant, he says, you will be my people and you will be blessed under my rule and you will live in my place.

But when the people reject God's rule, turn their back on the God who made them a people, they then profane the place that he gave them. And thus his judgment comes upon places. People find that so odd, so strange.

But our culture, our culture has been demonically conditioned to believe in a God who functions a little more than like the Red Cross. Shows up in disaster time. Oh, and he has a few rules about how to gain the aid that he offers so freely to everyone, but he's never going to impose his will on anything or anyone.

Most people do not think that God gets angry at all, let alone at people in places. This seems utterly absurd. It seems absurd to those who do not believe that God owns everybody and everything. But God does own everybody and he does own everything.

And so he has divine rights, which must be honored. And God's anger is focused at the city, the temple, and the valley. The city is going to be burned, God says. He's giving the city into the hand of the Chaldeans, he says, verse 28.

The Chaldeans are gonna set it on fire, he says, verse 29. He says in verse 31, indeed this city has been to me a provocation of my anger and my wrath from the day that they built it, even to this day.

So that it should be removed from before my face. If you think back carefully, you will remember that under King David, the angel of the Lord stood ready with his sword to destroy all of Jerusalem, and God stayed his hand.

From the day that it was called the city of David to this day, it has been a provocation of wrath, a provocation of anger to God. And God has stayed his hand and stayed his hand and stayed his hand. The city, why was this city a provocation to God?

The place stank worse than Sodom with their idols, bore more bloodstains than Egypt, and had more pagan ideas than the Canaanites who first lived in the place. So God takes aim at the city. And at the temple, he makes note of the temple in verse 34.

He says that they have filled it, they have they have put their detestable things in the house which is called by my name to defile it. They brought in altars, artifacts, practices which belong to false gods, and brought them into the temple to mix them with the worship of God.

And so he takes aim at the temple. The temple is going to be destroyed. This temple which they worshipped, they worshipped the temple. Not at the temple, though they did that, they worshipped idols, but they worshipped the temple itself.

Jeremiah 7 .4, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. That was their chant. They did not come to reverence God, but they came for a spiritual experience. They loved the mystical and they loathed the doctrinal.

They sought new expression and hated careful exposition. They preferred man's riot to God's rule. And so the temple is set for destruction. And in the valley, the valley of the Son of Hinnom, the valley will be filled with corpses.

It will be known as the Valley of the Slaughter, Jeremiah 7 .32, Jeremiah 19 .6. It will be called the Valley of the Slaughter. Why? Because that's where they're going to dump all the bodies they don't have time to bury when the Chaldeans make their final run at the city.

Why will this valley be filled with corpses? The valley of the Son of Hinnom was filled with trash and dung. It was just south of the dung gate, so that's what they threw out there. But it was also filled with high places to Baal and to Molech.

You see, the respectable offerings were made on top of the homes inside the city. Those were family friendly options. The really exciting stuff, however, happened out of sight, down in the valley where Baal and Molech might be worshipped more freely in the hidden parts, in the darkness.

And feminists and Democrats and many modern day evangelicals know what they knew. It's best to kill little children where fewer might be moved by their cries. And Abel's blood still cries from the ground, even though Cain was the only one there to see it.

But God takes aim at this valley, and it will be known as the Valley of the Slaughter. God gets angry at people and places. The supreme revelation of God is in Jesus Christ. The supreme revelation of God is in Jesus Christ.

Did he not get angry at people? Did he not get angry at places? Was he not perfectly righteous and holy in his anger? His anger at these people and at the place. He was angry with the religious leaders, you remember, with the way they were using God's place.

They were supposed to be God's people. They were supposed to be following God's rule, but they had rejected his rule for their own. And they were using God's place, the symbol as what? A den of robbers.

A den of robbers. He was angry with them. He was angry with the place because he owned the people, he owned the place, and so he brought judgment just as he said he would. So God takes aim at people and at places, and then he fires.

Take aim, then fire. We need to remember that God and his anger has no quick draw. He has no quick draw. Even in his instant killing of Nadab and Abihu, strange fire. Even in his instant killing of Ananias and Sapphira, we must remember that he was patient and long-suffering with him for years and years and years.

These sinners from their birth, so patient with him. So what looks like to us is a one misstep sin, an instant death, is actually God being patient. Eight times in the Old Testament, we hear this. You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abundant in loving-kindness and truth.

Eight times we're told that. And even when we're not being focused upon his loving-kindness and his mercy and his compassion, we're still told that God is slow in his anger. Nahum 1, verses 2 and 3. A jealous and avenging God is the Lord.

The Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserves wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power. The Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished in whirlwind, and storm is his way, and the clouds are the dust beneath his feet.

Verse 27 of our passage reminds us of who we're talking about. He is the Lord, Yahweh, the God of all flesh, Lord Yahweh Sabaoth, and there's nothing too difficult for him. Sometimes, I mean just being honest, it seems too difficult to hold my temper.

It's like, in every time you think you bear more than a person can ever bear, and you let loose your anger, you think, well, I wish I wouldn't have done that. I could probably handled it a little bit more.

But we think it's impossible to hold back our temper sometimes. You know, God, nothing's too difficult for God. Not precision judgment, and not holding back his anger until the appropriate time. He has perfect control, perfect power, and he only unleashes his anger when it's the perfectly appropriate time for it to happen.

He's perfect in all his ways. His power knows no constraints. He rises for vengeance. He rises for vengeance. You know, you know that that moment as a parent where you talk to your child, and you tell them, and tell them, and tell them, and they don't listen, and they don't listen, they don't listen.

And then you get up from your chair. All of a sudden, I'm so sorry, I won't do it again. I'm already up from my chair. God is in motion at this point. He's in motion at this point. He has risen from his throne to act, and there is no turning him back.

But he's not out of control. This is managed anger. Yes, he's been provoked. Yes, he's been provoked because of the offense to his holy character, but he is under control as he makes his response. He brings vengeance upon these covenant breakers.

Vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord. Vengeance belongs to whom? God, and he takes it. Leave room for wrath. Leave room for the vengeance of God. God certainly takes it, and he brings payback for idolatry.

Verse 29, verse 34, verse 35. Look at all the idolatry. They're worshipping on the housetops. They're worshipping false gods on the housetops. They're worshipping false gods in the temple. They're worshipping false gods down in the valley.

Idolatry everywhere you look. And so God brings payback. This idolatry is interesting. It isn't just an outright, Baal is the only God that we're going to worship. No, it's not that. There's artifacts.

There's pottery from this time of Israel, and they have pictures of people worshipping Yahweh, and they've drawn an image of him, which is the second commandment, breaking the second commandment, and then they envision, they worship, they give praise to God on this pottery to Yahweh and to his consort, Asherah.

So they're not outright Canaanites and only worship the Canaanite gods, and they're not outright Yahwehists worshipping only the one true God. They've brought a mix of it together. They've synthesized it.

This is the process that Hegel talked about, the dialectic. That there is the thesis and the antithesis. Here's the thought A, but here's the disagreement with it, thought B. And he says, truth is somewhere in the middle.

How often do you hear this on your radio stations? How often do you read this in your books? How often do you see this in your tweets? How often do you watch this on the television? Someone's saying, well, the truth is somewhere in the middle.

That's saying that you're not going to find truth in the thesis or in the antithesis, but somewhere in the synthesis of the bringing together of these two things. Well, truth is in the thesis. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

God has spoken, and it is so. There's the thesis. And it's not surprising that there's an antithesis to the Word of God. That there's all sorts of opposition to the Word of God. And beloved brethren, we are not going to find the truth in some sort of middle ground synthesis, mixing up of the worship of God and Molech.

It's in the Scriptures. It is in Jesus Christ. We have the thesis. We don't need a synthesis. I say this because increasingly, I'm just giving you one example, and this is not unique to our generation.

Something that the church has to fight every generation. And if we don't fight, what good are we? New York, Virginia, and other states are advocating for the killing of babies, both unborn and born. Perhaps you've heard of the leftist zealot at the Democratic Town Hall meeting, talking about cannibalism.

Seriously talking about the only environmentally responsible thing for us to do is to eat our infants. She's serious. And as this antithesis keeps moving farther and farther and farther away from the Word of God, it makes the centrist synthesis all the more appealing.

Where we are told we should make more of a measured, broader approach. Where we must, in faithfulness to the Scriptures, favoritism of the poor. Not true. Talk about social inequalities. And really, we need to make sure that we're not robbing women of their rights.

That's coming from evangelical pulpits. God damns that kind of lying. And that kind of synthesis. It is demonic to speak calmly, measuredly, of 60 million murdered infants with no justice. If abortion doesn't anger you, repent!

God gives payback for the idolatry, the synthesis happening in His own temple, in His own city, in His own land. And He brings payback for not listening. He says, they didn't listen. He gave them those words again and again and again.

Every time the Word comes to us, it is grace. It is grace. It is grace. Every time God gives us His Word, it is grace. What will we do with it? He says, they have turned their back on Me and not their face, though I taught them, teaching again and again.

They would not listen and receive instruction. Why not? Because they were idolaters. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of man's hands. They have mouths but cannot speak. They have eyes but cannot see.

They have ears but cannot hear. Noses but they cannot smell. They have hands but cannot feel. Feet but they cannot walk. They cannot make a sound with their throat. Listen, those who make them will become like them.

Those who make them will become like them. So all who trust in them. That's why they can't hear a thing. Because they have ears but they cannot hear. Because they have been made like the idols that they have crafted.

And then there's payback for killing babies. Verse 35, they set a fire under Molech, hideous in his bronze leering and hollow gaze. His gaping mouth never satisfied with the flesh of children, always wanting more.

His metal arms cradled in an altar upon which the Jews laid their infants to be seared and burned alive. Why? They worshipped the demons who would honor their sacrifice with prosperity and deliverance from their oppression.

What are the number two reasons why babies are being killed today in the United States of America? Because it's an issue of prosperity, an issue of being delivered from oppression. That's the reasons given.

And we may think it's awful when we read about the Jews worshipping Molech. And we might try to resist the anger rising by comforting ourselves with the knowledge that all of this happened in the past in a truly pagan culture.

And at least now we live in a secular culture. We do not live in a secular culture. Secularism is a lie. Secularism is this cheap charade worn by pagans engaging in witchcraft and demon worship, whether they know it or not.

It pleases the devil to kill babies. And it pleases them all the more. They then call these murders social justice. It is the practice of magic, witchcraft, to take one thing and turn it into another thing by the manipulation of words.

And so what is the witchcraft of our day? Humans have been turned into tissue. And infants have been turned into fetuses. And babies have been turned into clumps of cells. And those who are made in the image of God are murdered in the name of justice, righteousness, goodness, and fairness.

God paid the Jews back. God paid the Jews back. And they never killed 60 million within 50 years. We have. We have. So what word from the superstar evangelical preachers? Calm down is the word. Calm down.

Don't make your vote about one issue. Vote more broad-minded. Vote more like Martin Luther King. He didn't believe in the resurrection of Jesus. It doesn't matter. I know he won the Margaret Sanger award.

Just don't pay attention to that. He's woke and that's what matters. So like Jeremiah, I'm angry. And my anger leads me to want to say more and do more about idolatry, pride, and murder. But here's the truth.

No matter how angry I get, God is way, way, way more angry about it than I am. Whatever anger I feel must be submitted to him. Submitted to him. I can only bear up under that by looking to Christ. If there's anybody who knows about God's anger, it's Jesus Christ.

At the very end of a movie by the BBC, it's an Orient Express Hercule Poirot mystery. At the very end, the detective has figured out what happened. He's on a train. He's been derailed. There's no power.

Everybody's cold. And he's sitting alone, having discovered an awful truth and considering what will happen when the authorities arrive in the morning. What is he going to tell them about all these murderers he has caught on this train?

He's sitting by himself and in the cold. And he's in this very difficult moment. So he's all by himself and the camera is centered right on him and it's moving closer and closer and closer to him as he's trying to ponder this decision.

He's holding two things in his hands. He's holding, as a Catholic would, the crucifix. And maybe he's praying through Hail Mary's and Hail Father's prayers to the Father. But then he has in his other hand a cigarette because he's cold.

He's keeping himself warm by smoking. He's holding these two things in his hands. He's got the crucifix, Jesus still on the cross as the Catholics teach. So he's got Jesus on the cross and he's got a lit cigarette in his hand.

And in this dark and gray and dreary place, the red coals are just blazing. And the camera pans in closer and closer, not at the tension on his face, not at the concern on his face, but it pans in closer and closer and closer and there is the cross hanging, Christ on the cross and the flaming fire right next to it.

That's where all of justice is settled. Between Christ's coming and Christ's cross. All the hell is settled there. Christ's cross and his coming to judge all men. Because Jesus Christ on the cross for his people and he would judge all mankind because of these things, I am told to leave room for wrath.

And I leave room precisely at the cross and at his coming. And that does not mean that because God has it all in hand that I never get angry. It means that my anger can be focused and settled and managed and appropriately aimed.

But should I deny, should you deny anger that is in agreement with God? Jeremiah is unsettled. Why am I buying property when these fools have brought the nation and the city to ruin? Jeremiah should be angry.

His prayer to God in the previous passage that we read about, this was not a prayer that would usher him into some kind of cross legged contemplative serenity. That pagan posture is not the Christian result of prayer.

We don't pray so that we come out like we just smoked weed. We pray so that we will be in agreement with God. And if God is angry at something, we need to be submitted to God and angry at the very same thing.

We need to be in agreement with God. Sometimes we start praying in hot fury and come up from our knees in a settled, arranged, surrendered anger. All this being said, we're certainly not from this passage or from this morning fortifying or calcifying anyone here who is constantly losing their temper because of their pride, because of their selfishness, who uses anger to abuse.

That is not what we're talking about at all. Jeremiah is upset. God is way more upset. We can get upset. We should be upset. We should be angry about all sorts of things. But we need to be submitted to God, thinking about how God is going to handle it, orienting ourselves to be in agreement with him.

The devil would just love for us to be a guilt ridden, man fearing group of pushovers. Oh, I better not get upset. I better calm down. If I do anything, if I get angry, that'll make somebody else upset.

And that's the golden rule. Never do anything that would ever make anyone angry. That's the golden rule. If I get angry, I'll cause somebody else to be angry. So if we're not angry about the things God is, we need to examine ourselves and ask ourselves why.

Why? God gets angry about all sorts of things in the Bible, and instead of glazing over and trying to pass through it, am I angry about what he's angry about? Are my values the same as my maker's? He's upset about idolatry and immorality and injustice.

Am I really upset about those same things too? Do my affections match his? Am I really being conformed to his image, transformed into his image, renewed into the image of Christ? We need to ask ourselves that.

Anger in Agreement with God

So here's a question for our conclusion, and it's this. Can we be angry at sin and at peace in God at the same time? Can I be perfectly settled in my Lord God, my maker, my Savior Christ? Can I be perfectly settled in God, filled with the Holy Spirit, at peace and angry?

I think so. I think so. Because if my anger is in agreement with God, at the horrible things being done around me, and I'm submitted to him and his sovereignty, settled in my position in Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit, I can be angry and not sin.

I can be under the control of God, under the control and submission to Christ, led by the Spirit. Psalm 4, a psalm of David. Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness. You have relieved me in my distress.

Be gracious to me and hear my prayer. Now hear the emotion of the prayer. O sons of men, how long will my honor become a reproach? How long will you love what is worthless and aim at deception? Selah.

You hear? Deep breath. But know that the Lord has set apart the godly man for himself. The Lord hears what I call to him, tremble and do not sin. That word is not shake like a leaf because you're scared.

That means to tremble with rage. Be angry and do not sin. Meditate in your heart and upon your bed and be still. Selah. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness and trust in the Lord. Many are saying, who will show us any good?

Lift up the light of your countenance upon us, O Lord. You have put gladness in my heart, more than when their grain and new wine abound. In peace I will both lie down and sleep. For you alone, O Lord, make me to dwell in safety.

God alone gives us our safety. God alone gives us our confidence. God alone gives us our security. So it may be bad out there and there may be things worth being angry over, but we can have our selah and our pause and our rest and our confidence in God, even while we are angry at the gross injustices of our age.

It's okay to be angry at sin. And if we're not angry at what God's angry at, we need to do some self-examination. Let's close in prayer. Father, I thank you for the time you've given us in your word.

I pray that it has been as you will it. God, we can be so complacent sometimes and we can be so complacent sometimes and drink the Kool-Aid of our world and fall into the cult of nice. That's not what you call us to.

You call us to be actual blessing to the world. You tell us to be salt and light in a city on a hill. You call us to something more than just refusing to make waves. God, make us holy. Make us holy like you are holy, that we would consider your values our values and follow you.

Give us these graces, we pray in our Savior Christ. Amen.