I want to talk about the type of anger that's wrong tonight, the type of anger that we need
to stay away from that is sinful.
And the first thing that I see in Ephesians chapter 4 as being a wrong type of anger is
it's anger that is an unforgiving, bitter anger because somebody has done wrong to you.
Now the Bible here says, be angry and sin not, verse 26, let not the sun go down upon
your wrath.
So right there I can see that anger, even if it were justified, if it rests in our heart
from day to day becomes sinful.
When we just live in anger and when we let wrath and anger make us bitter from one day
to the next, you know, that is wrong.
God is commanding us not to let the sun go down on our wrath.
That means if something makes us angry today, it should not make us angry tomorrow.
The next day we should start over and that means giving the people around us a fresh
start or a fresh chance.
You know, perhaps someone in your family has said something to you that made you angry
today.
That shouldn't be brought out tomorrow.
That shouldn't be something that we're still upset about tomorrow or on the job or whatever
example you want to give.
The Bible says in verse 31, let all bitterness, and bitterness is a word that the Bible often
uses for people who have a grudge against someone else.
You know, we have the expression today, holding a grudge.
It's when you just cannot let go of things that people have done wrong to you.
Go to Colossians chapter 3, Colossians chapter 3, a few pages to the right in your Bible.
It says in Colossians chapter 3 verse 4, when Christ who is our life shall appear, then
shall ye also appear with him in glory.
Mortify, mortify basically means to put to death, therefore your members which are upon
the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness
which is idolatry, for which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience,
in the which ye also walked sometime when ye lived in them.
But now ye also put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication
out of your mouth.
So in Colossians 3, 8 there, we see that there's a lot of anger that we need to get rid of.
And he's saying, you know, when you get saved and you get right with God and you're walking
in the Spirit, you're going to end up getting rid of a lot of anger.
You're going to put off a lot of anger that you previously had when you were walking in
the flesh.
Go to James chapter number 1, toward the end of the New Testament there, James chapter
number 1, James chapter number 1 in the Bible reads in verse 19, wherefore my beloved brethren,
let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man worketh
not the righteousness of God.
Again he's not telling us that there's never a time to become angry, but he says we ought
to be slow to become angry.
So another type of anger that is sinful is when we are angry at the drop of a hat.
We shouldn't just instantly get angry, just instantly blow our top.
Something doesn't go our way, somebody says something that we don't like.
We shouldn't just instantly just blow up and be angry and have all this wrath.
You know, we should be slow to anger.
And even the Lord, who has more wrath than all of us combined, you know the Bible says
over and over again in the Old Testament that he is slow to anger and slow to wrath.