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James says, if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man. But who can claim to have never been spoken? Today, Reverend Daniel shares with us his sermon entitled Pure Speech and Anger.

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Church, we are continuing the sermon series on the book of James. Today we'll be looking at the theme of pure speech and anger. And this is based on the few verses that our sister read for us, Sister Karen read for us from James chapter 1, verse 19 to 21. So James chapter 1, verse 19 begins almost with uh an imperative, uh command in saying, James is saying, No, know this, my beloved brothers. And he follows this by a quite a well-known proverb used in a Jewish context of the day. He says, one ought to be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. The idea that one ought to be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger is alluded in many passages in the Old Testament. Just to read out a few, in Proverbs 13, verse 3, uh, the author says, Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life. He who opens white his lips comes to ruin. Proverbs 15 verse 1, a soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Proverbs 29, verse 20. Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There's more hope for a fool than for him. So this idea of being uh slow to speak and watching our mouth and uh considering uh to answer in a gentle and soft way, uh not hastily, is peppered throughout the book of Proverbs and throughout ancient wisdom. So James actually also introduces a theme that he will deal with in James chapter 3, in which he speaks about the tongue and how, even though it's a small member of the body, yet it boasts of great things. The tongue that is unbridled and uncontrolled often results in words spoken that leads to quarrel and fights, and that leads to James chapter 4, verse 1. So James is laying a kind of a foundation in chapter 1, James chapter 1, where a lot of the ideas uh that will be unpacked will be alluded to in the following chapter. So here is one again: uh being uh quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger is will be linked later in terms of how we are to use our tongue and how we are to handle conflicts that arise within the community. However, our focus today is not on the tongue and speech uh today. We are looking more at pure speech in relation to anger. Those who have uh studied uh psychologists, who have studied uh emotions, counselors, they have come to the conclusion that every one in one person struggles with anger. Everyone in one person, meaning all of us do struggle with anger at some point in our life. Whether the anger is a repressed anger or whether it's a more explosive kind of anger, all of us, uh one in one person struggle with anger. So I believe the word today has uh application and implication for all of us seated here this morning because none of us here are exempted from anger. Whether it's a more active form of anger, reacting and responding to situations, or it's a more passive form of anger where we mount over the hurts and uh evil done to us and we find it hard to release and forgive. Yet we go around nursing the hurt and carrying the anger. So James tells us in James chapter 1, verse 20, where his interest really really lies in this text, which is one should be slow to get angry. For human anger does not produce God's righteousness. And this is the main lesson for this morning. Our human anger is no way uh producing what God desires according to his standard of righteousness, it does not produce the kind of righteousness that reflects who God is in terms of his standard of righteousness. Let's now take a step back to look deeper at the issue of anger and ask ourselves uh two questions. One is this does God get angry? You know, does God get angry? And secondly, what is the difference then between God's anger and ours? I'd like to assure us today that God does indeed get angry. And his anger is his whole person, his whole being responds to evil. And when God is angry, it's a reaction against evil because of who he is as a pure and holy God, his perfect, pure, settled opposition to sin. God's anger is his holy hatred for everything that violates goodness or his character and anything that falls short of his will and his perfection for us. So every aspect of God's being, his mind, his will, his affections, his feelings, and his actions revolt against every aspect of iniquity. So remember in the Old Testament, uh uh the people of God had to set boundaries in case God's wrath breaks out against the people because of their rebellion and sin. There's a certain distancing because of God's holiness that He cannot tolerate uh sinful, rebellious men and women who persist in their stubbornness and in their sins and iniquity. So Psalm chapter 7, verse 11 tells us God is a righteous judge and a God who feels indignation every day. Romans 1 verse 18 tells us, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. We see uh Jesus, the perfectly so-called angry man, in the sense that his anger often is a righteous anger that reacts against sin, never against himself. You notice when Jesus was abused, he was on the cross, he was being flocked. Was he in pain? Was he in extreme pain? Definitely. When he was spared at, did he respond and react to that? No, because he did not respond to human injury, insult for insult, pain for pain. In fact, if he has all power, he could have just you know commanded the uh the legion of ten thousands and thousands upon angels to just blast the people off, and he could certainly set himself free from the cross. But yet Jesus demonstrated in the gospels that there were times that he was angry, right? He is the so-called perfectly angry man in the sense that he can be angry and yet uh be perfect in his anger, because his anger is a reaction against sin. We see that in Mark chapter 3, verse 4 to 5. It records for us that Jesus looked at the Pharisees with anger and was grieved at their hardness of hearts in response to Jesus' healing of a man with a witted hand. Because Jesus was healing on the Sabbath and the Pharisees were trying to trap him. So Jesus looked at them with anger and was grieved that they did not understand God's purpose for humanity, which is healing and restoration. So he began to ask them, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to harm, to save life or to kill? So Jesus was angry, was grieved, he was upset because these people did not understand God's purpose in their lives and they were questioning his intentions to do good. Again in Mark chapter 11, verse 15 to 19, Jesus uh entered the temple and drove out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, overturning the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. This was because the people had made the place where the Gentiles could dwell to seek God to be a venue for profit making and economic gain, preventing the Gentiles cutting off the area where they can come to seek God by sell uh animals for sacrifices and often at exorbitant rates. Uh, so that worshippers, in order for them to bring a sacrifice to God, have to pay exorbitant rates. So it was a place of profit making rather than a place where the people could seek God. Both Jews who came into the temple had to pay high costs in order to sacrifice and worship God. Gentiles couldn't enter the outer courts to worship God. And because of that, Jesus, we know the famous episode where he overturned the tables and and and said those words, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers. So again, Jesus' reaction and anger was not towards injustice done to him, but it's more towards the anger reacting, responding against evil, the evilness of the human heart, the stubbornness of the human will. So we have come to the conclusion that God does get angry. So, how does God's anger and Jesus as the perfectly angry man relate to our human anger? What is the difference between God's anger and ours? I like to suggest to us that often our human anger is far from righteous. And it's often triggered when either one, our self-interest is compromised in situations, two, when our perspective of how things should be didn't get fulfilled or gets violated. Let me illustrate this by two examples. But he soon became aware of a ploy that many of them were using to undercut the teacher's income. So he came to realize that. So how did Augustine respond? He said uh in his confessions, his biography, he said, My heart hated them, though not with a perfect hatred. For perhaps I hated them more because I was to suffer by them than because they did things utterly unlawful. So, in other words, his anger fell short of a righteous anger because it focused on himself and his financial laws more than the righteous laws of God, that those who were doing this were breaking the laws. He was filled with hatred and anger towards the students because his interest was violated. Later, however, after his conversion and his growth as a Christian, Augustine looked back and reflected on his life journey and took a look again at the offenders with a more righteous anger. So, what had changed actually is his consciousness of God. Augustine's anger with the offenders became oriented more towards their rejection of God, not of him. He writes this, but at that time, Augustine concludes, I would rather for my own sake have disliked them for being evil than to have liked and wished them good for you. In other words, Augustine was saying, upon reflection, I should have desired the highest good, which is your righteous laws, rather than my own personal benefit. Personal laws, so to speak. So when our self-interest is violated, oftentimes there is a human reaction against it. You know, I have experienced that many times. I wonder whether I have a company here. Can you have a show of hands? Uh can we have, yeah, perhaps you don't have to make it too obvious. But I guess we do have that experience, right? When our interest gets violated, oftentimes we react against situations and oftentimes not in a pleasant way. The second way we get angry is when our perspective of how things should be gets violated. It is as if all of us today have mental filters or laws in our minds in which we used to judge others whether they conform to how we think things should be. For example, uh, my anger with you begins when I mentally determine how you should act. Uh, when I have certain laws in my mind that uh you shall not let the sound go down, the sun go down, or my phone call, email, or text messages, but shall reply today. Certain standards, you should be friendly and nice to me. Uh you should greet me in the morning. So we have all those standards we have in our minds. You shall follow the guidelines and what is stipulated or not and not deviate from them. You shall love me the way I want to be loved, with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. So all these filters, all of us have in our minds at some point or other that we use to size up situations and uh bring about a certain kind of framework in which we orientate our lives. But this in turn can become a boundary in which we size up people and determine whether they fit our perspective and our paradigm or not. And oftentimes when they don't, we end up uh judging them, almost like a judge uh judging them and uh uh sizing them up that they are uh a person not fit to uh for us to converse with or either that or we will react in anger towards them. So we see here that often our human outburst of anger does not produce the type of righteousness which reflects God's standard of what is constituted as righteous anger. Our human anger is often a reaction to perceived injustice done to us when our self-interest is violated, or a reaction to what happens that does not fit our worldview of how things should be. So either or and often sometimes both together. So, what should be our response in James chapter 1, verse 21? He exhorts the believers, this is what you need to do. Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. Christians must turn once for all to put away from their lives filthiness, evil, and malice, including and malice, including anger, and receive with meekness the implanted word. And James said, which is able to save your souls. So the God who regenerates the Christian at baptism by God's word of truth will also save us continually by the same word that God implants within us. So we have there's power in God's word. That's why scripture memory is so important because we are hiding God's word in our hearts so that we may not sin against Him. So God's word in us, the word of truth, has the power over time to change and transform our life. And the opposite of anger is actually meekness, and that's why James draws a contrast between anger, the anger that we often uh uh kind of uh uh exhibit in our lives, to meekness because they are opposites. A someone who is always angry definitely is not meek. A meek person will inherit the earth. That's what the Beatitudes say in James, uh, sorry, Matthew 5 to 7. A meek person will inherit the earth because a meek person is peaceable, right? And have a very long endurance. No matter what happened, you know, they can chill it out and sweat it out, right? That's why uh the great rulers of the world today, uh governors, I would think so. I mean, if you do a study on their temperaments, most of them are quite meek people, you know. They have strength and they're able to tolerate much stress and strain under control, right? Seldom you see them uh exploding or uh evaporating or getting angry, right? So somehow is is a gift, I think, that God has given them. So anger is being contrasted with an attitude of meekness, and I believe this is what is needed for us to deal with anger in our lives. And James says, receiving with meekness. This is the posture that God, I mean, James is calling the believers to adopt, receiving with meekness. The whole idea of receiving with meekness gives uh impression that is a kind of passive response. There's nothing much we can do to help ourselves to deal with anger. Of course, we can go for therapy sessions if our anger gets too explosive, and all that will help in certain ways, but we also believe as Christians that God's word has a power to change and transform our life. Daily meditation of God's word, uh, Joshua uh tells us, Joshua chapter 1, that we will be prosperous and successful if we allow the word of God to take center stage in our lives. So receiving with meekness is related to the idea in James chapter 1, verse 5, where I shared a couple of weeks ago about the idea of wisdom, transcendent wisdom that God gives. And James 1, 5 says, and it and it will be given to him. And the whole idea of transcendent wisdom, the last time I shared, being given to us, it means that we are just recipients of what God downloads and gives to us. Similarly, for us to change, we need to receive with meekness God's word, you know, with the same posture of open-handedness and allow God's word to change and renew us. James chapter 1, verse 17 again reminds us, the book of James again, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights in whom there is no shadow of turning. So every good gift, transcendent wisdom and even the meekness that comes from receiving the word of God has the power to transform our lives. But it is almost we have to adopt a posture of humility, of receiving uh a download from God in the attitude of meekness. Biblically speaking, meekness is an attitude of those who are God's poor. You know, you do a study of the word meekness, it's always related to the idea of the beatitudes where it says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for Is the kingdom of God. The poor in spirit are not just those who are materially poor, they are also spiritually poor. So they are those who are desperate, desirous for God's mighty intervention. So these are the poor in which God will exalt. So meekness can only be attitude, be the attitude of the poor. So if you come to God and think that we have the power to overcome anger in our lives, in our own strength, then we are not adopting the attitude of the poor. The poor are those who have come to the end of their resources, and there's nothing else they can do but to turn to God. You know, it is as if this, you know, uh, we have come to the end of our resources in dealing with anger. There's nothing we can do except to be poor in spirit and turn to God in meekness, receiving with meekness God's word. I'm just reminded of King Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles chapter 20, verse 12. When he was facing a great multitude of enemies from Edom against Jerusalem, he prayed. We can pray as he prayed, for we are powerless against this great heart that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you. 2 Chronicles 20, verse 12. So, in other words, we can also say we have no power to deal with anger in our lives, but we wait trustingly and fully dependent upon your word for our deliverance. We come to God and we cry out to Him, we have no power, Lord, to deal with anger in our lives, but we wait trustingly and fully dependent upon your word for our deliverance. So the answer to anger, James, it says, adopt a posture of meekness. James is advocating for trusting receptivity to God rather than anger. So allow God to change you from the inside out as you receive meekly his word into your heart. I'd like to suggest a number of scriptures which we can use to meditate on, which I think is very helpful, giving us four verses to really consider. If you can note it down somewhere, uh it'll be helpful. So these words, this this is a way of uh getting God's word into our hearts, you know, allowing God's word to renew us, so that as we receive that word in our hearts, we position ourselves for God to transform us. So Proverbs 14 verse 29 says, Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly. The book of Proverbs seems to think that those who are quick to anger or short-fused people are fools. And the word fool is a very strong word in Hebrew. It means literally you're a fool, yeah, yeah, you're dumb, you're a fool, right? So those are very strong and deep words that uh the wise uh person in the book of Proverbs telling us whoever is slow to anger has great understanding. You want to be wise today, then be slow to anger. But he who has a hasty temper exalts folly. Proverbs 14, 29. Again, Proverbs 15:1 says, a soft answer turns away wrath, but the harsh word stirs up anger. Because reminding us again of um how the things we go through in life, it always the soft answer will always um triumph over a harsh rebuke. Two more verses to share with us. Matthew 5, verse 22. These are the words of Jesus. He says, But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the counsel, and whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell or fire. So in this episode, Jesus was talking about murder and he's equating anger to almost murdering someone. When you're angry with someone, it's almost you are murdering the person in your mind. So quite extreme words, but these are the words of Jesus Himself to remind us that uh our hearts, anger actually begins in our hearts. So it's before it's an actuated action, it begins in our hearts. You know, it anger, murder does not begin with taking a weapon and killing someone, right? Murder begins when our mind conceives it and then we act on it. So but Jesus cuts to the chase and gets to the very heart of the matter, which is the matter of the heart, you know, our angry uh responses that come from deep within our hearts. So that's why everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. So it's a kind of daily reminder for us. Matthew 5, 22. Then Ephesians chapter 4, verse 26 to 27. Um, Paul says, Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity to the devil. In other words, uh deal with anger in your life. You know, times when you are angry, yeah, the feeling, the emotion just comes to you. But deal with it, do not allow it to fester in your life such that it becomes a root of bitterness that the author of Hebrews talks about that will defile many. Let's then now consider two responses. I like to read to us, two responses from a married couple. Let's just call them Peter and Jane, who frequently had heated fights in their marriage life. So uh they went through counseling and all, and this is the tail end of their worded response in their heated fights. They come to the a resolution that oftentimes what caused those fights were actually their own perspective of how things should be, their own framework of their lives that they were not willing to negotiate and try to understand the partner's point of view. So, this is what it says. So Peter says this Lord, I would like a wife who keeps a cleaner house, manage the kids better, and show romantic interest. But I don't have to have these things in Christ. I don't need them, but I often live like I do. The desire for these things rules me. That's why I criticize Jane. That's why I rant and rave. Father, forgive me. I've been soaking up the world's lies. Help me to reject them. I've cooperated with the devil who is driving a wedge between my wife and me. Help me to resist him. Above all, I have played God. I have usurped your throne by demanding that my kingdom come and my will be done. Thank you for the blood of Jesus, your son, that paid for all my sins, both my hot-headed words and my idolatrous desires. Thank you for your spirit who enables me to love Jane the way that Christ loved the church when he gave himself up for her. Help me to love Jane with your kind of love. Jane writes, Lord, I like a husband who is more patient and gentler. I'm sure that's what you want Peter to be too. But that's between you and him. I can't change him. Craving these things has only made me a sour wife. I would like Peter to change, but I don't need him to change. With your help, I can be a grace filled Christ-like wife. Father, I've taken your role. This is what Jane prayed, as a lawgiver, prosecutor, judge, and executioner. I've decreed that Peter must love me the way I want to be loved. I've kept a record of his sins and replayed them in my mind. I've judged him and declared him guilty. I've imposed my sentence by withdrawing from him and criticizing him. I've dragged my feet when he has asked me to do a better job with the house and kids. Forgive me, Lord, for my many sins, especially those in my heart. Thank you for sending Jesus to die for me. Help me to rest in his righteousness and to submit my desires to you. Help me to forgive Peter as you have forgiven me. Holy Spirit, help me to be a wife who pleases you and serves my husband. So these two prayers, of course, really reflect a journey. They didn't come to it straight away. It's a journey of understanding that we can't actually change our partner. We want them to change, but only God can change them. So our attitude is to journey and walk with them and not to demand that they change before we show our love to them. So, what does the process of change and overcoming anger look like in practice? As we grow to receive the implanted word with meekness, which is able to save our souls? As we continue to allow God's word to meditate, as we allow God's words to simmer in our hearts and meditate on God's word as we pray and come to Him daily and ask for His strength. Uh, what how do we gauge the way we can change? What does the process of change look like? For a lot of us, including myself, uh, who often also struggle with anger issues, the change would not always be instantaneous. It will not always happen suddenly, but it will happen over time. Suppose that today, as a pastor, I tell all of you that Dani and I had a recent serious argument and that we haven't spoken to each other for two days. I imagine all of you may be concerned for us, and you may be asking in the back of your minds, in the midst of your concerned words to us, should this person even be a pastor if he cannot manage his marital life? But how would you respond if I told you that all that Danny and I had had? Sorry, let me repeat again. How might you respond if I told you that we had this same kind of severe argument a year ago? And that time we have not spoken to each other for two weeks. Perhaps you will all perk up and would want to learn how we went from two weeks of not speaking to two days, right? That is quite an achievement, right? Right? So there's a progress. Right? So, how might you measure your progress, your progressive growth in putting off sinful anger and putting on God's godly grace in our life? Number one, encourage us to look for a decreased frequency of anger feelings and expressions. You know, as the Holy Spirit works in you, uh, you will have less episodes of anger in your life. As you meditate on God's word and you pray daily and ask him for strength. For example, instead of averaging three episodes of anger feelings and expressions per day, you average only one or two, and that is a sign of progress. Secondly, look for decreased intensity in each expression. For example, instead of reacting by shouting or punching the wall, you initially clench your fist but then relax it. Instead of upper decibel shouting to the top of the roof, your voice gets lower. So look for decreased intensity in each expression. Thirdly, look for a decreased duration of angry episodes. So, for example, instead of stewing for three hours being angry, you go to more, you go to God more quickly than you used to. And he helps you to get a grip of your anger within 30 minutes. But you will still struggle with that for 30 minutes. Fourthly, look for a decrease in the types of occasions that provoke your anger. For example, last month, five triggers provoke your anger. Your spouse shared with a friend some embarrassing information about you, your children disobeyed, a church member snapped you again on Sunday, your boss bypassed you for promotion, and the major road in which you were driving on was on a lane repair during rush hour traffic. But now, as the Lord helps you to grow, you might still have some anger struggles with your wife or that church member, but you find yourself getting less upset when your children rebel, your boss ignores you, and the driving lanes block on the morning, you are running late. So as we walk with God and allow his word to transform our lives, as we receive with meekness the word that God deposits in us, uh, the word scriptures into our hearts, coupled with prayer, I believe we will see a decreased uh frequency of angry feelings, decreased intensity, duration, and even the types of occasions that cause our anger. So we have we also will look for change that is both short term, week to week, month to month, and long term, from one year uh uh to another year to a decade or so. By God's grace, what we hope to see is a less angry person uh from day to day, week to week, and month to month. So as anger decreases in our life, uh godliness, righteousness will grow increasingly in our lives. And the reason why we are saying all this is because James tells us very clearly in his word that in James 12 that human anger does not produce God's righteousness.

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