Seven Deadly Sins--Billy Graham (1955)

Pride
Anger
     Anger is one of man's most devastating sins.  This is one sin which everyone is capable of committing.  The tiny baby has a fit of temper and loses its dinner.  The little boy has a tantrum and upsets the family decorum. The wife loses her temper and develops a sick headache.  The husband gets angry and loses his appetite.  Every member of the family is subject to its blight.  No one is by nature immune to this dispositional disease of human nature.
     Anger breeds remorse in the heart, discord in the home, bitterness in the community and confusion in the state.  Homes are often destroyed by the swirling tornadoes of heated domestic anger.  Business relations are often shattered by fits of violent temper when reason gives way to venomous wrath.  Friendships are often broken by the keen knife of indignation, which is sharpened by the whetstone of anger.
     Anger is donounced by the church and condemned by the sacred Scriptures.  It murders, assaults and attacks - causing physical and mental harm to its victims.  Its recoil, like a high-powered rifle, often hits back at the one who wields it, doing equal damage to the offender and the offended.
     Because anger has brought so much unhappiness and confusion to the world, God loathes it.  In Psalm 37:8 we read, "Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; fret not thyself in any wise to do evil." Jesus condemned it in no uncertain terms and classed it with the heinous sin of murder.  He said in Matthew 5:22, "I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say. . . Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire."  The wise Solomon said in Proverbs 16:32, "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city."  The Bible again says in James 1:19, "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger."
     Anger is a heinous sin because it reveals the animal nature of man.  Many people are charming, lovable and likeable until they become obsessed with a fit of rage, and then they are transformed into repulsive, irrational creatures more like wild beasts than civilized men.  Doctors tell us that when any human emotion is overstimulated, excessive amounts of adrenal are supplied by nature to replenish the emotional drain on our systems.  The person with a violent temper uses up this extra supply of energy to feed the flame of his passion rather than to put out the fire.
     Anger not only brings out the animal nature of man, but hinders Christian testimony.  Peter, angered at the Roman soldiers, grabbed a sword and cut off the servant's ear; but Jesus reproved him for his angry spirit and said in Matthew 25:52, ". . .they that take the sword shall perish with the sword."  Many a Christian witness has been ruined by carnal anger.
     A professed Christian woman was very anxious for her husband to find Christ.  One day her minister spoke to her husband about his soul, and the minister was taken aback when the man said, "I'm not particularly an irreligious man, but if Christianity should make me wrathy like my wife, I want no part of it."
    The minister went to the lady in question and told her precisly what her husband had said.  She had not realized that her temper had been so out of control, and she was repentant about it.  Together the minister and the woman knelt in prayer while she sobbed her heart out to God.
     A few days later the husband had been out fishing; and when he came into the house with his rod over his shoulder, he accidentally hit a costly lamp which went crashing to the floor.  He stood with his hands over his ears waiting for the second crash of his wife's anger--but it never came.  He looked up to see his wife smiling as she said, "Don't worry about it, dear.  Accidents happen in the best of families."
    "You mean you're not angry as usual?" he asked.
    "No dear, that's all a thing of the past.  I'm sorry I've been so impatient, but God is helping me to gain control of my temper."
     A few Sundays later the husband joined the church.  Her testimony had been strengthened by her anger being controlled by the Spirit of God.
     Anger also causes people to lose the joy of living.  In Genesis 6:2 God said to Cain, whose joy had been expelled by anger, ". . . Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?" The bad thing about losing your temper is that other things are often lost with it.  When temper rages, your good expression goes.  When temper rages, your reputation goes.  When temper rages, your friends go.  When temper rages, your opportunity goes.  When temper rages, your testimony goes.
     Anger is the parent of murder.  Cain was wroth before he murdered Abel.  It cocks the assasin's pistol, dispenses the killer's poison and sharpens the murderer's dagger.  It devastates, mutilates and destroys.  It kindles the fire of passion, fans the flames of envy and leaves the soul barren and desolate.  Here, of course, we are speaking of irrational, unjustifiable anger--the kind that goads the conscience, lashes out at the innocent and induces malice and discord in the home and in society.  This kind of anger God hates.
     Too many of us are guilty of this blighting sin.  Though we excuse ourselves by blaming our uncontrolled anger upon our natural disposition, down deep inside our conscience tells us that it is wrong.  There is the haunting conviction that we are grieving the Spirit of God when we are ruled by violent temper.
     What can be done about this dispositional sin?  Does the Christian faith have an answer?  Can Christ calm the tempestuous sea of anger as He did the turbulent Sea of Galilee long ago?  If there wre no way to overcome anger, if there were no way to bring it under control, God would never have said in Psalm 37:8, "Cease from anger and forsake wrath."  God never demands an action which is impossible of achievement.  there is a victory--in Christ--over sinful anger.  Even Plutarch said, "I have learned that anger is not incurable if one wants to cure it."
     The first step then in finding victory over unjustified anger is to want to get rid of it.  The will comes to the fore and says, "I will do something about this unruly temper of mine."  This means that you stop justifying yourself by saying, "My whole family is quick-tempered--I inherited it from my mother."  Or, "Everyone loses his temper some time or other--what's wrong with that?"  You must recognize it as an ugly, venomous sin both in the eyes of God and in your own sight.
     Secondly, we must confess this evil anger to God and ask His forgiveness for fits of rage and uncontrolled temper.  If anger is a sin and if being angry with one's brother without a cause brings the judgment of God, we ought to hate it, despise it and seek by divine methods to overcome it.  In 1 John 1:9 we read, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
     Anyone knows that hot, violent anger is unrighteous and unChristlike.  God, in love and mercy, has promised both to forgive us of the sin of anger and to cleanse us from it.  This does not imply that people become spineless, bland creatures without any spunk or spirit, but it does mean that our tempers which were used in wrath now become things of blessing.  The tongue which once was used for profanity now becomes an instrument of praise.  The hands which once hurt now become healing hands.  The feet which once walked the pathways of violence now walk the pathways of love and service.  The wild horses of passion are tamed by the Spirit and become our servants rather than our masters.  That is exactly what Jesus meant when He said, "Blessed are the meek."
     Remember Peter--before the resurrection and the descent of the Holy Spirit?  He swore in the camp of the enemy, denying his Lord, and became enraged at the soldiers who took Jesus into custody.  His angry spirit was a poor witness for a disciple of the lowly Galilean.  But after the Spirit of God came into his heart on the day of Pentecost, his temper was brought under control. Never again was his tongue employed in profanity.  Never again were his hands used in violence.  Never again was his voice raised in denial of his Lord.  Never again were his feet found in the camp of the enemy.  Peter's temper was not gone--it had been diverted to a constructive purpose.  It had been bridled by the Spirit of GOd.  Conversion to Christ had not made him weaker --it had made him a stronger man.  No longer was he sinfully angry.
Envy
Impurity
Gluttony
Slothfulness
Avarice