WesleyGospel Ministries

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God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. –Romans 5:5

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” –Jesus in Matthew 22:37-40

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. –Philippians 2:3-4

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. –Isaiah 14:12-15 (KJV)

The mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him. “What is it you want?” he asked. She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.” “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” “We can,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.” When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers. Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” –Matthew 20:20-28

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. GRIEVE, MOURN AND WAIL. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor? –James 4:1-12

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover’d country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.—Soft you now!
–William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act III, Scene I

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” –Matthew 28:16-20 (NIV)

The fear of the Lord is clean. –Psalm 19:9 (KJV)

Two-and-forty years ago, having a desire to furnish poor people with cheaper, shorter, and plainer books than any I had seen, I wrote many small tracts, generally a penny a-piece; and afterwards several larger. Some of these had such a sale as I never thought of; and, by this means, I unawares became rich. But I never desired or endeavoured after it. And now that it is come upon me unawares, I lay up no treasures upon earth. –John Wesley

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor [perpetual animosity, resentment, strife, fault-finding] and slander be put away from you, along with every kind of malice [all spitefulness, verbal abuse, malevolence]. –Ephesians 4:31 (AMP)

An overseer must be blameless and beyond reproach, the husband of one wife, self-controlled, sensible, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine, not a bully nor quick-tempered and hot-headed, but gentle and considerate, free from the love of money [not greedy for wealth and its inherent power—financially ethical]. –1 Timothy 3:2-3 (AMP)

CRY ALOUD, SPARE NOT, LIFT UP THY VOICE LIKE A TRUMPET, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their SINS! –Isaiah 58:1 (KJV)

O GENERATION OF VIPERS, who hath WARNED YOU to FLEE FROM THE WRATH TO COME!? –Matthew 3:7 (KJV)

WOE UNTO YOU, scribes and Pharisees, HYPOCRITES!   –Matthew 23:13 (KJV)

THOU CHILD OF THE DEVIL, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to PERVERT THE RIGHT WAYS OF THE LORD!? –Acts 13:10 (KJV)

I AM FULL OF THE FURY OF THE LORD; I am weary with holding in.  –Jeremiah 6:11 (KJV)

OPEN REBUKE is better than secret love.   –Proverbs 27:5 (KJV)

Them that sin REBUKE BEFORE ALL, that others also may FEAR.   –1 Timothy 5:20 (KJV)

THOU HAST LOVED RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND HATED INIQUITY; therefore God, even thy God, hath ANOINTED thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. –Hebrews 1:9 (KJV)

THE RIGHTEOUS ARE BOLD AS A LION. –Proverbs 28:1 (KJV)

REBUKE THEM SHARPLY, that they may be sound in the faith. –Titus 1:13 (KJV)

I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But HIS WORD WAS IN MINE HEART AS A BURNING FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.   –Jeremiah 20:9 (KJV)

Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather REPROVE THEM. –Ephesians 5:11 (KJV)

The Word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. –Hebrews 4:12 (NIV)

Third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.” –John 21:17 (NIV)

CRY ALOUD, SPARE NOT, LIFT UP THY VOICE LIKE A TRUMPET, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their SINS! –Isaiah 58:1 (KJV)

O GENERATION OF VIPERS, who hath WARNED YOU to FLEE FROM THE WRATH TO COME!? –Matthew 3:7 (KJV)

WOE UNTO YOU, scribes and Pharisees, HYPOCRITES!   –Matthew 23:13 (KJV)

THOU CHILD OF THE DEVIL, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to PERVERT THE RIGHT WAYS OF THE LORD!? –Acts 13:10 (KJV)

His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb DOGS, they cannot BARK; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. –Isaiah 56:10 (KJV)   [The reverse implies that faithful preachers are like good sheepdogs that bark about sin and Hell to warn of danger.]

I AM FULL OF THE FURY OF THE LORD; I am weary with holding in.  –Jeremiah 6:11 (KJV)

OPEN REBUKE is better than secret love.   –Proverbs 27:5 (KJV)

Them that sin REBUKE BEFORE ALL, that others also may FEAR.   –1 Timothy 5:20 (KJV)

While Paul was waiting for them at Athens, HIS SPIRIT WAS GREATLY ANGERED when he saw that the city was full of idols.   –Acts 17:16 (AMP)

GODLY SORROW WORKETH REPENTANCE TO SALVATION not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.   –2 Corinthians 7:10-11 (KJV)

THOU HAST LOVED RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND HATED INIQUITY; therefore God, even thy God, hath ANOINTED thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. –Hebrews 1:9 (KJV)

And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, A PREACHER OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, bringing in THE FLOOD UPON THE WORLD OF THE UNGODLY. –2 Peter 2:5 (KJV)

THE RIGHTEOUS ARE BOLD AS A LION. –Proverbs 28:1 (KJV)

REBUKE THEM SHARPLY, that they may be sound in the faith. –Titus 1:13 (KJV)

When they heard this, THEY WERE PRICKED IN THEIR HEART, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?   –Acts 2:37 (KJV)

If THE WATCHMAN see the sword come, and blow not THE TRUMPET, and THE PEOPLE BE NOT WARNED; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but HIS BLOOD WILL I REQUIRE AT THE WATCHMAN’S HAND. So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and WARN THEM FROM ME. –Ezekiel 33:6-7 (KJV)

I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But HIS WORD WAS IN MINE HEART AS A BURNING FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.   –Jeremiah 20:9 (KJV)

After my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I CEASED NOT TO WARN EVERY ONE NIGHT AND DAY WITH TEARS. –Acts 20:29-31 (KJV)

Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather REPROVE THEM. –Ephesians 5:11 (KJV)

GRIEVE not the Holy Spirit of God. –Ephesians 4:30 (KJV)

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THE EXISTENCE OF “HOLY SPIRIT ANGER”
PROVEN FROM THE SCRIPTURES

I AM FULL OF THE FURY OF THE LORD; I am weary with holding in.  –Jeremiah 6:11 (KJV)

His word was IN MINE HEART AS A BURNING FIRE shut up in my bones. –Jeremiah 20:9 (KJV)

He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire. –Matthew 3:11 (KJV)

Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith. Then Saul, who was also called Paul, FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT, looked straight at Elymas and said, “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery! Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord! Now the hand of the Lord is against you! You are going to be blind for a time, not even able to see the light of the sun!” Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand. –Acts 13:8-11 (NIV)

Behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what INDIGNATION, yea, what fear, yea, what VEHEMENT DESIRE, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.  –2 Corinthians 7:11 (KJV)

The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. –John 2:17 (KJV)

When he had looked round about on them with ANGER, being GRIEVED FOR THE HARDNESS OF THEIR HEARTS, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other. –Mark 3:5 (KJV)

Because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth…As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.   –Revelation 3:16, 19 (KJV)

They were all FILLED WITH THE HOLY GHOST, and they spake the word of God with BOLDNESS.  –Acts 4:31 (KJV)

BE YE ANGRY, AND SIN NOT. –Ephesians 4:26 (KJV)

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Leonard Ravenhill, Revival Praying, ch. 14: “Be Ye Angry.”

—. “Be Ye Angry And Sin Not” (Last Days Ministries, 1985).

Dr. John R. Rice, Why Preach Against Sin? (Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1946, 1985).

Benjamin Wadsworth, Fervent Zeal Against Flagrant Wickedness (1718).

Simeon Ashe, The Doctrine of Zeal Explained (1654).

John Downame, A Treatise of Anger (1609).

Isaac Ambrose, War with Devils, part 2, section 13.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers, ch. 5.

Jonathan Edwards, The Religious Affections, p. 32.

A SHEEPDOG BARKING AT A FLOCK OF SHEEP

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WHAT ABOUT WHEN MOSES EXPRESSED SINFUL ANGER?

⁶ Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the tent of meeting and fell facedown, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. ⁷ The Lord said to Moses, ⁸ “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.” ⁹ So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, just as he commanded him. ¹⁰ He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?”¹¹ Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank. ¹² But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.” –Numbers 20:6-12 (NIV)

He bids him speak to the rock, which would do as it was bidden, to shame the people who had been so often spoken to, and would not hear nor obey. Their hearts were harder than this rock, not so tender, not so yielding, not so obedient. He promises that the rock should give forth water (Numbers 20:8), and it did so (Numbers 20:11): the water came out abundantly…Moses and Aaron acted improperly in the management of this matter, so much so that God in displeasure told them immediately that they should not have the honour of bringing Israel into Canaan, Numbers 20:10-12…They said and did all in heat and passion; this is the account given of the sin (Psalms 106:33): They provoked his spirit, so that he spoke unadvisedly with his lips. It was in his passion that he called them rebels. It is true they were so; God had called them so; and Moses afterwards, in the way of a just reproof (Deuteronomy 9:24), calls them so without offence; but now it came from a provoked spirit, and was spoken unadvisedly: IT WAS TOO MUCH LIKE RACA, and THOU FOOL. His smiting the rock twice (it should seem, not waiting at all for the eruption of the water upon the first stroke) shows that he was in a heat. The same thing said and done with meekness may be justifiable which when said and done in anger may be highly culpable; see James 1:20…That the best of men have their failings, even in those graces that they are most eminent for. The man Moses was very meek, and yet here he sinned in passion; wherefore let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. That God judges not as man judges concerning sins; we might think that there was not much amiss in what Moses said and did, yet God saw cause to animadvert severely upon it. He knows the frame of men’s spirits, what temper they are of, and what temper they are in upon particular occasions, and from what thoughts and intents words and actions do proceed; and we are sure that therefore his judgment is according to truth, when it agrees not with ours. –MATTHEW HENRY

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What was the offence for which Moses was excluded from the promised land? It appears to have consisted in some or all of the following particulars:

1. God had commanded him (Numbers 20:8) to take the rod in his hand, and go and SPEAK TO THE ROCK, and itshould give forth water. It seems Moses did not think speaking would be sufficient, therefore he smote the rock without any command so to do.

2. He did this twice, which certainly in this case indicated a great perturbation of spirit, and want of attention to the presence of God.

3. He permitted his spirit to be carried away by a sense of the people’s disobedience, and thus, being provoked, he was led to speak unadvisedly with his lips: Hear now, ye REBELS, Numbers 20:10.

4. He did not acknowledge GOD in the miracle which was about to be wrought, but took the honour to himself and Aaron: “Must WE fetch you water out of this rock?”

Thus it plainly appears that they did not properly believe in God, and did not honour him in the sight of the people; for in their presence they seem to express a doubt whether the thing could be possibly done. As Aaron appears to have been consenting in the above particulars, therefore he is also excluded from the promised land. –ADAM CLARKE

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I believe the Bible allows for prophets, preachers, and evangelists to express righteous indignation in sermons, but only in a punctuated short-term burst, and only in such a way that communicates urgent warning and grief over sin, expressing God’s anger and grief over the sin of the people of God. Jeremiah was full of the fury of the Lord (6:11), Paul rebuked Elymas with an angry outburst after being filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesying him into blindness (Acts 13:8-11), and Jesus was so grieved at the Pharisees that he gave them all an angry look right before he healed a person (Mark 3:5). There’s also occasions of Isaiah, John the Baptist, Jesus, and Paul saying what some people might consider to be pretty mean and hurtful things. But they are rebukes! Words of correction! Words of repentance! And they come from godly hearts filled with grief, holy anger, urgency, and warning:

CRY ALOUD, SPARE NOT, LIFT UP THY VOICE LIKE A TRUMPET, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their SINS! –Isaiah 58:1 (KJV)

O GENERATION OF VIPERS, who hath WARNED YOU to FLEE FROM THE WRATH TO COME!? –Matthew 3:7 (KJV)

WOE UNTO YOU, scribes and Pharisees, HYPOCRITES!   –Matthew 23:13 (KJV)

THOU CHILD OF THE DEVIL, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to PERVERT THE RIGHT WAYS OF THE LORD!? –Acts 13:10 (KJV)

Such outbursts could only come from the hearts of men that loved God with all their hearts, souls, minds, and strength; and who also loved their neighbors as themselves, and were not so hard-hearted as to just let them pass through life and go to Hell unwarned. Apathy and unbelief does not warn. Love, concern, and faith does. But sadness and weeping, it seems, is more near to the heart of God than his wrath, although both of them are attributes of God’s Spirit. What theologian would make the case that Hell was only created from the attribute of God’s sadness rather than mainly of his wrath? No Bible believing theologian would defend such a view. But it seems that the complication Moses experienced in Numbers 20:10-11 was that while he was sold out in his fear and love for the Lord; he was also constantly provoked by people who did not fear, nor believe, nor love God. And so, while Moses probably had many times like Isaiah, John the Baptist, Jesus, and Paul, where he issued a loud rebuke with holy anger that came from the heart of God–this time it was different. And it seems that the difference was one of PURE HATE! Moses HATED these people; and he expressed his hate, as he operated in the gift of prophecy and miracles at the same time. God was about to do a miracle of providence and mercy and love; and Moses spoiled the event as he expressed his PURE HATRED for all of them, as he worked the miracle. He said: “’Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?’ Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff” (Num. 20:10-11). That’s where Moses messed up. He lost his composure and self-control, so much so, that he didn’t just REBUKE and WARN them as Isaiah, John the Baptist, Jesus, and Paul did. Moses went further than rebuking and warning. Moses expressed hatred towards them–and while he was working a miracle of God’s provision–he said, “You rebels!” and then struck the rock twice like a baseball bat in a fit of anger. This shows us that he HATED these people, was FED UP with them, and COULDN’T STAND THEM ANYMORE!! –J.B.