Over the past few weeks, we have been looking at things that make God angry. One of the blessing that we receive from God that we don’t always recognize is that when God gets angry He doesn’t respond the way we respond when we get angry. In the Old Testament, we saw the wrath of God being lashed out against Israel and non believers in some drastic ways. God opened up the ground and devoured some, the flood came on others, fire and brimstone reigned down on yet others.

In the New Testament, God is still expressing his wrath, anger and displeasure in different ways. In Romans 1:18, it states that God expresses His wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. Because God has revealed himself to man and man has refused to acknowledge God, God has chosen to respond in some different ways. Instead of pouring down cataclysmic wrath on us immediately, He has chosen to let us go where we are going so we can see the results of going our way instead of His way. There are three areas when God lets us go:

1. When God gets angry, He lets us go to the desires that are not of God.

2. When God gets angry, He lets us go to relationships that are not intended by God.

3. When God gets angry, He lets us go to actions that displease God.

First, let’s look at desires that are not of God. In the text, we see "Gave gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity…" Many times in life we see people having wrong desires and we pray that God will change people hearts; however, the reality of the scripture is that if a person desires things that are not of God, a person may need to pursue that until they come to see that those desires are not of God. When our desires are wrong to begin with and God doesn’t stop us or block us. We can’t blame God for the results of these wrong desires.

What we really need is to agree with God that some desires are just not right and any consequences that result because of wrong desires are not God’s fault. We need to stop blaming God when we pursue the wrong things, and He doesn’t stop or fix it the situations that result because we desired things that were not of God. A part of his wrath is just to let us go until we see that we were wrong. Acknowleding that our desires were wrong is a big part of growing in the Lord. David said in Psalm 51, "create in me a clean heart." He knew his desire for Bathsheba wasn’t right. When he lost the child from that relationship, he couldn’t blame God. He prayed that God would save the child; however, when God didn’t he just accepted the consequences and moved on.

Secondly, God lets go of relationships that are not intended by Him. In the text, it says that mankind has dishonored their bodies and exchanged the truth for a lie. Man has exchanged the natural affections of men for women and women for men. Instead, men desire men and women desire women. As result, we are seeing aids and others diseases running wild. When we see the products of unnatural affects, crying to God and he doesn’t step we should not be mad. Gods anger is being expressed by not doing something. Maybe He is saying let them alone so they can see the error of their ways. I told them it was wrong and yet they refuse to acknowledge me.
 

In the Old Testament, God stepped in and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Today I believe, God is just as angry; however, He is letting us destroy ourselves. Gay rights and homosexual rights are not of God. The relationships are not sanctioned by God and are subject to the wrath of God when He stops moving in the lives of the people involved in those kinds of relationship. Just because he isn’t stopping man, we should not think that God is pleased. A silent God in the life of a person is just as much of an expression of his anger as a God who takes everybody out.

Finally, God also lets us go to a mind set that causes us to do other actions that anger him. In the text it says "God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper. Again, God is not going to save us from everything. His anger and displeasure says let them alone, let them go. I could save them, but I am not. I could stop them, but I am not. The list of things that are shown in the text are the result of a person with a depraved mind. A person with a depraved mind can be called a "crazy person".

I know we hate to call people crazy; but, some things we do are just crazy. Look at the list. A crazy person is filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. We are depraved or crazy people when we gossip, slander others, hate God, are insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving and unmerciful.

When man began to do these things, sometimes God is showing us that the best thing to do is to let them go. Let them go and suffer. Let them go and see the error of their ways. We will let them go and not save them from the mess they made. Let them go and not bring them out of the situation so quickly.

Angry parents and yes an angry God sometimes can best express their anger by not doing anything at all to save their children from their mistakes. Experience often is the best teacher.

As we look at what happens when God is angry and how He lets us go. Let’s remember to pray for God’s help to:

a. Not exchange His truth with our lies

b. Not serve man more than Him that created the man.

c. Use our bodies in the way He intended.

d. Do things that are pleasing to Him.

I close with this prayer. God, we cannot afford for You to let us go. God, please don’t be so angry with us that you stop moving in our lives. God, we need to know your presence and see your active power working in us and through us. Lord, help our desires, our relationships and our actions be right. In Jesus name, AMEN!