God’s Way of Life

We have a national concept of what freedom means here in America, and we are so blessed as a nation to enjoy the birthright blessings that have come down from Abraham to us today. Last week in services I read about the situation in Haiti. Just think what it would be like for us to go to church in Haiti. Right now Haiti is a country in the Caribbean. Whether you call it civil disobedience or civil war, the country is in a horrible state of affairs. I sent you the email last week in the E-News from the pastor there, Chuck Smith. Chuck was saying that our brethren, just to go to the store, can be a life-threatening experience. People are guarding the stores and various other places with shotguns and uzis and what have you. Our brethren, to be able to go to church on the Sabbath, if they can make it to church on the Sabbath, they find where they go to church is behind a 10-foot block wall with razor wire on the top of the wall. How would you like to come to services in that kind of a setting? Then, when you come to services, the door is closed behind you with a big iron metal door to safeguard you as the congregants. Here we come to Beloit, services at the Head Start building. We enjoy the ease of fellowship. We normally have snacks afterwards. We're not behind 10-foot-high walls. We're not razor wire protecting us. But that's how some of our brothers and sisters around the world deal with in terms of going to services. But here in this country, we appreciate our freedoms. We enjoy what God has given to us. On July 4, we celebrated the founding of our nation, if you will. The 13 colonies declared their independence actually on July 2, but it wasn't declared until July 4. So we enjoy our freedoms. Now, there are plenty of wrong concepts of freedoms. I want to make mention of that, especially there are wrong concepts when it comes to theology. There are those people who look at what you and I do here in a church and think, how burdensome we are. We obey that awful law. We are burdened by the law. We are under bondage through these Jewish ordinances. You've probably heard that. Peter talked about that. Let's go to 2 Peter 2.

2 Peter 2.

2 Peter 2, verse 1.

This was written 2,000 years ago, but we saw this taking place in our church culture not that long ago, back in 1995. False teachers among us who brought in heresy, dividing the flock. We drop down to verse 19.

While they promised them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption, for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. People have these ideas as to what liberty is, what bondage is, and so forth. But as Peter said, there are those false teachers who are becoming enslaved to a wrong way of thinking. Brethren, God has called us. He's opened up our hearts. He's opened up our minds to proper spiritual understanding. We have been called away from the bondages of superstition. We've been called away from the bondage of spiritual error, spiritual deception, guilt. We've been called away from being a captive of Satan and facing eternal death. As Christians, we have been called into the liberty of Christ. Now, what is that? What is the liberty we find in Christ? We're going to talk about some of that today. We have received freedom from guilt. We have received freedom in the sense that our sins have been forgiven, and we're heading for the kingdom of God. Jesus Christ came to preach a message of true freedom. Let's take a look at that in Luke 4.

Luke 4.

Luke 4. So he, Christ, came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. And he was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah, and when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. So when people come to you, when they talk about the bondage they say we're under because we keep God's law, they don't know what they talk about. Jesus Christ, says here, came to preach the gospel to the poor. I gave a sermon not long ago, just a few weeks ago, about how we see the gospel being preached in the book of Isaiah. And here he says, to proclaim liberty, to set at liberty. So today, because we are in a month where our nation declared its liberty, its freedom from the monarch in Great Britain, I want to talk about God's way. And if you like to take notes and you want to write something across the top of your paper as the theme of today's sermon, it's this. God's way of life is characterized by freedom. God's way of life is characterized by freedom. And what I'm going to be doing for this sermon, and two more after it, is going to be a three-part series. We are going to go through all ten of the commandments. Today I'll go through three of them. And as we go through each of the commandments, we are going to see how we have true freedom through the law of God. God's law is not a law of bondage. God's not a law that, you know, we're under some burden. No, God's law is a law that is free. It gives us freedom. It gives us liberty. So, before I get to the commandments, let's do a little more preface here. Let's go to John 8.

John 8.

Verse 31. John 8 and 31.

You are my disciples indeed. What is a Christian? A Christian is one who abides in the Word of God. In your notes, you might want to jot down John 1717. I'm not going to turn over there. John 1717. Sanctify them, set them apart by your truth. Your word is truth. It says there in John 1717. If you abide, the word abide means to dwell or can mean to hold. If you dwell in the Word of God, if you hold onto the Word of God, you are my disciples. And now notice verse 32, which helps clarify this. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. The truth does not bind us. The truth is not a burden to us. The truth makes us free. So the next time somebody comes to you and talks to you about the burdensomeness of the law of God, that's not what the Scriptures have to say. They are bound themselves, but they are bound to something else. They are slaves to something worse. They are slaves to Satan's way of life. Verse 33. And they ask them, we are Abraham's descendants, and we have never been in bondage to anyone. Now how can they say this? They are living under the subjection of Rome. And they are saying, we have never been in bondage to anyone. Oh, really? Take a look around. Those soldiers, you see, are not Israelite soldiers. Those are Roman soldiers. How can you say, at the end of verse 33, you'll be made free? Jesus answered them, Most assuredly I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. What's sin? Sin is breaking God's law, right? We're not free if we go through life breaking God's law. We are a slave to the broken laws, to Satan's way of life. Verse 35, And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore, if the son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. So these people were deceiving themselves, not admitting the fact that, you know, who they were actually indebted to and following. But let's drill down even more. Let's go to Psalm 119. Psalm 119 is a beautiful Psalm, very long Psalm, that talks about the Word of God. The Word of God. And, as a result of talking about the Word of God, there are many, many instances here it talks about the law of God. And again, our theme today is how God's way of life is characterized by freedom. Psalm 119, verse 44. Psalm 119, verse 44. So shall I keep your law continually, for ever and ever, and I will walk at liberty, for I seek your precepts. Notice the connective thinking here. God's law brings liberty. God's law brings freedom. Let's go to the New Testament, the book of James. James was the half-brother of Jesus Christ.

James chapter 1.

James chapter 1, verse 25. James 1.25. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful here, but a doer of the work. What work? The law of liberty. This one will be blessed in what he does. It's a blessing to obey God's laws. It's a blessing to have the freedom that comes with obeying God's laws. We go over to chapter 2. Now, some might say, well, this law of liberty, what law are we talking about? Well, we're going to find in context what we're looking at here. Let's look at chapter 2 of James, verse 8.

If you really fulfill the royal law, here he calls it a royal law, up above in verse 25, he calls it a law of liberty. If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. You do well. So here we have a qualifying statement as to what law we're talking about. We're talking about the law that says you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And in your notes, you might want to jot down Mark, chapter 12. Mark, chapter 12, verses 28 through 31, where Jesus Christ breaks down the Ten Commandments into two major laws.

Loving God and loving man.

Continuing on in chapter 2, verse 12, So speak, and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. So in these two chapters, James, chapter 1 and James, chapter 2, we see talking about the law of liberty and a royal law. God's law. They are truly keys to successful living. Keys to a happy life.

You know, brethren, over the years, I've been in the ministry since 1979, Trumpets of 79. And over the years, the various states I've been a part of and lived in and worked in and the brethren I've known, those who follow the laws of God have been tremendously blessed. Those who say, I'm going to go the way of the world and live the way of the world, sometimes they'll receive blessings. God allows the sunshine to shine on everybody. But also, sin, making bad decisions, you'll have bad consequences. And the horrible thing is, the more bad decisions a person makes, you start going down a certain road. And one bad decision opens the door for another bad decision, opens the road to another bad decision. And before you know it, you're in a really difficult place. God's law doesn't work that way. As we obey the law of God, we have doors open to us that are doors of beauty and joy, where life works. Now, with that as a background, let's take a look at these commandments. I'm hoping to get through three of them today. Commandment number one. What is the freedom we have in the first commandment?

The freedom we have in commandment number one is knowing life's first priority.

Freedom in knowing life's first priority.

I'll read the commandment for you. You can jot down the notation. It's Exodus chapter 20, verse 3. You don't need to turn it out. I'll read it for you. Exodus 20, verse 3. You shall have no other gods before me. That's life's first priority. You and I don't have to worry about thinking and meditating and asking our friends and neighbors and relatives, what should my priorities in life be? God tells us what our first priority should be. We're able to cut through all the noise and all the craziness of the world to know what our first priority should be. We don't have to expend a lot of effort going down wrong paths, a lot of energy, a lot of our treasure going down wrong paths, because God says honoring Him, loving Him, having no other gods before Him is our first priority.

Establishing, developing, and maintaining a personal relationship with the one true God is the most important commitment we will ever make. You know, there have been times in my ministry where I have had young people come to me, typically young people, who want to get married and they want to get baptized, and I say, let's take first things first. Let's talk about baptism. A lot of times they want to talk about the other first. And I will tell people, as they're counseling for baptism, that is the biggest commitment in their life, more so than their marriage vows. Marriage vows are very, very important, but the most important vow is the vow we make to God, our first priority in life. Now, as I made mention or alluded to a moment ago, Satan would love to have us awash in the sea of false priorities. Going down that rabbit hole, going down that rabbit hole, going down this blind alley, wasting time, being consumed with the physical, neglecting the spiritual, trying to acquire as much of the physical as we possibly can, as opposed to looking for God's spiritual riches. Some people coveting human power, prestige, status, instead of godly humility and service.

Why does Satan do this? Why does Satan do this? I gave a sermon not that long ago where we went through how Satan and the demons work on us as human beings. We took a look at their methods of operation. We saw in Job chapter 1 and verse 6, I'm not going to turn there, how the name Satan was brought forward. When you look at Brown Driver and Briggs, the Hebrew lexicon, the dictionary, the name Satan means super human adversary. Super human adversary. So does Satan want us to have an understanding of life's first priority? No. Did Satan have an understanding of that priority? No. He's a depraved being because he didn't want that priority. We don't want to go down that road. In your notes, you might want to jot down Revelation chapter 12 and verse 9. It talks about how Satan deceives the whole world. Why is that Scripture important? Because Satan would deceive you as to what your first priority should be if you didn't look at the Ten Commandments. You might want to jot down 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 4. Why that verse? Because that verse talks about how the God of this age is blinded the people of the world. So Satan wants to deceive us. He wants to blind us. He's our adversary. He doesn't want us knowing that life's first priority is anything but God. Anything but God. Now, it's interesting because the last of the original apostles still alive was the apostle John. By the time he was writing in the 90s A.D., all the other apostles had died. John, we believe, was the last of the original apostles to have died. All the others met with martyrdom. John himself, the tradition has, was boiled in oil but did not die. That's not in Scripture, but that has come through by many traditions. But let's take a look at something that John said about priorities. Here in 1 John chapter 2. 1 John chapter 2.

1 John chapter 2. The apostle here is going to talk about priorities. 1 John 2 verse 15. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. If that's our priority, as opposed to loving God, we're all wrong. He drills down even further here in verse 16. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world. So here we have three major categories, three major priorities that many people in the world go after. Verse 17. But the world is passing away in the lust of it, but he who does the will of God abides forever.

The will of God is to keep commandment number one, which tells us life's first priority. Now let's take a look at a case example of Satan using his strategy here. The strategy we see that John is warning the brethren about here in 1 John 2. Let's see where Satan wants to use this against Jesus Christ himself. Case story of Matthew 4. Let's go to Matthew 4.

We know this section of Scripture well. We've turned to it on a number of occasions. Matthew 4. Matthew 4 and verse 1. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights after it, he was hungry. I would think so. Now when a tempter came to him, he said, If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So in verse 3 and verse 4, what is the priority that Satan lays at Jesus Christ's feet? In verse 3 and 4, it is the priority of the flesh.

What did the Apostle John say? He talked about the lust of the flesh.

So Jesus Christ rebuffed Satan here by quoting Scripture. What does Satan do? Satan is about to also quote Scripture, but he's not going to quote Scripture accurately. There's going to be a twist in it. Verse 5, Then the devil took him up into the holy city, set him on the pinnacle above the temple, and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written. Satan says, I can quote Scripture too.

He shall give his angels charge over you, and in their hands they shall bear you up, and put against the stone.

And Jesus said to him, It is written, Again, You shall not tempt the Lord your God. What is Satan doing here? Satan is putting Jesus Christ very, very high up on top of this pinnacle.

Satan wants Jesus Christ to do something spectacular.

In the sight of all these people, just jump off.

And the Bible says, you're quoting the Bible, I can quote the Bible, the Bible says, The angels will come, bear you up, and bring you softly down to earth.

Do something spectacular.

What did the Apostle John say was one of the fruits of the world? He called it the lust of the eyes. The lust of the eyes. Satan's strategies are well known, and Satan's strategies are very, very effective.

But Christ was not falling for that. Let's take a look at the last thing that we see here that Satan is going to try to do. Verse 8, Again, the devil took him up an exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and said to them, All these things I will give you.

Well, Satan is the God of this world. He could have given Jesus Christ all of these things.

But the underlying thought is, I will give you these things. Don't worry about being crucified. You can have this right now.

Now, you can understand where Satan is coming from, but Jesus Christ was understanding, I can't do this. I can't start worshipping the God of this world.

All these things I'll give you if you'll fall down and worship me. And then notice what Jesus Christ says here in verse 10. Jesus Christ says the first thing that he said was, The first commandment is life's first priority. Then Jesus said to him, Away with you Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. So there was a battle here between Jesus Christ and Satan the devil over priorities.

So we have the freedom. We have the liberty of knowing what life's first priority is. You know, if you think hard, I was about to say think hard. You don't have to think hard. Think about some of the people you know that are turning themselves into human pretzels trying to accomplish this, that, or the other. And there's nothing wrong with accomplishment. You know, I've given a sermon, I think I gave a sermon here, I certainly gave it over in Chicago, about striving for excellence. We want to strive for excellence, but we don't want to strive to be something that knocks God off of the number one spot in our life. So we want to strive for excellence, but some people, that's all they have in view is, I've got to get that degree, I've got to get that job, I've got to get that house, I've got to get some physical thing. When I've got that, that's my priority.

Now, we've got the freedom of knowing. Our first priority is God. Let's go to commandment number two. Commandment number two gives us freedom in knowing the proper way to worship the true God. Freedom in knowing the proper way to worship the true God. Let me read you the second commandment. In your notes, you can take Exodus chapter 20. Exodus 20 verses 4-6, I'll read it for you. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in earth beneath, or is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me. By showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me, and keep my commandments. Keep my commandments. We have got the freedom of knowing how to truly worship God. And again, all the false things we can take and put them aside.

The second commandment goes to the heart of our relationship with our Creator. What's the proper way to worship God? We can't decide that for ourselves. The Bible teaches us how we should properly worship God. So we are freed from false ways.

Again, let's not take that for granted. How many times have you heard of, read about, or seen in movies? Where people will take a whip or some sort of device, and they are doing penance. And they are lashing their back until they are bleeding. Or people, as they are going in their various pilgrimages, they are crawling on their hands and knees through glass. A lesser thing, when we were living in Michigan, where my wife was working, her boss wanted to sell her home. She was having a hard time selling her home. Then she remembered something she was taught by her religion. If you take a small statue of Joseph, and you turn it upside down, and you bury it in your front yard, you will sell your house. And they think we are weird!

Or another person, I think my wife was working with this one, my wife works with very interesting people. I do too, but we don't do that kind of thing.

But this one person said, for 40 days, you know what we are talking about. For 40 days, I am going to give up swearing. I think the person lasted less than a day. Now, you shouldn't be giving up swearing from the time you become a Christian. Not just during Lent. So we have freedom away from those things. Let's not take that for granted. Freedom from false concepts as to who God is. We are going to get to that in a minute or two. Freed from false doctrines.

There was a time, I don't think it is still taking place, but there was a time in the Middle Ages where you went to the church that proclaimed they were the true church of Jesus Christ. And you plopped down money, and your sins would be forgiven. You bought those indulgences. There have been times when people come to me and say, Mr. De'Alessandro, have you ever really kind of wondered if what we are doing is right? I say, no. I was there. I grew up in that kind of thing, and I realized that you can't put money down and get rid of your sins. I realized the Bible has nothing to say about purgatory. And so many other things that people are so worried about. Or being in hellfire and being in flame for eternity. See, we've come to the place where we take what we have for granted. But there are people in the world who just are terrified.

My brother, I remember my brother died when he was 36 years old. I had a heart attack. That's the thing in our family. My grandfather at 55, my father at 55, my uncle at 58, my brother at 36. I remember sitting at my brother's funeral next to my mother, and the preacher looked at my brother, who was not a religious man, and basically said, that guy's going to hell. And after the service, I gathered together my sister-in-law and my nieces and nephew, and said, let me tell you something about your father. And you know something? I was so sad because it seemed they would rather listen to what that preacher said than what I was telling them about the last great day. Now, again, we can sometimes take these things for granted, but we have been liberated from so much wrong teaching that ties people, makes people just, they're so upset and they're so sad. We understand. I've made mention about the fact that I'm playing some golf now with some of these guys. I've met these two fellows on a golf course one day, and we've struck up a friendship, and now I play golf with them once a week. One of them is a minister. And we get to talking about theology from time to time, and he teases me, I tease him a little bit, and I said, but you know, Ron, I said, all these people, that died and never knew Jesus Christ. Acts 4, verse 12 says, there's no other name under heaven by which we can be saved. I said, how about all those people? The American Indians were living at the time of Jesus Christ. They couldn't have known about Jesus Christ, and all the other people who lived in this part of the world. What happens to them? He couldn't answer. His theology does not, you know, the basic thing is, well, God's fair. Well, yes, God is fair, but see, you understand. You understand the plan of God. So if a relative of yours dies who's not in the faith, you aren't so grief-stricken because you have been set free by the truth of God.

And there's no amount of money, brethren, no amount of money that can equate to that.

The freedoms you have. Now, we can look at mankind as mankind has come up over the ages. You look at the Egyptians. Tremendous society. Wealthy society. Educated society. And yet, they were worshipping the creation and not the creator. We went through, and probably we'll go through again, the different plagues that God used to get Israel out of Egypt. The Egyptians thought the Nile River was Osiris's bloodstream. Osiris being a god of Egypt.

Of course, God says, well, if you want to think that, then I'm going to turn that river into blood. You think it's the bloodstream of a god? Well, I'll turn it into blood for you. See how you like it.

Or the second plague. Heket. The Egyptian god Heket. A woman with a frog said. I don't think you ladies like that. A woman with a frog said, we're free from that, aren't we? We're free from that. But let's not just laugh and be amused by the Egyptians.

Do we, as Americans, have our idols? You better believe we do. We're not just talking about the singing show. We have our American idols.

I'll discuss two of them with you. When I talk to our young adults, when I've been closely associated with young adults in the Godchurch for a long time, running young adults activities at the feast and so on and so forth, over and over, when I'm talking to them and they're leveling with me, and I say, how is our young adult group in the church going? And talking about not just a local congregation, but broad spectrum. Mr. Delcindrome, what are you concerned about? One of my concerns is the idol of materialism. The idol of materialism. The American Heritage Dictionary defines materialism this way. The theory or doctrine that physical well-being and worldly possessions constitute the greatest good and highest value in life. That's some people's number one priority. Getting things. You've all heard the old saying, whoever has the most toys at the end, they win?

In doing the research on this, I came across a quotation. It was unattributed, but I thought it really hit the spot. I quote, In America today, too many people drive to the mall in cars they can't afford to spend money they don't have to buy things they don't need to impress people they don't like. Isn't that true? In America today, too many people who drive to the mall in cars they can't afford to spend money they don't have to buy things they don't need to impress people they don't like. Materialism. Materialism is an attitude. There's nothing wrong with money. There's nothing wrong with wanting a good income. But when we place that over our desire to worship God, when that knocks God off the number one spot, then there is a problem. Materialistic attitudes would be, having more will make me happier. Having more makes me feel important. Having more will make me more secure. Let's see what Jesus Christ says about this over in Matthew 6. The beautiful attitudes section of the Bible, the Beatitudes, and the sections that follow the Beatitudes and amplify the Beatitudes. Matthew 6, verse 24. No one can serve two masters, either he'll hate the one and love the other, or he'll be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and materialism. You cannot serve God and mammon. So we have our 21st century idols, materialism, and there's a whole bunch. I'm gonna go through just one more. And I see this more and more every day. The God of individualism, the God of individualism, self-expression, self-esteem, self- fulfillment, all about the self. I gotta be me, Sammy Davis Jr. sang. It's a beautiful song, actually. He had a great voice. But I gotta be me. I've gotta find myself. I've gotta do what's best for me. I can do it all myself. I don't need any help. The me, me, me generation. You've seen this. How many times have you gone someplace and you're standing in line patiently and somebody cuts in front of you? Or you're doing something and somebody could care less about you. They just jump in and take what you were looking at. Individualism goes way beyond just thinking about self. Individualism places the self on the throne of worship. On the throne of worship. You know, the Bible says we should love our neighbor as ourself. There's a balance there. We can properly love ourself. There's nothing wrong with that. But when we put self on the same level or higher than God, then there's something wrong with that. There's something wrong with that. Let's take a look at 2 Timothy chapter 3.

2 Timothy chapter 3. Verse 1. 2 Timothy 3.1. But know this, that in the last days, perilous times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves, the God of individualism, me, myself, and I. Brethren, by keeping the Second Commandment, we free ourselves from wrong and misleading concepts of who God is and what God is. We free ourselves from idolatry. We free ourselves from wrong concepts as to why we're even called.

We weren't put on this earth just to live it up and die, and that's the end of it. We serve a God that has a plan, and that plan is a beautiful plan. And we understand, we can understand about that plan because we properly worship the true God in all the freedoms that affords us.

Going on to the last point for today, Commandment number three. The freedom here deals with respect. Having the freedom and properly respecting the only true God. You know, I gave this sermon last week in Chicago, and after services, a number of people came up and wanted to discuss the sermon. One person came up and said, you know, Mr. D'Alessandro, that one point you made about respect, he's a, I think, an Uber driver. He said, you wouldn't believe the lack of respect that people show one toward another.

I said, I know. I see it. I know. I'm out in society. I go shopping and do things, too. He says, just a lack of respect. The Third Commandment, let me read it for you. Exodus chapter 20 and verse 7. Exodus 27. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

Now, I don't know about you, but in society today, I'm watching a TV show. I'm going, you know, shopping or buying something somewhere, and you just hear over and over people taking God's name in vain. That's still kind of, it gets to me. It's kind of, why did they have to do that? Why did they say that? It's like as though, you know, just like a breath coming out of their mouth, I'll just take God's name in vain. The Third Commandment focuses on showing respect. Showing respect for our God who is our first priority. Showing respect for the God that we are properly knowing how to worship.

It addresses how we feel about God, how we communicate to our God, our attitudes, our behavior to our God. There's a respect there, and that respect is so lacking in our culture today. And when people have a lack of respect in their life, they have a lack of freedom. We have got the freedom of respect. Respect, brethren, is the cornerstone of all proper relationships. If we respect God, that means we're going to respect what he says. If we respect what he says, then we're going to respect one another.

Because what he says is to love our neighbor as ourself. To do good to our neighbor. The golden rule and all those things. So respect God, his ways. Respect mankind. And here we're talking about the name of God. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. As I was thinking about this, I was thinking about the names of God as examples.

God's names, and he's got more than one, God's names describe his offices, his positions, his nature. As we understand this about that Third Commandment, we understand that God does have offices. He does have positions. He does have a nature. He does have a character. He has purpose and so forth. And you take a look at the various names for God, and it just bronze out our understanding and gives us so much more freedom.

Now in high school, I had a choice to make. In high school, as you know, God called me when I was 15 years old. Didn't call anybody in my family. At 15 years of age, I was listening to the broadcast, Garnet at Armstrong, and I heard him talk about Ambassador College. My parents wouldn't even let me go to church, but I said, I want to go to that college.

And so I ordered the perspective as to what I need as a high school student, what classes I should be taking to get Ambassador College. My dad said, Randy, I'll take you. You're not a church kid. I said, I'm going to do what I'm going to do. And they were talking about, well, you need to have a foreign language class, you need to have a high vocabulary, and this and that and the other. And so I thought, well, I could take French or I could take Spanish. Today, I probably wish I would have taken the Spanish. But I took Latin.

I took Latin because back in the 1960s, when Moses and I went through high school in the 1960s, then Latin accounted, Latin forms of the English language accounted for 90% or more of the English language. 90% of the words you use, probably more like 95 or 96% today, because so many of the technical terms are based in Latin.

So Latin was a tremendous vocabulary builder. But as I was taking my Latin classes and being a part of Latin Club and enjoying all the toga parties and things we did, you're studying not only the writings of Caesar, but you're looking at the society of Rome. And you're looking at the gods that the Romans worshipped. And these gods were just dysfunctional. When we take a look at the name of our God, our God is not dysfunctional.

Our God is very functional. Our God is wonderful. Our God is awesome. But the Greek gods? Of course, as an Italian. I might poo-poo the Greeks a little more than I should. But they were apprehensible.

The Roman gods, the Greek gods, they are nothing more than human beings who live forever. With all their passions and all the wrong ways, it's like glorifying flesh. But think on this now. Let's take a look at a few of God's names. I'm not going to turn to these scriptures. Genesis 22, verse 14. Genesis 22, verse 14. Jehovah-Jirah, the Lord will provide. God gave this name when he was providing a ram in place of Isaac for Abraham's sacrifice.

Now that should mean something to us, right? When we find ourselves in a situation where we need God's provision, that's one of His names. The Lord will provide. What do you need in your life right now? Are we going to Jehovah-Jirah and asking for what we need? Are we living the kind of life we should be living so our prayers can be answered? The Lord will provide.

Another name. Follow the next to this chapter, 17, verse 15. Jehovah-Nissi, N-I-S-S-I. The Lord, my banner. This is when the Israelites defeated the Amalekites. A banner was like a battle ensign. It was like a battle flag. People would carry their colors into war. Well, that's God. He's our banner. He goes before us. I've given you this story about Jehoshaphat, how the army came to try to conquer Jerusalem. It was a tremendous army in terms of numbers. Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, said, we're going to fast. So everybody in the kingdom even made the animals fast. Everybody's going to fast. And they did. And what happened? The army's assembled there. They want to take over. Back in those days, people weren't politically correct. When you were subjugated by a foreign army, you were either killed or made slaves, or worse. Yet, when the city gates of Jerusalem were opened, out went singers, proclaiming the praises of the great God. Behind the singers was the army. The army didn't do anything. And as the singers began to sing, the enemy began to fight among themselves and kill one another. Now, I've teased John Barbush that they must have been very bad singers.

But I don't think that was the case. God intervened. God was their banner. You go to battle every day against Satan. You go to battle every time you go to work, and people are trying to say things to you or do things to you, knife you in the back, or whatever. We want God as our banner. We respect that, and that gives us freedom.

In 1 Samuel chapter 1, verse 3, Jehovah Zebaioth, the Lord of Hosts. You've read that many times in the Scriptures, the Lord of Hosts. The hosts there are the army of the angels. All it takes is one angel. One angel can do an awful lot of good, an awful lot of protecting.

Of course, there are the stories that people tell in God's church. I've heard so many of them over the years about being protected by the angels. You probably have got some stories to tell yourself about how did you ever get out of that situation?

Physically, you can't explain it. Physiologically, you can't explain it. But you got through that situation. A fellow told me one time that he was driving down the road and he was passing a car. He was unfamiliar with the territory, and he found another car coming his way, and so he went even further to the left. And went back on the road, and nothing happened. Well, he was in that area for a few days, and during the day he came back the same way. He said, well, this is the spot where I went further to the left. Well, on that spot, further to the left, you're out in the air, because he was on a mountain, and there was no road where he was. So he went off into the air, and back on.

Somebody held that car up. There's so many stories about the angels, and every year when we've got the little ones, we have a blessing of children, and the ministry asks for God to use those angels to protect those little ones. That gives us freedom. We're not at the beck and call of just every other power. God's there for us. Last scripture of the day. Let's go to Psalm 145.

Psalm 145. Psalm of David. Psalm 145, verse 1, I will extol you, my God, O King, I will bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you. I will praise your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable.

That is the freedom we have with that Third Commandment. So today, brethren, we've taken a look at the freedom, since this is a time where we celebrate the freedom of our nation, I thought it would be good for us to take a look, and this is going to be two more sermons to come. Take a look at the freedoms we have as Christians through the law of God. God's law is not a law of bondage. It's not a burden to us. It's a law that gives us freedoms. Commandment number one, we've got the freedom of knowing life's first priority. Commandment number two, we've got the freedom of knowing the proper way to worship God. And commandment number three, we've got the freedom of having a proper respect for our true God.