God's Way of Life Is Characterized By Freedom

Last week, or last time I was with you, I should say, we began a three-part series. The theme of the series is, God's way of life is characterized by freedom. God's way of life is characterized by freedom. As a backdrop, I discussed how at that point we were approaching the Fourth of July. Of course, that's now behind us. But as Americans, we associate a number of wonderful concepts with the Fourth of July. Certainly, freedom would be one of those. Liberty would be one of those. Theologically, due to the grace of God, there's a great many freedoms that you and I enjoy as Christians. We enjoy the freedom of being away from superstition, spiritual error, deception, ignorance. We enjoy the freedom we have through Jesus Christ, in the fact that we have eternal life as a result of what Jesus Christ did for us. Jesus Christ brought a message of real freedom. Let's take a look at that. And again, this is by way of review. Over in Luke 4.

Luke 4. Starting in verse 16. Luke 4. So he 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. When he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written. And in my Bible, this is red lettering now, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. And he sent me the heel of 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. Now, recently we've had a sermon discussing the gospel being preached in the book of Isaiah. All we had was the Old Testament. We can find the gospel in the Old Testament. We went through and discussed that. And here we see in the New Testament where Luke, the physician, the historian, goes back and quotes Isaiah and talks about liberty that Jesus Christ preached. Now, as a little bit more of a recap for what we went through last time, I may mention that true freedom comes from abiding in God's Word, from abiding in God's Word, God's way of life. And we drill down even more finely with a laser-like focus. True freedom comes through God's law. Now, there's plenty of people who would come to you and say, God's law is a thing of bondage. And we need to be set free from that horrible law. Well, nothing can be further from the truth. Each of the Ten Commandments are, in fact, a guide that God has given us to the good life. Each of the Ten Commandments brings blessings. Each of the Ten Commandments, if society at large were to obey any one of them, would bring such rich blessings upon us as a national culture. The Bible calls the Ten Commandments the royal law, the law of liberty. We documented that last time. Last time, we went through the first three commandments. We took a look at the freedom each one of those commandments brings. Commandment number one is freedom in knowing life's first priority. We talked about how so many people are spinning their wheels because their priorities in life aren't proper. They're going down this rabbit hole in that dead end and so on and so forth. But we are fortunate because God has revealed, through that first commandment, life's first priority. Commandment number two gives us the freedom of knowing the proper way to worship God. Again, you know, you've taken classes, you've watched the news, you see friends and other people, business associates, and how they worship God. And some of the things are done in the worship of God. And yet, we have, through the second commandment, an understanding of how we are to worship that true God. And we are set free from so many of the false ideas and concepts that the world has. Commandment number three shows our freedom and having a proper respect for God, knowing who God is, what God is, and respecting our God.

And of course, that filters down through every aspect of our life as we honor the great God. So that's a recap of what we went through last time. Now we're going to go through some new material. I'm hoping today to go through commandments four, five, and six. We'll see how we do. Commandment number four. Let's turn over to Exodus chapter 20. Let me read that for you.

Exodus chapter 20, verses 8 through 11. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. What is the—and there are so many different freedoms we can discuss with the fourth commandment, but what I've chosen for today, anyway, is this. We have the freedom that comes from taking the time to enhance our relationship with God. We've got freedom. We don't have to get into—you know, be a part of the dog-eat-dog culture, you know, working all day and all night. We can cut through all of that because God has commanded—and there's love for us. He has commanded us to take the time to enhance our relationship with Him. And that truly is a remarkable freedom that God gives us. God commands us to clear our schedule.

You know, I've not always been in the ministry. You know, I know what it's like to go out there and work in the outside world. When I graduated from Ambassador College in 1974, I didn't want anything to do with the ministry in terms of being a full-time man. Didn't even want to be a local elder in the church. I just wanted to simply go back home and serve. So I went back home in my hometown of Detroit, Michigan, and got a job like what you do. And for two and a half years, I was a warehouse manager, and for about seven and a half years, I was in sales.

And I know what it's like to work 70 hour plus weeks. I know what it's like now in the ministry to work 70 plus hour weeks. But I also know that it can be so exasperating to be on that cycle, especially if you're not a Sabbath keeper. And it seems like all seven days you're working all these outrageous hours, and you get to the place where you're overworked. Yeah, God says, take the time. Clear your schedule. Physically rest. Spiritually rest. And that produces tremendous results. As I was doing some research for the sermon today, I saw an article, and hopefully this isn't applied to anybody in this room, but just as a way of contrast.

Sometimes we learn things by way of contrast by what people on the outside are going through. I saw an article entitled, Five Signs You're Being Overworked at Your Job by Sean Bryant. This was written back just a couple weeks ago, June 25, 2019. I wanted to quote a little bit from his article. It says, most of us assume that being overworked at our job is a routine part of employment in the 21st century. And while it's true that we are all expected to do more than in the past, it's more important to recognize signs when being overworked is reaching a dangerous level.

Here are five of those signals. Now, as I go through these, you may find that you are facing some of these yourself. And, you know, there are times in any job—I don't care what job you've got—where you're working more hours maybe than you should. And sometimes there's no getting around that. Again, when I was a warehouse manager back in Detroit, there were certain rush seasons of the year. We had to push furniture out the door. So we normally had two delivery trucks. And at Christmas time, when people were buying furniture for themselves as presents or giving furniture to others as gifts, we would run as many as four or five trucks. And I had to make sure all those trucks were loaded, all the deliveries were being made.

And if we got a phone call during the day, I want my stuff right now where I cancel, I would jump in a truck and go out and deliver material. So that's sometimes working 12, 14 hour days, sometimes that happens.

But we don't want that happening all the time to us. Because when that happens to us, then that first commandment, our priorities are not what they should be. So here are some of the five signs that he wrote in his article, Sean Bryan wrote in his article, showing if you've got a dangerous level of being overworked. Number one, if you have difficulty relaxing even when you're not working. Number two, you feel as if there aren't enough hours in the day.

Number three, your to-do list keeps growing. A number of you are smiling right now. See, the thing about to-do lists, as one person told me, he says, Randy, you have your to-do list. And every day you take the bottom three things and get rid of them. And your to-do list doesn't ever grow. Number four, you feel like you'll never catch up. And number five, your health is visibly deteriorating. He said, going on, he says, when these five things happen to people, sometimes they have these various results in their lives, people begin to lose weight because they don't feel like eating.

Other people gain weight because they don't exercise properly. Sometimes people have routine functions. They routinely function with a variety of aches and pains that have no unidentifiable cause. The doctor says, maybe you've got a dangerous level of high blood pressure. There's not any number of things here that we can go through and discuss. But the bottom line is God has given us the freedom to take physical rest, to take spiritual rest.

He's given us the freedom of clearing our schedule so that we can have an enhanced relationship with Him. You know, at the beginning of the sermon today, I talked about our rights and our freedoms as Americans. Many of the rights and liberties that we as Americans cherish were not always, were not enumerated in the original Constitution as it was drafted back in 1787. And so to make sure a number of other rights or other privileges were discussed, another document was written called the Bill of Rights. The first amendment to the bill was adopted on December 15, 1791.

And the first amendment says this, and I'll quote the entire first amendment here. It's very short. Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or of the right of the people to peaceably assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

You know, we are so fortunate in the hand of God as He founded this nation because of the blessings that were given to Abraham. We are so fortunate when you think about the character of the men that drafted our Declaration, our founding documents, who those men were, what their character was, their views on things, the documents they set forth, I believe, by the guiding hand of God. Now, those documents aren't inspired like our Bible. Don't mean to imply that. But certainly, God was there at the founding of this nation. And having written so many of these wonderful things, these freedoms we enjoy, and certainly God, in His Declaration of Independence for us, as He's written in the Scriptures, has given us the Sabbath day to enhance our relationship with Him. And that definitely gives us freedom. Think on it for a moment. Think on it for a moment. Because you and I are Sabbath keepers. Friday comes along, Friday evening comes along, and we don't have to be after sundown. We don't have to be in our office or at our kitchen table, sitting down doing all sorts of work. I had a number of jobs when I was in sales those seven and a half years, and so many of them, you know, you're making your calls during the day, then you come home. Or in my case, I was a road warrior. I had normally a three or four state territory. I'd go back to the motel room, and then that evening, you know, I'd have to do all sorts of paperwork. Well, on Fridays, I wouldn't do that, and you don't do that. Fridays, Friday evening after sundown, we are free to enjoy our family. We are free, we set up part-time, to be with family and friends. Many times people in God's church will have a very special dinner. I know when my kids were growing up, I wanted to make it a point to have a very special dinner, a very special dessert on Friday nights. So that the kids, as they're growing, they say, boy, I'm looking forward to Friday night. Looking forward to it. And for some of the reason, you know, we got real busy during the week, and we didn't have the special dessert, my kids would let me know. Where's that special dessert, Mom? Where's that special dessert, Dad?

So we have that relaxing Friday evening, and then we have a good night's sleep, hopefully, realizing that we don't have to go to the rat race the next day. Now, in my particular case, I can't speak for all of you, but in my particular case, on Friday nights, I enjoy relaxing with my wife. I enjoy our nice meal. And I also enjoy the fact that the next day, I'm either going to be with you, or I'm going to be up in Beloit. I'm going to be with some very special people, some very special friends. I enjoy the fact that God has given me the opportunity to be refreshed. And here, in the Chicago church, we've got a number of blessings. You know, Mr. Bradford does a very nice job. I would encourage more of you to go to his Bible study. You know, he does a very nice job with his Bible study prior to church. So you can have a good night's sleep, you can come, and you have a meal prepared by Mr. Bradford. It's interactive. You can discuss things with your brothers and sisters in the faith. Then after that's done, you can, you know, we have time for discussions and and fellowshipping with one another. Then we have Sabbath services. And you folks have, in many ways, we've been spoiled here in Chicago. When I tell some of my brothers in the ministry what we have here in the way of manpower, they say, what? You've got seven guys who give sermons and ten guys who give sermonettes? We don't have that many people in our whole church! And here in this congregation, we have got men who have on weekday nights, they go to Spokesman's Club, and they prepare thoroughly, and they come here, and they feed us. They give us material so that we can enhance our relationship with our God. It's a freedom that God gives us to be in a setting like this to enjoy the sermonettes and the various fellows who give sermon messages. We're so very blessed. You know, last time I was here, we read about our brothers and sisters in Haiti. How they've got to worry about getting to church because the country is in a state of civil war, maybe undeclared civil war. How the various shops, stores, where they can get food, if there is food to be gotten, they're guarded with people with shotguns and machine guns and so forth. And then our brethren, if they can make it past all that, they go to services, and they're behind a 10-foot masonry wall with razor wire on the top. And they go into the building, and a big metal door is shut behind them. Now, I don't know about you, but I enjoy being able to—our my worst fear, can I find a parking spot? That's my worst fear coming to this location. Can I find, is Randy DelaSantra going to have to get out there and hoof it a little ways and walk? Not having to go through, you know, the things people in Haiti do, but we are so blessed. God gives us that time to enhance our relationship with Him. Let's take a look at Isaiah 58.

You know what I'm turning to. Isaiah 58. We're going to read it anyway. Isaiah 58, verse 13. If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath from doing your pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways nor finding your own pleasure or speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the Lord. And I'll cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. Tremendous blessings come our way because we're keeping this law of freedom. Tremendous blessings. Let's go back to Deuteronomy, chapter 5. The Sabbath command is given here. Deuteronomy chapter 5.

It starts in verse 12. I'm not going to read all of this. We read the Exodus version, but I want to drop down to verse 15 here in Deuteronomy chapter 5. And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. Remember that we were slaves. You know, we may not be slaves in Egypt, but we're certainly slaves in spiritual Egypt. And God has given us freedom to honor Him, to worship Him, to spend time with Him. He's ordered us to clear our schedules. One last scripture regarding this fourth commandment is over here in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. And of course, there's so much we can say about the Sabbath. You might be able to give a sermon almost every Sabbath of the year about the Sabbath. Second Corinthians chapter 5. We know that the Sabbath is a memorial of creation, we being God's creation, the physical surroundings being His creation. But that creation is a continuing creation.

There's a physical creation, and now there is a spiritual creation taking place. Second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation. All things have passed away, behold, all things have become new. A new creation. The Sabbath is not simply a reminder of a past creation, where God finished the physical part of His creation in six days. The Sabbath, there's a spiritual aspect that is still underway. It is the primary day for concentrated development of the inner person in Jesus Christ. So, commandment number four, freedom that comes from taking the time to enhance our relationship with God. That brings us to commandment number five. Let's read that. I'll read it for you. Exodus chapter 20 and verse 12. Exodus 20 verse 12. Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God has given you. Honor your father and your mother.

The freedom here that I want to emphasize is learning a proper respect for others in our youth. Learning a proper respect for others in our youth. What would our society be like today if there was honor and respect throughout the land? We would have a totally different society today, wouldn't we? Totally different society. Yet, this is what God wants when He's taking a look at the sixth commandment. Understanding honor, understanding respect, understanding dignity. And this fifth commandment is so pivotal. Every one of the commandments are pivotal, but this one is interesting. Many people call this the bridge commandment. It's the first of the last number of commandments that deal with loving our fellow man. And as we do that, commandments five through ten, we are also showing respect for God, commandments one through four. Right? The fifth commandment introduces us to a series of commands that define proper relationships with other people. Six of the commandments, the fifth through the tenth, serve as standards of conduct. Standards of conduct in areas of human behavior. Do we need standards of conduct in this country? Do we need them worldwide?

You know, I was thinking about messages I've given in the past on this particular commandment. And since we've got so many younger people in the room, there are certain things I won't quote from previous sermons because certain things younger ears don't need to be hearing. But when I think about some of the crime that takes place in this country as a result of lack of honor, lack of respect, lack of dignity, things that would just make us weep at what one human being does to another and to realize God has set us free. As we teach our children and young people, as you learn from your mothers and your fathers, these tremendous principles, as we're going to see, this is a commandment with promise. There are freedoms that are to come your way as you obey this command. Tremendous freedoms that are to come your way. The fifth commandment sets the tone for the last six, with honor and respect. It addresses the importance of learning how to treat one another with honor and respect. How does that play out in the world to our young people? As you're going through, you know, elementary school and middle school and high school, if you are honoring and respecting your teachers, if you're honoring and respecting your peers, after you get out, you go through college and you're honoring and respecting, you know, your associates and your professors and so forth, and you get into the workplace and you're the kind of person who walks with dignity because of what you've learned from mom and dad. You're the kind of person who walks with honor and respect and you treat others around you that way. You're going to stand out. You are going to stand out and people are going to want to be having you as an employee and you will climb that ladder.

Because you honor and respect, you'll learn better. You'll be able to be mentored by your teachers. First of all, you'll learn how to be mentored by your own parents. You'll learn how to sit at their feet and listen to what they have to say. You'll learn that, you know, older people have so much to impart to you and that brings so many wonderful freedoms. It fosters a lifetime pattern of respect. A lifetime pattern of respect. And as a byproduct, learning responsibility for our own actions. How many of us in this room lament what we see in society about people not accepting responsibility for their own actions? And yet this fifth commandment, when properly obeyed, when the parents are what the parents should be, when we properly teach our children, and when our children look at mom and dad and see people they want to respect and honor, and they see the dignity that mom and dad have. And they learn lessons of taking responsibility. Mom and dad teach us responsibility. And we learn how to accept that. And it does something for our character. Let's take a look at Ephesians chapter 6. I referred to this a moment ago. Ephesians chapter 6 verse 1, Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise. That, notice verse 3, that it may be well with you, well with you. There are blessings involved as we are honoring our mothers and our fathers. It will be well with us, and that we will live long on the earth.

When I was putting my thoughts together for the message today, thinking about the parental relationship, you know, my parents, my father was not a religious man at all. And my mom, eventually, you know, she hated the fact when I started coming into the church, she hated that. But then there came a point after my dad's early death and my brother's early death where she was wondering about what she believed. And I remember one time bringing a pizza over to her home, good Italian, bringing a pizza over, it was December 25th. I just wanted to say hi. Well, she was fasting that day. And I said, Mom, why are you fasting on December 25th? And she says, I need to find out if what I'm doing is right or what you teach on the last great day is right. And she was wondering because my dad had died three years before and my brother had died just that summer. My brother at age 36. And she came into the church. In that spring, I was able to baptize her. And I got to thinking about, you know, my family, as I was growing up, neither my mom or dad were in the church. But boy, I learned so much. I learned so much from my mother and father. They made me the people that I may be the person I am today. I'm sure the same thing is true for you as you think about your mother and your father and all the blessings that you've received from from honoring and respecting them. My parents weren't perfect by any stretch. I was not a perfect parent by any stretch. But when I think about the various values, I've listed a few here. There comes these values, these freedoms. I've got here in my list, and these aren't necessarily in the right particular order. This is my thought of them. But an appreciation for family and family values. An appreciation for family. Is there an appreciation for family in our society today? Families are falling apart. People don't even have a right definition of what a family is today. And yet, because of our understanding, because of the blessing God has given to us, we can have a love and appreciation, a real love and a true appreciation, for what real family is. And that brings freedom. Knowing one mom, one dad, the nuclear family, and so forth. I've stated this before, but another thing that I put in my notes here, this six commandment talks about the value, the fifth commandment, about the value of dignity, honor, and respect. And so many times we learn things by contrast. Think about the disrespect, the dishonor we have in our society today. I watch the news and I see the people that are disrespecting one another. Now, I don't want to get political here, but how many people simply say, I won't go, you know, if we won a championship as a college team, we're not going to go to the White House if President Trump asks us to come. We don't like that guy. Years before, the same thing was true with President Obama. Now, I've got my feelings about both presidents. My feelings, in 50 cents, will give you a cup of coffee somewhere. But it's the president of the United States. There's a certain honor there. There's a certain dignity that should be there. And yet, in our society today, whether we're talking Democrats or Republicans, forget it. Forget it. There's a lack of the principles of dignity, honor, respect. And yet, this fifth commandment teaches us those valuable principles that give us freedom as we live our lives.

As we obey the fifth commandment, we learn the value of loyalty. We're loyal to our family as contrasted by selfishness, as contrasted by thinking only of the self. I can't do that because it would hurt mom and dad. I can't do that because it would hurt my siblings. I can't do that most importantly because God says I shouldn't do it. And I'm his son or I'm his daughter. I need to be loyal to God. I need to be loyal to mom and dad, my siblings.

Through the fifth commandment, we learn the idea of being able to yield to others. Mom and dad make rules. We need to abide by those rules. I can't be a law to myself. I can't say it's my way or the highway. I've got to learn to yield. I've got to learn to properly submit to authority. How many issues do we have in society today because people don't want to submit to authority? We learn that in the family. We learn to accept the influence of mentors, the influence of mentors versus learning through the school of hard knocks.

And as it says there in Ephesians, we'll live a more productive, longer life. So commandment number five gives us the freedom from learning proper respect for others as children. Lastly, commandment number six. Commandment number six, Exodus 20, verse 13. You shall not murder. You shall not murder. Exodus 20, verse 13. There's a number of ways you can state the freedom here. The way I've decided to state this is this way. Freedom from the destructiveness of anger and hatred. Freedom from the destructiveness of anger and hatred. Now, obviously, the commandment is talking about not taking a physical life. We understand that. What makes human life so precious?

Consider it from God's point of view. God has made us in His image. He's made us for the purpose of creating in us His character. He doesn't want us taking that life away. That's not our prerogative. That's only His prerogative. God wishes that all would not perish, but we should come to repentance.

God wants the whole world to accept salvation. Now, some won't. There will be a lake of fire. But not only is there the physical aspect of this commandment, but there's also a spiritual aspect of it. The spirit of murder. And this is probably more something you and I face on a regular basis. The spirit of murder. We don't want to be there. We want to be freed from that. I'd like to read to you from Matthew 5, verses 21 and 22. And I'm going to read this in a revised English Bible. Matthew 5, 21, 22.

Do we nurse anger? Do I? Do you? Christ amplified this meaning in this section of Scripture, the Sermon on the Mount, the basis of Christianity. He amplified the meaning of murder to include bitter animosity, contempt, hostility, using malicious words, attitudes toward others. Again, as I was preparing my message for today, I was looking at the subject of anger on the Internet. And there's, I don't know how many different things you can look up when it comes to anger and anger studies on the Internet. The Internet is full of that sort of thing. I found one article that I just wanted to address briefly. Ten types of anger. I'm not going to go through all ten. We're almost done. I'm going to go through a sample. Ten types of anger. What's your anger style? Article by Marcus Andrews in Anger Management. And I quote, We all have a range of anger types that we resort to when feeling threatened, disrespected, or frustrated. The type of anger we use to express our feelings and vary depending upon our mood and the circumstances we're in. It's how we manage our reaction to anger that can be the difference between creating positive change or perpetually needing to deal with the unwanted consequences of an angry outburst. One of the types that he dealt with is called behavioral anger. Behavioral anger. And we certainly want freedom from this. And as we properly obey that sixth commandment, we can have freedom from this. His definition of behavioral anger is this. Behavioral anger is expressed physically and is usually aggressive. If you're experiencing this type of anger, you may feel so overwhelmed by your emotions that you lash out at the object of your rage. This might involve physically attacking somebody, or breaking or throwing things. This type of anger can be highly unpredictable and often has negative legal and interpersonal consequences. Now, is this you and me? I doubt it. But is this the world? Is this the world? Again, as I was doing some research, I came across a study by Duke University Medical School, dated April 8, 2015. Their summary in this particular study, an estimated 9% of adults, almost 1 in 10, an estimated 9% of adults in the United States have a history of impulsive, angry behavior and have access to guns. The study also found that an estimated 1.5% of adults reporting impulsive anger carry firearms outside their homes. Now, you might think, what's 1.5%? That's nothing. Well, 350 million people, 1.5% of that, are angry and carrying guns outside the home? That's a problem. We're seeing that problem all the time. As you and I obey the Sixth Commandment, we are set free from this kind of bondage in terms of where we're at. Now, society might have the crazies out there with the weapons, but because we're obeying God and following God and looking to His law of liberty and His law, His royal law, we are free from toting our weapons and getting enraged because as Christians we realize we can't allow ourselves to go that direction. We shouldn't be carrying a weapon anyway. And to feel rage to the point where we're going to pull that out?

Let's look at Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4.

I'm going to be reading this in the New Living Translation. If you like a translation that adds a lot of color, yet is very accurate, the New Living Translation is a good one to use. New Living. This is Ephesians 4, verses 26 and 27.

Ephesians 4, verse 26. Don't let the sun go down on your wrath while you're still angry. Anger gives a mighty foothold to the devil. Very expressive. Don't sin by letting anger gain control. Anger gives a mighty foothold to the devil. We want to be free from that. The sixth commandment helps us with that. Another type of anger that this man in his article wrote about was judgmental anger.

He defines it this way. Judgmental anger is righteously indignant. This type of anger is usually a reaction to a perceived injustice or someone else's shortcoming. Although judgmental anger assumes a moral superiority stance of justifying fury, it may alienate potential allies by invalidating their differences of opinion.

Perceived injustice. Once again, when you read the newspapers and you see the people who walk into this or that location and pull out a weapon and start hurting people, so many times there is a perceived injustice. As you and I keep the sixth commandment, we are freed from that kind of thinking. We realize that God has got a plan. And that God is calling some people now and some people he's not calling now. He will call everybody at some point, but not everybody right now. And because he's not calling everybody right now, everyone doesn't have the right kind of mindset right now. We don't like living in that kind of society, but that's just the way that's the lay of the land. That's the way it is.

But we can be, you know, people can be judgmental. Turn over to Luke, yeah, Luke chapter 15.

Luke chapter 15, you've got the story of the prodigal son.

You've got the prodigal son, you've got the prodigal brother, you've got the merciful dad, you've got also, you know, any way you want to describe this particular section of Scripture. But in Luke chapter 15, you've got this discussion about the prodigal son. And in verse 28, let me get over there.

Luke chapter 15 and verse 28, talking about the brother to the prodigal son. But he was angry, it would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. So also he answered and said to his father, Lo, these many years I've been serving you. I've never transgressed your commandment at any time. And yet you never gave me a young goat, they might make me with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours who came, notice he doesn't say brother, as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed a fatted calf for him. Here is a perceived injustice on this individual's part. He had the spirit of murder there. The word angry in verse 28, from Vincent's word studies of the New Testament, means a deep-seated wrath. A deep-seated wrath. The same word from Robertson's word pictures in the New Testament says, he became angry. He flew into a range. This was the explosion as a result of long resentment toward the wayward brother and suspicion of the father's partiality for the erring son.

Judgmental anger. We can be free from that. As you and I obey that royal law, that law of liberty. One last one I want to cover with you. This is the cover three of the ten. Verbal anger. Verbal anger.

Verbal anger is often seen as less dangerous than behavioral anger, but it can be just a form of emotional and psychological abuse that deeply hurts the target of one's anger. Verbal abuse may be expressed as furious, shouting, threats, ridicule, sarcasm, intense blaming or criticism. If you've lashed out at someone verbally, it's common to feel ashamed, apologetic and regretful afterwards. Using words and speech to deliberately or maliciously harm the name of others is equally wrong.

In other words, what we're looking at here with verbal anger is verbal bullying. Verbal bullying. And you and I as Christians, as we keep the sixth commandment, as we avoid these kinds of angers, as we release the poisons that are inside of us through the mechanism of forgiveness. And we've talked about this in the past. We don't forgive others because it helps the other guy. We are forgiving toward others because it helps us. We are forgiving of others because it helps us release the poison. We're not saying what the other person did is right. We're not condoning it or anything like that. But we say, you know, I'm not going to let what they did to me destroy me by getting so deeply bitter in my soul that it turns me into something I don't want to be.

And by understanding the value of that sixth commandment, not murdering, not allowing those kinds of thoughts, the penance— you know, we're not going to touch anybody— but not even allowing the thoughts of disrespect and dishonor to go to others. You just have to realize, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. It seems like somebody we respect a very great deal said that once upon a time. Let's look at James chapter one.

James chapter one.

Verse 19 and 20.

So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

Slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

Commandment number six. Freedom from the destructiveness of anger and hatred. So today, brethren, we've covered three of the commandments. Next time I'm with you, I'm going to have to work hard to get four in. I do want to get this done in three sermons. I will not see you again until August. Next week I'll be in Beloit, and the week after that I'll be in Michigan spoiling grand babies. So I'm looking forward to that. But today we've covered three commandments. Commandment number four. Freedom that comes from taking the time to enhance our relationship with God. That gives us freedom. Commandment number five. Freedom that comes from learning a proper respect for others as children, setting the tone for the rest of our life. And commandment number six. Freedom from the destructiveness of anger and hatred. Next time we'll finish up.