God's Way of Life

The reason I'm giving this is because here in the month of July, we, as Americans, we associate the concept of freedom with this month, specifically the 4th of July. On that date, the Continental Congress declared the 13 American colonies were no longer subject to Britain. We declared our independence. It was actually thought that we were going to do that on July 2nd, but the actual official declaration didn't take place until July 4th. And of course, we, as Christians, enjoy the freedoms we have through God's riches, the riches of God's grace, the spiritual freedoms, freedom from superstitions, from spiritual error, from deception, from guilt, from all the various things that so many people are held into bondage with in this world. When you take a look at the world's religions and you see what some people labor under in the world, you and I have been given such freedom with God's truth, and hopefully we appreciate that. Let's turn over to Luke 4. This is all by way of introduction. I covered most of this portion last week, or last time I was here. Luke 4, verse 16.

Now, let us not take the liberty we have for granted. We've got people in this world who do all sorts of horrible things to themselves. They flagellate themselves with whips. They crawl on glass. They do all these horrible things in the name of religion. Now, some of these religionists would talk about how we are in bondage because we keep the law of God. We're not in bondage. Each and every one of God's laws is a law of freedom and characterized by many freedoms. That's why the title of the sermon last time and this time, God's Way of Life, is characterized by freedom. Freedom, true freedom, comes from abiding in God's law, abiding in the Word of God. Each of the Ten Commandments are a guide to the good life. Think what this world would be like if just one of the Ten Commandments was kept by everybody on this planet. Just think of the changes that would take place, the blessings that would take place. This is one of the reasons why God calls His law the royal law. God calls His law the law of liberty. As we went through last time, we went through three of the commandments last time. We'll go through three commandments today. Then I will use a shoehorn to get four commandments in the last one in this series. Last time, we took a look at commandment number one. The freedom we see with commandment number one is knowing life's first priority. Knowing life's first priority. We don't have to wonder what we should be doing with our lives. We don't have to wonder and waste time going down different rabbit holes or going through to dead ends as what we should be doing in our lives. We know what life's first priority is. It's honoring God above all else. The second commandment, the freedom I see here, is knowing the proper way to worship God. The proper way to worship God. Not all these false ways. And again, I may mention last time about people who have various weird things they do. And we're talking about in Christianity to worship God, but they're worshiping God in vain. They're not properly worshiping the true God. In commandment number three, we were talking about having a proper respect going through the names of God. A proper respect for God. A proper respect. If we don't properly respect our God, then we've got nothing. We're not going to properly worship Him. We're not going to properly have the first priority of life. All of the commandments of God, they interact. They interlock one with another. Okay, that was what we covered last time. Now we're getting into new materials, starting with where we're at right here. Commandment number four. Commandment number four. Let's read it here in Exodus chapter 20 verses 8 through 11. Exodus chapter 20 verse 8.

God basically commands us to clear our schedules. Our hectic, everyday schedules. He commands us to rest because if we didn't rest, we wouldn't do it. Rest both physically and rest spiritually. We live in a dog-eat-dog society. As I was preparing the message, I was looking at the internet and I saw any number of things I could have quoted to you. But I saw one article that really, I think, says a lot. The article was written by Sean Bryant. It was written on June 25th of this year, so it was a very recent article. And the title of the article was, Five Signs You're Being Overworked at Your Job. Now, are you being overworked at your job? I'll quote his article, a portion of it. 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 important to recognize the signs of when being overworked is reaching a dangerous level. Here are five of those signals. Number one, 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. Number four, you feel like you'll never catch up. And number five, your health is visibly deteriorating. I see, brethren, people in the world, they are so many, so many people are suffering from these things. You and I have the Sabbath where God says, clear your schedule and rest. Now, because we keep the Sabbath, does that mean we still can't overwork ourselves on the other six days? Well, of course we can. Absolutely we can. I've been a Sabbath keeper since I was 15 years old.

And yet, I've also had jobs, just like probably almost everybody in this room, where I put in a 70 plus hour week in six days, sometimes in five days. And those are hard. Now, I would say this, if we are working to the place where, you know, 70 hour, 80 hour weeks, where priority number one is slipping, and we're not doing the things we should be doing in terms of having that relationship with God, then it's like we used to teach the people when I was living in North Carolina.

In North Carolina, the tobacco trade, especially when I was there in the 1980s, was a very big thing, very big employer. And I thought it was interesting. One time I had to do a funeral. I went to the funeral parlor, and there in the funeral parlor was this very large framed, I don't know if you'd call it a picture or what you'd call it, because inside the frame was a very large tobacco leaf. Now, I thought if that was any place to put a tobacco leaf, it would be in a funeral home.

But back in those days, when people would come into the church, and they were working in the tobacco industry, we would tell them, you need to be working your way out of that industry. That's not something a Christian should be doing. And I would say the same thing. If you or any that you know who want to be Christians are working so many hours that you're not having a relationship with God, basically we're scheduling God out of our lives, then we need to be working our way out of that occupation or out of that particular job.

So yes, we can still overwork ourselves even keeping the Sabbath, but keeping the Sabbath should teach us so many other things that are so very important to us in terms of having that day of rest to enhance our relationship with God. And God wants more than just one day a week for us to enhance our relationship with Him. You know, in this country, going back to the reason I gave this, giving this series of sermons, the rights and liberties that we as Americans cherish were enumerated in the Constitution that was drafted in 1787. But not everything we value was in the Constitution. Something else needed to be added in addition to our Constitution.

It was called the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights was adopted on December the 15th, 1791. And it's interesting, as a country, what we wrote in amendment number one. And I'm sure I probably speak for all of us. I have been so grateful when I look at the history of our country. Knowing the men and women God gave us at that point in our nation's history. You know, the George Washingtons, the Ben Franklins, the Thomas Jeffersons, you know, all those people, you know, they weren't perfect people.

They had their share of issues. We all do. But for carnal people, the minds they had, the vision they had, the outlook they had, God gave us those people. Now, our Constitution is not something that's inspired like the Bible. I'm not saying that. Not like the Bible, but I feel it was inspired. It's a tremendous document, a very beautiful document. And so are the Bill of Rights. Bill of Rights, amendment number one. I'll read it. 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 redress of grievances. That's it. That's the whole First Amendment. Freedom. Notice the very first thing mentioned. Freedom of religion. It's so very important. Let's take a look at Genesis chapter two.

And we have freedom from false religion because we obey the laws of God. And in this case, we're speaking specifically about the Sabbath day. Genesis chapter two, verse one. Thus the heavens and the earth and all the host of them were finished, and on the seventh day God had ended his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he had rested from all of his work which he had created and made.

No other day was so blessed. No other day was sanctified or set aside. No other day did God do something very special by ending his work. So the seventh day, the Sabbath day, was a very special day of creation.

Physical creation had ended, but as we're going to see in a few moments, spiritual creation is still taking place. Our Creator freed us up on our schedules so that we can follow life's first priority, so we can worship the true God, so we can respect the true God.

As I was putting my thoughts together regarding this particular commandment, thinking about the freedoms we have with the Sabbath.

Now, I came into the church as a young kid. I didn't come in as a 40-year-old or 50-year-old, but in talking to many people who came in later on in life, and as they discuss with me, the freedoms they felt with the Sabbath. Here are some of the things they would say.

Well, you know, Mr. Del Sandro, it's so relaxing knowing that on Friday night, I don't have to do paperwork. I don't have to do office work. I don't have to do anything related to any work at all. On Friday night, I'm going to spend the evening with family or friends or both.

That's relaxing.

I realize that on Friday night when I go to bed, I don't have to worry about going to work the next day. I'm not going to work the next day. I realize when I go to bed, my head hits that pillow on Friday night. I'm going to not have to rejoin the rat race the next day. I realize the next morning, like we do here in Beloit, over in Hinsdale, I don't have to get up real early.

I can sleep in. I can get up. I can enjoy that leisurely cup of coffee. I can have a nice breakfast. I can study the Bible. I have all the time that I would like to study the Bible or extra prayer. I can look forward to coming here to services. Now, we've got a little band here.

It's a lovely band of brothers and sisters. And we look forward to coming to this group, every Sabbath. You know, one person said, Spirit is thicker than blood.

And we come here and we enjoy when we look forward to coming here. We look forward to them, to the messages. We look forward to the song service. We look forward to the fellowship.

That is a relaxing thing. That is a restful thing. It frees us from the people at work.

I was relating last week in Hinsdale when I was giving this message to some people afterwards as I was talking about the message. In 1998, the church was in a lot of financial difficulty. I had just moved to Michigan and had just purchased a home with all the obligations that come with that. I signed for my home, closed on the whole new home on Friday. And then on Sunday morning, I got a phone call. Randy, you know that the church is going through some really hard times and we're putting you on half salary. I was thinking it was going to be tough to make those payments as it was without being on half salary. So we want you to continue to pastor your two churches. Try to spend about 30 hours a week with your two churches. And then we want you to get out there and maybe work 30-40 hours to pay for your living.

Before being hired as a minister full-time, I spent two and a half years as a warehouse manager, seven and a half years in sales. So I returned to what I knew. I didn't want to go back into sales at that point because I didn't think this was going to last very long, but it lasted almost a year.

But I went back and I started working for a warehouse. And the warehouse I worked for in 1998 for 30 hours a week was a warehouse that fed these stores around the country called Sweet Ideas. Sweet Ideas was a store where you bought little confectionaries, different kinds of candies, little toys, and things like that. My job was to when an order came in for a church in Portland, Oregon or Portland, Maine, or wherever to take the order, grab everything out of the warehouse, put it on a pallet, palletize it, and ship it out. But the thing that was troubling to me, and this is the truth, as Jack Parr would say, I kid you not, the number one reason people wouldn't come to work at that warehouse is because they had to go see their parole officer. It was a rough place, and the language was exceedingly rough to the point where I was really concerned that when on the Sabbath day I was speaking that maybe some of those words would slip out. Well, that never happened. The point I'm making is when I'm with you, your language is nothing like that. You're God's people. You're very special people. I can relax, and I did relax back in those days realizing I was going to church. I wasn't in that warehouse where people are talking about all these awful things all the time non-stop. Some of you work in that same kind of environment. It frees us up to be able to come here to Sabbath services with our spiritual family.

Let's take a look at Isaiah chapter 58. You probably know where I'm turning. Isaiah chapter 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 nor speaking your own words, then you should 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. We are blessed. We are given freedoms of understanding the true God, the true way of living, and we're not shackled by the way the world lives. One last comment regarding this particular commandment. Let's go to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

The Sabbath day portrays God as creator, but the Sabbath is not simply a reminder of past creation. God finished the physical part of his creation in six days, but God is still creating spiritually. He's creating spiritually this very second in this very room. And the Sabbath is a reminder of that. The Sabbath enhances that. Second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17.

So commandment number four gives us the freedom from taking the time to enhance our relationship with God. That brings us to commandment number five. Let me read this. It's in Exodus chapter 20 in 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 is giving you. Honor your father and your mother. The freedom here is learning a proper respect for others as children. Learning a proper respect for others as children.

To honor means to esteem, to hold in high respect, high regard, to value somebody. The fifth commandment introduces us to a series of commandments to define proper relationships with other people. This fifth commandment many times is referred to as the bridge commandment. The bridge commandment because the fifth through the tenth commandment serve as standards of conduct in areas of human behavior. Now let me ask you a question. How much honor and respect are we seeing in today's society? We're not seeing much at all, are we? We're seeing an awful lot of dishonor and disrespect in society today. If this commandment were obeyed, we would have the freedom of being away from a society that is full of dishonor and disrespect.

The fifth commandment sets the tone for the last six commandments. It addresses the importance of our learning how to treat each other with respect and with honor, with dignity. Is that a word we even think of in our society today? Dignity. It embeds these concepts in our mind as children at an early age. Learning to obey this commandment frees our children for the rest of their lives to establish a lifetime pattern of respecting others. Respecting rules. Respecting traditions. Respecting laws and principles. Where our children grow of learning that honoring others should be a normal, natural habit. Today we've got juvenile delinquency. We've got the gangs issue and so on by very young people.

Years ago there was a parade. I don't know if it was the Fourth of July parade or what kind of a parade it was. I forget now. There was a parade in a little town and the parade had its floats and on one of the floats was a number of young ladies. They were, I don't know if they were beauty queens or what they were, but they were a number of young ladies on this one particular float and one young man jumped onto the middle of the street with an Uzi and shot one of the young ladies dead. And he was later questioned as to why he did that.

He said, well, I want to be a part of this particular gang and so for me to be a part of this gang I need a rep. I need a reputation and the best rep to have is you kill somebody. So he took it upon himself to dishonor that young lady and to kill her. To kill her. And how many other stories like that do we see around the world?

You know, we're so fortunate in our country with the laws we have. Certainly we've got a crime like I just made mention of, but in some countries you've got militias that go to villages. They hijack all the young people, especially the young boys, and they put them into their militia. They're taught in an early age how to use weapons, how to kill. They don't learn honor. They don't learn respect. They don't learn dignity. So when I say we, by keeping this commandment, there are freedoms involved.

There are tremendous freedoms involved by keeping the fifth commandment.

The fifth commandment also teaches us to learn responsibility for our own conduct.

There's an awful lot of adults who don't get that point. To take responsibility. We should be learning that as a result of keeping the fifth commandment. How many people today are not responsible enough for their own conduct, for their own character? Let's take a look at Ephesians 6.

Ephesians 6, starting in verse 1. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right, honoring your father and mother, which is the first commandment, with promise. What's that promise? Verse 3. Here's the promise. That it may be well with you, and you may live long on the earth. It's a dual promise.

That you may be well with you, and you may live long on the earth.

Freedoms that are given as a result of this commandment. As I was thinking about this, and sometimes we understand things by way of contrast, let's understand this fifth commandment in terms of the freedoms, in terms of having a proper respect for others as we learn that respect as children. The fifth commandment teaches us to love and appreciate family and family relationships.

To appreciate family and family relationships.

That is such an important thing. The American family is under attack. I don't know how many of you in this room are divorced. I'm a divorced man.

I was married 29 years and got a divorce from my college sweetheart. Mary is the divorced person. Both of us are in our second marriages. I can tell you point blank how destructive a divorce can be. We want to make sure we appreciate family and family values, both physically and spiritually.

We appreciate the value of dignity, honor, and respect. Again, think about the other side of the coin. Where there is a lack of dignity, where there's a lack of honor, where there's a lack of respect. When there is proper dignity, proper honor, proper respect, there is freedom in that.

In there is bondage when there's a lack of dignity, and lack of honor, and lack of respect.

As the Fifth Commandment is kept, children at a young age learn loyalty. They're loyal to a larger constellation. They're loyal to a family. They don't think just about themselves. They're not selfish.

They're loyal to a larger group. By keeping this commandment, our young children learn to yield to others.

There's a freedom there, because the contrast there is people want to have their way or the highway philosophy. That's a very destructive philosophy. So we learn to yield to others through the Fifth Commandment. Through the Fifth Commandment, people learn to properly submit to authority.

Submit to authority, in contrast to the lawless behavior we see in gangs and in the crime in this country. By keeping the Fifth Commandment, having respect for others that we learn as children, we accept the influence of mentors.

Mary has worked with some very interesting, very fine people, but some very interesting people. There was one person when we were in Michigan, I believe it was, where this person would come to Mary who could have mentored this individual, come to Mary and say, well, how do I do this?

Then Mary would explain how that's to be done. Then the person would say, well, I knew that.

I knew that. There's a value to be able to accept the influence of mentors.

The contrast to that is learning through the School of Hard Knocks.

So Commandment number five, freedom from learning, freedom by learning, a proper respect for others as children.

Commandment number six, let's read that. Last commandment we'll go through today. Commandment number six, very short, Exodus chapter 20 verse 30, Exodus 20 verse 13, you shall not murder. You shall not murder.

Here the freedom is a freedom from the destructiveness of anger and hatred.

Mr. Demergen talked about that earlier today.

The freedom from the destructiveness of anger and hatred.

Now, obviously, the Commandment, you shall not murder. You shall not take life. You shall not take life in any way. Warfare, you know, as a criminal murdering somebody, that is not to be done.

But what I want to focus is something, you know, I don't know that any of us in this room have ever taken a life. I don't know, maybe some of us in the past have been in the military, maybe in the military we've taken life, I don't know. But I want to look at something that really touches all of us, or could touch all of us, and that is the spirit of murder, the spirit of murder. Let's take a look at Matthew 5, verses 21 and 22. I'm going to read these in the Revised English Bible. Matthew 5, verses 21 and 22, from the Revised English Bible. It says this, Do not commit murder. Anyone who commits murder will be brought to justice. But what I tell you is this, anyone who nurses anger against his brother must be brought to justice. Whoever calls his brother good for nothing deserves the sentence of the court. Whoever calls him a fool deserves hellfire. But notice, anyone who nurses anger. Mr. Demergin very properly talked about how we need to diffuse the anger that is in us. We need to let go of those poisons that are welling up in us from time to time. Christ amplified the meaning of murder to include bitter animosity, contempt, or hateful hostility toward others. Merely harboring malicious attitudes towards others violates the intent of this commandment. And it's destructive.

Now again, as I was doing research for the sermon today, I ran across a number of articles on anger. They're all over the place. One in particular struck my eye.

The title is 10 Types of Anger. What's Your Anger Style? An article by Marcus Andrews in Anger Management. I'm not going to go through all 10 of those, but I do want to go through a few of those. We have freedom from the destructiveness of this anger and this and could be hatred.

I just want to quote a little bit from the article. 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 can 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. Now, I want to take a look at just three of these 10 that he brought up. And you can decide whether this defines you to any degree. Behavioral anger. He defined, this man defines it this way. 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 someone or breaking or throwing things. This type of anger can be highly unpredictable and often has negative legal and interpersonal consequences.

Now, I don't know that this typifies or defines anybody in this room, but let's go further with this. Duke University Medical Center on April the 8th, 2015 released a paper, a study. Of course, Duke Medical is one of the foremost institutions in this country. And I thought this was so interesting regarding anger and outbursts and destructiveness. The summary of their paper was this. An estimated 9% of adults in the United States have a history of impulsive angry behavior and have access to guns, according to this study. The study also found that an estimated 1.5% of adults report impulsive anger and carry firearms outside their homes. So if we've got 350 million people in this country and 1.5% of them are angry and carry weapons, I think we're fortunate we only see the mayhem we see on the news.

It could be far worse if 1.5%... I mean, you can do the math as to how many thousands of people this would be walking around the streets of our nation who are angry and angry. See, this commandment deals with this. We can have freedom from these kinds of impulses.

Another type of anger is labeled as judgmental anger. This, I think, strikes maybe a little closer to home, to more of us. I don't think many of us are wanting to go around with the weapons shooting people. We're not going to be able to do that. We're going to be able to be able to go around with the weapons shooting people. But perhaps this might be a little more closer to home. Judgmental anger. Judgmental anger is righteous indignance. This type of anger is usually a reaction to a perceived injustice or someone else's shortcoming. Although judgmental anger assumes a morally superior stance or justified fury, it may alienate potential allies by invalidating their difference of opinion.

A reaction to a perceived injustice. Have you perceived yourself to be having somebody unjustly treated you or said something to you that shouldn't have been said?

Let's go to Luke chapter 15. We're going to see something that we all know so very well. It's the parable of the prodigal son. Luke chapter 15. It goes from verse 11 through verse 32. We're not going to go through all of that. I do want to read just one verse of the story. And this is a verse that deals with the... I'll read a couple of verses. This deals with the brother of the prodigal son and the rage that he felt.

Let's start in verse 25. Now his older son was in the field and as he came and drew near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.

And he said, your brother has come and because he has received and he has received him safe and sound. Your father has killed a fatted calf. But he was angry. It would not go in. Therefore, his father came out and pleaded with him. He was angry. There was a perceived injustice. He had been a faithful son. He had been there all the time with dad. He had done his chores. His brother took his inheritance and wasted it. He lived a profligate lifestyle. There was an injustice here. And the Bible says in verse 28, he was angry.

He was angry. Now Vincent's word studies of the New Testament looks at this word angry and this is the definition. Not a mere temporary fit of passion, but with a deep seated wrath.

There was a deep seated wrath here. Robertson wore his pictures in the New Testament and talking about the word angry. And here in verse 28 says this, he became angry. He flew into a rage. 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. See, when we properly keep this commandment about not murdering, we free ourselves from all this kind of horrible passion that's negative. We free ourselves from the upset stomach, the ulcers, the high blood pressure, and all the things that go with this. And so we are free. The last of these angers I want to talk about that cause destruction and violence in our lives. Again, this is a little more to the point for so many of us, either in terms of us having experienced this or us having done it, is verbal anger.

Verbal anger. Verbal anger is often seen as the less dangerous than behavioral anger, but it can be a form of emotional and psychological abuse that deeply hurts the target of one 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. With tongue or pen, we can attack them verbally. We can assault their respectability by undermining or destroying their reputations. Or, as one man said, it can be like verbal bullying.

Have you been the victim of verbal bullying? Have people come to you and just wreck your day, wreck your week, wreck every time you go into work because of the way they treat you and the way things they say to you and the little comments they make? Because we keep the commandment that says not to murder, not to be a verbal bully, we free ourselves from that kind of destructiveness in our lives. Let's go to James, Chapter 1.

Last scripture for today. James, Chapter 1.

James, Chapter 1, 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.

Swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. So today, brethren, we've taken a look at three more of the commandments. Commandments number four, five, and six. We've seen that God's way of life is characterized by freedom.

Commandment number four, freedom that comes from taking the time to enhance our relationship with the only true God. Commandment number five, freedom that comes from learning a proper respect for others. And, commandment number six, freedom from the destructiveness of anger and hatred.