Sermon
Ten Keys To An Abundant Life - Part 2
October 3, 2004
Pastor Leighton Sheley

I'm going to invite you to take your Bibles and open to Exodus chapter 20. And while you're doing that just to let you know this week we're only going to try to cover one commandment, the fourth commandment, and I think that it's important because there's a lot that we can learn from the Sabbath.

Today we begin part two of a series entitled "Ten Keys To An Abundant Life", and these ten keys are based upon the Ten Commandments of God, which are also known as the Decalogue. Now this code of behavior is unique in all of human history because it's the only code of behavior that was given by God. And to assure that there would be no question as to the source of it, God appeared to the whole nation of Israel, two or three million people, to witness the delivery of this code in front of Mount Sinai. It's the only time in recorded history where God appeared to an entire nation.

Now the benefits of these Ten Commandments upon nations who build their social structures upon them is historically validated. And where the Commandments have not been embraced, slavery, torture, and genocide abound. I'm sure we've all been horrified to see pictures of men, women, and children being tortured and murdered in soccer fields by the Taliban and Saddam's henchmen.

The Ten Commandments were central to English law from the very beginning. King Alfred the Great, King of Wessex from 871 AD, placed the Decalogue as a prefix to his own legal code and therefore it should not come as a surprise to us to find the roots of America integration of the dictates of the Decalogue, or the Ten Commandments.

Of the 13 original colonies only Rhode Island did not incorporate the entire Decalogue, or Ten Commandments, into the Civil Code of laws. John Quincy Adams, who bore arms during the Revolution, served under four presidents, became president himself, and then declined a nomination to the Supreme Court under President Madison said, the law given from Sinai was a civil and municipal as well as moral and religious code of universal application laws essential to the existence of men in society.

Now the amount of documentation concerning the biblical basis of American government and law is staggering. It is overwhelming when you take a look at it, and if you would like more information I could direct you to www.wallbuilders.com. Wall builders as in Nehemiah building the wall -- wallbuilders.com

Now most Christians today are of Gentile descent not Jewish, but the first Christians were predominantly Jewish, in fact, Jesus and the 12 apostles were all Jewish. So when the flood of Gentiles came into the church the apostles gathered together to seek God's will concerning them. This is recorded for us in Acts chapter 15. Where the Gentiles going to be required to keep Jewish laws? And James answered, he said, the apostle James, "It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood."

Now these four directives handed down to us by the apostles did not include observing the Sabbath, so though it may not be required of us, observing the Sabbath is still beneficial as we shall see. Now it should be clarified that observing the Ten Commandments was never intended to be a way of salvation. That was written clearly for us in Romans 3:20, when he wrote, no one can be made right in God's sight by doing what his law commands. We are made right in God's sight when we trust in Jesus to take away our sins.

Now God provide the Ten Commandments for our benefit. He provided them so that the we would know, that is be without excuse, our rebellious and sinful condition and realize our need for His salvation by grace through faith. And God provide for the Ten Commandments as a code of conduct for a long and happy life and a safe and prosperous community.

Now language experts group the word Sabbath with a verb meaning to cease, stop, to stop working, celebrate, or to rest. But there are others who believe that the meaning is not so much to rest, but to cease or to be finished, meaning a day which stops something which marks a limit or division. Now by inference that also means that it marks a new beginning. The end of one week is the beginning of a new week marked by the Sabbath.

Now I'd like to quickly go over some verses that reference the Sabbath in a chronological order so that you can see a pattern that develops. The first occurrence of the word Sabbath is found in Exodus chapter 16 in which God is giving instructions concerning manna. And the passage suggests that this institution of the Sabbath was something that was unknown to the people of Israel. In fact, the people of Israel had spent 400 years in Egypt where they had a ten-day week, and here God was introducing a seven-day week.

The prohibition against gathering on the 7th day for 40 years in the wilderness experience prepared the nation of Israel to observe the Sabbath.

Now the second reference is found in Exodus chapter 20 where we find the Ten Commandments, and here we find an explicit command by God that it is to be kept holy.

The third reference is found in Exodus 23:12, and in it, it reveals a concern by God for livestock, slaves, and aliens. In Exodus 31:12-17, God now signifies that keeping the Sabbath will be an identifying symbol of Israel as been His people, as being holy, and it was now enforceable by threat of death.

In Exodus 34:21 a line is added, even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest. And then when Moses gathered together the congregation in Exodus chapter 35, Moses added, did not light a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day. Now, then you needed a fire in your dwelling in order to do cooking, and so what Moses was saying is do your cooking the day before; which ladies if you've been looking for an excuse not to cook on Sunday, you have it. And if you've been looking for an excuse for leftovers, you have it.

Now there are three references in the book of Leviticus to the Sabbath, and in Deuteronomy 5:12-15 Moses again repeats and adds ox and ass to the list of workers. If you watch this pattern you'll see that the basic foundation of this commandment expands to apply to differing condition for the nation of Israel. For instance, when the nation was nomadic they were wandering about the wilderness for those 40 years then staying at home for one day a week differentiated that particular day. Now when the nation settled down and became farmers in an agrarian society then the Sabbath was applied do not go and plow or harvest, and then when Israel developed into a commercial nation, additional prohibitions were made against carrying wares and buying and selling on the Sabbath.

Now the last reference that I had in Deuteronomy was immediately followed by reminding the people of Israel that they had been slaves in Egypt and the Lord had brought them out with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. So evidently God intended the day of rest to remind the nation of Israel that they had no rest when they were in Egypt. In Egypt they were slaves 24/7, and the day of rest was to remind them they had no rest.

Now the Jews observe the Sabbath on Saturdays, why do Christians worship on Sundays? And historians tell us that the early church took the Sabbath and celebrated it on Sunday in honor of Jesus' resurrection. And perhaps it was because Sunday was the day that stopped something, namely, looking forward to God's salvation. You see on Sunday, on resurrection day, when Jesus came out of that tomb, we were no longer looking forward to God providing His salvation, salvation had come in Jesus Christ. And so the early church demarks Sunday as a day of remembrance for that.

But the Scriptures seem to indicate that it really doesn't have to be Saturday or Sunday. Romans 14:5 says, "One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord."

And then in Colossians 2:16 it says, do not let anyone judge you with regard to a religious festival or Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

Now reading in Exodus 20:8 and following, the fourth commandment: "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."

Now if you like to mark your Bibles may I suggest circling or underlining the words remember, holy, and shall not work. And I'd like to take our study today with these points, but in reverse order. You shall not work, keep it holy, and remember the Sabbath.

The first point is you shall not do any work. The word Sabbath means day of rest. Now because He created us God knows what is best for us, and in Mark 2:27 Jesus said, the Sabbath was made to benefit man, not man for the Sabbath. In other words, the Sabbath is for our benefit. You see God did not design man to run perpetually and run continuously. God designed man to enjoy work then enjoy rest.

Let me propose to you that God enjoyed work. In fact He took pleasure in evaluating His work. On creation days He would get to the end and He would say it was good. Now just about all scholars agree that it was an evaluation of His workmanship, but there is also another level of meaning, it was an expression of personal satisfaction.

Have you ever come to the end of a day and you got most of the things on your to do list done? Isn't there a sense of satisfaction? Say yeah, we did good today. God got satisfaction out of His work, and He got satisfaction out of doing good work and so should we. Every child of God should reflect excellence in all we do. We should be the best salespeople, managers, workers, drivers, fathers, mothers, whatever it is that we do, and at the end of each day we should look at our work and we should be able to say it is good.

Now on the sixth day we should be able to have a day of rest. Men, if you ever needed an excuse for a Sunday nap, you have it. Yeah. Furthermore, God provided it. And you never need to feel guilty about taking it. You need it. God designed to you to have it. It's not in your best interest to ignore it, and God promises to bless you if you observe the Sabbath faithfully.

Now the owner of Svenhard's bakery took God's promise seriously. If you've gone to any Albertson's or Safeway, whatever, you've probably seen Svenhard's bakery goods there. When Mr. Svenhard opened his business the manufacturer of the ovens that he chose came in and said, now Mr. Svenhard, these ovens were designed to run 24/7. You should leave them on. If you turn them off then the metal cools and metal constricts and expands and there are going to be additional costs for maintenance, they won't last as long, and so forth. But Mr. Svenhard decided he would trust God rather than the oven manufacturer's design and God blessed him and his business, and his ovens, because they lasted much longer than the design specification.

A number of years back I read an article that talked about the false economy of America. The author suggested that the gross national product was not really an accurate measurement of the health of America's economy. Why? Because the average work week had expanded.

Now the human body can work overtime, but not for an indefinite period of time. And recent studies are indicating that a significant part of health costs being born upon America's businesses is the result of accumulated fatigue in the American workforce. Inc Magazine did a study a few years back and found that 62 percent of Americans said I have burned out or I'm well on my way to burning out. Someone has said if you burn the candle on both ends, you're probably not as bright as you think.

I believe that this commandment has even greater benefit to people of our generation, and let me tell you why. I think things have changed. I think the days are longer. Now it has nothing to do with the orbit of the earth or anything like that, it has to do with electricity and light bulbs and that television set. You see before electricity and light bulbs and television sets, people used to sleep longer. In fact I think some places I've read the average sleep was about nine hours. Now when they do their studies, the sleep is coming in at seven or less hours for typical Americans, because the length of days are longer. Things have changed.

And let me suggest to you that the pace of life has changed as well. You know, you hear the promises time and time again; this technology is going to improve your life. It's going to give you more time. You know I haven't found a piece of technology that does that yet. When the plane came out to replace the train...you remember the train. If you had business to do in Chicago you get on the train early Monday morning, you stayed on for 48 hours, you got to Chicago, you take care of your business, you get on the train... Now when they have the airplane they say, well listen, hop on the plane early in the morning, go and have lunch, do your business in Chicago, and you'll be home in the evening for your kids. Did that happen?

I think people are in Chicago on Monday, Houston on Tuesday, Washington D.C. on Wednesday, and so forth.

How about computers? You remember the typewriter? They came out with the computer and said it's going to make your job easier. Now instead of having to retype the whole page all you do is go on your word processor, make your modifications, and reprint it. Has that helped us? Now we have to print 100 pages. We've got more work because of the technology.

Cell phones...they're going to give you freedom. Let me suggest to you all they did was lengthen your chain. Now what are the results of these changes? Sleep deprivation. Now there are a lot of studies that have been done on sleep deprivation, but I want to focus on just one point of it. You know that sleep deprivation is the most common form of torture used today by intelligence agencies. Because they can extract whatever information they need without laying a finger on the person being interrogated. All they do is deny that person sleep and pretty soon the person can't think, they can't process, their values are all out of whack, they don't know what's what, what's up, what's down, what's right, what's wrong, what's secret and what's not. There are able to extract the information.

Some people have wondered if this is related to why Americans can't seem to think anymore -- sleep deprivation. So why torture yourself?

An old Indian parable says you break the bow if it's always bent. Rubber bands lose their elasticity when they are continuously stretched. Human beings were not designed to be continuously stretched, and neither were they designed to be continuously at rest. Jesus knew the importance of rest. In Mark 6:31 He said, because so many people were coming and going so that they did not even have a chance to eat, He (Jesus) said to them (the disciples), "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." Jesus protected the health of His disciples.

Now these bodies that God has given us are the temples of the Holy Spirit and we should take care of this temple.

Second point -- keep it holy. Not only is the Sabbath day a day of rest, but it's also a holy day. Now Americans have turned Sunday into fun day. Many Christians don't consider Sunday a holy day, or even a holy morning, or a holy hour. They give God only a passing glance and they instead focus on their own pleasures and their own plan. And God addresses this through His prophet Isaiah when he says, If because of the Sabbath you turn your foot from doing your pleasure on My day, and the call the Sabbath a delight, an honor it, and take delight in the Lord, I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth.

You see the Sabbath was a day that was intended for us to set aside our pleasures and our plans and instead take delight in the Lord. And if we observe the Sabbath with a proper heart we will ride on the heights of the earth. Now I was thinking about that description, ride upon the heights of the earth, and I want to suggest to you that the heights give great perspective. It allows you to see a bigger picture. Most people in their homes they can see the neighbor's home across the street, and maybe the back fence and things like that. I've been very fortunate because I live on the side of the tall, steep hill, and I'm able to look out and I'm able to see the San Francisco airport, and San Francisco Bay, and I'm able to have a bigger picture.

Now being in the heights allows you to see the bigger pictures. Now in the mundane things of life, the daily activities, the speed of our lives, our perspectives are usually brought down and down and down, and focused to the point that we're only focusing on where we're at, where we're going, what we have to do, the bills that are coming up, the 'to do' list, etc. And we're so busy and we're running so fast, and so continuously, that we fail to stop and take a look at the bigger picture. We fail to stop and audit and balance our life.

I was thinking about that word balance our life and I recall when I was a young guy I wanted to be a submariner. I wanted to go into the nuclear navy, and I went to the library and I studied up on submarines. And in World War II submarines were diesel electric. They had to come to the surface every day to recharge their batteries and get fresh air, and so forth.

But there were the submarines out called nuclear submarines. And they were just tearing up the ocean. They didn't have to come to the surface for air. They weren't measured in days. They were measured in months and years, and all kinds of records were being broken by these submarines. One of them was a run across the Atlantic, I think it was by the Nautilus, fully submerged the whole distance out over thirty knots. And one of them went underneath the North Pole.

Now one of these nuclear submarines was very unique, it was very special, it was called the USS Triton. And this submarine was huge. This submarine was so big the navy didn't build one that was larger until more than 20 years later. This submarine was so huge it didn't have one nuclear reactor; it had two. In fact, to my knowledge, it's the only USS submarine that had two nuclear reactors. And on its maiden voyage it was given a very special task. It was going to be the first submarine in history to circumnavigate the entire globe fully submerged -- and they didn't. They left in February of 1960 on the 16th. From New Connecticut they traveled 41,500 miles at an average speed of 21 knots. It lasted 84 days. The first time any crew had been under for that kind of the time. It was a huge ship.

Now before I explain what I need to explain, I need to explain this - buoyancy. A boat sits on top of the water because it has positive buoyancy. Now if the boat springs a leak and water starts spilling, the boat gets heavier, and loses its positive buoyancy. Eventually it gets to the point where it's heavier than the water's ability to support it, and that's called negative buoyancy, we call it sinking. I can't believe that I actually thought about living in a pre-sunk boat, but I did. So anyway...that's the idea of buoyancy.

Submarines were designed not to have positive buoyancy like boats or ships, not to have negative buoyancy, but to have neutral buoyancy. They should be able to stay stationary in the ocean at whatever depth it was that the captain had ordered, and to do this they had a diving officer who was supposed to constantly pay attention to the balance of the boat. You see these things weren't static. They had to be constantly monitored and adapted. The boat's weight could change. The temperature of the water affected it. Thermal layers affected it. The salination level, the amount of salt in the water, affected it. All of these kinds of, and so the diving officer was supposed to keep the boat in constant balance.

Well of course these were a new area of submarines that could just keep on going, and that's what Triton was doing. And I should mention also that they have wings, but unlike the wings of a plane, which are designed not only to lift, but direct, the submarine has little wings because it doesn't need to lift anything it just needs to direct it.

In any event -- one day one of the officers came to Captain Beach and said I think we have a problem captain. I've been doing some calculations here I think our diving officer hasn't been paying attention, I think we are out of balance. And so the captain decided to do a test. They had been motoring on for days and days and days, and so what the captain did is he found a safe spot in the ocean where there were no boats around or anything like that, and he had the motors shut down by surprise.

Well what happened is as the motion started ceasing because of the lack of propulsion, all of a sudden the planes that had been holding it at a certain depth lost their effectiveness and the Triton, this huge, massive submarine, shot towards the surface like a cork. And the diving officer went into a panic. He threw open the valves, flooded the ballast tanks trying to keep it from hitting the surface of the ocean, and the Triton started dropping to the sea floor like a rock. And he closed the valves, he pumped out the water, and this huge submarine just boiled the ocean for a time until they were able to get it into balance. They found out it was out of balance when they stopped.

We find out our lives are out of balance when we stop. The Lord says we should stop every seven days and check our balance. Now what would have happened if instead of a controlled situation they had been in a crisis situation? Let's say Triton was in a war of some type, and all of a sudden some situation had arisen where they lost propulsion. They would shoot towards the surface. If they broached the surface they were no longer a submarine, and they wouldn't survive very long. They'd be sunk.

Or, they would have negative buoyancy and shoot towards the sea floor and they would be crushed by the weight of the ocean. And sometimes our lives are hit with a crisis and motion stops, and if we are not in balance we can be in big trouble. God is saying don't wait for the crisis to stop you. Stop every seven days and check your balance.

The Bible says what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? God wants us to ask our self that question each and every week - evaluate our balance, evaluate our values, our goals, and our activities.

Now America has been built upon the Ten Commandments. In 1967 the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, after doing a thorough historical exegesis of laws, concluded the Sabbath became part of the common law inherited by the 13 colonies and by the sovereign states of the American union. In other words, America had Sunday as a holy day. A holy day is profaned when it is considered like any other day, lacking any special significance.

After they returned from the exiled, the nation of Israel renewed their observation of the Sabbath and promised not to buy or sell anything on the Sabbath. In America's stores remained closed on Sunday, until only about 30 years ago. In fact, I was working at a large chain and I can remember being lured into part of the process. At that time, they said we won't be open on Sunday mornings because we respect places of worship and we'll pay you double for coming and working on Sunday. That's how they inaugurated work on Sunday.

Let me suggest to you it doesn't matter about church on Sunday anymore, and you don't get paid double for working on Sundays. The day has become as common as any other day. America is forgetting to remember the Sabbath. America is forgetting to remember all of the Ten Commandments, and part of that is because there's an organized effort on the part of the ACLU and other such organizations to erase the Ten Commandments from the courtrooms, government offices, and public places across America.

If you were to study the history of the ACLU and its stated goals, you'd find out that it's an excellent source of information concerning the anti Christian agenda. You know, I use them as a gauge, personally. When I find out the ACLU is endorsing a certain candidate, I know I don't want to. When they are endorsing a particular piece of legislation, I know I don't want it. And in 20 years I have only found one item, I can't remember what it is, but only one item in 20 years where I agreed with the ACLU.

And if you perchance question where my opinion of the ACLU in this, I invite you to study their founders. If memory serves right there were four, and two of special interest. In any event, America is forgetting to remember the Sabbath.

The commandment begins with the word remember. A reminder is both a trigger and a focal point of thought. You see when our alarm goes off in our Palm, or whatever, it sounds a trigger for us to focus our thoughts. Where is it I'm supposed to be? What is it I'm supposed to be doing? It's a trigger for focusing our thought, and the Sabbath is intended to be a trigger for focusing our thought. It's to focus our thought on what is past, and what is to come.

Now for the nation of Israel it was to focus their thoughts on the past, which is what God did to take them out of the tyranny and the bondage of Egypt. And for us, it's to remember that God has taken us out of the bondage and the tyranny of sin, and it's also to make us, to remind us to look forward to what is to come.

D. A. Carson's book entitled "From Sabbath to Lord's Day", states, on the seventh day God declared His work officially completed and demonstrate that His work is followed by a period of contemplation and rest. God's last creative act is not the making of man, but the creation of a period of rest for mankind.

Now if we are to read Hebrews chapter 4 in this context we find these words, if Joshua had given them (that is, God's people) rest (that is, in the land of Canaan, the Promised Land), then God would not have spoken later about another day of rest. Therefore then, there remains a Sabbath-rest for the people of God. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by their example of disobedience.

Now that example of disobedience references earlier verses that talk about the people of Israel who were taken out of Egypt, but never had a chance to go into the Promised Land, the land of rest if you will, because of their rebellion and disobedience. And what the warning to us is, is let us make sure we don't miss heaven, what is before.

The writer is Hebrews ties the seventh day and concludes that there is a future rest for the people of God. Even though Abraham was in the Promised Land, he never rested there. He never settled there. He was always living in his tent, because he was looking for a city whose maker and builder was God, a celestial city, a heavenly city, an eternal city, an eternal place of rest.

A Sabbath is the end of one week, but it's also the beginning of a new. And God is the God of new beginnings. Each day is a new beginning for His mercies are new every morning. Each week is new as we've seen as marked by the Sabbath. Each year, the day of atonement, establishes a new beginning. Each jubilee, each 50th year, God said that all property was to be returned to its rightful owner, slaves were to be released, debts were to be forgiven...it was a time of new beginning. And each lifetime is a time of new beginning. It is appointed unto man once to die and then the judgment. The Bible doesn't teach reincarnation, but it does teach that we're going to be given new bodies, a new beginning. And as this body gets older and older my appreciation for that promise increases all the time.

The Bible says when we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour we are born again, born anew, a new beginning. God is the God of new beginnings. So then why should we keep the Sabbath? Because the Sabbath was made for man. It's good for us to keep the Sabbath. Jesus said come to Me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest, for My yoke is easy. My burden is light. And if you're carrying a heavy load today may I suggest to you it has not been put there by Christ. Amen? Let's pray.

Lord we are so thankful that You are a God of new beginning, that each day is new with You. We are thankful that You have desired to give us life and that more abundantly. That You are preparing this place that we call heaven, this place of rest. And Lord we are so the thankful that our salvation is not contingent upon us keeping this commandment or any or all of the Ten Commandments. Because were that be the case, surely we would all be lost.

Thank you Lord for salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Thank you Lord for Your holy word which is a lamp onto our feet and a light onto our path, guidance in this world that has so many distractions and so many deceits, so many dangerous, dangerous places. Thank you Lord for being our protector, for being our provider, for being our hope, for being our everything. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. God bless.