Sermons from Lone
Rock Bible Church Honoring His Name (Part II) This third commandment is clearly
stated with regard to God’s will, for our treatment of His Name, and the stakes are
high. Let’s consider seriously how we can respect our Lord’s Name. 1. Revisit the Name
In Acts 19, there is an account that
has always intrigued me. The setting is the third missionary trip of the apostle Paul. He
has found his way to Ephesus. Ephesus, in the first century, was the fourth largest city
in the Roman Empire. It was a cosmopolitan city in those days. It sat on the Aegean Sea
and was a seaport town. It is no longer. The sea went away and land filled in. Ephesus was the home for the temple of
Diana. Diana or Artemus (either way), is the Greek goddess of fertility, who allegedly
fell from the sky and landed somewhere near there. The religion, of the place, reflected
the culture as it normally does. There were interesting things going on. I want to begin
in verse 13, not with the Greeks, but with the Jews in that place. It says that some of the Jewish
exorcists, who went around casting out unclean spirits, noticed the success of the apostle
Paul, who was doing great works in the Name of Jesus. God, it says in verse 11, was
performing these miracles by the hands of Paul and these particular exorcists got things a
little confused. 13But also some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to
place, attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus,
saying, "I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches." Talk about taking the Lord’s name
in vain! “Jesus I know and Paul I know about but who are you?” The unclean
spirits responded in a surprising and violent and very decisive fashion and the seven sons
of Sceva went down in flames. They were co-opting the Name to their own destruction. They
were taking the Lord’s Name in vain and judgment visited them pretty much on the
spot. This commandment in Exodus 20 is
weighty and is one that bears our serious reflection. We talked last week and I want to
just touch there very briefly as we move to the text. What the commandment is after is
that God be respected and revered in a manner of which He is worthy. Respect or reverence
for God is often in short supply and our culture is not friendly to the notion. Last week we talked about taking the
Name of the Lord in vain. We talked about the Name, the fact that we have one God over
all, one God, of all the universe, who is absolutely perfect and utterly holy, totally
self-sufficient, in a class apart. He needs to be honored accordingly. That is the First
Commandment -- “You shall have no other Gods in addition to Me.” There are no
other Gods. The Second Commandment has to do with
creating images of God or reducing God to our terms, something we can get a handle on,
something we can understand, and how it is that every time that is attempted we always
come away with a God, who is inadequate and inaccurate. It is always wrong, which leads
naturally to a lack of reverence for that God and that is where the Third Commandment
comes in. We want to begin with the text itself
and work our way through that before we talk about our own attitudes toward the Name of
God. Let’s remember when the Bible says in Exodus 20:7, that we shall not take the
Name of the Lord in vain -- the Name is not just a label. It is not something that someone
somewhere dug out of a book as though this will fit, this sounds good, and this means
something. The Name of God represents the person
of God, His character. It represents Him as holy, completely apart, in a class by Himself,
eternally self-sufficient, but at the same time, eternally present for those to whom He
has promised to be. I AM always with you, I always have been, and I always will be was His
promise in accordance with His Name to the children of Israel. He is utterly committed to
honoring His Name and to keeping His promise. Taking a close look at the verse,
“You shall not take the Name of the Lord your God in vain.” We so quickly move
from that admonition to, “Oh, can’t cuss.” That is true, but that is just a
piece of it, just a small part of where this verse takes us. Taking the name of the Lord
is more than speaking it. It does not say don’t speak the Name, it says don’t
take it. The word “take” is quite a word in the Old Testament. It means,
literally, to carry or to raise or to lift up or to bear His Name. Do we bear the Name of the Lord? Do we
carry it? Do we lift it up? That is what He is saying. More than in verbal representation
but in life representation are we reflecting the God whose Name we bear? If we are
Christians, we bear the name. How well is that reflected? To lift up means with a view
toward being noticed. It is not particularly something done in secret. The Bible, in the
Old Testament, uses the word to lift up or take as in lifting up one’s hand either in
respect or in rebellion. Either way, it is to be noticed. Lifting up one’s head, that
is to say, being restored to one’s position is something that is hard to miss.
Lifting up the face. Lifting up the eyes. Lifting up the person. Lifting up, certainly, to
include the voice. To lift up the name of God or to lift
up represents an individual’s position or an individual’s desire. It is making a
statement deliberately and visibly. You shall not lift up the name, the character, the
person bearing who He is emptily or to no purpose. We want to pause just a moment on the
expression “to take the name in vain.” In
vain means that which is wasted, that which is unnecessary, that which is disorderly,
chaotic, and superfluous. Unnecessary, is not needed, ought to be done away with. It means
something that is done or extended for no real reason, emptily, to no avail, for no real
purpose. So it is not an accident that this word “in vain” is used for idols. As
the Bible points out, time and again, idols cannot see or speak or hear or feel or act or
decide or intervene or do anything but offer false or empty hope. Psalms 24 The verse parrots the Third
Commandment perfectly. Do you want to stand in God’s presence? Then lifting up one’s
soul falsely or emptily is to be avoided, and swearing presumptuously or deceitfully is
ruled out as well. Jeremiah was dealing with issues of
idolatry head-on. He was right in the middle of it. In Jeremiah 18, he is comparing or
contrasting the difference between being known by a personal God, who cares and who acts
and who is committed with worshipping an idol which is worthless. 15'For My people have forgotten Me, The Bible says, “The fool has
said in his heart there is no God.” Those who say there is a God and then behave as
though He does not matter have borne His name in vain and emptily. There is a penalty
attached to the verse we will get to shortly. It is very difficult to represent
anything as a Christian, as a husband, as a businessperson, as a student, as an
individual, without speaking it. This is probably where the verse begins to turn a corner
and come home to you and me. Jesus made it very clear, “Out of the abundance of the
heart the mouth speaks.” It is very difficult, if not impossible, to bear the name of
the Lord in vain, without that fact being represented by what we say, because our words
will give us away every time. A casual or a disrespectful attitude,
with regard to God, will be revealed by our words. Our words are a dead giveaway of what
is inside. Jesus made that very clear. That is why when it comes to lifting up the name of
the Lord in vain, a formal misuse of God’s name in oaths or curses is absolutely
ruled out. It is a principle of invoking a person or something that is greater than self. When a person goes into a courtroom
and is called to testify, there is a reason why, in our culture at least, traditional
practice has been to have the individual come forward in front of witnesses and to lay his
or her hand on a Bible. Then to be confronted with the words, “Do you solemnly swear
or affirm, to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
That is the oath, an oath that is being affirmed. When we officiate a wedding and there
are witnesses, people gathered around, and two young lovebirds looking to be hitched, we
go through the process of repeating vows. While we do not make them put their hand on a
Bible, we conventionally see an exchange of rings and we make vows in the name of the
Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and then we say, “Amen.” Whether it is in a courtroom or in a
church chapel where vows are being struck, invoking the name of God goes like this: I am
basing my commitment, I am laying down my oath or my vow not based on my own strength. I
am acknowledging before God and this company that it is not about what I intend, but I am
invoking the name of the One who is flawless, faultless, and utterly truthful as my
witness. God becomes, then, the foundation for my fidelity or my truth. And I pledge my
trust and I am forsaking all others, for richer or poorer, sickness and in health, all
that stuff -- I am making a statement saying I am appealing with my pledge to One who is
higher that I am, and I am serious about that. Deuteronomy
6:13 When it is time to make an oath,
whether in a courtroom or in a wedding or wherever else it might be necessary, be sure
that the authority to whom you appeal is the living, personal, covenant God of heaven. Be
sure you have trusted Him. Be sure that you know Him. Be sure that you believe He is there
and that you are basing your commitment not on your own human efforts but on the fact that
He is there and that you fear and respect Him. That is what invoking an oath is all about.
That is why the sons of Sceva had a problem. They invoked the name of Jesus in Acts 19,
but they were not connected to that Jesus with a sense of respect or submission or awe or
fear or reference and their oath backfired on them. The Bible does not say never take an
oath. I know that is sometimes an issue with people, who do not want to do that. The Bible
says when you do, take an oath in His name being sure of who He is, being sure that your
relationship with Him is intact. In Deuteronomy 10:20, that principle is repeated. 20"You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve Him and
cling to Him, and you shall swear by His name. He is saying you have to know the God
who is there. You have to know that He cares, that He is engaged. When you take an oath,
invoke His name out of fear and respect for who He is and for the truth He represents and
for the character that He embodies. Jesus spoke in the 5th
chapter of Matthew in the Sermon on the Mount. He was addressing the Pharisees. Matthew 5 What was happening, in Jesus’
day, is not too dissimilar from what was happening in our day. They had so misconstrued
and so contorted the Person of God and the will of God and had so misunderstood and
misapplied His Word, that they were taking oaths in the name of everything. Jesus said you
do not know the God you are oathing. Do not swear by yourself. Do not swear by things
greater than you. Just let your yes be yes and your no be no. He was not canceling what
God had said through Moses. He was just addressing a miscarriage of it in the New
Testament. Psalm 63, is a Psalm of David. David
lived much of his life in conflict, military conflict, domestic conflict, relational
conflict, and certainly conflict in his own heart. In Psalm 63:6, David is reflecting: Psalm 63 God is so great and God is so true and
right and ever-present and so committed to His people that David is saying here I know
that the oaths I take, the swearing I do in His name will not leave me disappointed. He has that level of confidence in the God of
heaven. His enemies are on their own. He says those who swear in the name of the Lord will
not be disappointed, but will glory in the mouths of those who speak lies, those who would
lift up the name of the Lord falsely will be silenced. This is why the fear of God, reverence
for God, respect for who He is, is foundational to any system of law where truth is
important. If there is no fear or respect for the God in whose name we take an oath, then
anything goes and we can justify twisting the truth and we can tell half-truths. We can
misrepresent, we can forget, or we can outright lie and say it does not matter at the end
anyway. If there is not God who is personally present, who is holy and righteous and
engaged and a God who will one day judge, why not lie? Whatever difference does it make? Our culture, our society, is there
today. Lying is now optional. Truth is now relative and everything we say or represent is
simply an expedient to cater to self. We are seeing it in the court system at every level.
We think how can we trust anyone? A system of
law, my telling the truth, my swearing an oath, laying a hand on a Bible, invoking a God
who is infinitely higher than I am, depends upon His being there and upon my respect for
who He is and for what He wants. Lifting up the name of the Lord is an
issue, whether we use His name formally in an oath, as in a courtroom, or in a wedding
ceremony. That is a formal use of the Name of God. When we invoke an oath we had best know
the God of whom we speak. But it is also something that we see informally. We see the name
of the Lord lifted up emptily all the time. It is reflecting a disrespect for Him in
casual speech. Among unbelievers, it is utterly rampant. One can hardly hear folks talk
casually any more without hearing God’s name somehow mentioned, but not meant.
Everybody, anymore, is swearing to God about this and swearing to God about that. His name
is battered about like casual fare with absolutely no regard for who He is or what He has
done, nor for the fact that He is right there listening. The apostle Paul in Romans 3, pulled
verses from the Old Testament to demonstrate the fact that everybody is naturally
self-centered to the exclusion of God. It is interesting as Paul pulls passages from the
Old Testament, most of it comes from Psalms in various places, trying to demonstrate that
left to ourselves, we will all do this sort of thing. We are all without God, naturally
speaking. In Romans 3:9, he says, “Do the
Jews have an advantage over the non-Jews?” No,
he says everybody is under sin. Then he goes on in verse 10 to explain what he means from
the Scripture. 10 “There is none righteous, not even one; When there is no healthy, respectful,
reverential fear for the God, of all the universe, what follows is the misuse of our
mouths and the misuse of our other body parts and our brains and our attitudes. It all
just naturally follows. I remember one time working with a
fellow at a gold mine. He could hardly say “Good Morning” without ten cuss
words. This guy would make a sailor blush. Somebody pointed it out to him one time, “Nothing
but cuss words come out of your mouth.” He said, “Really? Do I swear?”
People often do not even realize the words coming out of their mouths. We are creatures
created in the image of God and we are accountable for what we say. Unbelievers, the Bible says, are
spiritually dead. They are not the enemy, they are the victims of the enemy. They need our
prayers. They need our love. They need our understanding. They need the application of the
Word of God to sin that is going to work against them one day. But believers, oftentimes,
are not too far behind. Believers often, casually and unthinkingly, use the Lord’s
name. “The good guy upstairs.” No reverence there. In prayer, every fourth word
is “Dear Lord.” We are not thinking. We would not talk
to one another that way in a relational sense and probably it is best to think, more
carefully, as we are talking to the One, who has created and sustains us. Sometimes we
drop the expression “Praise the Lord” into casual conversation with absolutely
no thought behind it, no thought to what we are doing. We use it as a filler, when our
heart of devotion is not engaged. Christian people are certainly not exempt from being so
familiar (I use that word loosely) with the God of heaven that He can become more of a
buddy than God Almighty. It is a point over which we need to be careful. One Bible scholar put it this way:
when God’s name is used lightly, by God’s people, what will we do in times of
great distress? What will we do when we really need to call on His name and we have been
tossing it about as though it were a badminton birdie? Proverbs
18:10 His name is not lightweight. His name
is powerful and His name is wonderful. His name is to be treated with respect. Finally, let’s look at the second
part of Exodus 20:7. "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for
the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain. Suddenly now as we work our way through the
Commandments, we see a penalty attached and it would be unloving not to point out that God
is as serious about the penalty as He is about the rest of it. He does not waste words. Turn to Matthew 12, where the meek and
humble carpenter from Nazareth has a few words to say. His audience is the Pharisees, but
certainly the disciples are a part of it because they have written it; they are there.
Jesus will point out some principles here that we need to lay hold of. Speaking to the
Pharisees: 34"You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is
good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. 35"The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good;
and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. We really could wish that the lesson
ended there. However: Every careless word, or useless word,
or empty word they shall render account for it in the day of judgment. 37"For by your words you will be justified, and by your words
you will be condemned." This is serious talk from the Galilean
carpenter, who is also the Savior of the world. In Revelation 20, we see some
interesting things having to do with that judgment Jesus mentioned. "For by your
words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." I can think of
no more terrifying a setting than the judgment of God. 11Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from
whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. This is a holy, exalted, mighty,
powerful God. And it’s time for judgment and the books are opened and the dead are
standing, the great and the small. The ground is level there. 13And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and
Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them
according to their deeds. 14Then death and Hades were thrown into
the lake of fire This is the second death, the lake of fire. The first death is followed by the
funeral. The second one is the lake of fire. 15And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life,
he was thrown into the lake of fire. Revelation
21:8 Nothing unclean, no one who practices
abomination and lying shall ever come into it, only those whose names are written in the
Lamb’s book of life. This is sobering stuff, but words mean
things and reflect what is in the heart. By our words, Jesus said, we will be condemned. A
person who does not know Jesus, a person who is thinking “I’ll get to heaven
because I’m ok. I’m better than I am bad and I’m sure when I get to heaven
God will see that I’m a pretty good guy and He’ll give me a pass.” But He
will not. God will play the tape back. By our words we will be condemned, because our
words reflect our hearts and if our hearts are not surrendered to the only One who can
save, we are done and there is no hope beyond that point. A person, who would die today, not
having put all their trust in Jesus only, will find themselves right there as real as we
are here today. Serious stuff, and it has everything to do with what is in our hearts that
comes out of our mouths. It has everything to do with bearing the Lord’s name to no
purpose, or emptily. Believers, on the other hand, have a
different judgment. In II Corinthians 5:10, Paul is speaking to Christians and says we all
will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Nobody gets out of this, without being
judged, at the Great White Throne and the lake of fire, or at the judgment seat of Christ,
one way or the other. But we will give an account. A heavenly situation, the Bible says,
will be in some sense be determined by what happens at that judgment. Are we in heaven? Yes. I Corinthians
3, says yes, in heaven, but maybe with the smell of smoke on our clothes. And it will not
be pleasant there either. So what do we do? I can understand why the serious Jews took a
look at the Third Commandment and said we can do that only if we do not ever say it. They
tried to figure out a way they could avoid saying the Name and thus avoid any attached
penalties. Of course it is a miscarriage of what the verse means and it cannot be done. I remember long ago as a kid, watching
one of those black and white movies from the 50’s. It was called “The Next Voice
You Hear.” It was about America and different parts of the world, and people were not
getting along. Neighbors were mad at each other. Countries were mad at each other. So in
this creative and imaginative film, God breaks in. He interrupts all radio and TV
frequencies, simultaneously, the world over. An announcement comes on and says, “The
next voice you hear will be God.” Back then, 50 years ago, you never
heard that voice and certainly never saw an image. But the next frame would be people now
starting to get along. The theology is pretty poor. In other words, if God spoke, I
believe He would tell us something like you had better put all your trust in Jesus only,
not turn over a new leaf, buck up and get along. My point is the respect they showed
for a traditional understanding of God. They would not try to depict Him. They would not
even play a voice that was supposed to sound like His. Now, scrolling forward 20 years, we
have a George Burns playing God in a film. The two have little in common. Ten years or so
later Crocodile Dundee announces, “God and me are mates.” I hope God’s
people get a little more uncomfortable all the time because it’s downhill from there.
Our society today treats God with disrespect if they regard Him at all. If we are going to
bear the name, we have to bear the name respectfully and reverently. I have a five-step program for
refocusing our attitude. We need it. 1. Recognize the dilemma. God is
serious about the Third Commandment. He even attaches a penalty to it. Realize we will get
no help from the world or the devil. The world and the devil just assume we will be
flippant about the Name of God. It seems like God and Jesus are the names we hear, not
Buddha and others, in careless speech about the Lord. The others get a pass. God gets
cartooned and lampooned and ridiculed and mocked in popular media. We will get no help from the world or
the devil. We will get no help from the flesh either. James 3, talks about the tongue
being a fire in a world of iniquity. It is a small member but it causes big trouble. We
have an inclination to misuse our mouths because “out of abundance of the heart the
mouth speaks” and we have conflicted hearts. So we will tend to have conflicted
mouths too. 2. Reflect on the cross. I love the
stanza from How Great Thou Art: And when I
think of God His Son not sparing Come away and reflect on who He is and
on what He has done. Realize that nothing in the world, nothing in the flesh, nothing in
this created order can do for us what He has done. He is to be magnified above all else. 3. Renew the relationship. There is no
substitute for getting away daily, opening the Bible, hearing God speak the truth of His
word, handing our burdens over to Him in prayer, getting to know Him, individually,
regularly, relationally. Getting involved in ministry. It is when we step out and serve
Him that we see Him work. It is one thing to be in the Bible. It is wonderful and great
and necessary to be in prayer. If we want to see God work and develop a hands-on respect,
get into the work. Serve Him. Watch Him do wonderful things. Renew that relationship. 4. Repent of disrespect and poor
testimony. We pray in Psalm 139, “Search me, O God, know my heart, try me and know my
thoughts.” God, search me out, show me where I am wrong. Psalm 39:1 Lest I misrepresent the God, whose
name I bear. God, forgive me for being casual and flippant with you. You are far beyond
deserving that. Know when it is time to walk away from
a conversation. Know when it is time to say a word of warning. 5. Rejoice because He who has begun a
good work in you will be faithful to complete it. That is such good news. We all fail
from time to time in many ways, but we know that Jesus died for our sins. If it were not
for these sins, Jesus would not have needed to go to the cross, but He did. Forgiveness is
available as we call on Him and He will change us. He is faithful to do that. After all,
He is the God who makes and keeps His promises and He has committed His way to us and we
are His. Rejoice in His wonderful grace and
keep moving on. "Scripture
taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Jim Carlson 2006, Lone Rock Bible Church, Stevensville Montana, USA |