Hi, I'm Robert Jeffress, and I'm glad to serve as your Bible teacher every day on this great radio station, on today's edition of Pathway to Victory. Today we're going to look at one of the most basic commands of God.
It's the third out of ten basic rules for living God gave. And here's the command simply, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. What we're saying is you don't take his name in vain because his name is his character.
Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. Expectant moms and dads will often spend months agonizing over the name of their soon coming baby. A name, after all, has meaning, significance, and implications for the future.
Well, God also places strong importance on names. And today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress explains why God instructed us to never take his name in vain. Now, here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.
Dr. Jeffress? Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. Let me begin with a question. When you hear somebody say, do not take the Lord's name in vain, what first comes to mind?
Most people think it's a ban on cursing, but in reality, it's far more than that. In a moment, I'm going to show you the broad scope of the third commandment and the implications for you and me today. But before we get started, I'm pleased to offer you a hardcover copy of my brand new book about the Ten Commandments.
It's called The Ten. How to live and love in a world that's lost its way. Remember when our schools and government buildings would post the Ten Commandments on the wall?
I do. But those days seem to be over, and I'm convinced that our culture's demise is due in part to the disregard for these ten timeless commandments from God. Well, my book was written for anyone who's ready to embrace the truth about the Ten Commandments and anyone who's ready to receive God's blessing for following them. The copy is yours when you give a generous gift to support the growing ministry of Pathway to Victory.
This is a full-length book over 220 pages in length, so you might choose the size of your gift with that in mind. In any case, it'll arrive at your home along with a collection of ten encouragement cards. Each one of these cards features one of the commandments along with a practical point of application.
We'll say more about these two resources just after today's message. But right now, let's open our Bibles to the Old Testament book of Exodus. I titled today's message, Revere God's Name. We're in a series on the Ten Commandments called The Ten.
How to live and love in a world that's lost its way. And our study has brought us to Exodus chapter 20, verse 7. And here's the command simply. Turn there if you will. Moses said, God said, 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. What does it mean to take God's name in vain? Our own member, Dr. Eugene Merrill, in his commentary on the book of Deuteronomy summarizes or paraphrases the commandment this way. You shall not lift up the name of Yahweh your God without reason.
And that's what this command is all about. It's not just about profanity. It is about lifting up, using God's most holy name needlessly. Today we're going to look at why God gives such a severe command and how to avoid experiencing the consequences of breaking that command. You know, it was Shakespeare who asked the rhetorical question, what's in a name?
Well, the answer is everything. Names are very, very important. Probably if you're a parent, you've given great thought into the names that you've given to your children.
Perhaps you followed a trend. There's a popular name because of a movie, a sitcom, or a novel. Some parents actually based their names on the popular culture. But far more likely and hopefully you named your child after somebody of great importance. Maybe it was a historical character. Or more importantly, maybe it was after a relative of yours who in some ways demonstrated a characteristic you hope your child will mirror as well. When Amy and I had our first child, Julia, we decided to name her after my mom. We wanted to name our children after somebody who was important to us. But interestingly, that is not what they did in biblical times. In biblical times, a person's name sometimes described the circumstances surrounding their birth. But many times it wasn't the circumstances in the birth.
It was a characteristic that the parent saw early on in the child's life. And when we read about God, you shall not take the name of God in vain. What we're saying is you don't take his name in vain because his name is his character. Remember the disciples said, Lord, teach us to pray. He said, all right, here's how to pray. Matthew chapter 6, our father who is in heaven, what? Hallowed be your name. Your name. He was praying for the holiness, the sacredness of God's name that it would be realized.
Why did he pray that way? Because people link a person's name with their character. What they're called is based on who they are.
Let me illustrate that for you. When I say the name Abraham Lincoln, what comes to mind? You think about his appearance probably, tall, sullen expression.
But more than that, you think about his character. It's the same thing when we talk about God. You know, the second commandment we talked about last time said, don't diminish God by wrong thoughts of God. It talks about worshiping the true God in the wrong way. Don't have wrong thoughts about God that diminish him. This third commandment is saying don't trivialize God by the words that you speak. When we use God's name needlessly, we are trivializing and diminishing the glory of God. Let me illustrate that for you again.
Years ago when I first started writing, I would subscribe to a monthly magazine called Writers Digest. And in that publication every month, there would be several full-page ads taken out by corporations warning writers to be careful in their writing how they dealt with a trademarked name or brand. Companies spend millions of dollars protecting their brand and going after those who use the brand name in a wrong way. How much more seriously do you think God takes the use of his name and how we employ it in everyday conversation? That's why God says, don't use my name needlessly.
Because when you do, you trivialize it. You diminish it. How do we use the name of God in vain?
Let me mention several ways you may have never thought of. The most common way, of course, is through profanity. We use God's name when we have an accident, when somebody insults us. If we're not careful, we profane the name of God.
But it's not just limited to outburst of anger. So are outbursts of shock and outrage that invoke God's name. No Christian ought to use regularly the phrase, oh my God, or my God, my God.
That ought to be off limits. That's using God's name in vain. By the way, so is the acronym we use in social media, OMG. Now you're saying, oh, no, pastor, when I use that, I'm meaning, oh my gosh.
Well, good for you, but anybody reading that doesn't think, oh my gosh. They think, oh my God, and you have trivialized the name of God. That's profanity. But there are other ways that we take God's name in vain, through falsehoods. That is through lives, half-proves, and outright deceptions. Some people use God's name to manipulate other people. For example, a high school student says, mom, dad, God told me that you're to buy me a new car. Well, unless God really told you that, you better not do that.
Or pastors are the worst about this. God has told me we're to build a new building. Now, I've said before, I think God is leading us to build a new campus. I think God is opening the way.
I think it would be a good thing. But I was very careful never to say God told me to do that. There's a difference. When we attach God's name to a falsehood, that's especially a severe thing to do. When people say, as God is my witness, you better make sure the next words that come out of your mouth are absolutely true.
Because there's nothing worse than attaching God's name to a falsehood. You know, in Matthew chapter 5, Jesus said, let your yes be your yes and your no a no. You don't have to invoke the name of God. Let your yes be your yes and no be your no. Does that mean Christians should never swear, so help me God, in court? I'll let you sort that out, whether you should or shouldn't. But if you do, you better be sure you told the truth, what you say, because you've attached God's name to your statement.
I was thinking about that this week. There is a very well-known attorney who has been in the news over the last couple of years. He went to his bank and he wanted to withdraw some of the equity out of his house.
And when you do that, you have to fill out a form for the FDIC to say what you're going to use those proceeds for. And he falsified the document. He said he was going to use it for one cause, when in fact he used it for something else. You know what happened to that attorney? He ended up in prison.
He was in prison because he made a false statement and he signed that statement with his own name. The only thing worse than doing that is signing God's name to a false statement, saying God told me to do this, God did this, and it not be true. There's a third way we take the name of God in vain, and that's through frivolity. Now, some of you are actually going to go back and see if you can find a sermon where I did this. And I will admit to you right now, I've done it in the past. I shouldn't have done it. I will try not to do it again.
It's innocent in one sense, but it's really deadly in another. We should never attach God's name to a joke. Did you hear the story about the Baptist preacher, the priest, and the rabbi who went to heaven and God said to them, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah?
Don't do that. Don't invoke God's name in a joke. That is trivializing the name of God. A fourth way we do it is through phoniness, through hypocrisy. Jesus talked about that in Matthew 15.7 when he said, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me.
You know what he's talking about there? He's talking about a worship minister, not our worship minister, but a worship minister who stands up leading the singing about praising the name of Jesus, and he never gives a name, a thought, to the name of Jesus Monday through Friday. He's just up there leading everybody, pretending he's holy. Or the pastor who stands up and talks about how important God's word is, how important prayer is, and he neither prays nor reads his Bible the rest of the week. Jesus is talking about church members who stand to worship. Their lips are moving. They're saying or singing the right things, but their thoughts are far away.
Their thoughts are around lunchtime and what they're going to have for dinner and what they're going to be doing the next week. One theologian said it this way. We misuse the name of the Lord by speaking hallowed words while living hollow lives.
Don't do that. Jesus said in Luke 6, 46, Why do you call me Lord, yet you do not do what I say? Why do people take God's name in vain? Why do they use the name of God needlessly if there's such severe punishment for doing so? Three reasons I've discovered.
One reason is a lack of knowledge, a lack of knowledge. There's some of you listening to this message right now or here in our worship center. You didn't know this, honestly. You thought using God's name was limited to blasphemy, but you realize there are many ways to use his name needlessly. That's understandable. That's honest. You can ask God right now for forgiveness.
If he hasn't struck you dead yet, you can ask him for forgiveness for what you've done and really make a commitment to him. You're not going to do that again. A lack of knowledge. A second reason people do it is because of a lack of self-control. They have used God's name so carelessly for so long that they find it a hard habit to break.
Maybe they grew up in a home where that was done on a regular basis. Again, that's honest, but it's not an excuse. Let me give you three keys for guarding your speech. Against any kind of unwholesome speech. First of all, admit to God that you need to control your speech. Admit to God you're having difficulty doing this. In James 3.8, James says, No one can tame the tongue.
It is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. But James didn't say we shouldn't try, because Jesus said in Matthew 12, verses 36 and 37, we will be held accountable for every idle word we speak. We are going to be judged for this, so go ahead and admit to God your need to control your speech. By the way, self-control, including tongue control, is one of the evidences of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5, 22 and 23 says, But the fruit of the Spirit is joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Second key for guarding yourself against blasphemy, disassociate yourself from people who take God's name in vain regularly. Now, in some cases, you may not have a choice if you work for somebody who does that. But as you're able, remove yourself from close association with people who break this commandment.
In Proverbs 22, verses 24 and 25, Solomon said, Do not associate with a man given to anger, and do not go with a hot-tempered man, or you will learn his ways and find a snare for yourself. And then finally, fill your mind with edifying thoughts about God. It's not enough to say, Don't do this. Don't speak God's name in vain.
You've got to replace that habit with a good habit. Start thinking about the holiness, the sacredness of God's name. In Psalm 111, verse 9, here's a great verse to remember.
Psalm 111, verse 9, Holy and awesome is your name. Or Ephesians 4 29, Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word is as good for edification, for building up, that it may give grace to those who hear it. Why do people break this commandment and use God's name in vain?
A lack of knowledge, a lack of self-control. A third reason, a lack of a genuine salvation experience. Now, I'm going to tread carefully here, but I want to share a conviction of my heart and what I've seen for more than 40 years of pastoring. I don't think it's possible for somebody who has had a genuine encounter with God, who has come to the point that he realizes his desperate sin and his need for a Savior, I don't think it's possible for that person to regularly, habitually use God's name in vain, especially the name of Jesus Christ.
When people blaspheme, use the name of Jesus Christ as a profane statement, or they joke about Jesus, I don't think you can do that and be saved. I think if you genuinely encountered the Lord, you're going to have the same experience that Peter did. Luke 5-8, when he came to the understanding who Jesus was, he fell down before Jesus and said, Lord, depart from me, for I am a sinful man.
That's the attitude of somebody who has really encountered the Jesus of the Bible. Years ago, I was on a program for a Christian organization. The emcee for the program was a boisterous man, and every other word was God this, God that, Lordy, Lordy, Lordy, and at one point he said, now, if you're not a part of our organization, you need to pray that Jesus will save you. In fact, let's bow our heads right here and pray that Jesus saves us for not being a part and on and on and on he went in that vein. Later in the program, they gave an award to a missionary, and when this missionary took the stand, she said, in a very soft-spoken voice, she said, any good thing in my life is because of what my Savior, Jesus, has done for me. He saved me, he called me to his service, and I dedicate this award to him. Now, two different people with two different attitudes about the name of Jesus Christ.
Again, I don't think it's possible to continually blaspheme the name of Jesus Christ and be a true follower of Jesus Christ. Many of you know the name of Jack Hayford, great pastor who just went home to be with the ward recently. Jack used to tell this story about being with his family on vacation, they ended up out in the middle of nowhere and needed gasoline, so they pulled in, they found a fill-in station, and the attendant came out. He looked like he was straight out of a sitcom. He had a greasy hat and a toothpick sticking out of his mouth, and Jack said, would you fill my car up with gas? He said, yeah. He was filling the car up with gas, and he said to Jack, hey, mister, this God blank tire of yours, but he didn't use a blank, he said the GD thing. He said, this GD tire of yours is about to blow, and if it does, it could be a disaster for you.
Can I change it? And Jack thanked him and said, well, thank you very much for doing that. And so for the next 20 minutes, this guy worked on the tire and every other word was GD, this GD tire, this GD car, this GD highway, and GD this and GD that.
Finally, Jack couldn't take it any longer. He said, sir, would you please stop saying that? I don't want God to damn my car.
I don't want God to damn my family, and that's what you're asking him to do. Please don't say that any longer. And the attendant was startled. He said, oh, sir, I'm so sorry.
I didn't mean to offend you. And Jack said, you know, you're a mechanic. You work with tires. And because of your observation, you saved me and my family from a potential disaster, and I want to thank you for that. But I'm a pastor. I work with souls. And as I heard you talking about God and the way you were, I thought, you know, this man saved my family from a disaster.
I want to save him from a disaster. So I'm here to tell you, sir, you can't use God's name that way without paying a heavy, heavy price. And I'd say the same thing to you. I don't pretend to be any better or any holier than you are. I'm a fellow Christian with you, but I'm your pastor.
I care about what happens to you. And I would say to you, you can't use God's name carelessly without disaster. Don't keep using the name of God needlessly.
God's name is holy and sacred, and He commands us to give it due respect. That's one of the many lessons we draw from this third commandment. Now, before I turn the microphone back over to David, let me remind you that you still have time to request my brand-new book for this teaching series. It's a hardcover volume that has 10 chapters and more than 220 pages in length. My book is titled The Ten. How to live and love in a world that's lost its way. As a great schoolboy, I remember looking up from my desk and seeing all Ten Commandments clearly displayed on the classroom wall.
Well, those idyllic days are gone. Not only have the Ten Commandments disappeared from public display, but some of our school administrators seem to despise them. Well, I'm convinced that God continues to bless those who adhere to His moral code.
These 10 guardrails that come from God keep us safe from danger and set us on the right course for success and joy. So let me send you a copy of my new book so that you can read it yourself and then share it with friends and family members. The book is yours when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. Not long ago, I received a comment from Mark who listens to Pathway to Victory in Montana. Mark said, Dr. Jeffress, my wife and I appreciate the resources you send to us.
I'm a disabled veteran and we enjoy Pathway to Victory whenever it's on. It gives us a welcome sense of joy and knowledge. God bless you for all that you're doing. Well, that's a real encouragement to us, Mark. And friends, thank you for making it possible for Mark and countless others to benefit from hope and light they receive on this daily program.
David? Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. Today, when you give a generous gift of Pathway to Victory, you're invited to request a copy of the brand new book from Dr. Jeffress called The Ten.
How to live and love in a world that has lost its way. Here's our toll-free number, 866-999-2965, or you could visit us online at ptv.org. And when your gift is $100 or more, you'll receive not only the book, but also the complete collection of audio and video discs for The Ten teaching series. Plus, we'll also include a study guide.
Now that's perfect for a Sunday school class or a small group Bible study. One more time, call 866-999-2965, or find us online at ptv.org. You could write to us if you'd like. Here's that mailing address. P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. Again, that's P.O.
Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I'm David J. Mullins. Computers and smartphones have helped us become far more connected with each other.
But sometimes we fail to take time to slow down. Learn why the Sabbath is still essential for life in the 21st century. Listen Thursday to Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. Imagine waking up to the sight of Alaska's majestic coastline, or spotting wildlife from the deck of a luxurious cruise ship. Experience these unforgettable moments on the Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska with Dr. Robert Jeffress. Relax with us in Alaska, and I guarantee you'll come home spiritually and physically refreshed. To book your spot on the 2024 Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska, go to ptv.org.
