Well, as most of you know, we have been involved in an ongoing study of the life of Moses.
We've been following him and the Israelites through the book of Exodus. And we've now come to Mount Sinai, where God gave the Israelites the Ten Commandments. In fact, we've been involved in a week-by-week study doing one of the Ten Commandments each week. So far, we have looked at commandment number one, where God tells us to love him supremely.
We've looked at commandment number two, where God calls on us to have no rivals in our lives that would challenge our love and our devotion for Him. And today, we are ready to do commandment number three. So let me read commandment number three to you.
Exodus chapter 20, verse 7. It says, You shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Now, I think if you were to walk up to the average American on the street today and ask him what commandment number three really meant, he would probably tell you that it means don't use cuss words that have God's name in them. Now, for sure, this idea is included in commandment number three. But after studying the third commandment all week long, I am convinced that it is saying something far deeper and far more momentous than simply that.
And to grasp what commandment number three is really saying, there are three important things that we need to understand, three pieces of data that we need to have, and I want to tell you what they are right now. The first thing we need to understand, if we're going to interpret the third commandment correctly, is since this commandment deals with the name of God, we need to understand first that in Old Testament times, Jewish people regarded names to be much more than simply titles, to be much more than simply verbal handles used to refer to other people. Jewish people considered a person's name to be a reflection of that person's very character, of that person's intrinsic nature. And the point here is that in the Bible, therefore, God's name is more than just a title we use for God. God's name in the Bible stands for more than just a verbal handle we use to refer to God. God's name in the Bible is synonymous with everything that God is, His nature, His character, His attributes, all that makes up God. For example, Psalm 124, verse 8 says, Our help is found in the name of the Lord. In other words, our help is found in God's very person and in His very character. Proverbs 18, 10, the name of the Lord, the Bible says, is a strong tower.
In other words, God Himself and all that He is and all of His attributes, that is what is a strong tower for us. And this is why in the Old Testament, Jewish people treated God's name with such respect that they refused to even pronounce it out loud. Many Orthodox Jews to this day copy that practice because in these people's minds, God's name stood for, was the same as, God Himself. So the first thing that we need to understand here in getting the third commandment interpreted correctly is that whatever commandment number three means, my friends, it is dealing with far more than just how we use the letters G-O-D, far more than just how we use the letters J-E-S-U-S. The third commandment is talking about how we treat the very character, the very nature and the very reputation of God Himself. Now the second thing we need to understand to get this commandment right is we need to understand the Hebrew verb that is used here, the verb take. You shall not take the lame of the Lord your God in vain.
This word literally means in Hebrew to lift up, to hold up, to carry or to bear on your shoulders. You know, when I was going to seminary years ago here in Washington, I worked part time for Giant Food. And when I first got hired by Giant Food, every new employee had to go to a two-day training session. And so at this session, I'll never forget the lady who was leading and said, she said, now all of you here from this point on, you now bear the name of Giant Food. The reputation of Giant Food rides on your shoulders.
You have become a representative of Giant Food and your actions, your attitudes, your words will be the basis upon which people will form their opinion of Giant Food. Folks, what Giant Food was trying so hard to get across to us as their new employees is exactly what God is trying to get across to us in commandment number three. He wants us to understand that as followers of Christ, we bear the name of Jesus everywhere we go.
And in everything we do, in every word we speak, in every attitude that we project, whether we like it or not, people are forming their opinion of who God is based upon watching us. Therefore, as followers of Christ, the real issue here in commandment number three is not whether we use cuss words that have the name of God in them. The real issue here is how we bear the name of the Lord Jesus.
The real issue here is how we represent the living God of the universe, the portrait of Him we paint in people's minds every day, everywhere, and with everything that we do. Third and finally, if we want to get this commandment right, we must understand the meaning of the phrase in vain. You shall not bear the name of the Lord your God in vain. This word in Hebrew means in a worthless way.
It means to do something in an empty way, in a thoughtless way, in a careless way. Commandment number three is telling us that we are not to carry God's name in a way that is sloppy and careless and thoughtless and worthless. Now, as we said earlier, this certainly includes not cussing and using the name of God in our curse words, but commandment number three is much more far-reaching than just that, my friends. As followers of Christ, commandment number three applies to our every word, our every action, our every attitude. Commandment number three calls us to an all-encompassing lifestyle where we endeavor at all times to bear the name of Jesus Christ with dignity and with honor in the eyes of an onlooking and a critical world.
May I repeat that? Commandment number three calls you and me to an all-encompassing lifestyle where we endeavor at all times to bear the name of Jesus with dignity and honor in the eyes of an onlooking and a critical world. Peter said, 1 Peter chapter 2, Keep your behavior excellent, he said, among unbelievers, so they may see your good deeds and give glory to God. So let's summarize and say, let's put all of this back together and say that as followers of Christ, to bear the name of God in vain means to drag God's reputation through the mud, to tarnish God's holy name by means of our lifestyle, our behavior, and our choices in life. You all remember King David, right?
I know you didn't know him personally, but you all remember who he is. You remember what he did with Bathsheba, how he committed adultery with Bathsheba, and then after Bathsheba got pregnant, how he murdered her husband, Uriah, in cold blood, premeditated, first-degree murder, and then took Bathsheba as his own woman, right? And you remember in the Bible that God sent Nathan the prophet to confront David, and to David's credit, when Nathan confronted him, David fessed up, David humbled himself, he admitted what he had done, he begged for God's forgiveness, God forgave him, but that wasn't the end. Listen to what Nathan said next. 2 Samuel 12, verse 14, Nathan says, David, however, because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme God's name, because you did that, the child that was born to you and Bathsheba shall surely die.
Do we understand what this really means, what Nathan is saying? Nathan is saying, David, you tarnished God's name. David, you tarnished God's reputation. You gave an opportunity for unbelievers to blaspheme God, to insult God, to minimize God's holy character. You say, I don't understand, how did David do that? Because, friends, there were people walking around and going, Oh, the Holy One of Israel.
Right. Israel's God is so holy that He allows His representative on earth, King David, to commit adultery and premeditated murder and to indulge in deceit and to indulge in all kinds of other ungodly behavior. And God condones all of this? What kind of holy God is this?
You understand? This is what it means to bear the name of God in vain, my friends. It means to tarnish God's character and God's reputation by the way we as His followers live. And remember, please, the rest of commandment number three. God said the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
And as much as God loved David, as we just saw, God exacted an incredibly heavy penalty from David because He did this. Now, that's as far as we want to go in our passage because now it's time for us to ask our most important question. And you know what this is, so are you ready? Are you ready?
You sure? Okay, nice and loud. Here we go.
One, two, three. So what? Yeah, you say, Lon, so what? You say, I understand what you're saying, but what difference does any of this make to me?
Let me help with that, if I may. You know, folks, commandment number three tells us something very important about God. Commandment number three tells us that God is passionate about protecting His name. God is passionate about guarding His reputation here on earth in the sight of men. Do you ever think about why God gave David victory over Goliath?
Well, I'll tell you the answer. It was to vindicate his name. It was to vindicate his reputation because the army of Saul had tarnished that reputation by running away from Goliath, by hiding in their caves, by cowering in fear. They had given off the impression that the God they had, the God of Israel, wasn't capable of dealing with one soldier out there named Goliath.
They'd insulted God. Listen to what David said. David said to Goliath, 1 Samuel 17, You come against me with a sword and a spear and a shield, but I come against you in the name of the Lord, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand.
Why? That all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. God says, I'm going to give David victory because I'm going to redeem my reputation in the face of the people on this earth, in front of whom it's been tarnished by the behavior of Saul's army.
Hey, you know what? The modern state of Israel today, after 1900 years, the Jewish people back in their ancient homeland, you ever think about why God did that? Friends, God doesn't do something without a reason. Why did God do this? Well, listen to what Ezekiel 36 says.
He did it, I'll tell you ahead of time, for the very same reason. He did it to vindicate his name as God. Watch. Because of Israel's sin, God says, Ezekiel 36, I scattered them among the nations, but this profaned my name, for the nations said, these are the Lord's people, and yet they've been kicked out of their land, some God they got. He can't even keep his people in their own land.
Watch. But I will vindicate the holiness of my great name that has been profaned, God says, for I will gather you Israelites from all the nations where I scattered you, and I will bring you back into your own land. It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am doing this, but for the sake of my holy name. I will vindicate my great name so the nations will know that I am the Lord, for I will be jealous for my holy name. God said, I'm going to bring the Israelites back, put them in their land, I don't care if the whole world doesn't like them there, they're staying there.
I'm going to show this world who I am. In fact, friends, this is the whole reason God did the ten plagues, the whole reason he opened the Red Sea, the whole reason he led the Israelites to Mount Sinai where they are now. He says in Exodus 9, he did this to show my power and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. My Christian friend, we must understand that this is an essential part of what makes God God. This passion that he has to never see his name tarnished, this passion that he has never to see his reputation besmirched before men.
I mean, and that's good, but let me just go on and say there's also a very practical side of this as well. How many times have you heard somebody say something like this? Well, I knew a Christian once and they blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I went to church all my life growing up and you wouldn't believe what I saw Christians do to each other in church, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. If this is what it means to be a Christian, you can finish the sentence.
I'm not interested in being one. You see, my friends, when we bear God's name in vain, when we live sloppy, biblically disobedient lives as his followers, yes, do we tarnish God's reputation on earth? Yes. But also, seriously, we allow people, people use our unChristlike behavior to justify their unbelief, which puts them on a collision course with hell itself. Friends, this idea of living a life that honors Jesus Christ here on this earth, this is serious business. There are precious souls, people's souls hanging in the balance. They're watching how we act and they're forming judgments about the reality of Christ based on our behavior. So let's summarize.
What's the bottom line here today? The bottom line, my friends, is that once we go public for Jesus Christ in our life, once we declare to our family, our friends, our co-workers and our neighbors that we're a follower of Christ, whether we like it or not, from that point on, in their eyes, we are bearing the name of Christ. Whether we like it or not, from that point on, in their eyes, we have become 2 Corinthians 5-10 ambassadors for Christ.
Now, the only issue from that point on then is are we going to be a good ambassador or are we going to be a lousy ambassador? But we are ambassadors for Christ. These people are forming their opinions about the reality of the gospel in Christ based on watching us. And as ambassadors for Christ, if we're going to be good ambassadors for Christ, we must live a distinctive way. The Bible calls us as ambassadors for Christ to live a distinctive lifestyle. Listen to what Paul said, Ephesians chapter 4.
He said, So I tell you this, and I insist upon it in the Lord, that you must no longer live, as unbelievers do, in the futility of their minds, for they are darkened in their spiritual understanding and they are separated from the life of God. Rather, Paul says, you are to lay aside your former way of life and you are to adopt a new outlook in your minds, a new worldview, a worldview that results in a new way of life, one that is created in the likeness of Jesus Christ, a new way of life that is Christ-like in its every part. And friends, this new worldview that the Bible calls us to as ambassadors for Christ, this involves a complete redefinition of our value system. This new worldview involves a complete redefinition of our standards of behavior, a complete redefinition of our priorities in life, all of them being brought into line with the truths and the teachings of the written Word of God. And as an ambassador for Christ, it's not sufficient enough that we just know what the truths of the Bible are.
That's not good enough. We have to aspire, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to obey these teachings of the Bible. We have to aspire to bring every area of our life into conformity with these teachings of the Word of God. My Christian friend, if we want to bear the name of Jesus with honor, if we want to be good and faithful ambassadors for Christ, then this is how we must aspire to live every day. I love what Paul said, 2 Corinthians 10. He said, I am trying, Paul says, to take every thought in my life captive and to make it obedient to Christ. This is how an ambassador for Christ lives.
We are out every single day to bring every single area of our life into captivity, into captive obedience to Jesus Christ and to live a Christlike life in every area of our life. Now, when it comes to this issue, it is my assessment that the modern evangelical church is sick to epidemic proportions. It is my assessment that the modern evangelical church is diseased to epidemic proportions. I mean, we have evangelical churches all across America today full of people who profess to be followers of Jesus Christ, but these same people invest little or no effort trying to discover what a biblical world view looks like for their life, and they spend even less effort trying to live it out every single day in their daily lifestyle.
G. Campbell Morgan, the great preacher said, and I quote, he said, the form in which commandment number three is broken most completely and most terribly is by those Christians whose lives do not square with the faith that they claim to have. End of quote. Folks, this is a serious problem and it demands a serious response from us because it is this very thing.
Please hear me now. It is this very thing that has soured the average American on evangelical Christianity. It is this very thing that has virtually destroyed our credibility among large segments of the American population today. We have Christian business people who wear their faith on their sleeve.
People like Ken Lay and Bernie Evers and Richard Scrushy. And then these same people go out and act in ways that are utterly contrary to a biblical world view, doing ungodly things that cause even non-Christians to be appalled at what they did. We have Christian athletes and Christian movie stars and Christian musicians who publicly proclaim their faith in Jesus Christ and then go out and utterly disgrace him with their actions and their words. We have Christian preachers and televangelists and church leaders who have done things to so tarnish the reputation of Jesus Christ in America that in my lifetime, unless Jesus himself steps in supernaturally and does a miracle in this country, in my lifetime I am not sure we will ever recover our credibility fully in this nation for what has been done. And here in Washington over the past 30 years we have seen a steady parade of Christian politicians, Democrats and Republicans alike, my friends, who have besmirched the name of Jesus Christ in horrible ways through immorality and lying and power mongering and bribery and perjury and corruption and political chicanery and unbridled arrogance. And before we sit here as McLean Bible Church and go, Isn't that terrible? Oh, that's so terrible.
Oh, those terrible people. Let me just say, friends, that we have this very same problem right here in McLean Bible Church. We have people in this church who name the name of Jesus and then they go out and live lives of utter disobedience to God. We have people in our church, unmarried people, who are sexually active in direct disobedience to the written Word of God. We have people in this church who are married and involved in adulterous relationships in direct contradiction to the teachings of the Word of God. We have men in this church who have potty mouths, out of which come the dirtiest jokes and the most lewd comments you ever heard in direct contradiction to the Word of God. We have women in this church who wear clothing that is unbelievably revealing in direct contradiction to the Word of God. We have folks in this church who at work, they cheat, they break their word, they scheme against others, they lie, they deceive, they do unethical things in direct contradiction to the Word of God.
And I've been told by many of these people, Well, Lon, you know, business is business. I'm sorry. That is not the way God sees it. God doesn't see business or anything else in the life of a Christian that is outside of the authority of the written Word of God, my friends. You can't compartmentalize it like that.
I'm sorry. And we have people in this church who exhibit unforgiving attitudes and bitter spirits and take revenge on other people in direct contradiction to the Word of God. My dear friends, don't we see, and this breaks my heart, don't we see that when we profess Christ and then we go live like this, we become the very folks about whom other people say, Well, I knew a Christian once who did this, that, and the other thing. And if that's what it means to be a Christian, I don't want to be one.
Don't we understand we become those people to the disgrace of Jesus Christ? You might say, Well, Lon, excuse me. I mean, I didn't. I'm sorry. I'm not as perfect as you are. Well, it's not about that, my friends.
Believe me, I'm far from perfect. For example, I got pulled over on the beltway for speeding a couple of weeks ago. I sure did. I was coming home from church on Saturday night after preaching. And all of a sudden I see the blue lights behind me, so I pull over and I know the drill. I get my license out.
I start going for my registration card. And I'll tell you, that policeman took his sweet time coming up to my car. I'm just sitting there with the lights on. Finally, it was dark, of course, at night. He was coming, came up with his flashlight.
I saw him coming and he stands behind you, you know, where you can't really see him. I put my window down and he said, Sir, he said, Do you know how fast you were going? I said, No, sir.
He said, You were doing seventy two and a fifty five, sir. He said, Do you have any explanation for that? I said, Well, sir, to tell you the honest to gosh truth, I was talking to my son Justin in Chicago on the cell phone and I wasn't paying one bit of attention to the speedometer.
So I'll take your word for it, officer. He said to me, Lon, you need to slow down. He said, I work traffic at McLean Bible Church on Sunday. And he said, You need to slow down. I'm serious.
I'm serious. That's a true story. Now, I got to be honest and tell you, God's grace has had a lot of trouble getting down to my right foot. You understand what I'm saying to you? But God convicted me right there that I need to slow down. I'm an ambassador for Jesus Christ.
I'm bearing the name of God with that policeman and everybody else that I meet. And I need to slow down. The problem is I don't like to go slow. I like to go fast.
I enjoy speeding. But you see, if you're going to be an ambassador for Christ, my friend, it doesn't matter what you and I like. It doesn't matter what you and I want to do. It doesn't matter what you and I feel like doing.
It doesn't matter the way we want to live. If we're going to be an ambassador for Christ and we're going to be a good one, then we have to subjugate every bit of that to the teaching of the written word of God. And we have to seek to live the way God tells us to live, not the way we feel like living. Or we're going to disgrace Christ.
It's just that simple. So let me say that commandment number three, my friends, is not about my being perfect. It's not about your being perfect. It's about every one of us who name the name of Christ having a passion to live our lives in such a way that we never bring disgrace on the name of Jesus. It's about us having a passion to live our lives in such a way that we never bring reproach on the name of Jesus. And my friends, the only way to accomplish this is for us to be passionate about biblical obedience in our lives.
That's it. And so let me conclude today by asking a question. And that is, if you name the name of Christ in your life, where do you stand on this? Do you have a passion to try to act in ways that will always be a credit to the name and the reputation of Jesus?
Do you have a passion never to do anything that will tarnish the reputation of Jesus Christ in the eyes of men? And is this passion the highest passion of your life? Is it a higher passion than what you feel like doing? Is it a higher passion than what you want to do? Is it a higher passion than what you enjoy living like?
I mean, that's a good question to ask ourselves, folks. This is the passion that commandment number three calls you and me to have as followers of Jesus Christ. Let me say in closing that it is a high and holy calling that God has given us to bear His name, to carry His reputation here on earth.
And as the pastor of this church, I call on you as a member of McLean Bible Church to be zealous in this passion, above every other passion in your life. And for some of us, that means we're going to have to change the way we're living. For some of us, that means we're going to have to repent and change some of the behavior and some of the words that come out of our mouth and some of the attitudes that we display at work and at home.
This is going to mean change for some of us. And the question is, do you love Jesus enough? And is His reputation that you're carrying important enough that you're willing to repent and change your behavior with His help? Listen, in closing, let me say, if you name the name of Jesus here at McLean Bible Church and you're not prepared to live this way, could I ask you to do us a favor? Could I ask you to keep it to yourself that you come here? Could I ask you not to tell anybody that you attend McLean Bible Church?
Could I ask you to keep your faith to yourself? Don't tell anybody you're a follower of Christ if you're not prepared to live this way. Because when you tell people that you attend this church and you tell people that you're a follower of Christ and then you go out and you live in a way that dishonors Christ, friends, you are a reflection on all of us here who are trying to do it right.
And frankly, I don't want you to reflect on me. And I don't want you to reflect on the other people in this church that are trying to do it right. I'd rather have a thousand people here who are passionate about biblical obedience. I'd rather have a thousand people here who are passionate about bearing the name of Jesus with honor than I would have 20,000 people here who aren't. Now, we're never going to be perfect. We've said that. But friends, we can be zealous.
We can be passionate. And you know what? If you get it wrong, and sometimes we all do, part of protecting the reputation of Christ is having the integrity to go back and apologize and ask for forgiveness and make it right. That redeems a mistake so that it doesn't tarnish the name of Christ. And some of us here, my friends, have got people we need to go back to, people we need to ask for forgiveness, people we need to tell we were wrong, things we need to make right with people in order to redeem the name of Christ because of some of the things we've done in the past.
All right. That's hard to do. That's humiliating. That's humbling. The only reason you and I'll do that is because we love Jesus more than we love us.
So here it is, friends. As Jesus said, this is a hard saying, and who can hear it? But remember, He wasn't talking about hearing it with our ears.
He was talking about hearing it with our heart. I hope we can all do that. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, it is a wonderful honor for you to entrust us with your name, your reputation here on earth as ambassadors for Christ.
But it is also a high and a holy calling that demands a level of Christlikeness, a level of passion, a level of commitment, a level of behavior from us that is distinctive. And so, Lord Jesus, my prayer is that you would speak deeply to our hearts today and that we would rise to this high and holy calling as the people of McLean Bible Church and that we would hold out your name here in this town in a way that brings honor to the name of Christ, that we would do it as a church family corporately, and that we would do it as individual ambassadors for Christ every day, everywhere we go. Lord, change our lives because we were here today and motivate us to rise to the high and holy calling as ambassadors for Christ that you've granted us. May we be a weapon in the hand of Christ in this town, a holy weapon. And, Lord, that can only happen if we become passionate about living our lives to never tarnish your name. May that be true of us. May you change our life because we were here today. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. And God's people said, Amen. In the name of Jesus, amen.
