What’s in a Name? (Part 2 of 2)

God's name is to be hallowed. It is uniquely holy. It's worthy of our admiration, our deepest respect, and yet it is often misused, even by well-meaning believers. Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg explains how we might unknowingly be guilty of breaking the third commandment.

We continue in Exodus chapter 20, verse 7. Now, let me give you one or two names of God. You may like to write these down.

I think you'll find this helpful. And certainly, if you get a hold of this, you'll understand why God is so concerned about his name. He is Yahweh. Jireh.

Two words. Yahweh, dash, and then capital J-I-R-E-H. It simply means the God who provides. Do you know the God who provides?

Do you know where this comes? It comes in a wonderful story again in the book of Genesis chapter 22. Abraham has his boy Isaac.

He and Sarah have looked forward to this boy's coming for many a year. Finally, he's given as a gift to them. And the Word of God comes to Abraham. He says, Abraham, take your son, your only son Isaac, and sacrifice him on the place that I will show you. And Isaac and his dad and a few helpers begin to make the journey, and eventually the dad says to the helpers, You stay here. I and the boy will go yonder, and we will return and worship with you.

Why? Because the dad knew what the boy was going to find out. The dad knew that God was Yahweh, Jireh. And when the boy said, Hey, we've got the wood, and we've got the fire going, but we ain't got nothin' to put up here, Abraham says, Yahweh, he is Yahweh, Jireh.

And turning they look and see a ram caught in the thicket. And on that day, Isaac discovered that God was Yahweh, the provider God. And in a very realistic sense, that beast on that altar bore the place of Isaac and figured what was to happen centuries later, when on a Roman gibbet outside the walls of Jerusalem, there would be yet another who would be bearing the place of another who deserved it.

And there, bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned he stood and sealed my pardon with his blood. Hallelujah! Yahweh, Jireh, the Lord my provider! Oh, could I take this name upon my lips as a curse, as a joke, as a flippancy? Could I sit in the theater and listen to them abuse the name of my Savior?

Can I listen to the nonsense without stopping my ears and running for sanity? The answer is, loved ones, yes, yes, yes, we can. Because we've become so inoculated with the godlessness of our culture that we've a sneaking suspicion, as I say to you, that this third commandment is an anachronism from somewhere in the past and bears no relevance to us at all. The problem is, you see, our God is too small. We have now brought him down to our level.

We have made him manageable. We have made him such that we may manipulate him. We do not exist for his glory, but he exists for our provision. We come to worship in order that we might so induce him to do what we want done. We do not come to worship to magnify and praise his name so that we might discover his plan for our lives.

I can go on. Yahweh, Rofai, the Lord who heals. Yahweh, Nisi, he is my banner. What does that mean?

It was the banner of the marching armies, the protection of the army around them. And you're walking into some things tomorrow, and so am I. And we say to ourselves, I don't know if I can cope with another day in that office. I don't know if I can go on that business trip. I'm not sure I can do another load of laundry.

I don't think I can make these breakfasts anymore for these kids or get these lunches and drive like a jolly taxi driver for the rest of my life. I don't know if I can do it. Well, let me tell you something. Yahweh, Nisi, the Lord is your banner. He's your protection in the storm.

Get underneath the banner and walk forward. He is Yahweh makaddesh. He is the Lord of holiness. He is Yahweh shalom. He is peace. He is Yahweh tzidkenu, the Lord, my righteousness. Righteous I can stand in Jesus. What does that mean? Do you understand what you're saying?

We who are unrighteous, who are dead in our trespasses and in our sins, who follow the ways of the world and the wickedness of Satan unwittingly without even knowing it, who are underneath the condemnation of God, may now stand complete and unchallenged by God's holiness. How? By keeping the Ten Commandments? By showing up at church? By helping ladies with their shopping?

By taking an ironing for the lady next door? By acknowledging that there is no possibility whatsoever of standing before God's holiness except to face judgment, unless there is one who may take our place, namely Yahweh tzidkenu, the Lord, our righteousness. So it doesn't make us feel good about ourselves. It makes us magnify his greatness. He is El Shaddai. Don't you love that song? You've sung it many times—El Shaddai, El Shaddai, El El, Yonan Adonai. We say, What in the world are we singing? Just magnifying the greatness of God.

It's a great song. Now, it's not about the significance of G-O-D. It is about the fact that God, in declaring and disclosing himself, shows the wonder of who he is. Now, we could list all these titles, and at the very best, we only have an inkling of the wonder of who God is. We need to realize that the names of God are full of instruction. They are packed not with magical qualities or spiritual power.

This is very important. The reason the name of God is so significant is not because his name has a magical quality. I hear people talking like this all the time. It does scare me. As if somehow or another the name of God was a talisman.

You just said these words. Whatever the sentences were, whatever the construction of the consonants and the vowels, if you said this name, it worked. That's poppycock.

That's silliness. The reason the name is so significant is not because the name possesses magical power, but it is because the name is full of doctrinal content. And it is when we understand what the name signifies that we may then rest in the name. That's why Solomon is a wise man. He says in Proverbs 18 and 10, the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run into it and are safe.

What in the world does that mean? How can you run into a name? Well, it's metaphorical language, we understand, but even so, even at that, what do you mean you run into the name of the Lord? Do you run in a place and go, the name of the Lord, the name of the Lord, name of the Lord?

I hear people doing this all the time. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. They're no better than pagans! It's not that! It is when I go in my bedroom, and I face myself, and I say, I can't cope, and then I remember, the Lord provides. And I run into that truth, and I hide. When I'm confronted by my sin, and I can see no reason why God would welcome me, I run into the fact that God in Christ is that great atoning sacrifice. When my heart is fluttering, and my pulse rate is up, and there is fearfulness on me, I run into the truth that he is Yahweh shalom.

He is my peace. It's intensely practical, and it's very theological. Now, people say from time to time, you know, I don't want to get into all of this theology. I just want to know God.

Do I mean, do we have to have all this stuff just to know God? I mean, give me a soundbite. Give me twenty seconds on it, would you? Don't give me the New York Times editorial. Give me the USA Today version. And we are producing soundbite Christians. And that's one of the reasons we're in the difficulty we're in. Because Christians are not studying, they're not thinking, they're not listening. And so they're sloganeers. They have slogans without understanding. And when the difficult times come, they have nowhere to run and nowhere to turn, because all they have is a framework, but they have no substance. I want you folks to have substance. I want you to have theology. I want you to have doctrinal content.

Because the only way that another generation will rise behind us is not on the basis of the slogans we give them to rattle in their heads, but is in the basis of the truth with which we instruct them to undergird their lives so that our children and our teenagers may understand God's name, may understand the revelation of himself, and on the basis of their minds, may have stirred hearts and changed lives. That's why people ask every so often, can we have a service where we just sing for the whole service? No. No.

Why not? Is it wrong to sing? No, it's wonderful to sing. We love to sing, but we're not going to divorce the praise and worship from the proclamation of truth, for it is the truth which gives substance to our worship, and it is our worship which fuels our hearts and minds for truth. There is a synergism between them. That's why I don't want to just stand up here and talk.

We want to see it combined. Now, you know, this came home to me so very clearly, the practicality of this, in receiving a little card, which I actually picked up just between the first and second service. I don't usually open my mail on Sundays, for those of you who'd write to me, because I'm never sure what's in it, and I certainly don't want a letter bomb halfway through the day. I'd like to complete my obligations.

So I don't usually open my mail until a Monday. But this one had a postmark from the UK, and I felt it was far enough away not to worry about it in any case. It turned out to be a letter from a young girl, whom my wife and I met when I had the privilege of being an assistant minister in Edinburgh back in 1975. To the home of this family, we were invited.

They took us to tea often. The lady was such a kindly lady, wonderful baker, and we used to have some nice afternoons in their home. Earlier in the summer, we met the daughter, who is now a grown woman. The daughter said to me that her mom had cancer and was very unwell. This card this morning says my mom passed away on September the eleventh.

But the interesting thing to me is this, that she says, this, both for my mom and for us, is something more to rejoice about than mourn. An unbeliever can't say that. Only someone who understands that the name of God is eternity. She goes on to say, Although I would not have chosen this particular road, I would not have missed the opportunity to grow in my faith and get to know my heavenly Father so much better. I just wait to see what he will do with all the lessons he has taught me. An unbeliever doesn't say that.

The only person who says that is someone who understands that God is the God who provides. She talks about God's provision, and she says how she has learned to see so much that God has given her as a provision from his hand. And I thought to myself, she understands why the third commandment is so important. Now, I have belabored that.

Let me come to the part you're most expecting. How, then, in the world do we break this third commandment? This is what you thought was important, and it is, in measure, important. But the fact is, the reason I have emphasized this is because until we understand the importance of God's name, then the breaking of the commandment has very little apparent significance at all. But once we understand the magnitude of what we're doing when we abuse and misuse the name of God, then it becomes a telling truth.

Three words summarize it. We break the third commandment by blasphemy, perjury, and hypocrisy. Or if you want to reduce it a level, we break the third commandment by swearing, lying, and kidding. Every time that we incorporate the name of God into things that we are saying, in order somehow to try and strengthen our words—for example, I hear people say, And that's the God-honest truth. That's blasphemy.

There is only one truth, and that is God's truth. We don't need God's name added to truth. And our words are to be yes and no, not yes and no and maybe. So we don't need to bring down, as it were, the name of divinity in order to reinforce what we're saying unless, of course, what we're saying is so shaky because of our character that we feel somehow we need to strengthen it by an abuse of the name of God. We blaspheme God by treating his name irreverently. We blaspheme God by mentioning his name and at the same time casting doubt on his character. We blaspheme God when we use his name in anger and in arrogance and in defiance of who he is. We misuse the name of God and take it in vain when we're lying or uttering falsehoods and using God's name to back it up. When we say we'll do things and then using God's name, affirm that, and then back off and don't do it.

You can find illustrations of this all the way through the Bible. In Jeremiah 34, the story of King Zedekiah, who said that they would release and proclaim liberty to the slaves. They invoked the name of God in so doing, and then says God to them, but then you turned around and profaned my name when each of you took back his slaves. You profaned my name by taking back the slaves.

You said one thing, then you did another, and you brought this glory to my name. Think of all the vows you've made in your life. Did you stand at the front of a church and answer, I do, to the pastor's question? Did you stand at the front of the church and say, For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, and forsaking all other, or keep myself only unto her or only unto him so long as I both shall live?

Did you? Then are you doing it? If you're playing fast and loose in your marriage, you are abusing and misusing the name of God. Did you vow to God that you would serve him with all of your life, that you were prepared to go anywhere, do anything for him at any time, and you made that commitment and you've stepped back from it? You misused the name of God when you take it upon your lips, for you have made a vow, you incurred his name, and now you incur his judgment. And we misuse the name of God when we take it and joke with it or are hypocritical with it in any way. If, you see, reverence is fundamental, then irreverence is dreadfully flawed. In very few of our circles would dirty jokes be tolerated.

We know that those sort of stories were part and parcel of our dead life, so we don't tell them anymore. But, you know, there is a strange and progressing and disturbing frequency of expressions amongst evangelical Christians, such as, Good Lord, Lord of mercy, even God, O my God, and then the corruptions of guy and gosh and gee that we have brought in because we are either not brave enough or we still maintain a measure of sensitivity. Loved ones, just when you and I are ready to sneak past the third commandment, it jumped up and bit us. Every service that you and I attend, where I worship God with my lips and not from my heart, I break the third commandment. Every song that I sing using the name of God, when I sing lies, when I sing superficially, when I do not engage the reality of my being in it, I misuse the name of God. The fact is that it is only when we take God's name in praise and in study and in love and in carefulness and in obedience and in prayer and in confidence and in evangelism and in thankfulness that we begin to get on the flip side of the commandment, expressed in the opening phrase of the Lord's Prayer—or the second phrase—"Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." You want to know how badly we abuse the name of God? How many of us have thought it was really funny to tell the little story of the boy who, in saying the Lord's Prayer, said, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name?

I told that story. The memory of it shames me when I think of the greatness of God. I spend a lot of my time on a Sunday walking around saying to people, I don't know your name. And then they tell me, Some of you are sitting out here this morning, and in relation to all of this, your response to God is this, I don't know your name.

I never met you. And you will call his name Jesus, said the angel, for he will save his people from their sins. It is only when we encounter Christ as Savior that we meet God. It is only then in meeting God that we can begin to understand why his name is to be hallowed.

And therefore, this morning, that is both our point of conclusion and, for some, needs to be the point of beginning. All of us need a better understanding of how we can honor God's name. You've been listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life, and Alistair will return in just a minute to close with prayer. Maybe today's message has led you to question whether or not you truly know God. You may be familiar with his name, and yet you've still never fully understood who he is and what he's done for you.

If you'd like to know more about what it means to have a relationship with God, visit our Learn More page. You'll find a brief video from Alistair there explaining the gospel, and there's a short illustrated video called The Story. The story explains God's plan for our salvation.

You'll find it all online at truthforlife.org slash learn more. Now we've been hearing throughout this series on the Ten Commandments that it's impossible for us to keep God's law by our own efforts. But thankfully, the Ten Commandments are not meant to be a last step. They're meant to be a ladder we climb to earn God's acceptance.

Instead, they're meant to be a mirror that exposes our sin and our need for a Savior. If you'd like to look more carefully, more closely at each of the Ten Commandments, we want to recommend to you Alistair's book as a supplement to this series. The book is called Pathway to Freedom, How God's Laws Guide Our Life. This is a soft cover book that explains what true obedience to God's commandments actually looks like. And Alistair ends the book with the best news, what he's titled Good News for Lawbreakers. You can request your copy when you donate to Truth for Life today.

Tap the book image you see in the mobile app or visit our website truthforlife.org slash donate. Now, here's Alistair to close with prayer. Our God and our Father, you have exalted above all things your name and your word. Forgive us for our flippancy, for our lies, for our superficiality.

And even as we look into this law and see our faces in the mirror, we know we can't cleanse ourselves by trying to do better. We thank you that you have provided for us in Christ a Savior. And we want to be able to say how sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer's ear, because it soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, and dries away each tear. Grant to us, Lord, grace to hear you, to respond to you, to live out what we learn. For we ask these things, commanding one another lovingly to your care. In Jesus' name, Amen. I'm Bob Lapine. Thanks for listening. Our study continues tomorrow with the fourth commandment, the one that calls us to remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Is this ancient law still relevant for our 21st century lifestyles? We'll find out tomorrow. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.