We are continuing a series that we started just a few weeks ago called Written in Stone. Can we all say that together? Written in Stone. And this is a series through the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament and just looking at each commandment and seeing how these commandments are still relevant to our lives each and every day.
Now, I've said this each week, and I'd encourage you that if you missed week number one of the series from a few weeks ago, I would highly encourage you to go back and listen to it just because we gave a little bit of an introduction about the Ten Commandments in general, and then we started unpacking each one of them one at a time. And so, I will say this: that I don't think any words ever written have more shaped and influenced society more than what we find here in these 17 verses of Exodus chapter number 20. You can see the Ten Commandments. That were founded, given to Moses on Mount Sinai by God. These are the words of the Lord.
And you see them really just infiltrating themselves throughout our society. And yet, even though they've been the framework of our society, in a lot of ways, our society is trying to almost take these commandments that have shaped and framed American society. What you find a lot of times is that society's trying to take them out of certain things, but their relevancy still matters for society and for the church today. Christians.
Now, I know the question is: well, Pastor, we're New Testament believers. Aren't we under grace? We're not under the law. And here's what I will say to that. Fundamentally, yes, that is true.
At the root of that, yes, that is true. You are under grace. If you're a born-again child of God, you're under grace, not the law. But we said that the Old Testament law, there's over 600 laws in the Old Testament. And you can really categorize all 600 into three main categories.
You would have the moral law, which is what we find here in Exodus chapter 20. And then you have the dietary laws, which the Jewish people had to abide by. And then you had number three, the third category, the ceremonial laws. And what we find in the New Testament is that the Apostle Paul, writing to the church at Corinth, he makes it clear that New Testament believers, they're not under the ceremonial laws that the Jewish people had to embark in. You know, things like the Jewish feast and all the different ceremonies that they had to observe.
No, Christ has fulfilled all that for us, so we're not under those ceremonial laws. But we're also not under the dietary laws. Praise God for that. Aren't you thankful? And we're not under those as well.
But the moral law. still exists and is still relevant. And the way that we find that is when Jesus was teaching in the New Testament, what he did was he told us that we're not under these ceremony and dietary laws. But here's what he did say: is that when he was teaching, he took parts of the law here in Exodus chapter 20. And he doubled down on it.
In fact, he raised the standard.
So he said things like this: is like, hey, doesn't the law say don't commit adultery? In which his audience would have said, yes, it does. He says, Well, I'm going to tell you, we're raising the bar as New Testament believers that if you even think a lustful thought about somebody else, you've already committed adultery in your heart. Or, hey, he said, doesn't the law say don't commit murder? In which his audience would have nodded their head and said, Yes, it does.
And then he says, But hey, listen, as New Testament believers, we're going to raise the bar of the moral law set in the Old Testament. And I'm going to tell you that if you have hate in your heart towards one another, you're already a murderer. And so the moral law still exists for us today. And so each week of the series, we're going to unpack one of the Ten Commandments. And so let's read it here.
Exodus 20. We're going to read verses 1 through 7. Here today, and God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Out of the house of bondage.
Now, just contextually, so that you remember, is that Moses is on Mount Sinai. when God has given him these tablets of stone. This is taking place. But after God had led him out of Egypt. This isn't years of a gap.
This is months after they had been in captivity in Egypt for over 400 years. They had been influenced there through a culture that was polytheistic, meaning that they believed in a bunch of different gods and things like that. They'd been influenced by that. And now God had led them out of Egypt. And now, months later, he is setting up this framework in how he is going to be revealed to them.
And how he wants them to live. Verse 3: here's the first one: Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Then in verse 4 through 6, we find the second one: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. Or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them, for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God.
Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. And showing mercy. unto thousands of them that love me. And keep my commandments. Verse 7, and here's where we're going to kind of stop and park here today.
Thou shalt not take the name. of the Lord thy God in vain. For the Lord will not hold him guiltless. that taketh his name In vain.
So In this, you find the first commandment we looked at basically said: don't have any gods. Before me. The second one was: don't make for yourself any idols. The third one, and what we're going to look at today is this: don't shame. or misuse God's name.
Don't shame or misuse God's Dang.
Now, here's what I'll tell you: names are important. And in Scripture, names were very important. Throughout history, names, you know, they don't mean as much today as they did in Bible times. And so today it's a little bit different. But names are important, and the way it's still even today, because one of the most important things that you'll do for your children is you give them a name.
Right, you give them a name, and so a lot of times, you know, that's an important thing.
So, and that's a hard decision for parents to kind of agree on. You know, what name are we going to call our kid? And so, you have the book of names, I'm sure it's called something like that, right? And you look at it and you kind of pay attention, and then you have names that you like, and you can't, you know, you're kind of vetoing names that your spouse is saying, things like, no, we can't do that. I knew somebody by that name, and they were weird, and we can't name our kid that.
Or then you suggest something else, and somebody said, you know, you or your spouse say, no, no, no, I dated somebody with that name. We can never do that. And you veto these names back and forth. And so eventually you get real spiritual and you're thinking, okay, let's go with a Bible name, which I think is great. My parents named me Josh.
And they never really talked to me if it was as a Bible, like because of Joshua and Scripture. But I'm just kind of like, I'll just assume they were spiritual when they did that.
Now, here's what I want you to know just about me. If you're looking for. A pastor who names their kids after Bible characters and stuff, I might not be your guy, unfortunately. I wish I was. But if you're looking for a pastor who names their son after a famous stadium, what called Cameron Indoor Stadium, then I'm your guy.
I'm your guy, okay? And so, but names are important, and names do show something. And so, whatever you name your kids and stuff, it does have value and what means something to you. And names are important, but in scripture, names are even more so important.
Okay, and so what we find here is the name of God. That we are not supposed to shame his name in any way. We are not supposed to shame his name in any way. And so I want to, for a few moments, dissect this because. I mean, I've been around church my entire life, and so I know this commandment, and I know some of the generic.
Application of what we would find here, but I really want to unpack it for just a few moments about what this really looks like, what this really means, and how we can all be guilty of breaking this commandment sometimes in ways that we don't even recognize. And I want to see that.
So, first, I want you to see the nature of the third commandment. What is he telling us? What is God commanding us to do?
So, in verse number seven. When he says, don't take the name. Are the Lord thy God in vain? The word vain, if you look it up in the Hebrew, It will mean empty. It will mean purposeless or it will mean nothing.
And so, when you see this, the commandment here is forbidding us. From using his name, God's name, in a manner that is empty or purposeless or wicked. And so, if the commandment number one was saying worship God exclusively, right, and commandment number two was saying worship God currently. Correctly in the right way, right? Then this commandment would be saying this: worship God.
Reverently. Worship God reverently. And let me say this by way of introduction. Not only is this about taking his name in vain, it's also about taking up his name in vain. And we're going to talk about what that looks like.
In the Old Testament, When God called Moses, you know this story. Moses is a shepherd in the wilderness. And he's out there in the wilderness, and he comes to this bush that is on fire, but it's not being consumed. And out of the bush, God talks to him. And God ends up telling him, I want you to go before Pharaoh, and I want you to demand that he let my people go.
And when he did that, Moses was, you know, giving him all these excuses, much like how we do when God tells us to do something as well. And Moses looks back and he finally says to this bush, he says, well, listen, when I go, who am I supposed to tell the Israelites? And who am I supposed to tell Pharaoh that sent me? I mean, what basis do I have? And in that moment, God said, He actually called himself by his covenant name.
Here's what he said: he said, All you got to do is tell him. I am hath sent you. I am is where we get God's covenant. Name. Of Jehovah, of Yahweh, and you get that name.
And I want to show you how important this commandment was in the Old Testament. The name Yahweh, which means self-existing one, and it's where we get Jehovah. It's mentioned in the Old Testament more than any other name. And what you find here in the Old Testament is that the nation of Israel took this commandment so seriously. Here's a couple ways.
How they would take it seriously. The Jewish people. Would not even say the name out loud for fear of using it incorrectly or irreverently. They wouldn't even say God's name out loud because they feared misrepresenting Him or misusing His name and be guilty of this. My how far have we gone come from something like that?
But not only that, the scribes In the Old Testament, when they would write. You know, on these scrolls and different things. That, what they would do, and you can learn all about this, and this is why studying scripture is so important. That what they would do, the Old Testament scribes, when they would come to God's name and they would need to write it, here's what they would do: they would stop what they were doing and they would go and they would purify themselves and bathe themselves and everything else as a pitcher because they did not want to write his name with any sin in their life. They didn't want to write his name in an irreverent manner or in a casual manner.
And so they would take it so seriously. Here.
So, this commandment, what it's doing is it's prohibiting irreverently using. Gods name or misrepresenting His name. If I was going to summarize it, and I'm trying to do this each and every week because if you're like me, you know these commandments so well. I really want to make this as practical as possible.
So I'm giving you a summary of every single one of these one at a time and what I think that they mean for us today. Here's what the third commandment prohibits. I think the third commandment prohibits irreverently. Using God's name in word. Or indeed.
in a way that violates who he is. in a way that violates his character.
So, as we unpack this, I want you to think about that in mind. That this third commandment, it's saying, God is telling us, don't. irreverently use my name. In your tongue, your mouth. or in your actions and behavior.
Okay, that's the difference between, hey, don't take the name, that's your... Your mouth. But then also, I think the commandment is deeper than that. I think it's don't take up his name. In a way, don't live in a way that defames and shames his name and shames who he is.
And here's what I'll tell you: as I unpack what this meant, we're all guilty of this. There is not a person in this room that is not guilty of breaking and violating the third commandment in some ways. And here's what I want you to see: how do we break this commandment? Because I want to show you why we're all guilty.
Okay, so when I was studying this, here's a few ways that we violate this commandment. The first one is this: we violate the third commandment when we blaspheme his name. Yeah. When we blaspheme his name. Here's what I mean by that.
It's really the most obvious one. This is the one where a lot of you would say, I'm doing really good. I'm not breaking the third commandment because I don't curse using God's name and things like that. And for a lot of church people, we think, hey, we've done it. We don't have to study commandment number three.
We're doing really good in this regard. And yes, that is what this means. When you blaspheme his name, it's don't take his name in a cursing way. In a swearing or a profane way. Unfortunately, GD is becoming too common in our culture.
It's becoming too common of an expression. But beyond that, here's what I'll tell you: people do stupid things all the time, and they say things like, Jesus. Or, oh my god. And we say things like this, and here's what I want you to know: when you do something and you respond that way, you are violating this commandment because you're blaspheming his name. You're blaspheming his name because what happens is when we do that, I think it can go very far, and I'm going to take it a little probably further than you realize.
But here's what I want you to know: when you say things like, God awful. Which I'm guilty of. You don't think about it. It just is a common expression. And what we're doing is we're violating because what happens is when we use his name in any of these ways, what happens in a lot of times is: remember, he is the name that is above any other name.
There is none like him. And when we use him in these common expressions, what happens is we lower him and we reduce him by irreverently using his name. And here's what I'll tell you: here's how, once again, the Old Testament was so serious about this. Blaspheming God's name. In the Old Testament.
It was a capital offence. Leviticus chapter 24, you'll see the verse up on the screen, verse 16. You know what it says? It says, He that blasphemeth the name of the Lord.
So anything that we just talked about. He shall surely be put to death. And all the congregation shall certainly. Stone him. You want to go back to this law?
You want to inflict this at Union Grove Baptist Church, right? Because all of us are guilty of it, and they shall stone him as well. The stranger is he that is born in the lame, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall be put to death. It was so serious, and over time, we have reduced his name and really reduced it in a way that nowadays it becomes just common practice. And what is happening is in a culture, and I'm not just talking about society, I'm talking about churches, we have lost the seriousness of his name, we've reduced that, and we've reduced the sacredness of his name.
Throughout the course of history. And we use his name so casually today. We we say things like the man upstairs. We call him things like our co-pilot. And every time I hear stuff like that, I think, you know, we have reduced his name so much to where all of us are so guilty of this third commandment.
I saw a shirt one time, it said, Jesus is my homeboy. And I'm thinking We've missed it. Because we've reduced his name. And so the idea here is when we violate, when we use his name in any way that really defames or shames his character and who he is with our mouth or with our actions and behaviors and our deeds, we have reduced him and therefore made us guilty of violating this commandment. Let's not blaspheme his name.
But another way that I'll show you that we have violated this commandment is this. We violate the third commandment when we live in hypocrisy.
So here's why I think this is true. God's name, if you follow his name, and by the way, if you ever want to take some time out of this, we did a study in our midweek Bible study through the names of God in the Old Testament. And I'll just tell you: if you don't attend, if you're an adult and you're not serving in some capacity on Wednesday night, I'd encourage you to come in here. We do some deep dives into a lot of this kind of stuff. And we did a study through the names of God.
And here's what I'll tell you: every name of God that is used in the Old Testament shows something about who God is. is character. And here's what's interesting: that I think a lot of Christians don't like this responsibility a lot of times, but it's just true. When you trust in Jesus as your Savior, What happens after that is you Take on. The name of God.
So, what happens is you put on, you could call it, you put on the team jersey. If you would. You're a Christian. You know what that really means? that you should follow Christ.
And so, what I think this commandment is saying, and the way that we violate it is this: when you live a life. Your actions, your behaviors, when they don't match what you say you believe. Then I think you violated this commandment. Because I think that this is talking more than just your words. It's talking about how you live.
You shame God's name. Because remember, when you said yes to Jesus, you took on his name. Whether you like that or not, that's what happens at the moment of conversion when you pray to ask Jesus to come into your life and give you a brand new start. Let me tell you this: right at that moment, you take on his name. Right?
And what happens is you shame his name when you live an inconsistent life where what you do does not match what you say you believe. And so, every single one of us have violated this because we have all lived in a way that disgraces his name at some point in our life. We've all lived in some way that disgraces his name and shames his name. And what happens is when we live a hypocritical life where what we say we believe doesn't match how we actually behave, And you've shamed his name. Think about it this way: you come to church on Sunday, I'm glad that you do.
How do you go on Monday through Friday at your workplace? Are you taking the name of God into your workplace? Are you taking the name of God, that team jersey that you put on? But you know what a lot of times Christians do? We kind of compartmentalize our faith.
Right? So what we do is we, you know, a Sunday morning, putting on the team jersey. Team Jesus, Christian, that's where we are. We're a part of his family here on Sunday. And what happens is, you're like, man, that was a great sermon, great music.
We leave here, we go into our schools, we go into our communities, we go to the ball field, we go to our place of employment. And what happens is when you go there, it's almost like, okay, well, I'll take the jersey off, I'll put it to the side, and I'll put it on next Sunday. No, that's not how a New Testament Christian should live. No, you're supposed to wear the team jersey all week. That means that when you go to your place of work, you should be as committed to taking the name of God with your words and with your behaviors into every environment that you do.
And when you choose to say one thing, like, hey, I'm a Christian, but you choose to say something different and act something different and act differently at work than what you would say a Christian should act on Sunday, then what you're doing is you're shaming his name. You might not be taking his name in the Lord's vein, but remember: when you take up his name in your life by way of salvation, you should live like him. And too often our behaviors, we shame this. We shame who he is and we misrepresent our great God because our behaviors do not match what we say that we believe. Let me tell you this, church, don't worship him with your lips.
and forget your actions. Yeah. We have too many hypocrites in churches today. We've all seen them. They're at church on Sunday.
And then you see them at the ball field, right, when their kids are on the court. Yeah. That's nobody from Union Grove, by the way, okay?
So just let me clarify. But what happens is a lot of times, you know, it's like we just compartmentalize these things. But listen, that's the nature of what I think he's trying to say. He's telling us here that this commandment is prohibiting us. From taking the name of the Lord thy God in vain, or taking up his name in a way.
That shames who we are. It shames his character. And we're all guilty of it. But then there's a warning for violating the third commandment in verse 7. At the end of it, look what it says.
For the Lord would not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Like what is what does that mean? You may think no harm done, that God will not hold you accountable, and that kind of thing. And this commandment is clear. Bail.
Here's what I will say. Every single one of us are guilty of this commandment. Every single one of us are guilty, and here's what I want you to know. If you're in here today and you're guilty of this, here's the good news. Because we're guilty, right?
The scripture says, because we're guilty. He can't hold us, you know, guiltless. Like, we are guilty.
So, if there's nothing that we can do to fix our guilt, if there isn't enough apologies that we can make to make this right, we're still guilty of violating this commandment. What does that mean? Is there no hope for us? No, the gospel is right here that what you see.
So, what happened is. Is God knew that you were guilty of violating this commandment?
So, what did He do? He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus. That's what the song said. He didn't want heaven without us.
Well, because you're guilty, you couldn't get to heaven on your own.
So what he did was he sent Jesus So come. To this earth, and you know what Jesus did? He lived a life, the only person to have ever lived a life. Worthy of the name That is above every single name, Jesus. He's the only one.
And when Jesus lived a perfect life, something that you could never ever do with your life, then he died the death. You say, why is that significant here? It's because you were guilty. And what happened is when God sent Jesus to this world, to this earth. He made Jesus the very Son of God, the one that had no sin, that has never sinned.
He made his only begotten Son guilty in your place. And so on the cross, he became guilty, not because of anything our Savior has done, but he took upon all of your guilt, all of the shame that you have called. He took it upon himself there on the cross, and he died for you. Why?
So that now you can be free when you stand before the Father. That you can be freed from this warning that we have here in verse number 7. All the guilt that you have acquired in your life was placed on the Son of God so that you and I could be. You see, justice was served. Jesus.
So we could live for That's the gospel, and that's what we see here. And so, when we think about this commandment, I want to be very practical as we kind of conclude this. It's going to be quick, rapid-fire type stuff. But I wanna give you two practical things that I think we can do better in our culture and in our church when it comes to the third commandment. The first thing, here's how we can practically apply this name.
Bless his name. Bless his name. Wait. Here Um I think This is a way that we could just change the tide. If you can be careful with your lips.
how you use his name and everything. In other words, use his name in a way that produces blessing. and give him praise for it. In other words, when you talk about how you know you provision Say God is my Jehovah Jireh, my provider. When you talk about your banner.
Right? And right now, politically, isn't that what everybody's talking about in our culture? You know, the banner that they're waving or something. Here's a better way to do it as Christians: say, hey, God is. My Jehovah Nisi, my banner.
God is my Jehovah Rapha, my healer. God is my Jehovah Shalom, my peace. And so, in other words, what we got to do is change the tide and how you use it and be very sensitive to every time you use the name of God. Do it in a way that describes who He is and the blessing that He has blessed you on. Don't use it for cursing, use it for blessing in your experience.
your life. And number two, here's what we can do. is live in a manner. That is consistent. What's his name?
Yeah. in a manner. That is consistent. with his His name. Don't be a hypocrite.
Don't be different on Sunday than you are on Tuesday at work. Don't be different on Sunday than you are Thursday at your school.
Now, if you're going to take up the name of Christ, I want you to know, you say, man, I don't like that type of responsibility.
Well, too bad. That's part of being a Christian, a Christ follower. You misinterpret the gospel. Because what happens is, my Bible tells me that when the gospel comes into my life, it takes root in my heart. And therefore, if any man be in him, I'm a new creation, I'm a new creature.
And now old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. I'm a new person, not just on Sunday. I'm a new person seven days a week, 365 days a year.
Now, does that mean that I never make a mistake? No, we all do. Every single one of us are gonna make mistakes, but we need to be more sensitive. With how we respond to things, how we react to things, how we respond to people, how we look at one another. How we talk.
What we do, what we watch, what we live by, everything about our life. You're saying, are you wanting to go back to legalism? No. Here's what I want: is that every one of us, when we leave here, to recognize that we have the team jersey on, we carry the name of God with us. And our attitude and behaviors better match what jersey will.
And that's where we miss.
So when we look at this, don't think it's all about just your words. Don't take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Yeah, don't say it in a way that shames him or misrepresents him. But also Remember, when you said yes to Jesus, you took up the mantle of his name in your life. And you're supposed to be salt and light, like Christ was, to the world that we live in.
Don't misrepresent. Yes, name. What a beautiful name. In the end.
