Sunday, April 16, 2023 PM

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Sunnyside Baptist Church Michael Dirrim

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Exodus 20 as we have made our way up to the third commandment.
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Let's begin with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father I thank you for the night, thank you for the opportunity to gather together and consider your word.
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I pray that you would give us clarity, give us understanding, give us joy together in Christ, that you would fill us with your
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Spirit so that we may see clearly and rejoice in your truth. We pray these things in Jesus name, amen.
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All right, so Exodus chapter 20 beginning in verse 1.
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And God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your
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God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
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You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.
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You shall not bow down to them nor serve them for I the
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Lord your God am a jealous God. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments.
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You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain for the
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Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
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Okay, so it's been a little while, almost three weeks since we were on this topic.
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A lot of you were in choir. Welcome back. So a little bit of review. As we think about the way in which the
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Father speaks of the Son by the Spirit through all the scripture, we find that time and again he is relating to those he has made in his image by means of covenant promises.
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Promises made and then promises kept. And our working definition for a biblical redemptive covenant, now there are many different covenants that we could read about in the
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Bible. Times that God makes covenants that aren't necessarily part of the great spine of biblical interpretation.
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Perhaps there are covenants that a man may make with a man about, such as Laban and Jacob making a covenant with one another.
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So we're not talking about all covenants, we're talking about a biblical redemptive covenant is a restoring and revealing relationship the
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Creator formalizes with man. So it's restoring as we look back to image of God that was revealed in the
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Garden of Eden, and it's revealing because it points forward to Christ, is the image of the invisible
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God, the second Adam, Adam perfected in all perfection. It is a relationship that the
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Creator formalizes by promises, by signs, by sacrificial worship, and so on with man.
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So God makes a covenant with Noah, he makes a covenant with Abraham, he makes a covenant with Israel, he makes a covenant with David, and all of these in the latter prophets are stitched together and used to talk about the new covenant yet to come, which is obviously the new covenant in Christ.
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And these covenants are concerned with the image of God. Image of God, definition for that is a relational mediating servant, that we are to love
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God supremely, love others rightly, and steward the creation responsibly. Love God supremely, love others rightly, steward the creation responsibly.
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This is the basic parameters of God's instructions to Adam and Eve when he made them in his image.
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Very relational. To mediate in the relationships what?
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Not their truth, not their sense of holiness, not their own personal authority, not their own conceptions of wisdom, but in his wisdom and his authority in all things.
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Adam's authority was not flowing from who he was on his own, but whatever authority
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Adam had was God's authority mediated through Adam. So in the
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Old Testament, prophets, priests, counselors, and kings, we find them anointed, we find all of them fulfilled in Christ.
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And being a servant, God sets the boundaries for our lives. He makes us body and soul, and that goes with that, and he makes us male and female, and he gets to decide what that means.
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Amen? All right, so what do we understand about the Ten Commandments then? The Ten Commandments constitute the quintessential testimony of God's covenant with Israel.
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If we want to know what God's covenant with Israel is, if we want the basic summary of that, we have it in the
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Ten Commandments. We know that because the Ten Commandments are also called the testimony.
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They are called the covenant, and they are placed in the ark of the covenant.
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They're placed in the ark of the testimony. And when you read, and we just read the first section of the
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Ten Commandments, the first three commandments, we read things like God saying,
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I brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage. So who's he talking to? He's talking to Israel.
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He's not talking to Edom. He's not talking to the
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Mesopotamians. He's talking to Israel. And as I read this,
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I'm saying, oh, God is speaking directly about me. I wasn't in Egypt.
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I wasn't a slave in Egypt. I wasn't part of that. Okay? God's talking to Israel.
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Also, when I read that God says, I'm the Lord your God, a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me.
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He's talking about how things run in the Old Covenant. He is not talking about something outside of that.
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Right? So I'm not supposed to take that up and say, oh, that means that if I do poorly, then my children are cursed for three or four generations.
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Where'd I get the idea that the Bible's all about me? Right? God is talking to Israel about how things run in the
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Old Covenant, and we see the examples of that, such as the sins of Manasseh are visited upon the latter days in Israel because of the sins of Manasseh.
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So we have to understand that the Ten Commandments are the quintessential testimony of God's covenant with Israel, and so we need to make sure that we are placing them properly in the storyline of Scripture so we can properly interpret them and apply them in our own lives.
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As we most often see the Ten Commandments, they are stripped outside, they're stripped of their historical context, the redemptive context.
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All the particular details about Israel are washed away, and the
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Ten Commandments appear to us in very shortened form, one through ten, very, very, very, very short imperatives, and we begin to think that these are just universal rules.
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Now, of course, these are commandments that are given that are consistent with the character of God, and so they are very valuable for us to consider, but we also must remember they were given in particular historical, redemptive, covenantal context.
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Now, let's think about the Third Commandment. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the
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Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. And it is stated exactly the same way in Deuteronomy 511, in the second giving of the
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Ten Commandments. So, when we normally teach this to children, and the way that many people come away with is, okay, don't use
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God's name as a cuss word, right? That's the most immediate application we think of, the most immediate application that we make, we're teaching.
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Now, the language here is not simply speaking
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God's name in a profane, useless, empty way, but the the word is not speaking, it's taking.
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Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Don't pick it up and carry it around, bear it upon you in a vain and empty and profane way.
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So, and it's very intensified in the original.
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It says, you shall not take unto yourself, you shall not yourself bear.
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There's an intensity on to the individual's responsibility, and you should not take it in vain.
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You should not bear it, carry it in vain, an empty way, in a sense of ruining it.
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Don't carry it in vain means don't ruin it. Don't strip it of everything that is good.
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Don't use it in a beguiling way, like take the name because it'll do something for you, but you really don't mean it, right?
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Don't use it in an idolatrous way. Don't use it in an idolatrous way.
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For instance, when Aaron declared the golden calf was Yahweh, he was bearing the name of God in vain.
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That would be not only a violation of the second commandment, but also of the third. So basically, it's, in a sense, lying about God by the way we use and bear his name.
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And God says, I'm not going to hold a person guiltless who does this.
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They will not go unpunished, is what he says. So when we think about the first, when we think about the name of God in connection to the first two commandments, what are the first two commandments about?
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Idols, worship, yeah, they're about worship. How do we worship God? Well, we're only supposed to worship the one
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God. There's only one God to worship, so we worship one God. You shall have no other gods before me, God says. How do we worship that one
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God? You're not going to worship him with graven images, such as a golden calf.
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That's a no -go. How do you worship God, then? God has made himself known to Israel by means of his name.
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He has not given them an image to worship. He has not manifested himself through the pantheon of gods and said, and say, eventually you'll get to me by working your way up the pantheon.
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He has revealed himself by his name. Everything is focused upon the name of Yahweh Elohim, the
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Lord God. His name reveals his glory. His name stands in for his presence.
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Wherever he chooses to set his name is where he chooses to reveal himself. Think about how God deals with a
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He says, I have determined to set my name there, and to there all the peoples were to turn when they prayed, wherever God had revealed his name.
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So God has made himself known to Israel. He has declared that they are to be his mouthpiece to the nations, so he sets his name in their midst and in their mouths so that they may declare the glories of the true
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God to all the nations by use of his name, not by use of an image, not by use of an idol.
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So if they take up his name and bear it in a way that pollutes it or perverts it,
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God is not going to let them off the hook. That's what he's saying. Those who bear his name in guile will bear their guilt.
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So what are the ways in which an Israelite might take unto oneself the name of the
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Lord God in vain? Well, if you invoke God's name in a curse or in an oath that you do not keep, to use
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God's name in a praise or a prophecy or in a sacrifice that is not truthful.
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How does God respond to a sacrifice that is fake and faulty and empty?
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He doesn't want it. You're supposed to worship God in accordance with his name, but if you go through the the motions and use his name and say it, you know, and give your sacrifice but it was something weak and diseased and blind, it was gonna die anyway, might as well give it to God.
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He is not impressed. This is being done in vain.
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This is being done in vain. So God shows who should be worshiped in the first commandment,
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God alone. He shows what and how one worships in the second and the third commandment.
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So not only must Israel worship the one true God and no other, and not by any graven image, but also they must avoid vanity in their use of God's name.
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And here's the challenge. Because God's name is the center of worship, they're going to be using his name a lot.
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A lot. Their worship will be according to his word. Well, how did
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God create? According to his word. How did God reveal himself to Adam? According to his word.
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God's image is made for God's word, and that's how he determines the worship of his people is according to his word.
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And all of what God says, and all of who God is, is condensed and encapsulated into the name of God.
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It is the most weighty word that he gives to his people is his name, and so they must bear it heavily, not lightly.
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They must recognize the weightiness of his name and not pretend as if it were light. To have only one
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God and no image by which to venerate him leaves you with a God revealed by his word, and a
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God who is acknowledged for everything that goes on in the universe. So Israel will be talking about him amongst themselves and to the nations, addressing his name, and so they must not take it up in vain.
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That's how serious this is. That's why this commandment is there. So, that's the significance.
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The sin, we've been bearing it lightly. God's name, his weightiness, and glory is the standard. So, when we think about the nature of this commandment, as we've already done, and we've seen that any which way we look in the
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Ten Commandments, they're concerned about three things. Loving God supremely, loving each other rightly, and stewarding the creation responsibly.
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So, the Ten Commandments are concerned about the image of God. So, we go back to creation. We go back to creation and consider the significance of God's name.
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In Genesis 1 and 2, we see
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God's name above man. In chapter 1 of Genesis, verse 1, through chapter 2, verse 3, going through the first seven days, the six days of creation and the day of rest, we find
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God's name, Elohim, used over 30 times.
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And the use of God's name leaves no room for any other name to be named. Who created
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God? You can't get around it. And so, the nature of the creation, the order of the creation, the quality of the creation, is all tied up to the glory of the name of God.
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God is the actor by being the speaker. He speaks His word, He creates, and His name is shown as glorious throughout the creation week.
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And then, in chapter 2, verse 4, through the end of the chapter, verse 25, over ten times, we have the combined name of God, Yahweh Elohim.
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So, first of all, we see God as the maker, Elohim, but now we have a personal name,
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Yahweh, by which He makes Himself known to His people and covenant with Him. And so, we see
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Him getting directly involved with those made in His image. He fashions Adam out of the dust of the earth.
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He breathes the breath of life in him. He gets into Adam's grill, tells him how it's going to be.
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He puts Adam to sleep, takes a rib out of his side, and makes Eve, and brings them together in the first marriage.
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Look how involved God is throughout the whole process. Well, the maker is also the master. The maker is also the master.
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By the way, we just have two names of God here. There are many other names of God, and there are great studies and good books that talk about all the various names of God.
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I know, I believe, Miss Lori led the children through a study of the names of God in TAG.
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It's very excellent. Now, the third commandment says,
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Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Well, He has lots of names, so which one is it? Yes, there's one
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God, and He is so multifaceted in His glory. Unsurprisingly, He has many names, but really, it just refers to the one
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God, so it's one name. So, God's name is above man.
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He is the maker and the master, but then we also see in Genesis 3
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God's name against man. Over a dozen times, the name of God is used in Genesis 3 as He confronts man in their sin.
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He's not only maker and master, but now He's also the magistrate, and He is saying,
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You have sinned. Here are the consequences, the maker, the master, and the magistrate.
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But in chapter 4, we find God's name adored by men. As humanity now is exiled from the garden, distanced from the garden by space and time and death, we read in verse 26 of chapter 4 that men began to call upon the name of the
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Lord as Adam begot
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Seth and Seth begot Enosh, and then it says men began to call upon the name of the
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Lord. As distance put them farther and farther away from the entrance to the
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Garden of Eden, where the cherubim with the flaming sword that turned every which way to guard the entrance to the
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Garden and the way to the Tree of Life, as they spread out in obedience to God, they began to call upon the name of the
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Lord and worship Him by His name. So generation after generation called upon the name of the
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Lord until Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord. So at the end of Genesis 4, we have
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Enosh calling upon the name of the Lord, then we move forward and we see the degradation of humanity into sin and violence, and then
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God brings about a a global flood that wipes out all of this violence.
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The earth is filled up with violence, so God fills up the earth with water. And God looked upon the condition of man that the every intent of the thought of his heart was only evil continually.
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Genesis 6, Genesis 8, after the flood, God says, I will never again flood the earth as I have done, because the heart of man is evil from his youth, he says, so the assessment of man after the flood is the same as before.
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All these Hollywood movies about great disaster, bringing everybody together and we find true goodness and humanity in us because we all suffer horribly horrible things together, that doesn't actually happen, right?
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It's already happened, the great disastrous flood occurred, everybody was still as bad afterward as they were before.
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If a worldwide global flood that wiped everybody out, if that kind of external dramatic disaster can't change the heart of man, then no other external stimulus is going to change the heart of man.
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It has to be a miracle of greater impact than the flood itself, it has to be something called conversion, it has to be the power of God doing a miracle in the heart of man.
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Well, Noah called upon the name of the Lord, worshipped God, but before Noah we have
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Enosh and the sons of God calling upon the name of the Lord after Noah in the plains of Shinar in disobedience to God's creation mandate that humanity be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.
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Humanity gathers together in the plains of Shinar to do whatever their hand determines to do and they determine, they say, to make a name for themselves.
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Genesis 11, they are there to make a name for themselves. Hang on a second, before we see the name of God praised in the created order and we see men adoring the name of God, now men are making a name for themselves and they build a tower that they say reaches to the heavens and God has to come down just to see it.
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It's so stumpy and inadequate. They cover the sides of the tower with the same thing that Noah covered the ark with.
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The Hebrew word is slime. Why? Man says we will save ourselves next time it floods.
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See, they don't believe the promise of God. Next time it floods we'll have a tower that's taller than the floodwaters and it's going to be waterproof.
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All of humanity gathering together to solve all of their problems and save the world, the great
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United Nations. All humanity gathered together in a world project to fix everything and solve everything.
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Sound familiar? It's been tried before and what does God do? He confuses their languages and causes chaos and brings frustration to all of their efforts, as he still does.
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Now the glorious thing, the smiling glory behind the frowning providence of the judgment at Babel is this.
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Now through a vast variety of languages men are praising the name of God.
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So the name of God today is praised in Swahili, it is praised in Russian, it is praised in Farsi, it is praised in Arabic, it is praised in German, it is praised in English.
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What? And Palika? Praise God. And so why is that?
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Because God sent forth his son to die upon the cross and by his blood purchase men from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.
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So that the nations that God scattered at Babel are brought back to not something that man has constructed but something that Christ has built.
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It's called the new Jerusalem. And now with a multitude of languages are no longer in a cacophony but in harmony praising the name of God.
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And we are given the word hallelujah, the all praise the name of God together.
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Alright, so more on this later as we work our way through the rest of the covenants and think about the application of the third commandment.
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Any questions or thoughts before we close? Yes. So if somebody takes something in creation and takes it as an emblem that they venerate and will defend as any pagan would defend their little idol, they are definitely breaking commandments.
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But a particular way to profane the name of God is to take the name of Christ, who is
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God, a very God, and man, a very man, who is at the right hand of the
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Father, and then to append to that name of Christ the the name of sin.
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So it is fashionable in the modern neo -evangelical movement to do this.
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I'm a gay Christian. What just happened? What just happened was you took the name of Christ who is seated at the right hand of the
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Father and you've placed something else at the right hand of God with him. Should you have done that?
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That is polluting the name of God. That falls under taking God's name in vain, defiling it.
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I would say the same thing about cowboy church. The cowboy church movement, we're all going to show up in costume, yippee -yi -oh
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Jesus, and we're going to do some sort of theme park church, right?
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That is taking God's name in vain. You're taking the name of God, putting it with something else, mixing it all up for marketing or for making your own rules.
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So that would be an example, I would say, in Christ, where he places his name.
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Yes, Cheryl? Yeah, they're not actually praising
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God, are they? Right? So in the scriptures we have the saints declaring praise to God.
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An exclamation, O possessive pronoun, my glorious name
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God, what a wonderful song, what a wonderful praise, so much contained there, it's good, but somebody is saying that and using it absolutely in vain.
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They're not praising God, but they're using his name. Why? I don't know. That's a good definition of vanity, if something is empty and mindless and thoughtless.
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The same thing would happen if somebody was praying and every third word that they say is Lord. Is that meaningful, or is that mystic?
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Is that significant when you're using God's name, or is it some sort of superstition?
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If I say God's name 45 times in a one -minute prayer, he's more likely to hear me. I don't think
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Jesus said that. He warned against vain repetition. Well, let's close by singing the doxology together.