Sunday, April 23, 2023 PM

Okay, well, we're going to return to our study on the ten words about Christ and we're going to continue thinking about the third commandment in its context and its significance. Given in the covenants that God makes with man.

Let's begin with a word of prayer father. I thank you so much for.

Tonight for our fellowship. I'm keeping our definitions up here on the.

The Third Commandment and the Holiness of God's Name

God and the ten commandments. We studied the third commandment last time. In Exodus 20 verse 7 it says you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain for the Lord will not hold him Guiltless who takes his name.

And we talked about this. Taking the name is more than simply speaking it. It does involve speaking it but there is an idea of Bearing it about carrying it almost the idea of wearing it and To take it in vain is Yes, it involves using it in a filthy way.

Yes, it means using it in an empty way, but also in a way that ruins it. It has the moral value of.

Of.

Guile of deception it stands. The third commandment stands In parallel as the first two commandments are kind of a two-parter about the worship of God. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image to bow down and worship it and these parallel with the Double commandment about coveting at the very end.

You should not covet your neighbor's wife and then you should not covet anything else that is your neighbors so these are standing parallel at the at the ends of the covet of the Ten Commandments and the third commandment is to not Lie concerning God's name to be deceptive to be said of with name and Stands in parallel to the ninth commandment.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor not lying against God not lying against neighbor is featured in creation and We saw that the name of God Elohim is used over 30 times in Genesis 1.

Yahweh Elohim over 10 times in chapter 2 of Genesis and We left off thinking about Noah and the story cycle of Noah. How at the end of Genesis chapter 4 as the generations proceed and Men begin to spread out on the face of the earth.

That as they move away from the entrance to Eden, they begin to call upon the name of the Lord. They're not in view of the east of Eden From which they were cast. They don't see this place anymore this this place where they offered sacrifices Cain and Abel and so on but now they're calling upon the name of the Lord wherever they are and This story proceeds forward until we have.

Rather than men calling upon the name of the Lord by the time we come to the Tower of Babel. They're making them for themselves a name. They're making a name for themselves. And in the middle of that cycle we have Noah who The name of his blessed son is Shem a name that simply means name.

He named his son after the name of the God whom he calls. Well now we're moving on to consider. And again the idea of God's name being holy the idea of God's name being important. It's not brand new when you get to the Ten Commandments, right?

There's a background to it and the background is how we're made in the image of God that we should Love God supremely love each other rightly and steward the creation responsibly. Well, it matters God's name how we bear God's name matters.

Especially in our relationship to God for we are to worship him and pray to him and and call upon his name. We don't worship God by an image. He didn't give us a statue and he didn't say well you have to climb this mountain if you ever want to worship me.

Throughout the scriptures we worship God by calling upon his name. So we should not bear that name in vain in an empty way in a deceptive way. His name encapsulates all who he is all that he has promised all that he has said so it's very weighty.

It's like the compressed glory of God so we must handle the name of God in a very reverent way and not pretend as if it's light and something small. So it so that matters but when he says do not bear my name in vain.

Of course it matters to him. But the idea is that you're caring about the name. You are you are bearing the name or even wearing the name. You're speaking the name aloud not for the benefit of God's ears.

Yes, that's there. But there is a sense in which it matters for the people that you're around. Worship was never designed in the scriptures to be an intensely individual thing. We do find individuals worshiping.

We do find that that piety is indeed Preeminently private. That we did if our piety of our religion if our worship of God is predominantly public and we never worship God when we're by Ourselves, there's a big problem.

Jesus says right? Matthew 6. However, when we're calling upon the name of the Lord that is that is that is audible. It is to be done amongst the people of God. So if we are being false about the name of God Before other people then that does impact our relationship with others as well.

So when we think about the third commandment as it pertains to the image of God it pertains primarily to loving God supremely. But it does matter how we love others rightly. Should we bear God's name falsely lightly in a meaningless fashion around other people?

That's not loving them. Is it? That's not a blessing to them. Is it? So that's what we're thinking about also it pertains to.

As the.

Image of God is relational mediating servant. We're to be mediating the truth of God and the holiness of God if we're using God's name in vain. We're not mediating truth. We're being deceptive about God's name.

We're perhaps using God's name in a way. That is that is indicating something false. The classic example is a false prophet who says in the name of the Lord such-and-such is true or such-and-such will happen.

But he's prophesying falsely. Okay, so he's bearing the name in vain. We can also bear the name in vain by attaching the name of God to something that is Unholy or abominable. They attach the name of God to the golden calf.

Right that was bearing God's name in vain. They had no business carrying God's name and laying it on the golden calf. That's bearing it in vain. So that's being that's not only being false and not mediating the truth of God.

It is also a concern about mediating the holiness of God. We need to treat God's name as sacred and as holy. The opposite of holy is not evil. The opposite of holy is common. And if we if we treat that's the that's the contrast you have in the description for instance of the tabernacle.

Now here is a ladle and it's a regular old ladle. You can use it to serve soup manna soup in your house in your tent however, if this label ladle this ladle is made and then it is Sanctified and set apart for holy uses it is placed in the tabernacle to be used there as a utensil and it is a holy Utensil and shall never be used for common use you see and that's the opposite.

So God's name is not to be used for common use right, I let alone profanity, so That's the whole idea of what it's profane. Anyway is treating the holy as common. All right, so Moving on past. Moving on past Noah because every time God makes a covenant he's he's dealing with the image of God he is speaking about a Restoring of the image of God he is pointing forward to the revealing of the image of God in Christ.

Calling on the Name of the Lord from Noah to Abraham

We've thought about Noah. What about Abraham? What we find in Abraham is in the passages there in Genesis. We read there and I'm just gonna read them for you quickly, but you're gonna hear the pattern this speaking of Abraham in verse 8 of Genesis 12 and he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel and He pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east.

There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. Genesis 13 4. To the place of the altar which he had made there at first and there Abraham called on the name of the Lord. Genesis 21 33 that Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and there called upon the name of the Lord the everlasting God.

See so what is what is Abraham doing? You know Eden's washed away by the flood. There's no more Eden.

Right.

Abraham is wandering about in the land that God has promised him. It's not his yet. He doesn't possess it. He is he's he is as a man of faith. He does he doesn't have what was promised to him. He's going to die without having what was promised to him.

He's not going to have the land. He's not going to have a massive amount of descendants right, he's not going to he's not going to die with the reality of Being a father of many nations. That's not going to be a reality when he dies.

So his entire life is lived by faith and that God's going to bring about these promises and he's wandering around the land of Canaan and Here an altar there an altar here an altar there an altar calling upon the name of the Lord calling upon the name of the Lord calling upon the name of the Lord.

So he's he's wandering around and just and just planting altar after altar after altar Calling upon the name of the Lord and everybody's getting to know Abraham throughout the whole land of Canaan and so he goes throughout the land and he witnesses to the truth of the one true God a Witness that that lasts and persists for generations.

To which God makes the tribes of Canaan accountable and they did not repent. So 400 some years later God sent Israel in as instrument of judgment. They had Abraham and Melchizedek. I mean, I mean, what are you gonna do?

You had the best two preachers of the ancient world and you didn't repent.

Right.

So Abraham calls upon the name of the Lord as he worships and we keep on hearing about these different names of God. Genesis 21 here about God the everlasting God. Chapter 16 Hagar recognizes The Lord is the God who sees chapter 17.

God is revealed as the Almighty God to Abraham in the covenant of circumcision. Chapter 18 Abraham recognizes His guest the Lord himself as the judge of all the earth. That's the name of God. Chapter 22 when God provided the ram substitute for Isaac Abraham calls him the Lord who will provide about who God is.

Remember that we said that There are many names for God, but it can all be summed up as the name of God. These are the descriptors of God and each one of them bears glory each one of them sheds light on who he is.

Each one of them it has Weightiness and gravitas about it's showing the the character and in the goodness of God. We are drawn to the God by his names. We understand God by his names and and he draws us to himself by his name so also we think about God's covenant with Israel which again the Ten Commandments is the Quintessential testimony of God's covenant with Israel.

It's called the the Ten Commandments are called the testimony. The Ten Commandments are called the covenant. And they are placed in the ark of the testimony the ark of the covenant. But as we begin to think about the law, let's all look to a very fun chapter of liticus 19 in all the many ways.

That one might sin against God and all the many for all the many reasons that one might die. This is such a fun chapter. Just out of curiosity. Have the editors of your copy of scripture. Given a heading for chapter 19.

Does anybody have a heading written up there the non inspired text? Yes, mr. Jill.

Various laws.

Interesting, yes. Laws of holiness. Yeah, right. That's the one I have. Moral and ceremonial laws. Yes. Idolatry forbidden. Very good. Yes. The Lord is holy. I like that one. Personal conduct. Okay. Well, it sounds like the editors of the Bible don't know exactly how to label this chapter.

Does it? That's a pretty wide variety. Them trying to figure out what should we call?

This.

Hmm.

Well.

Verse 9. Verse 1. And the Lord spoke to Moses saying Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel and say to them you shall be holy for I the Lord your God.

Am.

Holy. Well, there's your there's your general statement that governs the rest of The text everything else that comes after that is a particular Instance of how the children of Israel are to be holy even as God is holy.

This is the way that God reveals his law. I am the Lord therefore. You do this? Right. I am the Lord your God. Therefore you do this? Yes. It's based upon the relationship that he had with Israel that he rescued them out of Egypt.

But it's also based on who he is the one who is relating to them. So they have to be holy just as God is holy. And if they're going to be holy they have to keep his law. Now we have in the plural laws.

But the scripture speaks of God God's law as just law. All right. It's a it's a collection of precepts. It's a collection of instructions. It's a collection of many rules and regulations. And when the biblical authors write about it most often they refer to it as The law.

If they're gonna keep the law you keep all the law. And so we're gonna hear are some of the Ten Commandments in here and we're gonna hear even more than that. Verse three every one of you shall revere his father and his mother and his father.

What number is that? Number five. Yeah, remember five. There it is and Keep my Sabbaths. Which has number four. I am the Lord your God. Do not turn to idols. Nor make for yourself molded gods. I am the Lord your God.

Which which one is that I Want to want to you? And if you offer a sacrifice of a peace offering to the Lord you shall offer it of your own free will. Which one of the Ten Commandments is that? No, no, that's not on there.

But.

Here it is right here right next to the ones from the Ten Commandments. It shall be eaten the same day you offer it on the next day if any remains till the third day should be burned in The fire if it is eaten at all on the third day.

It is abomination. It shall not be accepted. Therefore everyone who eats it shall bear his iniquity because he is profaned the hallowed offering of the Lord and that person shall be cut off from his people.

Don't profane the offering of God. That wasn't one of the Ten Commandments. I couldn't I couldn't find that one. Okay, when you reap the harvest of your land. You shall not wholly reap the corners of your field nor should you gather the gleanings of your harvest.

And you shall not glean your vineyard nor it shall you gather every grape of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and the stranger. I am the Lord your God. Okay, so you're gonna you're gonna leave the corners leave the leave the stuff you drop leave it for the poor.

They're gonna come work and they're gonna come gather it and they're gonna be able to provide for themselves.

Great.

Which one of the Ten Commandments is that it's all right. It's still part of the law of God, right?

Oh, here's here's one verse 11. You should not steal.

All right, which number is that? Did somebody say eight ish? It's eight number eight.

Nor deal falsely nor a lie to one another. Which one is that? Number nine, right? Okay. So here's some Ten Commandments. Here's some other commandments. Here's some more Ten Commandments. And you shall not swear by my name falsely nor shall you profane the name of the Lord your God.

I am the Lord. Ah, there's number three. There's the third commandment. You should not cheat your neighbor nor rob him the wages of him who was hired to not remain with you all night until morning. You should not curse the death did the death nor put a stumbling block before the blind.

But shall fear your God. I am the Lord. So cursing the death and putting a stumbling block before the blind. I don't have that on the list of the Ten Commandments, but It is part of fearing God. Right.

It is part of you know, if you if you love God supremely you'll love your neighbor rightly. You know, it is part of being the image of God, right? I don't have it in the Ten Commandments, but it is sure a part of of living out the image of God.

All right. Verse 15. You should do no injustice and judgment. You should not be partial to the poor nor honor the person of the mighty boy, we could use a lot of that in our justice system, right. And Righteousness you shall judge your neighbor.

You shall not go about as a tailbearer among your people as commandment. Number nine. You should not take a stand against the life of your neighbor. I am the Lord. You should not hate your brother in your heart.

You shall surely rebuke your neighbor and not bear sin because of him. You should not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

I am.

The Lord.

So that's a sort of great summary there even Jesus used that When he was asked about you know What is the greatest commandment? Jesus said the whole law and the prophets turn on two hinges the whole door turns on two hinges.

Love the God supremely love each other rightly. Why does the whole law turn on those hinges? Because that's how God made us in his image to love him supremely to love each other. Rightly and to steward the creation responsibly which fires up.

In verse 19, you should keep my statutes. You should not let your livestock breed with another kind you should not so your field mix with so you're filled with mixed seed nor shall the garments of Mixed linen and wool come upon you and there's a lot here.

We keep on going and going and going. What is the point? The Ten Commandments show up in this chapter and many other commandments are mixed in with them. When we think of the law we should be thinking of all of the commandments of God that are placed under this heading.

I'm holy you be holy here's a list of things it kind of looks like the Ten Commandments if they were a deck of cards and The ceremonial laws if they were a deck of cards and the civil laws. You know how you how you have people give a testimony and witness and how you make your judgment calls.

That they three decks and somebody mixed them all together and put them in one stack. That's not what happened. They were always one deck. They were always there together the whole time. Theologians and scholars Bible students have gone through and they look through the deck of cards one at a time and they toss them into the piles.

Oh, that's a moral law. Okay. That's a ceremonial law. That's a civil law and toss them into three three decks and then say we're going to follow the moral law and Jesus fulfilled the ceremonial law and the civil law was just for Israel.

So here we go, right. But that's not how the Bible was written. Okay, Jesus didn't just fulfill the ceremonial law as a great high priest. He didn't just fulfill the civil law as our King of Kings. He also fulfills the moral law as the great prophet.

He fulfills all of the law. So as we follow Christ as we follow Christ Paul says we keep the feast.

All right, how?

By.

You know, oh, you know going Jewish all of a sudden get out the bitter herbs and let's do all these fancy ceremonies. No follow Christ. In Christ is our circumcision, right. In Christ is our Sabbath. Follow Christ.

So so the. The commandment the third commandment in Israel's context Is one in which We actually even even have an example story in Exodus. There's an example story.

Of.

The second commandment where they made the golden calf and then they come under the judgment of God. There's an example story of the fourth commandment the Sabbath some guy went out and picked up sticks and they stoned him for it on The Sabbath and there's an example story about the third commandment.

I.

Believe it was a son of some parents. He cursed the name of God and he was brought out and he was stoned to death. So this is a very serious commandment in the life of Israel and ultimately, it is one that we are to understand as fulfilled in Christ.

The Third Commandment Fulfilled in Christ

David Pray calls upon the name of the Lord as well. Second Samuel six as he's bringing the Ark of the Covenant in. Is it wrongly the first time. Does it rightly the second time? But both times he calls upon the name of the Lord the whole time.

The.

Men began to call upon the name of the Lord all the way back in the days of Enosh and All the way through there's a concern that one would call upon the name of the Lord rightly correctly genuinely truly.

And this is what is the concern in the Ten Commandments? Because we are made in the image of God to worship God to worship God according to his word to worship God according to the Name that he is revealed.

So it's vital that we do so appropriately and David shows an example of that. Now when we get to how Christ those things We get to Matthew chapter 5 in the Sermon on the Mount and What does he say in chapter 5 and verse 33 and in in the Sermon on the Mount.

He's reminding his audience of what the law says. Helping them understand What it means to be a part of his kingdom and how to follow him. So Matthew chapter 5 and then verse 33 again, you have heard it was said of to those of old You should not swear falsely but perform your oaths to the Lord.

That was one of the concerns of the prophets. The prophets Were concerned about swearing in the name of the Lord rather than by the name of the false gods. They were concerned that those who prophesy would prophesy in the name of the Lord, but do so truly and they were also concerned about Praying and calling upon the name of the Lord that they might be delivered in Their times of distress that they would worship God according to his name According to all that he had revealed about himself.

So they were looking for authentic worship by calling upon the name of the Lord the psalmist Asaph and Psalm 50 Puts puts a the voice of God to the people and says do you really think I'm eating the bulls and goats that you're offering me.

And he says to them call upon my name.

All right.

So when we get to Matthew chapter 5 verse 33, here's this concern about Swearing falsely. Again, you have heard it said of those of old you shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.

But I say to you Do not swear at all. Neither by heaven for it is God's throne nor by the earth where it is his footstool. Nor by Jerusalem for it is the city of the great king. Nor shall you swear by your head.

Which because you cannot make one hair white or black let your yes BS and your no no. For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.

He's don't even swear at all. So.

At the name of the Lord be so carefully treated throughout all of redemptive history. That we see men calling upon the name of the Lord. Abraham calling upon the name of the Lord. We have Israel do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

This is the centerpiece the center central revelation of God. God promises to put his name in the temple at the temple. This is where my name dwells. Everybody should turn towards my name when they pray.

Even Daniel did that Daniel chapter 9 the temple is in ruins. There's nothing there. But he still turns towards the temple because he is turning his attention By faith towards the name of God for God had put his name there.

Jonah in the belly of the fish. It says that he turned towards the temple. He didn't know which way was east west north or south. How do you turn towards the temple when you're inside of a fish? You turn your attention in your heart to the name of God.

So throughout all of the scriptures it is the name of God the name of God the name of God. Well, where does God? Where has God chosen? To manifest his name. To reveal who he is in the entirety of his Person entirety of his character and his goodness in the Son Jesus Christ.

That's where Jesus is. The temple he is the place to he is the one to whom we turn God's name fully writ there in Christ, so Throughout redemptive history we are to turn our attention to the name of God.

And he has revealed his name most fully clearly brilliantly in Christ. So we should not bear the name of Christ in vain. We should not treat it lightly. We should not treat it with guile and deception.

We should not pollute it. We should not append to the name of Christ various sins or Common things. We should not treat it lightly and and use it and slap it on to everything. We should recognize with reverence the significance of the name of Christ.

Now there is much to meditate on this. But it we are told in third John that there are there are those who go out for the sake of the name. We call them missionaries, but they go out for the sake of the name.

And it is good for us to support them it is good for us to help them because we become partakers in the truth of God as They go out for the sake of the name. We also support the spreading the heraldry of Christ's name amongst every tribe tongue people and Nation.

Of course we bear the name of Christ In our own lives for our own testimonies our own witnesses our Church. Covenant speaks to this that we are to bear the name of Christ appropriately and we are to call upon the name of the Lord.

Romans 10 13 says whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord that goes all the way back to Enosh. Whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Promise of salvation for whoever will call upon the name of the Lord and that's not a one-time thing by the way.

Right. Oh, I did that. He's still my Savior. I Still called upon the name of the Lord. All right. I still need a Savior. I'm still being saved. And I shall be saved. Call upon the name of the Lord. And we are to worship The name he has been given a name which is above every name at the name of Jesus.

Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that he is.

Glorious, right?

So when we think about the third commandment, it is a word about Christ it is a word about how we worship God and We as those made in the image of God must worship him according to his name and his name is manifest preeminently in Christ and that's why the third commandment is a third word out of the ten.

About Christ any questions or thoughts as we close? Well, let's close by singing the doxology together.