Honoring the Lord's Name Exodus 20:7

Eureka Baptist Church

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August 4, 2024

00:11: Every one of you has a name and you had no say in what your name would be and Once your parents chose your name that name became permanently attached to you
00:23: You're stuck with it for the rest of your life Now I realize that some people change their names one that comes to mind is a man who loved fishing
00:33: And he became a professional fisherman and so he changed his name to fish fisherman true story
00:42: But most people in the world do not change their name, and they are stuck with it the rest of their life
00:49: In the recent time of our church we have had babies born in Fact a little over a month ago
00:55: Sequoia was born to Derek and Madison Jorgensen Derek and Madison didn't flippantly choose that name
01:04: They carefully thought through what do we want our baby girl to be named? Brianna and I carefully chose the names of our two children
01:13: Aletheia and Isaiah Aletheia means truth in Greek in John 14 6
01:21: Jesus said I am the way the Aletheia and the life We named
01:27: Aletheia this because in this world Most people don't believe the truth and we want our little girl to follow the truth
01:35: And we want people to be reminded of the truth when they hear her name
01:41: In the case of Isaiah, we wanted a strong Old Testament name and so we named him after the great prophet
01:49: Isaiah Many parents give careful attention To the name that they chose for their child because they want that name to fit that person
02:00: They want that name to have significance In God's wisdom he of course knew what our name was going to be in Scripture we are told that he knew us before we were born
02:14: Scripture even says in Revelation 13 8 that in the Lamb's Book of Life all of the names of the redeemed
02:20: Were written there before the foundation of the world So God knew what your name would be and he gave your parents wisdom when they decided on that name
02:31: Now your name is one of millions and millions all over the world and Of course, there are many different names with all the languages that are out there and your name isn't superior to other names
02:47: It's not as if John is superior to Sean or Keith to mark
02:53: No name is superior to another name However, there is a name that is above every name and it's
03:00: God's name Now none of you chose what your name would be but guess who did choose what his name was going to be
03:07: God did God named himself and God revealed this name to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3 in Verse 14.
03:18: He said I am who I am and he said say to this people of Israel. I Am has sent me to you
03:26: So the name that God gave himself is Yahweh, or it can also be pronounced
03:31: Jehovah The name of the Lord is four Hebrew letters and you can pronounce his name either
03:38: Yahweh or Jehovah This name means to be or it means
03:43: I am By giving this name God is saying to the people of Israel something about his being
03:51: That he will always be with them This name says something about who he is
03:57: God is self -existent and self -sufficient No one created
04:02: God This is hard for us To wrap our minds around because everything we see in this world has been created
04:10: But God has always been God has pure existence
04:16: Which means he must exist We have potential existence, which means we can exist but only if he makes it so that we exist
04:27: If you ever need to be humbled think of this fact You had nothing to do with your entrance into this world
04:36: God is the reason you are here. He used your parents. Yes to bring it about But God is the reason that you are here you came into this world at this given time in his
04:50: Providence The Lord is the creator and he is sovereign over the entire universe
04:56: Now the Lord's name shows up in the Old Testament over 7 ,000 times and you might wonder
05:05: Why don't I see Yahweh or Jehovah show up in my Bible? And that's because every time his name shows up the translators
05:13: Decided to write the name Lord in all capital letters There's there's actually two different Words for Lord in Hebrew one is
05:23: Adonai and one is Yahweh, but whenever you see the capital letters LORD that is the name of the
05:31: Lord and in fact, there is a new Version of the Bible out there called the legacy standard
05:36: Bible and I've heard it's a very good Translation of the Bible and in in this translation, they actually use the name
05:44: Yahweh Which I think is wonderful and what
05:49: God demands of his name The name that is above all names is that it be treated with honor
05:57: To treat someone's name with honor is to treat that person with honor
06:04: So this time I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me to Exodus chapter 20 this morning.
06:10: We're gonna be looking at verse 7 as we jump into This sermon series again on the
06:16: Ten Commandments So Exodus chapter 20 verse 7
06:25: There the Lord told Moses You shall not take the name of the
06:31: Lord your God in vain For the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain
06:38: So there is the third commandment What we focused on thus far in the
06:44: Ten Commandments is the fact that worship should only be directed to one We saw this in the first two commandments one
06:53: Sunday ago Worship must only be directed to God but so often this doesn't happen
07:00: Worship is directed toward created things. This is what we also saw in the second commandment last week
07:07: There the Lord told Moses and the people of Israel. You should not have a carved image or any human likeness
07:14: There's only one who deserves the highest honor the highest praise and the highest glory and that is the
07:21: Lord God Involved in that is honoring the Lord's name to honor.
07:27: His name is to show honor to him And as we jump into this third commandment this morning, the sermon is titled honoring the
07:36: Lord's name And before I give you the big idea, I want to look at what does it mean?
07:42: To take the Lord's name in vain What does this word vain mean that shows up twice in Exodus chapter 20 verse 7 in?
07:53: Hebrew this means emptiness vanity falsehood and nothingness
08:00: So to treat the Lord's name in vain is to treat his name in him without value respect
08:07: Honor and in truth and instead it is to treat his name and the Lord with no value disrespect dishonor and falsely
08:17: So to treat the Lord's name in vain is not only to use his name in a derogatory way
08:22: That's what usually what we think of. Oh my god Using it in that way is what comes to our mind
08:30: I swear to God or you know, so on and so forth but we also Devalue him and when we devalue him in our lives
08:39: We are actually taking the Lord's name in vain with that in mind. Here is the big idea What the sermon is calling you to do
08:47: The big idea is this Treat the Lord's name with care treat the
08:53: Lord's name with care and we're gonna see three disciplines how as we Focus on Exodus 20 verse 7 the third commandment
09:02: The first discipline how is this? By refusing to use his name to your advantage
09:09: Now this is common This is very common to use the Lord's name to one's advantage
09:15: There are several examples in the Bible where people did this and it didn't turn out well for them False prophets used the
09:22: Lord's name in order to convince people that their prophecy was true What they would say is thus saith the
09:28: Lord and when they prefaced the statement with thus saith the Lord that added Authority to their message so that people would believe them
09:36: It was supposed to add credibility to what they were about to say in Jeremiah 14 verses 14 and 15
09:43: Yahweh the Lord describes his anger toward these false prophets who used his name
09:48: Wrongly, he said the prophets are prophesying lies in my name I did not send them nor did
09:55: I command them or speak to them? They are prophesying to you a line vision worthless
10:01: Divination and the deceit of their own minds Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name
10:08: Although I did not send them and who say sword and famine shall not come upon this land
10:13: By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed The very things that they were saying wouldn't happen these horrible things would actually come upon them
10:25: This would be the judgment of God upon them This agrees with the second half of the commandment in Exodus 20 verse 7 the
10:33: Lord will not hold him guiltless Who takes his name in vain? You know what else people did
10:41: They also swore falsely in his name in Leviticus 1912 The Lord says that you shall not swear by my name falsely and so profane the name of the of your
10:51: God for I am the Lord Then in Jeremiah and Jeremiah 5 verse 2 people would say as the
10:58: Lord lives But they would swear falsely the fact the Lord lives would be spoken before an oath and then the oath was to be carried out
11:06: But it wasn't carried out The Lord was troubled that so many would swear falsely using his holy name to do so Now in the
11:15: New Testament people also use the Lord's name wrongly During the ministry of the Apostle Paul He was doing all sorts of miraculous signs which included healing people and he did this in the name of the
11:28: Lord He was doing wonders among the people and one thing that some of the
11:33: Jewish people noticed was that he was using the name of Jesus so they discovered there was power with This name if Paul is going to use this name and have this success then we're going to use it
11:47: This is what they're thinking That passage says this then some of the itinerant
11:53: Jewish Exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits saying
11:59: I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims
12:04: Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Scevo were doing this, but the evil spirit answered them
12:11: Jesus I know and Paul I recognize but who are you and The man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them mastered all of them and overpowered them
12:23: So that they fled out of that house naked and wounded What we see in this passage from acts acts 19
12:34: This was a misuse of the name of Jesus and it didn't end well for the sons of Scevo There were people that witnessed what took place there and they were moved by what took place it says in verse 17 this became known to all the residents of Ephesus both
12:49: Jews and Greeks and Fear fell upon them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled
12:55: So good things happened because they recognized that to misuse his name brings grave
13:03: Consequences so they began to fear the name they began to honor the name of the Lord Jesus Let me ask you this
13:10: Have you ever misused the Lord's name to make a point? To make your point or to drive a selfish cause that the
13:19: Lord was not behind Have you ever said God told me to do this when in fact he didn't? Who could argue with God so you use his name to your advantage?
13:31: It's kind of Chuckling where young men can do this with a young woman a young Christian man talking to a young woman says
13:42: God told me to marry you and the young woman is thinking he hasn't told me that What we see here is a misuse of the
13:52: Lord's name now Certainly the Lord leads a young man and the young woman in marriage and when it is right
13:57: They are truly led by the Lord down that path But to say that the Lord told you something in a moment of desperation is sinful
14:06: The Lord's name can also be misused in other ways God told me to buy that lottery ticket
14:12: God told me to leave a difficult situation because the grass is greener on the other side this can be done in all sorts of Areas of life, but we should never use the name to our advantage to give us
14:28: Credibility in some way to justify something that we did and if we're honest
14:36: We've probably all used the Lord's name in this way at one time or another So the first discipline how you must treat the
14:42: Lord's name with care is by refusing to use his name to your advantage The second discipline how you must treat the
14:49: Lord's name with care is by refusing to carelessly worship his name refusing to carelessly
14:55: Worship his name Here's a common one in the church today How often do you come to church on Sunday without focus?
15:04: Without intentionality without a desire to worship God, but instead you go through the motions
15:10: How often do you do that? I know I've done that many times We should come to worship on Sunday with our mind focused on worshiping the
15:19: Lord For those parents with young kids, this is especially hard The home can be a wild and crazy place
15:28: But how about saying a prayer with your family before you come to church on Sunday?
15:33: This is good for all of us to do To say to the Lord Lord may my focus be on you help me to receive what you want for me this morning
15:43: Raise my heart to give you honor and praise this morning. This is good for us to do on Sundays before we come to morning worship
15:54: Think about this one How often do you pray without even thinking about what you are going to pray?
16:00: It's worth reflecting before praying How often do you read scripture without even desiring to hear from God, but you do it to check it off the list
16:10: Here's another one sporadic church attendance Because one's priorities are out of place
16:17: We are commanded in scripture in Hebrews chapter 10 verses 24 and 25
16:22: Do not neglect to meet together But stir one another up to love and good works as we see the day drawing near and there's a command that the
16:31: Word of God be consistently preached 2nd Timothy 4 2 and what is implied in that is that listeners will regularly gather to hear the word preached
16:42: The Lord doesn't want us to be sporadic in our gathering with God's people Now I understand that there are good reasons to miss
16:50: Sundays, but we need to be honest with ourselves Do we miss sometimes? When we really can be here are other things that are less important taking priority over that which is much more important That's a good question to ask and my encouragement is be honest with yourself
17:10: Now let me say this Many of you do have very good church attendance on Sundays and as people drive by they see all the cars in the parking lot
17:19: And when you are here most of the time what it shows is that you look forward to Sunday mornings
17:25: And that shows your hunger to gather with God's people and grow in the Lord through corporate worship on Sunday mornings
17:32: But it can be easy for believers to slack off and go through the motions And it's not just the disciplines above that I mentioned where it can be easy to be lax we can be lax in our marriage and our parenting and our desire to see people come to faith in Christ and Our desire to see others blessed through our lives
17:52: When we are slack, it's not just we who lose it's the people in our life who lose
18:00: Because think about it you are here for a purpose You are here to be a blessing to other people and when you're not carrying that out in your life
18:10: The people in your life lose your family your friends the people in the church
18:18: If you think about the person who hardly ever comes to church Not only are you sinning against God?
18:23: You're also sinning against the people in the church because the Lord wants you to be a blessing to those people in the church
18:30: And our whole lives should have intentionality and focus on the Lord Jesus went after a
18:39: Certain people in Matthew chapter 6 verses 7 and 8 People who are heaping up empty phrases to God there
18:46: He says when you pray don't heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do for they think that they will be heard for their many words
18:54: Do not be like them for your father knows what you need even before you ask
19:01: In particular here Jesus is going after the Gentiles who worshipped false gods who babbled thoughtless words to these false
19:09: Gods and what Jesus is saying is don't be like them think about the prayer our
19:16: Father who art in heaven the Lord's Prayer People so often say this prayer without even really understanding what they're saying
19:24: It's just a mindless prayer, and this is not what the Lord wants when we do this
19:29: We are actually taking the Lord's name in vain What God desires from his people is?
19:38: Sincerity of heart it's better to say a short prayer with sincerity of heart than a long prayer where we don't even know what we're saying and Before you pray think about what you're going to pray.
19:51: I remember when I was younger I would say the same prayer over and over and over again it and it took me years
19:57: And not until I got older that I realized that Lord you were not honored with this repetitive prayer that I kept on praying
20:06: We are to worship the Lord with a purpose and we need to confess to the Lord when we fall short
20:12: And we will fall short and this is where 1st John 1 9 comes in if we confess our sins
20:17: He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness as We confess we need to grow in our focus and intentionality in our walk with the
20:29: Lord. I find myself doing this and when we Do it we need to acknowledge it and pray for the strength to do better And as you think about your relationship with your friends the best
20:41: Friendships are those where there's intentionality on both sides There's no such thing as a good friendship.
20:49: That is one way a Healthy marriage is one where both spouses are committed
20:55: You are going to stumble into a good marriage when there is no effort by both parties
21:01: Healthy marriages have intentionality and so it goes with our walk with the
21:06: Lord, which is the most important relationship of all He is the only one that we are to worship and we are to have
21:16: Intentionality in our relationship with him So treat the
21:21: Lord's name with care and the second discipline how is by refusing to carelessly worship his name
21:30: And here is the the third and final discipline how you are to treat the Lord's name with care
21:36: And that is by refusing to speak his name as a profanity Now this is the one that comes to mind when we think about the third commandment you shall not take the
21:48: Lord's name in vain This one is very common in our society
21:54: We live in a godless society The sad reality is that most people out there don't fear
22:01: God. We just saw that with the Olympic ceremony Last week how the
22:06: Lord's name was taken in vain Think of how much the Lord was dishonored with that Last Supper Scene and all the other shenanigans that were done
22:18: They were mocking the God of the Bible That's what was taking place
22:25: And this is the society that we live in in America and all around the world
22:32: Most people don't fear God most people don't give the Lord the honor that he is due
22:37: People don't lift up his name people don't honor him, and you know what's troubling his name is used in the worst possible way as a profanity
22:46: It is likely that the most common swear words used aren't the ones that we typically think of the four -letter words the most common swear words are the
22:57: Lord's name if you go to a Sporting event a Packers or Vikings game
23:04: I'm willing to bet that the name of Jesus is said more at a sporting event Then at any church service
23:13: It is of course not in honor of him, but as a swear word Have you ever wondered why people use the
23:20: Lord's name as a profanity? Think about this. I find this very interesting.
23:26: I Was reading an author a number of years ago who said? people taking the
23:31: Lord's name in vain using it as a profanity in fact proves the existence of God This is exactly right people in their rebellion
23:42: Proclaim this and it shows their heart and they say God's name as one author said when non
23:48: Christians use God's name even in vain it shows that deep down. They know there really is a
23:54: God Their rage is direct rebellion against his honor
24:00: So when people use the Lord's name in vain as a profanity they reveal What is in their heart as they throw out his name in such a disgusting way?
24:10: It of course greatly dishonors him. It shows their rebellion And Jesus tells us what is found in people's hearts in Mark chapter 7 verses 21 and 22
24:22: For from within out of the heart of man comes evil thoughts sexual immorality theft murder adultery coveting wickedness deceit
24:35: Sensuality envy slander pride foolishness all these evil things come from within and they defile a person
24:44: So man is not inherently good what comes out of a man's heart is evil And one of the things that comes out of man's heart is the
24:51: Lord's name as a profanity This is troubling. What also is interesting is why do people curse the one true
24:58: God? There's only one God who created the heavens and the earth who created all of us and has a plan for this world
25:05: Why do people curse the one true God? There's a Christian comedian by the name of Darren Strebel.
25:13: Oh This Christian comedian brings out this point He told his audience.
25:20: It's difficult being a Christian because people use God's name the
25:26: God I worship as a profanity He said when I stubbed my toe. I don't yell Buddha Krishna Muhammad or Allah Very interesting and personally in my own life.
25:40: I've never heard People use those names But people use curse words against the one true
25:46: God because the rebellion is not against false gods But against the one true and living
25:53: God it's fascinating to think about this a pastor had an encounter one time on an airplane and This confrontation with these two men was about them speaking the
26:07: Lord's name in vain, and I want to read this Encounter here's how the story went
26:14: This pastor said some years ago after a long speaking itinerary in the
26:19: Midwest. I boarded a late -night flight to return home. I Was tired and looking forward to a rest
26:27: Sitting behind me in the airplane were two salesmen whose conversation was peppered with profanity.
26:33: I Finally had it when they began to run the Lord's name into the gutter I raised myself up from my seat and turned around so that I was looking down on them from my perch
26:43: Then I asked are either of you in the ministry The one in the aisle seat raised his eyebrows incredulously and said what the expletive would make you think that Well, I am in the ministry.
26:58: I said with a smile, and I am amazed at your communication skills You just said
27:04: God damn hell and Jesus Christ in one sentence
27:09: I can't get all of that into a whole sermon They both blushed, and I didn't hear another word from them for the remainder of the flight
27:20: That one gets me every time every time I I've thought about that story It isn't this true
27:27: You hear God's name spoken outside of the church even more sometimes than you hear it inside the church
27:33: But the difference is that it is spoken in a dishonoring way But when we speak the
27:39: Lord's name on Sundays or during the week it must be in an honoring way He is the
27:45: Holy God. He deserves all the honor all the praise and all the glory Now it takes courage to do this, but something we should do is call people on it
27:54: When they use the Lord's name in vain When an unbeliever says Jesus Christ or God or oh my god you and I should tell that person
28:03: You need to honor God. He created you he is worthy of our worship Not derogatory language now.
28:11: This isn't the first time I have preached on this commandment nine years ago in the summer of 2015
28:18: I Preached on this and there was a gentleman in the church at that time by the name of Doug Jepson and Doug Jepson was really impacted by this challenge that I gave and That very week
28:32: Doug went up to one of his co -workers who was using the Lord's name in vain And he told him don't do that and then
28:39: Doug told me You know that he told his co -worker this and I was so proud of Doug Doug Jepson that he had that much courage to do that and and I moved as I tell this story because Doug Passed away
28:54: From a heart attack. I think it was four or five years ago. Suddenly passed away from a heart attack and But it just makes me think of the courage that he had to do that and may we follow the example of Doug Jepson in Saying to someone who is using the
29:10: Lord's name in a derogatory way, please don't do that. He does his name deserves honor Now what's interesting is that we can also use the
29:18: Lord's name in vain with lighter expressions But the lighter expressions are wrong as well.
29:24: You might say man. This is getting kind of legalistic I don't think so because what are these lighter expressions? Indicate they actually indicate the
29:31: Lord's name like good Lord or oh my gosh or gall dang it and so forth
29:38: This isn't the worst way to use the Lord's name, but even this dishonors him We need to examine this in our lives
29:45: We should never use the Lord's name in a flippant Dishonoring way and if we do we need to repent and refrain from doing this in the future
29:55: Jesus died for every type of sin He went to the cross and he paid the full penalty for our sins including the sin of dishonoring his name
30:05: And God takes cursing his name very seriously There's an account in Leviticus chapter 24 verses 10 through 16
30:14: Where we see this? Now an Israelite woman's son whose father was an
30:20: Egyptian went out among the people of Israel and the Israelite woman's son and a Man of Israel fought in the camp and the
30:28: Israelite woman's son blasphemed the name and cursed Then they brought him to Moses his mother's name was
30:35: Chelomith the daughter of debris of the tribe of Dan and they put him in custody till the will of the
30:40: Lord should be clear To them then the Lord spoke to Moses saying bring out of the camp the one who cursed and that all who heard him lay their hands on his head and let all the congregation stone him and Speak to the people of Israel saying whoever curses his
30:57: God shall bear his sin Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death all the congregation
31:05: Shall stone him the sojourner as well as the native when he blasphemes the name.
31:11: He shall be put to death as You can see in the Old Testament.
31:16: This sin was taken very seriously and you might think thinking man. This is harsh I don't think this is a situation where that someone just said it and they felt really bad about it
31:24: But he said it in such a rebellious way and probably continuously that the punishment for that was
31:32: He was to be put to death and we see that in Leviticus 24 in an
31:38: Exodus 20 verse 7 this third commandment on which the sermon is built It's kind of vague
31:44: The punishment what the punishment is supposed to be for taking the Lord's name in vain But there once again, it says the
31:51: Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain There's different degrees of punishment depending depending on how serious the punishment is
32:01: As it says in the Old Testament an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth What this means is the more severe the crime the more severe the punishment the lesser the crime the lesser the punishment
32:14: But what we see with all this is that you and I must take The Lord's name take care in how we treat it treat it with honor
32:24: Because God cares deeply how we use his name So Let's summarize what we have seen here.
32:32: We are to treat the Lord's name with care That's the big idea and in this sermon built on the third commandment
32:38: We have seen three disciplines how we are to live this out first by refusing to use his name to your advantage
32:45: Second by refusing to carelessly worship his name and third as we have just seen Refusing to speak his name as a profanity
32:56: Yahweh Jehovah is the name that is above all names and So is the name
33:03: Jesus Christ the Lord Jesus Christ When we call him the Lord Jesus Christ We're using the name
33:10: Lord the same way. We use the name Lord to identify the father He is the
33:17: Lord God and This is what Philippians chapter 2 verses 10 and 11 says at the name of Jesus Every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is
33:34: Lord to the glory of God the Father We treat
33:40: God's name with care God the Father is the Lord God the
33:45: Son is the Lord and God the Spirit is the Lord It is the triune
33:51: God that must be treated with honor And this honor is shown through our words in the way we worship him in our entire lives
34:02: And by God's grace, may we live lives that honor his holy name now next
34:09: Sunday We will look at the fourth commandment the Sabbath and this is a big discussion
34:15: So what I'm going to do is I'm going to take two Sundays to go through this Fourth commandment where the
34:22: Lord tells the people of Israel to observe the Sabbath But this time let's bow our heads in prayer
34:30: Father, thank you for your word. I thank you that it is living and active and sharper than any two -edged sword and Lord your name as we saw in the third commandment this morning is to be treated with honor and with care and Not just in that we don't use it as a derogatory term, but how is it that we are worshiping you?
34:51: How is it that we are living our lives? Are we taking your name in vain? By the way that we live our lives.
34:59: That's something we need to ask Help us to be intentional in the way. We worship you Intentional in the way we live our lives and may you be honored in Jesus name