Honoring the Lord's Name Exodus 20:7

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

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

And he became a professional fisherman and so he changed his name to fish fisherman true story

But most people in the world do not change their name, and they are stuck with it the rest of their life

In the recent time of our church we have had babies born in Fact a little over a month ago

Sequoia was born to Derek and Madison Jorgensen Derek and Madison didn't flippantly choose that name

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

Aletheia and Isaiah Aletheia means truth in Greek in John 14 6

Jesus said I am the way the Aletheia and the life We named

Aletheia this because in this world Most people don't believe the truth and we want our little girl to follow the truth

And we want people to be reminded of the truth when they hear her name

In the case of Isaiah, we wanted a strong Old Testament name and so we named him after the great prophet

Isaiah Many parents give careful attention To the name that they chose for their child because they want that name to fit that person

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

Scripture even says in Revelation 13 8 that in the Lamb's Book of Life all of the names of the redeemed

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

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

It's not as if John is superior to Sean or Keith to mark

No name is superior to another name However, there is a name that is above every name and it's

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

God did God named himself and God revealed this name to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3 in Verse 14.

He said I am who I am and he said say to this people of Israel. I Am has sent me to you

So the name that God gave himself is Yahweh, or it can also be pronounced

Jehovah The name of the Lord is four Hebrew letters and you can pronounce his name either

Yahweh or Jehovah This name means to be or it means

I am By giving this name God is saying to the people of Israel something about his being

That he will always be with them This name says something about who he is

God is self -existent and self -sufficient No one created

God This is hard for us To wrap our minds around because everything we see in this world has been created

But God has always been God has pure existence

Which means he must exist We have potential existence, which means we can exist but only if he makes it so that we exist

If you ever need to be humbled think of this fact You had nothing to do with your entrance into this world

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

Providence The Lord is the creator and he is sovereign over the entire universe

Now the Lord's name shows up in the Old Testament over 7 ,000 times and you might wonder

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

Decided to write the name Lord in all capital letters There's there's actually two different Words for Lord in Hebrew one is

Adonai and one is Yahweh, but whenever you see the capital letters LORD that is the name of the

Lord and in fact, there is a new Version of the Bible out there called the legacy standard

Bible and I've heard it's a very good Translation of the Bible and in in this translation, they actually use the name

Yahweh Which I think is wonderful and what

God demands of his name The name that is above all names is that it be treated with honor

To treat someone's name with honor is to treat that person with honor

So this time I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me to Exodus chapter 20 this morning.

We're gonna be looking at verse 7 as we jump into This sermon series again on the

Ten Commandments So Exodus chapter 20 verse 7

There the Lord told Moses 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 in vain

So there is the third commandment What we focused on thus far in the

Ten Commandments is the fact that worship should only be directed to one We saw this in the first two commandments one

Sunday ago Worship must only be directed to God but so often this doesn't happen

Worship is directed toward created things. This is what we also saw in the second commandment last week

There the Lord told Moses and the people of Israel. You should not have a carved image or any human likeness

There's only one who deserves the highest honor the highest praise and the highest glory and that is the

Lord God Involved in that is honoring the Lord's name to honor.

His name is to show honor to him And as we jump into this third commandment this morning, the sermon is titled honoring the

Lord's name And before I give you the big idea, I want to look at what does it mean?

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?

Hebrew this means emptiness vanity falsehood and nothingness

So to treat the Lord's name in vain is to treat his name in him without value respect

Honor and in truth and instead it is to treat his name and the Lord with no value disrespect dishonor and falsely

So to treat the Lord's name in vain is not only to use his name in a derogatory way

That's what usually what we think of. Oh my god Using it in that way is what comes to our mind

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

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

The big idea is this Treat the Lord's name with care treat the

Lord's name with care and we're gonna see three disciplines how as we Focus on Exodus 20 verse 7 the third commandment

The first discipline how is this? By refusing to use his name to your advantage

Now this is common This is very common to use the Lord's name to one's advantage

There are several examples in the Bible where people did this and it didn't turn out well for them False prophets used the

Lord's name in order to convince people that their prophecy was true What they would say is thus saith the

Lord and when they prefaced the statement with thus saith the Lord that added Authority to their message so that people would believe them

It was supposed to add credibility to what they were about to say in Jeremiah 14 verses 14 and 15

Yahweh the Lord describes his anger toward these false prophets who used his name

Wrongly, he said the prophets are prophesying lies in my name I did not send them nor did

I command them or speak to them? They are prophesying to you a line vision worthless

Divination and the deceit of their own minds Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name

Although I did not send them and who say sword and famine shall not come upon this land

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

This would be the judgment of God upon them This agrees with the second half of the commandment in Exodus 20 verse 7 the

Lord will not hold him guiltless Who takes his name in vain? You know what else people did

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

God for I am the Lord Then in Jeremiah and Jeremiah 5 verse 2 people would say as the

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

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

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

Lord He was doing wonders among the people and one thing that some of the

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

This is what they're thinking That passage says this then some of the itinerant

Jewish Exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits saying

I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims

Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Scevo were doing this, but the evil spirit answered them

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

So that they fled out of that house naked and wounded What we see in this passage from acts acts 19

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

Jews and Greeks and Fear fell upon them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled

So good things happened because they recognized that to misuse his name brings grave

Consequences so they began to fear the name they began to honor the name of the Lord Jesus Let me ask you this

Have you ever misused the Lord's name to make a point? To make your point or to drive a selfish cause that the

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?

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

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

Lord's name now Certainly the Lord leads a young man and the young woman in marriage and when it is right

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

The Lord's name can also be misused in other ways God told me to buy that lottery ticket

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

Credibility in some way to justify something that we did and if we're honest

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

Lord's name with care is by refusing to use his name to your advantage The second discipline how you must treat the

Lord's name with care is by refusing to carelessly worship his name refusing to carelessly

Worship his name Here's a common one in the church today How often do you come to church on Sunday without focus?

Without intentionality without a desire to worship God, but instead you go through the motions

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

Lord For those parents with young kids, this is especially hard The home can be a wild and crazy place

But how about saying a prayer with your family before you come to church on Sunday?

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

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

Think about this one How often do you pray without even thinking about what you are going to pray?

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

Here's another one sporadic church attendance Because one's priorities are out of place

We are commanded in scripture in Hebrews chapter 10 verses 24 and 25

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

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

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

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

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

And when you are here most of the time what it shows is that you look forward to Sunday mornings

And that shows your hunger to gather with God's people and grow in the Lord through corporate worship on Sunday mornings

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

When we are slack, it's not just we who lose it's the people in our life who lose

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

The people in your life lose your family your friends the people in the church

If you think about the person who hardly ever comes to church Not only are you sinning against God?

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

And our whole lives should have intentionality and focus on the Lord Jesus went after a

Certain people in Matthew chapter 6 verses 7 and 8 People who are heaping up empty phrases to God there

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

Do not be like them for your father knows what you need even before you ask

In particular here Jesus is going after the Gentiles who worshipped false gods who babbled thoughtless words to these false

Gods and what Jesus is saying is don't be like them think about the prayer our

Father who art in heaven the Lord's Prayer People so often say this prayer without even really understanding what they're saying

It's just a mindless prayer, and this is not what the Lord wants when we do this

We are actually taking the Lord's name in vain What God desires from his people is?

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.

I remember when I was younger I would say the same prayer over and over and over again it and it took me years

And not until I got older that I realized that Lord you were not honored with this repetitive prayer that I kept on praying

We are to worship the Lord with a purpose and we need to confess to the Lord when we fall short

And we will fall short and this is where 1st John 1 9 comes in if we confess our sins

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

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

Friendships are those where there's intentionality on both sides There's no such thing as a good friendship.

That is one way a Healthy marriage is one where both spouses are committed

You are going to stumble into a good marriage when there is no effort by both parties

Healthy marriages have intentionality and so it goes with our walk with the

Lord, which is the most important relationship of all He is the only one that we are to worship and we are to have

Intentionality in our relationship with him So treat the

Lord's name with care and the second discipline how is by refusing to carelessly worship his name

And here is the the third and final discipline how you are to treat the Lord's name with care

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

Lord's name in vain This one is very common in our society

We live in a godless society The sad reality is that most people out there don't fear

God. We just saw that with the Olympic ceremony Last week how the

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

They were mocking the God of the Bible That's what was taking place

And this is the society that we live in in America and all around the world

Most people don't fear God most people don't give the Lord the honor that he is due

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

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

Lord's name if you go to a Sporting event a Packers or Vikings game

I'm willing to bet that the name of Jesus is said more at a sporting event Then at any church service

It is of course not in honor of him, but as a swear word Have you ever wondered why people use the

Lord's name as a profanity? Think about this. I find this very interesting.

I Was reading an author a number of years ago who said? people taking the

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

Proclaim this and it shows their heart and they say God's name as one author said when non

Christians use God's name even in vain it shows that deep down. They know there really is a

God Their rage is direct rebellion against his honor

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?

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

For from within out of the heart of man comes evil thoughts sexual immorality theft murder adultery coveting wickedness deceit

Sensuality envy slander pride foolishness all these evil things come from within and they defile a person

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

Lord's name as a profanity This is troubling. What also is interesting is why do people curse the one true

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

Why do people curse the one true God? There's a Christian comedian by the name of Darren Strebel.

Oh This Christian comedian brings out this point He told his audience.

It's difficult being a Christian because people use God's name the

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.

I've never heard People use those names But people use curse words against the one true

God because the rebellion is not against false gods But against the one true and living

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

Lord's name in vain, and I want to read this Encounter here's how the story went

This pastor said some years ago after a long speaking itinerary in the

Midwest. I boarded a late -night flight to return home. I Was tired and looking forward to a rest

Sitting behind me in the airplane were two salesmen whose conversation was peppered with profanity.

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

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.

I said with a smile, and I am amazed at your communication skills You just said

God damn hell and Jesus Christ in one sentence

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

That one gets me every time every time I I've thought about that story It isn't this true

You hear God's name spoken outside of the church even more sometimes than you hear it inside the church

But the difference is that it is spoken in a dishonoring way But when we speak the

Lord's name on Sundays or during the week it must be in an honoring way He is the

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

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

You need to honor God. He created you he is worthy of our worship Not derogatory language now.

This isn't the first time I have preached on this commandment nine years ago in the summer of 2015

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

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

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

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

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

Lord's name in vain with lighter expressions But the lighter expressions are wrong as well.

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

Lord's name like good Lord or oh my gosh or gall dang it and so forth

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

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

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

And God takes cursing his name very seriously There's an account in Leviticus chapter 24 verses 10 through 16

Where we see this? Now an Israelite woman's son whose father was an

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

Israelite woman's son blasphemed the name and cursed Then they brought him to Moses his mother's name was

Chelomith the daughter of debris of the tribe of Dan and they put him in custody till the will of the

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

God shall bear his sin Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death all the congregation

Shall stone him the sojourner as well as the native when he blasphemes the name.

He shall be put to death as You can see in the Old Testament.

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

But he said it in such a rebellious way and probably continuously that the punishment for that was

He was to be put to death and we see that in Leviticus 24 in an

Exodus 20 verse 7 this third commandment on which the sermon is built It's kind of vague

The punishment what the punishment is supposed to be for taking the Lord's name in vain But there once again, it says the

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

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

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

Because God cares deeply how we use his name So Let's summarize what we have seen here.

We are to treat the Lord's name with care That's the big idea and in this sermon built on the third commandment

We have seen three disciplines how we are to live this out first by refusing to use his name to your advantage

Second by refusing to carelessly worship his name and third as we have just seen Refusing to speak his name as a profanity

Yahweh Jehovah is the name that is above all names and So is the name

Jesus Christ the Lord Jesus Christ When we call him the Lord Jesus Christ We're using the name

Lord the same way. We use the name Lord to identify the father He is the

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

Lord to the glory of God the Father We treat

God's name with care God the Father is the Lord God the

Son is the Lord and God the Spirit is the Lord It is the triune

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

And by God's grace, may we live lives that honor his holy name now next

Sunday We will look at the fourth commandment the Sabbath and this is a big discussion

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to take two Sundays to go through this Fourth commandment where the

Lord tells the people of Israel to observe the Sabbath But this time let's bow our heads in prayer

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?

How is it that we are living our lives? Are we taking your name in vain? By the way that we live our lives.

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