Galen Call's Sermon Library
"The Ten Commandments: The Name of the Lord" - September 27, 1998
It's a great video and I'm excited about what God is doing in the African-American community in conferences like this, and other ways of stirring up His people there to reach that wonderful people for Christ, and not only in the African-American community, but beyond in the minorities of our country. Praise the Lord for that. Would you open your Bible with me, please, to the book of Exodus in the 20th chapter? As we continue our study of the Ten Commandments today, thinking about the name of the Lord, everyone listening to me right now has a name that is significant for it acknowledges the uniqueness of you as a person, but also shows that you are connected to the human family. How many of you have visited the tomb of the unknown soldier in Washington? It's a sober experience to be there and to realize that within that tomb lie the bodies of several soldiers who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our nation, and did it in such a way that they lost their identity to man, the tomb of the unknowns it is called, and all of us were glad that the one soldier representing the Vietnam era was finally identified just a few months ago, and the remains were returned to his family. A name is important. None of us thinks of himself or herself as anonymous entities. We are persons with a name. We're not merely numbers on a list. We want to be known by name. We want to be known personally in that way. Why is that? Well, it's because the name represents our basic identity and our self-esteem. It is the way that God made us, that we desired that identity. We think back to Genesis chapter 1 when God first made man. It says in the 26th verse of Genesis 1, God said, "Let us make man in our image." The Hebrew word for man there is the word Adam. Let us make Adam man in our image. But then a few verses later in chapter 2, verse 7, it says, "Then the Lord God formed Adam of the dust from the ground." And God began to call this creature Adam. He gave him a name. The word Adam comes from the Hebrew word that means "red," which may suggest to us his skin color, but also suggest to us that he may have been made out of red clay. That name Adam identified him as unique from all of the rest of creation. He was made by the immediate act of God, and he alone was made in the image of God. He was Adam, and then he along with his helpmate Eve, formed from his side, were given the high status, the dignity of being rulers, co-regents over all of God's creation. Likewise, God's name reveals his uniqueness. It reveals his essential nature and his exalted dignity. If a personal name is important to us, how much more so is God's name important to him? Already he has reminded us in our study here in Exodus 20 that he is Yahweh. He is the Lord, their God, our God, our Elheem, two of the names of God. And God says in the third commandment, "Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain." What is the meaning of this commandment? What is God trying to say? Well, let me say first what he is not saying, in my opinion at least. I don't believe he is telling us that we should never speak God's name. There are, of course, Orthodox Jews who will never speak the name that I spoke a few seconds ago. They will never use the personal name for God, they will never let it come across their tongue because they do not want to profane the name of the Lord. There are Messianic Jews today, that is, Jews who believe in Jesus as their Messiah, who will not speak the name of the Lord for the same reason. But I don't think that's what is being said here. I don't think he is either saying in this particular location at least that we should never use obscene speech or offensive speech or abusive speech. That is not meant here. Now God does forbid that elsewhere. Ephesians chapter 4, for example, says there must be no filthiness or silly talk or coarse jesting which are not fitting but rather giving of thanks. He says there that no Christian should be known for shameful speech. That is anything that would make us ashamed in the presence of God. We should not be known for silly talk which refers to foolish babblings like those of a drunkard or for coarse jesting. The idea there is that which turns easily, it is the turning of a phrase, it's the double meaning of words, off-color, suggestive kinds of language. He says, "Believers ought not to speak that way." But that is not what is being said in Exodus 20. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. What does it mean then? Well, let's think first about what vain means. The Hebrew word here is shawl, I remember as a little kid we had a neighbor who came over to help us roof one time, well known in our community and still is, as a matter of fact, as being a wonderful Christian. I grew up in a household when I was a small child that had a good deal of cursing in it. And those phrases still echo in my mind today and too easily are tempted to come to my tongue when I am angry. And if you've ever been around a lot of swearing, you know the habit that that can become. And I noticed that this man never used that kind of language. I was just a little child, not even a Christian yet. And yet I noticed one time he was helping us put a roof on a building. He hit his thumb with a hammer. And I wondered what he would do. You know what he said? He said, "Oh shawl, shawl." I thought to myself, "Well, that's interesting. What does that mean?" I guess he had to say something and the word that came to his mind, maybe out of a habit of his life, was shawl. As I was thinking about the meaning of vain here, it sounds so much like the Hebrew word, vain, shawl. It means to use God's name falsely. It means to use God's name deceitfully or in a lying manner so as to cause desolation. That's the meaning of shawl, S-H-A-W-V, as we would spell it in our English language. Do not take the name of the Lord in a deceitful manner or in a manner so as to lie. So what is God saying? Well, scholars debate back and forth exactly what God is saying here, but let me give you what I think are five applications of what God is saying. You shall not take his name in vain. The first place he is saying that we ought not to use God's name in a casual, careless manner. That is, we ought not to use it in swearing or cursing or in joking, yet ought not to be used in profanity. As I said before, profanity can become an acquired habit of one's life. I heard about one man who got saved and he testified to his pastor that on that day that he came to Christ, he lost half of his vocabulary. It may be a habit that some acquire, but the fact is that to use God's name in vain is an insult to God. It is sinfully presumptuous to use God's name as a throwaway word, as an expletive, as some exclamation that means nothing. To use it in vain is void of meaning. To do so is to blaspheme God. When we blaspheme God, it debases his identity. It debases his unique exalted dignity as God. Bernard Schneider writing in his book called Deuteronomy, a favorite book of Jesus, has this to say. People abuse the sacred name of God and of Jesus Christ almost everywhere and it almost every level of society. Every time a person uses God's name carelessly, willfully or even thoughtlessly, to give vent to his feelings, he insults God, his maker, and God will not excuse him for doing so. God will not excuse a man for abusing his name for there is no excuse for this insulting habit. It is that when we use God's name as careless manner, we are truly doing insult to God personally. We are to avoid belittling descriptions of God. And I would include words like "gosh" and "g" for what are these words but abbreviations for the divine names and yet those are slang words that we are all that is very custom to use, a custom to use. We need to watch ourselves in our words. Be very careful. George Washington, the first President of the United States, said this, "The foolish and wicked practice the foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing is a vice so mean and low that every person of sense and character detests and despises it. We've come a long way, baby." I believe it also means that we need to be careful of using God's name casually in prayer. What I'm talking about is trying to fill up the spaces in our prayer by saying the name Lord or something like that. You know what speech clutter is? If you've taken a course and speech somewhere, that's one of the phrases you often learn about speech clutter. The words that we stick in the empty spaces so that we don't hear nothing like or lots of other phrases that we use today. How many times have you heard people say, "Well, like this or like that?" There are lots of phrases, and the one I'm trying to think of doesn't come to my mind right now. What is it? You know. You know. But there's another one, too, that we hear today. So often, you know, like, you know. And in our prayers, in our prayers, we often use similar kinds of phrases and include the name of the Lord. Listen to yourself pray sometime. And how many times you use the name Lord in prayer and are just using that to fill up a space? That too can be using the Lord's name in vain, if there's not a meaning, if there's not significance to it. If it's just a throwaway word to make our prayer sound nice or sound full, we're in danger of crossing the line here. Secondly, let me go on to say that I believe when we take the Lord's name in vain, it also means to fail to honor an oath. God says in Leviticus 19, verse 12, "You shall not swear falsely by my name, so as to profane the name of your God, I am Yahweh." We're not to make a commitment and then not do it, or we're not to confirm something that is false. In Deuteronomy 6, 13, he says, "Thou shall fear the Lord thy God and serve him and swear by his name." That's where we get the concept of giving an oath before a deposition or in a court of law, where to swear by the name of the Lord, he says, in Deuteronomy 6, 13. And so it is a very serious thing to lift your right hand and to promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God. And then to turn around and lie is the breaking of the third commandment. Now there are some Christians who don't think that we ought to take oaths at all because of what James says in chapter 5, verse 12, "Do not swear," he says, "either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no no so that you may not fall under judgment." But I don't think that James is condemning all oath-taking. He is simply attacking a custom of that day whereby people used oaths all the time. And he's saying, "Don't do that." He says, "Let your yes be yes and your no no." I like what Charles Ryrie says in his study note on that verse, "Not all oaths are forbidden by this verse, only flippant, profane, or blasphemous ones, oaths in the sense of solemn affirmations were enjoined in the law," Exodus 22.11, "were practiced by Christ," Matthew 26, 63 to 64, "and by Paul," Romans 1, 9, "Yes, you find oaths in the New Testament." When the Apostle Paul says, "God as my witness," that is an oath that he is taking. When we and I attest to the truthfulness of our word, what we are saying is that our integrity is intact. But when we give an oath to tell the truth, or when we make a commitment to say we're going to do this in the name of the Lord, and then we do not do it, it is to take the name of the Lord in vain. Third, to take the name of the Lord in vain is to declare oneself autonomous from God. Proverbs 30, verses 8 and 9 say, "Keep deception and lies far from me. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is my portion, lest I be full and denivy, and say who is the Lord, or lest I be in want and steal and profane the name of my God." What is he saying? He is saying, "God, give me such a state in life. That I shall not be rich or poorer, and in either way declare myself independent from you, and say that I don't need you because I have so much, or to say that I can't trust you because I must steal to gain." And thus in doing that, profane your name. And so to take the name of the Lord in vain means to declare oneself autonomous from God. According to Proverbs 30, verses 8 and 9, fourth, we have to take the name of the Lord in vain is to act the hypocrite in hypocrisy, in word and act. It is to be a hypocrite in word and act. That is to identify oneself as a Christian and then shamelessly live inconsistently with what the name of Christ really represents. Jesus said in Matthew 7, "So then you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name perform many miracles, that I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.'" What is Jesus saying? He's saying that when we call upon him as Lord, we ought not to practice lawlessness. Be the hypocrite. Because if we do, then we're showing that we don't really belong to him. It's another way of taking the Lord's name in vain to call upon him as Lord and then to live like the devil. G. Campbell Morgan writes, "The form in which this third commandment is broken most completely, most awfully and most terribly is by perpetually making use of the name of the Lord, while the life does not square with the profession that is made. The man who professes with his lips to honor God and yet denies him in his life will do far more to hinder the coming of the kingdom than the man who openly blasphemes and makes no profession of honoring God." Thought-provoking words, and that's why Paul says that you and I are to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. Fourthly, let me say finally, let me say fifthly, let me say that the name of the Lord is taken in vain when we deny the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. When one denies that Jesus Christ is God, it is blasphemy. Paul acknowledges this when he testifies regarding his former life before he knew Jesus as his Lord. He says in 1 Timothy 1, verses 12 and 13, "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me because he considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor." Now please understand that the apostle Paul, when he was a Pharisee, was very careful in his use of the sacred name of God. But now having come to Christ, he recognizes that denying Christ before made him a blasphemer. So the commandment has a broad range of meanings. There's a warning that comes with this commandment I want you to notice looking now at the text. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes his name in vain. The Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes his name in vain. That is, God will not leave him acquitted. God will not leave him innocent who takes his name in vain. That is, the Lord will punish those who blaspheme his name. That is the warning that comes with this commandment. Only commandments number two and three have a warning attached to them. We talked about the one last week. Here is this one. God will punish those who blaspheme his name. We see this carried out in the book of Leviticus and I invite you to turn there the 24th chapter and read about this incident. Starting in verse 10 of Leviticus 24, it says, "Now the son of an Israelite woman whose father was in Egyptian went out among the sons of Israel and the Israelite woman's son and a man of Israel struggled with each other in the camp. He got into a fight. He got into a brawl. The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the name and cursed." So they brought him to Moses, his mother's identified then and it says in verse 12, "And they put him in custody so that the command of the Lord might be made clear to them. Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, 'Bring the one who has cursed outside the camp and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head. Then let all the congregations stone him. And you shall speak to the sons of Israel saying, 'If anyone curses his God, then he shall bear his sin. Moreover the one who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregations shall certainly stone him. The alien as well as the native, when he blasphemes the name shall be put to death. And if a man takes the life of another human being, he shall surely be put to death." And so you see it's put into the same category as murder in terms of punishment. That's how seriously God looks upon blasphemy. It is interesting, isn't it, that when Jesus tells us how we ought to pray and what is commonly called the Lord's Prayer, he says, "Our Father who art in heaven, what's the very next phrase? After addressing God, what is it, 'Hallelujah be thy name.' Literally he says, 'Thy name be hallowed, thy kingdom let it come. Let come about thy will. Three quick petitions, but the very first one is, 'Hallelujah be thy name.' And then wrapping up those petitions, he says, 'As in heaven, so also on earth.' In other words, that refers to all three petitions, 'Thy name be hallowed as in heaven, so on earth.' The name of God is sacred, and it is be sacred on earth, that is, it is in heaven. And be hallowed means to make it holy, to make it special, it is to be set apart from what is common, it is to be venerated, it is to be consecrated, it is not to be profaned. Why did Jesus give that petition first? The answer may be found in the human proneness to trash the name of God so easily. To use it so commonly, and so in vain, so wastefully, as a throwaway word, the human tendency to empty it of its sacredness, of its glory, may well be why he said, 'First of all, when you pray, pray that God's name may be hallowed on earth as it is in heaven.' How can we protect God's name? How can we believers protect his name? Let me suggest to you very quickly four ways that those of us who bear the name Christian can protect the name of God in the first place by living your life reverently. And being sure that if you're called a Christian, you live like a Christian, secondly by using your tongue carefully, and if you in your youth or in your adulthood found cursing and profanity to become a habit, to determine with God's help that your language will be cleaned up, that you will no longer use the name of the Lord that way. Thirdly, make your commitments sincerely. When you say that you're going to do something in the name of the Lord, keep that commitment, do not blaspheme his name, and finally invoke his name prayerfully. When you speak the name of the Lord, speak it reverently in prayer. Have you broken the tenth or the third commandment, the third of the ten? Have you ever blasphemed the name of God? If this morning I were to ask you to stand and honestly acknowledge that, there wouldn't be an empty chair here, because the fact is that all of us have broken this commandment. We are guilty in some respect. The law which is good has been used lawfully because it has revealed our profanity. In the New Testament, the word profane means those who walk on the sacred name. We have all walked on the sacred name of God. The law exposes our sin, and you say, "Well, so what?" That means that we are guilty before God, and we are condemned. You mean God would keep me out of heaven just for taking his name in vain? Yes. You mean God actually would send a person to hell who cursed once in his life? Yes. The law of God exposes our guilt as sinners, so that the grace of God then may save us. The law of God demands punishment for the sinful one, the transgressor of the commandment. The Jesus Christ bore that guilt and penalty for your blasphemy and mine when he died on the cross. God lovingly arranged the cross, you see, so that he could rescue you and me from the wrath that we do deserve because we have broken his commandments. One day years ago, there were several people on the street who heard a man using profanity in such a way that it shocked them. One of them said, "Get away from that fellow. The God he is cursing may split the earth and let him go down alive into hell for his blasphemy." The man who was doing the cursing and the blaspheming was John Bunyan, who later came to faith in Jesus Christ and wrote, of course, the classic Pilgrim's Progress. John Bunyan was not saved because he cleaned up his language and tried to be a better man. He was saved from sin and from condemnation because he realized the one who bore his sin on Calvary and was raised from the dead could save him if he would but trust in him. And John Bunyan did so. He wrote a little poem that says, "Run, John, run the law commands but gives me neither feet nor hands. Far grander news the gospel brings, it bids me fly and gives me wings." You see, the law says, "You shall not, and if you do, you will die and it's righteous and it's holy and it's good. It exposes our problem, but it doesn't tell us what to do. It doesn't bring us to the point of redemption, but that's the message of the gospel. Today if you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, I hope that you understand afresh how, how needful you are doing that because you see there's none of us who's going to be able to earn our way to heaven. We've all broken the commandments of God, perhaps above all of them the third commandment and we are in need of forgiveness and God's provided that for you. Will you claim it today by faith? I hope so. Let's pray. With our heads bowed and our eyes closed in reverence before God. If today the Holy Spirit has convicted your heart and you realize that you are a sinner in need of salvation, that you are one who has transgressed the third commandment and maybe others as well and you need to find forgiveness, will you come to Jesus Christ today and trust in Him? If that is your heart's desire, your heart's trust, I'm going to ask you to lift your hand and just put it down. As a way of visibly saying, "Yes, this is my commitment today to receive Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of my sin." Is there one here like that? God bless you, yes. Anyone else, yes? With in your heart of hearts you can simply pray a prayer like this, "Lord, forgive me of my sin." I believe that Jesus died for me, that He bore my penalty on the cross. And I receive Jesus into my heart right now. I believe in Him personally as my Lord in my Savior, wash away the guilt of my sin, and work in me to clean up my language and to make me the kind of person that you want me to be. God will do that, friend, Father, I pray that these who lifted their hands this morning will make that commitment in their hearts now. And having made it will find a release from the guilt and assurance of eternal life. In Christ's name I pray, amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]