Sermon Tone Analysis

You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.

What does this mean?

We should fear and love God so that we do not curse, swear, use satanic arts, lie, or deceive by His name, but call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise and give thanks.

Introduction

We continue with our study of Luther’s Small Catechism today as we examine the Second Commandment and its meaning.

The outline of today’s sermon will be the word “NAME”” God’s NAME is Holy’ , to Attack God’s Name is to attack God Himself; MISUSE of God’s Name brings judgment and death; but we may call upon it in EVERY Trouble in prayer, praise and thanksgiving.

Name- God’s Name is His Presence

Our names mean everything to us.

Not only is our name the way we are identified as a person, but it really is our essence.

As Christians God knows your name.

This takes place in Baptism.

God knows you by your first and middle name.

It should be noted that in Baptism your surname (last name) is never said.

Biblically speaking, names always had meaning.

Remember Peter’s Confession of Jesus a few weeks ago?

What was it that Jesus said to Peter? “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah…” Bar in Hebrew means son.

You’ve heard of “Bar Mitzvah?”

That means “Son of the Covenant.”

If Peter had an English last name it would have been Peter Johnson.

Or Johnsen if he were Scandinavian.

So it was with surnames early on.

A “Smith” worked with metal.

A “Baker” put dough in the oven.

A “Cooper” made barrels.

Johnson meant that someone’s father’s name was John.

Sometimes names indicated where you were from: D’Alessio meant you were from Alessio.

When it comes to God, He has a Name.

And His Name has meaning.

His Name, YHWH means “I am who I am”.

Jesus, in Hebrew the form of Joshua” means “YAHWEH RESCUES”, The Holy Spirit, is the eternal breath.

And unlike most surnames today, God’s Name still does what it says.

The Great I AM has rescued you through His Son Joshua by faith given by the Holy Spirit from sin, death and hell.

When we call out to God, this is always what He does.

Where God’s name is, there God is.

We read:

To ATTACK God’s Name is to attack God Himself

So when we take God’s Name in Vain, it is a direct assault on the God who has saved you from sin, death and hell.

God takes this commandment with all seriousness, and right in the commandment He makes clear “the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His Name in vain.”

Let those words sink in, beloved.

He speaking about you.

And to you.

Misuse of God’s Name in our Lives

sdfsdfd

What is it that God forbids?

How do we take His Name in Vain?

What makes our lips unclean?

The meaning speaks of several large categories.

CURSING: Calling God to strike a person dead and send him to hell.

Phrases like “damnit”, “go to hell”, “God damnit,” “damn you to hell”, all violate this commandment in the extreme.

It misuses God’s name by calling something that by nature He won’t do.

He so loved the world, including sinners, that He did what only He could do to save it: Sending His Son Jesus to be damned in our place.

It also violates this Commandment and the First Commandment because by saying these things we assume the Name God upon ourselves, and make wrongful judgments that only God can make.

Another example of us becoming our own God.

SWEARING: Calling on the Lord to back up truth, which very often isn’t total truth.

“I swear to God”.

“O My God”.

“My God”.

“Jesus Christ”.

“Jesus, Mary and Joseph”.

The devil has made these acceptable terms, even in our lives.

They roll off of our lips without a thought.

Uttering these words are damnable sins.

And yet we don’t even realize we say them.

The Scriptures declare

Heed these words, dear brothers and sisters.

The end is near, and our lips are unholy.

USING SATANIC ARTS: To rely on anyone but the Lord breaks this commandment as well as the First.

God forbids fortune telling, mediums, divination, placing curses and hexes, engaging in any form of witchcraft, WICCA, soothsaying, horoscopes, astrology, calling forth the dead, seances, calling forth demons, some of which we would never do, other things we do for entertainment value without realizing the power of darkness wrapped up in them.

The Seventy disciples were amazed that the demons obeyed their rebuke.

Jesus words to them,

God’s name is holy.

You have been baptized into that Holy Name.

God and darkness cannot co-exist.

Do not live in the darkness, O children of Light.

LIE AND DECEIVE BY HIS NAME- It is bad enough to swear, though God permits it in situations like Court, but to swear and then lie is the epitome of breaking this commandment.

We misuse God’s Name so much, dear brothers and sisters.

As Isaiah’s lips were touched with a searing coal from God’s Altar, so God takes away your sin of taking His name in vain by slaying His only begotten Son.

That, and that alone, is the only way to take away your profanity.

We are a people of unclean lips, yet God still gives us His Name.

He writes on us His New Name.

Marked on the Forehead and heart we are forgiven from our unclean lips.

We are given the Holy Spirit to carefully weigh our words and actions.

We avoid situations where God’s Name would be used illicitly and rightly bring about our damnation.

Call Upon His Name in Every Trouble

So should we be afraid to use God’s Name?

Not at all.

God wants us to use His name, for we bear His Name.

He is our loving Father and we are His loving Children.

The Psalm for today says:

,

We call upon God’s Name in every trouble and He hears and answers us.

The Large Catechism tells us

To vex the devil, I say, we should always have this holy name in our mouth, so that he may not be able to injure us as he wishes.

For this end it is also of service that we form the habit of daily commending ourselves to God, with soul and body, wife, children, servants, and all that we have, against every need that may occur; whence also the blessing and thanksgiving at meals, and other prayers, morning and evening, have originated and remain in use.

74] Likewise the practice of children to cross themselves when anything monstrous or terrible is seen or heard, and to exclaim: "Lord God, protect us!" "Help, dear Lord Jesus!" etc.