What is Right and Wrong? Part 3

Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. (third)

INTRODUCTION

Good evening Southpointe!

We are in this series: “What is right and wrong? Part 3.

We been dealing with the Ten commandments. We talked about the last two Wednesday night.

Commandment 1— Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

And then Commandment 2--Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.

If you are doing good Commandment 1, thou shalt have no other gods before Him then you would not have a problem with Commandment 2— Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.

And tonight we are going to be looking at Commandment 3.

Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

This is one of the most misunderstood of the commandments. It is one that can easily be broken. The most obvious way is profanity.

Have you ever notice how many times people will use the name of Jesus?

Even people who are atheists. Why is it that they use the holy name of our Lord when the hammer hits the thumb? They will say Jesus Christ.

We just cringe when they say that. Why do they say His name? Why don’t they say Hare Krishna? Why don’t they say Buddha?

Could it be that even in their non-believer, spiritual dead state that they understands that there is something different, powerful and special about the name of Jesus Christ.

Therefore, God elevated Him to the place of highest honor and gave Him the name above all other names,

that 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.

God’s name is important to Him. It matters to Him.

Names are important to us too. Parents will think about over and over what to name their kids. It is funny to look at what names are popular.

My mom’s name and her sister’s name are not heard of very much: Mom— Ila and her sister- Ora.

Today name’s name are very simple, I’d often wonder if the kid will learn to spell name and say it correctly.

Tell the story about the bus route with Karissa and Leslie.

But name are important, Kid are going to have to live with that name the rest of their lives.

God is saying His name is important to Him. Don’t misuse His name.

I wouldn’t be happy if someone were using my name for profanity. Every time they were mad. Jerry Underwood. That is my name. Don’t be messing with it.

When we are talking about God, He is holy. This fact is repeated in The Word of God.

We read in the scripture about the angels before the Lord. And they are not saying eternal, eternal, eternal, or faithful, faithful, faithful or mighty, mighty, mighty even though God is all of those things.

But they do say: Holy, Holy, Holy.

Each of these living beings had six wings, and their wings were covered all over with eyes, inside and out. Day after day and night after night they keep on saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty—the One who always was, who is, and who is still to come."

God is Holy!! We don’t want to take His name in vain.

How do you take the Lord’s name in vain?

The most obvious ways is by swearing and profanity.

News flash! Damn is not God’s last name. When someone says that , it is clearly taking his name in vain.

There are other says that it can be done by saying I swear to God I could be taking His name in vain.

Why do people says I swear to God or Oh God? If you are really calling on the Lord there is nothing wrong with that.

Maybe if you are in trouble and call out Oh God that is fine. If you are just excited, Oh God, we must be careful this is the name of the Lord we are talking about.

When you have to always say I swear to God it is probably because you very seldom tell the truth.

If you would just tell the truth then you would not have to swear at all.

If you have to swear to convince someone you are telling the truth, it shows you probably are not a truthful person to start with.

"You have also heard that our ancestors were told, 'You must not break your vows; you must carry out the vows you make to the LORD.'

But I say, do not make any vows! Do not say, 'By heaven!' because heaven is God's throne.

And do not say, 'By the earth!' because the earth is His footstool. And do not say, 'By Jerusalem!' for Jerusalem is the city of the great King.

Do not even say, 'By my head!' for you can't turn one hair white or black.

Just say a simple, 'Yes, I will,' or 'No, I won't.' Anything beyond this is from the evil one.

You shouldn’t have to say I swear to God. You should just say I will do it. Whey you say you will do it, that means you will do it. It means you make a commitment and you keep it.

Now I know sometimes things come up and you have to change plans and that ok as long it is not that something better came along and you let go of your commitment because of that.

You should honor your commitment.

Let your yes be yes and your no be no.

When you are hired to do a job, do it.

Say I will work for this amount of money. Do your job. Word hard. Christian should be the best at what they do. Never use your faith as an excuse for laziness.

Honor the commitment that you have made.

When two people come together to get married and say I promise to be faithful to you for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death do us part, you keep those vows.

If you don’t plan of keeping those vows, then don’t get married.

His name is above all names. His name is to be honored. His name is to be worshiped. Don’t take the name of the Lord in vain.

A literal translation of this phrase “take His name in vain” would be to use it an empty idle, insincere way.

We have all probably done this at one time or another. Just mindlessly saying God bless you or I will pray for you or praise the Lord.

There is nothing wrong with any of those things. All I am saying is that when you say them mean them. If you say to someone I will pray for you don’t use that as a way to get rid of them.

When I say I will pray for you I try to always remember to pray for you. But I know a better way, do it right then.

If you are say praise the Lord or God bless you mean it. It is not something to fill your sentences with when you don’t know what else to say.

The most often and subtle form in which mean break this commandment is through hypocrisy.

The people who say Lord, Lord and not do what I say.

And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

The greatest hypocrisy of the church is worse than the profanity on the street.

There is a person down at a bar getting drunk and he is cursing God. His taking the Lord’s name in vain. Do you know that is worse?

A person sitting in this church right now who knows what is right and true is willfully breaking the commandments of God.

An many will say at least I am in church. the guy at the bar is a low-life. And maybe he is. but you know what?

That guy at the bar one of these days might just come to his sense and realize he needs to get right with God.

But the person in the church will say look at me in church. I did really well. I went to church. If you are hearing the word of God and you have no intention of keeping it and you are saying praise the Lord and Amen, God bless you then you are breaking His commandments left and right and that is taking His name in vain.

you are breaking His commandments left and right and that is taking His name in vain.

Now I know we are not perfect.

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Thank God for His grace and forgiveness.

and the person who says i am going to do it because I want to and I still love Jesus. And we will just ask the Lord to bless.

There is a difference between the person who knows something is wrong and when they have done it they are sorry for it and repent of it then the person who says I am going to do it because I want to and I still love Jesus and we will just ask the Lord to bless.

Those type of people are like the Israelites bowing before the golden calf.

I don’t know what you are worshiping but it is not God. if you are worshiping God, it would change the way that you life. if it isn’t changing the way that you live, I have to question if you are really worshiping God.

What are you worshiping? It might be your own god. it might be your own concept of god. It is not the true God of the bible.

These commandments were given to open our eyes and shut our mouths. We read them and realize we have fallen short.

I have done that and you have done it.

I have failed to do this but it shows me my need for Jesus. It drives me to His open arms.

Because the Good news is God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son and whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. (third)