TEN 3: The Third Commandment

Bookmarks & Needs:

B: Exodus 20:7; Matthew 5:33-37

N:

Opening

Welcome in the room and online. Happy Independence Day! This morning, we are so grateful to live in a nation where we are free to gather together, free to sing praises to the Lord without fear, free to preach from the Bible without interference from the government, and we pray that we would always have such freedoms in this land. I am proud to be an American, and to celebrate that freedom on this day by joining with the rest of the church family in worship.

We also get to come together as a family tonight to thank the Lord for the blessings that we have in our nation: Independence Day picnic tonight at 6:30. Bring your safe and legal fireworks!

World Hunger/Disaster Relief Goal $5,500. Talk about NM Disaster Relief.

We are on our third week of our series that we’re calling “TEN: A look at God’s unwavering commands,” where we are considering each of the Ten Commandments, or Ten Words, and how they apply to our lives as Christians today. We’ve already looked at the First and Second Commandments, and today we will look at the Third:

Exodus 20:7 CSB

7 Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God, because the Lord will not leave anyone unpunished who misuses his name.

PRAYER

Royal. Protector. That is literally what my name means. Well, to be fair: truly literally, it means “protector royale” because William means “protector” and Charles means “royal.” I don’t think the meaning of my name had really anything to do with it, however. I got my first name from from father, who got it from his father (my Grandpa), who got it from his father. My middle name was my other grandfather’s (I called him Poppa) middle name, so I’m assuming that I got it from there. I like the meaning, though. Makes me feel tougher than I really am, I guess. =o) But even if you didn’t know what my name meant (which almost all of you didn’t until just now), my name or at least the shortened version of it along with my last name meant someone very particular: me. And not just the guy standing down here or on your screen talking right now, but things that you know about me, information about how we connect to one another, the sound of my voice, my impressive fashion sense… basically more than just “Bill Connors=that guy.” For those who are closer to me, and those where we have a longer history—which is many people in the room—you hear my name and it conjures up perhaps good or bad things that you think about me, your opinion of me, or perhaps something that I’ve said or taught.

All of that from a name. So it doesn’t matter that you didn’t know what my name means. For you, my name means me.

And while that I’m sure that’s true for people in Bible times as well, their names were usually much more specific. Often, the names had something to do with what happened with the children were born, or some characteristic of the children. Abraham’s son Isaac was born when Sarah was about ninety-one years old, and she said, “God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears will laugh with me.” Isaac means “he laughs.” Remember on Mother’s Day this year, when I preached on Naomi and Ruth? Naomi’s sons names were Mahlon and Chilion, which meant “sickly” and “wimpy,” respectively. Maybe Mahlon was a sickly baby, and Chilion had a wimpy cry. Sometimes, names spoke to the plans or hopes that mom or dad had for their child: I think of Matthew’s Hebrew name—Levi. His parents likely hoped he would enter the priesthood instead of the tax collector’s booth. And sometimes, people’s names were given because of what God was doing, or what He would do: Hosea’s daughter and second son had names that were a part of Hosea’s prophecy (Lo-Ruhamah “no compassion” and Lo-Ammi “not my people”). Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua, which means “the Lord saves.”

So it should be no surprise to us that God’s name has meaning. And one thing that is special about God is that no one gave Him His name. He declared His name to Moses at the burning bush back in Exodus 3. His name is Yahweh.

Proverbs 22:1 says:

Proverbs 22:1 CSB

1 A good name is to be chosen over great wealth; favor is better than silver and gold.

This is because of what I said earlier about my name: it conjures up what you think about me, what you feel about me, whether you trust me or not, and things like that. In short, in your mind to a certain extent, my name reflects your perception of me as a person. Likewise, God’s name reflects not just the thing He wanted to be called, but because He gave His name to Himself, God’s identity, His character, are wrapped up in His name. In short, His name has very important meaning.

And remember that all of the Ten Words go back to this issue of God’s character and glory. The Ten Commandments were not given so that God could have a nice set of rules sitting around for people to break: they were given so that God’s people could live differently—separately from the other nations, so that they would be set apart… holy.

We looked at the first two Commandments over the last couple of weeks, and this morning, we find the command to not “misuse” the name of the Lord. This is more than just a simple “don’t speak the name of God wrongly.” The language here is about “bearing wrongly” the name of God, because God’s name means…well… Him.

So the issue for the Israelites the day that God gave these commands, and the issue that would remain for them, is that as the Lord’s people, they bear, or carry the name of the Lord everywhere they go. They were not to bear His name wrongly. His name was to be held in the highest respect and reverence. And it should still be. But with the coming of Christ, things have changed somewhat, and now God’s chosen people bear a new name:

0) We bear the name of Christ.

I’m calling this point zero because it’s kind of the first thing that we need to think of when we reflect on this Commandment today, because it’s really easy for us to read the Third Word and decide that we have this one figured out. That’s because we think that if we can just not use God’s name as a curse word, then the Third Commandment is a piece of cake (we’ll get to that in a moment). But remember that it wasn’t just about not verbalizing God’s name wrongly: this command is about what it means to bear God’s name at all. And those who are Christians bear the name (well, the title actually) of Christ:

Acts 11:26b (CSB)

26 The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.

The word “Christian” means “follower of Christ,” or “little Christ.” It may have been an insult when it was first coined, but it stuck, and today it is the most common designation for those who claim to believe in Jesus.

This is because Jesus’ name is the name above every other name, according to Scripture, and there will come a day that everyone will agree with this fact:

Philippians 2:5–11 CSB

5 Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, 6 who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. 7 Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, 8 he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross. 9 For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow— in heaven and on earth and under the earth— 11 and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus is God, as we have seen each of the last two weeks as well, and Jesus’ name is above every other name because of who He is and because of what He did. He willingly took on the flesh of humanity, lived life as one of us, but sinlessly. He went to the cross to take our place in the death that we deserve for our sin, so that we could be rescued from the hell that we deserve. And Scripture tells us that if we surrender to Jesus as Lord, then we are saved, forgiven, and set free from the penalty that we owe because Jesus already paid it. We surrender our lives to Jesus by faith, trusting that His sacrifice alone can save us, believing that He died and rose again so that we could be saved.

1 John 5:12–13 CSB

12 The one who has the Son has life. The one who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

And when we are saved, we then follow our Lord. This is what it means to be a Christian—to be a follower of Jesus. And you can surrender right now, right where you are, and be given eternal life because of what Christ has done. Give up on saving yourself and follow Jesus.

And as a result of following Jesus, Christians are called to live out the bearing of Jesus’ name in this world, even if we will suffer for it.

1 Peter 4:14–16 CSB

14 If you are ridiculed for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. 15 Let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or a meddler. 16 But if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed but let him glorify God in having that name.

See, Jesus is the name above every name, and the Christian is the one who “[has] the name” of Christ. Therefore, the instruction to the Israelites in the Ten Commandments is important for us to consider today as well, because we bear the name of the Lord. The name of Jesus.

How do we misuse the Lord’s name today?

1) We misuse the Lord’s name when we use it to curse.

This is the easy one, because it’s so black and white. If we use the name or title of God, or of Jesus, as a curse word, that’s clearly a violation of the Third Word. This is what most of us think of when we see the Third Commandment. And we’re right. I’m just going to say it as clearly as I can say it: This kind of use of the name of the Lord has no place in the life of the Christian:

Ephesians 4:29 CSB

29 No foul language should come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear.

Look at it this way: what if someone used your name, or your spouse’s name, or the name of your child, your parents’ names, in the way that the name of the Lord is used today on TV and movies, out in the world, and even in our own homes. That would bother you, wouldn’t it? So why does it sometimes not bother us if the name of our God is used in this way? Taken one step further: we would never use our mom’s name to curse, or father’s name, or just about any other name that I can think of. Why would we use our Lord’s?

This isn’t about legalism: it’s about respect. Keep in mind that I’m assuming that I’m speaking to believers here. Lost people are going to act like lost people, so they will not have the same regard for the Lord’s name as we should have.

Can I just challenge you, believer, that if using the name of the Lord in any way as a curse word is a part of your vocabulary, that you repent of that right now, ask the Lord to forgive you, and submit to His Holy Spirit’s work to stop it? Refusing to do so shows a lack of respect for and the name of the Lord, and thus, the Lord Himself. Which leads us to our next point:

2) We misuse the Lord’s name when we don’t honor it appropriately.

This second point is a bit of a catch-all. As I read and studied on this Third Commandment, I realized that perhaps most of what we more consciously do that violates the command falls under the umbrella of a lack of respect or a lack of honor. So in what ways do we not honor or respect the name of the Lord appropriately?

I could think of three general ways:

A) When we are flippant or irreverent.

In Prayer Meeting for the past couple of months, we have been slowly looking at the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6. We’ve considered the fact that the Lord’s Prayer is really more about priority: what our focus should be as we pray, than about process: saying the right words in the right order. The very first request of the Lord’s Prayer is about God’s name:

Matthew 6:9 CSB

9 “Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy.

The first thing Jesus taught when establishing priorities in prayer for His followers was a right perspective on the importance of the name of God! His followers were to see God’s name being honored in the world as something to pray for. If that’s something that we should be praying for, shouldn’t that start with US?

In the Old Testament, there was an extremely high regard for the name of God. There still is in Judaism today, in fact. But it was especially true during biblical times. In order to make it as unlikely as possible that they would accidentally say the name of God in a way that violated the Third Commandment, they often avoided saying His name altogether.

I even read while studying this week that some scribes held the name of the Lord in such high regard that when they had to write it, they would first go and wash, change their clothes, and then write the name with a new quill and throw the quill away once they had written the name. Most refused to say the name of the Lord. The high priest only said it once per year, on the Day of Atonement.

And while we have been given the allowance because of the sacrifice of Christ to be on a first-name basis with Almighty God, adopted into His family through the blood of Christ, and been given the option of calling Him “Father,” or even “Abba,” it’s easy for us to lose that reverential respect for the Lord’s holy name. And it makes it all too easy to throw around His name without even realizing that we’re doing so.

I like how Jen Wilkin said it in Ten Words to Live By:

“We enjoy friendship and intimacy with Christ, but we do not share equality with Him. He is not our peer. Recognizing that He sits even now at the right hand of God the Father means speaking of Him and to Him with respect.”

Ten Words to Live By, Jen Wilkin, p. 57

So give some thought to the “why” of using the name of the Lord. Are we being flippant or irreverent in our use of His name?

B) When we deny Him glory He is due.

Another way that we do not honor God’s name appropriately is when we do not give God the glory for the things that He does. This can come in several forms. Perhaps our clearest way of doing this is when God does something through us, and we receive the praise from others or we praise ourselves internally—as if we did it all. Remember what happened to Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel chapter 4? He had had a dream that frightened him, and Daniel gave him the interpretation from the Lord, warning him to repent of his pride. Nebuchadnezzar didn’t heed Daniel’s warning, and later:

Daniel 4:30 CSB

30 the king exclaimed, “Is this not Babylon the Great that I have built to be a royal residence by my vast power and for my majestic glory?”

So God humbled Nebuchadnezzar in order to assure that His glory went only to Him. Nebuchadnezzar would later say:

Daniel 4:34–35 CSB

34 But at the end of those days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven, and my sanity returned to me. Then I praised the Most High and honored and glorified him who lives forever: For his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation. 35 All the inhabitants of the earth are counted as nothing, and he does what he wants with the army of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. There is no one who can block his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”

Another example is that we have a tendency to only glorify God when “good” things happen to us, and to be upset with God when things we don’t want to happen take place. God’s sovereignty doesn’t disappear because something “bad” happens. He is still on His throne, and we can trust Him and worship Him in the midst of it. Remember what Job said when he had lost nearly everything:

Job 1:20–21 CSB

20 Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped, 21 saying: Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will leave this life. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

He mourned, yes: and mourning was a right response. But he still knew that God was in control and that He was trustworthy, and He glorified God’s name in the midst of His suffering.

We can learn from Paul’s example as far as this point goes. In his dealings with the church at Corinth, some had come in after Paul claiming that Paul’s ministry wasn’t true apostleship. In 2 Corinthians chapter 12, Paul tells them the fact that he had had visions of heaven as a means of verifying his apostolic ministry. He tried to write about it in the third person, referring to himself as “this man,” but he’s really speaking about himself because he lets it slip that God had intentionally worked to keep him from exalting himself by them.

2 Corinthians 12:9–10 CSB

9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me. 10 So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and in difficulties, for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

I’ll admit that this is a difficulty for me at times. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in our own pride, and to see our accomplishments as ours alone. But when we say that the work of God is something that we ourselves have done in our own strength, or we say that God is somehow not in control when He is, we deny Him the glory due to His name. We need to cultivate humility in our hearts through listening to His Spirit, and not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to.

C) When we use His name for our own ends.

The final way that we do not honor God’s name appropriately is when we “name-drop” with the Lord. We probably have all done it. We want something or want to do something and we hit a little resistance, so we play the God card: “I think that God is calling me/leading me/prompting me to do X.” Who would argue with the movement of God? This is a dangerous game to play with the holiness of God’s name. This is akin to swearing an oath in His name, saying that He has said something when He hasn’t, and there are several places in Scripture where this is warned against, but I’ll just use this one this morning:

Leviticus 19:12 CSB

12 Do not swear falsely by my name, profaning the name of your God; I am the Lord.

People have used God’s name to do some horrible, horrible things. God’s name was used to justify slavery. God’s name was used to justify the Holocaust. God’s name was used to justify the Salem witch trials, the Crusades, and the Civil War. God’s name was even used to justify the crucifixion of God Himself.

Jesus’ trial was supposedly to protect the name of the Lord: the charge against Him was blasphemy, a misuse of the name of the Lord, which was punishable by death under Jewish law.

Matthew 26:65–68 CSB

65 Then the high priest tore his robes and said, “He has blasphemed! Why do we still need witnesses? See, now you’ve heard the blasphemy. 66 What is your decision?” They answered, “He deserves death!” 67 Then they spat in his face and beat him; others slapped him 68 and said, “Prophesy to us, Messiah! Who was it that hit you?”

But rather than this being done in order to protect the holiness of God’s name, it was actually a means of satisfying the envy of the Jewish leaders, according to Matthew:

Matthew 27:15–18 CSB

15 At the festival the governor’s custom was to release to the crowd a prisoner they wanted. 16 At that time they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. 17 So when they had gathered together, Pilate said to them, “Who is it you want me to release for you—Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” 18 For he knew it was because of envy that they had handed him over.

Using God’s name for our ends is to diminish the honor due to His name, because it just becomes the key that fits every lock, not the awe-inspiring name of Almighty God. It also diminishes His glory and honor for those who look on and see that His name is being abused, because if those who bear His name will abuse it as such, why shouldn’t everyone?

To be clear, I’m not saying that every time we say that the Lord is leading us to do something that we’re name-dropping. God certainly speaks and He certainly leads us to act in His will. However, we must be absolutely certain, after prayer, reflection, and affirmation in the Word of God, before we state that God is calling us to do this or that. Paul warned the church at Thessalonica to do this:

1 Thessalonians 5:19–21 CSB

19 Don’t stifle the Spirit. 20 Don’t despise prophecies, 21 but test all things. Hold on to what is good.

Let us set our hearts toward giving God all the honor due to Him and His great name, not using His name flippantly or irreverently, not holding on to glory that only should go to Him, not using His name for our own ends or gain.

3) We misuse the Lord’s name when we fail to bear it well.

The final way we violate the Third Commandment is when we call ourselves Christians, those who bear the name of Christ, but then we fail to live lives that match up with the testimony that we claim: that Christ is our Lord and Savior, that we have been set free from sin and redeemed for God, that Jesus truly is our all in all.

Brennan Manning said:

“The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”

Too many people have heard us say one thing about our faith, about our God, about our Lord, but seen us do something radically different. The same was true for the Israelites. In Romans 2, Paul wrote to believers, but quoted the prophet Isaiah to Israel in verse 24:

Romans 2:24 CSB

24 For, as it is written: The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.

Brothers and sisters, we are called to be a living, breathing, walking testimony to the greatness of God and the power of His name. As children of God, we are to live a consistent lifestyle of faith and submission to our Lord and His will. Paul summarized what this looked like well in Colossians chapter 3:

Colossians 3:12–17 CSB

12 Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. 14 Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. 15 And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

In living like this, we magnify the name of God. Magnification can mean two things: to make something small appear bigger than it is, or to show something great to be as amazing as it truly is. Let’s magnify the name of the Lord in that sense by how we lives our lives in front of a watching world, bearing His name well, so that He would be seen by the lost to be as beautiful, wonderful, and powerful as He really is.

Closing

There is just one part of the Third Commandment that we didn’t really touch on this morning: the last part.

Exodus 20:7 CSB

7 Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God, because the Lord will not leave anyone unpunished who misuses his name.

Do we bring judgment and punishment on ourselves by misappropriating, misapplying, or misusing God’s name? Let it not be so. But praise the Lord that He is a forgiving God, and because of what Christ has done, we can be made right with Him when we fail to keep this Third Word.

And that same forgiveness is available to all who would call on the name of Jesus, surrendering their lives to His glorious grace, that He would be Lord and Savior. You’ve heard this morning about how He died for you to cover your sins and offer you eternal life. Stop resisting and surrender into His hands. Let us know.

Church membership.

Other decision, perhaps of repentance for how we have misused the name of the Lord.

Giving

PRAYER

Closing Remarks

Commissioning our high school missionaries as they go to serve in the name of the Lord at the New Mexico Baptist Children’s Home this week.

James 1:27 CSB

27 Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

PRAYER

Bible reading: Exodus 26. July’s printable calendar is on the website.

Benediction:

Psalm 113:1–3 CSB

1 Hallelujah! Give praise, servants of the Lord; praise the name of the Lord. 2 Let the name of the Lord be blessed both now and forever. 3 From the rising of the sun to its setting, let the name of the Lord be praised.

See you all tonight!