The Lord's Name in Vain

Introduction

English Standard Version Chapter 20

7 “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.

When you have a child, you spend a rather large amount of time into deciding the right name.

Family history comes into account.

The preferences of the father and mother come into account.

You get all of the names that you like and lay them out, and you start eliminating the names that you don’t like.

I don’t know what your process is.

However, everyone has a process.

There is something in the name that is important. What someone will be called for the rest of their lives is important.

a. How would you feel if someone trivialized or made fun of that name.

b. You would be highly upset, because the name that you are giving your little one is important to you, and it is important to them.

God was not named by anyone, but he has a name all the same. Yahweh. The name means, “I am that I am.”

God tells the people, “don’t trivialize my name.”

CIT: GOd’s people should hold God’s name with the highest reverence, respect, and honor.

Explanation

ANSWER THESE THREE QUESTIONS: Stuart says that we need to answer three questions: (1) What exactly is involved in taking the Lord’s name in vain? (2) Why is his name so foundational to protecting the ten foundational commandments of Israel? (3) What kind of punishment might ensue for breaking this commandment?

(1) The answer stems from the word, vain. What does vanity mean? It means to count something as nothing. Vanity of vanities (Eccl 1) means mist of mist or nothing.

To take the Lord’s name in vain is to trivialize it.

Or to refuse to grant the weight to his name that is deserved.

(2) The commandment is worded generally enough to encompass any misuse of God’s name - making light of it, mocking it, speaking disrespectfully, or using it to make you look more holy than you actually are.

(3) The punishment is not specific, but God says it will be in His hands.

God does not give the Israelites a recourse for this sin like he does with the other.

God says, I will take care if this one.

I don’t know about you, but that makes me more cautious than less.

Jeremiah spoke against prophets who used God’s name to legitimize their earthly prophecies. Their punishments (Jer 14, 27, 29), included death for them and their hearers, banishment and death, and death at the hands of their captors in exile.

BUILD THE IMPORTANCE OF IT: God’s name, Yahweh, is written YHWH in the Old Testament scriptures.

God’s name does not come from a man. His names comes from Himself.

God’s name stands for his actual nature and being. “I am.”

John Piper // No beginning, no ending, no becoming, no dependence upon anything else.

When we say his name, we are speaking of all that he represents.

The Israelites responded to this commandment with utmost obedience.

It was only pronounced once a year by the high priest, when he was giving the blessing on the day of atonement (Lev 23:27).

When copying the Scriptures, when the word, Yahweh was written, the pen was thrown away and some priests would bath themselves.

God does everything that he does for his own namesake. When we try to muster up enough strength to

Psalm 25:11 “For your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great.”

ii. Psalm 79:9 “Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us, and atone for our sins, for your name’s sake!”

iii. Isaiah 42:8 “I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.”

a. Notice that all three of the first commandments are covered in this verse.

“I am the Lord, that is my name.”

“My glory I give to no other.”

“Nor my praise to carved idols.”

b. These three commandments are all connected. There is no one like our God or worthy of worship like Yahweh.

Application

Everything rides upon the name of the Lord. EVERYTHING that God does stems from His namesake for his glory. For the glory of His name is all over the Scriptures.

The way that you speak will either cause them to have a reverence or lack of reverence in God.

Do you consider God before you speak of Him?

When you do things that are meant to worship God or show his majesty in a lackluster way?

How did you sing this morning?

Did you pray when we were supposed to pray?

Did you grunt in frustration when we stood to read the Word?

We need to be careful in what we say about God.

When we exclaim, “Oh my God,” or “Jesus Christ,” we trivialize God. However, the command is more than this misuse.

In the New Testament, people were healed simply by the name of Jesus.

Maybe the reason you haven’t been reverent before the Lord is that you have made his name commonplace.

You might have forgotten that the heavens shout a

When you become a Christian, you carry the name of Christ in everything that you do.

Acts 4:12 “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is NO OTHER NAME under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.””

b. 1 John 5:13 “I write these things to you who believe IN THE NAME of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”

When you live in a way that trivializes the name of Jesus, you take His name in vain.

When we say that we are Christians, but we live as though God does not matter, others see God and think, “lightweight.”

You misuse Christ’s name, when you refuse to take seriously the fact that God has left his mark upon you.

When we pray, in Jesus name, we say, “Without Jesus, we would have no access to God. It is by his righteousness that Jesus’ we even have a chance to speak to God.

Conclusion

God gives us His name! Adoption is one of the most beautiful truths of the Bible.

Ephesians 1:5 “he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,”

Adoption is taking someone who is far from you and giving them your name.

Christ’s work on the cross makes us sons and daughters if we rest upon God’s grace.

Every time you use God’s name this week, make sure that God is worshipped or Jesus is proclaimed.

Feel the weight of Jesus Christ.