The Third Commandment

Please turn your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 5, verse 11.

Deuteronomy 5:11

You can find out on page 150 in the Chair Bibles.

We continue our summer series in the 10 commandments with the

third commandment. The 10 commandments were also

written in the in Exodus 20 and and in both places the third

commandment is written identically, although that isn't

the case for all the commandments as we'll see in a

couple weeks with the 4th commandment.

So Deuteronomy chapter 5 verse 11, you shall not take the name

Deuteronomy 5:11

of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him

guiltless who takes his name in vain.

Let's pray Lord. Your word says in Proverbs that

the name of the Lord is a strong tower.

The righteous man runs into it and is safe.

And so we ask, Lord, that You would help us today to learn not

only how to honor your name with our whole lives, but also how to

hide our souls in Your name for righteousness and salvation as

we pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Have you ever gone white water rafting?

Back in college, I had the opportunity to work at a camp in

Colorado near Pikes Peak called Camp Called Grand Camps.

It's a unique camp where grandparents bring their

grandchildren to camp for about a week.

And one of the activities that we did with the grandparents and

their grandkids was whitewater rafting near Buena Vista on the

Arkansas River. Thankfully for our group that

the Rapids weren't crazy, though someone's glasses were broken.

It was it was just beautiful, very beautiful and

unforgettable. We were all safe because we

stayed in our boats and we trusted our guides.

Navigating the 10 commandments is kind of like white water

rafting. Each commandment is, is like a

river in a sense that we're rafting on.

It's dangerous, it's fearful, it's awesome, it's beautiful,

it's powerful. If we put our faith in Jesus,

he's like our raft guide, holding on to us so we don't

drown and guiding us to the end. To stretch the analogy one step

further, the river of each commandment has three main

sections for us to raft down and we we shouldn't try to Portage

around any one of those sections or or or or and early before

finishing. Otherwise we'll miss what it all

leads into and we'll be stuck in a bad place.

So. So what are those 3 sections of

the river? Guilt, grace, and gratitude.

Guilt, grace, and gratitude. The law first brings us to

guilt, then moves us on to grace, and then finishes with

gratitude with how to live thankful lives in light of the

grace God has shown to us sinners.

This model of God's law moving us to guilt and grace and

gratitude isn't. That's not my invention, but

it's a pattern we see used by the apostle Paul in the books of

Romans and Galatians. We need to experience the full

ride. If we only let the law show us

our sin and guilt, then we'll be stuck in a real bad place with

no hope for forgiveness. And if we let the law show us

our sin and then show us our need for grace in Christ, but

then we stopped there and we don't use the law as a guide for

our lives, we'll be wandering aimlessly and we will surely get

stuck in all sorts of sinful snares.

To mature as Christians, therefore, we need to ride the

whole river of the law to guilt, to grace, and then to gratitude.

And so today we will follow that pattern as we consider the third

commandment. So first let's consider our

guilt. How the third commandment shows

us our sin. Before we consider common ways

we break this commandment, let's study what this commandment is

teaching. The 1st 2 commandments focus on

who to worship and how to worship.

And now the third commandment continues to build off of this

theme of worshiping God rightly by directing us and how we are

to honor His name. Philip Riken says that a more

literal translation of You shall not take the name of the Lord

your God in vain is You shall not lift up the name of the Lord

Lord your God for nothingness. Reiken goes on to say that this

is likely a reference to swearing an oath, possibly

swearing by God's name while lifting up one's hand.

We aren't to take the name of the Lord's name.

We aren't to take the name of the Lord in in vain.

And that that word could be translated as as as nothingness,

as worthlessness, falseness, or emptiness.

Swearing by God's name should have great significance and

truth and meaning, and so God's name must not be treated in any

other way. So what is the third commandment

require of us? It requires that we know and

honor the name of the Lord and everything that we say and do.

So what is meant by the name of the Lord?

The 1st 2 commandments were spoken by God in the first

person, and now starting in the third commandment, he shifts to

speak of himself in the third person for the rest of the

commandments. He likely did this to emphasize

His covenant name, Yahweh, the name that God revealed to Moses

and to Israel. The meaning of the name Yahweh

is profound. It likely means I am who I am,

Speaking of God's uncreated nature, His eternality, and His

sovereignty. The I AM is the Creator of

everything who Himself was never created.

He always has been and always will be.

And so God chose to show to share His name to Moses and his

people as a mark of their covenant relationship with Him.

We name our our children, our pets, we name our businesses,

our cities, our lands, and sometimes we even name our cars.

But we do not name our God. He has revealed his name to us.

And that's very important because God's names throughout

the Bible communicate his character and His works to us.

We don't name God and decide his character like an imaginary

friend. And so we must know and honor

God's covenant name and all of his other names.

So here's some more of his other names.

God is Adonai, our Lord and Master.

He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

He's the Ancient of Days, the God of Eternity past.

He's El Elian, God Most High. He's El Roy, the God who sees

all and knows the needs of his people.

He's El Shaddai, God Almighty. He is Yahweh Sabaoth, the Lord

of Hosts or the the Lord of Angel armies.

He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Jesus name means the Lord saves, Yahweh saves and Christ means

the anointed one. Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us.

He is the Word, the Lagos, the perfect self revelation, perfect

self disclosure of God through whom all things were created.

These are the most common biblical names for God and they

tell us so much about His character, His being, His heart

and His power and His love for us.

God's name represents His character, His works and His

words. And so through the 3rd command

and so the third command commandment requires us to not

only speak honorably of His titles, but also of all of His

works and all of His Word in the Bible.

The honoring of God's name, works and word is is of utmost

priority for Christians, which is why the very first petition

in the Lord's Prayer is Hallowed be Thy name.

So everything we do as Christians in our worship should

be done in the name of the Lord. We gather in his name, we as we

saw, we baptize in his name, we pray in his name, we preach in

his name, and we take the Lord's Supper in His name.

Not only are we to we to honor God in our corporate worship,

but in every aspect of our lives, private and public, where

display the glory and holiness of God to all those around us,

whether at home or at school or at the grocery store, at the

office, wherever we are. This is the high and holy

requirement of the third commandment.

So what is forbidden in this commandment?

Well, when I was a kid, I, I, I thought that this commandment

only meant not saying OMG, right?

But it's so much more than that. And incidentally, the the

phrase, Oh my God is a wonderful biblical phrase, a phrase that

occurs 22 times in Psalms and, and, and prayers like the prayer

of Daniel that we prayed in our confession of sin.

It's a beautiful pray prayer. That phrase that that speaks to

God is our personal God and a God to whom we as individuals

can speak to and be heard and be cared for.

We should pray it more often without any fear that we'll be

taking the Lord's name in vain. Our culture, on the other hand,

has taken that precious phrase and treated as common like it's

a throwaway phrase, like it's an exclamation point, like it's a

joke. That kind of use of God's name

is forbidden. It does not display the infinite

worth of God, but it just makes them seem trivial and trite to

the hearts of men. The Westminster Larger Catechism

gives a very long list of what is forbidden in the third

commandment, and I won't read it all, but here are some other

sins forbidden by the 3rd commandment to just kind of give

us a scope. Blasphemy, perjury, sinful

cursings. Swearing an oath to do something

that you shouldn't do. Breaking an oath or vow.

Misinterpreting and misapplying God's word.

Using God's word to stir up quarrels about things that don't

matter. False teachings and false

prophecies. Living hypocritical of the faith

you profess. Being ashamed of God's word and

backsliding in our obedience to God's Word.

Much more could be said, but it's just it's not worth our

time to create, to try to create a comprehensive list because

mankind keeps inventing new ways to sin.

But I hope that this just gives us some general categories of

what's forbidden in the third commandment.

Now, what is the penalty for breaking this commandment?

The last sentence of it says, For the Lord will not hold him

guiltless, who takes his name in vain.

The only only the second and third commandments speak of

God's judgment for those who disobey and and here it does not

say what the punishment will be, but simply that God will not

overlook those who break this commandment at the judgment.

They will not be innocent. They will be guilty.

Here we see how one of the main purposes of the law is to show

us our guilt and to warn us of God's judgment.

So what are the common ways that we've broken the third

commandment? Sadly, hypocrisy is very common.

We have God's name on us. We've been baptized in His name

and yet we in front of our spouses, in front of our kids,

in front of our friends and Co workers, we say and do things

that damage God's reputation. Hypocrisy is very common.

I think it's also probably more common than we'd like to admit

that we use God's name or Jesus name disrespectfully.

We sarcastically say praise the Lord or we use God's name as an

exclamation point. God's name is far more valuable

than that. I think it's also common for us

to to miss, apply, and misinterpret God's word.

Not taking the time to study how to interpret the Bible,

neglecting to read verses in their context, and instead just

making a verse say what we wanted to say.

It does not honor God to make His word our word.

Corporate worship is also a time when we often break this

commandment, when we think worship is boring or it should

be shorter or more entertaining, when we come as a spectator

instead of a participant, when we let our minds wander, when we

just check out during the Lord's Supper.

Sometimes we sing God's name with our lips, but our hearts do

not resonate with his praises. These sins are common to us all,

all of us, pastors included. Another common way we break this

commandment is by supporting businesses and artists and

musicians who use God's name and His word to get our money.

In our Christianized culture, there's a lot of money to be

made in selling Christian stuff to people.

I look back at all the Christian bands I used to listen to back

in the 90s and early 2000s, and so many of them have members who

have left the faith or it's really come out that they were

not living for Jesus at all during their heyday.

When I was in Cameron, Africa on a missions trip, there were taxi

cabs with mud flaps that would say that's would say on them,

King of Kings and Lord of Lords, probably to reflect Christian

values in order to attract business.

I mean, that's a very literal way of dragging God's name

through the mud for personal profit.

And I think it's very common for us to blindly follow whatever

politicians use God's name or quote Bible verses.

Politicians have been using God's name to advance their

agendas for thousands of years. We need to be discerning.

During the civil war preachers and politicians from both sides

used scripture to try to justify that God was on their side and

not the other. Michael Horton also notes that

around World War 2, and I quote he says this in Germany, the

Evangelical Church became the Reichs Church, the state Church

of Nazism, and all but a group of Lutheran and Reformed

clergymen who insisted that Nazi ideology was heretical.

All but that group signed the oath of allegiance to Hitler.

Today, Evangelical Christians are a large voter demographic

and so politicians will try to speak our language and name drop

God and Jesus to earn our trust and ultimately our vote.

We must be discerning when a politician's faith is real and

when it's just a ploy for political power.

I don't know about you, but meditating on the 3rd

commandment has been uncomfortable for me and has

shown me how much sin is in my heart.

But that discomfort is a good thing.

Just as we we want a doctor to find the disease, so also we

want God to show us our sins so that a cure might be sought

quickly. Thankfully, the law shows us not

only our guilt but also our need for grace for a Savior.

The third commandment points us to Jesus, the holy Son of God,

who put on our common flesh. He was born in a common family,

called by a common name and lived a lowly life, being just

treated like a mere man, not having the honor that his name

deserved. Jesus is the perfect image of

God, the word of God, and he perfectly communicated to us the

name of God through his words and actions.

Jesus called himself the IM, which would have been blasphemy

if it hadn't not been true. And this God, man, the one

deserving of all honor, He for our sake died a shameful death

on the cross, said our sins would be forgiven, and we would

be counted guiltless before God at the judgement.

Because we're forgiven in Christ, we get the high

privilege of being called by his name.

That's something we just clearly don't deserve.

As people who have taken the Lord's name in vain, we are

given the name Christian as a gift.

That's grace. Not only does the law point us

to our need for Jesus atonement for our guilt, but also our need

for His righteousness. Jesus obeyed the law.

He never once broke the third commandment.

He was never a hypocrite, but consistently loved God with all

of his heart, soul, mind and strength.

And he loved his neighbor to the uttermost.

He was righteous, and at the cross God graciously made the

great exchange. He exchanged our sin for

Christ's righteousness. He took Christ, took our sin

upon himself, and then he covered us with His

righteousness. So when God sees us, He sees us

in Christ, clothed in Christ's righteousness, and He views us

as if we have, as if we had always obeyed not only the 3rd

commandment, but all the commandments perfectly.

That's grace. Not only does the law point us

to our need for Jesus's righteousness, but also to our

need for His Spirit, for our obedience.

Romans 76 says But now we are released from the law, having

died to that which held us captive.

So that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old

way of the written code. God knew that to obey Him we

needed something far greater than words on a tablet of stone.

We needed new hearts made alive by and filled with His very

Spirit so that we might know Him and love to be faithful to Him

and Him alone. You can rest assured that Jesus

has promised His Holy Spirit to all who put their faith in Him.

When you have the Spirit of God in your heart, you notice a

growing love for obedience to God and a growing love for His

honor. In Jesus we find all that the

Law showed us that we need what we needed but couldn't provide.

In Jesus we are guiltless before God at his judgment.

In Jesus we have a righteous standing before God.

In Jesus we have his Spirit in us so that we can obey God's law

willingly. In our rafting trip down the

river of the third commandment. We now come to the third and

last section. Gratitude.

After the law has shown us our guilt and our need for grace, it

then shows itself to be a useful guide for the rest of our lives.

We often think of the law as something that's a burden to us,

something that restrains our freedom.

But the Bible speaks much differently about the Christians

relationship to God's commands. First, John 53 says this.

For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments,

and His commandments are not burdensome.

His commandments are not burdensome.

Before Christ, the law was a yoke too heavy for us to bear.

But now that we are in Christ, we have His yoke, His light yoke

upon us. We love to keep His law because

we love our relationship with God.

We love being like Him. Here's a great quote by Richard

Sibbs in his book The Bruised Reed.

And it speaks to this freedom that we have in Christ.

Thus the desperate madness of men is laid open that they would

rather be under the guidance of their own lusts, and in

consequence of Satan himself to their endless destruction, than

to put their feet into Christ's fetters and their necks under

His yoke, though indeed Christ's service is the only true

liberty. His yoke is an easy yoke, his

burden. But as the burden of wings to a

bird which make her fly, the higher God's yoke is like the

the quote UN quote burden of wings to a bird which makes it

fly. That's that's a beautiful quote.

God's law is a guide for us for how we as Christians can fly,

how we can live holy lives of love to God and neighbor.

And that life of holy love is true liberty.

This is the apostle Paul circled back to the law to guide the

Christian life at the end of Romans and the end of Galatians.

Let's circle back to the third commandment and ask how it can

guide our lives today. How can the third commandment

free us to love God and others? By the power of the Spirit.

There's a few applications, and may God's Spirit open your eyes

to many others. First, since it's Father's Day,

let me start with application to fathers.

Fathers, you have made a vow to your wife and to the Lord to be

faithful to her, so keep it, Be faithful to her, and honor the

Lord with your marriage. You need the Spirit's help for

this. Your marriage is to reflect

Christ and the Church, and so make it a daily priority to

honor the Lord with your marriage.

Strive for sexual purity and connect with other brothers to

help you with that. We have different kinds of men's

cohorts and groups that could be a helpful context for you to

have accountability, to be challenged, to be reminded of

the gospel, and to pray for God's help.

Talk to Chris or I, and we would love to get you connected if

it's time for that. And fathers, even even though we

don't make a vow to our children when they're born, we have a

God-given responsibility to love them, lead them, provide for

them, protect them, and teach them in a way that is just as

weighty before God as if we had taken a vow.

We reflect the name and character of God to our

children. Many children see God in a

similar way that they see their earthly fathers.

Honestly, that can be discouraging, right?

Especially when you just don't measure up as dads.

But that can be remedied through humility.

Humbly apologize to your children when you don't reflect

God well to them. Be open and honest to them about

your need for forgiveness, your need for Jesus, your need for

God's Spirit's help to grow. Echoing the words of John the

Baptist. In your parenting, you must

decrease and Christ must increase.

Not everyone. Men, women, and children.

We represent Christ to everyone in every context that we live

in. We don't just live as Christians

at church and at home, and then we just then live as anonymous

Americans in our jobs and hobbies and at school.

When you're shopping, you represent Christ.

When you're posting on the Internet, you represent Christ.

When you're at a medical appointment, you represent

Christ. When you're with friends and

family, you represent Christ. When you're chatting with your

next door neighbors, you represent Christ.

When you engage politically, you represent Christ.

More than any part of your platform, you display the name

and reputation of the Lord wherever you go.

Let's make God look glorious in Rochester.

And when we come to worship, do your best to regularly come on

time to prepare your hearts the night before or maybe the

morning of to hear from the living God.

The purpose of our existence is to worship God genuinely.

So take some time to prayerfully focus so your hearts and your

minds and your bodies are ready for worship.

This certainly can be challenging when you have health

issues or or when you have little ones.

So, so be be patient with those little ones, be patient with

them, and be patient with yourselves as you grow as a

family in worshipping God. Don't complain that your kids

are holding you back. You're a family and you

patiently grow together. And as you listen to God's Word

being preached, receive it as God's Word rather than merely A

lecture by us pastors. Pastor Chris and I are nobodies,

but the God of the Bible is the one and true living God.

The I am the El Shaddai, the Yahweh Sabbath.

And so we must be attentive each week to hear the most important

words that one could ever hear in a lifetime.

And when it's time for the Lord's Supper, think on the

promises of God to you in the Gospel.

Engage your faith in Christ during that holy meal, for it is

by faith that we feast on Christ and receive all of his benefits.

For some of you, you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, but you

haven't yet come to the table. Honor God's name by becoming a

communicate member and by joining us at this table.

Pastor Chris and I would love to help you take that next step

before we transition now to the table.

Let's now pray and ask for God's blessing on us to live out the

third commandment in light of the grace we've been given.

Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you that

you've shown us our guilt. We're not ignorant of it.

You've shown us that there's a problem, but you haven't just

left us to die. You shared with us the gospel,

the good news. You've offered your very self to

us. You've offered forgiveness of

all of our sin so that we can be not only guiltless, but we can

be righteous in God's sight. Thank you, Lord Jesus, we pray

now for Your blessing, Your blessing upon us, Your powerful

Spirit to work in US, obedience to the third commandment.

We pray that in each one of us the honor of Your name, the

hollowing of Your name, would be the highest priority.

We can only do this through Your power.

This we pray for in the name of Jesus, Amen.