Remember those who've requested
prayer, add to your prayer list Stephen and Amber Franks who've
lost a child this week, three-year-old son. Is that right? Had some
type of muscle disease. It's got to be a horrible thing. We'll sure remember them in our
prayers. Brother Wayne fell and broke his nose. Bruce Davis'
bag's got low hemoglobin. They think he might be getting
a blood transfusion today, which might have been the cause of
his fall, that low hemoglobin. What? Last time I... I was there last week and he
seemed pretty good. He was asleep. He was asleep at... I woke him
up at 2.30 in the afternoon, though. Yes, sir. But remember,
Wayne, I didn't know that. What are we going to put him?
Well, they don't know yet. My goodness. He won't like that.
No, sir. And also, Fred has a swollen
jaw and a knot, and they don't know why. So Arlene's probably
back and forth to hospitals, I think. Okay. So remember these folks
in your prayers. Also continue to remember the
others. Carolyn Wilder's husband who
has pancreatic cancer, Dee Parks, Kathy Robinson, and the others
who requested prayer also. Seek the Lord's help for them.
At this time, we'll begin our worship service with hymn number
514. We're marching to Zion. Come we that love the Lord and
let our joys be known. Join in a song with sweet accord. Join in a song with sweet accord. And thus surround the throne,
and thus surround the throne. We're marching to Zion, beautiful,
beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion,
the beautiful city. who never knew our God, but children
of the heavenly King, but children of the heavenly may speak their
joys abroad, may speak their joys abroad. We're marching to Zion, beautiful,
beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion,
the beautiful city of God. The hill of high on years a thousand
sacred sweets before we reach the heavenly fields before we
reach the heavenly fields the golden streets, oh, walk the
golden streets. We're marching to Zion, beautiful,
beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion,
the beautiful city of God. And every tear be dry We're marching
through Emmanuel's ground We're marching through Emmanuel's ground
To fairer worlds on high To fairer worlds on high We're marching
to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to
Zion, the beautiful city of God. Hymn number 226. I am not skilled to understand
what God hath willed, what God hath planned. I only know that
His right hand is one who is my Savior. I take Him at His word indeed,
Christ, For in my heart I find the need
of Him to be my Savior. That He should leave His place
on high and come for sinful man. Oh, what did I before I knew
my Savior? And oh, that He fulfilled my
sin. ? And with His Word contented be
? As I with my dear Savior ? Yea, living, dying, let me bring my
strength, my solace ? From this spring that He who lives to be
my King ? Was died to be my Savior You have your Bibles turn with
me to Exodus chapter 20. I'm going to read one verse of
Scripture tonight. Verse 7, 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. Let us pray. Our Father
in heaven, we praise you and thank you for
your kindness and tenderheartedness toward wretched and ruined sinners
who without hope and without help in this world. We know,
Father, that had you not intervened in our case and interrupted our
course, we would be destined for eternal punishment. But we are thankful that before
the world began, you chose us in Jesus Christ, chose us unto
salvation, And He came into this world and died in the room instead
of His people, fully redeemed them, put them in a right standing
with Thee, accepted in Him. And even now sits at Thy right
hand, ever living to intercede for them. We are thankful that
when we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ
the righteous. Father, we pray for those of
our company who are sick, Remember, especially those who've been
added to the prayer list, we would remember Dee Parks, Kathy
Robinson, the others who've requested prayer. We remember Brother Wayne
as he's been injured and is going to need this blood transfusion.
Remember Brother Fred and his problem with his jaw. Remember
this family who's lost this loved one, this young child, all the
way he grieved with them. What a saddened thing it is. We pray you'd comfort their hearts
and fix them on Jesus Christ. Help us, Lord, to remember each
other in prayer, to hold each other before the Lord, tenderize
our hearts toward each other, cause us to love one another
and love you supremely. Help us, Father, to worship you
tonight as we consider another one of your commandments and
set forth Jesus Christ in his glory. Help us, Lord, we pray
in Christ's name. Amen. Now I'm sure that you're familiar
with this passage of scripture. This is one of the more commonly
used commandments in the religious households, and most of us grew
up in religious households. When I was a boy, I was prone
to use expletives as a young kid, and my mother and grandmother
often scolded me by employing this commandment. You should
not take the Lord's name in vain. On a few occasions my mouth experienced
the taste of ivory soap or a swollen lip because of my language. This
commandment is generally applied to cursing or swearing or making
an oath. Jewish writers in the time would
to a man applied it to swearing by anything else than the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That was according to them allowable
if you look over at Deuteronomy chapter 6. In verse 13 it says, Thou shalt
fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and thou shalt swear by
his name. If you want to swear, you have
to swear by his name. And to swear by his name falsely
was prohibited by the law over in Leviticus. In Leviticus chapter 19, in verse
12, It says, And ye shall not swear
by my name falsely, neither shalt thou profane the name of the
Lord thy God. Remember what he said to those
in Ezekiel, that they had profaned the name of the Lord. They had
somehow used the name of the Lord in vain. Now our Lord, when
speaking to the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 23, spoke a great
deal about swearing. In Matthew chapter 5, We'll turn
to verse chapter 23 in a moment, but first in Matthew chapter
5. In verse 36 it says this, Neither
shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one
hair black or white. So you don't swear by your own
self, you don't swear according to your own power. And an oath
of that sort would be if a person said, well if I know my heart,
well you don't. No man knows the heart, save
for God. And what He says about it is
not very pleasant. In Matthew chapter 23, as our Lord is speaking
to the Pharisees, beginning in verse 16, He says, Woe unto you,
you blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the
temple, it is nothing, but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the
temple, he is a debtor, ye fools and blind. For whether it is
greater, the gold of the temple that sanctifies the gold. And
whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing. But whoever
sweareth by the gift that is upon the altar, he is guilty.
Ye fools and blind. For whether is greater the gift
or the altar that sanctified the gift. Whosoever therefore
shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon. And whoso swear by the temple,
sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. And he that
shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by
him that sitteth upon it. Woe unto you, scribes and pharisees,
you hypocrites! For you pay tithe of knives,
and mint, and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters
of the law, which is judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought
you have done, and not to have leave the others undone. So our
Lord spoke about swearing, and we know that from Deuteronomy
and Leviticus, It was accepted to swear by God. It was unaccepted
to swear falsely by God. When I was thinking about this,
I was thinking what Debbie told me one time about her fear of
going to appear before a judge in a courtroom. She was a young
child. She said she was afraid to go
because she knew it was a sin to swear. And they was going
to ask her to swear on the Bible. And she says, I'm not going to
swear. I'm going to say, I promise. But generally, when people hear
this commandment, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord
in vain. This is what they think about. They think about swearing
or cursing in that way. But clearly, many things are
represented by this fact or this commandment in scripture. Idolatry
in any form is swearing by another god. And that is taking the name
of the Lord in vain. Examples of this are the replete
in Scripture. Aaron and Jeroboam both made
golden calves. Jeroboam made two of them. Aaron
made one of them at the bottom of Sinai. And both of them gave
them a name and said something about them. They are looking
at these golden calves that they have made with their own hands.
And they said this is Elohim. This is the all-powerful God.
Looking at that thing. And both of them said this calf
is the one who delivered us out of Egypt. That's using the name
of the Lord in vain. That's using the name of the
Lord in vain. To attribute God's greatest work,
that which glorifies Him to anything or anyone other than Him, is
to take His name in vain. And when you're talking about
salvation, you're talking about the one aspect of God's work.
You have creation, you have providence, you have salvation. Salvation
is the one thing that gives God full credit and honor for all
His attributes. Only salvation does that. This
is what glorifies Him most. When He talked about what glorifies
Him, He talked about salvation. My goodness shall pass before
you. I proclaim the name of the Lord before you, the gospel.
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. This is talking about salvation.
He said this is my glory. And to attribute anything or
anyone to that wondrous glorious thing is to take the Lord's name
in vain. He alone is responsible for salvation. Now since we know that the law
according to scripture was added because of transgression the
people have been guilty of this transgression or most surely
will be and more than swearing is involved. Moses in Deuteronomy
told the children of Israel not to not to bow to idols, not to
serve them, quoting from what the Lord said here in verse 6
and verse 5 of the commandments. But then he went on to say, When
you do that, when you worship false prophecy, they were going
to do it. He knew they were going to do
it. He says, you will do it. You will go in there. You're God's
people whose God's delivered. They're brought now right to
the edge of the Jordan here in Deuteronomy, 30 days prior to
them crossing the Jordan into the promised land. They're right
there. They can look at that river.
They can look across yonder and see the promised land. And he
says, when you go in there, here's what you're going to do. You're
going to worship false gods. you're going to worship false
gods. He warned them about it. He quoted the scriptures. He
gave them the Ten Commandments. He gave all those things. He
said, but you're going to go in there and do it. Why? Because
they would. The law was added because of
transgression and people will sin. It's never a situation where
a person who knows anything about himself will ever say, if I sin. No if involved in it. When we
sin. we have an Advocate. It doesn't
say IF we sin, it says WHEN we sin, we have an Advocate of the
Father. Since the Law is added, because of transgression, more
than swearing is involved in this passage of Scripture. The
word NAME involves more than a surname or a family name, using
the name of the Lord in vain. It's about reputation, respect,
reverence, honor, and glory. That is what is involved in that
word name in the original language. His name is the primary area
in which He will allow no quarter and countenance and no rival.
Nobody is going to be a rival to this name. He is jealous for
His glory. We just read that in last week's
lesson. He is jealous for His glory and
will give it to no other. The word vain means empty. We
get our word vanity from it. Vain means empty, or groundless,
or useless, or without substance, and it smacks of the concept
of failure. Vanity. We think of vanity, we
think of failure. Think of failure. To take the
name of the Lord in vain is to consider anything that God does
to be a failure. He does His will according to
Scripture in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of
the earth, and none can stay His hand or say unto Him, What
doest thou? He has done whatsoever He has
pleased, David said, in heaven and earth and all the deep places.
He will do all His pleasure, He said in Isaiah 46. This scripture plainly declares
an absolute concerning the Lord Jesus Christ and His success
that He would accomplish at Jerusalem in Isaiah 42. In Isaiah 42, historically the
Lord is talking about Cyrus, the great king that God used
to deliver Israel from the hands of the Babylonians. Cyrus was
used of God, but Cyrus was not God's child. Cyrus died a pagan
with all his astrologers and astronomers and people like that
hanging around his bed when he died. But it is a picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ. It sets forth the picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 1 says, Behold my servant,
Christ is the servant of God, whom I uphold. He upholds all
things by the word of his power. Mine elect, he is the first one
elected, and all who are elected are elected in him. in whom my
soul delighteth, I have put my spirit upon him, he shall bring
forth judgment to the Gentiles, he shall not cry, nor lift up
his voice to be heard in the street, a bruised reed he will
not break, a smoking flax he will not quench, and he shall
bring forth judgment and truth, he shall not fail, he shall not
fail, nor be discouraged, till he hath set judgment in the earth,
and he did that on the cross of Calvary, and the isles shall
wait for his law, or for his word, the isles of the Gentiles.
Israel was landlocked, there wasn't an isle, speaking of the
Gentiles. The isles of the Gentiles will wait for his law. He shall
not fail. That's an absolute. It doesn't
say he's going to give it his best shot, and it might work
out. if men will only let it happen.
It didn't say that. It said, He shall not fail. To claim that anything other
than Christ and His work is the evidence of your salvation is
to take the name of the Lord in vain. Over in Matthew chapter
7, there are those who swore that they were children of God.
They knew they were children of God. They had all the evidence
you could imagine for being a child of God. They stacked up pretty
good against anybody. In Matthew chapter 7, verse 21,
our Lord said, Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth
the will of my Father which is in heaven. And this is the will
which is sent me, that of all that is given me I shall lose
nothing, but raise it up again in the last day. Many will say unto
me in that day, what day is he talking about? We believe he
is talking about the Day of Judgment. They will say, Lord, Lord, they
don't address him as Jesus. They don't address him as the
Christ. They say he's the Lord. Have you ever driven through
Knoxville and seen that big, great big billboard on the side
of the road? Jesus is Lord. People say it a lot. I hear people
say it. Praise the Lord, they say. They say Lord, Lord. Have we not prophesied in thy
name? We are preachers. We preach. We preach. And in thy name, we've healed
people. We've helped people. We've made
alcoholics quit drinking, drug addicts quit taking drugs. We've
made whores turn into ladies. We've done all these things.
Lord, haven't we cast out devils in thy name? And in thy name, done many wonderful
works. We built schools. We built churches. We built hospitals. We've been
all over this world doing great things. We can do that. And our Lord says, yep, you did
that. You did that. He said, Then I
will profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye
that work iniquity. What is iniquity? In their case,
it's preaching in His name. casting out devils in His name,
and doing many for wonderful works in His name. They are taking
the name of the Lord in vain. They are saying that their salvation
can be evidenced by things other than Jesus Christ and Him alone. To hold that your opinion or
your traditions or your worldview is equated with God's doctrine
is to take the name of the Lord in vain. In Matthew chapter 15,
Our Lord is speaking again to the Pharisees, and in verse 9
he says, But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines,
teaching as if they were God's teachings, the commandments of
men. Men come up with a lot of commandments.
I remember one church in Western Salem that if you smoked cigarettes
you couldn't go to that church, I mean really. Outside that church
up at Antioch, which was built with R.J. Reynolds' money, There
wasn't enough cigarette butts all over the place on the ground.
Also, the school bus stopped there, and that's where we smoked
before we went to school. But, that church, you couldn't go
there. And I belonged to a church that had a church covenant on
the wall that says you couldn't take it and drink alcohol. And
you couldn't do this, you couldn't do that. And so many times I
look at that, and I say, well, Christ wouldn't be able to be
a member of this church, because he was called a drunkard. He
drank alcohol. He mixed with sinners. Those
church covets. Those church covets. Our Lord
says in vain you do. Emptiness, groundless and useless
worship they set forth because they're teaching what they think
they ought to do to control men as if it were God saying it. One would just about wear himself
out and listen to false teaching that permeate what is called
Christianity of this day. Gathering under the umbrella
of doctrine The inventions of men are held in high esteem and
counted as Bible doctrine, free willism, walking the aisle, being prayed
up, praying through, the sinner's prayer, decisional regeneration,
baptismal regeneration, church altars, decisionism, works of
righteousness, church covenants, bylaws, human merit, simple plans
of salvation, law keeping for justification, righteousness,
sanctification, and rule of life, and a myriad of religious play
pretties make up a plethora of ways to take the name of the
Lord in vain. That's what it is to take the name of the Lord
in vain. The Bible says Jesus Christ saved you. Remember, several
years ago, preachers now gone on to be with the Lord. I was
talking about Sovereign Grace having an inroad here on the
reservation. A lot of preachers were preaching
Sovereign Grace now. I said, well, I believe that.
When they stop having an invitation system and take that so-called
church altar out of the church. Well, he stopped doing it for
about two weeks. He had so much flack from the
people, he had to go back and do it again. You give her that auction,
people think you ain't gonna be saved. Now, how many people
believe that? Now, I remember one time I preached
down in Spring Lake, North Carolina many years ago, and after I finished
preaching, this woman come down the aisle crying. I mean, she
was weeping. And I thought, well, maybe the Lord's done something
for her, you know. And she walked up, and she says, I can't believe
you didn't give an invitation. She says, Southern Baptists always
give me invitations. I said, well, you're in really
for a surprise. I'm not a Southern Baptist. the tears did flow but
her thing was people can't be saved unless you give them a
chance unless you give them an invitation and I've challenged
so many preachers over the years to give up that mess and believe
that the word itself is the power of God and the salvation and
it will bring God's children into the church it will bring
God's children to Him and only the word will do all that other
mess done in the name of the Lord is taking the name of the
Lord in vain. It is in the matter of salvation,
the thing that glorifies God and all His attributes, that
men take the name of the Lord mostly in vain. They may put
Jesus as Lord on their billboards, but in their doctrine they speak
of a Lord that cannot do what He desires, cannot accomplish
what He intended. That takes the name of the Lord
in vain, calling His work useless and empty. and groundless unless
you vote for it. He is Lord and that simply means
that if he intended to save someone that particular someone is going
to be saved and has been since Calvary's tree. To think or believe
otherwise is to take the name of the Lord in vain. It is that
simple. to seek to bring a believer under
the law of Moses is to take the name of the Lord in vain. Paul
made that clear in the letter to the Galatian church. Galatians chapter 2 verse 21
it says, I do not frustrate the grace of God. That word frustrate
means despise. I do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness come by law, or by keeping the
law, then Christ is dead how? In vain! In vain! Christ died for nothing! His
death was useless, groundless, and empty if a man can be righteous
by the law. To say that a man can be righteous
by the law is to say the name of the Lord in vain. In chapter
5 of Galatians, in verse 1, Paul says this, verses 1 through 4,
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us
free, and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage. Now that's
the law, keeping the law. Behold I, Paul, say unto you
that if ye be circumcised, Christ, what? Prophets, you nothing.
It's vanity. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole
law. Christ has become no effect unto you, whosoever you are justified
by the law." You have fallen from grace, you have left grace. Christ's death is in vain, empty
and nothing if you can be justified by the law. to take the name of the Lord
in vain is to declare his work useless, empty, and desolate.
And that is what happens when men do try to teach the law.
Paul spoke in verse Timothy this way, verse Timothy chapter one,
he says, For some, in verse six, having swerved, having swerved,
have turned aside into vain jangling. And that is almost like onomatopoeia
in poetry. Vain jangling almost sounds like
the 1010 Abolition of the Bells. You just read it and you think
that's how it sounds. Desiring to be teachers. They
want to be teachers of the law. And they don't understand neither
what they say nor what they affirm. They don't understand. But they
think they've got the answer. But what are they really doing?
If a person tries to bring a believer back under the law, what's he
really doing? He said, Knowing this, that the law is not made
for the righteous man. Who is the righteous man? Those
who are in Jesus Christ are righteous before God, Christ our righteousness. It is for the lawless and the
disobedient. So if a person was going to bring you under the
law, the first thing he is saying about you is you are lawless
and you are disobedient. He is also saying you are ungodly
and you are a sinner. For unholy and profane, you are
a murderer. and a father and a murderer of
mothers. You are a manslayer. For you
are a whoremonger and you defile yourselves with mankind. You
are men-stealers, liars and perjured persons. And if anything else
does not line up with sound doctrine. This is what a person who says
I want you to be circumcised, I want you to get back under
the law. They say the reason I want to do this is because
Christ did not really pay for your sins. You are still a murderer. You have to stop murdering. You
are a man-stealer, you have to stop kidnapping. You cannot kill
your mom and your daddy. You cannot be a homosexual. You
have to stop doing that. You have to do all that. If you
do that, then you will be justified. No! What he is saying is Christ
did not do the job. And if you say Christ did not
do the job, then you are taking the name of the Lord in vain.
Anything that takes any facet of the Lord's salvation from
His sovereign accomplishment is taking His name in vain. Before
the foundation of the world, God chose an innumerable company
of sinners, sinners that had not yet been created, and He
chose them unto salvation. Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world, became surety for that number,
assuming accountability for the debt of death that they owed
God. At the appointed time, God, the
Word, was made flesh. taking on the likeness of sinful
flesh, yet without sin, born of a woman, born under the law,
to redeem them that are under the law, becoming a man in order
to die the death of those for whom he was surety. On the cross
of Calvary he paid the sin debt of his chosen, putting away their
sin, removing all remembrance of their sin, fully remitting
their sin, and propitiating God for His law and justice. He was
made to be their righteousness, wisdom, sanctification, and redemption,
He called them to life, He gave them faith to believe, caused
them to come to Him. Blessed is the man whom Thou
choosest and causes to approach unto Thee, Psalm 65. And they
shall never perish. Now this is the language of God.
This is what God says about His salvation. This is His work. His alone and all glory for it
belongs to Him. worthy is the Lamb that was slain,
that has redeemed us by His blood out of every kindred, nation,
tongue, and people, and made us kings and priests under our
God. On the cross of Calvary, He said, it is finished, and
it was finished. To even imagine otherwise, even
imagine otherwise, is to take the name of the Lord in vain. And he who does so will not be
held guiltless according to that passage of Scripture. to God
be the glory. Great things he had done. Father,
bless us to understand and pray in Christ's name. Amen.