So we're reading Exodus chapter
20 and verse 1. And God spake all these words,
saying, I am the Lord thy God, which hath brought thee out of
the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt
have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven
above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water
under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself
to them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord thy God, am a
jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children,
and to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing
mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. 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. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this
reading from his word. So we come now to the third commandment,
which is perhaps the most openly and carelessly broken commandment
of all, especially in these days. There was a time, I can remember
it in my own youth, when there would be a certain reluctance
for people to use the name of God or the name of Christ when
they were just speaking in ordinary conversation. And yet we find
that it is part and parcel of just about everyone's language
in these days. This commandment says that we
are not to take God's name in vain. And what it means is that
we are not to use the name Lord or God or any other name of the
divine being in a thoughtless and careless way. It means using
God's name without any reverence or respect or love for him. And we've come to hear people
misusing God's name. or the name of the Lord so commonly
and frequently that even believers sometimes today don't give it
a second thought. But this verse and indeed the
whole of Scripture, the Word of God, teaches us that we should
honour the name of the Lord. as God will show us mercy, at
least for ourselves, be much more aware of how we use God's
name so that we do not misuse it. This commandment continues
the theme of honouring God, honouring him for who he is and honouring
him for what he has done. God alone is to be worshipped
as the one true God. We saw that in the opening commandment. He is the creator and he is our
redeemer. He then tells us that we are
to have no images made of him. No images must be made of him
or used in his worship. And now we learn that even our
words and language concerning God are to be wisely employed,
carefully used, and restricted to His honour. So here The Lord, through his
servant Moses, the Lord God is telling the children of Israel
that he will hold them personally accountable for any demeaning
and misusing of his name. That name that God had revealed
to them Amongst all the nations of the world, God revealed himself
more openly, clearly and particularly to the children of Israel. to
Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to Joseph, and to Moses. Indeed, the Lord met Moses at
the burning bush and declared his name to be, I am that I am. And all of these men had a knowledge
of God, which was special revelation, so that God had revealed himself
to them. He had revealed His magnificence. He had revealed His holiness
and His glory. He had stooped to make Himself
known to His creatures. The Great I Am. And we who are
creatures of the dust and sinners by Adam's fall and whose sin
is both contemptible and condemnable in God's sight, must remember
our place before the majesty and the glory of God. He will
not have us forget our place nor forget His glory. And so He tells us that we are
to be careful about the way in which we even speak His name. And there's a theme here in these
first three commandments. They emphasize the Lord's dominion
and his refusal to permit men and women to mock him without
them being guilty of doing so. So that if we attribute God's
glory to anyone else, Or if we withhold glory from Him that
He rightfully deserves, the Lord will not hold us guiltless that
taketh His name in vain. We are blameworthy if we take
God's name in vain. And the principle here is that
we are to be careful when we speak about God. When we use
language that God has taken, which God has appropriated for
himself, we have to be careful in using those words. When the
words and phrases have spiritual meaning in the context of worship
and prayer, we are to beware not to use them improperly. The Lord Jesus actually blocks
his disciples from being called Rabbi and he forbids giving a
man the name Father in worship. because God is our father in
heaven. And yet there are churches which
actually have their clergy called father. Father this, father that. Well, the scriptures explicitly
tell us not to do that. I personally have a problem even
with the title reverend because the psalmist tells us holy and
reverend is his name. And so one would wonder whether
there is value and whether there is any good to be had by a man,
or indeed these days a woman, taking that name to themselves. Let me give you a few examples
about taking the Lord's name in vain. Then we'll apply this
lesson to our own condition and we will see how we measure up
by God's holy law. First thing I want to show you
is this. This commandment is broad and all-encompassing. And some people try to suggest
that it is only applicable in the context of taking a vow or
taking an oath or swearing upon a Bible that we're going to tell
the truth. For example, in a court of law,
when we're making some kind of solemn promise or testifying
that something is true. Now, a person might take an oath
make a promise or take a vow before God to be true and to
be faithful and that's quite acceptable, that's legitimate. If they then fail to live up
to their promise, that is taking God's name in vain. They've promised
before God that they would do something, say something, be
honourable, be faithful, tell the truth. If they fail to do
it, then they have taken God's name in vain. But I'm sure that
this verse is not simply limited to a court of law or that kind
of vow or oath. From what we've seen already
in the commandments of God, just as all false worship is a form
of idolatry, so all careless and demeaning talk regarding
God is a form of vanity. It is intended to make us appear
bigger and the Lord God to seem smaller. That's why people take
God's name in vain. When we are thinking about God's
name, we are to include all the persons of the Trinity, the name
of God the Father, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and God
the Holy Spirit. As believers in the glory and
majesty and holiness of the divine persons, we ought not to use
God's name in a way that is disrespectful to Him. We say God's name when
we praise Him. or when we pray to him, or when
we address him in worship. And that's right, and that's
proper to do so. But to take God's name in vain
is to use it as a swear word, to use it as an expletive, as
a curse, or just foolishly without thinking. Let me give you some
examples of this aspect. The phrase good God is a perfect
description of our heavenly father who is kind and gracious and
loving to his people. But the phrase good God is wrongly
used when it is only an expression of surprise or displeasure or
we use it as some kind of exclamation. The phrase, for Christ's sake,
is a beautiful conclusion to a believer's heartfelt prayer,
but it is vile on the lips of someone who uses it to express
disapproval or only as some sort of careless utterance. Similarly, the language that
surrounds the glory of God ought to be used carefully. The word
holy, for example, ought to be used only in relation to the
nature of God and God the Holy Spirit. It should not be used
in front of other words in order to emphasize them or to express
surprise. Somebody might say, well does
it matter if we say holy moly? Does it matter if we say holy
cow? Well I think it might matter
if we realise what those phrases actually refer to. Those phrases
refer to Mary, the mother of Jesus. Would we refer to Mary,
the mother of our blessed Lord, in such a way? And there's many
more ways in which that happens. When people say something like,
cob-limey, that is short for God blind me. It's a curse. If you say, crivens, that is
short for Christ in heaven. If you say gee whiz, that is
talking about Jesus. If we say gosh, that is a way
of saying God. These phrases are called minced
oaths. And people for generations have
been finding what they imagine are plight ways to blaspheme
God. Now my point in mentioning these,
and I'm particularly aware that we're speaking to some of the
younger people here, my point in mentioning these is simply
to help us to realise that we ought to think about what we
say and how we say it. Even a phrase like, my goodness,
or goodness gracious me, or for goodness sake, which all seem
quite innocuous, and we all probably use, is in the place of my God,
or God be gracious to me, or for God's sake. Now if those
are genuine prayers, then that's good. But if they roll off our
lips as merely a plight expletive, then we're taking God's name
in vain. Now perhaps you're thinking to
yourself, well this is really too much. You're touching on
things here that aren't becoming relevant to the worship of God. I don't mean to swear when I'm
saying these things. So how is it that I can be taking
God's name in vain? Maybe you think you would never
say those actual words. Well that's good, that's good,
but do you see how extensive and demanding the law of God
is? Do you see how easy it is for
us all to fall foul of it, to break the letter of the law and
to transgress its spirit even accidentally? And that is why I keep telling
you that the law will never declare us righteous before God. That
is why we keep saying, if we break one of these laws, we've
broken them all. You might think, well, this isn't
nearly as serious as some of the later commandments about
not stealing or bearing false witness or even killing. That's
not what the Lord says. These are his commandments and
God has promised to punish those who break his law. The law is
keeping a tally of all the times that we break it, whether intentionally
or unknowingly. We need to get our righteousness
somewhere else. We will never get our righteousness
under the law. It will always condemn us because
it will always find something where we fall short of its standard
of perfection. We need a holiness that is beyond
reproach. And the only place where such
a righteousness is found is in the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone,
in this world, was able to perfectly fulfil God's law. And he alone
was the only one truly guiltless man before God. He never once
took the name of the Lord in vain. He never once misspoke. He never once uttered a word
out of place. And yet for our sakes He carried
our sin, He bore our guilt, He suffered in our place. What a
wonderful Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ is. For Christ's sake,
our good God, has made us righteous, freely imputed righteousness
to us, and such a righteousness we could never obtain from the
Ten Commandments. This is why the gospel is so
important. It is God's good news that forgiveness
for all sin, including for taking God's name in vain, whether intentionally
or not, is found in Jesus Christ. So let us seek to honour God
in word, thought and deed, by all means. But let us never imagine
Our righteousness comes from what we do or what we say. The Lord Jesus Christ is all
our wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. That according as it is written,
says the Apostle Paul, he that glorieth, let him glory in the
Lord. Amen. May the Lord bless these
thoughts to us.