Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Exodus

Exodus 20:7 05/16/04

Message Title: ‘Honoring your family name’                                                                                                                                               Text: Ex. 20:7

Introduction: Two strangely connected events that occurred in 1865 greatly impact American lives even today.

•    General William Booth founded the Salvation Army and now millions are fed, clothed and given shelter in the name of Jesus.

•    The other event involved another man named Booth (a distant cousin to William) his name John Wilks Booth who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.

One cousin blessed a nation and brought honor to his family name, the other horrified a nation and brought dishonor to his family name.    (David Whitten)

Explanation: This morning we come to the 3rd Commandment. The one about taking the name of the Lord in vain. I want you to know that it deals with something much more serious than just cursing. This commandment is about the misuse of God’s name.  A name you bear as a member of the family of God.. But for the one who says I am a Christian yet habitually sins, for the one who says I am a Christian and enjoys sin, for the one who says I am a Christian and is not burdened with guilt oversint, do you think they are bringing honor or dishonor to their family name?

Transition: Open your Bibles to Ex. 20:7. I will be reading from the NASB where we will discover what it means to honor your family name.

Read: Ex. 20:7

I will look at the commandment phrase by phrase.

‘You shall not’ is a prohibition. It is telling us something God does not want us, those who call themselves Christians, to do…ever.

‘Take’ is the verb here for you English majors. In Hebrew it means to carry or to bear.

Sidebar: I know the NIV uses the word ‘misuse’ instead of ‘take’. Understand that the NIV is not a direct translation; it takes the idea of the phrase or verse and translates it as a whole instead of word for word. While the idea of the verse is not to misuse the name of God, it is important to understand that the reason we often misuse is because we take or carry it with us, so the word ‘take’ is important to the text.

‘The name of the Lord your God’. What is it we, as Christians, bear or carry? We bear the name of God, which represents his character and we carry it with us wherever we go, when we profess to be Christians.

‘In vain’. In Hebrew, vain means empty, frivolous, without meaning, light or thoughtless.

‘For the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes his name in vain’. God is so concerned about his name that he promises to punish those who misuse it. Anyone who misuses it. But you always say God doesn’t punish his children. Yes I do.

Read: Rom. 8:1 ‘There is now therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus’

Because of Christ’s finished work on the cross of Calvary, there is grace and forgiveness for sin…BUT, that doesn’t mean there won’t be consequences when we break this commandment.

Summary: Let me paraphrase the 3rd  commandment to reflect what we have learned.

•    The Christian is one who has accepted the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross as payment for their sin and has asked Jesus to be their Savior.
•    The Christian, now part of God’s family, bears or carries the name of God with them wherever they go.
•    The Christian is not to bear or carry the name of God in such a way as to make light of or trivialize it.
•    When they do, and they will or there would not have been need for this commandment, there are consequences.

Transition: Does this make sense? Intellectually? How about practically? What does it mean to bear or carry the name of the Lord your God in your day to day experience in a way that is in vain?  Three ways.

1.    Thoughtlessly
2.    Perversely
3.    Insincerely

Thoughtlessly
    This means using God’s name in a way that is careless and without regard to its awesome significance.

ILL: How many times have you sung songs in worship that declare the name of God and you do so without really thinking about what you are singing? ‘O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth’ is what we sang. While singing this was anyone thinking about what they were going to do this afternoon or that you should have stayed in bed this morning?’You have broken the 3rd Commandment.

A few more examples.

ILL: You just caught a really big fish and you say ‘O, my God, look at the size of this fish.’

ILL: You say ‘Good Lord, I can’t believe Jane did that again.’

ILL: With the TV show Friends now over, we will haved to watch reruns to hear Chandler’s favorite phrase when he was surprised by something? ‘O, My, God’

When we use God’s name in these ways, although they sound harmless, we reduce the name of the almighty to an exclamation point, to mean ‘wow’… and we break the  3rd Commandment.

Transition: The 2nd way we misuse the name of the Lord our God is…

Perversely

First, this means intentionally making an oath or promise in which you never intend to keep or don’t have any power to control.

ILL: It was Scarlet O’Hara in the movie Gone With the Wind who said ‘As God is my witness, as God is my witness they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill. As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again.’

If we call God as our witness, and we don’t follow through on every point, we break the 3rd commandment.

Second, Peversely means intentionally making a false statement using God’s name to vouch for it.

ILL: We says ‘God told me that this was the right decision’. When we really meant ‘I have decided to do it this way and I assumed it was God’s will too.’

If our decision turned out to be a foolish one, God’s name and reputation is stained. You broke the 3rd Commandment.

Third, Peversely means by using God’s name when you curse or swear . Jesus Christ is perhaps the favorite. I don’t need to say anymore.

Except that technically using swear words that do not include a reference to God does not break this commandment. It does go against what Eph. 4:28 says

    ‘let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment,
    that it may give grace to those whp hear.’

Fourth, Peversely means using God’s name in a hurtful way, as in anger. ‘God damn it’ is a favorite expression of the angered. But who are we to ask God to damn anything or anyone. Do we really understand what we are saying, what we are asking God to do?
To damn someone is to send them to an eternal existence apart from the love of God. Christians are to promote grace and eternal life, not damnation and eternal death.

There are other ways to use the Lords name in anger. Here’s one common way.

ILL: When your spouse is running late and you are becoming impatient, in anger have you ever said ‘God, would you please hurry up’? We you thinking about God at that moment? No. You used his name in anger and you broke the 3rd Commandment.

Transition: The third way we misuse the name of the Lord our God is…

Insincerely  

This is when we make a profession of God’s name and not back it up with our actions. Hypocrisy is another word that comes to mind.

This is where the NASB and its use of take is important to the meaning of the text. Remember the one who claims to be a Christian carries or bears the name of God. So our words and actions reflect the character of God, they affect his reputation.
We take the name of the Lord our God in vain when there’s inconsistency between our words and our actions.

Read: Rom. 2:21-24

Is your world, those around you, those who hear your words and see your life, blaspheming the name of God because of you? Are they rejecting God because they don’t see him rightly reflected in you? It is not enough to say ‘Don’t look at me, look at Jesus.’ Because in reality you may be the only Jesus they see. Remember we bear the name of the Lord our God. There should be a family resemblance.

When others don’t see Jesus Christ in you, you are not honoring your family name and are breaking the 3rd Commandment.

Conclusion

The 3rd Commandment is about protecting the image and reputation of God. Who is to do that? Not unbelievers but Christians, God’s children who bear his name. And the only way Christians can keep this command and thus protect God’s reputation is by living lives of personal integrity.  How do we do that?

Read: Col. 3:17

We need to constantly evaluate our words and actions and ask ourselves if we are honoring our family name, the name of the Lord our God. What will happen when we do this?

Read: Matt. 5:16

Your talk and your walk affects God’s credibility with those around you. Take God and his name seriously and so will those around you.

God’s name is the expression of his character: his unsearchable holiness, his immeasurable grace and his incomparable majesty. Let the name of God always come from our lips in ways that honor his character and bring glory to his name. As Christians, let us always honor our family name.