The third commandment

A man. If you have your Bibles with you, please open them to the Book of Exodus, Exodus chapter twenty. As we continue looking at the first four Commandments and the Law of worship, if you'll remember what we've seen here is that these first three commandments are all connected to one another. There's a pattern. The first commandment is I Am, therefore you shall not. The second commandment is you shall not because I Am. This third commandment is you shall not because the Lord will not. Everything is rooted and grounded in who God is. We're working from a definition of worship. The definition I gave you was from doctor bruce Leafblad. True worship happens when we said our mind's attention and heart's affection on the Lord, praising him for who he is and for what he has done. But we've also talked about this idea of the law of worship. And if you remember, the law of worship as I've defined it for this series is that every man must worship the One True God rightly, reverently, and regularly. Remember that every man must worship the One True God rightly, reverently, and regularly. We get those from the first four commandments. The first commandment makes it clear that every man must worship the One True God. No one is exempt from the first commandment. In fact, no one is exempt from any of the decalogue. The tank commandments are a summary of the moral law, and every man, everywhere and every time is held accountable to the moral law. So every man must worship the One True God. Every man must worship the One True God rightly. We get that from the second commandment, must worship Him rightly. Every Man must worship the One True God reverently. We get that from this commandment, the Third Commandment, and from the fourth commandment. Every man must worship the One True God regularly. And we'll look at that when we get to the fourth Commandment. As we've looked at each of these commandments, remember we're trying to do two things. We spend two weeks on each one, and in the first week we look at what it is that's required. We try to get a picture of what holiness and righteousness requires in relation to that commandment. And we do that for a couple of reasons. One because it's easy for us to think that we've done a good job at keeping the commandments, and we want to see that there is far more required from these commandments than we think. We want to recognize our own guilt and need for repentance in this regard. And if you were here on the last time, I think you would agree that that is probably truer for the third commandment than for any of the others. The third commandment is the one that we think, we understand, that we think is easiest among the four. But if you were here at all, you recognize that it is not exactly what we thought. But there's a second goal. We don't just want to see our guilt. We also want to see the glory of Christ and the righteousness of Christ, because the fact of the matter is Christ was tempted in every point as we are, and yet without sin, we always break the third commandment. He never broke the third commandment. Amen, we always break it. And as we looked at the third Commandment, we saw last time that for most of us, we usually think that the third Commandment is just about avoiding a few phrases. There are some phrases that you shouldn't say. Some phrases are some words that you shouldn't use. And if we're just careful about those phrases, then we've avoided violating that commandment, and we saw that is nowhere near correct, that is nowhere near true. The third Commandment involves so much more than that. The third Commandment goes to the heart. It goes to the heart of who God is and who we are in relationship to God, and how we think of God and how we revered God. It is not a technical issue. It's a heart issue. And I was thinking about how I could illustrate this point of it being a heart issue and not a technical issue. And I think the thing that kept coming to my mind was our daughter's name, our daughter who's here with us, her name is Sofia. And for the first I don't know how long we were here, no nobody would would get that, and it was it became almost comical. Okay, what's your name, Sofia, Oh, Sophie, Oh, Sofie, Sofia, yeah, Sofia, No, No, my name is Sofia. Yeah. Well here in Zambia we say Sofia. No. Actually, Sofia is Greek s o p h i a and it means wisdom. Sofia s a f y a is Arabic and it means pure. Now, people weren't abusing my daughter's name. They just assume that because of the accent, we were saying a name that they're familiar with and not a name that they weren't familiar with. So technically they were messing up her name. But the heart wasn't wrong. Do you see the difference? So nobody was sinning against Sofia because they thought we meant Sophia. And oftentimes that's the way we think about the Third Commandment. We think it's just technical and you have to avoid the technical sin of using the name in the technically wrong way. But let's look at it this way. Let's assume that there was the technical error of using the name wrong, the thought we meant Sophie when we were saying Sofia, and the person was actually impugning or saying something negative about our daughter, but they happened to be using the wrong name. They happened to be saying Sofia when they meant Sofia. Be innocent because they technically use the wrong name. No, because it's a heart issue. Do you follow. It's a heart issue. And it's not until we get that that we get the issue of the Third Commandment. And someone came up to me because I talked about, you know, saying oh my God, and how often that's one of the that's one of the big ones, right, saying oh my God. And we don't want to say oh my God, because that is taking the Lord's name in vain. Or if you say Jesus Christ but you're not calling on the name of Jesus Christ, but you're actually just angry or something, and you say, you know Jesus Christ that way. Do you notice how that's that's just technical. You can't use that technically. So someone asked me, well, okay, because I said, if you say o MG, right, because sometimes we say OMG because we know that it's a sin. If you say oh my God, we say OMG, so that we don't technically use the words oh my God, but we mean the same thing. We just abbreviated it with OMG. Well, no, you haven't avoided the issue, by the way. That's the heart of legalism. The heart of legalism says, here's technically what the sin is. I will do this so that I avoid what the technical sin is and now I'm safe. That is the heart of legalism. And then somebody asked me yesterday or like Okay, So we don't want to say oh my God, and we don't want to use OMG because we mean OMG. We don't want to say oh my Gosh because you know, gosh that's just shortening God. But you know what, if we just say oh my goodness, problem solved, right, Well, not when you understand, and we'll get to this when we talk about that whole idea of the name, right, because when we talk about the name of God, we talk about his name, his word, and his works, everything by which we know him. Amen, there's none good but God. Who is your goodness? Help me somebody who is your goodness? Right? So, now you've got an even bigger problem. I don't want to say oh my God, and I don't want to say oh my Gosh because if I say oh my Gosh, then obviously I'm trying to say oh my God without saying God, and I'm saying Gosh instead of God. I'm still guilty. I don't want to say OMG because OMG is short for oh my God, and I'm still guilty. But I can say oh my goodness and now I'm fine. But you're not number one because in your heart it's still the same thing. And secondly, if you believe that you've avoided the sin, watch this. Okay, I'm just I'm using this as an example to show us what a tangled web we weave. Right now, we believe that we've avoided the sin and we haven't taken the Lord's name in vain because we said my goodness instead of God. The only way that could be true is if you believe that there was some goodness outside of God, because then you would be saying, oh, my goodness, referring to the goodness that's outside of God, not referring to God at all. Now you've committed the sin of saying that there's a goodness that's not God. Hmm again, But all of this comes down to the same thing. It's that that technical idea of the commandment, that the commandments are there so that we can technically keep them and they don't go to the heart. Jesus obliterated this kind of thinking in the Sermon on the Mound. You've heard it said that you shouldn't commit adultery. I say to you, anyone who's lusted in his heart, you're guilty. You've heard it said don't murder. I say to you if you hate your brother, you say you fool, You're guilty. You're guilty. Why Because the decalogue is not about sinning technically, It's about sinning in your heart. This is why we're all guilty. And these little machinations that we go through in order to avoid the technical guilt point to the fact that we do not understand the holiness of God at all, at all, We don't get it. But there is another issue, a bigger issue here, and that is the issue of what it means to take the Lord's name, if you remember, to take the lord's name means literally to lift up the Lord's name, to carry the Lord's name to where the Lord's name, if you will to use it, to employ it. The commandment here is not about technical speech. The commandment here is about identification and the use of the name. If you remember the quote from Walton, I'll use it again. As the second commandment concerns the issue of exercising power over God. Remember the idea of exercising power over God. We're going to make a representation of God. Right then we've taken God from being out there to being here, something that we can control and something that we can use so essentially, essentially, we're exercising control over God. The third turns its attention to exercising God's power over others. This commandment does not refer to blasphemy or foul language. Rather, it is intended to prevent the exploitation of the name of Yahweh from magical purposes or hexing. It also continues the concerns of the second commandment in that someone's name was believed to be intimately connected to that person's being or essence. So taking up the name identifying with Yahweh, identifying with God in order to exercise power or authority over others, or in order to fool others. I swear to God, but you're lying. But if I say I swear to God, then I can convince you that I'm not lying. So now I am using the Lord's name in order to exercise deceptive authority over you. This is what's meant here, not the technical use of phrases, but the misuse, misapplication, and misappropriation of the name of the Lord. Remember I use three illustrations of this. The idea of taking the Lord's name, taking up the Lord's name, wearing the Lord's name number one as a witness taking an oath right using the name in that way, a witness taking an oath swearing an oath. Number two, a warrior taking up a shield literally to lift up a shield and to use the name of the Lord like a shield, like something to stand behind. And the third one is a wife taking her husband's name when they are married. This idea of union, communion, and identify caation with So the commandment has to do with using the Lord's name in these ways, taking up the Lord's name, identifying the Lord's name in these ways. You remember we've talked about the Westminster Larger Catechism. Last time we looked at what was forbidden in the Third Commandment. Let's look this time question one twelve. What is required in the Third Commandment? The Third Commandment requires that the name of God, his titles, attributes, ordinances, the word, sacraments, prayer, oaths, vows, lots, his works, and whatsoever else there is whereby He makes himself known, be holy and reverently used in thought, meditation, word writing, by holy professor, by a holy profession, and answerable conversation to the glory of God and the good of ourselves and others. The idea here is that the name be used and ways that are appropriate. That the name be taken up and identified with in ways that are appropriate. We see throughout Scripture that the Lord identifies people with his name and not always using his technical name. For example, second Chronicle seven fourteen. If my people who are called by my name humble themselves in pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and heal their land. My people who are called by their name, well, who are those people? Those people are not called Yahwehites. What are they called Israelites? So obviously hear the use of the phrase. And this is God speaking about his name. And God is now attaching them the idea of his name to the idea of his people who identify with him. So the name of God again. And that's the second part of this. What does it mean to take up? Right? The second part of it is what is meant by name everything with which God identifies himself and everything by which God defines himself. Back to the idea of goodness, God is goodness. Same thing could be true of love. Right. The Bible says God is love. Now I've already made the point, but let me make the point again because I really want to drive this home. We believe that the only way you violate the third Commandment is if you technically use the Lord's name the right the wrong way. If you say you know, oh my God, if you say you know Jesus Christ. Do you say some you know some of the other ways that you Usually it's technical speech that uses these words in those ways. Well, when we understand that name means all the things by which God is identified, Okay, follow me here, the only thing is technical speech. And I can't say oh, my God right because God is God. I can't say on my God. I can't say on my Yahweh. I can't say, well, my Jehovah because that's who God is, So technically I can't say that right. Well, the Bible clearly says that God is love. Does that mean if I say to my wife or do one of my children, oh my love, I've taken the Lord's name in vain because technically, if God is love and I say Brigid is my love or one of my children is my love, technically I've taken the technical thing with which God has identified himself, and I've applied it to something that's not God. Do you see how ridiculous it would become if all this commandment was about was the technical use of the name that some of you are just sitting there. Here's what's going on with some folks right now. Some folks are like, yeah, I hear you, brother, but I'm just trying to figure out what I can say. If that's the case, you're missing the point, because that's not what this is about. You cannot keep this commandment by just avoiding a few phrases. If you leave here with nothing else, leave here with that, you cannot. And you do not avoid this commandment by simply avoiding a few phrases. Not only identify his people with his name. But in Jeremiah chapter seven, verses nine to fifteen, will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to bail, and go after other gods that you have not known, And then come and stand before me in this house which is called by my name, and say we are delivered. Only to go on doing all these abominations? Has this house which is called by my name become a den of robbers? In your eyes. Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord. Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name. Dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. And now because you have done all these things, declares the Lord. And when I spoke to you persistently, you did not listen. And when I called you, you did not answer. Therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you, and to your father's as I did in Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight as I cast out all your kinsmen, all of the offspring of Aphraim three times, the three times. The house that is called by my name, well, was it literally literally called by his name? No, it's the house that was identified with him. Do you see? The people who are called by his name are the people who are identified with him. The house that is called by his name is the house that is identified with him. He talks about the city that is called by his name. What city is that? The city of Jerusalem is the city that's called by his name. It's the city that's identified with him. And so we said that the primary way that this commandment is broken is by identifying with God falsely, holding up God's name falsely, false professions of faith and other things that identify us as something that we are not holding up the name of Christ and the name of Christian when we are not Christian. Again, not talking about this technically, I've heard people argue over whether or not naming a child Christian because some people do, right, some people name their children Christian. Now the part of the world that we're from, right, the Spanish speaking world, there are people who name their child Jesus. Pronounce it Hesus. But so do they also pronounce Jesus Hesus right. Oh, man, that's blasphemy. That's taking the Lord's neck again. You're missing the point here. That's not the issue. The issue here is false profession. The issue here is false identification. I would be more nervous about declaring a country to be Christian if you can't say man, you ought to say ouch. I'd be far more concerned about that in terms of violating the Third Commandment than with the name of a child. And I'll tell you why. Let's go back to our earlier illustration. Well, you name a child Christian, or your name a child Jesus name child whatever? Right? Okay, what happens when you name a child Sofia? What is sofia wisdom? What wisdom? From biblical perspective? If you're a Christian, you're naming them after the wisdom that we find in proverbs, the wisdom that has identified with God. What's the difference? Or Sofia pure? Who's pure? God is pure? So ultimately, if we want to start playing that game, there is no end in sight. Again, this is not about the technical use of names, but it is about holding up the name to identify yourself as something when you are not. So, I say again, using a name, naming a child is far different than declaring yourself or declaring your country to be Christian if you're not or it's not. See, it's really easy when we turn it into the technical use. Amen. So remember, first week, what we want to do is make sure that we understand what the sin is involved. The second week we want to do is we want to we want to apply this. So how do we apply this in terms of lifting up the name and in terms of using the name. I think there are a couple of things that we do. Remember this this series about the law of worship. How do we conduct ourselves in worship in light of this fact? Well, let me get to the second point first before we do that. What it means to lift up is one thing. Secondly, to lift up the name. And we've already touched on this, but I want to I want to make this even clearer. The idea here is not that we're using Yahweh. It's not that we're using Jehovah. It's not that we're using God. And I said on last week that one of the things the cults do is the cults love to play with this commandment, especially the third and the fourth commandment. The cults love to use these commandments in ways that violate the third commandment. The third commandment is you don't hold up the name of the Lord or use the name of the Lord in order to identify yourself as something that you're not, or in order to exercise authority over someone else. And the cults do this all the time. Because we, for example, are Jehovah's witnesses. We use the magic name, you don't We We call God Yahweh or yah you insist on saying God, but no, that's not what he said. Technically you have to say Yahweh. Technically you have to say yah that the hairs in the back of my neck always stand up when I'm around a Christian who insists on always using Yahweh or Jehovah, because ninety nine times out of one hundred, that's a dead giveaway that you're dealing with a cultist who believes that there's something magical about that name. And I told you one of the easiest ways to obliterate the claim that you have to use that name in order to be righteous is to point to the Septuigen. You remember, the Septuagen. Septuogen is the Greek Bible that was used by the Apostles, was used by Jesus. It's the Bible that's quoted by the Apostles when the apostles are writing the New Testament. Why is that so important. It's so important because the Septuagen is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. And if it was appropriate and holy and only right to use Yahweh or Jehovah, then when God's people translated the Bible from Hebrew into Greek. They would have kept Jehovah, and they would have kept Yahweh, but they did not. They used theos, which is the Greek word for God. When the apostles wrote the New Testament. These are the apostles under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, taught by Jesus, walked with Jesus. What language did they use to write the New Testament? They used Greek. Sometimes they use Hebrew words like rabbi, which means teacher. You remember this right, several times in the New Rabbi which means teacher. Why don't they say Yahweh, which means thos. Why because they were under no illusion that you had to use Yahweh in order to speak properly and reverently of God. That is a lie from the pit of Hell, and it is a tool of the cults to try to make you think that the Church that you're a part of is not as holy as the cult that they're a part of. And that is by definition taking the Lord's name in vain, because they're lifting up the name like a shield and trying to identify themselves as more holy because of a technical name use. But what do we do, how would we apply this. I think there's a few things that we would do, a few things that ought to mark our worship because of the Third Commandment Number one. I think a holy and reverent demeanor, because of who we are and whose we are. Holy and reverent demeanor. And when I say holy and reverent demeanor, I don't mean false piety, amen, because guess what false piety would be taking the Lord's name in vain. False piety would be a way for you to identify yourself as something through your outward behavior or that you're not on the inside. I'm not talking about false piety here, talking about genuine reverence. And you know what I'm talking about. You've been there. You've been in places where we're supposed to be in worship and the reverence is just not there. I've been in place for oftentimes unfortunately, especially like youth conferences. Oftentimes in youth conferences in different parts of the world where it's a big youth event and the service is getting ready to start and the smoke machine is going, and then a big beach ball comes out and everybody's you know, doing it and it's just you know, it's just like it's just a party. I'm going Lord. That's them, not me. I'm I'm here, I'm getting ready to preach in a little while. But it's not me right here, right I know you've been there in those settings where there is a complete and utter lack of reverence. That's what I'm talking about. That's taking the Lord's name and vain when we've said that we've come for worship, but there is an irreverence about us. Again, I'm not advocating false piety here, but genuine biblical reverence. Secondly, I would argue a holy, reverent and intentional use of liturgy. Holy reverent and intentional use of liturgy. We've talked about liturgy before and the idea that we usually we say liturgy and we think about sort of High Church or Roman Catholics, like they have a liturgy. Everyone has a liturgy. A liturgy is just your order of service that you always use, that you always follow. And our liturgy is designed based upon our convictions about what the Bible says as worship is. We believe that there are certain elements that ought to be a part of our worship, and we go through those elements in our worship as our liturgy because we believe that we're lining ourselves up with the scriptures, and I think a holy and a reverent and an intentional and instructional liturgy is called for. All of those things are important. Holy obviously, set apart, reverent obviously, that's the commandment that we're talking about. Intentional, intentional, especially in this day and age. Intentional. We need to be careful about what we do when we gather, because we don't want to lift up the Lord's name in vain, to use the Lord's name in vain. We want to make sure that we're being intentional about all the things that we're doing. Some are more intentional than others. There are some, for example, who only use written prayers because they want to make sure that there are no wasted words. Some whose liturgy is incredibly dogmatic and regimented because they want to make sure that there are certain things that they always do. And this can be useful, but it can also turn into dead liturgy. And I meet people all the time who were raised in an environment like this, where they went to church and it was this same ritualistic stuff over and over again, and it was dead and it was meaningless, and then they flee away from it. But you know what usually happens, They flee away from it and the opposite direction, and after a while they feel like what they've fled to is something that is irreverent. I want you to understand what's going on oftentimes in those environments. What's going on in those environments is that people they're starting with something good, with the idea that worship has to be what it is that God said it ought to be, and that when we worship, we worship in God's name, and we have to be clear about God's name. By the way, being clear about God's name means being clearly trinitarian. I would argue the name of the Father, the Son, Holy Spirit. I alluded to the fact last week that because of the excesses that we see in many charismatic circles where the Holy Ghost is an it right, the Holy Ghost is a power, the Holy Holy goes, Holy goes, Holy goes, Holy goes, Holy goes, Holy goes right. Because of that, sometimes in reform circles we tend to run so far and the the other direction that if we're not careful, people can worship with us for a month and not here Holy Spirit, and oftentimes liturgy has to do with just that, making sure that certain things that ought to be reiterated are reiterated. Some things that happen in liturgical churches, for example, is the quoting to the Creeds. How many of you grew up in a liturgical church where you quoted the Apostles Creed every week? Right, some of your parties. Here's what I love about that. Right when you talk about stuff like that, people raise a handling. Here's what's interesting. You grew up in an environment like that, and it's over and over and over and over again, and it can become dead. It can become dead, and our liturgy shouldn't become dead. People ought to understand while we're doing what we're doing. Listen to this. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and Earth, Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilot, was crucified, dead and buried, descended into Hell or to Hades. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into Heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence he shall come to judge, the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church, Catholic Universal Small to see the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen, folks. That is just the recitation of the Gospel and a reminder of the Triune God whom we worship. That is part of liturgical churches because that's something that we ought always be reminded of. But it can become dead liturgy. Dead liturgy. But imagine this if you're in a church where you open up the service and you get that, and then by the time you're I don't know how old you've memorized the Apostles creed. That ain't a bad thing, it's not. Here's another thing. The Apostles creed, the Nicean creed, the Afthenation creed. The cults can't confess those because their doctrine is heretical and doesn't line up with the historic creeds. That's another reason that they're used, so that blasphemy would become clear and be known easily. Services often in how did service end? If you grew up in a liturgical church, how did you service end. Praise God from alls, don't not like you don't know it. Praise Him all creatures hedb though, praise Him above ye heavenly Host. Praise Father's Son and holyost Ah. At the beginning of every service, you're reminded of the Apostles creed that we worship the Triune God, and that Jesus was born of a virgin, died and suffered under ponscious pilot, was resurrected, he sittd at the right hand of the Father, and he's coming again. And at the end of every service, you're reminded that we and all creation worship Father, Son and Holy Ghost again. Liturgy can become dead. But here's what I don't want us to do. I don't want us to say, oh, yeah, those people they don't know God. That liturgy stuff that's in that's from people who don't No, no, no, no, no, no, no no, no. Hear me on this. I'm not arguing that you have to do this. I want you to understand historically why some people have and some people do. It's all about using the Lord's name rightly. A second thing that I would argue we have to do in this regard is be very careful with things like baptism. One of the things I so appreciate here at KBC. I've been at churches where I mean, you know, I've been at Baptist churches and it's you know, it's often been said, sometimes it's a joke, it's not very funny, but you know, it's argued that Baptists in the US don't believe in infant baptism, but we do believe in t baptism. I've seen some people get into the waters of baptism who had to be held up so they wouldn't drown because they're so small. By the way, this is also why I'm not a paidal Baptist. I don't believe in baptizing infants and having them hold up the name that they shouldn't be holding up. Now, again, that's a technical argument between us and our pedal Baptist brethren, and they'd argue that that's not what they're doing. But I again, for us, as Credo Baptist, this is one of the reasons that we hold the position that we hold, because we want to make sure that when people go into the waters of baptism, to the best of our ability, that this is not a false profession, and we offer sober warnings and ask clarifying questions and are not just quick to get people in the water, because we understand the significance of the Third Commandment. And I imagine this, here's what legalism does. Legalism will take somebody with a false profession of faith and dunk them without being worried. But just make sure that they don't say, OMG, do you see how grotesque that is? Careful with the Lord's supper, Careful when we break bread together, that we make sure that people understand what this means and who it's for. And it's not for everyone, because to take the Lord's supper as one who's not a believer, as one who's walking in open sin, to do that is to take the Lord's name in vain. Making sure that, as the scripture says, we're not quick to lay on hands. What is ordination of someone who is not qualified to be ordained. To be ordained is to take up the name, to put on the name, to minister in his name. And if you are not qualified for that, you have violated, among other things, the Third Commandment. We need to be very careful with that, and we need to be very diligent about church discipline, because church discipline is the other side of it. Right, we have baptism in the Lord's Supper on the one side, there's the front door, but then there's church discipline. Who's the back door. Being careful with bad says, we're very careful about making sure that you're not taking the Lord's name in vain when we do this. Being careful with the Lord's Supper says, we're being very careful about you're not taking the Lord's name in vain when we do this. And practicing church discipline says when we recognize a false profession, we don't want to participate in your blasphemy by continuing to act like you're something that you're not. We call you to repentance, and if you don't repent, you're excommunicated, because to not do so would be for us to take the Lord's name in vain. Do you see? All of these things are incredibly important pieces of the postal. But there's a last piece here. Remember we shall not take up, right, we got to understand what it means to take up to use. We get that, and then the Lord's name, remember his name, everything associated with him his name, his word, his works, anything like that. We don't want to misuse and abuse. I think I made the point a last time that Darwinian evolution is a violation of the Third Commandment because it's taking the work of God and creation in vain. So again, name, word, works, all of that. But then there's a last piece that warning. This reason annexed to the third Commandment, because the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. I would argue that our worship must be evangelistic because of this. We must be mission minded because of this, because there are people all over the place who are guilty of taking the Lord's name in vain, and they need to hear the Gospel and come to repentance. They need to turn from that because they are guilty and God will not hold them guiltless. They need to repent. And we need to proclaim the Gospel, which means within the church we need to be the Gospel focused. The Gospel needs to be here, The person in work of Christ needs to be upheld all the time. Why because every time you come into this place, you need to be reminded you don't take the Lord's name in vain. And if you're a false professor, you're taking the Lord's name in vain. If you're identifying yourself with the Church of the Living God but you have not come to repentance and faith, you are taking the Lord's name in vain. Repent believe, we must be evangelistic. We must not be satisfied with people taking the Lord's name in vain and again not it's so ironic. Someone says, you know, oh, my God or Jesus Christ, or when we get offended we puff up our chest, and oh, you shouldn't be doing that, right, we're all over that technical stuff. What about the idea about people who are not hearing and responding to the Gospel? Does that break your heart? People were identifying themselves as Christian when or not? Are you okay as long as they don't say OMG, Because if that's the case, you've missed it. You've missed it. Are you okay with people who say they worship God but they're part of a cult. Are you okay with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints or are you caught somewhere between wanting to vomit or wanting to cry? Every time you see that black name tag with elder so and so on it, or do you say, Hey, they're good people, they're doing good, We're power to them. Are you okay with that? Are you okay with your Muslim friend who believes that they love Jesus because Jesus esa is in Quran and he is a highly esteemed prophet. Are you okay with that? Or do you recognize that as taking the Lord's name in vain? Are you all right with the people out there who are just general garden variety pagans and say, y, I believe in God but not necessarily the same way. Is that okay? Is that okay? Because that's blasphemy. It's blasphemy if you're identifying God as anything other than the way He's identified himself as blasphemy. And how do we respond to that with proclaiming the Gospel and calling people to repentitant faith? So biblical worship, according to the Law of Worship, ought to be worshiped that is characterized by holy reverence for the name of God, a reminder of who God really is, a warning about who God is not, and a call to repentance in faith. Nor am I just making this up. Is this not exactly what the apostles tell us? Is this not what Paul told Titus? When you appoint elders, they must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that they may teach what accords with sound doctrine and refute those who contradicted. Why in part because doctrine that's not sound is doctrine that's blasphemous. Or how about Jude when he tells us to contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all handed down to the saints. Because certain persons have crept in unnoticed. You know what they do? Huh? They deny our only Master and Lord Christ, and they turned grace into lawlessness. Contend with that. Don't be satisfied with that. Don't let error just go unchecked. Speak to the error because you're jealous for the name of God. Speak to the error because blasphemy doesn't sit well with you. Speak to the error because you desire that Christ would have the full reward for which he died, that every kneed would bow and every ton would confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God, the Father. Spread the gospel everywhere. Be okay, when we hear about a place like Yemen where there's virtually zero evangelicals, let your heart break because of an entire nation who's lost and blaspheming the One True God. Again, don't buy the lie it says this commandment is only about technical phrases that you need to avoid. And I'm not saying that you should be loose with technical phrases. We need to be careful with the way that we speak. Amen. But see, this is one of the great tools of the adversary, having us believe that as long as we avoid a few phrases that we're fine. As it relates to the third command, nothing could be further from the truth. This is not just about avoiding technical phrases. This is about loving the name, being jealous for the name, identifying with the name, rightly using the name rightly and reverently, about having that same sentiment that led to hymn writer to say, there is a name I love to hear, I love to sing. It's worth it sounds like music in my ears. The sweetest name on earth is his name? Sweet to you? How sad would it be if we puffed our chest out because we don't use a couple of phrases, but his name's not sweet to us. The third commandment is about loving and cherishing his name. And when I say his name, I mean his name, his word, It were his works, everything with which he is identified. Loving and cherishing. That's the affirmative side of it, because when you get the affirmative side of it, nobody's got to talk to you about avoiding technical phrases. When you get the affirmative side of this, that has a tendency to take care of himself. And when it doesn't, then because you love his name, then repentance comes quickly. Amen. May God grant us grace to love his name. Let's pray. Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here below, Praise Him above he heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen.