The Name of the Lord

You can turn in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 20. We’ll be in verse 7. Just one of the Ten Commandments, also mirrored in Deuteronomy 5:11. You can follow along as I read. We’re looking at the third commandment this evening – Lord’s Day 36 and 37 of the Heidelberg Catechism. Exodus 20:7.

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.”

Let’s pray.

O Lord, as we come to you this evening, I pray that these words would not be in vain, but Lord, that they would build up your church. Lord, would you attend to us, lest what we do here just be in vain? Lord, would you be worshiped? Would you be honored in my words and in our thoughts? It’s in Jesus’ precious and holy name that we pray. Amen.

So, this evening we come to what is most likely, perhaps, the most misunderstood of all the Ten Commandments, if not narrowly understood. If you’re anything like me, we associate “don’t take the name of the Lord in vain” with cuss words, with flippant words, with OMGs. Now the third commandment is certainly not less than these things, but it is more, as we will see in the catechism. Speaking of which, follow along as I read question 99 from the Heidelberg Catechism. We’ll jump right into it.

Q: What is God’s will for us in the third commandment?

A: That we neither blaspheme nor misuse the name of God by cursing, perjury, or unnecessary oaths, nor share in such horrible sins by being silent bystanders. In summary, we must use the holy name of God only with reverence and awe so that we may properly confess him, call upon him, and praise him in everything we do and say.

Yes, a little bit more than just not saying, “OMG.” Look also at question 100. We’re going to read that one, too.

Q: Is blasphemy of God’s name by swearing and cursing really such serious of a sin that God is angry also with those who do not do all that they can to help prevent and forbid it?

A: Yes, indeed. No sin is greater or provokes God’s wrath more than blaspheming his name. That is why he commanded it to be punished by death.

So, I wonder if this is the preeminent question that folks have had throughout all of church history regarding the third commandment and maybe even why it’s added in here in Lord’s Day 36. What is so egregious about violating the third commandment? What is the third commandment? We read it. I know you could probably recite it, but what is the heart of it? For now, let’s figure that out by taking a closer look at question 99. You can keep on looking down at your bulletins. It’s broken down pretty clearly: that we neither blaspheme nor misuse the name of God. Defining our terms a little bit. What is blasphemy? Blasphemy, you can think of it as an overarching term for ascribing wickedness to God with our mouths, saying wicked things about God – him who is pure – things that are not in keeping with his holy nature. John Calvin gives a good description of blasphemy. It’s either when God is deprived of the honor which belongs to him or when saying anything unsuitable to his nature or contrary to his nature is ascribed to him. So, we can both blaspheme by depriving God of the honor that’s due to him, or we can also ascribe to him anything that’s not due to him, not proper to his nature. So, it’s an umbrella term for wicked things directed to God – misuses, or some translations of the Heidelberg Catechism say abuse.

How can one misuse, profane or blaspheme the name of God? The catechism gives four things in particular. Number one, cursing or wishing, desiring, invoking evil upon another person in unrighteousness or even onto God. You think about Job’s wife, who gave him the advice of “curse God and die” in his suffering. Pretty bad advice. Violation of the third commandment, I would say. Think also about Acts 23, when 40 men put themselves under a curse so that they wouldn’t eat or drink until Paul was dead. Also, it gives perjury, Heidelberg Catechism does, which is a legal term, as you might know. Lawyers are getting some shoutouts today. Perjury is just lying under oath. So knowingly, though you’re under oath and you’re sworn to tell nothing but the truth, you lie. Perjury happens all the time. Third, unnecessary oaths. Invoking God’s name where there is no need to do so. Think here about puffing up a story or even making a joke and then using God’s name as sort of the cherry on top of the punchline to get everyone’s attention or sort of make some kind of rhetorical impact in a worldly sense. Unnecessary oaths. And also sharing in these by being silent bystanders. So, who knew? You could even be in violation of the third commandment by not saying something. You would think that the way that you avoid violating the third commandment would be by not opening your mouth, but yes, you can even in silence – because silence is a kind of approval of what’s going on around you. And so, if God’s name is being shamed, then we ought to say something. So those are the nots.

What about the dos? The catechism continues. Number one, in sum we must use the holy name of God only with reverence and awe. Second, we must properly confess God’s name rather than speaking about the things of God with sort of idle talk or, as the Westminster Larger Catechism says, with vain janglings. There’s your word of the week. We should, when we speak about God – it should be in a way that is with honor due to his name, properly calling upon the Lord. The Psalms are very concerned with the manner in which we call on the Lord. “Worship the Lord in the beauty, the splendor of holiness,” Psalm 29. Psalm 100 – maybe the first psalm that any of you memorized – “Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with singing. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, his courts with praise.” Those withs are important when it comes to obedience to the third commandment. When we come to worship, we should come with a sense that we are meeting with the living God, and he is holy, and he is good. And fourth, we should praise him in everything we do and say, not limited to speech. Everything we do and say. Think 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Whether you eat, whether you drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

Now, you might be thinking, is it really this broad? Is the third commandment, which seems to apply to speech primarily, is it really this broad – in everything that we do or say? Well, we shouldn’t be surprised because last week, or two weeks ago rather, we learned that idolatry is more than just worshiping a statue or an inanimate object. Anything that takes God’s place in our affections becomes an idol. Paul even calls covetousness idolatry. So, we shouldn’t be surprised that the third commandment itself has a broader meaning for us to be following. So, just as there’s a wide, all-of-life application for the second commandment – idolatry – so there is a wide, all-of-life application for the third commandment – profanity. We are called to not take the Lord’s name in vain, but rather, as the first petition of the Lord’s prayer says, we are called to hallow it. So, you can think of that first petition of the Lord’s prayer as the positive side of obedience to the third commandment. In fact, if you think about the Lord’s Prayer, the first three commandments are all present in the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer. Our Father (you shall have no other gods before me; you shall not make for yourselves an idol) who is in heaven (who does not live in temples made by man or consist of stone or gold or a statue), hallowed be thy name (you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain).

So, let’s take a look at the basics of the actual commandment on the word level here in Exodus 20. First word that you should notice in our verse this evening is the word “take.” Take the name of the Lord in vain. What does it mean to take the name of the Lord in vain? Well, that word take is the Hebrew word nas a, which means literally to bear or to lift up. So, when someone – now it’s more of a legal term back in the ancient world – when someone bore the name of an ancient deity or even the one true God, what they would do is they’re taking an oath. That’s what they’re doing. They’re taking an oath. So, whenever you get to the third commandment when you’re reading systematic theologies, trying to figure out the heartbeat of the third commandment, oaths come up over and over again, which is also part of the reason why we’re going to be reading about oaths the rest of this evening. It has to do with oaths.

What about the other basic of the third commandment, which is the name? Taking the name. What is so important about God’s name that it is the thing that we are called to hallow? Names are important. Names of God are important, because practically they are indistinguishable from who he is. They describe his very character. Now this becomes obvious when we think about our own relationships to our own names. We are very sensitive to the sound of our name. We know when it is being called or even when we think it’s being called. It’s who we are in a very real sense. The conversation in the other room, which was just mumblings – when all of a sudden you heard what might have been the sound of your name, you’re all of a sudden keyed into it. You want to know what’s going on. What are they saying? We’re very sensitive to sound of our names. And when you first meet somebody, it’s not inconsequential that the first thing that you ask – the first access, as it were, to another person is what is your name? You don’t ask what is your blood type? How do you like your eggs? Even where are you from? You ask what is your name, because it has such a tight purchase on our very identity. We shouldn’t be surprised that Scripture says, “Okay, those names which are ascribed to God, or rather which God tells us to ascribe to him, we ought to take care and think about the way we’re using those names. It also turns out, certainly in the biblical world, that names mean something. Many of you have thought a lot about names. Perhaps you’re thinking about naming a child. You’ve thought in depth about it, maybe about naming after somebody, having some kind of meaning. My older brother almost made a horrible mistake of naming his firstborn son – it sounded like a good idea at the time – Shield. He thought about naming him Shield because they settled in the Shield Valley in Montana. And what’s worse is he had me going over the phone. I thought it was a good idea to begin with. After I got off the phone with him, I was like, I don’t know if that’s a good idea. You shouldn’t call him Shield. I don’t have a nephew named Shield, just so you guys are aware. But the point is that our names mean something. They have a reference to a certain person or a certain place. And this is certainly the case in Scripture. Think about the stories or the narratives that come to mind when you hear these names. Adam means man. Abel, vapor. Abram, honored father. Abraham, father of multitude. Isaac, laughter. Esau, red. Jacob, heel-catcher. Moses, drawn out of water. Israel, strives against God. Ichabod, there is no glory. Hosea’s children: no mercy, not my people. Peter means rock. Barnabas, son of encouragement. And what about the names that God gives to himself in Scripture? Adonai, which means Lord or Master. El Shaddai, the Lord Almighty. Yahweh, his covenant name, the great I Am. Lord Sabbaoth, Lord of Hosts. Emmanuel, God with us. These names should be protected in our own hearts and on our lips and in our conversation because they are wonderful names that our Lord has given us to describe him by. Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. And God hears when we use his name. He hears. He notices. When he does, is he pleased with the way that we take his name on our lips? When we talk about him with others, do other people get the sense that the person we are talking about is special? Now they may not think so, but when they hear us speak and just reference the Lord, is there a sense that that person thinks that God is truly holy and set apart from the way that we live our lives? Do we show God’s name to be valuable? I think that’s the heart of the third commandment. That is the heart of the third commandment. Not only with our lips, but in our lives. What do our lives declare about God’s name? Do we declare that his name doesn’t really mean much, or do we declare that it’s really valuable?

Look with me – speaking of all of life associated with the third commandment – at Paul’s indictment of the Romans in Romans chapter 2. If you could turn in your Bibles there, Romans chapter 2. Paul is, as Kevin has said, in this spot preaching against the religious insiders. Look at verse 21 of Romans chapter 2. Here’s what he says to them. Here’s how he rebukes them. “You then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing (eighth commandment), do you steal?” Verse 22, “You who say that one must not commit adultery (seventh commandment), do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols (second commandment), do you rob temples?” And then look at verse 23, “You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. As it is written, ‘The name of God is – what? – is blasphemed’” (third commandment). It’s blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. So, there’s a sense in which the religious insiders were guilty of this kind of blasphemy or spurring it on in lives of others because of the way that they lived their life. And the point that I’m trying to make, and I think that the third commandment tells us and certainly that the Heidelberg Catechism wants to highlight, is that all of your life is saying something. It’s speaking about how valuable God is.

So, for the rest of our time, I wanted to spend our time thinking about four ways to apply the third commandment. It’s all of life. We could go a lot of different directions, but here are four different ways to apply the third commandment. I want us to look at bridling our tongue, loosing our tongue, borrowing a friend, and remembering our baptism.

First, bridle the tongue. Even though the third commandment indeed applies to all areas of our lives, we cannot overlook the deference that it gives to the tongue. Think about Jesus’ words in Matthew 12:34. You’ve heard these many times, I’m sure, “For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” It’s not a mystery that, when in the Ten Commandments God wants his people to think about the way they are representing him, he uses speech as the primary means, especially when we look at Matthew 12:34. Why is that? Because speech – the tongue – is the doorway into the heart. You want to know what somebody thinks about God, thinks about anything? Listen to the way that they talk. Listen to the way that they talk, because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The whole “I didn’t really mean to say that” or “that’s not really what I meant” doesn’t ordinarily square with the way that Scripture talks about the tongue and how it’s operative in terms of displaying and putting on advertisement what is actually deep down in our heart, what we actually think. It comes out in our mouths. So, it’s no wonder that this is the third commandment, using the Lord’s name in vain. We use it with our mouths. One who thinks carefully about their words is wise, because he or she is thinking about their own heart. This is something – I’m convinced that the Bible’s stern language against the tongue and its warning against the tongue, they start to make sense the older I’ve gotten. Now I’m not that old. I was teaching the seniors’ Sunday school this morning. They’re not that old either, but oh man, they’re wonderful. But I’d like to think that the older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve really started to notice sins of speech in my own life and in other people’s life. The things that I tend to regret and think about more and more are the things that come out of my mouth. It wasn’t as much so when I was younger. Maybe you guys can relate to that, but now I think about those things more and more, and these passages in James 5, Matthew 12, all the Proverbs that talk about the tongue – I think as you get older, you start to understand the weight of words. The third commandment, then, calls us to take great care with the words that are coming out of our mouth and to think about them, to think about our words. Are they true? Do they adorn God’s name? Are they in keeping with his character?

Not only are we called to bridle our tongues, we’re also called to loosen the tongue. It would be tempting after reading the warnings about the tongue in Matthew, James, Proverbs, and all over the place – it would be tempting to think that true obedience to the Lord looks like what Gandalf said to Pippen before entering Gondor. On second thought, maybe it’s best you just didn’t say anything at all. But of course, Scripture doesn’t talk like that either. It’s replete with calls to worship; to open our mouths; to encourage one another with songs and hymns and spiritual songs; to use our mouths in ways that are honoring to God, the things that come out of our mouths might ascribe glory and ascribe majesty to him; to confess him in creeds. A special time to fulfill the third commandment is to express what is true about God in creeds, to lift up our voices in explaining, communicating, and everything in between, all the things that God has made our voice for. Those are ways that we must loosen our tongue and honor the Lord in those things, even at times taking oaths.

Look now in your bulletin at questions 101 and 102. I have two Lord’s Days this evening. You guys have two Lord’s Days this evening. We’re looking now at oaths. So, questions 101 and 102.

Q: But may we swear an oath in God’s name if we do so reverently?

And so, this question is asked especially in light of what we already read in our bulletins, Matthew chapter 5, when Jesus says, “Let your yes be yes and your no be no. Anything beyond that comes from evil.” Okay, so if the third commandment especially has a reference to oaths, how are we supposed to understand this? Are we supposed to take oaths at all? There are still certain traditions – Jehovah’s Witnesses, Anabaptist traditions – that take a “no oaths” stance. So, they would not put their hands on the Bible and swear in court. They might affirm, but they wouldn’t swear. So, what is the answer to this question? Can we do it if we do it reverently? Well, the catechism says, with good reason:

A: Yes, when the government demands it or when necessity requires it in order to maintain and promote truth and trustworthiness for God’s glory and our neighbors’ good. Such oathtaking is grounded in God’s Word and was rightly used by the saints in the Old and New Testament.

Footnotes here are very helpful. Hebrews 6:16. What’s happening there is God is taking an oath. Now, he’s not taking an oath by anyone else because, as we’ll come to see, there is no one higher than God to take an oath by, so he swears by himself. Hebrews 6:16. And so, if God himself is making an oath, that must inform the way that we can or cannot take oaths. Also think about Paul on two different occasions, in 2 Corinthians 1 and in Romans – perhaps you remember from a previous sermon in Romans – Paul said that he calls on God to witness to his testimony that he loves the Roman church, that he longs to be with them. So, the answer is yes, when the government demands it and when necessity requires it. And of course, the principle given in Matthew 5 stands. Whatever goes beyond these things, generally speaking, proceeds from evil. So, what we should do is we should think very carefully before taking an oath and not, as the catechism says, take oaths unnecessarily and flippantly. We should think about the tongue and think about what we’re saying yes to and promising before the Lord.

Q102: May we also swear by saints or other created things?

A: No. A legitimate oath is calling upon God as the one who knows my heart to witness to the truth and to punish me if I swear falsely. No created thing is worthy of such honor.

So, look at the logic. If you’re swearing by something, you are assuming that that person can see your heart, and nothing else – no one else – can see the heart but God. Deuteronomy 6:13, “It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve, and by his name you shall swear.” These are God’s words to his people in the Old Testament. So, bridle the tongue, loosen the tongue.

Third, borrow a friend. I wonder if some of us have trouble applying the third commandment in our day-to-day lives. Here’s what I mean: I’ve had to reflect on this question as I’ve been preparing this sermon – does it bother me at all when the Lord’s name is taken in vain? Does it bother me? Many of you, perhaps, work in a workplace where there is profanity everywhere. Or you’re just around it in certain settings, and by necessity you’re there. And I’ve had to ask myself, does it bother me when the Lord’s name is taken in vain, whether it be flippantly or whether it be outright blasphemous or wickedness coming from someone’s mouth. Am I bothered by that? I’ve had to reflect on this. I think maybe I can make – we can make – excuses/answers. On the one hand, yes, God can take care of himself. He doesn’t need human beings to stick up for him. That’s true. You can’t police everyone. That’s also true. We can’t be the word police and tap everyone on the shoulder whenever they say something wrong, especially if they don’t believe the things that we believe. Also, you sow what you reap. God is not mocked. These things will not escape God’s ear, and either he will remember them in eternity or they will be covered by Christ’s blood by repentance and faith in Christ. All these things are true, and yet I still am asking the question to my own soul, does it bother me when the Lord’s name is profaned? Borrow a friend. I want you to think about a friend of yours who has the highest integrity of anyone that you know, someone who would give you the shirt off their back – probably a bunch of people they would give the shirt off their back to. Now suppose you are sitting around with a group of people on a porch somewhere, perhaps, or you’re at dinner with a bunch of folks and some new guy comes into the group and starts badmouthing this good friend. And from start to finish, he doesn’t let up. Even when the good friend’s name keeps on coming up, he assumes bad motives. He rolls his eyes at his name. He speaks outright lies about him. He’s actually self-serving. I don’t actually trust that guy, or she’s not that kind of person when no one’s looking. And if this kept up throughout the night – this is truly your friend – how might you respond? I think you would say, “Hey, you don’t know that friend” – you would be bothered by that, hopefully, if they’re your friend – “and you should really stop talking.” Let us see the third commandment as an invitation, at the very least, to be bothered by the misuse of God’s name. Are you having trouble discerning the third commandment in your own life or orienting as to how to apply it? Borrow a friend, and think about am I bothered by that name? I think also if you’re younger, if you’re still growing up, if you’re still in your parents’ house, if your upbringing is anything like mine, I was very tuned in to what my parents were bothered by whenever we were watching TV in the living room or listening to music. I was very aware when a bad word came on, and I would look at my parents, and they would say, “You know, you want to turn that down or turn that off.” But at some point, and for me it maybe it took too long, but at some point, all of you who are in your parents’ house, you need to not only notice what bothers your parents, but that should start bothering you that God’s name is being taken in vain. The third commandment is an invitation to us to think, what would we do if a good friend was being slandered? We would be bothered. We would say something.

So, bridle the tongue, loosen the tongue, borrow a friend, and remember your baptism – fourth and finally – because the name that you are seeking to honor, that you’re seeking to keep and not profane, that’s also your own family name. We receive many benefits in baptism. We receive God’s promises. We are formally made a member of the visible church. We are set apart, belonging to God, dedicated. We are also named with God’s own name. I don’t know how much we talk about this with baptism. You receive a name. We are baptized into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And if that’s happened to you, then you are visibly a member of this family. Here’s how Sinclair Ferguson describes it, “At some point in the first few days of my life,” – Sinclair talking – “I went through a naming ceremony, and it went like this. The city register asked my father and mother, ‘What is the name of your child?’ And they said, ‘Sinclair Buchanan Ferguson.’” I don’t have as good of an accent as Sinclair Ferguson, but you can just imagine that I’m saying it like him. Okay. “Ever since that moment,” he continues, “at least in my consciousness, whenever I hear the word Sinclair Ferguson, inwardly I respond, ‘That’s me. That’s who I am. That’s my identity.’ If my mom said to me, as she sometimes did, ‘Sinclair Ferguson,’ in the way mothers do, I knew what she was saying. You’ve been named for this family, but you’re not living as though you were named for this family.” So, baptism is a naming ceremony. It doesn’t change us inside, but in another sense, it changes everything. It tells us that our lives have been claimed by God the Trinity, to live in his family, to live out his lifestyle, and to live for his praise and glory, and to enjoy him forever. We as God’s covenant people are marked by his name. We carry it on ourselves and in our very hearts in the way that we live our lives. How are we stewarding that? That’s not new. God’s people in the Old Testament also received God’s name. I’m sure you’re familiar with the Aaronic blessing from Deuteronomy 6, “The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you his peace.” But that’s actually not the last verse of the chapter. Immediately after it says, “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.” This is just one chapter after the second giving of the law. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. On the contrary, God is looking at his covenant people and placing his name upon them and blessing them.

Bridle the tongue, loosen the tongue, borrow a friend, and remember your baptism. Remember your family name. It would be nothing but pressure or living as though a sword were dangling over our heads if we were called to keep the third commandment and the name of the person we were called to keep was not a good God. It would be a constant threat, but listen to the way that Paul writes about the name of Jesus in Philippians 2, “Therefore, God exalted him (Jesus) to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Jesus is the name that we are called to hallow and to protect and to guard. That name also has a meaning. Matthew 1:21, “And you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, would you forgive us for the times that we have not kept your name, whether that’s in our lips and in our lives, whether it’s been the slip of a tongue. Oh Lord, when and if those happen, Lord, would you be ready by quickly, Lord. Would we call you to mind? Would we call your grace to mind? And Lord, would you forgive? Would you teach us to be bothered when your name is profaned? Help us to bear witness with our lives, the matchless name of Jesus, the one who has taken our sins upon him. And we ask it in his name. Amen.