WEBVTT 00:00:00.650 --> 00:00:03.149 Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons, 00:00:03.270 --> 00:00:06.209 a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg. 00:00:06.870 --> 00:00:08.750 It's our hope that these sermons will draw you 00:00:08.750 --> 00:00:11.169 more into the life of following God, Father, 00:00:11.330 --> 00:00:14.150 Son and Holy Spirit. Please consider coming and 00:00:14.150 --> 00:00:16.469 joining with us each Sunday morning at 10am in 00:00:16.469 --> 00:00:18.809 the heart of Midtown Harrisburg. You can find 00:00:18.809 --> 00:00:22.329 us online at SecondCityChurch .org and on Facebook, 00:00:22.629 --> 00:00:25.030 Instagram and YouTube. We hope you enjoy this 00:00:25.030 --> 00:00:30.480 sermon. God Bless. Oh Lord God, we thank you 00:00:30.480 --> 00:00:34.579 for you are good. Your mercy is over all that 00:00:34.579 --> 00:00:37.100 you have made. Here we are on this beautiful 00:00:37.100 --> 00:00:43.420 morning as spring is getting into gear and yet 00:00:43.420 --> 00:00:46.640 many of us feel a weight of sin in our hearts. 00:00:47.439 --> 00:00:51.520 Please meet with us here today. Please enliven 00:00:51.520 --> 00:00:57.200 our hearts and our spirits. Be with us in Word 00:00:57.200 --> 00:01:01.719 and in Sacrament. Please change us to be people 00:01:01.719 --> 00:01:05.799 who desire your glory above all things. We pray, 00:01:05.939 --> 00:01:08.079 O Lord, that you would open our hearts, even 00:01:08.079 --> 00:01:12.900 now. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, 00:01:12.900 --> 00:01:16.359 hello. It's good to be with you this morning 00:01:16.359 --> 00:01:20.659 up here. I'm Jed Stalker. I am a pastoral intern 00:01:20.659 --> 00:01:24.030 here at Second City. So... If you've just been 00:01:24.030 --> 00:01:27.109 attending this church for a couple of weeks and 00:01:27.109 --> 00:01:29.370 you are expecting Peter, you are allowed to be 00:01:29.370 --> 00:01:32.930 disappointed at this time. If you are a regular 00:01:32.930 --> 00:01:34.469 attender here, you'll know that I've preached 00:01:34.469 --> 00:01:37.349 here half a dozen or so times over the past year 00:01:37.349 --> 00:01:41.730 and I wanted to reveal a part of my process for 00:01:41.730 --> 00:01:45.189 writing sermons to you all. So the first thing 00:01:45.189 --> 00:01:48.390 that I do before I even study the text intently 00:01:48.390 --> 00:01:52.689 is I ask my children who range in age from two 00:01:52.689 --> 00:01:57.829 to 11, what I should preach about. And sometimes 00:01:57.829 --> 00:02:02.689 they even have good things to say. But more than 00:02:02.689 --> 00:02:04.890 anything else, my daughters have consistently 00:02:04.890 --> 00:02:09.930 suggested that I preach from Harry Potter. And 00:02:09.930 --> 00:02:12.490 there are many good reasons for me to ignore 00:02:12.490 --> 00:02:15.729 them in this matter. So I will not be preaching 00:02:15.729 --> 00:02:18.210 from children's fantasy literature this morning, 00:02:18.650 --> 00:02:23.430 but... For my girls, I do want to begin our discussion 00:02:23.430 --> 00:02:26.590 of the third commandment Thou shalt not take 00:02:26.590 --> 00:02:29.509 the name of the Lord thy God in vain as it says 00:02:29.509 --> 00:02:32.090 in the King James by thinking about a profound 00:02:32.090 --> 00:02:36.229 quote from the headmaster of Hogwarts Albus Dumbledore 00:02:36.229 --> 00:02:38.169 One of the things that he says to Harry in the 00:02:38.169 --> 00:02:40.870 first book of the series is this he says fear 00:02:40.870 --> 00:02:46.550 of a name increases fear of the thing itself 00:02:46.550 --> 00:02:51.770 fear of a name increases fear of a thing itself. 00:02:51.789 --> 00:02:56.090 This is surprisingly profound, right? So in the 00:02:56.090 --> 00:02:58.949 context of the book, the character Dumbledore 00:02:58.949 --> 00:03:01.770 is talking about the character Voldemort, who's, 00:03:01.770 --> 00:03:06.129 you know, the devil. And one of the plot points 00:03:06.129 --> 00:03:09.090 in this whole series is that the majority of 00:03:09.090 --> 00:03:11.990 the people in this world, they won't even mention 00:03:11.990 --> 00:03:13.810 the guy's name. They're too afraid of him. So 00:03:13.810 --> 00:03:17.129 they'll refer to him as he who must not be named 00:03:17.129 --> 00:03:23.539 or even You know who. So what Dumbledore is saying 00:03:23.539 --> 00:03:27.460 is, yeah, he's a bad guy, but you can say his 00:03:27.460 --> 00:03:30.520 name. You don't need to venerate him. So get 00:03:30.520 --> 00:03:34.599 your fears out in the open, call them by their 00:03:34.599 --> 00:03:38.120 name, and then they'll be less scary. And I think 00:03:38.120 --> 00:03:41.580 this is good advice for most things that we should 00:03:41.580 --> 00:03:45.020 not be afraid of, right? But then the question 00:03:45.020 --> 00:03:47.340 is, what about for those things that we should? 00:03:47.610 --> 00:03:52.689 be afraid of. Those things that in a good and 00:03:52.689 --> 00:03:57.469 godly way we should tremble before. So remember 00:03:57.469 --> 00:04:01.289 the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, 00:04:01.669 --> 00:04:04.370 right? So in that case, well the advice should 00:04:04.370 --> 00:04:06.830 be opposite. So if we want to train ourselves 00:04:06.830 --> 00:04:09.930 to fear, something, Dumbledore's logic would 00:04:09.930 --> 00:04:13.509 say, one way to do that would be to train ourselves 00:04:13.509 --> 00:04:17.029 in the fear of the thing, sorry, the name, the 00:04:17.029 --> 00:04:19.509 fear of the name, right? That will increase our 00:04:19.509 --> 00:04:25.009 fear of the thing itself. So, I feel like that's 00:04:25.009 --> 00:04:27.709 sort of a practical, psychological introduction 00:04:27.709 --> 00:04:32.410 to the theory of the Third Commandment. Joy Davidman, 00:04:32.509 --> 00:04:34.589 who is the woman who married C .S. Lewis late 00:04:34.589 --> 00:04:36.910 in his life, there's a movie about it, it's pretty 00:04:36.910 --> 00:04:41.040 good. Lewis is played by Anthony Hopkins She 00:04:41.040 --> 00:04:44.180 says quote the third commandment is not just 00:04:44.180 --> 00:04:48.420 a nice Nellie ish warning against profanity It's 00:04:48.420 --> 00:04:50.800 much more like the sort of warning you see around 00:04:50.800 --> 00:04:55.740 power plants danger high voltage The implied 00:04:55.740 --> 00:04:59.040 moral seems to be be careful how you touch God. 00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:04.240 He is dangerous So the point of the third commandment 00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:07.420 I think one of the points, perhaps, is that God 00:05:07.420 --> 00:05:13.339 is utterly different than us. He is the Creator. 00:05:13.459 --> 00:05:17.680 We are the creatures. He is infinite. We are 00:05:17.680 --> 00:05:21.639 limited. He is holy. We are sinners. He is other 00:05:21.639 --> 00:05:27.120 than us. He's good, but He is very much other 00:05:27.120 --> 00:05:29.139 in a separate realm than ourselves, and we need 00:05:29.139 --> 00:05:31.959 to be trained in that truth even to the extent 00:05:31.959 --> 00:05:34.959 of our language, even to the extent of the things 00:05:34.959 --> 00:05:38.300 that we say about Him. Let's think about what 00:05:38.300 --> 00:05:41.139 the commandment says. It doesn't say, don't talk 00:05:41.139 --> 00:05:45.439 about God at all. No, we should be talking about 00:05:45.439 --> 00:05:47.959 God. A bunch of the Psalms, for instance, say 00:05:47.959 --> 00:05:50.699 that we're supposed to extol His name, we're 00:05:50.699 --> 00:05:52.300 supposed to shout His name, we're supposed to 00:05:52.300 --> 00:05:56.670 sing His name. But what the commandment says 00:05:56.670 --> 00:06:02.170 is don't take His name in vain. Don't misuse 00:06:02.170 --> 00:06:06.069 it. So the question then is, how do you misuse 00:06:06.069 --> 00:06:10.629 the name of God? In the small group that meets 00:06:10.629 --> 00:06:13.730 at my house, we started looking at Ecclesiastes 00:06:13.730 --> 00:06:16.910 recently and many of you know that Ecclesiastes 00:06:16.910 --> 00:06:20.629 begins with the line, vanity of vanities. All 00:06:20.629 --> 00:06:24.110 is vanity. It repeats this many times. One interesting 00:06:24.110 --> 00:06:27.509 thing is that the word for vanity in Ecclesiastes 00:06:27.509 --> 00:06:30.850 is a different word from the word vain that we 00:06:30.850 --> 00:06:36.790 see in Exodus. The Ecclesiastes vanity is a Hebrew 00:06:36.790 --> 00:06:41.430 word that means vanishing, vapor, smoke, something 00:06:41.430 --> 00:06:44.170 that is here and then it goes away and there's 00:06:44.170 --> 00:06:49.189 no trace of it. The message of Ecclesiastes is 00:06:49.189 --> 00:06:51.449 that everything can feel meaningless because 00:06:51.449 --> 00:06:54.370 it passes. It goes away from us, right? But the 00:06:54.370 --> 00:06:57.069 name of the Lord surely does not pass. This is 00:06:57.069 --> 00:07:01.209 a different word that's used in Exodus. The word 00:07:01.209 --> 00:07:05.329 that's used in Exodus is a word that means worthless. 00:07:07.350 --> 00:07:10.149 It's a word that means nothingness. It means 00:07:10.149 --> 00:07:13.050 actually, in context, to take something that's 00:07:13.050 --> 00:07:16.269 full of meaning and to empty it. meaning, to 00:07:16.269 --> 00:07:20.389 make it worthless. That's the sense of the Exodus 00:07:20.389 --> 00:07:26.009 word. So, how do we empty the name of God of 00:07:26.009 --> 00:07:29.110 its significance so that we know not to do it? 00:07:30.029 --> 00:07:33.850 Well, it seems to me to empty God's name of significance, 00:07:34.009 --> 00:07:38.769 you act as though He's not alive and interested 00:07:38.769 --> 00:07:42.379 and capable of intervening in the world. Right? 00:07:42.480 --> 00:07:45.839 You talk as though God, who is wholly other and 00:07:45.839 --> 00:07:50.360 wholly powerful, was just some other thing in 00:07:50.360 --> 00:07:53.920 the world. So this commandment, I think, is saying, 00:07:54.180 --> 00:07:57.100 don't think you can be casual about God, the 00:07:57.100 --> 00:07:59.399 God of heaven, right? Like he was just another 00:07:59.399 --> 00:08:01.899 guy that you happen to know. Don't think you 00:08:01.899 --> 00:08:04.360 can be casual about God like a politician who 00:08:04.360 --> 00:08:06.420 can vote out in four years if you don't like 00:08:06.420 --> 00:08:09.240 what he's doing. This is God. He created heaven 00:08:09.240 --> 00:08:11.620 and earth. He dwells in unapproachable light. 00:08:12.959 --> 00:08:15.819 So the Ten Commandments are given in Exodus 20. 00:08:17.040 --> 00:08:20.100 In Exodus 19, right before the commandments are 00:08:20.100 --> 00:08:22.100 given, when Moses is going to go up onto Mount 00:08:22.100 --> 00:08:24.759 Sinai to receive the Lord's words, God, this 00:08:24.759 --> 00:08:29.779 is a quote, says, God tells Moses to quote, set 00:08:29.779 --> 00:08:33.139 limits for the people all around saying, take 00:08:33.139 --> 00:08:36.539 care not to go up into the mountain or touch 00:08:36.539 --> 00:08:38.879 the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain 00:08:38.879 --> 00:08:41.480 shall be put to death. That's verse 12 of Exodus 00:08:41.480 --> 00:08:45.799 19. The whole mountain became holy. The whole 00:08:45.799 --> 00:08:49.200 mountain became dangerous to get near because 00:08:49.200 --> 00:08:52.940 God, the living presence of God was there on 00:08:52.940 --> 00:08:55.139 the mountain and that's what this prohibition 00:08:55.139 --> 00:08:59.379 about using His name casually is there for. That's 00:08:59.379 --> 00:09:00.759 the kind of reverence that we're supposed to 00:09:00.759 --> 00:09:05.559 give to the name of God. So if you're A lot of 00:09:05.559 --> 00:09:07.080 people think about, why do we need to fear God? 00:09:07.279 --> 00:09:09.620 Well, if you're a parent, right, you're well 00:09:09.620 --> 00:09:11.139 aware that you need to teach your children to 00:09:11.139 --> 00:09:13.120 have a healthy fear of many dangerous things. 00:09:13.419 --> 00:09:18.179 Fire going in the road, animals that growl at 00:09:18.179 --> 00:09:23.679 them, right? We need to be taught to have a healthy 00:09:23.679 --> 00:09:27.620 respect, not just for the name of God, but for 00:09:27.620 --> 00:09:31.460 God Himself. He's not an idea. He's not a theory. 00:09:31.500 --> 00:09:33.580 He's not just a mysterious energy. He's a living 00:09:33.580 --> 00:09:36.779 person who is so holy that to see him would kill 00:09:36.779 --> 00:09:41.620 you. Philip Riken says this. He says, God's name 00:09:41.620 --> 00:09:45.679 quote, is much more than a name. It is God's 00:09:45.679 --> 00:09:49.440 identity. For us, a name is a label. It's something 00:09:49.440 --> 00:09:53.240 we have, not something we are. But when we use 00:09:53.240 --> 00:09:55.860 the name of God, we're referring to the essence 00:09:55.860 --> 00:10:00.480 of His divine being. So the name of God is a 00:10:00.480 --> 00:10:04.600 big deal precisely because God is a big deal 00:10:04.600 --> 00:10:06.620 and we need to be trained in that. Anyway, with 00:10:06.620 --> 00:10:09.480 all that said, I want to talk about this third 00:10:09.480 --> 00:10:12.539 commandment that we read this morning. I don't 00:10:12.539 --> 00:10:14.720 exactly have three points today. I sort of have 00:10:14.720 --> 00:10:17.600 three lenses through which we can view it. So 00:10:17.600 --> 00:10:22.519 I want to talk about it in terms of law, the 00:10:22.519 --> 00:10:28.500 implications of the law, and then gospel. So 00:10:28.500 --> 00:10:32.059 first off Law we're not supposed to take the 00:10:32.059 --> 00:10:34.679 name of the Lord in vain John Calvin puts it 00:10:34.679 --> 00:10:37.419 really simply when he says this quote in some 00:10:37.419 --> 00:10:41.980 we must not profane God's name by using it irreverently 00:10:41.980 --> 00:10:46.159 or contemptuously so if we use the name of God 00:10:46.159 --> 00:10:50.299 in any other way than as referring to God and 00:10:50.299 --> 00:10:52.860 In fact doing so in a manner befitting creatures 00:10:52.860 --> 00:10:55.340 talking about their creator. We're breaking the 00:10:55.340 --> 00:10:57.960 commandment That's the sort of bare minimum, 00:10:58.120 --> 00:11:00.700 right, of the third commandment. So here's the 00:11:00.700 --> 00:11:02.960 takeaway from that first point. Don't do it. 00:11:03.919 --> 00:11:07.440 It's actually pretty simple. And I think for 00:11:07.440 --> 00:11:13.519 most of us in here, this is actually somewhat 00:11:13.519 --> 00:11:15.980 easy for us, right? We need to remember the holiness 00:11:15.980 --> 00:11:18.259 of God and the respect and reverence that He's 00:11:18.259 --> 00:11:22.620 due, right? If you're here this morning at the 00:11:22.620 --> 00:11:24.580 gathered worship service of Second City Church, 00:11:25.120 --> 00:11:28.259 of the Presbyterian Church in America, you're 00:11:28.259 --> 00:11:30.960 probably one who does not routinely use the name 00:11:30.960 --> 00:11:34.700 of God as a curse word. Probably you do not say, 00:11:34.940 --> 00:11:37.019 I swear to God, unless you're making a very, 00:11:37.039 --> 00:11:41.940 very serious vow, and you mean it, right? You 00:11:41.940 --> 00:11:44.480 are probably not an intentional blasphemer, right? 00:11:44.480 --> 00:11:47.940 And this is good. We should keep the commandment 00:11:47.940 --> 00:11:51.940 at this lowest level. However, if you are here 00:11:51.940 --> 00:11:54.690 this morning, You probably also know that our 00:11:54.690 --> 00:11:58.990 surrounding culture is remarkably bad at keeping 00:11:58.990 --> 00:12:02.250 this commandment. People curse using God's name 00:12:02.250 --> 00:12:04.970 all the time. People who don't believe in God 00:12:04.970 --> 00:12:07.509 swear to God without thinking much about it, 00:12:07.590 --> 00:12:09.789 right? There for a while, the kids in school 00:12:09.789 --> 00:12:13.190 were all saying, by God, all the time, just in 00:12:13.190 --> 00:12:15.110 order to prove that they felt strongly about 00:12:15.110 --> 00:12:20.079 anything. I want to tell you a brief story. about 00:12:20.079 --> 00:12:23.419 how little some people in our culture think about 00:12:23.419 --> 00:12:26.440 reverence to God and His name. It's just an anecdote. 00:12:26.879 --> 00:12:30.419 So I worked at a library for a few years and 00:12:30.419 --> 00:12:34.659 there was one young guy who came in. He was very 00:12:34.659 --> 00:12:38.440 angry because the library had fined him because 00:12:38.440 --> 00:12:43.659 he had lost several of their DVDs. So we had 00:12:43.659 --> 00:12:46.120 a lengthy conversation about this. And in the 00:12:46.120 --> 00:12:48.360 course of this conversation, he called me G. 00:12:48.590 --> 00:12:53.009 a few times, listen G, yo G, this is a white 00:12:53.009 --> 00:12:57.009 guy, and I calmed this guy down and he started 00:12:57.009 --> 00:12:58.970 feeling nicer to me eventually and he said this, 00:12:59.169 --> 00:13:04.289 you know, some people find G offensive as a term, 00:13:04.769 --> 00:13:06.809 but really it's not meant to be offensive. If 00:13:06.809 --> 00:13:09.570 you look into it, you'll see that G means God. 00:13:11.230 --> 00:13:18.539 And I thought, what? And I said to him, Were 00:13:18.539 --> 00:13:21.240 you do you mean that you were intending to call 00:13:21.240 --> 00:13:23.840 me God when we were speaking just a little bit 00:13:23.840 --> 00:13:29.840 ago? Why? Were you doing that? And he looked 00:13:29.840 --> 00:13:32.139 confused about this as confused I think as I 00:13:32.139 --> 00:13:35.279 felt and Then he just asked if he could borrow 00:13:35.279 --> 00:13:40.580 some more DVDs. So I don't know. I mean, I enjoyed 00:13:40.580 --> 00:13:43.220 that interaction more in retrospect than in the 00:13:43.220 --> 00:13:45.799 moment, but So even though that was kind of funny, 00:13:46.059 --> 00:13:48.620 this issue is not exactly low stakes. If you 00:13:48.620 --> 00:13:51.340 think about the rest of the Bible, so in Leviticus, 00:13:51.360 --> 00:13:53.639 in one of the few narrative sections of that 00:13:53.639 --> 00:13:56.799 book, there's a story in chapter 24 of a man 00:13:56.799 --> 00:14:00.259 who quote, blasphemed the name and Moses goes 00:14:00.259 --> 00:14:02.500 to the Lord to ask for instructions about what 00:14:02.500 --> 00:14:07.679 to do with this guy. And the answer is the people 00:14:07.679 --> 00:14:12.049 of God are supposed to stone him. No mercy. Quote, 00:14:12.049 --> 00:14:14.590 whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall 00:14:14.590 --> 00:14:17.190 surely be put to death. This is something the 00:14:17.190 --> 00:14:20.590 Lord feels strongly about and yet we're in a 00:14:20.590 --> 00:14:24.389 society in which reverence as such is at a remarkably 00:14:24.389 --> 00:14:27.990 low level and verbal reverence for God is at 00:14:27.990 --> 00:14:31.389 a remarkably even lower level than sort of the 00:14:31.389 --> 00:14:35.090 normal and I think that this is offensive to 00:14:35.090 --> 00:14:39.669 God. However, I also think that a lot of the 00:14:39.669 --> 00:14:43.250 people who do routinely take the Lord's name 00:14:43.250 --> 00:14:48.669 in vain are totally unthinking about it. In a 00:14:48.669 --> 00:14:51.250 very real sense, they know not what they do, 00:14:51.289 --> 00:14:54.149 as Jesus says on the cross. So I think we should 00:14:54.149 --> 00:14:57.049 feel pity and pray for people's forgiveness. 00:14:57.769 --> 00:15:00.809 We should not fall into the trap of feeling better 00:15:00.809 --> 00:15:04.159 than other people because of our verbal... habits 00:15:04.159 --> 00:15:06.759 or theirs, right? Because if we do that, if we 00:15:06.759 --> 00:15:10.299 start feeling holier than others, we might be 00:15:10.299 --> 00:15:13.200 guilty of taking the Lord's name in vain in a 00:15:13.200 --> 00:15:17.159 different way. So this is one of my points, I 00:15:17.159 --> 00:15:22.080 suppose. My first mini point was don't take the 00:15:22.080 --> 00:15:24.519 Lord's name in vain in a simple sense. My second 00:15:24.519 --> 00:15:27.299 point related to it is you probably do take the 00:15:27.299 --> 00:15:29.460 Lord's name in vain all the time in a deeper 00:15:29.460 --> 00:15:32.860 sense. Look out. We'll come back to this. One 00:15:32.860 --> 00:15:34.940 more little mini point again while we're still 00:15:34.940 --> 00:15:38.240 in this law section and that's a New Testament 00:15:38.240 --> 00:15:41.299 consideration of this third testament. So the 00:15:41.299 --> 00:15:48.120 Apostle Luke says that Jesus is suffering before 00:15:48.120 --> 00:15:51.159 he was crucified. So the men who came and arrested 00:15:51.159 --> 00:15:53.480 him, they were holding him in custody and quote, 00:15:53.659 --> 00:15:58.720 it said, they said many things against him blaspheming. 00:15:59.850 --> 00:16:02.649 Him. They said things, and this was blasphemy. 00:16:03.269 --> 00:16:07.470 This means that Jesus is capable of being verbally 00:16:07.470 --> 00:16:12.850 blasphemed, right? And that, according to the 00:16:12.850 --> 00:16:14.470 logic of the Bible, means that He has a name 00:16:14.470 --> 00:16:19.730 which is equal to that of God the Father. Therefore, 00:16:19.809 --> 00:16:22.610 I think for us practically, in this law section 00:16:22.610 --> 00:16:25.370 of things to think about, the name of Jesus needs 00:16:25.370 --> 00:16:28.350 to be handled with the same respect and reverence 00:16:28.350 --> 00:16:32.259 with which we handle the name God for obvious 00:16:32.259 --> 00:16:35.700 theological orthodox reasons, right? Okay, so 00:16:35.700 --> 00:16:37.700 let's move on to our next lens. That was the 00:16:37.700 --> 00:16:40.879 law, flat. That's the prohibition. Don't do it. 00:16:41.100 --> 00:16:43.259 And again, we should just agree, right? Don't 00:16:43.259 --> 00:16:47.379 do it. It's like Nike, but in reverse. But as 00:16:47.379 --> 00:16:49.600 Calvin, John Calvin is good to point out, the 00:16:49.600 --> 00:16:52.320 negatives of the law actually mean a good deal 00:16:52.320 --> 00:16:55.110 more than just don't. We need to think about 00:16:55.110 --> 00:16:58.129 the negatives of the law as a bare minimum, but 00:16:58.129 --> 00:17:01.110 we are expected to go above and beyond those 00:17:01.110 --> 00:17:04.269 negatives. So Calvin says this, quote, the prohibition 00:17:04.269 --> 00:17:07.789 of the third commandment implies a corresponding 00:17:07.789 --> 00:17:10.990 precept, which is that it be our study and our 00:17:10.990 --> 00:17:14.829 care to treat his name with religious veneration. 00:17:15.250 --> 00:17:17.630 End quote. That is to say we're supposed to worship 00:17:17.630 --> 00:17:21.609 God whenever we talk about him, in Jesus's terms, 00:17:21.930 --> 00:17:25.230 we're supposed to hallow the name of God our 00:17:25.230 --> 00:17:26.950 Father who art in heaven, right? So that's my 00:17:26.950 --> 00:17:29.650 second lens. This is the implication of the law. 00:17:30.849 --> 00:17:32.829 I want to give you a hypothetical scenario to 00:17:32.829 --> 00:17:34.549 illustrate kind of what I'm talking about here, 00:17:34.789 --> 00:17:39.069 right? So picture this setting. It's lunch break. 00:17:39.289 --> 00:17:42.430 At work, a bunch of people have gone out to get 00:17:42.430 --> 00:17:44.849 a sandwich. They're walking back to the job. 00:17:45.309 --> 00:17:48.950 It's been a hard day already. Consider two theoretical 00:17:48.950 --> 00:17:51.930 people and their speaking roles in the same situation, 00:17:52.009 --> 00:17:55.789 okay? Here's person A. He's an atheist. He's 00:17:55.789 --> 00:17:58.750 speaking to his work buddies. And first, he speaks 00:17:58.750 --> 00:18:02.450 the holy name of the Lord Jesus Christ, but he 00:18:02.450 --> 00:18:05.029 is not praying. He is not making a theological 00:18:05.029 --> 00:18:07.890 observation. He's using it as a curse word. And 00:18:07.890 --> 00:18:12.299 then he says, The boss is such an idiot. This 00:18:12.299 --> 00:18:16.079 is a believable scenario, is it not? Right? Maybe 00:18:16.079 --> 00:18:18.480 you could put in a couple of sprinkling of adjectives 00:18:18.480 --> 00:18:20.240 to make it more believable to you, but these 00:18:20.240 --> 00:18:24.700 conversations are real. But now, picture a hypothetical 00:18:24.700 --> 00:18:29.599 different person, a churchgoer, in exactly that 00:18:29.599 --> 00:18:33.259 same situation. So now person B, he says this. 00:18:33.559 --> 00:18:36.420 He does not say the name Jesus Christ, instead 00:18:36.420 --> 00:18:41.789 he says, golly. Gee whiz. And then what he says 00:18:41.789 --> 00:18:46.049 is, the boss is such an idiot. And what I want 00:18:46.049 --> 00:18:50.970 to ask you is this, is person B doing better 00:18:50.970 --> 00:18:54.730 in this scenario morally than person A? This 00:18:54.730 --> 00:18:59.150 is a real question, right? Let's do ethics. Here's 00:18:59.150 --> 00:19:00.990 my answer. You can tell me if you think I'm wrong 00:19:00.990 --> 00:19:05.569 later. I think person B, the guy who says, golly. 00:19:07.160 --> 00:19:10.700 is, strictly speaking, doing better morally than 00:19:10.700 --> 00:19:13.779 the other guy. He has not broken the letter of 00:19:13.779 --> 00:19:16.019 the law in terms of the third commandment. However, 00:19:16.279 --> 00:19:19.819 it's a very shallow victory, isn't it? While 00:19:19.819 --> 00:19:22.380 he has not profaned the name of the Lord by using 00:19:22.380 --> 00:19:25.180 it irreverently or contemptuously, he's certainly 00:19:25.180 --> 00:19:29.000 not bringing honor to God because the rest of 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:32.200 his speech is entirely like this other guy. He 00:19:32.200 --> 00:19:36.779 speaks like an atheist except for not honoring 00:19:36.779 --> 00:19:39.740 the bear, excuse me, not breaking the bear commandment 00:19:39.740 --> 00:19:42.259 itself, right? The rest of his speech does not 00:19:42.259 --> 00:19:44.920 hollow the name, grumbling about people, insulting 00:19:44.920 --> 00:19:46.720 them behind their back. This is not Christ -like 00:19:46.720 --> 00:19:51.440 behavior. Yes? Calvin says, quote, we must not 00:19:51.440 --> 00:19:55.460 detract from or throw insult upon God's works. 00:19:55.869 --> 00:20:00.269 as miserable men often insultingly do, but we 00:20:00.269 --> 00:20:03.990 must laud, praise every action which we attribute 00:20:03.990 --> 00:20:08.170 to him as wise, just, and good. This is to sanctify 00:20:08.170 --> 00:20:12.589 the name of the Lord. And do you know what's 00:20:12.589 --> 00:20:18.190 included in the scope of God's works? It's literally 00:20:18.190 --> 00:20:21.970 everything, right? So if we are praising God 00:20:21.970 --> 00:20:25.279 for literally everything, we're doing well. according 00:20:25.279 --> 00:20:29.359 to the implication of the third commandment. 00:20:30.740 --> 00:20:35.759 Do you praise God for literally everything? I'm 00:20:35.759 --> 00:20:38.319 not saying that we can't be sad or angry about 00:20:38.319 --> 00:20:40.640 unjust things or even that we can't complain 00:20:40.640 --> 00:20:42.640 sometimes in a way that acknowledges our own 00:20:42.640 --> 00:20:45.819 faults and maintains God's sovereignty, but if 00:20:45.819 --> 00:20:50.049 we usually or even often take the position of 00:20:50.049 --> 00:20:52.829 judging and grumbling, we're insulting the providence 00:20:52.829 --> 00:20:57.089 of God, and that is taking His name lightly. 00:20:57.670 --> 00:20:59.950 And friend, if you are like me, I'm a person 00:20:59.950 --> 00:21:03.390 who feels things very strongly. I feel like I 00:21:03.390 --> 00:21:05.549 should just probably be in charge of the world. 00:21:05.890 --> 00:21:07.789 If everybody would listen to me, we would do 00:21:07.789 --> 00:21:13.130 better, right? This implication should make you 00:21:13.130 --> 00:21:17.210 pause, right? Are your Habitual words are your 00:21:17.210 --> 00:21:19.670 habitual thoughts, giving glory to God's name? 00:21:20.589 --> 00:21:23.470 What about when you're driving? What about when 00:21:23.470 --> 00:21:26.289 you're watching sports? What about when you're 00:21:26.289 --> 00:21:30.450 scrolling through your news feed, right? If your 00:21:30.450 --> 00:21:34.230 words are not giving positive glory to God, you're 00:21:34.230 --> 00:21:36.670 not making it to this implication of the law, 00:21:36.829 --> 00:21:39.829 right? quote, whatever our mind conceives of 00:21:39.829 --> 00:21:42.529 him, whatever our tongue utters, must bespeak 00:21:42.529 --> 00:21:45.509 his excellence and correspond to the greatness 00:21:45.509 --> 00:21:48.390 of his sacred name. Do you live up to that standard? 00:21:48.829 --> 00:21:55.470 I do not. So, friend, here's the thing. I think 00:21:55.470 --> 00:21:58.170 that even if we're really good at keeping the 00:21:58.170 --> 00:22:01.589 third commandment in its prohibition, we don't 00:22:01.589 --> 00:22:04.990 actively misuse God name, I think we probably 00:22:04.990 --> 00:22:09.680 fail. much of the time at keeping the implications 00:22:09.680 --> 00:22:13.519 of the same law, honoring God's name and all 00:22:13.519 --> 00:22:15.259 that we think as well as we say. I'm guessing 00:22:15.259 --> 00:22:18.819 we keep the letter, but break the spirit of the 00:22:18.819 --> 00:22:24.059 law. Well, what should we do with this? I don't 00:22:24.059 --> 00:22:26.180 think we should just stop trying, right? It's 00:22:26.180 --> 00:22:28.519 better to be a flailing sinner who's trying to 00:22:28.519 --> 00:22:32.769 get things right than a Pharisee. So that's what 00:22:32.769 --> 00:22:34.990 I meant earlier when I said that we better not 00:22:34.990 --> 00:22:37.589 be judgmental when we hear others, especially 00:22:37.589 --> 00:22:40.509 in ignorance, misuse God's name. Because if we 00:22:40.509 --> 00:22:42.930 do that, if we put ourselves in the seat of judgment 00:22:42.930 --> 00:22:45.869 against them, we are judging them on part of 00:22:45.869 --> 00:22:47.769 the law while we ourselves are breaking other 00:22:47.769 --> 00:22:49.549 parts of the law. And you remember what Paul 00:22:49.549 --> 00:23:02.980 says about that? Romans 2, he says, Do you hear? 00:23:03.940 --> 00:23:06.640 If we don't live up to what God's holiness deserves, 00:23:06.920 --> 00:23:09.339 we're causing the third commandment to be broken. 00:23:11.740 --> 00:23:13.680 So if we think in these terms, I think we will 00:23:13.680 --> 00:23:16.700 say, like Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address, 00:23:16.819 --> 00:23:21.069 we cannot consecrate. We cannot hallow. We are 00:23:21.069 --> 00:23:23.710 not good enough to bring glory to God's name 00:23:23.710 --> 00:23:26.609 like we should. It's beyond our power. We cannot 00:23:26.609 --> 00:23:29.250 keep the positive implications of the law. This 00:23:29.250 --> 00:23:34.849 is bad news. But there is good news. So the law 00:23:34.849 --> 00:23:37.410 is, as Paul says, a schoolmaster to bring us 00:23:37.410 --> 00:23:42.210 to Christ. So let's move to my third lens here 00:23:42.210 --> 00:23:45.650 today. What does the gospel have to say about 00:23:45.650 --> 00:23:50.920 the third commandment? Here it is, I think. God 00:23:50.920 --> 00:23:55.259 will do the work that we can't. You remember 00:23:55.259 --> 00:23:57.359 the gospel reading this morning from John 12? 00:23:57.640 --> 00:24:02.160 Jesus prays, Father, glorify your name, and God 00:24:02.160 --> 00:24:04.819 the Father answers audibly from heaven as he 00:24:04.819 --> 00:24:08.460 did at Sinai, and he says, I have glorified it, 00:24:08.460 --> 00:24:13.940 and I will glorify it again. So, bad news, we 00:24:13.940 --> 00:24:16.420 can't glorify God's name the way that he deserves. 00:24:16.559 --> 00:24:20.789 Good news, he will do it himself. Praise God, 00:24:20.910 --> 00:24:23.849 God's name will be honored because God will honor 00:24:23.849 --> 00:24:25.690 it. And that's kind of the picture of Scripture, 00:24:25.970 --> 00:24:28.769 the pattern, isn't it? We are lawbreakers, but 00:24:28.769 --> 00:24:31.869 God in Christ keeps the law on our behalf and 00:24:31.869 --> 00:24:33.970 we get the benefit of His obedience. This is 00:24:33.970 --> 00:24:37.269 gospel. The John 12 reading, you remember, is 00:24:37.269 --> 00:24:40.089 in the context of Jesus talking about the crucifixion. 00:24:40.329 --> 00:24:42.869 The way that God makes sure His name will be 00:24:42.869 --> 00:24:46.089 glorified is by the willing sacrifice of the 00:24:46.089 --> 00:24:48.190 innocent Jesus who's the only person who perfectly 00:24:48.190 --> 00:24:51.490 kept the third commandment. the law and it's 00:24:51.490 --> 00:24:57.210 the implications of the law, right? This is the 00:24:57.210 --> 00:25:00.690 logic of the cross. So, I gave us a lot of mini 00:25:00.690 --> 00:25:03.490 takeaways earlier, right? Don't use God's name 00:25:03.490 --> 00:25:06.410 as profanity, don't swear by God unless you really 00:25:06.410 --> 00:25:10.329 mean it, right? Don't look down your nose about 00:25:10.329 --> 00:25:13.670 people who get this stuff wrong too easily, right? 00:25:13.809 --> 00:25:17.150 But the real takeaway here, as always, is this. 00:25:17.349 --> 00:25:22.250 Cling to the cross of Christ. Don't trust in 00:25:22.250 --> 00:25:24.869 your own righteousness, even in the smallest 00:25:24.869 --> 00:25:28.369 and apparently easiest things. Think about this. 00:25:28.390 --> 00:25:31.089 Just do a mental check. The third command is 00:25:31.089 --> 00:25:33.910 probably the easiest of all of the Ten Commandments, 00:25:33.970 --> 00:25:37.130 isn't it? Don't lie? Well, that's difficult. 00:25:37.190 --> 00:25:40.990 Don't covet? Oh boy. Don't lust? Okay. Don't 00:25:40.990 --> 00:25:43.069 have any other gods before God? That's really 00:25:43.069 --> 00:25:45.670 difficult when we consider the large scope. The 00:25:45.670 --> 00:25:47.589 third commandment is the easiest of them all, 00:25:47.589 --> 00:25:51.859 I think, and you can't do it. So don't trust 00:25:51.859 --> 00:25:57.039 in your ability, trust in Christ. I think the 00:25:57.039 --> 00:25:59.619 real heart of this message is that we need to 00:25:59.619 --> 00:26:02.339 have a renewed sense of our own insufficiency 00:26:02.339 --> 00:26:04.740 to keep even the smallest parts of the law and 00:26:04.740 --> 00:26:07.900 a heightened desire to go to Christ for forgiveness 00:26:07.900 --> 00:26:11.440 and grace and justification before God. And then, 00:26:12.160 --> 00:26:15.130 having done that, right? We will want to praise 00:26:15.130 --> 00:26:17.470 His name. We will want our conversation to bring 00:26:17.470 --> 00:26:20.349 Him great glory. There'll be no temptation to 00:26:20.349 --> 00:26:24.210 misuse His name because we will desire to praise 00:26:24.210 --> 00:26:27.869 Him, right? That's what this sermon series is 00:26:27.869 --> 00:26:29.569 called, you know, the resurrection life. Here 00:26:29.569 --> 00:26:32.950 we are in the season of Easter, right? Being 00:26:32.950 --> 00:26:37.049 new, being newborn in Christ is to want to praise 00:26:37.049 --> 00:26:40.890 His name always. So that's the good news. God 00:26:40.890 --> 00:26:43.609 keeps His name holy. It's not up to you. But 00:26:43.609 --> 00:26:48.910 wait, there's more. There always is. What's the 00:26:48.910 --> 00:26:50.710 greater good news with the third commandment? 00:26:51.210 --> 00:26:54.490 What's the great gospel truth? Here it is. Think 00:26:54.490 --> 00:26:57.490 about the Great Commission. What does Jesus say 00:26:57.490 --> 00:26:59.970 when he's risen from the dead and all authority 00:26:59.970 --> 00:27:01.970 in heaven and earth has been given unto him? 00:27:02.029 --> 00:27:05.089 He says his disciples are supposed to go therefore 00:27:05.089 --> 00:27:08.009 into all the world making disciples and baptizing 00:27:08.009 --> 00:27:14.940 them in the name the Father and of the Son and 00:27:14.940 --> 00:27:20.019 of the Holy Ghost. Friend, think about it. If 00:27:20.019 --> 00:27:25.279 you are a baptized Christian, if you are a believer 00:27:25.279 --> 00:27:27.839 in the Lord Jesus and a member of His Church, 00:27:27.859 --> 00:27:33.920 you were baptized in the name of the Trinity, 00:27:34.400 --> 00:27:37.400 right? the name that God was so concerned in 00:27:37.400 --> 00:27:39.519 the third commandment that didn't get misused 00:27:39.519 --> 00:27:41.539 and didn't get taken in vain, didn't get dirty. 00:27:41.779 --> 00:27:45.319 He lets you and me and every forgiven sinner 00:27:45.319 --> 00:27:51.519 into that name. He puts that name upon us. In 00:27:51.519 --> 00:27:53.500 Leviticus 24, we have that story of the person 00:27:53.500 --> 00:27:55.759 who misused the name of the Lord in anger and 00:27:55.759 --> 00:27:58.000 he got stoned for it. He got rocks thrown at 00:27:58.000 --> 00:28:02.619 him until he died. is how serious, how intense 00:28:02.619 --> 00:28:05.400 the Lord feels about the misuse of His name and 00:28:05.400 --> 00:28:09.200 how apparently intense we should feel about the 00:28:09.200 --> 00:28:12.019 name of the Lord. And then in the New Testament, 00:28:12.220 --> 00:28:15.119 God says that you and me and our children and 00:28:15.119 --> 00:28:17.920 all who are far off can be baptized into that 00:28:17.920 --> 00:28:20.279 name because of the mediatorial work of Jesus. 00:28:21.720 --> 00:28:25.960 This is very nearly unbelievable. God goes to 00:28:25.960 --> 00:28:27.900 great lengths all throughout the Bible to show 00:28:27.900 --> 00:28:30.970 how drastically holy how other he is, how you 00:28:30.970 --> 00:28:33.009 can't approach him without the proper ceremony 00:28:33.009 --> 00:28:36.190 or you will get zapped. And then Jesus comes 00:28:36.190 --> 00:28:38.750 among us and dies on our behalf. And then what 00:28:38.750 --> 00:28:40.750 happens to the holiness of the name? It doesn't 00:28:40.750 --> 00:28:44.210 lessen. It does not become less holy. But God 00:28:44.210 --> 00:28:47.809 sloshes that holiness out in full measure upon 00:28:47.809 --> 00:28:53.069 all his baptized people. In Exodus 19, that same 00:28:53.069 --> 00:28:55.549 chapter where God is roping off the bottom of 00:28:55.549 --> 00:28:57.730 Mount Sinai to make sure nobody stumbles up into 00:28:57.730 --> 00:29:00.069 His holiness and dies, this is what God tells 00:29:00.069 --> 00:29:02.529 Moses, to tell the people. He says, you shall 00:29:02.529 --> 00:29:06.150 be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. 00:29:06.609 --> 00:29:10.269 That is, every one of God's people will be like 00:29:10.269 --> 00:29:12.869 Moses. They will all be holy. They'll all be 00:29:12.869 --> 00:29:15.630 able to stand in His presence. And that's what 00:29:15.630 --> 00:29:18.970 happens to us because of the blood of Christ 00:29:18.970 --> 00:29:21.700 shed on our behalf. We're not holy in our own 00:29:21.700 --> 00:29:25.680 right. We don't earn our position, but instead 00:29:25.680 --> 00:29:31.319 we bear His very name. It's part of our new identity. 00:29:31.400 --> 00:29:34.559 We become other than what we were. That's what 00:29:34.559 --> 00:29:39.160 it means to be a Christian. Right? It means that 00:29:39.160 --> 00:29:42.220 you're called by the name of Christ, the holy 00:29:42.220 --> 00:29:45.839 name. Think about Ephesians that we read this 00:29:45.839 --> 00:29:47.299 morning. The whole family in heaven and earth 00:29:47.299 --> 00:29:50.690 is named. Revelation says that believers will 00:29:50.690 --> 00:29:53.049 have the Holy Name written upon them. Chapter 00:29:53.049 --> 00:29:59.710 22. To be a saved person means that the Holy 00:29:59.710 --> 00:30:04.529 Name is attached to you. It's more important 00:30:04.529 --> 00:30:07.250 to your true identity than your personal name 00:30:07.250 --> 00:30:12.809 is. So, all of this to say, we vain people are 00:30:12.809 --> 00:30:14.930 welcomed into the very name we're told not to 00:30:14.930 --> 00:30:21.480 take in vain. by the holiness, by the plan of 00:30:21.480 --> 00:30:26.220 God. Okay, so fear of a name increases fear of 00:30:26.220 --> 00:30:30.039 the thing itself. We should fear God. We should 00:30:30.039 --> 00:30:32.380 reverence His name. And Christian, we should 00:30:32.380 --> 00:30:35.960 know that we are marked body and soul by that 00:30:35.960 --> 00:30:38.640 very name that we are told to reverence to the 00:30:38.640 --> 00:30:42.740 glory of God in Jesus Christ. Amen. Let's pray. 00:30:43.660 --> 00:30:51.700 Oh Lord God, we pray now In the name of Jesus, 00:30:51.880 --> 00:30:55.160 as you have made available for us in this great 00:30:55.160 --> 00:30:58.240 economy of salvation, we pray that your name 00:30:58.240 --> 00:31:02.880 would be holy. We pray that you would glorify 00:31:02.880 --> 00:31:05.119 that name, and we pray that you would glorify 00:31:05.119 --> 00:31:09.720 even in us. Help us to live holy lives, to do 00:31:09.720 --> 00:31:14.640 those things that please you. Help us to desire 00:31:14.640 --> 00:31:18.220 what is right above all things, above our own 00:31:18.220 --> 00:31:22.150 glory. Lord God, we pray these things in Jesus' 00:31:22.509 --> 00:31:23.349 name, amen.