1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,700 I hope every one of you have been following me in these heart-to-heart talks regarding the Ten Commandments. 2 00:00:07,700 --> 00:00:14,200 I think that this is the first time in all of the years that I've been preaching the gospel, 3 00:00:14,200 --> 00:00:21,700 of all the many years that I've been coming into your home, 4 00:00:21,700 --> 00:00:28,700 I think this is the first time that I have ever brought a series of messages 5 00:00:28,700 --> 00:00:34,700 on these God's Ten Rules for Living. 6 00:00:34,700 --> 00:00:43,200 And I came to the conclusion the other day that in this twentieth century, 7 00:00:43,200 --> 00:00:46,200 we are pretty smart. 8 00:00:46,200 --> 00:00:54,700 I don't think there was ever a people who knew more about life than the folk living today. 9 00:00:54,700 --> 00:00:55,700 That's right. 10 00:00:55,700 --> 00:01:02,700 It seems that we know all about life, and yet when it comes right down to it, 11 00:01:02,700 --> 00:01:18,700 there are very few today, regardless of their intellect, their training, their knowledge, their education. 12 00:01:18,700 --> 00:01:26,700 Very few know how to live, and it's just like that. 13 00:01:26,700 --> 00:01:40,700 So I thought it's about time that we would get together and just study God's heart-to-heart talk that he had with Moses. 14 00:01:40,700 --> 00:01:49,700 And he took Moses aside and said, now look here, I'm going to give you ten rules for living. 15 00:01:49,700 --> 00:01:53,700 I want you to give them to your people. 16 00:01:53,700 --> 00:02:02,700 And those ten rules, my friend, were not only for Israel, but for every one of us today, 17 00:02:02,700 --> 00:02:06,700 and as long as man shall live. 18 00:02:06,700 --> 00:02:19,700 God has never changed these ten rules for a successful life, the joys of living, prosperity, 19 00:02:19,700 --> 00:02:26,700 and all that you may have to face from the cradle to the grave. 20 00:02:26,700 --> 00:02:35,700 Well, sir, this is now my seventh in these heart-to-heart talks, and would you believe it? 21 00:02:35,700 --> 00:02:44,700 When I left your home in our last heart-to-heart talk, we had only gotten to the third of the ten commandments. 22 00:02:44,700 --> 00:02:47,700 And time went so quickly that here I am again. 23 00:02:47,700 --> 00:02:52,700 I'm going to have to begin exactly where I left off when I left your home the last time, 24 00:02:52,700 --> 00:02:56,700 in this third of the ten rules for living. 25 00:02:56,700 --> 00:03:02,700 Oh, you know it, you know it well, because when you were a little girl or a youngster in Sunday school, 26 00:03:02,700 --> 00:03:07,700 you learned them in Sunday school, and you got maybe a little pin, a little gold pin, 27 00:03:07,700 --> 00:03:13,700 or a picture, or maybe a Bible for having learned the ten commandments. 28 00:03:13,700 --> 00:03:19,700 But when it comes right down to it, let's face it, that's about all that you know about the ten commandments. 29 00:03:19,700 --> 00:03:30,700 Sure, so when I read from God's Word, you remember, and you can quote the Scripture with me. 30 00:03:30,700 --> 00:03:45,700 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 31 00:03:45,700 --> 00:03:47,700 I didn't say that. 32 00:03:47,700 --> 00:03:58,700 Now, if I said it, or some religious man said it, or it was one of the doctrines of your church, 33 00:03:58,700 --> 00:04:02,700 then you could either take it or leave it. 34 00:04:02,700 --> 00:04:06,700 But this comes from God himself. 35 00:04:06,700 --> 00:04:10,700 This comes from the highest authority there is. 36 00:04:10,700 --> 00:04:13,700 It's a command. 37 00:04:13,700 --> 00:04:21,700 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, 38 00:04:21,700 --> 00:04:29,700 for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 39 00:04:29,700 --> 00:04:37,700 If men use the name of God, if you're going to use God's name, 40 00:04:37,700 --> 00:04:46,700 if we are to use God's name, we must use it in a way which is true to its meaning and intentions. 41 00:04:46,700 --> 00:04:55,700 And any use, I don't care what use is made of God's name, 42 00:04:55,700 --> 00:05:05,700 whether it's from behind the pulpit, whether it is in a courtroom, whether it's on the street. 43 00:05:05,700 --> 00:05:13,700 Whenever the name of God is used, in any use the name of God, 44 00:05:13,700 --> 00:05:22,700 when it denies the character of God, when it denies the true meaning of God 45 00:05:22,700 --> 00:05:32,700 and the true intentions of God, then, beloved, the one who uses it breaks this commandment. 46 00:05:32,700 --> 00:05:39,700 God's name must be used respectfully. 47 00:05:39,700 --> 00:05:43,700 He is a holy God. 48 00:05:43,700 --> 00:05:48,700 He is God Almighty. 49 00:05:48,700 --> 00:05:59,700 And His name must never be used except as we reverence God and reverence His name. 50 00:05:59,700 --> 00:06:06,700 Now, there are two ways in which men misuse the name of Almighty God. 51 00:06:06,700 --> 00:06:13,700 I think that all of the misuse of His name can be put in two categories. 52 00:06:13,700 --> 00:06:18,700 One is in hypocrisy. 53 00:06:18,700 --> 00:06:28,700 Many a professing Christian is using the name of God and is using it for his own selfish means 54 00:06:28,700 --> 00:06:30,700 rather than for the glory of God. 55 00:06:30,700 --> 00:06:32,700 Hypocrisy. 56 00:06:32,700 --> 00:06:38,700 I'll talk about that a little later as I had been talking about it in the previous heart-to-heart talk. 57 00:06:38,700 --> 00:06:44,700 Then there is the use of the name of God in profanity. 58 00:06:44,700 --> 00:06:51,700 Men today are breaking this commandment in profanity. 59 00:06:51,700 --> 00:07:05,700 The sin of profane swearing prevails this very hour and is one of the worst habits that a person can get into. 60 00:07:05,700 --> 00:07:13,700 And sometimes I think that when you study it and analyze it, it's nothing more or less than just a habit. 61 00:07:13,700 --> 00:07:16,700 That's right. 62 00:07:16,700 --> 00:07:21,700 It's very often the sin of thoughtlessness. 63 00:07:21,700 --> 00:07:36,700 How often a man gets in the habit of swearing, of using the name of the Lord in vain, and he doesn't think of it. 64 00:07:36,700 --> 00:07:40,700 That day when that person accepts the Lord as his Savior, 65 00:07:40,700 --> 00:07:46,700 how often men have stood and have testified that they have been delivered from liquor, 66 00:07:46,700 --> 00:07:52,700 that they have been delivered from smoking, 67 00:07:52,700 --> 00:07:56,700 and then they'll smile and say, do you want to know something? 68 00:07:56,700 --> 00:08:02,700 I never agreed that I was taking the Lord God, 69 00:08:02,700 --> 00:08:12,700 I was taking His name in vain, that I was misusing it as I was until after my conversion. 70 00:08:12,700 --> 00:08:17,700 And it wasn't something they had to fight against. 71 00:08:17,700 --> 00:08:22,700 They looked themselves directly in the face, realized that they were doing it. 72 00:08:22,700 --> 00:08:26,700 A sin of thoughtlessness. 73 00:08:26,700 --> 00:08:39,700 And some of you people, after this heart-to-heart talk today, will no longer use the name of God in vain for anything in the world 74 00:08:39,700 --> 00:08:44,700 because you think too much of Him, you honor Him too much, you love Him too much, 75 00:08:44,700 --> 00:08:51,700 but it's been thoughtlessness on your part, and since it has been brought to your attention, 76 00:08:51,700 --> 00:08:55,700 you'll recognize it, and the habit will be broken. 77 00:08:55,700 --> 00:08:57,700 I believe that. 78 00:08:57,700 --> 00:09:00,700 I know there's some preachers who'll stand on the pulpit, 79 00:09:00,700 --> 00:09:11,700 oh, they'll preach their sermons on profanity and damn the souls of those and send men to hell 80 00:09:11,700 --> 00:09:14,700 for the profanity that they use. 81 00:09:14,700 --> 00:09:22,700 I know it's wrong, God's Word says it's wrong, but watch something. 82 00:09:22,700 --> 00:09:32,700 I believe that when they realize the awfulness of the habit, the sin in the habit, 83 00:09:32,700 --> 00:09:43,700 I believe that they'll do everything in the world to be careful how they use the name of God. 84 00:09:43,700 --> 00:09:47,700 Some men do not know when they do swear. 85 00:09:47,700 --> 00:09:55,700 They were born in the midst of the most awful, immoral atmosphere. 86 00:09:55,700 --> 00:09:57,700 Their dads swore. 87 00:09:57,700 --> 00:10:03,700 Sorry to say, their mother could out-swear their father when she got mad. 88 00:10:03,700 --> 00:10:07,700 That's right. Oh, my word. 89 00:10:07,700 --> 00:10:14,700 I've heard women who could out-swear any man that you ever heard swear in all of your life when they got mad. 90 00:10:14,700 --> 00:10:18,700 Nobody has a more vicious temper than a woman. 91 00:10:18,700 --> 00:10:26,700 And when she lacks for words, she'll take it out in profanity. 92 00:10:26,700 --> 00:10:29,700 And it's just like that. 93 00:10:29,700 --> 00:10:34,700 And they began to talk in profanity from their earliest days. 94 00:10:34,700 --> 00:10:37,700 Children have gotten it from their parents. 95 00:10:37,700 --> 00:10:41,700 They think that that's the thing to do. 96 00:10:41,700 --> 00:10:46,700 The greatest mimics in the world are children. 97 00:10:46,700 --> 00:10:51,700 I didn't learn to swear because Papa never swore. 98 00:10:51,700 --> 00:10:55,700 I wasn't brought up in that kind of a home. 99 00:10:55,700 --> 00:11:01,700 Therefore, I never got in the habit of swearing. 100 00:11:01,700 --> 00:11:10,700 I do not believe that I would ever have sworn, ever have used profanity, even though I were not a Christian, 101 00:11:10,700 --> 00:11:13,700 because I wasn't brought up in that kind of a home. 102 00:11:13,700 --> 00:11:20,700 It's a terrible thing when you bring up little children and teach them to swear. 103 00:11:20,700 --> 00:11:24,700 In those tender little years, they think nothing of swearing, 104 00:11:24,700 --> 00:11:29,700 because they don't know any better and may hear it from the father and the mother. 105 00:11:29,700 --> 00:11:31,700 It's a terrible thing. 106 00:11:31,700 --> 00:11:38,700 But such men are not nearly so good as others who have been brought up in a pure moral atmosphere 107 00:11:38,700 --> 00:11:44,700 and have, nevertheless, fallen into the habit. 108 00:11:44,700 --> 00:11:51,700 Much would be gained if men would think of what they're doing in profane swearing, 109 00:11:51,700 --> 00:11:55,700 especially where the name of God is involved. 110 00:11:55,700 --> 00:12:01,700 An expression that's most frequently used, I believe, 111 00:12:01,700 --> 00:12:08,700 and I know as I use it there's going to be somebody who's going to criticize me for it, 112 00:12:08,700 --> 00:12:12,700 but I'm going to use it and let's analyze it. 113 00:12:12,700 --> 00:12:20,700 You hear it hundreds of times a day if you are in public. 114 00:12:20,700 --> 00:12:24,700 Those three words, god damn you. 115 00:12:24,700 --> 00:12:34,700 And yet the man who uses those three words does not know what he's saying. 116 00:12:34,700 --> 00:12:40,700 A man is annoyed in some way by another and gives ready tongue to this oath. 117 00:12:40,700 --> 00:12:47,700 It is taking God's name in vain because the man who says it does not mean it. 118 00:12:47,700 --> 00:12:51,700 He absolutely does not mean it. 119 00:12:51,700 --> 00:12:55,700 I've heard men use that expression. 120 00:12:55,700 --> 00:12:59,700 I have heard them use that profanity. 121 00:12:59,700 --> 00:13:04,700 God damn you. 122 00:13:04,700 --> 00:13:10,700 When I knew the heart of that man was so tender 123 00:13:10,700 --> 00:13:17,700 that if he knew that the man to whom he was speaking was to be damned, 124 00:13:17,700 --> 00:13:21,700 he would do everything in the world to keep him from being damned. 125 00:13:21,700 --> 00:13:23,700 That's right. 126 00:13:23,700 --> 00:13:31,700 The man that he was angry with and to whom he was saying these vile words, 127 00:13:31,700 --> 00:13:36,700 if he saw that man drowning, he would be the first one to rescue him. 128 00:13:36,700 --> 00:13:38,700 He'd give his life for him. 129 00:13:38,700 --> 00:13:40,700 Therefore, he didn't mean it all. 130 00:13:40,700 --> 00:13:44,700 There's not a man who says it, who would like to see it carried out 131 00:13:44,700 --> 00:13:49,700 with respect to his fellow man in all of its terrible meaning. 132 00:13:49,700 --> 00:13:55,700 It is trifling with the name of God, and we don't dare do it. 133 00:13:55,700 --> 00:13:59,700 Let me get this across to you if you don't remember anything else that I say. 134 00:13:59,700 --> 00:14:05,700 There is one name that you and I cannot trifle with. 135 00:14:05,700 --> 00:14:10,700 Know that. Please hear me. 136 00:14:10,700 --> 00:14:15,700 You dare not trifle with the name of God. 137 00:14:15,700 --> 00:14:20,700 I dare not trifle with God's name. 138 00:14:20,700 --> 00:14:25,700 I must be very careful when I speak the name of God. 139 00:14:25,700 --> 00:14:28,700 You must be very careful. 140 00:14:28,700 --> 00:14:33,700 He is God Almighty. 141 00:14:33,700 --> 00:14:37,700 He is the Great I Am. 142 00:14:37,700 --> 00:14:44,700 He is the Beginning. He is God Everlasting. 143 00:14:44,700 --> 00:14:49,700 He dare not be put on the level with man. 144 00:14:49,700 --> 00:14:54,700 When we speak his name, his name must only be spoken in reference. 145 00:14:54,700 --> 00:14:56,700 Know that. 146 00:14:56,700 --> 00:15:00,700 We dare not trifle with the name of God, 147 00:15:00,700 --> 00:15:07,700 invoking him to do something which is never intended that he shall do. 148 00:15:07,700 --> 00:15:12,700 That's not the most shocking aspect of the vain use the name of God 149 00:15:12,700 --> 00:15:16,700 in that particular expression. 150 00:15:16,700 --> 00:15:21,700 For men are not only asking God to do something which they do not wish him to do, 151 00:15:21,700 --> 00:15:26,700 but to do something that he never does. 152 00:15:26,700 --> 00:15:32,700 God never damned a man. Never. 153 00:15:32,700 --> 00:15:34,700 There's no truth in it. 154 00:15:34,700 --> 00:15:37,700 God's work is the work of salvation. 155 00:15:37,700 --> 00:15:45,700 And if a man is lost, it is man's own act of suicide. 156 00:15:45,700 --> 00:15:50,700 Every man, every woman damns himself. 157 00:15:50,700 --> 00:15:54,700 God is not casting men away into eternal loss. 158 00:15:54,700 --> 00:15:58,700 Many women have the wrong idea of that entirely. 159 00:15:58,700 --> 00:16:05,700 The scripture says, God is not willing that any should perish. 160 00:16:05,700 --> 00:16:09,700 God is not damning your soul. 161 00:16:09,700 --> 00:16:11,700 God has never damned a soul. 162 00:16:11,700 --> 00:16:17,700 God has never sent a man to hell. 163 00:16:17,700 --> 00:16:23,700 If you go to hell, you have no one to blame but yourself. 164 00:16:23,700 --> 00:16:28,700 In spite of all that God has done, 165 00:16:28,700 --> 00:16:32,700 in spite of all that Jesus has done 166 00:16:32,700 --> 00:16:35,700 in giving himself through the Holy Spirit to God the Father 167 00:16:35,700 --> 00:16:38,700 to be given for your salvation and my salvation, 168 00:16:38,700 --> 00:16:44,700 in spite of all that the Trinity has done, 169 00:16:44,700 --> 00:16:48,700 in spite of it all, in spite of God's tender mercy, 170 00:16:48,700 --> 00:16:51,700 in spite of his love, 171 00:16:51,700 --> 00:16:54,700 in spite of the shedding of the blood of the Son of the Living God, 172 00:16:54,700 --> 00:16:58,700 you make your own choice. 173 00:16:58,700 --> 00:17:01,700 You choose to be lost. 174 00:17:01,700 --> 00:17:04,700 You choose to reject his love. 175 00:17:04,700 --> 00:17:09,700 You choose to reject his tender mercy. 176 00:17:09,700 --> 00:17:12,700 Therefore, God does not damn you. 177 00:17:12,700 --> 00:17:16,700 You damn your own soul. 178 00:17:16,700 --> 00:17:20,700 So then when you say to a person, God damn you, 179 00:17:20,700 --> 00:17:23,700 you're speaking an untruth. 180 00:17:23,700 --> 00:17:27,700 For God is not casting men away into eternal loss. 181 00:17:27,700 --> 00:17:30,700 The offer of passing out into utter darkness 182 00:17:30,700 --> 00:17:34,700 of the man who is without God and who is therefore lost 183 00:17:34,700 --> 00:17:37,700 is the man's own fault. 184 00:17:37,700 --> 00:17:41,700 No man goes into that darkness except by his own act. 185 00:17:41,700 --> 00:17:43,700 God's not doing it. 186 00:17:43,700 --> 00:17:46,700 The idea that he damns men 187 00:17:46,700 --> 00:17:52,700 is being thrust in the minds of men by their own profanity of language. 188 00:17:52,700 --> 00:17:58,700 And really, is libel, that's exactly what it is. 189 00:17:58,700 --> 00:18:01,700 It is a libel upon the love of God 190 00:18:01,700 --> 00:18:08,700 and upon all the gloriousness of his character. 191 00:18:08,700 --> 00:18:15,700 The false idea involved in the profane phrase already mentioned 192 00:18:15,700 --> 00:18:19,700 takes its effect upon those who hear it 193 00:18:19,700 --> 00:18:23,700 as regards their thought of God, 194 00:18:23,700 --> 00:18:27,700 and this effect is demoralizing. 195 00:18:27,700 --> 00:18:33,700 It definitely is demoralizing. 196 00:18:33,700 --> 00:18:39,700 Oh, that every man who's fallen to the habit of profane swearing, 197 00:18:39,700 --> 00:18:44,700 having become its slave almost unconsciously, 198 00:18:44,700 --> 00:18:47,700 will take heed to the words, 199 00:18:47,700 --> 00:18:54,700 thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. 200 00:18:54,700 --> 00:18:58,700 Now see something. 201 00:18:58,700 --> 00:19:03,700 We have profanity. 202 00:19:03,700 --> 00:19:12,700 Now again let me remind you of the sin of hypocrisy. 203 00:19:12,700 --> 00:19:17,700 The man who says, Lord, Lord, 204 00:19:17,700 --> 00:19:22,700 and does not the things that the Lord says. 205 00:19:22,700 --> 00:19:27,700 Prayer without practice is blasphemy. 206 00:19:27,700 --> 00:19:33,700 Praise without adoration violates the third commandment. 207 00:19:33,700 --> 00:19:37,700 The profanity of the church is definitely worse 208 00:19:37,700 --> 00:19:40,700 than the profanity of the street. 209 00:19:40,700 --> 00:19:46,700 The blasphemy of the sanctuary is a far worse sin and evil 210 00:19:46,700 --> 00:19:50,700 than the blasphemy of the slum. 211 00:19:50,700 --> 00:19:54,700 Is there a blasphemy of the church and the sanctuary? 212 00:19:54,700 --> 00:19:56,700 Indeed there is. 213 00:19:56,700 --> 00:20:00,700 The prayer that is denied by the life, 214 00:20:00,700 --> 00:20:02,700 the praise offered to God, 215 00:20:02,700 --> 00:20:07,700 which is counteracted by rebellion against him 216 00:20:07,700 --> 00:20:11,700 when the hour of that praise has passed away, 217 00:20:11,700 --> 00:20:16,700 that, my friend, is blasphemy in its worst form. 218 00:20:16,700 --> 00:20:21,700 That is taking the name of God in vain. 219 00:20:21,700 --> 00:20:24,700 If a man passes into the sanctuary 220 00:20:24,700 --> 00:20:29,700 and preaches and prays and praises with eloquent lips, 221 00:20:29,700 --> 00:20:33,700 beautiful sentences, a devotional attitude, 222 00:20:33,700 --> 00:20:38,700 even with tears, and then walks out of that sanctuary 223 00:20:38,700 --> 00:20:43,700 to break the least of these commandments, 224 00:20:43,700 --> 00:20:48,700 the man who does not live when he preaches, 225 00:20:48,700 --> 00:20:53,700 that man blasphemes when he prays, 226 00:20:53,700 --> 00:20:58,700 and that's God's work. 227 00:20:58,700 --> 00:21:06,700 Oh, beloved, there's a name we dare not trifle with. 228 00:21:06,700 --> 00:21:10,700 That is the name of God. 229 00:21:10,700 --> 00:21:16,700 There is a name that we must honor. 230 00:21:16,700 --> 00:21:22,700 The name of God. 231 00:21:22,700 --> 00:21:27,700 We dare not swear by thy name. 232 00:21:27,700 --> 00:21:34,700 We dare not use it in an untruth. 233 00:21:34,700 --> 00:21:40,700 To call upon that name in reverence, 234 00:21:40,700 --> 00:21:44,700 we have a hearing, 235 00:21:44,700 --> 00:21:52,700 using that name in truth and sincerity. 236 00:21:52,700 --> 00:21:57,700 We have a hearing. 237 00:21:57,700 --> 00:22:04,700 God Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth, 238 00:22:04,700 --> 00:22:23,700 our Father. Amen.