I hope every one of you have been following me in these heart-to-heart talks regarding the Ten Commandments.
I think that this is the first time in all of the years that I've been preaching the gospel,
of all the many years that I've been coming into your home,
I think this is the first time that I have ever brought a series of messages
on these God's Ten Rules for Living.
And I came to the conclusion the other day that in this twentieth century,
we are pretty smart.
I don't think there was ever a people who knew more about life than the folk living today.
That's right.
It seems that we know all about life, and yet when it comes right down to it,
there are very few today, regardless of their intellect, their training, their knowledge, their education.
Very few know how to live, and it's just like that.
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.
And he took Moses aside and said, now look here, I'm going to give you ten rules for living.
I want you to give them to your people.
And those ten rules, my friend, were not only for Israel, but for every one of us today,
and as long as man shall live.
God has never changed these ten rules for a successful life, the joys of living, prosperity,
and all that you may have to face from the cradle to the grave.
Well, sir, this is now my seventh in these heart-to-heart talks, and would you believe it?
When I left your home in our last heart-to-heart talk, we had only gotten to the third of the ten commandments.
And time went so quickly that here I am again.
I'm going to have to begin exactly where I left off when I left your home the last time,
in this third of the ten rules for living.
Oh, you know it, you know it well, because when you were a little girl or a youngster in Sunday school,
you learned them in Sunday school, and you got maybe a little pin, a little gold pin,
or a picture, or maybe a Bible for having learned the ten commandments.
But when it comes right down to it, let's face it, that's about all that you know about the ten commandments.
Sure, so when I read from God's Word, you remember, and you can quote the Scripture with me.
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.
I didn't say that.
Now, if I said it, or some religious man said it, or it was one of the doctrines of your church,
then you could either take it or leave it.
But this comes from God himself.
This comes from the highest authority there is.
It's a command.
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.
If men use the name of God, if you're going to use God's name,
if we are to use God's name, we must use it in a way which is true to its meaning and intentions.
And any use, I don't care what use is made of God's name,
whether it's from behind the pulpit, whether it is in a courtroom, whether it's on the street.
Whenever the name of God is used, in any use the name of God,
when it denies the character of God, when it denies the true meaning of God
and the true intentions of God, then, beloved, the one who uses it breaks this commandment.
God's name must be used respectfully.
He is a holy God.
He is God Almighty.
And His name must never be used except as we reverence God and reverence His name.
Now, there are two ways in which men misuse the name of Almighty God.
I think that all of the misuse of His name can be put in two categories.
One is in hypocrisy.
Many a professing Christian is using the name of God and is using it for his own selfish means
rather than for the glory of God.
Hypocrisy.
I'll talk about that a little later as I had been talking about it in the previous heart-to-heart talk.
Then there is the use of the name of God in profanity.
Men today are breaking this commandment in profanity.
The sin of profane swearing prevails this very hour and is one of the worst habits that a person can get into.
And sometimes I think that when you study it and analyze it, it's nothing more or less than just a habit.
That's right.
It's very often the sin of thoughtlessness.
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.
That day when that person accepts the Lord as his Savior,
how often men have stood and have testified that they have been delivered from liquor,
that they have been delivered from smoking,
and then they'll smile and say, do you want to know something?
I never agreed that I was taking the Lord God,
I was taking His name in vain, that I was misusing it as I was until after my conversion.
And it wasn't something they had to fight against.
They looked themselves directly in the face, realized that they were doing it.
A sin of thoughtlessness.
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
because you think too much of Him, you honor Him too much, you love Him too much,
but it's been thoughtlessness on your part, and since it has been brought to your attention,
you'll recognize it, and the habit will be broken.
I believe that.
I know there's some preachers who'll stand on the pulpit,
oh, they'll preach their sermons on profanity and damn the souls of those and send men to hell
for the profanity that they use.
I know it's wrong, God's Word says it's wrong, but watch something.
I believe that when they realize the awfulness of the habit, the sin in the habit,
I believe that they'll do everything in the world to be careful how they use the name of God.
Some men do not know when they do swear.
They were born in the midst of the most awful, immoral atmosphere.
Their dads swore.
Sorry to say, their mother could out-swear their father when she got mad.
That's right. Oh, my word.
I've heard women who could out-swear any man that you ever heard swear in all of your life when they got mad.
Nobody has a more vicious temper than a woman.
And when she lacks for words, she'll take it out in profanity.
And it's just like that.
And they began to talk in profanity from their earliest days.
Children have gotten it from their parents.
They think that that's the thing to do.
The greatest mimics in the world are children.
I didn't learn to swear because Papa never swore.
I wasn't brought up in that kind of a home.
Therefore, I never got in the habit of swearing.
I do not believe that I would ever have sworn, ever have used profanity, even though I were not a Christian,
because I wasn't brought up in that kind of a home.
It's a terrible thing when you bring up little children and teach them to swear.
In those tender little years, they think nothing of swearing,
because they don't know any better and may hear it from the father and the mother.
It's a terrible thing.
But such men are not nearly so good as others who have been brought up in a pure moral atmosphere
and have, nevertheless, fallen into the habit.
Much would be gained if men would think of what they're doing in profane swearing,
especially where the name of God is involved.
An expression that's most frequently used, I believe,
and I know as I use it there's going to be somebody who's going to criticize me for it,
but I'm going to use it and let's analyze it.
You hear it hundreds of times a day if you are in public.
Those three words, god damn you.
And yet the man who uses those three words does not know what he's saying.
A man is annoyed in some way by another and gives ready tongue to this oath.
It is taking God's name in vain because the man who says it does not mean it.
He absolutely does not mean it.
I've heard men use that expression.
I have heard them use that profanity.
God damn you.
When I knew the heart of that man was so tender
that if he knew that the man to whom he was speaking was to be damned,
he would do everything in the world to keep him from being damned.
That's right.
The man that he was angry with and to whom he was saying these vile words,
if he saw that man drowning, he would be the first one to rescue him.
He'd give his life for him.
Therefore, he didn't mean it all.
There's not a man who says it, who would like to see it carried out
with respect to his fellow man in all of its terrible meaning.
It is trifling with the name of God, and we don't dare do it.
Let me get this across to you if you don't remember anything else that I say.
There is one name that you and I cannot trifle with.
Know that. Please hear me.
You dare not trifle with the name of God.
I dare not trifle with God's name.
I must be very careful when I speak the name of God.
You must be very careful.
He is God Almighty.
He is the Great I Am.
He is the Beginning. He is God Everlasting.
He dare not be put on the level with man.
When we speak his name, his name must only be spoken in reference.
Know that.
We dare not trifle with the name of God,
invoking him to do something which is never intended that he shall do.
That's not the most shocking aspect of the vain use the name of God
in that particular expression.
For men are not only asking God to do something which they do not wish him to do,
but to do something that he never does.
God never damned a man. Never.
There's no truth in it.
God's work is the work of salvation.
And if a man is lost, it is man's own act of suicide.
Every man, every woman damns himself.
God is not casting men away into eternal loss.
Many women have the wrong idea of that entirely.
The scripture says, God is not willing that any should perish.
God is not damning your soul.
God has never damned a soul.
God has never sent a man to hell.
If you go to hell, you have no one to blame but yourself.
In spite of all that God has done,
in spite of all that Jesus has done
in giving himself through the Holy Spirit to God the Father
to be given for your salvation and my salvation,
in spite of all that the Trinity has done,
in spite of it all, in spite of God's tender mercy,
in spite of his love,
in spite of the shedding of the blood of the Son of the Living God,
you make your own choice.
You choose to be lost.
You choose to reject his love.
You choose to reject his tender mercy.
Therefore, God does not damn you.
You damn your own soul.
So then when you say to a person, God damn you,
you're speaking an untruth.
For God is not casting men away into eternal loss.
The offer of passing out into utter darkness
of the man who is without God and who is therefore lost
is the man's own fault.
No man goes into that darkness except by his own act.
God's not doing it.
The idea that he damns men
is being thrust in the minds of men by their own profanity of language.
And really, is libel, that's exactly what it is.
It is a libel upon the love of God
and upon all the gloriousness of his character.
The false idea involved in the profane phrase already mentioned
takes its effect upon those who hear it
as regards their thought of God,
and this effect is demoralizing.
It definitely is demoralizing.
Oh, that every man who's fallen to the habit of profane swearing,
having become its slave almost unconsciously,
will take heed to the words,
thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
Now see something.
We have profanity.
Now again let me remind you of the sin of hypocrisy.
The man who says, Lord, Lord,
and does not the things that the Lord says.
Prayer without practice is blasphemy.
Praise without adoration violates the third commandment.
The profanity of the church is definitely worse
than the profanity of the street.
The blasphemy of the sanctuary is a far worse sin and evil
than the blasphemy of the slum.
Is there a blasphemy of the church and the sanctuary?
Indeed there is.
The prayer that is denied by the life,
the praise offered to God,
which is counteracted by rebellion against him
when the hour of that praise has passed away,
that, my friend, is blasphemy in its worst form.
That is taking the name of God in vain.
If a man passes into the sanctuary
and preaches and prays and praises with eloquent lips,
beautiful sentences, a devotional attitude,
even with tears, and then walks out of that sanctuary
to break the least of these commandments,
the man who does not live when he preaches,
that man blasphemes when he prays,
and that's God's work.
Oh, beloved, there's a name we dare not trifle with.
That is the name of God.
There is a name that we must honor.
The name of God.
We dare not swear by thy name.
We dare not use it in an untruth.
To call upon that name in reverence,
we have a hearing,
using that name in truth and sincerity.
We have a hearing.
God Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth,
our Father. Amen.