Our sermon passage this evening can be found in Exodus, chapter 20, verse 7. I'll also be reading Romans, chapter 2, verses 21 through 24. That can be found on page 61 and 940, the Pew Bibles. So I'll be reading the third commandment and then going to Romans, chapter 2. And before we read, would you please join me once again in prayer? Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for what you accomplish through your word. Thank you that you have revealed yourself to us. You want to be known. You want to be loved, obeyed. You want us to meditate upon your characteristics and your care for us. And you want us to see your son through the scriptures. Would you enable us to do that, Lord, in this time? We ask this in Your Name. Amen. Exodus 20, verse 7. And then Romans chapter 2. 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. Romans chapter 2. I'll be reading verses 21-24. Verse 21, You then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. For as it is written, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." What does the third commandment look like? You're out for a drive and you're listening to the news and you hear about murder. You can kind of make a mental picture of that. You hear about stealing. You can also make a mental picture of that too. But if you're listening to the news and you hear, local Abington man takes the Lord's name in vain. What is he guilty of? Is this something that we know and can recognize? And that's an important question. Because attached to the third commandment is a promise that the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Meaning, this is something that could escape the courts of men or the laws in our society, but the Lord will take notice when someone takes his name in vain. Well, before we can even get to what that would mean, we would have to ask ourselves, well, how do the Israelites have access to this name in the first place? To take a name in vain, you must first know it. You must have some sort of relationship with that name. Before I could say, John, could you please lead the singing, because I can't sing a lick, there has to be a relationship. I have to have some sort of access. And that happened when John said, hello, my name is John. The Israelites have a God who revealed Himself to them. The Israelites were told by Moses, I am. has sent me to you to get you out of the land of Egypt. And Moses expects that the people would like more information. When they ask more about you, who is this God? What do I say to them? And Moses is instructed, tell them that I am the God of their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I am the God who has heard your cries. I'm the God who's seen your affliction, and I will bring you out of Egypt. God gives this identification, but He also explains what He is going to do. He reveals His name by revealing His ministry, His acts. And so, when we get to Mount Sinai, the Ten Commandments start with another statement of identification. Who is the God speaking to these people at the mountain? It's the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. out of the house of slavery. So when we come to the third commandment, one of the things that we need to lay down as a good foundation is that it is a gracious act of God that the Israelites have access to this name. God reveals Himself to them because He wants the Israelites to be able to call upon His name, to know who delivered them. In the ancient world, it wasn't a question of whether you had a God or not, it was which God? The Israelites would say, the God who delivered us out of the land of Egypt, the God who crushed Pharaoh, the God who keeps covenant with our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is the name that the Israelites were not to take in vain. And that in vain part gives us a reminder about the proper way of reading the Ten Commandments. Earlier in this series, John laid down a set of rules that when we read the Ten Commandments, things that we have to keep in mind to read them properly. And one of those rules was not to read the Ten Commandments entirely negative, meaning they only tell you what not to do. To give an example, the ninth commandment, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, would not tell you to remain silent if you had a piece of information that could help acquit someone who is innocent. The ninth commandment wouldn't say, I have nothing for you. It would say, if it is within your power to bear a true testimony, to speak truthfully for your neighbor's behalf, do it. And so, in the third commandment, though it reads, do not take the Lord's name in vain, it does not mean that the Lord doesn't want His name to be spoken at all. He has gone to a great deal to reveal His name. He wants His people to call upon His name. It actually made me think about a time when I was younger. I had a best friend at the time. His phone number started 9-1-0. I think you kind of know where I'm going with this. And so I wanted to call him to meet up, to hang out, and I dialed 9-1-1. And on the other side of the phone, I hear, 9-1-1, what's your emergency? And as a very bright and sharp young man, I panicked and hung up the phone. Some time later, the police officer arrived. I think it was my grandmother who answered the door. And I could kind of hear a little bit. I was peeking across a wall to see what was happening. And then I heard my grandmother call me. And the officer explained to me the responsibility, the weight that comes with having access to firefighters, to the ambulance, to police officers. This is a good thing to have access to. But you have to use it wisely. You must have proper reverence for 911. It also made me think about recently when I was reading a story about a woman who called 911 while her abuser was present. And she's talking with the operator in coded language. She's trying to make it sound like a pizza delivery. And at some point, the operator understands what's going on and sends help her way. And she's saved. She had access to help, to deliverance, to be separated from an attacker, an abuser. And on the other 911 line is 10-year-old me trying to meet up with a buddy about basketball and riding bikes. I think it shows that simply having access to something doesn't mean that you will give it the proper reverence. Simply having access to this help doesn't mean we gather the weight that is Wound up in that name or in 9-1-1 But with you know all my young knuckleheadedness if I could put it that way the police officer never said to me Young man, you never call 9-1-1 again He didn't say that And so by the Lord saying to His people, do not take my name in vain, He is not saying, don't call out to me. The Lord wants His name to be used. And I think this leads to a worthwhile question for us to examine ourselves with. Christian, you believe that you have access to the one true God, the creator and maker of all things. The all-powerful One. You have access to Him. When you're weak, when you're struggling, when you're worried, do you call out to the Lord? Do you call upon His name? He has given it to you. He has revealed it to you through the preaching of the Word, His Bible, the Church, the Sacraments. He wants to be known and He wants you to call upon Him. Maybe you're in a situation where you're trying to figure out the best way to move forward with a difficult circumstance or some decision that you need to make. Do you immediately start making plans and relying on your organization skills and how, you know, about it you are? What do you call upon the name of the Lord? and then do your planning. I thought that was such an important point when John was preaching Genesis 32. Jacob is meeting Esau. He makes a plan. He also says, Lord, help. Friends, we must make our plans. If you have good administrative and organizing skills, use them, but call upon the name of the Lord. He is invested in your life. He cares. And if you have access to them, Use it with the weight and the reverence His name deserves. Lift up His name. Where am I getting that kind of language? Lift His name. When we were reading the third commandment, it didn't say lift, it said take His name. And in modern Christianity, usually the way the third commandment is read is about speaking. And then of course the application of that is don't use certain colorful language and you're good. You obey the third commandment. You use colorful language, well then you are guilty of the third commandment. But that word take is after something else. I want to read a couple verses where that same Hebrew word is used to really bring out the meaning. So here's Exodus 19 where God is speaking to Moses. God says, I bore you on eagle's wings to bear to lift up. I lifted you out of this land of affliction. It's the same Hebrew word. In Genesis 47, Joseph says, when you leave Egypt, carry my body out of Egypt. I want to be buried in the land of promise. Carry, lifting up. So the third commandment isn't just asking you what's coming out of your mouth, so to speak. The third commandment is asking you How are you bearing the Lord's name? How are you carrying His name? You can kind of always think about the idea of someone holding up a banner. So when the Lord places His name upon the Israelites, everywhere they go, they are carrying that name. The third commandment is, how are you carrying that name? How are you bearing that name? When a name is given to you, you take it everywhere you go. You go to school, you go to sporting events, your social media activities. Where you go, you carry your name and your reputation. We've seen this recently in what's called cancel culture. where someone is employed by a company or a sports team, and if you happen to get caught with the wrong tweet, the wrong picture or text, you get let go. I think some of the early examples of this, in 2009, Gatorade cancelled their contract with Tiger Woods. He was caught in having extramarital affairs. And they said, you are bearing our name or carrying Gatorade into the dirt. And so they released Tiger Woods. Even today, if you take a career advancement class, where I remember in high school, there was an elective talking about how to do good job interviews. And they would stress on what is your name attached to. If I open up Google and I type in your name, what is attached to your name? What ideas, what movements, what groups are attached to your name? And that could be the difference between you're hired or, hey, we're looking for somebody else. But in those examples, it's about that person's own reputation. It was about Tiger Woods' name or about getting that job. But for the Israelites, there's a different name that's most important. It's not their own. It's the Lord's name. The Third Commandment presses on Israel the importance of God's reputation, of His name. In a world where we are obsessed with, how does this make me look? How many likes did I get on this post? How does this make me sound? The Israelites, they are approaching all of life with a fundamentally different question. It's not about me. It's about the name. It's about our God, whose name and reputation has been placed on us. Our world today says, create a name for yourself. Make a name for yourself. Be somebody. The third commandment says, carry and serve the name. Carry and serve the Lord. I think the Westminster larger catechism has a fantastic way of explaining the third commandment. Listen to this. It describes it by saying that to break the third commandment would be being ashamed of it, it being the name, or ashamed to it. Being ashamed of the name of God, or being ashamed to the name of God. And I think this brings out an important aspect of one of the things we need to think about in the third commandment. Being ashamed of the name of God in front of who? bringing shame on the name of God in front of who? The Lord places His name on His people in front of the eyes of a watching world. The Lord wants the world, the watching eyes of the world, to take note of His people. the people that He has made a covenant with and distinguished. Last evening I talked about Israel and the church being that treasured possession. And so part of the responsibility of carrying the Lord's name or bearing His name is an understanding that we are now running with the banner. We are now actively involved in either spreading His glory, spreading His word, or negatively reflecting the name that is on us. All throughout the Old Testament, this idea that God wants the surrounding nations to look at His people and to seek this God who is so close, to seek this God whose law is so perfect and righteousness is all throughout the Old Testament. I would like us to consider two examples of God's name being placed on a people and how Moses and Joshua respond to that when the people fail. In Exodus 32, in the golden calf incident, the Lord is determined to crush Israel. They have broken covenant with their God. Their great deliverance from Egypt they are now attributing to a golden cow. Sometimes when we go over this in family worship, I ask the girls, what sound does a golden cow make? And they moo. And I say, no, because statues don't make any noise. And so the sheer idolatry to attribute to a golden statue something that you can knock on, delivering them from bondage and slavery, is entirely offensive to the God who has delivered them. And so, here is Moses' prayer interceding on their behalf. O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, with evil intent did he bring them out to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. Do you hear that Moses isn't pleading for mercy by saying, God, but aren't we just so lovable? He's also not even saying, God, don't you need us? But what is he saying? Lord, because of our sins and our failures, please don't let the Egyptians get the wrong idea. You are an almighty God. You are powerful. You are strong. You are gracious. He is pleading for mercy on the basis of two things. One, you have placed your name on this people. And two, don't let the Egyptians get the wrong idea. Moses understands that God's interaction with his people is being witnessed by a watching world. We see a similar understanding in Joshua's prayer. So in Joshua 7, the Israelites lose at the Battle of Ai, which should have been so much easier than the Battle of Jericho. They don't even send all the people to this battle. This is a warm-up battle, a scrimmage, if you will. But what happens? Well, as John, when he was preaching on Jericho, because the people were not faithful to God, and they rebelled against the Laws of God's warfare don't take this, destroy all of it. They lost a battle that they should have easily won. And so Joshua approaches the Lord in prayer and he says, Alas, O Lord God, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all? To give us into the hands of the Amorites, to destroy us? Would that we had been content to dwell beyond the Jordan. Oh Lord, what can I say when Israel has turned their backs before their enemies? For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it and will surround us and cut off our name from the earth. And what will you do for your great name? Did you hear it? Lord, if we are cut off from the earth, what will you do for your great name? Let's be clear, the Lord doesn't need anybody. That is why we, above all people, should be humbled. Because the Lord decides to bestow His grace and love for us for no other reason than to bring glory to Himself. But because He has attached Himself to a people, because He does want to spread His name, His glory, Joshua understands he can say, You have attached your name to us. Please don't crush us. Please don't let us be wiped off from the face of the earth. I think this prayer we find with Joshua and with Moses can help us as we consider our own repentance and those who we would like to see come to repentance. Why is it that we can approach the Lord and ask for forgiveness? Christian, you have placed your faith in Christ. You have been baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. That is why you can approach Him. You can approach Him and ask for mercy because He has decided to place His name upon you. But it also helps us to remember that we have to pray for those who have had the name placed upon them and are unfortunately not walking with the Lord. We have to remember the children who have been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and remember that our God is long-suffering and patient and faithful. We must pray for them and say, Lord, you have placed your name on them. Bring them home. Return them to your people, to your service, to worship and devotion of you God. Well, what does the third commandment say to the church in Philadelphia? What does the church need to hear when we read the third commandment? I think a reminder first, and then a mission. A reminder, Christian, the Lord has given you a better name. You may have received lots of names in your life. Some given to you maybe by parents that were never in your life. A name given to you perhaps from behaviors or actions that you were enslaved to for a significant amount of time. But Christ died on the cross for sins done against the name of the Lord. commissioned his disciples to go forth in all the nations and make disciples, teaching them and baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. That gospel was preached to you. The Holy Spirit enabled you to respond in repentance and place your faith in Christ and have a better name placed upon you. That better name placed upon you gives you a mission. I find it very interesting that even though society says that the church is outdated and that Christians are just kind of backwoods people, every time there's an issue, every time there's a disaster, articles, newspaper, what are the Christians saying? How are they responding? And I think that is, I think that's the Lord's intent, church. He has the eyes of a watching world. looking at the church, looking to see how we bear and carry His names in conversations of pandemics and protests and personhood. What are the Christians saying? How are they acting? I think it is a great opportunity for the church to carry the Lord's name into these conversations. Perhaps you have relationships with individuals that you would describe as difficult, put it that way. But I want to remind you that God is being so loving and gracious to that person by having you in their life. Because you bear the name of the Lord when you talk to that difficult person. Do you have people in your life who are in darkness? Consider that because the name has been placed upon you, because you are the light of the world, the Lord will want you in those relationships. He will put those people in your life so that they could hear about the name of your God, His truth, His word. I think the third commandment calls us to call upon the name of the Lord when we are weak, when we are needy, when we are uncertain, but also to remember that we have a mission, and that is to carry and bear the name of the Lord throughout all the earth, so that all men and women may know that there is one true God. Would you please join me in prayer? Father, Thank You that You have placed on us a better name. Thank You that You have saved us from ourselves. Lord, help us to be able to lay down a self-seeking desire to advance our name, our glory, but to humbly serve You, Lord. Help us to remember the mission that comes with our baptism. That we have died and now we live with Christ. That we bear His name. Strengthen your church, Lord. As the world is, in some senses, crumbling, help us to remember, Lord, that the city of God remains firm. Because you are our God. And you are spreading your truth, your word, and your glory. Thank You for allowing us to be a part of that. I pray this in Your Name. Amen.