quick comment, and that is, next week, Lord willing, we're going to consider the fourth commandment. And I just want to say, I love the Lord's Day. It is, and not just because I'm a pastor, long before I was a pastor, I loved the Lord's Day. I hope that you love the Lord's Day. And our country is experiencing a turbulent culture war right now. And I'm not going to be one of those guys that says it's worse now than it's ever been. Solomon says not to do that. But I will say it's getting bad. The challenges are great and high. The stakes are high. And it's my firm conviction that if the church does not have the biblical, ecclesiastical, and liturgical moorings that she is instructed to have, it's not going to go well for her in this culture war. I want to make something clear. I have no desire to win a culture war, okay? I have no desire to get involved and get in bed with the politicians and try to win a culture war. I am concerned about being salt and light in society, and I am concerned about the church being the church, and me concerned about the mission of the church. And it's my firm conviction that the headquarters of that mission is the Lord's Day. I'm firmly convinced about that. Now, in our Reformed tradition, there has been a train of thought about the Lord's Day that I think needs to be tweaked a little bit. And next week, I'm going to endeavor to do that, okay? So what I want to ask you to do between now and then is take your confession that we have, you can get it online if you don't have a hard copy of it, and just read through, I think it's chapter 22. in our confession on religious worship in the Sabbath day. It's probably like two or three pages. And jot down any questions that you have. I'm not going to sit here and tell you I have all the answers to all the questions, but I have thought long and hard about it. I've been forced to being in a Reformed Baptist church. And my conclusions is that the Lord's Day is something that we should take very seriously, but I want to try to answer some of the more minute questions like, should you throw a football on the Lord's Day? Should you go out to eat on the Lord's Day? Should you come back to second service on the Lord's Day? Those are good questions. And I think that if we can get on the same page, we're going to be in a good position to deal with the opposition from without. So just a little plug for next week, and we'll take up the fourth commandment then. Now we're going to take up the third commandment. The third commandment. So let's consider in our catechism, question 59, or you can just go to Exodus chapter 20, verse seven, that's fine. Question number 59, what is the third commandment? Let's answer together. The third commandment is, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain. So what's in a name? Who said that? Anybody know? Shakespeare, well done. What's in a name? Well, what something represents is captured in a name. So, in our country, it's illegal to burn the flag. Why? Because of the material? Because you're putting odors into it? Well, that might be bad too nowadays, but no, it's because the flag stands for something that in our country is in some sense set apart. We won't say sacred, but we will say something to be held in reverence and in honor. And it's not so much the fumes that are emitted into the ether as much as it is the symbol of anarchy and disrespect that it shows to our country. The disrespect for the blood that has been shed on the soil of foreign countries and even on this country to protect the liberties that we have. And that's why it is outlawed. So a name, or in that case, the case of a flag, is a symbol or shorthand for the thing itself. So how much more in the case of God? God takes His name very seriously. You know how many names there are for God in the whole Bible? up and onwards of 900. If you count all the names for just God in the Old Testament, and then all the names that refer to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, there are more than 900 names that refer to God. And you know something? Every single one of them reveals something intimate about the attributes and character of God. It's saying something about what God is, who God is, how He functions, how He loves, how He forgives, how He justifies, how He vindicates not only His people, but also His own name, how He inflicts judgment on the wicked, and all of those names are very important. I would encourage you, just as an aside, to learn these names. When you pray, there is such a greater level of intimacy when you say, Jehovah Tidkenu, God our righteousness, or Jehovah Rophi, the Lord who hears me. Lord, will you hear my prayer, Jehovah-Rophi? It's so much more robust, so much more colorful. There's such a greater plethora of instruments and tools and names by which you can call upon God in an intimate way when you know His name. And He wants you to know His name. His name is something He takes very seriously. For example, in Deuteronomy 28, 58, he says, fear the glorious and awesome God, no, name, because the name is put for God and God is put for the name. They're intricately entwined. And it is in John 18, verse six, just to give you an idea of the power behind this name. This is very simply when the soldiers were coming to arrest Jesus in John chapter 18. And I'm going to pick up in verse 4. Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, Whom do you seek? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said to them, I am he. Judas who betrayed him was standing with them. When Jesus said to them, I am he, they drew back and fell to the ground. So he asked them again, whom do you seek? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. And Jesus said, I told you that I am he, so if you seek me, let these men go. What happened when he said, I am he, they fell back. And if you know anything about the Greek and its connection to Hebrew, Ego Emi is the Greek equivalent of Eha, which is the Hebrew of I am, which by the way, the word Yahweh, the most sacred name of God. To the Jews, Yahweh is known as the Tetragrammaton. The four letters, the sacred four letters of God's name, Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh, Y-W-H-W, which the Germans came along and threw in some vowels, and that's where we get Jehovah, okay? But that sacred name literally means the one who was, the one who is, and the one who evermore shall be. He is timeless. He is not bound by time. His essence breaks through all human conceptions of time and restraint. He is Yahweh, and his name is to be feared. And when Jesus said to the soldiers, I am, he was saying precisely what God said to Moses when Moses asked, whom shall I say sent me? And his answer, I am, Yah. But the concept of God in our society has, as one author put it, and I think this is absolutely correct, has become increasingly more weightless. The name of God has become weightless in our society. And I just want to make one thing very clear from the outset. I have no interest in offering a broadside against culture and how they use the name of our Lord. Sometimes when I'm around people and they find non-believers and they find out I'm a pastor, and then they take the name of the Lord in vain, they apologize profusely. Oh, I'm sorry, excuse me for my language. And what I want to say is I don't expect anything different from you. I mean, I don't say that, but I'm thinking in my mind, like with all due respect, you're a pagan. I don't really expect. I mean, I think you should respect other people's religion, but I don't expect you to take it very seriously. But Christians, I do expect them to. And as we're going to see a little bit later, especially because they're living, walking, breathing embodiment of God's name. So in the third commandment, we are forbidden from, as the commandment says in Exodus 20 verse seven, taking up, literally the verb is to take up the name of the Lord God in vain. Another way to translate it would be to misuse the name of God. So we're forbidden to misuse the name of the Lord, and the essence, if you wanted to boil it down, the essence of the third commandment is protecting the reputation of God, period. Perhaps exclamation mark. It is protecting the reputation of God. Now, oftentimes growing up, we've heard, you know, don't swear. That's a breaking of the third commandment. I'll get to that in a minute. But that is just the surface. Is it true that we are not to swear by God in an inappropriate manner? That's true. And we'll get to that. I'll cross some T's and dot some I's in just a moment. But it's so much fuller than that. Because it's not just your words, it's your whole life. Your whole life is a commentary and an arrow, if you will, pointing toward God, telling everybody around you, I'm a Christian, I follow God, I follow Yahweh, I am a portrait of grace, look at me. And that reflection is a reflection on God's character. And so it's so much more than just our words, though words are very important, it is the embodiment of our life. So if the first commandment regulates whom we worship, the second commandment regulates how we worship, and the third commandment regulates our attitude toward worship, the reverence with which we are to approach our God. And in short, the third commandment is a fleshing out of what, and I want you to get used to this term when I use it, the creator-creature distinction. God is the creator, we are the creature, and never shall we blur those lines. That line should be so emphatic and so absolute and the highest form of demarcation that there's no way possible that we could ever find ourselves on the other side of that line. We are not the creator. And to say that we are, to assume that we are, to live that we are, is the height of idolatry. We are the creature, we are the created, we are the finite, and God is the infinite. And he must ever and always remain in that category in our minds, in our hearts, in our words, in our actions, and in our affections. God is holy, we are naturally unholy. Any holiness that we have at all, and we are, we are called what? Hagion, saints, we are called saints. But that righteousness or holiness that we have that allows us to have the title of saints is because it has come to us by our union with Jesus Christ. And that is not a mixing of essences, okay? When we talk about a union with Jesus Christ, we're in union with him such that everything that he has has become ours through faith, but we don't take on his essence. We are not Jesus, we are in union with Jesus. So we have no righteousness, no holiness apart from what God gives us. And so there is in the Old Testament, and I would say in the Bible in general, this distinction that we must always make between things in the world. The sacred and the profane, or some would also call it the sacred and the common, okay? And what the third commandment at the end of the day is saying is, God is always to be in this category of sacred, and we are never to approach Him in any of our actions, words, thoughts, and deeds as if He were common. As if He were a common vessel, as if He were a common being, as if He were a common finite being. No, He's not a finite being, He is infinite. And that is not simply something that we should think. It is something that should come out in all that we do. So are we stuffy, you know, stuffed shirt Christians when we say, hey, don't talk that way about God. You can call me whatever you want. But my God will be honored in my presence as much as I have to do with it. As much as I can train my children to honor His name, I will do it. As much as I can have a curb on my words and my actions, I will honor my God and His name. So to treat God's name or anything associated with God's holiness as if it were common is a violation of the third commandment. So let's consider, secondly, Question 60 of the Catechism. What is required in the Third Commandment? And we answer, the Third Commandment requires the holy and reverent use of God's names, titles, attributes, ordinances, word, and works. Now this means very simply, just to kind of boil it down, that we use his name for the purposes for which he intended us to use them. So let's throw out some reasons that we would use his name in an appropriate context. What would some of those contexts be? Prayer, excellent. What's another one? Reading, okay. Reading out loud, yeah. What else? Huh? Praise. Okay. Worship. Absolutely. What else? Witnessing. Absolutely. Teaching. Explaining. Teaching. Okay. Is there any other category besides that? Singing, part of worship, absolutely. So those are the reasons for which God has sanctioned the use of his name for his glory, for prayer, for education, for understanding, for revelation. Those are the purposes for which we are to use his name. And that means that we approach God's name with the gravitas that it deserves. So, as we'll get to later in the catechism, when we pray the Lord's Prayer, what is the first thing that he says? Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. Set aside, set apart, holy be your name. It's not just something that we pray and think, it's not just something that we confess, it's something that we need to seek to employ. So now thirdly, and this is where we're gonna spend the bulk of our time, what is forbidden, question number 61, what is forbidden in the third commandment? We answer, the third commandment forbids all profaning and abusing of anything whereby God makes himself known. Let me suggest to you just a few ways that we break the third commandment, okay? A few ways that we can break the third commandment in misusing the name of the Lord. Okay, here's the first one. Speaking for God where he has not spoken. Speaking for God where he has not spoken. So, in the Old Covenant or Old Testament context, the word in vain in the Hebrew, This word was typically used in magical contexts, okay? So a soothsayer, a false prophet, a magician who was seeking to manipulate the will of the gods would take the name of any god he could and use it as a charm to try to invoke the authority of that God to get his way. So I'll give you an example, perfect example, because I have kids and kids do this all the time, okay? You've got kid A who's on the tablet and authority figure, parental unit, dad said, you could play on the tablet. Kid B wants that tablet. Now he knows that dad said that kid A could use it and so he can't do anything about it, but dad's out back mowing the lawn. So kid B comes to kid A and says, hey, Dad told me you have to give me the tablet. Oh, OK. Dad is the authority figure, so I have to do it. Now, Dad never said that. But you see, kid B is using the authority of dad as a magical charm to get his way. And that's what was going on in the old covenant context. They would manipulate the will of the gods in order to accomplish their purposes. This is essentially using God for our own purposes. Now, how does that happen today? Well, I think one of the ways that this happens is it's hard to hear a speech by a politician that in some way, shape, or form does not invoke the name of God as if God was on his side and his political agenda. It's very hard for me to stomach that sometimes. I would just rather God stay out of the political agenda, okay? It happens when sports players, football players, after they win a game, they get interviewed and what do they say? I just thank God, obviously He wanted us to win. So, well, obviously if He wanted you to win, that means He wanted them to lose. It's always a weird thing when a minister will go pray for a sports team, right, before a game. How do you pray for a sports team? Like, do you really pray God cause us to win? It seems to me you just pray, Lord, I pray that nobody gets hurt and may the best team win. But we don't, when we invoke God's name to accomplish a purpose that God has not revealed, we're using it in a charlatan, magical way. Another way that this happens, and this is a little more down to earth for where we live, is when we become the friends of Job to people who are going through tragedy. And we tell them, we know why this happened to you. Let me tell you, God's judging you. You eat gluten, I see it every fellowship meal, and I'm just telling you, gluten's of the devil. Or you're reading those Harry Potter books, or whatever. But they become a friend of Job and claim to have knowledge or revelation that God has not given. Don't do that, beloved. Don't do that. Please don't do that. It is harmful to your brethren. It is better. Job's friends did get a few things right. And I think when they sat in silence with Job, that was better than them opening their mouths. And sometimes it's better to just sit in silence. Sometimes it's better to say, I don't know, friend, as tears are streaming down your face, I don't know why God did this. But I know he's faithful. That I know, that much I know. And that much Job could even say, I know my Redeemer lives and one day I will stand with him in glory. I know that. That much is true. But why and the ins and outs of all of this tragedy, I don't know. I don't know. It's okay to be ignorant sometimes. As Horton puts it, Michael Horton, one of the ways in which we profane God's name then is to use God, His name, authority, or direction as a blank check for our own decisions, agendas, and activities. So we want to be careful not to profane the name of the Lord by speaking where God has not spoken. Second way in which we misuse the name of the Lord is when you use the name of the Lord for frivolous use. Now let me come back to a category that I invoked earlier, the sacred and the profane, the sacred and the common, okay? So I'm using this as an example, okay? What's wrong when somebody is hammering a nail into the house and they hit their thumb with the hammer and they say, God damn it, what's wrong with that? What's right with that? If you were a lawyer for that person, what would you say is okay and justified about that comment? Would anybody? It's okay, yes. Curse, yeah, absolutely. Curse is on you, yes? Okay, okay, I see what you're saying. But is, If we were trying to get inside the shoes of the person who hit his thumb with the hammer. It, which is the what? The funny thing is, what are we asking him to damn? The nail, the thumb, the hammer, me, because I'm the one that did it. Like, what are we saying? If we're saying the hammer, that's an inanimate object. It doesn't go to heaven or hell, right? So, like, that's in vain, right? If you're saying, damn the person that did this, well, do you really understand what you're saying? So, thirdly, I think the next thing to realize is what you are saying is an outburst of anger and is not level-headed and rational, right? And so it's really, in that sense, frivolous. It's taking the name of the Lord in vain. Okay, does that make sense? What about when we say, oh my God? Is there ever a proper context to say, oh my God? Absolutely, well the psalmists do it all the time, don't they? We sing oh my God in songs. So what is the difference between oh my God in our worship and our prayer and the OMG that somebody sends in a text message to their friend? That's right, that's right. Now, I have had teens tell me, well, Josh, OMG means oh my gosh. I'm like, okay, I remember when I was in seventh grade, I had a hat and it had an S on it. And I was trying to impress these girls and they said, hey, Josh, what does that S stand for? And I said, well, it stands for Josh. See the S, J-O-S? Nobody thinks that. Well, it's the same way with OMG, meaning oh my gosh. Nobody thinks that when you send that message, right? And how people perceive things is really important. In other words, they see you saying OMG. Now, if you're not praying and you're not worshiping and you're not teaching, then you're using the name of the Lord in vain. Does that make sense? All right, if you have any questions about that, I'm gonna give a few moments here in the end. Now, here's the big one. Thirdly, the third way in which we take the name of the Lord God in vain, false swearing. Now, here's the thing that we need to establish two things, okay? Number one, it's not, when I say swear, S-W-E-A-R, I'm not talking about cursing, okay? I'm talking about taking an oath, a promise, okay? In the old covenant, and I would even say in the new covenant, and there's plenty of passages that show this, we are not only given examples of people, godly people who swore oaths, But we are commanded in Deuteronomy on numerous occasions to swear by God's name. So Deuteronomy 6.13, it is the Lord your God you shall fear, him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. Isaiah 19.21, and the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day and worship with sacrifice and offering and they will make vows or oaths to the Lord and perform them. So the old covenant makes it very clear, it's just carte blanche, you should make oaths. In fact, it's sinful not to make oaths. Every one of you that are married, unless you're an Anabaptist or a Quaker, made oaths to God and all the people there, right? You said, I do solemnly swear to protect and provide and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Now, I don't think that's wrong. In fact, I think if you didn't do that, you're living in sin right now. If you go and testify before a jury and a judge, you are exhorted to take an oath, and you should do that. Now, what is the problem? Why is it that the Anabaptist tradition, the Quaker tradition, and other groups in the Radical Reformation have said we shouldn't make oaths? Anybody know why? New Testament, so Jesus in Matthew chapter five, verse 33 to 37, and then James follows it up in chapter five, verse 12, says very simply, let your yes be yes and your no be no. Don't swear by Jerusalem, don't swear by the gold of the temple. You know what's interesting? You know what he doesn't say in Matthew chapter five? He doesn't say don't swear by God. And we'll come back to that. So how do we reconcile these two things? So can we swear by God or to God or not? Well, two things. Number one, the Sermon on the Mount. You have heard it said, but I say to you. That refrain is all throughout the sermon. And I've told you this before and I want to repeat it. Jesus is not saying, the Old Testament teaches, but I say to you. If you have read the Sermon on the Mount that way, that is the incorrect way to read it. And one of the biggest reasons why Biggest examples, there's a point where Jesus says you have heard it said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy You could pour over every text of the Old Testament and you will never find Moses saying hate your enemy and never comes up So where does it come from? When Jesus says, you have heard it said, he is speaking of the interpretation of the law of Moses given by the scribes and the Pharisees. In other words, the rabbinic tradition, okay? Much of which was good. The intention of which was good. We don't wanna sin. So in order to not sin, we're gonna put 40 different fences around this law with 40 different new laws so that we don't sin. And Jesus is coming up against that and saying, no, You have gone so far that obedience to you is now about external matters and you've really eclipsed the internal heart motivation. So let's get back to that. So when Jesus talks about not swearing, what he is doing is addressing very specifically the practices of the Jews, and this is essentially what they did. They knew, and they were right about this, because they were trained, since they were knee-high to a grasshopper in Torah, they knew that if you swear by the name of God, if you didn't do it, you were gonna die. Because you must understand, swearing by God's name is essentially saying, if I don't do it, may he judge me, may he curse me. Okay, that's a big deal. So to get away from it, what they did is the rabbis came up with this teaching that basically said, you can swear an oath by something other than God, like the city of Jerusalem, or the temple, or the altar, or the gold on the altar. And the thing is, if you do it by that, you can actually back out of it and you're okay, you're good. Okay? Now it sounds ridiculous to us, and I'm summing up a very long-standing tradition of the rabbis, but that's essentially what it comes down to. It's that practice that Jesus is saying, you've missed the point. Because you know what? In all of those instances, you still can't subtract God from the equation. And that's what he says in Matthew chapter five. He says, Jerusalem is the city of God. The altar is the altar of God. Swearing by your head, that's your life and your life was given to you by God. So whatever you do, you can't back out of it. So guess what? You have actually made oaths that you've broken that you have actually sworn by the name of God. So in that context, he says, it's better if you're gonna play that game, it's better for you to not swear at all and let your yes be yes and your no be no. In other words, he's dealing with people who were manipulators of truth. But here's the thing, Jesus himself swore an oath. Let me show this to you. Matthew chapter 26, 63 and 64. Matthew chapter 26, 63 and 64. This is when he was standing before, I believe it was Pilate. Let's see here. I'm gonna start at 62. And the high priest stood up and said, have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you? But Jesus remained silent. And the high priest said to him, I adjure you. Now in the Greek, that is, I am calling you to testify in a solemn manner, adjuration. Okay, this is solemn testimony, solemn oath. I adjure you by the living God. So there's the name of God and there's the oath. Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus said to him, you have said so. Okay, what did Jesus do? Jesus concurred with the oath in the name of God. So I think that it is only reading the surface of things like Matthew chapter five and not taking all of scripture into context that says we can't make oaths. In fact, you should make oaths, you have made oaths, but you need to be sparse in making those oaths. Another thing that the Pharisees did is they made oaths for the most banal things possible, the most mundane things possible. And again, Jesus addresses that and just saying, look, Let your yes be yes and your no be no. There's gonna be times in public solemn assemblies where you're gonna need to make an oath, but let that be the exception to the rule, okay? So we break the third commandment when we make an oath to God that A, we don't keep, or we start playing around with language, okay? I swear on my mother's grave. Another thing that Jesus taught is you should never swear by anything other than God. Okay? Never swear by your mother's, you know, cross my heart and hope to die. Don't do that. If you're going to make an oath, you swear by the name of God. And then finally, the last way in which we profane the name of God is when we do not adorn the doctrine of God with our lives. So Paul said in Titus 2, 9 and 10, bond servants are to be submissive to their own masters and everything. that it would be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctoredom of God our Savior. When you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, you were baptized into his name. You were baptized, if the minister did it right, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You go around in this world, and when people ask you, or maybe you tell them, you say, I am a what? I am a Christian. You know what Christian means? Anybody know? Little Christ. Now, it doesn't mean you're, it means you are a follower of Christ. You are an intimator, excuse me, imitator of Christ. That's a high calling. That is a high calling. And that's why, more than anything, we need a robust view of grace, right? Because, I don't know about you, but I fail in being a little Christ every single day. What I thank God for is that by His grace, and by His grace alone, I recognize that, and I come back to Him, and I repent, and I believe, and I repent, and I believe, and I repent. That's the mark of a Christian. But we profane the third commandment when, on the one hand, we take the name of Christ on our lips, and on the other hand, listen very carefully, we make no attempt whatsoever or feeble attempts to actually walk like our Savior. Keeping the third commandment is the whole life. So finally, sorry, I know that's my second finally, but I really mean it this time. Question 62, what is the reason attached to the third commandment? And we answer, the reason attached to the third commandment is that however the breakers of this commandment may escape punishment from men, yet the Lord our God will not suffer them to escape his righteous judgment. People around you, false professors, false professors of Jesus, and non-believers are going to profane the name of God, not only with their lips, but with their lives. But there's coming a day that Paul says in Philippians 2, that God has highly exalted Christ and bestowed on Him, listen, the name. The name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. You can't get away from them. And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God. The threat contained in the third commandment is not a fable. It is not a story with no teeth, without any teeth. The threat contained in the third commandment is real. Those who profane the name of the Lord God, not only with their lips, but with their lives, as the prevailing, listen, the prevailing disposition of their life will be judged. And the crazy thing is, though they deny Him in this life, the Lord will cause them in His supreme power to confess His name as supreme right before they march off to eternal damnation. That's the power of our God. That's the power of Yahweh. And that's the reason why we should take it very seriously and thank God that by the grace of Jesus Christ, this judgment will never meet us. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for that name and we pray that you would cause us to revere it, not for simply empty religious reasons, but for deeply theological and religious reasons. Because we know you and we love you and you have condescended to us in the person of your son. We confess to you, Father, that we fail at this. We confess it to you. Help us to be faithful to you. We ask these things in your son's name. Amen.