Our Heavenly Father, we give you thanks that in your infinite wisdom you have given us this day, this day of worship, of rest, and of fellowship, and Lord, we praise you for that. We ask that you may open our eyes to see, our ears to hear, but our hearts as well, that we might grow in our grace and our knowledge of you. And we thank you that you've given us the catechism, the confessions that we might learn from the wisdom of the ages as well. And we ask that as we study these two statements today, that we might honor and glorify you in our hearing and then in our doing, Lord, as we are called to be your workmanship. This we pray in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. So, questions in the catechism that we're covering. We read the first one in worship, but on page 972, the back of the hymnal here, if you would, and we'll open to these. Two questions. Question 53, which is the third commandment? The third commandment is, 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. And question 54, what is required in the third commandment? The third commandment, it requireth the holy and reverent use of God's names, titles, attributes, ordinances, word, and works. I think it's good for us to pause every once in a while and get a little perspective on how all this stuff is put together. The shorter catechism, I think, comes out of the larger catechism, which comes out of the Westminster Confession of Faith. And so, what I'd like for us to kind of focus on with the foundation today is that We need to pause every once in a while and take a broader look at what things are going on. And one of the things that we need to do is ask ourselves why. Recently, a few years ago, there was a bestseller on the New York Times bestseller list. It was not a religious book at all, a book by Simon Sinek. He's one of these business gurus. And the title of the book was, Start With Why. Why do we do things because that gets at the foundation of what we do and why we do it in the business context It was you know, so often we go to work every day and we just get into the same the same habits We forget why we forget what we're doing. Well, we know what we're doing, but we forget why we're doing it So why is a very important thing? so in the context of the Catechism and in God's commands, we have to ask ourselves, why? Why would God command this? And in the same sense of, as the book noted, we can get into a rote understanding of these commands, and then we think we're okay when we obey the letter of the law. I think it's very clear in Scripture and in our relationships that it's not about so much the letter of the law, it's important, but it's about what's, it's the heart of the law, it's the reasons why, okay? And so when we look at these commands, I guess I'd like to open this up to questions and answers, but as a conversation here, why? Why does God give us this command that we should not take the Lord's name in vain? Anybody? Yes. You raised your hand. Okay. Why should we not take the Lord's name in vain? Anybody? Go ahead. Yes. Yes. Okay. Respect's a big part of it. We're going to get into that today. Right? Yes. Noah, right? Bad to use what? Curse, you're right. When we use God's name as a curse, definitely that's taking the Lord's name in vain. We'll cover that today as well, very good. Very good, absolutely. You guys are stealing all my thunder, it's okay. Good that you're grounded well, I appreciate that. Psalm 29, verse 2 says, given to the Lord the glory due His name. Psalm 68, extol Him that writeth upon the heavens by His name. Revelation 15, verse 4, who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? For thou only art holy. Thou only art holy. It's not so much about rules, it's about relationships. In one sense, we should say to ourselves, well, why? Why should we look at this third commandment and say, well, why? And at the very heart of it, the very letter of the law says, because God said so, and that should be good enough, right? But we know as parents that when we build our relationships with our children and we say, well, because we said so, that sometimes just breeds contempt. So a lot of times, we as parents maybe go too far with this. I'm looking at my daughter now. And so we try to explain why, okay? Because there's very good reasons why we have, oh, here's the other daughter, why we have these reasons, why we are demanding these things, you know? And that's about developing that relationship. I think Paul got it right in his letter to the Thessalonians where he says, what is our hope? What is our joy? What is our crown of boasting before the Lord that is coming? And his answer, is it not you? It's about developing vertical relationships with God and developing horizontal relationships with the people that he sends, in whose love we live. And so these are the reasons why we look at these commandments and we understand that as a result of looking at them and growing deeper in our understanding, that we can deepen our relationship with God and with others as well. So, The third commandment talks about honoring God's name. I think one more point of interest I think here. Turn to page 930 in the Confession of Faith. And this is chapter 19 of the Law of God. We're looking at the Law of God. I'm just gonna, I just wanna read with you one section here that helps us understand the why behind what we, you know, why we study these things, why we understand, why God gives them to us. If you look at, Paragraph number six, I think this is somewhat insightful. Although true believers cannot be under the law as a covenant of works to be thereby justified or condemned, yet it is of great use to them as well as to others in that as a rule of life informing them of the will of God and of their duty, It directs and binds them to walk accordingly, discovering also the sinful pollutions of their nature, hearts, and lives, so as, examining themselves, thereby they may come to further conviction of, humiliation for, and hatred against sin, together with a clearer sight of the need they have of Christ and of the perfection of His obedience." Okay? It is likewise of use to of use to the regenerate, to restrain their corruptions in that it forbids sin, and the threatenings of it serve to show that even their sins deserve, and what afflictions in this life they may expect for them, although freed from the curse thereof threatened in this law." There's reasons for these things, okay? And the reason of the law is given and explained quite clearly here in the catechism, I believe. So let's delve into this. When we look at the first commandment, the first commandment talks about who we are to worship. The second commandment talks about how we are to worship. Now we're up to the third commandment, and that talks about our attitude. It's about our attitude. It's about understanding who God is. So as was mentioned before, we understand that we're worshiping a holy, holy God. The name of God, you know, if we reflect on this name a little bit, Let's think about that. And I think part of this is a cultural thing too. When we were in Israel, we had a bus driver who was, well, he was actually Arab. But some of the kids were making fun of his name. And they were just doing a little sing-songy rhyming kind of thing about his name. And he was deeply troubled by this. And in fact, he went to Vanderlaan, our leader, and complained about it. And he came to us and, helped us understand how a name is so very important in Eastern cultures as opposed to our culture. And so, I mean, that's the context of the name of God. But let's think about this a little bit. What do we know about the name or names of God? I'm gonna open it up again. When did God first come to his people and express, I guess it would be Adam and Eve, okay? But what other places in Old Testament scripture do we hear about God and his names? Ezekiel 36, please help us. God vindicating the profaneness of his name. Yeah, that they have profaned his name, yes. Right. No, no, you're right. I'm sorry, you're probably not hearing that, but, you know, Mark, right? What Mark was saying is that you can't distinguish between God's name and who he is. It's all put together. In fact, the catechism, the book that we're working here, the first part of this chapter is God's name is his fame. It is his fame, it's who he is. In fact, when God spoke first to Moses from the burning bush, Moses is like, I gotta tell these people, who's sending me? And what was his response? I am, okay? That's a profound statement when it comes to a name, isn't it? You know, it's I am, I am, I'm in what? I'm the creator, I'm everything. I'm the creator of the universe here, okay? You need to be very respectful when you're dealing with my name, okay? The Hebrew, some of the old Hebrew scholars revered the name of God by not even uttering it on their lips. They refuse to say it. They're like, I think it was Isaiah. Didn't say, woe is me. I have unclean lips. You can't even mention your name, you know? Is it too awesome for us to understand that because God, everything, everything, you know? God's, He's the creator of the universe. He sustains all. He's all-knowing. He's all-powerful. He's all-sovereign. He's all-merciful. And it says God has a love for us that I like to describe as furious. It's a furious love for us. And the problem, and in our sin when we're dealing with this, is that in our pride, we fall towards the sin of this familiarity breeds contempt. In our culture, there's too many. There's a lot of us who wanna buddy up with God and make it happen. That is not the right attitude that we should have when it comes to God. There's a popular view of God in this commandment is that if we just obey the letter of the law, we're okay. We can't use God's name in vain. We can't curse. We shouldn't say the, you know, the curse words in God's name. And people sometimes excuse themselves on the ground that they don't really mean it when they use God's name this way. I know, I think I had a conversation with somebody recently, and, well, as a teacher, I remember, class, I did a movie clip. It was a science thing. And so I was doing this movie clip of Apollo 13, showing how the stages of the rockets were going. And I'd seen this movie before. And I thought, well, I'm just going to show this three-minute clip. And I get this thing going. I should have prepared better for my middle school science class. And I start showing it, and all of a sudden, the astronauts and people, whatever, talking in the background, they're using God's name in vain, you know? And I'm like, I didn't even remember that. I didn't recognize it. It was just too common. And I needed to seek forgiveness for that. And I did apologize to the students as well. I was like, oh, that's not good. And we had a nice little conversation about that at the time. So the popular view is that, that they don't even realize that it's the letter of the law. But let us not imagine that this is all that the third commandment teaches us. In order to understand the meaning of this command more clearly, we need to ask the question, what does it mean to take God's name? That was enlightening to me. What does it mean to take God's name? When else do we take a name? Anybody? What's that? Make that common, okay? We get married, very good, okay? If you really love this person that you're marrying, the woman will take the name of the man and it becomes hers. It becomes who she is. This is great devotion, isn't it? It's great honor, it's great respect. And that's where we take a name, okay? She takes her husband's name. She does not take his name in vain. In a similar way, a Christian will confess his faith before men. He will now, he will vow or swear before men that he takes Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And it is this above all that the third commandment is concerned with. We must be certain when we confess our faith that we truly mean it, all right? But not only this, okay? When we worship, we worship God. We can't separate God and his name. So when we are worshiping, and even when our minds are wandering, are we really taking his name the way it should be taken? Are we really seeing the awe and the value of God's name? He is the almighty, sovereign creator of the universe, and he is holy, not just holy. Scripture says he's holy, holy, holy, three times. That's a complete holiness there. There should always be an awe when we consider God. Why are we not stunned by God's grace every single day? Why do we not recognize and reflect deeply on the furious love of God? Are you moved to tears when God's word is presented, when it's preached? Do you know how to reach? Do you allow God's word and his name reach the hidden depths of your heart? Unless you think this is an inappropriate kind of perspective, let's turn to scripture. What does God say? He says, God presents himself to Job. I love Job's response when he understands completely that God finally says, who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? And then Job, in his confession, says, Job 42, I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you. I really understand you. Therefore, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. That's the attitude. Isn't that the attitude that I think we ought to have when we're coming into the presence of God, when we're dealing in God's name, even in our personal devotions, that sense of awe, I think, should be there. We all fall short of this, obviously, okay? This would mean that we would never let our minds wander as we pray. We should also pay attention to the sermon in church. And the truth is that we are all, at times, very much consumed with other things, and that's the sin that we need to repent of. So, let's talk a little bit about Let's talk a little bit about what it means to take God's name in vain. Anybody have any ideas about that? Beyond just, I'm not going to swear and use God's name. Yes. Did you hear that? As Christians, we take His name. When we walk contrary to His commands, we are taking His name in vain. The Hebrew, help me out with this if you know your Hebrew. Ah, I'm missing it. I'm sorry. There's a Hebrew phrase that talks about just that. Are we going to hallow his name or are we gonna denigrate his name? I don't remember the Hebrew words, they kind of rhyme. But that's an all that we do, isn't it? Are we going to take the name of God? Are we gonna drag God through the mud because us, we're being called Christians? And I think we should be very careful when we, and everything that we act, even in our thoughts and our words, but especially in our actions, that we should not be taking God's name in vain in that way. Anybody else taking God's name in vain? Jordan. Blasphemous, right? Yeah, absolutely. I gotta tell you on that, something comes to mind. Years ago, I used to play basketball in the morning, a bunch of guys at the YMCA when we lived in the Chicago area. And there's all kinds of people there. And some younger men were there and they were taking the Lord's name in vain just through a silly basketball game, you know? And there's an older gentleman there, happened to be Catholic. He's a Roman Catholic. He just stopped and he goes, oh, you know him too? Yeah, he's my Lord and Savior. I stopped it right there. OK, that was that was that was wonderful. I'm I'm embarrassed that I didn't say that, but he did. So. Taking God's name in vain, profane talks, swearing or cursing. Even the whole idea when somebody comes to you and says, oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that. That's the point. You weren't thinking about God in the right way. You didn't have the right attitude toward God, and you allowed that to escape your lips. Vain is translated carelessly or with no thought. God's name is high and is holy, and it should occupy a very special place in our thoughts and our words. There's two concepts here in the third commandment. One of them is this whole idea of not taking the Lord's name in vain. But why does God say, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless, that take his name in vain? He doesn't say that about the first two commandments. He does say that when it comes to honoring your parents, that there's a penalty for that. But here it's, he will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. This is eye-opening to me. So does anybody have any thoughts on that? Is it that God will not hold anybody guiltless who has idols? I think he will. But it's mentioned here in the second commandment. Go ahead, yes. Yes. I think that's akin to the Pope there, right? Claiming godness, right? And it's not on accident. It's very purposeful, isn't it? I believe it is, right? I'm hoping, the whole superheroes thing. I mean, they do elevate themselves to a higher status. Are they claiming to be God? I don't know, okay? I'm gonna put you on the spot here, Irene, but yeah, I hope you're okay with this. So we're at the bank and we're getting our bank set up and they have those secret questions for your answer, right? And one of the questions she asked my wife, she says, who's your superhero? And Irene looks at her and she's like, superhero? Yeah, who's your superhero? She says, Jesus. Now you know the answer. So if you get into our bank account, you can get that. Well, she goes, it's Jesus. I'm like, yes, amen. So, but you're right. There's a lot of stuff that takes God's name in vain nowadays, doesn't it? And I think we should be careful about that. Do we always get up and turn the TV off when that happens? Is that our job to do? Especially with children, I think that gives us a good opportunity to at least talk about these things. But yeah, anybody else? The whole idea of without guilt, yes. I think I see where you're coming from, the whole idea that we don't understand that there is a vast, vast gap between God and us, and our attitude toward God in that is, yeah, you could say that that's, when we consider that God is holy and we are not, a lot of sins occur when we do not consider that, correct? I think, yeah, go ahead, Irene. I think the point that I'm trying to make here, which was eye-opening to me as well when I studied this, is that this is a sin of the heart. Because it's an attitude thing. I can look like I'm paying attention. I can look like I'm going to church. We can look good, but it's a sin of the heart. And God knows the heart. He understands the heart. And so he can say, hey, you're guilty, because I see your heart. I know what's really going on in there. And God does this. Have you ever wondered why? Zechariah, it's in Luke 1. Zechariah and Mary almost have the same response to Gabriel, right? How can this be, she says. How am I to know this, Zechariah says. And how does Gabriel respond? He rebukes Zechariah and he comforts Mary. They basically say the same thing. God, through Gabriel, understands the heart. It was a heart of unbelief on the part of Zechariah. It was a heart of, I think, amazement or bewilderment or aweness for Mary. So he sees the heart. This is my translation of Gabriel when Zechariah says, how am I to know this? And Gabriel says, I stand before God. Think about that. He stands before God. And I've come here to tell you this message, this message of good news, he says. And he says, now, shut up. Really, shut up. In fact, you're not going to say anything until this happens. So God sees the heart. Words are important. Just some concluding remarks. Oh, we should, yeah, we should talk about, yeah. God sees the heart. Some swearing is okay, isn't it? Deuteronomy 6 verse 3 says you should swear, verse 13, sorry, says that you should swear by my name. Well, what do we swear by God's name? When is that okay? They're important things. These are heavy, weighty things, aren't they? Yes. And then it's okay to swear by God's name, isn't it? In fact, the covenanters, the Scottish covenanters, our ancestors, that's why they're called covenanters, because they wrote down their covenant, their commitments to God. And they would sign them, many of them would sign them in their own blood. would sign this and they would sign and say, by this we are saying that we're going to promise these things and we're going to risk our lives and our fortunes and our sacred honor. Anybody, those words familiar with anybody? Our lives, risking their lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor. Those are words out of the Declaration of Independence. Okay. And it's no chance, there's no coincidence that that was in our Declaration of Independence. Because it's been said that the Revolutionary War was the war of, the Presbyterian Rebellion. But go ahead, Irene, you gonna say something? Yeah. Common, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Amen. Yes, the sin of familiarity breeds contempt. It really does. It's just our human nature. So I think we should be mindful of that. Does that mean that we should pray to God as thou and thee? Anybody want to comment on that? Abba, Daddy. Yes. Okay. I think it's very important that we should never utter thoughtless words. Words are important. It's the way God communicates with us. It's the way He's presented Himself and presented salvation to us. The Word of God is so very important. And so that should be reflective of our words as well. And so I think that's really a big part of what we're talking about here is understanding God and His holiness and our reverence and our attitude of how we should approach God not only in worship, but in all of our lives. Yes, I covered all of that. So, we covered the idea that when it is a lofty thing, that swearing is good. We have to be very sure, I'll just finish this, when we swear that we're doing so with God's approval, that what we affirm is true and right, and that we do so with a sincere heart. But when we do not swear right, we can know that God himself has promised, but when we do swear right, we can know that God himself has promised his blessing. This, after all, is what it means to witness a good profession before the world. So any closing comments from anybody? Yes, Mark. Yes. Whatsoever you do, let's honor the name of the Lord. Yes. Whatever. Whatsoever you do, absolutely. Well, let's end with a word of prayer. Our Heavenly Father, forgive us. We do not rightly understand the gap between you and your holiness and us and our sin. And we give you thanks and praise, Lord. We do so with joy and with complete and utter reliance on your grace to us, your willingness to provide the love and the mercy, the justice that's necessary to bridge that gap. We understand that your desire is restoration, that we might be restored through Jesus Christ, and we give you thanks for that. When we say your word, when we read your word, when we worship you, when we hear your word, Lord, may we have the proper attitude of worship that would honor you in all things that we do. May we profess a good profess your name in a way that honors you, that we do not dishonor you, that we hallow your name, that others might come to understand as well, that you are God and you are holy, and that you're worthy of our worship and our praise. As we ask, seeking your blessing on our food now as well, fellowship that we have, we give you thanks for that. And in Jesus' name we pray this, his precious name, worthy, amen.