If you could please turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 6. In Matthew 6 we read verses 1 to 18. Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them. For then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners. that they may be seen by others truly I say to you they have received their reward but when you pray go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you and when you pray do not heap up empty phrases as the gentiles do for they think they will be heard for their many words do not be like them for your father knows what you need before you ask him pray then like this our father in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil For if you forgive others their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. For they disfigure their faces, that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others, but by your Father who is in secret. And your father who sees in secret will reward you. Now, young people. A lot of people pretend to worship God. But a lot of people who pretend to worship God don't actually believe what they're doing. They aren't really trusting God. It looks like they worship God, but really they're not doing it from their hearts. Sometimes it can be hard to tell who's really worshipping God and who's just pretending to worship God. It looks the same to us, but God wants us to be thinking about Him when we're worshipping Him. When we sing his praise, he wants us to be singing it so that he can hear it. He wants us to be thinking about God in everything that we do. That's how we truly worship God. And we're going to be thinking more about that later in the sermon, and I want you to be listening as we do that. But for now, I would like you to draw a picture of people pretending to worship. A picture of some of the things that people do as they pretend to worship God. This may be a bit hard but you can think about it and work out something and then you can explain it to me at the end. A picture of people pretending to worship God. The human brain is an amazing thing. It's amazing in many ways. But one of the ways in which it's particularly impressive is how it can work on autopilot. You can do many things without thinking about them. If like me you got up this morning and at some stage got changed and put on your shoes, If you have shoelaces like I do, when you were tying your shoelaces, you didn't think, OK, I take this end of the shoelace, and I take this end of the shoelace, and then I put this over this end. If you think about it, you probably don't even know how to do it. But you do it on a normal planet. Your brain knows how to do it, and does it without you thinking about it. That's true of many things in life. It's true of driving. You turn out into your road and you automatically go to the correct side of the road. You don't have to think about it. You cross a road, come at a junction, you know which way to look for the traffic. You don't think, you automatically do the right thing. It's a great ability to have. Until you move to a company where you drive on the different side of the road. And then everything is totally confused and you haven't a clue where you are, where to look, where to go, where to drive. Sometimes working on autopilot can be a liability. And I want to think this morning of a much more serious situation in which working on autopilot can be a liability. Working on autopilot can be a liability if we come to worship God. We can worship God on autopilot without really thinking about what we're doing. That's really what we're thinking about today. We're looking again at the book of Exodus. At this stage, the people of Israel have just come out of the nation of Egypt, a heathen nation. They're on their way into the nation of Canaan, another heathen nation. And here in the law in Exodus chapter 20, God tells his people how he wants them to live. And he begins the chapter by telling his people who he is and what he has done for them in verse 2. And then in verses 3 to 6 he tells them not to have any other gods. And today we come to verse 7 of Exodus chapter 20. And here God tells his people don't pretend. 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. We're going to see three things as we basically make our way through this verse this morning. The first thing that we see is that this verse assumes that we will take God's name. There would be no need to tell us not to take God's name in vain if we didn't take God's name at all. The verse assumes that we take God's name. But what does it mean to take God's name? Well, I want to think this morning about two ways in which we can take God's name. There may be other ways, but I want to think this morning about two. of the ways. The first way in which we take God's name. We take God's name when we say we are God's people. If you say I am one of God's people, you are taking God's name on yourself. You are identifying yourself with God. You are saying that you are one of His people. In the New Testament, the believers were called Christians. Christ's ones. Christ's followers. They had taken Christ's name. If you say you are a Christian, you are saying you are one of Christ's people. You have taken Christ's name. That's the first way in which we can take God's name. The second way in which we can take God's name is when we speak God's name. When we use God's name. We see people doing that throughout the Bible. It seems in the Old Testament society they did it far more than we do it in our society today. Then they didn't say it rained. They said the Lord sent rain. They said the Lord caused this to happen. The Lord caused that to happen. They say may the Lord bless you. Often when they greeted each other. they spoke of the Lord. And we see it in the New Testament as well. You recently worked your way through the letter to the Philippians. In that letter, the Apostle Paul mentions Jesus' name in almost half the verses in the letter. Again and again and again, he refers to Jesus. He refers to Christ. He refers to the Lord. And that's what we are to do. We are not to, in a sense, try to block God out of our conversation. We are not to talk as if God didn't exist. He does exist. He is actively involved in our lives. And we are to acknowledge that in what we say. We are to take God's name, We are to speak about God causing things to happen. We are to say that we will do something God willing. We are to acknowledge that we thank God when things turn out well. We are to wish God's blessing and God's prosperity on each other and on others. We are to take God's name. We are to use God's name. So that's two ways in which we can take God's name. We take God's name when we say we are one of God's people, and we take God's name when we use God's name in our speech. So that's the first thing we see in the verse, that we are to take God's name. But the second thing that we see, the verse tells us not to take God's name in vain. We're not to use God's name without meaning it. We're not to pretend. And again we can do that in the same two ways. We're not to pretend to be one of God's people. That's the first way we're not to take God's name in vain. God doesn't want you to pretend to be a Christian. He wants you to be honest with the other people here. If you are trusting in Jesus, He wants you to tell people that. If you're not trusting in Jesus, He wants you to tell people that as well. He doesn't want you to pretend that you are a Christian just because everyone else here seems to be a Christian. He wants you to be honest. Jesus spoke against people who pretend in Matthew 15. In Matthew 15 verses 7 to 9 he says Matthew 15 and verse 7 Jesus says you hypocrites well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said this people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me in vain do they worship me teaching us doctrines the commandments of men. The people worship God with their lips, with their words, but not with their hearts. And Jesus' verdict is that they are hypocrites. They're saying one thing, but really believing and doing another. And Jesus says that they worship God in vain. It's pointless. It's useless. There's no point pretending to worship God. You may fool other people around you, but you can't fool God. The Bible tells us man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. God can see what you are really like. He can see what you really believe. Don't pretend. That's the first way we can pretend. Pretending to believe in God. Pretending to be one of God's people. But the second way in which we can pretend. We can pretend to speak about God. Or pretend to think about God. We can say God's name without actually meaning it, without actually thinking about God. Maybe the first thing that comes into our mind when I mention that is people using God's name as a swear word or as an expression of frustration. They're not thinking about who they're speaking about at all. It's just to them an expression. That's not the only way in which we can misuse God's name. There are many other ways in which we can say God's name without really thinking about God. We can do it as we sing. As we sing the Psalms we often sing God's name. But aren't there times at the end of a psalm when you sit down again and you can't really remember what you've sung. Often we sing without really thinking about what we're singing. We are saying God's name without thinking about God. We can do it in our prayers as well. Often sometimes in prayer you hear People using the Lord's name over and over and over again. Sometimes almost like a pause to give them time to think. We are to use God's name thoughtfully and carefully. One of the things that Jesus spoke most strongly against was hypocrisy. I didn't realise this before, but in some translations at least the only place the word hypocrite or hypocrites is used in the Bible is in the Gospels. And there it is always Jesus who uses it. Eighteen times he uses the word hypocrite. We read earlier from Matthew chapter 6, when Jesus uses the word hypocrite to tell us that if we do spiritual things so that others will notice us, that is actually unspiritual. It is hypocritical. We are being hypocrites, we're pretending to be something we're not. We're pretending to be spiritual, when actually what we're doing is not spiritual. Jesus gives three examples of that in Matthew chapter 6. He says that if we pray so that other people will see it, so that other people will think that we are good, then we're a hypocrite. He says that if we fast, if we go without food, so that other people will see it and think that we're good people, then we're being hypocrites. He says that if we give to the needy, so that other people will see us doing it and think well of us, then we're being hypocrites. And we could extend the list The point Jesus is making is that if we do spiritual things so that other people will see them and think well of us, that itself is unspiritual. It is hypocritical. If you come to church so that other people will see it and will think you're a good person, You are being a hypocrite. You're pretending to come to worship God. But the reason you're coming is not to worship God at all. It's so that other people will see what you're doing and think well of you. If you give an answer in sabbath school, so that other people will think well of you, you're being a hypocrite. If you pray at the prayer meeting so that other people will think well of you, you're being a hypocrite. If you stand up at the front and give a sound meditation or preach in the hope that other people will think well of you, you're being a hypocrite. That's what Jesus is telling us. If we do spiritual things, Not for God, but for other people. We are being unspiritual. We are being hypocrites. And if we use God's name as we do that, we are using God's name so that other people will think well of us. We are misusing God's name. We are taking God's name in vain. So we've seen two things so far in Exodus 20 verse 7. We are to take God's name. But we are not to pretend to take God's name. And then as we make our way through verse 7, we come to a little word that we noticed last week, and a little word that we'll notice again next week, at the word for, in the middle of verse 7. And it's giving us a reason not to pretend to take God's name. We 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. And that's the third thing that we see today. The reason not to pretend to take God's name. And the reason God gives us here is that he will not hold him guiltless. He will not let it go. He won't let you off. You see, how you use God's name shows you what you think of God. If you think highly of God, you will treasure His name. It will be precious to you. But if you're careless about God, you'll be careless how you use his name. And so in a sense, how you use God's name gives you a little window into your heart. It shows you what you really think of God. As Jesus says, the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. If you're careless about how you use God's name, that shows that you're careless about God. It shows that you're not treating God like God. And what happens to those who don't treat God like God? What happens to them ultimately in the end? Anyone who doesn't treat God as God will ultimately be punished in hell forever. Why do you think God tells us here that he's going to punish those who use his name in vain? Why do you think he tells us that? Parents, why do you tell your children that you're going to punish them if they hit their brother or their sister again? Is it because you like inflicting suffering on your children? Well, hopefully not. No, of course it's not. It's because you want to stop them hitting their brother or their sister so that they won't be punished. You tell them you're going to punish them if they continue doing something that's wrong to get them to stop doing whatever is wrong. And that's what God's doing here. He's telling us he'll punish us if we continue to do wrong, if we misuse his name, to get us to stop misusing His name. His purpose is to get us to turn to Him for forgiveness through the Lord Jesus Christ, so that He won't have to punish us, so that He'll forgive us. Have you been misusing God's name? If we look honestly at our lives, every single one of us falls short of God's standard here. Every single one of us uses God's name at times in ways that we shouldn't. We use His holy and precious name without really thinking about Him. We even use His holy name for our selfish purposes so that others will think well of us. We need to come to Christ. We need to look for His mercy. Ask Him to forgive us and pray that He would help us to use God's name as He wants us to use it. We can take God's name. We should take God's name. It's one of the privileges God gives us as Christians. He wants us to take His name. But He doesn't want us to do it insincerely. He doesn't want us to do it carelessly. He wants us to remember what a great privilege it is to take His name. And he wants us to use his name sincerely, reverently and thoughtfully. Let us pray. Lord, God in heaven, we thank you that we can use your name. We thank you that we can call ourselves your people. We thank you that we can speak about you. Father, forgive us for the many times when we have misused your name, when we have used it thoughtlessly or carelessly, or maybe even worse, for our own ends, so that other people would think well of us. Father, forgive us. Help us to use your name in a way that is worthy of you, Help us to think of our great God as we speak of you. And Father, we pray that you would use that for your honor and your glory. In Jesus name, Amen.