You can turn to Exodus chapter 20 if you want, that's where I'll be reading from later, the Ten Commandments. So this is our 41st sermon in the Suggested Topics series. This is our seventh sermon in the category of Christian Living in the Home, but it doesn't totally fit here. And the reason for that is because I had a request that came in late to do something on minced oaths. That's our topic today, the requested topic. And it doesn't exactly fit this category. But where just last week we looked at children in the first table of the law, which incorporates the first four commandments, I thought this is a great place to put this commandment, the third commandment that has to do with minced oats. And I know that not everyone is familiar with that term. but it refers to a way of using God's name in vain, but when you do it in a modified way. So somebody says something like, gosh darn, instead of God damn, or something like that, that sort of thing, thinking that by that way that they are using a minced kind of oath. And we'll be talking about that as we move on. I think though, I really want to lay a foundation for it rather than just jumping right in to that. And so I think it's necessary for the sake of context that we take a general overview of the third commandment. Because it's been a while since I preached on the third commandment. It's in our catechism series. It wasn't real long ago, but a lot of people don't understand the third commandment today. And before we address the specific subject of minstos, I want to look at it. We need to have a general understanding before we deal with the specifics. Now I don't intend to do, I don't mean that I'm going to do more than one sermon on this subject, but we'll have a general overview today and then get right into the specifics today as well. So let's go to our scripture reading. It's simply the Ten Commandments again. We did them last week from Deuteronomy 5, which was when the commandments were restated after the time in the wilderness, the 40 years in the wilderness. And Exodus 20 was when they were given to the people right after they came out of Egypt. So this is when they were first pronounced on Mount Sinai. There's a little bit of variation in them, because after the 40 years, they were getting ready to go into the promised land at that time. So listen now as I read this to you. It's the word of God, beginning in Exodus 20, verse 1. And God spoke all these words, saying, For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments. 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. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work, you nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's. Thanks be to God for giving us his holy and infallible word. We really need to have the third commandment spelled out for us in our day. Why do I say that? I want to remind you, as I pointed out last week, that God gave His commandments to His church. at this early time in the church's history, you know, way back 2,000 years before Christ came, or 1,500 years before Christ came, sorry, at this time after he had redeemed us from Egypt to be his people. And it was a very gracious thing for Him to give us the commandments, because sin made us muddle-headed about what it looks like to please God. We're all confused about what is God's will and how do we please God. So the Ten Commandments clarify for us what obedience looks like, what does it look like to obey God. In different periods of history, We tend to emphasize certain moral obligations and ignore other ones. Having them written out helps us to have them all before us so that we won't ignore one and hold to another. And ours is a day when one of the commandments that we're especially muddle-headed about is the third commandment. That's one that people just do not really understand. They don't see why it's important. It's just like, okay, what is this thing about taking God's name in vain? What is this talking about? We don't see the vital importance of this commandment the way we should. So we have it here as a witness to us. It stands there to kind of haunt us and say, okay, this is something we need to think about. Most people think that the third commandment is only talking about using curse words and that that's really not all that big a deal anyway. That's the way most people really think of it. They are wrong on both counts. Taking God's name in vain refers to a lot more than saying curse words, but it includes curse words, and saying curse words is a serious thing before God. So they're wrong on both of those counts. The catechisms are actually very helpful in helping us today in our muddled-headedness to understand the meaning of the third commandment. So I have them in the outline there, the catechism questions and answers. So let's look at these questions and their answers from the Westminster Shorter Catechism. If you want a fuller description of what is required and forbidden in the third commandment, then use the larger catechism. I started to use it, but I didn't think we really need it for our purposes today. So we'll begin with question 53. Just to remind you, when we did the larger catechism a while back, I think there were a dozen sermons on the third commandment alone. So we could do a whole lot on this, but we're just doing a summary overview of it here today. So we'll begin then with question 53 of the shorter catechism. It says, which is the third commandment? And the answer is, 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. Okay, so we just read that in our scripture reading. That's the third commandment. Okay, what is required in the third commandment? The third commandment requires the holy and reverent use of God's names, titles, attributes, ordinances, word, and works. So what do you see there? That God's name involves a whole lot more than just what he is called. When we talk about a name, we talk about a reputation, we talk about really, so in addition to his actual name, such as Yahweh or Jesus, that are actual names that he has, his name also includes titles like the Almighty, and attributes like holiness and wisdom and ordinances like the singing of praise or the hearing of sermons. There are ordinances that God has given to his church. His word, the scriptures, that's one of the ways that we have God's name. His word is associated with his name. And then his works, like his great works of creation and redemption that we kind of looked at a lot this morning in Psalm 136. Question 55 goes on to give us a definition of what is meant by God's name. This is very, very helpful. It says, what is forbidden in the third commandment, the third commandment forbiddeth all profaning or abusing of anything whereby God maketh himself known. So you see in the required, what is required, you have the different things involved with God's name listed out. His names, titles, attributes, ordinances, word and works. And then when you talk about what is forbidden, instead of naming all those things again, it says, however God is made known. However he makes himself known, that's his name. When I tell you, people say, who are you? And I say, my name is John, right? I'm making myself known with my name, but then my name is a lot more than that. I tell you what I do, you know, where I live, different kinds of things like that. Making myself known to you, that's the idea of God's name includes Whatever he reveals to us about himself, we're not to take that in vain. Understanding what God's name means helps us to see that this commandment has then a very broad application. It doesn't just apply only, it doesn't apply only to saying God's name is a curse word. For example, whenever you come to worship the Lord, Worship being one of God's ordinances where he makes himself known. You take God's name in vain when you sing, for example, about the greatness of the Lord and your mind is somewhere else. You're talking about the most incredible, the most awesome being in all the world. We're not just in the world, but in the universe, the God who made us. And your mind is just kind of going this way and that way. And that's taking God's name in vain. It's like it's not important. Take it in vain. It's like it doesn't really matter that much. Or even when you are doing that and you're not in awe of him as much as you should be. Maybe you're not completely off, but you're coming short. We come short of the glory of God, don't we? And this is this is one of the ways that we do it. So also, when you hear the gospel preached and you're cold and indifferent, maybe you're a believer, but you're just kind of cold hearted right now and your gospel doesn't really doesn't really mean anything to you much. You're taking God's name in vain or you act as if what he has revealed is is not that important. You know, it's just it's not really a big deal that that's taking God's name in vain. Likewise, when you hear a threat from him and you don't tremble. So I'm not really worried about. Or when you take a vow and you count that a trivial thing. Remember someone hypocritized and they were married and they said, my marriage vows don't mean anything anyway. Vow before God, saying God judge me if I don't do what I promise to do. When we look at it like that, we can see that we can take God's name in vain and continue, that we take God's name in vain and we continue to do so as long as we live in this world. Isn't that the way it is with all the commandments? I mean, can you say I have perfectly kept any of God's commandments? You cannot. You come short in all of them when you understand them, when you understand them as given to us by God. If you understand them as just given by other people, then yeah, I mean, I never killed anyone. But when it's God who is the one that issued the commandment, Jesus says, even if you hate your brother in your heart, you've committed murder. Even if you get angry without a cause. It's a form of breaking the sixth commandment, you shall not kill. So we need to be forgiven for this sin. And the wonderful thing is, we don't live based on our own righteousness. This reminds us of that. We come short all the time. We live based on Christ's righteousness and our trust in Him for forgiveness. Now the reason that's added to the third commandment helps us to wake up to the seriousness of taking God's name in vain. What is the reason, question 56, what is the reason annexed to the third commandment? The reason annexed 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. This commandment, the violation of this commandment, is often something that people can't even see. And so, sometimes you can, but sometimes you can't even see when somebody is violating it, and that means that only God sees. So people think, oh well, it's not a big deal, nothing will happen, I can get away with this. And he says, no. God will deal with this sin. People think it's not a big deal to misuse God's name, so he's insisting that if you don't repent of this sin, God will deal with you. You may be chastened for it in this life, or even in the world to come, you may find that you don't even know the Lord, that you are only playing games, because if you take the revelation of the gospel in vain, and you really don't take it to heart, you're taking it in vain, aren't you? So it's a very serious thing. Brothers and sisters, we simply do not esteem God as we ought. And that's why our society has such a hard time today with this commandment, not recognizing its place. You might say that we take the third commandment in vain. We take the commandment that says don't take God's name in vain, in vain. We look at Him and all that He is associated with all that's associated with God far too lightly. When the prophets and apostles saw his glory, do you remember what happened to them? Think about the Apostle John or Isaiah, one of the most holy prophets that ever lived. He fell on his face. As a desperate man, woe is me, I am undone. I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean. That was Isaiah, the holy prophet. That was his testimony when he saw the glory of God. He didn't take God's name in vain when it was revealed to him that way. Nobody else would either on the day of judgment when God shows up. Nobody's going to take His name in vain then. They will not be able to because God's majesty will overwhelm them with awe. So even these holy prophets and apostles, they trembled in awe before God when they saw His glory. And understand that God delights in that kind of response. In Isaiah 66, one and two, he informs us of this. Thus says the Lord, heaven is my throne. He's talking about his majesty. The earth is my footstool. I judge the earth. Where is the house that you will build for me? You can't even build a house. They were building a house for him, but he said, this is just a representative house. You can't make a house that I can live in. Where is the place of my rest? For all those things my hand has made. I created everything. And all those things exist, says the Lord. But on this one will I look. On the person that builds a great house for God and says, look, God, I made you a great house. Aren't you impressed with the house I made for you? No. Who does God look at? On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and who trembles at my word. Someone who sees the majesty of God and trembles before him. Did Jesus not say the same thing? The Sermon on the Mount. How did he begin the Sermon on the Mount? He said, blessed are the poor in spirit. Not the proud one that says, God, I've got it all together. Look at me, I'm so righteous before you. You should be really impressed to have me on your team. No. It's the one that says, Lord, woe is me, I am undone. I need your grace. I'm here for your salvation. I'm here for your redemption. I don't have anywhere else to go. You have the words of eternal life. Blessed are the poor in spirit, Matthew 5, 3. In Leviticus 10, we're told what happened to Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, when they were serving as priests, and they took it upon themselves to carelessly offer fire on the altar, For the sacrifices and things, there was supposed to be fire, but they used the wrong kind of fire. Fire that God had not authorized. Burning in incense, perhaps, that was not the incense that God had spelled out that they were to use. They said, oh, it doesn't matter. Won't matter. It did matter. What happened? Leviticus 10, one through three. The Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it. put incense on it and offered profane fire. It was common. Profane means common fire. It wasn't the holy fire that God appointed. It was a profane, just an ordinary kind of incense or something before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. That's why it was profane. It was not what God, the holy fire He commanded. So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. And Moses said to Aaron, This is what the Lord spoke, saying, By those who come near me, I must be regarded as holy before all the people. I must be glorified. God often did that beginning of new things to show the standard. And then after that, they did things that were much worse than profane fire. And God didn't always deal with them right away. You know, he let it go on. But in the initial stages, They'd just been consecrated as priests, they were just starting out. He said, no, this is my standard. This is where the line is. This is the sort of thing that we, in our particular day, do not understand. We read this and it's like, what? Why did God do that? We simply don't see how glorious a thing it is for God to be holy. We don't like for God to be holy. And you see, it should be something that we learn to delight in. Ours is a day when we want to bring God down to our level and say, there's no reason to be in awe before him, he's just like us. He's just a buddy. We can come to God and do whatever we want, it doesn't matter. Yeah, he's got some commandments, but he won't care. It doesn't matter. We think he is like us. That's the reason that we don't stand in awe of him. that we don't regard him as worthy of our worship and obedience. We think his forgiveness is an obligation on his part. Well, of course God would forgive me. I mean, after all, I'm a pretty good person and he should forgive me if I do something wrong. No, we don't see it. The way it is, is a remarkable display of his mercy. That's what forgiveness is. He's giving us forgiveness that we don't deserve in any way. Mercy is something you don't deserve, not something you do deserve. So the prohibition against profaning God's name is lost on us. It doesn't make sense. What does that matter? What are you talking about? To profane a thing, what is that? It's to take something holy or sacred and make it ordinary. It is our tendency today, especially, to treat everything the same. We don't have respect for old people. You know, people will crowd in front of an old person and not think anything about it, or they'll go, like, making loud noise when adults are speaking to one another. Children will do this, or people just don't care about, you know, there's not a respect, there's not regard for anything or anyone, including God, as someone that should be respected, or someone that is a higher place than another. We want everything to be common. everything to be ordinary. Let me see if I can illustrate this to you in ways that we can see that, yeah, that's right. You know, it's not right. Okay, we're like a two-year-old with a blowtorch. Okay, so he's got something, you know, he can melt down a wall or can whatever with this thing. And that two-year-old has no sense of, he takes it in vain, he doesn't realize what he's got there in his hand. He doesn't respect that the torch can hurt him. That if he does it to his dog, it can kill his dog. That he can set his house on fire. Heard about a guy that tried to clean snow off of his deck with a blowtorch and set his house on fire. He didn't respect what he was using. It was like he took it in vain. It was not something that mattered. The child perceives no difference between the blowtorch and a powerful flashlight. It's just something that he can play with, won't hurt anybody. It's all the same to him. That's the way we are if we don't regard God as a holy judge. God is dangerous. He's not someone that you can mess around with and trifle with. There's a respect that needs to be there. Another illustration, we're like a woman that finds a precious Persian rug worth millions of dollars, maybe she finds it in a relative's house, a rich relative, and says, oh, this rug, I could use this as a floor mat, you know, we need something between the house and the barn, you know, so that people can wipe their shoes on when they come out. She has no idea that this is a rug that is not to be put down as a floor mat to wipe manure off your feet when you come from the barn. As far as she can tell, though, it's just a floor mat. You could, if we use the word holy to explain what, it's like that mat is holy. It's set apart from other mats or other rugs. And she looks at it just as a common rug. She profanes it by using it as a floor mat when it should be used in a very different way. She takes what is special and she treats it as if it's just like everything else. That's what people do with God's name when they use God's name and they take something that is special and exalted and set high above all other things and they treat it like just like it's anything else. We look at God as if there is little difference between him and his creation. We profane the things that are associated with him and we make them common when they are to be regarded as sacred and holy. God and everything associated with him is sacred. I think one of the reasons that we have such a hard time with this is because sort of the Marxist-Leninist kind of philosophy has so permeated our society where you want everything to be the same with that. It's kind of weird because then whenever they come into power, they always have these people that are like the dictator that everybody has to do exactly what he says and it's not the same at all. But it's a perverted way that is taught to us in our schools and everywhere. God and everything, though, associated with him, you see, is actually sacred. He must be regarded as holy, like he said to Nadab and Abihu, or to Aaron concerning Nadab and Abihu. He must be feared and revered. So to treat him and all that is associated with him as just common or ordinary is unjust. It's something like the injustice of hiring a neighbor kid to cut the grass on your two-acre lot. and two acres and you pay him five dollars. What did you do? You undervalued what he did. He cut two acres for you and you gave him five dollars. You know, God is worthy of our worship. If we look at him as no different or as not much different than we are, then we're unable to worship him. We don't see him as worthy of very much worship if we don't regard him as holy. We are the losers when this is so in more than one way. First, it is very sad because you miss out on the delight that you would have if you were aware of God's excellent majesty, his supremacy, his glory. When you are ignorant about special things, then you don't enjoy special things as special. They're just all part of the mud. There's nothing stands out above anything else. A wine connoisseur has great delight in one wine and another. I had a friend that had a rich relative that had a $10,000 bottle of wine and My friend drank this wine and was like, I don't even know the difference. It's all, it'll just take like a common ordinary bottle of wine to me. But it's, oh no, this is really, you know, that kind of thing. Anyway, this is the kind of thing that they can tell the difference. As a woodworker, you know, you can tell the difference between a you know, Mastercraft chisel from Canadian Tire and a Veritas chisel from Lee Valley. You know, you have different kinds of tools. You know the difference in your power tools. You know, a guy that uses them all the time, he has a big difference between one tool and another. Another guy looks at it and says, well, it looks like the same thing to me. You know, he has no idea. It even feels the same to him. But God is much more than a set of chisels or a bottle of wine or power tool. He is our creator in whom we live and move and have our being. He is so much distinct from his creation. The creator-creature distinction is so huge that it doesn't even compare with those illustrations I use. To miss his glory is to miss our chief end in our way to happiness. We miss out on seeing the glory of God. But missing out is not the only way that we're the losers. It also means that we will be severely judged for profaning God's name. I mentioned that it is a great injustice to undervalue someone's hard work. But there is no greater injustice than to undervalue our glorious God. To take the one who is holy and to profane his name. It calls for dreadful judgment. And that's what this commandment says. You will not escape the judgment of God. Because it throws everything out of kilter. If we don't regard God as God, then we're completely missing the whole of everything. We got everything wrong. Everything is a distortion, a lie, blasphemy. It absolutely must be rectified. And things won't be rectified until we get to glory. But now, as we come to God, we begin to learn of these things. We begin to learn of His holiness, of His glory, of His majesty, and to appreciate it. Okay, that's the first thing. We don't miss out on the blessing of seeing God as special and higher than everything else. And then another way that we avoid the judgment of God is we come looking to Christ as our Redeemer. So there's good news. There are two ways to rectify the injustice of profaning God's name. God will rectify it. He will not allow His glory to be brought down. The one way is for God to consign those who profane His holy name, who treat Him and all that is associated with Him as common, to consign them to the lake of fire forever, to the place of torment and everlasting punishment. Why is this good? Why is this important? Because it continues to maintain the truth about God that is destroyed when we profane His name. We do not regard Him as holy. If we do not regard Him as holy, we think that that kind of judgment is out of line. But to think that way only shows how profane we really are. See, we say, that judgment, that's inappropriate. God shouldn't judge. No, you don't, you're missing. You're missing what God is really like. The other way, though, to rectify the injustice of profaning God's name is first to humble ourselves, to repent of our sin, and to plead with Christ for the mercy that he has promised to us in Jesus Christ. Even though we do not yet see as glory as we ought, if we cast ourselves on our Lord for salvation, then he promises that we will and he keeps his promise instead of punishing us for profaning his name in that case. He punishes Christ who came for the purpose of atoning for our sin. He punishes him in our place. Christ serves as the priest who offers the sacrifice that takes away our sin. And he becomes the sacrifice that is punished for our sin. And not only that, but God also promises that he will transform us so that when his work is done, we will see the glory of God. We will not be left out. We will delight in his glory forever and ever. We will see him as he is. When you repent and turn to Him, when you will not repent, you're on your own way. But when you do repent, then you're on your way to seeing the glory of God. He will bring you to see it fully. That is the encouragement that we have. Having now considered And if God is pleased, not only consider it, but seen, okay, what it is to profane God's name. I hope you've seen that. Then now we're ready to look at some particular application. You see what I was saying about the foundation? The foundation is necessary that we just lay to see what it is to profane God's name, so that now when we look at the particular things, we're going, what does that matter? It matters. I hope that's clear to you. I hope you have seen that. So now let's look at particular ways that we would profane God's name. First of all, I'm going to ask questions with this. If you take God's name in vain, how would you deal with his warnings? The person that takes God's name in vain. You're unmoved by the warning. You're unconcerned about it. You don't take it seriously. Remember, we studied about Noah, who had faith. He built the ark because he took the warning seriously. What did the rest of the people do? They took God's name in vain, so they perished. What about God's commandments? Well, if you take God's name in vain and you forget the commandments, you don't remember them. There's something about that. Or you ignore them, or you twist them around because you're not dealing with God. Well, he couldn't have meant that. And you start turning it this way and that way instead of walking in fear before him. How do parents trivialize God's commandments with their children? is when they don't deal with their children consistently, isn't it? There's no consequences for violation of the commandments. How do you deal with God's promises when you take God's name in vain? We are not thrilled by the promises. You don't delight in the promise. You don't say God has promised. God has promised forgiveness. God has promised salvation. But it's like, yeah, whatever. What about worship? You yawn before God, you tune out. You don't show up. You say, not important, doesn't matter. That's so common in our society today. Ever since COVID, there's so many people that are not worshiping God and gathering to worship him anymore. And what about works of creation? You're not thankful. You don't see God in the creation. You don't honor him. You don't see his majesty. You don't see, look at the heavens declaring the glory of God. It's just flat when you take God's name in vain. Okay, so those are some things. If you take God's name in vain, how you deal with those things. Okay, now, another question. What does this commandment have to do with things like abortion, euthanasia, sexual immorality, vows, that kind of thing? Well, first, abortion and euthanasia. What is something that's associated with God? Human beings. Why? Because they're made in God's image. So why is it wrong to abort a child, or why is it wrong to terminate, to even assisted suicide if the person wants to die, they're tired of living? Why can't they just say, hey, I'm tired of living, I'm ready to go, go ahead and Take me out. Why can't they say that? Because we're made in God's image. And God says that when we murder someone, it's an attack on his image. That's why it brought death penalty. Why God appointed a death sentence for someone that kills another person. Not because it's so bad to the other person. It is bad to the other person. But what's really wrong with it is an attack on his image. And see, we get that wrong. And so we've been saying all this time about abortion. We've been telling people about how bad it is because of what it does to the child, and how it's so cruel to the child, and things like that. And they say, well, the child can't feel anything. And you get into all these arguments about it. Well, what if we do this, you know, and all that kind of stuff. That's not the point. The point is you're attacking the image of God. It's when you bring God in the picture, you're taking God's name in vain. That's the issue. Yeah, it's bad to the person, but the old person, maybe they want it. It's not bad to them, it's what they want. So then we don't have any argument because we're not dealing with God. But if it's about the image of God, then nobody should take their own life, and nobody should take anybody else's life. Unless they have been appointed by God as an executioner to punish someone who has done wrong. Because God said. And if He says, then we take a life. He says we can go to war to defend our nation. We can kill people at war. But He does not authorize killing people just because it's inconvenient for you, or because you're old and you don't want to live anymore, anything like that. Okay, what about sexual immorality? God has appointed sex for a special purpose. is to be used for bringing forth a godly seed. It's to be used in the context of marriage. It's to be used to enhance companionship in marriage and to testify to the sacredness of that relationship between the husband and wife that God has brought them together as one flesh. And when we profane, Sex, when we use it in a common way, and we make it into a common thing, we're taking God's name in vain. Because He's the one that made it sacred. And if we're just gonna argue about, well, you might get venereal diseases, or you might get, you know, all that kind of stuff, or you might have children that you don't want, or you might, well, I can abort them, you know, that's not, that's not the issue. It's about God and what He has said is about taking His name in vain. What about vows? Well, if you act like that doesn't matter, like what you're doing is you're saying, God, you curse me if I don't do what I promise to do in my vow. And then you say, oh, well, I didn't really mean it. What you did, you said before God to curse you if you didn't do what you it's solemn vow before God, you take his name in vain. OK, moving on to our next heading. What about the use of profane speech? What are you doing when you curse someone or something? You are trivializing something that is associated with God. God is the only one who curses and blesses, and you're just throwing it around a curse because you hit your finger with a hammer or something. So you're cursing as if you can curse the situation that has happened, as if you're God, and as if it's not a big deal for God to curse or to not curse. Or cursing at the guy that cut you off in traffic. Who do you think you are? You were inconvenienced and so you're going to curse someone? You're going to consign them to judgment because they displeased you? Like, what are you doing? What are you thinking when you do that? You see how arrogant it is when we look at taking God's name in vain. You're acting like you have the warrant to bless and curse, which is reserved only for God. Now we can pronounce God's curse on something. We can do that, like Paul did that sometimes. Cursed is anyone that preaches another gospel, right? Because God said. But you can't go and say, cursed are you if you don't help me out today. Like what? You can't do that. You can't curse someone for cutting you off in traffic. What are you doing? What are you doing when you talk in a trashy or cheap way about sex? You're acting like this sacred gift that comes from God is something that's cheap and something that is trivial. And it's not. You're treating something holy like a common thing. Okay, well, question, is it okay to use God's name or curse words to enhance your speech? Either one. Is it profane to say, oh my God, as an exclamation? So many people do. Yes, it is profane to say, oh my God. His name should not be used to show how excited you are about whatever situation. God is holy. You do not take his name to embellish your expression of your excitement. Saying that you did not mean it that way actually confirms the problem. It demonstrates the problem. You say, oh, I didn't mean it that way. You mean you took the holy name of God and used it to enhance your speaking. And yeah, you deliberately thought God's name wasn't important. Oh, I didn't. I didn't. Yeah, I didn't mean it that way. You see, you're using his sacred name. A similar infraction would be to say something like as hot as hell or something like that. What are you doing? You're trivializing hell. It's not as hot as hell. It's not even close to that hot. And to say that you did not mean that again, shows again the problem. You're using holy things in a common way. That's exactly what the commandment says not to do. You're taking something sacred and you're using it in a common, ordinary way to trivialize it. That is the problem that the third commandment addresses. That's what it means to take God's name in vain. God is the one who issued this commandment because he knows that as sinners, we constantly trivialize him. That's why we fell in the first place. We trivialize God, his warnings, his commandments, all of these things, his authority. We trivialize and that's how we fell. That's what's wrong with us. And this commandment is calling us not to take God's name in vain. Okay, well what about minced cursing? Using substitute words like heck or darn or gosh or things like that. I begin by saying that it is certainly better than actually using God's name because the person who does this shows that they revere God's name by avoiding its use in such a trivial way. So okay, I'll give that. However, what is less offensive about something that's such a sacred matter doesn't make it acceptable. Less offensive is not the same thing as acceptable. And it is offensive because when we use a substitute name for God's name, that substituted name is still a representation of God. It's used to represent God. Gosh, whatever that we might use, we're still denouncing a person or what has happened with a curse. with our darns or whatever other words we might use. Jesus dealt with a similar problem when he spoke about swearing in Matthew 5, 33 through 37. Now, before I go into that explanation though, let me just say, when we're dealing with other people, we have to be gentle and we have to lead people to understand the truth, as I've attempted to do today. We start out by explaining to people what a big deal it is to take things of God and make them common. And then we can begin to talk about the application. If we just go in, a lot of times there may be a Christian that uses mint stoves and things like I was just talking about, and they're thinking that it's okay. And so we don't go in with our guns blazing and blasting people away. Perhaps we ourselves did that. You know, we go to minister and to encourage people because we want to see God's name used in a right way. We want to use it in a right way. We want other people to know that it should be used in the right way. We want to change the situation that our society is in and the church is in today. where God's name is profaned all the time. We want to change that. And the only way to bring change is to minister to people gently. And we have to be gentle because, as I said, who doesn't violate this third commandment? Every time I worship, I violate this commandment because I don't honor God with the glory that is due to his name. And am I okay with that? Well, one way I'm not okay, but another way I am because I know that God is merciful and He forgives me. It doesn't mean that I say, well, it doesn't matter because He's merciful and forgives me. It does matter, and I know that I want to grow and I want to change, but at the same time, it's not like I'm destroyed by it because God is merciful and I can go to Him. Now, Jesus dealt then with this thing of minced O's that we're talking about with the similar problem when he spoke about swearing in Matthew 5, 33 through 37. We looked at that already when I read the passage. Some of the Jews had taken to using substitute for God's name to swear by. They would swear by heaven or swear by their own head or something like that, and they said, And they kind of said to themselves within their law that when we say that, then we don't really have to keep it, it doesn't matter. Because we didn't actually use God's name, we just used a substitute for God's name. And when I said, I swear by heaven, they thought I was talking about God, but like, I just said heaven, and so it doesn't matter because I didn't actually use the name of God. The Jews were doing that, and Jesus said no. Like, this has to stop. This is not right. Jesus told them that they should not swear at all in trivial matters, but should live honestly so that that kind of swearing was not needed. The only reason you have to embellish your promises with an oath is because you're not reliable. I mean, that's true even with solemn vows that we take, like for marriage and things like that. If we were just completely honest people and everything, we wouldn't need to embellish, we wouldn't need to have vows. But God has given us vows for things that are really important before him so that we take, we say, okay, I really mean this. You know, till death do us part. I take you to be my wife till death do us part. I really mean this. I call God to bear witness to what I'm saying that I'm telling the truth. We do it, you see, in that way. But when you have to do it because, like I mentioned before, you know, you didn't show up to work for the three times that you said you were gonna come. You say, oh, I swear, I'll really come this time. You swear? Like, what are you swearing by? That's not appropriate. Jesus argued that that kind of swearing is sinful. So if you're gonna swear, it needs to be in a very solemn way, recognizing that only God can judge the truth of what you're saying. He told them that whatever is more than the plain speaking comes of sin. So, you see how that you can't just change the words and say, well, I didn't really use God's name. Because you're still, what you're doing is still associated with God. And it represents Him. So, it's not a good kind of substitution. I hope that helps you to understand the importance of exercising care about the way that we speak and the way that we use God's name. It's troubling to see so many Christians today who have so little regard for God's name. Because what does that mean? It means that they have little regard for God. They will not go unpunished. It may be that they don't even know God in a saving way. but God will deal with them. If they're his children, he'll deal with them and he'll bring them to repentance at last. Let me conclude with some blessings that will come when we do obey this commandment. God says, verse we read before, Isaiah 66, two, but on this one will I look on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and who trembles at my word. And also mentioned Jesus saying, blessed are the poor in spirit. So what will you have if you regard this commandment? No one keeps it perfectly, but if you regard this commandment, you live unto this commandment as a standard that God has given us, you will have God's blessing and God's grace. you will know him as you treat him as holy, you will see his holiness. That's one of the reasons we don't know God, because we don't recognize him as holy. So then nothing is a very big deal. Forgiveness isn't a big deal. Obedience isn't a very big deal. Worship is not a big deal. How we speak is not a big, nothing is a big deal. But if you keep this commandment, You know God as he is and you see his beauty, his holiness. You will be able to help others, that will be another blessing. You'll help other people who don't know God to realize the God with whom they have to do. And you will grow as you take God's word and his worship and his commandments and his promises seriously. you will begin to grow. You'll grow in your obedience, you'll grow in your walk, you'll grow in your knowledge of God, your comfort in the promises of God, all of these things. Yeah, you'll have joy and comfort because you'll recognize that his promises are true, that they really mean something. And really, ultimately, you'll be saved. Like I said before, if you don't take the gospel seriously, you can't be saved. The greatest revelation of God is Jesus Christ, his son, who came and made the father known. That's what he said. He's the logos. He's the word of God that came to to reveal the father. So as we saw today, you cannot know God unless you know Christ. Christ is the one who reveals the father and no one knows the father unless the son reveals him. And how does he reveal him through the gospel? Shows us so much about God. It shows us that sin is a big deal. He had to die on the cross. Let me ask you something about that. What has happened today in modern evangelicalism? Very, very often that people are denying the cross as something that is like the emphasis on the need for forgiveness and atonement for sin. And they want to substitute that. Yeah, we need Jesus. We need a friend that will love us and stand by us and help us and care for us. Well, yeah, I agree with you. We need a friend that will love us and stand by us and care for. I agree with that. But what do we need most of all, if God is holy? We need that friend to come and bear our sins on the cross. Oh, no, that will discourage people. We don't need to talk about sin. We just want them to know that Jesus is their friend and that he'll come and be their friend. You don't want him to judge them. We don't want to judge anyone. No, no. We need to be judged. We stand guilty. The Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There's none righteous, no, not one. We all need to be forgiven. And so God has given us the savior and we come to the light in him. We need don't take God's name in vain or you lose the gospel. It's a very, very sad thing indeed. But what a wonderful thing it is to have the gospel of our salvation. Please stand and let's ask God to help us. O Lord our God, we come before you asking you, O Lord, to help us to regard you as holy. For you are a holy God. There is no one like you. You are righteous in all of your ways. And Father, you are the one who has all majesty and honor and glory. And we are to come before you with reverence and awe. And you delight in those who do so. And you reject those who do not. Father, we thank you that we have Jesus as our savior, because we recognize that we come short of your glory. But we know that he did not come short of your glory when he came here to represent us as a man. He offered the sacrifice also that would take away our sin, the only one that could. And so we come to you in his name, rejoicing to have such a savior. We pray, Lord, that you would guard us in our hearts and minds and in our speech, that we would honor you and honor your name. in thought and in word and in deed. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. It means a lot to be blessed by him. It also means a lot to be cursed by him. And he's told us that he will bless us in the Lord Jesus Christ. So receive now his blessing. Now, may the Lord Jesus Christ himself and our God and Father who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. Amen. Amen.