In connection with the third commandment this morning, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. We read two passages of God's Word, first from Leviticus, the very beginning of the Bible, and then in the book of Revelation at the very end. God's name. Leviticus 24, verses 10 through 16. records the history of two Israelites, one whose father was an Egyptian and one whose parents both were Israelites, who fought Leviticus 24, 10 through 16, and the son of an Israelitish woman whose father was an Egyptian went out among the children of Israel, and this son of the Israelitish woman and a man of Israel strove together in the camp. That is, they got into a fist fight. And the Israelitish woman's son blasphemed the name of the Lord and cursed. And they brought him unto Moses, and his mother's name was Shalemeth, the daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan. And they put him in ward, that the mind of the Lord might beshowed them. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp, and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him. And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his sin. And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death. And all the congregation shall certainly stone him, as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land. When he blasphemeth the name of the Lord shall be put to death. And then at the very end of the Scripture in the book of Revelation, in chapter 13, we read of the rise of the Antichrist, and we'll read just the first six verses of chapter 13. Revelation 13, 1 through 6. And I stood upon the sand of the sea and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of Blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion, and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat in great authority. And I saw one of his heads, as it were, wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed, and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies. And power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven. That's how far we read the Word of God. Now I call your attention to the Catechism, Lord's Days 36 and 37. In the Heidelberg Catechism on page 21, page 21 in the back of this altar, we have Lord's Day 36 and 37, which explain the third commandment. And remember the third commandment across the page, 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. Question 99, what is required in the third commandment? That we, not only by cursing or perjury, but also by rash swearing, must not profane or abuse the name of God. nor by silence or connivance, connivance is winking at, ignoring, nor by silence or connivance be partakers of these horrible sins in others. And briefly, that we use the holy name of God no otherwise than with fear and reverence so that he may be rightly confessed and worshiped by us and be glorified in all our words and works. Question 100, the question again as important as the answer. Is then the profaning of God's name by swearing and cursing so heinous a sin that His wrath is kindled against those who do not endeavor as much as in them lies to prevent and forbid such cursing and swearing? It undoubtedly is, for there is no sin greater or more provoking to God than the profaning of His name, and therefore He has commanded this sin to be punished with death." And then, Lord, day 37, also an explanation of the third commandment, may we then swear religiously by the name of God. Yes. Either when the magistrates demand it of the subjects. or when necessity requires us thereby to confirm fidelity and truth to the glory of God and the safety of our neighbor, for such an oath is founded on God's Word and therefore was justly used by saints both in the Old and New Testament. May we also swear by saints or any other creatures, no, for a lawful oath is calling upon God as the only one who knows the heart, that He will bear witness to the truth and punish me if I swear falsely which honor is due to no creature. Thou shalt not take the name, the name of the Lord thy God in vain. The third commandment has everything to do with God's name. Now remember the ten commandments. The first four, the first table of the law, have to do with our relation directly with Him. Five through ten, our relationship with the neighbor. Number one in the first table, know other gods. Trust, love, worship, glorify, enjoy Me. Find everything you need in Me, God says, no other gods. Commandment two, when you worship Me, do so from within, spiritually, not outwardly, not with images. That's why the second commandment in the negative form says, thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. the way in which you worship me is vitally important, from inside and not outwardly. No other gods, commandment one, no graven images, commandment two, and commandment three, you need to know me in order to worship me. And you know me by learning my name. That's the positive part of the third commandment. Know my name. The negative, as it comes in the Ten Commandments, Do not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. The name of God. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. The name of God is a strong, high tower. The righteous run into it, the name, and are safe. And Jesus said at the very end of His earthly ministry, Father, I've manifested Thy name unto all those whom Thou hast given Me. God's name. The issue in that fist fight between the half-breed And the Israelitish was the name of God, and he cursed God, and was stoned to death, justly so, because the name of God is so important. And then you go all the way to the end of the New Testament, and find out what the Antichrist is all about, and you learn this, the only thing the Antichrist is interested in doing is blaspheming the name of God. When it all comes down to one issue at the end of human history, and really the whole of human history, it's this. Will you honor or will you blaspheme the name of God? Will you lift up His name high and exalt it, the name of God? Or will you, maybe even by silence or connivance, allow others to profane and slander and blaspheme the name of God? That's the question. God's name. And now you know the answer to this next question. If you were to rank sins from the littlest of them to the greatest of them, Of course, all sins are serious, and impenitence is the most serious. But if you would, following the example of the Bible, because the Bible says some sins are worse than others, if you would rank sins from the littlest to the biggest, would you put this third commandment on the top of the worst? And would you write what the Heidelberg Catechism wrote when it says, there's no sin greater or more provoking God than the profaning of His name. So heinous a sin that His wrath is kindled against them who do not endeavor as much as in them lies to prevent cursing and swearing and profaning of God's name. Well, let's learn this morning about God's name so that we put the sin against His name way up here. No sin greater than this sin. So let's see this commandment in both Lord's days of the Catechism. using God's name properly, and then see in the first place that we must understand what that great name is, then apply that as to how we use that name, and then hear the warning, the very strong warning, God will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Do you recognize it when God's name is blasphemed? Is your ear tuned to that note so that you hear when it's off? You say, well, of course I recognize blasphemy. I would not mistake it if someone else, as in Leviticus 24, would say, let God be and then you don't even dare use the word. I'd recognize that, you say. My ear is open to hearing that. My ear would hear it if someone spelled out orally O-M-G, which you hear all of the time. I don't even dare say the words in a sermon. It makes me cringe to think about saying it. It ought to, you too. And all of us have ears attuned to that reality of what blasphemy against the name of God is and cursing His name. And probably you say, we would never do that. And probably you say if we would hear that, we would oppose it if they were near us. But other than that, there's probably not much blasphemy or cursing that goes on out there or even in the church. I want us to learn differently. Your ear and mine needs to be attuned to that note of blasphemy. We need to be trained to hear that. If I can use an analogy, there's some people whose ears are tuned to music so that if that piano is even a fraction off, They call the tuner and say, please fix that because it's jarring to me. And many of us don't have that kind of ear. There are others of us whose eyes are trained to see what colors blend. And when someone puts colors together, maybe in what they wear or how they plant their garden, that are wrong. We recognize it immediately, and others don't know the difference between one set of colors and another. Well, we need to learn to train our ears to hear what is blasphemy and cursing. We do that by remembering and learning what is God's name. That's the point. We don't know what God's name is because we imagine that the only cursing and swearing The only profaning of God's name is when someone uses God's proper name and says, let God be. But God's name is much greater than His proper name. God's name is that by which He makes Himself known. It may be a difficult way to understand it, but it's not so hard if you think about it. God's name is everything that He uses to make Himself known to us so that we say, that's what God is like. Now I understand who He is and His character. That's His name. Everything that God uses to reveal to you and me what He's like. And He does that partly by His proper names. I have a proper name. You have a proper name. Everyone calls us by that name. Jehovah's proper name is Jehovah. When Moses asked God, who are you? What shall I tell Israel when I lead them out of the land of Egypt? What the name of you is? God says, this is my name, Jehovah. And we learn something about God by that proper You don't learn very much about me by knowing what my name is, first or last. I don't really learn about you by listening to your name, unless perhaps I know your family, and your family has a reputation, and I imagine by painting you all with a broad brush that all of you are like that. Other than that, I don't know about you by your name, but we do know about God by His And we learn that Jehovah means I am that I am. That is, that God is the unchanging, faithful God of His covenant. He never changes. He always was and He always will be the same. If He promises something to you, He will keep that promise. What He is to you today, He will be to you tomorrow. His name, Jehovah, tells us something about Him. But we learn about God not only from His proper name, but from all of His attributes, that's number two, and all of His works, that's number three. Proper name, attributes, and works. And with regard to God's attributes, the Bible itself calls them God's name. You would not know that, except you read in Exodus 34, verse 5 through 7, that the Lord descended in the clouds, stood with Moses there, and proclaimed His name. Proclaimed His name. And He did not say, Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah. He said, Jehovah, and then listed a whole number of attributes, starting with the attribute of mercy. pity, compassion, grace, kindness to those who aren't deserving of kindness, long-suffering, overflowing in goodness and truth. You say, that's God. That's what God's like. I get to know Him by listening to His name. Listen to His name. Merciful, gracious, long-suffering, overflowing in goodness and truth, forgiving. He doesn't hold sins against those who come to Him in repentance and faith. Listen to what God is like. He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children unto the third and fourth generation. Is your ear being tuned to what God's name is? Get His name right. It's His proper name, Jehovah, but it's all of His attributes. God's name is the truth that God shows pity to those who are suffering. That's God's name. God's name is His truth that He's gracious to the undeserving. It's God's name that He pardons those who come to Him in repentance and faith. It's God's name that He will not clear the guilty and pardon those who are impenitent. That's God's name. He's a righteous God. You take all of the attributes of God, every one of them, and point to them and say, God's name, God's name, God's name. And then third, God's name is revealed in His works. His works. His proper name, His attributes, and His works. You want to learn something about God? Listen to what He says His character is like, but watch what He does. See His arms stretched out and His mighty hand at the very beginning of time? when by that hand he made the worlds and everything in them, the beautiful stars in the sky, the sun that rules by day, the moon that appears at night again this night. See him in all of his creation. Do you see who God is? You say, that's my God. That's his name. Powerful, mighty. With a stretched out arm, he did that. And then watch that same stretched out arm reach down and deliver Israel from the land of Egypt and the house of bondage and deliver them from that misery and bring them into the land of promise. You want to know what God is like? Listen to what He says about His character, but watch what He does. His proper name, His attributes, and His works. And now if you take all three proper name attributes and works and put them all into one person, his name is Jehovah Salvation, Jesus. Which is why he said at the end of his ministry, I have manifested thy name unto all those whom thou hast given me. What's that about, you say? I've manifested thy name. Well, number one, in his personal name. Number two, in his attributes. And number three, in his works. In everything he was and everything he did, he was the name of God. You want to know where the name of God is? Look at Jesus. And you children even learn that in catechism. When you understand what the name Jesus means, it means Jehovah saves. That's the answer to the puzzling question. If the name Jehovah was so important in the Old Testament, hundreds of times mentioned, it doesn't appear at all in the New Testament. Yes, it does. Every time the name Jesus is written, and every time the name Jesus is spoken, you hear the name Jehovah. And in Him is the unchanging, faithful God of the covenant. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He will not ever break His promises. And look at all of His attributes. Jesus, the merciful one, the gracious one, the kind, compassionate, loving one, the righteous one who revealed more clearly than any other person ever could that God will by no means clear the guilty and requires punishment of sin. Look at me, said Jesus, and you will see every single one of the attributes of God. And then watch me work. I am the arm of God stretched out I am the hand of God, reach down to save you, and watch me do that by going to the cross. That's power, that's might, that's grace, that's mercy, that's love. The name of God is in the person and the work and all the attributes of our Lord Jesus Christ. Can you draw a picture of that? Can you make an image of that? No, to see that, close your eyes and listen to the preaching of the gospel. Close your eyes and hear the Word of God read. Open the Bible and read the scripture and learn how beautiful God is in His name. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Is your ear tuned to the possibility now, at least better tuned to the possibility of profaning, blaspheming, slandering God's name? It doesn't happen only when someone curses or says, O-M-G. It does And I pray that none of us by silence or connivance allows that to happen in our circles. What do you do? Now that's the beginning of the second point. What do you do with the name of God? We'll be positive and negative, and we'll start out with the negative, and then we'll say something about what this does not forbid with regard to the oath. What do you do with the name of Jesus? Well, you could commit the greatest blasphemy that ever took place by crucifying Him or by crucifying Him afresh. The Bible talks about that. Crucifying Jesus happened 2,000 years ago. Crucifying Jesus afresh can take place in your life. Will you crucify Jesus afresh? Isn't it ironic that those who opposed Jesus accused Him of blasphemy. And what they were guilty of when they crucified Jesus was blasphemy, because they lifted up the name of God and destroyed it, at least attempted to. They lifted up the one in whom God was revealed most clearly, and they spit on him. and they laughed at Him, and they destroyed Him. And the worst sin that you and I can commit against the third commandment, and the Bible puts it way up high, is by taking Jesus and ignoring Him, spitting on Him, despising Him, saying, I want nothing to do with you. You and I are able to do that like no one else in all of the world. You and I have seen Him with our eyes like no one else has seen Him. And it's possible like nowhere else here to commit the greatest blasphemy by saying, I want nothing to do with Him. I'm leaving. I don't want to confess His name. I'm going to live in the world. I'm going to be my own man. or my own woman, that's blasphemy. There is no sin more heinous to God than if you or I say we don't want Jesus. Are you hearing how it's possible to sin against this commandment? possible to stand against this commandment in the second place by telling the lie about God, about God's works, about God's attributes, about God's person, and especially about that man in whom the fullness of God is revealed to you. Don't lie about God, which is why Every Christian ought to be vitally interested in truth, and vehemently opposed to error, because the truth is God's name, and God's name is truth. Listen to what Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the truth. Don't deny truth, because as soon as you deny truth, you're blaspheming God's name. Watch what I do. Listen to how I behave. Learn about my attributes and don't lie about any of them. So let's begin by looking at just a couple of examples of why we're concerned about lies doctrinally. If I would teach from this pulpit, for example, that you and I are born naturally pretty good, have quite a bit of evil in us, but have just enough good in us to make God like us, or just enough strength in us naturally to be able to respond to some overture of God, I would not only be preaching false doctrine, very serious, But I would be blaspheming the name of God because the name of God is at stake when you say that you are able to respond to Him and there's something good in you that attracts Him to you. When His Word says there's nothing in you or me that is attractive to Him and all of His love for you is love that is gracious love and undeserved. That's why we're concerned about false doctrine in the church of Christ. Or take, for example, the doctrine of the divinity of Jesus, that is, that that man who represented God and God's name in everything He was and did is divine, God. There are many today who say He was a good man, probably the best man, but He was not God. And perhaps you say, that's blasphemy, and you would be right, the divinity of Christ is a manifestation of the love of God which is so great that it took God himself to come down into the form of a man and die for us. God in that man died for us. Don't lie about God's attributes. Don't lie about the attribute of righteousness. He will by no means clear the guilty. Well, how does He clear the guilty? By taking all of our guilt and putting it upon a man, Jesus, who suffered and was punished with all of the wrath of God as a substitute for everyone who trusts in Him. And if you say that the Lord Jesus' death was just a good example to follow, or that the Lord Jesus' death made available salvation for all, you are denying the righteousness of God, and you are taking the name of God in vain. A couple more examples. Don't lie about the power of God by saying that God wants to save you. He really does. But He can't unless you do something Don't lie about the power of God. That's dishonoring God. That's blasphemy. That's profaning the name of God. That's violation of the third commandment. When God wants to save someone, His grace will come to them and irresistibly draw them. He'll make you willing in the day of His power, but it's not because of anything in you or His strength in you. Don't lie about God's name. And if you deny the perseverance of the saints, you're lying about the faithfulness of God, the unchanging faithfulness of the covenant of God. A denial of the perseverance of the saints says this, you may be saved today, you might not be saved tomorrow. You may be a Christian today, you may be an unbeliever tomorrow. That's a lie about the faithfulness of God. Don't take the name of God in vain. But what about that moon? And what about the sun? And what about the stars? And what about all of the creation? Who made it? One of the grandest lies about God and the worst profanations of the name of God today is to say about all of this vast and wide creation, made by, that's the label under it, chance. made by random selection, made over the course of billions and billions of years. And that's a lie. And that's taking God's name in vain. And if you ever are tempted to join a church that compromises the truth of God's work in salvation or the truth of God's work in creation, it doesn't matter. Beware how you may be complicit in taking the name of God in vain. And don't, people of God, buy silence or connivance. Allow that park ranger who tells you that it took a billion years for this grand canyon to be formed. Don't, by silence or connivance, allow him to get away with that. Don't interrupt his speech, but make a way to him and confess that God created the heavens and the earth, and it didn't take billions of years, and it wasn't random selection, and it wasn't chance. The maker of this is God. Can you imagine if you built a house, beautiful grand house, and someone put their name under it at the Parade of Homes and denied that you made it? Imagine if you painted a beautiful painting that was worth millions of Van Gogh or Rembrandt or something else and took their name off it and put the artist's name off it and put their name on it. What would you say about that? That's exactly what men do today. When they look at this beautiful creation, take the name of God on it, and put made by chance, made by random selection, made over billions of years. That's a denial of the name of God. So when we oppose false teaching, people of God, and we must, let's remember why we do that. It's not because we want to defend the name of Protestant Reformed or Reformed or even Protestant. It's because we want to defend the name of God. That's the only motivation for us to oppose false doctrine and maintain the truth because it has to do with the name of God. A bare defense of doctrine without being motivated by God's name may be just as displeasing to God as the profaning of God's name itself. Don't take the name of God in vain. Lord, day 37 says, be careful, you may swear Just don't swear by men and don't swear unnecessarily. If you swear, and you may, and at times you must, make sure you swear by the name of God. This comes up in Lord's Day 37 because there was a group at the time of the Reformation that forbade any swearing, no swearing at all. So question 101 says, in connection with the use of the name of God, this is the second point of the sermon, may we swear religiously by the name of God? And the answer is yes, yes. The answer to 102 explains why, because God is the only one who's able to bear witness to the truth and hold you to it if you are lying and punish you for it if you are. No one else can do that. No one else knows the heart. There are times that we may swear religiously by the name of God. If, for example, you are required to go to court, put your hand in the Bible, and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God, don't hesitate to do that. The magistrate might require that of you. That's the first example the catechism gives. When the magistrates be a bandit of the subjects, Or, when the elders perhaps, for the safety of someone who's accused, require you to swear an oath, he did it, or she didn't do it, then don't be afraid to say in front of the elders and those witnesses, I swear by the name of God, and it makes me shudder to say that, but I do, he did not do it. And sometimes elders are required to ask an oath of us. And we believe that because the Catechism says it was justly used by the saints, both in the Old and New Testament. You may look in the margin of the Catechism to see where it was and confirm in your own mind that Not all swearing oaths is impermissible. Don't take the name of God in vain by false doctrine or by denying Jesus. Number two, don't worry about the rare times that you might be required to swear an oath. And now number three in this second point, let's confess the name of God Because as every negative commandment has its positive, this one does too. And so at the end of question 99's answer, it says that we use the holy name of God with fear and reverence so that He's rightly confessed and worshipped by us and glorified in all our words and works. Use the name of God. Speak about His works. Discuss with the people of God His attributes. What has He done for you? Not only what has He done in creation, it's easy this time of the year to speak of those things, what a great God He has by bringing life again out of death. But speak about the great work of God that He's done for you. And say after church, perhaps this morning, What a marvelous God He is to me. He's pardoned my sins, and I'm so thankful that He's never going to declare to me that I'm guilty. He's never going to push me into hell, but He's going to draw me irresistibly all the days of my life and bring me to heaven. What a good God we have. You know what He did for me last week? Let's talk about the name of God, and remember what you read in Malachi chapter 3. Beautiful passage at the end of the Old Testament, where, in verse 16, we read, Them they that feared the Lord spake often one to another. Picture the scene. The God-fearers were talking to each other. And the Lord hearkened and heard it. And a book of remembrance was written before Him for them. that feared the Lord and thought upon his name." The God-fearers were doing what? They were talking to each other. What were they talking about? Not about the ballgame or the weather. They were talking about the name of God, thinking about his name. "'And they shall be mine,' verse 17 says, "'in that day when I make up my jewels.'" How many of you learned that little song in grade school, Precious Jewels, Precious Jewels? And how many of you misunderstood that song to imagine that it means little children? It doesn't. The precious jewels of God that he's going to use to make up his crown are those that fear God and talk about his name. Oh, that includes you little children, too. You are precious jewels in the sight of God. But you are, insofar as you say, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. God said, that's a precious jewel. When you say, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, God hears that and loves that and says, you are a precious jewel to me because I hear you speaking about my name and about my son. Speak, people of God, about God's name. Don't go immediately out there into the fellowship hall or the parking lot and talk about everything but God's name. Take opportunity to speak about what God has done for you, or what God has done for others, or what you want to do in your witness. Well, that doesn't happen automatically, does it? And that's why we preach doctrine. That's why we teach the commandments. That's why you listen and learn from sermons. You're not going to forget commandment 1, 2, 3. You're not going to forget, Lord, day 32 and conversion, mortifying and quickening and what good works are. You're not going to forget any of these things. You've learned them. You're thinking about them. You're memorizing them. so that by that teaching, you're able to confess the great name of God. All my sins and miseries are so awful. I need a Savior who comes to me and works faith in me, and I am a thankful child of God. The three simple parts of the Heidelberg Catechism after the model of the Book of Romans, misery, deliverance, and gratitude. We need to learn to confess the name of God. And that's why you children go to catechism at age six already, so that you can learn in the very first question and answer of the very first catechism book, who made the heavens and the earth? And you say, God. and you're learning to confess the name of God. And as you grow and advance in catechism, you learn to speak the name of God. Let's get God's name right. Don't lie about God. We won't teach you that evolutionism is a truth. That would be a lie. You must learn to say not just God, but in the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth. And it took him six days. And on the seventh day, he rested. And those were real days. Learn to speak the truth about God from sermons, from catechism, so that we're able to witness about God. Speak about God to your neighbor, to your workmates, to your employer, to your employees. Speak about God to the one that you meet on that airplane on the way to vacation or on that hiking path in the beautiful creation God's given to us. That's really what Paul says in Acts 9 about mission work or what God says about Paul in Acts 9. He must bear my name. before the Gentiles. Why do we do the mission work? Well, we pray that God will gather his people. Absolutely. But why ultimately do we do mission work? In order that the name of God may be magnified among all of the nations of the earth. So listen. Listen to sermons. Listen to catechism. Memorize those questions and answers. Be familiar with the Bible. Read it and reread it. And when you face the hopelessness and despair of this world, and God brings you up out of that hopeless and despair and gives you a rope to hang on to and hope, Then talk to your neighbor about that rope you hang on to in the midst of all of the troubles of your life, and you will be magnifying by your witness the great name of God. And if all of that is not significant to you, then just remember how the commandment ends, the warning. He will not hold you guiltless who take his name in vain. Read all of the commandments. Not one of them ends as the third commandment ends. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain because he will hold him guilty. That does. Worthy of stoning. Excommunication. Blasphemy and profanity, OMG, cursing God when you bump your head on the cupboard and somebody left it open and you get a good bump there, very serious. You smash your finger with a hammer when you were supposed to hit the nail and you curse that hammer with the name of God, that's very, very serious. But so is this, when you learn the truth of God and you know exactly what the truth of God's word says, and you're willing to compromise it and deny it about his works in creation, about his works in salvation, about his attributes. Oh, people of God, he will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Blasphemy. And then watch him, the one It was a manifestation of the name of God. He was accused of blasphemy. And all of your sins and mine were put on Him. And He was lifted up and treated as vanity. The name of God was taken in vain when Christ was crucified. And for all your sins, on account of which you are guilty, this one too, you may find pardon. and be declared forgiven as you look to him and him alone. And isn't that what you want to say to the neighbor? I find my hope in him. I love his name. There's no greater name than the name of my Jesus. I love him. I love his works. I love his character and all of his attributes. And I love his name, the name Jehovah who saves. Amen. Let's pray. Lord God in heaven, pardon us, we pray, for we have taken thy name in vain in so many ways. Some of them we are aware of. We are sorry for those. Some of them, Father, we have not been aware of, but we have more so today learned. We are sorry for those sins too. And we honor thy name by our words and by our works. And may we point others to that precious name, the person of thy son who came in the flesh to give himself for us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.