Well, the first and the second commandments define for us the object of worship and the manner of worship. The first commandment answers the question, who are we supposed to worship? God defines or God declares that I am the Lord your God. In verse 6, by way of a preface to the Ten Commandments, and then he says in verse 7, you shall have no other gods before me. Yahweh alone is the object of worship. The Second Commandment specifies the manner. We are to approach God in the manner that He commands. We are not to add to His Word. We are not to take from His Word. We're not to do things contrary or innovative with reference to His Word. And then the third and the fourth commandments speak to worship as well, or speak to the idea of worship as well. Our sign says that the third and the fourth commandments frame the external members and actions. The third commandment does not only regulate our mouths but our hearts because the mouth speaks what is in the heart. And then of course the fourth commandment defines for us the day upon which we are to worship the living and true God. The third commandment in Psalm is a prohibition against the misuse of the titles, the attributes, and the works of God. Hermann Bavink says that all we learn about God from his revelation is designated his name in Scripture. So tonight we're going to look at three things and then draw out some practical conclusions. In the first place we'll look at the name of God. It certainly is good for us to consider that name that we are not to raise up to no good. In the second place we'll look at the prohibition of the command And in the third place, the positive aspect of the command. And this is the way, typically, commentators deal with this, with the commandments. The Westminster, larger catechism, I cannot commend it highly enough in terms of its treatment of the law, or the decalogue, rather. Calvin's Institute, the same sort of way. The prohibition, the positive aspect, this is what typically reformed interpreters have done with these commandments. But in the first place, the name of God. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Literally, raise up Yahweh's name for no good. You're not to misuse it. And if, as Bavink says, all we learn about God from His revelation is designated His name in Scripture, then titles, attributes, and words are certainly what this commandment includes. In the first place, the titles of God. There are several words used to define for us, or to reveal for us better, the very nature of God. The words El, and Elohim, and Elyon. We considered this a little bit yesterday morning. in our theology study. Essentially what we have here is the powerful one, the mighty one. We have in this statement the Most High God. Another word is Adonai, which means Lord, or Master, or Ruler. Then there's El Shaddai, and that means Almighty. But as Birkhoff points out, with reference to this Almightiness of God, He is the source of comfort and blessing. El Shaddai, the source of comfort and blessing. As we look at our particular text, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. This is literally Yahweh, your Elohim. Yahweh seems to be that peculiar personal name of God as He gives us, as He declares in the scripture. Turn for just a moment to Exodus chapter 3 and verse 14. Exodus chapter 3 and verse 14. This name Yahweh revealed by God to Moses when Moses comes upon the burning bush and the Lord God sends Moses to bring his people out of captivity. In Exodus chapter 3 at verse 13, then Moses said to God, indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they say to me, what is his name? What shall I say to them? Moses wants authentication. He wants affirmation. He wants confirmation. He wants to be able to relate to the children of Israel and to Pharaoh, this godless king, the name of the God who has commanded that his people go out into the wilderness so that they might worship him. Verse 14, And God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I am has sent me to you. Now you can investigate this text in the better commentaries, you can investigate this text in the better systematic theologies. In sum, or in essence, I think Turretin is right. He says, with reference to this name Yahweh, or we might pronounce it in America and Canada as Jehovah. Turretin says, but since eternal existence, omnipotent power, and immutable truth belongs to God alone, the name Jehovah, which embraces these three, ought to be peculiar to him alone. So Turretin says the name of Jehovah or Yahweh embraces God's eternality. From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God, is what the psalmist says. As well, this name embraces omnipotent power. Our God is in the heavens. He does whatever He pleases. Didn't Nebuchadnezzar learn this lesson well in Daniel chapter 4? There is none that can stay the hand of God. There is none that can thwart the divine God's purpose in this particular world. His omnipotent power, His ability to do all His holy will, the God who made this world out of nothing by the word of His power in the space of six days and all very good, that God who governs all His creatures and all their action, that God who knows how many hairs are on our heads, Not because He spends time counting, but because all knowledge is always in Him. He knows everything, and He is all-powerful. And then as well, He is immutable. God does not change. Isn't that beautiful? We change constantly, don't we? We get up, and we're all fired up, and we're going to go serve the Lord, and then we change on a whim. God does not change. He is the same from everlasting to everlasting. What a comforting truth this affords to the people of God. Be still and know that I am God. Know and realize that He is unchanging, that He is omnipotent, that He is, in fact, eternal. This is all contained under this blessed title of Yahweh. Again, Bavinck explaining the various shades of meaning in these names applied to God. He says, the name Elohim denotes God as creator and sustainer of all things. El Shaddai represents him as the mighty one who makes nature subservient to grace. That's a beautiful thought. Yahweh describes him as the one who in his grace remains forever faithful. Yahweh Sabaoth characterizes him as king in the fullness of his glory who surrounded by regiments of hosts of angels governs throughout the world as the Almighty and in his temple receives the honor and acclamation of all his creatures. As well, the God revealed to us in the scripture is Triune, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, are there more gods than one? No, there is but one true and living God. In how many persons are there in the Godhead? There are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. As our confession states, each of these persons has the whole divine essence. So the third commandment most certainly covers the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus speaks about blasphemy against the Son. Jesus speaks about blasphemy against the Spirit. We see the Apostle Paul in the book of Acts dealing with unbelieving Jews. Speaking about them blaspheming when they're maligning the Lord Jesus Christ. So the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, each having the whole divine essence, are indeed protected, covered by, or referenced by this third commandment. And of course, the titles of God, the attributes of God, a few we've just looked at under the name Yahweh, but all the things the Bible says concerning who God is. All the things the Bible declares concerning God. His goodness, His righteousness, His justice, His mercy, His grace, His loving kindness. You see all of these things describe for us who our God is. So when we belittle those attributes or we call into question the truthfulness of those things, we are indeed impugning against God Himself. And then of course the works of God. creation, providence, and redemption. So the comprehensiveness of the commandment, in fact, deals with the titles, the attributes, and the works of our God. Now notice, secondly, the prohibition of the command. It's a negative statement. 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. As I said, the literal translation is raise up Yahweh's name for no good, to no good purpose. Taking that holy name upon your lips and using it as a curse word. Taking that holy name on your lips and using it to manipulate God or using it to control other persons. Using euphemisms, OMG, we see that all over social media. Well, I mean, oh my gosh. Well, gosh is still a euphemism for God. So no matter what, OMG is not a good thing to use. Go ahead and LOL yourself all over the place on social media. There's no violation of the third commandment there. When did Christians, professing people of God, think that somehow it was okay to move into OMG? We need to understand the reality of this third commandment. We need to see what's going on. John Calvin rightly said this, whatever our mind conceives of God, whatever our tongue utters should savor of his excellency, match the loftiness of his sacred name, and lastly serve to glorify his greatness. That's what the commandment is designed for. It is to promote an appreciation of the greatness of our God. In many respects, we are standing on holy ground right now. Because the name of God, as Mike read even earlier today, or the name of God as Mike read in Psalm 138 is glorious, it is majestic, it is excellent. That's how Psalm 8 is framed. How excellent is your name? How wonderful is your name? And when the people of God take that name and they misuse it or they raise it up to no good purpose, that is a violation of the third commandment. This can be done in several ways. In the first place, blasphemy. Flat out, misuse, improperly, the name of the living God. Ignorant, vain, irreverent, profane, superstitious, or wicked use of God's names, titles, attributes. We can blaspheme Him with our tongue. Leviticus 24 11. We'll have cause to reflect on that passage a little bit later. We can blaspheme Him by our actions. You see, we need to understand this. You may never curse the name of God. You may never misuse it verbally and still be guilty of violating the third commandment. Remember that incident in 2 Samuel chapter 12. We just visited. David on his way to the battle in the Valley of Elah this morning. Well, what happens later on in David's career as the king of Israel? David, when the kings go out to battle, didn't. He sent out Joab to lead the troops. David goes up onto his roof and he sees Bathsheba. He sends for Bathsheba. He lays with Bathsheba. He impregnates Bathsheba. He then tries to get Uriah, her husband, to lie with her so that he will get the credit or the blame for her being pregnant. You know the story. Ultimately, David signs Uriah's death warrant, sends him into the hottest part of the battle, tells Joab to put him out front. Terrible thing. And then this man dies. You know what happens when the prophet Nathan comes? We all remember that story, don't we, David? Or Nathan tells him about that man who had the little ewe lamb, and that little ewe lamb was everything to him, and the man loved it, and he nurtured it, and he cared for it, and he treated it as if it was a child. And the rich man said, I want your ewe lamb, I've got people coming over, and we want to feast tonight. David gets incensed, he gets outraged, he gets angry. He is just upset about this particular incident. And Nathan, probably somewhat akin to Knox preaching to the Queen of England or the Queen of Scotland, Nathan says, thou art the man. And David then is crumbled before the living and true God. He owns his sin. He confesses his sin. God the Lord atones for his sin. You know what Nathan then says to him? By this act you have given cause to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. So while your mouth may never utter blasphemy, if you confess the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and you don't have an answerable conversation, answerable conduct, if you are living like the devil, then you are giving cause to the enemies of the Lord to bring reproach upon that holy name. The misuse of his name, the frivolous use of God's name, euphemisms. You say, wow, that's a bit... You know, invasive. I like OMG. You know what? The commandment is what the commandment is. I didn't write it. I didn't make it up. God reveals to us how important and how valuable and how prized his name is. We need to think twice before we engage in such practice. In the second place, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. The unlawful use of oaths and vows. This is probably the primary reference. Notice in Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 13, you shall fear the Lord your God and serve him and shall take oaths in his name. Deuteronomy 10 and verse 20, you shall fear the Lord your God, you shall serve him and to him you shall hold fast and take oaths in his name. before you start to say, well, Jesus did away with oaths in the Sermon on the Mount. No, Jesus condemned rash, frivolous, and hasty oaths. Jesus himself took oaths. The Apostle Paul himself took oaths. Oaths have always been a part of Get this, religious worship. What Christ condemns in the sermon is this idea that we have to swear an oath on everything, and that we swear oaths not by God himself, but by temples and altars and gold and those sorts of things. Christ's condemnation, contrary to the unfortunate interpretation of some parts of the Christian church, does not condemn oath-taking. It condemns rash, frivolous, and hasty oath-taking. Calvin says concerning the third word, the commandment has particular reference to the oath, wherein the perverse abuse of the Lord's name is in the highest degree detestable, that thereby we may be better frightened away altogether from all profaning of it. Isn't that good? We need to be frightened away from it. We need to be scared. We need to be terrified. The thought of misusing God's name and swearing an oath ought to frighten us. The act of swearing by a false god is obviously condemned. You do not swear by Moloch. You do not swear by Baal. You do not swear by Asherah. You do not swear by your pile of money. You do not swear on your mother's grave. You don't swear on things that are contrary to what the Bible says concerning the lawful oaths and vows, the act of breaking one. I always say this, you know, when you meet that special guy or that special girl, and should you indeed covenant before God in this place to get married, think twice before you speak once. If you are going to swear before God and a body of witnesses to then engage in unlawful divorce is to break an oath. It is to break a vow. It is to break the third commandment. And of course, perjury. Charles Hodge says, with an implied imprecation of God's disfavor if we lie or prove unfaithful to our engagements. Consider the swearing of an oath in a law court. What do you testify? That everything I say is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God. You know what you are invoking when you do such a thing? You are invoking God himself to punish you should you be found wanting or should you be found lying. Hodge says this is generally expressed by the phrase forming the concluding part of the formula of most oaths, so help me God, i.e. let God so help me as I have told the truth or as I will keep my promise. And, may I add, may God punish me, may God judge me if what I am testifying to proves to be false. So the blasphemy against his name. Second, the unlawful use of oaths and vows. In the third place, the commandment prohibits the use of magic or sorcery. The use of magic or sorcery. This is condemned throughout the Pentateuch. This is condemned in God's Word. You can't go a-hankering after any old thing you want. No, God says don't do it. God says stay away from that stuff. Sorcery and magic, oftentimes in the ancient world, was done in the names of the gods. You swear by your god to engage in magic. You swear by your god, or you invoke the name of your god, to commit sorcery. In the ancient world, the names of the gods were used to wield power over others. The names were also used in order to get stuff from the God. In short, the name of Yahweh must not be used in an attempt to manipulate Him. This is what it ultimately boils down to. I'm going to use God simply to get what I want. Does this ever happen? Does this go on? Is this something we need to be careful of? Delma in his good book on the Ten Commandments says, this kind of sorcery reappears whenever we say that something is God's will, when in fact, it is not. You ever meet people, I just know the Lord would have me to do this, that, and the other. Well, how do you know that? Do you have a direct line to God? Do you have a red phone in your house and God calls you and says, I want you to do this. Be very careful, brethren, about interpreting the will of God. Now, there is the decretive. All that happens, happens according to the purpose and plan of God. We are to guide or live our lives regulated by the preceptive or the revealed will of God, what He tells us, what He commands us. Back to Delma. That kind of sorcery reappears whenever we say that something is God's will, when in fact it is not. This is how we push for what we want, using God's name to lend force to our plans. Mentioning the name, after all, strengthens our power. People must follow us, for we have God on our side. Often this is accompanied by noble intentions. Isn't this what cultism is guilty of? You have the cult leader who knows how to interpret the will or the mind of God in such a way that persons ought to follow what he says and do how he says it. Isn't that magic? Isn't that sorcery? Isn't that invoking the name of the living God to try to get what you want? And we can do that too, I'm not just suggesting, it's the cult leader. Well God, if I pray this prayer every day for 40 days, then I trust you're going to enlarge my territory. I pray this prayer every day, Lord God, and I trust that you will give me what I want. Has prayer then devolved or degenerated into an act of magic or sorcery? The faithful never approach prayer as a means by which to manipulate God in order to get what they want. Now, I suspect that we all probably at one point or another have done this. Oh Lord, if you'll just this. I remember being next to the Seal Beach Pier as a very young man and I got caught underneath a raft. It was a wavy day. Typically it wasn't that way at Seal Beach, but that day there happened to be some decent waves. There was a bit of an undercurrent. There was a guy on one of these dinghies, one of these rubber dinghies, and I got stuck underneath that dinghy. I thought I was gone. And I made a deal with God. God, if I get out of this water, I'm going to serve you. God, if I get out of this water, I'm going to be yours. Well, I got out of the water and forgot all about that. It was an attempt to manipulate God. It was an act of sorcery. It was an act of magic. And we need to guard against this sort of an approach. In the fourth place, there is a misapplication of God's providence. The Westminster Larger Catechism describes it this way. Murmuring and quarreling at, curious prying into, and misapplying God's decrees and providences. We need to be careful of this. We do not have the red phone that connects us to heaven's throne room. Now we can, with sober reflection, with consideration, We can understand what God is doing in certain things based on what he has revealed to us in his word, but we need to be very careful of making pronouncements based on providence that thus saith the Lord. Suppose, for instance, we have a place where a church is going to vote on approving homosexuals as part of their membership and or as part of their clergy. What if, in the course of this gathering together, a hurricane comes, or a tornado comes, and it wipes out this particular church? It would be in us to say, well, this was an act of the judgment of God. Now, I don't want to suggest it's not. But I do want to be a bit careful because what about every homosexual bar that happens to remain open after that day that wasn't struck by a tornado or a hurricane? Would we interpret that as an act of God's favor, an act of God's blessing, an act of God's approval? Again, judgment does come. I am not neglecting that or negating that, but we need to be careful about pontificating on the secret things that belong to the Lord our God. and study those things that have been given to us and to our children. Now please don't leave here and say, Butler doesn't think God judges sin. I do think that. This commandment tells us that He judges sin. But just be careful. Providence isn't a crystal ball. Providence isn't tea leaves. Providence isn't tarot cards. Providence is not some ability that certain perceptive Christians have been given by God. We need to be careful. in this area of misapplication of God's providence. In the fifth place, the misinterpretation of God's Word. Did you notice when Mike read the psalm earlier in the evening? If I were to ask you what psalm did Mike read in the evening, this is how I know if everybody's awake and alive and with us. I hope you'd all say Psalm 138. You would be correct. You know what the psalmist says in Psalm 138? Now you're pushing it. I gave you the place. I didn't know I had to realize what the contents were. Notice in Psalm 138 too, I will worship toward your holy temple and praise your name for your loving kindness and your truth. For you have magnified your word above all your name. God esteems his name. God esteems his word. So misinterpretation of God's word is condemned by the third word. Again, the Westminster Larger Catechism. I love the way they describe this. Misinterpreting, misapplying, or any way perverting the word, or any part of it, to provain jests, curious or unprofitable questions, vain janglings, or the maintaining of false doctrines." You mean if I maintain a false doctrine, I am sinning against God via the third word? Yes, because He magnifies His Word above His name. Brethren, maintaining false doctrines is bad. That's why we provide in our church a study of our confession of faith. That's why we preach expositorily through the scriptures, because maintaining false doctrine is bad. In the world of man, in the world of things, there are things that aren't so bad. Walking out into the rain without an umbrella is not so bad. But maintaining false doctrines is bad. And this is probably being done very consistently in the church at large. We don't care about doctrine. We don't care about teaching. We just want to experience Jesus. Well, apart from doctrine and teaching, which Jesus are we experiencing? The only way we know the Jesus we want to experience is through the Word of God. We need to beware. We need to be careful. We need to make sure that we're not misinterpreting God's Word. So those are some of the prohibitions. There are certainly others. Again, I point you to Westminster Larger Catechism numbers 112 and 113. But notice the reason furnished in our passage for this. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Why? For the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. God will not hold you guiltless if you take his name in vain. This is both temporal and eternal. Turn to Leviticus 24 for a moment. Leviticus chapter 24, verses 10 to 16. A classic example of a temporal punishment which probably ended in an eternal punishment as well. But notice in Leviticus 24.10. Now the son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel. And this Israelite woman's son and a man of Israel fought each other in the camp. And the Israelite woman's son blasphemed the name of the Lord and cursed. And so they brought him to Moses. His mother's name was Shalami, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan. Then they put him in custody, that the mind of the Lord might be shown to them. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Take outside the camp him who has cursed. Then let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him. Then you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin. And whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him, the stranger, as well as him who is born in the land. When he blasphemes the name of the Lord, he shall be put to death." Now, I don't know if you saw in the news recently, I think it was in Indiana, some father was punishing his daughter because she was a thief. This young woman, I don't know, probably 13 or 14, stole from the parents, stole from her siblings, stole like it was going out of business. So the father made a billboard, like a sandwich sign, right? You got one on the back and one on the front. The guys used to walk around, you know, eat at Joe's. It said that on the front, it said that on the back. Well, this young woman had to stand out first, I think, in front of her school, and then in front of the courthouse, and then in front of the jailhouse, and it said, I am a thief. I have stolen, and thief was spelled wrong, which is just unfortunate. You're trying to shame your daughter, and you misspell thief. Like, dude, that's not cool. But anyways, I am a thief. I steal from my parents. I steal from my family members. I even stole my nine-year-old cousin's Christmas present. I mean, to shame this girl. And she looked unhappy. Now, I'm not here to suggest that all you kids get sandwich boards and whenever you do something, you walk up and down Wellington and ring a bell so everybody knows what bad things you have done. But to see some of the comments, I read it on, I think, The Blazer, one of those other things, and the comments, oh, this father, he's terrible, he's terrible, he's terrible. What would they think of Leviticus 24? What would they think of Yahweh, of Israel, saying, stone him? Horror of horrors that we should ever expect or ever think. that God so esteems His name that He commands the execution of someone who raises up the name of Yahweh to no good. You see, if we have that response, if we have that reaction, we have not come to grips with who God really is. We have not come to grips with the reality of His eternality. of His omnipotence, of His immutability, of His grace, of His mercy, of His kindness, of His justice, of His wrath. We do not understand God because we get so upset. One of the biggest complaints from non-Christians, and unfortunately at times from Christians, is what appears to be the harsh penal codes in the Old Testament. Why are they harsh? Why are they bad? Why are they wrong? Do you know how to avoid what you perceive to be a harsh penal sanction? Don't break the law. If you don't want to get stoned for blasphemy, I got a zany idea. Don't blaspheme. Don't do it. If you happen to be the daughter of that man in Indiana and you don't want to wear a sandwich board that says, I am a thief, don't steal before it wells up in us to say, wow, that seems a bit harsh. Let us consider the majesty of the name of God, the excellency of it, the greatness of it, the loftiness of it, and the sweetness of it. Why would we misalign? Why would we blaspheme? Why would we slander the Lord God Most High? Leviticus 24 highlights the temporal judgment. Matthew 12, 36 and 37, there is an eternal judgment, but I say to you that for every idle word men may speak. Now, if it's idle words that is condemned by Jesus here, I mean, how many idle words do we speak in a day? Just think about it. How many things do we say that really don't need to be said? That's how I take this whole idle word thing. Just think about it. How much do we say that really doesn't need to be said? We yammer on and on and on and on all day long. It's just, we have to talk. We've changed Descartes from, I think, therefore I am, to, I talk, therefore I am. That defines me. That is my essence. That's what I do. I talk. If we will be judged for every idle word, then what about the blasphemy? What about the curse? What about the misuse of God's name? What about raising up Yahweh's name to no good? The Lord Christ says, But I say to you, that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. He points us to the day of judgment. there is an eternal consequence for raising up Yahweh's name to no good. Mark 8.38, for whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father. with the holy angels. So the prohibition, some specific examples, and the reason. Let's move thirdly and finally to some positive aspects. The first place, use God's name properly. If it is prohibited that we misuse it, then what ought we to learn? We ought to use it properly. We ought to speak with reverence. We ought to speak with joy and delight concerning God. It is a proper use of His name. It is a proper appreciation of His attributes. You know how many times people complain against sovereignty? Isn't this what Wesley said concerning Whitefield? If that's the kind of God that there really is, or I don't know if it was Wesley who said this, somebody said this of Whitefield. If that's the kind of God God really is, I don't want to worship him because he's a monster. Well, if Whitefield's right, and he's accurately expounding the Word of Truth, and Romans 9 is in the Bible, and Ephesians 1 is in the Bible, and John 6 is in the Bible, and Psalm 115 and 135 are in the Bible, and Daniel 4 is in the Bible, and the entirety of Genesis chapter 1 and 2 is in the Bible, then God is indeed sovereign, and to speak ill of that, It's not a good place to be. We ought to appreciate the attributes of God. We ought to properly recognize His works and give Him praise and give Him glory and give Him adoration. And we ought to esteem His word. We ought to esteem it. We ought to say with the psalmist, you have magnified your word above your name. That's the case, brethren. Do not neglect your Bibles. Do not neglect the Word of God. Be in the Scripture. Be studying the Scripture. Know the truth. Know what His titles are. Know what the attributes are. Know what the works are. The only way you're going to know those things is by studying the Scripture. It's not going to just come to you. It's not going to be a, you know, eureka moment, wow, now I have figured out the theological enterprise. The light bulb's not going to go off over your head without a bit of diligence and a bit of work and study in the scripture. When we say that, it almost sounds like going to the mines to dig out coal with a spoon. That's not the way it is. What's better than the Word of God for the Christian? What does the psalmist say? It's better. It's more to be desired than much fine gold. What does Jeremiah say when God puts His words in his mouth? They were sweet to me. The Word of God is good. It's delightful. It's blessed. It's wonderful. So the proper use of God's name, titles, attributes, words. Secondly, the reverence due in the worship of God. both in public worship and in oaths and vows. Our confession in chapter 23 deals with oaths and vows under the rubric of worship. Worship. How do we honor God when it comes to the house of the Lord? We reverence His name. You know, we don't pick up our hymn book or our Trinity Psalter and tune out while we're singing about God. Isn't that to lift up the name of Yahweh to no good? Are we called in the Christian religion to let go and let God? Are we called in the Christian religion to climb up mountains and just experience the Lord? No, we're to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. That means you need to engage in public worship. This is not an hour and a half or an hour for you to tune out. Well, you know, we can just yammer through these hymns. I can think about what I'm going to do tomorrow at work. I can think about who I'm going to visit for coffee on Tuesday. I can run through my whole week and plan my week and all the while pretend like I'm singing praises to God. Don't lift up Yahweh's name to no good. Public worship. Private worship. with reference to vows, the act of perjury in a courtroom, the act of unlawful divorce. All of these things are evidences of a taking of the name of the Lord of our God in vain. So conversely, when we take a vow, when we take an oath, let's keep it. Swear by God, mean it. If you're gonna say, I do, mean it. If you're gonna say, I swear, then mean it. Christians need to be known as men and women of their word, especially when we swear fidelity under God. And then the sincerity in our profession of faith. The professor of faith must have, as the catechism says, an answerable conversation. It says there, by an holy profession and answerable conversation to the glory of God and the good of ourselves, and others. 2 Timothy 1.9, let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. The professor of faith must not give cause to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. We saw that, at least I've alluded to that in 2 Samuel chapter 12. So it's not just the tongue that's involved, but it's the heart, it's the mind, it's the soul, it's the strength. Well, in conclusion, in terms of the normative use of God's law, In other words, when we are converted, we've been justified freely by His grace, what does Jesus then do? He sends us back to the law as a pattern or as a definition or as a rule of life. Normatively, this commandment ought to shape the way that we conduct ourselves in word and in deed. It ought to affect us on a daily basis. We ought to use God's name properly. We ought to speak well of Him. We ought to consider that when we use the name of God, it is grave. We ought to do so with reverence. We ought to do so with esteem. We're not to use it when we hit our, you know, thumb with a hammer. Oh, you know, that sort of a thing. How many times do people do that sort of a thing? We use the name of God in prayer. We use the name of God in worship. We can use the name of God in theological discussion. Those are all proper uses of God's name. But as a curse word, or as an expletive, or as a thing that is filler in a sentence, that's simply unacceptable and condemned by the Word of God. In the second place, the pedagogical use of the law. What's that use? The law serves as a pedagogue, a child tutor. The law defines for us our sin, shows us we are guilty, and drives us, hopefully, to the cross for forgiveness. if you are guilty of breaking the third commandment. If any of these things tonight have stuck, if any of these things have affected you, or any of these things, rather, have found you out, then come to the Lord Jesus. That is one of the uses of God's law, to show us our sin, to show us our misery, to show us our need for the Savior. The law serves as a tutor to press us, to point us, to drive us to the Lord of glory. And for those who, by God's grace, are believers, we ought to praise Jesus for the fact that He bore our sin on the tree. Because who of us can ever say, we never broke the third commandment? Who of us can ever say, we never misused the name of the Lord? Who of us can ever say, I never, ever once departed from a right and a holy approach to the titles and the attributes and the and the works of God. All of us are guilty, and I suspect that every redeemed Christian is guilty on a daily basis. Praise God for Jesus, who never murmured against God, who never spoke in vain against His Father, who never lifted that name up to no good, but that blessed Christ who always did what God the Father commanded. And he carried out, in perfect fulfillment, all of the law of God. And then he died, and he rose again, so that sinful, blaspheming wretches could, by God's grace, look to him and live. One of the most famous sinful, blaspheming wretches, at least in the last several hundred years in the Christian church, was the man called John Newton. We like John Newton because he wrote Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now I'm found, was blind but now I see. Do you know what Newton did before he was a believer? He was a slave trader and a blasphemer. You see, God saves sinners. God saved Newton. God put the fear of God in Newton's heart. So there is hope for blasphemers. There is hope for those who raise up Yahweh's name to no good. And that hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, let us pray. Our Father, we do thank you for this gathering together tonight on the Sabbath day. We thank you for your titles and for your attributes and for your works as they are revealed to us in Holy Scripture. Grant us grace to not take your name in vain. Cause us to be careful in the way that we speak. Cause us to be careful in the way that we conduct ourselves. Cause us, Lord God Almighty, to see the great danger in treating lightly the name of our thrice holy God. We ask that you would go with us into this week. We ask that you would grant us grace so that we may shine as lights in a crooked and perverse generation and grant us great boldness, God, to hold forth the word of truth. We thank you for our time together today. We thank you for the fellowship of the saints. We thank you that we are able to sing praises to our God, to call upon you in prayer, and to hear from Holy Scripture. We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.