So as we come to God's Word tonight, I invite you to turn to Psalm 8. Psalm 8, we're continuing our meditations here on the Ten Commandments. We're on the third commandment, which is, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. For the Lord will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain. And then question 100. Is then the profaning of God's name by swearing and cursing so grievous a sin that his wrath is kindled against those also who seek not as much as in them lies to hinder and forbid the same? Answer, yes, truly. For no sin is greater or more provoking to God than the profaning. of His name, wherefore He even commanded it to be punished with death. And so, I want to just consider tonight something about the name of God, and as we introduce this commandment, and I believe that the third commandment takes two Lord's days, and so we'll be returning to this commandment again next week, Lord willing. But let us hear God's word. It's Psalm 8. A very familiar psalm, and it begins, verse one here, Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes to still the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. And the Lord will bless the reading of his word. So we come this evening to the third commandment. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. And I don't know if many of you are like me in thinking for some time that this was the commandment that was there to remind us not to swear or not to say naughty words. And while that is true, there is so much more to the third commandment than just not saying naughty words. It is a commandment that's not just prohibiting merely the vain use of the word God or His name, but also not treating lightly or taking in vain, God's revelation and His manifold fullness of glory. And so we want to look just a few minutes at just what it means to take, and what it means to take God's name in vain, and then we'll spend the bulk of our time on the name of God. And so the word take in the third commandment, it's interesting, it's not a word that really highlights speaking. We tend to limit the third commandment as a speaking commandment, but the word take here has the idea of bearing or carrying. And then, vain here has the idea of empty or light. And so, what is being prohibited in the third commandment is the taking of the bearing of God's name in a vain or empty manner. So again, it does involve speaking. but it also involves, really, a comprehensive life attitude toward God and His name. And when we come to the whole idea of name here, again, it's not just the phoneme, the word God, or the word Jehovah, or the word Jehovah. Lord, it is all that is bound up in God's self-revelation of who he is that is often used in a shorthand way of name. For example, even in our psalm tonight, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. The psalmist here is not just saying that the letters that make up Jehovah or Lord, lowercase, is majestic in all the earth. No, it is the one who bears that name. It is his essence. It is his characteristic. It is his majesty. So in a sense, oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic are you in all the earth? And if that is the case, then what we consider here in the third commandment is how do we use, how do we take up, God's name and all that it entails. Again, it is often used in scripture as in the sense of character or essence. It is the majesty of the one who bears the name. In the Pentateuch, in Jeremiah, and in the book of Hebrews, we see that God swears by no one greater. He swears by no name greater than His because He has the greatest name. There's not anything greater than he. Again, it's not just that the letters that make this up, the phoneme. It's there's no one person who is greater than Jehovah. And so he cannot swear by anyone or any name greater. And so what is bound up in that then is trustworthiness. The name of God, the one who bears that name is in himself trustworthy, and so when he swears by his name, he is declaring that whatever I say is true. We do this same thing. If we know someone who can provide a particular kind of service, and let's say I know someone who can fix something, but maybe this person's really busy. I can tell you, I can say, hey, go to so-and-so and tell him Chuck sent you. Well, the person is not going to be like, oh, the name Chuck. C-H-U-C-K. Those letters in that particular format have such weight. I will do this. No, it has to do because my relationship with that person gives some kind of measure of credibility. And so you can say, because you know me and I know him and that relationship, you may get a service provided maybe more quickly than if you just walked in. Or we say something, hey, I'm going to do this. My word is as good as my name. So we put our name behind something. And so there's a sense in which as God reveals himself in scripture, When He attaches His name to something, there is a consequence for us. We can say, wait, God has attached His name to that. Therefore, I can trust in that. Therefore, I can rely upon that. Is that not what we even considered this morning when God tells Abraham, I will be a God to you? Like, He is putting His name upon you, and He's vouchsafing something about the covenantal relationship that becomes unbreakable between God and His people. And so, God takes His name very seriously, and we see that the commandments have a logical order, right? Commandment one teaches us who. Who is to be our God? Well, only one option. Jehovah is to be our God. How do we worship him? Not in any way we want, but according to his regulations. So commandment number two teaches us how we worship, what commandment number one tells us, who we worship. Commandment number three then teaches us what is our disposition toward the one we worship. It's gonna be one of reverence, one of holiness, one of sobriety, one of seriousness, not Not to take it lightly. And again, in scripture, you can see how some people use names, and in paganism, to use a name of someone else was to exercise a measure of control over that person. And so you could get something done by using or manipulating a name. And we're not to do that. We're not to use God's name in that way. We can think in ways, even in the church, where we're not to manipulate other people in a way that's outside of God's Word and then try to use God's name. We can try to gain a lot of power. by manipulating people and threatening them according to the name. And the third commandment prohibits that, where not to use God's name is almost like a talisman or some rabbit's foot, where if I want a certain thing to happen, I just repeat the name of God over and over again, and I just keep repeating or using this name in a way to get my own desire. We can't do that. We can't manipulate God. And we see when we consider the name of God, that most personal name, Jehovah, I am, you see that He is greater than we. He is God and we are not. And then He also reveals Himself in His word as Elohim. That is, suggests His creative power. We also see El Shaddai. God Almighty, His might, El Elyon, God the transcendent one. And then we see, as we even sung this morning in a hymn, Lord Sabaoth, the Lord of hosts, Yahweh of hosts. He is the captain of the armies of heaven. There is power there, there is might there. And then you can read in Jeremiah, Jehovah Sidkenu. This is one of my favorites. There's a hymn about this. Robert Murray McShane has written a hymn called Jehovah Sidkenu. And maybe that's a good one to learn. Not dropping any suggestions to the musician. I don't know where he is. But Jehovah Sidkenu. Beautiful hymn. And that means the Lord our righteousness. And what is it that we all need? We need righteousness. And the Lord says, I am, Yahweh says, I am your righteousness. And he says this to the people of God and through the prophet Jeremiah. I mean, here's a people who, man, they needed righteousness badly. living in some big unrighteousness. And the Lord says, I will provide for you righteousness. And what is the great work of redemption that we have in Jesus Christ, who is, if you want to say, the greatest embodiment of the name. There is no name under heaven whereby we can be saved. It's Jesus Christ who is what for us. He is our righteousness. He lived a perfect life that we could not live. He dies a death that we could not die, and for all those who trust in Him, what do we have? We have the righteousness of Jesus Christ before a holy God that clothes us. And so there's all of these titles that God uses when He reveals Himself, and they all teach us something about Him. commandment than is saying, and you take this seriously. We don't be flippant with God's Word. We don't be flippant with God Himself. He is not equal with us. He is God, we are not. He is eternal and infinite. He is self-existent and we are dependent upon Him. And so, how then are we to live? Well, I want to just walk through quickly Psalm 8, just to suggest one way in which we honor the name. how we can, if you want to say positively, keep the command. We are to praise the name of the Lord. And so here is this psalm, a praise to God for his wondrous works in creation and in redemption. Psalm begins, O LORD, this is all caps, O Jehovah, O Yahweh, our Lord, How majestic is your name in all the earth. God is the one who formed nature and therefore as we consider his creation, we don't praise the creation, We praise the one who created. So all that is around us, all that we see with our eyes, all of the beauty that surrounds us, is for us a reminder to positively honor the name. We praise him, we look around, and what is that to do for us? It is to fill our hearts with this love for the Lord who is powerful, who creates, and we say, oh Lord, our Lord. How majestic is your name in all the earth and the psalm is then going to follow a particular meditation. It's going to be a contemplation of nature, which then we see around us, but then a contemplation of the heavens above us, which then leads to an awareness of our own insignificance. And then as we are more aware of our own insignificance, the greater our praise for the one who made us. There's something within the question, what is man, that you're mindful of him, or the son of man, that you would consider him. And there's something about viewing creation in this way. There's some wonderful videos that you can watch about our creation. technology these days that can open up a whole vista before us. When the Hubble telescope, when you see some of the pictures and some of the footage that you can see, you're brought before the vastness of this creation, the Milky Way and galaxies and all this other stuff. I have no idea what it is, but it's huge. And you see how small then Earth is. And then, you see how small we are. And then, you consider, wow, God was mindful of us. That's mind boggling. I mean, there are billions of people on this earth. And when we only live in our own little bubble, we can sometimes have pretty grandiose thoughts of ourselves. But when we take the view out, like man, not that great. But yet, when we consider all of these realities of God's creation, What does it drive us to? It drives us to His greatness. It drives us to His majesty. And it also drives us to His grace, right? Because even when we consider Yahweh, that's the covenant name. And so there's this covenant relationship. You're like, whoa, here's this God, right? This God who is so great and so majestic. What does it say? His glory is above the heavens. His majesty, his grandeur, all that makes him him is so much greater than the universe. And yet, he set his mind upon us. He knows us. He sees us. And when you take that, even to consider of the human longing, To be known and to have close intimacy. We can get lost in population. People often say that these cities with the greatest population, whether it's New York City, Los Angeles, even in just the states, they're some of the most loneliest. I mean, people all around. But yet, for the believer, for the Christian, We are known. We're known intimately, covenantally. by God, by the One who has set His glory above the heavens, and that is praiseworthy. And so, we have a structure here in Psalm 8 that is bracketed by this particular refrain or this chorus. 1A, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth. And verse 9, it repeats this, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth. And it brings us to all these contemplations. right down to our own insignificance, but it doesn't leave us there. It takes us back to God in this sense of wonder that He would use us to accomplish His plan in time. And then we know that Hebrews cites Psalm 8 and applies it to Jesus Christ. You made Him, again, this is marvelous, the eternal Son of God who took on flesh. You made Him a little lower than the angels. Right, in this humanity. But it was just for a time. You've raised him and you've crowned him with glory and honor. Right, and what great comfort that brings to us. This is God whom we are to honor and hallow. So again, it's the name, but it's all he does. It's all that he's revealed, and it's all that he's revealed ultimately in the person of Jesus Christ. And so we have this psalm. You have verse 1a, God is to be praised because he is the majestic creator. So we honor God's name. We don't make it a light thing because of who He is. He's the Creator. He is the Creator. And this name here functions as shorthand for the nature of God and the special focus in verse 1 and 9 is His sovereignty, His power, His majesty. And the point is that believers are to respond appropriately to who God is. So commandment number three has to do with our appropriate response to who He is, and it's to honor it, it's to hallow it, it's to praise it, it's to give Him glory. And then we see in verses 1b to verse 8 that God is praised because of His power and grace. And here's the wonder of it, right? We can look at the heavens, we can look at the work of his fingers, the moon and the stars, which he set in place. And then, out of the mouths of babies and infants, he accomplishes his will. And is this not one of the truths that we see throughout God's word? And it's at the central theme of 1 Corinthians 1 that God uses weak things to confound the mighty. Again, out of the mouths of babies and infants, right? Here's this cry that most people ignore. And here's this helpless being who's so dependent upon someone else and out of the mouths of babies. What does it say God does? He stills the enemy and the avenger. So God hears the cries of His people, the weak things of this world, the not mighty, and He accomplishes His will. So there's a wonder here. And when we consider, when God uses weak things to accomplish His purpose, can we then say, oh man, we really did a good deal on this. No, it's let him who boasts, boast in what? Boast in the Lord. So when we see that we don't get an inflated sense of self, we're actually drawn out to the grandeur of God and so His grace We use then to praise Him. And then we see the Lord bestows upon mankind great privileges, verses 3 through 8. Again, we look at all this, but what is man that you're mindful of him? You've given humanity dominion. Again, and we have Psalm 8, which is kind of a reflection on creation. We have dominion. So here are these great privileges and responsibilities. Now what is the essence of idolatry? When we don't factor God in and we take all of these privileges and responsibilities and we promote ourselves. And so it's fascinating to me that you look at these great privileges that God has given humanity in this Psalm and it's bookended by praise. You take off that doxology of verse one and verse nine, and what do you have? Sin. You have the praise of self. But when we consider who we are before God, what he's called us to be, we now see that it's truly only the Christian who can see who we are, understand who we are, understand our relationship with God, and praise him, and therefore honor the name. hallow the name, give praise to the one who is great. And then it concludes again, because God's great name, we must praise and extol his great name. And so Psalm 8 in this poem, in this song for the Christian, It teases out the positive keeping of the third commandment. So because God is who he is, we then are to hallowed his name. And how do we do that? By praising him. And what is the way that we can see this kind of worked out in day-to-day life? Well, as Christians, we have God's name on us. We're Christians. We don't live for ourselves. So there is a way in which to keep the third commandment. I have to think, what does this mean as a husband? What does this mean as a father? Because I don't just represent me in the home. If I want this to be a Christian home, I bear his name. And so that shapes then how I speak to my wife, my children, how I speak to church members, how I speak to friends in the community, how I even interact with unbelievers. I represent God's name, I bear his name, and you do the same. And so what does it mean then? Again, yeah, let's use speech that is appropriate. Let's use speech that doesn't take his name or his word idly. We don't joke about God. Right, we don't joke, you know, those kind of things that just make me cringe, you know, three people walk into a room, you know, so-and-so, so-and-so, and God. Like, no, no, no. God's not a punchline. We take him seriously. We don't use him flippantly. He's the God of heaven. So that's part of this. But how do we represent the name? it doesn't mean that we have to walk around always being dour and sour and gloomy. Look, I mean, Christians should be able to be a laughing people, but a laughing people at the appropriate things, right? And so we have joy, we have senses of humor, some better than others, some drier than others, whatever, but at least you have it, but utilize it in a way that honors God. And so there's something again about this commandment. We don't want to manipulate God. When we pray, we don't want to push our will on His. There's something about the keeping of the third commandment that truly does say, Lord, thy will be done, not mine. We want to seek his name used wisely, not in excessive repetition. We honor the name by living for God's glory. Again, and so what does this commandment affect? Say it a different way, we eat and drink and whatever we do, we do for the glory of God. So this commandment shapes everything. And you can maybe say 1 Corinthians 10, 31 in this way, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all for the sake of His name. Do all for His glory. And so may God give us wisdom to use our words wisely, to take the name, to bear the name, to carry the name in a way that honors Him and pleases Him. And may He give us wisdom to see how to have that shaped in our daily lives and in all our relationships. Let us pray.