In his sermon, Pastor Grant Brown delves into the importance of the third commandment, 'Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,' emphasizing reverence for God's name, which reflects His identity and covenant relationship with His people. Pastor Brown explains that God's name, Yahweh, signifies His eternal, self-existent nature and His role as the redeemer of Israel. He underscores that bearing God's name is not just about speech but involves every aspect of a believer's life, highlighting that everything done should honor God's name. The sermon warns of the consequences of blaspheming God's name, citing biblical and historical examples, and connects these teachings to the salvation offered through Jesus Christ, who embodies God's name and fulfills the law. By acknowledging the sanctity of God's name and living in accordance with His commandments, believers are called to reflect their identity as God's redeemed children.

Hear now the word of our God beginning in verse 1 of Exodus 20. Then God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them.

For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing loving kindness 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 leave him unpunished who takes his name in vain." May God bless the reading and now the preaching of this is worth. Amen. You may be seated. Well as we enter now into our study of the third commandment, I think it would be appropriate to remind ourselves why.

Why are we doing this? Why the law of God particularly? Why spend months, months studying God's law summarized in the Ten Commandments. Well, one reason is when you give up on the law of God, what do you get? Chaos.

When you abandon the law of God you get chaos in your home, chaos in the church, chaos in your town, and chaos in your nation. You get men in women's restrooms, you get children being trans, you get babies murdered in the womb, you get homosexual mirage, you give up the law of God and you get insanity is what you get. So you're going to have to serve somebody, It's not whether you're going to serve somebody, it's who, which. Which God will you serve? Will it be the one true living God and His law?

Will it be Jesus Christ and His law? Will you choose chaos? You've got to serve somebody. The Law of the Lord or the lunacy of the Lamb. You've got to have one or the other.

We've seen it with this first commandment. We've seen it with the second commandment. But all the same, we see it with the third. The hallowing of God's name. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain that's the negative don't do this and so the positive of the command is what hallow the name of God Declare it as holy.

Make it holy. It is holy. Declare it as such. Demonstrate it as such. And so how is the name of God hallowed?

Well is it hallowed in Erlum? Is it hallowed in your home? Is it hallowed in this church? Is it feared? Is God feared?

Is he revered? Is he treated as holy? Is his name holy? If you have a home, if you have a church, if you have a state that will blaspheme the name of the thrice holy God and be perfectly content with the blasphemy of God's thrice holy name, then you will certainly find in that home and in that church and in that state, you will certainly find utter foolishness. That's what you'll find.

You will certainly find the reality of Romans chapter 1 darkened in their understanding, futile in their thinking, fools, because they exchanged the truth about God. They exchanged the law of God for a lie. And so God says to those who blaspheme His name, if you will not repent of your blasphemy, if you will not repent and turn away from your sin and back to Me, I will give you and I will give your land over to your father." As a home, as a church, as a nation. Case in point, America. A nation full of blasphemy, A nation full of blasphemy where the highest judges of the land can't even agree on what a woman is.

What's a woman? I don't know. Lunacy. That's incredible folly. We don't want lunacy, do we?

Beloved, no, we want the Lord. We want to be a people, home, church, state, that humble ourselves and return to the Lord. That He might heal our families, He might heal our town, He might heal our land. We want wisdom from above, and here it is. Here is the law of the Lord making wise the simple.

Here is the law of the Lord, a tutor that leads sinners to Christ and to his gospel. Here is the law of the Lord, a delight of the sinner converted, made born again, as the Savior brings you back to his law and says, here is how you live when you're mine. And the law of the Lord not only is the tutor that leads us to Christ, not only is the law of the Lord a regulator of the Christian, it shows you how to live, but the law of the Lord, including the third commandment, is a restrainer of evil in society. Those are the three uses of the law that we've been through. And so, what have we heard from the law of God?

Well, number one, thou shalt have no other gods before me. You worship God exclusively. You worship God the Father through Jesus' Son and the power of the Holy Spirit. That's commandment number one. The object of your worship is the triune God.

Number two, thou shalt not make any graven images. So to worship or to serve them. That's the second commandment. The manner of your worship. You don't come to God with your ideas or your creativity when it comes to his worship.

You listen to him the creator and you worship him as he commands. He commands in his worship no graven images. And now commandment number three. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain for the Lord will not leave unpunished him who takes his name in vain. And in our day this commandment is so shrugged off.

It's just cast off and cast aside like there was there's ten commandments but the third one, really the fourth one too, but the third one, like, ah, you know, it's just kind of like a half-command. The first two commandments make it plain that we don't approach God's laws with what we think or how we feel right? Now we are to come to God and humbly ask what does God think? Is the third commandment a big deal to him? Leviticus chapter 24 beginning in verse 10.

Don't go there, let me just tell it to you. Leviticus 24 10. Now the son of an Israelite woman whose father was an Egyptian went out among the sons of Israel and the Israelite woman's son and a man of Israel struggled with each other in the camp. The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the name and cursed, so they brought him to Moses. They put him in custody so that the command of the Lord might be made clear to them.

And then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Bring the one who has cursed outside the camp, and let all who hurt him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him. You shall speak to the sons of Israel, saying, If anyone curses his God, then he will bear his sin. Moreover, the one who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him. The alien as well as the native, the sojourn as well as the native when he blasphemes the name shall be put to death.

Is the profaning of God's name a big deal to God? You bet it is! It's such a big deal that even the sojourners, the strangers, the aliens, those who are not a part of Israel, even if they just happen to cross paths with Israel and they Blaspheme, they profane the name of God, put them to death. And it wasn't very long ago, 1697, you do the math, Not very long ago. 20 year old man came in Scotland.

His crime? Blasphemy in the name of the thrice holy God. Three hundred years ago. Less than four hundred years ago. Three hundred something years ago.

Put him to death. Why? Because he blasphemed the name of God and God will not leave unpunished the man who takes his name in vain. So let's just start this morning on the right foot. This is not a trivial matter to God.

If you came in here this morning thinking, oh third commandment, well I know pastors who's probably going to poo-poo using God's name as a cuss word and you're gonna get out of me about using God's name lightly. I mean he's got to say something because it's in the Bible. He's a preacher. He likes to go a long time. No, but it's no big deal.

You came in like that, thinking so little of the name of God. Be silent. Beware. This is not a light matter. Death and damnation are on the line.

And Almighty God will not be mocked. He will not be mocked. His name shall not be used in vain because His name is who He is. Because His name expresses His reality. Because his name is the name above all names.

And when you blaspheme it, you cheapen it. When you belittle it, you are telling God you aren't who you say you are. There will be hell to pay for it. So I want you to get this. I really want you to get the third commandment and in order for you to get this commandment I think you first need to understand the importance of his name.

Before you can understand what it means to take the Lord's name in vain, you need to see, you need to know the significance of his name. So that's where we'll start. It's where the text starts. The text starts, you shall not take the name of the Lord, your God in vain. So that's where we'll begin.

I've lost my clicker. Somehow in the concert, Stephen probably liked it. He wanted it. I found it. I'm sorry Stephen, I accused you.

The name of the Lord. The command begins with the name of the Lord. Now look again at our passage and instead of verse 7, go all the way back to verse 1. Look in Exodus chapter 20 verse 1. What do you see there in the first verse?

Then God spoke all these words saying, I am who? The Lord your God. Who is the one speaking? Who is the one giving this law? The Lord your God.

Lord there is in all caps. We've been through this. What does that mean? It's the covenant name of God. It's the Hebrew Yahweh.

That's the name of the one true living God. The covenant keeping God. Your God, the Lord Yahweh. Now look in verse 5. You shall not worship them or serve them for I who the Lord your God.

Look at verse 7, our text this morning. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes his name in vain. Go down to verse 10. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. Verse 11.

For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that's in them, rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." Verse 12, honor your father and your mother that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you. That's eight times. Eight times in the Ten Commandments, God gives His name. Eight times.

He just saturates this section of Scripture with His covenant name. Why'd he do that? Eight times in ten commandments. You know why he does it? Because it's really important.

His name really matters. Throughout the giving of God's law, you're just constantly, constantly, constantly reminded who's speaking. The Lord God Almighty is speaking. This isn't some pagan God. This isn't some pagan God among a long line of, you know, a buffet line of gods.

You can choose this one, this one, this one. No, this is the one true living God. And Yahweh is His name. And His name tells you precisely who He is. His name tells you precisely who he is.

So turn with me in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 3. Exodus chapter 3. Moses, he flees from Egypt. Moses, he flees from Egypt and what happens? Well Exodus chapter 3 happens.

Yahweh appears to him in the theophany of Bernie Bush. What does Yahweh tell Moses? Exodus chapter 3 verse 8. God said to Moses, I have come down to deliver my people from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey. So what has God come to do?

Come to set my people that are in bondage free. I've come to settle the power of their slave masters over them, to lead them into my covenant promise. That's what God says And how does Moses respond? Look in verse 13. Exodus 3 verse 13.

Then Moses said to God, Behold, I'm going to the sons of Israel. And I will say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you. Now they may say to me, What is his name? What shall I say to them? Okay so Moses is being sent to Egypt and he wants to know what is the name that I should give to them?

What is his name that will come and set his people free. Verse 14. God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, I am has sent me to you. God furthermore said to Moses, thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, the Lord, Yahweh, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you.

This is my name forever, and this is my memorial name to all generations. Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them the Lord the God of your fathers the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob has appeared to me saying I am indeed concerned about you and what has been done to you in Egypt I'm going to try to get you to see how important this is. Moses asked, who shall I say has sent me? What's his name? God responds in verse 14, I am who I am.

I am the Lord. That's who sent you. And notice there in verses 14 and 15 that the two names are right next to each other. Verse 14, I am who I am. Verse 15, the Lord Yahweh.

And this is a little technical, but if you look at the Hebrew you'll see that Yahweh and I am who I am are built upon one another. They go together. It's like two pieces of a puzzle. I mean like one comes from the other. I am is Yahweh.

This is who God is. He's the I Am. He's the one who never had a beginning, nor will he ever have an end. He is the one and the only one whose existence is completely independent outside of himself. He's the God who spoke 10 times in Genesis, making creation happen.

All of creation, ex nihilo, from nothing came everything. He's the God who spoke 10 times in Genesis chapter 1. And now the I AM, Yahweh speaks 10 times more on the mountain. I AM, Yahweh speaks. Listen.

Why listen to Him? Because that's His name. Because it's His name. This is the Creator speaking. This is the same God who destroyed all the earth today, one man and his household in an ark in the flower.

This is The same God with fire and brimstone made Sodom and Gomorrah an ash heap. This is the same God who promised to bless the nations, to bless all the earth through the seed of the woman and the seed of Abraham. This is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of Israel's fathers. This is the God that went down to Egypt and he kept his promise and he set his people free. This is the same God who on the mountain called Carmel with one man defeated the false god Baal and his 450 prophets and you lit up the sacrifice with fire, this is the great I AM Yahweh.

This is the God who was, who is, and who always will be. This is the God who took on flesh and redeemed the world. This is the creator who is speaking now 10 times on the mountain like he did in the beginning. And he gives you his law. And with his law, he gives you his what?

His name. So that word Yahweh, that name Yahweh, that you'll find that nearly 7, 000 times in the Old Testament. That's a lot of times. 7, 000 times. God making it very very clear he is not a God to be listed among all the pagan gods.

He's the one true living God. He's the great I am. His name communicates who he is. He is your God. Yahweh.

I am the Lord your God. That is his name. And now we get to the part of the third commandment that says, not only do I have a name, but my name is the Lord, and I am your God. That's the middle part of this third commandment. You're already in Exodus 3, so Just turn with me one chapter to the right.

Go to Exodus chapter four. Exodus chapter four. I think you'll start making some connections here now. Let's start Exodus four. Let's look at verse 20.

Exodus 4 verse 20. In chapter 3, Yahweh gives his name, I am who I am, and he sends Moses. And so in chapter 4 verse 20, Moses took his wife and his sons, he mounted them on a donkey and returned them to the land of Egypt. Moses also took the staff of God in his hand. The LORD said to Moses, When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I put in your power.

But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go Then you shall say to Pharaoh thus says the Lord Israel is my son my firstborn So I said to you let my son go that he may serve me Would you have refused to let him go behold I will kill your son your firstborn now that's huge that's huge what does God call Israel look at the text what does God call Israel Israel is my son God Yahweh the Lord declares that Israel is his redeemed son. And that should really help you, by the way, understand the final plague in Egypt. Think about that final plague in Egypt. Resulted in the death of Pharaoh's firstborn and all the firstborn of Egypt, right? Pharaoh had taken God's firstborn son Israel and so God would take Pharaoh's firstborn son in the Passover.

Israel is God's sons. Now I want to make this really important connection explicit to you. I really want you to see this and how it connects to the third commandment. What does God call Israel? His son.

And what do sons possess? What do they bear as long as they live? They bear their father's name. His name is what sons possess. Sons bear the family name.

And the third commandment assumes that family, father, son connection. As God's redeemed son, Israel has received the family name of Yahweh. And so to blaspheme his name, the name of their father who rescued them out of bondage and declared them to be his son, to blaspheme that family name ought to be unthinkable. So think of the benediction. Think of the benediction in Numbers chapter six.

We love the benediction. I think we do. This blessing, this benediction in Numbers chapter 6, all yes and amen in Jesus Christ. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you.

His name is throughout this. Be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you peace. Amen? So good.

Listen to the end of the benediction, number six. The Lord bless you, keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you, be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Verse 27, so they shall invoke my name on the sons of Israel and then I will bless them. Did you hear that?

Number 6 verse 27, right after a glorious blessing from God, God says, This is the way they shall invoke my name, or it could be translated, and I prefer this translation, so they shall put my name on Israel. It's actually more accurate. They shall put my name on Israel. You get that? So shall they put my name on the sons of Israel.

That's incredible. God puts His name on His children. God puts His name on His children. He marks them out. You bear my name.

You're mine. You're part of my family. How do you know you're part of my family? How do you know you're part of the household of God? Because you bear the name.

You bear the name. God says to Israel, I rescued you out of Egypt. I redeemed you. You are my son. And I've given you my name.

So honor it, delight in it, revere it, glory in it, because you're mine. And those with my name do just that. So God redeems His people, He makes them His children, and He marks them out as His own with His name. He calls them by name. Now Christian, this is precisely what God has done for you.

Talking about Israel? Thinking this is Old Testament? This is precisely what God has done for you, His people. The Israel of God, you were in bondage to your sin. Ephesians 2 was true for you.

You were dead, you were depraved in your sin, lost without hope. Sons of disobedience is what you were called. Sons of what? Disobedience. You were an enemy of God, a hater of God, a doer of iniquity, a lover of iniquity, a captive to sin, bound to Satan, a member of the kingdom of darkness.

You were a curse. Condemnation and the wrath of the thrice holy God hung over you. Your sin would have forever sent your soul down to the pits of darkness. Sons of disobedience but God. But the great I am who I am in His sovereign, almighty mercy, declared over you, set that sinner free.

Set him free. He says, Son Jesus, to the Egypt of your sin on the donkey, ask the better Moses to redeem your life from the pit. And he went to a cross, he bore the penalty for your law breaking, he bore the wrath of God that was due to you, and your God-hating, and your idol-worshipping, and your blaspheming. He bore it all in your place. And then He cried out, it's finished.

And then three days later, He rose up from the grave, proving it really was finished. It really was. Your condemnation gone. The wrath of God, every drop of it satisfied. Born by the crucified, risen and reigning Savior Jesus.

And in the midst of all of that, do You know what he did, Christian? I mean, if that wasn't enough, in the midst of that, he gave you a new name. No longer sons of disobedience, no, sons of God. Behold what matter of love the Father has given unto us, that we should be called the sons of God." Here's some new names he gives you. Saint, beloved, bride, daughter, son, child.

God says to you, my child with my name upon you. That's exactly what happened Christian at your baptism I need you to get this at your baptism God covenantally visibly marked you out for all the world to see did you remember the baptism of Jesus I mean you remember that Jesus gets baptized as he comes up out of the water, God the Father declares from heaven, as the Spirit's coming down, what does he say to Jesus? You are my beloved Son, and in you I am well-pleased. And that your baptism, Christian, on account of that Son's atoning work, God the Father declared to you, your baptism the same. You were baptized, Christian, in the name of the Father, and in the name of the Son, and in the name of the Holy Spirit.

Do you think we can say that glibly? I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It's not glibly. Because it means something. You were baptized in the name of the triune God, which means that at your baptism, the triune God, Yahweh, declared over you on account of my son Jesus, on account of his blood and his righteousness, you child, you child, you redeemed sinner, you are my beloved son.

You are my beloved daughter. You bear my name. I've marked you out in your baptism. I put my covenant sign and my covenant name upon you. It's visible.

And so because Jesus, my son, accomplished your salvation and you're in him, adopted into my household, because of that I'm well pleased. You are my son and I am well pleased for the sake of Jesus." I mean, what a baptism. What a salvation that you have in the Lord Jesus Christ. What a salvation that the great I am who I am has wrought for you. So children, you understand this.

This idea of a name. The name of God. Trying to figure out the third commandment. Don't take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Children, when you were born, think about this children, when you were born, you were given a name, weren't you?

Is there any child in here wasn't given a name? Wouldn't even know what to call you. No name. Okay, did you give that name to yourself, children? You didn't.

Who gave that name to you? Your father did. Your father gave that name to you. My girls, each of them, I named them. My wife liked the names, too.

But I didn't just name them some random name. No, I gave my precious children my name. I gave them my name. It's better than some. Brown!

The brown girls! I placed my name upon them. Why? Because they're mine they belong to me because they were born to Carissa and I they're mine that's why they're browns because I have covenanted to be their father and they my children because all that I am I will give to them and for them, they're mine, they're the brown girls. Children, If it's true that you are named by your earthly father when you are physically born into this world, how much more so than when you are spiritually born again by God the Father who gave you His Son?

Oh children, He adopts you into His household. You are His, and you bear His name. And if you do not know if you bear the name of Yahweh, If you do not know that you bear the name of Christ this very day, children, you turn to your mother or your father right after service and you say, Mommy, Daddy, I want to bear the name of Christ. Mommy and daddy, you better have an answer. Here's the answer.

Repent and believe, my son. Repent and believe, my daughter. And you shall be saved. Repent and believe and come. Come to the water.

Come, but there's not one there. Sorry, it's not water. Normally it's there. Come to be baptized, and then come to His table. Come and be welcomed to Jesus Christ.

So get this, dear ones. God redeems His people. He breaks the power of cancel sin. He sets the prisoner free. And then He gives those that He's freed His spirit.

And then He makes them that He has given His spirit, His children. And he marks his children out as his own with his own name, made visible at baptism, and he calls them by name to then his table. And so when you partake this Lord's Day of this table, don't just think, well, I'm just remembering Christ. Yes, you are, but you're also bearing the name. You are coming to this table, and you are declaring, I belong to Jesus.

And God is telling you from heaven at this table, and this is the table that my children come to. You're mine. There's multiple things going on in the sacraments. The two big ones. God is declaring to you, you're mine, and you are declaring to him and to the world, and I'm his.

God has a name. My name is written on his hand. My name is graven on his heart, and I bear his. I bear the family name. The Lord your God bids you come to the family table and eat.

So what a thing to belong to God. What a thing to see your sin and to turn away from it and to trust the Lord Jesus and to be marked out from heaven and to be given the family name. Just think about it, you get to call God your Father and you pray in the name of the Son. The name matters. The name matters.

What a thing to belong to God. His name communicates who He is. His name communicates what He's done for you in your life. And you're going to turn around, and you're going to mock Him for it? His name communicates who He is.

His name communicates what He's done for you in your life, and you're going to turn around, and you're going to mock Him for it? His name communicates who He is, His name communicates what He's done for you, and you're going to turn around and profane it? May it never be. May it never be. Never treat it with contempt.

And so that's why God says in the third commandment at the end, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God. He's given you His name. Don't take it in vain. Don't take it in vain. And that's the final part of the third commandment.

And if you're putting any pieces together of what I've been trying to communicate for the past 40 minutes, then you totally understand why taking His name in vain is such a big deal. Because when you take His name in vain, you're rejecting who God is. You're rejecting what God has done for you, and you're mocking the very name that He's placed upon you at your baptism. I don't think any of us in this room would be comfortable looking at baptism and mocking what's going on in the waters. I mean how shameful would that be right?

Like treating it lightly or casually. Baptism, the Lord's table. If you partake in these sacraments wrongly, you might die. It's a real thing. This is the table and baptism deal with the name.

But you'll go out in the streets and profane it? Be consistent. When you take God's name in vain, you're rejecting who God is, what God has done, and you're mocking the very name that's placed upon you at your baptism, and you're just, you're blaspheming His blood and righteousness. So What does it mean then to take his name in vain? What does it look like?

Well, when you hear the third commandment, do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, typically you think, well that's what comes out of your mouth, right? I think almost all of us associate the third commandment with words, right? I think at least I typically do. The way in which you speak, right? Don't take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

That's synonymous, don't speak the name in vain. And that's certainly in view here, certainly in view. You should not use God's name as a replacement for a curse word. You should not, with your mouth, casually use God's name as if it's just a name. No, it's the name above all names.

With your mouth, you shouldn't make rash vows. You shouldn't glibly take an oath in God's name. It ought to be serious. Wedding vows, oaths of office, they are done in the great name, the I AM's name, because they're taken in the fear of the I AM who I AM. Taken in the fear of the Lord.

Because the one with all power, the one who damns and the one who redeems Yahweh, the one who sees all and knows all, he is the one bearing witness to what you're promising in your vows or in your oath. So you don't use his name glibly in vows or oaths. You also don't treat his name with frivolity, which means you don't pray in vain repetitions. Treating God's name is like a space filler, easy to do. Instead of an you put God's name in there.

Don't do that. Don't use his name as a joke, as a means to elicit some kind of silly response. That would be vanity. So yes, that's taking God's name in vain in your speech, but beloved that's not even the half of it. When we reduce it down to just our speech, we just didn't get the first two points.

And if you didn't get the first two points, so sorry. Try it. That phrase in verse seven, you shall not Take the name of the Lord your God in vain. That's what I've been getting at this whole sermon. That word take is actually better translated to lift up, to carry, or to bear.

If you look at the gloss in the Hebrew, to lift up, to carry, or to bear. You shall not lift up. You shall not carry. You shall not bear the name of the Lord your God in vain. Vain can be translated, make it wicked.

Profaned. You shall not bear the name of the Lord your God in a way that makes it wicked. And so what do you use to lift up? What do you use in your body to carry or to bear? Well you use a lot more than your mouth to bear the name of God.

You use your hand, use your feet, use your heart and your mind. Beloved, the third commandment, and everything you do as a name bearer, as a name carrier, everything you do will either magnify the name or profane it. And so as Peter Leithart says, we bear God's name on our tongues when we swear, but the name is also imprinted on our heads, hands, and feet. You bear the name lightly. You bear it in vain with your indifferent or disobedient worship.

You bear the name in vain with casual sex. If you look in the Old Testament, particularly the Meyer prophets, and you look at where they treat sex lightly, What does God say about that? He says, you're taking my name in vain. They're not even saying anything. They're saying something with their bodies.

They're bearing the name and dragging the name through the mud, profaning it. And so you bear the name, I'm back to the quote, you bear the name lightly with your indifferent or disobedient worship. You bear the name in vain with casual sex or when you steal, speaking or silent, active or passive, you bear the name all the time in everything you do. And so every sin is ultimately a violation of the Lord's holy name, the name that he shares with you, Christian. Do you feel the weight of his name?

Or do you treat it as empty breath? When you reduce the third commandment to a command merely about words, you miss the key demand which is this, to honor God's name in everything." End quote. Colossians 3 17. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. So have you blasphemed the name?

Have you profaned the name in word or deed? Have you not hallowed the name of Yahweh as you ought? The Lord will not leave unpunished the one who takes God's name in vain. Oh that that name that you have profaned, oh that that name that you have blasphemed in word and deed, oh that He would come and rescue you for your iniquity. Oh, that the name would come and bear the second part of verse 7 in your place.

Oh, Christian, the name came. The name came. 2, 000 years ago, Yahweh, the name, took on flesh, dwelt among us. John 8 58, and Jesus said to them before Abraham was, I am. John 14 6, I am the way, the truth, the life.

Jesus is the I am. Jesus is Yahweh. Jesus is the name. And he came. He came.

And he was accused of blasphemy. Think about that. The one who came for blasphemers was himself accused of blasphemy. And he was placed on the cross by blasphemers, putting him on the cross. And he was punished in the place of blasphemers, in the place of a profane like you, like me.

And then the name was put into tune. But that name did not stay in that tune. That name was raised up on the third day for your justification and He was given in His ascension a name above all names. Jesus the Christ, Son of man, Son of God. And all that happened, all of that happened so that blasphemers and profaners would become God-fearers and God-worshippers.

So that He might take your sin and make you a sinner His bride. And in exchange for who you once were, He gives you name, He gives you His name in conversion. So that the promise in Revelation 312 will be certain. The promise in Revelation 312 is absolutely secured for those that belong to Jesus. Because Jesus himself says in Revelation 312, I will write on you the name my God.

And the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and I will write on you My New Name. Sinner this day, If you do not name the name of Christ, fly to Him. Acts 20, 21. This is salvation, repentance towards God, and faith in Jesus Christ. This day, children, aged ones, believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved.

See your sin in light of these Ten Commandments. You know, know your desperate need of a Savior and then run to that Savior, flee to Him. Jesus who fulfilled this law in your stead will have you. Trust Him. Jesus Christ.

Just think about the first three commandments that we've covered. Jesus Christ, He is God. Thou shalt know other gods before me. Jesus Christ is the image of God. No graven images, but He is the image.

And now number three. His is the name that is above all names he is the great I am know God as father through Jesus Christ his son receive adoption into his covenant household and be freed to bless his name forever and ever as Psalm 145 says as a new creation why because he knows you by name and he calls you by his name. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this, your word. Make us not just hearers, but doers also.

Make us a people Who love your law and for the sake of your great name, obey it. And it is, Lord, in the name of your Son, and it is for his name's sake that we pray, amen.