This recording is from Willow Creek Church in Windsor Springs, Florida, where Dr. Pete Alonson is our senior pastor, today's servant is part 14 and a series on the book of Exodus and deals with the third of the Ten Commandments. This message is taken from Exodus chapter 20, verse 7, and is called misusing God. Now here's Pete with today's message. We're glad that you're here as we come to look into God's Word. We continue our study and the Word of God, if you have your Bibles, take the Old Testament, look it open to the book of Exodus, Exodus chapter 20. Do we find Exodus 20? That's where we find the Ten Commandments, and we've been studying through the Ten Commandments. Looking at them, or today, going to be looking at the third Commandment, by the way, I went into my office this morning and on my desk was a brand new book on the Ten Commandments. Now, I want you to know as I've been preparing for this series, you say, well, how many books are there on the Ten Commandments? There's a bunch. And I've been reading a lot on the Ten Commandments. I got a briefcase full of books on the Ten Commandments, but this was on my desk. It was a brand new one, and I opened it up, and I started reading, and I couldn't put it down. Now, I usually don't loan my books to people, Christians, because they don't return them. But I'll return, I'll return, you can return it to me, I'll loan you this one. I like it. It's really, I read it this morning, it's called, Exceptions to the Ten Commandment. I loved it. Wilson McBurney gave me a book that I could finally read. You know, I love it. And I liked it because it was a reminder of what I, you know, these are not the ten suggestions, the ten good ideas, the ten maybe's, these are the ten words, the big ten. I'm not talking about college football or college sports. We're talking about the words of God that God gave to the Israelites. When he set them free, he said, this is how to live. These are words of freedom that do provide boundaries. Yes, they're commandments. They're the ten words, but they give freedom to God's people who have been saved by grace. So the ten commandments as the language of grace, the language of love lived within the parameters of God. I am so glad. God tells me how to live, because otherwise, I wouldn't know. I would do my own thing, and I'd mess it up, but he said, son, I love you so much. I'm going to show you what to do and what not to do. This will guide your life, and that's why we're studying the ten commandments. The first commandment was, you shall have no other gods before me. The second commandment is, you shall not make for yourself any idols, or if you were raised with the King James, any graven images. The third commandment, here it is, Exodus 20, verse 7, in the new international version of the Bible, you shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. For the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name, and for those of you who know this in the King James, good news for 16th century man, in the language, this was what was hammered into me, here it is, thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. For the Lord will not hold him guiltless that takeeth his name in vain. This is the only commandment that has an immediate threat attached to it. They're all important, they're all hierarchial, they all are in the order of God wants them to be in, but it is interesting that it says, you know, if you don't take this seriously, God will deal with you on this. Now what's in a command, what's in a name anyway? We talked about this earlier, what's in a name in the ancient world, in the ancient world, and God is writing the commandments down to the Israelites, you have to understand that the Israelites just coming out of bondage in Egypt, carried with them the pagan notion of the name of a God. So in the pagan world, in the biblical time, what was in a name, Chimash, Malach, Asura, what's in a name? Here's what was in a name, you listening? Ready? Power. You knew the name of the God, you had power over that God. And so the people, the ancient peoples would think, if I know the name of the God, I could have power over that God, I could harness that God, I can control that God, I can manipulate that God, and God says, wait a minute, I just set you free, I've released you, and you got to unlearn some things. You Israelites got to unlearn something, let me tell you what you got to unlearn. You got to unlearn how you think about my name, because you think, if you just know my name, you can control me. God says, ain't going to happen, it's in the original Hebrew. God says, you will not think of me as though you can control me by merely uttering my name. You will not misuse my name. You will not take my name in vain. You got to unlearn that pagan notion of me and of control. You got to learn the new, he says, listen, children, I'm your father, I'm your savior, I've released you from bondage in Egypt, we have a relationship. It demeans me when you try to use my name to control me, so don't do it. You shall not misuse my name. What's in a name? What's in a name is God's glory and His majesty. I love first John 1, 1 through 4, in the New Testament, he says, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we've looked at, and our hands have touched, this we proclaim concerning the word of life, Jesus. The life appeared, Jesus appeared, we've seen it, we testified to it, we proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the father and has appeared to us, and we proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you may have what, fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the father and with his son, Jesus Christ. What are we about as Christians, we're about fellowship with the living God, we're not into a magical manipulative relationship, we're not about, may the force be with you, we're not about using God's name in a name and claim it way and saying, you know, I got God in my hip pocket, I got God wrapped around my little finger, no, there's a lot in a name, a name defines the person. So let's talk about some of the names of God, right here in our, in the third commandment, you shall not misuse the name of the Lord, the word, the Lord there is the Hebrew word Yahweh. You've heard the word Yahweh before, everybody's heard Yahweh, it's translated in English Bible's Jehovah, and so he says, my name is Yahweh, what does the word Yahweh mean? We're not sure, it's all Hebrew consonants, Y-H-W-H in the Hebrew, and they didn't have vowels in the early Hebrew language, I had to put them in later, makes for very difficult learning today, what does Yahweh mean, we're not sure, but we think it's connected to the idea of the root of the verb to be, to be, I am who I am, I will be who I will be, it is essentially God saying and taking the verb to be, saying I am the essence of existence, I am who I am, I've always been, you know, you deal with little kids in Sunday school if you had this question, a teacher, where did God come from? Well God always was, yeah, I know, I know, but where was He before that, and how did He come into being? No, no, He always was, this is carried through in the name Yahweh, I am who I am, I will be, who I will be, utter, complete existence, eternity, self-sufficiency, it hurts me sometimes to think God doesn't need me, He did, He wants a relationship with me, but he doesn't need me, why? Because He is the I am, He is Yahweh, and interestingly He says to Israel, this is my personal name with you guys, I'm giving it to you because I love you, I am Yahweh, Exodus 3, 6, I am the God of your Father, I am Exodus 13, 13, 13, 14 through 15, I am who I am, God said to Moses, this is what you're to say to the Israelites, remember Moses when he saw God at the burning bush and he says, God, okay, I'm going to go get these guys out of bondage in Egypt, what God, what God do I tell them sent me, He said, you tell them I am, I am the God who always was, the God who always will be, this is a personal name for Israel, this is by my name forever, by that name I am to be remembered from generation to generation, it's fascinating that Jesus uses this name for himself, at the end of a sermon that Jesus preached, I'm never going to do this because you can get trouble when you do this, at the end of a sermon Jesus says these words in John 8.58, he says, I tell you the truth, before Abraham was born I am, that's terrible grammar, kids, don't follow that grammar, it's bad grammar, but Jesus makes a profound point, low predictability, high communication, he says, before Abraham was born I am, I am the eye, he says, I am Jehovah, I am Yahweh, I am the eternal God, who do we worship, guys, we worship the living God of the universe as he's revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ and I'll tell you, I wouldn't believe this if a dead man didn't get up and walk out of a tomb, if they could have produced the body of Jesus and said he didn't but rise from the dead, I wouldn't believe any of this but he did proving that he is who he said he was, I am, I am Yahweh, the Jews prior to 70 AD would never say the name God, they would never utter the words, some Jews today, when they speak of God they say, when they write, they write G-D, why because the name is too holy for them to utter, because the name represents the being of God in his holiness, the Jews called the name Yahweh, Shem Ha Mephoresh translated the ineffable name, well now there's a vocabulary for you, the ineffable name, what is an ineffable name? The name that is so holy, so awesome, so utterly reverent that you can't even say the name, what's in a name, a lot's in a name, the power of God, another name here in this third commandment is Elohim, Elohim is the word, I like that, I like to say in that Elohim, you feel very Israeli when you say that, it's a plural, L is the singular God Elohim is God in the plural, God refers to himself in the plural, the plural of majesty, this is the word speaking of God as the creator of heaven and earth, who spoke and the world came into existence out of the very word of his power, I am Elohim. This church is incredibly creative, you guys are gifted and talented, I'm amazed at what some of you are very good with crafts and you make stuff, Bill Pearson's making our communion table for the new facility, he's making it out of wood, it's going to be real nice, he's probably sitting up here every Sunday saying I can't wait to get away from this thing that Pete uses up there, he's making me a pulpit, as your southerners like to call it, pulpit, it's a very skinny one, I want you to know, it's not, but it's better than this, now he's making the furniture out of existing material, right? When God created the world, what did He make it out of? The world was created ex nihilo, a Latin phrase that means out of, I can't do that, you can't do that, what's in a name, Elohim, in the name Elohim is power, interesting how the New Testament views Jesus, Colossians 1, 15, Paul says this, he is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation, now listen to this, for by him all things were created both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things would be created by him and for him, we tend to think of God the Father as the Creator, Jesus as the Redeemer and the Holy Spirit as the Comforter or a supplier of salvation to our heart, but right there it tells me Jesus is the Creator, why? Because Jesus is Elohim, names of God, what's in a name, the power of being is in a name, another one is El Shaddai, I like that one, El Shaddai, I am God Almighty, Genesis 17, when there are many names for God in the Bible, many of them, El Yon, the most high God, Elo Lamb, the everlasting God, Jehovah Jaira, the God provides, Jehovah Siddiqunue, it's a messianic term meaning Yahweh is our righteousness, you've heard of this, the Lord of hosts, the Holy One of Israel, the ancient of days, these are all names, why are there so many names for God because God is too big for one name to contain, and even then we haven't exhausted all of the names of God. You said boy, you guys weren't real reverent this morning, you were celebrating, you were dancing around, almost, you see Jeff, Jeff Vogan was almost dancing up there, lifted his foot like this, I mean to God, the Jews, have you ever met an introverted Jew? No, they're an extroverted people, you look at the worship of the Old Testament and they're all over the place, dancing David's wife despised him when he brought the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem, why? Because he was excited about God, why was he excited about God because of all these things? Why are the Jews so confident? Why are they so verbal? Why are they, why are there worships so celebrative because they worship this God? So do we, God cannot be contained and so what's in a name is a lot in the name and that's why we revere the name, we revere important names, important people, but we're not good at that, you know in America we almost embody the essence of irreverence, don't we? We America, I'm not saying you guys, you guys have been very nice to me, you know, but we are not very reverent. The church was having a hundred anniversary and maybe you heard about it, it was a different denomination and they had all of the denomination officials in and this was one where they had bishops in there and the pastor of that church with all of the bishops and everybody sitting in there, they brought the kids up front for, you know, one of those children's sermons and they was talking to them about the church and about the hundredth anniversary and you guys know what the bishops do, don't you? And there were blank stairs on all the kids' faces and one kid said, isn't that the one that moves diagonally across the board? It was an intending to be irreverent, but he just didn't know, you know, we Americans have institutionalized irreverence. John Guest, who was an evangelist, is an evangelist, a Brit, when he first came to America he was up in New England and he was going through, he was going through some antique stores and he saw a sign from the Revolutionary War days and he wanted to buy it but he did and the sign said, we serve no sovereigns here and he said, now I understand the essence of Americans. It's true. We have a country we've never had a sovereign. You have never been raised, ladies, curtsine, men bowing before a king, we wouldn't do it. And so it's very difficult for us to understand this idea of revering God's name, but we do understand how to revere someone, I think, a little bit, someone who is far superior to us and that's what the third commandment is saying. You misuse my name, you misuse my dignity. All right, let's apply this. How does the third commandment apply to you and to be today? Let's talk about using and misusing God's name. First, let's talk about misusing God's name and the first way we misuse God's name is in the whole idea of blasphemy, if you've heard that word before, blasphemy. Blasphemy is cursing God's name. When you curse his name, you curse his being. If you ever had been cussed out, some of you have, you know what it's like. You got to try it sometime. If you've ever had somebody, I don't mean you should cuss at somebody, I'm not saying, yeah, with the church's son, he said, yeah, I'm supposed to cuss at you. So here you go, man. No, no. You want to allow it to be happening, I had it happen to me before. It's incredible. When the Christian cusses you out, it's pretty incredible. But it's shocking. It's utterly shocking, but I'll tell you this. God gets it all the time because God is cursed in his being all the time by people who misuse his name and don't understand him. Don't understand his goodness and his greatness and his mercy blasphemy. I recently read that a Roman Catholic priest suggested that we just capitulate as Christians and start calling God Allah. Yeah, this Roman Catholic priest said, we should do that. I want you to know. If you haven't thought that through before, you need to understand here today that Allah, the God of Islam is not the God of the Bible. Allah is not Elohim. He is not Yahweh. He is not El Shaddai. The God of Islam, the God of the Quran is a different God. An inferior, and I say that to do that, to suggest that we would even put the two in the same category, is to utter blasphemy against the God of the universe. Do we seek to love Muslims and bring them to faith in Jesus Christ? Oh, of course. We've got ministries, missionaries, that you support, that we support. Some we can tell you that we support them that are undercover, that we can't tell you about. But we're all about seeing them come to faith in Christ because they worship the different God. And they need the true God, the God of grace and of mercy and of forgiveness. blasphemy is one way we misuse. Profanity is the other way. By taking, this is what you were used to, right? Do not take the name of the Lord. You know, you utter your cuss word or you take God's name in vain and say, don't take the name of the Lord, God in vain. That's, that happens to us all. I will never forget. I will never forget that when I was a boy scout, in 1969, in Cordillane, Idaho. I remember exactly where I was standing. I remember the time of day. It was just, it was just utterly burned into my mind. I was standing there at the national jamboree with a bunch of other guys, boy scouts who, by the way, are supposed to be reverent and who believe in God. And I cussed. I took God's name in vain. And my scout master was standing behind me and this guy scared me to death. And as soon as I cussed, he said, what did you say? And I froze. And I didn't know if I should say what I said again. And so I didn't say anything. And then I thought, what's the next right thing to say? I said, I said, I'm sorry. He looked at me and he said, are you sorry? Because you did it? Are you sorry? Because you got God. Man, I was thinking as fast as I could. I was thinking I think the right answer is, I'm sorry that I did it. I said, I'm sorry. I said that. I said, all right, don't do it again. I walked away and I went to my friends and said, man, I'm sorry I got caught. Because that's the way it is most of the time, right? To profane the name of God is to use his name in a belittling way. By the way, you need to know that our country has a history of honoring God's name. We back to our founding fathers, I read this book, we have it in our bookstores. It's really good. What if America were a Christian nation again by D. James Kennedy? And now we never were a country where everybody was a Christian. But we did have a Christian moral consensus at one time. That's what the point he's trying to make. And he tells me some interesting thing about Thomas Jefferson. You thought that he didn't have anything to do with God. Did you know that Thomas Jefferson read the Bible, studied the Bible in Greek, Hebrew, and Latin. He was a Bible scholar. Did you know that he viewed the ethics of Jesus as the finest ethical system on the face of the earth. And he had it translated for the Indians because he wanted to civilize them, civilize them. And he felt that that was what they needed to have. Have you studied the Bible? He knew the Bible. He just didn't ever, as far as we know, accept Christ. But we do know that he punished soldiers for profaning the name of God. Do you imagine putting a soldier today on report for taking God's name in vain? Well, they did it back then. Profanity is to misuse God's name. It's to belittle him. Perjury using God's name as a pretext for a lie. Perjury is misusing God's name. It's taking it in vain. It's belittling it. I'm going to tell you the truth in the line. Flip and see. In jokes, calling God the big guy, the old guy upstairs, that you would never say that. A Christian doesn't say that. It's hypocrisy. We misuse God's name when we're hypocritical in the way we live. I have a story of my non-believing friend who told me about his, about somebody who worked for him. Well, I went on and on and on about the name of Jesus and what a Christian they were, what a Christian they were, and she was stealing drugs every day in the pharmacy. In the name of Jesus, given her son who sold them on the street, why? Because they needed some money. You know, it's okay with God. Apocalypse, manipulation, name it and claim it. In Jesus' name, I claim that promotion. I claim that job. I claim that house. That is misusing God's name. I'm going to tell you one other thing. It's going to hurt to pray for your favorite football, basketball, soccer, volleyball team. Man, I've done it. You know, I did last night. You know, it is misusing God's name, isn't it? Because it's trivializing God's name. There's Christians on both sides. Who cares if your favorite sports team wins? Now some of you are saying, you've just uttered blasphemy. There's a tradition, Dr. Laura tells us about. If someone is approaching home and sees a fire from the distance, he or she may not say, God please let this not be my house. Such a prayer could be misinterpreted as a plea that it be someone else's house. In Jewish tradition, asking God to change something that exists already is a vain prayer that likens God to our assistant, to our personal magical powers. This is a vain prayer which is different from saying that this is taking God's name and vain. She said, that's right. For me to pray, oh God, let me not have gray hair. It's a vain prayer. Oh God, somebody might say, make me funny. If you're not funny, it's a vain prayer. It's okay not to be funny. Oh God, let there not be humidity in Florida.
But we misuse God. Now how do we use his name properly? Well first of all in worship, we use his name properly in worship. When we gather, I don't know about you, but I need to come here in worship every week. I need to be told who the real God is and what he's like. I need to know that he's almighty. Because there's times in the course of my week when I forget that he's almighty and I try to take things into control. I need to remember that he's gracious and forgiving because sometimes I don't want to be gracious and forgive. I got to remember that he is for bearing so that it's okay. Put up with them. They'll put up with you. See, when we come together in worship and in my pastoral prayer, I talk about the names of God, the attributes of God. We say that for a purpose. We say it so that we'll remember who God really is because we need to be reminded to go out there this week and live in light of the God who is not of the God who isn't. And I need that. By the way, when I lift up the fact that God is all powerful, it reminds me that, well, it's like the other Monday I walked into my office and I was saying, I can do all things or Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4.13, I kept quoting it. Why? Because I was going to face some stuff. I didn't want to face. That didn't think I could do. When we worship a big God, we can develop a big life, a gracious life, a merciful life, all that he is. So when we use his name rightly in worship, it transforms us for everyday life. The second thing is we use it in our character. When we lift God up, when we use his name properly, when we lift him up in our character, when we take our wedding vows seriously, our church vows seriously, our promises. Listen, you don't have to say when you say you'll show up and help somebody, I swear to God, you don't need to say that. Because everything that you do as a Christian is tacitly admitted that you represent Jesus. So if you say you're going to be there, you're representing him already. You don't need to say, I swear to God, you're a Christian. And so our word should be our bond. And men, this is important in business. Ladies, this is important in business. Guys, how easy it is to not tell 100% truth in business. We misuse God's name when we don't tell the truth. That's a Christian. Well, Christians do this all the day, all the time. Pastors do this all the time. So I'm telling you, it's not just me. How big is your church, Pete? Oh, between 5 and 900. Cool. That's a big gap, Pete. How many? I don't know. 7, 800. Right around there. God's blessing. Thousands come to Christ every week. You know, we pastors do it too. I'm not saying that we don't all struggle with, but our character, our integrity. The world is desperately looking for people of integrity. You heard about the politician who was sitting at the desk waiting for the phone call to hear if he'd won the election of call came. He won. He immediately calls his mom. He said, mom, I won the election. She said, honestly, he said, mom, you don't have to bring that up at a time like this. You know, but honesty is important. And I'll tell you, when we misuse God's name when we don't lift it up in our character and in our life, we need to teach our kids that too in our prayer. Prayer is not worrying on our knees. It is not manipulating God. We honor him in his name when we use his name, not as a tool to get what we want. But what did Jesus teach us to pray? Die will be done on earth as it isn't heaven. We honor God's name when we start every day, say, Lord, I don't know what's going to happen today. You're in charge. You're will be done. And that lifts up his name in an appropriate way. One time Wilson, Woodrow Wilson, our president was in the Oval Office with his father and his father was a Presbyterian minister back then. You did not mess with Presbyterian ministers back then. I mean, they all looked three-piece suits, skinny black ties. They all looked like they had just been sucking on a lemon. These guys were nails back then. And this guy comes in in front of the president and he takes God's name in vain. And then he looks up and he sees Reverend Wilson standing behind me and says, oh, sir, I'm sorry. And Reverend Wilson said, you don't know apology to me. When people belittle God doesn't it hurt us a little bit? It does. But they don't own apology to us. Why does it hurt? Us. Because when you've been as loved as well as we have been loved by the God of the universe or Jesus Christ. We just hate it when people abuse the name of God. See, you're never going to have problems in misusing the name of God if you constantly remember the grace of God. You remember that Jesus came and died on the cross for you? You're never going to violate this. You won't want to violate this. Because you'll be remembering God loved you. So they sent Jesus for when he knew all the bad stuff about you. You loved you anyway. This stuff you still do. You bring it to him and you confess it and he says, ah, you're my son, my daughter Jesus died for that. I love you very much. See, those who've been loved, love back. And that reflects in our words. I don't be worried that you're going to violate this. But constantly focus on the grace of God. Because you see, you can only love once you've been loved and then you can only love to the extent to which you've been loved. You've been loved so incredibly that you can honor God in every way with what you say. Take it to heart. You know, if you have never accepted Christ as your Savior, we still offer him to you. And we are so glad you're here. We love it when people come and kick the tires at Willow Creek and wonder if we Christians are perfect. We're not. We're serious Christians here, but we're not perfect Christians. There are no perfect Christians. And if you find a perfect church, don't join it because you're ruined it. So we just want to tell you that we're glad you're here. But if you've come to the point where you are seeing that Jesus Christ is more than just a religious figure, but Yahweh, Elohim, God come in the flesh, who went to the cross and loved you enough to die for your sins. If you are at that point where you want to start a whole new life, then we invite you to Him. Simply pray in your heart something like this. Lord, today I reverence your name. I confess my sins and today I want Jesus to come into my life as the only one who can set me free. The only one who can give me grace, purpose, direction come into my life today. Lord, before me sit this incredible group of your people who you knew before the foundation of the world and they love you because you first loved them. May they today start a pattern that will last all week and that is to just to remember your grace and that Jesus you went to the cross for them. May the language of your love for them play in their hearts and minds all week and we will give you honor as we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. Please stand. Now may the amazing grace of our Master Jesus Christ, the outrageous love of God the Father and the intimate friendship, the Holy Spirit go with you this week as you remember His deep love and His concern. Amen. Willow Creek Church is associated with the Presbyterian Church in America. Our website is www.willowcreekchurch.org and our phone number is 407-699-82-11.