ILL. A New York City businessman, moved to the country because of this bad economy. He went to the local feed and livestock store and talked to the owner about how he was going to take up chicken farming. He then asked to buy 100 chicks."That’s a lot of chicks," commented the proprietor. "I mean business," the man replied.
A week later the new farmer was back again. "I need another 100 chicks," he said. "Boy, you are serious about this chicken farming," the man told him. "Yeah," the man replied. "If I can iron out a few problems." "Problems?" asked the proprietor. "Yeah," replied the man, "I think I planted that last batch of chicks too close together." (http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/does-the-devil-know-your-name-mike-fogerson)
We cannot grow by burying ourselves and expecting sprouts. We will never be Christians, despite the label we love to display, ignoring the basic, Christianity 101, - talking about the 3rd C.
We are going to be continuing with our series on the Ten Commandments. Ex 20:7… Some people think: "Oh, we’ve got all these old rules and regulations. You know, the Ten Commandments are pretty bad. They’re restricting my life."
Actually I believe God has in these Commandments the blueprint to happiness. And here, God is saying that if we want the most out of life, keep the commandments, not to save ourselves, but because we are saved. Exodus 20:7 read (KJV) We’re not supposed to take His name in vain, are we? We are going to examine ways we might take the Name of God in vain. In vain… easy, in a useless way, profanities as well, but it’s more in this C…
1) 1. The Declaration of God’s Name. Read Ex.20:7. Point one is that we should not swear. We should not take the Lord’s name in vain.
Why would He even put swearing in here, among the 10 C? I mean, there are a lot of rules in the Bible. Is this one of the top ten that God has for us? Apparently it is. But, why would God choose that? Why is cursing so bad? It’s listed up there along with killing & adultery & everything else.
Q. Could you swear if you didn’t have the ability to talk? Mute? Garry is a roofer from Conway, helping his brother’s business. He cannot talk; he is mute since a motorcycle accident damaged his temporal brain lobe. I meet him while remodeling a church.
One day somebody accidentally push him and he immediately showed the middle finger… The whole group laughed, and his brother yelled from the back yard: hey Garry, we are not using profanity here, this is a church!...
Could you break the Third Commandment if you couldn’t talk? Speech is a great tool. But it can be misused. This C is so important that Jesus even repeated it in Matthew 6:9 (KJV) when He said "Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name." That’s just basically restating the 3rd C in a positive way.
In order to swear effectively a man must refer back to God. Imagine a nonbeliever, an atheist trying to swear. Imagine an evolutionist trying to swear. An evolutionist cannot swear in the name of a monkey or in the name of a swamp-dwelling worm or whatever.
And every day people swear. And, unfortunately, every day millions of so-called Christians profane God’s holy name. Swearing is becoming an extensive problem.
Boys think, "Well, you know, this is going to make me more grown up. I’ll be more like a man." And men think, "This is going to make me bigger in somebody’s sight." And it really doesn’t.
Now think about: this Commandment is broken out in the open. Swearers want people to hear what they say. It’s intended by the profaner that you would hear those words. When a person commits adultery they try to hide it. When they lust, or when they kill, or whatever they do, they conceal it. But this one is done out in the open…
2. The Desecration of God’s Name. God’s remnant people certainly would avoid using any word that refers to some of the attributes of God’s holy character.
Have you ever heard anybody say, "Mercy!" What are they saying? That’s a character trait of God. Or some other people will mention other of His character traits. They will say, "Goodness Gracious!" Oh, my Goodness” – every three minutes…
What are they saying? Should we do that? Why do we refer to God? Because these are attributes of God Himself. And I think even such expressions as "G-O-S-H." If you look them up in the dictionary, that’s referring to God. And the first syllable of Jesus name, "Jeez”… We hear that over and over, don’t we?
ILL. I went to a doctor for some pain here, upper side of my stomach… in those days I used to eat 6 times a day like for 3 people… But my doctor was sick too, staying home, another doctor replacing him. His name was Vlad Tzepelea – in translation THE IMPALLER… like Dracula… Vlad the Impeller. I turned around and I got serious on herbs’ tea and natural remedies…
A name is important. It represents who you are. And God’s name represents Who He is, and What He is. We like our name, don’t we? It’s important to us. When somebody forget our names or mispronounced… we are not happy about.
God’ Name is at the apex of all creation. His name is prime. His name is above all names. And for us to take His name in vain is exceedingly dangerous I would say.
When you hear my name, I want you to think highly of my name. I don’t want you to think badly of it because it represents my reputation. God wants the same thing. God’s Name depicts His reputation.
I think that’s why God chose to make this commandment to be among the 10 C. When we misuse His name we actually drag down His character before others. And we don’t want to do that. Therefore, profanity becomes the opposite of witnessing.
Swearing is not the problem. Swearing is a symptom of the problem. I think you will agree when you think this through. You may think: "Swearing is the problem. Because where I work, these are ’good old boys’. You know, they don’t mean anything by this. It’s just kind of the way they were raised.
They don’t mean anything by swearing. In their heart, they really do love the Lord. They’re in church on the weekend! They love the Lord. What comes out of their mouth is far from what I know is in their hearts."
Wrong! Because the Bible always connects what comes out of the mouth with what s in the heart. You just can’t read it any other way in the Bible. Luke 6:45 NEB. "...The words that the mouth utters come from the overflowing of the heart
Where do these words come from? They come from the heart. Don’t tell me that your friend has a bad problem with swear words but their heart is OK. If ungodly words pour out of a person’s mouth it is a sure sign that there is a nasty heart problem.
Don’t listen to swearing! Jesus is coming soon! And soon, we’re going to be in heaven. We are going to be in the companionship of holy angels who bow down when they hear God’s name spoken. Don’t you think it time for us to have respect for God’s name? And to be building that respect into our lives? I do!
And so how can a Christian go and rent a video (now you’re stepping on my toes, pastor).
- How can a Christian go down to the video store, rent a video where God’s name is taken in vain over and over again?
- How can we sit there and enjoy a program full of profanities and “beep-beep”! Every five seconds like Morse’s code? Is that right for us to do that? And bad music too?...
We’ve got to think about that. The harvest always come later. When we open our ears to listen to obnoxious swear words, we allow these evil seeds to be planted in our heart and they will eventually produce a bad harvest in our life.
3. The Restoration of God’s Name. I believe the 3rd C talks about our personal influence. "Thou shalt not take the name of thy Lord in vain."
ILL. OK I’m baptized Christian and my car breaks down. I take it to the shop. I get it fixed and they say, "That will be $ 165." "Well, I don’t have the money right now. IAll I got is 20 bucks, but I’ll bring the rest this afternoon." They know me as Christian churchgoer. I don’t come that afternoon.
Finally I don’t get my car fixed there anymore; I go to some other garage. Then I’ll repeat this and eventually people will see me somewhere and they’re going to say, "You know, here comes one of those so-called-Christians. The biggest walking hypocrites in the world are some of these Christians that don’t pay their bills”.
Take the name but not in vain. When you take the name of Christian you ought to live up to what it means to be a Christian. Don’t be a stumbling block. You understand what I’m saying.
ILL. A Chinese story: There was a blind man. It was dark, it was evening, and he was sitting there on the sidewalk. And this blind man had a lit lamp beside him. He explained, "I don’t want people to stumble over me." I don’t want people to stumble over me either, so I don’t want to take His name in vain.
"I Swear to God that my check is in the mail." And it’s not in the mail. We’re misusing His name. Another way we could misuse His name is putting a bumper sticker on the back of your car saying, "God is my co-pilot," and then we drive like the Magnificent Seven.
We need to love His name. We - need to love His character. I want the character of Jesus to be my character. I want to love the Lord. The core of the 3rd C is that we would love God’s name.
Come with me back in the Book of Acts, 19th chapter.
13 Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, "In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out."
14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this.15 (One day) the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?"
16 Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.
17 When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor.
Paul was doing great & extraordinary miracles by the power of Jesus’ Name. People w/ cancer were cured, leprosy, blood disease, mental disorders, blindness, crippled, deaf, mute, lame.
Paul believed in Jesus. More than simple belief in facts about Jesus. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that and shudder.(James 2:19) Paul had a life changing faith in Jesus. Jesus’ name meant something to Paul the believer.
Now, the 7 sons of Sceva tried doing some great miracles by the power of Jesus name. Using/ abusing Jesus Name… because Jesus was a stranger for them…
V.13 "In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out." What happened then? NOTICE what they did not say: "In the name of Jesus, whom we preach/believe. . ." The name of Jesus meant something to Paul. It meant little to the 7 Sons of Sceva. How many people have you heard use "In Jesus Name" like a Christian Abracadabra? They claim things in Jesus name but. . . They don’t get any better, not healed, they still awful spouse, bad parent, stay miserable.
I think folks just do not get the concept behind the whole "In Jesus Name" thing. Acts 4:12 “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
The only name by which we are saved! Not Buddha, Allah, Good Works, Church Membership, Old Time Religion… It’s in a relationship with Jesus! Jesus name means something to those who believe/trust in Him. Jesus name means little to those who do not believe/trust in Him.
Back to the story from Acts 19. Sceva family. Appearantly already had a successful practice as exorcist until they decided to use Jesus’ Name, but not based on personal knowledge but based on Paul’s relationship,
Now how often do we call on the precious Name of Jesus with having a deep personal relationship? Or based on other people’s testimony, not our own? The Sceva’s boys didn’t know the Saviour… Only second hand rumors about the power of His Name.
And that horrific man, possessed by devil, said: Hey wait a minute. I know Jesus, we were in Heaven together, we used to worship Him until Lucifer convinced me to join him. And now look at me, well we were doing pretty good until He became flesh and shed His blood; now every human has a right to that eternal life – something that we could never have again.
And I know Paul, he understands the word, he spends time trusting Jesus, praying putting God first, oh yes I know him, he makes all of us demons work real hard, I have a reason to know Paul.
I have a reason to know Paul – the devil says - I know... Dr. Mullins, sister Anabelle,… I know HSM Richards, but you, I don’t know you, you haven’t been a thorn in our side… I know you have no relationship with Jesus because you have NO POWER, so I don’t know you…Then he prevailed against them: He busted them up really bad.
Take His Name, but not in vain! God is going to reward those who reverence His name. That’s the 3rd C. That’s exactly what this means. Soon Jesus will come and reward those who reverence His holy Name, having a life that matches His Name.
Revelation 11:18 - .... The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great…."
Reverence. I don’t allow people to call me Reverend… Reverend is only One… Fear Him, love His name, worship Him…
CALL. Let’s invite Jesus to take up residence in our hearts. His clean, pure life will soon begin to The closer we get to Jesus the purer our life and words will become. SING! # 474 Take the Name of Jesus With You.
