Word of Salvation – Vol. 23 No. 08 – November 1976
Adorning The Name Of The Lord
Sermon by the Rev. D. K. Baird on Exodus 20:7 (Lord’s Day 36)
Scripture Readings: Exodus 3:1-15; John 8:48-59
Psalter Hymnal: 85; 436; 118; 384; 165
No doubt most of us know the Third Commandment:
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.”
We probably also know that swearing comes into it somewhere, and that a lot of people break this command every day of the week.
But do we fully realise what the Lord’s purpose is in giving this commandment to us: what is the real meaning of it?
In seeking a closer understanding we will look at two things:-
1. the Name of the Lord
2. our Use of the Lord’s Name.
1. THE NAME OF THE LORD
What does the Bible mean when it speaks of the “Name of the Lord”? Does it think of a NAME in the same way as we do?
Why did we give our last child the name that we did?
Because we liked the sound of it;
or because we knew someone nice who has that name;
or perhaps because we liked the MEANING of that name?
But even if we did choose it because of its meaning, the name often doesn’t match the person when they grow up.
You may pick a name for your baby boy, which means “brave”, but later on, to your regret, you find it doesn’t exactly fit! A name these days is little more than a tag: a way of telling one person from another.
But with God’s Name it is quite different.
God’s Name is always accurate in that it always tells us something about Himself. His Name fits him exactly, because He has given that Name to Himself we haven’t made it up for Him.
Rather He has decided on that Name and then has revealed it to us. But it is not just that he wants us to know him by A name. No. He wants us to know him AS HE REALLY IS and he uses the name to express that.
For example, he wanted Abraham to know he was a powerful God:
a God who is able to do anything.
So God said to Abraham: “I am God Almighty (El Shaddai), walk before me…!”
Now there you have a name: El Shaddai, God Almighty.
But through that name God is telling Abraham something:
“I am God Almighty, who is able, for example, to give you a son in your old age. I am powerful and able to perform the impossible.”
So God’s Name is more than just a tag.
The Name of God is actually all that He is: his whole character.
We only know anything about the Lord because He has shown it to us. And over the years of Bible history we find God revealing or unveiling more and more about Himself.
Early on, as we saw, he told Abraham He was “God Almighty”.
On that occasion he emphasised His MIGHT and POWER:
His power over nature, and over the birth of Isaac, etc.
Later on, to Moses, He unveiled something else of His character. We read of this in Exodus chapters 3 and 6. Moses was commissioned by the Lord to lead the people of God out of Egypt. Naturally enough Moses asked: “What will I tell them when they say, “What is His Name.?”
What the Israelites would really be asking there would be
“What sort of God is this?
What can He do? Can He be trusted?”
They would not just want to know what to call Him they would want a character reference.
They knew that he was called THE LORD, but they were not too clear as to the implications of that Name.
So God answers Moses that He is going to show a part of His character which they have not seen so much of as yet.
What does this name “THE LORD” mean?
That is an important question, because THE LORD is God’s proper, personal Name.
LORD is a more special Name than GOD.
When Moses says, “What will I say is your Name?” (…is your character), God says, I AM WHO I AM.
“Say to them, ‘I AM has sent me to you.”
What a strange answer! What an unusual Name!
But what the Lord is saying is this:
“I am always the same. I am self-existent and independent.
I am absolutely constant, and I always keep my promises.”
As far as the Israelites were concerned, He said He would get them out of Egypt after so many years, and now He is going to do so.
He is going to keep his covenant promise He made earlier to Abraham.
So from that part of the revelation we here today can know what kind of God it is with whom we are dealing.
For He is still the same as in the time of Moses.
He is self-sufficient, and independent.
He is faithful, and promise-keeping.
And now that his covenant promise of the Christ has been fulfilled, we find that all his promises find their “yes” in him.
Whatever the Lord says in the Bible He will do, He certainly will.
You can count on it!
The name “JESUS” is another significant Bible name.
Remember what the angel said to Joseph:-
“Call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.”
Again his name means something.
God gave His Son that name because it tells us what Jesus came to do:— “to save His people from their sins.”
Jesus is the New Testament equivalent of the Old Testament “Joshua”, which means “the Lord saves”.
So just as Joshua was the Saviour of the Jews when they entered Canaan, so Jesus is the Saviour from sin for all who trust in Him.
God’s Name represents all that God is: His whole character.
So it is with the Name of Jesus.
We often end our prayers with phrases such as, “…in Jesus’ Name”. Do we always realise why we do that?
Well, we are saying just the same thing as “through our Lord Jesus Christ”.
We mean that we only dare to approach the Lord in prayer and lay our needs before Him because of Jesus.
We, being sinful, would not dare to even look up.
But because of all that Jesus is, and has done on the cross, then we can.
I hope now from this first point that we can see that the Lord’s Name means something.
It is more than just a tag.
It is loaded with meaning because it expresses the Lord’s own wonderful character.
This is why the Lord’s Name is so precious and should be used in right way.
2. OUR USE OF THE LORD’S NAME
It is really a great privilege to use the Lord’s Name, and so when we do we should mean what we say, and have our heart in it.
E.g. the name JESUS. When you say that name, you mention the one who has saved you from sin and eternal destruction.
You will surely hold a great love and respect for Him for doing that. And if He has saved you from your sins, you will also love that Name – Jesus – which expresses that fact.
We should use the Name, as the Catechism says, in no other way than with fear and reverence.
If we confess the Name of Jesus and say we trust in Him, the Lord will be rightly confessed when we do so FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEART. That will then be a saving confession too.
As Paul said, “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom.10:9).
On the other hand the worst abuse of the Lord’s Name is when your heart is not behind your tongue.
If someone says: “Yes, I am a CHRISTIAN,
JESUS is my Saviour,
I do belong to THE LORD”,
and yet their life doesn’t back it up,
well then indeed the Lord’s Name has been taken in vain.
To be living this third commandment there must be a consistency of life which backs up our confession of Christ, otherwise we have taken the Lord’s Name (Christ) upon ourselves in an empty way.
Think for a moment of our church-going.
By holding membership in our local congregation we are claiming to belong to the people of God.
By sharing in the worship of the Lord each week we again make this claim.
It is especially in these worship services that we take the Lord’s Name upon our lips, and upon ourselves.
But is worship merely to utter words of praise and prayer to the Lord? Remember what Jesus himself said in John 4:24:-
“Those who worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth”.
It is acceptable worship only when we mean what we say from the heart, and when we offer it through Jesus who is the truth.
If we come along here on Sunday claiming to be Christ’s, and yet thinking that we are going to impress God with our own goodness and performance, well then surely something is radically wrong.
Our singing and our praying will then be an empty and vain thing indeed. It is then not done in spirit and in truth, and in fact is nothing less than taking the Lord’s Name in vain.
But it would be wrong to give the impression that taking the Lord’s Name in vain is just a Sunday-problem, or even just a problem of what we SAY.
It goes much wider than that.
We only confess Christ aright when he is actually exerting his influence right throughout our hearts and lives.
Remember those well-known words of the apostle Paul:
“Do everything in the NAME of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” (Col.3:17).
The Name of Jesus, we said, means all that He is and has done: His holiness, His kingship, His Saviourhood, His resurrection power, and so on. So if we are watching T.V. or playing squash it is to be done in the Name of the Lord Jesus – it is to be a part of our life which has been redeemed by Him.
It is to be a consistent expression of our CHRIST-ian life.
Let us look at one more example in this line of thinking.
In 1Tim.6:1 we read, “Let all who are under the yoke of slavery regard their masters as worthy of all honour…..!”
Why? What is the reason put forward here?
“…so that the NAME OF GOD and the teaching may not be defamed”.
Now just what is He getting at here?
He is speaking of the impression we, who claim to be the Lord’s make upon others.
They look at us and say, “So that’s a Christian!”
They are noticing whether we show due respect to our employers or not. And if they see that we are in fact not, then God’s NAME which we have taken upon ourselves is dishonoured.
Those who are watching us say to themselves: “That salvation that Christ gives can’t be much, because it hasn’t done anything for him!”
If that happens, haven’t we taken the Lord’s Name upon ourselves in vain?
It is but an empty and vain confession, because it doesn’t work!
Of course if our life completely gives the lie to our confession, and if we are nothing more than hypocrites, well then truly the Lord “will not hold him guiltless who takes his Name in vain”.
Such an empty confession is a confession without Christ.
It is a confession where faith is claimed, but repentance and renewal are absent.
Without Christ we are just left in the guilt of our own sins.
If we have truly experienced the saving grace of Christ, then nothing will be so obnoxious to us as anyone using the Lord’s Name without investing it with its proper meaning.
We will loathe others doing this, and will avoid it like the plague ourselves.
But this is the very thing that goes on all around us every day, and which even sneaks in among the saints.
So many names, Jesus, God, Lord, heavens, hell, goodness, and many others derived from them, are bandied about thoughtlessly all the time. They are used as a point of emphasis to embellish poor English. But the Name of the Lord is worth more than that.
It speaks of eternal realities regarding the character of God and His way of salvation.
Such things cannot be spoken of in an off-hand, casual and empty way.
The Lord will not hold Him guiltless who does so.
Surely here is a point of contact for believers in our society too. An opportunity to say something.
To say, “That’s my friend, my Saviour, my Lord, you are speaking about!”
When we love Him, isn’t that the way we will feel?
This commandment comes to us as the people of God.
The Lord has redeemed us out of the house of bondage, and has thus revealed to us the wonder of His name.
We have been enabled to see something of His character, something of the wonders of His salvation.
We have been called out to adorn the Name of the Lord:
through our whole life to do everything in the Name of the Lord Jesus.
What a privilege! What a responsibility!
May the Lord enable us to walk worthily of our calling.
Amen.