Please turn in your Bibles to Leviticus chapter 24, Leviticus 24, as we read verses 10 through 23. We consider this historical episode in connection with the third commandment, which our God says, 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. Or as the NIV says, you shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless. And please also then turn to pages 50 and 51 in the back of the Psalter hymnal. The third commandment is considered with two Lord's Days, Lord's Days 36 and 37. We will give expression of what we believe with using these words, these answers that we find here in both these Lord's Days. So we do that before we turn our attention to the Word of God. Page 50, Lord's Day 36, question 99 asks, What is God's will for us in the third commandment? That we neither blaspheme nor misuse the name of God by cursing, perjury, or unnecessary oaths, nor share in such horrible sins by being silent bystanders. In a word, it requires that we use the holy name of God only with reverence and awe so that we may properly confess Him, pray to Him, and praise Him in everything we do and say. Is blasphemy of God's name by swearing and cursing really such serious sin that God is angry also with those who do not do all they can to help prevent it and to forbid it? Yes, indeed. No sin is greater. No sin makes God more angry than blaspheming His name. That is why He commanded the death penalty for it. But may we swear an oath in God's name if we do it reverently? Yes, when the government demands it or when necessity requires it in order to maintain and promote truth and trustworthiness for God's glory and our neighbor's good, such oaths are approved in God's word and were rightly used by Old and New Testament believers. May we swear by saints or other creatures? No, a legitimate oath means calling upon God as the one who knows my heart to witness to my truthfulness and to punish me if I swear falsely. No creature is worthy of such honor. Leviticus chapter 24, beginning at verse 10. Hear now God's holy word. Now the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father went out among the Israelites, and a fight broke out in the camp between him and an Israelite. The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the name with a curse. So they brought him to Moses. His mother's name was Shalamith, the daughter of Debris, the Danite. They put him in custody until the will of the Lord should be made clear to them. Then the Lord said to Moses, Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him. Say to the Israelites, If anyone curses his God, he will be held responsible. Anyone who blasphemes the name of the Lord must be put to death. The entire assembly must stone him. Whether an alien or native born, when he blasphemes the name, he must be put to death. If anyone takes a life of a human being, he must be put to death. Anyone who takes the life of someone's animal must make restitution, life for life. If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him. Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he has injured the other, so he is to be injured. Whoever kills an animal must make restitution, but whoever kills a man must be put to death. You are to have the same law for the alien and the native-born. I am the Lord your God. Then Moses spoke to the Israelites, and they took the blasphemer outside the camp and stoned him. The Israelites did as the Lord commanded Moses. May God add his blessing to the reading and consideration of his word tonight. Well, beloved in Christ the Lord, have you ever been called a nasty or hurtful name? Have you ever been the object of a vicious rumor or of a false gossip or of a lie? Has anything terrible ever been said about you? I suspect that every single one of us can say yes to at least something in that list. And therefore, if so, how did it make you feel? Make you angry? Hurt? Insulted? Maybe it depends on whether or not what was said was true or not. But you see, when God's name is misused, when the name of God is taken in vain, whatever then is said about Him is never, ever true. And it angers Him. Because just as you and I are affected personally, He is too. He has said in His commandments so far that He says, I am the Lord your God, I am your Deliverer, I am your Redeemer, you are to have no others besides Me because I am the one and only God and you are to worship Me in truth. And now with the third commandment, as it were, He comes and says, because of who I am and because of what I have done, you are to treat Me in your daily life with honor and respect. You are to live before Me in a way that testifies to the truth of Me. You see, really, that's what this commandment is all about, how we are to live before the face of God. In all that we think and say and do, beloved, we are called to love the matchless name of God and to demonstrate that love. Now, we may be tempted to think that when it comes to murder or stealing or adultery, as I kind of mentioned this morning, that those things are worse because we can see the effect of those sins with regard to the hurt on others. But when it comes to cursing or swearing against God and maybe even against man, well, it's really no big deal because it's just words anyway. And it is so common in our daily life. Yet we need to remember that God gave this command before He gave the others. And the truth is that adultery and murder and violations of those commandments are also violations of the third commandment. Because they are to not take God seriously. They are to fail to take God at His Word. They are to treat what He says as no big deal, as optional. To laugh at sin, as it were, as we talked about this morning. And with this episode in Leviticus 24, we have a very vivid picture of how important this command is to God as God demonstrates here the seriousness of His name. And he demonstrates the seriousness of his name, first of all, in the nature of the son's sin. Now, when it comes to the context, we don't really know exactly when, this is a historical episode, it really, really took place. It seems kind of misplaced where it's located, but it actually took place, but we don't exactly know when it took place. As far as the timing, there are some who suggest that it probably took place not long after Israel left Egypt, when early in the wilderness period, because it seems that the people didn't know exactly how to deal with the violation of this commandment, or at least they didn't really know how to deal with an alien committing this sin. He was considered an alien, you see. And Moses relates this historical episode in the context of explaining the law and especially explaining the requirements for worship that is pleasing to God. In chapter 23, if we were to back up, we see that Moses deals with the Sabbath and with the various feasts, those things which deal with worship of God. And now in that context of the worship of God, he gives a real-life example of how God is to be set apart in one's heart and life, and he shows the punishment for failing to do that. Well, the situation is pretty clear to us. The son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father, a mixed marriage. And really that shouldn't be a surprise to us because in Exodus chapter 12 we are told that foreigners left Egypt with Israel and the Egyptians who left with them became, they were considered foreigners among Israel. And it's been said very possibly that there were some Israelite women that married Egyptian men probably for the safety of their families. In safety. But indeed it was a mixed marriage. And it's also been suggested, you see, Numbers 2, verse 2 talks about the tribes being located as God had set them. They were located physically, their tents, around the tent of meeting. But it's been suggested that the tents of those who were engaged in mixed marriages probably were out further than that. They were not right in among the full-blooded Israelites. And this son, we read, went out. Very possibly into the mix of Israel proper. He went out publicly and he gets into a fight with a full-blooded Israelite. And we're not told at all what the fight was about, but we do read in verses 11 and 12, the son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the name with a curse, so they brought him to Moses. His mother's name was Shalometh, the daughter of Debris the Danite. they put him in custody until the will of the Lord should be made clear to them. Now, as an aside, I think that we ought to see a warning here. As those who are prone to argue ourselves, whether we are adults or young people or boys and girls, we ought to see a warning here that arguments that are not dealt with properly, that get out of hand, they lead to the danger of murder with the tongue and of the misuse of God's name. We've probably all experienced that. Maybe we have all been guilty of that. That all of a sudden, when an argument gets out of hand, words come out of our mouths, and we didn't mean it, but the words come out cursing and swearing, and maybe even then, in the midst of that cursing and swearing, names that refer to God in some way. come out at the same time. And we need to understand, boys and girls and young people, as I often hear, well, I couldn't help it because he or she made me so mad. I couldn't help it. You know what? That's not acceptable. That's no excuse. This foreigner should have known better, possibly. But even in his ignorance, the Lord did not cut him any slack. Even though his mother was an Israelite, He was guilty. And notice the content, the content of the son's sin. He blasphemed the name with a curse. Now it's interesting, I read that in the ancient Near Eastern mind that there was a close connection between a nation and its God. A close connection as such so that it was considered that a nation's strength came from its God. Now, of course, we can understand that, but only in the sense of Almighty God and his people, not with regard to false gods. That's what they believed. But, of course, we know that a nation's strength and does not come from its false god. But as well, it was believed then to weaken a god by some sort of specific magical formula resulted as well in weakening the people. as if to really punch them in the stomach, as it were, to take the wind out of them, to violate their God, was then to weaken the people. And maybe that's what this son thought that he was doing. He blasphemed. It means to revile, to insult, with the idea of doing injury, to pierce with the intent of debilitating a person. And we're told how he blasphemed God. He did it with a curse. And a curse is to declare something to be nothing. It is to declare something to be without content, without significant. It is to completely despise that something. And with regard to God, to curse God, it was to deny that He has any power. To with one's words strip Him of His power and therefore it was to deny that He is God. And that's what this son did. He was saying that the Almighty God is absolutely nothing. And we can understand then why the Catechism in question 100 calls this a serious sin, or as the older version says, a grievous sin, because of its violation against God's name. He blasphemed the name. Answer 99 includes this, that we neither blaspheme nor misuse the name of God by cursing, perjury, or unnecessary olds. Now often we might say, well, what's in a name? And indeed, as we pick our children's names, we don't necessarily put the thought into them that the people in the Bible did as we read. We put some thought into them. But the truth is a name is more than just a label. It's more than just an identification tag. It describes who a person is. It describes what that person does. It comes to describe that. Because a name is the reputation by which one is known. Or a reputation becomes attached to someone's name. If I were to mention a number of significant people in history, whatever you know about them, be it good or bad, positive or negative, that's what comes to mind when you hear those names. For example, King David. Or Abraham Lincoln. Or John Calvin. or Adolf Hitler, Henry Ford, Colby Bryant. Whatever you might know about these individuals, that's what comes to mind when you hear their names. And the same is true when your name is mentioned in the context of those who know you and when my name is mentioned in the context of those who know me. That name is the reputation by which one is known. This violation was against God's name And therefore, it was against God's very being because His name points to His attributes. It points to those things by which we know Him. You see, God had revealed Himself to Israel and to the nations as all-powerful, you know, those omni words, omnipotent and omniscient, all-knowing, and omnipresent, everywhere present. He had revealed Himself as holy and righteous and just and gracious and loving in everything that God is. is wrapped up, is bound up in His name. And therefore, to misuse God's name is to misuse His very being. And especially, I believe, as we think about this, His omniscience. The fact that He knows all things. Because to take God's name in vain, beloved, is to treat it, to treat Him lightly. That's what to take it in vain means, to treat it lightly. not with the weight, not with the seriousness that is to come with it. It's to not take him seriously. It is to treat him as if he doesn't even hear, as if he doesn't know, as if he doesn't understand. And therefore, it is also to violate God's reputation. He blasphemed the name. And that is referring to God's covenant name, Yahweh, by which he had revealed himself to Moses and to the Israelites. He revealed Himself as a Lord their God, the one and only Almighty God who is their covenant God, who has always existed and who is with His people in His saving power and in His covenant faithfulness. His reputation, you see, what He has done, is also wrapped up in His name. And His reputation includes the fact that He is faithful and trustworthy, that He keeps His Word, that He never sins, that He is righteous, that He is unchanging in holiness and truth. We sang a version a moment ago of Psalm 145, again a psalm that I highly recommend in connection with this sermon, with this third commandment that you read. The psalmist begins that psalm by praising, I will praise Your name, I will extol Your name, he says. And then he goes on throughout that psalm in a beautiful way to really describe who God is. to describe what God has done, to describe everything that is associated with the name of God. Some of the things include that He is great, He is powerful, He is gracious and compassionate, He is good and faithful, He upholds and He gives food. He is righteous and loving. He is near. He watches over all of those things, the psalmist says. I will extol Your name. And He extols Him for all of those things. So there again, to misuse God's name, beloved, is to lie about him. It's to lie about him. And it is to treat him as different than he truly is. God reveals himself to us in his word. And we see the truth of his majesty and power and wisdom in creation. We know him only by faith. And therefore, we are to recognize that when we are speaking about him, beloved, he is not like us. He is holy God. And we exist and we have hope only because of His being and only because of His reputation in Jesus Christ and therefore we are called to treat Him as holy, to treat Him as He truly is. We are called to be serious about His name as He is serious about it. Seen in the second place in the severity of God's sentence. Notice beginning in verse 13, and the Lord said to Moses, take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him. Say to the Israelites, if anyone curses his God, he will be held responsible. Anyone who blasphemes the name of the Lord must be put to death. The entire assembly must stone him. Whether an alien or native-born, when he blasphemes the name, He must be put to death. Now with regard to the severity of God's sentence, notice first of all its deadly consequence. God will not be mocked. Those who reject and deny the God of life will lose their life. They will learn through death, be it all too late, but they will learn through death that he is who he says he is. They will learn that he is serious about himself and he is serious about his desire that man understand and respect and live according to the truth of him. And with regard to the severity, notice also its defining character. Answer 100 says, No sin is greater. No sin makes God more angry than blaspheming his name. That is why he commanded the death penalty for it. No sin is greater. Now that doesn't mean that God overlooks some sin. He doesn't. He won't. But as I said toward the beginning, in a sense, all the commands that follow include misusing God's name and reputation and being. Because to treat the Lord's Day as unholy, to dishonor one's parents, to murder or commit adultery or steal or lie or covet are all at the same time to fail to take God's Word seriously. it is to treat him and his word as insignificant it is to laugh at sin as we said this morning we need to understand beloved this commandment is not only about the words that come out of our mouth it is possible to misuse God's name by what we do as well as by what we say you see he is God and he values life we see that in a particular way in verses 17 through 22, in a sense, a recap of many of the commandments that Moses had spoken about earlier in other places. And here, very possibly, he includes them in this context to show that God does value life. He values all life. He values His own life too. He cannot be reduced to something less than He is or different than He is, and He will not allow man, the creature, to try to reduce Him. He will not allow man to treat him so dishonorably. Now this punishment may seem obsolete because we don't stone people to death anymore. We might say that here in this context it was a part of the civil application for breaking the moral law within the nation of Israel. Yet we are not to take this commandment for granted as if God has changed his mind. As if he has lowered his standard. He has not. Paul says in Galatians 6 verse 7, Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. And when the Lord gave this commandment, He said the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain. They are guilty who misuse His name. And God has proven that with Jesus Christ, the only one who perfectly honored and upheld and glorified the name of God. This only one who was able to and indeed did that, he died for our sin of attacking the very being of God, for our sin of ignoring God, for our sin sometimes of treating God as if he does not really exist. And though Christ's reputation, beloved, was shamed by those who crucified him, they called him a blasphemer, they called him a liar, they said that he was a son of the devil. And even though his name was blasphemed by those who crucified him, yet God gave him the name that is above every name, and that name of Jesus is to be honored. Jesus Christ is an example of how serious God takes his name as he suffered the severe sentence for those who would believe on him that we might not suffer death at the hand of God, that death that we deserved completely. And therefore, beloved, in him we are called to take God's name seriously and demonstrate that as seen in the third place in the lesson of the congregation's call. Notice verse 14 again. Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him. You see, it's a bit hard for us to understand, but in some way by laying their hands on the blasphemer, those who had heard the blasphemy, those who were witnesses, in a sense, were throwing off from themselves the blasphemy they had heard. They were returning it on the head of the blasphemer. He was responsible for it. In that way, they took a public stand. They were saying, we are not with this man. We do not agree with him. Instead, they were taking a stand for God. And the congregation, by stoning him, they show concern for God's name. And by participating in carrying out this punishment, again, we cannot even begin to fathom that. But by participating in carrying out this punishment, by seeing the result of this sin, this man laying there dead and bloody and beaten, they were to see, they were to be terrified, They were to see how serious God takes His name. And they were to be terrified by anything that borders on misusing God's name. And the same is to be true for you and me as we consider the crucified Christ. As we consider the one who was put to death for our sin, including our sin against the third commandment. We are to see in him how serious God takes his name and his word. And we are to be terrified, in a sense, of anything that borders on misusing God's name and desire to be moved more and more instead to honor God's name in its use, in our use of it. Answer 99 includes this, that it requires, in a word, this commandment requires that we use the holy name of God only with reverence and awe so that we may properly confess Him, pray to Him, and praise Him in everything we do and say. Notice, this command governs the Christian's very life and lifestyle. And it is to be our desire to honor God's name in its use, to use it with reverence and awe. God's name, God's being, His reputation is to mean so much to you and me. that we would desire to use His exclusive name in an exclusive way as He desires. Not flippantly, not casually, not using God's name, one of the forms of His name, one of the derivatives of His name as an expletive or an exclamation. When speaking of God in any way, beloved, we are to do so only with a thought. And when living for God, we are to do so only with a thought to His greatness and to His saving work and what honors and pleases Him. To use His name with honor and reverence, with reverence and awe, which also includes the use of His name proper. The word God, Jesus, Lord. Now you know the phrase. We hear it all the time, oh my God. Or those who try to soften it and say, oh my gosh, or G instead of Jesus. I've said it from this pulpit before with regard to the third commandment. All we need to do is look in a dictionary and the world will see that gosh and G are euphemisms, it says, for God and Jesus. That's how the world sees it, how they understand it. But so many even well-meaning believers, maybe even some of you here, maybe have said, well, I don't mean anything by it. And that's the point, you see. That's the danger. The Lord says you shall not take it in vain. To take it in vain means to use it lightly, to not use it with the honor and the weight that it deserves. That's the point. We must mean something when we use it. I remember talking to a young lady some years ago about this very thing. I don't even remember who it was anymore. I think it was in Michigan. But we had a discussion about that phrase, oh my gosh. And she said, yeah, but I tell people not to say, oh my God, but to say, oh my gosh. And to say, gee, instead, because that way they're not taking God's name in vain. She thought she was doing God a favor. But it is simply not true, beloved. It is to treat him so lightly, to treat him so flippantly as nothing. We are to honor Him in the use of His name proper, but also in all speech and in all of life. You see, all profanity, all obscenity, all swearing, even if we don't use or a form of God's name is not used, all light-hearted jokes about St. Peter at the pearly gates, all uses even of the word hell. You see, hell is a real place. And I believe because of its flippant use, So many people do not fear hell that God has prepared for those who reject him. All of these things, and in fact all sin, in thought, word, and action, it is all in some way a violation of the third commandment. It is to laugh at sin, to laugh in the face of God. It is an attack against the truth of God. Is it any wonder then that God calls for death? You see, beloved, God calls for a language that uses His name with the utmost of respect and is in every way a clean language. You see, boys and girls and young people, please, please do not adopt the phrases and the words and the language of the world. Because God desires a clean language. We are accountable to Him for every single word. Because even in our language in general, just our everyday language, even if we have no reason to say Jesus or God or anything like that, even in our simple language in general, God hears every word. He knows if the words that we use have a bad meaning or a double meaning. He knows if there are innuendos involved. He knows if we mean to intentionally lead others to some sort of improper thought or perception. And to use a language that in any way dishonors God and His creation again treats God as if He doesn't hear or as if He doesn't care if He hears. And that's why oaths are connected. In answer 102, a legitimate oath means calling upon God as the one who knows my heart to witness to my truthfulness and to punish me if I swear falsely. No creature is worthy of such honor. See, our language, as the previous answer says, is to be used to maintain and promote truth and trustworthiness. God knows He is the only one who can read our hearts and motives. And therefore, we are called to honor God's name in its use, but also to honor it in its defense. Question 100, is blasphemy of God's name by swearing and cursing really such serious sin that God is angry also with those who do not do all they can to help prevent it and to forbid it? Yes, indeed. And if we jump back to the previous answer, answer 99, to fail to do that is to share in such horrible sins by being silent bystanders. Beloved, that's what we gave testimony to, each one of us with our mouth tonight. We said that to fail is to share in it. See, the sad thing is, is we're not shocked anymore, are we? We are not shocked by the misuse of God's name. We are not shocked by those treating God as if He is nothing. We're not shocked by those who are laughing at sin in God's face. It's ironic, as the catechism rightly says, no sin is greater or makes God more angry, yet it's ironic that no sin is more widespread. No sin is more a part of everyday life, everyday language on the television, in the movies, in song lyrics, in newspaper articles. It's all around. And beloved, the simple truth is though it will not make you and I popular, we are called to speak up. When we hear or witness the misuse of God's name, if we are able. Not because you and I are offended, which we ought to be, but because God is offended. Remember what we said this morning? That sin is an offense against God. He hates it. It is to cause us to mourn. Israel defended the name of God by confronting the blasphemer. You see, they were shocked by it. They defended God by confronting the blasphemer, by carrying out God's command to stone him. We are to defend God's name. That means we may have to walk out of a theater, which will probably happen every time. Which means we may have to turn off the TV. Which means we may have to leave a conversation. But you see, beloved, if we willingly listen to God's name being misused, then we let that infect us willingly. And we too are broken down so that we are not shocked anymore. Who of us would sit by and let someone infect us, willingly let someone infect us with a deadly disease? We wouldn't do it. And therefore, beloved, may we pray that the Holy Spirit would lead us to honor God's name in its use, that he would give us courage to defend it when it's misused. And may our very language point to God, even our everyday, normal, indirect language, to point to God as we speak the truth and use wholesome and uplifting and unoffensive language. And may the Holy Spirit equip us to use God's name in our whole life in such a way that our lives say that He is the most important being to us. And we pray that the Holy Spirit would help us to see always, by faith, Jesus Christ. Even as the Israelites looked at that dead son whom they had put to death with the stones, As they looked upon him and they saw the seriousness of violating this commandment, may we always see by faith Jesus Christ wounded and bruised and put to death with our curse laid upon him as the Father laid his hands upon the head of Jesus in the place of you and me. May the Holy Spirit of God convict us more and more to cherish the name of God, The name of Jesus, that only name under heaven given among men by which we might be saved. The third commandment is indeed a vivid reminder of our guilt and the death that we deserved at the hand of God. But Jesus took it all. And therefore, beloved, may we be filled with gratitude. May we cherish the name of God. And may we, as answer 99 says, use the holy name of God only with reverence and awe so that we may properly confess him, pray to him, and praise him in everything we do and say. May we fight for the name of God strengthened by the Holy Spirit. Indeed, one day every knee will bow before Jesus Christ. And praise be to God that because he died for the honor of the name of God, as those who believe, we will bow before him with joy. And on that day, when we see Him as He truly is, then, praise God, we will praise Him as we ought. Amen. Let's pray together. Our great God and Heavenly Father, indeed, You are great with a greatness that we cannot even begin to fathom. You are exalted and lofty so high above us. Yet you have come down to us in your Son, Jesus Christ, who has become man to pay for our sins. And you have made yourself known to us in such a marvelous way that we might know of your majesty and your love and your grace and your mercy. And Father, as we understand more and more what you have done for us in Christ Jesus, we pray that more and more by your Spirit you would draw from us the honor and respect and the love due your holy name. Father, please give us a hatred for sin and especially a hatred for hearing your name and your being misused. And we do pray for courage. Oh, how we need courage, Father, to stand up for the honor of your name. May we let the greatness of your name be seen in our everyday lives to those with whom we have contact. Oh, Father, please use us and equip us in this way to your name's honor and glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.