The Perfect 10, Part 3

We live in a society where people don't understand the law of God. We live in a society where people truly are biblically illiterate. In order for us to get a foundation, we must go back to the truth of God's word and study it in great detail. And we have told you that the ten words, the ten comm, the dec that God gave to the children of Israel. Determine the morality of a people of God. They are absolutely essential for you as a family to survive in a world filled with sin. This is the survival of the American family.

This is how a family lives. And we, as parents, need to understand the implications of the Ten Words of God, the Ten Commandments. And so we have taken some time to study them. We're taking two a week. Last week, we took commandment number one in comm.

Number two. We told you that commandment number one dealt, number one, with the prominence of God in your world.

Commandment number two dealt with the place of God in your worship. Commandment number one dealt with God's authority in your life.

Commandment number two dealt with your loyalty. To the Lord of your life. Now we're going to cover commandment number three and commandment number four.

These are very important because if you miss these, you can't do the next six. The next six. fl out of your relationship with God. In order for you to have a relationship with other people that honors and glorifies the Lord God, you must have a relationship with Him that honors Him. And so we need to understand what it means. To have God as our sole authority. And number two, to make sure that we are loyal to that authority day in and day out.

So, commandment number three, commandment number four. Let me read them to you, then we'll discuss them together this morning.

Commandment number three. Verse 7, Exodus chapter 20: 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. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it You shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant, or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth.

the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Commandment number three deals with the preeminence of God in your words and in your ways.

The pre of God in your words and in your ways. In other words, this deals with God's Identity. Commandment number one, God's authority.

Commandment number two, your loyalty to that authority. Commandment number three, God's identity. And we'll See commandment number four. Listen.

Your responsibility because of his identity. You with me so far? This is going to be a great day. Now, we're going to give you lots of information today. And we're just here to help you, help stimulate your thinking, help get you into the Word of God. And comm number three deals with the preeminence of God in all my words and in all my ways.

It says, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Now, what does that mean? How do we understand that? I like what Alan Redpath said in his commentary on the Ten Commandments. You know, it hard to find good commentaries on the Ten Commandments. You've got to go way back to the guys that, you know, are dead, you know? It's hard to find guys today that write on the commandments of God and have a good understanding of them. But Alan Redpath said these words: A man uses the name of the Lord in vain.

When He Himself in His life is not true to the revelation of that name, that's what it means to take the name of the Lord your God in vain. The word vain means empty. It means mean. It means void. It means empty of content. You shall not. Take the name of the Lord your God in vain. In other words, you should never treat God as if He means nothing. Now, when we think of the Ten Commandments, we think Primarily, the fact that when we think of this one of using God's name in vain by profanity, and that would be one way you would take the name of the Lord your God in vain, right?

Profanity, by swearing, by cursing. By damning another soul to hell. You see, that would be out of character for God because God doesn't damn people to hell willingly. Man goes to hell because of his unbelief. And God gives him the consequences of his unbelief. But God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9. The Old Testament tells us that God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He doesn't. And so, for us to go around and damn someone else to hell by using God's name in vain goes against the character and identity of our God, who is not willing that any should per.

But that all should come to repentance. Man is made in God's image. Anything you say Anything you do that does not reflect God's image treats God as if He is worthless. Treats God as if He means absolutely nothing to you. So we can take the name of the Lord our God in vain by the use of profanity. We can also take the name of our Lord God in vain by the issue of frivolity. We become very frivolous in our lifestyle. We become very frivolous with the name of God. Whenever we treat God lightly, whenever we treat God carelessly, we take His name in vain.

For instance, The Bible says in Ephesians 5, verse number 3 and 4 that the believer is to have no silly talk nor coarse jesting named among him.

Whenever we tell a joke about God, we take the name of the Lord our God in vain. Did you know that? You see, we want to trifle with God. I've read my Bible many times. I've never seen the phrase, our God is a funny God. Doesn't mean that God doesn't have fun. I'm sure He does. He brings glory to His name. There is great joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. So I know there's joy in heaven. And I know there's a smile on the face of my God. But the Bible never says that my God is a funny God. But so many times we treat him with such frivolity when we come to worship, whenever we worship carelessly.

We take the name of the Lord our God in vain. If you're not serious about being here, then you've taken the name of the Lord your God in vain. You've treated him as if he means nothing, as if he is absolutely worthless. A lot of times we go around and just say phrases in a frivolous manner. You ever hear people talk about, God bless you. Oh, God bless you, my dear. God bless you. God bless this and God bless that. It just rolls off their lips so easily, it means absolutely nothing. That is taking the name of the Lord your God in vain.

How would the people always say, Oh, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise him, praise him here, praise him there, praise him everywhere. They're always praising the Lord. There's nothing wrong with praising the Lord, and there's nothing wrong with saying, God bless you. But you got to mean what you say. If you don't mean what you say, there's no thought process behind what you say, you've taken the name of the Lord your God in vain, you've broken the third commandment because you have devalued the identity of God.

But most importantly, you can look at taking his name in vain by looking at how we use profanity in terms of our frivolity, but most importantly through our hypocrisy.

Through our hypocrisy. When our lives don't match what we say, we have taken the name of the Lord our God in vain. Isaiah 48, verse number 1. Listen to God's indictment to Israel. Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are named Israel. And who came forth from the loins of Judah, who swear by the name of the Lord and invoke the God of Israel, but not in truth nor in righteousness. Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do the things that I say? Luke 6:4. So let me help you understand it this way.

When you talk about the name of the Lord, you're talking about the character of God, you're talking about the identity of God, right? When the Bible talks about the name of someone, it talks about the character of that individual, the nature of that individual. So, when we talk about the name of the Lord our God, we're talking about His identity, who He is. And we know that there is always pardon in the name of Jesus. How do we know that? The Bible says.

What? Matthew 1, 21. And you shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin. There is pardon in the name of Jesus, Acts 4:1. There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. There is peace in the name of Jesus. Gideon in Judges chapter 6 would talk about Yave Shalom. The Lord is peace. Peace comes to those who have been freely forgiven of their sins by God Himself. And therefore, we must live in correlation with the identity of the God that we say we adore.

And if God promises us peace and we don't have peace, it's not our fault. I mean, it not God's fault. It's our fault. And we need to realize that we are not living in accord with what his word says. So there is pardon in the name of Jesus, there is peace in the name of Jesus, there is power in the name of Jesus. Power in the name of Jesus. It says over in 1 Samuel chapter 17 these words. When David came against Goliath, then David said to the Philistine in verse number 45 of 1 Samuel chapter 17. You come to me with a sword and a spear and a javel, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts.

the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted. This day the Lord will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you, and I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not deliver by sword or by spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands.

The Lord of armies, the Lord of hosts. There is power in the name of Jesus Christ. That's why He's called El Shaddai. In the name of Jesus is protection. Protection. Proverbs chapter 18, verse number 10, says this: The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runs into it and is safe. There is protection in the name of Jesus. The name of Jesus is like a strong tower. You ever built a fort and a tree? You with me out there, folks? Have you ever had a tree fort? You know, you ever grown, got up into a tree for it?

And when you get up into a tree for it, you're safe from all the people below, right? And Lord. Of course, they decide to burn down your tree, then you're in trouble. But you're up there, you can see down, you get a whole new perspective when you're up in the tree fort, when you're up in the top of the tower, than you are when you are down below. And the name of the Lord is like a strong tower. It gives you a place of refuge, a place of protection. It gives you a whole new perspective on life. And when we find ourselves in difficult situations, we run to God.

We run to the name of the Lord our God, who is a strong tower for us. That will grant us a new perspective because of his protection of our lives. In the name of Jesus, there is protection. In the name of Jesus, there is provision. Genesis chapter 22, verse number 14. Yave Yere, the Lord is my provider. There is provision in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. When Abraham talked about that in Genesis chapter 22, there on Mount Moriah, the place foreseen by God, he was able to foresee that God would provide him as Lamb for the salvation of the world.

And when we real that God provides for us and takes care of us because of his protective care of our lives, then we don't take the name of the Lord our God in vain. We don't treat him as if he means nothing. So we must understand that there is pardon in the name of Jesus. There is peace in the name of Jesus. There is power in the name of Jesus. There is protection in the name of Jesus. There is provision in the name of Jesus. And there is praise in the name of Jesus. There is praise in the name of Jesus.

Psalm 34, verse 1. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear it and rejoice. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. Listen, we are to be a praising kind of people. And when we, as a people of God, are unwilling to offer up praise to His name, then we take the name of the Lord our God in vain. There is purity in the name of Jesus. Matthew 6, verse number 9. When Christ taught his disciples how to pray, pray this way: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

I want to give you a little secret to your prayer life. If you are not interested in living a pure and holy life, don't bother praying. Because the very first request In the Lord's Prayer.

When Christ gave us a pattern on how to pray, He says, Listen, when you come to pray before me, you must seek me. To be as holy as I am holy, as pure as I am pure. And if you don't want to do that, you can't go on to the rest of the Lord's Prayer. You can't go on to the rest of prayer in your life. In fact, if that's not your desire, don't pray because you're just going to waste your breath. It means nothing. You must have a desire to live a righteous and holy life. You must say, Lord, I know I can't do it, but with you as my God and you as my preserver of my life, I seek to live a holy life.

Lord, Hallowed be thy name. May your name be holy in my life. That should be our desire, right? That should be at the heart and soul of our prayer life. And so, when we go before our God in prayer, before we ever ask Him anything that we think we need, then we need to have His Holiness reign supreme in our lives. And then we can go to him and ask for his forgiveness. And then we can go to him and ask him to give us this day our daily bread. And we can go to him. And request of Him those things that our Lord has outlined for us.

But first of all, we must be primarily concerned with His purity and His holiness in our lives. There is purity in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. There is punishment in the name of Jesus. 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. Folks, say what you want, but if you live your life without ever seeking the pardon of God for the forgiveness of your sins, through His blood at Calvary, you will pay the price and you will die in your sins.

Because you've treated his sacrifice as if it means nothing. And when we seek not to live a pure and holy life, we will suffer the consequences. We will. You see, the law of the harvest is true no matter what age. What a man sows, that will he also reap. The law of the harvest is just a basic law, a basic principle that if you sow to the flesh, you will of the flesh reap corruption, but if you sow to the spirit, you will of the spirit reap life everlasting. And that law is through the entire Word of God.

And God is very clear. And as parents teaching our children the moral law of God, we must live a life that demonstrates. We have been set free from our sins. That's commandment number three.

It deals with the identity of God. Commandment number four deals with our responsibility in light of that identity. Commandment number four deals with the priority of God. Listen, in my work. The priority of God in my work. Commandment number one: the prominence of God in my world.

Commandment number two, the place of God in my worship. Commandment number three: the preeminence of God in My words and in my ways.

Commandment number four, the priority of God in my work. The fourth commandment is about your work. The fourth commandment is how you work. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Now, notice, this is the first of two commands stated in the positive.

You shall not, you shall not, you shall not, but you shall do this. And the reason you do this, if you don't remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy, number one, you won't worship God only, therefore you'll break the First Commandment.

You won't worship God sincerely, therefore you'll break commandment number two. And then you won't worship God truly, therefore, you break commandment number three.

So God says, remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy, because when you do that, then you will fulfill the first three commandments.

And if you do, it will revolutionize the way you work throughout the week. You want to have a great work week? Understand the first four commandments.

You want to have a bad work week? Break the first four commandments. Because you see, your success at work on Monday is predicated on your worship Sunday. You need to be able to understand those two. They go hand in hand. Now, whenever you talk about the Sabbath day, people say, well, you know, that was under the Old Testament. We don't celebrate the Sabbath anymore. That commandment's not. Reiterated in the New Testament because, after all, you know, they couldn't work, they couldn't do this, they couldn do that, they couldn't go here, they couldn't go there.

And all All of a sudden, we think of the fourth commandment as a negative. But how does God state it? He says it in a positive. So, why is it that which God states in a positive we look at as negative?

We look at it as what we can't do. And God says, I want you to look at it as to what you can do. There's a big difference there, isn't it? We see the glass half empty. God sees it half full. In fact, God sees it entirely full. But you see, we look at it and say, well, I can't do this.

I can't go here. I can't do that. I can't do anything. But that's not what the commandment's talking about. And we need to understand that. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Now, listen, I know that the reason this commandment is not reiterated in the New Testament is because Jesus Christ. Is the fulfillment of all Old Testament prophecy. And because He is, what they were to remember on that day was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, when He was crucified at Calvary. And so the Christian Sabbath then becomes Sunday, not Saturday, because of the resurrection of Christ.

The work of salvation is greater than the work of creation. And therefore, there's what the New Testament calls the Lord's Day. Now, every day is the Lord's Day. I understand that. But Sunday is called specifically the Lord's Day in the New Testament. And there's something about the Lord's Day that is to be different than every other day. There's something about the Lord's Day that determines how you live every other day. Why did God give us the command to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy?

God help us understand that this day Is a gift to you and me. It's a gift. You got to realize that the Bible in the book of Mark, the second chapter, says that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

And Jesus Christ did a lot of work on this. He had lots of people on the Sabbath day because he's Lord of the Sabbath. But we must understand the gift that God gave us. By telling us to use one day to set aside as holy, than all the other day. We are here to celebrate God. Listen, God didn't design the Sabbath so that you wouldn't have to work. He didn't do that. See, just because you don't work. Doesn't mean you keep the Sabbath. That would mean every time you went on vacation, you'd be keeping the Sabbath.

He didn't design the Sabbath for you not to work, He designed the Sabbath for you to be holy. See? You can argue all you want about what you think the commands mean for today and versus the commandments of yesterday. You can argue all you want. But you show me a person who is steadfastly committed to doing what God's word says and setting the Lord's Day aside as a unique day to come and worship their God. And I'll show you somebody who desires to be a holy person. You show me as someone who gives an excuse for not coming to church, and I'll show you someone who doesn't care about being holy.

They don't care about that. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Why? Because this day, this day. Is designed for a particular purpose that you would learn to be as holy as your God is holy when you gather together with the people of God. That's so important. We like to make excuses up as to why we don't go to church. There are no excuses. 52 days a year. That's it. 52 days a year. That's not very much. If you thought that you'd only get paid 52 days a year, you'd think that wasn't very much.

If you thought you could only eat 52 days a year, that wouldn't be very much. Why is it we think 52 days a year in church is too much? We can't do it. God requires too much. Does He? I don't think so. And let me tell you something.

You remembering the Christian Sabbath on Sunday will revolutionize your work on Monday. It will. Because now you're prepared. You've come to worship your God only. Commandment number one.

You've come to worship your God sincerely. You've kept comm number two. And you've come to worship God truly because you don't want to take his name in vain. And so you've kept command number three.

And when you begin to reflect on God's purposes and to recognize God's provision, to celebrate God's person and to grow with God's people. And to offer a sacrifice of praise to your God, guess what? You're ready to go to work. You are. Listen to the words, these are good words. What our Lord God said about the Sabbath day. If because of the Sabbath You turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day Of the Lord Ar, and shall honor it, des from your own ways.

From seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own word, then you will take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth. And I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. That's God's promise to those who understand their responsibility to the identity of their God. Commandment number three and comm number four.

Let 's pray.