Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20130407.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Deuteronomy: Moses' Great Appeal For Israel To Obey God For Blessing
Part IV: The General Call For Loyal Obedience, Deuteronomy 4:44-11:32
A. The Ten Commandments, Deuteronomy 4:44-5:21
3. The Third Commandment: Full Submission To God's Bible Authority
(Deuteronomy 5:11)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    God's name is often used in ways that leave us feeling uneasy:

    (1) Some politicians say, "God bless America!" while backing abortion, gay marriage and countering the death penalty opposite what God directs in Exodus 21:22-23, Leviticus 18:22 and Romans 13:1-4!

    (2) The use of God's name in profanity also troubles us.

    (3) Even religious folk can use God's name in unsettling ways:

    (a) An evangelical once told me that to "speak in tongues," one should repeat the name of Jesus many times over versus Jesus' prohibition of "vain repetitions" in prayer in Matthew 6:7-8!

    (b) The Foothills Trader, March 27, 2013, p. 9, ran a "Prayer to St. Jude" stating: " . . . Saint Jude . . . Oh, come to my aid that I may praise the mercies of God . . ." (emphasis ours) It told the reader to make a request and pray this novena nine times for nine days!

    That left me feeling uneasy, for (1) 1 Timothy 2:5 claims there is only one Mediator between God and man, Christ Jesus, and (2) John 14:13-14 calls us to pray to God, not to a saint, in the name of Jesus. Also, (3) in Luke 16:19-31, Jesus revealed that believers in heaven like Abraham neither help nor intercede to God for other dead or living people, but that such believers in heaven expect those on earth to relate directly to God based on His insight to them in the written Scriptures!

    (4) Last week, I read an article titled, "Rethinking Salvation," in SIMROOTS, vol. 30, No. 1, 2013, p. 7-8 by James Gould, a son of missionaries who attended the same missionary boarding schools I did. He had there written: "I am now a universalist. I accept . . . that everyone will ultimately be saved and no one forever separated from God . . . Hell is real, but not eternal; it is escapable." (emphasis ours)

    I was stunned at this, for Revelation 14:9-11 states: "(9) . . . If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, (10) The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God . . . and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: (11) And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day or night . . ." I thus wondered how a son of missionaries who attended the schools I once did could come to hold in God's name that anyone -- let alone everyone -- in hell will be saved! Thus, we ask, "With the name of God often being used in errant ways, is my uneasiness about it justified? Why?!"

    Need: "I feel uneasy over the errant ways God's name is often used by secular and religious people alike! Is my uneasiness valid? Why?!"

  1. In Moses' general Deuteronomy 4:44-11:32 call for loyal obedience to God in the suzerain treaty format of the book of Deuteronomy, he repeated God's Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy 5:6-21.
  2. The CONTEXTUAL FOCUS where God reminds Israel that He had delivered her from Egyptian oppression (Deuteronomy 5:6), affecting all ten commandments (Bible Know. Com., O. T. , p. 272), reveals WHY Israel should be MOTIVATED to HEED them.
  3. Thus, the THIRD commandment against taking the name of the Lord God in vain (Deuteronomy 5:11) was meant to GUARD Israel from PAGAN RELIGION to keep her from sliding further into APOSTASY and its OPPRESSION (as follows):
    1. Though we usually think that "taking God's name in vain" prohibits profanity, and the third commandment would certainly forbid that sin, in Moses' era, it was instituted to counter the use of God's name "in magic or cursing someone" in casting a hurtful spell on another, Ibid.
    2. Thus, God did not want His name used to manipulate others to man's own ends, but that His name be used in exalting His interests, a fact made evident in the Hebrew text at Deuteronomy 5:11 (as follows):
      1. The Hebrew text repeatedly uses the non-translated word et, sign of the direct object, first before the first occurrence of the word "name" ( et-shem), then before the phrase "him that taketh" (et asher-yisa') and last before the second occurrence of the word "name" (et-shemo = lit. "His name"), Kittel, Bib. Heb., p. 271.
      2. That non-translated word, et also signals that the direct object is a definite noun, B. D. B., A Heb.-Eng. Lex. of the O. T., p. 84.
      3. Such a context makes the repeat use of et emphasize God's authority as we can illustrate from it use in Genesis 1:1: that opening verse of the Bible claims God created [literally] " et the heavens and et the earth" (Ibid., p. 1), that opposite the pagan views that multiple deities account for the origin of the universe, Israel's God CREATED ALL that exists in the WHOLE COSMOS, be it in the HEAVENS OR on the EARTH!
      4. Applying this emphasis with et in the Deuteronomy 5:11 context, we find God claimed He Himself would hold accountable the man who misused His name to that person's own, manipulative ends guilty of sin, namely, the sin of insubordination to Almighty GOD, Sovereign Lord and Creator of heaven and earth!
    3. This directive then offers extensive applications in our world today:
      1. In submission to GOD'S authority, we must not use His name in manipulative profanity or coarse jokes, etc., Leviticus 19:12.
      2. In submission to GOD'S authority, we must not use His name to make manipulative false oaths or promises. For example, in Isaiah 48:1, the people of Israel invoked God's name as citizens of the holy city, Jerusalem, presuming this was enough to please God while they did not truly worship God in their hearts, Edward J. Young, The Book of Isaiah, 1974, v. III, p. 245-246!
      3. In submission to GOD, we must not use His name to make empty repetitions in religious exercises, Matthew 6:7-8. Jesus forbade manipulative vain repetitions in prayer like the pagans practiced, so He would oppose such repetitions in religious exercises today.
      4. In submission to GOD, we must not use His name manipulatively to give others the impression we bear His authority and so tell the truth when we do not intend to uphold the statement, Matthew 5:33-37; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Matthew 5:33.
      5. In submission to GOD, we must not use His name to present ourselves as upright before others when we actually disobey Him, Matthew 7:22-23. Jesus predicted some would call Him, "Lord, Lord" in the last judgment, but that He would reject them since they were workers of iniquity!
      6. In submission to GOD, we must not use His name manipulatively to push man's commands as if they were God's commands, Matt. 15:8-9. Thus, any misrepresentation of God's truth in His Word by man done in God's name violates the third commandment!
Application: May we (1) submit to God's call to trust in Christ as Savior to receive eternal life, Acts 17:30; John 3:16. (2) Then, in reliance on the Holy Spirit's enabling (Galatians 5:16), (3) may we fully submit to God's Biblical authority in all we do for blessing!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 In the sermon introduction, we mentioned an article by James Gould, son of missionaries who attended the same mission schools I did who now holds "everyone will eventually be saved from hell," Ibid.

Upon reexamining the article, I noticed a key reason Gould gave for this theological view was that, in his own words: "Abraham . . . was not made righteous by believing in Jesus, but by trusting that God would give him a child in old age (Rom. 4:3)." The author used this observation to conclude that lost pagans today can be saved by merely "a positive response to God in the heart" without hearing and believing in Christ's Gospel of salvation, Ibid.

However, in our Adult Sunday School Class, we right now happen to be studying "Dispensationalism," and we noted in today's lesson before this worship service that, "(t)he basis of salvation in every age is the death of Christ; the requirement for salvation in every age is faith; the object of faith in every age is God" but "the content of faith changes in the various dispensations," Charles Caldwell Ryrie, Dispensationalism Today, 1970, p. 123. Abraham was saved by the death of Christ when it was still yet to occur (Romans 3:25), and that through faith in God, but by faith in God's promise that he would have a son in his old age since he was in the dispensation of Promise. Yet, in the Church era, all men must be saved by faith in Christ, Acts 4:12; 1 Timothy 2:5. As for pagans today who do not yet know the Gospel, the Holy Spirit is at work to draw them to see their need for Christ (Revelation 22:17), the Holy Spirit is not far from every lost man (Acts 17:27), so that if anyone on earth is open to God's truth, God will get the Gospel of Christ to him in his lifetime so he can believe it to be saved. [I can and have repeatedly illustrated this reality from testimonies from around the world! (I have thirteen of them on file!)]

Thus, failure in this son of missionaries to hold to GOD'S DISPENSATIONAL TRUTH has in part led to his errant view!

Conversely, the fact that we are studying dispensationalism NOW, and that earlier TODAY we focused on salvation in the dispensations indicates the LORD has LED us to do so in part so I can answer this missionary son's article not only for YOUR sake, but for my OWN edification relative to my OWN BACKGROUND!

May we submit to God's Scripture authority for blessing, being careful to use His Name only in honor of His truth and will!