3D Worship Part 7 – Worship is Our Responsibility: The Third Commandment
Deuteronomy 5:11 January 11, 2025
Introduction
From Rembrandt is in the Wind, by Russ Ramsey: A little after midnight on
March 18, 1990, in Boston, as the pub’s were full with folks celebrating St.
Patrick’s Day. Two uniformed officers approached the Isabella Stewart Gardner
Museum and buzzed the telecom to be let in. The guard on duty saw the two
officers and asked them what they were there for. The officers responded that
there had been reports of disorderly conduct in the museum’s courtyard and
needed to check it out.
The guard buzzed them in and once inside, the first officer proceeded to ask the
guard if they had seen anything unusual that night. They asked if there were any
other guards on duty and that they wanted to question them as well. The door
guard called the only other guard on patrol down to be questioned. In the middle
of the questioning before the patrol guard arrived, the second officer exclaimed
that he believed he saw the door guard’s face on a wanted paster and asked him
to come out from behind the desk, where the only silent alarm button was
positioned, to show his ID. The door guard objected, but complied, producing his
ID.
As he came out from behind his desk showing his drivers license, the officer
pulled out a pair of handcuffs and placed him under arrest. As he was being
cuffed, the patrol guard arrived and asked what was going on. The second officer
then pulled out handcuffs and placed the second guard under arrest. When the
guards protested, the two officers began to laugh and finally let down the
charade…the guards weren’t being arrested, they were being robbed. The fake
officers bound and gagged the guards in the museum and then spent the next 81
minutes carefully selecting 13 priceless pieces of art and loading them into a
vehicle waiting outside. Perhaps the most famous painting stolen by the imposter
thieves was Rembrandt’s Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee. This
invaluable work of art depicts Jesus with his disciples in the midst of the raging
storm in Galilee, just before he calms it.
So what does this have to do with the third commandment? We have a job to
protect and uphold and display the glory of our God…sadly, all too often, like
these guards, we do a poor job of protecting His glory.
Our definition: exaltation and prioritization of the object of your highest love in
any given moment
o Devotion + Desire = Delight in the Lord, worship in Truth and Spirit (John
4:23)
Worship is a Response (to who God is and what He has done)
Worship is our nature (to whom to we direct it?)
o Today, Worship is our Responsibility – we are always worshipping
something – it is our responsibility to rightly value God and worship Him
with all we are…and to humbly acknowledge when we fall short that He
would empower us to mature in worshipping Him
Sections: 1) The Truth of our Responsibility, and 2) The Spirit of Our
Responsibility
The Truth of our Responsibility
Deuteronomy 5:11 “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.”
“Take” (Heb. nāśā’) – to carry with, to lift up
o Not only speaking, but any action that is claimed to be done under the
power, direction, or authority of God.
“Vain” (Heb, shav) – empty, worthless, false
o The man who uses God’s name to legitimize his oath or give weight to his
words, and then broke his promise, not only showed his lack of reverence
for God but also a lack of fear of His holy retribution.
o John Piper “The idea is . . . ‘don’t empty the name.’ . . . Don’t empty God
of His weight and glory. [We misuse His name when we] speak of God in a
way that empties Him of His significance.”
Matthew 12:34(b) “…For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”
See also Luke 6:45
o Matthew 12:36 “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account
for every careless word they speak”
Proverbs 4:23-24 “23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the
springs of life. 24 Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far
from you.”
At least 4 Ways we verbally take His name in vain:
1) Swearing an Oath by God (or to God and not keeping it)
o Leviticus 19:12 “You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane
the name of your God: I am the Lord.” See also Deuteronomy 23:21-23
Matthew 5:33-37 “33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those
of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what
you have sworn.’ 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all … 37
Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this
comes from evil.” See also James 5:12
o “I swear to God”
2) Cursing, Blaspheming, or Profaning God
o Leviticus 24:15-16 “15 And speak to the people of Israel, saying, Whoever
curses his God shall bear his sin. 16 Whoever blasphemes the name of the
Lord shall surely be put to death.”
o What is blaspheming the name of God? John MacArthur explains,
“anything that assaults the holiness of God, anything spoken about God
that in any sense assumes that He is evil is to curse God or blaspheme
God. To think of God as evil would be to think of God as unfaithful,
unloving, unwise, lacking compassion, lacking mercy, lacking power;
anything said against the glory of God, any accusation that God is in some
ways flawed…. To accuse God of any form of evil or anything less than the
absolute holy nature which He possesses is to take His name in vain.”
o “God d***”
3) Devaluing God’s name (using it lightly…in an empty way)
o “Jesus Christ” or simply “Jesus” as an expression of frustration or anger
o But also our empty or performative worship falls into this same category
o Matthew 15:8-9 “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far
from me; 9 in vain do they worship me…” quoting Isaiah 29:13
John Macarthur, “any form of worship that comes from an impure
heart, any form of worship that is connected to the kingdom of
darkness, any form of worship that is self-centered, self-indulgent,
frivolous, shallow, hypocritical is taking the Lord’s name in vain. It is
emptying God of His glory. Don’t empty His name of any glory. Don’t
think of Him or speak of Him or sing of Him in any way that empties
glory that belongs to His name…. Worship is very serious. Worship is
actually dangerous. Shouldn’t be confused for man-centered
entertainment. Shouldn’t be confused for some kind of emotional
experience. It certainly shouldn’t be confused with some external,
mechanical ceremony. Anyone who robs God’s glory, “My glory,” He
said, “I will not give to another.” Anyone who diminishes or robs or
empties God of any glory in any expression of worship has taken His
name in vain, is not guiltless, has sinned a serious sin.”
What MacArthur is driving at here is if we find ourselves simply going
through the motions of “church” or seeking an experience with God
that is more about how we feel or what we like, then about giving
praise and honor and exaltation of the One True God, then we are
devaluing God’s name through a superficial worship that is more
about us than it is about Him, and that’s a breach of the third
commandment.
4) Claiming God’s name to validate myself or to give me authority (God told me)
o In the late 1700s, a young teenager William Henry Ireland found a lost
Shakespearean play, Vortigern and Rowena. The discovery was widely
reported and the recovery of the lost Shakespearean work celebrated.
However, that celebration quickly turned to embarrassment and anger.
When the play was revealed to the world through a live performance, it
quickly became apparent to Shakespearean historians that it was a hoax.
Not only was the play terrible, but it didn’t resemble any of Shakespeare’s
other writings. William Henry Ireland eventually confessed to forging
everything in an effort to gain the approval of his father, an avid
Shakespeare enthusiast and engraver.
o “God told me” “The Holy Spirit it telling me to….”
The Spirit of Our Responsibility
Not only do we speak verbally, but we also speak by how we act
o John 20:21 “Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father
has sent me, even so I am sending you.”” See also Matthew 28:18-20
o 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 “18 All this is from God, who through Christ
reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that
is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their
trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of
reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making
his appeal through us….”
o We carry the name of God with us. We are His agents, His sent ones, His
messengers….and how we live either upholds the value, worth and
greatness of who we serve, or it empties Him of His glory.
We are called to bring a message of reconciliation – of peace with
Almighty God through faith in Jesus. Yet who would listen to that
message if our lives are lived emptying the value and greatness of
the God we serve by looking no different from the lost and hopeless
of this world.
Luke 6:46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I
tell you?” see also Matthew 7:21-23
It’s like people thinking you are a police officer when in fact you are a
criminal.
If I claim to be a follower of Jesus and then deliberately act contrary
to my claim…I am taking His name in vain…emptying my witness of
any glory to God, instead, harming His reputation, not enhancing it
o Not only are we his ambassadors we are also His priests to this broken
world, 1 Peter 2:4-5 “4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men
but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living
stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to
offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
As a priest, it is our job to help people come into the presence of God
by living our lives in a holy, righteous, and obedient way that glorifies
the God whom we worship and ultimately points them to Jesus.
Romans 12:1-2 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies
of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and
acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be
conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your
mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is
good and acceptable and perfect.”
Recognize that it is our responsibility to either live a life of sacrificial
transformation by God or to be confirmed to this world’s lies and
temptations
We are either living in humble, sacrificial worship of our God as He
renews our hearts and minds with His truth or we are conforming to
be worshippers of this world system….and when we do that, we
empty the glory of the God whom we claim to serve, we take His
name in vain, and we steal the treasure that God wants to share with
others through us.
The reality is that unless we are continually asking the Lord to show us how we
are stealing His glory, how we are worshipping other things and emptying His
name of the praise that He alone is due, we are going to repeatedly fall into this
trap.
o Humble repentance is key
o Psalm 139:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and
know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and
lead me in the way everlasting!”
o Psalm 51:14-17
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
o What is the secret to glorifying God and not living lives of empty, vain
worship of ourselves or the things of this world? Humility.
Rather than here these words and wallow in our failure, the Lord is
calling us to humbly acknowledge our vanity and submit to His glory
over our own. If the Lord is convicting you, then acknowledge your
failure, and ask Him to help you to glorify His name with how you
speak, act, think, and otherwise live your life.
Praise God that He will work in us as we are willing to surrender or
own glory and truly seek after His. He will teach us how to speak and
how to live so that rather than emptying His name we are building it
up to the heights of glory that He is due.
Conclusion
The combined value of the art that was stolen was over 500 million dollars and
the museum placed a 10 million dollar reward offered for information leading to
the recovery of the stolen works. The most valuable – really invaluable was
Rembrandt’s Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee. The thieves literally cut
the painting out of its frame, rolled it up, and made off with it. I wish I could tell
you that it was recovered, but the thieves got away and none of the paintings
have ever been recovered.
The empty Rembrandt frame still remains in the museum to this day worthless
and without a painting, completely emptied of its priceless Rembrandt, of no
value due to the imposter’s actions. Those who visit the museum see what is
missing and are saddened by what has been lost.
Praise God that people do not have to look at us and have the same reaction to
our counterfeit lives. Instead of lessening God’s glory and reminding people of
the brokenness of this world, our frame, our lives, can put God’s glory on display
as the Lord teaches us and empowers us to walk in greater degrees of humility
as we present our bodies – as we sacrifice our selfish prideful desires – and
humbly worship our King with all of our heart, soul, and strength.
And when we mess up, the good news is that the Lord will meet us in that place
as we humbly acknowledge it, and he will turn our failure into a kingdom triumph
and He moves and works in us to reconcile, restore, and transform our
brokenness into masterpieces that reflect His glory.
That Rembrandt may never be recovered. But the good news is that all who turn
to Jesus in faith are found by Him, made new by Him, and empowered by Him to
speak and live in ways that bring His name glory.
Amen. Amen.