Our sermon series on the Ten Commandments will continue this coming Lord’s Day as we consider Exodus 20:7 and the Third Commandment regarding the misuse of the Lord’s sacred name. The Commandment forbids the taking of the Lord’s name “in vain.” But what does that mean, and how is this Commandment violated?

We get a little hint of an answer to these questions when we remember that the first petition of The Lord’s Payer is that the name of our God will be “hallowed,” or kept holy. To misuse the Lord’s name, then, has something to do with profaning, or scandalizing the reputation of the Lord by various means. But the Commandment also implies the positive side, that we will guard the name of the Lord and seek to protect it from such abuses.

As always, we will also seek to make the ‘covenantal connection’ between the ways this Commandment was applied in the Old Testament and its contemporary application to us as New Covenant believers.