Grace Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Sunday,
November 26, 2017
Exo 20:7 "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.
Before man can ever get his relationship with others to be a blessing and prosperous, he must first have a good relationship with God.
When 1JO 4:19 says We love (Him), because He first loved us. --- it does not really say it like that, it says "we love" --there is no noun for Him in the original language.
It really says "we love God" and when we do, He reveals to us "why" and "how" we should love ourselves with the result that we also willingly and automatically love our neighbors or others.
“in vain” = lashaaw which means “in a worthless or wicked way,” or “for an evil purpose,” and also includes false testimony in the name of God in a court of law or in any phase of life.
Exo 20:7 "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in a worthless or wicked way."
Exo 20:7 "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God for an evil purpose."
Exo 20:7 "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God by swearing in court of law in a worthless way."
This commandment does not have anything to do with swearing but covers far more than profanity.
It also refers to claiming God as your witness so that what you is true, when, in fact, it is not.
What you said or are saying cannot be trusted because you said it, and as the late J.Vernon McGee said --- your actions speak so loud that I don't hear a word that you say!
You will be shocked how many so-called Christians have made vows in vain.
"Pastor, the Lord has sent me here to help you in an area of your ministry that I think needs help."
I desire all of you to never take the name of the Lord Thy God in vain but to do so you need to focus in on one major principle which is "be who you are," "be who God made you to be" --- live as an ambassador for Christ" and not in vain.
The Doctrine of Ambassadorship.
Point 1. Definition and description. An ambassador is a high ranking minister of state or of royalty sent to another state to represent his sovereign or country that he has come from.
Point 2. The Profile of the Ambassador.
- An ambassador does not appoint himself. We are appointed by God Himself at the moment we believe in Jesus Christ. God also gives use the power and ability to handle the job.
- The ambassador does not support himself. The Church-age believer, as an ambassador for Christ, is provided for by logistical grace.
- The ambassador's instructions are always in written form, so he has no doubt as to what he should do. We have the policies, problem solving devices, instructions, principles, doctrines, and concepts in written form in the scripture.
- The ambassador does not belong to the country to which he is sent.
Our citizenship and home is in heaven.
We are also citizens of a client nation to God. - The ambassador does not live in the foreign country for his own personal interest. We live here on earth solely to serve in the interest of our Lord.
- The ambassador does not treat any insult to himself as personal or most important. This is the royal ambassador's function in both spiritual self-esteem and impersonal love for all mankind.
- When an ambassador is recalled, his recall is tantamount to a declaration of war. This is analogous to the Rapture of the church. The Tribulation is analogous to the period of war.
Point 3. The Royal Ambassadorship is Specialized and Intensified in the gift of pastor‑teacher.
All communication gifts (evangelists, apostles, pastor‑teachers) become critical and specialized functions of the royal ambassadorship because they communicate spiritual truth.
Point 4. The Royal Ambassadorship is Directly Related to the Evangelism of the believer, 2Co 5:20.
We are not to witness only through our lifestyle - but more importantly through our words.
"I don't say I'm a believer, I live like I am one" = stop being a coward!
An atheist can be moral.
A Muslim can quit certain sins.
A Buddhist can refrain from immorality.
For many it means, "I don't have enough courage to live like I should".....
Eph 6:19 to pray on his behalf, that utterance [expression, articulation, verbalization] may be given to him in the opening of his mouth, to make known with boldness [confidence] the mystery doctrines of the gospel,
Point 5. The Royal Ambassadorship mandates the function of spiritual self‑esteem and impersonal love, Philemon 9.
Phile:9 "Yet for love's sake, I rather appeal to you, since I am such a person as Paul, the ambassador, and now a prisoner of Jesus Christ."
When your momentum takes you to personal love for God, you now have spiritual self-esteem. And with this spiritual self-esteem comes impersonal love for all mankind.
While personal love for God is the function of our royal priesthood, spiritual self-esteem and impersonal love for man are the function of our Royal ambassadorship.
Every believer, therefore, makes a pulpit out of his circumstances in every area of life.
Your ambassadorship is basically made up of two factors: How you live, and what you say as a result of what you think.
In private, you function under your priesthood;
In public, you function under your ambassadorship.
Point 6. The Royal Ambassadorship is also related to the Angelic Conflict.
Angels observe and rejoice when ambassadors lead others to Christ, Luk 15:3‑10.
Fallen angels are organized to resist and oppose your ambassadorship and your growth in grace, Job 1:6, 2:1‑3; Eph 6:12.
1Co 4:9 For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death; because we have become a spectacle or a theatron] to the world, both to angels and to men.
Isagogic translation = 1Co 4:9 "For I think God has exhibited us apostles last of all as men condemned to death [last ones into the coliseum], for we have become an amphitheater to the world, both to angels and to men."
Eph 3:10 "In order that the manifold wisdom of God might be made known through the church to rulers and authorities in the heavenlies [angels]."
1TI 5:21 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of His chosen angels, to maintain these principles without bias, doing nothing in a spirit of partiality.