Which of the 10 Commandments is the most powerful? This message explores the importance of not taking the name of the Lord our God in vain.

<p>Which of the 10 Commandments is the most powerful? This message explores the importance of not taking the name of the Lord our God in vain.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Collegedale Korean SDA Church

John Chung

The Most Powerful Commandment


Good morning. This morning I want to talk about the most powerful commandment. We have 10 commandments. Which 1 is the most powerful? Now all the commandments are important and also powerful.

But I want to focus on 1 particular commandment. If you turn to Exodus chapter 20, Verse 7, this is the third commandment. It says, you should 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. It's kind of, as I was studying the Bible, I realized this commandment may be the most powerful commandment.

I'd like to study this commandment a little deeper and look at it from a slightly different angle. You know, when the Bible uses the word vain, what does that mean? What is vain in the Bible? Useless vain. V-A-I-N.

Okay, if you look at 1 Corinthians 15 verse 14, it says, if Christ be not risen, then our preaching vain, And your faith is also vain. So, if Christ did not rise, then our preaching would be useless. And our faith also would be useless, right? If you look at Ecclesiastes chapter 1, 1 to 4, it says, The word of the preacher, the son of David, king of Jerusalem, says, Vanity of vanity, says the preacher, Vanity of vanity, all is vanity. What prophet has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun?

1 generation passes away, and another generation comes. But the earth abides forever. So Solomon is saying here, everything is useless what is done under the sun on this earth. So, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord God's name in vain. That means don't take his name uselessly, right?

Don't take it in vain. Now, you know, sometimes we go, you know, this commandment, it is important that God's name is holy, very, very holy. And you know how a lot of people use his name most commonly used as a in a context of a cursing but his name is very, very holy. But we're going to talk about a little different aspect of his name. Now let's say you've been studying chemistry for days and nights, neglecting all other subjects because, you know, this chemistry test is the most important test.

So you even stay up all night studying chemistry, you're absolutely ready for the most important chemistry exam. When you go take the exam, you realize that it's actually a biology exam. You sit up all night studying and you go and it's a biology exam and you fail the biology exam because why? Because you've studied the wrong subject uselessly or in vain. Okay.

Now, Israelites had a big problem, literally a big problem. It's a well known story of David and Goliath that's found in 1 Samuel chapter 17. In Spiritual Gifts, Volume 4a, page 79, it says, The Philistines proposed their own manner of warfare in selecting a man of great size and strength, whose height is about 12 feet. And they sent this champion Goliath for to provoke a combat with Israel, requesting them to send out a man to fight with him. He was terrible in appearance and spoke proudly and defied the armies of Israel and their God.

The lions challenged the Israelites for Goliath challenged the Israelites for 40 days, 40 days. What happened? You know, what was the response of Saul, the king of Israel and the entire army of Israel. What did they do? First Samuel 17 24.

And all the men of Israel. How many? All. Not even 1 person stayed. All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, that's Goliath, fled from him.

They ran away and were dreadfully, what, afraid. I'm sure that most, if not all of us, would have responded the same way. He's a person who's tall and asking somebody to come and fight him. This is normal human response, isn't it? Fleeing because you're afraid.

It? Fleeing because you're afraid. Then David appears. He's a young kid, maybe 17 years old, he's a young kid. And he hears this, the response, I mean this challenge from Goliath.

What was David's response? He fled because he was afraid. No, the last part of verse 26, it says, this is what David says, Who, for who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he shall defy the armies of the living God. That's the first thing that he says. Who is this who defies the living God?

David is not afraid. He doesn't run away. But what does he do? He takes immediate action. If you turn to verses 40 to 45, it says this, Then David took his staff in his hand, and he chose for himself 5 smooth stones from the brook, and put them in a shepherd's bag, in a pouch which he had, and his sling was in his hand.

He drew near to Goliath. So Goliath came and began drawing near to David, and the man who bore the shield went before him. And when Goliath looked about and saw David, he disdained him, for he was only a youth, ruddy and good looking. So Goliath said to David, Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks? And Goliath cursed David by his gods.

And Goliath said to David, Come to me and I will give you give your flesh to the birds of the air, beasts of the field. And David said to Goliath, You come to me with a sword, a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of armies of Israel, whom you have defied. Now, look at carefully what the verse 35, David doesn't say, well, you come to me with a sword and a spear and a javelin, but I'll come to you with stones and a swing. Did he say that?

What does it say? I come to you, what? In the name of the Lord. So, He, His dependence, His dependence, He did not depend on His instruments, but the power and the name of the Lord. Now if you were to have lined up Saul and all the Israelite army and David all together.

And you ask this question, do you believe in this passage found in Philippians 4, 13, in New King James Version. Do you believe this? There's Saul, all the Israelite army, and David. He asked him, do you believe in this passage? Philippians 4, 13.

We all know this this is a very well-known verse I can do all things how many things all things through Christ who strengthens me. I'm sure they all would have said, of course, yes, we're Christians after all. We follow Christ. You would say the same thing, right? But David was the only 1 who truly believed Because he was the only 1 who actually acted Others fled because they were so afraid.

Belief is always accompanied by action. If you look at James 2, 26, it says, faith without works is what? Is dead. And also second Timothy 3.5, having a form of godliness. So that is, you come to church and you, you know, in front of other people, you try to do the right thing.

Having a form of godliness, but denying its what? Its power. And from such people turn away. Now, David did not have monopoly in the power of God. Did you hear that?

David did not have monopoly in the power of God. David was not the only 1 whose prayer and request that God would answer. God would have answered the prayer of Saul and the men of Israel, Israelite army. Not so it wasn't David was not unique. God would have answered any prayer, not just David.

So he did not have monopoly in God's power. Saul and Israel's army, all, all, every 1 of them had access to the same God. For them, the mighty, true God of Israel was in the name only. They took the name of the Lord in vain. That is, they took it uselessly.

They did not use his power, God's power. They saw no power in God. That's what the reason why they were afraid and ran is because they come what they did was they compared the giant to themselves and they said there's no way I can do this. That's why they were afraid and ran away, right? But when David saw Goliath, what did he do?

He compared Goliath to the power of God. To the power of God. David says, I have no power but my God have no problem with you, Goliath. You know, in the Steps of Christ, page 94, it says this, Our Heavenly Father waits to bestow upon us the fullness of His blessing. It is our privilege to drink largely at the fountain of boundless love.

What a wonder it is that we pray so little. God is ready. Who is ready? God is ready and willing to hear the sincere prayer of the humblest of His children. Yet there is much manifest reluctance on our part to make known our wants to God.

What can the angels in heaven think of poor helpless human beings who are subject to this temptation when God's heart of infinite love yearns toward them, ready to give them more than they can ask or think. And yet they pray so little and have so little faith. You know I'm a dermatologist that is skin doctor. I had a 70 year old patient come to my office and he says Dr. Chung I have been to over 40 dermatologists.

You're my last resort. I heard that you may be able to solve my problem He had this intense itching Without rash no rash just itching for 20 years 20 years He went to every single doctor you could think of he says. And he drove a couple of hours to come to see me and this is the first thing he says you're my last resort oh boy so I am so I started asking him all these questions did they do this test this test this test this test this test this test this test he says yes yes what are the results all normal did he give you this medicine this medicine this medicine this medicine yes did it work nope not 1 0 boy okay So here I'm thinking what okay I don't know what to do except I have my own workup for people who have itching without a rash. So I said let's just do some you know x-rays and do some blood work and I'm going to have you come back in 2 weeks. So he came back 2 weeks later.

When he came, he was sitting there and I looked at all the results and everything was absolutely normal. And everything was absolutely normal. Everything normal. And you know, I told him, Sir, I have absolutely no idea why you're itching. And I have no medications for you because you tried every single medication that I was thinking about, you said nothing worked.

So why should I give him this, right? And then as I was talking, first time when he came, he came by himself. This time when he came, he brought a young lady. She probably was about 50 years old and I thought this was his daughter to find out that this she he's he's a retired PE teacher he and she was a star athlete And she went to a prominent university and they kept in touch. And because it was summertime, she came and visited her old coach and she you know knew about his problems and She was really hoping that I would be able to solve this problem.

Now she was a PhD and at a very prominent University and he just she just came in to just give him support and as I was talking to him and give him this bad news I said you know I really don't know what to do. I don't know why you're itching. And so, but there's 1 thing that I can do. I can pray for you. And he says, well Dr.

Chang, if that will make you feel better, you can pray for me. I said, yeah, it'll, it will make me feel better. So do you mind if I pray? As soon as I said that, and I also, I looked at her and I said, do you mind if I pray? She got up, her face turned red, and she started yelling at me.

She said, you get a vulnerable person like this and you are pushing your religion on him. I'm going to report you to the state board so you'll never be able to practice medicine again. I mean she kept just coming on I mean like red and just angry and yelling. And this man, he says, Dr. Chang, just help him pray.

Just help him pray. Because he felt very embarrassed, embarrassed by her, her action. And so I prayed a very short prayer, probably the shortest prayer ever, even shorter than Jesus wept. Anyway, so I prayed something. I had no idea what I, I don't even know what I prayed.

She took my card and you know it has my license number and everything and I didn't give him a return appointment because there's nothing I can do. So he went, they both went. My heart was pounding, you know. Every time you complain to the state board, they have to investigate it, you know. And just, there's so much time, just you waste so much time, you have to go in front of state board and all these things anyway I'm just thinking about all these things Anyway, so I have to keep seeing patients.

I saw other patients and 2 weeks later So 1 of the front desk person says, Dr. Chang, there is a patient here who wants to see you. And he told me who it was, I goes, oh, what's that man? He drove all the way here, 2 hours to Complain about what is he gonna say this time, you know? Hey, well, I don't want him to you know get upset and all that So I want him to I thought I don't want you to put him in a room.

I want you to take him to the very back. So he and I went to the back and I said, may I help you? And He goes, Dr. Chang, I came here because I need you to pray for me again. I said, okay.

He said, for the last 2 weeks, That's the first time in 20 years I have not itched 1 time. And then he says, I feel like I might be starting to itch. That's why I drove over here. Because he wasn't itching, but he thinks he might be starting to itch. So I prayed for him again for 6 months, every month.

For 6 months, for every month, 1 time a month, he came just for prayer. Never itched 1 time. After 20 years. And you know, and the best news for me was she never reported me to the state board. What are they gonna say?

Well, he had itching for 20 years and Dr. Chung prayed and he got better. He needs, you need to take away his license. What are they gonna do? She never, I think, she never reported me.

Anyway, you know the sad thing about this? You know, what do we do as humans? For me, I did all the history, I did all the blood work. I got blood work, I did x-rays, and I ordered all those things. And then only after when I could not figure out what he had, that's when I offered him prayer.

That's how we do. A lot of times we try everything for ourselves, then we make God the last resort. Oh, we tried everything. You know, last resort, we should just pray, you know. But that was not David's attitude.

God should be our first resort, Not the last resort. Because you know what, if you make His, Him the first resort, you don't have to go through all these things. You don't have to get yelled at. You don't have to get the other said. We have to make him our first resort.

You know we all have this external giants in our life. We have Goliaths in our life right? Could be your physical problems, could be financial, could be our grades, relationships. Do you believe Philippians Do you believe Philippians 4.13? I can do all things through Christ who strengthens Now if you turn to Acts 16, 16 to 18.

Acts 16, 16 to 18. It says, Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with the Spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and us and cried out, saying, These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaimed to us the way of salvation. And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the Spirit, I command you in what?

In the name of Jesus Christ, name of the Lord, to come out of her. And he came out that very hour. So, what did Paul use to cast out the demon? The name of the Lord. Now, we struggle with our internal demons and internal problems.

They're like addictions, depression, anger, guilt, you know different internal demons that we have right? But we can overcome all these things, all these things, all these internal issues through the power and the name of the Lord. But we use all these medications first and then we do. And you know what, nothing works, we go, well I think we should have some type of anointment service, anointing, you know. We use everything else and God is the last resort.

Now the third and the most important is our salvation. John 20 verse 31. But it says, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. We have life, eternal life, through the name of the Lord. So, the name of the Lord can solve our external problems, Goliaths in our life.

Name of the Lord can solve our internal problem, demons in our lives. And the name of the Lord can solve our external, internal, and eternal problems. You know, God is the most powerful being in the universe We must not waste this most powerful name But we do it all the time we break the third commandment Because What does the third commandment say Thou shall not take the name of the Lord in vain But as Christians will break it all the time. Because the name of the Lord, remember it, gives us, we can solve all of our problems in terms of external, internal, and eternal. So Let's not take the name of the Lord, our God, in vain.

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The Most Powerful Commandment

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