HONORING GOD’S NAME
(I Tim. 6:1)
Overview of I Tim. 4:1-6:1
4:1-2 How False Teaching Enters the Church
4:3-5 Common Grace
4:6 Word of God in Life of the Believer
4:7a Godliness – Divine / Human Role
4:7b Train Yourself to be Godly
4:7c Spiritual Disciplines (The Word of God)
4:7d Spiritual Disciplines (Devotions, Worship)
4.7e Spiritual Disciplines (Church Attendance, Journaling, Practicing Presence of God)
4:8-9 Why Godliness Has Great Value
4:10 Putting Our Hope in the Living God
4:12 Setting an Example for Believers
4:13 What a Christian Worship Service Looked Like in the First Century
4:14 Neglecting the Spiritual Gift God has Given Us
4:15-16 Getting Home Before Dark
5:1-2 So, How Should We Describe the Church?
5:3-16 God’s Tilt Towards the Disenfranchised
5:3-16 Sorting Out those Worthy of Relief – A Biblical Approach to Social Welfare
5:3-16 The Biblical Rationale for Providing for Relatives
5:5-16 The Tale of Two Widows – A Biblical Approach to Pleasure
5:9-10 The Good Works of a New Testament Woman
5:11-14 The Younger Widows – Breaking Celibacy Vows
5:11-14 The Younger Widows – Gossiping False Teaching
5:15 Satan’s Effort to Keep Jesus from Fulfilling His Mission
5:17-18 Honoring the Work of Elders
5:19-20 How NT Church Discipline Illustrates Cultural Formation
5:21 Partiality – A Christian Problem?
5:22-24 Selecting Church Leadership
5:23 The Christian’s Use and Abuse of Alcoholic Beverages
6:1 Honoring God’s Name
HONORING GOD’S NAME
(I Tim. 6:1)
1All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God’s name and our teaching may not be slandered. 2Those who have believing masters are not to show less respect for them because they are brothers. Instead, they are to serve them even better, because those who benefit from their service are believers, and dear to them. These are the things you are to teach and urge on them.
INTRODUCTION:
1. Four Lessons from I Tim. 6:1-2
a. Honoring/Slandering the Name of God
b. What in Christianity Undermined Slavery
c. Treatment of Slaves / Masters
d. History of Slavery
I THE HONOR OF GOD’S NAME TRUMPS THE DISMANTLING OF SLAVERY
ACTIVITY: Study the list of names. Choose one that automatically brings associations to your mind.
April, Barbara, Dana, Evelyn, Marilyn, Jill, Karen, Peggy, Susan, Joan, Elizabeth, Rebecca, Martha, Dorothy, Yvonne, Judy, Jack, Jim, John, Paul, Andrew, Anthony, David, Dick, Carl, Frank, Harry, Larry, Norman, Peter, Robert, Sam, Tom, Victor
QUESTION: What name that you thought of immediately brought to your mind something of the person’s character?
Names always include associations. The name takes us to a person and to something about them, generally their character.
There is no question that slavery is a “monster abomination” and one of the worse social evils that has befallen the human race.
But slavery is a blip on the screen in comparison to mankind’s responsibility to honor God’s name. We get things out of proportion because we have such a shallow understanding of the greatness of God
Great God, how infinite art thou,
What worthless worms are we!
Let the whole race of creatures bow
And pay their praise to Thee
Thy throne eternal ages stood
Ere seas or stars were made
Thou art the ever living God,
Were all the nations dead.
Our lives through various scenes are drawn,
And vexed with trifling cares;
While Thine eternal thought moves on
Thine undisturbed affairs.
IL: Larry King show (John MacArthur, a Catholic Priest, Depak, the Indian Guru and some woman). MacArthur, short talk about original sin then Larry said, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” He asked, “Isn’t a person who does that a pretty good person?” He is good among men but totally evil before God. There is none good, no not one.
God gave us His name / names that He wants us to use:
God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers-the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob-has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation (Ex. 3:15).
Because this name comes from the Hebrew verb which means “to be.” YHVH emphasizes God’s absolute being. He is the source of all being, all reality, and all existence. He has being inherent in Himself. Everything else derives its being from Him. YHVH denotes God’s complete transcendence in time. He is beyond His creation. He is without beginning and without end because He always is. (The Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven, website.)
II. MISUSING GOD’S NAME
The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge defines BLASPHEME as: (1) to speak reproachfully, rail at, revile, blaspheme, (2) to be evil spoken of. PROFANE means to defile, desecrate, pollute. The Message: To blacken the name of God.
QUESTION: How do Americans and Christians misuse the name of God?
God Damn it!, God Almighty, Oh God, Gaw, Golly, by golly, Gosh, God, or flippantly: The Man Upstairs, God Damn: gol, gosh darn, gol, gosh dang, goodness gracious, dagnabbed; By gum, Egads
“You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name” (Exodus 20:7).
11 The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name with a curse; so they brought him to Moses. … 12 They put him in custody until the will of the LORD should be made clear to them. 13 Then the LORD said to Moses: 14 “Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him. 15 Say to the Israelites: ‘If anyone curses his God, he will be held responsible; 16 anyone who blasphemes the name of the LORD must be put to death. The entire assembly must stone him. Whether an alien or native-born, when he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death (Lev. 24:11-16).
EMPHASIZE: If God is a god of justice, then others who have so misused His name will be judged in the future.
He opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven (Rev. 13:6).
III. HALLOWING GOD’S NAME
ACTIVITY:
Our Father in heaven, HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME, 10your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11Give us today our daily bread. 12Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
EMPHASIZE: “Hallowed be your name” is a prayer request! What does “hallowed” mean? When we “hallow” His name, we treat His name as HOLY.
This is four Hebrew letters (Yod, He, Waw and He) called the “Tetragrammaton”. The four characters are the four Hebrew letters that correspond to YHWH and are transliterated IAUE or Yahweh. Yahweh is the name of the Almighty Father in Heaven that people commonly call “The LORD” or “God”. The reason we see “LORD” and “God” in our bibles is because of a Jewish tradition that the name Yahweh was not be spoken for fear that the name be blasphemed.
ILL: Before a Jewish scribe would write the name YHWH he would stand up, do a ceremonial washing of his hands, an ablution, pray a certain prayer and then sit down and transcribe these four letters.
So, how do we hallow God’s name?
Then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears your Name (I Chronicles 8:43).
If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name-the LORD your God (Deut. 28:58).
Stand up and praise the LORD your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise (Neh. 9:5).
“Bless” means to wish well, to desire what is best for, brings joy and happiness to; expressing good wishes, to exalt and to praise.
Cry out, “Save us, O God our Savior; gather us and deliver us from the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name, that we may glory in your praise” (I Chronicles 16:35).
Sing to God, sing praise to his name, extol him who rides on the clouds his name is the LORD – and rejoice before him (Psalm 68:4).
I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever (Ps. 86:12).
We can “hallow God’s name” verbally!!
SING AS A GROUP: Blessed be the Name of the Lord.
All praise to Him Who reigns above
In majesty supreme,
Who gave His Son for man to die,
That He might man redeem!
Blessèd be the Name! Blessèd be the Name!
Blessèd be the Name of the Lord!
Blessèd be the Name! Blessèd be the Name!
Blessèd be the Name of the Lord!
His Name above all names shall stand,
Exalted more and more,
At God the Father’s own right hand,
Where angel hosts adore.
Redeemer, Savior, Friend of man
Once ruined by the fall,
Thou hast devised salvation’s plan,
For Thou hast died for all.
His Name shall be the Counselor,
The mighty Prince of Peace,
Of all earth’s kingdoms Conqueror,
Whose reign shall never cease.
IV. “HALLOWING” GOD’S NAME INVOLVES MORE THAN WORDS
EMPHASIZE: Here is the problem – people can use words everyday to honor God’s name and yet cause that name to be blasphemed.
AS IT IS WRITTEN: “GOD’S NAME IS BLASPHEMED AMONG THE GENTILES BECAUSE OF YOU” (ROMANS 2:24).
QUESTION: What did the Jewish people do to cause the name of God to be blasphemed because of them?
EMPHASIZE / ASK : Has God’s name every been blasphemed because of me, my character, my actions?
Some ideas taken from John Piper’s book, Desiring God:
Besides “verbally” in what other ways must we “hallow” God’s name?
1. Believe Him, believe His Word.
“Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.” So Moses took the staff from the LORD’s presence, just as he commanded him. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank. But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them” (Numbers 20:8-12).
The Apostle John wrote, “He who does not believe God has made him a liar” (I John 5:10). When you make somebody a liar you profane that person’s name.
When we fail to “believe” God, we do not hallow His name; When we do believe Him, we hallow His name!.
2. Fear displeasing God more than displeasing men.
“Do not call conspiracy everything that these people call conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it. The LORD Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread … (Isaiah 8:12-13).
“It means that when God commands you to take your stand for him in a hostile situation, you fear displeasing God more than you fear the hostility of men” (John Piper).
When we pray, “Hallowed be Thy name,” we mean, “Father, cause people to have such a high view of you that it is a much more dreadful thing to lose your approval than to lose anything the world can offer” (John Piper).
3. Keep his commandments
“Keep my commands and follow them. I am the LORD. Do not profane my holy name. I must be acknowledged as holy by the Israelites. I am the LORD, who makes you holy (Lev. 22:31-32).
When we pray, “Hallowed by your name,” we mean, “Father, cause your commandments to be obeyed.”
SO WHAT???
1. Honoring the name of God is the greatest activity we can ever participate in and His name trumps in importance all the social ills of the world, including slavery.
2. Because God is a “God of Justice” those who misuse His name are sure to be judged and punished.
3. We honor God’s name when we know, revere, bless, thank, praise and glorify that name.
4. If we fail to believe and fear God and fail to keep His commandments, we cause people to blaspheme His holy name.
5. We must live in awe of His name for the name identifies Him, the supreme ruler of the universe, of life, of everything.