Truth For Life

Guest (Male): We live in a world that carelessly tosses the Lord's name around. It's used as a common expression of surprise or exclamation or even as profanity. Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg considers the closing phrase in Jesus' high priestly prayer: "I made known to them your name" and will find out why we should be treating God's name with holy reverence.

Alistair Begg: And I invite you to turn—and no surprise—to the 17th chapter of the Gospel of John, which has now become quite a lengthy experience, but I trust a profitable one. John 17, the heading is "The High Priestly Prayer of Christ," and we read from the first verse.

"When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, 'Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that the son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them.

I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the scripture might be fulfilled.

But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Oh righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.'" Amen.

Now, this 26th verse, let me read it again. Jesus says, "I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them." Now, as I've pondered this verse, and I have done for some time, I've decided that it is important that we pause, at least for a moment, and deal with the whole matter of the name to which Jesus refers. You'll notice, even in our hymnody already this morning, there's been much about the name of God, the name of the Lord Jesus, and so on. And since it is absolutely foundational to the verse, I want to take a little time to unpack that to help us make sure that we don't go wrong as we come to the second half of the verse.

On the eighth of January, 1697, at two o'clock in the afternoon on the gallows in between Leith and Edinburgh, Scotland, a young theology student by the name of Thomas Aikenhead was hanged. What was his crime? Blasphemy. Blasphemy. The Scottish equivalent of the Attorney General, James Stewart, the Lord Advocate, addressed the accused in this way: "It is a verity that you, Thomas Aikenhead, shaking off all fear of God and regard to his majestic laws, have now for more than a twelvemonth made it, as it were, your endeavor and work to vent your wicked blasphemies against God and our Savior Jesus Christ."

Whatever you want to say about the blasphemy laws of 17th-century Scotland, it is very clear that at that point in history, Scotland as a nation was paying very close attention to the Third Commandment, which reads: "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." And when we begin to read our Bibles, we are immediately made aware of the fact that God jealously guards his name and that he in turn expects those who are his friends to do the same.

Now, our Asian and our African friends are much more familiar with this concept than those of us who have grown up in the West. It's familiar territory for us to attend a conference and to immediately be given a name tag. But the name tag is not in order that it might display our character or declare really anything about us; it's simply there in order to distinguish Bill from Tom or Mary from Jane. But that is not true in other parts of the world, and it certainly wasn't true in antiquity.

Derek Prime, I remember on one occasion, told the story of an American who was living among the Maasai tribe in Tanzania. And this particular man—I'm sorry, it just happens to be an American, there's nothing in that; it was an American and I'm an American, so we're fine—but this American was among the Maasai tribe in Tanzania. And the man, he bandied names around with terrific ease. He would talk about somebody and say their name. Prime writes he had to learn that the Maasai regarded this as very rude because, in public and with strangers, they did not use personal names.

They chose instead to use titles or designations. One day, a Maasai man said to him, "Do not throw my name about. My name is important. My name is me. My name is for my friends." When someone is dear to us, we don't like to think of anybody making fun of their name. It is offensive when people gossip and misuse the name of those who are precious to us. Surely then, it is inconceivable that we would demand from a friend what we would deny to God himself.

I begin in that way very, very purposefully. You see, that is why we sing the Lord's Prayer. The first petition takes us exactly there: "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." Now, why is this so important? Because God's name is more than just a title. God's name declares his character. God's name proclaims who God is and what God's done. In fact, realistically, the name of God actually stands for God himself. We live in a culture where the name of God is routinely profaned, profaned by all ages—listen to children—profaned in all places.

But we are not to regard this as new because when you read your Bible, you discover that God's concern for his name extends all the way from the creation of the world. For example, here's the 74th Psalm: "Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs and a foolish people revile your name." It's one of the distinguishing features of what it means to know God, to love God, to serve God. What's in a name? The name actually matters. That's why it's quite wonderful when we have the privilege of taking the Psalms and making them our own in praise and in prayer.

We find ourselves as those who love God saying, "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth." With the Psalmist: "Those who love your name exult in you." With the Psalmist, as read this morning and carved in granite at the entryway to our building: "You have exalted above all things your name and your word." Now, those of you who have been reading in Exodus with M'Cheyne will have had occasion again in Exodus chapter 3 to be struck forcibly by the amazing encounter at the burning bush between Moses and God. Because it is there, by means of his name, that God declares himself to be self-existent, to be self-determining, and to be sovereign.

Self-existent, self-determining, and sovereign. Wow. Thomas Manton from an earlier century remarks: "He were not God if he were not incomprehensible. We cannot subject faith to our reason. Faith is the ongoing discovery of the wonders of these things." Moses encounters this, and there it is before him. "And who will I say? Who will I say?" He says, "Well, you just tell him that I AM has sent you. I AM has sent you." In other words, just tell him who I am.

The prophets do the same thing. I don't want to belabor it unduly, but I want to remind you of this. Jeremiah, in chapter 10, distinguishes between the gods of the nations, small 'g'. You remember Paul says there are many gods or so-called gods, but there is only one true and living God. And the prophet is doing the same thing. He says the gods of the nations are actually figures of fun; they're worthless. Jeremiah 10 and verse 5: "Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak. They have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil; neither is it in them to do any good."

But listen to how he addresses the living God: "There is none like you, O Lord. You are great, and your name is great in might. Who would not fear you, O King of the nations? For this is your due. For among all the wise ones of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is none like you." Now, we have to lay this down as absolutely foundational. Jesus is praying to the Father. "O Holy Father," he says, "O righteous Father, the world doesn't know you, but I know you, and these that you have given me know that you sent me. I made known to them your name."

Now, you get an inkling now what Jesus is saying. He's not giving a title to God; he's making it clear who and what God is. Now, the Bible makes it clear, and the Psalmist helped us with this, tells us that the whole of creation declares the mighty power of God's name. Psalm 19: "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where his voice is not heard." The voice of God penetrates any barriers. Unspoken truth is declared daily in the universe that God himself has made.

Not only in creation but also in Scripture, the name of God is made clear. Calvin says: "Neither the sun nor the moon, albeit they give clarity to the world, reveal the majesty of God as much as the law, the prophets, and the gospels." Perhaps you will remember when we studied in Romans chapter 1, we realized that God has made enough of himself available so that all of us are accountable before him. Because the secret things about him that he has chosen to reveal are ostensible; they are actually visible.

And when we studied it then, and when you think about it now, you find yourself saying—at least I do—well, why is it then that people do not actually acknowledge God as he is? And of course, the Bible answers that question for us. When Paul is writing to the Corinthians and explaining the wonder of salvation, he says, "You should know, however, that the natural man—that is, man as he is by his nature as a fallen creature—the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit because they are folly to him. He is not able to understand because these truths are spiritually discerned."

In other words, as we often say to one another, it is only God who opens blind eyes. It is only God who softens hard hearts. Otherwise, people can sit and listen to this kind of material, and they might as well just go "la la la la la la la" because it is just an absolute stupidity to them. Now, yesterday, as I read the Daily Telegraph, I came across a very interesting interview with Robert Harris. Robert Harris, some of you will know because you will have read his trilogy on Cicero; others of you because of his book *Fatherland* or whatever. He's a British novelist. He's English. He's clever.

He was brought up in an irreligious home. He went to normal school. He finally studied at Cambridge. But he said, in researching *Conclave*, "I must have read the gospels before in parts, but never in sequence." Then he says this: "The revolutionary nature of the gospels startled me more than Marx, more than Lenin." The person says, "So then are you a person of faith?" "No," he says, "I am not a person of faith." Then he says, "I wish that I were. It must be a marvelous thing to go through life believing that there is something else."

Towards the end of the interview, he references a letter written by Evelyn Waugh, the Catholic novelist, to 1984 fellow George Orwell. Evelyn Waugh writes to George Orwell because George Orwell had sent him a copy of his new book, *1984*. And Harris says, "When Waugh wrote back to Orwell, he said that his book was deficient because it didn't contain any mention of the Church of Jesus Christ," which, of course, is a fascinating insight. And Harris then says, "You know, and I get something of that, because there is a profound human desire for the irrational or for the superstitious in all of us," he says.

"And in a funny sort of way, we are more prone to this now because of what is going on around us—the things that are not explicable at any other time." Now, you see what's happening here. The stirring in the mind of this intelligent man is enough to trigger in him a sense: "I should probably pay a little more attention to these gospels." And then somehow in his heart, he says, "But why would I get involved in that superstitious thing, irrational things? After all, I graduated from Cambridge; I'm a child of the Enlightenment with so many others." Why does he respond in that way? Well, it takes us back to Jeremiah again. "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, or the strong man boast in his strength, or the rich man boast in his riches. But let the one that boasts boast in this: that he knows me, the living God."

Guest (Male): You're listening to Truth for Life with Alistair Begg. We'll hear more about the significance of God's name tomorrow. Today at Truth for Life, Alistair is hosting a small group event with pastors. They are studying through the Old Testament book of Nehemiah to learn how to do God's work God's way. And we want to ask you to keep both Alistair and those attending this event in your prayers. I know they will appreciate you asking God to encourage them, to help them to be faithful in teaching the scriptures, and to be bold in their proclamation of the gospel.

Alistair will be speaking at other events throughout the year, and you can view his schedule and continue to pray for him as he travels. To see where he is speaking next, visit truthforlife.org and click on the events tab at the top. And while you're on our website, check out the book we are currently featuring. It's Charles Spurgeon's devotional titled *Your Only Comfort: Devotions for Hope in Suffering*. This is a collection of 30 reflections from Spurgeon's sermon library addressing the issue of suffering. And whether you're in a season of challenge right now, or maybe you're enjoying a season of blessing, or you're somewhere in between, there's a treasure of wisdom in this collection of meditations that will apply to every believer.

For example, Spurgeon writes: "Why must the Christian expect trouble? Why must he expect the sufferings of Christ to abound in him? Stand here for a moment, my brother, and I'll give you four reasons why you must endure trials." Read what Spurgeon had to say about these four reasons when you request your copy of this 30-day devotional. *Your Only Comfort: Devotions for Hope in Suffering* is yours when you donate to Truth for Life today. You can give online at truthforlife.org/donate or call us at 888-588-7884. We're glad you've studied the Bible with us today. Tomorrow, we'll learn about someone who once used God's name only as profanity and who came to know it eventually as the sweetest sound. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the learning is for living.