C149 9/28/58
© Project Winsome Publishers, 2000

An English professor in one of our Southern universities has written a book in which he pleads for better profanity. His main thesis is that we need originality and imagination in our cursing. He points out that the average man who indulges in profane speech is inexcusably lazy. For, while there at least three-hundred highly descriptive and extremely explosive vituperatives available to him, the average man generally takes the line of least resistance and falls back upon a half dozen or so swear words which are used over and over again.

Like the old cowboy who decided to go squirrel hunting one day. On his way to his favorite spot he stopped at the General Store to buy some ammunition. He took a fistful of gun powder from the storekeeper's supply, looked at it critically, sniffed it vigorously, and put it back. The storekeeper watched him for a moment and said,
"What's the matter with it? Is there anything wrong?"
The old cowpoke dusted off his hands and with a wry grin upon his face said,
"Well, it just smells to me like it's been shot off before."

That's the trouble with most of our profanity. "It is conversational gunpowder that's been shot off before!" The use of profanity is not a mark of intelligence. As a matter of fact, the opposite is true. It's a clear sign of intellectual inadequacies and mental laziness. As someone has said,
"Profanity is the effort of a feeble mind to express itself forcibly."
So, if you must curse, at least try to cultivate some originality.

One day a young mother saw her six-year-old daughter knock down her three-year-old baby brother, and then, while he was struggling to get up give him a good swift kick. As the mother was putting her daughter to bed that night she spent a good bit of time trying to impress the little girl with the gravity of her actions. Attempting to find out what precipitated this anti-social behavior, the mother said,
"Honey, what made you push your little brother down and then kick him?
Did the devil tell you to do it?"
The child was still in an impish mood and said,
"Well, the devil may have told me to push him down,
but kicking him was my own idea!"
If you must use profanity, at least let it demonstrate a bit of imagination and originality.

But, it must be clear to all that the best profanity is no profanity at all. To support this conviction we have the words of our text,
"Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain."
Or, as Jesus later expanded it,
"Swear not at all."

There's something morally and spiritually debilitating about the use of profanity. It has a deadly and destructive influence upon the soul. I think this is best illustrated by the experience of Simon Peter. Over in the 26th chapter of Matthew we have the tender story of the last supper when Jesus met with his disciples and announced that one of them would betray him. In fact, he said as recorded in verse 31,
"Before this night is passed all of you will be tempted to deny me, for it is written, I will smite the shepherd and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad."

The disciples protest that they will never forsake him. Hot-hearted Peter stands up and passionately proclaims that he will be loyal to Jesus even unto death. But Christ replies (verse 36),
"Peter, before the crock crows signaling the coming of the dawn, you will
have denied me three times."
Shortly thereafter, Jesus makes his way to the garden of Gethsemane, and, as we read in verse 49, as he kneels in prayer Judas comes and with the hiss of a kiss marks Christ as the one the soldiers are to capture. From that point on the story moves swiftly as Christ is led from the garden to the palace of Caiaphas, the high priest, and then on to the court of Pilate where he is finally sentenced to crucifixtion.

Sometime during the night, before the fingers of dawn begin to herald the coming of a new day, Peter stands shivering beside a small fire trying vainly to drive away the cold fear that clutches his heart, by rubbing his hands briskly against the warmth of the fire. Verse 69 and following tells us how, as he stands there, he is accosted by a frail wisp of a lass who accuses him of being one of the disciples of Jesus. To our complete surprise, Peter, who had so passionately pledged his undying loyalty, twice denies that he ever knew Jesus.

And then, as a motley gang of Roman soldiers, cheap politicians, and blood-thirsty thrill-seekers crowds around him in a threatening way, the young girl says a third time,
"I know you're one of them, I've seen you with the Nazerene."
Matthew records how
"Peter began to curse and swear saying, 'I know not the man.'"
Even before the venomous words had died on his lips, the cock crowed. And we're told that remembering the words of Jesus,
"Peter went out and wept bitterly."

The Cause of a Curse
To begin with, the story of Peter makes it quite clear that his denial of the Lordship of Christ is no accident. It didn't just slip out. There's a distinct cause behind this curse. Sandwiched in between Matthew's record of the betrayal of Jesus in the garden and his experience before Pilate we find this striking sentence (verse 58),
"But Peter followed him a far off."

Before Peter denied Jesus, he distanced himself from Jesus. Long before Peter spewed forth his profane epithets in denial of Jesus, long before he succumbed to the temptation to backslide, the cleavage between him and his Lord had begun. The intimacy of their fellowship was interrupted.
Peter no longer marched with confidence by the side of his Lord. Instead, as the scripture says,
"Peter followed (Jesus) a far off."

Little wonder that he found it so easy to deny Christ with a curse. Our speech is a mirror of the attitude and condition of our heart. James makes that clear when, in the third chapter of his Epistle, he writes,
"Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?"
Or, in other words, the water that flows from a facet is no better than the well from which it is drawn. Our heart is like a fountain, and our words are its flow. When our heart is out of tune with Christ, when, like Peter, we follow him from a far, it is easy to fall into habits of speech which are literally unthinkable when we are walking close to Christ and our fellowship with him is rich and sweet.

Someone has said it is the nature of love that it cannot stay imprisoned within the heart. It must find expression in loving words or deeds. If you are really in love with someone you cannot possibly keep it hidden. It will show in everything you say and do.

Conversely, if you are at odds with a person, if the relationship between you is strained, if you are filled with negative emotions -- contempt, fear, disappointment --it, too, will show in everything you say and do.

To begin with, Peter was disappointed in Jesus. He had pictured him as the long awaited Messiah who would rise to power and bring honor once again to the nation of Israel. But now his dreams lay about his feet like bits of broken rainbow, and his ambition to hold a high post in the new government of Israel was utterly shattered.

Secondly, Peter was filled with fear. He knew that sooner or later his association with the Galilean would become known and, as the inevitable purge took place, he would be put to death along with the others.

Finally, Peter was full of contempt for the seemingly mealy-mouthed, weak-kneed attitude of Jesus who refused to fight back or defend himself. To a rock-hard, tough as nails man of the sea like Peter, there was no room for such weakness. And so, spinning off into the night, a broken, bitter, baffled backslider, Peter cast his lot with the long, sad, line of those who, in every age and generation, have found the price of discipleship too high.
"And Peter followed him a far off."

If only Peter had remained true to the early flashes of insight when he cried,
"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."
If only he had avoided the temptation to whittle Christ down to his own narrow, nationalistic, concept of what the Messiah was going to be like.
If only he had kept the first two commandments.
If only he had put Christ first and had not worshiped before the idol of Jewish nationalism.
How different would have been his lot.
How many tears of bitterness and remorse he would have been spared.

Oh, my friend, it's no accident that this commandment against taking the name of God in vain is preceded by two commandments which charge us to -
(1) Put God first, above every other consideration, and -
(2) to worship him as he is, rather than make him over as we would like him to be.
The cause behind every curse is a faulty concept of God. As I have said before and must say again, what we think about God and the manner in which we worship him, affects everything else we do. It literally makes us what we are. And, because Peter had a blurred and faulty image of Christ, even though he made proud pronouncements of being loyal unto death, his limited vision finally caused him to lose his first love and he followed Christ a far off. The result was a shameful curse which history will never forget.

I wonder if there are those here this morning who, like Peter, have lost their first love and are following Christ a far off? If you've been asking,
"Where is the joy that once I knew when first I found the Lord?"
May I say simply,
"It is precisely where you left it!"
And if you will retrace your steps, if you will go back to the moment
when you begin to push Christ off to the periphery of your life,
when you ceased giving him first place,
when you began to approach him for what you could get rather than what you could give,
when you began to mold him according to your liking instead of allowing him to mold you according to his --
if you will go back to that moment you will be at the point where the glow and glory of your salvation was lost.

If you want the glow and glory back, you must return to the place where you left it and pick it up again. You must cease following Christ a far off. You must put him first. You must worship him as he is. And then, and only then, will you be able to remove the cause of a curse: your lack of enthusiasm for Christ and things Christian.

The Cost of a Curse
But the experience of Peter tells us more. It describes the terrible, high, cruel cost of a curse.
"And Peter remembering the words of Jesus, before the cock crows
you will deny me thrice, went out and wept bitterly" (Mt. 26:75).

There is an inevitable judgement linked to every act of disobedience. Like the other nine, this third commandment carries its own punishment. That doesn't mean that if you take the name of the Lord in vain you will be struck down by a bolt of lightening. God does not operate that way. Even though the sound of his name used profanely falls heavy upon his ear, God doesn't look down on the curser and say with a sneer of vengeance curling across his countenance,
"I'll make him pay for that!"
God just doesn't work that way. God has created a law-abiding universe and chooses to operate in conjunction with the laws he has established. When I say this third commandment, like the others, carries its own punishment, I don't mean to suggest that if you break it a catastrophe will overtake you. Not at all.

Rather, it's like something my dear grandmother use to say about swearing,
"The curse will stick in the mouth of the curser."
She meant the curser curses himself. He inevitably reaps the consequences of his irreverence.

That's what happened to Peter. The vial epithets with which he denied Christ suddenly robbed him of the finest, highest, strongest, dearest, sweetest influence his life had ever known. It alienated him from the Christ who had brought dimensions of joy and peace and purpose into his life beyond all knowing. In that awful moment of awakening, as he heard the haunting crow of the cock cutting through the mist of morning, Peter realized the wrong attitudes of his heart and the misuse of his tongue had severed the fellowship between him and his Lord, and he was utterly alone!. In that awful moment of awakening there was only one thing for Peter to do. He went out and wept bitterly!

Think of it. Courageous Peter. Peter, who seeing Christ walking on the water, bounded out of the boat and for a moment, at least, walked on the water himself! Courageous Peter, weeping bitterly.

Think of it. Enlightened Peter. Peter, who along with John had been privileged to share in the incredible experience of the Mount of Transfiguration when Moses and Elijah had appeared and the loud, clear voice of God had spoken from a cloud,
"This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased . . . "
Enlightened Peter cowering in the corner of Ciaphas' court, weeping hot tears of remorse for the dishonor he had brought upon his Lord.

No one in all the New Testament rose so high as Peter, and no one in all the New Testament fell so low. That is the inevitable cost of a curse. It pulls down the high places of the heart. It leaves you devoid of everything sacred or holy. It deprives you of close companionship with the dearest, sweetest friend you will ever know. And, what happened to Peter must inevitably happen to all who begins to follow Christ "a far off," for no one can engage in such shabby living without paying a mighty price.

How long do you think your mother would remain precious and sacred if, at the slightest provocation, you used her name as an oath or a curse? How long would she remain upon the high pedestal of honor which is rightfully hers, if in the course of conversation, you used her name flippantly and frivolously? You know the answer. And when you use the precious name of Jesus in a careless, joking, irreverent way, you misuse his name and, in the process, you reap the harvest. For the cost of curse lies in the fact that it robs you of all that is sacred and true.

The Cure of a Curse
But I must not end on this negative note. Thank God there is a sequel to Peter's story. We find it in the 16th chapter of Mark where we read of the resurrection. We're told that as Mary Magdalen, Salome and Mary, the mother of Jesus, went to the grave to anoint his body, they found the stone had been rolled away and he was gone. It was then that the angel appeared and said (verse 6)
"Fear not . . . he is risen . . . he is not here (verse 7) go your way . . . tell the disciples and Peter he goeth before you into Galilee and there ye shall find him."

"Tell the disciples . . . and Peter!" Two wonderful words for baffled backsliders: "and Peter!" The only name which is mentioned specifically on the day of resurrection is the name of the one person who had forgotten the real glory of Christ and had used his name in a curse. The only one who receives a special invitation to discover the joy of resurrection for himself, is poor old Peter who had deliberately destroyed the fellowship between himself and Jesus.

Oh, how that speaks to me of the amazing and aggressive love of God. If there is a clearer, dearer, sweeter picture of the compassionate concern of Christ in the entire Bible, I don't know where it is! For here is a representative of the reigning, resurrected, regal Christ taking time to single out a poor, bitter, baffled backslider who had fallen out of fellowship with his Lord saying,
"Tell the disciples . . . and Peter . . . especially Peter . . .
that Jesus wants to meet them in Galilee."

There is a word I heard our preacher use often when I was a boy. It's the word: backslider. And, though I 've used it several times this morning, we don't hear it much any more. I think we are seeing the results in the low level of our Christian living. For we do backslide. We do get out of communion with Christ. We do follow him "a far off." And there are negative consequences.

I can still remember a number of bleak, black periods in my life when in willful, deliberate disobedience, I locked Christ out of my life, drove him off to the periphery of things, and put myself upon the throne of my heart. And, I stand here this morning to say that in each and every case, I finally came back to the place where, like Peter, I wept bitterly.

But I would also like to say that never once did I do an about face and start back to my heavenly father but that he came running to sweep me into his arms in an act of reconciliation. For that's the way he is:
"How many things he will forget,
My every sin, both great and small.
And yet he will remember and reward
Each service done for my dear Lord.

Devine forgetfulness,
Unfathomed grace,
And love which knows no bounds
Of time or space."

"Tell the disciples . . . and Peter. . . especially Peter!" Thank God for that!

Do you know something, you can search the Bible through, but you will not find a harsh word for backsliders? From cover to cover, in the writing of the Prophets and Kings of the Old Testament and the disciples and Apostles of the New Testament, the Bible has but one message for those who have gone into the far country of sin to spend their lives in selfish living. That message is:
"Return! Return! Return!"

A young English girl who had tired of the apparent restrictions and restraints of home, ran away. Her mother tried to find her without success. Finally she prevailed upon a friend to help her.
Through his assistance they learned she was living somewhere in London. He hired a photographer to take a picture of that sainted mother and, almost as if inspired the photographer captured in the picture every expression of love and longing in her mother's heart.

The friend then took his pen and beneath the sweet face wrote these words:
"Come home."
The picture was sent to a printer who made thousands of copies. Patiently and methodically the mother and her friend placed a copy of the picture in every spot in the city of London a young girl was likely to go.

Several weeks later the daughter started out one evening to "live it up" as she put it. As she passed a lamppost on a corner she saw a picture which looked strangely familiar. She turned back to look again. It was her mother. Suddenly all of the loneliness and sadness which she had been unwilling to admit even to herself came gushing to the surface and a torrent of tears coursed wildly down her cheeks. At first they blurred her vision, but, as her eyes cleared, she looked at the picture again and for the first time saw the words,
"Come home!"

She summoned a taxi and hastened to the simple little cottage which stood at the end of a plain street on the edge of London. As she reached the porch she paused for a moment in hesitation. Suppose mom had changed her mind? Suppose the door was locked? Suppose she was no longer welcome?

She put her hand on the knob, but before she could even turn it, the door swung open and her mother rushed forward with open arms. As they embraced her mother said,
"My dear, you didn't need to hesitate, the door has not been locked
since the moment you went away."

The same is true with you and God. The door that keeps you apart has not been locked from the moment you went away. The heavenly Father waits anxiously for you to turn the knob. This morning I hold before you the face of one dearer and sweeter than any mother. The face of One who has been called the rose of Sharon. The lily of the valley. The bright and morning star. I hold before you the face of our risen and reigning Lord. And, beneath his lovely countenance I write these words,
"Come home!"
Will you come? I pray that you will!