"The Name We Trust" by Aaron Crider

Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him, and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. Good morning, everyone, and welcome. It's nice to see you all here this morning.

We have a talk this morning, my brother Aaron Kreider. He's from State College, Pennsylvania, and I actually, just over a week ago, I had the privilege of sitting across the table from him and sharing a meal. It was nice to—there's quite a few of you brothers on here that I was able to see in the flesh over the last few weeks, and it was a privilege.

So Brother Aaron's from State College, like I mentioned. He lives there with his wife and one daughter, and he works full-time at All Nations Bible Translation. Is that right, Aaron? That is correct. That's right.

So this morning he's going to be sharing on the name we can trust. And the question came to me in reading that: what is in a name? And I think we're about to find out this morning what actually is in the name of—what God's name is. It made me think of God's interaction with Moses.

When Moses said, "Well, who should I say sent me?" God said, "I am who I am. And you shall say to the children of Israel, 'I am sent you.'" And that was something Moses could bank on, that "I am sent him." Anyway, it's Aaron's talk, not mine. Let's start with a word of prayer.

Our Father, we come before you this morning. We thank you that we can call you our Father. We thank you that you are the only God, the only true God, and we are here to lift up your name this morning.

We pray that you would be with Brother Aaron as he shares about this holy topic. We just pray that we would catch a new vision for you and for who you are. Prepare our hearts for your word. May the seed be planted that we could serve you with reverential fear.

This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Go ahead, Brother Aaron. Okay. Well, good morning to all of you on this beautiful morning.

I have—thank you, Sam, for that very good introduction. Like you mentioned, I've been involved with All Nations Bible Translation. And one of the things that I found really interesting that I've dug into a little bit in relation to that is trying to understand the names and terms that are used for God, especially in the Old Testament. And digging into that in a light way—I'm not a real academic person, and I'm not a scholar of Hebrew or Greek—but digging into that a bit has really, I would say, deepened my appreciation for who God is. And so what I want to do, I just want to share with you a little bit of that this morning.

We'll pick up the issue specifically of the name of God as he has revealed himself and look at that briefly from a few different angles in both the Old and New Testament. And I hope that by doing that, we can better appreciate the unifying significance of the name throughout both Testaments, both covenants, and the implications for us, of course, as participants in his covenant.

To do this, I'm going to appreciate your help to look up some passages and read them. Simply going to—I don't really care which version you use for that. Just drop a number of references in the chat here. And I'll get us started by reading the first one, and then I'll just look for you to—any volunteer to unmute himself and read a verse for us as we come to those, as I ask for them.

Appreciate that. You can be prepared with a reference at your fingertips.

The name we trust, pulled that concept, well, from all of Scriptures, but especially from Proverbs 18:10, where it says, "The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run to it and are safe."

And what you have there is a picture of being set up on high out of the way of danger, safety by being lifted up. And this is what he says, "The name of our God is for us as his people." And this, of course, in this passage is being contrasted to what we as people tend to most quickly put our trust in, and that is the security of riches. Verse 11 says, "The rich man's wealth is his strong city and like a high wall in his own esteem."

So he thinks he's secure. The righteous man who trusts in the name of his God truly is secure. So let's explore this name a little bit more. Just two more opening verses of Psalms here in the Old Testament. Does someone have, or maybe you have it already on the tip of your tongue, Psalm 8:1?

O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth, who has set thy glory above the heavens. Thank you, Darvin. Yes.

O Lord, our Lord. Why the repetition of the word Lord? Well, many of you are familiar with this already, but notice the reference to God's name in that verse, "How excellent is your name in all the earth."

But where is that name? What is that name? The fascinating thing is that right there in that verse, the psalmist references the name of God. And it's, of course, listed in our Bibles as the word Lord in all capital letters or maybe in small capital letters.

O Lord, our Lord. Now, that's not just a foolish repetition of Lord in the original. That actually was God's name. Something like Yahweh. O Yahweh, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth. That name is excellent all over in every part of creation.

It should be excellent in every people group. O Yahweh, our Lord, how excellent is your name. What about Psalm 110 and verse 1? Another interesting little allusion to the name. The Lord said unto them, "My Lord, sit there at the right hand until I make mine enemies thine footstools."

Okay. Thank you, Patrick. I enjoy this verse that has an English—when we read it, when we listen to it out loud, it sounds really funny. The Lord said to my Lord. But there again, what we have is hidden, encoded, embedded in that verse behind the all capital letters of the first Lord is Yahweh. Yahweh says to my Lord, "Sit here until I make your enemies your footstool." Of course, that's referenced in the New Testament as well.

So what is going on here? Let's just explore the name a little bit. How is God's name introduced and used in the Old Testament? So Sam referenced a passage here for us, and I'll just ask for someone to read a couple of verses there, Exodus 3:14 and 15.

Sam, if you still have those at your fingertips, maybe you could just read Exodus 3:14 and 15 for us. Yep. God said to Moses, "I am who I am." And he said, "Thus shall you say to the children of Israel, 'I am has sent me to you.'" Moreover, God said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, 'The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever. This is my memorial to all generations.'" Thank you.

Powerful.

Now, so here's Moses, and he's concerned that the people that he's being sent to are going to recognize the one who sent him. He's concerned that they will know which God is sending him, that he can bring evidence to them that the God that he is representing is the God that they worship, the God of their covenant.

And so God explains who he is. He says, "I am."

No human, no mere human can use that kind of terminology in the way that our God can use it. I am that I am. No dependency on anyone for my being, for my origin to give an account to. I am. And we'll come to the next verse, and God assigns himself this name, which is not nearly the first time the name has appeared. It's appeared all the way through in the very first chapter of the Bible.

And of course, in our Bibles, we don't notice it as much because it's glossed over with that word Lord. But he introduces Yahweh, or here's how it's written in Hebrew. As you probably know, the biblical Hebrew doesn't use vowels, and so it's simply four consonants.

Told you I'm not a Hebrew scholar, so I'm not going to try to write it up there in Hebrew. But four consonants, something like YHWH. And it's generally agreed that by filling in the vowels, we come up with something like Yahweh.

And this is a form, at least, of the term I am that God has just assigned to himself. In fact, I've seen it suggested, and maybe some of you know more than I do about this, but perhaps it is a bit of a third-person form where when we use his name, Yahweh, we're saying he is.

After all, none of us can really say, "I am," in the way that God can say it. So here's God in the context of hearing his people and coming down to visit his people, and he's saying, "I am that I am. My name is Yahweh."

And as we go into the second verse there, he says, "Yahweh, God of your fathers, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." Now, it's easy for us to read that little phrase, the Lord God, as a name. So maybe the Lord is the first name and God is the last name or something like that, the Lord God.

It would be ideal if we could read that not only here, but in many places in the Old Testament as more of a positive sense. And what I mean by that is, for example, take David. If we were going to reference David, and we would say, "David, king of Israel."

Obviously, king is not his name. David is his name. King is telling us who he is. David, the king of Israel. In the same way, as we read Exodus 3:15, we could read, "Yahweh, God of your fathers, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."

And I like to practice putting a little comma in there between Yahweh and God or the Lord and God when I'm reading the Old Testament just to try to cement that reality in my mind and look at the name as a name, what it truly is.

God is a person. I think that by not reading his name, we can sometimes lose that intimate personal reality that God truly is a person, and he's a completely other and overwhelming and wonderful person, his personhood. Now, the next passage I have there is just a couple of pages further on where, again, God is talking about his name.

God also spoke to Moses and said to him, "I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as their God, but I did not reveal them my name, Lord. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of the Canaanites, the land of their sojourn in which they were strangers. I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians kept in bondage, and I remembered my covenant."

I don't know exactly why God says he didn't reveal himself as Yahweh to the patriarchs, but it appears that in some way, God here is saying, "In a unique covenant relationship, this is the name that I use." And I'm revealing myself as Yahweh, and God is establishing a covenant relationship and a covenant use of his name. He is known by his own people in his own covenant. And maybe some more of you have some insight on this. We'll definitely have time for that at the end as to how God speaks there in Exodus 6.

But what's clear is that there's some kind of a covenant connection with the name of Yahweh. Let's go to Exodus 33:18 and 19, introducing an interesting phase of the story here. Exodus 33:18 and 19.

Someone read that, please.

Moses replied, "Reveal yourself to me." Then God said, "I will pass before you in my glory, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, before you. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion."

Thank you, Glenn.

Moses here meeting face to face with Yahweh himself, asking, "Please show me your glory." And what is Yahweh promising to do? He says, "I'm going to proclaim my name. I'm going to proclaim the name of Yahweh. I'm going to show you what all my name is about."

And we immediately begin to get the idea here that the name is about something more than it's how we might define the letters and the meaning of the terms that make it up. Yahweh, more than simply I am, what does God, what meaning does God himself and the person himself infuse into that name that only he has? He says, "I will be gracious to whom I'll be gracious. I will have compassion on whom I'll have compassion."

And that right there is, again, covenant language. God's graciousness and compassion is being demonstrated toward those who are part of his covenant.

Now, this is God's preparation, preparing Moses for when he's going to reveal himself in his glory, dropping down across the chapter division into 34. Let's read a nice little section here. If someone can volunteer to read chapter 34, 5 to 10.

The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children and to the third and fourth generation. And Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth in worship. And he said, "If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us, for it is a stiff-necked people and pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us for thy inheritance."

And he said, "Behold, I make a covenant before all thy people. I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth nor in any nation. And all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the Lord, for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee."

Thank you.

So Yahweh passes before him. I can't imagine what that was like. And he declares his name. And the way he declares his name is by saying, "Yahweh, Yahweh God, merciful and gracious." What is God? What is Yahweh? Who is Yahweh?

The name of Yahweh is significant because in the way that the Old Testament appears to use the concept of name, the way the whole scripture is used to use the concept of name, is that name enfolds or holds all that that person truly is.

The naming of Yahweh, or rather his name that he has chosen to use for himself, represents all that God is. And what is this Yahweh? Who is this Yahweh of the Old Covenant? Merciful, gracious. Think about this language that he uses about himself.

I find it fascinating that often people attempt to contrast the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament as if there were some kind of angry, vindictive God in the Old Testament who's ready to pounce and pronounce judgment on everyone. And then in the New Testament, he suddenly becomes a merciful, inviting God. Well, in the way that God has revealed himself through the Old Testament, the way that he shows his name, God, Yahweh, is merciful and gracious and long-suffering, abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands. And as we go on, the contrast in visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, again, this contrast of those who are true to my covenant, I will be true to them.

Those who are not, I will turn against them. This covenant language, as I understand it, is very clear there. That's what it appears to be. And then he goes on and he references directly the covenant that he is, again, continuing with the children of Israel. Now, incentive to keep that covenant is a revelation of who God is.

Not only the awesome, terrible God that they quaked and drew away from at Mount Sinai, but this God who is merciful and gracious and full of compassion. What a drawing and compelling motivation to come into covenant with Yahweh.

Another passage I don't have on your list, I don't think, is in the Ten Commandments. We have Exodus 20, where the third command says, "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain."

Find that in our context, my context, it's easy to just read that. Paul's wonder exactly what application that has and then go on. "You shall not take the name of Yahweh, your God, in vain." Not taking that name in vain. What is that? What does that mean?

Well, probably not what sometimes our English minds go to, not just using the name of God as a swear word or something like that. In fact, yeah, it's specifically referencing the name Yahweh. So in cursing or anything like that, or just as a byword, that's not the idea.

But what about depending how this word "take" was translated? And I think the understanding could be clearer. "You shall not bear or carry. You shall not bear the name of Yahweh, your God, in vain." Remember, he's talking to a covenant people here, a people who bear his name. In fact, their high priest bears the name on his forehead. And their priests pronounce blessing over them. And it's said when they do this, when they give the blessing of Aaron over those people, that they are putting the name of Yahweh on his people. Bear his name. Do not bear that name in vain.

And so what Exodus 20, what the Ten Commandments, the third commandment, is telling us is you are responsible for how you carry, how you bear the name of the one you are in covenant with, Yahweh. You are responsible to be true to him, and you're responsible to represent him to the world. This God who is true, who is completely holy, and a God who, above all, by his own declaration of his own name, he is merciful and gracious and full of compassion. He is just. He cares for others.

You are responsible to represent this God. And I think that clearly we can see application for ourselves today in that as new covenant people serving the same God.

Another wrong application of this would be the idea that the name is so sacred that we don't want to use it wrong, so we won't say it at all.

It seems like some have maybe gotten that idea. But let's go on.

Before we come to the next passage I have on your list there, we're all familiar with the Shema, as they call it, in Deuteronomy 6, where in reviewing the covenant, Yahweh says this, "Hear, O Israel, Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one," or however that's supposed to be said.

It's interesting language there. But Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one. And then what does he go on and say? "You shall love the Lord your God. You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength." Actually, I think it uses three terms there. And because heart and mind were basically one concept in Hebrew, as I understand it. But Yahweh there, and again, the call to love your God with all your heart, all your being is a language of the covenant. Those who love and those who hate is the way God describes the people of this world. Those who keep his covenant, those who reject his covenant, those who love him demonstrate that by keeping his covenant.

Okay. How did God want his name to be used? Let's just explore that a little bit before we go into the next question about how God's name became hidden in our Bibles. Deuteronomy 6:13 and 14. So this is just further down in the same chapter as we just referenced.

Someone read Deuteronomy 6:13 and 14.

And thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him and shalt swear by his name. You shall not go after other gods or the gods of the people which are round about you.

Thank you.

And so they are to invoke the name of Yahweh. They are to swear by his name, not by the name of any other. And there's constant reminders in the Old Testament to these people, these covenant people of God, to not name the name of those other gods, to forget those names, not keep bringing them up as a memorial. But you are to keep bringing up the name of Yahweh. You're to use that name.

Chapter 10:20 and 21.

Someone read that for us? Deuteronomy 10:20 and 21.

Okay. I can read that.

"You shall fear the Lord your God.

His name you shall swear. He is your praise. He is your God who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen."

Okay. Thank you. Yes. Again, just more of the same. "You shall fear Yahweh your God. Serve him. Hold fast to him." This is the covenant again. "And swear by his name. He is your praise. He is your God." So just a beautiful verse reminding the people of Yahweh about who they serve and being true to him. Now, how did this name become hidden in our Bibles? Well, it seems like no one knows exactly what all took place and why this happened.

But there is an interesting little—of course, I've already referenced the possible way to take the third commandment and be so afraid of taking the name in vain that we don't even say it. That alone would hardly have arisen, I don't think. But there's an interesting thing that happened with the verse in Leviticus 24:16. Someone read Leviticus 24:16 for us.

"And whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him and the stranger as well as him who is born in the land. When he blasphemes the name of the Lord, he shall be put to death."

Okay. Thank you. So the name of Yahweh is sacred. It is not to be blasphemed. There's that death penalty for blaspheming the name of Yahweh. Something interesting happened when the Septuagint was translated. For some reason, it came through as whoever names the name of Yahweh will be put to death.

And I don't know what the motivations were for that, if it was an accident, if there was a particular ideology behind that. We don't know. Maybe someone can research further and figure it out. But whether this was a reason for misunderstanding or whether this was an outcome of a particular feeling about the name, it may have had some influence on what developed among at least a number of the Jews, and at least in some regions, where they began to have such a, shall we say, fear of Yahweh, such a wrongly focused reverence for his name that they refused to say it.

And so what they began to do was they began to take whenever they would read the Old Testament, they would put in the word for Lord over Yahweh instead. They would read it as Adonai, something like that, the Hebrew word for Lord, which, of course, already is all over the Old Testament, but they just added it in wherever it said Yahweh. And so suddenly, the name wasn't being pronounced anymore. The name wasn't being said. It wasn't being heard. And eventually, they would even write it into the text that way instead of the four consonants.

And of course, the Septuagint then took that practice and used the Greek word, the Septuagint being translated into Greek in the early centuries BC, used the Greek word for Lord in those places. And so where the name of God originally was in the Old Testament, it got covered over with Lord, essentially. Lord, of course, is a title, not a name. And so we lost something there. And we don't know exactly why, but it appears there was some prohibition to pronouncing this very sacred name.

Now, it's interesting. Well, I'll get into that in a little bit. But this tradition carried on through, as you can see in all of your Bibles except the HCSB and a few others, this tradition carried on through from Hebrew, Greek, to many other translations, German, English, using Lord instead of Yahweh.

Luther did us a favor by actually, when he translated the Bible to German in the Old Testament, he began using the all caps, capitalizing all four letters of Lord whenever it referred to Yahweh, which is helpful if you're a very literate society, not so helpful if reading isn't your primary way of taking things in. If you're listening or if you're being read to, that doesn't really help.

And of course, the King James English translators use the same approach, which I'm thankful for at least that much.

Before we go and look at the name in the New Testament and what its implications there, let's just consider and come back around to this concept of the covenant people. What does the Old Testament teach about what it means to be Yahweh's covenant people? And I want to just go to Psalm 103, and I want to read a little bit of Psalm 103. I find this psalm is very beautiful. We're familiar with it. It seems almost like the psalmist is trying to expand on what all the name of Yahweh means as it's revealed. And by the way, in the prophets, and all through the Old Testament, all through the Pentateuch there, you find this reference to God's character as he revealed it in Exodus 34, like we read this morning.

The name of Yahweh means something. Well, here, Psalm 103, "Bless Yahweh, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

Bless Yahweh, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquities, heals all your diseases, redeems your life from destruction, and crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.

Yahweh executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the children of Israel." Verse 8, "Yahweh is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in mercy," and so on. There's the language Yahweh uses for himself as a covenant God.

Yes, "Bless Yahweh, all his works and all places of his dominion. Bless Yahweh, O my soul." And then just one final little verse, little passage from the Old Testament. Does somebody have Hosea 12:5-6? Just a quick look at the prophets here. Hosea 12:5-6.

Before you read, I'll just mention this is looking back at Jacob, the father of Israel, or Israel himself, when he prevailed with God in wrestling there at Peniel.

Yes.

Let's have that passage.

Hosea 12:5-6. Thank you. Yes. "Even so, Lord God of hosts, the Lord is his memorial." This version has in parentheses YHWH name. "Therefore, turn thou to thy God, keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually."

Thank you.

So looking back at that incident by the brook where during the night Jacob wrestled with Yahweh or the angel of Yahweh, whoever that is, he refused to give his name even though he gave Jacob a new name. And now he tells us, "I am Yahweh. And because I am who I am, then you need to be like this too." And I believe I didn't turn there right now, but it said, "Be like I am. Be merciful and gracious." So the call to bear the name worthily, going back to the third commandment, bear that. Don't bear the name in vain. Bear it worthily. Represent who God truly is.

Be merciful and gracious like your God is, like Yahweh is. And your footnote referenced an interesting little note here.

Generally, Yahweh is the way that scholars like to add vowels into this, but there are those who think it ought to be done differently. Sometimes it gets referenced like this, something like Yehovah. And that comes through in even King James a couple of places where the name is very explicitly referred to, and it says Jehovah.

Some people think that that probably happened when they took the vowels of the Hebrew word for Lord, Adonai, and stuck them in with the consonants of Yahweh and came out with Yehovah, something like that. I don't know. I don't know what happened there or what's the true pronunciation. And that's not the most important thing for us anyway.

Let's move to the New Testament. What happened in the New Covenant? Is God's name prominent in the New Covenant as well? Someone read Matthew 1:21 for starters. "And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus."

Okay. Thank you.

And Joseph was told, was he not, "You're to call his name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins." Jesus comes to us through the Greek, but it's the Greek version of Yeshua or Joshua, another form of it, which simply means something like this: Yahweh is salvation or Yahweh saves. And so we have a form of the name of Yahweh together with the idea of salvation.

And that is who Jesus is. Now, a new covenant has been prophesied. Here comes the Messiah. Yahweh saves. Is that significant? Well, who is this Jesus? Is the question we could be asking. And all through the Gospels, that question is being asked.

Let's just read John 8:58. The Jews are in a bit of a quarrel with Jesus because they're hearing him make statements about, "If you believe in me, you never die." And they're saying, "Well, Abraham died. Are you greater than him?"

John 8:58. Someone read that. "Jesus said to them, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.'" Thank you. So Jesus makes explicit reference to Exodus 3 and Yahweh's revelation of himself. And Jesus makes explicit the link from the Old Covenant to the New and his own identity as Yahweh.

Isn't that fascinating? Now, we come to Jesus' high priestly prayer, and he's speaking to his father. John 17:6. Someone read that for us. "I have manifested your name to the men whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours. You gave them to me, and they have kept your word."

Thank you.

What picture do you get there when Jesus says, "I have manifested your name to the men you gave me"? He references this again later at the end of the prayer. Do you think Jesus sat his disciples down one day, or maybe they were walking along the road, and he says, "Now, look, men, I want you to get a hold of this. You're not saying his name very much, but his name is Yahweh.

You need to know that. His name is Yahweh, or his name is however Jesus said it." Do you think that's what he did? Do you think that's what he means here? Well, I think that our quick view of the Old Testament use and reference to God's name, Yahweh, shows us that there's a whole lot more than just how the name is written and said that's in focus whenever the name is referenced. So much more than a mere word, Jesus manifested the name of Yahweh to these men. How did he do that? Well, you see, Jesus himself embodies that name and all that it means.

Just as Yahweh proclaimed himself in Exodus 3 and all the way through, Jesus now comes and puts that in flesh for us. Yahweh incarnate, Yahweh in the flesh. And so Jesus, yes, he's right. "I've manifested, I've revealed, I've made plain. I've made your name plain to these men. It's no longer a mystery who you are. I have brought Yahweh within reach, made the name comprehensible, the meaning, made everything that Yahweh is comprehensible because Jesus says, 'I am.

I am Yahweh.'" And the name, of course, then the name of Jesus becomes extremely significant in the New Covenant. We find it all through. So we come to the end of the Gospels, and Jesus says that repentance and remission of sins is to be preached in my name to all nations.

Now, and just moving to Acts, let's look at that just a little bit. In Acts 2, I have a few references in the beginning of Acts there. Acts 2:38. Someone read that for us.

Acts 2:38. "Then Peter said to them, 'Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'" Thank you. Amen. So you see how in this New Covenant, the name Yahweh is giving place to the name Jesus, the one who is Yahweh, the one who is Yahweh in the flesh, who reveals Yahweh to us, who establishes a new covenant with his new covenant people in his name. Let's have the two verses from chapter 3, verses 6 and 16. "Then Peter said, 'Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have, I give you.

In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.'" And then verse 16 yet, right, Aaron? Yes. Okay. "And his name, through faith in his name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all."

Wonderful. If you just go to chapter 4, Brian, and read verses 10 to 12 for us yet. Appreciate it. Part of the same story here. All right. Acts 4:10-12. "Let it be known to you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man stands therefore before you whole. This is a stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.

Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." Salvation is in his name, isn't it? And notice in a couple of these verses right here in Acts even how, just like in the Old Testament with Yahweh, the name represents the person himself. So where it says, "Faith in his name," or, and then later it says, "Through him, through Jesus." And so the name and the person are identical, are the same.

So the name means the name is not a bit of magic. It is representing the person himself and all that Jesus, our Yahweh, is.

Now, just one final question for us that I find very intriguing. Does the hiding of God's name in the Old Testament affect the New Testament? Well, my understanding is that the hiding of the name in the Old Testament wasn't really ideal, and it wasn't really God's plan. Obviously, he wanted the people to be using his name. But let's go to Philippians 2, verses 10 and 11. Someone have that ready to read? "So that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father."

Thank you. So, of course, the apostles and the people writing the New Testament were reading an Old Testament that had Lord in place of Yahweh. And, of course, they understood. I'm sure they understood what it represented, that it truly was the name originally. But as they read their Old Testaments, Lord was what was standing in as the representation of the name of Yahweh. Now, here comes a New Testament writer, and he's speaking of the name of Jesus, and he's saying, "The name of Jesus, every knee should bow, every tongue should confess." Well, and actually, verse 9, I really should have had you read because that's where it says that because Jesus humbled himself to become a mere man in all appearances and dying for us, "Therefore, God also has highly exalted him and given him the name that is above every name."

Now, what name is he talking about?

That at the name of Jesus. So Jesus is the name that is above every name. But Jesus, that name is a link to the name Yahweh. In fact, it includes the name of Yahweh in it. It's the salvation of Yahweh. It's Yahweh expanded. And remembering that they're reading, they and all of their readers are reading the Old Testament, having the word Lord stand in as God's name. Now, Paul says, "Someday, every tongue is going to confess what? That Jesus, the Messiah, is Lord."

Now, what are they thinking when they read that? That Jesus is master of everything? They're probably thinking that, but they're also making a—it seems almost inevitable that they're making a link, that in their minds, there's a click happening that's saying, "Ah, that Jesus, the Messiah, is Yahweh.

That's who he is, to the glory of God the Father." Especially when we realize that—I don't think I wrote this down. There's a reference in Isaiah that this is a direct allusion to—maybe someone has that—where Yahweh is saying in Isaiah that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess to me. And Paul's taking this very thing and applying it to Jesus, saying, "Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Yahweh."

Romans 10:9 and 13. Someone have those two verses right there. Let's have them.

Okay, I have them here.

Verse 9, "That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved."

Again, the word Lord as it's referred to Jesus. What all are they thinking when they read that? I don't know for sure. But I think there's maybe more than simply the idea of Lord or Master. There's a link happening there because of the way that the Old Testament has used the word Lord.

Verse 13:4. And again, in here, he quotes from the prophet Joel. He says, "For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." Now, he just got done saying that Jesus is the Lord. And now he says, "Whoever calls on the name of the Lord." And we know that the New Testament teaches calling on the name of Jesus. Of course, Joel, when he said that as a prophet, was referring to Yahweh. Jesus is Yahweh. He is the salvation of Yahweh.

And it appears like the New Testament authors, God led them to exploit this thing. If indeed God did not really intend for his name to be hidden in the Old Testament, well, since it was, God made use of that and turned it around to really lift up and magnify the name, the reality, the person, the identity of Jesus.

That's the kind of thing that God does all the time. He takes what was twisted by man, and he exploits it. He turns it around to magnify himself, his own name. Now, just to clinch this idea for us, that the oneness of Yahweh and Jesus—I'm going to go back to Psalm 103. Just read a couple of verses there.

Maybe instead of Yahweh, we'll put Jesus in here. Again, someone has suggested that the New Testament authors, the people who are reading the Septuagint, the Christians, the disciples of Jesus, would actually were enabled by this sort of this Lord thing. They were enabled to go back and read the Old Testament, and what they would do is they would think of Jesus when they read about Yahweh. When they read Lord, they would think of their Lord, Jesus.

So maybe we can do that a little bit. "Bless Jesus, O my soul. All that is within me, bless his holy name.

Forget not all his benefits. Who forgives all your iniquities, heals all your diseases, and so forth. Jesus executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed." Isn't that what Jesus did? Isn't that how he showed Yahweh to be when he was on the earth? Isn't that what he does today and what he expects us to do today?

Well, just a few closing comments, and then we'll open it up. You see that I've pretty well used up the time. But the interesting thing that happened there with Yahweh, where people became so—they emphasized perhaps the fear of Yahweh to such an extent that they became afraid to even pronounce his name.

Contrast that with today and the name of Jesus and how that name is used. How lightly people throw that name around. How easily people identify with the name of Jesus. And I wonder which problem was actually the worst problem? Such a—the unpronounceable Yahweh or the lightly used Jesus.

We've separated them.

I'll let you meditate on that. And just a final note on what we're talking about when we talk about the name. We're not invoking some sort of a magic formula by using the name of Yahweh or the New Covenant, the name of Jesus. It represents his authority, his person, who he is, and especially his character.

Finally, just an interesting thought on protection. That's where we started. The name that we trust, the name of Yahweh is a strong tower.

When we are seeking, when we're praying for God to protect, to keep us, Jesus did that. He was praying to the Father. He said, "Keep through thine own name." And the proverb writer acknowledged protection through the name of Yahweh. It's appropriate, as we often hear, to acknowledge the blood of Jesus in seeking protection. But what I find is the way that the scripture writers actually do is they call on the name of Yahweh or the name of Jesus. And so as we seek God's intervention in a situation, as we commit ourselves to his protection night after night, lie down to sleep, perhaps we could commit ourselves to his keeping in the name of Jesus.

Okay, I'm going to stop there. Turn it over to Sam. Thank you, Brother Aaron. I think we can truly say, "Yahweh, how excellent is your name in all the earth." I think a healthy view of God, or it's something I've noticed in my experiences, if people don't have a healthy view of who God is, it really affects their Christian life and the decisions they make.

So you've done a great job at painting a picture of who God is this morning by talking about his name. And I really appreciate that. So how would your understanding of the name of God affect your prayer life?

Just a question I have for you.

Well, in the way that a person prays, in the way that I pray, it affects my using the name of Jesus in prayer, throughout prayer. At the end of prayer, it becomes something more than just a little formula that we tack on to the end.

And you understand it as something other than just a little bit of Christian magic. We're supposed to say, "In Jesus' name, so that God will hear us." Well, no. We're coming in his name, and there is authority in that name because of who he is.

That's just one quick comment there. The reason I ask that is it has made an impact on my prayer life to think about who God is. So this talk this morning definitely aids that, to have a picture of hold in your mind who our Father is, what he represents, and to come before him in that attitude has been a tremendous blessing. Amen.

Does anyone else have questions or comments? Yes, I do. My comment is, this is a keeper. If a transcript and/or your notes are available, I would be glad to receive them at whatever cost is appropriate. That's item one. Item two is a question about the translations to the word Lord.

Adonai is evidently the—come on, tongue. Hebrew. Hebrew. What would be the Greek counterpart in the Septuagint? And would the counterpart of that in German be hair in the manner in which I might say, "Guten Tag, Herr Kreider."

My understanding is that you're right there, Dan. The word hair, however they say it in German. And in Greek, it's the Kyrios word. People pronounce it different ways, spell it a few different ways too, but something like that.