We turn in your Bibles to Deuteronomy, chapter five. Deuteronomy, chapter five, we're currently studying this book on our Wednesday night Bible study. We found ourself on Wednesday passed in the 10th commandment. You shall not covet.
As I said this morning, it seems to have it seems to go along with what we looked at this morning. And so I thought we would revisit it this evening. So Deuteronomy, chapter five, I'll just pick up reading in verse one. And Moses called all Israel and said to them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your hearing today, that you may learn them and be careful to observe them.
The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those who are here today, all of us who are alive. The Lord talked with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire. I stood between the Lord and you at that time. to declare to you the word of the Lord, for you were afraid because of the fire and you did not go up the mountain.
He said, I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them.
For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments. 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. Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work.
The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work, you nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. And remember that you are a slave in the land of Egypt. And the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm.
Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. Honor your father and your mother as the Lord your God has commanded you that your days may be long and that it may be well with you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. You shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey or anything that is your neighbor's.
These words, the Lord spoke to all your assembly in the mountain, from the midst of the fire, the cloud and the thick darkness with a loud voice. And he added no more. And he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. Amen.
Well, let us pray. Father, thank you for the Scripture, thank you for the written Word, and we pray now that the Spirit who gave utterance, the Spirit who used men to pen these words, would come and aid us and guide us and lead us as we study your truth. We ask God in heaven that you would at the outset cause us to be humble as we approach your Word, to be those who tremble before your Word, to be those of a contrite and of a broken spirit, that we may receive it properly, that we may seek by your grace to implement it. But we know that a man who looks in the mirror and walks away as a fool or forgets what he looks like is a fool.
Help us to be doers of that word, Lord God, and enable us by the power of your Holy Spirit for the glory of God most high. And we pray through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Well,
Introduction: Context of Deuteronomy
the Book of Deuteronomy is essentially several addresses made by Moses on the plains of Moab to the second generation, the people of God that would enter into the promised land. Remember that in the wilderness, God killed the first generation. They did not enter in because of unbelief. So the book of Deuteronomy takes up about a month in time on the plains of Moab.
Moses is rehearsing to the people of God their history, where they had come from, where they were going, and the instructions that they were to take heed to. The commandments, the statutes, the judgments, the ordinances that they would need to implement as a people redeemed by God's grace sent in to live in a heathen land. They were to engage in obedience unto the Lord. They were to engage in faithfulness to the covenant that was given to them by God at Sinai.
And so that is essentially the overall context of the book of Deuteronomy. If we look at the ten words specifically, the ten commandments, there's two major sections. There's the first table and the second. The first four commandments are our duty toward God, and the latter six are our duty toward man.
And we can see these summarized in those two main things that Jesus says. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said, upon these two hang all the law and the prophets.
So the first table with reference to our love to God, the second table with reference to our love for man. And within that second table, there are commands given of a very specific nature. The fifth protects parental authority and, by implication, all manner of authority. The sixth protects life.
The seventh protects marriage and covenant faithfulness. The eighth protects private property. Do we move from actions in those ones to words in the ninth commandment? If we bear false witness, if we engage in character assassination or anything like that, we are breaking God's holy law.
As we saw in the reading in the book of Proverbs, a man who does that, it is motivated by hatred for his neighbor. He doesn't do it just sort of arbitrarily, but rather that bearing false witness or that speaking ill of others is driven by an ultimate hatred for that particular person. So the ninth deals with our language, our words, and then the tenth deals with the intents of our heart, deals with thoughts. Now, as we go through the law of God and the old covenant, we do not see that the civil magistrate carried out punishment for a violation of the 10th commandment.
In other words, you never see an instance where somebody is brought before the civil government and the magistrate because they had a covetous thought, because they coveted their neighbor's field or they coveted their neighbor's wife. This is a commandment that is directly between God and us. It is directly between the Lord Most High, who sees and judges the intents of the heart, this tenth word has to do with us. We saw on Wednesday night, sometimes we treat it almost as if it's a tathon, or sort of an addendum to an already complete code.
But it is significant, it is powerful, and as I hope you'll see and appreciate tonight, it certainly is one that we need to take heed to with reference to our own conduct and thought life.
The Prohibition of the Commandment
So I want to first look at the prohibition of the commandment. Secondly, the reason for the commandment and then some positive aspects or rather positive helps to obey the commandment. There'll be a bit of overlap from this morning in that section. So I'll just give the heads of the ones that we already touched on this morning.
But there are several others that we haven't spoken to today. So first of all, the prohibition of the commandment.
Defining Covetousness
What does it mean to covet? It doesn't mean that if your neighbor drives home with a new car, you can't say, wow, that's a nice car. No, covetousness has to do with an
Inordinate Desire of a Neighbor's Goods
inordinate desire for what your neighbor has. Webster defines it this way, to desire inordinately, to desire that which it is unlawful to obtain or possess. Inordinate means irregular, irregularly, disorderly, excessively, and moderately, not limited to rules prescribed or to usual bounds. So covetousness means to desire that which it is unlawful to obtain or possess.
And we have it spelled out for us very clearly in verse twenty one. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. That is his wife. That is God's gift to him.
You are not to inordinately desire her. You are not to desire your neighbor's house again. Doesn't that mean you can't say, well, I like I like the work you did on your on your lawn. I like the way you've painted in here.
That's not what's condemned here. It's this excessive, improper, irregular desire that is settled into your heart where you want that thing for yourself. The commandment goes on to specify his feel, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey. But then the summary statement at the end is what we need to listen to, or not but, and we need to listen to, or anything that is your neighbor's. anything that is your neighbor's.
He may have a particular gift, or a particular skill, or a particular ability. If you have an unlawful desire, an inordinate desire, then that is to break the very commandment of God Most High. You see how this reflects on contentment. If we want what other people have, it demonstrates a lack of contentment with the living God that is true of us.
This commandment deals with man's inner heart and shows that none of the previous commandments could be observed in a merely external way. In other words, if you didn't actually commit adultery or you didn't actually commit murder, but it's in your heart and it's in your mind and it's something you obsess about, you are still guilty of violating the very law of God Most High. Robert Louis Dabney defines it or summarizes this way. He says the five commands of the second table cut off the streams of transgression.
You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. Those are the streams of transgression.
He says this one, this word deals with the fountainhead in the 10th commandment. Then we have the crowning spirituality of the law. thus making it complete in every way worthy of God and adapted to man as a rational free agent. So the second table, most of the commands deal with the acting out, with the conduct. This tenth word regulates the mind, regulates the thoughts, regulates the intentions, and again it's with God with whom we have to do.
You may covet your neighbor's wife. You may covet your neighbor's husband. This isn't only confined to men coveting wives. I would imagine there's ladies out there that covet husbands.
And it might take this form. Why aren't you like him? Why aren't you a better guy or a better girl like them? How come you never do this like so-and-so?
What is that evidencing? It is evidencing an unsettledness of heart. It's evidencing something about you. You're not content with what the Lord God has given to you, but you're quite content thinking about what the Lord God has given to someone else.
We need to guard against such things. So, you see, you may not act out, but if you engage in this sin internally, then God Most High sees it and He will deal with you very specifically. Another commentator, Craigie, said, it is this dimension of the commandments that is taken up in the teaching of Jesus. Matthew 5, 21 to 48.
What does Jesus do but takes the commandments and shows the spirituality of them? You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, the law of God always said this, but the Pharisees and the scribes had focused on the externals to the degree that the heart was left unaffected. Jesus says, if you look upon a woman to lust, you've already broken the commandment in your heart.
You may not have actually physically cut the neck or the throat of your neighbor, but if you say fool, or you say rock up, or you have some character assassination about it, or you speak ill of him, or you like a madman throwing firebrands and arrows, and then you have the gall to say, well, I was only joking, you have broken the commandment. You see, this goes right to the heart. Craigie says, not only the act, but also the desire is condemned. Partly because the desire is what leads to the act, and partly because whether or not the desire leads to the act, it betrays the same wrong attitude.
So you see what he's saying. Covetousness very often, we'll see in a moment, leads to the actual act of sin. But even if covetousness does not lead to the actual act of sin, covetousness in and of itself is sin. Everybody with me?
This is a powerful command, it gets right down there. It finds those nooks and crannies in your heart that you say, wait a minute, God ain't messing around. God is not playing games. So what is prohibited?
We've already touched on the first one, inordinate desire of a neighbor's goods. Exodus 2017 begins with house, Deuteronomy 521 begins with wife. Deuteronomy 521 also adds his seal. But again, the idea is summarized at the end of the verse when it says, or anything that is your neighbor.
The Lord does not condemn hard work. The Lord does not condemn possessions. The Lord does not condemn wanting to engage in lawful pursuit of those things which he has sent as blessings. What God condemns is the inordinate desire of the heart that covets someone else's possessions.
Let's look at a few passages that indicate that this is often a sin that leads to further sin. The book of Genesis, chapter 3. We'll just run through these quickly. Remember, these are instances where the act of covetousness leads to the accomplishment of further sin.
But even if there wasn't further sin, the covetousness is sin. Genesis, chapter 3. Verse six. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.
You see, there's some contemplation going on. There's some intention going on. There's some there's some meditation upon it, if you will. It is good for food.
It is pleasant to the eyes and it's desirable to make one wise. It's at that point she takes of the fruit and then she eats. Another example is in Joshua chapter 7. Joshua chapter 7.
Again, just showing that this act of covetousness oftentimes leads to further sin or to the actual act of sin. That's why it is best to cut it off at the fountainhead. Mentioned the other night, it's easier to step on an egg that contains a snake than to step on the big snake. Wouldn't even want to step on the big snake, right?
Big old python, big boa constrictor. You don't just step on it and kill it. But when it's a baby snake and it's in that egg, you can crush it, can't you? You see, this is the point.
You've got to deal with it when it's in there. You've got to crush it when it's in there. You'll step on it when it's in there, because the moment you give vent to it, it will find its way up. That's the problem in the church and the problem in the world.
We don't stop sin in its first uprisings. We don't deal radically with it. We think that we can take it into our laps and play with it. We think we can use it for as long as we desire and then just send it away.
You need to understand something about the anatomy of sin. You need to understand, the moment you begin to settle it in your heart, the beginning is of rolling it around in your heart, whether it be your neighbor's wife, his field, his house, or whatever is your neighbor's, the moment you give vent to it, it will not be content until you are engaged in absolute, abominable activity. That's the way we need to look at sin. Joshua chapter 7, the people of Israel were supposed to take out Ai.
They go and they lose. They lose severely in the battle. Just get it back to Joshua here. I was in judges.
They go, and then God tells Joshua to get up, there's sin in the camp, you need to deal with this. So after the tribe is set forth, after the family, all of that is brought to pass, then we find in chapter 7 at verse 20, Achan answered Joshua and said, Indeed, I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I have done. When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. And there they are, hidden in the earth, in the midst of my tent, with the silver under it.
Again, this is a time when the act of covetousness led to the further act of sin. What did it cost Achan at this particular point? So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent, and there it was, hidden in his tent, with the silver under it. And they took them from the midst of the tent, brought them to Joshua, and to all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the Lord.
Then Joshua and all Israel with them took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver of the garment, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had, and they brought them to the valley of Achor. Joshua said, Why have you troubled us? The Lord will trouble you this day. So all Israel stoned him with stones, and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones.
Then they raised over him a great heap of stones, still there to this day. So the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger. Therefore, the name of that place has been called the Valley of Achor to this day." He coveted and then he acted. He saw, he desired, and then he acted upon it.
James gives us the anatomy of sin in James 1, 14. Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. When it is full grown, brings forth death.
That's the progression. Sin is not glamorous. Sin is not cool. Sin is not hip.
Sin is not fun. Sin is not something we ought to enjoy doing. If you want to see the anatomy of sin and what it does and what it's about, look at this operating room. Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.
Again, that's unique from person to person. Your desire might be to break the Sixth Commandment. Your desire might be to break the 7th commandment. Your desire might be to break the 1st commandment, or the 4th commandment, or the 8th commandment, or the 9th commandment, or the 10th commandment.
We all have these peculiar desires that tend to draw us away. Well, what happens is, if we don't kill it at the desire phase, or at the desire time, then we give birth or conception to this particular desire. It gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. The act of covetousness oftentimes leads to further sin, but covetousness in and of itself is still sin.
Now, if Achan would have only looked and coveted in his heart, God would have dealt with him. But because he acted upon it, he and his family died. They were executed before the Lord on that day. in the Valley of Acre. So inordinate desire of your neighbor's good.
Discontentedness
A second thing prohibited is discontentedness. Discontentedness. The desire for anything that is our neighbor's reveals a heart of discontentedness at what God has given or not given to us. If you covet your neighbor's stuff, your problem isn't with your neighbor.
Is it? That guy, he's got everything. Man, do you see his car? Do you see his wife?
Do you see her husband? Do you see their kids? Boy, they've got great kids. Inordinate desire for their kids.
Your problem is not with the neighbor. Your problem is not with Mr. Jones. Your problem is not with his ability to make money and buy things.
Your problem is with God. That's what this tenth word speaks to. Discontentedness is not that you're not happy with Mr. Jones, it's that you're not happy with God most high.
Hodge says it includes the positive command to be contented with the allotments of providence and the negative injunction not to repine or complain on account of the dealings with God with us or to envy the lot and possessions of others. discontentedness. You see why it goes with what we started this morning. Give us this day our daily bread. Not how come you don't give me as much daily bread as Jones.
How come you don't give me such good kids as Jones? How come you haven't given me such a nice car as Jones? Whoever Jones is. You know, we're keeping up with the Joneses, as they say, right?
See, who's the problem with? It's God. You see, this tenth word burrows deep, shows us out for what we are.
Envy
Inordinate desire for our neighbor's goods, discontent in this, and the third is envy. Envy. I mentioned this on Wednesday night. Jealousy is when I want what my neighbor has.
I don't care that he has it, I just want it too. Envy is a bit more base. Not that I'm saying jealousy is okay. Go out and be jealous. just doesn't want the neighbor to have it.
I mean, I'd like to have it, but whether I have it or not, I don't want him to have it, right? That's envy. Diabolical. In a satanic twist on a glorious text, it inverts the process we are to engage in.
Romans 12, 15, we're to rejoice with those who rejoice. Somebody comes in and they've been blessed. We're to rejoice with them. We're also supposed to weep with those who weep.
Somebody comes in and they're weeping and they're downcast. We're supposed to sympathize and empathize with them. What's envy do? Envy twists that process.
A brother comes in rejoicing over a good gift from God Most High and we weep. Because we didn't get it. He did. Brother comes in and he's sad.
Something's happened bad in his life. He lost his job. He got laid off. He got a reduction in pay.
He's weeping and we're rejoicing because that crumb didn't deserve it anyway. You see, envy's terrible. Envy's horrible. Gary North defines it this way, he says, envy is the desire to see a successful person brought low.
Even when, should the person be brought low, the envious person does not benefit directly. I just want him brought low. It's unfortunate that federal governments are in this business of promoting envy today. But it's in each of our hearts.
Envy. Yeah, I want what he's got, but I don't want what he I don't want him to have what he's got. You see the perversion of that, the wickedness of that. Again, Hodge says, as envy is the antithesis of love, it is of all the sins most opposed to the nature of God and more effectually than any other excludes us from his fellowship.
I've got to say, brethren, if you're upset that someone's getting blessed, that evidences problems in your heart. If you're happy that somebody has misfortune, there's a problem in your heart. It's a pretty good general rule of thumb to gauge your spiritual well-being. Brothers rejoicing and you're upset about it, you've got problems.
Brothers weeping and you're secretly happy about it, you've got problems. And it's envy. It's a terrible sin, it's a perversion, it is godlessness, it is absolute wickedness. James links it to demonism.
In James chapter 3, several texts in the New Testament include this particular sin and vice versa. If you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now, the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. Look at that, though. Verses 14 and 15.
If you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your heart. See, that's what goes hand in hand. Envy and self-seeking. Envy and self.
Envy and me. See, me is most important in this equation, what I want. The world should just surround me. I should be the center of everybody's thoughts.
The Bible should say, take every thought captive to the obedience of me. That's the sinner. And unfortunately, it's the redeemed sinner. And this is why we need the power of the Holy Spirit.
And we need the preaching of the law so that God would be well pleased to drive this garbage out of our hearts. It's wicked. If you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic.
Where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. It's not interesting, confusion and every evil thing. You allow envy and self-seeking to run rampant in the life of the church. What's the result?
Peace, joy, happiness, contentment? No, it's confusion. What happens when envy and self-seeking run rampant in the home? Peace, joy, happiness, contentment?
No, it's confusion. That's what sin brings.
The Reason for the Commandment
So those three are prohibitions. Let's move on quickly to the reason for the commandment. Why does God say you shall not covet? Well, because he doesn't want us to have an inordinate desire of our neighbor's stuff.
He doesn't want us to be discontent. He doesn't want us to envy. These are all things that do not speak well of our position in Christ Jesus. The primary reason for the commandment is God, the lawgiver.
He speaks to this issue. Do not covet. But I want us to notice something in these commandments, the 10 words. First, we need to look at Ephesians 5.5.
Not that I didn't want you to get anything I've already said, but I really want you to get this.
Covetousness as Idolatry
I really want you to understand this, this is important. I want you to see how God has spoken these ten words. Ephesians 5, larger context, conduct worthy of the new man in Christ Jesus. Verse 1, chapter 5, be imitators of God as dear children.
Walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints. You see, it's fitting for saints not to be involved in fornication, in covetousness and uncleanness. He goes on in verse four, neither filthiness nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving a thanks.
Get rid of the garbage and be a thankful person unto God. This is what a new man in Christ Jesus looks like. Now, notice verse five for this, you know that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. What's a covetous man?
He's an idolater. Isn't that what Paul says? Look over at Colossians. Parallel passage.
Colossians three, verse five. Colossians chapter three, verse five. Therefore, put to death your members which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, notice, and covetousness, which is idolatry." It's interesting, isn't it? What are the first two prohibitions in the Ten Commandments?
It's against idolatry. You must worship the true and living God, according to the First Commandment. And you must worship the true and living God appropriately, according to the second commandment. This is a prohibition against idolatry.
Understanding Paul's words, as he defines covetousness as idolatry, what's happened? We've come back to the beginning. The language of Christopher Wright, he says, thus the commandments come full circle. First commandment, prohibition against idolatry.
Tenth commandment, prohibition against idolatry. What's the vile, wretched, wicked, godless idol that the Tenth Commandment prohibits? You and me. What's covetousness?
It's me-ism. It's all about me. The world should serve me. I should get what people have.
They should give me gifts, they should worship me, they should adore me, God should serve me. That's what the tenth commandment prohibits. Christopher Wright says, thus the commandments come full circle, to break the tenth is to break the first for covetousness means setting our hearts and affections on things that then take the place of God. When a society has so profoundly and deliberately abandoned the first and the tenth commandments, the moral vacuum that results from the loss of all those commandments in between soon follows.
Get rid of the first prohibition against idolatry, and the tenth against idolatry, and all those other commandments go out the window as well. And that's why society looks the way it does. See, our problem today is idolatry. Garden variety.
We may not be worshipping the Baals, and the Asherah, and the Molech that they worshipped in this particular time frame, but we're worshipping the equivalent to Baal, the equivalent to Asherah, the equivalent to Molech. And very often the one that is the most vying for our attention is ourselves. The purpose of God or one of the purposes of God and salvation through the cross of Jesus Christ is so that he died for all that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again. In the 10th commandment, we violate, we covet.
And we promote idolatry. We put our religious affections, we put our inordinate desires, we put our longings on something that is not God. But as well, we set ourselves up as the idol because we believe God should serve us, men should serve us, and what anybody else has ought to be mine. It's a terrible sin.
It's a very bad thing. So the first ten bookend the entirety of the Decalogue. God really is a jealous God and does not want you to be an idolater.
Positive Helps to Obey the Commandment
Well, what are some positive helps? I have nine. Now, before you go, oh man, nine means we're going to be here another half hour. Don't do that.
We won't be here another half hour. A couple of them we already looked at this morning, so I'll just give you the points.
God's Sovereign Ownership
First, recognition of God's sovereign ownership over all things. We already dealt with that this morning. We won't unpack that. So help to avoid covetousness.
God owns all things, right? We shouldn't get all bent out of shape. He doesn't give us everything. It's His.
We considered this morning. It's bad enough we think we deserve stuff. It's doubly bad when we think we deserve the best. That's just terrible.
Let's not do that.
God's Promise and Provision
Secondly, a recognition of God's promise and provision. Hebrews 13, 5 and 6. Again, we looked at that this morning. We trust, we have a hope-filled confidence in the paternal care of our gracious God and Father, who has promised, I will never leave you, nor forsake you.
With that understanding, brethren, you ought to guard your heart against covetousness. Don't covet. God has promised to provide. Don't crave what someone else has.
Don't be desiring of what other people have. God's promised to care for you.
The Surpassing Importance of Eternity
Thirdly, we need to have a realization of the surpassing importance of eternity to come. A realization of the surpassing importance of eternity to come. Why covet stuff on earth? Why covet our neighbor's wife, or our neighbor's husband?
Why covet their fields, or their houses, or their lawn gnomes? Why covet their cars, or their motorcycles, or their beach houses? Why covet that when we're heading to heaven? Who cares, right?
There's a bumper sticker that says, he who dies with the most toys wins. That's wrong. He who dies with the most toys dies with a lot of toys. There's no winning involved.
Jesus said in Mark 8, 36, what shall it profit a man? He gains the whole world and loses his soul. Luke chapter 12, that man came and asked Jesus, who got what? And Jesus tells that particular story of the young man whose field yielded plentifully.
He thought within himself. He said, I'll build more barns. I'll fill up my barns with all my stuff. And then I'll say to my soul, take your ease.
You have many goods laid up for many years. Just chill. Just relax. God says to him, thou fool, your soul is required this very night.
Let this be a help against covetousness. You're going to heaven. We are heaven bound. Remember that kid song, this train is bound for glory.
Woo woo. That's true. Her choo-choo, however we say it. In light of that, why would we crave somebody's car?
Who cares? In light of the fact that Jesus is ours and where he is and these eyes will one day see him as he is, why crave your neighbor's stuff? And just by a sideline note, you don't know what your neighbor's going through with that stuff. Right?
He may be in debt up to his eyes. She may be the biggest nag in the world. You're saying, why can't you be more like Brother so-and-so? He might stink.
You don't know what she's got to deal with. See, the grass always looks greener over there because of discontentedness. The idea here, brethren, is to value the surpassing importance of eternity to come.
Keep Your Heart with Diligence
A fourth help against the sin of covetousness is keep your own heart with all diligence. Proverbs 4, 23. made reference to that quote by Dabney, where he spoke of the screams of transgression and the fountainhead. Well, Solomon actually does that very thing in Proverbs chapter four. He says, keep the heart, keep the fountainhead, get control of the control center, keep your heart with all diligence for out of it spring the issues of life.
And then he deals with the various strains. Verse twenty four, put away from you a deceitful mouth and put perverse lips far from you. Let your eyes look straight ahead and your eyelids look right before you. Ponder the path of your feet.
Let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or the left. Remove your foot from evil. We trace it back.
If you're not removing your foot from evil. If you are not turning, if you are turning to the right or the left, if your ways are not established, if you're not pondering the path of your feet, if your eyelids aren't looking right before you, your eyes aren't looking straight ahead, if you haven't put perverse lips far from you and you haven't put a deceitful mouth away from you, what's the problem? You're dealing with your heart. You're dealing with the heart.
So keep it with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. You deal with the fountainhead and then the streams hopefully will be clean. You deal with the water source and then hopefully it'll be clean when it gets pumped into our homes. You see that?
That's what Solomon says.
Happiness in Others' Blessings
Fifth, cultivate a genuine happiness in the blessings of others. A genuine happiness in the blessing of others. I've already referred to Romans 12, 15. Rejoice with those who rejoice.
Don't be bitter if somebody gets blessed and you don't. Don't do that. Boy, she got a good one, or he got a good one, or they got great kids. What happened to me?
Rejoice! Be happy for that. It's terrible. Isn't it?
I get to raise at work and you're mad? Rejoice with Him. Be happy. Cultivate that.
May take some effort, may take some work, may take some genuine stick-to-itiveness, but by the grace of God, I'm going to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Sixthly, biblical contentedness. Again, we looked at that this morning. We will not develop that further.
A Charitable Spirit
Seventh, a charitable spirit. It's a great way to deal with covetousness. Give stuff away. What's the problem with a covetous man?
He likes stuff. What's a good remedy for that? Give it away. It's not brain surgery, it's not rocket science.
Give some of it away. If you crave stuff, give some of it away. Develop a charitable spirit. 2 Corinthians 9. God loves what?
A bitter, envious heart? No, he loves a cheerful giver. Ephesians 4.28. Don't steal anymore.
Get a job. Work hard so that you can make enough that you can give to others who have need as well. You see the positive element in that. There is a therapeutic effect upon the heart of man.
Spirituality of the Law
Eighthly, a proper view of the spirituality of the law. We need to understand that the law does not stop with me not actually committing murder. The law of God pierces down to the very heart, to the very soul of things. Hebrews 4, verse 12.
The word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The tenth word does this very specifically, very peculiarly, very powerfully. Cultivate. a biblical view and understanding of the spirituality of the law, and then
Active Obedience of Christ
ninthly, have a thankful heart for the active obedience of Jesus Christ. He never coveted. Ever. Never looked at his neighbor's wife, never looked at his neighbor's goat, never looked at his neighbor's field and had an inordinate desire for it.
It's one of the reasons he came into this world was to obey the law perfectly. Started out worship today by reading Psalm 15. You know, the Psalm 15 is about. It isn't about you.
And it isn't about me. It's about Jesus. We need to thank God for the active obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ, because we're covetous wretches. because we're discontent, because we're envious, we ought to stand in awe at our gracious Redeemer who came and who obeyed the law perfectly. Now that's not to say we shouldn't try, we shouldn't pursue a life of covetouslessness, but it is to say we ought to marvel at the glory and majesty of our great Redeemer and praise God for the active obedience of Jesus Christ that one has in fact done what the law specifies.
And that by virtue of God's grace, by virtue of the faith that he has given to us, wherein we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that righteousness that he achieved, that righteousness that he won, that righteousness that he secured is imputed to us. You ought to praise God for that. You feel the effects of the spiritual law of God. You ought to be cast down at the foot of the cross and stand in humble adoration of the one who does all that Psalm 15 says, all that the scripture says on behalf of his people.
And if you don't know that Lord Jesus Christ tonight, you need to believe the gospel. You need to believe on him and you will receive the forgiveness of sins. Covetousness finds us all out. I mean, I could preach on murder.
And 95% of the people could say, well, I've never done that. I hope 100% could say I've never done that, but mentally we've probably committed that. No one can say you've never coveted ever. You never desired, never had an inordinate longing for something that wasn't yours.
Really? You want to maintain that? Wasn't this the sin that Jesus put his finger on with the rich young ruler? The teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
You know the commandments, go do it. What's the guy say? Well, all these I've done from my youth. I've never murdered, I've never committed adultery, I've never stolen, I honor my parents.
Everything I've done from my youth. What's Jesus say? Go, sell everything you have, give the proceeds to the poor, and you follow me. See, sometimes people misunderstand.
They say, well, Jesus is saying, if you just fulfill this element of law, then you'll be in. Jesus is exposing his sin. What happened? That rich young ruler went away sad.
Why? Because he had a lot of possessions he didn't want to part with. What was his sin? He may have outwardly and externally never committed murder, never committed adultery, never engaged in those things.
But when Jesus took the spirituality of the law and he drove it upon that young man's heart, he went away sad. He was convicted. Paul said, I would not have known lust unless the law had said, you shall not covet. You see, this law calls you out and hopefully spurs you to fly to Christ Jesus, the Lord.
Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for its sufficiency in our lives. Thank you that it is our standard, our rule for faith and practice. We ask that you would go with us now and watch over us and grant us grace to see your will, your mind revealed concerning sin.
Help us to guard against it, to keep our own hearts with all diligence, knowing that from it bring the issues of life. Go with us now, we pray, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.