PM Exodus 20:1-18 A Satisfied Mind - Commandment 10

[0:00] specifically thinking about that commandment this evening. But we're going to read from Exodus 20 and we're going to read from verse 1 as we have done down to verse 21 again.

[0:15] God is speaking to the prophet Moses in the mountain of Sinai. He's giving him these ten commandments on two tablets of stone.

[0:25] And so Moses is writing as he wrote the first five books of the Bible and he's telling us that God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

[0:45] You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image or 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.

[1:01] You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me.

[1:20] But showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

[1:44] Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male servant or your female servant or your livestock or the sojourner who is within your gates.

[2:04] For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them. And he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

[2:18] Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder.

[2:32] You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

[2:43] You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything.

[3:01] That is your neighbor's. Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled and they stood afar off and said to Moses, You speak to us and we will listen.

[3:20] But do not let God speak to us lest we die. Moses said to the people, Do not fear, for God has come to test you that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.

[3:39] The people stood far off while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. Amen and may God give us good understanding of his written word.

[3:57] Now before we come, Now if you have your Bibles, If you would turn back to that passage that we read a moment ago in the book of Exodus in chapter 20 and specifically verse 17.

[4:10] This is the final of God's commands to his people Israel. It's about coveting and we'll look and see what that word really means. But I've entitled the sermon, as you'll see, A Satisfied Mind.

[4:26] A Satisfied Mind. I perhaps will give part of my age away when I say that one of my favourite singer-songwriters is Bob Dylan.

[4:40] And Bob Dylan quotes these words in one of his songs. He says, How many times have you heard someone say, If I had his money, I'd do things my way.

[4:55] But little they know, it's so hard to find One rich man in ten with a satisfied mind.

[5:06] Once I was waiting in fortune and fame. Everything that I dreamed of to start in life's game. But suddenly it happened.

[5:20] I lost every dime. But I'm richer by far With a satisfied mind. As we come to this tenth commandment of God, It is safe to say that this prohibition not to covet Flies in the face of much modern thinking in our world.

[5:49] Without doubt, Without doubt, the Lord Jesus, In his ministry, said many things That questioned and contradicted This world's value system And its outlook And its priorities In life.

[6:08] The Lord Jesus said, These words, Love your enemies, Do good to those who hate you. Well that was and is revolutionary, Isn't it?

[6:25] But it's also counter-cultural to the world's thinking. To love your enemies And do good to those who hate you.

[6:38] He also said, What does it profit a man If he gains the whole world But loses his soul? And in Luke 12 verse 15, He went on further And he says, Watch out.

[6:58] Be on your guard Against all kinds of greed. For a man's life, Or a woman's life, Does not consist in the abundance Of possessions And riches.

[7:18] We live, I submit to you, In a world That does believe That life Does consist And revolve around The amount Of your possessions And wealth.

[7:31] The world Values Wealth And riches As the important Goal of life. A hallmark Of success And achievement In a way That God Does not value.

[7:50] The world Prizes The pursuit Of gain Above the value Of a person's Soul And maybe You are here This evening And your goal And what you prize Is aligned With the world's Rather than What God Values Which is Your salvation And the salvation Of Your soul.

[8:23] The verse That we have Before us Let me read It again To you You shall Not covet Your neighbour's House You shall Not covet Your neighbour's Wife Nor His male servant Or his female servant Or his ox Or his donkey Or anything That is Your Neighbours.

[8:46] Well what does it mean To covet? We must ask that question. Well in the bible It is actually A very interesting Word That doesn't Always Have A negative Meaning But in this context In verse 17 It does have A negative Meaning For coveting Means to crave To desire Or yearn After something That belongs To somebody else Let me say that again Coveting Is to crave Or long for To desire Or yearn For something That belongs To someone else And so we Covet When we set Our hearts On anything That is not Rightfully Ours Thomas

[9:48] Watson An old Old Puritan Of many Years ago Said This of Coveting It is An insatiable Desire Of getting The world And what he Meant by the World was Material prosperity Or wealth Or luxury Thomas Watson Says It is an Insatiable Desire Of getting The world One of the Documents that Christians sometimes Use to help Them understand The Bible Are sometimes Called confessions Of faith And one of those Confessions of faith Called the Westminster Confession of faith Says this of this Tenth commandment It says The tenth Commandment Forbids All Discontent With our Own Estate It forbids Envying Or grieving At the Good of

[10:48] Our Neighbours And all Inordinate Motions Or affections To anything That is There It's a bit Of a mouthful It's old English But that's What it Means The commandment Forbids All Discontent And lusting After Or craving After Or desiring After Anything That is Our Neighbours And neighbours Just means Anybody else Apart From ourselves This command Here In verse 17 Above All Other Of the Commands I submit To you Drives And exposes Our Very Heart Our Desires Our Longings Our Affections It exposes Our Heart's

[11:49] Very Nature Which is Sinful Now You may Think As you go Down These Ten Commandments That You Are Pretty Clear On Some Of The Other On Some Of You Might Be Able To Say Well I've Never Murdered Anybody I've Never Actually Committed Adultery So I'm Okay On Them You You may Think You may Think You're Clear On Some Of Those Other Commands Because They Forbid What You Do Your Outward Actions And You May Think You're Home And Dry On That But This Commandment Goes Far Far Deeper Than What We Do It Goes And Challenges Who We Are By Nature What We Are In Our Hearts And God As it Were Shines A Light On Our Sinful Hearts Because We

[12:49] All By Nature Have Hearts That The Bible Tells Us Are Desperately Wicked The Bible Tells Us That Our Hearts Are Unfathomable In The Sins That They Are Capable Of Doing Someone Has Said The Heart Of Man's Problem Is The Problem Of Man's Heart You See God Knows That We All Have A Covetous Heart Now Coveting May Not Be A Word That We Hear Or Use Very Much Today Yet The Concept Of Wanting And Desiring And Craving What Is Not Ours Is Very Much Alive In 2022 It's Well Known To Us All If We're

[13:49] Truthful With Ourselves And It Is That That God Forbids In This Tenth Commandment Now Each One Of Us Everyone In This Room Have Unique Desires And Aspirations In Life But So Often We All Want And Crave For Things That We Haven't Got Don't We Sometimes We're Even Prepared To Steal To Gain Those Things And We Looked At That In The Eighth Commandment To Feed Our Dissatisfaction We Will Go To Inordinate Lengths To Satisfy Our Cravings You See At The Very Deepest Level Of All Of Our Beings All Of Our Personalities

[14:50] We Have Been Affected By Sin So That Our Desires Are Corrupted And Tainted And Excessive And We Are Covetous At Heart The Desires Sometimes That We Have And Some Of Those Desires Are Good Desires Many Of The Desires That We Have As Human Beings Are Good Desires Desires To Be Loved Desires To Be Respected Desires To Be Have A Feeling Of Belonging But The Problem Is That We Are Led To Believe That Those Desires Can Be Found In Acquiring Possessions And Wealth And Luxury And Things You

[15:52] See Our Hearts And Our Minds If We Are Honest With Ourselves Are Restless So Often Dissatisfied So Often With What We Have We Always Want More And We Seek Contentment And We Seek Success And We Seek Security And Those Longings The Dissatisfaction We Are Told Can Only Be Met And Fulfilled By Acquiring What We Don't Have Or Acquiring More Alistair Begg Minister In America Says These Words Our Society The Society That You And I Live In Surrounded By In Dumfries Or Glasgow Or Wherever You Come From Our Society Thrives On Materialism Cashing In On The Sin Of Covetousness

[16:52] It's Modus Operandi Or It's Reason For Being Is To Create Within You A Longing For Things You Don't Have Not Only A Longing But Also An Attitude Of Need And Entitlement We Need It We Deserve It Especially If Someone Else Has It And I Don't Have It And So He's Saying That Our Society Thrives On Pushing That Agenda Through Its Marketing And Its Advertising And The Advertising And The Marketing That You And I Are Surrounded By And Bombarded Through Social Media And Through Television Or Whatever Promotes This Thinking The Bank Nat

[17:53] West Had A Slogan Quite A Few Years Ago That Exhibits This Strategy Take The Waiting Out Of Wanting Was Its Slogan And Strap Line The Credit Card Industry Is Booming Is Booming Isn't It It Feeds Our Distorted Desire And Hopes And Dissatisfaction With What We Have And It Offers A World That Is Better Than What We Are Experiencing Just Now Have It Now Have It And Have It Now No Point In Waiting For It Because After All You're Worth It Go For It Well It's True I Think That No One Has Been Imprisoned For

[18:53] The Crime Of Coveting However The Effects That Wrong Desires Have On People's Actions Are Clear To See You See All Our Actions In Life All Our Behaviors Are The Results And Evidence Of Our Heart's Desire You See Every Act Of Theft Started With A Person's Heart Their Heart's Desire To Have Something That Didn't Belong To Them That Wasn't Theirs Every Act Of Adultery Started With A Heart's Desire To Have A Person To Whom They Were Not Married Well Why Is It A Universal Truth That

[19:54] We Want What We Don't Have Why The Insatiable Clamor That We See In Our Own Hearts For More That We Don't Possess Why The Dissatisfaction The Restlessness In Our Lives So Often The Discontent In Our Lives It Was The Rolling Stones Who Were Before My Time By The Way Who Said!

[20:28] I Can't Get No Satisfaction But One Earlier Than That Put His Finger 1600 Years Ago A Man Called Augustine Of Hippo Said The Reason That We Are Restless Is Because We Have Been Made For God And Our Heart Is Restless Until It Rests In Him Until We Are Satisfied In Him And With Christ You See Our Dissatisfaction The Fact That We Don't Have A Satisfied Mind So Often Is Because We Are Estranged From God By Nature And We Love The Lie And We Believe The Lie That Says That Things Satisfy

[21:29] That Money Will Bring Us Happiness That More Money Will Bring Us More Happiness But More Is Never Enough The Problem That We All Have By Nature Is That Instead Of Going To God For Our Fulfillment And Our Security And Our Hope And Our Satisfaction Instead Of Going To The One Who Made Us For Himself The One Who Knows How We Should Operate The One Who Has Designed Us The One Who Knows What Is Best For Us In Our Lives We Go Elsewhere For Our Satisfaction And Our Fulfillment We Listen To The Lie Of Satan The Deceiver As we Thought This Morning And We Listen To

[22:29] The World's Voice Which Is Under His Control And We Are All So Easily Seduced To Believe The Lie And We Ignore Christ's Appeal In The Gospel Which Says!

[22:46] Come To Me All You Who Labour And Are Heavy Laden And I Will Give You Rest Or 800 Years Before That The Prophet Isaiah Said These Words In The Old Testament In Isaiah 55 The Prophet Said These Words Why Are You Spending Money On That Which Is Not Bread And Your Labour On That Which Does Not Satisfy Listen Carefully To Me God Says!

[23:22] And Your Soul Will Delight In The Richest Of Foods You See Your Greatest Need And My Greatest Need Despite All The Advertising And Marketing That We Are Surrounded By In This World Telling Us Otherwise We Cannot Be Satisfied This World Is Telling Us That We Can Be Satisfied By Things But We Know In Our Heart Of Hearts That That Is Not True Our Hearts Cannot Be Satisfied With These Things Whether That's Money Or Wealth Or Luxury Yes Those Things Are Nice To Have But They Do Not Last Early

[24:25] In The Last Century The Question Was Posed In The Times Newspaper What Is Wrong With The World And We Might Ask That Question Today Mind Is The World Bad Because Of Others Is The World Bad Because Of Poverty Is The World Bad Because There Is So Much Lack Of Education Is The World Bad Because Of Inequity Is The World Bad Because Of Our Leaders Is The World Bad Because Of Our Government Does The Blame Lie There Well The Question Was Posed A Hundred Or So Years Ago What Is Wrong With The World One Man Wrote Back These Words Dear

[25:26] Sir I Am Yours Faithfully G.K. Chesterton You see The result Is the Tragedy That is The Human Race It's It's Our Hearts It's Your Heart It's My Heart We Have The Problem Of Sin We Were Made To Love God And Our Neighbour As Ourself God We Love We Love Ourself And We Indulge Ourselves In Things Outside Of God We Have A Real Problem With Our Hearts If We're Honest Well How How Do We Counter

[26:26] Covetousness How Do We Get Rid Of This Canker That We See In Our Own Hearts How Can We Ever Hope To Keep Or Even Attempt To Keep This Tenth Commandment Well Let Me Give You Three Or Four Hints Or Helps Encountering Our Covetous Hearts Firstly I Think We Need To Remind Ourselves That That Covetousness The Promise Of Covetousness Is An Illusion Covetousness Promises Something But Can Never Deliver The Most Perhaps Notable Individual In The Bible Who Exhibits This Was A man Called Achan Who We Could Read Of If We Had Time In Joshua Chapter 7

[27:28] The Children Of Israel Let Me Just Give You The Background The Children Of Israel Were Entering Into Or Going Towards The Promised Land They Were Given A Number Of Commandments About What They Were To Do And What They Weren't To Do And On One Occasion As They Were Going Up To A City Called Ai They Were Told That They Weren't To Take Anything Of The Spoil That Was There After The Battle But There Was A Man Achan Who Disobeyed God And He

[28:33] His Whole Household Because Judgment God's Judgment Was Brought Upon Him And Upon His Family And The Pattern Of Seeing And Coveting And Taking Is Seen Also In David's Life And We Thought About That When We Thought About David When He Committed Adultery With Bathsheba He Saw A Woman He Desired Her He Coveted Her He Took Her He Had A Man Killed In Order That He Could Get What He Wanted His Inordinate!

[29:11] Desire That Came From His Heart And He Committed Adultery But Judgment Came On Him And Judgment Came Not Only On Him But On His Family Because God Brought Judgment You See The Lie Of Satan Is That Have That You're Worth It But It Always Ends Ultimately In Disaster It's Illusionary The Billionaire Nelson Rockefeller Was Once Asked How Much Money Does It Take To Make You Happy Mr.

[29:55] Rockefeller His Answer Just A Little More Just A Little More Covetousness Promises But It's An Illusion But Secondly Covetousness In Our Hearts Is Deceitful It Promises Satisfaction And Contentment But Never Delivers On It The Writer Of Ecclesiastes Says These Words Whoever Loves Money Whoever Loves Money Never Has Enough Money Whoever Loves Wealth Is Never Satisfied With His Income I Wonder If You're Like That This Evening If You're Like Me We All Just Want A Little Bit More Don't We Just A Little Bit More Covetous Promises If

[30:55] You Have More Money More Luxury More Fame You'll Be Satisfied The Deceitfulness Of Its Promises That The More You Have The More You Want Thirdly We need To Remember That Things Are Transient Things Possessions Wealth Fame Popularity Whatever You And I Covet Is Transient It Was Robert Burns Wasn't It Who Said These Words In His Poem In Tam O'Shanter He Said These Words But Pleasures Are Like Poppies Spread You Seize The Flower Its Bloom Is Shed Or Like The Snow Falls On The River A Moment White Then

[31:56] Melts Forever Or Like The Borealis Race That Flit Ere You Can Point Their Place Or Like The Rainbows Lovely Form E Vanishing Amid The Storm Things Are Transient The Lord Jesus Told The Story Of A Rich Man Who Amassed Great Wealth It Wasn't Even Enough Wealth For Him He Designed In His Heart That He Was Going To Build Bigger Barns To Have Greater Wealth And The Bible Says!

[32:40] That He Had Not Stored Up Anything Towards God He Was Not Rich Towards! God God Hadn't Figured In His Calculations God Didn't Feature In His Arithmetic!

[32:54] And He Was So Intent On Getting More And More And The Lord Jesus Called Him And Said You're A Fool This Night Your Soul Shall Be Required Of You And Where Will Your Riches Be Then Covetousness Is Illusionary It's Deceitful Things Are Transient But We Still Go In For Them Don't We So Often So We Need To As An Antidote To This Covetousness That Springs So Easily From Our Heart We Need To Cultivate Contentment I Submit To You We Have Seen That This Covetous Spirit Comes From Our Heart But The Wonder Of The Gospel Of God And The Gospel Of Jesus Christ

[33:54] Is That When We Come To Him To Find Rest In Him He Gives Us A New Heart He Gives Us New Desires He Gives Us His Holy Spirit Which Gives Us New Desires Listen to The words Of Ezekiel In the Old Testament He says I Will Give You A New Heart And Put A New Spirit In You I Will Remove From You Your Heart Of Stone And Give You A Heart Of Flesh And I Will Put My Spirit In You And Move You To Follow My Decrees And Be Careful To Keep My Laws Contentment Means Wanting What God Wants For Us Rather Than

[34:55] What We Want For Ourselves So Often The Way To Get Rid Of A Covetous Heart Is To Be Increasingly Satisfied With God And What He Provides For Us The Psalmist Says These Words Delight Yourself In God And He Will Give You The Desires Of Your Heart He's Not Promising There That If You Delight Yourself In God You'll Become!

[35:26] Rich He's Not Saying Delight Yourself In God And You'll Have A Wonderful Life Of Luxury But When You Delight Yourself In God Your Heart Will Be Taken Up With Him So Much And With His Son The Lord Jesus That Your Desires Will Be Holy Desires They Will Be Righteous!

[35:47] Desires They Will Be Good Desires Cultivate Contentment Be Thankful For What God Has Given You Already You See The mark Of Christians Are That They Are People Who Are Meant To Be Thankful Romans 1 Verse 21 Tells Us That Hebrews 13 Verse 5 Warns Us And Says These Words Keep Your Lives Free From The Love Of Money Doesn't Say Keep Yourself From Money Because We All Need Money We All Need Money But It Says Keep Your Lives Free From The Love Of Money The Craving After It The Coveting It And Be Content With What You Have You

[36:48] See Covetousness Starts Doesn't It With Discontent With Dissatisfaction With What God Has Given Us And Instead Of Thinking That I Must Have Or We Must Have This We Should Look And Say Look What I Have Already Look At What God Has Given To Us Already But So Many Of Us Live In The The World That We Might Call If Only If Only I Had More Then I Would Be Happier If Only I Had A Better Job If Only I Had A Better Salary If Only I Had A Better Figure If Only I Wasn't Single Then It Would Be All Fine If Only I Had More Money Then And The List Goes On You See If We Base Our Contentment

[37:48] And Our Satisfaction On Things We Will Remain Dissatisfied Paul In Writing To Timothy And First Timothy Six Verse Nine Says These Words As A Warning Those Who Want To Get Rich Fall Into Temptation And A Trap And Into Many Foolish And Harmful Desires Which Plunge Men And Women Into Ruin And Destruction You see The Apostle Paul Recognized In His Life That No Matter What Situation He Found Himself In He Could Rest In The Knowledge And He Could Rest In The Fact That God Was In Control

[38:48] Of His Life He Says These Amazing Words To A Group Of People In A City Called Philippi He Says I Know What It Is To Be In Need And I Know What It Is To Have Plenty He Says I Have Learned I Have Learned The Secret Of Being Content In Any And Every Situation Whether Well Fed Or Hungry Whether Living In Plenty Or In Want He Says Godliness With Contentment Is Great Gain He Trusted In God He Had A Satisfied Mind The Final Thing That I Would Say

[39:50] To You This Evening To Counter Covetousness Is Be A Giver Be A Giver The Best Antidote For Coveting Is To Be Generous With What You Have Already God Has Given You Everything That You Have It Belongs To Him And So Instead Of Trying To Amass Things We Should Be Concerned About Giving Giving Them Away Especially In The Work Of The Gospel And The Lord Jesus Talked A Lot About Giving Why Because Giving Is The Antidote To Materialism And Covetousness It's A Cure And An Antidote Against Coveting In Our Lives So I'm Duty Bound To

[40:50] Ask You All This Evening As I Ask Myself What Kind Of Heart Do You Have What's Your Greatest Desire To Get More To Get Rich To Amass More Things Are You Rich Towards God Am I Rich Towards God Does He Feature In Every Aspect Of My Life The Lord Jesus Says These Words But Store Up For Yourself Treasures In Heaven Where Moth And Rust Do Not Destroy And Where Thieves Do Not Break In And Steal For Where Your Treasure Is There

[41:51] Your Heart Will Be Also The Apostle Paul Says I Want To Know Him More He Didn't Say I Want More Things He Had Learned The Art Of Christian Contentment That Godliness With Contentment Is Great Gain And So The Final Call To Us Really Is To Be Satisfied With God Be Satisfied With God Come To Know Him Respond To The Lord Jesus As He Says Come Unto Me All Ye Who Labor And Are Heavy Laden And I Will Give You True Rest

[42:53] May It Be So For Christ's Name's sake Let's Pray Together Father Father We Continue In Your Presence Father As We Search Our Hearts Even Those Of Us Who Are Believers In You Who Are Christians Who Have Been Given A New Heart We Confess That So Often!

[43:21] We Hanker After Things We Covet Things That Others Have We Are Unthankful To You For What You Have Given Us In Your Providence So Often We Are Unthankful And Father We Pray That You Might Forgive Us For This Father We Are Conscious That There May Be People Here As There Very Often Are Who Have Never Been Given Even A New Heart Who Have Never Come To Know Your Son As A Savior And Lord And So We Pray This Evening That You Might Write Your Name Upon Their Heart That They Might Turn From Their Life Of Disobedience To You And Put Their Trust In Your Son The Lord Jesus Father

[44:21] We Thank You For Your Mercy And Your Goodness Especially Seen In The Giving Of Your Son The Lord Jesus For People Like Ourselves To Save Us From Covetousness And Greed And Envy So Father We Pray That You Might Take Your Word And That You Might Apply It To All Our Hearts And That You Might Break Every Barrier Down That We So Often Put In Your Way Father We Ask This In Jesus Name Amen Now Let's Finish By Hand!

[45:09]