Lesson 11 Commandment 10

[0:00] Well, we're on to our last commandment, and I'll just tell you, we're going to have two more lessons, and what we're going to deal with is we're going to deal with law as a whole, and then we're going to deal with grace, because it's not enough just to kind of understand the different laws and what they mean and how they apply.

[0:19] We need to understand the broader concept of law and grace, because so often that's misunderstood in the Christian life, and I think it'll be very helpful to you for us to wrap up our time by looking at those things.

[0:34] But I want to start today by asking you a question. You could choose one of three things, and you'll have to just work with me here, because some of these things, you're all going to be like, no, not number three for sure, but that's okay.

[0:53] But just work with me here. You could choose to have a new car, a new house, or a new job. Right at this moment, what would you choose?

[1:06] None. None. Okay, now you have to choose. Car, house, or job? Car, house, or job?

[1:19] I don't want a job. I know, I know, I know. I've already had one. At this stage in our lives? Is that what we're doing? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's do it that way. Is that what we're doing?

[1:31] Is that what we're doing? He looked up. Is that what we're doing? Oh, that's funny.

[1:42] I'll say car. That's what I'm saying. Car, yeah. There you go. That seems to be the easiest, right? You know, what could happen in 30 seconds that might change your decision?

[1:56] The house would burn down. Exactly. Now, though, we're leaning over into a different sort of round besides just something you want. Now you're going to something you need.

[2:06] But it is still true that if your house burned down, the whole car, the whole job thing is, I mean, who cares about any of that? We need a new house.

[2:17] We have to have some place to live. Isn't it fascinating that the things that we would want, and go back 20 years, go back 30 years and think to yourself these same things, and what would you have picked?

[2:29] And how fast could the decision and your desire change? It could change in an instant, right? You know as well as I do that sometimes we want one thing, but something happens, and now we have to want something else because life just happens that way.

[2:48] I can think about times that I wanted to get up, and I wanted to go to work, and before I could get out of the house, all my desires change because something happened.

[3:00] You know, there was a flat tire. There was a problem with the car. Somebody gave me a phone call, and there had been a death in their family, and, you know, there's all kinds of things that can happen that change that.

[3:11] But what never changes is that in that moment, we always go with what we desire, and sometimes that desire, given a different set of circumstances, that desire might not have been very high.

[3:27] You know, a new house is not on your agenda. It's not on anybody's agenda, but if it were to burn down, that all of a sudden goes to the top of the pile, and it's because our desires are different.

[3:41] We are changing constantly. The commandment that we're looking at deals with our desires. That's what it deals with. When you talk about covetousness and to covet, that is a desire.

[3:56] And so we want to take a look at it, and one of the reasons that these desires are difficult is because of this sentence right here. What does this sentence say?

[4:08] I understand that the desire is. What's wrong with this sentence? It's backwards, isn't it?

[4:18] Yeah. Yeah. One of the reasons that covetousness is so bad is because it comes out of our hearts, and our hearts gets things backwards.

[4:30] We can desire good things too much. We can then desire bad things that we shouldn't even desire. And so that's sort of the heart of this commandment.

[4:44] There's also, here's the commandment itself from Exodus. 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.

[4:59] Anything that is your neighbor's. Now, up to this time, when you look at the neighbor's wife, you're sort of coveting his relationships. You look at his servants, you're coveting his sort of maybe way of life.

[5:13] You look at the ox and the donkey, you're maybe his lifestyle or maybe his livelihood, right? And then when he adds anything that is your neighbor's, it opens up the entire world.

[5:27] Like anything about your neighbor. Anything about them. Their influence, their power, their comfort, their ease, their achievements, their skill, their talents, their abilities.

[5:40] All of those things come into play as well, right? So we want to get to the heart of this command then. We want to get to the heart of this command and try to understand what's kind of going on here.

[5:52] We're going to look at this in a couple of ways. But in Matthew chapter 6, this is in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus is teaching. And he's talking about the whole section where it's laying up treasures in heaven versus laying up treasures on earth.

[6:06] And as I read this, I want you to think about a couple of questions. I want you to think about what kind of treasures do we tend to lay up on earth? What's wrong? With laying up treasures upon earth?

[6:20] And yeah, let's just deal with those two questions. What kinds of things do we tend to treasure and what's wrong with that? So let's take a look at the passage.

[6:31] Verse 19 says, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

[6:47] For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. So if the eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.

[7:00] If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness? No one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other or he'll be devoted to the one and despise the other.

[7:13] You cannot serve God and money. What kinds of things then do you think we have a tendency to lay up as treasures upon the earth?

[7:26] Material possessions. Okay, material possessions. That's a massive category. That's probably the easiest one to see. I mean, we can talk about all kinds of things under material possessions.

[7:38] That's a great category. What other things? Money. Okay, money. Now, is money a material thing? Yes and no, right?

[7:50] There's something about money that begins to ooze over into a section that I would call maybe like influence and power. Right? Because your money has a tendency to provide for you a certain amount of power depending upon how much you have.

[8:06] Right? Depending upon how you can use it. Okay, what else do we lay up treasures? Your looks. Your looks. Okay. Your body. Right. Right. Right. Absolutely.

[8:16] Absolutely. Who you are as a person that the skills, your appearance, your health that's with that. Those things are things that can be treasures that we lay up on earth.

[8:29] That's true. What else? Notority. Notority. Notority. Yeah. Reputation. I mean, maybe even under that it's going to be like accomplishments and even achievements maybe.

[8:43] You've arrived at a certain level of, I don't know, sophistication or, yeah. Yeah. I think all that's under that. That's good. Anything else?

[8:53] At our age, I think we tend to want our family, our immediate family more.

[9:05] Wish we'd those more. I don't know. Or to see them more or, yeah. No, I think you're right. I think it's very easy to turn our family into treasures upon the earth.

[9:19] I think that's a good thing to kind of think about. All right. So let's just talk very generally then. Why, from this passage, is it wrong to lay up treasures upon the earth?

[9:36] What's wrong with that? What happens because of that? They're temporary. They go away. Okay. So we go back to the idea of what? The moth and the rust and the thieves.

[9:49] That shows you this is something that's temporary. So, yes, these things are temporary, including our notoriety and including the way we relate to our families here and now, right?

[10:00] There's coming a day and we all die. And so the way we relate to one another here and now is temporary. There's a pastor that I love to listen to every now and then, and he wrote a book about marriage.

[10:14] And he calls it this momentary marriage because that's exactly what we have because we will not be married in heaven, right?

[10:24] Michelle will not be my wife in heaven. She's my sister in Christ. And so it's a momentary marriage. And she always goes, amen. I don't know. Anyway. Okay. So what else is wrong with laying up treasures upon the earth?

[10:37] You know that she's not here and I said that, right? I don't know. So it's temporary. What else is wrong with it? Causes hostility. Causes hostility.

[10:49] Okay. What do you mean by that? Well, if you think someone is better than you or they think they're better than you, then you can be sort of hostile toward them for thinking that way.

[11:02] Okay. Or jealous. So I really think that falls under verse 22 and 23. Remember, this is the weird verse. Like, these are weird, okay? Right? The eye is the lamp of the body.

[11:14] If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. What does that even mean? Right? Isn't that kind of strange? But here's what it means. It's very simple, right?

[11:25] Light is a good thing. And the eye is where the light either comes through or doesn't come through. And this is in the context of laying up treasures on earth and treasures in heaven.

[11:36] So laying up treasures in heaven is like the eye being healthy. You're desiring and looking towards the right things. But if your eye is bad, you're looking towards the wrong things.

[11:50] Right? And so when we do that, it shows that there's a great darkness in us. And that's why that hostility comes about is because of the great darkness. So they're temporary.

[12:01] There's this great darkness. And honestly, this one, right? You can't. We cannot both serve God and run after the things we desire, the treasures upon earth.

[12:19] They cannot coexist. That's why you shall not covet. You shall not covet. This word covet. What it means is to desire.

[12:33] It means to desire, to crave, to long, to attain. That's what the word literally means. It's that I am craving something.

[12:44] I long for something. I seek some way to attain that thing. Now, the reason the commandment is written the way it is is in order for us not to violate someone else by that.

[12:59] However, the heart of this command is that I desire things too much. Right? I can covet and it not have to be about you that I'm coveting.

[13:10] I can just covet and want and desire. There's a great story in the Old Testament that illustrates this story. This is a map of Israel.

[13:24] This is the Mediterranean Sea here. This is the Dead Sea. Everybody knows the Dead Sea is just a big old salt sea, kind of like the Great Salt Lake, right? The Sea of Galilee, that's where the wind came and Jesus, there are the boats and stuff.

[13:38] And you have the Jordan River right here. So the yellow, this is Jerusalem. That's where the temple is, that kind of a thing, okay? Now, this map represents Israel in the time of the divided monarchy, right?

[13:54] You had Judah in the south, the southern kingdom. You had Israel in the north, the northern kingdom. Now, in the south, there were two tribes. Does anybody know what two tribes were in the south?

[14:11] Judah was one of them. And the other one was Benjamin. Okay? So they're here in the south. Then in the north, the other ten tribes go.

[14:22] Now, the nation divided in two like this. But do you know whose reign they divided in? So, who was the, do you know, do you remember who the first king over all of it was?

[14:41] His head and shoulders above everybody else. Saul. King Saul was the first king over all the tribes.

[14:52] The second king was a man after God's own heart. Little shepherd boy. David, exactly. David. And his son was the third king over the whole kingdom.

[15:05] Who was his son? Solomon. Now, Solomon's son was the last king over all of it and he lost it.

[15:16] It split in his reign. Does anybody remember Solomon's son's name? Rehoboam. Rehoboam. Okay?

[15:28] Do what? No wonder I couldn't remember it. It's a strange name. That's right. Now, and Rehoboam, the reason, the reason that the kingdom split is because Rehoboam had this idea that since his father taxed everybody, he asked the older generation, what do you think I should do?

[15:47] And they said, back off. He asked the younger generation, what should I do? And they say, go after it. More taxes. So, he did so and it split the kingdom. The ten tribes went to the north and they began to be ruled by their own kings.

[16:02] The southern tribe then was always ruled by the house of Judah, Rehoboam, and all of his descendants. Now, when you read your Bible and you read 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Samuel is about this kingdom as one kingdom, not two.

[16:20] Right? When you get into 1 Kings, it's the divided kingdom. So, you'll read about a king here, then a king there, a king here, and a king there, and a king here, and a king there.

[16:31] When you read 1 and 2 Chronicles, it's just about the southern kingdom. So, it's like 1 and 2 Samuel is chapter 1, chapter 2, and depending on what you want to read, you either go kings or you go chronicles, and you kind of see the rest of the story.

[16:49] The story that illustrates, and I'm doing all that because I want us to have a good history here, but the story that we're talking about that illustrates covetousness comes from the northern kingdom from the book of 1 Kings, chapter 21.

[17:04] The most wicked king of the north. Because all of the kings of the north were all wicked and bad. And this king, his name is Ahab.

[17:15] Now, Ahab was such a wicked king. He even had a wife. Anybody remember his wife's name? Jezebel. And how many of you have ever heard somebody say, don't be a Jezebel?

[17:29] We'll find out here in a second why. So, what happened is that Ahab saw a vineyard close to where his palace was. He wanted the vineyard, but Naboth, who owned the vineyard, wouldn't give him the vineyard.

[17:45] As a matter of fact, Naboth was saying, no, this has been in my family for generations. I'm not going to give you this land. I want my children to be able to have this land. And so, what do you think Ahab thought about that?

[18:00] He did not like it. Listen to what the Bible says about it. Ahab went into his house vexed and sullen because Naboth the Jezreelite had said to him, for he had said, I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.

[18:19] And he laid down on his bed, turned away his face, and would eat no food. Now, last night somebody said, so he acted like a toddler.

[18:34] I mean, do you see that? You know, he is so vexed, so sullen that he goes to bed. He won't look at anybody. He won't eat.

[18:45] He is pouting, right? That right there, we could stop the story, and that is covetousness right there. Now, do you know what the rest of the story is, right?

[18:58] His wife comes in and says, what are you doing? And he's like, he won't give me the vineyard. She says, we'll kill him. So he does, and he gets the vineyard.

[19:12] That's why you had your parents or grandparents tell you don't be a Jezebel. You don't want to be a woman that misleads the man, right? So the point is, is that this covetousness, it's this desire that we have, it's this craving, this longing that we have.

[19:28] We can't stop thinking about it, and our hearts begin to make a plan to get what it is we desire.

[19:39] And what's interesting about this commandment is that it is so intertwined with all of the other commandments. Let's just think for a second about the other commandments, right?

[19:52] What is the first commandment? You shall not have any other gods but one. And one of the things that we said is that the positive way of obeying that command means to treasure God most of all.

[20:09] So, when you covet something, what's happening to the first commandment? How are you breaking it?

[20:23] Because you have an idol. You have an idol. Because you're treasuring something else more than God. When we covet, we're breaking the first commandment.

[20:34] It's almost as if the first and tenth commandment are the same. But just from different angles. So when we break the covet, the tenth commandment, we are also breaking the first one because we're coveting.

[20:48] Now, think about this. Let's just say that you've got a grandson that wants a pair of sneakers or something like that. I'm thinking about like school. You can go back to maybe when your kids were in school and they, man, when Air Jordans came out, everybody needed some Air Jordans on their feet, you know.

[21:07] And those shoes were $200, right? And so, you've got a kid who wants these sneakers. Really wants them. He feels as though he has to have them.

[21:19] And he can't stop thinking about them. Well, then, he's breaking this first commandment because he's not treasuring God above that. It may only be in about a five-minute segment that he does it, but he still breaks it, right?

[21:33] All right? What's the second commandment? No graven images. In other words, we cannot visualize God the way we want to.

[21:44] How might somebody, like this teenager who's wanting sneakers, how might he violate the second commandment with his covetousness? Do what?

[21:58] He's wanting those sneakers. He is. And what might he say about God that would violate the second commandment in that desire to have those sneakers? He might think to himself, God really wants me to have these sneakers.

[22:15] God gives good gifts. And he will give me these sneakers. Or he could say, I know that there is no God because if there was, he would give me these sneakers. What's the third commandment?

[22:30] Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. And one of the ways that we talked about taking God's name in vain has to do with not living the way he said where we kind of say, you know, I belong to him, but we don't act like it, right?

[22:47] But another way that we take his name in vain is when we say about him things that are not true. Things that, it's very similar to the second commandment in this.

[23:00] And you think about this boy with the sneakers. One of the things he could say is that in God's name, I declare these sneakers are mine, right? And he's saying, God's going to give me these sneakers, not trying to talk about his character, but trying to use God's name to get that.

[23:16] He could even go to his parents and say, listen, God told me I should get these sneakers. I'd be like a prophet, right? And he's speaking false prophecy. So he's taking the name of the Lord God in vain.

[23:28] What about the fourth commandment? What's the fourth commandment? That's right. Honor the Sabbath day and keep it holy. If he's coveting these sneakers, how might he break the fourth commandment?

[23:47] He's sitting in church the whole time thinking about sneakers. When we gather together to worship God on the Sabbath day, our minds should be focused upon the Lord, not other things.

[23:58] Not making grocery lists or clipping fingernails, by the way. I've been in churches where they've done that. We were at a church one time where this lady, every Sunday night, was clipping her fingernails. I was just like, could you please stop?

[24:11] Anyway, if you start clipping your fingernails now, I'm going to call you out. I'm just telling you. But, you know, here's this young man who, he wants this so much he can't even get his mind off of it when he comes to worship.

[24:25] Okay? What about the fifth commandment? What's that? Honor your father and mother. How might he break that commandment in being covetous over these sneakers?

[24:41] He's badgering them. That's right. He could go behind their back. I mean, there's all kinds of ways that he could dishonor his parents in this. What about the sixth commandment? Do not murder.

[24:54] How might he murder? He's a man of his parents or something. That's exactly right. That covetousness can lead to that anger and then that spiritual murder that we've talked about.

[25:08] Now, I didn't think of anything for the seventh commandment. But I think that if we were to replace the teenager with someone else and the sneakers with something else, we could probably get there, right?

[25:21] You can kind of see how that works. Okay, so let's just go to the eighth commandment. What's the eighth commandment? Eight? No, that's the seventh commandment. Marriage is between two people, not five.

[25:33] That's the seventh. Four. Four. You're missing your thumbs because why? Stealing. Stealing. That's right. So do not steal. So how might covetousness lead to breaking the eighth commandment?

[25:46] Shoplifting. He might. He might shoplift or he might steal from a friend who's already got the shoes. Right? And what about the ninth commandment? That's the one where four is not five, five is not four.

[25:57] Tell the truth. Right? So do not lie. Right? Yeah. Yeah, so he might tell his parents, but coach said we have to have these sneakers.

[26:11] You all laugh because you heard someone say that kind of a thing, right? So here's the point. The point is when we covet, we have another God and that covetousness can then lead to the breaking of almost all the other commandments.

[26:32] Amen. Just like the first commandment can lead to breaking all the other commands. It's almost like God wanted to say something specific about no other gods.

[26:43] Right? Putting these two together. So then, so how, how then does it function in us? Like what's happening inside of us? What's, what are these desires?

[26:56] What are the steps of the process by which we start to covet and the pathway to sin? I want us to see this because oftentimes if we think that God's in charge of everything, we want to blame God for things.

[27:07] But James chapter one, verse 13, he says, let no one say when he's tempted, he's tempted by God. But verse 14, each person is tempted when he's lured and enticed by external things.

[27:21] When he's tempted by things that are outside of him that were never in his own head. What's it say?

[27:33] His own desire. Temptation to sin is not about what's outside of us coming to us. Temptation to sin is about what's inside of us trying to get out.

[27:47] We have desires. And those desires either get too big or they're desires for wrong things. And because of that, temptation to sin happens.

[28:02] The next verse says, then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.

[28:13] And oftentimes I've heard people talk about the idea that when we experience temptation, that's not sin to be tempted.

[28:26] But the problem with that is this verse is saying we're tempted because there's a desire in us that's wrong. So really the temptation.

[28:38] So think of it this way. You got this kid with the sneakers. He really wants them bad. We know that he's sinning in covetousness because we've already talked about that. And in five minutes from now, he will have an opportunity to shoplift and take it.

[28:53] But it's already sin in his heart before those five minutes pass because of the desire. The opportunity to take them just happens to come along.

[29:06] And he compounds his sin problem by taking the shoes. Does that make sense? What we're saying then is that we have darkened hearts.

[29:19] Yes, when we were saved, we were justified. That's the language that the Bible uses. Being justified means that God declares us righteous.

[29:31] He declares us as if we had never sinned in the first place. And he does so because he credits to our account the righteousness of Jesus.

[29:42] It's not our righteousness. He doesn't make us righteous. He just says you are righteous. It's just a declaration. It's not a creation. So here we are with darkened hearts.

[29:53] And when we're saved, we trust Jesus for our salvation. God declares us righteous. He justifies us. He covers us with the righteousness of Jesus.

[30:04] So when he looks at us, he sees the righteousness of Jesus. But underneath, we're still got darkened hearts. That's why Paul says in Romans 7, the things I want to do, I don't do.

[30:17] And the things that I want to do are the things I don't do. And so I see that there's two laws in me. The law of sin and death and the law of the spirit, right? Because when we're covered with this righteousness and the Holy Spirit comes to live within us, we now have two principles.

[30:32] We still have our darkened heart. We're still sinners, yet we're also saints. And we have the power of the Holy Spirit living in us fighting. If you're not a Christian, you don't have that.

[30:42] You just have the darkened heart and that's it. So he covers us with the righteousness of Christ. But we still have the darkened hearts. We still desire things. This is why you can be a Christian and really growing in your faith and be Christian for 25 years and then fall into some sort of sin and you kind of go like, but I thought I was a Christian.

[31:02] It's like, yes, but you still had sinful desires in your heart. And you will until you go on to be with the Lord in glory. And so we have this darkened heart and that place is tainted and ruined and that's where the desires come from.

[31:22] And they can be wrong desires. Desires that grow too large, that get out of bounds, right? Because think about this. Are we supposed to treasure our children?

[31:38] Yes. Yes, we're supposed to treasure our children. But never to the degree that we treasure Christ. There is always to be a very clear distinction between the two.

[31:52] But we can get out of bounds and we can begin to treasure other things on earth more than we treasure God. Then we begin to dwell on those things.

[32:03] So it's there already and now we begin to think about it. Now we begin to turn it over in our minds that we want this certain thing. We need this certain thing is what we begin to say to ourselves.

[32:15] And when we say that, we hit step four and we sort of surrender ourselves to that thing saying, I'm going to get it. I'm going to get it. And once we do that, then we begin to make a plan and then we begin to act out on it.

[32:31] Now that's the process from covetousness to breaking another law, right? But I think it's important for us to see that because if we don't own up, if we don't own up that that sin came from me, then we'll have a tendency to blame other people for our sin.

[32:50] And there's no gospel cure for sin you commit that somebody else makes you do. There's only gospel cure for sin that you commit that you own up to.

[33:03] But if you look at Jesus and you say, but listen, that's not my fault. That's that's his fault. He made me mad. Then there's no gospel cure for them.

[33:15] One, because it's not a true thing. But also, too, we're not humbling ourselves and admitting our sin. It's a it's this it's this terrible, terrible process.

[33:26] It's this thing that's in our hearts. And the good news is that we have Christ. We have Christ who has paid the price for us already. So let me just pause there before we get into looking at some application and thinking about light, map and mirror.

[33:42] And let me see if you have any questions about anything. Is it pretty clear what we're talking about? Do you feel like you got it? What in James? What did death mean?

[33:54] Death. OK. Right there. When it's full grown brings forth death. I'm not 100 percent sure.

[34:06] I as I'm looking at this, I'm thinking there's two possibilities. One is that he's talking about the way sin works in general. That's what I think he's sort of doing. And he's talking about how that sin brings forth death in the sense of judgment.

[34:23] OK. Another way that I think that this could be understood is that judgment has a tendency to have an impact on us. So if I'm a if I'm a sinner without Christ and I'm just living my best life in my sin, I'm already under God's wrath and God's judgment.

[34:41] That's happening even though I don't feel it, see it. And there's coming a fulfillment of that that's big and huge one day. Right. Well, I live the life of death and I live under effects and things of that judgment.

[34:59] Part of God's judgment upon us is going, you want that? Fine. Go ahead. And so in Romans chapter one, he talks about people who are committing homosexuality.

[35:09] Right. They will receive within their their selves the due penalty of their error. And the due penalty is that you end up having a more and more darkened mind that will go off into deeper and darker sin.

[35:26] So in other words, part of that judgment is you want to go down in the hole. Fine. Let's cut the rope. Go all the way down. And so so I think that could also be the kind of thing that's there, too.

[35:36] I mean, that's a terrible thing to me. I mean, for God to just say, fine, you can have it. I don't want I don't ever want God to say that to me, you know, so I don't think that is wood that says I'm a Christian, but just the feel of that.

[35:52] Yes, ma'am. I just have an example. I knew a person that they had kids and stuff and the kids would always eat all the candy and stuff. And this lady wanted some for herself or soda water and stuff.

[36:04] So she would take out the bottom drawer in her kitchen cabinet and there's a kick space down there that's dead space. She would hide candy and sodas and stuff in there so that she could have them later when the kids were away from the house.

[36:18] What made me think of if she's doing that with something as simple as candy and sodas, what else has she got up her sleeve? You know, that's kind of made me think, well, what else is going on?

[36:31] This is a simple little thing. I mean, people put things in the back of the shelf so people can't find them so they can have it later or whatever. But, man, she went to great lengths to hide stuff from her kid.

[36:42] Well, you know, it's a true thing as well if you trace it out. And I know this by anecdotal information, not like research and data and facts and statistics.

[36:55] But a person does not commit adultery just on a whim. There are things that have been leading up to that.

[37:06] There has been a lack of self-control and perhaps there's a lack of self-control in dealing with the opposite sex and being flirtatious. Or maybe there's a pornography problem or maybe there's some other thing.

[37:21] And so that doesn't happen in a vacuum. And we don't just jump right into that. And just the same way, it's very, very rare. Or somebody just will immediately murder somebody without there having been a long trail behind them of murderous and angry thoughts and things that they've struggled with and they've just never dealt with.

[37:40] And so, to me, I think that goes in the same direction. So, yeah, good. Okay. Okay. All right.

[37:52] Well, let's talk about as a light, this particular commandment, not to covet as a light. As a light, that means it's telling us something about God.

[38:02] It gives us an indication about something about God's character that helps us to appreciate and to worship him more. And the first thing that I would say is that it shows us that God is a holy God.

[38:14] He's a holy God. He will not share his glory with the gods of my creation. My desires that get too high, I desire to have comfort.

[38:27] I desire to have peace and quiet. I desire to be respected. I desire to whatever. I desire marshmallows instead of marshmallow cream. Whatever it is I desire, God will not share his glory with another.

[38:42] That's what he says in Isaiah 42. I am the Lord and that is my name. My glory I give to no other nor my praise to carved idols. I'm not going to share that.

[38:56] And in our lives, he will not be pleased and praised while we are in the same breath, worshiping this desire we have and also trying to worship him.

[39:08] He's a holy God. That's not something he's going to tolerate. But the other thing about this is that I think it gives us a glimpse that God is the only truly satisfying gift that there is.

[39:23] Or let me say it another way. God is supremely satisfying. He's supremely satisfying. I think this is where Paul takes us in Philippians 3.

[39:34] When he talks about look out for the dogs, look out for the evil doers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. This was the circumcision party saying that Gentiles need to be circumcised.

[39:45] Because then he says we are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus. But no confidence in the flesh. Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also.

[39:56] For if anyone thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. I'm circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. As to the law of Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church.

[40:10] As to righteousness under the law, blameless. I have all of these things that commend me that could be things that I could be supremely satisfied in.

[40:22] But what does he say? I count whatever I counted as gain, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth.

[40:34] The surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ.

[40:46] C.S. Lewis said that we as Christians often play with mud puddles when we have the water of life available to us. God is supremely satisfying.

[40:58] That's because God is supremely, eternally happy. He is a happy, joyful God, supremely satisfied within himself.

[41:09] As the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit relate to one another, they need nothing from us. He is supremely, think about this, if God is the greatest of all beings, for the Father to look at the Son is supremely satisfying for him, supremely joyful for him.

[41:27] He needs nothing else but his Son himself. The Spirit sees the Father and Son and are supremely satisfied in the Father and Son. Needs nothing else to be joyful and happy.

[41:39] And yet, what has God done? He has condescended to us to give us the gift of saying, come enjoy my own joy. Come join in as I relish within myself and get the overflow and the splash of that all over you.

[41:58] God is supremely joyful. And he is supremely satisfying for us. And to say to ourselves, do not covet, should remind us, I need nothing but God.

[42:13] I count it all loss. Except for the sake of Christ. For the sake of Christ. Oh, yeah.

[42:23] That'll preach right there. I love that. Sorry. Let's talk about the map for just a second. I think we've covered a good bit to deal with sort of kind of how we need to do things.

[42:36] We know we need to watch our desires and not let them get too far. But let's give a little more specific. I think we can covet anything that God has created.

[42:50] Anything that God has created. And that means even the implications of things he's created. So, for instance, he has created male and female. And because of that, there is marriage.

[43:00] And because there is marriage, there is relating to one another. And all of that are things that we can covet. I could covet somebody else's marriage. And wish that my marriage were more like that.

[43:11] And covet it to a degree that is too much. I could covet somebody else's children. And how those children turned out. And how they interact with their parents. And wishing that maybe mine had done the same.

[43:24] Anything that is created, we can desire. And desire it too much. People, relationships, jobs. We can even covet.

[43:35] It's going to sound strange. Heaven. We can covet heaven. Heaven. Because it is a creation of God.

[43:47] And often times it comes in the form of our family that have gone on. And yes, there is a joyful reunion coming.

[44:00] But I've often asked this question. And I think you'll understand what I'm saying when I ask you this question. Just to remind you. If you can have heaven. And all your family that's gone on before.

[44:11] And all the glories and the joys of heaven that would be there. That are promised and described about heaven. But God was not there. Would you still want to go?

[44:26] And I think the answer has to be for the Christian. No. Christ is the reason I want to go. God is the reason I want to go. I want. Yes, I want to see my grandparents again.

[44:38] I think that would be. I'm so excited about that. But I cannot desire that more than I desire God. I have to keep it in bounds.

[44:50] And so this covenant. Or this commandment about coveting. Helps us understand these things. And let me just say. In the world that we live in. Okay. Let me bring it. Let me bring it.

[45:01] And go out from our own hearts. And about what we're living into this world. There is a whole segment out there of Christians. I'm going to say Christians. And what it's called.

[45:13] It's called side B Christians. Okay. Now you've probably not heard this term. Because it just. We don't traffic in these thoughts very much here in this community.

[45:25] But it's out there. And you're going to run into people eventually. Who are going to talk this way. The way that they talk. Is they're talking about homosexuality as a sin. And they would say.

[45:36] If you commit the act. It's a sin. But having same sex attraction. Is not a sin. It's just a desire. You understand the difference of what they're saying.

[45:47] They're saying. You can be a Christian. And be attracted to someone of the same sex. To desire someone of the same sex. And that's not a sin. So long as you don't do the act.

[45:59] Now based on what we have just talked about. I think you can see. No. Desire is a sin. Right. When we desire something too much. Or we desire the wrong thing.

[46:12] And having an attraction for the same sex. Is an unnatural desire. Let me illustrate it with a different commandment. Think about the commandment. The eighth commandment.

[46:22] Not to steal. Okay. For just a second. Now. It's not wrong. To desire money. That's not wrong. Now.

[46:34] There is a love of money. That goes beyond desire. It's too high. And that's the root of all sorts of evil. Right. But I want money. And I do. And the reason I want money.

[46:44] Is because I want to eat food. Because I don't have a big piece of property. Or a tractor. Or anything. To be able to plant my own food. And I don't have cows. That I can go slaughter. And have my own food.

[46:55] I got to go to the store and buy it. And so I need money. To be able to do that. And it's not wrong. For me to want to eat. You know. I mean. I shouldn't want to eat. Anyway.

[47:05] Well. That's a whole other discussion. Anyway. So. So. It's not wrong. To desire money. However. I can become covetous.

[47:16] Over money. By becoming a workaholic. And by doing things. To try to get more. And try to amass. More. And more. And more. Right. So I can just have so much.

[47:28] There in my heart. Well. What. What can happen then. Is that an unnatural desire. To take from you.

[47:39] In stealing. Take something. That was. Good desire. And causes it to be unnatural. It is not wrong for us. To desire.

[47:50] To want to be with someone. To be physically. Emotionally. Being spiritually intimate. With another human being. There's nothing wrong. With that desire. When.

[48:01] A guy and a girl. End up. Going outside the bounds. And the commandments of marriage. That God has given. There are. They're coveting. And they're sinning. And there's. There's adultery.

[48:11] That's happening in that. But there's nothing. Unnatural. About that desire. Until all of a sudden. It shifts over. To someone of the same. Sex. Now that's unnatural. Does that make sense?

[48:22] So. There are Christians out there. And a lot of these denominations. And there's even some. In the Southern Baptist Convention. Who we're a part of. Who would say. That it's only a sin.

[48:33] If you commit the act. And. That's just wrong. That's just wrong. And there's. Scripture. It says. If you lust. You've already committed the act.

[48:44] Yes. I know. In your mind. You've already done it. They. They would say. That they. That they're not. Thinking about. You know. The sex part of things. They're just thinking about. The.

[48:55] The. The intimacy. But I'm saying. Yes. But. You should want to desire. To be intimate with someone. Of the opposite sex. Because that's what. The natural way. That God has made things. And so.

[49:06] Yeah. Alright. So let's talk about. A final thing. And that is. Thinking about this commandment. As a mirror. We know. That the commandments. Show us.

[49:16] Our need. And I think. This commandment. Above all of them. Shows us. How deep. And dark. Our hearts are. None of us.

[49:26] Have arrived. At a place. Of sinlessness. None of us. Will ever be sinless. So long as. We're drawing breath. In this world. We only become sinless. Once we go on. To be with the Lord.

[49:38] And. And so. It shows us. What we really love. It shows us. Who we really love. And really. The tenth commandment. Is just a repeat. Of the first commandment. That we. We tend. To make gods.

[49:49] Out of everything. And so. Because of that. Christ. Has come into this world. To die upon the cross. And his death upon the cross.

[50:00] It does a couple of things. Number one. It does. Replace. Our old self. Now. I said a while ago. We're darkened hearts. And we're covered. With his righteousness.

[50:11] And so. We're still sinners. But the Bible. Also describes. That if we're in Christ. We're new. Creation. Now. Why does it speak that way? Because the Bible.

[50:22] Has an already. And not yet. Aspect to it. You think about. This idea. Are you brand new. In Christ? Yes. Are you fully new?

[50:34] Not yet. The. The. The New Testament. Describes. The days. That we live in. As the last days. Paul. Talked about being. In the last days.

[50:45] I think it was John. In one of his epistles. Says. It's the last hour. Well. Is it the last days? Yes. But not yet.

[50:57] Right? The way that we view. Even the end times. Is it already. And not yet. And it's the same way. With all that's being worked. In us. Am I saved? Yes.

[51:08] But am I fully. Finally. Finished. Being saved? Not yet. There's still the. Transformation of my body. To a glorified body.

[51:19] That's going to be waiting. For when Christ returns. So I'm saved. But not yet. We're new. But not yet. So. When he died upon the cross. He does die. To begin to put aside.

[51:31] Our old self. And because of that. We should have new desires. Begin to creep up in us. Desires that honor him. Desires that glorify him.

[51:41] But secondly. The cross forgives us. Of our sin. When he goes to the cross. He pays the price. For our sin. And I. I just want you to know. I don't know how much longer. Any of us have to live.

[51:52] But let's just assume. We're all living. For another 50 years. And you've got another 50 years. Of covetousness to go. Christ has already paid.

[52:04] The price for it. He's already paid the price for it. It's already been paid for. And the third thing. About the cross. Is that it reminds us.

[52:15] That God has provided for us. All that we need. For life. And godliness. He has provided for us. All the things that we need.

[52:26] For life. And for godliness. Hebrews 13. 5 says. Keep your life free. From the love of money. And be content. With what you have. For he has said. I will never leave you.

[52:36] Nor forsake you. He's telling us. To be content. With what we have. He's telling us. That he knows. What we need. That he will be there for us. And that.

[52:47] I will never leave you. Or forsake you. Is a covenant promise. Which he bled for. He bled. To make. To purchase a promise.

[52:59] That says. Be content. With what you have. Be content. With what you have. He knows. Our every need. And he will not. Let those needs.

[53:10] Go unmet. He will provide for us. Everything we need. For life. And for godliness. Through the cross. And because of that. We can trust him. And we don't have to.

[53:20] Fight for the things. That we want. They're not that. Important anyway. Well let's. Let's pray. And then I'll. I'll take some questions. Bye.