This afternoon we'll be looking at Baptist Catechism 86. We'll also be reading from Colossians 3 through 1 through 17. I hope that you are growing in the conviction that this catechetical preaching is very important, for here the Christian faith is being very slowly taught and communicated. And if we are consistent in this as a church to come and to hear this catechetical preaching, I think it will help everyone to be well grounded in the Christian faith. It will also help our children. Remember I put out a little thing a while ago about how do I know when my child is ready for baptism? And a lot of it was kind of centered around the catechism. So how beneficial it is for our young people to hear these basic doctrines, just taught regularly, little by little, piece by piece, over a period of time. I think it's a very important thing that we are doing here. Baptist Catechism 86 asks, what is forbidden in the Tenth Commandment? So this is the very last question dealing with the Ten Commandments. And the answer that is given here is that the Tenth Commandment forbiddeth all discontentment with our own estate, envying or grieving the good of our neighbor, and all inordinate motions and affections to anything that is his. Very helpful answer to the question what is forbidden in the Tenth Commandment. And I would like to read from Colossians 3, 1 through 17. Here now the reading of God's Holy Word. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, uncircumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave-free, but Christ is all and in all, put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another, and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you. So you also must forgive. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called into one body, and be thankful Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." This is the reading of God's most holy word. Last Sunday afternoon I began by drawing your attention to the uniqueness of the Tenth Commandment when compared to the other nine. The Tenth Commandment speaks only to the condition of our heart. It does not speak to the words we say or the deeds we do. Yes, it is true that covetousness in the heart will produce sinful words and sinful deeds, but those would be something other than covetousness. Covetousness is a sin that resides within the heart. Today I would like to begin by making a very general but important observation. When God commands us to not covet in the heart, this implies that we do have control over what goes on in our mind and heart. I think this is very important for us to realize. We do have the ability to control the thoughts that rattle around in our heads and the desires that reside within our hearts. If this were not the case, then God would not command us saying, don't covet. Now, what I have just said needs to be considered in light of man's depraved condition by nature, his natural bondage to sin, and the unique freedom that those in Christ enjoy. Having been renewed by the Holy Spirit, believers especially have the ability to control the thoughts that rattle around in their heads, and the desires that reside within their hearts. Those not in Christ are in bondage to sin. So it is no wonder that the world acts like they cannot control what is in them. Have you thought of that? How the world does act as if they cannot control their passions and desires. They are who they are. It is no wonder the world speaks that way because they are in bondage to sin. But not for the Christian. The law says don't covet. By nature we are in bondage to sin and bound to covet, but in Christ we have been freed from sin and have the ability to put off covetousness, along with other sinful thoughts and desires that reside within the inner man." I wonder if you're following me here. I'm basically saying this, the Christian ought never to say, this is simply who I am. I cannot change." Or, these are the thoughts that I think, these are the emotions that I feel, these are the desires that I have, and I cannot help it. They're outside of my control. You see, I'm just a victim to these things. Yes, I can control what I do and I can control what I say, but when it comes to the thoughts that come upon my mind or the desires and affections of my heart, those just come upon me and I cannot control it. The Christian should never speak in this way. It's simply not true. God's law says don't covet. And this law has been written not only on stone, but on your heart by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit if you are a Christian. And so you do have the ability to obey in Christ from a renewed heart and mind with the help of God's sanctifying Spirit. I must also say that sanctification is a process and it is a daily battle, isn't it? Sanctification is a process and it is a daily battle. The passage that I've just read from Colossians 3 proves both that it is possible to obey God in the mind and the heart and also that it is a process and a battle. In that text, Paul commands Christians to put away internal sins, such as impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Isn't that interesting, how Paul links the 10th commandment with the 2nd commandment here? He says that covetousness is idolatry. They are different in some ways, but covetousness in the heart is a form of idolatry. It is idolatry in the heart. And he speaks of the putting away of these sins as if it were a process. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth, he says. This is something that we must choose to do daily and even momentarily, we must set our minds on things above and not on earthly things." He then says, "...put to death what is earthly in you." This too suggests that it is a process. We must daily and momentarily put to death the deeds of the flesh. He says, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge after the image of its creator, put on then compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, et cetera. So there is this process that the Christian goes through of putting off the old self and putting on the new self. Sanctification is a process, and I think you would agree with me. that it is a battle, it is a struggle to obey God in Christ Jesus. And then he says, above all these things, put on love. Put on love. I could go on, but again, I think the meaning is clear. Sanctification is a process, it is a daily battle. And so Christian, I am saying to you by way of introduction to this sermon, you do have the ability to control your inner life. You do have the ability to control your inner life in Christ Jesus. You have been renewed by Christ and by His Spirit. You are not in bondage to sin. And God does call you to put off the old man and to put on the new. And that is to be done not only in word and deed, but also in the mind and in the heart. In fact, this is where true sanctification starts. This is where true obedience emanates from. It emanates from A mind and heart that has been renewed. And so I might ask you, do you have covetousness in your heart? Do you have covetousness in your heart? Have you grown bitter against God or others? Is there lust in your heart? Is there jealousy? Is there evil desire? If there is, then with God's help I must say to you, turn from these things, put them off, and put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator." We have to take the inner life seriously as Christians. We have to not only obey God in word and in deed, but we have to keep our hearts pure, for it is from the heart that our lives flow. So having now made that general observation that God cares about the inner thought life of His people and that He has freed us from our natural bondage to sin so that we might serve Him from the heart, let us now consider Baptist Catechism 86 which asks what is forbidden in the Tenth Commandment. The answer I think is very helpful. The Tenth Commandment forbiddeth all discontentment with our own estate. To be content is to be satisfied in the Lord and with His will for you. 1 Timothy 6, 6-10 says, But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains." could hear the emphasis that Paul is here placing upon the inner life of man, the thoughts, the desires, the loves, the affections of man. And if we have this love for money, love for the things of this world, if we are discontent in the heart This will plunge us into ruin." We should take these words very seriously. There is a strong warning here. Pursue godliness, obey God in word and deed, but pursue it with contentment in the heart. This is great gain, the Apostle says. Next, our Catechism says, the 10th Commandment, forbid all envying or grieving at the good of our neighbor. To be discontent before God. is to fail to love Him, where it is to doubt His love for us. That is another way of putting it. To envy or grieve at the good of our neighbor is to fail to love our neighbor. So really all of this can be summed up with the commandment to love God with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. What should we do if our neighbor is having success? If we love our neighbor, what should our response to the success of our neighbor be? Certainly we should not be sad about that. And neither should we be jealous, instead we should rejoice with our neighbors concerning the blessing that God has determined to bestow upon them by His mercy and grace." And by the way, if God has determined to bless someone with something, who are we to complain about that? That's God's business, isn't it? If He wishes to bless someone in some way, that's His business. He knows what He's doing. It's not for us to try to control in any way. We are to rejoice with those who rejoice. We're to weep with those who weep. After this, our catechism forbids all inordinate motions and affections to anything that is His, referring to our neighbor. I think this word inordinate is super helpful. It means excessive. It helps us to see that there is nothing at all wrong with looking at what your neighbor has and thinking, I would like to have one of those someday. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with looking at your neighbor's possessions, looking at your neighbor's family, looking at your neighbor's job and thinking, I would like to have that someday. That is not covetousness, necessarily, but I think that you can see it can easily grow into covetousness. Very quickly it can grow into the sin of covetousness. It's the same way with anger, by the way. There is such thing as righteous anger, but when anger overflows its boundaries, when it grows to be inordinate or excessive in some way, it becomes sinful. And so it is with looking at your neighbor and what others have. It's nothing wrong with saying, I would like to be in that situation or have that possession someday, but we have to guard our hearts against inordinate motions and affections to anything that our neighbor possesses. Again, you may look at your neighbor's house or car or family or whatever your neighbor may have and think, I would like one of those someday. That is not sin, but be very, very careful with that. guard your heart against covetousness, find your contentment in God and in His will for you, and give thanks to Him. And then you will be free to pursue those godly things that you wish to have in a godly way from a heart that is kept pure before the Lord. Do you see how this works? Pastor Phil mentioned it this morning to the children. Is there anything wrong with trying to get an education and earn a promotion at work and save money in order to buy this thing or that? There is nothing wrong with any of that. That is actually good. That is a good thing to do. But we have to keep our hearts free from covetousness and discontentment. We have to keep our lives free from the love of money. Not money, but the love of money. That is where we get ourselves into so much trouble. So to keep our hearts free from discontentment, then we are free to pursue those godly things that we wish to have in a godly way from a heart that is kept pure before the Lord. But if we allow ourselves to be drawn to things that others have, that is what the language of motions and affections is referring to, us being drawn to certain things in an inordinate or excessive way, it will lead to all kinds of evil. Again, as Paul has said, but those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. It is through this craving that some have even wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. I would urge you, brothers and sisters, to reflect deeply upon these things. Examine your own hearts and ask, is there any covetousness in me? And maybe even consider what you have seen in the lives of others, how you have seen this to be true, that men and women having been overrun by love for the world, how they have in fact gone off the rails spiritually speaking, how they have grown discontent and even bitter towards God and their fellow man. This is a very sober warning that is brought to us by the Apostle. Brothers and sisters, keep your heart with all vigilance. for from it flow the springs of life," says Proverbs 4.23. Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. What is forbidden in the Tenth Commandment? Repeat the answer after me. The Tenth Commandment forbiddeth, all discontentment with our own estate, envying or grieving at the good of our neighbor, and all inordinate motions, and affections to anything that is his." Let's bow for a word of prayer. Father, help us to keep our hearts and our minds pure before You. Help us to see that this is true. That our words and our deeds will flow from the heart. So help us to keep our hearts pure. We thank you that we've been washed by Christ. We thank you that you are about that work of sanctification in us. Finish it, Lord. Bring it to completion. We know that you will. But Father, help us to pursue these things. Give us a desire to pursue true obedience to your law. Not only external obedience, but obedience from the heart. God, to sum it up, we ask that you would increase our love for you and for one another in Christ Jesus. In His name we pray. Amen.