Good. Well, welcome. And it's good to be in the house of the Lord on the Lord's Day. So let's open with a word of prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we give you thanks once again that we can gather together your people, Father, coming together to worship you. Father, as you have commanded, as you have called us to, as we've studied about, O Lord, we ask, Father, that you would give us a measure of your grace commensurate with the ability to understand your words. So, Father, we pray that your Holy Spirit would lead us and guide us into all truth. We pray, Father, that today, as we worship you, that we would be brought into the heavenly places, and, Father, that our sin would be put away from us, and, Lord, that we would be That we would be more sanctified more desirous of you and That we would covet the things of God and we pray in Christ's name. Amen We are in Exodus Chapter 20 we're on the last commandment The 10th commandment about coveting so as we normally do. James, which one do you want to read? Do you want to read the first half or the second half? Do you want to read 1 through 9 or 10 through 17? 10 through 17? OK. That sounds good. Who wants to read 1 through 9? Heather, do you want to read that? OK. Thank you. Whoops. One through nine. Yes, please. I have spoken all these words, saying, 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 me for yourself any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is beneath the sea, or that not bow down to one monster, for I am a wretched God and a jealous God. It is in the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to hurt that generation, like those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments. We shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain, for the Lord will not hold him, nor us, who take it. Together, today, we stand this day to give the Lord, Lord God, honor and respect. I want you to make a vow now, too, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and of the Holy Spirit, and of the Holy Spirit, and of the Holy Spirit, who was one of the school's chief employees, and one of the main members of the board of trustees, and was all about the future of the school. And he actually was concerned about the future of the school, and he worked with the staff, and he said that he was going to have a meeting with the board Thank you. And I want to thank you guys and commend you guys for reading the word and memorizing it and storing it in your heart. We've studied the Ten Commandments. We've even studied the Tenth Commandment. So we are here. This is our second study of the Tenth Commandment. We've looked at the word covet and what that means. And I'll point up again that unlike the other commandments, no stealing, no murder, I actually don't have no coveting because The command is against the negative coveting, if you will. That's what Thomas Watson today is going to focus on. But it is good to covet the things of the Lord, as we saw last time. So that definition and that desire is good. what we're going to be talking about today and directing that desire to the things of the Lord. I wanted to point out one thing before we went on. You can see here, you shall not covet. your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife." Now notice here, as we go into the Deuteronomy, we see, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, you shall not desire your neighbor's house. Two different Hebrew words in the Deuteronomy passage. I'm thankful that our Hebrew scholar for the denomination, the resident expert, is actually here and he can comment on that. Here's what I want to make, the point that I want to make about those two, that We came up last time with a rather extensive definition of what coveting was, is, and we also looked at various aspects. We're going to continue that from Thomas Watson's perspective today, but I want to say that if it says you shall not covet, you shall not desire, I think what Moses is saying here in the other rendition of the Ten Commandments is that, you know, you can run but you can't hide. Don't go there. Don't desire the things that you can't have. Don't covet the things that you can't have. I'm going to take that more expansive view of both of those, but that was interesting. Actually, just this morning as I was looking, I go, that's very interesting. Do you want to make any comments about that? No? Okay. Did I say anything wrong? Did I say anything wrong, incorrect? No? OK. Is that how you would interpret what Moses is doing there with the second rendition? OK. OK, here we go. Coveting according to Watson or, I mean, we looked at the fact that Thomas Watson is made inputs into the Westminster Assembly. And even though he was very young, He was born in 1620, so with the Westminster Assembly meeting, 1643 to 1648, or the back end there, maybe not so much. He, even though at a young age, he made some significant inputs. We'll see some of that as we go through and look at the larger catechism. But here's some points that Watson would have us to consider as we think about coveting. First off, entitled The Goldilocks Principle. That's mine, that's not Watson. But from Proverbs 30 verses 8 and 9. Not too much, not too little. So Proverbs 30, we looked at this one the last time, verses 8 and 9. Who has that? Okay. Okay, not too much, not too little, just right. So that principle is the principle of coveting. That's what, you know, where we're going to hit that mark, where we want to hit that mark is at the right spot. I don't know, personally it seems like you can't get to that right spot without bouncing off some of those borders and going, well that's too much, well I don't have enough. But that's one of the considerations. What he would also point to is that the principle that we've looked at with the Ten Commandments, that principle of honoring the Lord with your substance. So we're going to give back to the Lord and what that does is remind us that every time that we end up giving back to the Lord, what He has given to us, it's a reminder of what He has given. This comes from the Lord, this substance that we have, this ability to take care of my family, to clothe, to house, to eat, to do the basic necessities. And even more than that, that comes from the Lord and that giving back to the Lord, that's a constant reminder of that. Coveting, if you want a good, succinct definition, we looked at that broader definition last time from Eerdman, but there it is, Augustine, desiring more than enough. That's what coveting is. That's great. What's enough? What's too much? There again, that becomes a very personalized type of definition that we end up having. The essence of coveting is having an inordinate desire for the things of the world. We saw that last time, and I'll stop saying that from now on. When you love the world, remember that entangling that gets into our hearts and we start thinking that we've got control of this, but no, it actually has control of us and that inordinate love of the world and the things of the world. Watson says, and I love the quote here, he may be said to be covetous, not only who gets the world unrighteously, but who loves it inordinately. So you can see that there's that grasping, that grabbing after the things of the world, but then that desire and the inside in the heart that is grabbing a hold, taking a hold of us, and we may not even be able to see that. Okay. This is a rewording of what he said. It's taking a paragraph. But when he puts in more effort to get worldly things rather than the things of heaven, thus neglecting the things of eternity. you can see that coveting is taking hold of us when we're spending more time, inordinate amount of time, going after the things of the world, whether that be in career, whether that be in pleasure, recreation. That grasps a hold of us and takes control of us. Here's a good one, when his speech is about worldly endeavors and pursuits. So now everybody's going to be, you know, speech police today. But, you know, the things of the Lord and how is the Lord working in my life, those are important concepts and we don't need to shy away from those, especially when we gather together as God's people on the Sabbath. But hey, there's still, as we've looked at, there's still that desire to relate and find out how other people are doing and the things that interest them. But it's too much. It's going above and beyond. It's thinking about, talking about the things of the world and worldly pursuits and so forth. Okay, when he overloads himself with worldly business, I can look back on my own career and remember the fear that I was going to be a failure. The fear of failure is a great motivator for somebody in the workforce. But you can also, you're not trusting the Lord if that ends up consuming you and it overloads you, to use Thomas Watson's terminology here. Okay, when he uses unlawful means to gain the things of the world, obviously if we're having to violate moral principles, and we see that, then we've gone too far. When others start to see that and start to point that out, how do we react? What is our initial reaction when somebody tries to point that up? Do we react by being defensive? Do we go into the defensive crouch? Do we start to say to ourselves, but I am justified. We realize that the human mind can justify everything, including murder. that is in the background here as we think about unlawful means. How about as we're going to that unlawful mean, you know, that we're not going to break the law, but, you know, get right up to it, just like Jesus talked about, when I'm angry with my brother, when I'm not thinking, you know, thoughts that that God would have about that person, that I am despising that person in my heart. Those are unlawful means, according to Christ's definition. Those are, you know, if we're going to go the letter of the law, maybe they don't go right up to that. But remember, it's the heart, and that's what Thomas Watson would continue to have us to look at here as we're considering those aspects of coveting. Any thoughts on those points? Okay. It's a subtle sin. 1 Thessalonians 2.5 says, So the Paul is saying here, he's talking about his reputation and how he is in front of them, so to speak. And he's saying there wasn't a cloak of covetousness. So what does that idea mean? Thomas Watson will explain this by saying that there's that aspect of coveting that, man, it looks good, you know, except that what's that heart attitude that is driving that? What is the thing that is motivating the whole thing? It's good to be able to do the right thing. It's better to do it for the right motivation with that right heart attitude. And so that's where Paul is going. I think it's in Philippians where Paul talks about from false motive or true, Christ is preached. There's a false motivation and a true motivation. There's maybe a lot of false motivation, and what is that motivation that's behind that? It's the, hey, look at me. I know how to preach, or I know how to, look at my wealth of knowledge. Paul is saying he didn't come with that, even the pretense of some sort of covetousness. So that's a really key concept, is the cloak of covetousness. Something that we have to be able to discern in ourselves, and we have to see our own heart motivations to look and to actually be honest enough to be able to say, You know, there's this energy and there's this drive that maybe I shouldn't have and that is creating a situation that I'm going after this and here's the cloak that looks good on the outside but actually it's covetousness on the inside. Okay, it's a dangerous sin, and specifically what he says. This quote in particular, I was going to put it in. It could go under any of the categories that I've got here, but I wanted to make sure that I quoted it. But, many sermons lie dead and buried in earthly hearts. Wow. What a great statement. So, look at that and, you know, first off, what does it say? Sermons are important. The preached Word is important. And yet, it's how I receive that. What is my heart attitude towards the preached Word? Am I giving the Lord that fertile ground or is my heart closed and now I'm starting to think about what am I going to do tomorrow? Hey, when's the next vacation? I need to plan for that, whatever. But, yeah, that's a really good, that's just an awesome quote. Okay, it's impossible to be both earthly-minded and charitably-minded. What he's saying here is that charitably-minded, that's the old definition, that's love. So, you know, we could substitute It is impossible to be both earthly-minded and have an attitude of love, or to follow the law of love. Those two don't exist side-by-side, is what Thomas Watson is saying. Okay, a mother sin. We wouldn't use that kind of terminology and yet the concept is there. This sin gives birth to other sins. We studied this the last time and saw the association of. This is underneath all of the other sins. And we go, when you look at the larger catechism, you know, about stealing and about murder and about lust, you know, not adultery. And there's this long, laudanary list. Well, guess what? All of those are included in this commandment. And so when you get to the explanation in the larger and shorter catechism, it's going to be very succinct because it includes all these other sins. And coveting leads the way to the other sins. That's what Paul found out. You know, that he wouldn't have known what coveting was if the law had not said, do not covet. But in coveting, all of the other ones, we find out that we have just violated that. We have, as we talked about, we end up having another God before God. We end up forming idols in our hearts. We end up grabbing a hold of the world. We're probably violating the Sabbath, you know, murder, stealing, adultery, all of it. And so it's all contained in that sin. This is my terminology. It's a gateway sin. It's like a gateway drug. fostering or giving way to making the opportunity for the violation of those other sins. Obviously it's going to be dishonorable to religion, and here Watson is talking about the Christian faith. So he says, the higher grace is, the less earthly should Christians be. As the higher the sun is, the shorter is the shadow. I always like Watson's analogies that he pulls in. Matthew Henry does something similar as well. But something that you can, your mind, an image that your mind can grab hold of and say, I can relate to what that is saying there. But that's a helpful point. Okay, and it shuts out of heaven those that are coveting. So, Ephesians 5.5, this is also reflected in other verses. So, who has that one? Okay. that this sin, coveting, I'm a covetor, so that sin cuts you out of heaven. So for the record. OK. OK. So far, so good. How are we doing? Any thoughts? OK. Right. Yeah. Exactly. To restrict it to selfishness, I don't want to do that. It is selfish. It will be selfish. It's more than that. The word cloud that goes with covetous is huge. We looked at that the last time, I said I wasn't gonna say that again, but in order to bring up the positive as well as the negative aspects, it is, according to scripture, okay, desirable, to desire God. And we're gonna look at that one again as we get towards the end of the study, but God desiring to be in his holy temple. So that is the word coveting. Jesus in the New Testament, obviously the Greek equivalent, desiring, eagerly desiring to have communion with his, to establish communion, to have the Passover meal with his disciples, with his apostles. And so there's that positive and that negative aspect to desire or coveting. But yes, it is, you're right, it is, it's selfish. And it's focusing on me, myself, I'm the center of my world rather than acknowledging God being the center of your world. I think that Watson's solutions here are very helpful, and standard review, these topics are going to be topics you go, well, yes, I've seen that before. Thomas Watson specifically applies them to coveting. So first, faith. it overcomes not only the fear of the world but also the love of the world. If we believe what God has told us, that he will never leave us nor forsake us, then coveting is obviously something that faith would exclude and that we would you wouldn't want to do. It displeases God. It isn't going to accomplish what you think it's going to accomplish. We used this before, but nice wheels, huh? Okay, so just as an example, not trying to create the desire there, other than to say, that coveting can creep in very quickly, and it's something that you eagerly desire, and when you get it, you find out that it's straw, and it's not worth having. So judicial considerations. I had to go through this section quite frankly, to be able to understand exactly what he was saying. But I think this is what Watson was saying. So first off, Ecclesiastes 2.11, we could say this about everything, every human endeavor. Ecclesiastes 2.11 says, I mean, I'm fired up. How about you? We're going to continue on and what are we going to do? It's all going to be worthless. And yet, it's important to have the godly attitude towards the things that we're going after, right? So it's important to make sure that we're doing the things that we do for the right reason. It's not so that we can look good to others, the fear of others, the fear of failure. You know, we go down the laundry list of unacceptable kinds of motivations. But we realize that what we do here on this earth, that's what the whole book of Ecclesiastes is about, that's what Stephen preached to us about, and so we can remember that it's vanity. He used the term the frame and texture of the body and then the connection with the soul. So here's what he means by that. He talks about in the eye there's four muscles. There's actually more muscles than that. access to that information would have been limited. But he was bringing up the fact that you can look, we have, not animals, but we have the ability to look upward. There's a fifth muscle in the eye that looks upward. And so the predisposition, his point is that the body's predisposition is to look to God. So that would go along with Blaise Pascal, the God-shaped hole in your heart. But that idea, he wants to point us to the soul. And this, in the modern day, the soul does not get the emphasis that scripture would put on it. The design of who we are, our physical bodies and our souls, our souls, you know, our physical bodies are of this world, our souls are eternal. And so the design of the human body makes it so that our orientation is towards the spiritual. And so as we consider in our minds the fact that we are made for God, and as Augustine said, we don't find our rest until we rest in You, O Lord, and that how God made us, and that orientation is helpful to remember as we are considering the actions that we have and the things that we do. Okay. We need those blankets from over at Heritage. Jeannie actually mentioned that, but okay. We can look at the example of those that have gone before us and we can say that, you know, the positive examples, the negative examples in scripture, you don't have a lot of Enoch's. You don't have a lot of ables. And even if you go into the Faith Hall of Fame, you can point to the errors that each one of those individuals made in and yet they still made it into the Faith Hall of Fame, and you just kind of scratch your head. Well, that's who human beings are. We're flawed, and so we are covetous. And we can look to the examples of those that have gone before and gain wisdom from their lives, especially in Scripture on how to live and what our orientation should be. As we're going through this, Jeanne reminded me of Psalm 119. And Psalm 119, the psalmist, you know, if you, so this is your assignment, you got an assignment yesterday and on Friday night, but your assignment is to go through Psalm 119. What you're going to hear is that longing, that desire, that eagerness for grabbing hold of the things of God and especially of His law. And so, that's a good exercise. Coveting more the spiritual things, John Piper, Christian hedonism, and you know, we can desire the things of God and we can orient our minds, by the renewing of our minds, we can orient our minds and therefore our affections into the heavenly places and ask God to to change our thinking and to orient us more in that direction. And so then that obviously leads to praying for a heavenly mind and not an earthbound mind. Okay, we all know what it is to see something and I would desire to have that, or I want that. That difference in intensity and that difference in desire, and that's what we have to look at in ourselves. And we have to ask the question, what am I desiring? And where you feel that first surge of desire, surge of emotion, you've got to ask the question. And that's a place to grab it, for that evil desire that can grab a hold of us. I'm not emphasizing that point enough. That's a great point and just to go back and re-highlight that and say, notice yourselves and notice what is grabbing your affections and direct that by the Spirit's help back to godly desires. Any thoughts about this one? Okay, yeah. Boo-hoo. Exactly. Exactly. We are communicating. Outstanding. And the Word is communicating with us. So yeah, we're going to finish off with this. And so, the duties required in the Tenth Commandment are such a full contentment with our own condition and such a charitable frame of the whole soul toward our neighbor as that all our inward motions and affections, there it is again, touching him tend unto and further all that good which is his. So, 1 Thessalonians 6, 6 through 11, by the way, I could have kept on going on. This advice, you know, to Timothy, or to the Thessalonians, is great advice, but I had to cut it off someplace, so. I think it's Darren. First Thessalonians 6, 6 through 11. That's what it is. Yes, please. But we have brought that into the world, so we thought we could lay our bets. 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What? Exactly. Thank you. Okay. Any thoughts? Yeah, Jeannie. Part of that answer to the question is the same as thou shalt not steal. Exactly. Absolutely. So yeah, that's good. That's helpful. Tammy. Mm hmm. Right, yeah. So take that and go, wow, I didn't realize that this desire had grabbed a hold of me so much that now I'm thinking about actually, I'm having to go, oh, that's too far. Well, yeah, maybe it's too far a little bit back from that. You know, maybe that's grabbing hold of our hearts and intertwining with our hearts. And we don't even recognize that there's a cloak of covetousness. Looks good, but, you know, good. Any other thoughts? Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would give us a heart that pants after you, O Lord, in place of a heart that is entwined with the world. We pray, Father, that we would glorify you in our lives. We pray, Father, that that would be our highest desire, to glorify your great name. We ask, Father, that you would prepare our hearts to receive from you, to receive your word, O Lord. Give us hearts that eagerly desire to follow your law and to do what you command. For your glory and honor, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.