Brothers, thank you. Will you join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for the glory that you've shown us here this day. We thank you, Father, for the glory that is in your Word. Father, I pray that by your Spirit today, we would see Christ in the Word that we study. I pray that you would help us to see our dependence on Him. Pray that you would help us to see the love that you have for us through him. I pray, Lord, that as we study these things, Father, that your spirit would equip us to know you better. I thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. Let me say that it is a privilege to be opening the word with you again, and to be studying today as we start to wrap up our study of the Ten Commandments. Pastor David started this many months ago, and we've been spending roughly two Sundays on each commandment. So we have taken a leave, if you will, from Acts chapter 15, and we have gone back to study the law. And clearly, what I hope you've seen as we study the Law, that this has not been a series about how far short you fall because you don't obey the Law today. I hope what this has been, or has been, is a view for each of us on the great need we have for Christ. Because He today stands as the only One who has ever come and been able to fulfill God's law. We know that because of His Word. We come today to take a look at the 10th commandment. And this is the final commandment, obviously. This is the culmination of our study of the law. We'll spend today and we'll spend next Sunday looking at the 10th commandment and clearly what the commandment forbids and clearly what the commandment requires But I pray as we study this today that not only do we understand better the purpose of the Tenth Commandment, not only do we understand what it forbids and what it requires, but I pray also as we dive into this that we begin to see the overwhelming nature of the Ten Commandments themselves, the whole realm of God's law. And as we depart the Ten Commandments here in a few weeks and go back to Acts, I pray that we would see the embodiment of these laws in the New Testament church. And I think that's the idea and the glory of what God is showing to us through this. So, let's begin. Let's look at our Bibles at Exodus chapter 20. And today we're going to be focused on verse 17, but of course, I want us to see this in totality. So we're going to review just a little bit as we do this. But open your Bibles to Exodus 20, beginning in verse 17. The ESV says, "...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 that is your neighbor's. Now, if you did not get a copy of the Worship Guide, make sure you grab one. I've put an outline in here with what we're going to be discussing today. And really what I want us to do is to understand what the writers of the Catechism meant when they told us what is forbidden in the Tenth Commandment. From our Worship Guide it says, and this again is the Westminster Larger, because we're staying consistent with what Pastor David's been using, but it says in the Westminster Larger Catechism, what are the sins forbidden in the 10th commandment. The sins forbidden in the 10th commandment are discontentment with our own estate. One, discontentment with our own estate. Two, envying and grieving at the good of our neighbor together with all inordinate emotions and affections to anything that is his. So, understanding this and looking into this, we're going to spend a little time with the Westminster and then specifically the 10th commandment. But understanding this, I want us to understand better the grasp of the commandment here and what is given to us in the 10th commandment. What is here the final commandment in God's law? And the best way to do that, I think, is to go back by means of introduction and look at all of the Ten Commandments and how they fit. Now, I'm not going to read the entire text here, but I want us to be able to review specifically where we started. It started off, Pastor David, with, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. Commandment number one. Clearly number two you should not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything That is in heaven above or is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth the forbidden idols per se number three You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain number four remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy and Number five, honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God has given you. You shall not murder. Number six, you shall not commit adultery. Number seven, you shall not steal. Number eight, number nine, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. And number 10, as we've read, you shall not covet your neighbor's house or anything else that is your neighbor's. Now, I want you to see there's a shift here. Do you see that? Especially from the second table. As we've read the 6th and the 7th and the 8th and the 9th commandments, we've studied them over the last few weeks. Looking at those leading into the 10th commandment, you'll see what J.I. Packer clearly notes is that there's a shift in the 10th commandment. It's a shift that goes from motions to motives. It's a shift that goes from actions to attitudes. And it's a shift, he says, that goes from forbidden deeds to forbidden desire. It's quite a shift. Most commentators, including J.I. Packer, make note of the similarity between the 10th commandment and the 1st commandment. You shall have no other gods before me, says the Lord. Do you see the tie-in to the 10th commandment here? Paul in Colossians 3.5 says that covetousness is idolatry. It divides the attention of our heart between two gods. Typically, the sin pattern doesn't begin with coveting. When we recognize it, hopefully by the end of today we'll be able to recognize it better, but when we recognize this sin pattern, we see that the idea of covetousness, the sin of covetousness, spawns from an unbelief in God's provision. That unbelief in God's provision is what leads to coveting. and ultimately to idolatry, which leads generally to action. Thus, in breaking the 10th commandment, we are also breaking the 1st commandment. You see the connection? The idea here is that they act as bookends of the law. One and the same. Specifically, that the 1st commandment is the straightforward command of having no other gods before our God. Whereas the 10th commandment is often a description of how we've broken the 1st commandment. Now, again in the interest of introduction, I want to share a few unique characteristics of coveting. I think it's important that we see this as groundwork, if you will. These are going to be things that you can use to recognize what covetousness is. Coveting, number one, there's going to be three of these. Coveting is not some sort of birth defect individually. It's always a result of sin. Coveting is a result of a sinful heart, not a set of circumstances that we find ourselves in. That's the first blame that you'll hear when it comes to covetousness is that, well, it was a circumstance that I was in that, in fact, you'll get some who go so far as to say it was a set of circumstances the Lord brought on me that led to my covetousness. We know that can't be true. But understanding that, this is why most people think that they can overcome their sinful covetousness simply by acquiring the thing that they covet. However, most of us know that simply acquiring one desire often fuels a passion to attain even more, therefore exposing our covetousness for what it is. Many of you have heard this, but Nelson Rockefeller asked by a reporter, how much money does it take to be happy? His reply, just a little bit more. It's interesting, he wasn't the first one to say that. Ecclesiastes chapter 2 says, So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me, and whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun." You see, even Solomon realized that all the wisdom and wealth could not bring the satisfaction that his heart desired. It wasn't there. So first of all, covetousness is always a result of sin. Second, coveting happens as a result of comparative living. Friends, this is not new, but it is certainly relevant today. Coveting most likely presents itself when we are comparing our own situation with someone else. our own set of circumstances with someone else. That generally is what leads to a covetousness desire. The Westminster Catechism says specifically that if you envy or grieve at the good of our neighbor. Think about that. If you envy or grieve at our neighbor's good, The Bible says we are to rejoice with those who rejoice. And yet the sinful nature of covetousness not only keeps us from rejoicing, but it actually creates a grievance or an anger against them because of their goodness. If nothing else, it creates a withholding of our own goodness against them. Coveting happens as a result of comparative living. I want you to know that we are not just talking about material possessions here either. When we compare ourselves to each other, it's not in what one has versus what another has, but often in other things like experiences, or education, or children that are obedient, or marriage, or life stages, or giftedness. All of these things create in us a covetous desire. Friends, we need to know that God is over all of our circumstances, and thus He demands our contentment in all things. When we experience covetousness against a neighbor, it really shows a more dangerous side to our sin than just a desire. The idea of this danger is that covetousness reveals a sense of entitlement in our beliefs, that we deserve and should expect the same circumstances as someone else. Friends, this is nothing less than resentment toward God. And ultimately leads not only to an isolation from our brothers and sisters in Christ, but an isolation from God Himself. It's removing ourselves from fellowship. Third, coveting is what we would call a leading sin. A leading sin. What I mean by that is this is a sin that begets other sins. Thomas Watson called it a mother sin because it leads us to break so many of the other commandments. Listen to James chapter 1. He says in verse 13, let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one. Listen to this in verse 14. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death It is our own desire Think about this the examples in scripture are Relevant and everywhere turn with me if you will to first Kings chapter 21 and let's talk about the story of King Ahab first Kings 21 And let me summarize in the interest of time here the story. King Ahab happens upon the vineyard of Naboth. And Naboth has kept a nice vineyard. It's a vineyard that's been in his family for generations. And King Ahab envies the vineyard of Naboth. And he says to Naboth, sell me your vineyard for a price or let me trade with you for something else of value. Naboth respectfully declines the king's request, saying, No, this land has been in my family, this vineyard has been in my family for generations. It's my grandfather's vineyard, and I don't desire to sell it. And so Ahab's response to that, it says in Scripture, is that he's dejected and that he would not eat. And so what happens? He goes back to the palace, he's dejected and won't eat, and Jezebel wanders in. And Jezebel sees King Ahab downtrodden, and says to Ahab, aren't you the king of all these things? Why would you not be happy? And he explains to her that Naboth won't sell him the vineyard. She again looks at him and says, aren't you the king of all these things? Listen to it specifically in 1 Kings 21 beginning in verse 5. But Jezebel his wife came to him and said to him, why is your spirit so vexed that you can eat no food? And he said to her, Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite, and said to him, Give me your vineyard for money, or else, if it please you, I will give you another vineyard for it. And he answered, I will not give you my vineyard. And Jezebel his wife said to him, Do you now govern Israel? Arise and eat bread, and let your heart be cheerful. I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite." Maybe you didn't realize that Jezebel had it within her authority to do such a thing. She did, however, by trickery and by sin. She concocted a story about Naboth to the men of the town, and they conspired to create an event where Naboth would be there and allowed two men to bring a false claim against Naboth, which would of course mean that it was blasphemy against God, and they took him out and they stoned him to death. Upon his death, Jezebel says, Arise, go and take your vineyard, the product of his covetousness. You see, Ahab in committing this covetousness breaks the 10th commandment, which in turn leads to the breaking of the 9th commandment, the 6th commandment, and technically the 8th commandment, because she stole the vineyard. It's a mother sin, it begets other sins. The idea of covetousness alone. is a sin, but it's a sin that often is not found alone. The breaking of the Tenth Commandment serves as a gateway to breaking most of the other commandments as well. Well, let's take a moment now and let's get into the idea of covetousness. Let's define coveting specifically so that we can use some of these examples from Scripture and really our first bullet on the The worship guide today, Where Does the Tenth Commandment Fit In?, is by means of introduction. Our first point today, covetousness defined and identified. So let's start with the simple, with Webster. Webster defines covet as to want something that you do not have very much. In other words, it's a desire. It's a desire. That's the word that we often see in Scripture. And I want you to know that the idea of desire is not sinful in and of itself. The idea of desire has connotations of good and bad. And it's, quite frankly, all over Scripture. David in the Psalms wrote very often about desiring God's will. He desired God's protection. He prayed out for God's protection. He desired God's salvation. He desired truth and wisdom, and many of the other psalmists shared that as well. Sarah, Rebecca, and Hannah, amongst others, desired and prayed for a child. That's a good desire. Paul wrote of his strong desire for Jews to see the Messiah, for his desire for Gentiles to know the love of God, and for the church to honor God. These are all good desires. They're honorable desires. They're desires that are good in the eyes of our God. But friends, when we talk about coveting, we often talk about the idea of coveting even being associated with envy or jealousy. And again, we must be careful here, because jealousy is a word that's used to describe our God Himself. In Exodus chapter 34, He's talking about launching them into the Promised Land, and He's telling them to beware of all the other neighboring tribes that He is going to remove for them. And that in doing so, He says in Exodus 34, 14, "...for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord whose name is Jealous is a jealous God." The idea of jealousy is not in and of itself sinful. The Hebrew word for desire that we see most often in the Old Testament is shamad. Shamad is a generic use of the word desire and Robert read about it this morning in Psalm 19. He said in verse 9 that the rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold. We should have a desire for God's law. The Greek word in the New Testament is epithumio. It too is used for both good and bad desires. Luke 22 says, And when the hour came, he reclined, he being Jesus, reclined at table and the apostles with them. And Jesus said to his apostles, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover meal with you before I suffer. Desire in and of itself is not bad. But I think you know as well as I do that the idea of desire in the Bible is used far more often in a negative sense than in a positive. And I'm going to tell you in our English Bible that is most often where we translate the Hebrew and the Greek words for desire into the word covet. That's where it comes from. Every one of these concepts can be used to understand the idea of covetousness as being envy or being lust or being greed. All of these connote a sense of covetousness. Melissa Kruger, who wrote a book called The Envy of Eve, says that every scriptural use of the word covet describes an idolatrous or immoderate desire to possess. An idolatrous or immoderate desire to possess. So understanding now this use of coveting and understanding the difference between desires and coveting. Let's talk a little bit about the source of coveting. Where does this come from? This is the second point on our sermon outline today is going to be the source and the pattern of covetousness. What is it we see in the most common sense? And there's three observations that I have for you about the source of covetousness. We've talked a little bit about them. But specifically, as we said at the very beginning, the source of covetousness is a form of unbelief in the sovereignty and goodness of God towards us. Let me say that again. Covetousness is sourced as a form of unbelief in the sovereignty as well as the goodness of God towards us. In other words, do we receive our circumstances knowing that God intends good for those who love Him? I know that we've talked of sovereignty before, and we know when we talk of sovereignty that God even rules over the evil intents of all people. But friends, when it comes to God's sovereignty, you need to know that God rules out of justice and love. Second point about the source of covetousness. This unbelief that I described causes us to doubt God's purpose for us. God's goal for each of us is that we become conformed to His image. That's the purpose, right? Yet He has gifted each and every one of us quite uniquely. For us to be discontent with anything that He has given us is a product of that unbelief. To look at the gifts that I've been giving and compare them to the gifts that you've been given is a source of unbelief in God's goodness. Thus, unbelief is really the source of our coveting. As I said, we do not covet because we do not have something. We covet because we do not believe something. Friends, that's paramount. We do not covet because we don't have something. We covet because we don't believe something. Coveting reveals that our concern over worldly goods, worldly possessions, relations, or status, has trumped what God has promised us in the future. The things that we become discontent with here on earth pale in comparison to what awaits for us on the other side. Third, this unbelief. This unbelief that is the source of our coveting often begins as a seed of doubt. If we can understand where the covetousness comes from, recognizing this pattern, recognizing the view of where this covetousness is in our lives, we can begin to see the battle that we have with this sin. Unbelief often begins as a seed of doubt. In the garden, God gave Adam and Eve everything they would need, and He made it clear to them what His purpose was. Friends, Eve clearly knew what God's command was regarding the fruit because she recited it back to the serpent almost word for word in Genesis chapter 3. Turn with me there in Genesis chapter 3 and let's take a look at this because I think this is important when we understand exactly what happened in the garden and the pattern this follows is important for the rest of what we talk about today. I want you to know that Satan's attack was not on Eve's memory of God's command. but instead on whether God's commands were really the best for her. Satan attacked literally God's sovereignty and God's goodness. Satan creates in Eve a desire for the one thing that God did not give her. That's the source of her covetousness. Thomas Watson says, Adam and Eve were no longer content with their original state in the garden. They coveted a higher position and they lived in paradise. No surroundings or conditions could be blamed for their sin, he says. So prompted by their unbelief, notice the pattern of their coveting when we read Genesis 3. Go to Genesis 3 and let's start in verse 6. So at this point, Satan has cast this doubt in her mind. This unbelief. And in verse 6 it says, "...So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate..." It's not over yet. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths." The very next thing we read is that they're in the garden and they hear the sound of the Lord walking through the garden. And what do they do? They hide in their sin. Friends, this pattern is what we need to recognize. It says, first of all, so when the woman saw that the food was good, There's the beginning of the pattern for coveting. We see something. We see something, and what do we do when we see something? We begin to doubt God's goodness for us, and so we begin to covet. It says that the food was desired to make one wise. That's not a good use of the word desire, folks. It was desired. And so what does she do? That desire does not fester as desire for very long. That desire often works itself out in us taking what it is we desire. Next in the pattern of sinful covetousness is the idea of hiding. And so this pattern that we see with Eve is the same as we see with many other illustrations, many of which we'll discuss here in just a moment. But we see, we covet, we take, and we hide. Just a little bit about each of these in the pattern. When we think that God has withheld something from us, it seems that we see it everywhere, doesn't it? If Satan has cast that seed of doubt in our mind, that God has kept you from this, that He has withheld this from you, all of a sudden it shows up everywhere. But friends, seeing something alone is not the problem. If we could stop ourselves in the pattern there, we'd live a much better life. Until we look upon something and it stirs our unbelief in God's goodness, and that really we do deserve to have it, Now the slippery slope has begun. Our heart will make us believe that by having something we do not possess, it will make our hearts fulfilled. But friends, our hearts were designed to be fulfilled in only one way, through our Lord Jesus Christ. And so that false view of what it is that fulfills us comes into play, and all of a sudden, the covetousness has taken us to a certain point, and we're drastically disturbed by it. Friends, second step, we covet. Most often in the things where we compare ourselves to others the most, in fact, we covet. Usually because we believe that this other person who has what we desire has to be more fulfilled by it. I mean, they've got what we need. And boy, I can look at them and I can see that they're living such a better life because they've got this gift or they've got this physical item or they've got this whole status, whatever it is in them. They've got this belief that they're so much better off. Again, this is not always in practical, physical things. Third, the ability for us to fester that covetousness is certainly good and so what we do is we take that covetousness and ultimately we can't stand it anymore and so we take. Not always in such a way that we actually obtain the object. Think about how we take from someone that we covet from. We take sometimes by actually withholding the good that we owe them. Or even, as the catechism says, in doing harm to others, we grieve at their goodness. And then finally, we hide. We hide out of shame for taking what we know we don't deserve. It's ironic, isn't it, that we believe that taking this item would bring us joy, but instead it brings us shame and misery. That's where we find ourselves in our sin many times. In all of this, you have to understand that the hiding is not just from each other, but it's from God. Because in this sinful state, the last thing we want is to be in fellowship with other believers and talking about the truths of Christ, and then understanding that God knows this, that we've coveted and we've taken, and so we hide. And we abstain ourselves from the body, or we abstain ourselves from our fellowship, we abstain ourselves from the Word, and we hide. So friends, we covet, we take, and we hide. Let's talk about some examples. Turn with me in your Bibles to Joshua chapter 6. Now again, in the interest of time, Joshua chapter 6, you know where we are. Moses has died. The people sit literally on the cusp of the promised land. And as they're preparing to enter the covenant land, the covenant promise that God has given them, God comes to Joshua in chapter 6 in verse 2. He says, And the Lord said to Joshua, See, I have given Jericho into your hand with its king and mighty men of valor. You shall march around the city, all the men of war, going around the city once, and thus you shall do for six days, and so on and so on. And God gives the formula that He is going to use to overcome the city of Jericho for Joshua and the people of Israel. Now importantly, there's some instructions that God gives. Down here in chapter 6, look at verse 18 with me. God says that He's going to devote the city of Jericho to destruction. But not only the city, He's going to devote everything in the city to destruction as well. And so in verse 18 He says, but you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction. This is a city that I'm going to use to display my power and my glory. And everything in it is going to be devoted to destruction for everyone to see. And you need to be careful, because when you go into this city, you should keep yourself from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them, you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it. Those are pretty clear instructions, folks. The idea that God says, I'm going to absolutely annihilate this city. Everything in it is going to be destroyed. And you're going to devote it to destruction. And if you keep anything out of this city which is devoted to destruction, you'll bring a bad thing upon the camp of Israel. Now, interestingly, here you go, well, God's against material wealth. I mean, He just doesn't want them to have anything. That's not true. Otherwise God wouldn't have blessed the people as they're leaving Egypt with the mass of material wealth He gave them. The gold and the silver and all of the vessels, everything that was brought out of Egypt was given to the people. So they would come out and they would come with wealth. God's not against material wealth. But this city is devoted to destruction. So they go in and they follow God's commands and they march around the city and Joshua does exactly what God has commanded him to do. And in verse 27 there at the end of chapter 6, it says, so the Lord was with Joshua and his fame was in all the land. It worked. Unfortunately for us, there's a Joshua 7. Because Joshua 7 says, but the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things. For Eishon, the son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things, and the anger of the Lord burned against the people of Israel." Now, interestingly here, we have verse 1. It doesn't say that everybody knew about this. In fact, the only one who knew about it in verse 1 was Eishon himself. So what happens, Joshua and the men of Israel set their sights on the next target, which is the city of Ai. And Joshua sends spies and they go and they look at Ai and they come back and they say, this is nothing. We don't even need the whole army. Just send two to three thousand men to Ai and we can overtake this city. So Joshua sends up two to three thousand men and when the men come before the sprawling city of Ai, they flee. 36 of them are killed immediately, it says. And the men of Ai pursue the Israelites, and they bring many more to destruction. And the people come back hurting, and they come back to the camp, and Joshua goes before the Lord, and he begs the Lord, Lord, why have You brought us where You've brought us, and You've displayed what You've shown us, only to bring us to destruction? God, in verse 10, says, the Lord said to Joshua, get up. Why have you fallen on your face? Israel has sinned. They have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them. They have taken some of the devoted things. They have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings. What do you think Joseph's attitude is like right there? You mean what? Joshua goes back to the camp and God gives very specific directions and what happens when Joshua goes before the camp He goes before the camp and a Sean steps forward His guilt and his shame are more than he can bear and so he steps forward and look with me at chapter 7 verse 20 Look for the pattern We see we covet we take and we hide verse 20 and a Sean answered Joshua truly I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel and this is what I did When I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak from Shinar and 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, then I coveted them and took them. And see, where are they? They're hidden. They're hidden in the earth beside my tent with the silver underneath. God's command was that you take this man and you stone him and his family and then burn them with fire. Again, why? Because he took material possessions? No, because he broke the command of God. God is not against the material possessions. He would go on to give them the spoils of AI. He would go on and give them the spoils of many cities. But his command was that Jericho be devoted to destruction. Eshaun saw what was pleasing to his eyes. He coveted them. He took them and he hid them. Friends, he confessed his sin. He confessed his sin. And I have no doubt that he's forgiven. But every one of us needs to know, kids, mom and dad say this all the time, there are circumstances that arise from our sin. And in this case, the circumstances weren't just the death of Eshaun and his family. It was the death of 36 men of war. It was the death of hundreds of others that came back and were brought down on the way. The circumstances of his sin were costly. Let's talk about another example. The story of David. Friends, for so many people there is a belief that getting what we want relationally will bring contentment. Relationally. Specifically, we want to talk about in this example, romantic relationships. Many, but not all, many, desires for romantic relationship are rooted in lust. Which is what we see in 2 Samuel chapter 11. Turn with me there. As we study in 2 Samuel 11, the lust of King David. And the sin that it brings upon his house. 2 Samuel 11, beginning in verse 2. It happened late one afternoon when David arose from his couch. Wait a minute. Everyone's at war. David's on his couch. Okay, that's problem number one, but not with what we're dealing with here today. It happened late one afternoon when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house that he saw from the roof a woman bathing. And the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. Sent and inquired. He coveted what he saw. And one said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? So David sent messengers and took her. And she came to him, and he lay with her. Now, interestingly, the pattern is the same. He saw, he coveted, coveted enough that he inquired about her, and he took her. So you say, well, where's the hiding? David's hiding was quite extensive here. First of all, he tried to hide his sin by deceiving Uriah, the husband of the woman, because she's now pregnant. And when Uriah wouldn't be deceived, David went one step up, using his power and his authority, and had Uriah placed at the front of the line in the battle, and Uriah was killed by the schemes of David. But there's still a problem. The husband's dead, but the wife's pregnant. How else can I hide my sin? Oh, I'll marry her, and it will be legitimate." So David marries Bathsheba, takes her as his wife, and appears to be successful in hiding his sin from the people, except that God had a servant named Nathan. And God sends Nathan to David to confront him on his sin. And David comes clean and says, you're right, I've sinned before the Lord. My sin is against God and I repent of my sin. And he did. And he suffered consequences for his sin. First of all, the child died. We know that. David did the honorable thing and kept his wife, had another son who became very powerful, became very affectionate towards God and God affectionate towards him. But David would continue to suffer from revolt within his own family. The circumstances of these sins are unmistakable. This all from a man described as being a man after God's own heart and the most adored king in Israel's history. He suffered from the covetousness that he could not contain and it was played out as sin. Let me give you another example. We've talked about the covetousness of material possessions. We've talked about the covetousness in romantic relationships. Let's talk about the covetousness in other relationships, family relationships or friend relationships. Let's talk about Joseph. Let's talk about Joseph. Friends, you don't have to think hard to think about the legacy in this dysfunctional family. First you've got Isaac and Rebecca. Rebecca who has twins and shows outright favoritism to the younger. So much so that she puts him in a predicament where he's got to flee or else he's going to be killed by his older brother. So he flees and he finds another dysfunctional family, his uncle Laban. And in that situation, he goes and he stays with his uncle Laban, and finds a young lady there, Rachel, that he loves very much, and so he makes a deal with Laban to marry Rachel, but in the darkness of night, in the wedding night, he actually is tricked by Laban, and he's given Leah, the older sister, and so Laban says, oh, don't worry, I had to do that, it's tradition, the older one marry first, and so work for me another seven years and I'll give you this one too. So Jacob goes and marries sisters, Not sure why he didn't think there'd be problems there. As he chooses Leah and Rachel as his wives, he goes back and wouldn't you know that Leah is the productive one in the child-rearing. Leah has son after son after son after son. Rachel has none. Right? Rachel's desperate. Even gives her servant to Jacob saying, give me a son by my servant. Son after son after son, right? And Rachel still has none until we get to Genesis chapter 30. Turn there with me. In Genesis chapter 30, we see the outworking of this dysfunctional family turn into something even more dangerous. Rachel, who's already deeply jealous of her sister, says in verse 1, when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. And she said to Jacob, give me children or I shall die. Pretty strong emotion. She wants these children bad. So as you can imagine, Rachel does conceive and give birth to a son. She ultimately gave birth to two sons. But the first son that she gives birth to is the product of all this envy and jealousy and all of this competition with her older sister. And so that son, when he's born, what do you think the relationship is like with his brothers? Naturally, his brothers absolutely despise him. His father, who himself was the product of favoritism, shows extreme favoritism to this son, decorating him and acknowledging him ultimately Driving the brothers crazy and go to Genesis chapter 37 with me and let's look at the sin played out Genesis chapter 37 is a description of the covetousness of the brothers in verse 4 Look at the pattern But when his brothers saw Their father loved him more than all his brothers. They hated him and could not speak peacefully to him Okay, I'm assuming there that they're coveting Admittedly, but they hate him and they can't even speak peacefully to him. And what did they do? They plotted against him here comes this dreamer and what do they do? They take him and They saw the favoritism by their father. They hated him. They took him. Instead of killing him by God's grace, they sold him to slave traders. And they hid their sin from their father. They took the coat. They dipped it in goat's blood. And they took it to their father saying, is this your son's? It's a product that's made them covetousness. I think they knew it was his. And they said, surely he was ravaged by wild beasts. They killed Him in their minds. The consequences of their sin would last for years. And you have to love how the Lord plays out their sin here in that He brings them unknowingly before their brother who they thought was long gone, perhaps even dead, and He actually places them before Him fulfilling his dream where he is an authority over them. Again, the circumstances of their sin wrought misery until the death of their father, when especially at the death of their father, the brothers all thought, oh, well, here's the chance. You know, dad's been protecting us all these years, but now that he's gone, Joseph's gonna have us and get rid of us. And until Joseph in his spiritual maturity says, no, no, what you meant for evil, God meant for good. Let me give one more example because I think it's important we talk about the idea of coveting giftedness or abilities. Let's talk about Korah. Everybody remember Korah? They talked about this one in Sunday school all the time, didn't they? Korah was the cousin of Moses and Aaron back in Numbers 16. Turn there with me. In Numbers 16, now you have to understand where this story comes from. First of all, remember, as Moses and Aaron take the people out into the wilderness, they begin to receive God's instructions. We're going to number 16. They begin to receive God's instructions, and God talks about the inheritance that all the children of Israel would receive, and for most of them, all but the Levites, that inheritance would be in the physical possession of land. But the Levites were different. God set apart the Levites, the family of Moses and Aaron and many others. He set them apart as servants. They would be the ones that would serve in the temple. And Levi had three sons, and each of the three sons were given very specific duties so that the families of those three sons all had unique and distinguished duties. Some would serve in the tabernacle. Some would prepare the sacrifices. Some would serve in other means. And essentially what happens here is that Moses and Aaron, are chosen specifically as Levites. Well, Aaron specifically, not Moses. But Aaron and his family were chosen to be priests. Remember the descriptions in Exodus of the garments that were made for the priests. They were the ones that would go before the Lord for the people. And it was an incredibly dangerous job because if they didn't do everything exactly by the letter, then they could be killed. In fact, what we know about Numbers and what we saw specifically prior to Numbers is that two of the sons of Aaron, Thought this was a pretty cool job and they've got the the sensors for starting the fire in the temple and they take these sensors in a manner that is not what God had described or commanded and they use these sensors to start fire in an inappropriate way and God burned them up It was a serious job So understanding the responsibility of the priest and the duties of the priest, you have to understand that these things must be done in order. And then we come to number 16. And this is obviously a pretty important role. I mean, Aaron looks sharp. He's got that long gown and those little tassels and, you know, it's something that other cousins or other members of the family might envy because of this special task he's been given. And in number 16, we get the story of Korah. It says, now Korah, the son of Ishar, son of Kohath, son of Levi. And then Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men. And they rose up before Moses with a number of the people of Israel, 250 chiefs of the congregation chosen from the assembly. I smell a coup. These are well-known men. They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, you have gone too far. For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?' When Moses heard it, he fell on his face. And he said to Korah and all his company, In the morning the Lord will show you who is his and who is holy, and will bring him near to him." So now we have Korah challenging Moses' position And Moses' authority in the same with Aaron. No doubt, Korah saw the duty that he had been called to as being less than that of his cousins Moses and Aaron. And so in seeing this, Korah coveted and tried to take their authority for himself. He staged a coup. He brought his 250 men before the Lord the next morning. And what did the Lord do? The Lord pulled Moses aside and He said, I'll tell you what you do. You pull everybody away from those 250 men and let me show them the authority that I've given to you. And so Moses talked to the people and pulled them away from these 250 men, specifically Korah and the other leading men. And literally, literally the earth opened up and swallowed these men. It was remembered in Psalm 106 when the psalmist is relating how God has brought them through all these things. And the psalmist says, "...when men in the camp were jealous of Moses and Aaron, the Holy One of the Lord, the earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram. Fire also broke out in their company, and the flame burned up the wicked." You see, Korah brought consequences from his sin upon his family, The other leading men and even the 250 that he stoked up against Moses, they were all killed. Friends, when we look at the story of Korah and we look at the covetousness that he had because of the gift and the position that Moses and Aaron had been given, we remember Paul's command in 1 Corinthians 12 that God gives gifts to all of us. They're not the same gifts. We each have unique callings and unique gifts. And for us to covet someone else's gift or someone else's calling is covetousness. It's an unbelief in God's provision for His family. We be careful of the gifts that God has supposedly not given to us. Let me introduce this third and final point. How is it that we can recognize and overcome this covetousness? What is it we need to be aware of? I thought it was great, Melissa Kruger in her book, The Envy of Eve, said, first of all, you need to be able to recognize if your desires are worthy or not. How do you test whether your desires are right or if they're wrong? There's four things that she gave and I want to share them with you. It said, first of all, if the object of our desire is wrong, if the object of our desire is wrong, that's a desire that will lead to covetousness. Eve clearly knew that the fruit was forbidden. Clearly knew that the fruit was forbidden. And that became the object of her desire. Number two, she says if the means to go about obtaining that desire are wrong. Think about in Genesis 16 when Sarah, who knows about God's meeting with Abram, and God promises Abram and establishes this covenant and says that I will give you a child. Sarah knows she's getting a child. She knows about the promise, but instead of waiting on the will of the Lord, Sarah takes her servant Hagar in haste and says, here, have the child by her, and gave her to Abram to bring forth a child. And of course, once Hagar did bring forth a child, it caused tremendous jealousy in Sarah to the point that Hagar had to be banished. Third, Kruger says, the motivation for our desire is wrong. If the motivation for our desire is wrong, this is a desire that will likely lead to covetousness. Think about in 1 Samuel 8, when the people of Israel come before Samuel the prophet, and they demand from Samuel the prophet, although they've been given God's word that he is their king, they demand from Samuel the prophet an earthly king. And why did they want an earthly king? It says very clearly in the Scriptures, they wanted an earthly king because they looked around, every other tribe, every other people group had an earthly king and they wanted to be just like them. So they had to have an earthly king. The motivation for the desire is wrong. Samuel brings forth the word of the Lord telling them, be careful what you ask for. Here's what an earthly king will do for you. Here's what an earthly king will bring to you. And literally, they come to pass. Fourth, the attitude while waiting for our desire is wrong. If the attitude while waiting for our desire is wrong, this likely is a desire that will lead to covetousness. Think about the attitude of Israel wandering in the deserts after experiencing the greatest miracles God has ever shown the people. Their attitude, why have you brought us out here only to kill us? So what is this pattern? that we see in coveting and how do we overcome this pattern? We see, we covet, we take and we hide. Friends, while enjoying the gifts that are given to us by the Lord, don't ever believe that our contentment is based on the gifts. When you recognize those gifts you've been given, do not ever let your contentment be based on those gifts. Our contentment should be driven by the fact that the gifts are given from a holy, infinite God. a sovereign God, a loving God, because we are His treasure. Thomas Akimpas wrote, you cannot find complete satisfaction in any temporal gift because you were not created to find your delight in them. Look at the righteousness of Christ who was made man. He was tempted just as we are with desires. His greatest temptation came at a time of fasting, a time of doing without certain pleasures. But Satan's tactic for temptation during that time was absolutely the same tactic that he used with Eve. He caused Jesus to question why God had withheld anything from Him. Matthew Henry says that Satan tempted Jesus in three ways. He tempted Him to despair of His Father's goodness, to presume upon His Father's power, and to alienate His Father's honor by giving it to Satan. Satan will do the same for us. He'll tempt you to think that God has withheld His goodness from you. Friends, we know that Christ fought those temptations by the very words of God Himself. And we have to be able to follow the same pattern. Let me close by giving you three ideas that help overcome these covetous desires. Number one, be aware of your desires. Be aware of your desire. Remember that the Hebrew word for desire refers to both good and bad. So does the Greek. Like Christ, our greatest desire should not be for our own will. but for our Father's will. Knowing that His ways are always better than ours, we should desire for God's glory to be known by all. When our desires stray from that and bring glory to us, we're in a dangerous place. Second, instead of focusing on gifts given to us, dwell on gifts that you can give to others. Remember our servant Jesus, who came not to be served, but to serve. Though he ultimately served us by suffering and dying, it doesn't say that your serving will always be in pleasure. You could have suffering as well during your times of giving, but by comparison to Christ, our suffering will always be temporal. Third and finally, confess our struggles openly instead of hiding in our sin. Friends, if we can learn what James said in James 5, he says, "...therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed." The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. And by what power do we pray and how do we rest in that prayer? Hebrews 4 says that. It says, Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Friends, for those of us who struggle with this sin of covetousness, there's a remedy. It is in the person and the work of Jesus Christ and His example for us. Like Him, we fight temptation with the Word of the Lord, and a place to start would be taking Psalm 119, not the whole psalm, but this small section of it in verse 33-40. It says, teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I will keep it to the end. Give me understanding that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart. Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it. Incline my heart to your testimonies and not to selfish gain Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things and give me life in your ways Confirm to your servant your promise that you may be feared turn away the reproach that I dread for your rules are good Behold, I long for your precepts in your righteousness. Give me life Let's pray Gracious Father We are so humbled by Your Word because we know, Father, that in Your provision for Your people, You have given us everything that we need for this life. Father, let us not be in want. Let us not be in a covetous state with envy or lust or greed. But let us take joy in our God and our King and let us, Father, look to the cross of Christ as the means of our salvation, and as the means for us battling these sins. And Father, I pray that through this, your name would be glorified, that we would bring you, Father, the honor that you deserve. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Friends, from our example today, we saw King David approached by Nathan, called in his sin. And we have a record of David's prayer of repentance. In Psalm 51, David, referring to the sin that he has now committed, comes before God and he says, Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin, for I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Against you you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight So that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgments Behold I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me behold you delight in truth in the inward being and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." Friends, that is our prayer each and every Lord's Day, as we come before the throne to offer our worship to Him. We pray that He would create in us a clean heart. And we pray that He would cast away our transgressions. And we know that He can renew a right spirit within each of us. And He does each and every time. But Father, let us not take for granted the gifts of our Father. Let us not take for granted the steadfast love that David talks about. Let us acknowledge the need to come before Him for this forgiveness. Let us acknowledge the dependence that we have on His mercy, and then let us feast as He's commanded us to do on the body and the blood of Jesus, because that is the source of our forgiveness. As we come each and every week to celebrate the table, we do so in such a means as we share with one another. It's a weekly celebration for us, that we take the bread and we take the cup and we rejoice in our forgiveness. We rejoice in the grace of the Lord God and we do it together as a body. So as we come together today, we bring forth to the Lord the ways that we've sinned against Him and we offer them up as a sacrifice, knowing that the work of Jesus was sufficient for all. Let's go to Him in prayer, corporately and then privately, as we prepare for the Lord's table. Our Father, we thank You for the many good gifts that You give, Father, but most of all, the provision that you give us in Jesus Christ. Father, without His gift, without His work, without His suffering and dying, and, Father, His raising from the dead with His resurrection, there would be no life for us with you. We thank you for the great gift of life that you give us, Father, and we pray that you would use this bread and this cup as elements reminding us of your blessing. I pray that you would help us, Father, to see our need. I pray that you would remind us of your love and your forgiveness. And I pray, Father, for mercy upon each of us as we come to you individually, Father, with our needs. Lord, we acknowledge your ability to do these things. We acknowledge your desire for your people to worship. And I pray, Lord, that you would bless the taking of these elements today. In Jesus name. Amen. Men, will you come forward to distribute the elements, please? Friends, in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, we're given instructions by Paul to the Corinthian church who desperately needed instruction. But these instructions are good not only for the Corinthian church, but appropriate for us as well. In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, Paul, in admonishing them in the practices that they had been using with the Lord's table, gave them instructions that they were to follow. He says, For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when He was betrayed took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way also He took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant to my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. Friends, we take these instructions as our instructions as well, and we ask for the Lord's blessing over these elements. Men, will you please break the bread and distribute it. Mmm. Wow. so so