I never generates any questions. So I will have at least the last half hour in the morning from, say, 1130 to 12 before we conclude for Q&A, maybe a little bit longer. Depends on how long I take with the last message. So again, we'll have some questions. And of course, I've enjoyed every single person who has come up and asked questions, given criticisms, and said they hate my guts and wish I was dead. So I have enjoyed it thoroughly. Let us look at Exodus chapter 20 verse 17 For the 10th commandment ethics and contentment ethics and contentment Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife nor his manservant nor his maidservant nor his ox nor his ass nor anything that is thy neighbors This commandment is very unique The first nine commandments focus primarily upon forbidden actions and commanded virtues. The 10th commandment, however, directly pertains to the desires and affections of the heart. Now, this is not to say, of course, that heart concern is absent in the other commandments, for we have repeatedly seen that they apply inwardly as much as they apply outwardly. However, when we reach the final word in these ten covenant words, the point that our Savior mentioned in the Sermon on the Mount, not just outward adultery, but inward lust, not just outward murder, but inward hatred, this point is now made with unmistakable clarity. True obedience to God springs from the heart. And sin is not solely a matter of outward disobedience, but springs from a heart depravity. And similarly, true righteousness before God requires a heart that desires those things that are pleasing to Him out of love for Him and fear of His name. For example, the seventh commandment has already forbidden adulterous actions and by implication the lusts leading to them. The Tenth Commandment explicitly states that even the desire for someone else's spouse or discontentment with one's own spouse is condemned by God as a breach of His covenant. This is not redundancy. It is an important clarification and an intensification of the covenant way of life. We must love the Lord from the heart. from the heart, rest in His providence within, in all of our possessions and relationships, and endeavor to fight against the inward lust that would drive us away from Him and make us unmindful of His goodness. We might say that the tenth commandment, thou shalt not covet, simultaneously exposes the root of our depravity and reveals the summit of true obedience. The reason we break the other nine commandments is why? an inner corruption that no amount of good works, resolution to self-improvement, or denial, self-denial, can eradicate. We do not worship the true God alone as He commands, with reverence for His name, gratitude for His Sabbath, because we do not want to. Our desires and affections are corrupt. We dishonor those when we do who are in authority over us. We hate. We practice various immoralities. We rob God. We rob man. We don't speak the truth. We bear false witness. Why? Because of a contagion a contagion that we inherited from Adam and nurture daily in a thousand ways. So once all the excuses are exposed and the blame shifting exhausted, we see the heart of the matter here in the Tenth Commandment. We do not desire the things that please God. And we do not obey Him from the heart. And that is the taproot of the Tenth Commandment. Thou shalt not covet. The underlying sin, the sin that leads to every other sin and colors even our attempted obedience is corrupt desires. If we would truly obey God then, this is the starting place. To seek by faith, in humility, His grace through Jesus Christ who purges our corruption and who ends depravity's dominion over us through His life and through His death and through His resurrection and by His Spirit implants within us new desires and new power to love and obey God from the heart. Paul takes the same view, the same view, in Scripture's perhaps most challenging presentation of the Tenth Commandment. Turn to Romans chapter 7. The Bible's most challenging presentation of the Tenth Commandment. And he shares this with us in Romans 7.7, the impact the Tenth Commandment had upon his inmost being. "'What shall we say then?' he says. Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law. For I had not known lust, except the law had said, thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law, sin was dead. But, for I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. You see, Paul says, as long as he thought of obedience, simply in terms of external conformity, he imagined that his progress in serving God was quite good and quite acceptable. Then, however, the Tenth Commandment. powerfully pressed upon his conscience and exposed his contagion and his fundamental animosity toward God. Now, as a rigorous moralist, as a Pharisee, Paul might have observed the Sabbath day, but his desires were elsewhere. He might have avoided the commission of sexual sins. He might have avoided theft by taking. He might have avoided murder. But the desires of his heart were adulterous, thieving and hateful. And this particular commandment, he says in Romans 7, slew him because it revealed that all of his obedience was a vain show. His outward obedience did not come from a heart that loved God's law sincerely. brought from fierce prejudice for a particular religious tradition and a worthless attempt to merit God's favor through his own self-motivated and self-trusting attempts to obey the law. Paul learned, as he says in Romans 7, as we must, that if the heart is not purified by grace, and filled with love for God, all the outward obedience in the world is a mockery of God. So when this commandment came, sin revived. Sin's true power, its inner root, its taproot was discovered and could not be defeated. Paul may not have committed the sins forbidden by the law, but he wanted to. Piety, you see, he learned as a believer, requires a heart that loves the things that God loves and hates the things that He hates. So the purpose of God's law then was not, Paul later realized, was not to build up man's sense of self-righteousness, but as the Tenth Commandment makes crystal clear, was to expose the depths of man's depravity, that he might seek God's mercy through Christ and in him find the remedy for his corruption and a new power unto godliness. So the Tenth Commandment is unique. But it is not only unique in its inner focus upon the desires and affections and longings of the human heart, but it is also, if we may say so, the most personally challenging. If we think that we have done everything required by the law, let us look at our hearts again. and see if our obedience is offered to God from a heart of faith in His promises. Love for Him is our obedience prompted by desire for Him, by sincere delight in His holy law in our inner man. And seen in this light, the Tenth Commandment, leaves us completely undone if our heart is humbled before the penetrating gaze of the living God. For to a man, we have to confess that that kind of obedience, obedience prompted by sincere love for God, undivided love for God, passionate love for God, obedience that's not prompted by, I know I need to do these things, I've got to keep up the external form. No, the kind of obedience that comes from the heart Only God can give us. We have to confess even as Christians, as Paul later does in Romans 7, that the desires and longings of our hearts are often very impure and discontented. Even the good deeds sometimes that we undertake, why do we undertake them? Do we undertake them because we love God or are we prompted by inferior motives? That were our Father to judge our works as we deserve by the standard of His own holiness, we would stand utterly condemned before Him. So, of course, it is different with us now that we are in Christ, for our Father has judged our corruption in Jesus. And He has purged it through faith in the death and resurrection of our Savior. But understand that in order to continue this great work of redemption, so that we might be conformed to the image of His Son, Romans 8, verse 29, He's also given us His Holy Spirit, so that we might, Romans 7, verse 12 and following, delight in God's law in our inner man, so that even the tenth commandment, the pinnacle, The desires of the heart, that those desires might begin to be renovated and sifted, and that we might begin to lust after God, covet after God, find our pleasure in Him, in joyful obedience to Him, and that we might pant after holiness of life. Now, it should go without saying, even though it doesn't, nothing almost does in our day and age, that the Tenth Commandment utterly demolishes all the world's religions, all of them. For each is committed to the idea in one form or another that certain prescribed works are all that God requires. None of the world's religions and cultic takeoffs of biblical Christianity makes any attempt to deal with the heart. None of them do. Most of them don't even talk about it. And those that do have nothing meaningful to say. They operate on the fatal assumption that man has within himself the power to obey God. Properly motivated, given enough ritual, escaping your mind to enough nothingness and enough nirvana, and you'll be able to find the strength within. But of course, that kind of power is not there. And what about the virtuous pagan? He doesn't exist. Now, there are men, of course, whom we would know of who achieve greater measures of outward conformity to the general requirements of God's law so that they refrain from the grosser sin and even practice some degree of virtue. But remember, man's fundamental problem is not his behavior. Man's fundamental problem is his heart. Man acts as he does because his heart, his inmost being, the core of his moral, mental, emotional self is deceitful and desperately wicked. Jeremiah 17, 9 says we can't even know the depths. of our depravity. And so until our heart is reformed by God's Spirit and recreated unto inner righteousness through union and communion with Christ, we are helplessly and hopelessly exposed as covenant lawbreakers. And since we can't obey the other commandments without a heart that's right with God, we see how much we need to be praying with David in Psalm 119, 29, grant me your law graciously. Lord Jesus, cleanse my corruption. Forgive me that when I've done the right things, I haven't done them for the right motive. Forgive me that I haven't desired the right things, that I haven't obeyed you, that my heart has not been yours. and yours alone." So the Tenth Commandment drives us properly understood to the mercy of God, His covenant loyalty and love that we might receive from Him a new heart, a teachable heart, a heart tamed and subdued by His grace. Let's talk about the language of contentment, the language of contentment, because that's what the Tenth Commandment is all about. Now, our English translations of the Tenth Commandment use covet for two different words. The first, hamad, means to desire, to covet, to take pleasure in, to delight in. It usually carries a negative connotation, though one occasion it is used positively. Its most notable appearances in the Bible, you'll recognize these, are with respect to Eve's desire for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. in Genesis 3, 6, and also Achan's infamous lust for the forbidden spoils of war. The second verb is a form of avah, and is variously used for to desire, to covet, to wait longingly, to wish, to sigh, to want, to be greedy. Now this can refer to legitimate human desires for God, but it is used negatively here, and at one other notable instance, at Israel's lusting in the wilderness at Kibreth Hatavah. Now it's unlikely that we are to attach any great significance to the different verb choices used, particularly in the Deuteronomy passage, but together they indicate that all forms of lusting or coveting of things and persons that do not belong to us are evidence of a fundamental discontent with our Heavenly Father's providence and His goodness to us in our particular situation. The Bible speaks regularly. The Bible speaks strongly. The Bible speaks directly to the evils of covetousness. Now, this is very striking. The things that we'll look at in a minute that the Bible says about covetousness, because this is the one sin of which the world is by far the most tolerant. Because it doesn't always express itself in outward wickedness. In fact, men regularly joke about sexual coveting, I want to beat up somebody, I wish I could. Materialistic envy. Since everyone has these desires, they are not to be condemned, but sometimes to exploit it for fun and for profit. Much of our consumerist culture is built upon this sandy and very perishable foundation of covetousness. create, intensify, normalize, market the desire that men have in our culture for more and more. Discontentment with one's current level of possessions, appearance, relationships, and develop products to meet the artificially created need which is welcomed by the coveting human heart. But Scripture takes a very different view of covetousness, which is not surprising, because out of the heart are the issues of life, and coveting has to deal with the heart. Our Savior warned us, for example, in Luke 12, verse 15, of covetousness, stating that the quality or measure of a man's life is not defined by the number of his possessions. In Mark 7.22, he speaks similarly of covetousness as the welling up from the sinful and discontented human heart. Turn to Ephesians 5 and you'll see a Pauline declaration here about covetousness. Ephesians chapter 5. Beginning in verse 3, he speaks very strongly. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not be once named among you as becometh saints. Look over in a parallel at Colossians chapter 3 verse 5. Colossians chapter 3 verse 5, mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness which is idolatry. Which is idolatry. The simple fact, now what does this mean? Well it means that the object of a man's desire is his de facto God. The object of a man's desires is his de facto God. And for this reason, we are urged to be content with the things, the relationships, even the appearance that the Lord our God has provided for us, because He has promised, according to Hebrews 13, 5, never to leave us or forsake us. Turn to that verse with me just a minute. I love the book of Hebrews, so I never miss an opportunity to read. But this verse is particularly relevant here to covetousness. Hebrews 13, verse 5, Do you see now what Paul means in Colossians 3, 5, covetousness, which is idolatry? The idea here, if you put these things together, is that if our contentment is in God, if we are confident that He will never leave us or forsake us, we're not continually lusting after, striving after other things. If we are, those things are our God. And we're not content with God's promise to us to never leave us or forsake us. In other words, if we have Him, it's enough for us. Peter speaks of the fleecing of God's people by false teachers, whose only desire is to profit through the stupidity and waywardness of those who should have sufficient sense to turn away from such men. Look in 2 Peter 2. This would be the resume for many of today's false teachers, and we could name them, but I've already named several, so there's no point in sulling up the recordings. 2 Peter 2. beginning in verse 1. But there are false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of, and through covetousness. shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you, whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not." What a sad thing. What a sad testimony. That all these false teachers are just looking for ways to fleece those who should love the truth, but have turned away from it. And so, this danger. The danger of covetousness is as real today as it was when Peter gave this warning. The cumulative testimony of Scripture is that the desires of the heart define the man. If the heart is right with God, contented and grateful, its desire will be toward God. Such a man will make progress in the battle against covetousness however it is manifested in his life. However, if the heart is distracted, if your heart is in love with the world, if my heart is in love with the world, if it's seeking means for the gratification of its various desires, if it's discontented with God, this is covetousness, this is idolatry, and we will not be able to please God. Well, let's talk about this covenant of contentment. I've tried to relate each of the Ten Commandments to God's covenant because they've got to be seen in that context. That the Ten Commandments conclude with a prohibition of all sinful, discontented desire reveals a vital feature of God's covenant relationship with us. And that is that our Lord is concerned not just with our external behavior, but with the core of our being. He wants and demands our heart. our mind, our will, our emotions, everything that makes us tick. The Bible knows nothing of a religion, knows nothing of a God, knows nothing of a faith separated into outward actions and inward emotions. It is never a dichotomy between law and emotion, between standard and feelings. Rather, the Lord Jesus Christ claims as His domain the entire man. Inward desires, outward actions. He will reign over us in the heart as well as in the life. He will be loved and served and adored completely, and it's our pleasure that He has redeemed us completely. So true covenant obedience then, as the Tenth Commandment teaches us, must be from the heart or it's not obedience at all. Now, this cannot be used to justify the commonly heard statement, well, don't judge me by the way I look or the way I act. You don't know what's in my heart. God has so constituted the human existence and designed His covenant that there can't be any such division. Men look like they do. Men dress like they do. Girls look like they do. We relate to others as we do because of the desires of our heart. Jesus said in Matthew 6.22, quote, The light of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is single, the whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. Jesus is speaking, if you remember the Matthew 6 context, of worldliness and covetousness. And His point is that if the eye, the seeing organ, which I think here probably stands for the heart, and its desires, if it's dedicated to the world, if it's dedicated to the gratification of the flesh and the acquisition of possessions, God cannot be truly served. And that's the reason he immediately adds in verse 24, quote, No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God in riches. So that covenant faith As the Tenth Commandment teaches us, is concerned with obeying God's Word, for it's the bread of life, and it's concerned with obeying God's Word from a heart that sincerely loves Him and desires Him. Well, what's the heart of contentment? And that will perhaps take us to the heart here of the Tenth Commandment, the heart of contentment. Because our heart, our inner life, is the redemptive focus of God's covenant of grace with us in Christ, we need to recognize two things about the defining nature of our heart. First, whatever evils we do flow from the heart. Adulterous actions are always preceded by adulterous desires. Fornication, the same way, always. Murderous actions are always preceded by hatred for a fellow image-bearer. The same relationship holds with respect to every sin. Jesus said in Matthew 15, 18 through 20, But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things that defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man. In condemning, see, the ritual of the Pharisee, the ritualism, our Lord recovers the sole foundation of man's moral and spiritual life, his heart. And you will notice here in that list that I just gave you, He mentions virtually every commandment. The violation of each of them stems from the very covetousness, the illegitimate desires that are condemned by the Tenth Commandment. So until our hearts, this fountain is purified, our contagion will remain and it will be impossible for us to serve God sincerely or righteously. Our Savior's words there are also important, because they expose one of the leading lies of our age. That there is no ultimate explanation for the reason men act as they do, and therefore no blame is to be assigned to him. He's a helpless victim. He's a product of his upbringing. He's got crazy things in his environment. He didn't have a good education. Jesus Christ shows us to locate a different source of all of the evils in man's life and in this world, his corrupt heart. We cannot evade personal responsibility for our sins because they are our sins. They are us. They are a reflection of the condition of our heart. And this has far-reaching implications for us. First, we have to return and come to the Lord Jesus Christ to obtain the cleansing of our consciences through His shed blood. He is the only one who can cleanse the fountain, who can end sin's dominion, who can establish in place of the rain of sin unto death, the rain of grace unto righteousness. Then, there's a very, very clear explanation for the reason men talk the way they talk, live the way they live, for the type of political and educational and family structures they establish, and for the priorities they pursue. Proverbs 23, 7, As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. Proverbs 27, 19, As in water, face answers to face, so the heart of man to man. The purpose of those proverbs is to enforce practically the kind of thinking that the Tenth Commandment enjoins upon us. The heart is the spring from which every moral decision, habit, thought, and word issues forth. So there's no mystery. as to the reason men act and speak as they do. You ought not to think you are ultimately mysterious. God understands you perfectly. Your heart reveals to you what it's like in your outward actions. And so third then, we have to deal with the heart if we would deal with the issues of life. And that's why it must be kept, according to Proverbs 4.23, with all diligence. So in our family efforts, our educational efforts, Our marital relations, occasional church squabbles, surprise, surprise, you know, it never ceases to amaze me. It's like people go to the church, and in our day and age, of course, every restaurant we eat at is the best one we ever ate at or anyone else ever ate at either. And so people come to a church and they say, you know, immediately, this is the best church I've ever been to. Every other preacher I've ever heard has been a son of the devil. and you're the best thing. And then suddenly they wake up one day and there are sinners there. I can't believe there are sinners here. As if there's any great surprise about this. But you know, we're going to have to get to the heart of these issues. The heart of these issues, if we're going to resolve them, if we're going to have peace among ourselves, contentment in our life, growth in our marriages, Success and lasting success in our educational efforts. Now, the heart is God's domain. It's not yours and it's not mine. But this does not mean that the heart is unable to be confronted with the underlying reasons for its actions, beliefs, and its words. And it needs to be confronted, obviously, with God's infallible truth. Hebrews 4, verse 12 says, The Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, doing what? Piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and of the intentions of the heart. It's true, therefore, that while neither you or I can change our heart to reach it, we can wield the living sword that is divinely empowered to penetrate its recesses. Now, using the sword of God's Word does not mean that immediate and positive results will always follow. The gospel is also a double-edged sword, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2, and it may bring death. and it may do a lot of exposing. It may be an aroma unto judgment for a while. But the first thing here, remember, we have to turn to Christ and to His Word for cleansing, for Him to deal with our heart. And the second thing we need to remember about the relationship of the heart to the life is beautifully summarized by Augustine's well-known words in his Confessions. You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You. You see, covetousness of every variety is not simply a sin. I want that car. I want that face. I would like her face if possible, okay, if you're a girl coveting someone else's beauty. Covetous is evidence of a heart emptied of God, at least at that point. Covetousness is a frustrating attempt to satisfy the longings of the soul with something or someone other than Him for whom we were made, and in whom alone we find the steady beat of our own heart and the lasting joy of life. Covetousness is also a sign of misery, present misery and approaching misery if we don't repent of it. For when we do not establish our complete happiness in the Lord, when we don't delight in Him and desire Him, we will seek something to fill the vacuum created by unbelief. However, as we see in our culture, however ludicrous, however destructive and however foolish it may be. Our Savior taught the same thing in Matthew chapter 12, if you'll look there with me, Matthew chapter 12, kind of toward the end here of the chapter, beginning in verse 43. He says, when the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through the dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return unto my house from whence I came out. And when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself. And they enter in and dwell there. And the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation." Here Jesus talks about a man who had a devil cast out of him. And nothing else is there to fill the void. And so he finds finally that seven worst devils have taken the place of the first one. Why? Because the man did not fill his heart with love for God and a sincere delight in obeying Him. You see, it's never sufficient, the Tenth Commandment teaches us, to stop one sin or practice one virtue. I'll do one thing for you, God. No, the entire life must be renovated, swept clean by the Holy Spirit so that in place of our corruption and depravity, love and desire and obedience to God may eventually and progressively take its place. And so Scripture is constantly exhorting us to lust after God. to desire Him. You know, lust is not a word we normally think of it negatively, but lust is a word that can also have a positive connotation. We must long for Him. Long to be with Him. Long to be like Him. Long to please Him. Long to worship Him. Long to serve Him. Long to find our highest pleasure in Him. Just look at a few Psalms. We could use some refreshment this afternoon. Look in Psalm 63, verse 1. There's several. Psalm 63, verse 1, David says here, O God, Thou art my God, early will I seek Thee. My soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth for Thee, in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. Oh, look over in Psalm 73. Psalm 73, this is a very dramatic Psalm. particularly when it's sung to the good tune in the Trinity Psalter. But remember in the first half of this psalm, Asaph is complaining about how the wicked are always seeming to prosper. I was envious at the prosperity of the wicked, he says in verse 3. They're not in trouble like other men. Their mouth marches through the earth. They seem to prosper, verse 13, why do I get up and confess my sins every morning? I wash my hands in innocency, verse 14, all day long I'm plagued and chastened. What's the point? There's no reward for the righteous in this life. And he says, I went to the sanctuary, verse 17, then I understood their end. You've set them in slippery places. I awakened out of my dream, verse 22. So foolish was I and ignorant. I was like a beast before thee. Nevertheless, I am continually with thee. Thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee. My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For lo, they that are far from Thee shall perish. Thou hast destroyed all them that go a-whoring from Thee. but it is good for me to draw near to God. I have put my trust in the Lord that I may declare all thy works." You see, what Asaph is really saying in the first half of the psalm is that I'd almost fallen into the Tenth Commandment violation. Perhaps I had. I saw how the wicked were doing it. It seemed like they were having all this great stuff. And what's the point in what I'm doing? And I stopped losing my desire for the Lord. But then he says, I went to the sanctuary. I saw the end. I saw God was fattening them up for judgment. Now, in the absolute sense then, in the ultimate sense, only God completes us. Not in a metaphysical, mystical sense, but in a true, creative, redemptive, friendship, covenant sense. He brings joy to us. He satisfies the longings of our heart. Now what man that truly believes this, that he is God's vessel and created by God's power and loves to be filled with God Himself. Nobody in himself is going to believe this. Only by God's grace, God reaching out His hand to us through the incarnation of His Son, only in this way can we begin to understand this and begin to realize it in our lives. And this was Paul's prayer for the Ephesians. If you'll turn with me to Ephesians 3, this is not something we can comprehend in our own strength. This great love that is reached down to us through the incarnation of the eternal Son of God, it's beyond us. We're so earthbound now because of our fall, so filled with teeming lust for other things that we can't even appreciate this gospel. And so Paul prays for the Ephesians in chapter 3, verse 17, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, and that you may be rooted and grounded in love, and that you may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and height, excuse me, and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God, that He might be your desire. That's what you've been created for, to be filled with Him, to know Him, to walk and talk with Him, like Adam in the garden, but on a more permanent basis and footing, with even greater ability now because of our knowledge of His grace and of His mercy in Christ. But notice he says, you can't know this in your own strength. It is impossible. It's not something to be apprehended intellectually. It is intellectual. It has thought content. We can meditate on it. It surpasses knowledge, but it is knowledge, but it's nothing we can do in our own strength. The Lord has to open our eyes and break the stranglehold of covetousness, desires for things that only bring death to us. And this He does by His goodness and by His grace and by His love for us through the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, let's conclude this session by talking about the pursuit of contentment according to the Tenth Commandment, the pursuit of contentment. Now, you will notice a variety of things in Exodus 20 that Moses mentions that are near and dear to a man. He says, first of all, he mentions man's wife. Don't covet your neighbor's wife. A wife is a dear thing to a man. Wife, in many respects, should be the highest of our earthly delights. The other half of our soul and body return to us. through the goodness of God in the covenant of marriage. He then turns, Moses does, to talk about home, servants, tools of labor. For these are things that are necessary for our life and our livelihood. Now, of course, man will not only diligently guard these, but he will also be tempted to covet them. if he perceives or feels that others have more of them or better of them than he happens to possess. It's evident that Moses intends this list. Don't covet your neighbor's wife, your neighbor's house. He intends for this list to cover everything in life. And because the range of covetousness is broad, to that extent we're supposed to guard our heart vigilantly, lest we become discontented with God's providential bestowal of this life's goods, its relationships, and pine away after things that He's not been pleased to give us. So we are told here by the 10th commandment, what Solomon will later say in Proverbs 4.23, to guard our hearts with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. How do you guard your heart? Well, careful self-examination, honest in the light of Scripture, in order to see, what am I really longing after? What is the desire of my life? I need to repent. of having diplopia, double vision, or myopia, focus solely on me, I need to repent of worldliness, materialism. I need to, in terms of guarding my own heart, like Calvin talked about in the Institutes, establish my complete happiness in Him. Calvin says here in the opening chapter some of the most beautiful, non-inspired words ever written. It probably is the most beautiful thing ever written in French. He says, we will never give ourselves fully and completely to Him unless we establish our complete happiness in Him. To this should be added the constant support. We find by remembering and meditating upon God's promise never to leave us or forsake us. Now think about that for just a minute. Remember we read this at the beginning of the message. Don't be covetousness. Be content with such things as you have. Hebrews 13, 5. Why? Because He's promised I'll never leave you or forsake you. Now is that really enough? I've asked myself that honestly over the years and sometimes I haven't been very pleased with the answer. But is that really enough for me? He will never leave you or forsake you. Well, I'm fine if God doesn't leave me or forsake me, but don't take away my house. Don't take away my wife. Don't take away my health. Don't take away my car. Don't take away my books. I mean, you fill in your own blanks here, okay? As long as I can have these other things, I love having God, too, because it gives me something to talk about. Or is He that desire? Now since His faithfulness is certain and since He Himself is life's highest blessing and the lasting joy of the heart, we can do without a great many things the world believes are absolutely necessary for earthly happiness. If we're despised in the eyes of the world, we're loved by God. If our standard of living is less because we do not enter into unnecessary debt or cheat others in business transaction, we have lasting treasures in heaven. If we're truly needy, truly poor, we are immeasurably rich in Christ. If we have God as our Father through the Lord Jesus, if we remember that since He has given us His Son, He will give us everything else, Romans 8.32, we can begin to make progress in overcoming covetous desires and establish our complete happiness in the Lord. Well, let's take a break here and then we'll come back and change gears and look