Exodus 20 and verse 17. Exodus 20 and verse 17. Exodus 20, 17. You should not covet your neighbor's house You should not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. You may be seated. Let's join our hearts together in prayer as we come to the preaching of God's word. Our Father, as it's been a full day yesterday with the wedding and now today as we have our afternoon public worship. We just ask for grace, that we would be attentive to the preaching and hearing of your word. Give me the energy and strength and help I need to faithfully preach your word. And may we be helped to think about what it means that we are not to covet. And so we pray that you would give us much grace and strength in these things. And we pray in the name of Jesus, our Lord. Amen. We're now on the 10th commandment. Obviously, we've been walking through the 10 commandments, seeking to understand what they mean and how they apply, because the law of God, the 10 commandments, were written in stone, and therefore they're permanent. They abide forever, and so they give us moral principles that will never pass away. We saw the first four commandments teach us about what it means to love God, and the last six, what it means to love our neighbor as we love ourself. And now again, we are on the 10th commandment, you shall not covet. And so the main point of this sermon is, you shall not covet, but instead be thankful and content in what the triune God has given you. You shall not covet, but instead be thankful and content in what the triune God has given you. My first point, you shall not covet. My second point, you shall be thankful and content in what the triune God has given you." So again, my first point, you should not covet. The 10th commandment, you should not covet, shows that the commandments are spiritual. They show that the commandments do not merely affect our external behavior and our external practice, but our very hearts. The commandments affect not only what we do, but what we feel. Not only what comes out of our mouth and what we do with our hands, but even our own hearts. And so it shows that the pharisaical understanding of the commandments was utterly false because the 10th commandment itself tells us that God cares more about than merely our external behavior, but also our very own hearts. The Pharisees, they were destroying the law of God by being more concerned with their traditions than the word of God, because they merely cared about the external behavior, not the heart. But the 10th commandment, along with other places in the word of God in the Old Testament, show us that God cared always about the hearts. It started with the hearts, because you cannot covet with your hands. You covet with your hearts. You covet with your inward desires. And so God has always been concerned, not merely about the external behavior, but also about the hearts. If you turn with me to Mark 7, we see how Jesus confronts the Pharisees about this. Mark 7, if you would turn there with me in your Bibles, as we see Jesus confronting the Pharisees on this very fact about them merely thinking that honoring with the lips while their hearts were far from was acceptable. We see the reality of Mark 7, how Jesus Christ confronts them. I'm going to read verses 1 to 13. of Mark chapter 7. Mark 7, 1 to 13. Mark 7, 1 to 13. Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes came together to him, having come from Jerusalem. Now when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is with unwashed hands, they found faults. For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other things which they have received and hold, like the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches. Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands? He answered and said to them, Well, did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites? As it is written, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, and in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men, the washing of pitchers and cups and many other things you do. He said of them, all too well you reject the commandment of God that you may keep your tradition. For Moses said, honor your father and mother, and he who curses father or mother, let him be put to death. But you say, if a man says to his father or mother, whatever profit you might have received from me as Corbin, that is a gift to God, then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, making the word of God of no effect through your tradition, which you have handed down and many such things you do. So we see the Lord Jesus Christ is telling the Pharisees that you, Isaiah prophesied of you, that you honor God with your lips, your hearts are far from him, and you make the word of God of no effect so you can keep your man-made traditions. You set aside God's truth so you can keep your traditions. You teach as doctrines, as doctrines coming from God, what are really the commandments of men. And so they were those who were honoring with their lips while their hearts were very far from God. And so again, this commandment, the 10th commandment shows us that God cares not merely about our external behavior, but our very hearts. Let me show you many places in the Old Testament where the emphasis on the hearts is made known. So you wanna have your Bible nearby so you can flip. Deuteronomy 6. If you turn there, we're going to do a survey, not an exhaustive survey by any means, but a survey of passages in the Old Testament showing the importance of the hearts, that even the Old Testament was not about merely external religion. Some people think the Old Testament was merely external obedience. The New Testament is about the heart. That is utterly false. Both Testaments are about the heart leading to good behavior. The heart leading to good behavior. Deuteronomy 6 in verse 5. You shall love the Lord your God with all your hearts, with all your soul, and with all your strength. Does that sound familiar? That's what Jesus is quoting when he says the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength. But we see here, you are to love the Lord your God with all your hearts. That inner man. Let me turn you now to Deuteronomy 28. Same book, but Deuteronomy 28. And starting at verse 47. Deuteronomy 28, starting at verse 47. Again, that connection with the hearts. The Word of God says, because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart for the abundance of everything, therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you in hunger and thirst and nakedness and in need of everything, and he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you. because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of hearts. It wasn't good enough just to serve God if you weren't doing it with joy and gladness of hearts. So we see in Deuteronomy, we see the reality that God always wanted his people to worship him with gladness of hearts. And if you turn with me to Psalm 119 and verse 10, Psalm 119 and verse 10. Psalm 119 and verse 10 says, with my whole heart, I have sought you. Oh, let me not wander from your commandments. Again, we see that emphasis on the heart. The psalmist says, oh, he has sought God with his whole heart. If you look with me to Proverbs chapter four, maybe one of the most famous verses in the Old Testament at the heart, Proverbs four and verse 23, Proverbs four, And verse 23, we see this emphasis again, Proverbs 4 and verse 23. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. Guard or keep your heart with all diligence. It wasn't good enough just to keep your behavior, you were to keep your heart, you were to guard your heart. Then if you turn with me to Isaiah chapter 29, and verse 13, Isaiah chapter 29 and verse 13. Again, we're looking at Old Testament texts to show the importance and the centrality of the heart and not merely the behavior, also the heart. Isaiah 29 and verse 13. Therefore the Lord said, In as much as these people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the commandment of men. That's the text that Jesus is quoting when he quotes in Mark chapter seven, the chapter Isaiah 29 and verse 13, that they honor with their lips, but their hearts are far from God. Now, Jeremiah 29 in verse 13. Jeremiah 29 in verse 13. Jeremiah 29 in verse 13. That text says, and you will seek me, and find me when you search for me with all your hearts. The seeking of God must not just be merely external. It must be with the heart, with the inner man, with the inner person. And then the last one, the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi chapter four, Malachi chapter four in verse six, Malachi chapter four and verse six. The text says, and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse. We see father's hearts and children's hearts are being turned together, but it's their hearts. God cares about not merely the behavior of the fathers going to the children and the behavior of the children going to their fathers, but their hearts, their very hearts. And so we see from this brief survey, very brief survey, the importance, even in the Old Testament, of the heart, the inner man, the desires. of the heart. God has always been concerned, not merely with the external behavior, but with the very heart. And so coveting is a heart sin because God cares about your heart and my heart. God cares about what our desires are. God not only said it's sinful to do sinful things, it's sinful to desire evil things. And so therefore the heart must be involved in our sanctification. We see in the text proper, verse 17, first we're told not to covet our neighbor's house. So our neighbor's house is not to be coveted. We're not to have a jealous, envious desire for our neighbor's property, for his house. We are not to look at his house with jealous or envy. We are to be thankful that God's given that to him, but not desire it in our hearts. Second, we see that we are not to covet or desire our neighbor's wife. This also shows when Jesus is saying that you shouldn't look with lust, he's not making a new law, better law, more rigorous law. He's just expositing what the Old Testament has always taught, because what is coveting your neighbor's wife but lust? And he says, you are not to covet your neighbor's wife. Don't covet his house. Don't covet his wife. Those things are off limits. Don't lust after his house. and don't lust after his wife. We are not to covet after these things. We also see that we are not to covet after his male or female servants. We see this reality, we don't really necessarily in our culture have a comparison, but we're not to covet the workers that our neighbor has. Maybe a comparison if he owns a business and he has a lot of good workers, we shouldn't covet those people who are working for him, but we should be thankful that he has good workers. We shouldn't covet his ox or his donkey. Probably the closest comparison to that, even though we do have animals that help on farms, is maybe our appliances, things we have in our home. People have nice appliances, so they get things done quicker. That's what the animals were for them in that culture. They got things done quicker because of that. And we aren't to covet or desire what belongs to our neighbor, his ox or his donkey. And then lastly, we're not to covet anything that belongs to our neighbor. We're not to look at our neighbor and say, I wish I had that. I wish they didn't have it. I wish I had it. We're not to look at them and say, they have a great house, or a great wife, or a great husband, or a great this, great that, and say, if only I had that. God says that's off limits. Not only are you not to take from them, the eighth commandment, you're not to take what belongs to them, you're not even to desire what belongs to them. Not only are you not to steal from them, you're not to want what they have. in the sense of coveting. What this doesn't mean is you can't, it doesn't mean that you can never see a nice thing that someone has and say, I would desire that in the sense of I would want to accrue the necessary things to get that. That's not wrong. Like if you see a good marriage and you say, Oh, it'd be wonderful to be married to someone like that. Or you see a nice property that, Oh, it'd be nice to have some of that. That's not wrong in itself. It, when it becomes a jealousy and an envious spirit that we're looking to someone else and we want it and we feel an envy in our heart. So because ambition is not forbidden in the scripture. It's not wrong to be ambitious. It's not wrong to work hard. It's not wrong to make ourselves more productive. What is wrong is jealousy for the good of what someone else has. And so we are to be ambitious, but not to the point of coveting what belongs to someone else. Because sometimes people could hear this and say, well, then can you never have any desire for anything? Not only that's what the commandment is saying, we all have desires. We can even see good things people have and say, oh, maybe I'll get one of those one day. But we're doing it not with jealousy or envy towards them. We're doing it just because we're thankful for what they have and we think it could be nice that we would have it. But not because we want to take it from them or we're looking down upon them, but we're just thankful for what they have and think it could be something nice for us if we work for it and get it in a righteous way. And so we see this reality, that God forbids coveting. If you remember, this was actually the commandment that God used to convict Saul of Tarsus, who became the Apostle Paul. He said, I would not know covetousness unless the law said, you shall not covet. And that was actually the commandment that God used to convict him, realizing that the law is spiritual. The law is not merely external. The law is not merely, you do certain things externally and you're good. But he realized that the law even affected his own desires and his heart. You have to wonder if maybe what he has in mind, if you remember Stephen, so Paul was a great man in Judaism, progressing far beyond his fellow countrymen. And he saw Stephen, a man who couldn't be refuted, a man of face like an angel, a man who was so eloquent in the way he was preaching, and it's possible by seeing that he realized, wow, I met my match. It's very possible Stephen was the man he was coveting, because he looked at Stephen and said, this man is different. I'm better than every other Jew, but Stephen's unique, because he was filled with the Holy Spirits. We don't know that for sure, but it's very possible as he sees Stephen, and not long after, he's converted. as he meets Christ on the Damascus road. But we do know for sure that that was the commandment that Paul realized. The law was spiritual and it cut him to the hearts. You shall not covet. And this is similar to the commandment that Jesus leaves the rich young ruler with. We could argue he leaves him with the first or the 10th, but covetousness is idolatry, so they go together, the scriptures teach. But he's, the rich young ruler said, all these things, when he gives him some of the commandments, all these things I've kept from my youths up. And then he tells them, well, go and sell all your possessions, give them to the poor and follow me. And that man, because he had much riches, went away sad. Jesus applied the 10th commandment or the first commandment and showed him that he loved money and was coveting money. And he loved money more than he loved God. He was serving God, or he was serving mammon rather than God. And so we see that God objects for us to have covetous desires. When you do, we must confess them and forsake them ask for God to forgive them. When we give in to covetous desires, whether for another person of the opposite sex, whether for a house, whether for something that someone has, anything that belongs to someone else, we are not to have a jealous, envious desire for. But now my second point, you shall be thankful and content in what the triune God has given you. So if the negative is don't covet what belongs to your neighbor, their house, their wife, their male or female servant, their ox, their donkey, anything that's your neighbor, don't covet what belongs to them. What's the positive? What's the put on? If that's the put off, the put on is thankfulness and contentment. Thankfulness and contentment. The way to fight against discontentment or a covetous spirit is by being thankful and content in what God has given you. In a world of discontentment, A content and thankful spirit is a great testimony of God's saving grace. In a world of grumbling and complaining and bitterness because we don't have what we think we ought to have, when someone is thankful for even the little things that God has given them, that is a great testimony of God's grace in that person's life. We see this reality if you turn with me to Ephesians chapter five. We see this emphasis of being thankful. Ephesians chapter five and verse 20. Ephesians 5 and verse 20. Ephesians 5 and verse 20. It says, Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to that text. Giving thanks always for all things. You see that in the text if you're looking at it or you're hearing me? Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. So it's not only should we give thanks always, but for all things. Not only for all things, but always. That's the spirit that God wants us to have. Thankfulness always for all things. And then if you turn with me to 1 Thessalonians chapter five and verse 18. 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 18. We see here another emphasis about thankfulness. 1 Thessalonians 5, I'm gonna read 16, 17, and then 18. But we see this reality of thankfulness. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. So we see in this text that in everything, not only always and for all things, but now in everything, we are to give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. It's hard to be discontent and verbally thankful at the same time. It's hard to recount in your mind or out loud all the good things that God has given you, physical health, spiritual life, family, clothing, food, house, cars, job, whatever it might be, and still be discontent while you are verbally saying all the good things that God has given. That's a good thing. When you're prone to grumble, when you're prone to covet what someone else has, it's good to remember all the good that God has given you. Even write them down if you like to write, or say them out loud, or pray them, being reminded of all the good things, all the things that you can give God thanks for. Even the trials, because it's not only always, but for all things, including trials and sorrows, to give God thanks, because he has good purposes in it. And then if you look with me at Hebrews 13, Hebrews 13. Hebrews 13, verses 5 and 6. So we've seen thankfulness, that God wants us to be thankful. Now we'll see the reality of us being content. Us being content. Hebrews 13, verses 5 and 6. Let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have. For he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? We see here that God says, let your conduct be without covetousness. Don't be covetous. Why? Because you should be content with such things you have. Because God himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we see that we're not to be covetous, but what's the opposite? Be content. Because the God of the universe says to you and to me, if we're in Christ, I will never leave you nor forsake you. being thankful and being content, being grateful, being happy in all the good that God has given them. Because we know that he is good and does good to his beloved people. And he is our helper. What do we have to fear? What can man do to me? As the text says, what can man do to me? And where does this come to a high point where we realize how we can be content and thankful? Do you understand that you and me deserve death, hell and the grave? Do we really believe that if God gave us what we deserve, we would have hell and His wrath for all eternity? Do we understand if God actually gave us what was fair, He would cast every last one of us into hell forever? And God has given you and me, if you're in Christ, mercy, grace, love that we don't deserve. He's given that in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the one who came down from heaven to be born of the Virgin Mary, to live a sinless life, to die upon the cross, to be risen again after he suffered God's wrath, to ascend back into heaven so that people like us who are hell deserving and deserve nothing but death, hell, and the grave might be forgiven of all of our sins, reconcile to God, and be the friends of God. How can Christians be discontent? How can I be discontent when I think about this? that once a lost, rebellious, dead sinner, God made me alive together with Christ. By grace, I've been saved. How can I ever be discontent when I remember that everything I have is mercy? All because of mercy. Because of Christ's death and resurrection, God has given me abundantly more than anything I deserve. Anything I have is mercy. That Christ would come and I might have life. spiritual and eternal, and might have that life more abundantly, is grace. And therefore, what do I ever have to be discontent over? I'm preaching to myself. I'm preaching to myself. Because I would say the sin that I have to wrestle with, the root sin, is discontentment for my own soul. I feel it in my soul. fighting against being content with what God has given. And this is why I need to always be reminded that what I deserve is nothing less than the wrath of God. But I've been given grace and therefore, even anything above that, it just carries on top. Because I've been given great grace in Jesus Christ. Where does a lot of our sin come from? It comes from being discontent. Why? Because discontentment is a key root sin for many people. Because why do we give in to sin? Because we feel as if having that will be best for us. Because we're not content in obeying God's will. But by being thankful, by reminding ourselves of the free grace of God in Jesus Christ, we are invigorated to live for Christ and to be content. Because we realize if God would give up his only begotten son for me, then his commands must be not to take anything away, but to give me good. And when God says to me or to you, not now or never, we trust it's because he has our best interests in mind. Because why would God go all the way to give us his only begotten son to just turn his back on us now? But as we remember that everything we have is good and grace from God, because of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved me and gave himself for me, and loved you and gave himself for you if you're in Christ. Therefore, you can have great confidence that the God who began a good work in you will complete it. And you can be thankful because everything you have is an act of mercy. So when you're prone to be discontent, to grumble, to complain, to fret, to fear, to worry, Are you preaching yourself the reality that God gave his only begotten son for your sins? Are you dwelling on the situation? Are you dwelling on Christ, his person and his work? Are you dwelling on what you don't have? Are you dwelling on what God has given you that you don't deserve? Are you dwelling on what you think God owes you? Are you dwelling on what God's free grace has purchased in Christ and given you by the Spirit? Are you dwelling on, if only I had this? Because one brings freedom. The other brings misery. Let me just say this as well. If you're dwelling on what you have in Jesus Christ, and then you get other things on top of that, you can really enjoy them. If you're trying to find your life and identity in those things, you really can't. Hopefully that makes sense to you. If you're trying, look at these bugs. If you have your life and identity, in these things, then you really can't enjoy them. But if you have your life and identity in Jesus Christ, and all that he's done for us in his personal work, then everything else can be enjoyed, because those things can be understood in light of his goodness and grace. And so God wants us to be a thankful people, a content people, reminded of all the good that he's given to us as a gift. Without Christ, we're condemned. Covetousness will condemn sinners. It will condemn people on the last day that even if they didn't feel like they did anything super bad externally, they did have sinful desires in their heart. And someone will rightly go to eternal hell even if they just had coveting in their hearts. And that's why they need Christ. That's why sinners need Christ. Because without Christ, they will die in their sin of coveting what doesn't belong to them. As saints, as God's people, we must put off covetousness because it doesn't glorify God. It makes God look like he's stingy. It makes God look like he's not good. It makes God look like he's not gracious. So it doesn't glorify God when we grumble and complain because it makes God look bad, as if God is not good to us. That's what the devil tried to say to Adam and Eve in the garden. God's holding something back from you. If God really loved you, he would give you the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If God was actually good, he would give it to you. And when we shun the world, the flesh, and the devil in their lives, we're saying, no, God is good. And I believe if he's left it, he hasn't given it to me, I believe it's because it's not good for me. But what does the devil always try to do? God is not good, because if he were good, he would give this to you. And we must put that spirit off. Everything that our God ordains for us is right, and God is good, and he does good. He's good and he does good, so we must put off covetousness. It doesn't glorify God. we must instead be thankful for all the good that God has given us. It might be good for you this week to write down a list of things that you can be thankful for. In my Bible class one day, I put on the board, I asked people, what are some things you can be thankful for? I put different things on the board. I gave some examples of things I'm thankful for as well. It might be good for you, either mentally or physically, however it works best, or in prayer, when you spend time in prayer, praying over things that, you're thankful for, that you're grateful that God has given you. That would be a good thing to do this week. And blessed be God, that even though we deserve eternal death, hell, and the grave, we have much to be thankful for because we've been forgiven and reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. If you have nothing else to be thankful for, if you're a Christian, You're forgiven and reconciled to God, and you're a friend of God. And so may we be a thankful people, a grateful people, that God has given us mercy and grace, and everything else is a cherry on top, because he's given us his only begotten son, his greatest gift, who is our savior, our lord, our redeemer, our master, our lord, and our friend. Amen. Our Father, we thank you for your word, and we pray you would apply these truths to us. Thank you for this time spent in your word. Thank you for this Sabbath day. In Jesus' name, amen.