Last week, we looked at contentment as the positive requirement for the 10th commandment. What we did there was we laid out the requirements For the Tenth Commandment and in what God would have us to do and what God would have us to do as we think about The Tenth Commandment is that he would have us to be content He would have us to be a people that are trusting and resting in him knowing that that he is good and that he will provide for his people for contentment and as a Christian virtue or contentment as the moral principle that lies behind the 10th commandment is a principle that rests in the provision of God. It is a principle that rests in the fact that God is the one who will bless your life. That God is the one that will provide for you as he has promised to do. But what we must remember also is that as we look at each of the commandments and as we have looked at each of the commandments, there is both a positive as well as a negative. There is a plus that we look at and we say, positively speaking, this is what God requires of us. And negatively, this is what God forbids. So what God forbids when we consider the 10th commandment is seen in our larger catechism in question 148, where it says that what is forbidden is discontentment with our own estate, envying and grieving at the good of our neighbor, together with all inordinate motions and affections to anything that is his. So if we look at that and we're reminded again of Exodus 20 verse 17, where Moses and God through the giving of the law 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 neighbors. What we are reminded of there is what the author of Hebrews tells us when he says to keep yourself from the love of money and to be content with what you have. For the Lord has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you so that we can confidently say. And again, this is the author of Hebrews application of the commandment to not covet so that we may confidently say. The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? You see, you are called to be content, but when we talk about contentment like we did last week, what is presupposed in that calling for contentment is the fact that there is discontentment when our hearts are covetous. When our hearts look beyond that which the Lord has given to us and look beyond that which the Lord has given by His ordinary providence to be within the reach of what we may have. And that is covetousness. That is that discontentment of the heart. Where in a sense, we say the Lord will leave us. The Lord will forsake us. The Lord is not my helper. You see, there could be no coveting of what we want without discontentment for what we have. And we need to look at that discontentment since it is really so central to this commandment And as we think about discontentment, the first thing that ought to be said as we think about discontentment is that at the heart, and this is always the job of ethics, when we look at the Ten Commandments and we begin to dig and dig and dig, when we look at discontentment, what we find at the heart of that is rebellion against God. It is a rebellion that says that my heart is unwilling to submit to God. And again, think of Hebrews 13. Be content. For he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So that we can confidently say the Lord is my helper, I will not fear. But when we turn that upside down and we look at that discontentment, we understand that discontentment says, I am refusing to submit to the providences of God. I am refusing to submit to that which God has given and that which God has provided, for I am not content. You see, when your heart is a complaining heart, against the providences of God. It is not just a heart of discontentment. It is a heart of rebellion. You see, God guides and governs the world through his providence. Our youngest members know that, that God guides and governs his world through providence. And when your heart is covetous and you look out and you say, that must be mine and that must be mine. And I'm discontent with the lot that the Lord has given to me. You are showing that you are not pleased with how God guides and governs the universe. It is rebellious. You see, what pleases God ought to please you. What is right in God's eyes ought to be right in your eyes for his provision. And again, you have to take the whole Ten Commandments series together. We've talked about hard work. We've talked about owning property. We've talked about all of these things. But this discontentment is saying, when I look at the big picture and I am keeping the Sabbath and Monday through Saturday, the way we keep the Sabbath is through diligence in our calling and working hard. And when you're doing that and you're being content with what the Lord has given to you, you're able to walk in faithfulness in the second half of the law in loving our neighbor. But discontentment says that you are displeased with God's providence. And in that discontentment, you rebel. You murmur and you argue against that which God has given to you, for you are not satisfied. We must confess that before the Lord. But it's not only rebellion against God, what we find in the scriptures and we find this with all of the moral law of God, the way of happiness for man, even unconverted man, is to live in close proximity to what the word of God calls us to do. You know, unconverted men and women, when they are faithful in marriage, they're happier than if they're not faithful in marriage. And if they're not out using substances to ruin their bodies, they live happily than if they did live with the abuse of substances. And that's true in all of the moral law of God. Even unconverted man will live primarily a happy life in this life. if he is conformed to the revealed will of God. But we look at this 10th commandment that we are reminded is idolatry. And it is idolatry as we look and we say, discontentment is rebellion against God. But we have to understand also that it's not just a spiritual problem. It is a physical and fleshy problem as well, for discontentment leads to sorrows and anger. Your heart is most satisfied when you're resting in that which God has given to you. Sorrow of heart occurs when covetousness digs deeply within your heart and you look at all of these things, and I love how how broad the commandment is and in so many ways it hits those those things. You know, you can picture this man. And he's standing there, maybe having his cup of coffee and standing on his front porch. And he's looking over at the neighbor's house. And maybe you can see inside his wife's cooking breakfast for the kids. And there are these people that are helping to serve. And he's grumbling and he's saying, I wish I had a better house. I wish I had a better wife. I wish I had better servants. Wish I had a better car. And that's the way that The commandment is set up because it is that which is most obvious for the ways in which discontentment comes into the life of a person, even for a believer. And when that discontentment sets in for house and wife and servants and vehicles and tools, we see that this covetousness comes to the forefront And the heart begins to sink in sorrow. You see this often in the scriptures, when that which did not belong to another was sought after with discontentment. And what comes is sorrow and what comes is anger. And these are the emotions, the fleshy life around discontentment. You see, God crosses the will of the discontent. And as the will of one is crossed, it's as if God pours on sorrow upon sorrow upon sorrow. But again, those are brought upon oneself in discontentment. Jude 16 is an interesting text when thinking about covetousness. It says, these are murmurers, complainers walking after their own lusts, and their mouth speaks great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage. They're complainers. What's at the heart of that is that sorrow and anger of heart. Looking out at the distributions that God gives through his providence and those that are the murmurs and the complainers and the discontents, they look at men and women and they admire them because of the advantage that they have. And it leads to the complaints of heart. Why can't I have that power? Why can't I have that authority? Why can't I have that house? Why can't I have that car? Why can't I have that thing? And it leads to sorrow and anger. Discontented men and women Their hearts are often angry with God's provisions. But I want to show you something else as well about this discontentment. I mentioned that. discontentment is rebellion against God. And then we brought it down to our level, we show that discontentment leads to sadness, sorrow, it leads to anger within the person, but there is something even worse than that. And that is that it is blasphemous. discontentment in its idolatry is blasphemous because what it does is it accuses God. It accuses God. And in that accusation of words against God, we see that it is foolishness. You're accusing God of foolishness. You're saying you are not wise enough to govern the world. You look out and you see the flaws of God. the flaws and how he has provided for some and not provided for you. And you go through these ideas in your head that say, if God would have distributed this way, then I could have done that. And it would have kept this person from doing that. And what we do as we begin to unravel that and to unfold that, we are saying, at least in a practical way, that God is foolish. That He was not wise enough to govern according to His providence. But we're also saying that God is unjust. That somehow God is doing me wrong. If I don't have this, and my neighbor does, that somehow I deserve what he has. And we know that God is the one that provides, so God therefore must be unjust. You see, the heart of the discontent is a heart that often rises up against God in accusation, in blasphemous accusation. We say, Lord, you are foolish. We would never say it. But in the logic of our brains and in the logic of our hearts, we say, you know, this really could have been handled a lot better. And we say that God is unjust for he gives to one but does not give to us. And lastly, in that discontentment, it is saying that discontentment that accuses God, it says that God is cruel. Somehow, as though God is holding something from you that is for your good. Somehow saying, Lord, if you would give me this, it would satisfy me more. Maybe you are like me, and sometimes you do the mental exercise that if you had this much money, here's what I would do with this percentage of it for the kingdom of God. Just honest. Right. And at times, I mean, you can entertain that and it not be sin, but at times it's discontentment. And it's saying that God is foolish and that God is unjust and God is cruel. filling our hearts and our minds with thoughts against God that says that He is cruel when the scriptures, even the song that we open with, says that God is good to all, that God provides freely for all, even the animals are provided for by the hand of the Lord. And in the scriptures, that provision, is not called His cruelty. It's not called His injustice. It is not called His foolishness. What is it called? It's called His goodness, isn't it? For God distributes in a good and just manner as He sees fit. We ought to lay hold of this fact, this truth. Learn that discontentment is something for which we must repent. And look to the Lord, acknowledging that you are good, that you are just. And that the discontentment that boils up within my heart or the discontentment that boils up within your heart, none of those accusations can truly be pinned on the Lord, for He is good. He is merciful. He is just. The heart of the discontent man or woman is a heart that slowly will break communion with God. The effects of a covetous heart begin with that marring communion and marring the access that you have to God and that you have to the Lord Discontentment is a sin that keeps you from loving God with your heart, mind, soul and strength. And it's one that breaks down that relationship that you have with the Lord. And you say, well, prove that, Pastor Nathan. Well, we can see that even in human relationships, right? parents to children, if children think that parents are not providing for them adequately, that relationship gets broken down. Or husbands and wives, you know, again, we can think of many times when you know, wives will have a checking account that they're hiding money in or husbands will spend money foolishly without considering the wife and without the counsel of the wife. I mean, we've heard stories of, you know, husbands that come home and they've purchased new expensive cars without consulting their wives. And that breaks relationship, that covetousness and discontentment within that unit of relationship breaks communion. So, too, with the Lord. If in your heart of hearts you're saying, you know, you don't provide. You don't give justly. You are cruel. That communion with God and that intimacy to which we are called as Christians and that clinging to Jesus and finding full satisfaction in Jesus, that begins to break down. We see it also as something that ruins Our participation in the means of grace. How often are the prayers of the discontent the most immature of Christian prayers? Always asking for things. Always praying for self. Rather than the expansive prayers of the kingdom. rather than praying for others and tearing down strongholds and seeing the kingdom of God built through prayer. It takes away that love of spiritual things for the one who is discontent, who has time to sit and hear the word of God preached, who can focus on these things when the heart is discontent, saying, I need more and I want more and I need more. Worship is affected. when the heart is filled with discontentment for this life. We see also that this is something that causes us to be tormented. How often do the Proverbs talk about the love of money or the love of possessions or the discontentments in this life. Maybe you occasionally will do a 30 day run, a 31 day run through the Proverbs. Listen for 10th commandment violations in the Proverbs. They're everywhere. They're everywhere. It is so central to breaking down of oneself and the tormenting of oneself and the destruction of peace, even for the Christian. And lastly, we see that the covetous heart is a heart that makes us unthankful. Discontentment leads to a lack of thankfulness. I want you to think about our first parents. What did God provide for them in the garden? What is it that they lacked for? They had everything. And yet in their discontentment of heart, as they were as they were misguided and caused to sin through that serpent, it was a discontentment. That said, you're right, there is so much more out there for me. There is more that I need. There is more that I deserve. For God is keeping back something from me. For our first parents were not thankful. They were discontent. Congregation, we are called to be a people of thankfulness and discontentment and thankfulness. are unable to cohabitate, that bitterness will replace thankfulness. You and I are called to look to the providences that God has given to us, house, wife, servants, animals, and we're called to be thankful. Being ungrateful and being discontent are blackness of heart that open us to a world of sin. We know that that discontentment in this life and this discontentment, even with the provisions of spiritual life that God has given are things that have caused us as a race to be driven away from God, for us to pull away either a discontentment that says, I am not fully satisfied in you to the Lord. Or that discontentment that says, I need something more, I need something better. And as Romans 1 tells us, we exchange the glory of an invisible God for things. Things made of wood and gold, metals, and we worship the creation rather than the creator. So we look at this 10th commandment and you might say, well, Pastor Nathan, I'm not really sure if this one is mine. I'm thankful for what God has given me. I'm thankful for the provisions the Lord has given me in this life. My sin is probably one of these other commandments. But we're reminded, like the rich young ruler. that Jesus Christ confronts as he loves the rich young ruler and he looks at him and he calls him to sell his possessions, which isn't something that he requires of all of us, of course, because we wouldn't have anything if that was required of us. But he does that to point out the discontentment of his heart. And you remember, he walks away. You see, Jesus Christ is the one who is provided. for the discontented heart, that that heart may be broken and found in Jesus as Jesus comes and puts himself around that discontented heart and forgives that sin and draws the discontent to himself. The one who the scriptures say is an idolater is turned to worship the true and living God. So as we close this series today, we find that this 10th commandment is won because of the nature of idolatry and the nature of the interplay between contentment and discontentment. This commandment, in a very special way, shows us the depths of our violations of God's commandment, like a chain connected to all of the other nine, showing the ways that we don't love our neighbor and the ways that we don't love our God because of discontentment of heart, which is idolatry. This, my friends, should drive you to Jesus Christ. You should be driven to Christ. So that you may find contentment even for your souls. Amen.