Mark 10. I'm going to read from verse 17. Let us hear God's Word. And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running and kneeled to him and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is God. Thou knowest the commandments. Do not commit adultery. Do not kill. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Defraud not. Honor thy father and mother. And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these things have I observed from my youth. Then Jesus, beholding him, loved him and said unto him, One thing thou lackest. Go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor. and thou shalt have treasure in heaven. And come, take up the cross and follow me.' And he was sad at that saying and went away grieved, for he had great possessions." And then turn with me to Philippians chapter 4. Philippians chapter 4, and I'll read verses 4 through 13. Philippians 4, 4-13. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. In the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, there be any virtue. If there be any praise, think on these things. Those things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do. And the God of peace shall be with you. But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again, wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in respect of want, For I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." And then lastly, Hebrews 13.5. Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye have. For he saith, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Thus ends the reading of God's holy and inspired Word. Now again, we return to a lengthy series on the Ten Commandments. We considered the first table of the Law, the first four commandments last year. And for the latter part of this year, we've been considering the second table of the law. We've considered the sanctity of authority in the 5th commandment, of life in the 6th, of marriage in the 7th, the sanctity of property in the 8th, the sanctity of a good name or credibility in the 9th. And now we're considering the 10th commandment, or the heart, I believe, of the second table of the law. Last Lord's Day, we considered the sins forbidden. in this commandment. We considered the command itself in Exodus 20, verse 17. We looked at the word covet, which literally means to delight in or to desire. And we said the sin is to delight in or to desire that which God has not given. The sin is desiring someone else's wife, property, good name, life, the like. We saw also in Deuteronomy that the word there in Deuteronomy 5.21 There are actually two words that are used there in that commandment. The one is desire, and that is the word that is translated covet in Exodus 20 verse 18. And then there is the word that's translated covet in the Authorized Version, and that literally means to wish or to lust. It also appears in this Hebrew word to have the flavor of to lust, so as to take. In Exodus 34-24, God tells God's people that the heathen won't covet their land. And clearly, the people of God probably didn't care a whole lot if the Philistines wanted their land, but they certainly didn't want them to take their land. Because if you want something of somebody's, eventually, if you have the opportunity, You're going to take it. You see it also in Joshua 7.21, the sin of Achan. He says, I coveted and I took. Coveting leads to taking. And so that's why I contend that this is the heart. Because once you give in to your lust for someone's name, their possessions, their wife, whatever it might be, then it's not long before you actually take from them. We also looked at Paul's words in Romans 7, verse 7, last Lord's Day, and we saw there that Paul says that he came to learn about lust through God enlightening him regarding the tenth commandment, thou shalt not covet. So here, Paul clearly says that covetousness is lustfulness. Now remember, the sin of covetousness is the sin of Satan. Satan himself desired to be God. Clearly, he wasn't content with the place that God had assigned him among the angels. Clearly, it's related to the first sin of man. The serpent said to Eve, ye shall be God's knowing good and evil. There's a sense where they would know good and evil in a different way once they fell, but clearly Satan was lying to them, twisting. And then we see in verse 6, it says of the fruit, and when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and it was pleasant to the eyes, and to be a tree to be desired to make one wise. You see, she did bite on that falsehood of Satan. She took the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her, and he did eat." So we see in Genesis 3-6 the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Eve saw it was good for the flesh, it was good for food, it would taste good, it looked good, it was something to be desired, to make one wise. She wasn't content with the place that God had given her. She wanted something more. So we see it as a very serious sin. It's at the root of the fall. Last Lord's Day we considered seven sins related to this sin, or really six under the sin of discontentment or covetousness. We considered discontentment itself, worry, fear, envy, grieving at the good of others, inordinate motions or thoughts or desires, and inordinate affections. As we consider those, consider the words of our Lord in Luke 12, 15. There Jesus says, "...take heed and beware of covetousness." It gives us a warning. It's a sin that we better beware of. "...Beware of covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." That's why we need to be aware of covetousness because it's so easy, because of indwelling sin, to begin to buy the lie of the world and to begin to believe that a man's life does consist in what he has. So we need to be on guard to make sure we don't adopt that philosophy. Our Lord also said in Matthew 16.26, for what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? So when we start thinking about things of the world, possessions, we need to remember that we are not what we possess. We also need to remember that our soul is of infinite worth in comparison to anything that can be acquired. The Apostle John summarizes it in 1 John 2.15. Love not the world, neither the things in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Here Jesus sets the contrast. You love someone. Do you love the world or do you love the Father? Your affections are set somewhere. Someone or something is your God. John makes that stark contrast. If you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you. Don't be deceived. It's not. Now, this morning, I want us to consider the duties required in the commandment. Larger Catechism question 127 asks the question, what are the duties required in the Tenth Commandment? I won't read that. It's a helpful answer. I will focus on some of the things that are mentioned there. I think as we consider the duties required, we need to recognize again afresh that the duties required in the commandments are the opposite of the sins forbidden. And I think it's especially important here to remember that as we consider putting on these dispositions of heart, that if we do put them on, we will, and to some degree, keep sinful thoughts from our minds. Thomas Chalmers used this term. He called it the expulsive force of a new affection. You see, if you have an affection, if you have a desire, a delight in something, and something else comes along that you delight in more, your delight in whatever you delighted in previously wanes. And so you might have a child playing on the floor, and you give them a toy, and they're not going to let go of that toy unless you forcefully take it from them. But if you place another toy there on the floor that they like more, they will gravitate to that. Then you can very easily obtain the item that they were unwilling to give up prior to. It's the same way with teens. If you have some affection to someone, maybe inappropriate, and then all of a sudden you have an affection towards someone else, what happens? The expulsive force of a new affection. We ought to have new affections that will repulse the sinful affections or thoughts in our hearts. First, we need to have the grace of contentment which will root out discontentment or covetousness. We need to cultivate a spirit of contentment. Paul could say in 1 Timothy 6.6, Godliness with contentment is great gain. Here he's contrasting godliness with someone that possesses much. And he says, Godliness with contentment is great gain. That's real gain. To be godly enough to have contentment and to be satisfied with what you have. There's nothing better than that. We're taught to buy the lie that if we just had a little bit more, be it twice our income or ten percent more than our income, we'd be set. We'd be comfortable. Then we'd be content. It's the lie of the devil. The Word of God is explicit. We would never be satisfied with things. Godliness with contentment. That's great gain. As I just read in Philippians 4.11, Paul says, I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. Paul had to be schooled. And he learned through his experience to find contentment in whatever God God's placed him in. We need to have the attitude of Jacob as he gives a gift to Esau in Genesis 33.11. He says, God hath dealt graciously with me and because I have enough. Esau wants to give back the gift. He doesn't want to take it. Jacob says, God's dealt graciously with me and I have enough. In other words, take what I've given. Surely Jacob had a rationale for giving that gift, but I think we see something in the principle that when we're willing to give to the needy, it demonstrates that we're not covetous over every little thing God has provided. Jacob came to realize that he didn't need even everything that God had given. He could live on less than that and be the vehicle of giving something to Esau. Remember what I just read in Hebrews 13.5, let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as ye have. Here's this put off and put on of Paul. Let your conversation or let your lifestyle, let your outward behavior be without covetousness. You have to put off covetousness, but he doesn't stop there and be content with the things that you have. You have to replace it with a godly virtue, a godly habit, and that is contentment. It's the opposite of covetousness. With such things as ye have, not the things that others have, not the things that God's not been pleased to give you at present, but be content with the things He has given you for. He saith, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. We're to remember that we have, if we have Christ, the pearl of great price. We have everything in Him. And He has promised He will never leave us or forsake us. If we're discontent, it means that we failed to appreciate what we possess in Christ. It can mean nothing other than our failure to not appreciate what is ours in Christ. So we've looked at this virtue, this grace of contentment. Think also of the grace of peace that comes through dependent prayer. This is in contrast to the sin of worry. Again, Philippians 4, 6 and 7, be careful or be anxious for nothing. But in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and your minds through Christ Jesus." Now, this word careful or anxious sometimes is used in a positive sense in Scripture, but here clearly in the context, it's being used in a negative way. There's nothing that's worthy of being anxious about. Everything that comes up in your life is worthy of being prayed about. There's nothing so little as to not be prayed over. There's nothing so great as to require prayer plus anxiousness. Anxiousness is never needed. It's never appropriate, but prayer is. We're to make our requests known to God and the peace of God that passes all understanding will guard, protect us. from that carefulness or that anxiousness. I mentioned to somebody last Lord's Day that a perfect example of this, I believe, is Hannah. We're going to look at her. I'm going to read a passage in 1 Samuel this morning in worship. But Hannah was disturbed in soul. She was being persecuted. She goes to prayer. And after her prayer, she finds contentment. Prior to her ever knowing that God is going to answer her prayer and give her a child, yet she leaves with contentment. Her heart had now been garrisoned or protected by the peace of God. And it had been because she went to God in prayer. Thirdly, a third disposition that we need to have is, I've called it confidence. Obviously not self-confidence, confidence in God versus fear. Again, Paul says in 2 Timothy 1.7, God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Because if you have fear, Timothy, that's not a God-given disposition that you're having. Paul wants him to be clear about that. His fear that Paul is speaking of is not the fear of God. He's speaking of the fear of man, the fear of the future, what might come about. Paul's saying, if you have that fear, Timothy, that's not of God. What's of God is of power, and I think he's contrasting fear there, and of love and of a sound mind. I think what Paul is doing is he's contrasting fear with power or with confidence, authority, But then Paul doesn't want Timothy to misunderstand what he's saying, so he adds, "...and of love and of a sound mind." This confidence that Paul is calling Timothy to is one that comes out of love. He's going to be bold for the Lord in the love of the Lord, in the love of the sheep of His fold. And he's going to do so with a sound mind, with a careful consideration for all the circumstances that are involved as he's seeking to shepherd God's sheep. So, confidence in contrast to fear. Fourthly, we need to have the disposition of charitableness towards other in contrast with envying others or grieving at their good. In contrast with envying what someone has or grieving when they get something we want, we ought to have a charitable disposition, a loving charitable disposition towards them. We see the principle in 1 Timothy 1.5. Paul speaking to Timothy. Telling Timothy that there are mouths that must be stopped. That he must take on false teaching. He says, now the end, or the purpose of the commandment. In other words, the purpose of what I'm telling you to do, Timothy, is this. It's charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of a faith on faith. What I'm calling you to is going to be challenging, but the reason I'm telling you is because I want you and those that you teach to have love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. In Romans 12-15 we read, "...rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep." It hit me in a new way this week that Paul is suggesting something that is just the opposite of what our indwelling sin would propose. You see, if there's any envy, if there's any lack of charity that we have towards another, we will grieve when they rejoice, and we will rejoice when they grieve. I think we need to search our own hearts regarding that. When is that true? This covetousness is a very deceitful, we said envy is a very deceitful sin, it lies to us. It's hard to identify in our own hearts. Our hearts are desperately wicked. Sin is deceitful. Paul calls us not to rejoice. when people are in sad situations and then to weep when they're in good situations. No, we're to rejoice when they rejoice. We're to weep when they weep. We're to have this charitableness towards them. The same is spoken of in 1 Corinthians 13, 4 and 5. does. We see it again in Psalm 122, verses 7-9, the psalmist desiring the prosperity and the peace of the people of God. The psalmist isn't desirous of strife. The psalmist is desirous of peace and prosperity that the church of God would be built up. that this peace would not be a false peace, that it would be a real peace based on solid teaching of the Word. We see some examples of this kind of charitableness, one in Job 31.29. There in Job 31, Job speaks of some things that if he had been guilty of, he would have deserved the chastening hand of God. And what he contends under inspiration is that he wasn't guilty of these things. In verse 29, he says, "...if I had rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him." You see, that would be rejoicing when somebody was weak. He says, if I had been guilty of that, Then I deserve your chastening." If I had rejoiced at the destruction of Him that hated me. You see, this is someone that hated me. And he's saying, it still wouldn't be appropriate for me to rejoice in His demise. He says, it wouldn't have been appropriate for me to lift myself up to become proud when evil, and there it's not speaking about moral evil, it's speaking about an evil circumstance. When something hard came upon them, if I lifted myself up in pride, again, that would have been an inappropriate, a sinful disposition. We see the positive disposition, I believe, in the life of Mordecai. In Esther 10.3 we read this, he was accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the wealth of his people and speaking peace to all his seed. Bordecai was trusted by the people of God. He was accepted of the multitude of his brethren. He now was an uppity up in a heathen regime. But he was a Jew. But the Jews trusted him. They trusted Him because He seeked their wealth or prosperity and He spoke peace to all His seed. Here, the term seed is not referring just to His children, it's referring to all the people or all His kindred. He sought their welfare and He spoke to them words that would promote their welfare and they trusted in Him. He was charitable. towards all his people. No matter what rung of society they found themselves in, he had a disposition of charity towards all of them. And then they had this disposition of trust towards him and his leadership. Also, the fifth disposition that is in contrast with the dispositions of inordinate affections is the controlling of our inward motions or thoughts and affections. Controlling them, keeping them within bounds. You see, an affection or a love that's inordinate is beyond bounds. You see, if we love our wives or consider Eli, where God says He loved His sons more than God. That's an inordinate love. It's not wrong to place our affections upon our wives or our spouses or our children, but it goes beyond bounds. It can go beyond bounds. And so we need to keep our affections within the biblical parameters that are set in the Word of God. Last week, as I spoke about the word motions in the larger catechism, I assumed that they were referring to an act of the will. But I now think, upon further reflection, that they are referring in question 148 of the catechism to the inner thought life. that we're to keep our inner thoughts as well as our inner affections or desires within bounds, within biblical bounds. They're inward thoughts and inward affections that we have. And if we keep them in bounds, then we will keep our actions within bounds. If we don't lust over something that our brother has, then we won't take it unlawfully from them. We'll cover this, Lord willing, next week a little bit more as we consider how this Tenth Commandment interfaces with the doctrine of what I'm calling progressive sanctification. and as we consider a little bit about how temptation leads to sin and how we are called to mortify the flesh and mortify sin and we're to vivify or put on the fruits of the Spirit rather than the habits or the fruits of the flesh. Now, in application, we've considered these five contrasting virtues or dispositions that if we have, they will cause sinful dispositions to flee out of our inner person. If we're content, we will not be covetous. If we're confident in God, we will not fear. If we have the peace of God through prayer to God regarding certain situations, we will not worry. But now, how do we begin to put these dispositions on? How do we begin to cultivate them in our own life by God's grace? I have six suggestions. First is we need to have faith in God and His promises. Consider 1 John 5 verse 4. Whosoever is born of God overcometh the world. The regenerate person will overcome the world. The man, the woman, the child. that God regenerates and makes new, will overcome the world, given. But there's a means by which they do. And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Even our faith. True, sincere faith. Faith given as a gift of God overcomes the world. The world will not come to dominate one that has true, sincere faith. We all know that all things work together for good to them that love God, don't we? We all know Romans 8.28. If you've been in this congregation for very long, you know that verse and it's very easy to say it when we're in difficult situations, but it's a whole other thing to actually Believe it in practice when we're experiencing difficult things. Thomas Watson said this, he said, Faith by a divine chemistry extracts comfort out of God. A little with God is sweet. Thus, faith is a remedy against covetousness. It overcomes not only the fear of the world, but the love of the world. You see, the psalmist in Psalms 73, 3 and 4 envied the ungodly. He said when he didn't have an eternal perspective, when his perspective was not based upon God on the throne, rather it was based, as Solomon says, under the sun. Without God in the picture, he says, things look pretty good for the ungodly. But you realize, children, that when a man is about to be executed for a capital crime, whether in this country or it's prevalent in many other countries, oftentimes they're given their last request. They're given whatever they want for dinner the night before, something of that nature. They're given a last cigarette if they love cigarettes. Whatever they want, they can pretty much have. Now, would you envy a man who is having a wonderful meal before his execution? That's what it's like envying a sinner, someone outside of Christ. They may be enjoying their very last enjoyment that God will ever give them before casting them into hell. We don't know. But there's nothing there to envy if we're thinking straight. If we're thinking about life in light of God being on the throne and His Word being true, there's nothing to envy there. So we ought to have faith in God and His promises. Secondly, we ought to covet communion with God. That's something that we are to desire. That's something that we are to covet. In Song of Songs, chapter 2, verse 3, we read this, I sat down under His shadow with great delight. The word literally there is coveting. I sat down under His shadow with great desire, with great coveting. Do we covet to meet with our God? Do we desire to be with Him? Do we delight to be with Him? The psalmist certainly delighted in Psalm 122.1, to come up to the house of God and to meet God in corporate worship. It will be reflected in our attitude regarding the Word of God. Consider Matthew 13.22. There where Jesus speaks in the parable of the four soils. or what's often called the parable of the sower. He speaks of the one that received God's Word, but wasn't a true believer. It says, he also received seed among the thorns, is he that heareth the Word, and the care of riches choke the Word, and he becometh unfruitful. There's some evidence of some response to the Word, and yet, the care of the world chokes out the effect of the Word, and that individual's life proves unfruitful because of the care of riches. But do we have the disposition of the psalmist in Psalm 19.10? More to be desired, again, literally coveted. More to be coveted are they than gold. Yea, much fine gold. There's something much more worthy to desire than gold, even much fine gold, a lot of it and of the purest kind. The Word is much better than that. The psalmist says in Psalm 119.13, I hate vain thoughts, but thy law do I love. Is that evidenced by our propensity to expose ourselves to vain thoughts in the world and our propensity to leave off giving ourselves to the study of God's Word. Is that our disposition? I hate vain thoughts and I love the law of God. Covet communion with God. Thirdly, appreciate what you have. That's what we see in Hebrews 13.5. Covet, be content with what you have, for he saith, I will never leave thee." Be content with what you have and particularly remember all that you have. Consider Philippians 3, 1-11. Paul's very drastic change in his accounting scheme. He says there was a time When I thought very highly that I was a Benjamite, that I was this, that I was that, I put all that in the positive side of the ledger. I thought I had a lot going for me with all those things. And then all of a sudden, he says, when he was converted, now all of a sudden those things are all losses. They're all in the debit columns. They're of no value now. All my value is in Christ Jesus. A radical change took place in his heart. And now what he once accounted valuable was no longer valuable. And what he had previously accounted of no worth was of infinite worth. Christ Jesus. Think of the psalmist in Psalm 73, 25 and 26. The same psalmist that had envied the wicked after he had been in the temple of the Lord, after he had rethought things in light of God. He says, whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon the earth that I desire besides thee. You see, his affections weren't inordinate. There were things on the earth that he still desired. He still delighted in things he ought to, but he didn't delight in them over his God. He didn't delight in anything on earth like he delighted in his God. My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." You're my portion now, God, and You always will be. We need to take those words to heart and cultivate that disposition. Fourthly, in seeking to put off covetousness and put on contentment, we need to be mindful that we are called to accumulate treasures in heaven. Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6, 19 and 20, don't lay up, lay not up things on earth, but, in contrast, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. He says the moth, the rust, can't get to those possessions. They're safe. So, lay up, account, accumulate treasures in heaven. Fifthly, anticipate what yet awaits you in heaven. You see, could you imagine, children, if you lived in Antarctica, or you lived in Alaska, and in the dead of the winter, when it's 20 or 30 degrees below zero, where you are not going out of the house very much. If you won a vacation in the tropics and you knew in six weeks you would be going to some place that would be much more comfortable than your present situation. You had won this, you had gotten a brochure, would you not be likely in those dark nights in Alaska to look at that brochure? to consider how wonderful it will be to be in the sunlight in just a few weeks. Now that contrast is so under the contrast of present life here in this world compared with the glories that await us in heaven. That illustration is such a sad attempt to reflect something that is so transcendently greater and infinitely greater than that contrast. We will see God. Paul could say in 1 Corinthians 4.16 and following, he says, we're not going to faint because we don't look on temporal things, we look on things that are eternal. So we're not giving up. No matter how hard it is, we're not giving up. The reason I'm not giving up, Paul says, is I'm looking beyond what I see with my eyes. I'm looking to the things I see with the eye of faith. Paul could say in Romans 8.18, For I reckon, in other words, I've made it a conclusion that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which is to be revealed in us. There's no comparison. We need to anticipate what awaits us in heaven. We have the down payment. We have the earnest of this spirit. We're a child of God. It's guaranteed to us, His people. Lastly, in seeking to cultivate these dispositions which will repulse the dispositions of sin, of covetousness, of worry, of fear, of grieving at others' good is that we must continue steadfastly in prayer. All this must be done in dependence upon God. Yes, we are called to cultivate, we are called to work out our salvation, but we don't do so in our own strength. Consider the psalmist's words in Psalm 119.36, Incline my heart unto thy testimonies and not to covetousness. I want you, God, to change my focus. I want you to turn me from loving covetousness to loving your testimonies. That should be our prayer. That should be our prayer of conversion. That should be our prayer through all of our lives. Again, consider Proverbs 30, verse 8. Remove far from me vanity and lies, Give me neither poverty nor riches, feed me with food convenient for me. Give me just what I need, all-wise Heavenly Father." Are we praying like that? Are we praying to be removed from vanity and lies? From not being exposed to it, and when we are exposed to it, to not buy it? To not take the bait? I think it would also be helpful if we would make the principle of 1 Corinthians 7.31 our prayer. There in 1 Corinthians 7.31, as Paul considers the shortness of life before Christ comes back, he says, there are those that use this world as not abusing it. for the fashion of this world passeth away." He says everything's coming to an end. So he says there's a use of the world that's not abusing the world. This word abuse or abusing here literally is a compound word which means overusing. So it means we're to use the world but we're not to overuse it. It means we can enjoy certain pleasures that God has given us, but at some point we have to say no to that pleasure. We can have it in moderation, but we're not to be given over to it. Thomas Watson takes this verse, I believe, when he says this in a prayer, Lord, dig the earth out of my heart and teach me to possess the world and not to love it. How to hold it in my hand and not let it get into my heart. That ought to be a prayer of ours. Lord, dig the earth out of my heart. Teach me how to possess the world and not to love it. How to hold it in my hand and not let it get into my heart. Let us pray.