The Tenth Commandment

Every once in a while, I take the time to think about the age that we live in. And when you sit back and you think about how people in all the time up until the last, you know, 100 years lived, it kind of makes you realize and appreciate the age that we live in. You know, I look at the parking lot out there and we all came by car today. And you think back to, you know, we discussed a couple weeks ago about Abraham, journeying from where he was up to Mount Moriah when he was going to sacrifice Isaac. And that was 40 miles, according to the atlases, and it took him three days to get there. And, you know, many of us came more than 40 miles to church this morning, and it took us, you know, no time to hop in a car and be there. It's a great age we live in, where we can get from place to place and go, you know, go to fee sites and all over the United States, all over the world, really. We live in an age of transportation. We live in an age of travel. People, I know my grandparents, you know, never left the county that they were, well, the county, I was told, that they grew up in. And so they stayed in southern Illinois all their lives, so they never knew what it was like to go even over the state line to Indiana and see things. And yet, here, just a couple generations later, you know, people can fly all over the place and see different parts of the world. You know, we have technology at our disposal, so we have to use words like webcast and projection and the things that we do that make our lives interesting. Well, we live in a very great, a very great time. We have more information than anyone before us.

We have a lot more stuff than the people before us that they feel as well. You know, I have a two-car garage, but only one car fits into that garage. And sometimes I look at the stuff piled in there that hasn't been touched, really since we've moved here in some cases. And I don't understand why I don't just take the boxes and move them right out to the to the curb and let the trashmen take them away. But there's something about those that I don't know what's in there. And when we move, I guess one day, whenever that might be, you know, those things will go. But we live in an age that has a lot of material things in it. You know, we all have a lot of toys. We all have a lot of things at our disposal. And so it is fitting that as we stand here today, you know, we look at the 10th Commandments and wrap up our series on the 10 Commandments. Let's look at the 10th Commandment back in Exodus 20. This Commandment, of course, speaks to everyone down through the ages. But those of us living in this age where we have so many things and we can see so many things and we can want so many things just by all the things that go on in our lives, you know, this commandment speaks loudly. Verse 17 of Exodus 20 says, "...you shall not covet your neighbor's house, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that your neighbor's." Twice in that commandment, God uses the word covet. Covet is not a word we use too much in our everyday language. We know what it means, but just to give you a definition of what it means, it comes from the Hebrew word kamad, c-h-a-m-a-d, and it means strong desire, a strong desire in the sense of a strong desire that would lead you away from God. So in this Commandment, he says, don't have such a strong desire for your neighbor's wife, servants, or anything that belongs to him that would put that between you and me. Now, the first several years of my life, my parents were Catholic and I went to a Catholic school. And when we were there, we memorized the Ten Commandments. And I always, when I read this commandment, think back to what the Catholics do. They split the Tenth Commandment into two commandments. So the Ninth Commandment is, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife. Their Tenth Commandment is, you shall not covet your neighbor's house or any of his goods. And so, guess which one they do away with?

They do away with the Second Commandment. There is no commandment to the Catholic Ten Commandments about bowing down the idols. It would be very difficult for them to justify that. When you walk into a church, that's exactly the thing you do, is bow down to a statue and make the motions toward that. But that's what they do. So when I see this commandment, I always think back to that, that they were pretty clever in what they did. But God, it's one commandment for us. And it's the Tenth Commandment. It wraps up, you know, the commandments there. And we can maybe think that it's less important to commandment because it's so far down the list.

But nothing could be further from the truth. Every single commandment has its extreme meaning to us. Every single commandment, God is teaching us how to live and teaching us how to honor Him and worship Him and live a life that leads to all the good things that we know. So the Tenth Commandment, you know, we read it and we read about oxes and donkeys and things like that. And that was what it was back in modern, you know, in ancient Israel, that they might covet. They might look at their neighbor and say, that's quite a fine donkey over there. I would like to have that donkey to work the fields. We might not look at our neighbor's field and say, oh, we'd like that donkey or that ox. But we might look at our neighborhood and we might see a BMW driving by and think, boy, would I like to have that someday? Or some other thing that our neighbor has? Or not even our neighbor? We can flip on a TV and see things that we that can generate some kind of desire in us that we think I would do just about anything to be able to have that. Maybe it's a vehicle, maybe it's a computer, maybe it's whatever it is that catches our imagination and our fancy.

And when that desire, that that word means that strong desire, catches hold, it can lead us into some problems if we don't watch out. Last week when we were talking about the Ninth Commandment, I mentioned that it reminded me a little bit of the Third Commandments. In the Third Commandment, you can speak God's name in vain and you can live God's name in vain. And coveting kind of mirrors the First and Second Commandments, if you will. The First Commandment is, you shall have no other gods before me. Nothing before me, God is most important. And here when he talks about coveting, this is something that is so important to us that if we don't watch out, it can damage our thinking. It can lead us astray. We can be doing things to try to get those things that we want and somehow put God in second place and find ourselves doing things like lying, stealing, deceiving people, doing things that we shouldn't just to get that thing and all the process and all the while deceiving ourselves into thinking that's okay. It's something that we deserve and it's something that we should, we have the right to. The Second Commandment is, of course, you shall have no idols.

Now Paul himself likens this commandment to idolatry. Let's turn over to Colossians 3.

Colossians 3. We'll read in verse 1.

He writes, If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above. Keep your mind on where God wants it to be. Keep on your thing on the right things in life, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. Let that be your goal. Let that be where you're working, not just on the things that overwhelm you on the earth. For you died and your life is hidden with Christ and God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, you will also appear with Him in glory. Therefore, put to death your members, which are on the earth. Fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covenants-ness, which is idolatry.

When we covet something, we put it between God. It's the thing that we set our goals on.

Now, it's not wrong to have things. It's not wrong to buy something if you can afford it. What we're talking about here is an intense desire that would lead you to do something and lead you away from what God's will is. We're here looking at the feast, and we talk all the time that God will provide for us. He'll give us, He says, our heart's desires if we obey and if we follow Him. Here, when we're talking about the coveting, it's things that we do that just overwhelm us and pretty much dominate our lives when we allow that to happen.

Let's look at a couple examples here. Back in Joshua, as the children of Israel are beginning to conquer the cities and the Promised Land and move into it, God gives them a directive. In chapter 6 and verse 18, He tells them as they're going in to what these cities, He says, And you by all means abstain from the accursed thing, lest you become accursed when you take of those things and make the camp of Israel accursed and trouble it. Don't look at what they have. Don't take what they have. When God said in many cases, He said, you go in, you conquer the city, but you don't take any of the spoils with you. So they were going then to up against this little town of Ai. In chapter 7 we see there. And in verse 1 it says, The children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things. For Achan the son of Carmi, gives his ancestry there, took of the accursed things. So the anger of God burned against the children of Israel. And then it gives the story. Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth-Avon on the east side of Bethel, and he spoke to them, saying, Go up, spy out the country, so the men went out and spied out Ai. And they returned to Joshua and said to him, Don't let all the people go up, but only about two or three thousand go up and attack. Don't weary all the people there, for the people of Ai are few. So they scattered it out and they said, This is kind of an easy city. We don't have to send the antulary or trifes up there, just send two or three thousand people up there. So that's what they sent. And in verse five, it says, The men of Ai struck down thirty-six men, for they chased them from before the gates, as far as Shabirim, and they struck them to the descent. And the people of Israel were stunned. How did this happen? We thought we had this all mapped out. The hearts of the people melted and became like water.

Well, they knew something was up, and so God let them know, Someone among you has defied my orders. Someone has gone against the command, and they set up this thing where tribe by tribe, family by family, they came up until they came up to this man, Achan. And Achan had looked at those things that they were in the city of Ai, that they were conquering, and he wanted them.

He looked at them, they were attractive, and in his mind he thought, Can it really matter if I take these things? I'll just take them, I'll hide them someplace. Who can be the wiser for that?

Well, let's pick it up in verse 11 of the same chapter.

Verse 10, The Lord said to Joshua, Why do you lie on your face? Israel has sinned, and they've transgressed my covenant, which I commanded them. For they've taken some of the accursed things, and have both stolen and deceived.

So see what happened here? Achan, as he was looking at those things, he stole, and he deceived, and they put it among their own, and I love the word stuff, because that's what we all have today, is a lot of stuff. And he says, That's why Israel couldn't stand against their enemies.

So in verse 20, after they come down to the family of Achan, they say, This is what appears you did, Achan, and Achan opened right up, or admitted to it. Achan answered Joshua and said, Indeed I have sinned against the eternal God of Israel, and this is what I have done. When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them. I wanted them. I desired them. And I took them, and there they are, hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent, with the silver under it. He had been told not to strongly desire it. He had been told not to covet it, and yet when he saw it, he thought, What harm will it do? I'll just take it, and I'll bury it in my tent, and no one will know.

In verse 23, they took them from the midst of the tent, brought them to Joshua to tell the children of Israel, and they laid the things out before the Lord. They went to his tent in verse 22 and found the things. In verse 24, the punishment, the retribution on Achan and his family, was swift.

And God let it be known what he thought about coveting, something that we should pay close attention to as we live in a world that's really based on coveting. That's what business and our economy seems to be based on. If we can advertise this and make it appear in such a way that you have to have it, you'll do anything for it. And so we see so many people doing that.

First when he wore Joshua and all Israel took Achan and took the silver, the garment, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had. And they brought them to the Valley of Achor. And Joshua said, Why have you troubled us?

Why did you do this, Achan? Why did you do and act against the God and the instructions that he gave you? Why did you covet those things that you would put those things above not only your worship and your life with God, but you would put them above Israel? Look what you have cost all of us by putting things before God, by putting things before your family, by putting things before your nation. And the price was steep. The Lord, Joshua says in verse 25, will trouble you this day.

So all Israel stoned him with stones and they burned them with fire after they had stoned him with stones. That entire family lost because Achan coveted, because he didn't control a desire, because he looked at something and he thought, What harm can it be? I'll just do that this one time.

No one will be the wiser. Lost his life. His family lost his life. Everything about him was gone.

Over in Proverbs, Proverbs 15, Solomon writes a verse that well describes Achan and the covetousness that he let overcome him rather than him overcoming it. Verse 27 says, He who is greedy for gain and greed is a type of covetousness, never satisfied, always wanting more. He who is greedy for gain troubles his own house.

Achan troubled his own house. As they sat there and as they saw what was happening and they heard what their sentence or what their punishment would be, there's not one of those people that died in that that won't be resurrected that this commandment about coveting they will know God is serious about it. Nothing between you and God. Your heart focused on him and him alone and let him provide the things as you as you follow him.

Let's look at another one over here in 2 Kings. This is a servant of God who every day got to spend time with the prophet Elisha as his servant and as his right-hand man. It appears he was there with him most of the time. His name is Gehazi. Gehazi. Now one of the days you'll remember that Naaman, not from Israel, had a case of leprosy and Naaman was told to come over and see the prophets of Israel and do what they said and if he would do that, that his leprosy would be healed.

You remember Naaman came over. He talked to Elisha. Elisha told him to go dip in the Jordan River seven times and that first Naaman didn't want to do it. He thought this is silly. Why would I do that? The Jordan water is filthy. But then his servant said, you know, you would have done anything, anything that the man said. So why won't you do this simple thing? Just follow what that prophet who has the words of God says. Naaman did it and he was healed.

Lesson for us. Do it. If God says do something, do it. But anyway, as he was healed, he wanted to offer something to Elisha for doing that. Let's pick it up in 2 Kings 5 verse 20. 2 Kings 5 verse 20. Yeah, bound in verse 15, Naaman had offered him some kind of wealth there. And in verse 20, Gehazi was looking at it. Of course, Elisha said, no, I don't take any money for the things that I do.

I do it for God beyond your way. Gehazi says in verse 20, the servant of Elisha said, look, my master has spared Naaman the Syrian while not receiving from his hands what he brought. He looked at that money that Naaman was willing to offer and thought, well, you know what?

If Elisha doesn't want it, I could sure use it. And then he owes that. You can kind of see how his mind was working. He owes that. If Elisha doesn't want it, then why shouldn't I have it? The man was willing to give it. And so he goes on. He says, as if the Lord lives, I'll run after him and take something from him.

And you can kind of see the thought process Gehazi is going through there. He has to think about it. He knows he shouldn't do it. But as he thinks about it more and more and more, the desire becomes stronger and stronger and stronger. And finally, he convinces himself, I'm going for it. I'm running after him and I'm going to take it and no one will know the difference.

So verse 21, he pursued Naaman. And when Naaman saw him running after him, he got down from the chariot to meet him and said, is everything okay? And he said, sure, everything's okay. My master has sent me saying, indeed, just now two young men of the sons of the prophets have come to me from the mountains of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of garments. Don't give me those things. But you know what? Here's a story you'll buy. He said, oh, he's changed his mind. He doesn't want it for himself, but there are some people now who need this.

So if you'll just give me the money and the garments, I'll give it to them. And that way we'll fulfill their needs. See what he's doing here? He's breaking another commandment to satisfy this desire that he has. And Naaman said, please take two talents. And he urged them and bound two talents of silver in two bags with two changes of garments and handed them to two of his servants, and they carried them on ahead of them.

And on verse 25, so he comes back, says when he went in and stood before his master, Elisha said, where did you go? And he said, I didn't go anywhere. What made you think I was going anywhere? Elisha said, didn't my heart go with you when the man turned back from his chariot to meet you?

Is it time to receive money and to receive clothing? Olive rows and vineyards, sheep and oxen, male and female servants? Is that's what you're working for? Is this what our work is about, Gehazi? Just to get things? Is that why you're here on earth? That's not why Elisha was there.

Nothing wrong with having the things, but Gehazi coveted those things. Therefore, he says, the leprosy of Naaman will cling to you and your descendants forever.

Another steep price to pay for coveting.

His leprosy will cling to you and your descendants forever.

Did the Gehazi trouble his house with this coveting? Yes, he did. They paid the price for that sin down through his generations. Because Gehazi, when he was faced with it, he let that desire concede in his mind. He let it just run around and around in his mind until he finally decided, I'm doing it. I'm doing it. And he justified it to himself.

Let's turn over to James 1.

The thing about coveting is that it tells what's in our mind and in our hearts. This commandment, a little more so than the ones right before it, have to do with what we think and what's in our hearts. James 1, verse 14, talks about desires. And remember that coveting is a strong desire.

Achan looked at those garments. He looked at that money. And he wanted it, and he wanted it bad.

Enough that he convinced himself he could get by with defying God and hide it, and no one would know differently. Gehazi, who walked and worked with Elisha every day and saw the example that he set. When he saw what Naaman was offering, he let it just work in his mind and caused him to commit a sin. Verse 14 of James 1, each one is tempted when he's drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Every one of us knows what that means. We've all been enticed by something. There's always been something that would entice us that we would say, man, if I could just have that, if I could just have that, life would be so good. I wouldn't want anything else.

Remember that? All of us who have kids know that, right? Every time a child sees a toy advertised on TV, what do they do? They want it. And they talk about it, and they talk about it, and they talk about it, and they talk about it. And so finally, as parents, most of the time we give it and say, fine, fine, I've had enough, just buy it. And that's the last thing I can remember. I've said it myself. I don't want anything else. If I could just have that, you don't have to ever buy me anything else. Within a week, do they even look at the toy? No! I mean, it's like, now that I've got it, I don't want it. It has nothing to do with it. Okay, but it happens even when we're very young. We talked last week about lying being one of the first things that children do, but you know, this coveting thing is, this coveting commandment is one that children do as well. They see those, they see those commercials, they see what their friends have, and all of a sudden that desire is there in full-fledged. It's something that's with us all our lives. Each one is tempted when he's drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin.

That's what it did to Ghazi. That's what it did to Achan. It gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death. Breaking the commandments brings forth death.

Don't be deceived, James says, my beloved brethren.

Coveting is something we all need to overcome. Coveting will bring us death.

Let's turn over to 1 Corinthians 6.

1 Corinthians 6, verse 10.

Now, let's start in verse 9.

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Don't be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, or drunkers, revilers, or extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. They simply won't be there. The people who will be in the kingdom of God will worship God first, will follow His will first, and will have no other gods before Him. The people who will be in the kingdom will have no idols, not just the bales and the little statues that you might find in other churches, but any idol. They won't have a car that's more important to them than God. They won't have a house that's more important to them than God. They won't have a desire of all those things that's more important to them than God.

God will be their only God. That's what they will live their lives for. That's where their heart will be. That's where their mind will be on what God's will is. That's who will be in the kingdom, not the covetous, not the people like Achan, not the people like Ahazi, and all of us have this in us. But every single one of us with God's Spirit has to overcome it and live the way He wants us to. In Ephesians 5 and verse 3, let's pick it up in verse 1. It says, Therefore be imitators of God as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself for us, and offering him a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you as is fitting for saints. God's church, God's people, we all have those proclivities. It's all part of the heart that Jeremiah says is wicked and deceitful above all things. But God's church, led by His Holy Spirit, overcomes those things. And as God purifies minds, as God purifies hearts, covetousness begins to disappear, replaced with a strong desire to please God, to live His way and to do His will. Covetousness was way back at the beginning of man as well. You know, I often say that when you look back at Genesis, you can see the beginning of just about everything, and you can better understand our world today. And as we go through that in the Bible studies we've been going through, you see truths there and learn about man and learn about God that help us understand the world we live in. Let's go back to Genesis 3 because covetousness was right there in the Garden of Eden as well and led to mankind losing their relationship with God and losing everything that God had given them in the Garden of Eden.

Back in Genesis 3 and in verse 6, of course we have the story about Satan coming into the Garden of Eden in the guise of a serpent, and he's talking to Eve. And of course his mission, as his mission with any of us, is lead them away from God and do whatever it takes. Appeal to whatever part of them is necessary. Lead them away from God's truth and from His leadership. And so Satan speaks to the woman, and so we talked about how he was very friendly with her. He appeared as an angel of light. He enticed her. He engaged her. And so she got to the point where she in a way trusted him. And in verse 6, well let's pick it up in verse 4, the serpent says to the woman, you will not surely die. After she repeated back what God told her, for God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. He plants this thought in her mind, and she thinks about it, and she's there rolling around in her mind. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise. You know what word desirable is translated from in that verse?

Come on! C-H-A-M-A-D. The very same word that God uses in the commandment, you shall not covet. When she looked at that fruit, and she thought, man, it looks good, I'll bet it tastes really good, but it had another appeal to her. She thought about what Satan said and thought, do you mean if we eat that fruit we could be like God? Is that the secret that we don't have to be under his control anymore? What would it be like to be like him? What would it be like?

And so, desire entered, and she thought about it, and it enticed her, and as she began to think about it, and as she measured what God said, don't eat it, in the day you eat thereof you will surely die.

But then she measured it against what Satan said, but in the day you eat of it you'll be wise, you'll be like God.

What did she choose? She chose what was best for her. She followed her own desire, the same desire as the being Satan who enticed her. What did he want back when he was Lucifer?

He wanted to be like God. He coveted that position. He wanted that office. He wanted the whole world bowing down to him. He didn't want to bow to anyone else. We can covet things, and that's wrong, but there's other things we can covet as well. Eve wasn't coveting just the fruit. Eve was coveting the power that went along with it. Satan had it all when he was Lucifer. He was the being that was created in beauty. He had talent. God said he was the most perfect creation that he had to that point. And yet sin entered in, and he began to look and say, I want to be like God. And that ended it. Eve and Adam had the Garden of Eden. They didn't have to work for their food at all. God was simply going to provide. All they had to do was do God's work, tend it and keep it, dress it, let God develop the potential in them, and all those other things, all the food, all the necessities of life, and more were there in the Garden of Eden. But she allowed desire to roll around in her mind.

Couldn't get it out of her mind. And finally, she yielded. And life as they knew it, and life as God had wanted it to be for mankind, ended because of coveting. Because of coveting, and because she didn't check her desires. You know, John 844 tells us that Satan is the father of lies, the father of murders. He's the father of coveting as well. He's the one who did it, and that will use it, and entice it with it, entice us with it as well. As the people of God, we have to be on guard against that. When we see those desires welling up in us, we have to ask God to check it, to check it and to eliminate those things from us, and then remind ourselves what we're here for. It's not to satisfy self, it's to satisfy God.

And when we do that, He promises all the other things will be added.

There's another man back in Ecclesiastes that lost a lot because of his unchecked desires as well. Let's go back to Ecclesiastes 2. Solomon, if you recall, in the time when he was ascending to the throne of Israel, and God asked him, what do you want? What can I give you? And Solomon didn't say, give me millions of dollars, give me the finest cars. Solomon said, give me a heart that I may rule your people well. And God was pleased with that. He saw in Solomon a heart that he wanted him to have, a heart that he wants us to have. And God added to Solomon. He gave him more wealth than we can even imagine. And Solomon used it. Solomon thought that that wealth somewhere along the line would make him happy. Let's read through some of what he says here in chapter 2, verse 1. Here's a man who had all the wealth. He didn't have to cheat. He didn't have to lie. He had the wealth. He could go out and buy and purchase whatever he wanted. And here's what he said, because he bought a lot of it. And not just things. He had a lot of women and every single desire he satisfied here. He says in verse 1, I said in my heart, come now, I'll test you with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure. Okay? Happiness is what's going to make the difference. So I'm going to go out and I'm going to buy laughter. But he said, this is vanity or this is futile. I said of laughter, madness, and of mirth, what does it accomplish? I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine while guiding my heart with wisdom and how to lay a hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives.

I made my works great. I built houses. I planted vineyards. I made gardens and orchards and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove. I acquired male and female servants. I had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me. He had it all. Anything he saw, he got. And he could get it legitimately. I gathered from myself silver and gold in the special treasures of kings and of the provinces. I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men and musical instruments of all kinds. So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. And my wisdom remained with me, he said. You see what he did? He went out and every desire that he had, he filled. If he wanted a house, he built it. If he wanted to buy land, he built it. If he saw a woman, he married her or called her a concubine, a thousand of them. Nothing! Solomon didn't withhold anything that he wanted. He took it all. He took it all.

Whatever my eyes, verse 10, desired, I didn't keep from them. I saw, I wanted, I took. I didn't withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor, and this was my reward for all my labor. They thought, I've worked for this, I deserve it. So whatever I see, I just take.

That's the way life is supposed to be, right? And then verse 11, he says, I looked on all the works that my hands had done, and on the labor in which I had toiled.

I looked around, and indeed all was vanity, and grasping for the wind. All was futile.

He thought that if he had all these things, all these houses, all these horses, all this gold, all these women, certainly he would be the happiest, most fulfilled man on earth, wouldn't he?

But when he looked around, he said, no. All those things, all that stuff that I had to have, all that stuff that filled house after house after garage after garage, all those things I saw and spent my time just acquiring, it meant nothing when I got it. Just like the child who sees the newest toy on TV, and can't think of anything else except getting that toy. And when they get it, after a few days or a week, it just doesn't hold the appeal anymore. It was all about getting. It was all about getting for self. A very futile and a very empty way to leave your life.

And that's what coveting does. And he says there was no profit, no profit under the sun.

Over in verse chapter 6 of the same chapter, he says, all the labor of man is for his mouth. He works all his life just to satisfy himself, is what he's saying. And yet, all the work he does, all the things that he does, he's just not satisfied.

There's no contentment in the soul. Nothing at all. And so we look around us and we know people that we've worked with and things that are just driven. Driven. They want more. They want more. It's not enough to have 100 million dollars. You have to have 200 million dollars to be happy. Not enough to be a billionaire. You have to have two or three billion to be happy.

And they're never satisfied. So they keep going, and they keep going, and they keep going.

Because they're missing something in life. The same thing that Solomon realized, stuff doesn't mean anything in the long run. The things we have are nice to have, and God wants us to have them, and God blesses us with many things. But Solomon desired, and he put those things above what he should have been doing.

His conclusion is back in chapter 12, verse 13. After he goes through all of what he's gone through, a man who has had more than we can even imagine, he comes down to this. If you want a satisfied life, if you want to fill the hole that keeps saying, I need more, more, more, there's only one way to fill that hole. And it's in chapter, in verse 13 of chapter 12. Let's hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandment, for this is man's all. Fear him, obey him, do his will, keep your eyes on him first, keep your eyes on things above, keep marching toward the kingdom that Christ said, seek first. And you know what? He promises in that same chapter, all these things you need, I'll add unto you. You don't have to worry about it. You don't have to fret about it. I'll give them to you. He told Solomon, who had the right heart at the time he began, since you said that and didn't ask anything for yourself, I'll give you everything you can imagine. And yet somewhere along the line, Solomon lost that first thought. And Solomon began to trust and want things more than he wanted God. But at the end of his life, he realized what he was missing. And he realized that all that stuff didn't bring any satisfaction at all. Let's turn back to Proverbs. Proverbs 19, verse 23.

There it says, the fear of the eternal, the fear of God, leads to life. You want a life, a fulfilled life? You know what? Follow God. Follow the example Jesus Christ set. Follow Him to the kingdom that He will bring down to earth. And He who has it will abide in satisfaction. We all want to be satisfied. We all want to feel full. We all want to feel not like our life is futile like Solomon felt. We want it full. We want it to have purpose. We want it to have meaning. God has given that gift to you and me. There's a whole world out there that doesn't understand that premise today. They will one day, and answers to their questions will come at a later time when God resurrects the rest of humanity and opens their minds to the truth of the Bible.

But today, we don't covet. We desire what God wants. Let's turn back to Hebrews 13.

There's an antidote to coveting.

The author here of Hebrews in verse 5 of chapter 13 writes, Let your conduct be without covetousness. Don't let that be part of who you are, not just seeking after stuff. 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.

The end of the note to covetousness? Just be content. Learn to be content with what God has provided. Maybe it's not the fanciest house, maybe it's not the fanciest car, maybe it's not the best computer or the biggest TV, but just be content because God promises he'll give us what we need. Don't fret and don't worry about those things and don't set your things on things on the earth. Set your mind. Set your heart on things above, he says. Paul furthered this same thought back in Philippians. Philippians 4 verse 11.

He's writing to the Philippians and thanking them for a gift that they had sent them.

Paul was always hesitant to receive gifts and part of the reason why we read last week when we were talking about 1st Thessalonians 2, he didn't want people thinking that what he was working with them for was to get things. He trusted that God would provide and he wanted them to know, I'm working with you because I have this genuine desire to help you. I'm not looking for things. So when the Philippians sent him this gift, Paul didn't want to take it, but he also knew it was good for them to have the opportunity to give. In verse 11, he goes, Not that I respeak in regard to need. So he's saying, you know, thanking them, not that I speak in regard to need, for I've learned in whatever state I am to be content.

And Paul lived through so many states. You know, he suffered, he had good times, he had bad times, but Paul was always content. Whatever state I am to be content, I know how to be a based, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things, I've learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. Whatever state God wants me in, I'm content with that because Paul believed with all his heart that God was working with him.

Now we go through tough times. We go through good times.

Are we always content? Do we believe that God is in charge, that what he is leading us through, he's training us, he's preparing us, he's weeding out the weak spots in us, he's perfecting us and bringing us to that state of purity that we have to be in if we're going to be part of his kingdom? Because there won't be any forenicator, there won't be any liar, there won't be any thief, there won't be any covetous, there won't be any covetous person in God's kingdom.

And we are powerless to weed those things out ourselves.

If we're going to be in his kingdom, when he returns, we have to let God do it.

Paul knew that. In verse 13 he says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Only one way to the kingdom. And that's through Jesus Christ. Only one way to eternal life. Only one way to salvation. And that's through Jesus Christ.

Only one way to overcome. Only one way for God to purify us of all the faults that are innately in us.

You know, the world around us just doesn't know how to fill that hole. They don't know how to be content.

And they work with it, or they deal with it in ways that we kind of are surprised at times. But if we really think about it, we would understand. Because if we didn't have God in our lives, if we didn't know the truth, if we didn't understand what God is working out here below, we might find ourselves doing the same thing. So when people find themselves in trouble, and they lose jobs, and they lose homes, and they lose the things that they think define their life, and they don't see any way to get them back, what do they do in a lot of cases?

They drink. They take drugs. They steal.

When people aren't finding the satisfaction and happiness in life, and they just don't know what's wrong, and they have this hole to fill because nothing makes them happy. Nothing fills them with joy. What do they do if that eats away at you? They drink. They take drugs. They engage in promiscuous sex because they think that that's where the answers are. Not so for us. We know where the answers lie. The answers to a fulfilled life lie with God. The answers to a fulfilled life are letting Him lead us by His Spirit, letting Him guide us to His Kingdom, letting Him purify us through His strength, not ours, and weeding out things. The answer never comes from coveting. The answer never comes from fulfilling our own desires and seeking and doing our all to fulfill those desires. Fulfill His desires is what He says.

Let's look at one more thing back here in Luke.

In Luke 12, Christ talks about covetousness as well. In the trumpets, I read through this parable, but I'm going to back up a few verses from where I started the other day.

Let's begin in verse 13.

Christ is talking to the crowds that are assembled there, and then someone that says in verse 13 said to Him, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.

Tell him that I get half, or whatever percentage that he wants. I want what he has. And Christ said to him, Man, who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you?

And he said to them, Take heed and beware of covetousness.

And your margin may say that that should be everywhere of all covetousness.

Beware of everything that's covetousness. It can be for things. It can be for power. It can be for women. It can be for money. It can be for inheritance. It can be position. You name it. Beware of all covetousness. For one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses. And then he spoke a parable to them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. God blessed him. He had a lot of crops. God gave him a lot in his life. And the man thought to himself, What will I do since I have no room to store my crops? There's not even enough banks in this world to keep my money in it. I'm going to have to build more storehouses just to store the wealth that I have. So he said, I'll do this. I'll pull down my barns and build bigger ones. And there I'll store all my crops and my goods. And I'll say to my soul, Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease. Eat, drink, and be merry.

Pat on the back, you've made it. You've got all you need. Just relax now, and you do whatever you want to do. Eat, drink, and be merry. The theme of the hedonists. Just do that. That's all your life has to do because you've worked hard all these years. And then God said to him, Fool, this night your soul will be required of you. Then whose will those things be which you have provided? We read this and we talked about how it looks like this man was going to just retire. Nothing wrong with retiring. Nothing wrong with having things. Nothing wrong with having a savings account. Nothing wrong with that at all. If God blesses you with that, that's exactly what you should do and you should enjoy it. What did this man do that was different? What was God saying? That you should not retire? That you should work until you die? No. What was this man doing?

That Christ would have introduced this parable by saying, Beware of all covetousness.

Well, he was looking at all the things that he had. He was realizing the years that he spent in labor and he thought, I've got it all. What was he coveting? He was coveting doing nothing.

He was coveting a life where his job was over. That he could just live the rest of his life fulfilling what he wanted to fulfill. Christ said, Fool!

There comes a time when our physical work may be over, but there's never, ever, ever a time when we stop doing God's work. Never, ever, ever a time that we can say, It's fine. I've done it all. Now I spend the rest of my life just pleasing myself, just doing what I want to do. I don't care about what other people need. I've got this wealth and I'm not going to worry about I might be able to help someone with it. That might be a thing to do. I'm going to be wholly materialistic and rely on what I have. I'm going to ignore God. He had no mention of him. All he was going to do was take care of himself. He was going to live his life the way he wanted it from there on out without anything else to do. And we can desire that as well in a wrong way. Because it's never. As long as we're drawing a breath, we never stop doing God's work. We never stop doing the things that he tells us to do. We never stop learning to love. We never stop overcoming. We never stop being concerned about other people. We never stop his Holy Spirit because if that Holy Spirit is in us and guiding us, all those things will be part of who we are. But this man said, I'm just taking it easy. I'm taking it easy. God said, when you die, all those things will just pass by. Verse 21, he said, and so is he who lays up treasure for himself and isn't rich for God.

He did all that and accumulated all that just to use on himself.

And then you can see in verse 22, as you go through the rest of this chapter, he's talking about seeking the kingdom of God. The very same comments that he makes back in Matthew 6 that we know so well. So let's turn back to Matthew 6 and read what his words are there. Matthew 6, beginning in verse 19, picking up on the very thought that he gave this man. It says, don't lay up for yourselves treasures on earth. Don't spend your time just laying up what you want, where moth and rust destroy them, where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.

Do the things that God says to do. Follow the example that Jesus Christ set. Let his Holy Spirit lead you into all those elements of the Spirit and love that he wants us all to display. Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, or where thieves don't break in and steal. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. You want your heart to be in the kingdom. You want your heart to be where God is. Then do his will. When you see someone in need, help. Make sure that you're asking what his will is, and when you pray, your will be done, that you really mean it. And that you know what's in the Scriptures, that you know what God said, that you know what Jesus Christ's example was, and you were doing the things for him the way he wants it done. That's the way into the kingdom. That's the way into eternity. And if we don't do that, we won't be there. It's as simple as that, one way into the kingdom.

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

And then in verse 24, he says, No one can serve two masters. Either he'll hate one and love the other, or else he'll be loyal to the one and despise the other. You can't serve God and mammon.

Mammon. Another one of those biblical words that we don't use anywhere except in church.

You can't serve God and stuff. You can't serve God and material things. You can't serve God and wealth.

You know, life is all about choices. We talk about that time and again. We choose life or death, God says in Deuteronomy 30 verse 19. Choose life or death, blessing or cursing. Here Christ says, you can't serve God and you can't serve mammon. You do God's will and you seek what he wants and let your heart be on things above, or you have your heart on earth and about the things that you're accumulating there. You can't have both. And God gives the answer then here in the succeeding verses. He says, seek me first. Seek at first. Have an eye pass this current life. Look toward eternity and lay up treasures in heaven. Then he says in verse 25 after he says it, and he tells us the choice to make. Choose God. Choose him. Don't choose your way. Don't choose your ideas. Choose his ideas. Choose his way of life. Choose the path he leads, he gives us. Therefore, I say you don't worry about your life, what you'll eat or what you'll drink. Don't worry about your body, what you'll put on. Isn't life more than food and the body more than clothing? Didn't Aiken learn that the hard way? Didn't Gehazi learn that the hard way? Didn't Solomon learn that the hard way? Look at the birds of the air. They don't sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren't you of more value than they? And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to a stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They don't toil and they don't spin. And yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory wasn't to raid like one of these. Now, if God so closed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore, don't worry, saying, What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear? For after all these things the Gentiles seek. That's what their life is about. It's centered in this world. Our life is centered in God, Jesus Christ, and His kingdom.

That's where our mind is to be set. And he says, For your heavenly Father knows you have need of these things. He knows before we ever know what our needs are. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. There's your answer to covetousness. We don't have to covet. God will give us our hearts' desires. What's going to be in the kingdom is not anything that any man has ever conceived or thought or been able to imagine. All the pictures you see, they pale into what God has prepared for those that love Him, as in 1 Corinthians 2.9.

Don't put your stock, this commandment is saying, in the world. Don't push your efforts. Yes, we have to work. Yes, we go and we be good employees. Yes, we make a life because that is what Christ wants us to do. We are born to work, and we're born to do those things as He put us on this earth. But we do it with the vision of pleasing Him and bringing glory to His name, and He will provide everything else we need. But we better be doing it His way if we want the things that are past this current life, the things that really matter. We don't covet. Our desire is in the kingdom.

It's all a matter. Now let's turn back to Psalm, Psalm 37.

Psalm 37, and verse 4, David writes, Delight yourself in the Lord. Follow Him, honor Him, delight in Him, and put your attention on that, and He'll give you the desires of your heart. You'll have a good life. Psalm 37, verse 4.

This commandment talks about heart, talks about our mind.

In the kingdom. Well, for those of us now, but in the kingdom when Christ returns, says in Ezekiel 36 that He will put in people a new heart and a new mind. He's given us today a new heart and a new mind to understand what His will is. If we let His Holy Spirit penetrate our minds, a new heart and a new mind. And in that kingdom that we look forward to, and that we'll be celebrating here in another week as we go to the Feast of Tabernacles, there will be no people that break these commandments. The way of life in that kingdom, people will be keeping these laws as the centerpiece and as the basis of morality in our way of life.

And it will be a place where joy and happiness and fulfillment is everywhere. Can't even imagine it. That should be our lives today, if we're keeping God's commands and if we're letting Him lead us by His Spirit. Remember these Ten Commandments, and I know you will. Think about them, pray about them, and ask God. From here, and for the rest of your life, help us to keep these and His way of life the way He wants us to.