Well, you know, as part of our ongoing series on the life of Moses, we have been going through the Ten Commandments one at a time, and we come today to Commandment number 10, the last one. You know, a few years ago, Madonna sang, We are living in a material world and I am a material girl. Now, I don't know for sure whether Madonna is a material girl, I'll take her word for that, but I do know that we are living in a material world. And I do know that this material world screams at us every single day of our life. According to statistics, we hear over 300 advertisements every day for different products. And as different as these ads may be on the surface, there is one common theme that links them all together. And that theme is, whatever you and I presently have, it isn't good enough.
We need newer and bigger and better and fancier than we've got. Now, this is what God wants to talk to you and me about from Commandment number 10. Commandment number 10 is all about being content with what the Lord Jesus has chosen to give us at any moment in time. The Lord of the Commandment number 10 is all about not being greedy for things that we don't have. And, you know, this is a subject that we just don't talk about much in church.
Saint Francis of Assisi said, and I quote, People have confessed to me every sin known to man except the sin of greed. End of quote. And that's exactly what we're going to talk about here in Commandment number 10. Now, in order to pull all the full meaning out of Commandment number 10, we're going to do what we've done in weeks past. We're going to ask and answer some questions, four of them to be exact. So here we go.
Question number one. What exactly is Commandment number 10 saying? Well, let's read it first, shall we? Exodus 20, verse 17.
Here's what it says. It says, You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his servants or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
Now, to covet simply means to long for something, to lust after something, to desire something for ourselves that either belongs to somebody else or that we simply don't presently have. And as Commandment number 10 implies, we can covet virtually anything in life. We can covet other people's houses. We can covet their kitchens. We can covet their cars, their boats, their clothes, their shoes. We can covet their iPods.
We can covet their entertainment systems and we can covet their backyard play sets. We can covet other people's husbands and wives. We can covet other people's success. We can covet their position. We can covet their status in life. We can covet other people's popularity, their personalities, their talent or their appearance. Coveting is a universal problem for the human race. Friends, coveting is a problem for every one of us here today because every one of us here has a sinful human nature and coveting is simply the way our sinful human nature operates. This is why the Bible says, Proverbs 27, 20, The eyes of man are never satisfied. This is why John Ruskin, the famous philosopher said, and I quote, he said, We have two basic aims in life, whatever we have to get more and wherever we are to be somewhere else.
Well, that pretty well sums it up, doesn't it? It's also important for us to say, while we're defining coveting, that this sin of coveting is not so much an outward action as it is an inward attitude. Coveting is something that happens in the deepest recesses of our soul. And therefore, it is possible for us to violate commandment number 10 and for this never to be visible to our fellow men. This explains why commandment number 10.
Coveting has never appeared in any human law code in the history of man because men cannot prosecute what men cannot see. But it is in the Ten Commandments. It is in God's law code because, friends, God is different. God can see where men cannot see. God can see the inner recesses of our soul. God can see our innermost thoughts and our motives. This is why First Samuel 16 says man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord sees the heart.
And so then let's summarize. Commandment number 10 is calling us to a lifestyle of contentment as followers of Christ. Now, contentment does not mean that it's wrong to work hard and try to advance ourselves.
It simply means that while we're doing this, we're happy to accept whatever level of success the Lord gives us at any moment in time. Contentment does not mean that it's wrong for us to enjoy material things. It means we ought to enjoy the material things God's given us and not covet the ones He hasn't given us and be willing to disobey God to go get those other things. Commandment number 10 is not about how much we possess.
It's not about how little we possess. It's about the spiritual condition of our hearts. Now, that leads to question number 2, and that is why did God put commandment number 10 in the Bible?
I mean, why is it so important not to covet? Well, the answer is commandment number 10 is in the Bible because God knows that outward sin begins with inward sin. God knows that the sins of the hands begin with the sins of the heart. Jesus said this. He said, Matthew 15, 19, for out of the heart come murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, slander. Now, those are all outward actions, but they don't start outwardly. They start with the heart, Jesus said. This is why Proverbs 4 23 says, Guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it flow the issues of life. And when it comes to the hidden sins of the hearts, I believe that coveting is the most deadly inner sin of them all because coveting, lack of contentment, greed, it's a mother sin.
You say, what do you mean by that? I mean, it's an inner sin that bears all kinds of outward children. It's a mother sin. Think about it now. We've been studying the Ten Commandments.
Think about it. If we're not inwardly content with the husband and the wife that we have, it will lead us to outwardly violate commandment number seven and commit mental or for real adultery. If we're inwardly greedy, it will lead us to break commandment number eight outwardly and to engage in civilized or even illegal stealing. If we're not inwardly content with who and what we are, it will lead us to break commandment number nine outwardly and use our tongues to slander and gossip against other people as a way of bringing them down and trying to put ourselves up. The mother sin of coveting, discontentment, greed is a lethal and deadly sin, which is why God warns us about it, not here just in commandment number ten, but over and over in the Bible. Jesus said, Luke 12, 15, be on your guard against all forms of greed. The apostle Paul said, 1 Timothy chapter six, for we brought nothing into this world and it is certain that we can carry nothing out. Therefore, if we have food and clothing, let us therewith be content.
Now watch, he goes on. He said for those who hunger to be rich, people who are greedy, Paul says what happens to them? They fall into number one, temptation.
Number two, a snare. Number three, many foolish and harmful lusts that draw men into destruction and perdition, for the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil, which some have coveted after, there's our word, and wandered from the faith. Hey, you want some examples of how greed can destroy your life? Want some examples about how coveting can bring disaster into your life? Well, the Bible's full of them.
How about Eve? She wasn't content with God's choices for her in the Garden of Eden and the result was disaster. David was not content with the wives that he had. He coveted Bathsheba and the result was disaster. Achan in Joshua chapter seven got greedy and took some of the spoil from the city of Jericho that God said don't take. The result was disaster.
Absalom coveted the throne of his father David and the result was disaster. You ever heard of a guy named Gehazi? Say, not lately. Well, you're going to learn about him now. He was the personal assistant to Elisha the prophet and in 2 Kings chapter five, Elisha healed a Syrian general of leprosy, a fellow named Naaman, and in gratitude, Naaman tried to give Elisha boatloads of money and other material things that Elisha said, I'm not interested. Well, a little later, Gehazi sneaked off on his own and went to see Naaman and here's what he said. He said, Elisha sent me to say he changed his mind.
Now Elisha hadn't changed his mind. Gehazi was just being greedy. He said he'd like two talents of silver, by the way, that's 150 pounds, and two sets of clothing.
Naaman said, by all means, I'll give him whatever he wants. So Gehazi took these things and hid them in his house. Just pure greed.
Now watch. Elisha found out about it and he came to Gehazi and he said, oh Gehazi, he said, is this the time to receive money or clothes or vineyards or oxen? Because of your greed, Naaman's leprosy will now cling to you and your descendants forever.
And then Gehazi went from Elisha's presence and was leprous as white as snow for the rest of his life. Hey, you want some modern examples of how greed has ruined people's lives? Well, let's talk about Kenneth Lay. Or maybe we should mention Bernie Evers or maybe former representative Randy Cunningham.
Maybe we should mention Martha Stewart or Sam Waxell or Jim and Tammy Baker. Greed, greed, greed, greed, greed. That's all it was that brought every one of these people into disaster. And this is why in Commandment Number 10, God calls us to live lives that are characterized by contentment. Genuine, spirit-filled contentment. Because God knows, get this now, get this, that it's virtually impossible for Satan to seduce into sin a truly content follower of Christ. Let's look at the Lord Jesus. Matthew chapter 4. Satan's tempting him. The Bible says, verse 8, then Satan took Jesus up on a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of this world and their glory. And Satan said, all these things I'll give you if you'll bow down and worship me. And Jesus said, be gone, Satan. I'm satisfied with what the Lord's given me right now.
Get out of here. I mean, Satan couldn't seduce a satisfied Savior. And how about the Apostle Paul? Paul said, 2 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 10, he said, I regard myself as having nothing but also as possessing all things in Christ. As a result, he said, Philippians 4-11, in whatever condition I find myself, I have learned to be content. So Satan comes along and he says, hey, Paul, serve me or I'll take away everything you got. Paul said, that's fine, I haven't got anything anyway. Then he comes along and says, hey, Paul, if you serve me, I'll give you everything in the world.
Paul says, I don't need anything, I got all I need in Christ. What's the old devil going to do with a person like that? How do you get to a person like that? Well, the answer is you can't.
And that leads to question number three. And that is, as a follower of Christ, how can you and I cultivate a higher level of contentment and a lower level of greed in our life? Well, first, we've got to figure out what causes us to covet, what causes us to be greedy, what causes us to be discontented.
If we can figure out what causes it, then we can figure out how to fix it. Well, friends, it's my opinion that the root cause of all greed, all coveting and all discontentment is simple unbelief. Let me tell you why I believe that. Because commandment number 10, do not covet, is built on two great biblical truths. Truth number one is that it is God's prerogative sovereignly to decide who has what in this world. And biblical truth number two is that for every follower of Jesus, God makes this decision about what He's going to give you and me individually. He makes that decision based on what God knows to be utterly best for us at any moment in time.
Now, follow my logic. If these two biblical truths are correct, and they are, then coveting greed is simply an act of blatant unbelief because it accuses God of not really knowing what's best for us. It accuses God of not really giving us what's best for us, of holding out on us, of running our life in a substandard way. That is nothing but blatant unbelief. And this being true, my friends, the way to resist greed and the way to enhance contentment in our lives is simply by believing God more. We need to believe God when He tells us that what He has given us at any moment in time is what He knows to be absolutely utterly best for us at this moment. We need to believe God when He tells us that if anything were better for us than what He's given us at this moment, He would have given it to us already. We need to believe God when He tells us that whatever it is we're coveting would be a step backward for us if we got it, or even a disaster if we got it.
We need to believe God. David said, Psalm 16, 6, The boundary lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. David's referring here to the surveying lines by which portions of the fields were marked off in ancient Israeli society. And what David's really saying is God has marked off the portion of the field in this world that He wants me to have right now, and I consider it pleasant. Now, as we all know, David's life had some tough times in it. I mean, David went through some really difficult circumstances that were certainly not pleasant in and of themselves. David, his life wasn't all peaches and cream. But through it all, through the good times, through the bad times, David clung in faith to God's promise that by the time the dust settled, by the time all was said and done, God would see to it that in every situation of life, the surveying lines fell to David in pleasant places. And listen to what he said at the end of his life. David said, As for God, 2 Samuel 22, His way is perfect.
Look at this. His word has been flawless to me. Boy, do I love that. His word has been flawless to me. My friend, as a follower of Christ, this is the exact testimony God wants to give you. And He will give you if you'll just trust His choices when it comes to where the boundary lines are falling in your life.
I mean, one day from the shores of heaven, I promise you, you will look back over the panorama of your life here on earth and you will confess with David and with Joseph and with Ruth and with Naomi and with Moses and with Abraham, with them all. You will confess that even though it didn't seem that way sometime, even though you couldn't understand it sometime, even though it didn't look like it sometime, in every situation, Almighty God was making sure the boundary lines were right where they belong for your life and my life. You say, But Lon, how can I prove this is true? I mean, how can I prove that the boundary lines are always going to fall to me in pleasant places? Well, friends, you can't.
You can't. This is an area where you and I have got to take Almighty God at His word and where we have got to believe God. And when we do this, as followers of Christ, when we rise up and say, Lord, I'm going to believe you that wherever my lines are right now, if I could see the way you can see, they're in pleasant places for me.
When we make that decision, my friend, you know what? If God will flood our life with a freedom and with a liberation and with an emancipation from being in bondage to the things of this world, He will flood us with a freedom that you and I will never be able to find anywhere else in this life. Now, if you're here today and you've never trusted Christ in a real and personal way and you're trying to find satisfaction in the things of this world, I'm here to tell you it cannot be done. You will never do it. It's impossible because the more you get, the more you want.
You can't do it. That's why all these people we see on television who have so much, we say, wow, if I had what they had, I'd be content. But they're not content.
Why not? Because it's an insatiable hunger when we try to build our satisfaction in life on material things. Christ is the one who satisfies the soul. Jesus is the one who brings true contentment to life because with Jesus, we get the absolute assurance that everything we've got right now is exactly what Almighty God knows we need right now. And we rest in that. That's how you get content. And so if you're here, you've never trusted Christ in a real and personal way.
My invitation to you is to give up trying to satisfy your life with something that will never work and come and embrace the one thing that will, a personal walk with Jesus. Something to think about. Well, we're down to question number four.
And you know this question. So are you ready? Are you ready? All right. Here we go. Nice and loud.
One, two, three. Yeah, good. I woke a few of you up. So what?
You say so what? Well, you know what, friends, as we come to the end of the Ten Commandments, think so what that I want us to take away from this entire series. As we've studied the Ten Commandments over these past weeks, what we've seen is that in the Ten Commandments, God calls us to an utterly distinctive lifestyle here on this earth as followers of Christ. He calls us to a lifestyle that is characterized by a burning passion for Christ. He calls us to a lifestyle that is characterized by a godly singleness of heart here on earth. Colossians 3 one speaks to this singleness of heart. Paul said, Since then you are risen with Christ. Seek those things which are above where Christ is seated on the right hand of the Father.
Set your affection on things above, not on the things of this earth. Now, this conscious, deliberate singleness of heart that sets our defections on things above, that causes us to use our time, our talent, our energy, our money and everything we've got with our eyes focused singularly on heaven and eternity and not on this world. Friends, this attitude has been what has lay at the heart of every single great man and woman of God to ever live.
This attitude has been foundational to the lifestyle of every great servant of God who has ever walked on this earth. We looked at some of these great servants of God and we say, You know, Abraham, Moses, Paul, these people were made of different protoplasm than me. No, they weren't.
No, they weren't. The difference, my friend, is that they walked with a different foundation to their life than people today often walk with. They had a different world view.
They had a different spiritual outlook than the rest of the world around them. Listen, Abraham left Ur, left everything familiar, followed God out into the middle of nowhere. Why did he do it? Hebrews 11 10, because he was looking forward to a city whose builder and maker was God. He had his affection set on eternity, not on this world.
That's why he did it. And Moses, who chose to be mistreated with the people of God rather than enjoy the passing pleasures of sin in Egypt for a season. Why did Moses do that? Because Hebrews 11 26 says he was looking ahead to his reward in heaven. He had his affection set on heaven, not on this earth. The Lord Jesus himself. Hebrews 12 two says he endured the cross with all of its shame.
Why? Because he had his eyes fixed on the joy that God had promised him when he got to the right hand of God. And the apostle Paul Philippians three eight.
Paul said, I have suffered the loss of all things, and I consider them rubbish in exchange for the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ, my Lord. Here was a man who had his affection set on eternity and not on this world. And we could talk about John Wesley and Adoniram Judson and Hudson Taylor and D.L.
Moody and David Brainerd and Jim Elliott and George Whitfield and Mother Teresa. These were men and women who set their affections not on the things on this earth. That's what made them different. They set their affections on heaven and eternity and spent every ounce of strength they had. Not trying to accumulate things here, but trying to lay up treasure in heaven.
That's what made them different. And you and I, we can do that if we want. We can do that with the Lord's help. This is how the Lord Jesus wants us to live as followers of Christ. He wants us to live with this godly singleness of heart, actively, intentionally laying up treasure in heaven, actively, intentionally setting our affection on things above. And this is the lifestyle that the Ten Commandments call you and me to.
This is the lifestyle. God challenges you and me to rise up with Paul, with Moses, with Abraham and to live on this earth. You remember what Gehazi, what Elisha said to him with his heart breaking. He said to his spiritually conflicted servant, Oh Gehazi, he said, is this the time to receive money or clothes or vineyards or oxen? Is this really what God left us here on earth to do, Gehazi? Should this be our focus instead of our focus being on the living God and serving Him? And you know as followers of Christ today, I want to leave you with the very same question Gehazi was asked by Elisha.
And may God help every one of us come up with a different answer than Gehazi came up with. You know, let me say in closing, I meet so many followers of Christ today in our world who have bifurcated hearts. They have divided hearts. They have conflicted hearts. They're trying to hold on to the world with one hand and they're trying to hold on to the things of God with the other hand. And the reason they're so conflicted is because Jesus said it can't be done.
It's impossible. Jesus said nobody can serve two masters. You can't serve God and material things. We all have to choose, friend. It's one or the other. We have to choose. And if we don't choose God deliberately and intentionally, we have chosen the things of this world. And that's why the song says, I have decided to follow Jesus. You don't bumble into this. You don't stumble into this, my friends. As a follower of Christ, you've got to decide you're going to follow Jesus.
There's no turning back. The world behind me, I'm not staring at it. It's the cross I'm looking at before me. The world behind me. The cross before me.
I don't care if anybody goes with me or not. It doesn't matter. The world is behind me and the cross is before me. There's no turning back in my life. And, you know, this was the decision I made almost 38 years ago when I came to Christ.
The man who led me to Christ, Bob Eckhart, sat me down and said, Now, young man, I was a young man then. He said, Now, young man, you have a decision to make. The decision you have to make is, is it Jesus or is it the world? He said, there's nothing in between. And if you don't decide for Jesus, you will decide for the world.
So you have a choice to make. And I heard this song for the very first time. Way back then, I'd never heard this song before. We didn't sing it in synagogue, you understand. And so I heard this song when I was a young follower of Christ and I said, You know what? That's my song. That's my song. Because there wasn't a person in the world willing to go with me and my family and among my friends. It was me. And I said, I don't care if anybody doesn't go with me.
This is what I've decided to do. Now, I haven't gotten this right 100 percent of the time. But you know what?
By the grace of God, he's enabled me to get it right most of the time. And I stand here before you today to tell you it's the greatest decision I ever made in my life. To follow Jesus and not the things of this world. And Jesus has blessed me and given me a bunch of things of this world.
But you know what? That was just something that if he hadn't have done it, it wouldn't have made any difference. Because I didn't decide to follow him to get stuff in this world. I decided to follow him because he's worthy to be followed. That's why you follow him. And so my friends, that's the decision every one of us who claims to be a follower of Christ. That's the decision we have to make.
I mean, who really are we following? I said earlier in my prayer the cross is a radical thing. It is. That following Jesus is a radical thing.
It is. But you know what the good news is? God radically rewards the people who radically follow him. And that's what I'm calling you to decide today. That's what the Ten Commandments are calling you to decide.
Let's pray together. With our heads bowed and our eyes closed, nobody looking around, this is your moment to tell God what you have decided. I can't decide for you. I can just decide for me.
But this is your moment. And either this is a moment to renew a decision you've already made to follow Christ, or maybe a moment to make a new decision. But it's your choice and you must decide.
It's one or the other. God or the world. So you take a moment right now and you tell God what you've decided and ask for his assistance. Now Lord Jesus, accept the decisions that many of us have made here today.
And Lord Jesus, though we don't know as we stand here what the demands of the cross will be on our lives in the future, we have decided that whatever they be, we are going to follow Jesus regardless. Lord, strengthen us. Give us the courage we need to back these commitments up. Lord, be pleased with our decisions. May they bring joy to your heart to know that we have put you first above everything in this world. And we will follow if it costs us our lives. We will follow. You can count on us as your spirit helps us. Lord, make an impact on this city through the lives of the people who have committed to follow you. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. In God's people said, Amen. Amen.
