No Coveting

[0:00] Take your Bibles and turn to Joshua chapter 7.! Joshua chapter 7. We're going to read the entire chapter.

[0:12] ! The son of Zimri, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah, took some of them so that the Lord's anger burned against Israel.

[0:38] Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-Avon, to the east of Bethel, and told them, Go up and spy out the region. So the men went up and spied out Ai.

[0:50] When they returned to Joshua, they said, Not all the people will have to go up against Ai. Send two or three thousand men to take it. And do not weary all the people, for only a few men are there.

[1:02] So about three thousand men went up. But they were routed by the men of Ai, who killed about thirty-six of them. They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries, and struck them down on the slopes.

[1:16] At this the hearts of the people melted and became like water. Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell face down to the ground before the ark of the Lord, remaining there till evening.

[1:29] The elders of Israel did the same and sprinkled dust on their heads. And Joshua said, Oh, sovereign Lord, why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us?

[1:43] If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan. Oh, Lord, what can I say now that Israel has been routed by its enemies?

[1:54] The Canaanites and the other people of the country will hear about this, and they will surround us and wipe out our name from the earth. What then will you do for your own great name?

[2:08] And the Lord said to Joshua, Stand up. What are you doing down on your face? Israel has sinned.

[2:18] They have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things. They have stolen. They have lied. They have put them with their own possessions. That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies.

[2:34] They turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction. Go, consecrate the people.

[2:48] Tell them, consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. That which is devoted is among you, O Israel. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove it.

[3:03] In the morning, present yourselves tribe by tribe. The tribe that the Lord takes shall come forward clan by clan. The clan that the Lord takes shall come forward family by family.

[3:15] And the family that the Lord takes shall come forward man by man. He who is caught with the devoted things shall be destroyed by fire, along with all that belongs to him.

[3:28] He has violated the covenant of the Lord and has done a disgraceful thing in Israel. Early the next morning, Joshua had Israel come forward by tribes and Judah was taken.

[3:43] The clans of Judah came forward and he took the Zerites. He had the clan of the Zerites come forward by families and Zimri was taken. Joshua and his family came forward man by man.

[3:57] And Achan, son of Carmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah was taken. Then Joshua said to Achan, My son, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and give him the praise.

[4:14] Tell me what you have done. Do not hide it from me. Achan replied, It is true. I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel. This is what I have done.

[4:25] When I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia, 200 shekels of silver and a wedge of gold weighing 50 shekels, I coveted them and took them.

[4:36] They are hidden in the ground inside my tent with the silver underneath. And so Joshua sent messengers and they ran to the tent. And there it was, hidden in his tent with the silver underneath.

[4:51] They took the things from the tent, brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites and spread them out before the Lord. Then Joshua, together with all Israel, took Achan, son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the gold wedge, his sons and daughters, his cattle, donkeys and sheep, his tent, and all that he had to the valley of Achor.

[5:17] And Joshua said, Why have you brought this trouble on us? The Lord will bring trouble on you today. Then all Israel stoned him. And after they had stoned the rest, they burned them.

[5:32] Over Achan they heaped up a large pile of rocks, which remains to this day. Then the Lord turned from his fierce anger. Therefore, that place has been called the Valley of Achor ever since.

[5:46] Well, we've come to the last of the Ten Commandments. And in many ways it is one of the most searching of all.

[6:00] You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. Or his manservant or maidservant. His ox or donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

[6:14] Now in this commandment, God is not making demands of outward behavior. He's not addressing our outward behavior.

[6:26] At least not directly, is he? This commandment is aimed 100% at what is going on in your heart. Coveting.

[6:39] Let me illustrate what I mean. The outward behavior of stealing your neighbor's house or wife or servant or ox or anything is already forbidden by the Eighth Commandment, isn't it?

[6:51] You shall not steal. But the Tenth Commandment forbids the very wanting of your neighbor's house, wife, ox, donkey, servant.

[7:02] So we're going to see that coveting does often lead to the sin of stealing as well as many other sins. But whether your covetousness ever leads to actually stealing something or not, your coveting is in itself a sin.

[7:23] And that's our first lesson this morning. You shall not covet. Coveting is itself a sin.

[7:34] In other words, not only stealing money is a sin, but loving money. Not only taking your neighbor's things, but wanting them for your own.

[7:45] So it's making demands of our inward desires. And that's what makes this commandment so searching and so revealing and so convicting.

[8:00] Well, what does it mean to covet? The word covet means strong desire. To yearn. To long for. To lust after.

[8:11] To want. To want. But not all strong desires are sinful, are they?

[8:23] You may covet greater likeness to Jesus. I hope that you are. You may covet greater patience, as we're hearing on Sunday night. You may covet greater nearness to God, as we heard Wednesday night.

[8:39] Those are virtues. Those are not sinful. So what kind of covetous desires are forbidden, then, by the Tenth Commandment?

[8:50] Let me mention two. First of all, unlawful desires. Wanting for myself something that God has put out of bounds for me. For instance, my neighbor's house, wife, servant, and so on.

[9:05] Anything that belongs to my neighbor. It's his. Therefore, wanting it for myself is forbidden. Now, of course, if he's selling his donkey at his garage sale, that is a different matter, isn't it?

[9:22] That may not be unlawful for me to want that. I say maybe. So in the first place, it's forbidding unlawful desires.

[9:33] Wanting for myself something that belongs to another. But secondly, it also forbids excessive desires. Wanting even good and lawful things too much.

[9:46] Wanting them too much. So it's not sinful in all cases, is it? For someone to want a husband. Or to want a wife. Or to want children. Or to want a good job.

[9:57] A nice house. An ox. Or we'd probably say a tractor. But how do I know if my desire is excessive? And therefore, sinfully coveting.

[10:09] Two clues. First of all, if I'm willing to sin to get it or keep it. That's clearly a sinful, covetous desire. Am I willing to sin in order to get or to keep it?

[10:25] Or because I don't get it. Does that tick me off and make me sin? And so that's the first clue.

[10:35] Am I willing to sin to get or keep it? The second one is if I am discontent without it. That's a good clue that you're coveting something. If you're not willing to rejoice in the Lord without it.

[10:49] Not satisfied with what God in his providence has given to you or made available to you in an honest and holy way. So covetousness then is this insatiable thirst for more.

[11:02] I want. I want. I want. Indeed, sometimes it's translated greed. Because it's wanting for myself and wanting more for myself.

[11:13] It's an immoderate desire of getting. Like Proverbs says, it's like the horse leech. That no matter how much it drinks, it still cries, give, give.

[11:24] Or like fire, which never says enough. So you might at first glance think that coveting would be the besetting sin of the poor. They're the ones who, because of their lack of things, would be most prone to covet what is not theirs.

[11:42] Now, of course, there is a temptation that the poor have. And I'm not belittling it, but I simply want to emphasize that coveting is not only a poor man's problem by any stretch, is it?

[11:55] That's the emphasis even of scripture. You remember that coveting was the damning sin of the rich young ruler. Who was greedy and covetous and loved money more than Jesus.

[12:12] And so he was willing to let go of eternal life that he might have his wealth because he had a lot of it. It was a rich, covetous man.

[12:22] And if coveting was only the sin of poor people, then will King Ahab living in the luxury of his palace and all of his lands would have not had any trouble with coveting.

[12:34] But he would not be content until Naboth's vineyard was his. And so he pouts around the house discontented because of what he doesn't have.

[12:48] Absalom is a prince in Israel. We're crying out loud. He's got all the perks of being a prince, the son of the king. But he will not be content until the crown is resting on his own head.

[13:03] Jesus was teaching many people one day, thousands the Bible says. And somebody in the crowd shouted out to him, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.

[13:15] Now, on the surface, it sounded like a reasonable request. I've got a legal right to a part of my family inheritance and my brother's not sharing.

[13:27] Jesus, make him share with me. Well, Jesus won't have anything to do with his request because he sees beneath the surface.

[13:39] He sees what's inside this man's heart. And what he sees is far more dangerous than missing out on the family inheritance. What he sees will lead him to miss out on eternal inheritance.

[13:51] And so Jesus replied, watch out. Be on your guard against all kinds of covetousness. A man's life does not consist in the abundance of things that he possesses.

[14:10] That's not what life's about. Yet ever so many live as if it were. Well, Jesus proceeded to tell a parable, didn't he? A parable about a covetous rich man.

[14:23] He had a lot of stuff and so much that he tore down his old barns and he built bigger barns. And he was going to enjoy all his stuff. And Jesus says, what a fool.

[14:33] Because God's going to require your soul of you this night. Then who will get all these things that you have stored up for yourself? So it will be with everyone who is rich in earthly things, but not rich toward God.

[14:47] It was a rich man in Jesus' parable that he especially addressed about the sin of covetousness. Interesting. A covetous rich man.

[15:00] It should tell us that money and things are never enough to satisfy the covetous heart. How much is enough? Just a little more, one millionaire said.

[15:12] More is the word of the covetous heart. Ecclesiastes 5.10 says, Whoever loves money never has money enough. And whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.

[15:23] This too is meaningless. That covetousness is no respecter of persons. It's rich and poor alike that struggle with it.

[15:38] So that's the second lesson for today. Coveting is a common sin. It is sin itself. But it is also a common sin found in the rich, the poor.

[15:49] Also found in the young and the old. So young toddlers in the nursery are wanting what? The toy that somebody else has for themselves.

[16:01] Or throwing a fit in the supermarket because mommy won't satisfy what? All of their desires for things that they don't have but they want.

[16:12] And mothers don't encourage and indulge that covetous heart. But confront it and address it and point them to their need for Christ. Babies.

[16:23] Young toddlers. Teenagers. They see what everybody else has, their friends have, and they want it. Don't they? Grown-ups. Want to keep up with the Joneses.

[16:34] And even the elderly. Covetousness has long been recognized as a common besetting sin of even those who are closest to leaving it all behind. You would think, well, but no, as a group they tend to get more tight-fisted rather than more generous the older they become.

[16:52] Jesus says the reason is that it comes out of the heart. From within. Out of the heart. Mark 7. We've seen this in all the Ten Commandments almost, haven't we? Jesus is saying, where do these sins come from?

[17:05] And here again, out of the heart comes covetousness. Mark 7.22. So it's everyone's problem because anything can be coveted.

[17:20] It's not just money and the things that money buys, but it can be popularity. You can be covetous of power, of position, of pleasure, of people, physical appearance, talents, health.

[17:36] Covetous heart will feed on anything. And that's why it's such a common sin. So the Tenth Commandment forbids unlawful desires, things that belong to others, but also excessive desires.

[17:53] Now something we've seen in the Ten Commandments study is that if a commandment is stated in the positive, it also includes by inference the negative. And vice versa. If a command is stated in the negative, it includes the opposite positive virtue.

[18:07] And that's what we have here. This command is stated in the negative. You shall not covet. Well, that also means that there's a positive virtues, positive duty that is inferred as well in this command.

[18:22] So that's what we want to look at next. Not only what is forbidden by this command, but what does this command positively require of us? And again, I'll give you two things.

[18:34] First of all, contentment. Doesn't it? Instead of coveting what I don't have, I am to be content with what I do have. Now more on that another time.

[18:47] Important requirement of the Tenth Commandment. Contentment. Secondly, joy for my neighbor in the good that he has. In other words, this command not only forbids me to want for myself what my neighbor has, but it therefore is requiring of me to be glad for my neighbor that he has it.

[19:11] So I'm on vacation in Bellevue, Washington, and I'm walking around one morning in the neighborhood where we're staying, and there it was in someone's tiny front yard. The perfect redwood tree.

[19:24] Probably. Probably. I don't want to exaggerate. But I'm thinking it's probably about 125 to 150 feet tall, and it's the deepest green you've ever seen, and there's no holes in it or blotches.

[19:44] It's all filled in with green branches, and no branches hanging out further than the others. It's as if God himself had pruned that tree perfectly, and it just reached up and went up and up, straight up until it finally at the top came to a perfect point.

[20:08] Now, I'm not a tree hugger. I have cut trees down before. I will confess, you would need four or five men to hug around the base of that tree, which was itself beautiful in its bark and shape.

[20:21] It was like the eighth wonder of the world to me. And as I looked and I looked and I looked again, I started to think how I would like to have his tree in my backyard, right in the middle of my backyard.

[20:39] I could see it from every back window of my house. I could be on my sun porch and look out and see. I could be on the patio and see it in the garden. Every place on my lot, I would see this tree and be able to enjoy its beauty every day.

[20:56] Now, I'm not 100% certain that I crossed the line into coveting that morning, but I think I probably did. Why is it that when we see something that catches our eye, that we then want it for ourselves?

[21:15] We want it as our own rather than being glad for them that they have it. Well, it's this thing called covetousness. And this commandment is calling on you to love your neighbor as you love yourself.

[21:30] Would you love to have that? Well, then love your neighbor and be glad that he has it. This is a call to rejoice with those who rejoice. And just as you rejoice in your own prosperity and good things, you are to rejoice in your neighbor's prosperity and in his good things.

[21:48] Does he have a good wife? I'm to be happy for him, not coveting her. Does he have a good house? I'm to rejoice in his joy, not want it for myself.

[22:00] Does he have a nice yard, a nice job, a bank account, a herd of children? I'm not to covet them for myself. I am to positively be glad for them that they have that good thing.

[22:13] So I'm to be content with the 35-foot sugar maples that grow in my yard and happy for that blessed man in Bellevue, whoever he is, that every day when he goes out to get in his car, gets to enjoy the eighth wonder of the world as he looks upon that tree.

[22:33] That's what the Tenth Commandment requires of me, contentment with what I have, and joy in my neighbor's possession of such good things.

[22:48] Now, you know, that's rare. We remember when Mrs. Hawkins visited our home and spoke about that. She says, when you have something that is really nice, whatever it is, it could be a wife, a house, children, spiritual gifts, talents, it could be anything.

[23:10] But when you have something that's very nice, it is ever so rare for others to genuinely enter into your joy in having that thing. To sincerely be happy for you, that's rare.

[23:26] Why so? It's this thing called covetousness, isn't it? That when we see it, we become envious or jealous or wish that it was ours rather than, God, thank you for blessing my brother with that good thing.

[23:43] It's a wonderful thing that you've given to him and enjoying it. It's covetousness that makes that so rare. So this commandment then against coveting forbids unlawful, excessive desires, requires contentment, and joy.

[24:00] So with that understanding, let's go to the scriptures and look at some examples and see how this works out in real life. And this comes then to the third lesson, and it's that coveting is a mother sin.

[24:13] Coveting is a mother sin. It gives birth to many other sins. In fact, it was involved in the very first sin in the universe. And I find it interesting that it too involved coveting a tree, didn't it?

[24:29] So let's remember where Eve is in Genesis chapter 3. She is in the fruit lover's paradise, the orchard of all orchards, trees with the best of fruits.

[24:41] And she's given permission by her kind master to eat from whichever tree she wants, with the exception of one. Was she content with what she had been given?

[24:54] Yes, she was. Until she listened to the voice of the serpent. And suddenly, she's no longer content with all the choices she had, and for the first time, she covets what she didn't have.

[25:13] Freedom to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You see, the serpent focused her attention on that tree. You mean God won't let you eat from any tree you want?

[25:24] You can't go up to that tree and eat it? We can eat from all of them, but not from that one, she said. Or we will surely die. And you remember the serpent said, No, no, no, no.

[25:36] You will not surely die. He reinterprets that tree for the woman. God's withholding something good from you.

[25:48] He knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So now, all of a sudden, she's no longer content to eat from all the trees except the one.

[26:01] She's now coveting the one she's forbidden to eat. She's not content anymore to let God be God, and for her to take her place under God.

[26:15] But now, she will not be happy until she is like God, and can determine for herself what is good and evil. And don't miss the progression of sin in this first sin and the role of discontent and covetousness.

[26:38] The Bible says, When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.

[26:50] She saw, she desired, coveted, and then took some and ate it. So, her discontented coveting gave birth to what?

[27:02] To her breaking God's good commandment to not eat from that tree. And then that gave birth to what? To tempting Adam, rather than being his helper, to being his temptress, to pull him down into sin, and thereby to bring down the whole human race that was piggybacked on Adam.

[27:21] This is the mother sin that gave birth to all the sins of the human race, coveting what was not hers. Beware of covetous desire and its Siamese twin of discontent.

[27:38] Which comes first? Does a person first get discontented with what they have before they start coveting what they don't have? Or is it the other way around? I don't know.

[27:49] Sometimes it may be one way or the other. I know this, that I can't be coveting something I don't have without at the same time being discontented with what I do have and vice versa.

[28:02] These two are found together, aren't they? Let's consider some of the other sinful offspring of this mother sin of coveting. You remember the Israelites in the desert?

[28:13] One of their besetting sins was grumbling and complaining, wasn't it? And if you dig right down to the root of this sin, you find covetous desire. Numbers 11, some of them began to covet or crave other food.

[28:28] Warning, mother sin. Watch out for other sins. And again, the Israelites started wailing and saying, if only we had meat to eat.

[28:38] We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost, the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. Now we've lost our appetite. We never see anything but this manna.

[28:49] This manna. Can you detect a hint of discontent with this manna? And now some covetousness for that fish and meat and cucumbers and leeks.

[29:01] We see it, don't we? And it gave birth to what? To complaining. To murmuring. To dishonoring God. Charging him with bringing them out of Egypt to let them die in the desert.

[29:13] Or there's Achan. And it was an exciting time. When Israel finally entered the promised land after 40 years in the wilderness. And here they were on the opposite side of the Jordan with Jericho in view.

[29:28] And God stopped the river Jordan from flowing. And Achan walked across on dry land. And went right on in to the promised land. And the first city of Jericho was there.

[29:42] And Achan was there. And he marched around that walled city of Jericho seven times that morning. And he had heard Joshua give these instructions. That the city and everything in it is devoted to the Lord.

[29:54] Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared. But keep away from the devoted things. So that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them.

[30:05] Otherwise you'll make the camp of Israel liable to destruction. And bring trouble on it. All the silver, gold, and articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord. And must go into his treasury.

[30:17] He'd heard that. He had joined in the shout. He had seen the impregnable walls fall. He had charged in to kill and to set fire as the Lord had commanded. And as he's going in and out of houses.

[30:29] He saw some things. And he wanted those things for himself. Listen to his later confession just before he was stoned.

[30:40] It is true. I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel. This is what I've done. When I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia. Twenty, two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels.

[30:55] I coveted them. And took them. They're hidden in my tent and so on. You see, coveting led to disobeying God's command.

[31:06] Led to violating the covenant. And rather than being a blessing to his brothers and sisters. He brought down the curse of God upon his brothers and sisters and even his own family.

[31:18] He stole. He took what belonged to God and was devoted to him. He lied. He deceived others pretending to be innocent. All of this was the offspring of the mother sin of coveting what he saw.

[31:33] We don't have time to. Well, this one illustration. Yeah. King David. We looked at him under his temptation, didn't we?

[31:44] When he was on his roof and saw the beautiful woman. And strongly desired her for himself. He wasn't content with his own wives.

[31:56] Nor did he rejoice with Uriah for having such a fine wife. But rather, his covetous desire wanted her for his own. And that covetous desire gave birth to what?

[32:09] I want you to see ten dominoes. The first one's covetousness. What did it lead to? Well, it led to him committing adultery. And that's the seventh commandment.

[32:23] It was the stealing of a man's wife. That's the eighth commandment. He tried to cover it up with lies. That's the ninth commandment. And the murder of her husband.

[32:33] That's the sixth commandment. And in so living, he brought dishonor down upon the good name of his father, Jesse, and his mother, which is the fifth commandment.

[32:43] And surely brought dishonor to the name of the God that he confessed and that he bore on his lips, which is the third commandment, misusing that name. And it surely breaks the second commandment against idols since Colossians says that covetousness is idolatry.

[33:00] And it broke the first commandment since the coveted thing functionally became another God. What he wanted became God. I will do whatever I must do to have that object.

[33:14] No, that's to be reserved for God alone. I will do whatever God wants. It broke the first commandment. And all that's left is the fourth commandment. And for nine months.

[33:27] If David kept kept the fourth commandment and worship God on his holy day. That was a sham, too, because he was covering up his sin.

[33:39] Even as he supposedly worshiped God. So though this commandment is last of the ten, it usually comes first. And indeed, in David, we see that all the commandments are broken as the children of this mother sin.

[33:55] Well, many others could be mentioned. And when we come to the New Testament, we find the same idea. James traces sin back to its source and says, you can't blame God when you're tempted.

[34:05] No one can blame God. He doesn't tempt anyone. He can't be tempted. Well, then, if not God, who or what? Each one is tempted when by his own evil desire. There it is. Your own desire.

[34:18] He is dragged away and enticed. And then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it's finished, gives birth to death.

[34:30] You see what he's saying? Our sin and the temptation to it comes from that covetous desire within. That craves the outward bait and drags us away.

[34:41] If I was content with what I had, if I had no covetous desire for what I don't have, well, then you could not get me to take the bait.

[34:52] Oh, but I do find I have desires within that want what is being offered. And when outward temptation meets inward desire, it conceives. It's interesting. He uses that language.

[35:03] And it gives birth to sin. You see, covetous desire is a mother sin that gives birth. And he goes on in chapter 4 to say that it even gives birth to the fights and quarrels that you have in your house.

[35:16] The warring and killing that goes on in our streets and in between nations. The fighting and quarrels in churches and families and marriages.

[35:28] Trace it all down to what? You want something and you can't have it. You can't get it. You want. You want. That's covetousness. Next time you fight or quarrel, look to see what is the covetous desire at the root.

[35:43] Paul says the same thing in 1 Timothy 6. People who want to get rich. Do you see the word want? Think covet when you read want. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.

[36:01] They want to get rich. And that makes them easy prey to many other sins, the Bible says. For the love of money is what? The love of all kinds of evil is the root of all kinds of evil.

[36:15] It's the mother of all kinds of children. Some people eager for money have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. So covetousness is a root.

[36:28] It's a root. And all kinds of sins are grafted into that root. Some will steal to get more.

[36:38] Some will lie to get more. Some will kill to get more. Some will argue to get more. Some will forsake Christ to get more. Some will abandon their family to get more. Some will break the Sabbath to get more. On and on.

[36:49] These commandments. They're grafted in on this root. Of the love. The grasping covetousness. Of the heart. You shall not covet.

[37:01] Therefore, any fighting and warfare against sin must always deal with the root. If you don't want to see a whole bunch of children, evil children running around, deal with the mother.

[37:14] And the mother's sin is covetousness. And that's why Colossians tells us, Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature. Sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and covetousness.

[37:27] Or greed, which is idolatry. So that's where we must take the battle. Not just outwardly, but to the root sins. To the mother's sin. Put the axe to the root.

[37:41] Well, there's much more to be said about covetousness. And even on how to kill covetousness. Let me conclude with just two brief applications for killing covetousness.

[37:53] First of all, guard against the things that feed this mother's sin. What did we learn today? What was it that fanned the flames of covetousness in these examples that we saw?

[38:06] What stirred it up? Well, we saw it in the repeated progression of sin. Whether in Eve, or David, or Achan. They saw, they desired, or coveted, and they took.

[38:24] Yes, coveting led to wrongful taking, didn't it? But don't miss what led to coveting. It was what they saw that led to coveting, and then sinful taking.

[38:38] Now, do we have anything to learn from that? That seeing led to coveting. There's nothing new about this sin of coveting.

[38:50] It goes right back to the first sin, and we've seen that this morning. But what is new is the bombardment of our eyes with things to make us covet. That's the new thing.

[39:02] Marketers will spend billions of dollars to try to figure out how to show you. How to put something before your eyes in a way to make you want it. And even to think that you need it. And not just on billboards and commercials.

[39:15] On TV, we can now sit and while away the hours with a little device in our laps. And have the images of things to tease our desires.

[39:29] Oh, it'd be nice to have one of those. They're on Pinterest. On Etsy. On Wayfair. Seven million things paraded before your eyes.

[39:40] Just on that one virtual mall. Hundreds of such websites. And of course, all you need is the plastic card to satisfy those covetous desires.

[39:56] But never before in the history of mankind have we been so bombarded with images to catch the eye. To stir up desire. To want what you don't have.

[40:08] And often what you don't need. In fact, you never knew how much you needed it until you spent a couple hours shopping. And then you realized how much you need. You see, that very seeing can fuel discontent with what you have.

[40:23] And can fuel covetousness for what you don't have. And leave you unhappy until you do get it. And do have it. And remember, the covetousness itself is sin.

[40:37] That's the tenth command. I'm not saying that all use of these sites is wrong. They can save you time and money and help you find the best thing that you're after.

[40:49] But if the Lord Jesus would say to a man. Who's concerned about getting his fair share of his inheritance. Man, watch out.

[41:01] Beware. Be on guard against all kinds of covetousness. I would not be a faithful shepherd to you. If I did not say about all these things that parade images before your eyes.

[41:13] Ma'am. Mister. Watch out. Beware. You have a beast in you. Don't feed it. Starve it.

[41:24] Kill it. Be killing it. Or it will be killing you. Watch your eyes. And secondly, fix your eyes on the Lord Jesus.

[41:37] Fix your eyes on your Lord Jesus. I can only mention it here. We're going to camp on it later. But there is more than enough in the Lord Jesus to satisfy your heart for all of time and eternity.

[41:51] And that's what we sang about as we began our worship today. He's the only one who can satisfy our hearts. You know, he made us for himself.

[42:04] He made our hearts such that we wouldn't be satisfied with anything but him. And we're all so thirsty, you see. We want, we want, we want. And Jesus is the one who satisfies our wants.

[42:18] So get to know him. Draw near to him. The better you know him, the more content you'll be with him. And covetousness withers in a heart that is content with Jesus.

[42:35] Now we'll tease that out more in the future. But covetousness will shrivel up and wither in a heart that is content with the Lord Jesus.

[42:48] Jehovah Jesus, we bow in your presence and acknowledge you as the Lord our God. And we acknowledge publicly that you have been our provider.

[43:00] Father, when we needed food, you fed us. And when we needed a savior from sin, you sent your own son and damned him in our place that we might be set free.

[43:13] You are Rafa, our healer. And by your stripes we have been set free from the grasping heart of covetousness. We look forward to the day when we'll never have another covetous desire.

[43:29] But thank you for setting us free, Lord. We were slaves to our own evil desires. And you have been with us every step of the way.

[43:42] And how we thank you. We have found in you more than enough to satisfy us. Forgive us of our sins. Of thinking there's something outside of you that will do the job.

[43:53] So give us eyes to see your glory and your power and your loving kindness that is greater than life.

[44:04] Better than life, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.