This exposition of Exodus 20:17 by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday morning, May 5, 2019.
Intro:
It was one of our Saturday morning prayer times. I was pastoring my first church and one of my deacons met with me every Saturday morning for prayer. We had prayed and we were talking about the community and various folks.
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He began to talk about his father-in-law. I knew the rest of his wife’s family but not his father-in-law because E.R. had died several years before my coming to Masham. Gene said, “Well he just over extended when he got to buying up land. He didn’t want much…he just wanted the land that joined his!” That is the perfect example of the subtle trap of desire. The more I have, the more I want. It starts to snowball and before you know it – it is out of control with a life of its own. I’m sure you’ve noticed in your own life, you never have enough. I don’t hear people saying, “You know my employer just pays me too much money. I think I’ll ask them to cut back.” Instead we count pennies, scratch and claw our way until we get a raise. But in short order we are again counting pennies, scratching and clawing hoping for the next raise. We manage to live on and spend whatever income we have.
Part of that is due to the fact we live in a culture that is saturated with the notion that you are what you possess. Worth and value are determined by how much stuff you have. The more stuff – the more successful. The more you have the happier you’ll be. But life doesn’t work that way. Things cannot make you happy. Elvis had 3 jets, 2 Cadillacs, a Rolls Royce, a Lincoln, 2 station wagons, a Jeep, a custom touring bus, and 3 motorcycles. Of course his favorite car was his 1960 Cadillac limousine. The body was sprayed with 40 coats of a specially prepared paint that included crushed diamonds, trimmed in 18 karat gold. He died a lonely and unhappy man. Christina Onassis would monthly dispatch a jet to the United States, at a cost of $30,000 just to pick up cases of Diet Coke. She paid people $20,000 and $30,000 per month to be her friends. She died an unfulfilled and profoundly unhappy woman. History is littered with testimonials to the fact that money, possessions and things cannot make you happy. But we think we can be the exception. Okay, money can’t buy happiness but maybe I could rent it. The desire to have, to get, to possess is the backdrop for the tenth word thundered from Sinai.
Text: Exodus 20:17
This is the life I expect from you.
This is what it means to belong to Me – to wear my name.
These are commands/imperatives.
The purpose – to reveal our true nature.
To cause of to despair of ever being good enough – so that we flee to Christ.
A mirror – a teacher
Jesus summed up the law by saying – “love God, love others.”
Remember these words were spoken.
The people were at a breaking point under the weight of these commands – Exodus 20:18-19 - Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.
Thesis: The 10th word from Sinai shatters any illusion of our innocence before a holy and righteous God.
If there was any chance of our emerging unscathed from the first 9 – the 10th will do us in. Look at it: "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's." (Exodus 20:17)
It is as if the Lord said, “Now in case I’ve missed something let me cover all the bases.”
Commands 1-9 forbid specific actions. This command forbids a state of mind. In fact it is the state of mind that results in the breaking of all the other commandments!
I. Note first of all, this is an impossible demand.
How will we recognize it? What does it look like?
Some covet possessions.
It is also possible to covet people.
Then there is the desire for position, status or accomplishment.
You may be thinking, “Oh come on pastor, you’re making too much of this.” I understand that but the problem is we do not take sin seriously. We think, sure coveting is not right but it’s not wicked. Yes, it is. And it is because of its root cause.
II. A covetous heart is the result of a discontented soul.
I’m not advocating a call to poverty. I’m not suggesting that it is wrong to enjoy a few luxuries along the way. I’m saying we must not consider luxuries necessities! One of our problems in this regard is that we’ve bought the lie that wealth brings security. It does not! Ironically it breeds anxiety. You live in fear you’re going to lose it. contentment does not come easily. But it will find its way to the heart of the one who seeks his satisfaction in God alone. And then recognizes any and everything beyond that a gracious gift from God’s hand.
Conclusion:
A lack of contentment is a complaint against God. He has somehow failed you. He has not adequately supplied you. He has foolishly blessed the wrong people. Such a heart is a wicked heart.
How have you done with these ten words?
Are you comfortable looking in the mirror of the law?
I hope it has revealed your sin.
I hope it has caused you to despair of ever being “good” enough.
I hope it drives you to flee to Christ and live.
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