LAW HOMILY: "The War Of Wanting"

Every week we get to go through the law of God and we get to understand what God has to say to us, his people. We get to understand how do we obey this God. Now that we've been saved, now the Holy Spirit has come into us, how do we obey this God?

And this week we will be on the 10th commandment and this is how it reads. 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 belongs to your neighbor.

That's the final words of the Decalogue that was given to Moses on Mount Sinai, the 10th stroke of the divine chisel carving a people out of slavery and into obedience to God. And notice where the Lord ends the 10 commandments.

He doesn't end with the hand or the tongue or the foot, he ends with the heart. Nine commandments address what a man ought to do. The 10th commandment addresses what a man ought to want. And in that moment or in that movement, we go from action to appetite, from performance to passion.

And God signs his name across the whole Decalogue and says in effect, I am not merely after your behavior, I'm after you. The Hebrew verb here is hamad. Isn't that fun to say? Hamad. And it does not mean a passing glance or an eye to wish, it means to fix your eye upon a thing so forcefully that it bends you towards it, that it draws you towards it, that it makes you want it more than anything.

This is the same verb that's used of Eve in the garden when the fruit became the desire of her eyes. This is the same verb that's used of Achan in the valley of Achor when he saw the cloak in the silver and he said that he wanted them and he took them, he was drawn to them.

Covetousness in that way is never empty of desire. Covetousness is a furnace of polluted desires. It begins as a spark in the eye, a fire in the heart, and it ends as an ash in the soul. When he recounts how the law was exposed to him, Paul tells us that he did not reach for murder or adultery, but he does tell us the one that he reached for all the time when he says, I had not known sin except that the law had said thou shalt not covet.

Paul is saying that the 10th commandment was the mirror by which his entire life was demonstrated to be full of sin. And why does this commandment function so clearly as a mirror? Because every other sin has covetousness at its root, every other sin.

If you sin in any way, you have done two things. You have made something else God over your life and you have wanted something other than God. That's why the first and the 10th commandment function as such bookends, because every sin you sin has those two added on to it.

So when you lie, you're not just lying. You're making someone else's approval, your God, and you're making comfort the thing that you covet. So every white lie is at minimum three sins. You think about Cain, why did he strike Abel?

He coveted his brother's acceptance before God. Why did David sin for Bathsheba and commit adultery? It's because he desired his neighbor's wife. Why did Ahab sulk upon his bed until Jezebel murdered Naboth?

Because he wanted Naboth's vineyard. Why did Judas sell the Son of God for 30 pieces of silver? Because he wanted a political revolution instead of what Jesus was bringing. If you follow the coveting long enough, you will find that every commandment is broken by coveting.

The 10th word in the 10 words is the root from which all other nine bear their bitter fruit. Covetousness is not first a sign against our neighbor or sin against our neighbor. It is first a sin against God.

To covet is to look at the portion that the Lord has measured out for us and declare it insufficient. It's to hold the cup that God has filled for our life and to say, God, that's not enough. It's to stand in the pasture where the shepherd has laid us down and given us good green grass and cared for us so that we have no want.

And it's to accuse him of being stingy. This is why Paul in Colossians 3 calls covetousness idolatry, because the covetor has exchanged the living God for a thing and has pinned his joy upon an object that he believes that his father has withheld from him, which brings us to the only cure.

When we're talking about coveting, the cure is Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not covet. The Lord is my shepherd. He's met all my needs. What David is saying is not words from the palace.

It's words from the field, words from the pasture. And he's saying that God, even in every aspect of his life, has given him everything that he needs. God, in every situation, has given him all that he needs.

God, whether in comfort or in trial, whether being chased by Saul or sitting on the throne of Israel, has given him everything that he needs. And that is so important for us to understand, because, dear ones, every situation you walk through, every second that you live, you've been given what you need by God, and he has not withheld from you any good thing.

So to look at someone else's life, circumstances, possessions, or whatever else, and to say, I've not been given enough, is to look directly at God and accuse Him of sinning against you. So what we must do is we must say, the Lord is my shepherd, and I don't have any wants because He's a good shepherd.

He's kind, and He's given me everything that I need. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and He promises everything you need will be added to you. We have no needs, truly, because we have a God who meets our needs.

What we struggle with is satisfaction with what He's given us, and may we repent of that. And may we be happy in the portion that the Lord has given us, because He's smarter, stronger, and better, and more holy and pure than we could ever possibly imagine.

So what He's given us is exactly what we need. Amen? Let's pray and let's repent for the ways that we fall short. Lord, You say in Matthew 6 that there's not a single sparrow that falls to the ground without You knowing it.

There's not a single hair on our head that You have not counted. You say in other places a child asks for a loaf of bread. Would the Father give him a stone? Of course not. How much more so would our Heavenly Father not give us all good things?

Lord, the issue is not truly what You have given us. It's how we think, believe, and feel about what You've given us. And Lord, I pray for us as a people that we would think rightly about what You've given us.

Every situation, every relationship, every moment is from You for our good. Help us to think that way. Help us to believe that that's true. And Lord, help that to change our heart. Lord, let us not slip into coveting.

Let us not slip into that slithering sin that would cause us to question Your goodness and Your faithfulness and Your kindness. And Lord, when we do, because this sin is one of the chief sins. Lord, when we do, would You forgive us?

When would You cause us to call upon the name of the Lord and to repent? It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.