If you have your Bibles, let's once again turn to the book of Exodus and to the 20th chapter as we're continuing these Lord's Day messages through the Heidelberg Catechism. And the Heidelberg Catechism comes to the end of the year with an exposition through the Ten Commandments. And then we'll start next week, an exposition through the Lord's Prayer. But today, we have the opportunity to meditate upon the tenth of the Ten Commandments, the commandment against a covetous spirit. And so we're going to read from Exodus 20 and verse 17. So let me invite you, as you're able, let's stand in honor of the reading and the hearing of God's Word. I'm going to read from Exodus 20 and verse 17, wherein Moses faithfully recorded this commandment. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's. May God bless today the reading and the hearing of his word, and let us join in prayer. Gracious and loving God, as we consider once again thy moral law, we ask that you would make us attentive to understand better the commandment that has been given to us and how we might keep it and how it might be used of thee to grow us deeper and stronger in the faith and bring us more and more into conformity with the image that you have stamped us with the image of God. We ask this in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen. You may be seated. Well, we have been in this series throughout this year of the Heidelberg Catechism. And as I noted, we're in a part of the catechism right now here on Lord's Day 44. where we're going through the Ten Commandments, which is the epitome of what we call the moral law of God. And we're at the last, the tenth and last of these commandments. And it is this commandment that begins, thou shalt not covet. And you'll notice that it starts with thy neighbor's house, nor his wife, nor his manservant or maidservant. And then it goes down to the animals, the ox, the ass, or the donkey. And then there's the coverall statement at the end of it, nor anything that is thy neighbor's. And so our instructors, our teachers in the Heidelberg Catechism have told us that one of the ways that we can live a life of gratitude in response to what God has done for us in Christ is that we can strive to keep his moral law. Despite the remaining corruptions that are within us, that we can strive to keep God's moral law. As we turn to the questions and answers for this Lord's Day 44, we'll see that there are some three questions and answers that are posed. The first of these, question 113, addresses the 10th commandment itself. And then the final two questions, 114 and 115, take a retrospective look back across all the commandments and they ask about why we should strive to keep them and continue to preach them even though we will inevitably in this life fall short of them. Why do we encourage the keeping of them when we know we can't keep them? Why do we continue to encourage the preaching of them? And for those in many Christian traditions where they use the Heidelberg Catechism every single year, every year, Lord's Afternoon, they come back to these, the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer. Why do we keep stressing this if, because of remaining corruptions, we cannot keep God's law as we ought? And so we're going to ponder those questions, but we want to begin by looking at the Tenth Commandment and thinking about this, what its meaning is, and what it instructs us about, this Tenth and Final Commandment. And so question 113 asks, what doth the Tenth Commandment require of us? And the answer given is this, that even the smallest inclination or thought Contrary to any of God's commandments, never rise in our heart, but that at all times we hate all sin with our whole heart and delight in all righteousness. This last commandment is a climactic one. And it's a kind of a capstone that tries to look back really at the totality of what all the commandments are about. And so this 10th commandment, you shall not covet, has a representative role and touches on a lot of the other commandments. The only proof text that is provided in the Heidelberg Catechism for this first question is Romans chapter 7, verses 7 and following. And it sort of points to the 10th commandment as a kind of an epitome of the moral law. Paul wrote in Romans 7, verse 7, what shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law. For if I had not known lust, except the law had said, thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law, sin was dead." And Paul is simply making the point that one of the uses of the law is to make us aware of our sinfulness and thereby to make us aware of our need for Christ and the need for grace. And so he says, I would not have known what it was like to have sinful or inordinates desires or lustings, not talking, I think, merely about sexual lustings, but any type of unsettled lustings and desires that leaves one unhappy, unsettled, and discontented in life. I would not have known the depths of that had God not revealed his law, which says, thou shalt not covet. And by that, I'm made aware of the gaping need that I have in my life for Christ. The 10th commandment forbids coveting. What is coveting? We can say that coveting is the inordinate desire for things which one does not have or for things that are held by others. Covetousness can ruin a man's life. He can go through his life and God has given him precious things, precious family members, precious possessions, precious blessings. And he can go through his life and he can instead of thinking about with thanksgiving all the things that God has given him, he can begin thinking about all the things he doesn't have that he wishes that he had. or all the things that he sees that his neighbor has that he inordinately desires for himself. And he can come to the point where he thinks, if only I had those things, then I would be satisfied. Only if I had a better house, only if I had a better car, only if I had better possessions, only if I had the right type of entertainment, only if I had the right kind of people in my life, only if I had the right kind of clothing, only if I had the right job, then everything would be well in my life and then I would be happy. And what is it the source of covetousness is really the sin of a lack of contentment, a lack of satisfaction in the provision of God for one's life. It is saying to God, God, you could have and should have done better for me than you have done. And therefore, I need to try to take things into my own hands. The Puritan Thomas Vincent noted that this commandment requires requires full contentment with our own condition, with a right and charitable frame or spirit toward our neighbor and all that is that is his. So it requires I be when it says thou shalt not covet it means be content with what you have and also be at peace and have a charitable frame of mind with what your neighbor possesses without inordinately wanting to take from him." Vincent also added that the remedy to covetousness is to attain godliness. As Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6.6, godliness with contentment is great gain. The godly man is a contented man. When you think about this commandment, you will note that it involves the interior life of a man, When you think about the other commandments, let's say in the second table of the law, the fifth commandment, honor your father and mother. Well, I can go into a grocery store and I can observe a surly, incorrigible, unruly child yelling at a parent and disobeying his parent. And I can say, ah, that's a violation of the fifth commandment. I might be able to witness or at least read a report about A murder, somebody takes a gun and shoots someone, and that's a violation of the Sixth Commandment. Or I can read about an abortion or something like that, and I know that's a violation of the Sixth Commandment. I can likewise observe a situation of adultery where a man leaves his wife for another woman, and there's adultery there. I can observe that. It's a tangible, observable type of thing. I might observe someone go into a store and steal something and run out with it, and there's a violation of the Eighth Commandment. I can listen to someone say something that is false, and I can recognize that as a violation of the Ninth Commandment. But when you get to the Tenth Commandment, thou shalt not covet someone might violate this and it's never observed. It's all happening in your interior life. It's all happening in what you're thinking about and what you're feeling inside. And so this is, it's kind of an interesting capstone to all the Ten Commandments because it's saying there are things in your life that are not just a matter of your outward actions, but there are things about the moral law of God that touch upon your inward disposition towards things, and the things that are only known between you and the Lord. As grievous as it is to sin against our fellow men, the weight of this 10th commandment I think speaks to a disturbance in our relationship with God. Think about David in Psalm 51. After David had committed adultery, committed murder, he said in Psalm 51, 4, against thee, thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. And he was getting to the point of the main problem of sin is not just the harm we do to others. It's the harm we do and the offense we give to a holy and righteous God. And that's especially true with this 10th commandment, thou shalt not covet, because it's something that happens in our interior life with regard to our interior disposition. And so it's something that disturbs our relationship with God. Having surveyed God's moral law and having exhorted us to keep the moral law with a heart of gratitude, Our teacher then looks back retrospectively at our ability to keep these laws in our present state as redeemed men with remaining corruptions. And so that's what he turns to in question 114, where he raises the question, but can those who are converted to God perfectly keep these commandments? That's a great question. Okay, we've got these 10 commandments. You ought to keep these to live a life of gratitude. But can you keep them? And this is the answer that is given. No. Let's start with that. No, you cannot perfectly keep the commandments of God. But even, it continues, the holiest men, while in this life, have only a small beginning of disobedience. Yet so, that with a sincere resolution they begin to live, not only according to some, but all the commandments of God." I think that the teachers of our catechism wisely put this teaching in there, in part, lest the spirit of men in our present condition with remaining corruptions, lest we would be crushed with the weight of the understanding of the fact that we do not keep these commandments as we ought. And sometimes the law and guilt can crush your spirit, and you despair, and you think, I'm a phony, I'm a charlatan, or I'll never be able to keep God's law, or I'll never be able to be like this godly saint of the past, or I'll never be able to attain a righteous life, and you can be just crushed and despair and give up, and you can become despondent. And I think, again, that our teachers are extending pastoral concern for us. They're telling us, listen, No, you cannot perfectly keep these laws. The Bible does not teach perfectionism in this life. We all sin and come short of the glory of God. There is no one righteous. No, not one. Read through Romans 7. Even after conversion, Paul says, the thing that I know I should do, I don't do. And the thing I know I should not do, that very thing I do. And he describes the tension, the civil war that happens in the Christian's life. He knows what is right, but the remaining corruptions within him do not allow him perfectly to conform himself to the law of God. The Apostle Paul said also in Romans 7, verse 14, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. Imagine a wall that is 5 feet high and we were given the command that we need to go and scale that 5 foot wall. Many men, younger men, able men would be able to go and scale that 5 foot wall. Now imagine we raised it another 5 feet and we've got a 10 foot tall wall. And of those men who were able to scale the 5-foot wall, perhaps a few, a handful might be able to scale the 10-foot wall. But now think of a wall that is 20 feet high or 30 feet high. Maybe one in a million might be able to scale that. But the demands of the law are not 5 feet high. 10 feet high, 20 feet high, or 30 feet high, they are a million, billion, trillion feet high. And there's no way that you, under your own effort and power, will be able to scale that wall. Our teachers tell us that in this life, even the holiest of men make only a small beginning at keeping the Law of God. Think about that. The Apostle Paul made only a small beginning at keeping the Law of God. Think of all the godly men of the past, whether that's a John Owen, a John Bunyan, a Charles Spurgeon, or whoever you admire as a spiritual man. they made only a small beginning at keeping the law of God. As the saying goes, the best of men are men at best. Yet, this is no excuse for us not to strive to keep God's law, because all those godly men of the past, though they could only make a small beginning, it was worthwhile to make that sincere resolution as the catechism puts it, to live not only according to some of the law of God, but to all the commandments of God. The same apostle who confessed in Romans 7 verse 14 that he was sold under sin later wrote in Romans 7 22, for I delight in the law of God after the inward man. We live with that tension in this age. We are converted, we're saved, but there is yet remaining corruption within us. And we will live with that tension until we die and enter into the glorified state awaiting the resurrection and or until Christ returns in glory. Our teachers continue in the last of our three questions for this Lord's Day 44 in question 115 by asking this. Why will God then have the Ten Commandments so strictly preached since no man in this life can keep them? Why are they still to be strictly preached and taught? Here's the answer that is given. First, that all our lifetime we may learn more and more to know our sinful nature and thus become the more earnest in seeking the remission of sin and righteousness in Christ Likewise, that we constantly endeavor and pray to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit that we may become more and more conformable to the image of God till we arrive at the perfection proposed to us in a life to come. In this answer, there are three simple reasons given as to why we are to persevere in the ongoing preaching and teaching of these commandments, while we are to continue going back to them again and again and again in our lives. In fact, I think it would be very wise for us, when sometimes people wonder, what do I do for the spiritual disciplines? What do I do for Bible study or for prayer? Well, I mean, one of the things that we could do is Reading and re-reading and reading again through the Ten Commandments, Exodus 20, 1-17. Reading, reading, re-reading and reading again the Lord's Prayer, Matthew 6, 9-13. As basic instruments of teaching godliness and gratitude. And so, our teachers here give us three simple reasons. First of all, By returning again and again and again to the Ten Commandments, we learn more about our sinful nature and we are exhorted more earnestly to seek Christ. We learn more of our sinful nature and we are exhorted more to seek Christ. Secondly, it teaches we learn to pray to God more earnestly for the help of the Holy Spirit. The person who is well familiar with the Ten Commandments knows he needs to pray to God for God's help by the Holy Spirit. And then thirdly, it teaches us that we should maintain the preaching and teaching and reading and memorizing and reciting of these commandments because through them we might be more conformed to the image of God in this life even as we move toward the final state of our glorification. We can recall the old line from John Newton, the former slave trader who was converted and became a minister of the gospel. He said, we are not yet what we ought to be, but by the grace of God, we are not what we used to be. May the Lord make us content in him May the Lord make us content in what he has provided for us. And may we not be crushed by the commandment of the law, because we know that our lives have been covered by one who did scale the wall, by one who perfectly kept the law. And may we strive then to keep them to the degree that by God's grace we are able as an act of gratitude in light of what God has done for us in Christ. Amen? Let me invite you to stand together. Let's join in prayer. Gracious and loving God, we give thee thanks for thy word and for these ten basic principles of life that you have given to us. We know that we will come short of them and yet we know that we are our whole lives through to strive to measure ourselves not according to the best of men or certainly not the weakest of men but to measure ourselves by the holiness of thy law and also by the holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ, true God and true man. And so help us to, in looking unto the law and looking unto Christ, to be brought more into conformity to thy will and to acknowledge more and more our complete and total dependence upon thee. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.