this morning being the first Sunday of the month and the time that we normally observe the Lord's Supper, we are continuing our study of the Ten Commandments. And having already covered nine of them, we have finally arrived at the last of the commandments, the Tenth Commandment. Although this may be the last commandment, it is certainly not the least of the commandments. In fact, in many ways, folks, the tenth commandment is the most significant of all the commandments. And the reason for its significance is because all the other commandments, and I mean all of them, address outward action as well as inward. attitudes, such as physical and mental adultery, physical and mental murder. But the last commandment, this tenth one, deals exclusively with an inward sin, a sin that takes place only within our hearts and minds, and that sin is the sin of coveting, longing for things that belong to other people. Here's how the Tenth Commandment reads in Exodus 20, verse 17. 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. Now, because the Tenth Commandment focuses only on our thought life, thoughts of desiring those things that belong to others, This is a unique commandment. This is a distinctive commandment because it deals with an unobservable sin. You see, coveting is an unseen sin. It's hidden from the sight of others. Kent Hughes explains it this way. He said the 10th commandment goes right to the heart where no other human being can see. You can be living out a high level of covetousness and no one will know it. You may have a conventional congenial face and wear a conventional haircut. You may not have a single tell-tale extravagance in your life. You may be an elder in your church and yet be seething with angry covetousness. No one would come even close to dreaming that you are covetous. It is an easily camouflaged interior sin. And folks, because coveting is, as Kent Hughes says, an easily camouflaged interior sin, invisible to no one, we tend to overlook it. We tend to minimize this sin. In fact, Charles Spurgeon once said that he heard a remarkable statement from a Roman Catholic priest about the people who came to the priest to confess their sins to him. The priest said that though he had heard thousands of confessions involving sins of every kind, he had never heard anyone confess the sin of covetousness. But while we may minimize coveting, the Bible certainly does not. Scripture speaks abundantly about the sins of covetousness, the sins of lust, the sins of greed, Not only does the 10th commandment directly forbid coveting of other people's possessions, but Jesus, our Lord, spoke more about the subject of a person's relationship to possessions than He did to baptism, His second coming, judgment, communion, and the Word of God all combined. And the reason the Bible has so much to say on the subject of greed and lust for things is that not only is it because God is concerned that we have the right attitudes as well as the right actions, but also because coveting, note this, coveting is where all sin starts. In our thought life, Jesus said in Mark chapter 7, starting in verse 21, he said, For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of covening, and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. In other words, Our sinful hearts are the seedbed in which evil thoughts germinate. You could actually make a strong case in arguing that every one of the Ten Commandments is actually related to coveting. Because every violation of every commandment begins with desiring something that is forbidden by God. For example, we violate the first and second commandments concerning worshiping God. Why? Because we desire idols in our lives. We often break the Sabbath day principle because of greed for material things. We dishonor our parents when in our covetousness we refuse to spend our resources to meet their needs. And it's often coveting that leads to murder, stealing, and bearing false witness. And it is certainly, without doubt, coveting that leads to adultery. Therefore, the all-inclusive nature of this commandment, this tenth commandment, makes this the most convicting of all of the commandments. In fact, the tenth commandment is just a devastating commandment because no one can escape No one can escape from the reality that they covet and long for things that do not belong to them. See, this commandment goes to the very heart, the very root cause of all of our sinful actions. It forbids the very foundation of every other sin, which is our evil thoughts. This commandment doesn't give you any room to wiggle, any room to breathe, because it outlaws the very first appearance of sinful desires, and it gives a death blow to our self-righteousness. It doesn't even wait for our evil thoughts to turn into sinful actions. It just goes straight for the jugular, and it slays us. Someone explained the guilty feelings that come with an understanding of the Tenth Commandment this way. He said, if you found yourself convicted by the study of the other commandments, this one will really get to you. when you come to a true understanding of what this commandment means and how easily it is transgressed, you will be startled and appalled at how regularly you are guilty of breaking the law of God. Certainly this was the Apostle Paul's experience. I read to you from Romans chapter 7, but prior to what Paul wrote there, here's what Paul said in Romans chapter 7, verse 7. He said, what shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be. On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the law. For I would not have known about coveting if the law had not said, you shall not covet. Now, when Paul states, that he would not have known about sin except through the law. He doesn't mean that the only way that he knew he was a sinner was through his knowledge of the Mosaic law. While it's true that God's law does reveal that we are sinful, So does our conscience, that inner moral monitor that God has put within all of us. People who have never read God's law, they know that they're sinners because their conscience accuses them, according to Romans chapter 2. So though Paul was raised in a religious Jewish home with much exposure to the law of Moses, he certainly would have known he was a sinner just through his own conscience. But what the law did for Paul And in particular, this law, the tenth one, the law of coveting, was to reveal, note this, the true nature, the true character of sin. You see, the law against coveting revealed to Paul that sin wasn't a matter of external behavior. It had to do with his thought life as well, his imaginations, his inward desires. And this revelation shocked Paul out of his spiritual, religious comfort zone. Because up to this point, he thought he was fine with God. He thought he was good with God, since as an observant Jew, he outwardly conformed to all the other nine commandments. But when Paul realized that God looked beneath his external religious surface and saw a heart filled with covetous thoughts, Paul realized the depth and the depravity of his sin. And according to Romans, Chapter 7, verses 9 through 11, he said, it killed him. Here's what he wrote. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment, and he means by this in context the 10th commandment about covenant, when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died. And this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me. For sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it, killed me." In other words, what the Apostle is saying is that the Tenth Commandment destroyed his self-confidence as a respectable, religious, law-abiding Jew. And folks, it's my hope And it's my prayer that as a result of our study this morning, an understanding of this commandment, the 10th commandment, will have the same effect upon everyone here, especially those who don't know Christ as their Savior, that it will destroy any self-righteousness you have, any religious self-confidence you might have, and in your desperation, you'll see that you need Christ, and it will point you to Jesus Christ to be your Savior. Now, in order to get to the heart of the Tenth Commandment so that we understand its meaning, we'll take the same approach that has proven to be helpful with the other commandments by asking a series of questions. Our goal is to arrive at a rich understanding of not only the meaning of this law, but also the multifaceted applications and implications of this law for us. And because the Tenth Commandment is just so important and so profound and it's so unique, With so many ramifications for our lives, it's going to take more than one Sunday to cover it. So, Lord willing, we will continue to look at this commandment next month when we observe the Lord's Supper again. But for today, the opening question that is going to help us to begin to understand the Tenth Commandment is the most essential of all questions. What's the basic meaning of the Tenth Commandment? What does it mean? What does God mean by this? Again, here's how the commandment reads. Again, read it to you, Exodus 20 verse 17, 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. Now, like most of the Ten Commandments, this last one is also presented in a negative way. You shall not. And what this commandment prohibits us from doing is coveting. So what exactly does it mean to covet? I've already mentioned the word covet or coveting a few times, but some may not be familiar with the term. So what does it mean? Well, the Hebrew word that we translate covet, it simply means to desire. It means to long for something. It means to set your desire on something. Listen closely, because in and of itself, the Hebrew word is morally neutral, which means that depending upon the context, this word can be used for either good desires or for evil desires. There are many good things that we as believers in Christ should desire, should long for. In fact, we should covet. For example, it's not wrong to desire to get married. You don't want to make an idol of this, but it's proper, it's fitting to have a healthy desire for marriage. God puts that desire in the heart of most of us to be married. Proverbs 18.22 saying, he who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. In addition, one of the qualities of church elders, men who shepherd a local church congregation, is that they must have a God-given desire to exercise spiritual leadership. 1 Timothy 3, 1 saying, if any man desires the office of an overseer, he desires a good thing. And all believers in Christ should long for God's Word, as we read in 1 Peter 2, 2, where Peter says, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the Word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. We should also long to know Christ better, to be more intimate with Him, to make Him known to others. All of these are positive and they're legitimate forms of coveting because we are longing for what God wants us to have. But what the Tenth Commandment forbids us from doing is longing after our neighbor's things. with the term neighbor being used here in a generic sense of anyone we know, and not simply those who live in our own neighborhood. You see, it isn't wrong to desire things in general, in the sense that you have an interest in obtaining something. That's not wrong. And that's not what the Tenth Commandment condemns. What it condemns as evil is an attitude of not being satisfied with what God has given you, and therefore desiring to have what someone else has. In other words, the heart of this commandment is a prohibition against the sinful attitudes of discontentment, greed, and lust. Listen closely. The coveting that the 10th commandment forbids is a lusting after those things that belong to others. And in Exodus 20, verse 17, we are given here a sampling of covetous offenses, some of the main areas that we are specifically forbidden to desire and crave. First of all, we are forbidden to covet someone's house. I shall not covet your neighbor's house, which would seem to represent not simply the structure he lives in, but all that an individual owns. In other words, their possessions. If you've ever longed for someone else's home and their standard of living, then you are guilty of coveting. If you have ever been dissatisfied with your own living accommodations, and you wish that you could live in a home like your more affluent friends, then you have broken this 10th commandment. See, to live in America today means that you are constantly bombarded with all kinds of temptations to covet. That's our culture. Ours is a culture that breeds discontent by telling us that happiness comes by possessing what you don't presently have. But if you only had what these smiling people on the television ads had, then you could be happy like they are. And that's why it's so difficult to watch television ads without being tempted to covet. Because the message of all of these ads is that what you possess, it just isn't good enough. You need the new and improved product. And if you aren't really sure that you need that product, well, just look at the smiling people in the ads. These are people who have their act together. And if you want to be happy like them, then you need to have what they have regardless of the fact that you already have far more than you need. Jesus addressed this very covetous spirit that is so prevalent today in our American culture. There's a spirit that just isn't satisfied with what it has. Here's what we read in Luke chapter 12, starting in verse 13. Someone in the crowd said to him, teacher, Tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me. But he said to him, Man, who appointed me a judge or arbitrator over you? Then he said to them, Beware and be on your guard against every form of greed, for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions. Now what we read here is that this man who asked Jesus for help, he coveted his brother's inheritance, which would seem to indicate that his brother was the firstborn son in the family, and therefore under Jewish law, he was entitled to a double portion of the inheritance. So the other brother felt a bit left out. But Jesus, we read, he refused to get involved in this man's family dispute for two reasons. Number one, because he says he hadn't come to arbitrate petty domestic quarrels. That was a matter really for the civil authorities to resolve. Now eventually in the millennial kingdom, Jesus will act as judge over all human affairs, but that wasn't his role during his first coming. But secondly, because he knew that this man's interest in wanting some of his brother's inheritance, he knew it was motivated by covetousness. This is why Jesus said in verse 15 at the beginning, then he said to them, beware and be on guard against every form of greed. He knew what this man's heart was all about. The Lord warns not just this man, He warns all of us to guard our hearts against every form of greed. And then He tells us how sinister the sin of coveting really is. The rest of verse 15 says, for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions. See, coveting isn't restricted to those who have absolutely nothing and they just want something. Coveting, Jesus said, threatens those who have an abundance of possessions, but still are not satisfied. How often have families been destroyed because, like this man in this story, they covet an inheritance. They don't like what the will says. Not because they necessarily even need the money, but because they aren't satisfied with what they have, and so they fight over getting more than someone else gets. In their greed, they want more and more, even though they have enough. Why? Because they define their life and they think that happiness is achieved by acquiring possessions, even when they don't need those possessions. In fact, some of the most covetous people you will ever meet are extremely wealthy folks. but they are never satisfied with their wealth. Their goal is to accumulate more and more things which become idols in their lives. And in the process of accumulating these idols, God is simply left out of their lives. This is why, as Jesus continued speaking about covetousness in Luke chapter 12, he illustrated what coveting does to a man. The very next passage of Scripture, here's what we read, starting in verse 16. He told them a parable, saying the land of a rich man was very productive. And he began reasoning to himself, saying, what shall I do since I have no place to store my crops? Then he said, this is what I'll do. I'll tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come. Take your ease, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him, you fool, this very night your soul is required of you, and now who will own what you have prepared? So is the man, Jesus said, who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God. Now, this man's greed made him a self-absorbed individual with no thought for anybody but himself. Interestingly, to my knowledge, this is the only place in Scripture where the concept of retirement is mentioned. At least it's alluded to, described by the words, take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry. And it's presented in a negative light. Now, this doesn't mean that God is opposed to the concept of retirement. It simply indicates that if your retirement means a life of self-indulgence and laziness, as this man's was, then God is opposed to it. But the most serious consequence of this rich man's greediness was that he lived only for himself with no thought for God or for eternity. It never occurred to him that he should be investing his life, investing his riches in the kingdom of God. He just accumulated more and more and more things for himself as if his life would just go on forever. But it didn't last forever. At the time, he never anticipated God required his soul, which means that God took his life so that he died and his possessions amounted to nothing for him. This is the same truth that the Apostle Paul told Timothy in the New Testament. He told him that greed and lusting after things will destroy your soul. 1 Timothy 6, starting at verse 7, For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. Isn't that true? If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich, and notice he didn't say those who are rich. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare, and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money," he didn't say money, he said, the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil. And some, by longing for it, there's that covetousness, by longing for it, have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. This is the horrible downward spiral that happens to those who covet possessions. And this is exactly what happened to the rich fool of Christ's parable. He lived only for today, took no thought about God, no thought about eternity, no thought about anybody else. And ironically, those who live like this, controlled by this attitude of covetousness and loving money, as I said, they will never be satisfied. Ecclesiastes 5.10 telling us this, He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income. This too is vanity. You see, when you covet the material possessions of others, you'll never be satisfied because you'll never have enough to satisfy you. And that's because the problem isn't anything other than your covetous heart. That's the problem. You can be the wealthiest person in the world, you'll still covet, because it's your heart. It's a sinful heart that can only be changed, only be transformed by Jesus Christ. There's a second area of coveting that the Tenth Commandment identifies. It isn't just our neighbor's possessions that we are forbidden to covet. It's also our neighbor's wife that we are not permitted to covet. The commandment telling us you shall not covet your neighbor's wife. When a man is dissatisfied with his wife, when he no longer finds her desirable, but instead desires someone else's wife, he is guilty of breaking the tenth commandment. And it is this longing in his heart for someone other than his spouse which produces adultery, and ultimately, the breaking up of a marriage. Inevitably, the sin of coveting is the root force behind the destruction of just so many marriages. As the saying goes, the grass always seems greener on the other side. So that people think, if only I was married to that person, I could be happy. If only I was married to that godly man, I would be treated so much better than my husband treats me. I wish my wife looked like his wife. See, all of these types of thoughts, they all fall under the category of coveting, and they are all wicked. Not only because the grass is never greener on the other side, but more importantly, because these covetous thoughts for someone else's spouse, they stem from a heart that isn't satisfied with what God has provided for you, from the false assumption that happiness comes from possessing what someone else has. But let me expand on this principle of longing for other people because coveting other people in principle, it isn't limited to a spouse. If you have ever had thoughts like, I wish I had been born into another family, then my life would be so much better. I wish I had a different dad. I wish I had a different mom. Then I wouldn't have the particular struggles that I have. I wouldn't have these sin struggles that I have with my parents. If you wish that you had different parents, that someone else's parents were your parents, then you are guilty of coveting people. And it's just so wrong, because God knows what He's doing, and He puts you in precisely the right family He chose for you. Why? He did it in order to shape you, to mold you into the unique person that He wants you to be. And you need then to be satisfied with His will for your life. Third area of coveting that is mentioned in the 10th commandment has to do with longing after the leisure time that others have. This is indicated by the statement, you shall not covet his male servants or his female servant. You see, in biblical times, a person's servants allowed him to live at ease. since he had other people to do the work for him, so he could just relax. So to covet, his servants referred to being envious of someone's leisure time, his time off from his labors. If you have ever been jealous of the opportunity that some people have to vacation more than you are able to, to travel more than you do, to be involved in certain recreational activities that you wish you could do, but you have to work or you can't afford to do those things, then you are guilty of coveting. Fourth area of coveting that the 10th commandment prohibits is the area of wealth and status. Notice again, Exodus 20, 17. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. That's their possessions. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. That's people. Or his male servant or his female servant. That's leisure. But the last phrase, or his ox or his donkey. You probably think I have never coveted anyone's ox or donkey in my life. Well, let's look at the principle here. In ancient cultures, the number of animals that someone owned indicated their wealth and their status. And we're talking about not pets now, but animals that worked for you. Beasts of burden. In an agricultural society, the more beasts that you own, the more prosperous you were. So, in principle, what the Tenth Commandment prohibits us from doing is longing to be wealthy like other people, as well as desiring the status, the prominence, the prestige that comes with prosperity. You know, this really hits hard at two sins closely related to coveting. These are the close cousins of coveting, the dual sins of envy and jealousy. To covet the wealth and the status of others is to be jealous and envious over the way that God has blessed someone else. You see, jealousy is really a byproduct of coveting, and it isn't limited to coveting the wealth that someone possesses. What we so often covet is the prominence and the status that often accompanies someone's wealth. And even if wealth isn't involved, we still crave to have a reputation that is admired by other people. Jesus condemned the scribes and the Pharisees of his day because they coveted positions of religious prominence that would bring them recognition, bring them admiration from others. Speaking of the scribes and Pharisees of his time, here's what the Lord said about them in Matthew chapter 23, starting at verse five. But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men, for they broaden their phylacteries, lengthen the tassels of their garments. They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by men. Listen, this isn't a problem only for unsaved people. I understand the Pharisees and the Scribes were lost religious people. This isn't a problem only for unsaved people. It's not a problem just for people who don't know Christ. It's a problem that plenty of Christians, plenty of believers in Christ have and they struggle with. Remember how the Lord's apostles, his own apostles, argued with one another over who was the greatest in the kingdom of God and who would have the most prominent places of honor in Christ's kingdom. I want to sit on your right hand. I want to sit on your left hand. Let me tell you something that is hardly ever mentioned in Christian circles, but it needs to be, and that is that jealousy amongst God's people, it's a very serious problem. Christians who are jealous of one another is a serious and a very real problem in local churches, and it is the source of many conflicts that take place in local churches. This is what James tells us in James chapter 4 verses 1 through 3. Listen to all the times he talks about envy or greed or lust. He said, what's the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have, so you commit murder. You're envious and you cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You don't have because you don't ask. He means you don't ask God. You ask. Now he's saying you ask, but notice he says, and you don't receive because you ask with the wrong motive, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. Local churches, Christians, members in local churches often quarrel with one another, and the root cause is jealousy. Envy. Covetousness. And it isn't just church members who engage in jealousy and envy due to their covetous hearts. So often pastors are extremely envious of one another. They can be envious of how God is using another pastor more than he's using him. They can be jealous of the way God has gifted another pastor. They can be jealous of the popularity of another pastor, or the fact that his church has more members than theirs. All kinds of jealousy goes on in the hearts of pastors. In fact, the Apostle Paul, he was the target of envy and jealousies. He tells us in Philippians chapter 1, listen to what Paul wrote to the Philippians, chapter 1 verses 12 through 18. Now, he's in prison in Rome while he's writing this. He said, now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel. so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else, and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear. Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy, and strife, but some also from goodwill. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice." What a great man. The situation that Paul is explaining here is that some believers in the church at Rome, remember he's imprisoned in Rome, but some believers there in that church, they were jealous of Paul. Jealous of his apostolic power, his spiritual giftedness, and especially his success in leading so many people to Christ. They wanted the status that came with being greatly used of God like Paul was. And so they saw Paul's imprisonment as an opportunity to preach Christ while he was confined to jail. And they did this, some out of good motives, but some out of rotten motives, because they wanted to outdo him in the eyes of others. They wanted to be known as the supreme, the best soul winner. Now, did this bother Paul? Did he see himself in competition with them? No. He just rejoiced because Christ was being preached, even if some did it from the wrong motives. You see, Paul did not covet the rank of the number one church planter, the top soul winner, the pastor of the largest church in the Roman Empire. That wasn't Paul's heart. So what should you do? How do we apply this? What do you do if you struggle with spiritual jealousy or any other kind of covetousness that we mentioned this morning or in any area? Here's what you need to do. You need to trust God. that His will for you, in terms of what He has given you and the place He has put you, you need to trust Him that His will is not only good, it's perfect. It's designed specifically for you. He knows what He's doing. We're given a wonderful lesson on being content. with God's will from the life of that great man of God, John the Baptist, who Jesus said was the greatest man who had ever lived up to that point. Here's what we read. I love this passage. John chapter three, starting at verse 22. Take this to heart. After these things, Jesus and his disciples came into the land of Judea, and there he was spending time with them, and he was baptizing. John also was baptizing in Anon near Salem because there was much water there and people were coming and were being baptized. For John had not yet been thrown into prison. Therefore, there arose a discussion on the part of John's disciples with the Jew about purification, ceremonial purification he means. And they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, they're referring to Jesus, behold, he's baptizing and all are coming to him. John answered and said, folks, take this to heart. A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven. You yourselves are my witnesses, that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent ahead of him. He who has the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. So this joy of mine has been made full. He must increase, but I must decrease." Now what we read here is that John's disciples, those who followed John the Baptist, they wanted to draw this man into a competition with Jesus because more people were now flocking to Jesus than they were to John. John's popularity was diminishing while our Lord's popularity was increasing. But how did John respond to this? He's not jealous. He doesn't covet Christ's popularity. Instead, he realizes that God sovereignly controls the success of every individual's life and ministry. This is what he means by verse 27, a man can receive nothing unless it's been given him from heaven. In other words, whatever success Jesus has in His ministry is directly attributed to God sovereignly giving Him this success, and whatever I have in my ministry, John says, success or otherwise, has been given to me by God. And notice how John refuses to just exalt himself, as if he deserved great acclaim, success, Prestige. He just rejoices in Christ's success as a best man would rejoice at the wedding of a bridegroom. Folks, this is the great liberating truth in dealing with our covetous problem. Do you recognize that the blessings that others have, they only have because God has bestowed those blessings upon them? That's all. That's why. That's how to look, and the only way to look at what other people have, God in His sovereign plan has given it to them. And everything you have is a result of God's blessings in your life. So instead of coveting what others have, whether it's their possessions, their spouse, their leisure, their wealth, status in life, or any other thing, just rejoice in the way that God has blessed them, and be thankful for what He has blessed you with. Start thanking Him for what you do have rather than pouting over what you don't have. The bottom line is that coveting is a serious sin problem that we all have and we all struggle with if we're to be honest. If the other nine commandments did not convince you that you were a sinner, a lawbreaker, this one should. So how can you escape the condemnation? that comes with being guilty of covetousness and therefore guilty of breaking God's holy law, which you have. The only way is by salvation. Salvation in Jesus Christ, that's the only way of escape. Christ perfectly obeyed every commandment he never coveted. Yet on the cross, God punished Jesus as if he were covetous. While you and I are covetous, covetous indeed. And yet when we come to Christ to save us, he mercifully forgives us and treats us as if we were righteous and had always obeyed every commandment. Folks, this is the grace of God in salvation. So I ask you, have you experienced this, this forgiveness, this tenderness, this love from God to forgive all of your sins It happens once you repent of your sin and you place your trust in Christ alone for your salvation. That His death on the cross is the sole basis, the sole reason that you would ever go to heaven. It's Christ and Christ alone. If you've not experienced this, then as we do almost every Sunday morning, I invite you, after we close the service, to come and see me. I'm up here at the front. I'll have some of our other pastors with me, and they would be happy to speak to you about this. I'll introduce you to one of the men, and they'll be happy to talk to you about your soul and your need for Christ. Let's stand for prayer. Father, thank you for what you've taught us today. Convicting, it is painful. to hear about these things, but we thank you that you love us enough to tell us the truth, Lord, so that we can honor you. Forgive us for all of our coveting. Help us to remember what we learned today, to be satisfied with what you have given us, to recognize that whatever we have is your will, and we trust you. Lord, that's really the key. Help us to trust you, even if we don't understand, to trust you, to not lean on our own understanding, but in all our ways to trust you. We pray for anyone here who may not know you as Savior, and they've never experienced forgiveness for their sins. We pray you'll draw them to yourself, and may this be the day of their salvation. We pray all of this in Christ's name, amen.