Well, this evening we finish. The series started, I don't know how many months back, but a fair while back in the Ten Commandments. And so we've reached the Tenth Commandment that takes up verse 17 of Exodus 20, the words that the Lord said, inscribed there on those tablets of stone. The heading of the sermon is lawbreaking is in the heart. Lawbreaking is in the heart. And the law and all the application of it and the teaching on it, explores to us the character of God. It is telling us about him, what he likes, what he doesn't like, what fits with his character, what does not. And so the law is not some addition, as though we must read it as some supplement or other, but we are reading the very character of God. What is holiness? We read it here. What justice looks like? We read it here. And these are the things that we do well to pay attention to. Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus didn't, as it were, do away with the law. He came to fulfill the law. One of the things he did, beside himself being the fulfillment of the law, living it out perfectly, was that he explained more deeply the law. That's what the Sermon on the Mount does, doesn't it? It takes us deeper than certainly the Pharisees could go, and their righteousness, and exceeded the righteousness of the Pharisees by a country mile. that it asked more than simply some outward conformity and outward obedience, but it required a deeper work within the soul. What was happening in the heart, there where the law was being broken, in the heart, and the address that we needed to make to that. We are natural law breakers. That is the evidence of what we see in human history. And it's also part of what the function of the law is, to expose sin, to focus it, to make it very aware to ourselves what is sin. And so the Sermon on the Mount took that whole process further and illuminated the hearts and minds of men, what was in the imagination, what was happening within the heart, what things people excused in themselves were actually still part of the Ten Commandments, still worthy of death. That the righteousness of the Pharisees gave you leave to sin here, or you could hate your enemies, or well, you could divorce your wife for any and every reason. Well, no. The Lord contradicted that and said, no, that if you have casual divorce, that is actually to commit adultery. When you then remarry or when that person remarries, you're actually in a state there of rebellion against God. And it's in the heart. It's not something with an easy and quick fix. We're thinking a bit about that this morning. So there we are with inner rebellion. opposition, hostility, enmity, and by nature, powerless, helpless, helpless to stop it, helpless to do anything about it. And as we see really where covetousness comes in, that there is that extreme selfishness and self-centeredness that we are saying in effect, we are God, we are God, we lord it over our neighbor, so we can lie about we can steal from them, we can hate them, we can even murder them, we can dishonor them, we can in all ways treat them as we will because we're a law unto ourselves. Sin, it's rebellion, it's being lawless, but actually we are law unto ourselves. And we see there that our obedience as non-Christians, as non-Christians totally insufficient to be able to mirror the perfections of God. as Christians, more hopeful, that we render to him an imperfect, but if progressive sanctification is working, then an improving obedience to him. Well, the first commandment which begins is the key and is the one that is broken at every point. And the 10th commandment really shows us why. If God says, you shall have no other gods before me, 10th Commandment really is the attitude of our hearts, the hostility and enmity. It says, no, I will be God and I will have what I wish and I will reach for it and desire it. and I will assert that. And if that fits in with some modicum of religion, so be it, we'll have that. But if it doesn't, too bad, I'll become a full-blown atheist, which is in a way quite consistent in that measure, and I will be a law unto myself. So the Tenth Commandment exposes that reality within, the heart within. It is a strong word, covert, meaning desire, and it has about it the idea of reaching for, reaching for something. that something is actually to have us elevated. It is that we are saying we'll have no other God but ourselves. And we wish that others themselves would acknowledge us and place us there on that kind of pedestal. So in this we see the operation here of sin generating desire, unwholesome, wrong desire to elevate ourselves, to take from wherever we can get it what we need in order to acquire what we're looking for in that way. And because sin, well, the will is captive to sin. The will has nothing to offer by way of opposition. And so those desires have no restraints. And worse, pride actually justifies sin. There it is, part of sin itself. And it justifies those desires. And it justifies the absence of restraint. It justifies when, oh, we were just too weak to do anything about it. And that's where a lot of this victimhood idea comes from, is pride. We don't want to admit that we are wrong and we find justification for the things that we do. It includes within it that coveting, all the imagination, all the pleasure in advance taken from thinking about having that thing. Whether it be an adulterous relationship, whether it be some possession, whether it be anything we see somewhere else and feel that we lack and that we should have it and that we will have it and that that preoccupation those devisings, the pleasure that we have when that is obtained, it's the passing pleasure of sin. All of that is here in the 10th commandment. We can see that we're here in somewhat of the territory of James. I want to read chapter 1 verses 14 there to 15, we get the idea what's happening here. But each one is tempted, we read, when he's drawn away by his own desires. There's that coveting you see, his own desires and enticed. Then when desire has conceived and gives birth to sin, and sin when it is full grown brings forth death. So it's trajectory kills all the way and finally death, finally there is judgment. Or James chapter 4, Verses one to two, where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure, that war in your members you lust, do not have, you murder and covet, cannot obtain, you fight and war, yet you do not have because you do not ask. That is again an analysis there of the human heart, that coveting, at wanting things, at seeing one's neighbor's pleasure, coveting that, I'll have that thing, I can myself enjoy that thing, whether a good thing, a bad thing, one indifferent thing, but that desire is wrong. And so to do it, break all the commandments that we feel necessary, need to be broken to get it. And if our neighbor stands in the way, then we'll get our neighbor out of the way. We'll hate them, we'll dismiss them, disrespect them, worst of all, kill them. We'll steal from them, literally. We fancy their possessions and reaching for that, then we'll reach for it. And we won't restrain ourselves and we might even justify our wrongdoing. Say, well, they're rich and I'm poor. So I'm just kind of bringing a bit of balance back into things there. People do justify themselves like that. So all the commandments end up getting broken because of that covetous heart, that desire that is there, that we should have the preeminence. We should be as God, and there'll be no other God but ourselves. The true God will be allowed to fit in where it suits our purposes. But that, of course, is not what he is asking of us. He's asking more. And our first heading is this, searching our hearts, searching our hearts, searching out those desires, those lusts, what is stirring there within. And if we don't do it, well God will. And he will search our hearts. And he will trouble people. All Christians are often troubled people. You can see it in them. You can see it in their faces, their attitude. They're not happy people. And very often their conscience somewhere is tormenting them. Somewhere, bad decisions they made, relationships they've been unfaithful in, abortions perhaps that women folk have had, or that men because it often is the way men or other family members have pressurized women into having, or the ways in which the conscience there screams, but is not acknowledged, not given proper voice. Instead, pride will justify the wrongdoing, but pride can't overcome a bad conscience in that way. It always is there somewhere troubling. who get angry, they're troubled in conscience. People are depressed or anxious, not the explanation for every depression or every anxiety, but it is of some that their conscience is troubling them. God is searching their hearts through their conscience. And we're wise as Christians, if we get in on the process, rather than wait God's judgment, a wake up call of a, like a hammer blow, rather than that, we are wise to preempt that. and to engage with God in the process of sanctification, actually. And to see those things, acknowledge them, read the Ten Commandments, Sermon on the Mount, its commentary on us, and take very special note. And there, our neighbor, well, our neighbor is, as it were, part of the backdrop of the world we're in and interact with, part of the environment. Our neighbor there may unwittingly or not be suggesting lacks that we have or things that we should be looking to improve. And our neighbor may get in the way of that or provide, as it were, something for us to work upon, to give expression to our sinful desires. It tells us in 1 John 2, hear the things to beware of, verses 15 to 17. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. The world is passing away and the lust of it. But he who does the will of God abides forever. There is the world that we respond to, that which draws from us our desires, that which suggests to us ways to satisfy our pride. And our neighbor is often part of that environment. and literally in terms of an adulterous relationship, but is there suggesting things, provoking us, making us jealous, making us envious, showing to us, and advertisers do this, don't they? Showing us what we should aspire to. So now status and all that we're looking forward to receive gets wrapped up in all of this process. In Ephesians chapter four and verses 17 to 19, We had part of this actually this morning. This I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness to work all uncleanness with greediness. That's what happens when the restraints of God And where full expression is given to that, which is desiring within, and it leads to worse and to worse. We see it in our society, we see it in culture. It's gone from worse to worse. What were norms and boundaries 10, 20 years ago or something only five years ago, gone. Now it's acceptable to parade oneself here. reveal this there, and talk in such a way as to bring uncleanness into the minds of the young, and that is now commonplace and being legislated for. It goes downhill, there's a greediness in the heart, and if not restrained, it expresses itself in more and more lewdness. For there is the inner man, the heart, the mind, that source there of this, the unredeemed human nature underlying this. Inner desires, desire to look good, to feel good, to have honor, to have status, to have our neighbor covet what we have. The desires and pride interlock. We claim we deserve these things. We justify possessing these things and we justify the wrongdoing to get those things. The process, as we read here, is never ever satisfied, never comes to its conclusion. There's always more. Now the restraints historically, and as given by God in common grace, the family. Well, what family? Family there being destroyed left, right, and center, but at its best, it is a restraint. Schooling, good schooling is a restraint. Again, there we grieve over what we see in sex education a worsening and coarsening of things there. Government is a restraint. It should be. It should be there, a terror to evildoers. It's becoming more of a terror now to those who do the right thing. And so we can see there, the restraint is breaking down. Fear of God. Psalm 108, made in the image of God. Sense of who he is, which used to send children by their parents to Sunday schools and such things as that. Now that has broken down because there is no fear of God before their eyes. All the cultural signals that are kind of being mainstreamed into the minds of people are that the church is irrelevant, the Bible is past, the Ten Commandments, well, should be rewritten, and that we are free to do it. This is an ugly restraint upon our true freedom. Nothing, of course, can be further from the truth. That's what people believe. Well, Paul tells us how this law, well, it found him out in his own covetous heart. It was the 10th commandment that undid him, thinking himself their proud Pharisee to be on the right track, to be doing the will of God. But then that changed and acknowledged, and we read here just in Romans chapter seven, and from verse seven to verse 12, a little autobiography. Paul is telling us how the commandments here, the commandments are good, and as Christians we receive them, and they are for our sanctification, but he thought that he was already fulfilling the law, and then discovered that he wasn't. This is what he says, what should we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not. On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law, for I would not have known covetousness, unless the law had said, you shall not covet. But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced to me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law, sin was dead. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me and by it killed me. Therefore the law is holy. and the commandment holy and just and good. He's saying there's nothing wrong with the law. The law is good. The law, if we obeyed it and had the power to obey it, only good. Everything in it is just. Everything in it is holy. Every part of it is good. But sin is bad, and sin twists the law. And sin can make you think you're doing fine without the law. And that's what he was doing at one time as the Pharisee, kind of lived there as though he was doing it fine. there was something about the Tenth Commandment that worked on the Apostle, or sort of Tarsus as he was. And it is, isn't it, the perversity there of the human that it suggests, do not covet, and something in the human heart says, I shall covet. The very thing you're told not to do becomes the very thing that you think That's interesting. I'm quite drawn to that. And there the law has suggested the very thing which seemed to be giving the occasion for sin, but of course it's not so. The law is good. It says do not covet, so we shouldn't. Then sin took opportunity, outmaneuvered me, ambushed me. And that I had no power against. And so that's when suddenly my conscience woke up. I'd been alive before, apart from the law. I'd been living as if fulfilling it. But then when the law, I really began to think about it and see that actually I desired the things it said, do not desire. My conscience began to wake up and I began to realize that I was lost. And so it was that process there, Paul kicking against the pricks, kicking against what he'd seen in the Christians he was persecuting and knowing that he himself, somewhere at heart, wasn't the blameless Pharisee, wasn't fulfilling the righteous requirements of the law, but was actually hopelessly, hopelessly mired in covetousness. He wanted to be top dog. He wanted to be the main Pharisee. He wanted people to listen to him. He coveted status, the respect that came with that status, and that he kind of knew and was wrestling with when he was called on the road to Damascus. Well, we ask, how well do we know our hearts? How well are we able to discern what's moving there? Are we able to recognize what things potentially could ambush us and derail us? What desires, inordinate covetousness is there that might turn us away from God or make us to justify wrongdoing, wrong behavior? Here we see, searching our hearts, that's where the trouble is, desire. Again and again, it's Aaron James, Paul talks about desire here. Those desires, those longings, reaching for those things which weren't there. That's what Adam and Eve were promised, weren't they? Reach, reach for this, this wisdom. Your eyes will be opened. They saw, they coveted that fruit if it would give them that. and that all independent of God, a lawlessness, some unchecked lawlessness, but even in their state of innocency, could rise up and ambush them and lead them into that temptation and collapse. Second heading, the importance of a new nature. Well, if we're to do these commandments, any of these commandments, We need a new nature, we need a new heart. We need something different to be happening within that is not just this, the restless coveting, this urging forward, this justifying of desire. We need something else. And that, of course, is where the Spirit of God comes in very much. For what will we be if the law is there and it's holy, and the commandment holy and just and good, And yet still, we can't fulfill it. We can't obey it, that it would still fall upon deaf ears with us and unrenewed hearts and minds. But if we're Christians, then we have the Holy Spirit. And if we're Christians, true Christians, that's what Romans 8 actually is coming towards, those who really have got a reason to say we're not under condemnation, but real Christians, we have the Holy Spirit working with us, alongside us, to make the law to us now something different from what it was before, and something that we actually now begin to appreciate with new eyes. In Galatians 5 verses 16 to 18, Paul says, I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law, you are not condemned. You won't be condemned, because the Spirit is taking you away from sin, Though the process isn't, as we're saying this morning, instant and finished, but the power within is there and is irresistible and will have his way. The Spirit yearns within us, lusts against the flesh, that's strong. He's coveting actually holiness for us. We might be coveting something else, but the Holy Spirit is coveting, reaching for, desiring inordinately that we should be holy and Christ-like. So you can see in the Christian backslides, there's no joy there because this war is hotting up and the Holy Spirit is not kind of yielding us up without a fight. He wins in the end because we're true children of God. There we see a fresh power. to obey, power to actually do the law, power to become antinomian that we don't need the law, but actually a power to appreciate the law, to see it, to love it, and then in a way in which we come nearer and nearer and nearer to it, progressive sanctification, so we can form better and better to the law. If we're transformed into the image of God, into the image of Christ, then we will be transformed into the image of a law keeper, The Lord Jesus Christ is, was, always will be a law keeper. And his spirit is not one to break away from the law. It's not one that will lead us into sin, obviously not. And rather, if we're walking in the spirit, in that sense there, we are enjoined in that battle. If we're part of that whole way of what God shows us in the commandments, then we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. we're actually able to draw upon God in order to save us from falling into that and to preserve us and to make actually more attractive what we are seeking to become. So there was Romans chapter 8 and Just in verses one to four, therefore, there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. Oh, you see, walking in the flesh, but according to the spirit. And he goes on to explain what's happened here. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, that's Romans 7 again, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Something big has happened here when we were converted, and something has changed, and it is the indwelling power of the Spirit. And this means that now we can live with a better conscience, no condemnation. But notice what it says, to those who walk, not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. That there is a process of encouragement and help, an increasing sense of our belonging to Christ that comes with our sanctification. And even to the extent that now, verse four, the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. now what could never be done and was beyond us now increasingly we're getting nearer to it and because of our place in Christ because of that work that new desire and if we're walking in the spirit we're obeying the commandments we're looking beyond ourselves we're seeking to subdue the flesh and God gives us all the help of heaven gives us all the support that we need and actually now declares that we're getting nearer to the righteous requirement of the law. Our hearts are getting more attuned to it, so we actually desire it. And what we're doing and what we're thinking gets nearer and nearer to it, because that battle against sin is taking place, and there are victories because we have the Holy Spirit, and he's there yearning for, coveting for us holiness, giving us all the aid and all the resources of heaven toward it. And we find ourselves, therefore, actually in that state pleasing God. God is pleased with that. Not that we've rendered perfection, we haven't, but we're rendering to Him an increasing conformity to the image of His Son. As we saw this morning, He loves that. And He accounts that in obedience to Him that is a sweet savor. He accounts it in obedience that He receives and acknowledges and declares that He is well pleased with it. We need that new nature and we need the Holy Spirit. Chapter eight, again, just reading a bit beyond where we read to from verse 12. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. That's true belonging. And the Spirit will confirm our true belonging, that we are growing in sanctification as we are experiencing the fruits of justification. This is the work of grace within our hearts. Without the Spirit, no help for us, whatever it might be to be called regenerate. But if we had still the law of God there before us, well, we'd still be hopeless and helpless. But with the Spirit working within us, then a whole new day opens to us. New possibilities are there, new desires, new capacities, new spiritual energy and we can begin to really deal with sin and really begin now to find the will of God and to do it. We detest sin, we deplore it, we oppose it, we stand against it and we do it in a more and more principled way and with greater desire and zeal because we see it as something hateful, We want God, rather, to be glorified. We want our neighbour to be well-treated, not lied against and hated, but tolerated and respected. But above all, we want God glorified. And we bridle at false teaching and false worship. We bridle at hypocritical leaders, status-seeking within the church. We bridle against false holy spirits, false experiences, empty Christs that cannot save and rob to their glory. And the father robbed of his dignity, ill-spoken of and insulted. And we desire rather the glory of God. We long for that. And that is what the new nature brings, the spirit working within us, helping us to put to death all the wrong things, which still war, war against our members, lusting for those things. And that covetous desire, the 10th commandment material, well, with the help of the Holy Spirit is subdued. And what now emerges from the heart is not a covetous desire for ourselves, but if you like, now, an inordinate desire that God be glorified, that there be no other God but God, and that he should rule in us, rule over us. Why? He should rule the whole world and be loved and honored and adored by all. So my final heading, let your light shine, let your light shine. And that's what we are told to do. It's in the Sermon on the Mount, isn't it there? Let holiness be evidence that those things that God is doing within be expressed without. Let it be heard on our lips. Let it be seen in our lives. Let it be known from the choices that we make. When we choose against the flesh, we choose against our own self-interest. We choose rather for a neighbor's interest. We choose that God should be glorified and not us. Not me, not my life, not my leisure, not my laziness, my self-centeredness. But here, to be those who follow the law, don't break the law, but are upholders of the law, then actually that's to be God-centered. That's to be consumed with his glory and taken up with living in a way to please him. We'll be thankful people, thankful that here we are. We once were there in our sin and we are debtors, yes, not to live according to our sins. We don't have an obligation to that. We are glad to be pardoned from that. We now have an obligation not to be that. An obligation instead is prayerful and thankful people to live now according to the spirit, to live now according to these desires, And these laws and these principles, God promises all the help that we need now to fulfil the righteous requirements of the law. Not perfectly, not as if we ever will this side of the grave, but approximating it more and more and having a heart that longs for those things more and more, which begins to make us resemble a little bit more the true law keeper, our Lord Jesus Christ. So may he help us to be people who uphold his commandments, do it with the right heart, and do it in such a way that the world will see a difference and find that difference attractive, and that they would long to come to the light and find out what it is we know, know, who it is we know, and why it is that he has made all the difference. May he help us to do that. Amen.