Romans chapter 7, which you can find on page 943. I'm going to read the first nine verses and then skip a little bit further on. So Romans chapter 7, reading from verse 1 to verse 9. We have here the Apostle Paul talking about how it is that we are saved and how that works and what challenges we labor with. So Romans 7, reading from verse 1 to 9, and then I'll give further directions. Listen to the word of God. For do you not know, brothers, for I am speaking to those who know the law, that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives. Thus, a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law. And if she marries another man, she is not an adulteress. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code, but in the new life of the spirit. What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means. Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, you shall not covet. But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. Skipping on to the end of the chapter, verse 24. Wretched man that I am. who will deliver me from this body of death. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life is that you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. Please turn over two pages to chapter 13 at verse 8. Chapter 13, at verse 8. Oh, no one anything, except to love each other. For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and any other commandments are summed up in this word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I've been going through the Ten Commandments and tonight we come to number 10. I didn't read it, but I trust you know what it is. Maybe you don't. I'll tell you. The Tenth Commandment is, you shall not covet your neighbor's house, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's. Now what makes this commandment difficult? All kinds of things, but for starters, there's the fact that we are not enough for ourselves. We want more than what we are and have. And this is by design. Some of you want food. Some of you didn't want food until I mentioned it. Some of you will want food soon enough regardless. After you have food, you'll be all right till a couple hours after you get up tomorrow morning, which point you will want food. And if you don't get it, you'll start to really want food. Yes, you want clothing. Now, today's pretty hot. You might think you could do without. But you can only laze in your bedroom so long, you have to come out and be in front of other people, and you want clothing. You're not enough by yourself. More is needed. And we could go on, down the line, with shelter and many other things. And yet the thing is, even when we have all that, something inside says that it's not enough. As it says in Ecclesiastes, the eye is not satisfied with seeing. The ear is not satisfied with hearing. Is there anything new under the sun for me to see and to hear? And that this has to do with the way God made us comes through in chapter 3 of Ecclesiastes. Also, Lord, you have put eternity into the heart of man, yet in such a way that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. We're not self-sufficient. As one poet said, no man is an island, off by himself, self-contained, needing nothing. No, we're not enough for ourselves. And so we want more. And that is not itself the problem, because it's how God created us. He created us body and soul, and both need something from outside themselves. He made us and said it's not good for us to be alone. He made us for Himself. So it says in Acts, as Paul and Silas are going out and they are preaching to heathens, They say, you know, God has done all this so that you should seek God in the hope that you might feel your way toward him and that you might find him. Or another time he says, you know, we bring you good news that you ought to turn from being things like idols to the living God. He's not left himself without a witness when he gave you rains and harvests to bring you joy and gladness and heart. Yes, God has made us to need things outside ourselves. He's made us so that there is at least a passing joy when we acquire them. And that was to give Himself witness to His love and His glory. But we want wrongly. We want the wrong things. We want good things, but we want them too much or in the wrong way. The powerful biblical word, craving. That describes us. Very often, we have a craving for this or for that. I went looking through the Hebrew Old Testament for this word, Covet, Naham. And I discovered it can mean other things besides covet. Well, I mean, it's the same idea, but it can be translated covet, or desire, desirable, or pleasant, or precious. And so, in Genesis 2, God made the trees desirable, covetable for food. Well, yeah, fruit is a wonderful thing, especially when you're hungry. But of course, in the next chapter, Eve sees the forbidden tree, that it is covetable to make one wise. And she sees and she takes. And you get the same dynamic, actually, when they enter the Promised Land. They enter the Promised Land, and Joshua is leading them, and they are obeying And they march around Jericho every day, even though that's not known to be a way to besiege a city. And the walls come down, and they win the battle. And Achan saw among the spoil a precious garment and silver and a bar of gold, and he coveted. And he took. That's from his own description when he is found out. Notice the parallel with Eve. And even judges with the Holy Spirit, like Samson, were told in one breath, and the Holy Spirit began to be on Samson, and were told in the very next breath that he saw a beautiful woman and said, get her for me. I don't care that she's a Philistine. She is good in my eyes. He saw and he coveted. You know, if another person covets yours, or you, that's a danger. I promise the Israelites, when all your males come up before me three times a year, I will work it out so that no one covets your land." Notice the danger there. If all the men are over here, isn't this part of the country undefended? God says, I will defend it. No one will covet your lands while you're up at the feasts. But what if your fellow Israelite is the one who covets? It says in Micah 2, The denouncing of wicked men who are within Israel. They lie on their beds and they invent wickedness. They covet fields and they take them. Some of us here have had lives turned upside down because of being coveted. And you know, you can learn a lot about a culture by looking at nice houses. In our country, traditionally, a lot of nice houses actually don't have big walls around Some of them do, but some of them don't. You go to the Middle East and things have a big wall around it. Why? So that people can't see inside. Why? Because if they can see, they will covet. And if they covet, they may take. And as our country turns away from God, you'll notice the number of gated communities increases. What is that? I mean, why do you need a gate? because you have a wall. It's a danger when others covet you or yours. And yet the Bible spends more time warning us the big danger is the coveting that comes from inside of us, from your own wanting. So the Israelites are warned, don't covet those idols. Now why would they covet an idol? Because it's great artwork, that's why. Because it gives you something that you can see. People want that. He says, you shall not covet the idols. You shall not covet the gold on the idols. You shall not covet someone else's wife. And so it says in the New Testament, all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eye, pride and possession, all these are not from the Father, but from the world. And the world is passing away. Or it says elsewhere, why are you miserable? But is it because you have quarrels because you covet and don't have so you murder? You covet and can't obtain so you quarrel. This is James chapter 4. So how do you want right? All you need to need to want the right thing. It says in Proverbs, the wise are to be desired. That is, you should want to go with the wise. and learn wisdom from them. But it's God's Word that we're told is to be desired, coveted, more than gold. And that is why God disciplines us for sin, so that He may separate us from those other things that we covet, as we sang in Psalm 39. That's painful, but it's for our best. We need to want the right things, wisdom, truth, Peace, the Lord, His Word. We need to want them in the right way. Jesus is our example there. After 40 days of eating, Jesus was hungry. What is hungry but wanting food? Jesus wanted food. So the devil said, well, make food. Jesus wanted something more than food. Even after 40 days. He wanted to be obedient to his father. And so he waited for God to provide for him. So the way forward is to want rightly, to want the right things in the right way at the right time, to want with patience. But I want to mention in passing another answer, an answer that comes from a very significant figure in history. An answer that comes from Buddha. Buddha claimed to explain suffering. There's a lot he claimed he did not explain, like God or the gods. But he claimed to explain suffering and how to get out of suffering. And he said, here's the way to stop suffering. Stop wanting. If you don't want, you don't suffer. You can see that there is a point there. You could try to take him in the same vein as James, but of course, he's overshooting the mark. We were made to need things. And the way to acquire, the way to get us on to getting what we need is to want. We're not enough for ourselves. And I've not made a study of this, but I wonder if this misconception then plays into the very different ideas of the future paradise. that we long for. You know the name for the Buddhist paradise? The name is Nirvana. Alright, what is the idea of Nirvana? The idea is to lose your individual existence and drop into nothingness. How could that be joyful? Well, I don't know if it's joyful, but you're no longer wanting. So you're no longer suffering when you drop into nothing. I think that's the logic there. Heaven is better. In heaven you retain your individual existence because God created you and he created good things. It is good for us to have an individual existence even though that involves wanting. You will not get rid of your wanting. But you know, Buddha misses a greater danger. Our runaway wants reveal our sinfulness, and that reveals our great danger. Our covetousness shows us that we're sinners in the hands of an angry God, in need of forgiveness. You see, with the Tenth Commandment, God is very obviously taking His law inside our heads. Now, Jesus says, you shall not kill also implies what you're thinking. But that takes Jesus pointing it out to you. You shall not covet is very obviously about your thinking. A coveting thought is a thought. You can't covet without thinking. It's something you do first internally. You see how God's law is much more extensive than any civil law. No civil government, though some try, can really get inside your head. They can't stop you from thinking, nor should they. But God made the inside as well as the outside. And God can see the inside as well as the outside. And God knows that sinfulness starts on the inside. And so he quite rightly says, yes, my law extends to your thoughts. You shall not covet. For us, that has to destroy all sense of ourselves as good law-keeping people. Once you grasp that commandment, And you say, yeah, I coveted, ba-bum, ba-bum, ba-bum. Yes. That right there should impress upon us as it did upon the Apostle Paul. Paul said, wow, I thought I was doing good, as long as I could ignore the last commandment. I thought I was a law keeper until that commandment met my sinful nature, and I realized that I was just coveting all the time. Why was he coveting all the time? Because he was a sinner. It wasn't some sort of accident. It comes out of his sinful nature, and it comes out of mine and yours. So this runaway wants, this craving, shows us that we've got a problem, a problem that's not going to be solved by stop wanting, impossible, and doesn't solve the problem, the problem of an offended God. Which is why I want two things for you tonight. And I think I want it rightly. I think I rightly want two things for you tonight. One is, I want you to want rightly. I want you to have freedom from those wants that are wrong. As you go forward in life, you're going to be wanting. You have to. I want you to want the right things in the right way. But secondly, I don't just want your wanting to be different. I want to be sure that you have looked up to God and found forgiveness from Him. That's the coveting commandment above all the others should show us that we are sinners and we need God to forgive us. And I want you to find that forgiveness. I want you to find that peace with God that comes when you repent of your sins and believe in Jesus Christ. But there's a paradox I discovered as I went poking around using my Hebrew on this word, Hamad. You know, the forbidden tree, it was Hamad. It was covetable. But our Savior, it says He has no beauty. that we should Hamad Him. How are we going to be saved if God made the forbidden tree covetable, but our Savior not? Well, we could be saved because the Savior has coveted us. On the night He was betrayed, Jesus said, I have greatly desired Now he's using the Greek equivalents. Desiring, I have desired, coveted to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. Why was Jesus so desirous coveting that moment with them? Was it because the food was going to be so good? Well, no, that's not really the point of Passover. You're supposed to eat bitter herbs. Was it that the company was so good? Well, no. He had one traitor and 11 cowards. Was it because his message was going to be so cheerful? He was going to tell Peter that he was going to deny him three times. Was it because he was going to get a great massage? No, he was the one washing feet. Why was he longing for that moment with them? He was longing for it so he could explain the meaning of the suffering to them. He was longing for it so he could drive home to them the reason for it all, for them and for us. It was so he could say as close to the moment as possible, this is my body which is for you. This cup is the new covenant in my blood that is poured out for many for the forgiveness of your sins." He wanted to drive that home before he suffered so that they and you would know that with God there is forgiveness for our coveting because of the work of Jesus Christ. You can be saved because the Savior desired you. Because if He desired that night, if He desired to eat that supper, it wasn't about the food for Him. If He desired to make salvation plain, it was because He desired you. Because the salvation is for you. He took up and laid down His body, not so much for His own advantage, but for ours. And so John says, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. We can be saved, forgiven for our coveting, because the Lord has coveted us with a right and a godly jealousy, a godly appropriate coveting. And Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit to change us and our wants, because our wants need to be changed. Jesus once told a parable about dirt. And the point was that people are like one kind of dirt or another. You say, I'm so insulted. Jesus says, I made you out of that dirt. And you will temporarily return to that dirt. So what are you insulted by? And of the four kinds of dirt, it's the third kind that should unsettle us. In the third kind of dirt, and this represents people. Third kind of dirt is those that receive the seed. And the plant begins to grow. But so do the weeds and the thistles and the thorns. And they choke it out. And the plant is unfruitful. Your garden's growing good this summer? Ours is. Plants are growing good? Weeds are growing good. And what was that parable about? But about people who hear the Word of God, And they respond with some faith, some response. But the anxieties of life and the deceitfulness of riches grows up and chokes out faith so that we become unfruitful. Our wants need to change. And so Galatians says, walk by the Spirit and you won't desire, you won't be satisfying the desires of the flesh. The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. And you can feel paralyzed. But if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. So what are the desires of the Spirit? What are the right things to want? It's not possible not to want. It's how we're created. What are the desires of the Spirit in you? First of all, you should want the Spirit. I want to walk by the Spirit. I want to know that peace. I want to exhibit that patience. I want to exercise that self-control. I want to exhibit that gentleness. Do you want to exhibit gentleness? I think it took me a few years of yelling at my kids, and then I did. Want. Gentleness. These are the things that we ought to want. And we ought to want others to have. Hebrews 6-11, we desire each of you to show the same earnestness, to have the same assurance of hope. It's good to want a role in Christ's kingdom. Anyone aspires to the office of overseer, It's a noble work that he desires, covets, to do. But we must want to have a good conscience in that role, to be able to say with Paul, I coveted no one's silver or gold. And when you're hungry, you should want to eat. It says of Lazarus that he was longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. But Jesus is our model. Even when starving, he wanted peace with God more than bread. And he taught us to pray, give us today my bread for today. His desire to desire was really desirable. Want to want rightly. Towards the end of the book of Revelation, there's a long, drawn out account of the world's great trading city getting destroyed. And then you have long laments from the kings and long laments from the merchants. And you wonder, we're almost up to the end of the Bible, why do we have so much here in Revelation chapter 18? It's to remind us that the world and its lusts are passing away. And we don't want to be caught up in those things and caught up in Revelation 18. We want to make it to Revelation 19, when we're told that the marriage supper of the Lamb is at hand. Because the best and deepest desire is to know and have peace with your Maker, to be right in His eyes. And this is something that we should want, and that we can have, because Jesus Christ first wanted you. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we confess how often we are a bundle of craving. Father, help us to tease apart the good and the evil. Help us to disentangle what is true to our nature and what is a perversion, what is wanting gone bad. But Lord, even before this, we ask that You would forgive us for our sins and turn us to our Lord Jesus Christ, who is full of grace and love and power, who has called us into existence and called us to Himself. Help us to come to You, Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, so that we may be Yours, so that we may be forgiven. So we may know, but come what may, we will be with you forever. And help us, Lord, together with this, to want you and to want the highest things rightly. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.