800. Being Satisfied With God: Examining the Tenth Commandment

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. The school was founded in 1927 by the evangelist, Dr. Bob Jones senior. His intent was to make a school where Christ would be the center of everything. So he established daily chapel services.

Today, that tradition continues with fervent biblical preaching from the university chapel platform.

Today on The Daily Platform, we're continuing a study series entitled Oh How I Love Thy Law, which is a study of the Ten Commandments. Today's message will be preached by Dr. Nathan Crocket, director of ministry training at Bob Jones University. He'll be examining the 10th commandment, which is, Thou shalt not covet. Dr. Crockett's message will show us how we can be totally satisfied with God's turn to Exodus.

Chapter 20, verse 17, Exodus 20, verse 17. As we talked today about being satisfied with God, examining the Tenth Commandment.

Several months ago, I received an email being invited to speak in the series that went out to several of us and they asked us if we would list the top three of the Ten Commandments that we would like to speak on if we were willing to speak. And I'd never really thought about that before. Which of the Ten Commandments, what I like to speak on and the more I thought about it. My number one choice was the final commandment, the 10th commandment. And that is not because I feel like I've succeeded at this commandment like, oh, I never covet. So I want to speak on that. In fact, it was maybe the opposite. I've never murdered anyone. I've never committed adultery, but I certainly covet quite a bit. And I actually felt like because of my own struggle with this commandment and even wanting to know precisely what it meant and what it was talking about, I feel like I haven't heard too many sermons in my life. I'm not coveting that. I wanted to examine this further, just personally. And maybe you would feel the same way. Most of the other commandments seem to focus on external actions. But when we look at do not covet, we're talking about our internal thoughts and our hearts desires. And so probably none of you this week have committed adultery, though maybe you've had wrong thoughts. You've probably not murdered someone or bowed down to a graven image, but probably many of us even this week have covered it. We're very likely to break this one. So Exodus Chapter 20, verse 17 is very straightforward.

Thou shalt not covet the neighbor's house, shall not covet their neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor has made servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is thy neighbors.

And as I studied for this, I looked at many, many different definitions of covetousness, the Hebrew word as the idea of a strong desire, almost a lust, many different definitions. Here's how I would like to define covetousness. I think this summarizes a covetousness is the unlawful desire for something that does not belong to you, the unlawful desire for something that does not belong to you? You should have. If you're married, a righteous desire towards your spouse.

You should not have a desire towards someone else's spouse. You should enjoy the home that God has given you, even the physical house. But you shouldn't want to steal someone else's house. You should enjoy kids. If someday God gives you kids, you should enjoy your kids, but you shouldn't covet somebody else's children.

Even in Webster's dictionary, they give a sample sentence. And I thought it was very telling. It was this. The King's brother coveted the throne. He wanted something that was not rightfully his. It was his brother's right to be the king. So the unlawful desire for something that does not belong to you. Now, as we get started here, I want to contrast ungodly covetousness with godly biblical ambition. I would not want to preach a sermon like this and for us to think, oh, I need to go somewhere and become a monk. In fact, in the Middle Ages, there were among that lived in caves. There was a group of monks called the Pillar Monks. They were also known as the style lights. And they would they would stand a top of a pillar and people would come and try to either they would go without food or people to try to get food up to them. And this was their way of saying, I have nothing to do with the world. I'm literally standing on top of a pillar. The magician David Blaine, I think in 2003, did this on a 100 foot pillar in New York City. And he stood there for over 30 hours. And he said part of his inspiration was these weird pillar monks. That would be hard to go to classes if you're out standing on a pillar. You don't you don't need to do that. We don't need to retreat from the world. In fact, biblically, you should pursue good grades. You should hope to have a good job and to excel at your job and to do well. Coveting is not ambition in Romans 15 20, Paul said. I strived literally. I made it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation. Paul made it. His ambition and Mark Twain's classic work, Tom Sawyer at the end of Chapter two after the whitewash scene. We read this. He that's Tom had a nice, good, idle time. All the while, plenty of company in the fence had three coats of whitewash on it. If he had run out of whitewash, you'd have bankrupt every boy in the village. Tom said to himself that it was not such a hollow world. After all, he had discovered a great law of human action without knowing it. Namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covered a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain. Oftentimes we covet something that we feel like is difficult to attain. Oftentimes, covetousness is a gateway sin. If you think about second Samuel 11 Davidson with Bathsheba, it starts with an inner desire, but it transforms into a very external sinful actions. Right? He breaks the tenth commandment when he desired Urai his wife. After he his solla bathing, he breaks the eighth commandment. When he steals Bathsheba away from her husband, he breaks the seventh commandment. When he commits adultery with her, he breaks the Ninth Commandment. When he lies about the affair, he breaks the Sixth Commandment when he gives orders to have Uriah killed in battle. And you could argue that he broke the first commandment by completely ignoring God during this whole episode.

So the text says, don't covet your neighbors. What?

First of all, your neighbor's house in biblical times and even in our times, it's very easy to look at someone in your neighborhood or someone you know or your roommate and covet their house.

It says don't covet your neighbor's spouse, specifically says wife, but you shouldn't. Women should not covet someone else's husband. Don't covet your neighbors.

And I'm going to say it this way, their possessions, because a man servant or a maid servant helped people accomplish things in our day. You might think about having a great car or really someone who does the lawn work for you or a super nice new refrigerator, brand new remodeled kitchen. Don't call it your neighbors possessions. And then it says their ox or their donkey. I would call this their profession because that was the means by which they provided food for themselves, as it were. It's how they made a living in our day. We'd say, don't covet your neighbor's job. Oh, I worked my head off doing such and such. And my neighbor, you know, he's into marketing and he goes out and golfs with people all the time and he makes double the salary.

I do don't covet your neighbor's house or spouse possession or profession. And then finally, anything else, don't covet anything the text says that belongs to your neighbor. That might be their looks, their body type.

Young ladies in particular, look at someone else and if only I could be as thin as her.

And she never even has to diet their athletic ability, their musical ability, their wardrobe, their kids. Why can't my kids be as cute as their kids?

You realize that Americans in particular are known for agreed that there is actually a multibillion dollar industry called the marketing and advertising industry. And in 2016 in the US, one hundred and ninety billion dollars were spent on advertising. That's that's more than any other country in the world by far. In fact, the second most the second biggest market for advertising, China doesn't even come to the halfway point of what is spent in America and probably most famously, the Super Bowl. On Super Bowl Sunday, people gather around their TV wearing their football jerseys and eating Doritos and not even realizing that while they watch so much money is being spent. Over the past 52 years, it's estimated that five point four billion dollars has been spent on Super Bowl commercials. The average price of the most recent Super Bowl was over five million dollars for 30 second ad. That's over one hundred and seventy thousand dollars a second. Companies are spending one hundred and seventy thousand dollars a second, hoping that they'll hook you into buying their product. They're planning on your greed. I think American credit card debt is one sign of our covetousness for every family that owns credit cards. The average debt is over sixteen thousand dollars. You often hear the figure over 5000 dollars per American credit card debt. But not every American owns a credit card. People that actually own credit cards on average over sixteen thousand dollars. We hear about the American dream that you can drive whatever car you want and live in, whatever your house you want and retire early.

And it often leads to covetousness. But we don't just covet people's money. We covet their looks.

We call it the color of eyes that they have their body type, their brain, their GPA, their athletic ability. Maybe for some of you, you covet the favor that one of your siblings seems to have with your parents. I have five children, the youngest of whom is only a few weeks old. And I notice that even many times, particularly my older three, it's almost like they're they're jockeying for position because they want my wife and I to notice them and they want to prove that they're smarter than their siblings with Genesis being home or baby with my wife. I've been bringing the other four kids into school, which is interesting with a bum ankle, but it works out. And we have this rule that if we can leave by seven 05, we only live about 10 minutes from campus. If we leave by seven 05, we go out to eat breakfast. If we leave after seven or five, we eat breakfast in the car. So that encourages them to help get ready quickly and so on in a few days ago.

Shepherd says, Daddy, Lillian is blackmailing Christian.

Like, OK, how's she doing that? Well, she's telling Christian if he doesn't give her his hot cross buns, she's going to go really slow on purpose. So we don't make it to the car by 75 and we have to eat in the car. We don't get to go to a restaurant.

So I talk to them about why we shouldn't black male. And I say, hey, you know what, the three of you, you're ready. Why don't you go out to the car? I'm going to finish getting obvious clothes on him, the 16 month old, and I'll bring him out to the car. So they got to the car, get his clothes on in my head, up to the car.

And Liliane announces Shepherd did something worse than black male. He killed one of God's creation, and that's the same as killing God as like, well, no, it's not the same as killing.

Shepard what did you kill? He said, well, they were just sitting around there looking at it and they won't get in the car. So I just squished it. And he's like, it was just an old centipede. Anyways, who really cares? It's no big deal, really. And so they wanted to catch that centipede and keep it for a pet. And Kristen, the three year old, says, Lillian, nobody keeps centipedes for pets. If you catch a toad or frog or lizard, you keep it for a pet, but not a son of a million says or some people catch dogs and cats and keep them for pets and shepherds corrects or is a no. No one catches dogs and cats and keeps them for pets. They buy them as a puppy or a kitten and they raise them up. He's like, if you went out in the wild and tried to catch a dog, you might catch a wild dog or a wolf. They'd be really dangerous if you just caught a random cat somewhere. It could be a bobcat. That would be dangerous. Lillian responds, Shepard, I'm smart. I would never go out and catch a bobcat. I would catch a cute, fluffy little cat and then make a really good pet. And the three year old Christian sides with the seven year old says, Nope. Lily and I know you. You'd be running around catching Bobcat's.

And then he's like, Dad? What is a bobcat?

So they're trying to one up each other, they cover it being thought well-loved by their siblings and their dad. Oh, they are the smartest one. One of the main things that we tend to covet is money and what money can buy us in first. Timothy six addresses that Paul writing to his protege. Timothy writes this, But godliness with contentment is great game, for we brought nothing into this world at certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and Raymont let us be there with content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lust which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil. The ideas, all kinds of evil, which while some coveted after they have aired from the faith and peers themselves through with many sorrows, but that oh man of God, flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.

The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Now, would it be wrong for a believer to drive a car like this one that will show you on the screen?

Would it be wrong to own a boat like this one or to live in a house that looked like this?

Or maybe some very wealthy people own their own island. What if you own your own island? Would that be wrong?

Now, if we had more time, we could spend more time discussing that.

But I think the bigger question for you today is the fact that probably you would say my bank account isn't one one thousandth of what it would take to own something like that. But for some of you, even when we showed those pictures on the screen, there was something in your heart that said I would do anything to have a car like that. I'd kill to live in a house like that. I would work no matter how much overtime it required to own my own island. And if that's your heart's desire, then you're guilty of breaking first. Timothy six. There there are very wealthy people that God has used in his kingdom who've been very generous, and they've held their possessions with a very loose hand and they've recognized that there's simply a steward. You could be a multimillionaire and not violate First Timothy six. Or you could be a pauper and violated. You could be a homeless person doing everything you can to get your next book.

So we tend to assume, well, this is a really good message for the rich, but that's not me. That's a major oversight because compared to the rest of the world, everyone sitting in this room is rich compared to world history. We're rich, but also the fact that covetousness is an equal opportunity vice and I think particularly in our day. Social media often contributes to it because we see airbrushed images and models. And we we tend to think that everyone else has better than we do even within the church or something known as the prosperity gospel that exalts covetousness as if it's godly. It's so easy to look at our neighbor. I mean, it's a summer's coming up. And maybe maybe, you know, you're you're married and you have kids and you're sitting there and you're looking at your neighbor. He has a beautiful in ground pool, maybe within an infinity edge. And here you are and you're dipping your toes in your kid's kiddy pool and you covet.

It's it's envy. You envy the person, your neighbor and you covet their thing. The pool.

Let me make three quick points of application and closing. First of all, how do you counteract this? By cultivating contentment. Secondly, we'll look at loving your neighbor. And thirdly, finding fulfillment in Jesus. The opposite of coveting is contentment. Hebrews 13 five. Let your conversation, your lifestyle be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have. How do you how do you cultivate contentment while you seek to enjoy God's good gifts? Listen to Ecclesiastes. He's three and 13. All these that every man shall eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor. It's the gift of God. I read about a rich businessman who found a fisherman during the day and the fisherman just sitting there looking at the ocean. And the businessman says, Why aren't you out fishing? He said, I call all the fish that I need today.

And the business man says there's still light in the day. You should go and catch more. And he says, Why? I've got all that I need. Well, if you would catch more than you could sell it and then you could buy a bigger boat and you could go deeper into the ocean and you could catch more fish, and pretty soon you could have a whole fleet of boats and you could own your own business like I do. And you could be a very wealthy man. And the fisherman said, well, why would I do that? Well, because someday, after all that hard work, you could retire.

What would I do then?

Well, I mean, I don't know. You could just relax. You could just sit out and look at the ocean.

And the fisherman said, what do you think I'm doing right now?

Can we learn to enjoy God's good gifts to us, enjoy God's gift? Secondly, be grateful for each part of your life. Covetousness is the evidence of an ungrateful heart. John D. Rockefeller famously was the single richest man in the world during his lifetime. And someone asked him. Mr. Rockefeller, how much money is enough? And his famous famous answer was just a little bit more. The quality of your life has very little to do with the quantity of your life. I don't take the time. But there are numerous, even recent studies on happiness and greed that show that more money does not always equal more happiness. In 1990, the 24 year old Danny Simpson robbed a bank in Ottawa, Canada. He got away with six thousand dollars get caught. He went to trial. He spent six years in prison.

The really amazing part is when they studied it out, Danny Simpson had robbed that bank using a 45 caliber semiautomatic pistol made by the Ross Rifle Company in Quebec, Canada, in 1918.

That gun, an antique at the time that he robbed the bank and stole six thousand dollars and went to jail. The gun he robbed it with was worth one hundred thousand dollars. 16 times more than the amount of money he stole. If he had learned to appreciate in value what he had, he probably no idea what the gun was worth. He would have been stuck in jail. I wish we had time to read Matthew six. Twenty five to thirty four. You're familiar with verse 33 that we should seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things should be added onto us. The secret to complete tenement and lasting satisfaction is not in getting more. It's in wanting less. One time heard John Matthew speaking to a group of people and he said, Our winters are too big. We want too much. You may not always have everything you want, but you can want everything that you have. So cultivate contentment. Secondly, love your neighbor. Maybe you noticed this with each part of this commandment. Something was in common. It's your neighbor's house and your neighbor's wife and your neighbor's servants and your neighbor's donkey and ox. If you love your neighbor, you're not going to covet what they have.

Think about your parents. Is your dad covetous when you get good grades? Does your tad covet your athletic ability? Of course not. He's thrilled to see his son or his daughter do well. Why? Because he loves you. We don't covet after people that we love.

And of course, Christ summarizes the two. I mean, all of the commandments with these two big ones. Love God and love your neighbor. A covetous person loves things. A content person loves people. And thirdly, find fulfillment in Jesus. If you find your heart constantly longing for something this world cannot provide, it's because you were created for a different world. Mean you.

You realize that we're supposed to be dead to ourselves and to our sins. I mean, think about Colossians three to set our affections on things above. Our life is head with Christ and God. Do you realize that people who are dead don't cover it?

I wish they got me a better coffin. Why am I not under the shady part of the cemetery? Now that people don't covet. We should be dead to ourselves and dead to our sins and alive to Christ. Listen to Luke 12 15. He said under them, take heed and beware of covetousness. For a man's life consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesses. You are so much more than the things you possess. Find worth. Find identity. Find satisfaction and fulfillment in Jesus. More stuff will not satisfy you. Howard Hills. Howard Hughes took the money that he inherited from his parents and he took millions and turned it into billions.

He became a Hollywood filmmaker and star. He wanted more fame. He wanted more thrills. And he built, designed and flew the fastest airplane in the world of his day. He wanted more pleasures. We had numerous illicit sexual activities. He had all kinds of drugs. He wanted more power. So he used his money to influence two different U.S. presidents. He had money and fame and thrill and pleasure and power. But if you know anything about Howard Hughes, he died insane by most people's standards. Emaciated, colorless, a sunken chest. His. His fingernails were in grotesque corkscrews. He had rotting teeth. He had tumors throughout his body. All of his skin was pockmarked with needle marks.

He died as a billionaire junkie, constantly wanting more. The things of this life will not satisfy. Two days ago this Saturday, I was at Golden Corral with my three oldest kids. I like taking them for lunch and that's one of their favorite restaurants. They've eaten some veggies and fruit and meat, which is part of my requirement for them to get to go to the dessert bar. So when they went to the dessert bar, I was a little bit surprised because normally they want the cotton candy or the chocolate fountain, the fondue fountain or the fudge. But this time, even the ice cream, they they just wanted straight up candy. And so each of them got as many gummy bears and jelly beans as I would allow them to have. And we went back to the table and they were building designs with the colors of the jelly beans and so on. The jelly bears and and jelly beans and gummy bears.

And we were sitting there and I couldn't think of a gummy bear. For some reason. And my daughter Lily and says, Daddy, what would it be like?

This is a five year old girl to have a whole house made out of jelly bears.

And I just kind of smiled. I don't want to talk to her about how would that support the weight of a bathtub or, you know, what would happen on a hot summer day and your house becomes a puddle around you with the with the gummy bear.

And then Kristen, who's got his jelly beans in a line, he's like, I would like a place where there be a whole long path. Of jelly beans, and Lillian said, I would love a long bath of jelly beans and Krisha's and no, I didn't say a bath. I said path and millions. So, no, I'm thinking about a bath of jelly beans.

You could eat the bubbles and they taste really good and they start talking about what a world would be like, made out of candy.

And Shepherd kind of pauses them at one point. And all of his seven year old wisdom, you know, as the oldest brother. And he says, guys, that's exactly what heaven will be like.

I wasn't sure what to say.

I didn't talk to them about that theologically.

There's no place in the Bible that mentions candy and heaven. But something hit me and I thought, whether you're a child or an adult, there's something in you that longs for something better. And can I remind us that the glory of heaven will not be gummy bears or jelly beans? It won't even be golden streets or mansions. It won't even be our loved ones as much as we long to see them. The lamb is all the glory of Emanuels land. And we will spend, if you're a believer. All of eternity enjoying Jesus. Heaven will be heaven. Because Jesus is there.

How do we counteract the insidious sin of covetousness which tempts each of us?

We cultivate contentment. We love our neighbor. And we find ultimate fulfillment. And Jesus, who alone is worthy. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We pray that you would impress it on our hearts, that you would help us to find contentment in Christ, that we would be satisfied with you alone and not drawn to love all that this world offers.

We pray this in Jesus name a man you've been listening to a sermon by Dr. Nathan Crockett, director of ministry training at Bob Jones University, which is part of the study series about the Ten Commandments.

I'm Steve Petitt, president of Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. During these challenging times, I'd like to invite you to take a virtual visit to. You tailored to your individual interests through live video. You'll tour campus with a student ambassador, chat with a faculty member in a field you're interested in, and get your questions answered from an admission counselor. For more information. Email welcome center at B.J., you dot. E.D., you are call eight six four two four one one six two four.

If you appreciate this program and benefit from the faithful preaching and teaching of God's word, would you consider sending us a special financial gift? You can easily do that through the Web site, The Daily Platform dot com.

Join us again next week as we conclude this series here on The Daily Platform.