The Heart of the Commandments
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Have you ever wanted something so bad it made you sick?
Have you ever wanted something so bad it made you sick?
Tell the story of Amnon and Tamar from .
David had a daughter named Tamar who was very beautiful.
Her step-brother Amnon started to desire her and want to be with her.
It says he “was so tormented that he made himself ill” because of her.
He and his cousin Jonadab came up with a crafty plan
Amnon would act like he was sick.
He would lay in bed and ask David to send Tamar in to take care of him.
Tamar came to him and made cakes, but Amnon refused to eat them.
He forced everyone out of the room and asked Tamar to feed him the cakes.
When she came to him he demanded that she lie with him.
She begs for him not to do this, “how could I carry my shame?”
But Amnon did not relent
14 But he would not listen to her, and being stronger than she, he violated her and lay with her.
2 sam 13:
The next verse is appalling
15 Then Amnon hated her with very great hatred, so that the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her. And Amnon said to her, “Get up! Go!”
Have you ever wanted something so bad that it made you sick?
Have you ever wanted something so bad that it made you lie, cheat, steal, hurt or take advantage of others...
The story of Amnon is a graphic but real illustration of the 10th commandment.
It is a word picture of COVETOUSNESS.
COVETOUSNESS is the HEART of the Law.
COVETOUSNESS is the HEART of the Law.
“Covetousness is desiring something so much that you lose your contentment in God.” John Piper
“Coveting relentlessly craves more of this world; and a person’s thoughts, affections, and heart occupied with the world will cease seeking heaven. It forsakes love for God and disposes one to hate their neighbor. Coveting pulls the heart down into the pit of self-seeking and the muck and mire of envy, slander, adultery, pride, dishonor, murder, thievery, and idolatry. It has rightly been said that when we break any of the first nine commandments, we also break the tenth commandment.” Kevin DeYoung
It is not accident that the this commandment comes last.
It represents the heart of the rest of the commandments.
7 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. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.
It is not accident that the this commandment comes last.
It represents the heart of the rest of the commandments.
Paul uses it as the example of how the law convicts not just our actions, but the heart behind our actions.
Jesus said “Out of the heart the mouth speaks”
Our actions are always motivated by our the motives of our heart.
And our heart is driven by our desires.
The 10th commandment speaks to the heart of EACH of the other commandments.
1st Commandment
1st Commandment
Define Covetousness
Define Covetousness
That which we desire becomes the god we worship.
“Coveting relentlessly craves more of this world; and a person’s thoughts, affections, and heart occupied with the world will cease seeking heaven. It forsakes love for God and disposes one to hate their neighbor. Coveting pulls the heart down into the pit of self-seeking and the muck and mire of envy, slander, adultery, pride, dishonor, murder, thievery, and idolatry. It has rightly been said that when we break any of the first nine commandments, we also break the tenth commandment.” Kevin DeYoung
5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
2nd Commandment
2nd Commandment
The motivation of our worship is to attain what we desire.
“If I do this for God then He will give me __________.”
3rd Commandment
3rd Commandment
We will redefine who God is based on whatever it is we desire.
“God wants me to be happy so He must support my decisions and desires.”
We will also put words in the mouth of God in order to get what we desire.
We use God’s name in vain by taking advantage of the authority of His name.
4th Commandment
4th Commandment
We strive, stress, and strain for what we desire, never able to rest until we get it.
We are anxious, overly busy, frustrated because we never seem to be getting anywhere we want to go.
Always chasing the next thing, but always realizing that wasn’t it.
5th Commandment
5th Commandment
We use and abuse relationships in order to get what we desire.
We don’t honor people unless we are able to get something from them.
We do not serve unless it is a benefit to ourselves...
Our desires drive us to dishonor.
6th Commandment
6th Commandment
We seeth with anger, harbour bitterness, argue, fight, and even kill to get what we desire.
Maybe you have never killed anyone, but the anger and bitterness we feel toward someone is often rooted in our desire for something we do not have and they do.
7th Commandment
7th Commandment
We are driven to unfaithfulness, adultery, and destruction of our families pursuing what we desire.
We often ask the question “What would drive someone to destroy their family like that?”
The overwhelming desire for what they do not have...
For many here today, the roots of discontentment and covetousness are starting to grow.
Don’t ever say “That will never be me...”
8th Commandment
8th Commandment
We steal and hoard our stuff in order to get what we desire.
Greed is motivated by desire for something we do not have but want very badly.
9th Commandment
9th Commandment
We lie, we hide, and we spread lies about others to get what we desire.
The 10 commandments are an avenue to freedom and the 1st and 10th commandments together are the on-ramp.
10th Commandment
10th Commandment
Reveals that God is ENOUGH.
Reveals that God is ENOUGH.
I cannot preach this into you.
I cannot make you desire God more than anything else.
But God can and He will, and in some He is doing just that today.
Listen to the words of David in :
1 As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
Ps 42
We often see this Psalm printed on a nice, peaceful image of a deer standing in a meadow next to a quiet stream.
But that is not how David is writing this, he is painting the picture of a deer in pain, panting and weakened by thirst.
He is talking about his soul’s deep and painful longing to experience God, to know God...
“The psalmist says we need to become aware of our deep thirst for the living God. God is to the soul what water is to the body, and our thirst bears witness to our need."
“When we tire of the aridity of our culture, when we despair over our own dryness, when we grow discouraged over the seeming distance of God, all we can do is cry out to God. That's a good place to begin, for God is the one who puts that thirst in us.”
No relationship, job, position, amount of money, car or truck, child, family, experience, or any hope or longing outside of God will ever satisfy you.
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?”
Oh how I pray that each of us here today would feel the reality of our souls thirsting for the living God!
Confronts our CORRUPT DESIRES.
Confronts our CORRUPT DESIRES.
But most of us have a deep longing and commanding desire for something or someone or somethings… that are ultimately corrupt.
They are infected, tainted, meaningless and void.
We are like Amnon, overwhelmed by a desire that will never fulfill us.
Our hearts lie to us...
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
jer 17
18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.
Our hearts are ruled by desires for things that will never satisfy.
The 10th commandment is confronting the corruption of our desirous hearts.
Instructs us to THIRST FOR GOD.
Instructs us to THIRST FOR GOD.
The Hebrew word used in is not a negative word.
It is a positive word meaning “to desire and to take pleasure in”
That is why the second part of the commandment is there “your neighbors...”
The object of our coveting (our desiring and finding pleasure) is what is wrong.
The 10th commandment is instructing us “Don’t covet your neighbors stuff, covet God, desire God, find pleasure in God, who is altogether worthy.”
David in captures the heart we should all desire to have:
1 O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water. 2 I have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory. 3 Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise you! 4 I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer.
1 O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water. 2 I have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory. 3 Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise you! 4 I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer. 5 You satisfy me more than the richest feast. I will praise you with songs of joy.
Again, the Psalmist is painting the picture of a body withering away under an intense thirst for water.
It is a positive word meaning “to desire and to take pleasure in”
Don’t miss the comparison at the end of the verse “you satisfy me MORE than the richest feast”
The 10th Commandment instructs us to find our true satisfaction, the deep longing of our hearts, in Jesus only.
That is why the second part of the commandment is there “your neighbors...”
The object of our coveting (our desiring and finding pleasure) is what is wrong.
Promises us ETERNAL SATISFACTION.
Promises us ETERNAL SATISFACTION.
Hebrews 13:
5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”
The opposite of covetousness is contentment.
We live in a world full of instagram posts, facebook stories, 2 days shipping, and on-demand video.
We live in a world that tells us “Don’t settle because you might miss out one something.”
We live in a world where many us are exhausted, anxious, depressed, frustrated, and never satisfied.
And the reason why is not because God hasn’t given us all we desire, but because we are not content with all that He is.
Until we come to a place of true surrender, true self-sacrifice and true faith in Jesus our hearts and our minds and our souls cannot rest.
God’s invitation in the 10 commandments is to embrace freedom, the freedom found not in believing all the right things or doing all the right things.
But the freedom that has be accomplished in Jesus.
3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Examine Yourselves
Examine Yourselves
Do you measure up?
of course not, that is why you need Jesus, so come to Him...