Monday, July 20, 2009
How Much Do You Need? The Danger of Coveting, Part 29 of 60
TEXT: "You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s: (Exodus 20:17).
"You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, and you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s" (Deuteronomy 5:21).
IDEA: The law can make us feel good about ourselves and bad about ourselves.
PURPOSE: To help listeners see that if we take the law lightly, we approve of ourselves; if we take it seriously, we condemn ourselves.
How do you feel about keeping the law?
How about traffic laws like speed limits?
What’s the purpose of such laws in the first place?
Speed limits are designed to keep drivers down to a safe speed for a particular highway.
Gun laws are designed to cut down on illegal weapons in the hands of criminals.
Medical malpractice laws are designed to curb carelessness in health care.
Do you think that speed laws are good? Why?
Do you observe the traffic laws?
Do you always observe the traffic laws?
I. The law of God can make us feel good about ourselves.
We usually look at the laws we have kept.
When we look at the laws we have broken, we often can give good reasons (or reasons that sound good) for what we’ve done. We can always say that we’ve kept them better than most other people.
II. The law of God can make us feel bad about ourselves.
God does not allow exceptions.
Jesus goes to the heart of the commandment, from action back to motive.
The tenth commandment deals with motive, but it is a template for how the other commandments should be taken.
Do you covet?
Have you ever coveted?
Conclusion: The honest answer to that exposes your need for God’s forgiveness.
Calvin put it this way: “In truth, the whole law of God is like a mirror which reflects our filth, its purpose being to confound us and make us ashamed of our shamefulness. But we have come to this [tenth] commandment in order to have the right mirror . . . For if we only read ‘you shall not be a thief, you shall not be a murderer, you shall not be an adulterer,’ then we would each think that we are innocent. But when we come to this commandment, ‘You shall not covet,’ then that provides God with a sharper lancet for not only sounding the bottom of our heart, but all our thoughts and imaginations. Everything within us becomes exposed and brought to consciousness; even what we have not considered sin, God must judge and condemn, unless we have done the same beforehand.” [Calvin, Sermons, 232-233]
