I invite you to turn in the Scriptures tonight to the book of 1 Kings, 1 Kings chapter 21. 1 Kings chapter 21. It's found on page 385 in your pew Bible. Let's consider together the first tonight. Actually, we'll read through verse 24. Now Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel beside the palace of Ahab, king of Samaria. And after this, Ahab said to Naboth, Give me your vineyard that I may have it for a vegetable garden because it's near my house, and I will give you a better vineyard for it. Or if it seems good to you, I will give you its value in money. But Naboth said to Ahab, The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my father's. And Ahab went into his house vexed in Solon because of what Naboth the Jezreelite had said to him. For he had said, I will not give you the inheritance of my father's. And he lay down on his bed and turned away his face and would eat no food. But Jezebel's wife came to him and said, why is your spirit so vexed that you eat no food? And he said to her, because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, give me your vineyard for money, or else if it will please you, I will give you another vineyard for it. And he answered, I will not give you my vineyard. And Jezebel's wife said to him, do you now govern Israel? Arise and eat bread and let your heart be cheerful. I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite. So she wrote letters in Ahab's name and sealed them with his seal. And she sent the letters to the elders and to the leaders who lived with Naboth in his city. And she wrote in the letters, Proclaim a fast and set Naboth at the head of the people and set two worthless men opposite him and let them bring a charge against him, saying, You've cursed God and the king. Then take him out and stone him to death. And the men of his city, the elders, and the leaders who lived in his city did as Jezebel had sent word to them. As it is written in the letters that she had sent to them, they proclaimed a fast and set Naboth at the head of the people. And the two worthless men came in and sat opposite him. And the worthless men brought a charge against Naboth in the presence of the people, saying Naboth cursed God and the king. So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death with stones. Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, Naboth has been stoned, he is dead. As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, Jezebel said to Ahab, Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth, the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money. For Naboth is not alive, but dead. And as soon as Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, Ahab rose to go down to the vineyard of Naboth, the Jezreelite, to take possession of it. Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah, the Tishbite, saying, Arise, go down to meet Ahab, king of Israel, who is in Samaria. Behold, he's in the vineyard of Naboth where he has gone to take possession. And you shall say to him thus, says the Lord, have you killed and also taken possession? And you shall say to him thus, says the Lord, in the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick your own blood. Ahab said to Elijah, have you found me, O my enemy? He answered, I have found you because you have sold yourself to do what's evil in the sight of the Lord. Behold, I will bring disaster upon you. I will utterly burn you up and will cut you off, cut from Ahab every male bond and free in Israel and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat and like the house of Basha the son of Ahijah for the anger to which you have provoked me and because you have made Israel a sin and of Jezebel the Lord said the dog shall eat Jezebel within the walls of Jezreel anyone belonging to Ahab who dies in the city the dog shall eat and any one of his his who dies in the open country the birds of the heavens shall eat may the lord bless the hearing of his word and tonight uh we are considering the 10th commandment and uh the 10th commandment is thou shall not covet house your neighbor's house or wife male servant or female servant ox or donkey or anything that is your neighbor's what is god's will for us the heidelberg says uh in lord's day 44 that not even the slightest thought or desire contrary to any one of god's commandments should ever arise in my heart rather with all my heart i should always hate sin take pleasure in whatever is right but can those converted to god obey these commandments perfectly and the answer is no even the holiest holiest have only a small beginning of this obedience nevertheless with all seriousness of purpose they do begin to live according to all not only some of God's commandments. We'll stop there. Well, I started tonight by asking myself what is different about the 10th commandment than all the others. And I'm intrigued by the fact that the commandment, thou shall not covet, comes at the end of the law, the end of what we call the 10 commandments, the 10 words. And why did God inspire it that way? And why did God order them the way that he did? You'll know there's sort of two tables as have been traditionally received. The first dealing with our relationship to God and the second, our neighbor. Well, when we look at the treatment of this commandment, we're given some insight into the fact that when often the New Testament writers dealt with a sort of summary command, and I'm not talking about the great summary of the law, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbors yourself. But often when they look for a sort of summary within the commandments themselves, they were often using the tenth. Think of Paul when he was talking about the law and the purpose of the law and what life was like before he had come to understand his sin, when he said and chose in Romans 7 what it was like to be under the law, and he chose this command because of the power of desire that holds sway over people. he said in Romans 10, what shall we say then? Is the law sin? Well, of course not. Certainly not. On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known, now he had 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 to pick from, I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, thou shall not covet. I often thought, was that just a random selection? i don't think so i'm hoping to show you why tonight there was something about the 10th commandment that did capture something in the order and something about what it what james meant when you broken one of them you you've of course broken and transgressed all of them because this particular commandment has to do with desire desire as i approach the 10th commandment tonight it should be hopefully coming together you shall not steal you shall not bear false witness murder adultery you should not do any of those things they're all outward actions aren't they they're all things you can see they're all things you do but this commandment makes sure that as we leave the study of the ten commandments that no one is ever coming out and saying well i did pretty good in the first nine they're not leaving without having to climb a big mountain on this one to make sure that everyone is put on a level playing field if you will everyone is sold under sin after they look at the tent if you didn't get it now and you haven't understand the problem here well the 10th really drives it home the nail goes into the coffin in this one Think of the rich young ruler who when he had come to the Lord and said, I want salvation, what do I need to do? Not salvation, excuse me, eternal life. What do I need to do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus says, well, you know the commandments. And he works through some of the commandments and he says, well, I've kept them. Really? Go sell all that you have and give to the poor. Then come follow me. What commandment was he going after? Tenth. The man had covetousness that had reigned in his life, and that commandment broke him. That commandment sent him home sad. And so with that in mind, then we come to the commandment that really does, at the end of the law, go right and has the starting point right at the heart, doesn't it? Right at the heart. It's been rightly said that the final commandment is kind of like the rudder on the ship. Whatever way the rudder is directed, the ship is going to go. And likewise, you can be sure that any time anyone has committed adultery, murder, theft, false witness, it all started with covetousness. The man who lests after another woman that is not his wife commits adultery, which has resulted, of course, in the fact that ultimately, in his heart, he was coveting and wanting something that was not his. The one who steals something first had a desire in the heart. He had coveted it, and then he went, and the final action of that, he took it. The man who hates and murders somebody is first filled with what? Envy, which is a form of covetousness. I like the example that one pastor gave when he said that we should think of the heart like a boardroom. A boardroom of a corporation. You know what goes on in boardrooms? I hope you never watched The Apprentice. Boardrooms can be vicious places, can't they? A lot of yelling goes on in boardrooms, a lot of debating, a lot of planning, a lot of planning for what to do and how to accomplish. From this room, all sorts of thoughts and plans are made that are then executed. And what goes on in the boardroom, no one can see, but once the plans are executed, you know what the decision of the boardroom was. Well, that's covetousness. That's the heart. So likewise, with our hearts, plans and schemes are made and then performed. They go out and evidence all kinds of evils under the sun. It's waiting to lash out there from that original boardroom. And that's what I want you to see tonight in the 10th commandment. We need to understand that this commandment is properly understood and appreciated when we know that it's dealing with wrong desires. desire. That's the sense of covet. Some have tried to translate it. You should not set your desire on your neighbor's house and wife and so on. Anything that is your neighbor's and then it's summed up there at the end. Anything that is your neighbor's where again, we're really dealing with the final summary of the law to love your neighbor as yourself. It's right there, isn't it? It's all coming together. So if you have set your desire on something, the boardroom is already in a meeting the way of execution has already been planned the will visibly presents itself then in a breaking of a willful breaking of the other commandments so this commandment has everything to do with unlawful desire execution of what is going on in your heart and that sort of helps us to understand james when james describes as we've looked at in the study of the commands when he describes the path of sin and what goes on in people's lives and hearts where it all starts when he said let no one say when i'm tempted i'm tempted of god for god cannot be tempted by evil nor does he himself tempt anyone but each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed so the desires have have come and when desire has conceived notice sin has a kind of giving birth process here it gives birth to sin and sin when it's fully grown brings forth death desire conceives very interesting now when the tenth commandment is put in these terms we understand the course of action that occurs a desire comes into that boardroom and we entertain that desire we've coveted and then the plan goes into action and it ultimately doesn't stop until all the other commandments are broken that's one of the themes i hope you've seen in the study tonight as we close this of the ten commandments of how everything sort of all the dominoes fall once you have started the process of sin and at this point we have one of the in one of the with all the commandments it's helpful to look at what has been outlined just briefly tonight uh this sin of naboth or ahab and with naboth's vineyard i don't know how you felt when you read that but it really is a shocking display of covetousness run amok, isn't it? It came to pass after these things that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel next to the palace of Ahab. So Ahab spoke to Naboth saying, give me your vineyard that I may have it for a vegetable garden because it's next to my house. How convenient. And for it, I'll give you a better vineyard. Or if it seems good to you, pay you for it ahab king of samaria well this is about 25 miles here from jezreel tells us that ahab had all these palaces all over the land and so he had one here in jezreel and obviously at this time of year the time for growing crops he would spend his time in jezreel and near his palace probably in view as he looked out his terrace and his patio he would look out and think of the same scenario with david and bathsheba he begins to look out and all of a sudden from that heart he is laying his eyes on a vineyard man i want that vineyard i really want that thing that is one beautiful vineyard i need that vineyard ahab sets his heart on it and it's an interesting point uh that when you begin to think of how covetousness works and what begins to go on in the human heart i'm going to really touch on your common experience for a moment whatever doesn't belong to us that we have bought into the lie that we need it always looks more attractive to the eye than whatever we have it's a crazy and strange thing that happens in the human heart you know its power you know what goes on it's this impulse in us that fosters desire and now you can't stop thinking about that thing until you have obtained it desire and who can control it we always want and the excitement ironically is is that it has become so beautiful to the eyes the excitement of it is that we don't have it john boyce once said the poor man wants many things the rich man wants everything that is so true isn't it interesting if you look at the 10th commandment the first two things that are mentioned are what you shall not covet your neighbor's house you shall not covet your neighbor's wife how much of this is a problem again coming back to david when an adulterous relationship incurs you can be sure that it it was incurred upon that adulterous premise that another woman has something way more exciting and better to offer you than the gift that God has given you in your wife. Think about it. It is a lie that has been presented to you through your boardroom that there is something better for you than what God has supplied for you. Hedonism arises from an artificial lust for something that will seem to provide more happiness. In other words, it's a lust based on a lie. That it will have a greater feel of pleasure. And of course, how does hedonism not fit into this? When we're constantly living to fulfill whatever desire of happiness that we want and we can achieve. So those desires that happen in the boardroom or our entertainment of them in the boardroom is that belief then that has gone to the next step that it's better for me. It's better for me that I have this. It's better for me that I achieve this. It's better for me that I get this. It's going to really make me feel complete. You know this. In the case here with Ahab, he had not trusted in the Lord, of course. I mean, he was a wicked, wicked king. But when his eyes were set on that vineyard, all desire was upon that, even though he had palaces everywhere. Was it Rockefeller who said, how much is enough, a little more? Even though he had the kingdom, it wasn't enough. Who's ever satisfied? You think the rich are ultimately satisfied? Who gets satisfaction? in life and so ahab starts in in the boardroom i'm going to get this thing i'm going to try it myself first i'm going to go to him and i'm going to say listen i'll buy the vineyard from you i'll give you something better i'm going to get that vineyard and and naboth comes back and he quotes the law of god to him the law of god forbade this the law of god said you can't do this in leviticus naboth was not to sell the land of his fathers it anticipated his own inheritance he couldn't do it so Ahab comes back like a little baby and kicks on his bed I mean it's just appalling isn't it he cries and he whimpers on his bed and here comes this gem of a wife Jezebel there's a reason she's used in Revelation she's used in scripture as the depiction of the worst kind of woman in the Bible I don't know of a more wicked woman in the Bible and Jezebel says what are you doing aren't you king yeah I'll get it for you watch me so all of a sudden this great counselor comes boardrooms in action you don't have the courage to do it I'll do it you're the king you watch me go to work Ahab does nothing to stop this and the tragedy here that she creates false letters and letters that then Ahab signs with his own seal and his own hand. She does all his dirty work and you'll know what's going to happen here. But think about from one covetous desire. Jezebel has a great court case publicly in Israel. As if a great sin of Naboth has infected the nation. And she blatantly pulls out two false witnesses. And she sets them out saying that Naboth has blasphemed. And they stone Naboth then murdering him. And Ahab takes his vineyard as his own, thus stealing from the house of Naboth and the house of the Lord. So in short, I mean get it here. From the rudder of the ship, one covetous desire in the boardroom, you now have, and it has led to theft, it has led to murder, it has led to bearing false witness. I mean, by doing this, look at what he's broken. He's broken the first, the second, the third, the sixth, the seventh, the eighth, the ninth, and the tenth. From that rudder. I want that vineyard. Isn't it something? One faulty desire in the heart. Do you see how selfish sin is? It wrecks people's lives. If we can somehow recognize those desires and gain control of them, imagine the fires we'd put out. Think about it. Half the time we don't even recognize them. We've just constantly gotten used to entertaining them. It's fascinating. Our Lord in Luke's Gospel said, take heed and beware of covetousness. Isn't that interesting? He singled that out. For one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things that he possesses. I can accumulate, and I can accumulate, and I can accumulate, thinking that such accumulation will ultimately satisfy me. But my life will never be supported, says Jesus, by the satisfaction of things that I desire. In other words, you'll never be satisfied. That's what he's saying. You can't find life in that. There's no life in that. Those promises are lies. and so now you come back and you see how this commandment is so much about desire think of um the morning message where our lord offered himself think about the beauty of this i am the true bread from heaven did you read mark 6 uh when he said this and i didn't focus on it this morning but just verse 42 sits out all alone and they all ate and were satisfied that's just beautiful isn't it that is exactly what had happened there this wasn't just that their bellies were full they were really satisfied after the teaching they were really fed with him they experienced genuine satisfaction in their souls how wonderful our lord is you start thinking about all the ways jesus talked about vineyards and you start to realize, you know, this ultimately is all the Lord's vineyard, isn't it? We're running around coveting everything that's the Lord's. Yeah, Jesus told parables about that, that actually he sent his son to the vineyard. And they set up false witnesses against him. And they killed him and cast him out of the vineyard. See the story here? What was done to Naboth was done to the Savior. This is his story. And yet our Lord was the whole time here teaching us about desire. Teaching us. So the straight way for us. Think about the straight way that when he comes and he's tempted in the wilderness and all these desires are coming upon him, temptations from the devil himself to eat when he's hungry and to break the will of God, to bow down right now and receive all the glory in the kingdoms right now without going to the cross. Away from Me, it's written, Satan. My food, said John 6, is to do the will of Him who sent Me. That's My desire. I'm fulfilling. And that's why you live today. Because He kept every single one of these. Well, you see how serious the Lord took this with Ahab. Boy, did judgment fall on that house. You see how destructive a breaking of the 10th commandment is tonight and how offensive it is in God's eyes. And you ask the question then as now we think about desire, to begin to think about how is desire controlling us? What desire is overwhelming us? I know how this goes. I'm a master practicer as a consumer. I mean, we're all consumers. We've been taught this in our society. In some ways, this is hard to preach because I think our society preys on us. Do you know what our society has done to us? We're constantly being tricked into fulfilling all these emotional needs that we think we have of material things that are endlessly pitched to us from all the media and all the commercials. That's what advertising is meant to do, to play on your emotions, to play on your desires. And they spend billions of dollars in research to do this every single year to get into the human heart with false needs. And they prey on your fears. They prey on your desires. They prey on your insecurities. They prey on your vulnerabilities. All to transform us into customers and consumers. exploiting the very problem of our hearts exposed in the 10th commandment to make us think that consuming is what is going to bring happiness. That's the lie of it all. Consuming is going to bring happiness. I hate to ask how many storage units we all have, right? Think about it. And the Lord is here having us think about desire. How does it go? We jump. I think of the woman at the well. just doesn't have to be things the woman at the well was jumping from man to man to man to man to man and jesus says i'm going to offer you living water that'll satisfy your soul you won't want that anymore and she leaves her water bucket behind or heidelberg says it so beautifully when it comes to how to evaluate the tenth commandment that not even the slightest thought or desire, there it is, should ever, contrary to any of God's commandments, see how it used this boardroom there as affecting how we're going to live out the rest of the law, should ever arise in my heart, rather with all my heart. They understood this. I should always hate my sin and take pleasure in whatever's right. And so you'll notice here out intimately connected and this is all covetousness is connected with all the other commandments john trap said a ship may be filled with silver even to the point of sinking and yet there may be space left to hold 10 times more so a covetous man though he has enough to sink him, yet he never has enough to satisfy him. The circle cannot fill a triangle, so neither can the world fill the heart of man. Never thinks the covetous man never thinks that he has enough. Now, does the Lord desire to forgive us of this? Of course. That's why I'm preaching the law. I'm preaching the law tonight so that you understand, as Paul said, unless I had known that the law had said, thou shall not covet, unless I knew that it was really dealing with this great problem of the human heart, I would never have known my sin. And so what is the way forward, having received forgiveness and the love of Christ? Well, notice that the commandments always come to us in the Scriptures with a positive dimension, don't they? desires aren't all wrong but think of how desire now as born again christians is now refocused and reframed and set correctly in the scriptures think of some of the verses the world and its desires pass away but whoever does the will of god lives forever so i say walk by the spirit it and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh one thing i've desired of the lord that will i seek that i may dwell in the house of the lord all the days of my life seek first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all this other stuff that you're worried about i'll take care of that for you i guess it really does come down to tonight in the positive dimension of the commandment are we content contentment is satisfaction in the lord isn't it it's a full and complete recognition that your sufficiency in the blood of christ all things are sufficient and he is your delight you have everything you need in him he's given you everything so that in every circumstance in every situation in everything that you get from his fatherly hand in this life he's going to care for you if the whole economy falls apart he's going to care for you if everything in this world all the foundations are ripped apart and the mountains are hurled into the midst of the sea he's going to care for you nothing can remove that care no circumstance of life can remove that care in the rare jewel of christian contentment a book that's a helpful read contentment is that gracious frame of spirit which freely submits to and delights in god's wise and fatherly disposal of every condition you are the spouse of christ what one married to jesus christ and yet troubled and discontented have you not enough of him have you not enough in him doesn't christ your husband say to you that i'm better to you than thousands of riches and comforts i just love that doesn't christ your husband say to you am i not better to you than thousands of riches and comforts such comforts you murmur for want of has not god given you his son and will he not give you all things why are you discontented oh my soul and that's where every christian must come this is what is something that's learned in the christian life this is what paul described uh that i have in every circumstance of life and whatever state i am i've learned this is not anything that comes easy this is a discipline i've learned to be content i had to be trained in this i know how to be a base and i know how to abound everywhere in all things i've learned to be both full and hungry both to abound and to suffer need i can do all things through christ who strengthens me whatever the circumstance This is what I've had to learn. And this is something he commenced us to learn about the Christian life. Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it's certain you're carrying nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. from which for which some have strayed from their faith in their greediness and here it is and pierce themselves through with many sorrows that that path in that pursuit pierces you with sorrows he said but you oh man of god plea these things and here's what you should desire pursue righteousness godliness faith love patience and gentleness i mean those are just wonderful fruits to pursue and then of course i think tonight in closing of hebrews 13 let your conduct be without covetousness be content with such things as you have here it is for he himself said i will never leave you nor forsake you now what a beautiful verse to attach to that what does that mean you don't need to be covetousness rat you need pursue contentment why because no matter your circumstance you have christ he's not going to leave you you're not alone i've not left you as orphans he stands beside you he's given you his spirit all of his riches are yours you don't need anything else and he wants you to know that no matter what it is you're not alone truth be told that all of our covetousness is driven by fear isn't it fear i guess i close with the words that i used this morning as you go out into another week may you hold on to i am the living bread that came down from heaven whoever eats this bread will live forever this bread is my flesh, which I give for the life of the world. I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never hunger. And he who believes in me will never thirst. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, thank You for instructing us tonight in the Tenth Commandment. And we ask for forgiveness tonight because our desires have so much run amok in our lives that boardroom constantly planning crafting pursuing whatever desire comes in there we've had a little control over it and we never would have any control over it had you not intervened and saved us that you not loved us and given us the greatest treasure the pearl of great price who when we found that sold everything else thank you for Christ thank you that this promise was given tonight that we should stay away from covetous desire and pursue the kind of contentment that pleases you for you have promised in your word that you will never leave us nor forsake us may we take that then into this week And as we've heard the law of God these many weeks and studying it, may we say as chief of sinners, thanks be to God who has given us righteousness in life in the person and the work of Jesus Christ. In His name we pray. Amen.