Word of Salvation – Vol. 36 No. 13 – April 1991

 

The Tenth Commandment Calls For Purity Of Heart

 

Sermon by Rev. M. P. Geluk on Lord’s Day 44, Q&A 113

Reading: 1Kings 21:1-19

 

In the Tenth Commandment God speaks to us about the sin of coveting.  Coveting is wanting things or persons which you think you need to have but can easily do without.  Since coveting is a matter of the heart, the battle against this sin has to be fought inside of us.  If our hearts were pure, then we wouldn’t have to struggle with this sin, or any sin for that matter.

Some people don’t care much about the state of their heart.  They might try very hard to look good on the outside.  They want to be seen as being good people and become adept at living a double life.  The mess their private life is in doesn’t worry them much.  It’s the public side of their life they worry about.

The Pharisees were that kind of people.  Jesus said they honoured Him with their lips but their hearts were far from Him (Luke 15:8).  To His disciples Jesus had said, ‘Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.  ‘These are what make a man unclean’; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him ‘unclean’ (Matthew 15:19,20).

Jesus had been criticized by the Pharisees.  They complained that Jesus’ disciples broke the tradition of the elders by not washing their hands before they ate.  (Matthew 15:2).  The Pharisees’ complaint had nothing to do with hygiene but with racial and religious purity.  In the course of the day, a Jew might touch things a gentile had touched, perhaps at the market.  Gentiles were considered unclean but Jews were clean for they were God’s chosen people.  The Pharisees, therefore, felt that a Jew ought to wash his hands before he ate and thus prevent some of the gentile impurity from entering his person.

There were in existence some Old Testament regulations about the priests in the temple having to wash their hands in the course of their sacrificial duties, but the Pharisees had carried this through and developed it into some absurd tradition.  With righteous indignation Jesus told the Pharisees that the heart of a person does not become unclean or impure from the outside.  The heart itself is impure.  And, therefore, the way to overcome this sin is not by rearranging certain external things but by having a change of heart.  The problem is a matter of the heart.  Let us now, give our attention to the tenth commandment specifically and see that in it God calls for purity in the heart.

In the first place we see what this commandment requires; in the second place what it uncovers; and thirdly what it points to.

First of all then, what is it that this commandment requires?  Well, it says that we must not covet.  The children would not know the meaning of the word ‘to covet’.  The adults know, even though the word isn’t used much.  The Macquarie Dictionary says that ‘to covet’ means to have an improper desire, or a desire without due regard to the rights of others.

The tenth commandment says: ‘You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbours.’

The commandment was first given to Israel soon after their exodus from Egypt and it was repeated just before they entered the Promised Land.  When first given there was no mention of the neighbour’s land, only his house, which might have meant the dwellings of non- Israelites they met on their journey through the wilderness, or the tents of their fellow Israelites.  But after they had taken possession of Canaan the land was what they possessed themselves, so the updated version of the tenth commandment warned also of the danger of coveting the neighbour’s land.

And the updated version also has another wording to the word ‘covet’.  It speaks of ‘not to set your desire’ on what your neighbour has.

Now we are unfamiliar with servants, oxen and donkeys.  So to give this commandment a wording that speaks to us today, it would be something like this:

‘Do not set your desire on things that do not belong to you but to someone else, like someone’s home, or wife, or husband, car, video, computer, or even their success, looks, popularity, or whatever.

Someone might want to know why it is so wrong to desire the possessions of others, if you don’t intend to take them.  Don’t we often find ourselves admiring something nice that someone else has?  If you have a liking for cars then I can imagine you wishing to have that beautiful looking machine that someone else is driving.  It’s not that you want to take it from that person by force or theft.  You just like to have the same thing.

That kind of desire is not wrong, of course.  If it’s only admiration and appreciation, then there is no sin.  What the commandment has in mind is a wrong desire that makes you want to lay hands on what doesn’t belong to you or what you cannot have.  It is a kind of wanting that could lead to theft or murder.  It is that sort of desire that is sinful.

We could ask here, of course, whether this tenth commandment is really necessary, seeing that the other commandments already spoke about sinful desires that lead to murder, adultery or fornication, stealing and injuring the good name of others.  When dealing with the other commandments, the Bible itself goes further than just the outward sin but clearly shows that all sin begins in the heart.  Why then did God give this commandment?

Well, the answer is that this tenth commandment really says: be content with what you have.  Of course, if it is within your means to have more and you honour God and serve the neighbour with all that you have, then gaining possessions is not wrong either.  But if it is not within your means to have more, or you will endanger yourself and others if you had more, then you ought to be satisfied with what you have.

In all this it is very easy to let yourself be talked into thinking that you really need something when in reality you don’t.  The advertising world does it all the time.  In a clever way they make you feel you really need it.

In certain situations that could be quite legitimate and above board but Christians should not fall for statements that are not true, like, ‘you owe it to yourself’ or ‘you deserve it’ or ‘you have a right to it.’

As children of our heavenly Father we should be content with whatever we are given in the circumstances the Lord places us.  Anything that we have or gain above what our real needs are simply gifts that we may enjoy.  Moreover, we have to be good caretakers of all we have been given.  We really don’t own anything, or have a sole right to things, seeing that the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.

The tenth commandment, therefore, calls for contentment.  But it’s impossible to be content without being pure in heart.  If we are pure in heart then we would not need any other commandment.  In fact, there would be no sin.

God says to us, ‘Do not love the world or anything in the world… everything in the world the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does comes not from the Father but from the world.’ (1John 2:15,16).

Coveting the things of the world, therefore, is not only a risky business, for ‘the world and its desires pass away’ (v.17), but it’s also an absence of God’s love in our heart.  It’s impossible to be full of the love of God if our hearts are filled with covetous desire.

This commandment, therefore, really requires from us that we manage our desires.  Do you desire that young lady?  Well, God Himself has made you with desires but He requires us to manage them and, therefore, you are not to lay hands on her if she doesn’t belong to you.

Would you really like to have the same kind of bike as that boy who lives down the road from you?  Well, that’s all right, save as quick as you can till you can afford it.  But in the meantime manage your desire and don’t be jealous or dislike that boy for having something that you can’t have as yet.

Achan failed to manage his desires when he unlawfully took some of the spoils in Jericho.  And so also David when he couldn’t keep his hands off Bathsheba.  And so too Ahab when he and his wife Jezebel arranged for the killing of Naboth, gaining possession of his vineyard by foul means.  In all these cases coveting led to terrible sins that hurt many people.

You can understand, therefore, that God’s will in the tenth commandment says, ‘That not even the slightest thought or desire contrary to anyone of God’s commandments should ever arise in my heart.  Rather, with all my heart I should always hate sin and take pleasure in whatever is right.’

If you are now thinking that you will never be able to meet such lofty requirements then you must remember that God does not ask the impossible from His people.  He gives what He asks and, in Christ, His saved people have been given a new nature with a heart that wants to be pure.  No, not in our own strength can we manage our desires and prevent coveting.  But God supplies that strength through the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit.  So when God says that purity of heart will make obeying this and all other commandments possible, then we should look to Him and pray for His Spirit and strive earnestly not to resist His working.

2.  Secondly, we see what the tenth commandment uncovers.  Looking back over his life, the apostle Paul makes a revealing statement (Rom.7:7ff).  He says, ‘I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said: Do not covet.’  Yes, Paul did not really know what sin was except through the law.  It’s the same with everyone else.  Yes, of course, people know that adultery, stealing and murder are sins because our whole society says that.

But some primitive cultures allow some of these sins and they are not known to be sin.

Don Richardson in his book Peace Child writes about tribes in New Guinea that considered treachery and murdering the victims of treachery an honourable pastime.  These people admired Judas and his act of betrayal.  It was only after they had been taught the law of God that they discovered what terrible sins they had been committing.

In the same way Paul did not realise that coveting was sin until God made him realise what purity of heart meant.  It wasn’t that his heart had been free of coveting prior to him being made aware of this sin.  Quite the contrary, he had always been a covetous person.  Everyone is.  But it was the commandment that made him see it.

Sometimes a car manufacturer is forced to recall a certain model because a certain fault was allowed to happen and not corrected.  Owners of those particular models could not know of the faulty component.  They think their car is fine.  Then one day they receive a notice in the mail informing them of the fault and of the need to have it rectified.

God created man good and after His own likeness but the fall into sin occurred.  Since then all people are born with human natures that are faulty.  That’s how they come off the assembly line.  Their desires no longer give a perfect performance.  Paul says he was quite unaware of this coveting going on inside him.  He thought it was normal.  Then God’s law made him realise there was something terribly wrong inside him.  The law did not make him go wrong, inasmuch as the notice to the car owner did not make the car go wrong.  The fault was there already; the law simply uncovered it.  For the first time Paul discovered the real nature of sin.  It’s not only what you do.  What you do is the result of what you are.

In our world there is a lot of confusion about the nature of sin.  Movie write-ups give the impression that sin is fun and exciting.  Many people think that life without sin would be rather dull.  Others think of sin as being a criminal act.  If the law no longer says that Abortion and homosexuality is criminal then people think such acts cease to be sin.

Sin is thought of as an action that is only wrong when most of society think it is.  When people behave as society expects them to behave then they feel that they are decent citizen.

In such a society a pure heart or mind doesn’t mean a thing anymore.  It’s what you feel about yourself, that counts.  If you feel guilty about something then psychology will show you how to deal with such feelings.  Real guilt doesn’t really exist anymore.  If you are doing what everybody else is doing and it’s not considered to be unlawful, then you’re okay and I am okay.

But God’s Word teaches that covetousness is sin and it’s there when the heart is impure.  As long as a person continues to exist on the horizontal level he will never be content.  He will always think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.  There will always be the longing for a better wife, a better husband, a higher income, a more comfortable home, better furniture and better children.

On that horizontal level one is never satisfied.  There is always the thirst for more, to be able to drink deeper and be more satisfied.

The fact is that the human heart will remain restless until it finds its rest in God.  Therefore, one has to get away from this continual looking around on the horizontal level.  One has to learn to look up; to have a vertical dimension in life.  It’s that terrible superficiality and short-sightedness on the horizontal level that the tenth commandment uncovers.

3.  Finally, let us see how the tenth commandment points us to God.

The question is: what are we going to do with our restless heart?  Continual looking around on the horizontal level makes us weary and depressed.  There is always someone else who is better off than you.  And when we discover through the Word of God how impure our actions and motivations are, then we can really feel low.  We cry out as the apostle Paul did: ‘What a wretched person I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?’ (Rom.7:24).

The glorious answer is: God will!  Paul cries out, ‘Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!’ (vs.25).

Yes, God delivers us through the salvation He has provided in Jesus Christ.  He says to every despairing person on that horizontal level: ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matt.11:28-30).

God alone is good.  He wants us to be with Him, to find peace and quiet where He is.  He alone is able to bring purity to our hearts, so that sinful desires no longer trouble us nor rule us.

What then is the way to purity of heart?  How do we manage our desires so that our thoughts are pure?  We do not achieve anything by ignoring our desires, nor by killing them.  Sinful actions are to be put to death, they are to be crucified.  But desires that are not sinful in themselves need to be prevented from becoming sinful.  They are not to be killed.  We don’t have to become Buddhists, or enter the monastery or convent, in order to be near God.

The way to purity is by believing that God Himself is the fulfilment of our lives.  Christ said that He is the way, the truth and the life.  Now that is something we can take hold of.  It’s something concrete and real.  We are searching for a way, for truth and for a life with meaning and purpose.  Christ said that He is all of that.  What He did and said is the way, the truth and the life.  That makes Him the Saviour and Redeemer.

Our craving hearts must turn to Him, not to other persons or things on that horizontal level.  He is the vertical dimension!  On the horizontal level we sooner or later will hit the bottom of the cup once more and then we turn to drink somewhere else.  But Jesus alone can satisfy our deepest thirst.  He is altogether pure and holy; He is perfect in knowledge and limitless in love.  He teaches us how to manage our lives with people and things.  He gives wisdom, guidance, encouragement, strength.  He teaches us – patience, forbearance, love and forgiveness.  He is good to us.  In Him we are learning to be content.  He brings purity in our innermost being for by His death He has taken our guilt away.  His blood can make the foulest clean.

The tenth commandment calls for purity of heart and it leads to Christ.  With His Spirit in us we can hate sin with a holy hatred and take pleasure in whatever is right.  It’s to experience a profound and deep joy.  It’s to follow Christ, to love Him and be loved by Him.  Hallelujah, what a Saviour!

AMEN