Word of Salvation – Vol.23 No.47 – August 1977

 

Lord’s Day 44 (P.P.)

 

Sermon by Rev. P. H. Pellicaan on Lord’s Day 44

Scripture Reading: Rom.7:7-26.

Psalter Hymnal: 26:1,2; 60:8; 30:3,4; Hymn 409:1,4

 

With this Lord’s Day we conclude the preaching on the Ten Commandments.  Our catechism then continues directly with the exposition of what prayer is.  That is not a coincidence – having listened to the law there is only one thing left: prayer!  As a condemned criminal has only one thing left: to ask, to pray for grace.

Lord’s Day after Lord’s Day we have seen the accusations mount.  And every time we had to bow our head and plead guilty.

But all these charges were divided over several spheres of life.  And now, in this last commandment everything is concentrated, is brought under one common denominator: the debts are added up, the balance is made up.

We do not deal here with one particular sin, but we are dealing with sin in general, with all the issues of our heart.  We get the message about our inner life or should I say: our inner degeneration?  Our heart is exposed here to the all-seeing eye of the Lord.  This commandment has been called the nucleus of the Ten Commandments.  The scalpel is cutting here into the marrow.  We have to deal with inclinations and thoughts, that means things which are concealed and secret, the wickedness hidden behind our outward appearance, behind our eyes, deep in our heart.

A Christian’s life looked at from the outside may look wholesome, noble, irreproachable in conduct, examples for the whole congregation.  But in the light of the tenth commandment even the most holy person is exposed as a failure, a rebel, a sinner.  No one can stand upright in this penetrating light and even the most dedicated Christian has to exclaim: Lord, go out from me, I am a sinful man.  Then the next word will be: Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.

Thou shalt not covet – a strange commandment.

A person who does not covet, who has no desires is someone who lives in complete self-contentment, is autonomous, who does not need anything or any- one.  No such a person exists.  And if such a person would exist, he would be an antisocial, unbearable character.

To have no desires anymore means mental and moral death!  God created man as a dependent being, glorious and beautiful.  He did not create him as a sphynx which looks with empty eyes at a lonely desert.  Man was created to relate to and communicate with the whole of creation.  It is not good that man should be alone.  He needed a helper, he needed communication at his own level, he needed support and fellowship.  A baby already desires.  It puts forth its little arms to mother.  And when the child grows up its consciousness reveals itself in desires.  Desire is a very important part of our inner life.  We work because we desire to get somewhere.

We have ideals, plans for the future and we desire to realize these plans.  A life which has no desire has no purpose, no motive, no value.

Is then all this forbidden by God’s law?  It says: you shall not desire…!  We are obviously on a wrong track.  In this way we don’t find the real meaning of this commandment.

We ARE allowed to desire.  I can even put it in stronger terms: we are expected, and even commanded to desire.  Desire is the tension which the Lord Himself created in our hearts.  It is the source of energy, of achievement, of happiness and contentment.  Paul said in 1Cor.12: earnestly COVET the best gifts!  If there has ever been a man who coveted with his whole soul, then that man was Jesus.  His whole life was filled with strong desire.  As a heart pants after the water brooks so He looked with burning desire for the completion of His labour.

I have earnestly desired He said to His disciples to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.  He also taught His followers to desire: All what you desire of the Father in My name that He shall give you.

You SHALL covet.  But you shall NOT covet that which is sinful.  Sin is not something which is material.  Sin is spiritual.  Sin is: to twist, to bend, to make crooked that which God gave us.  All things in creation were good, to be taken with thanksgiving.  But if you take them without thanksgiving, without the intention to glorify God, using His gifts to satisfy your own desires, to suit your own plans then you commit a sin.  It is a matter of abuse: to use them in such a way that they may fit into your own schemes.  God created in the hearts of people the ability to know Him and worship Him.  If we use that gift, but change its purpose, then we have sin.  God taught us to worship Him.  But if we use that gift to worship someone or something else we have idolatry.  God told us how to serve Him.  If we do that but disobey His rules, we have image-worship.  God gave us His name to use it in praise and prayer.  But if we use that holy name for other purposes, we blaspheme.

With all the sins mentioned in the Ten Commandments you find the same pattern: it is the wrong use of something God gave.

Sin is a matter of twisting the legitimate use of God’s gifts.  The word “sin” in Hebrew already hints in that direction.  The original meaning of the word is: “to miss”.  An arrow is shot but it misses its target.  A sinful life is a life that misses its target, and that is what the tenth commandment is all about.  Our desires, our inner life is twisted and bent, it is aimed at that which is forbidden.  The tension: which God put in our heart is pushing us in the wrong direction and as a consequence our whole inner life is deformed.

In this last commandment we are confronted with the whole law.  Just imagine for the sake of an argument, that there would be someone among you who had listened undisturbed and without repentance to the exposition of the first nine commandments and would have told himself: I am not guilty of this particular sin, I can regard myself as blameless.  Someone like that rich young ruler who had kept the commandments from his youth.

If there is someone like that here, let him listen to the tenth commandment as it is paraphrased by our catechism: that NOT EVEN THE SLIGHTEST inclination or thought to ANY of God’s commandments shall EVER rise in our heart but that AT ALL TIMES we shall hate sin WITH OUR WHOLE HEART and delight in ALL righteousness.

Here is a light above the brightness of the sun.

Who would dare to look into this light?

It is true what we read in Ps.19 where the light of the sun is mentioned and then it is said that the law of God has more splendour.  This light penetrates into the most concealed inclinations of our heart.

Thou hast set our iniquities before Thee,
our secret sins in the light of Thy countenance!

Depart from me for I am a sinful man.

We have all gone out of the way, we are together become unprofitable.  In what directions do our desires go?  Who would dare to say that in public in all honesty?  We do not object when a doctor makes an X-ray of our body to find out what is invisible from the outside.  But here our heart is X-rayed….!  And no one wants other people to know what is revealed.

But it is not a fellow-man who clearly sees what is revealed from our inner life – no, it is the Lord, the Law-Giver, the Judge.  He is, as it says in Scripture, searching Jerusalem with candles.  He looks upon the heart, the source of iniquity, a cess-pool of sinfulness out of which poisonous vapours rise up, polluting our thoughts, our inclinations….!

But Brothers and Sisters, this is not designed to discourage the contrite hearts of the believers.  Scripture is not showing up the black darkness in our hearts in order to call down fire from heaven to demolish and destroy, but this light, shining in the darkness is given so that it will stay in our hearts to overcome the darkness,

In this commandment, there is light, glorious light.

If we really understand this tenth commandment then we discover a luminous figure.

Who is He who meets us here, clothed in light, girt with righteousness?  Who is that Man whose desires are pure, who only had one purpose in life: to live according to all God’s commandments?

It is Jesus Christ, our Lord!

He placed Himself before God’s flaming eyes, to be X-rayed without fear or hesitation.  He accepted the whole miserable inheritance of Adam and all Adam’s descendants.  He allowed all those debts to be transferred to His name and He said: I delight to do Thy will O God, Thy law is in my heart.  He came to His people, but His own accepted Him not.  Their hearts went out to what was dirty and sinful because their hearts were crooked.  And yet He stayed with us.

He was mocked, slandered, hated and persecuted.
But He stayed with infinite patience.
He was rejected, betrayed, denied, forsaken.
He remained faithful.
He was tortured, scourged, finally crucified
but He did not forsake those whom the Father had given to Him.

He died, but rose again and the first thing He did after His resurrection was to go after His unfaithful disciples that they might join Him in His victory.

He wanted to perfect His work in them by straightening out, by un- bending in their hearts everything that had been deformed by sin.

As our substitute He fulfilled the law for us and in doing that He took away the cause of our wrong desires, the sinful direction of our heart – He took away our SIN.

There is light in the darkness of the tenth commandment: comforting, life-giving light.  And we are strongly attracted by it: our desires go more and  more toward Him, that we may live in close communion with Him.

But a tree that grew up crooked cannot be straightened out in a moment.  That has to happen slowly and carefully.  And that is the process of sanctification.  Of that process of sanctification we only have a small beginning.  The tree is still crooked, tied down by cords of sin, but the leaves already turn toward the sun and the tension becomes stronger all the time to stand straight in the sunlight, in full bloom.

That small beginning is there.

What exactly is it?

It is the fruit of Calvary’s cross which the Holy Spirit plants in our hearts.  That fruit starts to grow, developing roots, branches and finally develops its own fruit.  As a result we become aware of our inner sinfulness and at the same time we become aware of the glorious purpose for which God created us.  We begin to see: PERFECTION.  We don’t see that in our own life yet, but we see it in Christ.  His holy desires are imputed to us.  We are clothed in His righteousness.  His burning desires are put in our hearts that we should regulate our lives accordingly.  That mind be in you as was in Christ Jesus!  The mind of Christ, and our mind.  Can we mention the two in one breath?  It seems blasphemous.  Our sordid desires for sin and the pure desires of Christ?  Is there a connection between our sin and His perfection?  Thank God: there is!  That is the gospel-message.

A rich Saviour and a poor sinner – they belong together.  They are united by the strongest tie possible: by love, by eternal love.  Jesus saves sinners!  With His pure soul He came to us, miserable sinners with a purified mind.  He came not to give us an example of a virtuous life, but He came to give us a new heart.  A heart that burns with desire to love God and serve Him.  As one of the Psalms said it: One thing I have desired of the Lord, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.

Looked at from the outside we seem to be the same person, but inwardly something is straightened out: the inner man is renewed from day to day.  Every day God changes our desires and once again we count everything loss and dung in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ, our Lord.  It still is a struggle for as the compass-needle always points North again, so our desires always point to things that are sinful.  But God does not let go the work of His hands and day by day He rectifies what was crooked.

This is called the daily conversion.  In that way He keeps alive the pure desire which in the church of Christ is never allowed to disappear it has to stay alive till the great Day will dawn.

We desire Christ, that we may know Him and the power of His resurrection.  As long as we live in unbelief He has no form that we should desire Him, but when our heart is renewed we see the King in His beauty and we long for fellowship with Him.  Then He is the most beautiful of all the children of men.

All this is fruit of the cross.
He has desired, but did not receive.
He prayed but it was not given to Him.
He searched but did not find.
He knocked but the door was not opened to Him.
All this in order that WE should receive,
that WE should find,
that the door would be opened to us.

My Brother and Sister, what is your strongest desire?  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.  When shall I come and appear before God?  God is my exceeding joy.

Our inclinations, our desires should be identical with the pure mind of Jesus.  Our heart should be burning in us to serve Him and love Him.  If there is any other inclination in your heart, then your heart shall condemn you when you approach God.  For that reason our catechism brings us to the next step: self-accusation.  Because we become embarrassed, yes, desperate when we place ourselves in the light of God’s law.

Our Lord’s Day has a question for those who are converted to God.  Unconverted people are ignored in this question.  This is not because there are no unconverted people in church.  It is sad but true: There are such people in church.  But here they are intentionally excluded from answering this question.  The reason is that this question only can be answered by people who know Christ as their Saviour, who belong to Him.  Those who are unconverted would not know what they were talking about if they tried to answer.  The fact that they are not addressed is a sharp reminder, an earnest warning.  You can be an active member of the church and yet be a stranger to Christ!

But those who have been converted, who love the Lord, what about them?  Can THEY keep this commandment?  The answer seems to be most discouraging.  “Even the holiest men only have a small beginning of this obedience!”  Those who have made real progress on the road to sanctification, devout, dedicated, sincere Christians are not more than beginners.  We hear Paul confess: the good that I wish, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not wish.

It is not that God’s grace is insufficient but the trouble is with our hearts: they are always inclined to go in the wrong direction.  My soul cleaves to the dust!

And here we find the true picture of a believer who is still a member of the church militant.  Here we find his attitude: an attitude of humility, of self-accusation, of utter dependence: not as though I had already attained either were already perfect but I follow after that I may apprehend that for which I also am apprehended of Christ Jesus.  A Christian does not glory in himself, but he glories in Christ, who has begun a good work in us.  Let it be small, but it is a beginning!  It is God’s handiwork and He will perfect it.  In that beginning is the promise of perfection.

In the heart of the believer there is an earnest purpose to live not only according to some but according to all the commandments of God.  Every transgression he begins to hate, especially the sins he used to indulge in, for which he could find excuses and which had so much attraction to him.  This small beginning is working not against some transgressions, but it works against every transgression because it starts in the centre: in our heart.

Satan is quite willing to let us live according to some even to many commandments of God as long as we publicly or secretly hang on to one sin, a big one or a small one, that doesn’t matter.  That is sufficient for the evil one because now it is obvious that your heart has not been renewed, that there is no beginning of sanctification.

If we love that one sin and refuse to let it go and hate it – then we’re lost!

It is time to make up the balance.
Once again we placed ourselves under the discipline of God’s law.
Once again we worked out our position,
our relationship with the law, and the Giver of the law.

The result is: debt, crushing debt!
What are our inclinations, our desires?
I, miserable sinner!  Lord, depart from me!
But stop a moment.  This is all wrong.
You have misunderstood the whole thing.

Lord’s Day 44 is from that part of our catechism that deals with our thankfulness.  It is part of the gospel, the joyful message.  In this commandment we saw Him who was the bearer of our sins.  We saw the glory of Jesus Christ.  It’s true, compared to the glory of Christ the darkness of our hearts becomes more pronounced.  In this life there is never the joy of salvation, the happiness of belonging to Christ without the awareness of our unworthiness, of all the sinfulness which against our will still remains in us…!  In order that we may constantly endeavour and pray to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit to be renewed more and more after the image of God.  The more hopeless our situation is, the more helpless we feel, the more we are able to live from grace, to seek our purification and salvation apart from ourselves, in Jesus Christ.

Then that desire which is acceptable to God, becomes stronger and stronger: blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied…
…till we arrive at the goal of perfection after this life.

This is the final word our catechism says about the law, and in this last word we already hear the hymn of praise sung by those who are redeemed forever.

Perfection is coming.
God in His justice demands everything.
God in His grace gives everything.
The small beginning will suddenly grow out to perfection
because it is God’s handiwork.  It is a fruit of the cross.

Often it is covered under sin and debt as long as we are in this world but the time is coming when it will expand and triumphantly develop into perfection.  God’s Word is the guarantee for that.  God will not let go the work of His hands.  Demand of Me… the Lord said, demand what I shall do to you.  Our hearts thirst for God, for the living God.  He is a God who gives liberally and He upbraids not.  Give us the treasures of Christ, fill us with His riches, give us His perfection, His glory, His righteousness.

Will our desires then be satisfied?

No, they will always go out to Him, to Him by whom we have been saved.

I can reword the tenth commandment:
Thou shalt covet..
You shall covet that you may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of your life!

Amen.