LAW HOMILY: Indicting God

Obeying God’s Law After Salvation

Well, every week we look into the law of God because we want to understand what God has to say to his people. We want to understand how that we are supposed to obey this God now that we are saved. We don't obey to be saved, but now that we are saved, we obey.

The Tenth Commandment and the Sin of Coveting

So today we're going to be in the 10th commandment, the crescendo of the Decalogue. And this is what it says. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor your male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's, Exodus 20, 16.

God’s Law Reaches the Heart

Now the 10th commandment is different than the commandments that come before it because it reaches behind the hands and behind the mouth, behind the behavior, and it puts its finger directly upon the heart.

You can refrain from stealing while desperately wishing that you possessed what belonged to someone else. You can refrain from adultery while inwardly resenting the wife that God has given you. You can never tell an actual lie, but never commit murder, never take another man's property and still violate God's law while silently sitting in your chair.

Because God doesn't merely command what your hands may take or what your hands may do. He also commands what your heart is to worship. That's why Paul says in Colossians 3, verse five, therefore put to death the members which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

Covetousness as Idolatry

Notice what Paul doesn't say. He doesn't say that covetousness can lead to idolatry, nor does he say that covetous nearly resembles idolatry. He says that it is idolatry, that coveting takes something that God created and gives it a place in your heart that only belongs to God.

Look at money. And you say, if I had enough of that, well, then I would finally be secure. That's not true. You look at another man's marriage and you say, if I had a marriage like his, if it was just as wonderful, tranquil, calm, and peaceful as that marriage, then I would be happy.

You look at someone else's house, his career, his children, his influence, his body, his health, his reputation, opportunities, and begin to imagine that the good life is sitting just one boundary line away from you.

Coveting as an Indictment of God

And you think to yourself these things, but what do these things actually say about God? If God has withheld from me and hasn't given me what I need, then what we're actually doing is saying that, God, you're not in control.

You're not sovereign. You don't love me. You're not working out my good and all things. When I say, Lord, you haven't given me enough, I'm indicting God. When I say that, Lord, if I had only had this, then I would be happy, I'm indicting God.

Every time that we commit the sin of coveting, we are looking at God and pointing the finger at him and saying, you have not provided for me, which is absolutely untrue. And it's a lie. It's a bold lie that we would look at the one who only ever does good to us.

And accuse him of being stingy. So as we think about these things, let us pray. And ask the Lord to forgive us. Every time that we want something that doesn't belong to us, help us to remember that we have only what God has given us, exactly what God has given us for our good and for his glory.

Prayer for Contentment and Gratitude

Let's pray. Lord, it's so easy for us to think that, that if we could just have a little more, then we would be satisfied. A little more peace, a little more money, a little more of whatever else, then we would be complete, we would be happy.

And it's just not true. Why is this man that ever lived had everything, and yet at the end of his life, he says, it's all futile. It's all vanity, it's all chasing after the wind. You look at men like Tom Brady, who's won all these Super Bowls, and yet at the end of it, he says he's still not happy.

Lord, help us to never chase happiness in things, but to find it in you. You're the only one who can fill the infinite hole in our heart, not finite things. So Lord, forgive us when we try to do that.

Forgive us when we do that constantly, even. Forgive us when we covet. Forgive us for what that actually says about how we feel about your provision. And Lord, turn us into people who are grateful, thankful, joyful, and praising you for all that you actually have provided us.

You've given us grace upon grace upon grace. Every breath we take, every heartbeat is a heartbeat that you did not owe us. It's a breath that you were not in debt to us. You've allowed us so many treasures, so many joys, so many graces.

The Law Loved Through Christ and the Spirit

Lord, help us to be a grateful people. Forgive us when we are not, in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for listening to this homily on the law of God from our Covenant Renewal worship this past Lord's Day.

We publish these messages each week because we believe that God loves his law, and far from throwing it away, we believe that the death and resurrection of Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit will actually help us learn to love and obey God's law.

Learning to Love and Obey God’s Law

And that's our prayer for you, that as you chew on these expositions each week, that you would both learn to love and come into alignment with the law of God. And we pray that you would do that by the Spirit's power, through the finished work of Christ, and to the glory of God.

And with that, God bless you.