Do Not Covet
Download MP3If you have a bible, I invite you to turn to Exodus chapter 20. Exodus 20. It's good to be back in the pulpit. I've been away for from the pulpit for 5 weeks. I try every July, really, to just step down from the pulpit for a couple of reasons.
Jeffrey Heine:For one, it's really good for you to hear from the rest of the leadership at Redeemer, to listen to the different elders, pastors, and, just so you could hear their voices. And also, it's great for me because I get to learn from these guys. And I don't know about you, but I was just really blessed over these last few weeks of just listening to them expound on God's word, and to walk us through the Ten Commandments. I'm always a little intimidated to come back, actually, after listening to these men preach. But I am back.
Jeffrey Heine:And, and we're gonna finish out the 10 commandments this morning. But we're gonna begin as we have for the last 9 weeks by saying all 10 of these commandments together. And so, if you would read these with me. You shall have no other gods in your way. You shall not make any graven images.
Jeffrey Heine:You shall not take the Lord's name in vain. And for our text this morning, Exodus 20 verse 17. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox or his donkey or anything that is your neighbors. This is the word of the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:If you would pray with me. Father, I pray that these commandments would not just be written on humans or on hard stone, but they would be written on human hearts through Your Spirit. You would etch these words deeply in our souls, that we might look more like your son, Jesus. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, may Your words remain and may they change us.
Jeffrey Heine:We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. So we're finally coming to the conclusion of the 10 Commandments. And let me ask you something. As you heard me reading through that final commandment, did it strike you as just, you know, a little odd?
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, after all, the 10 Commandments, they start off with such, you know, lofty ideals. It starts off with, I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. And it ends with, will you quit looking at your neighbor's donkey? I mean, it starts off with this roar, and then it just kind of ends with a whimper.
Jeffrey Heine:At the very least, it's an unusual commandment to end on. And can I say, honestly, it's one that most of us don't really think is a big deal? I mean, what's the big deal about coveting? It's it's not on par with the other commandments. You know, if you had to pick just just one of these 2 to make the 10 commandments, thou shalt not murder or or thou shalt not covet.
Jeffrey Heine:You're like, well, we're going with thou shalt not murder, or thou shalt not steal, or thou shalt not commit adultery. Coveting just seems a little less serious. And if you thought this as we were going through this, these Ten Commandments, know that you were not alone. That, if you were to go back to ancient Israel, and you were to look at all of the surrounding, societies around them, Those cultures too were coming up with different law codes, different morals to live by. And many of them actually resembled the 10 Commandments in some ways.
Jeffrey Heine:You have commandments that deal with, you know, protecting the family or protecting property or, about telling the truth, things like that. But you will never find any law code from any ancient civilization that talks about not coveting. This is unique to God's word here. It's unique to what He told ancient Israel to do. We should not covet.
Jeffrey Heine:We've actually come so far though, as a society of ever even viewing this as a serious sin, let alone one that belongs with the Ten Commandments. We actually see it as a compliment in many ways. And so if one of your friends, you know, they post a pic from their recent trip to Hawaii, and you've seen on Instagram, you post back, oh my gosh, so beautiful, I'm coveting. And that's a compliment. It's probably why they posted the picture, was to get you to covet.
Jeffrey Heine:But you say, I'm coveting, you would never say, like, I'm murdering, I'm committing an affair. Like, you don't do those things. But I'm coveting. Someone shows you their new house, you know, and you're walking through the master suite with, you know, the walk in closets, the, the walk in bathrooms, the his and hers sinks, the shower plus the jacuzzi, all of this. And a way of complimenting them is like, this is so beautiful, I'm really trying not to covet.
Jeffrey Heine:And they're like, oh, thank you. Thank you. It's seen as a compliment, But we don't do that with the other commandments. I mean, if you're over at that person's house, and you see his wife, you would never say, you are so lovely. I'd love to have an affair with you and ruin your marriage.
Jeffrey Heine:Some of you felt uncomfortable laughing, and you're just like, that's serious. Exactly. We see it as 2 different things. Coveting is you could joke about it. It's light.
Jeffrey Heine:It's a lesser sin. It's nothing like those other ones. We see it as different. So why, when God is putting Ten Commandments, the real estate's, you know, pretty valuable here, there's just 10. Why does he choose you should not covet, let alone use it as the closer wrapping up the 10?
Jeffrey Heine:Hopefully, we'll see why. But first, we probably should define coveting. Coveting seems straightforward, but, you know, you've been here for the last 9 weeks and you start realizing not all of the commandments are as straightforward as they first seem. That's certainly the case with you should not covet. I found that this commandment is often misunderstood.
Jeffrey Heine:For starters, the commandment is not you shall not covet. Now, I know we we we put that up there, you shall not covet period. Like, that's the end of it. That's what we put up there because it's kind of a shorthand, But you don't find you shall not covet period. It's you shall not covet your neighbor's house.
Jeffrey Heine:You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's. This commandment is not about desiring other things. It's not about desiring something. It's against you desiring what someone already has. What's being described here, we would probably best call envy or jealousy.
Jeffrey Heine:So it might not be wrong for you to want a new functional working car. To want a better job. Or perhaps to someday be married, or to have kids. It might not be wrong for you to have those desires, but it is wrong for you to want someone else's car, someone else's job, someone else's marriage, someone else's kids. What's actually being described here in this final commandment is that it is wrong for you to desire someone else's life.
Jeffrey Heine:You are not to desire someone else's life. So when you read, do not covet your neighbor's house, don't think of that house as a physical structure. Think of it as household. You shall not covet your neighbor's household. And what's in that household?
Jeffrey Heine:Well, it's the spouse. It's the help. It's, it's their wealth. Their 401 ks. It's their new cars.
Jeffrey Heine:It's everything else. In other words, do not covet or do not be envious of someone else's life. Any of you ever struggle with envy? Any of you ever jealous of seeing someone go on, you know, one of their many vacations? Or perhaps seeing their well behaved children when yours are falling apart?
Jeffrey Heine:Anyone else envious about somebody's gorgeous and yet caring spouse? Any of you ever envy someone else's body? You're like, oh boy, it'd be nice to have a body like that. When you have these envious thoughts, have you noticed how quickly they turn dark? How quickly they turn to a self righteousness, or you get very bitter as you have these thoughts.
Jeffrey Heine:You might think, I mean, I'm sure this this person, sure she's gorgeous. But what does she ever do to deserve a body like that? I mean, if I were to even look at what she is eating, I'd gain £10. But I can't do that. And of course, you know, if, if I had all the leisure time that she had.
Jeffrey Heine:If I didn't have to take care of the house and the home. If I had the money to spend on the personal trainers and all the beauty products, you know, and the $200 haircuts and all that, I could look that way, too. But, some of us have to work for a living. You start patting yourself on your back. You start putting that person down.
Jeffrey Heine:Do you see how bitter and self righteous you're becoming? Any of you ever have thoughts like that? If so, know that you're completely alone. No one else here struggles with that. Okay?
Jeffrey Heine:So this sermon is directly to you, and you alone. Alright? I thought there might be a person here who struggles with this. No, we all struggle with envy. Did you know that in every culture, that in every known language, both past and in present, there is the word for envy?
Jeffrey Heine:This is because, every person in every society at every time has struggled with this. Envy hits every human heart. It doesn't matter if you are old or young. It doesn't matter if you're good looking or ugly, Healthy, unhealthy, wealthy or poor. It doesn't matter.
Jeffrey Heine:Envy hits every human heart. Yet, I have never in all of my years as a pastor, ever had anyone come to my office and confess that they have a envious heart. I've heard everything else confessed under the sun. But no one has come to me and confessed envy. Because who wants to?
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, who wants to admit that that's something that they struggle with? Because I mean, of all the sins out there, envy is the one to be most embarrassed by, isn't it? I mean, it's hard to confess because it's just so petty. It makes us seem so small if we were to acknowledge this. Joseph Epstein, he's a professor at Northwestern, is author of a number of books, he's editor of The American Scholar, and he wrote a book called Envy.
Jeffrey Heine:The New York Public Library was doing a series on the 7 deadly sins. And so, he did this book. He is not a Christian, so he is just a secular writer. But he has written the best book about envy out there. And he says this about envy.
Jeffrey Heine:Of the 7 deadly sins, envy surely is the one that people are least likely to want to own up to. For to do so is to admit that one is probably ungenerous, mean, and small hearted. Envy is certainly a charged, a supercharged word. It's one of the very few words left in the English language that retains the power to scandalize. Most of us could still sleep decently if accused of any of the other 6 deadly sins.
Jeffrey Heine:But to be accused of envy would be seriously distressing. So clearly does an accusation go directly to character. Although the other deadly sins all have the disapproval of religion, none of them so deeply demean, diminish, and disqualify a person. Not least of its stigmata is the pettiness implicit in envy. And it's true, isn't it?
Jeffrey Heine:Envy is just so petty. It makes one seem so small to say I'm actually the reason I'm acting this way is because I really want your life. I recently, I confessed to Lauren that I was struggling with envy. I was envious of another family and I felt so small when I confessed it. Liberated afterwards, but so small when I confessed it.
Jeffrey Heine:But for years, I realized I'd been masking over this sin of envy by labeling it as something else. You see, I found myself being hypercritical of a certain family. It was a family I knew well and a family I loved. And by the way, that's where envy hits. People mistakenly think that you're envious of the celebrities, you're envious of the billionaires.
Jeffrey Heine:You're not. You're envious of those you're closest to. It hits you with people in your close circle who you know and you love. That's where envy begins to happen. And I found myself with this family I knew and I love actually becoming envious.
Jeffrey Heine:I was critical of them all the time. I found, you know, myself, of course, justifying this criticism. So, I'd say things like this. You know, Lauren, you know, we were on a walk. I'd say, Lauren, it just bothers me that that family is so wasteful.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, we would never spend money like that. Or I'd say, why do people keep bailing this family out of all of their bad decisions? They make bad decision after bad decision and they never have to suffer the consequences of them because somebody's always bailing them out. They're never gonna learn to do better. Or I'd say, you know, it just bothers me when this family keeps buying these really nice things and then they spiritualize all their purchases.
Jeffrey Heine:They say things like, you know, I've been looking for something like this for a long time and God finally allowed me to find it. Do you see how it was masking envy as almost this righteous concern for someone I love. But the truth was, there was parts of their lives I coveted. Do you have anyone in your circle of friends in which you have similar thoughts? You know, you have thoughts like, I'm just concerned that she is spending way too much time with this new person she's dating.
Jeffrey Heine:She's just gonna isolate all the friends she already has. Or you have thoughts like, I'm just really thankful that I was at church worshiping Jesus and not at my lake house on July 4th. Is that where I crossed the line? Was that it? That's where you're like, oh, you went yeah.
Jeffrey Heine:Yeah. Or you say things like, sure, he looks great, but, you know, he's building his identity on his physical appearance. You see how all of those have they've got a nugget of truth in them. Don't they? They all have got this little nugget of truth, yet at their core, they they might and they just might be a way of us masking envy.
Jeffrey Heine:So why is this so dangerous? Why why is envy so dangerous? Once again, God chose to write down 10 Commandments on tablets of stone. Why put coveting there? Why close with it?
Jeffrey Heine:Well, for starters, it is the seed of the other sins. It's the seed of the other sins. Adultery begins with coveting another person's wife. Stealing or possibly even murder begins with coveting another person's possessions. Even the first commandment, Paul says in Colossians 3 that idolatry is coveting.
Jeffrey Heine:Says it's the same thing. It's when you're going to a thing and you're giving it divine like qualities saying I must have that in order to be happy. All of these other sins, they actually start, they find their genesis in coveting. This is the only commandment that deals explicitly with the heart. And I believe that's why God put it here.
Jeffrey Heine:It's not about outward conformity. All the other commandments, you know, they're easy to see if you break. Thou shalt not murder, well, there's a dead body. Alright. Somebody's done something.
Jeffrey Heine:You're to rest on the Sabbath. Well, if you're working on the Sabbath, you're breaking it. There's things you could point to, actions. You did this. You violated this commandment.
Jeffrey Heine:But I have no idea if any of you are coveting. I suspect you all are. But but I have no idea because there's nothing I can point to. This deals explicitly with the heart. And it's actually a point that all of the commandments deal with the heart.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus certainly saw them that way. Did you know that coveting is the very first sin we have in the Bible? It's the first one we see. It goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden in Genesis. You go to Genesis 3 and you're going to read these words.
Jeffrey Heine:Eve saw that the tree was desired to make one wise. So she took of its fruit and ate. That word desired there is the exact same Hebrew word as covet. Eve coveted. She coveted.
Jeffrey Heine:She saw the tree was coveted to make one wise. Now, she's not coveting a piece of fruit. What is she coveting? How does it work within 10 Commandments to She's coveting someone else's life. Whose life is she coveting?
Jeffrey Heine:God's. I want to be like God. I wanna be the ruler of my own life. I wanna determine what's right or wrong. She's coveting someone else's life.
Jeffrey Heine:And that's what led her to take this fruit. The pettiest of all the sins is actually the sin that led to the fall of all of mankind. It's not a small sin. Another reason that God included this commandment is that it is the one commandment that will rob you of all joy. It's the one commandment that will rob you of all joy.
Jeffrey Heine:Likely, you've heard the phrase, comparison is the thief of joy. And that's true. Comparison is the thief of true, of joy. Envy is one of the only sins that I know of that is absolutely no fun at all ever. I mean, you could go to the other sins.
Jeffrey Heine:You can at least have momentary fun. I mean, you can. You give in to lust. You give in to anger, you know, you just you just blow up and yell at somebody. It feels good, doesn't it for a moment?
Jeffrey Heine:And then you have all these regrets. Even, even you know, giving into greed or laziness can can temporarily feel really good, but coveting, envy, never feels good. From start to finish, there's never one point in it that brings you any amount of happiness. It's completely void of all joy. Proverbs 14:30 says that, Envy makes your bones rot.
Jeffrey Heine:I'd say envy is the poison that you drink hoping someone else will die. Envy will keep you from enjoying your own body. It's gonna keep you from enjoying your singleness, or your marriage, or your children, or whatever season of life you happen to find yourself in. It's gonna keep you from enjoying whatever age you are. Because every time you look horizontally and you compare your life to others, you rob yourself of joy.
Jeffrey Heine:Joy comes vertically from the Lord. I try to teach my kids this lesson when they were little. And by the way, don't think of me a terrible person when you hear this illustration. There's other reasons you could think of me a terrible person, but but not here. But when they were little, and I can't remember their exact age, but, they were all playing, having fun.
Jeffrey Heine:But, so I gathered them in the room, sat them down. I said, I wanna teach y'all a lesson. Said, okay. And so, I gave my middle child, Natalie, a candy bar. And I gave her the candy bar, and I said, that's it.
Jeffrey Heine:Y'all could go back and play. I mean, can you imagine what happened after that? It's like, you know, Georgia, who is really, little, she just immediately just starts crying, just crying. She was happy as she could be before. Now she's just crying.
Jeffrey Heine:Caroline, who is older and more logical, she's like, hey, daddy, I don't think that's really fair that you would do something like that. And I said, well, Caroline, life's not fair. That was another one of my, you know, dad lessons you gotta give. I'm a plethora of wisdom. Come to me later, right?
Jeffrey Heine:So, so then they're just fighting now with one another. Well, you gotta give us a candy bar, you gotta divide it. No one gets a candy bar, so they're all so angry. So I stopped and I said, hey kids, why are you so angry? I didn't take anything away from you.
Jeffrey Heine:It's not like I sat you down and said, I'm gonna take this toy away from you. You're now grand I didn't took nothing away from you. I didn't punish any of you. All I did was add something to one of you. That was it.
Jeffrey Heine:I was gracious to one of you. So why all the fighting? Envy, coveting. It's out to destroy joy. Envy is anti grace.
Jeffrey Heine:It's anti praise, which is why you were created to give praise and appreciate grace. It's anti gospel. It cannot rejoice when another person rejoices. Matter of fact, the only time it can rejoice is when another person suffers. I mean, at this moment when they're, you know, they're all yelling, I said, well should I just take it away from Natalie?
Jeffrey Heine:They're like, Yes. It's like, she didn't do it. They want her to suffer now. And now Natalie's crying. What did I do to deserve all this?
Jeffrey Heine:It's like, envy's only happiness could come at another person's unhappiness. That's how corrupt this is. It's only pleasure comes when other people are having a hard time. That's why when your friends go to the beach, you look at the weather report, and if you see it's raining, you're like, yes. I mean, you've all had those thoughts.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm just the one who has to say it from a pulpit. Okay? We know you've all had those. Or one of your friends who's like super fit, you know, finally injures himself. You're like, it's because you're not as young as you used to be, buddy.
Jeffrey Heine:You're secretly rejoicing in that. Envy is only happy at someone else's unhappiness. It's anti grace. Anti praise. It's anti gospel.
Jeffrey Heine:It cannot rejoice when God's good gifts and His grace are poured out on others. Do you see how coveting another person's life robs you of joy? By the way, if you want to try this at home, just for those of you who have multiple kids, this coming Christmas, just give presents to one child. It's a great way to teach them a lesson. Alright.
Jeffrey Heine:So, what's the cure? What's the cure for envy? How do you how do you extract that poison? Well, like all of the commandments that we have seen so far, all of them are ultimately to point to Jesus. And we're certainly gonna see this next week as we begin Romans again.
Jeffrey Heine:But they are all to drive us to Jesus. Jesus lived a life that was the exact opposite of envy. Jesus looked down at our life. He saw our wretchedness and our sin, us wallowing in our sin, and there was nothing about Him going, you know, I want that life. But you know it?
Jeffrey Heine:He became human and then came to us. And then He actually gave us his life. He accomplished what envy could never accomplish. When we envy, we want something better, we want something more glorious, we want something more joyful. But envy just rots the bones, and Jesus says, I know you want those things, and I'm going to give it to you.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm gonna take your wretched life, and I'm gonna give you mine. And we see this beautiful exchange happen. When Jesus, he takes our sin, he takes our shame, and and he gives us his joyful righteousness. He lets his grace flow down to us. The gospel is the only cure for an envious heart.
Jeffrey Heine:The cross is the only tool that can extract the poison from our hearts. Who cares if your neighbor has a better body than you? Or a better car or a better 401 k or a better marriage when you have Jesus. You have Jesus. All of your other desires, they're just echoes and shadows of that great desire you have in your heart, which is, I want to know God and be with him forever.
Jeffrey Heine:So let your envy drive you to Jesus. Because He's the one you're ultimately after And He's the one who provides a way where you can actually have your desires fulfilled. So confess. Go to Jesus. This is what the psalmist does.
Jeffrey Heine:If you remember our opening scripture, we did Psalm 73, which is a psalm about envy, which the psalmist is really struggling, looking around in comparison as the thief of joy, and is just like, why is everybody else getting what they want and I'm not? What pulls him out of it? Well, he begins to realize God's grace poured on him and his relationship he has with the Lord. And he says this. Nevertheless, I am continually with you.
Jeffrey Heine:You hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterwards, you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail.
Jeffrey Heine:And we might say my flesh, my heart, my health, my marriage, my kids, my 401 ks, my career. Those things might fail, but God is my strength and my heart and my portion forever. Let's pray. God, everything we try to hold on to in this earthly life will fail. Everything.
Jeffrey Heine:But you are our portion forever. We thank you that you have grabbed hold of us and you will never let go. Thank you that your grace flows to us. And I pray that we would be people who rejoice in grace, the grace that flows to us and the grace flows to others. Jesus, thank you for taking my sin and shame and giving me your joyful righteousness.
Jeffrey Heine:We love you. And we pray this in your sweet name. Amen.
