 If you would please turn with me to Exodus chapter 20 and this is the last sermon on the Ten Commandments. The title of the sermon is You Shall Not Covet. I hope to go through an intro introduction. What God forbids in this commandment is unholy coveting and discontentment. Three, what God requires holy coveting and contentment and then four, Christ and five application. Before reading the command there are several things that I believe must be said. You are you and God is God. God never has and never will need you for his existence or delight or satisfaction though he does delight in his creation and his people. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit are one and depend on nothing. God is absolutely and eternally unchangeable and self-sufficient. Creation or no creation, history or no history, he is I am. Nothing has or can ever improve him or better him because he is who he is, God. But you, you are puny and frail and unable to do anything without God's power upholding your life and mind. God is the Creator, the Lord of all and the only Savior. You are a destroyer, a law breaker, a God hater and because of that obnoxious apart from the grace of God. As it is written there is none good, no, not one. But praise God. Praise the Lord. God provides for the needy sinner out of his own goodness. He eternally saves a multitude which no man can number. He has blotted out the sins of his people and dressed us in Christ's righteousness for his namesake. And Jesus said rivers of living water would flow out of the hearts of his disciples because they would receive the Holy Spirit. Therefore you as image bearer, as his image bearer, as a child of God are to be content, sufficient and abounding in him, by him and for him. In Christ you are to be a fountain of living water, loving God and your neighbor and not a dried up well, covetous and discontent. Jehovah is your God. Therefore you shall not covet. Let's read the commandment. Exodus chapter 20 verse 17. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's. I'd like to talk about the context briefly. If you look at Exodus 19 verses three through six and Moses went up to God and the Lord called to him from the mountain saying thus you so say to the house of Jacob, tell the children of Israel, you have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people and for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel. In verse eight, they say in response, in self-confidence, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. Then God, their King says, get ready. I'm coming to you in a thick cloud. If you're here tonight, comfortable in your sin thinking I will do what is required, I am able. Behold what God says to you next in verse 11 and let them be ready for the third day for on the third day, the Lord will come down upon the Mount Sinai in the sight of all people. You shall set bounds for the people all around saying, take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. Not a hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot with an arrow. Whether man or beast, he shall not live. In verse 16, then it came to pass on the third day in the morning that there were thunderings and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and the sound of the trumpet was very loud so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. Be warned all you able ones. Each step toward God on his heavenly mountain in your own righteousness is a step towards certain death. The tremendous and vindictive wrath of God do all the race of Adam will come down on you. Will you not approach God through his able and accepted mediator, Jesus Christ? Has God not authorized you, the one who is rebellious to believe by the very sending of his son? Turn and live. Moving along in context, after this, God speaks with Moses. Moses goes down to the people when he speaks to them the terms of the covenant in Exodus chapter 20 verses one and two. And God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage. God documents his name and what he's done for them. And in verse three through 17, he covers the stipulations of the covenant mixed with blessings and cursings, which are the 10 commandments. Tonight we're focusing on the 10th. Before we get to it specifically, there are some things to be said about the moral law of God first. It is perfect. It's spiritual. It's holy. It's just good and eternal. It's universal. It's written in your heart and it applies to you. It's different than the gospel. The law shows us what we ought to be, but not how to become holy. The law promises life for man's perfect obedience, but the gospel promises eternal life for Christ's perfect obedience. On the other hand, the moral law of God harmonizes with the gospel. Both law and gospel seek to lead you to Christ. The law indirectly in the gospel directly. The law exposes you and shows you your need to have your debt forgiven. The gospel reveals Christ's blood alone washes away transgressions by faith. Legally, the law is heard this way. Pay. Pay what you owe. He is worthy. And the gospel is heard this way. Paid. The sinless substitute has paid. He is worthy. Then henceforth, with newborn ears, the law is heard this way. Child of God, how else will you demonstrate your love but by faithful obedience? This is what he requires of you. He is worthy. And the gospel is heard saying, Child of God, how else will you maintain faith, hope and strength? This is why you love because he first loved you. This is why you're for him because you're in him. He is worthy. Remember this, the gospel liberates the believer from the condemnation of God's moral law and much more. But the gospel never liberates the believer from the authority of God's law. Those who are enemies of the gospel are also enemies of the law. Like the Pharisees who neglected the way to your things of the law like justice and mercy. And those who are friends of the gospel are friends of the law. Like David by the spirit writing, I love your commandments more than gold. Yes, then find gold. Psalm 119, 127. Now let's look closer at the 10th commandment. I'm going to read it again. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbors. Each commandment is a representative part of a larger whole. Put another way, each commandment has a narrow meaning and a broad meaning. Like honor your parents is a narrow with reference to your legal parents or guardians. But the fifth commandment has a broader meaning which includes all authority, such as government, employer, spiritual leaders and God himself. So with the 10th, we're going to move from the narrow to the broad. Digging into this is very important brethren. Covetting is something that most people are very ignorant of. Paul said in Romans seven, for I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, you shall not covet. One of my primary desires tonight is that you know, like the man that uncovers dark things, what this sin is because it is often so subtle and always secludes itself in the heart. Though Judas had not the seed of God in him, we can say this as well. He never saw his slavery to covetousness. He served it all the way to the gates of hell. The main words in the commandment are covet and neighbors house and wife trying to keep it short. Before getting into the word covenant, I'm going to move to neighbors house and wife. Neighbors is a possessive adjective here modifying the nouns. It's not a house. It's your neighbor's house. It's not a wife. It's your neighbor's wife that's forbidden to desire. Your neighbor is anyone made in the image of God. Next house and wife house and wife come first indicating a priority as the list goes down to donkey than anything of your neighbors. House could be understood mean to mean metaphorically your neighbor's household or their family. But I after studying the sin more throughout the Bible take it to mean all the material things that make up his house or were part of it from his dwelling place, his land, his to his bed to his clothes. Last, the word covet. The Hebrew word here in Exodus is transliterated C H A M A D. I don't know how to pronounce that. So I'll still say something though. So you have some kind of tag. Come on. Hopefully I'll learn Hebrew. Please bear with me. Commod is a verb. It means to desire desire greatly covet, take pleasure in delight in as a noun. It means desirableness, preciousness. The word often has a sense of pleasure or delight in usage. Here's something as a verb it is used in scripture for good desires and evil desires. For example, as a good desire, Psalm 68 16 uses this word to describe God's desire, which says, this is the mountain which God desires come out to dwell in. Regarding evil desires. However, Joshua 7 21, where Akin confessed and said that he saw the forbidden forbidden accursed things. He said, I coveted I come on them and took them. This illustrates an important point. There are good desires and there are evil desires. The word covet itself is not wicked. This is a good there is a good coveting and there's an evil coveting. We use the word covet in English so often in the negative sense that we automatically think it's evil when that word's in use. Here in the 10th commandment, obviously it's ungodly and evil. So the narrow meaning is you shall not desire what is rightfully your neighbors. This commandment is not directly addressing what a neighbor is selling as if to say you shall not have a desire for your neighbor's donkey that's for sale or his car for sale. Nor is the commandment forbidding good desires towards your neighbor's house such as humbly desiring your neighbor's house for shelter in a storm in an effort to preserve your family. What is forbidden reveals itself in the purposes and motives of the desire. Sometimes you'll hear it said God forbids in this commandment having desires for forbidden things and he forbids having inordinate desires for non forbidden things like a job or food. It's easy for most to know that they should not desire to have their neighbor's wife but it's not easy to know when a desire say for a nice suit or a dress is covetous or not or if a desire for a spouse is covetous or not. What makes a desire inordinate? Let's look at a couple passages to grasp what makes a desire inordinate and sinful before God. Let's turn to Luke chapter 12 verse 15 and he said to them take heed and beware of covetousness for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses. Jesus warns the crowd against covetousness. What triggered the warning? Well, let's read verse 13. Then one from the crowd said to him, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. This man comes running to Jesus later in his ministry after his name is very well known. He commands with an imperative or entreats Jesus to govern a family dispute over a family inheritance so that his brother will divide a portion to him. So let me ask you, is it wrong to desire a portion of your family's inheritance? It depends. Family inheritance is not forbidden like your neighbor's wife is but the desire's sinfulness depends on if it is evil or holy coveting. In this case, it is emphatically inordinate, immoral and evil. This is evil covetousness on display. This man was consumed with his inheritance in this life but was oblivious to his need for an inheritance in the next. Instead of seeking Jesus like Zacchaeus weighed down with a guilty conscience or instead of wanting Jesus to come to his family and friends so that they might discover the pearl of great price like Matthew, this man gave priority to an earthly desire and he wants to use Jesus to get it. Who was not appointed for that role? Oh, vile. How many defenses do you think this man could have made to flatter himself or to justify himself to others like the wicked in Psalm 36, 2? 1 Thessalonians shows chapter 2 that covetousness can be characteristically cloaked. He could have said, what's wrong with wanting a portion of my own family's inheritance? My desire is for what's fair. I'm a son just like my brother. How can you say I'm sinning? My soul, calm yourself. You know your motives were for justice. Colossians 3 5 says covetousness is idolatry. By the way, covetousness, being idolatry, that verse is a very helpful link to understanding this sin. If you want to study. Think with me about this man. He idolizes or worships this inheritance or he idolizes or worships an idea which the inheritance can achieve for him or and that this idea he fears he cannot have without the inheritance. Let's consider the truth. What makes this desire inordinate? It's inordinate and sinful because it prioritizes earthly ends over spiritual ends. Don't you see? When your desires value the world over God, over Christ and his will, your desires are not just nor the actions that stem from it. It doesn't matter how holy it may seem to you or men. Even if you desire to be perfectly conformed into the image of Christ, but for the ultimate purpose of selfish worldly ends, you sin against God, though it be covered with the thickest of cloaks. Brothers and sisters, you shall not covet. You shall not prioritize desires with earthly ends over spiritual ends. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 6 33. Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things that is your needs shall be added to you. Continuing in verse 16 through 21 and I'm not going to read it most I believe here familiar with it. Then he spoke a parable to them saying the ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. This is the parable of the rich man who had a abundance of produce and decided to store it in barns so that he could have his soul's ease. Three more aspects of inordinate sinful desire are revealed in this parable. Those three things are that the desire when you want to know when it's evil. It's when it stems from pride. It's when it self centered in purpose. And it attributes divine ability to earthly objects or ideas. Notice how clearly self centered the full is. This man is not a steward in his mind. He's a kink. My crops. If you look in 17 what shall I do since I have no room to store my crops. Look at 18 at the end. I will store all my crops and my goods. My crops my goods. He thinks instead God's crops. God's goods. His self centeredness becomes more clear in his purpose behind the bigger barns. He does it for his soul's ease. You can see that in nineteen. He says soul you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease eat drink and be married and he's talking about the future. He says I will say showing his purpose. What makes this man's desires inordinate and evil. It is that they stem from pride their self centered in purpose. He doesn't purpose the extra crops for helping his neighbor or the needy. Instead he purposes his crops for his soul's ease. He designed his desire for his soul's ease is evil because it is stemming from pride is self centered and it reckons the idea of having many years of goods to be protection for his soul. He makes it an idol. This is important. Quickly look with me at Habakkuk two four. Behold the proud his soul is not upright in him but the just shall live by his faith. In verse five you can see about part of the way down. Well I'll just read verse five indeed because he transgresses by wine he is a proud man and he does not stay at home because he enlarges his desire as hell and he is like death and cannot be satisfied. He gathers to himself all nations and heaps up for himself all peoples. You see how pride and desire are linked. Also notice that what's the opposite of the covetous proud man is faith. If you go down look at verse nine. Woe to him who covet evil gain for his house. Why does a man covet evil gain for his house? He has a purpose that he may set his nest on high. When a bird sets his nest on high all all all the other creatures all they can do just look at it. No one can touch it. The man who covet evil gain he says I want to be untouchable and then there's a purpose even behind that. If you look up it says right here next part that he may be delivered from the power of disaster. He's attributing evil gain. He's giving divine qualities to that gain in his mind saying that when evil comes to me like calamity in my life I'm going to be safe because I have my evil gain. I have so much gain it'll protect me. If we'll go back now let's go back to Luke. Brothers or if you know you're not in Christ your soul will never get rest from earthly possessions or earthly ideas. Let me list some things. Careers jobs paychecks huge bank accounts 401ks property insurance houses clothes technology praise of men the best of reputations closest friendships family ties your own righteousness your own wisdom your own willpower your own strength a healthy body none of these things your soul will never be satisfied. Why? Because beloved you are made for God. God says to the man fool tonight your soul is required of you. Rest for the wicked soul can only be found in Christ. Whether you're born again or not this truth remains satisfaction can only be found in the bread of life. And oh what sweet overflowing satisfaction that is that there isn't him. This is why the covetous are never satisfied because they worship everything but God. They look for peace contentment satisfaction love joy in anything but God. They change the glory of God into an image of man's making they exchange the truth of God for the lie and worship and serve the creature rather than the creator. Therefore God gave them up to further covetousness to do those things not fitting. God says to the covetous man fool God is at the door folks covetous man if you're not in Christ awake a rise and Christ will shine on you lift up your eyes to heaven and see your death approaching repent and live Jesus then turns his disciples and goes into worry. Let's look at that if you look at verse what I want to read verse twenty one it's the end of the parable of the fool. So is he who lays up treasure for himself. You see how it's self centered and purpose. That's what makes that's one of those aspects that we said earlier that makes the desires wicked and is not rich toward God. It's the purposes aren't towards God but then look at this verse twenty two then he said to his disciples therefore what's the therefore therefore. It's a connection between what came earlier. What was he preaching about and teaching about before earlier covetousness and he goes into worry. If you were to go to Matthew chapter six where it says you cannot serve two masters either you will hate the one and love the other you cannot serve both God and money right after that he says therefore it goes into worry. Here he's pointing to his disciples. He's talking to the crowd tells them about the rich fool and then he says disciples and he goes into worry. Worry is another mask of covetousness. Worry if you study the passages on worry you'll see that worry comes from lack of faith. Let's look at verse twenty eight if if then God so close the grass which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven how much more will he clothe you oh you of little faith. Therefore evil covetousness doesn't trust God. Remember Habakkuk our desires are wicked and rebellious against the tenth commandment when they prioritize earthly ends over spiritual ends in other words they're not devoted to God when they stem from pride when they are self-centered in purpose and when they attribute divine ability to earthly objects or ideas they're ungodly and they are faithless much more can be said but let me just read this working broad definition. We started with the narrow here's the broad evil covetousness is a desire of any strength of any type of any length of time for any purpose object or idea which is without perfect and pure devotion to love for and trust in God. Therefore this commandment forbids any godless discontentment with your own God given estate and condition and it forbids any selfish self idolizing self-worshipping disposition towards your neighbor and all that is his. Here's some questions for self examination so that you can think think this through are my thoughts wholly taken up with the world like a virgin whose thoughts are all centered on her suitor are my thoughts wholly taken up with worldly things and ideas. Two do I believe the fulfillment of this desire will bring satisfaction fulfillment ease protection to my soul as if contentment cannot be had now in Christ three ask yourself is this desire under loving submission to the word of God remember Eve in the garden after entering into temptation she came to a point where she looked upon God's command hating him and with pride disobeyed God before she ate the fruit. Number four if the object or goal of my all my desires be stripped away if I can't have it and I knew I could never get it in this life am I content in and thankful for the pearl of great price and fully satisfied with him personally who is the bread of life. Here's an illustration I asked if I could have 40 um and I was given the permission uh once I was working for a power company in South Carolina and whenever you work for the power company eventually you'll come into a storm and there'll be outages people will be without power and I had the job of scouting out the problem was it a tree was it uh multiple trees um and you I had a computer and it would show me all the calls that people were making and their addresses and what they were calling about so you go and you find it out and you think you have it you you tell the people this is what the problem is is what the materials are needed here's the help that we need to get there well the storm had already been going the people are already doing their thing and you work for priorities you work to to put the most people on as fast as possible so if you're on the end of a circuit and you're just alone or you're going to be last well um I notice in the computer system whenever there's a consolidation of calls usually it's a it's a big deal that gets attention too squeaky wheel and uh I'm not seeing really any calls in this neighborhood but then later on in the storm things are going along I see all these calls I mean what are they coming about we know we got it over here we just hadn't got there yet and so we go over there and whenever you drive up and you have a Duke Energy truck people come out of their houses they don't have power and they've been calling they want to know what's going on I understand that and you know what they said they didn't have power it wasn't because some new tree fell it was because through their backyard on the other side street they could look through the backyard of their neighbor and they saw the power on at their neighbor's house because they were on a different circuit and they got theirs on and it triggered the calls everybody starts calling look he has power he has power the pride that exists in man when it enters into the soil of temptation outcomes covetousness why do they have power and I don't the desire self-centered it's not content in God nor does it lead to rejoicing with their neighbor and his good instead they sinfully covet their neighbor's power their sinful desire is prioritizing earthly ends over spiritual if they were seeking God's kingdom first they might take advantage of the lack of power and evangelize or help the needy they're not concerned with being rich toward God nor are they trusting God in the in the bible biblical imagery of the covetous the leech the barren womb hell death the fruitless seed choked out by the world and when i was reading this and i you think of jethro when he spoke to moses and he said appoint leaders that hate covetousness when you think of Jeremiah six and Jeremiah eight from prophet to priest every man's given to covetousness and they preach peace peace and when you look at second timothy three one through two i'm seeing this these things in the bible about leaders so we can we can broaden that and apply it to all leaders if you're a leader of any kind i wanted to share a quote with you you're a husband you're a mother you're a father you're a small group leader you're a disciple you're a pastor you're a deacon you're a leader at your work he said covetousness is the root of apostasy once leaders begin to be concerned about their security acceptability advancement well-being and possessions they will cease to stand firmly for the standards of the word stressing diplomacy over faithfulness peace and preference to purity diversity over god's narrow road so moving to the third point what's what's what does god require the tenth commandment also commands the opposite of what was just demonstrated all the commandments in the tenth commandments do this they necessarily imply their opposite so what does god require of this commandment what's well using the broad definition of what he forbids let me just put a broad definition to this and move on a continual streaming of all types and strengths of desires appropriate to each and every situation in life which is produced and governed by perfect and pure devotion to love for and trust in god therefore this commandment requires godly contentment abounding thanksgiving with your estate and condition and it requires a god-glorifying good-seeking disposition towards your neighbor and all that is his let me briefly mention here's some scriptures for you to look at heber's 13 five philippians 4 6 through 13 matthew 6 19 through 34 psalm 23 psalm 37 psalm 34 the biblical injury for what's required when somebody is obedient is like a weaned child how's a weaned child act when he's weaned no more whining nobody no more crying a fountain bread a satisfied stomach well the soul when it's satisfied is like that satisfied stomach that's the imagery of the opposite oh how excellent it is when this commandment is obeyed by the spirit when one denies himself and his evil desires and trusts god in christ and puts this commandment into practice how beautiful it is evangelical obedience in this area is excellent because god is worshipped in the heart because much grace is at work faith contentment humility godly priorities and because the soul is delivered from an abundance of temptations deramai's burm your my borough said in the rare drill of christian contentment the devil loves to fish in troubled waters think about cornerstone baptist church faithfully obeying this commandment more so than what you would say is faithful now think about how excellent that looks and how a much of a confirmation it is of the gospel in our covetous world i hope everyone here tonight can see this sin in your life this lack of obedience in your hearts i hope your conscience has spoken because you should be longing to put this into practice longing for the grace and strength to apply this commandment longing for a hatred of the sin i know of no better way to aid you than to exalt the lord jesus christ if we will turn with me to matthew four let me just say this beloved i'm not ashamed of the gospel of christ for it is the power of god the salvation for everyone who believes for in it the righteousness of god is revealed the righteousness of god is the perfect obedience of jesus christ to the whole law from the deepest depths of his heart who is the son of god regarding this commandment in your position before god remember the gospel if you trust in him and you the day death says to you i come like in the rich fool you can look it in the eye and say i'm ready christ has already come for me and his righteousness is all sufficient death let's not delay i come remember jesus was born under the law that he might redeem us who were under the law in his temptations one thing is for sure he is meriting heaven and that for his people in each temptation he's tested and put on trial will he love god with all his heart and fulfill his mission his pride and covetousness capable of him as fully man each temptation is multifaceted but i want you to see his marvelous breathtaking obedience to the father he is physically near death in this passage in matthew four the pangs of hunger gnaw at him well beyond the hunger of the israelites in moses's day he's weak he's exhausted and lays exposed to the devil 40 days ago his father said this is my beloved son and whom i'm well pleased he has just begun his anointed ministry he now and he knows full well he is the foreshadowed prophesied one of the scriptures and he is the only mediator between god and man but here he is in the wilderness with the beasts close to death the serpent of old cunningly approaches the devil being allowed has found an opportune time and calculatingly says if you are the son of god command that these stones become bread whatever else may be known to the lord at this time one thing is for sure it was clearly against his father's will for him to turn these stones into bread and the devil knew it i want you to see his contentment and see the righteousness of christ that is imputed to you today if you're in him and that will be declared in the kingdom of heaven on judgment day i want you to see his his fulfillment of the tenth commandment among other things but i want to see that he demonstrates as god the son and his fully man his immeasurable strength and love for god he's not like you he's not like me he's the god man he was not drawn away towards sin his greatest priority remains heavenly he values his father and his will over his own earthly needs he trusts the father to provide and his providence he is and remains humble not considering his equality with god something to be grasped at to feed himself or to humiliate humiliate the devil's insinuation that he is not the god not who he says he is he replies it is written man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of god he doesn't selfishly idolize his name against the father's will but he remains utterly resolved to reveal his father's glory by obedience despite all the conditions he remains perfectly content and with immeasurable love for the father and spirit he submits to the word of god the devil lit one of his most fiery arrows and shot but it was quenched in the infinite love in the infinite ocean of christ's love for god and therefore god's elect as our high priest there was nothing in him to catch fire leading to sin he is holy jesus never has had the slightest stirring of an evil desire in the most secret places of his heart even while on the cross he is the lord our righteousness therefore he could as son as holy be your substitute being offered to the eternal spirit therefore by faith in his work you can be assured you will be found righteous at the judgment with the tenth commandment since there's justification in christ how much should you able to have a clean conscience be doing the good work of obedience to this commandment how zealous should you be not to covet knowing how you were justified and given the gift of this spirit to obey jesus said without him you can do nothing and paul said i can do all things through christ who strengthens me and he he talks about that context about contentment therefore brethren i exhort you you shall not covet let me just give you five things on uh i'll just narrow it to three uh do the five all right five five things in application like when you get to it when you when you're thinking about it you're like how can i leave application out that's so important um this applies to those who are in christ acknowledge and confess your nakedness before god of your sinful desires be transparent with god though holy your god has known you all your life before the foundation of the world and yet he has brought you to himself in christ confess them confess your sins and faith and he is faithful and just to forgive your sins number two when sensible to your sinful lusts and desires meditate on and consider the greatness of the mercies that you have and the smallness of the object or idea of coveting that you're coveting ask yourself why should i be discontent and covet the things that a reprobate can have or may have why should i have what angels have and more and yet be discontent over this trifle number three do not grasp too much of the world do not take in more of the busyness of the world than god calls you to why should you go out of the way to go among thorns if god has not called you to do it number four be sure of your call to every business you go about if you're sure about your purpose to the to the least business or affair then whatever you meet your heart may be quieted with this and faith order yourself in each affair as you are able according to god's word when you when you know in what way god calls you to each affair you can in the spirit walk by the word and whatever may come god will take care of you if you subject yourself to god and all things then the truth is all things are under you and last mortify the fear of men with the fear of god so many are discontent and covetous not because they lack something not of themselves but because of what is highly esteemed among men your lack is so great would it be so would it be so if everyone on earth had less than you or if your current estate and condition were significantly more highly esteemed by your peers in the world mortify the fear of men the Pharisees were notorious notorious the covetous and lovers of money but they were even more notoriously man pleasers who love the praise of men more than the praise of god amen let's pray gracious father thank you for your word lord thank you for the patience of your people thank you lord for this opportunity to serve you please minister to us and bless the preaching of your word to our hearts as we leave here amen