Covetousness

Message Preached by Pastor Dean Allen
at the
1990 New England Baptist Family Conference

(See the special Handout given when this sermon was preached.)
 

YESTERDAY we sought to lay a foundation for these studies on stewardship of earthly resources by admonishing us to keep in mind the motivation and the design of the Devil in all our monetary affairs, and not to take lightly the fact that he is at work in every penny to lead our souls astray, to choke off the Word and keep us from eternal life. We need to remember that not only is the Devil active, but that our own hearts remain the camp ground of the world's allurements and are prone to follow them. What I was really dealing with was our tendency to be proud and to assume that we arrive at a certain point at which we are no longer vulnerable to the danger of falling prey to a heart that is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked and, therefore, able to lead even the most noted professing Christians to the very pits of hell. I wanted us to think that each of us is surely vulnerable to the allurements of this age and the wicked designs and devices of Satan to be led to our destruction at the point of possessions. The Bible is so filled with warnings about this issue, we ought to assume the Lord, then, believes it's a vital matter.

Mortification of the Heart

The text which I want to read to provide a backdrop for our consideration this morning is in Colossians chapter 3, regarding the mortification of the heart or the members. I'm focusing on the mortification of the heart because the text does that. This passage assumes that the reader has a regenerate heart. This is addressed to people who have risen with Christ and are seated with Christ in heavenly places, those that have the wherewithal to do the work of mortification. If, therefore, you were raised together with Christ, there are some things that you need to hear and must do. Then in verse 5, the apostle says, "Put to death, therefore . . ." Since you are with Christ at the right hand of God and are to set your affections on things which are above rather than on things which are beneath, put to death therefore all those things remaining in you that are a contradiction to those affections. "Put to death, therefore, your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness which is idolatry." Now what is he saying?

In this list, which includes the vilest forms of immorality, is this word covetousness. If you're familiar with your New Testament, you know that church discipline is to be enacted or administered to those in the church who are guilty of being covetous people. But we also know that covetousness is a matter of the heart. The commandment found at the end of the ten is the commandment that goes beneath the external. Paul could say, "I was, touching the law, blameless. Those who looked upon me from the outside could not find anything with which, legitimately, to blame me. I was a Pharisee. You couldn't find anything wrong with my second-table-of-the-law-keeping." But the Spirit of God found the problem. It was at that tenth commandment — in the heart. That's what Paul saw. That's what slew him. That's what brought him to see his need.

If we understand that, then we might ask the question: How can a church be instructed to excommunicate a covetous man whose sin is in the heart? How can you judge that a man is covetous? What right do we have to judge the heart? Why would God command the Corinthians to put away from themselves that wicked man, and any others like him (among whom were included the covetous), if it required that they discern what the heart of covetousness is in a man? How does it look? We're told in Colossians 3 to mortify (put to death) covetousness at the root of the heart. We're told to kill it at the heart level. But in this text he is addressing the regenerate who can act on the therefore.

We parents who've had some instruction on rearing children know that it's not enough to get the kids' external, bodily response. We've learned that little phrase, "Obey in the heart." "Smile in your heart." "Sit down in your heart." But often times there are those two- to three-year-olds and, if not disciplined, those six-, seven-, nine- and fifteen-year-olds who may well say, "Daddy, I'm sitting down with my bottom, but with my heart I'm still standing." Some think we're way beyond the grace of God in preaching that parents require that their children obey from the heart. I have to admit that there is a limited capacity of an unregenerate child to obey from the heart. We have to recognize that. And yet the commandment goes to the heart, and so the requirement must go to the heart.

Then in verse 12 in this same passage he says, "Put on, therefore, as God's elect, holy and beloved, a heart of . . . " Not just put on the outer, but put on the heart. My wife and I are very familiar with a process of developmental training in children who have various disabilities. One philosophy of physical therapy, certainly in some people, is that because in the brain the neurological connectants aren't being made naturally from the inside, physical therapy makes the electrical current run from reverse so that the connection might be able to be made from outside. Make the limbs move so that we can reverse the process and perhaps make the connection in there, and then the person may well be able to learn to improve his own motor skills.

What do you do when you're mortifying the heart, a heart that at its root is already ill-motivated? Is there any hope for coming from the outside and changing it? How do you change your heart? "Circumcise your hearts," the prophet said. How do you do that? How do you make your heart sit down when God says to sit down? Is God unfair? Is He demanding more than possible? Not of a regenerate man or woman. Part of the process is by doing the external things with vigor and forcing the mind to agree with God about the issue until the connections are made in reverse and the neurological system of the soul is at agreement, and then the reverse process begins to flow naturally. I can move my own spiritual limbs without the physical therapist having to do it all for me.

One of the desires of good parents is that the children get to the place that they don't have to be reminded constantly to show good manners at the table, but that they actually would become aware of their surroundings and begin to motivate themselves so that Mom doesn't have to tell them everything. One of the desires of God's heart is that His children come to the place that they don't constantly have to have the preacher, or some spiritual parent, hovering over them to correct every little thing, but that they grow up and become men able to come from their own hearts and exercise their own spiritual muscles.

The reason we've read this particular passage, is simply to make us understand that God expects, commands and provides for the mortification of sin at the root of the heart. So when we're thinking of this business of covetousness and this matter of stewardship as it flows from the heart, we're thinking of the fact that it is our duty. And it is only in conformity with Christianity that men act this way. If they don't, they're not Christians. It is our duty to take care of the matter at the heart.

I tell you as a pastor, it's one of the most grievous and frustrating and angry things to give counsel to men who say, "Pastor, God in His sovereignty simply hasn't changed my heart. I'm lazy; I admit it. My wife gets aggravated all the time with me. I don't get up in the morning and read my Bible. Pastor, you were preaching right to me. I'm guilty." Well, why don't you do something? "Because it's in the heart, and the Lord has to change the heart." Have you ever heard that? Did you ever say that? That's an abuse of the doctrine of the sovereignty of God. It's one thing for us to admit yes, this is a matter of the heart. It's another for us to address that issue and lead with our hearts submitted gladly.

Doesn't the Scripture say "Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power" (Psalm 110:3)? And don't we preach the effectual call, how that God really does make us willing to come? And don't we preach perseverance, meaning that having made us willing, we continue to live a life that is willing — from the heart? Do we really believe the five points? I submit to you that one of the problems among Reformed Baptists (and many of us may have it) is that there are men who are absolutely convinced that the five points of Calvinism are true. They love to preach them. They are excellent preachers of them. Their people love these things, sometimes because they're Athenians who love any new thing. But often times they have not comprehended the very essence of the meaning of those things, so that their people continue to live as though what they're preaching isn't true.

What is effectual calling if it is not applied at the point of turning an unwilling heart into a perpetually willing heart? You don't know what you're talking about if you say, "You can't expect church members to be motivated by rules. That's legalism. Men have to be motivated by the Spirit from within."

We're not suggesting that you have to motivate an unwilling Christian. We're suggesting there's no such thing as an unwilling Christian. A rule given to a willing Christian is not a problem. He welcomes those barriers, those fences, erected by a gracious Father through the means of church leaders. Now I'm not saying that to vindicate a certain philosophy of church life. I'm just saying it because it's the doctrine of Christianity. It is not a church adding things to what it means to be a Christian. It is a church living in the light of what it means to be a Christian.

To require a man to have a profession that's creditable is not inconsistent with the Scripture. It is the only scriptural thing to do. And to require that there be external things obeyed in order to get to the heart is not inconsistent with the Bible. Put on a heart . . . of compassion. Put it on. You do it. Do you see that implication? I want to drive that point home because it is my duty. It is your duty to see that your heart is right. It is not your duty to say, "Lord, I've done the outside. I've put my carcass in the pew. I've opened the Bible. Now, I'm going to wait until You move." It is your duty to ask God to move. It is your duty to beg God to deal with your heart. The Psalmist did (Psalm 51:6): Make me to know truth in the inward parts. But it is your duty, as well, while you are praying to put on a certain kind of heart. That assumes there is labor and vigor involved. And it assumes that it is attainable. Well, I trust that you have something of the idea of where I'm going.

This morning I'm going to deal with the doctrine of covetousness. The Bible is clear about covetousness. In Colossians 3:5 covetousness equals idolatry. Now there are other forms of idolatry. But covetousness is idolatry. It is not potential idolatry. It is not sort of idolatry. It is idolatry. Why? Because covetousness is the preoccupation of the heart with that which isn't God as though it were. It's depending on things to meet the needs only God can meet. It's the assumption that God has not and will not meet them; therefore I need this thing to do it. It is fraught with all manner of problem. Now let me suggest to you what the problem is.

A Picture of the Heart

What I want to do is dig down into your heart, let you get something of a picture of your heart, and then give you some discernment about covetousness. How do you spot it? You're not going to mortify it if you don't know it when you see it. It's hard to kill an enemy who is invisible. If you can find covetousness in your heart, you can get after it. I want to help you with that. Listen to three brief things about the heart.

1. The heart is the fountain of idolatry. Mark 7:18-22. The Lord says to them, "Are you so without understanding also? [Now they're preoccupied with externals]. Perceive you not that whatsoever from without goes into the man, it cannot defile him; because it doesn't go into his heart, but into his belly, and goes out into the draught? This he said, making all meats clean. And he said, That which proceeds out of the man, that defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, evil thoughts proceed, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, covetings . . ." And He goes on and lists all the other things. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man. The heart is the fountain of idolatry. He's not talking about the physical pump. He's talking about the root of the man, the force of his life, that which defines him as he is in the sight of God. An idolater is an idolater because his heart is an idolatrous heart. It grows from within.

As we read in Deuteronomy chapter 8, "Beware lest . . . . your heart be lifted up" and you begin to think, "My power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth." Do you see the idolatrous tendency to forget who gave you the wealth and take the credit for yourself? Or, do you forget who can give you the wealth and begin to try to get it your way? It comes from a heart that is misplaced in its priorities.

Romans 1:21. The problem of the heart of the world: " . . . . knowing God, they glorified him not as God, neither gave thanks." They had a heart disposed to discontentment, grumbling, complaining. Every expression of ingratitude has its root in idolatry. They didn't glorify God as God neither were thankful. They go together. Where you are not thankful, the seeds of idolatry are showing themselves because you've begun to look elsewhere for the answers that only God provides and the provision that only God gives. Their foolish heart was darkened. As Thayer says, "the stupid heart" was darkened. What stood before them as God, they refused to acknowledge as God; and their lives were a consistent picture of ingratitude. When you said this week, "It's hot in my room," and you didn't stop that pretty quickly and you let it degenerate into a continued fussing, it came out of a heart that still has some problems.

I didn't get much sleep last night, and I had to fight off some trouble this morning in my attitude. It took the Lord almost till the time I preached to get me disciplined enough to say, "You disposed that whole evening for my good, and I hereby submit my will to that gladly." It was a good thing I had to preach or I may be still wandering around in the back of my mind about that stuff. Preaching is a good means of grace for the preacher. I hope that having opened my heart up to you, it has been a means of grace for the hearer as well.

"Neither gave thanks." The reason they didn't give thanks is because they weren't thankful. The reason they weren't thankful is because they refused to see God as God in all the plenitude of His magnificent provision. They didn't like His provision of His law and of His good things. So they forsook the fountain of living waters and hewed them out cisterns which hold no water (Jeremiah 2:13). They broke His heart, and they doomed themselves. God sees at the heart level and sees it as the fountain of idolatry.

2. The heart is the arena of judgment. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he (Proverbs 23:7). God does not primarily judge by the externals, but by the heart. Now He judges by the externals in that they are the fruit of the heart. That's why He judges according to your works. You do good or bad because that proves what you are. It's always consistent with what you are. God looks on the heart. What does it say in II Corinthians 9:7? "God loves a cheerful giver." We're being led to believe that God is looking at even the motivation behind the gift. He's looking at the deepest recesses of the heart and has a peculiar regard and favor for the one who comes hilariously giving gladly.

I love the way the Bible hems us in. You have not satisfied the principle of giving until you give happily. God has put that in there. Do you want to get out from under the law and rules and get under grace where it's easy? Let me tell you what that means. When you move from the law (which says, "Here's how much precisely") to grace, it says, "There's more to it than that." Grace says, "Here's how much precisely plus a whole lot more, and all of it with a happy, hilarious heart." I tell you if you want to limit the amount you owe, you better go back to law. A preacher told me one time, "I like the doctrine of tithing because once I've given my ten percent, then I'm paid up." No, no! This was a college pastor training young ministerial students how to think! What does it mean then in Malachi 3 when he says, "In tithes and offerings"? Why are offerings included in robbing God if the ten percent is all you've got to give? I had problems with that. Then I found out years later that that pastor had the position that he didn't have to tithe because his money was being provided by tithes already. He didn't understand what giving means. He had no thought of worshiping from the heart. And that's the arena of judgment.

"Thou desirest truth in the inward parts" (Psalm 51:6). Do you remember when the Psalmist confessed that? It was when he looked at himself, having seen what he was capable of doing. For approximately a year his bones were melting within him. The pressure of God was upon him. When Nathan came, the Psalmist did not understand that Nathan's parable applied to him. How a man could be both under conviction and yet so blind in his vanity as not to be constantly aware of it, is perplexing.

But in Psalm 51 he says, "Behold, I can see." All of a sudden, it dawns on him. "The thing I've done and the way that for many months afterward I was capable of covering it, and the damage I did without breaking my heart . . . . I'm a sinner so far back and so far down I never saw it before. From my mother's womb I was conceived in iniquity, brought forth in it. I came forth speaking lies." It was like, "Behold, look what I discovered." And then he leads into "Thou desirest truth in the inward parts. It's not enough for me to strut around Israel having covered my tracks with the death of Uriah and having the support of the palace guard and all the folks that knew what I did. It's not enough." God looks on the heart. And God judges at the heart.

Do you remember that telling verse, that horrifying verse, "But the thing David had done displeased the Lord" (II Samuel 11:27)? I thank God for that verse. It has put me in check a lot of times when I knew nobody else would know. It was as though the Spirit of God would retrieve that verse and throw it into my face: "But the thing David had done displeased the Lord." Dear brethren, that's really all that matters. You get that settled, and the rest will fall in line. What Mrs. So and So thinks about your dress is not so vital. But what Jehovah thinks about your dress is. What you and your family hide from others about the way you spend your money, and what you hold back from the offerings, and what you do with your waste and your debts and your savings and your budget and your foolishness . . . , what other people don't know won't hurt . . . Ah, what God knows will hurt you. "But the thing David had done displeased the Lord" because the heart is the arena of judgment.

God always keeps His eyes on the heart. Therefore, you must mortify the deeds of the heart from the heart. You must put on a heart. You must put to death the heart. You can't avoid it. The rich man loves what he has and will not part with it. The poor man loves what the rich man has and will gladly help him part with it. Both of them are covetous men. You can be just as covetous as a poor man as you can as a rich man. And God knows it. You're not cleared just because you ain't got nothin'.

The reason I say that some of you are prone not even to take what I am preaching to heart because you ain't got nothin'. Although you've got more than eighty percent of the world's population, you don't think you've got anything. You see, the poor folks are idol worshipers, too, because if they could get it, they would. They love it. Beware! Your heart is the place on which God has set His judging eye. You must be sure that it's dealt with at the root in the inward parts. God requires proof.

3. The heart is the object of mortification. You must keep your heart with all diligence. It is a vast thing to satisfy. Money can never satisfy it. If you're diligent in keeping your heart, you will continually preach to your heart, "That thing, oh Heart, will never placate you." What does the Bible say? When riches increase, they also increase that have them (Ecclesiastes 5:11). Do you know what that means? Well, at least it means this. The more you eat, the bigger your stomach gets and the more it wants. Do you know how to train your appetite away from eating too much? You keep food out of the belly until it shrinks back a bit and doesn't want so much. Once you get it shrunk back, it's a little easier not to eat so much. When riches increase they do not satisfy; they stretch the linings of the stomach. They take the folds out, and there's more room for more.

Have you not learned that in your own experience? "If we just had another $47.37 a week, that would end our worries." So the Lord calls your bluff, and you got it. You got more than $47.37, but as soon as you got it you spent it because there were other things you wanted. I believe most of us in our culture are guilty of living at the end of our financial rope. And it's sin to do so.

We have no preparation for the future. We have no concept of savings because we're not self-controlled. The fruit of the Spirit is self-control (Galatians 5:23). It means that when I have extra I don't have to spend it. I could put it in the bank. I could be prepared as the ants are, laying up in store season to season (Proverbs 6:8). Remember that parable of the virgins (Matthew 25:1-13)? They wasted it all. The hour came for requirement, and they didn't have it. A lot of people are living their whole life treating mammon without thinking and not being prepared and disciplined and self-controlled.

The heart is the object of mortification. You ask, "Am I a covetous person?" "Are there fruits of covetousness in me?" "Is covetousness a problem for me?" I am trying to make sure that you see covetousness in yourself wherever it is. I want you not to presume or assume that there is no chance that it's in you. I want to find it if it's there because it is idolatry, and it will kill you unless you kill it. If you're not putting that to death, it will be putting you to death. "How can I mortify covetousness?" That leads me to share with you some principles for discerning covetousness.

Symptoms of Covetousness

Now again, we're assuming that yours is a redeemed heart, a regenerate heart, a renewed heart and that there is some foundation on which we can build these exhortations. Listen to Thomas Watson, or at least paraphrasing him. (I couldn't find a better description of symptoms of covetousness.) The old Puritan, in his very liquid and picturesque way, laid out in exposition of the tenth commandment some of these suggestions.

Your Thoughts Are Wholly Taken Up with the World

For instance, on the Lord's Day with all of your efforts, you simply cannot tear your thoughts away from last Friday. You just can't get your mind on worship because of your business problems. You can't do it. You labor to do it, but it's gotten in too deep. You got too much tangled in the world. You have too many worries, and you cannot draw aside. The Lord's Day is not a day of rest for you. It's a day of torn motivations. You're trying to worship and you can't. You spend the afternoon feeling dull and guilty and wondering if you're really saved. You come back to the evening service, and you're distracted by the afternoon. Your thoughts are wholly taken up with the world. You will see how much you've given your mind to the things of the world by the way your thoughts tend to wander in worship.

How do you deal with that? One of the ways we deal with it in our church is to exhort one another to keep our mouths shut about all that stuff on the Lord's Day — not speaking our words (Isaiah 58:13). That assumes we're speaking God's words. Does that mean that all day on Sunday you must be quoting the Bible? No, but it does mean that the tenor of our conversation on the Lord's Day would not lead us to be occupied with the coming picnic, the previous ball game, the business things, the diapers we got on sale at K Mart Saturday.

Brethren, one of the most difficult places to fight this battle is in the church nursery. It's the first time all week you ladies have talked to each other, and here's your chance. But do you understand the dynamics of the Spirit in the body of Christ, when perhaps the men that are preaching and singing and praying have their wives in another room babbling about the latest sale at K Mart? You say, "Pastor, that sounds like you're binding consciences again. What's so wrong about that? Shouldn't we talk about bargains?" Sure. But why didn't you call on Monday or Friday and tell her about it? "I didn't have time." You've got to make time. Don't take God's time. Yes, you had time. The whole principle of developing the unity of the Spirit includes laborious interaction during the week.

We keep urging our people not to grab somebody as soon as the service of worship is over and say, "By the way, how you gonna get to the game Thursday?" or "Did you get your fence put in?" We all tend to forget that. We find ourselves constantly checking ourselves. Why? Because we've been taught to do that. If we weren't taught, we wouldn't even know we were doing anything wrong. Sometimes people have not been taught. Their conversation is wholly taken up with the world all day on the Lord's Day. It's as though nobody has even bothered their conscience to stop and say, "Oops." You see, it's one thing for you to say, "I believe our conversation is not leading to edification," and back up and say, "I'm sorry. I got a little beyond myself." That's one thing. But never to notice it and to barge right on as though there's no problem reveals either a lack of teaching or a lack of hearing. If your thoughts are wholly taken up with the world, you're a covetous person.

You Exert More Pains for Earth than for Heaven

The covetous man wishes for heaven, but he hunts for the earth. Covetous people want to go to heaven. Most of them think they are. But their picture of heaven is just a glorified eternal satisfaction of their covetousness. As one man said: an everlasting fly fishing trip. You see, people think in terms of heaven as the place where God finally says, "All right, here's the candy store. Your Daddy owns it. You eat it all for free." They'll never get rotten teeth. They'll be able to continue their sins without any consequences. That's heaven to some people. And I'm not talking about outsiders. I'm talking about church members. There are people who have never reckoned with what heaven is. This week we've heard about worship and its implications in the glorified state, but some people haven't thought about that.

We've dealt with men in church counseling and discipline matters who said, "Pastor I want to go to heaven. I think I'm going to heaven. I plan to go to heaven. And I expect to go to heaven. God saved me." And then we ask them, "What do you plan to do there?" "I don't know. But I know whatever it is, it's going to be great." That sounds an awful lot like, "I don't know who Jesus is, but He's for good. I don't know what heaven is, but it's going to be wonderful." What they think is wonderful is what they thought was wonderful all the days down here: satisfy every lust.

But men in the churches often satisfy those lusts in acceptable ways. The way a lot of the churches in my background did it was they built cathedrals to pleasure — on the church grounds, as a way of sanctifying those things, so kids could gather at the church and do what they would have done ordinarily: bowling alleys, skating rinks, volley ball things, swimming pools, nautilus/universal joints. In the church! At church expense! To keep them off the streets! But what happened? They brought the streets into the church. I've been there, and I've seen it. It just doesn't work the way they planned it to work. More pains to get earth than heaven. They want to get heaven, but their labor is for earth. When it comes time to sacrifice sleep for God's worship, they can't. To put aside food so they can be more alert, they can't. To sit up in the pew and take a few deep breaths so as to stay awake and force the body to give attention, they won't. They want to blame the preacher for preaching too long.

The rich young man went away sad because he had great possessions (Luke 18:23). He fell at the feet of the Master, wanting eternal life, but his great possessions were over there. He had gone to a lot of trouble to get them and preserve them and deposit them and invest them. He couldn't part with them. There are men in Reformed Baptist Churches that will spend no money for a book or a Bible, even for their children, but they will not miss Disney World. They'll save for months to take an extravagant vacation to help their kids be happy, but won't buy them a good Bible translation so they can keep up with the pastor because it costs $11.95. They'll spend $20.00 on them for admission to an amusement park. Then they wonder why the family just doesn't quite fit together and why things never are happy. They keep trying to get stuff that can't make you happy.

All Your Discourse Is about the World

Your conversation. As Watson puts it, "Your breath smells strongly of earth." People hang around you and believers who are really striving to grow in grace and to know God begin to want not to be around you much. Though you're a lot of fun and they enjoy talking with you, they go away not closer to God. They go away with a sense that you haven't invigorated their soul or turned them to spiritual things because you can't talk about anything but the world. One of the most grievous experiences is to come directly from dealings with God in my heart and run into a guy who says, "Hey, how's it goin', Preach? Hey, did you hear about the new tent we bought? It spreads 11' x 13', fits the whole family. You ought to come use it some time." In the foyer! Right after preaching! Speaking to his preacher! Can't get it off the brain. Talking about this and that, and "How's the weather?" Sometimes in the most holy atmosphere! It just stands out like a sore thumb. And it grieves the saints. You're covetous if all you talk about is the world.

You Will Part with Heavenly Things to Get Worldly Things

Esau sold his birthright for a little morsel of meat (Genesis 25:31-34). Some red stuff. In Texas, we call it a pot of red beans. Whatever it was, he parted with his birthright for a bowl of soup. Demas, having loved this present world, forsook the apostolic ministry (II Timothy 4:10). The most blessed place to be in the earth, he left it. A companion of Paul. A man who knew to pray with the apostle, to suffer with the apostle, to be at the heartbeat and the vanguard of God's missionary enterprise. He left it all for the world.

You part with heavenly things to get worldly things. Perhaps you separate yourself from a good name by saving a buck here and there. For instance, every time you buy something, you nag with the seller because it's too much. You're the discount man. You want to get Christians to do your work at home for you so you can save money. You've got method in your madness. You go around to your brethren (often times on the Lord's Day), and you make these deals. You get them when they're soft. "Hey, brother, I heard that you do bathrooms. Well, I'm running a little short on money right now, but I really want to get a good job. I'm sure that as a Christian you do good work. When can you do it for me?" What you've just done is sacrificed a bit of your good name and a bit of integrity to save a few dollars. You've used a brother. You haven't thought about his needs. You've violated all kinds of the laws of God in order to save a few bucks. Don't you live your life looking for those opportunities. If you've got that on your brain, you've got covetousness in your heart. Why don't you say, "Hey, brother, I'd rather my money go to a man of God so you can have more to tithe. Give me a fair and honest price. What you would charge the man down the street? I want you to do a good job for me, but I will not take a discount." (Now I'm not saying it would be wrong is he insists.)

Some of you will forfeit the salvation and nurture of your children because you have a better job in a place where there's not a church of like faith and mind. You will move to give them a better house and a better insurance policy, and you'll sell their souls down the drain. You will part with heavenly things to get worldly things. You're a covetous person.

You've got to get ahead. As Martha, you are much cumbered (distracted) about many things (Luke 10:40). Two jobs. Four jobs. Now, brethren, I want to hasten to say that we're living in a culture that's committed to a two-parent income. It's difficult. The whole economy is structured on the assumption that the $6.00-an-hour male has a wife somewhere making $4.00 an hour, so he's really getting $10.00. In our church we've got men working for $6.00 an hour married and with kids. And their wives are not going to go out and work outside the home. Cottage industries are almost always legislated out of existence in our day. They don't meet the spec's. It's a tough time. I'm aware of that. But be careful that because of the allure to get more and get ahead, you don't kill yourself with extraordinary amounts of labor. It may bespeak a covetous heart. It may. I say this with a pastor's heart that is very, very sensitive (and I'm very careful how I give counsel at this point).

Some men maybe ought to consider working extra hours. But in other men, I'm wondering what it's costing them. You see the real cost of something is the amount of your life you spend to get it. Sometimes your children really do need you more than yours. You just have to be wise enough to know where to draw the line. I'm not always sure I could tell you where that is. But be careful that your heart is not working too much because you're covetous.

You Will Use Unlawful Means to Get Earthly Things

You will be able to see it in a covetous man because he will break the law of God to get things. Here are some examples:

1. He'll work on the Sabbath because if he doesn't take that job at $39,500 in his chosen career which requires Sabbath labor, he will have to work for $23,000 Monday through Saturday. "Surely, Pastor, you're compassionate enough to understand that $15,000 would be a lot of tithe money." I've had it said to me — using tithing to tempt me to shut my mouth and violate the Lord's Day. Now I'm not talking about works of necessity, but let me define necessity. "Pastor, it's necessary because we need the money." No, no. That's not what the Bible is talking about. When they were bringing their stuff to the market place on the Sabbath and were condemned for doing it, that was not necessary (Nehemiah 13:15-22). The Old Testament teaches them that in the harvest they're supposed to sit down on the Sabbath. I mean at the time when one day's delay may cost them part of a crop. In seed time. In harvest. You take off.

You mark my word, the love of money is at the root of all kinds of evil. Many who profess to be Reformed Christians but will not preach the sanctity of the first day of the week as the sabbath to be observed all the day, are rejecting that theological point in the name of grace versus law. But that's not their problem. They can't bear the cost. They know what it's going to cost if they give counsel to some of their covetous men that they'd better quit their jobs if they have to work on Sundays when it's not necessary or an act of mercy. Don't tell me it's an act of mercy that you're stocking groceries at the grocery store, and people have to buy them. We don't need that. We've got plenty of groceries in our culture. If we had to fast all day on the Lord's Day, it wouldn't hurt anybody that I know. Let's quit trying to fox God on this issue.

A little extra money is not a biblical necessity. You will not mock God. What you sow, you will reap (Galatians 6:7). You say good-by to one Sabbath every four in a work that's not necessary, God will say good-by to some things in your heart. He'll give you over to the other Sundays when you'll find it difficult to concentrate. He'll take away the rest of your Sabbaths. You mark it. What was it like to be exported in chains far away to Babylon, not able to have the worship of the temple anymore for seventy years? God told them what it was. It was all the Sabbaths they had violated. He was going to collect from them. They had violated them in their greed. Brethren, take this seriously. If you would sacrifice the Sabbath Day for your work and your money, you are a covetous man. And if you ladies push your husbands to do it, you're a covetous woman. Don't you bring his soul down. Don't you hold out that piece of fruit for him. Don't you do it.

2. Sometimes a mother will work out of the home and farm out her children for a little extra. That is wicked. I would not bind your souls and consciences to wives cannot work out of the home, but I tell you, you are to be trained (by my Bible and apostolic language) in order to adorn the gospel and keep the enemy silent. You're to train the younger women that they love their husbands, love their children, and be keepers at home. To the degree a church insists on that, God will show them that He can prosper them far above losing the kids when they are eighteen because nobody knows how to corral them.

Brethren, the whole drug problem is rooted in that kind of nonsense. You and I, as taxpayers, are paying for this wickedness. And now they are trying to force the economy in such a way as to leave you no choice. They will subsidize the day care, but not subsidize the mother who stays home with the kids. A covetous generation. Don't send your wives out to make up the slack that you couldn't do because you didn't prepare well enough, and you didn't get a trade settled, and you didn't have the gumption to educate yourself well. Therefore, don't marry a woman who has to have more than what you can provide.

3. Trying to get rich quick. Gambling. Playing the lottery. He that hastes to get rich will not be unpunished (Proverbs 28:20). It is not God's will that you plan to get rich as quickly as possible. Through diligent labor there is increase (Proverbs 13:11). But the others don't ordinarily have blessing. Put it out of your heart that you have something coming when Mamma dies. Don't even think about it. If it happens, fine. But your heart is in danger when you start thinking about Mother's death as the way to get what you want. "Honey, you know that when Dad dies we'll be able to pay off our mortgage." What does that do to your heart when you start thinking about that? Getting rich quick is not right. It's not wise. You'll be punished for that. For trying to do it. He that hastes to get rich, not he that gets rich. Shortcuts will not go unpunished. Don't do it. Be a living reproof to this kind of philosophy.

4. Irresponsible Debt. That means borrowing when you don't have any legitimate means of repaying. In other words, when you look at your budget and know you just can't afford it, you just go ahead and borrow the money anyway. Or you don't have the money in the bank, but you get out that plastic. You cannot do without the thing that the plastic will get. You say, "I'll pay for it." But you know what you're going to pay for it with? Tithe money. Food money. Clothing money. Insurance money. Dental money. Legitimate-needs-for-your-children-and-your-wife money. Interest money that's going to pile up, especially at eighteen to thirty percent. Illegitimate debt, irresponsible debt (when you know you don't have the legitimate way of repaying, but you enter it anyway) is an evidence of a covetous heart. And that's idolatry. For that sake the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience (Colossians 3:5, 6).

You say, "That's a wide stretch between that little matter of a credit card and the wrath of God." I don't think it's that wide. That's the point I'm trying to make. Covetousness for this thing is idolatry. And idol worshipers go to hell. Get rid of covetousness. Kill it. If it means cutting up the credit card, that's much better than always resorting to the means that this wicked economy has provided for you to take shortcuts around God's law. There's nothing like being able to say, "I can't afford that." There's such peace in being able to say that. My wife and I have learned that that means the Lord has not been pleased to provide that. We're so thrilled because we're freed up from worrying with the thing. Not God's will. How do we know it's not God's will? We don't have the money.

Our church just saw a piece of land. We've been looking for four years. We've been praying. We found the ideal, high priority, prime real estate spot. We could have paid just what we had in the bank and had it. But once we had it with just what we had in the bank, we couldn't have put a brick on it. We couldn't even have bought a shovel to dig on it. We didn't want to be irresponsible. It wouldn't have been debt, but it would have been overspending in our case.

You see, we were thinking beyond. If an appeal came from Nigeria, we could not have helped. We've learned that every year something happens in the middle of the year where we need to do more for other brethren than our budget said we were going to do. This year our church has had to add about $28,000 to its plans just for benevolence for preachers and help for the gospel and a radio broadcast that at the first of the year we didn't plan on. We didn't know we were going to get a 50,000 watt station at the beginning of the year. We didn't budget that money. But we had it in the bank and didn't spend it because we were careful. So we turned the land down. We said, "We can't afford that." The real estate lady said, "They'll hold the note." But we're not going to do it that way. We don't want to have a piece of dirt in a note.

They didn't understand us. And out the window went her commission. With such freedom, our deacons and elders walked away from that land because God had not provided the means to buy it. That's the way He answered our prayers. You've got to get into that with your family finances. You've got to learn that so you can smile and say, "Boy, it's good we couldn't buy that. That's God's will. He didn't provide the means." Don't go into irresponsible debt.

5. Withholding Due Wages. James chapter 5 condemns withholding due wages from your employees. Do not withhold good from him to whom it is due when it is in your power to do it (the wicked rich who will not pay due wages in Proverbs 3:27). One of our men for four years has not been given even a cost-of-living increase. He has been laboring at $10.00 an hour, has four children and lives in a borrowed house. He can't even afford rent. God has provided extraordinarily his house. Upon pastoral advice he went to his boss. He has earned the right. He said, "I know things are tight, but I wonder if you might consider an increase if after four years my work is satisfactory. I believe it is. Would you consider? I have some needs. If you can't, and I would understand if you can't, I wanted you to know ahead of time that I'm probably going to have to be looking for employment elsewhere." The man says, "Man, I'm paying you too much as it is. You're making more than I'm making." That's the boss and owner of the company telling him that. He had just raised the shop fee $5.00 an hour and gave no one an increase who is working in the shop.

Now what do you do with that? You warn God's people not to be that way. You better not withhold wages. You say, "Pastor, none of us are employers. We don't have that problem." What do you do with your pastor? I'm free to say that. I'm taken care of well. So I'll tell it to the rest of you. How are you taking care of your pastors? Do not withhold wages. The laborer is worthy of his hire. And though he is not a hireling, he is worthy of his pay. Make sure you evaluate the labor of the gospel the way God evaluates it, along the lines of double honor, and take care of him; or you fall under the curse of withholding due wages. It's a covetous church that does so. You say, "What if we're spending it on a guy that ain't worth it?" How did you ever let him get there? "Well, he fooled us." All right, let God take care of that. You don't let him go away saying, "Those people are greedy and selfish." You let God take care of you. You do what's right. But don't sin.

6. Robbing God. God views the withholding of your tithes and offerings from His church as robbing Him (Malachi 3:8) . He considered that money His. It is not something you're adding to Him; it's His. If you keep it (though in your mind you earned it), you're stealing it from God. Now I dare say, having read Acts chapter 5 and knowing the fate of Annanias and Saffira who because of their greed lied to the Holy Spirit, I would not want to be one that robs God. Would a man rob God? The assumption of that question is of course not! Yet, a covetous man will. And he'll justify it in a thousand ways.

If I am one of the pastors in a church that has been taught this for twelve years and we still labor with a few that haven't got it, surely some of you may have a problem. Let me exhort you pastors. This is your duty to preach it to your people, the whole counsel of God. You say, "I feel like I'd be a little greedy if I . . ." Let God judge that. He commanded you to preach it. Who is going to teach them if you don't? Teach them!

But I want to tell you people, you see to it that you don't rob God. If you do, not only does it reveal a covetous heart, you'll be under a curse for it. I've been thinking of all the things we've heard the last two nights about church unity, and the assumptions of the redemptive work of God's grace, and the act of how you receive members, and discipline members, and maintain a clean membership. And I'm thinking of all the implications of the kinds of church life that we know about in this country: the weakness of preaching, the hatred of true truth. We have a society that because they don't worship God and love Him, and because they have not had a renewed heart, are robbing Him not only of His day and His worship, but His rightful claim on their purse strings.

The love of money is at the root of all kinds of evil (I Timothy 6:10). Is there any chance that your heart itself has not gotten this settled completely? Is there a chance that in your own heart there are a few things about your money you hope God won't ask for? Are you gritting your teeth hoping you can get home without making big adjustments? Have you set your heart on that pool? Or that hot tub? Or that Volvo? Or that Mercedes? Or that Chevrolet? (For some of us that would be a Volvo or Mercedes.) Nothing wrong with a Mercedes. But is your heart set on a status symbol? Are you beginning to hope that God's Word won't bother your dream? Is your heart hiding out already and running through hoops to save yourself from being found out? If you're spending more on food in your family budget than your belly requires, and if it's the public testimony that that's the case and you hope nobody will talk about that, you have some problem with covetousness. Money has gotten into the heart. Your life does not consist in the things which you possess (Luke 12:15). Be content with what you have (Hebrews 13:5).

There is one sure cure for covetousness. Become a giver. If you can discern symptoms in you, one way to guarantee you'll nail that to the wall is to become a giver. Give out of your poverty. Overcome the heart that likes to take.

I conclude by reminding you, brethren, this issue goes deep. You may say, "I don't think I have any of those symptoms. I haven't done any of those things. I think I'm OK." Make sure that you're honest enough with the innards to address the issue of what you would like to have if you could get it. One of our men teaching a Sunday School class way back when, before Calvin, asked a question of all the people. If you could get anything you wanted in all the world, what would you ask for? One fellow with the seriousness of a judge said, "I would like to be able to rob a bank and get by with it." And he meant it! Later on, we found out he meant it. He was saying, "I'm willing not to rob a bank. But if I could and get by with it, I would in a minute."

You may say, "I'm willing not to get extra work. I'm willing not to work on the Lord's Day. I'm willing not to violate any of these principles. I'm willing not to live on bad debt. I'm willing not to grab. I'm willing to live that way. But if I could find a way to talk God into letting me, I would." That's saying, "If I can get to heaven in any other way than the biblical way, that's what I would prefer to the biblical way." "If I can get God to love me and accept me without obeying Him, I would do it in a minute. I would sin readily if sin wouldn't get me to hell." That's a covetous man. All he cares about is his own comfort and his own salvation. The Lord says he that would save his life will lose it (Mattthew 16:25).

Is there any area of covetousness in you that you hope you can find a way to justify and God will let you by? Is there anything in this world you hope you can get, you're trying to figure out a way to get it, and also keep God on your side? Is that your spirit? If it is, you are covetous, and you must needs immediately repent or it will get worse. One day you may well be among those of whom it is said "Ephraim is joined to his idols, leave him alone" (Hosea 4:17). May God help us to understand how deep this goes and gives us discernment as we open our Bibles day by day and guard our hearts with all diligence. Let us pray.

Our Father, we do pray that we have not belabored this issue. You know our motive. You know our desire to get it through. O God, do make us to speak truth in the inward part. O Lord, do deliver us from even the dark areas of sin about which we're not aware. Make us to see the areas where we are lovers of money. Make us to see where idolatry has found its way into our hearts and we've not dealt with it. And give us grace, O Lord, that we may put to death those matters of the deepest heart and put on hearts of contentment, hearts of gratitude, hearts of worship, hearts of joy hearts of praise, and hearts of peace, in the place of all this turmoil and worry and striving and scrambling to get. Lord, forgive our sin. This room is representing much sin at the point of covetousness. O Lord, deal with the hearts gathered here, all of our hearts. Where we've shown others the symptoms we've enumerated, do help us, O Lord, to put it right. Hear our plea. Help our continued study. Sanctify the words that have been spoken that were comparable to truth and coordinate with truth, and hide our eyes from the things that went beyond your will. Lord, do have mercy on us. We need help. We're surrounded by plenty. Free our hearts from clutching it. Free our hearts from loving it. O God, free our hearts we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

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