In an attempt to bring to a conclusion a 40-week study on the Ten Commandments, we
find ourselves looking at some significant theological truths that help us view all we have
learnt within a proper biblical perspective.
We have come to the end of our study on the Ten Commandments. Forty messages in
which God by grace has given us His will. His revealed will for mankind laid down in Ten
Words on tablets of stone. Grace upon grace, mercy upon mercy, as God withholds
from us what we deserve and grants us in abundance what we do not deserve. How
good and how kind our God has been!
Covetousness is at the heart of the violation of every single one of the
commandments including the tenth one. Covetousness is the illicit desire of wanting
things we may not have, especially when it belongs to others, and will often entice us
into other sins simply to get what we are wanting.
Every add on every form of media (whether it be TV, radio, twitter, Facebook, the
billboards, or the internet), is intended to entice you to break the Tenth Commandment.
The appeal to your senses, the false sense of success it creates, the desire after what we
cannot have or may not have, the false perception of glitz and glamour, all this is
designed to lure you into the subtleness and pervasiveness of the sin of coveting.
How interesting is the contrast from the First Commandment to the last of the
Commandments! Think of it – the commandments start with a call to be careful about
the way we worship God, by not incorporating any forms of false worship, and it ends
with an admonition not to admire the Red Ferrari in your neighbours’ driveway too much.
We continue our study of the Ninth Commandment. A command like all
the others that has far-reaching consequences. A deep and pervasive call to check
the tongue and to guard our mouths. A reminder that all evil of hell is contained in the
ability of the tongue.
The Apostle Paul presents a helpful summary of the aspects that could be considered
as bad talk in 2 Corinthians 12:20. I want to use that list as the basis from which we will
attempt this exposition. Hear him state these clearly: “For I fear that perhaps when I come that perhaps there may be quarrelling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder.”
In the fifth century Augustine of Hippo wisely commented that no physician can heal
the wounds of the tongue. The tongue inflicts greater wounds than the sword. Cruel
words can kill. The scorpion carries his poison in his tail, the slanderer carries his poison
in his tongue.
As we come today for the fourth
time to the Eighth Commandment, we continue looking at the matter of Stealing from
God, a matter on which the Word of God speaks forthrightly and clear.
Now we’ve looked at various aspects and ways in which the Eighth Commandment
can be violated. A man may not perhaps be guilty of violating the eighth
commandment in terms of its presupposition regarding private property. Perhaps it may
even be true that a man has not violated the Eighth Commandment in any obvious
manner, yet such a man may be guilty of robbing God and in so doing of violation of
the eighth commandment.
