The first reading from James chapter one, verses 12 to 27, and then also 1 John chapter one, verses eight through 10. So first turn to the book of James. James chapter one, beginning at verse 12 says, blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial.
For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.
Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good and every good gift and every perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creation. Know this my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.
For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness that God requires. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. but be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this. to visit orphans and widows and their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. And then 1 John, way over at the end, 1 John chapter one, verses eight through 10. 1 John chapter one, verse eight.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Amen. The word of the living God for us.
As I mentioned before we read these questions, I was surprised earlier this week when I saw how much this explanation of the 10th commandment really deals with sanctification. But I think it will make sense to us. Earlier we read from the book of Joshua, we read the account of Achan taking some of the devoted things, some of the things that God had said, you must devote them to destruction. Uh, they are forbidden things. They are devoted things. And, uh, as we think of that conquest of Israel into the promised land, and we think of Jericho and how wonderful God was not only to save is, uh, save Rahab, uh, who becomes a descendant of the Lord Jesus Christ, but we, we see the, magnificent power of God and the simplicity of the obedience of the Israelites.
Just march around the city for six days, one time each day. And on the seventh day, you’ll march seven times. You’ll do it quietly. And on the last round about the city, you will make all the noise you can and the walls will fall and the people will fall to the edge of your sword and everything, man, woman, child, beast, Everything will be devoted for destruction.
They were not to take any item, nor were they to spare life. The only items that were to be taken would have been the bronze and the gold and the silver. And I think there’s one other precious metal and those would be devoted to the temple treasury for the service of God and the temple. But God had very clearly told them. Keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction. Keep yourselves from these things. Otherwise you will bring trouble on Israel.
And so Achan thinking that he had done so quietly and no one, not even God had seen, brings trouble. Israel cannot win. Israel cannot be victorious in any battle as long as those devoted things are in the possession And you saw, I hope, as we read that passage from Joshua, the corporate nature of Achan’s sin. Achan was held responsible. His family was devoted to destruction with him, but all Israel failed in battle. All Israel was defeated. Even the reputation of God for a moment uh, was at stake because of Aiken’s sin.
And I wonder sometimes, I wonder sometimes, uh, do we think in economic terms about our sin? Uh, I’m committed. I’m going to do this thing. I know I shouldn’t do. I’m committed to this thing. I know I shouldn’t do, and I don’t care. That’s what we feel in the heat of the moment. I do not care. What is the cost? Um, I saw a meme somewhere in the last year or so, and it was in reference to a man looking at another woman, and it said, $9 dress on Amazon cost me half my pension. I assume they were speaking of a divorce settlement.
Yeah, you put it in economic terms, how stupid we are. Uh, when it comes to sin, how foolish we are when it comes to, uh, going headlong into wickedness 30, was it 36 people died in this battle that was lost? You say, well, at least it wasn’t thousands. Well, it was 36 people.
And then of course, Aiken, uh, cost the life of his family. Uh, Aiken coveted the cloak from Shinar. He coveted the 200 shekels of silver. And he coveted that bar of gold. And you know how it goes, the anatomy of sin, you know, a bar of gold, you know, that’ll pay off the house. 200 shekels of silver, that’ll put the kids through school.
And we end up naming a price on our integrity. We end up naming a price on our good name. But that’s what Akin did. And so he’s called out. Give glory to God, give praise to God. Tell us, Aiken, what you’ve done. And he admits to the sin and justice is swift. Get rid of sin in the camp. And so they took him out in the valley and they took care of business.
You think of the word covet and how often we find it in the Bible. In the Old Testament, the 10th commandment, you shall not covet what belongs to your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, your neighbor’s wife, your neighbor’s male servant, female servant, ox, or donkey, or anything. There’s the blanket statement that belongs to your neighbor. On the other side of covetousness, God tells Israel, once they get in the promised land, that once he expels all the ites, all the Amorites and Canaanites and Perizzites and Jebusites and all the rest, all the enemies of God’s people, all the wicked people, when they are expelled from the land by God and the armies of Israel, he says to them, no one will covet your land. It will be your place, your home, your special place.
Paul, when he visits with the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20, he’s visiting with them at the port of Miletus and they are having a a tearful meeting because he will probably never see them again. He knows that the Jews who opposed him there in Asia will probably follow him and antagonize him all the way to Jerusalem, which they do. But he also knows that there are wolves among the sheep. And one of the things he says to them when he is saying his farewell to them, he says, I coveted when I was with you, I coveted no one’s silver or gold.
Romans chapter one, where Paul is describing the wicked hearts of unrighteous people. He says that those people are filled with all manner of unrighteousness, including covetousness. And then you jump to chapter seven, where he discusses the struggle in the Christian life. He says, sin seizing opportunity provoked in me all kinds of covetousness.
And then when he’s speaking to the Ephesian church in chapter five, he says, all who are sexually immoral, all who are impure and all who are covetousness, that is an idolater, he equates covetousness with idolatry, have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. He says in another place, the sin of covetousness must not be named among you. And then Colossians three, he says, put to death. Therefore, what is earthly in you list all kinds of sins.
And he includes covetousness, which is idolatry. Jesus says to his disciples, take care, be on your guard against all covetousness for one’s life does not consist in the abundance. of his possessions. And in another place, he says, what defiles a person is not from the outside, but it is from within. And from within us, covetousness is produced.
We read from James chapter one about sin taking full bloom and leading forth to death. In chapter four of James, he says, you desire and you do not have, you So you murder, you covet and you cannot obtain. So you fight and you quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. And so what is at the heart of covetousness? Well, it’s the human heart. It’s the sinful heart. It is the heart of man that is deceitful. And we’ve got to guard our hearts. We’ve got to protect our hearts.
Think of King David, who in Psalm I forget which Psalm it was, 103 or one of them. He says, I will set no wicked thing before my eyes. And you say, way to go, David. You’re right. Even I believe Job says, I’ve made a covenant with my eyes not to look here or there.
But then there’s that fateful day and David’s life where he was not out at war with the other Kings who go to war in the springtime, but he was up on the roof. And first Samuel says he was up on the roof and saw a woman bathing and the woman was very, very beautiful. He sent for her, he took her, and then the rest is history. And Paul says of this, I don’t know, this struggle, this inner struggle that we see in David’s life, we feel it in our own. He says, I do not understand my own actions. I do not do what I want. I do the very thing I hate. Nothing good dwells in my flesh. One of the great ministers of the Scottish tradition gave these words.
He said, the seed of every sin is in my heart. Now, some of us in our lifetime may never see those sins germinate. You know, we make a statement that says something like this, but for the grace of God, there go I. There are people around us who will fall into sin and they’ll fall into grievous sin and it’s only by God’s mercy that it is not you or me.
Think in the Christian South, We have re-established the whole scarlet letter thing. We have named sins which are respectable. We overlook them. That’s okay. But we have also designated sins that are unpardonable and unforgivable. And so in the church, in our church culture, we have gone contrary to the gospel, contrary to Jesus. And I think one of the practical things we ought to take from this is we as fellow believers, knowing the remnants of sin in each of us, and knowing the radical nature of sin, the evil, wicked, destroying work of Satan, and the attractiveness of the world, we ought to have compassion on one another when we see another caught in sin. And in fact, we ought to remember what Paul says in Galatians 6. If anyone is caught in a sin, those who are mature in the faith should go and rescue them.
I think lots of times we stand back and say, whoo, glad it wasn’t me. Sometimes we stand back and perhaps we enjoy like afternoon television watching the destruction. And we again say in our minds and hearts, glad it wasn’t me. But we ought to, just as much as we are concerned about the cancer in our fellow church members’ bodies or the creaky joints in our fellow church families’ bodies, we perhaps ought to be equally, no, I think more concerned with each other’s struggle against the world and the flesh and the devil.
And so God’s will for us in this 10th commandment is just so plain and clear. And I think it’s encouraging, not even the slightest desire or thought, contrary to any one of God’s commandments should ever arise in our hearts. Well, there you have it, go and do. Right, easy, easy. Correct? Don’t let any desires or thoughts contrary to God’s commandments rise in your hearts. I don’t know about you, but that’s every day. I don’t know about you, but you know, somebody does something to you and your brain is saying, I’m gonna have a good comeback for this one. Right? Somebody, you know, what is it? The law of thermodynamics, everything needs an equal and whatever reaction and, you know, it’s human nature. We’re going to, you know, I’m going to get you sucker. That’s kind of what we’re thinking.
We cannot have the slightest desire. And you flip through all the sins of mind and heart and all the sins that we face. And this catechism is reminding us not even the slightest desire. Paul says somewhere in his epistles that there should not be among believers even a hint of immorality.
And I think the struggle for believers is we dabble a little bit. Well, a little love of money, a little love or lust outside of marriage, a little desire of this, a little desire of that, it won’t hurt. But what does James seem to say about sin? It grows. Paul says a little leaven spoils the whole lump.
And before you know it, your, uh, your dough is oozing out, you know, like it does when you leave it on the kitchen counter that night and people can see, people can tell where your inordinate desires are not even the slightest desire. contrary to God’s word should ever arise. And then there’s a rather we’re going to, uh, put away sin, but we’re also going to, or put off sin, but we’re going to put on righteousness rather with all our hearts, the catechism tells us with all our hearts, we should hate sin and delight in righteousness.
Uh, I have a friend in the faith, a friend in ministry and some years ago, a group of us pastors down in the Charlotte area would get together on Mondays about once a month and we’d eat lunch and we’d discuss pastoral stuff, just, hey, what are you dealing with? How are you dealing with it? And we’d trade wisdom and, you know, sometimes we’d commiserate together, those sorts of things.
And one of the times we gathered, we talked about what do you ask prospective church members? Well, you ask them the six or seven vowels of membership. Okay, that’s easy. But a good gotcha question. And one of our pastors in our group said, I’ve got a wise old elder, and he always ask prospective church members, do you hate your sin? Interesting question. I hadn’t thought of that really until I read the rather part of question 114.
Rather with all our hearts, we should always hate sin. I think this morning in the pastoral prayer, Did I say we should love sin? I caught myself, uh, maybe you catch that. Are we all sleeping? I was meaning to pray. We should hate what is evil and hold fast to good. And I think I said we should love what is evil. And I had to, you know, edit there very quickly, uh, before I was ridden out of town on a rail, but with all our hearts, we should hate sin and delight righteousness. How do we do that? Well, it’s something we have to practice. Think for a moment.
What are things that you see? What are things that you hear? What are things that you entertain and even take delight in or take a second look at or maybe dwell on that television channel or that radio station? What are the things that you spend time listening to looking at that You really got no business listening to and looking at, of course, joking. You know, stories that maybe have no redeeming value, things on TV, both the site and the story or the emphasis behind it.
Do you feel repulsed like you would when you were three years old and the broccoli was put on your plate. Remember broccoli on the plate? Ooh. And what did you say? Yucky. Do we have that response? Not just with broccoli. You can put cheese on it and other things and make it go down.
But do we still have that response to things that we see here and experience? And if you can’t pass that test, I suppose the remedy is you’re not delighting in righteousness enough. And so perhaps you should dwell on things that are righteous so that you love them more and you have an appropriate reaction to things that are unrighteous. But we’re like David, we struggle. We say with one set of zeal, I’ll set no wicked thing before my eyes. But then up on the rooftop he goes and there he sees, and it changed the course of history for many people, including the great King David. Question 114, or question 115, I guess it is. Whatever the second question is, I think I misnumbered them on my sheet.
Whatever the second question in our group is, says, but can those converted to God keep these commandments perfectly? Well, before we answer that, Haven’t some of you in times past sat under the ministry of preaching where you were chastised for not being perfect and you felt beaten up. You felt like you didn’t measure up and you felt like you had no standing before God except that you bucket up and do better. and work up something in you and try harder. But our question gives us, I think, a little peace and hope. Can those converted to God keep these commandments perfectly?
And I love the Heidelberg, it just uses the word no quite a bit. No. In this life, even the holiest person only makes a beginning. It’s only a small beginning of disobedience. You’ll hear people from time to time in the perfectionist camp. They’ll say something like, well, I haven’t sinned since 1997. Well, you just did, right? You just told a big fat one. You just told a big fibber. Uh, there, there are people who believe that a Christian in this life can achieve perfection.
There is no way. You are born with a sin nature. And from that sin nature proceed actual sins. And even the holiest person in this life has only made a small beginning. And I guarantee you, if you know someone and it’s your impression that they are a holy person, I guarantee you that if you went to them and said, how is it you’re so holy? I guarantee you they will say, oh, you don’t know the half of it. You don’t know what goes on in my mind and what goes on in my heart. You know, some might say the apostle Paul would be one to look at. And what did he self-pronounce? Oh, wretched man that I am. What did he self-pronounce? Woe to me, I am the chief of sinners. The holiest of people who have only made a small beginning will be the quickest to tell you, I got nothing.
It’s only by the grace of God. And so there is in this life, even though it is a small beginning, and even though it is quite imperfect, there is this pattern of Christian life where with all seriousness of purpose, we begin to live according to all, not some, but we live according to all of God’s commandments. When we become Christians, we shed our old nature. When we become Christians, we leave our life of crime behind. Our old nature is crucified with Christ at the cross. We put off what is earthly, we put off our old nature, and we begin to put on the deeds of righteousness, the deeds of holiness with a new heart, with a new disposition, our hearts beat for the things of the kingdom.
And no, it’s not perfect. And some days you stink at it. Some days you are not very kingdom minded. Some days you are building your own kingdom. But our trajectory as we march to heaven is one of seriousness and of purpose. I know you guys are here on a Sunday night. All of you were here this morning. You probably read your Bibles, you listen to things and, you know, some of us are advanced in age. And so there’s an accumulation and a dividends, a set of dividends that are reinvested.
And over time, as you grow in grace and grow in holiness, you sit in church, you sit under the word and sanctification is running its course. You look at your life five years ago and 10 years ago and 15 years ago and maybe 50 years ago and you say, boy, I am glad I am not that version of me. But you can look through and see how God was at work. The question comes for believers, is sanctification possible? Is becoming more and more holy possible? And an answer I heard several years ago is a wonderful way to think of it. Sanctification is perfectly possible, but it is painfully so.
Sanctification comes in pain, it comes in suffering, it comes in getting the MRI of your heart, or however a heart is scanned. MRI, IRA, whatever the letters are. That’s a retirement account. But whatever the scan of your heart reveals and you look at it with horror and you look at it and you have this reaction, I cannot believe that is me. I cannot believe that is what is in my heart. But then we take hope because we know that God knows it better. What does David say in Psalm 139? I can’t go anywhere. I cannot hide.
You know everything about me, God. You know about my unformed body and my mother’s womb. You know about the knitting together of my body when it was being formed. You know my thoughts. You know the inclinations of my heart. You know it all. And so the Christian knows what is there. God knows it better and more clearly.
But we have great hope that our God is at work in us. He who began a good work in us will be faithful. to complete it. I hope this morning’s confession of sin was helpful to you. And perhaps you’ll tear that part of your bulletin out and tuck it in your Bible. But it spoke to this, I think quite well, this process of growth and grace.
And so take heart that even the holiest person has done only but a small beginning, but our whole lives ought to be a trajectory of purpose. to keep God’s commandments by his Holy Spirit’s help. And then the third question, since no one in this life, since no one in this life can keep the 10 commandments perfectly, why does God want them preached so pointedly? Well, it gives two reasons. First, so that in our whole life long, we may come more and more to know our sinful nature.
The commandments are like a mirror. We hear the commandments and we see how far short we fall. We hear the commandments and we say, oh my goodness, I have transgressed every single one of them. I’ve done it daily in thought and in word and in deed. And my heart is above all wicked and full of deceit.
And so the preaching or even the reading of the 10 commandments is a wonderful thing. One of the traditions that we do not have and probably ought to is a weekly Sunday morning reading of the law. In reformed churches, it’s typical that the law is read every Sunday before the confession of sin. And that’s a wonderful practice.
You hear loud and clear. I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Therefore, you shall have no other gods, no graven images. Do not take my name in vain. Remember the Sabbath, honor those in authority. Do not commit a murder and adultery and theft. Do not lie and do not covet. But when they are read, especially in the good old King James, uh, the weight and the thunder and the shaking of Mount Sinai is, is, is felt.
And it convicts us of our sins because we see in that mirror all of our shortcomings. And as James says, we should be those who look in the mirror and see and not forget, but be hearers and doers of the word. And so our whole life long, it is necessary for us to hear God’s law.
You know, one of the things that people have commented on over the years is that when they come to our church, they hear more Bible than they have heard at other churches, like in a stretch of time. And that’s a compliment. I think they’re making an observation and saying what gives. It’s really wonderful to have God’s word read and just to let the word simply do its work. And so a lifelong of Sunday morning, Sunday evening, personal Bible reading, let the word do its work. It’s sharper than a two-edged sword, it cuts to joints and marrows, it’s why. with our friend John Patterson here today, we can get excited about Bibles. If somebody finds a Bible, grabs a Bible, reads a Bible, it will do something. It will convince and convert sinners to salvation. It will comfort and build up saints in the holy faith, or it will cause someone to say no to God yet again. But there will be a reaction. And that word will not return void.
The second reason that God wants his law preached so pointedly is so that we never stop striving. We never stop praying to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit so that we can be renewed more and more after God’s image. And when, at the end of our lives, we reach heaven, we reach that goal of perfection.
The other day, One of the kids out at Bradford in Bible survey class asked, Mr. Kotz, do we have free will? And I thought, oh, sigh. It’s one of those kids from the Armenian church and he figured out I’m a Presbyterian and oh boy, this is just great. And I said, why do you ask? That’s how I answered him. Why do you ask? And we ended up somehow getting into a discussion on basically Martin Luther’s bondage of the will.
And it sort of eased over into Thomas Boston’s fourfold state of man. You know, in the garden, man was in a state of innocence and it was possible to sin. It was possible to not sin. And then in a state of sin after the fall, it was not possible, or it was only possible to sin. But then in the state of grace, in the state of where the believer is, it’s possible to sin and it’s possible to not sin. And then remember that wonderful state of glory. We talked about maybe back in June, in glory, it is not possible to sin. And, you know, St. Augustine had the Latin and I always goof it up, but in heaven, I think the Latin, it is non posse picare.
And I think I mentioned to you, that’s a great etching on your tombstone. When you die, it is an end to the brokenness of this life. It’s an end to your sickness, your body falling apart, but it is more importantly, an end to your sin. And remember, we talked about how, you know, when somebody dies, we say, oh, good for Aunt Maud, she ain’t got cancer anymore, right? And we look off into the distance, you know, and kind of sigh. But really what we should say is Aunt Maud, doesn’t have sin in her anymore. She is saved to sin no more. She has been glorified. And so one of the encouragements I think we ought to take away from tonight is when we come to faith in Jesus, we are on a trajectory to live righteously. We are on a trajectory to live perfectly and to walk towards glory.
And so my prayer and encouragement to you is to take absolutely seriously God’s call on your life to put off the things of the flesh and to put on the things of righteousness, to steer clear of unrighteousness and to run wholeheartedly after God’s good things. But it’s only by his help that those things are so. So let’s pray to him now. Lord, we give you thanks for a chance to think about the Christian life.
And we do want to be those where the slightest desire or thought to anything contrary to your commandments, we quickly bristle at, we quickly are horrified of, and we do not take any delight or any nurture in that thing, but we snuff it out, we stamp it out, we put it to death. We remember your commandment to Adam to keep the garden, to protect it, and he did not do that, and so here we are. But may we protect the gardens of our souls and walk from this place tonight with a desire and the Spirit’s help to live in such a way. This we ask with all our hearts and we pray for it in the name of Christ. Amen. We want to remember God’s sovereignty over all things. And so we’ll sing together, whatever my God ordains is right.