Well, sir, I hope that you're all ready for another one of those heart-to-heart talks
regarding the last, the tenth of the commandments that God gave.
This is the tenth of God's ten rules for living.
I'm not going to review any part of my last of the heart-to-heart talk.
You just should have been there listening.
And if you weren't there, you just missed it, that call.
And so all I'm going to do is to refresh your memory in reading to you from the Word of
God this tenth commandment, the sin of covetousness, one of the most treacherous sins that a human
being can take into his life.
And it's just like that.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife,
nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is
thy neighbor's.
Very plain.
There it is.
Black is black, white is white.
There's no need for argument.
You don't have a leg to stand on if you wish to take issue against these words because
our very lies prove that if we go contrary to this rule for living, this commandment
will suffer, there'll be the price to be paid, you will be the loser.
Plain and simple, thou shalt not covet.
Thou shalt not desire anything that you must obtain through any other means except that
which is in your reach.
Plain and simple.
Now turn into the New Testament, nothing can be clearer or more emphatic than the repetition
of this same commandment given by Jesus himself.
Never once in all of his teaching did Jesus ever teach anything that was contrary to that
which was in the Old Testament or that which God had given.
Now remember, Jesus and God are one, yet definite and separate personalities.
But one never spoke contrary to the other.
One never had a will separate and apart from the other.
Their teachings were the same.
Therefore, every one of God's commandments were carried out to the full, spoken of by
Jesus himself.
And the words of Jesus himself leaves no misunderstanding regarding covetousness.
In the 12th chapter of Luke, beginning with the 15th verse, we see that a man came to
Jesus and asked the Master to satisfy his desire by compelling his brother to divide
the inheritance with him.
He might have been deserving of the inheritance that he was asking for.
It could even have been legitimate.
But Jesus answered the man with these words, take heed and keep yourselves from all covetousness,
for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
There it is.
The whole ranks covetousness and covetous man with fornication, the idolater.
And he declares that the covetous man, the idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom
of Christ in God.
The writer of Hebrews continues, be free from the love of money.
Content with such things as ye have.
For himself saith, referring to Jesus, I will in no wise fail thee, neither will I in any
wise forsake thee.
You will remember that in our earlier heart to heart talk, I showed you that covetousness
will rob a human being of their satisfaction, their contentment, their peace of mind, and
this proves exactly what I said.
For he has again repeated, be free from the love of money.
Be free from that bondage that you're in.
And I don't know of a greater bondage than the bondage that many people are in for this
desire of getting.
Getting.
But until it almost becomes an obsession, I mean that.
Literally, I have seen men who were, where so far as sense of money values were concerned,
were rated as millionaires.
I have never seen a man yet who was satisfied with his first million.
If he got one million, he couldn't rest.
He had to get his second million.
If that same man had gotten fifty million, he would still keep on trying to get fifty
more.
Just like that.
A covetous person, if you have a covetous wife, she is nagging you to death for that
piece of furniture if she just had all that new bedroom outfit.
But nine times out of ten, even though you think you're going to give her peace of mind,
by buying it for her, I'll promise you something.
She'll start on the next room.
And even after she has new furniture in every room in the house, she'll still not be contented.
Your next move is to get a new house and more rooms.
Why?
Because she has taken in her heart, in her mind, in her life, the poison of covetousness.
And the writer of Hebrew says, be free from the love of money.
Content with such things as ye have.
Oh, and it's only when you reach this place that you're really going to have peace in
the home, contentment of mind, and know the glorious atmosphere of real relaxation.
Where you can sit down on your sofa at night and completely relax and fall apart.
And look the whole room over and say, I'm so satisfied.
I'm so grateful.
I thank God for what we have, Harry.
You know, sure, this is just practical everyday living.
Now watch something.
Returning to the teaching of Jesus, a striking and forceful statement of the principle is
contained in the remarkable words and these the words of Jesus himself.
Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
You can't do it.
You are two masters.
You've got to make your choice.
You can't be the servant of both.
And he made the statement after warning his disciples against laying up treasures for
themselves upon the earth.
He followed it by declaring that they were not to be anxious concerning the things that
they should eat or drink.
Are they wearing apparel?
They will rather to seek first the kingdom of God.
Now the sentence itself is most suggestive as putting into contrast the two camps in
which men serve.
God and mammon.
The inspiration of the forces of service in the camp of God is that of rest, of satisfaction.
That's the reason the writer of Hebrews goes on to say, be free from the bondage of discontentment.
For has not Jesus himself promised, I will in no wise fail thee?
Neither will I in any wise forsake thee.
Have confidence in me.
Have faith in me.
Coming back again, if you're serving God, God is the author of rest, of satisfaction.
Whereas the stimulus and the spur of service in the camp of mammon is that of desire, of
getting, of greed, of covetousness.
And there you'll find dissatisfaction, discontentment, mixed up people, emotional people.
Oh beloved, this is the most simple thing in the world that I could talk to you about.
And every person to whom I'm speaking is either in one camp or the other, in the camp of God
or in the camp of mammon.
You have a master and there are only two masters, either God or mammon.
Mammon serves God in the quiet force of his rest in God.
He goes to sleep at night with confidence, with trust in his master in God.
And he gets a good night's sleep.
Mentally he rests in God knowing that God will not fail him.
He gets up in the morning knowing that he's in the care and keeping of Almighty God.
There's contentment, there's rest.
Man serves mammon in the restless energy of his desire for mammon.
He constantly lives in the spirit of getting, of getting, of coveting.
And one sin will lead to another until his whole system is poisoned, his mind is poisoned.
And herein lies the most terrible sin of all sins, the sin of covetousness because it is
a poison.
It will rob you of your most precious possessions.
It's the fever which makes the eye glisten with a false luster, the cheek flush with
deceitful color, the muscles twitch with unnatural activity, the nerves will soon throb with
restless desire.
It's the service which, well, its final wage is death.
And it's just like that.
Wherever man desires anything, small or great, outside the possibility of righteousness,
he is in that measure in the grip of a fever which must destroy him and it will destroy
him eventually unless it is quenched.
So therefore, my friend, right now, look yourself directly in the face, be dead honest with
yourself and honest before God and face that sin of covetousness in your own heart and
life.
You've been running around to doctors, taking pills, getting shots for your nervousness,
the unrest that you're feeling in your body, the emotional disturbances, your blood pressure
has gone clear up.
Just relax a little bit.
Be honest with yourself.
See, you can put your finger on the disease and it is a disease that's even worse than
cancer.
This poison, this disease of covetousness can eventually destroy you unless you are
big enough to admit the sin to yourself and do something about it.
Was there ever a day in which this great principle needed more forceful statement than today?
I ask you.
Is it too much to say that covetousness lies at the root of all the evils that blight the
world today, especially its so-called civilized portion?
Didn't I ask you?
Is it too much to say that covetousness lies at the root of all the evils that blight the
world today?
The oppression of feeble races, the indifference to righteousness that alone exalts the nation,
the toleration of giant evils that sap the virtue of the people, these all may be traced
to the restless and unsatisfied heart of man in his covetousness for that which possessed,
does but breed new desire.
It's like that.
I'm talking about something that is subtle.
I'm talking about the most subtle, the most treacherous sin in the world today.
Not only in the national outlook is covetousness discovered, but at the base of all social
problems lies the same worm of discontent.
The greed of the capitalist, the brutality of great corporations, all arise from the
lust of possession.
That's right.
We need to stop and analyze this thing.
It has to be a treacherous sin or Jesus never would have spoken of it in the terms that
he did, neither would God Almighty have made it the tenth of man's rules for living.
Thou shalt not covet.
All the individual vices that are robbing the nations of their young men and maidens,
drink, impurity, gambling, all of these things grow out of unsatisfied craving of the heart,
covetousness and all of humanity.
Away from God, covetous and no amount of getting proves to be gain.
Therefore I say to you again, I ask you the question, is it too much to say that covetousness
lies at the root of all the evils that light the world today?
It's greed.
It's desire for more.
Take all the nations of the world.
The only place in the world today that you'll find real peace is in the heart of a man or
a woman who has complete faith in God and the heart of a Christian.
So far as nations are concerned, you cannot find a really peaceful nation in the whole
world.
What is it?
It's greed.
It's desire for more.
And we get possession of more and more and more.
And our nation is no exception.
Leaders of our nations.
Oh, we say we want peace, we cry for peace, but my friend, in the hearts of our leaders,
the steel, the desire for more, the possessions of others, it's more, it's greed, it's covetousness.
The greed of the capitalist, the brutality of the corporations, all arise from the lust
of possession.
And they said, well, Miss Cooney, you've painted a mighty dark picture.
What is the answer?
All right, this is the answer.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy
mind.
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
But God first, and then you'll find that you'll automatically put others before yourself.
And you'll have something in your mind greater than yourself.
And in so doing, you'll lose yourself.
And covetousness has no part in your life.
And my friend is the answer, God himself.
Amen.