Text — Ecclesiastes 2:1 – 3:9
Subject — Quest
Theme — The quest for meaning
Proposition — In Ecclesiastes 2 – 3:9 the teacher goes on a quest for meaning and finds two dead ends in his quest.

Purpose — Therefore having gone on a quest, with the Teacher for meaning this morning and having found three dead ends in a quest for meaning let us praise God that because He has united us to Christ, we walk in the ways of the covenant and so find meaning where the Teacher, speaking as a covenant breaker, could not find meaning.

Introduction

As we begin to examine Ecclesiastes again, we emphasize again that only in the covenant … only as in Christ can we find meaning. Because Christ is the answer to our sin problem, Christ is the answer to our epistemological problems. Those in Christ can find meaning in all that the teacher couldn’t find meaning in, because in Christ they have a person who can bring all the different parts of our lives together to make a meaningful whole. Because we are united to Christ “in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden,” (Colossians 2:3) we can have and find meaning. Because we are in covenant with God, “in His light we see light.”

The problem of man outside of Christ who desires meaning is that he is seeking to find meaning all the while defying the one, who alone, can give meaning.

For example, just this weak I was corresponding with someone I hadn’t spoken to in 30 years about this issue of finding meaning. I suggested, as I am teaching here, that meaning can only be found by presupposing God.

The response I received from this old acquaintance was,

“Isn’t it possible that knowledge and meaningful experience naturally evolve from consciousness and require no other preconditions? That knowledge and meaningful experience were not created and set out for consciousness to acquire but rather are created by consciousness?

Here we hear the voice of the covenant breaker that we so often hear in Ecclesiastes. Meaning is not derivative or dependent upon God but naturally evolves from consciousness. Meaning is created by one’s own evolved consciousness. Thousands of years later men are still evading God in order to have meaning independent of God.

And through the voice of the teacher in Ecclesiastes man outside of covenant with God continues to look for meaning.

In Ecclesiastes the Teacher’s purpose it to make clear that man’s life in the world is without foundation if he refuses to reckon above all with God.

We remember from last week that in the Teacher’s “burden of God” statement (1:13) the Teacher is acknowledging God from the outset as the one who is the source of his task and the one, in whom alone, his task can find traction. So, this heavy burden imposed by God is imposed for a discernible reason … it is imposed to challenge man’s self proclaimed autonomy from God.

And the book continues from here both as one who speaks as one trying to escape this burden of God by knowing autonomously and one who embraces this divinely sanctioned burden by knowing as one who thinks God’s thoughts after Him.

These words … “What a heavy burden God has laid on men” thus become a sort of thematic string we find throughout the book. To quote Michael Kelly from his commentary “The Burden of God”

“Each major section of the book … shows this theme returning again and again in order to underscore God’s absolute predominance over the life of man. It is this fact with which humanistic man in his wisdom does not wish to reckon, but which the book will make plain that he must. Man in his rebellion would dispense with God. the Teacher’s purpose is to make clear that man’s life in the world is without foundation if he refuses to reckon above all with God. Because man stands under God’s curse he must be made to take account of the fact that it is God Who is both the cause of the condition that troubles his life as well as the solution.”

And so to the covenant breaker this heavy burden imposed by God is a burden that will break him and send him flying into despair, but to the covenant keeper this heavy burden imposed by God is bearable because the work of finding meaning can be successful to the one in covenant.

This morning we are taking a look at three areas the Teacher explores in terms of finding meaning. In these areas of pleasure, labor, and wisdom, that we are looking at this morning, the Teacher does not communicate that these are evil in and of themselves (vs. 10). The point emphasized here is that these otherwise good gifts have no meaning if they are taken up as having meaning in themselves alone. He comes to this conclusion as a Son of the Covenant viewing the areas as one who has been given covenant eyes to see what the conclusion of the Covenant breaker must be.

I.) Humanist Wisdom Pursues Meaning in the Context of Pleasure And Finds A Dead End (2:1-3, 10)

Hedonism — This is a school of thought that teaches that the achievement of pleasure is the highest good. We often hear it capsulized in the idea of “eat, drink, and be merry.”

That Hedonism was thought to be an answer for meaning can be seen in an ancient Egyptian song. The following is a song attributed to the reign of one of the Intef kings before or after the 12th dynasty, and the text was used in the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties.

Let thy desire flourish,
In order to let thy heart forget the beatifications for thee.
Follow thy desire, as long as thou shalt live.
Put myrrh upon thy head and clothing of fine linen upon thee,
Being anointed with genuine marvels of the god’s property.
Set an increase to thy good things;
Let not thy heart flag.
Follow thy desire and thy good.
Fulfill thy needs upon earth, after the command of thy heart,
Until there come for thee that day of mourning.

Likewise the Teacher might have written,

He built his soul a lordly pleasure house
Wherein at ease he did dwell
He said, “Oh my soul make merry and carouse”
Dear soul, for all is well”

For the Teacher this meant Mirth, Spirits, and in vs. 10 he says he did not with-hold from His heart any pleasure. Yet weighing knee deep in this pursuit he concludes that there is no meaning apart from God.

Proverbs 25:16 is an interesting verse … “If you find honey, eat just enough – too much of
it, and you will vomit.”

In other words, even good things, in abundance, will eventually make you sick.

Of course we have seen this pursuit of finding meaning in pleasure continue full steam in the latter half of the 20th century. Hugh Hefner built his Playboy Empire. Drugs and Alcohol have proliferated in pursuit of a pleasure that allows one to drop out from this reality. Multiple Marriages combined with Multiple divorces have characterized our culture’s mad pursuit of pleasure. The gaming industry which is a multi-billion dollar industry is pursued in the name of pleasure. Our obsession with sports and entertainment outlets to the neglect of all other considerations reveals that 21st century man is still characterized as one who seeks to find his or her meaning of life in the pursuit of pleasure.

Now, pleasure, in and of itself, is not evil, as it is practiced consistent with God’s Law-Word, but pleasure will not give meaning if it is pursued as an end in itself as the Teacher tells us.

And yet we continue to embrace pleasure as a way to find meaning.

Ravi Zacharias says something that we here in this wealthy nation should take special note of:

“I am absolutely convinced that meaninglessness does not come from being weary of pain; meaninglessness comes from being weary of pleasure.”

II.) Humanist Wisdom Pursues Meaning in the Context of Work Achievements And Finds A Dead End (2:4-11, 17)

Many have been the men who have emptied themselves into their work. They are commonly referred to as “workaholics.” The Teacher toyed with finding meaning in just such a manner but the end was despair.

I suspect we are seeing this kind of thing repeated today.

A news release from The Conference Board reported in its most recent periodic poll that only 45 percent of workers in the U.S. were satisfied with their jobs, the lowest level in the 23-year history of the poll.

I suppose there could be a host of reasons why workers in the US are not satisfied with their jobs. One of those thought certainly could be the reality that ultimate meaning can’t be found in ones work.

The Teacher found here that what initially gave a rush finally, in the end, failed to fulfill.

“At age 45, Hughes was one of the most glamorous men in America. He courted actresses, piloted exotic test aircraft, and worked on top-secret CIA contracts. He owned a string of hotels around the world, even an airline – TWA – to carry him on global jaunts.

Twenty years later, at age 65, Howard Hughes still had plenty of money – $2.3 billion to be exact. But the world’s richest man had become one of its most pathetic. He lived in small dark rooms atop his hotels. Without sun and without joy. He was unkempt: a scraggly beard had grown waist-length, his hair fell down his back, his fingernails were two inches long. His once-powerful 6’4” frame had shrunk to about 100 pounds.

This famous and powerful man spent most of his time watching movies over and over, with the same movie showing as many as 150 times. He lay naked in bed, deathly afraid of germs. Life held no meaning for him. Finally, emaciated and hooked on drugs, he died at age 67, for a lack of a medical device his own company had helped to develop.”vii

A Chinese billionaire who converted to Christianity was asked “Why did you convert?”

This was his answer — “All my life I have spent my time climbing the mountain of wealth and success and when I finally got to the top…I looked around and nothing was there.”

Jesus once said, “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?” (Matthew 16:26)

III.) Humanist Wisdom Comes To Some Conclusions Regarding Wisdom & Folly Apart From God (2:12-16)

Even for the Covenant breaker (the Humanist) their Wisdom will discern a difference between Humanist Wisdom and total Humanist folly (14), even though as sons of the covenant we might say the difference is only one of degree. Be that as it is the Teacher, speaking with as one with Humanist Wisdom begins to despair.

By introducing the idea of death, quite apart from saying anything about God in vs. 16 the Teacher has brought us to the end of anything called Wisdom that does not reckon with God. Wisdom, so called, apart from God ends in death just as folly apart from God ends in death. Apart from God, when matters are viewed in the long term there is no advantage whatsoever in being comparatively Wise as juxtaposed with the fool.

And so, we see that apart from God there is no meaning. The fool is as well served as the so called wise. Only by viewing life in light of God can we find meaning.

His despair deepens as he reaches conclusions regarding Wisdom as that Wisdom exists apart from God (17-23) and here we begin to see a muscular Nihilism in his despair. Nihilism is the denial that there is any meaning with the presence of a general mood of despair at a perceived pointlessness of existence that one may develop upon realizing there are no necessary norms, rules, or laws. Nihilism then is what we read in vs. 17-23.

The Teacher says that given these truths of man without God He hates life (17). Already he has lost patience with this pursuit.

RJR has said at this point,

“Even as patience is associated with hope, so by implication the loss of hope means impatience. When we have no hope, both waiting and tribulations become meaningless to us, and we cannot patiently endure them.”

So the Teacher has lost hope speaking with the voice of the covenant breaker and in losing hope he has lost all patience and in that loss of patience he declares his hatred for life.

And well he should. Man apart from God should hate life. This is the end of all men who try to live with themselves as their God when they consistently follow that philosophy to its bitter end.

However, what often happens with this kind of man is he seeks to bring that hatred to everyone else. He hates life and so all the world must hate as well.

In 2:24-26 the Teacher shifts from his exploration of man’s end and man’s conclusions as one apart from God (2:14-23) to a few words regarding life having meaning if one is a Son of the covenant who understands life in light of God. The only answer to the despair of 2:14-23 is to reckon with the reality of the God of the Covenant. 2:24-26 reveals that the pursuit of meaning in the context of pleasure and labor, can only be found if one presupposes the God of the Bible.

So, in 2:24-26 we see the deep clouds of depression part and the sunlight of hope enters again. If man will reckon with God … if man will live in light of God man can have hope. If man will receive his pleasure and labor as from the hand of God (24) and understand them in light of God man no longer has to be one who hates life. Man’s life can have meaning but only as one who lives as submitted to God. The Teacher can have enjoyment like no other because he receives what he receives from the “hand of God.”

Notice when God is submitted to, the pleasure and the labor that found so much despair suddenly change to matters that find joy unspeakable.

Vs. 26 gives us a strong hint that the way we are understanding the text is correct. God deals with His covenant people in one way and he deals with those outside the covenant in another way. The last phrase in vs. 26 “this too is meaningless … a chasing of the wind” refers then to God’s non arbitrary judgment upon the efforts of the sinner … efforts that have been chronicled earlier.

Conclusion

Re-cap

Last week we sought to lay out that much of what Ecclesiastes is doing is giving a negative apologetic on where to find meaning. By that we mean that with Solomonic wisdom the preacher examines different avenues of life on where meaning might be found and once examining those avenues, with both the tools and resources to make a thorough examination, he concludes that no absolute meaning can be found in those avenues (1:13).

However, we also sought to show last week that this negative apologetic is being done from the vantage point of one who is outside the covenant. The Preacher himself is a child of the covenant but he is reporting with the voice of one who is outside the covenant. Periodically he will return as a spokesman as a child of the covenant but in great segments of this treatise he speaks as one outside the covenant in order to conclude at each turn that for those outside the covenant, all is vanity of vanity — a chasing of the wind.

Godless learning yields cynicism and skepticism (1:7-8)
Godless greatness yields sorrow (1:16-18)
Godless pleasure yields disappointment (2:1-2)
Godless labor yields hatred of life (2:17)
Godless philosophy yields emptiness (3:1-9)
Godless eternity yields a lack of fulfillment (3:11)
Godless life yields depression (4:1-2)
Godless religion yields dread (5:4-7)
Godless wealth yields trouble (5:12)
Godless existence yields frustration (6:12)
Godless wisdom yields despair (11:1-8)

We said his purpose throughout is to remind his listeners that to stray from the covenant is to invite the crushing burden of the curse upon them without any hope. We contend then that the purpose of the book is to expose that the man who is outside of covenant with God, because of his separation from God, can find no meaning in life. Life lived apart from God leads to the kind of intellectual schizophrenia that yields existentialism, nihilism, and all other sorts of meaningless philosophies.

This then forces us to understand that man’s problem presented in Ecclesiastes is not a problem of finiteness. It is not the case that all men can find no meaning because they are finite. No, the problem presented in the book of Ecclesiastes is that man is a sinner. Sinners can not find meaning.

Man is born seeking meaning in all he goes about
He desires to understand it all, from beginning to the end
He labors to quench uncertainties raised by constant doubt
But apart from God in Christ, it’s just a chasing of the wind

Meaning comes from outside of us, and is never ours to make
Wisdom is a gift of God, given to those who seek his face
“The Wise” are ones who handle all for their Redeemer’s sake
Who understand that creatures must keep the creature’s place

Let us talk briefly then about this idea of meaning that the Preacher, speaking with the voice of a covenant outsider, finds so elusive.

To arrive at meaning would be to arrive at something that can serve as a lens through which all of life can be understood and then ordered. To arrive at and find meaning in any one thing would mean that one thing would become the organizing principle by which every thing would find its place.

Illustration — Puzzle.

You have all these disparate puzzle parts. What you need in order to bring them all together into a meaningful whole is some kind of universal by which the different parts can be understood. This is what the teacher is looking to find as he looks at matters through the eyes of one outside the covenant.

As we begin to examine Ecclesiastes again, we emphasize again that only in the covenant … only as in Christ can we find meaning. Because Christ is the answer to our sin problem, Christ is the answer to our epistemological problems. Those in Christ can find meaning in all that the teacher couldn’t find meaning in, because in Christ they have a person who can bring all the different parts of our lives together to make a meaningful whole. Because we are united to Christ “in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden,” (Colossians 2:3) we can find and have meaning.

The problem of man outside of Christ who desires meaning is that he is seeking to find meaning all the while defying the one, who alone, can give meaning.

And through the voice of the teacher man outside of covenant with God continues to look for meaning.

As we come to this section (1:12f) we note

I.) The Task The Teacher Set For Himself

The Teacher takes up the task of knowing and understanding all of reality.

Here he speaks as one who is both inside and outside the covenant I believe. I say this because to this day the task of those in the covenant is to take and have dominion as Stewards under God. So, when the teacher says that he gave himself to “Seek and search out wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven,” I take him to say that he is taking up God’s charge to take and have dominion.

However, keep in mind, that even fallen man can not escape this dominion enterprise since dominion taking is an inescapable concept. Those outside of the covenant could theoretically as well take up the task of Seeking and searching out wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven.

So the comment here about seeking and searching could be taken up by those by faithful and faithless. And there will be many times that the Teacher speaks with the voice of the covenant breaker about the lack of success of finding meaning in this task, and there are periodic times that the Teacher speaks with the voice of the covenant keeper about the success in finding meaning in this task.

We must applaud the Teacher’s aim here. He seeks to understand all that is done under heaven. There is in this man no compartmentalization of reality. He seeks to understand all things in light of who God is and alternately to show that there is no understanding of anything apart from presupposing God.

That this task to understand all of reality and to not compartmentalize life into things governed directly by God and things governed indirectly by God, is consistent with what some of our wise men have told us in the past,

” … The field of Christianity is the world. The Christian can not be satisfied so long as any human activity is either opposed to Christianity or out of all connection with Christianity. The Christian … can not be indifferent to any branch of earnest human endeavor. It must all be brought into some relation to the Gospel.”

J. Gresham Machen

In similar tones Abraham Kuyper could likewise say,

“Oh, no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’”

This is the way the preacher is viewing the matter. All of life, and all things in life must be brought into relation to the Covenant. As Biblical wisdom applies to all of life, the Teacher takes up the task of knowing all of life.

We might add, as a kind of aside here, that this task to seek and search out wisdom concerning all that is under heaven is why, historically, Christians have always been HUGE supporters of Christian education. It also explains why it is the case that wherever the Gospel has been planted and taken root, literacy soon follows. Christians, being dominion takers, have always understood that dominion begins with the kind of learning that the Teacher sets out to undertake.

II.) The Source Of This Task Taken Up

The source of his task is God.

“What a heavy Burden God has laid on men, by which they be exercised.”

Many have thought that this statement is a statement of despair.

Instead, what may be being communicated here is his beginning premise.

It may be the case that by talking about this “heavy burden God has laid on men” what the Teacher is communicating is that his investigations must have a God centered orientation. If “fearing God” is a conclusion that he ultimately comes to, (12:13-14) then this heavy burden of God laid on men, that he mentions, is just the recognition that in all his knowing he has to presuppose God.

In this “heavy burden of God” statement the Teacher is acknowledging God from the outset as the one who is the source of his task and the one, in whom alone, his task can find traction. So, this heavy burden imposed by God is imposed for a discernible reason … it is imposed to challenge man’s self proclaimed autonomy from God.

We would also say though that for the one outside of the covenant the attempt to understand all of reality apart from God is indeed a “heavy burden of God.” Even though the idolater might seek to find meaning apart from God such an attempt is still a heavy burden God has laid on men.

And the book continues from here both as one who speaks as one trying to escape this burden of God by knowing autonomously and one who embraces this divinely sanctioned burden by knowing as one who thinks God’s thoughts after Him.

These words … “What a heavy burden God has laid on men” thus become a sort of thematic string we find throughout the book. To quote Michael Kelly from his commentary “The Burden of God”

“Each major section of the book … shows this theme returning again and again in order to underscore God’s absolute predominance over the life of man. It is this fact with which humanistic man in his wisdom does not wish to reckon, but which the book will make plain that he must. Man in his rebellion would dispense with God. the Teacher’s purpose is to make clear that man’s life in the world is without foundation if he refuses to reckon above all with God. Because man stands under God’s curse he must be made to take account of the fact that it is God Who is both the cause of the condition that troubles his life as well as the solution.”

And so to the covenant breaker this heavy burden imposed by God is a burden that will break him and send him flying into despair, but to the covenant keeper this heavy burden imposed by God is bearable because the work of finding meaning can be successful to the one in covenant.

III.) The Beginning Conclusions Regarding This Task

In vs. 14-18 we find a beginning conclusion regarding the task taken up.

I believe that the Teacher’s observations are pointed at the one outside of covenant. The teacher is making some conclusions about the wisdom of man apart from God. He is telling us some truths regarding humanistic wisdom — that is the so called “wisdom” as it exists apart from God.

Because of fallen man’s depravity his wisdom

15 (What) is crooked cannot be made straight,
and what is lacking cannot be counted.

Until this burden imposed by God, upon the one outside of covenant, is relieved by viewing all matters in light of God, his wisdom will be lacking in ways that cannot be counted as well shall see as we move through the book and he is a thing crooked that cannot be made straight.

Vs. 16 – 18

16 I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” 17 And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind.

18 For in much wisdom is much vexation,
and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.

These verses can be spoken from the position of both one within the covenant and one without the covenant.

As spoken from the perspective of the one outside the covenant it is the logical conclusion of all the searching he might make. “Wisdom” and “knowledge” gained apart from God frustrates and fails and is seen as a chasing of the wind.

As spoken from one inside the covenant it is an admission that there is a powerlessness in his wisdom because even though he might expose the vanity of the one outside the covenant he is unable to do anything about this so called “wisdom.” And so with the increase of this knowledge comes a increase of sorrow.

Really … truer words have seldom been spoken. If God has been pleased to give his saints a unique insight into his reality more often then not there is a frustration that has to be worked upon all their lives. The frustration is born of not being able to clear the fog in others so that others can see what God has opened up their eyes to see. There is for the one inside the Covenant then, a sweet melancholy, we might call it that is driven by the frustration of being given by grace alone wisdom only to see it refused by so many others with all the attendant consequences.

Illustration — C. S. Lewis — The Last Battle

Aslan raised his head and shook his mane. Instantly a glorious feast appeared on the Dwarfs’ knees: pies and tongues and pigeons and trifles and ices, and each Dwarf had a goblet of good wine in his right hand. But it wasn’t much use. They began eating and drinking greedily enough, but it was clear that they couldn’t taste it properly. They thought they were eating and drinking only the sort of things you might find in a stable. One said he was trying to eat hay and another said he had got a bit of an old turnip and a third said he’d found a raw cabbage leaf. And they raised golden goblets of rich red wine to their lips and said “Ugh! Fancy drinking dirty water out of a trough that a donkey’s been at! Never thought we’d come to this.” But very soon every Dwarf began suspecting that every other Dwarf had found something nicer than he had, and they started grabbing and snatching, and went on to quarreling, till in a few minutes there was a free fight and all the good food was smeared on their faces and clothes or trodden under foot. But when at last they sat down to nurse their black eyes and their bleeding noses, they all said:

“Well, at any rate there’s no Humbug here. We haven’t let anyone take us in. The Dwarfs are for the Dwarfs.”

“You see,” said Aslan. “They will not let us help them. They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their own minds, yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being takers in that they cannot be taken out. But come, children. I have other work to do.”

For one inside the covenant who cares about people what else can there be but a finding that

18 (For) in much wisdom is much vexation,
and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.

How can one who has seen God’s reality and has been given grace to have insight into meaning not have much vexation with much wisdom and much sorrow with their increase in knowledge when they look at people surrounded by a reality that is a smörgåsbord of meaning and who instead merely see life as meaningless turnips, straw, and donkey juice?

Conclusion

Re-cap

Next Week

The three avenues of meaning that the Preacher examines that we want to touch on next week is the search for meaning in pleasure, work and wisdom.

I.) The Pursuit of Meaning in the Context of Pleasure

II.) The Pursuit of Meaning in the Context of Work Achievements

III.) The Pursuit of Meaning in the Context of Wisdom

Return to Covenant Position

“Thou Shalt Not Covet”

We spent last week looking at the prohibition against coveting. We noted that coveting was to have inordinate (sinful) desires … desires that are not in keeping with God’s revelation. We made a point to teach that God has made us as humans, to be a people with passions, and so it is not the passion itself that is sinful but rather it is the twistedness of the passion that is sinful. We want things that are not ours to be had such as another man’s wife, property, life, position. We cited some examples of coveting in Scripture. We talked about the idea that coveting may very well be the sin behind all sin. We learned together that coveting goes from simple inordinate desire to the next level when the simple sinful inordinate desire becomes a plan to fulfill that sinful desire as engage our reason and will to follow our passion. We considered, in some detail, the relationship between the 1st and 10th commandment. Finally, we spent just a little time talking about cures for coveting, reminding ourselves that the greatest cure for sin is gratitude for the fact that Christ has put to our account His 10th commandment keeping righteousness.

The primary meaning of the tenth commandment is this: Anyone who sets his unwavering desire on his neighbor’s house wife, employees or animals will not be able to keep his hands off. Unwavering desire will give birth to planning premeditation with an intent to strike. Coveting, therefore, lies somewhere between the disposition of desiring something that is not ours to be had and the deed to procure that something. The deed is condemned by the commandments 1-9, but the tenth looks behind those deeds to the passionate heart and to the steps people take to implement the plans. As we have said, coveting is the sin behind the sin. It is the disposition behind the action. It is the root that produces the fruit.

This week we want to look at the “Thou Shalt,” that corresponds to this 10th commandment “Thou Shalt Not.” Remember, we have gone to great lengths to teach that the 10 commandments includes a “Thou Shalt” for every “Thou Shalt not.” And the Thou Shalt for “Thou Shalt Not Covet,” is “Thou Shalt be Content.”

If coveting is the presences of inordinate sinful desires that are followed through on and pursued then contentment is the absence of sinful desire and an ability to find satisfaction and sufficiency in where God has placed us at any given moment. Contentment does not mean that we do not seek to better our situation, or to improve upon our lot, but it does mean that in any given situation in which divine providence has brought us into at any given moment we are able to find a certain tranquility.

Before we get into this sermon much further, I must tell you, that I am not a master at this matter of contentment. When it comes to this matter I see my sin. I am too often anxious about the future. I saw that in myself again with all that happened with Ella’s birth. I too often covet, because of my pride and self-centeredness, a more prominent place and more influence and more possessions. So, if any of you come underneath the conviction of the word, you come underneath the conviction of the word this morning along with me.

Of course contentment, as we shall learn, is not something that one can merely switch on a button in order to achieve. Contentment is something that we learn throughout our Christian life and walk. We wee that in the passage in Philippians that we read this morning.

Phil. 4:10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again; though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity. 11 Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: 12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ[b] who strengthens me.

This then brings us to our first point in contentment. Like all Christian virtue, contentment is a learned trait.

Being Redeemed sinful beings we spend our lives, if we are honest with ourselves, seeking to master our lusts so that we control them and they do not control us. This ability to master our lusts is something that is learned over time by God’s grace.

Even the great Apostle, St. Paul, admitted that this contentment was something that he had to learn. And we are given a glimpse into his learning process in II Corinthians

7 And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. 8 Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

We don’t know for sure what Paul’s thorn in the flesh was. Some have humorously quipped that it was his Mother-in-law. Others have more seriously suggested that it was something physical, perhaps vision problems. This could be consistent with his speaking about “his infirmities,” and with other hints that we get in Scripture about his vision problems. With the reference to a “messenger of Satan” some see it as some kind of spiritual turmoil. Whatever it was we know that the Apostle struggled with a lack of contentment concerning it. He coveted relief. And who wouldn’t covet relief? If it was eyesight problems who wouldn’t be discontent over creeping blindness.

And yet we see in this passage that Paul learns to be satisfied with God’s grace. St. Paul speaks that way again to the Philippians. He tells them that “he has learned in whatever state he is in to be content.”

And we remember that St. Paul is saying this, likely in prison, chained to a Roman guard on each side of him.

So, we see here that contentment is a state of mind, arrived at by confidence in the Lord Christ, in which one’s desires are confined to one’s lot whatever it may be at any given time. (1 Tim. 6:6; 2 Cor. 9:8). In this situation in which St. Paul is in we find a man who has found the sufficiency for the situation in Christ. Because of divine grace St. Paul is nonplussed about the his circumstance. He has learned, because of his confidence in God’s providence, to be the master of his situation and circumstances and has learned how to not let his circumstance and situation be his master.

Would that we all would pray God that we would be given this ability. Just imagine how God would be glorified and how our stress levels and anxiety would be reduced.

Scripture even marries the idea of God like character with this ability to be content,

6 Now godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 8 And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Many saints have made shipwreck of their faith because of their inability to be content.

We see other examples of this contentment in the Apostle’s life.

22 Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. 23 And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. 24 Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

25 But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

St. Paul, along with Silas, had learned to not let their circumstances dictate their behavior. Because of God’s grace they were masters of their circumstances and so could sing and pray to God.

And yet having said all this, we are not teaching some kind of fatalistic resignation to what transpires in our lives. We are not teaching, and we do not find in Scripture that our Christian religion is to be some kind of opium that makes us pleased with injustice.

Christianity, is not, even in the doctrine of contentment, intended to make people resigned to being ill used or to work in them a “whatever will be, will be” attitude. Contentment does not say, “be satisfied with wickedness and so work not to advance the Kingdom of God in the face of opposition,” but rather it says that wherever we are in the immediate moment of working to advance God’s Kingdom, we have needs to be content with God’s providence.

God’s providence dictates the immediate moment, but obedience to God’s revealed word dictates our action for the next moment. So we can, at one and the same time, be content with what God has for us in the existential moment while still seeking to improve our situation by God honoring means.

It is a delicate balance but one that we find in Scripture.

For example, We read in Acts 16 where Paul and Silas were unjustly beaten with rods and placed in a filthy prison. And yet they sang and praised God. We know the story of how God released them via a earthquake and their bringing the Gospel to the jailer.

So, early in the account we see their contentment, yet later in the account we see them demanding justice. Their sense of contentment did make them fatalistically resigned to what others had unjustly done to them.

35 And when it was day, the magistrates sent the officers, saying, “Let those men go.”

36 So the keeper of the prison reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Now therefore depart, and go in peace.”

37 But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us openly, uncondemned Romans, and have thrown us into prison. And now do they put us out secretly? No indeed! Let them come themselves and get us out.”

38 And the officers told these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans. 39 Then they came and pleaded with them and brought them out, and asked them to depart from the city. 40 So they went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia; and when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed.

So, being content, did not mean for St. Paul, not holding people accountable for their wicked actions. It did not mean not insisting on justice. Their Christian contentment was not a opium for the people. Christian contentment is not the same as pagan stoicism. The Christian at one and the same time can be content, thus putting off the vices of greed, avarice, envy, anxiety, and covetousness while at the same time pursuing the virtue of God’s justice, and contending for the overthrow of those Kingdoms that oppose God’s Kingdom. They can at the same time be content without being passive, mealy mouthed, and ineffective.

Contentment has the ability to navigate to a place where one can say that one is not mastered by a difficult circumstance that one might find oneself in. This is what St. Paul is saying in vs. 11-12,

12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

The gift of contentment had him managing the highs and lows, the lack and surfeit of life. Whether in abundance or in lack the Apostle was content w/ God’s sufficiency.

Our instinct is to think that the virtue of contentment is only difficult in times of lack. Can we be content when we are set aside and even mocked, or will we become bitter and plot sinful vengeance? Can we be content when we our shoved aside and insulted while the wicked flex their influence and authority without building sinful resentment. Contentment is difficult during times of lack and during times of being set aside.

But St. Paul gives some indication that contentment is something that is needed also in times of abundance. Are we independent and satisfied with God and His providence when our circumstances are positive or abundant or do we suddenly find ourselves at that point forgetting God and thinking that “it is by our hand we have gained this position?”

St. Paul says it is the gift of contentment that gives him ballast against poverty and insult but also against being swept away by abundance and surfeit into abandoning a right estimation of God’s providence.

We should be content in all things and remember our Proverbs,

8 Remove falsehood and lies far from me;
Give me neither poverty nor riches—
Feed me with the food allotted to me;
9 Lest I be full and deny You,
And say, “Who is the Lord?”
Or lest I be poor and steal,
And profane the name of my God.

Tips to Contentment

1.) Mindful of and confident in God’s providential ordering of all things (Ps. 96:1, 2; 145),

2.) Finding our satisfaction in Christ and the greatness of the divine promises (2 Pet. 1:4),

Whatever may come our way in terms of everyday life, nothing can separate us from the Love of God in Christ. If we keep our minds saturated in that truth, discontentment and covetousness will be far harder to get a grip on us.

3.) The ability to practice gratitude.

No matter how difficult matters are, we must remind ourselves of the many ways that God has blessed us.

4.) A knowledge and confidence that God will one day right all wrongs

II Thess. 1:6 since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, 7 and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

5.) Reminding ourselves that we are not deserving of any that we think we are deserving of.

“Thou shall not covet your neighbour’s house; thou shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbour’s.”

There are not two commandments here though interestingly enough those in the Roman Catholic Church and our brethren in the Lutheran Church number these as two different commandments since there are two “Thou shalt nots,” in the passage before us. The Reformed community, and Protestantism in general, as well as the Orthodox church community ha not agreed with this counting style because the NT itself combines the commandment as one.

Romans 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

The same unified speaking of the 10th commandment is seen in Romans 13 as well. So, it is a small thing but this is one of the differences we would have with some other “Church” communities.

As we consider coveting we would note that while 6-9 (Murder, Adultery, Theft, False Witness) all have to do with the act. The 10th Word has to do with the sinful inclination behind the sins of adultery or theft or idolatry.

Indeed it would not be too much to say that coveting is the sin behind all sin, if we understand coveting to include that we sin in order that we might satisfy our coveting for ourselves to be preeminent in all things.

We see clear connections of coveting in Scripture that allows us to see the sin of coveting in its obvious manifestation

Genesis 3,

6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

Achan’s sin,

Joshua 7:21 when I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shinar and two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold fifty shekels in weight, then I coveted them and took them; and behold, they are concealed in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath it.”

Ahab desiring Naboth’s vineyard (I Kings 21)

These three are perhaps three of the most obvious examples of coveting with find in Scripture. But I would contend that coveting (misplaced sinful desires) is the sin behind all sin. It is the sin of motivation that drives the behavior that violates God’s Law.

Even the primordial sin of all sins was connected to coveting. Satan fell because he acted on his coveting of God’s position,

Isaiah 14:13 You said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
above the stars of God
I will set my throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
in the far reaches of the north;[a]
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’

So the argument might be made that in coveting you have the prohibition against the sin of disposition that is always present before the actual act in willful sin.

Listen to James on this

James 4 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? 2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. 3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

So, with the 10th commandment we find the mother lode of sin.

Indeed, it may not be a stretch to see the 1st and 10th as bookends having a certain symbiosis.

What is the consequence every time of taking other gods? Answer — Coveting.

What is the consequence every time of coveting? Answer — Taking other Gods.

The 1st commandment gives you the theocentric beginning of Sin. The 10th commandment gives you the anthropocentric beginning of sin.

This is why, I believe there is such a close connection between greed and idolatry in Scripture. If we understand greed as a subset of coveting then God establishes the same close connection between coveting and idolatry that I have established here,

Colossians 3:5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:

5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

Clearly there is an intimate connection between coveting and idolatry and I suggest that they are much the same sin viewed alternately from the Theocentric and the anthropecentric perspective.

So, every time you meet someone guilty of coveting you meet an Idolater and every time you meet an idolater you meet someone guilty of coveting. The violation of #1 and #10 go together like marriage and children. They are bookends.

Moving on, when we talk about the desire that is implicit in coveting we must make distinctions here.

Keep in mind that it is not desire itself that is coveting.

God has built us to be a people who desire and so our goal in dealing with coveting is not to somehow (as if we could) cease desiring.

Were we to pursue that course of action in conquering covetousness — the course of action that would have us seeking to eliminate all temporal desire — we would by necessity become Buddhists. Buddhism teaches the necessity to have freedom from everything temporal and the complete suppression of all desires. The desireless person who is free of everything temporal as arrived at Nirvana.

(Buddhism, of course, is a contradiction in as much as it teaches you to desire the end of desires. Buddhism teaches one to pursue the end of all desire and yet in teaching that is sets up as the chief desire the end of all desires. Even if one is successful as a Buddhist, one fails.)

It is not proper desires that God prohibits in the 10th commandment but improper desires.

An improper desire (a coveting) is when you desire anything but God and His Kingdom so much that its fulfillment becomes God to you. But as our temporal desires find their proper place in the context of God and His revelation those desires are perfectly God honoring.

So, not all desire is coveting though all coveting is desire (misplaced).

The prohibition then against coveting is not a prohibition against being passionate and desirous. It is a prohibition against being passionate and desirous about the wrong things, or if you prefer, it is a prohibition against being a passion and desire that does know its proper place.

The kind of passion and desire that is acceptable before God, our Savior, lies in placing our passions and desires so that they are in service to the desire and passion to glorify and serve the Lord Christ, which should be the animating passion and desire of all other Christian passions and desires.

The Scriptures teach us that God and His Kingdom is to be our ultimate desire.

Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be given you.

Let us press just a little more beneath the surface regarding this matter of coveting.

Calvin and other Reformed men distinguished between the idea of passing desire for something which they did not count as coveting and the desire that wasn’t passing but give birth to plans on how to secure the thing to be desired.

For example — Very recently in the Midwest there was a former Pastor convicted in a court of law of seducing several women in his congregation. He will be going to jail. Now, that Pastor at some point, obviously had a desire but that desire could have been confessed as sin and resisted without the kind of harm that came to be to the women, his family, himself, and the Church. But instead the passing desire moved into concrete planning along the way. According to Calvin and others, it was the planning out wherein the covetousness lay. What is happening with the planning is that the will co-operates with what otherwise might have been a mere fleeting desire (still sin in itself) in order to work together to disobey God.

And, in order to reinforce what was said earlier this is obviously Idolatry as well as covetousness, in as much as the idol god in charge is now the self and not God.

So some of the older writers suggested that there are stages of desire and James 1 might be appealed to for that,

13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

You see the lust starts with being enticed and it moves from being enticed to full conception and once you have lust conceived sin in birthed. The full conception part would be the planning part and the birth of sin would be the act itself.

So, a desire is nursed, the will is surrendered to the desire; a plan is developed to satisfy the desire and the plan translates the desire into a deed. According to Calvin, the commandment focuses on the first two stages of desire.

However it must be said here that there is outward behavior that is being condemned by the 10th commandment. The planning itself is a outward behavior. In the illustration given earlier about seduction, a plan was made, there were arrangements made and matters attended to that led up to the actual act itself and all of that previous action was outward acts which were sin.

Contrary to Calvin, it is better to hold that all inordinate lusts as coveting and are necessary to be repented of and the sooner the better. The minute a covetous desire for something that is not ours to be had we would be wise at that very moment to confess as sin and ask for contentment.

__________________
Cure for coveting

1.) Admit your inordinate desires to yourself

That may sound funny but people lie to themselves all the time. They have desires that they know are inordinate and yet they will not admit that to themselves and so since they will not admit that to themselves they follow through on those inordinate desires.

2.) Confess your covetous inordinate desires as sin to God and ask both for forgiveness and for the ability to put off these sinful desire and to put on Christian contentment.

3.) Talk back to yourself. We see this kind of behavior in the Psalms frequently. One example,

Psalm 43:5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

The example here has the Psalmist talking back to himself regarding his discouragement. But the principle holds true across the board. We need to talk back to ourselves when we see matters in ourselves that are not right. We need to remind ourselves that we are a Christian people and that certain desires, behaviors, and internal dispositions are not meet for a Christian people. We need to remind ourselves of God’s promises and and of God’s sufficiency.

Once you’ve admitted these inordinate desires take yourself in hand and remind yourself that the getting is never so pleasurable as the wanting. Remind yourself that sin is always a cheat and that the fulfilling of your desires never delivers that which it promises.

4.) Praise God for what He has provided and return to seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, being confident that God will continue to give you what you stand in need of.

5.) Thank God for the forgiveness that we have in Christ. Yes it may be true that we are great in coveting … that we struggle with coveting … but we can be confident despite the covetous desires we see in ourselves we stand as beloved by God because of the acceptability of our Elder Brother — The Lord Christ — who has put to our account His 10th commandment keeping righteousness.

Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness

The appeal to objective truth

In a world that locks out God there is no objective truth and if there is no objective truth then the whole conversation about bearing either true or false witness is a non-sequitur.

So before we can talk about commandment #9 we have to presuppose that God is.

However, our culture with its evolution in biology its existentialism in philosophy and its deconstructionism in literature we have denied God as the creator, God as the giver of meaning, and God as the author and as such we have denied that true truth exists.

“Today not only in philosophy but in politics, government, and individual morality, our generation sees solutions in terms of synthesis and not absolutes. When this happens, truth, as people have always thought of truth, has died.”

Francis Schaeffer

C. S. Lewis gets at our problem regarding bearing true witness without God when he notes,

“Suppose there was no intelligence behind the universe, …. In that case, nobody designed my brain for the purpose of thinking. … When the atoms inside my skull happen for physical or chemical reasons to arrange themselves in a certain way, this gives me, as a by-product, the sensation I call ‘thought’. But if so, how can I trust my own thinking to be true? It’s like upsetting a glass of milk and hoping that the way the splash arranges itself will give you a map of London. But if I can’t trust my own thinking, of course I can’t trust the arguments leading to atheism; therefore I have no reason to be an atheist, or anything else. Unless I believe in God, I can’t believe in thought, so I can never use thought to disbelieve in God”

- C.S. Lewis in The Case for Christianity

If there is no God, then talking about the bearing of either false or true witness is gibberish. If God does not exist and all we are is matter in motion then all I can say in terms of witnessing is whatever bio-chemical charges that occur in my head allow me to say.

It is true that despite the wide scale denial of God there remains an expectation of bearing true witness among modern Western man, but how modern man justifies that idea is impossible to gauge. We clamor for the bearing of proper witness and yet by our denial of the God of the Bible we render such an ethic impossible.

The expectation among modern men that the truth be told is a hangover from the Christian moral tradition that built the Western world. The expectation of proper witnessing is inconsistent with a time plus chance plus circumstance world. What the modern pagan West has done is to wrench the flower of a Christian ethic — an ethic that includes forbidding false witnessing — from the theological soil that makes such an ethic possible, and have then transplanted that Christian ethic into the non-Christian theological gravel that is the theology that now informs the West.

Or to put it another way, we have cut the flower of truth telling from the theological soil where it grows and yet we still expect the flower to remain full of life. To paraphrase Lewis,

We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We scorn the notion of God and are shocked to find false witnesses in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.

So our first point this morning is if we are to be a people who care about truth telling, and if we are to put off false witnessing and put on true witnessing we must have a vibrant belief in the God of the Bible who is Himself the God of Truth (John 16:13).

Our second point as we consider the 9th commandment is to remember that the prohibition against bearing false witness should be thought of vertically before it is considered horizontally.

We are a Christian people. We are called not to bear false witness. Our primary concern, given that commandment then should be that we not bear false witness concerning the triune God. Our passion should be to be found to be faithful witnesses regarding the character of God.

There is a great need for God’s people to not give False witness concerning God today.

There are many ways that this is done. We bear false witness of God when we talk about God’s unconditional love outside the context of faith in Christ.

“Unconditional love separates God’s love from His Law. The love of God is never lawless or unprincipled, never separate from His holiness, justice, and righteousness. Unconditional love is love with no strings attached; no requirements for change, no recognition of evil or acknowledgment of right and wrong. Unconditional love is a more revolutionary concept than any other doctrine of revolution. Unconditional love means the end of discrimination between good and evil, right and wrong, better and worse, friend and enemy, and all things else. Whenever anyone asks you to love unconditionally, they are asking you to surrender unconditionally to the enemy.

R.J. Rushdoony

Ministers and laymen alike are causing tremendous confusion and damage in the modern church by bearing false witness concerning the character and nature of God. It is true for those in Christ that nothing can separate us from the Love of God, but it is also true that the Love of God makes us a people who are zealous for good works. We have no business telling those who are unconcerned with flagrantly violating God’s standard that God’s love is unconditional as if in making a claim on God is the same as revealing that God has a claim on us.

That God’s love anticipates fruit in keeping with repentance among His people is seen in passages like,

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ (Jude 3,4).

Note here that we here strains of the false witness against God that his love does not expect a certain walk. These people that Jude writes about had turned the grace of God into lasciviousness.

Lasciviousness” is translated from the Greek word aselgeia, which means “unbridled lust, excess, wantonness, outrageousness, shamelessness, insolence.”

So, the false witness against God’s character (gracious = promiscuous) is no new thing and yet that danger is something we need to keep before us.

Likewise false witness concerning God is born when Christians deny His exhaustive sovereignty.

When Christians deny, as many do, Grace Alone Through Faith Alone in Christ Alone as our rescue from sin, when we deny the doctrines of Grace that teaches that redeemed man contributes nothing to His right standing before God, when we deny the exhaustive providence of God of the kind taught in our Catechism, or when we deny the necessity to esteem the use of God’s law as a guide for life for Christians, in both the private realm and the public square, we bear false witness concerning God’s sovereignty and so violate the 9th commandment most egregiously.

When Scripture’s teach, “The Lord God Omnipotent Reigns,” it means that God is all powerful — is Sovereign.

There are other ways that we can bear false witness concerning God. We can question God’s word as being inerrant and infallible. We can divide God’s word up so that the Old Testament has an expiration date that no longer requires us to take it seriously. We can bear false witness concerning who God’s people are mistakenly teaching that God’s people are still the Jews when Scripture teaches that the Church is the people of God.

So, when we consider the necessity to not bear false witness perhaps what should go through our minds of utmost importance is pray that God would grant us grace not to bear false witness against Him.

Our third point this morning is to consider the 9th commandment as a requisite for justice in courts of law.

The ninth commandment, as it applies to a horizontal level (man with man) involves, first of all, judicial or courtroom matters. That is not its only sphere, in man’s relationship to his fellow man but it is its primary one.

The ruling chieftains of a set place exercised justice in ancient Israel. The system that was organized for the pursuit of justice was based upon witnessing. If God’s justice was to be had in this system then it required truth telling in the courtroom setting.There was no fingerprinting. No genetic testing. What was required and what was relied upon were truth telling witnesses.

Dt. 17:6 On the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the]evidence of one witness.

Dt. 19:15 “ A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin [a]which he has committed; on the [b]evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed.

We see then with the 9th commandment how serious God was about the issue of justice among men. What established justice among men was the testimony of two witnesses. If witnesses were false the gravest of consequences could occur and the pursuit of justice would lead to injustice.

I Kings 21:13 Then the two worthless men came in and sat before him; and the worthless men testified against him, even against Naboth, before the people, saying, “Naboth cursed God and the king.” So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death with stones.

In this incident we see why Proverbs says,

8 Like a club and a sword and a sharp arrow
Is a man who bears false witness against his neighbor.

So, given how serious this witnessing was we can readily understand why God gave, as one of the 10 words, the prohibition of false witnessing. God also put teeth in this prohibition against false witnessing. If one were caught giving false witness that person would receive in themselves the penalty that was designated for the person who they were trying to convict with their false witness.

Dt. 19:16 If a malicious witness rises up against a man to [a]accuse him of [b]wrongdoing, 17 then both the men who have the dispute shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days. 18 The judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has [c]accused his brother falsely, 19 then you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.

So the prohibition against false witnessing was aimed at insuring justice and justice is something that God loves.

So, the 9th word reinforces the 6th, 7th, and 8th word. In order to protect life, marriage, and property you need legal institutions that can bring justice to bear but in order to bring justice to bear you need a prohibition against false witnessing since witnesses are instrumental in arriving at justice.

The ninth commandment involves a crucial issue — the safeguarding of honor, life, marriage and property. Where there is no justice because false witnessing abounds liberty vanishes and fear and injustice (Remember Naboth) reign.

72 Give the king your justice, O God,
and your righteousness to the royal son!
2 May he judge your people with righteousness,
and your poor with justice!
3 Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people,
and the hills, in righteousness!

Of course we still see the importance of the 9th commandment in our perjury laws. Being found guilty of perjury can land a person in a boatload of trouble. The reason for this today is the same as it was when the 9th commandment was given. If a court can not get at the truth, there will be no justice and where there is no justice every man will do what is right in his own eyes.

Many scriptures speak of God being in control of the presence and absence of rain and withholding rain as a sign of His displeasure.

Dt. 28:15 “ But it shall come about, if you do not [a]obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

23 [a]The heaven which is over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you, iron. 24 The Lord will change the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed. (cmp. Lev. 26:19).

The metaphors of heaven as bronze and earth as iron spoke of a rainless sky and a barren land. Such realities would be frightful to any people.

Zech. 14:17 And it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them.

Acts 14:17 and yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, [a]satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.”

James 5:17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed [a]earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.

Amos 4:7 “Furthermore, I withheld the rain from you
While there were still three months until harvest.
Then I would send rain on one city
And on another city I would not send rain;
One part would be rained on,
While the part not rained on would dry up.

Jer.5:24 Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if My People who are called by my Name will humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive there sin and heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7: 13-14)

God created the world as a good environment which would normally provide ample water and food for mankind (Genesis 1:1).

0lder Calvinists saw an interruption of rain as God’s just judgment, Thomas Watson in 1670,

“It is God who brings droughts and rain, and who opens and stops the clouds, the bottles of heaven, at his pleasure:

Watson then cites Jer. 14:2-4,

“Judah mourns, her cities languish; they wail for the land, and a cry goes up from Jerusalem. The nobles send their servants for water; they go to the cisterns but find no water. They return with their jars unfilled; dismayed and despairing, they cover their heads (as a token of great grief and sorrow, as mourners do.) The ground is cracked because there is no rain in the land; the farmers are dismayed and cover their heads.”

Watson, like many of the older Calvinists saw the productiveness of the earth as related to people’s obedience to God.

They could look at the sins of Adam, Eve, and Cain as those sins resulted in unfruitfulness of the earth (Genesis 3:17-18; Genesis 4:12).

17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’;

Cursed is the ground because of you;
In [a]toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life.
18 “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
And you will eat the [b]plants of the field;

As a result of Cain’s sin,

12 When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth.”

The Older Calvinists could look at Israel’s relationship with God and how the sins of Israel also directly affecting the fertility of the Promised Land.

When the people obeyed God, the land was productive (Deuteronomy 11:11-14). However, when they disobeyed, judgment came on the land by drought and famine (Leviticus 26:23-26; Deuteronomy 11:16-17; 1 Kings 8:35).

I Kings 8:35 “ When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain, because they have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name and turn from their sin when You afflict them,

At the same time the Old Testament contains promises that God will protect His faithful ones in times of famine (Job 5:20, 22; Psalms 33:18-19; Psalms 37:18-19; Proverbs 10:3)

Ps. 33:18 Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him,
On those who [a] hope for His lovingkindness,
19 To deliver their soul from death
And to keep them alive in famine

Ps. 18 The Lord knows the days of the [a]blameless,
And their inheritance will be forever.
19 They will not be ashamed in the time of evil,
And in the days of famine they will have abundance.

While the Bible states that some famines and droughts are the judgment of God (2 Samuel 21:1; 1 Kings 17:1; 2 Kings 8:1; Jeremiah 14:12; Ezekiel 5:12; Amos 4:6), not all such disasters are explicitly connected to divine punishment (Genesis 12:10; Genesis 26:1; Ruth 1:1; Acts 11:28). However, when God did send drought and famine on His people, it was for the purpose of bringing them to repentance (1 Kings 8:35-36; Hosea 2:8-23; Amos 4:6-8).

So older Calvinists used to read visitations upon the land as God communicating to His people by Divine providence. Those negative visitations could be lack of rain, they could be fire that raged through a city, or they could be capture by one’s enemies. The point is that older Calvinists, in difficulties or in blessings and abundance saw the hand of God.

For example,

Thomas Watson on the great fire that decimated London in 1670,

“That the burning of London is a national judgment, is evident enough to every man who has but half an eye.”

“O sirs, you are to see and observe and acknowledge the hand of the Lord in every personal judgment, and in every domestic judgment. Oh how much more then in every national judgment that is inflicted upon us! And thus I have done with those ten considerations, that should not only provoke us—but also prevail with us, to see and acknowledge the hand of the Lord in that recent dreadful fire, which has laid our city desolate!”

When other Puritans in the New World experienced starvation and Indian attacks, they reasoned it was God’s will and possibly also His punishment for their materialism and other sins. When they were victorious in battle with the Indians or reaped a bountiful harvest, they gave thanks to God.

Mary Rowlandinson, a Calvinist preacher’s wife in the New World was captured by Indians in a raid on their town.

Rowlandson believed that God was punishing his people for breaking their special covenant as his chosen people. She described the relationship between the Indians and the colonists as one orchestrated by God. As she surveyed her home after the attack bv the Indians, she credited the destruction not to the Indians, but to God, when she quoted “Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations He has made in the earth-”[10] When pondering the escape of the Indians, weighed down with the burden of their wounded captives, from the English army, Rowlandson concluded that “God strengthened [the Indians] to be a scourge to His people.” Rowlandson believed that “our perverse and evil carriages in the sight of the Lord have so offended Him that, instead of turning his hand against [the Indians], the Lord feeds and nourishes them.” She reinforced her conviction that God punished her people through the Indians by quoting the scriptural voice of God saying “Oh, that my people had harkened to me, and Israel had walked in my ways; I should soon have subdued their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries.”[11] The Indians’ success over the Puritans was a result of the failure of the Puritans to uphold their covenant with God. The warning that John Cotton preached over forty years earlier, that if the colonist, “degenerate, to take loose courses, God will surely plucke you up,” had become prophetic to Mary Rowlandson

Remember, the point that I’m trying to make here, is that whether it was drought, or some other hardship, Older Calvinists believed that God’s sovereign providential hand was in the matter. Whatever they were dealing with it did not come to them by chance or happenstance. And generally they believed if what came to them was hardship, then they had need to repent.

Maybe they drew too tight a connection between the hardship and the specific sin in their lives they were being chastened for, but at least they understood that the world was Governed directly by God whatever concrete event may come into their lives.

I think there is danger in drawing to tight a connection between hardship that comes into our lives and some specific exact sin, though Scripture clearly teaches God chastens those He loves. If we draw to tight a connection between hardship and some exact sin we could fall prey to the thinking that success always equal righteousness while hardship always equals some wickedness. Scripture gives us plenty of examples that counter that so that we will not fall into that thinking.

Having said that, I also think that we have fallen into the greater danger of not seeing the world alive with God’s providential superintendence like the older Calvinists. We too often fail to see God’s providence in all the affairs around us. We too typically forget that all that happens, happens by divine ordination and with the concurrence of Divine providence.

For the older Calvinists God’s hand was seen in everything. To often for us, God is a spectator, along with us, in the
vicissitudes of life. And because we don’t seen God’s providence in all that comes our way we are slow to turn to Him in every situation, casting our all upon Him.

Now we ask why did the older Calvinists view life with this high sense of God intimate providence?

Because they saw it taught everywhere in Scripture,

Amos 3:6, “When disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it?”

Whatever the judgment is which falls upon a city—God is the author of it; he acts in it and orders it according to his own good pleasure. There is no judgment that accidentally falls upon any person, city, or country. Every judgment is inflicted by a divine power and providence… including drought.

“The Lord said to him—Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord?” Exodus 4:11.

“See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand!” Deuteronomy 32:39.

“The Lord brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up. The Lord sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts. 1 Samuel 2:6-7.

“When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other.” Ecclesiastes 7:14.

“This is what the Lord says: As I have brought all this great calamity on this people, so I will give them all the prosperity I have promised them.” Jeremiah 32:42.

“Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?” Lamentations 3:38.

“When disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it?” Amos 3:6.

“For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal.” Job 5:18.

“I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted.” Job 42:2.

“Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.” Psalm 115:3.

“I know that the Lord is great, that our Lord is greater than all gods. The Lord does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths.” Psalm 135:5-6.

“I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things.” Isaiah 45:7.

“The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me!” Ruth 1:21.

“I was silent; I would not open my mouth, for you are the one who has done this.” Psalm 39:9. “He is the Lord; let him do what is good in his eyes.” 1 Samuel 3:18.

“The Lord brought all this disaster on them.” 1 Kings 9:9.

“‘I am going to bring disaster on you.” 1 Kings 21:21.

“The Lord has decreed disaster for you.” 1 Kings 22:23.

“Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle!” 2 Kings 21:12.

“The Lord works out everything for his own ends– even the wicked for a day of disaster!” Proverbs 16:4.

“Therefore this is what the Lord says: I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them!” Jeremiah 11:11.

We see, by the witness of Scripture, that the older Calvinists had good reason to have a strong belief in God’s providence. It was part and parcel of that which makes Calvinism, Calvinism, and that is the belief in the Sovereignty of God.

So what is our attitude to be in the face of natural disasters?

1.) We would do well, in every natural occurrence, to see the hand of the Lord, and to look through the instrument that God uses to effect His end to the invisible God who wielded that instrument. Winds do not blow, floods do not come, rain is not with-held, unless God be in it. (“Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it?” Is. 10:15).

2.) We don’t blame God as if He is guilty of our demands. Could any of us say that we are as Holy in our walk as our righteous Father Job was, and yet, God in His providence laid Job low and Job learned not to put God in the dock. When hardship comes our way we must remember that God’s dealings with us are altogether just, and that none of us, if honest with ourselves, can indict God for His dealings with us, as if we deserve better than whatever God brings.

3.) Repent. Repentance means a change in our thinking and then our lifestyle. We have to abandon our humanistic fantasies and return to taking the entire Word of God seriously. Why should we find it so difficult to call for repentance in the time of drought? Our whole life should be characterized as a life style of repentance and if that is so hardship should doubly call us to examine ourselves unto repentance, amending of thinking and acting where needs be and trust in Christ alone.

4.) Understand the truth of God’s “Severe Mercy.” Providentially, God sends hardship into our lives, often to put us into the refiners fire of sanctification. God’s severe mercy, often painfully, yet exactingly conforms us to Christ. We should pray that we might be able to say,

“I thank thee Lord for the Rod, the file, and the refiners fire, for grace tried and proven is better than grace left untried.”

(Paul’s thorn in the Flesh — God’s grace is sufficient.)

5.) We reach out with compassion to those who are suffering from natural disasters. We demonstrate the Love of God. We show the love of God in ministering to the needs and hurts of those immediately affected. It is an opportunity to show the love of Christ. It is an opportunity to relieve physical suffering [as Jesus did when He walked the earth], and point people to the only way to relieve spiritual suffering and know Peace w/ God.

By way of opening this morning I want us to consider how Scripture portrays the violation of the 10 commandments as being Characteristic of the Devil. Scripture teaches us that God’s Law-Word is the Character of God so we should not be surprised that in are enemy the Devil we find a person whose Character is defined as being the antithesis of what God’s Law-Word establishes.

I open with this because I want us to understand that we either live as Children of God who walk increasingly in His character or we walk as Children of the Devil who walk increasingly in His character. The more we refuse to reflect Christ, who was the incarnation of God’s Law, the more we reflect the Devil who is the antithesis of God’s law.

In the words of the old Bob Dylan song …

“You’re gonna have to serve somebody. Now it may be the Devil or it may be the Lord but you’re going to have to serve somebody.”

1st Word

God said, “Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods before me

The Devil aspired

Isaiah 14:13 You said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
above the stars of God
I will set my throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
in the far reaches of the north;[a]
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’

2nd Word

God said, “Thou shalt not bow down to worship false gods”

Contrary to God’s explicit word Satan tempted Jesus to fall down and worship him.

Matthew 4:8-9 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”

3rd Word

God said, “Do not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain”

We learn in Job that Satan’s goal in his affliction of Job was to have Job curse God

Job 1:11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”

Further, we find the Devil taking God’s name in vain when he quotes Scripture to Jesus during Jesus temptation. He cites God’s words for his own twisted end, using God’s words to undo God’s authority.

4th Word

5th Word

6th Word

God said, “Thou Shalt Not Kill”

In Scripture we find the Devil as,

John 6:10 — The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

John 8:44 — “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies

7th word

8th Word

God said, “Thou Shalt Not Steal”

In the parable of the sower it is said of Satan that he steals away the word sown

Elsewhere Jesus said of Satan

John 10:10 — The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Some scholars identify “The Thief” here as “The Devil,” while others identify “the Thief” as the Pharisees but as the Pharisees were directly identified as acting in ways consistent with their Father the Devil, it comes much to the same thing.

Further the whole story of Scripture casts Satan as the one who would steal God’s Glory.

9th Word

God said, “Thou Shalt not bear False Witness

But it is said of Satan

John 8:44 — “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies

10th Word

God said, “Thou Shalt Not Covet”

As we learned earlier on the 1st Commandment, Satan coveted God’s position as God

And we learn that the Sin that he plied in our First parents was coveting.

Fruit in the Garden … the desire to be as God

————-

This opening up of Scripture examines how it is that we reveal ourselves to be either Children of God or children of the Devil. If we are God’s people we will desire to walk in God’s character and confess before God and bring accusation against ourselves when we do not walk in God’s character.

However, it also opens up again our need as Christians for Christ and His Righteousness. We hear God’s law and we see God’s character in His law and we understand the requirement to conform to that character without fault or with the slightest deviation. And when we are honest with ourselves we understand that we must have a obedience to God’s character that comes from outside of us because even on those days we are most obedient in walking in God’s character we also see that it is not good enough. We are, with the Apostle Paul, the Chief of Sinners. And so while we esteem God’s law, we also look to the one who is our Law keeping righteousness that is acceptable before God, our Lord Jesus Christ who is to us our Wisdom, Righteousness and Sanctification.

And so the Law teaches us not only the Character of God that we are to walk in as God’s people, but it also teaches us that Christ’s perfect walk as God’s Covenantal Head for His people is that which we must hold fast to at all times as our only acceptability before God.

Similarly, when we look at Scripture we see the Character of Satan which is the antipode of God’s character and we understand that because we are Children of God, by the work of Christ alone, we are

22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

You see, as Christians we are to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God. And where do we learn of the likeness of God that we are to put on?

In Jesus Christ who was the incarnation of God’s ten Words.

And so we are the elect ones, who out of God’s sheer mercy and grace are covered in Christ and so being covered in Christ, and always being acceptable to the Father, we seek ourselves, as led by the Holy Spirit, to be miniature incarnations of God’s law word, increasingly conforming to Christ.

Like our Elder Brother Christ, it is our delight to have no God but God.
Like our Elder Brother Christ, it is our delight to not bow down to and serve false gods
Like our Elder Brother Christ, it is our delight to esteem the name of the Lord our God in vain
Like our Elder Brother Christ, it is our delight to honor the Sabbath
Like our Elder Brother Christ, it is our delight to honor our Parents
Like our Elder Brother Christ, it is our delight to esteem life
Like our Elder Brother Christ, it is our delight to remain chaste our whole lives
Like our Elder Brother Christ, it is our delight to promote the advantage of our neighbor in every instance
Like our Elder Brother Christ, it is our delight to be truth tellers
Like our Elder Brother Christ, it is our delight to be content with what God has appointed unto us

I John 3:8 teaches that Christ came to destroy the works of the Devil. In His death for sinners Christ destroys the accusatory work of the Devil who would bring charges (Romans 8:33) against the Saints. There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

And in the resurrection life that Christ freely gives to us (Romans 6) Christ destroys the works of the devil in our lives and makes us increasingly walking exemplifiers of God’s character so that we are an attraction to those who are called of God and reviled by those who are of their Father the Devil.

The Church is to be the Character of God. A living embodiment of the reality that the strong man has been bound and God’s people have been set free to walk in newness of life.

Here we see the hope of global Reformation. When God is pleased to grant Reformation, we can expect to see the continuing defeat of Satan’s character at every turn and the establishment of God’s character in its place.

One thing we should keep in mind here when approaching this text is that St. Paul was writing to Saints (3). The issues he touches upon were issues within the Church. If they had not been issues within the Church he would have had no need to touch upon them. It is interesting that he brings this subject matter up not only for the Ephesian Church but also for the Church in Colosse.

3 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. 5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to [c] immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. 6 For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come [e]upon the sons of disobedience, 7 and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.

To the Saints in Corinth St. Paul could write,

1 Cor.6:18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. 1 Cor.6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 1 Cor.6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

And so it is to the Saints that these injunctions are made and they are consistently made in light of the fact that the people of God have been translated from the Kingdom of Darkness to the Kingdom of God’s dear Son.

In the Ephesians passage the Saints have just been reminded that Christ gave Himself for the Church. The injunction to walk in this new morality is connected to the new reality established by the fact that Christ gave Himself for us. In the Colossians passages the Saints were reminded that they were raised with Christ. This being raised with Christ is connected elsewhere with being raised to newness of life. In the Corinthians passage the Saints are called to purity in light of the fact that they have been purchased by God. The thought being, having been purchased by God we now have a responsibility to walk in light of His ownership.

So, these moral injunctions are not given absent of the objective realities of the Gospel of Christ for sinners. These moral injunctions are given in light of both these objective realities of what Christ has accomplished for us — outside of us — and the effect of the Gospel in the lives of Believers. Before the negative prohibitions are stated the positive is set forth. The positive is that we are a freely Redeemed people. We have been won and wooed by Christ. All of our acting, thinking, and living is now done in light of He who hath freely reconciled us with the Father. This is no moralism for the sake of moralism that the inspired Apostle is pursuing. This is morality in light of the fact that we are a people set free from the dead traditions of those who have the Devil as their Father.

But we circle back to the idea that these words were written to saints. Saints have a need to be reminded of these things for Saints are sinners also. The Church is a hospital and the Christian message, in the broadest sense of that idea, provides the elixir and the therapy whereby we go from renewal unto renewal. And so St. Paul reminds these Saints that because of who they have been declared to be in Christ Jesus they now have the mission of increasingly becoming. And this means that certain behavioral sins (Fornication, etc.) are not to be even named among the Saints.

That St. Paul would had to have written the several Churches about these matters is not surprising given the backdrop of the 1st century world.

The Greco-Roman culture in the 1st Century was devoid of the kind of moral standards that once characterized nations that had been leavened with the Christian faith. The moral life of the Graeco-Roman world had sunk so low that, while protests against the prevailing corruption were never entirely wanting, fornication had long come to be regarded as a matter of indifference, and was indulged in w/o shame or scruple, not only by the mass, but by philosophers and men of distinction who in other respects led exemplary lives.

As one example, in Corinth, the Chambers of Commerce maintained regularly around 2000 prostitutes for all visiting businessmen. Corinth was a manufacturing town and so had numbers of visiting businessmen and nobody thought that there was anything immoral with men having relations with prostitutes. This was all taken for granted. So, in the Gentile Churches the moral standard could be pretty low.

Everett Ferguson, whose scholarly work deserves high regard, writes:

“All kinds of immoralities were associated with the [Greco-Roman] gods. Not only was prostitution a recognized institution, but through the influence of the fertility cults of Asia Minor, Syria, and Phoenicia it became a part of the religious rites at certain temples. Thus there were one thousand “sacred prostitutes” at the temple of Aphrodite at Corinth.”

This first matter that is not even be named among the Saints is “porneia.”

The term “porneia” (fornication) is to be taken in its proper sense and is not to be restricted to any one particular form — the license practiced at heathen festivals, concubinage, marriage within prohibited degrees, serial intimate relationships, unnatural physical affections or the like. Porneia thus while inclusive of adultery, and uncleanness, might be considered broader in significance so as to include what has been mentioned.

Fornication then, like adultery, is an attack upon Biblical marriage and Family.

Where you find a culture characterized by porneia you will find the family on the rocks. But understand that porneia is a symptom and not a cause. Porneia and the disintegration it brings to the family is caused by a turning from the God of the Bible so that we should say that the cure to porneia will only come secondarily by laws legislating against it. There will no laws that can successfully legislate against the flood of porneia we see in our own times without a return to the Christian faith. Laws in general, and laws against porneia specifically arise and are successful only when men are affected by the Gospel.

And so we who are affected by the Gospel must live lives such as that which is called for by God. Among us porneia should not even be named. We should flee from it. If this becomes increasingly true in our assemblies then one of two consequences will arise.

1.) Either those outside of Christ will be attracted to the Gospel that makes for porneia free living

The Christian life is the abundant life. Our lives are set free from all the real dark drama that accompanies those caught in the net of porneia. Imagine how attractive Christianity might be to someone living with the consequences of porneia to witness a healthy Christian family. As our unbelieving culture spins further and further into dark night and old chaos the ability to function well as a Family unit based upon Christian truth will serve as salt and light for those wanting out of the darkness created, in part, by porneia.

2.) or those outside of Christ will attack us for the standing rebuke we are to their ongoing dissipation.

Harvard Sociological expert Carle Zimmerman could say,

“When familism is distinctly weak in a society, all the cultural elements take on anti-family tinge.”

And I would add that as familism can only be produced by Christianity the anti-family tinge will also be a anti-Christian tinge.

As porneia comes more and more out of the closet the expectation will be that those who are chaste will have to go into the closet.

When St. Paul reminds them that porneia is not even to be named among them we are reminded that to allow porneia to be named among our assemblies is to turn our assemblies into synagogues of Satan. When we turn a blind eye to unrepentant and indifferent unchasteness in our membership we do our Lord Christ, our congregations, our denominations and those persons a grave disservice.

The Heidelberg Catechism reinforces what we are teaching when it teaches

Question 109. Does God forbid in the 7th commandment, only adultery, and such like gross sins?

Answer: Since both our body and soul are temples of the holy Ghost, he commands us to preserve them pure and holy: therefore he forbids all unchaste actions, gestures, words, (a) thoughts, desires, (b) and whatever can entice men thereto.

And here we pause to consider those last 6 words. This 7th commandment forbids whatever can entice men to the violation of the 7th commandment.

These are difficult words in our information age that so easily conveys the sensual. In our information age it seems as if it is almost impossible to escape the enticing. Listen to the radio. Watch the television. Go to the movies or plays. Drive down the highway being exposed to the billboards. Listen to music. Read a magazine or a novel. Surf the web. Attend your sex education class. Is it really possible to escape whatever can entice men to uncleanness?

Still, we must seek to cut out as much as we can in order to be innocent regarding evil.

Of course all of this will work to make us a peculiar people. This not naming porneia among us will distinguish us and make us different.

When we turn to Ephesians 5 again we notice this list of sins that are not to be named among us and I would like to suggest that this list is not random.

The prohibition to porneia, which by the Greek language construction is a prohibition expressed in the strongest of terms, suggests to me that the other sins listed are somehow connected to the prohibition against porneia. The connection between Uncleanness and porneia is rather more obvious but the idea of covetousness might not be. Porneia is pursued by people who want something that is not their’s to have. Behind porneia is a covetous disposition seeking to seize what is not rightfully to be had. And so, after forbidding porneia God can forbid that which drives porneia and that is illicit desire …. covetousness. So here we see a natural connection between the 7th commandment and the 10th commandment so that we might say that it is impossible to break the 7th without also breaking the 10th.

Further, I would suggest the foolish talking or coarse jesting is likewise related to porneia. That is to say that the speaking that is being forbidden here is connected to illicit intimacy. We sometimes call this “Potty talk,” or “Locker room humor.”

And finally the Apostle connects the 7th word and the 10th word with the 1st word. The Apostle says that the kind of man he is describing is an Idolater. Of course this fits. The porneia man who is driven by his illicit covetous desires is a man who is prioritizing himself above God. Depending on how one looks at it the porneia man has made a god above God out of whatever it is he is wrongly desiring or he has made himself, with his unnatural desires, his own God.

Well, then can we understand why the Apostle would say that such a thing is not to be named among God’s people. Should those who serve false gods be named among those who serve the true God?

As we end we are reminded that the reason we take seriously the 7th word is because of the love of the Father we have and the gratitude for all that He has freely given to us in Christ. We take the 7th word seriously because we can’t help but to take it seriously since we have been given the Spirit so that we might walk in the newness of life with God’s law as the standard of what that life looks like.