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Colin Smith: "I’d known these commandments for years," he’s saying. "But one day it was the tenth commandment and it got me. I realized for the first time that God’s not just looking at my outward actions; God is measuring my heart. And I’ve got to tell you," he says, "it’s the tenth commandment that nailed me."

Guest (Male): Welcome to Open the Bible Weekend with Pastor Colin Smith. And Colin, two questions pop out as we listen to that right there: one, what is the tenth commandment, and who is "he"?

Colin Smith: Well, the tenth commandment is "You shall not covet," and the "he" is the Apostle Paul. You know, this is fascinating to me, Steve, that Paul gives us an insight into how God brought a radical change in his life. At one stage, he’s saying, "I’m a Pharisee of the Pharisees, I’m the best of the bunch." And then later in his life, he says, "I’m the chief of sinners." How did he get from the one to the other?

The answer is the tenth commandment. He tells us about it in Romans 7. "This was what brought me unglued. This is what made me realize that I really am a sinner." So this is a way in which God can speak into the life of the person who’s lived a very moral life, even a religious life, and bring a whole new level of perception as to our true position before God.

Guest (Male): Well, this is, as you just said, a very enlightening commandment and one that we’re going to dive deeper into. So if you can, join us as we continue the message "Your Struggle for Contentment." Here’s Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Now turn with me please to Romans chapter 7. If you only turned one place in your Bible this morning, make it now please, Romans chapter 7. I want you to discover something so important here because in Romans 7, Paul tells us how all this changed in his life. He’s talking personally in Romans 7, and he describes a specific experience in his life.

Now, I do not know whether this experience took place before or after the Lord appeared to him on the Damascus Road. But whether it was before or after, he tells us about how he came to a complete reevaluation of his own position. Romans 7 and verse 7, look at what he says: "What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed, I would not have known what sin was except through the law."

Wait a minute. You scratch your head if you put that against Philippians, which we’ve just quoted. In Philippians, he’s saying before the law I’m faultless. Now in Romans, he’s saying it was through the law that I discovered sin. So something has happened here. How do we put these two things together?

In Philippians, he tells us that for many years, he’d looked at the commandments and he’d said, "I’m okay, I’m okay." He’d ticked the checklist. But now he’s telling us that the commandment had the effect of showing him that he was a sinner. How come? What made the difference? Well, let’s read on. The answer is the tenth commandment. Very specific: "I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, 'Do not covet.'"

"Here I was," he says, "with my moral checklist, thinking that I was doing quite well as a good-living person. I don’t steal, I don’t kill." Then one day, after all my training in the law, one day I really came face-to-face with the tenth commandment.

See, that’s the language he uses in verse 9: "The commandment came." He’s talking about personal experience. He’s saying, "It suddenly came to me. I’d known these commandments for years," he’s saying. "But one day it was the tenth commandment and it got me. I realized for the first time that God’s not just looking at my outward actions; God is measuring my heart. And I’ve got to tell you," he says, "it’s the tenth commandment that nailed me. It strangled the life out of my self-righteousness."

The tenth commandment is the killer commandment for morally upright people. And you see, once you see the meaning of number ten, then you reevaluate your own checklist on all of the other nine. What you ticked off as successful, you suddenly see you should be crossing off as still to be done. "A large part of my morality," Paul would say, "had much more to do with the peer factor and the fear factor than it really had to do with the condition of my heart."

See, this tenth commandment speaks to us today. Strange thing is that the Rich Young Ruler and Saul of Tarsus were both confronted by the challenge of the same commandment and made an opposite response. The Rich Young Ruler, the Bible says, went away sorrowful. The equivalent for us today would be: he came to church, he said, "I don’t really like that message; it makes me feel uncomfortable. I’ll find another place that’ll make me feel better."

The Apostle Paul took a different road. "If God’s truth is showing me that I have this kind of need, then I have to embrace God’s Son as my Savior. I need to start walking with a completely different self-evaluation. I need to begin again."

So the great value of this tenth commandment is that it shows us moral people that we’re sinners who need a Savior. If you grasp that in the core of your being, more briefly, the tenth commandment makes it very clear that the heart of my problem is the problem of my heart.

Now that’s important to grasp. The heart of the human problem, the heart of your problem, is the problem of your heart. I want to give you a quotation from Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. He was a medical doctor who became a great Bible preacher and often used his medical background to give great insight into the Scriptures. Now, let me quote this paragraph to you. I found this so profoundly helpful.

"Sin," he says, "is not merely a matter of actions and deeds; it is something within the heart that leads to the action. What we must, therefore, really concentrate upon is not so much sins as sin. Sins are nothing but the symptoms of a disease called sin, and it is not the symptoms that matter, but the disease. It is the disease that kills, not the symptoms."

You see what he’s saying? We talk a lot about sins. "Oh, this person did this, this person did that, this person did the other." Sins, sins, sins. But he says what really matters is not so much what any person did; it’s sin. It is the root cause that leads to these actions. It’s rather like, he says, symptoms and a disease. Symptoms vary amongst those who are sick. And frankly, it’s not the symptoms that kill you. The question that really matters is not "Which symptoms are you showing?" The question that really matters is "Which disease have you got?"

I’ve been struggling with a flu all week, and I’ve been taking these tablets. I’m not knocking them; I’m very grateful for them, I’ll tell you. But this is what it says on the box. I’m quoting, "Uses: Temporarily relieves common flu symptoms."

Think about what that’s saying. First, it’s saying the box of stuff you’ve just bought will help you, but it won’t help you for long—temporarily. The way that it will help you is that you’ll have less of these symptoms. You won’t have to worry about a runny nose and a sore throat, but the problem is it won’t deal with the problem.

As I get worse, my wife says to me, "You need to go to the doctor." And I say, "No I don’t, I’m not that bad." Now listen to this. Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick." As long as you and I live with the illusion that we are morally healthy because we’ve found a way of suppressing the symptoms, we will never come to Christ to deal with the disease.

See, that’s the problem with behavior modification, by the way. There are many, many ways to change behavior. If all you want to do is to stop drinking alcohol or break free from some compulsive habit that you’ve had for ten years, you don’t need Jesus to do that. You can do it with good therapy and a support group.

But good therapy and a support group will never change your heart. It will affect the symptoms. It will not touch the disease. The heart of your problem is the problem of your heart. And so the great question that you face is not "How do I change my behavior?" The primary question is "How do I change my heart?"

Of course, that was the great discovery that King David made. You remember when he got himself in a right royal mess after an affair with a woman called Bathsheba? He covered it up, of course. But then God broke through the cover-up through a man called Nathan, and that brought David to repentance. And it led him to write Psalm 51.

He confesses his sin; he asks God to wash him and to cleanse him and to forgive him. But he doesn’t end there. You see, it’s more than sins he’s worried about. It’s more than what he did here and here and here and here. He says, "Create in me a pure heart, O God."

Why does he say that? Because he says, "Lord, I need you to deal not just with what I did, but with the impulse that made me do it. If you were just to forgive what I did, but not to touch the deep inner impulse, the heart that gave rise to it, then all that will happen is six months from now I will go down the same track and do the same kind of thing."

"Lord, I need more than forgiveness for my sins. I need a change of heart. I need more than medicine to relieve the symptoms. I need a doctor to deal with the disease." So the tenth commandment shows us that morally upright people are sinners who need a Savior, that the heart of my problem is the problem of my heart.

Guest (Male): You’re listening to Open the Bible Weekend with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called "Your Struggle with Contentment." Now, we’re going to pause here, but we’ll get back to the message in just a moment. Open the Bible Weekend is listener-supported. It’s your generosity that allows us to bring you Pastor Colin’s teaching each week. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to say thanks by sending you Pastor Colin’s brand-new 30-day devotional. It’s called "Grow in Faith." In this devotional, you’re going to see why a Christian should never be satisfied with little faith, and that the Bible tells us our faith can grow. We’d love to send you a copy of this brand-new devotional book from Pastor Colin as our way of saying thank you for your support. You can give online at openthebible.org or when you call 1-877-OPEN-365. That’s 1-877-673-6365 or openthebible.org. Back to the message, here’s Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: The tenth commandment shows us that morally upright people are sinners who need a Savior, that the heart of my problem is the problem of my heart. And the last and wonderful thing is this: the tenth commandment shows me hope of a new life in the power of the Holy Spirit of God.

See, all the way through this series, we’ve been reminding ourselves that God’s commands are actually promises through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. And the wonderful thing is, you see, that the killer commandment was the beginning of hope for the Apostle Paul. Dr. Lloyd-Jones points out so wonderfully well in these words: "The first sign of spiritual life is to feel that you are dead." When the commandment came, Paul says, sin revived and I died. Thank God. The moment a man is dead, there is the possibility of him being resurrected.

Now that’s true, isn’t it? Can’t be resurrected to new life until you’re dead. You can’t have the new life of the Spirit until you have come to the place where your own hopes in your own morality have actually bitten the dust. That’s the great value of the tenth commandment: it opens the door of hope. It brings us to Christ.

Listen to the tenth commandment as a promise: You shall not covet. You don’t need to go through a life that is forever seeking and never finding, a life that is always the next thing, the next thing, the next thing. You always think that the next thing will satisfy you, but it never does because you’re chasing the wind.

You do not need to live that kind of life. You can find contentment—the contentment that says, "I have found the thing of greatest value." Coveting is chasing the wind; contentment is knowing that you have found that which is of greatest value. And that’s where the Lord Jesus Christ brought the Apostle Paul. He says later in his life, "I have learned in every circumstance of life to be content." How have I learned that? I’ve learned it because I have Christ.

I’m not spending my life chasing the thing that’s ultimately going to satisfy and never finding it. I have him. And so I’ve discovered that there are some times in my life where I have other things that I want, there are some times in my life when I don’t have other things that I want, but I have learned the secret of contentment because I have found that which is of greatest value.

Isn’t this precisely what Jesus Christ offers to all of us? "Come to me," he says, "all you who are weary and heavy-laden—you’re chasing after the wind—and I will give you rest. Come to me all you who are thirsty, and I will cause out of you to flow streams of living water."

Christ offers more than a change of behavior; he offers a change of heart. He says, "Come to me and I will do something for you and in you that you can never do for yourself. You do not need to be trapped in a life where you are always seeking and never finding. Seek and you will find," he says, as he speaks of himself. "Knock and it will be opened to you. Ask and you will receive."

When we come to Christ in this way, recognizing that our only hope is to embrace him, who gives to us and is for us what we do not have and what we cannot be, then he puts his Spirit within us. And you know where the Holy Spirit brings us? Back to the rock face.

See, this is the wonderful promise: when we come to Christ, God will put his Spirit within you. "I will put," God says in Ezekiel, "a new heart in you, I will put a new spirit in you. I will put my Spirit in you and I will do what? I’ll move you to follow my decrees."

The Spirit of God within you is the power by which you continue the climb, the strength with which you engage in the struggle. The Spirit brings us back to the commandments; the Spirit brings us back to the rock face. The Spirit brings us back to live in his energy and power the ten greatest struggles of our lives.

But if the Spirit of Jesus lives within you, this will not be a matter of outward conformity. It will rather be that the deepest desire of your heart will be to live a life that reflects the character of God because, truly, you have come to love him. You say, "That’s going to be tough." It’ll be tough. It will be the greatest struggle of your life. But this is the challenge that God calls us to pursue.

The question for one who has come to Christ and has received the gift of God’s Spirit, the question is: is it possible? And that takes me back to the Heidelberg Catechism, which we referred to at the very beginning of our series. I don’t know if you’d remember back this far, but the Heidelberg Catechism, a very wonderful statement that describes many aspects of the Christian faith in the form of questions and answers. In question 114 has this great question: "Can those converted to God obey these commands perfectly?" That’s the question.

Okay, I’ve come to Christ. I’ve seen my need. I embrace the Savior. The Spirit of God now lives within me. I’m brought back to the rock face. Can those converted to God obey these commands perfectly? Answer: No.

You say we went through all of this this fall to get to there? No, that’s not the end of the answer, but it’s an important part. No. In this life, even the holiest have only a small beginning of this obedience. Nevertheless, they do begin to live according to all, not only some, of God’s commands. I have found that liberating. Because what it’s telling me is this: I know I’m not perfectly pure, but in God’s grace and by his Spirit, I have the beginning of purity even in this life.

You know that you don’t have perfect peace, that you’re often troubled, but by the grace of God and through the Holy Spirit, you truly have the beginning of peace in this life. You have the beginning of integrity. You have the beginning of contentment, and it is a true beginning because it is a beginning that is born of God. And every day, the Spirit of God brings me back to this rock face. And there is the challenge and the opportunity to climb higher and for what is begun to increase and to grow and to develop within me. And sometimes I slip.

Sometimes I may even fall off the wall, but if I do, I am held by the rope that is Christ. So I can get back on the wall today and I can start climbing again. And one day, the climb will be over. One day you will stand on the top of that great rock face. And what Christ has begun and grown in you through this life will on that day be complete. And not only will you be in his glory, but his glory will be in you.

Guest (Male): What a great reminder today that sometimes in the Christian life we do slip. We may even, as Pastor Colin said a few moments ago, fall off that wall, but we can be grateful that we are being held by that rope that Christ has, saving us from disaster. And what a great word of encouragement to get back on that wall and begin that climb again. I hope today’s message has encouraged you to do just that. It’s called "Your Struggle with Contentment," the final message in our series "The Ten Greatest Struggles of Your Life." And if you want to get a copy of today’s message or the entire series, ask about that when you call us at 1-877-OPEN-365. That’s 1-877-673-6365 or come to our website openthebible.org.

Open the Bible is listener-supported. We’re able to bring you Pastor Colin’s teaching because of your generosity. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to send you a copy of Pastor Colin’s new 30-day devotional book called "Grow in Faith." And Colin, who is this book for?

Colin Smith: Well, it’s for everyone who wants to grow in their faith, and hopefully that’s every Christian believer. You know, the disciples at one point said to Jesus, "Lord, increase our faith." And they’d been following Jesus for some time when they said it. They’d left everything in order to follow him, but they came to a place at one point where they realized we’re going to need to grow in faith.

And I think every Christian comes to a place like that. You know, I’ve been trusting Jesus for some time, but now I’m facing circumstances where I’m really going to have to trust him. "Lord, increase my faith." So this 30-day devotional book is designed to help and encourage growing in faith. I have loved working on this and am very excited about the opportunity of sharing it with you.

Guest (Male): Well, we’d love to share a copy with you as our thanks for your financial support this month. You can give online at openthebible.org or when you call 1-877-OPEN-365. That’s 1-877-673-6365 or openthebible.org. For Pastor Colin Smith, I’m Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening and I hope you’ll join us next time.

Everyone has questions about heaven, but the question that matters most is: how do you get there? Many people have the idea that if a person was to get into heaven, they’d get there by living a good enough life. Well, the thief on the cross hadn’t lived a good enough life and he wasn’t in a position to start living a good life, but Jesus said to him, "Today you will be with me in paradise." Well, if the thief could get into heaven, so can you. "Heaven, How I Got Here" is a compelling 60-minute film in which Stephen Baldwin portrays the thief on the cross in a one-person play. Many have found that this story opens their eyes to the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and to the hope of heaven. You can watch the "Heaven, How I Got Here" film for free on the Open the Bible website. For more information, visit openthebible.org/heaven. That’s openthebible.org/heaven.