God’s Perfect Ten
The Eighth Commandment
Exodus 20:15
I have always tried to resist the temptation to preach against specific sins. I’ve always believed the Holy Spirit can do a much better job than I of bringing conviction to a heart. And rather than zero in on one specific sin, I’ve felt it better to call us to live a holy life and honor God and let Him make the application as needed.
At the same time, there is always a need to get the Word of God out of generalities and into a more personal application. That is certainly true of the Ten Commandments. There is a tendency to write them off as the big ugly things that don’t apply to people in the church. So I’ve been seeking for some ways to being them down to where we live so we can be people who are obedient to the Word of God.
I think it ought to be said of every child of God that we honor the Ten Commandments, not in an Old Testament fulfillment of the law but as an expression of our New Testament faith.
And to do that we need something practical that we can apply to our hearts and by the grace of God that's what I want to do with the commandment before us tonight. It is the commandment that says “You shall not steal”.
Most of us remember the parable of the Good Samaritan. If you don’t, I suggest you go home tonight and read it for yourself.
It’s found in Luke chapter ten beginning in verse thirty.
Now in that parable Jesus tells the story of a man who was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell victim to some thieves who beat him and left him lying beside the road very near death.
Now in the story, a priest came by and even though he saw the man, he moved over to the other side of the road and passed on by. Likewise, a Levite did the same thing.
Then Jesus said a Samaritan man came by and he stopped and helped the man by providing some first aid and then carrying him into town and paying for him to have a room at the hotel.
Now most of the time, we aren’t looking at it through this lens, but aside from the obvious lesson of compassion and helping others, Jesus actually gave us three philosophies concerning personal property.
The first philosophy is illustrated by the thieves. They said, “What's yours is mine and I'll take it from you if I want it.”
Then there is the philosophy of the priest and Levite who said, “What’s mine is mine and I'm going to keep it.”
Their motto was like a lot of people today who, while they’re not thieves as such, they are so selfish and stingy, they would never consider sharing or helping. They look out for number one and give no regard to modeling the life of Christ.
Then there was the good Samaritan who really represents the Lord Jesus Christ, and he said, “What's mine is mine but I'll share it with you if you need it.”
And that is really the Christian's attitude toward property and possessions. We recognizes the right to personal property, but we also recognize that the ownership of personal property is a divine stewardship and that no matter what we have, we really don’t have anything at all that doesn’t belong to God and He gave to us.
So what I want to do this evening is think about this commandment about not stealing with three applications.
First of all, I want us to think about
1. Stealing from Others
Obviously, the first and most definitive application of this commandment is about being a thief, one who steals from others.
Now I think it important to remember that a man is not a thief because he steals. Rather, he steals because he's a thief.
It’s amazing to me to watch how some people respond to a catastrophe. Watch what happens when a hurricane hits or a tornado passes through. The thieves will be on the scene before the first responders get there.
Some say, well, those are just difficult times. No. Here’s the deal. Those looters are thieves and they just haven’t had the opportunity to steal. And once the opportunity presents itself and the lights go out and they think they can get by with it, they steal.
When the lights go out and they think no one is looking, their true character shows up. Character is what a man is in the dark. And a man may think he’s getting by with it, but the true is nobody gets by with anything before God.
I heard about a bank robber who went into the bank, passed a note to the teller that said, “Give me all of your money, this is a stick up”.
The teller read it, picked up a pen, wrote a note and sent it back to him that said, “Straighten your tie stupid, they're taking your picture”.
God's candid camera is always in focus and whether you're a kid ripping things off from the supermarket or the drugstore for thrills or whether you're stealing, robbing on the street, or whether you're robbing banks, Almighty God has said, “You shall not steal.”
It doesn’t matter if it is out-and-out robbery, fraud, deceit, time at the job or a pencil from the stock room, we are not to steal.
There are a lot of people who would never think of themselves as a thief, and yet they will louse around at work and refuse to give an honest days labor for their wage. It may be a little less aggressive but it’s stealing just the same.
Look at Colossians 3:22
When you go to work and you're getting paid for working, if you are lazy, careless, sloppy, in different, you have broken the spirit of this command that says “You shall not steal”.
Now I love how the Word of God always provides balance so let’s look at the other side of the issue.
James 5:4
What is God saying? God is saying that if you do not pay a decent wage that you're going to have to face Almighty God about it. Some say well, I can get by with paying less. It's not a matter of what you can get by paying, it is a matter of what is right and if you do not pay what is right, if you do not pay what is fair, if you're taking advantage of someone because he has to work you may call yourself a shrewd business man, but this verse in James chapter five, verse four calls it fraud and you're going to face Almighty God at the judgment.
So both sides need to pay attention. We are to do an honest day's work for a day's pay and we're to give an honest day's pay for a day's work and if we sin on either side we have sinned against God and we have broken the spirit of this commandment to not steal.
God said to not steal and we can do it by open robbery, we can do it by fraud and we can do it by
- gambling
What's wrong with gambling? Gambling is morally wrong because it at its core it violates this seventh commandment.
No one can win at gambling without another person losing. What’s wrong with gambling is when you win it is at the expense of someone else's loss. It violates the very spirit of Christianity. We are to be people of concern and love and instead we are selfish and covetous. Gambling is a form of stealing in that it tries to, without working for it or earning it, get into your possession and control what belongs to someone else.
One man meets another man in a dark alley and at the point of a gun takes away that man's valuables and we call that robbery. Two men meet each other in a casino, each seeking to get what belongs to the other person and we call that gambling.
And gambling is doubly bad in that in the robbery only one man had the spirit of thievery; in the case of gambling both had it. When a man gambles and wins he's a thief; when he gambles and loses he's a fool.
The bible teaches that we may receive something as a gift when someone willingly gives it to us or else we may earn it but we are not to take by chance or force that which belongs to someone else. It is built upon the spirit of greed.
Now I know some people, trying to justify gambling say, “Well, the stock market is a gamble” or “Farming is a gamble”.
No, those are called risks not gambles. When you invest money in business or stocks of the ground, you are making an invest that is looking for a return. In fact, Jesus provides us with that example by describing His Kingdom as a man who entrusts to His servants certain resources and when He returns He is looking for a return on His investment.
For an example of gambling, we have to go no farther than the foot of the cross to find those who gambled for the clothing fo Jesus while He died on the cross for their sins.
Listen to Jeremiah22:13
God pronounces a woe upon the person who tries to get what belongs to his neighbor without paying him for it. It is a transgression of the eighth commandment.
Open robbery, fraud, gambling. How about
- unpaid debts
Romans 13:8
When you refuse to pay your bills, you transgress this commandment.
Now I realize there are some who believe this verse prohibits borrowing money or buying on credit. I don’t believe God prohibits that. In fact, in the Old Testament law, he made provision for the forgiveness of debts.
I think what is prohibited in this verse is making an agreement to pay and then not paying it. If a bill is not paid, it is owed. If it is an honest debt and you refuse to pay it, you owe it to someone.
It's amazing how many people will try to find excuses for not paying the rent. They'll say well, the landlord didn't put in new linoleum, I'm not going to pay the rent. Or, this thing happened or that thing happened or he made me mad, I'm not going to pay him.
Listen: this commandment to not steal is not about what they did or did not do. It’s about you and your responsibility as a child of God. We pay because it's right. Why do you want to become a thief because of what someone else did?
Just do what's right and God will bless you for it. People say it pays to be honest. Sometimes it cost to be honest but you go ahead and be honest anyway. Don't you be a deadbeat. And by the way, return things you borrowed.
It might help if you checked around the house and see how many Trinity Baptist Church hymnals you’ve got and how many chairs and tables that you borrowed for your garage sale and bring them back!
They’re not yours! And we break the spirit of this commandment when we have unpaid debts and unreturned things that you have borrowed.
We could go on and on talking about the ways we break this commandment. Time will not permit me to talk about slander and gossip and stealing someone’s reputation.
I could mention cheating on tests at school. The word of God says you shall not steal and when you steal, it has a way of coming back to bite you.
I heard about an old dumb football jock who was making his way through a particular class by cheating off of one of the honor students. The professor was suspicious, but never could catch him until one day this honor student came across a particularly hard question and he wrote on his paper, “I do not know the answer to this question.” The football player wrote on his paper, “Neither do I.”
It’s always wrong to steal and there are so many ways to do it, but I suppose the worst is to steal someone’s faith.
Let me show you a verse of scripture in
Jeremiah 23:29
That’s true, isn’t it? There's power in preaching the Bible. I believe that with all my heart. That’s why I decided a long time ago I would preach the Bible. I believe God honors the preaching of His Word.
Notice verse 30
God is saying if you are guilty of stealing the Word of God out of someone's heart or stealing something from someone else and calling it the Word of God when it's not the word of God and preaching it as it is the word of God, God says I'm against you. This is the worse form of thievery.
Jesus said if you cause one of these little ones to stumble that believe in me, it will better for you if a millstone were hanged about your neck and that you were cast into the deep of the sea.
Those of you who get so aggravated with misbehaving children and rebellious kids better pay close attention to that verse. This is God's warning against those who would steal from the minds of people the only thing that can save their soul.
This is God's warning against liberals who do not believe the Bible and scoff at its authority and laugh at its truth. This is God's warning against those who do not believe that the bible is the inerrant, inspired, infallible word of God. And God calls the person a thief who would steal away faith out of someone's heart.
They have transgressed this commandment that says “Thou shalt not steal”.
, they steal away my work, steal God's word, everyone from his neighbor. There's the theft of faith.
David Hume was one of the most well-known skeptics of the 1700’s. He had a great contempt for Christianity, although his mother was a Bible believing Christian. Day after day he would argue against her faith. He so belittled her faith and whittled away at her faith until finally he had stolen the word of God out of her heart. When his mother came to die he tried to tried to comfort his mother. Can you imagine a humanist, an infidel, an agnostic, trying to comfort someone in the hour of death?
He said to his mother, “Mother, hold on.”
She looked at him with agony and said, “Son, there's nothing to hold on to. You've taken away my faith.”
No wonder God forbids stealing.
There are those who steal from others, but there is another form of thievery and that is
2. Stealing from God
It’s one thing to rob a man, but it falls into a different class of crime altogether for a man to rob from God.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
The truth of the matter is, we don’t own anything, including ourselves. We are bought with a price.
Now, if I take something that belongs to you and I abuse it, misuse it, ruin it, use it up and waste it, I have become a thief. In like manner, when you take your life, your body, your soul, your spirit, that belongs to God, use it, misuse it, abuse it, waste it, throw it away, you have robbed God.
You belong to the Lord. He bought you in agony and blood upon the cross with his rich red royal blood. You're not your own, you're not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold but with the blood of Christ as a lamb without spot and without blemish.
Maybe you remember th story of a little boy who made a sailboat. He fashioned it out of wood, carved it and painted it red. He took it down to the stream to sail it and was guiding it with a stick when a puff of wind blew it from his grasp and it sailed off down the stream and out of sight.
He went home heartbroken. Several days later as he was passing a second hand store he looked in the window and there was his own boat. Someone had found it and sold it to the store woner.
He went into the store and told the story and demanded it back. The proprietor said, “Son, I cannot give it to you, I purchased it from someone. It is for sale if you want it, you may purchase it. The little fellow said how much is it? The man told him. The youngster went worked, earned the money, came back to the proprietor of the store, put the money upon the counter and said now, let me have the boat. The man of course gladly did so.
The little boy took the boat that was the work of his own hands and walked out of the store caressing it and talking to it and this is what he was saying. He said little boat, you are now twice mine, you are mine because I made you and you are mine because I bought you back.
God can say that to everyone of us sitting here, you are mine because I created you and you are mine because I redeemed you. And you steal from God, when you refuse to give to God what already belongs to Him. Have you surrendered everything to Jesus Christ? Have you given him your life? Have you surrender your all to Jesus Christ? If not, you have broken the command that says you shall not steal.
There's another way you can steal from God, not only by withholding yourself, but by withholding your stewardship.
Malachi 3:8-10
Now, when you talk about tithing there are always those who protest by saying, “But tithing is an Old Testament principle. Tithing was for Jews under the law.”
Let me tell you something friend and listen. Tithing was taught before the law, tithing was taught during the law, tithing was taught after the law. Tithing is bringing a tenth of your income and giving it to the work of the Lord.
Someone has said concerning tithing that Abraham commenced it. That was a long time before the Mosaic Law. Abraham commenced it, Jacob continued it, Moses commanded it, Jesus commended it, and who am I to cancel it.
I’ve heard people say, well tithing only speaks of a tenth. The New Testament teaches that everything belongs to the Lord.
It always has, it always will. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. I’ve never believed you’ve done your all you need to do by bringing a tithe. The tithe is an obligation. Offerings are on top of that.
We're to give as God has prospered us. For some people to give merely the tithe is an insult to God. God doesn't measure your gift only by the amount on the check.
Listen, he’s checking the remaining balance as well.
God has been so good to us and for us you to fail to give more than the tithe and to give abundantly is a sin against the God who gives.
Tithing is not God’s way to raise money for Himslef. He owns it all everywhere. God's tithe is his way to bless your heart and to teach you to trust him and so he says bring the tithe into the storehouse and prove me and see if I don’t open to you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that you won’t have enough room to receive.
You need to try God, you need to prove God, you need to believe God, you need to trust God, you need to stop stealing from God.
I'd rather be anything than a God robber. But I know people who are absolutely offended if someone messes with their stuff, yet they consistently steal from Almighty God.
No doubt you transgress this commandment by stealing from others, but don’t lose sight of the fact that we also break this command when we steal from God
One man professed to be a Christian. A pastor spoke to him and said are you a church member? Oh now, I'm not a church member. Why not? He said well, the dying thief wasn't a church member so why should I be.
He said have you been baptized? Oh no, he said I haven't been baptized. Why not? He said well, the dying thief wasn't baptized so neither have I been.
He said do you give your money to support the gospel? He said oh no, he said the dying thief didn't give his money. All he did was believe.
The pastor said yes, but there's one difference between you and that thief. He said what's that? He said he was a dying thief, you are a living thief.
Any man who does not render unto the Lord that which is His is stealing from God. You are not your own, you are bought with a price. You belong to the Lord and your money does as well.
But not only can we steal from one another and not only do we steal from God, but I suppose the strangest form of thievery is
3. Stealing from Yourself
When you steal or when you refuse to surrender to God, you never gain, you always lose. Jesus said he who would save his life, that is, steal it from God, the same shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life, that is give it to God, the same shall find it.
Now that’s true right now in the here and now. We rob ourselves in time of God’s blessing and peace and joy. When we are not in right relationship with God, we rob ourselves of the blessings God has prepared to send our way.
When you refuse to obey God's commandments, you're the one who is swindled, you are the one who is cheated, you are the one who loses. You lose far more than the person you steal from.
Jeremiah 5:25
God loves you. In fact, He loves you so much that he sent Jesus Christ to die for you, that's how much God loves you. And when we fail to surrender our life to God, we rob ourselves of everything God could give us.
Beyond that we rob ourselves in eternity. If you die a thief, you’ll miss God forever. A thief really only has two choices. You can give your life to God and have everything He can afford you. Or you can steal your life from God, live the way you want to live and then have to answer to Him as a thief, be judged and punished a thief forever.
And you will never see that more graphically portrayed than at the cross where there hung on either side of the Lord a dying thief. One was forgiven and we’ll meet him in heaven. The other is a forever resident of hell.
Back in December of 2008 in Tampa, Florida, three teenagers shined a flashlight into the window of a car, and one of them said, "Hey, how about we get this car?" What they didn’t realize is that it was an unmarked police car. They also didn’t realize that undercover police officers Colin McCoy and Gary Saunders were inside.
So just as one of the teens was about to smash the window with a chunk of concrete, they jumped out and slapped the cuffs on them. One of the youths got away, but the other two confessed and said they had no idea the vehicle they were casing belonged to the police department.
What a tragedy it must be to be a thief and one day have to face the fact that you went through life and robbed others, robbed God and robbed yourself of the joy and peace and happiness that only Jesus can give, and at the end of life, discover God is waiting to bring justice.
When on the other hand, even though a thief, God offered forgiveness and blessing and eternal life and just as surely as a thief who hung on a cross beside the Lord found salvation in the one who died to set us free, we can also.
Let us pray.
