Hi, I'm Robert Jeffress, and I'm glad to serve as your Bible teacher every day on this great radio station.
On today's edition of Pathway to Victory. Yes, if you've stolen from somebody else, you can be forgiven. But with that forgiveness by God comes a responsibility.
A responsibility to make restitution, to pay back what you've stolen. When we steal something from somebody else, we're certainly robbing them of something valuable. But listen to this, we're also robbing ourselves. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. These days, economic hardship on American families is at the forefront of our minds.
Rising inflation and economic uncertainty have put some in dire situations. And as a result, we're seeing an unprecedented rise in theft. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress clearly articulates God's opinion about stealing. Now, here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.
Dr. Jeffress? Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. Cruise ships leave the harbor in Vancouver, British Columbia all summer long. But there's only one luxury liner that will be populated by your fellow Pathway to Victory listeners. And I hope you'll make plans to join us on the upcoming Pathway to Victory Cruise to Alaska.
The dates are June 15th through 22nd. Together, we'll be sailing the calmer waters of the Inside Passage bound for Alaska. You'll have plenty of time to see the quaint ports of call and all that Alaska offers. But in addition, we'll be entertained by two of my favorite musicians, Rebecca St. James and Michael O'Brien. And my good friend, comedian Dennis Womberg, will keep us in stitches along the way. I'll also be opening God's Word for us to study together. So please, plan to join us for an unforgettable vacation adventure by signing up now at ptv.org. And then, while you're reading the details of our wonderful trip online, be sure to check the box so that you can receive a copy of my best-selling book called The Ten. How to live and love in a world that has lost its way. We're in the final stretch of this teaching series this week on Pathway to Victory. So while there's still time, I want to be sure you're among those who receives a hardcover copy of my new book. David and I will explain how you can request my book right after the message. Well, in recent months, we've all seen an alarming rise in retail thefts.
Thugs dressed in hoodies rush into public stores, leaving with bags filled with stolen goods. Today, I'm calling on all Americans to heed the eighth commandment of God. I titled today's message, Respect the Property of Others. None of the parents suspected Sister Mary Margaret Cooper of anything improper, but neither could they understand why their church school was running a deficit every year. For 28 years, Sister Mary Margaret, an 80-year-old nun, had served as the principal of the St. James Catholic Church in Florence, California. But in 2021, when Sister Mary Margaret was 80 years of age, a federal judge sentenced her to one year and one day in the penitentiary for embezzling the money and defrauding parents.
She was forced and encouraged to repay more than $800,000 she had stolen from these parents and students. Her response? She said, I have sinned. I have broken the law.
I have no excuses. She was right. In stealing that money, she had broken not only United States law, more importantly, she had broken God's law. In fact, she broke one of the most basic laws God has given to govern our lives and our society. It's found in Exodus 2015, you shall not steal. If you have your Bibles, turn to Exodus chapter 20 as we discover why we should respect the property of others.
We're in a series I'm calling The Ten, how to live and love in a world that's lost its way, and we're gaining a fresh look at God's most basic laws for living. We call them the Ten Commandments. Now, the eighth commandment we're looking at today, you shall not steal, is much like the last two commandments.
In the original Hebrew text, it is only two words. Remember, the sixth commandment was no murder. The seventh commandment, no adultery. The third commandment is equally blunt, the eighth commandment, no stealing. Moses later expanded on that in Leviticus 19, 11, and 13 when he wrote, do not steal, do not defraud or rob your neighbor, do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight. In just a minute, we're going to look at four ways we commonly break this eighth commandment. But I want to begin today by talking about the basis, the need for this commandment. Why does God talk about not stealing?
There's a basic assumption here that frankly is under attack today in our country, and it's the assumption that people have a right, not just a right, but a responsibility to acquire personal property. Today, there are some woke Christians who are trying to teach that we shouldn't have personal property, that we shouldn't have differing levels of income, that the Bible advocates a kind of Christian Marxism or sanctified socialism where everybody ought to have the same amount and earn the same amount of money. In fact, I actually heard the pastor of one woke church say, the great commission for churches is to end income disparity. That's the mission of the church, to make sure everybody has the same amount of money.
Is that true? Well, some people actually misuse the Bible to promote such an idea. They turn to Acts chapter four, verse 32, these words about the freshly birthed church and the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them.
See, pastor, there it is. Everybody sold their goods, put it in the common pool, and everybody enjoyed the same level of income. But that's just a superficial reading of the text. When we looked at this in our study of Acts, we pointed out that this giving of your assets and pooling of assets was voluntary. It wasn't confiscatory. Nobody forced the church to do that.
Individuals chose to do that. But in the same passage, the Bible honors personal property. In Acts five, verse four, remember, Peter was chastising Ananias for lying about the amount of money he had given. He had claimed to have sold a piece of property and given all the proceeds to the church, and he held back a portion, and Peter said, Ananias, why did you lie? For while your property remained unsold, didn't it remain under your control? In other words, it was yours to do with whatever you wanted to do.
That's the idea of personal property. Another interesting passage in Scripture is found in Philippians four, verses 11 and 12. I bet most of you know this passage by heart. Paul said, I've learned to be content in whatever circumstances I'm in. I know how to get along in humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity. In other words, he said, I know how to live according to a budget. If I have a lack of resources, I cut back. If I have an abundance of resources, I enjoy it.
I've learned to be content in both circumstances. Now, these words were written 25 years after the birth of the church in Acts two. If the goal of the church had been to flatten income disparity and made it that everybody had the same amount of money, then Paul never would have learned to cut back. He wouldn't have needed to. He never would have learned how to experience abundance. He never had abundance.
Everybody had the same amount. Now, my point is God's plan is not for sanctified socialism. And the reason I bring that up right now is if the Bible teaches that we have a right and responsibility to acquire personal property, then we have the right and responsibility to protect that property. And that's what this eighth commandment is all about.
If you don't protect personal property of value in Scripture, you're going to have anarchy in society. And our country got a good look at that back in 2020. Remember in the aftermath of the horrible murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, there were some woke mayors who decided that they wanted to defund the police, especially the mayors of Seattle, Washington, and San Francisco, California. In San Francisco, they defunded the police, and the result was shoplifting increased. They didn't even send police to shoplifting calls. Businesses, as a result, were boarded up.
Other businesses refused to move into downtown San Francisco, and the result was the mayor eventually had to reverse her policy and call for an increase in funding of police. The whole assumption is personal property is part of God's plan, and it's his plan for us to protect that property. Now, how do you acquire possessions? If it's God's will for us to accumulate money and accumulate possessions to care for ourselves and our family, how do you do it? Well, there are three and only three ways to acquire property, and all three are mentioned in Ephesians 4, 28. Paul wrote, He who steals must steal no longer, but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good so that he will have something to share with one who has need. High school seniors, this is a very important principle for you to understand at the beginning of your college education and as you try to find God's will regarding your work. The primary method God gives for acquiring property is through our work. That is, we must labor, performing what is good according to our hands. In Deuteronomy 8, 18, God said, You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who is giving you the power to make wealth. God gives each one of us the power not to become billionaires or millionaires, but to make the wealth of money we need to take care of ourselves and to others. Have you ever heard the phrase, He's a self-made man or she's a self-made woman?
There is no such thing. Nobody is self-made. We are all God-made. And God gives us the gifts, the ability, even the energy to work and to make a living. And that's God's plan. The way we take care of ourselves is through our work. In 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 10, Paul said, For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order. If anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat either.
Very simple. No work, no money, no food. That's God's plan.
Now, don't write me any emails, yes. There are exceptions to that, and the Bible gives them. If somebody is disabled and not able to work, we are to be generous and compassionate and help provide a safety net for those who can't work. But Paul is saying those who can work should work, and they shouldn't eat if they don't work. In Genesis 1 28, it's very clear, God created the first man and woman to be workers.
Look at this. God blessed them, that is Adam and Eve, and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every other living thing that moves on the earth. We were created to be workers because God is a worker. We are created in his image. Look at Genesis 2 15.
Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and to keep it. Now, you know what is significant about this verse? What is significant about Genesis 2 15? It comes before Genesis 3 verse 1. Now, here's why that's significant.
Do you remember what's recorded in Genesis 3? It's how sin came into the world, the fall of man and the curse that resulted from that fall. But there are a lot of people who mistakenly believe work itself is a curse. It's a curse from God. It's because of the fall of Adam and Eve that we have to work for a living. If only Adam and Eve hadn't blown it in the garden, I could be sitting on the French Riviera eating bonbons. I mean, that's what a lot of people think.
No. Before the fall, God said, I'm creating you to be a worker, not just to make money, but you find your fulfillment in your work. God meant for us to find fulfillment in our work. I want to introduce an idea to our seniors today, and it's the idea of your life work. One of the most important things you'll ever discover in these next few years is what your life work should be. My friend Bob Beale describes and defines life work as that work which is the best use of the rest of your life. Your life work is that work which is the best use of the work of the rest of your life.
And your life work will always be the intersection of two things. First of all, your passion. What do you really care about?
What are you really interested in? And secondly, your giftedness. What has God uniquely gifted you to do? And when you find that intersection between your passion and your giftedness, you've discovered your life work.
Philippians 2 13 says it is God at work within us giving us the desire, the passion, and the power to do his will. My friend Bob also says an activity is only work if you'd rather be doing something else. Hopefully you find that life work. That doesn't mean it's not tiring. Work is exhausting.
It became more exhausting after the fall. Genesis 3 17 to 19 said your work is gonna be harder because of sin, but that doesn't mean it can't be fulfilling. And God's plan for you is to find that life work so that you can generate the income to acquire property and take care of yourself and your family.
And there's something in the best sense of the word, a pride of ownership when you earn money and are able to buy those things that you and your family needs. I remember speaking of high school when I got my first car. It was in 1971. My dad, as a hobby, rebuilt Volkswagens, and he gave me, as a gift, a Volkswagen Beetle. Remember the Volkswagen bugs?
I guess they're still running around here, and I'd go down Central Expressway. I remember I asked my dad one time, where's the air conditioner? He said, oh, Robert, this has a 260 air conditioner. It's a 260 air conditioner.
He said, yeah, roll down two windows and go 60 miles an hour, and you'll have all the air you need. Now, I love that little car. The only problem was one day the fuel line in the back, that's where the engine was, worked its way loose, sprayed the engine, and the car blew up while I was driving it down Beltline Road. So I had to get rid of that Volkswagen. But you know what car I enjoyed even more than that? The first car I bought. I'll never forget, it was a Pontiac Grand Prix. Now, I took care of that car because I had purchased it. I remember the payment, $167 a month I'd send to the Pontiac Corporation, but I'd check the oil every day, I'd check the tires every day.
Saturdays I'd spend waxing it with the turtle wax, you know. I took care of it because I had purchased it. There's a fulfillment that comes when you earn money and you purchase what you need, and that's what God says is our basic way of acquiring property. It is through our work, work that is fulfilling, not tedious. The second way you can earn money and acquire possessions is through inheritance. Again, that's in Ephesians 4.28. It's implied when he says, work so that you will have something to share with those who have need.
If we can, we shouldn't consume everything we have in a lifetime. We ought to leave something for our children and our children's children. Proverbs 13, 22 says, a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children.
That is, to his grandchildren. We can work for money, we can inherit money. Those are legitimate ways to acquire property, but the Bible says the illegitimate way is through theft, through stealing it. Let him who steals steal no longer. Why do people steal?
J.I. Packer put it this way. He said, the temptation to steal property, to deprive a person of what he has, arise because fallen man always wants more than he has at the present and more than others have. He's saying the basis, the reason we steal is because of covetousness. We're not satisfied with what we have and we think somebody else has too much and so we steal, breaking both the eighth and the 10 commandments. Now, I know you're gonna think, well, this is one sin I'm not guilty of. I've never stolen anything. But remember, there's more than one way to commit adultery, more than one way to murder, more than one way to lie.
As we'll see next time, there's also more than one way to steal. Let me mention four ways we violate this commandment. The first way is by despoiling, despoiling. I know, I wasn't familiar with that word either.
I was looking up for a word to help me in my sermon outline, in my alliteration. And I came across this word, despoiling. You know what despoil means? One theologian says it's an act of violence when a man's goods are forcibly plundered and carried off. It's armed robbery. That's what despoiling is, forcibly taking from somebody else what doesn't belong to them. How many of you have ever been the victim of a mugging or the break-in of a car or even your own home?
How many of you have had that? A large number of people. You know how violated you feel when somebody invades your space. But it's not just armed robbers who despoil people. Students who cheat on an exam. You're invading somebody else's space to take what is not yours.
Employees who take home office supplies to profit themselves. Did you know it's even possible to steal ideas from people without giving them credit, claim for your own, what really belongs to somebody else? A few years ago, I received an email from a woman in Georgia. She and her husband watched Pathway to Victory on Saturday nights on their local TV station. She said in her email, imagine my surprise after listening to you Saturday night when I went into our church Sunday and heard our pastor preach your message basically word for word. And not only that, he passed out an outline that had come directly off your website.
Now, that doesn't bother me at all. Everything's grist for the preacher's mill, Dr. Crystal used to say. But if you're gonna quote extensively from somebody, whether in a paper at school or whether in a sermon or a speech, if you're gonna do it word for word, give credit. Don't pretend it's yours if it's not yours. That's how we despoil, by taking by force. A second way that we steal is through dishonesty. This is a little more subtle, but it's misrepresenting truth in order to gain from other people. Now in biblical times, the way you did that was to have dishonest scales and balances. In Proverbs 11 one, Solomon says, a false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight. If you were buying a commodity from a merchant and he had a false weight or a false balance, he might tell you he's giving you a quart of oil when he's just giving you three quarters of a quart of oil.
He might tell you you're getting a pound of wheat when you're just getting a half a pound of wheat. There are several more ways in which we often break the eighth commandment without committing outright theft. So be sure to join me again next time for part two of this message. We're in the final stretch of a brand new teaching series that started the first Monday in October.
And for just a few more days, you're invited to request an exclusive offer from Pathway to Victory. I'm referring to my brand new best-selling book called The Ten. How to live and love in a world that has lost its way. All of us have witnessed the devastating results when people choose to defy God and his laws. Just look at the increasing number of school shootings, gender confusion among boys and girls, and baseless immorality.
These things are not accidental. You can't ignore the laws of God without terrible consequences. Well, my new book, The Ten, helps you understand the timeless relevance of God's Ten Commandments. You'll discover that following these simple rules for civility will generate blessings and happiness in your life. So while there's still time, request your copy of my new book, The Ten. It's yours when you give a generous gift to support the growing ministry of Pathway to Victory. Let me underscore that your generous gift today is very important. Right now, we're asking God to allow us to expand our impact across America and around the world.
None of us needs convincing that our nation is deeply divided and confused today. Gratefully, God is using Pathway to Victory to bring his message of hope and light to people who are craving to hear the truth. Thank you for your continued faithful support. Together, we are piercing the darkness with the light of God's Word.
David? Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. You're invited to request the brand new book from Dr. Jeffress titled, The Ten, How to Live and Love in a World That Has Lost Its Way When You Give a Generous Gift to Support the Ministry of Pathway to Victory. Call us at 866-999-2965 or visit our website. That's at ptv.org.
Now, when you give an especially generous gift of $100 or more, we'll also include the complete The Ten teaching series on audio and video discs, plus a study guide to use for personal or group study. Call 866-999-2965 or go online to ptv.org. You could send your request by mail. Write to P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. One more time, that's P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I'm David J. Mullins, inviting you back for Part 2 of the message, The Eighth Commandment, Respect the Property of Others. That's coming up Wednesday on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas.
