The Ten Commandments - Stealing - Life of Moses Part 43

Well, as you know, we're involved in a study in the life of the great man of God, Moses, and as part of that, we've been going through the Ten Commandments one at a time. And today, we come to commandment number eight, which simply says, Exodus 20, verse 15, you shall not steal. Martin Luther said, and I quote, if all the thieves in the world who don't think of themselves as thieves were hanged on the gallows, the world would soon be desolate, end of quote. Now you say, wait a minute, Lon, what do you do? Are you calling me a thief?

Friend, I'm not calling you anything. I'm just saying I think we should all reserve judgment about ourselves till God's finished talking to us today. So in order to really pull the full meaning out of commandment number eight that God has put in there, we want to ask and answer four questions this morning.

So here we go. Question number one, what exactly is commandment number eight talking about when it says you shall not steal? Well, we all know to steal means to take something that belongs to somebody else, not to take it because they freely and knowingly give it to us. That would be a gift, not to take it because we legitimately and fairly paid for it.

That would be a purchase. But to take it through some kind of illegal, illegitimate, unfair or sneaky way, that is stealing. And commandment number eight is based on the biblical principle of private ownership. The communist system may not believe in private ownership, but God does. Now, I know the Bible says Psalm 24, verse one, that the earth is the Lord's and everything in it belongs to him. But the Bible also says that while we are living here on earth as human beings, God gives us the right to hold property, to own things. And when somebody takes those things from us in an illegitimate way, God calls it wrong. God calls it stealing. Now, the point is that God gives us the right to own things in our world, and that is the underlying basis of this. We find that truth right in Acts chapter five.

We remember the Ananias and Sapphira. They owned a piece of property, they sold it, and then they lied about how much of the proceeds they had given to the work of God. And Peter said to them, Acts five, verse four, before it was sold, didn't the land belong to you?

And after it was sold, wasn't the money yours to do with as you please? Private property is a biblical principle. Now, today, before we go on, I don't want to gloss over the possibility that some of us sitting here today may be involved in actual criminal stealing. Embezzlement, fraud, larceny, shoplifting, robbery, I mean Kenneth Lay and Bernie Evers and Henry Lyons, the former president of the National Baptist Association.

These people went to church every single week, sat in the pews and sang hymns every single week while they were in the process of robbing people blind. And friend, you know, I've even been to court with some McLean Bible Church people over the years who were guilty of committing the crime of robbery and I had to testify in those cases. Listen, if you're here at McLean Bible Church and you're involved in something like this, the time has come for you to stop. The time has come for you to come out into the open, to bring it into the light, to accept whatever consequences God deems fit for you and to put this sin behind you and make a new beginning for God.

And if you're involved in some of this and you need help, you call me and make an appointment to see me or one of our pastors or you talk to your small group leader and let us help you bring this to an end and clean it up in your life. Now on a much more global level when it comes to stealing, let me say a word to us as parents because as parents, stealing is an important issue for us to deal with in the lives of our children. Children are notorious thieves and so it's important to teach our children when they're young to respect other people's property, to be content with whatever God gives them.

And it's important for us to enforce serious consequences on them when they do steal so that this evil habit never takes root in their life. A few years ago when my youngest son John was seven or so, he's 22 now, G.I. Joe was the big rage back then. And one day a friend from church, another little boy came over to play with him, his mom dropped him off. And when she came back later to get him and I went looking for him, she came in the kitchen and was talking to Brendan, I went looking for him. I found him locked in John's room with G.I.

Joe men spread all over the floor by himself. And I said, son, come on, your mom's here to get you, let's go. And he stood up and started walking towards the door with his hands in his pocket, his pockets bulging like this. And so I said, excuse me, son, could I look in your pocket for a minute? Well, I emptied his pockets and they were full of John's G.I.

Joe men that he was planning to steal and take home for himself. I walked him out to his mom who was in the kitchen with Brenda and I told her what had happened. And she turned to him and she said, oh, Tommy, not his real name. She said, you know, you shouldn't do that. And then she went right back to talking to Brenda.

Dude, let me tell you something. If that had been my son, that when I went to pick him up, somebody walked him out and said we caught him trying to steal something from our son. Let me tell you, we would not have stayed around there and had a pleasant conversation, the two of us.

We'd have gotten in the car, gone immediately home. And when we got home, my little boy would have been on the receiving end of what I like to call my little wooden character builder. You see my little wooden character builder right here? This is the actual paddle that I used on all three of my boys. This is true.

And it packs a little bit of a sting if you use it right. And my son would have met this thing full force the day the minute we walked in the house. You know, Dwight L. Moody, the great evangelist who worked with children much of his life, said, and I quote, parents are woefully lax in their condemnation and punishment of the sin of stealing. The child begins by taking candy or a cookie and the parents make light of it. But by and by, it is not an easy matter to check this habit because it grows stronger and multiplies with every new act of stealing. One of the men I testified in court about who ended up spending two years in prison for grand larceny that was coming to this church, the man was, he told me he'd been a thief all his life. And it started when he was a child and when he would steal things, his parents never did anything to him.

And that's how the whole thing got started in his life. Listen, there is not a child alive who hasn't tried to steal something. But our job as parents is to catch them.

And once we catch them to punish them and to drive the message home forcefully that this kind of behavior is just not going to be acceptable in our world. And parents, your children will grow up to call you blessed if you will break this habit early in their life. You say, OK, Lon, that's great. I got it.

I think I understand what the point is for today. Number one, I'll never commit robbery myself. Number two, I'll deal with stealing in the life of my children.

And number three, I'll watch the ushers very carefully here at McLean Bible Church when they take the offering. Listen, that's not enough. We got three more questions to go yet. Don't declare yourself out of this message at this point.

Wait a minute. We got three more questions here. Question number two is how did the Lord Jesus tell us to interpret commandment number eight? Well, just as with Commandments number five, number six and number seven, God's full intent in commandment number eight goes way beyond just the letter of the law. In Mark Chapter seven, Jesus confronted this very issue with the rabbis, the Jewish rabbis. That is the issue of stopping at the letter of the law when it came to the Ten Commandments instead of going to the spirit of the law. Listen, Jesus said, Mark Chapter seven, verse six. He said, These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

For they use the laws of men to set aside the commandments of God. Now, what was he talking about? Well, he goes on. He said, For Moses said, You shall honor your father and your mother. Does that sound familiar? Yeah, that's Commandment number five. We spent a whole week on that.

I hope that sounds familiar. Watch. But you rabbis say if a person says to his father or mother, anything I own with which I might have helped you is korban, meaning in Hebrew, given to God. Then that person doesn't need to help his parents in any way financially.

Now, let me explain. In the days of Jesus, the rabbis allowed Jewish men to declare all their money and their possessions to be korban. The Hebrew word means dedicated to God. And as a result, when that man's parents came to him needing financial help, he could say to them, Well, I'd love to help you, but I don't own anything.

Everything I own has been dedicated to God. Do you understand? Meanwhile, according to the rabbi's laws, the man could keep everything that he had dedicated to God and use it for whatever he wanted. So long as he made a big contribution every year to the synagogue.

So do you understand what happened here? The true intent of commandment number five was for people to care for their parents. But these rabbis created a way for the Israelites to violate the true intent of commandment number five and a way for them to do it legally.

Do it legally. That's why Jesus went on to say, verse 13, Thus you have nullified the word of God's true intent by your laws. Now, friends, today the same situation exists when it comes to commandment number eight, when it comes to business ethics here in America, when it comes to personal ethics here in America. America has a standard of behavior it has established, which is legal. But God's true intent and commandment number eight goes way beyond what America says is legal. God's true intent in commandment eight is that we who name the name of Jesus, that we act fairly, that we act honestly, that we act scrupulously and truthfully and righteously in every dealing we have with people. Don't forget what is legal in America and what God says is right and righteous are not always the same thing.

And it's in this space between on the one hand what our culture says is legal and on the other hand what God says is righteous. It's in the space in between that we can end up violating commandment number eight by doing what I would like to refer to as civilized stealing. Now, question number three, what are some examples of civilized stealing in our world today?

Well, I've got four for you. Number one, unethical business practices, business dealings. You know the saying, there's a sucker, there's a hundred ways to separate a sucker from his money and there's a sucker born every minute. Well, you know, in many circles in America, it's considered good business to separate a sucker from his money as long as you can do it in a way that's within the confines of the law. But friends, God is deeply concerned that our business practices be fair and that they be godly and that they be righteous and holy and not just that they be within the bounds of what is legal in America.

There are a lot of ways to do unrighteous things to people and still be within the legal bounds of American law. Leviticus 19 says you shall do nothing unrighteous in business in measuring length, width, weight or quantity. You shall have honest scales and honest weights. Proverbs 16 11. Honest scales and weights belong to the Lord, the Bible says, for God is concerned about all the weights in a man's bag. Friends, the point is that God is against every form of swindling, every form of fraud, every form of deceit, deception, chicanery and unethical business dealing, whether it's legal in America or whether it isn't, whether there's a law against it in America or whether there isn't.

God wants us to be godly business people, my friends, business people who refuse to separate a sucker from his money even when we get the chance to because we fear God and we love God. Number two, the second way to do civilized stealing in America today is by cheating on our taxes. A few years ago, the IRS received an anonymous letter and inside was a note with three $50 bills. And here's what the note said. It said, and I quote, enclosed you will find $150 in cash. I cheated on my income tax return last year and I have not been able to sleep ever since.

The note went on to say, if I still have trouble sleeping, I'll send you the rest. That's true. That's an actual letter that they got.

That's true. You know, the IRS figures that over 50% of Americans knowingly cheat on their tax returns. They just don't have the IRS, doesn't just have the manpower to catch everybody. And this is not just true of non-Christians, friends. I ran into a lady, a professing Christian lady who told me, she said, well, I'm fudging a little on my taxes this year, but I figure the worst that could happen is they catch me and I have to pay it with some penalties. Now, would Jesus have filled out his 1040 like that, folks? You think?

I don't. And we justify it. We say, well, the government takes too much of my money anyway and the whole system's unfair.

And you know, the 19th Amendment is unlawful and unconstitutional anyway. And besides, I'm going to take some of the money I save and I'm going to give it to God. Well, could I say on God's behalf, God doesn't want stolen money.

God says in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said that we are to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's. And friends, this is nothing but stealing, pure and simple, and God says don't do it. Number three, a third way we can do civilized stealing today is by borrowing things from people and never returning them.

Now, sometimes we just honestly forget. I understand that to return things. We never really intended to keep them. But, you know, it doesn't change the fact that those things are not ours.

And for us to keep them is stealing. Listen, I used to be extremely careless in this area of my life. I've stolen pens and socks and underwear. I've stolen books and tapes and toothpaste and soap and towels and shoeshine brushes and crescent wrenches.

You know the story. But, you know, the Lord convicted me years ago that this was wrong. And he convicted me that I was costing myself God's full blessing on my life and my ministry and that I needed to be squeaky clean in this area. And as a follower of Christ, my friends, so do you. The other day I was at the gym. You say you look like it. God bless you. God bless you out there.

All right. But anyway, I was and I was coming out. And as I was walking to the car, you know, I had this really strange feeling.

You ever had this where like I've got too much stuff, something's just not right. And I sat down in the car and started to drive off. And I realized I had the gym towel still hanging around my neck. I'd just forgotten to take it off. And so I thought, well, I'll take it home and wash it because it's pretty nasty. And I'll bring it back next time.

And I went, no, no, no, no, no. You've done that before. That's how you ended up with a whole closet full of towels you had to return one time.

Don't do that. So I got out of the car and I walked back in with his nasty old towel. And I went up to the girl at the front desk and I said, here, I accidentally took this to my car.

I wanted to give it back to you. And so she kind of took it like this and put it aside. And she went, I can't believe you did that. She said, you know how many towels we lose by people just walk out with our towels and never bring them back? I said, well, I'm sorry. I just I just can't do that, you know.

And friends, you can't do that either. Listen, that wasn't my towel. I could have kept it. Nobody would ever known if I kept that towel.

I was already to the car with it. You know what, though? That was not my towel. And it may sound like a little thing, but friends, stealing is never a little thing with God. We need to be squeaky clean in this area.

And some of us here have stuff that we need to turn back over to people. Number four, the fourth way that we can do civilized stealing is by stealing at our workplace. And there's three ways we can do this.

And with this, I'm done. Three ways. Number one, we can steal our workplace by using company resources for personal benefit. You know, the postage machine, paper and pens, the copying machine, fudging on travel expenses, using the office telephone for private long distance phone calls. You know, you say, Lon, listen, everybody in the federal government does this.

Everybody in private industry does this. Aren't you being just a little bit petty here? Listen, folks, no kind of stealing is petty with God. When it comes to this kind of stuff, it's either right or it's wrong.

It's either righteous or it's unrighteous. The second way at work we can do this is by lying and using sick days for personal vacation. There was a man here at McLean Bible Church years ago, I knew him well, who worked for a company here locally. And one day he called the company up and he told him he was sick and then he actually went to play golf. Well, you'd never believe it. But guess who he met on one of the teas at the golf course.

True story. He met his boss and his boss said, I thought you were sick. And he said, well, I'm feeling better. And his boss said, well, I'm glad to hear that because you're going to need your good health to look for another job.

And he fired him right on the golf course, right on the tee. That'll ruin your day. You say, well, I think that's a little harsh, don't you? Wait a minute.

Whoa. If your employer had wanted to give you those days as vacation, he or she would have called him vacation. But to take him as vacation when they're not given that way, friends, that's stealing. Now, if you go to your boss and you ask for permission to use a sick day for a personal day and they say, OK, fine, no problem. But if not, it's stealing.

And I don't care if everybody does it. It's still wrong. Finally, the third way we can steal from our our employer is by loafing on the job. Ephesians Chapter six, verse five says slaves. Today, we would say employees. You say, no, the first word was better. It was really the better word.

All right, whatever. Slaves, employees, be obedient to those who are your earthly masters in the sincerity of your heart is under Christ. Obey them, not just when their eye is on you as men pleasers, but as servants of Christ who do the will of God from your heart. In other words, as followers of Christ, we should not have two speeds at work.

One speed when the boss is there and looking and the other speed when the boss isn't. Years ago, a good friend of mine named Tom Titus worked for giant food. I've known Tom for years. He rose to be district manager and whatever. But anyway, he was the manager of a store when I knew him. And he had just come to Christ as an adult. He was so excited about his new faith in Christ. And he decided that he was going to fill his whole store with Christian employees, that this was one of the things that God wanted him to do. And he was all excited about it. And so he just started hiring every Christian that came through the process.

He started hiring them. Well, then it wasn't long after that that I saw him at church and I said, how's it going? And he said, I'm pretty upset. And I said, what's wrong?

And he said, I am never hiring another Christian. I said, why is that? He said, why is that? Because they don't work. He said they stand around.

They talk all day. They waste time. They witness on the job.

They don't they don't work hard. And what's worse, they think it's perfectly OK to do this because I'm their boss and I'm a Christian. And he said, it's not perfectly OK. He said, it ruins my witness here at work when the non-Christian employees work harder than the Christians I hire. He said, I'm never hiring another Christian.

Now, friends, does that bother you to have somebody feel that way? What does that say about us? It says that we, as followers of Christ, need to make sure at our workplace we establish a reputation that says we work harder than everybody else.

Safeway used to years ago have a commercial that says I work an honest day. Well, you know, most people don't. But we as followers of Christ, we need to. You say, all right, Lon, I understand what you're saying here. But I thought you said there were four questions.

Well, there are. And so you know what question number four is. So are you ready? Good. Are you ready? Here we go.

One, two, three. You say, all right, Lon, so what? Say, man, you stepped all over my toes today. Well, you know what I like to say? If the word of God steps on our toes, friends, it's because our toes are in the wrong place. It's just that simple. The word of God doesn't go anywhere.

It's our toes that need to move. You say, all right, Lon, so what? Well, first, let me say two things. First, if you're a person here today and there's really no problem in your life with these areas, then my challenge to you is to dedicate yourself as a follower of Christ to staying squeaky clean in this area of life. Ask the Holy Spirit every day to sensitize you to these small issues, as well as large issues, so that you become known to everybody who meets you at home, in the workplace, in the community, as a person of godly ethics, as a person of honesty and fairness and full disclosure. And even if some people think you're being a little too rigid and even if some people think you're being a little bit too prudish, remember what the Bible says.

It's the little foxes that spoil the vine. It only takes a little bit of stealing to quench the power of God's spirit in our life. So stay squeaky clean. Second of all, let me say, if you're here today and you've stolen something from somebody or you are stealing something from somebody, then, friends, I've got a two step plan for you that God does. Step number one is repent of it. Change your mind. Make a U-turn. Confess it to God. Ask for forgiveness. Ask God to help you change your behavior and commit yourself that you're not going to be sloppy at work anymore, that you're not going to lie about sick days anymore, that we're not going to borrow things and forget to return them anymore, that we're not going to engage in unethical business practices anymore.

We are making a U-turn. And second, if possible, go back and make it right to the person that you stole stuff or you've been stealing stuff from. If it's possible to return an item, return it. If you can't return it but it's possible to replace it, replace it. If you need to file an amended tax return, my friend, go back and do it.

If you took unfair advantage of somebody in a business deal, then go back and make it right with them. You say, but do you have any idea how expensive that might be for me? Do you have any idea how humiliating that might be for me? Well, I may not have an idea of that, but I'm reminded of little Zacchaeus. You remember Zacchaeus? Remember?

Luke chapter 19. Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he. Sing it with me.

He climbed up in a sycamore tree. What's wrong? Look, I didn't even grow up going to church, folks. I know this song.

You ought to know this song. What's wrong with you? He climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see. And when the Savior came walking by, he looked up in the tree. This is sad. And he said, Zacchaeus, what? Come down because I'm going to your house today. Oh, geez. All right.

Well, whatever. Listen, when Jesus went to Zacchaeus' house that day, Zacchaeus was a tax collector, worked for the Romans. He made a living cheating people.

That's how he made his money. Listen to what Zacchaeus said to Jesus. He said, Lord, whatever I have cheated anybody out of, I will pay back four times that amount. And Jesus said, surely genuine salvation has come to this house. Why did Jesus say that? Because, friends, one of the marks of genuine repentance is a deep desire to make things right and to clean things up, no matter how much it costs us.

Years ago, a young man at McLean Bible Church here, his name was Dennis, came to see me. And he said, Lon, when I was a teenager, he said, I stole some money from my employer. And he said, and God has really convicted me that was wrong. And I said, well, so what do you think I should do? I said, you need to call him up, tell him you stole the money and you need to pay him back.

He said, well, you know, honestly, things are a little tight right now for me and my wife. He said, we don't have six hundred dollars. I said, well, then call the man up, confess what you did and ask him if you can pay him off monthly until you get him all paid back. You know, this guy did that in obedience to God, and he made weekly payments out of his paycheck for months and months until he finally got that six hundred dollars paid off. Now, this is true. The week he made the last payment, he got a job offer, almost unexpected, really, with an enormous increase in salary and a signing bonus of, you'll never guess how much, six hundred dollars.

That's exactly right. And six months later at that new job, he got a six thousand dollar raise. You say, well, that's ten.

It doesn't matter. Ten times that that is inconsequential. The point is, as a result of all of that, he and his wife were able to buy their very first home in Fairfax County.

They went from not having six hundred dollars in the bank to being homeowners. And he came to me and he said, you know what, Lon, I am convinced the whole reason this happened is because I went back and paid that man back. I paid that man back six hundred dollars. And I said to him, you know what, Dennis, I am one hundred percent sure you're right. You see, God says, First Samuel two thirty, those who honor me, I will honor, says the Lord. God is serious, friends, about us making things right when we break commandment number eight. And when he when we do, God promises he will honor us for doing that. Now, he may not do for you exactly what he did for Dennis in exactly the same way. But God will reward us richly when we obey God and do what he tells us to do.

And you might say, and I'm Ray, I'm done with this. You might say, but Lon, if I live the way commandment number eight is telling me to live. If I run my business that way, when everybody else is lying about their product and misrepresenting their product. If I if I pay my taxes honestly, when everybody else is cheating on their taxes. If I operate at work that way, when everybody else is not operating that way, I'll get swallowed up in this world.

Well, you know what? That's probably true, except that there's a living God in this world. Now, if there were no living God in this world, I'd agree with you. But if there is a living God watching everything that goes on and a God who has said you honor me and I will honor you.

Friend, you're not going to get swallowed up. You're going to get blessed out of your gourd when the Lord Jesus rewards you for doing it right. And that's the wonderful thing about walking with Christ is that we have a living God who's watching and a living God who's more powerful than any human being. And when that living God decides to bless our life, there's not a human being in the world who's going to stop it. So our challenge as Christians is not to worry about what the odds are. Our challenge as Christians is to obey Christ. And when we obey Christ, God takes care of the rest.

And it's just that simple. So, my friend, if there are some parts of commandment number eight that need to be dealt with in your life, I challenge you. Deal with them. Do it God's way. Obey God. Obey God. And trust God, 1 Samuel 2.30, that those who honor Him, He will honor.

You'll be shocked what He does. Let's pray together. Father, you know that this is a complicated world that we live in. And it's easy in our world to steal. Sometimes we don't mean to. And sometimes we do it because we're afraid not to. We're afraid we'll get overrun by the competition.

And sometimes the reasons are more sinister. But Lord, you know, this is a tough commandment for us to keep the spirit of the law when it comes to commandment number eight. Father, I pray that you would grip our hearts today, that people here who have things they need to return would do it.

That business people here who have things they need to go make right would do it. And that every one of us here, Lord Jesus, would seek to be squeaky clean in this area. That we might establish a reputation for Christ-like living among the people around us who are watching. Lord, speak to our hearts deeply today and give us the courage to make any changes we need to make with the confidence that there is a living God who has said, Those who honor me, I will honor. Lord, help us hold on to that promise and base our behavior on that promise. Not on what's legal in America, but on what God says is righteous and right in terms of how we treat people. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. And God's people said, Amen. Amen.