The Eighth Commandment

[00:00:00] Exodus, chapter 20 and verse number 15 will be our. Our text. We're going to get into the 8th commandment tonight. We're going to go over quite a few verses. [00:00:11] I'll read some of them. We will look at some of them together. [00:00:15] This is one of the commandments that seems kind of self explanatory. But of course, like always, we want to look at it, not only the commandment itself. We want to look at what's underneath the commandment, what the commandment teaches us about the Lord and where it's touched on in other parts of the scripture, including in the New Testament. So the 8th commandment is in Exodus chapter 20, verse number 15. The Bible says, thou shalt not steal. All right, let's pray one more time. Lord, thank you for once again for the opportunity to look in your word. Lord, I pray, please edify and strengthen and instruct your people as we look in your word on this subject, please help me to say the things I need to say and to explain the truths of scripture clearly, that your people might grow in the word of God and in their obedience, and that we all might be more better suited to serve you and to live for you. In Jesus name, amen. [00:01:16] Thou shalt not steal. Now, we all know this, and it seems pretty self explanatory, but we're going to look at this in the various other parts of scripture. But before we do that, I want to establish something about this commandment. I'm going to read a few verses. If you want to note the verses, I'll go kind of fast. But if you want to note them, of course, you're welcome to do that. Deuteronomy 19, verse 14. Listen to this now. And these all follow in the same theme. The Bible says, thou shalt not remove thy neighbor's landmark, which they of old time have set in thine inheritance, which thou shalt inherit in the land that the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess it. Okay, that's interesting. All right, listen to this. In Deuteronomy 27, verse 17, cursed be he that removeth his neighbor's landmark, and all the people shall say, amen. All right, proverbs 22, verse 28. Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set. [00:02:26] Proverbs 23, verse ten. Remove not the old landmark and enter not into the fields of the fatherless. Now, how many of you have heard any kind of preaching on the ancient landmarks? Everybody's heard that. And what is it always talking about? It's always talking about the old paths or standards or something like that the music and all. And that's a fine application perhaps, of this verse, but this verse is actually talking about theft. [00:02:56] This verse is actually talking about theft. Listen, you can't properly apply the scripture until you understand what it's talking about. In fact, I dare say that I've heard some preachers, and I'm not throwing stones, I can't even think of an individual. But I've heard so many messages on this referring to doing things the old way and that kind of thing, that sometimes I wonder if they themselves know what this is talking about. But what this is talking about is in the days in which there weren't surveys like we think of surveys, and there weren't plans. What do they call those things they keep at the courthouse? [00:03:32] Help me now, help me show the layout of the. What's that? [00:03:39] What's that? [00:03:41] Yeah, all those things. Yes, all of them. All of the above. D where they keep it at the courthouse. And it shows you what your property lines are. And they use those to determine, to measure exactly what your property lines are. Now, in Bible days, they would actually have a landmark, something that's different than the landscape that they would set there. And that would mark the corner, the boundary of a marker. And if you just willynilly picked it up and move it 50ft that way or 50ft this way, you are stealing someone else's land and thus violating the 8th commandment. That's why this, so the ancient landmark is talking about respecting established rights of property. That's what that's on. [00:04:31] That's the core truth that's being set there. Now, whether it applies to what your father's, the ways your fathers worshipped and whatever, that's a different question entirely. But this is talking about theft. But what it does establish is that God has a principle that in which he has ordained that we as his creatures, in his economy, are to respect property rights. That's the principle. In fact, the 8th commandment, thou shalt not steal, is founded upon that truth. In that commandment is implied the existence of personal property. There are things that belong to you and no one else. And I know the government has things like imminent domain, and the government has ways that they circumvent that. But in God's economy, what is your property is yours and you have total rights over it. Of course, in the Lord. In the Lord, of course, we don't have a right to use property, to use what we have in a way that violates God's commandments, of course. But the existence of property rights, this is one reason that Marxism is so hostile to Christianity, because Marxism denies property rights. In other words, they say that all property is the property of the collective, which really means the government. [00:06:08] And it's usually run by just a few really rich people at the top that live totally differently than all the proletariat at the bottom, the working class. [00:06:19] That's why Marxism and communism, which is built upon Marxism, is so. Well, is so wicked as a system of government, because it is built upon ideas, and this is one of them that are contrary to the good order of God's creation. [00:06:38] Because one of the things that God established, even from Exodus chapter 20, is the existence of personal property. [00:06:46] And that's what even our church did. You know, I've talked to some of the men about this, but we have a little issue, even with a landmark at our church. Did you know that? Now, I don't know why it's this way, but the stake up here on the corner, the top corner piece of our property that divides the neighbor's property from our property, that stake is actually inside of our parking lot. So part of our parking lot is his property. Now, I don't know why that is. I certainly hope it wasn't intentional originally when the parking lot was paved many moons ago, I have no idea. But here's the thing. [00:07:29] As a matter of ethics and as a matter of right and wrong, if we're going to say we believe in personal property and we don't believe in stealing, which I know, I'm not suggesting that we were trying to steal from him. All I'm saying is, as a matter of ethics, that is an issue that needs to be resolved because the ancient landmark has been established, right? And so that's something that I'm going to contact that man, Mr. Hammond, next door, and I'm going to see if we can work something out. I've been planning to do that. He actually pointed it out. And we called a surveying company and they showed me where I would likely find it, and I found the stake. And he's right. He's right. So we're in the wrong on this. So we'll deal with that. It's not a big deal, but it's just some. Look, if we're going to pay attention to our p's and Q's, we need to make sure we're doing everything we can as right as we can. [00:08:23] Now, what is the root of theft? Now, thou shalt not steal. Now, we know according to Matthew, chapter 15 and verse 19, which we've already looked at the Bible says that evil thoughts, adulteries, murders, thefts, all of these things come of the. What? [00:08:45] They come of the heart. In other words, the works that we do with our hand don't come from our hand. You cannot. And we've already studied this to a large degree. The works that we do with our hands cannot be separated or differentiated from our hearts. They are the manifestation of our hearts. And theft is one of them. The Lord specifically mentions. But what in the heart? [00:09:08] Look at Joshua seven real quick. What in the heart is the heart? Vice, you could say the heart sin that leads us to violate the 8th commandment. We see it in Joshua, chapter seven. The Bible says this. [00:09:24] Actually, read this today in my Bible reading, the sin of Aiken. Look at verse eleven. [00:09:31] This is, of course, when they fought against Jericho. And Aiken of the tribe of Judah stole some things that were accursed, that God forbid them from stealing, and he hid it under his tent. Verse eleven says, this, Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant, which I commanded them. For they have even taken of the accursed thing and have also stolen and dissembled also. That means they hid it, and they have put it even among their own stuff. Interesting side note. Notice the Lord does not say, achan did it. The Lord says, israel did it. So one man's sin affected the whole congregation. And that's also true. The principle is true in the church as well. [00:10:18] That's why, listen, the Lord looks at us as individuals, definitely in our individualistic society. And american society is highly individualistic to the point of a fault. Right? But the Lord looks at us as individuals, but he also looks at us as this church, this local body of Christ, as a collective. You know what? If things are not right in us, it's going to affect the way the Lord deals with us as a whole. That's why we all got to be right with the Lord and say, lord, search us. [00:10:51] We'll cut a little close when I go a little further in this study here. But all right, look at verse 21. [00:10:59] The Bible says, when I saw Aiken speaking, when I saw among the spoils a goodly babylonish garment and 200 shekels of silver and a wedge of gold of 50 shekels weight. Then I coveted them and took them. Notice the order. Coveted and took. Now, we know the 10th commandment is about covetousness, so we'll cover that later. I won't spend any more time on that. But suffice it to say that covetousness is the heart sin that leads to theft, stealing. All right? So listen, if you want to control, if I want to control my hands and my feet, start with your heart. You get that under control, the other will take care of itself. So again, it's not about forcing someone into a mold of righteousness, right? And changing the outside behavior. [00:11:49] We spend all that time, the heart's just as wicked. You know what will happen? That wicked old heart. Even if you force them into a mold of apparent form of righteousness, that wicked old heart will ooze out all over the place. It'll come out the sides, and it'll manifest itself, even in religion, in ways that are wicked. So just look, skip that and just deal with the heart, right? We all deal with our heart. The hands will be taken care of. But actually, this commandment is dealing with the hands, right? So it's not that the hands don't matter. They do. But we need to remember the heart as well. Now look at Exodus 22. [00:12:23] We talk about the subject of theft. There are punishments in the Old Testament for a thief. Look at verse one. Exodus 22, verse one. This is when you're talking about theft. We've already talked about adultery. We talked about murder. And those things carried a very steep punishment. Of course, theft is not going to take, is not going to carry as steep of a punishment. But we do need to understand this one principle. [00:12:46] Verse one. If a man steal an ox or a sheep and kill it and sell it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep. Notice that. Restore restoration. We might call it restitution. Look at verse three. If the sun be risen upon him, there shall be bloodshed for him, for he should make full restitution. [00:13:17] If he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft. [00:13:23] If theft be certainly found in his hand alive, whether it be ox or ass or sheep, he shall restore double. If a man shall cause a field or a vineyard to be eaten, and shall put in his beast and shall feed in another man's field of the best of his own field and of the best of his own vineyard, shall he make restitution. Notice that the Lord says, is you going to make this right? You stole. And remember, theft is not only what you do with your hands directly. This indicates that you're taking your animals onto someone else's property. So that doesn't neatly fit into the box of stealing. Yet it is. We'll see more about that later. But notice the only way to deal with theft is restitution. Now, in the Old Testament scripture. Under the civil laws, you were not only to restore the original or the value of the original, if it had been spent, but you were to restore that and a portion above that, which is multiples of the value of the original item. In other words, it was supposed to hurt. It was supposed to hurt, but that's not it. Look at numbers, chapter five. [00:14:41] Look at numbers, chapter five. [00:14:45] So when someone is caught stealing, I remember you might not agree with this, but this is the right. I have Bible I'm going to show you in a minute. I have Bible to back this up. If one of your children, I say, by accident, one of your children, unbeknownst to you, steals something, you ought to take that child right back into that store, march that child right up to the manager and demand that that child confess and give that thing back. [00:15:15] Demand it. You ought to stand there and watch them. You say, well, that's mean. Too bad. I guarantee you they will not forget. And I promise you it will have an effect on whether they steal further. Right? [00:15:31] Based upon this verse, numbers five. Verse five. [00:15:35] And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, speak unto the children of Israel. When a man or a woman shall commit any sin that men commit to do a trespass against the Lord and that person be guilty, then they shall. What does it say? [00:15:50] Confess their sin that they have done. This is not a frequently mentioned part of the Old Testament, but if you stole something, first of all, you have to understand that stealing from your neighbor is first and foremost a trespass against God. It's a sin against the Lord. But secondarily, it is a sin against your neighbor. Okay? [00:16:15] That's the first thing. The second thing is that the Lord requires, in this case, speaking to Israel, that if you want to get this thing right, number one, you have to confess it. [00:16:28] You have to humble yourself and name the thing you did with your own two lips. You cannot skirt around it. You can't hem haul. You can't dodge the bullet. You have to name it. [00:16:44] That is also a good practice when we deal with our children or when we're found at fault, even as an adult and we feel like we need to go get right with somebody. Don't hem haul roundabout or do not do this. If I said something to offend you, if I did something to offend you, why are you going to them? If you don't know? [00:17:06] If you did, and you know you did, name the thing. [00:17:12] That's the only right way to do it. [00:17:15] Don't say if. Say, I did this. I was wrong. Will you forgive me. In fact, in the counseling, I'm preparing to teach a class on counseling at Tabernacle, and sister Judy has done a lot of study in newthetic counseling, which is basically biblical counseling. And one of the things they tell you to do, and this is just good advice generally, is when you are confessing something to someone else, you not only need to name the thing that you have done, you not only need to apologize, but you don't just say, please forgive me, you say, will you forgive me? You know why? Because they have to answer you. And if they answer you in the affirmative, not only for you by going to them, but for them, you're laying the matter to rest. [00:18:08] But if you say, please forgive me, you're kind of leaving it open ended. Whether they acknowledge that they are forgiving you and moving beyond it, it's a little different, just a little twist on it. But that's a difference between setting something to rest or leaving it open. Right, but confession is right here. Notice what it says in verse six, verse seven, rather. Then they shall confess their sin, which they have done, and he shall. What's it say? Recompense his trespass with the principle thereof. That's the original. And add unto it the fifth part thereof, and give it unto him against whom he hath trespassed. All right, so he confesses. You name the thing. Yeah, that's humiliating. It's no more humiliating than stealing. [00:18:58] And if you listen, these days, everybody wants to coddle people's emotions and their self image, right? And that might hurt their feelings, and they might feel bad about it. Listen, if you steal. If I steal, you should feel shame. It is wrong. [00:19:23] You should feel guilty. Again. Going back to the counseling, these days, secular counselors tell people, well, you don't really have guilt. You have guilt feelings. [00:19:35] You just feel guilty. You don't really have a reason to be guilty. [00:19:38] If you steal, you should feel guilty, and you are guilty. You know what? We shouldn't coddle people and say, well, that'll make them feel bad if they have to actually name it. Yeah, that's the idea. That's the idea. And this is a biblical principle, okay? [00:19:57] But then it says in the law they were to recompense. So it's not enough to say, I did it. You know what? Talks cheap, prove it. [00:20:10] Some people are more inclined to humble themselves and say things. [00:20:15] They feel shame a little less than others. Maybe they don't have as much pride. Maybe they have more. I don't know. But some people will confess it all day long. But they will not restore it because it costs them something. God says, this matter is not over until you restore what you stole. [00:20:33] Restore it. [00:20:35] Verse number eight. But if the man have no kids and men to recompense the trespass unto then the trespass, let the trespass be recompensed unto the Lord, even to the priest beside the ram of the atonement, whereby an atonement shall be made for him. That means even if you can't restore it or pay restitution, you give it to his family member, you give it to the nearest account. And if you can't do any, if there are none, they're all dead or whatever. Give it to God. Whatever the case, you don't keep it under any circumstance. Here's the principle with that. [00:21:11] The principle is that God wants theft to cost. [00:21:17] He doesn't want a thief to come off easy. He wants it to be hard. [00:21:23] That's why I say march your little child right up into the grocery store and make them tell the manager, right? It's hard. They'll hurt their feelings. They'll cry. [00:21:36] They'll cry now, but I doubt they'll do it again. [00:21:39] And it's a matter of love and it's a matter of being serious about this, about raising our children right, you know what? And even in our personal relationships, getting things right with one another, whatever you must do to restore that relationship, it might mean if you were saying negative things about somebody and they found out and they came to you and you confess, you said, yeah, I said, I'm sorry. I should not have run my mouth. Will you please forgive me? It might be that you need to go to those other people that you talk to and talk to them too. No, you need to, because that's a form of restitution. Making it all right again. The Lord's not interested in just in the words. He's interested in the action that demonstrates the truth of the words. That's what it's all about. And this principle transcends only this one subject. It goes into a lot of subjects. [00:22:40] See, restitution was an extreme matter. [00:22:46] Restitution was an extreme matter. The thing stolen was to be restored with penalties. [00:22:52] And even, listen to this. Even if the thief, even if he had to sell everything he had, he was to sell everything he had to pay the restitution, say, well, that's really mean. [00:23:09] Even if he had to sell his own self to be a servant, to pay off his debt of restitution, the Lord required him to sell himself. I don't know what that tells you. But it tells me that the Lord's real serious about this matter. Restitution is not just a secondary matter. [00:23:31] There was no such thing as bankruptcy, whereby a thief is able to get out of paying his bills. [00:23:40] He had to sell everything he had and himself. [00:23:44] That's one of the things about bankruptcy law in the United States that passes beyond the boundaries of justice. Because, like, for instance, Carolina investors, how many of you remember, do you remember what happened with that? Where there was corruption? It was like a Ponzi scheme, wasn't it? And you know what? The people that were invested in Carolina investors got almost nothing back. But you know what? [00:24:11] Every last thread and cent that those men had or owned or touched should have been liquidated to pay them back. [00:24:19] But see, there's always a way. [00:24:26] As I said, restitution requires confession of the wicked act and restoration. [00:24:33] The man is guilty of a sin against God and man. Listen now. The man is guilty of a sin against God and man in the case of theft, right? So therefore, he must make it right with both God and man. You can't sin against someone else. In this case, steal and say, lord, forgive me, and then move on. No, that is not allowed. You have to get it right with man as well, no matter the cost. And you know what? When we sin, the Lord wants us to understand that sometimes. Listen now, this is an important point. Sometimes sin does cost us dearly. And this is a perfect illustration. It's built into. It's woven into the law of God, right? Sin costs sometimes dearly. [00:25:24] So let's stay away from it, right? Amen. That's what the Lord wants us to understand. Look at proverbs, chapter 16, verse 29. [00:25:52] We covered this on the subject of the adultery commandment. Proverbs 629 says so he that goeth into his neighbor's wife, whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent. Now, on the heels of that, it goes straight into verse 30, into theft. Stealing. You know why? Because adultery is a form of theft. [00:26:15] You're stealing something from another. You're stealing another man's wife or husband, as the case may be. Notice what it says in verse 30. Men do not despise a thief if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry. [00:26:30] But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold. He shall give all the substance of his house. That's what we just read, right? [00:26:39] That's what we're just talking about, which is, it doesn't matter the cost. Restoration must happen. Restitution must happen even if it costs you everything. That's what it says there. But he's poor. Too bad. [00:26:53] You see, the Lord, this is not callous. Listen now, this is not callous. This is righteous. [00:27:01] Just because something is perceived by some people to be callous doesn't mean it's callous. It's righteous. You can't take away righteousness upon the pretext of being nice. [00:27:14] Then it becomes unrighteousness. You see what I'm saying? And in this case, you have a man in verse 30. He's poor, he's hungry. And you know what? In that case, listen. As human beings, we feel for that person. It says he is not despised. But let me ask you a question. [00:27:33] Yes. We might not despise a normal thief, a guy who just steals. We might have a tendency to despise a person like that. In other words, we might have a strong kind of animosity toward that action, right? But if the man is poor and he's hungry and you say, well, I mean, he's hungry. I mean, you can't blame the guy too much. Okay? True. From a human perspective, we understand that. We feel that. But that doesn't make it right. [00:28:02] The way we feel about the thief does not make his theft righteous or any less wicked than it was. That's what this verse is saying. [00:28:13] Because what? Just because he's stealing, because he's hungry, he still has to pay the full restitution, even if that means everything he has. The principle is this. [00:28:24] The principle is that even if there is an excuse for theft or any other sin that we might understand and feel for it is nevertheless immoral. In God's sight, God's commandments are inflexible and unyielding. Do you know why? [00:28:44] Because he is holy and his holiness is inflexible and unyielding. [00:28:52] Now, if we feel for someone who's stealing because they're hungry, in this case, someone who has an excuse, we might show mercy. But we are not going to look lightly upon the deed. [00:29:07] This is what is being shown here. Now going back to the subject of adultery. Notice this. It jumps from adultery to theft. And then it goes back into adultery. Verse 32. But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding. [00:29:22] Verse 33. A wound and dishonor shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away. [00:29:28] Verse 35. He will not regard any ransom, neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts. So here's the principle. Here. The idea of the thief is even if he's poor, he must restore he must sell everything he's got, including himself, to pay back, even if he had an excuse to do what he did. But you can't do that with adultery. Once you steal another man's wife, there is no restitution. And the truth is, for some sins, for some crimes and transgressions, there's no going back and making it right. [00:30:01] Adultery is one of those. [00:30:04] Restitution is impossible. [00:30:07] It's something that cannot be reversed, irreversible. [00:30:13] So I just want to point this one thing out. There is a distinction between despising a thief and the action being wrong. [00:30:23] Here's the thing in the news these days in our society, and the reason I'm talking about this is because this touches on our worldview, is that in society, so many acts of sin and evil and transgressions are, in our day condoned because people, upon the pretext of, well, I am a minority, or I am oppressed, or I am of an oppressed group. [00:30:56] And they expect, those people expect that their transgression, that which is immoral and wrong in God's sight, it is a sin, and a wickedness in God's sight is to be looked lightly upon, like, it's not as bad, and it is as bad even if their claim of oppression is true. [00:31:18] You say, well, that's kind of heartless. [00:31:21] No, we must remember that God's law is a reflection of his own holiness. And that does not move no matter what. [00:31:35] Doesn't move no matter what. [00:31:38] Now you have to balance it. Do we look at people who have actually been oppressed? I mean, not just in a group that has been oppressed historically, 150 years ago, but I'm talking about an actual person who's been oppressed. Do we say, well, you just need to stop stealing? Well, you do need to stop stealing, and you need to pay the consequences for that. But then you can also, at the same time, address whatever grievance they might have. If it's straight up legitimate. [00:32:10] You see, you can do both. But using evil to condone evil is not righteous. [00:32:18] That's what we see here. This man is hungry. In proverbs, this man is hungry. But that does not change the way the Lord views his theft. Right? [00:32:30] So that's something we need to keep in mind. Now this is the part where I'm going to read a lot of verses to you, or some verses, anyway, and I put this as this kind of sub point. [00:32:45] Subtle stealing is stealing all the same. Okay. Subtle stealing is stealing all the same. What do I mean by that? [00:32:58] Obviously, going into a Walmart or a gas station or a target or a belk, and taking something that you didn't pay for is obviously a violation of the 8th commandment. But there are many other more subtle things that we do that are looked lightly upon, like it's not really theft, that are actually violations of the 8th commandment. [00:33:26] And I thought about these and tried to come up with some of the more subtle ways that we need to pay attention to. [00:33:36] Remember, we don't get our standards from the way the world sets its standards. We get our standards from what the Lord says. Okay, so here's a few I wrote down. Withholding that which is due another when you have it to give. [00:33:55] Leviticus 1913 says, thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither rob him. The wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning. You owe it, pay it. [00:34:11] Proverbs three, verse 27. Withhold not good from them to whom it is due. When it is in the power of thine hand to do it. Say not unto thy neighbor. Go and come again, and tomorrow I will give when thou hast it by thee. Look, if you or I owe someone something, and we have it to give, it is theft to keep it. [00:34:34] Number two, purloining. [00:34:39] How many of you know, without looking at the dictionary, what poor learning is? [00:34:44] Put your hand down. [00:34:47] Per learning means. I'm just joking, brother. Per learning means to make away with, to misappropriate, to steal, especially under circumstances which involve a breach of trust. When you're at work, there's a certain level of trust involved. When you have the company's materials, you're expected to be faithful with those things and use them for their intended purpose and not for your own purposes. [00:35:12] That's purloining. [00:35:16] So using the company's assets for your own personal gain and benefit is against the law. For one. But number two, it is actually stealing. Titus two, verse nine and ten, says, exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters and to please them well in all things. Not answering again. Now we're in the subject of servant master, if you will. [00:35:41] Employer, employee, he says, not purloining, but showing all good fidelity that they may adorn the doctrine of God our savior in all things. [00:35:55] That which is entrusted to us on our job is not ours. We are stewards of it. It is to be used only for what it is intended to be used. But think also of time. [00:36:07] Not working the whole time that you're getting paid to work is a form of theft. Brother Joseph is laughing. I think he has a lot of poor loners at his work, showing up late. [00:36:21] When you're getting paid to work, you're supposed to be there at eight, and you're getting paid to be there at eight, but you show up at 815. [00:36:30] That's a form of stealing. [00:36:34] Here's another one. Tax evasion. [00:36:39] Now, I'll say this. Let's read the verse. Romans 13, verses six and seven. Listen. For for this cause pay ye tribute. Also. Tribute is taxes. Okay? For they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render, therefore, to all their dues. Tribute to whom? Tribute is due. Custom to whom? Custom. Custom is a tax as well. Fear. To whom? Fear. Honor to whom honor. God says plainly, if they demand it, you got to pay it. [00:37:11] Now, I will say you should take every legal break that is available to you. [00:37:19] Do not give the government any more money than they are legally due. [00:37:25] You can use loopholes, whatever, as long as it's legal. [00:37:31] But whatever you legitimately owe them, pay them and figure your taxes honestly, even if it hurts. [00:37:42] Don't take deductions you are not permitted to take. And don't count business expenses that are actually for personal use. [00:37:51] Yeah, you might have to do a little bit of legwork, might have to look at some of the rules, but it's the right thing to do. Anything else is theft. [00:38:01] Here's another one. Unauthorized use of copyrighted material. [00:38:07] And I know this is a question, really of the laws of the state and of personal property rights, and that varies depending on where you are and that kind of thing. And this can also be very burdensome and costly. But listen, when we do the research and we seek to do righteously, we are doing that unto the Lord, not simply for man. And in the case of copywriting, copyrighted things that we just copy and all that kind of thing, because we don't want to buy the book or whatever. [00:38:36] They might never know. But that's not the point. [00:38:41] The point is the Lord and those people that have put their time and energy to make a product, it's not a product. That is intellectual property. Perhaps Brother Mark writes books, right? He doesn't want people stealing his books and putting their name on it and say, hey, I wrote this book and making money off of it. My wife with her writing has had that happen. People making money, it's theft. [00:39:07] So again, this is sometimes tough to follow, but tough to figure out exactly the way to do it. But it's right to do. It's right to do all right, plagiarism. How many of you have heard about this recently? [00:39:19] Claudine Gay, the former president of Harvard University, no less. [00:39:26] Stealing other people's work and using it as if it is your own, without attribution, copying other people's homework if you're in school. That is wrong. It's theft. [00:39:40] It's a violation of the 8th commandment. But listen to this. And you know what? Plagiarism is no different than walking into Belk and walking out of Belk with a watch that you didn't pay for. No different. We think it's different, but it's not. [00:39:55] Ephesians 428 applies here. Listen, let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor. [00:40:06] How does that. If you want to write something, you need to put the work into it, right? You labor. Stop stealing other people's stuff and saying it's yours. You need to write that thing. [00:40:20] Borrowing without permission. [00:40:23] This is stealing. [00:40:26] Even if the person is a family member. [00:40:29] You either have an open agreement about the way it's to be done, or you get permission ahead of time. [00:40:36] Negligent. Wasting other people's time is a kind of currency, and it's valuable. And you know what? Time also shows value. [00:40:46] That's why in our job, we trade our time, our life, for money. It's a form of currency. [00:40:53] And this includes things like being habitually late, when people are waiting on you, and especially when that person that's waiting on you is expending their money to meet with you. [00:41:04] It's not only a matter of honor, it's also a matter of not wasting their time. [00:41:10] And in some cases, could even be a matter of theft. Theft of their time. [00:41:17] So these are the principles that deal with theft. But I want to close with some things from the New Testament. We won't turn there. [00:41:26] We consider the Lord Jesus. Is this one of our Lord's disciples was a thief. [00:41:34] John twelve six. He carried the bag. Judas Iscariot, he was stealing. [00:41:41] One of Christ's disciples was stealing from the offerings. [00:41:51] And that should be. You think about the 8th commandment, how important it is. But where does it pop up? It pops up even among the disciples. Now listen to the people in our church. Listen to this. [00:42:03] We should be careful to do things honestly, both in the sight of the Lord and in the sight of man. The principle both. [00:42:15] That means whatever policies and procedures about what we do with money ought to be clear as glass, transparent. [00:42:23] There's no question or reason for anybody to question now. Thing is, we might not even. I certainly hope we have nobody stealing. Of course, I don't have any reason to think we do, but it should not just be not having that. It should also be not only not having it, but also everything so clear. The procedure in everything is so clear that there is accountability, so there's no reason to question it. That's how you build trust, and that's the way we want to be when it comes to the offerings and all those things. [00:42:56] It's not a matter of having just faithful, trustworthy people, but it's also doing it in a way that is obviously trustworthy and transparent. [00:43:06] Two corinthians eight says this, avoiding this, that no man should blame us in this abundance, which is ministered by us, providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men. [00:43:21] And last thing I want to say, and I have to say this about every one of the commandments we go to, because we know even if you don't steal, you're not going to heaven. Because we all know that we probably all have stolen at some point or another, in some way, fashion or form. We're all guilty of this. But here's what the Bible reminds us of. We're not trying to keep the law to be saved. Christ kept the law. [00:43:46] Christ kept the law. [00:43:48] But not only did Christ keep the law, he also died in the place of thieves. [00:43:56] How do we know? Well, I mean this in more ways than one. But in John 18, verse 40, the Bible says, then cried they all saying, not this man, but Barabbas. [00:44:07] Now, Barabbas was a robber, both literally. Jesus died in the place of Barabbas, who was a thief. But we know that he died in the place of all sinners, including the sinners that steal. [00:44:24] That's what we're trusting in. Right? [00:44:26] But nevertheless, we see the great value of understanding this 8th commandment. [00:44:31] We let's pray together.