The key theme of our time in
Ephesians throughout the entire letter is that the body of Christ
displays the wisdom of God to the praise of His glory, which
is seen fully in His grace. With that, we've come to this
portion of text, and last week we saw anger as one of these
examples that is not of the people of God. It does not rule us. Anger does not rule who are in
Christ. And as we struggle with that
and as we come to terms with the fact that some of us may
be angry, today we may come to terms with the fact that some
of us may be thieves. And then some of us from the
onset, as we look at this, where it says in verse 28, let the
thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work
with his own hands so that he may have something to share with
anyone in need. It's real easy for us to go, well, I'm not a
thief. I've never stolen, not purposefully. Well, just as the
law of God is a display of his holiness, of his intrinsic worth,
Such in the same way does Paul establish this picture of the
church, which displays the wisdom of God. It displays his nature
and his character. And so, in other words, if you
are the body of Christ, Paul says, and you are. then there
should not be these things among you. There should not be sexual
immorality. There should not be lying and stealing and coarse
joking. But rather, there should be thanksgiving
instead of complaining. There should be affection instead
of pride and bitterness. There should be forgiveness instead
of grudges. And so we need to look at this
from the right angle. From the full argument of what
Paul has been teaching us, we need to see that we are not now
given a list of things to correct in our lives that we might honor
God. But rather, we need to look deeper
into the depths of the core of our flesh to recognize just how
amazingly God has saved us from our own depravity. So let's look at this text in
chapter 4. I want to start in verse 20 and just read down through
verse 28, and then we'll stop and talk about verse 28. It just
puts it in. It's hard to do a verse and then go, oh, so let's just
read it. Verse 20 of chapter four of Ephesians through verse.
Twenty eight. But this is not the way you learn
Christ. Assuming that you have heard about him and were taught
in him as the truth is in Jesus to put off your old self, which
belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through
deceitful desires opposite of the truth. And to be renewed
in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self, which
is created after the likeness of God in true righteousness
and holiness. Therefore, having Already put
away falsehood. Let each one of you speak the
truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin. Do not
let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity to the
devil. Let the thief no longer steal,
but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands
so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. And I pray God would just move
mightily in our hearts and our ears and our minds today as we
hear his word. Friends, I don't know about you,
but sometimes in my life, it's very easy during certain portions
of my day or week to fall into what I call the mundane faith. Very easy. Life, time restraints,
physical restraints, frustrations, things that happen. And one thing
leads to another and you find that you are stale and you lose
something. You feel like you've lost ground
and you're thinking, wow, I don't even want to read the Bible.
Maybe that was something that you might say. Or you might say,
I don't even know how to pray right now. I'm just so enamored. Or maybe you find that there's
sin in your life and you go, wow, what's going on with me? Why
am I such a loser when it comes to following Christ? But I want to encourage you.
That those days will always be here. Those days will be here,
and the power of the gospel is that the gospel brings us out
of those places. The gospel reaffirms in us the
fact that Christ has sufficiently and perfectly saved us. And so
therefore, we now are no longer slaves to that way of thinking,
but are indeed born again in him. So therefore, Therefore,
we look at our lives and we've put away falsehood. Then why
do I feel so compelled to lie? We put away hatred. We put away
these things. We are not sinning. We put away
anger. Then why do I feel so angry?
We might say. Because that flesh that is already
dead is still much active in working against the Spirit of
God. And you'll notice in verse 30, Paul gives something that
has a mystical air about it. It's very mystical. This is mystical. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit
of God. And I won't preach that, but
look at this very next portion. By whom you are sealed for the
day of redemption. So I just want to give you a
little peek. So beat yourself up so badly in the next few weeks
as we're as I'm angry, I'm unforgiving, I'm hateful, I'm a thief, I'm
a liar. I'm just I'm not even saying, no, you're sealed in
the Spirit of God. OK, and some of us may not be there. Some
of my man, I haven't felt like that in years. Some of us may
have felt like that coming in the door. So hold on. Know that you're
sealed in Christ, you're sealed in the Holy Spirit of God, do
not lose hope in the confession that we have in Christ. The confession
of our hope who is in Christ Jesus. He is the better bridegroom. He is the great high priest.
He is the sufficient Savior. He's the lamb that has paid for
the sins of all who believe. He has settled the debt with
God the Father. And you are saved. By grace,
through faith, which is a gift, not of our own works, so that
all glory goes to God for his glorious grace. I just want to
put that out there. Because what happens so easily
is that Paul, Paul expressing this text, he gives commands. He gives commands in light of
the prior teaching. Because of this, therefore, because
you are saved in Christ, because you are a new creation, because
you have been redeemed, therefore put away, having actually, already
put away falsehood. In your anger, don't sin. And
we learned last week that our anger is is sinful when it's
not the spirit of God angry within us. Anytime my flesh is angry
about anything and I got that phone call, I was angry. I was angry for me, I was angry
for you, I was angry for everything. You know what? God is angry when
people don't believe and trust in him. And when the Spirit of
God is in us angry, then we have anger that is righteous. But
our flesh and our mind grieves in the midst of that holy anger.
We don't become vindictive and want to vindicate and want to
right ourselves. We let God. What does it say
in 1 Peter? Where Jesus, though he was reviled,
he did not return revile with revile, but entrusted himself
to the one who judges justly. Though he was God, he did not
count equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself
a slave, obedient unto death, even death on a criminal's cross.
And I've added those identifiers so you understand the tone of
the text. So in that same way, have this mind among you, which
is yours in Jesus, is what Paul teaches in Philippians. And so
in the same way, now have this mind among you, have this action
among you, have this attitude among you that you no longer
have to worry about these things, but they will be sneaking around.
They will be flying out. There will be temptation to do
these things. And the reason that it's tempting
is because our flesh so desperately wants to engage in these things.
It desperately is hungry to be right. It's desperately hungry
to have what's easy to obtain. It's desperately hungry to save
face by lying. It's hungry. The flesh is hungry,
but the soul is hungry. Oh, the Spirit is willing, but
the flesh is weak. Jesus tells His disciples as
they twice fall asleep when He says to take watch and pray.
The Spirit is willing and we desire in the Spirit of our hearts.
We know the Holy Spirit of God within us is pushing us and urging
us to holiness. But our flesh is weak, but God
is strong. And Paul closes this entire letter
with that argument. Stand firm in chapter 6. Stand
firm in the power of His might. Look at that. He describes God's
might with power and the power of His might. We've already seen
at the end of chapter 3 that Paul prays. Now to Him who is
able to do far more than anything we could ask or perceive or think
or consider or dream of or be created or create in our own
minds, He is able to do far more than we can even comprehend to
request. To Him be the glory forever and
ever in the church and in Christ Jesus. Amen. It is so. It is
done. It is not something we wish upon.
It's a certain guarantee, which is our hope in Christ. Then when
we come to these texts, we know that Christ's power is at work
in the church, you see. You have to keep it fresh. So I can't help myself. You cannot
help yourself. You're right. But Christ is already
at work in you and he will bring conviction and a battle against
sinfulness in the flesh that tempts us every second of our
life. And as Paul is explaining here,
he has two peoples in his congregation. He has Jews who have now forsaken
the way of their thinking to see the fulfillment of their
lives as Jews, that Christ now is that fulfillment. And they're
no longer looking to try to become God's people. because they had
been declared God's people all along through Christ, not through
works and through sacrifices, but through the one to whom all
those things pointed. And then there's another group,
the Greeks of Ephesus, who young Timothy pastored this church. And he says, you've got these
two groups here, and though the Jews have lived righteously because
they knew right from wrong, because they were taught it as children,
These Greeks don't know. Let's exhort one another. Let's
encourage one another as long as it's called today. Let's not
forget that when our brother is in sin, he is indeed a brother.
And the same grace that's been given to us that we might not
fall into that sin today is the same grace we need to give to
our brother who is walking in it before us. Christ's power is at work in
the church. Therefore, the church, the ransom
people of God, we long for the day when we will sin no more.
Don't we? He, she rather, in Christ is
able to accomplish, we are able to accomplish a display of the
righteousness of Christ. So as we talk, before we get
into actually looking at this text and the simple little argument
that Paul is proposing, let's talk about two things. Let's
talk about entitlement and let's talk about stealing. Because
if we don't look at it from this perspective, we'll miss it. So
in an attempt not to say what the text isn't saying, I want
to show you what the text is imposing. And then we'll say
what the text says is make sense. So in this, let's talk a minute
about entitlement, entitlement, entitlement. I believe entitlement
is one of the most dangerous attitudes of Christians, especially
American Christians today. Entitlement means that we feel
we have rights. and that we are entitled to receive
what is rightfully ours or rightfully is coming our way. And when we
have a claim to such things, if we are blocked from retaining
or obtaining these things, then our rights have been, what, infringed
upon? They've stepped across the line
of my right. And so, therefore, then I have,
according to my rights, restitution at my fingertips that I might
right the wrong that was done to me against my rights. Am I
making sense? This is what I know I can't have.
You've stopped me from having it. I'm taking what you have
so that I can have what's rightfully mine. That's entitlement. And I believe entitlement is
the root of stealing. It's the root. Where are we in our entitlement,
Americans? We're in a mess. Well, I've been offended I've
got a right to sue. Not as a Christian you don't. Well, that's business. That's your faith being exposed. I don't like the way that church
treated me. I'm suing them. Well, then we know where you
stand. You ever been wronged? Yeah,
we've all been wronged. But we're not entitled to restitution.
We're not entitled to be made right. Because when we think
we're entitled to be made right, we've forgotten the very entitlement
of God who in his mercy put what is ours, which is judgment on
Christ. Be careful asking for your rights.
Because the only right that every human being has is a right to
damnation in hell forever. That's what we deserve. That's
what we earn. That's what we should be rewarded
from the conception. We ought to be destroyed. Because
we are in Adam. And when we were conceived in
our mother, God should have ripped us out of there and destroyed
us if he was a just God. But he's a merciful God. And so he in Christ became the
perfect embryo, the righteous one of God in the flesh, in the
womb of a filthy, sinful woman. who walked righteously before
God because of His grace. And then Christ fulfilled the
law, the command to be holy, for I am holy as a human being.
And then Jesus Christ, the man, took on the wrath of God for
all who believe. And God poured out His judgment
and His justice on Jesus, who deserved not one ounce of that
judgment. so that, according to Romans
3, God could continue to be righteous in His forgiveness of sin. What are we entitled to? We're
not entitled to grace, but God's given it to us, and because of
that, then, we are entitled to be the righteousness of God.
And the righteousness of God is a display of God's mercy,
first and foremost, of His grace. And if we are to display His
manifold wisdom, then we must display His mercy and His righteousness. We must display His graciousness.
In other words, we must forgive those who offend us and not feel
entitled to be vindicated. Let them have it. Let them live
in it. Let them go with it and weep
and mourn that God would give them repentance and grant them
salvation by His absolute sovereignty. So that's entitlement. We could
talk about that all day. Let's talk about the fact that
entitlement. That stealing, rather, is more about entitlement than
anything else. Now, yes, there are people who
steal because they enjoy the fun of trying to steal something,
but there's an entitlement of feeling fun. At the cost of stealing,
so either way you look at it, I believe that entitlement is
the core sin of stealing. So let's talk a minute about
stealing. On the surface, every child in this room. Whether they
can communicate with words or not, they know what stealing
is. They know it. Put something on a table, go
to a store, they see what they like, they're three years old,
they pick it up, they put it behind their back. You say, what
do you have? Let me see your hands. The other
hand. Both of them. What's that between your legs?
Nothing. You know, it's a lollipop. What the world? Where'd you get
the lollipop? Where'd you get them Tootsie Rolls? Let me see your pockets.
And you're rigging there and they've got bubble gum? They've just been getting
candy. They know they're wrong. Without
even ever teaching them about freedom, they know they're wrong.
How do I know? Because I have had children at
that age and I've seen them do that. They're entitled to that. Well,
I can't buy it. I have no job. My mother says
no. My daddy says no. So I'm taking that candy. That's
easy. Stealing in the sense of taking
something that's on the surface is easy to see. But do you see
the reality of entitlement and how we steal even those things
that are not tangible? One can steal through taking.
That's an obvious thievery. They can steal it. One can steal
through deceit. They can finagle or manipulate
to try to get what is not theirs, because they feel like that they
deserve it and they should be able to get it. So they manipulate
circumstances, people, rules, laws, and they get what they
want. One can steal and pretend it's
not stealing. No, I'm good with that. They
can pretend, they can lie to their conscience so they can feel good
every day when they get up. grieve the Holy Spirit, as we'll
see in a few weeks, when they lie to themselves about their
lying and stealing. Let's don't forget that, number
one, all of us are guilty of this. Number two, this is the
old man who is dead. This is not the new man in Christ. One can steal goods, material
items. One can steal positions and power
and joy. One can still innocence. One
can still influence. Stealing is also when one gets
the end without the right journey, a shortcut, if you will, to knowing
what we are going to receive. And I can't wait for it. So I
will circumvent the absolute positive path and I will go around
it so that I might get what I really want. Without having to pay the
cost that everybody else is paying. Men contact me through the years. I've had several contact me in
the last year. Even some local men whom some
of you do not even know. I feel God calling me to be a
pastor. That's awesome. Then go preach. Well, I got to get ordained. Tell you what, I'll prepare your
ordination if you give me your email address.
and do what I ask you to do in this email. And I send them a
30-page, 33-page document for ordination. And in that document
is instructions and assignments and books and writing and papers
and reading and videos that they have to go find on everything. And it typically takes two years
to finish it. And then at the end of that, then, my brother,
I'll consider presenting you to your church for ordination." Click. Wow, that's a little more. So then they call another pastor.
Then they call another pastor. And they finally get one that
is so excited that there's somebody else that desires to do what
they do. Oh my gosh, yeah, come on down, we'll talk with the
deacons and in three weeks they're ordained. They circumvent. They steal the
journey. Thief. They get the end result without
going through the proper channel. Much like lotteries. Shortcuts. Stealing is the same manner that
Abraham handled God's promise. See, Abraham was promised by
God a son through whom the world will be blessed. And he was old. And Sarah was old. And God carried. See, God is apart from time.
He's outside of it. So he doesn't have to wait. To
see. Doesn't matter to him. Biology,
God created it, he can do what he wants to with it. A woman
that's been barren for 60 years can have a baby. And so Hagar was a good option,
God. He promised me a son. My wife
is not doing what she needs to be doing. Hagar, the next best
thing, that's what I'll do. I'll get my son through Hagar. And Abraham stole. He stole the journey. He robbed Hagar. He robbed Sarah. Because he wanted God's promise.
Now, you see what I'm saying? Stealing is so much more just
taking something in your pocket. Though that's part of it. It's
getting something. That you're not entitled to or
even in a manner in which you weren't entitled to get it. Entitlement. He attempted to be God, ultimately.
Abraham did and thus wanted glory that was not his to take. And
ultimately, when we go the end round or the shortcut, we steal
the glory from God. Stealing is entitlement. Abraham
was entitled to a son because God had promised it. So in his
mind, he was entitled to secure relations with Hagar and felt
no guilt about it. We see how that turned out. Stealing
is seen when we desire to please ourselves instead of dying to
ourselves. When we do not work as unto the
Lord wholeheartedly, we steal from our employer. We take an
hour break when we're supposed to have 15. We play on our computer
when we're supposed to be working. We steal. We clock in early and
clock out late. As an employer, We want to save
money. We want to make more profit.
So we cut our employees back to 34 hours or 39 and a half
so we don't have to pay them benefits. Or we lower their rate,
their salaries. Or we don't pay them enough to
start with knowing full well they can't afford it. But instead
we hire double the amount of workers we need and pay them
less rather than having half the force and pay them fully. We steal from our employees. We steal, and stealing denies
God's command to lay down our lives and make accommodations
for what we feel is rightly ours. Stealing is buying into the lie
of the devil, ultimately. And Satan offers the whole world
in its dead pleasure. You don't want to do that. You
don't want to do this. You want to do this. Don't you
deserve it? You know why God doesn't want
you to take that fruit? Because you'll be like God. Then what happens is we create
and get creative and we get what we want instead of trusting in
God for our joy and our treasure and our hope and our guarantee.
We trust in ourselves. And our means and our method.
I just want to remind you. There is no way for one to stop
stealing and then be right with God. If not stealing makes us right,
then Christ alone is not our justifier. So I'm not going to lie. I'm
not going to steal and I'm not going to be an adulterer and
I'm not going to be an adulterer and I'm not going to be dishonorable
to parents. So let me get it all right. Why don't you go read Mark chapter
10 on that one? The rich young ruler. Why don't you read where
Paul says, according to the law, he's blameless. No reproach of
men on him, he followed the law to a T, but he was condemned.
For following the law does not make us right before God. Because
in our very way that we are born as a creature, we have fallen
into sin as a sinner because our father, Adam, and all of
his descendants are condemned. So we must need a new father.
We're in need of a new DNA, we're in need of a new heart and a
new mind, and that's what being born again means. So if stopping stealing is a
way to please God, then it's Jesus plus not being a thief,
or it's Jesus plus not being an adulteress, or it's Jesus
plus not being a liar. It's Jesus plus this. It's Jesus
plus circumcision. It's Jesus plus baptism. It's
Jesus plus head covering. It's Jesus plus no drinking.
It's Jesus plus drinking. And we just go on and on and
on. And Paul says, if anybody preaches such a gospel to you,
they are to be damned, accursed, cut off. There is no other gospel than
Christ alone. In whom we have been declared
righteous and are now able to display such workings such as
putting away falsehood and not and telling the truth and not
putting putting away anger. and putting away stealing. See,
stealing is the nature of the old man and thus cannot walk
rightly in tune with God's new man who we have been created
to be. So we continue to put off that which is dead and to
whom we are dead and walk anew in the new man who is in Christ.
This, friends, as we said over and over again, is the work of
God. It's the work of God. Nothing
else. This is the work of God. So when
we put off the flesh, it is a work of God. When we stop lying, it's
the work of God. When we stop stealing, it's the
work of God. Not only is the negatively powerfully
overcome, such as the sin, but the positive is powerfully put
in its place. So think about it. Paul is speaking
to the church, not to unbelievers, but to believers, and he is saying,
look, God, in His mercy and in His power, through Christ and
in Christ, has changed you and recreated you. Therefore, you
can walk in that change. He's not saying to His readers,
change your life. He's saying to His readers, God
has changed you, so walk in it. We look at this in the idea of
the family of God. The picture of the family of
God, the church, is a continual supernatural group of people
who live together because of no human effect, no human ability,
except the purpose and the grace and the power of the gospel in
Christ Jesus. In California, the first time I ate in a Muslim's
home, I offended them because I didn't take my shoes off before
I sat down to the floor. You can sit with your legs crossed,
but most of them sort of sit, sort of laid back on their hips
and their feet. They don't want your shoes next
to their food. It's offensive. So the next time,
I was sure to take my shoes off at the door. I didn't want to
offend them. I had to be taught that. I had
to be taught that in our culture, that eating with your feet next
to the food is nasty. I shouldn't have to be taught
that. I don't want people's food near my feet. That's why I use a table.
Get it up off the floor where the feet are. Same thing in some Chinese families,
when you walk into their house, don't walk into their formal
living room. They most of the time have two living spaces,
one in an area where they worship. And you're able to walk in there
if invited with no shoes. And one in an area where they
would sit around and be casual. And if they do invite you to
their formal living area, then what you don't do when you get
up is turn your back on their God. Well, He's no God to me, but
do you really want to be rude and tick people off just because
they're wrong? No. So you back out of their
living room. Then you turn and walk to the
bathroom. Especially when you're investing in their lives for
the sake of the gospel. Paul didn't offend the philosophers
of Athens and say, look at all you bunch of morons with all
your different gods. You're crazy. He actually encouraged
them. He says, you guys are some of
the most brilliant people that the world has ever seen. Look
at these gods. You've got the answer to everything. And in your wisdom, you have
made one God to the unknown God just in case you Realize that
you're limited in knowing all that. He says, you sort of figured
all these out, but I'm going to tell you who this one is.
This is Jesus Christ who created the world, who died, came from
heaven and lived and died and rose from the dead. He is the
God above all these gods. He's the King of all the kings.
He's the Lord of all things. And it's His. And it says, many
laughed at Him, for He dared to speak of a God being raised
from the dead into flesh. But it says that some believed.
And others wanted to hear more. Sometimes we need to understand
that as Paul teaches here, sometimes we in the church also need to
be taught, it's not obvious to us, but it was clear that there
were people in that Greek culture that did not know stealing was
wrong. Some of them stole because they were hungry. Well, I can't
eat, so I'll snatch an apple or snatch a bread or snatch something
for my family. I've been doing that my whole
life. And now that we're in the church, we've got nothing. We
even lost our home. What am I supposed to do? You're
not supposed to steal. You see that? Paul's not saying here that all
these people were stealing. He's just making sure that those
who were once thieves for a living must now work and not steal,
if indeed they're in Christ. So let's look at this. Wow, that
took a long time to introduce that. Let the thief no longer steal. Stealing, as I've said, comes
out of the old man in his dead heart and that heart deceives
and destroys. Stealing is what the thief does,
not what the church does, not what the child of God does. So
he who thinks he is a thief, Needs to realize that he's been
set free from thievery. Satan. Let me show you how this
works. After Jesus was in the wilderness
for 40 days, Satan came to Him and he did something. And he
looked at Jesus and saw that Jesus was hungry, for Jesus was
a man who was also God. Jesus' flesh was so hungry Are you hungry now? Imagine 40
days. Satan goes to him and says, you,
you have the power to take a stone and turn it into bread. Your
flesh is in need of food. If you don't eat, you might die.
I'm adding a lot, but I want you just to flow with this for
a second. So turn those stones to bread and satisfy your absolute
need, lest you die of starvation. Is it sinful to be hungry? Is it sinful to eat food when
you are hungry to sustain your life? No. As a matter of fact,
in our culture, if you don't feed those who are hungry, you
will be arrested for it. Then how is that any in any way
related to what you're talking about perfectly? For had Jesus, the divine, used God's power,
His own, at the command of the devil to satisfy His flesh, He
would have stolen glory from the Father and given it to the
man Jesus. He would have been a thief. He
would have been a thief. Satan desired for Jesus to use
his creative power instead of submitting to the will and the
timing of the father and to circumvent and shortcut that which was absolutely
needed and certainly his, but to obtain it in a different way. And he wanted Jesus to use his
power for his own glory and satisfaction. To satisfy the flesh, so we were
in Christ are no longer thieves, so let us walk that way. Now,
it's not just about doing some evil thing, but knowing that
the display of God's glory is at stake. It's not about saying,
well, I shouldn't sin because that's bad. That's OK. But the
ultimate reason that we walk away from the flesh and that
we fight against sin is because when we sin, we're giving a false
picture of the power of God in us. We're saying that we represent
the light of Christ and His righteousness. And also the fact that we represent
the full glory of God as His being that He has created in
the likeness of Himself through righteousness and holiness. And
when we sin, we're displaying the wrong picture of God. So
in a sense, we're stealing His glory. We defame His name. We shame
Christ when we display the old man. So how is the thief no longer
the thief? Well, he's been made whole in
Christ Jesus. This is the gospel because we
don't get saved when we stop stealing. We get saved when we've
been given grace. God saves us that we can stop
stealing. Not only says let the thief no
longer steal, let him labor. Look at that second part there.
Let him labor. So in lieu of stealing, we work. We work. We rest as we work in
the satisfaction of God's unfailing love and His providence of provision
in our lives, and that we are content with Him and His timing
and His provision. First, we who are believers labor
primarily in the work of faith and belief in Jesus Christ, which
is the work of God, according to Jesus in John 6, speaking
to the Jews. What must we do? They ask this question. What
must we do to be doing the works of God? And Jesus says, this
is the work of God, that you believe in the Son whom He has
sent. That's the foundational work. Faith, then, rests against stealing,
against entitlement, because we who are in faith walk by faith
and we are secure in God's worth. And because of that, we're securing
God's promises. Give us this day our daily bread
and lead us not in temptation, but deliver us from evil. Help
us to forgive others. You see how Jesus taught him
to pray. We earn instead of stealing.
But in the economy of grace, we have been given life with
no effort of our own. We cannot earn eternal life.
It is by grace through faith, not of words. See, laboring is
not seen. I want you to listen to me, church.
I'm speaking from me to you. I'm telling you my journey. Labor
is not seen in frivolous activities and constant desires to relax
and enjoy life. I heard someone say, About five
years ago, that the reason we have to work is because sin in
the world. No, it's not. Work was given in the days of
creation. Work was given at creative moment
before Adam fell. The abundance of the labor within
the work is the curse. It's harder. It's continual, it's forever.
Your cars break down, your house falls apart, your weeds come
up in the garden. Companies fail, the economy flourishes, the economy
falls. People die. Banks go under. Work is hard. Every aspect of it. Even the
work of faith. But it is not a curse. It's hard
because of the curse. Laboring, then, is not seen in
this frivolous mindset of desire to relax and enjoy life. God-ordained
work is a blessing and a good thing. when we hope to rest all
the time. And you look at it. I can't wait
to get off work. We ought to have that mindset. We want to
get off work. But people live for leisure. I want to play.
I want to go. I want to see. I want to do this.
I want to go here. I want to do that. I want to
relax. I want a vacation. I hate my job. I hate my life. I hate
my life. Oh, vacation! Yay! Yay! Yay! It's unbiblical. Because we're
looking when we long for that constant Yeehaw, everything's
a party. We're saying we live and walk
not by faith, but in unbelief that Christ has promised us an
eternal rest in Him forever. We want it now. And we're willing
to take the silliness and the fruitlessness of a life of leisure. Instead of eternal rest. May God bring suffering to America. I'll be honest with you, I pray
that. Bring it. It'll keep me from laboring so
stupidly over stuff that's dead. Our hobbies can rob us. We steal
when our hobbies rob us of our savings. Rob us of our food. Rob us of paying our bills. They
can become idols that we take into our hands and forsake what
God has promised in His hands. Tax evasion, theft, unfair dealings,
knowingly taking advantage of others who are down on their
luck, who are weaker, who are not as smart, withholding needs
from others, gambling. All these things are stealing.
These are not working. These are stealing. Labor should
bring us joy. And when we rest, we rest in
an attempt to find solitude in the future promise that God has
promised us an eternal rest. And those who steal make money
off of others at their expense or at their demise, often with
dreams of making money themselves. Do some of us make money on their
own, on others labor without any sense of the cost to some
of these people? That's corporate America. Yeah, I got mine and
this guy wants to stab at it. Let me give him a stab at it.
I know I'll make mine. He might not make his. And what does he say? Let the
thief labor in the manner of doing honest work. Look there.
Therefore, the work of the Christian is honest work. The labor of
the believer is honest. Children ought to work. Some of the most ridiculous things
that I hear from time to time is, well, you don't let your
children do this. You're robbing them of their childhood. Thank
you. If I'm stealing the world away
from them and showing the reality of life and friends, all of our
children are spoiled, rotten, as much as we focus. And you
kids are going, you are ruining my life. They have it. Our kids have an abundance. The
poorest kids in the world. I mean, the poorest kids in our
culture. Have five times the annual wealth
of the poorest people in the world in their pockets every
day. Children ought to work, they
ought to know what it means to labor and take care of things in life. Men and women ought to work.
And work is not the same as a career or a job. Some people work through
their careers. Some people work through their calling. But no
matter what, some people work through their chores. But everybody
should work. Be working as unto the Lord. Honest labor is good
labor that does something. It effectually shows God's nature
and character. Good work is that which God can
do and enable us to do. John 3 says that those who come
to the light, come to the light so that it will be clearly seen
that their works have been carried out in God. So we who labor,
labor so that God's work can be clearly seen in our lives.
And some of us labor in a very wicked environment. Some of us
labor for people and for bosses who are absolutely mean and evil. And we labor with joy and it
blows their mind because they know how they are. One of the greatest ploys in
human resources is for a manager to put the screws to someone
that they really need to try to either shape up or ship out
in an attempt for that person to leave the company. And when
we rejoice and we bless those who persecute us, it really enrages
them and it it heaps coals on their heads, which is the judgment
of God. Dishonest work is easy to find,
friends. Dishonest labor is easy to become
a part of. Dishonest work gains on people's
hardships and failures. Dishonest work. Those who are
dishonest, those who are thieves look for opportunities to capitalize
for their joy on other people's hardships and weakness rather
than help them make it. Where do you get that? Well,
look. with his own hands, what does
he say? To share with those in need. You know, some professions
are even wicked. Sometimes Christians have to
come to the place where they ask themselves, is what I do in my
labor for a wicked end? Does it even glorify God? Some
businesses are dishonoring to God. Some things are deplorable. And each believer must discern
how God looks at how they make their living and what they do
and how they do what they do, how it affects others in the
name of their own testimony. And so he says to work with our
own hands. What in the world does that mean? Well, hands of
each person should work, not play. Should we play? Yes. Take time out. We ought to rest. But the Bible says the labor
seeks and rests for one. And we rest in order to ascribe
worth to God. Sadly, there are a lot of people,
I say sadly, but in reality, there are a lot of people who
work constantly. No matter what you do, you're working. You get
off work, you still have to work. You have to come and do something.
You labor. Do it as under the Lord with joy. But take heed
that no matter what is left undone, there is that day that God has
commanded us to take for himself, the Lord's day. And sometimes
you got to change a lot more, but sometimes you got to get
the car out of the ditch. But all over and all, don't try to continue
to make profits and to stay on top of things while forsaking
the assembly of believers. We should not look for a way
to be satisfied out of labor. Apart from work. We are also
guilty of this type of sin and unbelief. And we long to think
that we're going that we're doing what's good, but sometimes We're
not doing what's good because only the work of God is good,
not ours, except that it's pleasing as unto the Lord. We must seek
with our own hands and minds to work of making much, excuse
me, the work of making much of God's name and glory. We must
seek to give him honor and glory and praise in the midst of everything
we create and accomplish. It is possible, not in everything,
but it is possible that we strive and cast away any labor that
produces sin in our lives. Anything, anything we work toward
that produces sin, we either repent of the sin or we change
the labor. Otherwise, we're stealing. We
should rejoice in the work of our hands, for it is a blessing
from God. Work was given to man for his
good. And the outcome of a changed
life is that we look to give others what they need, that we
have earned. Share with those in need. We
stop stealing, we replace stealing with honest work, and then honest
work produces a reward that we give to others, not hoard for
ourselves. The outcome of no longer stealing
is that we give what we earn and work for those or to those
who cannot earn it. Who need something. You know
what's not a need? I don't know, this will shock
you. A department store bill. There's not a need. Not a need. I guess in our years
of ministry, I've had more people come to me to pay outstanding
credit card bills for clothes and games and cars than they
have for food. I'm in collections, I need this. It happens, that's not a need.
The consequences of seeking after that stuff sometimes is that
we do have to go many years to recuperate those things, if they
ever. We provide for needs and are
careful not to inadvertently think that wants will create
joy. It's so easy to say as a church, well, see, we've got to do this.
We've got to give these kids Nintendo's. They're starving,
let's give them a Nintendo. That'll make them happy. Yeah,
it'll take them away from Christ. Here's you something to eat.
Here's your family some clothes. Here's a rent for the month.
I don't want you to be on the street. I'm not going to buy
you things to be leisure with and to take your mind away from
the sufficiency of Christ. And we think that people are
deprived because they don't have leisure. Oh, friends, we have
really lost it. We've lost it. We've lost the
American dream. Jesus came to destroy it. Babylon is fallen. And if we're not careful, we'll
inadvertently create. Zoius wants and call them needs. Only Christ can point to Christ.
The new life, the Word of God, the new creation. Jesus is the
life. He is the way. He is the truth.
Not the world. The world is not of God. And
the things that the world offers is not of God. Let us not labor
for these things and in turn steal. Because ultimately what
we do if we find ourselves constantly stealing in this manner, we've
stolen our very lives away. Well, we've sought after the
things of this world and those who love the world, the love
of the fathers, not in them. John two, first John, chapter
two. Friends, giving to those in need
is a picture of grace, listen. Giving to those in need is a
picture of grace, and it's often said to me. That sometimes when
we, according to John's Gospel, our first John, John's first
letter, that when those who see their brother in need, but close
their heart to them, those who have the world's goods, but close
their heart to their brother in need, it says very clearly
that they are not in Christ. Key word being need and brother. Giving gives us a picture of
God's grace toward us. God loved the world in this way
that He gave His only Son. Jesus gave up His glory for 33
years. Now, imagine being an infinite,
eternal, timeless God that steps into the timeline of humanity.
I'm almost 39 and that's been a long time. A long time. I couldn't imagine have been.
Out of glory for that long, we have a glimpse of glory and we
can't wait to get there, imagine being glory and stepping into
this. We express this grace with joy
as unto the Lord and our hearts beat with excitement as we know
Christ has given us his righteousness and taken our sin on his own
flesh. And I close with this, I pray that the gospel of Jesus
Christ would compel us to be satisfied in him and his timing
and his promises and that we joyfully lay down our lives and
our desires for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of each
other. Why? If we are to be a people for
His own possession, to display His glory, to the praise of His
glorious grace, then why not live in that grace? Let's pray. Father, we thank You for this
hour, for this time, for this moment where we have heard Your
Word and contemplated our flesh and entitlement and thievery
Looked a little deeper at the fact that stealing is not just
taking material things, but Father, we oftentimes steal away. Your best for us when we circumvent
your means to that end. Seeking other lovers except Christ. Father, through the hearing of
Your Word today, Lord, I pray that You would bring many to
faith. Convict them of sin. Let it be
deep, good soil in their heart that the Word would plant there
and produce a hundred and a thousand and a million fold. Worship in
righteousness and holiness and striving and thriving to worship
in righteousness and holiness and affection and growing in
grace and the knowledge of Christ. Lord, please save, save the lost. Father, I pray that this message
would hold tightly in the ears and the hearts of our children.
Lord, that they would recognize just how enamored they already
are with the lust of the world. and help them to see just how
the thief steals and kills and destroys and that the enemy is
the greatest thief of them all and he's the greatest liar. And
he tells them that the things of this world are joyful. And then their hope gets put
in them, and then when those things are broken or they are
boring, then what happens is that their joy is gone. Thank you for protecting us from
the mighty thief. For you are the mighty God who
created him and controls him. Father, help us to be a people
who display to his face. And to the face of this world
that your wisdom is at work. And that Christ is already victorious. And that we who are in Christ
have overcome the world already and it is our faith that has
overcome this world because it is placed in Christ who is the
victor. Thank you for this time. In Jesus'
name we pray. Amen.