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Jeremiah 7:1&2

"The Word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, Stand in the gate of Jehovah's house, and declare there this Word, and say, Hear the Word of Jehovah, all Judah, who enter in at these gates to worship Jehovah."

Interesting that God has said earlier in Jeremiah (5:1,5 6:13)that there are no good people left in Jerusalem but here is proof that people were still going to church, and sacrificing to God. Verse 10 tells you why they went to church.

Jeremiah 7:9-11
9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, 10 and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, 'We are delivered to do all these abominations'? 11 Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it," says the LORD. NKJV

A den of thieves (verse 11). Seems to be different than the context Jesus used. In His case people were selling things in the temple and ripping people off on the exchange rate.

This "den of thieves" means a place where thieves come to rest in between doing their evil deeds. And God says that these people think they are made free to continue in their evil because they have come to church.


Do we do that?

The false prophets were saying not to worry as that was God's home so God will protect it regardless of what the people do.

Do we think we are protected in the small (in our eyes) evil things we do because we are in church? Because we are Christians, maybe even because we are in service to the Lord? Do we think that service protects us from the consequences of disobedience to God?

Jerermiah 7:9 Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know;

What if Jeremiah was here today, standing at the entrance of this chapel, standing there telling us all to go away as we arrived here this morning. Telling us that because of our sinful hearts, our unrepentant sinful hearts we can't come into church. Jeremiah stands there and tells us that we think because we are Christians, in Bible College or in service to the Lord that we can get away with being disobedient.

LITTLE SINS

Do we think that we can get away with "little" sins because we are Christian, because we are His children, because we can't afford things other's can since we are missionaries?

Look at verse 9.
Jerermiah 7:9 Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know;

What is the first sin God mentions? Stealing.

Now maybe we think we have been set free from the law. But what did Jesus say?

"I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it." He taught us that it matters what is in our hearts.

The Jews had to be pretty bummed when they figured out what He was telling them. All they had to do before Jesus came, was ACT a certain way.

They were told, for example, that they couldn''t murder and could not be adulterers. So all that meant was they could think anything they wanted to, they just couldn''t act on those thoughts.

Jesus raised the standard by telling us what we do in our hearts counts. He said we shouldn''t kill someone in our hearts, or lust after someone. So Jesus set us free from the law while at the same time raising the standard on how we are to act, and think and feel.

And Jesus told us that the greatest commandment was to love God and love one another. He also told us that if we loved Him we would keep His commandments.

So, back to verse 9, first item, stealing. So can we steal because we have been freed from the law? No. Can we steal because we come to church, because we are in Bible School, because we are missionaries, because we have no money? No.

IS IT OKAY TO STEAL...

Is it okay to steal because we have dedicated our lives to serving God, and the pay is not so good? No. And we are sure God wants to bless us with whatever the item is we want to steal? No.

What is stealing? A definition is: To take (the property of another) without right or permission.

Taking the property of someone without their permission is defying the most important commandment, according to Jesus, love God and love one another. So even if you think you are free from the law given in the old testament, you are not free under the new testament, the new covenant.

So:

  • if we know stealing is wrong,
  • if we know it can't be explained away, can't be covered for,
  • if we know we can't steal and think everything is going to be okay because God will forgive us,
  • if we have Jeremiah standing at the door telling us that we can not steal and then come to church and think we are free to do it,

THEN WHY DO WE STEAL?

Then why do we steal? What is our logic?

We do not trust God to provide what we need.

Have you ever once heard of anyone that stole something, or have you ever stolen anything, because you were trusting God to provide what you need?

We see something we want and we take it, not waiting for God to provide, probably not even asking Him to provide. Not stopping to think maybe there is a reason God has not already provided what we want. We just take it.

ENTERTAINMENT

Have you ever seen anyone, including ourselves, that stole something that was not for entertainment? Do we actually know anyone that stole food because they were about to starve to death? I think you will find that every instance of theft you can think of was for entertainment. New clothes, books, gifts, money, cds, even food. Usually if people steal food it is candy.

If we trusted God to provide, if we trusted God as the one that truly knows our needs, would we steal?

What about when we steal music, movies, software? Is it not for entertainment? If stealing is to take (the property of another) without right or permission then downloading music illegally, or movies, or software is stealing. And how many of us do that?

How do we excuse that? Are we trusting God to provide? Are we breaking one of God's commandments just for our entertainment? How much sin is it okay to entertain ourselves with?

Jeremiah is standing at the door of our church this morning and saying to us you can not steal and come to church and think it is okay. You are not given special permission because you come to church every week, you are not given special permission to steal because you have sacrificed for God.

I KNOW BETTER

When we steal are we saying to God "I know better than You do what I need, and what I want"? Are we saying "what I want is more important to me than obeying You, than what You want"?

We try to tell ourselves it is not stealing to download music, or movies or software. We try to tell ourselves we are just "trying them out" and then we will pay for them if we like it. I did that before. I stole a software program, because I was going to try it out. I told myself that was okay to do. I was going to buy it if I really liked it. I stole it from Microsoft so I thought that was okay, we all know they are rich. I never really liked the program that much, but... I used it for about 5 years. Then I told myself, well it will be okay as long as I do not make money using their program. But after awhile I just quit rationalizing it.

It turns out, I was just plain stealing. I took (the property of another) without right or permission. And I came to realize that stealing from a rich man is still stealing. Taking another persons work is stealing.

A long time ago I, and a friend of mine, did not used to get upset by people illegally copying music cds. People do that all the time, and it is stealing but we figured it was not that big of a deal, until someone was copying a Springsteen cd. We were pretty upset about that. But it is all the same. Taking another person's work is stealing.

JEREMIAH 7:9-11

9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, 10 and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, 'We are delivered to do all these abominations'? 11 Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it," says the LORD. NKJV

The Lord has seen.

His message to the Israelites was I do not ignore this, you are not getting away with this. His message to us is I do not ignore this, you are not excused from this.

Stealing is dishonoring to God. The very One who has so honored us.

How much sin is it okay to entertain ourselves with?




Related Info...

Can we steal because we know God will forgive us?

I can see Jeremiah standing at the door of our church, telling us "your hearts are not right, coming to God's house regularly does not give you the right to steal".

Can we steal from a rich man? If he has more than enough, and we don't have enough? A friend of mine used to say "how much sin is it okay to entertain ourselves with?" The answer is pretty obvious. Sin is not the way we are supposed to entertain ourselves.

Jerermiah 7:9 Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know;

What is the first sin God mentions? Stealing.