The Sin of Stealing

We are in our sermon series on sin, and today we will cover the sin of stealing. We read in the Ten Commandments, thou shall not steal, and we wonder, probably sometime in our life we probably stole something that didn't belong to us. I remember when I was in grade school, a group of my classmates came down the alley and they told me they were going to go steal some candy from the neighborhood store, and they asked me if I wanted to join them.

My moral compass said no, but later that year when a cashier gave me back too much change for my purchase, I kept it, and I didn't bother to even think about it, but that was stealing just the same. Now when that happens, I usually get a look of surprise when I hand the money back to the cashier for giving me too much money. Stealing is stealing.

Ephesians 4.28 states, let him that stole steal no more. The apostle Paul preached hard against sin, and he had his scars to show for it. Listen to his warnings against sin as seen in 1 Corinthians 6.9-10. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Notice he includes thieves. The sin of stealing will keep you out of heaven, friend. The sin of stealing can take many forms.

You can rob someone at your workplace by overcharging them for a good or service. As a salesman, you can churn commissions and steal from your clients. You can sell faulty or damaged merchandise that only you know is deficient and even harmful.

You can steal a person's reputation by gossip. You can steal a person's character by slander. I know in times of revival, there have been episodes of restitution made by those who stole, and now they were convicted of it, and they went back to the businesses where they stole something and returned it.

I remember talking to Lewis Satero of the Canadian Revival and him sharing with me that so much restitution was made during that revival that a secular newspaper had an article on the shock of the local business owners who were receiving so much stolen items back after years. I'll never forget the story told by Duncan Campbell. He was preaching on the sin of stealing, and right in the middle of his sermon, a church elder rose from his seat and left the church, and this man didn't return for a couple of days, and Duncan Campbell thought to himself, oh, now I've done it again and run off another.

But after a couple of days, the man returned to the meetings, and he came up to Duncan Campbell to see if he could have a word with him to explain his absence, and this is what he told him. He said, when you were preaching your sermon on stealing, I heard a little dog bark. Duncan Campbell replied, I heard no dog bark.

Oh, yes, said the man, for I remembered how when I was a lad, I stole an expensive puppy from a neighboring farm, a costly hunting dog, and I took that puppy to another farm some miles away and sold it for a tidy profit. When you were preaching on the sin of stealing, I heard a little dog bark, so I left immediately to go find the farmer whom I stole that dog from. Well, he was dead, but his daughter now owned the farm, and I shared my story with her, and I gave her the money for the dog, and I made her take the additional interest the money would have earned all those years.

Then I went to locate the other farmer to whom I sold the puppy, but that took more time because the farm had changed hands through the years, and I couldn't locate the family. But upon talking to the townspeople, I located a relative of that farmer, and I shared my story with him, and I made him take the money for that puppy and add an interest through the years. And I came back here to tell you how I've never felt as happy in the Lord as I do at this very moment with a clear conscience.

Friend, while you've been listening to me, have you heard any barking?