Well, great discussions, great community, love it. We are at our start time, so we will go ahead and get started with our Bible study. Got some technical difficulties this morning, but bear with me. We're back in Genesis and we're looking at the 8th commandment. We're not in Genesis. Technical difficulties and instructor difficulties. We're in Exodus chapter 20, so we'll be looking at the 8th commandment. Let's go ahead and open with a word of prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the great benefit of knowing who you are through your word, through the law. Lord, these 10 words that you have given to your people Father, we acknowledge that we cannot keep your word. And Father, our rebellious hearts turn against what you have given to us, the goodness of the law. And Father, we acknowledge our need of Christ and ask, Father, that Christ would reign supreme in our hearts And Lord, help us to study your word from a perspective of needing you, needing Christ, and Father, would you glorify your name in your people in this day, we pray in Christ's name, amen. Okay, so, yeah, gotta review your slides, and I didn't review my slides, so overload here. So every so often what I like to do is come back and review and go into that attitude towards the law that we need to have in order to make sure that we are not going into the law thinking that we can actually keep the law of COD. We can't. This is an attempt to try and get us into that thought process. So here we go. Socrates said, man, know yourself. This is 400 some odd years before Christ. This is human wisdom. And this is what Socrates had said. Know yourself. We're going to see, as we go through these, that the benefit of knowing what human beings have said, but then knowing what the Word of God is saying to us. Socrates was Plato's student. So Socrates taught Plato. Plato established the Academy. Aristotle was a student at the Academy. And Aristotle said, knowing yourself is the beginning of wisdom. Again, you're hearing things that sound similar to the word of God. As we fast forward in human history, we get to the point where we say, Calvin says, our wisdom, insofar as it ought to be deemed true and solid wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts, the knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves. Here's what Calvin is not saying, that when Socrates said, man, know yourself, when Aristotle says, knowing yourself is the beginning of wisdom, what is it for Socrates, what is it for Aristotle to know themselves? Or what is it to have that self-knowledge of who we are? Calvin, coming with that biblical perspective and coming from the Word of God, ends up saying, that's true. However, the definition of the knowledge of God and the knowledge of self is going to be completely different from what the philosophers have said and even what human reason would acknowledge. With that in mind, then... Romans, very familiar passage. We've quoted this before. We've talked about this in Romans 1, 18 through 21. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. What Scripture indicts everybody and says that we don't know ourselves and we don't know God. And in fact, it says we've suppressed that truth, okay? So the process of sin coming into the world means we grab hold of sin, we don't grab hold of the knowledge of God that is all around us. We go outside, you know, we see a beautiful sunrise, we see the greenery of the trees, we see the infinite detail of the cell, we see the vast you know, expanse of the stars in the sky. And we even have that access through the Hubble and now the web telescopes. So we can see the glory of God. There's absolutely no way that evolution could have created all that we see. There's this disposition in the creation for life and for abundance and for creation, rather than some sort of survival of the fittest or some sort of, you know, something from nothing in a human sense. Armed with that knowledge that scripture gives us of what we should know and what we don't know because we've sinned, then we go into what scripture has to say. The heart is deceitful, Jeremiah says, above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Our heart. Man, know yourself. Go to your heart. This is the heart being the seed of knowledge. But that heart is deceitful and it leads us away from God because of the fall. This is the human condition. This is who we are. This is what we as human beings end up doing and suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. Scripture explains to us this process and what has happened here. We're at Mount Sinai and the giving of the law. Moses is up on the hill. He's receiving the Ten Commandments. And we ask that question that we've continued to ask, how can the Old Testament saint be saved? So, does he look to the snake? Does he look to the law? Can he fulfill that law of God? This great blessing that is coming on God's people at Mount Sinai by giving the law, then is it possible that in that law, in giving the law, that God is saying to the people of God that you can actually fulfill that. Paul explains to us in 1 Corinthians 10 that, moreover brethren, I would not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ. Paul is saying that in the history of the nation of Israel, as God has redeemed that nation, as he's chosen them out of all of the peoples of the world, that as he brought them out of the land of Egypt, we've seen that they grumbled, but the pillar of cloud by day, the pillar of fire by night, led them, guided them, shielded them as they went across the Red Sea, and protected them. And that's where Paul is pointing to, and the essence of that being the understanding that it was Christ that was protecting the people of God. So Paul spends the majority of Galatians going through this idea and saying that we cannot, of ourselves, keep the law of God. The people of the Old Testament believed that. They believed that because they were descendants of Abraham that they actually could be saved. They could be saved by their genealogy. They could be saved because their ancestor happened to be Abraham. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, But by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified." So, Paul makes very clear here that obeying the law, it's good, and yet it's not going to get you to heaven. And knowledge of the law is essential, but the knowledge of that law, as Paul explains, is a schoolmaster, it's a teacher, it's intended to drive us to Christ and to show us our need every day that we have sinned and fallen short of the the glory of God. The Word of God saves us, but it is not by adherence to some sort of keeping of that law that we are going to be saved, that we have our place in heaven. Back to the original point, man, know yourself. Yes, that's what scripture is telling us. Know yourself, know who you are in light of who God is. The knowledge of God has been revealed to us. It's been explained to us in the creation, but more importantly, it's been revealed to us in His Word and in Jesus Christ as the complete revelation of the Word of God. And the Living Word is who we need to depend on. Proverbs 9, 10 reflects this very thought, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. So that fearing God, going to His Word, acknowledging our limits and bowing down before Him, That is the essence of wisdom. That is how we know ourselves. We know who God is as he's revealed himself in creation and in his word. And we're saved because of Jesus Christ having come in the flesh. The nation of Israel was looking forward to the cross. We have that revelation as we look back on the cross. The Caduceus, this is given to us in Numbers 21, the people grumbled. They've been with Moses. They ended up grumbling against Moses and against the leadership. And what happened? Then a bunch of fiery snakes came out and ended up biting the people, killing them. Moses takes one of those snakes and puts it up on a pole and as they look to that, then they are saved. Moses is there showing the way to look to that snake and look ultimately to the cross. But guess what? that became a source of stumbling block for the nation of Israel. And this was given to us in 1 Kings 18 where the Hezekiah tore down the high places and tore down the altars But he also tore down the caduceus, so that medical symbol, that you look to it and you're saved, and yet it becomes a source of idolatry for the nation of Israel. And so Hezekiah did right in tearing that down. They were saved by Christ, we are saved by Christ. We're not saved by the keeping of the law. And yet, Yeah, we're required to keep that law. Okay, questions, comments? This is my standard comment as we've gone through the series on the Ten Commandments. Are there any thoughts? Okay. This is going to be a review. I've gone through some of this material, most of this material before. We had two lessons on this. I got a little bit sidetracked the last time. Sorry about that. And we're going to spend the rest of our time here together going through the Eighth Commandment and any discussion that we have there. So we've looked at the larger catechism. We've gone kind of item by item. And now we're going to go back and pull out some of the material that didn't make it from Watson's study on the Ten Commandments, that didn't make it into the the larger catechism, but We looked at principles last time and the and the time before and that attitude towards property that Property is is something that must be respected Watson says so it's We don't damage it, we don't vandalize it, we don't destroy just because we're envious that somebody else might have a little bit more. So it's got to be respected. So this commandment, the Eighth Commandment, becomes a hedge, a protection for one's property. And it becomes something that puts a buffer in between us and our sin and what belongs to somebody else. So, we were talking yesterday about the fences and putting a fence around your own property, somebody else's property. Our neighbor put up a fence around his property. I didn't like it because the neighborhood just didn't have fences and the neighborhood actually had covenants that said you're not supposed to You're not supposed to have fences. But when you have a fence, then you don't cross over, even though your animals may. But that forces a respect of somebody else's property. Ecclesiastical stealing, I dealt with this a month ago. And this is the pastor, or the elders, you know, feeding themselves and not feeding the people of God. Ezekiel says, woe be to the shepherds of Israel, they fed themselves but fed not my flock. If the pastor is, or the elder, is trying to get rich, increase his estate based on the people of the congregation, then That's not a good thing. The fact that everyone can bring to mind somebody like Benny Hinn or, you know, there's others, the televangelists that give and God will give to you. And so prosperity gospel, but that is stealing from God's people. Those resources need to go to God's kingdom, not to your kingdom, not to the, the particular televangelist's estate and so forth. False balances and weights. This is maybe one that is prior, had more influence and yet we, our culture operates according to standards. You have a standard unit of electricity that you pay for. You have a standard volume of water that you pay for. And without the, a standard on what is that amount, then we're going to get taken advantage of. But largely that ends up being taken care of because the culture is still a culture of rules. And so the government, even though it steals in other ways, as I mentioned in a previous lesson, the weights and balances can make it in, but that principle still applies. Did you want to make a comment about that? Did you? Okay. Any questions, comments so far? Okay. You can be a thief to yourself. You can steal from your future. You can steal from your ability to make a good income so that you can have property, so that you can have a family and so forth. You are a thief if you waste your time. I mentioned before about my, you know, when I was in high school just spending hours and hours looking at the, you know, Academy catalog and dreaming about, I'm going to take this course or that course or something. But if you're just wasting your time, then video games come to mind. But that ends up stealing, in a sense, from the future. Your ability to actually put something into your brain, meaningful, rather than... I'm tearing down video games, but... I agree that there's some benefit to video games. I actually, when we were over in Germany, I did computer-assisted exercises, and that was just a big computer game for the generals, but that's an aside. You're also a thief to yourself by not allowing yourself to enjoy the good gifts God has given. Watson wants us to know that you're not for taking from, you know, you're not working in this department, and then storing up your treasures, and that God doesn't allow you, you can't enjoy that. I also find myself in this type of temptation, that it's easier for me in some senses to save, but not to enjoy what God has given. There's the caveat that if I enjoy it too much, then I end up being a slave to that. Okay. How we doing? Thoughts? Yeah. Mm. Right Absolutely Emily and I are similar in the fact that both of us have to have downtime. If I don't have downtime, if every waking moment is spent doing something, it actually becomes physically disorienting to me that you have to have times of just peace, you know, just quiet. And I think that part of, maybe even a large part of the issue of mental illness is due to not spending time, back to our point, know yourself, thinking about how do I go about this situation, letting your mind actually function, it's stimulus, stimulus, got to think about, got to react to, boom, boom, boom, and yet you don't have any time to think about how to go about your day, and I don't have time to actually organize what my life is all about. So yes, very good, very helpful. Yeah. Okay, so we've talked about contentment before. I mentioned contentment the first lesson, and I went to this particular passage, Proverbs 38 and 9. Remove falsehood and lies far from me. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food allotted to me. Lest I be full and deny you, and say, who is the Lord? And lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God." Solomon points us to that those both extremes. I don't want either one of them. I'm going to blaspheme and walk away from God on one side, I'm going to blaspheme and I'm going to steal, and then blaspheme the name of God. That contentment and being settled with what God has given is good. Contentment with godliness is great gain. Hebrews 13.5, let your conduct be without covetousness, be content with such things as you have. For he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. If I'm scraping, clawing, trying to get to that next widget, promotion, level of income, thing, if I'm grasping hold of that, then I am no longer, I'm a slave to that, that pursuit, rather than being content and saying, thank you, Lord, for what has gone on. By the way, in that scraping and clawing, guess what? Our focus is on that, and we don't have the opportunity then to actually sit back and thank the Lord. Back to our Romans 1 passage. Okay? If you steal, repent and resolve. This is Augustine. Without restitution, there's no remission. I'm sorry I stole a million bucks from you. You know, please forgive me. Okay, sure. I mean, I forgive you. I'm not going to hold that against you. How about my million bucks back? And by the way, scriptural principles apply, and it's not just a million bucks that once you give that back, there's some sort of increase to say, I shouldn't have done this. So without restitution, there's no remission, Augustine says. In other words, you need to demonstrate in your behavior what your hard attitude is. The hard attitude comes out of that, or is associated with that behavior. The behavior we are going to be able to see, and we say, okay, that person did something about their lack of, you know, or their stealing, their theft, so we need to have restitution. This is sadly a principle that our penal system doesn't tend to acknowledge and doesn't tend to force, you know, we'll put them in prison but they're not going to work, they're not going to do something. You gain materially, but your conscience suffers loss. So I steal, but now I've got leanness of soul. that material thing then ends up being something that is, after you have it, the desire for it is much more than the actual having of it. When you have it, then you go, oh, that wasn't such a good deal. And now we've got leanness of soul and we've got the conscience that suffers. Okay? Any thoughts there? Yeah, Gage. So, even though this time I didn't mention it, in the first one I mentioned, it is okay to desire what that person has, it's not okay for me to say, I want their stuff. I don't want to pull, you know, a lot of people, we all are in this boat, I want that person's thing and I want them not to have it. And so I don't want to make that mistake. It is okay in, hey, in America. you have the ability to go after increasing your estate. And not only my estate, but my neighbor's estate. I'm loving my neighbor by, the Shorter Catechism makes this very clear, I'm loving my neighbor by helping them out and increasing their estate. So that they are, I'm giving them a leg up. Ronald Reagan said, you know, the best welfare program is a job. And you can take that job and you can do with, you know, when you labor, you can do with that income what you want. Now, just like Solomon says, you know, we're gonna be accountable to God for what we do, but putting it, doing my approach, and putting it in a bank and accumulating and not touching it because I may spend it the wrong way, that's not a way to go. So, yes, have goals, have aspirations. You know, one of my sons-in-law said he wanted to be the gov, so I go, We had that discussion. We talked about, you know, politics. But, you know, in one sense that's okay. It's just that... I'm thankful he is not going in that direction. But he has a friend that is actually in the government, in the GOV's office. He's like his chief of staff. He has a friend there. I go, okay, so you can experience vicariously, you know, and that way you don't have to go be the GOV. It's okay to have those aspirations. Does that cover, what's your point, Gage? Okay, okay, good. And that's a great question and that is part of the tension of the law. So now I say I want to increase my estate and I want to take it up to a certain level. I can proceed in that direction, but what happens when I get too consumed with that? Now I have to draw back and I have to go, this is what, I'm getting too focused on this. A current move in the culture is, I'm trying to think of the acronym. Yes, exactly. We want to be independent. And I think the number is 27 times your annual income. If you end up having the assets, now you can retire. OK, great. There's several assumptions that are assuming on God in that equation. But one of the great ones is, David Bonson would point us to, you know, your job throughout your life is to work. And if you stop doing the work, then now at the end of your life you end up being guilty of idleness. So, yeah, there's a tension. Did you have a point? Yeah. Right. Yeah. Absolutely. and even when it's tough, and you have a non-Christian boss. And that non-Christian boss recognizes you as a Christian and says, I'm gonna, you know, sock it to this guy. But through your faithfulness in being a good worker, then you point the way to God. It may not end up impacting your employer, but... you can retire from gaining money and go and do, you know, service to God. So that also is a viable, you know, within the spectrum of things that are out there. I was disparaging the guys, the fire guys, who, you know, at 30 want to be financially independent, and I'm done, you know, I'm just going to play video games. Why is it I keep coming back to the video game thing? So, okay. Here's what Gordon Keddie said in his book. He quoted several different passages. Ephesians 4.28, Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. a life of being a thief, and now we're going to replace that with labor so that the intention being that you can give away. And so that's a good concept. If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. Let's connect it back to the basics and to basic sustenance. And if you're not willing to work, then you shouldn't eat. I'll again say, make my editorial comment on our welfare system and say this also is not something that we exercise. There's lots of people that would rather be on welfare and earn the minimum wage because they don't have to work, rather than work for somebody else, have to do what somebody else is telling you to do. And so, rejoice in God's providence, rejoice in God's promises, and God blesses the work that we do. And especially over a long period of time, we'll see that. And then finally, trust in the Lord. Our attitude towards our stuff has gotta be, it's not what's mine is mine, but what's mine is Christ's. And we gotta have that open-handed, loose grip on our stuff. And not, when you hold tight to it, then it ends up holding tight to you and it grabs a hold of your affections and then you end up not, doing what you're supposed to do before God. So it ends up owning you rather than you owning the stuff. The standard thing about, you know, what are the two times when the two happiest days of a boat owner's life, when he gains the boat and when he sells it, you know, I can't say that about airplanes. So we don't want our stuff to have to absorb all of our energies so that we're not free to do what we need to do. Okay, we're finished with I absolutely didn't think I was going to take... I was wondering if I was going to take one lesson on stealing, because that's what the commentators did, but no, we've done three lessons, so. Any thoughts, comments, other discussions? Steven. The concept of what? Stewardship, absolutely. Yeah. Thank you, that was actually my little note in the margin here. We are humble stewards, perfect. So we're in agreement. And actually, that is where the Word of God would point us as well, that our stuff doesn't own us, and it's all to the glory of God anyways. There's no U-Hauls in heaven, right? The standard joke. So you can't take it with you. It's going to be given to others. And if it's not given to others, then it's going to be given to the state. Other comments? No? Okay. Well, let's pray. Our Father, we thank you. We thank you, Lord, for the good things that you have given in this world, oh Lord. You have given us our daily bread, but you've given us much more than our daily bread. You give us clothing, you give us shelter, you give us transportation. Lord, you have given us so much. And you have given us your son. And through Jesus Christ, He has paid the ultimate price for our salvation. And what a benefit that is, Lord. We have our hope of heaven and our hope of the rooms that are prepared for us, Lord, in heaven. And we thank you. Father, that you are with us, that you are guiding us into eternity itself. Help us, Father, not to be of the world, Father, to be in the world, and yet glorifying you with everything that we have, Lord. We pray that you would use our own estates, Father, for your glory. We pray in Christ's name, amen.