Sermon Transcript — January 2, 2007
Today in this sermon I would like to focus on one of the ways that you and I have been called to do the work of God on earth. Now, if you view any of the religious programming on television – I do, about once - it seems about once a year on a Sunday morning. I'll take the remote and I'll skip through the channels and I'll have my stomach full in short order. But not too long ago on a Sunday morning I was going through the channels and I came across someone who I have viewed off and on for I don't know how long now, twenty years or so. And it was – I'll mention it by name – the Jimmy Swaggart program. What I saw on the program was just like every one I had seen before. It was not only just a request for money, but it was a begging for money. And this particular program, that was the entirety of the program. It was, really, begging for money. I'm not endorsing that you follow my example in seeing who's on TV on a Sunday morning, and in my viewing I am not looking for material for sermons. Let me add that quickly. But in doing so, I mean, he can tune up and cry and his son, Donnie, can cry in a heartbeat. And his wife, Agnes, I forget now what her name is, anyway it seems like he can just turn it on in a heartbeat. If they are sincere then fine, but when I see such a startling difference from what I see in so many of the television evangelists and what the Beyond Today program is, the program that we produce through the Church. If you juxtapose the two, you will see that in the program that the United Church of God produces, there is no begging for money, there's no requesting money, there is a quality program with God's blessing. It presents the truth of God on a given subject, but there's no begging for money. There's no asking you to enter in and and be a hundred dollar partner or a thousand dollar partner – a ten-thousand dollar partner. We just don't have that. But why is that? Why do the vast majority of the television evangelists have that approach – I'm sure not every single one, but it seems like so many – and we don't?
If you would turn with me to Matthew 10:7 to begin in the Bible. It says:
Mat. 10:7 - "And as you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.'
These were the marching orders that Jesus Christ was giving to His disciples. It says:
Verse 8 - "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give."
And we view that scripture as a scripture telling us that when we go out to do the work of God as far as our preaching the word of God - be it in a published format, printed format, live evangelism on the television, radio, whatever it may be, that we do that freely. That is something that we do want to give. We feel, based on that scripture and other examples, that that is what God would want us to do. We freely received it ourselves, we didn't have to pay for it. When we began to hear the truth of God, we didn't have to pay for the literature and therefore we want to pass that on to other people freely as well. And when you analyze how the Church of God, the work of God is funded, we see that the membership of God has willingly come under God's financial system of financing His work on earth. The membership, the ministry of God – we have come under that and the Church of God itself does believe in and does teach from the Bible, tithing in our lives.
Now, God did not intend for His modern church to beg for money. If you look in the Old Testament I don't believe that you will find that His church in the wilderness in the Old Testament begged for money. There is no record that I am aware of where the Levites begged for money of the people. From the beginning, God has had a system of financing His work on earth. Now, the system that God has chosen which we can see so clearly from the Bible, was the system of tithing. And tithing, brethren, is a dignified way that God has instructed us in His scripture as to how we do fulfill the obligation to fund the work of God on earth. Today I would like to address that. I would like to give a sermon on the subject of tithing. A number of weeks ago I gave a sermon on the subject of giving and in that I mentioned that that would lay a groundwork as to the role of giving, our attitude in giving to God of our substance and I mentioned that I would like to bring a sermon on tithing and I would like to do that today.
Now God does not have His Church go hat in hand to the people for support in a requesting fashion, in a begging fashion for support. The Church of God is not subject to the largess or the gifts of the people. Now when I say that, obviously the Church does receive gifts from the people. The Church does receive offerings. We do take up annual offerings as the Bible instructs, and also the Church does receive offerings from individuals – not a specified percentage, but people like you and myself will give beyond and above our tithes to the Church. So the Church does receive that, but the Church is not primarily funded through the gifts of the people or the largess or the people looking – 'well I like the church this week, so I'm going to give it an offering'. Or – 'I don't like this week, so I don't think I will'. Or – 'the pastor brought a decent sermon last week so I'm going kick in a little in the basket'. Or – 'boy, that was a lousy sermon, you know, he needs to learn from this and I'm not going to give anything in the basket this week.' Or, you know, that type of thing that does occur in some organizations and does occur in some religions.
The Church of God does look to God, to the God of heaven, for its support and the people of God's Church enter into an agreement with God. When we come into an understanding of what God teaches us in the Bible as to tithing and that responsibility we, the people of God, enter into an agreement with God regarding financing His Church and the work of the Church. And God has a reciprocal action to that as to our making that decision, our carrying out that decision, then God also does things that He promises for the person who does tithe. The act of tithing to God does have a reciprocal part of that. There is an equation – the brethren, the membership, the ministry who tithe to God and you have God on the other side and there is something that applies, something that happens whenever we tithe. And again, my comments today on the subject of tithing assume someone is tithing with the right attitude, that someone is tithing because they see the need to and they desire to. They want to. I'm not talking about someone who begrudgingly tithes or someone who's not faithful in their tithes. We will touch on that in a moment in the sermon at a certain point. But my comments are based upon those who understand that, they desire to tithe, they have entered into that compact with God, that relationship with God as to how they will approach God financially.
Now, here's why I am bringing this sermon. First, I do want to establish biblically that the act of tithing establishes who your God is. The act of tithing establishes who your God is or who you honor as being your God. I want to show that in tithing – tithing is a law of God through which He wants to bless the tithe payer. That God desires to bless the faithful tithe payer. Also I do fear that there is the potential that some may be stealing from God – God Almighty – and someone who would be doing so would certainly incur the curses of God and be under a curse. Also, I do want through this sermon to orient us properly toward our physical and spiritual obligation to God in the area of money.
Now when you start talking about money, when you start talking about someone's billfold or pocketbook, you're getting into some very serious business. When you enter into the subject of money, it gets serious and it gets real quiet just like it is now. But people are interested in that and there is nothing wrong with being interested in the subject of money. In fact, if you do your study of the Bible, you'll find that the subject of money is one of the major topics in the Bible and our use of money and misuse of money and our relationship with God in how we handle our money.
But when we start talking about money as one of my dear friends in another congregation who had grown up as a Southern Baptist in Atlanta, Georgia and after a particular sermon I gave he came up to me with a twinkle in his eye and he said, "Well, Mr. Taylor," he said, "in that sermon you stopped preaching and you've gone to meddling." And I said, "Well," I knew he was teasing to a degree, but we'll get kind of personal in this sermon because we will read the word of God and it should be something that's clear to all of us.
Again, when you talk about the subject of money, in giving money to God or paying one's tithe to God, I believe I have recounted this joke that always comes to mind when I think of this topic. There was this stereotypical Jew, Protestant and Catholic and they were standing together and they were discussing how they gave their money to God and how much they gave to God. And the Catholic said, "Well, you know, when I get my paycheck I cash it and I stand out in the yard and I draw a circle around me and I throw my paycheck – my money that I have cashed - up to heaven." And he said, "What falls inside the circle is my money and what falls outside of the circle is God's money and I give that to God." And the Protestant said, "You know, I understand that," he said, "but I don't think you've got that right," he said. "What falls in close to you is your money? Well, no, I do it more righteous. I cash my paycheck, too. I throw it up and that which falls inside the circle I give to God and that which falls outside the circle is mine." And then the Jew looked at them and said, "You know, you guys are talking about circles and this or that, you're trying to work it out with God, there's the potential of throwing it way outside the circle or real close depending how you are setting that up," he said, "I don't do any of that. When I get paid, I cash my check and I throw it all up into heaven. I figure God would keep what He wants and that which falls to the earth is my money."
So everybody has an idea as to how much you should give. What is God's money and what is our money? Let's turn in Matthew once again, Mat 6. Let's see just a few basic principles that deal with an individual and his or her money. Notice Mat. 6:19, it says:
Mat. 6:19 - "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;
Verse 20 - "but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
Verse 21 - "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
That which you treasure, that which you put first in your life is going to be where your heart is, that which you focus on, that which you have your eyes riveted to, that which drives you as an individual, that which you treasure. That's where your heart is going to be. In the same context, notice down in verse 24.
Verse 24 - "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
You cannot serve God and material things; you cannot serve God and the physical; or in another way, you cannot serve God and money. Now, you and I both know that it takes money to operate on. That's the system that we have today. That's the system that's been around almost forever in human existence. But God is saying here that if you have, or if I have an inordinate concern over - as the Bible also refers to money as being 'filthy lucre' - if you or I have an inordinate concern over money and that's what drives us, that's our goal. We're going to make such-and-such money; we're going to have such-and such money; I don't care what it takes, what we do, I don't care how, I have to get it; I don't care what belongs to God or what I should do with my family, or should I be generous with anyone; I want money. That attitude is going to keep someone out of the kingdom of God.
I had the opportunity this past week and was counseling a young couple about financial matters. And as they were mentioning - which is certainly true - you look particularly at the Old Testament people God dealt with, they were pretty wealthy people. The vast majority, not all, but those whom we would say are the patriarchs of the Old Testament, were people who were monied people. So, again, there's nothing wrong with having money. There's nothing wrong with having substance, but what is one's goal? What drives the person? Where one's treasure is, that's where the heart's going to be. We need to understand there's a certain order in that. Mat. 6:33 follows right after that as far as in order, as to what we see, and God taking care of us.
Now in Malachi, just back a book, Mal. 3. I want to read this scripture early on because it does show and quite clearly the magnitude of the subject of tithing and how we honor God. Notice in Mal. 3:8 it says.
Mal. 3:8 - Will a man rob God?... Once again, you take the scenario of the Jew, the Protestant and the Catholic throwing their money to heaven, you say, well, how do you rob God? Where is He. How are you going to get ahold of Him? Are you going to use a six-gun, are you going to use an automatic weapon, use a knife? Can you use your hands? How are you going to rob God? The scriptures says: ...Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you say, In what way have we robbed You?... the answer ...In tithes and offerings.
Verse 9 - You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation.
So, brethren, once again the subject of one's money, the subject of tithing, it is a serious subject. It enters into the realm of – once one has knowledge and understanding – it enters the realm of stealing from God in the area of tithing and I don't believe we want to do that. We don't want to be ignorant of the laws, we don't want to be ignorant of the facts and we certainly do not want to maliciously steal from God or through indifference to steal from God because that's what God says we can do. One can do that in their tithes and their offerings – not giving their tithes and their offerings. So we do need to pay close attention to the laws that govern the support of God's work, that support God's Church and let's see what God has said about that.
Now, I'd like to establish a basic principle that we need to be aware of – and, again, the principle is not something that I just think you are going to ooh and ah, that you've never heard it before. I think it is a reiteration of that which we know, but I also realize that there are some among us who may not realize this. There are some among us who may not understand it, there may be some among us who have never focused on it. We might have some little kids, we might have some teenagers, we might have some young adults and we might have some old-timers or elderly people out there – how Mr. Dove worded that in one of the announcements, just plain old or whatever he said – who may not understand. Here is the principle, brethren, God in heaven owns everything. God in heaven – turn with me to Psalm 24 – I will read several scriptures here in quick order establishing that fact. God owns everything. Notice in Ps. 24:1, it says,
Psa. 24:1 - The earth is the Lord's, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein.
Verse 2 - For He has founded it upon the seas, And established it upon the waters.
None of us built the earth. None of us lay claim to the earth. It is God's. It is His possession.
Notice Jeremiah 27:5, it says,
Jer. 27:5 - 'I have made the earth, the man and the beasts that are on the ground, by My great power and by My outstretched arm, and have given it to whom it seemed proper to Me.
God owns it – the earth and all that's on it, the man, beasts, He possesses it. He is the one who brought them into existence and He says, I own them.
The book of Psalms, once again. Psa. 50:10. It says,
Psa. 50:10 - For every beast of the forest is Mine, And the cattle on a thousand hills.
Verse 11 - I know all the birds of the mountains, And the wild beasts of the fields are Mine.
Verse 12 - "If I were hungry, I would not tell you; For the world is Mine, and all its fullness.
Verse 14 - Offer to God thanksgiving, And pay your vows to the Most High.
Verse 15 - Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me."
And God does, as He states here, we've read other scriptures already, God owns it all. We think we do. You know, when it comes time for our property taxes that are due, we say, well I owe – I've got a ¼ acre or a ½ acre or 40 acres or several sections or whatever it might be – we say, I own that. In reality, the government owns it if we don't pay the taxes. But even though we might have a little piece of that, maybe we have a house or whatever it might be, God says He owns it and in this scripture, again, He mentions that if we pay our vows to Him, He is going to deliver us in time of trouble. When you talk about our relationship with God in the sphere of money, we will see from scripture that it is a part of worshiping God as to how we deal with our money, the money that God claims that is His and He enters into a covenant with us. He enters into an agreement with us that He is going to deliver us in a time of trouble.
Now, over just a book or so, notice Proverbs 3:9.
Pro. 3:9 - Honor the LORD with your possessions, and with the firstfruits of all your increase;
Verse 10 - so your barns may be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.
Brethren, there is a strong biblical principle and that is if we give to God of our substance and we honor God with our substance, He is going to provide for us and He is desirous to do that. If we honor God with that which we have, He is desirous of taking care of us, to bless us, to watch over us, to protect us, to keep us from a time of devastation and need. He will watch over us and He wants to do that.
Now who is your God and how do you and I demonstrate who is our God? You can read many other scriptures, but its quite clear from the Bible that to whom you honor with your substance shows who your God is. Who we honor with our substance shows who our God is. And God did establish from the beginning that you recognize or you proclaim who is God through the giving of your substance and we established that early on. Now, let's turn back to the book of Genesis. Let's look at the pre-flood world. In Genesis 4 and I made the statement here a number of times I'm quite sure, I'm certainly not arguing with God in how He wrote the Bible. I would never be presumptuous to do that. But when I read the book of Genesis which is the book of beginnings - how things came to be - and when you see how much history has transpired in the book of Genesis, if you go from Genesis 1:3 after the recreation begins up to the time of Noah to about Genesis 7 or 8, you will see it is over 1,600 years of history that has transpired - over 1,600 years of history in about six or seven chapters. Now, again, I certainly am not arguing with the author of the Bible, God, Himself. A curious mind that I have and, undoubtedly, you are curious as well, I wouldn't mind knowing a little bit more. I wouldn't mind having a little more detail. Obviously, I don't need that. You don't need that. All that we have or require for salvation is within the pages of the Bible, but when its mentioned in Genesis it is something that is quite important because God had all kinds of things He could have stated. He chose to address several things in the book of Genesis.
Now, let's notice one of the things that was established. Gen. 4:1.
Gen. 4:1 - Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, "I have acquired a man from the LORD." Reading from the New King James.
Verse 2 - Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
Verse 3 - And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the LORD.
Verse 4 - And Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the LORD respected Abel and his offering,
Between (verses) 5 and 7 you see that God did not respect Cain's.
Verse 7 - It says to Cain, "If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it."
Now the offering that Cain brought was not an appropriate offering that God would accept. It doesn't give the details of it, we conjecture as to what happened or what it was. That being said, the point that I would like us to focus upon is: from the beginning, the first two born human beings of Adam and Eve, they were bringing an offering to God of their substance. Where did they get that? Where did they know that you bring an offering to God of your substance? Why would you do that? Now, again, this is not the detail, so part of that would be conjecture, but I certainly feel that God had it as a standard of their acknowledging God through giving something to Him – either something that belonged to Him or to give the respect to God that "You are God and therefore I will give to You an offering of that which I have." It is either the substance of the offering or the attitude of the offering that God Himself did not countenance what Cain brought to Him. He told him, He said, "You can change, you can rule over this." You know, you don't have to do something that is inappropriate or incorrect or that doesn't live up to the standard, or whatever the case had been. But here in the pre-flood world you see the first two born of Adam and Eve coming to bring an offering to God of their substance. Now turn to Genesis 8. This is after the flood, you'll see in verse 18:
Gen. 8:18 - So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him.
Verse 19 - Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and whatever creeps on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark.
Verse 20 - Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
Verse 21 - And the LORD smelled a soothing aroma. Then the LORD said in His heart, "I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of the man's heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.
Now here you see, and it was already introduced earlier, the mentioning of clean animals. Where did that come from? Are we talking about a washed animal? No. Its an animal that would fit the dietary laws that God did codify at the time of Israel. But they knew of those, they knew of clean animals, that if they were going to give an offering of an animal to God, it needed to be a clean animal. And that's what Noah did. Once again, he offers something of what they had to acknowledge God. And God smelled that sacrifice as a sweet aroma to Him. Something that He received; it was something that was appropriate. It was something of the individual who owned something - Abel and Cain, Noah - and they offer it to God and in doing so, they acknowledge who their God is.
Now, Satan, the Devil, as you know, he is the great counterfeiter. He's the one who counterfeits what God does. He takes a principle, he takes a position of God, the way God conducts Himself or what He requires of man, and then he puts a twist on it. And you will find that Satan the Devil, that great counterfeiter, he wants to be acknowledged as God. He wants to have offerings given to him. He wants to have sacrifice. But as you read through what the Bible shows about, what the Bible terms 'the pagans' their type of sacrifice, their type of offering to their god which would have been a false god or the False God is not appropriate. It wasn't right where they required the killing of their firstborn, human beings. The burying of the firstborn into the cornerstone of their house whenever they built a new house in the land. That's what Israel found when they came into the land of Canaan, that's what the Canaanites were doing, that as part of their worship, in wanting a blessing from their god was to kill one of their children, typically the firstborn, and bury them in the cornerstone of the house and then, therefore, their god would say, "You sacrificed to me." You don't see God requiring that. You don't see God requiring the killing of human beings.
If you have the chance to go to Mexico City; if you have a chance to go up on the great Pyramid of the Sun and you read of the history where they had virgin, young maidens of the land who they would kill as a sacrifice to their god. When you look at the priests of Baal in the book of Kings and Elijah with his offering and you see how those priests would cut themselves until the blood flowed, it would just flow from them as they worked themselves up into a frenzy to be acceptable to their god - all a counterfeit of what God wants - with Satan, the Devil, wanting to be worshiped as God, to be acknowledged as God. He wants the offerings himself, but Satan does it in a different way and does it in a way that is inappropriate, of course, because he is not the true God.
Brethren, a very important point that we need to realize is that God owns it all. He owns everything that is on earth, everything that there is and the ability to produce things and the mind to develop things. God created man and all the beasts of the field and He created this earth. And God wants us to acknowledge that, that He owns it all, by giving back to Him a portion of what we control, a portion of what we say is ours, our substance. He wants us to give back to Him to acknowledge that He owns everything, that He is the one and only God. And then He shows from scripture that when you enter into that relationship with God that He wants to bless the person who honors Him with their substance. That is an overall principle, brethren, that should guide our financial dealings. God owns it all, He does require that we acknowledge Him as the possessor of heaven and earth – a way we do that and a required way that we do that is by giving to God of the things that we possess.
Now the subject of tithing is introduced in the book of Genesis. Why in Genesis? What are we to learn from it being introduced in the book of Genesis? Now let's look again in the book of Genesis in the Old Testament before the Levitical system of tithing was set up. Turn with me to Genesis 14. Now we're at a, from my vantage point, a critical part of our understanding of tithing to God. And I believe that most of the adults among us understand an argument that has been made against tithing, an argument that has been made by those who at one point we had honored and put a degree of trust in, who had come against the Church and say that tithing is not necessary because we don't have a Levitical priesthood, that tithing was for the Levitical priesthood. I'd like for us to see from scripture that tithing was extant long before the Jews, long before the Levites, long before the Tabernacle in the wilderness or the building of the Temple. I would like to reiterate that and I'd like to focus on that for just a moment because our young kids, our teenagers and some of our young adults who may not have focused on that when we went through and reestablished that within the Church ten / twelve years ago, at some point you will have that argument. At some point you are going to have someone come to you and say, "Well, you don't have to tithe. You know, your minister, is he a priest? Can he trace his lineage back to Levi? Is he a Levitical priest? Well, that's who you give tithes to. If you can't find a Levitical priest and where's the Temple, you don't have to tithe." A part of disproving that is seeing from scripture that tithing predated the Levites, the one son of Israel named Levi who was placed within the service of the Temple.
Notice Genesis 14:11. This is when Lot lived in Sodom and Gomorrah and he was taken captive.
Gen. 14:11 Then they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their provisions, and went their way.
Verse 12 They also took Lot, Abram's brother's son who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.
Skip down to verse 14 - Now when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his three hundred and eighteen trained servants who were born in his own house, and went in pursuit as far as Dan.
When you look at Abram, he was a wealthy man. How many of us have 318 employees who were born in our own house? And these were 318 who could go to battle. We're not talking about little boys, little girls, the women or the old geezers. These are the strong, young men who could go to battle – 318. He pursues them to Dan.
Verse 15 - He divided his forces against them by night, and he and his servants attacked them and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus.
Verse 16 - So he brought back all the goods, and also brought back his brother Lot and his goods, as well as the women and the people.
Verse 17 - And the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King's Valley), after his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him. He went to battle against four kings.
Now if you will, notice verse 18 - Then Melchizedek... so here's Abram coming back, he brings back the people that were taken captive, he brings back the things that had been stolen from Sodom and Gamorrah, ...Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High.
Verse 19 - And he blessed him and said: "Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth;
Verse 20 - And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand." And he gave him a tithe of all.
So here's Abram who gives a tithe of all to the priest, Melchizedek, the King of Salem or the Priest of Salem.
Notice in verse 21 - Now the king of Sodom said to Abram, "Give me the persons, and take the goods for yourself."
Verse 22 - But Abram said to the king of Sodom, "I have raised my hand to the LORD, God Most High, the Possessor of heaven and earth,
Verse 23 - "and I will take nothing, from a thread to a sandal strap, that I will not take anything that is yours, lest you shall say, 'I have made Abram rich' -
Verse 24 - "except only what the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men who went with me... and then he names them by name.
So he said, "No you take the possessions, I'm not going to have you say down the road, 'Well, I was the one who made Abram rich because I gave him all these things.' I'm not going to do that."
But what he did, Gen 15:1 - After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward."
I point to that, brethren, because Abram makes the statement that he's worshiping the great God and that he's going to give – which he did, he gave a tenth - 1/10 or a tithe of that which he had. Now where did he get that information? It doesn't say here. Again we are looking at Genesis. It doesn't say, "And when God talked with him, he introduces a new thing that Abram had never heard of and its called the tithe." No, it doesn't say that. He willingly gave a tithe. It was something that he understood. It was something that he knew. It was his way, obviously, of honoring God. He gave it to the Priest, Melchizedek, who represented God, who was a Priest of God.
Now notice the example of Jacob in Genesis 28. Let's begin in verse 15 just to set the context - if you notice in Genesis 27:41.
Gen. 27:41 - So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him, and Esau said in his heart, "The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob."
So Esau and Jacob – I'm sure you are familiar with the feud that they had and now he's going to kill Jacob. So Jacob takes off. That's the context of Jacob running for his life away from Esau. Now let's come to Gen. 28:15. Jacob has this dream, he has his head on this pillow. He has a vision. He has a dream of God in heaven and there being a staircase to heaven and the angels going back and forth on that. And as you read that and understand it, it is establishing a relationship with God as being the true God – that he is going to have the God of Heaven be his God, that he was going to worship that God. Now, notice in verse 15.
Gen. 28:15 - "Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go... God speaking to Jacob ...and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you."
He is reiterating that great promise that He had made to Abraham, Isaac and now to Jacob.
Verse 16 - Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it."
Verse 17 - And he was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!"
Verse 18 - Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it.
Verse 19 - And he called the name of that place Bethel; but the name of that city had been Luz previously.
Verse 20 - Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on,
Verse 21 - "so that I come back to my father's house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God.
Verse 22 - "And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God's house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You."
He is entering into that relationship with God where he acknowledges who is the God in his life and he's going to do that by saying "I will give You a tenth. I will give You the tenth. I will honor You with my substance." Once again as it was with Abram, it was a tenth. That was what one did to honor the true God.
Once again, here's the context. He's on the run. He's fearing for his life. He has this dream. He has this vision and God establishes for him - as He had with Abraham and Isaac - "You are my chosen. I am going to build a nation through you. I am going to keep you." And he knows that he is on this run, that he is going back to marry someone of his own family as his father had told him. But as Jacob comes up from that, he says, "This is God's place. This is the house of God. I'm going to honor God by anointing this stone and by building an altar there." And he says, "God has entered" - not so much as God had entered into his life, but Jacob was responding to God entering into his life - "the promise to keep it." And, as it says, if - another way of looking at it – since you will keep me, since you will not allow me to die as he feared, he says, "I will honor You. You will be my God. I will give to you the tenth."
So, once again, brethren, to just reiterate that point, here we have in the Old Testament before the time of Moses, before the time of the two to four million Israelites, before the time that they left Egypt, before the time that they set up the Levitical priesthood, here you have two examples – Abraham and Jacob giving the tenth to God and honoring God through doing so.
If you notice in Leviticus 27, let's do now come to the time of the Israelites, the nation of Israel being set up. Notice in Lev. 27. The Levitical priesthood was being established. God had some very strict ways that they were to conduct themselves to be of the priesthood or those who would serve in the Tabernacle and down the road would be the Temple. You had to be of the right family. You had to be a descendant of Levi, to be a Levite, and they were the ones who would do the service – as we would say, the service within the Church. To be a literal priest, you had to be a Levite, but also of the family of Aaron and his descendants, to be a priest. But let's look here in Leviticus 27:30 speaking to the Levites.
Lev. 27:30 - 'And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's... The tithe is the Lord's and it said, ...It is holy to the LORD.
So now we have first a reference to tithing in the days of Moses and its a clear-cut statement that the tithe belongs to God. Brethren, the tithe has always belonged to God and God views the tithe as holy. It is segregated, separated, sanctified money before God. It is His. He demands it. He gives the laws regarding it and it is His money. Out of owning everything on earth, that we have possessions of whatever is in our own little bailiwick, whatever our paycheck is in this modern day of most being paid through paychecks, etc., it says "That's yours. It really belongs all to Me, but one tenth of it, one tithe, is Mine. It belongs to Me." It is the Lord's tithe and God says it is holy. It is holy to the Lord. So once again we've gone 'from preaching to meddling' now, we need to understand that fact. That ten percent is God's. He lays claim to that and He says it's holy. It is holy in His eyes. It is not to be dickered with. Its not to be, you know, "Why am I going to give it?" you know, and "How am I doing?", you know. "How's the Church doing?" "How was that sermon?" or, you know, "I didn't get to serve on this committee." or, you know, "The potluck was horrible." Or, "If they have a little better food maybe I'd give a little bit more." Doesn't enter it, doesn't enter into it at all. Its not a part of it. Its not a part of our relationship with God in honoring God through the tithe. Once again, brethren, Leviticus 27:30, the tithe is the Lord's tithe. It is paramount that we understand it. It belongs to God.
Now, that being said, God determines who receives His tithe. The tithe belongs to God. He determines who receives it. Now notice in Numbers 18:21.
Lev. 18:21 - "Behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tithes in Israel as an inheritance in return for the work which they perform, the work of the tabernacle of meeting.
Verse 24 - "For the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer up as a heave offering to the LORD, I have given to the Levites as an inheritance; therefore I have said to them, 'Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.'
They didn't have the regular passing down of land from one son to the next son. They didn't have the fiftieth Jubilee year where you'd come and get your property back that you had put in debt. "So you are not going to have that. You have no inheritance. But I will give you the tithe, a tenth of all that Israel had of their increase which is given to Me - it's My tithe - I will give it to you." You have to own the tithe to be able to give it to someone else. I could say, okay, pick a name out here, I could say, "Young lady, I am going to have – hmmm – Mark is going to give you $10,000." Well, I can't give you $10,000 of Mark's dollars because I don't own them. Now, if I have $10,000 I'm going to keep it. No, I could give to you what I own, but if I don't own it I can't give it to you. The tithe belongs to God. And God said because of the service of the Levites in the Tabernacle, the work of the ministry - as we have said, the Old Testament ministry at that time, the priesthood, they would have the tithe. They wouldn't have the inheritance, but they would have an ongoing means of support generation to generation because they would receive God's tithe.
Notice Numbers 18:25.
Verse 25 - Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Verse 26 - "Speak thus to the Levites, and say to them: 'When you take from the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them as your inheritance, then you shall offer up a heave offering of it to the LORD, a tenth of the tithe.
Verse 31 - 'You may eat it in any place, you and your households, for it is your reward for your work in the tabernacle of meeting.
And what that is, the Levites would receive a tithe – the tithe that belonged to God from the people, then they were to have a heave offering of a tithe of the tithe that they received and that went to the priesthood. And the priesthood was the family of Aaron or Aaron's descendent's – the high priest and that family which would be the priests.
Probably as close as we could kind of explain that, it won't be a real good analogy, it would be for example if the deacons in this congregation, if they were the only ones who served in the work of the Church – which they're not – but if they were the only ones, they would be like the Levites. And the tithe of the membership which belonged to God would go to the deacons and the deacons would take a tithe of their income and give that to the ministry which would be like the descendants of Aaron. Its not a real clear analogy, but hopefully it will shed a little bit of light on that.
It is important to note that at no time did God turn over to the Levites His claim to the tithe. It was always God's tithe and God always viewed it as holy. But He did allow them to receive the tithe. You say, well I don't know, you know, what do you mean He lets them have it. Well, its almost like, you know, the Jew, the Catholic and the Protestant. You throw your money up into heaven, seldom does God catch it. Somebody's going to get it. And God said the Levite and the priesthood would receive the tithe that you give to Me we shall give to them.
If I could summarize just very briefly, a summary of Leviticus 27 and Numbers 18 is that tithing did precede the Levitical priesthood. It was not instituted solely to support the Levitical priesthood. It was already in existence before they came along. God maintains His claim to both the tithes and the offerings, but He gives to whom He chooses and in the structure and the setup of the nation of Israel, He chose to give it to the tribe of Levi for their service in holy things, their service in the Tabernacle, their service in the Temple. If God had relinquished His claim to the tithe from Israel, He would have violated, really, a cardinal point of His government. It would have meant that the priesthood would no longer be accountable to God, they would have been accountable to the people. And the priesthood was to be accountable to God. God was going to give to them His tithe.
Now to jump ahead to a degree, when we tithe, brethren, we proclaim that God is our God. We proclaim the He rules preeminent in our lives. Tithing is an act of worship and we need to realize that it is. Tithing is an act of worship. The tithe is holy, it belongs to God.
I was talking with a young couple this past week and we were discussing financial matters and it just came to mind that, you know, this was a number of years ago when I was writing my tithe check and typically after I receive my paycheck then I'll pay my tithe and I'll pay whatever bills I have and typically in the little memo part of your check where you write – if it was the house payment, I'd put down 'house payment'; electric, I put down 'bill'; gas, I'd put down bill and all that. So I was writing this out and when I wrote the tithe and offering to Headquarters, I wrote down 'bill'. I always put 'T & O' for tithe and offering. So I mailed it and never noticed anything. Well, whoever opened that in Pasadena knew me and read that, and the guy gives me a call. Kind of tongue in cheek, he said, "I got your check that you sent to Headquarters." I said, "Oh, well good." He said, "So you view tithing as a bill, do you? Do you view your giving your money to God that this is just a bill." I had no idea what he was talking about. I said, "No, no its not a bill" "Well, you wrote down 'bill'." I said, "I did not write down 'bill'. I wrote down 'Tithe and offering'." Got the canceled check there was 'bill'. We should not view tithe as just another bill that we write. We'd better make sure we write it, but we should not view it as another bill. This is a part of our worshiping God and that is viewed as holy in God's eyes.
Tithing today, in my opinion, should not be viewed fundamentally as the way of financing God's work. It is the way God's work is financed, but as to us individually, we should view tithing as our acknowledging the supremacy of God in our lives. That is God's tithe and we honor Him through our tithe. And, obviously, the Church is responsible to God for how it spends the tithe that belongs to God which God has given to the Church to do His work.
Tithing, quite frankly, makes the ministry totally and financially free to be responsible to God. If the Church were financed through the pleading efforts of the ministry in begging you for money, human nature would lead – which I have seen in talking to others – it would lead to the ministry kind of kowtowing to the fat cats of the congregation, to put it quite frankly, you know, the monied people of the congregation. "You'd better be a little extra nice to them. If they've got this particular sin, you'd better not hit that too hard. You know, the poor people, you can just hit their sin over and over. This is a monied person, you know. That's where the big bucks come." We don't have that system within the Church. God's system is dignified. It is a tenth. It is a tenth that comes from the membership and from the ministry to the Church. The tithe has always belonged to God. God does determine who will receive it. And tithing is the basic support system that He has used throughout time.
Now let's look to the New Testament. Matthew 23 and this will be a brief scripture but, obviously its a very important scripture on this subject. Mat. 23:23, Christ is speaking and if we could back up just for a moment to set the context of this chapter:
Mat. 23:1 - Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples,
So He is speaking to the multitudes, those who would come to hear Him and His disciples being defined as His students, those who were followers of Jesus Christ. And He is going to teach them things that they need to know. A part of what He is teaching here is the error of the Pharisees. So He's not speaking to the Pharisees necessarily about their error, although they would hear of this. There may be Pharisees in the group, but He is speaking to the multitudes and His disciples and a part of what He is telling them is some of the errors that the Pharisees had. It shows that they had power to sit in the seat of Moses, etc. So they had a role that Christ did acknowledge, but notice what He says here in verse 23.
Mat. 23:23 - "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.
So, Christ is not saying, "Oh, you Pharisees, you know, you shouldn't be tithing. We don't tithe anymore." No, He didn't say that. He said, "You should do that. But the way you tithe, you are just so meticulous." And again, they are trying to perceive what Christ was saying. Knowing the history of the Pharisees, I believe that a point that Christ was making is that He talks about the minute – tithing of the little seeds and all - probably so that they would make sure that they did not give too much to God. Or they wanted to make sure they got it exactly right and then they could feel righteous about themselves. It says "you have neglected the weightier matters of the law – the mercy, justice and faith." He said, "you should do the tithing." That's the point I would like for us to see. You should do that, but don't neglect mercy and faith and justice. Don't do that, you know. "My way is to honor God's law and do God's law and understand the scope of that." So once again just to cite that scripture, Christ does endorse the tithing, doesn't say that you shouldn't be tithing, but don't leave the important things undone.
Now, let's end with looking at Hebrews 7. When we read of Abram giving tithes to Melchizedek, I had intended to mention to you at that time, and I know that many of you are aware of that, that Hebrews 7 addresses who Melchizedek was. Who was this priest of Salem who brought out bread and wine whom Abram honored and acknowledged God through giving that tithe, gave the tithe to Him. Now in Hebrews 7 – Hebrews was written to Hebrews or Israelites who may have been scattered at that time. It wasn't a specific book written to the Church at Corinth or to Timothy or to Titus. It was written to the Hebrews and he has to teach them – obviously us as well and anyone who would read it – he would have to teach them that that which they had lived all their lives of understanding the Covenant, of understanding the Old Testament laws although they broke them, although they added to them, they had to realize that there was a change. Jesus Christ had come and He had established His ministry and they had to realize that Jesus Christ in doing so, who was not of the tribe of Levi, that He was of the tribe of Judah. And that the scriptures spoke nothing of the tribe of Judah of being in the service of God in the capacity as the Levites did, but now here was going to necessitate a change of the law, a change of the law of the priesthood. And notice in Heb. 7. Let's read the majority of this. I'll try to get through it fairly quickly.
Heb. 7:1 - For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,
Verse 2 - to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated "king of righteousness,"... or the prince of the king of Salem ...and then also king of Salem, meaning "king of peace,"
So who was this Melchizedek? It says,
Verse 3 - without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually.
Now, in reference to Melchizedek, he wasn't like you or me. You and I have a birth date. You and I have a will, have a day that we die. It was a reference to Jesus Christ in the role of Melchizedek at that time. It doesn't say – I don't want to become anal in it, but it doesn't say, when He came to town how He got to town, how He got to be the high priest. It doesn't go into that. I'd like to know some of that as I mentioned earlier. It doesn't go into that. Point B, he was without father and mother; without beginning, without end. It is a reference to Jesus Christ. He remains a priest continually. The Son of God remains a priest continually.
Verse 4 - Now consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils.
Verse 5 - And indeed those who are of the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brethren, though they have come from the loins of Abraham;
Verse 6 - but he whose genealogy is not derived from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises.
Verse 7 - Now beyond all contradiction the lesser is blessed by the better.
And here you have Abraham who was not giving tithes to the Levites who had the right to receive them, the Levites were still in his loin, yet he tithed. And he tithed to Melchizedek.
Verse 8 - Here mortal men receive tithes, but there he receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives.
Verse 9 - Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak,
So he is trying to tell them that you are not going to be paying your tithes to the Levites. He is building up to the priesthood of Jesus Christ, the priesthood of Melchizedek, that now you are going to give your tithes to the priesthood of Melchizedek that was an everlasting priesthood. And he's trying to show by example that even the Levite who by law could receive God's tithes, they, through Abraham - you know, they were in the loins of Abraham – gave their tithes through Abraham so to speak as it says, to Melchizedek. Its trying to show the importance of the priesthood of Melchizedek and that there would be a change that would now come about.
Verse 9 - Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak,
Verse 10 - for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.
Verse 11 - Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be called according to the order of Aaron?
Here would be a priesthood that did not receive it's priesthood by birth. Now we're going to have Peter and James and John and Paul and others who were already established and Jesus Christ, Himself, who was not a Levite. This would be the New Testament priesthood and not be called according to the order of Aaron.
Verse 12 - For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law.
So when the priesthood was being changed - the laws that dealt with the priesthood, one of them would have been the receipt of the tithes – there would be a change. There would be a change in who received the tithe.
Verse 13 - For He of whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no man has officiated at the altar.
Verse 14 - For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning the priesthood.
He said, you know, Christ is of the tribe of Judah. Moses didn't say that the tribe of Judah served at the altar. No, that was the tribe of Levi. But here is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and He is the one who has established this new priesthood or this new ministry, the ministry of Melchizedek and it is showing that with that change there would also be a change of who would receive the tithe.
Verse 15 - And it is yet far more evident if, in the likeness of Melchizedek, there arises another priest
Verse 16 - who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life.
Verse 17 - For He testifies: "You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek."
Verse 18 - For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness,
Verse 19 - for the law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.
Verse 20 - And inasmuch as He was not made priest without an oath.
And then it continues. Brethren, there was a change. It was a change from the Levitical priesthood to the ministry of Jesus Christ, or the ministry of Melchizedek showing that Melchizedek - from the time that Abram gave his tithe to Melchizedek - was One who represented God, the God of the Most High, and that Melchizedek had neither mother or father, beginning of days nor ending of days. So when the Levites served in that capacity and then just a few years later when the Temple was destroyed, the Levitical system was totally done away with, he is telling them that there is a right that Christ has to receive tithes as did Abraham with Levi in his loins pay tithe to someone other than Levi. And that's the point that is being made. It necessitated the change in the law.
Now back in Malachi 3:8. Once again, the scripture that we read earlier:
Mal. 3:8 - "Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, 'In what way have we robbed You?' ... the answer: ...In tithes and offerings.
Verse 9 - You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation.
Verse 10 - Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this," says the LORD of hosts, "If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such a blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.
Verse 11 "And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field," says the LORD of hosts;
Verse 12 "And all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land," says the LORD of hosts.
Brethren, what God is telling there once again is: yes, someone can steal from God. One can steal from God by not paying their tithes and offerings to God. Now, if I might mention as an aside, paying our tithe to God, our tenth, is not like, well, that's what business requires. You know, its not like insurance okay. You know, you've got insurance on your house, you have a lien on your car, you have to have insurance on your car; or health insurance. That's what it costs to be alive to just pay insurance. And here God says if I pay, if I buy insurance from Him, then He's going to cover me for everything. I mean, we can tithe with a wrong attitude. Tithing is an act of worship. In tithing we acknowledge who is God in our lives. And since we enter that compact with God, that You will be my God and I honor You, I will worship You, I will give the tenth to You, then God says, because we are doing that, because God is the God in our lives, He therefore wants to bless us. And if we honor God with our substance, the tenth which belongs to God anyway, but we acknowledge God by giving it, then He wants to bless us. If I can reiterate once again or emphasize, please, we should not view tithing as a bill that we write in the memo section of our check. We should not view it as an insurance policy. We should not view it as – what is it with the lobbyists, you know, in Washington: give enough money and you get protected. Its not that way at all. But it is money and when you deal with money we're dealing with a serious subject.
So, brethren, in Malachi 3:8, when God said "Will a man rob God?" who did it say in the Bible was being robbed? Did He say the Levites were being robbed? Did He say the priests were being robbed? Did He say the ministers were being robbed, the Work was being robbed, the Church was being robbed? No, indeed. He said, ...you have robbed Me! You have robbed Me by not giving to Me the tithe that belongs to Me which I have said in scripture is holy. Who is the victim if God is being robbed? Does God miss our $10 as a young person that we didn't tithe to God? Did God miss that? Is God going to sit on His throne and start to sweat, you know, where is the next meal coming from? I didn't get ten bucks from Sally. It doesn't bother God. He doesn't need it. We've already read the scripture that He doesn't need it. But who's the victim? The person who is under the curse. To those who know to do well, if they don't do it then they will come under a financial curse from God by not honoring God with their substance.
In conclusion, brethren, tithing is personal. It is between the individual and God and our tithing to God – minister and member – our tithing to God, it is between us and God and we make a statement with our substance of who is the God in our lives – who is the true God, who is the one God, who do we worship, who do we honor? And we establish that through our tithing. You and I honor God with our tithe and in doing so He promises to bless us, to keep us, to watch over us. He desires to fill our barns to the full, to give us the fat things of the earth, to give to us, but He does that if we give His tithe to Him because we honor Him as God and we desire to show that honor. And if that is done correctly, God is desirous of blessings. So, brethren, let's don't overlook the important part of our financial responsibility with God and that relationship and that is to give the tithe to God that belongs to Him.