Concerning the Collection, Part 2 B

God does not want you to give grudgingly or of what? Necessity.

There's not any prescription, beloved. He just wants you to give whatever you want to give, whatever you're willing to give. But He says, remember, what you give I will multiply.

What you hold you won't see any multiplication of. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. You may have to scrimp and save each month to make ends meet, or you may make a comfortable wage. Wherever you fall in the spectrum, the way you deal with money is important. It's a barometer of your spiritual condition, and of course, figuring prominently in how you handle your money is the issue of how much you should give to the Lord. So when it comes to your finances, what does the Lord expect from you?

Does He want a certain percentage of your income? And how often should you give? Today on Grace to You, John MacArthur gets into the biblical specifics of those issues in a message he's titled, Concerning the Collection. It's part of our continuing study, God's Plan for Giving.

And now with a lesson, here's John. 1 Corinthians chapter 16, we're looking at the first four verses and discussing the subject, Concerning the Collection. Now the little phrase, now concerning the collection, reminds us of a phrase earlier, now concerning spiritual gifts. And it introduces to us another one of the areas of discussion that the Corinthians were having.

This is another thing they wanted information about, so that's why he writes about it. Now concerning the collection, I have a few principles I want to give you, and these are for you today too, folks, just like they were for them. Concerning giving or concerning the collection in the church, principle number one is the purpose of giving. And we saw, didn't we, in verse 1 that giving is for the saints, that we as believers have a primary responsibility to give to the needs of other believers, whether they are spiritual or physical. We are to invest so that the believers may have their needs met. We are to give to each other. We are to have all things in common like the early church. We are to share everything freely that we possess.

We really don't own anything. We just hold it in trust and if somebody else needs it more than we do, then it's theirs, whatever it is. So we are to share.

Now that's basic. The purpose of giving then is to direct itself at the saints. Secondly, we saw the period of giving, not only the purpose but the period there, didn't we, in verse 2. And the first day of the week was the period for giving. We are to deal with stewardship weekly. We are to face the reality of giving weekly.

God doesn't want us to store it up until some forgotten tomorrow. God wants us to be giving on a constant systematic week by week basis so that we are always facing the reality of stewardship. Third point, and I call this the place of giving. The place of giving, I believe, is to be the church. From the earliest years of the church, it was the pattern of giving that the saints would take their monies and they would give them to the church leaders and the church leaders would distribute them.

So that giving, in a sense, was indirect to the need. The church leaders would determine the needs. The church leaders would distribute to meet the needs. Rather than every individual simply giving money to whatever and whenever, wherever he wanted.

And that's why, beloved, you want godly people and responsibility in the church. So we see the purpose of giving to meet the needs of the saints, the period of giving, the first day of the week, and the place of giving, the church. Fourthly, the participants in giving. The participants in giving.

And this is, I'm just going to state very simply because it's not hard, verse 2 again, On the first day of the week, let every one of you, nobody's exempt. Some people might say, Well, I can't give money so I'll give my talent. No, no, no. Everybody, you say, Well, I give my money to this thing and that organization and I keep mine over.

No, no. Every one of you is to take this systematically week in and week out and to place it in the treasury of the church for distribution to the needs of the saints. It's a matter of stewardship. Fifth, we've seen the purpose for giving, the period for giving, the place for giving, the participants in giving. And fifth, the proportions of giving.

Now what is to be the proportion? How much are we to give? How are we to give? Well, the common answer is you've got to give 10 percent. I read a book this week on why you should give 10 percent.

A whole book on that. They're advocating that the 10 percent is what we are to give. Is that right? Is that what we're to give? Well, let's find out by looking at some biblical thoughts about this.

Let's trace just very quickly, I'm going to just run this by so hold on. We look back at the time before Moses. That's a block of time from Adam to Moses, then from Moses to Christ, then from Christ to now.

And those are the three great periods of history we'll examine in our thinking. Prior to Moses, what was the giving pattern? Well, some people say, well, they gave a tenth. Abram gave a tenth to Melchizedek. Jacob gave a tenth to the Lord in Genesis.

And they're right. So they say, you see, the tenth was before the Mosaic law, so it must supersede the Mosaic law and still be in vogue. So the tenth is the pattern. Well, what's interesting about that is to go back and to study, in fact, the time before Moses.

You know what you find out? That it's right. Abram gave a tenth and Jacob gave a tenth.

But you know what's interesting about that? Abram gave a tenth one time in his whole life and he lived over 160 years. And never do we have a record that he ever gave that much or that amount again.

Jacob did it once and beyond that, those are the only two who ever did it. And you have myriads and myriads and myriads of offerings given in that time. From Cain and Abel's first offering all the way through, all of the offerings ever given, you only have two times when they were a tenth and in neither case was the tenth commanded and in neither case was the tenth binding and in neither case did the tenth maintain itself as a standard of giving beyond the point at which it was given at that time. And you might be interested to know that giving a tenth was a common practice among the pagans because basic counting is done in increments of ten because of our fingers and our toes. People have always counted that way and ten has been always the symbol of fullness. So when a pagan would want to offer something to a god, he would give a tenth of it because that symbolized the total.

That symbolized the totality. And Abram on his own volition simply chose to do that. In fact it says in Hebrews that he gave a tenth of the top of the heap. So it may not have been a tenth of the whole of the spoils he gained, but just a tenth of the top of the heap, the best of the spoils. You remember he won a battle against five kings and he wanted to thank God somehow for the victory and then he met this man named Melchizedek who was a priest of God, a priest long before the Levitical priesthood, just a priest, a unique godly man and to show his love for God and his thanks, he made an offering to this priest, which was fine.

The tenth was simply arbitrary. In his heart that's what he chose to do. And later Jacob's one-time act was even an act of sin because he was giving a tenth as a pagan would to try to bribe God. Apart from that you have no indication that it was ever commanded, ever prescribed or ever demanded. You say, well then do you have any required giving in that period of time? Yes, you do in Genesis 41 and in chapter 47. In those two chapters, which we won't take time to study, but in those two chapters God required giving. You know what he said? He said to the inhabitants of Egypt, he said it's going to be a famine, right?

Remember that? Seven years of plenty, seven years of famine. He said in order to provide for that and in order to take care of the needs of the people, command every individual to give one-fifth of all that he has. What percent is that? Twenty percent. So God laid out twenty percent as a standard of giving for one reason.

Taxation. He was funding the government of Egypt to meet the needs of its people. That was the only indication of a prescription ever given in the pre-Mosaic time.

That was the only time an amount was ever prescribed. All other offerings were completely free will, free choice, give whatever you please. The only time God ever laid it out was in taxation of the government on the people to provide for its needs. Now, let's move into the time of Moses. You say, what happened in the time of Moses? You sure got it there. Yes, but you know something very interesting?

Listen to this. In Leviticus 27, God said, here's my law. You give a tenth of everything you have and it goes to the Levites. You know who the Levites were? They were the priests.

Now watch. He says, you give it to the Levites. They are the priests. Well, Israel, if you'll remember, was what's called a theocracy, not a democracy, but a theocracy. That is, God ruled. And God ruled in Israel through leaders. And the leaders were the priests. The priests were the senators and the congressmen and the presidents and the governors and the mayors and all the other judges and everything else. The priests took all those roles, so they were the public servants. And the tenth that was paid as the Levites' tax was to pay the salaries of the public servants. Beloved, it was not free will giving. It was taxation again.

Do you understand that? It was to fund the government. Then, in Deuteronomy chapter 12, they were required to give another 10 percent every year. And this was to go for the funding of the national holidays and the national feasts and so forth. And this was to take care of national unity and national religion, so that you had 10 percent every year and another 10 percent every year. And then in Deuteronomy 12, there was a third 10 percent that was to go to the poor. And that was welfare. And that was required every third year. So 10 percent, 10 percent, and three and a third were annual funding for the government.

Now listen. The tithe is related to that. It never was related to free will giving. It never was related to spontaneous giving.

It never is that thing that comes out of the heart to the Lord. It was required taxation. And in Malachi 3, when it says, bring your tithes and offerings into the storehouse, the word for storehouse in the Hebrew there is the temple treasury. Pay your taxes, he's saying. Now notice, the tithe in the Old Testament was not free will giving to God out of love. It was pay your taxes. Well you say then, during the time you were paying the funding to the national government and paying your taxes and all in Israel, did you have any liberty to give? Where was the free will giving? Oh. The free will giving was there too, but that was over and above.

Listen. Proverbs 3, 9. Proverbs 3, 9 says this. Here's the pattern for giving in the Old Testament time and Moses time.

Here it is. Honor the Lord with your substance and the first fruits of all your increase, so shall your barns be filled with plenty and your presses burst out with new wine. How much were they to give? Whatever you want. Just honor the Lord and give what you want, but remember, the more generous you are, the better the harvest and the fatter your barn's going to be. And then over in the 11th chapter of Proverbs, you have another principle for giving.

He says this. There is heat that scatters and yet increases. Heat that withholds more than is fitting and tends to poverty. You want to lose your money? Hoard it.

You want to gain? Scatter it. The liberal soul shall be made fat. That was the principle. In other words, God was saying this. Look, you can give whatever you want. Give the first fruits the best you've got. Give out of your substance and if you hold back, you'll tend to poverty. And if you scatter it, put out a lot, God will make you rich. That was giving.

Now I'll show you an illustration of this kind of giving. Look with me and I want you to turn to these passages for just a brief moment to Exodus. And I want to call your attention to chapter...well, let's look at chapter 25 and verse 1. Now they were building the tabernacle and the Lord spoke to Moses and said, Speak to the children of Israel that they bring me an offering. Now this isn't the tithe. It's not the first ten percent, the second ten percent, or the third ten percent. This is something they can do whatever they want. Now notice, of every man that gives it willingly with his heart, you shall take my offering.

What's the standard then? Whatever you want, whatever's in your heart, whatever you're willing to do. A beautiful spirit. That's always the way God was. God didn't tell Abram how much to give when he got joyous. He just gave what was on his heart. God didn't tell Abel what to give. He just gave what was in his heart. God didn't tell Noah what to do when he made the offering to God after the flood. He gave what was in his heart.

And it's the same principle here. Now watch in Exodus 35 what happens. In Exodus 35, it's time to collect the offering. They've got all the instructions on the tabernacle.

It's all set to go. And Moses spoke to the congregation and said, This is what the Lord says. Exodus 35, 5. Take you from among you an offering to the Lord, whosoever is of a willing heart. Let him bring it, an offering of the Lord. Listen, God does not want you to give grudgingly or of what? Necessity.

There's not any prescription, beloved. He just wants you to give whatever you want to give, whatever you're willing to give. But he says, Remember, what you give, I will multiply.

What you hold, you won't see any multiplication on. So remember to be liberal about it. So he says, Get him to bring gold, silver, bronze, blue, purple, scarlet, any old thing they want, whatever's in their heart. And verse 21 of Exodus 35, And they came, everyone whose heart stirred him up, and everyone whom his spirit made willing. And they brought the Lord's offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation and for all its services in the holy garments. You see, just a matter of whatever they want.

Well, you know how the story ended. They kept bringing so much stuff that finally they had to make an announcement. Verse 6 of chapter 36, And Moses gave a commandment and caused it to be announced through the camp, saying, Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary, so the people were restrained from bringing, for the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it and too much. Isn't that great? Well, I've often thought of the day when we come to church and say, Folks, there'll be no more offerings.

We have too much. But it ought to be so. Do you know that? It ought to be so.

It was then. And they didn't need a prescription and they didn't need an amount. All they needed was a heart that was willing and a spirit that was moved and they gave because they knew they were investing with a God who can't be out given. Do you understand that? Now, that's always been God's pattern for giving. The only time the tenth ever came into play was in taxation, not in free will giving. You say, Well, when you get into the present day, how do we view this thing?

Well, what about now? We don't live in Israel. No, but we have the same two kinds of giving. And the New Testament tells us to do two things with our money.

Basic two obligations. One, Romans 13, verse 6. Romans 13, verse 6. For this cause pay ye taxes. That's right. For the IRS are God's ministers. That's what it says here.

It doesn't say IRS, but it means them. Render therefore to all their dues, pay every last dime, tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. Now, do you see what the New Testament is saying?

It's saying the same thing. Did you prior in the time of Egypt, in the time of Egypt, what was the standard? Pay your 20 percent taxes to Egypt and give to God what you want. In Moses' time, pay your 23 and a third or whatever it was to Israel and give God whatever you want. Today, what is it? Pay your income taxes.

The United States government prescribes it. That's required giving and give God whatever is in your heart to give. There's no tenth, there's no percent involved at all. That's up to you. Do it every week and everybody do it. And David said, I will not give the Lord that which cost me nothing. Do it sacrificially.

Do it magnanimously. And I'll tell you a great truth, people. When you start to give to God, God starts to return it. You know, it's like planting seed.

It is absolutely like planting seed. Just to show you that, let me draw you to Luke 6 38. Luke 6 38.

And I want you to hear the words of Jesus. He gives us a pattern here. Watch. Give.

Did you get that? You say, how much? Give me a figure, Lord. It's a lot easier if I can just know I'm spiritual.

We don't have to worry about it. Get this thing objective as we can here. No, it just says give and it shall be given unto you. Watch. Good measure pressed down, shaken together and running over. Shall men give into your bosom? In other words, what you give, you'll get back, only you'll get back more than you gave. Right?

Running over. But watch the next line. And with the same measure that you measure, it'll be measured to you again. In other words, the only thing you'll get a return on is what you give. People say to me, how much should I give?

I say to them, how much do you want? How much do you want God to return an eternal dividend on? You say, yeah, but I know what will happen to me. God will give me all spiritual blessings. That wouldn't be bad, would it?

But just in case you're really hung up on that. 2 Corinthians 9, 6 says, listen, but this I say, He who sows sparingly shall reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully shall reap bountifully.

You see the same principle? The amount you give is the amount you return on. Every man then according as he purposes in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Now watch. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you that you always will have all sufficiency in all things. He won't just give you back the spiritual blessing. You'll have all sufficiency in all things. And He goes on in verse 10 to say, He will minister bread for your food, He will multiply the seed you have sown, and He will increase the fruits of your righteousness.

So you will receive the physical bread and the spiritual fruits of righteousness by investing with God. You can't beat it. It's the greatest deal there is. You can't beat it. I'll tell you the spirit of it. Luke 19.

Luke 19 is the spirit. There was a little man who lived in a tree for a day. His name was Zacchaeus, chief tax collector. And he was rich.

Oh, was he rich. And he was curious about Jesus. And Jesus invited himself to dinner at his house. And it was interesting what happened in verse 8. Luke 19, And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. Now you say, now wait a minute, brother Zacchaeus, we do appreciate your generosity.

However, 10 percent is all that's really required, not 50. Jesus didn't say that. I'm going to give 50 percent of everything I have to the poor, and if I took anything from anybody by false accusation, I'm going to give him back 400 percent. And Jesus said to him, This day is salvation. Come to this house, for he is a son of Abraham. But what he's really saying there, of course, is that he is a son of Abraham in the sense that he is a spiritual son. His salvation is proven. Isn't it amazing that it is true that by their fruits you shall what?

Know them. And isn't it true what John said? If you see your brother has need and you shut up your mercy, how dwells the love of God in you? And isn't it right that James says your faith minus works is dead? You know, you can tell a true believer because out of his heart comes this great magnanimity, this great desire to give. Dear Zacchaeus was saved, and Jesus said it was obvious by the fact that he wanted to give all this away.

Because he had a giving heart. Boy, if there's one thing a Christian ought to have, it's a giving heart. If there's one thing a Christian ought not to have, it's covetousness.

So the amount, what is the proportion? What does Paul say in 1 Corinthians 16, 2? How much are we to give, Paul? You are to give just exactly what you in your heart determine. So says Paul, let every one of us purpose in his heart what he will give, but be sure it's not grudging or of necessity, but because the Lord loves what? A cheerful giver. How much are you to give to the Lord? Whatever you want. How often are you to give to the Lord?

Constantly dealing with it on a week by week basis. Where are you to give to the Lord? Into the church so that it can be distributed by those who have spiritual oversight.

For what reasons are you to give to the church that the church might support its own spiritually and physically and meet their needs? And we'll finish the text next time. Let's pray. This is so practical, Father. This just isn't foggy theology. This is right down where the rubber meets the road where we touch life. And we thank you that you've given us a clear word that blessing isn't something we have to kind of look up in the sky for and hope it will drop on us like some mysterious benefit. But blessing is something as tangible as knowing that when we act in generosity and love by giving freely and abundantly and sacrificially and lovingly to your cause, you return to us abundant blessing. Teach us to sow bountifully that we might reap bountifully. And Father, help us to know that we've just got to get a glimpse of eternal life of heaven so that we don't get too wrapped up in this world. So that we don't waste our resources and our energies and our funds spinning our wheels in this age when an investment in eternity is really what matters. Help us to get that perspective, Father. Free us, Father, from covetousness, to invest with Thee, knowing at the same time that you've promised to return to us more than we ever gave.

Thank you for this time and for your promises. In Christ's name, amen. One final look at this issue of God's plan for giving.

That's tomorrow. We encourage you to join John MacArthur for that here on Grace To You. Now, John, as you showed us today, God expects His followers to give with a willing and joyful attitude, but I think we can all admit that it's not always automatic to want to give money away. The notion of having money in the bank is a sense of security that comes from having financial resources. We're not saying that those things aren't important, are we? No, the Bible is explicitly clear that we are to save money. I mean, that's explicit in Scripture. We are to save money.

Jesus even talked about putting your money in a bank, specifically putting it in a bank. So that is a priority. The stewardship of flocks, the stewardship of resources, even in the Old Testament, a wise person knows the situation he's in. He takes account of everything he possesses, and he plans carefully for the care of his family.

That's a basic stewardship. And that is very important, but that's not where we find our security, ultimately, and that's not where we find our peace. We find our peace in the Lord. So I would rather have a small savings and complete trust in the Lord and know that I've been a steward of what I have than to become completely obsessed with saving money, which would demonstrate a certain distrust in the Lord.

So there's a balance there. You trust the Lord. You know that he's going to care for you. I've never seen the Lord's people begging bread, Scripture says. My God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus. So God is going to take care of us. But we also have to demonstrate wisdom in the process, and we're part of that care by being wise with what we do with the resources we have. So I think it's a balance where you trust the Lord to care for you, but you don't presume on him by doing things that are foolish.

Finding that balance is a lifelong situation, and it changes through life, too, because there are times in your life when you have enough and times when you don't, because things change. So I would just encourage people, there's a little book that I wrote called Found God's Peace. All of us want that, don't we? We want peace in the midst of every difficulty, anxiety over money or anxiety over anything else, fear of the future, the unknown. That's what this little book addresses, chapters on casting your care on God, avoiding anxiety through prayer, having peace in every circumstance, and a selection of psalms for the anxious. It's a wonderful little book, Found God's Peace. We'll send it to anyone who asks, free of charge. It's our gift to you. Call, email, go to our website or write today, and ask for the free book, Found God's Peace.

Yes, friend, I want to make sure you caught that last part. John's booklet, Found God's Peace, is yours free. All you have to do is ask for a copy. Get this booklet for yourself or for someone who is struggling with anxiety when you contact us today. Call our toll-free number, 800-55-GRACE, or you can also take advantage of this offer when you go to gty.org. Found God's Peace is an ideal resource to turn to whenever you start to worry. It's a substantial booklet that takes an in-depth look at some of the most powerful verses in the Bible on overcoming anxiety.

It also makes a great gift for a new believer. Again, we'll send you Found God's Peace for free. Just call us at 800-55-GRACE or go to our website, gty.org. Also, keep in mind, if you missed a message in John's current study, God's Plan for Giving, you can download it for free at our website. All six messages from this series, along with all of John's sermons from 52 years of his pastoral ministry, are available free of charge at gty.org. That's our website one more time, gty.org. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace To You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for making Grace To You part of your day and be here tomorrow when John wraps up this series, God's Plan for Giving, with another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Friday's Grace To You.