Will a Man Rob God?

In the last book of the Old Testament, the prophet Malachi says, bring the whole tithe into the storehouse.

Now, this text has become an extremely problematic text in terms of the controversy that is engendered by it. Is this principle of the tithe one of those laws of God that carries over into the new covenant? Or simply stated, are we also required of God to tithe? This is a common question among Christians. We want to be faithful to God and do those things that He expects us to do, but does that apply to commands like this that were directed to the ancient Israelites?

Let's find out as Dr. R.C. Sproul continues his series, The Hard Sayings of the Bible. Sometimes it's said in the church that the minister on occasion crosses the line and makes a transition from preaching to meddling. I'm afraid maybe that's what's about to happen today because the Old Testament hard saying that we will be examining in this message has to do with the question of tithing.

And I bring up this subject at the risk of meddling. But I remember after my father died when I was a young man, my mother disposed of many of his personal effects. She saved certain documents and certain things that were important to them. And a few years later when I became a Christian, for some reason my mother showed me some of these personal effects that had been left behind by my father, and one was a handwritten sermon. My father was not a minister, but he was asked to speak occasionally in the Methodist church where he grew up. And here one of the things that my mother had saved was a copy of his handwritten sermon that he had preached.

And I was able to look at it. And as I read it, I was struck by its content and also by its title. And the title of the sermon was simply, Will a Man Rob God? It was a sermon on tithing. I remember long before I was a Christian, just as a matter of family responsibility, it was instilled in us as young people that we had a duty and obligation to tithe.

This was a big thing with my father so that when we got our allowance as children, we were required to take a percentage of that allowance and put it in the collection plate on Sunday morning so that we would establish a practice that would be continued throughout our lives. Well, it wasn't until after I became a Christian that I learned where this text came from and discovered that it was from the last book of the Old Testament from the teaching of the prophet Malachi. We read in chapter three of Malachi, beginning at verse eight, these words, Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you say, In what way have we robbed you? In tithes and offerings.

You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed me, even this whole nation. 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 blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. Now, this text has become an extremely problematic text in terms of the controversy that is engendered by it.

Questions arise such as these. First of all, is this principle of the tithe that is clearly commanded by God in the Old Testament economy one of those laws of God that carries over into the new covenant and imposes a like obligation upon Christians, or simply stated, are we also required of God to tithe? A second question is, what is a tithe? What is the meaning of the tithe? The third controversy is, to whom should the tithe be given? And the fourth controversy, which has been precipitated by the so-called health and wealth movement, the prosperity gospel, is, does tithing guarantee a future prosperity from those who give it?

So we can see all of the discussions that have emerged over this question. The first question then is this, is this principle of tithing that is given in the Old Testament something that carries over into the New Testament? Now, to answer that question fully would require a series of lectures on the whole significance of the Old Testament law and to what degree it applies to the New Testament Christian. And so I'm not going to take the time to give a complete survey of that question, simply to say this, that the New Testament does not explicitly restate this obligation. The New Testament is a little bit more ambiguous, but if anything, the New Testament imposes a greater obligation upon the people of God in light of the clear teaching in the new covenant that we live in a better covenant, that we have more blessings bestowed upon us than the people of the Old Testament did, that the riches we receive from God in the New Testament are greater than those that abounded in the Old Testament. And so from a simple process of reasoning, it would seem, at least prima facie, that as the benefits increase, so the responsibilities increase proportionately with it, even as God Himself says in the New Testament, to whom much is given, much is required. And secondly, we are told in the New Testament that we are to give as the Lord prospers us so that the principle of giving to the work of God certainly is reaffirmed in the New Testament. Now, we're simply asking, what are the guidelines for that principle of supporting the work of God in the New Testament? Well, to help understand that, let's take a moment and look at the second question, what is the tithe? Well, the word tithe means, as I'm sure most of you already know, a tenth. And the way it worked in Israel was this, that God had separated one tribe from the family of Jacob to be responsible for ministering in the temple and the matters of the religious community, and they were not to have to look for secular employment to meet their needs, but the other tribes were responsible to support the work of the Levites by the giving of the tithe, so that the purpose of the tithe was to underwrite the work of God in the midst of the people. Now, I would also say two things that are often overlooked, that the Levites were responsible not only for the ministry of the temple and the tabernacle, but they were also responsible for the religious instruction of the nation, so they were the ministers and the teachers.

That's why today you have seminaries and Christian colleges and so on that also often receive some of the funding provided for the work of God. But in any case, the way it worked was this, that in an agrarian society, people basically were either farmers who grew produce or they were ranchers who raised cattle. And suppose you had a herd of 500 cows, and during the course of a year, that herd produced 10, let's just say for the sake of keeping the math simple, 10 calves. Now, that meant that the cattle rancher in Israel had to give 10 percent of his increase to the Lord, not 10 percent of the total worth of his herd.

That would mean he would have to give 51 cows. In this case, if he had a herd of 500 and new calves of 10, he would have to present one of those calves to the Levites as the payment of his tithe. Likewise, those who grew produce had to give 10 percent of the increase of their produce back to the Lord. And so, this produce, the foodstuffs, that's basically how the tithes was paid, not completely. There were also occasions for currency to be used, as we see in the New Testament when Jesus talks about the widow's mite that is given, which is as important to God as the rich man's donation. But the thing that is so striking about the Old Testament principle of the tithe, or the tenth, is the equity of it, that every person in the land was required to tithe. That is, they were to give 10 percent of their increase to the work of God.

Now, the beauty of it was that it was established on a percentage basis that had equity. There was no progressive income tax in Israel. A progressive income tax would have been viewed by God and by the Jewish nation as an injustice, as an inequitable system of taxation, one that our nation embraces, and for the most part without a whole lot of protest, although recently there have been movements to develop a flat tax where everybody pays the same percentage but not the same amount. And that is important for the general equity specifically so that economics may not become politicized.

But any time you have a nation and a system that is so-called progressive in its taxation, you turn taxation into a political football, which is exactly what has happened in our country. But in Israel, everyone had to pay the same percentage, not the same amount, so that the wealthy person had to give a lot more produce or a lot more of his wealth to the work of the kingdom than the poor person. But the point is, each had to pay the same percentage, and it was a beautiful thing because not only could the person who was more prosperous have to give the same amount, he was not elevated as being some great, wonderful hero because he gave more money than the poor man. He was simply doing his duty, and he was expressing his gratitude for the prosperity that he had enjoyed in it. In our civilization, we tend to fawn all over the big givers, even if the big givers are not necessarily tithing.

Let's put it this way. If I make $10,000 a year, my requirement is to tithe a thousand of it. If I make $10 million a year, my requirement is to tithe a million. But if the guy who has $10 million gives $500,000, he's a hero, but he's a thief at the same time because he is robbing God of 50% of what he is required to give. So we need to be careful about that sort of thing and not be respecter of persons simply on the basis of how much actual money they give. God is looking at the responsibility that He gives to everybody in the Old Testament, and to withhold that tithe to any degree is considered robbery of God.

Now, think about that. This is a concern of mine because in the last survey I showed, they're always doing these polls, you know, Gallipoles and Barna and the others, show that of those who identified themselves as evangelical Christians in America, 4% identified themselves as tithers. If that's the case, then 96% of professing Christians in the United States of America today in the evangelical world are consistently, systematically stealing from God. I know we deplore those who are always trying to raise money in the Christian community and the huckster mentality that we've seen, and rightly so with some of the methods that we are exposed to. But one of the reasons for the hard sell and the high pressure is to make up for the 96% shortfall that the work of the kingdom faces every day in America. This is a serious problem. The biggest problem that I know of for godly ministries to make an impact in this world is insufficient resources. We're working on 4% of what the church should have for her mission to be fulfilled.

And that's why this is such a serious matter. And God regarded it as serious enough that He would curse His people if they withheld their tithes and offerings from Him. Now, the next question is, to whom was the tithe given? Well, in the Old Testament, we read that the tithe was taken into the storehouse, that there was a central depository to receive the produce and the animals and so on. And then the Levites from this central depository would allocate and dispense the tithe to those who were in the Levitic system. I know that I've heard ministers in our day and age say that the only legitimate place to which the tithe can be paid is the local church, because only the church represents the storehouse. And then it is the responsibility of the church to distribute those tithes and offerings to various ministries and so on. I'm not sure we can draw that conclusion from the Old Testament system at all. I've talked to some of my friends who are pastors in local churches who want the local church to be the storehouse, and I say, well, if we're going to really be consistent about that, we're going to have to advocate that all of the tithes, say within the Presbyterian church or the Lutheran church or whatever, be given to a central agency in the denomination and then allocated to the individual churches.

And that's when they get nervous and they say, no, no, no, we don't want that, that kind of a system. But that would be more consistent with what was going on in Israel. And I don't know how we're supposed to handle this distribution of tithes and offerings to your favorite ministries or your local church, but I would say this, that it would seem to me that one of the requirements of membership in a local church should be the vow to support the ministry of that church with your offerings and with your tithes. And I do believe, even though I'm involved in a ministry that serves the church but is not officially part of the church and that depends upon donations for 50% of its budget, I still believe that the Christian's obligation is to give the lion's share of their tithe to the local church and to support the ministry of the local church.

I don't think they're required to give it all there, but I do think that, you know, as a matter of prudence, if nothing else, and of commitment to the local church, that they make that a top priority in their giving. And the final thing I want to comment about this text is the promise that is found here where God says, "'Try me now in this, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing.'" This promise of God of opening the windows of heaven for blessing to those who give is one of the most abused texts on television and radio you will ever see. I've seen appeal letters from people saying, if you will send this ministry a donation of $50, I promise you that God will return to you $500 or $5,000, and they make up some kind of figures because here God says He will open up the windows of blessing. That is used as a gimmick to manipulate people to sacrificial giving, which I think is abhorrent. However, that abuse is an abuse of a real promise of God. And I mention it for this reason. When I worked in the church as a pastor and so on and would talk to people about the responsibility of tithing, the biggest single reason that I heard from people who did not tithe was this, I cannot afford to tithe.

And I would say, let me translate that for you. What you mean is that you cannot afford to live at the style of living you are currently experiencing and tithe, because that 10% has to come out of some place. That's why it's so important that we start early on this so that we become accustomed to it so that, I mean, I just know every year, and people argue about whether you should tithe your gross or your net or whatever. I just look at my gross income for the year, and I say, okay, right off the top, 10%, before Uncle Sam gets a dime, for anybody else, my first obligation is to God. It's not my money.

So what do you mean I can't afford it? I can never afford to steal from God. So if I hold it back, I'm embezzling from my Creator and my Redeemer, and that's why I look at it.

So I have to give what is my responsibility. The freeing thing is, if I'm prosperous and I've done what I'm supposed to do, I'm free to enjoy the fruit of my labor as long as I'm a good steward and prudent with it and so on. It is a very liberating thing to live within the guidelines of what God has commanded. And I happen to believe that I've never missed a single penny of tithing that God indeed provides for us in such a way that one of the best investments we can make in this world is in the kingdom of God. With a message from his series, The Hard Sayings of the Bible, that was Dr. R.C. Sproul.

You're listening to Renewing Your Mind. I'm Lee Webb. Now this is a message that certainly resonates with my wife and me. Early in our marriage, we were not faithful with our tithe.

There was no reason for our disobedience. My parents were faithful in their giving, and I witnessed that early on. But my wife and I encountered some financial hardships in the early 80s to the extent that we felt led to pray about it. Soon afterward, my wife was convicted of our failure to tithe, and she lovingly confronted me about it. So next paycheck, right off the top we tithe, not to the net, but the gross amount. And to make a long story short, we began to see our financial burden lighten in ways that we couldn't have imagined or planned.

We continue that practice to this day, and like R.C., we've never regretted it. We realize that God is who He says He is. He's faithful, and He wants us to entrust every part of our lives to Him, including our finances. We are offering Dr. Sproul's series On These Hard Sayings in a digital format. He covers several difficult passages like the hardening of Pharaoh's heart and the creation of the earth in six literal days. And one of the reasons why we sweat over getting these hard sayings of the Bible right is because we, like Peter, believe that they hold the words of eternal life. Our commitment to the inspiration and authority of Scripture means we study, explain, defend, and apply all of it carefully. So we invite you to contact us and request this series with your donation of any amount to Ligonier Ministries.

You can call us at 800-435-4343, or if you prefer, you can go online to renewingyourmind.org. Well, as I shared a bit of my testimony as it relates to tithing, here's R.C. again with some additional thoughts on trusting God in this way. I mentioned earlier about investing in the kingdom of God.

I've published over 40 books, and I own the royalties to most of them or to some of them, and they have benefited my family in a marvelous way so that I'm not a rich person, but I'm comfortable. And I've tried to be very judicious in making investments because I believe that we should delay gratification and provide for our family. And I had spent some time with some cash, and I had it in a bank and didn't know where to invest it, and I have a man who handles my investments for me. And he's a Christian, and we were at breakfast one morning, and I said, I need to invest this money.

He said, you know, R.C., I get tired of this investing in corporations and stuff. He said, wouldn't it be great if we could invest all our money in the work of God? So I decided, I said, on this time around, I said, even though I'm all paid up and then some with a tithe, I was going to take this and instead of investing it in something that would yield me a financial return, I was going to invest this capital in a ministry.

And that was one of the most exciting decisions I've ever had the opportunity to make because I'm sure the return will be totally invisible to me, but it'll be fun. And I think that it should be fun for all of us to really put our money where our mouths are and to work to support the work of the church, the work of Christ, and the work of His kingdom. Well, I hope you'll make plans to join us next week as we continue our C series, The Hard Sayings of the Bible. Just before Jesus healed the man born blind, the disciples asked Jesus who had sinned to cause His blindness.

They asked a loaded question, and Jesus corrected their wrong assumption. We'll find out why next Saturday. I hope you'll join us for Renewing Your Mind. We'll see you next week.