God's Plan for Giving, Part 1 B

Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur. It's as ingrained in many churches as Bible teaching and prayer. It's been practiced by Christians every week for centuries. I'm talking about tithing, giving 10% of what you earn to the Lord. Now, while tithing is a well-known part of church worship, is it something the New Testament calls believers to do? What was the standard of giving in the Old Testament, and is it the same standard as the New Testament? Bottom line, what principles should guide your giving to your church? Find out today as John continues his series, God's Plan for Giving. And now, here's John. Now, Genesis 14, 20 is the first mention of the tithe.

And of course, you know the story. Abraham and Abram at this time had just returned from fighting of these kings, the slaughter of Chederlomer and the kings in verse 17 in the Valley of Shabbat. And he had been victorious and he had taken a tremendous amount of spoil, treasure from these kings that he had conquered. On his way back he runs into the king of Salem. Salem is the ancient name of Jerusalem. Now the king of Salem was a man named Melchizedek who was not only a king but according to the book of Hebrews was also a priest and it says as well in verse 18 that he was a king and a priest of the Most High God. So when Abram sees this man who represents God, he wants to express thanks to God for the victory.

So what does he do? Verse 20 at the end of the verse, he gave him a tenth of all. Now it doesn't say God told him to do this. Again it is not commanded that he give a tenth. And I think it most interesting to note that it doesn't necessarily mean that he gave a tenth of everything that he owned. He gave a tenth of something that he took in this battle. Another thought, Abraham lived 160 years at no time in Scripture is it ever recorded before or after this incident that he ever gave a tenth.

This is the only time that he ever gave a tenth that we know of in the record of his 160 years on earth. Now that indicates something to us and it wasn't a tenth of his income and it wasn't an annual tenth, it was simply that he chose to do it. Now another thought, in Hebrews 7 to it says he gave him a tenth of the spoils it's translated. But the Greek word is akrothinion, the word akron is in there which means the pinnacle or the top...the top.

Akrothinion means the top of the heap. It says he gave him a tithe of the top of the heap. It could mean that he gave him a tenth of the top of the heap. So it wasn't a tenth of the total pile, it was a tenth of the top of the pile.

You say, what are you trying to say? I'm trying to say that maybe all he gave him was a tenth of the best that he had, not a tenth of everything. If he took spoils of all five kings and their kingdoms, a tenth of all of that would have been an awful lot for one priest to handle. Maybe he only gave him a tenth of the top of the heap. But the point is, it was a one-time thing.

There's no record that he ever did it this way again. All right, free, voluntary, motivated only by gratitude in his heart, not required. Go to Genesis 28, let's find the other use of the word tithe in the book of Genesis and that has to do with Jacob 22, verse 22 of chapter 28. And Jacob just says at the end of verse 22, I will surely give the tenth unto thee. Now at this point Jacob is making a vow, verse 20, vow to vow if God will be with me and keep me in this way that I go and give me bread to eat and raiment to put on so that I come again to my Father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God. In other words, God, if you do this, I will, you know, bow down to you.

That's really bad. Don't take this as enormous spirituality. This guy gave a tenth, he was trying to buy God. There's no command that he give it. It was completely arbitrary, completely voluntary with no obligation at all to tithe. Now notice, I followed from Cain and Abel right through to the gift of Jacob and in all cases they were free, voluntary gifts. The idea that it was a tenth was arbitrary. Out of all of the offerings throughout the book of Genesis, twice it happened to be that they gave a tenth which in their eyes and in the eyes of ancient people simply represented the total in the sense that it was a symbol of giving all, nothing more.

All right, now let me take you a step further. What about required giving? You said that before the Mosaic Law there was required giving.

You're right, there was and I did say that and I want to show you where the required giving came. And if you'll turn to Genesis 41, I'll show it to you. You remember that Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers and he got there and he was in jail because of what he had been accused of in Potiphar's house. And when the Pharaoh had a dream that he couldn't handle, they got ahold of Joseph and he came and told the dream, remember, and he said there would be seven years of fruitful crops and seven years of what? Of famine. So Joseph said, you better get ready for the famine.

And here's how Joseph suggested they get ready. And this was God's plan, verse 34, let Pharaoh do this and let him appoint officers over the land and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years. For seven years tax the people at what rate?

What's a fifth? Twenty percent. Here is the introduction of taxation in the economy of Egypt. This is introduced by God. This is the first time you find the taxation of a national entity expressed this way. And you'll notice that we haven't progressed much farther from that, that the norm that they asked for then is still the basic norm of taxation in America, twenty percent, except for some of you unfortunates who may be in other brackets. But basically the twenty percent taxation was the basic taxation rate in Egypt.

This was God's plan as it was expressed through Joseph. And when they collected the twenty percent through the fat years, that would supply them the needed foods for the lean years. So taxation was instituted at that point and twenty percent was the figure. In Genesis 47, let me show you something else in verse 24, it shall come to pass in the harvest, you shall give the fifth part to Pharaoh, four parts shall be your own for seed for the field, for your food, for them of your households and for food for your little ones.

Now I'm going to leave you four parts, some to sow back in the field, some to eat, some to take care of your household needs and some for your kids. The fifth part goes back to the government. Folks, required giving in the Old Testament was twenty percent. It was instituted in Egypt and it was the funding of the national government. Now notice, free will giving is directed toward the Lord personally in a response of love and sacrifice.

Required giving is given to the national entity for the supply of the needs of the people. All right, now that's what you find from the time of creation to the time of giving the Law. Now let's look at the time from the Law to Jesus. Point two, from Moses to Jesus.

What do we find here? During this time, the tithe obviously becomes a familiar term and those who teach tithing as God's universal principle lean heavily on this period for their definition, obviously. Let's look, first of all, at required giving. Required giving from Moses on. This is very, very interesting. Now generally I was taught, I suppose, by many people that tithing was giving a tenth and this is what Israel gave.

Let me show you something. Turn to Leviticus 27. Leviticus 27 is just the very end, right before Leviticus runs out, verse 30. Now here was the tithe called the Lord's Tithe, or the Levite's Tithe. And the reason it was called the Levite's Tithe is very simple. It tells us in Numbers 18 that this tithe was collected to be given to the Levites. Who were the Levites?

They were the priests. The entire tribe of the Levites, the taxation of all the rest of the tribes went to supply the needs of the Levites who were one of the twelve tribes, the priestly tribe. So this is the Levite's Tithe, verse 30. All the tithes of the land, whether of the seed of the land or the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's. It is holy unto the Lord.

It isn't even yours. Ten percent of all of your land and seeds and fruit is the Lord's. Now maybe you want to keep your fruit, all right? Verse 31, if a man will at all redeem any of his tithes, he shall add thereto to the fifth part thereof.

All right, if you want to keep your fruit, you can pay and just add 20 percent and you can give money instead. Now concerning the tithe of the herd or the flock, this meant a tenth of every calf and a tenth of every lamb. Whatsoever passes under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord.

He shall not search whether it be good or bad, neither shall he change it. In other words, you could give money in exchange for the land and the seed and the fruit, but you could not redeem the animals. Those you had to give, the end of verse 33, it shall not be redeemed. These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel and Mount Sinai. All right, the Levite's tithe was 10 percent of everything that they had in terms of produce from the land and animals.

Now the emphasis here is on quantity. Now this teaches that this belonged to God. This is not a free will offering to God, is it? This is His already. You are robbing Him if you don't give it. Isn't that what Malachi said? You are robbing Me in the tithes.

It is Mine. So the 10 percent of the animals given to the tribe of the Levites to support them because, you see, they were the priests and they didn't earn a living other than just carrying on priestly functions and so the things that were given went to support them. And frankly, they ran the government.

They ran the nation. All right, let me take you to something else. They say, well there it is, there's the 10 percent.

All right, let me show you. Go to Deuteronomy 12. In Deuteronomy 12 you find there was a second tithe and from verses 6 to 17 we find again, but what it requires is another tithe, another 10 percent. And this 10 percent was to be taken to Jerusalem and it was to be eaten. It was eaten by the family, the friends, the servants and the priests in the sanctuary.

And it was very purposeful, incidentally. The idea of it was to stimulate devotion to the Lord. The idea of it also was to promote unity in the family and the servants and they would all go to Jerusalem and they would consume this particular tithe.

It was kind of like national potluck. It made everybody share. And so this was a purposeful tithe recorded there in the 12th chapter.

I'm not going to take time to read it all because our time is going. Let me give you a third thing and this I think is very interesting. So already we're up to close to 20 percent. You've got 10 percent of the first amount and you've got 10 more percent of the remaining 90 percent that you had to give to the government or to supply for the food of others. But in Deuteronomy 14, just a little ways further, we find a third one. Verse 28, at the end of three years you shall bring forth all the tithes of your increase the same year and lay it up within the gates and this was for the sojourner, the fatherless and the widow. Now this is what was called the poor tithe. The first one was called the Levite's tithe. The second was called the festival tithe and it was at the festival in the central sanctuary in Jerusalem it was consumed. The third one was called the poor tithe. So you've got 10 percent, 10 percent, three and a third percent every year if you've got 10 percent every third year.

So you're up to 23 percent right now. That was Old Testament tithe. So when somebody comes along and says the Jew gave 10 percent, that isn't true.

The Jew gave 23 percent to begin with. Coincidentally, this was the welfare program, the third one, for the poor people, the widows and the people who didn't have anything to eat. This was welfare.

So you can see what they were doing. They were funding the people who ran the government, the Levites. They were supplying for national feasts and so forth and so on in the festival tithe. And the third one was the welfare program in the poor tithe. This is all folks funding for the national entity. All three of those are taxation, not free will giving to God. Tithing was always taxation so that the programs of the government could run, the priestly program, the national religious program and the welfare program.

I'll add to that. If you were a Jew, you still weren't done yet. Leviticus 19. This is interesting.

This is the profit sharing plan in Israel. And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, neither shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave the corners alone and don't pick up what you drop.

Why? Leave it for the poor. And then he says, I am the Lord your God, which is like saying, and I am not kidding. So here was profit sharing. You didn't pick up what you dropped and you just left the corners of the field unharvested so that the poor people could share in that.

So, boy, now you're moving up further. They had a third shekel temple tax they had to pay to buy showbread and grain and sacrifices for the temple. And if you want more, in Exodus 23 they had to have Sabbath rest for the land every seven years which meant they forfeited an entire year's earnings off the land to let the land rest. And another thing, on the same Sabbath year they had to set all debts aside, did they not? Listen, folks, ten percent is a long way from what it cost them to exist within the theocracy of Israel.

They were easily well over 25 percent of their income given to the funding of that government and to the caring of the lands. This was required giving. Now notice, in addition to that, there is free will giving.

Now watch this. This includes first fruit giving and free will offerings. Now the emphasis here is not on the quantity or the percentage, but it's on the attitude of the giver and the quality of his gift. First fruits, first of all. We talked about this recently, how that they would plant and they would go out and they would take the first part that came in, the best part. In Numbers 18, 12 it says, all the best of the oil and the wine and the wheat, these have I given thee. That's first fruits. He would collect off the top the very best that was in the field and go and give it at the temple, give it to God. And the beauty of this thing was he hadn't yet harvested the crops so he didn't really know how much was there. So he was believing God and God was saying, if you will give me the first fruits right off the top before you even know how much you're going to have, if you'll give me the first fruits right off the top and trust me, I'll bring in your full harvest. You see, that's kind of a nice promise. Yeah, it's right there in Proverbs.

Let me show it to you. Proverbs 3, 9. Listen, honor the Lord with your substance. Well, that's a great principle.

That's with all that you've got. Honor God with every penny you have. Now watch. And with the first fruits of all your increase, give Him the first fruits. Watch. So shall your barns be filled with plenty and your presses will burst out with new wine.

Two things. You honor God with every penny that you have. Number two, you give Him right off the top, sacrificially the first fruits and believe me, He'll fill your barns and your presses will burst out with new wine. That's God's promise to Israel. All right, so here was the plan for free will giving. First fruits, whatever you've got, give the best.

You remember the difference in Malachi? God says, I'm not happy with you. I'm going to destroy you. I'm going to judge you because you have brought to Me the blind and the lame.

Remember, the worst animals you've got. You're keeping the best for yourself and forfeiting My blessing. Free will giving was independent of taxation, always, always, always giving to the Lord, giving to the Lord was a matter of freely giving Him the best and that's what God's after, the choicest thing. You know, it isn't when you've spent all your money on yourself and you've socked all your money away in some kind of great fun to take care of you, that you trickle a little bit to God. That isn't the first fruits. It's when you give Him the cream of what you have and keep a little bit for yourself that He'll fill your barns spiritually as well as you'll meet your needs physically.

Get the perspective, free will offerings, best fruits. The principle is in Proverbs 11, 24 and 25. There is that scattereth and yet increases. In other words, there's the guy who gives liberally and he increases. And there is that withholdeth more than is fitting and it tends to poverty. You keep it back and you're going to be poor. The liberal soul will be made rich and he that waters shall be watered also himself. Oh, I like that. I like it.

Let me show you how this works. You know, people say, oh, we'll never raise the budget. Oh, MacArthur, you'll mess our church up if they start listening to that tape.

I've had that said to me. I hope our people never hear what you say about that because it'll ruin our church because they won't die. Well, listen, folks, if this tape is a disturbing thing, then your problem isn't with MacArthur, your problem is with the Scripture. Exodus 25, let me show you how it works though. I mean, we're results-oriented, unfortunately.

We are. Listen to this. Exodus 25, 1, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak unto the children of Israel that they bring Me an offering. Now here is God's chance, God. All you've got to say is, I demand a tenth and that seals it, right?

The tenth becomes the universal law cause you said it. Watch what he said. I demand an offering...listen to this...of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart. Don't you like that? Just tell them to give whatever they want. I want an offering. Whatever is in his heart to give. Well Moses is there saying, we're going to build a temple and God says just give whatever you want. There's no big posters. Have you given your tenth? Nothing.

There's no...just do whatever your heart says to do. Oh, we'll never get the budget. It'll never happen. Listen, this is really terrific. I like this. You have to go all the way to Exodus 35. It took that long to collect the offering. Exodus 35, verse 4, And Moses spoke to the congregation of the children of Israel and said, This is the thing which the Lord commands. Here's what the Lord wants. Take from among you an offering.

How much? Whosoever is of a willing heart, just bring it. An offering of gold or silver or bronze or purple or blue or scarlet or linen or goat's hair or ram skins, dyed red or badger skin or acacia wood or oil for the light of spices and sweet incense and onyx stones and stones for the ephod and the breastplate, that's for the priest, and every one of you who has a smart heart, I like that, wise hearted, shall come and make all that the Lord's commanded. In other words, you just bring whatever's on your heart or whatever you got. I like that.

You say, oh, very dangerous. Look at verse 21. 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 for all its services and for all its holy garments. Did you know they came? And it says in 22, and they came, both men and women, as many as were willing-hearted.

Hey, friends, do you get the idea? What is God really after in giving? A willing heart.

It is not a legal law. It is a willing heart that He's after. Now I take you to 36, 5 to 7, Exodus 36, 5. And they spoke unto Moses saying, The people bring much more than enough.

Is that terrific? Too much, Lord. And Moses gave a commandment and caused it to be proclaimed throughout 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. I mean, when is it going to happen that you arrive at church and they say, listen, folks, please do not give any more money. For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it and too much.

That's right in the vernacular too. Too much. Listen, when people...I've said this all my life, when people believe in the ministry and when they believe what you're doing exalts they will give too much...too much. A clear illustration, people, that the giving that is done with true motivation goes beyond the need...goes beyond the need. Listen, Deuteronomy 16 says, Every man shall give as he is able according to the blessing of the Lord which God has given him.

That's all. It's a free thing. Now you see what I'm saying? Required giving was always taxation. Free will giving was always whatever came out of the willing heart.

But I'm telling you, boy, when people believe in what you're doing, that willing heart opens up. Those people believed God ought to have a tabernacle. They did. They believed that it would honor God to have a tabernacle. So you know what they did? Boy, they poured that money out of there.

They gave everything they had and they saw that completed. Just to show you that it wasn't an isolated incident, 1 Chronicles 29, David wanted to build a temple. And I mean, this...talking about the tabernacle was kind of a crummy place, it wasn't much.

It was some nice decoration but it was still skins and it was a tent. But in Chronicles, David, you know, is thinking about getting everything together for the building of this glorious temple that Solomon's going to erect. In verse 9 of 1 Chronicles 29, the people rejoiced for they offered willingly because with perfect heart they offered willingly to the Lord. See, there it is.

There's the same principle. And David the king rejoiced with great joy and he blessed the congregation. They had a praise session there, getting ready to collect the offering. And verse 16 says, O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have prepared to build and house for thine holy name cometh of thine hand and is all thine. He says, Lord, we have so much, all this abundance that's come in to build your house. You know what kind of house that was? Absolutely unbelievable.

Everything overlaid in gold. It was astounding what those people provided for the building of that house. Beloved tithing was taxation for the theocracy. We don't live in a theocracy but government is still ordained of God, is it not? And our taxation today isn't far from what they paid in those days.

They were up around 25% and we're somewhere from 20% up when you add all the sales taxes and all the other kind of taxes that we pay. We're really not too far off what God originally instituted as the basics of taxation. That isn't giving.

Don't get stuck at the tent. Don't limit yourself to legalistic giving. Be free in the Spirit of God to give superabundantly and so bountifully that you may what?

Reap bountifully. You're listening to Grace to You with John MacArthur. Along with teaching on radio, John also serves as pastor of Grace Community Church and chancellor of the Master's University and Seminary. Today he helped you understand God's plan for giving. Now as our thoughts today have been turned toward the idea of sacrificial giving, there are some people who give of themselves on really a daily basis and as a result they have a ministry in your life even though you've probably never met them. And John has a few thoughts to pass along to those heroes.

Well, I know what you're referring to, Phil. The men and women at this radio station on which you're hearing us right now, they are our partners. They are our friends in a very real sense even though we are maybe far away, somewhere in the world that we've never even been and they are people that we may never have even met. They are our partners in ministry because they make grace to you available to you in this community. We understand that. We understand that this is a synergy.

This is a real partnership. God has raised us all up together in his providence and by his power in order to spread the truth around the world. The people at this radio station work hard, often at great sacrifice, and they do that to bring programs like Grace to You and others into your home, into your car, into your office, or wherever you may be hearing. And we still believe Christian radio is a great tool that rises above the rest of what's available on the dial, obviously. But you know, there were people saying some years ago that radio would disappear with the internet.

That has not happened. In fact, Christian radio, I would say for us, is the entry point of most people that find their way into this ministry. We are reaching people on radio who don't really ever have any connection with us and they would think that in a random way they came across this radio station and maybe this program and this message, but really God uses it to reach out into the world and find people and draw them toward us. And once they find us on radio, that begins a relationship which flourishes in many ways as we make more resources available. So a few reminders for that person who's listening to this radio station, positive listener feedback is really helpful. The people who lead in this radio station need to hear from you. They need to know that you are grateful for the Bible teaching and the ministry they provide. So take your time to express your appreciation to the station. They would love to hear from you.

Give them a phone call, write them a letter, send them an email. Let them know that you appreciate grace to you and the other programs that bless you. Mentioning grace to you by name has a very positive impact that you might not realize. So you help us as well when you do that. So in a day when Bible teaching is becoming harder to find and is more needed than ever, let the station know that by doing it right as they are, by airing grace to you, they're making a huge difference in your life. Yes they are, and we are thankful for them along with you. And also we'd love to hear from you as well.

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