Concerning the Collection, Part 3

Paul is saying, giving is not to be provoked by emotional appeals at periods of time. It is to be systematic week by week.

He's saying, look, you do this so we don't need some big appeal and some big gathering. When I get there, this ought to all be in the flow of faithful, systematic, week by week giving. Welcome to Grace To You. I'm your host, Phil Johnson.

You know, if there's one thing that there's no shortage of today, it's companies that offer to help you invest your money. And yet, by and large, churches seem to be silent on the issue of investing in God's kingdom, despite the wealth of biblical teaching on the subject. So today on Grace To You, as John MacArthur wraps up his study, God's Plan for Giving, he's going to take a comprehensive look at how you can use your resources to glorify the Lord and strengthen your church and draw others to Christ. John's lesson comes from 1 Corinthians chapter 16, and if you have your Bible, you should turn there now.

Here's John. 1 Corinthians chapter 16 and verses 1 to 4 is a text which deals with the objective in the heart of the Apostle Paul to meet the needs of the poor saints in Jerusalem. Paul had this great burning desire to collect an offering from the Gentile churches who were somewhat wealthy in order to give it to the poor saints at Jerusalem who were in dire need. Now the Corinthians knew about this, but they had some question about how Paul wanted the collection to be made. And so they asked him what was their part in this collection for the poor saints. And he responds in this book by writing 16, 1 to 4, these four verses as instruction to the Corinthians as to their part in the gifts needed by the Jerusalem church. But this goes way beyond that because while you have here basically a statement relative to a specific situation in the Corinthian church, it can be broadened to teach us principles of giving that are as far-reaching and poignant for us today as they would have been for the Corinthians then.

And we've already begun to discuss these. But I was thinking that behind this whole thing here is this need to meet the dire distress of poor people. And I want to give you the divine attitude that's behind the heart of Paul in meeting the needs of these people. Now you can go as far back in the Old Testament as the time of the Exodus when God first called out His people, when He first established a nation. And the Bible tells us in the book of Exodus as well as other places when it reflects on the Exodus itself that God called them out of the house of bondage. That God called Israel out of slavery. That God called Israel out of oppression.

That He called them out of the place of poverty and destitution. In fact, in Exodus chapter 20 and verse 2, in the text that is the preamble to the Decalogue or the Ten Commandments, God identifies Himself in this way. He says, God sees Himself as a liberating God, as a God who frees people from bondage, who frees people from poverty, from slavery, from depression and oppression. In Deuteronomy chapter 26, let me read you something of what is said here relative to this element in the Exodus. Deuteronomy 26 and verse 5, you don't need to look it up, I'll just read it to you. Deuteronomy 26, 5, Moses is talking.

He says, And thou shalt speak and say before the Lord thy God, Assyrian ready to perish was my father. He went into Egypt, sojourned there with a few and became a nation great, mighty and populous. In other words, a few people went into Egypt, but they came out a nation, maybe several million. That's where the nation was really born, in slavery, poverty and oppression. And the Egyptians badly treated us, they afflicted us, they laid on us hard bondage, and we cried to the Lord God of our fathers, the Lord heard our voice, looked on our affliction, our labor and our oppression and the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt. Now the whole point that He's making here is that God redeemed the people out of poverty and bondage and slavery and oppression and need.

God has always, always identified closely with people in great distress. You know what's sad? What's sad is that Israel was a nation born out of poverty, born out of bondage, born out of oppression and Israel was undone. Israel was scattered.

Israel was destroyed for doing to the poor among its own people exactly what the Egyptians had done to them. The kingdom was divided after Solomon. Israel split into two parts, the northern kingdom with ten tribes, the southern kingdom with two tribes, Judah and Benjamin. The southern kingdom was known as Judah, the northern as Israel. They existed co-equally for a while with unmitigated evil in the north and evil and good mixed in the south. Finally, in 722 BC, the northern kingdom was scattered into oblivion.

The reason? Well, for the reason for their scattering, you need to look at Amos. Amos is one of the little prophets, small book, very important man. In Amos chapter 2, listen to the reason God took the northern kingdom away. Amos 2, 6, Thus saith the Lord, For three transgressions of Israel and for four I'll not turn away its punishment.

Here they come, the four. They sold the righteous for silver. Number one, for money they would sell a righteous man. Second reason, and the poor for a pair of shoes. They would do anything to step on the neck of the poor.

If they could get a pair of shoes out of it, they would sell the poor. And verse 7 says, They pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor. In other words, they want to push the head of poor people into the dirt. They turn aside the way of the meek. And then the other sin, a man and his father go in under the same maid to profane my holy name, immorality.

And then the next one, verse 8, They lay themselves down on clothes laid to pledge by every altar and drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their God. So what you have is wrong dealing with the righteous, wrong dealing with the poor, immorality and idolatry. For those four things God carried away the northern kingdom, but one of them was the way they oppressed the poor. God identifies with the need of poor people. Listen to Psalm 146, verse 5. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that there it is, who keepeth truth forever. Now listen further about God. Who keepeth justice or executeth justice for the oppressed, who giveth food to the hungry, the Lord looses the prisoners, the Lord opens the eyes of the blind, the Lord raises those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous, the Lord preserves the sojourners, he relieves the fatherless and widow. That's the kind of God we have. He's not only a creator, he's a lover of the poor and the needy and the widows and the orphans.

God has always identified with those in need. And in Proverbs there are two verses that we must not miss. Chapter 14, verse 31 says, he that oppresseth the poor.

Now watch this. He that oppresseth the poor, listen, reproaches his maker. When you oppress the poor by not paying him a wage that is fair, by not sharing your abundance with his need, you reproach God.

Why? Because God cares for that poor person. In fact, the opposite truth to that is in Proverbs 19-17.

Listen to this. He that has pity on the poor lendeth unto the Lord and that which he hath given will he pay him again. In other words, when you withhold from the poor, you mock God.

When you lend to the poor, you invest with God who will pay you back. God is identified with the poor and the needy. You all know that one point in time God came into this world, right?

And he came in the form of a man, didn't he? And God's great heart for the poor and the needy wasn't any different when he was incarnate either. Look with me at Luke chapter 4, verse 18. Luke chapter 4, verse 18.

Listen to this. Jesus arrives in Nazareth, the beginning of his ministry in Galilee. And he stands up in the synagogue and he opens the Scripture to Isaiah and this is what he says. Luke 4, 18. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the...what?

Poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Did you notice how he identified with the poor and the broken and the needy and the helpless? God always does. Always. This is a principle all throughout the Scripture.

It's everywhere. Now let's go to 1 Corinthians 16 and just quickly finish it up. The Jerusalem Christians were poor. It was a matter of sharing. So Paul is collecting this offering and the Corinthians say, Well, what are we supposed to do to have our share? And he gives them four verses of instruction. And you remember the last time I told you that there are all kinds of great principles here.

Let me just remind you of them. First of all, we saw the purpose of giving, of all giving in verse 1. Giving is for the saints primarily.

For the saints. And we are to give to the saints physical need and also their what? Their spiritual need. And sometimes we are to give to the saints in the pew and sometimes we are to give to those who minister to us. We saw that in the Scripture. But we are giving, first of all, to those in the family. Beyond that, of course, we are to give to any who have need. God loved the stranger and the sojourner too, didn't He?

And He met His need. Then we saw the period of giving in verse 2 on the first day of the week. That is, giving is to be regular, systematic, week after week as we really come to grips with the stewardship of money every week.

Not just piling it up and throwing it all into one shot. Week, week, week after week. Period of giving. And we saw the place of giving. Let every one of you lay by Him in store. And we shared with you that the store is the assembly of the church and that we are systematically to give when the church comes together on the first day into the store of the church, the thesaurus, the treasure. And that that treasure is to be dispensed by godly men.

So the purpose, the period, the place, we saw, fourthly, the participants in giving. Who's to do this? Let every one of you.

Verse 2. Everybody. Nobody is exempt from systematic week by week giving.

This is to be just the spontaneous, joyous, cheerful response of a loving heart toward a God who has given us everything. The participants, everybody. Doesn't matter how much you have or don't have.

Everybody. Fifth, we saw the proportion of giving. How much are you to give?

As God has prospered. There's no amount. There's no percent. From out of what God has given you, you give. You say, well, how do I know what to give?

I mean, it's not ten percent, no. How much should I give? Just remember some principles. Number one, whatever you give is invested with God.

Right? So whatever you give, you sow. So 2 Corinthians 9, 6 says sow sparingly. Reap what?

Sparingly. Sow bountifully what? Reap bountifully. So when you want to decide how much to give, you decide how much you would like a return on. So, I don't know what the amount is, but I know this. Whatever God has given you, from out of that, you invest with God.

And there's another principle. It should not only be as an investment, but it should be sacrificial. David said, I will not give the Lord that which cost me nothing. And the widow gave a hundred percent. And Zacchaeus gave fifty percent. It should be a sacrifice.

And the Macedonians, it says, gave liberally out of their deep poverty. 2 Corinthians 8, 2. And Philippians 4, Paul says, you gave so much, you gave so much, but don't you worry. My God shall supply all your what? Need, according to his riches in Christ.

Do you understand what happened? Paul had a need. They gave so much, they then had the need. It's just like Jesus who became poor that we might become rich. So, you invest with God, give sacrificially. Another principle to remember is this, that your giving will be in measure out of your spiritual overflow. In other words, it says in 2 Corinthians 8 that the Macedonians, watch this, first gave themselves and then out of that came the flow of their gift. So, there are some principles.

So, the purpose, the period, the place, the participants, the proportions. All right, number 6. These are going to be quick, so hang on. The provocation for giving, verse 2. The end of the verse. Do all this the first day of the week so there's no collections when I come. Now, watch this.

Now, watch this. Paul is saying giving is not to be provoked by emotional appeals at periods of time. It is to be systematic week by week. He's saying, look, you do this so we don't need some big appeal and some big gathering and when I get there this ought to all be in the flow of faithful systematic week by week giving and we won't even need a special offering when I come. Giving should be in the flow of life, not as a result of some emotional appeal on a periodic basis. Well, I'll tell you, Christians need to learn this. So many Christians do not know the meaning of systematic week by week sacrificial generous giving. They wait for some kind of a spiritual goose bump when they get some emotional zap from some, you know, distended stomach baby in a picture or from some missionary with a tremendous need or some deal that comes up and then they just give, but they don't know the meaning of that faithfulness. Now, there may be times when we have to give to meet a need immediately because some needs are immediate. And sometimes there will be those kinds of things and that's an exciting thing, but that should never be the way we give.

That should be something beyond the normal flow of systematic faithfulness. Paul says, I don't want it to be some emotional deal when I get there and I don't want to have to browbeat you and struggle with you to get it. Just start now and when I get there, it will be all done.

So the purpose, the period, the place, the participants, the proportions, the provocation. Are you ready for this? The protection in giving, verse 3. When you're going to give your money, you say, well, I don't know what they're doing with it over there at Grace Church. I'm putting it in there every week. All right, verse 3 will help.

There's a protection. And when I come, Paul says, whosoever you shall approve, I will send them with letters to bring your liberality to Jerusalem. And when I arrive, the NAS says, whomever you may approve, I will send them with letters to carry your gift to Jerusalem. Now watch this. He says, look, once you've given that money, I'm going to put that money in the hands of some people to take it to Jerusalem. Who will those people be?

People approved by you with accompanying letters to state that they are truly trustworthy people. Now watch this. The protection in all giving in the church is that the money be cared for by approved, godly, honest men. See that?

That's the issue. That's the protection in the church. You say, well, what are you trying to make a point out of this for? What does it have to do with the church?

Just this. But I believe that as you give systematically and faithfully into the treasury of the church, it is incumbent upon the church also to choose out those godly men who should have the care of those God's funds. You know, listen, in the early church, who was it that handled all the money? They came and they laid it at whose feet?

The apostles' feet. They never gave the money to anybody who didn't have the spiritual qualification to handle it. They didn't give it to the bankers and the people with the finance background.

They didn't give it to the businessmen. They gave it to the godly men. And later on, the apostles got so busy in Acts 6, they said, look, we've got to give ourselves to the teaching of the word and we've got to give ourselves to prayer so you find some other men to handle this business. And you know what their qualifications were? They've got to have had some financial training. They've got to have some business. He says, Acts 6, you find men full of faith and full of the Holy Spirit. See? You know what you see churches do a lot?

They have two boards. They say, the deacons over here, now you guys handle the spiritual and we'll get some guys that really know money and they'll handle the money. So then over here, you determine what God wants to do and we'll see if we can support it. It doesn't make any sense. Did you ever know anything God wanted to do but He couldn't do because He didn't have enough money?

It doesn't make any sense. You know what I believe? Don't ever give money to anybody less spiritual.

All you do is create a bottleneck at a lower level. Put the funds in the hands of the godliest people there are. Paul says, look, you find the people that are approved and you get the letters together and I'll send them with the money. Let it be entrusted to godly men who prayerfully in the energy of the Holy Spirit determine its direction. That's the protection in giving.

I'll tell you something, people, I'd have a hard time giving to a church, I mean this, if I didn't really believe in my heart that godly men cared for those things. So the purpose, the period, the place, the participants, the proportions, provocation, protection. Eighth.

You ready? The perspective. I'm going to quit with this one. Short one, verse four. I love this. This is really funny. The perspective. What is the perspective in giving? It is to be generous. It is to be generous. Look at this verse four.

This is really an insight into Paul. And he says, look, if it's suitable, I'll go along with it. In other words, listen, if you give enough so that I won't be embarrassed, I'll go along and accompany it.

Isn't that good? I'm not about to take a long trip to Jerusalem though if you just give a little bit. So that's just a nice little way for Paul to say, you know, come on, stretch yourself a little. If it's a suitable offering, I'll even go.

I like that. Be liberal, he says. The end of verse three, he says, I'd really like to send them with your liberality. And the word is charos, your grace, your overabundance, your generosity.

People listen to this. When you give, give generously. We have so much. And God so identifies with those who have need. The money that comes, we want to give it to those in physical need, to those in spiritual need, to support those who minister to us who have no other support than what we give them.

And then they, in turn, have to take their funds and spread theirs around too. I don't know about you, but God's given me a whole new sense of responsibility to those that don't have anything, or those who have less than I have. Listen, we can't do any less than give. God made the sun, it gives. God made the moon, it gives. God made the stars, they give. God made the air, it gives.

God made the clouds, they give rain. God made the earth, it gives. God made the trees, they give.

The sea, it gives. God made the flowers, they give. God made the beasts, they give. God made man, does He give?

Not always. May it be said of us what was said by the Lord Jesus, when you give, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Do it in secret and let God openly reward you. Listen, in 125 AD, a philosopher named Aristides looked at Christianity and this is what he said. They are remarkable people. He said, they walk in humility and kindness and falsehood is not found among them and they love one another. He said, they despise not the widow and they grieve not the orphan. He that hath distributeth liberally to him that hath not. If they see a stranger, they bring him under their roof and they rejoice over him as if he were their brother, for they call themselves brethren, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit and in God. But when one of their poor passes away from the world and any of them see him, then he provides for his burial according to his ability. And if they hear that any of their number is imprisoned or oppressed for the name of their Messiah, all of them provide for his needs. And if it's possible that he may be delivered, they deliver him.

And if there is among them a man that is poor and needy, and they have not an abundance of necessity, they will fast two or three days that they may supply the needy with his necessary food." Isn't that great? I don't know what God said to you this morning, personally. I just know what the Scripture said. I shared that with you. I hope you'll take it and apply it. I want God to show me just where to make changes in my life to give of the riches He's given me.

Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for being so straightforward with us. I want to share your love for the poor and the needy and the oppressed. I thank you that you've given me a pattern in Jesus, who was rich but became poor. Help me to be faithful from my riches to come down to poverty, if need be, to share with those who have need. First of all, in the family, and then to the stranger and the sojourner that you also love. May it be so that your spirit convicts each heart in a specific way. May we remember the words of Jesus, who said, when you give a feast, don't call the rich and the famous and the important, but go out and call the blind and the halt and the maimed and the poor, who can't repay you and then wait for God to repay you. Father, help us to be willing to do that.

In Christ's name we pray, amen. Give generously, because God has given so much to you. That point was at the heart of John MacArthur's message today on Grace to You, as he wrapped up his series, God's Plan for Giving.

And along with teaching on the radio, John also serves as chancellor of the Master's University and Seminary. Now John, a truth that undergirds everything you've talked about in your study so far is this. Everything we earn and possess already belongs to God, because it comes from Him, and so He doesn't need us to give back to Him what He already owns. Stewardship is about something far more important than that.

Yeah, stewardship is about investing in the priorities. When the Lord gives us money and resources, it becomes a test of what our priorities are. And as I used to say, look at your checkbook. Look at the balance on your credit card. You'll know what your priorities are.

What's there? If your checkbook is full of checks written to the kingdom, to divine purposes, to the advance of the gospel, to meeting the needs of your family, to enjoying the comforts that are reasonable and sensible and maybe some charitable things, then you know where your priorities are. It's pretty easy to tell. Look at the balance on your credit card when you get your statement at the end of the month. You ought to be able to pay that off every month.

If you're going to use a credit card, it ought to be for convenience sake. Not borrowing money at an astronomical rate that you never pay back, and the balance just accumulates and accumulates in the principal end of it. So yes, first of all, you start with realizing that everything you have is from the Lord. And everything you have is basically a test to see where your priorities are. There are a lot of ways that you could evaluate your priorities, but one that is very objective is to take a look at your checkbook or your credit card statement.

There it is. This is what your priorities are, and just be sure they line up with what honors the Lord. Well, we're winding down the study now. It's been a great time, and I know it's a little bit invasive to talk about these things because we get a little bit convicted about money and the use of money, but we've done the series on God's plan for giving so that you can get to the place you need to be so that you don't have guilt and you don't have a guilty conscience. You don't have concern about your money because you're doing the right things with it. So how we handle money says a great deal about where we are in our spiritual development.

We've seen in this study why God gives us the ability to earn money, the dangers of loving money, what God says about debt, how to give in a way that pleases God. This is all available in six CDs. In fact, it's an album, a six-CD album from Grace To You.

You can only get it from us, or you can download the messages free of charge at GTY.org. In either case, download them or to the album. You can use them with your friends, and you can listen again to make sure this is embedded in your heart.

Yes, and this is a series I would recommend to everyone because it answers these two crucial questions. How can I best use my money to glorify the Lord, and how can I make sure I don't put money above God? This six-CD album costs $27, and shipping is free. To order, call 800-55-GRACE or go to GTY.org. And as John said, if you'd like to download God's Plan for Giving, all six of these messages are free of charge at our website, GTY.org. In fact, all of John's sermons from more than 50 years of his pulpit ministry are free at GTY.org. And friend, let me remind you of the impact you have when you support Grace To You financially. Every day this broadcast is heard on radio stations from the United States to the United Kingdom, from Canada to South Africa, and many points in between. And you may never travel to these places, but by supporting Grace To You, you help reach people there with life-changing biblical truth. To partner with us, call 800-55-GRACE or go to GTY.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson, reminding you to watch Grace To You television this Sunday, and then be here Monday when John begins one of his most popular series. It's a look at Ephesians 6 and The Believer's Armor. Plan now to tune in for another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on the next Grace To You.