You all have a blessing before you today. I'm not preaching, so that's the blessing, the even greater blessing, is Dr. Carter is preaching for us this morning in a just kind of introduction of him. He is a native of Alabama and he was saved in March of 1965. After graduating high school, he attended Bible Baptist College in Springfield, Missouri where he graduated with a degree in theology. Dr. Carter furthered his education at Freedom University in Orlando, Florida. He earned his bachelor's degree and master's degree in Christian education. He then enrolled at Faith Baptist Bible College in Knoxville, Tennessee where he earned a PhD degree. He also holds an honorary doctorate of divinity from Bible Baptist College in Springfield, Missouri. Dr. Carter started his full-time ministry at Calvary Baptist Church in Melbourne, Florida where he serves as the youth and children's minister there and then he started a church in New Testament Baptist Church in Pascagoulia, Mississippi and pastored there for four and a half years. He was then called to the pastorate at Bible Baptist Church, Gulfport, Mississippi where he served there faithfully for 30 years and since in God's moving, he worked as the executive vice president of Bible Baptist College for four years and then returned to the pastorate in 2002 to 2012 at Canyon Creek Baptist Church in Richardson, Texas. Currently, Dr. Carter is serving as the staff evangelist at McCauley Baptist Church in San Antonio, Texas. His dear wife Shannon is with him today. They have three children and 10 grandchildren, so make my friend Dr. Carter feel welcome as he comes this morning.
Oh, this long introduction makes me tired, I'm telling you. Open your Bible with me this morning to the book of Genesis where we're going to go to. In the book of Genesis, chapter number four, and if you'll stand with me please, we'll read God's word in just a moment and while we're turning there, I want to thank Pastor Josh for allowing me the opportunity to fill in for him while he is on vacation having pastored 45 years. Yes, it is important that the pastor gets a vacation and you take care of him and see that he gets that kind of time off.
I tell you, it's good to clear your mind and I tell you, I guarantee you right that while he's been down there, he's been thinking about this church and God's leadership, the next move in his life and the ministry of this church, so keep praying for your pastor. I appreciate the opportunity to be here and for those of you who are visiting, of course I don't know who is the regular members and who are visiting members today, but I want to tell you today what I'm going to speak on and I don't want you to faint or fall out or anything like that, okay? But I'm going to speak on giving today. Three greatest days of my life was the day I got saved, that was the greatest day of my life. Secondly, the day I met this woman and talked her into marrying me.
It took me a little while, but I worked on it, you know, I got her. And then the third day was a great day in my life when I learned how to become a giver and I thank God for that privilege. So what I'm going to do today is I'm going to walk you through some of the history of giving. No, I'm not going to beat you over the head whether you give or don't give. That's between you and God.
I'm not going to do that. But I want to teach you the Bible. Today's message is more of a teaching message than it is a preaching message.
I may get a little excited every now and then, you know, because I do love the subject of giving. But we're going to go to the book of Genesis chapter number four and we're going to read there and then I'm just going to take you on a little bit of a historical tour of giving throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament. In Genesis chapter four and verse number one, it says that Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived and bare Cain and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. And she bare his brother Abel and Abel was a keeper of the sheep but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord and Abel he also brought of the firstling of the flock and of the fruit thereof and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering. Look at verse five. But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect and Cain was very wrath. Now if you get mad today because I preach on giving you won't be the first, okay?
You won't be the first. It happened to Cain years ago. And he says and his countenance failed.
He got a mean look on his face. And he says, and the Lord said to him, if thou doest well shall not be accepted and if thou doest not well sin life at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire and thou shall rule over him. Let's pray. Father, I thank you Lord for the kindness of these people Lord who have come out to church today to listen to the message of the word of God. And Lord I just pray God that you would open their hearts and open their minds. And I pray Father Lord if there's people here today that do not know you as their personal Lord and Savior, Lord today the Holy Spirit would open their mind and God help them to realize how much you love them in dying on the cross for their sins. Be our teacher today Lord through the power of the Holy Spirit and the word of God and we'll thank you for what you do in our lives in Jesus name I pray. Amen. Thank you.
You may be seated. You know I've learned in life that one of the most important relationships in people's lives is their relationship to their money. Now to a lot of people money has become sacred. We exchange our life for our payday and because we exchange our life for it and life is sacred some people equate that money is sacred. But now money is not sacred.
It's not. It is a tool that we are to use in our life and in the work of God to accomplish his purposes. And so today I want to begin by just talking to you first of all in regards to the history of giving. When we come here to the book of Genesis chapter 4 the first offering, this is the first offering mentioned in the Bible and we see that it involves two boys Cain and Abel. Now the first question that I want to ask is why does these boys even bring an offering to God? You don't read anywhere in Genesis chapter 1, chapter 2 or chapter 3 that God ever says to them I want you to bring me an offering. But yet it's placed in here that they brought this offering to the Lord as an act of worship. I think we can only assume today that these boys grew up helping their dad Adam prepare an altar and prepare a sacrifice and they would offer that to the Lord.
Now then these boys are grown. They have families and now then they are preparing an altar to bring an offering to the Lord here and to give tithes and offerings to the Lord. Now we notice here as they come though that on this particular day that things kind of backfired and that is Abel brings his offering to the Lord and the Lord accepted his offering. Secondly we see here that Cain brought his Abel to the Lord but the Bible says that the Lord rejected Cain's offering. Now we go back and we ask ourselves the question why did these boys do this?
Again they must have learned this from their dad. It's not written in the Bible. This is the first offering it's talked about in the Bible. And now we see here that God rejected Cain's offering but the Lord does not tell us why. I mean some say it's because he did not bring a blood sacrifice but he was the tiller of the ground and yet the Bible itself does not say that. Others say it was because he did not bring the whole tithe of the increase that he was supposed to bring to the Lord. But again the Bible does not say that. But we do know this that the Lord had respect. In other words the Lord accepted Abel's offering but the Lord did not accept Cain's offering. Now here's what you need to gather out of this first part here. When God rejected Cain's offering, God rejected Cain's worship.
That's the important thing you need to get. And just because you come to church does not mean you worship God. Worshipping God begins when our heart, our life, and our soul is right with God. We may have an outward expression of worship to God and really God not accept our worship or be glorified in our worship whatsoever. And not only that, when you're not right with God, God may be rejecting your worship or our worship because you're not right with God. And so I ask you today, are you right with God? So we see the first offering was here made by two boys.
One was accepted, the other was rejected. And of course you know Cain got very mad and you understand what happened from there. All because he was not right with God. Question we all should ask ourselves today. Are we right with God in every area of our life? Not just our giving, not just in this area, but in areas of our life, are we right with God? What is standing between you and God and worship today?
You see sin will separate you in regards to your worship with God. Now I want you to turn with me, if you will, or it'll be on the screen, Genesis chapter 14. I'm going to show you the first time the first mention of tithing in the Bible. In Genesis chapter 14, this is the first time that we see it in the Word of God.
In Genesis chapter 14 in verse 18 it says, And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine and he was the priest of the Most High God and he blessed him, that is Abram, and said in him, Blessed be Abram the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be the Most High God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And I notice this, he says, And Abraham gave him tithes of all. Now this is the first time in the Bible the word tithing is ever mentioned. Never before this time.
This is the first time that it's ever mentioned. Now when I read to you here in Genesis 14 verse 18, he says that here that Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek. Now when you go through, if you go over and read, and I'm not going to go there now, but if you go over and read Hebrews chapter 7, you will find that this man Melchizedek is reintroduced in the Bible and it says that he doesn't have beginning of days or ending of days.
So Melchizedek here was what is known in theology as a theophany, which is a manifestation of God in an earthly human form. And so when Abraham here was actually paying tithes at that time, he was giving them back to God, or some would say to the Lord Jesus Christ that he was giving these tithes to. But we understand it was a theophany, but yet the main point I want you to get is that this is the first mentioning of tithing in the Bible. The second thought I want you to get in regards to this, number one, we don't find where God had written in the Bible where God commanded Abraham to do this. But yet it is the expression of Abraham's love and appreciation for what God has done for him. Now remember this, the event that I've just read to you in Genesis here with the story in regards to Abraham here, in Genesis chapter 14, this is 700 years prior to the giving of the law.
Seven hundred years prior to the giving of the law. I want to show you the second time tithing is talked about in the Bible. If you turn with me to Genesis chapter number 28 and verse number 20, we're going to read about a man named Jacob.
He played a very prominent role in the Bible. In Genesis 28 verse 20, and Jacob vowed a vow. I mean this is what Jacob vowed this to God, saying if God will be with me and will keep me in the way that I go and will 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 and this stone which I have set for a pillar shall be God's house and of all that thou shall give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee. Now again I just told you Abraham tithed and that was 700 years before the law. Here we see tithing again. We don't see that God commanded Abraham to give that tithe.
We don't find where God commanded Jacob to give that tithe, but both of these men are tithing. As a matter of fact, when you study church history, you will find that the people of God follow the example of Abel and was tithing and giving to God long before the law ever came into being. So some people say, well today you know tithing was only under the law.
That's not true. Tithing was before the law. Tithing was during the law. And tithing was after the law. And so we see here that Abraham tithed 700 years before the giving of the law. And now then we see here that Jacob tithed and this is 500 years after the giving of the law. Now go with me to Leviticus 27.
I just want to give you some historical background here. Leviticus 27. This is where God incorporated tithing into the law of God. Leviticus 27 verse 30. And all the tithe of the land, whether it's the seed of the land or the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's.
Now notice this next phrase here. It is holy unto the Lord. Now the word holy means to separate. And what God said, now listen this is very carefully that you understand this. What God said talking to his children to save people today. If you're not saved I'm not talking to you about this point right here right now.
Okay? But what God said to his people is he said I want you to understand that everything that you have in this world, 10% of it, belongs to me. God has already set that apart for himself. Now that's why if you study through the Bible you get over to the last book of the Old Testament and it is the book of Malachi. And Malachi is trying to call the Jewish people back to God. They drifted so far away from God and they had stopped being obedient to God. They had stopped loving God.
You can read it this afternoon. But one thing that that Malachi said to them, he says wherein will you rob God? But you say wherein have we robbed God? And he said in your tithes and in your offerings. And so again this this is where God incorporated into the law. Verse number 31 he says and if a man will all redeemed out of his tithes, in other words if you withhold your tithes willfully knowing what you're doing here, he said then you shall add there unto the fifth part. Now I'm not the smartest mathematician in this audience but I understand the fifth part is 20% interest.
Hello? I mean I'm telling you it's cheaper to be a tither than it is to be a withholder I tell you for sure. And it's not a matter of you see here's the thing. You're gonna pay your tithe. You may not pay it here at the church. You may pay it at the automobile shop. You may pay it on house remodels. You may pay it and refrigerators breaking down.
You're gonna pay it. You know why? Because it belongs to God. But yet I've chosen in my life, I told you one of the greatest days of my life was when I learned to be a giver.
It's so very very important. Now I want to show you something else and again I just want to give you a little bit of history in regards to the subject of tithing in the Bible. That is the first time what I just shared with you.
Now I want to share you the second time and you really are listening this is this is gonna be to your benefit okay. But in the book of Deuteronomy chapter number 14 there is a second time that's talked about. And this is where God is preparing his people because he knows God who is omniscient. Do you know that God knew before I was ever born that I'd be standing here preaching today in this church? I mean go back and read the book of Ephesians. God knew us before we were ever born.
I've had people say well you know my folks didn't want me. It doesn't make any difference. You're here and God knew you're gonna be here and God has a plan for your life. Did you know that? I'm telling you God has a plan for your life and the Bible says that God had a plan for your life before the foundations of the world was ever put in place.
Whoo! Man I'm telling you what. Now listen to this. In the book of Deuteronomy chapter 14 God established a second tithe. But now hold on here it is.
I'm gonna read it to you. Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed that the field bringeth forth year by year and thou or you shall eat before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose to place his name there. Well where did God choose to place his name in the Old Testament? There at the temple.
There at the tabernacle and secondly at the temple. And what he's referring to here is that all of God's people of the Jews had to go to Jerusalem to the temple at least three times a year for those annual offerings that they had to go there at least three times a year. And God knew that as the population grew they would move farther and farther and farther and farther away from Jerusalem. And of course remember they couldn't catch a flight.
They couldn't even drive an automobile. They were in a wagon and it was going to take some of those people a couple two weeks to get to even drive from their home back to Jerusalem to make those offers. God made plans for that. So what did he tell the people to do? He said thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God in the place where he chooses to put his name there the tithe of thy corn, the wine, the oil, the first thing of the flock, the herds, that thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God always. So this was the second thing that God told them to do with their money. Number one he said you ought to give a tithe to God. Number two, now listen to this, God said you ought to tithe the same amount to yourself. We call that like savings accounts.
Do you have a savings account? Now listen to me, I grew up in a very poor home. My mother and dad, we lived in government housing long before it was very popular. And I hate to say this, of course my dad was an alcoholic and my mother was a good woman. She wasn't a slave woman, she was a good woman, hard-working woman, and I thank God for her. But my point is this, come Friday every week my mother and dad was as broke as they could be.
If they didn't get paid on Friday we probably couldn't have eaten on Friday night. And the sad thing is now I pastored for just a couple of months short of 45 years. There was a lot of people that I found in my church that still today live the exact same way. And I want to tell you this, God didn't plan that for your life. God has instructed you in the Bible to learn to be a Savior and if you are spending everything that you take in week in and week out and week in and you're not saving anything, well I tell you what, go back and read the Gospel of Matthew and go back and read Luke chapter number 19 and see what God says about you.
He talks about you in the Bible and you're not a very wise person. And so if you don't get anything else from this sermon today, get this, if you don't have a savings account then next week go start one and sit down. And you ought to draw up a budget. But the thing about drawing up a budget is this, you need to monitor how you spend your money for three months every penny you spend before you can make up a budget. The reason most people's budgets don't work is because they're not reasonable. You got to make them reasonable. You got to know how you spent your money until you know how you're spending your money.
You won't make up a reasonable budget. And so the Lord says here, save that money and put it back up. You know what, one day your refrigerator is going to break. And you know what, in our day and age it's real handy to have a refrigerator. Someday your washing machine is going to go down. It's real important to have a washing machine, I'll tell you for sure.
And I could go on and on, the car is going to break, the car is going to wear out. And you know what, you're either going to borrow and pay interest or you're going to save and you're going to pay cash. And I just encourage you to learn, follow the biblical principles. The first principle, honor God.
Number two, have a savings account. I wish I had time to preach Matthew 25 and 19 to you, don't have that time today. The third, there is actually also a third tithe in the Bible. Right here in Deuteronomy 14, verse number 28, he says, at the end of three years, thou shall bring forth all the tithes that thine increase the same year, they shall lay it up within thy gates.
Now, because of time, I'm going to quickly just give you this. In those days, there was no welfare programs. And I'll use this one illustration to illustrate the point. For example, if you were married and you had a family and the husband died, do you know by law, the wife was not allowed to go out and work a secular job to make money?
And so this is what this is talking about here. They said every three years, we want you to bring a third tithe, and they were to tithe that third tithe to the Lord. And then they were to help take care of the widows and the orphans and people who were in starvation. And that was the church's responsibility, not the government's responsibility. Why did we move to the government? Because a lot of people at church did not give their money.
That's exactly why. And so we see actually there was three tithes recorded in the Bible. Now, let me tell you on top of this. If you haven't read the book of Leviticus in a while, go home this afternoon and start reading the book of Leviticus, especially the first seven chapters. You know what you'll find in Leviticus chapter seven? You'll find there's five offerings talked about that these people were to worship God through these five offerings. Number one was the burnt offering in Leviticus chapter number one. This was an offering that they brought to God to say, God, you have been so good to me.
God, I want to dedicate all that I am to you, God. Well, how did they do that? They didn't just speak words. They were commanded to bring a burnt offering. And a burnt offering was they would take an animal from there before there was a calf or a goat or a lamb and they would prepare it and put it on the altar, put the fire under it, and they would keep that fire burning till everything on that altar which was a picture and an example of them themselves until it was totally consumed by God. And it is a picture of a person's total surrender to God. It is the equivalent of Romans chapter 12 verse one and two where the Bible says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice.
You see what he said? God said, I don't want a dead sacrifice today. I want a living sacrifice today. The second offering you read about there in Leviticus is the meat offering. Actually, it was a meal offering. But the meal offering here is an acknowledgement that everything that you have comes from God Almighty.
And it's a testimony that, God, I am grateful for your blessings on my life. The third offering you read about is the peace offering. This was when people experienced the blessings of God in their life as though God is blessing them and blessing them.
They would just come and say, God, I just want to say thank you for how you have blessed my life. And again, they would give an offering to say that. The only two offerings there in Leviticus that's required was number one, the sin offering, and number two was the trespass offering.
So these are some of the offerings. Now, I've stated a long time here, but let's go to the New Testament now. I want you to go to the book of Luke chapter number four.
So we're going to talk about tithing in the New Testament very quickly, and then I'll wrap up. One of the questions that sometimes people ask me, was Jesus a tither? Was Jesus a tither? Well, folks, the answer is yes.
Yes, he had to be a tither. In Luke chapter four, I'll give you some scriptures. I'm going to read this one to you. In Luke chapter four, verse number 16, and he, that is Jesus, came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and as his custom was, the custom means he went every Sabbath day.
That's what he means. He went to the synagogue, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for it to read, and there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah, and when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, and the spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach the deliverance to the captives, and the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, and the Bible says, and he sat down. Now, you say, preacher, I didn't see anything about tithing. Well, now, if you understood the laws of the synagogue, you would.
Let me briefly explain it to you. The synagogue in that day basically had two predominant officers. One was a person that would be much like Pastor Bevin here. He would be the head of the synagogue. Secondly, they would have a church or a synagogue treasurer.
Now, their rules was a little bit different than what they are here. I'm sure on every Sunday, Pastor Bevin gets up here, and he preaches the message that God has put in his heart for you, but now in the synagogue, that's not how they necessarily operated. At the synagogue, any man in the church or in the synagogue, should I say, was allowed to stand up and speak. It didn't mean you had to, but any man was allowed to stand up and speak, providing that he was a tither. Now, the church treasurer kept the records of everyone who was a tither, and the church treasurer had the responsibility to say, if this brother stood up here in the synagogue and started speaking, but he was not a tither, then the treasurer would have to say, excuse me, brother, the books don't show you being a tither, you have to sit down. That was the law of the synagogue. Now, Jesus stood up in the synagogue, and he spoke, and he read from the book of Isaiah. Did the treasurer say to him, excuse me, you're not a tither, sit down?
No. You know why? Because Jesus was a tither. Matthew 5, verse 17, Jesus said these words, think not that I am come to destroy the law of the prophets. He said, I'm not come to destroy, but to fulfill. If Jesus was not a tither, he violated the law of God, and he would have sinned, and Jesus is totally perfect, and he fulfilled the Bible in every point there was.
He was a total giver. He did not neglect you to give whatsoever, and then all of that, but Jesus commended tithing. He said in Matthew 23, verse 23, woe unto you scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites, for you pay tithes of mint and anise and anise, excuse me, and anise and cummin, and you have omitted the weight of your matters of the law. Judgment, mercy, faith, these ought you have done and not to leave the other undone. In other words, he commended them for their tithing, but he said you ought not be judgmental and cruel towards people.
That's what he was saying to them. So, you know, tithing is throughout the Old Testament and in the New Testament. Now, I want to go over to Matthew's gospel, and I've got to kind of pick up my pace here a little bit, but I want to go over to the book of Matthew, and I'm going to show you something here in chapter 5. And the question is this, should we do less under grace than what was required of us under law? In Matthew, chapter 5, Jesus is talking here, and he makes a comparison of obligation that we have under grace rather than under law.
And I'm just going to read a part of it to you. In Matthew 5, verse 27, he says, and ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, now that's talking about under the law, thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. Now, which one was stronger, the law or grace? Jesus is talking about the law of grace right here.
You see that? And you read on down through this, he gives so many examples about law and grace. Go down to verse 31, it had been said, whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give them a writing of divorce. But I say to you, verse 31 is the law, verse 32 is grace. But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, save him because of fornication, cause it her to commit adultery, and whosoever shall marry her, that his divorce commiteth adultery. That's law and grace.
I mean, you can go and read this whole chapter here, and he gives the contrast. But what I want you to understand, we have a greater responsibility under grace than we do under law. So the question is, should we do less under grace than what was required under law? No, absolutely not.
Absolutely not. Nowhere does God give us permission to do less under grace than we were to do under law. We are to abound in this grace also. Now, I want to just give you one other portion of scripture here, and then I'll be through. But over in the book of 2 Corinthians, I'm going to go to chapter number nine here.
And this is what you hear so much today of people who talk about giving who don't know what the Bible says. For example, I was driving my wife's car. She's got a little Toyota, a 2008 Toyota convertible.
She loves it. She'd get rid of me before she'd get rid of that car, and I understand that. But, you know, of course, I have serious radio in my car, you know.
And when I'm driving her car, and in town I drive it most of the time, and I put it on Christian stations, and I listen to preachers on the radio there. And I've heard this multiple times where they would say, well, now, you know, giving was under the law. Well, that's true. But was tithing before the law?
I read you several places over there where it was fuller. Adam, and then Abraham, and then Jacob, and all these tithes before the law. Every one of them. And you know what? If you're going to be honest with yourself, and you're going to say, well, then we shouldn't tithe because tithing's under the law, then you ought to not save any money either because that was under the law too.
Hello! Let's just be consistent. If you're going to interpret the Bible like that, then let's just say consistent. Now, that's not what the Bible says. I already told you that. But you see, if you're going to be consistent.
But here's the thing. When you're reading about the offering that Paul is trying to receive, and the Bible talks about it, especially in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and chapter number 9, what Paul is talking about there is this. Before Paul got saved, if you remember, if you read the book of Acts, he went into Christian services such as this, and he would have the men arrested and put in prison, and he actually had many of those men killed. Now, remember, the same law during that day was in effect in the Old Testament, and that is the wife could not go out and get a job. And if they had three, four, five children, whatever it was, unless other people took care of her, they would basically starve to death. By the way, the church is still the church's responsibility to have to take care of what?
The Bible says the widows and the orphans. That's still biblical. That's still Bible. Now then, so what they say, but this is what a lot of people say, well, this is how we ought to give today. 1 Corinthians chapter number 9, every man according as he purposed in his heart, so let him give, not grudging the necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver. And that's the only standard for giving today, I've heard preachers say on the radio. That's a lie.
That's not true. That, if you go back, that is talking about the special offering that Paul was going to take up for those people who, he had killed the dads there in Jerusalem, and he was trying to raise up money to help provide food for those widows and those orphans that were up there. And that's what this, that's totally what this was talking about there, not anything else. And then I heard preachers say, well, you know, well, you know, we ought not to tie because it was under the law. Let me just go back over to the book of Numbers, I mean the book of Exodus, and I want to read you a few things here. So I'm going to go to Exodus chapter number 20, and then I'm going to be through, okay?
You've heard me say that twice, third times always happens. Now I'm going to read you about the law of God, the 10 commandments, okay? Here's what God said.
First of all, Exodus chapter 20 verse 3, thou shalt have no other gods before me. Now, are we still supposed to obey that? Are we? Yes, we are. Was that under the law?
Yes, it was. Here's the second of the 10 commandments. Thou shall not make unto thee any graven images. In other words, you're not supposed to bow down and worship anything down here.
You worship God. Is that still, it's still in the Bible? Is it still true?
Yes, it's still true. You go on down here, he said verse 7, thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Is cursing still wrong? Using God's name in Rome, is it still wrong?
Sure, it's still wrong. And it's still sin today, just like it was sin then. The only one of the law that has changed is verse number 8, where he said, remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. The Sabbath day was God's covenant with Israel.
Today, God's covenant day today is the first day of the week, when Jesus arose from the dead on the first day of the week, and Jesus assembled the church on the first day of the week. That's the only part of the law that's not active today. You go on down through, he says honor thy father and mother. Is that still the law of God?
Well, sure it is. He said, thou shall not kill. Are we still supposed to obey that?
Sure, we are. He said, thou shall not commit adultery. Is that true? Absolutely, it's true. Thou shall not steal.
Well, that's true, you know. So, all of that is still true today. The only thing that has changed here today is the fact that we don't meet on the Sabbath day. And number two, remember this, they had to make an atonement for their sins once a year to show the fact that they believed that an eternal sacrifice was going to come. That eternal sacrifice came, it was Jesus Christ who gave his life on the cross for my sins and your sins and for the sins of the whole world. So, we don't pay for our sins. Jesus paid for our sins on the cross of Calvary. And remember this, nobody goes to hell because of all the sins they commit.
You only go to hell because you're born a sinner and you'll never receive Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. And there's nobody who cannot be saved. There is no sinner that's so bad that you can't be saved. The Bible says, where sin did abound, what happened? Grace did much more abound. There's nobody that will ever go to hell and say, well Lord, I was just too bad a sinner, you couldn't save me. No, no, no, no.
There's nobody like that. But you know what, there's a lot of people who won't let Jesus save them. And today I say to you, if you don't know Christ as your Savior, please come to Christ and receive him.
Now, I close the message with these thoughts. So tithing is not the finished line of giving, not for the saved people. It's the starting line of giving.
That was the minimum that they were supposed to give. Remember those other five offerings I told you about in the book Leviticus and in the book in 2 Corinthians 9? I believe in being a liberal giver. I mean tithing is not the finish line, it's the starting line. And if you've never, as a saved person, if you've never started, I pray you will.
I'm not here to beat you on the head, I just want to tell you what the Bible says. And then let me say this to you, tithing is not the ceiling of giving, it's the floor of giving. And when you only tithe, you're doing the minimum.
And now listen to this, this may blow your mind, but now listen to me very carefully, I'm going to explain this. I'm not a tither. I tithe far more than 10%. My wife and I, we tithe a whole lot more than 10%. We give more than 10% in our tithe. You say you're bragging, I'm just trying to illustrate the truth. We give more than that, we give to faith, problems, missions, we give to our church's building front program, and I'm retired. But yet I'm still a giver, and by the grace of God I always will be.
