Do you know what I see this morning? I see among many of God's people that I meet across the land who have a terrible testimony. I see Christians declaring bankruptcy. I see Christians who are deep and dead and always barring and distracted from the work of the Lord because money consumes them. And I see people who are trying to bail themselves out.
They'll get a second job. What does God do? Because of their disobedience, He just makes a bigger hole in their pocket. Welcome to Search the Scriptures, the Bible teaching ministry of Dr. Carl Brogy, Senior Pastor of Community Bible Church in Beaufort, South Carolina.
Today is part three in the conclusion of Pastor Carl's sermon entitled, God's Plan for Financial Freedom from the book of Malachi 3, verses 7-12. Malachi 3, 11-12 reveals God's promise to actively protect and bless His people if they honor Him with their tithes. He assures them that their land will flourish and that all nations will recognize them as people favored by God. Let's join Pastor Carl now as he concludes.
Now there are these churches today who say, well, we don't teach tithing. We teach grace giving. And ever since I've been a pastor, I've seen different ministries like Larry Burkett and the current day ministries on finances. And they say on average that churches that teach grace giving give 3% of their income. 3%.
listen I believe in grace giving and that we have the full revelation of God's grace in Jesus Christ things that they looked forward to things they couldn't even dream about things they didn't fully comprehend we have the full revelation of God and if a new covenant believer can give at least what an old covenant believer gives then he's a disgrace to grace he's a disgrace to the grace of God. If anything, tithing is simply the starting place. Remember, Jesus never lowered the law. He never brought the law downward. If anything, he brought it upward.
Do you remember in the Sermon on the Mount? You've heard that the ancients were told, you shall not commit murder, and whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court. Whoever shall say to his brother, Raka, shall be guilty before the Supreme Court, and whoever shall say, you fool, shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. Like fashion, he raised up the law when he says in Matthew 5, 27, you've heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery.
But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman to lust at her has already committed adultery in his heart. Not committing physical adultery is still God's sin, but Jesus elevated the standard. And it's still a sin to rob God by not tithing. Jesus never said, well, in the Old Testament, it says not to steal, but I say steal a little. No, if anything, he raised it up.
He raised the bar. And so tithing, if anything, is the starting place that should indeed be motivated by the grace of God.
So Paul can write the church at Corinth in 2 Corinthians 8, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, enjoying all the splendor and glory of heaven, yet for your sake he became poor, he incarnated himself, that's Philippians, right? That you through his poverty might become rich spiritually. This is not as Joel Osteen and Kenneth Copeland and all these false teachers use this verse. he's speaking about spiritual blessing not you getting a big bank account tithing was taught before the law tithing was taught during the law and tithing was taught after the law Abraham commenced it Jacob continued it Malachi commanded it Jesus commended it who are you to cancel it it is foolish to cancel what God says may I remind you before you just flippantly take what some teachers are saying today, that tithing has no application for day. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 5, 19, whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments and so teaches others shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
But whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Do you think God's men were ignorant for 1900 hundred years, and all of a sudden these new modern teachers have this new insight that no one else saw, and that tithing is not applicable. Be careful before you say that to someone, because if you teach someone to break the least of these commandments, Jesus said you'll be called least in the kingdom of heaven, and I'm not prepared to do that.
So tithing involves a definite proportion. Secondly, Tithing involves a definite place. It involves a definite place. Malachi 3 and verse 10. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse.
Now the storehouse in those days was located in the temple. We've already seen that from the instruction in Deuteronomy. And the tithes, according to 2 Chronicles 31 and Nehemiah 13, the tithes were stored in a facility alongside the temple. That's where they stored it for the work of the Lord. They brought the whole tithe into the storehouse.
They didn't give it to whomever or whatever they wanted to. And so Christians will sometimes say, well, I'm giving this to my aunt or my uncle, or I'm giving my tithe to help my nephew go to a Christian school. And that may be admirable, but that's not where your tithe belongs. People will say to me on occasion, I'm giving my tithe to search the scriptures. I said, it doesn't belong there.
it belongs in your local church now there's a place for offerings but that's not where the tithe belongs and most myself included believe that the storehouse today is the local body of believers how do we know that well listen to these words in first corinthians 16 on the first day of every week, that's Sunday, because of the Lord of the Sabbath was raised from the dead on Sunday, the first day of the week, God's people at this point worship on the first day. There's coming a day during the millennial reign where we will go back and we will worship on Saturday. But right now on the first day of every week, let each one of you put aside and save. Circle in your mind that word save as he may prosper that no collections be made when I come Now this verb save is a Greek word phasarizo that literally means in store In fact that the way that King James translates it And again there a Greek translation of the Old Testament that most Jewish people read. It's abbreviated in our English Bibles, LXX, called the Septuagint, because 70 men were involved in its translation.
And the noun form of the verb that's used here in 1 Corinthians is translated storehouse. And so the two words are connected. Put aside, literally, it's rather wooden, literally the Greek reads here, put aside in storehouse. And so you will hear Christians speak of storehouse tithing. One, because of verses like this, and two, because all the examples in the New Testament of the people of God giving was to the local assembly.
And so, listen, even those who cared for widows and orphans and those who are hungry, they did so typically through the local church. And he notes there, you give as you may prosper. What is he referring to? He's just underscoring, look, if you have zero income, people sometimes come to me and they say, I have zero income and I feel very guilty that I'm not telling you. And I said, why do you feel guilty?
You give as you may prosper. I've had married women come and say, my husband's lost and he has no desire to tithe. And so we can't tithe. I said, well, look, you know, you don't have to feel bad about that. He's the head of your home.
He's lost. You don't want him to think that you're after the money for the church. I said, does he ever give you money? Yeah, he gave me $20 last week. Just go out and have a good time.
Then give $2 back to the Lord. See, most of us somewhere have increased somewhere. But you see, what God is doing as a man prospers is he's making everything fair and equal and equitable.
So the little 10-year-old child who earned a dollar yesterday could come and bring a dime. When do you teach your children to tithe? When they're five years old. You know, I paid my grandson some money. I said, how much is a tithe?
He said, 50 cents, granddaddy. He's five years old. I said, that's right. 50 cents. That's what you give to the work of the Lord in the church, your dad pastors.
If you make $100 this week as a teenager, $10 is a tithe. If you make $1,000 this week, $100 is a tithe.
Now, if I had 10 pennies, put them across the front of this pulpit, and they were yours, could you give God a penny? Oh, of course I could. How about 10 $1 bills? Of course I could give God a dollar. How about 10 $100 bills?
That's a lot of money. No, a tithe is a tithe is a tithe. That's what God teaches, and it makes everything equal so that even the child who's seven or eight or the teenager versus the guy who makes it hand over fists and is a millionaire can lay up in heaven the same amount of treasure. It's not just some nebulous feeling. What do I give this week?
I don't know. Maybe I'll get $100. Maybe I'll give $10. Where you get this feeling-oriented kind of experiential theology. God gave us some guidelines.
In fact, remember that poor widow who gave two mites? Jesus said this of her, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. In what respect, Lord, for all these people have put in gifts out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in all that she had to live on, which is a reminder to me that giving is not simply an issue of percentages. is ultimately it is an issue of the heart. And so, yes, we start with the tithe, and sometimes God moves us to give beyond a tithe.
On the first day of the week, God's tithe is to come to God's house that God's work might be accomplished. Paul says that no collections be made when I come. He's not going to come and collect money for the mission work so that, you know, we got to take this emergency offering. No, that's not how it works. Tithing involves a definite proportion for the work of the Lord.
It also involves a definite purpose. Point C on your outline. Tithing involves a definite purpose. Again, we read here in verse 10. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse.
Why?
So that there may be food in my house. That's the purpose. That there might be enough to do what God needs to be done. God's way of raising money for the local assembly is not for us to have some pancake sale. It's not for you to bring all your junk and we're going to have this huge bazaar.
God's way is for God's people to bring the 10th to the storehouse. In one large financial ministry that you will hear of on WAGP, they said that if every member in the evangelical church were on welfare in America, that the average budget of the average local church would literally double. And that's interesting. I don't know where they get that, but it's interesting. But we do know because for four decades, it's shown that the average person in the average church only gives about 3%.
And I'm talking about Bible-believing, Christ-centered churches now that have the gospel.
Now, by God's grace, we're not there. We're not average. But there's always room for growth, and there's always new people and new believers. And some of you are hearing the concept of tithing for the first time, just like I did when I was 18.
So number one, God's plan originates with a return to the tithe. Number two, God's plan necessitates the release of the tithe. Roman numeral three, God's way yields the rewards of the tithe.
Now let me delineate three rewards that are spelled out in these verses. First, God will renew your faith. He'll renew your faith. Let's read now all of verse 10. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house and test me now on this, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.
God wants you to test him, to try him, to prove him, depending on your English translation. He wants you to test his faithfulness.
Now, the Bible typically warns us not to test God with some rash or evil deed to see if he will punish us. Jesus, when he confronts Satan, he says, it is written, you shall not test the Lord your God. And we'll see next time when we come to verse 15 that there's a great danger in testing God when our hearts are not right. But in this one act of obedience, God invites us to test him. Put me to the test.
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse and just watch what will happen. and giving is something that is amazing and god says i want to open up the windows of heaven and pour out you a blessing until it overflows and again if you wise you pull up the shade and unlock the window and listen carefully when Audrey and I got married I worked for an organization before they restructured their salary we were actually at a poverty level we made twelve thousand dollars and it was actually below the poverty level we got married and I had been working for them for two years as a home missionary and college campuses and I had to sell my childhood coin collection to raise $400 to finance our honeymoon. But we came back and we had $50 in our pocket and we had each other and we loved each other. And my first two years on that particular campus, I slept on a borrowed bed. And we came back from our honeymoon knowing that we didn't have a bed to sleep on.
And while we were gone, independently of anyone, God put it on someone's heart to give us as a wedding gift, a box spring and mattress. It was just amazing. Five years later, we went to seminary. We left with two kids. We came back with four kids.
It was the longest master's program in the world at the time, 128 hours. They've lessened it. It was expensive, a four-year master's program, or three-year doctoral program. My wife stayed at home. She cared for our children.
We came out of seminary debt-free, and we had more money in the bank than when we started. It was God's grace. We were not ignoring, well, we're in difficult times. We're not going to tithe. No, we tithe, and as we went through the years, we gave beyond a tithe, and we have increased it.
after five years, we've increased it every single year. And I'm not going to tell you what percentage I'm at, but it just blows my mind sometimes what God can do. For nearly 50 years, I have tithed, and God has proved himself faithful. He has opened up the windows of heaven, and he's asking you to test him. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills.
Test him. He will be faithful to you. Secondly, not only will God renew your faith, God will rebuke the devourer. God will rebuke the devourer. Notice the promise in verse 11.
Then when you tithe, I will rebuke the devourer for you so that it will not destroy the fruit of the ground, nor will your vine in the field cast, and you'll notice it's grapes or an italics. It's not there, but it's implied, says the Lord of hosts. The new American standard says, in the field prove fruitless to you. The point is, is that he's writing to farmers and he's saying, look, you're not going to be plagued by locusts like some of you are as a hand of discipline. You're not going to have too much rain or too little rain as some of you are.
The fruit is not going to fall off the vine before it's ripe. God is going to lift the curse. This is a reversal of God's discipline because of their obedience. And God is not simply speaking to farmers. He's speaking to lawyers and doctors and teachers and preachers and plumbers.
And a 10-year-old boy who has some lawn business. And God is basically saying, look, your clothes will last longer. Your cars will run better. He's not saying you won't have any unplanned expenses. But he is saying that God will have a way of multiplying things for you.
To give, to get would be simply selfish. R.G. Letourneau used to say, if you give because it pays, it won't pay. I think he was right in that. We're told not to give to get.
We are told to give because it's an act of obedience. And with every act of obedience, we love him because he first loved us. And this is the love of God that we keep his commandments. And I've witnessed over and over and over again that people who tithe, they just have a way of managing the other 90% so much more wisely, whether it's saving or borrowing or investing or giving. And listen, there's coming a time.
It's just a matter of when, it's not if.
Now, for the first time, I finally hear the senators in our country talking about it. We're $33 trillion in debt. By the time this president leaves office, we'll be $36 trillion in debt. That's always been the breakpoint number that the government system for accounting has said. And when we hit $36 trillion, $1 trillion a year.
$1 trillion a year at the current interest rate if it doesn't go up anymore. will be needed just to pay the interest on the loan. That's more than our entire defense budget. The time to live by faith is now. And we think by not giving, we have more.
We make $500 and if we give $50, we only have 450. I have learned over the years that I can do more with nine-tenths than I can do by 10-tenths all by myself. Yeah, we may rob God, but when we rob God, we have additional medical bills that maybe we wouldn't have had or leaky roofs or broken cars. A man cannot rob God. And let me just say, tithing is not a fix-all.
There's a whole package that God says about saving, about giving, about investing, about debt. And again, if you don't know his financial principles, take the course, search the scriptures.org. but listen if you're in some ungodly business and you think well I'm going to talk God's not going to honor that it needs to be a legitimate business where you are in the center of God's will I could step out of the will of God tomorrow and go get a secular job you know what my finances would crash because God called me until the day I die to preach the word as long as I have semblance of mind I am going to preach by his grace. And if I stepped out of that call on my life, it would be disastrous for me.
So understand tithing is in the context of obedience to the Lord, and God is simply asking them to consider the reversal of the curse if they will do what he said. Third, God will restore your testimony. Not only will he renew your faith and rebuke the devour, God will restore your testimony. Notice verse 12. All the nations, he's speaking here about the Gentiles, the Goyim, the Ethnoi in Greek.
All the nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land, says the Lord of hosts. God is telling his Hebrew people, and by extension to us, I'll give you a story to tell. I'll give you a testimony to the unbelieving nations around you. Do you know what I see this morning? I see among many of God's people that I meet across the land who have a terrible testimony.
I see Christians declaring bankruptcy I see Christians who are deep and dead and always borrowing and distracted from the work of the Lord because money consumes them And I see people who are trying to bail themselves out They'll get a second job. What does God do? Because of their disobedience, he just makes a bigger hole in their pocket. Listen to what the prophet Haggai said. You have sown much, but harvest little.
You eat, but there's not enough to be satisfied. Haggai was a contemporary just before Malachi. Same problem, rebellious, disobedient people. There's not enough to be satisfied. And then he adds, and he who earns, earns wages to put into a purse with holes.
He said, God's blessing me, I just got a pay raise. And he just put a bigger hole in your pocket. how are we going to apply this let me suggest three applications as we close number one when we fail to tithe we rob god when we fail to tithe we rob god stealing from your fellow man is a horrible thing but stealing from god is even worse and i don't think for a moment anyone here would take their hand and stick it into the offering bag and take out something for himself Though in my early years in the Ukraine, one of the functions of the deacons, they told me because they had so many lost unbelievers under communism for 70 years who had come to churches, they had to watch them to make sure no one took anything out of the till. I'm sure none of us would do that here. But there's more than one way to rob God.
And when we fail to tithe, we rob God. Second, when we fail to tithe, we rob ourselves. We rob ourselves. Again, God does not need your tithe as much as you need to give it. Jesus said it is more blessed to give than it is to receive.
God's not trying to get your money as much as he wants to bless you. And again, he wants to open the windows of heaven. But do you know what the bottom line is for most people? Unbelief. That's what it is.
We just don't believe what God has said. Third, when we fail to tithe, we rob others. We rob others. The remnant who returned to Judah had a great opportunity to trust God and be a witness to the surrounding Gentile nations. God could use them by their testimony to win people.
You say, Pastor, is there a connection between winning people to Jesus? Am I tithe? Yes, there is. If you're disobeying the known will of God, you're out of fellowship. the Spirit of God doesn't fill rebellious people, and your ability to influence pagans for the gospel is greatly diminished.
But listen, by God's grace, we have a testimony. As a church, people drive by this campus, I hear it all the time. They say, God's really blessing Community Bible Church. And I've heard about these hundreds of missionaries you have. Yes, and by God's grace, we're getting ready to add 50 new ones.
The elders don't know about that, but we have 50 new applications that are coming in January. Hundreds of missionaries. How can we do this? By the grace of God to the glory of God. God has a testimony for the people amongst the lost folks who are saved.
Now, let me just tell you here, if you're here and this is your first time, or you're listening, live streaming somewhere in line, and you're not saved, ignore what we're saying here about money. God doesn't want your tithe first. He wants you. He wants you to call upon Jesus in faith. And the greatest kind of robbery is to live 70 or 80 years independently of the Lord, where you say, this is my life, I'll do however I want.
And you're free to do that. But that will be the greatest ripoff towards yourself. In fact, you'll remember this sermon if you die in that state. Because you will die eternally lost. You cannot buy your way into heaven.
You cannot give enough money to get into heaven. You come through the grace and the blood of the cross. You say my sin is so big. I don't know that God can forgive me. Don't flatter yourself.
Christ's blood is greater than your sin. He can save you, but you must come in a bankrupt state, acknowledging the sufficiency of his death, burial, and resurrection and putting your faith where he put your sin.
Now, Holy Father, we thank you today for the time we've had as we continue our study in this great prophet of God. I pray and ask this morning that you'd help somebody here who knows you, who loves you whose financial world is a mess but thank you that when you save us you save us to change us, to shape us to help us understand your truth you said we shall know the truth and the truth will set us free you've never promised to make us rich or wealthy but you've promised to meet our needs in a way that is fitting in a way that is remarkably true of who you are as the living and all omnipotent God. May an unbelieving world see our lives and see that you provide in your way and in your time. I pray today for someone here who's lost, who's never met Jesus Christ. Help them to realize that if they will call upon him today in this moment, by faith they can be saved and forever changed.
Thank you for your promise because Jesus did what he did that whosoever will may come that whoever will call in the name of Jesus will be saved. And we ask this and pray this to your name for your sake in Jesus name. If you enjoyed today's message, you can order a CD or DVD copy by calling Search the Scriptures at 877-787-7478 and requesting program Malachi 006. Search the Scriptures is made possible through the prayers and financial support of listeners like you. If you would like to help sustain this ministry, please click the Give button in either our app or visit searchthescriptures.org.
We hope that you will join us tomorrow as we continue to search the scriptures.
