82 - New Testament Giving - Part 1 [B]

Hebrews Lesson 82    March 22, 2007

^NKJ Acts 4:12 "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

Hebrews 7

Before I left on vacation and we had the conference, we were studying in Hebrews 7 with the episode with Melchizedek. So let's turn in our Bibles to Hebrews 7 and sort of anchor where we are there. Hebrews 7 is beginning a new section, the fourth section, in the book of Hebrews focusing on the uniqueness of Christ's priesthood based on the royal priesthood of Melchizedek in the Old Testament. Of course there are only about 2 or 3 verses in Genesis 14 that deal with Melchizedek; yet under the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit the writer of Hebrews is dealing with the episode in Genesis 18 connecting that to Psalm 110 and from that developing the implications and significance of that Melchizedekean priesthood in relationship to the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now when we come to verse 2 of chapter 7 we read that…

^NKJ Hebrews 7:2 to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated "king of righteousness," and then also king of Salem, meaning "king of peace,"

Then we have in verse 3 an explanation of his background. 

^NKJ Hebrews 7:3 without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually.

As I have stated the last couple of lessons, the phrase "without father, without mother without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life" is not a reference to the fact that he didn't have a mama or a daddy, that he wasn't born, that he didn't have any physical lineage or ancestors. It is talking about what is in the text of Scripture. The text of Scripture doesn't tell us about his father and his mother and his lineage because that wasn't relevant to this kind of priesthood. The Melchizedekean priesthood was an appointed priesthood. It was a priesthood based upon the individual's relationship to God. 

We don't know much more about that other than it was a royal priesthood. The emphasis from about 2b (where we start reading being translated the king of righteousness) down through the end of 3 is sort of a parenthesis as a reminder of who Melchizedek is. It seems like the driving point of this paragraph from verse 1 down to verse 10 centers around the event of the fact that Abraham paid these tithes to Melchizedek. The point of all this is to show the superiority of Melchizedek because Abraham paid tithes. Basically he gave a tribute payment to Melchizedek. That indicates (because this was the custom in the ancient world that the one to whom you gave a tribute payment. You paid a tithe and it was usually a 10% figure. That is what tithe means – 10%) that you were honoring someone who was in authority over you. The writer of Hebrews is going to draw some implications from that. As we got into this whole issue of the paying of tithes, we find in verse 4 where we read…

^NKJ Hebrews 7:4 Now consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils.

That is important to understand so we had to stop and talk about this whole doctrine of tithing. It is very interesting. 

There was a young pastor here during the week who comes from up in Ohio. He had been an associate pastor in a Baptist church up in Ohio. He finally left over the tithing issue because of the way they pressed it and pressed it. He continued to go into the pastor and he continued to explain what the Scriptures taught. But they were afraid that if they relaxed and relied on God the Holy Spirit to move people to give on the basis of gratitude for what they were learning that all of the funding would dry up. So within the church machine (which is too often what we have today in religious activity) there is a constant reminder to people. 

I have been in churches and places where in the course of the church service you might have as many as three different offerings. Now sometimes it can be valid if you are taking up offerings for different things. If you are really driving and manipulating and making people feel guilty about what they are giving, then you are out of line. That creates a false motivation for giving. So much is what you have in many churches is tithing, tithing, tithing. You hear that phraseology over and over again. 

What I started to show the last time was that the concept of tithing is an Old Testament concept related to the Mosaic Law primarily. There are two examples prior to the Mosaic Law - one is the case of Abraham, one in the case of Jacob as he is at Bethel on his way out of the land where you have the mention of a tithe, the giving of 10%. As I talked about last time this was customary in the culture. We have examples from other cultures in the ancient world from Hamurabi and Babylon and from some other examples where the tribute to someone in authority in gratitude for what they have done was 10%. 

We looked at the Mosaic Law. We saw that in the Mosaic Law there were actually three tithes. Nobody ever talks about that although I am aware that there was a pastor with a rather large church here in Houston who, back in the early 70's I think, when they were building their large building down here they were encouraging people to triple tithe and take out a second mortgage in order to meet their payment. You very rarely have people talk about it in those terms. 

There were three tithes as I pointed out. One is in Leviticus 27:30 giving the tithe of the land which was everything. You had the first tithe which dealt with supporting the bureaucracy, the theocracy of the priesthood in Number 18:20-23. 

^NKJ Leviticus 27:30 'And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD's. It is holy to the LORD.

Then the second tithe provided for a national celebration of the grace and provision of God. That is explained in Deuteronomy 14:22-24. Those were annual tithes. 

Then there was a third tithe that was taken up every third year to support the Levite, the alien, the orphan and the widow. That is explained in Deuteronomy 14:28-29. 

The tithes were taken up and in the land that money was kept in the storehouse (the treasury) of the temple. These were mandatory gifts. It was legislation for the support of the theocracy as it were - the priests and the Levites - and also to take care of the widows and the orphans and those who for one reason or another had lost what they had and did not have the general means of daily sustenance. 

There were also free will offerings as I pointed out last time in the Old Testament. These are referenced in Proverbs 3:9-10, Exodus 25:1-2 where Moses raised money through free will offerings to build the tabernacle. Then there are various other passages that were given in the law. Leviticus 2:28-23 and other passages are related to tithing.  It is all related to paying this tax to support the nation and the bureaucracy which was the priesthood. 

Now I pointed out last time that this is the background for understanding for what happens in Malachi, one of the favorite passages that people go to that you will hear. I have heard them in so many congregations and churches. It is based on Malachi 3:8-10. The principle here is that this passage in Malachi 3:8-10 recognizes that the storehouse, the national bank for the tithe, was the temple. In Malachi 3:8 God is challenging them. Remember that this is the generation that has returned from the captivity and they were back in the land. By this time they have been back in the land about 100 years - maybe about 90 years. They rebuilt the temple, but everything was really falling apart. The structures that had been established were not being taken care of properly. Part of it was because the entire tax system that God had established had been broken down. Because the tax system had broken down, the temple was in disrepair. This dishonored God so God is confronting and challenging the people for their disobedience to the law. 

Now the law remember is given in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and is restated in Deuteronomy. So the law becomes the basis of prophetic challenges. The best way to understand the role of a prophet in the Old Testament isn't someone who told the future. That isn't what a prophet did. That was secondary. It was ancillary. It was what went along but that wasn't his purpose. His purpose wasn't just to be a preacher. His purpose was to serve as sort of a prosecuting attorney for the Supreme Court of Heaven to the nation of Israel saying this is what the contract says – boom, boom, boom. This is what you are accountable for. You aren't doing it so Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 say that God is going to do this to you in terms of divine discipline if you don't change—shub which is the Hebrew word for turn or sometimes translated repent. 

Tommy was saying last night that in Israel that is what the Jews will use that phrase today. That is to change, to turn. If you are repenting or if you have been in a life of sin and now you are going to become religious they do the shuva. So you have that term. That is what the prophet did. He challenged them.

Often the reason you bring in the futuristic element is because as God was through the prophet itemizing the lawsuit against them, He would say, "As a result of your failure I am going to judge you."

Yet these things will happen in the future and all of the future or predictive elements were designed to encourage the Jews with the fact that God wasn't disciplining them or taking them out of the land permanently.

But yet He did have a future for them and would not forsake them on a permanent basis. So the challenge in Malachi 3:8-10 coming from God is – "Will a man rob God?" If you don't give your tithe to the nation Israel (your tax), you are robbing God. 

"You have robbed Me." God says. 

But you say, "In what way did we rob You?" 

See, they are so innocent. They can't understand. 

"We haven't robbed you." 

God says, "In tithes and offerings."

^NKJ Malachi 3:8 "Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, 'In what way have we robbed You?' In tithes and offerings.

^NKJ Malachi 3:9 You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed Me, Even this whole nation.

That takes you right back to Deuteronomy. Even the whole nation is going to come under divine discipline.  And then God commands them in verse 10…

^NKJ Malachi 3:10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this," Says the LORD of hosts, "If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it

Now that is the phrase that you often hear pastors go to. In other words, give you money to the church. But that is not what it is saying. The "bring" is the hiphil imperative second person plural. It is addressed to the nation. The hiphil is causative. It means "cause to bring". The imperative is a mandate to bring all the tithes. That means the 10% for the priests and the Levites, the 10% for the annual celebration and the every third year tithe to support the widows and orphans. 

The word for storehouse is the Hebrew word otzar which is one of 9 different words used for treasure. This word is used of either the treasury in the king's house. It is used of the treasure in the temple or it is also used of the material possessions and treasure that an individual would bring together. There are 9 references in the Old Testament where this word describes the temple treasury. 

A couple of these are Joshua 6:19 and I Kings 7:51.

^NKJ Joshua 6:19 "But all the silver and gold, and vessels of bronze and iron, are consecrated to the LORD; they shall come into the treasury of the LORD."

That's otzar. 

In I Kings 7:51 where Solomon built the temple, we read…

^NKJ 1 Kings 7:51 So all the work that King Solomon had done for the house of the LORD was finished; and Solomon brought in the things which his father David had dedicated: the silver and the gold and the furnishings. He put them in the treasuries of the house of the LORD.

So there was a temple treasury in the house of the Lord.

In I Kings 14:26…

^NKJ 1 Kings 14:26 And he took away the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king's house; he took away everything. He also took away all the gold shields which Solomon had made.

This refers to the plundering of the temple treasury. So this term is a term that refers to the temple treasury. So Malachi 3:10 is a challenge to people to pay their tithes under the Mosaic Law, to put them in the storehouse.

God says, "Do this so that there will be food in My house. Try Me on this. Go ahead and test Me. If you don't do it, you are really going to get disciplined." 

That is what He is saying. 

In other words if you do this, "I will bless the nation. I will prosper the nation." 

That is exactly what He had promised back in the Mosaic Law. 

"If you obey the law I will pour out blessing upon the nation. If you are disobedient to the Mosaic Law, I am going to discipline you."

So we had several summary key principles. 

1. Giving even under the Mosaic Law wasn't a system of spiritual growth. It was a means of taxation. It is based on grace orientation, gratitude for the work that God has provided when it deals with free will offerings
2. Grace does not mean that we don't have an obligation to give. A lot of people think that. You will see people who come out of a heavy legalistic background where they are taught to tithe today. It is pounded into them. The pastor is always talking about giving. Every other message is a message related to giving. 

All of a sudden they come up to a grace oriented church and they say, "Phew! I don't have to give any more." 

They may go through a reaction for awhile. Grace doesn't mean that you don't have responsibilities. Grace doesn't mean that there is no giving. Grace means that there is an obligation to give, but that it is between you and the Lord and it is based on your inner motivation and your gratitude. There is no set percentage. It is as God has prospered you. Trust me. "As God has prospered you" is a lot more convicting and more challenging than 10%.

3. We understand that grace doesn't mean that it is free. There is a cost. Just as in salvation, which is free, the cost is paid by someone else. 

We have fabulous things that happened here. As I talked about the conference and the ministry, there are a number of people who gave generously and sacrificially and gave in abundance in order to meet the financial needs of that conference. So many people came and didn't have to pay for a room at the hotel. They didn't have to pay for meals. For them it was free, but somebody was generous and took care of that. They were able to be graced out in that situation.

Grace is the principle that continues into the Church Age. You have grace in the Old Testament and grace in the New Testament. So in the New Testament the word tithing is mentioned in the gospels only in reference to the legalistic practices of the Pharisees.

Let's go to Luke 11. Turn in your Bibles to Luke 11. Let's look at the context. Luke 11:42.

The reason I make this point here is a lot of people think that tithing is legalistic. Tithing isn't legalistic. There is no such thing as legalistic blessing in the Old Testament. When the Jews functioned under the law, it wasn't legalism. That was still grace. Grace doesn't mean that there is no responsibility and obligation. Grace means it is oriented to God's undeserved, unmerited favor. The point that I am making is what the Pharisees did was instead of recognizing the tithe in its biblical context; they start making it the basis for gaining God's approbation, His approval. You see that is the difference. You can do the same thing. This person over here does it over here and it is legalism. This person over there does it and it is grace because it is grounded in the motivation and gratitude that is in the individual soul of that believer. This person over here puts $500 in the collection plate and they think that this is their tithe, their 10 % contribution. God is going to bless them because (Aren't they great?) they are giving their 10%. They are fulfilling their obligation to tithe. That is legalism.

This person over here puts the same 10% in, the same amount. They are saying, "What a great thing God has done for me. I want to share what He has given me with others so that they are able to hear the Word of God and are able to respond to it." 

The difference is in motivation. What the Pharisees did was take the law. Paul said the law was unholy, unrighteous and bad. Right? No, he said the law was holy and righteous and good. The law included tithing. Therefore tithing cannot be in the Old Testament - in the right context - cannot be legalistic. It was good. It was holy and it was righteous. But it was done consistent with grace orientation. But what the Pharisees did was come in and make this ritualistic law the basis for gaining God's approval and God's blessing. So we come to Luke 11:42 and Jesus says to the Pharisees…

^NKJ Luke 11:42 "But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass by justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.

They get it down to the most minutia and they pass by justice and the love of God. You see they are applying the tithe down to the minutest thing. They are going to make sure that they are going to cut that 10% down to every minor possession that they have. In the process they are ignoring the justice of God which here is the word krisis which is His judgment, the operation of His justice. It is not dikaios, righteousness. It is the operation of it in terms of justice and the application of God's character. They ignore that and the love of God. So it is all about just doing the right thing without having the right relationship to God. 

Let's look at the context. As you go on to read it, in verse 43 he pronounces another woe on the Pharisees.

^NKJ Luke 11:43 "Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.

They are all about approbation. They want everyone to recognize them as having arrived spiritually. So they are going to sit up front. They are going to be in the market place where they are seen and observed. Then in verse 44 Jesus says…

^NKJ Luke 11:44 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like graves which are not seen, and the men who walk over them are not aware of them."

So his emphasis here is on their legalism. It is all about the external and not about the internal attitude of the soul and its orientation to the grace of God. 

Another verse in Luke, the second use of tithing in the gospels is in 18:12. This use comes out of the mouth of a Pharisee. This is the episode of the parable that Jesus tells. He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. So he is going to use a Pharisee on the one hand and a tax collector on the other hand. It is not a historical incident. They are unnamed. It is a parable. So he takes the Pharisee and he juxtaposes these two to bring out the difference, the core difference between legalism and grace.

Legalism isn't saying, "Thou shalt not". 

Legalism is saying that observing the "thou shalt not" is what gets you approval with God. That is how you get saved. That is how you get blessed by God. It is a rejection of the whole doctrine of imputation of Christ's righteousness as the basis for God's blessing. So Jesus tells the parable. 

^NKJ Luke 18:10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

^NKJ Luke 18:11 "The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank You that I am not like other men -- extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.

 ^NKJ Luke 18:12 'I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.'

Earlier in Matthew, Jesus says that if you give, give in such a way that the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. Giving is a matter of privacy. It isn't done before men. It is to be done in privacy. It is to be unobserved. It is unannounced. It doesn't matter what other people see. If you think your reward comes from what other people see because they recognize what a great giver you are and how generous you are then that is your reward - no reward later on at the Judgment Seat of Christ because you put your hope in the flesh and in men. 

^NKJ Jeremiah 17:5 Thus says the LORD: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the LORD.

So that is the Pharisee. That is what makes it legalistic. He is putting the emphasis on what he does. 

The tax collector in contrast…

^NKJ Luke 18:13 "And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!'

He is so aware that he had no business being in the presence of God. He has true genuine humility. He is recognizing that as a sinner we don't bring anything at all to the table. God does everything. The tax collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven. 

^NKJ Luke 18:14 "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

The path to preeminence is humility and recognizing that authority orientation. 

2.  The Lord also taught that giving was to be a private matter between the believer and God – nobody else's business. 

^NKJ Matthew 6:2 "Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

^NKJ Matthew 6:3 "But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,

^NKJ Matthew 6:4 "that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.

Giving should be done in such a way that people can preserve their privacy. 

Sometimes people say, "Well, sometimes I can't preserve my privacy when we pass the plate in church."

I have been in churches that take up a collection by passing the plate and others that put a box in the back. Sometimes we all forget. I think that passing a plate is a good reminder. We all forget. A lot of times people put something out in the hallway and people do forget so I don't have a problem in passing a plate. Some people are concerned about privacy. 

I have heard people say this. "Somebody down the row might see my check pop open and see what I gave."

Great! Put it in the mail. Don't get wrapped around the axle. Everybody wants to over think stuff. The issue is that it is between you and the Lord, not letting it be known to other people. 

3.  The New Testament clearly recognizes free will giving that is based on gratitude and soul and not on the basis of a prescribed percentage. In Luke 21:2-4 we have the story of the widow who puts the two mites into the collection.

^NKJ Luke 21:2 and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites.

^NKJ Luke 21:3 So He said, "Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all;

^NKJ Luke 21:4 "for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had."

That is they looked at how much is left at the end of the month in their checkbook and then they decide how much they are going to give based on what is left over. Kind of like Dr. Cate said the other night that happens in Islam. They are supposed to give 3.2% or 3.5% or something like that. They wait until the end of the year. It is not based on how much they made. It is not based on their gross. 

I hear Christians say, "Should I give 10%?  Is that 10% of net or 10% of gross?"

It is 10% of grace. Okay? Don't worry about the numbers. Worry about the grace and that's it. What the Moslems will do is give 3.5% of what is left in the checkbook at the end of the year when everything is paid for. That is pretty negligible. So here what Jesus is saying is that it is a decision that is made up front in the budgeting process. You are going to decide that you are going to give this amount of money for the local church and missions and you know that God is going to bless and honor whatever I am going to give and Him to take of me and I am going to trust Him to take care of me. It is not done irrationally or irresponsibly, but it is done in light of a thought out procedure according to I Corinthians based on how God has prospered you.

Later on we are going to see how the Macedonians were praised by Paul because they gave out of their poverty to help support the Jewish believers in Jerusalem who were going through a time of famine. 

They didn't look around and say, "The Lord really hasn't really given us that much."

They said, "The Lord hasn't given us that much, but I still have a responsibility to help others."

The Macedonians demonstrate the same principle of giving out of their lack, not out of their abundance.

Next time we will come back and go to point 4 dealing with what is going on with Abraham's tithe. Then we will wrap up with the other principles and two other key passages in the New Testament for giving - I Corinthians 16 and II Corinthians 9. 

We need to ask the question, "Is there a reason and is there legitimacy for churches, for pastors, for seminaries to let people know what their needs are?" 

There are some ministries that say, "If you let people know what your needs are, you are just asking for money."

Is there a basis for that biblically?  We will look at that when we come back next Thursday night.

Let's bow our heads. 

Illustrations