The sermon by Scott Brown, titled 'Tithing - Poor, Yet Making Many Rich,' explores the biblical concept of tithing as outlined in Deuteronomy 14. Brown explains the historical context of tithing in the Bible, highlighting its connections to the gospel and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The sermon emphasizes three main types of tithes: the Levitical tithe, the festival tithe, and the tithe for the poor, each serving distinct purposes such as supporting religious leaders, facilitating community celebrations, and aiding the marginalized. Brown also reflects on the broader principles of giving, such as generosity, responsibility, and the importance of not hoarding wealth. The sermon encourages believers to view tithing not just as a duty but as an opportunity to reflect God's generosity, ultimately pointing to the sacrifice of Christ as the ultimate fulfillment of the tithe's symbolic meaning.

Today's sermon shall be on Deuteronomy 14, 22, to the end. You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year. And you shall eat before the Lord your God in the place where He chooses to make His name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of the first-born of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. But if the journey is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, or if the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, when the Lord your God has blessed you, then you shall exchange it for money. Take the money in your hand and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses.

And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires, for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires. You shall eat there before the Lord your God and you shall rejoice you and your household you shall not forsake the Levite who is within your gates for he has no part nor inheritance with you At the end of every third year you shall bring out the tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates. May come and eat and be satisfied, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do." Lord God, I pray that Your hand would be on Scott as he preaches upon this word, that all truth be known, and may we know you better. Every word that we read.

Amen. This text is a pathway that runs straight to the throne of God, in which you find God our Father sending his firstborn son. It takes us to the beginning of the world, where you find Abel bringing his first fruits. It takes you to the patriarchs, to Abraham, and then to Solomon, and Malachi, into the prophets. And then it takes you straight to the cross where a son was offered for the sins of many.

These things are all implied here in this text. And I would like to talk about a number of things. First of all, I'd like to just start off that this week has not only been a journey to all these places that God has established for our instruction, it's also taken me personally to a place of repentance and how I'm realizing how little we have done to teach anything about money in our lives together in this church for almost a decade. And so It's been a time of really searching why we haven't done that and what we should have done. And so here is a principle in scripture that takes us to many issues of family life and giving and labor that we've really actually neglected in our church.

I'm very sorry for that. I take full responsibility for that. So not only has it been a glorious time of going from one end of creation to the next. It's also been a time of soul-searching and also desiring to do better in the years to come on this matter. I'd like for us to think, first of all, how this message on tithing fits into the whole book of Deuteronomy, because it has a very special place in the message of Deuteronomy.

You know, Deuteronomy consists of three sermons. The first sermon is from chapters one through four, and it's one of the most concentrated and powerful statements of the importance of the grace and love of God toward his people. It's a picture of the gospel. And then there's a second sermon that begins in chapter 5, in which from chapters 5, it's really broken up into two halves, but the sermon goes from chapter five to chapter 28. We're not quite halfway through that second sermon now in our studies.

Chapters five through 11 are general instructions that include things like the Ten Commandments and things like that. And then, as there's this sort of general introduction to the sermon, there's a sort of a change of tone. In chapter 11, Moses casts forth two things to get us ready for what is coming later in the sermon. And he talks about the importance of the heart to be given completely to God, a heart faithfully offered to God. And then at the end of chapter 11, he does something that he has not done at all yet in any of these sermons in the book of Deuteronomy.

He talks about the blessings and the curses. So that's chapter 11. Then when we get to chapter 12, what we find are very distinct applications of the Ten Commandments. And so he's been dealing with general principles and now beginning in chapter 12 he begins to zero in on really critical areas of life. In chapter 12, 1 through 4, he talks about idolatry.

And then in the balance of chapter 12 he talks about worship and how God desires to be worshiped. And then in chapter 13, he talks about the dangers of false teachers and false prophets in our midst and how we ought to put them away from us. And then when we get to Chapter 14, we find ourselves really in an exposition of the third commandment, that will not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. And so to take the name of the Lord your God in vain means that you bear the name and the character of God, hypocritically or uselessly. You say one thing with your mouth, but you live in a totally different way.

So we're in now an exposition of the third commandment. And so what we've seen already in chapter 14 are specific areas in which you take the name of the Lord your God in vain. And the first is that the way that you mourn in verses 1 and 2 in chapter 14, he says, you take the name of the Lord your God in vain when you mourn like the pagans. And you look like them, you act like them. I don't know if you've ever known people who've gone into a funeral, and they're all drugged up to inebriate themselves.

That is worshiping like the pagans worship. But we don't worship that way because we have hope. We don't mourn as people without hope at all. And so he talks about first, you take the name of the Lord your God in vain when you mourn this way. And any of you who have lost children or parents or anything like that, know the temptations of turning your mourning into a big pity party, into a thing where you're slashing yourself year after year and you have these terrible, terrible remembrances of these things that have happened.

That's mourning like the pagans and it's taking the name of the Lord your God in vain. Then he moves into the area of food. Don't eat like the Gentiles and so he speaks of this whole subject that there are clean and unclean foods. And it matters what you eat. And it's really a reminder of the gospel, that God gives good gifts.

He gives good food to his children. And that it matters what we eat. And that's the great principle. As you know, if you were here, you know that our position, at least in our eldership, is that the food laws have passed away, but the principle never passes away. There is this thing called clean and unclean.

And God called his people to eat a certain way so that they would be different than the rest of the nations. Because there is this category of clean people and unclean people in the world. And then of course, How does all that work out with the gospel? Christ has become our cleanness, our purity. He is the only one that has been able to make us pure.

So now, we come to another issue, and that is the issue of tithing. You take the name of the Lord your God in vain when you misuse your funds, when you keep it all to yourself, when you hoard it, when you forget to rejoice with your family, when you forsake the funding and the ministry of the Levites, and when you do not care for four kinds of people, The Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. You take the name of the Lord your God in vain when you don't do that. So that's that's basic idea that we see and it's an exposition of the third commandment. So that's what we see.

Now when we get into chapter 15, this idea keeps running. And he talks about, like in verse 7, you shall not harden your heart against the poor. In verse 15, also at the end of chapter 15, verse 7, he says, nor shut your hand from the poor. He gives a picture of being tight-fisted. I think this whole section really is about being tight-fisted with your money.

And you're unwilling to support the Levites. You're unwilling to celebrate with your money. And you're unwilling to take care of the poor. And you're tight-fisted, as he says in 15.7. And then there's also a sin at the door.

Whenever funds are involved, he says, beware lest there be a wicked thought in your heart. That's 15.9. So, in 14 and 15, we find this overlap of teaching regarding money and how we think about it, what we do with it, and our hearts regarding it. So that's where we are in 14. Why?

Why is he saying all this? Chapter 14 verse 1. Look at it please with me. Here's why. This all matters because God is raising up a people for his own possession.

A holy people. Sons and daughters. Children of the Lord your God. He says you are the children of the Lord your God. And then he begins to enumerate different ways that you show that you are children.

You don't mourn the way that the pagans mourn. You don't eat the way that the pagans eat and you don't handle your money the way that the pagans Handle their money. So that's that's where we are right now in Deuteronomy. Do you see it? Okay, so so now there are Now we're talking about this principle of tithing.

Now look at verse 22, where he says, you shall surely tithe. You shall surely tithe. So this introduces the third subject in chapter 14. Now there are many, many critical texts regarding the use of money that we will touch on today. And I would like for us as families to study these, to read these, maybe even today as you go home or throughout the week, to read these texts regarding money.

There are three primary texts in the Old Testament regarding tithing. Leviticus 7, Numbers 18, and Deuteronomy 14. Those are the really critical core texts that seem to cover the range of teaching there. But you can go so many places. You can go to the Lord Jesus Christ, who said in Matthew 6.24, no one can serve two masters.

You cannot serve God and mammon. You could go to Haggai chapter 2 verse 8, the silver is mine, the gold is mine, says the Lord. You could go to Ecclesiastes chapter 5, which we will in a few minutes, where we learn that God gives money for his people to enjoy it. We could go to, we will go to Malachi chapter 3 where we hear the question, will a man rob God? We go to Paul's letters to the Corinthians and read about sowing sparingly or bountifully, and all manner of passages of scripture.

So there really are critical texts, and I'm going to publish some of those critical texts, send them all out to us here on Monday to help us have a roadmap for just reading scripture about what God has for us regarding money. Now as we are, as you read this verse, this statement in verse 22, you shall surely tithe. Here's what you cannot miss. You cannot miss the double meaning, because if you miss it, you won't understand anything about what the tithe is all about. There's a double meaning here.

And so as we walk through this text, look for the double meanings. Look for the shadows and their fulfillments in Christ, in his work, in the work of God the Father, and in the work of the Church, and in the work of the church and in the work of the believer, the believer priest. So we're in everything in this text, we're dealing with shadows that all point to and all are fulfilled in Christ alone. So we always need to be working on both sides of our brain here in these Old Testament texts. We need to be understanding what the principle is, what the commands and also the warnings and the judgments.

At the same time though, we always have to be making the connection with Christ. Don't ever read the Old Testament without seeing its fulfillment in Jesus Christ. And so if we only see tithing, if all we see is our responsibility, if all we see is a percentage, If all we see is a percentage, if all we see is a principle, then we may miss the point. Because there's something greater here than the temple. There's something greater here than the tithe.

And so if we say, OK, I made a decision. I'm going to tithe. That's a shortcut. That's the overwhelming principle that really is here. So I want you to notice as we walk through this text, and we're going to walk through it slowly, phrase by phrase, that there are connections with God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

So look for them. When we get to our time of discussion and further teaching, I'd like to hear as much of it as you can see. So notice how it's being fulfilled. Now let me give you a few tips here. Here, a people are commanded to give their first fruits.

Sound familiar? God gave his firstborn son. A people are commanded to bring a sacrifice. Does that sound familiar? Christ was a sacrifice and offered himself as an offering.

People are leaving their homes and going to a place of sacrifice. Does that sound familiar? Christ, the Son, leaves this heavenly glory to become a sacrifice for simple mankind. Now, I believe there are dozens and dozens of ways that I don't even understand how Christ has fulfilled these things. But as we go through it, I just want you to look very carefully.

Have your finger in the text, and Let's walk through the text and see it. So he says, you shall truly tithe the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year. Now these four words, you shall truly tithe, Hey, these are fighting words. They are words that will get you into all kinds of controversy. The word tithe literally just means tent.

When you see the word tithe, it means a tent, 10% of something. And the word tent or tithing, it appears 16 times in the Bible. Seven of those times are in the book of Deuteronomy, from chapters 12, I believe, to chapter 26. And so We need to understand that this is a battleground doctrine. And there's tremendous debate here.

In order to try to help myself understand what people teach about this, I purchased a number of books on tithing. Here's one, tithe, the extortion of the body of Christ. Here's another one, tithing, and still broke. Here's another one, tithing in an age of grace. Tithing, nailed to the cross.

Tithing, God's financial plan. Here's my favorite, tithing, low realm, obsolete, defunct. OK. So there are many books that you can read about this. And it's actually a study in humor to look at all of them and to see how stupid we all are in understanding the will of God.

And here, what we desire to do is to try to get our arms around what all of this means. And here's the idea that we're confronted with here. Is our giving to be governed by our sentiment and our internal reactions to things, or is there a rule as well? Or is it both, or is it just one of the above? That's the question that's really on the table.

Is there a principle or a rule, or are you just left to your own heart at any given moment? That's really the question. So as you have heard before, there are three major tithes in the Old Testament. There's the Levitical tithe, and then there's the festival tithe, and then there's the poor tithe, three that we see in the Old Testament law. So here we find, on what do you tithe?

You shall tithe on the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year. So the Old Testament tithe was a percentage, a 10% on the increase. And of course, it was used to fund the priesthood, to pay for the festivals, and to deal with the community. Now, there's this idea here now that you tithe on the increase. So here's some interesting factoids.

About 6% of people who claim to be believers tithe, okay? 94% of believers, or who say they are, never tithe. 94%. Just think about that for a second. You have this principle that runs all over scripture, and yet 94% do not tithe.

On the other hand, though, 32% report that they do tithe. Oh, so we have a little integrity gap here, don't we? And so even though perhaps 6% tie, 32% say they do, and they are not tithing and they are lying perhaps. And so, you know, there's variation as well. You know, If you happen to live in the South, Southerners give 1.5% of their income.

But if you live in the Midwest, it's 1.4%. And if you live in the Northeast, It's 0.7%. OK, that's not very much money, is it, for a believer to give 0.7 or 1.4 or we righteous southerners. Oh, if you live in the Bible Belt, you are such righteous saints, you give 1.5% of your income to the Lord. And so it's easy to see why works of God often lack funds and things like that.

And so you find this idea of the 10th. And then you have to think about the realities that are at play in our own world. And then he says, Moses tells them how to observe it. Look at verse 23. He shows you, not only does he say how much and on what do you tithe, But he also tells you how to observe it.

Verse 23, and you shall eat before the Lord your God. And so this tithe is given for a time of being before the Lord your God. And this is an interesting term. It occurs 257 times in scripture. It's used in the context of the temple, or when God was speaking directly to a person, or when a vow was taken in God's presence, or in a prayer.

And one example is when Samuel was hacking agag, the pieces, before the Lord. He was doing it before the Lord. So there are many things that can be done before the Lord, under His name, under the care of His name. But this here is self-consciously before the Lord. So the celebration of the tithe, the fruits of it, should be very consciously before the Lord.

And then he says in verse 26, and you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires. And we're talking about how do you observe it. You spend that money for whatever your heart desires, for oxen or sheep or wine or similar drink, which is strong drink, or whatever your heart desires. You shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice you in your household. Verse 27.

You shall not forsake the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no part or inheritance with you." So how do you observe it? It's before the Lord, this tithe here. This is the festival tithe, right? And there's a specific way that you celebrate this tithe. And it really brings up a number of questions regarding the way we celebrate.

Do we celebrate? Do we take the funds that God has given us and use them to celebrate? Do we include the Levites in that celebration? Are we so obsessed with our own fears of provision that we never celebrate with our families? We hoard it to ourselves and we're always investing and never celebrating with it.

Often it comes from the feeling of never feeling secure before God. You're making a statement of faith when you do not celebrate with your family. And it's a statement that says, I trusted myself. And celebration has nothing to do with me. I'm trying to watch what's coming behind us.

So here is this really amazing statement of how you observe it. Now this whole principle that's here is really a very startling backdrop to the tide, because this backdrop we find really in many, many places regarding the use of funds, this whole matter of rejoicing. And so we have to understand what God is saying here. What is his heart in the matter here? He's showing us something of his intentions for his people.

Remember early in Deuteronomy we learned that God by making a holy people is making a wise and understanding people that they live right, they live well, they do things well in a blessing. Here's what you find, particularly in Deuteronomy, you find a family rejoicing together in Deuteronomy chapter 12, 12, And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God. You and your sons and your daughters your male and female servants and the Levites within your gates. Deuteronomy 12, 18. But you must eat them before the Lord your God with your son and your daughter and you rejoice before the Lord your God." In verse 18.

In Deuteronomy chapter 16, he says, you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and female servant, and your Levite who is within your gates. And then in Deuteronomy 16, 14, and you shall rejoice in your feast, you your son and your daughter and your male servant and your female servant and your Levite and the stranger and the father and the widow who are in your gates. And then in chapter 26 verse 11, he says, and you shall rejoice in every good thing the Lord your God has given you in your house and The Levi and the stranger who is among you so here you had this idea of the whole family rejoicing together God desires families to have times of rejoicing as they celebrate the provision of the Lord by using, by actually spending the things that God has given them. And then you find it's broadened out The whole community is rejoicing together. In 12.7, Moses says, and there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice to all which you put your hand, you and your households which the Lord your God has blessed you.

In 12.14, in 12.23, in 12.16, and on and on and on, you find the home and the community are really set aside for the rejoicing. You know, we just have to understand that yes, it is true that God was commanding His people to have a party, to have a time of celebration with their families and also with people beyond their families. Maybe this is why the Pharisees accused Jesus of being a wine-bibber and a glut, because he was known to celebrate. My guess is, if Jesus were here, he would be driving us to a little bit more celebration. God says, set aside some time and money for festivals.

Now there are ways I think in our church that we've tried to apply this in different ways. We you know once a year gather the whole community and and we feed them and we preach the gospel to them. And our church funds a Memorial Day event in which we are attempting to cast a vision of the goodness of God and His good providence toward His people and bring veterans in and preach the gospel to them. We have, just recently, we, we fund, church funded a lady's tea. Nobody had to pay for it.

They were brought in. We brought in all the food and all the makings and, And it was a time of blessing right here in this place. We have a Father-Son Retreat coming up. Very heavily, heavily subsidized by the tithes and offerings of our church, because we want to bring people in and rejoice and teach and feed them and give them a time of blessing and instruction. We had a Passover feast just this year.

The church funded that Passover feast. Delicious food came. Of course, it was funded through the makings of the families of the church. But it was something that came out of the resources of the church. And of course, there were cash resources that had to be spent in order to have a place to do it, a venue, and that kind of thing.

So it's appropriate to do that. Here we find that 10% of the income was set aside for those kinds of celebrations. I just think that's astonishing. Is it possible that on the table here is an opportunity for when they read this for churches to repent for not Celebrating for spending all their money on them just maybe on things and not for for celebration and So he He also designates where this is to be observed. Not only do you see how it's observed, it's observed with rejoicing, but where it's reserved in the place where he chooses to make his name abide, verse 23.

But if the journey is too long for you so that you are not able to carry the tithe or if the place where the Lord your God chooses to put his name is too far from you, then the Lord your God has, when the Lord your God has blessed you, Then you shall exchange it for money and take the money in your hand and do it in the place that you choose. And then we're told exactly what they were commanded to tithe, your grain and your new wine and your oil and the first born of your herds and of your flocks. So there's an itemization of the kinds of things. And my perspective on this is that this is just a general explanation of whatever might increase you. And there are various kinds of increase.

Everyone doesn't agree with that. Some say, no, it is only these types of things. And if you're not a farmer, you don't do it. And I just don't understand it that way. But here we have this, you're tithing on these things that God has brought to you.

And then he says, why do you tithe? He answers that question. Why do you do this? That you may fear the Lord your God always, in verse 25. That you may fear the Lord your God always, in verse 25.

That you may fear the Lord your God always. That's why you do it. It brings an atmosphere of the fear of the Lord. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And so when you distribute your funds, you don't keep them just to yourself, then it heightens fear, the fear of God.

It's a good kind of fear. And you know, if you have a vacation fund, You could call it the Fear of the Lord fund. We're doing this that we're doing what we ought to do. We're setting aside our resources. And we're being deliberate about suspending our resources for rejoicing.

And then He talks about what is offered, and it is the produce, the tenth of the harvest. And then there are all kinds of details about that. So that's what we get here. And then we move to the next tithe, the third tithe in verse 28. Now this is a different kind of tithe.

We've just gone through the festival tithe. And now there's the tithe for the poor. And the term poor does not appear in this text, but it's called the tithe for the poor. At the end of every third year, you shall bring out a tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates may come and eat and be satisfied, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do." And then we learn about when it was collected.

At the end of every third year, you shall bring out the tithe of your produce. So this is 10% every third year. This tithe for the poor was 3.3% of your annual income, adding it up to 10% over a three-year time horizon. So that's what this is. And then Moses identifies where it is collected.

Do you see it here? And store it up within your gates. That means it's brought into a local, perhaps civil, city storehouse within the gates of the city. And it's stored there and then distributed. But all of the people bring it in, and then it's delivered out to the poor.

And then it's obvious who the tithe is for, because he identifies four different kinds of people that this tithe is for. And he lists them in verse 29. Who is it for? It's for the Levite, because he has no portion with you, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your gates. In other words, they're local.

You know them, by the way. They are within your gates. They're not that it's wrong to necessarily give to those poor outside of your gates. But there's this principle that there is giving among those that you know. It's easy to be blindsided, it's easy to be engaged with people who are frauds.

And so this principle of within your gates helps us to understand that that is an important category to understand. And then, and so there are these these four kinds of people. And again, you find the same principle that God is caring for all of his people in a very, very wonderful way. And then when it was collected, or why it was collected, is in verse 29. That the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.

Why? Why should you do this? And God, in characteristic fashion, tells us why. Because he wants to bless us. That's what verse 29 says.

Now, we don't believe in the health and wealth gospel where the motivation for the kingdom of heaven is to get rich, and that we give so that we'll get blessed. But we know this for sure, that God blesses the work of your hands when you give. He tells us why we should do it, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands." And the principle is this, no give, no bless. That's how it is. If you're not giving, then you're probably getting a good return on your investment.

You're getting nothing because you give nothing. And that's really the idea. So I'd like to give a number of general principles that we can draw from this. And I'm actually going to give you several, like 16. How about that?

16 general principles that you can embrace with all your heart in this matter of giving. Here's number one. We should not keep all we make. We should not keep all we make. We should not keep all we make.

Some of God's people are cursed because they don't give anything away. They hoard it out of fear. Number two, you should give away a big percentage. Here in this text it was 23%. 10% for the festival tithe, 10% for the first fruits, 10% for the festival tithe, and 3.3% annually for the poor.

So it's a big percentage. But what's confusing about this whole matter of tithing is, okay, what's the percentage? Well, When you get to the profits, they're actually giving more than that, even 25%, 30%, 40% of their income for special projects, like the building of the wall. They were giving for that as well. So my perspective is that we're not limited to 10% or 20% or 23% or 27% or 8% because you can find these kinds of percentages in different places.

But here's what you can rest all of your weight on. If you don't know what percentage it is, you should give a big percentage. Okay, that's the idea. All right? Don't just keep all that you have, but give a big percentage away.

And then notice that there are three purposes of the tithe. There are different kinds of things that we give, too. There's a provision for worship and celebration of the family. There is provision for the inheritance of the Levi's so that the ministry would go on. And then there was provision for the poor.

Those three things should always be in our radar screen when we're talking about giving. They're identified here, but I will tell you this, they're not just identified here. They're identified all over scripture, and we'll get to some of those later on. These principles are not just standing in isolation in the law. They're not.

You find them everywhere. And so you should give a big percentage of your income. And then, who is responsible for this? It's the individual that brings the tithe into the storehouse. And then, number five, God owns it all.

This what we give already belongs to God anyway. He gave it to us for a purpose so it would be returned to him in the form of the blessing of the family, to provide food and clothing and shelter, to provide blessing for the church that the ministry of the word would run powerfully so that the celebrations would be in place that they wouldn't forget that, and so that there would be care for the poor, and the fatherless, and the widow, and the stranger who are within your gates. So it's the individual who does this. And so The institution can't do anything unless the individuals do something. And that's one of the principles that's here.

If you want the institution to do something, well then you have to do something first. And that's what we find here. God owns it all. He's the giver of all things. And then it also answers this question.

How should we raise money for the work of God? How should we raise money for the work of God? Now, what are the different ways you can raise money for the work of God. Well, you might think of a bake sale, or a raffle, or a yard sale, or a car wash. Well, the biblical pattern is nothing of these.

What the biblical pattern is, individuals come and bring their gifts into the storehouse, and for their families, and for others who have need. And they distribute them that way. And I think I think it's a very well intentioned and perhaps an exemplary thing to have a yard sale or a raffle to you know to promote the work of the gospel. But that's not what scripture gives us actually. Scripture gives us something different.

You take with what you have made. Now you might say, well I just made $500 at my yard sale. I think I'm going to tithe on that. Well, Nobody's going to argue with that, right? Because it was an exemplary action.

But I just think we should think about this idea here. The primary way that God funds his work is through the gifts of his people upon the increase that he has given them. This also brings us, number seven, into the whole matter of the danger of riches. That no one can serve two masters, that you cannot serve God and Mammon. And how puppet-like we are when it comes to Mammon.

Our hearts drive us all over the place. And there is danger. Moses has already warned the children of Israel of this danger in Deuteronomy 8. He said, beware if you say in your heart, My power and the might of my hand has gained this wealth." And he says, no, don't you remember that I gave you the power to bring that wealth? I gave it to you.

Now, it doesn't belong to me. I gave you the strength, and you received it. And now you have a responsibility for it. So there's this whole realm of the danger of riches. And then we can talk about the purpose of money.

You know, what is the purpose of money? It's a glorious purpose. God gives money for enjoyment. In Ecclesiastes 5, 18, we read, he says, it is good and fitting for one to eat and drink and to enjoy the good of all his labor, in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life, which God gives him. For this is his heritage.

And for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth and given him power to eat it to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor this is a gift of God That means the money God gives you to support you is a gift for enjoyment. Money is meant for enjoyment and for blessing. And if you find that, absolutely in this passage of Scripture, But you don't just find it there. You find it all over Scripture. He says, eat your food with gladness.

So when you work and you have food and you eat, every day there's that reminder that God has given you something. Every time you eat is really another opportunity to celebrate the gospel, the goodness of God's hand, that He allowed you to have food on your table. He gave it to you, and that's the idea. And the purpose is that you would enjoy it. So how tragic it is not to enjoy what God has given us, not to enjoy our meals, not to enjoy what God has given us.

He's given it to us for enjoyment. And then we also understand from this passage, and as we connect it to others, that all men must give. It's a manhood responsibility. In Deuteronomy 16.6, we read that all men must appear before the feast of unleavened bread. And it says, no man empty handed.

No man empty handed. You got that? Men should come not empty-handed and should have the faith enough to give. And often men come empty-handed because they're fearful, because they run out of money, whatever. Maybe there are all kinds of reasons for it.

Only each man knows. But to come and not give is a sin. Each man should give and none should come empty-handed. And we find this principle here that we are to come and bring an offering. Number 10, tithing puts a drain plug on greed, and it weakens the stranglehood of covetousness, and it disarms the curse of envy.

All these sins of covetousness and envy and greed, these things are all addressed by giving. And so giving is good because It puts the finger in the wound. It challenges you on all those things. You envy and you want more than the other guy. You are greedy and you want to amass.

You're fearful and you withhold. Giving challenges all of those sins. And so here, with this passage of Scripture, I believe God has perhaps brought it to us for one reason, perhaps. And that is that He would challenge us on our envy, our greed, our hoarding, any of these sins regarding money, so that we would understand that there's something more wonderful for us out there. But tithing puts a drain plug on greed, and it's a regular drain plug that you can just keep draining it out of your system.

And so he gives it for beautiful purposes. Number 11, it is a fountain of blessing for the church, the poor, and the stranger. You've heard it said, we spend the money we don't have for things we don't need to impress the people that we don't like. But really God has given us a greater vision for how we give. And we give for specific purposes.

For people we do love. For the money that he has given us, and for the praise of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a whole different way of giving. But it's for a fountain of blessing. Why has God has given our church really a remarkably high employment rate.

I've talked to some of my brothers around and with lots and lots of people out of work. Our church so far has not experienced it. We may experience it big time, but we have not experienced it really very much in our church. And why is that? One reason is that God has desired to bless the families of our church so that they are able to give.

And so it's a fountain of blessing for the church and the poor and the stranger. And number 12, these tithing principles, they contradict much prevailing thinking regarding money. They really are a direct assault on Greek thinking and Roman Catholic thought and Gnosticism. Here's what to attack on, that the holiest people have nothing to give. The holiest people live in monasteries.

The holiest people don't have families to rejoice with. The holiest of people don't have jobs. They just meditate all the time. That's all they do. That is the Roman Catholic and Gnostic and Greek view of resources.

And it's a wicked view that's directly attacked here in this passage of scripture. This is a philosophical assault against Gnosticism and Aestheticism and monasticism. And it calls people to work, to have labor, to rejoice with it, and let the blessings flow. And we just understand that the whole atmosphere of this text on tithing ranges against these ideas of really an ungodly austerity, that the only truly godly people have nothing to give. That's not a godly idea.

There's the idea that you give absolutely everything away and You have no inheritance. You have nothing to bless your children with, or your family in the next generation. It is, like the widow, a good thing to give all that you have. At the same time, there are other principles you have to take into account. You have a family.

You have sons and daughters who are rising in the next generation and parents have a responsibility to give an inheritance and the Bible makes it clear in their lifetime so that they can advance higher and higher than the previous generation did. So this tithing principle contradicts much, much prevailing thinking. And in 13, we should not be proud till we give till we have nothing because we have a responsibility for inheritance. Number 14, there are tithes and there are offerings. There are two different categories of giving.

So we have to define the terms there as this 10th. And then there is this idea of offering. And the idea is really consistent with the whole argument, the whole structure of Deuteronomy, that you have a king, a suzerain who has made a treaty, and he receives tribute, yet those subjects give joyfully to the king because they appreciate what he has done. So there are these two things always held in balance in Scripture, tithes and offerings. And here we find a percentage being given joyfully for a number of purposes.

Number 15, tithing keeps us from robbing God. Malachi 3, 7 through 8. Here's where we learn that there are consequences for not tithing. So if you fast forward from the giving of the law all the way to the day of Malachi, you find that they're still tithing. And a prophet is saying, if you don't tithe and give offerings, you're robbing God.

And the people say, how have we robbed you? And he says, in tithes and offerings. That's how you've robbed me. And this so the prophet Malachi brings a complaint and and it is a complaint for robbing God And the root of the problem is in verse 7. If you'll just turn there, Malachi chapter 3.

I'll give you a moment to get there. Malachi chapter 3, verse 7. The root of the problem is found in verse 7. From the days of your fathers, and I can't think of anything, but he's talking about Moses. From the days of your fathers, You have gone away from my ordinances and not kept them.

That's the problem. They've gone away from the ordinances of God in Israel. In the second half of verse 7, the remedy, There's something they should do. Return to me and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. So they should come back.

And then there's the method of return. How do you make this right, this breach that has occurred between you and God? He says, but you said, in what way shall we return? And he answers in verse 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. So The method of return is to be faithful with money. And then in verse 9 we read of the penalty. You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed me, even this whole nation.

Now, I believe that this is a specific curse that will come upon people who reject God's commands regarding money. And of course Christ has taken away the curse of the law in this sense, that when we break this law, he has become our sacrifice for our sins. But there are punishments and results that take place when we sin. And here, there is a penalty, and it's a curse for robbing God. We have to understand that God said this, that there is a curse for robbing Him.

Only God will, only God can determine what that curse might be. And then there's the solution in verse 10. Bring all the tithes in the storehouse that there may be food in my house. And then there's the challenge in verse 10, at the end of verse 10. Now try me in this.

So God is saying, just would you test me. Let me prove that I bless those and that I curse those. And he says, try me 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 enough room to receive it, And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes." I will rebuke the devourer? Have you ever felt like your money was just running out of your pockets? God says he will rebuke the devourer of your resources.

So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field, says the Lord of hosts. And all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land, says the Lord of hosts. We were having our Bible study this last week. We were studying this text. And one of the men said, robbing God has not passed away.

Robbing God has not. If you think the tithe has passed away, do you think robbing God has passed away? I don't really think robbing God has passed away at all. And so we find this principle of robbing God. Tithing keeps us from robbing God.

And then 16th, the last general principle, is the principle of sowing and reaping that we find in 2 Corinthians 9, 6 through 7. This is one of the texts that I'll send to you this week. 2 Corinthians 9, 6 through 7, where the apostle Paul says to the Corinthian church, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. And he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So that each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver.

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work as it is written. He has dispersed abroad, he has given to the poor, his righteousness endures forever." So what Paul is saying is that if you sow sparingly, that's what you'll get. If you reap abundantly, if you sow abundantly, that's what you'll get. And then he gives an example. He goes straight to the throne of God.

He goes straight to the example of God who says, God has dispensed abroad. God has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. So should you. Be just like God by giving from your throne.

That's the idea that he's bringing here. So those are 16 principles that really can be summed up in Proverbs 11, 24. There is one who scatters yet increases more, and there is one who withholds more than is right, but it leads to poverty. The generous soul will be made rich, and he who waters will also be watered himself. The people will curse him who withholds grain, but blessing will be on the head of him who sells it." So there are a number of principles, probably actually many more.

There are many, many principles that we could draw that take us straight to the gospel and the heart of God for sinners. But so those are some general principles. Now here's some difficult questions that you have to grapple with. Which Old testament tithe do we practice? There were three.

Do we practice one of them, the first fruits, or do we practice all of them? Do we get to pick and choose? What's the deal here? It's a difficult question to ask. Number two, here's another difficult question.

How can we obey without living in the promised land? The tithe is brought in from the land of Israel, but we don't live in Israel. So what is the land? Why are there no tithes, as someone said in our study. Why are there no tithes for fishermen and blacksmiths?

And so you have to answer the question, what is this whole thing about the land of Israel? And is this restricted to the land of Israel? I'll give you my perspective. I don't believe it's restricted to the land of Israel. I believe it's restricted to God's people, wherever they might be, anywhere in the world.

God gives them work to do. He delivers them to their hands resources. And they're obligated to give it back. Does that mean that if you move out of Israel, all bets are off for all of your financial life. You can do whatever you want.

All you have to do is move across the border. Does that make sense? It just makes no sense to me that all you have to do is move into another country to escape all of what God said about money in the Old Testament, or perhaps even in the New Testament. And so the third question is, if the tithe is for today, then why don't I quit tithing on the seventh and the fiftieth year? Because later on as we get into Deuteronomy, you'll learn that on the seventh year and the 50th year, there's no tithe.

So does that mean it's suspended on certain years? These are just confusing questions. I don't believe they are, personally. Again, that makes no sense to me. But this is very clear.

In Israel, the tithes were suspended on those years because there was another great in gathering, a great giving that was taking place during that time as resources were distributed around. And then another question. Can I divide my tithe up among ministries, different kinds of ministries? And my view is yes, yes you can. And here what we have are we have rules and principles.

And we have to understand both of those as well. And God has given a multitude of places to give in the same way that he has in the Old Testament. Here he had three tithes. There are different places that fun should go, because there are different problems in the world that can be addressed. And then, you know, am I obligated to focus on the storehouse and the festival and the poor tithes, is that right?

Those are questions that I just think all of us have to grapple with. I think they're complex questions. I'm not confident I have the perfect answer to every one of those questions. But I would like to now, I'd like to give you eight reasons why I believe we cannot ignore the tithe. Okay?

Eight reasons why we can't ignore the tithe. Number one, 4, 000 BC, Cain and Abel brought the first fruits to the Lord. And why did they bring the first fruits to the Lord? We have no idea. We don't know how they got to that.

But somehow, they got to that. And I believe it's because God was speaking. How else could they know? Did they just figure that out themselves? I don't believe that.

But if you Go back 4, 000 BC and the first fruits are brought. Go back to 2, 000 BC. Abraham was involved in tithing in Genesis 1420. 430 years before the law, Abraham tithed. He understood enough about something that he should tithe and he did.

And he tithed to Melchizedek, the priest of Salem, who is a tithe of Christ. And So what we read there in Genesis 1420 is that Abraham said, and blessed be God most high, who has delivered your enemies into your hand. And he gave him a tithe of all. Then fast forward 270 years before the law, 1840 BC, you find Jacob tithing as well. Jacob is given a vision and he initiates a covenant with God, vowing to give him a tithe of all that he has been given.

And Jacob said, surely the Lord is in this place. And he said, of all that you give me, I will surely tithe a tenth to you. So we find the patriarchs understood tithing at some level. It was there. Tithing was there.

Then you go to Moses, 1400 BC, the giving of the law. Moses believed that the people should tithe. In Deuteronomy 12, in Leviticus 27, in Numbers 18, in Deuteronomy chapter 26, in Deuteronomy 14, where we are today, in Deuteronomy 12. Moses believed that people should tithe. And then fast forward again to Solomon, 950 BC.

Solomon believed in giving the first fruits to the Lord. In Proverbs 3, 9 through 10, he says, honor the Lord with your possessions, with the first fruits of all your increase, so your barns may be filled with plenty and your vats may overflow with new wine. Here's the idea of the first fruits we give out of what God has given us first. There's that idea. So here you find at the beginning of the world, all the way up until the time of Solomon, you find this practice happening.

Why is that? Would you want to ignore something that is so comprehensively presented throughout all of biblical history? That's really the question I've had to grapple with. If you believe that the tithe is not for today, then you at least have to grapple with this principle of the first fruits. And it continues on.

The time of the prophets, in the time of Amos, 787 to 734 BC, God commands Israel to bring the tithe back in and he reiterates the curse that's upon them if they don't now now we don't read about the curse I don't think until Malachi a couple hundred years later. But here, somewhere in the 8th century BC, Amos is telling them there's a curse that they don't tithe. And then you go to earlier in the 8th century BC and the 7th century, Hezekiah in 2nd Chronicles 31, 5-12, the children of Israel, they do what's right under the reign of Hezekiah and they bring tithes to the designated places. And then fast forward again a couple of hundred years to the fifth and the sixth century BC with Malachi, chapter 3, 8 through 10. God reprimands Israel for not bringing the tithe in.

And he says, you're robbing me. And then he gives a curse associated with robbing God. And then in the fifth century BC, around 1445, in the days of Nehemiah, in Nehemiah 1037, Israel obeys God, and they bring the tithes into the storehouse. And then in Nehemiah 13, 5 through 12, Nehemiah cleanses the storehouse. He kicks Tobiah out of the room that was designated to store the tithe.

And then he restores the tithe there in the 5th century BC. And so that's the Old Testament. So I just, if you think that the tide is nothing to you, I just want you to consider that the principle of bringing first fruits began at the beginning of the world and you see it among God's godly people all the way to the very end, the very precipice end of the Old Testament. And then when you get to the New Testament, what do you see there? You find Jesus believing that people should tithe.

In Matthew 23, 23, he rebukes the Pharisees for not obeying the weightier matters of the law. He says, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith. Now, he says, look, you've neglected the weightier matters while you were tithing and he says these you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. In other words he's saying don't leave undone tithing.

I'm not saying not tithe. Jesus very specifically says these things you ought to have done. I believe that's a command of Jesus Christ to tithe, to bring in the tithe of whatever gain there might be. He says that you ought to have done it. And I just think that why did Jesus say that with such clarity?

Because it's a principle that God has given us. In Luke chapter 18, a Pharisee brags about his obedience to the law by tithing. And so this principle is here. So Jesus, to quote John Piper, Jesus endorses tithing. Don't neglect it.

That's what he says. I agree with him. I really do. And so you find this principle in the New Testament. In 1 Corinthians 9, verses 13 to 14, you find the same principle.

Go ahead and turn to 1 Corinthians 9, 13 and 14. Do you not know that those who minister the holy things of the temple and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar? Even so, the Lord commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel. Here the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 9 is saying, do you remember how in days of old the holy things of the Lord were served? He's talking about the Levites.

He says, even so, verse 14 is critical, even so, he's making a comparison. That whole service of giving, and the Levites giving their lives to the ministry, that whole scene there, he said he connects and he says even so, even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel. Paul is saying that what was happening with the Levites is what should be happening in the church today. In the same way that the Levites cared for the ministry, so should those who preach the gospel live in the gospel. That's what he's saying.

Verse 14, even so, that's the argument that he makes there. So not only does Jesus endorse tithing and say don't neglect it, not only does the Apostle Paul say to support those who are spending their lives in the service of God. But the Apostles also seem to embrace this principle. Number seven, in 1st Corinthians 16, where the Apostle Paul says to Corinthians, each one set aside some according to his income. And he speaks of this in 1 Corinthians 16 verse 1.

Now concerning the collection for the saints, I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must also do. So here's an apostolic command for the churches in Galatia and also this church in Corinth. On the first day of the week, let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come." And then he says, He who sows sparingly shall reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully shall reap bountifully. So the apostles believed that there was, on the first day of the week, something should be set aside so that there would be an offering. And I believe that's a normative pattern.

That's why we do it. That's why there's an offering box in the back. We gather on the first day of the week to bring our tithes and offerings together. We're doing that in faithfulness to that principle. And then the early church practiced it.

Now this is an argument from history, not an argument from scripture. It's the weakest of all the arguments. The early church practiced it. The early church believed that they should tithe. Of the earliest extra-biblical writings, the Didache, it contains instructions on tithing the first fruits and maintains that it was the normative practice of Christian living.

And of course, the old covenant was replaced by a better covenant. But it doesn't seem that Jesus gets rid of at least the principle of tithing and bringing first fruits. He clarifies it. He makes atonement for all of our sins as we've broken the law regarding these things. The New Covenant has more blessings, and it really calls us to more faithfulness.

It causes to really a higher rule. In the same way that murder is more than killing somebody by shooting them, it's hatred in your heart. In the same way that adultery is more than the actual act, it has to do with lust of the heart. In the same way that tithing and giving begins at 10%, It's far more than that, because it cuts right to the bottom of our hearts regarding how we view money. And then I would like to speak lastly.

The secret of giving is revealed in the New Testament. The secret of all these things, the fulfillment of everything we've just covered from Genesis to Revelation is really revealed in a couple of passages of Scripture. First Corinthians 16, 6 through 11 is one of them. I'm going to give you two texts which help us see that everything that God said about the tithe is really about the gospel. It's really about God giving his firstborn son.

If you're going to give, you have to understand where it began. It began with God's only begotten son. The heart of the gospel is where we end up in this whole question of giving. And that's why I said at the beginning, if all you're thinking about now is what percentage, you haven't really gotten the message, because there's far more. In 1 Corinthians 16 verse 6, there's an appeal to give liberally, And then there is an insight embedded into this appeal that I want you to see.

So please turn to 1 Corinthians 16 and we'll read 6 through 11. But this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will reap bountifully." So Paul gives a general principle of life. He sows sparingly, that's what you get. And then he actually gives a command in verse 7. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves the cheerful giver." Here he points right to the heart.

Is it mechanical giving? Is it mechanical grudging? I'm just going to do it giving, or is it rejoicing? What kind of giving is it? And then in verse 8, he gives an insight about how the whole world works regarding money.

He says, and God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. As it is written, he has dispersed abroad, he has given to the poor, his righteousness endures forever." So now the discussion has shifted to what God has done. God is the giver. God now is the sower. Not only are you the sower, God is the first sower.

He is the one that has sown first and you are just like him. That's the idea. And then in verse 10 he says, now may he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness. While you are enriched in everything for all liberality which causes Thanksgiving through us to God. What is he saying here?

Second Corinthians 9, thank you very much Appreciate that We're in second Corinthians 9. So the principle here is that God is the giver. And because of that, we are also givers. And that's how you, that's how we know that all giving, all tithing, discussions have to go back to the throne of God and the heart of the Gospel where a firstborn son is given. God gives in order that we would give.

And then the second text, the second Corinthians 8, 7 through 15, and Paul correlates Christ's sacrifice for sinners and his becoming poor with how people make themselves poor to make others rich. And so here we find ourselves again in the heart of the gospel. In verses one and two, in 2 Corinthians 8, first of all we read about a church that gave out of trial and great affliction of poverty. And that in great trial and affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality. And then in verse 3 it says they gave beyond their means, beyond their ability, but they were freely willing.

And then they gave insistently and urgently, in verse 4, imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministry of saints. They wouldn't be put off. They would give because they wanted to so badly. And then they gave of themselves, They gave themselves to the Lord and to the apostles in verses 5 and 6. And not only as we had hoped that they first gave themselves to the Lord and then to us to the will of God.

And then there was an appeal to abound in grace. And then the basis of the appeal is found in verses 9 through 15. Why? For you know, here's why. You know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes, he became poor, that through his poverty you might become rich.

And so the basis for the appeal is the gospel, that Jesus Christ became poor, yet made many rich. And that's the secret of everything that was said from Genesis up to the New Testament Church, that the Lord Jesus Christ made himself poor so that we might be made rich. And that's why we should take of all the book God has given us and return it to him, so that we in turn might do the same work of God the Father who sent his Son and the Lord Jesus Christ who emptied himself and gave himself for sinners. So we cannot study tithing without studying the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. You always have to connect Deuteronomy 14 with John 3.16.

If you can't make that connection, you can't understand what God is doing. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. And that's the double meaning of everything that we've read in Deuteronomy chapter 14. So if we only see the tithing, if we only see the percentage and the responsibility and the principle, we've really missed it. We say, okay, I'm gonna tithe, right?

I'm gonna start tithing today. If that's all we get, we only get a dark portion because the gospel is really at the heart of it all. So as a people commanded to give their firstfruits, so God gave his firstborn son. And as people were commanded to bring a sacrifice. Christ was sacrificed for sin.

And as God opened His hand, why would we ever want to be tight-fisted in this manner? Why would anyone want to stop tithing when it means so much, when it does so much good in the world, when it funds ministry, when it funds celebration, when it blesses the poor, when it reminds of a father who loved his children with an everlasting love, that he would send his son who was poor, yet make many rich. And it is possible that the tithe in the Old Testament form, It's not necessary to follow with exactitude. But here's my question. Why would anyone want to abrogate something that reminds us of such precious and wonderful things as the sacrifice of Christ on the cross?

Let's pray. Lord, we pray that you would give us insight and help, repentance, faith toward you in all these matters, and that you would give us such years of great rejoicing and giving as we go on in this life. Amen.