Good to see you. Wow. Y’all look and sound great. I want to give a little bit of a just a pre statement here before we get to the message, and just make sure that that my, maybe my presentation, my mode, is not misunderstood as being somber. We had a sober moment this morning. Kelly and I did when we got up and we got informed that some of our best friends in the world who live in North Fort Worth, they’re our neighbors. We’ve known them forever, it seems, and their 21 year old daughter, who was born with spina bifida, went to be with Jesus this morning. And so that’s heavy. That’s a weight, and I’m not trying to bum you out. I will tell you this she knew and loved and served Jesus Christ from the chair or bed that she spent 21 years in. Maddie Lee never walked, she never ate a meal, and she was never left alone. She had to be suctioned for her lungs and such and multiple I lost count how many times she’d go to the ER and into Cook’s children and I’ll tell you this, the first step she’s ever going to take are going to be into the arms of her Savior. That’s awesome. And the first meal she’s ever going to eat is going to be the marriage supper of the Lamb. And this is an awesome thing to be able to celebrate the life of someone, but for our friends, we grieve because we miss her and because they have lost their daughter. And so, would you join me? I want to pray for the Lee’s. I know we can’t pray for every suffering person. I wish we could. We can do it on ourselves, “But Lord, I pray for Matt and Jenny and the family, Lord, brothers and sisters, the grandparents and all. Lord, I pray Father for your comfort Holy Spirit. Thank you for the fact that, Lord, the suffering is over. There’s no more trips to the ER and no more prodding from doctors. Thank you for the common grace that you used to give her 21 years and Lord, thank You for the sermon of her life of enduring, never bitter, never angry. And Lord, thank You that we saw fruit in her life. Thank you, and I pray your comfort over them in Jesus’ name, amen, amen.” All right. I hope you have your Bible. Go ahead and get it out, and we’re in our fourth message in the First Fruits series. Then the title of this message is, “Is Tithing For Today? part 1” and I am really sad that I have to title a message like this because there’s so much false teaching, and I call it that false teaching related to tithing, and there’s errant teaching related to tithing as well. I’m going to do this in multiple steps. We’ll get to the New Testament applications and how that works, and what that looks like for the believer. Today is going to be almost solely devoted to the Old Testament, because that is where we actually find tithing and where it begins. And so, I’ve got five questions that I’m going to ask and answer from the text, and then it’s going to seem kind of like a cliffhanger. It’s just going to end because, you know, limited time and all that, the mean people back there in the booth, they tell me, I got to quit. No, I’m kidding. I love him. So related to tithing, it’s probable that you’ve either not been taught or you perhaps have been taught improperly, and so that’s why we’re laying so much foundation on this.
So here is the first question,
1. What Is The Tithe?
Okay, we need to figure this out from Scripture. What does it mean? What does “tithe” mean? Well, the word tithe literally means a 10th. That’s all it means. It’s not more complicated than that. It simply means a 10th or 10%. So if you had 10 apples, and you tithe on those 10 apples, you would tithe one apple. If you had 100 apples, and you tied down 100 apples, you’d tithe 10 apples. If you had 1000 apples, and you tithe on those 1000 apples, you’d tithe 100 apples. You get it. And so that’s what it actually means. The first time the words ever used in the Scripture is actually in Genesis. It’s Genesis 14:18-20. And by the way, I’ll mind you. This is 500 years before the law was ever given. Tithing proceeded by 500 years to our record. This is media res. We’ll pick it up. Story of Abram, right? He goes out and he conquers some kings. He gets his family and his belongings back. And we pick it up. Here it says, “And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed him.” That’s Melchizedek blesses Abram, who becomes Abraham later, right? “And said, ‘Blessed be Abram by God Most High.’” Notice this, “‘Possessor of heaven and earth.’” Did you know that God owns everything? He sure does. “‘Possessor of heaven and earth, and Blessed be God, Most High who has delivered your enemies into your hand!’ And Abram gave here it is him a tenth of everything.” So, it’s important to note that the tithe. Tithe is a percentage, not a number, and that’s really good. So, percentage applies to anyone who would ever tithe. Old Testament, right? They only had to say, “Lord, this is the tenth,: and we’ll see why they did it. But I want us to understand it is a percentage, not a number. That’s important to note.
Look at Proverbs 3:9. This gives some it kind of rounds out the understanding. It says, “Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of all your produce.” This is ESV. I don’t like the word there, because it makes us think of tomatoes and onions and lettuce. When they return the tithe they didn’t bring in fresh produce from Albertsons. Okay? The produce here, literally in the Hebrew this. What this word is going to be “income”. The root of that word is going to be income, but we would see it as the term “increase” in a lot of your translations, or “revenue”, that’s part of it as well. And so, if we understand the tithe is the first of increase or revenue, income or the produce, I want to specifically let you understand this. This is not talking about tithing on a gross number, a number that comes in as gross, but rather on what we would now know as “net”. I’ll give you an example of this. Let’s say you were a carpenter, okay? And you built rocking chairs, and you made awesome rocking chairs, and people somehow were willing to pay you $2,000 for those rocking chairs. You say, “Well, what’s the tithe on that?” Well, hang on, you don’t know yet, because you have to ask this, what was the cost of you making that rocking chair? Let’s say that making the rocking chair cost $1,000 well, if you only, if it only cost you $1,000 and you made $2,000 Well, $1,000 covers your expenses, and the produce or the increase or the income would be considered what be $1,000 so your tither be $100 but let’s say that you had expenses, not just in materials, but also some of that went back into the company, and you didn’t take it as personal income. Let’s say $500 more even went back into the company. Was cyclical for advertising, or who knows what, and so you made on that rocking chair, $500 the tithe of that, what is realized, the tithe on that would be $50. That’s what it’s that’s how tithe works. You now understand what tithing is. That’s what it is, and that’s the description of it. That’s number one.
Here’s number two, 2. Who Does The Tithe Belong To?
Who does the tithe belong to? And it’s very easy to see who the tithe belongs to, because God makes it very clear. This is the first time, Leviticus 27:30-32, the first time the tithe is mentioned outside of Abram. This is the time when it is first mentioned in the law in the Pentateuch. Here it is, start verse 30 through 32, “Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord.” That means it’s set apart specifically for the Lord, for Yahweh. Who does the tithe belong to? It belongs to God. According to the Bible, it belongs to God. Every Hebrew was trained in this. If they were a good Jew, they understood this, the tithe would always belong to God. Two more verses. Here he goes on. He says, “If a man wishes to redeem some of his tithe (in other words, the product) he shall add a fifth to it.” That was part of the transportation. If you, you know, if you couldn’t carry your cows to the temple, you could turn it into money, and they would tithe on money as well. 32 says, “And every tithe of herds and flocks, every tenth animal and all that pass under the herdsman staff shall be (there it is again) holy to the Lord.” In other words, it belongs to God. Now this shouldn’t surprise us because the very first time we saw tithe, one of God’s descriptions was what? “Possessor of heaven and earth” because He is. I’m not sure if you’re aware of this but not only does the tithe belong to the Lord, but everything else does too. Now there is a specific percentage He claims as His own, but we have to start with this basic understanding, everything belongs to God. Anything you have is on loan from Him. The air you’re breathing, yeah, that’s His. The planet you’re living on, that’s His too. All the stuff you end up with, ultimately, that’s His. You are steward of it. But ultimately, everything belongs to the Lord. This is replete throughout Scripture.
Exodus 13:1-2, “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Consecrate to me all the firstborn.” You see that? “All the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.” He claims it now, just so we’re clear, this is not God being like an impetuous four year old or three year old, “Mine, mine.” That’s not what this is. God is simply making a statement of fact. He’s saying, “It’s all mine. I made it all. I’m the Creator. Leader. I’m the Sustainer, and it’s ultimately all mine.” Actually, Numbers 3:12-13 says, “Behold, I have taken the Levites from among the people of Israel instead of every first born who opens the womb among the people of Israel, The Levites shall be (what?) mine.” They’re mine. “For all the first born are mine.” So, He claims that, and He says, I’m going to take one of the tribes, that’s going to be a tithe of the people. “On the day that I struck down all the first born in the land of Egypt, I consecrated for my own all the first born in Israel, both of man and of beast, they shall be mine. I am the Lord.” Who does the tithe belong to? It belongs to the Lord as does all creation incidentally.
Here’s just a few references on that fact, Psalm 24:1 “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.” Deuteronomy 10:14 “Behold, to the Lord your God, belong Heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth and what all that is in it.” It all ultimately belongs to God. Job 41:11, God says this, “‘Who has first given to me that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole of Heaven is mine.” In fact, look at Psalm 50:10-12. God says, “‘For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills and all that moves in the field is mine. (And then he makes this statement. I love this statement) If I were hungry, I would not tell you.’” I’ve heard people who scoff, and they say, “Well, God doesn’t need money. God doesn’t need any money.” Well, you’re right. God doesn’t need any money. He doesn’t need it because it’s already His. Everything is already His. And He calls the tithe especially His. He says, “For the world and the fullness and its fullness, rather, are mine.” In fact, Malachi 3:8, He asks Israel this, “‘Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your (what?) in your tithes and contributions.’” Look, you can’t rob somebody of something that’s not theirs. God makes it very clear, who does the tithe belong to? It belongs to the Lord. That’s why, nowhere in the Bible. Will you say it’s “gifted”. Nowhere? Will you see it’s given? It’s always either brought or returned. That’s the proper language. Sometimes we might misspeak it, but we want to get it right, because that’s how the Bible actually talks about it.
So, we know what it is. We know whose it is. Now, if you’re one of those people out there going, “Yeah, but this is Old Testament”, you need to be really careful. I would caution you on this, because what you’re doing is you’re minimizing God’s Word because it’s on the left side of the book of Matthew. And every word of God is breathed out by the Spirit, and it is eternal, not a jot or eternal passes away. We will see it’s fulfilled in Christ and we live it in new and living way. But please don’t turn yourself into a scoffer at the Old Testament. Okay?
So here’s number three, 3. What Is The Tithe For?
What’s it for? We’re going to see this, the Old Testament. It’s absolutely clear. Let me just say it simply this way, the tithe was for provision. The tithe was for provision. So that doesn’t make any sense, because the tithe is the Lord’s, and God doesn’t need anything. Yes, you’re right, but it’s God’s, and He chooses what He does with it. So that’s what it’s actually for. Let’s look at this in Numbers 18:20-26. We’re gonna read 20 through 26. “And the Lord said to Aaron.” Now, Aaron was the priest, right? He was a minister in God’s house, in the Tabernacle. “The Lord said to Aaron, ‘You shall have no inheritance in their land.’” Now, who’s He talking to here? He’s talking to the priests. What is He saying? I’m going to divide up the land in the Promised Land. You’re not getting any and then He’s going to call the tribe of Levi His own, because they’re the tithe, right? He said that, and they’re not going to get any either. In other words, they’re not going to have any inheritance. They’re not going to have any land. Let me say it to you this way, they’re not going to have any commerce. They’re not going to participate in the economy. They’re not going to be those who can be entrepreneurial. They’re not going to start businesses. They’re not going to be builders. They’re not going to be farmers or ranchers or hunters. None of that. He’s saying, you’re not going to do that. This is how God is setting it up. “‘Neither shall you have any portion among them. (And then He says this) I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel.’” And so how are these guys going to eat if they don’t go get a job just because God’s their portion? Let me say it to you in modern terms, have you ever tried to show up to Walmart and pay for your groceries with spirituality? No? I dare you. You should try it. Just go out there and get a couple carts and fill them up, $1,000 worth of groceries, put it on there. When they go, “That’s $1,000 just go”, “Okay, Jesus’ name. I just pray, Father, you move on this cashier’s heart, and you would just change this electronics. And Lord…” And then you look up and, “Check it again.” They’re like, “$1,000, you idiot.” Same was true. They didn’t go do something else. They were to do this so that the worship of Yahweh would continue according to his ordination of the Old Testament. You’re tracking with that he goes on in verse 21 it says, “To the Levites (look at this) I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance.” So, the tithe belongs to the Lord. But then He says this, I’m going to give it to Levite, or I’m going to give it the tribe of the Levites, right? I’m going to hand this over this way. It’s going to cover the priest. It’s going to cover the Levites, who will perform their service. He says, “‘Every tithe in Israel for an inheritance in return (I love that) in return for their service, that they do their service (where?) in the tent of meeting.’” That is the household of God. It was in the Tent of Meeting first, and then when they settled down, they built the tabernacle, right? And the temple. That’s what the tithe was actually for. Verse 23 he goes on, he says, “‘But the Levites shall do the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations and among the people of Israel, they shall have no inheritance. For the tithe of the people of Israel, which they present as a contribution to who to the Lord, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance (is what it’s for). Therefore I have said of them that they shall have no inheritance among the people of Israel. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Moreover, you shall speak and say to the Levites, ‘When you take from the people of Israel the tithe that I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall present a contribution from it to the Lord, a tithe of the tithe.’” So everybody tithed. Every single God fearing Jew tithed. It didn’t matter what you did for a living. You tithed. And if you didn’t have an inheritance and you lived on the tithe, you took a tithe of the tithe, and you presented that as unto the Lord. That’s how it worked. What was it for? It was for provision. That’s what it means.
Malachi 3:10a says this, “Bring the full tithe to the storehouse that there may be (what?) food (where?) in my house. …” So, it’s four. The Levites were servants in the Tabernacle. The priests did the work of the ministry there. Yep, were they better than their brothers and their sisters? No, they weren’t, but they were tasked with doing that. And in return for that service, people returned the tithe unto the Lord, because it’s God’s and He commanded it. And then God said, Thank you, and He’d give it to them. They returned it. That is what the tithe was literally for. Now look how good we’re doing. We’re all the way through three, right? Some of you are so tense right now, I’m telling you. I mean, I could be talking about other things, and you’d probably be more relaxed. Relax. I feel like there’s almost a fear that “Man, this guy, really knows the Bible. I know what he’s after.” No, you don’t. If you’re suspicious of what I’m after, you don’t really know what I’m after, because it means you’re probably suspicious of God. You don’t know what Ge’s after. The ultimate goal is what? It’s your heart. It’s left from a pure heart. It’s a clean conscience. It’s sincere faith. 1 Timothy 1:4. That’s the goal of our instruction. All into the glory of Jesus Christ. Please. Deep breath. We’re not. It gets tougher next week. Make sure you come.
Number four, 4. What Happens When There Is No Tithe?
Now we know what it was for. What happens when there is no tithe? Well, there hadn’t been any tithe in the times of Nehemiah. Do you remember this story? Israel goes into Judah, goes into captivity, right? And God brings them back into the land after 70 years, and God raises up and appoints, through a king, King Artaxerxes, He appoints a man named Nehemiah. And Nehemiah comes and he’s governor, and he rebuilds the walls around Jerusalem, and they even rebuild the temple. But there’s a problem. There’s a problem the sacrifices in the tabernacle and things that the worship unto Yahweh that He commanded had not been happening, and so now they’re gonna have to reinstitute it, and that’s gonna require the priests and Levites. It’s also gonna require the provision for the priests and the Levites. And here’s what the people do. They go through rebuilding. They go through renewal. They go through revival. And the Jewish people there in Jerusalem make a vow, and it’s recorded here, Nehemiah 10:35-39 says, or they said, “We obligate ourselves to bring the first fruits (that’s the tithe of our ground) and the first fruits of all fruit of every fruit of every tree, year by year, to the house of the Lord, also to bring to the house of the Lord our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God the first born of our sons and of our cattle, as it is written in the law, and the first born of our herds and of our flocks.” That doesn’t mean they give the child away, but they brought him and presented him to the priest, and then there was a substitute for that, like Jesus was presented at the temple. If you remember that? They go on and they say, “And to bring the first of our dough and our contributions, the fruit of every tree, the wine and the oil, to the priests and to the chambers of the house of our God, and to present to the Levites the tithe from our ground. It is (it is what? it is) the Levites who collect the tithes in all our towns where we labor.” And they go on verse 38 and 39, “And the priest, the son of Aaron, shall be with the Levites. And when the Levites receive the tithes, and when the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers of the storehouse. For the people of Israel and the sons of Levis shall bring the contribution of grain, wine and oil to the chambers where the vessels of the sanctuary are, as well as the priests who minister and the gatekeepers and the singers. (Watch what they say here) We will not neglect the house of our God.” You know what that means? They had been. You say, “Well, they were in exile.” Right? But they hadn’t begun the tithe yet. And so, they make this vow after revival, and they say, “We’re going to do this.” Now, if you’ve read your Old Testament, you’re very familiar that the children of Israel were awesome at making vows, and not so awesome at keeping them. And they didn’t keep this one.
They didn’t do it. In fact, don’t do it yet, but we’ll go forward three chapters, and what’s happened if you go from 10 to 13 in Nehemiah, Nehemiah had already left. He cleaned, he got everything going, and then he left. He went back and he served Artaxerxes. And guess what? It’s almost as soon as he was gone, everything started falling apart. Here’s where we pick up the story. This is Nehemiah, chapter 13, verse six. Remember what happens when there is no tithe. Nehemiah writes. “While this was taking place, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the 32nd year of Artaxerxes, king of Babylon, I went to the king, and after some time, I asked leave of the king and came to Jerusalem, and then I discovered the evil that Elisha had done.” What had he done? Here’s what he did. He stopped the priests from ministering because no one was returning the tithe. And then one of the chambers of the tabernacle, he brought in his evil relative, named Tobiah, and gave him a room in God’s house. Well, Nehemiah is zealous for God’s house, right? Just as the greater Nehemiah, Jesus Christ, was and is. And so, he says what he’d “Done for Tobiah, preparing for him a chamber in the courts of the house of God. And I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of to buy out of the chamber.” I love this guy. Man, sounds like another one who cleaned out the temple and the tabernacle, doesn’t it? It does. He goes on. He says, “Then I gave orders and they cleaned the chambers, and I brought back there the vessels of the house of God with the grain offerings and the frankincense I also found out that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them, so that the Levites and the singers who did the work had done (what?) fled each to his field.” Now you say, “Wait a minute, I thought they didn’t own any fields.” They didn’t. They were going to other people’s portions, and they were working those fields so they could feed their families. Do you see it? That’s what it was for when the tithe no longer supported those who were working in the house of God, what did they do? They didn’t stand there and say, “Oh, I’m sorry, kids, you know, Israel’s backslidden and so we can’t eat again. You know, for the second month in a row.” No, they didn’t die of starvation. The men went to work to feed their families and themselves. And this is what happens when there is no tithe. Verse 11, he says, “So I confronted the officials (watch this statement) and said, ‘Why is the house of God forsaken?’” They did not just neglect it. They forsook it. “And I gathered them together and set them in their stations. Then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain, wine and oil into the storehouse.” And guess what happened? The Levites came back. The priests came back. The worship of Yahweh came back. The sacrifice could begin again. And everything got back into God’s order.
I need you to catch this, guys. This is very important part of the series. When you read the Old Testament and God finally chastens His people, or He brings in an enemy and conquers them. If you read the book of Judges, what you’ll see is it’s cyclical, right? God rescues them by a judge. They fall into sin, and they forsake the LORD, and then finally they repent, and they cry out, and He rescues them. Every time that happens, where they go, and God finally judges them. This was always the final step. The final step, the straw that breaks the camel’s back, was when the worship and the service of Yahweh in the tabernacle or the temple ceased because the priests could no longer be supported. And God would judge that. And listen, He would curse them, right? He would and you’d see, they’d be under a curse, and that generation, sometimes almost all of it, could be even close to being wiped out. And God would raise up a judge. It’s cyclical through the Old Testament, such to the point that God raises up one of the minor prophets in the very, very end, near the near the end, named Malachi. And He uses the prophet to cry out words that often get twisted, and I want you to see them in the proper context. This is God speaking to Israel in Malachi 3:7-8, he says this, “From the days of your fathers.” Now, what is that talking about? What does “the days of your fathers” mean? That means everybody going back to Sinai, going back to the law, where the law, “Oh, we’re going to keep the law.” We’re going to keep the law 40 days later, golden calf, right? We’re going to forsake Yahweh and we’re going to do this. That was what would happen. The last straw was always the forsaking of the tithe. And then there goes the priests and the Levites. “From the days of your fathers, you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. (What does He say? Here’s the call) Return to me and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts.” Isn’t that the call? Wasn’t that the call in the Old Testament, when you read Judges, when you read Chronicles, when you read Kings. Yes. “Return to me”. What does He mean? Now, God’s speaking here, God’s speaking here, and God is chiefly concerned always at the heart, isn’t He? Yes. He says, “Return to me.” But watch this, “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’” Now I wonder what’s next. Just come marching back? Make a new vow? No, here’s what He’s going to do. He’s going to attach the heart to their possessions. Why? Because where your treasure is, there’s your heart. He’s going to attach it specifically to the tithe. “Return to Me.” “How shall we return?” This is God’s answer to their question. Look at verse eight. We already read it, but see it in context now, “Will a man rob God yet you are robbing me?” “Return to Me.” “How do we return?” “Will a man rob God? You’re robbing me, but you say, ‘(How?) How have we robbed you?’ (Here’s God’s answer) In your tithes and contributions.” Because you’ve starved the priest and you have starved the Levites and the singers and the worship of Yahweh has stopped, and the proclamation of the goodness of Yahweh to all the other nations through His chosen nation has ceased. How bad is it? How bad does God see that? Well, you’ll see, look at verse nine. I know you’ve heard this before. “You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.” I get it. I get it. This is the Old Testament. This is still the words of God. Now do we live it out in the exact same way? We’re going to teach how we live it out in the new and living way. But I just want you to see how serious God takes it that when His beloved goes under something that He is going to chasten, or even in Israel’s case, the northern kingdom, destroy. This is the last straw. He said, “You’re cursed with a curse, for you’re robbing me, the whole nation of you.” He gives the solution verse 10, “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse that there may be (what?) food in my house, and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. I will rebuke the devourer for you so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.” If you want to know what the tithe was and what it was for, and ultimately, if the tithe wasn’t returned, this is what happens.
Let’s review, I’m just going to go through three bullets. Four. The tithe defined, 10% of all increase return to the Lord at His house for the provision of those who care for His house. Period. He, God, commands the percentage. He, God, commands where He chooses it returned. And He, God, decides what it’s for and commands it. God instituted it, and God set it up. Let me say it to you this way for us to pervert what God has said in the Old Testament, because we’re in the New Covenant would be the same as with marriage if we said, “Well, God doesn’t care about marriage anymore.” God instituted it, and He does care about it. We walk it out in a new and living way? Yeah, we do with this with a new heart and with a new spirit. Some of those things still remain. We’ll be covering those in the next week. Make sure you’re here.
Here’s number five, 5. Did Jesus Abolish The Tithe?
Because you can go, I guarantee you can go on YouTube, and you can find ignorant and unstable people that will tell you He did. As an answer to that, I would like to read to you Jesus’ own words in Matthew 5:17. First three words. “‘Do not think.’” Now, if you took Him out of context, Jesus doesn’t want us to think. Nobody likes being taken out of context. I sure don’t. That’s been happening lately, and God certainly doesn’t. He’s taken out of context most time, right? But what does He say anytime He says, “Do not think.” What does that mean? It means here comes something that you might be inclined to think. He says, “‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to (what?) fulfill them.’” Here’s what people try to do with this. They try to say, “Oh, He didn’t abolish them. He fulfilled them. Yes, and by fulfilling them, He abolished them.” And I would say, you already don’t think, and if that’s you, and blow you a kiss, I love you. We need to make clear about this, was the tithe part of the law? Yeah, it’s part of the what we know is the ceremonial law. We covered this last week, how those things are fulfilled in a new living way. But Jesus fulfilled them. There’s the moral law, the judicial law and the ceremonial law.
Did Jesus fulfill the tithe? Well, sure, He did in a couple of ways. Here’s two ways he fulfilled the law. Number one, His parents brought Him and they presented Him as they were to as the first male to open the womb. They did. They brought Him to the temple, and the right offering was made. He fulfilled it. Right? Here’s the second way He fulfilled it. I’ll ask you the question, did Jesus tithe? Did Jesus Christ tithe? Now, I’ve had people tell me, “No, He was nothing but a tender minister. He didn’t even have a place to lay His head, Pastor. He didn’t have any money.” Yes, He did. How do I know? Because Judas carried it around. Now, was He wealthy? No, I’m not trying to say that. I’m saying He had money there, and if they had income, do you think Jesus kept the law? Well, yes, He did. He tithed. And if you don’t, if you won’t buy that, I mean, and I don’t know how you could refute it, let me ask you this, do you think Jesus ever got paid as a carpenter? I bet He built an awesome rocking chair. I don’t know if He ever built, I don’t know if He ever built a rocking chair, but if He did, bet it was awesome. Sure He did. He built something. He was a carpenter, and so as a carpenter, do you think He was ever paid? Yes, the labor is worthy of his hire, and He was paid. Did He return the tithe? Yes, He absolutely did. If not, He would have been breaking the law, and He could never be a sacrifice for your sins, because He kept the law perfectly. Jesus did tithe. And then people say, “Well, Jesus never talked about the tithe.” Well, I’m going to show you where He did. “No, this is the only place.” No, it’s not. I argue with myself.
I’ll show you two places. I’m gonna show you two places where Jesus talks about the tithe. And I don’t know if you recall, but last week, when we talked about the dietary laws of food. There was a time where Jesus declared all foods unclean, or all foods clean, right? Well, He could have done that with the tithe, couldn’t He? Of course, He could have as well within His right, He was fulfilling it, and would fulfill it. But I want you to notice something. I love this story here. This is Luke 11:37-42 says, “While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table. (This always ends bad, right?) The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner.” Now cannot give you an understanding of this. That doesn’t mean Jesus, if He had dirty hands, didn’t clean His hands. This is talking about ceremonial, traditional washing that the Pharisees had made up. He didn’t go from bowl to bowl, from pot to pot, and do the little jig and say the little statement. He just sat down. And I know a guy cannot. I’m not going to imagine how Jesus did it, but I know how I would have done it. I’ve been like licking my fingers. “This is good, you know,” rubbing it in. He’s not doing that, but He just didn’t do what man liked. That made the Pharisee upset, “And the Lord said to him, (Look) ‘Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you’re full of greed and wickedness.’” That’s no way to treat a host. What is he doing? He’s loving him, isn’t He? If you’re that Pharisee, don’t you want Jesus to tell you the truth that that’s the condition you’re in? I would. And He goes on, He says, “‘You fools did not he who made the outside make the inside also, but give as alms those things that are within. And behold, everything is clean for you.’” So, there’s something missing in the heart level, and He’s going to identify it, and He’s going to use the tithe and watch how He does it. Because let me just let you know a little secret. The Pharisees tithed, and they tithed publicly, and they would walk up in front of everybody and make a demonstration. They would pray publicly. “Oh, look, I’m in the marketplace. Guess it’s time to pray.” They had long phylacteries, and they would go through those. They’re almost like a prayer beat to the Jew. They look so holy for men to see. Verse 42 he says, “‘But woe to you, Pharisees, for you tithe (do they, they tithe, well, they tithe on in this illustration) you tithe mint and rue and every herb (but here’s the problem) and neglect justice and the love of God.’” Now, that’s bad enough, but what does Jesus say in response to the fact that they do the outward but they don’t have the inward? He says this, “These”. Now, what’s “These” talking about? “These” is talking about this. I’ll move this out of your way in a second. “These” is talking about “Justice and the love of God.” What does He say? “‘These you ought to have done (justice and the love of God) without neglecting (there’s that word) the others.’” Why? Because neglecting the tithe would have been neglecting the house. And Jesus was zealous for the house. Jesus has every opportunity to say this. He could have said, “You tithe on all these things. You don’t need to do that. All I care about is justice and the love of God. Doesn’t matter what happens to the house. You don’t need to worry about that. I’m just want you to do things right on the inside.” He doesn’t say that.
In fact, it’s not the only time He makes a statement. He also says it again to a different audience at a different place and in a different time. So, this is the second place, and this is Matthew 23:23, “‘Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.’” He’s going to do kind of the same illustration. “‘For you tithe mint and dill and cumin and have (there’s the word) neglected (now, neglecting the inside, neglected) the weightier matters of the law.’” And what does He say? “‘Justice and mercy and faithfulness.’” Those are internals, aren’t they? They are here again. He does it again. “‘These the inward you ought to have done without neglecting the others.’” Did Jesus teach the tithe? I just showed it to you. Now, if you’re bothered by that, you’re bothered by Jesus, and I’m going to show you next week, the apostles taught it too, in a new and living way. Because the argument comes up to these verses. It’s this, “Well, this is still Old Testament. Sacrifice has not been made. Jesus has not been raised from the dead, and the church has not yet been birthed.” You’re absolutely right. I’m simply pointing out to you that Jesus reinforces it, and He doesn’t condemn it, and He doesn’t put an end to it. He doesn’t want the tithe to go away, at least right here, so that they can have something internal. Here’s what He does want, He wants the external to be generated by the internal. Do you see it? That’s what He’s actually after. You made it. That’s the end of the sermon. Told you I didn’t know where to quit, so I let the clock tell me. We’ll pick it up where we left off in part two, next week, as you start to see it 3D HD, Lord willing, may the Spirit help us as we rightly view the Word of God next week.
KEYWORDS
Tithing, Old Testament, New Testament, Levites, Priests, Provision, Tithe Percentage, Tenth, God’s Ownership, Firstborn, Jesus, Ceremonial law, Moral law, Pharisees, Revenue, Increase, Net, Produce, Gifted, Returned, Carpenter, Gospel, Texas, Bible Church, Online Sermon, Grayson County
SPEAKER
Steve LeBlanc