Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – Reformation Covenant Church

Scripture reading is from the book of Malachi, chapter 3, verses 7-12.

Malachi 3:7-12: “Even from the days of your fathers you are gone away from mine ordinances and have not kept them. Return unto me and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, ‘Wherein shall we return?’ Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, ‘Wherein have we robbed thee?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with the curse, for you have robbed me, even this whole nation.

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house. And prove me now herewith, sayeth the Lord of hosts, if I will not open up the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground. Neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field.

Saith the Lord of hosts, and all nations shall call you blessed, for you shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts.”

Let us pray.

Father, we thank you for your word, and we acknowledge that the church in America and throughout the world is in a state of disrepair. It has become the tail. It is being wagged by the culture round about us. It has led that culture into sin and wickedness. Lord God, it has robbed you in tithes and offerings.

Father, we pray that you would, in this text and the rest of the text we’ll be looking at today, give to our understanding. Reform our lives, the life of this church. May we take that message then to the extended church, and may this land, once more the land of your church and the extended body of Jesus Christ, be a delightsome land and acknowledged as such by the nations of the earth. To that end we pray, Lord God, illumination of your Holy Spirit.

In Jesus name we ask it. Amen.

A selection of sermons going through the book of Acts for the month of January as we prepare for this year. The ministry is Reformation Covenant Church, drawing those things out. We’re in a period of transition, having worked on an infrastructure sort of basis for the last two or three years. Now we’re ready to move out once more to take the message again to the extended body of Jesus Christ and to the culture.

We have Bible studies that are being established and set up in various regions. We’re having a Sabbath school that will be starting for adults in the afternoons in two or three weeks. We have various ideas floating around about video coffees—friends getting them a regular flow of information relative to a full-orbed preaching of the gospel of Christ. There’s much activity that’s going on. Additionally, in the political arena, there’s activity as well.

The church will be having a booth also at the winter workshop and then hopefully also in June. We’re planning a Genevan conference for May. We’re doing a lot of things. And one of the things that the Holy Spirit seems to be taking us into the direction of, at least potentially, is the development of a fund of money to use either for land or a building or somehow to get established in a structure long-term that we can be in on a regular basis instead of simply renting on Sundays on the Lord’s day.

There are many benefits to this, and the scriptures—as important as it is to focus upon the word, the preaching of the word as the extension of the kingdom—the scriptures do not give us some kind of faith that’s unrelated to our physical surroundings. A property is important in the eyes of God. And the church should, long-term, have property. All churches should have property. All people, all God’s people should, long-term, have a goal to own property, not rent.

Certainly, we want to avoid long-term debt. But in so doing, we don’t want to lose the goal that the scriptures are a land-based faith. God’s word is very applicable to our everyday life as well and to the realities of the physical created world that God has given to us.

Now, it’s our purpose—my purpose these next two weeks, this week and next—to talk about tithes and offerings. And we’ve never really addressed offerings. At least I haven’t, I don’t believe, much from this pulpit. We’ve talked about tithes. So much of what I’ll say today will be a review for most of you. But if we’re considering now and evaluating in the wisdom of God’s counsel and his scriptures and where he’s got us at right now as a church, the establishment of some sort of land fund, we want to go about doing that biblically.

All of us, I think, have a natural reluctance to even discuss such things because of the great perversions of building funds we’ve seen in churches that we’ve been associated with in the past. And it’s like many things we’ve done at Reformation Covenant Church. There’s a sense in which we have fasted from even a consideration or discussion of such things for the first decade of our existence, that we might hopefully, in the providence of God led by his spirit and his word, look at that whole issue from a biblical perspective.

So what we want to do is approach this whole discussion from a biblical perspective, lay out some basic biblical guidelines relative to our money, to tithes and offerings specifically the next two weeks, and then at a congregational meeting probably in February to have a discussion then of these biblical truths as they relate to where RCC is right now and consider whether one of the many projects we want to get involved with this year is the establishment of a pool of money by which we are taking steps of faithfulness and obedience on our part, that God may bless us perhaps with a facility in which we could be in all days, all year round.

We have a tremendous tape library, for instance, and a book library as well. We’re getting that material cataloged, putting it on the computer, and it’s a shame that it is essentially unusable except for an hour every week. There are many reasons why this would be a good thing, I think, in the providence of God. But what we want to do is lay out today some biblical beginning—to lay out today and then next week—biblical relationships to our money, and then specifically we’ll talk about offerings next week in relationship to land funds.

Now I read from Malachi 3 because it does give reference both to tithes and offerings and the proper use of tithes and offerings. It hopefully puts the fear of God into us. I said last week that Spurgeon—and I included this in a receipt letter for those of you who have given money at RCC this last year. There are receipts available today in the providence of God of record of those tithes and offerings.

And in that letter, I also put that Spurgeon once said that a man needed two conversions. The first for his soul, the second for his pocketbook. And I want to start with Malachi to put the fear of God into us. This is an important subject that if we do not administer our money and specifically our tithes and offerings correctly, God says we’re cursed with a curse. And on the other hand, he says to us that if we do administer those things correctly, he’ll pour out a blessing upon us that is far beyond our abilities in terms of those areas.

And so the end result of all that is that the nations will call you blessed.

Now I’ve given you an outline today that has essentially an overview of the teaching of the tithe in the scriptures. And you’ll see on that outline that it moves from patriarchal history in the opening in the Pentateuch. It moves then into the case laws also in the Pentateuch but then also more the case law section of that. But moves from an analysis of the tithe then under those aspects into the two periods of reconstruction under Hezekiah and Nehemiah. We have specific references to the reconstruction, the retaking of the reobedience of the people to the tithe and the importance during a time of reconstruction. And then I’ve got references in there to the tithe and covenantal blessings and curses, including this text from Malachi 3.

And then finally, New Testament application of the tithe. What I want to do though is not follow that outline. So you have that outline—it’s a good study outline—but we don’t have time to go through the whole thing today. And what I want to do is I really want to focus not so much on the Malachi text, although the same things could be found there, but rather I want to focus on the first text in the scriptures that deals with the tithe.

That’s found in Genesis 14 and following. So turn in your scriptures to Genesis 14:17 and following. This is the account of Melchizedek meeting Abram and Melchizedek blessed Abram, Abram giving him a tithe. And we’ll see in this some very important truths relative to the tithe that the rest of the outline will sort of be related to. And I’ll show you the relations as we go through this. Let’s just read in Genesis 14 and following.

“The king of Sodom went out to meet him”—that is, went out to meet Abraham after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer and of the kings that were with him at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king’s dale. So they’re meeting in the king’s dale here, and Abram has gone out and God has prospered him in battle and he’s rescued Lot, okay, and his goods.

“Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine, and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him and said, ‘Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth. And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand.’ And he gave him tithes of all.”

And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, “Give me the persons and take the goods to thyself.” And Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have lifted up mine hand unto the Lord the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread, even to a shoe latchet, and that I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou should say, I have made Abram rich, save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me—Aner, Eshkol, and Mamre. Let them take their portion.”

This last reference here is that when these kings came through, they took Sodom’s men and goods from Sodom, including Lot. Abram went out to rescue Lot and his family, and the king of Sodom here is saying, “Oh, you can keep all the goods you rescued of ours.” In other words, Sodom’s goods stolen by other kings—Abram beat those kings in battle. He had those goods. And the king of Sodom said, “Oh, keep all those things. Be beholden to me.” In other words, and Abram says, “No, I’m not going to do that. I’ve lifted up my hand to the most high God.” And that’s the same reference to Melchizedek here—promising that I won’t take anything of yours lest you say you’ve enriched me.

Now from this text, what I want us to see is four truths, four things that the scriptures teach, I believe, here.

The first thing we note from this text is that blessing precedes tithe. Now you may not see that from the Malachi text. You always have that idea that people talk about tithe and you’ll get blessed. But biblically, blessing precedes obligation. God brings us to salvation and then requires things of us. We don’t work our way to blessing. So this text, what comes first? Does Abram give a tithe of all first, or does Melchizedek give bread and wine and blessing first?

The answer is Melchizedek gives bread, wine, and blessing. So blessing precedes tithe.

Secondly though, the tithe is required. Abram does pay the tithe to Melchizedek based upon his receipt of blessings from God. He then acknowledges God’s blessing. He acknowledges that it’s only God’s hand in his life that gives him victory and blessing by giving a tenth of all to God’s special officer, so to speak, Melchizedek.

And that is the third point: that it is the special officers of God, the special ministers as opposed to the general officers—we’re all priests, but it is the special officers of the church that receive tithes. And so here we have Abram giving the tithe specifically to Melchizedek. And I want to talk then at that point in the outline about how we do that. I want to talk some practical illustrations or questions and answers.

And then finally, and I think this is extremely important as well, and this is I think what the end of Malachi 3 is talking about with the blessings and the nations calling us blessed: that this relationship of acknowledging God’s blessing, responding with the correct giving of tithes, and by application from Malachi 3, offerings, the end result of that is dominion. The end result of that is the establishment of the people of God shown on the one hand by Abram holding the king of Sodom at bay and not receiving anything from him.

In other words, making a distinction between the holy and the profane and acknowledging that Sodom is profane and holding them at arm’s length. And then immediately after that text, God in chapter 15 places the word of God to Abram, promising him a son. And he says unto Abram in verse one, “Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward.” And then Abram asks about inheritance and a son. And God promises him that he will give him a son from his own loins as blessing.

And so the end of the story doesn’t just end with the tithe and the rejection of Sodom. It goes on to speak of God’s blessing to Abram, saying that I am your exceeding great reward and I’m going to give you a son and blessing. And so the same in Malachi—when we respond in obedience to God’s blessings with tithes and offerings, God promises to give us extended blessings and give us dominion in having the nations of the earth call us blessed.

So that’s the fourfold outline I want us to use. And if you’re writing it down on the backside of your other outline, the first one is: blessings precede the tithe. The second one is: the tithe is still required and mandatory. The third thing is: the tithe is given to the special officers of the church. And then the fourth item is: the end result of that process is further dominion and blessing to God’s people.

And now we’ll go back over them a little more slowly.

First, blessings precede the tithe. And I think if I would have asked you this morning before you got here, “Now, which came first in this story? Did Abram give the tithes first and then get the bread and wine? Or did Abram get the bread and wine first and then the tithe?” You might not have known the answer. And if I would have suggested to you that the proper relationship is blessing first and then tithe, some of you being trained in Baptist churches from this verse in Malachi where you pick it up at the place of the obligation of tithe and then the blessings that follow giving the tithe, you might have had the order reversed.

But it is extremely important that we understand this basic truth throughout the scriptures: that God in his sovereignty blesses us first. We do not work our way to blessing. Rather, we are ushered into blessing by God, and then we respond with obedience to him. And so, here we see Melchizedek doing just that.

Let’s look at another portion of scripture. This is from your outline: Jacob at Bethel. And this is troublesome to some people until you realize what I’ve just said.

In Genesis 28, we read in verse 16 and following: “Jacob awoke out of his sleep. And he said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not.’ This is Genesis 28:16 and following. And he was afraid and said, ‘How dreadful is this place that there is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.’ And Jacob rose up early in the morning and took the stone that he had put out for his pillows and set it up for a pillar and poured oil upon the top of it. And he named the name of that place Bethel, but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.

And Jacob vowed a vow. And there’s a relationship, of course, between vows in the scriptures and tithes and offerings. Repeatedly that relationship is made.

Jacob vowed a vow saying, ‘If God will be with me and will keep me in the way that I go and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God. And this stone which I have set up for a pillar shall be God’s house. And of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee.’

This is the second reference in the patriarchal period to the tithe. You read this and you think, ‘What is the deal with this Jacob guy? What is he doing? Making a deal with God? God’s going to do all this stuff for him first and then he’ll give the tenth. He must be in great sin here.’ I don’t think he is. I think Jacob recognized perfectly well that God needed to bless him before he could do anything for God. He recognized the preeminence of God’s sovereignty in blessing him.

He wasn’t saying that God wasn’t going to do this stuff, but he puts his giving of the tithe in response to the sovereign, uninitiated blessings of God—uninitiated by man’s part. God sovereignly blessing Jacob. God will indeed be with Jacob. That’s the first thing Jacob asks for: the presence of God. And remember, we just read where God told Abram, “I’m your exceeding great reward.” Forget money. Forget friends, forget everything else. The heart of your happiness—your blessedness, rather, it’s a better word biblically—is my presence with you. And that’s the first thing Jacob asked correctly from God: the presence of God with him.

Now, all those other things aren’t completely unimportant. You understand what I’m saying? I’m not saying forget all those things ultimately, but I’m saying that in terms of priorities, all those things—the fellowship we have with people, the blessings of money, the possessions—all those things are indicators of the blessing of God’s presence. And so, it’s the presence of God that Jacob asked for first, and then he asked for guidance.

“Keep me in the way that I should go.” See, he’s not being self-willed here. He’s not saying, “I’m going to do what I want to do, and if you do these things, then I’ll do these things for you.” He wants to go with God. So, he asks specifically for God’s blessing. He cannot go in the way that he should go without God’s blessing upon him. It’s the same for us. We have to have God who gives us the way in which we go and guides us in it.

And then, “If He’ll give me bread to eat and raiment to put on”—nourishment and guarding. Remember those two big themes in the scriptures: to nourish and to guard. Bread and clothing. And that’s what God provides for us. I think Jacob had it just right. He had it just right because he understood his theology. God blesses us first.

And if you come here today, you’ve been blessed by God. If you believed the words we read at the call to worship and you believe the words of reconciliation offered to you, the blood of Christ from the book of Corinthians—if you understood those things and have been brought to a sense of conviction for personal sin and then have come to believe and being assured that those sins are forgiven through the blood of Christ, and that through his resurrection, you now have peace with God and you’ve been reconciled to God through the covenant mediator—then you’ve been blessed by God, and you come here today as recipients of blessing.

And hopefully when you give tithes and offerings at the end of the sermon, it’s because it’s a response to God. It’s not seeking to attain blessing from God. It’s a response to the blessings that he’s already provided for us.

We read in the scriptures, and I won’t turn to the text, but Numbers 18 and other places, that the tithes were specifically in the administration of the people in the land. Okay? And that’s what those case laws are about. This tithe that’s talked about by Jacob and Abram is given specifically to the Levites. But the Levites are given to the people of Israel before the tithes are given to them.

The tithe to Melchizedek forms the basis—the scriptures say—of all the tithes in the scriptures. In Hebrews chapter 7, we read about the priestly order of Melchizedek and we read about the fact that Levi, the Levites, who had received the tithe were in the loins of Abraham. They were going to come forth from his children. You see, and the scriptures tell us in Hebrews chapter 7 that the Levites tithed to Melchizedek.

The order of the priesthood—the priestly order of Melchizedek—precedes the priestly order of the Levites and also follows it. Jesus is not of the Levitical order. He is of the Melchizedekian order according to Hebrews chapter 7. And so the tithe flows not just in the context of Israel in the land with the Levites. It precedes it in patriarchal history, and it also follows it as we get to Paul’s taking upon himself a ministry in terms of receipt of tithes and offerings from the people, and then Hebrews 7 correlating that to the order of Melchizedek.

All of this has to do with the firstborn as well. The order of Melchizedek is a sonship priesthood. Jesus is the son. The Levites—you’ve got to remember now in biblical history—who were the Levites? They were chosen to replace who? The firstborn of each tribe. Remember, when the Levites were chosen as the order that would minister to God in a particular way, instructing, leading in worship and in prayer, etc., the idea was that all the firstborn of the people who have been saved by God belong to God. They’re the tithe of the firstborn. But God had a special group, the Levitical order, because of their zealousness for God and being willing to execute the death penalty upon members of their own family. They were given for the special ministry of being the priest to God.

But in any event, they replaced the firstborn, and they were given to Israel prior to them receiving tithes. In the same way that in this beautiful little summary of worship service where Melchizedek comes forward as a representative of God, gives communion to Abram, pronounces a benediction, a blessing upon him, and then Abram responds by giving the tithe. And that beautiful little worship service shows that Melchizedek’s blessing precedes the tithe. So the giving of the Levites as special ministers to God in the context of the people of Israel preceded the receipt of the tithe, and the tithe followed it.

It’s interesting to me—and I don’t think you’d want to make too much of this, but I think by way of application—Paul gives us the same model: that blessing precedes obligation when he goes out in the mission field and supports himself. He doesn’t take the tithe at first. First, he goes out as the Levite, the Melchizedekian priest, the special officer of the church, and who will eventually insist to the Corinthians that he has a right to take a wife. He has a right according to the case laws of God, according to the law of God, and according to the offerings that the priests received. He has a right to receive the tithe from the people. Nonetheless, he doesn’t place that right at first.

He rather ministers at the expense of his own hands, providing for himself. And so, we have that same basic principle: blessing precedes tithe. That’s why in Deuteronomy 14 in your outline, we have in Deuteronomy 12 and 14 joy and grace as aspects of the tithe. Some people believe that Deuteronomy 14 teaches a second and third tithe. I don’t believe that. I believe you look at Deuteronomy 12—what we’ve got is the tithe being based in patriarchal history with Melchizedek and Abraham.

And then as they’re about to enter into the land in Deuteronomy 12—where we’re going to have a central sanctuary, God gives the way of administration of the tithe in that particular period of covenant history. So all those elements, while they have truths for us, they’re specifically given in the context of how to administer the tithe in a central sanctuary with Levitical priests instead of Melchizedekian priests.

And in the context of that, it says two very important things. One, it says a portion of your tithe is used to finance your feast of tabernacles to Jerusalem. And so a portion of your tithe is specifically given that you might rejoice before God. And then secondly, a portion of that tithe—some small portion of it—was also to be given to those who were unto the widows, the fatherless, and the strangers in the land.

Some call it the poor tithe. I would prefer to think of it as the grace aspect of the tithe. So we have the joy aspect of the tithe in the financing of the trip to Jerusalem, and the grace aspect where the tithe is given—some portion of it—to the fatherless, the widows, and the strangers in the land. You see, that is because the tithe is a picture that God’s blessing precedes our obligation, even in the obligation to spend our tithe.

God wants us to have in mind grace and joy because he doesn’t want us to think that somehow our tithe is going to get us blessing from God as a matter of works. Now God does in Malachi say you’ll receive great blessing. But you see, it’s not a works thing. The blessings continue to flow because you believe that you are graciously ushered into salvation through Jesus Christ. So the grace and joy aspects of the tithe would fit under that point number one: that blessing precedes the obligation of the tithe.

I can’t stress that enough. You know, if you walk out of here today thinking somehow that what Pastor Tuuri said is that we’ve got an obligation to tithe and then we’ll get blessed by God and that we’ve got to work our way to that blessing through the tithe—see, that’s terrible if I leave that impression with you. The tithe is a joyous response to the grace of God in providing salvation, pictured through that wonderful picture of the giving of bread and wine and a blessing from Melchizedek to Abram.

Nonetheless, the tithe is required. That’s the second point. Leviticus 27, Deuteronomy 26, Malachi 3, Haggai 1—all these portions of scripture make a very clear point that tithe is a requirement of the believer. That’s what Malachi 3 was all about. If you don’t tithe and if you don’t fulfill needed offerings, then you’re cursed.

The scriptures say, in Haggai 1. Turn to Haggai 1, please. Minor prophets toward the back of the Old Testament—back at Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah. Okay. So, it’s right nestled between the two Z’s. You’ve got Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah.

Now, this is specifically in reference to offerings, I believe, not the tithe, but the same principle is true.

Verse 2: “Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, ‘This people say, the time has not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.’ Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet saying, ‘Is it time for you, oh ye, to dwell in your cell, in your sealed houses, and this house lie waste? Now therefore, thus sayeth the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Ye have sown much and brought in little. Ye eat, but ye have not enough. Ye drink, but you are not filled with drink. Ye clothe you, but there is none warm. And ye earneth wages, but you earneth wages to put into a bag with holes.

Thus sayeth the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Go up to the mountain and bring wood. And he goes on to say, ‘Build my house. Your houses are nice. What’s wrong with my house? Why haven’t my house become a priority to you?’”

And he warns people there that an improper failure to abide by the requirements of tithes and offerings according to the scriptures brings curse from God. Very clearly. Haggai says, “You can make all the money you want. You put it into a pocket and there’s a hole in your pocket. Your expenses, unusual expenses, continue to occur.”

True. Now, this is similar to the teaching in scripture about illness. We’ve said that when people get ill in this church, the first thing you should do is beseech God for what he might be showing to you in the context of your life relative to sin. Now, all illness doesn’t come from personal sin that God is working on your heart about. Much illness is so that you might be a good martyr or testifier, witness to the grace of God in the context of illness. But clearly, Deuteronomy 28 tells us that various illnesses can come as a direct result of God’s suspension of our blessings in Christ because of our disobedience in particular areas.

So it is here: if a person has financial difficulties, the scriptures clearly teach that one of the first things you should do is to do a review of your obedience to the laws of the tithe and your offerings as well. We’ll talk more about offerings next week.

So the tithe—well, I want to stress that it is a response to the blessings of God. Nonetheless, it is required. It is required.

The third point I want to make then, very briefly, is that this tithe goes to the special officers of the church. Numbers 18, Deuteronomy 12, Hebrews 7. Numbers 18, I guess, would be one good place to start here. Actually, before I get to that, let me stay on point two for just a minute and look at Leviticus 27 in terms of the requirement of tithe.

Leviticus 27:30 and following, we read this:

“And all the tithe of the land, whether the seed of the land or the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s. It is holy unto the Lord. And if a man will at all redeem out of his tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth part thereof. And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord. He shall not search, whether it be good or bad, neither shall change it. If he changed it at all, then both it and the change thereof shall be holy. It shall not be redeemed. These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel in Mount Sinai.”

What’s this saying is clearly that the first fruits, the tithe—the word tithe literally means tenth—that’s what the word means. The tenth part of the increase of the field or the increase of the herd is holy, consecrated, set apart to God. And that’s why Malachi says, “If you don’t take that first tenth and give it the way God has said it should be given, then you’re robbing from him. You’re stealing from God.”

Now, I don’t know if you paid all your taxes relative to the IRS or not. But if you haven’t, you probably have a sense of foreboding, waiting for a letter to come in the mail that you’re going to be audited. Well, God is always auditing people. He’s always auditing his books. He knows whether you have acted in obedience to these requirements of keeping the holy part of God’s blessings to you separate for his administration or not. And that’s what Malachi and Haggai are all about—saying that God’s audit is ongoing.

And so it’s a very important thing to recognize the requirement of the tithe. It is so important that there are laws here relating in Leviticus 27 to the redemption of it. Well, this bushel of corn—I don’t really want to give this. I want to give its value. Well, if you do that—if you’re a farmer—then you’ve got to add the fifth part to it. So now you’re tithing not just 10% but like 12%, because you want to take that first bushel of whatever it is, the first tenth, and keep it and redeem it.

So there’s actually laws of redemption, and there is no redemption, he says, for the herd elements of the increase. By the way, what we’re talking about here is that you’ve got a herd of sheep, let’s say, and it’s not that the whole herd gets tithed every year. It’s the increase of the herd that gets tithed. So you’ve got a hundred sheep, maybe, and I don’t know how it works exactly. Let’s say you have twenty lambs. You’d count out the lambs as they go into the rod, and every tenth one would be tithed and given to God, and there’s no redeeming that in terms of the herd.

So anyway, the tithe is required.

And then, as I said, the third point is: now we know that the tithe is a response to blessing and that the tithe is giving the tenth of whatever increase God gives us through his power and strength. What do we do with it? What do we do with it? Well, Numbers 18 tells us very clearly that the purpose of the tithe is for the Levites in this particular area of biblical history.

Numbers 18, verse 6 says, “I have taken your brethren the Levite from among the children of Israel. To you they are given as a gift for the Lord to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation.” So he reminds him in Numbers 18 that he’s given them—special officers of the church.

Then in verse 12: “All the best of the oil and the best of the wine and of the wheat, the first fruits of them which shall be offered unto the Lord, them have I given thee. And whatsoever is first ripe in the land which they shall bring unto the Lord shall be thine. Everyone that is clean in thine house shall eat of it.” And this is instructions to Aaron and to the Levites.

Verse 20: “The Lord spake unto Aaron, ‘Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt thou have any part among them. I am thy part and thine inheritance among the children of Israel. And behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tenth in Israel, for an inheritance, for their service which they serve, even the service of the tabernacle of the congregation.’”

And it goes on in Numbers 18 to reiterate that point. The point is that the tithe—from Abram giving it to the special officer of the church, Melchizedek, then in the Levitical administration, giving it to the Levites, and then in the New Testament when Paul makes his case based upon the case law and also based upon the fact that the Levites would obtain their living from the altar, giving the tithes and offerings—all of those things run together to show us that the tithe’s specific purpose is personnel. The purpose of the tithe is to finance the firstborn—so to speak—replaced by the Levites, the officers of Jesus Christ in the church, and that includes elders and deacons, to support them for the work of the ministry that they’ve been called to do.

Now, next week, I’m going to develop this a little bit further, and I’m going to suggest that we do not see the use of the tithe in the Old Testament—certainly not for the building of buildings. What we see is the offerings of the people, and there’s a distinction to be made there. I’ll talk more about that next week. But this week, I want us to see from these references, and the reference is printed on your outline, that the proper administration of the tithe is to give it to the special officers of the church, beginning with Melchizedek, going to the Levites, and then Paul is making the case in Corinthians that he also should receive support, as should those that minister the word.

Now, in this regard, really, you can look at Paul’s line of reasoning in 1 Corinthians 9:1-14. Let’s turn there real quick.

1 Corinthians 9:1-14:

“Am I not an apostle and am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? If I’m not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you. For the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord.”

Okay, so he says, “I’m an apostle. He says, I’m a special officer of the church. My answer to them that do examine me is this: Have we not power to eat and to drink? Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord and Cephas? Or only I and Barnabas, have we not power to forbear working?

Who goeth to war at any time at his own charges? Who planteth a vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof? Or who feedeth the flock and eateth not of the milk of the flock?

See I these things as a man or saith not the law the same also. So Paul says, ‘I’m an apostle. I’m a special officer of the church. I have a right that is natural and clear from the scriptures, or rather from nature itself.’ But he doesn’t leave the argument in nature. He turns to the case law, and he says, ‘It is written in the law of Moses, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn.’

But God take care for oxen? Well, he does, of course, but I mean, by way of comparison, God is much more concerned with this particular case law. It’s not really given for oxen. Luther commenting on this said, ‘The oxen can’t read.’ The case law is given specifically to apply to ministers of the gospel. That’s what Paul says here.

Or saith it altogether for our sake? For our sakes, no doubt this is written, that he that ploweth should plow in hope. And he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things? If others be partakers of this power over you, are you not we rather?

Nevertheless, we have not used this power but suffer all things lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.

And then he now moves to the tithe argument, really. He says, ‘Do you not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? And of which are at the altar are partakers with the altar. Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.’

So Paul makes this line of reasoning based upon the case laws and based upon the receipt of tithes and offerings by the priests and Levites in the Old Testament and directly correlates the ministers of the gospel in the New Testament.

Now this is really summarized in Galatians chapter 6, verse 6, where we read, “Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teaches in all good things.”

Now, very simply put, the use of the tithe is to provide for those Levites, those ministers, those special officers of the church who communicate and teach the word to the people of God.

1 Timothy 5:17: “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor”—that’s double pay—”especially they who labor in the word and doctrine. For the scripture saith, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, and the laborer is worthy of his reward.”

Now that verse is put in there to show how this works: the tithe goes to the elders of the church. The elders of the church make a deliberation amongst themselves. He’s writing to Timothy here, who was a pastor. They make a determination amongst themselves as to workload, abilities, and then the pay is divvied up accordingly amongst the elders in terms of their abilities—both time-wise and gift-wise—in terms of ruling well, preaching, etc.

So the administration of the tithe is required as a response to God’s blessing, and it is specifically given—not for construction of buildings, not for maintenance of buildings—rather it is given specifically so that the elders might devote themselves to the word of God and be encouraged in that word.

Now I want to just say a couple of brief things here in terms of application and specifically how the tithe should be administered.

In the scriptures, the basic laws of the tithe in Numbers and in Leviticus show us that the tithe is on increase, not upon estate. That’s why property taxes are not a biblical form of taxation. Taxation is on increase. It’s not on your holdings. It’s not how many trees you have potentially in your land that you can cut and sell. It’s if you take those trees, cut and sell them, receive increase of money from them—that’s what’s tithed.

Additionally, it is the actual increase. In other words, if you have expenses, you’re raising a herd of sheep and you have expenses during the year, those expenses will be removed from the amount of sale of the sheep at the end of the year before the tithe is taken. The tithe is on the actual increase—the blessings you have—on a yearly basis, well, depending on how you get paid, on a yearly or weekly basis. If you get paid weekly, it’s if you’re a normal employee, it’s fairly easy. You simply take a tenth of the money that you earn, and that is the tithe, and that’s to be administered and given to the elders in the gate in the Old Testament, the elders in the local church in the New Testament, for their ability to devote themselves and increase in number the amount of people that minister the word in the context of the church.

Now, as I said, the expense—now if you’re working for yourself, however, there are expenses, and those expenses, the way I read the scriptures, the actual tithe is on the increase. And so if you take your X amount of money you brought in, minus X amount of expenses for running your office, provision of supplies for whatever service you may be providing—it’s that increase that is tithed.

Very importantly though, it is the full increase of the business that is tithed. It’s not just what you take out for your income. See, you may have a business and you make one hundred thousand dollars this year, and you pay yourself fifty thousand and then put fifty thousand back into the business, and you may say, “Well, I only have to tithe what I receive.” No, no. You really receive the whole one hundred thousand, and you decided to take half of that and reinvest it or grow your business. But the tithe comes before expansion—that’s the principle. The tithe is on the full increase, not on the increase after expansion. It’s on the increase after cost.

By the way, let me just mention also that in the gymnasium today, I brought copies—as I have before—of James B. Jordan’s fifteen- to twenty-page article on the tithe, and it has some specific applications along this line. It speaks to illustrations regarding advertising in a business, etc., that may be useful for you. But the tithe is before expansion, but it is after expenses, and so the tithe is on the actual increase.

I had a man come to me a few weeks ago and ask whether the bonus that he received at the end of the year from his employer should be tithed. Clearly yes, because the bonus is not based upon the employer’s liking you as a person. It’s based upon your performance. It’s increased to you based upon the work, and the pay may be administered a little differently than a normal wage. It may be bonus related to the profits of the company, whatever it is, but I think that clearly bonuses are titheable income in terms of the scriptures.

One other point I might touch on—and again, Mr. Jordan touches on this in his paper—but just briefly, I’ll touch upon the fact that when we have a situation where the civil government is taking between 20 and 30% of one’s income, the case can be made, and you may want to consider the case, that anything above the 10% that the scriptures say the civil magistrate may take legitimately could be seen as theft of your increase, and your tithe could be taken on what is left after the own generous exertion of taxes against your increase.

In other words, you don’t really get the increase. The IRS takes a tenth before you can get to it. So, it isn’t really increase to you. And Mr. Jordan touches on that in his articles as well.

In any event, it really is fairly simple. And if you have specific questions, please see myself or read, or talk to Reverend Mayfield, or read Mr. Jordan’s article.

The tithe is required. The tithe is administered to office-bearers.

And then finally, the last point: the tithe has a relationship to dominion.

As we said in that tremendous worship service pointed out in the book of Genesis with Abraham and Melchizedek, it’s immediately followed by Abraham’s rejection of the king of Sodom and linkages to him and acceptance of the blessings of God’s promise of a son. I’ve listed for you a couple of references during the times of Nehemiah and Hezekiah, during times of reconstruction.

And what we see in the scriptures is when we’re in an age like we are today—where the walls are broken down and there’s a movement of God’s spirit to reconstruct again the walls and to reconstruct a godly society again—that the reaffirmation of the tithe is absolutely critical to those times.

Look up the reference for Hezekiah there, and you’ll see that the tithe had been gotten away with, and now the tithe is restored. And specifically the result of that is that the priests and Levites might be encouraged in the law of the Lord.

What happens in the time of Hezekiah and Nehemiah when the tithe is restored is Levitical ministries can again take place. When the tithe is held back from the church, Levitical ministries fail. Men look for other work. Men are distracted from the work of studying and applying God’s law, preaching it, and helping people to understand it corporately and individually.

And to the extent that the tithe has been restricted by the church of Jesus Christ in America and around the world, you have very few Levitical ministries who are out there anymore. If this church, as much tithe as comes in, that’s how many Levitical ministers…