10250 North Freeway @ West Road
Houston, Texas 77037
Tel: (281) 447-8484
10250 North Freeway @ West Road
Houston, Texas 77037
Tel: (281) 447-8484
KEEPING HOUSE FOR
THE LORD
Written by H. Frank Fort
This material is copyrighted and may not be copied or reproduced without the express written permission of the Berean Baptist Church.
To order a copy of Keeping
House for the Lord,
please visit our Publications section.
LESSON #18
"Giving
" No. 3
In this lesson help, we shall consider the amount we
are to return to the Lord as stewards of that part of "the fullness" Ps.
24:1 entrusted to us. Giving according to God's word is
·
"to
prove the sincerity of your love" 2
Cor. 8:8
·
"that
there may be equality" 2 Cor. 8:14
·
"supplieth
the want of the saints"
·
Is
"abundant…unto God" 2 Cor.
9:12.
When
God's people do what they ought in this respect, they who are profited, as
recipients of "this grace" will "glorify God", "by many
thanksgiving’s"
2
Cor. 9:12.
Compare Matt. 5:16
Giving, by a Christian, according to the word of God,
recognizes two things,
·
Divine
ownership of our substance
·
our
responsibility to our fellowman
Cain
failed to recognize either. Notice, "Cain brought of the fruit of the
ground an offering unto the Lord" Gen.
4:3. Now what was the sin in question? Others offered "the fruit of the
ground" and were commended for it. Why then, was Cain's offering not
accepted? In the Septuagint Version, which was written by seventy Greek
scholars, about three hundred years before Christ, we have this rendering.
"And the Lord said to Cain, wherefore didst thou become vexed, and
wherefore didst thy countenance fall? If thou didst rightly offer, but didst not
rightly divide, didst thou not sin? Hold thy peace Gen. 4: 6,7. This translation was from a Hebrew text a thousand
years older than any now possessed. The apostles often quoted from this version.
The Jews had a high opinion of the Septuagint Version until the Christians used
it against them so effectively in their controversies concerning the Messiah.
The words we consider in our present lesson are "didst not rightly
divide". These words show why Cain sinned in what he did. He didn't offer
according to the division the truth required. The Greek word "diaireo"
is defined by Liddell and Scott as "to divide, part or cleave in twain, to
cut open, to tear away, or pull down". The secondary meaning he gives as
"to distribute". This word is used in Luke
15:12, where the father of the prodigal is said to have "divided…his
living" Luke 15:12. It seems that Cain's sin was not in the fact of offering
but in the division of that which was offered. If thou didst rightly offer, but
didst not rightly divide". The information above, as to the rendering of
the Septuagint Version is from George A. E. Salstrand, professor of New
Testament Interpretation and Evangelism, Tennessee Temple Schools.
The first mention of the word "tithe" as
the amount of the division, if one is to "rightly divide", occurs in Gen.
14:20, when Melchizedek, King of Salem, had blessed Abraham, Abraham
"gave him tithes of all". We don't have to guess what the division
was. The inspired writer said, "Abraham gave a tenth part of all" Heb. 7:2. The "tithe" was "a tenth part". Now
why a "tenth part"? Why not 15, 20, or 50%? While pagan practices
prove nothing as to Christian responsibilities, nevertheless, they may indicate
something of common knowledge. For instance, most pagan religions have a virgin
child in their writings, and they also have in their records, allusions to the
flood. While the accounts are grossly perverted, they, nevertheless, indicate
that the truth of these matters was widespread, Just so of the tithe. There are
in the Cuniform (wedge shaped characters) (letters) inscriptions of Babylonia,
manner references to the tithe. When we remember that Abram, the pagan, dwelt
there, we know he had access to this fact. After Abraham became a child of God,
he learned where the idea of the tithes originated, for certainly he would not
have offered the "tithe" to Melchizedek as the gesture of paganistic
response to divinely authorized blessings. A pagan may have some truth, but no
truth originated with paganism. A pagan historian, may record the truth as to
"the flood" or a "virgin born son", but all such information
to him is second hand. The source of all truth is God, and revelation of all
truth is to and through "Holy men…moved by the Holy Spirit”, 2
Pet. 1:21. Abram, the pagan, could know of the tithe, but he, as such, never
attributed the knowledge of it to revelation. He could learn this only from God.
I believe that he had learned this from God when he paid tithes to Melchizedek
in response to blessings received. He learned, what, I believe Cain knew. But
what Cain disregarded, Abraham honored, that is, God's right to a portion of our
substance "rightly divided". We shall make the offering of Abraham the
basic example of our giving, but before we do, notice one other example, that of
Jacob in connection with Bethel, the House of God" Gen. 28:19‑22. Jacob said, "of all that thou shalt give
me I will surely give the tenth unto thee" vs.
22. Here the order is the same as in the case of Abraham. A response to
blessings received, proportionably, "of all that thou shalt give me".
As to just what was in Jacob's heart, in what some call this bargaining with
God, I do not know. I do know that in thus place of blessing, Jacob said,
"I will surely give the tenth unto thee", and thus promised to do,
just what his grandfather had done over 150 years before. Was the
"tenth" just a good round number, or was the amount that which the
truth required? It is not our purpose to quote the scriptures requiring tithing
under the law, to prove what we are to do today, but to show that God's will was
during the law. Just what Abraham the father of the nation did before the law,
and thus perpetuated by law that which his faithful servant did by faith before.
Moses wrote, "all the tithes of the land, whether of the seed of the land,
or the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's: it is holy unto the Lord…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 Lev.
27:30,32, that is, "under the hands of him that telleth (COUNTS)
their" Jer. 33:13. Here, and in
many places, God claims and commands by law, what Abraham and Jacob did before
the law. Tithing by Abraham was done "in the steps of that faith…which he
had being yet uncircumcised" Rom.
4:12. "He gave hum (Melchizedek) tithes of all" Gen.
14:20 fifteen years before he was circumcised Gen.
I7: 24.
Let us observe some things in connection with giving before we
apply the truth concerning the giving of Abraham, to our giving under the New
Testament. It is true that one may tithe as did the Pharisee, "I give
tithes of all that I possess" Luke
18:12, yet receive no blessing for it. Yet no one can claim to give with the
proper spirit and do as Cain "not rightly divided”: To give with the
proper spirit demands:
·
The
recognition that one is returning that which he has in God's goodness received.
This recognition will create the gratitude that prompts the return
·
Gratitude
for what one has received will enable one to give cheerfully, and thus, God
loveth 2 Cor. 9:7.
I
have heard people, who were well off, financially, admit that they didn't often
give, but when they did, they gave cheerfully. This is not what the word of God
teaches. The cheerful giving which God loves, is the giving of what he has
required, not what we choose to give. Look at 2 Cor. 9:6‑10:
·
"He
which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth
bountifully shall reap also bountifully" vs. 6. This accords with the law of Gal. 6:7, that "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also
reap". Not only in kind, but also in amount. God is able to govern the
harvest. Look at vs. 10. "Now he
(God) that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and
multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness."
·
Here
"The Lord of the harvest" Matt.
9:38 declares himself able to increase "bread" for natural life,
and "fruits" of spiritual life. Let us not forget it.
·
"Every
man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly, or
of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver" vs. 7. Here the word "cheerful" is from a Greek word from
which we get the word "hilarious". Imagine a Church where every member
is "noisily merry" in the act of giving what God's word requires that
we give. The word hilarious, means "noisily merry, boisterous'', yet God's
word says, "The Lord loveth a hilarious giver". How can such a spirit
be maintained in the giving of one's substance? Only by constant fellowship with
the Giver of "every good and perfect gift" James
1:17. Notice that in our text, vs. 7,
it is not the amount of the giving, but the spirit of the giving, that are under
consideration. "Not grudgingly, or of necessity", that is, not give
reluctantly, or grumbling, but cheerfully, and not from a sense of necessity, as
though God would deprive us of something needed, but freely, as a return of
little, from much received.
·
"God
is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye always having all
sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work" vs.
8. Paul then quotes in vs. 9, a
passage from Ps. 112:9. By comparing
the two passages’, we see that what God is "able" to do in 2
Cor. 9:8, he will do for the person of vs. 9. In Ps.
112:1,9 we read, "Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that
delighteth greatly in his Commandments”, "He hath dispersed, he hath
given to the poor; his righteousness endureth forever". Thus one who is
able to "delight greatly in God's commandments will thereby be able to give
cheerfully according to his commandments, and to such, God will demonstrate his
ability to make "all grace abound". God can do everything he has
promised to do. He can take our little, and make much of it, "if there be
first a willing mind"
2 Cor. 8:12:
However, "a readiness to will" 2
Cor. 8:11, depends on the workmanship of Him who "worketh in us both to
will and to do of his good pleasure" Phil.
2:13. Wherever this workmanship is being effected, believers will be found
"with good will doing service, as to the Lord Eph.
6:7. God's word tells us that "I
mean not that other men be eased and ye be burdened: but by an equality, that
now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their
abundance also may be a supply for your wants that there may be equality" 2
Cor., 8:13,14. It is the will of God that his people bear the
responsibilities of his work equally, but how can this be?
What is the standard that would make this possible?
Next
week we shall show what the word of the Lord is on this aspect of giving
Prepared
by:
H.
Frank Fort, Minister,
Berean Baptist Church
Houston, Texas.
Nov. 27, 1956
"It Does Make a Difference What You Believe"