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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the Bibleignmenistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Well today, I am not planning on tiptoeing through the tigers. Remember years of commercial years ago that they put in there, put a tiger in your tank. You remember that? Put a tiger in your tank? I did in the aid of my muffler. Got an interesting subject I want to talk to you about because I think it’s so important. A turn in your Bible to the book of 1 Corinthians in chapter 4. First Corinthians in chapter 4. We’ll be looking at quite a few scriptures this morning.

I want to talk to you on the subject of something you’ve heard about, but maybe not really understand. How many have you ever heard the word, tithing? Let me see a hand. You’ve heard the word, tithing. How many of you think it’s a nasty word? No, no, no, no. First Corinthians in chapter four, looking verse one, let a man saw a count of us as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.

Do you believe that? It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. So we are to be faithful. Plus, I also know according to the Word of God, I’m supposed to teach the whole counsel of God. But there is one issue I very seldom ever speak on. I haven’t spoken on it very much since I’ve been here, hardly at all. But I do believe that it is in the Bible and that I should cover it. So I’m going to tell you what the Bible says from how I see it and everybody has to deal with whatever they believe they need either correct or not correct or, you know, I can’t apply it to people’s lives.

Only you can do that. But I want you to take your Bible and not turn to the book of Luke, the book of Luke in chapter 12. Luke chapter 12, it’s a little short passage, but it deals with a subject of stewardship. We are not owners of what we have. We’re stewards of it. I believe that everything that I have belongs to the Lord. My kids, my house, my car, everything I got, it belongs to the Lord. I’m just using it while I’m here.

And so it helps you to understand, for example, like I got a house up there in Georgia and got renters. They may wreck my house, but I look at it this way. That’s God’s house. And if they wreck it, God will get him for wrecking his house. I like that a lot better than I don’t have to take vengeance on anybody. Now sometimes I’ve had things happen and I feel that God wants me to be the avenging angel. Luke chapter 12, look at verse 42, there’s four different kinds of stewards that I want to kind of bring to your attention here very quickly.

You decide which one you are. You will be one of these. Number one in verse 42, and the Lord says, who then is that faithful and wise steward? So you know this is about a faithful, wise steward, whom his Lord had made ruler over his house to give them their portion of meat and do season. Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he come and shall find so doing. Ah, isn’t that wonderful? The good steward, the faithful steward.

You see, you’re just dispensing that which God has blessed you with. Now you look down in verse 45. And if that servant’s saying his heart, my Lord, delay it this coming. So we have a delay in steward. You know what? I’m going to, but not yet. I’m going to, but not yet, you delay. Did you know that delayed obedience is disobedience? Would you agree with that? Delayed obedience is disobedience. When do you think God wants you to do what He tells us to do?

I believe as soon as possible. Whatever it is God wants us to do. Did you just do it? Delayed obedience. There are stewards that are delaying in the fulfillment of the will of God. They’re always planning on it. It’s kind of like a lost man who intends to get saved. You know, they’re planning on getting saved, they’re not planning on going to hell. And so the road to hell we say is paid with intentions. People are always intending, have you ever intended to do certain things?

But you never get around to it. In our church one time we had a bunch of little round things and on it says, to it, T-U-I-T. So everybody says, I’m going to do this when I get around to it. So I made up bunches of them. We had hundreds of them. We gave it to the people and said, now, you invite people to come to church because everybody said, I’ll come to church when I get around to it. Well, so you’re giving them a round to it.

So now they can come to church. You try to eliminate people’s reasons, excuses for not doing what they’re supposed to do. And so he says in verse 45, my Lord did layeth his coming and shall begin to beat the men and serve in the maidens and to eat and drinking to be drunk in. And so the Lord of that servant will come in a day when he’s not looking for him. When he look at not. You see, whenever you’re really faithful and serving the Lord, you’re looking for the Lord to come back.

But are you so entangled with the fairs of this life that you kind of forget all about that? You focus only upon the here and the now. And you’re going to do something for the Lord, but you just haven’t got around to it yet. I think I need to make up some more of those. Look at number verse 47, and look at the third type of steward. And that steward, which knew his Lord’s will, prepared not. You know word, sometimes you know, you know what God wants you to do, but you don’t prepare yourself to do anything.

You’re not just delaying it, you’re just not gonna do it because you’re not gonna prepare. You didn’t prepare to be a fun school teacher, you can’t work in a wannick because you don’t know what to do. And you can’t be a missionary, you don’t know what to do. And you can’t do this because you don’t know what to do. You do. You’re always going to, you never get around to it. But you knew what God wanted you to do and just wouldn’t do it.

You see, a lot of people won’t prepare themselves. And so they blame God when things go wrong because they don’t understand that God’s going to chase him. God’s going to discipline. And that’s what he does. And he will. But look at verse 48, number four is the ignorant steward. You know, there’s some who know the will of God and won’t do it. There’s other ones that are going to do it, but they just delights a little slow, drag their feet.

You can’t always count on them because they’re not always faithful. Once in a while they’re there, but not faithful. You can’t depend on them. And then you have the ignorance. See they’re in verse 48, but he that knew not. He didn’t know. So he was ignorant. So it’s going to be taken into account because the responsibility is still there. And so as I read each one of those, which one were you? Now the subject we’re going to talk about today is this little subject of giving money.

We’re going to have a church congregation meeting this afternoon. It deals with budget. Budget means what? Money. So, and money is, you know, where does it come from? And what do you do with it? What’s the accountability so that you understand? I don’t touch the money here. I didn’t when I came and I don’t now. I don’t write a check. I don’t take up the offering. I don’t make any deposits. I don’t write the checks. And I’m so glad.

can never accuse me of embezzling any money. You can’t be elders, but you can’t me. So there is a responsibility and it’s very important. Now what I want you to do is go all the way back to the book of Genesis 14, the book of Genesis and chapter 14. Now Abraham lived 430 years at least from the time of the promise until the law was given, 430 years. So here’s a time in Abraham’s life. And it was before the law.

So sometimes people say, well, okay, I don’t believe in tithing because it was under the law and we’re not under the law. I am not under the law. I am under grace. Therefore, how do I determine how much I should give or not give? So everybody has to weigh this thing in their own mind and come to a conclusion so that you don’t have a guilty conscience that you did what you believe God wanted you to do. So what does God’s word say?

Well, let’s just kind of follow it through the scriptures and see what he says. In Genesis in chapter 14, look there in verse 18, where it says, “…and Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine, and he was the priest of the most high God.” Now he’s talked about in the book of Hebrews in chapter 7 about Melchizedek. and evidently he could have been a pre-menifestation of the Son of God himself. There’s some things that said about it this awesome.

But anyway verse 19, 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, Abraham gave him, ties of all. And so in the New Testament tells us about Abraham paying ties onto Melchizedek. So in the New Testament, in the church age, in the book of Hebrews, it tells us that this is what Abraham did.

So he paid ties in the book of Hebrews when he says Abraham did this. So who told Abraham to do this? Well I don’t know, but a tithe usually means a tenth. And there were different kinds of tithes on different things that the Hebrew people could do, and they could give 30 to 40 percent. Time had this tithe and that tithe and so forth. But now it is important to understand what God’s says about this. So this was 400 and something years before the law.

So he couldn’t say what he did because he was under the law. He wasn’t under the law. Look there in the book of Genesis in chapter 28. Genesis and chapter 28. Genesis chapter 28 and look there in verse 20. Now he had already had the same promise given to him that had been given to Abraham. So here Jacob is having this conversation and it just talks about up there in verse 14. Let me just start up there. And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in thee shalt in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”

That seed refers to Christ. And that tells you that in the book of Galatians in chapter 3. And then he says in verse 16, and Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he says, surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. Then he says down here in verse 20, And Jacob vowed a vow saying, if God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and ram it to put on, so that I come again to my Father’s house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God, in, in verse 22, and this stone which I have set for a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that vow shall give me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee.

The tenth is the tithe. He said, I will give a tithe, a tent to the Lord. Now this is before the law, but this was the form of giving that they came out with. So Abraham did it, and Jacob did it. And others have done it, on down the line. Now look there in Leviticus chapter 27, the book of Leviticus in chapter 27. Leviticus chapter 27, and you’ll notice there in verse 30, last chapter in the book of Leviticus, or if you call it Leviticus, Leviticus chapter 27 looked there in verse 30, and all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree is the Lord’s.

It is holy 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 passes unto the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord. He shall not search whether it is good or bad, neither shall he change it, and if he change it at all, then both it and the change thereof shall be holy, shall not be redeemed.

These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel in Mount Sinai. So now the tide became a part of the law and became A command. They were commanded to do this. So God taught the people how to give, what to give, from what source. So this is what God wanted them to do, whatever it was, one tenth belonged to the Lord. So God had Moses, he was going to have to build this tabernacle and so everybody got together and they did what they did and they gave and so forth.

And the Bible says they had more than what they needed. Now, there’s nobody who can make you do anything. thing. And that I don’t try to make anybody else do. I just know what I do. And I have no problem. I did when I first started. But I believe that the tide is a good place for Christians to learn how to give because most of them have no clue. Most believe in just tipping the Lord like He would tip a waitress at a restaurant, you know, based upon the quality of the food and the service and so forth.

And today they don’t want a 10%. They want 20, 30, 40, 50%, you know. But you can be more generous as if you want to, but sometimes they’ll even add gratuity on if you have so many people in a party. And to make sure that you do it, they add it to the bill, isn’t that wonderful? But they have a responsibility, they got bills to pay. So people do this. Now, I want you to take your Bible, look in the book of Malachi, the book of Malachi, in chapter three, Malachi chapter three, That’s the book right before Matthew.

It’s the last book in the Old Testament. And that’s on page 982 in a church Bible, one of those that are in the pew there that you can look on. But make sure you look at the Scriptures. Don’t just listen to me talk. Look at the Scripture. Look in the Bible. And I would say that after 53 years, I have studied it a little bit so that I would understand what is a, the proper position of us today. When Betty’s dad, who came out of a Southern Baptist church at that time, and he was a good soul winner, he led me to Christ.

But there was always under the habit of giving a tithe. He tried to tell me that. And I used to not go to church at all. I didn’t give anything. And I thought, I’m not giving my money anywhere to anybody. I worked for word its mind. I knew nothing about giving anything to the church. I didn’t do it. So he had his hands full trying to teach me, convince me. So it wasn’t easy at the very beginning. And so sometime you know you think, okay, well, if a plate comes by, if I give them a quarter, if I give them a 50 cents or even a dollar, I mean, after all, that’s more than So I struggled with it, but I didn’t know a proper way to give.

How do you determine? Or why? And I didn’t know anything about this sewing and reaping business. I had never heard anything about give cheerfully. I never gave cheerfully. Give cheerfully and bountifully and all that stuff. I had never heard those words like that before. And so I struggled with it, But I have learned that over the years it would be better for me to go ahead and do what I believe what God’s Word said until I like it. Give until I like it.

And I have learned to like it, to love it. Because I found out that God’s way seems to work a lot better than it that was just left up to me to decide. There would be no consistency. There would be no faithfulness to it at all. So anyway, let me show you that. In Malachi chapter 3, God says that one of the reasons that you’re having such a hard time, He says, because you forgot about me. I mean, they had their homes and they had their venues, they had their crops, they had their cattle, they had everything, but see, they didn’t have that giving spirit.

They didn’t want to keep the law. They didn’t want to obey the law. So you mean they’ve been out of the land for a long time and years are passing by and from this time until Christ came another 400 years in there? I mean, after a while, you kind of get away from what does God say? Is there a remedy for this thing? Yeah, there was a remedy. So he says they’re in verse eight, looking verse eight, will a man rob God?

Can you picture a man with a sixth gun walking up to God? Okay, stick him up. This is a robbery. Now, give me all your money. Will a man rob God? Isn’t that a good question? No. Will a man rob God? They say well, we’re not how do we rob you? And so he says here But you say wherein have we robbed the he says in tithes and offerings offering see is above the tithe Lot of people give an offering they offer it And consider that their ties.

I’ve always held that my offerings that I give are to be over and above my ties. So I would always give a tenth, whatever I make. I mean when I was going to Bible school and I mean we were dirt poor and didn’t have anything, I’d always give them a ties. And if I didn’t have something else, I just didn’t have it. And we did it out without a lot. There were times when I would have to walk the school over a mile and I would walk back because I didn’t have money to put gas in my car.

And I did the same thing to work. But whenever I got any money, the Lord got the tide. Because I tell, what if every Christian did like me and didn’t do it? God’s work would never get done because most people would reason in their mind. I don’t have to, therefore anything I give, you ought to be glad. All right? You can think that away. But you don’t understand the biblical principle of why you should give, and give faithfully and consistently between you and God.

Do you do what you believe God really wants you to do? Have you learned the value of learning how to sow so that you can reap? Now, look what he says here. In Malachi chapter 3, in verse 9, he says, you are cursed with a curse for you have robbed me even this whole nation. Then he says in verse 10, bring you all the tithe into the storehouse. Now I’m not saying that church is the storehouse. All I know is we have a place where God says we’re to bring our money on the first day of the week, current in 16.

it and trust the Lord that what can be accomplished because of what has been given. And so he makes this statement, goes on to here and he says, and he says, and see if I will not open up a window. Now in the New Testament in Romans chapter 15, he says, now the Old Testament scriptures are given that we may learn how to serve God. What God has done, there’s principles laid down. when he came did not say he came to destroy the law but to what?

Fulfill the law. Whenever you trust Christ as your Savior we’re not under the law but we are under grace and if you’re under grace and you live by love then love means that you fulfill the law. I fulfill the law because of love. Love, and I want you to see this, look over there in the book of Romans in chapter 13. Romans, chapter 13. When he makes this statement here in verse 8, Romans 13 verse 8, oh, no man anything but to love one another, for he that loveth another hath done what?

Well, we’re not on the law, so we don’t have to love. You hear people all the way down. Well, we’re not on the law. We’re not on the law. So we don’t have to give. Well, wait a minute. That’s not what the Bible says. Now, we sometimes like this, I’ll tell you. Sometimes people’s morality will dictate their theology. What is it? One that pleases you or one that pleases God? Do you really do what God wants you to do?

And as your conscience clear that whatever it is, you can answer all of these scriptures and don’t think for a moment that there’s verses in the Bible that talks about giving I don’t know about. I’ve read them all. I’ve read before the law, during the law, after the law. I know about law. I know about grace. But I know that if I was to live by grace, means to live because I love the Lord because of what He’s done for me, it says the righteousness of the law will be fulfilled.

Not by us, but through us because of the the Holy Spirit that lives within us. So God teaches us principles on how to live, things to do and things not to do. So he makes this statement also. You’ll notice where he says in verse nine, for this thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal. Wait a minute, is this law or not? You ever heard this before? This is in the book of Romans. This is to the New Testament church.

Thou shalt not cut. Oh, you mean we’re not on the law, so it’s okay to covet now. And it’s okay to commit adultery now. And it’s okay to steal now. It’s okay to kill now. Why? Because we’re not on the law. Would you agree with that? No, and if people think about things, it would help you to see this. So look what in verse says in verse 10. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor. Therefore love is the, what?

There’s those words again. Fulfill another law. Well, we’re not under the law, but how do you fulfill the law? Because of what Christ did for us. We do what we do not because you have to, but because you want to. The reason I don’t commit adultery is not because the Bible says, now shall not commit adultery. The reason I don’t commit adultery because I love the Lord and I love my wife. You see, love is greater than the law.

That’s why the grace living in love with God. can help me to do things the law could not do. And that it was weak through the flesh, but through the spiritual birth you can do more than you ever thought possible. So love is the fulfilling of the law. So when you love the Lord, well what was the principle he laid down in giving? Well he does it. So take your Bible and turn to the book of 1 Corinthians in chapter 9.

1 Corinthians in chapter 9. You’ll notice when he’s talking to the Corinthians about the principle of giving. He also refers to something else in the Old Testament. Look what he says in verse 7. In verse 7, 1 Corinthians 9, who goeth a warfare any time at his own church? Who planet the vineyard? And eateth not of the fruit thereof? Or who Who feedeth a flock and eateth not of the milk of the flock? Say are these things as a man or, you know, in the line these words, or say if not the law, the same also?

Is he referring to the law to explain something in the New Testament? Look what he says, for it is written in the law of Moses, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Does God not take care? Does God not take care of oxen? In verse 10, or say it he had altogether for our sake. In other words, something said in the Old Testament about not muslin the ox that treads out the corn, and he said it for our sake.

So there are things that we learn that were written in the Old Testament that can help us. So am I under the law? No, I’m not under the law, but I am under grace. And now I do it because I want to. I do it because I love the Lord. And therefore, I like that principle a lot better than I have to do it. I like it because I want to do it. But a lot of times, you know, you might struggle with this year, well, what if I don’t want to?

Learn to do what is right when you don’t want to do it. And it becomes such a habit. It becomes part of your next while it’s not so hard after all. And you can become faithful in that which is a little bit, you can become faithful in that which is poor. You’ve been listening to another great message from Pastor Arnold and we at Bibleline thank you for tuning in. In appreciation to those who support this ministry financially, we would like to send to you the Dora Lake story.

It is a true story about the splitting of a church in Minnesota after a young preacher taught a gospel message contradicted the theology of Calvinism and can you guess who that young preacher was? Yes, it was Pastor Arnold. In this book, Pastor Arnold thoroughly discusses the dangers of the five points of Calvinism and this book is offered to you as a free gift for your donation in any amount. Our mailing address is 4811 George Road Tampa, Florida, 33634 and don’t forget to include your mailing address as well.

We are pleased to be able to give a little something back to you for your financial support. So for this month, receive the Door Lake story with your financial contribution of any amount and thank you for helping us reach the world with the Clear Gospel. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 40-8-11 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now, a closing thought from Pastor Arnold.

Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound, and we will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.