WHEREIN HAVE WE ROBBED THEE? (Mal 3:7-10) (#2)
o0r 0“PROVING GOD”
Jan 11th, 2004
Int. William Jay: “THERE is nothing of which men are more tenacious than the honor of their veracity. How offended do they feel, if we seem to suspect the truth of their word, by requiring a pledge or voucher before we can venture upon it! If a king were to address his subjects in a way of privilege, and they should say, We must try thy faithfulness before we can trust it, he would consider himself insulted, and in wrath have nothing to do with them. God is veracity itself, and magnifies his word above all his name.”
1. “Does Tithing Pay” was written and published in 1878.
a. "Have you ever known anyone who was less happy, less generous or less financially prosperous from being a tither? "A 'Yes' or 'No' answer
b. Out of 10.000 answers to his question, not one single “No” was given.
I. MEN ARE INVITED TO PROVE THE LORD CONCERNING HIS TITHE.
A. THERE ARE ONLY TWO TIMES IN SCRIPTURE WHERE THE LORD IS PROVED.
1. (Psa 95:6-11) "O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker. {7} For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, {8} Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: {9} When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. {10} Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: {11} Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest."
2. The second time is here in our text. (Mal 3:10)
3. This “PROVE ME” amounts to God’s “INDISPUTABLE PROMISE”
2. MEN ARE INVITED TO PROVE THE LORD CONCERNING HIS PROMISE OF BLESSING TO THE TITHER.
A. THE LORD PROVED THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL AT MARAH.
1. (Ex 15:25) “And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them,”
2. There is the story of a person who got up one Sunday and announced to his congregation: "I have good news and bad news. The good news is, we have enough money to pay for our new building program. The bad news is it's still out there in your pockets."
3. A. W. P.: “God has appointed tithing as a test of our faith, and for the nourishing and developing of our faith—especially of the young Christians. Here is a young man who has just started housekeeping. He professes to trust God with the enormous matter of his eternal future. He professes to have confidently left his immortal interests in the hands of God. Well now, dare he trust God with one-tenth of his income for a year? My friends, tithing develops in young Christians the spirit of trusting the Lord in their temporal affairs.”
3. MEN ARE INVITED TO PROVE THE LORD IN THE CARE OF HIS PROVIDENCE.
A. THE LORD PROMISED TO CARE FOR THOSE THAT FEAR HIM.
1. “Casting all your care upon him, for He careth for you.”. (1 Pet 5:7)
2. Statham in Gray & Adams Commentary. says: "Care is not a burden that will fall off by chance; or unloose itself without effort of our own. No; the active hand of faith must lay it on the shoulder of the strong Son of God"
3. C. H. S. in his Morning Devotion for Feb. 20th, “O child of suffering, be thou patient; God has not passed thee over in his providence. He who is the feeder of sparrows, will also furnish you with what you need.”
“THE SPARROW”
Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come
Why should my heart be lonely, And long for heaven and home
When Jesus is my portion, my constant friend is He;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me,
B. HE CARETH FOR YOU:
1. As a father cares for his child, providingly
a. (Rom 8:32) “"He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?"
2. As a mother cares for her offspring, affectionately
a. (Isa 49:15)"Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee."
3. As a gardener cares for his garden, attentively.
a. (Isa 27:3) "I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day."
4. As the eye-lid cares for the eye, instantly.
a. (Deu 32:10) "He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye."
5. As a friend cares for a friend, faithfully.
a. (Prov 17:17). "A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity."
6. As a keeper cares for his charge, watchfully.
a. (Ps. 121:4-8) "Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. {5} The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. {6} The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. {7} The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. {8} The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore."
7. As a banker cares for the treasure deposited with him, secretly.
a. (Col 3:3) "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God."
4. MEN ARE INVITED TO PROVE THE LORD IN HIS BENEVOLENCE.
A. THE LORD DECLARES THAT HE IS NOT UNRIGHTEOUS TO FORGET OUR LABOR OF LOVE.
1. Daniel proved the Lord by refusing to defile himself with the King’s meat. (Dan 1:8)
a. (Dan 1:8) "But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself."
3. Joseph proved the Lord by being faithful against all odds.
a. (Gen 39:6) "And he left all that he had in Joseph's hand; and he knew not ought he had, save the bread which he did eat. And Joseph was a goodly person, and well favoured."
b. (Ps 105:18-22) “Whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron: Until the time that his word came: the word of the LORD tried him. The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance: To bind his princes at his pleasure; and teach his senators wisdom.”
5. MEN ARE INVITED TO PROVE THE LORD IN REGARD TO THE PROSPERITY OF GODLINESS.
A. THE LORD SAYS THAT GODLINESS IS PROFITABLE IN ALL THINGS. (1 Tim 4:8)
1. Jesus said: “ There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren; or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting."
2. (Ps 115:13) “He will bless them that fear the LORD, both small and great.”
6. MEN ARE INVITED TO PROVE THE LORD IN REGARDS TO HIS TITHE.
A. THE LORD INVITES US PROVE HIM IN THIS MATTER OF GIVING IN THE NEW TESTAMENT AREA.
1. As a consequence of Christ's resurrection, He became a High Priest after the order of Melchizedek - the very Melchizedek who at the time of Abraham was the high priest and received tithes of him. Read (Heb.7:11-24).
2. We see then that the priesthood to which Jesus belongs - the ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK - receives tithes. Jesus, as High Priesthood, gladly and expectantly receives tithes of us today!
3. The word for "to prove" ( bachan 0974) means "to try or to test as metal is tested for it's purity; to assay".
4. Remember that: Every man's work shall be publicly revealed (or proved) : for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed (or tested) by fire; and the fire shall try (prove, dokimazo 1381) every man's work showing what sort it is.
7. MEN ARE INVITED TO PROVE THE LORD CONCERNING GIVING.
A. THE LORD PROMISES TO OPEN THE WINDOWS OF HEAVEN.
Note: This phrase is found three times in Scripture:
1. (Gen 7:11) "In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened."
2. (Gen 8:2) "The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained;"
3. (Mal 3:10) "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it."
B. CONSIDER TEN POINTS FOR PRESENTING YOUR TITHE UNTO THE LORD
1. Tithe in faith - have faith about your tithe by hearing God's Word on your tithe
2. Prove God with your tithes - give your tithes, declaring your expectation that He will bless you
3. Tithe with rejoicing - rejoice in every good thing God has done for you
4. Worship God with your tithe - remember God's goodness towards you
5. Bring your tithe to Jesus - it is Jesus you are presenting your tithe to
6. Bring your tithe to your home church - if you want enough supply in your house be sure your tithe is providing supply in His house
7. Give your tithe diligently - your tithe is ten percent of all your income at all times
8. Give your tithe before tax - your increase is before tax and your tithe is on your increase
9. Tithe inheritances and all types windfalls - these are part of your increase; they are how God increased you
10. Petition God as you tithe - your giving of tithes puts you in a special position of confidence as you ask for God's provision and prospering
CONCLUSION:
Think It Over
God made the sun-it gives.
God made the moon-it gives.
God made the stars-they give.
God made the air-it gives.
God made the clouds-they give.
God made the earth-it gives.
God made the sea-it gives.
God made the trees-they give.
God made the flowers-they give.
God made the fowls-they give.
God made man-he . . .?