Take our Bibles tonight. Let's go to the book of Malachi, please. The book of Malachi. That'll be the last book of the Old Testament. The book of Malachi. We're gonna be in chapter number three, please. Malachi chapter three. If you're glad you're saved, say amen. Amen. Praise the Lord. Good to be saved tonight. Amen. Malachi chapter three. Read a few verses together, then we'll jump into our thought. Let's see how the Lord directs us tonight. Malachi chapter number 3, we're going to begin at verse number 7. The Bible says, Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, said the Lord of hosts. But ye said, this is the response of Israel to his pleading with them to come back. They said, where in shall we return? They didn't even realize they had walked away as he is stating. Verse eight, God says, will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, where in have we robbed thee? in tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye 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, saith the Lord of hosts. 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 of the field, saith the Lord of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts. Clearly here in this prophecy of Malachi, God is rebuking the people of God for their robbery, robbing him in tithes and offerings. God had instituted the system of tithes and offerings in the Levitical law, the law of Moses. God had instituted that. Now, we find Abraham and Jacob giving tithes and offerings before the law coming to pass under Moses, but God took that concept and He put it into the law for the people of God. But we see in the Bible before the law, during the law, and after the law. What we find is God always guided His people to be givers, always. I want to preach tonight out of this passage on God's people should be giving people. If you are saved, you ought to be a giving person. You can't find any place from Genesis to Revelation where God dismisses that concept, where God ends that. No matter where you go, you're gonna find in the Bible God's people should be, and God always guides his people into being giving people. You understand the context of the evening. We're going to have our yearly budget meeting tonight, which is about the finances of the church. And I felt like the Lord would have us as we begin to approach that tonight to give us as we look to the numbers here in a little bit, and we'll vote on those things. I feel like God would have us run to the word of God and see what does the Bible say about God's people and their giving. So we're gonna look at a few things tonight. I'm gonna be as brief as possible, but I want to be as thorough as I can in that brevity because I wanna make sure we get the understanding across of what God expects from people he has saved by his marvelous grace. I wanna begin by pointing out in this text God's plan for his people to give. God has a plan. God has always, listen to this, In that plan of giving, God has always had a people to give. Look at verse 10. He says to his people, bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse. He told his people, you bring it. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse. God has always had a people to give. You find, as I said earlier in the book of Genesis, you have people giving. You have Abel sacrificing a lamb. You have Abraham giving a Melchizedek. You've got even further into the Bible, you have David giving sacrificially to rebuild the temple. You have in the book of Acts, the saints of God selling their property and giving their money to the apostles. God has always had a people to give, always. And God still has a people to give. God has not ceased that. In 1 Corinthians chapter 16, you would agree with me that 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians and the other epistles are very much applicable to us because those are church epistles. In those church epistles, the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 16 verse 2, upon the first day of the week, that would be Sunday. upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him. In 2 Corinthians 9 verse 7, the Bible says, Paul says to that church at Corinth, every man, no one excluded, every man, according as he hath purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful God has always had a people to give and God still has a people to give. God has always had a percentage to give, always. Look at verse 10, you're in Malachi 3. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse. He's speaking of the Old Testament Levitical law and the instructions that God laid down through Moses concerning their tithing system. Now, a tithe is 10%. However, under the Jewish law, God had multiple tithes for the people to give. In fact, if you did the math, on a yearly basis, approximately about 23% is actually how much God's people would give under the tithe system. of the Old Testament. And God told them, I want you to bring all of those tithes, plural, there were different ones, into the storehouse. On top of that, he has this passage, the offerings that they were to give as well. So God was expecting his people under the Old Testament law to give substantially. Now, God does not focus on the numbers as much in the New Testament, but the heart of the matter is still the same. In fact, God still has a percentage for people to give. In fact, let me say it like this, and I want you to make sure you be careful how you take this, and don't think I'm saying something that I'm not, and I'm gonna tell you what I'm saying, and I'm gonna tell you what I'm not saying. But 1 Corinthians 19 says, verse number 19, 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19, I should say, So you're not your own. For you're bought with a price. In the New Testament, it all belongs to God. Everything you have. Now that doesn't mean that God is expecting. Here's what I'm not saying. I'm not saying that God is demanding that everything in your bank account needs to be emptied and put in the church's bank account. That's not what we're saying. But what we are saying is, in the Old Testament, God gave them a tithing system. to work with. In the New Testament, what he's saying is, it all belongs to me. Everything you have belongs to God. The clothes on your back, technically speaking, they're not your clothes. They're God's clothes. That car you pulled up in the parking lot with tonight, it's got your name on the title. But it's God's car. He can take it if he wants to. Tonight, it's his car. That's his house you live in. You say, yeah, but I work hard on that job. That's his health that he gave you. That's his strength. That's his intellect that he gave you to be able to carry out your responsibilities on your job so you can make that money. That's God that did that. It all belongs to him. Now you say, well, what does God say I'm to do with that? You don't have to turn there, but I'm gonna go back to 1 Corinthians 16 again, where he said, upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him and store him. He says, let him do that as God has prospered him. If God has prospered you, if God has greatly blessed you, he expects you to be a giving person. 2 Corinthians 9, 7, every man according as he hath purposeth in his heart. And what comes into the heart is what God puts in your heart. The Bible speaks of that Old Testament law being like a schoolmaster for an immature person to grow and mature. That's the picture that Paul paints for us in Galatians. That law is a schoolmaster that points us to Christ. And what oftentimes we do as Christians is when it's time to give, if we do give it all, what many do is they pull out their calculator. And they're gonna put in their check, and then they're gonna put in times .1. If you're not good at math, that means 10% of what that check is. And we'll get to the penny of what that 10% is. Now, I'm not saying that you're sinning in doing that. I am saying you're just doing what they did under the law. What God has done for us in the New Testament, in fact, God says in the New Testament, the letter killeth. It's the spirit that giveth life. Meaning in the New Testament, if you're not careful, you'll get into that legalistic system. When God has more for you, God may want you to give 12%. God may want you to give 15%. I'm not, Joey Wampler's not saying that. I'm saying have you followed the Holy Spirit? Now he's not gonna tell you to give less than 10. He never said to give less than 10. And you can't give more than 100%. So it's gonna be between them two numbers. Have you ever asked God, where am I gonna fall in this? What do you want out of me? Your average Baptist, they give with a calculator instead of the Holy Spirit. Lord, what do you want me to do here? There was a gentleman who, his name was James White. He's dead now, great Christian man. Years ago, he started One of the most wonderful establishments in the history of mankind. And it's the Beacon Restaurant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Y'all don't know anything about it because y'all don't know what good burgers are yet. You need to eat at the Beacon and find out what a hamburger is supposed to taste like. Wonderful, glorious. I have revival every time I walk into that building. Glorious. But I said James White, his name is John White. John White wasn't right with God. He decided to get right with God. He said, Lord. There's two things he said, he said, I won't open up my restaurant on Sunday and I won't serve alcohol. And I'm on time. I'm going to give you a tie from this business. I don't know what year John White passed away. I can't remember. I know one of the first jobs I had back in the mid 90s, early 90s. Right out of high school, got a job and I worked at a place not far from the beacon. And I know I shouldn't have done it, but I eat there like four times a week lunch. I mean, I grease upon you had a heart attack by just walking into the place. I mean, it was it was so greasy. But he got to knowing me and seeing me and he started giving me free stuff. Well, I just motivated me to come in even more. And I think it was late 90s when he finally passed away. And somebody told me when he passed away, he was giving to his church. And I'm not demanding this on, please don't misunderstand. Do not misconstrue what's being said. Just giving you illustration of a man who'd given himself to the Lord, and he's grown beyond tithing, and he's entered into giving. He was giving 90% of his income, his church. And he had millions left over. His son, John White Jr., is one of the most successful lawyers. His other son, Lewis, is one of the most successful lawyers in the upstate of South Carolina. God just blessed him and blessed his family because he gave himself to God and gave and gave and gave. Now, I know that's an extreme example. And on most of our incomes, nobody, even God's not expecting you to give 90% of your income. The point is, God's not gonna let you out give him. And what oftentimes we do, we, in fact, and I understand that there are people in this building that you're sweating bullets when you do pull out your calculator and do the 10%. Cause you know, it's going to be tight this week. And me and my wife, we will testify. We, we feel your pain. We've been there. Absolutely. But we also can testify. We've never went hungry. We've never not had a place to live. We've never not had a car to drive. It's never happened. We've never not had clothes on our back. We've sat there and cried wondering what is God gonna do? Where's the money gonna come from? And God always took care of us. God always took care of us. God still has a percentage. He wants you to take all that you have and let God direct what he wants you to give. You start with 10%. That's a good, that's a Sunday school start. But he wants you to graduate and grow in this area of giving. God has a percentage. God has a place to give. He's always had a place to give. You're in verse number 10, bringing all the tithes in the storehouse. In the Old Testament, that storehouse was a place where they brought their tithes, their grains and such. The storehouse, it was a place to give their tithes. But God still has a place to give. In 1 Corinthians 16, again, that verse where Paul said, upon the first day of the week, let everyone lay by him in store. In Acts 4 and Acts 5, the Bible speaks of the saints of God bringing it and laying at the apostles' feet. And God's not instructing us to lay offerings at the preacher's feet here at Fundamental Baptist Church. But the point is, they brought it to the house of God. They brought it to the church. God always has a place to give. God always had a purpose to give. You're in verse 10 again of Malachi 3. Bring ye all the tithes at the storehouse that there may be meat in my house. Those tithes in the Old Testament were in particular used to feed the Levites. The Levites owned nothing. They weren't allowed to own property. The Lord said, I'll be your portion. All the other tribes, they own the land, they own parts of the land of Israel, but not the Levites. They own nothing. Then you had the poor and the strangers, they didn't own anything, but God wanted them to be taken care of as well. God had a purpose to give in the Old Testament, but God still has a purpose to give. In 1 Corinthians 9, 14, he talks about, this is in the context of taking care of those who preach the gospel. Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. 1 Corinthians 61 talks about giving to take care of the saints. 2 Corinthians 8-4 talks about giving so that there could be the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. and goes on and on and on. The emphasis is you give because it's going to take care of the saints, physically sometimes, but certainly spiritually. When we give to the local church, we give to the place that God has given us to give, it takes care of the place where we meet and the people that we meet with. For example, let's say everybody in here stopped giving. I stopped giving, you stopped giving, we all stopped. This property is gone. It's shut down. We're not meeting here anymore. Think of the discouragement. I know this is an extreme example, but just put in perspective, just think of how discouraging it would be if we weren't around here anymore. That's a horrible thought. But when we give, we make sure we have a place and a people that is blessed of God when we give. God still has a purpose to give. God, I alluded to this a moment ago, but I want to say some more about it here. God's promise to his people who give. We saw God's plan. He has a plan. He has a people. He has a percentage. He has a place, he has a purpose to give, but God has given us some promises to go along with our giving. God gave them a promise of proving. I got ahead of myself a minute ago, but I'm gonna bring it up again here. Look at verse 10. Bring all the tithes in the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith. God said test me. Test me, that's what he said, prove me. God gave them a promise of giving, of proving. In other words, give and see if you out give me. He said, I'm going to prove to you I'm going to out give you. That's what he said, but he still has given us those promises. God still has a promise of proving. In 2 Corinthians 9, verse number six, now the charismatics and the TV preachers have abused these verses, but there's still glorious promises in the Bible. 2 Corinthians 9, six, but this I say, he which soweth sparingly, so much giving, he that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly. And he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. That's a promise in God's word. He still promises to bless those who give. Brother James Knox, he's one of my heroes in the faith. He could possibly be the greatest theologian America has ever seen. I love Brother James Knox. He's in DeLand, Florida, Bible Baptist Church in DeLand, Florida. In fact, these days he's been fighting cancer tremendously. Prayed for him, wish you would as well. Great, great Bible preacher and teacher. I heard him say years ago, he made this statement. He said, if everyone in our church tithed, listen to this. He said, if everyone in our church tithed, we couldn't afford to do all that we do. He said, if everybody did tithe, he said, we couldn't afford to do what we do. He said, my people have learned to go above and beyond that and prove God. He said, we've gone beyond tithing. sacrificial giving and trusting God in our giving to the point where now our church does so much more. I didn't say that, James Knox did. The point is, when we learn to prove God, put him to the test, not to try to use him as a slot machine, put in a coin, pull the lever, and all right, bless me, God. No, that's not how this works. But out of a heart of appreciation and thankfulness unto the Lord, you give back what God has given to you. Whatever portion, a tithe and above, whatever portion God directs you, you give to God. In God's own timing, you're gonna see and reap the benefits of that. He still promises. If you test Him, He will respond. He will bless. God gave them a promise, and there's a lot of words here. A little wordy point. But God gave them a promise of pouring, protection, and prosperity. I'll say it again. He gave them a promise of pouring, pouring out upon them. You will see that in just a moment. Protection and prosperity. Look at verse number 10 again. He says, Prove me, now hear with, said the Lord Host, if I will not open 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 own. Neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, said the Lord. So there is your protection and your prosperity. He promised them this. But I love Proverbs chapter three, verses nine and 10, where the Lord said, honor the Lord with thy substance. and with the fruits of all that increase. You have an increase, you honor the Lord with it. He says, so shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. In other words, you honor me with what you have and you honor me with what you gain, you honor me with that, I'm going to bless you. I'm gonna give you a pouring, a protection, and prosperity. He gave them that promise. He still gives us those types of promises. In 2 Corinthians 9, verse 8, the Bible says, this is New Testament. It says, 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. He blesses, upon blesses, upon blesses the people of God. when we choose to give. I like what brother Mark Thrift said. He was heard him preach. I don't remember what meeting it was in. But Mark, he is a pastor in Houston for years. Now he's an evangelist. My pastor used to preach for his dad for years out there in Texas. Brother Mark Thrift said this, he says, I'm not living on what, he's an evangelist, he's a preacher, so he gets offerings from churches, but he says, I'm not living on what people give to me. He said, I'm living on what I have given to God. That's what he said. He said, I'm not living on what people give to me, I'm living on what I've given to God. He said, I gave to God, and God has given in return. He's poured out a blessing. He's poured out protection. upon His people. God also gave them a promise of praise, not a praise of men for us, but a praise from God Himself. He says in verse 12, This is to Israel. But in the New Testament, the Bible recognizes, God recognizes the people who give. In the Old Testament, He says those nations, are going to recognize in the New Testament. God recognizes your labor. God says, I am going to call you blessed. When you give. God sees what you're doing. We don't give. So that people can see us give. But when we do give. God sees it. You'll never put a penny in that plate from a heart of love and gratitude that God doesn't see it and take note of it. Remember, Jesus was there at the temple with his disciples, and all the fellows with the big money, all the fat cats, were bringing their offerings, and they would put them in those big iron tubs and pour all their coins and clank, clank, clank, clank, clank, clank, clank, clank, clank, clank, clank, clank. They wanted everybody to hear all that racket. Listen to how much we're giving. But then Jesus said, we're not going to look at them. Don't you notice that little widow lady over there with two mites? He said, basically, and that's all she has. They're giving out of their abundance. She's giving out of her want. In other words, when she gives those two mites, that's the last two mites that she has. He's basically saying, if I don't bless her, she won't get blessed. If I don't meet her needs, she don't have a need met. Those words just did not come out right. I don't even know why that word, I was speaking in tongues or something. But her need will not get met if God doesn't meet the need. But out of all of the, and it shocked the disciples that he said such a thing. But out of all of the people that were giving, who did Jesus recognize? The one that gave the two mice. You say, well, my giving doesn't make a difference. Humanly speaking, you might be right. But heavenly speaking, It makes a mighty difference. Makes a mighty difference. You do know God grades on percentage, not on amount. It's percentage. You got a man, he's got $10 million in the bank, and he gives $1 million. Praise the Lord. And if that's you, give tonight. We'd be really happy about it. I say, I'm not God. I don't have problems like that. I just go ahead and give. But if you have $10 million, you give $1 million. And that's wonderful, and God will reward you for it. But all you have is $100. And you give 20. As far as God's concerned, you've given more. You gave more. God notices your giving. That brings me to our last thought. God has a plan. God has promises. But God also has a problem when his people don't give. When you do give, you write a tithe and check, you hop online, you give whatever it is, you give cash, you put an envelope, whatever you do. When you give, God recognizes your giving. But you also need to be reminded, I need to be reminded, When we don't give, God recognizes that as well. Here in our passage, as far as God's concerned, not giving is a form of rebellion. Look at verse number seven. Even from the days of your fathers, ye are gone away from mine ordinances. And ordinances, it's a rule established by some authority. He says, you've not kept them. Here's what his instructions are. Return to me. Come back to those ordinances and rules. And I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. Notice, because they were in rebellion, they had caused a separation between them and God. They said, where shall we return? And he goes right into their tithes and offerings. He says to them in verse number seven, if you'll return to me, in other words, get back to giving as I've instructed you to, then I will return to you. Now, I love you Fundamental Baptist Church, and I didn't come to pick off scabs and hit people with the Bible, but you need to recognize that if God has put you in a position where you can give and you don't give, you've caused a separation to take place between you and God. If you regard iniquity in your heart, the Bible says, God's not going to hear you. God will always instruct his people to give and expect his people to do so. You can be a rebel in this area. And that's what God considers it. But he doesn't just consider it rebellion, he also uses the word robbery. In verse 8, notice the proclamation that people have robbed God. God proclaims it. He says in verse 8, will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. God's not saying, hey, I need the money. God don't need the money. God doesn't need the money. But when God gives a command or an instruction, that's it. And we're to obey. And he says, if you do not bring to the storehouse what I've instructed you to do so, you've robbed me. You've stolen what is mine. He even goes on to say there's a punishment for the people who rob God. Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me. That means you lose that pouring, that protection, prosperity. Let me say it this way. When we, not just giving, let's not make this just about giving this point, because this is every area of our life. Whether it's giving, or we don't pray, we don't read the Bible, we don't live holy, we let sin in our lives. In every area of our life, where we let separation come into our life, separation from God, We break that fellowship with him, we lose the pouring upon us. We lose that protection, we lose that prosperity. Not just financial, but spiritually as well. We lose it all. You know what's the worst thing? The worst thing, one of the worst things, let me say one of the worst things, let me say it that way. One of the worst things that can happen to a child of God, one of the worst things, I mean one of the most tragic things, is for you to not give and make more money. That's one of the most frightening things. For one, you might actually have the thought, well, I don't have to give and God's still blessing me. When actually, what's really going on is the money that you're making, that's what you're worshiping. That's your God. One of the main reasons why people don't give is because they're worshiping that money. And it's so easy to do. Money's one of the easiest things to worship. You don't have to be rich to do it. There are poor people that worship money. I see them in the gas station all the time, scratching off that lottery ticket. You know what they're doing? They're bowing to their God. They're worshiping money, hoping that their God will come through this time. There's a lot of people, a lot of Christians, have taken wrong turns, went down wrong roads, it's been a disaster for their family as they accumulated more and more and more stuff The stuff and the money to get the stuff became their God. When you rob God, you're not just simply taking what he instructed you to give, you're taking from that relationship with him. We see the proclamation, the punishment. the percentage of the people that robbed God. What percentage robbed God? Verse number nine, this whole nation. All of Israel. They paid for it as well, as a nation. They paid for it. Now, a lot of things I've said tonight, as I stated earlier, the charismatics have perverted these things. The TV preachers have. The TV preachers, and I'm as guilty as anybody else, preachers have become gun shy. of preaching on these things because terrified to be equated with some TB charlatan heretic. The fact of the matter is giving is instructed throughout the word of God. How to give is given to us throughout the word of God. Promises come along with it, but the promises of the problems that you'll have if you don't are given as well. It's a fundamental Baptist church. There's so much more I could say. I just want to touch on these things tonight. God has a plan for you to give you personally. God has promises. You're not going to give him, but God also has a problem. If you don't, if you're here tonight and you gain and never give to the church. You come and you enjoy the lights. You enjoy the heat in the air. You might even enjoy the preaching. You may not. You enjoy the singing. You enjoy all the things that take place. But you never give to help further that and to grow that and to develop that. God's got a problem with that. God has a tremendous problem with that. So Fundamental Baptist Church, let's be givers tonight. Let's ask God to help us to be givers.