55. Scriptural Giving

SERMON 55.

SCRIPTURAL GIVING

(Deut. 16:16.)

In the word of the Lord we are taught that no man liveth to himself, and when the principle is fully carried out, man is not only blessed by the association of others but he is a blessing to those with whom he comes in contact.

It has been demonstrated in all ages that the man who has spent more to help others has had more happiness than the man who with a selfish disposition in his heart works only for himself Bonepart and Mrs. Hettie Green are leading characters in the world's history who worked to gratify their selfish ambition—one for fame and one for money. Each one reached the desire of their heart, lived and passed away, yet no one can say the world was ever benefitted by their lives.

The noted John Wesley and David Lipscomb were the reverse. Their leading desire was to help and benefit others, and their names will be remembered, and their works will bless the world, when the others mentioned are long forgotten.

God knowing that man's greatness is measured by the great things he does, in His instruction to Israel when he ordained that they should present themselves three times a year to worship Him, also ordained that no man should come before him empty, but that each man should give according as the Lord had blessed him (Deuteronomy 16:17).

During the Mosaical age of the world not only were the children of Israel required by the law of God to give the best of their stock but must give one-tenth of their income besides the many voluntary contributions that were made by them. When a voluntary contribution was demanded to build the temple, or for any other work, the leaders always had to stop them when they had enough instead of continually begging them to give more.

Some four hundred years before the coming of Christ, the children of Israel neglected to give as God had ordained, and God condemned them, declaring they had robbed him of what property belonged to Him, and declared if they would bring into His store house all that belonged to Him that He would prosper them and open up the windows of heaven and pour them out a blessing they should not be able to receive. He also taught them that in fulfilling His demand upon them their stock should not lose their young nor their vines cast off fruit before harvest time (Malachi 3:8-16). It is also a notable fact that during this dispensation God's people were only prospered and did well when they fulfilled the law of giving as God demanded.

Not only was this true under Moses, but in the Christian system God has incorporated giving as a part of man's worship, and no man today can worship God and fulfill the divine requirement unless they give as they have been prospered. One of the greatest failures today in the church of Christ has resulted from the failure of preachers to teach church members the law of God to give as they have been prospered. If the preachers had been as careful to teach all members that they should give as they are prospered, as they have been to teach them that baptism is for the remission of sins; and if they had been as earnest to teach members that covetousness is the sin of idolatry, and it is just as scriptural to withdraw fellowship from the covetous man as it is to withdraw from the man who commits adultery or lies, the church of God would have been much stronger, and able gospel men would be able today to be out preaching whereas they are forced to follow some secular calling for a living.

........When we fail to teach the whole church their duty often good men and women who are striving to give as they are prospered become discouraged when they compare the amount they give with the failure men make who are able to do as well. I care not how strong and true a horse may pull, we can kill his desire to pull his load by continually hitching him by the side of a balky horse who will not do his part. We have made failures in many of our meetings by seeking additions rather than seeking to scripturally convert men and women. A big meeting held with fifty additions and not more than four or five of them taught on scriptural work and worship, often leaves the church in worse condition than it was before the meeting.

Along the line of giving I note:

• The Sonof God taught us to give, with the positive promise that as we give it shall be given to us (Luke 6:38). When a leading church member complained that his minister had preached a poor sermon one Sunday, his little boy who sat by his father's side, and noticed his contribution was only one penny remarked, "Father, I don't see how you expect a great sermon when you paid only one penny for it." Many of my brethren go to church and expect to hear a ten dollar sermon when they pay only a penny. But as we give it will be given to us.

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• Paul refers to the statement of Jesus when He said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35). Manyof my preaching brethren can remember with delight when they have paid $15 to $26 into a meeting in railroad fare going to and from a place, where the brethren with two hundred members have paid $125.00 for the same meeting, yet if their membership of two hundred members had each given $1.00 (not $26.00 like the preacher gave) the preacher would have been able to meet his debts, support his family and God would have blessed this congregation in their liberal giving more than they blessed the preacher in what they gave.

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• Christ teaches we must give to the poor (Matthew 19:21) and in giving to the poor it would enable us to take up our cross and follow Jesus to heaven, our home. I find some brethren who are so burdened with riches that they have no time nor inclination to serve the Lord.

Far back in the Old Bible time we are taught, "Whosoever stoppeth his ear at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard" (Proverbs 21:13). This agrees with the teaching of Christ, that as we give we shall also receive.

We are taught that churches of Christ should give to preachers (1 Corinthians 9:7-14; Galatians 6:6). Many preachers have failed to meet honest debts, have been slandered, and the church of God injured, just because they failed to teach the church its duty in that respect.

We are taught in 2 Corinthians 9:7 that we must not give grudgingly, but freely and cheerfully. In Deuteronomy 16:17 we are taught that we must give as we are able, and Paul teaches that we must give as we purpose in our hearts (2 Corinthians 9:7). At many places brethren never decide, nor make any arrangements before the meeting as to the amount they will give for the meeting. They expect to let the interest of the meeting control the finance, and while much rain, sickness, and busy crop time may cut down the attendance, the brethren will lose interest, and notwithstanding the preacher gives his time and money for the meeting, they will pay him one-fourth the value of his time and work and feel like they did their duty, because they did not have much of a meeting.

........We are taught that we should give as we have been prospered and should lay this up in store upon the first day of the week so there will be no gathering nor begging when the preacher comes (1 Corinthians 16:1-2). Many times I have meetings promised six months ahead, and the members well know that they are to give as they have been prospered, and that this contribution should be gathered upon the first day of the week, and be on hand when the preacher gets there, yet nine places out of ten where I go, I find not $1.00 in the treasury when the Bible plainly tells us to lay by in store as God has prospered. This instruction is seldom heeded, and often not one move made to get the preacher's support until the last day of the meeting, when one of the so-called elders (and God deliver the church from such) will get up and make a talk and tell how much the preacher is worth, and what a great meeting they have had and that the contribution that day must go to the support of the meeting. He gets all he can and comes and brings it to the preacher, and states that he knows it is not enough, yet most all are in hard shape and that is all they can get. At the same time three-fourths of these members arranged six months before that time to buy all their tobacco all the year on a credit, and if they had no credit of their own they would mortgage the last mule they ownedand buy their tobacco on mule credit, and at the end of each year pay $40 to $60 tobacco bill, while they had paid from 50 cents to $2.50 for the gospel of the Son of God. As God has ordained that we are to give as we have been prospered, if a man has been prospered $10.00 and gives as though he had been prospered $5.00, he gives a part and says this is all, and like Ananias and Sapphira in the Bible, he becomes a liar, and God teaches that no liar shall enter the kingdom of God.

Our final argument is that no one should give to be seen of men (Matthew 6:34). Much of the so-called giving of today is prompted from that standpoint. The church is the only divine society God ever ordained through which to preach the gospel. Yet many have long since decided that the church is a failure, and they write long and loud upon what we are doing through "our society" and how "our society is reaching out to save the world." You hear five times more talk about "our society" than you hear of scriptural work through the church of God. Well did Jesus say, they do this to be seen of men, and verily they have their reward.

Considering all these things, the only safe ground for a man to occupy is to hear the word of God, believe in Christ, turn from his sins, confess Christ unto salvation, be baptized for the remission of sins, then strive to meet with the church upon the first day of the week, not only to break bread as taught in Acts 20:7, but to give as God has prospered him as taught in 1 Corinthians 16:2, continue to live righteously, Godly, and soberly in Christ Jesus with a promise of heaven as his eternal home after the battles of life have been fought

56. The Two Laws

Sermon 56

The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (John 1:17).

All persons who read and study the Bible, well know that we have two law-givers, two covenants, two mediators. and two systems of worship plainly taught us in the word of God. The old idea of the human churches that God has had THE same system, or plan of salvation taught in all ages, is contrary to every law of instruction given us in the word of God.

Moses is called the law-giver under the old dispensation, and Christ the law-giver under the new. We are taught that the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. We also read, "There being A change of priesthood, there must of necessity be a change of law" (Hebrews 7:12).

Also we are taught that Christ is the mediator of the new Testament, showing that at one time there was the Old Testament. As God promised to make a new covenant, not like the old (Hebrews 8 th chapter and Jeremiah 31:31) it may be well to examine some of the differences between the two.

Under the old dispensation its leader and law-giver was Moses; under the new it is Christ. Under the old dispensation people were under the law—meaning the lawof Moses; under the new we are under grace and truth, or under Christ. Under the old dispensation the governmentof God is spoken of as law. Under the new it is called the Spirit. Under the old, the law or letter would kill; under the new the spirit, or the gospel gives life. Under the old people had to go up to Jerusalem three times a year to worship God. Under the new we can worship God anywhere in spirit and in truth. The old was done away in Christ, the new remains.

With these observations I call attention to the following:

The old covenant, or law was written, or engraver on stone (2 Corinthians 3:7). When God saw the failureof the people to keep this covenant, He said, "Behold, the days come . . . when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the houseof Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers." But "sayeth the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts (Jeremiah 31:31-33).

In the writing of any letter generally four things are necessary. (1) The writer, (2) the pen, (3) the ink, (4) the paper. As God said he would write the law, then it follows that God is the writer. Paul says (2 Corinthians 3:3) written or "ministered by us." The apostles became the pen. But as it is necessary to fill the pen with ink before the writing can be done, we call to memory that these apostles, representing the pen, were filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and as Paul says the writing was not done with ink, but with the Holy Spirit, then we have these pens, the apostles filled with the proper ink, the Holy Spirit, ready for God to write. But Paul says this writing was not done on tables of stone, but fleshly tables of the heart. So I turn to the second chapter of Acts and find where God began to write through the apostles that the writing was done on fleshly tables of the heart, for the record says, "When they heard this they were pricked in their hearts, and cried out, men and brethren, what shall we do" (Acts 2:37). This is the beginning place, the beginning time of the new covenant.

If men and women want to learn the plan of salvation as offered under the new dispensation all that is necessary is for them to go right back to the place of beginning, to find out what was preached and what was required and what was done, and ii' we re-preach the same doctrine and tell men and women to do the same things that God told them to do, and they do those things as people did then, will they be saved? If not, why not?

Again, we notice that the first covenant was made with a nation, the house of Israel, and Judah, hence it was "national." The new covenant was universal. The gospel was to go to "all" the world. Under the old covenant, two classes had membership. God told Abraham, "He that is born in thy house and he that is bought with thy money." Faith was not a condition of entering the old covenant. Children were born to Abraham and were members of said covenant. At eight days old they were circumcised because they were members of said covenant. Also Abraham could buy a person from any heathen nation' and he became a member of that covenant. Afterwards v-hen they grew older, or became more intelligent they were taught their relationship to God. But under the new covenant all are to know the Lord, and a man is not to teach his neighbor, or brother to know the Lord, for all are to be taught to know the Lord from the least to the greatest. Jesus says in the great commission, "Go, teach all nations," and when a man or woman has been taught to know the Lord and to render intelligent obedience to his laws, they then come into the covenant knowing the Lord, and do not have to be taught to know him as they were under the old dispensation.

........Under the old dispensation, they had no such thing as the forgiveness of sins as we have today, as the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin. Each year when they offered up an animal sacrifice, all sins they had committed during the year were rolled forward for one year, and at the end of that year all these sins were brought back in remembrance Then they would offer another animal which would not only roll the sins of the past year forward, but all they had committed during that year also. These sins continued to be rolled forward year after year until Christ died; and as Paul says (Hebrews 9:15) he died for the redemption of those who were under the first covenant, see the sins they had committed during the past 1500 years, that had been rolled forward year after year by the offering of their animal sacrifices, were rolled upon Christ. He died for them. All those sins were blotted out.

At this time while the body of the Son of God lay in the grave, he went in spirit and preached to those people who had been retained in Hades, and let them know that the atonement—had been made. Peter says, "For this cause was the gospel preached to those who were dead that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but heirs according to God in the Spirit (1 Peter

1. 6). These people, for 1500 years, whose sins had not been forgiven, were retained in the intermediate state until the atonement was made. Then Christ in spirit went and announced this fact to them. At this time, many of the graves of the saints were opened, and they came out of their graves after the resurrection of Christ, and were seen in Jerusalem (Matthew 27:52). These saints who arose at that time did not have to die again but formed the company that went with Jesus to heaven when he went on the clouds of heaven to the Ancient of Days to get the kingdom, which Daniel foresaw (7:13). These brethren were raised from the dead that Christ might be the first born among many brethren, as taught by Paul (Romans 8:29).

Christ, preaching to these spirits in prison was not to give them a second chance as taught by Russell, nor to teach the gospel to dead sinners as taught by Mormons; but to let those know who had already accepted the first chance and lived up to it, by offering up their animals and rolling their sins forward year after year, that at the last their worship had reached the long expected end, and that Jesus had paid the debt, and they were now free, and would not longer be retained in Hades.

But under the new covenant the arrangements are different. God says, "I will forgive their sins and remember their iniquities no more." When a man believes and is baptized, God forgives all past sins as taught in Mark 16:16. After this time, a man may commit more sins for which he must give account, yet all he has committed up till that time is remembered no more. Under the old law, God required people not only to offer an animal sacrifice, year after year, but it must be the best they had. If a man had a crippled calf, or an inferior sheep, God would not accept it. It must be the best they had. without blemish. But under the new dispensation we are commanded to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice which God says is our reasonable service (Romans 12:1-2). Also under the old dispensation they had divers, or many washings in their worship; but under Christ we have one baptism. Yet some people will practice three, viz., sprinkling, pouring, and immersion, and often pray for two more— Holy Ghost, and fire.

The final difference we note, under the old they had the Sabbath day. "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy," was on the table of stone, and was abolished in Christ. We have the Lord's day. They kept the Sabbath day holy. We are to worship on the Lord's day, which is the first day of the week, and not the seventh day, or Sabbath day. Acts 20:7 and 1 Corinthians 16:1-2 tell us a part of the work we should do on the Lord's day. Running down the line of differences, we can see how far apart the old and the new laws are, yet hundreds of people are blinded by the doctrines of men until they think it is all the same. Their early training and environments have taught them to want certain things, and they go to the Bible, not to find what it teaches, but to get something they think will favor their theory. They want to keep the Sabbath, and can not find any such law in the new covenant, so they go back to the old law, that was done away in Christ, and find the Sabbath there and bring it over and tack it to the law of Christ.

They want to practice sprinkling instead of baptism, and read all through the law of Christ, and in the seven places that sprinkling is found and the eighteen places that pouring is found not one of them refer to baptism. So they go back to the law of Moses and find that for eighteen different sins clean water was sprinkled on the people. Then they bring this old government over and tack it to the new government, or new covenant, and substitute sprinkling for baptism. They read in the New Testament that the disciples came together on the first day of the week to break bread. But this doesn't suit them, so they go back to the old Bible and find that the people kept the Passover once a year. So they bring it over and tack it to the new, and say we will commune only once a year. They want infants in the new but cannot find them, so they go back to the old and find infants in the covenant God made with Abraham. So they bring them over and try to put them in the church.

Catholics want to burn incense in the new covenant, and cannot find Bible authority for the same, so they go back to the old and find the burning of incense. They bring it over and burn their candles in all church houses they own in this age. The Mormons want many wives in the new covenant, but they read that a man should be the husband of one wife under Christ, so they go back under Moses and find David and Solomon with many wives, so they bring such over in the new, and say we can have them here.

Protestants want instrumental music in the church, and knowing full well that Christ nor any of his apostles ever taught it they go back to David under Moses and find it there and bring it over and use it in the church. In bringing so many ancient practices which were done away in Christ, over into the new dispensation and binding them on the people today, so much confusion has been brought about till many do not know which belongs to the old and which to the new.

If a person wants to be on the safe side it is best to follow the instruction of Moses in the 18th chapter of Deuteronomy, when he taught that God would raise up a prophet like himself that we should hear in all things. I come to that prophet who, all agree, is the Son of God, and I hear him tell me I must

1. hear and do his sayings (Matthew 7:24). Paul says faith comes by "hearing" the word of God (Romans 10:17). (2) I must believe that Christ is the Son of God (John 20:30). (3) I must repent of my sins (Acts 17:30). (4) In repenting I must confess Christ (Matthew 10:32). (5) I must be baptized for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38. ) When I do these things, the Lord (not man) adds me to his church. Then, if I continue in the faith I have no fear or doubt but that heaven will be my eternal home.