6 - LIVING IN THE ‘GET AGE’
November 19,1961
Pastor Henry F. Kulp
Galatians 6: 6 – 10 Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things. Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
God has said here, if we are spiritual if we walk in the Spirit, we are going to treat these folks who have gotten into sin with kindness. We are to share one another’s burdens. Then, in the 6th vs. he tells us that we are tot bear our own burdens. There are no contradictions here. This is a different Greek word for burden than the one in the 2nd verse. This word, here, is responsibility, or a task, or a service. We have services that we must render unto God if we re going to be spiritual.
And then He gives us an example in the next few verses, from 7 – 10 and it is on giving. Those who are spiritual will now how to give of their financial and material wealth. And then, God also puts a warning in, for He says, whatsoever a man soweth in his giving, that will he also reap. And then, he talks about sowing to the flesh, rather than sowing to the Spirit. So one who is a Spirit-led Christian, a Spirit-controlled Christian, will be one who will give—his pocketbook will be open to the Lord’s work.
1/ To walk in the Spirit means that He will endeavor to teach us to give. You’ll notice exactly what you are doing. In verse 9 it says, soweth to the Spirit. In other words, the money that you give is given to the Holy Spirit, through the agencies that He is using to propagate the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
2/ The word, communicate, is coin-oh-knee-ah, and it means to share—it means to have fellowship.
3/ Let us notice, sow to the flesh. We may seek only selfish desires. All that God has permitted us to earn, to have, we give to ourselves, we shower it upon ourselves, and those we love, and we forget all about the work of God.
A study was made of Christians—those who claim to be saved and in that study, fully 72% of all adult Christians in the United States give $1.00 or less per Sunday. Do you know what that figures out to? That is less than 1% of their income, and they think they are giving to God. It is appalling. 31% drop only their small change—that is the pocket change into the collection. If they don’t have any small change, they let the collection plate pass. This is appalling but it is true. And God shows the folly of sowing to the flesh, because He uses an agricultural figure of sowing and reaping. Sowing involves activity and the activity means it is bound to bring forth some result. So with your finances—with what God has given to you, if you use it all for the flesh, you will reap corruption—not spirituality, but carnality, fleshliness. Throughout the whole Bible, we have this idea of sowing and reaping.
4/Judges 1: 7 And Adonibezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: as I have done, so God hath requited me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died.
Adonibezek (A – do ‘-eye – bee - zeck) He had developed the habit of amputating the thumbs and great toes of his victims, those he had captured. Finally, he met the same fate at the hands of victorious Israelites, and he suffered the loss of these members, and he said as I have done, so God hath requited me.
And then we also have this brought out to us in Numbers 32: 23 The children of Rueben, and the children of Gad came to Moses, requesting an inheritance in the land of Gilead, promising that if they were given this portion they would fight with their brethren for the subjugation of the land. Do you know what Moses said to them? If ye will not do so, ye have sinned against Jehovah, and be sure your sin will find you out.
All about us in this world, we have the principle, the law of sowing and reaping and working in human lives.
Numbers 32: 23 But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the Lord: and be sure your sin will find you out.
5/Those who take everything they have and just use on themselves and give just a small portion to the Lord are having a Dead Sea kind of experience. It is said that nothing can live in that body of water, because it has no outlet, and though millions of tons of fresh water pour into it every week, evaporation and mineral deposits make it so bitter, it cannot sustain life.
6/How should Christians give? This is an important thing. God is speaking all this time about giving to the Church…Giving to the work of God. How then should men give? The rule for giving under grace is different, than that under law.
The normal giving for the Christian, or the doctrine for Christian giving is found in II Corinthians 8: 9 For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.
And you will notice, in these chapters, nothing is said about tithing. Tithing is an Old Testament Law, rather than a New Testament rule of giving. Under the law, the Israelites were commanded to give not merely 1/10th, but much more.
First, there was a tithe—that is 1/10th of all they had. The Levites then received this tithe, and they in turn paid 1/10th to the high priest. Then there was a second, additional tithe of field produce alone. This was used for celebrating the sacred feast each first and second year, and to be celebrated at Shiloh or Jerusalem, and every third year at home. Some scholars tell us there was also a third tithe for the support of the poor, but this is denied by some who hold that the second tithe on every third year was for the Levites and the poor.
7/All this was required. It must be done to obey the Law. Whatever he desired to bring to the Lord above that was a free-will offering, and it was the complaint of the Old Testament prophets that God’s people robbed Him—not only of tithes, but also of offerings.
Malachi 3: 8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings?
8/These two chapters are wonderful in II Corinthians, for actually they are just like windows in which we can look into the conditions prevailing in the early church and see just how they behaved, and what God had to say about their behavior. These people here had made a pledge to God through the Apostle Paul, but you know, I don’t believe in making pledges to the church, but nevertheless, I’ll say this—we do believe in making pledges, except to God.
We all make pledges—we make a pledge to the landlord when we promise to pay him so much a month, or if you are buying a house, you make a pledge to the bank or the building and loan that you will pay so much a month. If you are running a bill down at the hardware store, or perhaps at the department store, you are pledged to pay so much on the installment plan, you make a pledge. If you buy a car, and you pay so much a month, you make a pledge, but my, how people rebel at making a pledge to God. In this day and age, I don’t believe in that myself, but I think too often, people do not stop and think about the Lord’s work and what they owe to God.
9/They said to Paul—we will do something when you come back. These people down in Jerusalem are starving, there is a famine there and we will want to help, and Paul said, You keep that pledge when I come back, and they did.
10/Did you ever know that giving is the way of grace people behaving towards God? Grace is God bestowing or giving to us, everything for nothing, and as a grace people, we want to be graceful—actually the word for us is giving—grace of giving—so we give back to God.
Notice what God says here. He has four expressions that are interesting.
II Corinthians 8: 2 How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.
First of all, great trial of affliction. Secondly, abundance of Joy, thirdly, deep poverty, and fourthly, riches of liberality. They were going through a great trial—a great trial of affliction. Out of the abundance of their joy—they had joy, even though they were in affliction, they gave. Out of their deep poverty, they gave, and it abounded unto the riches of their liberality.
11/Did you ever stop to think that God’s way of estimating gifts is different from ours? He estimates our gifts not by the amount we give, but by the amount we have that is left.
If a man is a millionaire and he gives a thousand dollars, that does not count as much as one who has an income of a dollar a day and gives a dime.
Luke 21: 4 For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.
He said of the poor widow—she has cast in more than they all, for she gave of her poverty, all the living that she had.
A church was talking about its problem one day, and they were in deep financial trouble, so the members of the board spoke among themselves, what they would do to meet this need, so they all said they would take up a collection that night among the board to help pay the bill. There was one brother there who was known to be worth about $100,000. The others were just average wage-earners. Of course, that is quite a bit of money. So one brother leaned over to this man who had the $100,000 and he said, “Brother, how much are you going to give?” Well he said, “Brother, I’ll put in the widow’s mite” and then he got out his pocketbook and pulled out a dollar. The brother who had asked him the question jumped to his feet and said, ”brothers, we have all that we need—this brother is going to give $100,000”. He was going to give the widow’s mite, and to do so, he would have to give all that he had.
13/But these poor Macedonians gave out of their poverty and they gave with joy.
14/Two Christians were talking about the need of missions. The missionary fund was in trouble, so the one brother said, I think we ought to give to this missionary budget, so that the missionaries will be taken care of. He said, I have just been trying to think how much I can give. How much can you give? Oh, the one fellow said, I can give $10 and not feel it. “Brother” said the first man, “make it $20 and feel it.” The blessing comes when you feel it, when you give out of your poverty. These people gave until they felt it, and that is the way we are to give to God.
15/Paul was a man who knew how to bear other’s burdens. II Corinthians 12: 15 And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. He said, I will very gladly spend and be spent for you—that should be our attitude one toward another.
16/II Corinthians 8: 9 For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. Vs 9 tells us our great example in giving is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich. Notice again II Corinthians 9: 6 that the one who gives the offering will reap his reward in proportion to his giving. He who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly, and he that soweth bountifully shall also reap bountifully.
17/The offering must come out of a purpose of heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver. II Corinthians 9: 6, 7 God loves a hilarious giver, and so do you. If someone were around you and they became good friends with you, and your birthday came around and they gave you a birthday present—beautiful gift, and you learned afterward that they only gave that gift, because they felt there was a necessity in doing it, they gave it grudgingly, they didn’t feel they wanted to do it. You would want to give it back to them, wouldn’t you? You wouldn’t want to keep it, you wouldn’t want any part of it. That is exactly the way God is—God doesn’t want our gifts when we give grudgingly and say, “Well, I have to, I guess I’d better had.” God doesn’t want that at all. Let’s remember that God has a sensitive nature, too.
18/In some churches there is a chart in the vestibule with the names of all the members and the chart keeps up every week showing whether the member is paid up in his subscription. God doesn’t want that. That is a way of shaming people into giving, but that is not good.
19/Folks say, that is the only way we can get money. If we don’t do that, you know what the answer is. The answer is not shaming people into giving money, but actually the answer is in getting them spiritual, to walk in the Spirit, and they will give through the Spirit, and they will see that the needs are met.
20/Of course, our giving ought to be systematic and in proportion to what we have.
I Corinthians 16: 2 where Paul says, upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him that there be no gathering when I come.
21/The important thing to remember is the great motive for giving is love. Do you remember the thrill when you brought your first gift to your sweetheart, the one you fell in love with? And when you brought that gift—it may have been flowers, it may have been a box of candy, she could see in your eyes, your shining eyes, that you were giving something you wanted to give to her—you were anxious to give to her so like the candy, didn’t matter very much, she knew you were giving because of who she was, and what she meant to you--because you loved her. With God it is the same way, it’s not the money. God can get along without your money. He’ll raise up His money. But, the sad thing is, you are the one who is missing out. You are the one who is losing.
22/Sacrificial gifts are the gifts that really count. There was the woman with the two mites—the Lord said she had given more than all the rest. There is a strange problem in mathematics—work it out if you can. See how it works out. She only gave two mites, and these others gave out of great abundance of money, but yet God said she gave more—figure it out someday, but that is the way God works.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the greatest giver of all…He gave His life for us.
AMEN
Ref: 11/19/1964 / KULP - 6 - LIVING IN THE ‘GET AGE’ / June 12, 2020
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