Thru the Bible

Host: Welcome to Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee. As you find your seat on the Bible bus and open your copy of God's Word to Malachi chapter 3, I got a quick couple of letters from our fellow listeners. First from Lena from Mexico. She writes this: I've experienced the care of our God through His word. It has been my strength when loneliness has come. It always brings verses to my heart that remind me that I am not alone, that in His presence there is fullness of joy and pleasures at His right hand forever.

Host: And then here's another note. This is from a long-time listener in the US. I listened to Dr. McGee on the radio a little back in the 70s, but he came in late at night and I had to work, so it was hard to keep up. Fast forward to now, I'm 73 years old. I started listening again. I've been through one full five-year cycle and I won't stop. I even joined the World Prayer Team and I love learning how God is at work around the world. What an encouragement. God can reach people anywhere.

Host: Well, you know it's true. God's Word never grows old, and His Spirit continues to encourage hearts everywhere. So let's thank Him now. Heavenly Father, thank You for the living power of Your word. May it speak to each of us with clarity and hope. In Jesus name. Amen.

Host: We're off to Malachi 3 on Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, friends, before we get into our study which begins in Malachi the third chapter, verse 8, the question has arisen back in the first verse of this chapter, when it mentions the messenger of the covenant, that at that time, I did not mention what the covenant was and a great many have thought that it was the new covenant in the New Testament.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And actually it had no reference to the first coming of Christ and it is the covenant that God had made with these people, and it's expressed in several places, for instance, Leviticus the 26th chapter. And let me read beginning at verse 9 to you. And I think you'll find this is the covenant, the messenger of the covenant. God says here, “For I will have respect under you and make you fruitful and multiply you and establish My covenant with you. And ye shall eat old store and bring forth the old because of the new. And I will set my tabernacle among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God and ye shall be my people. I'm the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be there bondmen. And I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you to go upright.”

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: This is the covenant God made with them and you'll find that he confirmed it in Deuteronomy because Deuteronomy is a confirmation of the law and their experience with it after 40 years. And in the fourth chapter Deuteronomy verse 23, I read, “Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which He made with you and make you a graven image or the likeness of anything which the Lord thy God has forbidden thee.” And of course they had done that very thing, even turning to the occult. And all this section deals with that.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: In other words, we find the messenger of the covenant is coming someday to make good this. God will dwell in their midst and that's the reason that we had in that first of the chapter, the cleansing and the purifying because God would not walk among them unless they were obedient unto Him, unless He had cleansed them and purified them. And that of course is true, I think today for any work at all.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now last time, we saw the sixth of these sarcastic remarks that these people made to God's claim upon them. And they had a pretended innocence of course which was not true. It revealed their hypocritical condition. And God asked them to return to Him, to repent. And they acted in verse 7 as if they hadn't even been anywhere. They said, "Why we are going to the temple. The temple is crowded and we're going through the ritual and what do you mean repent? What do you mean return to You? We're already here. Here we are. We haven't gone anywhere."

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: God says, "You have. You may be going through the ritual, but your heart is far from Me." And I very frankly believe that's true even of many conservative churches today, that people go through the little ritual that we conservative folk have. We have a vocabulary and that sort of thing and a great many people know when to say praise the Lord and Hallelujah, but their heart's are far from Him. And the thing is He's asking us to repent. And that seems to be the most difficult thing for anybody to do is to repent, especially a Christian.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: I don't know why it should be. We ought to be the easiest people in the world to repent. I heard of a church several years ago where one of the officers got up and suggested to the board that they, the board was finding fault with everything, including the pastor apparently. And he said that he felt that the officers needed to repent. Did you know that they rebuffed that man and insulted him so that it apparently brought on his death, the way he was treated for even suggesting to a group of officers that they needed to repent. This is quite true, they said, “In what way shall we return? How can we repent? Well, we are the people. We are the beautiful people. We don't need to repent. That crowd outside needs to repent.”

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, they asked, “In what way?” And believe me, does He open up the wound here? And this will hurt. And very frankly, this is the place where some of you may want to just tune me out today because this is not going to be pleasant here and I don't think this book has been very pleasant, but I enjoy it because I think He's talking right to me as well as to you or anybody else. And believe me, friends, we need to be talked to like this.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: When I go to my doctor, my cancer doctor is a very wonderful doctor and he treats me rougher than anybody I go to. I try to get him to give me an encouraging word every now and then. He won't do it. I try to get him to give me a prescription, you know, for easing pain. He won't do it. He just lays it right on the line. And do you know, I love the man and I love him because of the fact that he tells it like it is and I tell you when you've had cancer and you may still have it in your system, you really want to be told the truth. You want somebody to tell you the truth.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And in spiritual matters that have to do with my eternal soul, I want somebody to tell me the truth, even if it hurts. And believe me, God doesn't mind telling you the truth at all. Now, they say, “How shall we return?” He's going to tell them. Verse 8. And now we come to the seventh sarcastic remark that these people made. You see, eight times these people return God a flippant answer. Eight times they dismissed the charges like petulant children. Eight times they evade the facts by affecting ignorance. Eight times they avoid answering by pretending that they are pious.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Will you listen to this? “Will a man rob God?” I think instead of probably pronouncing the benediction in some churches, the thing that should be given is this, “Stop, thieves.” You've been robbing God. And they are apt to say, “My, You don't mean us. We put a generous offering in, did you?” Well, let me read this to you. “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed Me. But ye say, how have we robbed thee?”

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And here it is, “In tithes and offerings.” That's what God said, in tithes and offerings. God says, “You robbed Me.” Now, if you think that God is a Shylock of the sky that was trying to take something away from these people. What God was doing actually, God was blessing them and says, “I'm going to let you have 9/10ths and you return to Me 1/10th.” But there's several things that we do need to correct here and I would like to do that because I think it's rather important.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: To begin with, the people did not give just one tithe as some people seem to think. If you will examine it carefully, and I'm not going into a great deal of detail here today at all on this, but I do want to mention it. And I'm indebted to Dr. Feinberg in his excellent book on Malachi, in which he mentions this. He says, and I'm quoting now him, “The offerings in Israel were the first fruits, not less than 1/6th of the corn, wine, and oil.” You find that in Deuteronomy 18, verse 4. “There were several kinds of tithes.” Now I have always taught on this program that there were three tithes definitely.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Well, Dr. Feinberg, who is a Hebrew scholar, he's found four. That's one more than I did. Now, will you notice. Number one, and I'm still reading from him. “The tenth of the remainder after the first fruits were taken, this amount going to Levites for their livelihood.” Now that is number one. And now number two, “The tenth paid by the Levites to the priests.” And I should give you the scripture. For number one it's Leviticus 27, verse 30 to 33. And the tenth paid by the Levites to the priests is Numbers 18, 26 to 28.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And then the third now, “The second tenth paid by the congregation for the needs of the Levites and their own families at the tabernacle.” And that's Deuteronomy 12:18. Now there was the fourth tithe and this by the way, I would say is a rather important one. Another tithe, “Every third year for the poor.” Now, that is something it's found in Deuteronomy 14, 28 and 29. And I think that probably I ought to read that one to you because that is one that I feel today should be observed.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: I recognize the government has done so much to help the poor or to help the bureaucrats. It's a question of who gets the money that's allocated for the poor, but the thing is that the church certainly ought to have an emphasis on this. And I want to say something about it, but first of all, let me read the scripture that you have here for this. Deuteronomy 14, 28, 29. And I'll read that now. Deuteronomy 14, 28 and 29. “At the end of three years, thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase the same year and shall lay it up within thy gates. And the Levite because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come and shall eat and be satisfied that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand, which thou doest.”

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: So that every three years, there was this extra tithe that was given. So that when you say that God required a tithe, what do you mean by it? There were several tithes that were given. Now that is one thing that we wanted to straighten out. Now another thing that we need to straighten out is this, that we're living in the day of grace, we're told. And the giving of believers today, very frankly is on a different basis altogether. We are to give, but on a different basis.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: I do not think that the church is under the tithe system as a legal system. Now that doesn't mean that some people couldn't give a tenth to the Lord. That may be the way the Lord would lead them to give. And here is the way the early church gave. Paul used the Macedonians as an example when he wrote to the Corinthians, and in Second Corinthians the eighth chapter, speaking of Macedonia, he says in verse 2, “How that in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded into the riches of their liberality.” The very poor, they gave generously. “For to their power I bear record, yea and beyond their power, they were willing of themselves.”

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now they gave way beyond a tenth. That didn't even enter into their thinking. They just gave because of their love for the Lord and because of what? “Praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.” You see, giving is fellowship and it's part of the fellowship of the church and part of the worship. And this they did. Now listen to this. Here's the background. “This they did not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God.”

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, and I say this very candidly, and that's the reason from time to time. I make it very clear and I'd like to today. If you're an unsaved person, not a Christian, we don't want you to give to this program to begin with. It couldn't be a blessing to you and it wouldn't, I don't think, in the long run ever be a blessing to us. God asks His children to give. Have you ever noticed that the Ark of the Covenant was carried on the shoulders of the priests. Now, the Lord could have called in somebody from the outside to carry it, or he could have had a cart to carry it because a cart carried some of the other things. But not the ark that speaks of Christ.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now if you're going to carry forth His message and His message is about what He's done for us. It has to be carried on the shoulders of those that are priests, those that are here. And He's not asking you to give if you're not a Christian. And somebody says, "McGee on that program, all he does is ask for money," which of course I don't. But suppose they say that, and it's an unsaved man. I say to him, "We're not talking to you. We don't want you to give. I'm speaking to God's people and I want them to be the ones to have part in this."

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And I believe they could have a part. And Paul says this here in verse 8 now of chapter 8, “I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others and to prove the sincerity of your love.” And this proves your love of Christ. You see, He doesn't ask you to give. That song that says, “I gave, I gave My life for thee. What hast thou done for Me?” That is as unscriptural as anything can be. He never asked you that. He never asked you that. If you love Him, He says, “Keep My commandments.”

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now he says verse 9, “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might be rich.” Now he says, “You need to give hilariously, joyfully.” Oh my gracious alive. It's like they told me in Israel. They showed me the new government buildings and one of them was the internal revenue where they collect the taxes. And this Jewish guide very wryly and with a smile, he says, “We call that the new wailing wall.” Well, let me tell you when they take the offering in church. It's the wailing wall. Oh, my. We're going to have an offering. And my feeling is that that ought to be a joyful part.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And if you can't give joyfully, why, you ought not to be giving. It won't do you a bit of good. I can assure you that. And he goes on in this chapter and even in the next, chapter 9 of Second Corinthians. I'm not going into that today, but that is the basis on which Christians are to give. Now my feeling is that Christians are to give, actually, I think most of them in this affluent society ought to be giving more than a tenth. Israel gave more than a tenth, that's for sure. Four tithes.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, when I was pastoring in Texas, it was during the depression. I had an elder in my church. Now I'm not going to detail because our program goes into that area now and I do not want to spotlight any individual. He was a man in the church and he was the only one that was in a business that was really making money. And he had a ranch and I used to hunt on his ranch and I also used to fish. The river went right down through it. And he and I were in his boat one day fishing and he said to me, “Preacher, why don't you preach more on the tithe?”

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: I said, “I don't believe in the tithe.” And he did by the way and he gave that way. And so he just kept after me. Every time he and I would get together. He'd want to know why I didn't speak on the tithe. And finally, I gave him this. And I said, “You know, there are a lot of Christians that today ought to be giving more than a tenth.” And I gave the example. Now I said here in this place among our best people, I would say you're probably making more money today than any other individual in the church, except the doctors. We had five doctors. They did well. But the point was, this man was really making money during the depression.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now I said, “I think you ought to give more than a tenth.” And I looked him right straight in the eye when I said that. He winced a little and you know he never did ask me after that to preach on the tithe. Why? Because he was glad to give the tenth and ease his conscience and feel like that's all he ought to give. A lot of folk ought to be giving more than a tenth, friends, but when I say ought to, I say it. Jesus says, “Don't do it, brother, unless you're giving it because of love for Me, because you really want to get the word out.” This is terrific, I think that the Lord Jesus. He says, “Will a man rob God?”

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: What do you think? Why as I say, instead of having the benediction at the end of the church, why they ought to let the people start out and then somebody yell out, “Stop, thief.” And there sure would be a whole lot of thieves that if they didn't want to be caught, would take off running to get away. Why? Because they've robbed God. How did they rob God? It all belongs to Him. To Israel, He said, “You just keep 9/10ths. But I want you to give Me the other to recognize Me.” And it's been amazing how some of the great men of the past that are familiar to us in business today, were Christians who gave to God and gave to God generously.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Hershey is one of the Hershey Chocolate Company. And Wrigley, I'm talking about the founder now, not by this present generation, but Wrigley gave generously to the Lord. And Penny, you see these J.C. Penny stores, started by a preacher's son. His father died when he's a boy and he had to go out and get washing that his mother had to take in because nobody helped her. And that man said that when he got big, he's going to make money and he made it. And he has a big village down in Florida where preachers can live and I think there's one in Indiana, some other place.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: May I say to you, God has blessed these men in the past that recognized Him. And I believe that it's still true today, but my friend, you will have to do it out of love for Him. That's the only way He accepts it. Until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.

Host: We're grateful for the gift of your partnership here at Through the Bible. So, if you'd like to join the company of friends who keep the Bible bus running in your community and around the world in more than 250 languages, well, you know we'd love to hear from you. To receive a 2025 tax credit, just be sure that your gift is dated and postmarked this year. You can send a check or you can also call us at 1-800-65 Bible or give anytime online at TTB.org or through our app. Once more, that's 1-800-65 Bible or TTB.org. Now before we sign off, here's a final word from Dr. McGee.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: I've been reading John Bunyan this week. I have not been reading Pilgrim's Progress. I've been reading Grace Abounding. I think that's his greatest work. He opens up his heart and his life. He speaks out of a past century, but this is a century that thinks we are out of step with the past and that we are, we're going out in space. We're moving to new frontiers. Where are we going? And where's our joy? Where is the joy of the Lord today?

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Will you listen to John Bunyan as he opens up his heart? “But the next day at evening, being under many fears, I went to seek the Lord, and as I prayed, I cried and my soul cried to Him in these words with strong cries, Oh Lord, I beseech Thee, show me that Thou hast loved me with everlasting love.” I had no sooner said it, but with sweetness, this returned upon me as an echo or sounding again, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love.” Now I went to bed at quiet. Also when I awoke the next morning, it was fresh upon my soul and I believed it. Isn't that lovely?

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And then just one other excerpt. “And now I found, as I thought, that I loved Christ dearly. Oh, me thought my soul cleaved unto Him. My affections cleaved unto Him. I felt love to Him as hot as fire. And now as Job said, I thought I should die in my nest. But I did quickly find that my great love was but little and that I, who had as I thought, such burning love to Jesus Christ could let Him go again for a very trifle.” God can tell how to abase us and can hide pride from man. He opens up his heart and let you know that he had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And he was just a poor mortal, just a hunk of humanity as you and I are today, filled with fear, weakness. And yet, he enjoyed that wonderful communion and fellowship with the person of Christ. I hope that you'll have a wonderful Christmas with Him this year.

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