Transcript

1 Corinthians chapter 9, if you’d turn there with me. Let’s look at this text of scripture as we continue going through this wonderful New Testament book we call I Corinthians. Of course, it was a letter written by the apostle Paul written by the church at Corinth. And my, my, my, Paul, the apostle, functioning as the pastor of this church, the things he has had to deal with and contend with because this church was a, a, young church, a back slidden church, baby church, immature, very carnal, very fleshly in many ways. And uh, much of the latter he’s simply responding to questions or things he has heard that’s going on in the church. And when we come to I Corinthians chapter 9, we do not know specially what he’s responding to, but it seems form the text that he is most likely responding to all sorts of questions, comments, and criticisms about paying the preacher.

And uh, I know that’s nothing new to Baptist churches. Uh, we’ve always been thoroughly biblical in just established our convictions on scripture and never had that problem in Baptist church. But uh, uh, I can say for the most part that is the testimony here, and as I preach this message I, I do not find a strong reproof or exhortation to this church. I really do not. But nonetheless, this is the next thing in our preaching, and in the grace of God, and for his glory, I purpose to preach this text straight, just like I purpose to preach chapter 8 straight, and just like I will purpose to preach chapter 10 straight. Now you may think, well, that’s sort of self serving. Well, all I can tell you is, I wouldn’t even thinking about this chapter when I began preaching the book. We’re just here, and here we go. The best thing I know to do is to do a running commentary of the text. It simply does not outline itself the way uh we preachers would like to outline it. But the truths are clear even though it may not fall in outline form.

Paul begins in uh chapter 9, verse 1 saying, Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? Now Paul is going to come back around to tie verse 1 in to all of this when we get to the latter verses of this chapter. One of the things that he’s pointing out in, uh in verse 1 are the rights that he has as God’s full time minister. Now he first says, am I not free. By free there he simply means I am not under obligation of the law, to do anything in order to be acceptable to God. Now that’s true of all Christians, we’re all true, amen. We’re free from any burden, any obligation to any kind of ceremonial religious law system, uh, as far as gaining a right standing before God, we nailed that down this morning. We have a just standing before the holy god because Jesus has justly received our just punishment.

So he says, I’m not under law, now, but the point Paul is going to make is this. Even though we’re totally free, we can do whatever we won’t, it won’t hinder us getting into heaven, alright. He said, but my love for Jesus and my love for my brothers and sisters in Christ does impose certain restrictions and requirements on my behavior and my lifestyle, amen. There are some things a child of God will, or will not do, not because he’s trying to get into heaven, but because he’s already going there and he loves his Lord and he loves his church. He loves his brothers and sisters, that’s basically where Paul’s coming from, when he says I”m free, I don’t have to do certain things to get into heaven, but love compels me to behave and act in certain ways.

Then the second phrase, am I not an apostle? Now this was the highest office ever given to anyone, the office of apostle. These men had imminent authority in the church. They wrote uh, uh, their writings, and God used many of their writings to become absolute inspired scripture, uh, an apostle could go to any city at any time, walk into any church and he was the authority, he was in charge. We do not have apostolic authority today. Even though Johnny Washington’s on TV and he calls himself the apostle, Johnny Washington. Maybe some of you have heard about Johnny and some others, but I’m sorry, he’s sadly mistaken. There are no offices of apostles any more, nobody else is writing scripture, no one carries that authority, we are not functioning under different offices, for example, the office of pastor teacher. That’s the office that by the grace of God I hold in this church, and my job is to teach and preach the writings of the apostles. Which is the completed New Testament.

So anyway, he says I have imminent authority, and his point is going to be this. Of all ministers, I have a right to receive a salary or compensation, financially speaking from the churches I minister in. Then he says, have I not seen our Lord. Now to be an apostle, you had to see the Lord, and Paul saw the Lord on the uh road to Damascus and in two of the visions that he shares with us in scripture text. So even though he was not one of the original twelve, he was saved later, he had visually seen the Lord. And then he says, are you not my work in the Lord. He says, you want to know if I’m a real man called of God, and uh, he says, look at yourselves, you weren’t even a church, you didn’t even know Christ, were not even saved. I brought the gospel to you, I’ve trained you, I’ve matured you, I’ve put up with you. As an immature carnal church. Uh, you are my work in the Lord, you’re my authentication. As a man of God.

Now look at verse 2. If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you. Now, obviously from the way Paul is writing, there are some in the church at Corinth, or maybe importers who sneak into the church at Corinth, who said, Paul is not a true man of God, Paul doesn’t speak for the Lord, Paul’s not our authority. And Paul simply says this. Maybe uh there’s a, a, grounds for um, other churches that I have not had extensive dealings with, saying that I’m not an apostle, but you folks know me very, very well. I was there when you first heard the gospel I shared Jesus with you the first time you ever heard his name. I’m the one who had, who was the Lord’s instrument to bring you where you are today in the Lord. He said, I may not be to others, and of course he was apostle to everyone, but for, for sake of argument, he said, others may claim that I’m not their apostles, but you cannot. I’m truly the apostle for you guys. And then the last phrase of verse 2 for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

Now you know the, the kings of that day had a signet ring and on the ring was the official uh symbol of his kingdom, and it, it represented all of his authority. And when a king would issue a, a, an edict, or decree, if he wanted to show the genuineness of it, he would put some wax on there, and put the uh insignia, uh the stamp of that ring in the wax, and whoever saw that said that’s a genuine document from the king, that carries his authority. Well, Paul says the church at Corinth, you are my authentication. You, you prove that I’m a genuine apostle. Now you know I cannot imagine having to minister the way Paul did, where every time he turned around he had to defend himself again. He was always having to defend himself. Uh, uh, Paul defended himself not for his own sake though, Paul defended himself when it was necessary for the sake of the church. Because he knew if his apostleship was discredited, then his ministry of the church would be hindered. So we often had to defend himself because he didn’t want the Lord’s work hindered. Not for any personal gain.

Then he says verse 3, my defense to those who examine me is this. And it seems to be that any true man of God, preaching and teaching the word of God, he seems to always be under some critic’s microscope. Have yo noticed that. Always somebody scrutinizing, analyzing, trying to find something on the man of God. And so it was with Paul, and he had those who were examining him all the time trying to nit pit and finagle around and find things to discredit him. Now he begins in verse 4 saying, do we not have a right to eat and drink. Notice he uses the word right, and that’s just what it means. He’s saying the man of God who ministers in the local church, has a right to expect the church to meet his personal needs. Generally I think that’s what is referred to by eating or drinking. It should meet my personal needs as a man of God, Paul says.

And then verse 5. Do we not have a right to take along a believing wife. Even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas. Paul says, Barnabas and I, Barnabas was Paul’s associate, he says, now we do not take along a wife, I believe Paul was widowed, but he says, we’re single out here serving the Lord, but it would be proper and right for us to take along a believing wife, of course the implication is, if we bring our wives along and therefore our children along, its going to require you giving us a whole lot larger wage than you would give us as a single person to meet our needs. And Paul’s point is, it is, it is right and proper for the man of God to expect the church to compensate him in salary so that he, his wife and children can live very comfortably. And not have to worry about their well being. And uh particularly these guys had itinerant ministries, so not only should, is Paul saying its right for the man of God to expect the churches to take care of his living where he lives, but even so that he can take along, that’s what the verse says, bring along with him his wife as he ministers other places.

There should be no problem in this church if one of our staff or myself goes on a mission trip and we take our wives along and the church pays for all the expense. That’s what Paul is saying, its right for the wives to come along, if the required, the ministry requires the men of God to travel and move around. So he says in verse 4, take care of the man of God’s personal needs. In verse 5, make sure financially speaking he’s well taken care of so that his wife and family all of their needs are taken care of. And then verse 6, he sort, he’s being, as a matter of fact, let me say this. I think we’ve missed it in, in this area concerning our guest that we invite in to preach to us and teach us from time to time. Uh I think you would find, if you asked the men of God who’ve been here, and we’ve had men who have been in the greatest churches literally around the world in this church, and almost without exception he, they’ll say, your church took better care of us than any other church we’ve ever been in. I mean, you folks take care. You give us an abundance in your offerings, you meet every need, we send flowers to their wives, to telling their wives, thank you for letting us borrow your husband for this week, we do everything we can to take care of them, but as a routine police we have not written these men or called them and said, if your wife and family wants to come, we’ll pay the bill. But unless you run me off, that’s going to be our police from now on. If a man of God leaves home to come minister to us, we’re going to tell him, we’ll pay for your family to come, if you want them to come. Amen. That’s the way it ought to be.

Paul said, it ought to be, not be any problem for me to bring along a believing wife. Now you know the point Paul is, uh, uh the analogy Paul’s building is this. He voluntarily refused receiving any salary form the church at Corinth, because they were so back slidden and immature they would try to beat him up with it. The point he’s going to make, I voluntarily didn’t receive a salary, but you’ve got to understand, I have every right to expect you to meet my needs, my wife’s needs, my children’s needs, and everybody, even as we traveled. So he’s saying, the church has a responsibility in all of these areas. Then in verse 6 sort of sarcastically he says, or do only Barnabas and I not have a right to refrain from working. He’s saying, g oh, are we the only two full time ministers, uh, uh, who uh, don’t have this right to receive this salary compensation from the churches we minister in.

And then he starts giving some common principles, uh, that are out there in the every day, uh secular world to support how the, the family of God should compensate the minister of God. In verse 7 he says, who at any time serves as a soldier at his own expense. Now think about that for a moment. Have you ever know a, a, solider, to, to sign up for military duty and the military say, now listen son, we want you to know something, you, you’re suppose to be here because you love your country. So you are going to have to take another full time God when we get through with drills today, and make sure you know, you can put some money back for your children’s education, to pay the bills, the light bill, to meet the needs and car, and especially if there is anything extra you want in life, I mean, if you want a boat to go fishing in or anything else, now you will really have to get a good second job. Because you’re suppose to serve your country because you love your country. That would be absurd and ridiculous. Of course, Paul’s making a very clear analogy there, that so the man of God who serves the church of God should be compensated for serving that church, shouldn’t have to look elsewhere to suppose himself.

And then he says the next common illustration, who plants a vineyard and does not eat the fruit of it. He said, the person who works as a farmer, in this particular case, uh, a vine grower, should be expected to receive compensation for that very work, and even out of the vineyard itself. And then uh the third one, who tends a flock and does not use the milk of it. In other words, you wouldn’t hire a uh, a soldier and say now, now you’ve got to understand, you’re going to have to get you a job after you get through here. Uh, to meet your needs and pay your bills. And, and by the way, I want to hire you to tend my crops here, and and I want you to know something, you’re not going to get paid very much for that, and after you get through tending the corps, there’s something else, you’ll have to do to pay your bills. And, and no one would hire a shepherd to oversee their flocks and then say, now after you get through with a, a full shift, you’ll have to find you some work so that you can uh pay your bills and meet your needs. And Paul is of course, making it very very clear, even form the secular world and common understanding, that a person who labors in that way should receive wages for their labor.

Now he goes to verse 8 and in verse 8 he, he’s pointing out, there’s something much stronger and much higher than the common principles man understands, he says, the word of God addresses this. Because in verse 8 he says, I am not speaking these things according to human judgement am I, or does not the law also say these things. Now Paul, writing under grace goes back and shows there are absolute principles, absolute truths, under the Old Testament law that apply under grace. And then he goes back to a verse form uh Deuteronomy 25, verse 4. And that verse is recorded in verse 9 of our text. He says, for it is written in the law of Moses, you shall not muzzle the ox while he’s threshing. Now that’s literally what that text says. And, and the obvious, uh, immediate understanding of the text was when they used the oxen, and in whatever way the oxen either trampled over the uh, uh the stalks of wheat, or whatever kind of grain it was, or the ox used pulled a piece of equipment, that helped break the uh kernel away from the hull, that was essential of course, because you didn’t eat the hull, you just ate the kernel of the grain.

And he said, whatever that oxen is doing to help you, you should take the muzzle off his face and let him eat, because he’s working for you. And so Paul says, that’s a common undertan, understandable principle. But he said, its for more than that. That’s why he says, the last part of verse 9, God is not concerned about oxen is he. Verse 10. Or is he speaking altogether for our sakes. He’s saying, now the main thrust of God’s truth there is not that God’s overwhelmingly concerned about oxen, its so that we human will get an an application, out of that analogy. He says, he’s speaking , yes, verse 10, yes he is speaking for our sake. For our sake it was written because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher to thresh in hope of sharing the crops.

He’s saying that uh, the preacher, is absolutely spiritual and completely right with God if he labors faithful in a church, and the church is being blessed to expect that he will be compensated better as the church is blessed better. There’s nothing wrong with that, he’s saying. It is amazing to me, and I am as guilty probably as you are today, how often we thought in terms of ministers and their salaries, uh, and what is spiritual and what is not spiritual, until I looked at the word of God, and I real, realized a lot of my conclusions were not spiritual at all. Uh, generally speaking, I think most of us lean to the conclusion that in the ministry poverty equals spirituality. Now wouldn’t, generally speaking, got a few ex-pastors out there, retired pastors, nodding their head. And I understand why. But generally speaking, that’s sort of the way its viewed, uh, if you’re spiritual, you’re poor, and if you’re poor, you’re spiritual.

But you know what I’ve learned something over the years. We’ve been to Brazil and you talking about poor folks, we saw poor folks in Brazil. And, and we’ve been to Romania, a doctor made $40 a month while we were in Romania, poor folks over there. The bush of South Africa, folks, you don’t get much poorer, I mean, if some of those folks literally had two, four or five foot wide sheets of tin leaning together, and that was hope. Out in the, on the sand dirt. Uh, and you, and you know, been to the mountains of Jamaica, and you know what we find, I have found, and some of you guys who’ve gone know exactly what we’re talking about, some of the most immoral, corrupt, self centered rebellious church members I’ve ever met were among the most poverty stricken people we minister to. Are you following me. I mean, in South Africa, out in the bush when we preached, and there were some believers among us about immorality, they laughed out loud in the church. Like you expect us to be morally pure.

When we were in India, and if there is a, and, and, and i don’t know any other way to say this, just to be myself and say it, if there’s a place on earth that’s hell on earth, its India. Just a deplorable, destitute, awful place. As far as what you and I are comfortable with. And I remember teaching those Indian pastors one day and I talked about church discipline, and how we’ve got to begin with the most grievous, scandalous sins and we’ve got to start learning to deal with them. And I mentioned uh, uh sexual immorality, and once again there was an uproarious laugher among the pastors. Because in their churches it was so prevalent that people were sexually impure. Folks, you’d think, now, once again, you talking about poverty. Severe and extreme poverty. I’m going to tell you, there’s nothing to this thing that poverty equals spirituality. And that’s one extreme out of balance, the other extreme out of balance is what some of our charismatic brothers and sisters teach when they talk about prosperity theology. That if you are spiritual and right with God, then you’ll be wealthy all of a sudden. That’s equally out of balance. Neither one of those are absolute. But anyway, he is simply saying that it is proper and good and spiritual, for a full time minister to expect, as the people are blessed, that he financially is going to be blessed.

Now, look at verse 11. If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much that we should reap material things from you. Now of course, that’s very common sense. You know there are a lot of people that do things, services, for you, that you compensate them in return for that, whether its a repair man to fix the refrigerator, or the guy who works on your automobile, or the, the surgeon who works on your body, or the person who uh helps clean your clothes, or a thousand and one services done for you, and then Paul is making this analogy, if you would gladly and acceptably uh, uh compensate those who do things for you in the material realm, which is not all that important, and which is passing away, how much more should you be concerned about properly compensating the person who serves you spiritually. And builds and invests things in you that are of eternal value. His point is that those men of God are investing in your spiritually, you ought to make sure you invest back in them materially. Or financially. In other words, the ministers sow spiritually in you and you should sow materially back to him.

John McArthur had some very practical things to say about this. McArthur said that Christian ministers should not be paid a wage lower than that set for those laboring in the system of man. We should pay them as generously as is feasible and then leave the stewardship of that money to them, just as we expect the stewardship of our money to be left to us. Now look at verse 12. Paul says here, if others share the right over you do we not more. Now there were others that the church at Corinth was paying a, a, salary, or at least some type of financial compensation to, probably uh Peter and Apollos, because Peter and Apollos were mentioned in the first chapter of I Corinthians as two of the men that some of the church rallied behind. Remember they had the divisions and some said I’m of Peter, I’m of Apollos, I’m of Paul, and that real spiritual group said we’re of Jesus, you know. And they were at all these divisions.

So, Paul is indicating here there are other apostles who had less ministry among you than we had and you pay them. You really expect to support and pay us a salary, Paul is saying. Nevertheless, verse 12, nevertheless, we did not use this right. Paul said we have a right to expect a good comfortable salary, but we didn’t use it, but we endured all things that we might cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ. Now Paul is a single man, he’s pointed that out, and as a single man he was able to work and take care of his own needs, and when he ran into a bunch of knuckleheads like the church at Corinth, who would complain about perhaps giving him a salary, he would just say, fine, keep your money. And he just took the argument away. Have you ever heard somebody say that preacher makes too much money. Have you ever heard that. Well, they probably said a lot of that in Corinth. And so Paul said, I’ll just take that one away, I won’t receive a salary.

Now you understand Paul doesn’t have a wife and Paul doesn’t have children. Which according to I Corinthians chapter 7, Paul teaches us very clearly that once a man has a wife and once he has children, even though he is a minister, he still has to be concerned about them. He has to be concerned like every other man about his children going to college, or his children having a transportation, or his, his wife having a nice home to keep, or whatever else it may be. But Paul is a single man, could do some things to sort of take the uh barbs off of the uh back slidden members of the church at Corinth. Now you, we might point out this. Paul had a right to voluntarily refuse the salary, but the church at Corinth under God did not have the right to refuse to offer the salary. That’s very clear in scripture. Now, we do know from other texts that Paul received a regular financial compensation from the church at Macedonia. Uh, and the church at Thessalonica, uh the Barie church, and even a, a substantial offering regularly from the church at Philippi and possibly there were others, so before you make Paul out to be this, this, this spiritual giant because he didn’t receive a salary on this case, you’ve got to understand he was receiving a lot of support form other places. And uh, that’s uh, that’s sometimes not taken into consideration when people get on their poverty equal spirituality theory.

Now look at verse 13. He has a another argument, he’s made many, many strong arguments about why you should pay the preacher and even some strong arguments about how well you should pay him, and, and when I say preacher, I mean the staff, ministerial staff in general. But then look at verse 13, I think he makes the strongest argument of all in verse 13. He says, do you not know that those who perform sacred services that’s in the Old Testament temple, eat the food of the temple and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share with the altar. He said, don’t you understand in the Old Testament dispensation, the people would bring their tithes and offerings and gifts and the priests and those full time ministers would receive their uh, uh, uh compensation if you will, or their material uh things, needful for life from the tithes and offerings of the people and of course, he’s making an analogy, so now in the church, the men of God should be compensated by the tithes and offerings brought by the people to the church.

Now to understand the strength of this analogy, we need to look at a text in the Old Testament that shows what God said about taking care of the full time minsters in the temple. Look at Numbers chapter 18. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, Numbers chapter 18, verse 6-21. You know a long time ago, we stopped disclosing the specifics of the uh the salaries of the people who are on the ministerial staff and the support staff here and we leave that in the hands of the pastor’s council that you’ve nominated and elected to serve as our lay elders, and they scrutinize that and oversee that, and, and set that. And of course, anyone is welcome to come see those figures privately, but we just don’t broadcast them publicly. But you know, I, I, I cannot find anything scriptural or spiritual about letting a man sit there with his wife and his children and watching different groups in the church argue about whether or not he’s worthy of the salary the finance committee set. That is the most wicked, you know, as a matter of fact, if we want to do, if we want to go back and do that, but that’s fine with me, but I want you to bring your W2’s and I’m going to pull out your giving record and we’re going to pull that out on the floor, and argue from biblical authority of whether your salary is about right and whether your giving is in line.

Amen walls. There’s more scripture about your giving and the percent you are to give them there is about you knowing what I”m suppose to be paid. Now I’m not saying there shouldn’t be good accountability, but we’ve got eight godly men who oversee that, who studied and researched, and something else that really bothers me that a lot of smaller churches do, and, and, and larger churches do the same thing different way, they have this rotating system of people on the finance committee. And uh, what happens is, uh, the, the guys on the finance committee right now understand certain things about certain staff members, and why they were compensated in certain ways, then they rotate off and a new group comes on who don’t understand those things. And so a lot of people are treated unjustly. As a matter of fact, you can’t even get a grasp of all that’s going on here until you’ve looked at it for about three years. I mean, its just a lot going on.

For example, a, when I started as your pastor, I accepted a salary package $10, 000 below our former pastor, which was what I, what I suggested. There was some people criticizing me for every time I breathed, so I thought, this is one I’ll take away form them. You know, I, they won’t be able to say he’s making all that money, because I, I took, now, our, our guys knew that and so in the following five or six years, they made that up. Now if those guys had rotated off, the new guys may not have known that, and that’s just an example that I know personally. You need people long term who are men of God that understand where the church is, where its going, who perhaps deserves a merit raise this year because two or three years ago they did without some things in some other areas. And as a matter of fact, every biblical example I can find shows elders making those decisions, who don’t serve a term and rotate off, but they are lifetime elders as long as they biblically qualify.

We’ve got a lot of things that have become tradition in Baptist churches, that don’t have a thimble full of scripture to support them. And I’m going to tell you, some churches are going to answer to God at the judgement seat of Christ for mistreating the men of God. You trust me, I’m going to tell you, whatever else you do, we don’t’ want to go to heaven and say, boy we hindered the men of God, we were stingy toward them, we were selfish toward them, and we hindered them. I would rather, when these guys, of course, I cou, the only thing I can talk about is the men we have in, we bring people in from outside, they are going to go away saying what Paul said when he left Phillipi, I have an abundance. They are not going to go to God and say, when I went to Jeff Noblit’s church Jesus, I want you to know I left with barely enough to pay my gas back home. That’s not going to happen in this church as long as I’m your pastor.

But now let’s look at what God says in Numbers 18 about how the Old Testament believers were to take care of God’s priest, let’s begin in verse 6. And behold, I myself have taken your fellow Levites from among the sons of Israel. Now to be a priest, you had to be of the tribe of Levi. And they are a gift to you. Now that, that parallels, Ephesians chapter 4 that says when God gives you a pastor teacher, he’s your gift from God. Now that may disappoint some of you, you might want a better gift than you’ve got, but nonetheless, when God gives you a pastor, if you say he’s God’s man for our church, the bible says Ephesians 4, he’s God’s gift to you. And God told the Old Testament believers, the priest is my gift to the people. Dedicated to the Lord to perform the service for the tent of meeting.

Now verse 7. But you and your sons with you shall attend to the priesthood for everything concerning the altar and inside the veil, and you are to perform service. e And I am giving you the priesthood as a bestowed service, but the outsider who comes near shall be put to death. In other words, only certain guys were called into this priesthood ministry, and anybody else that got involved in it, God said, I’ll kill them. Oh, listen, you, listen to me, you’d better not sin to the office of pastor a church if God hadn’t called you there. I’m going to tel you, you talking about wrecking your life and ruining the work of God. You don’t need to be there if you are mama called or church called, or you just analyzed the vocations and decided you like to help people so you are going to go into the ministry. You’d better know that you know that you know God called you. If you’ve got any shadow of a doubt in your mind, don’t do it. You wait until you know God called you to it.

Verse 8. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, now behold I myself have given you charge of my offerings. Now I’ve got to camp there for just a minute. Here God is saying, when the people bring their tithes and offerings, Moses you and the priests are in charge of the money. Do you know in the New Testament you can’t find a finance committee any where, but you do find the pastors and elders of the church overseeing the expenditures of the church. Now I’m not saying there’s to be a renegade who doesn’t have accountability, but generally speaking you are to look in your text and find who oversaw the tithes and offerings the people brought in, it was the minsters of the church. He says, you are to be in charge of the offerings, Aaron, even all the holy gifts of the sons of Israel, I have given them to you as a portion, and to your sons as a perpetual allotment. He says, Aaron, you and your descendants, who will serve as priests, the gifts the people bring in, Aaron they are for you and for your sons who serve in the priesthood with you.

Verse 9. This shall be yours from the most holy gifts, reserved from every fire, every offering of theirs, even every grain offering and every sin offering and every guilt offering, which they shall render to me, shall be most holy for you and for your sons. Uh, Aaron, you and your family are going to, going to eat well and do well, because I’m going to, all the offerings they bring they are under your control, they are to help you out. Now, look at verse 10. As the most holy gifts you shall eat it; every mal shall eat it. It shall be holy to you. This also is yours, God says, I’m not through, you are going to get some more. The offering of their gift, even all the wave offerings of the sons of ISRAEL, I’ve given them to you and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual allotment. Everyone of your household who is clean may eat it.

Verse 12. All the best of the fresh oil and all the est of the fresh wine and the grain, the first fruits of those which they give to the Lord, I give them to you. In other words, the people were to bring in the best of all the first of all their crops, all their resources, and when they bring them in they are to bring them to God, but God says, they brought them to me and God says, now Aaron, I give them to you. They are to meet your needs. They, they, those gifts are to take care of you. Now verse 13, the first ripe fruits of all that is in their land. Which they bring to the Lord shall be yours, every one of your household who is clean may eat it. Every devoted thing in Israel shall e yours. Every first issue of the womb of all flesh, whether man or animal, which they offer to the Lord shall be yours; nevertheless the first born of man you shall surely redeem and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem.

Now what does that mean. That means when you had a son or a daughter, r or rather a firstborn son, in the Old testament, you brought that son to the priest and say, he’s yours. The priest was to turn around and give him back and say no I give him back, but you have to redeem him back, you have to pay some sort of financial gift to the Lord’s work here at the temple to have the son back. It was just understood because the heart motive was the main thing. They came and say God’s first in our lives, so my firstborn son I give to the lord. And so the priest would give him back and they would have to pay a redeemer’s price to redeem the son back to their family.

And then verse 16 he talks about this price. And as to their redemption price, form a month old you shall redeem them by your valuation, five shekels in silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs. But the firstborn of an ox or the firstborn of a sheep or the firstborn of a goat, you shall not redeem, they are holy. You shall sprin, sprinkle their blood on the altar and shall offer up their fat in smoke as an offering by fire, for a soothing aroma to the Lord. And their meat shall be yours. Now when they bring these offerings, he said, now you’ve got to, you’ve got to alter that, offer that on the altar, and then put the fire to it, then after its barbecued good, Aaron, you and your boys eat it. And then he said it, verse 18, continuing, it shall be yours like the breast of a wave offering and like the right thigh.

All the offerings of the holy gifts which the sons of Israel offered to the Lord, I have given to you and your sons and your daughters with you, as a perpetual allotment. Now he’s used that phrase perpetual allotment a lot, but what he means by that is as long as there is Israel, and as long as there is a temple, and as long as there are people, they are to keep bringing these gifts so you can have them. It is an everlasting covenant of salt. you say, they say, preacher, what does a covenant of salt mean. I have no earthly idea. Before the Lord to you and your descendants with you.

Verse 20. Then the Lord said to Aaron, you shall have no inheritance in their land. Now here was the catch. Aaron and his sons didn’t get a portion of the promised land, so God said, you are going to get a good chief portion of every single thing that comes out of this land thought, from every single family who does have land. You see, if I’m active in the ministry, I cannot go out and start a company and be involved in the type of enterprising business deals and expansions or whatever a lot of you can be involved in. But by you being blessed in your investments, you give to the local church and compensate me out of how you’ve been blessed so that my needs are met also. Now he says, you shall receive no inheritance in the land, nor any portion among them, I am your portion. And your inheritance among the sons of Israel.

Now verse 21. And we’re through, not with the message, just with this text. And to the sons of Levi, behold, I have given all the tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service which they perform, the service of the tent of meeting. God just summarized it all up and said, in addition to all of that, when they bring in the tithe, that’s for Aaron, and it didn’t just mean that’s for the temple, it meant Aaron had complete and total control. Now I’m not in favor of it, but some of our black churches may be more biblical than some of the rest, because I have been told in some of the black churches they take up an offering and the preacher just gets it. He just takes the whole thing home. I’ve been told that after he gets it, if it ain’t enough he’ll send the plate around again. I’m serious.

And then he pays whatever bills he feels like the church ought to pay, and then he keeps the rest. Now I’m not advocating that. I’m much, much much, much, much more comfortable with our administrator and our pastor’s counsel and our financial secretaries, I mean, there’s a lot about our finances that i don’t understand, but a man much more capable, Norman Rich, understands it well. I’d much rather it be done that way myself. But I’m simply saying, when you look at the biblical text, the responsibility for the finances that were brought in were put under the men of God. Not some rotating committee. That probably had no comprehension.

I, I shared with some of our leaders one time, we, they were asking why did we do, one of our lay leaders they said, why did you make this decision, why did you do it this why, why didn’t you do it that way. I said, listen, I don’t mind you making the decisions, if you’ll put on a beeper and every single time we have to make a decision or we receive some input that’s going to uh, uh affect the final decision, you’ll run up here and get in on it with us. Which means he’d had to retire. You know, it doesn’t matter to me either way, its just impossible for people to run a church and not be here all the time. Like our missions budget. Brother Scott, who, who, who administrates our missions, we’re talking every single day I’m here, about mission stuff, so when it comes budget time, we budget, cut some missionaries out, put some in, based on all the information we’ve received to that point. If you just had a committee to roll in, they hadn’t really studied for a while year, there’s not way they can honestly with integrity make a proper decision.

Now there needs to be accountability. But not in the chief decision making process, and you’ll find no scripture to support that kind of system. I’m not saying its evil, I’m just saying, no wonder so many Baptist churches are held back. No wonder they are. Now you know, what we can deduce from this is that the priest of the Old Testament were well taken care of. And God said, that’s the way it should be. So the apostle Paul writing to the church at Corinth says, you should use the same principle when you take care of the men of God who minister to you in the New Testament church.

You know um, over the years, I’ve become of course, well aware, and in some cases acquainted with me who are some of the great men of God of our day and even read about some of those great men of God of days before. And I, I found that, that uh in the stereotypes of what a man of God is, are just so wrong so many times. And the, when you look at these men’s lives and you read their writings and you see how God blessed their works, you know they are men of God. But yet when you look at some of the stereo types at least examine some of our own stereotypes you realize you missed it greatly. Um, um what one minister that I know, Bill Hibles, I don’t know him personally, and I do not agree with a lot of his philosophy, but he owns a cabin somewhere and, and ever Sunday night he leaves and goes to that cabin and doesn’t come back to the office until Tuesday. And uh, you know, there was a time when I thought that would be extravagant, or that’s luxury, but uh, the guy pastors a large church and the, the stress and the emotional burn out is so great he says that’s what he needs to do.

Then you’ve got a guy like Chuck Swindol, ya’ll heard of Chuck Swindol, I mean a man of God, God uses, and he’s not my favorite preacher, but a man of God, and he puts on a leather jacket and drives a great big old Harley around. You know. Doesn’t, doesn’t fit the sterotype, does it. Surely that can’t be spiritual. I mean, if church pays him enough salary for him to buy a Harley, can’t be right with God. And then there’s a man named G. Campbell Morgan, have you ever read G. Campbell Morng, Morgan’s commentaries. Brilliant man of God. Incredible man of God. I do not know of one preacher anywhere that wouldn’t say G. Campbell Morgan is one of the finest expositors of the last two to three hundred years. G. Campbell Morgan was often criticized for his taste. He liked very nice things. When he traveled, he traveled in the finest of coaches. He lived in the most elegant houses. He required large honorarium when he preached outside of his pulpit. On one occasion somebody criticized him to his face, and he called him extravagant, he said, I’m not extravagant, I’m just expensive.

Another man that you’ve probably heard the name G. Campbell Morgan, but he doesn’t fit my serotype. God rattled me a little bit with that. And then there’s Charles Hadden Spurgeon, you ever heard him quoted here. Charles Hadden Spurgeon the great Baptist preacher of London during the 1800s preached at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, at age 26, six to nine thousand people would come to hear this kid preach. When you had to get there either walking or on horseback. Standing out in the snow, hoping they could get a seat. Spurgeon smoked cigars. Couldn’t be a man of God. Smoked cigars. And people would criticize him for smoking cigars, and Spurgeon said one day, when I take it to excess I will stop. And they said, well, what is excess. Spurgeon said, two at one time. I am not advocating smoking in any way, shape or fashion, I”m just simply saying, some of the stereotypes and often in the area of finances, about what it is to be a man of God are wrong.

Spurgeon was sick a lot of the latter part of his ministry, and everyone whose read, I’ve read his two volume autobiography, which is unbelief, gosh, I don’t know, there might be two, or three thousand pages there, and when you read the first 15 or 20 years of his ministry you know why he was sick the last 15 or 20, the guy preached five or six times a day, traveled extensively, all the time, preaching everywhere, crashed back in, preach in his home church on the weekends, but he he just wore himself out. So the last 15 or 20 years of his life Spurgeon’s health was bad, and so he spent most of his time at a posh French Riviera resort in Menthane, France. Now if he’s a real man of God he’d been at some country nursing home somewhere, but uh, nonetheless, that’s where Spurgeon spent the last 15 or 20 years of his life, on the French Riviera. Um, in Menthane, France.

On one occasion Spurgeon was getting on a, a um train, and he was talking with the pastor there before he got on the train, and as they were talking the other pastor very piously looked at Spurgeon and said, Spurgeon, I’m going back to third class and save God’s money. Spurgeon looked at the fellow and said, I’m going to first class and save God’s servant. That’s just the kind of man he was. Doesn’t fit the serotype. Now some of us are comfortable, if we travel first class, but not the man of God. He’s too spiritual for that.

R. G. Lee, probably one of the greatest pastors America has ever known, R. G. Lee, the pastor of the great famed Bellview Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, Bellview is what it is today because of R. G. Lee, back in those earlier days, R. G. Lee was a lawyer that God saved and called him into the ministry. He was also criticized one day for uh traveling first class as a pastor, and uh, Spur, Lee looked at the fellow who criticized him and said, I”m nog concerned about God’s resources, God’s resources are plenty, its God’s servants who are so few. W. A. Criswell, probably the greatest pastor America’s every know, the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, is a millionaire. Billy Graham, I read in his biography, that when Billy Graham gets stressed out he would spend a month in Hawaii.

These surely can’t be men of God, can they. Now I’m not advocating that you let me spend a month in Hawaii, but if you give it to me, I’ll take it. But the point I am saying, and Paul makes it very, very clear here, poverty doesn’t equal spirituality in the ministry. And its just hard to know where these things land. There are without a doubt some great unbelievable godly men and women of God, who live on nothing almost. But they may be no more godly than some of the great, great men of God who lived in very comfortable, very comfortable settings, at very, very comfortable lifestyles. Now look at verse 14 of our text, I Corinthians chapter 9, verse 14. As if Paul hadn’t made it strong enough and clear enough, he says it again in verse 14, so also the Lord directed, you could say commanded, that those who proclaim the gospel, get their living from the gospel. They shouldn’t’ have to look anywhere else for their financial support. And I want to exhort you in Jesus’ name, there shouldn’t be a full time ministerial staff member whose wife has to work to pay the bills. That should never, ever, ever happen. Now if she wants to work