But, “Ah, Lord God!” I said, “Look, the prophets are telling them, ‘You will not see the sword nor will you have famine, but I will give you lasting peace in this place.’” (Jeremiah 14:13).

God declares severe judgment against Judah. He will bring drought, famine and sword against them. Jeremiah defends the people by arguing that the prophets are at fault for giving them false prophesies. God simply declares, "They are lying." They will be judged along with the people who listen to them (Jeremiah 14:14-16).

Yet, you say, isn't it unfair that the people are judged when their prophets led them astray? No. God never told His people to listen to false prophets. On the contrary, He told them to test their prophecies against the true Word of God (cf. Deuteronomy 18:21-22; 13:1-4).

Friends, this warning is for us as for those of old. The Bible commands us to "test the spirits to see whether they are from God" (1 John 4:1). Even the apostles put themselves under this rule:

Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” (1 Corinthians 4:6).

We will not be excused for unbiblical beliefs and actions because we learned them from errant preachers or teachers. They will be judged, and we will be judged right along with them. Therefore, let us take responsibility for our convictions and learn God's Word for ourselves. I have said before, and now I say again, we must all be experts in the Word of God. We need not all be doctors, mechanics, businessmen, nor any myriad of professions, but we must all be experts in the Word of God. It is too important to leave to professional ministers. Why would you entrust your eternal soul to another fallible human being?

Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind
And makes flesh his strength,
And whose heart turns away from the Lord...

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord
And whose trust is the Lord (Jeremiah 17:5,7).

Although our sins testify against us, do something, Lord, for the sake of your name. For we have often rebelled; we have sinned against you. We acknowledge our wickedness, Lord, and the guilt of our ancestors; we have indeed sinned against you. For the sake of your name do not despise us; do not dishonor your glorious throne. Remember your covenant with us and do not break it. (Jeremiah 14:7, 20, 21 NIV)

Someone once asked me, "Why does God save us if we are good for nothing?" As Jeremiah teaches here and as in so many other places, God saves His people primarily for the sake of His Name. His people have always been stubborn, rebellious and wicked, but God preserves a remnant to fulfill His promises to their ancestor Abraham, and to fulfill His promises to their ancestor David. It is about God keeping His word more than some sentimental consideration for mankind. Thus, when we read the words in John 3:16, "God so loved the world," we should not understand this to mean "God loved the world so much that..." but rather "God in this way loved the world that..." As God destroys the wicked for the sake of His Name, He also preserves His chosen for the sake of His Name.

Lord, you understand; remember me and care for me. Avenge me on my persecutors. You are long-suffering—do not take me away; think of how I suffer reproach for your sake. When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear your name, Lord God Almighty. I never sat in the company of revelers, never made merry with them; I sat alone because your hand was on me and you had filled me with indignation. Why is my pain unending and my wound grievous and incurable? You are to me like a deceptive brook, like a spring that fails. Therefore this is what the Lord says: "If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me; if you utter worthy, not worthless, words, you will be my spokesman. Let this people turn to you, but you must not turn to them. (Jeremiah 15:15-19 NIV)

The "me" here refers not to Israel or Judah but Jeremiah. He is complaining to the LORD because of his bitterness of soul and his suffering the reproach of the people, to whom he delivers God's message of judgment. It appears that Jeremiah stepped out of favor with the LORD. Perhaps he became more moved by the people than in fulfilling God's commission. For God says, "If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me." Jeremiah had sinned. He had spoken "worthless words." Perhaps these refer to his complaints. Perhaps he was trying to assuage the people with words of comfort. But God wants him to speak for Him, not the people. Thus, God tells him, "You will be my spokesman. Let this people turn to you, but you must not turn to them." 

There is an application of sorts to our day. In the New Testament Paul warned that people will want their "ears tickled," that is, they will only want to hear things that are agreeble. He prophesied that people will gather around themselves preachers and teachers that will tell them what they want to hear. Prosperity theologians preach a positive message of health, wealth and prosperity. The only negative thing they preach is not to be negative. This is clearly what hundreds of thousands, even millions, of people love to hear, for they throng to this type of preaching. 

Yet, this is not what God teaches in His Word. The Good News is that Jesus died and rose again, so that you might not live for yourselves any longer but for Christ, who is the Lord of your life. And it is not for Christians to get comfortable in this life but rather hasten the end, so that Jesus will come again and establish God's kingdom in true righteousness.

"When you tell these people all this and they ask you, 'Why has the Lord decreed such a great disaster against us? What wrong have we done? What sin have we committed against the Lord our God?' then say to them, 'It is because your ancestors forsook me,' declares the Lord, 'and followed other gods and served and worshiped them. They forsook me and did not keep my law. But you have behaved more wickedly than your ancestors. See how all of you are following the stubbornness of your evil hearts instead of obeying me. So I will throw you out of this land into a land neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.' (Jeremiah 16:10-13 NIV)

Notice that the people seem genuinely ignorant of the reason for God's judgment against them? They complain to Him, "What wrong have we done?" They even claim God is their God: "What sin have we commited against the Lord our God?" This reminds me of Jesus words in the Sermon on the Mount:

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' (Matthew 7:21-23 NIV)

In the context of the sermon, Jesus taught that mere lip service will not gain acknowledgement from Him before the Father. It is not saying "Lord, Lord" but doing "the will of my Father." Furthermore, it is not simply doing spiritual things like "prophecy" and "driving out demons" and "performing many miracles," but doing the right things, namely, God's will. In Jeremiah's day, God judged the people for only giving lip service. Then, when they went beyond lip service, He judged them because their deeds were not in obedience to God but rather the dictates of their own stubborn and evil hearts. 

Dear friends, this is why it is so important that you learn the Word of God for yourselves. Then, you will not merely go through the motions in doing things that God never intended for you to do. You will know what pleases God and can direct your attention to doing what is truly His will.

This is what the Lord says: "Cursed is the one who trusts in man,who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord. "But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? "I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve." Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise. (Jeremiah 17:5, 7, 9, 10, 14 NIV)

Now, I've taken the liberty to connect certain verses together so that you can see a pattern of thought. This text teaches that our hearts are deceitul and beyond cure; therefore, it would be  a utterly foolish to trust it and perhaps even more to trust the hearts of other people. But there is a way of blessing; it is in trusting in the Lord, in putting your confidence completely in Him. And this is what Jeremiah does, as he cries, "Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved." 

Friends, this is our cry. We cannot save ourselves. Our hearts are deceitful above all things and beyond cure. If we follow our hearts, we will only encounter failure, disappointment, defeat and destruction. Instead, let us daily learn to pray in helpless dependence upon God. And He will heal us when He heals us. And He will save us when He saves us. In other words, it is out of our hands. God does just as He pleases. The best we can do is to humble ourselves, admit our absolute and helpless dependence upon Him, and wait upon the Lord. 

 “blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. (Jeremiah 17:7)

Friends, consider the command of Jeremiah 17:21-22,

Thus says the LORD: “Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; nor carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work, but hallow the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.

Now, presuming that Sunday is the Christian Sabbath, how many of you have carried some kind of weighty thing on Sunday? How many of you have done work? How many of you have purchased things from Sabbath-violators? The language of this passage seems to suggest any kind of commerce, even personal ones, are a violation of the Sabbath. By these standards both preachers and laymen would all be violators. And would you believe that the violation of the Sabbath was one of the chief reasons given for the Exile?

Many of you would say, "C'mon! That doesn't apply to us!" I would ask, "Why not?" You might answer, "That was done away with along with all the civil and ceremonial laws of the Jews." I would ask, "Not so. Isn't it one of the Ten Commandments, which constitute the moral law?" You might say, "Well, we are not in the Promised Land, so we could not practice the Sabbath completely anyway." I would answer, "Well, shouldn't we follow the principle of the Sabbath as much as we can, so that just as they did no work and no commerce in their day, we should do the equivalent today?" And I would add, "Christians don't know how to be completely devoted to God. Every day should be as the Sabbath to God. But having one day as the Sabbath to God is a good start, so we should tell Christians to at least do this."

I hope that I have not by this persuaded you to all of us a sudden practice the Sabbath. That was not my intention. To the contrary, I've chosen this approach to actually argue against another issue, namely, the matter of "tithing." The same arguments made to support the practice of tithing today could be used to support a practice of Sabbath-keeping; however, most of the Evangelicals I know inconsistently hold to the first but not to the second.

First, let me make clear, as Christians this side of the cross of Christ, we are no longer under the Law of Moses, neither the civil, ceremonial or moral law. We have been set free from both the condemnation and the obligation of the Law. Let us also understand that the divisions civil, ceremonial and moral laws are not Scriptural but man-made divisions. The Bible consistently treats the Law of Moses as a whole.

Observe with me just a few of the many passages that teach that Christians are no longer under the Law of Moses. First, consider the debate among the Jews in Acts 15 as to whether to urge Gentiles to follow the Law of Moses as they do. Here is what they concluded:

Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?... Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God,  but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood (Acts 15:7-10, 19-20).

Isn't that remarkable? Out of the 615 or so laws in the Law of Moses, they just encouraged Gentile Christians to practice four of them and strangely only one of them is specifically connected to the Ten Commandments. And why do you think they emphasized these in particular? No elaborate reason is given, but I think it was just to ensure a more peacful coexistence between the Jews and Gentiles during the transitional time when Jews and Gentiles were coming together in brotherhood in Christ. The Gentiles were encouraged to curb their liberty in Christ (i.e. their freedom from the mandates of the Law) in order to maintain peace with their Jewish brothers. The theme of Romans 14 addresses this matter. Though Christians are free of the obligations surrounding Sabbath days, dietary restrictions, and other matters in the Law of Moses, they are not free from the Law of Christ, which preeminently teaches love. For love's sake, Christians should sometimes suspend their liberties to minister to those "weaker" brothers and to unbelievers. So Paul also writes in 1 Corinthians 9:20-21,

To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law.

Did you catch what Paul, a Jew, said of himself? He said, "though I myself am not under the law." Paul does not follow the Law because, as a Christian, he is not obligated to do so. He doesn't follow it for its moral benefits. He doesn't follow it to "honor the Old Testament law," as amazingly John Piper once suggested. He doesn't follow it on principle. The only reason Paul follows the Law of Moses is to win those under the Law to Christ. But what reason, my friends, do we have to bring this mandate into the church in the form of "tithing"? It is certainly not to win souls to Christ, for I would argue that the modern practice and preaching of tithing may do just the opposite.

Friends, Christ has fulfilled the Law of Moses for us and in us. That is why Paul writes in Romans 10:4, "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." He also writes in Romans 7:6, "But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code." In 2 Corinthians 3:7-10, Paul calls the Law of Moses, even the Ten Commandments ("which was engraved in letters on stone"), "the ministry of death" that was only "transitory," that is, passing away. The writer of Hebrews says that the New Covenant in Christ has made the Old Covenant of the Law of Moses "obsolete" (Hebrews 8:13). Now, the Law of Moses has not been "destroyed" per se, as some may suggest, but it has been changed, fulfilled and superseded by Christ (Hebrews 7:11-12, shows the necessity of change to ensure the priesthood of Christ could occur outside of the Levi).

Again in Ephesians 2:14-15 we read, "For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances." Paul writes that Christ "abolished" in His flesh (suggestive of his death on the cross) "the law of commandments contained in ordinances." He could have simply said that the cross of Christ abolished the condemnation of the Law; however, he doesn't say this. In the context Paul is arguing that what separated the Jews and Gentiles was abolished so that the two could become one. The Jews and the Gentiles were not separated by the condemnatory nature of the Law, for God condemned those with and those without the Law; however, the specific ordinances of the Law were unique to the Jews (Romans 3:1-2). Since the ordinances are what separated them, it was the ordinances that was abolished by Christ's death on the cross. Just as the Jerusalem Council, in Acts 15, acknowledged that neither Jews nor Gentiles were any longer obliged to follow the Law of Moses.

Paul gives two graphic representations to illustrate the transition from the Law of Moses to Christ. In Colossians 2:16 he writes, "So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ." Paul argues that Christians should not allow anyone to judge them for not following the Law of Moses. He calls it a "shadow," where the reality is in Christ. Just before this verse Paul argued that Jesus "wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross" (Colossians 2:14). Jesus has nailed the requirements of the Mosaic Law on the cross. And as verse 16 suggests, not only the condemnation but also the obligations of the Law were nailed to the cross. 

If you have followed my thesis so far, it will have far-reaching implications on how you view the Law, even much of the Old Testament. Since we are no longer under the Law of Moses, neither are we subject to the cursings and blessings associated with it. That will give a lot of problems to prosperity preachers, who argue that Christians can claim the promises of prosperity for obedience in the Old Testament. I must, however, leave this discussion for another day. And there is also much more to be said about the Law of the Tithe, even what Christians are obligated to do with respect to "giving;" however, let it suffice to say that Christians are not obligated to tithe, for the main reason that Christians are no longer under the Law.

Now, there are a lot of flimsy, though noble-sounding, arguments pertaining to the "principle of tithing" or "honoring the Old Testament idea of tithing" or following "Baptist" tradition and all such nonsense, things that the Pharisees also used to double the requirements of the already burdensome Law, but I urge you, my friends, to maintain this rule of thumb: "Do not go beyond what is written" (1 Corinthians 4:6).

Now, on this particular topic of tithing, please understand that it is not what I consider a "core" faith issue (so I wouldn't break fellowship, stop giving, or leave the church over it); however, as it pertains to understanding the place of the Law of Moses in the Christian life and the interpretation of the Old Testament, it has significant implications. I encourage you to search it out for yourselves and be convinced in your own mind (Romans 14:5). Here are some other resources that I make available for you to so that you will make an informed decision about this prevalent but unbiblical practice of "tithing":

Tithing Is Not a Christian Doctrine

Should the Church Teach Tithing? (major paper)

Tithing in the Old Testament and the New Testament: Part I (scholarly)

Tithing in the Old Testament and the New Testament: Part II