TITHE STILL APPLIES - Mike Peralta (e ink epub reader txt) 📗

the new form of the passover – by receiving Christ as Lord – still applies.

 

Circumcision

In Genesis 17:9-11 God commands Abraham and his male descendants to undergo circumcision. “Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you.”

Already in Moses’ time, circumcision was not only to be observed as a physical command – it was also to be seen as circumcision of the heart. As we see in Deuteronomy 10:16. “Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiffnecked any longer.” Also Deuteronomy 30:6. “The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love Him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.”

What is very revealing is Jeremiah 9:25-26, “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh —Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the wilderness in distant places. For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.”

God was commanding that circumcision was needed to be “of the heart” and not of the flesh only (in the Old Covenant). Of course now circumcision “of the heart” is still a requirement as stated in the New Testament by Paul the Apostle in Romans 2:26, “So then, if those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised?”

So those who truly love and OBEY God and His commandments (keep the law’s requirement) are truly the ones who are circumcised in heart. So now although we are not required to be circumcised physically we are still commanded to be circumcised in the heart. Again in this way, in the case of circumcision, Jesus did not come to “abolish the law and the prophets” but requires that we obey circumcision “in our hearts.”

So our circumcision is fulfilled by receiving Christ as our Lord and Savior: Colossians 2:11, “In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:”

So it is truthful to say – if you are still practicing or went back to practicing “sins of the flesh” you are uncircumcised in heart – and you urgently need to repent and confess and forsake your sins in order to receive mercy from God. Proverbs 28:13, “He that covers his sins shall not prosper: but whosoever confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy.”

 

CHAPTER 3: THE MORAL LAWS: THESE COMMANDMENTS STILL APPLY

Let us start with:

The Ten Commandments (King James Version):

And God spake all these words, saying, “I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”

1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.

4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

5. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

6. Thou shalt not kill.

7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

8. Thou shalt not steal.

9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

In Romans 3:31 the Apostle Paul states, “Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.” (NIV)

It is obvious here that “The Law” that Paul is referring to AS NOT NULLIFIED are the Ten Commandments as well as the other Old and New Testament commandments that still apply physically – as they are written in the Old and New Testament.

For example we have a short list of these in Malachi 3:5, “And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not Me, saith the LORD of hosts.”

It is still very much true that we are forbidden to practice witchcraft, adultery, swearing falsely, defrauding laborers of their wages, mistreating widows or orphans or strangers (aliens), and not fearing God. Something else to notice about Malachi 3:5 is that these commandments against witchcraft, adultery, etc. are in the exact same chapter as the Tithe Law of Malachi 3:8-12. So if the Tithe Law were to be “done away with” then that would mean we could now practice witchcraft, and commit adultery, etc.

The exact same arguments that some people give for not obeying the Tithe Commandment could be used for not obeying God about adultery, witchcraft, etc. You can’t have it both ways. If we don’t have to Tithe anymore then we would no longer need to obey the commandment against adultery or the commandment against witchcraft, etc. Please don’t let yourself be deceived into thinking that the Tithe commandment or the other commandments in Malachi chapter 3 are “done away with.”

It is obvious that the Old Testament laws (sometimes classified as The Moral Laws) still very much apply and God expects us to obey those laws. We are to uphold these laws.

As the Apostle Paul states in Romans 2:13, “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.”

In truth God has not done away with these commandments. If anything He expects us to obey them even more diligently - since we have been given more ability to obey by the Powerful Blood of Christ and by His Powerful Holy Spirit. As Jesus tells us in Luke 12:48b, “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.” 

Because more is given to us, more is required of us – not less.

 

CHAPTER 4: THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS ARE NOT ABOLISHED

 Matthew 5:17-19 (NIV), 17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

In this passage Jesus explicitly states that neither the Law nor the Prophets have been abolished. This passage alone shows that the Moral Law - thoroughly explained in the Old Testament - has NOT been abolished. They have not been “done away with.” I don’t know how God can make it more clear to us.

Even more emphatically in verse 18 Jesus tells us that heaven and earth will disappear before the Law disappears and everything is accomplished. Needless to say heaven and earth have NOT disappeared. It is absolutely clear from this passage and this verse that The Moral Law has not “been done away with.” It doesn’t matter what man teaches. “Let God be true, and every man be a liar.” (Romans 3:4a) Jesus is most definitely going to hold us accountable to obey His Moral Law.

Believe God exactly as He states in His commands. He will carry out His Word exactly and precisely as He states in His Word. Not as man thinks, but as God says.

 

Old Testament Laws Still Apply

Did you notice in the book of Acts that the New Testament doctrine preached by Paul was validated with the Old Testament. Let us look at Acts 17:10-12, "And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Therefore many of them believed..."

The brethren in Berea validated the apostles Paul and Silas every day. They verified their words with scripture. Dear reader, what scripture were they testing their words with? The answer is with the Old Testament scripture! What happened after they read the Old Testament scripture? Many of them believed! How? This is how:

Romans 10:17, "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

The Word of God, at that time, was the Old Testament scripture. It was not abolished at the cross!

Consider that when Paul wrote 2 Timothy