TITHE OR HELL YOUR CHOICE - Mike Peralta (first ebook reader txt) 📗

obey the tithe anymore – NO WHERE !

For those who wish to look them up, many of the statutes in the Old Testament are listed in the following chapters: Exodus 20-24; Leviticus 16-27; Numbers 18-19, 27-30, 35-36; and Deuteronomy 12-18.

 

New Testament Verses About The Law

“God, who will render to each person according to his deeds: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.” (Rom 2:6-8)

“For it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.” (Rom 2:13)

“Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.” (Rom 3:31)

“Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey— whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?” (Rom 6:16) ‘

"What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” ‘ (Rom 7:7)

"So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.” (Rom 7:12)

“For in my inner being I delight in God’s law;” (Rom 7:22)

“Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law,” (Rom 7:25a)

“The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.” (Rom 8:7-8)

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (James 1:22)

“But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it -- not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it -- they will be blessed in what they do.” (James 1:25)

“Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom,” (James 2:12)

“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?” (James 2:14)

“In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” (James 2:17)

“You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless ? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.” (James 2:20- 24)

“As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” (James 2:26)

 

Summary of “Not Under Law But Under Grace”

• We are under the Lordship (grace) of Christ instead of the lordship of the law. (Rom 7:6-7) Part of this grace that enables you to obey God is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit – which you are commanded to receive.

• Because of receiving God’s grace with the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, we are much more empowered to obey God’s Moral laws. Gal. 5:16, “walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”

• As part of Jesus being our Lord, we are still commanded to obey God’s law – both the New and Old Testament laws. (Rom 2:13, Rom 3:31, Rom 8:7-8)

• Because of our repentance, and Jesus’ sacrifice we have been redeemed from the penalty that our sins deserve and we are set free from the bondage of sin. (Col 2:13-14)

• No-where in the New Testament are we told that we don’t have to obey the tithe anymore – NO WHERE !

 

Chapter 5: Malachi Chapter 3

New International Version

 

1 “I will send My messenger, who will prepare the way before Me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to His temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD Almighty.

2 But who can endure the day of His coming? Who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, 4 and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the LORD, as in days gone by, as in former years.

5 “So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the LORD Almighty.

6 “I the LORD do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.

7 Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty. “But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’

8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob Me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings.

9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing Me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the LORD Almighty. 12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty.

13 “You have spoken arrogantly against Me,” says the LORD. “Yet you ask, ‘What have we said against you?’ 14 “You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out His requirements and going about like mourners before the LORD Almighty? 15 But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it.’ ”

16 Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in His presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honored His name.

17 “On the day when I act,” says the LORD Almighty, “they will be My treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. 18 And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.

It is well known that Malachi Chapter 3 is about robbing God of His tithe. But it is also about other sins. A list of these sins (verses 5,8,14) is as follows:

1. Sorcerers (witchcraft),

2. Adulterers,

3. Perjurers (bearing false witness),

4. Defrauding laborers of their wages,

5. Oppressing the widows and the fatherless,

6. Depriving foreigners of justice,

7. Not fearing God,

8. Robbing God of His tithe,

9. Speaking against God by saying “It is futile to serve God.”

I mentioned this earlier in this book: Did you notice that if the Tithe commandment “was done away with” then that would mean all the other commandments in Malachi Chapter 3 would also be done away with? You can’t have it both ways. All the arguments used to discount and “do away” with the Tithe commandment could also be used to “do away” with the other commandments. Isn’t this a case where “every man is doing that which is right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:5-6) ? Picking one commandment to suit your taste but rejecting another that doesn’t. But God will not change His word for any man – however much He loves him. Remember that Jesus loved the rich young ruler but had to let him exercise his free will and let him go to Hell. (Mark 10:17-27) And this even though the rich young ruler obeyed every commandment except the first commandment – that is about putting God over all other things – including money. (The rich young ruler did not want to give away all his money, as he was commanded, to follow Jesus. His money was his god.)

It is obvious that the other eight commandments (witchcraft, adultery, etc.) in Malachi Chapter 3 have not been “done away with.”

So why would one out of the nine, namely “Robbing God of His Tithe,” be done away with? The answer is, the Tithe Law has not been done away with. In fact stealing from God is a horrible sin to do. How can anyone say they love someone but then steal from that person? The answer is that if you love someone you will not steal what is rightfully theirs. And in this case if you love God you will not steal what is rightfully His. You simply will not.

It is also revealing to notice that the term that God used in Mal 3:8 was Robbing and not Theft. Although being a robber and a thief both mean stealing from another, the term robbery involves a personal assault or threat of assault. For example robbery at gunpoint or knife point or with threat of being beaten. The crime is done personally or against “one’s person.” Whereas theft usually means just stealing something or things when the person is not looking or when they are not present (i.e. at home). So when God says “you are robbing Me.” He considers that to be very personal – against His person. Since God sees all things and is always present, then stealing from God is always Robbery.

I don’t know if you have ever been robbed personally by someone. Well I have and I felt traumatized and violated. When I was about 13 years old I was walking back home from a fast food restaurant and someone, a little taller and older than me (about 14 or 15 years old), grabbed me by my shirt and demanded that I give him my money. Let me tell you - it felt awful. And I even started crying. Now I am no cry baby but that robbery hurt me to my core. Likewise I can sympathize with how God feels when we