DON'T ROB GOD!
United Pentecostal Church International
An Oversees Ministries Publication
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Hazelwood  MO  63042-2299  USA
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   Do you recognize that everything you call your own is yours only by God’s goodness?  He has given liberally to all men.  We would forget this fact and become unthankful if His Word did not remind us of it.  Of all that God gives us, He reserves a part for Himself.  It is never ours—it is always His.  We are to return it to Him to support His gospel in this world.

   The principle of “God’s Part” had its origin in the Garden of Eden.  “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it:  for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” Genesis 2:17.       

   Even in the garden, before sin had entered into this earth, God had reserved for Himself a portion of the fruitbearing trees of the Garden of Eden.  This portion of the trees God wanted absolutely for Himself.  It was God’s own portion, and they were strictly forbidden to touch it.  God reserved the tree of knowledge in paradise for Himself, to test and prove Adam and Eve’s faith and trust in Him, as well as their obedience to His will in all things.

   For this same reason a portion of our earnings belong to God.  This is the tithe, or tenth, of our income which is His.  When you earn ten dollars, one dollar is God’s part.  It is a test of our faith and trust in Him.  He wants it to be a means by which we shall constantly recognize and realize our dependence upon Him for our daily bread, and all our needs.  His portion is the tenth part.

   By this means He becomes our partner in business.  When God wants to increase His tenth, He must increase our income nine times as much as His part.  We are the gainer by paying the tithe!

   Abraham, who was justified by faith and the father of the faithful, the example for the Christian, paid tithes to Melchisedec, the priest of the Most High God, who was the type of Christ.  (See Hebrews 7:17)

   In Christ, the Mosaic order was abolished, but the “order of Melchisedec” was re-established.  This order also is supported by the tithe.

   Three hundred and thirteen years before the giving of the law, Jacob promised, “Of all that Thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto Thee” Genesis 28:22.  The tenth part, or the tithe, is the Lord’s.  This has always been true, before the law, during the law and after the law.

   “Will a man rob God?  Yet ye have robbed me.  But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee?  In tithes and offerings.

   “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” Malachi 3:8, 10.

   The tithe is like the seed reserved from the harvest that must not be used so that we may reap another harvest.  If we withhold the seed, or use it up with the other nine-tenths, we need not expect any return the next season.  Nine-tenths, plus divine favor, will go further than ten-tenths minus divine favor.

   Many Christians, by failing to study the scriptures on this important subject, suppose that tithing belonged only to Old Testament saints.  But the epistle to the Hebrews establishes tithing as a New Testament teaching.  From Hebrews 6:20 to Hebrews 8:2, the key thought is that “Jesus is a High Priest after the order of Melchisedec,” and not after the order of Aaron.  That having been positively established, the apostle then next establishes that Abraham paid tithes to Melchisedec.

   Since Abraham paid tithes, we then, who are declared to be “Abraham’s seed,” should prove Abraham.  (See Galatians 3:27-29 and John 8:39.)

   The law of tithing was made for our good and to promote our happiness and success in temporal things, as well as in spiritual blessings.

   “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom.  For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again” Luke 6:38.

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