Would you believe it that we're still on that eighth commandment?
That's right.
Did you ever think when we started this series of messages on God's 10 rules for living,
and when we got down here to the eighth commandment,
just four little words, thou shalt not steal,
that we would spend this much time on just that one commandment alone?
But it's very important, for in this one commandment,
in just those four little words,
God gives us his full economic system for his people,
for the world, and for his church.
And now we are in that part of that great system that God has for his church.
And I gave that to you in the present tense, not in the past,
for when he gave us these 10 rules for living,
it was not merely for Moses and the children of Israel,
but he looked down through the telescope of time,
and the words that he gave,
the laws that he gave were for all who were to come,
generations out there in the future,
including this 20th century today in which you and I live.
For his laws are not limited to any one generation,
but for all of humanity.
And one could not imagine a God of law,
a God of perfect order,
launching one of the most important institutions in the world, his church.
Without safeguarding it was a business method which would protect its and his honor in the earth.
That's right.
And you know, it never was in the plan of will of God
that all of this reproach that is being brought upon his church,
all of the reproach that is being brought upon his work and the preaching of the gospel,
through men and women who lack wisdom,
lack the knowledge of the word,
in some instances lacking consecration,
by begging for finances to support his work,
by using all sorts of gimmicks to support the preaching of the gospel.
Beloved, our God doesn't have to resort to these small things.
I can't imagine the mighty God of this universe,
God Almighty,
resorting to gimmicks to have to support the most important institution in the world, his church.
No, ma'am.
Knowing God as we do, the mighty God of law,
the mighty God of perfect order,
and that's just exactly what he is.
He is absolute perfection in everything.
Perfection in law, perfection in order.
Therefore, I know that he has worked out some kind of plan that would safeguard his church,
that would protect his church, that would protect his own honor here on earth.
I know that he has made provisions somewhere for the supporting of the preaching of his word.
And he has.
He has not forgotten one thing, not one single thing.
And in this Eighth Commandment, where he has given us his great law,
his great economical law for people, for nations,
and this also includes his church,
the supporting of his church.
Therefore, we had this portion of the word of God as found in the third chapter of Malachi.
Will a man rob God?
Yet ye have robbed me.
But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee?
In tithes and offerings.
Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me, even his whole nation.
Then he goes on to say, bring ye all the tithes in the storehouse,
that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now.
Just prove me.
Right 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.
Then he goes on further and says, because you have accepted my challenge,
because you have dared to prove me, because you have done this thing,
because you have remembered my word, obedient to the word,
because you have been faithful in bringing in of the tithes and the offerings
into the storehouse, had given for the support of my church for the preaching of the word,
I will re-duke the devourer for your sakes,
and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground,
neither shall your vine cast your fruit before the time in the field,
saith the Lord of hosts.
Let's come right down to this practical thing,
and I like to be practical because I feel that God is practical.
And sometimes I'm convinced that the most impractical people in the world
are professing Christians.
They're not consistent sometimes in their living.
They're not consistent in their preaching.
They're not consistent in their thinking.
God is consistent.
God is practical.
And this thing of tithing is the most practical thing in the world.
Don't turn off that radio dial.
Don't you do it.
If I was talking about heaven, oh, you'd love it.
You'd get your chair a little closer, and you'd practically crawl into your radio set.
Listen, I'm talking about something that is for your gain,
something that can be very profitable unto you.
Why tithe?
Let's talk it over.
Why is God reasonable?
Because everything that you and I have, whether it's property,
whether it's health, money, talents, even life itself,
all we have, all we are come from God and prospers by the blessing of God.
And you are absolutely the most stupid person in the world.
You are just an inflated egotist if you feel
that you are independent of Almighty God.
There isn't a person breathing the breath of life this hour.
There isn't a human being living this very minute who is independent of God.
That person, if the old heart is beating, if that person is breathing this moment,
he is dependent on God for the air that he inhales and
for the next beat that his physical heart takes.
Never was a man possessed of a more stupid delusion
than the delusion of self-sufficiency.
That's right.
You say this is mine.
I worked for it.
How much did you pay for the sunshine?
How much did you pay for the moisture?
How much did you pay for the gentle rains?
You pay for what you get?
You work for what you get?
That's marvelous.
But the scripture also says the earth is the Lord's.
It was his sunshine, his air, his rain that germinated the seed, matured the harvest.
And until you can create your own land, until you can manufacture your own air,
your own moisture, your own sunshine, until you can create your own seed,
until you can give life to your creation, then believe me,
be big enough to admit your dependence on Almighty God.
If you really doubt man's independence of God, ask some of those folk
who were in that great earthquake, they were absolutely powerless to do a thing.
They were absolutely helpless.
Why does man get so panicky if he is all sufficient in himself
when the earth begins to tremble a little bit,
staying in the middle of a great storm?
Why does man panic?
Because he's absolutely helpless when it comes to the elements.
There's steel in the hands and in the power of Almighty God.
Why is it that when God says it's enough, and man faces death,
and the old heart is taking its last beat,
that all the money in the world cannot keep that heart ticking a second longer?
Because man's so dependent on Almighty God,
to practice the law of tithing is to acknowledge
that you are dependent on him for his blessing,
his goodness.
To practice the law of tithing puts and keeps God first.
You know, the apostle Paul tells in Timothy
that the love of money is the root of all evil.
You know, some people like to misquote this.
They like to say that money is the root of all evil.
It is not.
The Bible never says it.
It's the love of the thing.
You can have only 10 bucks, and the love of that money,
the love you may only make $5 a week,
and yet the love that you feel for that $5
by taking it and hoarding it, and keeping it unto yourself,
can literally damn your soul.
The love that you have for it, it isn't the amount that you have,
it's what you feel in your heart for that which you do have.
Sure, money isn't a curse.
Money can be one of the greatest blessings in the world
when it's used rightly.
To tithe, whether it's only 10 cents a week,
whether it's only a dollar a week,
by being faithful in taking God's part out first,
you automatically put God first.
It's more than just the eighth commandment.
It goes back to the very first commandment.
And those of you who've been following me
in God's 10 Rules for Living will readily
see that that very first commandment,
thou shall have no other gods before me.
The man who will not give to God has automatically
made money his God.
It isn't how much he has or how much he makes.
He actually has made money his God
if he refuses to give God his part.
Therefore, at the very outset, to practice the law of tithing
puts and keeps God first.
That second commandment, thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image or any likeness of anything.
Many a person has made material things their graven image.
They have worshiped.
They have made it their idol.
Oh, that's the reason Paul says the love of the stuff.
To practice the law of tithing, bringing,
as God hath prospered unto you, the material things of life
into the storehouse, taking God's part out first,
said, all right, God first.
And he's promised that everything else that concerns
you, health, material blessings, spiritual blessings,
everything that concerns you shall be added unto you.
But here is the part I like.
Oh, this is great.
Tithing is absolutely good business.
Now, I'm considered a pretty good business woman
by a few business people.
And I'm interested in something when somebody
says it's good business.
Oh, I'm all ears.
I've had to be because I take care of my own business.
Sure, I don't have anybody else take care of my business.
I take care of it myself.
And tithing is good business.
Do you want to know why?
Because it takes God into partnership.
It binds him by his own law and covenant
to honor those who honor him.
Tithing literally takes God into partnership.
He becomes my partner.
And how in the world can I fail if I have Almighty God
as a partner?
If I'm faithful in giving him his part of that
with which he's blessed me, the tithe, I'm faithful in accepting
this challenge of his, approving him, automatically
he becomes my partner.
And if I have God for a partner, I'm bound to prosper.
I'm sure to be a success, and I want to be a success.
And with him as my partner, we will succeed together.