All right, let's open back up
to Acts 5. Chapter 4, last week, it ended
with so much joy and giving, didn't it? Verse 33 says in chapter 4, with
great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of
the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all. Neither was
there any among them that lacked, for as many as were possessors
of lands or houses, sold them and brought the prices of the
things that were sold." So loving and so giving. And chapter 5 begins by saying,
but. But. A certain man named Ananias with
Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession and kept back part of the price,
his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part
and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias,
why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and
to keep back part of the price of the land? While it remained,
was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it
not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this
thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men,
but unto God. And Ananias, hearing these words,
fell down and gave up the ghost. And great fear came on all them
that heard these things. And the young men arose, wound
him up, carried him out, and buried him. And it was about the space of
three hours after when his wife, not knowing what was done, came
in. And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether you sold the
land for so much. And she said, Yea, for so much.
Then Peter said unto her, How is it that you have agreed together
to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them which
have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee
out. Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the
ghost. And the young men came in, and found her dead, and carrying
her forth, buried her by her husband. And great fear came
upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.
What a frightening event. What a frightening event. For God to record in His Word.
That is one paragraph. You see the little P? The backwards
P at verse 12? That's a paragraph. That's a
complete thought. Right here at the beginning of
the building of the church. When something like this comes
up, When God's word point blank exposes sin, a sin that God killed
on the spot for, the first thing that runs through every child
of God's mind is, is it I? Is it I? Reading this causes every true
child of God to say, I am just as capable, actually more. I'm more capable of doing that
than anybody here. If I don't do that, the only
reason is going to be God's grace. That's it. Now, as I was studying this,
there was one question that I really needed answered. And I believe
the Lord answered it. I would imagine that everybody
has the same question concerning this. What did they do? What did they do? I know verse 2 says they kept
back part of the price. But verse 4 says It was their
own. You see that, whilst it remained,
was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it
not in thine own power? So what did they do? What did
they do that was so unforgivable? We preach grace, don't we? We tell men and women there is
forgiveness in Christ. What did they do that was so
unforgivable? When every person who was there,
including Peter, the one talking, was a sinner. Peter denied the
Lord of glory, right? What did this man and this woman
do that was so unforgivable? We need to know this. We need
to know this. I need to know this because if
God takes his hand off of me for one second, whatever it is
ultimately that they did, my wicked flesh will do it. Alright,
so what did they do? Verse 1 says, it says they sold
a possession. But a certain man named Ananias
with Sapphira his wife sold a possession. Is there anything wrong with
that? No. We do it all the time. Okay. Verse 2 says, they kept back part of the price. Is there anything wrong with
that? No. We do it all the time. God has
not struck me down yet. I have not once gone over to
the bank and told them, close my account, close my checking
account, and make a cashier's check to Kingsport Sovereign
Grace. All of it, every dime. There's nothing wrong with that. Verse 2 says, his wife was privy
to it. His wife knew everything that
was going on. Is there anything wrong with
that? No. No, we're no more two. We're
one flesh, right? Verse 2 says, they brought a
certain part and laid it at the apostles feet. A certain part
of it and laid it at the apostles feet. Is there anything wrong
with that? No. The money itself is not the problem. Verse 3 says, But Peter said,
Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy
Ghost? That's the problem. That's the problem. They lied
to the Holy Ghost. Lord, is it I? Is it I? And we're going to see, I want
to show you something I want to set up. This is serious to
me. And I'm going to show you something. But then we're going
to see what this is. Ultimately, and turn with me
start by turning with me to numbers 30. Numbers 30 verse 2 says, If a
man vow a vow unto the Lord, or swear an oath to bind his
soul with a bond, he shall not break his word. He shall do according
to all that proceedeth out of his mouth. Now I read the text
in the scripture reading and then I read it again so we could
really be familiar with what's going on. This man and this woman
sold a possession. And it said they sold a piece
of land. And they sold it for a certain
amount of money. And they both agreed to say that they sold
it for less than they really did. And they wanted to take a piece
of it and put it in their pocket. And there's nothing wrong with
that. There's nothing wrong with that. But they went and told
the apostles, and they told their brethren that they sold it for
the lower amount. And they said, we're going to
give it all to the Lord. We're selling this, and every
dime we make from this, we're giving it to the Lord. They made
a vow. But they didn't give it all to
the Lord. They lied. All right? Now, this is an earthly
story with a heavenly meaning. Okay? But first, in this earthly
story, we have to see the facts. Go with me over to Deuteronomy
23. Deuteronomy 23. Verse 21 says. When thou shalt vow a vow unto
the Lord thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it. For the
Lord thy God will surely require of thee, and it would be sin
in thee. But if thou shalt forbear to
vow, if you don't vow, it shall be no sin in thee. That which
is gone out of thy lips, thou shalt keep and perform, even
a freewill offering. according as thou hast vowed
unto the Lord thy God, which thou hast promised with thy mouth."
If you vowed it, keep it. I don't care if it was your own
and you said I'm giving a freewill offering. That's God's holy law. All right, now turn with me over
to Ecclesiastes chapter 5. Ecclesiastes 5 verse 1 says, Keep thy foot when
thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than
to give the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not that they
do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and
let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God.
For God is in heaven, and thou upon earth, therefore let thy
words be few. For a dream cometh through the
multitude of business, and a fool's voice is known by multitude of
words. When thou vowest to vow unto
God, defer not to pay it, for he hath no pleasure in fools.
Pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest
not vow, then that thou shouldest vow and not pay. Suffer not thy
mouth to cause thy flesh to sin, neither say thou before the angel
it was an error. Wherefore should God be angry
at thy voice and destroy the work of thy hands? God killed
this man and this woman in the process of giving to the church. They sold this possession, and
I'm sure they gave most of it, probably 80-90% of it. And God
killed them both in the process. You know what that tells us?
This God is holy. Something was not right, and
this God is holy. Our hearts better not be hasty
to utter anything. We need to be careful about anything
that we do in His presence. Anything. Keep thy foot when
thou goest to the house of God. That means whatever we do, we
better do it with fear and trembling, even giving. Even giving. And I'm going to just tell you
that this story, this account, is not about giving. It's not
about giving. But in this, may we see God's
holiness. May God keep us from ever thinking
that we're going to do God a favor. That's what. This poor religious
world believes everything we do, we're doing God a favor. You know, well, I'm going to
do this for the church, I'm going to do that for the church, you know. Turn
with me over to Psalm 50. And doing for the Lord's people
is a wonderful thing. In Acts chapter 4, it was a glorious
thing. But something is not right here.
Acts chapter 50, look at verse 1. It says, The mighty God, even the Lord,
hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto
the going down thereof. Out of Zion the perfection of
beauty God hath shined. Our God shall come and shall
not keep silence. A fire shall devour before him,
and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call
to the heavens from above and to the earth that he may judge
his people. Gather my saints together unto
me, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice, and the
heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God is judge himself. Hear, O my people, and I will
speak, O Israel, and I will testify against thee. I am God, even
thy God. I will not reprove thee for thy
sacrifices or thy burnt offerings to have been continually before
me. I will take no bullock out of thy house. You're going to
give me a bullock? Well, I'm not taking it. Nor
he goats out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest
is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all
the fowls of the mountains, and the wild beasts of the field
are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee, for the world
is mine. and the fullness thereof. It is all mine. It's all mine. May God keep us from ever believing
in our hearts that we're gonna do God a favor. This God is holy. This God is so holy. He said don't work on the Sabbath
day. And we're not going to turn there,
but back in Numbers, Numbers 15, there was a man who picked
up some sticks on the Sabbath day. And I'm sure he was picking
up those sticks for the good of everybody around him. Probably
going to make a fire or who knows what. And God told Moses, you
tell every man in the camp to pick up a stone and take him
outside the camp and stone him to death. I said, do not work
on the Sabbath. This God is holy. Aaron had two sons. Aaron the priest had two sons.
And they performed the office of a priest. And they were going
to offer incense to God just like God commanded them to do. They were going to offer incense
to God. But they didn't get the fire to burn the incense from
off the coals of the altar like God told them to do. They got
the fire somewhere else. God called it strange fire. And as they were standing there
offering incense, God shot fire down from heaven and burned them
both up. And Aaron watched it, his own sons, and the scripture
says Aaron held his peace. He didn't say a word. And Moses told everybody there,
don't uncover your heads, don't rend your clothes, don't do anything
lest you die. Don't anybody move. Do not move. This God is holy. Does that not
scare you? That puts fear in me. This God with whom we have to
do, we have to do. This God that everybody thinks
is just whoever he or she may be, you know, we've got an end
with him. We've got Jesus. I'm sure he's going to put in
a good word for me. This is the God with whom we
have to do and he is holy. He deserves reverence because
he's holy. We would be better off to not
give. than to give pridefully, thinking
that we're doing God a favor. We'd be better off to not give.
Thinking God's going to be proud of me for this. Now, on the flip
side, if a man won't give, God said in Malachi 3 verses 8 to
10, he said he's robbing God. So what does the sinner do? Beg for mercy and for fear. Pray for fear. The fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Don't go back to Acts, but it
said as soon as Ananias dropped, everybody there feared God. And as soon as his wife dropped,
the whole church feared God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. David was going to move the Ark
of the Covenant one time. It had been captured. And he
was going to go get it back. And he got it. And he was so
happy. He was going to bring it back
to Israel. He appointed musicians and dancers. And he was dancing.
And they were happy. And they were bringing the ark
back. And they bought a brand new cart and put it on an ox.
And they set the ark on it. And everything was going great.
And all of a sudden, the ox stumbled. And a sweet, dear man named Uzziah
put his hand on the ark to steady it. The ark, God said, don't
touch it. It was going to fall over and he put his hand on it.
God killed him. And it says that David was afraid
of God and he said, I'm not moving this ark one more inch. Put it
in that house. It was a man named Obed-Edom's
house. And they went home. And it was
there for a few months, and word came, you're not going to believe
the blessings that have come to the house of Obed-Edom. His whole house is blessed. The
ark is blessing the house. So David said, okay, let's go
get it. So he went back, and when he went back this time,
they put it on the cart, they put it on the ox, and they went
six paces and slew an ox. Made a sacrifice to God. And
then they went six more paces. One, two, three, four, five,
six. Stop killing ox. Sacrifice to
God. Is everybody ready? One, two,
three, four, five, six. Stop killing ox. This God is
holy. Man, is this God holy. The greatest display of God's
holiness is in the fact that he killed his own son. We're shocked that a man named
Ananias and a woman named Sapphira died. The greatest display of
God's holiness is in the fact that he killed his own son for
the sin that he bore. Go with me over to Psalm 22. The Lord Jesus Christ said right
here in Psalm 22 verse 1, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? Why art thou so far from helping
me and from the words of my roaring? Oh, my God, I cry in the daytime,
but thou hear us not. And in the night season, and
I'm not silent. But thou art holy. Thou art holy. As many as truly
hear that, they will become greatly afraid. They will become. Whoever God gives ears to hear
in that heart and whoever truly hears it, They will become greatly
afraid because they're going to realize who is able to stand
before this holy God. Realizing that is salvation. It is salvation. Believing that,
and here's the key to this whole message and this whole story,
believing that is salvation. And the reason is because it's
going to cause a man's knee to bow. And it's going to cause
his tongue to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. See, in the holiness
of God Almighty, it's going to cause a man, after his knee has
bowed, after he's already down, to kiss the feet of the Son of
God. He will kiss the Son, lest he
be angry. This happy Jesus kissed the Son,
lest he be angry. Now in all this truth, there's
a message, alright? Here's the message for sinners. Because we already said, you
know, the sin of Ananias and Sapphira, if that's all it takes
for God to kill somebody, why am I still standing? Alright,
here's the message for sinners. Turn with me over to Psalm 91. There is a place where a sinner
like you and me can hide from the wrath of this holy God. There is one place of safety.
Psalm 91 verse 1 says, He that dwelleth in the secret place
of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is
my refuge and my fortress. My God in Him will I trust. Surely He shall deliver thee
from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence.
He shall cover thee with His feathers and under his wings
shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield
and buckler." Every sinner who runs to the Lord Jesus Christ
in fear, believing with all of his heart
that Christ is his only hiding place, The only hiding place
from the wrath of this holy God. Believing, believing with all
of his heart that Christ is his only refuge and his only fortress. Christ is the only shield, the
only buckler. Every sinner that does that will
dwell safely. under the shadow of the Almighty. The problem for Ananias and Sapphira
is they didn't do that. That's the problem. And may this
be a warning. Instead of fleeing to Christ, they lied to the Holy Ghost.
Instead of fleeing to Christ, they lied to the Holy Ghost.
How do you do that? What does that mean? Turn with
me over to Matthew 12. Matthew 12 verse 31 says, Our Lord says, Wherefore I say
unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto
men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven
unto men. What happened to this man and
this woman? What do we learn from the example
God made of this poor man and this poor woman? The blasphemy
against the Holy Ghost, the lie in the heart to the Holy Ghost
is unbelief. That's what it is. The Holy Ghost
is the one who brings the faith of Christ to a sinner. That's
what the Holy Ghost does. When He calls out God's people,
He is bringing the faith of Christ to God's people. And the Holy
Ghost is the one that causes a sinner to believe. The Holy
Ghost is the one who does that. But they did not believe. And
the reason is not because they had the power to resist the Holy
Ghost. The reason is because they were not in Christ. And
Christ did not send his Holy Ghost with God given faith. They were in religion. They were doing what everybody
else was doing. They were watching everybody else do it. Well, we're
going to do it too. They were in religion. The only reason everybody else's
sins were forgiven is because they were in Christ. Nobody was
one whit better than Ananias or Sapphira. The only reason
everybody else's sin was forgiven is because they were dwelling
under the shadow of the Almighty. That's the only reason. Had they
been in Christ, their sin would have been forgiven. But they were not. They did not
believe and God made an example out of them. That example, this
physical example is what every unbelieving sinner is going to
face when he leaves this world. God gave us a physical example of the result of unbelief. Now by their actions, I want
to show you three things they did not believe, okay? And let's
examine our own hearts. If we don't believe these three
things, then we need to be begging for God-given fear. That's what
we need to be doing. But if we do believe these three
things, the reason we do is because we're in Christ. If we believe
these three things, if we honestly say in our heart, I believe these
three things, the reason is because we are in Christ, And He's caused
us to believe it, and He's caused us to dwell safely. All right,
now go back with me over to Acts chapter 5. Verse 8 says, Peter
answered unto her. Ananias was already dead, and
she came in. Peter answered unto her, Tell
me whether you sold the land for so much, that lesser amount,
the lied amount. And she said, yea for so much. Number one, they lied to the
Holy Ghost by not believing that God knew the original amount
of that property. The amount that was in their
heart. Only it was in their heart and the one they sold it to.
Nobody else knew. Here's the spiritual point. They did not
believe God looks on the heart. This Holy God we were just talking
about. This holy God that men and women in religion believe,
well, nobody found out about that one. An unbeliever does not truly
believe that God is looking on his heart, seeing his sin all
the way down to the depths of his soul. Every single sin, all
the blackness of it. If he did, great fear would come
over him. They didn't have that fear, so
clearly they didn't believe that. Until God reveals that to a sinner,
whether he's in the gutter or in the pew, he will not fear
God. He won't. Now let me ask me and
you a question. Do you believe God can see the
wretched depths of your own heart, all the way down, everything
that you are. What does that make you want to do? Run to Christ. Run to Christ, believing that
He is the refuge. He is running to Christ. We run
with the heart. But this poor man and this woman,
they didn't believe that God was omniscient, all-knowing,
all-seeing. They didn't believe He was God.
That's the point. They didn't believe He was God. Alright,
here's the second thing. They lied to the Holy Ghost by not
believing that God would actually punish their sin. Verse 9 says,
Then Peter said unto her, How is it that you have agreed together
to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? They didn't believe this God
was just. That's how Satan tempted Eve,
you know it? Thou shalt not surely die. That's what it says in God's
word, I know, but you're reading that wrong. They didn't believe he was just.
Poor souls in religion. God is just. And he will not
clear the guilty. An unbeliever does not truly
believe that God is going to punish his sin. If he did, he
would fear God. He would fear God. Now, what
do you and I believe? Do you believe God punishes sin? What does that make you want
to do? Run to Christ. I want my sin to be punished
in Christ. Is God going to punish my sin?
Yes, He is. I've got to get to Christ today. Tomorrow is no good. Run to Christ. Believing that He is the refuge
is running to Christ. We run with the heart. Here's the third thing. They
lied to the Holy Ghost. by not believing that all the
reward. All the payment. All the glory. Should go to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now they did something physically that any other person could have
done. But God was looking on their heart. And this represents
something of the heart. They believed they should share
it with him. Spiritually speaking, that is
the heart of religion. That is the heart of religion.
An unbeliever does not truly believe that all the payment
for sin should be ascribed to Jesus Christ. Every dime of it. Now what do you and I believe? Who does the payment belong to?
It belongs to Christ alone. Christ alone. Thou alone art
worthy. All the praise, all the honor,
all the glory, all the work, all the payment, all the reward,
it all goes to Christ alone. Every sinner who believes that
will dwell safely in the secret place. This was their sin. And God kills sinners because
of sin, because of their sin. That's why man is going to die.
His sin. But Paul and Timothy told a Philippian
jailer, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Just believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. And thou shalt be saved. Believe
that he is all that he says he is. And you'll be safe. You'll be hidden a secret place.
That's where I want to be, because this God is holy. I got to be
in Christ. All right, let's stand together.