Even That is my earnest desire. I want to know what he says He's
gonna teach me and then I want to do it Would we I Mean I'm asking me
would I if God says that's what it says and I know that's what
it means. I Am I gonna butt myself all
the way around that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm gonna bow
to him. I'm gonna bow to him. I pray he'll be with us tonight.
If you want to, turn to Acts chapter four. The title of this message is
Commitment vs. Contribution. Commitment vs. Contribution. We're gonna look
at someone who has a commitment and a family, a husband and wife,
who made a contribution. And I want to tell you, there's
a joke that goes with it. I love jokes, and I love the
gospel, and I don't think the jokes and gospel go well together
too much. I know somebody that literally makes a cartoon out
of the gospel, and it offends me. It belittles it, and I can't
stand it. But there's illustration in this
between the difference in commitment and contribution. I think this
will help us. I heard this years ago. You've
heard it years ago. You can see the gospel on your breakfast
plate. You get up in the morning, you eat breakfast, and you got
two eggs, and you got two pieces of bacon, you got two pieces
of ham. God help us get this. That chicken
made a contribution. That hog made a commitment. It
was totally committed. I don't want to make a contribution.
I want to be made totally committed in the day of His power. I do. I pray that for you, too. There's
so much here to end Acts 4 and begin in Acts 5. I preached on
giving to you. You can go back and listen to
that. Many of you, you have been, you told me you've been listening
to the gospel for 35 years. You know all this. I don't need
to, I don't need to tell you. You can, you can give me chapter
and verse of 15 different places about giving. And I gave you
the book on it. It's wrote down. That's a good
outline. I'd give you the same things. We're good to go. It's going
to be about giving. That's what took place. But I don't want
that to be, I don't want to, I don't want to address that
tonight. Many throughout time, they preach this text here of
Ananias and his wife. And they'd say, y'all don't keep
back from giving on the Lord. I don't want to address that.
No, I don't want to address the action. I want to address the
heart. I want us to see the difference and maybe God will put the fear
in us. I hope we're scared to commit,
hope we honor him to commitment and not be contributing, but
be committed to Christ. That's what I want us to look.
The Lord's give us a stark contrast between the two things that look
very similar here at the end of Acts four to begin in Acts
five. And he does that to teach us a spiritual lesson. He does
that to show us his handiwork. I pray to teach us. We're going
to see that throughout. There's other places he does
this, too. He gives a stark contrast. And somebody could argue, well,
there's a lot of similarities there. The Lord has to teach
us these things in the heart. It says in verse 32, Acts 4,
32. This is who it's speaking about. And the multitude of them
that believed were of one heart and of one soul. Those that did
not believe, they weren't of one heart and they weren't of
the same soul. And they're going to leave. But these that turned
together, they had one heart, one soul, one spirit, one baptism,
one Lord, one reason for being on this earth. Now we got to
get groceries, keep lights on, yeah, I understand that. Why?
I gotta have a shelter over my head so I can be able to preach
the gospel. I gotta have food in my belly so I can tell somebody
about what Christ has done for me. They were of one heart and
one mind. Neither said any of them that
all of the things which they possessed was his own. But they
had all things in common. This isn't communal living. Something
had changed in these people. No longer did they say, that's
mine. Well, this is my house, and this is my food, and this
is my that, and my car, and whatever. They said, this, everything I
have, my health, my hair, my eyes, my children, God gave me
five talents just like he gave you five talents, Mike. Gave
me a wife and four children. It's his. He gave it. They didn't say it's mine. That's
what the text just said. They didn't say it's mine. They didn't
say that no more. They said he's letting me hold on to all these
things and not just so I can live it up. It's for his glory
and for the furtherance of the gospel. That's the only reason
I have this. It's the only reason I'm alive
physically and spiritually. It's for him and for his people,
for my brethren. Difference, isn't it? I like
going to church. That ain't like going to church. That's family.
It's a family. One flesh, one mind, one soul,
one body. Verse 33, and with great power
gave the apostle witness, apostles witness of the resurrection of
the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all. Did they ask
and receive? Did they earnestly ask? You remember
the last time we looked at this? What was these brethren praying
for in one accord? Those religious folks that came,
you said, you stop doing what you're doing, stop your method,
stop what you mean, stop your message. And they said, you figure that
out. You go think about, listen to a man or listen to what God
says. I've already judged that you judge. And they went back
and they told the brethren, they warned them. I said, here's what
these tricksters are doing. What did they ask for? Remember,
they praise God and declared his holiness and his sovereignty.
He's on his throne. And that just eases a whole bunch
of stuff. And then they asked for something. They had a petition.
Look at verse 29. And now Lord behold their threatenings. and
grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak
thy word, by stretching forth thine hand to heal, and that
the signs and wonders may be done in the name of thy holy
child Jesus. All these things they could have
asked for. Lord, get us out of this mess and don't let these
people pick on us and make all this arguing stop. And they said,
make your servants bold. Give them plainness and clarity
and courage. Tell them people simply what
you said so Christ gets a glory for it and heal them in the process.
Did they get it? That's what they asked for. Great
power was given. great grace was upon them all."
At the end of verse 33, all that believed, the church of God,
the bride of Christ, in great power and in great grace, God
did exactly what He put in their hearts to ask Him to do. He did
it. He did it. Verse 34, neither
was there any among them that lacked, for as many as were possessors
of land or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the
things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles' feet,
and distribution was made unto every man according as he had
need." Somebody needs something, give it to them. And Joses. By the apostles was surnamed
Barnabas, which is being interpreted the son of consolation. Throughout
the rest of this, it's gonna be referred to as the son of
comfort. Son of comfort. And Levite, now the country of
Cyprus, having land. Barnabas had some land, sold
it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.
Doesn't say he said a word. It's just recorded that he did
it. Barnabas had some land. And I'll tell you something else
Barnabas had, good common sense. Old brother Don said that a lot.
Faith and good common sense go hand in hand, right? And that
book I gave you Don wrote about providing for the local assembly,
he said it takes a lot of things, but plainly, what it also takes
is cold hard cash. It's just so, right? You got
a daughter, she's gonna have to have her car worked on. We'll
take money to fix it. You know, you got a flat tire.
You're gonna need a new tire. We're gonna have to have cash
to do it. And Barnabas knew that. He had prayed with those others.
You gotta keep lights on, you gotta keep bills paid. These
men's gonna go out and preach. They're gonna have to have food and shoes
and we need them studying. He prayed with others. Give these
servants boldness to preach Christ and use it to call out your people
just like you called me out, Lord. You came to save sinners, guess
what? That's me. None of that stuff I have is
mine anyway. Sell it all off. Let's go. Are
we here just for our own comfort? Well, I've already had the comforter
and it filled me with such love. I want somebody else to hear
it, don't you? Or we just keep it bottled? What
does the Lord say you light a candle? What do you do, stick it underneath
your bed? People get as mad as they want to me about me or to
me about that. And that's what God said. And
they just want to back off of it or bow to him. No, you put it on
a candlestick. Farmers prayed for it. This needs
to be done, obviously. So he said, get it done. Do it. That ain't done? Do it. Don't
talk about doing it. Do it. Ese quam videre. To be,
not to seem. Them old Latin writers got that
down. I don't want to be a wannabe, I want to be a is-be. Do it!
And he did it. The Lord worked in him is what
it was. Great power was on him. Great
grace was bestowed upon him. I was thinking of Henry and Doris.
The Lord took Henry home. Doris ain't far from it. She'll
be 100 the day after my birthday. They needed a house to live in
after he couldn't preach anymore. Somebody sat around, they said,
boy, let's just talk about getting them a house for three or four
days. They went and bought them a house. Said, here's a house, take it.
And 20 years later, after them believers are dead and gone,
that was needed. That's what's putting her, giving
her care and all that stuff in the home now. That was easy. I needed a vehicle. I was spending
more money in repairs than I was car payments. Another believer
across the country heard, got word of it. New car sitting out
there. You don't need to be worrying about changing alternators. You
can worry about studying. That was the note on it. Just
needs done, get it done. There are men and women that
the Lord uses in that way. And Barnabas had no need for
land, did he? He could have sold half of that
land and said, here's nobody. Peter and John didn't tell anybody
to sell nothing. They didn't say, go sell your
stuff. They didn't say a word. The Lord
laid that on their heart, made them willing. And they were generous
people. And he sold all of it. Why did
Barnabas do that? He's about to be used to preach
all over, wasn't he? He's gonna be Paul's traveling
companion. He's gonna preach the gospel everywhere he could. Except for at one place, I don't
like that place. No, he didn't care. God made him a servant.
He was going to use him. He trusted the Lord with his
eternal soul. He trusted the Lord to be his
righteousness. He trusted Christ as his wisdom,
as his king, as his husbandman, as his redeemer. And he had a
heart to be a servant to him. That's a willing heart. That's
a man who's been forgiven much. He wasn't bragging about nothing.
He just did it. God recorded it. If someone wants to preach
or be a pastor, they don't want to go someplace cold or someplace
hot, or I won't go here, I won't go here. They haven't been given
a heart to do that. Barnabas was given that grace. Here's the contrast. That's commitment. Lord, I commit everything against
that day. All of eternity is in your hand. I thought of them Indians up
in Manhattan whenever we went and bought Manhattan Island or
Long Island or whatever it is off them Indians. We'll give
you $37. They laughed at our faces. Who could own land? Yeah,
whatever. Give me $37. Take some beads
too. It's laughable. It's Lord's land. Here's a contrast. Acts chapter
5 verse 1. There's a certain man named Ananias.
And Sephara, his wife, sold a possession. They didn't sell every possession.
They didn't sell everything they had. They just had one. They just
sold a possession and kept back part of the price, his wife also
being privy to it. She wasn't hoodwinked. They sat
down and talked about it. He said, here's what we're going
to do. We're going to sell something. And I've heard everybody that's
preached on this or wrote on it, pick something, whatever. They sold
it for 10 grand. And they said, we're going to tell them we sold
it for eight and we'll keep two. I don't know. Just pick something. She
knew what was going on. And they brought a certain part,
what they had agreed on, and laid it at the apostles' feet.
There's a few lessons here too. We must know what the scriptures
say, but we must understand it too. And I don't know if I've
clearly said what I mean when I say that. I don't want to just
know what God says, I want to understand it. I mean that we
need to see these scriptures through the lens of the gospel
and comparing scripture with scripture. We have to have some
understanding. Somebody could quote, well, but,
Paul said in Ephesians 5, 22, wives submit to your own husbands
as unto the Lord. That means whatever, you just
do what he says. That gives good out, don't it?
Well, my husband, he told me to, and I have to listen to him
like I obey the Lord, and so I did what he said, so I'm okay.
It's God's fault. Turns out the women don't fall
far from our father Adam either, do they? You know what Adam said? He said, the woman thou gavest
me, she gave me the tree and I didn't eat. The Lord also says
in Luke 14, if any man come to me and hate not his father, his
mother, and wife, and children, and brethren and sisters, yea,
his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever
does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
Does that mean you got to go home and punch your spouse in
the head and pack your clothes and leave? No, of course not.
Let's have some understanding, don't we? How would you obey
him? As unto the Lord! Right? You
don't study that gospel no more. You're gonna go over here to
a Lutheran church or a Catholic or a Southern Baptist or pick
one. It don't make a difference. It's all the same. It's false.
Or football. We're gonna go to the Super Bowl
every weekend. And you ain't listen to that gospel no more.
Well, now we got a problem. It's time for choosing upsides.
And we're either gonna land on the side of the fence where Christ
has put us and made us stay there and we'll thank him for it, or
we'll go to our own devices, all the way to burn in eternity
without him. Barnas was given a heart of commitment.
Why? The Lord said, my people will be willing in the day of
my power. He made him willing. He made
him willing. How? Through the preaching. Verse
33 in chapter four says, and with great power gave the apostles
witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace
was upon all of them. They were there in person. Lord
in power. The Spirit was with them. He
was gracious to them. It was real. It wasn't an idea. It wasn't something somebody
else said, well, I think so-and-so was blessed. They was. Barnabas
was. Giving's a grace. That's what
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 8, see that you're bound in this
grace also. What is that? Well, money. Well, money's part
of it, but giving of yourself. Giving of your time. Giving of
your family. Some of my family ain't here
tonight. They're committed. They're not making a contribution.
They're committed to the furtherance of this gospel, and that looks
different sometimes, don't it? We'll be with us. Your prayers.
I thought of one person's banana pudding in a couple different
locations around this country. There's some ladies that are
really good at making banana pudding, and they make me banana pudding.
That makes me real eager to go study, because they might be
bringing banana pudding. They have a heart of love, don't they?
Barnabas was given a new heart, and that new heart was committed
to Christ. It was committed to his people, and it was committed
to his gospel. Ananonis and Sapphira, they gave a contribution. How
much was it? Who knows, and it don't matter.
Remember that woman at the well? She gave two mites. The Lord
said she gave all she had. Lock, stock, and barrel, buddy.
She's committed. Like I said, this isn't a lesson
on giving or how much to give. This is a heart problem. And
the Lord's showing us this. He's showing us this contrast
here. And he's going to tell us why at the end. God's going
to tell us why he wrote this. Let's see if it applies to us.
Does it apply to me? Does it apply to you? Acts 5,
verse 3. 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. Oh, buddy. Is that different than saying,
what you're doing is a little bit wrong, let's go to the side
and talk? Or to look somebody in the eye and say, why has Satan
failed you? A little hard? And he says, and to lie against
the Holy Ghost. That's God. Let's try you and
God. You've lied to God. Peter's calling
him out, isn't it? I thought my oldest showed up
late to church one Sunday. And he came to me after, as he
should have, and he said, I'm sorry, I apologize, I was wrong,
I was late. And I said, well, you've done
it in my sight, but you've offended God. This is his worship service. Do we see it as such? If I pray
the Lord, make his heart see it as such. I don't care if that
hurts or not. Somebody told Henry one time, he got through preaching,
went to the back, shook everybody's hand on the way out the door.
And they said, Henry, he said, you really stepped on my toes.
Something you said tonight. And Henry said, man, I missed.
I was shooting for your heart. Wouldn't that be something God
deal with us in the heart, not the head? Might make us committed. Whole
hog, pun intended. Verse four. While it remained,
was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it
not in thy power? He said, whenever you own that patch of land, Ananias,
nobody told you to sell it. I didn't tell you to sell it.
Nobody else told you to sell it. You didn't have to sell it.
And once you sold it, you could have said, hey, we're going to
give you half. Nobody told you how much you had to give. That's
another lesson I learned, too. You tell believers they have
to give 10%, you're gonna hobble them. You're gonna muffle them
down. They'll give way more than that.
They don't give just 10%. I've said that before. Believers don't
give 10%. They give a lot more than that, don't they? Why hast
thou conceived this thing in thine heart? See the problem
here, the contrast, what Barnabas did? This is a heart matter.
This ain't a math problem. We got calculators, we're adults.
We act like we ain't, but we are. We can get a pencil, piece
of paper, figure this thing out. That's not what the Lord is teaching
his people. He's teaching us a heart problem.
He says, why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou
hast not lied unto men, but unto God. Don't matter what I think,
don't matter what somebody else around here thinks. You're lying
to God. Paul told us that in 2 Corinthians
9. He that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly. He that soweth
bountifully shall reap bountifully. We know that. We understand that.
Every man according as he hath purposed in his heart, let him
so give, not grudgingly or of necessity. Well, how much do
you need? Well, how much do you have to have? We covered that
too, didn't we? Naming, lessons he learned. God loveth a cheerful
giver. How? I mean, Tim, I mean this,
buddy. Me, you don't know me like I
know me. How am I gonna be a cheerful giver? How am I gonna be happy
about it? 2 Corinthians 9.8, the next verse
says, and God is able to make all grace abound towards you.
That grace of giving, he said, I'm gonna put it in you. It's
the Lord's doing, just like everything else. Salvation's the Lord's
doing. Providence is the Lord's doing. Creation's the Lord's
doing. My perseverance is his doing. We'll get to that in a
second. How am I going to make it to the end? He's going to
do it. If I look to me or anybody else
or you, if you look to me, you're going to get disappointed and
mad. You compare me to somebody else, you'll find somebody else
way better than me. If we look to him, you ain't going to want
nothing. You ain't going to want nothing.
Why did Ann and I keep back part? Keep part back. First was greed.
I thought of that. Covetous is the means to maintain
pride. I've never read that, never heard
nobody tell me that. I probably have and I just, it's gone. Covetous
is the means to pride. It maintains pride. Being proud
and self-willed, it takes cold hard cash too. Look good, smell
good, drive a nice car, whatever. Or to have status, to have power,
to have titles, respect. It'll cost some stuff, isn't
it? Money's not evil. There have been a ton of very
wealthy believers throughout the scripture and throughout
time, people, I've known everything else. Money's not the root of
evil. The love of money's the root of evil. That's what can
get you, isn't it? That's the first reason, was just greed
and pride. Second, Ananias was jealous of the recognition that
Barnabas had. And this got me, I hope it gets
you. How was Barnabas recognized? God wrote it down, so we'd read
it tonight. You ever think about that? God saw it. And he said, I respect Barnabas,
and I respect what he gave. Because I'm the creation that's
in him, and I gave him what he gave to give back to man. They
did. And he recorded it. And they
saw that, didn't they? God had Luke write it down so
we could read it tonight. Don't let your left hand know what
the right hand's doing, right? It looked good, what Ananias
and his wife was doing. You know, they agreed that the
Pharisees was wrong. but they didn't see themselves as wrong.
Can we come up with nine-nine thesis? Can we come up with nine-nine
problems in our lives or something going on? Can I come up with
nine-nine problems with me? Have I been wrong? Have you been
wrong? Ooh, now it's different, isn't it? I've got some skin
in the game. Now we get some commitment. It ain't a contribution. They lied and said God had saved
them. That's the heart problem. They were parading themselves
around with believers and underneath the sounds of the gospel, they
were tears and they're saying, we're Christians. We've been
Christians long time. I know, I know, I know, I know
everything and I've been around a long time. But obviously they
had not. Hypocrites, isn't it? What's
the scripture say? Except you deny yourselves. I'm
the problem. No, I had it right and I finally
found the gospel. Did the gospel find me or did
I find the gospel? Come on now. The Lord said he finds his people. He said my sheep was ones that
lost and I went and got them. They weren't looking for a shepherd
and they found me. I found them. So what the word says, we believe
his commandments, keep his words. Lord keep them here in my heart.
Show me I'm nothing, he's all. Third, Ananias did not have commitment
to Christ. He may have been called a Christian,
but there was no new creation. You see the difference? He may
have had the title. He may have had the steel-toed
boots and the dip and the beard and all that stuff, but he wasn't
a man. You get it? He may have had the title of
Christian. He may have had a bunch of verses memorized. He may have agreed
all them Pharisees was bad, but there was no commitment to the
person of his Savior, the one that bled for him, the one that
came here and bore his guilt, his shame. Think about that.
This isn't a legal trade. Is it shameful to you? That's
what he bore. Barnes said, that's my Lord.
We'll kill you, Barnes. We'll get to killing. and an eyesore to hang around.
He had a good social group. He was hedging up his bets is
what he was doing. This is the spiritual picture here. He's
clinging to his old means of support just in case. Just in
case Christ didn't do it all. This ain't got squat to do about
money. Just in case Christ didn't do it all, I'll clean up my cup. I'm gonna look good around these
elders and these deacons and these bishops and whatever. The
church community, these are God's people. I'm gonna donate to the
poor and let people see me doing it. It's a guilty conscience
trying to keep itself out of judgment. Self-will, that's what
it is. We'll look later on in Acts 17,
Paul stood amidst a Mars hill and he said, you men of Athens,
I perceive that in all things you're too superstitious. Paul
walked into this real religious place, said, y'all too religious.
That's what superstitious means, overly religious. Y'all play
in church. And he said, I passed by and
I beheld your devotions. I listened to you pray. And I
found an altar over here that the inscription says to the unknown
God. You're hedging up your bets all over town just in case. You're
betting on black and red, odds and evens, whatever you can. You're looking out for number
one, not looking to Christ is what you're doing. And he says,
guess what? I'm about to tell you one you ain't never even
heard of. Hold on to your britches. Here we go. What am I getting at? We cannot
fellowship with the Lord's people and worship Christ and still
fellowship with those that don't believe and those that support
a false gospel. We can't be in the same boat. We can't be fellows
in the same shit. It's impossible. We can't have
one foot over here keeping these people happy and one foot over
here keeping these people happy. Well, Kevin, that's just too
hard. Now you're getting mean and you ought to open up your eyes
a little bit. Maybe we get more people in the seats if we were to be
a little more forgiving. Well, guess what God says? No
man can serve two masters. Either he will hate one and love
the other, or else he will hold to one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God or man. Paul said, don't be unequally
yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship does righteous
have with unrighteous? What communion can you have?
Light and darkness. He goes on to say, wherefore
come out from them. Come out from them. Be ye separate, saith
the Lord. Touch not an unclean thing, and
I'll receive you. I'm gonna be your father, you're gonna be
my children. He brings them out at the exodus, right? You don't
leave them there. Don't leave half their investments
there and half their, well, we go worship there on Tuesdays
at the first Baptist church. Wednesday goes to the third Baptist
church and pick another number on other nights. No, you're going
to be committed to a person, your husband. That's who it is.
Peter's saying, Ananias, God looks on your heart and there's
no love for Christ there. Satan's tricked you. He's beguiled
you and you locked it. That's a hard Satan, isn't it? That's exactly what Daniel warned
Belshazzar about. Without repentance, might I add.
Same as Ananias. Belshazzar said, or Daniel said,
here's what it says. It says, Tico on that wall. You
know what that word means? The art weighed in the balance and
found wanting. And that night, Belshazzar died.
He didn't cry out for mercy. What'd he do? He said, clothe
Daniel in the best garments we got. Give him position. He'll
be the third to land. We like this fella. He didn't cry out
to God. Why'd you lie, Ananias? What
if he said, "'Cause I'm a liar, "'cause I'm sin. "'I didn't become
a sinner "'cause I lied, I lied "'cause that's what I am.'" I'm
a dead dog sinner. He'd have been accurate, wouldn't
he? Maybe he understood something. What if he said, let God be true
and every man a liar, because that's every one of us. We tell
truth, especially at New Creation. There's nothing but truth. There's
nothing that can't sin. We tell the gospel, and we tell about
man, tell about Christ and what he did and where he's at now.
We've got an old nature, man. That did not happen. Why didn't
Ananias repent? I'll tell you as plain as I can.
He hadn't done nothing wrong in his eyes. I apologize when
I do something wrong. I was almost wrong one time back
in 87. But I was mistaken. We're proud,
ain't we? He hadn't done anything wrong.
He said, well, it's pretty good. I gave a bunch to the church. He hadn't
sinned. And he sure didn't know who he
had sinned against. Peter cut him straight to the
bone. He said, you lied to God. Satan's filled you up. These things are plain. We want
to do his commandments, like my brother Mark read, right?
Keep his word. Should believers cheat on our
taxes? No. No, we shouldn't. It's plain
as day. Go read Matthew 27. Chapter and verse. Matthew 27,
24 through 27. Or Matthew 17, 24 through 27. There it is. Don't cheat
on your taxes. We aren't getting anything over
on Gavin Newsom. We're trying to get one over
on God. Against thee and thee only have
I sinned. I'm not hurting anybody by being lazy at work. Yes, we
are. You are to work as unto the Lord. All things are His,
whether it's a boss, a principality, a power, a governor, whatever. Lord's done that. Ananias did
not know what those who believed knew, and he could not convict
himself of sin, and he had no interest in convicting himself
of sin. That's a work of God alone to be done, to see that
I'm the problem. That's one-on-one. Matthew 22,
he said to him, Render therefore to Caesar the things which are
Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's. Well, if it has
his inscription on it, now is this a law or an ordinance and
start splitting hairs, right? No. That's Caesar. That's God's Caesar. Do you get
that? How about it? That fellow Gavin Newsom, that's
God's governor. You have a different understanding,
don't you? We see things differently. The Lord said that in Matthew
22, so when they heard these words, they marveled and they
left him and went their way. I ain't listen to that. I ain't gonna
have that man Caesar reign over me or you or anybody else. Shame. Acts 5, 5. And Ananias, hearing
these words, fell down and gave up the ghost. Oh. And great fear came on all them
that heard these things. And the young men arose, wound
him up, carried him out, buried him. What a pitiful, shameful
end to the earthly body of Ananias. Wound up, carried out, and buried.
You know, I thought that's the exact opposite of what the Lord
did for Lazarus. That's what happens to dead men.
What happened to that living man, Lazarus, who physically
was dead? He said, Lazarus, come forth. We're out there in this
graveyard, all over. Dead folks. Lazarus, come forth.
Lazarus came forth. And what'd he say? Wind him up. No, loose him. Let him go. Peter said, you lied to God. Why'd you do that? And Ananias
died. I had a question that come to
my mind. And I thought about each and every person that would
likely be here tonight. Walked around my property today
and took trash out and vacuumed the floors here, did whatever.
I thought about each of you. You probably have the same question
I have. Do you know that? It probably came up in your mind.
I bet it came up in Ananas' mind. If you was in his shoes, what
would you think? How did Peter know? I spent a lot of time this week
thinking about that. How did Peter know? We could come up with a lot of
reasons. Well, the Holy Ghost conviction and this and that. Who cares?
We've lied to God. You get that? Our instinct for
self-preservation is to say, well, how'd he know? Where's
the information? Where'd he get his facts? Somebody tell him,
did they overhear us talking? We've sinned against God. There's danger, eternal damnation,
and we're worried about stuff that doesn't matter. We need to be committed to Christ,
his gospel, his word, his people. It's the only thing lasting.
Verse 7, Acts 5, and it was about the space of three hours after
when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in. Peter answered
unto her, Tell me, whether ye sold the land for so much? And
she said, Yea, for so much. I thought what a gracious thing.
Opportunity for mercy. Man cannot charge God with cruelness. No man can ever charge God with
being stoic. and cold, and no man can ever
charge God with indifference. The ramp to that ark was open,
just like it is right now in San Diego County on June 5th,
2024. I don't know when it's gonna
close, but I know it's open right now. Get my thesaurus out, there's
an evangelical call. Come, beg him for mercy, we're
wrong. All flesh is grass, behold your
God. Do you see what's happening here? Is Peter doing his job? I gave him a job and he's doing
it. Verse nine. And Peter said unto her, how
is it that you've agreed together to tempt the spirit of the Lord?
Behold the feet of them which have buried thy husband at the
door and shall carry thee out. Then fell she down straightway
at his feet, and yielded up the ghost. And the young man came
in and found her dead, and carrying her forth, buried her by her
husband. Why did the Lord allow all this to take place? Why did
He record it in His Word? Why am I telling you tonight?
I said we're gonna see if this applies to us. Does this apply
to you? Does this apply to me? Does this apply to you? It's
for His glory and for the good of His people. Look at verse
11. And great fear came upon all
the church. Not everybody in town. That's
people probably shaking in their boots, got a little superstitious
for a little while, and that faded away quickly, didn't it? But
for God's people, for his bride, for his church, great fear came
upon them. Those great power came, great
grace was bestowed upon them, and in through that great grace,
instead of cartwheels and candy corn, it's great fear. You worship
God fear and tremor. You kiss his son. That's what
his word says, isn't it? And upon as many as heard these
things. I thought of another mirror image situation just like
this. When the Lord shows us two things
that could look so similar, but it's so opposite and it's teaching
us something. How he saves sinners, he's teaching
us lessons, how to do things in life when we come to things,
to honor God, to see we're nothing, to our dependency on Christ and
his blood and everything. And the more the days go on,
the more the need is. What do you think? If there's
something else that's real similar like that, Cain and Abel, wouldn't
it? Cain and Abel. I'm running out of time, but
let's look at it. Genesis 4. I want you to see it with your eyes.
It'll be good for us. We can hear it, see it. We'll apply
it to our hearts. Remember, Abel was a keeper of
the sheep and Cain was a farmer. It says in Genesis 4, verse 3,
And in the process of time, it came to pass, right on time,
that Cain brought the fruit of the ground, an offering unto
the Lord. And Abel, he also brought the
firstling of his flock, of the fat thereof. And the Lord had
respect unto Abel and unto his offering. But unto Cain, and
to his offering, he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth and his
countenance failed. And we know what happens. The
Lord said, what's wrong with you? If you'd have done good, everything
would have been fine, wouldn't it? The heart and the offering
are connected. Do you see that? The heart and
the offering are connected. Whether somebody gives $50 million,
to support the gospel. That's great. That woman that
gave, that widow that gave the two mites, she gave according
to her heart, as it was purposed in her heart, as the grace that
the Lord had given. It's his doing in his people. You understand
that? There's these two similar, Cain
and Abel. Both of them, I bet those are the best vegetables
there ever was. But that's wonderful. But the heart was different.
The heart said, I did that. And I got some vegetables at
the house, and Cain, Abel said, I didn't, I just watched these
sheep, and there's more sheep coming out of them. You did that,
Lord. You make the hinds to calve."
I know that. The heart is connected to it. I remember Brother Henry years
ago was preaching on TV and somebody came to him, a lawyer came to
him after we recorded and they said, hey, there's a lady, this is
back in the 80s, a lot of money. A lot of money now, whoa, a whole
lot of money back then. Said, Leigh's left you a million
dollars for the church here at 13th Street. I said, wow, use
that all over. We'll send it as fast as we can
get it mailed out. This is great. And I said, yeah, it's the craziest
thing. I said, look, she left you a million dollars, and Jimmy
Swagger a million dollars, and Billy Graham a million dollars.
Henry said, you tell that lawyer to keep it. Go give it to them
other two. We don't want it. We could have used what Judas
say. We could have used this money for good, right? That's
what Judas did. Hannah said, keep it, the heart ain't in it.
She ain't doing that to her lord. Doesn't matter if it's a dollar
or a million dollars. How'd he know that? Who cares? Ooh, wish they could have talked
to her while she's alive, don't you? Maybe that boldness would
have been there. Maybe God would have healed her
like these brethren just prayed for. Then you could have burnt
that money and kept warm in the wintertime and we'd have been
happy. We'd had everything we needed. That offering is connected. What we bring to God is based
on the heart he's put in us. Do we bring our prayers, our
experience, our longevity, our drive, or whatever? I don't know.
Pick something mankind thinks is good. Our gift gift? Or do
we bring his son? May the Lord put a heart that's
bound to Christ in us and never let us play, or trifle, or entertain,
or flirt with the gospel. Because that's what Ananias and
his wife was doing. Dangerous thing, isn't it? You can read
1 Corinthians 11, I read that often, or every time, just about,
we have the Lord's table. But Paul gives very clear instruction
after that. Let every man examine himself.
He says that's why some of you are sick, some of you are dead.
You're taking the Lord's body and blood in vain. You're trifling
with it. You're just flirting with it,
a certain commitment. You're just making a little bit
of contribution to your time. You're gracing the doors of the church
house with your wonderful presence once a week, or once every two
weeks, or once every six months, and you call yourself faithful.
He warns them strongly. What does that do when great
fear comes upon all the church? As many had heard these sayings,
great fear came upon them. You see what Barnabas just did?
That's wonderful. He's about to use him like crazy.
And Ananias and his Sapphires, dead. Graveyard dead. God of
the Bible kills people. Believer, I'll close my eyes.
Believer, does that put fear in your heart? First thing I
thought of, the Lord said, one of y'all around this table, eating
this supper with me, is a devil. And they went around, and 11
of them looked him dead in the eye and cried out, Lord, is it
I? That conviction of sin was already
there. Remember, and nice with the sinner. I ain't done nothing
wrong. Just stiff neck, grit his teeth, and drive forward
as hard as he can. I'm right. Those 11 apostles said, Lord,
is it I? I'm next. Judas, if he fell, I don't stand
a chance. Lord, it's me, it's gotta be
me. One of them said, master, is it I? Teacher? He said, you
just said it. Little children, it's the last
time. And as you've heard that the
Antichrist shall come even now, there's many Antichrists, those
against Christ. People worry about some kind of weird Chupacabra
or something those that ain't for Christ or against him whereby
we know it's the last time they went out from us But they were
not of us for if they had been of us They would have no doubt
continued with us that commitment was there God as he says in the
Psalms will melt their hearts There's a new creation there.
He ain't gonna lose it Tell we don't lose it that they might
be made manifest that they were not all of us. And then John
said, is it my next? Lord, is it I? And he said, but
ye have an unction from a holy one. And you know all things. He said, I've not written these
things to you because you know not. He said, but because you
know it. We know these things, don't we?
We know there's some commitment and contribution. I don't want
to just sit here and play and give 10% of my time and my effort,
my prayers, I want to be in Whole Hog. Lord didn't give me 10% of his
son, did he? He didn't pay for 10% of my sins. He didn't give
me 90%. He didn't give me 99.999999. Oh, he gave himself, didn't he? That's what John goes on and
says, who's a liar? He denies that Jesus is Christ. He's Antichrist.
He's a father and son. To say that the Lord didn't do
this and I can shore up my bets just in case I'm gonna hold something
back. Not money, confidence, security, ability, trust. God gave great power to preach
to those servants. He gave great grace to receive
it. God gave, through that judgment of Ananias and Sapphira, great
fear, seriousness, awareness, consciousness. And you know what
will be the end of all that? I said, Peter, I can't believe
you preached that. Chapter eight, it says great joy was in that
city. If the Lord comes in great power
and gives us great grace, makes us fear and tremble at his son,
kiss the son lest he be angry, there will be great joy. Then
frowns will turn upside down and hit a lot of fire that can't
be put out. Like old Tyndale said, I'm gonna see it, and every
plow boy in this nation knows more about the gospel than you
high priests do. They killed him by fire. Lord
lit a fire there, couldn't be put out. It's died down, spread
this way. Boy, we got it burning now. What
we gonna do with it? Hide it under a bed somewhere?
It'll be with us, huh? Let's pray. Father, thank you
for your word. Thank you for these things, these
nations that you've given for us. to teach us things, and thank
you for your son that you've given for us. Lord, knit our
hearts to our king. Make us allegiant to him and
him alone, Lord, and trust him for all things, and be thankful
for all things, what we call good or bad, that he may be honored. He's worthy of our trust, Lord.
He's worthy of our praise. Make that heart be in us so it
comes out of our mouth. day in and day out, whether it's
to a king, a pharaoh, or a maid. Be with us, Lord. This must be
your doing for your spirit in us. And we beg, we beg, Lord,
give your servants around this country, around this world that
you've raised up, those that are in the pulpits and those
that support those in the pulpits. Give them plainness and courage,
Lord, to serve, and that you may heal and that Christ may
get the glory, just as our brethren prayed there when we asked these
things. We ask them for Christ's sake.
Amen.