OK, back to Acts 5. This story of Ananias and Spira, as you clearly saw for yourselves,
is a very serious Very sobering, very difficult. I must admit
that when I first read it, when we came to this part and I first
read it, I thought, oh no, oh my, what am I going to say about
that? How am I going to devote a whole
message to that? And I struggled with it upon
first reading it. I struggled for a message suitable,
a message that's applicable. to us. And in studying it, though,
I found it to be personally very profitable, to me personally. Very profitable, very convicting,
extremely convicting and needful and very, very important to this
Church as it was to the early Church. It created great fear
in the early Church as well as it should us. Paul said in Romans
15, are written for our learning. So this is profitable for this
modern-day church as it was the early church. It is written for
our learning as well as it happened for the early church. Now look
back up at chapter 4 again, verse 32 and verse 33. It says that
a multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one soul. That is, they believed in one
Lord, they had one faith, and there had been one calling by
the same one Spirit. They all trusted and believed
Christ after hearing the gospel, and they believed. There were quite a few here,
and a multitude of them that believed were one heart and one
soul. that all of the things which
he or she possessed was his own, but they had all things common. And it says in verse thirty-three,
the reason for this, the reason for their liberality and generosity
with one another, it says in verse thirty-three, great power,
with great power upon the preaching, that is. The gospel is God's
power, and God with great power gave the apostles witness of
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon
them all. So the reason for their liberality
and generosity was because of this great grace that was given
to these people. They were given grace to give,
to give, great grace. And as grace is shown, or as
we show grace and mercy, to others grace, he giveth more grace,
the scripture said. Now, talking about the grace
of giving here, we deal with that a little bit. And again,
let me say that this was not communal living. They did not
live communally in the same home and so forth, but this was merely
the selling of goods by various people of means, various people
who possessed lands, it said, plural, lands or houses. And
as there was a need, remember it says Ananias and
Sapphira sold a possession. So evidently this couple were
a couple of means. They had quite a bit of means
and they sold part of it, intending to give it to the church. They
sold a position. But this is the people selling
off of goods, various people of means, to meet all the needs
of the people. This was a large church. Remember,
there were 2,000 people saved at Pentecost, and then later
on how many? 5,000. That's 7,000 people, right? And there were not many needs
then. There were many widows, there
were many poor people. So needless to say, they had to come up with
some funds. And so this was the means of
raising financial support or help for
the apostles going out and for the needs of the widows and the
poor people and so forth. The point that is being made
to us here And the point we need to see is that a true church
family meets the needs of its own. That's the point that's
being made here. God does not, and we'll see it
over in 2 Corinthians 9 in a minute, God only requires of us what
we have, not more. He says, Paul said, I'm not,
well I'm going ahead of myself here, he said, it's not that
somebody else should be overburdened. But we should give equally. But
the point is, a true church family looks after its own. Paul said
that we should do good to all men. In Galatians, he said we
should do good to all men, but especially they that are of the
household of faith. Remember that? Especially they
that are of the household of faith. And these early believers
here in this early church did that. God gave them the grace
to seek, look out, find needs of the people and meet those
needs. And it takes grace. It takes
grace. They were gracious givers. They
were cheerful givers. God loves a cheerful giver. Not
a grudging, not a tither. That's duty, isn't it? He loves
a cheerful giver, a generous giver. Why? Because God is a
generous giver. His son was mighty generous,
but he gave it all. Verse 36 and 37. It says, And
Joseph, by the apostle surnamed Barnabas, which is to be interpreted
the son of consolation, a Levite of the country of Cyprus, having
land, sold it, brought the money, and laid it at the apostles'
feet. So this man named Barnabas, he
sold some land and gave the whole price of it. Now think about
this, people, the generosity of this man. Think about it.
This would be the equivalent of one of these Pick on you, Henry. If you want
me to quit picking on you, buddy, you're going to have to sit back
there somewhere. OK? I'm sorry. You're just right there. You're
real handy. Henry has a hundred-some-odd
acres. I don't know how many. It would be like Henry taking
ten acres of his property and selling it at the going rate
today, which is a million dollars an acre. No, it's two or three
thousand dollars. too much for a stick of, for
some sticks of wood in them. But anyway, it'd be like Henry
taking ten acres and selling them for say two, three thousand
dollars an acre to go and rake. That's twenty or thirty thousand
dollars that this man Barnabas gave to the church. That's a
generous gift, isn't it? The Lord greatly used old Barnabas,
didn't he? He didn't have any need of a ten. Anyway, he was
going, the Lord had better things in store for him. But it was
much needed in that day. Twenty or thirty thousand dollars
was gone the first day. With that group of seven thousand
people, there may have been more than that by then. Right? Twenty or thirty thousand
dollars was gone. Gone. And he was just one of
many that gave these gifts. Now that much money is not needed
right now. Right? It's not required of Henry
that he sell off all of his property and give it to his church. Why
would you do that? We don't need that. Do we? Do
you see? The Lord's not requiring that
of us. But here's the principle. If
there is a real need, then we are to meet it. If there's
a real need, then we're to see that it's met, even if it requires
some sacrificial giving. OK? If a real need arises. If
one of them, I'll give you Some examples. If one of our own in
here came under serious want and need, a terrible trial, one
of our own came under serious want or need. Now, let me clarify
that. Now, this not necessarily needs
as a result of their financial negligence. In other words, somebody
got in a bad way because they squandered their money, because
they had bad or misuse of their money, or there was And the head of the home was not
willing or was not able or whatever to take care of the problem,
not willing. Sloth or laziness on the part
of the one who's supposed to be doing it. But we should support
our own with what we have if there's a need. We should support
our own with what we have, if there's a true need. But if there's
something that's a result of bad management on the part of
the family, the church is not to be burdened
by that. We saw that in one place in 2
Timothy, how it said widows must be widows indeed, because the
church is not to be burdened by a woman who's able to work. are able to go out and do these
things, are able to get married and find her needs met under
a husband, and so forth. We saw that. If that person could
do what they could to alleviate their problem, then the Church
is not to be burdened on them. And that's the reason we should
support our own. The Scripture says if we don't support our
own, if we provide not for our own, we're worse than an infidel.
And we bring reproach upon not only the gospel and the Church,
but we bring a burden upon the Church. A burden upon the Church,
an unnecessary burden. That's the reason you men were
to do what we do with all of our might, with all of our diligence,
as unto the Lord, with all industry, be wise with the mammon that
we have. Doesn't the Lord even deal with
that? Be wise with the mammon. Don't squander it. Use industry. Use intelligence, so as not to
get yourself in such a position as to bring approach upon yourself,
your family, the gospel, and become a burden to the Church.
The Church does not have to alleviate that burden. You understand? And we're to be wise with men.
Let me give you an illustration. Insurance. Now, there's such
things as being insurance poor. I know that. Insurance costs
so much money. And some people don't believe in it, and they
call that faith. Some people do. Well, I say if
they've got the means, why not use it? Isn't that being wise
with the amendment of unrighteousness? If there's insurance to be had,
you better have insurance on your car. It's the law. Right? Well, I would say if you can
afford some insurance on your home or your health or whatever,
get it. Get it. It's there. Why not use
it? Why not use it? That's being
wise with the mammon. And if something happens, the
church doesn't have to bail you out. Right? Sure. So that we won't bring reproach
upon the gospel and ourselves and the church. It would be a
burden to the church. But now, if a real or a genuine
need arises, A real or genuine need arises. Such as, now, talking
about this thing of insurance, I don't have full coverage on
my automobiles. I can't afford that. OK? One of them's an 85 model, the
other's an 88 model. Anyway, I'm not going to insure
a used car like that. And some of you all don't. Most of you probably don't have
full coverage on your automobile. Say Brother Rick there wrecked
his automobile, the one he uses to go to work in, and he didn't
have full coverage total. He didn't have the money to replace
it. He doesn't have a caught automobile to go to work in.
If I've got an automobile, he better have it sitting on his
doorstep the next morning. Right? If I've got an extra one,
he better have it. Or else we all better pitch in
and buy this man an automobile. See what I'm saying? There's
a need there. There's a real need. But there's got to be a need. There's
got to be a genuine need. Or what if someone had some large
medical bills which insurance would not pay for, such as one
of our widowed ladies? What if she incurred great costs
through illness? We ought to see to that need.
Then I would say, if we didn't come up with the money, then
I would say, Henry, can you sell a few acres? Right? Then. Then. And then only. But also,
and remember we dealt with the widows, it says if they have
some children, they're supposed to take care of them. You remember
that, Violet and Ellen? That's what Paul said to Timothy.
If they had children, the children would take care of them, not
the church. Not the church. But if the real need arose and
the needs couldn't be met, then we have to do what we're supposed
to do, whatever it takes to meet the needs of our own. Even if it means selling a little
bit of our vast holdings, and some of us have some excess. Look at chapter 5. Here is a
story of a man and his wife who pretended to be what they were
not and pretended to do what they did not do. What is that? What's one word
for it? What? Hypocrisy. They pretended to be what they
were not, and they pretended to do what they did not. They
were hypocrites. The Lord Jesus Christ Pronounced
woes. You remember how many woes he
pronounced over there in Matthew 23? Turn back there real briefly.
Matthew 23. You remember how many woes he
pronounced on the Pharisees? And this is what they called
them every time. Hypocrites. Hypocrites. Matthew 23. Verse 4, the Lord
said, They bind heavy burdens, and grievous to be born, lay
them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move
them with one finger. They bind heavy burdens. In other
words, they cause problems, but they don't help alleviate them.
Verse 5, All their works they do to be seen of men, make broad
their phylacteries, and so forth. Everything they do to be seen,
not with a real heart of love. service toward God and his people.
Verse 6 and 7, they love the uppermost rooms at feast, chief
seats in the synagogue, greetings in the markets to be called to
men, Rabbi, Rabbi. They love greetings, they love
acknowledgments, acknowledgment of themselves, of their wisdom,
of their office or whatever. They want a place of prominence,
they want to be somebody. But he said up in verse 4, they
do nothing, want to be something, though, but do nothing. But woe
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, you shut up the kingdom
of heaven against men. You need to go in yourselves,
need to suffer them that are entering to go in. They resist
the preaching and cast doubt in others about the preaching.
Verse 14, woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, you
devour widows' houses for pretense to make long prayers and so forth.
These hypocrites play on the sympathies of widows and people
and make long and pious prayers and impress people with them.
Verse 23, "...woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, who
pay tithe of mint, anise, and cumin." Remember that word there,
tithe. They tithe and make a great show
of almsgiving. Verse 25, "...woe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites, who make clean the outside of the
cup and the platter of it within, and full of extortion and excess."
clean on the outside to fool everybody but God, in other words,
on the inside full of extortion and excess. Verse 29, Woe unto
you, scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites! Build the tombs of
the prophets, garnish the sepulchres of the righteous. And they say, If we had been
in the days of our fathers, we would not have partaken of them
in the blood of the prophets. But he said, You kill the children
of the prophets. In other words, they brag on
dead preachers and make trouble for the living ones. So our Lord pronounced great
woe on the hypocrites, great woe. And this passage here in
Acts chapter 5 gives a shocking account, a shocking account of
what the Lord did to a couple of hypocrites, for everyone to
see. It's written for all, for our
learning, for all to see. Scripture says, Be sure your
sins will find you out. Bears did. Let's hope God exposes
our hypocrisy to us personally and corrects it before he exposes
it to all and shames us. Let's read it, verses 1 and 2,
chapter 5. 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." Now, this man and his
wife had a possession. They had an extra house, a vacation
home, or some land, some extra land or whatever. It says, a
possession. And they sold it. And what they
did here was they said they sold it for a certain amount. Let's
say they said they sold it for $50,000. All right? Peter, they brought the money,
and they asked, You sold your property? Yes. This was back
before they put it in the land transfers in the newspaper. They
came and said, Yes, we sold it. Well, how much did you get out
of it? Forty thousand dollars. We got forty thousand dollars
out of it. See, Steve and they had gotten together. He and his
wife had gotten together at home and said, Hey, we got a good
price out of this, didn't we? Yeah. You going to give it all?
No, no, let's don't do that. Let's keep back part of it. Let's
say we gave it all." So they did. They came and lied
about the sale price and pretended to give the full $50,000 of the
price of the home. Peter was being a wise man, a
man filled with the Spirit, a man who was led by God and a wise
man, saw through this man and his wife. And it says that Peter
said, as soon as Ananias came in, or after he heard about the
sale, he said, Ananias, why did Satan feel a dying heart
to lie to the Holy Ghost and keep back part of the price of
the land? I bet that man was shocked. How
did he know that? Well, this man was a hypocrite. and a liar to begin with. Now,
you remember back in 2 Corinthians 4, we've just been studying,
where it said that our Gospels head to them that are lost, and
whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of them which
believe not. Remember that? It's not that
Satan made this man do this. See, this is another example.
It's not that Satan filled this man and made him do this. He
had determined to do it before. Satan just further hardened his
heart and convinced him, hey, it's okay, go ahead and do it,
you're entitled to part of it. He further hardened his heart. He was deceived and he was being
deceived and trying to deceive others. He was a hypocrite, a
liar to begin with, just like Esau, just like Cain, just like
Saul, just like others in the Scripture, Balaam. Do you suppose
it was possible that Ananias thought he was doing right? Do you suppose that it was possible
that he thought he wasn't doing anything wrong? You better believe it. Do you
ever justify yourselves when you know you're wrong? Sure you
do. You don't want to look bad in front of people. You don't
want to get caught. Sure you do. Everyone always justifies,
sometimes justifies themselves in many things we're obviously
wrong about. What we need to do, what we need
to hope for, is that God will enable us to justify God in condemning
ourselves. Do you remember what the Scripture
said about those people? It says that people that heard
the gospel, heard Christ preach, they justified God in condemning
themselves. If God will show us our hypocrisy
and let us see it and ask for a pin of it and ask him to forgive
us and create in us a new clean spirit and a right heart and
so forth, and he'll parrot it out. Peter continues. Read on. He said, Ananias, why
has Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost? You
see, all sin is against God. And in this proof right here,
he said in verse 4, you haven't lied unto men, you've lied unto
God. Isn't that proof of the deity of the Holy Spirit? That's
just one little point there I gave extra to you. That's proof of
the deity of the Holy Spirit. He's God, same as the Son, same
as the Father. But all sin is against God, and
the Holy Ghost is God. But religious sins are the worst. This is what this is all about.
Self-righteous sins, hypocritical sins, sins in the name of God,
in the name of Christ, are especially wicked and sinful against God. pretending to give God glory. People pretend to give God all
the glory while they're taking it to themselves. Aren't they
keeping back part of it? Isn't that what goes on in self-righteousness? Here it is. Keep back part of
it. And we do this spiritually. Spiritually, this application
here is not to give God all the glory for everything, but to
keep back part of it to ourselves. It's to retain some of our own
self-righteousness and not consider it filthy rags, not lay it all
at the feet of Christ and believe him alone. It's to not commit
all of ourselves, our whole heart. He said, my son, give me the
heart. It's to be half-hearted, half-hearted. And that's what
part of the spiritual application is, is to keep back some to yourself. Pretending to give God the glory.
Brother Joe and I were talking about it after the message this
morning. I said if it wasn't for the blood
and righteousness of Jesus Christ, God would send us to hell for
the way we sing these songs. Or the way we don't sing them.
Right? But we sing them. We try to sing
them. We try to put on a good effort,
you know, but our hearts are far from the times. And it's
only because God is abundantly merciful and gracious. And only
because Christ sits at the right hand of God. and pleads his blood
that he doesn't hold us accountable for all of this hypocrisy. But what Ananias and Spyridon
did, and what many do, is religion for gain, but do it in the name
of self-sacrifice. Pretend to be sacrificing, pretend
to be giving and doing and so forth. and while they get gain
to themselves. Recognition, and so forth. Now, while it remained, he said,
Ananias, while it remained, or in other words, before you sold
it, wasn't it your own? Was it not in your own power
after it was sold in? Was not the money still in your
own power? You see, they didn't require that they gave this.
Do you see that? This was not a requirement. You know what
Peter's saying there? He didn't have to give his money.
He didn't have to sell that land. Nobody said they had to. But
some that were very generous, God had given them the grace
of giving, did that. And God doesn't tell us how much
to give. Let me deal with this thing of
giving a little more. God doesn't tell us how much
to give. That's law, isn't it? Wouldn't that be law? Isn't that
the law of tithing? You know what tithing says? It says ten
percent. Ten percent. But we're not under
the law. We're under grace now. The New
Testament does not teach tithing. The word tithing is used seven
times. Tithe, the form of the word,
is used seven times in the New Testament. Three of it are used
by our Lord in the Gospels. derision of the Pharisees. Two times he said, You pay tithe,
and me and Anderson come in. That's recorded twice. Another
time he used it in Luke 18, where he was given the parable of the
publican who said, I tithe. The Lord was denouncing these
tithers. The four other times are in Hebrews
7, where it says, Melchizedek, or Abraham gave tithe to Melchizedek. Nowhere is it taught in the scriptures. That's law. Now, listen to this. In the same way that the law
is magnified by our Lord to us, so is this thing of giving. It's magnified. We see that there is a lot more
required of us than ten percent. Just like the law is magnified,
there's a lot more required of us than thou shalt not. Right? When the law is magnified before
us, we see that the law is spiritual. It requires an inward obedience. And this thing of giving, a lot
more than ten percent, a lot more than ten percent of our
money are goods. Twenty, thirty, whatever of our goods. And it's not just money. It's time, it's energy, it's
effort. A hundred percent of ourselves
belongs. Turn over to 2 Corinthians 8,
2 Corinthians chapter 8. Paul deals more with giving here
in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, talking about the grace
of giving. And I'll hurry. I'll get you
out of here early. 2 Corinthians 8, Paul talks about
this grace of giving. And it requires more of us than
tithing. Grace makes us desire to give,
not give out of a sense of duty. That's what tithe says. Faith
works by love. Look at 2 Corinthians 8, verses
1 and 2. Paul said, Brethren, we do you
to wit. In other words, we want to remind
you He said, you all listen to this example. We do you the wit
of the grace of God bestowed upon the churches of Macedonia.
You see where they got their spirit of giving is the grace
of God. He says that, verse 2, they in great trial of affliction
and abundance of their joy and their deep poverty, even though
they were a poor church, they abounded under the riches of
their liberality. The church at Macedonia evidently
with a very liberal. Generous people. And it says
they went beyond their power thing in faith, utterance, knowledge. Now this church has that, these
things. Faith, utterance, knowledge,
all diligence, and your love to us. See that you abound in
this grace also, he said. I speak not by commandment, but
by occasion of the forwardness of others, to prove the sincerity
of your love. Giving proves the sincerity of
your love. Law doesn't. It just proves you're under law,
under duty. Liberality, do you see that?
Liberality is the law here. Verse 7 and 8, prove the sincerity
of your love. Verse 12 and 15, 12 through 15,
he says, If there be a will in mine, it is accepted according
to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not. Don't make
any vows. That's not taught in the scripture.
I don't care what Bob and the boys say. It's not taught there. You know what that says, Rick? It's not required for you to
give what you don't have. You can't. That's presumption. That's presumption. Verse 13.
And he says, I mean not that other men be eased and you be
burdened either, but by an equality. An equality that now at this
time your abundance may be a supply for their want. That their abundance
also may be a supply for your want. That there may be an equality.
As it is written, he that gathered much had nothing over, he that
gathered little had no lack. Equality is the key word here.
Tithing is not equal. Tithing is not equal. Now God
in his wisdom instituted this thing of tithing back in the
Old Testament for the needs of the temple and this and that
and the other. It was in his wisdom that the people didn't
have much anyway. None of them had much. That was
an equality back then, because nobody had any means, really.
Nobody had any means. Ten percent of what they had,
and so forth. But tithing now in a capitalistic
society is not equal. I'll give you an example. Here's
a man who makes $100,000 a year, and here's a man who makes $10,000
a year. Now, if they gave ten percent of their earnings, this
man would give $10,000? He said, whoa, wow, that's a
big gift, isn't it? No, he's still got money to live
on. Right? That was excess. He's not going to miss that ten
for nothing. This man that makes $10,000, he give a thousand?
That's going to hurt him. You see what I'm saying? Isn't
it? Inequality. Do you see? Do you
see? The Lord doesn't teach tithing
under grace. Under grace there was a purpose
for it at one time, but not now. 2 Corinthians 9, chapter 9, verses
6 through 9. And this I say, he said, he which
soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly. I tell you what, though,
if that man who gave a thousand out of his ten, he wouldn't be
hurting long. He might get ten from the Lord
later on unexpectedly. You can count on it. You can
count on it. You cannot give God. He said,
He which sows sparingly, though, shall reap also sparingly. He
which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every
man according, look here, here's the law, here's the rule, isn't
it? According as he purposes in his heart, so let him give.
Is that what it teaches, Brother Ed? It doesn't teach that. Give
him. Not grudgingly, Or of necessity,
oh, it's Sunday, I've got to give my... Honey, do we have
to give that this week? Yeah, we've got to. We'd better.
The treasurer will see it. Or he won't, he'll be missing
it. No, don't do that. God loveth
the cheerful giver. Do we get to give? We have a
little extra. Let's give it. God is able to make all grace
abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency
in all things, may abound to every good work. Tell me, folks.
How much have you received back in relation to what you've given?
Come on, what's the ratio of what God has given to you in
relation to what you have given? Oh, my. It says in verse 9, as
it is written, he hath dispersed abroad, he hath given to the
poor, his righteousness remaineth forever. Verse 15, thanks be
unto God for his unspeakable for his generosity. He spared
his son. He gave his all, didn't he? So
giving is left up to personal discretion, right? Know what
I said? That's right. It's not legislated,
because we'll only do what's required of us. That's just human
nature. If somebody gives us something
to do, we'll not do any more. That's it. Is that it? We will not do it, that's our
human nature. But grace frees us up to give liberally. Now
let's read verse 4 again in Acts, Acts chapter 5 verse 4. So Peter
said to Ananias, while it remained, was it not thine own after it
was sold? Was it not in thine own power? Why have you conceived
this thing in your heart? You have not lied unto men, but
unto God. You have lied to God, Ananias. Now David said, and Brother Stan
and I were talking about this, and Brother John and Stan were
talking about this in a study. David said in one of his songs,
he said, I said in my haste, all men are liars. Well, he said, I said in my haste,
in other words, hastily, without thinking, all men are liars. There's some truth to that though,
isn't there? Aren't all men liars? Let God be true and every man
a liar." It's true. We're all born liars. We come
forth from the womb speaking lies, the Scripture says. If
it will save our skin, whatever it is, we'll tell it. We'll do
it. We'll withhold it. We're all liars. That's true. We all lie occasionally. We're
all hypocritical at times. Now, listen to me. I want this
message to get you totally down, thinking about your own hypocrisy.
But a believer is not a habitual liar or hypocrite. Here's the
difference. Paul says, no, you're not your
own self. Doesn't God say he gives us a new heart? Doesn't
he say he takes away the stony heart and gives us a heart of
flesh? Huh? Doesn't he say I give you a new heart and I write upon
it my laws upon your heart? Huh? A believer has a new heart.
His heart is not deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
He's got a new heart. A new heart. There's a principle
of sin that wars against it within, but not his new heart. And that
new heart will not allow him to be deceived. The Holy Spirit
that dwells in us will not allow us to be deceived. The law of
God written on the heart will not allow us to be deceived,
will not allow us to deceive ourselves, will not allow us
to go on in hypocrisy. It will convict us. There will
be times when we act like hypocrites and lie and so forth, but the
law of God written on the heart, in the new heart, will warn,
will convict, will rebuke, will correct, will turn that person.
But not a man who has the old, still has the old, hadn't had
a new heart. The love of God, God's word,
God's truth, will not let a believer habitually tell lies, nor live
lies. We won't let him live a lie.
He won't let him be comforted. We won't let him, you'll keep
him under such a sense of guilt until finally the Lord turns
that man. God will convict of the lie and
change us and turn us. May this message be the means
of somebody being turned like that. We all lie at times, don't
we? I was caught up, and you don't
have to tell anything to be a liar. You don't have to tell anything
to lie. You just have to withhold some information. I'm going to
confess this before everybody. And we try to justify ourselves,
don't we? Recently, my wife was baking something, and she's looking
for the baking soda. And she said, has anybody seen the baking soda? I was reading the paper or something. Anybody seen the baking soda?
And she had a big box, and I can't understand what happened to it. I knew what happened to the baking
soda. I had taken the baking soda. I had used the baking soda
somewhere. All of it. All of it. I didn't tell her
that. I didn't say anything, but I was a liar. I felt like
such a fool. She finally looked at me and
said, You took the baking soda, didn't you? So all men are liars. All men are liars, but I'm not
a habitual liar, am I, huh? Sometimes she'll say to me, sometimes
she'll say to me, am I, huh? Sometimes she'll say to me, I'll
tell her something, she'll say, are you kidding? I say, no, I'm
not in the habit of telling lies all the time. Really, I'm not. I don't tell lies. Do you? Come on now. All kidding aside. You in the habit of lying to
your wife all the time? You better not be. Or you're
a flat-out liar. You're a hypocrite, man. You've
got a bad heart. Your heart's not right within
you, right? But a believer is not a habitual
liar or a hypocrite. God won't let them be. God will
convict them and so forth. Here's the point. God demands
uprightness. in us. Now, we're not talking
about our own personal righteousness and piety, or God will accept
us and save our souls because of it. No. The word upright means
integrity. It means trueness. It means,
we looked at it this morning, seriousness, sincerity. It says,
didn't he say in John 4 that the Father seeketh such to worship
him? Time will come when those that worship the Father worship
him in spirit and in truth. True worshippers from the heart,
not just the mouth when their hearts are far, but true worshippers.
People that really meet together to worship God, not just to play
church. And it says the Father speaks
as such to worship him. And this is what the word upright
means. Let me read you a few verses of Scripture that I looked
up concerning upright. You don't have to turn. There
are a lot of them. A lot of them. Nearly all of them, not all of
them this time, but nearly all of them said upright. The Lord
said about Job, to Satan, he said it three times. Job must
have been an upright man. The Lord said it three times.
He said to Satan. I think he was antagonizing Satan
one day. The first time he said, if you consider my servant Job,
There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. The man
was perfect and upright. Perfect means mature. He was
a man. He was a man. And he was a hardworking, honest,
diligent man and upright. Integrity. A man of integrity.
The people knew it. Everybody knew it. His family
knew it. One that feared God and eschewed evil. Now, did I
say anything about his self-righteousness before God? No. He was an upright man. And the
Lord said it three times concerning Job. He goes on to say, The righteous
Lord loveth righteousness. His countenance doth behold the
upright, the sincere, those that are without guile. He said, With
a merciful, he will show himself merciful. With an upright man,
he will show himself upright. We need to become honest before
God. That's what Barnard said. An honest man won't wind up in
hell. An honest man, honest before
God concerning himself, honest before others, an honest man,
a man of integrity, upright. David said this, Lord, keep back
thy servant from presumptuous sins, let them not have dominion
over me, then shall I be upright, and thou shalt be innocent from
the great transgression. What's the great transgression?
Hypocrisy, unbelief. Unbelief. Mark the perfect man,
mature man, behold upright. The end of that man is peace.
Upright. It says, I'll skip down, it says,
under the upright there ariseth light in the darkness. Upright,
a man of integrity, a woman of integrity and sincerity and honesty
and a real person is looking for real answers and looking
for The scriptures, all three proverbs, talks about a wise
man heareth rebuke, but a scorner hates it. But a man, an upright
man, he'll hear it, whatever is said, whatever is good, whatever
is right, whatever is just, whatever is true, that's what he wants.
If it convicts him, that's what I want. That's what I want. Smite
me, it'll be a kindness to me. It won't break my head. I'll
need it, I'll need it. An upright man, that's what it
means to be upright. Under the upright there arises
a light in the darkness. And yet God is gracious and full
of compassion. It says, The integrity of the
upright shall guide them. And that's the law of the God
written upon the heart of man. It shall guide them. And it says, But the perverseness
of transgressors shall destroy them. Balaam. Balaam looked pretty good at
times, didn't he? He was a double-minded man. He looked good on the outside,
but on the inside, he was an apostate. He had a bad heart,
didn't he? Why am I bringing all this up?
Do we need this? My, my. I didn't bring it up. The Lord
did. The Lord gave us this text. It says this. Listen to this.
This is a serious one. It says, "...the righteousness
of the upright shall deliver them." Now, that's talking about
Christ's righteousness chiefly, isn't it? "...the righteousness
of the upright shall deliver them." The integrity, the honesty,
the square dealings of a man honest before God, God will preserve
him. It says, "...the transgressors
shall be taken in their own naughtiness." They're all naughtiness. David,
here's an illustration of this, David acted wickedly, didn't
he? David acted deceitfully, didn't he, when he deceived Bathsheba's
husband? David acted hypocritically, didn't
he? Nine months, for nine months,
David played the part, didn't he? Hypocrite. Oh, wasn't that
awful? Wasn't that awful? Yet being a man after God's own
heart, God convicted him. He didn't leave him there, did
he? How did he do it? How did God convict him? Through
another man, through a preacher, through a message. The man came
to him with a message. Do you know what the message
was? Do you remember what the message was? It was a message of God's
goodness toward him, wasn't it? Because why? The goodness of
God led to a stage of repentance, right? The goodness of Godly. The Prophet Nathan said to David,
David, why have you done this? The Lord took you from the sheepfold.
You were a nobody going nowhere with nothing. And then he took
you and put you on the throne and gave you all these good.
Why don't you do this? How do you sin against God? And
that's the way the Lord deals with his people too. Not too
roughly, not too harshly. God convicted him. And then that's
when David later on said, O Lord, create in me a clean heart. You
see, the Lord won't let a man stay a hypocrite. He won't let him, if he's one
of his own, he'll convict him. Create in me a clean heart, O
God, renew within me a right and upright spirit. I want to be like Christ. I want to be like Christ. So
it's one thing to act deceitfully and hypocritically at times,
but it's apostasy to be a deceiver and a hypocrite. And you know, in our story here, we can be either a bad or a good
influence on on our family and those around us. Our children, they hear us, people. They're watching us. They're
following our example. The people, the ones that our
children are following and that they're going to emulate and
they're going to be like are us. Right? Doesn't that make you want to
be an upright person? Straightforward in your dealings and your talk,
your walk, and so forth. We're either a good or a bad influence
on others around us. We reap what we sow in our own
homes. Our families reflect what we
teach and how we live. This is what happened in the
story. Ananias had a wife, and as it is most of the time, wives
will follow the leadership of their husband. And what did Sapphira
do? She was in this thing with him.
She was in this thing with him. It said, verses five through
eleven, that the Lord killed him and the young men arose and
wound him up, and then his wife came in and she took part in
it. Peter gave her one more opportunity,
didn't he? Tell me, how much did you sell
the property for? Forty thousand? God smote her dead. Smote her
dead. and they wound her up." That's
some verse, isn't it? It says, "...the men wound him
up, carried him out, and buried him." Boy, that's an abrupt final
verse, isn't it? Wound him up, carried him out,
and buried him. In closing, let me read two verses
of Scripture to you. I want you to turn with me. I
want everybody to see this. First Corinthians 11. First Corinthians
11. We'll read a verse here, and
then we'll turn over to 1 John, chapter 2, in closing. I told
you this was a difficult message, wasn't it? But a needful one,
and I hope the Lord uses it. He uses it to me, for me. 1 Corinthians 11, verse 19. Now
it says, There must be also heresies among you. I could read hypocrites
as well. Why? That they which are approved
may be made manifest among you." In other words, when we turn
over to 1 John, we see people who turn out to be obviously
apostate or hypocrites. It's a lesson to us, isn't it? It causes us to do what? Examine
ourselves and say, I want to be approved. I don't want to
be, I don't want to go out. 1 John 2 verse 19, They went
out from us, but they were not of us. If they had been of us,
they would no doubt have continued with us, but they went out. Why? The Lord did this. that they
might be made manifest or revealed or exposed to everybody. Steve,
that sends shivers down my spine, buddy. God did it to expose them,
an object lesson, to everybody else. That it might be made manifest
that they are not of us. Don't you think the proper prayer
in light of this is, Oh Lord, keep me back from presumptuous
sins. Keep me from hypocrisy. Don't let me be found to be a
liar. Create in me a clean heart. Renew
within me a right spirit, a constant spirit. Make me an upright man,
an upright woman. Let me look to Christ. Let me
follow Christ. Let me emulate Christ. Let me
be like Christ. Let me be found in Christ. So this was a sobering message,
I know, but needful. Whatever is written is written
for our learning. Like I said, I looked at that
and read it, and it's tough. It's tough to deal with. I kind
of dreaded it, but it's needful. Is it needful to you? Was that
needful to you? May God grant us all repentance from hypocrisy,
repentance from lies and hypocrisy. and make us true men, true women,
true disciples of Christ, true members of his church. Look out
the needs of others, see the needs and meet them, and be like
Christ. May God conform us to his blessed
image. Dear Lord, your word convicts
us, because you're holy, you're righteous. You're the righteous Lord. You
love righteousness. Lord, don't ever let us forget
that. And we want to be righteous in
Christ. We want to be righteous in Christ. We want to have His
imputed righteousness to our account. We might stand before
you in that great day, not in our own righteousness, but in
His. holy, unblamable, unreprovable
in God's sight, dressed only in that righteousness, Lord. And we also want his imparted
nature. We also want to be like Christ.
We want to be true men like Christ. We want to be upright like Christ.
We want to be honest like Christ. We want to be without guile like
Christ. Gentle, loving, good, kind, meek, lowly, like Christ. Merciful, gracious, compassionate,
like Christ. Without guile, like Christ. We
want to be like Christ. We want to be true, Lord. Lord,
don't let us be deceived. Please, Lord, may everybody in
here pray this prayer with me. Lord, may you please remove from
us hypocrisy. and make us true worshipers,
worship in spirit and in truth. And that great day, behold thy
glory, behold thy face, be with thee some day. True worshipers,
true seekers, true disciples, true church members. Hold up
this church, Lord. Restrain us. Restrain us from
evil. Deliver us from the evil one.
Deliver us from temptation. Deliver us from ourselves. and
constrain us to good. May we bear fruit unto your glory.
You have been so good to this Church, so very good to every
member, every family, so very good. And may we return a portion
of what you have given us for your glory, your honor. In Christ's
blessed name, we have met together and enjoyed this day. Amen. And I really do want to thank
you guys for taking the time out of your day to come and see
us.