Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Acts, Chapter 5. We'll continue our study in Acts,
Chapter 5. Actually, we're going to read
the last two verses of Acts, Chapter 4. But if you turn to
Acts, Chapter 5, you'll have already access to Acts, Chapter
4, the last two verses. Where we left off last week,
Barnabas sold his land that he had and bought the money that
he had received for selling the land and placed it at the Apostle's
feet. And it was distributed as the
Apostle saw fit. Now this was a sincere act by
Barnabas. Sincere act. He just was laid
upon him to sell his land and to give the money and so he did
it. It was not done to be seen of man. It was not done to be
seen of man, but willingly. And it plainly revealed that
the things of the world didn't have the preeminence that it
once had to him. And little did he know that by doing that too,
he was freeing himself of any worry because God was gonna call
him to preach, wasn't he? and he would go out with Paul
and preach the gospel, beloved. But he had no idea at this time.
He's just a believer like all of us and didn't have any idea
that God was gonna call him to preach, not that preachers are
any different than any other believer. All we are is called
to be faithful and preach and proclaim the gospel. There's
no, as I said, at the foot of the cross, there's no preacher's
mound. We're all a bunch of sinners
saved by the grace of God in Christ, right? And the Lord's
given me a message to preach and proclaim, and that's Christ
in him crucified. And as he gives me the ability
and the strength to do that, I will proclaim him until the
day I die, if it be the Lord's will, and be with you here. My, oh, my. So this was a sincere
act. Again, the preeminence of the
world didn't hold the allure to him that it once had. He sold his land, bought the
money to the apostles, being concerned, again, for the fellow
well-being of the saints who were in need. And again, he had
no idea he was going to be called to preach. That's the same with
all of God's preachers. We don't have any idea, when
the Lord saves us, that we're going to be called to preach.
It's God who makes the preacher. It's God who equips the preacher.
And it's God who plants the preacher wherever he wants us to be planted. And that's it. It's all him.
It's all him. And then he gives us the strength,
he gives us the knowledge, he gives us the ability to preach
and proclaim the gospel. And it's a great honor. Donny
Bell said I'd have to step down to be President of the United
States. I understand what he's saying. It's a great honor to
preach and proclaim the gospel. As Brother Travis knows when
he fills in too, we tremble at the word of God, don't we brother?
We tremble when we have to preach the word. It's a very sobering
thing. Because the one thing you want
to do, and I love this, my brother Travis always says this, the
one thing you don't want to do is say something wrong. That's
the one thing you don't want to do. So you stick to what the
scripture says. Stick to what the word of God
says. So God is the one who trains, equips his preacher, and he does
this under faithful ministers who preach the same gospel. His
trained ministers will preach, and our Lord Jesus Christ will
not send his ordained ministers out to preach his gospel until
he has prepared them. I was seven years in the desert. Seven years preaching to seven
people before the Lord brought me here. Isn't that amazing? Donny Bell
said, he's just preparing you, Wayne. He just won't have anyone
preach for his sheep. He's preparing us the whole time.
Paul was out in the desert for three years, wasn't he? He prepares
his preachers under faithful ministers. My oh my. And God's preachers don't rule with an iron fist? No. We're feral sinners saved
by the grace of God in Christ. Sent to preach the gospel of
salvation in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Barnabas,
we see, placed himself under the authority of the apostles,
but in doing so, he's actually placing himself under the authority
of the Lord. Ultimately, I answer to God,
just like you do. It's the Lord's authority we're
under, right? Not a man. Right? You know how I lead here? I lead
in the midst. Just like Norm Wells does, just
like other preachers I know do. I will never whip people from
the pulpit. That's not what I'm called to
do. I'm called to preach Christ and him crucified. And God does
any discipline that needs to be done, right? And he does it with the gospel,
doesn't he? When we get it right in the head. All of us. Ding! And the preacher, we don't have
a clue when that's happening because the preachers we're listening
to, they don't have a clue when it's happening to us, too. It's
God who convicts us. Right? The gospel disciplines. So Barnabas, he placed himself
under the authority of the Lord's apostles, trusting them as his
spiritual leaders. And we see at the end of chapter
four that Barnabas, very early in his walk with the Lord, ministered
to the spiritual needs of others with his God-given gifts. And
Barnabas was not a hypocrite. The name of the message today
is two hypocrites. Two hypocrites. Barnabas was
not a hypocrite. Barnabas expressed genuine faith,
true genuine faith, for the glory of his Lord Jesus Christ and
our Lord Jesus with what he did at the end of chapter four. And
he didn't do this to draw attention to himself. He didn't do this
to say, look at me. He did this because he wanted to,
willingly. But we will see two hypocrites
introduced to us in chapter five. In direct contrast, God the Holy
Spirit's gonna put in front of us Barnabas, who's a faithful
servant, in contrast to two hypocrites, who do this because they probably
wanted some attention. They wanted people to think,
man, there's somebody. Oh my. And we're going to be introduced
to two hypocrites named Ananias and Sapphira. Let's read verses 36 and 37 of
Acts chapter 4. In Genesis, who by the apostle
was surnamed Barnabas, which is being interpreted the son
of consolation, not the son of comfort. Comfort, he was comforting
to other believers. And the apostles named him that,
because they probably had observed him, and they had saw how dear
he was to other believers, and how much he ministered to other
believers. You know how? Just by being who he was in Christ. just by being, just be who you
are in Christ. Sin and all. Right? Let us just be who we
are. Oh my. A Levite in the country of Cyprus,
having land, sold it and bought the money and laid it at the
apostles feet. So he hears Barnabas, a sincere
believer, he decides to sell his land and give the money to
the church because he sees a need. Look at now, let's read now verses
1 to 11 of Acts 5. I almost named this message,
God Who Kills People. Oh, Ralph Barnard, you ever heard
of Ralph Barnard? He preached a message once called,
The God Who Kills People. Who takes the breath from man? God does, doesn't he? Who set
an appointment for man that they shall never go past that time,
not one second? God has, hasn't he? See, we often
think God is the ruler of all. He's sovereign, beloved. In this
passage right here, you know what this passage is gonna show
us? I could've named it also the sovereignty of God. This
passage will show us the absolute sovereignty of God. There's not one thing we do,
there's not one thing we say that's not hidden from God. That being believers and unbelievers,
even if unbelievers don't believe that. Everything is open and
naked to God, right? You've heard me say, what would
people think of us if our minds were opened up for 15 seconds
and everybody could see what's in our mind? God sees it all. Someone says, well, I'm not that
bad of a sinner. Really? What's your dreams like? What are your thoughts like?
We're all sinners. The scripture declares this.
For all have come short of the glory of God. For all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. All being all. It's our
nature. It's who we are. We're dead in
trespasses and sins when we come into this world. But praise be
to God, by the life-giving power of God the Holy Spirit, we're
born again. Now let's read this. Let's read
this narrative here. Ananias and Sapphira. And God,
you know, be not deceived. God's not mocked. For what a
man soweth, that shall he reap, right? We saw that in our Sunday
school in Galatians chapter 6. Look at this. But a certain man
named Ananias and Sapphira and his wife sold the possession
and kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to
it, and bought a certain part and laid it at the apostles'
feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled thine heart
to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price
of the land? So he asked him a question. God already knows they've schemed.
God already knows everything that they've talked about. He
knows the truth about them holding back a portion. See, they wanted
to look good in front of the church. They wanted some of that
being called the son of comfort. They wanted some of that attention. Oh, my. Remember, they think
they're something when they're nothing. They deceive themselves,
right? Oh, my. Where it's remained, was it not
thine own? When you had it, was it not yours?
So he's asking these questions. Why are we skewing to keep that
part of the land? Was it not all yours at first?
Yeah, God had given it to them, right? And after it was sold, was it
not of thine own power? Did they not have the choice
to say, well, what do you have? We're going to give half. We
don't have to give it all. We can just give half. We can
give a quarter. They could give a tenth if they
wanted to, right? But they were being deceptive,
beloved. They were making people think. They were saying, well,
we sold it for this price and we gave it all. That's what they
were doing. See, bargainers just took it
and gave it. See the contrast here? Oh my. Why has thou conceived
this thing in my heart? See, sin starts in the heart,
doesn't it? Oh, the heart's desperately wicked,
beloved. Deceitful and desperately wicked,
scripture says. Thou hast not lied unto men,
but unto God. See, man didn't know. Man didn't
have a clue that they were holding back a person, did they? And
the only way Peter knows is by the Holy Spirit revealing it
to him. By God revealing it to him. How
else would he know? He's not following people around
saying, how much did they sell their house for? He's not doing
that. But God knows, doesn't he? God
knows. And Ananias, hearing these words,
fell down and gave up the ghost. Dead, just like that. Who took his breath away? Same one who gave it. Amen, brother. There was one hypocrite down. Oh my. And look at this. And
great fear came upon all them that heard these things. Yeah. Oh no, we could see that couldn't
we? If we were there, oh my goodness, he just dropped dead after Peter
was questioned. Did you hear about, Dave, did
you hear about what Ananias went into Peter's tent and started
talking to him and telling him this, and he dropped dead, man.
People would be talking, wouldn't they? Oh, my. It's incredible. And look at this. A young man
arose, wound him up, carried him out, and buried him. He's
gone. He's gravely dead. He's gone. It was about the space of three
hours after when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in.
She's probably like, where's Ananias? Sapphire's like, where's
Ananias? Where is he? He's supposed to
be back by now. What happened? So she goes and
sees Peter. Here comes hypocrite number two.
See, these people, they were mere professors. They were never
saved. They looked and they acted like
believers. But God knows their heart, right?
See, we can appear outwardly very religious to people. People can appear very religious
outwardly, but inward be an open sepulcher, be a raving wolf inside, and
we wouldn't have a clue, would we? We wouldn't have a clue,
beloved. We got enough with our own sinfulness
as we looked at Sunday school going, oh man, I'm the chief
of sinners. Oh my. See, we're not to look
on the outward. But God, He don't just look on
the outward, He looks on the inward. That's why He said to
those, remember those Pharisees? You're nothing but open sepulchers.
Vipers. So I says, well how can God talk
like that? Because He's God and He knows
what's in them. And they shall be judged if they
die in their sins, right? Oh my, look at this. And Peter answered her, verse
8. Tell me, whether you sold the
land for so much? And she said, yeah, for so much.
See, again, they're not sinning against Peter and them, they're
sinning against God. They've conspired together to
get attention, Right? They're hypocrites. God loves
a cheerful giver. We just give. We give as the
Lord puts on our heart, right? Whether it be our money or our
time or whatever, just to serve the Lord, right? And we do it proudly. And we
don't do it for show. Not at all. That wasn't religion. Not in grace, why? We got nothing
to boast in, do we? Do we have anything to boast
in, beloved, anything? Nothing. Except for Christ. We can boast in Christ, can't
we? We can boast in the Savior. We can have our hearts and minds
stayed upon Jehovah, can't we? By the grace of God. Also, she just lied right to
Peter's face. And Peter said unto her, how is it that you
have agreed to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? See, who's the sin
against? Who's our sin against? It's against
God ultimately, isn't it? We break God's law. We are actually,
the reason Christ went to the cross was to redeem us from under
the law. We may sin against other people,
but ultimately, even if we're sinning against other people,
our sin is against God. Remember Joseph with Potiphar's
wife? He said, how can I sin against
God, first of all, and my master? So if he had allayed with Potiphar's
wife, he would have been sinning against God first and foremost,
and then he'd be sinning against Potiphar. So ultimately, our sin is against
God. So God's law must be satisfied,
how? Only by the God-man's sacrifice,
the Lord Jesus Christ, in the shedding of his precious, precious
blood. There's no other way. How is it that you have agreed
to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them which
have buried thy husband at the door, or at the door, and shall
carry thee out. Look at that, shall. There's
that word shall again. Shall. There's no doubt. She's gone. Then fell she straight
away at his feet, and yielded up the ghost. And the young man
came in and found her dead. Just dead. And carried her forth,
buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon all
the church, and upon as many as heard these things. So we
see, we're introduced here to Ananias and Sapphira. who were
hypocrites. They were hypocrites, beloved. And no one knew they were hypocrites
but God. But God. You know, in his own time, God
will reveal, the Lord Jesus will reveal those who genuinely possess
Christ in their hearts and those who only profess to be his followers.
those who do not have true, saving faith. Turn with me, if you would,
to Leviticus, chapter 10. Leviticus, chapter 10. Look at this. Leviticus, chapter
10. Now, there's a narrative here
of two sons of Aaron. Nadab in the bayou. Let's read first what they did,
and then we'll go over it a little bit. As I was reading that section
about Ananias and Sapphira, this was put on my heart, this portion
of scripture, because they did something that they weren't supposed
to. They offered up strange fire. Strange fire is like offering
up another gospel. pervert in the gospel of God's
free grace in Christ. Look at this, starting in verse
1. In Nabab, in a bayou, the sons of Aaron took either of
them his censer and put fire therein, and put incense therein,
and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded
them not. So they'd be commanded not to offer strange fire. we'll find out what strange fire
is. And there went out fire from the Lord, that's from Jehovah,
and devoured them. Look at that. And there went out fire from
the Lord and devoured them. God killed them right there. And they died before the Lord.
Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the Lord spake, saying,
I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before
all the people I will be glorified, and Aaron held his peace. Do
you know if we don't come before God in Christ, we shall be destroyed. The only way to safely approach
God is in Christ. The only way to be in God's presence
is in Christ. The only way to be qualified
for heaven is in Christ. Anyone else that says you can
get to Christ by being baptized, or you can get to Christ by doing
this, or praying this prayer, or doing this and doing that,
that's all man's inventions, and if they stay in that, they
will be consumed by the wrath of God. They will be eternally
in hell. This crime is specified in the
text. They offered incense in a different
way from which God commanded. God had prescribed a certain
way to offer fire. And consequently, they may have
erred from ignorance, but they were still convicted by God's
commandment, weren't they? Of having carelessly said about
what was worthy of greater obedience. The strange fire is distinguished
from the sacred fire. Now, I didn't know this until
this. The sacred fire was always burning upon the altar. Always
burning upon the altar. Not miraculously, as some pretend,
but by the constant watchfulness of the priests. So there was
a fire burning, and the only way they could get the fire to
burn was they got the fire from there. These guys made fire of
their own. You see? They may fire their
own. Oh, I can be saved by being baptized. I can be saved by attending a
certain church. Oh my. Strange fire. Strange fire. Now God had forbidden
any other fire to be used in the ordinances in order to exclude
all inappropriate worship. That's why he commanded them
to do it that way, because he didn't want inappropriate worship
or sacrifices to show his rights and to show that he proved to
them that that was an abomination in his eyes by destroying them,
beloved. By destroying them. They had
corrupted God's worship. Do you see how serious it is
not to corrupt the gospel? The gospel comes in the pure,
free, and sovereign grace of God in Christ plus nothing. We
are not saved by anything we do. If someone's trusting in something
they do, they have a false refuge, a refuge of lies. I know, I was
there. My oh my, the only refuge we
have is Christ and Him alone. I want us to look at this portion
before we, again, look at these two hypocrites in the church,
who by all outward appearances look like believers. But really, they didn't fear
God. He didn't really have a reverence of God, but as a result of their
deaths, what happened? Fear and reverence came upon
the church, didn't it? Yeah, it did. It came upon the
church. My, oh my. In concerning Adam's fallen,
undegenerate, helpless, and hopeless children, which has us, the Bible
plainly states there's no fear of God before their eyes. In
our natural state, we do not fear God. But we sure do when God starts
drawing us to Christ, eh? And we start seeing our sinfulness.
We start seeing who we really are. And we start seeing who
He really is, more importantly, who He really is. Holy and righteous
God, upon whom I've sinned against. And then he shows us Christ,
the only refuge for our souls, and gives us faith to believe
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. God, the Holy Spirit does that
for us. And now we praise his name, don't we? We praise his
name for his goodness. People who are not born again,
they fear death, they fear hell. Oh yeah? I was terrified of death
before the Lord saved me, were you? And hell, well, hell, I
thought was this going to be a place where I go party with
my friends, but I found out, no, that's not what hell is.
No, not at all. Not at all. Oh, my. And people who aren't
born again fear eternal torment, but they do not fear God. They do not fear God. And how
do we know that? Well, it's manifest in their
actions and in their words. But you know what Hebrews 10.31
says? And we've seen it shown to us right here in the Old Testament
and in the New. It's a fearful thing to fall
in the hands of a living God, the living God. Hebrews 10.31,
it is a fearful thing to fall in the hands of a living God.
He's no one to be mocked, no one to be trifled with, is he? Oh my. But by the convicting
power of God the Holy Spirit, our Lord Jesus Christ does reveal
to his people that we've sinned against him and that we deserve
nothing but his eternal wrath. If we got what we deserve, what
would we get? Wrath, wouldn't we? eternal wrath,
if we got what we deserve. But God doesn't give us what
we deserve as his people. He gives us mercy. Mercy. Mercy in Christ. You know what
happens? It's the goodness of God that
leads us to repentance, isn't it? As it says in Romans 2, 4,
it's the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. And when God reveals to us our
sinfulness, he also reveals to us our absolute inability to
save ourselves. I mean, absolute inability. But praise be to God, he reveals
that he is able to save to the uttermost all who come to God
through him. The Lord Jesus Christ reveals
that to us, doesn't he? Remember in Isaiah, I love this. Thou art mine. That's what he said. He sees
his people. Thou art mine. Ho! Mine! Mine by creation, mine by choosing,
mine by purchase, Mine by the new birth. Mine forever in glory. It's a goodness of God that leads
us to repentance, isn't it? It's a goodness of God that leads
us to where his gospel's preached. Because it's not preached everywhere.
It's the goodness of God that leads us to believe and embrace
the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he is the God-man, that
he is God incarnate in the flesh. It's the goodness of God that
leads our regenerated, born-again minds to what Jesus has accomplished
for his people while he was upon this earth, that he has fully
accomplished salvation for his people. It's already finished.
Already finished. It's the goodness of God that
gives us faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, who by
himself purged our sins, by himself purged our sins, beloved. And by the shedding of his blood,
he obtained eternal redemption for us. It's the goodness of
God that leads us to believe that, because not everybody believes
that. And it's the goodness of God
that allows us to see with his brother Neil Prager, eyes illuminated
by the Holy Spirit of God, to see and look to Christ, and to
see him as our sacrifice, our great substitute, dying for us
on the cross, and that he has sanctified us, redeemed us, forever in God's
sight. Who can separate us from him?
No one. Nothing. He says, thou art mine. No man, that's including you
and me and no one else, can pluck us out of the Father's hand,
out of his hand or the Father's hand. I heard someone the other
day say, well, you can jump. That's a lie. That's not in the
scripture. That's a lie from the pit of
hell. God's people have security in
Christ, and we just look to Him, don't we? We don't look to ourselves. We look to Christ. Oh, so we see here both of these
two, Ananias and Sapphira, they both agreed to lie about this
matter, to try to deceive God's children, by thinking they're
bringing all their money. Oh, bringing all their money. that they received from the sale
of their property. They want to look good in the
eyes of other people. In the gift Ananias and Sapphira
bought revealed graceless green hearts, beloved. They pretended to give all. That's
what they did. They pretended to give all when
in fact they had given nothing. Oh my. No one asked them to give
anything. No. Theirs was an unwilling sacrifice
given only in a hypocritical pretense, a sham, a show, a mockery. Their gift was an act of covetousness
and greed, not of grace. Which Barnabas's was an act of
grace, an act of love. Theirs was an act of greed. Hoping
to be, to gain the applause of man and the praise of man. Therefore their gift was an abomination
unto God. Listen to this, Luke chapter
16 verses 14 and 15 says this. And the Pharisees also who were
covetous heard all these things and they derailed him. They derailed
Christ. And he said unto them, ye are
they which justify yourselves before men. You justify yourself. You got all this fancy clothing.
So when you walk around, people say, oh, they're men of God.
Or thank you, thank you, thank you. They go up and give them
praise. They love the praise of man. But our Lord continued and said,
but God knoweth your hearts. For that which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination in the sight of God. You ever see
people walk around with these little collars around? Little collars or little outfits. That's for them to let you know
that they think they're more holy than you are. They want
attention. They want praise. God's preachers,
we go out. You can't tell us apart from
anyone else in this world. I go sit across McDonald's with
my friends. People come in. We get talking. They find out,
oh, you're a preacher? Yeah? Yeah, I preach God's grace
and salvation in Christ. Well, you don't look like a preacher.
I don't know how a preacher's supposed to look. Do you? Because all my preacher friends,
we're just normal folks, saved by the grace of God. But see,
I don't walk around in this all the time. I wear this to church
and then I'm in my khakis and I'm in my normal clothes with
a hoodie and a sweater or whatever I want. You see? We don't have
to put any acts on, do we? Brother Dan, when you and I go
out for press, we just go out and meet each other and the way
we are, aren't we? My. I asked Dan one time, I said,
we found out someone wanted a title. And they gave themselves a title. And I asked Dan, I said, what
do you call me? And he goes, Brother Wayne. I
love that. That was awesome. Wayne? Amen. I like that. Brother Wayne. That's me. I call you guys brothers
and sisters, right? That's what we are in Christ.
My oh my. There's no pretense. There's
no hypocrisy. So everything is open to God.
Because it says there, it said, God knoweth your hearts, for
that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in
the sight of God. Luke chapter 16, verse 15. Let us always remember that all
things are naked to our God. Everything. All our thoughts,
all our deeds. Everything. Everything. Praise God for a Savior, eh?
Praise God for a Savior. Praise God that the Lord Jesus
Christ saved my soul. Can you say that too, right?
Oh, my. I'm so thankful. Think of this, too. Have you
ever thought of how mind-boggling this is? He knows what all men
and all women are thinking at the same time everywhere. I can't even remember what I
ate last week. Right? You ask me what I ate
on a specific day, the only way I'll know is Vicky's got a list
on the fridge because we meal plan now. Oh, I ate this that
day. Otherwise, I don't even remember. I know it was good. Nothing escapes the sight of
our God. This is the amazing thing too.
when he says, your sins and iniquities will I remember no more. The God who knows everything
and remembers all things says about his people in Christ, I
don't remember your sins. That's good news, isn't it, Brother
Zane? That's good news. That's wonderful. That's wonderful. Let's read verses 1 to 6 again
of Acts chapter 5. But a certain man named Ananias
and Sapphira, his wife's sole possession, and kept back part
of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and bought a certain
part and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias,
why has Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and
to keep back part of the price of the land? Were it to remain,
was it not thine own? After it was sold, was it not
in thine power? They could do anything they want
with it, right? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine
heart, and hast not lied unto men, but unto God? And Ananias,
hearing these words, fell down and gave up the ghost. And great
fear came upon all them that heard these things. And the young
men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him. How did Peter know? How did Peter
know what they did? Well, by all probability, it
was by divine revelation. Because we can't know what's
in people's hearts, can we? God must have revealed it to
him. My oh my, made Peter aware that
Ananias and Sapphira were nothing but hypocrites, that they lied,
not only to God's saints, but also to God himself. So being led by the Holy Spirit,
Peter confronted Ananias and Sapphira individually. Within
three hours, they were both dead. Both dead. Isn't that amazing? God's not mocked, is he? This
is the real God of the Bible. This is not the weak God up there,
wringing his hands, wants to save you, but he can't. That's
not the God of the Bible. This is the God of the Bible.
He says, I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy, and I'll have
compassion on whom I'll have compassion. My oh my. In verse 5, as soon
as Peter openly disclosed the hypocrisy of them, God killed
him. Now let's read verses 7 to 11
again. 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, whither ye have sold the land for so much? And
she said, Yea, for so much. Oh yeah, yeah. They're in cahoots, aren't they?
She doesn't know that Ananias is buried dead in a grave. 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 are buried by a husband are at
the door, and shall carry thee out. Then fell she straight away
at his feet and yielded up the ghost. And the young man came
in and found her dead, dead. And carrying her foot, buried
her by her husband. And great fear came upon all
the church and upon as many as heard these things. Three hours
later, Sapphira comes in. She knows nothing about her husband's
death, nothing at all. which was an amazing act of God's
divine providence in itself. Word had not gotten to her. She
had no clue. Then we see in verse 8, Peter
questioned her and she continued to lie and God killed her also. Took her out just like that. My oh my. And like I said earlier, our
sovereign Lord manifests his sovereign distinguishing grace
through this biblical account of these two hypocrites, which
was recorded in the pages of Holy Scripture for our learning,
beloved. For our learning. Turn, if you would, to Matthew
chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13. Do you know within the church,
there's wheat and tares. And sometimes God just takes
tares out, And sometimes he just leaves them in. But they shall
be found out. They shall be found out. Either
by revealing who they are, or by God taking them out of the
church. Look at this, Matthew chapter
13, verses 24 to 30. Another parable. pretty forth unto them, saying,
The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed
in his field. But while a man slept, his enemy
came in, and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
So, brother Neil, be like a few planted wheat, and then somebody
came in and planted a bunch of tares all through your field
when you were sleeping at night. But when The blade was sprung
up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So when
the wheat comes up, well, up comes the tares with them. So the servants of the householder
came and said to him, sir, does thou not sow good seed in thy
field? From whence then hath it tares? Where'd these tares come from? You planted wheat. Why are there
terrors here? He said, let an enemy have done
this. The servant said unto him, Wilt
thou then that we gather them up? But he said, Nay, lest, while
ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.
Let both go together until the harvest. And in the time of harvest
I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares,
and bind them in bundles to burn them. But gather the wheat into
my barn. My, oh, my. Peter and the other
apostles were endowed with special gifts and powers. We're going
to see that further on in this chapter. During their apostolic
ministry, and like in Peter's case, our Lord gave them a special
discerning spirit to know certain things which occurred here. And
it's absolutely impossible for God's preachers to know and to
examine the hearts of those who listen to our messages. But the Lord Jesus Christ knows
what's in everyone's heart, doesn't he? I heard a charismatic preacher
in town here recently said, I can look out into the congregation
and I see a flame on top of troublemakers' heads. And I thought, come on. I shut the guy off. What are
you talking about, man? Isn't that crazy? And that stuff's
being taught and accepted out there. Oh my, it's impossible for God's
preachers to examine people's hearts. We have the honor of
ministering to you, but only our Lord Jesus Christ knows what's
in your heart and what's in mine. 2 Corinthians 13, 15 says this,
examine yourselves whether you be in the faith. Examine yourselves
whether you trust in Christ. Prove your own selves. Know ye
not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except
ye be reprobates? Christ in us, the hope of glory,
right? Oh my. And if we, think of this,
think of this too. If we took the time to examine
our own hearts, we have no time to examine other people's hearts
then, do we? as we looked at in Sunday school. See, that's the difference between
religion and grace. Religion looks at everybody else and says,
oh, look what they're doing. How can they do that and be saved?
How can they do this? Grace says, I'm just the chief
of sinners. Praise God, he showed mercy to
me. Praise his mighty name. We need to ask ourselves a few
questions and give an honest answer, which hypocrites will
not do and they cannot do. Why do I profess to be a follower
of Christ? Do I really believe he's my Lord
and Savior? Or do I believe that I did something
to earn his favor or to merit salvation? Why did I come to
church? Do I want to worship the Lord
Jesus Christ or do I want to be seen of men? Do I want to hear his gospel
church that give him all the glory and put we ourselves in
the dust? Am I trying to draw attention
to myself? Am I trying to make others think that I'm just as
spiritual as they are? Do I go to church because my
spouse does? Ah. Why do I support the gospel
with my gifts and talents? Why? Why with my time? Is it for the glory of the Lord
Jesus Christ, whom I profess to believe in?
Or do I want the praise and adoration of those who I assemble with? See, these are questions hypocrites
will never ask themselves, never. Why do I make any effort to try
and minister to the needs of others? Am I really concerned
for their well-being and for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ,
who laid down his life for his chosen people? Has the Holy Spirit
enlightened our minds to this? But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God has made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption, that according to his written, he that glorieth,
let him glory in the world. That's why, that's why we do
these things, because we're glorifying God, right? For the great things
he's done for us. What did he tell that demoniac?
Remember that demoniac? He said, go and tell people the
great things God has done for you, which will bring all glory
to God. Right? I love the fact that we're here
to glorify God, beloved. We get the sweetness of fellowship,
don't we? It's wonderful. I'll tell you
why. I don't want to be with any other people but you. But
we're all here to glorify God, aren't we? Praise his mighty
name. That's why we're here. And you
know what? You ever thought of this? God
brought us here. God brought us here to hear the
gospel of his sovereign grace in Christ. That's why God brought
us here. Oh my. And we, let we who are the redeemed
rejoice that we were once spiritually dead. We may have been at one
time morally upright. Some of us weren't, some of us
were. We may have been honest and good in the eyes of men,
but spiritually we were just as dead as a harlot, a drunkard,
or a blossomer, or maybe even worse. And all men and women by nature
are dead in trespasses and sins. We died in our father Adam. And
we were born under the law of God and found guilty, guilty,
guilty, guilty. Christ, remember this, redeemed
us out from under the law. We're not under the law anymore.
We've been redeemed, beloved. Isn't that wonderful? It's glorious. Oh, we were utterly destitute
of spiritual life. We were graveyard dead, physically
alive, but had no clue about who God was. We might have had
a God of our own imagination who we controlled and did whatever
we wanted. Tim James says the God of people's
imagination is a cosmic muffin man who will give them everything
they want. But that's not the God of the
Bible, is it? That's not the God of the Bible. As we've seen
this morning. Oh my. And sin brings forth death,
sooner or later. Natural man's heart is corrupt
and that corruption corrupts our entire being. Do you know why men murder? Because
they're sinners. Do you know why men blaspheme?
Because they're sinners. Do you know why people get into
drugs and alcohol and all that? Because we're sinners. They say now it's a disease. to try to pacify things, right?
No, it's sin. And I know it's sin, because
I was into that, and some of you were too. And it was sin,
wasn't it? Oh my. But here's the marvelous intervention. Here's the marvelous intervention.
In each believer's life, there is an intervention of divine
grace. You've been quickened, born again by God's almighty
power, in all according to God's almighty will, by the power of
God the Holy Spirit. And this new birth is not a decision
of man's free will, no. It's not a cooperative effort
on the part of God and man, absolutely not, because man would never
choose God. Because the scripture says, there's
none that seeketh after God, none. Now, after we're made willing
by the power of God, what do we do? Well, we run to Christ,
don't we? That's scriptural. Sinners are made willing by the
power of God in the day of his power, the scripture says in
Psalms. My, and again, this is, the new birth is in no way part
man and part God, it's all God. It's all God. I said this in
Sunday school. I said, Henry Mann used to say
this, and I love it. He used to say this, if you go
to hell, it's 100% you. 100%. But if you go to heaven,
it's 100% God. That's it. He gets up, and that's why we
come, that's why we come to hear the gospel after the Lord saves
us, that's why we support the gospel, that's why we want to
be around God's people, because we want to give Him glory for
everything He's done for us. He didn't leave us dead in trespasses
and sins, did He? No, beloved. By a miraculous,
divine intervention, we're born again by the Holy Spirit of God
and plucked from the fire. Plucked from the fire, beloved. Oh, and it's a resurrection to
life accomplished by the life-giving voice of the Son of God. Listen
to this, actually turn there, John chapter five, we're closed
with this. And we need to rejoice, beloved God, because God has
sovereignly interposed his love and grace and mercy to give life
to dead sinners, and that's what he's done for us as believers.
He gave us life. We were dead, and he gave us
life, beloved. My, oh my. Look at this, John
chapter 5, verses 24 and 25. This is wonderful. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him
that sent me, hath everlasting life. That's Christ saying that. Hath. Know what I'm saying? Hath
everlasting life. And what? And what? What's that
little word right there? And shall. shall not come into
condemnation. There's no judgment for God's
people. We're in Christ. We shall not be condemned, beloved.
Who shall lay any charge to God's elect? No one. It's God that
justifieth, right? It says in Romans chapter 8.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming. Now is when
the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that
hear shall live. Why are we now living? Why are we now born again by
the Holy Spirit of God? Because the voice of the Son
of God who comes in power and says in John 17 too, that the
Father has given in his hand that he shall give eternal life
to all that the Father has given him. Salvation's in Christ's hand.
We're mercy beggars. Think of this. Think of how we're
mercy beggars. Remember the Pharisee and Republican? What did the
Pharisee say? Oh, I've done all these things.
I've given all this. I've done all this. I'm not like
this scumbag Republican over here. See, now that's a picture of
a religious man, right? And then here's the Republican. He knows he can't live without
Christ. He knows, he's been shown he
can't live without Christ. He knows he's a sinner. He says,
God, be merciful to me, the sinner. A sinner, but the sinner. He's
the sinner. Isn't that what God shows us
as people? And the scripture says that man, Republican, went
home justified, just as if he never sinned. My! I'll tell you what a message,
eh? What a message the gospel brings.
Salvation in and through Christ. Rejoice, beloved God. God sovereignly
interposed His love and grace and mercy to give life to dead
sinners. Rejoice, ye who are the children
of God. You are alive. We were dead,
but now we're alive by the power of God the Holy Spirit according
to the manifold grace of our triune God, God the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. We are no longer dead in trespasses
and sins, no longer in the graveyard of sin, no longer locked up in
the prison cell of sin, but we've been set free, beloved, and if
the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed, right?
Oh my! Let us speak to God as a living
child, to his living Father. Are we alive? Then we're one
with Christ. Are we alive spiritually? Then
we're one with Christ, beloved. We're one with Christ. So let
us as living men and women who were dead, but we are now living
spiritually, alive spiritually, give all the glory and all the
honor and all the praise to the Lord Jesus Christ, our great
God and Savior. and Redeemer. Praise His mighty
name. Oh, He's so good to us. He's
so good to us. Brother Dan, can you close