Well, if you would, open your
Bibles with me to Romans Chapter 4. Romans Chapter 4. I'm happy to report our brother
Gary Holbeck is recovering better than normal. That's safe to say. But now the real problem is holding
him back, keeping him from doing too much. So I want to remember
to keep him and that family in prayer. Remember that tonight
at six o'clock, Brother Roland Browning will be here to preach
for us, and we'll have a ice cream social, time of fellowship
afterwards. And if you men, after the service,
could remember, put one table out in the vestibule. That's, I guess, how we're going
to serve everybody from tonight. So if you could put one table
out there, that would be very much appreciated. Romans 4, verse
17. Well, that's where we'll begin. As it is written, I have made
thee a father of many nations. Before him whom he believed,
even God, who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things
which be not as though they were. Who against hope believed in
hope that he might become the father of many nations. According
to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. And be not
weak in faith, he consider not his own body now dead. When he
was about 100 years old, Neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb.
He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but
was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded
that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And
therefore, it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it
was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to
him, but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed if we believe
on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our justification. All right,
let's all stand together as Chris leads us in singing our call
to worship. Thank you. ? His faith and teach us that reason
? To make it sovereign reigning grace ? And always hold our song
? No sweeter subject than Him thy ? A sinner's heart to sing
or more displayed the glorious sign of our exalted King. And from the work that once began,
it never was the end. ? We're called up to our Lord ?
By grace thus far we've come ? And grace will help us through
this world ? And bring us safely home Alright, if you would take
your hymnal at this time and turn it to page 447, the lily
of the valley, 447. ? I have found a friend in Jesus
? He's everything to me ? He's the fairest of 10,000 to my soul The lily of the valley, in him
alone I see All I need to cleanse and make me fully whole In sorrow
he's my comfort, in trouble he's my stay He tells me every dare
on him to roam He's the lily of the valley, the bright and
morning star. He's the fairest of 10,000 to
my soul. He all my griefs have taken and
all my sorrows more. In temptation, he my strong and
mighty tower. I have all for Him forsaken,
and all my idols torn from my heart, and now He keeps me by
His power. Oh, all the world forsake me,
and Satan keeps me o'er. Oh, Jesus, I shall faithfully
keep that goal. Of the valley, the bright and
morning star He the fairest of ten thousand to my soul He will
never, never leave me, nor yet forsake me here, while I live
by faith and do His blessed will. Oh, all the fire about me, I've
nothing now to fear. With His manna, He my hungry
soul shall fill. In sweeping after glory, I'll
see His blessed play, Where rivers of delight shall ever roll. He's the lily of the valley,
The bright and morning star, He's the fairest of ten thousand
to my soul. Let's open our Bibles now to
Acts chapter four. Acts the fourth chapter. And
we'll begin our reading in verse 36. And Josie, who by the apostles
was surnamed Barnabas, which is being interpreted the son
of consolation, a Levite of the country of Cyprus, having land,
sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles'
feet. But a certain man named Ananias and Sapphira, his wife,
sold the possession and kept back part of the price, his wife
also being privy to it, and brought a certain part of it 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. Whilst it remained,
was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it
not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this
thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men,
but unto God. And Ananias, hearing these words,
fell down and gave up the ghost. And great fear came on all them
that heard these things. And the young men arose and wound
him up and carried him out and buried him. And it was about
the space of three hours after when his wife, not knowing what
was done, came in. And Peter answered unto her,
tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, yea,
for so much. Then Peter said unto her, how
is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the spirit of the Lord?
Behold the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at
the door, and shall carry thee out. And she fell down straightway
at his feet and yielded up the ghost. And the young men came
in and found her dead, and carrying her forth, buried her by her
husband. And great fear came upon all the church, and upon
as many as heard these things." We'll end our reading there.
Let's bow together before our Lord. Our Father, oh, how thankful
we are that you are God alone, that you always do according
to your will in the armies of heaven, among the inhabitants
of the earth, and that none can stay your hand. None can even
have the right to ask you what you're doing, that you are God
alone, ruling and reigning in all of your creation. And Father,
how thankful we are that it has been your eternal will and purpose
to save your people by the doing and dying of your son, our Lord
Jesus Christ. Father, human words can't express
our thanksgiving, can't express our awe that you would do something
so wonderful for such wretched sinners as we are. Father, we
thank you. And it is our heart's desire
this morning that you might enable us by your spirit to worship
you in spirit and in truth. Father, enable us to look into
your word and see the Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, I pray that
you might be pleased to give us faith in him. Each one here
this morning, give us faith, I beg, in the Lord Jesus Christ,
that all of our trust, that all of our hope, that all of our
salvation might be found in him and him alone. Father, bless
us, I pray. And Father, I thank you for a
place, a people that you've given to us to meet together and to
worship you, that you've given us one heart and one accord,
one desire to have the gospel of our Savior preached and have
a place where sinners can come and hear the Savior. Father,
I thank you and ask that you would continue to bless us here,
that you continue to bless your word as it's preached Father,
for your glory, that this word may go out to reach your people
in this area, our families, our friends, our loved ones, the
people in this community, Father, that you might reach your people
with the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, we thank
you for how you've blessed us. You've blessed this congregation
so richly with your mercy, with your grace, With your gospel,
you've blessed us materially and physically. Father, we're
thankful. We thank you for the good report that we've had in
our brother Gary. Father, pray that you continue
to be with him and heal and strengthen his body, giving the wisdom and
the patience to wait and heal well. Bring him back to us as
soon as it could be thy will. Be with his dear family during
this difficult time. We pray for Novi Sparks as she's
facing this surgery. Father, we pray you would be
with her, that you'd be with those doctors and nurses that
treat her, and let this give her much relief from these problems
that she suffered for so long. And Father, all these things
we ask, and we give thanks in that name which is above every
name, the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Now,
I've titled the message this morning, Lying to the Holy Ghost.
And I know full well that this passage scares many people to
death. Someone came in and lied to Peter
and they died. That Peter could tell that they
were lying and that they died. That scares people to death.
And I don't want us to look at this passage and be scared to
death like that at all. I want us to take this passage
and that it might make us afraid. to trust anything, anyone other
than Christ and Christ alone. I want it to make you and me
both afraid to try to add anything that we do to the Lord Jesus
Christ and make us thankful that we can trust Christ alone. That's
what I hope we can get out of this message this morning. I
wanna begin in verse 36 of Acts 4. And Joses, who by the apostles
was surnamed Barnabas, is being interpreted the son of consolation,
a Levite and of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it
and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet. This
man, Joses, was a man who was highly respected of the apostles. They respected him so much they
changed his name. They changed his name to Barnabas,
which means the son of consolation. This man was gifted to preach
the gospel of Christ. And they surnamed him the son
of consolation. Barnabas, by the Spirit of God,
was given a message to preach a message of consolation, to
preach a message of consolation to poor sinners who feel the
weight and the guilt and the filth of their sin, to know that
they're under the judgment of God for their sin. And Barnabas
was able to comfort those people, not by telling them, it's okay,
just do your best. He was able to give them consolation
by pointing them to Christ, by pointing them away from the law
and the ceremonies. The law and the ceremonies just
kept putting a burden on people. Barnabas was able to point people
away from the law and the ceremonies and point them to Christ. That's
what comforted their hearts. Some poor sinner who was unrighteous,
who had no righteousness of his own, it was so, discouraged in
such fear. I don't have a righteousness
that I need to stand before God, and I can't earn it. I've been
trying to keep the ceremonies and the laws. I can't earn a
righteousness. It's troubled. And Boris was able to give them
consolation by telling them, look away from those pictures.
Look away from those things that you think you can do to earn
a righteousness of your own. And just look to Christ. Just
trust him. That gave consolation to their
hearts and the apostles appreciated that. It ended a wonderful gift
to have somebody constantly pointing us away from ourselves and pointing
us to Christ. That gives consolation to our
heart. And Barnabas did what many of
the believers were doing at that time. He had some land and he
sold it and he came and gave the apostles all the proceeds
of the sale. But now, It's important to know
that's not why the apostles respected Barnabas so much. It wasn't the
gifts that he gave to God. They respected him so much because
of the gifts God gave to him. They surnamed him Barnabas, the
son of consolation, before he sold the land. It was because
how God had gifted him to preach the gospel, and that was so necessary,
just like it is today, isn't it? And the spiritual application
is what I want us to see here. As I told you last week, I don't
want anybody selling everything you have and giving all the money
to the church. I don't think that's wise, and that's not what
the scripture's teaching. There's a spiritual application
here. Every passage of scripture teaches us Christ, first and
foremost. Barnabas committed everything
to Christ. He committed everything to Christ.
And people were impressed by that. Well, this couple, Ananias
and Sapphira, they saw that. And they wanted that respect
from the apostles too. They wanted to be given new names.
They wanted to be held in esteem, you know, like Barnabas was.
Their problem was they wanted the blessing without committing
everything to Christ. That was their problem. Look
at verse one, chapter five. And a certain man named Ananias
and 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 of it and laid it at the apostles'
feet. Now they said they gave all the
proceeds of this sale to the apostles, but they didn't do
it. They lied about that, didn't they? They held back part. They
weren't willing to give up everything and to rely wholly on the Lord
to provide. They kept back part of it for
themselves. And I don't know how big their,
their gift was and how big the land that they sold. It could
be that they gave more money, a larger gift than Barnabas gave,
and they expected a bigger reaction. Either way, they expected this
big reaction. They expected to get the same
kind of respect that Barnabas had. Well, that's not what happened,
is it? Verse three. And 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? Whilst
it remained, was it not thine own? I mean, before you sold
it, that land was yours. You could do anything you wanted
with it. And after you sold it, that money, the profit that you
got, was it not in thine power? You could give as much of it
as you wanted or as little as you wanted. Why hast thou conceived
this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men,
but unto God. And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and gave
up the ghost. And great fear came on all them
that heard these things. And the young man arose and wound
him up and carried him out and buried him. And it was about
the space of three hours after when his wife, not knowing what
was done, came in. And Peter answered unto her,
tell me, whether you sold the land for so much? And she said,
yea, for so much. And Peter said unto her, how
is it that she have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord.
Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at
the door, and shall carry thee out. Then fell she down straightway
at his feet and yielded up the ghost. And the young man came
in and found her dead, and carrying her forth, buried her by her
husband. And great fear came upon all the church, and upon
as many as heard these things." Now, that really happened. Peter
asked Ananias, you know, why did you lie like this? Why did
you lie and say you gave all the proceeds of this sale to
the church? Why did you lie like that? And
that man died. I mean, he just died, fell down
dead at the apostle's feet. And then his wife came in and
he asked her, now did you sell, you know, the land for this much?
And he knew she'd sold it for more. She said, yes, everything
we had from that, that's what we gave you. And she fell down
dead. I mean, that really happened. That really happened. And I promise
you that the point of this passage is not to lie about your offering.
You wouldn't believe the stuff that I read this week about this
passage. The point is not that you're
not supposed to lie about your offering. I mean, probably a
good idea, but that's not the point. We ought not be talking
about our offering anyway. You give an offering, whatever
it is that the Lord's laid on your heart to give. And as much
as he's put on your heart to give, and just don't talk about
it, that's the best policy. But that is not the teaching
of this passage. This passage, just like every
other passage of scripture, is teaching a spiritual truth. A
spiritual truth that salvation is by faith. It comes through
faith, through a total commitment to Christ. Now let me see if
I can do what our brother Barnabas did and give you some consolation
from this passage. First is this, if we're looking
at the subject, lying to the Holy Ghost. Tell you why lying
to the Holy Ghost is so serious. Because the Holy Ghost is God.
See, in verse three, Peter said that at the end of, you know,
Satan hath filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost. And
then at the end of verse five, he says, you not lied to men,
but to God. The Holy Ghost is God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
they're all one. Three persons, but one God. The Holy Ghost is as much God
as the Father is, as much God as the Son is. He has the same
sovereignty as the Father, the same will as the Father, the
same omniscience, the same omnipresence, the same power of God. And I
point that out. I mean, a lot of people think
that the Holy Ghost is kind of like, you know, an afterthought,
you know, this thing in salvation. No, sir. The Holy Ghost is God. He's just as much necessary in
this thing of salvation as the Father and the Son. He is God. And here's consolation for our
hearts. Since the Holy Ghost is God, when he calls a lost
sinner to Christ, they're coming. They're not gonna be lost anymore.
When the Holy Spirit points a lost sinner to Christ, they're gonna
see him. He's gonna point a lost, blind
sinner to Christ, and since he has the power of God, they're
gonna see Christ. They're gonna believe him. The
Holy Spirit, Our Lord says His purpose is to take the things
of mine and show them to you. When the Holy Spirit teaches
a sinner who's in the darkness of ignorance and unbelief, they're
going to believe and they're going to understand. It's not
just going to be blind faith that I'm believing something
I don't understand or believing a person that I don't know and
understand. They're going to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
because they've been taught who He is. They've been pointed to
Him and revealed to that sinner by the Holy Ghost. And when the
Holy Ghost seals us in Christ, we're sealed and we can never
perish. That's the power of the Holy
Ghost. You can depend on him because he can't fail. And he
gives, this is the Holy Spirit gives life and faith in the new
birth. Where's my second point? What
is saving faith? Saving faith is simply trusting
Christ for all of my salvation. I mean trusting Him for all of
it, all of it. It really is that simple. You
don't have to know anything else other than this. I'm trusting
Christ for all of my salvation. I've got nowhere else to trust.
I don't want to trust anywhere else. It really is that simple. Don't overcomplicate it. If you
trust Christ for all of your salvation, Almighty God's given
you that faith. Saving faith says that the obedience
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the obedience of the man, Jesus of
Nazareth, is a man made under the law. His obedience is all
of my righteousness. All of it. You know, I really
do believe that. I really do trust Christ to be
all of my righteousness. I really do believe that righteousness
before God doesn't require any obedience to the law. You just,
you can't pick out one law, you can't pick out one act of obedience.
I don't need to add anything to what Christ did. And if I
do, I've ruined it. I really do believe that Christ
is all my righteousness. The law doesn't require one more
thing from me. The law says I'm righteous. It
doesn't require my morality. I want to be a moral person now,
but that doesn't add to my righteousness. I want to be known as a good,
as a kind, as a caring person, but that doesn't add to my righteousness.
I don't feel the need to add anything to Christ. He's all
of my righteousness. It's just that simple. That's
what saving faith is. Saving faith says that Christ
is all I need to have my sin put away. His sacrifice, His
blood, put all of my sin away, and I don't have to put one of
them away. I really do. I know you do too. Nobody here
is thinking, I'd like to sin more than I do. I mean, we all
would like to sin less, and we all ought to. We're not able
to, but we ought to, we want to. But the fact that I can't
sin less doesn't mean that my sin hasn't been put away. All
I need to have my sin put away is the sacrifice of Christ. His
sacrifice, the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ made
my sin to not exist. It just doesn't exist anymore.
That's why the Holy Father can accept me. He accepts me because
Christ put my sin away. He accepts me in his presence
because Christ made me holy. The Father happily forgives my
sin. I know I've said this before.
Somehow I think that we get the impression, well, you know, that
the father doesn't want to forgive me because he still sees my sin,
but he has to forgive me because Christ died. The father happily
forgives my sin because the blood of Christ made it so that there's
no sin to charge to my account. The death of Christ really justified
me from all of my sin. I really believe that. Saving
faith simply believes that, and I tell you why you need saving
faith to believe that. Jonathan, I believe that, even
though everything I do is sinful. I mean, I know everything I do
is sinful, and everything I do is sinful much more than what
I realize, but I do realize enough to know everything I do is completely
filled with sin. Yet I believe I'm without sin.
The only way you can really believe that is saving faith. Here's
another thing. Saving faith believes just as
fully and completely as anything. Salvation is accomplished by
the faithfulness of Christ. Not my faithfulness, not my faith,
but the faithfulness of Christ. Paul said in Galatians 2 verse
16 that we're justified by the faith of Christ and not by our
works of the law. We're justified by the faithfulness
of Christ to do everything that it took to make his people holy
and righteous. His faithfulness, his faithfulness
to obey all of the law. His faithfulness to do everything
that the Father gave him to do. It's his faithfulness. I believe
I told you this Wednesday night Oh, I wanna be faithful. I want
to be known as a faithful man. Every believer ought to want
to be known as a faithful person, because it's required of a steward
to be what? Faithful. I want to be known
as a faithful person, but I tell you what, I don't want any of
my salvation based on my faithfulness. I want my salvation to be completely
dependent on the faithfulness of Christ, because I believe
he did everything it took to save my sinful soul. I mean,
I could just, I could go on and on and on about this. I know
that this is what saving faith believes, that I am kept by the
power of His grace. I'm not kept by my works. I'm
not kept because God saved me, and now I live a good Christian
life, and that's why God keeps me, that's why God keeps blessing
me. Not of works lest any man should boast. I really do believe
and love it this way. Salvation is by grace. By grace,
not my works. Now as God will enable me, I'm
gonna do good works. Believers are commanded to do
good works. To serve God, and here's the
way you serve God. Look around you. It's by serving
these people that are around you. By serving believers, wherever
it is that you meet them, wherever it is that you can do to help
them, that's what we're to do. And God's people will do it.
because he's given us a nature and the new birth that will do
these things, that seeks opportunities to help one another. By God's
grace, I will do good works. But listen, let me tell you.
I don't want anybody talking about them. I don't want anybody
talking about them because I'm so ashamed of them. I know that
they're full of holes. I know that they're full of sin.
So I don't want anybody talking about my works. And if you're
a believer, you don't either. What did our Lord say? When you
have done all, And I don't know, I've never got to that point
where I felt like I've done all. But if you could get to the point
where you've done all, what is it that the Lord says we're to
call ourselves? An unprofitable servant. I don't
want anybody to talk about my works. I want to talk about Christ. I want to talk about what he's
done for his people. I want to talk about his work
of righteousness, his work of redemption that Christ, the Son
of God, would be made flesh to save the likes of me, that he'd
suffer and die on Calvary's tree, that he'd be made sin so that
the Father would turn his back upon him, that he'd make his
soul an offering for sin in order to save the likes of me. That's
what I want to talk about. That's what I want to talk about.
Salvation is all of grace. It's all of grace. I mean, we
can't get to any point in our life and say, well, you know,
I can take some credit for that. I mean, you know, that turned
out well because I did everything right. We can't say that. It's all of grace. All of grace. I remember the night our daughter,
Savannah, was baptized. She was in college at UK, and
Todd and I baptized her, and Todd and I were talking after
the service. And Todd said, you know, this is one of the two
happiest days of your life. He was right, it is. And he said,
you know, you and Janet, I mean, you taught your girls the gospel
from the time they could just understand anything. You've been
such good parents and keeping them under the sound of the gospel
and trying to always keep them pointed to Christ, but you can't
take credit for any of this. It's all grace. I guess that's
one of the best examples I can think of. There's not a single
blessing any believer has because we've done anything right, and
we don't want to talk about it. It's all of grace, isn't it?
I'll just sum it up. I might go on. I mean, I could
be preaching, but still Roland gets here this evening, talking
about, you know, all that, what everything, what we believe about
our Lord Jesus Christ. But I'll sum it up by saying
this. Christ is my all. Christ is all and in all. That is what saving faith believes
and clings to. Christ is all of my wisdom. The only way I can see how God
could save a sinner like me is in Christ. He's all of my righteousness. It's the only way I can be made
righteous is by his obedience. He's all my sanctification. He's
all my redemption. The only way my redemption price
can be paid is if Christ paid it for me. by his precious sinless
blood. I am so sinful it took the blood
of God to redeem me. And I really do believe that's
all it took to redeem me. I don't have to add anything
to that price. Christ is my prophet. He's the one that tells me about
God, that reveals God to me. He's my priest. He's the one
that brings me to God, the one that offers a sacrifice for me.
And he's my king. He's the one I bow to. He's the
one that I depend on to lead me and guide me and protect me.
He's my king. I serve at the pleasure of the
king. All of my eggs are in one basket. Now, that's not good
investment strategy, but that's the only hope that we have is
that it's a matter of salvation. Christ is my all or I'm going
to perish. Tip, there's no backup plan.
None whatsoever. And let me give you a few examples
from Scripture. Of trusting Christ and having
no other hope. What a blessing that that is.
Remember that leper that came to our Lord after he preached
the Sermon on the Mount? This man, Scripture says, is
full of leprosy. You couldn't lay your finger
on a spot of healthy skin on his body anywhere. He's dying
and he's dying soon. He's in absolute, utter misery. And he comes and bows before
the Lord, and scripture says he worshiped him. Now this must be the heart of
worship. Lord, if you will, you can make
me up clean. Didn't say one other word. He
stayed there at the feet of the Savior. If you will, Lord, it's
up to you. You're sovereign over me. It's
up to you whether or not I'll be healed or not. It's up to
the Lord whether or not he's gonna show me mercy and grace
or not. Lord, if you will, you can save my sorry soul. If you
will, you can give me mercy. You said, I'll be gracious to
whom I will be gracious. I'll be merciful to whom I will
be merciful. Lord, you can be merciful to
me if you want. And I'm staying right here at your feet begging
for it. He had no other hope, did he? There's no doctors, there's
no backup plan, and when that man had no other hope, what did
the Lord say? I will, be thou clean. How about that poor woman caught
in the very act of adultery? The scribes and Pharisees, religious
hypocrites, caught her in the very act of adultery, brought
her and cast her at the feet of the Savior. Now, the law says
we should stone her. You're talking about mercy. What
do you say we should do? Should we stone her or should
we have mercy on her? What do you say? And there that
woman, she didn't offer any defense. She's guilty. She can't say,
I'm not guilty. I didn't do it. She didn't try
to throw attention off her and say, look at these hypocrites.
They set me up. She stayed completely and utterly
silent at the feet of the Savior. And when she had no other hope,
the Savior ran them fellas off, and he said, well, where are
those non-accusers? Does no man condemn you? And she looked up
and saw them all gone, and she said, no man, Lord. And the God
of heaven and earth said, neither do I condemn you. Go and sin
no more. He didn't condemn her because
in a very short while, he stood condemned for her. When she had
no hope, she heard these words, I don't condemn you. How about
Mary Magdalene? I mean, Mary Magdalene was a
mess. I mean, she was a mess. She was
a notorious sinner, a great sinner. And when our Lord was eating
dinner one night, she came in and just fell down at the Lord's
feet. And I mean, don't you know there was silence across that
room? Here's the town, you know, shame. She's such a great sinner. As far as we know from scripture,
she never said a word. She's such a great sinner. Her
heart was so broken. She sat at the Savior's feet
weeping and her tears were falling on his feet. And I don't, I mean,
I wondered, did she plan this? I kind of think she didn't. She
just weeping and her tears are falling at his feet. And she
just thought the only thing to do is to dry him off. And she
didn't have a towel. And she used the hair of her head to
dry off his feet. She had no hope. She wasn't even making
any plea. She just broken hearted before
the Lord. And you know what she heard the
Lord say? Her sins, which are many, are forgiven. That's the blessing of having
no hope but Christ, not holding something back and making it
Christ plus me. Having no hope but Christ, your
sins are forgiven. How about the thief on the cross?
He had been cast in the same in the teeth of the Lord just
like that other fellow. You know, if you're the Christ, come down
from the cross, take us with you. Bring us down from the cross
too. And the Spirit came and taught him something. The Spirit
came and taught him. to where he said, Lord, remember
me when you come into your kingdom. Now this man couldn't have any
other hope but the mercy of God. He's nailed to a cross. He can't
go witness. He can't go get baptized. He
can't go do, you know, anything. He can't move. He's got no hope
but Christ. And when he had no hope but Christ,
in his agony, he heard the Lord say, verily, truly I say unto
thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. This man had
no hope but Christ, and when he closed his eyes in death,
he was with Christ in paradise. It's good to have no hope but
Christ, isn't it? Look back at 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel 23. David, the man after God's own
heart, is on his deathbed, let's read
what he said. 2 Samuel 23. Now these be the last
words of David. David, the son of Jesse said,
and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the
God of Jacob and the sweet psalmist of Israel said, the spirit of
the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue. The God of Israel said, the rock
of Israel spake to me. He that ruleth over men must
be just, ruling in the fear of God, And he should be as the
light of the morning when the sun riseth, even a morning without
clouds, as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining
after rain. Although my house be not so with
God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things and sure. For this is all my salvation,
and it's all my desire, though he make it not to grow. David
on his deathbed confessed this, that all of my hope of salvation
is Christ. This one who's coming in the
flesh, he's all of my hope. Now here David's on his deathbed.
I've never been on my deathbed, so I don't know what goes through
your mind, but one would suspect it's not uncommon for all the
things that you've done in your life, you know, people say my
life passed before my eyes. David didn't say, You know, I've
got some hope because I killed Goliath. Nobody else was going
to take him off. And I took him on. I didn't have
any armor. I just took some stones in my sling. And I faced that
giant. I was brave enough to face him.
And I killed that giant. God's going to be pleased with
me. David didn't say that. He didn't mention that at all. He
didn't mention those 10,000 that he'd slung, slain. Saul's killed
his thousands. David, his 10,000. He didn't
talk about that. He didn't say my hope is all
these Psalms I've written. The Holy Spirit of God came upon
me to pin the word of God, but that's not my hope. My hope is
not that I've been a good king. I mean, I know I've made some
boneheaded moves, but you know, largely I've been a good king
over Israel and over God's people. He didn't mention that. He said,
here's my hope. It's God's covenant. His covenant
of grace that God promised. to save me by his grace. And
it's all through the doing of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he
says, although my house be not so with God. He's not talking
about his house, like his sons and his daughters. Oh, that was
a mess too. But he's talking about his flesh. The body of
his flesh. He said, now, I know the Lord.
I trust the Lord. But my flesh is as rotten as
it's ever been. And I would have liked to have
seen a whole lot more growth in grace than I've had. I'd like
to see for me to quit sinning and start acting better. But
the Lord hadn't made that grow like I'd like. He can say with
Peter, it does not yet appear what I shall be. But it will,
because Christ is coming again. Christ is coming to save me by
his everlasting, eternal covenant of grace and everything God promised
to do in that covenant of grace, to save a sinful people who could
be saved no other way than by God's grace, they'll all be saved. David says, that's all of my
hope. I don't hope in that plus something
good that I've done. It's all my hope. His grace is
all of my hope and it's all my desire. This sounds bad to say it, I
don't want to say it this way, but you understand what I'm saying.
Even if I could change it, I wouldn't. Even if I could be saved by my
own works, I don't want that. I want to be saved by Christ
and His work. I want to be saved by God's grace. A whole lot more, I want to be
saved by my works. I wouldn't have it any other
way, because that's the only way salvation can be sure. all my hope. See, that's what
saving faith says. I don't have or want any hope
but Christ. And if you've committed all of
the hope of your salvation to Christ like that, you've got
the same faith, the same salvation, the same end in glory that King
David, the man after God's own heart has. The exact same one. This thing of saving faith, it's
genuine faith. I mentioned this in the lesson
this morning. I'm going back to the story of
Ananias and Sapphira making people afraid. Well, I mean, I have
faith, but it's awful weak. Sometimes it seems like my faith
doesn't even exist. God might cast me off. He might
get me. Genuine faith. That's what saves
a sinner. It's genuine trust in Christ. It's not perfect faith. It's
genuine faith. And you know, I'm convinced of
this. Each one of us knows whether we're being a hypocrite or not.
We know. I mean, I know if I'm trying
to put on a false front before you or if I really trust Christ. And you do too. It's genuine
faith. It's not perfect. It's genuine
faith. You know whether or not you would
really like to be saved by God's grace plus something that you
can do. Genuine faith says, I don't have any hope but Christ, and
I don't want any other hope but Christ. I am so thrilled. I am so thankful that God's enabled
me to trust in Christ alone, not in some failing, sinful thing
that I would do. If salvation is Christ, plus
something I do, I'm going to hell. But if salvation's all
in Christ, I'm gonna be glorified together with him one day. Because
that's what he promised. Relying on Christ alone, relying
on Christ to do it all, always results in mercy received. Isn't that what happened in each
of these cases we looked at in scripture? Relying on Christ
to be all of my salvation, results in the salvation of our souls.
Relying on Christ to justify me by his blood to take my sin
away always results in justification. And relying on Christ to make
me accepted before the Father. Not acceptable, accepted. If I seek acceptance only in
the beloved, the Father will always accept me. so that he
tells me in his word, come boldly before my throne of grace. Come
confidently before my throne of grace that you may obtain
mercy and grace to help in time of need. It always results in
acceptance. Saving faith is simply this. It's trusting Christ alone. And
I haven't held back any of my works to add to it. I gave up
claim of everything that I've ever done and trust Christ and
Christ alone. That's saving faith. All right,
so we've seen who the Holy Ghost is. We've seen what saving faith
is. Now, what is this matter of lying to the Holy Ghost? And
it's pretty serious because Ananias and Sapphira did it and they
died at the feet of the apostle. Lying to the Holy Ghost is simply
this. It's saying that I trust Christ
alone, but not really doing it. It's saying that I've given up
claim to all the things that I've done in the past and all
the things that I'm doing now, saying that I give up any, those
things can't contribute to my salvation, but really trusting
those things too. It's trusting Christ plus something
else. That's lying to the Holy Ghost.
Lying to the Holy Ghost is having an outward profession, and that's
all it is, is outward. But in my heart, I'm still trusting
something that I do. that can make me a little better
than you, that can make me a little better than somebody else. It's
having an outward profession. It's learning the logo, lingo.
It's learning the words. It's learning the things to say.
It's learning to act and say the things that other believers
will accept by having my heart far from God. Wanting my good
works to add to my righteousness or thinking, being so full of
myself, thinking that I actually can do something that would add
to the righteousness, the obedience of God's son in the flesh. And
the only way you could possibly think that is with a dead mind. You can't possibly think that
your works could really add to the righteousness of Christ.
If you know Christ, it's just impossible trusting in something,
no matter how small it is. But telling men I trust Christ
alone, that's lying to the Holy Spirit. And it will result in
condemnation every single time. It's not lying to men, although
it is lying to men. Peter said the problem is it's
lying to God. is lying to God. And that's what
Ananias and Sapphira did. Them wanting the praise, like
what these other believers got, Barnabas and others who sold
lands and properties and they gave all the proceeds to the
apostles. They wanted that praise without giving all the money
to the apostles. They wanted to hold back some money for themselves,
you know, to maybe someday I can help myself with this money.
That's a picture of wanting the blessing of salvation without
committing all to Christ. It's wanting the blessing of
salvation, but holding back some of my works because I think they
might be able to help me a little bit. Maybe they'll help me a
little bit in this life. Oh, God's going to bless me because
I did everything right, but he's not going to bless this person
because they didn't do everything right. I was blessed because I did. That's
holding something back. That's trying to help yourself.
It's thinking, well, maybe God will give me, you know, a bigger
mansion than somebody else in glory, or I'll get a seat closer
to the front in glory because I've lived such a good Christian
life. That's holding back. That's holding back, keeping
some of my works to trust in, and not trusting Christ alone. It's having a backup plan. And
that always ends always ends in condemnation. I'll give you an example. You
think of the church in Corinth. Were they doing anything right? I mean, you wonder, this place
is a mess. Paul wrote two epistles to them,
and he corrected, he dealt with all these things that they're
doing wrong, didn't he? but he never one time questioned their
salvation. He wrote to the churches of Galatia
and he questioned their salvation because they're trying to say,
yes, God saves his people by grace, but you have to be circumcised. They're taking grace and adding
men's works to it. and saying that's salvation.
They didn't commit all to Christ. They held back part of what they're
doing, trying to add to their salvation, and Paul questioned
their salvation. But even though the church at
Corinth was doing so many things wrong, they had so many things
wrong in attitude and spirit, he never questioned their salvation
because despite all the things they were doing wrong, they still
trusted Christ to be their all. You can fool me. You can fool
me, and you can fool me so easily, but you can't fool God, because
God looks on the heart. Wasn't that what he's told the
Pharisees? Oh, they fooled me. I mean, this rich, young ruler
was a Pharisee. He came to our Lord, and he left,
and the disciples were so amazed. Who then can be saved? I mean,
outwardly, this guy's perfect. Our Lord said, well, you put
on a good show outwardly. You cleaned up the outside of
the sepulcher. But inside, where God looks, is full of dead men's
bones. Now let me give you this in conclusion. I want to give
you some consolation here, like Barnabas would do. Great fear
came on them all. Isn't that what it says? Now
this is not the fear that God's gonna get me. A believer fears
God. We fear God, we reverence God,
we worship God. Every believer has this fear.
I'm afraid to trust anything but Christ. I'm afraid to be
found trusting Christ plus what I do. That's committing all to
Christ. And if you've committed all to
Christ, if he's all your salvation, you know there's nothing you
can add to Christ to make your salvation better, to make your
righteousness better, to get God to save you. You've committed
all to Christ. I don't care how weak and wavering
your faith is. Your salvation is secure because
it's in Christ and Christ alone. And that's the faith that I pray
that Florida give us to trust him alone, to commit all to Christ. All right, let's bow together. Our father, how we thank you
for this word of consolation. The salvation is all in our Lord
Jesus Christ. It's all in what he's done, what
he's accomplished, and who he is. Father, I pray you'd give
each one of us here this childlike, simple faith to simply trust
Christ and Christ alone. Father, it's for the glory of
your son that we pray. If you would save the likes of
us, if you would save us here, you would be pleased to have
mercy on us here. You'd be pleased to give us here,
this morning, faith in Christ. Surely, you'd get all the glory,
all the honor, and all the praise for it, because none of it can
come from us. It all must come from thee. Father,
it's in Christ's name. For his glory and his sake, we
pray. Amen. All right, Chris. All right, in closing, if you
would, take your hymnal and turn it to 309. And let's be standing
as we close. Beneath the cross of Jesus. Beneath the cross of Jesus, I
faint would take my stand. The shadow of the mighty rock
within the weary land. The home within the wilderness,
the rest upon the way. From the burning of the new day
he, and the burden of the day. Upon the cross of Jesus, mine
eyes at times can see, of every dying form of one who suffered
there for me. And from my spitted heart with
fear to wonders I confess, Wonders all His glorious love, And mine
own worthless care. I'd make a frost-tide shadow
For my abiding place, I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine
of His face, content to let the world go by to know, nor gain,
nor lose. my glory all the cross