If you return there with me this
evening, Acts chapter 5, I want to read this incident
that took place here in the early church. I may comment on it in passing
this evening, but it's not really our text that we want to focus
on. But let's begin reading in verse
1 of Acts chapter 5. But 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 and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias,
why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and
to keep back part of the price of the land? While it remained,
was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it
not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this
thing in thy heart? Thou hast not lied unto men,
but unto God. And Anna and I, sharing these
things, fell down dead, and gave up the ghost. And great fear
came on all of them that heard these things. And the young man
arose, 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.' Then fell she down straightway
at his feet, and yielded up the ghost, and the young men came
in and found her 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. And by
the hands of the apostles were signs and wonders wrought among
the people, and they were all with one accord in Solomon's
porch. And of the rest dared no man
join himself to them, but the people magnified them. And believers
were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women."
I want to call your attention this evening to three things
in these last few verses here that I read to you. And I think
they have an application to the church, to the churches of our
day. And I've often made the statement
to you, and I feel like so often I need to stop and at least clarify. When I say the church, I'm speaking
of the professing church. where the churches are true or
false. The churches that profess God,
they profess the Lord Jesus Christ, they profess to be a church.
And when I say churches, that's who I'm talking about, whether
true or false. The Lord Jesus wrote to the seven
churches of Asia. And if you studied the last church
he wrote to, the church of Laodicea, you'll recognize that it was
in a desperate situation, a desperate condition. But they professed
to be a church, and therefore the Lord recognized their profession. Though he rebuked them sharply
for not living up to it, yet he addressed them as the church. So when I say this passage here
has an application to the churches of our day. I mean the professing
churches. I don't mean tonight to stop
and say whether they're right or wrong, whether true or false,
but the professing churches of our day. And I want to call your
attention to these things because I think they reveal to us how far drifted The churches
are in our day, from the very attitude of this early church.
Now, I'm not talking about culture. I realize that the culture of
this church, their nationality was altogether different. And
I'm not talking about drifting away from the gifts of the Holy
Spirit. We know most of the gifts of
the Holy Spirit was to this early church. Signs and wonders aren't
being done by the Church today as they were in the early Church.
Signs and wonders were done by the Apostles. They came by Peter
and just laying a dead man under his shadow, or a sick man under
his shadow, he was healed. The Spirit of God has given no
such gifts in our day. So I'm not speaking about drifting
from cultures or nationalities or gifts that was given to the
early church, but I'm speaking tonight about drifting away from
the attitude that this early church had that was so obvious
here in our text. And my statement would be this
evening that because the church has drifted, the churches have
drifted so far, we find ourselves today in a desperate situation. Now that would be my estimation,
that's my opinion, as you and I would look around and observe
the jet-tall churches in our country, that the churches in
our day are in a desperate situation. We're even in a critical situation. Now somebody might say, Bruce,
to reach that estimation would only be to discourage people.
But I say, not to reach that opinion would be only to fool
ourselves. If you and I look around us today
and consider what's going on in the churches all around us,
and it's not my intent this evening just to be critical, but it's
my intent that you and I be awakened to this. and awaken to the situation
that the churches find themselves in. And brothers and sisters,
what I'm saying, if you and I can look around us this evening and
not reach the conclusion that the churches are in a desperate
situation, then we're ignorant. And living in ignorance will
not solve the desperate situation that we're in. The Lord Jesus
wrote to the Odyssean church. And I think as you study that
church, you realize that it was in the most desperate condition
of any of the other churches in Asia. There were seven churches.
And the Lord wrote to this church. And by the way He addressed this
church, it's evident that she was in a critical condition. But what made her condition more
critical was, she was ignorant of it. She did not know it. The Lord wrote to her and said,
you're wretched, and you're miserable, and you're poor, and you're blind,
and you're naked. That was his estimation of that
church. But that wasn't her estimation
of it. She was ignorant of her situation that she was in. And
her estimation of herself was this, we're rich. and will increase
with goods and have need of nothing. So I would say this evening,
to reach a conclusion that the church is not in critical condition,
would be reaching the same conclusion that the church of Laodicea reached
about itself. And another would say this, why
should we even worry about it? If the situation is as dire as
you say it is, and it's critical, then there's nothing we can do
about it anyway. We'll remain ignorant of it,
won't help. And to deny it, won't help. And
to be indifferent about it, won't help. To acknowledge it, at least
perhaps would put us on a road to recovery. If the situation among the Gentile
churches is as desperate as I claim it is, then at least, brothers and sisters,
you and I should live with a broken heart, and we should live with
prayerful attitudes. And to not do so would show a
lack of love, not only for the Lord Jesus Christ, but for His
churches, and a love for the truth itself. When the Lord was ready to bring
judgment upon Israel because of their sins, He was ready to
send a heathen nation to carry Him away captive. And He set
a mark upon the foreheads of all of those who sighed over
their sin. They looked around them at the
condition of the church and they sighed over their sin. They couldn't
change things. They couldn't make things any
better. But what they did was they sighed over it. They wept over it. Their hearts
were broken for it. And the Lord sent an angel to
put a mark upon their foreheads. If there's nothing we can do
about it, at least acknowledge it, and be broken over it, and
be prayerful over it. Some would say, and I had a man
tell me just a few days ago, that he thought we were in the
midst of a great revival, or at least on the verge of a great
revival. And I would only ask this, where's
the evidence of it? Where's the evidence of a revival
in our day? We look at this early church
all the way through the book of Acts, especially here at Jerusalem,
the days of the apostle, and they had revival. Somebody said,
well, there's great numbers making professions of faith. But that's
not necessarily a sign of revival. I know where the revival, there's
great numbers added to the church. I realize that. You read that
here in our passage, that multitude were added to the church. Two
thousand one day and five thousand another day, and many, they were
in the midst of a revival. But revival is not first and
foremost about numbers, is it? And you cannot look at any single
congregation and say because it's increasing in numbers, it's
having a real revival. Real revival is first and foremost
about the attitude of the church. It's about the church's attitude
towards God and her worship of God. And her attitude towards
this world, that's what shows a revival. And the attitude that
prevailed in the church here in the book of Acts, and the
attitude I fear that prevails in the churches today, are far
removed one from another. And that's what concerns me.
And that's my first point this evening that I want to call your
attention to. And here's the attitude that I'm talking about.
We find it here in verse 11. And great fear, dread, awe, and
reverence came upon all the church. We're told that twice here in
this passage. We're told there in verse 5,
that great fear came upon those who heard this thing, and there
again in verse 11, that great fear came upon the church, all
that heard these things. You remember the context of what
happened here. I read to you that Ananias and
his wife Sapphira had sold some property, and in that days there
were many poor people in the church, and they were bringing
their price that they got out of their property and laying
it at the feet of the apostles, and they were distributing it
to poor people. And Ananias came and laid his money down at the
apostles' feet. And he had kept back part of
the price of his land. And he told Peter he'd got so
much out of it when he'd gotten more out of it. And Peter says,
you've not lied to men. You've lied to the Holy Ghost.
You've lied in your heart to Him. And the Lord smote him.
You saw that as I read it. And his wife came in. And she
lied about it. And the Lord killed her. And so word got out that God
was a jealous God. That He had avenged the hypocrisy
that was there in the church. And then, in the light of that,
we have this verse here. When they heard this, what God
had done, His judgment that had fallen, grave fear, this awe
came upon the church. I wonder what would happen to
the churches in our day if something like this happened now. Can you
imagine the attitude the churches would take in our day? Great
pride came upon all the church. And guess what it would be today?
Great gloating came upon all the church. But it wasn't so
with this church. They stood in awe of God. They were reminded that they
were standing face to face with God. that God could see through
all of them, that their hearts and their thoughts were open
and naked in His eyes. They were standing in the light
of God. Everything was exposed. They
were aware of this. They saw God to be a jealous
God, Christ to be a jealous husband. They were so keenly aware of
this, and the judgment that God had brought upon them, the hypocrisy. And the Scripture says they stood
in awe of God. They feared Him. And you not
only find this here, but look here in two or three more places.
Look back over to your left. You often find this in this Jerusalem
church. Look back over in the second
chapter. And look in verse 42 and verse 43. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles'
doctrine, and fellowship in the breaking of bread, and in prayer. And fear came upon every soul,
and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles." They feared
the Lord. And look over in the ninth chapter,
and look in verse 31. This is after the persecution
of Saul of Tarsus. And look what he said in chapter
9, verse 31. Then had the churches rest throughout
all Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria, and were edified, builded up,
and walking in the fear of the Lord. And in the comfort of the
Holy Ghost they were multiplied. And when he says here they walked
in the fear of the Lord every day, all the day long, at home,
in their houses, in the places of worship, at the place of their
employment, they continued all the day long in the fear of the
Lord. And that's one of the characteristics
of this early church. Great fear came upon them. And you know, it's not just peculiar
to this church, but this is what's taught us throughout the Word
of God. That's peculiar to the church of every age. Listen to
what David the psalmist said, Serve the Lord with fear, and
rejoice with trembling. I will come unto thy house in
the multitude of thy mercies, and in thy fear will I worship
towards thy holy temple." God is greatly to be feared in the
assembly of His saints, and to be had in reverence of all of
those who are about Him. We receive in a kingdom which
cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God
acceptably, with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a
consuming fire." And Solomon told us that when we come into
the house of the Lord, keep your foot Don't let your mouth be
hasty to utter anything before the Lord, because God is in heaven. God's in His holy temple, and
you and I are upon this earth. Therefore, let your words be
few. Come into His presence with reverence
and with awe. And brothers and sisters, where
this reverence is lacking, there's no true worship. God cannot be
worshipped except He's worshipped in reverence, in awe. And this is the attitude today
that we've all but lost. Is it not so? And to be ignorant of that as
you and I look around us and see what's going on today in
the churches is to be ignorant indeed. Jude wrote to us, and
he said, there are those who eat among us, and there are spots in our feast
of charity, feeding themselves without fear. It's evident the church is leaving
the Word of God. And many have already left the
Word of God as the rule of worship. And the cause of their leaving
the Word of God as the rule of worship can be traced right back. They've lost this attitude of
reverence and fear. I saw in the paper just this
morning, and yesterday, maybe it was yesterday's paper, They
have a large church, and this is not just peculiar to this
one church, it's happening everywhere. But they have a large church
there just north of us. And once a week they turn the
services over to the young people. And one man said the rock music
was so loud that now you could hardly enter the building. We
have clowns, haven't we seen it? On the front yard of some
churches. We have a cowboy church that's
being advertised. And yet these are nothing compared
to the blasphemous doctrines and the immoral teaching and
practices that have saturated the Gentile churches throughout
this nation. Men have laid aside the Word
of God as their only rule of worship, and the cause of it
is this. We're far removed from the attitude
of this early church. What do you think would be their
attitude? If what was going on in our day
among the churches could have been going on in their day, they
would have been shocked. They would have been horrified. And the cause? We've left this attitude, the
early church attitude. What's the attitude of the churches
today? They can think anything, believe
anything, practice anything. They can worship as they will,
when they will, how they will, how they please, in blatant disregard
of God's word. And yet their profession and
loyalty must never be called into question. And I'm suggesting to you this
evening this reveals to any honest observer that the church is in
a critical, desperate situation in our time. Every society I
imagine in history, at least a society that intends to endure
for a while, and every organization and every industry that intends
to prosper to any degree knows that you must have laws, you
must have rules to abide by. A nation that is lawless cannot
exist as a decent society. And we know that. Men who are living in these third
world countries know that you have to have laws and rules to
live by. And they're willing to do that until it comes to Christianity.
And when it comes to Christianity, everybody seems to be willing
to throw out the laws, to throw out the rules of the kingdom
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and say we want to worship as we
deem fit, we want to do what's right in our own eyes, and don't
hold us to any word, to any dogmas given us from Him. Now that's
the truth of it. I don't know of another organization Bar none, that it has been so
unfaithful to its rules and its laws as professing Christianity
has been to hers. And that's what's got us in the
situation we're in today as we look across our country. And
we have ever been in this. And it comes right back. And
the cause of it is we've fallen away from the whole attitude
of the early church. Great fear came upon the church. The fear of God. The awe of God. And when this is left, brothers
and sisters, when this grace is lost, there's no depths to which the
churches will not sink to. And that's what we're seeing
in our day. Grave fear came upon the church. The second thing I want to call
your attention to is found here in verse 13. And all three of these things,
in a sense, are very negative. But I think you and I can learn
from negatives. We can't always be so positive,
can we? Here's the second thing I want
to draw your attention to in verse 13. And of the rest, dared no man join himself to
them. The unconverted, the unsaved,
dared not join themselves to the church. But the people magnified
them. They were afraid of the church. They magnified these people.
What's the attitude today, for the most part? There's this almost,
I call it, an inordinate desire. It's almost a lust to have a
large convocation. They train them for that now
in the seminar, how to build a large congregation. I see nothing
wrong with a large congregation. I would to God that he would
add more to us. I think we all long for that.
We pray to that end. But when we come to compromise,
that we may have such a thing, and read the Word of God that
we may attain such an end, that's when sin is involved in it. The attitude I fear today is
we'll make it easier to get a crowd. We'll make it easier to increase
our number. Do people want a gym nation?
Do they want a family life center? Do they want a sports center?
Do they want games? Do they want socials? We'll give
it to them. Are they weary with the old hymns? Are they too plain? Do they speak
too closely to the heart? Do they have a tendency to convict
the conscience? Are we tired of the old hymns?
Do we want more upbeat music? Do we want contemporary songs? Then we'll provide it for them. Is there certain portions of
God's Word that offend people? Is there certain doctrines that
they don't like? Then we'll quit preaching them.
Or we'll explain them away. will give the people what they
want to increase numbers. There's this overwhelming need
today, seemingly, of the churches to attract and impress the world. And they've resorted to all kinds
of worldly givings to accomplish that end. How different this
was and is from the early church. They weren't seeking to attract
the world. They were seeking to increase
their numbers by such givings. When the world looked upon this
early church, it feared the church. It held them at awe. They were
afraid to join themselves to it. You can almost hear these two
lost people talking. One of them says, I'm going over
there to that church. They're meeting over there at
Solomon's porch. I'm going over there and join myself to them.
This man says, you better be careful. You better be careful
if you go over there with those people. God's among those people. And He's a jealous God. He searches
the hearts and thoughts of people. You better be careful if you
go there. They magnify these people. They held them in great
esteem. The people magnified them. I tell you what always happens
in the days of a revival. You go back and you read about
the great revivals in the time of Whitefield and the Westleys. and some of the great awakenings
we've had in England, and in this country, and in Wales. And
one of two things always happened. The world always exalted the
Church. They stood in awe of it. They
reverenced it. They respected it, or they hated
it and persecuted it. One of these two things always
happened. These men had the presence of God among them. The early
church had the presence of God among them. And they were honest
people. It was said back in the days
of the old Methodists that were converted under George Whitefield.
When they made a transaction with the world, they never had
to sign their name. They never even required a contract
with those old Methodists. They said you could take a Methodist
at his word. To give his handshake was to
give his oath, they said. They magnified the people, the
Holy Spirit said. They magnified the church. But it wasn't because the church
was seeking the applause and the praise of the world. They had the presence of God.
Oh, they were new preachers. They feared God. God was among
them. They were honest people. They
sought to please God, not the world. Isn't it strange that
the more the church seeks to please the world, And the more she compromises
to do it, to impress the world, the less she sinks in the eyes
and the estimation of this world. The world hates the Profession
Church in this day. And one of the reasons the world
hates her is for the wrong reason. It's for her unfaithfulness and
her compromising attitude that she's reached in this time. And
you know it so, and I know it so. And all you and I have to
do is to look around us. Look at the things that's going
on today in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. And the world looks upon the
church with utter contempt. And who can blame it? Who can
blame it? See how we drifted, brothers
and sisters? We have nothing to compare ourselves
to. We're just as good as the next church down the road. But
third aren't doing any good either. If you and I want to know where
we stand spiritually, we have to go back to the days of these
apostles, the early church, and we look at them, and God among
them, and the fury of the Lord, and the world magnifying them,
and stand in awe of them. And only as we do that, then
our hearts are broken. Then we can see how far we've
fallen from where we should be. And it's all because, brothers
and sisters, we started down this slippery slope and we've
left this precious grace of the fear of God. That's our whole
problem. That's our whole problem. The people magnified them. And
notice this last thing that I want to call your attention to. It's
found here in verse 14. Great fear came upon the church,
the world magnified them, stood in awe of them, refused to join
themselves to them, afraid to do it, except they did it in
truth and sincerity. But the fourth thing I want to
call your attention to is found here in verse 14. Look at this. And believers were there more
added to the Lord. More of men and women. There's the three things. There's
the three things. This great fear and reverence
that they had for God. The world stood in awe of them.
The world magnified them. And now great numbers were added
to the Lord. They had converts, men who were
really saved. Isn't it strange that we say
we have this objective? And you probably find it in most
of the Church's bylaws. You ask them what their objective
is in this world, and probably among the top three or four would
be this, to convert men to Christ. To
win men to Christ. And that is our objective. That
should be our objective. That's why we preach. That's
why we teach and witness. We want to see men converted
to the Lord Jesus Christ. But isn't it strange? That while the churches of our
day would profess that to be their objective, they've left
the very means to accomplish that objective. And I'll say this, and I hope you
don't misunderstand when I say this. This, what we see here in verse
14, believers were the more added to the church, it was almost
a by-product of what we've already been talking about this evening. Men being brought to Christ is
almost a by-product of the world looking upon the church and seeing
the distinction between the church and the world. Here's a church
and it's not like the world. It don't believe like the world.
It don't walk according to the course of this world. It's not
worldly. It's born from above. It's of
God. And the world sees that. It sees
the difference there. And it sees God is among His
church, that Christ is indeed in the midst of His people. And
then what comes out of that naturally? Naturally, you've got men and
women who say, I need to be saved. I'm going over there and listen
to what those people got to say. Their God is a real God. It's almost a black brother.
But when we leave these other things, when we leave this fear
of God, and when we've fallen from that precious grace, and
try to accomplish our objective of winning men and women to Christ,
we'll fail, brothers and sisters, every time. This world doesn't want Neither
does it need a church that believes like the world. We think if we can take the edge
off of these gospel truths, that's not what the world needs.
If we can just relate these things, if we can just change the doctrine
a little bit, And take this sharp edge off of it where the world
can understand it and receive it. That's not what the world
needs. They need a doctrine they cannot understand. The world
needs a doctrine that the Holy Spirit must reveal to them. That's
what the world needs. The world doesn't need a church
that acts like the world and thinks like the world. The world is ignorant, brothers
and sisters. Don't ever forget that. This
world is not wise. This world is ignorant, and this
world needs the truth. That's what the world needs.
And if she doesn't get it from the church, she will not get
it. This world is lost. It's utterly
and hopelessly and helplessly lost, and this world needs and
must have a Savior proclaimed to it. This world is wandered
aimlessly around. This world needs a guide. It needs a Lord to subdue her
and guide it. That's what this world needs.
And if it doesn't hear of these things by the church and from
the church, then he'll never hear it. May God give us a revival. May God begin it here in Newcastle
at the Sovereign Grace Church. And brothers and sisters, I would
rather go the rest of my days living with a broken heart and
sighing before my God the cause of the situation that
the churches find themselves in today, than I would to just
stick my head in the sand and be indifferent about it until
I die. If the situation is as desperate
as I proclaim that it is, you and I should be brokenhearted
over it. And we should be seeking our God. Oh, forgive us. quicken us, revive us. A few years ago, in this whole
area, and you remember this well, you could not find the doctrines
of grace anywhere in this whole area. We sought for them. Some
of us did, didn't we? And we had different ones to
tell us, you'll not find those doctrines of grace preached in
this area. And he was telling us the truth.
But you and I, maybe not as we should have. But we have learned
those doctrines and we sought to teach those doctrines to others
in this area. And we'll continue to do so.
We'll continue to spread the truth of God's Word as He teaches
it to us. We can do that by God's grace.
And we can teach people the truth. But there is something, brothers
and sisters, that we can't We can't restore. There is something
that we cannot do. And this is what makes me afraid
sometimes. We may revive these doctrines
of the grace of Christ, but we cannot revive this attitude This
grace of fear in God is standing in all of you. That's our greatest
need in this time. We may preach pure doctrine. We may preach it well. We may
preach it long. But it will do no good to any
man to the salvation of his soul if we lose this grace of the
fear of God. And I don't have the ability,
I don't have the power to restore that once we lose it. And you don't either. Charles Sturgeon said in his
day, God had so visited them. He said the most simple message
preached would lead him to the conversion of sinners. The most
simple message. And it was because the church
was walking in the fear of the Lord. For the Lord was present
with her. And I tell you this, brothers
and sisters, He is present with the church that fears Him. No matter how weak she is in
her own eyes, no matter how few she is a number, the church that
fears the Lord, he's in her midst.