OK, let's turn in our Bible to Acts chapter 5, shall we? Acts 5 is the section that I want to preach on this evening. We're kind of in between book studies. We finished about a two-year exposition through the book of Ephesians. We're about to begin the book of Isaiah. But in between the long book studies, we have a number of topics and scriptures that I felt would be very helpful and very pertinent to us. as a church family. Last week was how to listen to a sermon and how to apply the Word of God. This week, you see in your bulletin, I titled the study tonight, Sin, the Greatest Danger to the Church. I pray that God will use His Word for His glory in our lives. Follow with me as I read God's Word, Acts 5, verses 1 to 11. But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property and kept back some of the price for himself. With his wife's full knowledge and bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? And to keep back some of the price of the land, while it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God. And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last and great fear came over all. who heard of it. The young men got up and covered him up and after carrying him out, they buried him. Now there elapsed an interval of about three hours and his wife came in not knowing what had happened. And Peter responded to her, tell me whether you sold the land for such a price. And she said, yes, that was the price. And then Peter said to her, why is it that you have agreed together to put the spirit of the Lord to the test? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out as well. And immediately she fell at his feet and breathed her last and the young men came in and found her dead and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband and great Fear came over the whole church and over all who heard of these things. The greatest danger to the church is sin. Sin is the greatest danger. to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that the fear of God will surely produce the fear of sin. To be a child of God is to grow in conformity to God. That is to grow in Christ's likeness. The more that we grow in our Christian life, the more that we are growing in the likeness of Jesus Christ. To know God means that you will love what God loves and you will hate what God hates. I want to show you this in the Bible. Go back to Psalm 97. Psalm 97, when the men were together Friday morning, we were talking about the doctrine of sin and spent a little time talking about this. From Psalm 97, verse 10, look at this verse. Hate evil, you who love the Lord, who preserves the souls of His godly ones. Do you see the beginning of verse 10? Hate evil, you who love the Lord. If you turn a little bit to the right to Proverbs chapter 8, In Proverbs chapter eight, we find a similar truth in Proverbs eight. And in verse 13, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. If we fear God, if we are rightly understanding God, we are going to hate evil. The rest of the verse pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverted mouth. I hate. Later on in the prophet Amos, in the prophet Amos in chapter 5 and in verse 15, the prophet is speaking to the rebellious people of Israel in Amos 5, 15. And prophet Amos says, hate evil and love good and establish justice in the gate. Perhaps the Lord God of hosts may be gracious to the remnant of Jacob. In the New Testament, this is not just an Old Testament concept, but in the New Testament in Romans chapter 12, the apostle Paul is writing to the church in the city of Rome and in the very practical section in Romans chapter 12, verse nine, abhor what is evil cling to what is good. You say, Jeff, I understand this, but, but, but why? Because sin is destructive. It's like the venom of a cobra. It's poisonous. It destroys. It brings death. Sin is devilish. I believe that sin is worse than hell. Because it is sin that made hell to be hell. Sin is debilitating. It makes someone ineffective. It makes them useless in the cause of Christ. Sin is debilitating. Next, sin is defiling. It's like it's like poison that is poured into the water and you stir it around. It just defiles, it contaminates, it corrupts the whole thing. Sin is dangerous. It's like a lurking lion in the tall grass, waiting and lurking to pounce on the prey. You might hear all this and say, Jeff, I understand what you're saying, but why is sin so dangerous? Why is it so dangerous? Why do you say that it's the greatest danger to the church? Why is sin such a hazard? Why is it such a peril? Why is it so dangerous? A couple of thoughts. It will lead to further sins. Sin is so dangerous because it will deaden. It will harden the conscience, almost like a callus on your body. It will deaden. It will harden the conscience. Sin is dangerous because it corrupts the church's reputation. It corrupts the church's reputation. Sin is dangerous because it dishonors our Christ. It dishonors our Christ. Sin is dangerous because it can make the church powerless. It can make the church ineffective. Sin is very dangerous because a little sin can promote more licentiousness among the members. More just kind of a, well, it's just kind of a freedom to sin. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. A sin is dangerous because, listen to this, it hinders a heaven likeness in the assembly. It hinders a heaven likeness. We want to be heavenly. We want to be heaven-like. This is the greatest way that we can prepare for heaven. And yet sin hinders that. Sin is more satanic than it is godlike. And what I find so dangerous about sin is sin is never content to stay secret. It begins that way, but it doesn't want to stay that way. Sin is not content to stay single. It is not content to stay single. It also is not content to stay small. It wants to grow just like a weed and get bigger and the roots go deeper and it's harder to cut down. a large oak tree than it is a small little baby one when it's planted. Sin is not content to stay innocent. It doesn't want to stay harmless. It doesn't want to stay innocent. It wants to grow and fester and be more destructive. And where we are today in Acts chapter 5, it describes the day. This is a real story, a historical story. I mean, this really happened. Describes the day when a family went to church, but did not come out alive. It describes, amazingly enough, track with me, I'm going to talk about this more later, how this is church growth. We're going to learn today how God is going to purify his church and how this is how the church grows, strengthens, matures. and is more Christ-like. Christian here today, what I want to do is I want to argue from the word of God that sin is the greatest danger to the church. It's the greatest danger to the church. And quite honestly, you and I could read Revelation two and three, the seven letters that Jesus gave to the churches. And in five of the seven letters, he will point out sin in the midst of the congregation and say, I call you to repent. I call you to forsake, not just to a person, but to the whole church. Let him who has an ear. Hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Somebody might say, I hear what you're saying, but why should the church be holy? Maybe that's kind of an obvious question, but why should the church be holy? Well, the church must be holy because our God is holy. The church must be holy because our Savior, the Lord Jesus, is holy. The church must be holy because the Spirit himself is indeed the spirit of holiness. The church must be holy because the gospel that we believe, the gospel that we preach, is a transforming gospel. The church must be holy because our witness is important. If we're just like the world, and yet we're calling the world to be a Christian, and yet we're no different than them, what kind of a witness would that be to a non-believing world? The church is not to be like the world. The church is to be distinct from the world. The church must be holy because, listen to this, our joy is holiness. For the true Christian, the greatest joy comes in pursuing Christ, in following after Christ. It doesn't make it easy. It doesn't mean that there's no trials and no hardship, but it means that there is great joy in a life of holiness. Isn't that why you're here? I mean, what I'm preaching tonight is really kind of preaching to the choir. You know this. You understand this. You, true Christian, you're here at Christ Fellowship Bible Church because you want and you long for fidelity. You want faithfulness to the Bible. That's why you're here. You want fidelity to the Word. You're here because you want theology. You want the theology from the Word of God. You're here because you want community. You want community of believers where there is a great unity around the Gospel of Christ. You're here because you want security from the Word. You're here because you want purity from the Word. Indeed, we could say with Moses, God, show us your glory, show us your glory. God, we want more of your glory. We want more of your power. We want more of your fullness. We want more of your holiness. I was talking. Yesterday with my children as we were out in the yard We have a neighbor who's home from college staying with a sister and we were talking with her and I was talking about college life for her and what life is like on campus these days wearing a mask and all that goes with that and many of her classes are online and so on and I began to think as I was thinking about college and University and our study tonight I want to give you just a couple of minutes by way of introduction kind of a theology course a university course on the doctrine of the church. For just a couple of minutes, number one, in Ecclesiology 101, the doctrine of the church 101, just very simply, number one, who's the chief of the church? Well, the chief of the church is the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not me. It's not you. It's not a committee. It's not some well-off or super powerful or successful group of people. It's Jesus Christ. He's the head of the church. Number two, what's the manual of the church? How do we know how to live and what to believe and how to conduct ourselves and how to think? And what is the manual for the church? And the manual, of course, is the Bible, the word of God, the scripture. You say, okay, what's the commission of the church? What is the commission of the church? And the commission of the church is worship. He saved you to worship him. He saved you so that you would be a worshiper. He commissioned you to be a worshiper and to make worshipers for his glory. Okay. Number four, what's the enemy of the church? What is the enemy of the church? And we looked at that. in Ephesians 6 for a number of weeks, and the enemy is Satan. The enemy is Satan. Okay, what's the cleansing of the church? How does the Bible teach that the church remains pure, it remains cleansed? And the answer is discipline, church discipline. What's the joy of the church? Number six, it's holiness. The joy of the church is holiness. Well, how long is this thing going to last? What's the culmination? Number seven, the culmination of the church. Answer, heaven. That the church finds its culmination in glory when we are around the throne worshiping the lamb forever. But then number eight, we kind of come full circle. What's the danger? What's the danger of the church? The danger to the church is sin. And that's what I want to explore with you in the time that we have tonight. Acts chapter 5 is going to show us sin as the great danger to the church and how God responded at one particular historical time in the early church. Now, here's what I want to do. As we walk through this story, I want to give you five headings. Now, I'm going to fly through the first and I'm going to fly through the final two. And we're going to spend a bulk of our time in the middle, too. But let me read you the five headings. They're simple phrases. I want to show you, number one, the devoted assembly, the devoted assembly. Number two, I want to show you the deceptive couple, the deceptive couple. Third, I want to show you the divine judgment, the divine judgment. Fourth, I want to show you the dignified reverence, the dignified reverence. And then fifth and finally, I'll show you the dramatic growth. the dramatic growth. So let's begin really with the context with number one in your outline in understanding sin as the great danger to the church. Number one, let's look at the devoted assembly, the devoted assembly. And we're actually, I'm going to ask you to look back to the end of chapter four with me so that we can get the context here beginning in chapter four, verse 32. As I tell my children, the book of Acts is all about the beginning of the church. It's about the growth of the church. If Acts 1 is about power, Acts 2 is about Pentecost and preaching. Acts 3 is more preaching. Acts 4 is persecution. Now in chapter 5, we have purity. Well, what's the context here? Well, look at chapter four, verse 32. This is a healthy, spirit-filled, holy church. Verse 32. And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and not one of them claimed that anything belonged to him was his own, but all things were common property of them. And with great power, the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all. For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would Sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and they would lay them at the Apostles feet and then they would Distributed to each as any had need you know what I love This is like a description of Christ Fellowship Bible Church I really do. I think this is like our church. It's a healthy, it's a grounded, it's a sacrificial, it's a generous, it's a loving church. This is a great description of the early church and by the grace of God, a wonderful description of this family of believers right here. It's marked number one by believers. Verse 32, the congregation of those who believed. It's the assembly of believers. That's what makes a church. You must be a believer in this gospel. Second of all, they're unified. Verse 32, they were of one heart and soul. Isn't that awesome? Jew and Gentile come together, young and old, different languages, different cultures, different backgrounds. One heart and one soul because there's unity in the gospel. of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, they're believers. They're unified. Third, they are orthodox. They are orthodox. Look, look, look at what's going on. They are believing with one heart and soul and not any of them claim that anything belonged to him was his own, but all things were common property to them. It's orthodox because in verse 33, there's great power in the testimony, the preaching of the resurrection of Jesus. Isn't that great? There's orthodox preaching of the gospel and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The church is also grace filled. Look at the end of verse 33, abundant grace was upon them all praise be to the Lord. for the early church and how God is working among us as well. And then they are sacrificial. Look at verse 34. There's not a needy person among them. All who were owners of land or houses would sell them. And they're bringing the proceeds to the apostles and laying it at their feet. What a sacrificial church. And then not only are they a sacrificial church, but they're generous to distribute their, their, their generous to share. Look at verse 35, they lay the proceeds at the apostles feet, and then they would be distributed to each as they have needed. I think that is by the grace of God, a picture of this church, a healthy church, a thriving church, not a perfect one. but one that is striving by the grace of God to be a devoted assembly to God. Well, then there's one example. Look at one particular example right here in a man named Barnabas, verse 36. So there's a guy named Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth, who's also called Barnabas by the apostles, which translated means son of encouragement. We have a lot of Barnabases around here. We have a lot of Barnabas's and for that we give thanks. We have encouragers, we have sacrificers, we have givers, we distribute, we preach the word. There is great unity. There are believers. This is a devoted assembly. But there is a formidable enemy. There is a fierce and a ferocious and a very cunning enemy. He is Satan. He's going to be mentioned specifically in our text in chapter five. Satan wants to destroy the church. Yes. Yes from pressure from outside We just saw that in chapter 3 and 4 here in the book of Acts There is great persecution from the outside, but he also would love to destroy it with pride from the inside Or I could put it like this, Satan loves to destroy who he would try to destroy the church with forces from without forces from without and also with falsehoods from within hostility externally and hostility and hypocrisy internally. There is a great enemy of the church. But the end of chapter four shows us the devoted assembly. That's the context. A good, healthy, thriving, sacrificial, believing, theologically orthodox church. Praise be to the Lord. Number two. Not just the devoted assembly, but now in your outline, number two, the deceptive couple. The deceptive couple. Reminds me of a story. when a 12 year old boy was sitting in a chair waiting to go to see the dentist. And he was a little bit nervous and his mom filled out some of the paperwork with all the insurance matters and handed him the clipboard to fill out some of the questions. And one of the question was, what are your hobbies? And the little boy thought about it for a moment and he began to write, my hobby includes swimming, playing, and flossing. Flossing. How easy it is to present ourselves as something that we're not. How easy it is. Cute story, but look at this historical historical account in verse one. Ananias is the man's name. His name means God is gracious. He's married to a woman named Sapphira. Her name means beautiful. They come to church, but interestingly enough, the context is in verse one, they sold the piece of property and he kept back some of the price for himself. The Greek word is a very colorful word. It's more than just kind of keeping back some of the price. It includes a heart filled with greed. It includes covetousness. It includes this, this hoarding, a selfishness. I want more for myself. That's all kind of bound up in this verb. He kept back some of the price for himself with his wife's full knowledge. And he brought portion of it to church and he laid it at the apostle's feet. Interesting. There's sin in the camp. There's pride. There's coveting. There's greed. There's man-pleasing. There's public recognition desired. Ananias, whose name means God is gracious, is about to find out that God is also holy. Sapphira, whose name means beautiful, We're going to see in the story actually has a heart that is dark and ugly with sin. They come to church. They sold a piece of property just like others had done in the church. And they keep back with a very greedy, with a very covetous, with a very proud, with a very hoarding type mentality. They kept back some of the price. And with his wife's full knowledge, verse two, they brought a portion of it to church and laid it at the apostles feet. What's the sin? What's the problem? Well, Peter will say in verse 3, evidently the Spirit of God gave him supernatural insight and wisdom. Verse 3, Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? What's the sin? They conspired, that is Ananias and Sapphira, conspired to deceive the apostles and to deceive the church into thinking that they were actually giving the entire amount when in fact they were keeping a portion of it for themselves in their pockets. In other words, Ananias and Sapphira were trying to impress everyone with a higher level of spirituality and commitment than they really had. So they sold their property, which they had every right to keep some of the money for themselves. They had every right to do that. Peter will even say that in verse four, when it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Didn't you have the opportunity to do what you wanted with the money, but they brought the money to the apostles and they represented that as being the total purchase price for what they have received. It was not true. It was not genuine. They brought a portion acting as if it was the whole. What they are guilty of is trying to impress other people. Church family, we've all been guilty of that. We've all been guilty of trying to impress others, trying to look or present ourselves as maybe being something that we're not. We've all been guilty of trying to impress others with our commitment to Christ or our devotion to Christ. Even though I know in my heart what I'm saying, I'm actually exaggerating in the moment. I'm inflating the truth. I'm embellishing the truth. I'm adding to the truth. I'm overemphasizing the truth. We've all done it. We've all done it. It's like. That story of the pastor that was preaching the power of the word and the importance of the word and the importance of daily Bible reading. And there was a family in the church that had invited the pastor and the wife over for dinner to have them over for hospitality. And that day, the church member looked on her calendar and she saw a note on that particular day on the calendar that said, we're having the pastor and his wife over for dinner. Make sure that you dust off all the Bibles carefully. We want to look good. We get it. We understand. We've been there. And there's a word for this. And the word that the Bible gives is hypocrisy. What is hypocrisy? What is hypocrisy? Well, by definition, the word means to wear a mask. Ha, to wear a mask. No, to play the actor, to put on a face, to be double-faced, to be a two-faced person. It's somebody who pretends to be something that he's not. It's somebody who pretends to be someone that he's not. And no one hit hypocrisy harder than Jesus. Track with me. It's been well said. A hypocrite is someone who has God on his tongue, but the world in his heart. A hypocrite is a person who isn't his real self on Sunday. Hypocrites are like painter, uh, pictures on a canvas where they look best when seen from a distance. Hypocrite is a man who lets his light so shine before men that they can't tell what's really going on behind. A hypocrite is someone whose reputation becomes more important than his character. It's been well said that a hypocrite is someone who cares more about how people think of him than how God thinks of him. That was the problem with Ananias and Sapphira. That at this moment, they were hypocrites. Now, let me just pause real quick and ask a question. Friend, right here, hearer in this room, is your profession backed up by your practice? Is your profession of faith supported by your practice. Think about what we pray, what we pray in public, what we pray with others. Do I really mean what I pray in public? Or what about when I'm singing hymns or singing worship songs? Am I singing it routinely with a heart and a mind that is fixed upon God and the truth that I'm singing? Or am I just kind of routinely going through the motions to be seen? Could it be true of us at times, as Jesus said in Matthew 15, these people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Sometimes it can be that we come to church and we put on a mask of adequacy. A mask of adequacy. But inside, in my heart, I am inadequate. I'm hurting. And we know it. Maybe, can you relate? Maybe someone is struggling with problems in the home. But yet I don't want to tell anyone about it. I don't want anyone to get the wrong impression of my spiritual level of maturity. I can't get along with my children. I can't seem to get them under control. But I can't admit it to anyone. I don't want to appear as though I'm out of control. I have a rift, I have coldness, I have a stale relationship with my husband or with my wife, but I can't tell anybody. I'm really struggling personally, I'm struggling at work, I'm struggling with this or that. And we put on a mask, perhaps, and say everything's fine. Everything's fine. How are you doing? Fine. Everything's wonderful. Can it be that we choose to not share our struggles because we don't want people to see the real me? We don't want to share our sins, our discouragements, our trials, because we're fearful of what other people might think of us. I can relate. Can you relate? And what's so remarkable about the Bible is that hypocrisy, what Ananias and Sapphira were guilty of, and what so often we can be guilty of, hypocrisy is a matter of the heart. It never fools God. Hypocrisy is always connected to other sins like greed or coveting or envy or pride. Hypocrisy is intentional and hypocrisy is a serious offense. What this couple, Adonais and Sapphira, prove is that their hypocrisy manifested itself in lying. It manifested itself in deceit. That was sinful, but that wasn't the root of their sin. We read in Proverbs 6, 17, one of the things that God hates, yes, what is even an abomination to God, are lying lips. That's the deceptive couple. Notice as well what happens in verse seven. There elapsed an interval of about three hours and the wife, Sapphira, comes in not knowing what had happened. And Peter said, tell me whether you sold the land for such and such a price. And she said that was the price. It's like he gave her an opportunity to come clean. He gave her an opportunity to tell the truth. But she still lied. That is the deceptive couple. We see the devoted assembly. Number two, the deceptive couple. Now, number three, I want you to see with me the divine judgment. What, what, what is God going to do? What is God going to do in the early church in this historical event? Look at verse 4, Ananias said, you have conceived this deed in your heart. You have not lied to men, but you have lied to God. And so verse 5, as Ananias heard these words, Ananias, he fell down and he breathed his last. What is the divine judgment? Here's the judgment. God kills them. Hebrews 10 says, it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Just ask Lot's wife. She turned to look back at Sodom when she was fleeing in Genesis 18. Ask Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus chapter 10, the priests of God who offered strange fire by offering sacrifices the way that God had not ordained and God killed them. We ask Achan in Joshua chapter 7, who coveted and he took gold and he defiled the Israelite community and he was destroyed because of his sin. Just ask the man Uzzah in 2 Samuel chapter 6, when he irreverently stretched out his hand to touch the Ark of the Covenant to prevent it from falling and God struck him dead. Just ask Herod the King in Acts 12 when he gave a speech in the theater in the city of Caesarea by the Mediterranean and crowds responded by chanting the voice of a God and not of a man. And he pridefully accepted the accolades and he was divinely struck by God. And died. God is infinitely holy. God is inflexibly just. God is true when he said in Deuteronomy 32 verse 29, I put to death. It really is true in Numbers 32 23. Be sure that your sin will find you out. The Bible says in the new Testament, second Timothy two 19, let everyone who names the name of the Lord abstain from wickedness. Why does God call his church to holiness? And why does God respond the way that he responded with this divine judgment? Answer sin is a monster. Sin is madness. Sin is hellish. Sin is satanic. It makes a man act irrationally. Sin defiles. It destroys. It blinds. It damns. It is the greatest threat, danger, peril, risk to the church. Amazingly, amazingly, Peter said in verse 3, Ananias, Satan has filled your heart. You're lying to the Holy Spirit. And then in verse 4, you have conceived this in your heart. You've not lied to men, but to God. And when he heard these words, Ananias fell down and he breathed his last and great fear came upon the entire church. The men came, they covered him up, carried him out and they buried him. Three hours later, the wife, Sapphira, comes in, not knowing what had gone on. And Peter, Peter gives her an opportunity to come clean, to confess, to be honest. And yet she was also a part of this deceit because she said, yes, that was the price. Verse 9, Peter said to her, Why is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out as well. Immediately she fell at his feet. She breathed her last, and the young men came and carried her out. Notice, they, Ananias and Sapphira, lie to the Spirit who is God. Notice, Satan filled their heart But they were still the guilty ones for their sin. Boys and girls, children here tonight, I am so thankful that you're here. But can I tell you as a friend and as your pastor, lying is always bad. It's always bad. It will always bring greater hurt than it will be to just tell the truth, come clean, and take the consequence. One of the lessons of this story is how God views sin, how God views lying, how God views hypocrisy. It's better to tell the truth and to suffer for it than to lie and think that you could get away with it. What does God do? How does God respond? Well, our story tells us in verse five that Ananias and fell down. He breathed his last. And then in verse 10, that Sapphira fell at his feet and she breathed her last and they found her dead and the young men carried her out. So let me say this. God prioritizes the purity of his church. Sin is dangerous. People in our world are very concerned about the coronavirus. Crippling fear has held the world in its arms. Crippling fear, anxiety. There's something far worse than the coronavirus. And that is sin. God cares about the purity of His church. Sin contaminates, it spreads, it is dangerous. That's why in a context of church discipline in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, we read that there is a little leaven that leavens the whole lump of dough. An unholy church will soon become an ineffective church. An unholy church will be a powerless church. I want to show you this. You're in Acts, take your Bible, go to 2 Corinthians, the end of 2 Corinthians. At the end of 2 Corinthians, Paul has just been gushing out his heart because the Corinthian church that he loves are actually abandoning Paul and they're believing false teachers. They're believing the accusations that these false apostles are accusing Paul of and the church that Paul loves is believing it. In 2 Corinthians chapter 12, beginning in verse 20, Paul is writing on his missionary journey and he says to them, I am afraid that perhaps when I come again, I may find you to be not what I wish and I may be found by you to be not what you wish. And perhaps there will be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances. I am afraid that when I come again, my God may humiliate me before you and I may mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past, but have not repented of the impurity, immorality and sensuality which they have practiced. What does Paul say? The greatest fear of a pastor is an unholy church. Paul says, I don't want to be humiliated. Corinthians, I was with you for a year and a half. On the second missionary journey, I spent time with you. I taught you. I poured out my life for you. We suffered together. I wrote first Corinthians. I called you out on your sin. I told you about church discipline. I told you about disunity in the church. I told you about how you need to get things right. And yet now I fear that you will not have repented. Paul's great fear. was an unholy church. Please hear this, a sin tolerated in the church distorts the reputation of the gospel. Sin tolerated in the church distorts the reputation of the gospel because in first Timothy chapter three, verse 15, The word is given so that we would know how to conduct ourselves in the household of God, which is the church of the living God. And what is the church? The pillar and the support for the truth. That's what the church is. Sin tolerated in the church distorts the reputation of the gospel. To allow sin to go unchecked in the church is to accept what God abhors. It is to tolerate what God despises. It is to coddle what Christ died for. In Acts 5, back to Acts 5, we read about the divine judgment. God judged sin. I am so thankful. for Psalm 103 that gives hope. God has not dealt with us according to our sins. Are you thankful for that? That God has not rewarded us according to our iniquities. But let me say for everyone here in this room, I don't know all of Your hearts, I don't know everything internally that's going on, but you and I know that God will and he must punish every single sin. You bring nothing to your salvation. But your own sinfulness. God shows his holy hatred towards sin, not only in the text here, but much more fully in a gospel way by pounding his own son's soul with divine wrath on the cross. What is God's view of sin? Look at Calvary. Looking at hell is important, but Jesus satisfied that for the believer. What did God do to his own beloved son? For your sin, for my sin, for the sins of all who believe. Maybe there's someone in the room tonight where, like Ananias and Sapphira, it's easy to come to the assembly and to put some money in there and to go through the motions and do all of this, but yet internally, in the heart, there was sin there. Maybe there is someone here tonight, the pattern of your life, The habit of your life, the love of your heart is such that you can say, God, you can have this, this, this in my life, but don't touch this in my life. Or to think of it of a house, God, you can have this room, you can have this room, you can have this room, you can have that room, you can take it all, you can renovate it all, but don't touch that closet. Is that true for anyone here tonight? Is that you? You can be saved from this divine judgment. You can, in the words of a Puritan, you can drown all of your sins in the ocean of Christ's blood. You can come to Calvary. You can be washed. Christian, you come afresh to Calvary. And be reminded of your Savior. Confess your sin. How glorious, how kind is our God that he invites sinners to come to him. Yes, even for nonbelievers to be pardoned, you can escape the judgment of God. Jesus was struck so you could be spared. He took hell so that you don't have to go there. He took the anger of God. so that you might forever know the love of God. If God kept a record of our sins, oh Lord, who could stand? Psalm 130 verse four. But with you, I love this, there is forgiveness. Now, you and I don't see this happening every Sunday in church. We don't see the divine judgment of God happening. Our God has not changed. His view, His attitude towards sin, His holiness has not changed. We have seen, number one, the devoted couple. We have seen, number two, the deceitful, the deceitful couple, the devoted church. Number two, the deceitful couple. Number three, then we saw the divine judgment. Let me just give you two more very quickly. Number four, number four in your outline. I want to show you the dignified reverence, the dignified reverence. What in the world is going to happen now? People fell down dead in church. What, what's good? How would you like to invite somebody to next Sunday's worship service? I mean, that's kind of a hard one to sell. If you're lying, the Lord may kill you. Verse 11, and great fear came over the whole church and over all who heard these things. Oh, there's so much here. This is the first mention of the word church in the book of Acts. The church is an assembly of worshipers joined together by a covenant of discipline and witness who meet together regularly under the preaching of the word of God. The church began at Pentecost and there is great fear that has now come over the assembly. I love this. I can give you the Greek word. It's the word mega. There's mega fear. What does that mean? Holy awe. Holy reverence. a terror of the holiness of God, the fear of God's power, awe-filled lowliness before the glory of God. Church family, I'll tell you, just to be honest, that's one of my prayers every Sunday, that God will make this place such an otherworldly gathering, such a heavenly gathering, You get plenty of the world. You don't need more of the world. You want to see Christ. You want the glory of God. You want the beauty of the word. We want this fear. And amazingly, did you notice in the text that we read tonight? Look at your text in Acts 4, 33. Great power. Do you see the word great mega power? The apostles are preaching. Look at the end of verse 33. There is abundant grace. There is mega grace. We need all three. We need mega power. We need mega grace. And we need mega fear. Great way to pray for our church. Oh, God, give us great power. Give us great grace. Give us great fear. The church was filled with fear. We want to be a people who fear our God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, the Proverbs say. This is the dignified reverence. Well, what's going to happen now? The pastor once said, If you try to do church discipline in your church, you're going to shrink your church. People are going to leave your church. We come to number five, the dramatic growth. Actually, when God purifies his church, he grows his church, maybe in numbers, certainly in fidelity. in faithfulness to the Word. Many churches in our day, I believe, have caved and fallen prey to Satan's plot that programs and prizes and picnics and performances all are aimed at kind of drawing people in. Let's just do things like the world to bring them in. And yet God gives a very different portrait in the word. God dramatically grew his church because he loved his church. He hates sin and he purified his church. You say, but acts 511 is the end of our paragraph. You're right. Look at verse 12, at the hands of the apostles, many signs and wonders were taking place among the people, and they were all with one accord in Solomon's portico, but none of the rest dared to associate with them. However, the people held them in high esteem, and all the more believers in the Lord, listen to this, multitudes, do you see that? Multitudes of men and women were constantly added to their number. That is church growth from God. dramatic growth. Many people fear joining the church. What a powerful God. They're trembling over sin. And yet many multitudes of men and women are added to the faith. They take sin seriously there. They take God seriously there. Remember first Corinthians 14. It's the only time of the New Testament when you have a nonbeliever in church, at least described for us in the scriptures in clear fashion. What happens? It's not to entertain the nonbeliever. What does he do? He falls on his face and he said, God is certainly among you. That is what we strive for. They take God seriously. They take the word seriously. They take sin seriously there. Christ saved us from sin. How could we still live in it? Remember, Satan wants to destroy the church. He'll try to do it with forces from without, persecution. But he'll also try to do it with falsehoods from within. and hypocrisy as well. Church family, beloved church family, as we draw this to a close, I would, I would plead with you. Let's pray for a pure church. There's no one issue or one event that's going on as to why I'm preaching this, but this is such a serious and an important topic for all of us to be sobered by the holiness. of our God. Church family, pray for protection. Look, are there going to be persecutions down the road from the outside? Yes, we all know that. But don't forget from within. Don't forget from within your own midst, the Apostle Paul said in Acts 20, we must be on guard. Pray for protection. The holy character of our God demands it. Thomas Watson, in one of his books, said, Until sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet. Christian, to savor Christ in all of his beauty, study sin, the doctrine of God, the doctrine of his holiness, and gaze upon the glory and the sweetness of Christ. He saved us. He took the curse of God for our sin, and He bore infinite hell for our sin. He now calls us to holiness. To end, I have a book that I pulled off my shelf, and just a couple of lines I want to read for you in closing. It's written by Mark Dever, What is a Healthy Church? Very simple little book. Very simple book. In that book, there's a section there on church discipline. And in the section on purifying the church, Mark Dever writes this, quote, God created the church so that the church might increasingly reflect the character of God as revealed in the word. We want our church to reflect God's glorious character faithfully. We are committed to this. Why? so that the holy and the loving character of God might appear more clearly and shine more brightly. Why does God care about the purity of the church? Because God's own character is perfect purity. Now to him, who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us. To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. Our Father, we thank you for your word. Thank you for this account in Acts chapter five. What a sobering account, O Lord, what a what a humbling account. I and Lord, we here in this room, we humbly confess our sins, Lord, where we have been guilty of the sin of hypocrisy. Where we have tried to present ourselves one way, when in reality, In that moment, it's just putting on a show. Oh, Lord, please forgive us. Oh, may it be, oh, Lord, that we as a church family here would rightly reflect the character of our God. You are holy. May we be holy. You are pure. May we be pure. You love integrity. May it be that we would love integrity, receive glory, O God, in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.