As we have been seeing throughout the study thus far of the Book of Acts, the picture of the early church that we are given is very wonderful and very encouraging. There's a great sense of community, a great sense of togetherness. Back in Chapter 2, for example, Verse 42, the day of Pentecost, when those 3,000 souls were added, they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. Verse 44 of Chapter 2, all that believed were together, and had all things common, and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men as every man had need. A day continuing daily with one accord in the temple, breaking bread from house to house. They'd eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favour with all the people. A very good beginning. Everyone was together, everyone was serving together, everyone was praying together, keeping the sacraments together. There was a great sense of community and more and more souls were added. In chapter 4 and verse 4, after the healing of the lame man, 5,000 were added. The church was growing and yet they were all together, all loving one another, helping one another. But as always in this life, in this fallen world, things are not so easy. There is a lot of ugliness because of sin, because of the corruption of human nature, because of man's wickedness and because of the temptations of the devil. This is a constant struggle as long as we are on this earth. Yet just as the good things about the early Church can serve as encouragements for us and as a pattern for us to follow, so also such difficulties and problems as were encountered can serve as warnings for us and opportunities for us to learn. And so as we come to Chapter 5, Verse 1 to 11, this incident with Ananias and his wife, Zephira, we want to ask ourselves three questions, so that we can learn from this. First of all, we want to ask, what went wrong in the case of Ananias and his wife? What went wrong? Secondly, we want to ask, why did it get to that point? Why did such a thing happen in the church that seemed to be so together, that seemed to be so godly? And then thirdly, we want to ask, how can we prevent such things in our church? How can we apply this to ourselves? What went wrong? Why did it get to that point? And how can we prevent such a thing from happening? First of all, what went wrong? Now as we come to Chapter 5, we have to observe what seems to be a very clear contrast that is being drawn here in the narrative. Just before the end of Chapter 4, we saw the example of Barnabas. Acts chapter 4 verse 36, Joseph who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, he had land, verse 37, he sold it, he brought the money and laid it at the apostles feet. Barnabas, this act of generosity, this sacrifice, this giving for the church he sold the land and brought the money to the apostles to distribute according to the needs of the people this was of course something very good but this is mentioned just before chapter 5 and I think this tells us that Ananias and his wife wanted to emulate Barnabas they wanted to copy what Barnabas had done not in terms of his generosity not in terms of his sincere and selfless sacrifice they wanted to emulate him in the sense that they wanted to get the kind of praise that he no doubt got they were not concerned to contribute to the church to the work of the Lord to the people of God the way that Barnabas was their concern was to contribute to themselves they wanted to add to their own reputation they wanted people to look up to them and admire them the way no doubt people were looking up to Barnabas and admiring him And so because they were not really giving to the church, they wanted to have the best of both worlds. They wanted the praise of those who gave to the church, and yet they didn't want to lose their money. They wanted to keep the money and at the same time also get the praise. And so they came up with this scheme. They sold a possession, they sold a piece of land, And then they decided that they would keep part of the price, part of the money that they got from the sale of the land, they would keep part of it, give the rest to the apostles and pretend that they were giving all. So they get the best of both worlds. They get some of the money and they get the credit for having given everything to the church. So their sin was not in failing to give all the proceeds of the sale to the church. This is clear from later on. Peter says to Ananias in verse 4, whilst it remained, while you had that land, it was yours. After it was sold, it was in your power. You had the right to give part of the prize. You didn't have to give all. No one forced you. There was no requirement for you to sell the land and give all the money to the church. You could have given however much you wanted to give. It was in your own power. This is voluntary. Their sin was in pretending. Their sin was in pretending that they had given everything. Keeping back a part of the prize, secretly, pretending to give everything. to get more credit. In this sense, their sin was, as Peter says, to lie to the Holy Ghost. They lied to the Holy Spirit. They lied to God. This, of course, by the way, proves the Holy Spirit is God. They lied to the Holy Spirit, verse three. They lied not to men, but to God, verse four. They were motivated not by zeal for God, not by zeal for God's kingdom. They were motivated by covetousness and a desire for self-promotion. And so by such a deed, Ananias and Sapphira acted against the purity of the church in its communion. They acted against the fellowship of the church. They corrupted that ideal of selfless love, sacrifice. for one another they brought the whole church into danger because Ananias wants to love money while getting everyone to think that he loves God he wants to love money and make all the other people in the church think that he loves them he has this idol in his heart he wants to keep it a secret he's bringing that idol into the church cherishing it while pretending to worship God while pretending to serve his fellow members in the church and such a hypocrite as Ananias bearing the spirit of hypocrisy can bring down the whole church Such a thing, such a device and stratagem of Satan was successfully executed in the Church. And I think it's in this sense that Ananias is said to have lied to the Holy Ghost, to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells in the Church. The communion of the Church is a communion of the Spirit. The fellowship of the Church is a fellowship of the Spirit. that Ananias has brought into this communion, into this fellowship, a lie, a falsehood, a deception, an item. He is seeking to deceive God. Peter makes this point very forcefully, again in verse 4. Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. The church is not just a community of people. The church is not just a voluntary association or a voluntary society of people, people who get together. It's not like your local club. You have a gardening club, all the people who are interested in gardening all get together, they meet on the weekends, every week, they do gardening together. It's just a voluntary association of people. It's just people. But the church is not like that. It's not just a bunch of people who decided that they want to get together every weekend and spend some time together. No, this is the kingdom of God. This is the house of God. This is God's house. God's church. God has purchased for himself. Remember how the Apostle Paul describes it in 1st Timothy. 1st Timothy chapter 3. 1st Timothy chapter 3 and verse 15. Let me read from verse 14. 1st Timothy chapter 3 verse 14. These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly, but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. That's the church. How to be the pillar and ground of the truth, if there is an infection of lies, if there is such falsehood brought into the church. That's why what Ananias did was so serious and severe. Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. Ananias forgot. Ananias did not regard the fact that the church is the house of the living God. He thought he could perpetrate such a deception in the church and get away with it. But how could such a thing happen? Why did it get to this point? What could cause someone like Ananias who has obviously seen so much of God's power displayed in the church? What could cause Ananias to think that he could get away with something like this? Why would he do that? What could move him to so heinous a lie as this against a community that had up till now been so loving and so selfless. Ananias has seen many examples of people like Barnabas giving selflessly to the church. And all those in the church who had need. The money, the resources were distributed to them to provide for their needs. The church was so full of love for one another. Love in the Lord. what could cause Ananias to do this? with his wife also being privy to it Now of course we must not, even for a moment, diminish the depravity of the human heart. This is what human beings are capable of. And you and I are capable of this. This is the corruption of human nature since the fall. The total depravity of our nature. We are capable of something so heinous as this. We don't want to diminish that reality. but we also have to recognize that there is an adversary at work also there is an external agent also working a real and powerful enemy seeking to destroy the church seeking to destroy and bring down the house of God now in the earlier chapters of Acts we have seen this enemy at work without without the church, outside, stirring up trouble for the church from outside. We've seen the persecution of the Jewish council. Remember just in Acts chapter 4 how Peter and John were brought before the council and how they were threatened. Don't speak in the name of Jesus. Don't teach. Don't preach the gospel. Later on, as we read earlier in chapter 5, all the apostles will be brought before the council and threatened and beaten and told again, don't preach the name of Jesus. This is the devil's work. This is the work of the enemy. Remember Jesus said to the Jews, ye are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father ye will do their opposition to the Lord Jesus was stirred up and instigated by the devil they were children of the devil patterned after him in their pride and their hatred of God we have seen how the devil works outside or from outside to cause trouble, to stir up persecutions against the church. But we are reminded here that the devil is at work also within, causing trouble within the church, working within the church to bring down the church from the inside. That happened also in the time of Jesus. Yes, there was persecution. Yes, there was hostility from the Jewish leaders. There was also a traitor within the band of disciples, wasn't there? There was Judas. Satan entered into his heart. Satan used him to betray the Lord Jesus. Judas was one of the 12, but he was an agent of the devil. And so also here in Acts chapter 5. Yes, there was trouble outside, but the church had responded well to that trouble. Even after Peter and John were threatened and commanded not to teach in the name of Jesus, that didn't deter them. In fact, it brought the church closer together. And it's often that way with persecution from outside, the church is brought closer together. They are all the more committed and consecrated to do the work of God. We find this in the early church after that threatening, after that persecution. Acts chapter 4 verse 24. When Peter and John returned and reported to the church all that the chief priests and elders had said, What did the church do? They didn't give up. They didn't say, oh no, this is terrible, we're all going to be in danger, let's disband, let's stop this. No, they came together, they prayed. They lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord, thou art God which has made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them is. Who by the mouth of thy servant David has said, why did the heathen rage? And the people imagined vain things. Verse 29 of Acts chapter 4, And now, Lord, behold their threatenings, and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word. And indeed this prayer was answered. The place was shaken where they were assembled. They were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the word of God with boldness. This trouble from outside did not destroy the church, it strengthened the church. So the devil turned within, now trying to bring down the church from the inside. And that's often, as we can imagine, far more effective. It's far more difficult to deal with problems on the inside, isn't it, than problems from the outside. And the devil loves to do this today also. He loves to sow discord among the brethren. He loves to cause fractions and divisions. within the church he loves to bring in idols into the church he loves to create trouble on the inside and he's able to do it because of our weakness and our fallibility so recognizing this we remember the exhortation that is given to us be sober Be vigilant for your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Be sober, be vigilant. We have an enemy who is at work not just out there in the world but in here also. He is seeking a foothold. He is looking for opportunity, looking for weakness that he can use. Not just so that he can destroy one individual, but so that he can use that individual to bring down the whole church. That's his aim. He wants to destroy all the work of God. He wants to undo all that God has done. Be sober, be vigilant. The devil wants to use us. Yes, we have this comfort, we have this promise, We are of God, little children, and have overcome them because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. That's our comfort. The one who is in us, the Holy Spirit, is indeed greater. That's not an excuse. That's not something that should move us to complacency. Even as we are comforted, we are also warned, be sober, be vigilant. Yes, you have the Holy Spirit, but don't forget you have the enemy looking for weakness. We are to resist the devil. We are to put on the whole armor of God. We are to stand firm. This is a responsibility for us. We are not to be idle in this. And so here, Ananias is responsible for what he has done. Satan filled his heart. Verse 3, Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost? But then in verse 4, why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Ananias is responsible. Yes, Satan filled his heart but Ananias did it also. Ananias conceived this in his own heart. He cannot say, well it was the devil, I didn't have any part in it. No, he thought of this. Yes, the devil tempted, the devil instigated. But Ananias is responsible. And so are we if we fall into temptation. So are we if we are lax, if we are complacent, if we fail in watchfulness and sobriety. If we allow the devil to make use of us, we are responsible. This is a warning for us and a reminder for us. Satan filled his heart because he was already covetous. He had already allowed this covetousness into his heart. He was already an idolater. Covetousness is idolatry. He already had this idol in his heart. He already had this other master that he was serving. He loved money. He loved the praise of men. These things are common. We are prone to them also. It reminds us very much of how the devil used Judas and his greed and covetousness. Apostle John reminds us in John chapter 12 that Judas was a thief. He was a thief at heart. He was the treasurer of the apostolic band. He held the bag. He kept all the donations that came in. He was a thief. The devil used that. So it may be for us if we are not careful. There is an idol in our heart. If we are not truly serving the Lord, we can very easily become instruments and agents of the devil. If we love the praise of men rather than the praise of God, that can be an open invitation to the devil to make use of us to bring down the church, to destroy the work of God. Satan used David, David's idleness, David's lustful thoughts, to try to destroy the kingdom. The devil used Peter, Peter's boasting, Peter's fear. Also, the Lord warned him, Simon, Simon, Satan hath desire to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. So also for us, we have an enemy who is at work in this way, who is full of cunning with many such devices. That leads us of course to the third question, which is how we can avoid such a thing. Again we come back to that exhortation. Be sober, be vigilant, be watchful. Know the enemy's devices. Apostle Paul says in 2nd Corinthians chapter 2, we don't want Satan to get the advantage over us. We are not ignorant of his devices. We must remember that we have an enemy and we must know his devices. We must know how he works. how he is looking for weakness. Therefore we have to be examining ourselves, watching in prayer, seeking God's help to correct our wrong feelings, our wrong thoughts. We must be asking the Lord to search us, see if there be any wicked way in me. Because remember we are brought into a community as believers. We stand together, we help one another, we influence one another for good or for evil. If we are not watchful it's not just we ourselves who suffer, the whole church suffers. and the devil is able to use us. We have this responsibility not just for ourselves but for the church because we are one body in Christ. When one member suffers all, all the body suffers with it. All the other members suffer also. We have to be very watchful for this because again we are reminded with many examples in scripture That this is not the sort of thing that happens overnight, all of a sudden. It's not that one day Ananias was fine, then he went to sleep and the next morning he woke up and he was suddenly convinced that he has to do this. No, we don't need to imagine such a thing. It's far more reasonable and far more natural. far more in accordance with our own experience and with scripture, for us to think that this was something slow. First a thought came into Ananias' heart. He sees Barnabas, he sees other people giving. He hears the praise that is accorded to Barnabas. Everyone is talking about what a wonderful thing Barnabas has done. And little thought enters into Ananias' heart. Wouldn't it be nice if they were talking about me like that? And he starts to imagine people praising him instead of praising Barnabas. He replaces Barnabas' name with his own. He fantasizes about this, imagines this, speaks to his wife. Wouldn't it be nice if people talked about us in this way? And that goes on for some time. And then another little thought, maybe we can sell what we have and give the money. But then, oh, we don't want to give all the money. We need some of that money. Let's keep it, part of it for ourselves. But then people won't praise us as much. People will know that we only gave half. We want them to think we gave all. We want that praise. Slowly this thing happens. Slowly the devil fills the heart. He doesn't pour it in all at once. It's drop by drop. That's how the poison comes in. Until the whole heart is filled with it. And we don't notice because we're not paying attention. The first drop of poison goes in, we're not aware. Then a few more drops, then more and then more, and before we know it, We've fallen into great sin. This is what happened with David, isn't it? If you look back at 2 Samuel chapter 11. 2 Samuel chapter 11. Verse 1, It came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him. But David tarried still at Jerusalem. Already that's a little bit of a problem. Why is David not with the army? Why is he staying in Jerusalem? It came to pass in an evening tide that David arose from off his bed and walked upon the roof of the king's house, and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself. And the woman was very beautiful to look upon. Already, another problem. He saw he should have turned away straight away and got down from the roof. But he stayed. She hasn't seen me. The woman was very beautiful to look upon and he looked. He kept looking. And then verse 3, David sent and inquired after the woman. Why does he need to know? But already, step by step, drop by drop, the poison is coming in. And then verse four, David sent messengers and took her and she came in unto him and he lay with her. He has committed adultery. And we know how that turned out, we know what that led to. More and more, worse and worse, sin. We're reminded also of the description by James, in James chapter one. James chapter 1 verse 15. Verse 14. Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. There's the responsibility. Temptation may come from outside but the lust is our own. Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death. There's a picture of this progress, development, a growth within us, like the growth of a baby. This is not life that is growing, this is death that is growing within us. It's the slow progress of the devil's work seeking to bring us into sin. A little thought here, a little suggestion there, a little temptation. We have to be watchful if we want to prevent such a thing from happening. Let us not say, oh it won't happen to me. No one is immune. Especially if we fail to be sober and vigilant, we will very easily fall. We have to be examining ourselves, asking the Lord to search us. Is there any wicked way in me? Are there wrong thoughts? Are there wrong feelings? Is there lust? Is there pride? Is there envy? Is there covetousness? Has the first drop of poison got in? Let's get rid of it there before we allow it to progress. but then also let us not think we are doing enough simply by not being like Ananias in his outright deception let us not say it's enough that I don't do it myself we can also contribute to such a spirit in someone else it may not be in me that the devil is putting those drops of poison but he may be using me as his syringe to put those drops of poison into someone else. We can be instruments of the devil to encourage and promote the kind of thinking that leads an Ananias to do such a thing. How? Well again, remember, It's legitimate I think for us to imagine that Ananias was hearing people talking about Barnabas. That's how the thought got into his heart. Let me do such a thing to get such praise. All those people who were praising Barnabas so highly were also in a way instruments of the devil. Because it was their praise that Ananias coveted. Why should they have been praising Barnabas? They should have been praising God. If we give ourselves to this kind of gossip, these kinds of undue comparisons, if the church becomes a place that is full of gossip and everyone is saying, oh look at this person, see what he did, that other person, did less if everyone is comparing if everyone is saying Barnabas gave this much so-and-so gave that much Barnabas is better Barnabas gave more if that sort of spirit is pervading the church that's contributing to the rise of someone like Ananias doing what he did and we cannot wash our hands of it and say well I didn't lie but I contributed I contributed by making these comparisons, by indulging in this kind of gossip. I contributed to that spirit that led Ananias to conceive this wickedness in his heart. We can contribute to that. Imagine if someone gives and then everyone gasps and praises, oh he's done such a great work, instead of praising God. Doesn't that encourage others to think of giving in the same way? When we gossip and compare incessantly are we not complicit in creating an atmosphere in the church such that it is more important what people say than what God says? We're teaching everyone to care what we think instead of caring what God thinks. These are more subtle forms of hypocrisy that they can be used to promote things like what Ananias did. Let us observe well how seriously God takes such a thing. This was a severe judgment on Ananias and his wife. They dropped dead instantly, straight away. The Lord took their lives right there and then. Such a judgment coming at the very early days of the church shows that God is deadly serious in all His warnings against pride, against hypocrisy. It's a warning to us all just as it was in those days. Verse 11, great fear came upon all the church and upon as many as heard these things. The Christian life, the life of the Church, is not something to be taken lightly. We are bought by the blood of Christ. Apostle Peter reminds us, if we recognise that we have been redeemed, not by corruptible things like silver and gold, if we have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, then we should all the more pass the time of our sojourning here in fear. We call upon the Father, who without respect of persons, judges according to every man's work. We should be filled with fear, a holy and reverent fear. So that we guard ourselves against hypocrisy and against encouraging hypocrisy in others. Let us not be like the Pharisees. Remember what the Lord said in Matthew 23. All their works they do for to be seen of men. Let us not be like that. We don't do these things to be seen by men. And we don't praise these things. We don't respond to these things as though they were done for us to see and to pray. We don't want to foster such a spirit in the church. We serve, we give cheerfully with genuine love for the Lord. That is what pleases Him. And we praise the Lord for these things. Let us not be given to the praise of man, either to seek it or to give it ourselves. What we ought to seek is the praise of God. And as concerns giving, let us remember, God doesn't need our money. We don't give because God is a poor beggar. He doesn't have enough. Remember again in Mark chapter 12, how the Lord Jesus sat and observed people giving money to the treasury of the temple. Remember how he called the disciples to him and said, look, look at that poor widow. Look at her, she has put in two mites into the treasury box. She has put in more than all the others because she has given all that she has. She gave what in human terms is an insignificant amount. In human terms, we might have said there's no point giving such a small amount. No one can use that, it's useless. Giving 10 cents, what's the use? That's not how God sees it. If we set up such an atmosphere in the church where we don't see things the way God sees them, we don't speak of things the way God speaks of them, then we are setting ourselves up for something like what happened here in Acts chapter 5. We must have the right spirit. Then there will be true harmony, true community, true love and charity for one another. That should be our goal. There will always be trouble from without. This is a fallen, sinful world. Also John reminds us, we are of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness. There will always be trouble from without. Let us give diligence and strive that there be no trouble from within. Let's close with a word of prayer.