the fifth chapter of the book of Acts. Tonight we're going to do the second part of the series of rarely addressed characters in Scripture. Last week we looked at Enoch. In Acts chapter 5 we're going to look at two different characters tonight, but it's the same account. And it's a very sobering account, and we'll somewhat try to kind of alternate these. We've not forgotten the series through 1 John. We certainly will finish that. But tonight, as we continue through the Bible character series, we'll probably do the 1 John series beginning on Sunday nights now, and then the Proverbs series on Sunday morning. When you come to Acts chapters 4 and 5, it's a very exciting period in the church. There's a lot of new things that are happening. It's the start of the New Testament church age. And so many things are happening here that have never happened before. It's a fresh beginning. It's a new dispensation of how God is dealing with mankind. And yet he's really, as you watch Acts chapter 4 and 5, he's making a firm point that though it is a new dispensation, it is still the same God. And that's very important for us to understand. There was a teaching years ago that got pretty popular. And the teaching was that it was a different aspect of God that was showing himself in the Old Testament and then in the New Testament. Now that sounds great, but I will tell you that God was just as gracious in the Old Testament as he is in the New Testament. And God is just as holy in the New Testament as he was in the Old Testament. It's the same God. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So this account that's given at the end of chapter 4 and chapter 5, I think we need to be very careful because we live in this dispensation of grace, and the grace of God is something that is amazing. It's miraculous. But I will tell you, it never diminishes the holiness of God and His attitude towards sin. And that is particular even in the life of believers. I've listened to some, even in reading some and preparing for this message, who tried to explain away Acts chapter 5 by saying that Ananias and Sapphira are not part of the body of Christ. You do not find that, any evidence of that given in the pages of his word here. They're addressed as such. In fact, it even says that he's lying to the Holy Spirit here. And that is something that a Christian is doing. He very clearly has the ability to speak with the Holy Spirit. And so, there's all kinds of ways to try to reason this away. And this is very important for New Testament Christians. Because this event, I think, is, though it's not prescriptive, what's going to happen here, and I'll explain that in just a second, I think it's instructive for New Testament believers that God is serious about holiness, particularly within the framework of the local church. Let me tell you a couple of things here in introduction. Ananias. It's interesting that his name means Jehovah has graciously given. Ananias was kind of a common name back in this day, kind of like John or Andrew would be today. Ananias was a very common name. In fact, you remember that was the name of the prophet who healed Saul of his blindness initially. So it's a very common Jewish name, and the name means that Jehovah has graciously given, which is interesting considering what happens in Ananias' life. And then Sapphira, where we get the word sapphire from, literally means beautiful. It means obviously that when perhaps she was young, that she was a beautiful baby, but that was her name and that's the meaning of her name. But let me tell you what's about to happen here. As you study the rest of this passage, you're going to find that neither one of these people lived up to their name. You know, it reminded me today when I thought about it, am I living up to my name? I can remember years ago my father telling me, listen Shane, your last name is Lewis. And because you have the last name of Lewis, and that was when we were very young, we were living in the Tuscaloosa area, he goes, that name means something in this part of the country. You carry that name with honor. Don't let that, your generation, of the Lewis name dropped the ball on the way that that name has been carried. I think that has great merit. In fact, I will go so far as to say this. I think that's a teaching that we ought to really get back to. I think that heritage and legacy have been something lost in the culture in which we now are. But then he went further and he said, but Shane, the greatest name that you carry and bear is not the name of Lewis. It's the name of being a Christian. And we have a name. And the question is, are we bearing the name of Jesus Christ in the right way? Are they seeing Jesus Christ in us? Well, in this passage of scripture, Ananias and Sapphira certainly did not live up to the names that were given them. We're going to look at three different phrases here in scripture that I think bear out what's taking place and the first two are going to kind of set the tone for finally what happens in the third phrase. For every phrase the word great is used and so you find three different areas of greatness in this passage of scripture. Let's start reading Acts chapter 4 beginning with verse 32. And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul. Neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things common. Now he's speaking of the New Testament church. He continues on, and with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. Neither was there any among them that lacked, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles' feet, and distribution was made unto every man, according as he had need. And Joseph, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, which is being interpreted the son of consolation, a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet. But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold the possession. and kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part 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? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and gave up the ghost. And great fear came on all them that heard these things. And the young men arose, 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 yelled at the ghost. And the young men came in and found her dead, and carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things. It's a very sobering story. Let me say this. On the internet today, I was looking for a video clip that would somewhat illustrate this story. And one disturbing revelation to me is that even the church, if you go on to the typical websites where you'll be able to find video clips that are made to enhance services and sermons like we use somewhat often here, One disturbing revelation was that they would tell the story with a comic twist to it. That they kind of wanted to soften it. That they didn't want to make it sound near as serious as what it is. My friend, I have to tell you this. There is nothing comical about Acts chapter 5. It is a very sad, sad story. And it is in the words, it's in the pages of the Word of God for a reason. God in the dispensation of grace in which we now are is sending a very clear warning. We want to preach about love. We want to preach about grace. We want to preach about the long-suffering and the merciful God that we have. And he has all of those things. But our God is also a holy God. And he takes sin very seriously, particularly in the lives of his children. He is very serious about sin in our lives. So let's look at the three phrases that are used. The first phrase that you're going to see show up here is this phrase found in verse 33, the first part. And it is the phrase, great power. Look at verse 33. It says, and with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Let me tell you something about these times. These were huge times. These men, by the way, that were being used were used in unbelievable ways, but you have to understand something about these men. This is a key point for all of us. These guys that were being used in extraordinary ways, young people understand this. They were simple, ordinary men. These guys that were being used to turn the world upside down were not the great scholars of the day. These were not the great leaders, politically or business-wise, of the day. They were just simple, ordinary men. In fact, look back at verse 11 of chapter four. You'll find those who were in power of the day, the Sanhedrin, listen to how they refer to these guys. In chapter four, and let me find where I'm gonna go to here, verse 13. It says, now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men. Just in case you're wondering, that is not a compliment. If someone calls you unlearned and ignorant, don't say thank you to them. Now, it may not be as harsh as we would, if somebody, you know, in the South, if we look at somebody and we call them, man, you're just ignorant. That means they're, you know, that means they're an idiot. That means they're just, you know, a couple of French fries short of a Happy Meal. They're not all there. That's not completely what it means here, because the ones speaking to them are guys from the Sanhedrin. They're the Pharisees of Pharisees, from which the Apostle Paul would come. These men were very educated. They were at the top echelon of society. They're looking at these men. These men don't have doctorates on the wall. These men don't have master's degrees. These men have not sat in the great halls of theology. They are men who have simply come, as far as they can tell, they have come from the shores of Galilee. One of them is even a tax collector. And yet, they're being used in unbelievable ways. But what was their secret? How was it that they were being used? Get this. They may have not sat at the feet of Gamaliel. They may have not sat in the great halls of the Sanhedrin. But notice where they sat and they took notice of who they sat with. Look at the rest of verse 13. And he says that they perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men. They marveled and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. You're sitting here tonight and you say, man, pastor, God can't, God really can't use me in a great way. I don't have degrees on my wall. God can't use me to reach a lot of people for Christ. I'm not really quick with my tongue. I can't think of the words, I can't get them out right, and I just kind of fumble over myself. I don't have one of those personalities that just kind of can get in front of people and just wow them. I'm just kind of backward. I'm not really educated, I'm not really gifted, I'm just, I'm just ordinary. How about that? You're a perfect candidate for God to use in a great way. Because you know what the secret is? The secret is not degrees on your wall. I think you ought to prepare yourself. I'm very key on that, but I can tell you this. It is not going to replace sitting at the feet of Jesus Christ. We have several young preacher boys in here. Listen to me very closely. You're off at a Christian college campus, and I say this kindly. But I say it seriously. You think that a Bible class is gonna replace a personal walk with Christ? You'll find out differently. You think that somehow you being able to get up and preach a sermon and prepare a sermon somehow is gonna cause you to have a greater walk with Christ? I think you're sadly mistaken. I can tell you this. The only way that you are going to experience great power upon your life from God is going to be spending personal alone time between you and your Savior, the same way every single one of us are gonna experience the power of God. By the way, that's the reason the scripture says that we all have access, we can come with boldness and confidence. I have no, I am, let me say it again, I'm not your priest. I find it often that people come to me and start confessing sin, as if somehow I have a direct line to God. Look, I'll just tell you right now, you're gonna have to get kinda back in line because I've gotta list all my sins in confession to him before I list yours. You have the ability to go directly to the throne of God yourself. You have the privilege of sitting, Mary said, that she told Martha, Martha, just leave me alone. I'm gonna sit here, I'm gonna listen to Christ. Martha's banging around pots and pans, slamming cabinet doors as anybody that has been married for any amount of time and sitting in a recliner You can often hear the unspoken message that is being sent your way. Well, that's the way Martha was doing. She was trying to get the message out to Mary. You better get off your seat and get yourself in this kitchen. Martha, Martha, you're cumbered about much serving, but Mary hath chosen that better part which shall not be taken away from her. She was sitting at the feet of Jesus Christ. These men had great power upon their lives. Do you know why? Because it was something that they did privately and it was of such profound proportions privately that it could not help but pour over. Can I tell you where power comes from in a pulpit? Can I tell you where power comes from in dealing with people and trying to reach them for Jesus Christ? It does not come from sitting in a class, it comes from sitting at the feet of Christ, and your devotional life, the time you spend in the Word, will spill over into every other part of your life. Ministry is an overflow of the personal time that you and I spend with Him. And if you lack in that area, if you say, well, I'm going to be used greatly by God because he's given me a big personality and he's allowed me to reach people and I'm kind of winsome and I just, I have a quick tongue and I'm able to, I'm really just able to do it. You can do it for a while, but I'll tell you this, even for a while, you'll never do it to the level that God would be able to use you. I think that there's many times in my life that what I have done for Jesus Christ has been in the power of the flesh. Can I tell you this, there'll be no reward for that for me at the judgment seat of Christ, nor for you. What we do, we must do by Him, for Him, and through Him. It must be, otherwise it's really of no eternal value for us. These men had great power upon them, but that's not all that they had. I want you to see that great power not only came from their time that they were spending with Jesus Christ, but it also came from the message that they were proclaiming. Look at verse 33 again. It says in verse 33, and with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. These guys were preaching. They preached Jesus Christ died, and they preached Jesus Christ was buried, but I'll tell you, they preached that Jesus Christ rose again. That was a huge message. That was an unbelievable message, particularly to a Jewish congregation. Tony Evans gives a great illustration. We talked about this the other day, that one of the evidences of Jesus Christ having died for us, and then we're no longer under condemnation in Romans chapter eight, is that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. Tony Evans gives the illustration of what the resurrection represents for you and me. That when Jesus Christ died on the cross, When you and I go to a store and we purchase something, what is the proof? What is the proof that we have purchased that item? When you bring that thing back, if you try to return it, they're gonna ask you for something. You better have it. You better have the receipt. Tony Evans gives a great analogy. He goes, you know, the resurrection is the proof of purchase. The resurrection is the receipt that what Jesus Christ did for our justification, he accomplished because God accepted it and he came back to tell the world about it through the resurrection. Let me go further with this. Several years ago, Phillips was given this illustration during the French Revolution. A Frenchman named Lepeau was disappointed in the poor success he was having. He was trying to launch a new religion, a new secular religion, which was pretty common in that day, which to his mind was far superior to Christianity. He appealed to Charles-Marie Talleyrand, a statesman bishop who became a leader of the godless French Revolution. And Lepeau asked Talleyrand, he said, what should I do to get my plans off the ground? Taylor Ann answered him back, my dear M. Lippo, the statesman said it is a very difficult thing to start a new religion, but there is one thing that you might at least try. I suggest you get yourself crucified and then rise again on the third day and you might be able to get it off the ground. See the resurrection is a message of great power because let's face it, That is the common enemy of every one of us. Today I was watching a commercial, and on this commercial it was talking about this guy that had finally gotten to the Great Wall of China, and he said this, I always wanted to be able to do it one day, I just never thought it would be this day. Can I tell you something about death? I can almost promise you that every single one of us will say the same thing on the day that we die, should we have enough time to have a conscious thought before we're taken. And this will be the thought. I always knew that it was gonna happen one day. I just never thought that it would be this day. It's amazing to me how man always knows that he's going to die, but yet he's never prepared for death. He just simply lives his life with this almost passive, this passive ignoring of a certain reality, and that is that he's going to die. So to us, This realization in every man that we are going to die, the resurrection is the one message that makes Christianity superior to everything else. Our leader has defeated death. That gives our message unbelievable power. Yes, he died for us, but don't stop in your salvation presentation on the fact that Jesus Christ simply died for you. Continue on with the whole message. The gospel according to the scripture is that he was dead and he was buried and on the third day he rose again according to the scriptures. That's the whole message of the gospel. So the world is being turned upside down here. It's being turned upside down by great power of men who have been with Jesus Christ and are preaching the message of the resurrection. There's a second phrase that he uses here. Not only do you see great power, but notice, if you will, the second part of verse 33. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all. That's an interesting statement there because you have to see it in context, what he's talking about. Look at verse 32, if you will. It says, in the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul. Neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things common. Now, let me tell you where we're about to go here in verses 34 through 37. I wanna be very clear about this, lest anybody misunderstands this portion of scripture. God never told them to operate this way. This is not a command. Basically what you're seeing in verses 32 through 37 is you're basically seeing a Christian socialism is really what you're seeing. Everybody sold what they had. It had become a common thing and then they just all put it on the pot and everybody just took from it what they needed. Now I will tell you that is not anything that is a biblical prescription for you and I. So what they're doing in practice is not prescriptive. But I will say this, what they're doing in spirit is prescriptive. It's very instructive. Don't you love being around new believers? I mean, just guys freshly saved. I do. Man, I love being around them. Because when you get around guys that are, I mean, they're truly saved, they've truly accepted Christ, they are just on fire to serve God in any and every way they can. Whatever it is, preacher, I'll do it. Man, you want me to charge hell, I'll do it. Whatever it is, I'm on board. Sign me up. It's amazing how quickly we lose that, isn't it? What you're seeing here is you're seeing all these newly saved people, and you know what they say? Well, man, we just love each other. Man, we're all on board. We're all of one accord together. We want to do everything together, so let's just go sell all our possessions, and we'll just live out of the same hat, and nobody will ever have need. It's a wonderful idea. There's only one problem. You're still going to see the sinful flesh pop up, and man in the flesh is naturally greedy. So don't think for a second that he is expecting, if this church really gets on fire, that God is going to call upon you to sell all your millions and to give it to me. Now, if I start television ministry, that message may change. But as for now, that is not what God's calling the church to. However, I tell you what it is calling us to. He is calling us to a much higher and supernatural level of graciousness with one another. You would be amazed if I were to tell you all the different little petty offenses. Since Somerville Baptist Church has grown, it's had a lot more exposure year-round, many different men do not think because People have large ministries or because their names are well known that they are any less given to pettiness than where we sit here in Somerville. The flesh is the flesh. And the cloak of covetousness is very deceitful. You'd be amazed at the little pettiness that goes on amongst supposed Christian leaders. And I'm not just talking independent Baptist. I'm amazed at how people try to regulate it to that. You'd be amazed at how it happens in other areas as well. It's just pettiness. Can I tell you, I believe that that's one of the great reasons that the church today is so ineffective. Look at what we are doing. We argue over the dumbest things. You know, one argument even now that comes up, well, you know, I tell you what, we've gotten so big. It's just gotten so big. It's just not that same little church. Okay, what do you want to do? You give me the list of names, I'll chase them off. Listen to what you're saying. Listen to what you are saying. That is one of the most selfish mentalities I have heard in a long time. And I'm amazed by whom I hear it. I'm amazed. That's something that we, what was the limit for you and me? At what place was it that we say, well, you know what, that's where I think the Lord would have us to cap it off. Well, if you read the word of God, you're gonna have to start cracking 3,000 to 5,000 numbers. just to start bolstering your argument. What are we talking about? To me, I'm amazed at how quickly we go to such pettiness. The levels that we go to, if we don't get our way, that we just beat on the top of our spiritual high chairs, and, well, he didn't speak to me, and, you know, they didn't let me do this, and that didn't happen, and I was, I'm just so offended at this, and so, and so what? People are dying and going to hell. And my feelings are hurt. As one famous high schooler I've heard recently say, well boo hoo. Listen, how are we going to defend such a spirit? When we stand at the judgment seat of Christ, and listen to me, every saved believer here tonight, you better have a good reason why you're ignoring that brother in Christ that you won't shake hands with or even look at when he walks by you. At the judgment seat of Christ, you better have one good reason for your lack of graciousness, because it will be demanded. You better have one reason that you're holding on to that bitter spirit. You have one good reason, whatever it is that you're explaining away in your life, you better make, just rehearse it, would you? Just a few minutes, take time and rehearse it. Now this is how I'm going to explain it to the judgment seat of Christ. and see if it holds water with a God who died for sinful man, whose bride was the local church through which you are acting out your petty insecurities. Think about it for just a second. In the New Testament church, you see a great mark of graciousness. They were just gracious. It's an amazing thing how much they exhibited the words of Christ. How will you know? How will the world know that you're my disciples? By your love one for another. That's how they'll know. So these people just acted on it. Youth group, can I tell you something? Quit getting so offended by everything. Instead of getting offended, why don't you go and try to reach out to those who are supposedly offending you? And they very well may be intentionally offending you. But you know what Jesus Christ did? He purposely went to those who offended him. Purposely. Well, what about the ones who are offending? Then let me sit on that one for a while. You ought to be showing the love of Jesus Christ. You ought to quit trying to show that you have crawled to the top of your little social echelon ladder in a youth group or your school, wherever it is you go, and you ought to see that the influence that God has given you ought to be used to love those around you. You know when you come down to it, you know who's wrong? Both of you are wrong. Both are wrong. And you know a lot of times why they are doing that? Because they've watched you and me. They've watched you gossip and criticize behind people's back. They've watched the little petty offenses that we have carried. And all they're doing is just acting out publicly what we think we're doing privately. And so we play the fiddle while the world burns. One of the great marks of the Church of Acts is that they were a church of tremendous grace toward one another. Tremendous grace toward one another. Not a single one of them went hungry. I think it's important when you see a brother in need that I think it's good to have a hands and feet ministry. I think it's good to be reaching out to a lost world. But I think that when you show benevolence to those, especially of the house of God, I think it sends a dual message. I think it is just as much a message of outreach as it is a message of personal love for that individual. So you see great power. You see great grace. But then jump down, if you will, to verse 11 of chapter 5. Something very different shows up now. You ready? We just talked about great power. Now we talk about great grace. A third word is going to show up here that doesn't seem to fit. It says in chapter 5 and verse 11, and great fear came upon all the church and upon as many as heard these things. Can I tell you what great fear, how much this fear was? Look down at verse 13. Such great fear came upon the church at that point in time that people who weren't members of the church, they believed in Jesus Christ, but they weren't ready to join the church quite yet. That's how fearful whatever event just took place. Now what event was it? It was the event of Ananias and Sapphira. Here's what takes place now very quickly. Ananias and Sapphira see what happens with Joseph Barnabas, the son of consolation. They saw that Barnabas sold his land. I'm of a little different opinion than most people interpret this. I think that Ananias and Sapphira had the greatest of intentions initially. When you study the scripture, I think what happened with them, either way it's the same ending, but when you study it so often, we jump to conclusions to bolster our point. I don't think we need to jump to conclusions to bolster our point. I think Ananias and Sapphira saw what Barnabas did. They caught the spirit of what was happening with the rest of the church body, and they said, we want to do the same thing. So they had a piece of land, and they sold it. When they sold it, they obviously had implied the message. that they were going to bring the money from the sale of the land and they were gonna give it to the church. So when they sold it, what probably happened here is that they somehow got more money. Perhaps the land was more valuable to whoever came and offered it. They offered them a higher bid than what they were expecting. And so more money came in. Or perhaps there was some kind of need that kicked in. Don't really know. All we know is that whatever message they were sending, the amount that they said they were going to give, they obviously had publicized that in some way. So Ananias comes walking in. So often we say, well he came in with great pomposity, he came in with kind of a pharisaical spirit. You don't find that. That's speculative in scripture. You don't find that. What he did when he walked in is he and Sapphira had sat down together somewhere, and the scripture says that the word symphono is actually used here down, clear down in verse number nine, when it says they've agreed together, it's where we get our word symphony. They had conspired, literally, together. They'd agreed. Now look, we know what we said, We weren't expecting this. Either more came in than we were expecting, or we have some kind of need that we didn't have when we planned on giving this amount. Well, you know, the kind of spirit is that everybody's kind of given the money, they're selling everything, and then whatever it sells for, that's what they're giving. You know, they really don't need to know the difference. You know, that is one of those things that if you tell yourself those kind of things long enough, it starts to sound reasonable. It starts to sound, okay, that makes sense, they don't need to know everything. So, here comes Ananias. And when Ananias came to the front of the church in verse three, Peter asked him a question. He laid this out in front of the public, in front of the church, with the message that they had sold this property and all the money that the property had sold for, that's what they were giving. Ananias now is asked a question. When Ananias and Sapphira sat down together, they thought, and so often we think the same thing, they were having a private conversation. As a believer in Jesus Christ, you're never having a private conversation. You do understand that, do you not? If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, if you're having a conversation with another person, there is always a third party that is present. You may choose to ignore that, but that does not change the reality of it. The Holy Spirit was right there in this little conference that Ananias and Sapphira were having. So he says, Ananias, verse 3, why has Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost? and to keep back part of the price of the land. Now, he asked him a great question. He says, while it remained, was it not thine own? And after it sold, was it not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. What was it he conceived? He was sending a false message. Listen very closely. Half truth is a whole lie. So, he presents the money. It's implied. Sapphira will come out and just say it outright. It's implied that he's given everything. He's given it all. And he is being cheered on. Obviously the Holy Spirit was impressed enough with Joseph Barnabas that he put his name and this act in the pages of Scripture. Ananias and Sapphira, for whatever reason, wanted to jump on this train. So the message they were sending to the church was a hypocritical message. It was the message that they were giving more, that they were doing more, that they were serving more than they actually were. And they were willing to accept the praise and adoration and admiration of that. Listen to what John Phillips says in his commentary. I think this is a very key statement. He says these words. If the Savior detested one sin more than any other, when he trod the scenes of time, that scene was hypocrisy. Honest doubts never angered him, but he scathingly denounced hypocrisy. He who was and is the truth never made peace with a lie, nor has his Holy Spirit. Well, pastor, what does that mean? You want to portray yourself as spiritual? You want people around you to think you're spiritual? Then why are you carrying a heart of bitterness toward that person when they show up? You're not lying to yourself, you're lying to the Holy Ghost. You're portraying yourself to be all that. You're portraying yourself to be something that you're not. Because whenever that person that's offended you comes around, there it is. Listen to what we're doing. This is serious business. We're portraying ourselves to be all sold out for Christ, but put the area, whatever area you wanna put in there, it doesn't matter what area you're putting in there. It's hypocrisy. You know, when you start studying this passage, I have to tell you, you start putting this in the arena of hypocrisy, Quite frankly, we could probably all do business with God in specific areas of our life. I can. Oh, preacher, you better believe you can. Let me tell you. Really? Really? The men, young men there, carry him out. They wind him up. And that doesn't mean that he had a little key that they turned in and twisted. It means that they wrapped him in a shroud They buried him. It takes them about three hours to do it because Sapphira shows up. We don't know what she was doing. Perhaps she had to go and deposit what was left over of the money in the bank. We don't know. But she shows up three hours later. And at three hours, in verse eight, Peter says answer, but he's asking her. He says, tell me whether you sold the land for so much. She knows that he's already ran into Sapphira. She sees the bag of money sitting probably somewhere up front. She recognizes it. She looks over and she's expecting that she's gonna get praise much the same way that Barnabas did. Tell me, is this how much the land sold for, Sapphira? The Holy Spirit was obviously somewhat distant from her at this point because she didn't sense the tenseness that was going on for sure in that room. If someone had died just three hours earlier, in this church, don't you think it'd be a little bit tense when the wife came in the room? So she answers, we don't know if she's trying to cover up for him or what in this instance, even if she did sense it. And she said, yay, that's what it's sold for. Then Peter said unto her, how is it that ye have agreed together, that's the word for symphony there, to tempt the spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door. They've just showed back up in Sapphira. They're gonna go right back to work. Scripture says in a straightway, immediately, she was gone. It's a terribly sad portion of Scripture. But this is the New Testament age in which this is being brought out. So what is he saying? That God looks at the lack of genuineness in the New Testament just like he looked at the lack of genuineness in the Old Testament. These secret sins that you carry that are explained away by people around you because of whatever reason you put out there, God's not buying it. He's not buying it. these portrayals that you give, maybe you get up here and sing, or you even get up here and preach, or maybe you sing in the choir, or you know, maybe you're in some other area of ministry, and people look at you and they hear your language, and you teach a Sunday school, maybe you disciple, and yet, you know what's going on behind the scenes. You know the spirit of pride. You know the lack of witness. You know the heart of gossip and a critical spirit. You know. And you've explained it away. Well, you know, I wouldn't be this way if so-and-so and I wouldn't do that if they didn't. No. Stop it. Because Acts chapter 5 is in the Word of God for a very important reason. The reason it is there is to tell us that God is serious about our sins. Well, if that's true, then Pastor Shane, explain this to me. Then why doesn't God just, I heard a young guy, a young seminary student ask me this question. He said, then why doesn't God just deal that way with everyone? If that's a New Testament age, then why doesn't he do that with everybody? Man, what are you, an idiot? I thank God that, I didn't say that to him. I'm thanking God that he doesn't handle it that way. Otherwise, I'd be a dead man, and so would you by now. The fact is that he is extending, if you look at the spirit in which he's saying this, he's saying, I am serious about hypocrisy. I'm dead serious about it. And so it's only by my mercy that I don't handle it in the same way with you. But that does not change how serious I am about it. Can I go just a tick farther with you and we'll be done? When people join Somerville Baptist Church, people can come all day. They can be involved in every service. But when they come, they make a public commitment. And their public commitment is that we're planning to attend every service. We state it, state it every single time, that we plan on giving proportionally of tithes and then offerings as the Lord leads and allows. and that within six months of joining, we find at least one weekly ministry to get involved in. To come to Somerville Baptist Church, must you join? Do you have to show your membership card when you come in the door? No. No, you don't. But if you're going to join, then there's certain things that you commit to. That land was Ananias'. He didn't have to do what he did. He's the one that chose to do that. I'm just telling you that God's serious about his business. And if you're gonna say it, then do it. God expects that from his children. And that, my friend, is a great lesson from Acts chapter five. You prepare a message like this, you do what I do for a living, let me tell you something, you get a passage like this, this puts you on serious grounds of confession. You're looking through every area of your life and you're saying, God, I'm sorry for this and I'm sorry for that, which by the way, that's the reason it's there. It's to bring us to a place of humility before him that even in the dispensation of grace, he's serious about his holiness. He's serious about it. So must we be. Let's stand together. Tonight I'm gonna ask the piano to play Cleanse Me. As she plays that, let's do business with him tonight. I'm not gonna have a come down invitation tonight, because quite frankly, probably nobody would come down. This is not a confessional booth here at the altar. But can I encourage you, just where you stand tonight, as the piano plays, just say Lord cleanse me.