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It is always a great joy to come to that pinnacle of a worship service, where we have an opportunity to immerse ourselves in the Word of God. And I would encourage you to take your Bibles and turn to Acts chapter four. I've entitled my discourse to you this morning “God's Priority for Purity in the Church."

Now, before we read the text and examine it, I was thinking this morning about a billboard that I saw on the highway on the interstate, and there's quite a few of them now where you see a large, large billboard getting you to look at them and come to their church, and you'll typically see a husband and a wife, and then some kind of bumper sticker catchphrase to get you excited about their church. And one of them kind of summarized what most of them say, and it said this, "If you're looking to maximize your potential," and then it went on to say where their church was. Well, folks, if you're looking to maximize your potential, you're in the wrong place here. But if you've come to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth, and to humble yourselves before his Word and watch his Word transform your life, you're in the right place, and that's what we want to do this morning. We boast not in ourselves, but in Christ, our Lord, who has saved us.

You know, it is an enormous joy to be involved in ministry, and most all of you are in some way or another. And certainly, it is a joy for me as a pastor to watch God fulfill his promise to build his church. It's a great joy to be able to watch Him transform lives; to take sinners and turn them into saints, it's a great joy for me to watch people grow in the grace and the knowledge of Christ. It's a great joy to be a part of your lives in the good times as well as the bad. Now, over the years that I've been here, some 12 years now, I've seen a lot of babies born, been in a lot of hospital rooms to see that and come and join in with that great joy when we see that little bundle of joy. I've been able to marry a number of people as a part of this church. I've been able to baptize a number of you. Been able to be a part of a number of you coming to a saving knowledge of Christ, but I've also been with you when we have buried your dead. And so, in the good times and even in the bad times, we still find great joy as we watch what God does in the hearts of His people. But dear friends, wherever there is a great opportunity for joy, so too is there a great opportunity for sorrow. And there is nothing that grieves the heart of a pastor, or the elders of the church, or yea, even others within the church, than watching some of those that you love in your church family choose to act wickedly, choose to deliberately disobey the Lord. It is a heartbreak. Sometimes people do it with forethought and malice. Many times they do it ignorantly, unwittingly, and indeed the list of things that we do ignorantly and unconsciously that displease the Lord our God are beyond our ability to even fathom.

The psalmist David tells us in Psalm 40 verse 12, "For evils beyond number have surrounded me; my iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see, they are more numerous than the hairs of my head, and my heart has failed me." Regrettably, when sin rears its ugly head in the church, Christ is is dishonored, and everyone suffers. Satan loves this, of course. He is the adversary, and certainly wherever God plants the wheat, Satan double sows the tares. And likewise, he loves to come into a church via all of the temptations that he offers in our culture, and seduce people to do evil, to entice people to act wickedly, even genuine believers. So, what I want you to hear is, wherever God is at work, Satan sets up shop. I often think that God is very very aware of this; obviously, he is. We see this in his word, and that's why he gives us so many warnings. And when you think about it, Satan is far more concerned about what happens in your lives right here than he is the lives of those down on Lower Broad here in Nashville. This is what we see in the text before us - Satan setting up shop in the church. We see in the text before us this morning the serpent of sin slithering into the crib of the newly birthed church. I've seen it in many churches. I've seen this in many parachurch organizations. I've seen it here in this church. Individuals with a convincing veneer of spirituality that slither into the church, and they defile it like a cobra. They spit the venom of slander and gossip. Their fangs drool at times the poison of false teaching and deception, like giant boas. Sometimes they enter into a church, and they constrict the very life out of people by forcing their personal preferences on others. Like the serpent, even in the garden, they seduce people with their hypocrisy, with their cleverness, with their lies. Now, friends, I ask you, if you had a baby and you looked in that crib and you saw a venomous viper slithering around, what would you do? Well, certainly you would call somebody who's not afraid of snakes, but one way or the other, you would get that thing out of there and you would destroy it to protect your child. Well, friends, this is precisely what God did in the context of the infant church.

Today we will learn much about the sins of lying and hypocrisy and self-promotion. and God's abhorrence of those sins. We will learn today about the influences of Satan upon believers, as well as the influence of the Holy Spirit, and we will see a contrast between two very different types of Christians that coexist within the church, and I'm sure that each of you will see yourself somewhere in these categories. We will also learn much about selfless love and sacrificial sharing in the church, and to what extent God expects us to care for those who are less fortunate in our church family. And I've divided the text before us this morning into three categories that I trust will prove helpful in our desire to understand all that God has for us. We will see in chapter four, beginning in verse 30-two through chapter five, verse 11, three things. We will see first of all the character of the church. Secondly, the character of contrasting Christians, and thirdly, the character of divine judgment on deceptive Christians.

Now, before I read the text, let me remind you of the background, the context. Remember, now the promised Holy Spirit has come upon those early saints, a handful of believers there in Jerusalem, empowering them to speak in foreign languages that they had not learned. They were extolling the glorious truths of God, and many people were absolutely overwhelmed with what they were seeing and hearing. The church has been born now. The gospel is being proclaimed with great boldness. People are coming to repentant faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth. And Peter and John have now gone to the temple. They have, by the power of Jesus and in his name, healed a man that had been lame since birth. A man that was 40 years old, and he has gone into the temple with them. It's been quite a stir, everybody is just absolutely flabbergasted with what's going on. Peter and John continue to preach the truths of the gospel. About 5,000 Christians have now been added to the church in a short period of time, and of course, with all of this stir, it has absolutely infuriated the Sanhedrin, the rulers of the Jews, and they now arrest Peter and John and warn them not to continue preaching in the name of Jesus and to stop speaking about this stuff - that he was the Messiah, and that we have murdered him, and that he's been resurrected from the dead, and that he's coming again - we want you to stop teaching that. But having no basis to punish them, they release them, and the apostles ignore those threats of punishment and continue to preach the word of God. They go to some of their friends, some other believers, and they pray and they also praise God and they ask the Lord to give them boldness. And as a result, the Spirit of God comes and shakes the building that they're in, and the Spirit of God empowers them to continue preaching the word with boldness, and this leads us now to where we are in chapter four, verse 30-two.

"And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them.

"And with great power the apostles were giving witness 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 lay them at the apostles' feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need.

"Now Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth, who was also called Barnabas by the apostles, (which translated means Son of Encouragement),

"and who owned a tract of land, sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.

"But a certain 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 upon all who heard of it.

"And the young men arose 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 and such a price?'  And she said, 'Yes, that was the price.'

"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 shall carry you out as well.'

"And she fell immediately 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 upon the whole church, and upon all who heard of these things."

First, we want to look at the character of the church in this passage, and frankly, we can see three things: we can see spiritual unity, we can see selfless love, as well as Spirit empowered preaching. Notice in verse 32, we read, "the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them." Here, dear friends, we see the virtue of spiritual unity within the church. Here we see the fruits of a transformed life. You see, they believed the same things about their sin and about the Savior, about the message of Christ, that the apostles were preaching; they were of the same mind and of the same purpose, united together in fellowship within the body. They were united together as a team, protecting and proclaiming the truth and living it out. And likewise, therefore, they were united in service. Unlike many people in churches today that only show up occasionally, that are not really a part of the life of the body of the church.

You see, in the early church, you didn't see a lot of spectators, a lot of people that were apathetic, kind of uninvolved, no real commitment to the ministries of the church, no measurable service, not using their spiritual gifts, not having any love for fellow Christians, and frankly, if that is you, my friend, you are forfeiting both earthly as well as heavenly reward. The Spirit is grieved if not quenched in your life, and you're probably living under a cloud of divine chastening. But the early church was healthy and vibrant and strong.

Now, gradually, we're going to see sin creep in. We're going to see weakness, and all of those things begin to happen, but in those early days, there was certainly spiritual unity. By the way, spiritual unity is so so important in the church. It's crucial in the body of Christ, the spiritual organism, even as all of the organs in our body are important to our physical body. Think about that for just a moment. Imagine if our kidneys decide, you know what, I’m just tired of participating in this body. I think I'm going to kind of do my own thing, and then you know the eardrum is really mad at the eyes because everybody's looking at the eyes, nobody looks at me, so I'm going to kind of bail out of this deal. And then the bladder says, "Well, you know what? I'm really preoccupied with other priorities, so I don't really want to work in this body as well," and the tiny pituitary gland really feels left out, and so he decides to pout and whine and not do his job, and then the brain decides, well, I'm just way too important to be involved in this whole deal. Well, you get the picture. The body would absolutely be crippled if not die. Well, these early saints were not that way. They were spiritually; they were relationally united.

We also see selfless love here in this text. They were passionately committed to ministering to others less fortunate. You've got to remember again, many of these Jews had come to Jerusalem for Pentecost, and now many of them have been saved, and their families have rejected them. Many of them have now lost their jobs, and many of them had said, "My goodness, this is so incredibly wonderful. We want to stay here." And so the rest of the church, those that lived in Jerusalem, were helping them out. And those people certainly understood that nothing that they owned really belonged to them. They were merely stewards of what God had given them. Theirs was the heartfelt attitude that Jesus taught; a reflection of the Father's love that Jesus described in Luke 11, verses 11 and 12. You remember that's where he instructed us concerning the power of persistent prayer and the Father's gracious response. There we read,

"'Now suppose one of your fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he?

"'Or if he asks for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he?'"

Well, of course not. And these early saints practiced this kind of selfless sacrificial generosity, and I would ask you: Does this describe you? Are you selfless or selfish? Are you stingy, possessive, hoarding that which God has given you, spending it all on you? It's real easy way to answer that question. All you need to do is look at your checkbook and look at the way you spend your resources. John reminds us in First John 3:17 that a willingness to sacrificially give, especially financially, for the sake of other believers in need in the church, is actually a litmus test of genuine salvation. It is a measure of whether or not a person is truly born again. There we read in First John 3:17, "But whoever has the world's goods and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in Him." The point is, it doesn't. John 13:35 the Lord said, "By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another."

Notice the breadth and depth of their generosity in verses 34 and 35 There we read,

"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 lay them at the apostles' feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need."

 Now, folks, can you imagine such sacrifice, selling off property in order to meet the needs of others. Now, this level of voluntary giving was never meant to be a pattern for the church to that extent. Indeed, there is no other record of this type of thing occurring in Scripture, and so therefore, this is not an endorsement of communal living or communism or this type of thing, but it does demonstrate the type of selfless love of those early saints - a virtue that will exist in every true born-again believer. Their response certainly proved to be a powerful testimony.

But the character of a true church is not only validated by spiritual unity and and selfless love, we also see thirdly Spirit-empowered preaching. And of course, this was the result of Spirit filling. Remember, they prayed for that. They prayed for that boldness, and the Spirit answers them. Notice here in verse 33, "and with great power, the apostles were giving witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus." Now let me pause there. The "resurrection": this is a doctrine that is absolutely crucial in evangelism. And friends, you never want to leave it out, no matter how ridiculous it may seem to the world. And it's easy to want to do that, isn't it? To kind of smooth over those things that people might go, oh, you don't really believe that, do you? But no, they preached, they gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all. Abundant grace, kindness, blessing, divine favor. Oh, that every Christian church would manifest these virtues: spiritual unity, selfless love, spirit empowered preaching, preaching and teaching that is not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.

Well, secondly, we come to another fascinating account here, and here we have the character of contrasting Christians, as I see it. Notice verse 36, "And Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth, who was also called Barnabas by the apostles, (which translated means Son of Encouragement), and he owned a tract of land, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet." Now, here Luke introduces us to a godly man who would later become Paul's missionary companion. He was a Levite from Cyprus. In fact, Luke also described him in Acts 11:24 as a good man and full of the Holy Spirit and faith. You might also be interested to note that in Acts 12:12 we learn that some of the people in Jerusalem actually met in his sister's home for their church service. Well, here is a description of a man who obviously sought no accolades of praise for himself. Here was a man that sacrificially and even silently liquidated some of his assets to give to other believers in need. An amazing thing. He no doubt understood Jesus' words recorded in Luke 12:32 where we read, "Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to charity. Make yourselves purses which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is..." how does it go? "There will your heart be also."

But then Luke goes on to contrast Barnabas with another kind of person that will coexist in the church, a very different kind of person, and we see this illustrated in the lives of Ananias and his wife Sapphira. Notice in chapter five, verse one,

"That a certain 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.'"

Now, friends, here we see a Christian man and woman being satanically inspired and influenced to lie to the Holy Spirit of God, and to conspire together to publicly pretend that they are more spiritual than they are - a despicable sin for which they are ultimately accountable. For indeed, the text says they conceived this deed in their heart, and yet we see that Satan filled their heart to lie to the Holy Spirit. Now this is interesting, isn't it? How does Satan do this? Well, Satan certainly doesn't come in and possess a believer in some way, but this occurs when our flesh seizes upon some satanic temptation to be enticed by some worldly value, some worldly philosophy, and therefore what we do is, we acquiesce to his bidding; and just think of all the things that are out there that he would have us do that are contrary to what the Spirit of God would have us do. And in this case, certainly it was culturally acceptable to kind of flaunt your spirituality. After all, their leaders did that all the time. They would blow the horn when the Pharisees would come to give. So this was just kind of a way of life, and you know we even have that in our culture to a certain degree. We can flaunt our spirituality real simply. Just join a church, kind of show up every now and then. Learn some of the lingo. Maybe give a little bit of money. Attach yourself to some religious denomination. Make sure people know about it, and then people will consider you spiritual. And folks, when that happens, Satan has filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit.

Well, this is what was going on here, and you must understand that their sin was not that they failed to give all, or that they failed to give some prescribed percent. You see, they were under no compulsion to give anything. That's completely contrary to the free will giving that God teaches us in his Word. Moreover, Peter did not rebuke them for the amount that they gave, but that they lied about it. You see, friends, you must understand that their sin was their conspiracy of deception. Their sin is that they lied to the Holy Spirit and ultimately to the whole church, of which the Spirit of God is a part, and that they conspired amongst themselves, the husband and the wife, at least the husband and the wife, to kind of tell a little white lie, you know. Just in case anyone asks, you know, this is always one of Satan's greatest strategies, isn't it? One of his greatest tactics. It began in the in the garden. Remember how it worked with the serpent in the garden? Appeal to Eve's pride a little bit, and kind of her own lusts and that natural fleshly desire that we all have to kind of be noticed and to be exalted and to be praised and then kind of help them concoct a little scheme you know kind of an innocent type of thing certainly nothing big just a little type of thing and then make sure that you trivialize the sin and rationalize it and justify it. I mean, after all, it's no big deal. No one will know. And perhaps it went something like this. Perhaps Ananias said, and again, this is conjecture, but this because the Spirit of God doesn't tell us, but it had to be something along this line, "Sweetheart, look, you know we're selling this land to to give to help people in need, and I know we're selling it for 50 grand, but we're just going to say that we sold it for 40. I mean, after all, we need some of this money for some other things that that we need to do. And you know Barnabas, who seems to get all the attention, he gave 40. So we, you know, would like to give at least that. And since the price of the land would be public record, I've also talked to to the purchaser, and he has agreed to just pay 40 and then tell everybody that it was 40, and that's what's going to be the public record. And then separately, he's going to pay me the other 10. You know, so it's really no big deal. But you know, in case anybody asks, why don't we just say that?"

Friends, be sure of this: whatever the lie was, it was something that was absolutely inconsistent with the way God would have us live out our lives. You know, whenever there is a lie - I like to think of lie like kudzu - most of you know what kudzu is. You drive along here in the south and you see that stuff, that vine creeping up around all of our trees in so many places. Lies are like kudzu. They grow in darkness and they destroy all that they entangle. And it never just grows a little bit and stops. It keeps growing and keeps growing and keeps growing.

Well, whatever it was, the Holy Spirit miraculously exposed their sin to Peter, and here we see this great battle between Satan and his enticing temptations that he has for us in the world that are so appealing to the flesh, and we see that battle then with the Holy Spirit of God living within believers, living within the church; the great battle between Satan and the Holy Spirit. Two different kinds of Christians: Barnabas, you see the humble; Ananias and Sapphira, you see the proud; you see the honest versus the deceptive, you see the sincere versus the duplicitous. You see the selfless versus the selfish. You see the selfless versus the self-promoting, just like the Pharisees. And friends, there's no place for this type of thing in the church, there is no place for you to exalt yourself or to be in competition with another believer. Yet there always seems to be those in a church like Ananias and Sapphira who somehow stoop to this level to exalt themselves, and this can manifest itself in a myriad of ways. And as we see here in the text, God utterly abhors hypocrisy. He abhors Christians who lie to try to impress other people in order to gain some spiritual status, some superior elite status.

Again, that's Satan's age-old tactic. We saw it all the way back in the garden. Such deception betrays a profound disregard for the indwelling Spirit of God, who knows exactly who we are. In fact, in Isaiah 29 verse 15, the prophet says, "Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the Lord, and their works are in the dark. They say, "Who sees us, and who knows us?'' Well, the answer is God does, and if you're a believer, certainly the Spirit of God dwelling within you knows the truth. Child of God, you must understand, like a laser, the penetrating eye of divine omniscience peers into the dark secret recesses of your mind and your imagination, and he sees everything, every thought, every fantasy, every secret morsel of sin you love to savor. There's no darkness too dark to hide it. He sees it as if it's in the midday sun. In fact, the psalmist tells us that he understands our thoughts from afar in Psalm 139, that He is acquainted intimately with all of our ways. We read there that even before there is a word on our tongue, "behold, O Lord, you know it all." Don't think you can hide from God.

So we see the character of the church in contrasting Christians, but also here we see the character of divine judgment on deceptive Christians-a concept that should sober us all. And I find it interesting here. While Peter is exposing Ananias's sin, through the miraculous insight that was given to him by the Holy Spirit, God strikes Ananias, and he dies right there in front of everybody. Can you imagine such a thing? Verse five, "And as he heard these words," in other words, while Peter was talking, "Ananias fell down and breathed his last;" I have to think that such profound public humiliation and even the terror of standing in the presence of divine judgment scared this man to death. And yet, ultimately, we know that it was God that killed them. We don't know how. Maybe it was a heart attack, stroke, or something. And as I was meditating upon this, I thought, "My, this is fascinating, isn't it? How different God chooses to work in his church versus how man chooses to work in the church that he has concocted in the seeker-sensitive cotton candy, consumer-driven type of a church, where entrepreneurs attract crowds in any way they possibly can. Imagine this: if the gurus of our day were to hear of this plan, they would say, "Oh, oh, God! Wait a minute! You don't want to do that? We certainly wouldn't recommend such a thing in a church service. I mean, you talk about turning people off. If you're going to kill somebody, I mean, that's the end of the church right there. That dog won't hunt." People they will love purity and accountability, and they will long for discipline. In fact, rather than killing the church, over verse 14 of chapter five it says, "And all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women were constantly added to their number"  And chapter six, verse seven says, "And the word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith." It's going to be fun when we get to that text to study that. What an amazing thought.

Beloved, again, please understand this: anyone can attract a crowd. There is a myriad of ways to attract a crowd, but only God can build a church. And you must understand that God's priority is holiness first, happiness second. And you will never truly be happy until you have first been made holy through repentant faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you've been transformed by the power of his Spirit, and then you decisively commit yourself to live consistently with what the Holy Spirit has revealed in his Word and in your heart. That's where true happiness comes.

But notice, God is not finished. In verse seven and eight,

"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 and such price?' And she said, 'Yes, that was the price.'

"Then Peter said to her, 'Why is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test?'" Literally, that means to presume upon God's grace. Why would you refuse to trust him for his provision? Why would you choose to exalt yourself? Why would you therefore stretch God to the very limits of his judgment upon you. Why would you do that? You know Jesus rebuked Satan for this very thing. Remember when the wicked tempter dared Jesus to cast himself down from the pinnacle of the temple and require his angels to bear him up? Remember what Jesus replied in Matthew four verse seven? "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test" quoting Deuteronomy 6:16. You see, God calls us to trust him, to obey his word, to surrender to his will, to submit to his lordship, and to no other. And whenever we are tempted to sin, to exalt ourselves, or whatever it is, we have an opportunity to turn away and pursue righteousness, to fear God, and to give him glory by acting consistently with what he would have us do. But many times, we choose to go in a different direction. We lie to the Holy Spirit, then, and we put God to the test. Child of God, never, never, never presume upon the grace of God by deliberately exalting yourself and seeking somehow to satisfy your lust through some temptation that Satan offers you; and then to make things worse, to deceive yourself into thinking that somehow nobody sees it, especially the Spirit of God, and that somehow, he doesn't know or he doesn't care. What a fool you are if that's what you think. Y

ou see, we must all guard ourselves against the proclivity that we have to somehow mitigate both the seriousness and the consequences of our sin. Isn't it amazing all the ways we can justify the little white lies, just the little, teeny things that we do that nobody will really know? You know, like a trickling brook at the top of a mountain that becomes a rushing river as it continues to descend upon down the mountain. So too, little sins, my friends, gain momentum until they become a rushing torrent of iniquity that can cause enormous destruction in your life, in the life of your family, the life of your friends, your community, and certainly in your church. When we convince ourselves that our love for worldly things is no big deal to God, we are sadly mistaken. When we cloak ourselves in the garb of religion on Sunday morning, and then we rip it off the rest of the week. We lie to the Holy Spirit when we claim that we have come to Christ in repentant faith, and that we have pleaded for forgiveness of sins, and we are committed to His lordship, and yet we turn around and we complain about our lot in life, and we murmur against the Lord. When we live a life of secret immorality and greed and worldliness and materialism, when we have little concerns for the needs of other Christians in the body of Christ, and we turn a blind eye to them, and we spend all of our resources on ourselves, when we deliberately refuse to be united in mind and purpose with other believers in the church, and we isolate ourselves out here as if we are too good to be a part of the rest of the body. When we deceive ourselves into believing that our pitiful involvement in the body of Christ is really inconsequential, because after all, I've got so many more important things to do. When we refuse to discover and develop and use our gifts in the church, and on and on it goes. Friends, we lie to the Holy Spirit, and we put God to the test. And because of that, many end up living under the cloud of divine chastening, presuming upon his grace, stretching him to the very limits of his discipline. Don't you know what that's like as a parent? You tell your child not to do something, and they do it. You tell them again not to do it. You know, I'm going to count to three, and when you get to three, you go four, five. By the time you get to 10, you've been stretched to the limit. You see, friends, if this is you, unless you repent, God is going to judge you. In fact, we read in First Corinthians 11:30, "For this reason, many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep." As a pastor, I cannot count the number of times where I have watched believers live like this, to live hypocritical, self-centered, selfish lives. They're spiritually lazy. They stretch God to the very limits, and finally, little by little, they begin to reap what they sow. Their marriages begin to fall apart. Their children begin to go astray. Their finances fall apart; friendships fail. They begin to get filled with stress and guilt and anxiety and depression and grief and loneliness, and then little by little, all of that begins to affect their health, and their bodies begin to break down, and gradually their Christian testimony goes out the window, and then eventually, you see them struggling with depression, drunkenness, many times divorce, drug abuse, sometimes even death. Beloved, God is not mocked. You're going to reap what you sow.

How different the admonitions and promises given to us in the inspired words of Solomon in Proverbs three, beginning in verse one. You're familiar with this passage, and as I was thinking about it, oh, would that God that Ananias and Sapphira would have heeded what was in the Old Testament. Here's what we read in Proverbs three,

"My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments;

"for length of days and years of life and peace; they will add to you.

"Do not let kindness and truth leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.

"So you will find favor and good repute in the sight of God and man.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

"In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

"Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil.

"It will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones.

"Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce;

"so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.

"My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord or loathe His reproof.

"For whom the Lord loves, He reproves, even as a father the son in whom He delights."

Well, sadly, like so many other Christians, Sapphira fell victim to her own lusts and the temptation of Satan, and like her husband, she lied to the Holy Spirit. She put the Spirit of the Lord to the test in verse nine. Notice this:

"Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they shall carry you out as well.

"And she fell immediately 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."

Again, the people outside, wherever they were meeting, like whoa, here comes another one. That was the man's wife. Same deal, yep. Same thing. She succumbed to the temptation of Satan. She lied to the Holy Spirit of God, trying to exalt herself, and God has judged her. I find it interesting. The young men left, buried Ananias, and as soon as they get back, bam! There's his wife. Time to go bury another one. What an impact that must have had on them. You know, I hope young men, those of you that are here today, I hope this will have an impact on you as well, because you are the ones that are going to receive the mantle of divine blessing as we begin to grow old and to die off. You will be the ones that God will raise up to lead the church, and I hope that you will see, as future leaders of the church, the importance of guarding your heart, of not exalting yourself and promoting yourself, the dangers of hypocrisy. I hope you will learn well the lesson of hypocrisy and pride and worldliness, lest you too fall victim to divine chastening. I hope, young men, that you will learn, as I'm sure many of those young men learned, how important it is to fear the Lord your God and to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.

Finally, in verse 11, "Great fear came upon the whole church, and upon all who heard these things." And rightfully so. Beloved, again, church discipline is frightening. Some of you have witnessed it in this church, certainly we, as leaders, have witnessed it a number of times. Sometimes it's been public; most of the times it has not been. But it is a scary thing, and it was, and it will always be seen in a church that is committed to holiness.

Well, may I challenge you this morning, each of you, to examine your heart; where is your life at odds with the model of these early saints? Are you living in spiritual unity, a part of this church, a part of one mind and body, a part of all that goes on here, or are you living as a lone ranger? Is your life characterized by selfless love? Do you love Spirit-empowered teaching and preaching that hopefully will come from this church and other places where you go to get spiritual nourishment? Are you a Barnabas or are you an Ananias and Sapphira? Don't kid yourself. The Spirit of God knows. It's time to be brutally honest. Don't lie to him. Don't put him to the test. You try to promote yourself. Are you mad because you don't have the position you want, or whatever? Do you truly fear the Lord? Do you love him with all your heart? Friends, may I close by challenging you once again? Be suspect of your own spirituality, and may God grant us all the will to accurately discern ourselves and be committed to God's priority for purity in the church. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for this text that is so sobering to us all, for indeed, Lord, all of us have fallen victim to the temptations of Satan. All of us struggle in some way or another with the very things that Ananias and Sapphira struggled with and succumb to, Lord, we thank you for your grace, because if it were not for your grace, we would all be dragged out to a grave, even right now. But Lord, as we look at this text, we realize again how important it is to live lives that fear you in holiness, in reverential awe, and may that be the passion of our hearts. I ask this in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen.