Additional Scripture - Ephesians 4:25-32

2009-11-08 Sermon - Baldwin Christian Church

The perils of settling for less.

Acts 5:1-11
1. But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession,
2. 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.
3. 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?
4. Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.
5. And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things.
6. And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him.
7. And it was about the space of three hours after, when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in.
8. And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much.
9. 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.
10. Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost: and the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband.
11. And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.

Ananias realized he was caught, and that was it. The last words he heard were, you haven't lied to men, you've lied to God. No second chance, not one more breath with which to utter, I'm sorry. Just this sudden unbearable weight of conviction and fear filling his heart, and then Ananias fell like a rock.

This great fear motivates great honesty, and it gives no room for half-truths, fibs or white lies. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me (John 14:6). No one is able to sneak into heaven. When Jesus says, no man cometh unto the Father, but by me, He's saying we must go through the way, the truth, and the life, so we cannot skirt around the truth, expecting mansions in heaven.

If you would, turn with me to Psalm 139. He knows our thoughts and intentions. That's scary! But out of this great fear should come great carefulness, and out of this great fear will also come great hope.

Psalm 139:1-6
1. [To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.] O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.
2. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
3. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
4. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.
5. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.
6. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.

He knows the whole truth about me, everything. He is the truth, and we can trust everything He says That's where the scary can become wonderful. The day that I give it up for good, this illusion that I can keep secrets from God, He kindly sets me free from the bondage of self-deception. From now on I live knowing there's nothing He doesn't know about me. As the Psalm says, such knowledge is too wonderful for me. Where He is and what He's doing, I cannot know completely. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than my ways, and His thoughts than my thoughts (Isaiah 55:9). Can you see the relief in is? The further you go in the way, the truth and the life, the more wonderful it all gets! It starts out a little scary because we can't pull the wool over His eyes even a little bit, and we're not familiar with this kind of intimacy. We've been able to manipulate people since our infancy, from the day we figured out Mom would come running every time we cried. Truth be told, there were times we didn't need anything except to just see her come running. If God chose to, He could open up a book and show me every lie I've ever told. On the other hand, He can open another book and show me the times my heart was right, even though everybody else thought I was wrong. This relationship is scary, but it is also comforting. You see how great fear leads to great grace.

Now you can live in truth. You can quit lying to yourself because you know God can even hear that. Now you can stop saying to yourself, Oh, if I just had one of those, oh if they would just love me, then everything would be just perfect. Now you can stop telling yourself these lies that we all tell ourselves. Now you can just be who the most important Person in the universe wants you to be. Now you're in love with the truth, and the truth is, you are complete in Him (Colossians 2:10). Nothing less will do.

Let's catch one more verse in Psalm 139 before we get back to Ananias and Sapphira (Psalm 139:18). Speaking of God's thoughts toward His beloved, the psalmist writes, If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee. This sounds like the perfect marriage to be in. His thoughts are faithful and unending. Every day begins and ends with faithfulness (when I awake, I am still with thee).

You are complete in Him. The world can hold up that image it wants you to look like or be like all it wants, but those things just aren't as attractive anymore, now that you know His thoughts toward you outnumber the sand (think seashores, think deserts). Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.

You are complete in Him. The world can go right ahead and keep on trying to make you think your sense of self-worth depends on receiving praises from others. Now, the LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore I will hope in Him (Lamentations 3:24). The praises of people are fickle and fading. I can't pin my hope on them, but whenever I awake, the LORD is still with me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.

You are complete in Him. The world wants your emotional state to be held captive by your present circumstances, but now you know the truth, now you know the One who is too wonderful. And He said, Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? And not to be set on a candlestick? (Mark 4:21) When life gets hard, and old Mr. Emotional starts barking orders in your mind, now you can read the Word right back at him. Excuse me, Mr. Emotional (think Pilgrim's Progress). It seems you're desiring that I crawl up under a bucket with you, or maybe go hide under the bed, but if it's all the same with you, I'm going to overcome this present distress with the light on, as a beacon for all those under similar circumstances. But, I hope you have a pleasant day, Mr. Emotional!

Oh, now you can really start living because you're actually going through the way, the truth, and the life! No more pretending. No more trying to find my own way (Proverbs 14:12). And remember the Psalm is telling you; this wonderful new life began with a great fear, the realization that I can't keep anything secret from God, much less get away with lying to Him. Let's turn back to Acts chapter 5.

In verse 3 and 4, Peter fires a bunch of questions at Ananias, one right after the other, and then a definitive judgment at the end. As the head of his family, Ananias didn't get a chance to make this right, but Sapphira did. Peter gave her one chance to answer, but in verse 8 she just repeats the lie.

There are so many problems with lying:
God hates it. Lying is an abomination to Him (Proverbs 6:17, Proverbs 12:22).
For two, lying is proof of allegiance with the devil (John 8:44, 1 John 3:8, Acts 5:3).
For three, lying is a sure-fire way to an eternity on fire (Revelation 21:8, 21:27, 22:15).
Lying is like being drunk on my own version of reality. I'm having a good time. I think I've got everything under control. I'm pretty sure people are liking me, but in reality they don't trust me as far as they can throw me. It doesn't take very long before they see right through my little mask, and oh they know about liars. Everybody comes to a point in this life where they've been hurt by a liar. And like it is to be a drunk, eventually a liar's only companions are other liars, who lie for no reason at all.

Ananias lied for no reason, and Peter let him know it. You can sense the hurt as Peter asks those questions in verse 4. It's almost like he's pleading, Ananias, why would you ever think you have to lie to be appreciated by us? Why needlessly put your soul in jeopardy, and why oh why did you involve your wife? The property was yours, and after you sold it, the money was yours. In Christ you are free. We were of one heart and one soul. We were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Why, oh why would you lie to Him about an offering? Ananias was dumbstruck, and Peter was left with only one conclusion. Ananias wanted the church to think highly of him for bringing this great sacrifice, and deluded, he believed nobody would be hurt if he fibbed about the actual sale price. Ananias wanted to be set on high, but Jesus had laid down the rules when He said, he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted (Matthew 23:11-12). Jesus practiced what He preached. He washed the disciples' feet (John 13).

In chapter 4, beginning at about verse 31, we see what God intended for the church. They had unity in the Spirit, unselfishness, provision for every need, boldness of speech, and great grace was upon them all. It's all too wonderful. We don't have to put on airs in the church. We don't have to wear masks. There's no need to play games with God, and there's no need to play games with each other. The Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:10, by the grace of God I am what I am. We don't have to pretend in the church. Anything less than the truth is a lie. All you need to do is let His Spirit come into you and fill you. You don't need to know a secret handshake. You don't have to memorize your Bible. You don't have to know when to stand or when to sit. You don't have to wear a suit, or not wear a suit. It's what suits God that matters the most. He's looking at your heart, your will. Just don't lie to Him. Be who you are in Christ, in truth and love. Don't try to be what you think other people want you to be. You can't lose if you'll just let Him work on you. The problems come when we try to be untruthful about what we are. If God holds me to the Acts chapter 5 standard, I won't make it to the end of this sentence.

In Acts 4:33, it says great grace was upon them all, and I have no doubt great grace was upon Ananias and Sapphira, but they skipped past great fear on the way to great grace. Great grace is reserved for those who walk in obedience. We can't skip past great fear and slide right into great grace.

In baseball, it doesn't matter if the batter hits a home run clear out of the park, he still has to round the bases. If he misses touching even one base on his home-run trot, the other team can make an appeal to the umpire, and the home-run hitter is out (MLB Rule 7.10). The home run is taken away from him. We've got to touch all the bases. The Bible says the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction (Proverbs 1:7). We can't forget about great fear. Without great fear, we can't even begin to see great grace, but not even great grace will cover the heart that holds back, the heart that lies. Great grace departed from Ananias and Sapphira. I'm not keeping score, but I don't want to trade places with them on Judgment Day. I do know this, God doesn't change. He is the same today as He was on that day. He hasn't changed, but the church has. It's hard to see great fear in the church nowadays, but that doesn't mean I'm any less accountable to the truth than Ananias and Sapphira were. I don't know when God may choose to make an example out of me.

We never know when we're lying to someone filled with the Holy Ghost, and we never know when God will execute swift judgment. Part of the ministry of the Holy Ghost is conviction (John 16:7-11). Great conviction will cause the a man to give up the ghost when he hears the words, you have lied to God. This happened in a time of great conviction that we're not familiar with today. But shouldn't we be? If we don't respond rightly to this great conviction, we will be convinced to believe a lie.

2 Thessalonians 2:10-12
10. And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12. That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

If we don't start responding to the Holy Spirit, He will give up on us and give us a lie that we can't escape from. And make no mistake about who the Holy Spirit is. Peter said Ananias lied to the Holy Ghost, and in the same breath, told him he had lied to God. All the power of creation can dwell in you, trying to convince you not to lie, but He's a gentleman, He gave you free will. It's still your choice. It's up to you. It's all too wonderful.

Men are teaching great grace today, and skipping past great fear.

Occasionally there's a story in the news about a pastor or church worker who gets caught stealing from the offerings, but I don't recall hearing about anyone who dropped dead when confronted about it. There may be a little jail time and a lot of humiliation, but they don't usually give up the ghost. It may be that this lack of conviction today is proof of the lack of the Holy Ghost. We may think we have Him when we actually don't. In our church, we observe the Lord's Supper every Sunday, and the Scriptures say that we can get sick and die if we don't discern the Lord's body (1 Corinthians 11:27-32). If I take of His table, but don't examine and judge myself, am I any different from Ananias and Sapphira?

This kind of fear causes great carefulness, but we have so many influences wooing us away from it. In those days the church grew rapidly because of great fear. Acts 5:14 says, believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women. The Bible tells us, By mercy and truth, iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil (Proverbs 16:6), and the fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death (Proverbs 14:27). God hasn't changed, but we have. Today, the biggest churches are the ones that emphasize great grace, and minimize great fear.

For some reason I delude myself into thinking great grace will cover up my incomplete obedience, and God will let me slide just one more time. I know that I'm only abusing His grace when I think that way. I'm wrong to think that way. To get back into the truth, I have to abdicate the throne of my heart, and let Him rule it completely. Then a renewing takes place in my mind. Then a cleansing can begin. The first step: Admit that He is who He is, admit that all this stuff is His stuff. Choose to enter into great grace, and stay there. No more lying. No more pretending. Steer my thoughts oh Lord, away from decaying things, away from the worries that come with all this stuff. Take the reins of my heart.

Colossians 1:16-18
16. For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
17. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
18. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

With just a word, He can make all this stuff go away.