An Offering of Lies to the God of Truth

>>Good morning everybody. It's a real special day in the life of our church and I'm a wife and I've been looking forward to this for a while and I know you have been too. We get to have our monthly fellowship meal but also our baptism service. It's just been real something to look forward to. Go ahead and open up your Bibles to Acts chapter 5. Acts chapter 5. If you are a visitor here today, my name is Jared Walters and my wife and I are members here at Grace Life Church. Before we begin reading the text, I want to introduce us to the context of the series that this is in called Acceptable Worship.

I've had the privilege of teaching it on different occasions here at Grace Life and it's based primarily on two key pieces of Scripture, Psalm 24 and Hebrews 12, 28, 29. And there's a little bit of personal history behind the series as well that I think would help us understand the context of all this, Acceptable Worship. I've been involved in music ministry in one form or another since I came to Christ when I was 16. I came to Christ during a period when praise and worship music was getting a lot of attention. There was a lot going on that got held up as a shining example of what worship should look like and even sound like.

And as a young Christian, I had to sort through these things and I think people are still sorting through the same sorts of things today in popular Christian music. I started leading worship when I was in high school and college. I would travel around some from place to place and lead worship for college and youth events. And I remember struggling to understand the metric for success as a worship leader. What is the metric for success if you're the worship leader? Is it the emotional impact of the worship service, the energy in the room, the number of people who raise their hands or even cry during the worship?

Is there a rain gauge that you could like measure the tears of emotional teenagers with? Is that your metric for how well you've led in worship? One of the things that you could say to me after a worship service during this period of time was worship was good today because I wanted to pull you aside with a notepad and just say, "Tell me exactly what I did good today that I didn't do good the last time I led worship." I remember leading worship one evening for some college students at a college worship service and I'd been real busy that day with school and work and I came in feeling very unprepared musically and spiritually to lead worship and it just kind of bled out into the worship service itself.

I just tried to be honest with the Lord and kind of slow things down and change some of the music that we did that night. Afterwards, a friend of mine came up with his girlfriend and she said, "Worship was wonderful. You should skip spending time with God more often." It's not a good metric. That is not a good metric for success, successful worship leading. So all that brought me to Hebrews 12, 28, 29. You don't have to turn there. I'm just going to read this to us.

"Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire." I came to this verse in Hebrews and I thought, "If there's such a thing as acceptable worship, then there has to be such a thing as unacceptable worship as well." There is a metric, a pattern of what makes worship acceptable to God. And I started to see examples all throughout Scripture of both acceptable and unacceptable worship. Times when God supernaturally affirmed or rejected someone's active worship.

And the goal of this examination and this entire series is to answer the question, what made their worship acceptable or unacceptable and what can we learn ourselves as worshipers? It's also important to know how we're going to approach our study this morning. In this instance, it's the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts chapter 5. We're going to approach this kind of like we're crime scene investigators. Usually in this series when we study a case of unacceptable worship, there's a body count. There are people who have died as a result throughout the Old Testament and New Testament.

In our culture, in the case of a suspicious death, we perform an autopsy, right, to determine a cause of death. So today we're going to perform an autopsy to determine a spiritual cause of death for Ananias and Sapphira. We're going to examine the crime scene and hear testimony from witnesses and generally look for evidence to answer our key question, what made their worship unacceptable, fatally so in this case, and what lessons can we learn ourselves? So with all that in mind, let's get into the text.

And if we start in the first verse in chapter 5, the first word is "but." So we need to back up a little bit to understand what preceded this and lay the groundwork for chapter 5. So just turn back a page in your Bible to chapter 4, verse 32, and we'll pick up there. Chapter 4, verse 32. Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common, and with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.

There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet. And it was distributed to each as any had need. Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet. So this is our groundwork, and there are a couple of introductory points that I think will help us as we go through the rest of this.

First of all, this is the early church, and I struggled to find a word to describe this, the church at this stage in church history, because I don't want to say it's the church in its infancy, because that would imply that we're somehow more mature and capable than they were. And I don't know that I can say that. I think we have a better theological grasp of doctrine as a whole, but the early church as we see here is and probably always will be the standard by which we measure all that has come after. The first body of believers set a standard that all churches should aspire to as a measure of a true New Testament church.

They were not understaffed, underfunded, or overwhelmed, because God was sovereignly meeting their needs, both physical and spiritual. Secondly, the text says this was a period of great grace. God was bringing about the birth of something that Chris pointed out in our study of Ephesians, the birth of a new race of people, the church. There was no longer a slave or free Jew or Gentile. There was now the church. And the manifestation of this great grace was not just in the miracles that we read about in the book of Acts. It was also in the radical, radical transformation of individuals.

Then and now, the greatest miracle of miracles is a sinner who repents and becomes a new creation. What greater miracle is there than when a person is truly converted to Christ and bears fruit in keeping with repentance? We may read through this period of church history and think that, you know, our church is not nearly as exciting as what we're reading about in Acts, chapter 5. But the greater work, the greater work of salvation and sanctification continues today. And that work transcends and exceeds these miracles that we read about here.

Also, the manifestation of this great grace was not just in the conversion of individuals, but how together they were of one heart and soul. And that's a quote from the text that we just read, "One heart and soul." Their unity was remarkable. It wasn't the brain dead, thoughtless, slavish unity of a cult. It was a unity that bound these people who would not have given each other the time of day before their conversion. Now they were bound together by the Spirit into one kingdom mindset and purpose. The early church was also a conglomeration of people from near and far. That's a fun word, isn't it? Conglomeration.

Because that's what they were. They were a broad assortment of people. Remember that when the apostles preached on the day of Pentecost, and that's what we read about in the first part of Acts, many miraculously heard the gospel in their native tongues as Peter preached because they were travelers who would come into Jerusalem for the Feast of Weeks. So people from all over, you don't have to turn there, but in Acts 2 starting with verse 7, and this is from that occasion, it says, "And they were amazed and astonished, saying, 'Are not all these who are speaking those who are preaching that day Galileans?

And how is it that we hear each of us in his own native language, Parthians and Medes and Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Persia and Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians? We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God." And if you skip down to verse 37, it says, "Now when they heard," they being all the people that we just talked about, "when they heard all this, they were cut to the heart, and Peter and the rest of the apostles, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?' And in verse 41, 'So those who received his word were baptized, and they were added that day about three thousand souls.' So people on this day were converted by the thousands, many of whom were travelers from all over the world.

And because there was no church for these people to go home to, they stayed. There was no second Baptist church anywhere else. This is it. This is the New Testament church. And all these people who had come in from all parts of the world and had been converted to Christ, this is the church. So they stayed. They didn't go home. So you've got this population of people who have suddenly been injected into the church. And the other person in this text that's held up is Barnabas. Barnabas was held up as an example by the apostles. This man was given quite a nickname by the apostles themselves. They called him Barnabas, the son of encouragement.

That's what his name meant. That was his nickname. He's very fortunate because usually a bunch of men don't give very nice nicknames, do they? No, they don't. Keith's laughing because he knows what I'm talking about. Barnabas is the one who stuck his neck out for Paul after he was converted. And everyone else knew Paul was the guy that was dedicated to destroying the church and the guy throwing Christians in jail. But Barnabas stuck his neck out for him. He represented.

He brought him to the other believers and said, "This guy is for real." Barnabas is also the one who stuck out his neck for young John Mark who had previously and embarrassingly bailed out on a missionary journey. Barnabas was the kind of believer who left you energized and inspired to love and serve the Lord. His nickname was well deserved. Barnabas set a standard among them for devotion to the church. He might not have been the first to sell property and bring in the proceeds to the feet of the apostles, but he is the only person in Scripture named to do so other than Ananias and Zephyr. His generosity and his devotion was known to all.

Barnabas also submitted himself to the leadership of the church. It's worth noting here that the act of laying it at the apostles' feet was an affirmation by Barnabas of their God-given leadership role in the early church. Barnabas recognized their unique office and submitted to their leadership without any strings attached. You could say that Barnabas wasn't trying to build any kingdoms of his own. He wasn't trying to throw money around so he could steer the church in the direction that he wanted it to go. He brought it and laid it at their feet and let them decide what they were going to do with it.

Barnabas also saw a need in his church and sacrificially gave. The text says that the money was used to meet some of the immediate needs among the believers. The church had grown by the thousands and many of them were out of the out of towners we talked about who had real and immediate needs. If you served in a church after Hurricane Katrina you might know what it looks like to serve a transient population of thousands of people. It's a big need and that was a need that was being met by the church. They didn't see these people as free loading guests who had overstayed their welcome.

They were part of the body of Christ and men like Barnabas stepped up to serve these people and the text says every need was met. Thousands of people and every need was met and it says quote, "There was not a needy person among them." So we see this remarkable work of love and unity that God was doing among these people. Great grace was really upon the church during this time. So this is our stage that we've set and end of chapter 4 and we move into chapter 5. So go ahead and flip to chapter 5 starting with verse 1.

And we're back again to that first word that we talked about which is "but." If I was summarized what we just talked about I would say this, "There was great grace on the church, but..." And that's not a good transition here so let's read what it says starting in verse 1 of chapter 5. "But a man named Ananias with his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property and with his wife's knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and 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 for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?

While it remained unsold did it not remain your own? And after it was sold was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God. When Ananias heard these words he fell down and breathed his last and great fear came upon all who heard of it. The young men arose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.

After an interval about three hours his wife came in not knowing what had happened and Peter said to her, 'Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.' And she said, 'Yes, for so much.' But Peter said to her, 'How is it that you have agreed together to test the spirit of the Lord? Behold the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out.' Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in they 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.

So remember we're investigators here. We're gathering evidence, we're examining the crime scene, we're interviewing the witnesses. So let's establish what we know and don't know about these events. First of all we know that Ananias and Sapphira were known members of this church. One of the marks of the early church that we emulate today is a record of membership. You may think how did they keep records? And if Scripture says in Acts 2.41 that 3,000 people came to Christ then someone had to be counting and keeping a record of all these people. Acts 4.4 says another 5,000 were saved.

And throughout the New Testament there is a record of believers coming in and even going out of the church. You may be thinking how did they keep a record of people going out of the church? 1 John 2.19 says, 'They went out from us but they were not of us. For if they had been of us they would have continued with us, but they went out that it might become plain that they all are not of us.' So for our purposes today it's important to note that the church counted Ananias and Sapphira as one of their own and they took spiritual responsibility for them. So let's turn our attention to the nature of their offering that they brought.

What was the fault in their offering? It might be helpful to clarify what it wasn't. There was no fault in the amount of money given. We don't know if they sold acres or inches of land. We don't know the amount of money they gave. And it really doesn't matter. It could have been the equivalent of $5 or $5 million. Also there was no fault specifically in the percentage of money that they gave. And it didn't matter if they gave 1% or 99% of the proceeds from the sale of their land. Peter himself affirms this in verse 4 by saying that after it was sold the money was at their disposal. They could do with it whatever they wanted to.

Third, there was no fault solely in the fact that they kept some of the money for themselves. They may have had some real needs they were trying to meet. They may have had debt that they were trying to pay down. They may have had some needs in their own family. We really don't know. The fault was in the fact that they lied. The fault was in the fact that they lied. Peter says in verse 3, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? And in verse 4 he says again, you have not lied to man but to God.

It's understood from the text that Ananias and Sapphira either passively or directly let it be known that they were giving all of the proceeds from the sale of this land. Not a percentage but all. So they let that be known and then they let the lie persist when it was not true that they were given the full amount. That was the lie. Now let's give attention to the motivation for their lie. Investigators today talk about means, motive, and opportunity, right? So let's talk about motive. What was the motive for their lie? We don't really know exactly what was going on in their hearts but we can make some educated guesses.

We do know that it was sinful and Peter even says that their hearts were filled by Satan. So the question, the key question to ask is what did they have to gain by lying? What did this purchase for them by telling this lie? It might have been a money issue. Clearly they needed or wanted money. So much so that after they made it known that they were giving all of the proceeds from the sale they decided to keep a portion. Whether it was for an actual need or it was just purely greed we don't know. What they gained by letting the lie persist was honor.

I think, I can think of no other valid reason for their lie but that they were purchasing for themselves the praise of the people of the church. They saw the respect and the honor that was given to Barnabas and they wanted that for themselves. So Barnabas set the standard. He was the model they were emulating. They saw how people responded to Barnabas' offering and the respect that he was giving in their church circles and they wanted that for themselves. So that was what they were, that was the motive for their lie. There's a phenomenon that happens in our culture today where people dress like military officers and go into public places.

People who are not military officers themselves. People who know about the military or all our officers themselves can usually spot these people and call them out on their fraud but it happens so much that there's a legal term for it. Stolen valor. Stolen valor. If you go to the internet do a little searching there, videos of these people getting caught. There's usually some tell, something wrong with their uniform or something wrong with their story. And in a sense that's what we're dealing with here today. It's stolen valor.

Ananias and Sapphira wanted the praise and the respect that they saw that Barnabas was getting and that's why they persisted in their lie. So let's move on to who they lied to. They lied to their friends in the church, to the people they prayed with, people they served with regularly. Remember they weren't strangers to the church, they were members. Acts 246 says they met in each other's homes on a daily basis. Maybe Ananias and Sapphira had been in the homes of others or maybe the people of the church had been in their home. Really to just say that they were known by the church as underselling it.

They were friends and they were church family. They also lied to the people who had preached the gospel to them. The people who were in authority over them in the church. People who served daily to teach them and they lied to the apostles. And we have the benefit of time and history to see the significance of the office and role of the New Testament apostles. These men were chosen by Christ himself to lead the church and lay the foundations for it. Both Ananias and Sapphira looked the apostle Peter directly in the eye and they lied to him.

And although it is true that they lied to all these people, that's not what Peter brought up when he called the mount. Quote, "You have not lied to man but to God and that is at the root of their crime. Beyond the money, beyond the people they lied to, they brought an offering of lies to the God of truth." And we need to dissect this a little bit further because it's not just a spontaneous lie. It was a planned conspiracy. Meaning it wasn't just something they came up with in the spur of a moment. This is something they talked about, they discussed, they conspired together about.

We don't know how or when but at some point both Ananias and his wife Sapphira conspired together to tell this lie to the church and to God for sinful gain. And these two aren't the first to try to pull this off in Scripture. Achan went against the clear commandment that was given to Israel when they conquered Jericho and took some of the things devoted to destruction. A quote, "Beautiful cloak and some gold and silver and hid it under his tent." And he persisted in his lie when 36 men died in the failed attempt to take the much smaller city of Ai.

And he persisted when they started casting lots to determine who had sinned and caused this failure. So you kind of have to put yourself in his shoes. He knows they're casting lots to figure out where the sin lies. They know there's a sin in their midst. Somebody has caused them this failure that's happened. So they cast lots by tribe, by clan, by family, and then man by man they cast lots to figure out where, who had done this sin. And Achan just stood there through the whole process and watched them narrow it down until he was literally the last man standing amongst all the people of Israel.

He persisted in his lie until he was the last man standing. How many opportunities to repent did he have? In the end it cost him his life and the lives of his whole family. Cain lied directly to God when God asked him where his brother Abel was. God already knew where Abel was. He said that the blood of Abel cried out to him from the ground. Cain had already been warned by God before this and even after he murdered his brother he had one more chance to come clean when God asked him, "Where is your brother?" That was his moment to repent and he let it pass him by. He persisted in his lie in the face of God himself.

How many chances to repent did he have and still he persisted? There are a lot more examples but all these people have something in common. They somehow convinced themselves that either one, God didn't see their sin or two, God didn't care about their sin. This begs the question, does God see secret sin? We know and we've studied in our small groups that God is both omniscient and omnipresent, meaning he both knows all and sees all and he's in all places. Does God care about secret sin or does God see our secret sin or does God care about our secret sin?

Scripture says that God hates sin more than we can fathom and by keeping their secret sin, Ananias and Sapphira made God part of their conspiracy. This may be just my opinion of the way I see it but they made the God of truth the third party in their conspiracy to fleece the church with their lie, their offering of lie. So they didn't just lie, they made their lie part of their offering as an act of worship. They came and laid their offering at the feet of the apostles. I don't know what the occasion was when they did this but we do know that the apostles were there.

We know that there were offerings that were being given during this gathering and that at the very least there were other young men present because this says the young men rose up and carried him out afterwards. So we know there were young men there. It sounds like a church service. I don't know that but I'm just assuming. So this is part of a church service when they tried to sell this lie. Not that it really matters what the occasion was but their brazenness in their lie was pretty remarkable. And the text says that they tested God with their lie.

That's what Peter says to Sapphira when she comes in later, "How is it that you have agreed together to test the spirit of the Lord?" And like Achan there are plenty of opportunities for them to repent of the secret sin. But it's worth knowing and I don't think I've ever noticed this until today. It's worth noting that Ananias got no opportunity to repent. Peter calls him out and exposes his lie and it says as soon as Peter was done talking he dropped dead. He died. On the other side, Sapphira comes in later and Peter asks her, "Is this how much you sold the land for?" She gets an opportunity to come clean. She gets one opportunity to repent.

She doesn't take it either. "Tell me whether you sold the land for so much." This is her moment to repent but she didn't take it. So to wrap up our examination of these events, let's look at the things that happened after. Let's look back at chapter 5 starting with verse 11. Acts 5 verse 11, "And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things. Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles and they were all together in Solomon's portico. None of the rest dared join them but the people held them in high esteem.

And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both women and men." This event, it shaped the church. It shaped the church. Imagine for a moment being a member of this church, seeing this lie publicly exposed and seeing them both fall dead. How do you think it affected them? This series is called Acceptable Worship. How do you think it affected them as worshippers? Can you imagine the next time they got ready to come to a church service, the thoughts that were going through their minds as they prepared to go and worship together with their church? It shaped them.

True revival is really just a renewed awareness of God, a reminder that God is present and God is holy. And I think that's the oppression that they were left with. God is present and God is holy. If you ever have people who want to argue with you that the God of the Old Testament is somehow different in the New Testament, you can take them to this chapter and read this story to you then ask them, "Is God holy? Is God the same God in the Old Testament that we see?" This is me speaking personally.

I wish I could talk to the young men who had to carry out two of their friends that day and spent probably the entire day because bodies had to be carried outside of the city to be buried. So they bundled Ananias up and he says, "The young men carried him all the way out of the city to bury him." And then probably very quietly, maybe silently walked all the way back and as soon as they walked in the door, Sophia is on the ground and they have to bundle her up and carry her all the way out of the city and bury her beside her husband and then walk all the way back.

I wish I could talk to them because I would like to know, I would like to sit those young men down and say, "Tell me who God is." I would like to know their impression of the holiness of God. I would like to know who those young men grew up to be because I think it left a distinct impression on them. So these events shaped the church and it also shaped the reputation of the church. In verse 13 it says, "None of the rest dare join them, but the people held them in high esteem. The church gained for themselves a reputation of truth and holiness." And this wasn't a passive experience for them as a church.

As a church, they dealt with this sin among them. It's easy to read this story and think that this was just something that God did and they all just kind of passively witnessed this happening. That's not true. They as a church and their church leaders chose to deal with this sin and be God-cited in the way that they handled this. They all had a choice. The leaders of their church had a choice. They could have dealt with this differently, quietly. They could have been worried about what kind of reputation their church would get for enacting this kind of church discipline, but they didn't.

And it did affect their reputation, but it did so in the best way possible. People knew that these people and their God was serious about truth and holiness. And this is the best part of this very tragic and very humbling and very intense story. Verse 14, "And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, more, more than ever." And you have to put those two verses side by side when you read that. Listen to what it says again. Verse 13, "None of the rest dared join them." And the rest being the people who saw them gathering as a church at Solomon's Portico.

The people saw them and they didn't even dare act like they were even going to pretend to be a part of what this is. They had such a respect for them. They knew these people were serious in their worship. They were serious about their God. It says that none of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. In verse 14, "And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women." So you've got these two verses side by side that are just wonderful and parallel together because on one hand, you have people kind of stepping back and having a new perspective of this church and of their God.

And on the other hand, it says that God more than ever was bringing people into the church and the church was seeing people saved. So there was a renewed sense of God's presence and His holiness. And God was doing an even greater work than He had ever done before in their church. Our goal today was to determine a spiritual cause of death. And the title of our servant of today is "An Offering of Lies to the God of Truth." They chose to lie to God and test the Spirit and that was the cause of death. So as we wrap things up, I want us to consider some things. Some people see needs in the church as opportunities to exploit the church.

This is one of the things that I walked away with when I read through this again. Ed and Ios and Sophia, they saw this need in the church. We know what that need was. It was a need to serve these thousands of people who'd suddenly come into the church. But for whatever reason, they perceived that need as a weakness to be exploited in this church. They saw an opportunity to buy for themselves a place in the church, a place of honor, maybe a platform of leadership that they could lead and do things they wanted to do in the church. They saw it as a weakness to be exploited. And you've probably seen that happen.

Maybe a name just popped in your head of somebody you know in your church history and church story. Somebody who tried to exploit a need in the church for their own gain. But the church, like we said before, the church is not without provision. It's not without a defender. It's God's church. He will provide and protect. I love the hymn that we sing here, "The Church is One Foundation." One of the last verses in the song, "The church shall never perish. Her dear Lord to defend, to guide, sustain, and cherish is with her to the end.

Though there be those that hate her and false sons in her pale against the foe or traitor, she ever shall prevail." God's church is defended. It's provided for. It's protected. Secondly, I want to leave us with a thought that God knows our secret sin. I don't know what your sin is, but God does. And there are two questions that kind of raised the surface after studying this. If you have secret sin in your life, how long were you persist? And how many opportunities to repent will you let pass you by before it's too late? Sin cannot be compartmentalized.

I think maybe for Ananias and Sapphira, for Achan, for Cain, somehow they managed to compartmentalize their actions, their sin, and convince themselves that either God didn't see or God didn't care. And they just put this sin in a box and they try to keep it there. But we know the scripture says that sin always grows, right? Sin always spreads. Sin will never stay in the box that you put it in. The toll of secret sin will grow and grow until one day in judgment, the full amount will be brought before you. And I had this very vivid image of Achan.

It says in the story that after they found out it was Achan who sinned, he was killed, and his family was killed, all his belongings were burned. And they took all that and they took the things that he stole and they put it in a great pile and they put a big pile of rocks over it. That was the toll of Achan's sin, this giant pile of rocks. That was the toll of his sin. And then you have to ask, what did he get out of it? It says in the text, it would be funny if it weren't so tragic, a beautiful coat. That's what it says, a beautiful coat of somewhere, Shinar. Is that right, Keith?

A beautiful coat and it says some bars of gold and silver and that's what it costs him in the end. Lying to the Spirit of God cuts you off from the one source of truth in your life. And in Ios and Sapphira, for whatever reason, chose to present this lie into God as an offering. And you have to think this cuts them off from their relationship with the Holy Spirit, right? So they're not willing to be honest with the Lord. They're presenting this lie to God like he doesn't see and he doesn't care. And they're cutting themselves off from their relationship with the Spirit of truth, the one source of truth in their life.

And you have to ask yourself, if you put yourself in that position, what hope is there left after that? If you won't be honest with the Holy Spirit of God, then what source of truth is left for you in life? If you are without Christ today, the best place for you is between a rock and a hard place. And by that I mean the Word of God and the Spirit of God. I remember as an unconverted person being caught between a rock and a hard place of reading Scripture and being convicted and being convicted by the Spirit of God. And that was God's way of drawing me to Christ. Don't run from those things.

Be caught between them, the Spirit of God and the Word of God. And this is kind of our final point. I think maybe one of the most important. A question we did not tackle today was, were Ananias and Sapphira really saved? This is a question that if you get a group of men together and let them talk about, you're going to get about a lot of opinions. You're going to get people who think that, yeah, they were saved. They are people, they love God. They are part of the church. And you have people who say, no, by their actions they prove that they weren't believers. I don't think it matters. I don't think it matters.

I don't know and I don't think it matters. If you pulled greater minds on this, you'd get a variety of opinions. But God knows, and God knows whether you and I are truly converted as well. Whatever God calls you to repent of, repent of it. Whether that's a specific sin or the spiritual fraud of pretending to be something you're not, which is converted. And this isn't a statement, but much as just a personal note, I'm so thankful this church takes membership and all the responsibilities that entails seriously. And I hope we have this kind of reputation in our community like they did here.

I hope people know that we're serious about truth and about holiness. And if they need to be saved, they know they can come here to hear a gospel, a gospel that saves. Let's pray.