 Beginning at verse 1, Acts chapter 5, beginning at verse 1, a certain man named Ananias with Safari's wife sold a possession and kept back part of the proceeds. His wife also being aware of it and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to light to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Oh, why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God. Ananias hearing these words fell down and breathed his last. So great fear came upon all those who heard these things. And the young man arose and wrapped him up, carried him out, and buried him. Now, it was about three hours later when his wife came in not knowing what had happened. And Peter answered her, tell me whether you sold the land for so much. And she said, yes, for so much. Then Peter said to her, how is it that you have agreed together to test the spirit of the Lord? Look, 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. The young man came in and found her dead, carrying her out, buried her by her husband. So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things. From the birth of the church, there was a spirit of generosity. There was a concern, a generous concern for the members of the body of Christ. That was the norm. We already saw it in chapter two, verses 44 and 45, how that it said, all who believed were together and had all things in common and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone had need. We saw that in Acts chapter four, verse 32, where it said the multitude of those who believed were one heart and one soul, neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. And it said in verse 34, nor was there anyone among them who lacked for all who were possessors of lands or houses, sold them and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, laid them at the apostles' feet. They distributed to each as anyone had need. When we were in Cuba, they have rations, they have food rations. And so when we came to do ministry there, they had a small room set aside for those who were teaching and ministering and serving there. And so when we were there, we were told that the reason we even had food, because there's no food that's, again, there's not an abundance and a surplus of food. There's not. And so what they do is they get rations. They have rations or portions that are theirs. And the members of the churches were donating their own food so that we could eat. These are people who don't have anything, who were donating their food so that those who came to teach them the word of God could have something to eat. That is what the church always has done. It's been made up of people who value Christ, value salvation, value their brothers, value their sisters, and they have a generous spirit to those who are in need. And that's what you see. So you see today, listen, and this, I'm not bashing the church because, you know, coming back, I say, oh, he comes back from Cuba, and now all of a sudden he's mad. I'm not mad, but I am aware, I am aware of how the American church is an embarrassment to the kingdom of God in many ways. And people will leave churches because somebody sat in the space that they're used to sitting in. That's a fact. People will leave churches because they don't like the music. And there's so many other churches, I can choose where I want to go. And so we bounce from place to place, and it's all he's about us because this generation today is spoiled rotten and it's all about me. It has to be, right? And if I'm not happy, I'll go someplace that will make me happy. And so it's a good thing. It's a good wake up call for me because sometimes I begin to think, you know, well, gotta be aware of our generation. You know, the fact is, is our generation, this generation, the generation I pastor, myself included, we are selfish to the maximum. We just don't know it. We just don't realize it, you know? I wanted more, you know, it's Christmas. Why didn't I get more, you know? Nobody, I need it more. You know, that's what we are. Oh, I gotta have a 10 foot tree. If I have an eight foot, it's just not Christmas. I am telling you, you know what I'm saying, but it's true. It's true. You know, I can't give to you because I need it for me. No, that's different. That's not Christianity. That's just carnality. That's just selfishness. That's not Christianity. It's nothing close to it. But that is what we were supposed to be saved out of. But we actually live that way because we think it's the right thing because after all, we gotta look out for ourselves, don't we? Well, I was very humbled to know that the modest food that they were given to us, the modest food that they were given to us was food they took out of their own mouth so that we could eat, so we could give them something that they need, which was spiritual food. They need it. They understand it. They want it. They wanna grow into things of God. They wanna know the Lord Jesus Christ. And so yes, I was very touched by that very much so. You see, God commands His people to be actively concerned for those in need. That's because God Himself is concerned for those with need. In Deuteronomy 15, verse 11, it says there will always be poor people in the land. Therefore, I command you to be open-handed toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land. Poverty, in other words, will always be part of society. And believers are to be concerned for those who are in poverty. James 1, 27, pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and keep oneself unspotted from the world. Jesus made it clear that caring for those in need was actually something that revealed genuine faith because in Matthew 25, 35, He said, I was hungry, you gave me food. I was thirsty, you gave me drink. I was a stranger, you took me in. I was naked, you clothed me. I was sick, you visited me. I was in prison, you came to me. Then the righteous will answer Him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you? We're thirsty, give you drink. When did we see you a stranger? Take you in our naked and clothed you. When did we see you sick or in prison and come to you and the King will answer and say to them assuredly, I say to you, in as much as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me. You see, the people in the church were excited about what was taking place. God was moving. And so they began to take care of that new thing, that new community, and they were excited. And so that provokes a couple by the name of Ananias and Sapphira to action. And they begin to join in. Notice that just before this, we noted that there was a guy in chapter four by the name of Barnabas. And Barnabas had land and he sold it, he brought the money, he laid it at the apostles' feet. And he actually eventually had found a position amongst the body of Christ. So they're thinking, I would like that kind of position. I would like to be recognized like men like Barnabas and all. He had sold the possession, he gained praise, he gained authority because of it. So the couple seems to have wanted to receive the same kind of position as he did, but they thought they could get it more cheaply. Interestingly enough, when you look at Ananias, it seems that he had gained what would be called the partial victory over his greed because he actually sold some property and he gave a portion to the apostles' care. But his hunger for riches overruled any impulse to give in faith. Now, they were more than likely only professing believers, not truly converted. Why would I say that? Well, the ones who were genuine, according to chapter four, verse 32, were of one heart and one soul. They, Ananias and Sapphira, were not of this sort, but they were trying to appear that they were. You know, when I got saved, it was a time in history that is now recorded as the Jesus movement. In the Jesus movement, there were people who wanted to associate themselves with the movement and be thought of as part of it because it was a radical revolution and many people wanted to be associated with that. It was in the newspaper, it was in magazines, it was covered on televised news. You know, it was a huge movement when the Jesus movement began, the generation that I come from and when I got saved, it was a huge movement. And people like John Lennon, some of you have heard his name before, John Lennon, John Lennon was walking around for a few days saying, praise the Lord, praise Jesus. Even John Lennon who wrote Imagine was somebody who was caught up with a little bit of what was going on. There were guys like Eric Clapton and so many others who were well-known rockers during my time that were actually starting to associate themselves with Christian faith. It was a very popular thing. There were songs that were being written, things that were being done, and all kinds of things like that. So there were those who wanted to associate with it. They wanted to be known as Jesus Freaks when in fact they were just outwardly showing an association. There was no conversion that took place. The guy who took me to the Hollywood Palladium, the day I got saved, my friend Bill, was a sham Christian at that time. He wasn't walking with the Lord, he was acting like he was and it took him years until he finally committed himself in a genuine way to Christ. But back then, he's the one who told me you need to get a Bible. He's the one who took me to Bible, said he was associated with it and this we have Ananias and Sapphira. They see things that are happening. They want to be associated with this. Barnabas sold a parcel of land and he gave the money to the apostles and he gained prestige and honor amongst the congregation. Ananias and Sapphira are seeing that people are selling parcels of property and different possessions, bringing the money to the apostles to distribute to the poor and they're thinking I would like to have that kind of attention too but I don't want to give as much as they are, I'll give some and that's what we're seeing take place. They sold the possession. They gave a gift to the Lord. Somebody would ask, well, why is that wrong? What is wrong with keeping some of the prophets for yourself? Even giving a small portion should be recognized as generous, right? It should be recognized as good. Well, it would seem that Ananias and Sapphira actually wanted to profit two times. One, they wanted the spiritual prestige of being thought generous and two, on a personal level, they wanted to profit financially. Now God's word warns against this kind of action. They're actually sinning against revelation, sinning against the light because Proverbs 21 verse six says, a fortune made by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor and a deadly snare. And that's what they were trying to do and Jesus in Luke 12 15 said, take heed and beware of covenantsness. Once life does not consist in the abundance of the things a person possesses. So scripture is filled with warning against greed and lying and things of that nature. And so the sin was not in making money on the sale of profit because selling for profit in and of itself isn't sinful even though today we have people who claim that it is. Selling for profit is not sin. If it isn't gouging the price to hurt the buyer in Proverbs 28 verse eight, he who increases his wealth by exorbitant interest amasses it for another who will be kind to the poor. Well, their sin was in line and public pretension, the pretension of giving everything to the Lord. And that's where their sin is. And so they brought according to verse two, a certain part laid it at the apostles feet, verse three, and Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? Well, it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God. And that's pretty interesting because at this point we see two spiritual gifts in operation. The apostle Peter is exercising discernment of spirits as well as a word of knowledge. When you look at the gift of the discernment of spirits or discerning of spirits in a very basic way, that speaks of reading hearts, if you will, determining whether something is true or not. You have that sense that this is not true. You're discerning the spirit behind what's taking place. And the second word of knowledge is a knowledge that is different than the natural way that we have in obtaining knowledge, which is usually through somebody informing us or a studying or something like that. It's a supernatural knowledge, a knowledge that you would not have any ability to have. It's a knowledge that God gives you at that moment. I was at home, invited a young woman this many years ago now, Marie and I invited a young woman from the church over for dinner. And I wanted to get to know her and to minister to her. And it wasn't this church, it was when I was an assistant pastor in another Calvary. So we invited her over, you know, and she's at my dinner table and I'm speaking to her. And as I'm speaking to her, I get this strong impression, the sense of something. And so she leaves and I turned to Marie and I said, the Lord revealed something to my heart tonight. I'm very uncomfortable with it. I'm gonna have to act on it. So I call her up the next day. I had her phone number, I called her and I said, can you come into the office for a little while? I need to talk to you. She says, okay, she comes and sits across from me and I said, this is very uncomfortable, but I have to ask it. When you were at my house last night and I was speaking to you, the spirit of God spoke to my heart and said to me, you're a lesbian. Now I wanna know, was he speaking to me or was I just imagining something? And she sits there and she looks at me. She says, well, if God says something, who am I to argue with him? I said, that's not an answer. I said, I'm asking you, are you a lesbian? And are you practicing lesbianism? I'm asking you, why would I ask her that? Would you sit there eating chicken saying lesbian? No, why, why would I ask her that? It was the spirit of God is called a word of knowledge. I had no way of obtaining that. I simply received it. God spoke, I believed that he was. I asked because I could be wrong. In this case, you've got the apostle Peter and there's a discernment. He knows this is the spirit. This is not the spirit of the Lord here and what they're doing. And then to, you know, he makes it very clear through the use of another gift, the word of knowledge to ask that question. And thus he gets the answer. He knows exactly what's going on. And so he goes on and notice he says in verse three, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? Now imagine Ananias' reaction. This is not a word of praise for what he's done. This is a direct confrontation. And so Peter is asking a question that is very pointed and notice he says, why has Satan filled your heart? So the impulse to lie in this situation is spiritual in nature and the impulse was actually provoked from Satan. And Ananias was open. Ananias was open and Satan encouraged him to do that which was natural and what he desired to do. Remember that Satan is a liar. Jesus in John 844 said that he's a liar and the father of lies. And so he was the one who encouraged this. He's the one who provoked the lie. And secondly, he says to him in verse four, why have you conceived this thing in your heart? So Satan had filled his heart with the impulse, but the responsibility for yielding was his own. His sin originated within himself. Satan did not force him to sin. Ananias did not have to sell the property nor did he have to give anything as a gift. He chose to. Then he chose to misrepresent himself before the people and because of this he's judged. Now I wanna show you a couple of other things here before we move on. I want you to see again in verse three, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? And then in verse four, you have not lied to men, but to God. So I wanna show you something very, very briefly here, but it's very important. One, this is a person, the Holy Spirit. The person of the Spirit is being revealed to us. You don't lie to a force. You cannot lie to some form of energy. You can only lie to a person. And so this is the person of the Holy Spirit. And so the Holy Spirit in Scripture is revealed not as some force, but as the third person of the Trinity. As a person, the Scripture refers to him, the Spirit as having knowledge, for example. In 1 Corinthians two, 10 and 11, God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God, for who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's Spirit within him. In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. So the Spirit has knowledge. Secondly, the Holy Spirit exercises his will. In 1 Corinthians 12, 11, it says all these are the work of the one and same Spirit. He gives them to each one just as he wills. Acts 13, two, while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. And third, another element of personality is the Spirit displays emotion. In Ephesians four, verse 30, the Scripture says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Now, why did I bring those three very basic things up because there are people who will knock on your door and will tell you the Holy Spirit is power or an energy, but the Bible doesn't teach that the Holy Spirit is a non-person. The Bible teaches that he is a person. He has emotion. He has will and these are the things that reveal that to us. Now, a second thing I wanna point out is the deity of the Holy Spirit is being revealed here. He said, you did not lie to man. You lied to God. So when he said in verse three, you lied to the Holy Spirit. He tells us who the Holy Spirit is in verse four when he says to God. And so that shows to us the deity of the Holy Spirit. Now, when this is taking place, verse five, Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last. Great fear came upon all those who heard these things. Young man arose and wrapped him up, carried him out and buried him. It was about three hours later when his wife came in not knowing what had happened and Peter answered her, tell me whether you sold the land for so much. She said, yes for so much. Peter said to her, how is it that you've agreed together to test the spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door. They'll carry you out. Immediately she fell down at his feet, breathed her last. The young man came in and found her dead and carrying her out, buried her by her husband. And what's the result? Great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things. Yeah, God's judgment was immediate. The sin was dealt with immediately. You see, a relationship with God, especially in this newborn entity called the church is extremely important. God is really emphasizing the need for the church to be sincere, without hypocrisy, to be real and to be true worshipers. Ananias and Sapphira, someone said, had evidently known the glory of Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit and had had most abundant means of salvation afforded to them. They had seen what God was doing and yet they lied to God and you cannot lie to the spirit of the Lord. You cannot lie to God. God is not, you can't do that. It just amazes me that people think they can. They think they can hide from him their sins. They think they can hide things and keep things in secret, but the scripture says that God reveals even our secret sins. God reads our hearts. He knows all things and they're trying to hide this from the Lord and so God immediately dealt with them. You know, judgment begins in the house of God. In 1 Peter 4, 17, it says the time has come, the judgment must begin at the house of God and if it first begin at us, what shall the envy of them that obey not the gospel of God? And so God immediately dealt with this because sin was going to infect the body of Christ. What's the result? Verse five, great fear came upon all those who heard these things. The young man, verse six came in, took him, buried him. They would bury immediately, especially those who came under God's judgment and then three hours later, the wife comes in. She didn't know what had happened. So notice with me that Peter gives her an opportunity to confess and repent, but she continues to lie. Now the more than likely it was simply covering up for her husband, there are those who would say, well, you know, she shouldn't have been judged. She was simply loving her husband, but Sapphira was aware that her husband had done this and she had agreed with him. She was an innocent. Though he lied, she consented to it and thus was also guilty. She is guilty of what we would today refer to as being an accessory. This reveals something to us though and I'll say it just briefly, but it's much deeper than what I'm gonna say right now. This reveals to me something very important. It reveals to me my influence on my wife, my influence on my wife, because Ananias had influenced his wife for evil and I as a husband, I influence my wife. I have responsibility as a man and I have a tremendous influence obviously every husband does in my wife's life. I can influence my wife for good or I can influence her for bad. My responsibility is to do the best that I can in the Lord to influence her for good, why? Well, one, that is my responsibility as a priest of the home and two, I want my wife's life to be blessed and so my wife trusts me, follows my lead and where I go, she's gonna go too. It reminds me of like in the book of Ruth where we read the words, your God shall be my God, you know, your people will be my people. When Marie and I were dating and she was just saved and she began to believe that she loved me, it dawned on me the influence that God had given to me to this young girl and I still remember at a very early age, she was a young woman and I was a young man and I said, do you know something that hit me, Marie? Tell me if I'm wrong. I said, I believe that your love for me is so great that whatever I chose to be, you would follow behind me. I said, if I became something of a different faith, if I was somebody of a different faith than I am, I believe that you would have chosen the God that I was serving, am I wrong? And she looks at me and she says, no, you're right. She said, and in a sense she was saying, your God shall be my God. And that's how it's been in our marriage from when we began dating, became engaged and have been married these many years now. My God became her God. And so the way I live for my God influences my wife and Ananias influenced his wife to her own death. Keep that in mind, to her own death. And she agreed, not knowing her husband was dead and covering him, she agreed. Oh yeah, it was for such a price. No, you agreed together to lie to the Holy Spirit and I want you to listen. The feet of those who just took your husband and buried him, they're coming for you. And immediately she died and they carried them out. And the young men came in and they must have thought, oh no, not another one. So what's the result? Great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things. The judgment brought purging of sin amongst the people and produced a holy fear. This was not a church that was easy to join. It was in a place that was entertaining people. This was a place that people were serious about God. This was a place where the people saw the power of God and were very serious about their walks with him. And you know, by and large in our fellowship, and I say this honestly, by and large, there are quite a number of people with us in our fellowship that are very serious about their walks with God. And I bless the Lord for that. Listen, when we went to Cuba, I didn't bring a team. I had been invited to go so I was going. Marie was going to minister to the Cuban wives and all. We were invited to go, we went to minister. But some of the members of our church were aware of what was going on and they had been spoken to and on their own, on their own. They saved their own money. They got on a plane and they flew there. They did ministry from sun up literally to sun down every day, every day. And the people talked to us later on and were saying what a great group of people you've asked her. And me, like a dad who has a child that loves and wants to boast about, that's how I felt. And I haven't seen them yet together, but I will tell them, you know, some are here right now, I will tell you, I love you. I was so proud of you. Excuse me, here we go. I should stop. I just was so proud of what God was doing in you and I'm so grateful that you're part of this church. I really am. Thank you. And I really love you because there needs to be a sober minded love for God. God helped the church to break the addiction to entertainment, God help us to start getting more sober minded for the things of the Lord in these last days especially. God help us to be awake and aware. The times are short.