Acts 4

Acts 4:31

THE ’ Acts 4:1-31. IN a previous chapter, we referred to the action and excitement characterizing the Book of Acts as one of the ground reasons for great interest in the same. Certainly it is kaleidoscopic in movement; at times inspiring and at others tragic in record.In the third chapter we had the history of a marvelous miracle, the excitement incident to the same, and a sermon growing out of it. The report is a peaceful one, suited to give pleasure to the student. But no sooner do we enter the fourth chapter, than scenes shift and bitter opposition arises. This opposition should not be a matter of amazement; to the believer not even a matter of surprise. The work of the Spirit is always a signal for the activity of Satan.

Wherever the former appears to bless, the Adversary comes to curse; and whenever progress is being recorded, the Adversary presents himself to resist the same. For illustration, study the chapter before us. “And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the Temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them,“Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead.“And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the next day: for it was now eventide.“Howbeit many of them which heard the Word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand” (Acts 4:1-4).THE WAS BY Learn from this three lessons: Officialdom assumes power in the professing church; doctrinal teaching is often the point of official grievance, and progress of truth is seldom arrested by persecuting apostles. Officialdom assumes power in the professing church. Mark the office of the Spirit’s opponents. Peter and John were speaking unto the people, but the resentment comes from “the priests”, “the captain of the Temple” and “the Sadducees”—ecclesiastical officers. The priests of the Old Testament system are well known. They held office by inheritance and their tendency was that of priesthood ever, namely, to exercise authority above that Divinely bestowed. “The captain of the Temple” was a Jewish officer—probably the head of the Levites who acted as Temple policeman. Such an officer was known to both the Maccabees and the history of Josephus. The Sadducees were the ruling faction and the real rebels against revealed religion, with a tendency to rationalism. They were not alone the social, but the ecclesiastical aristocrats of the hour—the same sort of men that now work into denominational positions, and through the backing of an organization exercise any and all authority that will be permitted. These were the men that were grieved by the preaching of Peter and John and were particularly opposed to the doctrine of “the resurrection from the dead”—a doctrine that involved the supernatural, declared the miraculous, and even suggested the dispensational. There is little of ecclesiastical history that does not show officialdom in bad light.

The degradation of Israel was more often wrought by degenerating officials and their opposition to true doctrines, than by most all other causes combined. The same remark may be made of Christian church history. The fight for “the faith” today is as absolutely against officialdom in the Protestant bodies as it is against infidelity. The two are indissolubly linked. It is not Methodism that has turned from the “faith once delivered”; it is the bishopric. It is not the laity in the Episcopal body; it is the clergy. It is not the great Baptist denomination; it is the self-appointed rulers. We use the term “self-appointed” advisedly, for in spite of the pretense of Congregational church government, it no longer exists in Congregational church bodies.

By organization they have effected a scheme whereby the salaried servants have become lords, and are able to cast a deciding vote on every subject including even their own reelection to office. There are more individual churches also that are being wrecked by officialdom than are being retarded by any other form of sin. Almost any heady official can disrupt and even destroy a small church, and he can greatly retard and annoy a large one. It will be remembered that in the Old Testament Israel, officials were comparatively few, and the New Testament organization is extremely simple. It is only by specious pleas and arguments built on fallacies that the official-loving have hoodwinked the church into over-organization and into human authority that has no kinship to the spiritual, and is even in opposition to the authority of the Spirit. Doctrinal teaching is most often the point of official grievance. Here it was “preaching through Jesus the resurrection from the dead”. In other words, it was in opposition to the miraculous element in Christianity. At the end of twenty centuries that same opposition lives and is largely located with the same class. It is neither the plain layman nor the humble preacher of the present hour, who in advocacy of evolution, denies the doctrine of revelation. In reading the New Testament, one might imagine that the Pharisees were the chief opponents of the Christ. Not so! They were the conservatives, given to ceremonies and forms, and they were orthodox in theology; and it was against their ceremonies and forms that Christ hurled His anathemas. They had made externalities of worship to crowd out the more essential and spiritual character of religion itself, and the Lord sought assiduously to correct and save them. But the people who truly opposed His teaching were the Sadducees, the materialists or modernists, so to speak, of the first century. You will remember that this fact is also found illustrated in Scripture. When we come to the study of the fifth chapter of this Book, it will be Gamaliel, the Pharisee, who will plead the cause of the imprisoned Apostles, and when we get over to the twenty-third chapter of this volume, again it will be the Pharisees who will stand with the imprisoned Paul against the Sadducees—his bitter, doctrinal opponents; and from that time until now, the Sadducees have had their successors in office. It is not many years ago when the greatest Gospel preacher in England, the Paul of the nineteenth century, Charles Spurgeon, was divorced from the Baptist Union Council. On January 18th, 1888, it took this action: “The Council recognizes the gravity of the charges which Mr. Spurgeon made against it previous to and since his withdrawal. They consider that the public and general manner in which they have been made reflects on the whole body and exposes to suspicion brethren who love the truth as dearly as he does, and as Mr. Spurgeon declines to give names to those he intended them to imply, those charges, in the judgment of the Council, ought not have been made.” And yet that Council knew as well as Spurgeon knew that its leaders opposed the most fundamental truths of God’s Word, and that the whole debate and eventual division in the Council itself was due to the circumstances that like the Sadducees of the first century, those Baptist office-holders in England in the nineteenth century had rejected the essential supernaturalism of Christianity, and thereby incited the opposition of its apostolic defender, Chas. Spurgeon. What such men are doing for religion in America is fully evidenced in the most convincing book of the twentieth century, “The Leaven of the Sadducees”, by Ernest Gordon. But the progress of truth is seldom arrested by persecuting its apostles.“And, they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the next day: for it was now eventide.“Howbeit may of them which heard the Word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand” (Acts 4:3-4).The fourth verse of this chapter is the proper aftermath of the third. Whenever did martyrdom fail to be the aid of the church, and whenever did the truth, faithfully preached, fail to bring forth fruit? There is an impression with many preachers that the problem of their lives is to get by easily, to escape discussion, to avert difficulty, and above all, to avoid an open break. Apparently these apostles at least did not so reason. To them the preaching of the truth was important above the prejudice of even ecclesiastical officials, and the essential doctrines of Scripture were more to be desired than a surface harmony, and the basal doctrine of all was to be retained even though it effected an open break with honored unbelievers. The Church of God is a family. New-born souls are the children of the Heavenly Father. Brothers and sisters should abide together in love. Domestic peace is a prime essential of either a true or a happy life. But no family is approaching an ideal life by merely keeping the peace. There are great underlying principles that must be regarded or else the outward sign of peace is a poor camouflage, and even in the family of God, truth is more important than mutual affection and the Gospel more essential than an undisturbed surface.

When necessary, Paul withstood Peter and others to the face, and in writing his Epistles, he appealed again and again for the retention of the essential truths as the only safeguard of the future and the only basis of success for the Church of God. It is possible then to live in a battle and build at the same time. Nehemiah proved that proposition to the people of his day, and the great fundamental leaders of America, and for that matter, of the world, are proving it in our day. Charles Spurgeon battled for the truth and built better than any living Englishman; Reuben Saillens is fighting for the truth and is building better than any living Frenchman, and the most outstanding fundamentalists of America among preachers are battling for the truth and yet they are building altogether the biggest and most influential churches to be found on this new continent. They are being opposed in certain instances; they are being outrageously persecuted. That will neither turn them from the truth nor arrest their endeavors. The probability is that it will be again what such experience has ever been to God’s men—the ground and occasion of blessing. The work already great in their hands will grow yet greater, and the number of them who shall believe will be many times 5000. But we pass from the persecution that was promised to the REPLY BY THE SPIRITInfidelity inquires after the source of apparent power.“And it came to pass on the morrow; that their rulers, and elders, and scribes; “And Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem. “And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or by what name; have ye done this” (Acts 4:5-7)? Perhaps we should be corrected when we speak of these high officials as infidels. High churchmen are extremely sensitive to descriptive terms. Their office demands honor, at least in their judgment; and they resent any insinuation against their theological opinions. The average ecclesiastical potentate believes that he has attained to his position because his opinions were correct; and if that be not true, the fact that he has attained is proof that all men in lesser office or in no station at all should answer to him. This is quite an assembly before whom Peter and John are now compelled to stand—considerable in number, august in mien, honored in office! What will these plain fishermen, without a title to their names, without a single honorary degree from any school, without even a secondary education, dare to say, when they are called to account by a committee of such consequence? Will not their questions paralyze them? Will they not be so put as to produce confusion? Mark the method: “‘By what power’, ye men of no standing, ye unscholarly, too? In what ‘honorable name’, ‘ye social outcasts’, have ye done this?” Infidelity is always insolent! There are men in America today, heads of so-called science societies, whose education is meagre; whose intellectual attainments are of low degree; who in genuine scientific research have done nothing, and yet, because they are rationalists, as they call themselves, or infidels, as others know them to be, they assume to look with disdain upon the great scholarly, successful fellows who yet believe God and dare to preach His Word. Infidelity is an interrogation point, and you know an interrogation point is not only an individual erect, but one bent back and then bent forward again—an expression of pride in the back-bending and disdain in the stoop and snarl that makes up that important punctuation. Faith gives its answer by the help of the Holy Ghost. “Then Peter”. How absurd! “Then Peter” How ridiculous! “Then Peter”. How unthinkable! An ignorant and unlearned fisherman, attempting to meet rulers and elders and scribes and high priests and royal families! But that is not the end of the sentence. It is only the beginning. “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them”.That is different!

The Holy Ghost is adequate. He can meet even “the high priest”, for if the high priest has anything whatever, it is as a servant of the Holy Ghost. He can meet “John” and “Alexander” and all “the priestly family”, for they are all either subservient to His will or futile fighters against the same. He can face “rulers” and “elders” and “scribes” and put them all to flight, or by a sentence cover them with shame. “Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost”, is no longer a plain fisherman, but a God-appointed and a God-empowered Apostle. His wisdom is no longer the superficial and ephemeral wisdom of the schools in which he did not study. It is the wisdom that comes down from above; that exceeds the wisdom of ancients, out-classes the intelligence of professional teachers, yea, even, that sets the school text-book aside. Follow him and find if it be not so! “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel.“If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole;“Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him doth this man stand here before you whole.“This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the Head of the corner.“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:8-12).Who will answer that? Listen! What a silence reigns! There is not a sound coming from “ruler”, “elder”, “scribe”, “high priest” or honored relative. In the midst of the silence, note another thing. The voice of the Spirit is always the honor of the Son. It is “the Name of Jesus” that goes into the ascendant here, and this “Jesus” is more than the Son of Mary and Joseph. He is “Jesus Christ of Nazareth”, the virgin’s babe, Spirit begotten. He is “the crucified One whom God raised from the dead”. He is “the Stone which the Jewish builders had set at nought and now is become the Head of the corner”, and “there is salvation in no other”, for “there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved”. Truly, Christ’s prophecy concerning the Spirit, then, is being fulfilled, for when Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, spake, “the things of Christ” were taken “and shown” unto them, even as Jesus of Nazareth had said it would be. You may be absolutely certain that in any pulpit where Christ is not exalted, the Holy Spirit is not present and in possession of the tongue of that preacher. You may be absolutely certain that any church that does not honor His Name above any name and recognize in Him “God manifest in the flesh”, is a Spiritless church, for wherever the Holy Ghost is, there the Son of God is honored as the world’s one and adequate and only Saviour. For such is the Gospel! We will conclude our study of this chapter by a consideration of the REPORT BY THE It had a silencing effect upon the enemy; upon their friends it had the effect of inspiration, and upon the Church it brought another blessing—the infilling of the Spirit. Upon the enemy it had a silencing effect.“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.“And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.“But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves.“Saying, What shall we do to these men? for that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem; and we cannot deny it.“But that it spread no further among the people, let us straitly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this Name.“And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the Name of Jesus.“But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.“For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.“So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them, because of the people; for all men glorified God for that “ which was done.“For the man was above forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was shewed” (Acts 4:13-22).The tables were suddenly turned. In the opening of this chapter, the Sanhedrin shuts up and “puts into hold” the two Apostles. Now the Sanhedrin itself is shut up and practically put into hold. The text reads, “They marvelled”. That’s better than talking so much. There is many a Sanhedrin starting in at the present to shut up the young preachers who are preaching Christ and the resurrection. We advise all such young preachers to follow Peter’s course if they would come off conquerors; stay by what the Scriptures have to say, as Peter did, and Sanhedrin silencing is pretty certain. A graduate of my own blessed Bible School writes me of a recent graduate from the same, “Brother E. was ordained October 25th in the presence of a capacity crowd. The examination proved again the thoroughness of the training received at Northwestern, and the entire service was a credit to the School. Several seminary graduates said to me that they had never heard a candidate for ordination give as satisfactory and pointed answers to the questions put to him as did Brother E. He answered almost every question in the exact language of the Word.” It has been interesting, to say the least, to watch the creation of ordaining councils. Many of these committees were themselves ordained for the very purpose of confusing candidates for the ministry and keeping believing men out of the same, and many of those councils come together confidently expecting to catch the candidate in his words, and later to refuse him the ecclesiastical approval of preaching. When their questions are answered in the language of Scripture, it puts them to silence.

If they speak at all, it is only to threaten and let go, “finding nothing how they might punish them”. For people who believe in God are not disposed to stand by and see a Gospel preacher pillaried for entertaining the same faith, and particularly when that preacher is a man of maturity, as was the healed man here. There were grave heads that doubted the wisdom of having the unschooled Spurgeon ordained, and Mr. Moody of America got by with his ministry by never asking for the same from any council, and Campbell Morgan of England was declined it by the body in which he was brought up. But how futile the endeavor of the Sanhedrins against the Spirit appointed, the Spirit-instructed and the Spirit-empowered—the preacher of the Gospel of the Grace of God! The supreme silencer of officialdom and scholasticism is the voice of the Spirit. They may be very eloquent, yea, almost musical in the absence of that voice; but when the Spirit speaks, even though it be through the lips of mortal man, the orator must stand aside and the officer must himself take orders. Upon their friends it had the effect of inspiration.“And being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them.“And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, Thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is:‘Who by the mouth of Thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?“The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against His Christ.“For of a truth against Thy holy Child Jesus, whom Thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together.“For to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined before to be done.“And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto Thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak Thy Word,“By stretching forth Thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may he done by the Name of Thy holy Child Jesus” (Acts 4:23-30).What a record is this! The report was glorious; the effect was electric; the praises were eloquent and the glory was given to God. The prophetic Scriptures were brought to memory. They saw in this mouthy opposition “the rage of the heathen” and the vain “imagination of the people” and the impotent opposition of “the kings and rulers against the Lord and against His Christ”. They were happy in the circumstance that though Christ had come into the world a helpless Child, the combined powers of a Herod and a Pontius Pilate and unregenerate Gentile and a blinded Israel, all of them could do nothing, and in view of that fact they prayed, “Grant unto Thy servants that with all boldness they may speak the Word and inspire us further by stretching forth Thine hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be done by the Name of Thy holy Child Jesus”.It is always good to be with God’s people when the Gospel has had a glorious triumph. It is always true of the saints as it was in Samaria, the record of which we shall study a few chapters later, for when God wrought, “there was great joy in that city”. Courage, faithfulness, joy, rejoicing—these are results from faithful apostolic reports of God’s saving grace. Upon the Church it brought further blessing—the infilling of the Spirit.“And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the Word of God with boldness.“And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that aught of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.“And with great power gave the Apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.“Neither was there any among them that lacked; for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold,“And laid them down at the Apostles’ feet; and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.“And Joses, who by the Apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus.“Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the Apostles’ feet” (Acts 4:31-37).They had before seen places shaken. These two Apostles had been in the upper room, assembled with other believers, when the Holy Ghost came in baptism, and now, lo, He comes again in enduement for service and “they speak the Word of God with boldness”. It is often true that we ask of a certain man, “What is the secret of your ministry?” and no one seems to be able to give us an adequate answer. When Dwight L. Moody died, there were many men that essayed to tell the secret of his ministry, and most of them were wide of the mark. One of them thought “he was a born general another, that “he had amazing genius;” still another, that “it was his emotional nature,” and yet another, that “it was his affectionate spirit.” Most of them missed the principal thing—filled with the Holy Ghost.

Before such a man the multitude always melts. Under his ministry, they are made of one mind and are brought to be of one heart. By his example, they are shown the way of self-sacrifice and are led to sanctification. The power that rested in him proved itself contagious. Other apostles, touching him, catch it, and witness with him the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and the people who hear him cease from their miserliness, and, with open hand, turn church contributors and world helpers, great grace being upon them all. But this is enough for the present. Let the reader join with the writer in praising God for the Apostles, Peter and John, and in prayer that God will contribute to the Church of the present and to the Gospel for the twentieth century ministers after their sort.

Acts 4:32-37

DIVERSE POWERS IN THE CHURCH Acts 4:32 to Acts 5:16. WHEN we concluded our last discourse, the disciples were at prayer and “the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spake the Word of God with boldness”. These are conditions producing always such consequences as we find recorded (Acts 4:32-33).The remaining portion of this story illustrates some great truths, and truths that as surely need emphasis today as they could have needed it in the first century. Herein we find The Unifying Power of the Holy Spirit, The Destroying Power of Self-Deception, and The Evangelizing Power of Divine Healing. THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT“The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.“And with great power gave the Apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all” (Acts 4:32-33).What a marvelous presentation of the fact that an overshadowing and indwelling Holy Spirit produces unity in devotional spirit, unity in doctrinal expression, and unity in sacrificial distribution! Unity in the devotional spirit! They “were of one heart and soul”. In this day, when men are at variance one with another, liberalists are fond of reminding us that diversity characterizes the gifts of the Holy Ghost; and they often appeal to two chapters of Scripture in support of that theory— Romans 12, and 1 Corinthians 12. But a more careful study of these Scriptures will show that they do not present diversity of opinion as the expression of the indwelling Holy Ghost. In Romans, Paul is writing of the gifts of grace as they are administered by the Spirit, but he presents none that are antagonistic or even lacking in harmony with the rest. In I Corinthians he is writing of “spiritual gifts”, but he affirms their unification as the Spirit administers them. “All these, the one and selfsame Spirit worketh”.

Inharmony of sentiment within the professed body, the Church, is never the work of the Holy Spirit, but a sign of His absence from some hearts. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians concerning the tongues movement, he put certain of them under condemnation because of confusion. “How is it then brethren, when ye come together each with a song, with a teaching, with a tongue, with a revelation, with an interpretation?

Let all things be done unto edifying. If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be two, or at the most three, and that in turn and let one interpret” (1 Corinthians 14:26-27, R. V.)— a plain intimation of the fact that they were babbling, producing a confusion of noise and inharmony of sentiment. On the other hand, when he wrote to the Ephesians, he describes those filled with the Spirit as “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in their hearts to the Lord”. In the first instance there was inharmony, no Holy Ghost; in the second, the filling of the Spirit assured a perfect harmony of sentiment. One could quote a passage, another sing a hymn, but the order was perfect; the same sentiment dominated both.If the human body, dominated by a single mind, finds its various members in a cooperation as hearty as the organic union is perfect, so the Church of God, administered by the Spirit, will exercise diversities of gifts in unity of action being of one heart and soul.The Unity in doctrinal expression. “And with great power gave the Apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 4:33).

The very truth that is now the occasion of division in the professing church, was, under the Spirit’s administration, universally accepted; and testimonies concerning it knew no dissenter. More and more liberals tend to minimize doctrine and the New Theologian would have us believe that such a thing as unity of faith never existed with the Apostles, and is in no sense essential to twentieth century religion.

From the beginning it was not so. Dr. Edwin W. Rice reminds us that “three great creeds of the early days —The Apostles, the Nicene and the Athanasian Creed—stood for a Christian unity and teaching. And,” he continues, “some modern critics think they have found evidences of many types or forms of organization in the primitive church and have attempted to show that the early historical interpretation of the church by apostolic men was a mistaken one. In the view of these critics the New Testament in general and the Book of Acts, in particular, not only describe, but even sanction, by precept and example, divisions in the apostolic church, and the New Testament sets forth four or five distinct primitive types similar to the denominational divisions existing in Christendom.

This view boldly flies in the face of all the ecumenical creeds and councils and of all ecclesiastical history in the first three centuries of the Christian era, for the first rudimentary forms of the church belief that preceded the perfected Apostles Creed recognize, with more or less clearness, the unity of Christians and the unity of the church. The profoundest thinkers and the acutest critics believe that the New Testament emphasizes Christian unity and deprecates schism.” No less an authority than Prof.

Chas. W. Shiels of Princeton, said, “Christianity became a compact organization in the midst of pagan society, with its sacraments and its Scriptures, and it continued thus compact and undivided for some centuries afterward. In that one Catholic, apostolic church, we have an example and model of church unity, not only as consistent with Christian unity, but as expressing and maintaining it. Indeed, it is only in and through such church unity that Christian unity can find due and full expression. Without such unity it must remain as a vague ideal or crude sentiment, if it be not a mere pretext for schism and excuse for sectarianism.” This was even more true of doctrine than of organization. Only the superficial student has been able to find conflict of doctrinal teaching in the New Testament. Not an Apostle that ever doubted the Virgin Birth; that ever called into question the miracle working; that ever debated the resurrection of Jesus from the grave save Thomas, and he was soon cured; that ever taught else than the blood atonement, or entertained other expectation than the soon coming of Christ in power and glory to sit on David’s throne. Diversities in doctrine are marks of modernism, the results of intellectual skepticism; and if it is to find defense, it must be outside of the Book we call the Bible. The great commentators, Jamieson, Faucett and Brown, speak of “the Spirit having rested upon the entire community in such a way as melting down all selfishness and absorbing even the feeling of individuality in an intense and glowing realization of Christian unity”. Nor did they escape divergence of opinion by “soft-pedaling” their ideas and carefully working down each word lest it should strike with power. They were not engaged in the negative business of “a series of tentative suggestions”. In the language of Joseph Parker, “They hurled it across the heavens; they uttered it with thunder; they spake it with the accent of the soul.” They presented no apologies to anybody for their faith in the Deity of Jesus, nor did they try to make friends and fellow-laborers of those who denied His resurrection from the dead. God forbid that we, their successors in opportunity, should fail of their convictions and courage. If the Book be true, preach it without apology!

If it be false, fling it from you! The hour has struck—yea, the hour has always existed, when men should know the truth, for the truth alone can make men free. And truth is not a compromise! Truth is not a circle of debate! Truth is intolerant. It cannot compromise, and the truth is that “Jesus is risen”!

Tell it out! Dying men need it. The day demands it. But we have in this Scripture, also, the unity in sacrificial distribution.“Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold,“And laid them down at the Apostles? feet and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need” (Acts 4:34-35).Communism of goods? Yes! Socialism in practice? Never! There is not the slightest intimation in this text that any man was compelled to part with his personal possessions. There is not even an intimation that he was expected to do it.

It was a purely voluntary act—the first-fruits of being filled with the Spirit. Christianity is volitional! Repentance is impossible apart from the consent of one’s will. Regeneration never takes place without that consent. Apart from the same consent, the fruits of the Spirit are impossible. The man who unwillingly sold his possessions and gave them would not be accepted of God.

His animating motive of pride, a good name, a reputation for charity, would all be offensive to the Holy Ghost. It might deceive men, but not God. “Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh an the hear”.“…God abhors the sacrifice, Where not the heart is found.” “The Lord loveth a cheerful giver”, and we are told that the word in the original means “the hilarious” giver—the man who gives with joy; the woman who, with every sacrifice, has in her own soul a sweet content. If the Spirit of God administered in the Church of God, the entire membership would know the meaning of “unity in sacrificial service”. But, alas for the professing church, we have introduced immediately THE POWER OF SELF- “Joses, who by the Apostles was surname d Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus,“Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the Apostles’ feet” (Acts 4:36-37).“But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession,“And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the Apostles’ feet.“But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of the land?“Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God” (Acts 5:1-4).How full a suggestion! They succeeded in deceiving themselves; they attempted to deceive the Apostles; they provoked the Spirit to their own destruction. They succeeded in deceiving themselves. One can easily imagine the process of reasoning that took place between this man and his wife. “Barnabas has given his entire place. We are equally well off, perhaps better. If we sold ours and gave as much as he, we would have an equal reputation with him, would stand just as high in the affection of our fellow Christians, and we could do it and keep back a considerable part. It is our own affair. No one need be the wiser.

Our gift will be generous and if we lead Peter and the rest of the Apostles to think it is our all, our reputations will be secure.” What a profound pity that one cannot give without the devil getting in his suggestions of selfishness, pride, arrogance! Yea, one may not even pray without having Satan interjecting opposite thoughts! From the beginning of the church, this Ananias and Sapphira event has troubled many souls, but it involves no enigmas. God did not continue to exercise discipline in His church as He wrought it this day. It was fully essential that the one Spirit-filled church of the world should be retained long enough to become an ensample before it was permitted to be defiled; hence the judgment against this lie. But while God has changed His custom, yielding as He always does to mercy as against judgment, man has not changed his. The experience of Ananias has not sufficed to teach us the scarlet of his guilt. We go on after the Ananias manner.

More lies are told by men in the matter of their contributions to the church than almost any single subject of Christian conversation. More deceptions are wrought over the proportion of one’s income which he is putting on the altar, and more self-deception is practiced in this matter than in almost any other of church experience. Hundreds of people think and openly avow that they are tithing and more, who would not dare to keep books with the Lord. I had a dear friend in the South, who in his early life earned a most modest income, and his wife continually quarrelled with every contribution he made, affirming he was impoverishing his house by paying into the church. He finally gained her consent to the keeping of a strict account and laying aside one-tenth of every dollar as holy unto the Lord. The result was that he gave far more than had been his custom. His fortune grew, the favor and goodness of God begat repentance in his wife’s heart, and the last report I had from them they were contributing thousands of dollars per year and were the happiest couple in Texas. And this self-deception is not only practiced in the matter of giving of one’s means, but also of his time and his energy. As Joseph Parker writes, “No man has done all he can do,” and as he confesses, “I could have done ten times more; I could have prayed more; I could have preached more; I could have suffered more. And when a man stands up in my presence and says, ‘I have done all I could and God knows it,’ he makes me afraid. I was told of persons who were supposed to be worth 5 and 20,000 pounds, and at the communion of the Lord’s table, never contribute a coin, but put in the communion card alone. Is it possible? Thy money perish with thee!

Keep it! Keep it! Take it in the coffin with thee! Make a pillow of it! Make a footstool of it! Make a lining of it!

Thou whited sepulcher! Ananias lied without speaking. That is the worst form of falsehood. The blundering speaker of a lie may be converted, but the actor of a lie can only be killed.” They attempted to deceive the Apostles. “They brought a certain part and laid it at the Apostles’ feet”. They would be thought well of by the leaders. It would be an interesting thing, in great world movements and so-called Christian drives, to know how many men are animated solely by the desire to stand well with the leaders. I have known men to favor every single progressive movement put up by leaders; to talk for it and grow eloquent about it, and contribute nothing toward it. Ananias would have made a good member of a State Board; in fact, I have met him there many a time. Practically every Board is made up of two classes—Barnabas on the one side, who is an advocate of progression and is willing to make all reasonable sacrifices for the same, and Ananias, who is equally an advocate of progress but will forever keep his eye on the first chance.

Jacob is dead, but his sons are a multitude; and Ananias is buried, but his successors are like the sands of the sea or the stars for number. The professing church has men who can deceive even the very elect, but this is not the end. When man and wife agree together on such a course the case is almost hopeless. Adam and Eve agreed in sin and it lost to them the Garden of Eden, and since that day thousands of couples have consulted to connive and found themselves driven beyond the gates of Paradise. I am not intimating at all that Adam and Eve went to hell, nor am I saying that such was the final experience of Ananias and Sapphira. I do not believe it.

God chastens His own children rather than bastards and might be utterly justified in destroying the body of His own to save the soul. We can readily understand that a lie on the part of a sinner would never be so offensive to the Holy Ghost as the saint’s deception; the falsehood of strangers does not hurt the father’s heart as the faithlessness of his children. They provoked the Spirit to their own destruction. Temporal death against sin is its very first sentence. Up to the present hour few men have escaped it, and yet, when it comes suddenly and immediately upon the commission of a sin, it strikes the world dumb and brings amazement to the Church of God. In the early days of the Church God attempted to keep it clean, and when a member disgraced it, He removed the member; but when apostasy involves the majority He removes the Church instead. You will remember what He said to the Laodicean Church, “Because thou art lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spue thee out of My mouth”, and to the Church of Ephesus, “Repent and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly and remove thy candlestick out of its place”. As one great preacher has said, “It is vain to attempt to keep up the outward, when the inward has given way. Is there anything more ghastly to the religious eye and spiritual imagination than a church out of which God has gone? The building stands there, of undiminished magnitude, and undimmed beauty of form and color, and undiminished commodiousness, but God has gone! The Bible is read, and not read.

It is not the Bible that the man mumbles, but a book which he has found somewhere, out of which the Spirit has been driven. The very selfsame old hymns are sung that fifty years ago caused the walls to vibrate as with conscious joy, and though the music is exact in technicality and well performed as to mere lip service, the old passion is not there, and the hymn rises to the ceiling, bruises itself against the beams of the roof and falls back, a service unrecognized in Heaven. This accounts for all the results of statistics as to attendance upon places of worship; for all the dilapidated husbandry of the church; for all the boundless provision of mere space and accommodation and machinery without eliciting the sympathy and consent of the great heart of man. We have lost the Spirit or we have forgotten that there is diversity of operation even under the same Spirit, and we have been trying to maintain old economy without new inspiration. What has to be done? Not to mend the outside, but fall to praying and to bring to bear upon Heaven the violence of our impatient necessity and the sacred ambition of men who have found by prolonged and bitter experience that all answers worth having are to be had from Heaven only.” Finally, and all too briefly, I must state it, THE POWER OF DIVINE HEALING “And by the hands of the Apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch.“And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them.“And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women;)“Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them.“There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits; and they were healed every one” (Acts 5:12-16).The miracle always attracts a multitude. It was when signs and wonders were wrought among the people that the crowds came. We talk of the reason the churches are empty now, and wonder why people no longer flock to them; why in great spacious auditoriums a feeble few gather and attempt a sleepy service of praise. But the reason is not far to seek. When there is no sign of God’s presence, the people will not continue to patronize. You have to take your choice then between a few souls who cannot cease from their forms and ceremonies, and putting on a sideshow that would do credit to a street in Cairo, or the presence of God.

But when and where was a miracle ever wrought manifestly from God without the immediate coming together of a veritable concourse? Hundreds of times have the Papists started the story that God was working a miracle at some place, and every time the crowds set in that way, and Rome profits accordingly.

Why? After all, there are weary hearts by the thousand and tens of thousand that want to find God. The man, therefore, who attempts to take the miracle out of religion, if he succeeds, will take the heart out of it; he will take hope out of it, because he will take God out of it. God, instead of being the Author of natural law and forever limited by the same, never moves His hand, His foot, His tongue, without a miracle. The true miracle is the sign, the insignia, the positive proof of Divine Presence. The miracle commonly results in converts. It would be interesting to study the record in the New Testament of the instant results of every miracle wrought. This Book of Acts abundantly illustrates that fact. When in the second chapter the miracle of tongues appeared, the people “thronged to the place”. When in the third chapter, Peter, in the Name of the Lord, healed the man at the Gate Beautiful, “the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon’s”. When in the fifth chapter the miracle of judgment was wrought against Ananias and Sapphira, “believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women”.

When in the ninth chapter, Dorcas was brought back from the burial shroud and it came to be known throughout Joppa, “many believed on the Lord”. When in the twelfth chapter, Herod is smitten by the hand of the Lord, “the Word of God grew and multiplied”.The church that has God at work in it, manifesting His power by grace and by judgments, is the church upon which the people will attend and in which conversions will be accomplished.

Little wonder that men doubt the experience of regeneration when they attend churches as complete in forms and ceremonies as they are destitute of God. If we would have the miracle of conversion come back, then we must bring back the Christ. His presence, His power, His work is always a wonder. Enthrone the Christ afresh and there will be no failure in the growth of the church.Finally,The immediate effect of the miracle is social service.“They brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them.“There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one” (Acts 5:15-16).Thousands of articles have been printed on “How to Set the Churches to Work”. Eloquent orations have been delivered on how to interest men in the bodies and souls of their fellows, or how to secure sacrificial endeavor for the sake of a needy world. It is all answered in one thought, “Bring God in.”The moment His miraculous Presence is recognized and His miraculous, power is experienced, social service is sure.

Men sometimes talk as if this social service propaganda were a novelty; as if the early church had no notion of doing ought than teach the great fundamentals. On the contrary, the fundamentals of Scripture, when properly apprehended and proclaimed, have never failed to produce the finest of social fruits.

History is replete with illustrations of this fact. The apostolic commission and constitution are documents which throw much light upon this subject. No less an authority than Dr. Geo. T. Stokes says, “These constitutions prove that the church in the third century was one mighty cooperative institution, and an important function of the bishop was the direction of that cooperation.” The second chapter of the fourth book of the Apostolic Constitution lays down, “Do you therefore, O bishops, be solicitous about the maintenance of orphans, being in nothing wanting to them, exhibiting to the orphans the care of parents; to the widows the care of husbands; to the artificer, work; to the stranger, an house; to the hungry, food; to the thirsty, drink; to the naked, clothing; to the sick, visitation; to the prisoners, assistance.”When once we give place in the church to the Holy Spirit, there will be no lack of social service.

The spiritual church will forever be a serviceable church. Dear old Joseph Parker saw that fact gladly and said, “The church can only do great social duties and continue with constancy in great social sacrifices in proportion as its heart is constantly inspired by the Holy Spirit.”