Inward And Outward Christianity

Truth is contained here in the Word of God, and I want to do a little reviewing today. I've been looking here at chapter 4 for the last couple of weeks, but we had a situation here in Acts chapter 3 where Peter and John, God does a miracle through them, and a lame man is healed, and people come rushing to see this lame man healed, and a great crowd is gathered, and Peter takes the opportunity to preach the gospel. And he does so, and many of them are converted, and things are starting to move for the early church.

I mean, people are getting converted. The Word of God is going everywhere, and this begins to trouble some of the religious leaders of the day, and they come and begin to threaten the early church apostles, and we'll look at that just quickly here in verse 17. It says in chapter 4, So they don't want it to spread any further.

It's getting out of hand. So the idea of them going forth and speaking the Word of God and lifting up the standard of the Lord is what causes these threats to come. It wasn't the fact that they were in fellowship and breaking bread in prayers in Acts chapter 2, but it's this.

It's the spreading forth of the Word of God, the spreading forth of light. Well, they go back to their company in verse 23, and we talked about this, I think it was last week. They go back to their group of church members and probably, who knows, a couple hundred of them, maybe more than that, and they tell them what is happening.

Verse 23, And the people imagine a vain thing. So this is their prayer. And I talked about last time that question, why did the heathen rage or why do the heathen rage? That was a prayer that was coming forth from the Spirit of God.

What is happening here? Why are the people so angry? Why is there a stirring of the people? And you go back to Psalm 2. We looked at this last time. Psalm 2 says the heathen rage because they don't like the bands and the cords. Break their bands asunder and take their cords away from us.

That's why they're raging. And a reminder again today that that is why men do not appreciate the Word of God. They do not appreciate the Lord because they want to live according to their own will.

Even as Jesus gave a parable, I think it was in the book of Luke, of the Jews talk about these people who would not have him reign over them. Boy, that's really the issue today, isn't it? I do not want anybody to reign over me. I will run my own life.

The prodigal son found out what happens when you run your own life, and you'll find out the same thing. He'll run it into the ditch. He'll run it amuck.

And you'll get to the place where the prodigal came where he said, I'm fed up with this life, and I'm sick of this life. I'm eating the husk of the swine to eat. And he finally came to himself.

And we're to God that some of us could come to ourselves and really realize what life is all about. And boy, we're going to be going down, some of us, to Columbus there and work with some of the people who have truly run their life amuck. I've been down there two days this week painting, and it's not unusual.

Pretty much every day I'm there, someone's coming wanting money, and you can just see they're so addicted to drugs. Their minds are so blown. And their life is amuck, and it's a mess, some of the things that the devil is doing in their hearts.

But that's where people end up. They run into the ditch, and we need to allow the Lord to take control of our life. And so the heathen rage and persecution comes, and it's coming from the world.

It's coming from outside the body of Christ, the church. And Jesus said the world is going to hate you. If they hated me, they will hate you.

And as we go into the world and preach the gospel and obey the Lord's commandments, you'll find that there will be persecution coming your way. Now, one thing I want to bring out here this morning is something I think is missed many times. I've tried to communicate this over the years, but Christianity is a two-part thing, and you'll see this in the book of Acts, the early church.

They had their fellowship and prayer. There's a body life. There's a community life, but there's also a life outside the body.

And I have on the board here the inside life and the outside life. I mean, there's an inside aspect of Christianity, and we'll see a little bit more of that here this morning. There's an inside aspect, but there's also an outside aspect to Christianity.

And oftentimes what people do is they come to this thing called Christianity, and they want to do this thing right here, and they want to remove the outside aspect of the Christian life, go ye into all the world, reprove sin, all those things that have to do with the sinner out there. And many Christians' lives look like this. They focus, and I've said this to some of you, you go to the average person on the street and say, are you a Christian? You know what they're going to say to you most of them? Yeah, I go to church.

Yeah, I go to church. I have this body life experience. I go to church.

I'd love one time for someone to say when I ask them, are you a Christian? Yes, I'm out boldly proclaiming the name of Jesus. Well, that'd be refreshing, wouldn't it? But it's not something that we generally are attracted to, is that outside aspect. And I want to encourage all of us, hey, what would happen if somebody would say this? Someone would say, I like this outside life, and I don't need the inside life.

Let's flip that around and see how we'd like that. No, you wouldn't like that one because everybody needs the inside life. But I'm afraid what we're missing is everyone needs the outside life too.

And this life here, this in and out, is what the Bible calls a Christ-like godly life. And it's a balanced life. It has both in and out.

And that's why when the scripture says that a godly life will be persecuted, it's because that godly life has this aspect of an outside emphasis. And so we ought not to try to, and I've heard over the years, excuses why we don't need the outside life. It's not my gift, and it's for some, it's not for me.

That's not true. Christianity, if you're a follower of Jesus, you'll notice Jesus had his discipleships, his disciples together with him, an inside life, but he also had an outside life. He had ministry to the world.

And before we jump in here to the book of Acts, one of my favorite passages on this is back in Hebrews. Let's turn back there with me to Hebrews chapter number 13, and a beautiful picture. Brother David mentioned a little bit about it here this morning.

In Hebrews chapter 13, there's a shadow or a type in the Old Testament. I'm going to start reading here in verse number 10 of Hebrews 13. He says here, We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.

For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without the camp. Therefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.

Now the life of Christ is seen in those sacrifices that they brought in every year for sin. Picture this lamb and a person bringing a lamb in to the altar there, the brazen altar on the outside of the tabernacle. And the first thing that they did was they killed the animal.

And that's what Jesus, he was crucified, a lamb slain. So they killed the animal. The next thing they did was that they cut the animal off and they removed the good meat from the animal and they drained the blood out of the animal.

And that blood went into the mercy seat. And that's the blood of Jesus that we talked about. It went into the presence of God and it was there to atone for sin.

And so Jesus' life made atonement. But the meat was then given to the priest. That was to sustain the priest.

And Jesus said, you know, that we're to eat of him and to drink of him. And he is our life. He is our meat.

He is our sustenance. We are priests unto God. And so we eat of him.

But there's a third aspect, and I think we love the blood and we love to eat of him, but there's a third aspect. And that is if you've ever butchered an animal, you have a bunch of junk left over. And you have the guts and all the innards.

You have the tail. You have the hooves. You have the head.

You have all that stuff. And we'd put it in a end of where the John's front end loader there and take it out to the back field and dump it. It's just you want to get rid of it.

It's the junk part of the sacrifice. And they had a lot of that. I mean, a lot of that stuff.

It says here that that stuff was taken outside the city and burned outside the camp. And so Christ, his life, yes, the blood goes into the presence of God. Yes, his meat is for us to eat.

But there's an aspect of his life that is outside the camp. And it says here in verse number 12, therefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered without the gate. That's where the suffering is, outside the gate.

Let us, verse 13, go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. And again, it's like trying to convince people to go to the dentist. It's not something people really like.

I like the blood aspect. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. I like the eating of his meat, his word, and eating of his flesh.

But the reproach outside the camp is difficult. But we're encouraged to take the whole of the Lord Jesus Christ, his blood, body, and that stuff that is taken outside the camp. And it's burned.

And so beautiful picture there. Every time they brought that lamb, those three aspects. This is where this went.

This is where this goes. And this stuff goes outside the camp. And it's burned.

And nobody really likes that. Nobody wants that out there. But it's a part of the Christian experience to be outside the camp.

And so as we go through the book of Acts, you're seeing a group of people who are filled with Jesus, who understand the fullness of what Christianity is, and they're not only rejoicing in the blood, they're not only eating of the Lord Jesus, his meat, but they're also willing to go outside the camp and bear his reproach. And that is the entirety of a Christian life and a Christian experience. And so we're going to see that.

Let's go back here to Acts chapter 4 and start reading. I just like to read down through and comment on the early church here. They have gone outside the camp.

They are bearing reproach. They are being threatened. They come back.

And starting in verse 31, it says in chapter 4, 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 ought of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things common. As I thought about the early church and the passage here this morning, I saw these words, all, the multitude, all of them, over and over and over again here through this passage. So God, when he does a work, God, when he blesses his people, he blesses all of them.

And that's one thing that I think we need to get more and more an understanding of. It's God wanting to do his work with all of us, all of us together. It says in verse 32 that the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul.

It wasn't a bunch of group of people divided up, and you do your thing over here, you do your thing over there. They had a oneness about them, one heart, one soul. They were of one accord.

Notice the alls here that are mentioned. In verse 31, it says they 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. Again, it's all of them.

It's not just a few people who were maybe evangelistic. It was all of them. They all understood the same thing.

They pursued the same thing. Verse 32, and the multitude of them, all of them, that believed were of one heart and of one soul. It wasn't a couple, three or four people over here that had one heart and one soul.

It was the whole group of them had one heart and one soul. Let's keep reading verse 32. Neither said any of them, none of them, they were all together in this, that all of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things common.

In other words, when they gave and sold their stuff, it wasn't a few of them. You know, we blessed Brother Cleat last night for his generosity, but it was all of them. All of them had the same heart about this selling their goods and giving it to those who had need.

Verse 33, with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection, 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 things that were sold. And so when God moved upon his people, he moved upon all of them.

I think one of the great plagues for the church over the years has been this laity, clergy, laity, clergy separation. It's like clergy, you do all the work, and we separate from you, we're the laity. But you don't see that in the New Testament.

You see God wanting to pour out his spirit upon all flesh and bless all of them. In the day of Pentecost, they all spake with tongues. They all magnified God.

So they had a oneness about them, a one heart and a one soul. They were together in everything. They were participating in everything.

And so you see that here in the early church. They all spake with boldness. They all sold their goods.

And it wasn't just those who had the gift of giving that were selling their goods. They all sold their goods. Now I like to look at these gifts as like an ice cream.

You go down there to Baskin Robbins and you see 30 or 40 different containers of ice cream, all kinds of different ice cream. But every one of us here are ice cream. We're going to make that illustration.

We're all ice cream, and we're all in this same thing together. It's every one of us, the whole multitude. We're the same.

We're ice cream. There's one faith, one Lord, one baptism. We're all on the same page.

But, you know, God comes along and gives everybody a little different flavor. I'm like a strawberry flavor. Brother Clayton, he's a little chocolate.

And we all have a little different flavor. And, yes, God gives us gifts, and he flavors us a little differently. But we're all ice cream.

We're all the same. 95% of us. I mean, 95% of what we do is the same.

And so when Jesus commands, he says go out and teach them all things, whatsoever I've commanded you. And so all his commandments are for all of us. And yet God gives us a little flavor and gifts us.

And so some people do have the gift of evangelism. Some people have the gift of giving. Some people have the gift of prophecy.

But that doesn't mean that we all don't work together and do these things together. And you see this in the early church. They were together in all of these things.

So verse 31. Excuse me, verse 32. Some of this is going to be review.

Some of you weren't here for the message a few weeks ago. But verse 32 says, 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.

I mean, everybody in the church had this attitude. But they had all things common. And we talked about this a few weeks ago.

But the idea of having all things common was that they possess things. They own things. But they said in their heart, If you have need of anything that I have, you can have it.

It's yours. They had all things common. They shared amongst themselves.

I know some groups believe that we ought to sell everything we have and own nothing and throw it into a common purse. And I don't see that as being a biblical thing. But rather the hard attitude of, Brother, whatever I have, if you need it, it's yours.

And the Spirit of God worked that out in their heart. And they shared their goods. And I think that's a wonderful thing that we do share our goods.

And I mentioned last time it's not communism. And there's something very important about this distinction. Communism teaches the same thing.

Let's all share our goods. The only difference between communism and what went on in the early church is communism is forced from the top. Authorities saying, You need to sell your goods.

Rich people, you're going to be forced by law and by regulation to get rid of your goods. And we're going to share everything. That's what's happening in America right now.

The taxing of the rich and trying to take the money from the rich to give to the poor. And they use the Bible to justify it. But there's a big difference between communism and sharing things and having all things common.

You see, this was something that came from underneath, from the Lord's Spirit. The Spirit of God motivated each one of them. There is no directive from the apostles here.

There's no force. But the Spirit of God worked in each one of them and brought them into a like-mindedness, brought them into one heart and one soul. And they were willing, joyfully willing to share their goods.

And this is what pleases God. What pleases God is you allowing the Spirit of God and your faith in His Word and you coming to Him and saying, Lord, I just see in your Word that it's the right thing to do to have an equality amongst the brotherhood. And Lord, I'm just going to give out of the freedom of my heart to honor you.

The Lord is pleased with that. And that's what the Spirit of God, I believe, is working in each one of us. Let me read to you here in 2 Corinthians chapter 9, starting in verse number 6. Some of this is review.

But this I say, he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly. And he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposes it in his heart.

Did you hear that? Every man according as he purposes it in his heart, so let him give. In other words, if the Spirit of God is in control of your heart and you purpose in your heart, I'm going to give this much. Praise God.

Every man according as he purposes it in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly. God doesn't like grudging givers. You know what that is like.

You know, do we have to give this money? Put it in the offering box back there. I wish I wouldn't have to give this money to the church. You know, that doesn't do anything for the Lord.

That doesn't please the Lord in any way. Not grudgingly or interestingly enough, not of necessity. Not of necessity, okay? The preacher's calling on us to have an offering.

We need to give. There's a need and yes, okay, we'll give because there's a need. Even that doesn't ring bells in heaven.

And he closes by saying, God loves a cheerful giver. You know, just someone who says, Lord, you're moving on my heart. I'm just going to give and I'm going to enjoy it.

Cheerful. So that's the kind of giving that is pleasing to the Lord, not against the will of the individual, but something that is Spirit-led. And that's what's going to happen here.

These people are going to start giving out of the joy of their hearts. And they're going to start selling their property and giving it to those who have need. And so let's keep reading here in Acts chapter 4, verse 33.

With great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. We'll come back to that here in just a minute. Neither was there any among them that lacked for as many as were possessors of lands and 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 to as he had need. So here you have the early church selling their goods, motivated by the Spirit of God. This idea of equality, equality, the rich, says here, and notice here in verse 34, they didn't have lands or houses.

Those are plural. I believe that many people back then had multiple houses, had multiple lands, and they said, hey, I don't need this excess. We got our own house here.

We don't need more than that. And so there's other people here who have needs. So let's just dump it.

Let's sell this other stuff, and we'll take the money, and we'll bring it to the apostles, and let them distribute it to those who have needs. God worked that out in their hearts. These are people who are filled with the Holy Spirit of God.

These are people who are of one heart and one mind, and the Lord is working in them. And he's working in them to drop their wealth, drop their riches, and to think of other people and their needs. And so the Spirit of God leads them away from the pursuit of riches to a greater pursuit, and that pursuit is the kingdom of God.

By the way, I was talking to a brother just recently. Woe unto them that are rich. Remember what Jesus said? Woe unto them that are rich.

You know, riches accumulating more and more for myself. Woe unto them that are rich. It's not the principle that the Spirit of God is trying to motivate in us, nor do we see that here in the early church, the accumulation of wealth, but rather a willingness to lay down those things for the kingdom of God's sake.

And I believe in the principle of equality. It's taught throughout the Bible, and Paul talks about it in the book of Corinthians. We'll look at it here in just a minute, but I believe it's God's heart for those who have much to be concerned about those who have little, and to share as they did here in the early church.

Let's look together at 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and talk about this idea of equality here for a minute. This is how the early church lived. 2 Corinthians chapter 8, verse number 10.

And herein I give my advice, for this is expedient for you who have begun before not only to do, but also to be forward a year ago. Now therefore perform the doing of it, that as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a performance also out of that which you have. For if there be first a willing mind, that's important, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.

For I mean not that other men be eased and you burdened, but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want, that there may be equality as it is written, He that hath gathered much hath nothing over, and he that hath gathered little has no lack. And so Paul is teaching here at the church at Corinth this idea of equality. And those who had abundance were to help those who had little, and those who had little, someday you're going to have much, and God takes us through cycles.

Paul said, I've learned in whatsoever state I am, they were to be content. Whether or not I'm abounding or whether or not I'm abased, I've learned how to go through both. And I think all of us will recognize there are times in life where we are abounding, and there are times in life where we're abased.

And so it's just the will of God, for in times of abounding we share our plenty, so that when we're abased others can abound and share with us. So that's what was happening here in the church at Corinth. The Jewish people in Jerusalem were abased.

They were having a famine, and Paul was encouraging them to gather their excess and let's send this offering down to the poor saints in Jerusalem, because someday they're going to be abounding, and you're going to be abased. And God likes this idea of blessing each other and moving us from being abased to bounding and back and forth, and we can bless and help each other. So I am all for the idea of equality.

I don't think if we sit here and we have plenty and other people are scraping the bottom of the barrel, that doesn't mean that they're not willing to work. A lot of these people down in Columbus are running too. They want money.

Most of them aren't willing to work. I mean, there's jobs all over the place right now, and they could work and labor with their hands, but there are people, maybe even people here who work and who are diligent, and maybe they just are having it difficult right now. And so the idea of equality, helping one another.

And he mentions here in verse 15, he goes back to the Old Testament. He says, As it is written, He that hath gathered much hath nothing over, and he that hath gathered little hath no lack. This goes back to the Old Testament account.

I'd like you to turn back, if you would, to Exodus 16. And the Lord rains down manna from heaven, but he teaches them a lesson here when he sends the manna down from heaven. And Paul quotes from this story when he writes there in Corinthians.

But in Exodus 16, starting in verse number 14, it says this, And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoarfrost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna. This is God feeding them as they went through the wilderness.

For they wished not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded.

Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man. So the Lord says, I'm going to rain this stuff down. And in the morning you go out, and I want you to gather it for your family.

You got six in your family? Gather six people's worth. If you got ten, gather ten. If you got two, or you're by yourself, gather it according to every man's eating.

According to the number of your persons, take ye every man for them which are in his tent. So maybe they sent one or two out. You had ten in your tent, so you went out to get ten people's worth of manna from heaven.

And look at what happens. Verse 17, And the children of Israel did so, and gathered some more, some less. Now it's probably difficult to go out, picture yourself going out and gathering this stuff up and maybe putting it in a scarf or something.

This is pretty close, I think. No, better get a little bit more. And we got enough here for our ten back home.

Just make sure you got enough. Surely they weren't out there measuring containers, making sure they got the exact amount, so they bring it back home. And look what happens here.

Verse 18, And when they did meet it with an omer, that's a measuring device there, like a quart. When they did meet it or measure it with a quart, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack. They gathered every man according to his eating.

Isn't that interesting? So you went out and you gathered for ten people, and maybe in your gathering you didn't measure it out, but you thought you had enough for ten or eleven. You get home, you really have enough for twelve. When you measure it out, it all comes back to ten.

And then another family goes out and they maybe have six in their family and they gather up some and they think they have maybe enough, and they only gathered up maybe five, enough for five, and then they measure it out, and it comes up to six. God does a miracle there. That which had too much, he brought it down to where it should be.

Those that had too little, he brought it up to where it should be. And that's what the Spirit of God is trying to do in the church. Amen? Amen.

Here we are. Some of us are going out and working. We're gathering a lot more.

We come back, and the Spirit of God says, see, you gathered a little too much. Let's move this over here to those who didn't gather quite as much so that there can be an equality. So I believe not only did the Lord do that here in the wilderness, but I believe if we would yield ourselves to the Spirit of God just like the early church does, and this happens, the early church being yielded and filled with the Spirit of God, God works in them the same miracle.

Some people are out there like, we're going to read about Barnabas. He's gathering, he's gathered a lot more than he needs, and God works a miracle in his heart, and he sells, that there might be an equality. So the Lord is still doing miracles in our hearts as we give of our excess.

So I want to encourage you all, not because I need any money, because I don't. I'm one of these that have more than what I should. I want to encourage you to allow the Spirit of God to joyfully have an equality amongst the people of God.

And I don't know how this all works. I've struggled with this all my life. Here we are in America.

We've got so much, and we drive nice cars. None of us are hungry, and then across to another country we have these people that are just starving, God's children starving and needing great, great needs. And I was in Africa, just to tell you a story.

It's pretty sad, but in Africa a number of years ago, and Ross Ulrich, I was visiting with him there, spent about 18 days there. And we were just talking about how these people are dying from malaria. And here we were taking malaria pills, and his family took malaria pills on a regular basis, and we were taking malaria pills.

And I got into a conversation with Ross about why are these Africans dying so much? It seems like we Americans are doing okay here. Why all the deaths from malaria? And he looked at me and just shocked me. He said, they can't afford the $10 to buy the medicine.

And I'm thinking, are you serious? I mean, there are parents whose children die of malaria because for $10 they can't get medicine. They tied them over to get through this malaria. Yes, they're all over it.

Just things like that, amazing things. We don't even think about it. $10 to get some malaria medicine.

So we have brothers and sisters all over the world who are living way below us. And so I would certainly encourage any of us to think about those. It's one thing to look in amongst us and see needs, but really our needs are not even close to the needs of our brothers and sisters in other places in the world.

They're not even close. And there are avenues. My wife and I have avenues for the past 20 years.

We have avenues for families and ministers who are ministering in different parts of the world. Gospel Link is one of the things that we use to take, to send money, to help families who have very little. And yeah, it's just amazing.

We've supported a number of families. Just in the last couple of years, both of our families we supported in Africa were passed away. The husband passed away with sicknesses, things of that nature.

A few years ago I got a call from Gospel Link and they said to me, this man says to me, we have your family that you support. The pastor and his wife, they have like five or six kids. We've been supporting them for many years.

And this man told me, he said, listen, the wife is in the hospital and she's on the verge of dying. She needs an appendicitis operation and it's going to cost 600 bucks and nobody has the money. We're asking for people to help.

You can't do this with everybody, but 600 bucks or she's going to die. Amazing. We don't even think about it.

We don't have the money the government will pay for. She's laying in a hospital, 600 bucks, the doctor can take the appendix. And of course, what do you say? No.

Especially when I've got thousands of dollars in the bank. Sure. 600 bucks.

She lives. She's doing well. But there is an equality.

And we ought to look a little bit further than just our local congregation, but look to the ends of the earth and consider others who have great needs. Well, let's keep reading down here. They sell their possessions.

They sell their goods. Great grace is upon them. They're not trying to hoard money.

They're trying to meet the needs of those around them. Verse 34, 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. Can you imagine? Selling a house today, $150,000, walking in and dropping $150,000 down at the apostles' feet.

Wow, that's Christianity there, isn't it? That's serious. I don't know how much houses went for and lands went for. Then it says in verse 36, And Joseph, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, which is being interpreted the son of Constellation, a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.

This is the Barnabas, Paul and Barnabas. He was a convert. He was a rich man, evidently.

And he had some property in Cyprus. And he sold it, brought it, and laid it at the apostles' feet. Spirit of God is moving upon hearts.

People are relinquishing their wealth. They're selling and giving to the needy. That's a part of being filled with the Spirit of God.

I want you to think about this. We're not going to get into this until next week. But the Spirit of God is moving.

Just like the Spirit of God filled the house and they spake the Word of God with boldness, that's the Spirit of God's work. Now the Spirit of God is moving in the body of Christ to start selling and loosening up some of your hands on your riches, and let's have an equality, and let's move our money out of our hands to others. And God's Spirit is working.

And we have an example here of Barnabas, having land, sold it, brought the money. But then chapter 5 is a sad story. But once you look at this first couple of verses, we'll look at it more in depth next time.

But a certain man named Ananias with Sapphira, his wife. Now this is in the environment of God's moving, His Spirit causing people to sell their goods and bring the whole thing. He 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' seat. Now I've been amazed at the fact that if he sold, let's say he sold it for $150,000 and he brought $75,000 and laid it at the apostles' seat. That's a lot of money.

Because he dropped a part. And I think he probably put a pretty big part because if anybody knew, if they read in the newspaper about him selling his property, they probably knew what it was worth. But his wife and him were deceptive.

While the Spirit of God was moving in hearts to sell and to give all, and didn't have to, they were concocting a deceptive thing. Verse 3, it says, But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost? Now oftentimes you wonder, why does it lie to the Holy Ghost? Well, the Holy Ghost was at work, encouraging selling of goods and of giving them to the needy. And while the Holy Ghost was working in hearts to do that, they were contrary and deceptive in the work of the Holy Spirit of God.

And they kept back part of the price of the land. And notice in verse number 4, it says, While it remained, this is Peter talking, was it not thine own? Again, they didn't give their property and just say, let's have a common purse, but it was your property. And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? You had the power to keep it.

Nobody was forcing you to do this. There was no rule or standard you had to give everything. See, the Lord wants free will.

You could have kept it. But why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart that was not lied unto men, but unto God? So here in the midst of the Holy Spirit of God moving in the early church, in the brotherhood, and working to free people from their ties to riches, it's a family that's deceptive. It's a couple that's deceptive right in the midst of it.

So God has to bring judgment on that. And He does. They are judged for their sin.

And we'll talk about that more in detail next time. But here God's Spirit is moving. Revival is happening.

Things are moving in people's hearts. And these two individuals are doing something contrary and are being deceptive. And the Lord takes their lives.

And it's a tremendous testimony of, you know, when God's Spirit is moving, you don't want to go the other direction, amen? You don't want to be deceptive. And it was all deception. They didn't have to get it.

They were deceiving the people. Well, I want to just comment here on verse 33. Go back here.

It says in verse 33, and then we'll close, With great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. The apostles were men who witnessed the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were eyewitnesses.

And most of the people in the early church were not eyewitnesses to the resurrection, much like you and I are not eyewitnesses to the resurrection. We are simply dependent upon the testimony of those who did see him after the resurrection. But these apostles were eyewitnesses.

And God made it so that people, some people saw him after his resurrection. It was a very big deal that you did. Paul writes here in 1 Corinthians 15 these words.

He says, For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures, and that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve. They were eyewitnesses. After that, he was seen of about 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remained unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.

After that, he was seen of James, then of all the apostles. And last of all, he was seen of me also as one born out of due time. And so I think that was on the road to Damascus when Paul actually saw the resurrected Christ.

And so God allowed these people, these apostles and many others to see him and to bear witness. In the early church, that was important. I have seen the resurrected Christ with my own eyes, and I'm bearing witness he's alive.

He is risen from the dead. They went forth, it says here in the book of Acts, and they bore witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you and I, having been Christians for many years, we take for granted that when he was dead, he was resurrected.

But in the early church, there's a lot of confusion. And yet there were people. God allowed these people, especially the apostles, to see him, to touch him, that they might go forth and bear witness of his resurrection.

And so the early church has an inward life and an outward life. And God is filling them in both areas. He is filling them in the body life, and they are selling and giving to those in the body who have needs.

They're praying and they're seeing their house shaken. I mean, the things are happening in the body, but they're also... God is filling them for an external work, going to the man in the ditch and helping minister to lost people and to the heathen. So that's a balanced Christianity.

And you look at the book of Acts and you see back and forth. Acts chapter 2, inside the body. Acts chapter 3 and 4, outside the body.

The end of Acts chapter 4, we're back inside the body. Chapter 5, inside the body. God's going to judge those who profess to be Christians inside the body.

So back and forth as you go through the book of Acts, we'll see these things. Next week, we'll look at Ananias and Sapphira in more detail and what actually happened there and how they lost their life. And so let's close with a word of prayer and then we'll open it up to anyone who'd like to share.

Heavenly Father, we thank you again this morning for your word. Lord, may our hearts be truly sincere and be willing to say amen to what you want to move in our own hearts. Lord, may we also not be clinging to riches and the love of money and even as Paul said to Timothy, that charge them that are rich, not to be high-minded or trusted in certain riches, but in the living God, that they be ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying hold on eternal life.

Lord, pray your work in our hearts with regards to our own riches, what to do with them, how to use them wisely. May we be filled with the Holy Ghost in this way also and have your direction for our hearts. Lord, bless us as a congregation both inwardly and our work outwardly that we can truly manifest the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So I pray your blessing on the congregation here. In Jesus' name, amen.