Ananias and Sapphira - A Sermon on Acts 5:1-11

I should like to call your attention this evening to that incident recorded at the beginning of the fifth chapter of the book of The Acts of the Apostles the account of which we have read at the beginning as it is to be found from the first verse to the 11th verse in that fifth chapter of the book of The Acts of the Apostles I don't read the history to you again but let me read what is of course a kind of introduction to it and which helps us to understand this incident namely the last verses

of the previous chapter the fourth chapter of this book of The Acts of the Apostles let us begin to read at verse 33 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 land 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 men according as he had need and joses who by

the apostles were Ser Ser named Barnabas which is being interpreted the son of consolation a levite and of the country of Cyprus having lend sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles feet then comes our story but a certain man named ananas with saf 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 Apostle's feet and then follows the remainder of the story well now in other words we are continuing our study of

these early chapters of the book of The Acts of the Apostles let me remind you again as to why we are doing this we are doing it because we are anxious that we should all be clear in our minds and understandings as to what Christianity is as to what the church is does anybody dispute that it's necessary to do that well if there is any such person here I simply come to the conclusion that you never read a newspaper never look at your television never listen to the wireless but as you do I know look

at your newspapers and as you do these other things well then I know that you must agree with me when I say that there is nothing perhaps which is more urgently necessary at the present time than that we should be considering what Christianity really is what this message is what the Christian church is what she claims to be what she's here in this world to do how she ever came into being and into existence and my position is and it seems to me it's the only honest position apart from anything else that if we are

anxious to know these things well then we are in honor bound to come back to this book for here is a book which was written so long ago and with the specific object and intention of making known these very things you remember how it begins Luke the writer puts it in this form the former treat have I made o theopus is's referring there to the gospel that he' written the former treaties have I made o theophus of all that Jesus began both to do and teach until the day in which he was taken up after

that he through the Holy Ghost had given Commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen he says now I'm going to tell you of his further actions and he proceeds to do so here I say is the only authentic account which we have of the origin of the Christian Church what she was like at the beginning what she claimed to be and to do what happened to her and we have no other authority whatsoever apart from this of course men can give their opinions and they're doing so what they think the Christian Church ought to

be and they don't hesitate to criticize throw over aboard these Apostles and even Jesus Christ himself if they they don't happen to agree with their modern opinions but I say if you're honest you're bound to come back and read this record because this is the thing this is how it began and this is the only authentic true account which we have in connection with these matters now that's why we are doing this at all we are living in a world in which you read th from day to day Christian Psychologist says or some other men

who claims to be a Christian sell and the newspapers of course as usual are only interested in the eccentric newspapers are only interested in the eccentric and the unusual they never report the normal the usual the regular they don't report about all the happy marriages that there are still in this world they only report the broken marriages they don't report the Glorious work that is done Sunday by Sunday by faithful people in Sunday schools but if one man who at any time in his life it doesn't matter how far back in his life it was

or happened to be a member of or a teacher in a Sunday school if he happens to commit a crime B headings Sunday school teacher on trial now that's the mentality you see that is governing the Outlook and the thinking of the vast majority of the people in this country tonight so these eccentrics always get the publicity and the advertising and there are so many you've never never read the Bible they come to the conclusion that that's right Christian Psychologist says it must be right he he says he's a Christian he must be therefore and

so you see these false ideas gain currency both with regard to the gospel and with regard to the Christian church and my dear friends I'm here to expound to you the true teaching concerning these matters or not because I'm here to criticize these people or to answer them I I haven't got the time nor the energy to do that I'm here because I'm concerned about the souls of men and women I'm here because I believe as I'm going to show you tonight that we are all living under God and we'll have to stand before him

that's my only motive my only reason I'm passing through this world myself it's only once and it's the same with all of you you don't get a second chance not a second opportunity that's why these things are so vitally and so urgently important quite apart of course from the whole state and condition of our world it is as people listen to these eccentrics that the moral condition of this country deteriorates and has reached its present deplorable level when will they see that these things run in parallel graphs as men deny this message so that inevitable

result followed that's why we are doing this now we've gone to the end of the fourth chapter and we've seen wonderful things history things happening teaching given and it's all been very wonderful and very thrilling but now we come to an amazing incident a remarkable incident something that seems to come to us as a shock and especially after what we' been reading and considering together in the first four chapters there we looked at that great event on the day of Pentecost we saw the church as it were come into being and we looked at that

idilic picture of joy and happiness and sharing all things common of course we saw the opposition and the enemy but the church oh what a wonderful picture it was then suddenly we turn a page as it were and we come across this amazing thing that we're going to at together this evening now judged from any standpoint this is an extraordinary statement here an extraordinary record and I am free to confess that it is one that I approach with a considerable measure of fear and trembling no men it seems to me would choose to preach on

a subject like this but I'm not here to pick and choose I'm here as I they say to expand the record and here it is we've come to it and we've got to face it God give us Grace to do so God give me Grace to do so in a right and fitting and worthy manner God give you Grace to listen in the same way and manner very well then let me start by making some general points about this we can't deal with this incident exhaustively tonight I'm only as it were introducing it this evening

but it's such an important incident and such a vital one there it stands and you can't miss it you've got to pass it and God forbid that any of us should miss its message so I start with some general remarks which are these the first is that this of course is a fact this is a bit of History I start with that for this reason that there are those who say of course that things like this don't happen if you're a modern psychologist of course you realize things like this don't happen people may imagine they

do but in reality they don't happen but now I'm concerned to say that this is history it's as much history as everything that we've considered hither to it's as much history as the stories of the birth of our Lord in the gospels his miracles his death upon the cross his burial his resurrection is Ascension the coming of the Holy Ghost this is a fact of history as much as any other part of the history and of course you notice further how the record makes it quite plain to us that it was an incident that was

greatly used in the spread of the Christian Gospel it led to a kind of Revival which comes in the paragraph that follows the point at which I've ended at verse 11 it was a very remarkable incident therefore in the whole life of the early church it gave a new impetus to it and it therefore helps us to understand how it was that this message which was first delivered by one who appear to be just an ordinary Carpenter how it was that this message from this unknown person as it were in the land of Palestine was

able in a very short space of time to dominate the then known and civilized World it helps us to understand that it's one of the things which is a key therefore to the understanding of early church history and it has been recorded for that reason the writer the author was Guided by the spirit to put this in because it is as vital an element in the understanding of this great story as are the other things that he's already recorded for us it's a fact it's a definite piece of History secondly one cannot but comment for

a moment upon the honesty of this record here's a very striking thing it's a thing that is very important for us to realize it's true of the whole of the Bible I lay claim to this that the Bible is the most honest book in the world tonight indeed I would be prepared to go so far as to say that there is no book in the world apart from the Bible which is rarely honest which rarely tells us the truth yeah you see is an account of the early church but you notice that once it isn't

an idea lies the count it isn't a doctored history no no there's an honesty here it's all put in black as well as white bad as well as good I'm emphasizing that of course for this reason that there are people who seem to have the notion and the idea that we are claiming for the Christian church that she's a perfect society that there's never been anything wrong in her and that there's nothing wrong no oh what utter Folly that is no no here it is it's all put down before us here is this terrible thing

happening in the church almost as soon as she comes into being and into existence the bad is given as well as the good I've often pointed this out from this Pulpit you get it the same in the Old Testament with regard to the characters course the modern critic he's so confused that he contradicts himself he tries to tell us on the one hand that the Bible is a collection of fairy tales idealized pictures not true to life and then with the same breath almost he says that parts of the Old Testament are unfit for women

and children to read the shocking things we are told about a man like David and his terrible committer of adultery and of murder and so on you see the contradiction but what they're really saying unconsciously is that the Bible is the most honest book in the world it gives us the truth about every one of its Heroes ws and all nothing's kept back you see its greatest characters with terrible defects it's all put before us and here we find the same thing done with regard to the Christian Church oh my dear friends we mustn't stay

with this but I say again this is the only honest book that I know of do you get honesty in your newspapers you believe what you read in the newspapers about people they've lost all sense of proportion completely television exactly the same what is greatness it's very difficult to tell judging by the things that are happening from week to week no no everything is painted up idealized beautified and you haven't got the truth you don't get the truth about men in newspapers nor indeed in your secular history books there's bias there's a covering over their

special pleading there's nothing like that in the Bible the Bible will tell you more against the Christian Church than you've ever imagined or will ever think of it tells you everything it puts it all before you it's an honest book it's a book that you can trust it isn't here just to Weedle you or to get your suffrage it's here to give you a message which is a vital input to your soul and your Eternal destiny what an honest book it is that it includes an incident like this at the very beginning of its own

history but let us make one other point quite clear let's be quite clear as to what this men ananas and his wife saf rarely had done now people have often misunderstood this that's why I read those few verses from the end of the previous chapter the position was this there was no compulsion upon anybody to sell their goods and to put it into a common pool that's why as I pointed out a few Sunday nights back this is nothing to do with Communism at all communism is a compulsory system you have no choice this is

the exact opposite this is voluntary the thing was entirely voluntary if a men felt led to do that well he could do so he wasn't compelled he wasn't commanded even to do so some felt Paul to this and they did it there's a man like Barnabas he did it very well the action was an entirely voluntary one an anas and of firea need never have sold their possession at all or indeed even after they had sold it as Peter points out to ananas even after you had sold it he said you needn't even then have

given the money if you didn't want to no compulsion it was entirely a voluntary action it as we should emphasize that in order to understand exactly what they did here are people who voluntarily do this and then deliberately pretend to have done more than they've done they're dishonest it's a case of hypocrisy nothing called upon them to do anything at all they deliberately do it and then they deliberately do wrong they deliberately deceive that's the picture that is the US so I think it's important we should understand that if it was a commandment and everybody

had to do it well you could put in some kind of plea or excuse for them but it wasn't that entirely volunt and yet they deliberately do what they did one other General point before I leave these General methods is this one I think we must be clear as to what happened to anas and Safa it's almost amusing to notice the way in which some of the commentators handle this and oh try to evade the Great Central obvious teaching some say that what happened was of course that the moment Peter confronted ananas by the fact

that he had done this and it was a wrong thing to do that ananas was so convicted by the speaking of Peter that he got such a shock that he fell down dead of course that thing if that kind of thing is possible that kind of thing has happened in this world but it seems to me to be totally inadequate as an explanation here and where it merely for this reason that when you come to the case of Safra where they say exactly the same thing it it clearly cannot be that at all because Peter

knew beforehand that she also was going to die he knew it he makes it quite clear in the way that he speaks to her and that is an important point in the whole incident as I'm going to show you so it isn't just the question of people receiving a sudden shock and that killing people do drop dead sometimes when they hear bad news or something like that to start with you don't get it happening twice immediately like this no no the whole thing I say is such that you've got to reject this exprit explanation for

all these varied reasons and secondly I think it's important we should realize that what happened was not that Peter pronounced a judgment upon them it wasn't his place to do so it wasn't his function I believe that as an apostle he had the power to do so these Apostles had power to strike people blind or dumb and they had power I have no doubt if necessary also to take people's lives away in the same way that they could Resurrect The Dead But Here there is no indication that it was Peter acting in a Judicial manner

Peter merely convicts them of the truth Peter is the mouthpiece of God in exposing to them the enormity of their sin now it seems clear that this is a Judicial action on the part of God himself here at the very beginning of the life of the church God does something to lay down a great principle it's like a great Monument if you like or a great finger Pur there it stands at the beginning God gives an indication to his own people as to who he is and how he acts there is no question whatsoever it

seems to me about this God is teaching the church and teaching people through the church a vital truth concerning themselves and the last point I therefore make un this heading is this one people may ask the question are you saying that ananas and saf were damned and that they were immediately consigned to Hell there's only one honest answer I can give to that and that is that I don't know and nobody else knows it doesn't mean of necessity that they were we read in the first Epistle of the Corinthians in chapter 11 in connection with

the passage about the communion service the Apostle teaches that he says because some people have not examined themselves and have not lived according to the instructions many are sick amongst you and many sleep which means there are dead and the teaching he gives there is that uh they have died as it were before the time as a part of their punishment of their sin so it is conceivable that what happened here in the case of an annias of Fire was that God terminated their life in this world it doesn't of necessity mean that they went

to hell they may have they may not have neither does this mean that sudden death is always a punishment of sin people have assumed all sorts of things from this incident they say if you teach that God caused the death of those two as punishment they then jump to the conclusion that if anybody dies suddenly it must be a case of God punishing them not at all it may be it may not be there is nothing in the record to say that this is a universal law very well I trust in that I have cleared

those great preliminary matters having done so let us now turn and look at the great lessons which are taught here what are they well the first as I see it is this we are taught the nature of Christianity and the gospel message we are taught something about the nature of the church and of this whole Christian message this is the thing we are really concerned about now the very atmosphere of the story it seems to me conveys this and what it tells us you see at the very beginning is this that the Christian church is

something new and unique in the world in in this sense I mean it is not unique when you compare it with the children of Israel in the Earth Old Testament that was the church in the Old Testament what I'm saying is that the church the people of God constitute something unique in the history of the whole of the human race what do I mean by that well what I mean is this the church is not just a society of people there are many Societies in the world and they're all right they meet for various objects

and purposes political societies cultural societies literary societies scientific societies and so on and so on all right they meet as men and women they take up a certain subject and they consider it and discuss it together and they pass resolutions and they decide to act together now there are so many people who think of the Christian Church like that I don't blame many of them for thinking like that that's what they've been taught that's the impression that they are given that the church is just a human society an ethical soci Society a moral Society sometimes

even a political Society but the idea is that it is essentially a human society people who happen to be religious they come together and they consider these things and they've got a certain amount of ritual they sing things called hymns and so on and others add all sorts of ritual and ceremonial and pump and so on well that doesn't matter the essential thing is that it's a meeting of human beings and that they're concerned about living a good life and a moral life and trying to help other people and to spread a spirit of Good

Will and of Brotherhood and of friendship in this world of time that's the conception of the Christian Church a human society a great human club and institution now I say that if there's nothing else which is taught us in this story thaten it is immediately put out of God it isn't that there's something Beyond there's another element it is a gathering of people the church is a gathering of men and women here they were gathered together here you can't read the story at all without seeing people Gathering Together added to the church daily such as

were being saved 3,000 day of Pentecost 5,000 you get in the second chapter on it goes collection Aggregates of people people meeting together as we are meeting here tonight and as men and women apparently meet in societies ah but it isn't that you see this incident at once establishes that it isn't that at all there's another element there is an unseen element there is a power that is not visible there are things that are happening which you can't explain in terms of men you've drawn up your agenda but something crashes into your agenda and you

don't know where you are and everything is upset now that's the church strange things happening you see this record that we are looking at tonight this story this incident is in series with all the great incidents of the Bible I read that account to you of the giving of the law to Moses back there in the in the 19th Chapter of the book of Exodus in order that I might show you that it's exactly the same thing Mountain quing Fire smoke that's it it's one of these great series these great actions and events there is

a people gathering together but that's not the important thing it's what happens as they're met together this other element this mysterious element this strange happening this manifestation of power and then you see it happened on the day of Pentecost there they were met together again in the upper room and they' been there for 10 days and they could have spent 10 years there or 100 years there and nothing might have happened you see if it were just an ordinary human society and institution but that isn't what we are told suddenly suddenly there was a sound

as of a mighty rushing wind it wasn't somebody proposing somebody and somebody seconding it wasn't that they decided to do this or that it happened to them it took place it [Music] came it's in series with Pentecost it's in series with what Peter and John did with the men at the beautiful gate of the temple two men walking into the temple they see the man lame from his mother's womb all right they didn't decide to start a benevolent Society did they they didn't decide to take up a collection for him that's what you and I

can do that's what human societies do it's right that we should do it all I'm pointing out to you that that isn't what happened what happened in the church was something that men can never do in and of themselves the man was healed the man who never walked go leaping walking and leaping and praising God into the temple this is in serious with that it's in serious with that other thing that we were looking at a few weeks back in the fourth chapter of This Book of the acts of the Apostle when they had prayed

yeah they are you see men and women meeting together and they're talking to God they're praying they're expressing their worship and their adoration and they're bringing their petitions and their requests you and I can do that you know but that's not the important thing in connection with the life of the church this is the important thing when they are the place was shaken where they were assembled together that's it it's this other element this is the thing that makes the church unique and when the church hasn't got this she's nothing she's a human society she's

just an institution and she has no uniqueness belonging to her at all she's like the politicians and their societies and their memberships and their clubs and their parties no no this is the thing that makes the church the Place shaking in other words the first thing we've got to realize about the church and about the truth which he stands for and represents and holds before the people is that what matters is not what men does it's what happens to men very well let me put that in the form of another principle which is my second

great lesson what does this incident teach us here it is get hold of this at the beginning of this new year and it'll transfigure and transform your whole life and experience here is the thing that matters in this world above everything else the reality of the Unseen spiritual realm that's the message the Apostle Paul as is often the case with him has put it all for us in a me memorable statement in the second epistle to the Corinthians in chapter 4 and in verses 17 and 18 he puts it like this our light Affliction which

is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory while we look not at the things which are seen But at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are Eternal that's it that's what we're reminded of here the reality of the supernatural realm now I make bold to tell you this evening that if there is one message more than any other that is needed by the Modern Men in this modern world of ours it is

just this very message what's wrong with the world I tell you that what's wrong with the world is that it's forgotten the Unseen that's the basic trouble with this generation it's the age of materialism affluent society never had it so good the age of prosperity the age of Machinery the age of gadgets the age of comfort the age of amenities that's the great characteristic of our age it's an age which is entirely EarthBound it's an age of materialism science and its discoveries science and its insistence upon the visible and the tangible and the measurable that's

the realm of Science of course it is but of course what's happened is that science has turned itself into philosophy and it tells us that there is nothing apart from that which can be seen and felt and touched and handled and measured in other words men as become the measure of all and of everything and that alone is to believed to be believed which men can understand which men knows which men has discovered which men sanctions and if you're presented with anything that man cannot Encompass with his mind it's dismissed it's fancy fantasy it's ridiculous

it's the sort of thing that a Christian Psychologist says should not be done to Children you mustn't teach them scripture you mustn't teach them religion therefore it's wrong it does it violence to them or another one of his colleagues gets up and says it disturbs a man's emotional balance man is the measure of everything man and his tape measure the ultimate Authority and the belief of the Modern Men is that that alone is real which belongs to the this world of time to the temporal to the seene and to the visible and all else is

poetry fancy imagination all right this see if you want a bit of relief now and again you can read a novel or read your Bible doesn't matter which same sort of thing and you'll get a temporary relief but of course it isn't real you still have to come back and live in this same old world these things are not true now that's the modern attitude that this world in which we are now is the only world it's the only real world and that there is no other world world and when we go out of it

that's the end of us and of everything else that's the prevailing philosophy the Unseen realm is entirely forgotten indeed it is denied actively militantly and dismissed this I say is the essence of the modern problem what the modern world needs to be told more than anything else is that that is is its Central fallacy will they take it I wonder from Shakespeare if they won't take it from the Bible there are more things in heaven and earth or rure than are dream of in your philosophies that's the great message of the Bible in a sense

it doesn't put it like that it's got a much better way of putting it but this is it you see for what the Bible tells us is this that the modern world as it is is as it is tonight because it has forgotten the Unseen the spiritual you see it's because of that that the modern world doesn't even understand the nature of its problem the modern man is more bewildered as to the nature of his problem than he is with regard to anything else because it falsifies everything that he believes he really does believe and

has believed for so long that if you only educate people and train them and give them knowledge and understanding they'll deal with their problems well we've done all that and yet the problems are greater than ever so he doesn't understand the nature of his problem and if he doesn't understand the nature of his problem how can he possibly hope to deal with this problem how can he possibly hope to find any solution the modern world is failing at diagnosis even and it's entirely due to the fact that it's forgotten the supernatural the Unseen realm it

is this worldly view this materialistic Outlook this banishing of everything outside men's comprehension from the realm of reality but now as I'm showing you this is the whole story of the Bible this is the business of the Bible to assert the reality of the Unseen not only that to assert the Primacy of the Unseen to assert the all importance of the Unseen the things which are seen are temporal the things which are not seen are Eternal this is not the real world this is the passing Phantom that's the real that's the absolute this is the

appearance that says the Bible is the great reality and there is no greater blunder than to confuse the appearance with the reality or the temporary with the permanent that's exactly what the human race is doing tonight hence all our problems and all our troubles and anxieties now then here I say is the basic postulate of the Bible and here it is put before us in a striking manner that I trust we shall never any of us ever forget again the Unseen not only its reality but its privacy its all importance for we are in its

end now this is something that the Bible puts before us of course in many ways it's there in the Old Testament in history in the beginning God and in all the subsequent history you read the lives of these men you see these men Shakespeare and others they feel after this but they never quite get there there is a Divinity that shapes our ends ra few them how we may that's it there's a man is he beginning to think profoundly and seriously it takes a long time to bring people to that but they come to see

that they haven't got it even now all they're aware of is some of them are called it fate the Ancients called it fate when they drawn up their philosophies and all their plans there was always this other element fate this thing that guides a in Kizmit Kismet here it is this thing oh we are but play things there are other powers now the world has come very near to this it feels after this it's got this vague awareness that after all oh how small we are and how little we know and how great are these

fosses that are there above us and Beyond us and around us now this is the whole message of the Bible and you get it in the history then you get it particularly in the prophecy in the prophetic books of the Bible there's no other explanation of them here are men able to prophesy 800 years and so before the time the things that later happened how did they do it you can't conjure that up out of your own mind you can't imagine that I believe in Poetic imagination it's a wonderful thing but no poet has been

ever able to imagine for tell history in this great minute detail it's impossible there's only one explanation there is another source which gives the knowledge the information the Revelation men in touch with the Unseen and the Eternal the Real the true the Everlasting and of course you get it above all and this is the great message in a way of the coming of Our Lord into this world what is that well according to the Bible it is breaking of the Eternal into time it is the Unseen and the invisible becoming visible it is the word

being made flesh and dwelling amongst us it is an invasion of the temporal by the Eternal it is God manifest In the Flesh here you see the great message you see it in his birth you see it in the manifestation of his miraculous Powers he said it himself one day when the people were saying that he was casting out devil Devils by the power of beelze and he refutes the argument and then he says but if I by the Finger of God cast out Devils then there's the statement he does it by the Finger of

God people are amazed they said we have seen strange things today there was a sense of all what is it all it's this aess of the Supernatural and of the Eternal the Finger of God you see it above all in his resurrection when everything is baffled and all the laws are broken of course the clever Modern Men yes calling themselves Christians and leaders in the Christian church they deny that as they've done this last week on the television a they don't believe in a physical Resurrection this year you can't expect Modern Men to believe that

I don't expect him to believe it I'm telling him though that if he doesn't believe it there's only one end to him I don't expect anybody to believe these things I don't believe them as a natural men myself God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God why not well because he's a natural man that's his whole trouble he's blind how can mortal men understand and receive the spiritual unseen and eternal it can't be done but this is what the Bible asserts this is

what it reports this is the history that it puts before us a gospel which the modern man can accept is by definition not a gospel at all that's politics or sociology or whatever else you may like to call it the very basis of this is that it baffles men and he can just stand back with Paul and say great is the mystery of godliness and bow down before him in Humble worship and praise and adoration no no these These are the events and here you've got them in the book of The Acts of the Apostles

as I'm showing you Pentecost Miracles buildings shaken and here you've got it in this incident Peter knew what was going to happen how did he know oh it had been given to him Peter didn't surmise that the news was going to kill these two people no no he was told it was he knew he speaks in that way to both of them particularly in the case of saf he virtually announces it to her it's a part of this breaking in of the Unseen and the Eternal the intimation that is given and then I say above

all the death of an an sense of fire here is what is an act called an act of God you can't it explain it in any other terms now this is the great teaching of the Bible I say the reality the privacy of the Unseen the spiritual and the Eternal what is the teaching well in a in an amazing way it's all summarized here before us and I just want to give you the summary now before I close what does the bible teach us does it teach us what is the message of the Gospel is

it just an appeal to us I say to get together and try and pull this old world back into an even keal again is it just to send out an appeal to the people in southern radisha now say now come along let's meet at the table let's get it settled let's solve this whole problem of color and of race let's be sensible and meet at a common table is that Christianity my dear friends I find it very difficult to know how people who ever read the Bible can say a thing like that what's this message

oh this is the message of the Bible God in three persons God this one who keeps on breaking in why Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost thou has not lied unto men but unto God here it is it's the message of the Bible from beginning to end God and God in three persons I can't understand the doctrine of the Trinity says the Modern Men and because I can't understand the doctrine of the Trinity I don't believe it you Little Fool have you ever tried to understand the doctrine of the Trinity stop

for a moment and try to think about what you're trying to understand God in three persons father son Holy Spirit that's the m message of the Bible not the ground of all being not the ultimate not the absolute not some vague Spirit of good will not a spirit of love no no persons who think who act intervene do things God the Father creating at the beginning in the beginning God created not a force that brought things into being but a person who decides to create and who does create and having created goes UNS sustaining God

the son acting appearing under various Angelic forms in the Old Testament and when the fullness of the times had come born as a baby in the stable in Bethlehem this is it a person a living person he who have seen me he says seen the father I and the father are one God the son and here the great emphasis upon the holy spirit why ha Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost thou has not lied unto men but unto God oh I'm not here to say that I understand this I'm not asking

you to understand it I'm simply here to tell you this that you don't understand yourself you don't understand life you don't understand history you'll go to hell unless you believe this message of the God who is and always was and the three persons in this blessed godhead coequal coeternal in every respect God acting in this world of time it isn't our world we didn't make it we didn't bring ourselves into it we are in the hands of the Living God he's the author of everything he's the sustainer of everything and we live our life under

God this measured little life we have in this world passing through it oh the idiotic conceit of man he can't understand himself nor God nor anything without this this is the thing that explains begins to give him an understanding of an explanation that it is all under God a god acts as he did here and as he's done in so many other different ways but let me hurry to put another thing before you and now I'm going to put before you the thing of course that to the Modern Men is indeed the height of F

this is the thing at which he really does let himself go in laughter listen Peter said ananas why has Satan fill thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost my dear friends whatever you and I may think or whatever you and I may like this is the message not only of this incident but of the whole of the Bible of Jesus of Nazareth the Son of God that there is a personal devil Satan you see this is a part of the spiritual realm and this is where again we see the utter bankruptcy of modern thinking

it not only doesn't believe in God it doesn't believe in the devil it's quite consistent of course he's never seen God therefore he isn't you know the Russians went up in that first Sputnik or whatever they called it they say we didn't see God anywhere apart from the blasphemy what utter rubbish what utter pathetic Folly they didn't see the devil either and of course they say and so many say with them because we haven't seen God there isn't a God because we haven't seen the devil there isn't a devil that's the whole tragedy but it

is an equal part of the teaching of the Bible to teach us the reality and the personality of the devil as it is to teach us the personality and the being of God why is the world as it is why confusion why pain why lust avarice jealousy Envy why disease in every respect why the world as it is tonight there's only one answer there's only one answer it's there back in the third chapter of the book Book of Genesis and it's about the devil God made a perfect world Paradise he looked upon it all and

saw that it was good the devil this creature that is more subtle than any other he came he tempted the men and the woman and down they went and isn't there a strange parallel here at the beginning of the original creation the devil came in and caused trouble second creation again the devil came in men and women at the beginning man and woman here again the same thing the personal devil the Bible teaches this there it is I say in Genesis come along to 2 Corinthians 4:3 if our gospel be hid says Paul it is

it to them that are lost in whom the God of this world ha blinded the minds of them that believe not lest the light of the Glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them if people don't believe the gospel there's one main reason for it the devil has blind bled them it isn't they it's the devil who's blinded them or take again Ephesians 2 to you ha he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins you who walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the Earth the

spirit that now dwelleth in the children of Disobedience that's the teaching of the AP ball he puts it again we wrestle not against flesh and blood it is men that constitutes the problem it is my own human nature even that constitutes the problem we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against Powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high or in Heavenly places that's the [Music] problem The Book of Revelation still deals with the same theme the devil cast into a lake of fire these beasts that

influence and control and that M the whole of life this is the teaching why have Satan filled thine heart to do this Peter you see spiritual man as he now is as the result of his baptism with the spirit he sees exactly what's happened it is the devil again and my dear friends this is the teaching the reality of the Unseen realm we are surrounded In This World by unseen powers and FES evil as well as good principalities and Powers rulers of the darkness of this world that's what's organizing evil tonight that's what makes it

so devilish it isn't merely man man is driven he's the victim he's the slave he's the dupe the devil is in control and he enters into men's Hearts as we are told you and he Masters them and controls them and that is why the world is as it is tonight and last that's why the church is as she is here he comes into the heart of ananas and zfar who are members of the church and he does this devilish thing in them and leads to these terrible consequences and he's still doing the same in the

Christian church the devil says Paul can turn himself into an angel of Light and he's doing so so you get prominent men in the Christian church denying the very elements of the faith even denying the deity of the Son of God some of them even denying the very existence of God himself and all in the name of Christianity that's Satan that's the devil it isn't just men it's too clever it's too fish it's too involved it's too subtle this is the devil Satan this unseen power and we all surrounded by these powers and you see

for me to close this is the great message of the Bible that there's a great Cosmic fight going on God and the devil the Kingdom of Light and the kingdom of darkness Heaven and Hell and you and I with all our great scientific knowledge and all our clubs and societies and institutions and councils and all our Arrangements want to make a perfect world are going from bed to worse because we're not aware of these powers that are influencing Us in such a subtle manner not always bad sometimes good the good is often the greatest enemy

of the best the moral men have generally been the ones who have resisted the preaching of the Gospel more than anybody else they've felt no need of it the publicans and the Sinners are always more ready to listen than the Pharisees and scribes that's the trouble it's the devil and here is this great battle going on the Holy Ghost Satan both of them operating Upon This World operating upon you operating upon me trying to win us here is the great message of the Christian church that Beyond men is this great spiritual unseen realm with these

great oppos Powers God the Everlasting God the devil a created being a created angel who rebelled and fell and who hates God and would drag the whole universe down to his own ultimate predition that's what was happening in the early church that is what is still happening it isn't your great brain that makes you reject the gospel it's the devil filling your heart and making it impossible possible for you and oh I therefore must warn you and say this I only note it mention it the last great General message that is T here is this

the fact of final judgment in other words this about which I'm speaking is not something theoretical and remote and academic it's not just a point of view which a man may be interested or maybe not it's the truth about as every single one of us man is a responsible being he is responsible to God who made him and he'll have to stand before the God who made him and that God knows everything he and his wife can agree to keep back a bit and nobody knows the apostles won't know we're very clever we're giving the

impression that we are great spiritual people but we're also looking after ourselves and how clever it is clever it's sure Madness and lunacy why did they do it because they forgot the Unseen they forgot the spiritual they forgot God but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do yes say the Book of Revelation in chapter 20 the day is coming when all the books will be produced and they'll be opened and your record is there there is nothing that you've ever done or said or thought but

that it is known to God and man is a responsible being before God and he can't escape God he can't evade God he can do many things while he is in this world of time but his times are in the hand of God he can be struck in a second in a moment he doesn't control his life can't produce it can't end it in an ultimate sense he is all together in the hands of God when we think all is well sudden destruction cometh this is the great message of Our Lord himself the end the

Judgment the knowledge of God and the fate of all those who have refused God who have remained dupes of Satan and who have rejected God's offer in Christ his only begotten son whom he sent into this world that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life here he tells us that we cannot Escape him that he knows all and we in his hands and he'll judge us all he calls Upon Us in the light of this therefore to repent to repent to acknowledge and confess our sin and shame and Folly and ignorance

to him and to believe his gospel that he has so loved the world even such a world that he has given his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life that's the first great message that comes to us from the tragedy of the story of ananas and saf God open our eyes to see it amen we do hope that you've been helped by the preaching of Dr Martin lyd Jones all of the sermons contained within the mlj trust audio library are now available for free download you may share

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