Welcome to Books of the Book.
We're so glad you could join us
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today. My name is Jim Howard and
I'm here with my brother Mark
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Howard. We both pastor in the
Michigan Conference of Seventh
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day Adventists. Mark, the last
time we were here to study this
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book of Acts that we've been
going through, we saw one of the
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most fearless sermons ever given
in the Bible by the apostle
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Peter, the same apostle who had
denied Jesus vindicated himself
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as it were with a fearless and
courageous address that actually
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had not only the power of
convicting those that he was
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speaking to but also of turning
many to the Lord. And where we
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pick up or where we left off
I should say was in verse 31 and
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where we're going to pick up is
in verse 32 of Acts chapter 4.
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So if our viewers have their
Bibles, we would invite you to
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join us. But before we dive in,
we would like to start with a
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word of prayer. So let's ask God
to bless our study of his word.
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Father in heaven, we're so
grateful for the opportunity
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to study the Bible. Make it come
alive to us today and speak to
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our hearts is our
prayer, in Jesus' name, Amen.
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Now we're begin reading in verse
32 just at the conclusion of
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some wonderful preaching and
then a beautiful prayer in which
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the disciples were given great
boldness to speak the word of
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God. It talks about the impact
on the church. Verse 32 says,
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Now the multitude of those who
believed were of one heart and
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one soul. Neither did anyone
say that any of the things he
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possessed was his own, but they
had all things in common. And
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with great power the apostles
gave witness to the resurrection
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of the Lord Jesus and great
grace was upon them all, nor
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was there anyone among
them who lacked for all who were
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possessors of lands or
houses sold them and brought the
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proceeds of the things that
were sold and laid them at the
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apostles feet and they
distributed to each as anyone
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had need. Now as we read this
account, we're reminded that
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there was a reality here in
the book of Acts that we don't
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experience too often. This
fledgling group of 120 had very
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quickly become 5000, men only,
right, that's not counting the
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women and children. So this was
a large group of people that now
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they've got to figure out how
they're going to minister to.
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And of course we recognize that
later they'll establish some
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special help in the structure,
but even here early on in the
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book of Acts they are
talking about how they needed to
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sacrifice for the sake of those
who had less. It just seems that
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the heart of sacrifice is built
into the church in the book of
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Acts. Right from the very
beginning they saw this need
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to if others had need to
sacrifice their plenty to help
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others. The story brings us
to an account that is little bit
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unique and it's really the focal
point of our study today in the
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book of Acts when it comes
to chapter 5. Let's pick up in
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verse 36 where it says, and
this is in chapter 4, and Joses
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who was also named Barnabas by
the apostles which is translated
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son of encouragement, a Levite
of the country of Cypress,
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having land sold it and brought
the money and laid it at the
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apostles' feet. The chapter
5 verse 1 begins with the word
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but. Everything was going
well but as a certain man named
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Ananias with Sapphira his wife
sold a possession. Why don't you
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pick up there in the story?
Okay. Well in chapter 5, and
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it's interesting; it doesn't
seem, Jim, that everybody is
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selling things. It says back in
chapter 4 verse 34 all who were
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possessors of lands or
houses sold them. In fact, Jesus
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himself said the poor will
always be with you. There are
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always those who have more and
those who have less and God's
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intent is that those who
have more would share and that's
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what we see happening here.
Those who did have an abundance
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were selling it off and
apparently Ananias and Sapphira
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his wife fit that category. And
it goes on there in chapter 5 to
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say that when they sold their
possession, verse 2 he kept back
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part of the proceeds, his
wife also being aware of it and
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brought a certain part and laid
it at the apostles feet. But
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Peter said Ananias why has Satan
filled your heart to lie to the
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Holy Spirit and keep back part
of the price of the land for
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yourself. While it remained was
it not your own and after it was
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sold was it not in your own
control. Why have you conceived
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this thing in your heart. You
have not lied to men but to God.
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Then Ananias, hearing these
words, fell down and breathed
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his last. So great fear came
upon all those who heard these
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things. I mean, that was pretty
swift. And it goes on to say in
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verse 6, and the young men arose
and wrapped his up, carried him
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out and buried him. Now it was
about three hours later when his
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wife came in not knowing what
had happened. I mean, I guess we
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don't know how far they lived
from the church or from where
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they were meeting and collecting
the money but evidently three
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hours had been quite a long time
and his wife, Sapphira, came
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looking for her husband. And
verse 8 says, and Peter answered
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her tell me whether you sold
the land for so much. She said
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yes for so much. Then Peter said
to her, how is it that you have
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agreed together to test the
Spirit of the Lord. Look, the
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feet of those who have buried
your husband are at the door
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and they will carry you out. And
immediately she fell down at his
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feet and breathed her last and
the young men came in and found
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her dead and carrying her
out buried her by her husband.
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So great fear came upon all the
church and upon all who heard
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these things. That's
an incredible story. When
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I look at what happened here
in chapter 5 and specifically
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Ananias and Sapphira's
particular hypocrisy, we could
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call it, it's notable that this
was not really something that
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God was forcing them to do. As
you look at this in verse 4 it
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says... Well even
before you go there
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it's interesting along those
lines in verse 3 the question
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was asked Ananias, why has Satan
filled your heart to lie to the
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Holy Spirit? Now we talked
about this already a little bit.
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The Holy Spirit works through
bringing conviction of truth and
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we studied that in one of
our previous episodes where we
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looked at John chapter 16 verse
8 where it says, Then when he
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the Spirit of Truth has come he
will convict you of truth and of
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righteousness and of judgment.
So evidently as we see the
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people distributing their
possessions it would appear here
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that in one of the apostles,
at least one of the apostles
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addresses the Holy Spirit had
brought conviction on those who
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had possessions to sell them to
help those in need and Ananias
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and Sapphira evidently had
responded to that conviction.
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That's the only way you could
be said to have lied to the Holy
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Spirit. In other words, they
were under conviction much like
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when we hear the preaching of
the word or when we're studying
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the word when the Holy Spirit
pricks our hearts and brings
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conviction and calls us to do
something about it and we make a
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decision. Okay Lord I'm going
to do it. Okay Lord I'm going to
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follow you we are making a
commitment to the Holy Spirit
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and ultimately to God and that's
what it says here. He says,
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Ananias, why has Satan filled
your heart to lie to the Holy
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Spirit and keep back a part.
So they had evidently pledged
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something under the conviction
of the Holy Spirit and then when
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it came time, when they left
that atmosphere, and I say this
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because this can happen to us
when sometimes we're convicted
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that we need to make a change,
we're hearing a powerful sermon
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or in some other way God is
bringing the truth to our heart
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and our mind and we're convicted
that we need to do something and
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we say I'm going to do it and
then we leave that atmosphere
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and then we start to rationalize
and it would appear that they
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began to rationalize here and
decided that they weren't going
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to follow through. Therefore,
what they said they were going
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to do they didn't do. They lied
about what they were going to
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do and they lied,
not to man, but to God.
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That's exactly right. Going back
to that... That was an excellent
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point. Going back to verse 4
where it talks about the freedom
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that they had to make a decision
Sometimes we look at this and
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think that everybody had to get
rid of their things and so poor
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Ananias and Sapphira were just
trying to find a way out of this
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oppressive... They
were manipulated...
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Right. But this statement by the
apostle is very clear. While it
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remained was it not your own,
it says in verse 4. And after it
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was sold was it not in your
own control. They didn't have to
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pledge everything that they had
from this sale. They didn't even
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have to sell it at all. That's
exactly right. But this makes
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very clear that the fact
that they were moved by some
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conviction that they should do
what's right and they did pledge
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to give that money. Well
now it brings in another entire
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equation and that is that when
we make a commitment to God we
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need to keep our commitments.
When we make a commitment to
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our spouse in marriage we
need to keep that commitment.
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It's one thing if we decide
that we want to break off an
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arrangement before we've made
that commitment. But once that
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commitment is made we need to
keep it and that's what they're
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being held accountable for here.
And it seems to me that, and we
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don't have all of the details,
but you can imagine that Ananias
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and Sapphira after coming to
this realization that, wow, we
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should be giving of our proceeds
we should sell what we have,
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because we have much, we have
plenty and helping these out,
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that after that happened and
they began to rationalize. You
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know, maybe there's other
people around who have money and
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they're not doing that. Or maybe
they think about the fact that
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well these people who didn't do
anything to give their money are
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being helped by this common pool
Perhaps if we just gave half
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that will still be more than
what some are giving. If we give
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half then we can keep back the
other part for ourself. It does
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not specifically say half but
they kept a part and they gave a
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part and you know I think
that sometimes we have that same
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thing happen in the church today
We have those who decide well
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you know, the Bible is clear
that I need to return a faithful
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tithe to the Lord, but the
interesting thing about this is
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if it weren't for the Holy
Spirit revealing it to Peter
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they would not have known that
Ananias and Sapphira gave only
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part of the price. Nobody would
have known except God, but that
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same scenario happens today.
We may say well I return a full
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tithe to the Lord and nobody
knows. The treasurer of the
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church doesn't know, because
they see a number in there but
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really we maybe not returning
a full tithe which means a tenth
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but maybe a part of the price.
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But why would
anybody even go that route?
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Well the reality is that
there is inside each one of us a
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danger that when nobody knows
the temptation is stronger. When
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somebody travels and stays in a
hotel and nobody knows what they
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are watching, nobody knows
what they're doing, we find that
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awful things sometimes happen.
When there's no accountability
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in those areas that are private
in our life we find that they're
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hardest areas to be true to
God. But being true to God is
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revealed in our private life.
We can be true to God outwardly
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that which people can see
because reputation would drive
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us to be that way. But to
be true to God in our heart of
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hearts and in our private life
is the true test of character.
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Ananias and Sapphira
didn't pass that test.
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No they didn't. What we're
talking about here is hypocrisy.
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This was not new to the Jewish
church. We see Jesus probably in
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the most well-known place
in Matthew 23 over and over and
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over referring to the leaders
as hypocrites, you scribes and
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Pharisees, hypocrites. The word
actually comes from a Greek word
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hupocrites which was a word
if we were to use the word today
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it would be an actor. We would
talk about some Hollywood actor
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and when we say the word actor,
the Greeks would say hupocrites.
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And Jesus was saying, you guys
are a bunch of actors. In other
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words, they were living a
lie. They were saying one thing,
00:13:06.27\00:13:09.76
their profession was one thing,
but what they really were was
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being down inside that nobody
else knew was something entirely
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different. This danger of
hypocrisy is something Jesus
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warned very strongly about.
We're going to actually take a
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break here and when we come back
from our break we're going to
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look at some of what the
scripture says and warns about
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the danger of hypocrisy;
the leaven of hypocrisy. So stay
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tuned. We'll be
back in just a minute.
00:13:37.96\00:13:39.33