We continue our study of the sad case of the folly of Ananias and Sapphira his wife. The sinned against the Lord and it cost them their lives!
I. SIN, DEFIANCE AND DISOBEDIENCE OF THE LORD IS A VERY SERIOUS MATTER!
1. Boys and girls, sinning against the Holy Ghost that just cannot be done without serious consequences! “He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation,” Mark 3:29. He is God! ‘In the unity of the Godhead there be three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.’ WCF, Chapter 2.
2. They lied because of pride. They sold a piece of land but tried to deceive the Lord and their fellow Christians about the size of the portion they gave to the cause of God. “And kept back part of the price,” verse 2.
Remember what the last verses of the previous chapter told us was happening?
“Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them,
and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need. And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas,
(which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus,
having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet,” 4:34-37.
3. Ananias and Sapphira wanted to appear as generous as the others so they lied about the price they had received for their land! That act of deception did not fool the Lord and He informed Peter of their sinful deception.
4. I want you to notice who played a major part in this evil action. “But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?” Verse 3.
Yes, pride was at work but it was the devil who stirred up that pride and promoted them to lie to the Holy Ghost out of self-conceit.
The devil is ever at work, even in the most blessed of times, to provoke God’s people to sin. This incident, along with the devil’s deceiving of Judas Iscariot into betraying the Lord Jesus, indicates just how crafty he is!
The devil was not always a sinful creature but he was created by God without sin. But, as the Saviour has told us, he “abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it,” John 8:44. Pride was the downfall of the devil. He desired to be as God! That is something he is still striving after. Remember what we are told of his final and utterly failed act of rebellion: “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God,” 2 Thess 2:3-4.
5. We must ever be on guard against his temptations and lies. He can infiltrate our most sacred thoughts!
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour,” 1 Peter 5:8.
Poor old Peter spoke from experience. He had been deceived by the devil regarding his own bravery and loyalty to the Saviour and though he had strongly proclaimed how he would never deny the Lord Jesus, he did, and that most wickedly. “Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly,” Matthew 26:74-75.
The devil has caused many a Christian to weep bitterly.
Therefore, boys and girls, beware, “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices,” 2 Corinthians 2:11.