00:00:00.000 - 00:00:33.440

The High Cost of Low Lying, a message by Dr. Bruce W. Thielman I worship by giving reverent attention to the reading of God's word as it is recorded in the book of Acts, the fifth chapter, beginning with the verse numbered one. That a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and with his wife's

00:00:33.440 - 00:01:04.680

knowledge he kept back some of the proceeds and brought only a part and laid it at the Apostle's feet. But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? After it was sold, was it not at your disposal? How is it that

00:01:04.680 - 00:01:33.440

you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God." When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and died, and great fear came upon all who heard of it. The young man rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him. After an interval of about three hours, his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.

00:01:33.440 - 00:01:54.160

Peter said to her, "Tell me whether you sold the land for so much." And she said, "Yes, for so much." But Peter said to her, "How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Hark, the feet of those that have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out." And immediately she fell down at his feet and

00:01:54.160 - 00:02:40.240

died. When the young men came in, they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. And great fear came upon the whole church, and upon all who heard of these things. May God bless you as you read these words. Let us pray. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

00:02:40.240 - 00:03:16.200

The early chapters of the book of Acts are full of victory. They are the spangled recitation of triumph after triumph. But in the early verses of the fifth chapter, after the book has well begun, there is a brief shadow which falls across the page. There is a moment of deceit. There is a time of loss and of darkness. And I want this morning to focus upon that

00:03:16.200 - 00:03:49.600

time, upon that loss and that darkness. It seems there was a couple in this early church named Ananias and Sapphira. Now those are kind of old-fashioned names. So instead I'm going to call them Al and Sue, because this story is just as true today as it was two thousand years ago. Now Al and Sue knew about a man in the church he told about in the fourth

00:03:49.600 - 00:04:18.000

chapter of the book of Acts, a man named Mr. Barnabas, who sold a field of his and took all of the money which he had gotten from the sale and gave it to the church for the work of Christ. And Barnabas received quite a bit of praise and adulation because of this. And Al and Sue thought it would be very nice if they got a little of that praise themselves.

00:04:18.000 - 00:04:42.640

So they decided to sell a field and do the same thing. The only difficulty was that after selling the field and getting all the money in their hands, they couldn't stand with the thought of parting with it all. So they gave only a part of it and they kept the rest back. Now when Al took the part that he was giving to the church, he didn't tell them that it

00:04:42.640 - 00:05:08.760

was only part of what he had gotten for the sale of the field. He told them that he was giving it all to them, just as Barnabas had done. And when Peter heard this, he confronted Al. "You didn't have to sell the field. If you wanted the field so much, why didn't you keep it? Once you had sold it, the money was still yours. No one knew what you were going

00:05:08.760 - 00:05:32.160

to do with it. Why didn't you keep the money? Or if you want to give something, then give something. Give a part of it, but say you're going to give a part of it. In misrepresenting your gift, in deliberately lying, in holding something back and claiming that you didn't, you have not only lied to us, you have lied to the Holy Spirit of God." And he said it

00:05:32.160 - 00:06:07.920

with such convicting power and authority that the very thought scared Al to death. King James says he gave up the goat. That means he dropped dead. Now a little bit later, Sue came to church. She didn't know what had happened. And when she arrived, Peter says to her, "Sue, was the figure that Al reported to us on the sale of the property an accurate

00:06:07.920 - 00:06:40.360

one?" "Oh, yes, very accurate." See, he lied and she swore to it. And then Peter accused her of the selfsame treachery as that perpetrated by her husband, and she died too. And the young men in the church got together and wrapped her up and took her out and buried her beside her husband, who had been buried three hours earlier, which is kind of fitting. You see,

00:06:40.360 - 00:07:04.680

they were together in their ambition. They both wanted to be known as Barnabas was known. They were together in their avarice. They both agreed to hold back part of that which they had gotten for the sale of the field. They were together in their hypocrisy, trying to appear to the church to be good stewards, when in point of fact they weren't. They were

00:07:04.680 - 00:07:39.480

together in their deceit. One lied and the other confirmed it. So why shouldn't they be together in this? That's the high cost of low lying. And it was a lie. It was a lie, first of all, to God. The key phrase in the story is, "They decided to keep something back." The measure of one's stewardship is never what one gives. It's always what one

00:07:39.480 - 00:08:05.760

keeps. There need only be one column in your stewardship register, and over it these words, "What I have kept." Imagine for a moment a list of the stewards, of all of those men who have given something to the work of the Lord. Let's measure people on that list in terms of this standard, what they kept back. At the very top of the list would of course

00:08:05.760 - 00:08:31.280

come the widow who had only two mites, but who gave them both. Jesus praised her stewardship more than the stewardship of any other. She gave everything she had. Obviously she has to be at the very top of the list. Someplace near the top, let's put a man like Dewey Lachman, who lives about 40 miles south of us here. He was converted 45 years ago. He

00:08:31.280 - 00:08:52.720

recognized at the time of his conversion that a real disciple is obedient, and the tithe, 10% of one's income, is required by the Lord, and therefore he began to tithe. But then it occurred to him that for all of the years prior to the time when he began tithing, he had given the Lord virtually nothing. So he better do considerably better than tithing

00:08:52.720 - 00:09:13.640

in order to make up for all of that which he had taken from the Lord before without returning anything whatever. So he began double tithing. Now it was hard. Those were depression days. The electricity was shut off, and the heat was shut off into the little shed in which they lived. There were many meals in which they had nothing to eat but potatoes,

00:09:13.640 - 00:09:37.920

potatoes for breakfast and potatoes for lunch and potatoes for dinner. But gradually his financial shift began to straighten out, and as it did, he decided that 20% wasn't enough. He would increase his giving to 30%, and then he increased it to 40%, and as he became more successful, 75%, and a few years ago, 90%. He had now reversed the tithe so that instead

00:09:37.920 - 00:10:01.560

of keeping nine and giving one, he was keeping one and giving nine, and just a few years ago, having gathered together sufficient to last him the rest of his days, he began working full time for the Lord and turned everything over to the service of God, the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Certainly he goes someplace near the top of the list. Now about halfway

00:10:01.560 - 00:10:24.880

down the list, let's put Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus, you will remember, is the man who gave away half of all that he possessed to the work of Christ, so we'll put him right at the midway point, 50/50 proposition. And then a little bit below that, we'll put the first century Jews. The first century Jews were all tithers, that's 10%, but they all gave offerings beyond

00:10:24.880 - 00:10:48.720

the tithe. Understand that you can't make an offering until you've first made a tithe. The tithe is the interest you owe God on what God has given to you. That is a debt, it is not a gift. The offering is a gift and it can come only after the debt has been paid. So the first century Jews were tithers and then gave offerings, sometimes up as high

00:10:48.720 - 00:11:12.080

as 25 or 30% of their income, so let's put them low on the list, but still right in there. Then below that, let's put the Christians of our time, or of a time long ago if you wish, who were tithers. They gave an even 10% right across the board. They come about here on the list. And then some place below that, put the average member of the Glendale

00:11:12.080 - 00:11:37.040

Presbyterian Church who gives about 4.7%. Now notice that the position on the list is not determined by the amount of money or assets that a person has. The top of the list is occupied by a very poor widow, and someone on the bottom of the list may in point of fact be very affluent, really rolling in the stuff. How much you have doesn't determine

00:11:37.040 - 00:12:07.440

where you are, it's how much you keep for yourself. A woman inherits a million dollars. She sits down and writes a check for $100,000 for the church. Now that sounds wonderful, so you remember she's keeping $900,000 for herself. That changes the perspective. God expects us as disciples to be obedient and to turn over to him all that we are able to

00:12:07.440 - 00:12:34.160

offer to him. And we do this on the basis of our faith, not on the basis of a pledge. If you make a pledge, you sit down, figure out what your income will be next year, figure out what amount of that you can give, sign a card, hand it in, and we send you a reminder periodically about how you're doing. It's very businesslike, it's adequate, but it does

00:12:34.160 - 00:12:56.920

not give an opportunity for faith to be demonstrated. Now, faith promise giving is that giving in which you don't think about how much you can keep. You think about how much you want to be able to give. You may not know how you're going to be able to give it, but you think of how much you reasonably would want to be able to give to the kingdom and enterprise

00:12:56.920 - 00:13:19.400

in a year. And that is the figure that you put on the card. And you don't sign it, because it's a faith covenant between you and God. It's not between you and the church. It's a vertical relationship, not a horizontal relationship. And then you proceed to give, to work, and to pray, to let God fulfill that commitment in your life. And the testimony

00:13:19.400 - 00:13:45.360

of this church and what has happened since our experience last April testifies to the fact that he moved in a magnificent way. This is the third time I have preached this morning. I preached the first service at 930. Then I left that service early, rushed over to my office, received a long-distance call which connected me to a church in Denver, Colorado,

00:13:45.360 - 00:14:08.180

and over the telephone preached to that congregation, then hung up the telephone and came back over here to be with you. Why did that congregation want me to be talking to them back there? Because today they are becoming a faith-promised congregation. More and more congregations are discovering that when you let faith be the basis of your commitment, things begin

00:14:08.180 - 00:14:29.600

to happen in the life of a church, begin to happen in the lives of the people who are part of that church. You see, when a baby is born into the world, it always comes with its fists clenched. But when a Christian is born again from above, he has his hands open. He understands that his discipleship not only involves the good book and the hymn book,

00:14:29.600 - 00:14:54.480

but also his pocketbook. It's every part of his life. And when he begins to give like that, not in terms of what he can keep, but in terms of all that he can manage to be able to turn over to the work of Christ, well, wonderful things happen. Like the lady who walked up to me following a morning service three weeks ago and thanked me with tears

00:14:54.480 - 00:15:19.480

for the ministry which this church had had to her child this last summer in our South Glendale program. And I felt very good about this. So she came to the last sentence in her words, and the last sentence was this, "You know, I've lived in Glendale for years, but I never heard about this church until last summer." You see what she was saying?

00:15:19.480 - 00:15:43.680

She was saying not necessarily about this church, but about any Christian or any group of Christians anywhere. It is as you begin to move out into life with the proclamation of what you believe, it is as you enable other people to do this, it is as you put your money and your talents where your mouth is, that things begin to happen. Now when a person

00:15:43.680 - 00:16:13.800

is unwilling to do that, nothing happens, and that's a sin against God, and that's what Al and Sue did. They kept it back. The New Testament is very clear about individuals who so live and whose stewardship is so crippled. In 1 Corinthians the sixth chapter is the grisliest list of sins in all of the Bible, and this is what it reads, "Do not be deceived.

00:16:13.800 - 00:16:49.120

Neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers, shall inherit the kingdom of God." You see what class Scripture puts those folks in. And the sin of Al and Sue was not only against God, it was also against other Christians. You've heard me say from this pulpit before

00:16:49.120 - 00:17:09.320

that as soon as you make a commitment to Jesus Christ, you can expect to come under intense attack by the devil. A cat does not play with a dead mouse, he plays with a live mouse. So the devil, like a roaring lion, sets out in pursuit of all those whose commitment is meaningful. Now the early Church was greatly committed, and therefore they were attacked

00:17:09.320 - 00:17:35.960

again and again and again by evil. But evil in the first chapter of Acts and in the second chapter of Acts and in the third chapter of Acts and in the fourth chapter of Acts is utterly unsuccessful. It's not until the fifth chapter that it gets in its first blow. And where does it get in its blow? Not by any attack from the outside, but by treachery

00:17:35.960 - 00:18:00.880

on the inside by Al and Sue, who wanted to look like Barnabas but acted like Jonah. The Church never has to fear what comes to it from the outside. The Church doesn't have to fear Communism. The Church doesn't have to fear Socialism. The Church doesn't have to fear Fascism. The Church doesn't have to fear the Democrats or the Republicans or the

00:18:00.880 - 00:18:26.720

American Independent Party. The Church doesn't have to fear topless, bottomless, heartless, headless dancers. The Church doesn't have to fear anything that comes from the outside. The Church only has to fear that treason which occurs within by individuals who walk about pretending to be one thing when in reality they are another. That is what weakens and

00:18:26.720 - 00:18:59.000

cripples the Church. That's the reason Peter is so hard on Al and Sue. He doesn't hold back one bit. He comes in with stinging accusations, four of them, one, two, three, four. And he learned that from Jesus. Jesus rarely got angry. For example, Jesus never got angry at circumstances. Jesus never got angry at situations. Jesus never got angry at people

00:18:59.000 - 00:19:25.880

who told the truth. When the rich young ruler heard Jesus' offer of eternal life and rejected it and turned around and walked away, Jesus was hurt but he was not angry. When Martha rebuked Jesus for being a little bit late in getting there, saying, "If you'd have gotten here in time, my brother Lazarus would not have died," I'm sure Jesus was hurt that he

00:19:25.880 - 00:19:53.880

would think such a thing. But he was not angry. Jesus never got angry at anyone who expressed the truth. His anger was reserved solely for those who lied. He was the truth and therefore was absolutely intolerant of untruths. And he hit hypocrisy whenever he saw it. The harshest words he ever uses in Scripture are directed to hypocrites. "You are like a tomb which

00:19:53.880 - 00:20:18.440

is covered with shining whitewash on the outside and filled with a stink of death on the inside." And Peter remembered this in Jesus. And for the first time in the life of the church, here in this fifth chapter of Acts, he encounters hypocrisy and so he hits it and he hits it hard. He hits it so hard he scares the man to death. And notice when the man's wife comes

00:20:18.440 - 00:20:47.280

in, Peter doesn't begin to pushy-foot. He doesn't hint to her about what has happened in the hope that she will somehow or other change her story before it's too late. Oh no. He addresses questions to her which will give her no clue as to what has happened. And he concludes his charge to her by saying this, "You have lied to the church, which

00:20:47.280 - 00:21:30.200

is the same thing as lying to the Holy Spirit." Please turn your cassette to the other side. "You have sinned against Christ's body, that is to sin against God." Matter was very important to Peter. He understood that stewardship counts, that money matters. It was when Hitler managed to get the Nazis to make one meal a day out of flavored sawdust that Nazism became the

00:21:30.200 - 00:21:57.320

international threat that it was. It was when Hirohito convinced the Japanese to have the fillings torn out of their teeth to give the silver and gold to the war effort that we began to feel the heat of the rising sun. It was when Benito Mussolini got Italian ladies to melt down their jewelry in order to build a new Roman Empire. It was then that the fetid

00:21:57.320 - 00:22:25.840

breath of fascism was smelled throughout the world. And when did the church begin to move out with tremendous power? It began to move out at Pentecost, which might be translated "plenty of cost." It was when they began to give of themselves, sacrificially, thus supporting themselves, thus reaching out into the world in missions of ministry and mercy, and thus

00:22:25.840 - 00:22:52.400

honoring God who had given them everything, even salvation in Jesus Christ. The church, you see, is to be a body. You know how your body is. If you cut your finger, the brain sends commands, the nerves carry the messages, your intercostal muscles activate your diaphragm and lungs, your lungs accentuate their breathing to pump oxygen into the blood, that blood

00:22:52.400 - 00:23:13.960

rushes to that spot and millions of corpuscles give up their lives in order to keep infection out of the body, because the body is one. Paul says, "If one member of the church suffers, all members of the church suffer together. If one member is honored, all members of the church are honored together." Because the church is to be one body, just as you have

00:23:13.960 - 00:23:45.280

one body. And when someone in the body lies, when someone in the body doesn't go to the point of need, when someone in the body claims to be telling the truth and living the truth and being the truth and then isn't the truth, it's a sin against the whole body and it desecrates the God who made the body. In Philadelphia, in the lobby of a big hotel, they'd set up

00:23:45.280 - 00:24:08.600

a waterbed trying to sell the thing. And it was fun to stand over at one side and watch the people come through the lobby and study this waterbed. You know, businessmen would come through all dressed up in very dignified, gray flannel suits, you know, and they'd walk across, they'd kind of look at it, and if there was nobody around looking at them, they'd

00:24:08.600 - 00:24:38.800

sidle over toward it a little bit, you know, and give it a push just to see how it felt. But no more than that, that's the most they do. And then a group of Cub Scouts came into the lobby. And there was one of their number, a little Scout boy, who got about 40 feet away from that bed and took aim and charged. One flying leap right into the middle of it.

00:24:38.800 - 00:25:05.760

That was beautiful to see. And it was a parable. For the life of the family of God is to be like that. And we are, in our giving, supposed to leap right into the middle of it. That's the leap of faith. And experience what it's like to be caught in the arms of God and the arms of God's people, who will encourage us and support us and stand with us. And people

00:25:05.760 - 00:25:35.080

like Al and Sue are not only afraid to leap into this experience, but they don't stand over there to catch the other people when they leap. And that's an act of treachery. It's low-lying and low-living, and the cost of it is death. You see, in the last analysis, what they did was not only sin against God and against their brother and sister, they

00:25:35.080 - 00:26:01.000

sinned against themselves. They committed spiritual suicide. The word "belief" is from two Anglo-Saxon words, "be-leaf" or "be-life." Your belief is to permeate all of your life. When you ex out your belief by poor stewardship, hypocritical commitment, you ex out your life. That's what they did. They separated themselves from others. You can't have fellowship with

00:26:01.000 - 00:26:24.560

people to whom you've lied every time you look at them, every time you talk to them, every time you encounter them. You know the lie that is between you and them. There can be no real fellowship under such circumstances. And after the separation comes an awesomeness, scary insensitivity. It's very easy, you know, to become insensitive to things, to be out

00:26:24.560 - 00:26:50.240

of touch. I always thought that I was in touch with missions, that I knew what was going on in the mission field, until I went to Africa this last summer and saw the look on a mission mother's face when she sent her child off to school not to see that child again for six months. I never appreciated the price missionaries paid in being separated from

00:26:50.240 - 00:27:16.480

their children. Now, you see, when you're out of touch like that, you can do certain things to get in touch. You can go to Africa or you can talk to missionaries. There are different ways in which you can experience what they are experiencing. But, if you don't even want to have the experience of experiencing, if you don't want your insensitivity ruffled,

00:27:16.480 - 00:27:46.800

if you're going to be like Al and Sue and not even take the chance, if you're going to be like the person in our fellowship who wrote across the bottom of his faith promise card earlier in this year, "Please do not bother me." If you don't want to be bothered with the thing at all, you're dead. What hope is there? What opportunity is there? And if

00:27:46.800 - 00:28:19.280

you're not aware of it, well, the dead aren't aware of anything. That's part of the evidence for the deadness. I visited the morgue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, once, only once. A friend of mine took me there, and after we had entered, he remembered he had to make a telephone call and went to make it. And I went down the hall and entered the main

00:28:19.280 - 00:28:57.040

room by myself. No flowers there, no music, no poetry, no oratory. Just a cold stone place. Sheeted bodies on slabs covered over with glass. Bodies that nobody claimed. Bodies that no one came to find out about. Some of them had been there for a long time, but no one ever asked. Sheeted under glass. I felt like I was still in the world looking at them

00:28:57.040 - 00:29:38.280

through windows. And as I walked the aisles, I addressed them. It was a silent address, but very serious. What woman waited for you, and then when you did not come, waited no more, and did not even go to see where you were? What mother held you in her arms and covered you with kisses and dreamed great dreams for you? What father's pride would

00:29:38.280 - 00:30:19.480

be smashed to bits if he knew how your life ended when matched against his vision? What ambition flourished in your mind to bring you to this? What love was expended upon you? What kisses touched your frozen lips? What temptation brought you down to a level in life when no one cared? What treachery lacerated your heart? What privilege so imperiled you

00:30:19.480 - 00:30:56.320

that you became so detached and separated from men that they did not notice when you were gone? What bitterness was there? What fair ideals were lost somewhere along the way? What tears of regret, if any, ever rolled your icy cheeks? And in despair, I turned to leave and chanced to see upon the wall a sign which said, "Gentlemen will please

00:30:56.320 - 00:31:41.600

remove their hats." And I thought to myself, "Old and young, rich and poor, educated and foolish, have come into this room and removed their hats. Why? Out of respect for those cheated ones under glass? No. Out of respect for death itself? No. It was out of respect for life, out of respect for what life could be. You took off your hat not because of what

00:31:41.600 - 00:32:31.040

these people were, but because of what they had the possibility of being, and lost. They were before you as nothing but ruins, but they were the ruins of the temple of the Holy Spirit of God. And you took off your hat. You couldn't do otherwise. And the story closes with Al and Sue lying together, cheated and underground. And it says that a great awe,

00:32:31.040 - 00:33:10.080

fear, one translation has it, terror, came across the church. Well, suppose this morning, by some strange alchemy of the Spirit, that I was able to reach down and take your faith promise card, Al, or yours, Sue. I know you're here because you've been in every Christian congregation since that time. Suppose I were to take your card and read your name and the

00:33:10.080 - 00:33:36.000

amount to all those who assembled. How would you feel? [PAUSE]