Fear of the Lord (Acts 5:1-11)

In Acts 5:1–11, we encounter one of the most sobering and challenging passages in the entire New Testament—the story of Ananias and Sapphira. Why did God judge them so severely? What was their real sin? And what does this account teach the modern church about holiness, hypocrisy, and the fear of the Lord?

In this message, Pastor Timothy Stewart explores how the early church faced not only persecution from the outside, but also deception from within. Through the story of Ananias and Sapphira, we discover that God desires authenticity over appearance, integrity over image, and hearts that fear Him more than they seek the approval of others.

Most importantly, we learn that the fear of the Lord is not terror that drives us from God—it is awe that keeps us from playing games with God. At the cross, God's holiness and mercy meet, revealing why the Gospel is the shortest path to a healthy fear of the Lord.

Whether you're studying the Book of Acts, wrestling with questions about God's judgment, or seeking a deeper understanding of authentic Christianity, this message will challenge and encourage you.

📖 Scripture: Acts 5:1–11

🔹 In This Sermon:
• Ananias and Sapphira Explained
• The Sin of Hypocrisy in the Church
• What It Means to Fear the Lord
• God's Holiness and God's Love
• Satan's Attack on the Church from Within
• The Connection Between Achan and Ananias
• Secret Sin and Spiritual Growth
• The Gospel and Authentic Faith
• Why the Fear of the Lord Is the Beginning of Wisdom

Join us as we continue our journey through the Book of Acts and discover how the early church turned the world upside down through the power of the Holy Spirit and unwavering devotion to Jesus Christ.

#Acts5 #FearOfTheLord #AnaniasAndSapphira #BookOfActs #ExpositoryPreaching #ChristianSermon #BibleTeaching #HolySpirit #GospelCentered #VintageChurch #PastorTimothyStewart #BiblicalTeaching #ChristianLiving #ChurchLeadership #HolinessOfGod #FaithAndRepentance #NewTestament #VerseByVerse #ChristianPodcast #BibleStudy

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well, good morning. Good morning, Vintage Church. If you're new, my name is Timothy Stewart, pastor here at Vintage Church. And it is my honor and my pleasure to open the Word of God this morning with you. Hopefully, you brought a Bible. If you didn't bring a Bible, we do have some pew Bibles. And if let's say you don't have a Bible and you need a Bible, just take home that Bible. We got some extras, and it's really a way for you to open God's Word. And how many know that when you read the Bible with a humble heart, in an attitude of, Lord, I want to know you, he answers and he changes your life. And so we love the Bible here at Vintage Church so much, we stand, even after we just stand during welcome, to read together because we believe that the word of God was given to us by God, the Holy Spirit, to equip us, to encourage us, to empower us. So if you are willing and you are able, please stand and turn with me to the book of Acts, chapter five. This morning we're going to be reading through verses one to eleven, and we are continuing in our series. Um, and honestly, I don't see any time in the near future where we stop in the book of Acts, because there's so much good stuff in the book of Acts. And so we are continuing this morning in our series on Acts, and we are in Acts chapter 5, verses 1 to 11. And when you get there, give you a couple more moments, and then we are going to read. You're more than welcome to read with me if you'd like. And if you didn't bring a Bible and you can't find a pew Bible, it should be on the screen behind me. But if it's not, just listen. Because the scripture even commands us to publicly read the scripture because it's that powerful. So this is the word of the Lord, starting in verse one. But a man named Ananias with his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property, and with his wife's knowledge, he kept back for himself some of the proceeds, and brought only a part of it, and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back from yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You've not lied to man, but to God. And when Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. And the young men 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, and 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 test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out. Immediately she fell down at his feet, and breathed her last. And when the young man 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. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word, even when it stings, even when it's hard for us to understand, even when it challenges us in our idleness and apathy. And so we ask, even now, Holy Spirit, that you would give us wisdom and revelation to know Jesus better. That Jesus is a great king and his holiness is great. And forgive us for sometimes minimizing the holiness of God. And so we ask that your Holy Spirit would come even now and convict our hearts of sin and bring us to salvation, deliverance, and transformation. Lord, you say in your word that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So I pray that this morning you would allow us to take one step in growing wise and restore in our hearts, in our homes, in our church the fear of the Lord. Lord Jesus, be with us. Help us through this time. In Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Welcome to church. That's an intense passage. I was talking with someone, and I said, now that's real church hurt. Maybe stings a little too close too early. But, anyways, we are in the book of Acts, as I mentioned, and we find ourselves in this passage. And that's one of the great things about preaching taught um expositional sermons. You have to deal with hard passages. And this is one of those passages. And so this morning, I simply want to talk to you about the fear of the Lord. Um, and I really do believe that as a church, not just our church, but the church at large, especially in the West, we need to recover and restore the fear of the Lord. It is no coincidence that after this chapter, after this section of scripture that we're reading, great advancement of the gospel happens through the early church. Because when the fear of the Lord is restored, and when the fear of the Lord is cultivated, a healthy fear of the Lord, may I add, that is when things begin to move and God's presence is real. But you know, oftentimes you may ask the question, why did that happen then? And why does that not happen now? And I would say perhaps it does, we just don't know. Or perhaps even more of a sinister question would be perhaps we don't know the Lord as they knew the Lord, and his presence was as intense and immediate and imminent. And perhaps our Christianity and perhaps our relationship with Jesus is he's so far removed that his holiness is nowhere to be found. And yet what we see here is a dangerous holiness. Can I say this again? God is holy. And I think sometimes we have forgotten that God is holy and we think about God's love. And yes, is God loving? But last time I checked in the Bible, there was only one phrase, one attribute of God that was thrice repeated by the angels in heaven. And it wasn't God is love, God is love, God is love. It is holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, and the whole earth is full of his glory. Art Azuria said it this way: a dangerous holiness is God's response to a determined hypocrisy. I'll say that one again, let it sink in. A dangerous holiness is God's response to a determined hypocrisy. And it's something that we have to wrestle with this morning as we look at this story, because it's not just pulled out of context. Right above chapter 5, verse 1, we read about this a couple weeks ago, but we read the story of a man named Barnabas, or son of encouragement. And if you look up just a few verses, it says in verse 36 that he sold a field. This is actually verse 37, that he sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet. And so there was already this story and this example of amazing grace where Barnabas, out of his own will, this was not cajoled, this was not manipulated, this was out of his own free will, decided to sell one of his properties and bring it to the church leadership and say, Do with it what you may, that you may advance the gospel. And so I'm sure in the water coolers of the church, there was like, wow, Barnabas is amazing. Dude, can you imagine selling one of your properties and giving it to the church? Like, wow, Barnabas is so cool. And somewhere in those back rooms, Ananias and Sapphira, Sapphira, I don't know what I said there. Um, Sapphira said, you know what? Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's sell one of our properties. And I want you to be really clear about this. A lot of people turn this particular text in a sermon about giving, and that's not what we're doing because it really isn't their sin isn't being stingy or greedy. Their stingy, their sin was hypocrisy and deceit. Their sin was wanting the approval of others, so that they held some back, but yet it wanted the reputation of Barnabas without the sacrifice of Barnabas. And so they have this conversation, they plot to sell their land, and who knows what happened. Perhaps as they were selling the land, maybe it was their intention to sell the whole property and give the whole property, and then maybe a bill came up, or maybe they wanted to buy a new horse, you know, that next model horse. I don't know what it was. But let's say that they had a bill or some unexpected expense, or maybe they just were like, this feels like a lot of money, we're just gonna hold a little bit back. But then they made a decision to present it as the whole. It was out of their own free will that they chose to give. And yet, look at what he says in verse 4 while it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? In other words, he said, it would have been okay if you gave 80% of the proceeds to the church. But why have you said you gave 100% and you held back a portion to yourself? And so the first thing I want us to look at this morning, point number one, if you're taking notes, is Ananias and Sapphira wanted the title without the sacrifice? They wanted the title of generous without the sacrifice of being generous. And you know, it got me thinking. How many people in the church want the title of leader without the sacrifice of a leader? How many of you want the title of pastor, elder, deacon, small group leader, or something within the church quote unquote hierarchy? And you want that because you want people to love you. You want the approval of man, but you are unwilling to go through what it takes to be that. And so that's one application that you could think through, but maybe it's something a little bit lesser or not lesser in severity, but lesser in position or title. Maybe it's you look at someone whose life is blessed, and you're like, I wish I had what they had. But you're unwilling to pay the price that they paid to have that. Maybe it's their faithfulness, maybe it's their obedience, maybe it's you don't know the story of how they got to where they're at, but you covet them without understanding the price and the sacrifice that brought them to that place. You see, Ananias and Sapphira, they were spiritual posers. That's their sin. They were spiritual posers. They puffed themselves up and they presented themselves as something that they were not. They wanted to be seen in the church as equal to Barnabas, as someone leading the way in generosity, and yet they wanted the title without the sacrifice. They were praise seekers. They wanted a reputation they had no right to. Perhaps it's because you're comparing or coveting someone out there, and you want people to see you as somebody special, somebody significant, somebody that's doing well in the Lord. And yet, if you were to be honest, your prayer life is barely there. Your generosity, service, obedience, humility, all of these things that the Lord asks us to follow, they're just not there. And maybe you even go around, and when you hear people talking, you're like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, me too. I serve, I give, I read the Bible, I pray, and it's this. I I mean, I'll just get really to the point here. How many of you have ever said to somebody, and this should hit every single one of us in this room, they ask you for prayer, and you say, I'll pray for you, or you thumbs up it, or you heart it, and you never pray. But you have the appearance of praying for that person. Anyone besides me guilty of that? That's the seed of what we're talking about. You want the approval that someone thinks that you're actually praying for them, but all you really did was push down on your iPhone, and a little emoticon shows up with prayer hands. Prayer hands do not equal intercession. They wanted a reputation that they had no right to. Ananias and Sapphira wanted the recognition of Barnabas without the sacrifice of Barnabas. And I think this morning, if we're just gonna be honest before the Lord, we probably have fallen into a similar trap at some point. A commentary says it this way they wanted the prestige of sacrificial generosity without the inconvenience of it. You want the fruit of a prayer life without the inconvenience of a prayer life. You want the six-packs, the six-pack abs without the inconvenience of getting up and going to the gym and watching what you eat. Do you understand? This is common to many of us. And I want you to ask this question this morning. Have you ever wanted the reputation of someone else's obedience without paying the price of that obedience? I'll say it one more time. Have you ever wanted the reputation of someone else's obedience without paying the price of that obedience? What is that? It's the sin of borrowed spirituality. It's the sin of borrowed spirituality. And people do this all the time. They have borrowed convictions. Maybe you grew up in a church home, your parents were Christians, and you borrowed their convictions, and you try to live off of their convictions without being convicted of it yourself. It's borrowed theology. You hear me preach every Sunday and you feed on that, but you never read for yourself or study for yourself. You have borrowed maturity, borrowed generosity, borrowed spirituality. Here it is. Ananias wanted people to believe he was something he wasn't. And I think that lands hard in our church culture these days. There's too many people that want something without paying the price. And it reminds me of the story of David when he was offered something for free, and it was an altar to combat a plague that was coming as divine judgment. And David says, I will not take this without paying full price. And that is the heart of worship. There is no worship without sacrifice. There is no worship without paying the price. And sometimes that might be your comfort. Sometimes that might mean making a fool of yourself. Sometimes that might be opening your mouth and singing when you don't have a good voice, but you don't care. Because he is worthy. Point number two. The lie was bigger than they realized. What do I mean by that? Look at it in the text with me. Verse four. He asks, Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? He says, You have not lied to man but to God. And it also says earlier that he lied to the Holy Spirit. Total side tangent, but this is proof that the Holy Spirit is not an it, it is a he. He is the third person of the Trinity. He is God, he is Yahweh. The Holy Spirit was lied to, and God was lied to. Luke is doing us a favor and he's telling us the Holy Spirit is God. And so when you lie to the Holy Spirit, you're lying to God. And here's the thing: not only were they lying to the Holy Spirit, who were they lying to the first kind of area? The church. They were lying to the leadership of the church, and therefore they were lying to the Holy Spirit, and therefore they were lying to God, and they were judged. What does that mean? Think about Paul. We're going to be there in a few moments. When Paul is converted and he's confronted on the road to Damascus, and Jesus himself, the resurrected, risen King of glory, says, Paul, why are you persecuting me? And the question is, when was I persecuting you, Jesus? When you were persecuting the church, you are persecuting me. Why? Because the church is the body of Christ. I think we need to sit in that. He says, You have not lied to men, but to God. One commentary said it this way God takes the untruths we tell as personal offenses. God takes the untruths we tell as personal offenses. He is truth incarnate. Last time I checked, it was the other guy who was the father of lies. So if God is the father of truth and the other guy is the father of lies, when we Lie, when we are dishonest, when we are hypocritical, we are following a different path. And God is not someone who's like, ah, it's all right. He takes seriously our hearts, especially when it's done in his name. You may or may not know, but it feels like in the larger church culture, especially in the West, there is judgment. What do I mean by that? I think it's in one of the New Testament books. I think it's actually 1 Peter, where it says, judgment must begin in the house of God. Some of us are so worried in judging others, pagans, unbelievers, that we forgot that it says judgment should begin in the house of the Lord. What do I mean by that? This is exactly what I mean by that. Look at Acts chapter 5. Judgment began not out there, but in there. And I feel like if we want to see revival, if we want to see the things that happen right after this particular text, we must ask the Lord to search us and to know us and to ask him to create in our hearts a healthy fear of the Lord. Point number three. Following from the text, as we see, Satan attacks the church from without and from within. We just got finished a few weeks ago talking about the persecution. That was Satan's strategy to stop the church from without suffering, persecution. Those come from without as a means to stop the church. And as we read in the book of Acts, what happens? They're thrown in jail, they get released, they pray for even more boldness, and they continue. So now the strategy comes to attack from within. And as we'll see in a few weeks, when there's argument about food of all things, the scheme of the enemy is I'll attack from without, I'll attack from within through hypocrisy, and then I'll attack from within through simple distraction about trivial matters. But what we're reading about today is how Satan is attacking the church from within. The devil's first tactic was persecution from without. His second tactic that we see in the book of Acts is falsehood from within. Hypocrisy. Falsehood. Pretense. Presenting yourself as something that you are not. Does this happen in today's church? Your silence is either I'm wrong or I'm really right. How many churches have been torn apart through hypocrisy, deceit, and falsehood? Presenting themselves as something that they are not. And sometimes it is the person in the pulpit. They are presenting themselves as something, and then they are later found out not to be that. How? In our huddle, um, Evan likes this story. I like it too. He often shares it. You hang around Evan enough, and he will share this story most likely. It comes from a book on the fear of the Lord by John Bevere. And you guys remember what's his name? Jim Baker. You guys remember Jim Baker? Did some not nice things, ended up in jail. If you don't know who he was, he was a televangelist back in the 80s, I think. Money problems, marital problems, sin. And he's in prison and he's reading this book on the fear of the Lord. And he says, I have to talk with John Bever. I have to talk to him. And so he finally gets hold of him, and eventually he's like, I don't know, thank you. And he, but he feels like the Holy Spirit's like, you need to go talk to this guy. And so he goes in and talks to him, and he says, Hey, I just he's listening to his story and all that. Like, and he just gets to the point where he says, Listen, Jim, I gotta ask this question. When did you stop loving Jesus? And Jim says, I never stopped loving Jesus. And he's like, Really? Really? You never stopped loving Jesus? No, I never stopped loving Jesus. Kind of frustrated and angry. How? How? How can you say that? And he's like, John, I never stopped loving Jesus, but I stopped fearing him. Again, the Proverbs are clear. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. But you also see something happening within the church and within this text. If you look at it in Acts chapter 4 and in Acts chapter 2, the believers are filled with the Spirit. But in Acts chapter 5, they are filled with Satan. It's a counterfeit. And here's the big idea that you have to understand. We do have an enemy who wants to steal, kill, and destroy, but he's not that original. He has no creative power. So Satan counterfeits what God gives. Satan counterfeits what God gives. God graciously gave grace, graciously gave the Holy Spirit, graciously gave the power of God to change the world through the church. And so what does Satan do? He fills the heart of Ananias and Sapphira. And what we see is not truth but lies. Not glory to God, but approval of man. You see, God fills people with his spirit. Satan fills hearts with deception. God produces generosity. Satan produces hypocrisy. God creates unity. Satan creates division. God gives truth. Satan traffics in lies. God receives glory and Satan seeks human praise. So again, if there's part of you that longs for approval, longs for the praise of men, when you do something good, you're like, I want people to see me. And when they don't say anything, that's no one in here, though, right? Never. It's sometimes me preaching a sermon going, nobody said that was a good job. If you stop saying that, I'm gonna get more and more. And I'm just kidding. No. But we're all there, right? Our hearts. What do we long for? Well, hopefully that list helps you along the way. Are you longing for the approval of man or are you longing for the glory of God? And this morning, if that is you, there's room that today for repentance. But I want you to know that Satan cannot create, he can only counterfeit. But the truth of this text and this passage is clear. Satan fills, the spirit fills, but they're different feelings and they are therefore a different fruit. Do you understand? You have the fruit of the spirit, and you do have the works of the flesh. And so you are able to discern the two. Is this God or is this Satan? There's no other team. You're not on your own team. Can we just be clear? I'm on team John. No, you're not. Team Jesus, team Satan, which one? It's the fruit of darkness or it's the fruit of light. Which one? Jesus said it this way: you will know a tree by its fruit. So if you are seeing in your life cravings for approval, cravings for a reputation without the sacrifice, just know that's the flesh at work. Crucify the flesh, Paul says. Jesus says, follow me, deny yourself, take up your cross, and be my disciple. Different feelings, different fruit, but we want the fruit of the Spirit. Point number four, and this one is a big one. Secret sin threaten God's mission. Secret sin threatens God's mission. There's an interesting parallel here in Acts chapter five with Joshua chapter seven. Um F.F. Bruce said it this way: the story of Ananias is to Acts what the story of Achan is to Joshua. If you don't know the story of Achan, it should make you Achan. But, anyways, um, but here's here's the truth. The people of God are radically saved in Exodus. God delivers them. It's the equivalent of the gospel in the Old Testament. It's the first time we read the word salvation in the biblical text. God rescues them out of Egypt through the waters, baptism, sanctifies them in the wilderness, gets them to the river Jordan. They cross over and now they're taking their inheritance. It's a beautiful picture of sanctification. The first foe is anyone know Jericho? Anyone do Jericho marches in the old days? If not, we're never doing that here, so just don't get in your idea. But a Jericho march is in church, you would walk around and go, When the saints go marching in, when the saints go marching in. Oh, I want to be in that number. And they would just like keep going, right? For like an hour. Um, it's from this story. They go seven times, and then on the seventh day, they go seven times, they blow their trumpets, and the walls come tumbling down. Then their next opponent is AI. AI was a small town, it should have been easy. And they get routed and defeated. And they're like, what just happened? We just beat the most powerful foe in the area, and now we just got beat down by the freshman team. Like, what is happening? And so they inquire of the Lord, and he says, There's secret sin in the camp. Achan took some of the devoted goods that was supposed to be to worship God. He held it back. And so, why do I say that there's a connection? Because the Greek word that Luke uses here for um Acts chapter five, when Ananias kept back a portion, is the same word for Achan's sin. It means to pilfer or embezzle. He kept it back. So there is a direct connection between Achan's sin and Ananias' sin, and it makes sense because you see these two parallels. There should be a screen behind me with a table, but it shows you it's kind of hard to read, but I'll go over them. Um, in the first is Joshua, and then you have Acts. So you have a new people of God entering the land, the promised land, and then you have the church entering the world. And in the second one, you have Achan secretly stealing, and then you have Ananias secretly deceiving and stealing, and then you have sin inside the camp, and you have sin inside the church, and so judgment falls. If you don't know the rest of the story about Achan, him and his whole family are stoned and they are judged and killed, and then judgment falls on Ananias and his family, Sapphira. And so the mission is threatened here in A in Ai and Achan, and the mission is threatened in Ananias and Sapphira, and God deals swiftly and decisively so that the mission can go on. Because, as they said in the beginning, a dangerous holiness is God's response to a determined hypocrisy. Secret sin threaten God's mission. Do you have any? Do you have any? Is there anything in your life that you're holding back? But I'm not in leadership, Pastor. Ake wasn't either. But he still impeded the mission. God is holy. And so point number five is this. The fear of the Lord needs to be restored in the church. What does it say after both instances? It says, Great fear came upon the whole church. Here's what I want you to hear. There's a reason why the Proverbs say the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Because if you don't cultivate a healthy fear of the Lord, destruction is coming sooner or later. It may be immediate, like Ananias and Sapphira, or it may be in 10, 15 years when everything falls apart. But if you will not cultivate a healthy fear of the Lord, destruction is coming sooner or later, but it's coming. I want you to get this this morning. The fear of the Lord is not terror that drives us from God. It is awe that keeps us from playing games with God. This is not a game. Sin is not a game. Evangelism is not a game. The gospel is not a game. People's eternal zip codes are on the line. We're talking heaven or hell, salvation or judgment. This isn't for us to play games. But what about the grace of God? I thought Jesus was nice. I thought Jesus was like a hippie with flowers in his hair. Peace, love. Again, God is love. But love demands that God hate sin. Because sin destroys the very good creation that he purchased with his own life. And again, I want to draw your attention to Psalm 130, verses 3 to 4. If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you, there is forgiveness that you may be feared. Do you want to know the shortest path to cultivate a healthy fear of the Lord? The gospel. The gospel is the shortest path to the fear of the Lord. Not meditating on hell, not reading Dante's Inferno, not getting obsessed with the wrath of God. It's getting obsessed with Jesus and the gospel of God. Why? Why is the gospel the shortest path to the fear of the Lord? Because it's at the cross we see God's terrifying holiness toward sin. Anyone seen the passion of the Christ? Terrifying holiness towards sin. And together, God's astounding, unthinkable, scandalous love toward sinners. That's why the cross is God's wisdom. It's why the cross is the mystery of the ages. It's why we remember it every Sunday because it's at the cross. You see God's holiness and you see God's mercy, and they kiss at the cross. It's at the cross that we learn sin is worse than we imagine. We minimize sin. Oh, it's just a little lie. It's just a little porn. Oh, it's just a little, you know, immorality. It's just a little, you know, hypocrisy. Sin is worse than we imagine, and God is holier than we imagine. Infinitely more holy, and you are infinitely more sinful than you can even imagine. But the grace of God is greater than we have imagined. So when sin increases, the grace of God increases more. But if you take grace for granted and you just use it as a license to sin, you are spitting on the cross. Can you not see the Son of God and the Lamb of God slain, brutally murdered by his own subjects and creation? Can you not see him? And that's how God feels about your sin. How can you continue in your sin? How do you not love him? Is he not great? Is he not beyond your understanding? With him there is forgiveness. Therefore, he is feared in awe that God would somehow rescue me from my sin and rebellion. How could it be that God would mercifully die for me? How could it be? I am nothing. I am a dirt ball that is cosmically rebelled against the holy God, and yet God chose in his great love for me to send his son Jesus to take my price of sin for the wages of sin is death, to take my penalty, to take my punishment, and to absorb the wrath of God. How can we not? Because you see, when you understand this, it frees you from hypocrisy. Frees you. That's really at the root of it. You're terrified. If God really knew who I was, He wouldn't want me. He wouldn't love me. There's no way. So I have to pretend to be something that I'm not. That's the sin. Of Ananias and Sapphira. But the gospel says, I can admit exactly what I am because Christ is enough. Paul, the apostle, says, I'm the chief of all sinners. I don't think that means that dude was like, you know, robbing liquor stores and like, do you understand what I'm saying? I don't think he was out there just living the. I think he was like, I am a great sinner, but God in Christ is a great savior. And so he knew he was the chief of all sinners. And because he was the chief of all sinners, he was the chief of the champions of God's grace. And so he went all the way around the Mediterranean saying, the grace of God, the grace of God, it's amazing. One day you're going to write a song about it. You see. Oh that you would know the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because it is the shortest path to the fear of the Lord. With you, O Lord. If you were to keep a record of my sins, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness. And so therefore you are feared. Here's my prayer. Make us like Barnabas, not like Ananias. Barnabas understood the gospel of grace, and he gave generously and freely because he understood the great cost. Ananias was religious. And so he pretended and he performed. A church full of Barnabas becomes irresistible. A church full of Ananiases is dangerous. Lord Jesus, teach us the fear of the Lord. Let's pray.