Living Supernaturally or Superficially | Part 1

Are you living supernaturally or superficially? Listen to this Truth Network Podcast. In Acts chapter 5, the early church was in the blaze of revival. However, the devil crafted a new attack from within the church through Ananias and Sapphira. Considering this grave warning, each of us must ask ourselves if we are true in our faith or if we've been deceived by false religion. If you have your Bible, turn now to Acts chapter 5 as Adrian Rogers reveals the truth behind living supernaturally or superficially. Find the book of Acts.

Turn, if you will, to chapter 5. There are two great forces that are working against your life and the life of this church. They are orchestrated by Satan himself. One is persecution.

The other is hypocrisy. And these forces are working against every church. The early church faced both of these.

And we will face both of these. Now, the devil with the early church at first had tried intimidation and that did not work. He tried to persecute the early church and all that did was to drive these Christians to their knees. And so he came back again and he said, well, if I cannot attack from the outside, I will attack from the inside. If intimidation and persecution doesn't work, then I'll get inside and I will attack the church. Now, I want to say that the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, the early church and this church, has been hurt far more by hypocrisy, lukewarmness, and superficiality than by persecution. Do you believe that?

I believe that with all of my heart. Did you know that the Lord had rather have you out and out against him than lukewarm, pretending to be for him? Jesus said, I would that you were hot or cold. So then, because you neither hot nor cold but lukewarm, I will spew thee out of my mouth. That literally means you make me sick at my stomach enough to vomit.

Because you neither hot nor cold but lukewarm, I will spew you out of my mouth. The Lord had rather have you out and out against him than to have you pretending to be for him and yet truly, really denying him. Today I want to lift up a red flag of warning against superficial religion. I believe that Satan is in the corner smiling when people put doubts in the minds of little children concerning the word of God.

Read the book of Genesis. When Satan first crawled his slimy, corroding path onto the pages of history, he put a question mark after the word of God and said, yea, hath God said? What is his word for it? My friend, anybody, whether he's a pastor, a professor, whether he is a political leader, anybody who puts a question mark after the word of God is doing the work of Satan. I thank God for Bible-believing churches. But if you're a member of a church that doubts the word of God, you need to saturate that church with your absence. You say, well, Grandma's buried in the backyard.

Well, she'd get up and leave too if she could. I'll guarantee you. The book of Acts is the story of the early church. And the early church believed in the word of God. Now, I want to give you two things to be aware of and two things to be sure of.

Okay? Number one, beware of the pretended devotion of superficial religion. Now, let's begin to read. But a certain man named Ananias with Sapphira, 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 apostles' feet. 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? While it remained, was it not thine own?

And after it was sold, was it not in thine own land? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and gave up the ghost, and great fear came on all them that heard these things. And the young men arose and wound him up and carried him out and buried him. And it was about the space of three hours after, when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in. And Peter answered unto her, tell me whether he sold the land to the Holy Ghost.

And she said, Yea, for so much. Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out. Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost.

And the young men came in, found her dead, and carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon all the church, and as many as heard these things. Now, beware of pretended devotion.

Look, if you will, in verse 36 and 37. 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. Barnabas had a piece of property. He sold it. He took all the money.

He said, Here you are, Peter, James, John. Take this money. Do with it as you will. There it is.

Use it. Now, Barnabas was doing it to show off. It was a gift motivated by love. Now, he was letting his light shine, however, before men. And men saw his good works, and they glorified God in heaven. Now, Ananias and Sapphira were there. They saw what Barnabas had done. They saw how the people glorified God.

They saw how the people talked about Barney and what a great guy he was. They said, You know, we like to bask in some of that sunlight. Sapphira, we have a piece of property. Why don't we sell this piece of property? We'll take the money and bring it to the church. Well, do you think we ought to give all of it? Well, they don't know how much we sold it for. We'll tell them that's all we got for the property, and we can keep part of it, but we'll get credit for giving everything.

Nobody knows how much we sold it for, so we'll just say, Hey, Pete, here's the money we got from the property. It's all there. We're giving everything to the Lord.

Well, it was a lie. It was a devotion. It was a devotion they did not have. Now, what made them do that?

What is behind all superficial and hypocritical religion? P-R-I-B-E, pride. Pride. They wanted to be praised. They wanted to be petted.

They wanted to be adulated. They wanted to be looked up to, and it was pride that did this. Now, the Bible says, Why hath Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Ghost? Satan's chief tool is pride.

Now, listen to me very carefully. Pride is such a dangerous thing. The root of their sin was pride. The fruit of their sin was grace. What is grace? Grace is the desire and the ability to do the will of God.

That's what grace is, both the desire and the ability to do the will of God. Now, when a man is filled with pride, do you know what happens to him? He does not receive the grace of God because God gives grace to the humble. Now, when a man is full of pride, grace is withdrawn, and God sets up a barricade against that man. He resists the proud. Now, that's bad enough, but now go down to verse 8, 1 Peter 5, verse 8, Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, goeth about seeking whom he may devour.

Can you imagine an individual like this, devoid of the grace of God, God resisting him, Satan circling to devour him? That's what pride does. Nothing puts a person more out of the reach of Satan than genuine humility.

But what happened to Ananias and Sapphira? How could Satan fill their hearts to lie to the Holy Ghost? Pride. The root of their sin was pride. Their sin was not that they failed to give everything. They didn't have to give everything.

There was no command that they should give everything. Peter makes that very clear. Look, if you will, in verse 4 of this chapter.

Watch it. Peter says, While it remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own power?

You could do with it what you wanted. You didn't have to give it all. What was their problem? Not that they failed to give it all. Their problem was they pretended a devotion they did not have.

Question. Are you sitting in this church this morning pretending a devotion to Jesus Christ that you do not have? God did not command that they give it all. What you do not freely give, God neither needs nor wants. What you do not freely give, God neither needs nor wants. You're not helping God out. God owns the world. God is not going to extort anything from you.

Peter said, Look, it was in your hands. You could give it or you could withhold it. Now, it was their right to keep back some if they wanted to. But they played the hypocrite. Jesus' sternest words were given to the hypocrites. And I've asked myself this question sincerely as I prepared this message. Adrian, do you pretend a devotion to Jesus Christ that you do not have?

I've settled that in my own heart. All to Jesus. I surrender. All to him I freely give. You sing that.

Is it true? Or have you, son, take my silver and my gold? Not a mite would I withhold. And we hold it with all our might. That's the Ananias and Sapphira sin. Have you, son, faith of our Father's holy faith? We will be true to thee till death. And then deny the Lord Jesus Christ by our actions, our lives, not even faithful to the house of God when it's worship time. We'll be true to thee till death. I believe there are a lot of modern day Ananias and Sapphira in our congregation. Amen?

Perhaps so may. Second point. Now look, beware of the pretended devotion of superficial religion. Number two, beware of the premeditated deception of superficial religion.

Now the key word is premeditated. Now all of us sometimes have said things that we ought not to have said. All of us sometimes have spoken of devotion that we do not have. All of us sometimes have told an untruth. Later on we have to confess it.

We didn't think about it. Somebody called in the middle of the night. Or maybe early in the morning.

About five-thirty and they say, did I wake you up? Oh no, no, no, no. Liar. But I mean you weren't thinking about it. And you just said no, no, no, no you didn't. That's not a premeditated lie.

I'm not saying there's anything good about that. But I want you to notice what we're talking about here. We're talking about premeditated deception. Look in verses three and four. 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? While it remained, was it not thine own? And after it was soul, was it not thine own?

Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. Now he had lied to the Holy Ghost.

Now this was not a casual lie. Satan put the lie in their heart. But they made room for the lie. Satan said, hey, Ananias, Sapphira, tell them you gave everything. Satan put that in their heart. Did you know every lie originates with Satan? Every lie originates with Satan.

You ever tell a lie? It's satanic. Put this verse down. John chapter 8 and verse 44. Jesus speaking to the Pharisees who had superficial religion said, you are of your father the devil.

The lust of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth, because there's no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. He is the spawner of all lies. He, Satan, is a liar and he's the father of it. Whenever you tell a lie, listen to me, teenagers, listen to me, businessman, listen to me. Whenever you tell a lie, you're acting like the devil.

Proof, John 8, 44. He is a liar and he is the father of it. Now, what the Holy Spirit is doing now is revealing the seriousness of this premeditated deception. Verse 3, Peter said, why has Satan put it in your heart to lie to the Holy Ghost? It is serious to tell a lie.

It is more serious to tell a lie to a judge. It is most serious to lie to God. Now, if you can tell a lie, don't lie to God. You see, not only is it serious when you lie to the Holy Ghost, but it's foolish. You see, the Holy Spirit was there when the plot was hatched. The Holy Spirit was there when the land was sold. The Holy Spirit was there when the money was counted. The Holy Spirit was there when the gift was made. He saw it all and now they are lying to the Holy Ghost. Now, friend, it was a conspiracy. It was premeditated. Later on, Peter asked Sapphira, did you agree to this?

She said yes. What this was, listen, it was a direct challenge to God. A direct challenge to the Holy Ghost. That's the reason that Peter said, you've not lied unto men, but unto God.

I would not advise you to try this. I told our forerunners about something I read about a woman out in San Diego. She was sitting out in front of the supermarket, the windows in a car rolled up, a very hot day, the engine off. She's sitting there with her car doors locked, her hands behind her head like this, her eyes closed.

Somebody looked at her and thought, well, perhaps she's meditating, relaxing, but she's sitting there for an inordinately long time. They thought maybe she's in trouble. Somebody pecked on the window and said, do you need any help? She nodded her head. Said, are you in trouble? She nodded her head. They said, would you unlock the door? She said, no. They shook her head this way.

Do you want us to break in? She nodded her head. They got an axe, broke the wind and said, what's wrong? She said, I have been shot. She said, I'm holding my hands behind my head to keep my brains in.

They investigated. She had bought a can of Pillsbury biscuits. She put them in the back of the car. The heat caused them to explode. It sounded like a gunshot, a wad of biscuit dough.

It hit her in the back of the head. She has her hands around a biscuit, holding her brains in. You've got biscuits for brains. I'm going to tell you something. Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Ghost? You can't lie to him. Premeditated deception.

I wouldn't advise you to try that. Pretended devotion, premeditated deception. Here's the third thing.

Two things to be aware of. Be sure of the penetrating detection of superficial religion. God, the Holy Spirit, told Peter that Ananias and Sapphira were lying. Now, Peter was different than we. Peter was an apostle. And God spoke to Peter. And Peter declared the word of God. The word of God was in the mouths of these apostles. You know, the Bible says in Hebrews 4-12, the word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, dividing asunder between soul and spirit, penetrating, penetrating to the thoughts and the intents of the heart. Oh, there's the penetrating power of the word of God. If my heart were on display, if you could see, I'm talking about my spiritual heart.

There it is. There is every secret in his heart. There's the things that nobody else knows about, but they're right up there. You want your heart up there for everybody to see? No secrets. Now, the Bible teaches one of these days that's going to happen. The Bible says one of these days, our hearts are going to be put on display. There's nothing hidden that will not be revealed.

Things that are spoken in secret will be shouted from the housetop. And one of these days, those things are going to be made known. Now, listen. Peter, with penetrating insight, saw that sin. It's only a matter of time.

Listen. It is only a matter of time until hypocritical and half-hearted religion and pretended devotion will be made manifest. Paul said, when our Lord comes, he's going to make known the hidden counsels of men's hearts. Perhaps there are things in your heart you don't even know are there. One of these days, God's x-ray vision is going to look into your heart and my heart.

And there are things, perhaps, we don't even know that are there, but I'm telling you, there is a penetrating insight that God has. Are you willing, are you willing to ask God, the Holy Spirit, to put the searchlight into your heart right now? Search me, O God, and know my heart?

Try me and see if there'd be some wicked way in me. Do you know what I do not want in my heart and in my life? I don't want hypocrisy. I do not want to preach something I don't practice. I don't want to say something I don't believe. And constantly, I'm saying, it's true, I want to be pure, and therefore I put myself in God's x-ray in the mornings.

Do you do that? Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and see if there'd be some wicked way in me.

There is, dear friend, the penetrating detection, if not now, later on. If you'd like to order a copy of today's message in its entirety, call us at 1-877-LOVEGOD. Mention the title, Living Supernaturally or Superficially. This lesson's also part of the insightful series, Living Supernaturally. For the complete collection, all 13 powerful messages, call that number 1-877-LOVEGOD, or you can order online at lwf.org slash radio.

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Here's an encouraging note from one of our Facebook friends. Pastor Rogers was an extraordinarily sound teacher who's given me so much insight. I truly enjoy his messages and his distinct voice. I thank God that I was introduced to his teachings years prior to his passing and am still able to listen through Love Worth Finding. We love sharing these messages and resources and creating opportunities for you to share and grow in your faith. When you donate to the ministry this month, we want to thank you with a copy of God's Wisdom is Better Than Gold. The book of Proverbs is filled to the brim with gems of wisdom and principles meant to be God's guide to living. In this book, Adrian Rogers studies these precious insights straight from the word of God. Request a copy of God's Wisdom is Better Than Gold when you call 1-877-LOVEGOD or give online at lwf.org slash radio.