morning. Lord, we thank you for it. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. So, Acts chapter four and starting in verse number thirty-two, the Bible says here, and the multitude of them that believe were of one heart and of one soul, neither said any of them that that of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things common. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 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 surname Barnabas, which is being interpreted the Son of Consolation, a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, having lame, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the Apostles' feet." Now, we will continue on further in this, but for now, we've got to clear up some things, we've got to look at some things. finances in the local church is always kind of a touchy subject just because everybody cares more about their pocketbook sometimes than about what the Bible says, and everybody gets a little bit tight-wound when you start talking about money, but this is a pretty simple truth, and it's a truth that you can see in a good Bible-believing church today, but the passage is misrepresented and misused often. of having all things common, this act of distributing as there was a need so that everybody was equal, this act was done within the local body of believers. It was not done within a body of government. It was not done within a council of churches. It was a local group that took took and pooled their resources and distributed it as there was need, and that's how that happened. That phrase, they had all things common, is falsely used to push socialism. You get preachers, you get people that try to use the Bible to push political ideologies, and that's not a very good idea. And this one is a pretty foolish one because, sorry, for one thing, this is clearly talking about a church, not a government. And so that's one thing. You cannot put the way of living that God puts into the church, you cannot force that on unsafe people. They will not abide it. You can't force unsafe people to live righteously by legislating it unless they fear punishment, because there's no way to force somebody. You can't get many Christians to live like Christians. much less getting lost people to look like Christians. And so, we gotta be careful with this whole thing of trying to make the government look like the Bible churches because that's not what government is for. Government is, we're not gonna get into all that. We might in the next coming weeks with the election, but for now, suffice to say, in reality of this passage, every man shows of his own free will to consider his things free to all. Now, people think about money when they think of this, but the Bible passage says the things that he owned. So, I think about this passage, and I think about when my car went bad, and Brother Ken let me borrow his farm truck for several weeks. He let me, he saw I had a need and he met the need with something he had. Many of you have exactly very similar stories where either you had a need or you were able to meet a need within the church. It wasn't just handing somebody a wad of cash, it was helping them in whatever way they needed with whatever access you had. And so it's a matter of a family of believers, a low body of believers, knowing how to support and help one another. There's no free handouts here. There's no slouching here. If you study it out, there's very, very, very particular, very, very stringent rules. about what the church is to do with its money when it comes to giving money to people. There's very strict guidelines about that. When it comes to a believer as an individual, if Brother Ken wants to give some money to somebody, that's how Brother Ken is. That's fine. But as a church body, there are some very tight rules and restrictions about how we distribute money. People call up churches and want bills paid. People call up churches and want help with their mortgage or help with whatever else. And the church is not the world's piggy bank. That's not what the church is for. Now, most churches have what's called a benevolence fund. And what that is is essentially an attempt at Acts chapter 4 verse 32 and that is where people will give money to this benevolence fund. Sometimes they fund it every couple of months with an offering, whatever they do. And then if somebody in the church, a believer, through no fault of their own, falls into financial hardship, that fund helps that person. But that's the thing, it's no fault of their own, they didn't drink themselves into debt, they didn't gamble themselves into debt, they were just honestly fell into hard times, medical bills, something, and so the church helps them out. The church isn't to bail people out for the punishment for their sin. The church isn't to fund people's addictions. That's not what the church is for our the church's money is is to be spent in much better ways than that So people get upset, you know, they expect the church. Why aren't you christians? Aren't you supposed to help me? uh, no, actually, we'll help you by giving you the gospel and and if you're a Faithful member of the church and you meet the qualifications laid forth in scripture, then we'll help you in other ways But we're just not going to hand out cash to everybody that needs it or else We can't send missionaries, we can't get the gospel out, and that's the job that we have. So that passage about having all things common, it's not pushing a socialist mindset. Everything was done willingly, everything was done on their own free will and desire, and it's not even particularly talking about people's money being shared, it's talking about people's possessions being shared. need a bag of flour. You need a bag of flour. Here's a bag of flour. You know, it's just a simple matter of the church working as one body to make sure that there's no parts that lack and no people that are left out. Uh so so it's not don't anybody ever tell you the Bible teaches socialism. It doesn't. Uh that's not the message for today but we can't get past that verse without at least mentioning uh how it's often That's one of the benefits of being an active part of the local body of believers is that those who handle finances know you and know your situation and and you can get to know other people and other believers. If I was if I was not a saint born again Christian in a body of believers, there's several times in my life where I wouldn't have known where to turn because I didn't have people that cared enough about me outside of the church. that would have done things for me that church people have done for me, that would have loaned me money, or loaned me a vehicle, or whatever it may be, as a federal body of believers, as a family of believers, we can help one another out, whereas if you're just off on your own, and you just don't go to church, and you're just not part of a local body of believers, you just believe that you can have church on your own in your house, Well, that's fine. Good for you. Now, you got nobody to lean on. You got nobody to help you out when you need help and you and you got nobody for you to help when they need help and and so we're supposed to be working together in this thing and uh that's a benefit of being part of a body of believers. You got you got a hard week. You have a terrible time. People can pray for you if you're a little body of believers. If you're just sitting at home having having church on the on the phone and watching the TV preacher, that guy's not and uh we we had so this is us uh listening to another pastor that I know, I heard a story about my pastor, not not pastor Summers, but pastor Jack Story, the one who started our church up in Michigan. Uh he he was he was the old time independent fundamental Baptist preacher. He was old enough that he could say and do whatever he wanted and nobody really cared. It was it was it was, you know, he's at that point. I'm looking forward to that age but but he at one point, this this preacher was sitting across the desk from from Pastor Story and they were talking in the phone ring and and Pastor Story answered the phone and he said, yeah. Uh huh. Well, call Oral Roberts then. He's your pastor and he hung up. And what happened was somebody called and wanted him to come and come to the visit him in a hospital or something and the person never would never would actually go to their church. They just watched Oral Roberts on TV or listen on the radio. And so the preacher was fed up with it. And he said, well, he's your pastor. Call him. And so it's that same concept, though. If you're not in a body of believers, if you don't have a local church that you go to, that you're faithful to, you miss out on that blessing, that benefit of having a pastor that cares for you by name, and friends and family within the church that care for you by name, that will come and visit you and do those things. If you just skip out on a church and try to do the online way and all that, Uh I get, you know, some people can't come but but there's a lot of people that don't come that could come and they they use the excuse. Well, I can just watch it on TV. Sure, you can watch it on TV while sitting in your in your pajamas and eating a bowl of ice cream. You can do that but you're not, you're going to miss out on a lot and that's one of the benefits and blessings you miss out on is is people helping one another within the body of It's just it's it's it's important to know, you know, people brought what they have people brought their their whatever the finances, whatever they have that they knew other people needed. They brought it to the to the men that were leadership in the church and they distributed as needed a couple reasons. One, not everybody knows everybody's situation and the person in charge typically knows more about each individual family than than one random person in the group. And so that's one reason for it. Also another reason for it is the person that is in charge, the person that is leading the group, like the apostles here or a pastor or a deacon, those people have a better idea of where the money would be best used. whether it be this family has a greater need than this other family, or if we give it to this family, they're not going to use it for their bills, they're going to go buy alcohol. So that's one of those things where you can donate to charities, you can do those things. A lot of charities out there don't actually give the money where you think it's going to go. It's like, you know, two cents on the dollar actually goes to what you think you're donating to. Especially around Christmas time, you get a lot of these charities that come out of woodworks and their CEOs have million-dollar salaries and live in mansions and you're just you're just paying their bills and two cents out of the dollar goes to the actual charity but why not give through your church you give through your local church and you know what you can look and see on the financial report every year exactly where your money went you can and you can you can say okay i'm giving to the church and i want this to go to missions and it'll get marked for missions and go to missions and so that's where you can give You know, if you're on the board with charities, that's fine. There's nothing wrong with that. But if you give through the church, you have more accountability of knowing, this is where my money is being spent, and you know that it's being spent on spiritual things and not just feeding someone or clothing someone. Both are good things, but neither will actually save someone's soul. And so, what's more important? So, the distribution was made by the apostles. the Church of Christ functioning in unity, helping each other, supporting each other. We're even given an example of a man doing just that, this Barnabas selling the land and going and giving it, laying the money at the Apostles' feet. And so we have that example, and from that example we go right into the next passage, the next chapter, and that's more well known of Ananias and Sapphira. And so, I love how the Word of God, it just lays it out, it doesn't go straight into Ananias and Sapphira and what they did. It starts with, here's Barnabas, he did this right, he did this thing, and then here's Ananias and Sapphira, let's see what they did, verse 1 of chapter 5. But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold the 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 has Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of land? Whilst it remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thy 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 upon all them that heard these things. And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him. And it was about the space of three hours after when his wife, when his wife not knowing what was done came in. And I've heard all kinds of Baptist jokes about the wife coming into church three, three hours later than the husband, but we'll, we'll forego those for this morning. Verse number eight, Peter answered under her, tell me whether he sold the land for so much. And she said, yay, 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 then came in, and found her dead, and carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things. I would say so. People get excited about healing services. How about service like that? Somebody comes in, lies to the Holy Spirit, falls down dead. Your wife comes in three hours later, does the same thing, falls down dead. And you can imagine, I wonder what that did to attendants the next week. People are like, I'm not going there, man. People die at that place. this passage just just as the passage in the chapter before is falsely taught to teach this socialist narrative of everybody needs to give everybody everything until everybody's equal. All you need to have is an eighth grade knowledge of history to know that the only equality that happens with socialism is everybody's equally destitute and poor, except for the elite on top, and we won't get into that, but that's what is taught falsely out of chapter four sometimes, but then the opposite is taught sometimes out of chapter five, and that is if you don't give enough money to the church, God's gonna break your legs, God's gonna make your kids sick, God's gonna do all these different things to you, And there's churches that are guilty of this. There's denominations that are guilty of this. There's Baptists that are guilty of this mindset of, if you don't pay up, you're gonna get in trouble with God. And they have to ignore the context of Scripture to pull that out of this passage because the passage says what their crime was. Their crime wasn't how much money they gave. They gave a part of land that they sold. They had no obligation to do that. study out giving in the New Testament, which we'll look at in a moment, they have no obligation at all to give anything of that money. Their crime was lying to the Holy Spirit. Twice it said that. They were lying to the Holy Ghost, tempting the Holy Ghost. That was their crime. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter number 9. 2 Corinthians chapter number 9. This is not a popular teaching, I guess, especially among Independent Fundamental Baptist Churches, but this is what the Bible teaches, so we'll forget what other people say. 2 Corinthians 9, verse number 7. Every man, according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver. Now, all my life, all my life until, you know, till till my last pastor, Pastor Summers, I've I've heard the 10% rule. We give 10% of your time to the church and and that rule comes from the Old Testament all the way back to Abraham with with the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and all that and way back and often throughout the Old Testament you see this 10% rule applied and there's nothing wrong with the 10% rule but when it comes to New Testament Christians the rule that is given is right here the rule is as you purpose in your heart that's how you get it could be 5% it could be 10% it could be 50% whatever you can give with a cheerful heart and a and a good attitude, that's what you're supposed to give. Now, there is no, there's no allowance here for zero percent because it's so let him give, you know, there's there's gotta be a percentage there. There's gotta be something but I don't see anything in the New Testament that says this exact amount or more or else you're so there are times in your life where it is easy for you to give 20% but you don't because you've always been taught 10% and there's times in your life where you where you have to skip paying some of your bills and and and commit sin in not of not obliging to your to your debts in order to make 10% but you do that because you were taught 10% if we'll just forget the number and give as we're able and That's how we're supposed to do it. Now, people say, when Pastor Summers first preached this message, some other preacher heard it online. He called him up. He told him, your church is going to close within five years if you keep preaching that because people will stop giving. That church has since, I believe, put over $100,000 into the Faith Promise Missions almost every year. And I mean, there's no money problems there. The problem is if this 10% rule has been preached so much and hammered so much that there's no room for God to work on people's hearts. It's like having a church service where every single thing that's going to happen in the service is already laid out in the bulletin and there's no deviating from it. You remove the ability of the Holy Spirit to do anything. And it's the same concept in a lot of people's lives. They think this 10% rule is the rule and you can't give any more or any less than that. It's 10%. That's what God wants. and so there's no room for the lowest period to do anything. I think people should use that as a starting point if they're at all able to with their finances, start with 10% and if the Lord allows you to give more, you give more. If you can't do 10% this month or else you're gonna miss a payment on something and you've been not wasting money and you've been just falling on hard times, you got a medical bill or something, God's not gonna break your legs if you go a little while without paying X amount of money in tithes. And so, so you gotta be careful. You don't go to either extreme with this whole money thing. The Bible is very clear that God loves a cheerful giver, not a giver that is forced to give a certain percent. Now, should we love to cheerfully give? Yes. But it's a lot easier to cheerfully give when you have money to give and you don't have to sell something in order to give money to the church that way. So we're not going to get into that too much because that'll just ruin the whole message for some people. But that's the thought. You don't want to go too far to the left. You don't want to go too far to the right. You want to go right down the middle where the Bible goes and say, as you purpose in your heart, so let them get it. That's the mindset, that's the concept of giving in the New Testament Church. There, again, there's no zero percent. It says, so let him give, not so let him choose to let other people give. But we don't have that problem here. We have very, very generous, very giving people at this church. As far as I know, I don't stick my nose into that. I don't know who gives what, and I don't want to know. But I know that our bills are paid every week, and it's a blessing. So, we get to Acts chapter 5 and verse 12. We get through all that money junk, and through all the Ananias and Sapphira, and the fallen down dead at the door, and all that fun stuff. And now we get to Acts 5.12, and again, just like it has happened in chapter 2, chapter 3, and chapter 4, we see in Acts chapter 5 Another instance of great things happening is chapter 5, verse number 12. And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people. And they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch. And the rest, there's no man joined himself to them, but the people magnified them. And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women. insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks and them which were vets with unclean spirits, and they were healed every one. I'd love to just park on that for a little bit, but I won't for too long. I will say, though, they were healed every one. doesn't make any mention of how much faith they had or how much money they had. They didn't get coats waved at them, and if they didn't have enough faith, they didn't get healed. That's not... Faith healers of today are charlatans. It's not the way it works. When God healed people, he healed everybody that needed healing. You don't find the Lord saying, well, I'm going to heal you, but I'm not going to heal you, and I'm going to heal you, but I'm not going to heal you. When Christ came to town, when the apostles came to town, people that needed healed got healed. And there was no vetting process like you have today in some of these mega healing events, and they didn't need They didn't need some hypnotic lead up service of lights and sounds and all these different things to try and get people into the right attitude and spirit and worked up in order to have the Holy Spirit move. They just walked into a place and the Holy Spirit would move because it wasn't fake. It wasn't manufactured. You start looking into how each of how these modern healing services go and how they are put on and just even the schedule of it, the music, everything is put together in such a way to put people into a trance and to get them to to be in such a position where when you wave your coat over the crowd, they follow. And there's a reason that when you see videos of these services, the people that are closest to the front are the people that are flopping on the ground and falling over, and the people that are far away from everything happening are unaffected and looking on like, what in the world is going on here? Because it's designed that way. But here, everyone was healed. Everyone was cleansed of evil spirits, all that. Verse 17, then the high priest, rose up and all they that were with him, which is the second of the Sadducees and were filled with indignation. That's a burning hatred. Indignation is not just mad, not just angry, not just hateful. They were, they were crazy mad because people were being healed and evil spirits were being cast out. Religious people can get a little bit of priorities mixed up sometimes. Just because somebody is not your particular type of preacher or your particular flavor, if they're preaching the truth from the Word of God and things are happening that are good, we have people that will pile on, especially in our denomination. There's people that will pile on, talk about how terrible that person is, how horrible that ministry is, and they can't point to one single doctrinal problem. They just don't like that that guy's ministry is being blessed and theirs isn't. Uh it's it's pretty pretty sad and pretty juvenile but it happens. It happens all the time and you you see anybody posted on Facebook about some revival of the Baptist Church and and here comes the skeptics and the scoffers saying, well, they must have done this. They must have done that. They must not be preaching the truth. No, they're just being blessed by god and and maybe you're not because the attitude you have. I don't know but uh but here we see uh these these priests, these high priests, these religious people, they hear about all this good stuff going on. They say, Verse 18, they laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison, but the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors and brought them forth and said, go stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life. And when they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the morning and taught, but the high priest came and they that were with him called the council together and all the senate of the children of Israel and sent to the prison to have them brought. But when the officers came and found them not in the prison, they returned and told, they returned and told, saying, the prison truly found we shut with all safety, and the keepers standing without before the doors. But when we had opened, we found no man within. Now when the high priest and the captain of the temple and the chief of priests heard these things, they doubted themselves where into this would grow. So, their immediate concern was, oh no, this is going to get them more and more popularity. Verse twenty-five, Then came one and told them, saying, Behold, the men whom ye put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people. Then went the captain with the officers and brought them without violence, for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council, and the high priest asked them, saying, Did not we straightly command you, saying that ye should not teach in this name? Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. So, so here we have these men, they have, they have arrested them again, jailed, they're jailed again, they get out, they're preaching again, and now they're they're arrested again and they're going before the council again, just over and over and over and and we get to this we get to this this group of people that are laying down and the apostles break that rule. Verse number 29, then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. Now, we don't have time to read all of it this morning, but there's a simple rule when it comes to governing bodies, councils, laws, ordinances. In Romans 13, verses one through seven, and in first Peter two, verses 13 and 15. Let's go ahead and hold our place in Acts chapter 6. We'll turn to the 1 Peter chapter 2 passage. There's a simple concept that some of us struggle with, myself included sometimes, because we just, you know, got a little bit of rebel in us, but the Bible is the Bible whether we enjoy the passage or not. 1 Peter chapter 2 verse number 13, The Bible says, Submit yourself to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king supreme, or to governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well. That, or unto governors, has probably been preached on quite a bit lately. Verse 15, So for so is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, as free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. that verse 16 is what a lot of people have been guilty of lately of saying, well, I'm a Christian and so I'm not going to obey this. You're not supposed to use your liberty in order to disobey and to do things like that when it's not something that goes against God. We are to obey. We are to submit to authority when that authority is not superseding God, when that authority is not telling us you can't read your Bible, you can't pray, you can't preach in the streets, you can't witness to your neighbor, when that authority is not telling us to do something against God's will, whether we like it or not, I would love to drive 60, 70, 80 miles an hour, whatever speed I want to on the roads. I love that, to be able to just go choose my speed and go. But I can't, because God tells me in His Word to obey God, I need to obey the ordinances of men. And there's no Bible reason for me to speak. There's no Bible reason for me to say, well, that ordinance of man is not for me, I'm a Christian. And so speeding is one. You could look at a whole bunch of them. Paying your taxes. Romans chapter 13 verse one through seven talks specifically about rendering your dues to the government. Paying your taxes. There's no Bible reason for you to say I'm not going to do that. There's some famous people that have tried doing that and they end up ruining their testimony. And that's the entire reason for the passage teaching us to obey these ordinances is to keep our testimony intact and to put to silence the foolishness of ignorant men by well-doing. Us doing right, us obeying, us being a good citizen, helps our witness for Christ. Now, obviously, there comes points in your life, potentially, maybe in America, where there may be a time where we have to stand up and say, no, there's a line and you just crossed it. We're going to keep our church open. And we did that. When it came time, we were supposed to close down. We opened on Easter. We've been open ever since. We haven't had any problems. Thank the Lord. We haven't had any coronavirus. We haven't had any cops coming in after us. We haven't had any issues. But across the country, there have been churches that have been fined, there have been people that have been jailed, and so there's a point where it becomes more than, is it just me being rebellious and not wanting to do it, or is there a viable reason to stand up and say no to this? When it comes to authority, we are to uh we are to obey god by obeying authority until that authority tries to get us to disobey god is that clear to everybody everybody kind of on on par with that if the government says pay fifty percent in taxes You can say, that's stupid, I don't want to do that, and that's stupid, and it's going to ruin the country, and I agree with that, but there's no viable reason to say I'm going to rise up and overgrow and do all this, because they're just not, I mean, it's not right, it's wrong, but it's not something that is anti... Scripture if the government says you can't drive red cars You can't wear red shirts to the polling place because that's voter intimidation or something like that It can be a dumb rule. It can be a dumb law, but it's not something where you can say Well, I'm going to rebel against this law and do what I want to do because I'm a Christian That's the opposite of what the Bible is teaching here So we got we got to make sure that we are making our decisions not based on our own desires What is what is what God wants me to do here? simple simple matter. The fact of the matter is when you stand before god, if you have disobeyed a law of man, is god going to say, thank you for doing that or is god going to say, why did you do that? You just ruined your testimony for a whole bunch of people by just being arrogant. Uh so so that's a pretty easy way to to look at it. Alright, we got very little time here to get to where I want to get Acts Well, let's just look at the response. Verse 29, Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We also will be God rather than man. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom he slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. This message, they're accused of civil disobedience, we'll call it. And they have a threefold response, and this response is amazing. This is a good response for you and for me. First response, God is the greater authority. We're going to obey God over man. That's the first response. Second response, you are guilty before God. They told him, you slew him and hung him on a tree. You guys are guilty. Third response, he'll forgive you. So, so they say, you know, when God is, God is greater than you, we're going to obey God. You are standing guilty before God right now, but God sent a son to bring forgiveness and repentance to Israel. They're a part of Israel, so you can have forgiveness. It's exactly the three things that, that the world needs to hear and believe in order to be saved. That there is a God that is greater than all. 1 Kings 8.60 tells us that there's one God and that there is none else. All the earth may know that I am the Lord and there is none else. John 3.30, he must increase but I must decrease. Exodus 18, John 10.29, there's passages all over your Bible that tell you that our God is above all men, that our God is above all little g gods, that our God is supreme. So, you have to come to that realization that God is greater than me, God is greater than all, and he is in charge of all, in control of all, and he is the rightful ruler. You have to come to that point. If you're ever gonna be saved, you have to get to that point to realize there is a God and he is in charge. You have to get to the second point of, I'm guilty before him. I'm guilty before him. Ecclesiastes 7 tells us that there's not a just man upon the earth that doeth right. We can look at Romans, we can look at Psalms, James. Go ahead and turn to James 2.10. We'll look at that one. James 2.10. Got a couple minutes here. James 2.10. For whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. That's a good verse to show somebody if they don't believe that they've done bad enough to go to hell. Because the Bible says you mess up in one area of the law, you're guilty of it all, because all it takes is one sin to earn that punishment for sin, which is death and hell. And so so that's a good good verse uh among very many others in the Bible that show us Romans five twelve through twenty-one all tells us and shows us that we stand guilty before god but Romans five twelve through twenty-one also teaches and tells us that we have that forgiveness available to us though we stand guilty before god. Um turn to Romans chapter ten and verse number nine. This will be our last second to last stop. We'll go back to Acts for one more verse. Romans So we have to come to the realization that there is a God and He is greater than all. We have to come to the realization that we stand guilty before Him. And we have to come to the realization that He will forgive us for that sin. Romans chapter 10 verse number 9. that thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised thee from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. There is no difference Between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's a good passage. It's a good verse to underline, memorize. Very clear that not only there is a God and he is greater than all, and that all men stand guilty before him, but thank the Lord he is willing to forgive us. Turn back to Acts chapter five, and we'll read our last verse here. and will be done for the Sunday school hour. I wish I could preach a lot longer. I've got a bunch of verse references for each one of these points, but it's amazing to see how the apostles just seamlessly work the gospel message into so many different aspects of the book of Acts. Here, they're accused of, you know, they're saying, we told you not to do this and you're doing it anyways and they bring in this fact that hey, god's greater than you. You're guilty before god and god will forgive you. They bring that right into their response and and so they they preach even when they're being persecuted. It's a good example for us. Verse uh thirty-two of Acts chapter five and we are his and so is also the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him. So that they give that threefold response, God is greater than you, we're going to obey God, you are guilty before God, you slew Christ and hung him on a tree, and God is willing to forgive you, bring repentance to Israel, and then they say, we are his witnesses. That should be a goal of every Christian, to be able to honestly and with a clean conscience say, I am his witness. I am the witness. I have seen the grace of God in my life. mercy and the forgiveness and the love of god in my life because he saved me. I have witnessed that and so I'm going to be a witness for him to you. That should be our goal as Christians. These men are arrested over and over and over again. They're hated, threatened, jailed, and and yet, there will be even worse that happens to them and yet, they keep and even when they're standing before the councils and before the courts they just they just work the gospel message into everything that they say and do and that is a wonderful example for you again for me all right let's pray lord thank you for this day thank you for your work thank you for the book of acts so we can see uh more of these acts of the holy spirit through the apostles and all that all that they did all that were they were accomplished for you Lord, help us to be encouraged by that. Help us that persecution ever does come to be able to stand up and and preach to our persecutors and to be able to stand up and pray for our persecutors to be able to sing in the jailhouses. We'll see in a few weeks uh lord to be able to do that all things in a way that honors and glorifies you lord help us to give the uh to have the wisdom to know when to obey governments and when to disobey lord help us to have your word be the guide and not just our own feelings or opinions and lord of our of ourselves and of our finances to you. We love you and you still be great. Amen.