Welcome to a firm foundation presented by Princeton Ministries with Dr. Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith, Ken’s wife. Please enjoy.

Sidney Harris, this week in a syndicated column spoke about a survey that was done by the World Almanac and Book of Facts done in the last several months. Some 2000 8th graders across America were surveyed. They were asked the question, who do you most admire and want to grow up and be like? Who do you most admire and want to grow up and be like? Number one, Burt Reynolds. The most frequently named people on the list, Richard Pryor, Alan Alda, Steve Martin, John Belushi. And in the top 30 names, there was not one statesman, not one author, not one architect, not one scientist, not one educator, not one clergyman, not one lawyer to be listed in the top 30 of those who are the heroes of our youth.

It should come as no surprise, either when George Gallup studied the churches where the word of God was taught, 43% of the children were unable to correlate the meaning of Easter with anything religious. Who is it that influences you and me the most? Come with me back to a time when the nation of the Jews as a people, had been in bondage for some three to 400 years. And in the midst of that bondage, God raises up a man, Moses, and you’re there. You’re a Jew. And you know what it’s been like for all of those years, being in slavery. And Moses says, the Lord has instructed me that it is now time for freedom. And you hear the report. Moses has gone to talk to Pharaoh, and he comes back and he says, pharaoh won’t let us go.

The Lord’s going to send plagues. And you’re a Jew, and you see the plagues, and you know that you have been spared. Why? Simply because the word of God said, I’m going to spare my people. And then the Lord says, it’s time to go and cross into the land that I’ve promised you. And you’re there, and you see a sea split, and you walk across on dry ground, and you hear Moses say, it was the word of God that brought us here, nothing else. Don’t look to me as the source. Look to the Lord. And no sooner are you in the land and you begin to complain. You say, I wish we had the onions, the apples and the fruit, the raisins and the bread. I wish I were back in the land of slavery. I wish we had some meat.

And Moses, the man who has the word of God, prays. And he says, God, send them meat, fill their stomachs, and you’re in the camp when the quail fly in, and you gathered the quail, and you were there when the tabernacle of the Lord leads the people. And in the daytime, you can see the cloud of smoke that’s over that tabernacle. And when that tabernacle moves, you moved. And if at night that Tabernacle moved, there was a fire, and you saw the fire and you followed that tabernacle. Why? Because the word of God had instructed you. And with that background, there rises up from the people, a man named Korah, a friend named Dathan, and another Abiram. And Korah comes to Moses, the man with the word from the Lord, and he says, you’ve been taking your position too seriously.

As a matter of fact, we all are Jews, and we all are equally called by the Lord. Why is it that you have exalted yourself above the rest of us? And Moses prays for. And then he says, korah, tomorrow you come back. You come back with your incense holders, and you say, it’s 250 men, well-known men from the congregation who support you. Is that right? That’s right. Well, you bring those 250 men here tomorrow, and you have all of them hold their incense holders, and tomorrow we’ll see who the Lord wants to speak through. The next day, Korah, his friends, and 250 of what the scriptures say were the most well-known men of the congregation came forward, and Moses said, I want to get this straight. You want to go through with this?

Shall we see this day who the Lord is going to use? Korra says, yes. And Moses prays, God, we know that everyone dies in some form, but on this day, show by death in an unnatural way who it is that you speak through and who it is who follows your word. And as soon as Moses concluded that prayer, the scriptures tell us that the people were separated from Korah and his friends. And the Lord instructed, Korah, Datum Abiram, stand over there. Take your families, take your children, take your little ones and all of your servants and the rest of the congregation, separate yourself from them. And instantly, the scriptures say, the earth opened up, and all of those men and their families fell down into the pit and were consumed, and that the ground then covered over them.

And the 250 men who were well known in the congregation, the Lord sent fire from heaven, and all 250 of those men were consumed, and the people were full of fear. You would think, wouldn’t you, that having gone through the Red Sea and seen quail and watched the cloud of smoke, that by that point, the people would have figured out this. Moses knows something about the word of God, and we better follow him. Do you know that has always been, from the beginning, the way the Lord has directed his church and his people. It is the choice that every one of us makes every day. Whose word am I going to live by? My word, my insights, my experience? Or am I going to live by the word of God? You see, Korah and his followers really thought they had something.

They really thought that they had insight, that their experience was giving them knowledge. There’s one thing that they did not rely on. That was the word of God. The word of God that was revealed to them, but they chose not to follow it. Our second text is from the book of acts, chapter five. A man by the name of Joseph became so well known in the church, by his encouragement, by his sense of wanting to help people, that this man, Joseph, sold his property, and he gave it to the church. This is early in the life of the church. Do not confuse this with communism in the church, for we’ll see in a minute exactly what happened. But in the midst of a church that was needy, Joseph sold his property. Apparently, the people were very glad that he did this.

And his name was changed from Joseph to Barnabas. Barnabas, meaning son of encouragement. And so, Barnabas gives everything to the church. Now, there’s a couple in the church, Ananias and Sapphira. They look on the work of Barnabas, and they say, you know, people really have gathered around that Barnabas. There’s been even a change of his name. And they come together, and Ananias says, let’s sell our property. Let’s give it to the church. His wife says, good. But, Sapphira, let’s tell them that we’re going to give them everything, but we’ll just keep back a portion. Agreed? Agreed. So, Ananias comes into the church, and he tells Peter, I sold the land. Here’s the money. Peter says, is this all the money? Oh, yeah. That’s the full price? Yeah. That’s exactly what you paid and exactly what you received. That’s right.

Peter says, why have you allowed Satan to fill your heart? You have lied. Not to me. You’ve lied to the Lord. The scripture very clearly says that act of disobedience caused Ananias to die on the spot. 3 hours later, his wife walks in. She has no idea what has just happened. Peter sits there and he says, nice to see you. What have you come for? Well, we’ve come to give you the money. You come to give us the money? How much of the money? Well, the full money. Exactly what we received for the property. He says to fire. Why have you allowed Satan to fill your heart? To cause you to lie? You’re not lying to me. You are lying to the Lord.

The scripture records that as the sound of the men was coming who were returning from burying her husband, the Lord struck her dead. The result, the church was full of fear and everyone got in line. It amazes me when I hear people want to separate the Old Testament from the New Testament. They say, why? The God of the Old Testament, he was a God of wrath and judgment. But the God of the New Testament, he was a God of love and mercy and peace. I have to remind them, as I read the Old Testament, I see a God of great mercy and compassion, who loved a nation, Israel, with an everlasting love. And yes, it’s true that there was a side of God that is equally stern, that he is a God of judgment.

But as I read in the New Testament, to call Jesus and his followers as merely those who came only to tell about love is to truncate the gospel. For the God who is opposed to the taking over by Korah and Dathan and Abraham and all of his followers, that same God is opposed in the New Testament and today to those who would defraud the Lord. A study was taken crossed America. 60% of Americans believe that lying is not a good thing. However, there are many circumstances where it’s acceptable. It’s interesting when you go to other religions to look at the question of lying and deception because you’ll find in the writings of Muhammad two instances where he says it is all right to lie. One is in saving a life, the other is in a time of war.

Those are two times that you can lie. Go to the writings of Krishna. We’re all familiar with the Hare Krishna movement, which is a Hindu based religion. And in the writings of Krishna, you’ll find that there are five times when it is acceptable to lie. The first is in relation to marriage. Interesting that he should take that sphere and say that here is a fine place for lying. The second is to gratify lust, for there is tied into the whole Hindu philosophy an acceptance of an earthly carnality based upon a heavenly view that someday we will be in total carnality. According to Krishna, you want to satisfy a lust, it’s all right to lie. It’s all right to lie. If you want to save a life, it’s all right to lie.

If you want to protect your property, it’s all right to lie, interestingly enough, in behalf of a Brahma. A Brahma is the highest caste. And so it is all right for everyone below that caste to lie in favor of that caste. And you will find built into the religions around the world an understanding that there are times when it is appropriate to lie. That is in stark contrast to the Christian faith. The Christian faith tells us, thou shalt not bear false witness, whether it is to save your property, to save your life, to satisfy a lust, or even to protect. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Why is that? It’s because the scriptures tell us that there is one thing that the Lord will not do. He will not lie.

And our example is the example of Christ, who never once uttered a half-truth, who never once colored the truth, but always spoke the truth, and then pointed to himself and said, I am the truth. We look at the story of Ananias and Sapphira, and we say, well, I certainly would never do something as grave as that, but I would suggest that some of you in the last half hour have stolen from the Lord. Say, not me. I would never steal from God. Yet we read in the book of Malachi, the Lord speaking, and he says, you have robbed me. The people say, how have we robbed you? He said, you have robbed me by not giving me your tithes and your offerings.

There is a way of living our Christian life so that it never touches anything of practical value in our day-to-day living. And yet, one of the most frequently talked about subjects by Jesus money. We come and we dress in our Sunday best. We sit and we sing with our strongest voice, getting ready to commit our heist for the week as we rob from the Lord according to his word. The very thing that he asks from us, the word of God, in the end, will be the only thing that endures. I was reminded of this week I visited a friend. It’s been some seven years since I’ve seen her. I said, well, what has happened in seven years? Well, I had a heart attack in 1978. My uncle, the priest, died, and my son Billy, he died last year. Cancer. Said, Mrs.

Murphy, you have been through a tremendous amount in these years. You know what she said? The one thing that has been consistent is the church. And if it weren’t for the church, I don’t know how I’d survive. The fact of the matter is, there is one reality, and that is God’s word. All of the other things, the fame, the position, the power, the things that you and I think are so important are of no importance in relation to the word of God. We can be persuaded that our opinions, our experiences make us wiser than God’s word. But just wait for the scripture says of itself that the earth will pass away, the skies will be rolled up as a scroll, and one thing will endure the word of the Lord. You and I have a choice.

We can live every day thinking that we are very wise and very cunning and very aware of the way you function in the world that is not living by the word of God. Or we can live by the word of God. Do the best we can, trust in the Lord, receive his blessing, and endure forever. For we ask this in Jesus’s name. Amen.

Thank you for listening to a firm foundation presented by Princeton Ministries. This programming is supported by you, the listener. You may go to our website, princetonministries.org, or send your donation to Princeton Ministries Post office box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. That’s Princeton Ministries Post Office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. The Lord bless you and Dr. Smith looks forward to hearing from you. We would like to thank Rone’s web development company for making this webcast possible. You can find their link at the bottom of our website, princetonministries.org.