Nobody Will Know

Fri­day. [Acts 5:1–11; John 5:30–6:2] Why did An­a­ni­as and Sapphira sin so bad­ly? Be­cause they forgot that God sees their deeds and thoughts. If they kept in mind that God sees ev­ery­thing both in­ter­nal and ex­ter­nal more clear­ly than all peo­ple see, even with re­gard to them­selves, it would not have en­ter­ed their mind to lie in such a way be­fore the A­pos­tles. This is why all of our sins and sin­ful plans a­rise. We con­trive to con­ceal ev­ery­thing from the gaze of man, and think that ev­ery­thing is fine. Peo­ple seem not to see any­thing, as­sume we are in good shape; but this does not change our es­sen­tial noth­ing­ness. Know­ing this, re­peat each of you to your­self: why doth Sa­tan fill my heart to lie be­fore the face of God? His eyes which are brighter than the sun see in­to the in­ner­most re­cess­es of the heart; nei­ther night nor sea, nor cave are con­ceal­ed from Him. Re­mem­ber this and so ar­range your in­ward and out­ward be­hav­iour, though it be un­seen. If the All-see­ing One were al­ien to us, it would be pos­si­ble to re­gard His om­ni­science in­dif­fer­ent­ly. But He is judge, and He of­ten pro­nounces His judg­ment, by vir­tue of His Om­ni­science, soon­er than we ex­pect. It could be that He has al­ready pro­nounced judg­ment up­on us the very mo­ment we thought to hide our­selves and our sins with a dark lie, say­ing, “God doesn’t see!”