Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Get our Bibles and turn to the Book of Acts. We're going to return to Acts this morning and tonight, Lord willing.
[00:00:09] Chapter number eight, starting in verse number five.
[00:00:25] Acts, chapter eight, verse number five.
[00:00:32] All right, let's start reading in verse number five this morning, we're going to read about Philip and what the commentators theologians refer to as Simon Magus, which just means the sorcerer.
[00:00:51] So starting in verse five, the Bible says then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them.
[00:00:59] And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did for unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them and many taken with palsies and that were lame were healed. And there was great joy in that city.
[00:01:22] But there was a certain man called Simon which before time in the same city used sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one to whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest, saying, this man is the great power of God.
[00:01:42] And to him they had regard, because that of a long time of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries.
[00:01:49] But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized both men and women.
[00:01:59] Then Simon himself believed also. And when he was baptized, he continued with Philip and wondered beholding the miracles and signs which were done.
[00:02:10] Now, when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John, who when they were come down prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost. For as yet he was fallen upon none of them. Only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
[00:02:32] Then laid they their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost. And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles'hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying, give me also this power that on whomsoever I lay hands he may receive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said unto him, thy money perish with thee because that thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money, thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter. For thy heart is not right in the sight of God.
[00:03:06] Repent therefore of this thy wickedness and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. Then answered Simon and said, pray ye to the Lord for me that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me. And they, when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord returned to Jerusalem and preached the Gospel in many villages of the Samaritans. Let's pray together.
[00:03:36] Our Lord. Thank you for your word. Thank you for Your church, your meeting together. Ready to hear, ready to listen. Lord, I pray that you'd give each and every person a heart that is intent, that is hungry and thirsty for the truth and for righteousness and hungry and thirsty for a close relationship and walk with you. Lord, would you please bless our service today? Would you please bless the study of your word? Lord, you have commanded us to study your word. Lord, you have commanded us to study the Scriptures together. And so, Lord, we commit this time to you this passage about Philip and Simon, we commit it to you that you would help us to see the truth, and not only to see what happened in this narrative, but also to know how it applies to us. So, Lord, give grace. Lord, you know that we need you in every way, not just the preaching, but certainly the preaching, but also the hearing of Your word as well. So Lord, please teach us. We ask in Jesus name, amen.
[00:04:38] All right, Philip and the trip down to Samaria.
[00:04:44] Now, I want you to remember, we've already come across Philip in Acts chapter number six. If you call to remembrance in Acts chapter six, when the church chose the seven men to take care of the physical needs of the widows, philip was it was Stephen. Of course, we know Stephen dies in chapter seven as a martyr, but Philip was also chosen, and Philip was apparently not what we might refer to as a preacher. Many of the things we say and terminology we use is not neat and tidy with the text of Scripture. So that's why I put air quotes so often, because sometimes what we say and what the Scripture says is a little bit different, although they're complementary and consistent. So Philip was not a preacher in that sense. In other words, he wasn't one who was out front. Who was he was like Stephen. But what do you see? You see Stephen preaching even though he wasn't a preacher. Here you also see Philip preaching even though he wasn't a preacher. He was a deacon. And we've already discussed this, but that's not a lesser role. It's one of the roles in the church. It's a special office in the church. But sometimes I think we have this idea that you have the pastor and then all the underlings, and that is absolutely not the case at all. That's not the case at all. In fact, the last two chapters of the Bible, this chapter seven and chapter eight of Acts, rather, aren't about the preachers. It's not about the apostles at all. It's about the deacons. It's about people who weren't the ordained preachers. And so I think there's a lesson in there for us. But if you hold your place in Acts chapter eight and look at chapter number 21, of the Book of Acts, acts 21, verse verse number seven, Bible says, and when we had finished our course from Tyre, we came to Ptolemaeus and saluted the brethren and abode with them one day. And the next day, we that were of Paul's company departed and came unto Caesarea, and we entered into the house of Philip the Evangelist, which was one of the seven, and abode with him. And it talks about his daughters who prophesied, and they tarried many days. So here in verse number eight, the Bible refers to Philip as an evangelist. An evangelist. Now, we think of again, here's the air quotes thing. We think of an evangelist as someone who goes from church to church and preaches revivals. That's what we think of as an evangelist. That's just not what the Bible means. When the Bible says evangelist, the best way to describe it is that person would be like a revivalist, or if you want to be technical, it would be a prophet, someone who preaches the word of God to others and exhorts the church. That's a biblical ministry. That's a biblical ministry, but that is not an evangelist. Philip is an evangelist, and also some people think that an evangelist is a missionary. I don't agree, but I can understand why they think that. Here's what the word evangelist means. The word evangelist comes from the word evangelism, which is the base of the word Gospel. So simply put, an evangelist is someone who gives out the Gospel.
[00:08:10] That's it. It's not technical. And so yesterday we had a group of eight evangelists and Evangelistas, if you want to call it that, that went out and gave the Gospel, and that's what Philip was.
[00:08:27] If we want to be even more specific, philip the evangelist was a man whom God had specially gifted for the ministry of telling other people about Jesus. And, you know, what do you see him doing everywhere? You see Him the few times you see Him in Acts. That's what he's doing. He's telling people about Jesus. But that does not give us an out who might not have that special gift of telling people about Jesus, the special gift of giving the Gospel, preaching the Gospel in a salvation context. That's what an evangelist is. In fact, the Bible tells a pastor, even though he's not an evangelist, to do the work of an evangelist. You know what that tells us? That tells us that even though we're not called to a specific thing, we don't have a title, we don't have maybe a specific gift for something. The Lord says to the pastor, though he might not have the gift to be an evangelist, yet he is to do the work of an evangelist. And that's what I was referring to yesterday. We did the work of an evangelist. In other words, all of us, though we are not maybe specifically gifted for that, there are things all of us in the body of Christ can do.
[00:09:40] There are things that we can do, even though we might not have the specific gift for that, but it's nevertheless our duty to do. You know what? Evangelism is one of those things. Not everything is, but evangelism is one of those things even you think about the men in our church and I've been thinking about this, and Brother Stuart did it when he was the pastor. I think it's a good thing.
[00:10:03] You might not have the gift of prophecy, that is to be able to stand up and preach to people and explain and expound the word of God. You might not have that specific gift where that's your life's calling.
[00:10:16] But the men in our church who are spiritually mature ought to be able to do that, ought to be able to stand up, look at a passage of scripture and tell people what it says and apply it to the hearts of God's people. That's just something that even if that's not your gift, it's something we all ought to be able to do.
[00:10:38] But the reality is, when we do that, all we're doing is we're giving people what God has given us. That is all. When I stand up here and I try to and I feebly try to preach and teach what the Bible says, all I'm trying to do is tell you what the Lord has taught me. That is it it's really not complicated. So if that's something you don't feel comfortable doing yet, work toward that, pray toward that, prepare toward that. When you read your Bible, think that way.
[00:11:05] How would I tell other people, you know, where the best way to start doing that? Where the best place to start doing that is with your kids.
[00:11:13] With your kids. There is no better place to cut your teeth in giving a devotion or bringing a Bible message than with your kids.
[00:11:23] I'll tell you, I've preached messages in this pulpit that I first preached to my kids.
[00:11:30] And that's where oftentimes in that informal setting and this goes for ladies too, in that informal setting, that's where the Lord can we're just taking our time, going through the verses and that's where the Lord talks to us. We ask questions and we use the Socratic method, the question and answer, and it really, really helps get clarity. You know what? That often turns into a message that you can bring to the church. That's a way men that you can do that. You can prepare yourself to do that. And ladies, it goes that way as well. Ladies can lead your family in a devotion, right? Amen. You can do that too.
[00:12:07] So you see, Philip is an evangelist, one of the seven deacons.
[00:12:13] We've seen two deacons, as I said, acts seven and eight, all about the deacons, all about men who aren't preachers per se, but yet they're preaching. And in chapter eight, verse number, verse number five, the bible says Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them. Now, we have no idea why Philip went down there. We have no idea why. It doesn't say that God called him to, but obviously I think he did.
[00:12:38] But this is an important point. Up to this point in Acts, in our study of Acts from chapter one to chapter seven, everything that we've read has happened either in Jerusalem or in Judea.
[00:12:50] And the audience and the people involved in everything we've read have been Jews, 100% Jews. Even when we were reading about the Grecians, you remember that those were full blooded Jews that just grew up among Greeks, but they were full blooded Jews like Saul. Saul of Tarsus was a grecian. Okay. He was born among the Greeks, but he was a Jew.
[00:13:16] All that they've done up to this point is they've only preached to Americans. Or you could say, if we want to narrow it down even further, they've only shared the gospel with people from Greenville. They've only shared the gospel with now hear me, with white people, the predominant ethnic group where they were.
[00:13:40] That's the only people they've been paying attention to. And really, that's what the Lord told them to do. He told them to start in Jerusalem. Judea and Samaria, they started there, and that's where the gospel has gone.
[00:13:54] This is a change because the Samaritans were a different race. They were a mixed breed. They call a mongrel breed. They weren't fully Jew, but they weren't fully Gentile either. And of course, the time for the Gentiles is coming, but Philip goes there. Now, you have to understand that the hostility between the Jews and the Samaritans is palpable.
[00:14:20] It's there. The Jews do not like the Samaritans, and the Samaritans return the favor. They are not on friendly terms. The Samaritans have their own temple. The Samaritans have their own priesthood that they don't even acknowledge the religious system that we've read about the temple and all that in Jerusalem, and you remember Jesus, we'll look at it in a minute. But Jesus, when he was speaking to the Samaritan woman in John Four, he made it clear, samaritans, you're wrong. Your temple's wrong. You don't know what you worship. We Jews know what we worship. He understood. And Jesus expressed to the Samaritan woman that the Jews had it right, the Samaritans didn't. But that difference, it was a racial difference. It was a cultural difference. It was an ethnic difference.
[00:15:09] And I'm just trying to show you that up to this point, they have only been preaching to the Jewish people, people of their own race.
[00:15:20] Now, think about the times in your Bible, especially in the New Testament, the word Samaria or Samaritans comes up. You have the ten lepers, one of whom was healed. All ten were healed, and one came back to give thanks, a Samaritan. Jesus called him a stranger. That is, a foreigner.
[00:15:38] The Samaritan woman in John, chapter four, we'll look at that in a second. The Good Samaritan. You remember, you had the priest, you had the Levite, and then you had the Samaritan helped the man who fell among thieves. It was the Samaritan who helped him, which was an offense to the Jews because they hated the Samaritans. The whole point of Jesus parable was to point out something about this hated breed.
[00:16:03] In Luke chapter nine, the Samaritans did not receive Christ when he was passing through. He sent his disciples, and they say, don't come here, because they knew he was going to Jerusalem. See, that jealousy. We don't even want you to come. If you're not coming here and you're going there, we don't even want you to stop.
[00:16:20] And then in John chapter eight, the unbelieving Jews that Jesus was ministering to, they accused Christ of being a Samaritan.
[00:16:29] Now, I don't know what kind of racial insult that would be equivalent to, but there are certainly things that float around that people say to one another that's the equivalent of that, well, you're nothing but a whatever. And that's what they said of Jesus. You're just a Samaritan. You've got a devil too.
[00:16:52] Here's what I'm trying to show you.
[00:16:55] Philip is a Jew.
[00:16:59] Everyone that's gotten saved pretty much is a Jew that we've read up to this point.
[00:17:04] And the Jews, naturally, the Jews in their culture don't like the Samaritans, and they like the Gentiles even less. The Gentiles are called dogs, okay? But the Samaritans are low class to them. They're a different race. They're a different ethnic group. They do not have any respect for these people. I want to tell you something. Philip is going there.
[00:17:30] So whatever racial prejudices existed up to that point and they existed, and like I said, you could taste them.
[00:17:40] They hated each other.
[00:17:43] Whatever racial prejudices existed up to that point, philip got over it.
[00:17:50] You know why? Because the Gospel informed Philip that he needed to get over it. Not only the gospel. Remember what I mean by that is Christ tasted death for every man. He died for the Jew just the same as he died for the Samaritan, just the same as he died for the Greek, the Gentile. And as far as that goes, there was no difference. Now, we know that according to election, god chose the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So as far as that's concerned, the Jews have first dibs on the Gospel, and it was offered to them. That's chapter seven.
[00:18:27] But as far as the Lord's redemption, he died for every man, no matter their skin color, no matter their race or national origin, whatever their history, whatever their family line was, the Lord Jesus Christ died for every single man. And this is one reason we must listen. And this is what they did. This is what Philip did dispense of that kind of prejudice and racism. And I'm not talking about the stuff that's peddled on the news. That's called racism. I'm talking about listen, when we were missionaries in Cambodia, they were as racist as any white person or black person I've ever seen here. And they had the same skin color.
[00:19:08] It wasn't a skin thing. It was a race thing. See, we think of race in terms of skin color, but it's not skin color.
[00:19:14] You see, the Cambodians didn't like the Vietnamese, and the Vietnamese didn't like the Cambodians, and the Thai didn't like the Vietnamese. You know what, if I brought a Cambodian, a Vietnamese and a Thai person in front of here, you probably couldn't tell the difference between the three.
[00:19:28] But yet that did not stop them from disliking one another. But you know what? None of that matters in the gospel.
[00:19:35] None of that matters. None of that matters. There's a second reason, though. Why did Philip go down to Samaria? Because in Acts, chapter one, verse eight, the Lord said, ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in Judea, that's the Jews and to Samaria and to the uttermost part of the earth. You know what that means?
[00:19:55] The Great Commission meant that Philip had to dispense with whatever kind of racial prejudice that he might have had toward the Samaritans. The Lord's command. Negated it. So the gospel negated it and the Lord's command negated it. And you know what? Listen, if you and I are going to serve God a right, all of us, I mean, everybody, every single one of us came up in a culture where there were racial and cultural prejudices. Every one of us. I was born in Greenville, South Carolina.
[00:20:34] I heard my family use racial slang.
[00:20:39] You grew up wherever you grew up, heard it in racial slang. I know for a fact, like Brother Eric would tell us, in the Korean culture, it exists as well, does it not? It absolutely exists in the Cambodian culture. It exists. In the black culture, it exists. It exists everywhere. Listen, that's natural. People that divide up into little groups and hate on one another, that is natural. But the gospel negates it.
[00:21:03] And this is not white on black, black on white, or it has nothing to do with which direction the gospel negates it.
[00:21:12] You know what? The Lord, if you are trying to serve God with all your heart, the Lord's going to put you in a position to deal with that.
[00:21:24] To deal with it because he's going to say, you know what? You don't like black people, I'm going to send you to go witness to some black people and I'm going to teach you to love them.
[00:21:36] That's what I'm going to do.
[00:21:39] You don't like this race or that race or people from the North, I'm going to send you to Michigan where they talk funny and say rag and vague and rough, you better watch out. Lord's going to send you to michigan the Lord deals with. I'm just telling you that's what is happening here, these Jews don't like these Samaritans. And God said, okay, it's time to go. And whatever racial prejudice or hate was, is present in the heart that did not belong. I don't care if it's cultural or not, if it's societal or not, if we grew up with it or not. It did not belong in the heart of a child of God. You know what God did? God sent. He said, it's time to go to Samaria. And he had to get over it. And people probably said, people are saying, oh, well, Philip, he was going down to Samaria. Who wants to go around those people? I can't believe he's going.
[00:22:24] That's what God said to do in Acts One eight. It's taken seven chapters to get to this point.
[00:22:32] This is just a reality. And I want to tell you something.
[00:22:36] In comparison, the racial hatred between these groups is not like ours. It is way worse than what we experience. Most of the time. Even people who are considered racists in our society speak to people of the opposing race that they don't like. But here, they don't even talk to each other. They'll go around the long way around so as to not pass through their area.
[00:23:01] I mean, this is serious stuff.
[00:23:04] Okay, so Philip is going and he's preaching Christ unto them. Now, it's important for us to understand.
[00:23:14] We'll just say it.
[00:23:17] This is our message, okay?
[00:23:20] Christ.
[00:23:23] Christ.
[00:23:26] We're not preaching doctrines, a specific set of doctrines or rules or laws. It's Christ. Now, we know we're supposed to preach all the counsel of God, and we try to do that. But the core of our message is Christ.
[00:23:42] That's what we ought to be known for. That's what people ought to know you and me for they ought to know us. In our association with Christ at the Woodlands, Miss Judy is probably known as well, there's one of those Christ people, right? And you know what? The very people who say that are members of Christian churches. Christian churches. But yet she's known as being the Christ lady, right? The Christian.
[00:24:10] But that should be all of our testimonies.
[00:24:14] It should be the very center and core of what we talk about, what we believe, who we are.
[00:24:20] Christ, he is all. He is all in all. And that was Philip's message. Now, we see in verse six and seven that Philip was doing miracles. And you know what? People listen. And the people with one accord gave heed to under those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did for unclean spirits crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them, and many taken with palsies and that were lame were healed. So Philip is doing miracles. Now, we have already studied this. We know that the miracles were mere confirmation of the message. The miracles themselves were not the message. What was the message? He preached Christ unto them. This is further seen in verse number twelve. But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized both men and women. So what is Philip preaching? He's not preaching miracles. That was kind of an addendum. His core message was the Gospel. His core message was Christ. That tells me that if the miracles are gone, you still got the core message.
[00:25:20] You don't see these as much on social media about miracles and all this deliverance ministry and all this stuff that you see.
[00:25:28] That's not the core message.
[00:25:30] That's not the core message. The core message is Christ.
[00:25:34] That's what Philip was preaching. And there are many examples in the Book of Acts where there are no miracles and yet preachers are preaching. And so we already know that. I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but just as to reiterate it as we go through Acts and reaffirm the things we've already seen, verse eight, and there was great joy in that city.
[00:26:00] Joy is a byproduct of the work of God, if there is a supposed work of God, and in its wake is no joy, but anger, bitterness, division, disunity or backbiting, things like that. And not joy. It's not a work of God.
[00:26:23] The work of God produces joy. The fruit of the Spirit is joy. These are ways, when we see these little things here and there, these are ways that we can use to discern whether God's really at work at something. We talked this morning in Sunday school about wisdom, right? The wisdom that's from above, the wisdom that is from below. Well, one of the things you can look at is what does that wisdom produce? And that tells you about the wisdom well, this is true of a work of God. Let's keep reading. There's a certain man, verse nine, called Simon, which before time in the same city used. Sorcery this is like fortune telling necromancy, Ouija boards, Tarot cards.
[00:27:08] I know when we think of the occult in our culture, we think of basically fortune tellers, palm readers, Tarot cards, and that's basically it. But it is actually a great deal more to this. It deals with trying to contact dead ancestors, trying to contact demons, trying to get advice for when to have certain events.
[00:27:33] There's a lot that goes in looking at the stars and astrology and all of that kind of thing. Not astronomy, but astrology, all those things. But it's all demonic. And in the Book of Deuteronomy, God forbid every bit of it from the Jews taking part in taking part in it. That's why we shouldn't have any part in it, because we know its source.
[00:27:54] And so this man was involved in that. What you might not know if we read verse ten, verse eleven, it says in verse nine, he was giving out that he himself was some great one. Verse ten says, to whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest, saying this man is the great power of God. And to him they had regard, because that of a long time he had bewitched them with. Sorceries now we know, it goes without saying that if Simon, this sorcerer, is going to be saved, the sorcery's got to go.
[00:28:30] This is what we call repentance.
[00:28:33] He cannot come to Jesus with his rolling suitcase of sorcery and the Lord save him. That's why repentance and faith, two sides of the same coin. Now him giving up sorcery does not make him fit to be saved. Okay? Him giving up sorcery does not make him righteous, but it's his attitude toward it.
[00:28:57] We come to God and we say, god, I want to be saved, but I want to be saved such that I keep my sin. So you got to save me with my sin. God says, no I don't. This is the doctrine of repentance we see in Simon.
[00:29:13] If Simon's going to get saved, the sorcery's got to go. And he seems to understand that, okay, the sorcery's got to go. They're incompatible.
[00:29:24] But note one thing that might not be evident here is that in this time someone who is the great power of God, it's funny, they ascribe to God these acts of the devil. But anyway, this great power of God, this man who has this power to tell the future, and people would pay him, and this is not uncommon in our day either, people would pay him, they would go to this great man and they would pay him money. And he got a reputation of whatever acts he could do or whatever fortunes he could tell and the success of it or whatever. He got a reputation. So he had fame, he had honor, he had money.
[00:30:09] It says in verse eleven, to him they had regard from the least to the greatest. So he was even honored by the leaders, by the elite, by the well to do people, people of all stripes came to him, gave him honor, gave him fame. And of course he lined his pockets doing it too.
[00:30:28] But here's what I want you to see. All that had to go, all that had to go.
[00:30:34] That was the end of his income stream, the end of his honor, the end of his fame.
[00:30:43] Verse number 13, verse twelve. But when they believed the Samaritans preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized both in men and women. You see that turning point. So not only if Simon believes is that going to change the means by which he's gotten wealth and fame and honor and his money, it's also going to affect all the Samaritans that believe too, because they're not going to be going to him anymore either.
[00:31:13] And what he had. Been practicing is going to be looked down upon because now they're believers.
[00:31:21] This is a big problem for him.
[00:31:23] It's a life altering thing. You know what, some people don't get saved because of the potential of how the Gospel might alter their life.
[00:31:36] They say, I can't go there, I can't go there.
[00:31:43] And we don't need to make the mistake of telling, oh, it's okay, it's okay.
[00:31:48] The Lord will deal with that after. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. If God puts his finger on something and he informs a person that there's something in their life that's going to be affected, if they trust in Christ and they want to persist in their sin, what right do we have to say, oh, well, it's no big deal, the Lord puts his finger on it?
[00:32:17] So obviously, as you can imagine, simon's life is going to be affected. The people in Samaria are affected.
[00:32:29] And you keep reading verse number 14. Now, when the apostles, which were at Jerusalem, heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John, who, when they were come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost, for as yet he was fallen upon none of them. Only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then lay they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost. All right, pause there a second. Just a little doctrinal note.
[00:32:53] Why did the apostles have to come down to lay their hands on them in order for them to receive the Holy Ghost? In just a couple chapters, we're going to see Gentiles receive the Holy Spirit, and the apostles aren't anywhere around except Peter, but he's not going to lay his hands on them. So from a doctrinal perspective, this is different. The order is different than what we understand.
[00:33:17] But there's a good reason for this, though, is that, remember, the Samaritans had their own center of worship, and it wasn't Jerusalem, but salvation is of the Jews. Christ was a Jew. And you know what? By the apostles coming down and giving their approval to the true work of God, there, what it's showing the Samaritans is this is the order. This came from the Lord's temple, the Lord's people in Israel, in Jerusalem, rather, this came down from them. They approved, you have received the salvation that God brought to the Jew. In other words, it establishes this pecking order, because had that not happened and some special thing had happened outside of the ordinary with them, these Samaritans might have thought that it centered around them, but it didn't. Christ himself was a Jew. And again, as we get to the Gentiles, where that's no longer a problem, that won't be an issue. It won't be an issue at all. All right, verse number verse number 18. And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles hands, the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money.
[00:34:31] How many times?
[00:34:33] Issues of money is a recurring problem in spiritual things.
[00:34:40] Might call it the big three pride, lust and money.
[00:34:47] Three major. The three major. Most every sin, most every act of evil and wickedness can be ascribed to one of those three things pride, lust and money.
[00:35:02] The love of money is the root of all evil.
[00:35:07] So Simon had a business proposition. You think of who else did we just read about not too long ago who also erred in money? But that was in the church. Ananias and Sapphira, right? Love of money.
[00:35:20] There's going to be silversmiths and various artisans that oppose Paul because of money.
[00:35:32] So Simon had a business proposition. He saw that, just as before, if he could get this power, he could continue his practice. It's just for God now.
[00:35:47] Using religion for gain.
[00:35:51] Listen. That is wicked.
[00:35:55] That is wicked.
[00:35:57] Peter absolutely repudiated it. Now, we all know that we have to have money to live, and I'm no different.
[00:36:07] The church gives me a salary. That's no secret, as a church should. That's what the Bible says, right?
[00:36:14] But woe is unto any Christian, pastor or no pastor, where the motive is money, where it's not a necessary part of life, but it's the motivator for his ministry.
[00:36:30] That is exactly what's happening with Simon.
[00:36:34] He would pay for this gift, which he then in turn would use to turn a prophet.
[00:36:40] Many people in the scripture have done this before.
[00:36:43] Balam did it. Demetrius did it. In Acts 19 two, Peter two three says, and through covetousness shall they with feign words make merchandise of you whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not and their damnation slumber not. Making merchandise of God's people making money by means of a ministry. This is what Simon is doing.
[00:37:08] So Peter says to him, thy money perished with thee because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Now, let me ask you a question. I'm hurrying to the end.
[00:37:28] How did Peter know that Simon's heart was not right with God? How could Peter Judge Simon's heart?
[00:37:37] We're told all the times, judge not, judge not, judge not, judge not. And unrighteous judgment is wrong. Obviously, that's what Matthew, chapter six says, or chapter seven. But Peter is judging the man's heart. He's saying your heart is not right. You know how he knew his works?
[00:37:54] The fact that the man wanted to buy something that was not for sale for money, so that he could in turn use the Christian ministry for gain proved his heart was not right with God. So we can't say there's no correlation between our actions and our heart. Many people say many people that do live wicked lives, they say, Well, I have a good heart. No, you don't. You know how I know? Because your actions testify to what's in your heart. I don't have to see your heart to know that your actions broadcasted.
[00:38:31] Your actions broadcast. That's what's happening here.
[00:38:34] Notice what it says. Thy heart is not right in the sight of God. You know what? No other opinion mattered.
[00:38:43] Simon could look the part, have his honor.
[00:38:46] But if God saw a heart that wasn't right, what did it matter otherwise?
[00:38:53] But notice as we close, he says, repent therefore of this thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. So here's what Peter says. Simon, you need to repent.
[00:39:09] Honestly, I came into this thinking that Simon may have truly been a believer. But after reading and studying it, I don't think he was. I can't prove that, but that's what I think.
[00:39:21] Peter says repent.
[00:39:23] And he says, you need to go to God and get forgiveness. You need to take this thing to God and get right instead.
[00:39:32] What does he ask? Verse 24.
[00:39:36] Then answer Simon and said, pray ye to the Lord for me that none of those things, these things which ye have spoken, come upon me. Notice Peter says, you need to pray. You need to go to God yourself and you need to get this thing right. You need to get forgiveness. And Simon says, Will you pray for me?
[00:39:54] I read this author. He said this sinners will often ask others to pray for them when they are too proud or too much in love with sin to pray for themselves.
[00:40:03] Sinners often quiet their own consciences by asking ministers and Christian friends to pray for them while they still propose or purpose to persevere in. Iniquity that'll, cut to the quick.
[00:40:19] Instead of facing God with our sin, we ask other people to pray for us and persist in it.
[00:40:27] And that makes us feel better.
[00:40:30] But just like in the garden, you know what God wants?
[00:40:33] God wants us to take our sin, our wickedness, and he wants us to bring it to him naked, dirty, defiled, ugly and shameful. Think of that.
[00:40:49] He doesn't provide another mediator. We say, well, we'll have them pray. Well, I'll have this person or that person or maybe a saint or whatever. Pray for me. No.
[00:40:59] God says no. You come to me.
[00:41:01] You face me with what you are. You face me with your sin.
[00:41:07] You don't go around another way. There's no way. God says, you come. Come unto me, Jesus. Over and over, the Spirit and the bride say, come, come unto me, all you that labor and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The Lord says, Come as you are, dirty, defiled. See, that's the thing. Come as you are is right, but come as you are, as it has been taught, is just be the same. God's okay with everything you do. No, he's not. He's not. But you know what he knows you can't fix it, you can't clean it.
[00:41:34] So he says, Come to me, you're dirty, you're defiled.
[00:41:38] Come. But you have to come.
[00:41:42] You have to come to me with your sin naked.
[00:41:46] No fig leaves to cover it.
[00:41:50] But it's easier to give a show of a desire to abandon our sin than it is to face God about it ourselves. But the Lord requires us to come to him in our guilt.
[00:42:01] In our time.
[00:42:03] There's a tendency to try to make people feel better about their guilt by reassuring them that it's not that bad, you're good enough.
[00:42:11] But rather it is bad.
[00:42:13] But God still says come.
[00:42:16] That's the blessing. It is bad.
[00:42:19] Sin is dreadful and grave and it should be feared and we should feel shame. But you know what? God still says? Come. It makes us dirty. God hates it. Yes, but the Lord still says come, man. His love, his grace is greater than all of that. And so he says Come.
[00:42:39] And finally he says pray to the Lord for me. Sounds so good that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me. He wasn't concerned with his sorcery. He wasn't concerned with the fact that he was trying to use the work of God, the ministry of God to make merchandise, to make money, to increase his fame and renown. He wasn't concerned with that at all. He was like Esau, who sold his birthright and couldn't care less about his birthright but was only cared about the loss incurred financially and otherwise because he sold the most important thing that he had.
[00:43:19] And he cried and cried and cried as a result of his loss and found no place of repentance. That's Esau.
[00:43:25] This man is afraid of the punishment. Pray to God that I won't get the punishment so that I can continue to do the thing that God hates.
[00:43:35] This is a recipe for death. It is false repentance.
[00:43:40] Listen now.
[00:43:42] By dodging the punishment, the sinner continues to pursue the sin which is the death that he should fear.
[00:43:51] The moment and we sinners are all like this, I'm including myself the moment we think there's no punishment, it emboldens us to continue. We don't fear the sin, we fear the punishment.
[00:44:06] If it were possible to avoid the punishment that God prescribes death and hell and lake of fire every sinner on earth would continue apace in his love with sin. That is true.
[00:44:17] If there was no punishment, every sin, the moment they knew that boy they would rush headlong into it with no regard at all.
[00:44:27] Because false repentance leads to more sin which leads to death.
[00:44:31] Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation. Not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. So here you have a man.
[00:44:41] What a mess.
[00:44:43] What a mess.
[00:44:45] Makes a profession of faith, says he believes in Christ, gets baptized.
[00:44:52] But the very things he was doing beforehand he wanted to Christianize it and continue right along with what he's doing. Even when he's rebuked, he shows he's not serious about it.
[00:45:06] I just want to ask you, where's your heart with the Lord?
[00:45:11] Is there anything about Simon that you might see in yourself now? It'd be a good time.
[00:45:21] If the Lord does put his finger on something in your life that you see a parallel that maybe you shouldn't be there.
[00:45:28] It'd be a good time to deal with that, to bring that to the Lord because he is gracious and he is ready to forgive.
[00:45:39] Let's pray.
