John Chapter 6

And I'm not sure who exactly said this, but it made an impression on me. It's one of the men in the church when they were bringing a lesson. When I first came, getting a brand new job teaching school and having Bible class Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night was overwhelming. So the Wednesday nights, the men would take over. We go through a book, and someone mentioned this statement in one of those Bible studies. As they began to read, they said, this is a heart check. And then went on to explain that the Lord often gives us passages of scripture that share with us, take account, where are we? Take account.

Well, I want to read one of those passages before we get over to the book of Acts, because here in the book of John chapter 6 and verse 67, after the Lord Jesus had been speaking to them, we don't have a building, I don't think, in the Dalles that would hold the congregation that was following the Lord Jesus. 5,000 people, men at least. And when he began to preach the gospel to them, they said, this is a very hard saying. And then they said, we're not going to follow you anymore. And talk about a split in the church. And you know, the Lord never once said, well, how can we fix this? What can we do to make this right? Because there is no compromise with the gospel. You cannot compromise the gospel. Once you do that, you are way out. You've left.

Well, here the Lord Jesus asked his disciples a heart check. He asked his disciples in John chapter six and verse 67, then said, Jesus unto the 12, Will you also go away? Now he's just witnessed this whole group and so have they. Leave. And all you have to do is read back just a little bit here in the book of John chapter 6 and you will find out the account. Will you also go away? Now Jesus Christ is bringing up to his disciples a heart check. Where do you stand on this issue? Where do you stand with this whole group that's leaving? The majority, far, great, large majority is leaving and we have 12 left and I'm the pastor, Jesus. And you know his disciples, Simon Peter answered for them in the next verse. Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have, or thou hast, the words of eternal life.

So the heart check came. They had, by God's grace, had been brought to the position that God saved them. They recognized this man as the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And where or why would we want to go anywhere else We'll stick it with you. Now, there was one among that group that didn't understand the heart check. That was Judas.

Travel with me, before we get to the book of Acts again, would you travel with me to the book of 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter 1, and we have the apostle Peter bringing this very same subject up, and this is kind of where I want to springboard off this morning, because we're going to be looking at a passage of scripture here in the book of Acts. You know, there's just, this is a sad, place to be looking. We've looked at such successful preachings of the gospel. We've seen those saved on the day of Pentecost, and those after that time, and those that were saved when Peter and John were going up to the temple, and God, by His grace, healed one of the men that was there who had been destitute all of his life. And what a revival took place, and revivals are happening, preaching of the gospel is happening. And here, in the book of Acts chapter 8, Philip, one of those men that had been called out full of the Holy Ghost. That's what it says, one of the requirements. He goes down to Samaria, and there he preaches Christ, and some things happen down there. And yet, among all the happenings, there is an incident by one man that shares a lot with us about a heart check.

But before we get there, turn with me to the book of 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 10. 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 10 and the Apostle Peter who answered the Lord's question in the book of John To whom shall we go thou hath the words of eternal life? He is bringing this subject up for us to comprehend to think about today as it says wherefore the rather brethren give diligence to Make your calling and election sure for if you do these things Ye shall never fall Make your calling and election sure.

Now, how can I make my calling and election sure? The response to that is, what think ye of Christ? What do you think of Christ? What is he to you? Is he just a sideline or is he the most important? Is He just someone that came along and did a little bit for us, or is He all-important? Is He, in preaching Christ and Him crucified, the most important thing?

I'll never forget a man coming to me one time, and I've shared this before, but he came to me and says, is this all you're gonna preach? And I had to say, what? What is it? What are you talking about? He says, are you just gonna preach Christ? And I said, that's all I've got. What do you want? And the person said, well, how to raise my kids, how to love my wife, marriage instructions. I said, if you get a hold of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that will take care of many of your problems with your kids and many problems in your marriage. Because you will be, as Christ said, the bride of Christ loves Christ. And Christ, the husband, loves the church. That's what he tells us in Timothy.

All right. So he said, Timothy said, make your calling and election. Sure. All right. Join me, if you would, over in the book of Acts, Acts chapter eight. We're going to begin reading with there with verse nine. A great deal of preaching been going on by. And he preaches Christ that's so important when you run into that he's preached Christ and him crucified. He's not preaching Legalism, he's not preaching law. He's not preaching. You got to be a Jew to be saved. He's not preaching any of that stuff He's not preaching what the common preacher of the day was preaching. He's preaching Christ and him crucified down here in Samaria remember what the woman at the well said to the Lord Jesus how you being a Jew talking to me? This is serious business. We're anathema. We're off on the edge. We're out. And the Lord came to her on purpose. He must needs go through Samaria. And he spoke to her and left her saved. and spent two more days there in Samaria visiting and preaching.

" All right, years later, Philip goes down there, and it tells us that he preached the gospel. And here in Acts chapter 8, and I want to begin reading with verse 9, but there was a certain man. Now, a whole host of people have been saved as a result of Philip's preaching. In verse 7 and for unclean spirits crying with a loud voice came out of many that were possessed of them and Many taken with palsies and they were lame were healed and there was great joy in the city But there was a certain man named Simeon which before time in the same city used sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria and Giving out that himself was some great one now. Why is this passage scripture here? Why is this incident here because God wanted us to have it? For no other reason he left out many other things in fact the the one of the authors one of the Secretaries John said if all the things about Christ had been written there wouldn't be room in all the libraries of the world for it and So the very most important things that God wanted the church to have, we have in the Bible.

And one of those incidences is this man by the name of Simon, who was a sorcerer in Samaria. And it goes on to tell us here that the sorcery, Simon felt he was quite important because it goes on to tell us here, to whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest saying, this man is great power of God.

My goodness, he was a sleight of hand man. Have you ever seen a magician? You know, even the worst of them baffles me. How do they do that? And it's all sleight of hand. How can they do that? And then you get on YouTube and you can find out, they'll tell you how they do these things. Now, I don't think they understand him there either. There are some things that are really interesting that people can do. And here we have one of them in Samaria. He is a sorcerer. He's a sleight of hand man. And he has a great following, following him.

And you know what? God came down at the preaching of Philip and saved a whole bunch of people that was in his congregation. And you know what happened to them? They left him. That's what people do when God saves them. They leave religion and get a hold of Christ. They leave falsehood. They leave the stuff behind because there's nothing in it.

We find that the Apostle Paul, when God saved him on the road to Damascus, never went and preached another message about keeping the law. He never preached another message that salvation is of the Jews only. He preached Christ and Him crucified and turned the world upside down with that message. You know what? In certain places right today, that message still turns people upside down. I know what it did to me when I heard it. It turned me upside down. I found out without any reservation that all the religion that I'd ever had in all my life was as worthless as a $3 bill. Nothing in it.

Alright, we have Simon here. He received praise of men. He knew he was only doing things for a show, but his show brought him his income. His show is what brought him his money. And how often in religion, that's the very thing. I've mentioned, you know, if the churches in the United States came to their pastor tomorrow and said, we're out of money and we cannot support you any longer, 99.9% of the pastors would resign instantly. They'd let their congregations know what really they're there for. Just like this man was here in Samaria for one reason. His sleight of hand tricks was his employment.

A person that is called to preach the gospel is never employed by the gospel. He has one reason for doing it. Woe is me if I preach not the gospel. There is such an interest placed inside of all of God's preachers that this is the heart and core. This is what it is about. It is about preaching Christ and leaving the results to Almighty God. What He does with it is His business. It's not the preacher's job to get a conversion out of one person. It is God's business to call on them to preach the gospel and leave the results to God.

I appreciated a verse of scripture I heard this morning, and that was Paul, not Paul, Silas, one of the other preachers, planted. Paul says, I watered. but God gave the increase. We stood back and let God take care of his business. He is the savior of his people.

All right, it tells us here in verse 11, and to him, they had regard because of a long time. He had bewitched them with sorceries. He knew nothing about God. He knew nothing about the Bible. He knew nothing about anything that was important, but he had an employment here. And he's not going to give that up.

Well, he goes on to us in verse 12. But when they believe Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. Once again, Philip did not come down to Samaria and say, you know, we're really sorry that way back in history that you folks were so mean to God that he brought in foreign armies in here and dispatched you out into the hinterlands and sent some of their people in here and now you've intermarried and no longer are you Jews. Sorry. He never said that. He never brought it up.

You know what the real answer to all the issues is? Christ. Oh, I'm a drunk. Well, Christ is the only one that can fix this. I'm a this, I'm a that. You know, well, let's go on here. It says in verse 12, 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. Then Simon himself believed also, and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip.

You know, and Phillip says, well, boy, this is great to have someone coming along with me. And I hope he's paying attention. You know, it's just wonderful to have that happen here. But look at what he's doing. Oh my goodness, the sorceries and the magic and his lifestyle. And then he believed, but he had no heart change whatsoever. We're going to find that out. Nothing happened to him. God didn't do a thing for him. God didn't save him. God didn't give him a new heart. His interest is not in Christ, but his interest is, what does it say there? and wondered, beholding the miracles and the signs which were done."

Now that hasn't changed in time, has it? How religion pays more attention to the signs. How religion pays more attention to, what do we have? The miracles. Now don't get me wrong, God still performs miracles, but we don't find it in the way that we find it in the Bible. God does his work as he pleases. You may have been healed from cancer, I say amen and amen. But if you say someone came down here and touched you and that's what healed you, we're in no better shape than Simon the sorcerer is. No better.

Simon, what caught his attention? It wasn't grace that caught his attention. It wasn't God's Word that caught his attention. It wasn't Christ that caught his attention. What caught his attention? All those miracles and those signs and those wonders that were going on. These words do not ring true of one of God's sheep. They're not caught up by signs and wonders. There's so much going on in the world today about signs. I get these mail all the time. We're approaching the end. Do you know what I say? Hallelujah. My goodness gracious, if that's good, we're reaching the end. Hallelujah. Christ's coming back.

Well, that's not what I mean. We're having all kinds of signs. You know, evil and adulterous generations seek after a sign, but the church is looking for Christ. And he will be here on time. his time, at the appointed time, and there's one thing that will happen before he ever descends from heaven with the voice and the shout and the trump of God, the last lost sheep will be saved. And that will usher in the end. It won't be a building. It won't be some people. It won't be a nation. It won't be a war. It will be the last sheep will be brought into his fold.

He is long-suffering to us. We're not willing that any should perish. You read that a little further on both ends of that, and you'll find out he's talking about the sheep there. Not willing any of the sheep. So he's long-suffering. He will wait as bad as things get. He will wait till the last sheep is saved. And when the last sheep is brought into the fold, you can say, Eureka! Hallelujah! And you know what? The church will be caught up in the air. You won't have to worry if this is it or not. Is this Jesus? Well, it was when He causes us to ascend up into His presence.

The wonderful things that were going on, those are what caught Simon's eyes, caught his ears. These words do not ring true. God's sheep are enamored by the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, in verse 14, we find some apostles from Jerusalem hear about what's going on down in Samaria. Hallelujah! Did you hear what's going on down in Samaria? We got word that God has saved a bunch of Samaritans. And you know, Peter and John go down there, and it's not an investigatory experience. We're going to go down there and see if there really is that. They're not investigatory. They're rejoicatory. They're rejoicing that the gospel has been preached down there in Samaria, and word has come back that a bunch of those folks have been saved by the grace of God. So they come down, and now verses 15, 16, and 17, I'm gonna skip over for right now. I'm gonna pick them up the next time. We'll come back to that. But I wanna go on down to verse 18.

And when Simon saw that through laying on the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, Did you read the rest? He offered them money. Well, if those who are around him didn't recognize because he was looking at the miracles and all that other stuff that was going on, if you were paying any attention at all and overheard him say, I'll give you money for this power. He has identified himself. They didn't have to ask him, are you saved? They didn't have to say, when did you trust Jesus? They didn't have to say, where did you hear the gospel? He answered right up front his problem. For money, I'll give you money. My ill-gotten gain for this power Well, when those words come out of the mouth of this former sorcerer who has been baptized, you know, if baptism was effectual, if baptism could save somebody, then we got to save man right here because he was baptized. But it is telling us that baptism does not have a thing to do with our salvation.

A person that is baptized is someone that has believed the gospel, has believed the Lord Jesus Christ, and they are answering His command to do something that is very humiliating. Man, I hate being in the water when I'm not in control. It's a humiliating experience to go down into the water and have someone else in control. And you know what? It's an area that we're not very much at home in. I had a brother drowned in it. We cannot spend our time in that water. You know, it just speaks about it's not for the proud. Baptism is not for the proud. It's a humiliating experience to be taken down into the water, but it's an obedient experience to be taken down into the water. This is exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ is requesting, requiring of every one of his believers. It's not for the strong. Foreign elements we've been in. This is a foreign element. I have no strength here. Good. That's what God commands. Our strength is in Him. It's not in us. And then we find out we're commanded to follow His pattern.

It's not for this world. He has a pattern in this. It's not for salvation. It's not for betterment of life. It's not for this. It's for obedience sake. To be obedient to Christ is to be baptized. And you know what? Simon the sorcerer was baptized just like I was baptized and didn't know the first thing about the gospel. They took me down into the water, they brought me up out of the water, everybody's saying hallelujah, and all I got was wet. Just wet. It was years later when I heard the gospel and God saved me, I understood what this was about.

It's an answer of a good conscience towards God. It's an answer of His command. And here we have a man that followed that, but he had no idea what it was all about. In fact, as we follow this out, it tells us here in verse 20, but Peter, now Peter, finally, he heard what this man was saying. He couldn't figure out by what he was thinking. We can't figure out what people are thinking, but we can hear what they're saying. And this man said something that got Peter's attention. We are commanded to heart check. We are commanded to make our calling and election sure. And my friends, that's exactly what Peter is bringing up to this man. He had no surety whatsoever in what he had, because Peter tells us,

but Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.

You know, it's almost the same thing in saying, you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with works. You thought that the gift of God could be purchased by ordinances, church membership, all the other things that we heard growing up in religion. How do you get where you need to be? Well, you just need to do this. You know what? Forget the I need to dos. The doing is God's. The most important thing that anybody can ever do is be in a place where they can hear the gospel. That's the most important thing. It may not be effectual today, it may not be effectual in 10 years or 20 years, but the most important place that a person can be is where they can hear the gospel. and God Almighty alone can make it living to us.

All right. Peter said, Your money perish 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. What in the world are you saying, Peter? You don't belong with us. You're not part of our group. You don't know anything about grace. You don't know anything about Christ. You don't know anything about He said here, Thou hast thought the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter. And then he gives him the reason. For thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Now, what does the Bible tell us about our natural heart? Over in the book of Jeremiah, it shares a great deal about our natural heart. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. You know, it takes God to reveal that truth to us because we, by our self, we, by our nature, cannot get to that conclusion that we're as bad as the Bible tells us that we are. We are always better than someone else. I may be a drunk, but I'm not a drunk like them. I may be a drug dealer, but I'm not a drug dealer like them. I may be a publican, but I'm not a publican like them. I may be a liar, but I'm not a liar like them. You know, we always take care to make sure that we're not in that group as everybody else is. And that's the problem. We can't get from there. to the reality until God reveals the truth to us in Christ Jesus.

And then when God brings up the subject about our stand before God, before we're saved, we say, you're right, my goodness, and I'm worse than that. You know what the Apostle Paul said? I'm the chiefest of sinners. And I heard a preacher say he was chiefest until I came along. I think that that's words that every believer says, I'm the chiefest of sinners, I'm the worst.

He offered money to give them this power. And Simon reveals by his words that he knew nothing of grace, he knew nothing of gospel salvation, he knew nothing of God, his work, or ministry. Now, to many people, they'd probably say, well, he's backslidden. He's just backslidden. No, no, no, no. He's lost. Now, I don't know what happened to him in the rest of his life. We don't have that record. But we do have this record. Thy heart is not right with God, and the natural heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

Now, how does a person go from your heart is not right with God to your heart is right with God? How do we get there? Is it something we do? Is it something we pray? Is it something we pay? Is it something we do? No. God said, I will give them a new heart. Now that comes in the new birth, that comes in regeneration. He gives his people a new heart. He takes the old stony heart and gives them a new heart. And you know what he said they will do after they have a new heart? They will love me. Our old heart is enmity against God. Our new heart loves him, loves his son, loves the gospel, loves his word, loves his precepts, loves his principles, loves everything about him. We quit arguing with him about things. We are brought to the place that he is all powerful and we are just saved by grace and nothing else.

Ye shall dwell in the land I gave your fathers, and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.

In the book of 1 Thessalonians, would you turn there with me for just a moment? The book of 1 Thessalonians 1. In the book of 1 Thessalonians 1, it tells us here, 1 Thessalonians 1, Paul is writing a letter to them. He's heard about them. He's heard about the church at Thessalonica. He's heard about people in the church at Thessalonica, and they have caught his attention because they have what he has. They have the gospel. They've heard the gospel. God's work is a work of grace. Now notice in here, it tells us here in verse nine, for they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had with you and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. You've turned from idols to serve the true God. And that's what repentance is. God does that for us. God does that for us.

Now, Simon's parting words are so far different from the parting words that we read about the next person found in the book of Acts chapter 8. Notice, go back to the book of Acts chapter 8 here very quickly, and we'll call this 430. Acts chapter 8, and there it says, Peter said in verse 21, you neither have part or lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. 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. Isn't that a selfish prayer? My goodness, I don't want that to happen to me. Well, it's exactly opposite of what God's prayer in his saints is. Be it unto me according to thy word.

Now, travel with me towards the end of this chapter and these are the parting words in verse 39 of the next person that we run into in this book. We don't even know his name. We do know he is from Ethiopia. And we do know that he is in a chariot, and we do know he is at some water, and he has a book of the, he has a scroll of the book of Isaiah in his lap, and he's reading it, and Philip is sitting down there and says, do you understand what you're reading? And he says, no, how can I except some man teach me? And Philip began at the same place to preach unto him Jesus. That's what it says.

Now this is how he left. Simon left. Oh, please don't pray that God won't do that. But notice here in verse 39 what this what happened here. And when they were come up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord caught away Philip that the eunuch saw him no more. Now notice the last phrase. And he went on his way rejoicing.

Oh, what the gospel does for people, they get to go on their way rejoicing. It may not end our trials or tribulations. It may not, it will not stop our aging process. It's just not going to do that. But we get to go on our way rejoicing, rejoicing in God, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Nancy and I both wish you a very happy New Year, and we'll pick up here, Lord willing, next Sunday. Brother Mike.