That's a lovely song. Tune my
wandering heart to Thee. We are, as I said earlier, speaking
about heart religion. The Lord says in Isaiah 54, that
famous verse, I'm sorry, in 57 verse 14, 15, it says, For thus saith the High and Lofty
One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in
a high and holy place, with Him also that is of a contrite and
humble spirit. to revive the spirit of the humble
and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. The Lord calls
upon his servants to speak to the hearts of his people. I can't
speak to your hearts. But God can. That's why as we
go through the scriptures we come again and again to passages
like the one before us regarding Simon, Simon Magus as he's known,
which cause us pause to think about who we are and what religion
is and the deceitfulness of our hearts and these people like
him that had the most extraordinary privileges of hearing the gospel
from faithful people and being in the very presence of the apostles
and yet Simon's name has gone down in history. In fact there's
a word called simony and it's the purchase of ecclesiastical
preferments with money. In fact it was a very common
thing both within the Anglican Church and the Roman Catholic
Church that you would buy the right to be a bishop in a certain
place. And often in the Catholic Church
you didn't even have to be there. You could buy the right by paying
someone higher up in authority and they would get their money
and then you would get your income from that parish without even
having to be there. It was called simony. and it's
named after this man. He's gone down in history as
famous for that. In fact he ought to be famous
for another thing, the Catholic Church attributes its foundation
to a man called Simon, but in fact they've got the wrong Simon
because this is the Simon that they can attribute their foundation
to, not the Simon Peter the Apostle. But at the end of the day, it
is just a heart, it is a heart issue and there are extraordinary
promises of God regarding his dealing with the hearts of people.
We've read some of them today out of Psalm 51 and Isaiah, but
in Isaiah 66, The Lord speaks and says, Thus
says the Lord, Heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. Where
is the house that ye build under me, and where is the place of
my rest? For all those things hath mine
hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord. To
this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite
spirit, and trembleth at my word." He's promised to look, hasn't
he? He's promised to dwell with the broken-hearted. He's promised
in his freedom that the Lord Jesus Christ brings to his people
is to set the captives free and to bind up the broken-hearted.
And that binding and that work is the work of sovereign grace
of our great God. Simon's great sin was that he
wanted to purchase what God had given, what God alone had given. So let's read this passage from
Acts 8. We might read from verse 9 to
get the context down to verse 24. But there was a certain man
called Simon, which before time in that same city used sorcery
and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some
great one." So he thought himself someone great and he didn't mind
telling other people about how great he was. To him 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. He wasn't
a novice Simon Magus, he was a man of great experience and
some age. But when they believed Philip
preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name
of Jesus Christ, they were baptised both men and women. Then Simon
himself believed also. And when he was baptized, he
continued with Philip and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs
which were done. 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
baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus." We're talking about manifest
signs of the Holy Spirit, the signs of ministerial gifts, of
speaking in tongues. performing miracles and casting
out demons. Then they laid 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 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. 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. Let's pry. Our Heavenly Father,
we do pray that these words and these words of warning and the
life of this man and the words that you gave to your apostles
to speak to this man might be words that we would take to heart,
Heavenly Father. And may we be protected from
thinking that this is something that happened a long time ago
and is outside of our experience and therefore something that's
just historical. Your word, Heavenly Father, to
your people is living and active. And may you, Heavenly Father,
speak to the hearts of your people this morning. May your children
be comforted in the knowledge of who the Lord Jesus Christ
is and the wonder of His power and protection and the glory
of His justifying righteousness. And may those who, like Simon,
think that salvation and the gifts of God are things to be
earned by man. May they be humbled, Heavenly
Father, before you. May they come into your sight
as humbled and broken sinners and cast all of their care upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. We do pray, Heavenly Father,
for you to speak to us, for your words to be the words that we
hear today, and you alone, Heavenly Father, know our hearts and can
speak to the hearts of your people. We do find ourselves yet again
completely and utterly dependent upon you, for we know that without
you We can do nothing. And we praise you that that's
the case, Heavenly Father, for salvation is of the Lord in its
entirety. And we praise you for sovereign
grace that saves sinners like us. We do thank you again for
your word. We thank you that you are a God
who cannot lie. And we thank you that you speak
through your word in ways that man could never imagine, our
Father. We pray that that might be our
portion this morning. We pray in Jesus' name. Well here we are in Acts and
yet one of those stories that gives my heart concern because
Simon's privileges are immense. Simon's situation was remarkable,
wasn't it? In a world of apostasy, like
there is a world of apostasy now, in fact Simon Magnus typifies
so much of the religion of this world. There are billions of
Simon Maguses in this world. There are billions of Simon Maguses. being led astray by multitudes
of Simon Magus' preaching who say to people that somehow the
gift of God is something that you can earn by your activities. Somehow the gift of God is something
that you can keep by your activities and somehow the gift of God is
something that you can earn some rewards for. It is all just free
will, works, religion. So let's not see Simon Magus
as someone just back there in history. Simon Magus is someone
who is paraded before us in all sorts of free will, works, religion,
whether it be Christian or whether it be all sorts of others. They
want to get to God by climbing some ecclesiastical ladder, some
way, some works of religion. But we have before us these words
of warning and we have the extraordinary example of Simon. So let's trust
that the Lord will teach us. And let's trust that the Lord
will cause us to see that this particular Simon is someone that
we don't want to be like. What a shocking thing to think
that people that we know and love could end up where Simon
has been and is. So Simon was a remarkably privileged
person. He heard the Gospel. He heard
the Gospel unadulterated, it wasn't polluted by anything.
He heard the Gospel from a man full of the Holy Spirit and the
wisdom of God, a man, Philip, who was an honourable man. He
even heard the Gospel from the apostles themselves. And Simon
was a man who was in the midst of a great revival. There were
other believers around him. The Gospel had come to Samaria,
and the Samaritans had believed in numbers, and there had been
great excitement about it, and he'd been caught up in all that.
Simon said he believed. Simon said he believed. Simon
not only said he believed, but he made a public profession of
that belief. He was not a young man, as I said a little while
ago. He was an older man, and he was baptized. He was baptized
along with the other believers. He was considered such. by Philip. He identified with the believers.
He continued, it says, he continued with Philip. He wasn't someone
who just came and then went. He continued with them. And then
something happened that we read about in these verses. When Peter
and John came down to that place, the Holy Spirit came upon the
Gentiles when Peter and John laid their hands upon them. And then Simon realised. Simon
was wondering at the miracles that Philip had, but now when
he saw the laying on of the apostles' hands and their reception of
the Holy Ghost coming upon some, and not upon him, he was moved,
wasn't he? He was moved with envy. He was moved with envy and he
was moved with bitterness. Simon desired to have what the
apostles possessed. And Simon, we read there in verse
18, Simon saw that through the 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. See, he wanted to be even a greater
one than Philip, who had brought the Gospel to him. Philip didn't
have the power to bestow the Holy Spirit on people by laying
on of hands. In fact, he wanted to even be
above the apostles. And Peter says to Simon, in spite of what Simon claimed. In spite of what Simon claimed
in his belief, in spite of his public profession, in spite of
his company with the believers, Peter describes the situation,
doesn't he, in these graphic words. And it's interesting,
isn't it, that again we have, as with Ananias and Sapphira,
we have the apostles having a particular gift of God to discern things
that the church in general could not discern. It was a protection,
but also it's a warning to us. But it was a particular gift,
and we spoke about it last week, that the apostles hold that special
place in God's appointments. And Ephesians 4 talks about these
gifts. these gifts that are given by
the Lord Jesus Christ, that He ascended, He ascended on high,
far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things, and
He gave some, verse 11, chapter 4, He gave some apostles and
some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers
for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ. That was what all
these gifts were for. Simon wanted these gifts and
he wanted to buy these gifts. He wanted to buy them for himself
so that he could have the esteem of others, so that he could then
go on and sell them to others. In spite of all this, Peter says
to him, Verse 20, thy money perish with thee, thy money go into
destruction with thee. For thou hast thought that the
gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither
part nor lot in this matter. You are not part of what we are
involved in here. You are not one with us. You
are not a part of this salvation, you are not a part of this church,
you are not a part of what God is doing amongst these people,
because or for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Thy heart is not right in the
sight of God. See, salvation, salvation is
a heart work. Salvation, as we read in those
verses from Psalms and Isaiah, salvation is a work of God in
the heart. The Lord says to his people,
he says, my son, give me thine heart. Ezekiel 36 is a verse
that was very significant in the early days of our church.
I don't know how many times I quoted it and read it to people. And
I just love the fact of the promises in this, in Ezekiel 36, as in
many other passages in the Old Testament, is the declaration
of the eternal covenant, the new covenant of God with his
people, the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I used to love
the fact I remember in India thinking this is just the most
remarkable passage of scripture. I love the wills of God, the
promises of God. Just listen to them with me.
He talks about how he will sanctify his great name in verse 23, that's
profaned among the heathens, and he will take them out. He
will take them out. But you'll take them out, you'll
sanctify them, that the heathen might know that I am the Lord,
when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. Because,
or for, I will take you from among the heathen, and gather
you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land.
Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean. From all your filthiness and
from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I
give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will
take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give
you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within
you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall keep
My judgments and do them. And you shall dwell in the land
that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be My people, and
I will be your God. I will also save you from all
your uncleannesses, and I will call for the corn and will increase
it, and lay no famine upon you. And I will multiply the fruit
of the tree and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive
no more reproach of famine among the heathen. Then shall ye remember
your own evil ways and your doings that were not good, and shall
loathe yourself selves in your own sight for your iniquities
and for your abominations. Not for your sakes do I do this,
saith the Lord God, be it known unto you. Be ashamed and confounded
for your own ways. He does it all for his name's
sake. He is the great shepherd of his
sheep and he gathers them, but in his gathering of them he does
this remarkable work in the hearts of his people. He removes that
heart of stone, that heart of stone that is unfeeling about
the things of God, unfeeling about his glory, unfeeling about
the Lord Jesus Christ and what happened to him. A heart of stone
that cannot believe, a heart of stone that cannot hear the
Word of God, a heart of stone which is unfeeling and uncaring
and unresponsive in every way. There's a new heart. See, salvation
is a divine work in the heart. Conviction of sin, as we saw
earlier in Acts, is a heart work. We see the difference in Acts
between the work of God in the hearts of people that were convicted
of their sin in Acts chapter 2. If you remember that those
people there on the day of Pentecost, at the preaching of the gospel,
of the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, they actually were
pricked in their heart. They were pricked in their heart. There is in the works of God
in this world, there is a stirring and a wounding of people as they
come across the people of God. But those Pharisees that stoned
Stephen to death, when they heard these things, when they heard
Stephen declaring their history and declaring the fact that they
were, thought they were law keepers but they never kept the law.
They were, in fact, murderers and betrayers of the Just One.
When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart. There is enormous difference,
isn't there, between being cut to the heart and being wounded,
pricked in the heart. Simon Magus was cut to the heart. But these men, these saved men
like Peter, were cut too in the heart. They were pricked in the
heart. They had a fatal wound in that heart of flesh that we
inherited in the garden. That's why the scriptures again
and again speak of heart religion. True religion is a religion of
the heart. True religion loves the truth. True religion loves the Lord
Jesus and it's a heart relationship with Him. Which is why Proverbs
says in chapter 4 verse 23, keep thy heart with all diligence
for out of it Out of it are the issues of life. The sacrifices
of God are a broken heart. The Lord is nigh unto them that
are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. There is a cry from that heart,
wasn't it? That wounded heart cried out,
what must we do to be saved? That wounded heart, that wound
in that heart causes those people to call on the name of the Lord. See, conviction of sin is a hard
work. Faith is a hard work. The Ethiopian
eunuch who we'll, Lord willing, look at next week, says, here is water, what doth
hinder me to be baptised? And Philip said, if thou believeth
with all thine heart thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. It's more than just religious
assent. Everything in religion is a heart
activity, isn't it? At the end of the day, it's so
easy to do physical external things, but a heart religion
is the religion of God in the hearts of His people. It is Christ
in you, the hope of glory. And when He takes up residence
in the hearts of people, Everything becomes different. People can
say their prayers, but they pray, don't they? What happened to
Paul? What was the word of him there in Damascus? Behold, he
prayeth. Paul had been saying prayers
all his life. He would have recited them on
street corners, in churches, all over the place. But behold,
he prayeth. See, praise is a hard business. Worship is a heart business. That rebuke of the Lord Jesus
to those people that he warned and warned and warned again during
his time on this earth is that quote, isn't it? Which is a shocking
thing, isn't it? He said to these Pharisees, who
were critical of him and critical of his disciples, over the washing
of their hands. And he answered and said to them,
well have Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites. As it is written,
this people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is
far from me. How be it in vain do they worship
me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men? this issue of the heart, isn't
it? Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues
of life. And as I prepare this, and as
I ponder it, and as I pray about it even now, I keep being reminded
that this is an activity that is purely between God and men. See, Philip couldn't see the
heart of Simon Magus. The Jerusalem church couldn't
see the heart of Ananias and Sapphira. But God sees our heart. Man looks at the outward appearance,
but God looks on the heart. What is highly esteemed among
men in religion is abomination to the Lord. If it earns the
praise of men, we need to be wary of it. So Israel provoked
God again and again, and provoked His wrath. They did flatter Him
with their mouth, and they lied unto Him with their tongues,
for their heart was not right with Him." Which is the words
that are here said of Simon Nagus. Christianity is a religion of
the heart. It's a living union with a living
God. It's a living union with a living
Redeemer. It is the principle thing, isn't
it? It's so easy for people to make
an outward show of religion and to be esteemed of men and have
their hearts far from Him. For any of us who know something
of the deceitfulness of our hearts, we tremble at these words. And
my prayer is that we would be protected by the Lord in His
grace from being Simon Maguses. It's a heart relationship, isn't
it? A heart relationship with the Lord Jesus. This is eternal
life, that you might know Him. You might know Him. It's Christ
in you, the hope of glory. And when He takes up residence
in His people, the things that matter to Him matter to us. The things that He loves are
the things that we love. We love the fact of His being. We love the fact of the internality
of our Lord Jesus Christ. We love His deity. We love His
sovereignty. We love His character. We love
His words. We love His deeds. We love His
providences, that He rules the providences of our lives and
He works all things for the good of His people. We love the fact
that He has a people. We love the fact of his presence,
his promised presence with his people, that he's promised to
be here and to speak to the hearts of his people. We love his correcting
hand upon us. We love the fact that in sovereign
grace he actually restrains the things that we might do that
would harm us and our relationship with him. He allows us enough
rope to know how dangerous it is when we go our own way. And
then like that great shepherd, that loving shepherd, he comes
and he draws us to himself. We love his preservation of us. We love his salvation. We love his exaltation. We want Him to get all the glory. One of Simon Magus' great sins
was that he wanted the gift of God, that he can have glory for
himself. You know that well-known verse
in Jeremiah 17 verse 9, the heart of man is deceitfully wicked
and beyond cure. The heart of man is deceitful
above all things, and desperately wicked. And then the question
is, who can know it? Who can know it? So the heart
that we earned in the fall is deceitful, it's incurably sick. And the proud heart that we have
inherited and we earn by our activities in the garden, that
proud heart in Proverbs 16 is an abomination to the Lord. What
man looks to for his glory and for his pride is an abomination. Everyone that is proud in heart
is an abomination to the Lord, though hand joined to hand, he
shall not go unpunished. No matter how many there are,
they shall not go unpunished. In Proverbs 21 verse 4, a high
look and a proud heart, and the ploughing of the wicked is sin."
If you know anything of your own heart, the Adam heart that
beats in our flesh, the Adam heart that causes us to grieve,
the Adam heart that causes us to love that hymn that we just
sang, Take My Heart, Lord, Take My Heart. See our heart, our
Adam heart, isn't it, the heart that's in all of us, has a great
love for self, like Simon Magus, a great love for self and self's
glory and not for the glory of the Lord. It desires personal
esteem and personal glory. It passionately wants to rule. You shall be as gods, is the
promise that Satan imbibed in our hearts in the garden. You
shall be as God. You will stand in judgment of
God and His ways and His words. It wants to rule and not be ruled. It wants to exercise its esteem
and its own knowledge of good and evil. It wants others to
serve its desires. No wonder in Proverbs 28, 26
the wise man says, that he that trusteth in his own heart is
a fool. And yet the call of this world
isn't it, is to trust your own heart and follow the dictates
of your own heart. Just do it. He that trusteth
in his own heart is a fool. It's a heart of stone. It's a
heart that takes and not receives. Simon Magnus wanted to take,
didn't he? He wanted to buy. What was given, what was received
and given by God as a grace gift is something that he thought
that he could buy. Give me also this power that
on whomsoever I lay my hands he may receive the Holy Spirit.
It wants to take. It's the heart from which flows
sin, doesn't it? And the Lord Jesus rebuked those
Pharisees in that passage we saw in Mark chapter 7. They thought that external religious
activity and external holiness and external righteousness was
the way, that things reached the heart by all of these external
activities and they could do those things and they could be
right with God and they could do those things and earn the
esteem of man. And the Lord Jesus rebuked them,
didn't he? He says, hearken unto me, every
one of you, and understand, there is nothing from without a man
that entering into him can defile him. There is nothing from without
a man that entering into him can defile him. But the things
which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. If any man has ears to hear,
let him hear. And the disciples were perplexed,
and they asked him, and he saith unto them, Are you so without
understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatsoever
thing from without entereth into a man, it cannot defile him,
because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly,
and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats? That which
cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out
of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications,
murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness,
an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. These, all these
evil things come from within and defile the man. You can see
why external religion that says, touch not, taste not, handle
not, do not all these things and obey all these things, never
reaches the heart of man. It never reaches that heart of
stone. It's that heart, out of that
heart, close in. And this heart is at its most
deceived when it's most religious. These people honour me with their
hearts, honour me with their lips, and their hearts are far
from me." You know the story of the public and the of the
Pharisee who went up to the temple, and they trusted in themselves
that they were righteous. They went to the temple to pray,
the Pharisee and the other Republican, and the Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself, God, I thank Thee, that I'm not as other men
are, extortioners, unjust adulterers, even as this publican. I fast
twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess, And the
publican, standing afar off, would not lift so much as his
eyes into heaven, and smote upon his breast, he smote upon his
chest, saying, God, be merciful to me. In fact, in the original,
it's the sinner. He only ever saw himself as a
sinner. He didn't even see the Pharisee
as a sinner. He just saw himself as the sinner. I tell you, says the Lord Jesus
Christ, this man went down to his house, justified rather than
the other. For everyone that exalteth himself
shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. There is nothing more exalting
of the flesh of man in this world than external religion that is
seen by men and esteemed in the eyes of men. And this heart,
this deceitful heart is most deceived when it's religious,
when it's most religious. And it's most deceived when it's
most convinced that it's not deceived. And it's most deceived
when it thinks that it can see clearly, when it thinks it can
see righteousness in its doing, when it thinks it can judge well,
when it thinks it can do something to fix sin. It's at its worst
when it receives just a slight wound, a slight wound rather
than a heart transplant. As I said earlier, the part of
that verse that is so remarkable, isn't it? It's in the sight of
God. Thy heart is not right in the sight of God. It's in our hearts that the Lord
works. It's in our hearts that the Lord
brings us to conviction of sin, but also it's in our hearts that
the Lord assures His people. He assures the hearts of His
people. Romans 10 says in verse 9, If
thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe
in thine heart, That God raised him from the dead, thou shalt
be saved. For with heart man believeth
unto righteousness. Believes unto righteousness. There is so much presumption
in religion. I don't wish for us to be presumptuous. We have, by the grace, gift of
God, been taught doctrine that is true, doctrine which is so
founded so deeply and profoundly in scriptures that it cannot
be gainsayed by anyone. We do preach and try to proclaim
through the Lord Jesus Christ's work in our lives that there
is one true God, that He's sovereign, He's holy, He's just and He's
good. We believe that the Bible is
the Word of God. We believe that Jesus Christ
is God. in our nature that He lived and
He died and He rose again. We believe all that the apostles
say about Him. We believe in heaven and hell.
We believe in resurrection and judgement. We believe in all
those wonderful God-honouring doctrines of the free and sovereign
grace of God. We believe and teach the total
depravity of man and his inability. We teach election and predestination. We delight in doctrines of limited
atonement, of irresistible grace, of eternal preservation. The reality is Simon Magus was
taught all those things by the very apostles himself. There
are multitudes, there are multitudes of lost people who had that religion,
something of that religion in their heads. Judas, Judas preached
the Gospel and performed miracles. Ananias and Sapphira, Simon Magus,
Demas and Diotrephes, they are here to warn us. Their lives,
like the blood of Abel, speaks to us. They should keep speaking
to us today. Without heart faith, without
that heart relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, all of
those doctrinal things that people believe and can recite like parrots
are of no use to them whatsoever. Now under the scriptures provide
us with these words of warning and these people of warning,
don't they? In 2 Corinthians 13 5 it says,
examine yourselves whether you be in the faith, prove your own
selves, know you not your own selves how that Jesus Christ
is in you, except you be reprobate. In the context of the apostolic
declarations it's holding on to our apostolic testimony of
the Lord Jesus Christ. in the midst of persecution,
in the midst of the trials of this world. It is that life of
God in the soul of man that begins from God. It is and it must come
from God. I trust, like me, your care for
your own soul. We as a church make a serious
statement gathering here and not joining with the others down
the road and across the road and up the road. We are surrounded
by other churches. When we stand here and gather
here, we are saying that we cannot worship God in spirit and truth
in those places, and that we do worship him here. and if I'm wrong if I'm wrong
and I know I'm not But what a serious thing it is to deceive people. What a serious thing. We've had,
by the grace of God, by standing outside of this religious world
and looking in, we've had the privilege and the blessing of
God to be caused to examine ourselves again and again and go back to
God's holy word and say, is this true? Is this true? Again and again. And God has exercised our hearts
and brought us to believe these things and brought people from
around the world to testify of these things, but it's what God
says in His Word and not the things we experience in our flesh,
which is at the heart of the matter. So the questions that
Simon Magnus asked us, do I have Do I have a true heart faith? I don't want to be deceived and
I don't want to be a deceiver. I don't want to do all of this
like Paul having preached the gospel and then find himself
to be reprobate. I don't want to miss Christ.
I don't want you, the people I love and care for, I don't
want you to miss Christ. The reality is that false faith,
false faith, as we see in the scriptures and as we've seen
in this world around us so many times, can do remarkable things. See, false faith can be greatly
enlightened. In Hebrews 6, the apostates were
once enlightened. There is, there is in false faith
things that excite the emotions. No doubt Simon Magnus was overwhelmed
by the miracles of Simon and then overwhelmed yet again and
even great in a greater extent by the miracles of Peter and
John. It excites the affections. There
are, in the parable of the sower, there is that seed that's sown
on the stony ground, and the stony ground seed receives the
word with joy, just joy, just for a little while. A number
of times I've spoken to people and they have just been amazed
at the wonders of justifying righteousness, the wonders of
God. causing the Lord Jesus Christ
in that covenant of grace from eternity to be the surety of
His people. And you find people excited for
a while and you go back to see if that excitement has gone any
deeper, whether there are any roots in it, whether there was
anything sustaining it from God Himself. And you find that there
is just deadness and coldness to these things. The affections
can be excited for a while. They can receive the Word with
joy. As we saw from Luke 18, false faith can reform the outward
life. The Pharisees and so many false
teachers were as pure as the driven snow. When Satan masquerades
as an angel of light and a preacher of righteousness, the very first
thing you're going to see in him is an outward righteousness
that the world will esteem. God looks at the heart, but there
are, like the Pharisees and multitudes of others, there are reformed
lives from false faith. False faith can speak well of
Christ. As the Pharisees, as the officers
of the Jews said, never a man spake as this man. Nicodemus
came to him out of the darkness and said, good master, we know
that thou art a teacher come from God. Nicodemus spoke well
of him. Multitudes today speak well of
the Lord Jesus Christ. False faith, like King Saul,
confessed sin. When Saul was confronted by David's
grace to him and mercy to him, he says in 2 Samuel 26-29, I
have sinned. I have sinned. He was aware of
the fact that he has sinned. Even Ahab humbled himself in
sackcloth and ashes. They both had false faith. Esau
and Judas repented. False faith can bring repentance,
it seems. False faith can perform religious
work. False faith, like Ananias and
Sapphira, can be very generous and remarkably charitable. Felix,
Felix trembled at the word of God. spoken by Paul in Acts 24-25. False faith can experience much
in religion. Simon Magus experienced much. False faith can enjoy great religious
privileges. Lot's wife enjoyed great religious
privileges. Simon, Magnus, Ananias and Sapphira
and all of nation Israel had the most remarkable religious
privileges laid out before them. They could walk and talk and
witness to God in human flesh on this earth, fulfilling everything
that their Word of God had before them. And they could see it and
they could testify to it. False faith. can perform, like
Judas. False faith can perform miracles
and cast out demons. False faith, like deatrophies,
can get to a high office in the church. False faith, like demons,
can walk with great preachers. False faith can be carnally secure
and peaceful. the efforts of false teachers
is again and again and again to say peace, peace to people,
to lull them into a sense of peace, that their decision, their
walking down an aisle, their good works, their law-keeping,
all of these things that they do are the cause and the source
of their salvation and they keep preaching peace to themselves
every time they meet and each weekend. False faith, ultimately,
in those words that should cause heart anguish to anyone that
is slightly moved by the destiny of people who meet God outside
of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many, says our
Lord in Matthew 7, many will say to me in that day, Lord,
Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name
have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful
works. There was a quantity of them.
There were many of them. There was a quality of their
works. They were wonderful. And then I will profess unto
them, I never knew you. depart from Me, ye that work
iniquity." May God protect us from meeting Him on that day
with anything in our hands at all, except what the Lord Jesus
Christ has done. Thomas Manton wrote, Thou pray
with the Pharisees, pay thy vows with the harlot, kiss Christ
with Judas, offer sacrifices with Cain, fast with Jezebel,
sell thine inheritance to give to the poor with Ananias and
Sapphira. All is in vain without the heart,
for it is the heart that enliveneth all. It's the heart that enliveneth
all. The truth-saving faith has an
object, doesn't it? that Simon Magus missed altogether.
Simon Magus thought that the work of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the work of Philip in preaching and the work of the apostles
was a work that allowed him to esteem himself. But saving faith,
saving faith is about the Lord Jesus Christ. If thou confess
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thy heart
that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved, says
Romans 10.9. Jesus Christ is the life, he
is the death, and he's the resurrection, he's the foundation, he's the
object of faith. Simon Magus' object had never
moved, had never moved from himself to the Lord Jesus Christ. Simon
Magus thought that somehow the deception with which he had deceived
others is something that he could change and he could continue
to deceive others by selling what was given of God as a gift
to his people. Simple faith in the heart is
to trust, isn't it? Is to believe, is to rely upon,
is to depend upon. I love how Paul describes the
Lord Jesus. He says, I know whom I have believed. I know whom I have believed.
I don't know what about. It's not the what, isn't it?
I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that He is able
to keep that which I've entrusted unto Him. What have you entrusted? under him. What have you not entrusted unto
Him? We entrust absolutely everything unto Him. He is God. He is the eternal God. He does
rule over all things. We trust Him for His deity. We trust Him in His incarnation. We trust Him as the one who kept
the law of God perfectly. We trust Him in His obedience,
as our obedience before God. We trust Him in His faithfulness. We trust Him in His righteousness. We trust Him in Him taking our
sins as He promised. We trust Him in bearing the agony
and bearing the guilt. We trust Him in dying in our
place. We trust Him when He said that
it is finished, that the salvation of all of His people was finished
completely and forever. We trust Him. Faith beholds Him. Faith looks to Him. Faith relies on Him. Faith looks in exactly the same
place that God the Father looks for His satisfaction. God looks
to His Son and He's well pleased. God looks to His Son's sacrifice
and he's well pleased with that sweet smelling odour going to
God from that sacrifice. One of the glorious pictures
in the Old Testament is when they built that altar in that
tabernacle and when they laid out that beast upon that altar
on top of the woods there. Where did the fire come from?
Where did the fire come to light that altar that was never to
go out again? The fire came from God. And such is the state of all
of God's children, isn't it? The fire comes from God. The heart, the new heart is the
gift of God. They received these Samaritans. They received the Word of God. They received the Holy Ghost. It was given to them. It comes
as a gift. And it comes as a discriminating
gift. And the religious world and the
normal world find it offensive that God's gift comes by revelation,
comes from His sovereign hand. And God's children delight in
the fact that He, our God, reigns over all things. Simon Magus
is laid out before us, isn't he? That his heart was unmoved. And Peter in Acts 8.22 says,
Repent therefore of 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, you are bitterly envious. The
apostles and Philip have a gift that you weren't given and you
want. See, God's gifts are distributed
by a sovereign hand for love and for care of His people and
for His glory. And in the bond, you're in the
gall of bitterness and in bondage to sin, bondage of iniquity,
bondage of unrighteousness. He was held in chains. That's what sin does, doesn't
it? Whoever sins is a slave to sin. When the Lord sets His people
free, there are new bonds that are given them. In Ephesians
4.3, it's the bond of peace, the same word, bands of peace. In Colossians 3.14, it's bands
and bonds of love. He binds the hearts of His people
together in love. And that's what Colossians 2.19
says, that the church is built together with bonds, these bonds
and bands that come from God. The bond of iniquity is the bond
that we entered into with our father Adam, and it's a captivity
which is extraordinarily strong, and only a sovereign hand of
a sovereign God can take it. So saving faith is receiving
Him, isn't it? Receiving Him as He really is
and delighting in Him. It's coming to Him. It's eating
His flesh. It's drinking His blood. It's
submitting to Him. We delightfully want Him to rule
our lives. Don't you love the fact that
He is ruler? Don't you love the fact that
He rules sovereignly over all things for you? I want Him to
rule. I don't want to rule my own life. I want Him to own me such that
whatever commitment I make to Him is nothing short of His commitment
to us. I want to be found trusting Him. True saving faith from the heart
is looking to Him. It is like the Beloved in Song
of Solomon, Chapter 8. It's leaning on Him. You come
out of the wilderness leaning on your Beloved. grow strong
enough to walk on your own, and you love it that way. You're
leaning on him. It's kissing the sun. It's worshipping him. Ultimately,
Saving faith in the heart is looking away, always looking
away. I've got nothing that I can see
in myself and of myself that causes me any confidence. There's
not a single thing that I have or have done that I can bring
before God. I trust it's the same with you,
it's looking to Him. Faith is coming as a guilty,
helpless, hell-deserving criminal, but it's ultimately coming to
Him, to the sovereign King, like those people did, and they called
out, they called out, what shall we do to be saved? See, Simon,
Simon answered and said, Pray ye, Lord, to the Lord for me,
that none of these things which you have spoken come upon thee."
Simon didn't pray about the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and
the honour of the Lord Jesus Christ. Simon's request for prayer
is still a fleshly request, isn't it? It's not about the glory
of God, it's about him being saved from something that might
come upon him. not by a sovereign hand of a faithful saviour, but
by some other activity. So heart-faith, heart-faith is
the gift of God. Heart-faith doesn't come from
man's activities, it doesn't come from the exercise of man's
free will. A true heart that believes God
is the gift of God. As many as received Him, to them
gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe
on His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of
the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. So then it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that shows mercy. It doesn't come from your background
and your breeding. Your breeding like my breeding
is something not to be esteemed in the eyes of God at all. And
faith doesn't come from a sinner's free will, and it doesn't come
from the logic or the persuasiveness of a preacher. It comes as a
gift of God, for by grace are you saved through faith, and
that not of yourselves. It's not the stirring up. of
that heart that's deceitfully wicked and beyond cure. It's
the implanting of a new heart in the hearts of God's people.
It's the removal of that heart of stone and given a heart of
flesh, a heart of flesh that can love the Lord Jesus Christ,
that can love His people, a heart of flesh that can believe. For by grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourself, it is the gift God as many as
were ordained to eternal life Believed as the Lord Jesus said
in John 5 54 no man can come to me except my father which
has sent me draw him and I Will raise him up on the last day
We believe We believe from our hearts, according to Ephesians
1.19, we believe according to the working of His mighty power. If you are a believer, it is
the working of His mighty power. May God grant us that heart faith. that heart-faith that receives
justification, that heart-faith that receives the very righteousness
of Christ, that heart-faith that by faith we have remission of
sins, that heart-faith by which we have peace with God, that
heart-faith by which we are sanctified. That heart faith that continues
to remind us that faith adds nothing to the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's all about Him. It's all about Him and His glory. Faith, simply as these people
did in Acts in Samaria, they received. Faith is receiving
the Word of God, receiving the Word of God in the heart. Faith
is receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit. who takes the things
of the Lord Jesus Christ and reveals them to us and protects
his people, exposes to his people what is false and again and again
and again brings his people to a place where they find themselves
at peace at the foot of the cross of the Lord Jesus. May God look
at our hearts and may God cause us to examine our hearts May
God cause us to find ourselves in heart love with the Lord Jesus
Christ. May God protect us from being
Simon Magus's. Let's pray.