If you will, turn back to Acts
chapter 1 just for a second. Acts chapter 1. The title of my message is How to
Grow a Church. It's how God grows His church, but someone might
click on that. The Lord may be using it to teach
them something. How to grow a church. That's
what we're going to see. Well, here in Acts 1 verse 6,
It says, When they therefore come together, they ask of him,
saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom
to Israel? Is it something carnal going
to happen in our day and time that we can see? And we can say,
Oh, that's it. He said unto them, It's not for you to know the
time or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power.
That ain't for you to know. But ye shall receive power. I
got something else for you to do. You want to serve God? Look
here at verse eight with me. But ye shall receive power after
that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and ye shall be witnesses
unto both me in Jerusalem and all Judea and in Samaria and
to the uttermost parts of the earth. We ought to really pay
attention tonight because we're in that uttermost parts of the
earth. I ain't standing in Judea today and I wasn't born in Samaria. This is the uttermost part. This
is to us. God said, I'm going to send my
preachers out there. That's going to be you all. And
together, we are going to preach Christ. My servants are going
to go. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld,
he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight. That
was the last thing he told them before he ascended off of this
earth. You think it's going to come to pass? I do. I believe him. The Lord said
he's going to send them to Judea, and he's going to send them to
Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the world. And then
we know what all took place, don't we? There's 120 of them,
and they met in that upper room, men and women, both of them,
together, and they prayed together, sought to the word from God together,
one accord, and then the Pentecost came. And most of the scholars
think, and they think that's all it is, is thinking, but I
think they might be right. It was about six or eight years
between the Lord's ascension and Stephen being stoned and
everybody getting scattered. So this wasn't like 24 hours
or something. This took a while. There's 120
of them, and then at Pentecost, 3,000 souls were added. And then more was added. And
it says, daily it should be saved. And it says a multitudes were
added. So there's 10, 15,000 believers in Jerusalem. And they've
been there a while over these years. Stephen and Philip, they
were, and some other ones were ordained as deacons. There was
so many of them to have to help out. Eventually Simon or Stephen
and Philip and those others, they're made evangelists. They're
going to go out and start preaching. They didn't just, I'm a deacon
for 30 minutes and now I'm an evangelist. It took a little
bit. Don't lay hands on no man suddenly. This took a while. And boy, that's
getting comfortable, wasn't it? It was a privilege to have that.
It really was. That was the Lord's ascension
gift that Paul says there in Ephesians 4. And he gave some
apostles. You know who that is, don't you?
Do you know who the apostles were? There's 12 of them, wasn't
there? And some prophets. Do you know who the prophets
were? You know who the prophets were, don't you? And some evangelists? Who's that? Well, that's Philip
and Stephen and Titus and Timothy and those that went out and preached.
We know who those were. And some pastors and some teachers. I had Bob wrote down here. I'm
lumped into them. If I don't give you goosebumps
and you preach, oh, buddy, me? Me? This is the ascension gift
of Christ. And how people receive and treat
them is how they receive and treat Christ. It's scary, but
it's so. That's frightening, isn't it?
How long was the Lord going to grow his church? especially in
Samaria. Well, he's gonna have to send
somebody to him, and that's a precious thing. Brother Darwin Pruitt
was preaching at a place one time, and he said he could help
him, try to send somebody down there to preach for him, and
maybe they could find him a pastor. And I said, oh, we can get us pastors.
We got two or three people we can call as pastors. You know
what he said to him? You don't need me." And that was the last
time he talked to that group. Ooh, what a terrifying thing,
huh? Greatest blessing it could be, Lord, since somebody preaching
the gospel. Greatest curse could be on the city for them to take
it away. Can you believe that? These brethren were comfortable
here, and I thought of Elijah. Elijah went to that king Ahab
with some plainness and boldness, and he said, it ain't gonna rain,
and it ain't gonna dew in this place. You ain't gonna have one
drop, I mean, not even a molecule of moisture from the gospel until
I say so. Did God strike him dead? He said,
head eastward. There's a brook out there, and
I'm gonna feed you twice a day with ravens. They're gonna bring
you meat and bread. Nobody else gonna get took care
of, but I'm gonna take care of you, Elijah. Elijah's sitting
there. He didn't have to prepare messages.
I was talking with my fellow laborers today You know how good
he had it's about a year. You can probably he was out there
He had a clean cold water to drink famine and made a drop
of water in the whole land. He's drinking good He ain't even
got to go cook dinner. The Ravens bring him meat and
bread twice a day He's got it. Good How's he why would he leave? God's going at the movie Does
God do all things right? Is he going to get glory out
of this? You betcha. The Lord had a people in Samaria
and that's going to be preached to. Turn and look over in Acts
chapter 8 verse 1. How is the Lord going to do this?
How is the Lord going to grow his church in Samaria? Acts 8
verse 1. And Saul was consenting unto
his death. We remember looking at Stephen. He was there holding
our coats. And at the time, there was a
great persecution against the church that was in Jerusalem.
And they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea
and Samaria. Great persecution came and God
scattered them. Except for the apostles, they
stayed there in Jerusalem. And devout men carried Stephen
to his burial, made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made
havoc of the church. entering into every house and
hailing men and women, committed them to prison. He talks about
that in Galatians 1.13. Paul said, you've heard about
my conversation in the Jews religion. He said, I was doing great. I
was an up and comer, buddy. I was going to be head honcho.
He was moving up and he said, I persecuted the church. I wasted
it. He took men and women to prison.
It wasn't just taking a man off and leaving a woman there to
raise the children. We're gonna make him orphans. We don't care about
you. You say that Christ is your king. You put the men in one
prison, put the women in the other prison. Those people, they've
been persecuted. What happened? What have we been
looking at? They've been whipped. They've been warned. They said,
don't you stop preaching what you're preaching. Hadn't they?
Well, they didn't care. They got whipped with a cat and
nine tails. They was happy about it. Now somebody died. Now they're
killing people. Now they're making orphans out
of the church. And it's time to move. I'm thick-headed.
Sometimes when the Lord speaks, he's got to speak loudly. It's
got to be obvious for me to do something or not do something.
And for them, he had sent Saul. Saul said he persecuted the church
of God and wasted it and profited in the Jews' religion among many
my equal in my own nation, becoming more zealous of the traditions
of my father. Boy, he went after it with vigor.
Do we pick on Paul? If the Lord ain't made that us,
he ain't saved us yet. If we never was enemies, we're
still at war and the war ain't over. We can't say peace. It's still raging. Paul was a
sinner saved by grace just like anybody else was. Ain't nothing
different. Is that the way you would pick
to motivate the brethren to go to Samaria? Send one down, I
mean, just with marching orders to, imprison them, or kill them,
or stone them, or rip the children from them, or do whatever it
takes. Make them stop preaching. Or to go to other places. And
not just stay there in comfortable Jerusalem. Is that the way you'd
pick? The Lord's ways ain't my ways. The Lord's ways ain't our
ways, is it? Moses had to kill that Egyptian
to end up in the desert, didn't he? That's something bad. But it had to happen. What about
Joseph? Joseph had to be sold by his brothers into slavery.
And then, he had to work his way up a little bit, and then
he's lied on and he's put in a prison. And he interpreted
a dream. He had to go through all those
things to what? To end up having the only place that corn was
on this earth and a famine, and to save what? Much people alive. The sin ain't excused. Man is
to be pitied and to be blamed. Period. It's our doing. But God,
even in the face of what, isn't that just amazing to you? The
Lord can't be frustrated. His will can't be undone. He's
gonna save His people. Period. Now, the way He does
it ain't gonna be the way I would pick to do it or you'd pick to
do it. But known unto Him as His will from the beginning of
time, He knew He was gonna do it. That's exactly what He was
pleased to do. I was thinking, the personal experience, does
that apply to me? This ain't just something that happened
to somebody else. Does this apply to you? Do we have ears to hear like
we just sang? Or ears to hear and eyes to see?
I thought I said that backwards. Are we hearing with our eyes?
You know what I mean. Is this to us? I was getting
ready to go to selection for the Green Berets, and all my
buddies I trained with, they're Green Berets now. I was getting
ready to go to selection. We all trained up together, and
I was gonna make it. And I broke my leg two weeks before I was
supposed to. I already had my plane tickets. I was supposed to go. And then
the guy that decides where you go in the Army, I met him in
person. You never get to do that. And I was the best there was,
and I knew it. I had a chip on both shoulders.
And I made him real mad in person. And you know, he has a punishment.
He sent me to Fort Knox, Kentucky. Whose fault was that? That was
my fault. Ever bit my fault. I was showing
off doing something physical. I shouldn't have been doing what
broke my leg. I was doing a spur ride. Why did the Lord do that? Right there.
See that woman? He had a daughter in Shepherdsville,
Kentucky. That's where the shepherd sent
this one. Because he had a daughter, a
sheep in Shepherdsville. I never thought about that till now.
And then look here, these children sitting here. That's what the Lord did. I wish
I didn't have to break my leg. It hurts every time it rains.
I don't want to break it again. I don't want to go back and just
break my leg once a year so I can remember, oh, the Lord broke
my leg. No, thank you. Thank you. Well, I saw he was
he was a double use, wasn't he? He was used as bad and used as
good, just like Onesimus that he writes a pardon letter for.
Or has Onesimus write for him. He said once he's unprofitable,
now he's profitable. You animate, right? Do you want to be profitable?
He said, when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's
womb and called me by his grace, Paul come in contact with the
grace of God to reveal his son in me, that I might preach him
among the heathen. Immediately I conferred not flesh
and blood. I didn't go ask somebody, what's your opinion on this?
God spoke to me. I asked him. He knows how to
tell me what I need to hear. He knows. Paul was used to wound
and Paul was used to heal. And before we get on our high
horses about anybody, the Lord may use somebody that's real
bad again and use them for good. Might they? Do you think the
Lord might use somebody to murder one of God's children and put
him in prison because he's got 7,000 people in the prison system
that he's gonna save? Might be. Maybe he might use
me to do that. Because if he took his hand off
of me, I know what I am. When we're convicted of sin, and seeing
something we read about, something happened to Adam, is that something
that I am? Verse four, therefore they that
were scattered abroad, not the apostles, but everybody else
there, there's 10,000 people, just hit the four winds, buddy,
went everywhere preaching the word. You mean they weren't mad
about that? What you mean I gotta leave Jerusalem?
I've been living, you know how many years I've lived here? My
friends are here. That's where I went to high school.
That's where I went on my first date with my wife. I ain't leaving
here." No. Because they were God's children,
they went and preached God. That's what they did. They went
and preached the Word. The Word. They weren't upset
over those things. Did they have it rough? They
sure did. They probably had a sibling or a spouse in prison. Maybe
they had a child in prison. Maybe they had somebody murdered.
Their brethren, they didn't have the brethren they loved so much.
They might've went north. We don't, we was running so fast.
I don't know which way Clay Curtis went. I don't know where Gabe
went. I didn't see him. It was just dust flying. We was
getting out of here, buddy. It's time to go. The Lord made
it plain. It's time to leave. And we left and we're going to
praise God the whole time. They did, because the Lord worked
with them. They had the Holy Ghost. Paul said that in 2 Corinthians 4.
We are troubled on every side. What's that mean? That means
you got trouble on every side, yet not distressed. We're perplexed,
we're turned inside out, yet we're not in despair. Persecuted
but not forsaken, cast down. That means believers are gonna
be cast down, but we're not destroyed. What do we do? Always bearing.
That means Tuesday at work. That means all day, every day.
Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.
God made us see that he gave himself to be our propitiation,
our sacrifice, and he's our righteousness. And we don't just remember that
one day a week. that the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our body. Christ dwells in me, and I want
that to grow. Do you want to grow? Do we? Oh yeah, that's good enough. I check the block, I'm saved,
going to heaven. I got the right doctrine. I want to be like Christ. I know I'll be like him one day,
but Lord, trim his flesh away. That might be good for somebody
else, wouldn't it? Four, we which live are always delivered unto
the death for Jesus' sake. This is for his glory. You care
about the glory of Christ? That the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our mortal flesh. They had joy to know Christ. This word went out and was preached,
and there was joy. Joy was there, and the Lord used
that, just like we saw in Acts 2, to add to his church daily.
What got into you? It ain't a what, it's a who. Verse five, and Philip went down
to the city of Samaria, what's that preaching of the word? Preach
Christ unto them. Acts eight, verse five. Philip
went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them.
All Philip had to preach to those people was the Old Testament.
He knew what his preachers had told him, and he had lived it,
he had his own experiences, and he had the Old Testament. Well,
how did he preach Christ? That's all the Old Testament
is. I'll be as brief as I can. Hold with me. Ready? Genesis,
he's the creator. He's the lie of the world. He's
the woman's seed. Exodus, he's the Passover lamb. Leviticus,
he's that great atonement. Numbers, the brazen serpent.
Deuteronomy, the city of refuge. Joshua, the scarlet line in the
window. Judges, he's the angel of the
Lord. Ruth, I know y'all know this one. The kinsman and redeemer,
isn't he? He's Boaz. Samuel, the covenant mercies.
Kings, a greater than Solomon. Chronicles, bringing back the
ark. Ezra, the defender of the law. Nehemiah, the great restorer. Esther, the provider of the people. Job, he's the giver and the taker.
Psalms, all throughout Psalm 23, he's my shepherd. He's all,
isn't he? Proverbs, he's our wisdom. Ecclesiastes,
he's true satisfaction. Song of Solomon, he's my bridegroom.
Isaiah, he's our substitute. Jeremiah, the great physician.
Lamentations, the sufferer. Ezekiel, the glory of the Lord.
Daniel, he's the beloved. Hosea, he's the forgiver. Talk
about a good husband. Joel, the Holy Spirit. Amos,
he's the standard. Obadiah, the deliverer. Jonah,
the sovereign savior. Micah, Bethlehem's infant. Naaman,
the comforter. Habakkuk, my strength. Zephaniah,
the mighty one. Haggai, the desire of all nations. Zechariah, the fountain and the
headstone. He's the foundation and the headstone.
And Malachi, he's the messenger of God that's going to tell you
about it. That's all the Old Testament. You reckon he ran
out of things to preach on? There's people that don't even
know that Christ is in the Old Testament. You know how blessed are your
ears that you're here to hear this tonight? Let's not take it for granted. It's a precious thing. Philip
went down there. His candlestick went down there, isn't it? The
Lord may move a candlestick, but a candlestick's still a candlestick,
ain't it? That's just what it is. He made it. But he went down
there and he preached Christ unto them. What came out of this
preaching of Christ in a city? Well, we saw what, it's going
to be persecution. There's going to be some, right? But how was
that early church made to grow? We don't know how to grow a church.
Look here at verse six. And the people with one accord gave heed.
They heard that preacher. I don't know people's hearts.
I don't, but I've been alive long enough and I've had teenagers
and I've been an instructor long enough that I can tell if I've
just clean lost somebody. And so Henry said, I don't mind
a fellow looking at his watch, but if they look at it and then
they shake it and then they hold it up to their ear, I got a problem
with it. They heard him. This is real simple stuff. But
buddy, this is how God saves sinners. How are they going to
believe on somebody that they ain't heard of? And how are they
going to hear unless somebody preaches to them? And how are
they going to preach unless they be sent? Who sent them? God sent them. How? By sending Saul first. Send people
to jail and kill Stephen and everything else. He said, in
the people, verse six, with one accord gave heed unto those things
which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he
did. They heard him. And unclean spirits, crying with
a loud voice, came out of many that were there, possessed with
them. And many taken with palsy, that were lame, were healed.
And there was great joy in that city. He said, you go into their
cities and preach to them and teach them and heal them. Well,
how are we going to heal them? Preaching Christ to them. And
grave clothes start coming off. putting them idols away. They
heard, that's a miracle, isn't it? Those unclean spirits, they
came out yelling. Why was they yelling? There's
some pain involved. It hurts, doesn't it? It hurts
when I realize that I've been living a lie and that everything
I've ever thought was wrong and I've done nothing but wrong and
that's all I am is wrong. It hurts. It hurts to let go
of them idols. My hands have been holding on
to it as hard as I can from birth. Ow, ow, ow, you start pulling
them fingers off. At what? The preaching of Christ.
Some folks ain't never heard of Christ. God was pleased in
the Samaria where there ain't nothing but half breeds. They
look down, remember us looking at that? They go around Samaria,
they go the long way so they didn't have to go down where
them Gentile dog half breeds were. God sent Philip to them. This is good, but them demons
started coming out. Them unclean spirits started
coming out. There's some yelling involved, some tears involved,
and there was great joy in that city. People were happy at the
preaching of the gospel. Sometimes I look out and I see
smiles. You get it. And there's happy. The Lord's
not gonna lose one. What if I get myself on a cruise
ship and wreck somewhere and I'm lost? He'll come get me. I'm his. He ain't gonna lose
one. There's pain, but there's joy.
There's trouble, but there's joy. There's persecution, but
there's joy. There's cast down, but there's joy. Same ones that
are scattered by Saul, isn't there? I saw a video yesterday. I sent it to my family, and I
sent it to Clay. I said, I'm going to use this
illustration as soon as I can. But there's these little babies.
They weren't big enough to walk, and they weren't big enough to
talk, but they was big enough to sit up. They could sit up on their
own. I don't know how old that is. I guess each kid's different.
These little babies, they couldn't see nothing, or they couldn't
talk yet, they couldn't walk yet, but they was able to sit
up. But unbeknownst to me, they had horrible vision. And they
didn't know that they had horrible vision, because that's the only
vision they'd ever had. For the 10 months they'd been alive,
or whatever it is. And you know what they did? They got machines
now that can do that. They can zap in there and see
what your prescription is. They made prescription glasses for these
babies, and they put glasses on them. They did. They put glasses on these little
babies. And you know what them babies did, Mike? When their parents
went to go put them on, and they was putting something weird on
their head that they ain't never had on them. And they said, get that
thing off of me. You know, little babies are fighting. Don't want
that. I don't want to put up with what you're making me put
up with. Stop it. And then they just put it on
there and took their little hands and held them down. Said, you
hush. You're going to wear these glasses. And you know what happened?
I wish you could have seen it. Them little babies went, ah,
ah. Every one of them, they received
sight and they were happy about it. There was something changed. There was growth. They saw what
they'd never seen before. They said, look at this Old Testament.
That is the Kingsman redeemed. He is the ark. They were happy. There was joy. There was joy. Now it's so. God says so. My personal experience says so,
and your personal experience says so. There's gonna be joy.
I ain't got time. You can read
1 Thessalonians 1. Paul was talking about it. He said, we know you're
calling an election of God, brethren. He said, you went through a lot
of adversity. There's a bunch of screaming and yelling. Them demons came
out of you. But this gospel came into you of power. Something
was different after you heard this. And I know it, and you
went through all that pain, and now, buddy, you're a testament
to all the other cities, and you're doing everything you can
to further this gospel. We know, and you're waiting on
God to come back. You're waiting on Him. You left
them idols to turn from, to serve the true and living God. And
you said, all that stuff I did before was dumb. I don't know what everything,
I don't have an answer for every single line in this scripture.
I don't know. And you know what? The prophets
didn't know either. There's some of these prophets
that they interpret a dream and say, this is what this means,
this is what that means. I don't know. If God's prophet don't
have a handle on it, you think you do? I know what this means.
You ever seen that Randy Quaid movie about Ruby Ridge? There's
a whole lot of things you can learn from that what not to do.
One, his wife was a prophetess and he'd read a scripture and
she'd tell everybody at the house what it meant. And it was like,
there's a one by the sword, the Lord said. She said, the American
West, we want it from the Indians. And he said, it was all my mountains,
the Rockies, and in a good place, Idaho. No, you the idiot. That's dumb. What fool thinks
they can interpret God's words? It's not a private interpretation.
We know what come to pass when we read it, this come to pass.
Now, the Lord's gonna come and the sky's gonna roll back as
a scroll. What's that gonna be like? Well, there's gonna be
B-52s in there. I don't know and you don't know. Stop acting
like a prophet of God. Mankind needs to get off the
news or whatever. There was some that bewitched
people that said they knew everything. That's happened here in verse
9, and that happened here in this state before, isn't it?
Y'all seen it. Called out as a stump. The chump's
what we called it in the army. If you got any question, I have
an answer. Oh, well, let's look at this. Let's look at that.
Paul saw through a glass dimly. What do you think I see? You
get that? He didn't shun from preaching
the whole counsel of God. He didn't know the whole counsel
of God. Nobody does. God knows, but he didn't shy away. Well,
God revealed this to me and I'm gonna tell you. And it's a warning
or it's a blessing or it's a joy or it's a sadness or whatever.
That's what he was saying. He did it. But here's one that
some people had joy. They were happy about this, and
they saw what God had done for them, and they were smiling,
and yes, thank you, Lord. Oh, the Lord's good. Some weren't
so satisfied. Look here at verse nine, Acts
8 verse nine. That there was a certain man
called Simon, which before time in the same city used sorcery.
and bewitched the people of Samaria. He used witchcraft. He was using
trickery. Like them two servants of Pharaoh. When Aaron threw his rod down,
they threw something down and turned into a snake. Whenever they made problems,
they made some problems. They was doing those things. Bewitched
the people of Samaria. Well, Paul said to Galatians,
oh, hello, brethren. No, he didn't call them brethren.
He said, who's bewitched you, you fools? Lord's preserved that
word for us, isn't he? But this one's going around bewitching
people, giving out that himself was some great one. He said,
look at all the knowledge I have. Look at all the ability I have.
To whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest, saying,
this man is the great power of God. Look at this wise man. There
ain't nobody I know as wise as this fella. Ain't nobody knows
more about God than this fella does. And they were bewitched.
They were bewitched. And to him, they had regard. They respected anything he said
because of that long time he had bewitched them with sorceries.
He was revealing great and deep mysteries to them, isn't he?
Paul warns Timothy of that in 2 Timothy 3. You can read that
when you get home, but that whole chapter. And so they're going
to have itching ears and they're going to ever be learning, but
never coming to knowledge of Christ. They're going to be able
to tell you, Colorado and Ruby Ridge, and they don't see Christ
in it. And if you miss Christ, you missed
it all. That's it. If we could pinpoint, nobody
can, but if we could pinpoint that this is happening and Donald
Trump, and this here's gonna be when Christ comes. We're looking
to our knowledge, we're not looking to the one that's coming. You
get that? What about us? You that have
joy in these hard times like Paul. God's made known the mystery
of his will to us. He's gonna glorify himself and
be good to his children and save them, and he ain't gonna lose
one. To the good pleasure which he had purposed in himself. Paul
said, I don't know why. I don't have an answer for everything,
but I know God's gonna save his people. Why? Because he said
so. What does a believer have? That's what he had. We read in
1 Timothy 3, it does mention, he said, without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness. Talk about mysteries, talk about
decoding things. God was manifest in the flesh.
Almighty God that eternity can't contain became a human being
like me, born of a woman, justified in the spirit, seen of angels.
I don't know what all that means, but I know he's preached to the
Gentiles. That's me. Believed on in the world, all
over, every corner, somebody believes in God. And received
up in the glory. That sacrifice, that blood atonement,
God accepted it. He ain't in a tomb. He ain't gonna harm me, he's
accepting the sacrifice he requires, isn't he? Some believe, some
look for carnal knowledge, present day things, not heavenly things,
eternal things. But if you don't see Christ, all you have is carnal
things. You get that? You got a calendar or whatever.
Verse 12, but when they believed, these people was bewitched by
this guy, Simon Magnus, and they'd seen all his tricks and sorceries
and magic that he'd done. But when they believed Philip
preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name
of Jesus Christ, they said, whoa, wait a second, I ain't never
heard the gospel and this is good news. What'd they do when
they believed they were baptized? How many people did Simon baptize?
A mess of them, probably, I don't know. They might have been baptized
15 times apiece, I have no idea. But they weren't baptized to
Christ, because they didn't know him. And they said, I hear the
gospel. I know that name. And they were baptized, both
men and women. This ain't just a patriarchal society and the
family covenant. If it's a child of God, we are
baptized in water. Why? Because God commands it.
If you believe, be baptized. Not the other way around. Not
baptized, didn't believe. Not baptized 20 years ago, and now,
well, I've come to believe now, so I'm good to go. No, he said,
you believe and you're baptized. And even Simon believed. Simon gets a bad rap. Let's watch,
see what God does with him. Pray for our enemies, shouldn't
we? Think of somebody that you hate worse, the most on this
earth. And what if God was to save them?
Would you hate them? You gained a family member. This
hand gained a finger, you get it? That's good, they're regenerated. That'd be a good thing. It says,
verse 13, Simon himself believed also. And when he was baptized,
he continued with Philip and wondered, beholding the miracles
and signs which were done. Simon believed and he was baptized. Word says so, doesn't it? But
he still had some ways to go. He wondered. He was in Philip's
hip pocket. He was following a man, not following
him as he followed Christ. He was following a man. And he
wondered and behold the miracles of science, which the wonder
means to be put out of your wits, to be astonished. Oh, I can't
believe he was healing sick folks and raising the dead. He had
a lot to learn. He wondered. was astonished that
Philip could heal folks, and he was astonished, maybe, that
Philip could preach Christ out of the Old Testament. They didn't
have the New Testament yet. He was astounded at the gifts,
but it doesn't say he was astounded at the gift giver, does he? He
had something to learn. Well, how's he going to learn? Not the way you and I would pick
either, is it? How do you want to learn? How
do you want to grow in grace? How do you want to grow in wisdom?
Well, if I could just, you could tell me and then I'm good to
go. I get it. I learned a lot. I've been alive
a long time. They give him a book. Here, go
read this. You'll understand everything.
Well, you just ain't got it yet, buddy. So here, I got some homework
and some learning material and a curriculum you can follow,
and this will help you learn. No, they had a conference, that's
what they did. Philip saw, Philip knew, and he's like, oh, buddy,
Simon's got a lot, he's got a ways to go. And I bet Philip probably
even talked to him and sat down and reasoned with him one-on-one
and everything he could try to help this guy, but a prophet's
not without honor, saving his own country, saving his own home.
That's why I like having people come in here and preach to these
children. I'm dad. The Lord could use me and I'd be your pastor,
but I like somebody else come, maybe they'll listen to them.
I get excited. So they had a conference. Look here in verse 14. Now, when
the apostles, which were at Jerusalem, heard that Samaria had received
the word of God, there's a work down there. They sent Peter and
John. You two boys, we're staying here in Jerusalem. You'll come
back. We'll pack it up. You can go down there and preach to them. who when
they were come down prayed for them that they might receive
the Holy Ghost. For as yet was fallen upon them
none of them that only were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ." They believed Christ, they were baptized, they were believers. They were
God's sheep. But remember, the apostles had
apostolic gifts, and they could heal folks and perform some miracles. And if they put their hands on
somebody that believed, the Holy Ghost would go to them, and they
could perform some miracles, too. In this heathen land of
Samaria, where there wasn't a strong gospel witness, and everybody
didn't have a Bible in their hand, so that way the people could
hear them. But they could put their hands on as many people
as they wanted to, and it stopped. They couldn't transfer that on
to somebody else. It was apostles could do it,
they put their hands on, and whoever put their hands on it
believed, then they could perform those miracles too. And then
they laid, verse 17, their hands on them, and they received the
Holy Ghost, this apostolic gift. They could heal, but they couldn't
pass it on to others. Only apostles could do that. And the apostles
did this. The Lord gave them this to be
a proof that this was God's work in that area. Isn't that gracious? Isn't that a comfort? But what
would we do in our day? If there's one or two people
here that you broke your arm, come here and I'll grab a hold
of it and your arm ain't broken no more. Well, we'd be running
a hospital. It'd just be lined up. We wouldn't
get to the preaching of the gospel, would we? We have so much the
Lord's gave us. Verse 18, and when Simon saw
that through the laying on the apostles' hands, the Holy Ghost
was given, he offered them money, saying, Give me also this power
that on whomsoever I laid hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost.
You see what he asked there? He didn't ask that you lay on
your hands and I can heal the sick and I can raise the dead
and I can perform his miracles. He said, You make me like an
apostle. You give me this so I can declare who's, you get
that? God'll make us get it if he wants
us to get it, I guess. But he didn't want to just have the
ability to persevere through these things and these adversities
and people will hear them. He wanted the ability to be the
determiner of who gets it. You see? That's all those money
changers in the temple. That's why he was making a living
doing the sorcery. And he said, buddy, I've making a good living
before. I'm going to be the Elon Musk of this. Let me do this. It'll be for God's glory. I'm
going to make a few bucks in a way. But those money changes,
people are phoning it in. If we want to work here, that's
our job. That's the church's job. We can't, well, let's just
hire the right guy to come in that's charismatic or whatever
to do it. No. No, that's the same as going down and just,
here's 25 cents. You take my sacrifices for me.
Me and the kids are going to Disneyland. What did the Lord
do? Went in and flipped tables, didn't he? That's 35, that's
a great miracle. That's like 30 to 40,000 people.
And it's not a kid's coloring book, that's six people. That's
30 to 45,000 people in the temple of God. And he went and took
him out of there with a bull whip. That's one man, that's
a great miracle. He says, that's my father's house,
you stop it. That's what this one was wanting.
What can I get out of this? But I'll make it easy on everybody,
I'll tell you that. 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 thought you could
buy this. And that money burn with you,
be it far from us. Thou hast neither part nor lot
in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of
God. What a rebuke. What a rebuke. We flinch that we ought to show
up on time. We ought to wear our Sunday best. Well, if the
man of God came down, stuck his finger in our face and said,
your heart ain't right with God. Oh, buddy, we'll see that coming
in a second. That's a rebuke, isn't it? And it's a harsh. That's
what a rebuke is. It's harsh. Peter cared for Simon's
soul. Do you get that? Peter wasn't
beating him over the head because he didn't have nothing better
to do. He cared for this man's soul, so he rebuked him and for
those that he would influence. Somebody's watching. Somebody's
reading what you write. Somebody's hearing what you're
saying. And for their sakes, remember this guy was like a
celebrity, Simon was, and folks looked up to him. Folks watched
him. He was in a position in the church,
people looked at him. And he gave an admonishment. He rebuked
him. He said, what you're doing is wrong, your heart ain't right
with God, knock it off. And he didn't stop there. Imagine what
if Simon's ears shut off right there. Look here what he'd have
missed. If he listened to half of it, look what he'd have missed.
Verse 22, You're just in your flesh, is what he's saying. Pray to God to forgive you. We talk about rebukes, I feel
like I've been rebuked before. That's rough. Your heart ain't
right with God. Stop doing what you do and you pray he gives
you repentance right now. He might do it. It's just your
flesh talking. I think there's a new man in
there, so that new man will pray to him, and I'll pray to him.
Simon needed that, didn't he? Simon Magnus gets a hard rap,
doesn't he? Just like Simon Peter. Well, it ain't named Simon. Well,
what happened after this rebuke and this admonishment? What happens
when a child of God hears the gospel preached? There's joy,
they gladly receive it, right? What happens when the heathen
hear it? They get mad, they grit their teeth. Well, what about
a rebuke? You remember a couple of weeks
ago, I had an article from Brother Tom Harding, the two outcomes. It was humility or anger. I told
you that before. I said whenever rebuke comes,
there's either humility or hate. You're either gonna take it on
the chin and say, you're right, God's right, I'm wrong, and I'm
the one that needs to learn something, I don't need to be teaching nobody
nothing. Is that right? Well, Kevin, I'll
tell you what, you're digging too deep in weeds. Let me tell
you what Solomon wrote. Correction, let me tell you what
God wrote. Proverbs 9, verse 8, reprove not a scorner, lest
he hate thee. Don't even reprove them, don't
even rebuke them. This is gonna make them madder.
Just gonna make it worse. You know what the Lord did? They
come after him and said, you've been doing things wrong. He went
this. He just turned and walked away. And he said, leave him
alone. Go out of this city. Dust your
jacket off. What a frightening thing for Christ to say, leave
him alone. Oh, buddy. And I'm wrong. You get that?
That's me. If we read about the seals or
the fourth beast, and we say, oh, that's this. If I don't see
that as me, there's a problem. Like that woman we looked at
before that come to the Lord, Lord, I need help. Somebody else
needs help. He didn't answer. Well, I need some help. And he
said, it ain't fit for the children. He said, get out of here. Whenever
she said, I'm the dog, he said, look at that face. If there's
a time I don't think I'm the dog, I'm the one in the wrong. What's the only source of contention?
Pride, God says so. He said only, only. There's two
responses to a rebuke. It's either humility or anger.
And Peter rebuked him and he admonished him. He said, stop
doing what you're doing and look to Christ. What's Simon's response? He said,
don't you dare talk to me like that. I'm leaving, I'm taking
my toys and I'm going home and no man talks to me. I know more
than you do, Peter. I've been around longer than
you. I'm 10 years older than you. They pull seniority on him. Look here,
verse 24. This gives me a lot of hope for Simon. That means
there's a lot of hope for this fella. Do you get that? Don't hear what
I said about Simon and not hear this part. This gives Kevin Thacker
a lot of hope, because I'm the one that's going to be in it
for me. You get that? I'm not preaching
to you, I'm preaching to me. Now if a shoe fits, where is
it? God, I don't know what's going on in your life, Lord does,
and that ain't a rebuke for me, I'm a rebuke for myself. Look
at what grace this is. And when Simon, then answered
Simon, verse 24, and said, pray ye the Lord for me, that none
of these things that you've spoken come upon me. I'll pray, you
pray too. Lord, it wouldn't even be right
for the Lord to hear me, to hear my prayers. That ain't even right.
You pray for me. I'll ask what you ask, too. I know what Peter, if they had
a conversation about this, I know what Peter said. Same thing I
say when people say, Kevin, why don't you pray for this? I'll
say, I'll pray for your family, you pray for my family. I'll
pray for you, you pray for me. I won't ask the right thing.
I'll ask to miss. I'll ask to consume it on my lust so I'm
comfortable and so I can stay in Jerusalem and have running
water, lead pipes. That's wrong later, but you know
what I mean. Air conditioning. Henry said that if we use man's
logic and we say, you know what? We're going to get together.
We've got a work starting. I'm going over. That's all right. If we've
got a work starting and we're going to, I don't know, Orlando
in the early 2000s, We're going to go down there and start a
work. Why? Well, because that place is growing like no place
is growing on earth right now. Throngs of people are moving
there, 10,000 by the day. I don't think there's going to
be work down there. He said, but if you tell me somebody that
says, I'm gonna move to this city, I'm going to Dingus, West Virginia,
where there's a tunnel, only one way in and one way out. How
many people's there? About a hundred, and half of
them's getting ready to move and leave. Ain't nothing there. But
I feel like God sent me there to go preach to them. He said,
you go, God's got some sheep there, you can get them out.
Lord have work there. It ain't like the way we think
it is. Rahab lied to the government officials. God called it a great
act of faith. I want to learn. You want to
learn? I want to be taught of God. I want to learn His ways.
I do. I want to think like He thinks.
I want to love like He loves. I want to forgive like He forgives.
I see, in part, just a skosh of what He's forgiven me and
how He's loved me and how He's corrected me and turned me and
kept me. I want to learn more. Simon said,
verse 24, Pray ye the Lord for me that none of these things
which ye have spoken come unto me. This may not be for you, this
may just be for me. But that's a pretty big mover, isn't it? A big member in that community
has professed Christ, immediately has a problem, gets rebuked harshly.
Now he said, let's go to the Lord in prayer. We'd want to
dwell on that and roll that around and deal with it a long time,
wouldn't we? This just gave me comfort. Get back at it. Verse
25. And they, when they had tested and testified and preached the
word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem and preached the gospel
of many villages, Samaritans. Peter and John, it's all right,
thanks. This is in between services. Somebody come and just pastor
them to death or tell them there's unbelievers and they've never
experienced the gospel of grace or something. I don't know. And
you know what they did? They dealt with it and they got right back up
and kept preaching. Donnie Bell said, that's a good proof of
my sin of God. They did something like that. And then they went
back to Jerusalem, and it says, and the gospel, they preached
the gospel to a million villages of Samaritans. They kept going back
and forth. This wasn't the first time this happened. Lord, and
if those two communities together, Jerusalem had a big old thing
going around it, it wouldn't have nothing to do with them
half-breeds. And now they're like, yeah, we go down there
every six months to have a conference. There was joy there. It was tickled
to death. It was wonderful. How did the church grow? The
preaching of the gospel. And the way was the Lord was
pleased, not in a way I thought. He set that tribal, busted them
up, and then, well, you thought 10,000 was a lot, look out. They're
all out there preaching now. Don't you wish that happened
in the United States of America? Could you imagine if something
came, whatever, I don't know. I don't know what's best. If
the Lord would move and throw out his laborers of the harvest,
raise them up, raise up 10,000 of them, and send 500 to each
state. I'd be tickled out of the bathroom,
but you know what I mean. That'd be good, wouldn't it? There'll be some Osama Magnuses
down there that give them a little bit of trouble, that's all right.
Rebuke them sharply that they may be strong in the face, what
Paul told Peter, wasn't it? Or Paul told Timothy. Let's pray
together. Father, thank you for this passage. Thank you for these things and
thank you for showing that they apply to us, that they apply
to me. I'm the sinner and Christ is
the savior. I'm the offender and he's the
merciful one. What great mercy the Lord's had
on sinners, our God and our King, our Lord. Thank you for revealing
these things to us, Lord. Thank you for putting those glasses
on us and making us have joy over these things of your doing
and your work. Make us have those things in
the time that we're persecuted. and that we're hurt and in pain
and yelling out and distressed and feel overrun. It will make us have joy and
contentment during those times, knowing that our Master is on
His throne and He does everything for our benefit and intercedes
for us and it's all to His glory. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for
this revelation, this gospel you've given us. It's because
of Christ, because of who he is, what he's done, and where
he is that we dare ask these things. Amen.