I'm going to preach these first
25 verses, deal with these first 25 verses here in Acts chapter
8, and I've titled my message this evening, Persecution, Preaching,
and Professions. I got through reading this the
other day, and I was sitting doing something else, and it
just dawned on me after I read it, a perfect outline for it,
and I scribbled it down then when I worked on it Friday. the
way it worked out. But our Lord had told His people,
and I'll deal with them as we go, save from reading the whole
25 verses. Our Lord had told His people
that they would be witnesses of Him. And you remember what
He said back over here in Acts chapter 1. And He had told them in verse
8, but you shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost has
come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me, both in
Jerusalem." Now, they'd been in Jerusalem, the historians
and the people who seemed to be in the know, they'd already
been in Jerusalem eight or nine years and had never went beyond
Jerusalem with the gospel, and never went and preached to anybody
else. The church grew abundantly, abundantly and multiplied greatly
in Jerusalem, thousands upon thousands of believers. Remember,
it even says some of the priests also believed. And then he says,
you'll be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem. They've done that
now for years. And in all Judea. Judea is north
of Jerusalem. And then in Samaria. And under
the other most parts of the earth. Now, they hadn't ever got outside
Jerusalem yet, so they hadn't witnessed anywhere else. Well,
God's going to see that they're going to start witnessing to
Him. He's going to get them out of Jerusalem. He's going to get
them out of their comfort. He's going to get them out of their
ease. He's going to get them out of a place where everything
is comfortable, everything is identifiable, everything is easy.
And they had not been there. Now, why hadn't they been? Well,
God's going to show us how He's going to get them out of Jerusalem,
get them into Samaria, get them into Judea. And before it's over,
we get through the book of Acts, we're going to see where He goes
under the uttermost parts of the earth with the gospel. And
this is what happens. And how it happens, first of
all, is by persecution. And it is by Stephen's death.
It says here in verse 1, And Saul was consenting unto his
death. And at that time there was a
great persecution against the church, which was at Jerusalem. And they were all scattered abroad
throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. You see, a great persecution
had come. Up to this time, the persecution
had only been against the apostles. The apostles had been jailed.
The apostles had been beaten. The apostles had been forbidden.
Now, now there had been bloodshed. Now there had been death inflicted. And the crowd, the multitude,
then the Pharisees, the people that were in control, they said,
we're going to step this religion out once and for all. And they'd
been persecuted before, but all death had come to them now. And
so the whole body of believers, the whole church now, people
like you and me, they're in danger now. Not just the preachers,
not just the apostles, people like you and me and our children.
And the persecution had come and increased greatly, greatly. It is a great persecution against
the church. And look what it says there,
Saul was consenting unto his death, Stephen's death. You remember
how Stephen died, how we dealt with that last year. And Saul
was consenting unto his death. Look back up there in verse 58
of Acts chapter 7. And they took Stephen, cast him
out of the city, stoned him, and witnesses laid down their
clothes at a young man's feet whose name was Saul. And this
Saul, the very one who came to the apostle Paul, And he says
here down there in verse four, three, excuse me, and this is
where this persecution began to really, really happen. And
Saul, as for Saul, he made a habit of the church. Entering into
every house, inhaling men and women, committed them to prison. So he went beyond the apostles. He went beyond just the preachers.
He started after the men and the women, going into their homes
to get them. And look what he said about himself
over here in Galatians chapter 1. Look what he said about himself. You remember, he says, you know,
I thank God that he counted me faithful and put me in the ministry.
Who was before? A blasphemer, persecutor. and injurious, I injured the
Lord's people." That broke his heart. I'm sure he grieved over
that. And in fact, when he got converted
and he went to talk to the men, the men said, in fact, God told
them, you go and say, there's a man over there, Charlotte Parsons.
He said, oh, I've heard of him, Lord. Now he hates your people
and persecutes your people and despises your people. He's an
evil man. And then when we went to the
disciples, they said, oh, we'd heard of this man. Said, oh,
they were scared to join themselves to him. And that's how the persecution
was so great, so awful. And I mean, you and I can't comprehend
it. We couldn't comprehend somebody
coming into our home and And that's why our forefathers, oh
God, how I thank God that they had insight enough, and God gave
them insight enough, and raised up this nation, where they separated
the church and the state. Because I tell you, you know
as well as I do, there's enough religious people in this country
that does try to get involved in the government. If they got
involved in the government, if you didn't just tell the line
what they believed, they gonna get you. It's always been that
way, all the way down through history. If the Puritans was
in power, they persecuted the Catholics. When the Catholics
got in power, they slew the Puritans. And it's always been that way.
And whatever religion happens to be in power, everybody, you
don't go that line, you're going to die. And that's what happened
here. Judaism, Judaism, The religion of the fathers was
what this man was steeped in, and he said, you don't toe the
line here. Christ didn't toe the line. He
didn't agree with them. And he preached the gospel, and
they said, we're going to put this out of business. It threatens
us. And look what Paul said here
in Galatians 1.13. He said, for you have heard of
my conversation. You've heard of my manner of
life, is what he's saying. In time past, in the Jews' religion. Oh, how that I beyond measure,
I cannot measure. Nobody else can measure except
God can measure. I persecuted the church of God. And watch this, and wasted it. Wasted it. And it says back over
here in our text, as for Saul, he made habit of the church.
This word havoc here means to destroy. It means to ravage. It means to lay waste. Oh, it was a great, great persecution. And men and women were being
stoned, being killed, being slain, being put in prisons because
just they confessed their faith in Jesus of Nazareth. We can't
imagine us being persecuted to this point. But all listen, but
it says here in verse 1, because of this great persecution was
at Jerusalem, they were all scattered abroad. God's gonna, He'll stir
up the nest. He told Ezekiel, stir up the
nest. Bird will stay in nest, tear
out that nest, tear out that nest, and oh, they're going to
get them out of the nest. And they were all scattered,
and God sent a persecution because he meant for the gospel to get
out into Judea and Samaria. And so they were all scattered
abroad, but the apostles accepted the apostles. And all these people
loved Stephen and devout men carried Stephen to his burrow
and made great lamentation over him. Oh, what did they do over
this great persecution? Did they run? Did they hide?
You remember when our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, His apostles
went in for fear of the Jews? Is that what these people did?
Now they went somewhere and started hiding? Oh, no, no, look what
happened. They were preaching. Look down at verse 4. Therefore
they that were scattered abroad, went everywhere preaching the
Word. Persecution will just make you
preach the Word, and that's what happened to them. They went everywhere
preaching the Word. And what Word did they preach?
They preached the Old Testament. That's all they had. They didn't
have anything else. And they preached the Lord Jesus
Christ. And oh, they went down to Samaria.
Can you remember these Samaritans? It says there in verse 5, Then
Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ
unto them. Now these Samaritans, you remember
when our Lord Jesus went to that Samaritan woman and she said
to him, he said, why are you a Jew speaking to me as Samaritan? You know the Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans. See, the Samaritans were half-breed
Jews. And there was a man over in 1
Kings chapter 12, he's the one who started the Samaritan religion.
He was afraid, but since he was a king, that everybody would
leave him and go back to Jerusalem, and go back under Judea, and
go back to David. Under David's reign. But oh no,
he said, I'll tell you what I'll do, I'll make some cash, I'll
hire some priests, and make some golden cash, and set up an altar
that says, too far for you to go to Jerusalem. He said, we've
got priests like they got down there. We've got an altar like
they got down there. And we've got sacrifices like
they got down there. And so that's how they started.
And they built a temple there on Mount Gerizim where these
people were. And that's why that woman said, you know, our father
said, in this mountain, we're to worship here in Gerizim. But
you Jews said, Jerusalem. And our Lord said, the time's
coming. Well, the time has come, beloved. It's come. And oh, my. And they come preaching the Word.
And Norden is saying he preached Christ unto them. You can't preach the Word and
not preach Christ. You cannot deal with the Word
of God and miss the Lord Jesus Christ unless you're blind as
a bat, unless you're deaf as a post, unless you're dead as
a hammer. You can't do it. Look over here
in Colossians chapter 1. This is the aim of the ministry.
The last time I was down in Mexico and I was visiting, they have
a preacher's Classes every Monday morning
down there in Metadon. Those guys come out and have
preacher's classes. It would not be any worse from
18 to 20. Preacher's Saturday, you know,
and they have three hours classes. And I had an hour to teach them,
and this is where I taught them from. I said, the aim of the
ministry, the goal of the ministry, the purpose of our preaching
is this. And this is why Peter, Philip
went down and preached unto them Christ. Look what Paul said here
in verse 26. Or verse 25, excuse me. He said,
I made a minister, God made me a minister, a servant. And He
gave me a dispensation of this ministry. And He gave it to me
for you. To fulfill the Word of God for
you. and to tell you about the mystery
that he has hid from ages and from generations. But this mystery
now, and I'm called to be a minister, a servant to fulfill this mystery
to you, because this mystery is now made manifest to the saints,
and that's what I'm doing. And it's God would make known
to these saints now that's been hid what the riches of the glory
of this mystery that's been hid now among the Gentiles, people
like us. What is this, mister? Christ
in you! Not going to Jerusalem to worship,
not going to the temple to worship, not going on the mountain to
worship. Oh no! Christ in you! Worshipping God by the Spirit,
salvation by God, Christ coming and abiding and dwelling in you. And what's this now? And that's
the hope of glory. And what's now? Whom we preach.
This is what we're... What do you mean? What are you
preaching? We preach Christ. We preach this mystery. This
mystery of His incarnation. This mystery of His virtue and
power that He by Himself could put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. This mystery that had been hid,
that one man would come, and that one man would put away sin. That he, this man would be the
Lamb of God himself. This man would be the High Priest
forever, as the Lord of Melchizedek. This man would be salvation,
full, free, and complete. That he would be your righteousness. And that's why Paul said, God
made Christ unto us. Wisdom! Who did? God did! He made that way to us. They
say, make Christ this to you, and make Christ that to you,
and make Christ do this. God in the Scripture said, God
made Christ unto us. Wisdom! Righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. And so when he went down, and
he said, that's why we're preaching. Preaching, warning every man. What do you warn them about?
If you try any other way, you'll perish. Go back under the law, forget
Christ. Go to your works, forget Christ.
Look to yourself, forget Christ. Look to anything you've done,
forget Christ. Oh, if a man turns from this,
he's turned from the only way of salvation there is. He's turned
from the only way. We're warned men. And teaching
every man in all wisdom. And oh my, this is why we keep
preaching him, that we may present every man perfect, mature, strong
in Christ Jesus. And he said, I labor striving
according to God's working which works in me. So when he went
down there to preach Christ, that's why. He went down there
to warn men, to comfort men, and how did he preach Christ?
He didn't have the New Testament. All he had was the Old Testament.
You know, that's why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, he said, well, let's just look
at 1 Corinthians 15. Look at it just a minute. I know
I'm running all over the place, but you need to learn the Bible
anyway. You ought to know it. as much
preaching as you've heard. Many times we've been around
the Scriptures, and they said, more were brethren, 1 Corinthians
15, more and more were brethren, I declare unto you the gospel
which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and you
stand in this gospel. but which also ye are saved."
You stand in it, you receive it, you stand, you're saved,
if you keep in memory or hold fast what I have preached unto
you. What did I just say we preached
unto? Unless you have believed in vain,
for I have delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also
received. I can only tell you the gospel
that I know. I can't tell you nobody else's gospel. I can only
tell you what I know about it. And this is it, how that Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures. Well, how did
He die for our sins according to the Scriptures? Well, the first is that you have
of it with Abel offered a lamb, and God had respect under Abel's
sacrifice. He had a more excellent sacrifice. And then, beloved, and then the
Passover lamb. That's how Christ died for us.
Only for Israel. God said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. And, oh, beloved, that's how
God's people came out of me. Through a Passover, through a
substitute dying in their place, through blood being shed, through
death being inflicted, not on Israel itself, but on the substitute,
on the Lamb. And how did He die for our sins?
He was wounded. According to this, He was wounded
for our transgression, bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement
of our peace was upon Him. And we all, like sheep, were
going astray. But the Lord laid on Him the
iniquity of us all. And He saw the travail that He
saw and was satisfied. And by his knowledge shall my
righteous servant justify many widows, he shall bear their iniquity."
So many places in the Old Testament where he died for our sins according
to the scriptures that he was buried. Said he'd be buried,
be numbered with the transgressors, make his grave with the rich, And watch this, and that he rose
again the third day according to the Scripture. I read it to
you a couple of weeks ago over in Hosea where he said, O death,
I'll be thy plagues, O grave, I'll be your destroyer. That's
what he's talking about. Christ went into the grave, faced
death head on, faced it under the judgment wrath of God. He
faced every death and the death of sin, he suffered it. The death
of being separated from God, He suffered it. Physical death,
He suffered it. And beloved, every death that
could be against us, He suffered it. And He faced death head on. The one that separates you from
God, my God, my God, why has God forsaken me? The one, beloved,
that makes you go to the ground and turn to dust, and He said,
thou shalt not leave my soul in hell and not suffer my flesh
to see corruption. He suffered physical death. And
then he suffered that, what we would call an eternal death, a separation because of sin.
But on the third day, death, he said. Death! I've destroyed
your power. You have nothing. And he come
out of the grave and he got on his girdle right now, he got
the keys of hell and death. That means he got the authority
over it. When you got the keys, that means
you got the power to let people in, let them out. You got all
the authority. You know, you ever been somewhere and said,
we need to find somebody with the keys so we can get in there. Oh my. Bless His holy name. He was promised to be the seed
of the woman, promised to be that prophet that should come,
promised to be our Savior, promised to be our Redeemer, the one that
brings salvation by His own hand. He was pictured all by the Lamb
of God as the priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. That rock that they smote in
the wilderness and the rock that followed them and they drunk
for 40 years in the wilderness, that rock was Christ. And oh, how many times did the
prophets prophesy of Him? How many times? You read just
the book of Psalms alone, and how many of them talk about our
blessed Savior? Psalm 22. Three psalms in a row. You read it yourself. Prove it. Psalm 22, that's the psalm of
the cross. Everything about that, our Lord,
so much of it, He spoke on the cross. He said on the cross,
He said, My throat, my tongue is dried up. I asked for a drink
and they gave me gall. And all the things he said. Twenty-second
psalm is his great suffering on the cross. Then the twenty-third
psalm, you have him as the shepherd. Oh, he's that shepherd of the
sheep. The one who gave his life for those sheep. And then the
twenty-fourth psalm, you have the Lord of Hosts. going through
victorious. Who is this Lord of Hosts? Open
up, O ye everlasting gate, lift up your heads, ye everlasting
door, and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of
Glory? The Lord of Hosts, strong and mighty in battle, victorious
over all. Oh, my. And Malachi said the
Son of Righteousness would arise with the healings in His wing,
and the messenger of the covenant would come suddenly to His temple.
Daniel said that when the Messiah come, he would make an end of
sin, and make reconciliation, and bring in an everlasting righteousness. Oh, the Old Testament. Oh, that's
what they preached when they went down there. And they took
this Jesus, you know, they were telling, just looking breast
square in the face. I'm sure they didn't preach like I'm preaching
now. I'm sure they talked to folks, and a lot of them get
together, and maybe they'd preach to them. But they'd do this. They said, you know that Jesus
in Madness a few years ago that was crucified? That man that
was from Galilee? You remember him? Yeah, yeah.
You know who He was? I'm going to tell you who He
was. That was God. That was God come
down here and walked among us. And you know why He was put on
that cross? His plan on that cross is a sacrifice
as a sin offering. Just like you go up there and
make your sacrifices and your sin offerings, and slay these
animals, and you go up there on that mountain to worship God
and bring your lamb with you, He said He was the final one.
So there ain't no more sacrifices for sin. Every time you go up
there in hell, you're just bringing more judgment on yourself. So
He was that final sacrifice. And I'll tell you, you know where
He's at now? He's not in the ground. Well, they said He buried
Him. Oh, they did. But God raised Him from the dead.
How do you know? Well, we all saw Him. Over 500
saw Him at one time. You said, I can see that brother.
That brother right there saw Him. That brother right there
touched Him. Anyway. And he's not, right now, we were
standing watching one day, and he went back up the door and
was watching. And do you know where he sat down? He's seated
at the right hand of the Father. And oh, my! Oh, that's what they meant when
they went and preached Christ. But look back over in our text. Took too long on that. Well,
you can't take too long on talking about Christ, can you? No, if
I stopped right now, that'd be enough, wouldn't it? Want me
to stop? You're afraid to say, yeah. You're
afraid to nod, yeah. Well, yeah, that'd be all right.
If I go across there, I've seen lots of places you quit. But
no, I'll try to finish this real quickly now. Look here in verse
6 and 7. God gave them witness. God gave
witness to this message. God blessed this message, and
He gave witness that this message was true, that the preaching
of Christ was true, that Christ was true, who they professed
Him and preached Him to be. And the people with one accord,
they were united in their reception. They were united in their listening.
And they gave heed. They were united in their listening.
They gave heed. And what did they give heed to?
The things that Philip spoke. They listened. Listened. Gave
heed to what he had to say. That word heed means to listen
with attention and some understanding. And Philip spent hearing and
seeing the miracles which he did. God gave him the ability
to perform miracles to bear witness that his message was true. For
unclean spirits crying with loud voice came out of many that were
possessed with them, and many taken with pauses, and they that
were lame were healed. So God bore witness to his message,
bore witness to Christ by these miracles and signs and wonders.
Now watch what happens there in verse 8. And there was great
joy in the city. Oh my God! They heard the joyous
sound. When you hear that joyous sound,
you've got to have joy. You know, preaching Christ and
believing on Christ causes great joy. Believing in Christ produces
great joy. Resting in Christ produces great
joy. You know, Paul says, now the
God of hope fill you with joy and peace in believing. Oh, joy
in believing. The joy of sins forgiven, the
joy of complete salvation, the joy of righteousness, not your
own, but another's, that makes you holy and completely acceptable
in the sight of God. So they went, they were persecuted,
and they went down to Samaria Judea and began to preach. Now
let's look at this profession. Look down at verse 12 and 13.
Let's look at these professions. But when they believed Philip,
preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name
of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. 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 here's all these people making this
profession. They were baptized, men and women, and then it singles
out Simon here. Singles him out as one who himself
believed and baptized, continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding
the miracles, the signs, and the wonders. Many, many believe. But Simon is singled out. Why?
To show how easy. Now, this is the very thing.
You know, we read over where Paul says, teaching every man
and warning every man. Here's a great warning for us
right here. There's a great blessing and also a great warning. The
warning, the danger, how dangerous and easy it is to make a false
profession. To make a false profession. Here's
a man who made a false profession. Here's a man, I've read a lot
of commentaries going through this book of Acts, and a lot
of them says that Simon, there was no indication that Simon
was lost. Some say that he was. I personally believe that he
is lost. He may have got converted later, but in this instance,
what he shows us here, he is lost. He was a man who made a
false profession. And then there was great joy
in that city, but there was a certain man, in verse 9, called Simon. Why do they single him out? Which before time in the same
city used sorcery. This word sorcery means a magician.
You know, back in Exodus, you know, when Moses went down to
Egypt, every miracle he performed, the magicians and soothsayers
and sorcerers could do everything that they did except to a certain
point. And here's this magician, and he used sorcery, he used
magic. And he bewitched the people of Samaria. And here's the reason
he done it, giving out that himself was some great one. He loved
to be recognized. He was like anybody in religion.
He was like the Pharisees. They made broad their phylacteries.
I was watching the other night about a bunch of Jews going to
pray, and when they walked in the synagogue, they put their
phylacteries around their head. And they got up here, you know,
that's where they put the plaque. They got this little box up there
holding the script. They still do this today. They got this
little phylactery up on their head, just around their head.
They put their skullcap on, and they put their palm chair around
it, and it's got to hang a certain way. Got to hang a certain way. And
they want to be recognized that way. They love to make broad
the phylacteries. Broad, you know, cover up their
whole head with it. Love to stand praying. That's
the way Solomon was. I want to be recognized so he'd be with
these people. Using magic. He was a magician. And it says there in verse 10,
to whom they all gave heed. Up to this time, they didn't
really listen to this fellow. This guy evidently had some great
power. You know all these musicians
now. That guy was hanging over New York City, spinning around
up there eight stories high. Said if he gets out, he gets
to take 100 kids and take them shopping. But he got out of there. He's a sorcerer. He's spinning around up there
in a... That's magic. You know, how did he do that?
That's exactly how they'd say about him. That's people really
impressed with that stuff. Card tricks and all that magic
and spiritism and calling people from the dead and talking to
people from the dead. And people just flock to that
stuff and line up to get in line so they can have somebody talk
somebody on the other side for them. I'm the person that there's
two people in this scripture that came back, three people
that came back from the other side to tell you anything. The
rest of them didn't say anything. There was Saul, Satan was raised
from the dead to condemn Saul. Huh? And the rich man in hell,
that's the only other person you hear I've spoken of who's
on the other side that spoke to anybody. And the Lord Jesus Christ, He
came back and told us. He just wanted to come back with
the good news. But oh my, Eddie, I'm telling
you, there is so much sorcery going on today. Preachers are
good at it. They're good magicians. Boy,
they know how to con people out of their souls, make merchandise
of their souls, and lie to them and use magic and potions and
all kinds of gimmicks to get them to make a profession, to
get them to the front, to get them to accept Jesus and put
them to work. And it says, to whom they all gave heed there
in verse two, the least of the greatest. I mean, the lowest
of them in the town and the greatest they all gave. Saying, this man
is the great power of God. And all to him they had regard,
because after a long time he had bewitched them with sorceries.
And this word bewitched means he confused them, and he amazed
the people, giving out that he is some great one. How many times
have you watched a magician do something and say, how in the
world did he do that? Boy, that's the speechiest thing I've ever
seen. That's what they do with this fellow. And he really had
them mesmerized. But watch now, but when they
believed Philip, preaching the things concerning the kingdom
of God, He said, there's another kingdom.
This is the kingdom out here of darkness. Kingdom of Satan,
the kingdom of the devil, the kingdom of the flesh. There's
another kingdom. God has a kingdom, and this kingdom's
not on this earth. And this kingdom has a king,
and who is that king? The name of Jesus Christ. And what did Peter say about
that name? There's no other name. Not another name. Not Moses,
not Elijah, not the Pope, not Isaiah, not John the Baptist. No other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved. And all who He died for
must be saved through this name. This name which has all authority. This name which has all power. Oh, the name of Christ. Oh, this
man gave out that he was somebody. Well, Philip came preaching,
he who's everything, he who is all. The one he read about tonight
in Isaiah chapter 4, the one who Gary read about back there
in Ephesians. Oh my, the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, where all the wealth at, all the power, all the authority,
all the salvation. Well, they believed that, and
they were baptized. Men and women alone. Then what
it says is Simon himself believed also. And when he was baptized,
oh my, he was baptized and guess what he done? He didn't, he just
joined himself right to Phila. He thought he was somebody, he
was going to continue to be somebody. Joined himself to Phila. And
he wondered. He went and wondered. He was
amazed himself now. He had everybody else amazed.
Now he's amazed because he's seeing something that's real.
There's no magic going on here. There's no sorcery going on here. No, no, he stands amazed at the
miracles and signs which were done. Oh, he's seeing things
being done that he couldn't do. You read Exodus yourself, Exodus
7 and 8 there, and see how many times those enchanters and sorcerers
down there could do everything that Moses did. Throw them down,
they'd become a snake. They'd throw dirt down, they
became a snake. He called for frogs, they'd call for frogs.
He called for the water to be blood, they'd call for it to
be blood. Everything he could do, they could do. Until they
got to something, then they said, well, that's the favor of God
now. We can't do this. They could do, oh my, you think
the devil ain't slick? He's an angel of light. He's
an angel of light. And, oh, they were baptized.
And, oh, man, he was seeing things he'd never seen before. And so
he hooked himself to Him. And then, now, down in verse
14, Now when the apostles, when the apostles which were at Jerusalem
heard that Samaria received the word of God, they sent unto them
Peter and John, who, when they were come, prayed for them that
they might receive the Holy Ghost. See, These apostles stayed there,
and they heard. Now, you've got to understand
that Jews didn't have anything to do with Samaritans. And Philip
was a Greek. Philip was a Greek who had got
converted. He was a Grecian. He was a Gentile. He went down
there and started preaching. This is not the apostle Philip.
This is Philip the evangelist. And so he got down there and
he got to preaching, and they started hearing about God's blessing
down there. And they said, well, let's go down there and see if
this is really of the Lord. Let's go down and see if God
has really, truly started saving Samaritans. Started saving these
half-breeds, these dogs, these miserable, wretched people. And
oh, they went down there to see. And then they got down there
and none of them had received the Holy Ghost yet. Because he
hadn't fallen upon none of them like he did on the damn Pentecost,
like he did when other people believed. Because they'd been baptized
only in the name of the Lord Jesus. So they laid their hands
on them. Why did they do this? Why was
this laid hands on them at this time? So that they might receive
this. It's the only place it ever happened
in the Scriptures. Well, By them receiving the Holy
Ghost, they were convinced that God indeed was working among
them. See, the gifts of the Spirit
back then was given to work miracles, to do great things with. It was
an incredible gift that they had. And you know, that's why
when he went to Cornelius' house, he went back and said, want to keep these people from
being baptized, the Holy Ghost is on them as His own eyes. But now look at Simon's profession
exposed. Look in verse 18. His profession's
exposed. And when Simon saw that through
laying on of the hands of the apostles, the Holy Ghost was
given, he, wretched in his pocket, said, boy, here's some money.
See, he hadn't changed a bit. He still, still wanted to be
Somebody, he still wanted to be recognized, having great power,
and being able to do great things. Saying, give me also this power,
that of whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. Oh, my. You reckon anybody who'd
do that had been saved by the grace of God, would reach in
their pocket and start saying, I'm going to pay for this? Oh, my. Nobody else did. Nobody else did. But oh my, you
see what Simon Peter said, that Peter said unto him, your money
is going to perish with you. Oh my. Because you thought that
the gift of God may be purchased with money? Purchased with money? And he said, you don't have a
part nor a lot in this matter at all. Now listen. For your
heart's not right in the sight of God. Oh, my. And you know where it counts
for your heart to be right at? In the sight of God. Let me show
you in Galatians 3 real quick. This is the only thing that matters,
beloved. In Galatians chapter 3, just
a moment. Your heart's not right in the
sight of God. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ, his
people have done some things, but he never once said this.
David was a man after God's own heart. Even though David does
some horrible things, he was still a man after God's own heart.
Because God said that. And look here in Galatians 3.11. But that no man is justified
by the law, watch this, in the sight of God. You see, we've
got to have some justification in the sight of God. Since we
can't be justified by law in the sight of God, we're going
to have to be justified some other way. How? By faith. But it's in the sight of God. In the sight of God. And this
is the only place it matters. Now, look back over here with
me real quick, and I'll be through in just a minute or two. Before,
he had been great in people's eyes and people's sight, but
he wasn't nothing in God's sight. He wasn't nothing in Simon Peter's
sight or the other apostles' sight. And then he says, You've
got neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart's not
right in the sight of God. Repent therefore, and I watch
this, of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the
thought of thine heart may be forgiven. Now, watch this. First
of all, his words, his thoughts, his intent was wicked. Repent,
therefore, of this wickedness. His intent was wickedness. God
said it was wicked. His thoughts were wicked. You
thought that you could purchase the gift of God with money. His
intent was wicked. He wanted to have power to lay
hands on somebody else to give some kind of a gift. And his
heart was wicked, and he prayed, that pray God the thought of
your heart may be forgiven you, for I perceive that you're in
the gall of bitterness, and you're in the bond, you're bound by
iniquity." Oh, that's a bad place to be, isn't it? This man had
been baptized, he believed, and he was running around with the
best preacher in town at that time. He continued. I don't know how
long he continued, but it told on him. Told on him. Huh? And all beloved, look what it
says. Then answered Simon and said, Pray you to the Lord for
me, that none of these things which you have spoken come upon
me. Now, Simon Peter didn't tell him, he said, I'm going to pray
for you that you'll be forgiven. He said, you pray. You repent
of your wickedness. You pray. People all the time
want to call and say, I want you to pray for me. Pray for
yourself. That's what he said. You pray
and God will forgive you. And I'm just as sure as anything
that Simon Peter didn't pray for him. He may have asked him,
but I don't believe Simon did. Simon already told him what shape
he was in. And he walked away from him and
left him with the condition he was in. Left him with the words
he told him. And then they stayed down there for a while, and when
they had testified and preached the Word of the Lord, I don't
know how long they stayed down there, but they stayed down there
preaching, testifying of the grace of God, testifying of Christ,
testifying of what they had seen and heard, then they went to
Jerusalem. And on the way, they preached the Gospel in many villages
of the Samaritans. They preached the Gospel, preached
Christ, preached the Word. Many believe that there is one
false profession, and out of all those, it's made manifest
to show us how easy it is, how easy it is. Our Lord, our blessed, blessed
Savior, thank You for allowing us this privilege to gather with
the people of God again. Thank You for Your Word. Thank
You for Your Thank you for the truth as it is in our Lord Jesus
Christ. Teach us of Christ. Lord, you
said that those that have learned and have been taught of the Lord
Jesus Christ. So teach us. Thank you for teaching
us what we already know. We're grateful for it. Grateful
for everything we know about our Master. Thankful for everything
we know about ourselves. Thankful for everything we know
about one another so we have no confidence in the flesh. And
thank You for what You've taught us about this salvation in this
glorious, glorious person. Bless His holy name. Bless You
for the blood. Bless You for the righteousness.
Bless You for the salvation. Bless You for the peace and joy
we have in believing. In Christ's name we bless You.
Amen.