This is the occasion where Saul
of Tarsus was greatly persecuting the church. They were scattered
everywhere preaching the Lord Jesus Christ. God has got a way
of scattering His saints for His own purpose. There's time
to stay gathered. fellowship with one another,
and there's a time to be scattered, and only God knows when. They
went everywhere preaching the Lord Jesus. In verse 5, Philip
himself went down to Samaria, the city of Samaria. You and
I remember that place, don't we? That's where the Lord Jesus
Christ sat on the well and preached to that Samaritan woman, converted
her, saved her. She lived in this city. Philip
went down there to preach. And that's where we want to take
up the story here in verse 5. 5 Then Philip went down to the
city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. 6 And the people,
with one accord, gave heed unto those things which Philip spake,
hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. 7 For unclean spirits
cried with a loud voice, came out of many that were possessed
with him, 8 and many taken with posses, Them that were lame were
healed, and there was great joy in that city. But there was a
certain man called Simon, which before in the same city used
sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that he
himself was some great one. To whom all they gave heed from
the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of
God. And to him they had regard, because
of the long time he had bewitched them with sorceries. 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 he
wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done. Now
when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that the Samaritans
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. That is, in a miraculous way.
He often came this way in the New Testament. For as yet he
was fallen upon none of them, only they were baptized in the
name of the Lord Jesus. Then laid they their hands on
them, and they received the Holy Ghost. They have very well spoken
in tongues themselves. But when Simon saw that through
laying on of the hands of the apostles 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 your heart is not right in the sight of
God. Repent, therefore, of this thy
wickedness, and pray to God, if perhaps the thought of your
heart may be forgiven you. For I perceive that you are in
the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity. Then answered Simon and said,
Pray you to the Lord for me, that none of these things which
you have spoken come upon me." I want us to look this morning
for a few minutes at repentance. Repentance. And I don't intend
this morning to explain the concept of repentance. But I want from
this passage here to look at Just read you some things concerning
repentance in this sense, the things that accompany repentance. Look at some things that accompany
repentance. Now, this is a subject that I'm
interested in, and I hope you're interested in it. The New Testament
is filled with this word itself, 51 times. In the Gospels and
the Epistles, this word is used, repent and repentant. We're told
that our Lord Jesus Christ preached repentance Himself. No sooner
had He begun His public ministry than He went about preaching,
repenting for the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God is
at hand. And when the Lord Jesus had closed
His public ministry, He called his apostles together to himself
and commanded them to go into all the world beginning at Jerusalem
and preach repentance. Repentance and remission of sins
in his name among all nations. And then the first message that
we find that Peter preached was there on the day of Pentecost
and he preached exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ told him
to preach. Repent, every one of you, and
be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your
sins. And when the Lord had called
Saul of Tarshish and sent him off to preach, Paul said, this
one thing I preach privately, I preach it publicly, repentance
towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I think it would be inconceivable
for a man to profess to be called to preach, and not preach repentance. Because Jesus Christ told his
apostles, and as far as I know, everybody that he calls to preach,
to preach repentance. Repentance. And on the hills
of this, the next thing we have about repentance is God commands
it. He commands all men, every word,
to repent. That's in Acts chapter 17 and
verse 30. You and I don't know the mind
of God about so many things. We're still in the dark about
so many truths in God's Word. We just don't understand them,
and maybe never will. But we know His mind about one
thing, and that's repentance. That He commands every man, no
matter where you find him in this world, to repent. No matter
where you go in this world, And you talk to people, one thing
you can be assured of, that that man or woman, no matter what
age they are, sex they are, the age they're standing in this
world and society, God commands all men everywhere to repent. And him being the moral judge
of this world, he can command no less. And then on the heels
of that, here's another reason why repentance is so important. Repentance is essential to be
saved. It's essential to salvation.
The Lord Jesus Christ himself tells us in Luke chapter 13,
except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. If we're here this morning and
we care, for our eternal souls. If we want to be right with God,
then we must, must have an interest in the whole concept of repentance,
because without it, we will most assuredly lose our soul. Now, I simply want to see some
things this morning in our text that accompanies repentance. We've heard it said that you
know a man by the company he keeps. Well, we know repentance
by the company it keeps. We may not be able to explain
it in full detail, but we know the character of repentance by
the company it keeps. And here's the first thing we
find about repentance. In repentance, if it's saved,
there's a knowledge and a consciousness of one's own wickedness." If
repentance is that which God grants, and it's saving, then
it's an acknowledgment and consciousness of one's own wickedness. Look
what he says in verse 22, "...repent therefore of this
thy wickedness." repent of this thy wickedness." What is repentance? Well, it's accompanied by a consciousness
of our wickedness. Now, I don't mean to be negative
this morning, but my first point would probably eliminate a host
of professing Christians in our day. If you say anything about
wickedness, they have no part with that. They know nothing
about being wicked, or they know nothing about ever having done
any wickedness. They've made a profession of
faith, but they know nothing about wickedness. And here, Peter
instructs this man to repent of his wickedness. You and I
live in a day of religious pride, don't we? We live in a day of
self-esteem run amok. Everybody has their rights. And
they're willing to plead those rights before men and some rights
they think they have before God. How dare God do this? Or how
dare God do that? But repentance is a consciousness
that we have no claims on God. That we have sent away any and
all claims that we have on Him. It's a consciousness that I am
indeed a wicked man. I've talked to people down through
the years about God's dealings with their heart and what he
taught them, and I have talked to different professing Christians
that have no awareness or no consciousness, they told me,
when they profess Jesus Christ, of their guilt. They have no
consciousness of being condemned and wicked in their hearts. I
heard a preacher, and he told me this personally. I was asking
him about his coming to the Lord Jesus, and he said, I really
don't have any notion that I had any guilt when I've come to the
Lord. This is one of the reasons, brothers
and sisters, that repentance is necessary, that it does make
us aware, gives us the consciousness that we do have something to
repent of. We do have something to acknowledge.
Repent of this, thy wickedness. The old John Bunyan used to say
that if a man don't know the nature of his sin, then how can
he know the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ as his savior? I know that we have different
degrees of brokenness. I know as we grow in grace and
knowledge, we come to a greater understanding and a consciousness
of our sin. But I tell you, how can a man
come to the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in Him as the Savior
and not have any consciousness of His wickedness, of His guilt,
of His sin? I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repent. So this is the first thing that
accompanies repentance. It's a consciousness that I am
indeed wicked, that I have done things that need and must be
repented of. But notice what Peter says here
to this man, to Simon. He goes deeper than just what
Simon had said and what Simon had done. That was bad enough. What this man had said was, give
me, I'll give you money. If you'll give me this gift that
upon whomsoever I say you can have the Holy Spirit, we'll have
the Holy Spirit. That was wicked, wasn't it? To even think that
the blessed Holy Spirit could be made merchandise of, could
be used in that manner. Like you sell an animal or a
plot of land or a used vehicle. Buying and selling the Holy Spirit.
And Peter said, I heard you say that. And here's the money in
your hand. And what a wicked thing you've
said. And what a wicked thing you've
done. But notice he goes deeper than just him saying it. And
just him offering him the money. He goes to the heart. Notice
what he said in verse 20 and verse 22. 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 needed
pardon a lot in this matter. Thy heart is not right in the
sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy
wickedness, and pray to God, if perhaps the thought of your
heart may be forgiven you." He didn't say repent of what you
said. Of course that's involved. And He didn't say repent of what
you've done. Of course that's involved. But He goes to the
very heart of this, doesn't He? Repent of what you thought. Because this wickedness that
you've spoken and this evil deed that you've done has come from
your heart. That's what repentance is. It's
accompanied by a consciousness of my weakness, then acknowledging
that. But not just what I may have
done with my hands, or what I've seen with my eyes, or where I
went with my feet, but it's then acknowledging of the very origin
of all of that. And what is the origin of my
sins? It's my heart, isn't it? You
get right down to the root of the matter. God converts the
heart. He calls the heart to repentance. If it's just a matter of knowing
what we do outwardly and acknowledging that, my goodness, we can remedy
that, can't we? But it goes deeper than that. and we talked about children
that's raised under the gospel and raised in a Christian home.
Is it necessary or is it possible for them to be convicted of their
sin and be broken? And some say, well, it's not
possible because they've lived this moral life and they've been
brought up under the gospel and they've been protected. And I
know, I know that they may not have went out into shame and
open sin as a lot of us did, as many in the Corinthian church
had, that they were fornicators and idolaters and adulterers
and drunks and all of that. I realize that. But, brothers
and sisters, listen. The sin that we're called to
repentance of goes deeper than He goes deeper than what can
be seen. He gets in the heart. And that involves all of us,
doesn't it? That don't excuse the open and
profane, and neither does excuse those young people who have been
raised under the gospel and who are outwardly moral. Because
repentance is accompanied by consciousness. Look over here with me in Ephesians
4, Acts chapter 8, and look at Ephesians chapter 2. I think this gets us out of here. I have a dear friend, some of
us know him, Brad Hartman. He was born and raised there
in Paramount, West Virginia. Steve goes to church with Brad,
wonderful fellow, always has been. When he was unconverted,
he was a fine fellow. He was obedient to his parents,
went and got him an education, worked, helped his dad, his mom. And nothing, you could find nothing
wrong with that man. If you looked at him, just his
morals, and he was in church every time the doors was open,
you would probably think, that boy, that young man is probably
a Christian. He's probably believing. But
he told me one time that he was sitting under Brother Scott's
preacher, and he said, I'm telling you, he said, the Spirit of God
brought a message home to my heart, and he said, I was the
most wicked man you've ever seen in here. That's what repentance has something
to do with. Sure, we're convicted over things
we've done, over things we've said. But it goes deeper than
that. It goes to the mind. It goes to the heart. And that's
where the Spirit of God works. That's where He has to work.
You and I, we preach and we teach and we instruct people. But it's
the Spirit of God that has to go to the mind. and to the heart,
and convict and open the heart, and bring it to know and acknowledge
its sin. Look what he says in Ephesians
chapter 2. Look in verse 1. Very familiar scripture to all
of us. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1. You hath be quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past You walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the earth, the spirit that now works in the
children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation
in time fast in the lust of our flesh." Now imagine who's writing
this. This is the great Apostle Paul.
But moreover, it's the self-righteous Saul. who said concerning the
law, I was blameless. Oh, you look at him, what a holy,
holy man he seemed to be. But here he said, we were fulfilling
the lust of the flesh, the desires of the flesh, and look at this,
and of the mind. We may abstain from outward and
open sin. God help us all to do that. Saved
and lost a life. God help our young people here
this morning to abstain from outward and profane sin. Subdue
your flesh. Don't go off into this drunkenness. Don't go off into this profane
lying and fornication and all the open sin. Don't go off into
that. But over and above all of that,
when we have subdued this old flesh, our problem is inward. We may, and God help us to subdue
the flesh, bring it under control, but I'm telling you the mind.
Who can control the mind? Who can control the wicked thoughts
and lusts and the desires of an unregenerate? And that's the
problem, isn't it? That's where these unclean, where
these evil, the wicked thoughts originate, and all other sin.
Old Brother Scott Richardson used to say, in the hearts of
those manufacturing shop. And it's at work 24-7. And what's
it doing? Putting out sin and iniquity
and wickedness. Thy thoughts repent of this. Back over here in our text, look
back in Acts chapter 8 and look at verse 21. Peter goes deeper
here. Here he makes this statement
concerning Simon's heart. And boy, this is what makes this
so serious. This is what makes this so humbling
to every man who knows the truth about the dealings of God with
his heart. This is what puts our mouth in
the dust and shows us our need of repentance. I read it to you
there in verse 21. Look what he says again. Thou
hast need of heart and a lot in this matter, for thy heart
is not right in the sight of God. Your heart is not right
in the sight of God. That's where the issue is. Isn't it amazing how I can come
here and preach to you, and you can come here and listen, and
we can sing, and we can go home, we can read our Bibles, we can
pray, we can witness, and we can visit, and we can go through
all of these motions, and our hearts not be writhed in the
sight of God. Isn't that amazing? Our problem
is not what we do. Our problem is our hearts, and
God looks upon our hearts. He knows our hearts, our motives,
our desires, our thoughts, our affections. He knows us. This is why repentance is a lifelong
thing, brothers and sisters. Once it's begun in your heart,
it'll never cease. How often do you find yourself
somewhere in the corner of your house, or laying on your bed,
or out in your yard under a tree, or somewhere in the shop, and
your heart is heavy, and you may find a tear running down
your cheek, and the lips sobbing, and it's because of this. But
there's a point between you and God that your heart is not right
with Him. And He's brought you to know
it. And when He brings you to know it, you know it. And how often does that happen?
Keep your heart with all diligence. For hearts is what must be right
in the sight of God. This is why you and I preach
the gospel. I come here this morning, I'll do it again this
afternoon. I'll come here and I'll preach
to you, saved as well as the lost. And then I'll leave people
alone. I'm not asking you to move your
body from the back of the church up to the front. I'm not trying
to get you to repeat a prayer after me. That's a dangerous thing. Because
it removes the emphasis where the emphasis must be replaced. And that is the heart. And I cannot get into the heart. If I tried that, that would be
dangerous and harmful to you. I preach to you. And it's you
that must go make your heart right with the living God. You must do business with Him. And shifting the body from the
back to the front only diverts the problem. That's all it does. Your heart is not right in the
sight of God. Oh, my goodness. How many times
has your pastor left this pulpit and went and wept over my beliefs? for being here. What I said and
what I left unsaid, and I'd go say, oh God in heaven,
forgive my sins. What I did was not right in your
sight. Do you ever have to pray that? Oh, repentance is lifelong. It's
lifelong. Whether our sins are open and
profane for everybody to see, or whether they're kept within
our own heart, our sins are wickedness. They're wickedness. They're against
God. And repentance makes us conscious
of that. Repent of this thy wickedness. Here in verse 2, we see something
else that accompanies Repentance, and that is prayer. Look at this
in verse 22. Repent therefore of this thy
wickedness and pray to God. And pray to God. I know there's
no merit in prayer. You know that as well as I know
it. I pity those who trust in their
prayers. I pity those who want to pray just to be heard or seen
by somebody else like the Pharisees did. But, brothers and sisters,
I fear that a conversion that has no prayer to God mixed with
it is no conversion at all. If a man is converted without
seeking the Lord and calling upon the Lord, he may well go
ahead and live his Christian life without prayer and die without
prayer. But God has so arranged it, when
He calls us to repentance, and He begins to make us conscious
of our need of His favor, He draws out this prayer, Oh God,
be merciful to me, the sinner. I've never known anybody to be
saved without praying. I'm not saying it's not happening. But I find so many places in
the Scriptures where those whom the Lord saved, he put a prayer
in their hearts. I remember you times, calling
on the Lord, calling on the Lord. That thief on the cross, in his
dying hours, he had been mocking, but God opened his heart and
made him conscious of his wickedness and his need. And what did he
do? He said, Lord, remember me. Lord, remember me. That poor
prodigal down there feeding the swine, ready to eat the husk
he was so hungry, came to himself. He became conscious of his Persian
state, and he meditated on what he was going to tell his father
when he got old. Father, I've sinned against heaven
and in thy sight, and I'm no more worthy. That's the sinner's
prayer. Oh, conversion begins with calling
on the Lord, and He'll continue a lifetime praying and calling
on Him. And when we peel our nine heads,
brothers and sisters, we'll still be praying on Him, praying to
Him, praying to Him. Take with you words, the prophet
says, and turn unto the Lord and say unto Him, Lord, take
away all iniquity and receive us graciously. So if you're here this morning
and you're lost, this would be my advice. Seek the Lord. I could somewhere begin to call
on Him. Lord, have mercy upon me. Open my heart. Grant me grace. Grant me mercy. This brings us
to our next point. Saving repentance is always accompanied
with a hope of forgiveness. With a hope of forgiveness. Look
what he says here again in verse 32. Repent of this thy wickedness
and pray to God if perhaps the thought of your heart, as wicked
as it's been, as blasphemous as it's been, May be forgiven
thee. Repentance is always accompanied
with the hope of forgiveness and mercy. There's a repentance
that leads to nothing but despair. That's not the repentance they
say. Judas repented and went out and hanged himself and went
to hell. There's a worldly repentance,
being repentant because they get caught up in something. That's
a repentance unto death that should be repented of. But repentance
that God grants and leads us into is always accompanied with
forgiveness of sin and salvation and life eternal. Godly sorrow
worketh repentance unto salvation." If I got up here this morning
and I preached a repentance to you that wasn't accompanied with
mercy and a hope of forgiveness of all your sins, all I would
do is lead you to despair. I would mock you and your repentance. When the Lord Jesus sent His
disciples out to preach, He told them to preach this, and I quote
it at the beginning of my message. He said, Preach repentance and
remission of his sins among all nations. Listen to this. Beginning
at Jerusalem. Preach repentance. But don't
stop there. Preach remission of your sins. And this is the amazing thing.
He said, Begin with those who kill me. Ain't that amazing? And that's what they did on the
day of Pentecost. What a horrible sin Peter confronted
them with. He said, you have taken, and
by wicked hands, you have crucified the Son of God. You've killed
the Prince of Life. That's wicked, ain't it? Wicked
hands and a wicked heart. And what did he say? Repent,
every one of you. Every one of you. Can't you see
Superman holding out? What about me? Oh, you don't
know what I did. I got close enough and I spit
in his face. What about me? Every one of you.
Oh no, Peter, surely not me. I was the very one that cried
the loudest. Crucify him. Crucify him. Every one of you. Repent. Oh,
but Peter, I want Him. If you need the Son of God, come
down and I'll believe you. Repent, every one of you. Every
last one of you repents. But then He gives them that hope,
doesn't He? Repent and be baptized in
the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins. He didn't stop. He said, yes,
your sin is awful. Acknowledge your wickedness.
Repent of it. Own it before God. Don't deny
it. Don't lessen the evil of it. Oh, but he said, in the one that
you killed, God has raised him from the dead. And through his
blood, all your sins can be washed away. Through his righteousness,
your shame can be cloned. Through His obedience, you can
be justified. Repent! And through His name,
there's remission of your sins. Remember how that ended? Remember
how that day ended for these people, these murderers that
had the blood of God's Son on their hands? As many as received
His Word, they heard what He was preaching. And they received
it into their hearts. They believed it. And you know
something? Their hearts were so full of
joy and gladness and praise to God. They continued every day
in the apostle doctrine. They sold their houses, their
property, and gave it all to the poor. And every day they
went from house to house. fellowshiping with one another
and eating their bread with gladness and singleness of heart. No,
God doesn't call us to make us miserable. He doesn't call us
to repentance to frustrate us and to put us under a burden
that we can't bear. He calls us to repentance to
partake of that grace and salvation that's in His Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. But until He makes us know our
guilt and consciousness of our weakness, we'll never need the
Son of God. We'll never want Him. We'll never
trust Him. Therefore, God smites us, He
smites our conscience, and then He opens our hearts. to the riches
that's in Jesus Christ and His grace and forgiveness. He don't
begin a work in a man's heart just to bring him into despair.
If He begins the work in your heart of repentance and He brings
you low and makes you to know something about yourself and
your sin, I tell you what the end of that will be. You'll find the joy you'll find
a peace, you'll find a rest, you'll find contentment in the
Son of God that you had no idea even existed. That's my experience,
if that's your way. Brother Bob Coffey came in one
time to preach the message, you'll remember this. Preaching out
of the book of Hebrews, Christ is better. And he says, if you've
got a kid that has got a bad habit, And He's harming them,
and you want Him to quit it? Give them something better. Give
them something better. And when God wants us to quit
this business of serving sin and loving our sins because it's
killing us, it's bringing us into eternal misery and ruin,
what does He do? How does He entice us to give
up that sin and let it go and hate it? How does He do that?
He gives us something better. He gives us His Son in a knowledge
of that salvation that's in Him and forgiveness of our sin. Oh,
that's better. Haven't you found something better
in Jesus Christ than you ever found in your sin? Oh, that was
pleasure there. I'm not denying that. That's
why we went after it like a baby after its mother's breast. A
thirsty dog after water. But haven't you found pleasures
now in Jesus Christ? Soul pleasures that you just
can't get over? And the longer you live, the
deeper these pleasures are. And don't that wood wean you
from your sin? One thing, I'll close with this.
Verse 24. I hold around a little bit of hope for this old fellow
here, this Simon the Magician. And I tell you why I do. What he says here in verse 24.
You find this in all of those that God has brought to repentance.
Look what he said in verse 24. Then answered Simon and said,
Pray you to the Lord for me, that none of these things which
ye have spoken come upon me. Pray you to the Lord. You know when the Lord saves
somebody, he not only humbles us before himself, he humbles
us before each other, don't he? I tell you what, you've seen
some pretty proud people. This man, this fella was something
else in this town. He had the whole town afraid
of him. He went around telling everybody, I'm something. Man,
he had this thing of magic in him. What's that fella's name,
David Copperfield? He can learn some things from
this fellow. And they say, you're the great power of God. Boy,
you're something else. But now, here he is. And he's
humbled himself before these two old fishermen. He said, pray
for me. Pray for me. Oh, the Lord not only
cannot endear us to stand before him with any confidence in his
flesh, he'll have our face, our mouths in the dust, humble before
him, but I'll tell you something else he'll do after a while.
He'll have us humble before one another, too. Submitted to one
another. I'm not ashamed to ask you for
your prayers, and you're not ashamed to ask me for mine, are
you? Pray to the Lord for me. God bless you. Let's pray.