I invite you to take your Bibles now and turn with me to the book of Acts. Acts chapter 8. I'm thankful for this opportunity to be able to preach this morning. I had the opportunity just the last few days to attend a pastor's conference in Saskatoon where we were challenged as pastors about our ministry, and especially to be thankful for our ministry. It's hard to believe that starting in just a month and a half, the Asher family will have been ministering while we start our tenth year. And so we're thankful. Paul told the Colossian believers, we give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Praying always for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints because of the hope that is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth." Those are the sentiments which I hope that I express to you. I know I'm not successful in doing this, as much as I would like. I'm thankful for the sanctification that has occurred in my life as a result of the church body at Meadowlands. You say, has it been that bad? Man, you've really grown a lot as a Christian coming here, working with us. That's not what I mean. It's that God is using you in my life, and so I'm thankful for that. So as we look at chapter 8 of Acts, let's pray before we start. Father, we know that, as a songwriter has said, all is vain unless the Spirit of the Holy One comes down, and we want you to meet with us as You have given me this opportunity of preaching the word of God. Help us to be attentive to your spirit today in Jesus' name, amen. Well, Paul closes out his letter to the Corinthian believers with the instruction, examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? Is Jesus in you? unless indeed you are disqualified. Pressing burden on the heart of every pastor, I know this is the heart of our pastor, it's my heart, is that the people who we minister to are truly in the faith. Each member of the flock that God has entrusted to us is going through this examination process on a regular basis. That's what helps us as we minister to know that the work of God is being carried out in each life that we are able to minister to, by that examination process to see if they are in the faith. In a sense, each of us needs to be a fruit inspector, not to determine if others are fruit-bearing Christians, The fruit we're called on to inspect with a spirit of honesty, with a spirit of humility, and it's supposed to be ongoing in our lives. That fruit is our own. Are we bearing fruit as Christians? There are only really two conclusions. to such an examination, either there is proof that a person is a genuine child of God, or there isn't. And today we're going to look at an individual in Acts 8 who made a profession of faith that seemed really genuine, but in the end, it was not. Acts begins with the ascension of Jesus Christ and before he was taken away into heaven, Jesus gave one last instruction to the apostles, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. And that's what God did. The gospel spread and it continues to spread as a result of this commission. We read in Acts 2 how the church in Jerusalem began and how it grew both numerically and then throughout the book of Acts, geographically from Jerusalem throughout all of the known world, ending in Rome at that time. There were bumps along the way, no doubt, and we read about some of those things. Some came from without. The church, as persecution came to the apostles, and we find them rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for the cause of Christ. Some difficulties came from within the church. In chapter six, there were widows. that weren't being taken care of. So the apostles were praised of the situation, and godly men were then chosen from among the believers in Jerusalem to do the work of the ministry, to free those apostles up for prayer and for ministry in the word. One of those men that was chosen was a man, Stephen, and we know the story of Stephen. He was a man described in Acts 6 as full of faith and power. He did great wonders and signs among the people. And as a result, people from the outside began to rise up to dispute with Stephen. Dispute about his message, to debate him. But they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke, verse 10 tells us, Acts 6. And so whenever people lose a debate, but they still really want to win, they start to attack character. And that's what they did in this case with Stephen. He began to call him a blasphemer. And eventually he was stoned to death by an angry mob. He was the first martyr of the early church. And that's where chapter 8 begins. So let's read together verse 1. It says, now Saul was consenting to his death. At that time, a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem. And they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. Therefore, those who are scattered went everywhere preaching the word. This is our first introduction to a very important individual in the Bible, the man Saul, Saul of Tarsus. The impact the church was making at that time, in Saul's opinion and in the opinion of the religious leaders of the day, this must be stopped. And they tasked Saul of Tarsus with the responsibility to do it. And so he made havoc of the church It means he tried to destroy it, and you get the picture of it. If you've ever watched a TV show where a lion is taking down its prey and just ripping it apart, I usually change the channel, because I'm not one of those guys that likes to watch that, but maybe you are. And that's the picture of what was happening with the church here in Acts chapter 8. Jesus said that he would build his church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. Saul didn't know this verse. Can you imagine how frustrating it was for Saul? The more he tried to stop the spread of the gospel, the more it spread. And this no doubt contributed to the description of Saul recorded for us in chapter nine, which is the account of Saul's conversion. Where in verse one we read, he was breathing out threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. And then he met Jesus and he was saved. And he became Paul, great man of God. But the persecution that he inflicted on the early church would certainly have weighed heavily on his mind as he ministered for the cause of Christ, that cause that he persecuted. In fact, he mentions this dark legacy at least twice more in the book of Acts, once before he was in front of a mob who was wanting to kill him, in Acts 22 and then in Acts 26 before King Agrippa. Both times, as he gives his testimony of faith in Christ, he reiterates the fact that he persecuted the church. At least five times in his letters to various people in the churches, he described his life before salvation and he mentions Clearly, I was a persecutor of the church. So how did the church respond to this persecution? Well, in a sense, Saul was successful. It says that the church scattered, except for the apostles. But God used this scattering in order that the gospel would spread. And the first place the gospel spread was to Samaria by the hand of Philip, another one of those deacons that we find introduced to us in Acts 6. So let's continue reading in Acts 8, verse 5. It says, then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed, and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. And there was great joy in that city. But there was a certain man called Simon, who previously practiced sorcery in the city, and astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great, to whom they all gave heed, and from the least to the greatest, saying, this man is the great power of God. And they heeded him, because he had astonished them with his sorceries for a long time. When they believed Philip, as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized. And Simon himself also believed. And when he was baptized, he continued with Philip and was amazed, seeing the miracles and signs which were done. Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for as yet he had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, saying, Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter said to him, Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money. You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent, therefore, of this, your wickedness, and pray, God, if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you, for I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity. Then Simon answered and said, Pray to the Lord for me, that none of the things which you have spoken may come upon me. So when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans. The most striking, piercing principle of this first half of this chapter is that some professing Christians, many according to Matthew 7, who will say in my name, have we not done these things? Many who profess faith in Christ will be eternally lost. There are people in the church who think they're traveling the narrow way that leads to life everlasting, as Jesus described in Matthew chapter seven, but they're deceived. Instead, they're on the road that leads to destruction. Jesus addresses this often in his parables. He talks about the wheat growing up together with the tares, the two branches, one that bears fruit being pruned, John 15, but the branch that doesn't bear fruit being taken away and burned. Jesus mentioned it in the parable of the wise and foolish virgin. We're all familiar with the parable of the sower, describes the different types of soil that the seed is planted in. And there are times when a person receives the word, even with gladness, but when the cares of this life or the allurements of the world come, he falls away, proof that his faith was never real. That's the kind of faith that Simon the sorcerer had. It wasn't that he had faith and then lost it. He never had it in the first place. His was a false faith, it was a dead faith. And James mentions such faith when he says, thus also faith without works is dead being alone. But someone will say, you have faith and I have works. To which James responded, show me your faith without your works. and I will show you my faith by my works. We know that certainly James was not preaching a works salvation. It's clear in scripture that no one can do enough on his own effort to make it into heaven. It's impossible. We're all sinners. We fall short of God's glory. So that's not what James is saying here when he says, I will show you my faith by my works. He's saying that true faith results in real fruit. And so we notice in our passage that a great work of God was taking place in Samaria. Look at verse five. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. This is one of those times where a pastor might say, are you sure that I'm called here? Because we know a lot about the city of Samaria. Philip was a Jew. And Jews ministered anywhere but Samaria. It was located in what became the northern kingdom of Israel. This northern kingdom, we know in scripture, was made up of 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel. who the Assyrians conquered in 722 BC and deported many of the Jews out of that area and replaced those people with foreigners. And those foreigners intermarried with the Jews that remained, producing a mixed race consisting of people who were part Jew and part Gentile. They were Samaritans. And the animosity that was felt between Jew and Samaritan grew to such an extent that the Jews tried to avoid, if possible, any contact with Samaritans. And that's what made Jesus' connection with the woman at the well in John 4 so interesting, so surprising. But Jesus interacted with other Samaritans. In Luke 17, Jesus healed a Samaritan leper. And in Luke 10, Jesus tells a parable where a Samaritan, who he called the Good Samaritan, he was the hero of the story. And this is where we find Philip. He preached Christ to them. His was a message of repentance from sin and faith in Jesus Christ as the only way to God. We know that Simon's false claim of salvation was in no way due to the lack of clarity about the message. Because in verse 6 we read, And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed, And many who were paralyzed and lame were healed, and there was great joy in that city. The whole atmosphere of the city changed. People were healed, unclean spirits were cast out, and as a result of their salvation, people had joy. The joy of the Lord in the heart of a believer is not dependent merely on circumstances. Some of you this week had circumstances come into your life that were adverse. You may have lost your happiness for a while, but true joy still was your testimony. And a joyful Christian is one of the best testimonies for Jesus Christ. But Simon's attention was on something else. Verse nine, there was a certain man called Simon who previously practiced sorcery in the city and astonished the people of Samaria claiming that he was someone great. He was a leading citizen in this city. We are told that he was a sorcerer. We might use the word magician. He had practiced his trade in Samaria for many years. Simon made some outlandish claims about himself. He had a massive ego. And it seems like the people agreed with that assessment. Verse 10, they all gave heed from the least to the greatest, saying, this man is the great power of God. He was a boaster who tricked people into thinking that his power came from God himself. What an influence he had. Everybody listened to him. The poorest listened to him, the richest, they listened to him, everybody in between. He did what he said. Verse 11, they heeded him because he had astonished them with his sorceries for a long time. Few things are sadder than the gullibility of an unsaved person. Perhaps there was a time before your salvation when you followed after some false teaching or maybe even a false teacher. And now as you look back on it, now that you are on this side, so to speak, you look back and you are amazed. How could I be so foolish as to follow some teaching like that or some person that was teaching those things? Things that clearly violated scripture. And I think we get some clue on the part of human nature that makes us susceptible to this. Satan uses it to exploit this in lives. We find this in Ecclesiastes 3.12. You don't have to turn there, I'll read it for you. Solomon writes, also he has put eternity in their hearts. Every human being is born with eternity in their hearts. What does that mean? Well, they're trying to find out the work that God does and why he does it. What is he up to? Except we're told in this verse, Ecclesiastes 3.12, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. We can't find this kind of work out. But since God has put that desire in our hearts, we want to know that information. And occult practices and practitioners feed that desire. It's the desire that Satan promised to Eve in the Garden of Eden, that she could be like God, knowing good and evil. And even today, Satan masterfully brings people and things across our paths which look so good and appeal to us in so many ways. But Jesus warned his disciples for false Christs. and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. And that's why we need to follow Ephesians 6, folks. Ephesians 6 tells us that we need to put on the whole armor of God, that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. We don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. Notice what happened when Philip preached the gospel to the Samaritans. Verse 12 says, when they believed, Philip, as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized. Simon promoted himself as somebody great, Philip comes along and he promotes someone else as being great. He preached the power of God. This is the power that Paul talks about in Romans 1 16. The gospel of Christ is a power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. For the Jew first and also for the Greek. Now what do you suppose happened to Simon's following? Once people began to believe in Christ, well, he started to lose his following. Philip's message was being received. Christ was getting a bigger following than Simon was. And so I'm sure everyone was amazed when we read in verse 13 that Simon himself also believed. And when he was baptized, he continued with Philip and was amazed, seeing the miracles and signs which were done. That phrase in that verse, continued with Philip, is an interesting statement. One commentator wrote that this was not the normal way of describing a true disciple of Jesus. He continued with Philip. The same scenario occurs in churches today, where the only thing keeping people coming into the doors is something other than the cause of Christ. It's something other than a desire to worship God and know Him better. It's something other than the Word of God being the draw. It's something other than a desire to be right with God. and to be convicted of our sin. One question I heard from another pastor preaching on this passage was this, how far can a man go and still be lost? Because Simon believed. Simon was baptized, he obeyed. Simon followed, he continued. These are things that we usually expect from a true believer. Unfortunately, people today think, just like Simon seemed to think, that salvation is all external. It's a religious formality I go through. But salvation is a total commitment of life, or it's nothing. And that's what we'll talk about tonight. As we look at Romans chapter 12, our faith, our life, our living, we're supposed to be a living sacrifice. We're supposed to be people who are zealous for good works. Simon's profession seemed pretty genuine. Is it any wonder that Philip was fooled? Simon didn't give Philip any reason to doubt his salvation, to doubt his motives. He followed Philip. He became somewhat like an intern or a job shadow. Some of you may have that in your workplace. It would seem that he stopped His claim to be the power of God, he no longer said, I'm it, I'm the main thing here, like he had preached for so many years, so many people believed him. He stopped doing those things that he once did, but Simon was a phony. He had bad theology, he came to God, not because he needed him, but he treated God as just something I can add on to my life. It's just simply an accessory to what I'm already doing. It wasn't long until his true colors were shown. We see this when Peter and John show up, verse 14, now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. Why were they sent? Why did they have to come? Well, they came to inspect. They came to authenticate what was happening in Samaria. They also came to communicate that there was a union now between believers in Jerusalem, who at one time would have kind of had their righteous indignation, the fact that they would have anything to do with a Samaritan, Peter and John put that to rest by showing up here and saying that now you converts in Samaria and converts from Jerusalem have things in common. Verse 15, who when they had come down prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for as yet he had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. no longer was saving faith confined to just the Jews in Jerusalem. And right before their eyes, they see Acts 1-8 being fulfilled. This was a glorious occasion. This was but a foretaste of what John wrote about in Revelation 7-9, when he writes, after these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, tongues, standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice saying, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb. What a wonderful day that will be. Someone may ask why the Samaritans didn't receive the Holy Spirit when they believed. That's what happens today. We believe that's what scripture teaches. When someone comes to Christ, they receive the Holy Spirit. So why didn't it happen here? Well, simply put, this was a one-time unique event in a transitional era in the church. Some people would point to this account and say, this is proof that there's a second working of the Holy Spirit that we all as believers need to be working for, we need to receive this. But this isn't supported by scripture. And it's when the Holy Spirit was given to these new believers that we see Simon's true motives. I'm sure that his mouth was hanging open, if not literally, then figuratively as he observed what was going on and he thought to himself, what an opportunity. I can now add to my bag of tricks. He couldn't believe his good fortune. In his eyes, Peter and John were like fellow sorcerers who had come up with a trick he didn't know anything about. And he needed it, he had to have it. Verse 18, and when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, saying, give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit. There was no hint of spiritual awareness in these words of Simon. To him, everything was available for the right price. And we get the term, some of you may have heard this term, the term simony. It was virtually unknown until about the third century when the church started getting offices that they were trying to offer for people's money. And people started paying big money in order to obtain influence in the church. So eventually, by the 16th century, disappeared altogether. But this hard attitude still exists in the church, where people do good things, they give, they attend the services of the church, they sign up for activities of service, all in hopes of receiving God's favor, and even heaven itself. Simon may have viewed his relationship with Philip as an apprenticeship to a master sorcerer, but Peter and John, now they've got real power. And he had to have it, but Peter said to him in verse 20, your money perish with you. Now that is a strong statement that by just reading our Bible, we may think, okay, well, he was a little upset. Literally it means your money can go to hell with you because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money. This rebuke identifies the true state of Simon's heart. Peter saw no true repentance, no submission to God, only self-interest and greed. Beginning with salvation, which the Bible stresses as a gift, any spiritual benefit one receives from God comes simply and freely. Proof that Simon was a stranger to this grace was that he tried to buy what God alone can give. The nature of God's generosity was part of Jesus' instruction when he commissioned his disciples in Matthew chapter 10 And he says, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons, freely you have received, freely give. And Isaiah records God's loving invitation in chapter 55 where we read, ho, everyone who thirsts. Come to the waters and you who have no money, come buy and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy? And this is what Simon was trying to do. Peter continues in verse 21, you have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. He's saying you aren't part of this, Simon. And Peter calls on him to repent, verse 22. Repent therefore of this your wickedness and pray God, if perhaps a thought of your heart may be forgiven you. What is Simon's response? Verse 24, Simon answered and said, pray to the Lord for me that none of the things which you've spoken may come upon me. Instead of repenting, he responds, you pray for me. True repentance is unintelligible to Simon. It's something to be avoided. He's only worried about the consequences of sin. Now I'm gonna avoid that if I can. He wanted to escape punishment more than he wanted to turn to the Lord. And this showed that his faith wasn't in Christ. It was in the miracles, the power he thought he needed to make life work like he wanted it to. True belief is more than just some intellectual assent to the truths of the gospel. In the end, Simon's faith was not real because he thought receiving the Holy Spirit could be purchased with money. We sang earlier the song, Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise. This was not the testimony of Simon. It's by grace alone, through faith alone, that we are saved. He sought spiritual gifts for self-promoting motives. He wanted the power of Christ without the humility and lowliness of Christ. 1 Timothy 6 tells us, but those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. He thought he could substitute his piety the piety that others had for his own personal repentance and prayer. This revealed he was never interested in personal dealings with Christ, in a relationship with him. It's far different from who we read about later in Acts 8, and we'll talk about the Ethiopian eunuch trusting Christ as his savior. We'll talk about that next Sunday. This section ends with the continuing spread of the gospel, so when they had testified and preached the word of God, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans. So what can we take from this message today? First of all, you and I are not called on to determine who's saved and who's not. That's not our responsibility. We are fruit inspectors, but we're talking about our own fruit. There are people in the Bible who would have fooled us both ways. Simon is one of them. We can only inspect the fruit of our own lives. Two things are important in order to do this. First, honesty. Be honest with what the evidence shows. Be thankful when the fruit is present. Praise the Lord. Be honest if it is absent. may indicate that you aren't a believer. And be humble. Is your pride keeping you from coming to Christ? Repenting of your sins and placing your faith in him? Today we saw that just because someone makes a profession of faith and is baptized, even continues for a time, doesn't mean they're converted. Even Philip was fooled. So how about you, does your profession of faith abide? Is it producing fruit that lasts? Do you have a desire for God's word? Or has it been a while since you have even picked it up off the shelf to read and to heed? When was the last time you repented of sin in your life? Has it been a while? Does your claim of saving faith coincide with how you're living? These are questions that are very important and must be answered for all of us. May we examine ourselves to see if we're in the faith. Let's pray. Father, we do understand that we are weak. None of us who are believers realize that we have it all together. We are model Christian. We all struggle. So this message isn't to say that this won't happen. And as we examine our lives, hopefully we are often confronted with things that need to be changed. But I fear that many might have a false assurance of salvation. They're trusting in something other than the finished work of Christ. So I pray that as conviction takes place in hearts today, that that won't be the end of it. that action will take place as we all need to examine ourselves on a regular basis. I pray that there will be no people like Simon in this congregation. People who try to boast about their religion, boast about what they do, and treat salvation as something that is only good for earthly things. Please help us to make decisions as we need to for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen. Have a good day. Thank you. you