Think about this question. Is a profession of faith enough? Is a profession of faith enough? This is talked about a lot in Christian circles. You all know and I all know a whole lot of people, a whole lot of people walking around that say they've made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ. And yet, an observation of the way that they've chosen to live, their relationship with the Word of God, their relationship with the church, their relationship with Jesus in general, maybe doesn't reflect that truth. And so, as we look at this profession of faith tonight in the text, I want us to really, really zoom in on that question. And we're gonna look at somebody tonight who scripture and history remembers as Simon the Sorcerer. Simon the Sorcerer. So I want you to look at this text with me. I'm gonna begin by reading verses nine through 13, and then we'll finish out 14 through 25 as we go. But there in Acts 8, beginning in verse 9, the Bible says, 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 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. But 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. Then Simon himself also believed, and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and was amazed, seeing the miracles and signs which were done. So we're introduced here to Simon, who again most people remember as Simon the sorcerer, and they're over in Samaria. Samaria, if you will recollect, and this is I think key to understanding the full passage of Scripture we're looking at tonight, Samaria was the Samaritans were rightly called cousins of Israel. They were people that had come from the same roots as the people of Judah. They knew one another and they despised one another. The Samaritans hated the Jews and the Jews hated the Samaritans. And yet they were closely knit together by a common history, common roots. And so this is all taking place in Samaria, and Simon is there in the city of Samaria, and he's been one who has practiced sorcery or witchcraft. And people often say, well, what was he doing? We don't have all of that, but if you kind of look at the scope of Scripture, There were a lot of people that practiced what's called witchcraft or sorcery in the Bible, and it took many different shapes. Sometimes they were doing things like seeking to communicate with the dead. You can look at the Egyptian magicians who were doing things that at some level replicated what Moses was doing up to a certain point. Okay, and so what was the source of that power? What was the source of that? Was it just, was it magic as we think about today? Was it just sleight of hand and people, you know, being able to do kind of psychological games and get a cold read on someone and be able to tell you, you know, that, you know, your grandma had a blue Cadillac? No. I think most of the time when we... I mean, some of that was going on. I'm sure there was a lot of just con men that did things like that at some level, but most of the time when we encounter this kind of language, what we're talking about is something that has its roots in the demonic realm. Okay? There is power of sorts that comes through the demonic realm. And in this time and in this place, there were times when it manifested in the hands of certain individuals as sorcery. And make no mistake, this happens today. Look, one of the fastest growing so-called religions in the United States is the Wiccan religion. And you say, what's a Wiccan? I'm not talking about Steve. Matter of fact, When they were coming to visit the first time, Harold called me and said, we got some Wiccans coming to church tonight. And I said, witches are coming to church tonight? And he said, no, Steve and Sonya. And I said, oh, okay, okay. I know who you're talking about. But I was really confused for a minute. All right? So this goes on. When I was in Zambia last year and I preached at a church out in the bush, we were there, and before I was getting ready to preach, the pastor there, he comes up to me and he goes, you see this lady sitting back over there? I said, yeah. He said, she's a witch doctor. I said, okay. What's she doing in church? He said, I don't know. She's been coming for about three weeks. And I said, well, praise God for that, but that's not something I've ever had whispered in my ear before I got up to preach. he's so or what do they do they'd this is it's similar things You talk about things like in Haiti, voodoo. There is dark, the dark practice of what we might call dark magic or sorcery or witchcraft that goes on in the world today. You say, well, maybe we don't see a lot of the manifestations of that in the United States. Well, no, we don't have to, right? We just live it out in living color and just outward wickedness. The demonic doesn't even have to take supernatural form now, it just takes regular completely unabashedly wicked form. Why in the world would it have to look supernatural when people are doing it in the power of their flesh? And yet here's Simon called the sorcerer. And not only was he a sorcerer, he was someone who was, number one, claiming himself to be great, and he was being viewed by others as great to the point where they said, this man is the great power of God. This is the height of wickedness. When you are drawing away worship and adoration from the one true God. Simon was about Simon and he was telling everybody, look how great I am. And at some point they said, well, you're doing some stuff. I guess you are great. I guess you are the power of God. This man was walking in this darkness. And yet, some preaching comes to town. Philip comes to Samaria, preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ. And what happens? As the gospel is preached, men and women are baptized. They hear the truth, they respond to the truth. That's good news. But if you're Simon, and you're someone who's You've been getting a lot of adulation. You've been getting a lot of praise because everybody thinks you've got the power of God. And here come these people and they're saying, no, this is what the kingdom of God actually is. This is the true power of God. This is where real power lies. This is what God is about in our day. How would you react? Well, I don't believe that Simon probably would have liked it much initially. But verse 13 tells us that Simon makes a profession of faith. Then Simon himself also believed and when he was baptized he continued with Philip and was amazed seeing the miracles and signs which were done. Simon was a so-called miracle worker, a sorcerer of sorts. This new group comes to town preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. And look, if you just read verse 13, and you stopped, you know what we'd all say? We'd say, praise God, Simon the sorcerer got saved. And if that's all the information we had, we might be right in making that assumption. There are still people that argue back and forth over whether or not Simon was actually saved. Well, we're going to dive into the rest of this and see what we think. I'm going to give you my opinion. You can tell me why you think I'm wrong later. But I want you to notice, even before we go into verse 14, what was it that Simon took notice of? The things that it says that he was amazed by, which I mean rightfully so at some level, but the only really thing that's mentioned about his interaction with what's happening is that he is amazed by the miracles and signs. Was Simon solely motivated by seeing these miracles and signs and thinking, well, they're going to take away from mine, I got to get in on this? I don't know, but it does seem that that's mentioned there specifically perhaps because that's what drew his attention. But Simon, hey look, right here, Simon's on the roll in the Baptist church. He believed and he was baptized. He's on the roll. That's about how we do it most of the time, if we're not careful. But what happens? Well, there's an interesting preface, I guess you would say, to the rest of Simon's story. So, Philip's gone into Samaria, and probably others with him, and they're preaching the gospel. This is early, early on in the life of the early church. And so once the gospel is being received at Samaria, the apostles make a decision to do something. It says in 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, 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. Okay. A couple of things here, and I'm going to start at the end. When it says they'd only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, what it's not saying there is, well, they weren't baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Spirit. That's not what they're saying. That's just a summary. They're saying the Holy Spirit hadn't been received in this instance yet, but they had been baptized. This isn't about the baptism formula that you say before you put someone down. That's not what's being talked about there. So I wanted to get that out of the way, and then really dive into a really important piece of how we understand salvation and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Because it says these people have believed, these people have been baptized, and yet the apostles come down. It says they had not yet received the Holy Spirit. Now, I think I am right in saying that the testimony of the Scriptures, even at Pentecost, that the Spirit came. As salvation was coming, the Spirit came. Why here at Samaria, and this isn't the only place this happens, and we'll get to it in just a moment, why at Samaria did the apostles have to come down in order for the Spirit to move in the way that is going to be described here? I'm going to give you what I believe is the truth. First of all, I think that the apostles came down, they heard about Samaria. Remember what I told you, the Jews and the Samaritans hated each other. At this point, the church as it existed was a Jewish church, with a few exceptions maybe. I mean, those who were baptized at Pentecost, but they're all centered in Jerusalem. So this is largely a Jewish background believer church that exists in this time and in this place. Now the gospel's gone to the Samaritans, who hate the Jews and the Jews hate them. And so there's this enmity that exists between them. Why is it that the apostles had to go down and be a part of this situation? I think it was, number one, for the unity of the early church, so that the apostles could go down and make sure what was going on, and so that the Samaritan believers Because Philip's passing through and he's preaching and probably going to continue on, I think there needed to be an establishment of the authority of the apostles so that the church could go forward in the way that it was supposed to go forward. We have to look at this time in the early churches as a bit of a transitional period. But I think even more than that, there's a pattern in the book of Acts where when a new, a completely new group, up to a certain point, when a completely new group before, this is, now think about this, this is before Paul really becomes the disciple to the Gentiles, okay? The apostle to the Gentiles. And so Paul's ministry hasn't kicked off yet. In fact, he's just been persecuting the church earlier on in chapter eight. The apostles come down, and they're praying for the receiving of the spirit because this is a new group and they need to be established in connection with the apostles themselves in the teaching and the doctrine of the church. This actually happens again over in Acts chapter 10 when the Gentiles begin to come into the church in mass. This is over in verse 44, it says this in chapter 10. While Peter was still speaking, he's speaking to the Gentiles here, these words, So, In this transitional period, before there is an apostle whose mission is to be sent out amongst the Gentiles, when these new groups who don't have a really strong connection to the apostles themselves, it seems that the apostles come down and they're making sure what's going on, and as they come, the Spirit comes with them. I don't believe, I think once you see Paul start going out to the other nations and start going out to the Gentiles in Mass, we no longer see this taking place, where there's this kind of period of time where, yeah, the Gospel's preached, and yeah, people are responding to it, but the Spirit hasn't fallen in the same way. But it happens, it's almost like a repetition of Pentecost. I mean, I really, you can look at it that way. The Spirit falls amongst the disciples themselves and those around them at Pentecost in Jerusalem. It falls here in Samaria. It falls later when Peter's preaching to the Gentiles. And then from there forward, those groups have been established and the missionaries are now being sent out specifically to these people and to these groups in the power of the Spirit of God. And so I think it was about unity and authority amongst the apostles, but I think it was also about the fact that about the fact that they were bringing in an entire new group as, again, somewhat of a replication of Pentecost. Now, again, I don't think after you see Peter, what I just read you in Acts chapter 10, we don't see that really happening again. Why not? Gentiles that the Gentiles have been brought in. All right, that's been established The Gentile churches have begun to be established and that's what the the authority and the the truth and the Apostles doctrine and the teaching of Jesus that's all being going out. I think the danger was that that if that hadn't happened, that the Samaritan church pops up and they become their own thing with their own ideas and their complete own doctrine that's rooted in who they are as Samaritans and not who they are as Christians. That's always a danger, isn't it? I'd say it's a real danger. It's a danger when we culturalize our Christianity too much, and we say, well, this is what it means to be a Christian as an American, and this is what it means to be a Christian as a Russian or as whatever. No. What it means to be a Christian is the same everywhere. The Bible's the same everywhere. Teaching's the same everywhere. Sarah showed me a video yesterday, I think, and this woman who had was a Chinese woman who'd lived in China for most of her life and is no longer there. She began to talk about Christianity in China. And she said, what you don't understand, there are thousands of approved churches in China. And we don't hear that a lot. We hear about the underground church and all of that. But there are thousands of approved churches in China. But in order to be an approved church in China, You've got to use the Bible, only use the Bible that's approved by the Communist Party of China. You've got to install a camera system that does facial reading and recognition, and records everything that's being said in the service, so that it can be reviewed by the party to make sure you're not saying anything against the party. And oh yeah, this was just one example she gave. that when the woman caught in adultery, when Jesus tells them, whoever doesn't have sin among you, cast the first stone and tells her, go and sin no more. In the Chinese Communist Party approved Bible, it says Jesus picked up the first stone and began to stone her and they killed her because the Chinese Communist Party doesn't want anybody to think that there's any mercy for that kind of stuff. They just changed it. And why I tell you that, even as we look at the word of God that's unaltered in that way, we still have the danger of interpreting it so much through our own lens and our own context that we make it about who we are, not about who God has revealed himself to be. So we've got to be really careful. And I think that's what was going on here in this section of the book of Acts, as the apostles come and the Spirit of God falls in this way amongst the Samaritans. Now, I'm gonna turn back to talk about Simon a little bit more. So, Simon, He sees all of this go on. He sees them praying, they're praying for, excuse me, they're praying for the Spirit to fall. And then in verse 17, it says, they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. Simon sees this in verse 18 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 Peter said to him your money perish with you because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money Simon wanted to purchase the power that was endued to the Apostles themselves Simon wanted to be able to, just like he had always done, right? He was the sorcerer that had all of this power. Everybody was telling him how great and how powerful he was. These guys come to town. They're stealing some of his thunder. He hitches his wagon to them. Now the apostles come to town. Wait a second, man. These guys are doing amazing things. I want what they've got. And it wasn't, I want what they've got in the sense that I want to live like they're living, I want to believe like they believe, and I want to live the kind of life that they're living. No, it was, I want to be able to do the stuff they're doing. I want the blessing of that, I want the power of that, but it seems disconnected from a desire to be connected with God Himself. We've got to be really careful as we look at this and we want to throw rocks at Simon, and rightfully so in some sense, at least mentally speaking. We've gotta be really careful, friends. There is a whole lot of people that you love and I love, that at one point or another in their life, they would claim to have placed their faith in Jesus Christ, but if you look at the motivation behind it, It was always connected to something else. I'm in a really bad place, right? I'm in drug addiction and I want out of it. Well, that's a good thing. If you're at rock bottom, seek Jesus, please. I believe God puts people in some of those circumstances just so they'll seek him. I believe that. But if all you want is sobriety and you don't want Jesus, guess what? You might figure out a way to stay off of drugs, but you might not have Jesus. But if you pursue Jesus, these other things can come along with it. It doesn't mean He takes everything away from us, but if we have an overarching goal of seeking Jesus, guess what does I seek to live as Jesus wants me to live? I'm going to have to deal with everything else in between me and Him. And so, it's a problem. People, my marriage is in bad shape, my finances are in bad shape, my kids are in some nonsense, they've got this going on, they've got that going on, my health is in bad shape. Are those all real problems of life? Yes. Are those real problems of life that God cares about? Absolutely. Are those the proper motivation for seeking salvation? No, the proper motivation for seeking salvation is that I'm moved by the Spirit of God to lay myself in submission and repentance to the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, I think those circumstances are the tools that God uses to bring a lot of people into the kingdom of God. But if all they do is get the relief they're seeking and depart there from, that's a pretty hollow profession of faith. I've seen it tons of times, and you guys have. Somebody's in a bad shape, they start coming to church, they get around the people of God, they get encouraged, they get built up a little bit, things start feeling a little bit lighter, life starts getting a little bit better, and they say, well, I got what I needed, and they're gone. And when do they come back? They come back the next time when they hit the bottom. Are we going to let them come back? Sure we are, but we're going to hold them to task for the profession that they've made. Are you who you said you are? If not, get right with God. That's what Peter's going to say here. Look at Peter's response. Look at how he diagnoses Simon's condition. He's already told him, I hope your money perishes with you because you thought the gift of God could be purchased with money. Here's what he says in verse 21. 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." I'm going to tell you something, friends. Pastor Peter, those people wouldn't be back next Sunday. That's what people would tell him. If a pastor or church leader told somebody the truth that all they were wanting was what they could get from God, all they were wanting was what they were getting from the people of God, and they weren't wanting God Himself, and they loved Him enough to tell them that truth, and they say, well, I'm never going back to that place. The average church member says, Pastor, I can't believe you told those people that. They'll never be back. And as my old preaching mentor used to tell me, Son, they weren't with us in the first place. And that's just the truth. Now look, you gotta have wisdom. You can't go around beating people up with your big black Bible and smacking them with it all the time. All right? You have to have wisdom and discernment on how you share things and when you share things. And we're willing to receive people back so that they might hear the truth and truthfully respond to it. But we've got to love them enough to tell them that the benefits we get from God and being a child of God, those are not the point. They're just a blessing. They're just something that comes along for the thing. If all I want is what I think I'm going to get from God and I don't want God Himself, I never had Him in the first place. It is a heart that is transformed and our desire, our number one desire should be God. That doesn't mean that it doesn't ebb and flow in our lives and we get distracted and we get discouraged. Of course that happens. But you know what I'm talking about. Friends, we live in the kind of place where if you went on the street and you asked a hundred people if they were a Christian, probably 80 to 90 of them at least, if not more than that, would say, yeah, I'm a Christian. Where do you go to church? I don't really go to church. Okay, well, when did you come to know Christ? Oh, well, you know, I got baptized down such and such church when I was 10 or I was 12, I was 18, I was 25. Are you praying? Are you reading your Bible? Well, I pray sometimes. Somebody's sick or something's going on. Start asking those kind of questions and you find out. Look, again, I don't mean that everybody that's drifted away is... that there's not real Christians that haven't drifted far from God. I think that happens. But more times than not, I think we're encountering someone, and look, I know they're not asking for supernatural-type power like Simon was. But all they were wanting was the blessing and benefit of God, and they weren't seeking the realities of Christ Himself. Peter's diagnosis of Simon was, number one, your heart is not right before God. Now, we say that all the time. My heart's not right. My heart's not right about this. My heart's not right about that. It seems to me that this is kind of a holistic piece, right? He didn't just say, your heart's not right with God. He says, your heart's not right in the sight of God. He's saying, when God looks at your heart, he's looking at your heart and saying, it's not right. What does that mean? I believe what he's saying there is it's unredeemed. You're not what you say you are. He says, you don't have any part of this. You don't have any portion in this matter. You've got no peace, no claim on the kingdom of God. That's bold preaching from the apostle Peter. Peter was a bold guy. As a matter of fact, if you remember earlier in the book of Acts, Peter got beaten up because he was accused of being bold, and then him and his buddies went back and got together and praised God that they were beaten for being bold, and they just went on being more bold. Just more and more bold. Leonard Ravenhill, famously would say, he was a preacher in the last century. Ravenhill did a lot of amazing things, but Ravenhill, you can still look up a lot of his messages online. He's got a really great book called Why Revival Tarries, and if you read about the first three chapters of that book, and you don't have to stop and get right with God, you're way holier than I am, okay? Ravenhill said, I go a lot of places once. You know why? He was so bold, he would go in and he would tell people such straight, down-the-pipe truth, he'd hit them in the mouth with the truth, and they couldn't swallow it. Now look, if all I ever did was get up here and beat y'all up every Sunday morning and every Sunday night and every Wednesday night, y'all get fed up with it, right? And you say, well, y'all think you do that? You don't even have a clue. Just think how bad I could be, right? Y'all supposed to laugh at that, but I guess I was wrong. Alright, so, there's pastoral wisdom, and as we're preaching the text, some things are encouraging, some things are challenging and convicting, some things ought to hit us in the mouth, some things ought to pat us on the back and give us a little pep in our step. The Bible's got all of those things in it. But we've got to be willing to be bold when boldness is called for. And sometimes what's called for is for you or me to look somebody that we love in the face and tell them, I know what you're saying, but what you're saying does not line up with the truth. It doesn't line up with what the Bible says is the fruit of the spirit. It doesn't line up with what the Bible says is the fruit of repentance. And I am scared that your soul is in danger no matter what your mouth says. Friends, this is an epidemic. in communities like Ozark, Arkansas. It's an epidemic in communities like Mena, Arkansas, where I pastored for seven years. It's an epidemic in small towns all across America, the so-called Bible Belt area of the South. Everybody's still a little bit culturally Christian, and it's been like an inoculation against the real cure, which is the gospel itself. It's so dangerous. It's so terrifying. Peter told him his heart wasn't right before God. He told him he was in need of repentance. Repent therefore of this wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. Not only did he tell him he was in need and repentance, he told him he was bound by bitterness and iniquity, poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity. He diagnosed him. Why do you think Simon was bitter? I think he was bitter because they stole his thunder. I think he was bitter because they probably got in his pocketbook a little bit, got in his wallet, started affecting his income. Simon's motivation was not tied to the truth. It was tied to his own desires. You may say, well, it looks bad for old Simon, and I think you're right. Well, let's look at Simon's response. It says, then Simon answered, this is verse 24, and said, pray to the Lord for me that none of the things which you have spoken may come upon me. Okay. He asked for prayer. Is that a bad thing? No, not at all. I think we should pray for anybody that asks us to. Let me encourage you with something. I'm all, I'm excited for y'all to bring whatever prayer requests you have to a Wednesday night prayer meeting for us to pray for folks in your family, folks you encounter. Let me challenge you this, next time you're around somebody and they say, boy, I wish your church would pray for me, I got this going on, say, I'm gonna tell you what, we will pray for you. Let me pray for you right now. I used to be better about that when people asked me to pray for them. I'd say, look, I don't want to forget. I don't have anything to write on. I want to pray for you right now to make sure at least I'm praying for you now. And I'm going to do my best and pray that God would bring you to mind in my heart again so I'll pray for you again. Try that sometime. Don't just say, oh yeah, we'll be praying. Pray. Stop and pray for him right there. It's not a bad thing that Simon asked him to pray, but what we don't see here, we don't see any inclination that Simon is repentant. What does he want? He says, I don't want that stuff to happen to me. Pray that these things don't happen to me. Peter says, your money's going to perish with you. He says, I don't want to lose my money. I don't want to lose my life. I don't want any of that. But it doesn't seem, at least here from the information that we have, that there's a real response of repentance. So I'd submit to you tonight, you may have a different opinion. From the information we have, even though Simon the Sorcerer made a profession of faith, even though Simon the Sorcerer was baptized, even though Simon the Sorcerer was witness to miracles, It doesn't seem that Simon the Sorcerer had anything more than that profession. He needed a possession of his faith through repentance and faith, not just a mere profession with his lips. We rejoice when somebody professes faith because in that moment all we can do is take their word for it. I'm not the Holy Spirit and neither are you. But what we can do is observe and be willing to call things what they are, call sin what it is, and show someone that in the hopes that if they're just a Christian who's got off the path, they'll get right. And if they're someone who was never a Christian in the first place, that the Holy Spirit of God will truly just break open their hard heart and transform them by His power so that they would truly come to a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know I've said it several times tonight, but of all of the truths, of all the things that I know to be true, this reality of many professors and few possessors of faith, particularly in our community and ones like it, keeps me up at night. It makes me pray a little harder. I believe God's in control of salvation, but it breaks my heart to know that there are many out there laboring under a delusion that they could have just said certain words at a certain time and a certain place, and that means that they are no longer standing underneath the wrath of God when nothing has followed forward from that, no fruit to be seen. It is a matter of much prayer. It should be for all of us. because there is no harder person to convince, there's no harder person to bring the gospel to than the one who thinks they already have it and don't. I finally would encourage you with this. I'm going a little longer than usual, forgive me for that. 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. I want you to notice that Simon, going sideways, Simon, being one with a false profession on his lips. It didn't keep some of the disciples and the apostles from carrying on the work, and it didn't keep them from carrying on the work to the Samaritans. You know what they could have said? This is exactly what I knew would happen with these Samaritans. We know what those Samaritans are, and they could have said, we're not fooling with them anymore. Look at what happens when we try to go down there and tell them the truth. That's not what happened. They continued preaching, they went on back, and they were preaching the gospel in the villages of Samaria. The ministry field had opened up, the Spirit of God had bore witness in the hearts of those people, and they carried forward doing the work of the ministry. Let me encourage you with this tonight. Yes, there are many false professors out there. There's a lot of people who claim to be Christians and aren't, and they're in churches, and they ruin churches because they're not what they say they are. If a bunch of Christians get together, we ought to be able to figure things out, even if we're in conflict. But the problem is, when you get the sheep and the goats together, there's always going to be problems. We could just throw our hands up and say, I don't want to fool with that anymore. All these people, they say they're one thing and they're another. No, what do we do? We pray for them. We challenge them with the truth. We help them walk back into the presence of God and pray that it's real this time. And we continue laboring and we go on forward with the ministry. And we don't discount a whole group of people. We don't discount a whole family or anything like that because of what's taken place with one individual. It's easy to write off a family. It's easy to write off a group. It's easy to write off a town or an area or an ethnic group because of one person or a few bad apples that we've seen. Don't do that. Be encouraged. The work still goes on. Yeah, there are false professors, but there are true possessors. Lean into that. Keep going. Keep doing the work of the ministry and the work of the church to the glory of God. Let's pray. Lord, thank You for these folks. I thank You for Your Word. I pray, Lord, use it in our lives, use it in our ministries, use it in our church, that You might be honored and glorified. Lord, for those who might be laboring under a false delusion that they're a Christian and they're not, only You know that, Lord. I pray that You would convict them and perhaps use us to speak a word of truth to them, that they might come to know You in grace and in truth. We pray in Christ's name. Amen and amen.