I do want to let you know we can just quickly before we start our reading. Look at verse 16 of Acts, chapter eight. It says, because the Holy Spirit did not yet come upon any of them, it's simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Excuse me, I read that wrong. I'm sorry. Because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them, they had simply been baptized in the name of Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. We're not going to deal with that today. That's next week. So I just want to let you know, as we read through this, this is always a tough part of this passages. What does it mean that these people in Samaria did not have the Holy Spirit, yet had believed, taken upon them baptism. And then when the hands were laid upon them, then they received the Holy Spirit. It has a bearing on what we're going to talk about this morning, but we'll address that all by itself next week. What I'd like to do is set up the context in which we find this passage and find out what's going on in the life of Philip, of Peter, what's going on in the life of the apostles, and namely, Simon the sorcerer. So if we can, let's start in verse 4, and we'll read through verse 24. Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there. And when the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said. With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed. So there was great joy in that city. Now for some time, a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He he had boasted that he was someone great and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, this man is a divine power known as the great power. And they followed him because they had they because he had amazed them for a long time with his magic. But when they believed Philip, as he preached the good news of the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. And Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great sign, the miracles he saw. And when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. And when they arrived, they prayed for them. And they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them. They had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the hands of the apostles, he offered the money and said, Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. And Peter answered, May your money perish with you. because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money. You have no part or share in this ministry because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps He will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart, for I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin." Then Simon answered, "'Pray to the Lord for me, so that nothing you have said may happen to me.'" Let's pray for understanding. God, we come before you this morning with a desire to be people of Your Word. We recognize that there is a lot in this text, and I pray that You would help us to be accurate with it, that Your Spirit would teach us, that You would help us to understand it rightly. It is Your Spirit who does teach us, and therefore we call upon You to send Him with the proclamation of Your Word, with an understanding of it, so that we might rightly apply it to our lives. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Alright, let's start in verse 5 now. OK, we're going to reread some of this and kind of walk through strategically, hopefully, so that we're all on the same page by the time we're done and we all are seeing the same things. Says Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there. When the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said. Now, notice how this parallels Acts chapter two. Remember, in Acts chapter 2, we have a situation where they're all meeting in the upper room. They had all believed the Word of God. The Spirit came upon them. They went out and spoke the Word of God boldly. And having seen the people speak in tongues, because the signs authenticated the truth of the Gospel message, having seen the signs, they heard the message, and about 3,000 people were saved that day. This is exactly what's happening in this text. Luke has gone to great extents all throughout the book of Acts to every time we see the word of God being proclaimed, the spirit coming upon people to show that the signs authenticate the message. Yet the signs are not what save. It is Jesus Christ himself who saves it. It is the message of Jesus Christ atoning work. And so very much like that situation, we have it here that Philip comes into town speaking the message, the signs that he that he is performing is authenticating the message of Jesus Christ. A crowd is gathering around and people are going to believe in Jesus Christ. So and it says in verse seven, what those miraculous signs that Philip is doing. Philip is casting out demons. healing cripples, paralytics. And now there is this great joy in the city because there's Philip and the other apostles are there with him and they are healing people. There's great joy in the city as they proclaim the word. Now look at verse nine. Now, for some time, a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great and all the people, both high and low, gave them their attention and exclaimed, this man is the divine power known as the great power. They followed him because he'd amazed them for a long time. It was magic. So in some way, shape or form, I don't know if he like modern day magicians had his own name. Simon, the great power, the divine power. I don't know if he named himself or that's what people in the village did. I don't know if he had a little booth of magic tricks and on the front of the booth is Simon, the great, and he does his magic tricks, but clearly He has been doing sorcery and magic for years. People have been coming amazed by him so much so that he is a he is a figure in the community. If you said Simon the Great or Simon the Sorcerer, they would have said, oh, yes, we all know who that is. We're amazed by him. We're awed by what this guy can do. This guy is an early church David Blaine. And yet. We have a transition here in verse 12, but it says when they that's the people of the town, when they not all of them, but some of them have come when they believe Philip as he preached the good news of the kingdom of God, the name of Jesus Christ. They were baptized, both men and women. And this as well is consistent with what we see at the beginning of Acts. People believe. They take upon themselves the sign of the new covenant, which is baptism. They identify themselves with Jesus Christ and now are added to the church. And we recognize there are no roles in the church that we know of. We don't know the list, but we recognize that the people were faithful to the church, being committed to the church. And in some way, shape or form, they were added to that number daily. That's what's happening here is the people are hearing the word. They're believing as they believe they're being baptized as they're baptized or being added to the church, both men and women. Verse 13, Simon himself believed and was baptized and he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles that he saw. And at this point in the story, we should be rejoicing. Here's a man doing magic tricks and what we would consider sorcery, black magic. He's amazing. The people, people of the town are hearing the message. They're seeing the signs. They're believing in him and being baptized. And now you've got this guy who was doing black magic now says, I want Jesus. And the same language that's used in verse 12 of the people that have believed in Jesus is the same language that's used of Simon. Simon believes and he is baptized. And now he follows Philip around. OK, and at this point, we should be ecstatic, excited, happy, elated and any other joyous word that you could throw in there for Simon and the rest of the town, because Jesus Christ has transformed a sorcerer into a believer. We should be excited about this. Verse 18 says when the apostles of Jerusalem heard that Samaritans accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. So here's Philip proclaiming the word. They hear that Samaritans are believing. And now Peter and John come down to the Samaritans. And when they arrived, they prayed for them, they might receive the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon them. They had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And then Peter and John placed their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. Now, verse 18, check this out. When Simon saw. So he's there, right? Peter and John come down. People have been baptized in the name of Jesus, but they've not in some way, shape or form, they've not received the Spirit, it says. We'll deal with it next week. So relax. Some way they've not received a spirit. Peter and John lay their hands on them. And there is Simon, the ex-sorcerer. Right. And he is watching what happens. And when Peter and John lay their hands on the people, the spirit of God come upon the people. And what does Simon say? I want to do that. I want to do that. So it says when Simon saw that the spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles hands, he He offered them money. He offered them money and said, give me also this ability so that everyone in whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. And Peter answered, may your money perish with you because you thought you could buy the gift of God. with money. You have no part or share in this ministry because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin. Now we have a difficulty. Now we've got a hitch in this story that Luke is telling us, this historical account that Luke is giving us. We read previously that Simon, the sorcerer had believed and been baptized. However, Peter is very adamantly clear in these last verses that Simon has no part or parcel of what is happening with the apostles ministry. Let's read that section again. Verse 21. You have no part or share in this ministry because your heart is not right before God. So with that said, We need to think about what salvation is and what happens in the process. OK, if you repent and believe in Jesus Christ, then by nature, by its very saying that you have repented and believed and have been saved, you have a part in the ministry of Jesus Christ. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Ephesians 4 is so crystal clear that every gift that God has given comes from God. It's used for the edification and building up of the church. And it says, as each part, each member does its work, the body is built up in unity of faith. So everybody that has received the Spirit has a part of Jesus Christ and a part of His ministry. When we think about the Great Commission that says, go and baptize and teach, it doesn't say all those that have a part should do that, but rather that's a command to all who have repented and believed and are following after Christ to go and tell about the glory and the kingdom of God with the gospel message that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. that He died on the cross according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He rose again according to the Scriptures. We must believe in Jesus Christ Himself. The only way it's not possible... Excuse me, that's a double negative, so I won't do that. Let's go back and say that again. The only way it is possible to not have a part in the ministry of Jesus Christ is to not be a true believer in Jesus Christ. Yet everything thus far in the story tells us, in verse 12, that people believed and were baptized. It appears that is genuine. And in verse 13, it appears, from verse 13, that is genuine, that they have believed, Simon's believed and been baptized, and yet we are told by the apostles that he does not have a part in the ministry of Jesus Christ. So this then begs us to look closer at who Simon is and what he is like. So let's do that. Simon is a sorcerer. He's a magician in the politest sense of the word. He has been a part of supernatural power as long as the Samaritans have known him. He is a fixed entity in that town. Everybody knows who he is. So he has seen and been involved with supernatural power. This is why I want to be very careful here. I am not saying that people cannot talk to the dead. We laughingly, okay, I laughingly, and maybe not you so laughingly, look at someone like John Edwards. Not Jonathan Edwards, the great theologian, but John Edwards, the talker to the dead guy. I look at him and I see that he is somehow, at least on the outside it appears, talking to people. And I was asked, do I believe that that actually happens? And I got to tell you, I'm not going to say that it doesn't. I'm not going to say that he doesn't talk to the dead. What I'm going to say is it's not from God. There's a big difference there. There's one thing that says it doesn't exist. That doesn't happen. He's just a faker. There's another thing that says he could be faking or he's using another power, but it's not God's. So I want to be careful not saying it doesn't happen. Here it appears that Simon's sorcery was real and that he's had supernatural influence and impact throughout the city of Samaria, the region of Samaria. So we want to be careful that we're not just saying that he's an illusionist. But he's actually a sorcerer. He's actually calling upon powers to help him perform miraculous signs. He was doing this before he ever heard Peter preach and before he ever heard the name Jesus Christ. OK, so he had power before then. This also means that he knew what real power, supernatural power was when he saw it. If he's already been associated with supernatural power, when he sees the real deal from God, he knows it. He knows this isn't some trick. It's not some illusion. It's not just black magic, if you want to call it that, although I want to be guarded in how we use that term. He knows it's real. He knows what supernatural power looks like. So when Philip comes to town and not only preaches the gospel, but performs signs of healings on parapolitics and cripples. When he casts out demons, Simon knows his power is real and that it is stronger than his power. He's not going around casting out demons or healing cripples. So Simon's question is, what do I do to get the power of Philippas? What is it going to take to receive the power of the spirit so that I can perform miraculous signs so that whenever I walk up to someone and lay my hands on them, they can receive the spirit. I mean, I'm pretty popular now, but can you imagine if I had the power of God so that when I laid my hands on someone, they received the power of the spirit. Do you realize how that could boost my business? As a matter of fact, I'm willing to pay you for the power. How much is it going to cost for you to cough up the power of the Holy Spirit? That's a big question. Clearly, the apostles recognized that the power of God is not for sale. It comes by a genuine change of the heart. Everyone receives the Spirit when they become a believer. Simon clearly has not received the Spirit at this point and is told already that he has no part in this ministry. This creates a huge problem for us when we read this text and we look at Simon and his belief. The object of Simon's belief is not Jesus. It's gifts. The object of Simon's belief is not Jesus. It's supernatural power. It's the casting out of demons. It's the healing of people. He looks at Philip and he says, I believe. I believe that you have power to cast out demons, I believe, I believe that you can heal, heal cripples and paralytics. Not, I believe that Jesus Christ, the son of God, died on the cross, rose again on the third day. That's not what he believes. He believes that Philip has power and he wants that power. Philip has done a real miracle. Philip has performed a real thing in front of Simon, and so have Peter and John. But the glory of Jesus Christ, the glory of the Son of God who was crucified for sinners, who was risen in power and is reigning over humble and holy people, that is not the object of Simon's faith. Therefore, his faith is not true saving faith. He's not a true believer. He believes that he is. He says he believed and he took the sign of being a believer, but he's proving himself to be a liar. And you may say, well, Kevin, you've really taken a lot of liberty with this text. What makes you so sure that he didn't truly believe in? We're just talking about a backslidden condition here. This is where church history is a great help to us. This is where we can look at early church history, specifically not only the apostles, but we also and not only the biblical literature, but we also look at the church fathers. And we ask them for help in understanding what is happening in this text. And we and we look to the reformers and we say, help us to understand this text. And we look to the Puritans. We ask them, please help us to understand this text. And by and large, the overwhelming majority, I would clearly say 90 percent of the understanding of this text from the first century till now has been Simon is not a believer. I want to read you just a few things. Justin Martyr, he was in 165, or the 100s, almost to the 200s, there in that first century, second century. And we find from him and Irenaeus about the same time, we find that after this episode with Philip and the apostles, Simon becomes an arch enemy of the church and he begins to be a leader and a proponent of the Gnostic heresies. Gnosticism teaches a lot of things and it's hard to pin down. Gnosticism is much like post-modernity. Post-modernism is hard to pin down on exactly what they believe because they're kind of like a little ball of mercury. You say, aha, you believe this and you press down on it and it kind of squirts out and now it's over here. And in many ways, Gnosticism was very much that way. But one thing they had in common was that a person gained salvation not by the merits of Christ atoning death on the cross for sinners, but by a secret knowledge about God. It's very platonic in its origins. So when you look at the Gnostic heresies, he becomes a major teacher and a proponent of the Gnostics. And yet he goes out and away from them, away from the true church. And he says to the apostles, Jesus Christ is not the only way to get to heaven. Sure, he's one way, but the real way to get to heaven is by having a secret knowledge about God. If I can understand something mysterious, if I can reach that upper level in my mind, if I can get out of an out of body experience and really understand God on a supernatural level, that's where salvation lies. If we know that He's teaching these heresies directly after the apostles have met with Him, tried to correct Him, told Him, repent and believe, then we can assume that these things were in His mind as He's doing this. As He's looking at this, that He's going to the apostles saying, I realize you're teaching faith in Jesus Christ. I'm not so much about that. I'm looking for a secret knowledge of God, but I will say this. I will take the power of the Holy Spirit. If you can give me the power of the Holy Spirit and stop the Jesus Christ is the only way thing, Then we've got something to talk about. Because he becomes the major leader and proponent and arch enemy of the church who would teach salvation is only through Jesus Christ. That's very helpful for us to know as we approach this text, the history of Simon and where he lands on his theological landscape. Let's recount this again in verse 12. We have a contrast between people believing the message of being baptized, identifying themselves as true believers and the same exact language in the same context. It says Simon. Believe it was baptized, but Simon is not a true believer. Instead, he is believing in the signs and wonders of Jesus Christ. I take this to mean that Simon is not truly converted. He's not a true believer. He has no part or no share in the matter of Christianity. His heart is not right with God. He's not trusting Christ for salvation. He still needs to repent. He's still enslaved to bitterness and sin, it tells us in verse 24. He is not yet converted, although from everything external, he says that he is. I want to be careful here. The apostles, are given something from God that we don't have. At this point, they are able to see the heart of Simon. I cannot see your heart. This passage is not condoning, nor is it encouraging, that I or you, to me, would be going around trying to establish whether you believe someone is a true believer or not. That is not what's happening here. What we would expect in our church is that if you have professed faith in Jesus Christ and you have taken baptism as a sign of the covenant, then we would hold you to following what the Word of God says and we would discipline or train you for righteousness where I or you are not living according to the Word of God. I would not assume that you are not a believer unless to every loving and righteous attempt to bring you back to the gospel that you would say, I will not repent of my sin. I want nothing to do with Christ and nothing to do with his church. Then the Bible tells us that we are to turn people out of the church, to remove them from the church and pray for them that they would come back, love them to a new relationship in Christ. It is only then that we could say, you went out from us, you left us so that you were not really a part of us. First, John tells us is not for us to judge whether people are a part or not. But here we have a unique circumstance where God opened up the heart, opened up the eyes of the apostles to the heart of Simon and says, you cannot buy this. You are not a part of us. They could not have known that any other way. This is kind of scary. that we would see that there is a faith, there is a believing that does not save. There is a faith and a believing that does not save, even in the midst of true preaching and true exercise of spiritual gifts. There is a believing and a faith that does not save, even though you're surrounded by the gospel. That's kind of a scary thought. However, the same type of faith can be seen by the same author in Luke, chapter eight, and if you just keep your finger in action, flip back to Luke eight. Remember, if I can just recount historically how the books were written by Luke. When Luke sat down to write a book, he did not write Luke. And then later on say, oh, I should write acts. But rather Luke sat down and he penned one book. When the books began to circulate around to the early churches, they removed acts. The last half of the first of two volumes of Luke, if I can say it that way. And they said, this one goes with the Gospels. And we're going to circulate the Gospels all together because they recount the same stories. And we're going to take off the back half of Luke and we're going to call it Acts. And we're going to put it as a historical book to recount what happens at the beginning of the church. That was not how Luke wrote it. So we have to keep in mind that when we read Luke, we can read Acts right along with it and take Luke's thought and impose them upon the text in Acts. He's writing in one volume the same thoughts. I am nearly convinced. Although not 100 percent, Luke must have had in his mind as he wrote this history and he looked at the four soils that are in Luke chapter eight. Clearly, his mind must have possibly gone back to Simon, the sorcerer, as he looks back and he's writing this book and he's recounting what's happened in the early church. I'm hopeful that Luke is thinking when he talks about Simon, the sorcerer of the second soul, that's soil that's found in Luke chapter eight, verse 13. Remember, he's recounting what's happening to a farmer. A farmer goes out into his field and he begins to to sow his crops and he's throwing seed out on the field, right? He's recounting how all seed falls, but not all of it falls on the same type of ground. Look at the second soil that we find in Luke chapter 8, verse 13. Jesus describes the second soil like this. Those, that means the seeds, those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy. And when they hear it, excuse me, those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing, they fall away. Think about this, I'm going to read it one more time. Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing, they fall away. And if we were to go to the end of this, we find out that the first three soils that he mentions are not believers. It's only the Word that has taken root in the good soil that springs up and it perseveres is the one that truly believes in Jesus Christ and truly holds fast. And so here we have Luke talking about someone just like in Acts chapter 8, it says, when Philip preached, the town received the Word with joy. And so did Simon, because he's a part of the town. But Simon falls on a rock, and he's got no root, and he's not trusting in Christ. His belief is fake. It's trusting in the wrong thing. It's at least misled. And he falls away. This faith is not real saving faith. It's the same thing that Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 1 and 2. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, 1, now brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand by this gospel. You are saved if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. What he's saying is if you trust another gospel other than the fact of Jesus Christ himself, then what you're trusting in doesn't save, and therefore, because it doesn't save, you're believing in vain. You're not believing in Jesus Christ. You're trusting in other things, and other things don't save. There is such a thing as believing in vain, Paul tells us. James calls it a barren faith or a dead faith in James chapter 2, verses 20 and 26. So it's my conclusion in this Acts chapter 8 passage that Simon's faith, his believing that is described in verse 13, is clearly counteracted by the apostles' account in the later verses and is not saving faith at all, but is a false faith, a dead faith, a barren faith. It's an empty faith. You know what I love about Luke though? He never leaves people hopeless. He never leaves people to wallow in their sin. He's constantly giving them hope, just like at the end of chapter seven. You would think because he indicted the Israelites and said, you've been unfaithful. God's been faithful. You would think he said, now God's going to wipe you out. But instead he says, so repent and turn to Jesus. This shouldn't be hopeless. This should be hopeful because you've been unfaithful and God is faithful. You can trust him. Turn to him. That's exactly what Luke does here in chapter 8, verse 24. He tells them, listen. No, I'm sorry. In verse 22, he says, listen, I have a solution, Simon, to your desperate situation. Verse 22, repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Simon, you want to be saved? You want to be saved from your sin? You want to receive the power of the Holy Spirit? Then you must believe in Jesus Christ. and Jesus Christ alone. And if you will repent and believe, you will be saved. Turn to Him. Believe in Him. Pray to God for His grace and repent. Repent of your sin. Believe in Jesus Christ for your salvation. You know what? I think God says that to unbelievers today. God says that right here this morning to us. If you're trusting in something other than Jesus Christ to obtain Jesus, And thereby, obtaining Jesus means that you will obtain everlasting life with Him. If you're trusting in something else, repent and believe in Jesus Christ alone, and He will save you. But I think that when we come to passages like this as believers, and we hear this, we tend to go, yeah, that message really didn't apply to me today, because I totally believe in Jesus, so this really doesn't have much bearing on my life. If I can say most of the book of Hebrews is a challenge to them, to believers, to stay faithful, to persevere to the end. He's running to believers and he doesn't feel that this is a waste of his time. The author of Hebrews, he writes multiple chapters on remaining faithful, staying true. So we read in Hebrews chapter four, verses one and two. Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands." Now, he's talking about new heaven, new earth, new Jerusalem, okay? And he's saying, listen, the promise of entering the Sabbath rest, the new heaven, new earth, new Jerusalem still stands. It's still a promise that God has yet to fulfill. He says to the Hebrews, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had a gospel preached to us, just as they did." When he says they, he means Israelites in the Old Testament. He's saying they had the gospel preached to them and we have had the gospel preached to us. But the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard it did not combine it with faith. This should be a challenge to us. God still holds out that he's going to save us. He's not only going to redeem us, but all of creation he's going to redeem. We both groan. The earth groaned and we groaned for final redemption. And that's very true. God is going to redeem us. And he says, I want you to make sure, though, that you don't fall away. I wanted you to make sure, though, that you're hearing the message and believing it. Because he says, I want you to remember something. There was a whole generation of people, 20 and older, who wandered out in the wilderness, away from Egyptian slavery. And God said, here is my message. I am your God. I am one God. And I want you to teach that to your children. And I want you to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. And he writes down for them these ten commandments. And really, it's a protection of our love for him. And he says, I love you so much. And I am your husband and you are my bride. That when I write, don't have any other gods before me, what I mean is, I love you so much. Don't run out into the world and find another lover. And I love you so much that I don't want you to obtain any pictures or any sculptures or any art or any remaking of your other lover's images. Because I am your God and I love you. And you are not going to obtain idols that say you love someone else. And I love you so much, I'm going to set a day aside just for us so that we as lovers can walk hand in hand and I will focus my love upon you and you will worship me as your God. Over and over and over, God recounts his love for us and he cries out for us to be faithful to him. And he said, these people that heard my love message and were told to believe in me, All those 20 and older did not, and they perished in the desert and they did not experience eternal life because they did not believe, although they heard the message. You know what he says to Christians today? People who are to be believing in God don't be like Israel, who said that they believed, who went through all the motions of saying that they believe, who walked through all the hoops of the laws of being a believer. Yet in faith, they never did believe. I think that should speak powerfully to us. This is not a waste of our time to spend time talking about a man who said that he believed, took the sign of baptism as a believer and found out that he was no believer at all. Indeed, he led a whole heretical group away from the true church and never, ever came back to faith in Jesus Christ. What does that say to us this morning? I think it says to unbelievers, please repent and believe. We beg of you to believe the believers. It says, make sure if you're calling an election to believers, it says, call upon Jesus Christ and believe his message. And by belief, We recognize that true belief will work itself out in actions of loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and loving our neighbors as ourselves. Let us throw ourselves on the grace of God this morning that we might persevere in our faith, not just hearing the message this morning, but believing it. Let's pray. God, you are a great God and worthy to be praised as we get ready even now to sing again of your greatness. I pray that we would hunger after you. That you would teach us what it means to truly believe in you. It is not believing in the powerful signs that you give. It is not believing in the immense spiritual gifts that you have lavished on your church. It is not believing in attendance. It is not believing in showing up. It is belief in your son, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross and rose again the third day, according to the scriptures, and now lives in us to act and to will according to his good pleasures. Help us to live in that way. And God, if there is someone here that has not experienced your salvation grace this morning, lavish it on them, draw them to yourself, cause them to believe. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.