Well, good evening. Please turn, if you would please, in God's holy Word to Acts chapter 8. Acts chapter 8, verses 14 through 25, and I'm going to back up a little bit for a little context. And you'll find this on page 916 in your pew Bible. Acts chapter 8, 14 through 25. We'll start in verse nine for context. And really the preach pericope can more properly be defined as 18 through 25 in retrospect, but we'll touch on that when we come to it. So back for context. But there was a man named Simon who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great. They all paid attention to him from the least to the greatest, saying, this man is the power of God that is called great. And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic. But when they believed Philip as he preached the good news about the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Even Simon himself believed. And after being baptized, he continued with Philip, and seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed. Now when the apostles at Jerusalem had heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them. but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit." In our preach portion. Now, when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles hands, he offered the money saying, give me this power also so that anyone on whom I lay my hands might receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter said to him, may your silver perish with you because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money. You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and the bind of iniquity." Simon answered, "'Pray to me, to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me. Now, when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans. Let us pray. Lord God, we do thank you that your gospel goes forth, that it produces fruit. Oh Lord, and indeed, oh Lord, it is profitable for our salvation to birth love for you in our hearts. And yet Lord, we also know that There will be tears amongst the wheat, and you teach us how to deal with them and to recognize them and to search our hearts lest we ourselves be deceived. We thank you for your word. We pray that you would meet with us tonight, that you would guide me as I preach it, that you would open the ears and hearts of the hearers. And Lord, if there's anyone here who does not know you, may he be moved by your spirit to confess faith in the Savior. And Lord, also for those of us here that do know you, may we grow and profit by all that is taught, and may we leave this meeting as a result, loving you more dearly and nearly. We do pray these things with gratitude to you in our hearts. In Jesus' name, amen. I don't know about you, but have you ever heard or encountered someone who has been used? Maybe you've been used yourself. I'm thinking about this right now because I have a dear friend of mine, former co-worker, who was dating a woman for years. And it's grieving my heart to learn that when he encountered financial trouble, she left him. And he feels that he's been abused by a narcissistic personality. And it's grieving his heart terribly. Using is a terrible thing. You use a person just for what they can give you, not with any love for that person themselves or any care or concern, but just for what services, what companionship perhaps, but not any fundamental love for their very selves. Well, I'm sad to say that this text this evening deals with such a tragic case that's similar. Not that God can be used because ultimately, God cannot be diminished. He is complete and whole in and of Himself. But in a sense, we can use God. The unregenerate often do that, using God for His gifts, using Him for what He offers, rather than loving Him Himself. And that's what's in view before us tonight about the unsaved, their plight, their predicament, and yet the remedy that can be given them in Jesus Christ. And that leads me to the main point this evening is that the unsaved pervert the gospel for profit, and yet they are in bitter bondage to their sins. And yet even they too may believe the gospel and be saved. The unsaved pervert the gospel for profit and are in bitter bondage to their sins, yet even they may believe the gospel. and be saved in Jesus Christ. We'll see this in three main sub-points here. The unsaved pervert the gospel for profit in verses 18-21. Then we'll also see that the unsaved are in bitter bondage to their sins, verses 23. And then lastly, we will see that the unsaved can repent and believe in Jesus Christ. And that is in verses 22-24. So let's go back to the beginning here. First of all, verse 18, we have, Simon the magician saw that the Spirit was given to the laying on of the apostles' hands. He offered them money saying, give me this power also so that anyone on whom I lay my hands might receive the Holy Spirit. Simon, we saw earlier that Simon was a magician. Basically, Christian tradition will call him Simon Magus, meaning one who practices magic and earns a living out of sorcery. And this is not just any sleight-of-hand magic tricks that you often see today, just illusion. This is a service of the dark and demonic powers. And employing those powers for self-gain, for profit, and What's even more damnable about it is that it employs these demonic powers to entrap and to deceive souls. Again, legitimate trade can be had with a prophet motive, but in the spiritual world, it is very dangerous, and much more so if one is dabbling in the demonic. And at root of dealing in sorcery And making a profit off of the work of demons is self-aggrandizement. It is being self-centered. For instance, they follow Simon around, this man is the power of God who is called great. The power of God who was called great. Some people say it was a proto-Gnostic group, that this man had some sort of self-actualized power. They proclaimed Simon to be as such. And even Justin Martyr, you hear him talking about that there was even a statue in Rome, where basically of Simon Magus. And it basically said something to the effect of Simon Sancto Deo. This man not only claimed to have power from the false gods, but he even claimed to be a god, some say. And the very fact that it says that He claimed to be somebody great. If you claim to be somebody great, it's best to watch out lest you fall. Because none of us is great in and of themselves. Even Jesus said, why do you call me good? As if to show us no one is good but God alone. We're not great in and of themselves. Right when we claim that, we're precisely delusional. But this man, was all about the amazement, the wow factor, impressing him with his power, and he even seemed to repent and believe. It says that he believed and was baptized and continued with Philip for a time. And ultimately, in the context, it would be that he seemed to believe. And he was a false believer, and I'll explain what this means here going on. And that is because in the very text verse that I read, Simon offered them money for the power of the Spirit. Because previously, you see, he had worked, earning his trade from sorcery, turning a buck, as we say in America, from doing spiritual works. And being amazed by it, he was really more about the externals, more about seeing how he could follow Philip around and turn a buck. He was self-deceived. He believed, you see, only with an imperfect belief, which is no belief at all, but that so might he might continue his trade under the cloak of Christianity, having the appearance of really being converted. But ultimately, he was only about himself. The verse that says, give me this power. Give me this power. Think about the self-centered approach there. And ultimately, Peter rebukes him. What does he say? He says, may your silver perish with you because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money. You thought you could obtain the Holy Spirit with money. And what's wrong with that? Well, we know in Ephesians 2 that salvation is the gift of God. It's not of works that we do, lest any man should boast." And receiving the Holy Spirit, Jesus tells us that if we ask the Father for the Spirit, will He give us a snake or a stone? No, He will not. How much more will the Father give His Spirit to those who ask of Him? It is a gift. Because if Simon were truly awakened, if he were truly regenerated, he would have known that his heart was black, that his bondage to magic and to power working, claiming to be great, was an illusion. Because the knowledge of Christ and of the gospel lets us know that ourselves and our hearts are black and that we need a Savior to free us from that bondage. to free us from ourselves, it's to be empty of ourselves, it's to take up our cross and follow Jesus knowing that only He has the capacity to save our souls and to fill us and to truly give us power to love and to serve Him. Peter condemned Simon because you cannot buy the gift of God. And he said that may he perish because in his sins, In a sense, using God for profit motives, again, in a sense using God. He's perishing. He loves the gifts of God more than the giver. And that's what's in danger here. He says that you have neither part nor lot in this matter later on because your heart is not right with God. You have neither part nor lot in this matter. It's meaning not only that you have no part or lot in the ministry of serving and proclaiming the gospel that people might receive the Holy Spirit, but also you have no part or lot in salvation at all. That is what is going on here. And so we see here that this is a case that's often true. Using Christ and following Him for profit is in the case of Judas Iscariot. He followed Jesus and used to help himself to some of the money that was in the money bag. He didn't care about the poor. He didn't care about the Savior of the poor. That much was at stake here. And lest you think this is just about gross iniquity and sorcery and doing things like Judas, The presence of following Jesus for profit is much more subtle in our day. And here's what I mean by that. We have a whole host of ministries where people go from conference to conference about getting more power for health or wealth or prosperity. They go from teacher to teacher trying to find ways to leave their problems, but ultimately you hear these false teachers talk about Jesus as a sort of power. They almost make them out to be more of an Eastern mystic, and they pervert the gospel into this sort of… these sort of pseudo-miracle-working, or I would say even demonic manifestations. And so all of these things are dangerous. And what often happens is people wind up going to church, and when they don't get what they want, the spiritual benefits, out of Christ, they deceive their hearts into thinking they're converted. And when they don't get that benefit, they leave off the things of church altogether. They even lay off attending the camps of the false teachers. And as soon as they don't get what they want, they're out the door. That's a dangerous spot. And so you see how It's really how we can deceive ourselves. We think that we're in God's presence. We think that we love Him, but we really don't, and we're just using what He gives us. And that's the danger there. Prosperity gospel, any number of these ministries that promote it. And so the key thing is, if your deepest motive Think about this, if your deepest motive is yourself and not God, you are not saved. The first question of the shorter catechism, what is the chief end of man? It's to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. One of the five solas is only the glory of God, soli deo gloria, meaning that if we're saved, the principle within us will be that for the glory of God. It will be that which animates us and not the self. Now don't get me wrong, the saved because the flesh lusts against the Spirit, we ourselves can still struggle with self-seeking even after we're saved, even when we're changed from the heart. That old nature can creep in there. And like King Uzziah, he wanted to go and offer sacrifice in the temple beyond his area. He wanted some more glory. Well, I'm here to say that although our hearts may be changed, we may love Jesus for His sake and not for what He can give us for profit, we can still fight that nature of seeking ourselves because why else would Peter tell us to humble ourselves before the Lord and He will exalt us in due time? That's less we get too full of ourselves. And it's easy to do that. We see something we want, and we can't get it. We think we ought to make more progress, even in the things of God or in the church. We ought to be an officer. We ought to be so forth and so on. And yet we can't get it. We covet it. We desire it. We try to obtain it, as James warns us against. And that trap of self-seeking and self-aggrandizement can slip into our hearts. And it's something that we have to ask the Lord. to root out of us, to help us deal with, to forgive us. And in a sense, we have to watch the profit motive even of ourselves, using people and not taking time to love them when they don't give us what we want in return. We've all perhaps been guilty of that for a season. We have to ask the Lord for forgiveness, not to use our gospel freedom for perversion. So if we see this, we also see the second main sub-point, that the unsaved are in bondage to their sins. The unsaved are in bondage to their sins. And where do I get this? Well, basically, Peter tells Simon in verse 23, for I see that you were in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. That's what sin is, being unregenerate, that is, in sin. And where does this come from? Well, it comes from Deuteronomy chapter 29 verses 19 through 20, and I'm going to read that because in this case it speaks for itself. Deuteronomy 29 verses…actually verse 18…19 actually. So, beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, one who when he hears the words of the sworn covenant… blesses himself in his heart saying, I will be safe. Though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart, this will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike. The Lord will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord and his jealousy will smoke against him, that man, and the curses written on his book will settle upon him and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven. Take care lest there be a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit that's self-centered." Sounds familiar. Stubborn in its own way, saying, I'll be secure. That's what Simon was doing. He was stubborn in his own ways. And that's what is at the root of being in the gall of bitterness. It is a poisonous fruit that defiles your character. It is so bitter, turning on itself and its own pain and self-centeredness that it does not embrace the gospel. It is in darkness. It's tied to hardness of heart. When the author of Hebrews says, take care that there be no root of bitterness that many may become defiled. Take care, in Hebrews 4, unless you harden your heart and do not enter my rest. Do not enter his rest, as Jesus would say. Because if you are full of yourself, you are empty of God. And the carnal mind being so full of itself, being so self-absorbed, being hardened and shutting it out, you know, Augustine said the nature of sin is being turned in on yourself. The carnal mind is at enmity with God because in a sense your heart is hard and you are butting up against Him. You are kicking against the pricks or the goats, as Saul said. That is what you are doing. And also, too, the heart is so hard, the mind that is hard, the heart that is hard is set on the flesh. It is hostile to God. It cannot submit to His laws. That's what being in the gall of bitterness is about. It's being so self-absorbed that if anyone stands in your way, just like the Pharisees when Jesus stood in His way, they wanted Him gone or dead because they loved their own inner selves. They loved their motives. They loved their glory. They loved their stubbornness. And that's a bitter place to be, that you hate others who oppose you because you want your own way so badly. And then also the bond of iniquity, that Simon Magus was in the bond of iniquity. He is a slave to sin, as Romans chapter 6 says. He has not been set free from the heart. He's in its bondage and servitude, and it's like Paul also says of his own walk when he was pre-walked with Christ when he was unregenerate, that when he heard God's law, God's law aroused passions within him where his mind did not want to obey it. Basically, it birthed iniquity in him. He read God's law, and he did not want to obey it. It birthed rebellion until he was changed. It made him want to rebel. It's not just reverse psychology, it's the principle within our hearts, the rebellious nature, it's spiritual. No matter how people that are unbelievers define it, it's dangerous. And being in that bonds of iniquity where the children, people who that way are the children of their father, the devil. If that's your nature, then you're the devil's child, you're in his bonds, not in the freedom of the gospel. And so, if you are unsaved, you are in this kind of bondage, this bitter, churning mess of the heart. And so much so, you're about your own agendas. You don't see the sacrifice of Jesus. It's as if to see Him on the cross in the Scriptures, groaning there. You are more in the realm of mocking Him and trying to scorn Him. If you may not think you would mock Jesus if He was here, you think, well, there's Jesus carrying lambs on His shoulder. Why would I want to do that to Him? Well, just wait until your ways are crossed and then see what you do. You might not think you have anything against Jesus, but you may, just like the nature of being in that bitterness. You would rather He and His law be gone than serve Him. You know, here I was thinking of a film we watched in Divinity School, and it was Salieri was so jealous of Mozart's gifts that he, of course, we're not Catholic, we don't use crucifixes, but he threw the crucifix in the trash and said, you have mocked me, I want nothing to do with you. That's the nature of what it is. We see Jesus being good Protestants, not making images of Christ, of course, but bleeding on a tree in the scriptures, and it's just, if you're unsaved, you don't care. And the question I ask you, do you care? Do you care about Jesus bleeding? Because that is the heart of a person sensitive to the gospel. Does your heart behold the bleeding Christ, and are you moved to love Him because He's given Himself for you? And that leads me to the third made-sum point is that the unsaved – there's good news here. If you're in this bondage, the unsaved can repent. and believe in Jesus Christ. That's the good news, can repent and be saved through Jesus Christ. The perfect good news of the gospel, that though your lot be this black, there is hope for you, there is life for you. First of all, the word repent, this goes back into verse 22, back to our text here. So when Simon receives this rebuke that his silver and gold would perish with him, Peter says to this, repent therefore of this wickedness of yours and pray to the Lord that if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. Repent of this wickedness of yours, repentance, the Greek metanoia, it means a changing of the mind activated by the Holy Spirit that leads to a change of action, a change of the mind that leads to a change in action. And chiefly in the changing of the mind, it is the changing of the carnal mind by the power of the Holy Spirit that is with enmity to God and to a mind that loves God. You know, in Ezekiel 36 it talks about you will be caused to walk in God's commandments by virtue of the new birth. And chiefly in the changing of the mind is the change of the heart because Peter says, repent therefore of this wickedness and pray to the Lord that the intent of your heart may be given you. For it's not just a change of the mind devoid of heart, it's a change of the heart and the mind. The two work together. The heart's passions are renewed, not for the things that are unholy, but they're moved to love and adore Jesus Christ. When He says, He will sprinkle clean water on you, and from all your idols I will cleanse you, in Ezekiel 36. When you see this, that means it refers to a change of the intent of the heart. So repentance is a change of the intent of the heart that Jesus can give you. And of course, That leads to also a change of action, to where in the gospel of Luke when they ask John what they must do to find repentance, you know, be content with your wages, be satisfied. Do works befitting repentance that comes from that. That's what he is asked. So that's how he answers. And then also, too, Pray if possible that the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. If possible refers to perhaps those who are reprobates like Pharaoh or Esau who have so hardened their hearts that they cannot repent. But in this particular case, Simon Magus, what does he see? What does he do? After receiving this warning, he says, pray for me to the Lord that nothing of what you have said may come upon me. Pray to me for the Lord, pray to the Lord for me that nothing of what you have said may come upon me." He hears the message. He takes the warning seriously, and he wants to find repentance and salvation. And that much is true. And in wanting to fly from the wrath to come, we have this hope in John 6, 37, that all that the Father gives to me will come to me, and he who comes to me I will in no wise cast out, or he who comes to me I will never drive away. That is the joy of the gospel, that if Simon but come to Jesus, he will receive Him. Come to Him on His terms. dying to himself, turning from sin, and turning to Him who has the power to free him from that sin, to free him from that profit motive. Salvation can be Simon Magus' as well. And so, I'm here to ask you now, has the intent of your heart been changed. Have you repented? Has Jesus changed your heart and mind to love Him for His sake? Not for anything He may give you, but because when I spoke of Jesus bleeding on that tree, when you behold Him, you see what He is willing to do for you, you say, what love is this? Tis love, tis love that died for me. I think of the hymn that says, Do you see that? And are you willing to embrace it? And if you are willing, He will save you, and He will change your heart. And again, it's not just about the externals. We live in a day today where so much is focused on the externals, even this dangerous revoice movement where the heart of people is unchecked. They claim as long as they abstain from the external acts of homosexuality, but their hearts are not being changed. Where's the principle of the heart? That's what repentance concerns. The Sermon on the Mount teaches us that. It's to bring us to the end of ourselves and to bring us to the fullness of the Savior because the good news of the gospel is if you're weary and heavy laden in that bondage, you will find liberation. And so wherever you are in conclusion, repentance and salvation can be received by the unsaved. Those who are in bondage to self and profit. and they can be liberated. And so won't you believe in the gospel tonight? Won't you believe in the Lord Jesus who came to proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening of the prison to those who are bound? He said, come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. And to take his lighter yoke upon you, his lighter yoke that though it involves service of him, it's a freedom in that service. It's a freedom and a joy to love him and his glory. We used to begin our services with the printing in the bulletin. He has filled the hungry with good things, but He has sent the rich away empty. What will you be taking home from worship today? And that's where salvation begins, is recognizing that you were rich, you were not, but you can be full and have eternal life by believing in His name. That is the nature of it. And seeing that Jesus' glory, His glory and His beauty transcends any kind of selfish end we get in this world, any kind of pop, any kind of money, any kind of earthly prize. That is the joy and glory of the gospel, beholding His beauty, His peace that He brings to our soul, and His loving nature. And that love moves us to obedience. And that love gives us salvation. So won't you repent and believe that good news? and be saved. Amen. Let's pray. Lord God, we do find the joy of You that You give us in Christ. We do find that walking in You, we have peace of conscience, and we have joy in Your glory that transcends all. Help us to live into that. If we be believers, often, Lord, we can lose sight of that glory and seek selfish motives. Preserve us from self-seeking and instead help us to decrease, and may You increase in our lives, O Lord, that we may live into the fullness of You who have called us, that we may rejoice in You and Your gospel liberty in all things. We do pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.