WWUTT 1058 Simon the Magician?

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Can a person be baptized and then become a genuine believer? And how do we respond to somebody who says that you have to be baptized in order to receive the

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Holy Spirit? We will consider some of those things today when we understand the text.

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This is when we understand the text studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

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Find all our videos online at www .wutt .com as well as links to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you Becky. We come back to our study of the book of Acts chapter 8 and I'm going to start reading in verse 4 where we left off yesterday and go through verse 25.

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Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the

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Christ. And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him and saw the signs that he did.

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For unclean spirits crying out with a loud voice came out of many who had them. And many who were paralyzed or lame were healed.

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So there was much joy in that city. 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.

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They all paid attention to him from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the power of God that is called

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Great. And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic.

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But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

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Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized, he continued with Philip, and seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed.

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Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them

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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

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Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

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Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, saying,

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Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the

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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.

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You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God.

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Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord, that if possible the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.

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For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. And Simon answered,

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Pray for 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

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Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the

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Samaritans. So Philip is continuing in the work that Stephen had laid the foundation for.

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Philip, like Stephen, is a Hellenist, and so he goes out even from Jerusalem and from Judea into the land of Samaria to share the gospel there.

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Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. We have in verse four, Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the

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Christ. Now that might look a little unusual because we think, wait, I thought Samaria was a land or a territory.

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It wasn't a city. Well first it was a city. That's where the name

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Samaria had come from. It wasn't describing a land. First it was a city. The capital city was

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Samaria, and it was built by Omri, one of Israel's kings talked about in 1

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Kings 16. He had bought a hill, the hill of Samaria from Shemar for two talents of silver, and he fortified the hill and called the name of the city that he built

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Samaria after the name of Shemar, the owner of the hill. That's in 1 Kings 16.

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Now that city stood for about 100 years before the

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Assyrians came in and destroyed it. But in the approximate location, another city was built, and that city would have been the city of Sabaist, and that's likely where it was that Philip had gone.

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So it's called Samaria because that was the location of the city that Samaria once was, but the name of it now is

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Sabaist, and it's not the capital city that it used to be. When Omri built it, he built it to be the capital of Israel, but it's not that anymore.

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It's very large, influential city, probably the largest city in Samaria, but not the capital.

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The Samaritans believed that a Messiah was going to come as well. But they did not believe in the same

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Jewish scriptures. They had the Pentateuch, the first five books, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

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But then they did not pay attention to any of the other prophets that came after that. And Jesus actually talked about that with the

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Samaritan woman at the well in John chapter four. He says, you believe what you do not know.

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We believe what we know because salvation comes from the Jews. This is

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Jesus saying that if you follow along with what the other apostles are, I'm sorry, what the other prophets are saying, they testified to the

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Messiah coming from Judah. But the Samaritans didn't believe that they thought that a different Messiah was going to come that wasn't going to be from the

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Jews. But the place where he was going to establish his kingdom was going to be Mount Gerizim. So that's where the

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Samaritans worshipped from, whereas the Jews worshipped on Mount Moriah.

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That's where the temple was built. So a foundation had been laid for the Samaritans to believe that a

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Messiah was coming. They at least believed that much, though they didn't believe the Jewish scriptures and they weren't looking for a

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Jewish Messiah. But Philip comes in preaching about that Messiah, just as Jesus had even done so in Samaria.

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Philip is saying Jesus is that Messiah. And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him and saw the great signs that he did.

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So he's showing miraculous signs, verifying that the message that he was preaching truly came from God.

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This is verse seven. For unclean spirits crying out with a loud voice came out of many who had them and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed.

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So there was much joy in that city. People are being healed.

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The gospel is being proclaimed. People are believing it. Now, I want to put an asterisk on that, though.

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People are believing it. Asterisk. We're going to come to that here in just a moment. But there was a man named

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Simon, verse nine, who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people in Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great.

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He called himself the Great One. That was the name that Simon had for himself and pretty common for a magician to title themselves something like that.

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Even today, if you go to Vegas and watch a magic show, it's probably

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David Copperfield, the Great One. I don't think he called himself that, but something to that effect.

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And we read about another magician coming up a little bit later on. His name was

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Bar Jesus, the magician. And a little bit more is said about him practicing demonic and magic arts.

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And Paul rebuked him and said that he had a demon. It wouldn't have been too much different than Simon and what

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Simon did. Oftentimes, there were magic incantations involved. He probably wore amulets or some sort of magic symbols.

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He had potions that he would use. Some of it was kind of trickery, but there probably was some demonic influence also.

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There may have been the power of some demonic spirit that allowed him to do some of the miraculous looking things that he did.

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And we know that demons at this particular time were giving power to certain people.

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For we read about a ventriloquist a little bit later on who was following Paul, and he turns around and rebukes her.

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That was at Philippi. And then the ventriloquist spirit was cast out of her and her ability to tell the future was gone.

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So these demonic spirits could even sometimes give a power of divination, the ability to tell the future.

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Now, it's not that the future that they would tell would necessarily be the truth because Satan is the father of lies, but there would still be something about it that would convince the people that something supernatural was going on.

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And indeed, there would have been a demonic power behind it. So that's just a little bit something about about how is it going to say musicians about magicians like Simon and the people thought he was great.

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It even goes on to say that they all paid attention to him from the least to the greatest saying this man is the power of God that is called great.

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The Samaritans believed a lot of things were the power of God that were not. They had a very syncretism sort of religion going on.

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Like I like I said, they had the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. But then they had all other kinds of strange other writings that were pulled from a plethora of pagan beliefs, which is why they would look at a magician and think that the power of God was upon him.

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Only somebody who was blessed by God would be able to do the incredible things that he did.

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There probably was some illusion involved in this. Like today, a magician is not really a magician.

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They're an illusionist. There probably was some illusion involved, but there was also magic, magical powers influenced by demons.

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So going on to verse 11, and they paid attention to him because he for a long time had amazed them with his magic.

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But when they believed Philip, as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

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Now, this is where I put an asterisk in the statement that Philip was preaching and there was much joy in the city.

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And here it says they believed and they were baptized. But the providential hand of God, this is a very unique case.

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This story that we're reading here in Acts chapter eight, by the providence of God, he was withholding from them a certain outpouring of the

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Holy Spirit. And I don't know if this means that their hearts weren't regenerated, if maybe it only looked like they were believing there was some sort of external belief, just like Samaritans would believe something like this because they were a syncretism culture.

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It's had all kinds of religions that were mixed together. So this was just the latest thing it had at the very least attracted their attention.

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God was indeed showing that the word that was being proclaimed to him was from him with the miraculous signs that were being performed.

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But was there still some kind of veil over their heart that he had not allowed to be lifted yet until the apostles came to them?

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Because that's what happens next. And the apostles lay hands on them and then they receive the

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Holy Spirit. So I'll talk about that as we keep going here. Verse 13, even

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Simon himself believed. So it says he believes and he was baptized.

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And after being baptized, he continued with Philip and seeing signs of great miracles performed.

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He was amazed. But as is going to be demonstrated as we go on in the story here, Simon's belief was not genuine.

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There was something on the surface that looked like he believed it looked like he was following after what it was that Philip was preaching.

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But in his heart, it really wasn't real. The Holy Spirit was not there. That's what we get to.

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So this may have been the case with the rest of the Samaritans. Also, it says they believe they were attracted by it.

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They could articulate it. They wanted to hear more of it. They were even convinced enough by it to be baptized.

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But had the Holy Spirit not actually regenerated their hearts yet? So they were baptized before they were genuinely

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Christians. I know that it can be kind of confusing. We have all kinds of arguments related to that.

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But that's what it looks like here in this story. And as I said, this is a very unique case for we see something totally different later on.

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And I'll mention what that is in just a little bit here. So in verse 14, now, when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them

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Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the

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Holy Spirit. For he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the

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Lord Jesus, but hadn't received the Holy Spirit. That's very interesting. Let's go in order here.

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So first of all, Peter and John come to them. Now, this is huge. This is very, very significant, because what this demonstrates is that the

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Samaritans who come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are not believing in a

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Christianity that is different than the Christianity that was being proclaimed in Jerusalem. And that's a big deal to Jews and Samaritans, because they were so different.

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They were so separated from one another, different religious books, different places of worship, different beliefs about a

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Messiah. The Jews had one belief. The Samaritans had another belief. So for the gospel of Christ to be proclaimed there and for the

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Samaritans to believe it, and then the apostles who were Jewish to come to them and proclaim the gospel further and then give to them the

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Holy Spirit. This shows that the Christianity that fell upon Samaria was the same

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Christianity that had come to Judea. It was the same thing that was being proclaimed. So this is one body in Christ.

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Samaritans and Jews are now being unified together in Christ Jesus. They couldn't be unified any other way, but they're being unified in Christ.

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This is why it is so important and significant that the apostles came to them and that it was not just from Philip.

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Philip was a Hellenist. He was Greek. A Greek Jew was raised in speaking the

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Greek language, whereas the apostles were Jewish by their heritage. So for them to come and proclaim the gospel and by their blessing, the

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Holy Spirit came upon them. This is to demonstrate it's the same Holy Spirit in Samaria as is in Judea.

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And again, we note in verse 16 that the Holy Spirit had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the

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Lord Jesus. Now, there are people who will use this story to say that you must be baptized in order to receive the

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Holy Spirit. But later on, we see something different when Peter goes and preaches at the house of Cornelius in Acts 10.

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The Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. That's Acts 10 44. And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the

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Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. And then Peter said, can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people who have received the

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Holy Spirit just as we have? So in that case, in Acts 10, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they even demonstrated the power of the

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Holy Spirit by speaking in tongues before they were baptized. But here in Acts 8, they're baptized and had not yet received the

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Holy Spirit. I think one of the other things that this shows to us is that baptism does not save anybody.

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Baptism is something that we do outwardly to demonstrate an inward change. But the Samaritans didn't yet understand what that was, not until the

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Holy Spirit was poured out upon them. Verse 17. Then they laid their hands on them, and they received the

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Holy Spirit. Now, you do not have the ability to give the

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Holy Spirit to somebody else. You do not have that authority. Christ had given that ability to the apostles and them alone.

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But even then, the Holy Spirit does as he wills. He doesn't do as the apostles will.

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So this was all in submission to God and even to the Spirit himself, that the apostles did this thing, laying their hands on the people, and they received the

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Holy Spirit. All the apostles are doing is verifying that the Holy Spirit is indeed, by his will, going to come upon these people.

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But Simon interprets this as the apostles having a power to give the

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Spirit of God. Now, when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, saying,

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Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the

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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.

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You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God.

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Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.

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For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.

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And Simon answered, Pray for me to the Lord that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.

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Now, Simon is traditionally referred to here as the first heretic. We have

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Stephen—I lost the name there for a moment—we have

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Stephen that we talked about on Monday as being the first martyr, and it's

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Simon who gets referred to as the first heretic. He thought that he could purchase the

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Holy Spirit with money, and we have the instruction that's given regarding the qualifications for elders in 1

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Timothy 3 and in Titus 1, that he must not be a lover of money.

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Paul even warns about those who love money in 1 Timothy 6, that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.

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When you go to that verse and you look at it in context, you realize that Paul is warning about those who are false teachers because they love money.

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They have corrupted the Word of God. They've twisted it into something else. They've changed the gospel for the sake of it being more appealing to more people.

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That way, they can personally benefit from it by getting rich. Simon thought he could do that same thing.

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Simon is the first of those that are talked about as loving money and would then twist the gospel for the sake of benefiting themselves.

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And the apostles recognize it. They see it in his heart that he is not genuine. He says he's a believer.

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He's been baptized. He follows Philip around, but then he's asking for the power of the

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Holy Spirit and willing to pay money for it. So they know that his heart is not genuine. And they say,

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I see that you are in the gall of bitterness. This is Peter speaking to him and the bond of iniquity.

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You are still in your sins. You are still greedy and seeking after yourself. You are not out to glorify

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God. And Simon answered, pray for me to the Lord that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.

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All things considered, he did not repent. That's what this answer demonstrates. He didn't repent.

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He just said, pray that what you're talking about won't come upon me. It's like he's saying that so nonchalantly, like, well, you know, whatever.

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Just pray that it doesn't happen. He's not he doesn't have a fear of God. He doesn't regret what it is that he's done.

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There's no mourning over his sin. There's no dread in any of this. We don't see an attitude change in Simon at all.

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He's just moving from one religious belief to another religious belief and seeing the power that is upon the disciples, upon the apostles, upon the people who have received this faith.

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He thinks that it's something that he can use to advance his magician ministry.

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So therefore, his heart really is not genuine. It is not for the Lord. And the apostles warn him that because his heart is not genuine, unless he repents, the judgment of God will fall upon him.

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Verse 25 says now, when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the

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Samaritans, once again, demonstrating that the Holy Spirit that had come upon the Christians in Jerusalem is the same

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Holy Spirit that comes upon the Christians in Samaria. We are one in the spirit.

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We are one in the Lord. As we sing about in that hymn, they will know that they are

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Christians by our love. But we must be careful that we do not stray from the word of God or use it to try to benefit ourselves, lest it be revealed that our faith was never genuine in the first place.

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As John says in 1 John 2, 19, they went out from us that it might become clear that they were never of us in the first place.

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That's the case with Simon, the magician. And that's the case with any of those who previously had called themselves

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Christians said they were our brothers and sisters in the Lord, but they in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity went the way of their sin rather in the way of righteousness.

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Let us conclude with prayer. Our heavenly father, we know that you are faithful to us, though we are faithless, you remain faithful for you cannot disown yourself and you will hold us fast and keep us steadfast to the end until we come into your kingdom.

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Grow us in your righteousness. Oh God, and let us not slip away from the faith that we have proclaimed.

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Let it not be a momentary thing or a passing opinion, but let it be genuine in our hearts, deeply rooted.

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As we read in Psalm one, the one who delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on him day and night, he is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither.

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In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

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Show us how to be rooted in your word and growing in these things, producing fruit, demonstrating the fruit of the spirit day by day.

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We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. You can find a complete list of videos, books, devotionals, and other resources online at www .utt