 Hey, man, so Acts chapter 8, keep your place there. What we're going to do is we're going to go through Acts chapter 7 ends with Saul. We kind of see Saul introduced, and we talked about Saul at the beginning of Acts chapter 8. But really in Acts chapter 8, then again we go back to Saul, you know, the conversion of Paul in Acts chapter 9. But really we see kind of a story that stars Philip in Acts chapter 8. And there's these two scenarios that we're going to study each in a separate sermon. So the first one we're going to look at this evening is the first thing that happens to Philip. So last week we looked at Saul, we looked at the characteristics of what made Saul, later on Paul, what made him great. We looked at how those characteristics can be applied to us and how we can become great Christians. Okay, we shouldn't want to be great. All right, don't get me wrong. So we looked at that last week. This evening we are going to start looking at these stories with Philip. So look down at Acts chapter 8 in verse number 5. So Philip is out preaching the gospel here, and he went down to the city of Samaria, the Bible reads, and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. So here we see Philip, he's in a pretty receptive area. So the people, we see these two words again, the people that are listening to Philip are with one accord. So they're all very receptive and they're all listening to him. All right, for unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice came out of many that were possessed with them, and many taken with palsies that were lame were healed. So here Philip is doing all sorts of miracles which we see the apostles doing so far in the book of Acts. That'll be important for our story this evening. And there was great joy in that city. So this was a big deal. People were happy about this. People were really enjoying the fact that Philip was there. Now we see an interesting situation in verse number 9. But there was a certain man called Simon, which before time in the same city used sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one, to whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest saying, this man is the great power of God. So this man, Simon, it says before time, it says, you know, the time before Philip getting there, this man was doing sorcery. He was exercising, you know, witchcraft, if you would, turn to Exodus chapter 22 and look at verse number 18. Look at Exodus chapter 22 and verse number 18. So this man is in the city, Philip's preaching the gospel, everybody's receptive, he's doing all these miracles, and then there's this guy. Okay, there's this guy, Simon, who's been going through the city for a while before Philip got there and bewitching the people using sorcery. Didn't say he was, you know, he's not doing the ball under the shells thing, all right? He's using sorcery. He's actually, you know, performing witchcraft. The Bible says in Exodus chapter 22 and verse number 18 that thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. Witchcraft is a big deal in the Bible. Sorcery is a big deal in the Bible. You say, why? So the point is, this guy's doing something that's very bad in the Bible. And the Bible, you know, puts the death sentence on somebody that does sorcery or uses witchcraft. What is sorcery? It's using black magic is what people would say today is the definition of sorcery, meaning you're conjuring evil spirits is what you're doing. Okay, now this is something that's, you know, it's an attack on children today. This is something that you would see people, you know, that, I mean, when I was a little kid, I mean, sorcery was pushed on kids, pushed on us as kids from everything from Mickey Mouse, Disney, go imagine that, Disney pushing sorcery, all right? Before they pushed perversion, well, they were pushing perversion at the same time. But, you know, one of the things that you'll see, we were just talking about this the other night in my family, we were out to dinner and something came on or the radio or something, it was a song and it was from a movie, it was a cartoon that came out when I was a kid that I must have seen like five, you know, 50 times. I bet you we watched this movie like 50 times. It was called The Little Mermaid. Has anyone heard of that? Maybe I'm too old for all of you. But, like, we watched this all the time in our house as a kid. You're like, oh, you know, what's the big deal? There's just, it's just filled with witchcraft. The whole movie, the whole idea, the whole premise of it is like this evil witch that puts a curse on this gal or whatever and I think she turned into a mermaid or she didn't, I don't know. But anyway, the point is that cartoons and Disney and things, they push it on kids like it's no big deal, okay? But the Bible says, so let's just look at what the Bible says tonight. It is a big deal, okay? I mean, so much that it was something that, you know, you would, you know, it was capital punishment if somebody was doing this in the Old Testament, okay? So, why so serious? What's the big deal? I mean, it's in every cartoon. I don't know, it was probably still in cartoons. But turn to 1 Peter chapter five in verse number eight. So, the first thing I want to show you this evening is why sorcery is serious? Why the Bible takes it so seriously and why we should take it seriously and keep our kids especially as far away from it? Because here's the thing. I mean, I don't want to give it away, but here's the thing. They're trying to make light of it in cartoons. They're trying to make light of it. But here's the thing, folks, it's real. That's the problem. The problem is it's not some fake cartoon or some big fat cartoon octopus, which puts a curse on, you know, some princess or whatever. It's a real thing that can do real damage that's playing with real evil. This is the problem, okay? Look at 1 Peter chapter five in verse number eight. 1 Peter chapter five in verse number eight. The Bible says be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, look at this, he walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Now, go to Revelation chapter five in verse number 11. So, first of all, the devil, the thing that we have to understand is the devil is here, okay? And I'm going to prove that to you from the Bible, but the devil is here on earth, okay? The devil isn't in some far-off heaven somewhere. The devil is walking about on the earth. You say that's bad. Well, it's way worse than that. It's way worse than that. Look at Revelation chapter five in verse number 11. So, let's just look at the creation of the world. Let's look at, you know, where Satan came from, where Lucifer came from, to understand why sorcery and witchcraft is so seriously serious that the Bible warns us to just like, to execute witches, okay? So, why is it so serious? Look at Revelation chapter five in verse number 11. Let's get an idea of the number of angels that exist, okay? We're now looking at heaven here. And I beheld and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders and the number of them. So, here's all these angels and the voices of angels John's talking about. The number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand. Okay, so, and then it says, and thousands of thousands. Okay, so, first of all, it says ten thousand times ten thousand is a hundred million if you do the math on that. Okay, so it's talking about a hundred million angels in heaven. And then look, that's not even all because there's thousands and thousands more and thousands of thousands more. Go to Genesis chapter one. So, here you have at the end times, you have a hundred million angels in heaven. Let's go back to the beginning. Let's go back to the creation. Look at Genesis chapter one and look at verse number thirty-one. Where did Satan come from? Okay, how did Satan get to the point where he's walking about on the earth? Alright, and is he by himself? Okay, is he by himself? Look at Genesis chapter one verse thirty-one. Okay, Genesis chapter one and verse thirty-one. Genesis chapter one is the creation story. And God said, and God said, and God said on the sixth day, look at verse thirty-one. And God saw that everything that he had made and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. So, Genesis chapter three is when the serpent who's, you know, possessed by Satan comes to Eve and deceives her. So, some point between Genesis chapter one and verse thirty-one where God says it is good and everything's good. Sometime between that point and Genesis chapter three, Satan rebelled against God. Turn to Isaiah chapter fourteen. The Bible doesn't tell us a ton about it, but it tells us enough to where we know what happened. Turn to Isaiah chapter fourteen. So, sometime between Genesis chapter, the end of Genesis chapter one and the beginning of Genesis chapter three, this happened. Look at Isaiah chapter fourteen and look at verse number twelve. Isaiah chapter fourteen and verse number twelve. I'm not going to read all these verses, but this is a, you know, talking about the king of tire and this is a reflection and talking about Satan in these verses. Look what it says in verse number twelve. It says, how art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the ground, which did's weaken the nation? So, sometime between Genesis chapter one, thirty-one and Genesis chapter three, this happened. Lucifer was cut down to the ground. He was kicked out of heaven. Turn to Revelation chapter twelve. Turn to Revelation chapter twelve. Revelation chapter twelve. So, Revelation chapter twelve kind of gives us a, kind of a history of the world in a few verses here. But Revelation chapter twelve specifically, verse number four, is what we want to look at. Talking about Satan and, you know, the dragon is what he's called here in Revelation chapter twelve. But look what it says in verse number four. So we know that Satan, you know, and if you read the rest of Isaiah fourteen, it tells us why he was kicked out of heaven. He wanted to be like the most high. He wanted to be like God. Isn't that, you know, very similar to what he told Adam and Eve or what he told Eve is like, hey, you know, you could be like God. You know, I mean, you know, he's just kind of pushing this idea that, you know, you can be like God. I mean, do you think it's an accident that a lot of these false religions say that you can become a God? I mean, look, the designer, the designer of Mormonism is Satan. The designer of these false religions is Lucifer himself. It's his philosophy. That's why every single false religion is just all about works. Every single one of them, because it's the philosophy of Satan. Okay, look at verse number twelve of Revelation chapter twelve. Verse number four, I'm sorry, verse number four of Revelation twelve. And his tail drew a third part of the stars of heaven and did cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered for to devour her child as soon as it was born. I believe this talking about when Satan fell from heaven that he took a third of the angels with him. Okay, they took a third of the angels with him. The Bible talks about, you know, evil spirits and things like that, walking around on this earth and being here on this earth. How did they get here? I believe this is where they came from right here in Revelation chapter twelve and verse number four. All that to say this though, Satan is not here on the earth by himself. And if you just take just the rough numbers that we looked at from, you know, a hundred million angels in heaven to a third of those, you know, we've got tens of millions of demons on this earth with Satan. This is why witchcraft is so dangerous and, you know, and look, and here's the thing, witchcraft and sorcery, it's real, it's talking, it's communicating with these demons, with these dark spirits on the earth that are working for Satan Lucifer. And here's the thing, it works. This man, Simon, was making money practicing this because it works. I mean, these people, these palm readers and all these different things, I'm not saying, you know, certain of them aren't, you know, fraudsters or whatever, but look, the stuff, I've never gone to one, but they're conjuring these powers from these dark spirits. That's what they're doing. It's witchcraft. It's witchcraft. So the thing is, the cartoons and the kids, they're trying to get it to be a big joke and then kids get older and they start playing with these types of things. I mean, every single kid that's ever been to a public school knows that there's kids that have played with a Ouija board. And if you've ever talked to kids that have played with a Ouija board and came to school the next day, they'll tell you, it works. They'll tell you, they literally ask the thing questions and it really spells names of people and answers the questions in great detail. That's what makes it so like, you know, they're so, you know, think it's so fun and exciting. Because they ask you questions that nobody could know the answer to and it literally, it works. But it's conjuring demons is what it's doing. I know many, look, I believe this is also tied to the Catholic Church. I know many people who are Catholics that will never stop being Catholics because of the fact that they prayed to some saint and some miraculous thing happened in front of their eyes. I know many people personally that have had that experience and they will never stop being Catholics. But here's the thing we have to remember. Remember, every good thing, every miracle is not good. The Bible doesn't say that. Turn to Acts chapter three and verse number six. Turn to Acts chapter three. You have to remember these apostles, they're going out, they're doing all these miracles. They're healing people. There's no doubt about it. They're doing great wonders. Everybody's seeing it, but there's something different about what they're doing. Look at Acts chapter three and verse number six. Look at Acts chapter three and verse number six. This is the man at the gate, beautiful, the gate of the temple. And this is the man that Peter healed. He got them in all kinds of trouble. We already studied through this, but just look at verse number six. It says, then Peter said, silver and gold have I none. The guy's asking them for money, but such as I give, I have, I give thee. Then look what he says. Rise up and walk. He's like, no, he says in the name of Jesus. So there's a difference with the miracles that the disciples and the apostles are doing because they're doing miracles. Why? Why did God give them the ability to do miracles to preach Jesus? And they're doing all their miracles in the name of Jesus. That implies that there could be miracles that are not in the name of Jesus. And we see that in the Bible as well. And guess what? In the end times, somebody else will do miracles. Turn to Revelation chapter 13. Somebody else will do miracles as well. And look, many people. So this idea, this idea that anybody that does a miracle should just be like automatically followed like that guy's with God because he did a miracle. No, that's false. That is not what the Bible teaches at all. Because look, there's powerful spiritual forces on the earth that are not of God. Look at verse 13 of Revelation 13. Look, the Satan and the beast and the false prophet at the end times, the Bible says that many people are going to follow them. Look down to verse 13, verse 12. And he exercised all the power of the first beast before him and caused that the earth and them which dwell in there to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed. I mean, that was a miracle. He had a deadly wound in his head and it healed like he didn't die. So that's a miracle right there. So everyone's like, oh, it's Jesus because he did a miracle. No, no, not every miracle is of God. Then look at verse 13 and he do it talking about the false prophet here and he do it great wonders so that he make a fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And it deceives them that dwell in the earth by the means of those miracles. That's the Catholic today that I've met that says, no, the Catholic church is for real. It's good because I've seen a miracle happen. I've seen a statue cry or whatever. Look, I'm not saying that, you know, I think that a lot of that's fraud but I'm not saying that like people didn't see things when they were praying to some saint because there's demons there that want to keep you in that false religion. It's very simple. They want to keep you from being saved from the truth. So all that to say this, go back to Acts chapter 8. All that to say this, sorcery is very serious. What this Simon was doing was very serious, okay? And look, sorcery works and every miracle is just not automatically of God. Just because, I mean, that's somebody that doesn't know the Bible that says, well, I saw a miracle. I saw something float across a room, whatever. I mean, there's plenty of people that I believe have really seen like weird things like that. And look, it's not of God. If you go to somebody and you ask, you go to one of these places here like these necromancers or whatever they are and they conjure up some. I mean, they can probably do that. I don't know. But that whoever you're talking to is not your relative. It's a demon. It's a demon and look, it's real. These things are real. Demons are real. Satan is really here walking on the earth, okay? It's not to be toyed with. So now, think about that next time. You know, you give your kid a book or you give your kid a Harry Potter and oh, you know, you don't like Harry Potter and all that. No, it's serious stuff. They're making light of something that's very dangerous is the problem, okay? Go to Acts chapter 8 and look at verse number 11. Verse number 11. So here we see Simon. He's doing this. It says into him they had regard. So these people like they thought Simon was pretty good. Because he's been doing this for a long time. Because that of a long time, he had bewitched them with sorceries. But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized both men and women. So, I mean, here this guy, I mean, you would think he would have, you know, you'd think he would have like, you know, cause to be mad. I mean, Philip comes along. He's been bewitching these people. He's been, you know, exercising black magic to get these people to follow him and thinking he was some great person. And here comes Philip preaching Jesus Christ and like they all get saved, okay? But then look at what happens. Verse 13. Now it gets even, now it gets even wilder. Look at this. Then Simon himself believed also. And when he was baptized, he continued with Philip and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done. The guy got saved. I mean, he got saved. He got baptized. So, you say a sorcerer can get saved? Well, apparently we just saw it in the Bible. I mean, so, I mean, there's a, I'm going to give you two lessons from this tonight, but first I want to talk about another sorcerer. The title of the sermon, that's all introduction. The title of the sermon is a tale of two sorcerers in the Bible, okay? Cause there's actually two sorcerers in the book of Acts. So this is the first one. The guy, here's the gospel. He's been doing sorcery for a long time. He's bewitching this whole town. He hears the gospel and he just gets saved. He gets baptized and then he follows Philip. I mean, that's, if only every story turned out that way. But now turn to Acts chapter 13. So I want to, I want to contrast these two stories. And, and there's really two lessons I want to, I want to look at from these two stories. But go to Acts chapter 13. Go to Acts chapter 13. There's two sorcerers in the book of Acts. Let's look at the second one. Let's see if we can find the difference between these two. Because the disciple or the apostle and his reaction towards the, the sorcerer in each case is very different. Okay? And let's look at why. Look at verse number six of Acts chapter 13. And when they had gone through the Isle unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer. This is Paul now, okay? They found a certain sorcerer and then it says something else here. He got to kind of, you know, if you underline stuff in your Bible, this is a good one to underline. They found a certain sorcerer. So just like Simon, except it says a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus. So this guy's called a sorcerer and he's called a false prophet. Okay? Continue. Which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man who called for Barnabas and Saul and desired to hear the word of God. But Elimus, now this is the same guy as Bar-Jesus. Elimus the sorcerer, for so is his name by interpretation. What did he do here? So here, Saul and Barnabas are preaching the gospel. And this guy, he's not only a sorcerer, the Bible also calls him a false prophet. Okay? Which means he has a belief system attached to what he's doing. Okay? And he withstood them, it says. Seeking to what? Turn away the deputy from the faith. So was Simon doing that? Was there any indication that Simon the sorcerer from Acts chapter 8 was trying to stop Philip from preaching the gospel? No, you kind of get the idea that Simon the sorcerer in Acts chapter 8 was kind of intrigued by the whole thing. He clearly was as he listened to it, believed it, was baptized and then followed Philip. Very different story here. Okay? Then Saul, let's look at how Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost. Let's see how the Holy Ghost reacts to somebody trying to stop the gospel from being preached. Set his eyes on him. He just looked right at him. Okay? He said, oh, full of all subtlety, what is subtlety always attached to in the Bible? Subtlety is always attached to Satan. Subtlety is always attached to the way Satan does business. As a matter of fact, Genesis chapter 3, I'm not going to quote it exactly, but it says, you know, the serpent was the most subtle. Talking about Satan and how he acted towards Eve. Oh, full of subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, without not seized to pervert the right ways of the Lord. It's like, wow, calls him a child of the devil. All right, turn to 1st Kings, actually you turn to 1st Samuel chapter 2 and verse number 12. So he calls him this term, this child of the devil, child of Satan, you know, son of Lucifer, he's calling him, enemy of all righteousness. The Bible in the Old Testament, you know, has another way of kind of listing this. It calls it the sons of Belial. Okay, the sons of Belial. In 1st Kings chapter 21 and verse number 13, when Ahab was trying to get Naboth's field and he had these people come and, you know, give a false accusation against him, I'll just read it for you. Then there came in two men in verse 13, children of Belial that sat before him and the men of Belial witnessed against him, even against Naboth. In the presence of the people saying, Naboth did blaspheme God and the king. Then they carried him forth out of the city and stoned him with stones that he died. So, here are these sons of Belial, these children of Belial are these people that lied and murdered this innocent man. Okay, look at 1st Samuel chapter 2 and verse number 12. So, what does it mean? Maybe it's just a mean name. Maybe it's just like the meanest thing that Paul could think of at the time to call these guys. It's like, ah, children of the devil, that'll get them. You know, maybe that's what it was. But that's actually not what it was. It was a very specific thing and the Bible kind of explains to us what this thing is in 1st Samuel chapter 2 and verse number 12. The sons of Eli are described as this as well. Now, the sons of Eli were, here it is again, sons of Belial. And then it kind of gives us an answer to what that means. It says, they knew not the Lord. Okay, so these men, it doesn't mean that they were just bad men. It means that, I mean, it's basically telling you here they were bad men that were not saved. So, these men were not saved. And then if you go down to verse 24 and verse 25, we can see proof that not only were these men who are called sons of Belial. So, we're getting kind of a, in 1st Samuel chapter 2, we're kind of getting a definition of the sons of Belial in the Bible and what that means. What this child of the devil term means? In verse number 24, Eli is kind of, he's trying to, you know, intervene. He says, Nay, my sons, for it is no good report that I hear. You make the Lord's people to transgress. If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him. But if a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for him, not withstanding, they hearken not unto the voice of their father. Okay, so here are these people, they're called sons of Belial. They're not saved. They're not saved. And then they're not listening to their father and then look what the next line says. It says, because the Lord would slay them. So, it's sitting here saying they're not saved and the Lord wants them dead. Okay, so just put that together in your head for a second. If there's somebody who's not saved and the Lord wants them dead, where's the Lord want them to go? He wants them to go to hell. Like, these are people, these are Romans 1 people right here. These are people that they're done. The Lord, the only thing that the Lord wanted for Eli's sons was for them to die and go to hell. That's it. Because the Lord would soften their hearts or the Lord would try to have Eli preach them. No, it's like the Lord just wanted to kill them. It's like they were not saved. The Lord wanted them dead. He wanted them in hell. That's it. We're talking about reprobates here, folks. All right, so look. These people were done and it's the same reason that Paul called the Bar-Jesus, or Limus, a child of the devil. Because here was this guy that was trying to stop the Gospel from being preached and he said, look, you're a reprobate, basically, is what he called him. He called him a reprobate. So what's the difference? Why wasn't Simon a reprobate? You know, why wasn't Simon a reprobate? I mean, what's the difference between Bar-Jesus and Simon? The difference that we see in the story is that one was trying to stop the Apostle from getting somebody saved. That's the difference that you see. Okay, one was literally working against Barnabas and Paul. He was working against them trying to stop the Apostles. The other one was listening. The other one was listening. I believe that if Simon would have been acting the way, if he would have been a reprobate too and would have been acting the way that Bar-Jesus was acting, I believe Philip would have said the same thing. It's the same Holy Ghost. It's the same Holy Ghost. But there's no indication at all that Simon was against Philip. Simon was in it for the money. You can see that through the rest of the story that we're going to finish out. Simon was just there. He was doing sorcery. Not because he was in love with sorcery, because he was making him money. He was in it for the money. But the point I want to get at in Acts chapter 13, look at verse number 11 and then we'll go back to Acts chapter 8. Actually, here's an interesting thing too. So Acts chapter 13, look at verse number 11. Look how the Apostles handle this. It says, because how are we going to get this guy saved? This guy's trying to stop us. This guy's harassing us. I mean, you've gone so many long announcements. This will happen to you. You will meet this guy. Acts chapter 13, verse number 11. Now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness, and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand. Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord. So he struck him with blindness. It's interesting because that's exactly what the angels did in Genesis 19 with the reprobates trying to bust down the door. Struck him with blindness. So we see that the Holy Ghost and God is dealing with the same type of people in the same way in the New Testament and the Old Testament. Just kind of a neat little proof there. All right, go back to Acts chapter 8. Back to Acts chapter 8. So we see, so for now I just want to remember this and then we'll kind of wrap this up at the end. I want you to remember this. Somebody that is trying to stop the gospel from being preached is a major red flag. I'm talking personally and as a whole as a group just in their life. Somebody that is against the gospel being preached and against people hearing the truth of the Bible as a major red flag right there. Go back to Acts chapter 8. Look at verse number 14. So we see that's the difference here. One was a reprobate, one was not. What are the difference in actions there? That the reprobate was trying to stop the gospel from being preached. He was trying to stop somebody from going to heaven. Look at verse 14 of Acts chapter 8. Verse 14. Now in the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God. They sent unto them Peter and John who were then come down prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost. For as yet he was fallen upon none of them only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. They were going to lay hands on them and it would be filled with the spirit just like you could be filled with the spirit today. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost. And when Simon saw through the laying on of the apostles hands the Holy Ghost was given. He offered them money saying give me also this power that on whomsoever I lay hands he may receive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said unto him thy money perish with thee. What was his problem? His problem was like he's just he's just obsessed with money. This was the guy's problem, okay? Your money perish with thee because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. He says thou hast neither part nor a lot in this matter. Did he say you're not saved anymore? Did he say I remove your salvation from thee? It says look what he says his problem is. It says for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. He said you're just you're just filled with sin in your life. Peter says then answered Simon and said look out see here. This is why this guy got saved right here. Look at how he handles the rebuke. You can tell how he how he got saved. You can tell where his heart's at. You can I mean look the guy's the dirt bag. I get it. But look it where his heart's at here. It says then answered Simon forget you Peter. Who do you think you are? Look what he says. He says pray ye to the Lord for me that none of these things that you have spoken come upon me. Look that's a rebuke that worked right there. You say what is he doing offering them money? Was he not saved? It's like no. Simon was just doing what he did yesterday. He was just doing what he always did. I mean this is this is you get out there and you get somebody saved in the world folks. It doesn't mean like they're magically going to become like a good person. Because they're saved that they're saved because it's not of works. It's like not of works at all. So the thing is I mean people misunderstand us. You know people you know people call it easy. Believe is them or whatever they call it. They would go out and say I mean just because we go out and just because we believe because the Bible teaches that you can get saved and then continue in sin. You can do that. Everyone's like oh you know that's that's terrible. It doesn't mean we think you should. It's just or or or even that we think I mean look what Peter says here. It doesn't even mean that we think that that will work out well for you if you do do that because we know that once somebody gets saved if they continue in their sinful life things are going to change for them. I mean hopefully you explain this so well that people actually connect this when you're soul winning. But it is necessary to believe that it can be possible. I mean this is Romans 4 verse 3 and 4 right here. I mean just go there let's just look at it real quick. Go to Romans chapter 4 and verse number 3 and verse number 4. Romans chapter 4 verse 3 and 4 right here. This is what it's talking about. Look it's necessary that we believe that it's possible to preserve the Gospel. Does that make sense? Because the Gospel is not of works. It's not 1% of works. It's 0% of works. So look at Romans chapter 4 and verse number 4. I'm sorry 4. The Bible says now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt. Guy in verse number 4 is probably pretty a nice guy. You probably look at the guy in verse number 4 and the world would say that's a pretty godly person. That guy's work. He's doing work. Because it says he worketh. Saying he's doing good works. So this guy's out and he's doing good works. But if he's trusting in that he's just going to come up with nothing but debt. But now to him that worketh not. Look this guy doesn't do it. Look these are theoretical hypothetical people. I mean is there anyone that really does no works? Is there anyone on this planet that like everything that they've ever done has been pure evil? I mean even Hitler probably you know helps him be across the street at some point. I don't know. But the point is like these are hypothetical situations here right? It says so the guy in verse number 4 is a pretty nice guy. But the guy in verse number 5 is a total jerk. This guy worketh not. He doesn't do any good works. Imagine meeting this guy. But he believeth on him. But he's believed and trusted on Jesus. This guy's going to heaven. Look people don't get that. That is the point. It is necessary for us to believe that you could continue in sin to preserve the gospel. And look Simon that's all he did. He just continued. He just he got saved. He just did what he did the day before. He got saved. That's all that he did. Look people do that. That's the majority of people. We have to we have to believe this to preserve the gospel. Otherwise you get things like I don't know worship salvation. We're like oh you know yeah it's not of works. It's not of works. But if you're really saved you will do the works. You don't know that's that's attached to salvation. It's not of works but it really is is what they're saying. This is like the this is the repenting your sins stuff. This is where this comes from. You know and look I get it. You know I get it. It's some pastor that it probably is slowly going insane trying to control his congregation or something. And he wants to like control people's salvation all of a sudden. And he's like preaching for 30 years or 20 years or whatever. And he starts slipping things in like if if you don't listen to this sermon are you really saved. If you didn't come down to the altar for the altar call are you really are you even saved. If you don't think I'm the best preacher in the world are you even saved. You know that kind of stuff that turns into you know this idea of well you know I don't know. I've been preaching at this guy for 10 years and he's not changed the thing. He's probably not even saved because you know if you do get you know if you do really believe you're going to turn from your sins and not you see how we go down this slippery slope of attaching works to salvation. And I'm not even saying that every pastor that's even let some weird thing slip out his mouth about repenting your sins. Like he's going to end up with a call of people are not saved. That's for sure because people are going to hear that message. I mean I've literally heard pastors that have been preaching for 20 25 years that start to slip in repenting your sin stuff. I'm just like what in the world. The only thing I can think like I don't look I don't know but the only thing I can think is they're just trying to control people for their salvation. But the problem is if people hear that gospel they're not going to get saved. They're not going to be saved. That's the issue. So look Simon was just a dirt bag and getting saved. He's still a dirt bag. He now has to move forward in his Christian life. So I mean it has nothing to do with whether or not he was saved. So there's two takeaways I want to give that get get at this evening. And then we'll be on our way. But look the first thing is this if we believe that it's not of works. If we believe that salvation is not of works like not even 0.1% of works. You got to take the good and the bad. I mean salvation is free. Like the good is that it's free salvation. Right? It's a gift. All we have to do is trust on Jesus. But that comes with the bad that the works that are there might all be bad. And that is why the first point I'm trying to make tonight is this. Being saved is no guarantee of character. And look I think we make that mistake as Christians. I think we make that mistake as Christians that oh if somebody's saved. If somebody's saved they're just going to come with certain things. Somebody comes into the church. They're saved. They're going to come. Certain good things are going to come. No. Being saved is no guarantee of character. Look obviously I don't know who's saved and who's not. I mean we all kind of like James chapter 2 this thing and you know assume that we're saved. But I can tell you one thing some of the worst people I've ever met and dealt with are saved people. I can tell you that. Some of the worst people that I have dealt with in my life are probably saved. Because it's not of works. So we take the bad with the good is all I'm trying to get at. And Simon is a perfect example of that. This guy was a hustler. He was a hustler. He was all in it for the money. He was a thief. He was obsessed with money. He wanted to buy the miracles so he could get that power and make money with those miracles. And you're just like, ah, you know, but look, it's kind of proof that it's not of works. Isn't it a kind of a proof of the gospel right here? Because he was obsessed with all these things and Peter called him out. He's like you're just full of sin. He's like you're just full of iniquity. You know, and look, that didn't change the moment he got saved. He needs to learn. He needs to learn to follow the new spirit within him. And my guess is with his attitude here that Simon did okay. That's my guess because he kind of reacted to the rebukes. He kind of reacted to the word of God. So that's a lesson for us. That's a lesson for us is like look the pieces in your life. I mean, hopefully we're talking to a bunch of mature Christians tonight. But when you hear preaching, when you read the Bible and you hit something that is not what you're doing or is not what you're supposed to be doing. Guess what? Change in that area. Change is such a hard thing for people to do. But it shouldn't be hard for us. It says we're to be a new man. Not like a repaired man. Like a new one. A new man. So when you hit those areas, look, you got to change. I don't know. I mean, some people are pretty good at change. Most people have a hard time with it. So just recognize, you know, when you get hit in the face with preaching, when you get hit in the face by Bible reading, and when that Holy Spirit just convicts you, just change. That's your message right there. For others, for others when, you know, the lesson for this here, for others, this is why Christians can be bad people. That's the lesson there. This is why Christians can do terrible things, okay? This is why, I mean, some people are just really good at enduring God's chastisement. I mean, they must like it. But they're just really good at it. They get prideful, they don't even recognize it, and they're just like, this is life, man. Just one beating after another, and they just continue and go on that way. But that, I mean, if you ever wonder, I mean, don't, you know, just look at people that are just bad people constantly messing up, and just being like, they must not be saved because of that, because look, they were probably just bad people before they got saved, and getting saved just all of a sudden just didn't fix their character. They have to learn the Bible, apply the Bible, and change their life. And it's a hard thing for people to do, all right? The second point is this. The second point this evening is this. So the first one is being saved is no guarantee of character, okay? The second one is this. A characteristic of a reprobate is someone that fights against the Gospel. Just remember that. Just log that into memory, okay? I'm not saying it's like for sure 100%, but I mean like we know like somebody that's unnatural, is a, you know, a homo or a pervert or whatever, we know that that's, that person's a reprobate because they used to be natural and now they're unnatural. We know that's a for sure proof. But a characteristic, a strong evidence for someone being a son of the devil, a child of Boyle, a reprobate given over to that reprobate mind is someone that's literally trying to stop the Gospel from being preached. And you will find these people. You will find these people. Look, this is why, I mean, this is why most people, most people who go out soul-winning and you know 98% of people you run into just, what? They're not fighting against you, they're just not interested. They're not against you, they're just like, they're just indifferent, right? They're indifferent, they're just like, oh no, I'm not, I'm busy, I don't care, whatever. I'm wrapped up in my life. They're not like attacking you, but you will run into people out soul-winning who will literally fight against you. I remember one guy we were out soul-winning a couple of years ago in Fresno and a guy came up to us and he was a, he was a Pentecostal pastor. He was a Pentecostal or so he said. And he was just super nice to our face. And we were in this like pretty, pretty hood neighborhood, all right? And it was, there was a bunch of guys playing basketball. We were gonna go over to the basketball courts. There was apartments everywhere. I mean, this was gonna be a fruitful soul-winning time. We met this guy, he came up to us, he was super nice. Like, oh, I'm the pastor of this church and I do all kinds of outreach in this neighborhood and all this kind of stuff and you know, and he was super nice, older gentleman and I shouldn't call him a gentleman, but he was basically a false prophet and he was really nice to our face but then he went around and some of the other soul winners heard him going around to the guys on the basketball court saying those guys over there, they're asking for money. Those guys over there, they want your money. He was trying to shut off everybody from wanting to talk to us. Look, this is like, that's characteristic of a reprobate right there. And what was he? He was a false prophet. He was a false prophet. He was a childhood devil. That's what he was. I mean, this is why people that, you know, pastors that have people just like go to war against their church and fight against their church, this is why they're like, they're reprobates. I'm not saying they all are. I don't know if they are or not, but I mean, this is why they think so because a characteristic of a reprobate is somebody that's trying to stop the gospel. Why in the world would anybody, no matter who you like or don't like, try to fight against a gospel preaching church? Why would anybody do that? It's very suspect. You have to remember that, okay? This is a characteristic of a reprobate. And look, God forbid that a saved person would do what a reprobate does. I'm not saying that there's not saved people that don't do what reprobates do. You know, make your own opinions on these things, but this was the one difference between these two men. And the difference was heaven and hell as one was fighting against the gospel and one was not. So just, you know, make your own opinions. But I mean, it's super interesting study that we have two sorcerers in the book of Acts and ones in heaven and ones in hell. And you can see the differences between them. So look, it's not of works, folks. It's not of works. That means that somebody that's greedy and gets saved, they're gonna have to get over that. They're gonna have to be led by the spirit and get rid of that greed and get rid of that love of money in their life and change in that area. Just like we all need to change in the areas that we struggle with in our lives. And then just look out for people that are trying to stop the gospel. That's the story that I wanna take away from Acts chapter 8 about Simon, the sorcerer. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.