the book of Acts again tonight and we are going to continue to look at Acts chapter 8. We looked at kind of the first eight verses last week and we're going to study from verse 9 all the way to verse 24 tonight. But let's begin our reading tonight in Acts chapter 8 verse number 1. Acts chapter 8 verse number 1. Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death. And on that day, a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Some devout men buried Stephen and made a loud lamentation over him. But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house and dragging off men and women. He would put them in prison. Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them. The crowds with one accord were giving attention to what was said by Philip as they heard and saw the signs which he was performing. For in the case of many who had unclean spirits, they were coming out of them, shouting with a loud voice, and many who had been paralyzed and lame were healed, so that there was much rejoicing in that city. Now there was a man named Simon who formerly was practicing magic in the city, astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great. And they all, from the smallest to the greatest, were giving attention to him, saying, This man is what is called the great power of God. And they were giving him attention because he had for a long time astonished them with his magic arts. But when they had believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike. Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized, he continued on with Philip as he observed signs and great miracles taking place. He was constantly amazed. Now, when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen upon any of them. They had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they began laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, saying, Give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may 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 no part or portion in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Therefore, repent of this wickedness of yours and pray, O Lord, that if possible the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity. But but Simon answered and said, Pray to the Lord for me yourself so that nothing of what you say may come upon me. And the title of the message tonight is still Christianity spreads to Samaria. Christianity spreads to Samaria. So let's pray and then we'll continue to study Acts chapter eight. Let's pray. Great God, we do praise you for your eternal love for us. We praise you, Lord, for Jesus Christ. We praise you, Father, for the gospel. We praise you, Lord, for the truth of the gospel. Praise You, Father, for the opportunity that we have to preach the Gospel, to proclaim the Gospel. We thank You, Lord, that our proclamation of the Gospel is attended by the work of the Holy Spirit. We understand, Lord, that if it was just our preaching the Gospel without the work of the Holy Spirit, that everything that we say would fall upon deaf ears. The gospel only becomes your power unto salvation when the Holy Spirit takes the proclamation of the gospel and uses it as he sees fit, uses it to regenerate the hearts of those whom you have chosen, of those whom you have appointed the Holy Spirit to go and to work in their lives. We praise you, Lord, that our part is simply to be obedient and preach the word, preach the gospel, and trust that the Holy Spirit will do what you have called upon him to do, knowing that he will. All things work together according to your purposes and your plan. Heavenly Father, we praise you, Lord, for the work of the triune Godhead that makes it possible for sinners to be made right with you. To you alone be all glory and honor and power forever and ever in Christ's holy name. Amen. So this is a really wonderful passage to be looking at, because this is the spread of the church. We have been looking at the church being built in Jerusalem, and now the church is beginning to spread. And a couple weeks ago, when I read about the martyrdom of many of the apostles, we realized that many of them were martyred far away from Jerusalem. So it is really interesting to realize that these apostles did take the gospel to the far reaches of the known world, and many of them were martyred or put to death for their faith in these far reaches of the world. Jesus had told his apostles that they were to be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria in the remotest parts of the world. In Acts eight, we see where God has taken the gospel to Samaria. And I want to emphasize that, that this is God taking the gospel to Samaria. The only way the gospel spreads is because of the work of God. He uses us, but we are nothing more than tools that fit in his hands. It is all his work. We are simply the tools that he uses. This particular spread of the gospel was due in large part to the persecution of the church that started the very day of Stephen's martyrdom. The very day that they martyred Stephen was the very day that the spread of the gospel began. Saul was standing by in full support of putting Stephen to death because of his faith in Jesus Christ. In verse 3, we see that he is ravishing the church and dragging Christian men and women off to prison. In chapter 9, verse 1, he's breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. In his letter to the church in Galatia, Paul himself said that he once persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. There was no limit to what he would go through, to what he would do to try to destroy the church. He said he was doing all of this in the name of God, while at the same time, in his mind, he was advancing in Judaism beyond many of his contemporaries among his countrymen because he was most extremely zealous for his ancestral traditions. He believed that his hatred for Christ and the church proved that he, above all else, was a man of God. He hated Christ. He persecuted the church. And all the while, he thought he was doing the Lord's work. He was a man of God. That's how twisted his mind was. That's how dead he was to the truth. Paul wrote to the church in Philippi about how he used to brag about his circumcision, his Israeli nationality, his connection with the tribe of Benjamin. He bragged of being a Hebrew of Hebrews and a pharisaical follower of the law, who as far as the law was concerned was righteous and blameless with zeal for the law that drove him to persecute the church. Listen to his own words as recorded by Luke for us in Acts 26, verse 10. And this is just what I did in Jerusalem. Not only did I lock up many saints in the prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death, I cast my vote against them. And as I punished them often in the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme, being fiercely enraged with them, fiercely enraged with them. I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities. And then Luke records this in Acts 22, verse four. I persecuted this way to death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons, as also the high priest and all the counts of the elders can testify. From them I also received letters to the brethren and to start it off to Damascus in order to bring even those who are in Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished. So how did Saul, the hater of the Christ, hater of Christ and the persecutor of the church, ever become a lover of Christ and one of the strongest proponents of Christianity? How did Saul go from being such a hater of Christ, persecutor of the church, to being a lover of Christ, where he would say, for me to live is Christ to die is gain and love the church, being willing to go through so much suffering and persecution, even torture himself for the church? How did that take place? God changed him. God has set Saul apart from his mother's womb as one who he would call through his grace to be a follower of Christ. The reason that there was a change in the apostles life is because God changed him and God had determined before Saul was even born. And if we understand God's sovereign election, he determined even before time that Saul, this murderous hater of Christ and murderous hater of the church, would become one of his own. When the time pleased God, emphasize that, when the time pleased God, He revealed to Saul exactly who Jesus Christ was, the true Son of God. God's sovereignty is clearly seen in the conversion of Saul, just as God's sovereignty is clearly seen in the expansion of the church. People come to saving faith in Jesus Christ because of the sovereignty of God. The church expands because of the sovereignty of God. It was the persecution by the likes of Saul that forced the gospel out into the regions beyond Jerusalem. But it was the preaching of the gospel that actually brought about the conversion of the unbeliever to be a believer. Let's look again at verses 4 through 5 and then verse 8 and verse 12. Acts chapter 4 through 5. Therefore those who've been scattered about went about preaching the word. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them. Verse 8, So there was much rejoicing in the city. Verse 12, But when they had believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of heaven, In the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike. Why is that taking place? It is taking place because of the preaching of the Word of God. The Holy Spirit sovereignly takes the preaching of the Word of God and uses it in the hearts of those whom God has chosen before the foundations of the earth. to regenerate them and to cause them to trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. Even a man like Saul, who saw Jesus Christ as being his number one enemy, and who saw the church as that which needed to be destroyed, God chose Saul, and it was through the preaching of the Word of God that Saul's heart was changed. Persecution alone will not spread the gospel. Persecution alone will not spread the gospel. Preaching of the Word of God must be accompanied with the preaching of the gospel. Now, in some cases, the preaching of the gospel results in great peril. One such case is Simon the magician. Not always when you preach the gospel does it always result in the positive things that we're seeing here in the book of Acts. Sometimes, even in the book of Acts, the preaching of the gospel will result in even greater peril. We happen to be studying a time when the fields are ripe unto harvest. The fields are ripe unto harvest. We need harvesters to go out there. And the harvesters went out there. People like Philip went out and preached the world. It was a time of great bringing in of people into the kingdom. But there are also times, as you study scripture, when the fields are not harvested unto harvest. They're not ripe under harvest. There are times when God is going to bring judgment upon the people. And he uses the same means to bring judgment upon the people as he does to save people. And when we get done tonight, if there's time, we'll take a glimpse at Isaiah. We'll take a glimpse of Jeremiah, who they are preaching what God tells them to preach. But it's not a message that's going to result in many people coming to saving faith in God or trusting God or turning to God. It's a message is going to cause them to continue to turn away from God. Again, God is sovereign over it all. Sometimes his message is used to bring in a harvest. Sometimes his message is used to bring great judgment upon people. And that's what we're going to see tonight. We're going to see the same message, the exact same message. Many people responded to it in faith, but others responded to it in a way that brought them even greater peril. And that is the situation with Simon tonight. We see this sort of thing talked about in the Sermon on the Mount with the Parable of the Seeds, not the Sermon on the Parable of the Seeds, but in the Parable of the Seeds, where you have the different seeds that are cast out there. You have seeds that are cast out and falls on the rocky ground. It has no effect whatsoever on the hard on the hard road surface. It has no effect at all. But then you have the seed that's cast out among the rocky ground. And it seems to take root, and it seems to do well, but it runs out of moisture, and it dries up, and it becomes nothing. That's compared to the persecutions. Sometimes when we cast out seed, and we cast out the gospel, people trust it, they believe in it. They say, yes, I want this, I want to trust this. But then persecution comes into their life, and they want nothing to do with the gospel, and they abandon the gospel. Then there's that seed that's tossed out among the thorns and the thistles, and as the seed grows up, the thorns and the thistles choke it out, and the seed dies, and the plant dies. That's just like when we spread the gospel to people. They trust it, they believe in it, but then the deceitfulness of riches come into their lives, and the deceitfulness of other things, of other pleasures come into their lives, and they no longer want to live the Christian life, they'd rather follow the deceitful riches of life. They'd rather follow the deceitful pleasures of life. And so they abandon their Christianity. You see, oftentimes the gospel is spread and sometimes there's no response at all. Sometimes there is a response. And oftentimes that immediate response turns out not to be a positive response at all. But then we do realize that sometimes the seed is spread out and it falls on good, fertile soil and it takes root and it grows and it continues to grow and it produces 60, even 100 fold. That parable is a picture that shows us that not always when the gospel is preached will there be a result and a result of people truly trusting in Jesus Christ, genuine faith in Jesus Christ. And then the passage I wanted to read from the Sermon on the Mount, here's in Matthew 7, verse 13. And our men in the men's Bible study can begin to study this in the weeks to come. Matthew 7, verse 13, But he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, in your name cast out demons, in your name perform miracles? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Of course, these are two different passages. In the passage there with the narrow and the wide gate, the narrow gate is hard to find and few come into it. But the broad gate, many enter into that. So there are many that are entering in the broad gate and they think they're entering into heaven, but they're not really entering into heaven. And the same thing is true, we see those in those last few verses I said, it's read that there's going to come a day when people are going to say, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not cast out demons in your name? Did we not perform miracles in your name? They're actually prophesying, teaching in the name of God. They're working miracles in the name of God. They're doing all these external things. And yet Jesus will say, depart from me. I never knew you. The genuine believer in Jesus Christ is very important to understand who that is. And when we look at this passage tonight, we can study the life of Simon and we can understand what a counterfeit believer looks like. We can see what a damning faith looks like, because at the beginning, Simon looks like he's a true, true believer. But when you see his end and you see the way he responds to his call to repent and you go back and you look at his life, you can see, well, no, he wasn't responding just the way that he was supposed to respond. All those who are being led by the spirit of God, these are the sons of God. Those who have genuine saving faith will demonstrate being led by the spirit of God. Those who have a counterfeit damning faith will inevitably show they're not led by the Spirit of God. And that's what we'll see in the life of Simon tonight. We will see that ultimately he is not being led by the Spirit of God. Again, the spread of Christianity in Samaria led to peril for some. In this passage, we will see four troubling characteristics of one who is not led by the Spirit of God and for whom the preaching of the gospel leads to further personal peril. We will see that the preaching of the gospel is perilous for those who have a wrong view of themselves. Simon had a wrong view of himself. That is an indicator that he wasn't a true, genuine believer and that the gospel actually results in greater peril for him does not result in and salvation. The preaching of the gospel is perilous for those who have a wrong view of salvation. Simon had a total wrong view of salvation. He didn't understand salvation. He didn't understand what the gospel was really all about. The preaching of the gospel is perilous for those who have a wrong view of the spirit. Simon clearly has a very wrong view of the spirit, a very, a very dishonoring view of the Holy Spirit. And then finally, the preaching of the gospel is perilous for those who have a wrong view of their sin. And perhaps that's where his problem really begins. He has a wrong understanding of his sin. I would like us to consider these four troubling characteristics so that we might better be able to discern the true working of the Holy Spirit and salvation for those dead in their sins and under the condemning wrath of God. We want to be sure that those who respond to the gospel with a positive response of faith, that it's a genuine saving faith, that it's not a counterfeit damning faith. And by studying these four principles that we see in Simon, it will help us to be sure that when we're sharing the gospel, we share it in such a way that somebody is not allowed to live in the deception of their own minds. The preaching of the gospel is perilous for those who have a wrong view of themselves. That's the first characteristic that we will look at tonight. Let's go back to Acts chapter 8 and look at verses 9 through 11. Verses 9 through 11. Now there was a man named Simon who formerly was practicing magic in the city, astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great. We see here that we have a man named Simon who was formerly practicing magic in the city and he's characterized as practicing that magic in the city. He's characterized as astonishing the people of Samaria and he is characterized as claiming to be someone great. They all, from the smallest to the greatest of them, were giving him attention, saying, This man is what is called the great power of God. And they were giving him attention because he had for a long time astonished them with their magic arts. The Holy Spirit was powerfully regenerating the spiritually dead Samaritans. The Holy Spirit was mightily transforming the minds of these spiritually blind Samaritans to understand and embrace the truth that Philip was proclaiming and preaching about the Kingdom of God in the person of Jesus Christ. Meanwhile, Simon was practicing magic. Simon was astonishing the people. Simon was claiming he was great. Meanwhile, Simon was basking in the adoration of the people's praise, accepting the praise of being in possession of the great power of God. That is a very dangerous place to be, to be living in sin and accepting the praise of being something that is related, associated with God. Later on in the book of Acts, we'll see how this accepting of this kind of praise led to King Herod's death. Let's just look at it quickly, though, tonight. Acts 12, verse 21. Acts chapter 12, verse 21. On appointed day, Herod, having put on his royal appear, took his seat on the rostrum and began delivering an address to them. The people kept crying out the voice of God and not of man. And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give the glory, did not give God the glory and was eaten by the worms. And he died here. King Herod accepts this false praise of him. false praise that he's something great of God. And God struck him dead. The same thing is happening with Simon. Simon is allowing to receive this great praise that in him is the great power of God. There's no power of God in him whatsoever. He's just all of himself and his power has nothing to do with God whatsoever. So his accepting of that praise is just another indicator that he had a total wrong view of himself. He thought he was something great. He went around claiming to be someone great, and he kept accepting all the praise of being someone great. So that is a first indicator, that is a troubling indicator of one who is going to receive the gospel in a way that leads to greater peril. Does he really understand that he is absolutely nothing? Does he really understand that there's nothing great in himself? Or is he one that continues to look at himself as being someone who is great? And as we continue in our Christian life, we should be growing in our understanding that there's nothing great within us. None of us at the beginning of our Christian life are fully going to understand just how nothing we are. We're not going to fully understand the emptiness of who we are. But as we grow in our understanding of Jesus Christ, that should be a growing awareness within us in the Beatitudes. It's that first Beatitude, the poor in the spirit, understanding you are absolutely spiritual bankrupt and there is nothing praiseworthy or good within you. So that's the first indicator. We want to be sure that when we're sharing the gospel, we don't leave people thinking that there's something great about them as much as possible. We want them to understand that as they stand before God, they have nothing whatsoever to offer God. There is no power. There is nothing within them that they could offer to God. Now, let's look at a second troubling characteristic. The preaching of the gospel is perilous for those who have a wrong view of salvation. Look at verses 12 and 13 with me. But when they believe Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike. Even Simon himself, after being baptized, he continued on, even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized, he continued on with Philip as he observed the signs and the great miracles taking place. He was constantly amazed." You notice in verse 12, there's a special emphasis that they believed Philip preaching the good news. There's a real clear indication there that they are believing the preaching of the good news. You don't see that being emphasized as strongly with Simon. What's he really looking at? He's looking at the signs. He's believing because of the signs. He's not really believing because of the gospel. He thinks salvation has all to do with these signs. Again, the masses believe the preaching of the gospel. These Samaritans were enslaved by Satan to do his will and the Holy Spirit was liberating them to do the will of God. They were being empowered by the Spirit to do that which without the Spirit they could never do, think the thoughts of God after Himself. They were able to begin to think the thoughts of God after Himself. Simon seems to be more impressed with the signs being performed, but none of this is the work of the Spirit, none of the work of the Spirit, rather, was being done in the life of Simon because he was greatly amazed at the signs and the great miracles that were taking place. Jesus before has demonstrated his thoughts on a faith that rested in miracles and not the truth the miracles pointed to. We see this in John 2, verse 23. Now, when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, many believed in his name, observing his signs, which he was doing. But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man." He understood that the only reason these people are following Him is because of the signs that He performed. He knew their hearts. He knew they weren't really looking to Him for true salvation. In their minds, salvation had to do more with the miraculous signs that were being done. In their minds, salvation had more to do with what God could do for them in the here and the now. In this passage, Jesus condemns those following Him for not understanding the spiritual significance to which the signs were pointing. They had seen the signs with their physical eyes, but not spiritually. We shall see that Simon showed little concern for the truth of the gospel. He remained dead in his sins, blinded to the truth of the gospel. bound in a state of unbelief and not able to think God's thoughts after himself. Jesus refers to the work which endures to eternal life as the work of faith. He warns the masses not to be caught up in the signs so as to miss the need for faith that points that the signs point to. Listen to John chapter six, verse 26. Jesus answered them, answered them and said, Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for the food which perishes, for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him, the Father, for on him, the Father, God has set his seal. Therefore, they said to him, What shall we do so that we may work the works of God? Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent. Do not work for that which is temporal. Do the work that you need to do for eternal life. What is that work? It is the work of belief. God's deliverance is a deliverance from sin. God's salvation is a deliverance from the wrath which justly falls upon sinners. It is a deliverance from His own wrath. God's salvation is making a guilty sinner right with Himself. And people make a huge mistake when they come to Jesus Christ, trust in Jesus Christ, for any temporal blessing, for any horizontal blessing. And that was part of Simon's problem. He was accepting the gospel that he might have a better life, that he might have a power, that he might have what is going on. He didn't understand His sin, he didn't understand he was under the wrath of God. He didn't understand that he needed to be made right with God. He had a twisted view of salvation. Now, a third troubling aspect that we see in the life of Simon is that the preaching of the gospel is perilous for those who have a wrong view of the spirit. Simon has a horrendous view of the Spirit. He has a very blasphemous view of the Spirit. His view of the Holy Spirit is totally unacceptable. He has no concept whatsoever of who the Holy Spirit is, and that has to be transferred over to his understanding of who God is in general. He has no clear understanding of the God that is bringing the salvation to him, bringing the message to him. In Romans 8, verse 9, we read, However, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells within you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him." Let's look at verses 14 through 19, Acts 8, verse 14. Now, when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John. They came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for He had not yet fallen upon any of them. They had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they began laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, saying, Give this money to me, give this authority to me as well, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. He wanted to have that power. He wanted to have the power to go lay his hands on people, and they receive the Holy Spirit. It's not said here, but there must have been a great manifestation of receiving the Holy Spirit. And he said, wow, now that's magical power. I want that power. That's what he wanted, and he thought that he could buy it. Just to back up to what we said last week, again to remind us that the reason that these people had believed and become children of God had not yet received the Holy Spirit is because God now is working in the lives of Samaritans. People that Jewish people had no concept whatsoever are going to be brought into the kingdom of God. And in the book of Acts, Whenever God begins to work in a different group of people, that different group of people is giving a special, visible display of the work of the Holy Spirit to verify that this is the work of the Holy Spirit. Once that has been done, once or twice, you don't need to continue to do it. So that's why we see here that these believers did not immediately receive the Holy Spirit like we did when we trusted Christ. It took a while because the men that were trusted, the apostles, had to be sent in order to verify that this truly is a work of God. Nothing verifies the work of God like the gracious gift of the Holy Spirit. And I want to emphasize that the Holy Spirit is a gift. We have been given a gift. You don't purchase a gift. And this was Simon's problem. He thought he could purchase the work of God. God's working among the Samaritans would have been an astonishing and unbelievable reality to the Jewish people. To validate this as a work of God, God sent two of his apostles to go and observe the work. Once they could see that this was truly of God, they demonstrated their support of the work by associating themselves with these new Samaritan converts to Christianity. This support was demonstrated by the laying on of hands. The laying on of hands demonstrated a token of fellowship and solidarity. This support was solidified by the external work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, however, is not some commodity. that can be purchased for a price. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the eternal triune God. He is God. He is almighty. He is all-knowing. He is everywhere present. He is eternal in all of His attributes. He is eternally holy, righteous, and just. He is both love and wrath. He is full of goodness and full of mercy. He is self-existent. He is self-sufficient. He is doing the will of God the Father. This is the one whom Simon thought he could just purchase. He has no view whatsoever of who the Holy Spirit is. And this is why Peter uses such strong wording when he goes to condemn Simon for his sin. You have the gall of bitterness within you. It is a very, very strong rebuke that Simon has, that Peter has of Simon. And he even says, pray that you might be forgiven if it might be possible. It's like in Peter's mind, I don't know if you could ever be forgiven of this, Simon. What you are doing here is completely outrageous and completely disrespectful and irreverent of God, irreverent of God. So that's the third troubling aspect that we see in Simon. He had no respect whatsoever for the work of the Holy Spirit. He had a total wrong view of the work of the Holy Spirit. He had a total wrong view of God. He had an elevated view of himself, he had a wrong view of salvation, and he had a wrong view of God. And finally, the worst of all, perhaps, and maybe it's just the culmination of all, he had a wrong understanding of his sin. The preaching of the gospel is perilous for those who have a wrong view of their sin. Let's look at verses 20 to 24 verses 20 to 24. But Peter said to them, said to him, May your silver perish with you because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money. You have no part or portion in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. You have no part. no portion in this matter. There is no place within you where you can have salvation for your heart is not right before God. In verse 22, Peter then says, Therefore, repent of this wickedness of yours and pray the Lord that if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity. Peter sees the greatness of his sin, the horrendous nature of his sin. And this is what Simon needs to come to understand. But until he has a proper view of God, he's constantly going to have to an exalted view of himself. He's not going to see his need for this for salvation, and he's not going to recognize his sin. And we see just how indifferent Simon is to his sin when we look in verse 24. But Simon answered and said, Pray to the Lord for me yourselves, so that nothing of what you have said may come upon me. What is he worried about? He's not worried about how his sin has offended a holy God. He's worried about the consequences of his sin. He doesn't want the consequences of his sin to come upon him. He just wants to be delivered from the consequences of his sin. Again, he doesn't truly understand the depths of his sin. And so many people They ask for forgiveness of their sins, not because they're really broken hearted and crushed about how their sin offends a holy God, not because they want to be made right with God, but because they want the consequences of that sin to go away. They don't have a sorrow over their sin that truly leads to repentance. And the apostle Paul teaches us what that sorrow looks like in Second Corinthians, Chapter seven, verse nine. Listen to these two verses. Now I rejoice not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance. For you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. Here we see that there are two types of sorrow when it comes to your sin. There's a sorrow that is according to the will of God, and there is a sorrow that is according to the world. When it comes to our sin, we can have a sorrow that is according to the will of God, and we can have a sorrow that is according to the ways of the world. Both sorrows lead to a repentance. But the sorrow of God, according to the will of God, that leads to repentance, leads to repentance without regret. The sorrow of the world leads to repentance, but it leads to repentance of regret. What does a sorrow that leads to a repentance of regret look like? When I repent of my sin because of the consequence and the consequences go away, now I regret having repented and I go back on my repentance. I go back to living a life of sin. When I have a sorrow over my sin that is motivated by the consequences of that sin. Yes, I'll repent. I want the consequences to go away. But once the consequences go away, now I regret that repentance and I go back into my sin. But if I have a sorrow that is according to the will of God, that leads to repentance and that leads to repentance that never regrets. The consequences go away and I don't regret having repented. I wasn't regretting because of the consequences anyways. I was regretting to be made right with God. Consequences go away, I'm still made right with God. I don't regret that repentance. That's what Simon does not have. And he doesn't have it because he doesn't understand the extent of his sin. And that can play true in every area of our lives. When we see sin in our lives and we suffer the consequences of it, we have a tendency to want to repent, to see the consequences go away. But that's where, again, we need to remember that the real offense of our sin is not to the other person. And the real problem with our sin is not the consequences that we are receiving because of the temporal sin, the temporal results of the sin we committed, the real offense of our sin is against God, and the real problem with our sin is how it separates us from God. When we truly understand that and we repent of our sin, it produces a repentance that is without sorrow. I was going to take time to look at one of the passages in Exodus where Pharaoh, we all know the historical narrative where God brings a judgment upon Pharaoh and he relents for a little while. There's one of the times when God brings a judgment upon Pharaoh and Pharaoh actually says, I have sinned against you, God. He actually confesses, I have sinned against you. And he he confesses his sin and he looks like he's going to repent of his sin until the consequences are taken away. And once the consequences gone, he goes right back into his rejection of God. There even came a point where he understood, I sinned and I sinned against God. But he continued right on sinning. He continued to sin against God even after he understood he had sinned against God and the consequences were taken away. Let me just read some verses, I think, that will help us understand how to view our sin. Psalm 51, verse four against you and you only. I have sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you are justified when you speak and blame us when you are when you judge. Well, we understand that our sin is against God and he is justified to judge us. He is justified to punish us for those sins. Now we are beginning to truly understand our sin. Listen to Simon Peter in Luke, Chapter five or say, But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet, saying, Go away from me, for I am a sinful man. There was something in what Simon Peter saw in the catch of fish. He didn't have a proper reverence for Jesus Christ. There was something in his heart that when he saw that great catch of fish, it revealed to him what a wretched, sinful man that he was. Luke chapter 18, verse 13. But the tax collector standing some distance away was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven. was beating his breast saying, God, be merciful to me. a sinner. We have many examples of people that that were truly understanding the sin and even the prodigal son, the parable of the prodigal son. The son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. The brokenness of the son's brokenness of his of his of his sin and his broken heart over sin is a picture of the brokenness that we need to have over our sin, that we might receive the love of the father. And that that picture there, the prodigal son is really about the love of the father. When the prodigal son really understood that he had sinned against his father and he had sinned against heaven in his father's sight, when the father saw that true brokenness, the father welcomed him back in, just like we would, just like the father does for us. God, the father, when we truly understand the depths of our sin and we're broken over our sin, we're mourning over our sin. We go back to those first to be attitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are those who understand they're spiritually bankrupt. Blessed are those who understand what their sin has done to God and they mourn and they grieve over it. All they want to do is be made right with God. When we come to that point, we see that that level of our sin and confess our sin to that level. Then we receive the deep love of God. When looking for the genuine work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration, we must look for an understanding of one spiritual bankruptcy. We must be looking for an understanding of one's need for deliverance from all aspects of sin. We must look for one who deeply appreciates the work of God within. We must look for one who truly comprehends the wretchedness of his sin. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you, Lord, for the work that your Spirit has done in our lives. And again, we recognize that we did not come to truly understand our emptiness, our worthlessness, our sin, our need for Jesus Christ, our need for the Spirit, our need for salvation. We didn't come to understand the true definition of salvation and the true reality of salvation. We didn't come to understand those things in and of our own. This was all a work that your Holy Spirit did. We had no part in it whatsoever. It is a work that your Holy Spirit did. And so we praise you this evening, Lord. We praise you for your Holy Spirit that continues to take the preaching of the Word of God and use it in such a way that new converts are added to your kingdom. Your kingdom will continue to be built. Your church will continue to be built. As we honor your word, as we honor the call to preach your word and to teach the scriptures and to teach your word, your spirit will take that truth and will bring about the fruit that you have ordained to take place. Help us, Lord, to trust you in all of these things. Help us, Lord, not to water down the gospel so as to make more confessions, so as to result in better confessions. Help us, Lord, to understand that we are to do all things in a way that pleases and honors you. Our part in all of this, Father, is to preach the word, to do ministry in a way that glorifies you and honors you and leave the fruit of that work up to you and let you accomplish what you want to accomplish through our faithfulness to you. Do you be all the praise and the glory forever and ever. Almighty God, in your son's most holy name. Amen.