Simon the sorcerer plays a big role in identifying the Devil's Dirty Deed in part three of this series.
Simon the sorcerer plays a big role in identifying the Devil's Dirty Deed in part three of this series.
(This is a computer generated transcript of this podcast. This is NOT a typed transcript and it has not been edited. Expect grammatical and syntactical errors.)
Hello and good day. I am B. R. Maul and it is great to have you with me on the podcast, Living God's Way in an Ungodly World. This is where we get to dive into topics that pertain to the life of a Christian, the life that we live in the world today. What does that look like? How do we handle the issues that we in our generation must do that other generations in the past have not?
And we can learn by looking at past generations in God's word because our heavenly Father is very faithful, very gracious, and he gives us all that we need in his word and in praying to him. Isn't that amazing. For those who are his children, God protects us, he leads us. He gives us everything we need to not only live and survive physically, but also spiritually as well.
So it's good to have you here with me today. Today is the third podcast of the Devil's Dirty Deed. The devil is our enemy. Unfortunately, the devil is still the ruler of this world. Even though our savior, Jesus Christ has won the war, there are still some battles that we need to get through. This is all part of God's plan, so this isn't anything that our Heavenly Father doesn't know about, is himself sitting, wondering what's going to happen.
Nope. We, we get to have this wonderful knowledge that he has already beaten our enemy. However, my brothers and sisters in Christ, we have work to do. We need to get out the message of God's word. We need to fight our enemy who continues to do everything that he can with his army of demons. To persuade us, to cheat us, to get us off the narrow path, to do whatever he can.
Now, he has his limits. He's unable to take away our salvation, but he is very much so capable of taking away the blessing that our Heavenly Father has in store for us as we walk in our Lord's waves. As I've covered the last couple of weeks in this message, the devil's dirty deed, his dirty deed that I am referring to is the big lie Now, not the big lie politically in America, there's that, but this is a much bigger lie because the devil has deceived hundreds of millions.
In fact, really thinking about it. At this point through history, billions of people who see Jesus Christ as nothing more than a prophet or a really good man, or don't believe that God has a son, or that we people need to add to the blood of Christ. We need to be able to perform stuff such as baptism to be saved.
It's taught that we need to carry out traditions, we need to honor certain things from the Old Testament or the blood of Christ doesn't quite work. Brothers and sisters, all of this has lies. We have all been deceived on some level or another, and the only way around this deception, I assure you of this is by reading God's word.
And so brothers and sisters, I do hope you are indeed reading the Bible each and every day to counter all of the messages the world continues to throw at you through music, movies, TV articles, so forth and so on. Along with reading, I also hope and pray that you are praying to our Heavenly Father each and every day, and that also that you have a group of brothers and sisters in Christ that you can meet with on a regular basis.
Hopefully that is weekly, and if you are fortunate enough to have a Bible teaching and Bible preaching church to come together to worship all the better. So I may not have said it earlier. For those of you who are listening for the first time, I am indeed a child of God and I love to teach God's word.
God has been teaching me now for, well, getting pretty close to two decades. Wow. Doesn't that sound long when I say it that way. So about 19 years right now, I've been regularly in God's word, reading and studying. I had mentioned last week that I was going to talk about a man as we are discussing baptism because that is the big lie, baptism that we need to be baptized in order to be saved, that we need to be able to make sure we go through that tradition of being baptized.
But today, We are going to read about a man who not only believed and was baptized, and it turns out he was not born again. What man is this? And where am I getting this reading from? Is it a, a work of fiction? No, beloved, it is not. It is from God's word. The Holy Spirit himself made sure that we understood Simon the sorcerer.
Luke, the writer of the Book of Acts, led by the Holy Spirit, wrote this down for us. So I will begin reading in just a few moments in Acts chapter eight, starting in verse nine. Eventually the part with Simon, the sorcerer ends on verse 24 beginning in verse nine. But there was a certain man called Simon, who previously practiced sorcery in the city and astonished the people of Samaria claiming that he was someone great.
To whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest, saying, this man is the great power of God. I'll pause there. This is one way that we can pick out false prophets that we can pick out anti-Christ. One way is because there's a selfishness about them. And here Simon, the sorcerer. And if I recall right, in some of my studies, he was actually Simon Magus M A G U S, if I'm pronouncing it right, Magus.
But they refer him here as Simon, the source room, and he was claiming that he was somewhat great. You know, Christians. We don't need to do that. The children of God, when the Holy Spirit dwells within us, and we are more than eager to give the glory to our Heavenly Father, that it is not us who speaks the truth when we are teaching and preaching that it is not us.
When we pray for someone or over somebody and the Lord heals them of an ailment or of a disease. We don't take credit for that because we know it's not us. But false profits, even the ones who act the most humble, they can easily slip. And you could catch it from time to time. But here's a man, Simon, the Sorcerer.
He wasn't holding back, he was advertising himself as a great man. And he had been fooling them because they even said, this man is the great power of God. Continuing verse 11. And they heated him because he had astonished them with his sorceries for a long time. So they have been captivated by this magic of his. Verse 12, but when they believed Philip, That is those who were astonished was Simon the sorcerer when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. Both men and women were baptized. I'll pause right there. Philip, who upon the death of Steven, the first martyr, as the Jews fled in different directions, Philip ended up in Samaria. And so Philip is there preaching and he is performing himself miracles. But his miracles, of course, are true miracles because they are from God.
And we learned that from reading passages prior to this. Now, I want to just point out, because I have said before and I'll continue to say it. When we look at baptism in the New Testament, we always see that there is the belief, the repentance and belief come before the baptism, and that's important to know because in various points in the New Testament, they believe comes without even saying they were baptized, and in the few instances that is mentioned that someone was baptized, it isn't insinuating that they were only baptized because there are so many passages pointing to the very fact. That a person must believe, as Jesus himself was talking to Nicodemus about, which I spoke about several weeks ago, but also in Romans, we are reminded that one must only confess with his mouth, with his lips, the Lord Jesus, and believe in his heart.
And he will be saved. Nothing about baptism. Okay, so it's not about the water. And this is just one of many areas where people believe, which means they are born again and then they are baptized. But as we're going to see, Simon shows us that if, if it is not in the heart, then a person is not born again.
I'll back up 12 and then read right on through to 14. Listen carefully, but when they believed Philip, as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized. Then Simon himself also believed, and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip and was amazed seeing the miracles and signs, which were done. Now in 13 there is much packed in there because Simon the sorcerer himself also believed when he saw what was going on and he wanted to be baptized, and so they baptized him. To go even further, he continues with Philip. He didn't just walk away. He wanted to see more. So at first glance, here's a man who appears to really be into following Jesus Christ, and this is so important for us.
Is it not? Because we see so much of that in churches today. We see so much of that in our homes today. People who really look like they believe, and some or many have been baptized, even the biblical way. But we also have many that say, well, I was baptized as a baby and I believe in Jesus, but this passage should scare anyone to make all of us look at our relationship with the Lord to make sure that we are not falling in that category of, oh yes, I was just kind of astonished because he was amazed. Simon, the sorcerer continued with Philip and was amazed seeing the miracles and signs which were done. I can't emphasize enough that all this outward appearance.
This is the evidence of all outside appearance. We cannot judge that. Beloved. We do not have the capability. The Holy Spirit does not give us the capability of judging somebody's eternity. We can't look at somebody that we just assume has done terrible, nasty things and think, wow, good thing they're going to hell.
Or somebody that we really like and they are a nice person. They really do help people out and that they're very generous. But that person may never be walking with the Lord, and even more so that person could even have, uh, hate towards the Lord Jesus. And yet they're always going to church. They give much money, they give much of their time, and we just can't say, wow, good thing that they're in heaven now.
We can't judge people's eternity at all. And Simon the sorcerer is the biggest example of this, and it should check us to make sure that we are not doing it. Now some people, sure, they may be amazed at what they have seen, but sometimes it's not amazement. Perhaps people are just, they're born into a family.
They've always just kind of the name. Jesus has always been around. They love Christmas time. It's a beautiful time to get together and, and they feel so good when they come together in family. They're giving gifts. They're singing Christmas carols and, and singing about baby Jesus. And, and it all feels nice.
But see, none of that also gets us into heaven. And that same person grows up and of course Easter as well. And they understand the, the story of Jesus who hung on the cross, the people who hated him. And that the reason he hung on the cross. And for many people, that's just part of their day-to-day living and they just assume, well, I know all this stuff and I believe.
But here Simon the sorcerer, as we'll soon see, he believes with his head and not his heart. I'm going to continue on here because 14 through 17 will need some explaining as well. Now, when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them who, when they had come down, Prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit for as yet he had fallen upon none of them.
That's he as in the Holy Spirit for as yet He, the Holy Spirit had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. Hmm. Baffling, right? And to this day, there are some of these baffling aspects of this reading 14 through 17 cannot be fully explained. Now let me explain to you what I do understand, what I have learned and as I read the Holy Bible, what God has shown me. Once again going to 14. Well, I should also say at this point in time, the Jews and the Samarians hated each other. Now. They did not get along at all.
So, mind you, God has his way of cementing this very important relationship because the Jews still understand that it's only the Jews who are God's people. So the Samaritans, they shouldn't qualify. They really shouldn't be a part of this. And so in this time of history, there still would've been many who really struggled with that concept and may have questioned, well, do they really have the Holy Spirit, and did God really make them a part of his church?
Hmm. But we'll see here that God has a magnificent way of doing this because when the apostles in Jerusalem home base, Jerusalem, When those apostles heard that Samari had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John because Peter and John were two very important leaders. When Peter and John got there, it is important to note that they did not preach anything else.
They didn't correct anything that Phillip had said. They didn't add anything to what Phillip had said. They just came and they laid hands on the Samaritans. They had already been baptized, so there was no reason to do that again. And it says they received the Holy Spirit. They received the Holy Spirit. So what's going on here?
Well, let's sort this out first. It's important that we recognize that once Jesus ascended into heaven, then the Holy Spirit, the helper, the counselor, came to the believers. And we know from scripture now that as soon as someone is born again, the Holy Spirit takes up resident in that person. But now, remember, This was a very touchy time in history.
These are two peoples that really hate each other, but it's important now that this church is united, that it's realizing this is one church, not two separate entities going to be starting here. And so God has his way of showing his people. And the Samaritans, when I say his people, the Jews, because they were still trying to comprehend all this themselves.
And if we look back to the end of the gospel of John, we can see what happens here to the Jews. So as we see Jesus, he sees them. This is after Jesus was resurrected, John 20, verse 19. Then the same day at evening. Being the first day of the week when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, peace be with you.
They're still terrified at this moment. They are so scared right now that their lives are next, that the Jews are coming for them, and in this secure room. Suddenly, Jesus is there, just appears out of nowhere and says, peace be with you. When. He had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord, so they know it's him.
So, Jesus said to them again, peace to you. He knows they're frightened As the Father has sent me, I also send you, so he's telling them, I'm basically going to be going, so now you're going to be taking over. And when he had said this, this is interesting. He breathed on them. So Jesus is in the room, let's them know that I'm going to send you, breathes on them, and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit.
What's interesting about this and is often overlooked is that when he breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit was still not there. Okay? We know this for several reasons. One, Jesus is still present in the room and he said, I must go that the helper can come. That's one reason we know the Holy Spirit was not with them at that moment, but he did breathe on them and said, receive, and we're going to come back to that word receive in just a moment.
Now when we go into the book of Acts, so now we're going to go right to the beginning of the Book of Acts. And what's interesting here is not long after Jesus leaves, he ascended, they go back to their safe house. And when the day of Pentecost had fully come, because Jesus said, don't go anywhere. Wait until Pentecost.
They were all with one accord in one place. So all the apostles and stuff were right there, and suddenly, and I'm sorry, this is Acts two starting in verse one. Now I'm in verse two, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled a whole house where they were sitting.
Then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire. And one sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and begin to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. This is amazing because what we see here now, when we go back and look how they received the Holy Spirit.
Jesus says, receive the Holy Spirit. And when he says, receive the Holy Spirit, it's the Greek word pneuma. That's where we get our word pneumonia. And what that means is a current of air that is breathed, or a breeze. That's the word that was used, that Jesus used when he said, receive the Holy Spirit and then breathed on them.
Why is that important? Because when we go back to the scenario where Simon, the sorcerer is watching all of this, we read then in Acts eight 17, then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit that received is the exact same word, pneuma. That Jesus used, meaning a current of air that is breath or breathe.
Did you catch that? So that same terminology is used that Jesus used when he told his apostles, receive the Holy Spirit and keep in mind they did not at that time receive it. And that's what makes this so unique. Because now when it says they did receive it, we're seeing proof right away they received it.
Now, bear with me because this could get a little complicated. I want you to pay close attention because the apostles were told by Jesus, received the Holy Spirit. But it was days later that they actually were filled with the Holy Spirit, and I did a podcast on this before I preached on the difference about receiving the Holy Spirit and being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Being filled with the Holy Spirit beloved is something that we need to do on a regular basis. We're not always filled with the Holy Spirit. It is when we are doing God's work that we are filled with the Holy Spirit. We have the spirit dwelling in us. Yes, we have received the Holy Spirit if we are born again.
But we can often go astray from God's word. We can often just start doing our own thing in life, and really we can feel a, a complete disconnect because we're no longer filled with the Holy Spirit is when we ask God to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And when we read his word and pray to him and we do the work, his work that he has given to us, we are filled with the Holy Spirit.
When the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit, they started speaking in tongue. So they were speaking in tongues because the Spirit gave them utterance. As soon as the spirit filled them, they had proof they were filled. Not only did God allow for them to see it. Like a flame above their head, much the same way that he revealed the Holy Spirit as it descended upon Jesus like a dove when he was baptized, when he came out of the water.
See, these are all standalone experiences, and I say that because obviously God in his own plan, his own unique way, showing the world. Those that were there, that Jesus is, his son sent the Holy Spirit and it looked like a dove coming down. They could visually see it. The same thing with the apostles. That way they, everyone there could see these tongues, like flames above them, and then they were filled and suddenly had these spiritual gifts they started using right away, speaking in tongues.
That's important, beloved. Because now in this scenario, it kind of happened the other way around because Philip witnessed to these Samaritans and they believed, which means they were born again and they were baptized. And I'm not seeing the scripture saying that they didn't have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them.
The Holy Spirit just had not fallen upon them. And that's the exact word in English that's used in chapter eight, verse 16. For as yet, he, the Holy Spirit had fallen upon none of them. That word fallen in Greek is epipipto and it means to embrace. So the Holy Spirit had not embraced them yet with affection. You know, like you would give someone a big hug and embrace them, but it can also mean to seize, like to, in other words, to grab hold almost violently.
So picture somebody who hasn't seen someone a loved one for a long time, and you just embrace them. You grab a hold of them, that's something you're going to feel. Physically, yes, but emotionally, definitely. So what it's saying here is that they were born again, they were baptized, they were believers, they were Christian.
But God, in his divine knowledge knew that the Jews, which in this case Peter and John, were the ones that came from Jerusalem. And the Samaritans, both sides had to witness this transition because if this would've happened without Jerusalem, the apostles there, it easily could have. Gone a different direction.
There could have easily been argued. We didn't see that. Oh yeah, we saw when the Holy Spirit came upon us, but we didn't see anything. Philip, did you see anything? And Philip would've been like one the, well, no, I didn't actually see anything because Beloved, do we see anything today? We don't see the Holy Spirit descending like a dove or like tongues, like little flames above people's heads.
We don't see that kind of stuff. That's what God used at this point in time in history. So isn't that great that he actually waited and when Peter and John got there and they just laid hands, then they, the Samaritans received the Holy Spirit. And we know that something visual happen as proof. Just like the apostles visually saw the tongue, the flame above the heads, and then when they were filled, they started to speak in tongues and they too would have felt this wonderful, like that great big hug like being seized because that's something that can happen and many a times with people after they are born again, they can feel it and they become aware of the fact.
Many testimonies. I have heard of people, just comments like the freedom of the awareness that I knew I was free for my sin. All this weight was lifted off my shoulder. I just wanted to cry. And some people say, I just laughed. I couldn't stop laughing. I was just so jubilant. I mean the, the way people describe the Holy Spirit filling them, even today. But in God's word, we have the proof because now let me continue in verse 18, so I'll back up to 17. Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. Peter and John laid hands. The Samaritans received the Holy Spirit, and when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostle's hands, the Holy Spirit was given.
And of course this is Simon, the sorcerer. He offered them money saying, give me this power also that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit. So there's our proof that something visual happened. Did you catch that? Because when Simon saw that through the laying on the apostle's hands, the Holy Spirit was given.
He offered them much money. He saw something. Now, what did he see, beloved? What happened when Peter and John laid their hands on these Samaritans? Something happened. Now, I don't know. Nobody knows for sure what happened other than it was visual. They could see it. So not only could Simon, the sorcerer, but Peter and John and Phillip and the other Samaritans that were all there, they saw what had happened.
Using the Bible to check the Bible, we can speculate what happened. Now, what happened isn't important in the sense of how God revealed it to them. That doesn't apply to our salvation, that doesn't apply to people being saved, and I personally even just teaching it right now to you. I really believe that the reason we don't know is because God knew he wasn't going to continue doing this visual stuff, but this is for this time because it's so important the way the Samaritans and the Jews both can witness that it is the same God, the God, Yahweh, that is making the Samaritans his children. Now, we know the Apostles when they were filled with the Holy Spirit, that they were speaking in tongue and had utterances. So perhaps the Samaritans started uttering in tongue or perhaps the Holy Spirit visually descended upon them, whether the form of a dove or the fire or whatever it might have been.
Or perhaps they were laughing or crying uncontrollably with happiness. Who knows? There are many ways that God reveals himself to people coming to mind. Even the way Saul transitioned to Paul, that was a radical transition. So God has his way of showing and revealing himself to people, to his children, and to those who are seeking him.
The important thing is that we know that it was visual because Simon, the sorcerer was very excited when he saw it. So, let me continue, I'll back up again. 18. And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostle's hands, the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money saying, give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands on may receive the Holy Spirit to hear already the greed. He's already giving it away that he is not a born again believer. And Peter, notice how quickly he sees this, but Peter said to him, your money perish with you because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money.
You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore, of this. Your wickedness and pray. God, if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you, for I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity. I'll stop right there.
We just have one more verse. That was through verse 23. Peter sees right away the Holy Spirit shows, Peter that this man is not a child of God. He does not believe in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. He believes the way people believe today. They like what they hear. They like Christmas. They like Easter.
Simon the source heard and liked what he heard. He liked the idea of being saved. He liked the idea, but he never opened his heart to Jesus. And he was even baptized. So obviously baptism can't just save somebody because you got Philip, you have one of the apostles who baptized him. So when I hear preachers and teachers today, Tried to convince me that the very act of baptizing is some spiritual way that we can't explain it.
And so even an infant who can't respond can be saved to me is ludicrous because here is a man very close to Jesus, one of his chosen apostles who baptized a man who genuinely seemed very interested and wanted to be baptized and yet, The baptism did not save Simon the sorcerer. There is nothing in God's word that tells us otherwise.
So beloved, yes, we must. We must be mindful of this infant baptism and we must help others truly realize that that does nothing a person truly needs to know in their heart and confess with their mouth. The reason there's that connection of heart and mouth is because that's, that's proof to oneself and to the world by confessing it.
But no one else can see the heart. Only God can see the heart. Now, why do we know that Simon ultimately did not take Jesus as his Lord and Savior? Let me read verse 24. Then Simon answered and said, Pray to the Lord for me that none of the things which you have spoken may come upon me. Did you catch that?
Then Simon answered and said, so Simon the sorcerer is responding to Peter. When Peter said, you, you better repent of your wickedness. He says, pray to the Lord for me. That none of the things which you have spoken may come upon me. There are two tell tales right there, beloved coming right out of Simon, the Sorcerer or his mouth, that he did not take Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.
Cuz being Lord means Jesus is the Lord of our life. He owns us. He says, pray to the Lord for me. In other words, I'm not going to pray to him. He's not my God. He's not my Lord. You do it for me. He's your Lord. Save me. And that's the second part of that. What's his concern? He is just concerned because he doesn't want any of the bad stuff to happen to him.
That none of the things which you have spoken may come upon me. See, that's the difference between regret and repentance. Simon the sorcerer there's no proof that he repented. This is just, I regret. It's like someone being caught doing something wrong and say, I'm sorry. Well, you're sorry because you were caught.
But if they don't repent and turn from their ways, well then that's all it is, is sorry. And they just regret being caught. So Simon, the sorcerer, read God's word for yourself. Go back. To Acts eight and read nine through 24 for yourself, and you will see as God's word said, he believed and he was baptized.
And yet Simon, the sorcerer was not born again. I certainly hope that this has helped open the eyes for those who still want to hang on to your infant baptism, and I understand that, beloved, because I was there, that was me years ago. I was baptized as a baby and it was very hard for me to chew on this information that so many people around me could be misled.
And I say misled because my loved ones, my mom, the people at the church, the pastors that were there and those teaching Sunday school, nobody meant to hurt me. Nobody meant to mislead people. They themselves were misled. My mother, not long ago, because remember, she was Lutheran for quite a while. It wasn't that long ago that she admitted and told me, son, I that's just what I thought. I truly thought that's what we did as baptized babies to save them. She has learned since as well. So it's not an easy thing to come across. And if you are struggling with that, I do sympathize, but I pray for you. I pray right now that the Holy Spirit move, you give you that sense of peace.
It's okay to be wrong. It's okay to to have misunderstood. To have been misled however it came about, and you are free from relying upon that. And I encourage you, if you have not been baptized the Bible way to do it, to do it, it is important. Why? Because Jesus told us to. He said, go out to the nations, make disciples.
And then baptize those disciples in the name of the Father, son, and Holy Spirit. If there's a church leader, a spiritual leader around that's willing to do it, that's great, but if not a loved one or someone who's been walking with you, with the Lord can do that. But it's a public way. It's a, it's our way of showing ourselves first and foremost, I, I believe that it is for our own benefit.
God doesn't need it because he already weighs your heart. Proverbs 17, verse three. Refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord weighs the hearts. He tests the hearts. He knows our hearts. And he strengthens our weakness because he knows the weaknesses of our heart. And so that baptism is for us, and I talked about it last week, but I'll say a little more, that isn't that just wrong of us as people to insist that first of all, we have the power.
Oh yes, it's the blood of Christ. It's the blood of Christ that gives the power and the water, and then the water, we can go ahead and save. There's so many ways that's wrong, but the very fact that we, we are robbing somebody of their baptism because it is truly a blessing to be baptized, the person being baptized.
I was baptized. I was baptized as a baby, but I didn't accept that as my baptism because it wasn't my choice. I wasn't the one that said, yes, I want to do this. And when the Holy Spirit revealed to me what he has over the years and revealed to me that, yes, Bruce, go, go ahead. Tell yourself in the world that you belonged to God, that you are a follower of Jesus Christ.
And I was baptized. I was baptized in a church. They had a pool. And it was magnificent. It really, really was. And anybody who has not done it is truly missing out. There was nothing magical about the pool they put me in. There was nothing magical about the water. I was saved years and years and years earlier before I got baptized.
I was born again. And I can say that with 100% confidence. Cause I can look back and I see how the Holy Spirit has changed me in that sanctification that he has been doing for the last, almost two decades now through God's word. And there was definitely changes before I was baptized. So that is the passage then about Simon the sorcerer work.
I do want to end with this. Turn, if you would, if you have your Bible in front of you to First John, chapter two, verse 15. So first John chapter two, verse 15. As Simon the sorcerer, there are many, many others that go through such a process and are in it for the wrong reason. And I say in it, I was going to say a relationship they with the Lord.
But I guess they're not even really in the relationship. It's like they're, for those who love Christmas and they, they love Easter and they love the stuff that that kind of comes with Christianity. They love the concept of it, but they never believe in their heart. It's always just the belief in their head.
Their salvation is just inches away. If they can only go from the head to the heart, but they never want to truly give themself to Jesus. These are people who still wanna live their own way, so they start to participate, but they don't remain, and God's word makes it clear. That you cannot lose your salvation.
I'll talk more about that in the coming weeks. I still have more to say about infant baptism, but we'll talk about the fact that you can't lose your salvation, beloved. We'll, look at God's word for that, because there's places that tell us that these people, they were never saved to begin with. In first John chapter two, verse 15, it reads, Do not love the world or the things in the world.
If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world, and the world is passing away and the lust of it. But he who does the will of God abides forever. For those who claim to be Christian, who go to church, who enjoy the celebration of Christmas and Easter, who enjoy the idea of being a Christian, but their lives don't reflect it.
They live of the world. We all live in the world, but the are the ones who live of the world. They love watching what they wanna watch. No matter how horrendous they'll do whatever it takes to make money, they serve the lust of the flesh over and over. I'll continue reading. So John says in verse 18, little children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard, that the Antichrist capital A Antichrist is coming.
Even now, many antichrists Lowercased, a antichrist have come by, which we know that it is the last hour. With that, we only need to look in the news, right? We see that all over the place. Many anti-Christ. There are many false prophets. There are many preachers and priests who are claiming that they are preaching God's word and they are preaching 99% of it, but they have 1% that is absolute poison, which makes it not God's word.
Verse 19, they went out from us. But they were not of us for, if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. That's so huge. First John, chapter two, verse 19. Let me break that down quickly. They went out from us.
Who's they? The false teachers. The false prophets. That's who he's referring to, the antichrists so that's not even people who are just going to church. That's even easier just to fill the pew and say Thank you and take communion and leave, and then go on the rest of your week doing whatever you want.
He's talking about those who are preaching in front of people. They went out from us, but they were not of us. For, if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. They would've stayed the course. They would've stayed to the gospel that Jesus breached. But what did they do? It says, but they went out that they might be made manifest.
Well, I love words, so I went ahead and looked up manifest. And manifest going by the Miriam dictionary is readily perceived by the senses and especially by the sense of sight. Isn't that something which means to be manifest means to be recognized that people see you, so what he's saying is they went out that they might be made manifest.
That people would just love them, that they would become famous and popular, have a following. We see so much of that, and my heart breaks for all those who fall for it because they don't know God's word. But John makes it clear that none of them were of us. So if they weren't of us, that means they weren't born again, period.
It's a lot, isn't it? I wanna leave on a little more of an upbeat notion, because yes, there are those many who are lost, but you know what? It's not too late if you are listening to this, God himself is either reminding you that you are his, you belong to him, and that he has a life for you. He wants you to get into his word as he told me some 19 years ago, Bruce, open the Bible and don't stop reading it.
And if you are not a child of God yet, you know what? It's not too late. It is not too late at all to ask for forgiveness, to repent of your sins, to ask Christ into your heart. And if you believe he knows that, and if you're struggling even with that, just ask God because he loves you. And just say, Lord, I wanna believe I'm having troubles.
I'm struggling. Help me. And he will. You're welcome to contact me. Whether you're a brother and sister and you just want to talk about our Heavenly Father, or you have questions that perhaps I can help you with, or if the Lord has done great things in your life, just to share them with me, because I love listening to the testimony of others, it's uplifting to me.
So go to my website, brmaul, that's B R M A U l.com and just click on contact. And get ahold of me. Let me know what you're thinking. I really do appreciate that. It means a lot to me. Or if you're not a brother and sister and you just don't know and you wanna know more and you don't know who to turn to.
You're just hearing my voice and you're thinking that's, I don't know. I don't know what else to do. The same thing. You go to my website, click on that. And say, Bruce, I need some more guidance. I have some more questions, whatever it might be, and I'm happy to serve you. It's wonderful.
I'm so excited because, the amount of downloads on this podcast is increasing substantially. The Lord is definitely speaking to people and that is great. And I praise the Lord and I ask you to pray for me and pray for my podcast, that people who are listening do indeed react to the Holy Spirit.
Prayers are so important and I can also use financial support. I choose to do this. It is so important to me, I need to extend out to even more people. So I can get on radio with radio ads, so people will go to the podcast, ways to reach out to people on the internet, and anything that you can do to support this ministry, I will be grateful for.
Just go to brmaul.com, that's brmaul.com, and there's a click on there of Support the Ministry. And you can do that, , by sending cash or check. You can do that by using PayPal or you can even use credit card processing right there online. And I thank you in advance for your prayers and anything that you do to support can help the ministry. Blessings to you.
Well, with that said, beloved, there's still more to talk about when it comes to this infant baptism. The devil's dirty deed of lying to us, and so there's still more I need to talk about with infant baptism. So next week I plan on discussing how there are those who claim that people can just be baptized without having to repent or believe because somebody that they know repented or believed, and then the whole house was saved. That again, the devil's dirty deed continues to lie to us. So thanks for bearing with me. I know this week has been a longer one, but it's great to have you here with me and until next time, God bless.
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