Simon the Magician - The Unbelieving Believer

Alright, let's take our Bible. Let's turn to the book of Acts. We'll be in chapter eight, verses nine to 24. Chapter eight, verses nine to 24, I will go ahead and tell you we will not cover all of these verses. I will explain to you what that will look like a little later on in the message. Now last week we covered verses one to eight, chapter eight, in what I call the scattering of the church, the great outbreak of persecution. We know this is the church of Jerusalem that was scattered, mostly the Hellenistic Jewish Christians that were scattered and I call it the great outbreak of persecution because this persecution was successful.

I will explain that here in a minute. But we've already seen that when Stephen preached the gospel to the Sanhedrin, as a result, the Sanhedrin, that would be the Jewish religious leaders, they literally lost their minds and all together, they violently see Stephen and they stone him outside of the city. Verse one says, and there arose on that day, that day meaning the day they stone Stephen, there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem. And they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles.

And verse three says, Saul, we know he became the apostle Paul, Saul was ravaging the church like a wild animal and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. And whereas the previous two persecutions against the church were not successful, the third persecution certainly was. This third persecution was successful in that the religious leaders were able to do what they always wanted to do. And that was to kill the Christians and try to destroy the church. But we learned that this third and great persecution was successful in another way.

It seems that most, if not all of the Hellenistic Jews were scattered out of Jerusalem, but as they were scattered, they preached the gospel and the lost came to faith in Christ. Verse four says, those who were scattered went about preaching the word. We learned that this word scattered refers to a scattering in order to be planted. And when Philip went down to Samaria preaching and planting the gospel, many believed in Christ and the text says that the city was filled with joy. So take note of what we saw last week. God in his providence allowed this great persecution for his purposes.

Jesus had told his disciples that they would certainly be his witnesses in Judea and Samaria until the ends of the earth. We know that verse, Acts 1a. And God was allowing this persecution as a means to carry out this work through his church. Now there's a lesson here on God's providence. God's providence. Now let me give you a verse that will help you personally in understanding God's providence for you, Ephesians 2.10. Paul says in Ephesians 2.10, for we, that would be us as believers, we are his workmanship. God's workmanship, a project created in Christ Jesus for good works. If we pause there, we get it, yes. He saved us for good works.

Notice which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Now this phrase beforehand, God prepared beforehand means this. God has prepared beforehand, before time in human history, good works for his people, for us. And all we have to do is be spirit-filled, spirit-led Christians. And if we're spirit-led, spirit-filled, well, we will find those good works and we are to walk or to live in those good works. Simply God has a providential plan for our lives and we're to walk in that plan.

And as we continue in our study of Luke's account of the Acts of the Church, I call Luke's account here, the Acts of the actions of the Holy Spirit through the church. As we continue, we will see that the saving work of the gospel and the planting and the growth and the development of the church, it certainly did spread throughout Judea, some area, and even to the ends of the earth. Again, Jesus has a mighty expectation for his church and we should too. Now last week we saw Philip. Philip was and is one of those leading laymen in the church at Jerusalem. Just like Stephen, he went down into some area. Now let me clarify what I just said.

Last week we saw that Philip, who was one of those leading laymen there in the church at Jerusalem, just like Stephen. But Philip, he went down into some area, preaching the gospel, preaching Christ Jesus. And God gave him great, I call it gospel success. Many came to believe in Jesus. There was much joy there in the city and of course God used those miraculous powers that he had given Philip to do great miracles before the people. But I did not explain the significance of the gospel work in Samaria. Mentioned that last week. Simply Samaria was off limits for the Jews, especially what we would call the Orthodox Jews.

Samaria was a hated place and Samaritans were a hated people. That is because Samaritans were a half-breed people. They were half Jew and half Gentile. It is safe to say that the Orthodox Jew in their day, they hated the Gentile people, but the only people they hated more were the Samaritans. But the nation of Samaria originated centuries before when the Assyrians captured the 10 northern tribes, the Jews. That was in 732 BC. And as a part of their conquest of the Jewish people, the Assyrians deported many of the Jews and then they imported many of their own people who then intermarried with the remaining Jews.

And this mixture of Jew and Gentile people became known as the Samaritans because that was the region they lived in. And 2 Kings 1733 describes the religion that developed among the Samaritan people. Simply their religion was a mixture of Judaism and the gods, little G, and customs of the people of the land. We can see the hatred and the hostility between the Samaritans and the Jews when the Jews returned from Babylonian captivity to rebuild their lives, to rebuild their homes in the temple, we see that in Ezra in Nehemiah.

And this hatred and hostility grew and grew during what is called the inter-testamental period, which is the time between the record in the history of the Old Testament and the record in the history of the New Testament. We see this hatred and hostility all throughout the Gospels. If we pay attention, we see it in Luke 9, verses 52 to 53, and John 8, starting in verse 48. And one of my favorites is John chapter four. John chapter four, we see where Jesus had to go into Samaria and all the disciples were not happy. Of course, we know that chapter because that's when Jesus encountered the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman.

Now, what is my point? For the Jews, Samaria was literally the wrong side of the tracks and the Samaritan people were hated. They were half Jew, that would have been the chosen people of God and half Gentile, that would have been pagan, the pagan people. They had their own half Jewish, half pagan religion, and they even had their own priests and had their own place of worship. But Jesus told his disciples and by extension, his church and by extension us, that they would be witnesses in Samaria, Acts 1a. And here we find that Philip was right in the middle of Samaria enjoying great gospel success.

And tonight we pick up where we left off with Philip last week in Samaria. And here Luke tells us of a specific individual who heard Philip's preaching. He believed his name is Simon or Simon the magician. But we will see that Simon became a believer but what I call an unbelieving believer. Yes, an unbelieving believer. And I will explain that a little more. And that leads me to the title of the message. Simon the magician, the unbelieving believer, the unbelieving believer. Now, before we get into our verses, notice how our study in Hebrews helps us here. We have been learning of the great sin of apostasy.

We have learned that there are those who profess Christ, they would say they believe in Christ and they can even truly look like born again believers. They may even be model Christians or even leaders. But they leave the faith proving that they were never born again to begin with. So the apostate, in the apostate we have the unbelieving believer. In the apostate they profess Christ, they make a profession of faith in Christ but they don't possess a faith in Christ. Now, there's a lesson here and that is the seriousness of understanding this reality.

I have known people, they just can't grasp and accept the fact that people can be a professing believer but an unbeliever. I've known people that just can't get past that. They would say, pastor, they say they're a Christian, they've gotta be a Christian. When actually they are a professing believer but not a possessing believer. And we need to see the prevalence of the unbelieving believer in our time. We have so many who profess Christ but they don't possess Christ because of the easy believeism that so permeates our culture, so permeates our churches. And we need to see how this relates to healthy church life.

Because in healthy church life we will point out any error that can slip in and especially any error that relates to the gospel and what it means to be a true Bible believing Christian. So if it seems like I point out this problem a lot, it's because I do. Because this is a problem that we face in our day, in our time, in our family, in our culture. Now, let's get to our verses, verses nine to 24. But there was a man named Simon who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great.

And they all paid attention to him from the least to the greatest saying, this man is the power of God that is called great. And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic. But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized both men and women. Even Simon himself believed and after being baptized, he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed. Now that would be the signs and the miracles of Philip.

Verse 14, now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them. That would have been the spirit. But they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they, that would have been Peter and John, laid their hands on them and they, that would have been the Samaritans who believed they received the Holy Spirit.

Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles hands, he offered them money, saying give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter said to him, may your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain or buy the gift of God with money. You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right with God or before God. Repent therefore of this wickedness of yours and pray to the Lord that if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.

And Simon answered, pray for me to the Lord that nothing of what you have said may come upon me. Now tonight I want us to examine Simon's unbelieving belief. And I want us to do that in two ways. First, I want us to see the things that he did right in his profession of faith. And then second or the other side of the coin, I want us to see what was wrong in his profession of faith. So number one, Simon did three things right. He did three things right. Let's read verses nine to 13 again. But there was a man named Simon, who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great.

They all paid attention to him from the least to the greatest saying, this man is the power of God that is called great. And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed him with his magic. But when they, that would have been the people, believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, they, that would have been the people of Samaria, they were baptized both men and women. Verse 13, even Simon himself believed. And after being baptized, he continued with Philip. Now this is simple. And we could overlook these details to focus on so many other things that went on here.

But look, first Simon believed. Right here we see this in verse 13. Luke clearly says that Simon believed and Luke used the same word to say Simon believed that he used in verse 12 to say that many Samaritans believed. This word believe, translated believed, is pistuo in the Greek language in which this was written originally. It simply means to think to be true, to place one's confidence in, it simply means to believe. And that's a key word here we'll come back to. And we see this word used all throughout the New Testament to speak of genuine saving belief. But the thing I want us to see here is this.

Luke tells us in verse 12 that many of the Samaritans, they heard the gospel from Philip and they believed, pistuo believed. And in verse 13 he tells us that Simon believed. And if we stop right here, we would assume that he had genuine saving faith. But then second notice, Luke tells us Simon was baptized here in the verse, verse 13, we see that Simon not only believed, but he was baptized. He was accepted into his profession of faith just like the others and he was baptized. And remember this, scripturally, as seen in the New Testament, baptism is one's profession of faith. Not the things we are so familiar with in our day.

Some churches do what's called a traditional invitation where someone walks down the aisle and they talk to the pastor or a staff member and they're presented and they're presented as professing Christ. But walking down the aisle of a church and being presented to the church is not seen in the New Testament. People believing in Jesus, they were baptized and that baptism was their legitimate public profession of faith in Christ. Now remember what baptism is. When I was doing some study, I went back and I pulled out my old copy of our church statement of faith. But listen to what we say here in our statement of faith.

We believe that Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water. Now we have several scripture references there noted to back up what we say. Performed in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Again, scripture references to talk about the prescription of baptism here in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in order to demonstrate in a solemn and beautiful emblem the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior and his purifying power that baptism symbolizes that the believer is now dead to sin and resurrected to walk in newness of life.

Again, lots of scripture references that baptism has no saving power within itself and therefore does not such aid in salvation but follow salvation and it is the prerequisite to the privileges of church membership. Now what's my point here? We thoroughly explain what baptism is. There's no excuse for you to be confused there. But my point right here is this. Not only did Simon believe or profess belief in Christ, he was baptized as a biblical Christian and baptized in his profession of faith and baptism is a symbol of those things. But then third, Luke shows us that Simon followed.

Here in verse 13, we see that Simon not only believed in Jesus, not only was he baptized, but there's more. He did that which was a custom of the day, especially for disciples of Christ. He followed after Philip and he followed after those newly born disciples. Now this is something we could easily miss on our day but in their day, it was custom for Jews to attach themselves to a noted rabbi or teacher and to follow them. This went on in other pagan religions as well. The disciple would attach themselves to the mentor or the teacher. Sometimes they would stay with them. Sometimes they would even live with them. They would travel with them.

They would be with them. They would follow their teacher so as to learn from them. So that is just what Simon did here. He continued with Philip and the other newly born disciples. This is the same thing that we see in Acts chapter two. At Pentecost when so many were born again, the text says they devoted themselves to the apostles and their teachings. And those Hellenistic Jews who had come from all over the world now to Jerusalem for Pentecost, when they came to faith, saving faith, they didn't go home, they stayed. They devoted themselves to the apostles and their teaching. So look at what we have here in verse 13.

Simon did three things right. He believed, he was baptized, and he followed after Philip and those other newly born disciples. And notice something. If we stop right here, we would believe and say that Simon was born again and listed among the believers. If we stop right here, we would have no problem believing that Simon became a faithful member of the First Baptist Church of Samaria or Grace Life Church Samaria. I mean, we would just say he was a member. Now question, do you believe that Simon was truly born again? Have you ever even given it much thought?

You might say, "Pastor, I don't know "that I've ever read those verses." But before we continue, I want us to see that we have what James Montgomery Boyce calls the strange case of Simon. The strange case of Simon. And that is because Luke tells us that he believed, he was baptized, and he's listed among the believers following after Philip. But it is strange because Simon's story becomes so strange and so confusing a little later on. It doesn't take long for him to be way off the rails.

Some see Simon as a true believer, who immediately got off into some serious sin, but others see Simon as a false believer, one who professed Christ but never possessed true saving faith. Well, you know my colors, I've already told you my position. But there is a lesson here. We will have strange cases. As well. We will have some who profess Christ and they will become members of the church. But they will shipwreck their faith, they will get off the reservation, and they will prove themselves to be a strange case. And it can be really, really hard to wrangle with people like this. We will have strange cases.

Sometimes we'll have to scratch our heads. But if they're true believers, they'll come back and we believe in the perseverance of the saints. The Spirit of God perseveres in us, therefore we persevere in him. But we learn now that the apostate will go the other way. So sometimes those strange cases turn out not to be so strange. But then number two, Simon had four things wrong. We see this in verses nine to 24. He did some things right, but he had four things that were wrong. In one verse we saw what Simon got right. But it takes all of these other verses to see what he got wrong. In one verse we see what he did.

But in all these other verses we see who he was, who Simon actually was. But we have a hint of all that he got wrong. In verse 13, the second part, or the last part of the verse, and this hint really cracks open the door of his heart, which was full of sin. Look at verse 13 again. Even Simon believed, and after being baptized, he continued with Philip. Here's the hint. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed. Now I wanna point out four things that Simon got wrong, and this will show us truly who Simon was. And I will read these verses as we go. First, Simon saw himself as someone great. Look back at verses nine to 11.

But there was a man named Simon who had previously practiced magic in the city, and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great. They didn't have to ask him if they thought he was great, he told them. And they all paid attention to him from the least to the greatest, saying this man is the power of God that is called great. And they, that's the people of Samaria, paid attention to him because for a long time, he had amazed them with his magic. Here we see that Simon was a man who practiced magic among the people. And this was a mixture of really quite a lot. This was a mix of real science.

This was a mix of astrology. This was a mix also of occultic or demonic practices, divination as well, which is demonic, along with mathematics and agriculture. And scholars tell us that this magic, this sorcery really came out of the culture of the Medo-Persians. So this was pagan, this was demonic. So this magic was more than just a magic show. It was pagan, it was occultic, it was demonic. But here we see that Simon was a great magician or sorcerer who amazed the people of Samaria and they listened to him. Luke tells us that for a long time, he amazed the people and that he presented himself as someone great. And notice two details.

First in verse nine, Simon proclaimed to the people that he was someone great. And then second in verse 10, the people said that he was great or he had the power of God or the power of some kind of a deity. And get this, by saying this man is the power of God that is called great, they were showing that Simon presented himself as deity and they somehow saw him as deity. Now what's the point? Simon not only had a pride problem in believing himself to be great, he had some kind of a God complex. He saw himself as some kind of a God. And the people did too. But then second, he saw belief in Jesus as a means to gain power.

He saw belief in Jesus as a means to gain power. We see this in verses 12 to 13. But when they believed, Philip, as he preached good news about the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Even Simon himself believed and after being baptized, he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed. And Luke's telling of these events, we can see that Simon was a man of great power, but Philip was a man of greater power. Philip came in the power of the Holy Spirit of God.

Simon amazed the people of the city with his great demonic power, but Philip came in with the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit and the miraculous power of the gospel. So much so that many in the city believed and there was great joy in the city. So the simple fact is this, Simon saw his power eclipsed. Simon was put out of business. All of Simon's followers seem to have left him to follow Philip. His followers came to saving faith in Jesus. Therefore, they left Simon and his demonic magic. Simon lost his business. I would imagine that they went home and burned Simon's books.

But again, remember that Luke tells us that Simon did what so many others did. He believed he was baptized and he followed. And he followed this gang of new believers with Philip. But the rest of the story tells us how Simon actually saw belief in Jesus. We see that he followed after Philip and he was amazed at the miracles that Philip performed. So the point here is this, Simon believed that believing in Jesus would get him close to and somehow enable him to gain this new power. Let me repeat this. Simon believed that believing in Jesus would get him close to and somehow enable him to gain or get this new power.

You may say, how do you know that based off the limited information of verse 13? Later on, Luke shows us that Simon offered money to the apostles to somehow buy the power of the Holy Spirit who was at work in and through the apostles in Philip. So verse 13 kind of cracks the door of Simon's heart but the rest of the story opens the door of Simon's heart fully. And we see that he somehow saw belief in Jesus as a way to gain power somehow to get this new power. Now question, how many people see Jesus' salvation in even the church as things to be acquired to somehow gain a better life? Let me repeat that question.

How many people see Jesus' salvation, even the church, as things to be acquired to somehow gain a better life? In John 6, Jesus identified the groups of followers who were following him because they believed that Jesus could give them a better life. There were some who were following Jesus for a miracle. He said, you just want another while. You want your emotions to just go out of the roof. They just wanted to be wild. Some were following him for food. He had fed the 5,000. And so he said, some of you are following because you just want your belly full again.

Some of them were following him because they wanted him to boot out the Romans and they thought he would be a king like King David. What am I trying to show you? There were different groups following Jesus and they were looking for Jesus to give them something that they wanted. People do that today. They see Jesus' salvation, even the church, they see those things as something to be acquired so as somehow to gain something better in life. You know, men do this in ministry. Some men go into the ministry for position. Some men go into the ministry for power. Some men go into the ministry to gain something.

Then third, he thus Simon saw the Holy Spirit as something he could buy. He saw the Holy Spirit as something he could buy. Verse 14 to 19. Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit for he had not yet fallen on any of them. That would have been the Spirit. But they, that's the believers here, had only been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they, that's Peter and John, laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on the hands by the apostles hands, he offered them money saying, "Give me this power also so that anyone on whom I lay "my hands may receive the Holy Spirit." Now here we have some verses that really stir up some questions. I know that. And honestly, many misunderstand some of these verses and abuse what we have here. So what do we make of the apostles coming down and dispensing the Holy Spirit like this? What do we make of the Samaritans believing in Jesus but yet not having the Spirit? Well, we will get to that next week.

Next week we will look at the meaning and the significance of the Holy Spirit being poured out on the Samaritans in Samaria through the apostles, even why it matters that Peter and John came. We will look at how this is connected to the outpouring of the Spirit earlier at Pentecost. And then we will see how this is connected with the outpouring of the Spirit later on with the Gentiles. All of this is connected and it means something. But tonight we're studying Simon. Tonight I want us to zero in on what Simon did here and what he revealed about himself or what Luke really reveals about Simon. Here we see that Simon was totally captivated.

I think I ran across this today. He was even drunk with what took place with Peter and John. Before now he was amazed by what he saw in Philip. But here he was totally captivated by Peter and John and their gifts. So when he saw that the Holy Spirit was given upon the laying of their hands, Simon offered the apostles money to buy the gift. When explaining this type of magic that Simon was caught up in, we could call it sorcery. One thing that I ran across by studying different commentators in sources is that they pointed out that it was common for these sorcerers and magicians to buy and sell the magic to others.

I guess this would have been their tricks, the tricks of men. It was common for them to sell and buy those gifts, I guess, among themselves within their trade. So with that in mind, notice what Luke is showing us here. Simon saw the apostles as sorcerers like him. So he offered them money to buy their gift. But notice Peter's response. We see this in verses 20 and 21. But Peter said to him, "May your silver perish with you "because you thought you could obtain "the gift of God with money. "You have neither part nor lot in this matter, "for your heart is not right with God." Now this is simple, it's brutal, but it's simple.

Peter was furious at Simon and what he asked. And we know that because of the language. John MacArthur says that the literal meaning of what Peter said has been softened by the English translations. He points to the Phillips translation, which says that Peter actually said something like this, "To hell with you and your money." And MacArthur says this really captures the real meaning of what Peter said here. This would have been under the umbrella of what we would call righteous indignation. And the point here is this, two things.

First, Simon thought that the Holy Spirit was something to be bought and sold, like sorcery, like tricks, like magic. And second, Peter saw that Simon's money, his intentions, even Simon himself, he saw all of those things as worthy of hell. You see that? Peter saw Simon's money, his intentions, what he was trying to do, even Simon himself as worthy of hell. He said, in my words, "May your money perish with you "in hell because you thought you could buy God." And a question, does this happen today? Do men and women somehow think they can gain the gift and the work of the Holy Spirit through worldly means? Churches do this all the time.

They think that they can bring in worldly entertainments and worldly methods of evangelism. The church, anytime the church does the work of the church the world's way, somehow, some way, they think that they can gain the work of God using the world. So Simon thought he could buy the Spirit, therefore the power of the Spirit. And then fourth, he saw his horrific sin as less than it was. We could turn it around and say it like this, he did not see the significance of his sin. Look at the verses, verse 22 to 24.

Peter says, "Repent therefore of this wickedness of yours "and pray that the Lord, if possible, "the intent of your heart may be forgiven you, "for I see that you are in the gall of bitterness "and in the bond of iniquity." And Simon answered, "Pray for me to the Lord "that nothing of what you have said may come to me." Peter had just condemned Simon, his money, and his intentions to buy or attempt to buy the Spirit of God and the power of God. He condemned all of that to hell, but now he moves from a condemnation to a call to repentance. Look back at verse 22, notice the transition from condemnation to call.

"Repent therefore of this wickedness of yours "and pray that the Lord, if possible, "the intent of your heart may be forgiven you." But Simon's response shows us his view of his very own sin. Look back at verse 24, here's his response. "Pray for me to the Lord that nothing of what you have said "may come upon me." Here, Simon shows us that he was not convinced of the great sinfulness of his sin. Even though he was truly bothered by this situation, he was not able to see the greatness of the sinfulness of his horrific sin. And what we see here is this. Simon seemed to possess worldly sorrow and not godly sorrow that leads to repentance.

It's kind of funny in all my study, the verse that Paul gives in 2 Corinthians 7, 9 to 10, just kept coming up in my mind, worldly sorrow versus godly sorrow. And then I ran across many commentators who pointed this out. But in 2 Corinthians 7, 9 to 10, those verses show the difference between worldly sorrow and godly sorrow. Paul shows us that worldly sorrow or worldly grief leads to death, never life, but godly sorrow, which is a work of God in the heart of a believer, a work of repentance, that sorrow and grief leads to repentance in life. The question here, very personal. When you are confronted with your sin, how do you see your sin?

When you are confronted with your sin, how do you see your sin? How do you react to your sin? Do you react with godly sorrow that leads to repentance in life? Or do you react in worldly sorrow, which brings about death? I think most everyone knows we practice loving, gracious, kind, and compassionate church discipline here. Church discipline goes on most of the time when you don't even know it. I remember a time when I was meeting up here with a particular individual caught up quite a lot. One of the men of the church passed by some and saw my truck and he just sent me a text.

He said, "I notice you're at the church a lot lately." But I think about times when I have been engaged in church discipline with people and they just don't wanna see their sin for what it is. They just sidestep it, go around it, play the blame game. They use the word bud all the time. Well, pastor, bud, bud. Church discipline is brought to bear upon their life. Their sin is exposed and I kindly, sometimes with other people, are just confronting them with their sin. And it either produces godly sorrow which brings them to repentance or worldly grief. And many times it's a worldly grief. It's a humanistic grief.

It never produces repentance and faith. But I also think about times when I'm dealing with a genuine believer and their sin is brought to bear and oh, there's tremendous brokenness, there's tremendous sorrow, but more than just the emotion, they literally deal with their sin the way the Bible says. They side with God against themselves and their sin and it brings about repentance in their life. And look, a true believer may struggle here, yes.

But with the help of the word of God and the spirit of God, the true believer will come to a place where they see their sin properly and accurately and it will lead them to godly sorrow and grief which brings about repentance. But Simon didn't have that. So look what we see here in Simon. He had a totally wrong view of everything which proves he was an unbelieving believer. Here we see not just what he did. If we stop at what he did, he got an A. He would have been a member, a red-letter member of Grace Life Church of Samaria.

But here we must not just look at what he did, but who he was which proves he had a profession of faith without a possession of faith. He had a totally wrong view of himself. What it meant to truly believe in Jesus. He had a totally wrong view of who the Holy Spirit was. He had a totally wrong view of his sin. And again, who he was proves that he was false. Now listen here. We cannot look only at what someone says. We must look at who they are. Let me repeat that. We cannot look at only what someone says. We must look at who they are. And we cannot see people truly for who they are without living around them for quite some time.

Now let me share something with you. When you live life in an acceptably healthy local church, you're going to see sinners for who they are. I'm not sinners. And you're gonna see believers for who they are. That is redeemed sinners. And I'm trying to show you something here. When we live life around each other. When we begin to say, well, I've known them for years. I've known this husband and wife. I've known them for 10 years or 20 years. When we live life within a healthy local church for years, we really, really begin to see who people are. We begin to see past what they say.

And oh, we begin to see if what they say lines up with who they are. And many of you probably have a list of people that you know what they say doesn't line up with who they are. Now notice what we've looked at tonight. Not all of these verses, verses nine to 24, but the main character of these verses. Here we have Simon the Magician. We have Simon the Magician, the unbelieving believer. Now before I close, I want us to see that Jesus had this problem in his ministry too. Jesus had many people who followed him and professed to believe in him, but they were unbelieving believers. Here I want you to turn to another portion of Scripture.

John chapter two. While you're turning there, I'll say something that I just said a moment ago in all of my study here, I kept thinking of John chapter two and then all of a sudden I noticed different commentators and scholars would come to John chapter two. I guess they read what I was gonna write. But listen to John two verses 23 to 25. Now when he, that's Jesus, was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast. Oh, there would have been thousands upon thousands of people there. The text says, "Many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing." Sounds like Philip, but this was Jesus.

But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them because he knew all people. What that means is is he instinctively, because he was and is God, knew the hearts of men. Verse 25, "And he needed no one to bear witness about man for he himself knew what was in man." Now when we look at these verses in the original language, notice what we see here. I'm gonna alter the verses. "Now when he," that's Jesus, was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, "Many believed, Piscu-o." Many believed in his name when they saw the signs he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself.

But in the language it says, "Jesus did not Piscu-o them." Because he knew all men. Simply many believed in Jesus, but Jesus did not believe in them. That's what the language says. Many believed in Jesus, but Jesus did not believe in them. Now why? Because they were unbelieving believers. He knew their hearts. Jesus needed no one to bear witness about man for he himself knew what was in man. And there are two valuable, critical lessons that we need to make here. We need to take these lessons and we need to take these home with us. First someone can be a believer, but they are an unbelieving believer.

You may say, "Pastor, you've been teaching us that in Hebrews. You're teaching us here that truth tonight. You've been teaching us that for years." Remember, learn it. A believer can be an unbelieving believer. But second, the unbelieving believer is made not because of bad doctrine or from faulty doctrine or from a false gospel. The unbelieving believer is made from the true gospel being preached under the great power of the Holy Spirit of God. Look at the ministry of Jesus. Did he preach the right gospel? Did he preach with the Holy Spirit power of God? Yes. Look at the ministry of Philip. Did he preach the right gospel?

Did he preach with the power of God? Notice what I'm showing you. The unbelieving believer is made from the true gospel that is preached with the great Holy Spirit power of God. And the point I'm trying to make here is this. If it happened to Jesus and it happened to Philip, it will certainly happen to us. So Simon the magician, the unbelieving believer.