Acts, 7:1-60

And what this was, the whole chapter focuses on Stephen's discourse before the Sanhedrin and then Stephen's triumphal entry, if you will, and the Lord's standing in the heavenlies for him. The two questions on page three there are why was it important for Stephen to state that God does not exclusively live in the temple even though the Jews were instructed to build it. They didn't just come up with, hey, it'd sure be nice if we had a temple. The Lord told them to build it, so it was something they were told to do. Why was it important for Stephen to say, hey, the Lord doesn't just live in this temple?

Why is that of value? Why does it make a difference? Oh, hey, wow, there's a good point. Excellent point. Yep, it's true. It certainly wouldn't do any good for Stephen to say so if it wasn't, right? So yes, it's true. That's one point that comes out. Any others come to mind? Sure, yeah.

One thing is Believers, as we see revealed later, believers each have the Holy Spirit dwelling permanently in them. Every believer here during the time of the church, which was young, but had begun. So, limiting the presence of the Lord to the temple was not sufficient. It didn't fit that, as Ruth put it, didn't fit that truth. Alright? That Stephen, it says in the passage, was full of the Holy Spirit as he spoke these things, right? So that right there conveys the truth. Good point. Are there other reasons why? Ah, yes. Yes.

It was true of the pagan gods that they were always said they're in this temple or that one and they lived in the temple or even in this idol that we built. And so the pagan gods were frequently thought of as being restricted to whatever temple or idol he happened to build. And if you didn't, you know, have it there, you didn't have a place for him and he wasn't around.

Well, yeah, this goes and stretches it beyond it. It makes it so God is not limited to the structures we build for him. Yeah, good point. Good point. And you know, this is a truth that even in the Old Testament, more than once, as they were building the temple, they were told, God does not exclusively live in this temple.

But increasingly, a number of the Jews, especially the Sadducees, got narrower and narrower and narrower in their thinking. And besides, when it said that God does not just live in this temple, that wasn't in the first five books. of the Bible, and that was what the Sadducees considered authoritative. And so for Stephen to tell them this, that wasn't in the first five books, that just would blow the Sadducees' circuits. They couldn't handle that. Got them really ticked. Alright? Alright. So that's question one. How about the next question?

Stephen obviously said a number of things that would have irritated the members of the Sanhedrin. Well, that's an understatement. to varying high degrees and divided them doctrinally. By finishing his presentation with pointed accusations of the Sanhedrin's own guilt, his memories kept saying, you, you, okay? Kept pointing to them. And opposition to God, wasn't Stephen crossing a line?

I mean, wouldn't it have been the Christian thing to do to tone down his verbiage in order to avoid causing this irritation and anger? I mean, it wouldn't have been a nice thing to do It would have been a nice thing to do to kind of soften a little bit. Not speak so pointedly. What do you think? Ruth's shaking her head. She says no. Don't cut the corners. Don't round it off. Don't smooth it out. Why not?

I mean, they probably wouldn't have stoned him if he kind of softened a little bit, you know. Isn't that something? Yeah, interesting. He was the first martyr. But yeah, it doesn't seem like he was just totally blown away and stunned. What he was saying was like, yeah, this is the way it's going. Yeah. Yeah.

Was it not also what Peter said? And Stephen may have been there then, we don't know. Was it not also what Peter said to the very first group of people on the day of Pentecost? Acts chapter 2. He said, you. Stephen could speak all the more pointedly because he was speaking face to face, nose to nose with the guys who were the ones who voted, yeah, kill them. So Stephen had even more grounds to say, yeah, you. than Peter did. And Peter was pointed as can be.

It's interesting, as believers, we are called at the same time, and we'll talk about this more as we go through Ephesians here a little bit, we're at the same time told to be speaking truthfully as well as lovingly. And the world, and sometimes Christians, will pose that as if we have to choose between the two. But interestingly, Scripture does not put it that way. 1 Corinthians 13, a lot of people love to read that. Oh, those are great words, right? All these words about love, what does it say?

Love rejoices in the truth. Paul writes to the church at Ephesus, and he says, speaking the truth in love, in chapter 4. But in the Greek, it doesn't actually say speaking. It's truth as a verb. Truthing in love. How about that? Truthing in love. Love and truth are not opposites to be chosen between. They're together. Why is that? Why are they not opposites to be chosen between? Let's ask this question.

Is God's character loving? God is love. Is God's character also truth? What did Jesus say? I am the way, the truth, and the life. It is because God's character is absolutely both that as believers we are not called to choose between the two. the world and sometimes even Christians will get it in their mind that that's how you have to do it. That's not the biblical picture. We have a God that is absolute love and absolute truth. What Stephen was saying was the most loving thing possible. The most loving thing possible. Let's talk about that, because this question is a potent one, and the question you have is an important one, too.

There is an appropriate way of addressing things in any audience, isn't there? And sometimes, indeed, the consequences of speaking out the truth might be costly. Could be it doesn't mean that we are intentionally caustic and I think it can be sometimes irrelevant. I remember when I was in Carson City one one evening I had gone to the office and I was fortunate enough to live about a mile from the office and Went through the historic part of town. Well, the historic part of town is really pretty but right along the main street There's also a couple of casinos So I'm pulling up to this one intersection, and here's this guy standing kitty-corner from one of the casinos, and he's standing out there, he's got some t-shirt on, he's yelling at people, you know, you gotta repent or you're going to hell!

And he's hollering at them, and it's just cars driving by, there's nobody out walking around but me, you know. And so anyway, he's just screaming and hollering at people, and the thing is, I mean, he sure put a lot of effort, and I'm sure he believed it. I don't think he communicated to anybody. As far as anybody else could tell, it's just this guy ranting out on the corner.

And I think that's something to think about is, you know, what exactly is this saying? Is this really conveying the truth or am I just wasting my time? And so I think we need to think that through. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think it's one of the things you look at Stephen, it says he was full of the Holy Spirit as he did this. So this was not a, you know, think I'll do this and that and the other thing.

Let's take another instance we'll see farther on in Acts. Here's Paul and he comes to the philosophers at the Areopagus in Athens. So here's Athens, which even the Romans recognized that this place was some, you know, the apex of philosophical wisdom.

So Paul doesn't come in there and say, hey guys, you guys better repent. Jesus died for you and if you don't believe it, you're just going to fry in hell. Right? He doesn't do that, does he? He comes to them instead and lays out an understanding that would address the questions that they had. And he spoke to them in ways that they would understand.

He says, I see that you are You know, a very religious people, you have an altar to an unknown God. And there were in fact altars out through scattered throughout the Roman Empire to the unknown God. A God they didn't know. He says, that's the one you don't know that I want to introduce you to.

So there was a point of communication and contact. And he used that as a point to communicate with those people. Any of you heard of or read the book Peace Child? It was a missionary who went into a tribe and he was just racking his brain trying to figure out, how do I communicate the gospel to these people? Let me give you a little insight.

The tribal mindset was such that if you tricked somebody deceptively That was really cool. It was kind of like the Cretan culture. If you tricked somebody and deceived them, and then betrayed them, that was like, oh, the best of heroes. And so he was just going nuts. How do I tell these people? I tell them about Jesus and Judas, and they think Judas is the hero. Right? I mean, that's wild, but that was their mindset. And he continued to look at the culture to try to figure out what is going on.

Within the tribe, if there were conflicts, what you would do is you'd take the warring tribes, right? You would, in order to resolve the conflict, you would give a child, a baby, to the other side. And that would be like, oh, you've done that, and that will resolve the conflict. And then there is a trust because we've got your baby, right? So what he did is he said Christ was God's, that's called the peace child. Christ was God's peace child. And then one of the things in the tribe is you never ever do anything to that peace child. And then he said Judas betrayed the peace child. Then they were ticked. See the point?

We have to look at each situation we come into and say how How do I convey God's message to these people that they will understand? Stephen needed to say what needed to be said here, because these guys were rejecting the Messiah. He did so by laying out, you know, he says, here's Moses, and here's, there's all this, you know, rejection. He goes and lays things out. He speaks frequently in terms they ought to understand. So he needed to say what was said.

But, as Aaron rightly points out, it doesn't mean that we go into every situation and say, how can I be as acid and burning and irritating as can be? That's not our point. The point is we do want to speak the truth. We do want to speak the truth in love. Love is not always rounding out the corners. Love is speaking the truth still.

There may be some working through, and how do I communicate that best? How do I tell these people? And we need to realize that even doing that, there may be still some that reject the message. But it means we don't ignore the question that Aaron brings up here, and that is, how do we communicate to people? How do we communicate so they get the point across? so that they really have a choice to make and that I haven't biased the whole conversation by just being a profound irritant. The goal is not to go in and say, how can I really get them ticked at me? Blessed are you when men persecute you, not because you really just got them ticked off for nothing.

Now, let's move on now to Acts 8, 1-24. Now, we get into chapter 8, and we see here's Saul, and Saul looked over this killing, and what did he think? What does it say that Saul thought of this thing? Yeah, he says, hey, thumbs up. Great deal. Got rid of this guy. Noisy, loud mouth. Just got him out of the picture. We gave him a rock collection that nobody will forget.

So then, it turns a corner here and we see chapter 8. And we're going to split this in two. Chapter 8 speaks of the evangelistic ministry of deacon. A deacon named Philip Philip here in chapter 8 first goes to the Samaritans, and then we see him taken explicitly by the Lord. This isn't just something he stumbled onto. Explicitly by the Lord to see a certain Ethiopian official.

Alright, this first part here, here's Philip, he carries the gospel into Samaria. Now, let's first ask the question, was that something that Philip would have thought, hey, this is a bold and crazy thing to do, but I'll see if we can pull it off. Or did he have any reason to think that that was the right thing to do? Huh? Ah, okay. And did Jesus himself provide any example? Yeah. What did he do? John chapter 4. Jesus went to the woman at the well among the Samaritans. Which the Jews, of course, never did. You walk all around Samaria if you have to, but you don't go through it. Even if that's the shortest path. Jesus? Nope. Jesus went through there. And Jesus spoke to the woman at the well. Alright, now.

So here. Here's Philip. He takes things on there. By the way, in 21.8, It says Philip, while we see him first appointed as a deacon, it actually says Philip the evangelist. So it's interesting. Chapters go by, but it still makes reference to Philip as an evangelist. I think that's something for us to think about. The Lord can at times have different ministries at different parts of your life. The Lord can gift people in more than one way.

And I think that's a valuable thing. I remember talking to a young mom one time. She had three kids that were real busy. Neat kids, but real busy. And she just said, you know, I think of ministry and, you know, I read these Bible studies and things. And she said, I just kind of at my wits end because it's everything I can do in a day with my time and my energy to take care of these kids. I said, that's the ministry God's called you to. That's exactly what God wants you to be doing. Good. You're doing the ministry, you're pouring yourself into it, that's perfect. Couldn't ask for anything better.

So I think that's an important thing, and this brings it out. Here we have Philip who's mentioned first in chapter 6, now substantially in chapter 8, and then mentioned again. And what the Lord first called him to, it seems the focus later on shifts to this evangelistic ministry. I think that's a thing to recognize. The Lord may indeed have you at different places, different parts of your life, and that's okay. The Lord may gift you in more than one way, and have you focus more on one than another at a particular period of time. And that's cool too, huh?

Alright, now let's take a further look here. He carries it on into the city of Samaria, and that's known as Sebast. Let's see. The one thing I didn't get printed out, I'll have to follow up on it, is a map here that shows Sebast. I don't want to take the time to try to pull it up. I'll get a map to you next week. I slipped and didn't get it printed out here. But Samaria is another one of those cities, and it's also called Sebast. So if you see on a map, and you look for a city of Samaria, you might not find it, because you might find it marked Sebast.

And that's the case with this map here. Anyway, we'll show you that next time. These people here are despised by the Jews. Do you remember the reason for their being despised by the Jews? What's the story behind that? Yeah. Yep. Remember some time back here we looked at the history.

It was the Assyrians who had this philosophy when you go in and conquer a people, what you do to make sure they never get any kind of a rebellion going is you scramble them. Of course the Assyrians were, the Assyrians just loved to be nasty. To them there was just nothing better than being nasty as can be. They have murals on the palace walls of stripping people's skin off while they're alive. I mean, they just, these guys love to be nasty. So the Assyrians would go and switch people around and just say, hey, you're living next to this guy, you know, and just shift people around that way and by that way avoid some sort of a nationalistic uprising.

And that was their strategy anyway. It didn't make them hold on to empires any longer than anybody else, but that was what their thought was anyhow. So, anyway, the problem that the Jews had with it is, you brought up, here's these half-Jews, half-something else, who knows what else, in this place, and since they're kind of half-Jews, and they're not mixed in with the rest, what they did is they took the first five books of the Old Testament, and it was all the same as the Jews had, except that instead of building a temple in Jerusalem, you build one on the mountain, right up above here. So they tweaked it. They adjusted it to fit their situation.

And of course you don't have Levites for priests either, right? The whole thing is kind of bogus, but you've made it so that you can have a religion that looks like it's Old Testament religion, but it's all adjusted a little bit so that you can carry on what you have with what you've got. So interesting. Alright, so now centuries have gone by And all you've done is develop a really hostile feeling between the Jews and the Samaritans.

Here's Philip, right? He goes in there and he says, hey, you know, I'm not looking at your Samaritan background. I don't care if you're mixed this or that. You need to know about Jesus. You need to know. So he goes in there. Philip had had a great response.

But something hadn't happened. What was that? What had not happened? Even though he'd had a great response there. People believing left and right. Something missing. What was it? Ah, yes. The Holy Spirit had not been given. Now, very interesting. So this is a transitional time, isn't it? The Holy Spirit had not been given. So, what does Philip do? Does Philip tell them away? Is that what you mean?

Well, let's see. He takes another little action here in this chapter. Certainly, he's waiting for something. But what's the something that he's waiting for? Okay, he's telling, he's saying, okay, look, we got all kinds of people believing here, but we need to call Peter and John in to take a look and approve of what's happening. So that's what he does. He calls Peter and John up there. And Peter and John see, ah, these people are definitely believers. So it's then, when Peter and John come, that they receive the Holy Spirit.

It underscores the transitional nature we've been talking about of Acts. Here's what's real interesting. If you look through the book of Acts, chapter 2, chapter 8, Chapter 10, where the Gospel is first introduced in the House of Cornelius among the Gentiles. Chapter 19, where you have followers of John the Baptist, who then received the Holy Spirit in Ephesus.

In each of those instances, the question you bring up gets addressed this way. There must be at least one apostle present in each case. It doesn't have to be the same one, but it needs to be an apostle present for the Holy Spirit to be introduced to each group. Think of it also this way. You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem. And where was the Holy Spirit given in Jerusalem? When did that happen? Pentecost. Yeah, Acts chapter 2, the day of Pentecost.

And Judea, which would be the surrounding area, people coming in from Judea, which is the area around Jerusalem. Okay. And then Samaria, right, would be the next one. And that's what we're seeing right here. And to the ends of the earth, and you have to the ends of the earth, you have two instances.

In Acts chapter 10, we'll see Gentiles in Israel. That's the first instance. And then we'll see Jews in a Gentile land in Ephesus. So you see the different combinations of Jews right in our own homeland, of now the Samaritans, then we'll see Gentiles in Israel, which is Caesarea, and that's chapter 10. And then chapter 19, those who are disciples of John the Baptist, understandably Jewish background, then becoming believers in Christ and receiving the Holy Spirit in the Gentile land in Ephesus. So you've got all those different instances.

And one of the things that's important to underscore acts as a transitional book where you're seeing the first introductions under those circumstances. That's not typical of what happens today. Art, you raised your hand. That's quite true. The gospel has to come to them. They have to have... You can't just believe in something. It is indeed the basic gospel. They won't understand everything right away. But they have to understand the basics of the gospel and believe that.

And what we see through the book of Acts as an introductory and transitional pattern is not the pattern for the rest of the church throughout the church age. Yes? It's a pattern of introduction, and the pattern that we see in every case, there's at least one apostle present at every instance. And it isn't always the same one. But at least one apostle present at each one of those introductions. Also, one other thing you'll note is, of the four that I mentioned, Acts 2, Acts 8, Acts 10, Acts 19, this one does not mention tongues. Real interesting. James.

Well, I think one of the things you want to look at it is that the apostles were given a place of authority and testimony. And it's the reasons why the apostles wrote scripture and we don't. Yeah, they were the ones who were originally given authority. Pardon? Yeah, these are the ones that the Lord said, I've appointed you, you will receive power and the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And it hadn't happened yet, right? So the first ones would be they themselves, the apostles.

But these were men, because of their apostolic authority and position, we see that they are present at every instance where the Holy Spirit is introduced. No exceptions. It didn't have to be all of them. It didn't have to be the same one. But necessary at each case. Yeah.

And what's real interesting is the first introductions here, Paul, who's the apostle in Acts 19, isn't even a believer here. Real interesting, huh? But by Acts 19, you have Paul being the apostle present as the Holy Spirit is introduced to Jews in a Gentile land. And Paul, by then, is not only a believer, but an apostle.

Okay. Yes? that if, when God introduced the Holy Spirit to each person, I understand that, you know, Apostle Hechty there, and the Holy Spirit came upon believers at that time. From that point on, when, after that time period, if a new Christian believed in Christ, did they automatically believe in Jesus?

Yes, and that's what you see Paul writes to the church at Rome, and no apostle had ever been there yet, when he writes to the church at Rome. It's the initial introduction. He writes to the church at Rome, there had been no apostle there yet, and yet the church had already begun there by the work of others, and yet what does he say?

He says, only those in chapter 8, only those who are believers have the Holy Spirit. He writes to the church in Galatia, where he had been, but it was shortly thereafter. He hadn't been there very much long before. And there, he says, that each believer has the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. Yeah, James. What happens is we see a stepped introduction with each of these different groups, but very shortly thereafter it's apparent with a letter from one or more of the apostles that the Holy Spirit is present in all believers from then on. So then, now here's an interesting thing. A goodly portion of this passage that we looked at gets consumed with this guy named Simon. Tim, why don't you make sure you grab a handout there. Here's this guy named Simon. Now Simon is a magician. Interestingly enough, we have no historical record of a magician in Samaria. So it's not something of a specific reference to him.

However, from the era of the New Testament and in that area, we have 230 documents at present, maybe more later, 230 documents that talk about magic as it existed in that period of time. Of course, later on in Acts, we'll see how at Ephesus the believers burned a lot of their magic documents. But nonetheless, we have lots of instances to figure out what this magic was about.

It's not like David Copperfield magic. I went and saw David Copperfield and I wouldn't have any qualms in suggesting that you do that if you think that's entertaining. But that's sleight of hand and illusion. This guy was into calling upon spirits and making things happen. He's dabbling in the spiritual realm. So when we say magic, we're not talking about just sleight of hand and illusion. It is instead something where you're dealing with the spiritual realm, and it's more in the realm of witchcraft and sorcery. So it's important to make that distinction.

Here's this guy, Simon, who had impressed everybody. His nickname was the Great Power of God. Sounds like a marketing slogan to me. So here's this guy, Simon, and he even says, hey, I'm a believer too. And then he sees, here's the apostles coming and they say, hey, these guys lay hands on these people and they receive the Holy Spirit. Man, that's really super. I got to do that too.

How much you guys want for that trick? So that's his thing. Now, that being the case, what's wrong with that picture? What's wrong with that picture? Okay, you can't buy the Holy Spirit. You know, what's interesting is you go through the book of Acts.

You find, you know, the Holy Spirit given in numerous instances and there's no deal where they said, hey, you know, if you give me, you know, a five dollar contribution, we'll give you, you know, this little gift back or something, you know. There's none of this selling the Gospel. There's none of this selling the Holy Spirit going on. So, Peter and John, they're just delighted that Simon wants to buy the Gospel, right? He wants to buy the Holy Spirit.

No, not in the least. And it's interesting, the response there in the NIV actually has what I would say is an error. Because he tells them, I'm paraphrasing a little bit from the NIV, saying you're bitter. Well, Simon wasn't bitter. As a matter of fact, Simon was giddy. Oh boy, I got a new trick! This is cool, I can buy it! Simon wasn't bitter.

What it is referring to is in the Old Testament, that same word is used in the Greek Old Testament for referring to a bitter poison. See the difference? What Simon was introducing here was, you start selling the Holy Spirit, you've got a whole different ballgame here. This is a spiritual poison. It's toxic. And Simon, you better forget this stuff. This is a problem.

Okay So at any rate we have a quote on page 2 Deuteronomy 18 9 through 14 which and this is a this is a passage by the way, which even the Samaritan Old Testament has Here that you shouldn't be having these, you know Sorcerers and magicians that are trying to conjure up spirits, etc Now We're going to encounter sorcery. This is the first of a few instances, okay Acts 8, 9-24 is the one we're looking at with Simon.

It's called The Great Power of God. That sounds like something you'd see on a poster. And then you have Seven Sons of Sceva and Burning of Magical Books, it's going to show up later. And then in chapter 16, The Slave Girl with the Spirit of Divination. So you've got some later instances we're going to see. So magic is not going to go away.

It was actually popular throughout, especially the Eastern Roman Empire, and a lot of it came out of Egypt. And so we'll see more reference to this. I mentioned 230 documents of magic, and that's including a lot that hadn't even been looked at yet, or excuse me, not including a lot that hadn't even been looked at yet. UC Berkeley got a stash of documents from around the New Testament era. After a hundred years, they're only done with 5% of them. So they've got lots of documents. There are probably lots more that haven't even been looked at yet. So anyway, plenty of material to work with. Okay.

What's happened here is he's mixed up the Judaism that the Samaritans had carried over and mixed up a little bit with some of their local practices. He's mixed that up with some magic and kind of put the several together. Now, it's interesting, this word simony or simoniac, those are terms that you look in the dictionary, not used real commonly today, but they are words that are used today for somebody who's just selling religion. Religion for money. That's simony, or someone who does that is called a simoniac. Peter rebukes him, of course. Let's take a look at the questions. First one there.

Was Philip an error to go to the Samaritans without the Apostles present? Was he trying to get the Apostles to bless his errors after the fact? And by the way, Philip was doing signs and wonders there. He still couldn't bring the Holy Spirit. That addresses your question, the Apostles. So he could do signs and wonders, but he still couldn't, he had to get the Apostles in for the Holy Spirit. to be introduced. So anyway, that's a question to take a look at there. Was Philip just covering his bases? Or question number two, this is on page three. Here's Peter and John were sent to Samaria by the rest of the apostles. So it's the apostles actually that sent them out. 814 there. Why didn't all of them go? Why didn't they say, hey, you know, we need to have the whole crew here. How come all of them didn't come? Well, you think about that. Take a look at it next week. Then question three.

Simon the Sorcerer has been said to believe in Acts 8.13. The words of Peter, however, sound pretty severe.

In the end, was Simon saved or not? Was Simon really a believer or was he just faking it? So take a look at that, see if you can figure out what's the right answer. Was Simon just, was he a good actor? Was he looking pretty good? Did he just say he believed and he didn't? Or was he really a believer and just messed up? Was this the same kind of problem as Ananias and Sapphira? Why were they killed and Simon wasn't?

How about that for some questions to think about? So, think about it. Now, aside from that, have you got any questions about what we talked about here? Comments? James? This should be a couple of places. One, let me look it up here in the middle of Romans, I believe it's chapter 8. Let me confirm that.

Okay, chapter 8, verse 9, But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. And then it goes on, But if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. So that would be one instance in Romans. Pardon?

Yeah, one of the charismatic teachings is the Holy Spirit somehow always leaks or leaves you or wanders off or something. And so you frequently have, you know, various Although sing songs like spirit of living God fall afresh on me things like that And and so the it'll be sort of a pleading for the Holy Spirit to come back as if he somehow always, you know He comes and leaves and takes off and oh, please come back and you know, I don't know. It's a strange phenomenon but really and Nancy and I have have a you know, some good friends that the wife was just to her it was a major revelation and to recognize that the Holy Spirit was continuously indwelling her. It wasn't her pleadings, her prayer life wasn't consumed with pleading for the Holy Spirit to come back. Because she was always looking for this feeling that the Holy Spirit was back instead of looking at the truth and depending upon it and trusting that it's true. And then acting on that truth. So yes, it's an important revelation.

Something similar, Paul writes in Galatians. Let's see if I can locate that without taking up too much of our time. Galatians chapter 3 And here's Paul. Here's Paul. The guy has a gift for diplomacy. Look what he says in 3.1. Oh foolish Galatians. That's how you really endear people. Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth? What? Pointed. Before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you was crucified. This only I want to hear from you.

Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing of faith? Is it because of something you did? Did you do something under the works of the law? Did you sing this song to plead for Him to come back? Did I wait until I got the gift of tongues or whatever it was? Or did you hear the truth and believe? Right. Art, you have your hand up there.

Adam and I and Sir Clarence, we know were there at the day of Pentecost, and we know that they were saved because of the fact that they received the Holy Spirit, but we're not sure. Unless Simon was there also, he would be different than they. Yeah, and that's something I'd like you to take a look at. As you look at the context, can we answer that question? And it's possible you look at it and you say, well, you know, we can't tell. Pardon? No, we've got to leave that until next week. That's the question. So you've got to do the work on that one.

But I think as we look at this, I think it's real valuable for us to take a look at it, because we will in fact see believers in varying degrees of rebellion, of rejection of the gospel, and still, I mean, they don't stop being believers, and yet you run into these questions. And so I think it's valuable for us to take a look at it. What does scripture say causes one to be a believer, and what not? And what's the response It isn't, hey, you've lost your salvation.

There's some other consequence or rebuke. But it's important for us to examine that, to take a look at that. You may in fact have friends or even relatives who have been in a situation where they've claimed to be a believer at one point in time and then parted ways with the gospel.

I do. And so I think it's valuable to take a look at these questions and kind of think them through and say, what's biblically true? It may in fact be instances where we can't always come up with a definitive answer for each individual person But we can we can understand what scripture says and we can understand what scripture lays out is true And that's that's important and valuable We're plum out of time, so let's Stop and I'll pray Lord.

Thank you as we look at this here. We see that I what you told the apostles is coming about as you said Jerusalem and Judea and yes now Samaria and Lord we see that you love and care for these Samaritans these people who come from a spiritually and ethnically mongrel background and yet you paid the price on the cross for them as well if they would but believe And we thank you for the works there. These Samaritans that we read about, Lord, here in this passage, someday we will walk with them in white. Thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.