Faith That Does Not Save
Notes
Transcript
Whenever the Gospel is preached it will inevitably produce both genuine saving faith, and false faith.
The Gospel demands a decision.
Here Simon appeared to be a genuine believer; even Phillip accepted him as a sincere believer.
He showed three marks of a genuine believer:
He Believed in Christ as Savior
He was obedient in baptism
and continued with Phillip
This shows the difficulty of telling the believer from the unbeliever sometimes.
Where did Simon go wrong?
Faith must be grounded in truth.
His was grounded in misconception.
A Wrong View of Self (vv 9-11)
A Wrong View of Self (vv 9-11)
The wrong view of our selves keeps so many people out of Heaven.
The view that man is essentially good is as pervasive as it is damming.
It lulls its victims into a false sense of security, causing them to think that God applauds their good deeds.
When in reality God views our works as that of “filthy garments” Isa 64:6
6 We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
Any view of man as basically good and capable of earning acceptance with God deadens people to the reality of God’s impending judgment and blinds them to their need of a Savior.
Those who fail to see themselves as sinners will see no need for a Savior.
If we can save our selves then there is no need for the cross.
No need for Christ and no need of Heaven.
People must see themselves as lost, weak, and helpless without God before they can be saved.
Simon, locked firmly in pride’s grip, did not.
Pride is a universal and deadly sin.
It is the most characteristic and controlling sin in all human fallenness.
12 There they cry out, but he does not answer, because of the pride of evil men.
4 In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”
No one can be saved while clinging to their pride.
6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
Only the humble, aware of their inadequacies and shortcomings, have that sense of lostness that drives them to God.
It is the poor in spirit, not the proud in heart, who experience saving faith.
Nothing short of a true estimate of one’s wretchedness, and a broken and contrite heart coupled with longing for forgiveness, prepare the soul for salvation.
The Wrong View of Salvation (vv 12-13)
The Wrong View of Salvation (vv 12-13)
Philips message to the Samaritans consisted of 2 parts:
The kingdom of God refers to Gods sovereign rule over the sphere of Salvation.
God is Holy Ruler of all things and Salvation only comes from God.
Salvation only comes through Jesus Christ.
No other way will be enough.
Three reasons why Simon followed Philip:
He wanted to sustain contact with the people that use to follow him.
He wanted to know the source of Philips power.
He wanted to know how to acquire that power for himself.
Simon viewed salvation as a purely ritualistic, external matter, an additional act in his life instead of the total transformation of his whole person on the inside
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Faith that does not transform the life is not saving faith.
True salvation is not mere profession or ritual act.
It is the divine transformation of the soul from love of self to love of God, from love of sin to love of holiness.
The Wrong View of The Spirit (vv 14-19)
The Wrong View of The Spirit (vv 14-19)
Once a person is saved the receive the in dwelling of the Holy Spirit, but why did it not happen here?
For centuries, the Samaritans and the Jews had been bitter rivals.
If the Samaritans had received the Spirit independent of the Jerusalem church, that rift would have been perpetuated.
There could well have been two separate churches, a Jewish church and a Samaritan church.
But God had designed one church.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
By delaying the Spirit’s coming until Peter and John arrived, God preserved the unity of the church.
The apostles needed to see for themselves, and give firsthand testimony to the Jerusalem church, that the Spirit came upon the Samaritans.
The Samaritans also needed to learn that they were subject to apostolic authority.
The Jewish believers and the Samaritans were thus linked together into one body.
13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
A Wrong View of Sin (vv 22-24)
A Wrong View of Sin (vv 22-24)
Peter follows his condemnation of Simon with a call to repent and to be truly saved.
He challenges Simon to have a correct view of his heinous sin—one that sees it for what is and turns from it.
Peter, using Old Testament expressions for the most serious offenses against God, warns Simon of the seriousness of his situation.
The phrase gall of bitterness is very strong.
Cholē (gall) refers to a bitter ingredient or bile.
Coupled with pikria (bitterness), it conveys an extremely bitter, harsh, and distasteful condition.
It vividly pictures the reality of one in the bondage of iniquity.
His only concern was to escape the temporal consequences of his sin.
True repentance, however, consists of more than mere sorrow for sin.