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O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? And the Bible reads, Therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one accord gave heed unto these things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them, and many taken with palsies, and that were lame were healed. And there was great joy in that city. But there was a certain man called Simon, which before time in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one, to whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. And to him that regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries. But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Then Simon himself believed also. And when he was baptized, he continued with Philip and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done. Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John, who when they were come down prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost. For as yet he was fallen upon none of them, only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost. And when Simon saw that through laying onto the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands he may receive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said unto them, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. Then answered Simon and said, Pray to the Lord for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me. And they, when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem. And preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans. And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went, and behold, a man of Ethiopia, and eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for the worship, was returning and sitting in his chariot, read Isaiah the prophet. Then the spirit said unto Philip, Go near and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Isaiah, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I? Except some man should guide me. And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb done before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away, and who shall declare his generation? For his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this, of himself, or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came upon certain water, and the eunuch said, See here is water, what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believeth with all thine heart thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still, and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized them. And they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more. He went on his way rejoicing, but Philip was found out as it is, and passing through, preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea. We thank you, Heavenly Father, for your precious words. Dear God, we thank you for our salvation, for this wonderful church, and we ask that you please bless our pastor as he preaches your word tonight. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Amen. Okay, we're in Acts chapter number 8 this evening, and this particular chapter deals with three specific events dealing with three main characters. Paul, Simon, and Philip the Evangelist. Those are the three main people that Acts chapter 8 is referring to. And really this is a popular chapter because of Philip the Evangelist going to win the Ethiopian unit. We often go to that passage of scripture to prove that you have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You need to be saved before you get baptized, and that's often what we'll use there. But this entire chapter is great. We're going to learn a lot of things from this. In fact, I'm probably going to not say too much about Philip the Evangelist because a lot's been said about that. I might touch on some points there, but I'm going to focus more so on Saul, who we would know as Paul, and Simon as well. Now in the latter end of chapter number 7, we get a preview of Saul, do we not? We see Saul holding the coats of them, or should I say they were laying the coats at Saul's feet when they were stoning Stephen to death. So we see a preview of Saul. Obviously he's not saved. And we see later on in chapter number 8 In other words, he was in agreement that Stephen should be put to death because in his mind Stephen was a heretic, Stephen was preaching false doctrine, but obviously we know that's not true. And then in chapter 9 we see Saul getting saved, etc. We'll get into that just a bit. Now look what it says in verse number 1. Let's touch on some points here. First and foremost, we're going to see the scattering yet gathering. Look what it says in verse 1. It says, And they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. So what we see is that the latter end of chapter number 7, they're persecuting Stephen, they kill him, and basically the Pharisees and the council, they become emboldened to continue to persecute the believers in that area. And so while Stephen's put to death, so they start persecuting the church there in Jerusalem, which causes them to scatter into Judea and Samaria. Now a couple things to take note about this is that though these people were a tool to basically persecute the church there, God is actually the one who allowed it. And I'm going to explain to you why. You see, in Acts chapter 1 verse 8, prior to Jesus Christ's ascension, he's given the great commission to his disciples for the fourth time. And he specifically says, To remain in Jerusalem until you are being due to a powerful mountain high, ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, in Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world. So God's plan for the apostles was to leave Jerusalem, to leave Jerusalem and start reaching the Gentiles. That's what he said. Hey, yeah, preach the gospel in Jerusalem, but then you have to go to Judea and Samaria, the uttermost parts of the world. Well, we see thereafter, they weren't doing that. They were sticking around in Jerusalem, trying to win more Jews to the Lord, they're trying to stick around and just preach the gospel to the Jews, and the Gentiles were being completely neglected. They're failing to take care of the task that God had given to them. So what does God do? He begins to stir up the nest, right? And he allows persecution to come upon the church in order to motivate them to get out of town. You know, when you get persecution, people are just rejecting you, common sense says, okay, it's time to go somewhere else. Now, as I mentioned, God is the one who's allowing this stuff. And I remember back in the day, a preacher used to say this, you know, when you don't do an Acts 1-8, then what God's going to do is an Acts 8-1. When you're not out there fulfilling the Great Commission, you're not preaching the gospel, you're not reaching people in your surrounding cities, God's going to allow some sort of tribulation into your life and persecution in order to stir up the nest and get you working for God. And that's exactly what we see here. They're all scattered, brought into Judea and Samaria, but it's funny because it says, except the apostles. So these apostles, Peter, John, they're like, Yeah, get out of here, guys, you get out, but we're going to stay here in Jerusalem still, you know. They stuck around. And even then, you know, you have Philip the Evangelist and some of the other apostles, they're going into Samaria. They're preaching the Word of God there. But what happens even after they see Simon saved? They go back to Jerusalem. It's not until Philip is caught away in the Spirit and is told to go to the Ethiopian eunuch that he begins to cover more ground further away, even to the point where he reaches Caesarea, which is in Philippi, going out into what's considered, you know, Samaria or the uttermost parts of the world for them. And so they're obviously disobeying, but this is why he's doing this. Now, this is what's interesting about this, because Saul really is the one responsible for causing them to scatter abroad, right? We see that he's just wreaking havoc on the church there and causing the apostles to just go to Judea, Samaria, the uttermost parts of the world. Well, then Saul gets saved, the apostles return back to Jerusalem, and then who's going to the Gentiles, Paul? So he was responsible prior to salvation to get them to go into the uttermost parts of the world. But even after the salvation, because they're not obeying, he ends up going to the Gentiles and becoming successful. God is still using them. And it kind of shows you that God can use unsafe people, right? You know, obviously they don't have the Spirit of God, but sometimes he could orchestrate a situation in such a way that to fulfill his will. Now look at verse number two. Look at Saul wreaking havoc in the church and says, verse number two says, And devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and hauling men and women committed them to the prison. Now, what do we see here? We see Saul just really ramping up the persecution for the church. I mean, this guy's committed. He's not going from house to house preaching Jesus Christ. He's going from house to house arresting people and getting them persecuted and, you know, hauling them and bringing them into the prison. Now, this is an important point because, you know, there's a common teaching out there regarding the apostle Paul. Obviously, he wasn't the apostle, an apostle back then. But there's this common teaching that says, well, Paul was a murderer. You know, Paul, that thing's hanging on by a thread. You know, Paul's a murderer. You know, he killed Christians. How many of you have ever heard that? Many times, okay? Everyone's focusing on, he's got it, guys. Don't worry, all right? Everyone's like... You know, people often say Paul, you know, killed Christians, he's a murderer. But you study the life of Paul even prior to his salvation, you don't see anything like that, okay? What do we see? Now, we see him, you know, arresting Christians. We see him persecuting them. And, yeah, the Bible says that he was injurious because he probably injured some people trying to arrest him. But we never see him killing anybody, killing Christians, murdering them. This is a false teaching that comes from liberal churches. And I'm going to explain to you why they try to make that claim. They make the claim in order to defend wicked reprobates, okay? Because the only time people have ever made that argument to me is when I'm preaching against Kanye West, who's blaspheming said that he himself was Jesus, right? He himself was God, just completely, you know, just doing the sins of the Antichrist himself. Or when you talk about Ted Bundy, because people claim that Ted Bundy got saved, this massive serial killer murderer rapist, oh, yeah, he got saved, you know? Or you talk about Jeffrey Dahmer, this sodomite cannibal who did some heinous, horrible, wicked and vile crimes, and they'll say, oh, no, he got saved, though. And when you say, no, those people are burning in hell. Those people are devils. From Kanye West all the way to Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer. And this is what they'll say, oh, were you trying to say that Paul the Apostle didn't get saved? Because he killed Christians. You know, he killed Christians. He murdered Christians. And by the way, I'm not saying that murderers can't be saved, okay? Obviously, murderers can be saved. People who kill others can be saved. But this caliber of murder that these people committed is different. This is something that's done only by psychopaths, people who are past feeling, people who the Bible would refer to as being reprobates, you know, these people who are just filled with all unrighteousness, right? That's not your average murderer, okay? This is referring to someone who, you know, is filled with murder, according to the Bible. But they make this claim, you know, when I preached against Kanye West, or when I uploaded that clip, I mean, I can't tell you how many times they said that, oh, then Paul the Apostle must have not been saved because he killed Christians. And I'm like, where did he ever kill Christians? And even if he did, obviously, there's a big difference between the two categories that you're presenting there, but it never says that he killed Christians, it never says that he murdered them. What does it actually say? You know, Paul the Apostle stated that Jesus enabled him for that he counted him faithful, putting him into the ministry, who was before what, a blasphemer? It says that he was a persecutor and injurious, but here's the difference, he did it ignorantly and unbelief. So there is ignorance on his part when he committed these things, folks, whereas the people who commit these heinous crimes like Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Kanye West, I mean, they're doing sins that only psychopaths can do. You know, and people get mad about Kanye West, and it's like, well, he didn't know better, folks, if he's calling himself God. This is not a sin that is common to man. You understand? He is blaspheming the name of Jesus by claiming to be, I mean, the only person who really does that is like the Antichrist who sits in the temple of God showing himself that he is God. And that's exactly what Kanye West is doing, but yet people want to compare him to the Apostle Paul. Ridiculous. Oh, he's reaching so many people. Yeah, with this damnable heresy, he's reaching a lot of people. Damning a whole lot of people to hell is what he's doing. And this is the argument that they'll say, well, you're saying that Kanye West blasphemed Jesus, here it says that the Apostle Paul also blasphemed, but here is the major difference between that, okay, as I mentioned, Kanye West blasphemed in the sense that he actually claimed to be God, which is blasphemy. Paul, he never claimed to be God. Because what does it mean to blaspheme? To blaspheme means to speak impiously or irreverently of the things of God. You know, to rail, to revile, and that's exactly what he's doing, because he's arresting people, he thinks that they're a part of some wicked organization, they're a bunch of heretics, and he's sincerely doing, in fact, he thinks he's serving God. I'm not excusing what he did, but this is what he sincerely feels is right. You know, the Bible says that he was zealous of the law, right? So the type of blasphemy that he committed is not the same blasphemy that Kanye West does, okay? But again, he says that he did it ignorantly and unbelief. Now go to Philippians chapter three, if you would, Philippians chapter number three. Look at verse number six of Philippians chapter number three. Because, you know, you have Kanye West who says that he was Jesus and all these things, and, you know, when supposedly he got saved, did he change his life? You know, do you see him just like, I'm just gonna renounce all this nonsense of hip hop and all these things? No, he's still doing it, he's still making a bunch of money. This is the reason why people convert to Christianity when they're all famous. You know, to reach into a new pool to get more money. Same thing with Justin Bieber, you know, and all these other fools who claim, and look, I just saw an interview with Justin Bieber and he's just like, Jesus changed my life. He's like, well, what did you have to do? Well, at first I thought it was just by trusting Jesus, but then I realized you gotta repent of your sins. And people are gonna tell me that guy is saved? You know, but these are the same people that are buying his albums. He's playing them for fools. He's making merchandise off of them is what he's doing. Let's see what Paul did. Philippians chapter three verse six says, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless, but what things were gained to me those I counted lost for Christ, yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ. So to him, he says, everything that I've ever done is dung in my eyes. Is that what Kanye West is doing? Are those things dung? No, he's actually using everything that he had before to propagate his false gospel, okay? Not the same thing. So go back to Acts chapter eight. So what I'm saying is this is that Paul never murdered anybody. This is a false teaching. This is a false conception that people come up with to try to put them on the same pedestal as these other psychopaths, to try to prove that sodomites can be saved. The reparations can be saved. The psychopaths can be saved. It's false. Verse number four says, therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. So because he's hauling men and women and he's persecuted the church, therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. So they're highly motivated. Apparently Paul is doing some hardcore persecution there. Verse five says, then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them and many taken with palsies, and they were lame, were healed, and there was great joy in that city. So great work's being done. Philip the evangelist is preaching the word of God, but he's also doing a lot of miracles. He's fulfilling what God told him to do, right? But now let's look at some great one, as he himself would put it. Verse nine says, but there was a certain man called Simon, which before time in the same city used sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one. So he's just like, hey guys, I'm the great one. He's giving out that he's some great one, that he's a man of God, that he has the power of God upon his life. Verse 10 says, to whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest, saying this man is the great power of God. So this man has some clout in his area, right? Very popular, people liked him. He had a lot of influence from the least unto the greatest, and not only did he say he's a great one, but people are even attesting to it, saying this man is the great power of God. Now, let me just say this is that obviously his influence is superficial, right? Because the Bible says that he's influencing them by bewitching them with sorceries. Now I don't think he's like casting spells or doing some sort of supernatural magic. I believe what he's doing is just kind of flattering people is what he's doing, because that's how you can bewitch people too. You can basically speak, or maybe he's just using some sort of magic by sleight of hand, and that is the representation of his power. He's able to beguile people, unstable souls, through his sleight of hand, or whatever sorceries that he's doing. But no matter what, he is bewitching people, he's enchanting them, he's deceiving them to the point where everyone thinks, man, this guy must be from God. He's doing all these miracles, I say, you know, he asks me what card am I thinking of, I say the jacks, and he's like, there it is, you know, and he pulls out the right card, man, he freaking, he hid the coin in his hand, it came out of my ear, the shekel, the Roman coin, or whatever, you know, they're just fooled by this guy, by his enchantments, by his sorceries. Look at verse 11. And to him they had regard, because of a long time he had bewitched them with sorceries. Verse 12 says, but when they believed Philip, preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. I love this. Because what Simon kind of reminds me of is a Pentecostal pastor, right? Where they try to bewitch people by taking off their coats and, you know, trying to heal people, and trying to, you know, say they can slap someone on the forehead and heal them of their cancer, and this is like, get that nonsense out of here. Just preach the gospel, the power of God. That's where the power is. You know, I know there's power when they slap you on the forehead with the palm, but it's not enough power to get you saved, folks. So Simon is one of these Pentecostal Charismatic types that believes, you know, you can heal people by praying over them and holding them, and, you know, all the sicknesses come into your body, and he's using sorceries. Which Pentecostal is basically what they use. That's a form of sorcery, right? Bewitching people. And most Pentecostal pastors are like Simon because they can't really do anything. You know, it's sleight of hand is what it is. They're pushing your forehead, and the only reason you even fall down is because they're pushing you. It's not because any, you know, Holy Spirit is touching them or causing them to fall. You know, it's a farce is what it is, okay? But then Philip comes and is like, let me preach the word of God for these people. Let me preach the gospel. And you know what? They heard it, and they believed. You know why? Because the gospel is the power of God into salvation. We don't need to do any miracles. We don't need to do any of these weird stuff and speaking in tongues and act like we're doing miracles and do sleight of hand and You don't need to do any of that. That's all a show. All we have to do is bring a Bible in hand and preach the word of God into them, and that is the power of God. For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. Sharper than any, you know, Pentecostal too, right? They're as sharp as a marble, amen? So they believe, Philip, and the preaching, the things concerning the kingdom of God, and they were baptized. By the way, Acts chapter 8 is great when it comes to this because it's proof that you have to believe in order to be baptized. That is the order that we see here constantly, throughout the book of Acts, but especially here. Verse 13, now this is a great thing here, this is verse 13, Then Simon himself believed also. That's great, isn't it? And when he was baptized, he continued with Philip and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done. So thank God, you know, and look, this proves that sorcerers can be saved, right? There are some sorcerers out there that can be saved. You know, maybe they're just deceived or maybe they're just full of themselves. You know, they're raised in a Pentecostal church, Charismatic church, or whatever. You know, but the proof is right here. Simon got saved. Not only did he get saved, he got baptized, which is a big step. Now in our church, we typically see baptisms like every single week, and sometimes people tell me like, how do you baptize every single week? And we just ask them. We use no sorceries. We don't try to be witch people. It's just that when we give a clear presentation of the gospel and they get saved, we say, now you gotta get baptized. Let's go. You know, we strike with an iron. It's hot, right? And they're in the moment, and they're just like all emotional about their salvation. They're like, yeah, let's do it. And then they find out that the water's just like boiling hot, and I'm like, we're gonna baptize you in fire, okay? By then, it's too late. You know, Miss Ashley over there, she got baptized in a Jacuzzi. She came out, her skin was just missing and everything. No, I'm just kidding. So Simon gets saved, and he's following Philip, and he's just in wonder over the miracles and the signs which were being done. Look at verse 14. It says, Now when the apostles, which were at Jerusalem, heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent it to them, Peter and John, who when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost. For as yet he was falling upon none of them, only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost. So what do we see here? You know, they give a report back to Jerusalem, and they said, hey, these people in Samaria are really receptive. A lot of people are getting saved. They're getting baptized. You know, why don't you come down, and you can lay hands on them. Now what is it referring to when it says lay hands on them, that they may receive the Holy Ghost? This is referring to an ordained person laying hands on someone in order to evoke the Holy Spirit's power on their life, okay? This is what's known as being filled with the Spirit. Because it's not referring to them receiving the Holy Ghost because they got saved. You understand? This is referring to not the indwelling, but the filling of the Holy Spirit. You say, well, why would they have to do that? So they can go preach the gospel, right? Now, let me make a couple points in that regard. You know, the difference between the indwelling and, you know, the Holy Spirit being filled with the Spirit. You know, obviously we know that this is not referring to that because the prerequisite in order to be indwelled by the Holy Spirit is to trust in Christ, right? The Bible says, in whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance. So when we get saved, the Holy Spirit takes permanent residence within our, you know, being, so to speak, okay? It quickens our dead spirit and it basically, we become the temple of the Holy Ghost. Look at verse 17. It says, then lay they their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost. So, a couple things that I want to talk about here and I preached this a couple weeks ago when I talked about the examining the Holy Spirit, but it's worth reiterating is that a lot of people get, you know, kind of caught up or stuck on these passages when referring to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of the New Testament believers versus the fact that the Old Testament believers did not have that indwelling. And you know who capitalizes on this, is who? Dispensationalists. You know, dispensationalists will say, this proves that salvation was different in the Old Testament than it is in the New Testament under the gospel of grace because of the fact that, you know, in order to have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, we need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, when they believed on the Lord back then, but they didn't have the indwelling Holy Spirit, it shows you that it was a different gospel. It was a gospel that said you have to believe on the Lord, but you also have to do the animal sacrifices and the ordinances and all this stuff. Now, this is completely false and all it takes is just a casual study of the Holy Spirit to understand why that was, okay? Now, go with me if you went to John chapter 7. John chapter 7. You see, the Holy Spirit was definitely present in the Old Testament. We see him coming upon different believers, Saul, you know, we see him coming upon Samson, upon Moses, upon David. Now, yeah, he did not indwell the believers. He would come upon them, but the Bible actually says that he dwelt with them. So he didn't dwell in them, but the Bible does say that he dwelt with them. The difference is, he was not within them. Now, look what it says in John chapter 7, verse 38. He that believeth on me, as the scripture had said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this he spake of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive, for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified. Isn't that interesting? Because keep in mind, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John physically in our Bibles is in the New Testament. But the events within Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is actually considered Old Testament. New Testament doesn't begin until the death of Christ, the death of the testator. At that point, you have the New Covenant. So when this is being said, it's not the New Testament. It's actually still the Old Testament. And this is why he's saying, hey, you know, you guys are going to receive the Holy Ghost when I'm glorified. But notice that it says, on them that what? Believe. Does it say on them that believe and keep the sacrifices and the ordinances? No, because we see here that it's still by faith. It's always been by faith, okay? Go to John chapter 14. John chapter 14. Now in John chapter 20, we see that Jesus Christ breathes on his disciples and says unto them, receive ye the Holy Ghost. Because at that point, he's glorified. So he gives them the Holy Ghost. He indwells them at that point. Look what it says in John 14 in verse 16. It says, and I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. So here's the thing. The Holy Spirit was not some enigma to the believers in the Old Testament. Because here it says that they knew him. Right? Because in order for any believer in the Old Testament, including these disciples, to do any type of work, they have to be filled with the Spirit. And mark it down. The Holy Spirit, when he would come upon believers, he would fill the believers. He just wouldn't dwell within them. But here it says, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. Okay? And here's what they'll say. Well that's proof, brother Mejia. You know, that salvation was different, because you have to believe on Jesus Christ in the New Testament, sleuter, you know, in order for you to have the indwelling Holy Spirit in you. But these guys are cunning, aren't they? They're crafty. You know, and they plan the ignorance of people to try to teach their false doctrine. So, well, how do we explain this then? Why didn't he not indwell the believers in the Old Testament, but now he indwells the believers in the New Testament, even though it's by faith alone in both? Why is that? Well, it's a simple explanation like this. He would dwell with the believers. Yeah, he would dwell with the believers. He didn't dwell within them, because his permanent dwelling in the Old Testament permanent dwelling place, so to speak, on earth was what? The tabernacle. The temple. That's where the presence of God was, right? So the presence of God was in the tabernacle, and once the tabernacle was done, they edified the temple, that's where the presence of God was during the Old Testament. Now, when the New Testament came along, the temple was no longer sanctioned by God. In fact, the Bible says that when Jesus Christ died, the temple was rent and twain from top to bottom. Now, if the presence of God, the Holy Spirit, dwelled in the tabernacle and in the temple in the Old Testament, what does the Bible refer to as the tabernacle and the temple in the New Testament? Our bodies. That's all it is. So in the New Testament, the Bible says, Know ye not that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? So look, folks, the reason why the Holy Spirit did not indwelt them is because he was dwelling within the tabernacle and the temple. And once that was vacated, and once that was done, the Holy Spirit vacated the temple and the tabernacle and indwelt us, which the Bible refers to as the tabernacle and the temple of the Holy Ghost. Simple as that. And it has nothing to do with salvation. Zero to do with salvation. Okay? Look at Luke chapter 11, if you would. Look what it says in Luke chapter 11, verse number 11. Still in the Old Testament, by the way. It says here, If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks a fish, will he, for a fish, give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father to them that ask him? Now this isn't referring to salvation, because when someone gets saved, they don't ask for the Holy Spirit. They're like, oh God, please give me your Holy Spirit so I can be saved. Most people don't even know what that is. They don't even know what you're talking about. Okay? What this is referring to is to be filled with the Spirit. And so God is saying, hey, if you ask for God to fill you with the Spirit, he'll give it to you. Because he's always willing to give good gifts unto his children. You understand? So people were filled by the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament the same way we're filled today, by asking. Okay? And it's important to be filled, amen? Go to Acts chapter number eight. So I just want to touch on that real quick just to help you to understand. These dispensationalists, they're just crafty, they're conniving, they have sleight of hand. You know, they want to deceive, and they'll use these cryptic passages to try to confuse people, but it's very actually easily explained. Look at verse 18. And then when Simon saw that through laying on the, of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying, give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said unto him, thy money perish with thee, because that thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. It's pretty crazy here. So this guy thinks that he can just write out a check, give it to the apostles, and the apostles will give him the authority to be able to lay hands on people and ordain them basically. He's like, how much do I got to pay to get this power? Right? It's pretty nonsensical thinking. And Peter just rebukes him. He's just like, get that money away from me. You know? You think that the gift of God can be purchased with money? No, he's not referring to the gift of God's salvation. He's referring to the power of the Holy Spirit. Or should we say the ordination, the authority to be able to do this, okay? Now, I was thinking about, what's like a modern day application to this? And the thing that kept coming to mind was Bible college. Right? This is your modern day Bible college student. Why? Because a lot of them go to college and they pay for classes because they think that the power of God can be purchased with money. You know, they think that the authority to be able to lay hands and ordain people can be obtained by money. You know, they purchase, you know, countless semesters and countless years. I just got to do my four years, my five years. Then if I buy it, they'll give me a little piece of paper that says you're a bachelor in pastoral theology. You give that to a pastor and they say, okay, great. You're ordained. You can have the power of God because you purchased it with money. You know, to give them the benefit of the doubt, really it's the leaders who think that the power of God can be purchased with money. Right? Because they're the ones who are selling it. Okay? And that's not to say that there's not students out there that go there for that purpose. And look, you know, obviously there's Bible college students out there that are sincere. And they go to Bible college in order because they think they want to receive a biblical education. Their pastor tells them, hey, if you want to be a pastor, this is what you have to do. Then they're going to believe it. You're going to be like, all right, well if that's what my pastor says, that's probably what we have to do. But it's still wrong. Now look, I went to Bible college. I thought the same thing because that's what my pastor told me. Now fortunately, you know, I'm not talking trash about my father-in-law. He went to Bible college too. Now here's the thing. Fortunately with my father-in-law or with our Bible college is that it was on site. You know, a lot of these Bible colleges they're states miles away. They send you away from the local New Testament church. Me on the other hand, I was able to get trained and stay in my local New Testament church. So that was a plus for me. And look, I'm not going to bad mouth Bible college to the point where they're all wicked. And actually that's not true. Because I went there, I survived. I'm a survivor of Bible college. And look, I learned some good things. I learned some good principles. You know, obviously the doctrine was pretty bad because most Bible colleges are filled with dispensationalism and Calvinism. You know, and you pay obviously to learn the Bible and it's just like you're paying, you're overpaying for crap food, you know. Because they're giving you, you're paying for a steak but they're giving you tofu kind of thing. But this is an example of your modern day Bible college student. Literally, you have Bible college students that will go to Bible college for four years, five years, six years and what happens? They get their little diploma but they know jack squat about the Bible when they come out. They purchase the power of God with money or what they think is the power of God. They're ordained as pastors. They're not even qualified. They're not qualified because they're not married. They're not qualified because they don't have children. They're not qualified because they don't even know the Bible. And look folks, I sat in a Bible college next to people who knew jack squat about the Bible and they didn't care if they ever learned anything about the Bible. And that used to tick me off. Because I was there, I wanted to learn the Bible, I wanted to be a pastor, I wanted to preach the word of God, I was hungry for the word of God, but I was forced to sit next to people who can care less. They were only there because their mama and dad sent them to go there. And it was ridiculous. But yet, they think they can purchase the power of God. They think the power of God can be purchased with money. That's why you have these churches today that are pastured by these you know, Simons right? Who purchased the power of God, what they think it is with money, and the church crashes or they go liberal. They know nothing about the Bible. I mean, they can't even give a sermon on salvation if their life counted on it. Oh, but they have a diploma. Oh, but you know, they graduated from this college or whatever. They went to Golden State Baptist College, where they teach you how to dress like a queer. Oh wait, I'm sorry, that's West Coast Baptist College. You know, they graduated from Golden State Baptist College where they teach you how to dress like a preppy little queer and know how to buy the best tie and the best suits, the most expensive suits and the most expensive this and that but they can't even teach the Bible, folks. You know, the pastor of that Bible college by the way this week was praying on his knees on the corner you know for the $10,000 fine that they gave him. And you know, Baptist because they just must have gone to Bible college too or something. They're over here praising him. Oh, this man is suffering for righteousness sake. Oh, you mean Jack Treibert? And this is what I asked. So do false prophets, when they get fined are they suffering for righteousness sake or is God just punishing them for making merchandise off of the flock? And this is what he does. He goes on the corner of his church no joke, gets on his knees and someone just happened to find him and take a picture of him. Now one of two things. Either he told someone, hey take a picture of me real quick as I'm praying so he can post it and people can feel sorry for me. Or he hit the selfie timer or whatever on a tripod and did it himself. He didn't read Matthew 6 but he went to Bible college. He went to Bible college. He went to Bible college. The reason they don't understand these basic Bible truths is because most of the time they went to Bible college. Now look, I went but I didn't depend on Bible college to learn the Bible. Most of my studies, if not all my studies were outside of Bible college. Most of my training was outside of Bible college. Thankfully my pastor started a church, a church plant. I went there and I learned how to administrate a church, how to lead, how to organize. I learned the ins and outs of church planting but it was on the job training. Okay. And let me say this. You know if there is a Bible college out there that was free and they taught the right doctrine and it was you know it was located at the local New Testament church, I'd be for it. Right? Who wouldn't want that? Some extra Bible teaching, I think that'd be great. But it doesn't exist. It doesn't exist. Nor will it ever exist. If they did those things, I'd be all for it. Now let me say this. This year I was going to start a two semester class in our church. Four pastors only. And the only reason I wasn't able to do it is because of COVID-19. I'm planning to start it in 2021 though. And you say well what are the classes going to be? Well the classes are not going to be about the Bible because you get everything from the Bible here. Sunday morning, Sunday night, Thursday night. The classes are going to be what I wanted when I was in Bible college. Which is how to administrate. You know how to organize a missions trip. How to organize a soul winning marathon. How to deal with live stream technology. Right? How to deal with the church finances and legalities of the church. These are things you need to know as a pastor. But these are things that they did not teach us. You understand? How to deal with people. I'm a pastor. I thought we were only supposed to preach the word of God and that's it. No. It goes a lot more into pastoring than that. And if that's what you think, that's all that pastoring is, you're a novice, you're not ready to go. Okay. There's a lot more that goes into that. And I was telling my wife, I was like I want to have a class where I teach the guys, the men who want to be pastors, how to set up wires for live stream. I know that sounds super exciting to you, but I guarantee you it will benefit you in the long run. I was like, what we're going to do is on a Friday, I'm going to lay out all the equipment and explain what it all is. And then I'm going to say on Monday, you and brother so and so come to church on Monday night. I'm going to tear down, we're going to tear down all the equipment and it's your job to set it up and get it ready for Thursday. You're in charge of the mics, you're in charge of the live stream, you got to know how to do it. And if you screw up, I'm going to cloud up and rain on you. That's good training. Hey, at least when you do it, when you go start a church, you don't have to call some company, you just know how to do it yourself. You know all the terms, the cables you need, the mics you need, the live stream, you know the cameras you got to get, you go there already prepared. I think that's great. I wish I would have had that training. You know, what kind of insurance do you need to get for the church? You know, 501c3, should I do 501c3 or not? What is 501c3? Okay, things like that. So the classes are not going to be for doctrine because you get that in church. And look folks, I don't care what anybody says, you get more doctrine on a Thursday night than a semester in Bible college. Fact. And I know because I was in Bible college. I know what I'm talking about. I remember this one pastor he got up and he taught in an intensive, you know it was a five-day intensive, and it's literally for how many hours a day, Ulysses? Four hours a day. So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, four hours a day, I mean you get me four hours a day for, I mean we can do a lot. This guy was teaching through the book of Revelation, seeking to debunk the pre-trib, excuse me, the post-trib, pre-wrath rapture. And he's like, we're going to just demolish this thing. The guy didn't, the guy didn't even, he could even build up his own case, let alone demolish anything else. Students were asking questions, he wasn't able to answer them. People would say, hey what about this? And he would say, great question. I'll get into that in just a bit. Never got into it. He's like, great question, I just need more time. I was like, we just started. What are you talking about? And this is what he's saying, you know when people, because the controversy amongst them is like, you know, replacement theology. And he's like, here's the answer, the elect are the Jews. And then you have students in the class who are like, hmm, elect are the Jews. And I'm like, this is a joke. Are they being serious? And they're paying for it. They think that the power of God can be purchased with money. They got themselves a bad deal. You know, they got one of those Amazon purchases where you pay all this money and you get this crappy product and you're just like, what is this? It's already broken. But the only difference is, they don't know that it's broken. They think, oh, this is great. A lot of Simon's out there, okay. And look, I know no one in here would ever want to go to Bible college, because we talk so much trash about Bible college, you would have to just like, I don't know, you would just be deaf or something. You can't even understand what I'm saying. You know, in order to go there. Okay. Here's your Bible college right here. Right? Getting an hour's worth of teaching, you know, get some fellowship in, all good. Okay. Go to 1 Timothy chapter 4. So these guys they go to Bible college in order to pay, to have the ability or the authority to lay hands on people, ordain them and just have that authority, that power. And he thinks he can pay money with that. Well, you know, whatever pastor's out there talking about Simon, criticizing him, he needs to look in the mirror because he probably did the same exact thing. Okay. You know, look, man, I can go off on this more and more and more. I know a pastor personally who did this and he not only did it through money means, he did it through just conniving and lying and deceit in order to gain a position, folks. And look, there's people, there's Bible college students in Bible colleges that the only reason they want to be a pastor is just so they can have authority and take advantage of people. They see it as taking the opportunity to take advantage of others. Okay. It's wicked. And I remember someone put it this way, Bible college teaches wolves how to look like sheep. Bible college teaches wolves how to look, talk and act like sheep. Now the good thing is this, their fall shall be made manifest. So they can look like a sheep all they want, talk like one all they want, eventually they'll expose themselves. It always happens. Okay. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 14, it says Neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on the hands of the presbytery. So how did Timothy get the gift? By Paul. By the congregation recognizing this guy was, you know, he's fit, he works, and then the apostle Paul lay hands on him. And look, in our church if you ever want to be a pastor in our church obviously you got to fulfill 1 Timothy chapter 3. That's baseline. But you know what you also have to do? You have to be a fruitful productive team leader to prove that you're able to work with people, to prove that you're able to be fruitful and prove that you're able to get along with others and lead. But the second thing is this, you got to take those 2 semesters of just administrative tasks here. When we start that next year. We'll also finally get ordained by the end of the year, pastor. Then you're not the man for the job. Not the man for the job. And by the way, the 2 semesters and the leadership being the team leader, that's only for me to even consider you to be a pastor. It doesn't mean you are one. So don't come to me after you're done like, well I'm done, you ready to lay hands on me or what? I'll be like, well you revealed your heart. I know what you're after. Okay. Laying on the hands of the respiratory. We're running out of time. Go back to Acts chapter 8. What was the sin of Simon? Look what it says here in verse 21. Thou has neither part nor law in this matter. For thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this, thy wickedness and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. Why does he say that? You're bitter and you're in the bond of iniquity. And you wonder, why did he say that to Simon? Was he bitter towards the apostles? Well, apparently he was. And you know why. Because prior to the apostles coming, he was the big shot. He was the guy who was in charge. He was the guy who everyone was going to. And everyone thought he was the man of God. He was the great one! What was the sin? The sin of them is what he wanted. You see, he didn't want the power of God to change lives. He didn't want to be a pastor so he could preach the word of God, lay hands on people, ordain people in order to start more churches, see more people saved, do a great work. That wasn't his goal. He just wanted an authority. He just wanted to be preeminent among the believers and that was his sin. Okay? You know, like diatrophes. You know, hey guys, check your hearts. What's the reason why you want to be a pastor? Is it because you just want to label pastor so and so? You know, because you think you can tell people what to do, you want to be YouTube famous or something, you want to be able to have a video go viral or something. You know, if those aren't your motives, you're probably not, I'm not saying you're not qualified to be a pastor, but definitely not right now. Gotta check your heart. The desire to want to be a pastor should be, I want to preach the word of God. I want to lead people. I want to help families. I want to rally a group of people together for a common cause. You know, one of my favorite things about pastoring this church aside from preaching God's word and seeing people saved, my favorite thing about my job is being able to rally the troops for a common cause. Because for so long, I felt like it was just me and my wife. But now we have a group of people that we can work together and get a lot done. And what's the cherry on top? We're like-minded. We believe the same doctrines. So when I cast a vision, everyone gets on board, we get a bunch of people saved, and we laugh along the way! We have a great time together. This is a dream job for me. Well, how much are you getting paid, though, pastor? You know, do you have possessions? Are you stealing money? Are you doing this and that? Well, if you're asking, that's probably what's in your heart. I find it interesting when people try to accuse you of those things, they're basically portraying what's actually in their heart. You understand? If you're getting into the ministry for money, you're in it for the wrong reasons. The purpose of the ministry is to see a bunch of people saved. And look, I'm in it for rewards. You better believe that. I'm in it to be rich! In heaven. I'm in it to inspire people, to exhort people, to raise leaders, to start churches, to see people saved, because I understand there's an eternal reward at the end of the road, and that's what interests me. That's what peaks my interest. That's what motivates me. Let thy money perish with thee. It's not bad to want to be great. We all want to be great for God. We all want to see a lot of people saved, do great things, but it's when you want to be great for yourself. It's when you want to be the preeminent one. It's when you want to be like a diatrophies or a Simon. Now, thankfully, Simon got right. He's like, I'm sorry. And look, he was a novice. He had just gotten saved, obviously. So this guy, you know, he was a novice. He was a babe in Christ. But lest we should ever think the same thing, we should take him into consideration and the thought of his heart as well. And make sure that we're always checking our motives as to why. Now, I hope I hope that there's many men in our church that want to be pastors. You know what I mean? I hope that many men in our church aspire to be pastors. I really do. I still want to go to San Diego. I want to go to National City, start satellite churches over there. And all over California. I still want to do that. But we need to do it the right way, though. I never want to jump the gun and just ordain someone just because they fulfill 1 Timothy chapter 3. Usually, just as a man, I want to fulfill 1 Timothy chapter 3. Before I was ever a pastor, I wanted to be 1 Timothy chapter 3 because it's just good for a man to fulfill those roles. Here's the last thing is that we see Philip being carried away to witness to the Ethiopian eunuch. We're not going to go through the whole story, but it's a great story because he's carried away and he's almost given this divine appointment, right? To meet up with this one person, got him saved, and that ended up being a catalyst to going out and seeing more people saved in the surrounding cities all the way to Caesarea Philippi. But it was somewhat of a divine appointment. Something like this will never happen today, in my opinion. I don't think God is just going to transport you or just carry you away into the spirit. And you're just like, I gotta... But you know what? Through your day-to-day tasks, as you're out and about, you will run into people who it's just like it's a divine appointment. Let me finish with this. I'll finish with this illustration. Let me remember my son. He got his finger, and he got 10 stitches. So we got him to go get 10 stitches. And then on Tuesday, it was time for him to take him off. So we went to the hospital, to the doctor, his pediatrician, and she was going to remove them. But you know, with the whole COVID-19, both parents can't go in. There's only one parent. And I just delegate that to her. I said, you go take care of that. I'll watch Bruce and Kyla. We'll go get Puerto Loco and we'll find some park or something. So we got Puerto Loco, and this is in a different city. I'm not very familiar with this city. I don't really know anything about it. And we're there, and we got our food. And I said, come on, kids, we're going to find a park. Let's go look for a park. So we go to this park, the closest park, the one that's nearest to the hospital. We go there, we come out, and there's some tables there. And there's a gentleman, probably like late 50s, early 60s, who was there, and he was there reading his Bible. I was like, oh, that's cool. You know, someone reading their Bible. So we got there, and we opened our food, and we prayed, and we ate. And him and I were kind of looking at each other, and I'm like, man, if he makes good eye contact, that's my cue, basically, right? And so, because obviously he heard us pray, and if he's reading his Bible, he's probably wondering what's this guy all about. So he looks at me, and I said, hey, are you reading your Bible there, huh? He's just like, yeah, I'm reading my Bible. And I said, great, do you go to church? And he said, no, I don't really go to church. I used to go to Foursquare Church. And I'm like, oh, man. By the way, I didn't say good. You don't say good, right? Some of you need to pay attention when you're at the door. It's like, oh, that's good. Like, I'm a Mormon, oh, that's good. I'm a Catholic, oh, great. More important than that is like, pay attention to what they're saying. I just go, oh, okay. Because I'm just like, all right, well, that's news to me. So I'm like, oh, okay. And I said, well, you know what's more important than the church is know where you're going to go when you die. You know, are you 100% sure that if you die today that you're saved, that you're going to heaven? And he's like, I think so. And he's like, I think I just have to trust Jesus. And then we went through the whole questionnaire, you know, can you lose it? At the end of the day, he wasn't saved, okay? That's basically what it was. Now, thankfully, this is a cool thing, you know. He asked me, he's like, wait, wait, wait, before you go any further, he said, what kind of Bible do you use? I was like, I use the King James. He said, okay, great, I got a King James here. I'm like using the King James, he said. He goes, the other versions are false. I was like, man, man. I was like, this is cool. So he was in his late 50s, early 60s, but he was kind of one of those surfer guys, you know what I mean? He was kind of like, bruh, dude, you know. And so I started giving him the gospel, and he's really receptive. And look, this is rare because typically people at that age, when you have a young man, a young man, right, you know, telling them the gospel or giving them doctrine, they're kind of like, son, I've been around the block longer than you have. But he was very open, very receptive, very humble. And make a long story short, he got saved. My kids were playing, and he got saved, and he was like, man, that's rad, bro. That's rad. He said, that's rad, dude, this is rad. I didn't think about that. And then, you know, I give him different scriptures, and he was just very grateful. At that point, like, my wife literally called, and it was time to go. I had to go pick her up. And I said, well, it was nice to meet you. You know, I didn't even get a chance to give him an invitation or a YouTube card or anything, because I didn't have anything on me. But you know what that was? That was a divine appointment. And, you know, the whole thing with my son just kind of bothered me when he got cut, and he had those stitches. But, you know, looking back, it's kind of like God worked it out together for good. So, you know, it's time to go to that tower so that we can go to that park at that bench and witness to that man for him to be saved. You know? So, be soul conscious, right? You can always have a divine appointment. You don't always see people saved at a soul-wanting time, though, obviously, we do see people saved during those times. Sometimes it's just when you're casually down the street and, you know, the Spirit moves you. No, I'm just kidding. You know, talk to that guy right there. Because the Spirit always wants you to witness to everyone. And thankfully, he got saved. His name is William. So, I probably will never see him again other than in heaven. Amen? Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word. And thank you for the example of the apostles. Also, thank you for the example of Simon, even his bad example, to teach us what we should not do, the kind of heart we should not have. And then the fact that he was even willing to humble himself and get right with God and understand that he was in the wrong. And, Lord, help us, like Philip, be sensitive to the Spirit, that we would be walking in the Spirit. And when we run into people, we take advantage and consider every person a divine appointment so we can get them saved. We love you so much. And we thank you. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Song number 325, Trust and Obey. Song number 325. Trust and Obey, song number 325. On that verse. When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word, what a glory He sheds on our way. While we do His good will, He abides with us still, and with all who will just stand away. Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus. But to just stand away, not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies, but a smile quickly drives it away. Not a cloud or a fear, not a sign or a tear, can abide while we trust and obey. Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus. But to trust and obey, not a burden we bear, not a sorrow we share, but a tall heat that richly we pay. Not a green or a glass, not a round or a cross, but a glass if we trust and obey. Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus. But to trust and obey, but we never can prove the delight of His love until along the altar we lay. For the waiver He shows and the joy He bestows for for Him who will trust and obey. Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus. But to trust and obey, letting fellowship sleep, we will sit at His feet. Or we'll walk by His side in the rain. What He says we will do, where His hands we will go, never fear, only trust and obey. Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus. But to trust and obey. Amen, you already dismissed.