In Peter Allison's sermon 'Believing Unbelievers,' the story from Acts 8 about Philip's evangelism in Samaria is examined, focusing on Simon the sorcerer. Philip spreads the Gospel, leading many to believe, including Simon, who is initially baptized but later reveals a misunderstanding of faith by attempting to purchase the power of the Holy Spirit. Peter rebukes Simon, highlighting his lack of true repentance and spiritual regeneration. The sermon draws parallels between Simon's experience and contemporary spiritual challenges, emphasizing that true belief requires genuine repentance and a heart aligned with God. The speaker warns against the allure of demonic power and stresses the importance of examining one's faith to ensure it is genuine. The sermon also discusses the distinction between true believers and 'believing unbelievers,' who, despite outward appearances, lack true spiritual transformation.

Acts chapter 8. Philip has gone down to Samaria to bring the Gospel as Christ's herald. And we pick up this account in Acts 8 verse 9. Hear God's Word. But there was a certain man called Simon who previously practiced sorcery in the city and astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great, to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, this man is the great power of God.

And they heeded him because he had astonished them with his sorceries for a long time. But when they believed Philip, as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized. Then Simon himself also believed. And when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and was amazed seeing the miracles and signs which were done. Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, who when they had come down prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.

For as yet, he had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, saying, Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter said to him, Your money perished with you because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money.

You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for Your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this your wickedness. And pray, God, if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity." Then Simon answered and said, "'Pray to the Lord for me that none of these things which you have spoken may come upon me. So when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem preaching the Gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.

May the Lord revive our hearts according to His loving kindness. Heavenly Father, please Open our hearts now to hear Your Word, to receive it with meekness, to lay it up in our hearts and practice it in our lives. And I ask that You would sanctify my sinful lips, that they may proclaim Your Gospel and the riches of Your grace in Christ Jesus. Lord, may You bless our hearing with understanding. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Please. Well, in his book on the adversary, called The Adversary, Martin Bubeck relates how his daughter had been troubled periodically with ill-found fears. Physical nausea and colitis seemed to accompany these bouts with fear. And they became increasingly severe and acute. She was a young girl, maybe 10 or 12, somewhere around there I believe.

And medical examination revealed no sign of any physical problem that would account for these symptoms. They continued to become worse. They became more acute. They reached a point, he describes, that even sleep was difficult for her due to this overwhelming fear and nausea. Constant, severe nausea.

Gradually, Martin Bubeck began to suspect that His daughter, his own daughter, he was a pastor, might be under demonic attack. And the idea that the daughter of a Christian pastor could be under demonic attack was a new idea to him at that time. Without telling her, he began to pray for her deliverance. And in his book he expresses a regret that he didn't tell her about this sooner. But eventually he did tell her what he thought was going on.

And with her cooperation, they proceeded to use the spiritual weapons that have been given to us by the Lord and that are taught in the Scriptures to deliver her. And she was. She's a very strong Christian today with a very active ministry. But it turned out that she had become involved in seances and levitations and ouija boards during a slumber party at a friend's house. You see, magic is demonic power, and those who dabble in it invite demonic oppression and demonic presence upon themselves.

Demonic power is destructive. Simon, the subject of this pericope, this passage in Acts, was a magician. In fact, we get the word for magic from this word for practicing sorcery. He practiced magic. He was a sorcerer he was exercising demonic power To do things that would be impossible to do otherwise.

Demonic powers can do many things. Demonic powers can stop bullets. Demonic powers can turn rods into snakes or levitate people. And these kinds of powers and ability to do things make this very attractive to people who want the power and are willing to do anything to get it. And Simon was one of these people.

His power was very real. Today many people practice what is called magic. We call them magicians, but they should more properly be called prestidigitation or sleight of hand. They're prestidigitators. They're not actually doing what they want you to believe or to think that they're doing.

Sleight of hand is a trick. What appears to be happening is not really happening. And the whole point of this kind of performance is to get us to believe something is happening that really isn't happening. But Simon was not that sort of fake magician. He was not engaging in tricks that looked impressive, but were just a gimmick.

He exercised real power. Real demonic power. You see, this magic is very real. And it's not to be dabbled in or trifled with in any way. Like Martin Mubeck's daughter learned firsthand, it's destructive.

Satan's goal is to attack and to destroy what God has made. What God puts together, Satan wants to take apart. What God heals, Satan wants to destroy or give disease. What God builds, He wants to destroy. He imitates, He counterfeits the reality.

And Satan is of course far too powerful for us. Not even the archangels take on Satan on their own power. And the Bible speaks about this power in a number of places. For example, when Moses and Aaron went to see Pharaoh, and Moses told Aaron to take your rod and cast it before Pharaoh and let it become a serpent. So Aaron cast down his rod, you remember, before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent.

Well, what does the Bible say next? The Egyptian magicians were able to do exactly the same thing. They were able to cast rods down and their rods became snakes. That wasn't a gimmick. It wasn't a trick.

It wasn't sleight of hand. It was demonic power that changed those magicians' rods into snakes. But Aaron's rod, you remember, swallowed up all the other rods. And when Aaron commanded his rod to become, a snake to become a rod again. They obviously lost all their rods in errands.

Or at Philippi, there was a slave girl with a spirit of divination who brought a lot of profit to the people that owned her because she could foretell the future. She exercised a real power that people paid money to access. And Paul, remember, rebuked that spirit, saying, I command you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to come out. And the Spirit had to obey because Christ is more powerful. And so Luke says that Simon was a magician.

He exercised demonic power, and he was able to perform many astounding wonders. He had the whole city of Samaria under his sway. They were amazed at what He could do. Now this word astonished here, this amazed, it's used primarily in the New Testament to describe people's response to miracles or signs or wonders. Many times they are wonders that God has done by His power, but also other signs and wonders.

There's a few exceptions. This is a word that's used when the people are amazed that Christ at 12 years is able to hold a discussion with the scribes and Pharisees. That was the same word. But it's a word that speaks of very, very strong wonder, Amazement. In our modern vernacular, we might say it's a mind-blowing thing, experience, phenomenon.

Justin Martyr was a Samaritan himself, and he tells us that Simon was a native of the village called Gitto. And that in the reign of Claudius Caesar, he went to Rome after he was rebuked by the apostles here in the text. And he did mighty acts of magic, quote, by virtue of the art of the devils operating in him. He was considered a god, and as a god, he was honored by the Romans with a statute, which statute was erected on the river Tiber between two bridges, and bore this inscription in the language of Rome in Latin to Simon the holy God and almost all the Samaritans and even a few of other nations worship him and acknowledge him as the first God and another man meander also a Samaritan Justin says was a disciple of Simon and inspired by devils. We know to have deceived many while he was in Antioch by his magic art.

He persuaded those who adhered to Him that they would never die." And Justin says even now there are some living who hold this opinion. He describes how when he was in Rome, he disturbed the church, he subverted many, brought them over to himself, He astonished the Gentiles with the things that he was able to do. And there are a number of early church fathers that wrote about him. And some, even Irenaeus and Justin Martyr, would consider him the founder of Gnosticism. In fact, there is one account and some question whether it's accurate or not, whether it's true or not, and I don't know, but it is an account given in some of these early Church Fathers of Him actually flying, and the Apostles exercising spiritual warfare caused him to crash down and break his limb, break his legs and his hip.

And so even though the Scriptures make no further mention of Simon because they move on to speak about the success of the Gospel, this is an isolated account here of somebody who practiced demonic powers, who held people under his sway, who was considered to be a God who was great and held in awe by all the people. And it was into this context then that Philip arrives and begins preaching the Gospel. And because God is mightier than Satan and all his demons put together, Philip completely upstages Simon. Philip was an evangelist. He proclaimed Christ.

Now, he's not called an evangelist in this passage. He is called an evangelist later on in the book of Acts. But here he is doing the work of an evangelist. He is proclaiming the Gospel. He's speaking for Christ as His messenger.

Philip was one of the seven ordained in Acts 6. And The qualification there was that they were to be filled with the Spirit. Now, Paul later elaborates in Timothy, 1 Timothy 3, he elaborates on the qualifications for the deacons. And I believe that all the qualifications he's giving there are simply a flushing out and more detailed list of what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit. So here Stephen as a deacon, who's been ordained by the apostles, is exercising the gift of evangelism.

This is a gift that he is exercising, like the gift of preaching or teaching or ruling. These are all gifts that are exercised often within the office and connected with the office, but sometimes separately from the office. And so, of course, since Christ is greater than any created being, including Satan, when Phillips comes preaching the Kingdom of God as a messenger of Jesus Christ, people believe Him and are saved. It's a very clear demonstration that Christ's power is greater than Satan's power or any other power. And that when we bring the Gospel, the power of God is able to save, to change anyone.

There is nobody that's too far gone. We don't need to be afraid of demonic people. The power of God is greater. These people, these are people that need to hear the Gospel too. And later on in Acts it recounts how the whole city of Ephesus was overrun by demons.

And how through the warfare of God's people, by the power of the Holy Spirit, through the warfare of Paul, that this stronghold is broken. So Philip comes with the Gospel. And he was also performing signs and wonders by the power of the Holy Spirit. And these kinds of signs and wonders very often accompany the Gospel when it's going into new lands, into places of demonic strongholds. We've been able to live in this country for a long time, I think, largely free from demonic influence, but that's changing fast.

But in other places like in Africa, where the demonic has a very, very strong grip on the whole culture, these kinds of signs and wonders happen. So Philip, because God is demonstrating that He is greater and more powerful than any other power, including Satan. And so Simon here sees that Philip has a greater power. That the people are believing him, believing Philip, and they're being baptized. They're converted.

And Simon goes along with them in believing. He didn't want to be left out. That's the characteristic of a leader. You follow the people. I think that was one of the leaders of the French Revolution.

He was reputed to have been in a cafe when he saw the crowd goes by and he said, oh, those are the people I'm leading. I need to follow them. So Simon is following these people that he thought he was leading because that's the way unbelievers lead. And the Bible says here that he believed as well. In verse 13, Simon himself also believed.

And when he was baptized, he continued with Philip and was amazed seeing the miracles and the signs that were being done. And so after the reports of the success of the Gospel under Philip's preaching, get back to the Jerusalem church. The Jerusalem church sends Peter and John, two apostles down. Now remember, this is the Samaritans, and we looked last week at who the Samaritans were and how great a gulf there was between, how deep the animosity was between these two people. And so God didn't send a Jew down there.

He sent one of these deacons who wouldn't have had some of that cultural baggage with them. But once the Gospel is being received, then the church sends these apostles down. And they are praying over people and laying hands on them, and they're receiving the Holy Spirit. Now, I think there's maybe two ways we can understand this. This is not a second giving of the Holy Spirit.

This is not something that we should normally expect after salvation. This is not a second kind of blessing. This is either speaking of the Holy Spirit in a way bringing miraculous giftings, such as prophesying or speaking in tongues. Those were gifts of the Holy Spirit. Or this is a special situation much like Pentecost.

Remember the apostles and the early church, the 120 prayed in that upper room for 11 days, I believe, before the Holy Spirit fell on them. And it was a very marked occasion. And this could be something similar where the Holy Spirit is now falling for the first time on Gentiles. And so apostles are sent down to validate this, to buy their apostolic office to recognize these Samaritans who for a thousand years had been outside of the church considered heretics. To say the Gospel now goes to these people and these people are to be received into the church as fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord.

It's one of those two. And so these apostles come down and they are laying hands on people and they are receiving the Holy Spirit. And Simon sees something. He sees a power that he wants. He wants to exercise this kind of power.

Because he's lost the disability that he had before to hold the whole city under his sway, to be considered the God. They're God. And so he offers money to Peter if Peter would give him this power. And Peter has very, very strong words condemning Simon. Peter said, your money perish with you because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money.

You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this your wickedness and pray, God, if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you, for I see that you are poisoned by bitterness, bound by iniquity." Peter is saying that he's not a believer. He's not regenerate. He's bound by iniquity. Believers, those who are regenerate are at liberty.

They're set free of their bondage. Those who are believers, we have the promise in Scripture that if you confess your sins, God is faithful and just to forgive them is not a perhaps He might. Peter says perhaps. Perhaps God might forgive you. Your heart is not right.

Jesus told Peter, yes, we all have sins that we need to confess, but Jesus told Peter, when Peter wanted him to wash his whole body, Jesus said to Peter, no, you're clean. You just need your feet washed. You're clean. You just need your feet washed. Your heart is right.

But Peter is saying here to Simon, your heart is not right. Your whole body needs cleansed. You thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money. You are poisoned by bitterness. Bitterness over these other people receiving this gift of the Holy Spirit.

He saw it but didn't partake of it. He wanted this power that Peter had and John had. He wanted it for himself. So Peter says you're poisoned by bitterness. But what do we then to understand when the Bible very clearly said that Simon himself believed?

It says Simon himself believed, And when he was baptized, he continued with Philip. Doesn't the Bible say if you believe in your heart that you will be saved? If you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and confessed with your mouth, the Lord Jesus, you will be saved." Well, the Bible speaks about people who believe and are not saved. He's not the first one. Demons are said to believe the Word of God, but they are not saved.

They tremble in fear at God's power. James says, you believe that there is one God? Well, you do well, there is. But even the demons believe, but they tremble. In his Studies in Saving Faith, A.W.

Pink says, quote, a man may believe all the truth contained in Scripture so far as he is acquainted with it, and he may be familiar with far more than are many genuine Christians. He may have studied the Bible for a longer time, and so his faith may grasp much which they have not yet reached." An unbeliever. I once used to go down to the jailhouse and On Sunday morning is when they released the prisoners for that week. And was connected with this guy and went to visit him several times. He lived here in Conroe, just gotten out of jail.

And The Scripture knowledge of this man was astounding. He had large portions of the Bible memorized. He had just spent his time in prison, I guess just studying the Bible. But he was not regenerate at all. He believed, but he wasn't regenerate.

He believed the truth of the Bible, but he wasn't regenerate. By the power of the Holy Spirit, people can believe in the Lord because they see God's deliverances. Pink goes on to say that the nation of Israel had such a faith after their exodus, their wondrous exodus from Egypt and deliverance from the Red Sea. Exodus 14.31 says that Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done in Egypt, so the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and His servant Moses. They feared the Lord and they believed the Lord.

And they believed Moses. But Hebrews tells us, and other places in the Pentateuch, that their carcasses fell in the wilderness and that God swore in His wrath they wouldn't enter His rest. Jude tells us that God destroyed His people that He had delivered because of unbelief. Moses did not allow these people to circumcise their children because they didn't believe. And the promise is to those who believe and their children.

The tares we read in the New Testament are not uprooted so that we don't accidentally remove those who are the wheat. So that we know that there are these unregenerate people in the middle in the church. Believing unbelievers can do signs and wonders. Jesus talks about the people in Matthew 7, many who will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name? Have we not cast out demons in Your name?

And done many wonders in Your name." And what does Jesus say? The Father will say to them, I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness. I no longer know you. I never knew you." They were never regenerate.

They were never believers. They were believing unbelievers. Believing unbelievers can be members of a church. 1 John 2.19 says that they went out from us. What does that mean?

These are people that were in the church. And they went out from the church. Why, John says? Because they were not of us. If they had been of us, they would have continued with us.

But they went out from us that it might be made manifest that none of them were of us. Believing unbelievers in the church. They believed and they were baptized, otherwise they couldn't be numbered in the church. That baptism is the covenant sign of union in the church. And these are people that were in this church.

But they didn't persevere. Pink goes on to talk about the Scripture teaches that people may possess a faith which is of the Holy Spirit. And yet, it's a non-saving faith. He says this faith, which we now allude to, has two ingredients which neither education nor self-effort can produce. A spiritual light and a divine power moving the mind to ascent.

Now a man may have both illumination and inclination from heaven and yet not be regenerated. We have solemn proof of this in Hebrews 6-4. And what do we read in Hebrews 6? We read of apostates concerning, of whom the writer of Hebrews says, it is impossible to renew them to repentance. We are told that these people were enlightened.

They had tasted of the heavenly gift. Which means they had not only perceived it, but they were inwardly inclined toward it and embraced it. They were partakers of the Holy Spirit. Hebrews 6, 4 says, For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come if they fall away to renew them again to repentance since they crucified again for themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. People who have tasted the heavenly gift have been partakers of the Holy Spirit, but are apostate.

Saul, an apostate, at one time prophesied among the prophets, But he never did it so again. Presumably, the Holy Spirit departed from him. People can be stayed on the Lord and not be saved. And it shall come to pass, stay means to trust, to rest, to lean on the Lord. Isaiah says, "'It shall come to pass, Isaiah 10, in that day that the remnant of Israel and such as are escaped from the house of Jacob shall no more stay upon him that smote them, but shall stay upon the Lord." That's the same word that's used in Isaiah 26 where it says, you will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because He trusts in you.

Isaiah is saying here's people that are stayed on the Lord. We find in Isaiah 48, Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel." That's to have the name, God's name upon you, which happens in baptism. "...and have come forth from the wellspring of Judah, who swear by the name of the Lord and make mention of the God of Israel." Those are all characteristics of a believer. But then Isaiah goes on to say, "...but not in truth or in righteousness, for they call themselves after the holy city and lean..." the same word used in Isaiah 26. They lean on the God of Israel.

The Lord of hosts is His name. I have declared the former things from the beginning. They went forth from my mouth and I caused them to hear it. Suddenly I did them and they came to pass because I knew, Isaiah says, because I knew that you were obstinate and your neck was as iron sinew and your brow bronze. They were not regenerate.

In Micah 3 God says of Israel that they lean on Him, but they aren't regenerate. Now hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, a poor justices and pervert all equity who build up Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with iniquity. Her heads judged for a bribe. Her teachers teach for pay. And her prophets divine for money.

Yet they lean on the Lord and say, is not the Lord among us? No harm can come to us. You see, people can lean on the Lord and think that they're not going to hell. They're not under God's wrath and condemnation. Though no evil like that could ever befall them.

And yet, as Isaiah says, it can be dreadfully wrong. People can believe because they hear the word of the Lord. Jesus told the parable of the sower, the word falling on people who receive it with joy, but are not saved. Luke 8.13, But the ones on the rock are those that receive the word with joy, and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. They believe for a while.

They are Believing unbelievers for a while. They are unbelievers for eternity. They are believing for a while. Or there are people who initially believe when they hear the Word, but they become unfruitful when the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the Word out." See, Simon had the Word. He'd heard it.

He possessed baptism. But he saw the others being baptized by the Spirit. It doesn't say that He was baptized by the Holy Spirit. It says He saw these others and He wanted the power. That I think indicates He didn't have the Spirit.

The Spirit testifies of Christ. The Holy Spirit does not lead people to seek power for themselves. The Holy Spirit would have pointed Him to Christ if He had the Holy Spirit. He didn't have the Holy Spirit. He believed, but He wanted Power.

A sure sign that the Holy Spirit had not fallen on him. And Peter says that he had no part in salvation. His heart was not right with God. His heart wasn't right. He didn't love the Lord with his heart, his soul, his mind, and his strength.

He loved himself. He was thinking only of the power that he could get for himself and what he could do if he could just have the power that Peter had. That's not an idea or thought that comes from a regenerate heart. He had no repentance. There was no forgiveness of sin.

Peter says to repent and pray to God if perhaps, if perhaps, you may be forgiven. There's no assurance whatsoever that forgiveness was His as it's given to believers. In fact, He's rather poisoned. Poisoned. Bitterness.

Bitterness is in his heart. Covetousness. Bondage. He's bound. Believers are not bound.

They are free. They are at liberty. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. And it's a perfect law of liberty. But Peter says he's bound.

He's in bondage. He's never been set free. And I think this is one of the most telling signs that he's not repentant. Is that he possesses a fear of the consequences of what will happen to him. Peter tells them to pray to be delivered.

And he says, pray for me that none of the things which you have spoken may come upon me." That's not what a repentant person says. What did that prodigal son say when he came back to his father? He didn't ask that His fortune be restored to him. Please pray for me, Father, that my fortune might be restored to me. He humbled Himself.

He acknowledged his sin. He wept. He confessed. He acknowledged he wasn't worthy to receive anything. For true repentance acknowledges we're not worthy to receive anything.

The publican said, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. He dared not even look up His head but beat upon His breast. Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. He knew he didn't deserve to receive any good gift from the Lord. He came into agreement with the Scriptures that he was a sinner and he was justly and righteously under God's wrath and condemnation for what he had done.

He didn't seek to minimize it. And he certainly didn't seek to receive some kind of power or to have the consequences of his sin removed. But that's all we see from Simon. Pray to Me that none of these things would happen. He can't even pray himself.

He wants somebody else to pray for him. There is no repentance here. There is no confession of sin. There is no humility. There is no coming into agreement and acknowledging the truth of what Peter has said about him and about his heart.

It's all absent. You see, believers have obedience. They heed the Word. And that was said of the Samaritans earlier that they heeded the Word. There's joy.

And there is repentance. True believers repent. They humble themselves. They come into agreement with the Word, and they acknowledge that in ourselves we're not worthy to receive anything. We have no right to anything.

The heart of a believer desires to know the Lord, to be in His presence. Desires Him more than it desires the blessings that He gives. But also true believers persevere. They persevere to the end. This is a mark of God's Holy Spirit that He gives us perseverance all the way to the end, to the very end, Simon did not persevere.

And the testimony of church history is that he simply continued on and continued to oppose the apostles and to oppose the church. Paul, in 2 Corinthians 13, and we looked at this passage a few weeks ago, briefly, in our communion. But in 2 Corinthians 13, Paul gives this admonition. Paul gives this admonition. Verse 5.

He says, examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you are disqualified, but I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified. See, we are called to examine ourselves.

One of the marks of believers is that they do examine themselves. They do ask that question, am I saved? And people who ask that question sincerely give evidence that they are saved, that the Holy Spirit is working in them. It's the people who have no doubts, who never examine themselves, who never think twice about this that you might have to wonder about. But true believers examine themselves, Paul said, as to whether they are in the faith.

They test themselves. And we know that we sin and we fail. And it's right to think about these things and to ask ourselves, are we in the Lord? Is our conversion genuine? Not to make ourselves doubt, but to test ourselves, to examine ourselves, And to lay hold on the promises of Christ that all those who believe in Him will not be put to shame.

But see, the difference is that believers recognize their sin, and they're humbled by it, and they acknowledge it, And they ask for the Lord's mercy. And then they believe the Lord's Word when He promises them that mercy. When He promises that to us. See, Simon never showed any of these things. May the Lord enable us to both examine ourselves as to whether we are in the faith and to believe the promises of the Word of God.

That if we confess our sins, He is faithful and He is just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And that we can and do have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord give us that watchful and restful peace. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we acknowledge your Word is hard, that it is sharper than any two-edged sword and divides us under soul and spirit and of joints and marrow.

And Your Word is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of our heart. And Lord, we ask You this morning to come and to examine us, to try us if there is any wicked way in us. We ask You, Lord, that You would bring Your Holy Spirit to us to see and to acknowledge those areas where we are contrary to You. And I pray, Lord, that Your Holy Spirit might fall upon any who do not know You this morning. And that You might bring them to a saving faith.

We thank You, Father, that You are powerful, that You are stronger and more mighty than any foe that opposes You. We ask, Lord, for a watchful faith. We ask, Lord, for a trusting and resting faith that rests in You and not in anything that we might do. We ask, Lord, for grace to heed Your Word, for zeal for Your Kingdom, that we may have a gospel obedience, And that we may, Lord, day by day, grow in grace, grow in our defeat and overcoming of the sin that dwells in us. And that we might be more and more renewed after the whole man in your image.

We ask this through Jesus Christ. Amen.