The Qualities of Genuine Faith Part 2

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Qualities of Genuine Faith Part 2. He will be reading out of Acts 8:9-24.

One of the ways you know that your faith is real is that when you sin, whether in thought, in motive, in deed, that your heart is not so prideful that you resist God, but that you repent and turn away from your sin.

Hello this is Pastor Mike Sanders and I’m delighted to welcome you to the Hope Worth Having Radio program this week and I’m excited to share God’s word with you as a source of inspiration to your faith.

I want you to take your Bible today and join me in the book of Acts chapter 8. We’re going to continue our study on the qualities of genuine faith. So let’s get right into the Bible and learn the qualities of genuine faith.

How do you know that your faith is real? You are willing to admit that you are a sinner in need of a Savior. If you think today that you are not a sinner in need of a Savior, that you can save yourself or that you can be good enough or that somehow you can be spiritual enough or mature enough that you don’t need all this other stuff.

You don’t need a relationship with Christ. All you’ve got religion, you believe and you’ve been baptized and nobody can take that away from you. I remember when I pastored in Indiana and I remember receiving a phone call from one of our members who was about to die and she requested that the secretary have the pastor come see her and to make sure that he brought her baptismal certificate.

I went to see her. I didn’t bring no baptismal certificate because I told her it’s just a piece of paper. What really matters is you have faith in Jesus Christ. Remember the thief on the cross? He never got baptized.

I’m not against baptism. I want you to be baptized if you’ve truly believed. But I wanna tell you something, that this thief on the cross believed in Jesus, and the Bible tells us that Christ said, today you’ll be with me in paradise.

So it’s not that baptism saves me. Baptism is about my obedience to God. Baptism is about my maturity in Christ. Baptism is about me growing in Christ. But if I’m gonna be saved, I must be willing to admit that I am a sinner in need of a savior.

No, Simon was not like that. He was fascinated. He had an intellectual knowledge, but he never, ever, ever. ever was willing to humble himself before God. Jesus taught us in Matthew 23, 12, that whoever exalts himself shall be abased, and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

My friends, I want you to know that you don’t come to Christ on your terms. You don’t come to Christ with your demands. You come to Christ and you surrender all, and you humbly bow before God in your heart, and you cry out to the Lord admitting that you’re a sinner and willingly receive him as your Lord and Savior.

I fear that there are many that are full of themselves, and they have not truly received Christ as their Savior. D .L. Moody said, God sends no one away, empty except those who are full of themselves.

The Bible reminds us in James 4, 6 that he giveth more grace, wherefore he sayeth God resists the proud, but he giveth grace unto the humble. You want to receive the saving grace of God in your life?

You want to experience the great work of Christ’s salvation in your heart? Then it’s essential, friends, that you humble yourself before Jesus Christ. Apart from that, you cannot enter in to the kingdom of God.

The second thing that I want you to see this morning in the qualities of genuine faith is a transformed heart that changes us. What is the quality of a truly saved person? It is that their heart has been transformed.

Let’s go back to verse 13 of Acts chapter eight, and notice the Bible says that Simon himself also believed, and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, he was amazed, seeing the miracles and the signs, which were done, but again, we don’t see transformation in his heart.

What we see back in verse… Verse 19, he says, give me this power. I want this power. Why does Simon want power? Because it fuels his selfish ministry. It fuels the sorcery and the magic and all the things that he was doing to try to promote himself.

He says to Peter, give me this power also that anyone on whom I lay hands on may receive the Holy Spirit. Again, what you are witnessing is a heart that has not been transformed. His belief, his belief was not only intellectual, but it was selfish.

Why did he believe, I try to tell people this all the time, that you can’t come to Jesus and think that, well, I came to Jesus, I’m gonna get saved so he’ll save my marriage. I’m gonna get saved so I don’t lose my job.

I’m gonna get saved so I can somehow survive financially. I’m gonna get saved and you have all these reasons that you’re gonna get saved. Listen to me friends, if you’re coming to Christ to get saved for any other reason than that you are a sinner in need of salvation, that you’re not really coming to Jesus Christ.

I know that’s hard to swallow. I know that’s hard for us to accept, but I’m telling you that the evidence or the quality of an authentic faith is a heart that has been changed. Simon’s belief was not unto salvation.

It was simply a recognition of what Philip taught was true. It was an intellectual knowledge about God. It was correct in his mind, but it was not correct in his heart for his heart was far from God.

His faith was dead. His faith was worthless. Remember what Peter said to him in verse 21, your heart is not right in the sight of God. It’s easy for us to puff our chest down and say, hey, I’ve been a member for how many years?

It’s easy to puff our chest down and say, I’ve been sitting in this pew for the last 70 years. Well, the church hadn’t even been around 70 years. What are you talking about? My point is don’t take pride in your outward actions.

The Bible teaches us man looks on the outside, but God looks at the heart. God knows every one of our hearts this morning. He knows if you’re playing games with him, he knows if you are just kind of going through the motions and just doing the religious thing and trying to get this person off your back because they keep inviting you.

He knows whether you have a real relationship with him. He knows if you’re just a person who’s fascinated with the razzle dazzle. in the outward or rather your heart is truly been transformed by God.

I want you to look at verse 21 again. He says you neither have part nor portion in this matter for your heart is not right in the sight of God. Can there be a greater indictment upon any person? Your heart is not right in the sight of God.

Now most people would get mad if preacher told him that. Peter looked at Simon who had having believed, having been baptized, having followed the ministry and become a fan of the ministry of Philip and witnessing all the miracles and all the amazing things that happened in the mighty works that God did in the life of Philip.

Remember it’s a transitional period we’ll talk more about that but here’s my point if the preacher comes to you and says your heart is not right with God he’s only carrying out the message. that there are people that always are pretenders who claim they know God.

And you say, how do you know that you know God? Well, your heart will change. You’ll be transformed. I want you to understand it’s not just, hey, I mentally acknowledge this. Hey, I intellectually acknowledge this.

It is about full surrender to God. The Bible tells us that with the heart, man believes unto righteousness. Yes, Simon is a classic example of a false believer. He was a sorcerer who made a profession of faith.

He was baptized. But as you watch his life, he provides us the evidence that his heart never, ever changed. Everything, genuine faith, inevitably produces a transformed heart in a person’s life. The Bible teaches us that the cross has an awesome power that not only forgives us of our sins, but it transforms our life.

The Bible tells us if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation, and old things do what? Pass away. And behold, all things become what, church? Now, listen to me. Either God lies or he’s telling the truth.

There is no in -between with God. He is saying that if you are in Christ, then you will have the passing away of the old things. I recognize it’s a process. When I came to Jesus, I wasn’t like automatically this super -duper Christian.

But I want you to know that when I got up from that altar and I had received Christ as my savior, the Spirit of God was living in me. And when I used to curse, it never bothered me. But when the Spirit of God was in me and I started to curse, it convicted me.

little by little God was transforming my heart and little by little he was changing me why because the evidence of the spirit was within me the quality of true faith is that you have a transformed life where the old is passing away little by little it’s passing away and behold all things are becoming new if you have a heart for the world if you have a heart for the flesh if you have the heart for what you want rather than what God wants you might want to get back on your knees and cry out to God for him to save your soul I know some of you are praying for your children and I know you pray that they’ll get rededicated but I’m here to tell you that some of you need to just say Lord you need to save my son you need to save my daughter you need to save my mother you need to save my father because it’s not about rededication they never came to Christ I know they believed and I know they were baptized and I know they got the certificates and I know they went through all the programming And rightly so,

Mom and Dad, rightly so. But ultimately, everybody has to make their own choice for God. Are you with me? Everybody has to make their own decision for Christ. And what we should pray is that they wouldn’t be like Simon, but that they would truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I want you to see a third quality of genuine faith, and that is a manifestation of the Spirit living in us. So we come to verse 16. Well, let’s just back up and to go to verse 14, because I think that gives us a little bit more context.

It says, now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. So understand what’s going on. Philip’s down there preaching. People are getting saved.

We got this false believer, but there’s this narrative within this narrative, and that is the apostles are hearing about the great work of God in Samaria. And so they send down Peter and John and say, go make sure that that’s true.

Go make sure that that’s right. Rejoice and give us report of how God is working in the lives of the Samaritans. Verse 15, 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, and they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Verse 17, then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Let’s stop right there.

Because remember I told you, this is a transitional period. This is a transitional period. We know that the apostle Paul taught us in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, and as well he taught us in Ephesians chapter five, and he’s taught us also in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, but he’s also in Romans chapter 12, that all believers, when they believe, receive.

to receive the gift of the Spirit. But yet here, these believers had not yet received the gift of the Spirit. Why is that, let me help you. Why is that, it’s a great question. Because there were some who would take this text and they would say, you need to receive the Spirit.

Yes, you believe, but now you need to receive the Spirit. They believe there’s some kind of a second blessing that is gonna come upon you, some kind of a second unction, if you will, that’s gonna come upon you.

That somehow there’s gonna be a next level spiritual experience that has come upon you. But that’s not what the Bible tells us. The Bible teaches us in Ephesians that we’re complete in Christ. The Bible teaches us that when we receive Christ, that we also receive the Spirit of God.

We know this to be true, but what is this? That is emerging here. Remember I told you it’s a transitional situation. The church was beginning. And now those believers in Samaria were waiting for the Spirit to come upon them.

And the purpose of this was to demonstrate to the apostles. Remember that the church had been scattered through persecution, but the Bible was clear. Luke declares that the apostles stayed in Jerusalem.

But now the apostles need to see that truly God is working beyond the Jewish people. They need to witness that there is true believers and they need to experience this, why? Because they would then be able to go back to the Jewish believers and they would be able to say to them that truly the Gentiles have believed.

Truly the Gentiles have the gift of the Spirit. Truly the Gentiles are manifesting that the Spirit is living in them and that they have been transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. They would be a credible witness to the Jewish church.

And so this was a transitional period of making sure the Jewish church and the Gentile church that was emerging would be united. But also on the flip side, that the Gentile church that was coming into the kingdom of God through the gospel of Jesus Christ would recognize the authority of the apostles as they were commissioned by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to build his church and to be the living stones of his church and to be the ones who would pen the words that Christ had given them through the power of the Spirit and so that there would not be a faction and that there would not be friction within the Jewish church of believers and the Samaritans or Gentile church in Samaria.

God sends down the apostles as a witness and he allows the apostles to participate in them receiving the gift of the Spirit. I told you at the outset, as we work through the book of Acts, there is the misnomer that somehow we are to replicate it.

We are to do. duplicate every experience in the book of Acts. I promise you, when Peter walked by the lame man and his shadow caused him to be healed, I’m telling you that God does not want your shadow to heal anybody.

It was a manifestation and a verification and a validation that Peter was truly a man of God and that there was a transition going on from the Old Testament to the New Testament. God did not intend for us to go out there and tell people to just walk into our shadows and that there would be a miracle.

He is not teaching us that somehow there is gonna be this coming of the Spirit upon us and that we have to wait for this coming of the Spirit. This was a unique exception that stands out in the history of the church and it is something that we are to acknowledge of what God is doing, why he is doing it, as he is bringing unity and authority.

into the church. Now, we come down to verse 18. After the apostles had laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit, here’s what the Bible says, Simon saw that and through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, the Holy Spirit was given and he offered them money, as if somehow the power of God could be purchased, as if somehow there was a way that through money, that the power of God and the work of God could be attained.

We are reminded as Paul is describing to Timothy, the false teachers and their characteristics, too many verses to put up there, but let me just simply say in 1 Timothy 6 and verse 5, he describes them as those who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.

This is what Simon wanted to do. He wanted to use money, he wanted to use religion, money to be a way for him to make more money. If you’re in the ministry thinking somehow that you’re gonna get wealthy or somehow you’re gonna attain riches or somehow that God wants you to be healthy and wealthy, the health and wealth gospel, I assure you, my friends, you are not believing in the true gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You are believing in a manufactured Christianity, a manufactured false pseudo -religion that will send you to hell and separate you from God forever and ever. I remember when I was bold and I stood up and I said to the church that I want you to know that Joel Osteen is a charlatan.

Now I thought the church would rejoice and clap and say, Pastor, but this lady came to me after the service. Don’t worry, she’s no longer here. They don’t like me when I call out these charlatans. And I understand that, but Pastor Mike, he’s done all this good stuff.

Jesus said that there will be many that come to Him and say I did all these works in your names. But He said I never knew you. I never knew you. My friends I’m here to tell you Joel Osteen’s ministry is a fraud.

It is not the true gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s not a gospel that transforms the heart. It’s a health and wealth. And I could make a long list for you but you would all faint and freak out and I would probably have to start all over.

Because you become so enamored by crowds and you become so enamored by the razzle dazzle, you become so moved by music, there is no discernment in the body of Christ. There’s no wisdom in the body of Christ.

All they can see is what moves their feelings or what makes them feel good and they base their feelings. on their feelings, let me tell you something. The word of God is more important than your feelings.

The word of God has authority over every thought you have and every feeling you have in your life. You may not like that, but it’s the truth of God. It is the truth. So I want you to know, you gotta be careful, because God’s power is to be used for God’s purpose in God’s way.

It is not to be used for you to take advantage of people. I remember watching on television. It’s not that I go out seeking these things, but they pop up on different things that I have for research in trying to understand all the charlatans.

And as your pastor, as your shepherd, my goal is to protect you from the wolves. It’s not to hurt you. It’s not to try to limit your Christianity or your faith. I just wanna warn you that that bridge is out.

So don’t be upset with me, church. But I remember that Kenneth Copeland got up there and said that during COVID, if you would just send him, if you would send him $1 ,000, that he would send you holy water and that this holy water would cure COVID.

I was disgusted and I’m angry with those kind of people because you know what? They’re taking advantage of vulnerable people. If these people have these great miraculous powers, why don’t they go to their hospital?

Why aren’t they on the seventh floor of Hershey Hospital healing all those little children of all these cancers and diseases? Where are they? You cannot find them in the hospital because the real people, the doctors and the nurses that are doing the work and they’re the extension of the healing hand of God, those are the people that are doing the day -to -day, not these charlatans who wanna come in and claim some kind of magical,

mystical power that they do not even have and take advantage of people. Somebody oughta get angry, somebody oughta stand up and call them out, and some… Somebody oughta resist them. So my friends, we had a man call a while back and he said he’d like to buy some holy water.

I said, buddy, there’s no holy water. Water is water, okay? It can get dirty, it can get poisonous, and there’s some water that might be better than other water, but there is no holy water. But he believed that if he could purchase holy water from the open door church, that his soul could be saved.

And I told him the only way to be saved is through the Lord Jesus Christ. The open door church is not in the business of selling holy water. We’re not in the business of using religion to gain money.

We are not in the business of trying to… take advantage of the vulnerable people in the community to take advantage of their resources to somehow use it for their own personal gain. Now my final quality and I will fast track with this and I apologize that I have to do that but I get too excited up here but the fourth quality of true faith is a desire to repent when we sin.

Peter told Simon to repent, to repent of your wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. After being a fraud and a fake believer and trying to use the power of God for his own financial gain, Peter said your money perish with you.

You have neither part nor portion in this matter. Your heart is not right with God. Repent and what is Simon’s response rather than falling on his knees asking God to forgive him and to save his soul and to turn away from his charlatan ways of trying to use God’s power for financial gain he simply says to the preacher verse 24 then Simon answered and said pray to the Lord for me that none of these things which you have spoken may come upon me.

Now there is this there is this mantra circling in evangelical Christianity that repentance was not preached by the apostles but I remind you in Acts 2 verse 38 that Peter told the people as he stood up at the first sermon on the day of Pentecost to repent and be baptized.

for the remission or forgiveness of sins. I remind you that Peter stood up at the temple and he said to the people, repent that your sins may be blotted out. I remind you that Peter in Acts chapter eight said to Simon, the sorcerer, that he was to repent of this wickedness.

Jesus taught us in Luke 13 .3, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Repentance is the first condition of forgiveness and salvation. And repentance is not just a change of mind, which that is certainly inclusive, but it is a change of the direction of our life.

So I might be going this way. I’m going to do a 180, and I am now following the ways of Christ. I am following the will of God. I am obedient to the Word of God, to what I know and understand. Repentance is taught in the Bible.

It means to turn away from your sin. It means that you are turning towards Christ in faith. It is the idea that when we sin, one of the ways you know that your faith is real is that when you sin, whether in thought, in motive, in deed, or lack of a deed that you were called to do, that when you understand through the Spirit of God that you have failed God, sinned against God, that your heart is not so prideful that you resist God,

but that you repent of your sins. You turn away from your sin. If you’re a person who can remain in your sin and it not bother you, and you can violate the Word of God, and when you read the Word of God and you know you’re disobeying the Word of God, and yet you still want to do what you feel, or you still want to do what you think is right, rather than obeying God, I am here to call you to examine your heart and see if you are in the faith.

The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 13 5, examine yourselves as whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you are disqualified. Simon’s faith was fake.

He believed about Jesus, but he never believed in Jesus. I hope today that your faith is real, and if not, that you would make that right before you leave this place. Let’s pray together. Simon, in our text today, was a fake believer.

And there are many people who are very emotional about God at the beginning, but eventually fade away because their faith is not true or it is not genuine. And the Bible calls us to examine our faith, so I hope today’s message helps you to make sure that your faith is true and authentic.

We’re offering this month for anybody who makes a donation to the Hope Worth Having Ministries, a nice New Testament soul winner’s Bible. And this covers the whole New Testament, also has some good helps in the back on how to encourage people and talk to people about difficult questions that they might have or topics that they might have.

This is a great resource to keep with you. You could put it in your purse, you could put it in your pocket or anywhere. Basically, it’s small enough that you can do that and it’s genuine bonded leather.

So I’d like you to know about this and if you just go to hopewithhaving .com, send a generous donation and then we’ll make sure we give this out to you while supplies last. We have several of these and we’d like to make them available to our donors for this month.

This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.