Protecting Your Pride with circumstantial repentance.
As I reflect over the past forty years of my walk with God, it has been revealed to me by the Holy Spirit a common trend of religious people. Religious people are continuously having what we call a falling out with members of the body from the leadership down.
The term means to argue with someone and stop being friends with them. They move into a mode of putting up with or just getting along to keep the peace but all from a distance.
These arguments usually stem from peoples’ belief that you are supposed to treat people a certain way and do things a certain way. Usually according to how they have come to believe things are to be done to be done right.
When you dig into the root of this belief it is really based on protecting peoples’ pride and faith in what they believe, not according to the word of God.
If that pride is not protected, they eventually leave the church or become disengaged. These people are not seeking how to live for God, but being treated like they believe people ought to be treated and being allowed to do what they believe God has called them to do, with no regard, to the vision of the ministry.
Even if they are receiving the truth, they will hang around but never be totally committed. They are suspicious of how things are done, always watching from a distance.
These are the people who, when they are talking to you and it seems that you are not receiving them as they want you to, are quick to put you on track before you speak or right after you speak. They are committed to protecting their pride in how they believe things ought to be.
Religion is about doing, not becoming. People who practice religion get their self-worth and value from the things they do. Their self-esteem stems from the praise and honor they get from one another.
Therefore, you are required to talk to people a certain way, treat them a certain way and be conscious of their special needs and nurture them etc
At best religion serves as a substitute for the kingdom, that’s what makes it dangerous. A substitute is dangerous because it could be mistaken for the real thing. You can become so accustomed to the substitute that when the real thing shows up you can think it’s the enemy.
If your worship and service of God are expressed through set rituals, customs, and rites producing a distinction, favoritism, and respect of the person you are in a religion.
That’s why man likes religion it makes you feel different from other people and in most cases better. It has its own sectarian spirit.
That’s why there’s so much quarreling, division, distinction, favoritism, respect for the person, and killing in religion. Because you are different, I don’t believe it should be done that way. That’s what religion creates. It results in sub-cultures in the church.
Religion breeds competition, its spiteful, its demonic and those who profess their religion are the leaders in this spirit of distinction, this destructive spirit.
That is why in religion, you must never start anything unless you acknowledge all who have done anything they consider worthwhile. You must protect their pride at all costs!
God says, “Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD; be assured, he will not go unpunished. Prov. 16:5,7
“Look at everyone who is arrogant, and humble him, and trample down the wicked where they stand. “Hide them together in the dust; Imprison them in the hidden place. Job. 40:12,13
For the LORD of armies will have a day of reckoning against everyone who is arrogant and haughty, and against everyone who is lifted up, that he may be brought low. Isaiah 2:12
Today we want to talk about “Circumstantial Repentance”.
Our scripture text will be Acts 8: 1-24
Observation 1: Phillip was proclaiming the Christ in Samaria and many people were paying attention with one mind to what was being said by Philip, as they heard and saw the signs that he was performing.
Many who had unclean spirits, were coming out of them shouting with a loud voice; and many who had been paralyzed or limped on crutches were healed. So, there was much rejoicing in that city.
Observation 2: A man named Simon had previously been practicing magic in the city and astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great; all the people, from small to great, were paying attention to him, saying, “This man is the Power of God that is called Great.” And they were paying attention to him because for a long time he had astounded them with his magic arts.
The word of God says, “When you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations.
“There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.
“For whoever does these things is detestable to the LORD; and because of these detestable things the LORD your God will drive them out before you.
“You shall be blameless before the LORD your God. “For those nations, which you shall dispossess, listen to those who practice witchcraft and to diviners, but as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do so. Deut. 18:9-14
Observation 3: But when they believed Philip as he was preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized.
Now even Simon himself believed; and after being baptized, he continued with Philip, and as he observed signs and great miracles taking place, he was repeatedly amazed.
Believe: To have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing), i.e., credit; by implication, to entrust (especially one’s spiritual well-being to Christ)
Believes: To have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing), i.e., credit; by implication, to entrust (especially one’s spiritual well-being to Christ)
At this point Simon’s belief is only circumstantial. Circumstantial evidence does not directly prove that his profession of belief is genuine.
That’s why scripture makes the case that, “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. But are you willing to acknowledge, you foolish person, that faith without works is useless? James 2:18-20
God says, Ye shall know them by their fruits. Their appearance and their claims are no proof of their true character. Matt. 7:15-23
Observation 4: Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they would receive the Holy Spirit. (For He had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.)
Then they began laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit.
Observation 5: Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, “Give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”
Simon’s belief was that you paid for what you wanted. He believed that money was the substance of the things you hoped for. In Simon’s world, this is how you got things done.
“The eye is the lamp of the body; so, then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. “But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. Matt. 6: 22-24
But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could acquire the gift of God with money!
You have no part or share in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Therefore, repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart will be forgiven you.
For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of unrighteousness.” But Simon answered and said, “Pray to the Lord for me yourselves, so that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.” Acts 8:14-24
Interpretation:
God never calls anyone into ministry! God calls people to be a part of His family, to move into His kingdom to represent His character to a lost and dying world.
God does not call you to do, God calls you to become. Simon like most wanted to do, they do not want to change how they believe things should be done. Rom. 12: 1,2
Simon liked being the center of attention, being highly thought of and valued by others.
Scripture says, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise, you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. Matt. 6: 1
Application: Genuine repentance comes from the heart, the soul, the seat of your emotions not the mind or the senses. Simon had an intellectual agreement with what the servants of God were doing. But there was no true conviction upon his heart by the Holy Spirit concerning his sin.
Scripture says, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. Rom. 10:9,10
I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us.
For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. 2 Cor. 7: 9,10
Genuine repentance leads to a change of heart, changing the way you think, believe, do, and become.