The Power of Sorcery

Well, I'm going to show you this as we go down through the message, but I want to start off with a definition of what sorcery is, and then we'll look at some examples of it as we see it in the Bible, and some personal examples also. Sorcery is simply this, and I did a study a number of years ago for some young ladies in our church who were wondering about witchcraft and sorcery, and when I came away from that study, one thing I learned is that sorcery is simply this, looking outside of the Lord Jesus Christ for our needs, and that can be in any area of life, looking outside the Lord Jesus Christ for our needs, and of course we understand this, the Bible encourages us to look unto Jesus, and that doesn't mean we're supposed to go outside and try to see Him up there in the sky somewhere like Stephen did, but we're to look to Him for everything in life that we need. Jesus Christ is all I need.

I am complete in Him, and so when I have need for power, I look to Him. When I have need for wisdom, I look to Him. When I have need for health, I look to Him.

When I have need for financial help, I look to Him. I look to Jesus for everything. When I have need of salvation, I look to Him.

And so, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, in Him we are complete. And witchcraft and sorcery are very similar. Both of them are looking outside of the Lord Jesus Christ to something else, and you see here in verses 9 and verses 11, this idea of being bewitched.

By His sorcery, He bewitched the people, and we think of witchcraft down in Haiti or Africa, but actually witchcraft is a lot closer to us than we may think, and you know, in different cultures, witchcraft and sorcery manifest themselves in different ways. In the ancient, dark cultures and spiritual cultures, unclean spiritual cultures like Africa and Haiti, some of those places, it manifests itself very clearly, but in American culture, it manifests itself much more subtly. And so, we need to be open to how sorcery and witchcraft is manifested.

And so, there's a lot of words in the Bible, and I went through some of them, and I just want to bring out some examples of sorcery in the Scriptures, and there's a number of examples of them, but let's look at a few of them. First of all, this idea of a necromancer. And these words will probably ring a bell to you as we go through them.

They show up in the Old Testament often, and even sometimes in the New Testament. But a necromancer. And what is a necromancer? A necromancer is someone who is looking to the dead.

He is looking to the dead for answers. He's looking to the dead for counsel. You know, when Saul went to the witch at Endor, he was looking for an answer.

God was not speaking to Saul anymore, and Saul went down to the witch, and he said, call up Samuel. Samuel had passed away, and Saul was looking to speak to the dead. I remember it as clear as day.

I'm probably a 12-year-old little boy. I'm at the golf course. We're in a closet.

I don't know who's there. There's probably four or five of us kids. And we're there, you know, Ouija board and all.

And I remember we're calling up the dead, literally calling up the dead. We're trying to talk to Abraham Lincoln. We're crazy.

We're trying to call up John F. Kennedy. And just who can we call up? And we're just, you know, we're kind of playing, but who knows what we got involved in there. But a necromancer, someone who is seeking help, seeking counsel, Saul.

It's a great example that Saul, God did not speak to Saul because of Saul's disobedience, and Saul said, I'm going to go down to a necromancer. I'm going to go down to the witch here at Endor, and I'm going to call up the dead and talk to the dead. And so here is an example of sorcery.

Necromancer falls under the big subject, the big topic of sorcery, and that is to look to the dead for my answers. Look to the dead for counsel and wisdom. Now, there's another word, divination.

And you see that in the Old Testament also. Divination is looking to the demonic world for understanding in the future. It's a medium.

It's like the Ouija board we used to have, black boxes. We're looking to understand something that's coming in the future. You got fortune tellers today, they call them.

You got the whole crystal ball idea, tarot cards, all this kind of stuff. Instead of looking to Jesus, and by the way, Jesus tells us a lot about what's coming in the future. Instead of looking to Jesus and seeking his wisdom and counsel, we start looking elsewhere.

We start looking to the wizard. We start looking to the fortune teller. We start looking to all these places.

And by the way, when you look to these places, not only are there men and women who have these answers for you, but there's demonic spirits behind them. And that's when you get involved in things that aren't good. Sorcery.

The Bible uses this word, a soothsayer. It's a very similar word to the idea of divination. I'm going to... We'll jump ahead here.

You don't have to turn there, but in Acts 16, Paul met a soothsayer. In Acts 16, in verse 16, it says this, And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel, possessed with a spirit of divination, met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying. She was a fortune teller, and she got... She just paid a lot of money because she's evidently pretty good at it.

The same followed Paul and us. By the way, the devil can tell you a little bit about the future. Don't be surprised if he's right sometimes to bring you into a trap.

The same followed Paul and us and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the Most High God, which show unto us the way of salvation. And this she did many days, but Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, and I know this is a spirit associated with it, I command thee in the name of Jesus to come out of her, and he came out of her the same hour. So maybe it took him a while to recognize, seems like she's saying the right things, you know.

These men are the servants of the Most High God, which show unto us the way of salvation. Is that true? But it became a... There's something not right here. This monotonous, monotonous, constant woman.

And finally, Paul, after a few days, said, I don't think this is good here. But she was a fortune teller, and she had a spirit associated with her. And by the way, if you start dabbling in sorcery, you start dabbling with spirits.

Because spirits love to be a part of an answer for you. If you're not going to look to Jesus, we'll give you an answer. And so a lot of these have spiritual underpinnings.

And I know some of you, I remember, I never forget. I was sitting at my grandma's house one day, and I know there was some visitor there. I don't know who he was.

I was a kid again, probably 8, 10 years old. And this individual said, my mother was pregnant. This individual said, young lady, give me your arm.

Takes a needle and a thread. And I'm watching. He hangs it over her wrist.

He says, now watch. The needle starts swinging this way, you're going to have a boy. Swings this way, you're going to have a girl.

Oh, that's interesting. Okay. Well, who should we seek out if we want to know whether they're going to have a boy or a girl? Certainly we ought to seek the Lord.

But you know, sometimes the Lord doesn't want us to know that until we actually give birth. But here we were looking somewhere else to find an answer. Some things are pretty mysterious.

And I've experienced some of those things down through the years, and I could give you a number of them. But some of you are familiar with the idea of water witching. Witching.

Any time you have the word witch in a word, you ought to be concerned about it. Water witching, where you take some divining rod, divination, and these people go out and they search for water. Well, can't the Lord show you where the water is? Yes, He can.

Why don't you pray about it? But we use another means whereby we're trying to understand and search out things. And those kind of things are sorcery. Looking somewhere other than Jesus for our answers.

Here's one that's pretty common today, astrology. That is looking to stars for direction. Looking to stars for counsel.

I used to remember as a child, opening up the Shelby Daily Globe, and you have them in almost every paper. I don't know how much longer papers are going to be around, newspapers. But the Shelby Daily Globe had, every time, the horoscope.

And people, it's still in the papers today, and it's very popular. People look to the stars. You know, Jesus, we don't need you.

We'll look to your creation. We'll look to the stars and how they're aligned for answers in life. On college campuses, Brother David probably experienced this this fall.

We hear often times, what sign are you? And they like to tell things about you by what sign you are. I don't even know what sign I am, by the way. Astrology, again, looking for answers to something other than the Lord Jesus Christ.

Here's an interesting one, magi or the magician. There's a lot of them in the Old Testament. Looking to someone else for power.

We're to look to the Lord for power. All power is given unto me, Jesus said, and I'll give you power If you'll come to me, I'll give you the right kind of power. But we look to other sources for our power other than the Lord Jesus.

So let's look here at an example of this in Exodus chapter 7. A real good example here, Exodus chapter 7. It's the story of Moses and how he came to Pharaoh. And I'm going to jump into the story. Most of you know the plagues and the magicians that were there.

And here's what happened in Exodus chapter 7. I'm going to start reading in verse number 8. And the Lord spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying, When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Show a miracle for you, then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent. I'll show you my power, God said. Well, show it to Pharaoh.

And Moses and Aaron went into the Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had commanded. And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent. Wow! Wouldn't that be something, children? Take a stick, throw it on the ground, it becomes a snake.

Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers, now the magicians. Notice magicians is under the sorcerer here. The magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments, for they cast down every man's rod, and they became serpents.

Wow! Hey, that's good. That's serious, isn't it? These people, magicians, could actually do the same thing. The only problem was, the next verse says, and Aaron's serpent ate their serpent up.

It's like, whoa, that serpent's a little more powerful than these serpents over here. And so the Lord didn't let this thing go without a testimony of another power here. And I'm not going to read the whole story.

There's a number of examples here. Look down at verse 19 if you're looking. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying to Aaron, Take thy rod and stretch out thy hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all the pools of water, that they may become blood, and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.

And Moses and Aaron did so, as the Lord commanded. And he lifted up the rod and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants. And all the waters that were in the rivers were turned to blood.

And the fish that was in the river died, and the river stank. And the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river, and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments, and Pharaoh's heart was hardened.

Now, as you go down through this, Pharaoh's magicians, these sorcerers are right there, and they say, you don't need to look to God for power. You look to other sources for power. They were going to challenge the power of God.

Well, you know the story. I don't have to read the whole thing, but it got to the place where they couldn't go any farther. And, of course, God brought judgment.

But jump down to one more here in chapter 8, verse 5. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying to Aaron, Stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt. And Aaron stretched out his hand upon the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt.

So magicians, there is power. You're going to see in the end the Antichrist and the power calling down fire from heaven and great miracles. Listen, the enemies had the use of power throughout history, but he's not the great power.

And so the idea of a magician, someone who has powers, and by the way, in the demonic world, there's a lot of power. I think of that maniac of Gadara that Jesus spoke about, and it says that he was in the tombs and no man could bind him. They tried to bind him with chains.

Can you imagine wrapping a man up with chains? And he had so much power in him that he could break the chain. I don't know how a person does that without breaking their arms, breaking chains. I mean, there's a lot of power there.

This man had demons in him. I remember Brother Craig, when he was, during that deliverance time, after he was delivered, he came to me and said, I remember this, all I remembered was looking at you and saying, I'm going to kill you. And secondly, he said, I was so powerful, so strong, I felt like I could lift this whole house.

Now this house is just down the road here, not too far from here, but it had to weigh 10, 15, 20 tons. He felt like he could lift it all. There's power.

Listen, in the dark world, there's power. You want power. You don't want to go that direction, but there is power there.

Now here's something interesting. If you go back to the Old Testament, and Daniel understood this, but most kings, most pharaohs, Daniel, when he was there with the king, they had a group of people and they had necromancers. They had astrologers.

They had magicians. They had enchanters. They had all that they could get, a group of wise men.

So remember when Daniel had a dream, they called all the wise men together. The necromancer, can you tell me the meaning of the dream? The witchcraft man, the sorcerer, the enchanter, the diviner, can you help us? We need it. And none of them could help.

Finally, Daniel said, my God can give it to you. Witchcraft, there's another one, witchcraft. These are words that come out of the Old Testament.

Some of them are in the New Testament, but these are all under the heading of sorcery. Now this one is getting a little closer to us, and I'm glad Brother Wolf's not here at LA. I was thinking about making sure I gently went through this stage here, but trying to be wise.

Witchcraft, looking to medicines for healing and not the Lord. By the way, the word witchcraft is the word pharmakia. We get our word pharmacy and pharmaceuticals.

I thought of the story of Asa. Asa was the king in the Old Testament who in his 39th year of his reign, he was diseased in his feet. Until his disease was exceeding great, yet in his disease he what? Who can tell me? He sought not the Lord, but the physician.

And God was provoked with him. You know why? Because when he got sick, he said, I've got to go to the doctor. He never even inquired of the Lord.

I've got to go to the doctor. You know how many people in our country when they get sick, I've got to go get my medicine. I've got to get to the doctor.

And how few people inquire of the Lord. That's sorcery. That's witchcraft.

Pharmakia. And again, this is Babylon. Man, demonic beings being glorified, medicines being glorified.

This is our answer. We experience this this year, this last two years. These vaccinations are our answer.

We're looking to them. We're a fear of dying. Everybody's looking to the medical world.

Listen, health is from the Lord. Amen. And I'll tell you what, I believe with all my heart, you've seen some witchcraft and some sorcery all over the world these last two years.

People's hearts just looking to the medical world for answers. And for help. And God's up in heaven saying, listen, I'm the one who has all the help that you need.

When you think of witchcraft, I think most of us think of some witch. You know, she's there with her stick. She's there in that black pot.

She's got that black pointy hat on, and she's making that potion with that frog's wart and that child's hairs and all the things that are thrown into that pot. It's making a potion, a medicine. And people come to the witch doctor for his healing touch, for his medicines.

Now, you know, we call them now the CVX and the Rite Aid. And I'm not – let me make sure I'm very careful here. I'm not against medicines per se, but I am against you trusting in them.

I'm against you seeking them out and trusting in them before the Lord. You know, it's like this. I'll give you a good example.

Circumcision. The Bible says circumcision is nothing. Paul said it's nothing.

Whether you're circumcised or not, it's nothing. But if your heart is trusting in circumcision for your salvation, it becomes a real big thing. Now your heart is putting trust and confidence in the act of circumcision to save your soul.

Now circumcision is anathema in Galatians. I was circumcised. Most of you were circumcised.

But it has to do with our heart. You know, the vaccine was the very same thing. Medicine is the same thing.

Am I trusting? Is my heart leaning toward this vaccination to keep me from dying? You're approaching witchcraft. But if I take the vaccination, and some of you did that, and your heart is not at all, the vaccination is nothing, I'm just taking it for the sake of maybe getting into a country, it has no effect on you. It's where your heart is.

Trusting. So the idea of pharmakia, a witch doctor. You know, our society is very much involved in this, and we need to be careful not to get involved in it ourselves.

When I was a little boy, I probably told you this story before. A lot of things happened when I was a little boy. We had this drugstore in town called Struble's Drugstore.

It was only one drugstore. Our town was probably 15,000 people, Shelby, Ohio. And some of you girls in Shiloh up there know, it's been through Shelby, Struble's Drugstore.

And I'd go into Struble's Drugstore, and in the back of the drugstore was a man who had the white coat on, and he had, oh, I don't know, maybe 15 feet of shelf space for his medicines. And the rest of the store was candy and trinkets and all kinds of other things. And I'd go buy my candy there, and rarely would I go back.

That little space back there in Struble's Drugstore, back in the 60s and 70s, took care of all the drugs needed in Shelby, Ohio. You go to Shelby, Ohio now, there's a Rite Aid, there's a CVX, whatever that place is called. I mean, this is big business.

People in that town are just looking for the pharmaceuticals or their health. And it's become a huge thing in America. Would you agree with that? And so let's make sure that in sickness, in our need, that we look to the Lord.

And you know, sometimes the Lord may direct us to a hospital, to medicine. But God didn't complain so much about Asa the physician. He was complaining that he looked in his heart towards the physician.

And here's why. Because sometimes in our sickness, God has a purpose. The Bible says that sometimes God brings sickness.

In 1 Corinthians 11, he brought sickness because he was chastening his people, and he wanted his people to repent. And so the sickness was a means where God was trying to bring repentance. So if you get sick and you immediately run to get your medicine, or you run to the doctor, you miss what God is trying to do.

And so a lot of that is happening in our world today. But I want to assure you this, that drugs are not really the issue. It's the heart trusting them that is the issue.

Many today trust in medicines, and they come under the spell of the medical world. And we've seen a lot of that. You know, the whole world came under a spell in the last two years.

Talk about being bewitched. These people were bewitched. And a lot of the bewitching that takes place, you're going to see this in Simon, is through fear.

Fear. You can get a lot of people to be under your control if you can bring them into a place of fear. You can alter their mind.

Well, in the end, the whole world is going to be held in sorcery and deceit. Because the world is looking elsewhere for their answers, and not to the Lord. Well, I mentioned it this morning.

The reason why I pray this is on my heart is people seeking safety. People seeking safety by placing a trinket on their door. I was down in Columbus witnessing there a few years ago with Brother Cleet and Brother John.

And we were, Dennis was down there too, and we were going door to door in these apartment complexes. And I was in this one apartment complex where a bunch of Nepalese are living. And I go to this door and knock on it, and there's a snake sticker on the door.

I go to the next door and knock on it, and there's another snake on the door. The next door, finally, I got in one place and said, what's with these snakes on all these doors? Oh, it's protection. We get protection against the spirit.

We put that snake out there that keeps us safe. That's sorcery. Safety is of the Lord, amen? So when our hearts say, oh, what do I need to keep myself safe? I need this.

I need that. You start entering into areas where you're getting involved in sorcery. Sorcery is simply your heart being drawn away from the Lord to trust in another for wisdom, for counsel, for power, for health, for safety.

And by the way, there's a lot of sorcerers out there that will welcome you. Oh, we've got an answer for you. And what happens is you go to them and you start getting under their authority and their power.

And you'll see Simon. Simon controlled the whole region. Because the heart trusts, we become under the spell of a person.

Cursed is the man that trusts in man and makes flesh his arm, his strength, looking to man for counsel, for wisdom, for power, for health. By the way, that's Babylon. Man, man, man, man.

And by the way, in the end of the world, the Antichrist is going to have all the answers for you. I've got your health answers for you. I've got your safety answers, peace, peace.

We've got it all. We've got wisdom and counsel. We've got power.

You're going to see fire come down from heaven. We've got it all for you, embodied in one man. And the world is going to be spellbound.

The Bible says the world wanders at the beast. It's spellbound. And there's going to be a few of us Christians who are going to say, no, no, no, no, we're trusting in the Lord.

The Lord has safety. The Lord has our health. He has everything we need.

Our hearts are trusting in him. Amen? I hope you're there. But this, all that's happening here is pushing us more and more in that direction.

So when the Bible talks about this mystery, Babylon, by sorcery, she deceives the nations. It's not some lady up there with a broom and flying around. No, that's just you looking elsewhere.

Here's one I see a lot of nowadays, especially in the political world, science. Politicians talking about, and they use these words, we trust the science. We trust the science.

You know what? There was a day, speaking of that money, Brother Chris, there was a day, and praise God it's still there, I believe, in God we trust. There was a day when we believed that. You know, science said one thing and God said another? The majority of Americans say, I trust God.

But today, there's very few that trust God. We trust science. Young people, God wants you to trust him.

And we're getting a lot of this trust in science. That moves towards sorcery. You know what happens, and this is what's going to happen to Simon.

I'm going to get to Simon here in just a minute, but I'm laying a foundation. If we trust in science, then what controls us? Do you know what you trust in, what your heart leans to for help, is what is going to control you. Simon is going to control the whole region of Samaria.

The Antichrist is going to control the world. And he's going to do it through sorcery. If we trust in medicine, then medicine controls us.

If we're trusting that vaccine to save our life, that vaccine now controls you. But ultimately, the Antichrist will want control over all the world. By the way, who really wants to control you today? The Lord.

The Lord wants to control you. Now, let's go back here with that in mind and look at Simon. Simon is a small picture of the future Antichrist that's coming.

And if Simon had all of Samaria under his control, someday the Antichrist will have the world under his control. But I want to bring out a few things about Simon that will help us understand how sorcery works. Here in Acts chapter 8 it says, Acts 8 verse 9, 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.

First of all, one problem is he's promoting himself. I am a great one. Come to me for all your needs.

Right here I am. You need counsel? Here I am. You need health? You need some potions? Here I am.

You need safety? I've got some trinkets to hang on your wall. I've got it all for you. Come to me.

Now, the Lord Jesus did not promote himself. He promoted his father. He said, I can have my own self do nothing.

I want to point you to my father. This man, just like Antichrist, points everybody to himself. I'm the one you need.

He is this great one. And look what it says here in verse 10, To him they all gave heed. And I look that word up, heed, it means to give attention to and to fear.

The people of Samaria, oh, Simon, like the witch doctor in the town there in Haiti. Man, you fear the guy. And we listen to what he says because he can have influence and power.

He can give us a curse and if you get on his wrong side, you're in trouble. They took heed. And because they took heed and because of their fear of him, he was able to control them.

By the way, control is a big word in sorcery. In the end, the devil is going to want to control the world. He wants to be the lord of the world.

He wants to be worshipped. And you and I know this. You see more and more this idea of control, control, control, control in this world that we're living in.

But it says they gave heed unto him. He wasn't just a regular old guy over here in Samaria. He was Simon the sorcerer.

And everybody knew him. And everybody came to him. Verse 11 says this, and to him they had regard.

It's the emphasis in here of these people were really paying attention to this man. Let me ask you something. Have you ever been controlled by someone through fear? Has someone ever held you in control? You know, there's a lot of people today that like to control.

And we do so by fear. One of the ways people control you is they bring fear into your life. When you're fearful of them, they'll control you.

And that's not some place the Lord wants you to be. And look what it says here in verse 10. To whom they gave heed from the least to the greatest.

Now this guy just didn't have a few people following him. He had all of Samaria, but not only all of Samaria. He had the poor guy, the beggar on the street, but he also had the mayor.

He also had the big businessman. He also had the respectable people from the least to the greatest. I mean, he covered everybody.

The whole Samaria was under his spell. There's another word I want you to look at. Verse 9 and verse 11 says he bewitched the people of Samaria.

He bewitched them with sorceries. What's it mean to be witched? It means this, to put out of one's wits. Be wit.

Bewitched. You ever heard someone say you've lost your wits? What does that mean? Like your mind is not functioning properly. You're under a spell.

You're being bewitched. It's like when a young lady enters into a courtship. Her whole mind alters.

That doesn't mean she's bewitched. I'm not saying that. But you know what it means.

Things in the mind just change. We start thinking totally different. And if you look at cults, if you study cults.

By the way, cults are involved in sorcery, but all cults do this very thing. They look to a man, Jim Jones, David Koresh, and in doing so, their trust is in that man. They come under a spell.

How many of you would drink Kool-Aid knowing that the Kool-Aid was going to kill you? How does a man get people to do stuff like that? Some of you are not old enough to remember Jim Jones and Guyana, who took a congregation. I mean, he was Christian, supposedly, congregation, and he became their Simon. Everything you needed, you come to him.

And then he began to convince them of things, brought them to the place where they could drink Kool-Aid, and all of them commit suicide. And if you look at the cults down through history, there's always a man, there's always a woman, there's always someone you come to. You listen to their words.

Yes, they have a Bible. Yes, they may teach you all the Bible, but it's David Koresh you listen to. It's Jim Jones you listen to.

It's Pastor So-and-So you listen to. And they don't direct you to the Lord. They direct you to themselves.

I am the great power, Simon said, of God. Some of you probably remember about 15 years ago, I thought it was crazy, but cults can do this. I'm sure Simon had people really bewitted, but there was a cult out there in California that, I forget the name of it, some of you might remember it, that actually had, I don't know, 100, 150 people in this cult, and it had some biblical foundation to it.

They all start out with some religious foundation. We're going to see that Simon is a religious man. This cult leader had convinced the people that there was a spaceship coming and was supposed to pick them up and take them off the earth before God judged them.

These people believed it. They were bewitched. They were in a spell.

Simon was that way. He was the one who had all the answers. People don't need to see God anymore.

But I want to assure you here this morning that it's the Lord who wants to control your life. And when you reject Him, when you reject His control, there's a tendency for us to now seek out man's control. And when you do that, you're going to end up having some demonic issues behind that.

I think we saw this here. People put their trust in Dr. Fauci and the American Medical Association. They have trust in them.

And people were, the last two years, people were living under a spell. I think this is just preparing us as we go down the road. This is the kind of thing.

You're going to be brought under spells. And you're going to be the nut. If you trust in Jesus, you'll be the nut.

Well, let's look at something else here in verse 10. It says, To whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. Now, notice it's a capital G. Whenever you find a capital G in the Bible for God, it's always the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.

Simon was a religious man. He was actually a Jewish man. Simon is from Samaria.

And if you know anything about Samaria, Samaria is those half-Jew, half-Syrian. They're that mixed breed. You know the Jews despised them because they were not pure Jew.

And so throughout the Bible, you know Samaritans were despised. And so Simon is a religious man. Turn with me here.

Hold your finger there. Go back to John. We talk about this in the book of John.

But Jesus meets a Samaritan woman. The woman at the well. Very familiar story.

And I'll just jump in the middle of it here. In John chapter 4. This is probably... I'm not reading between the lines here, I don't think. But this Samaritan woman, if you ask her, Do you know Simon? Of course I know Simon.

I mean, Simon is only probably two or three years in the book of Acts from this event right here. She knew Simon. Verse 4, it says, He must need to go through Samaria, then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being weary with his journey, sat thus on the well, and it was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water.

Jesus said unto her, Give me to drink. For his disciples were gone away to the city of divine need. Then said the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritan.

Now she was surprised that this Jew, pure-blooded, would even talk to her, a Samaritan. Half-breed. Look down to verse 19.

We'll jump through the story here. You all know it well. Verse 19, the woman said unto him, Sir, I perceive thou art a prophet.

Our fathers worshiped in this mountain. So this woman acknowledges that we worship. And you say that in Jerusalem is the place where we ought to worship.

Look down to verse 25. The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah is cometh. Okay, here's a woman in Samaria who believes that the Messiah is coming.

She understands the Old Testament prophecies. The Messiah, which is called Christ. When he is come, he will tell us all things.

So the Samaritans were looking for the Messiah. You know, I think the Samaritans, much like the Catholics, or the Mormons, or some Christian, quote, cultic religious group that has Christ, maybe has some similar doctrines, but they're established upon a man, Joseph Smith, the Pope, Mary, paying your attention to other things than the Lord. Well, one more here.

Look down to verse 40. It says, And so when the Samaritans were come unto him, that's when she had gone into the town, and many of the men were converted, they besought him that he would carry with them, and he abode there two days. And many more believed because his own word, and said unto the woman, Now we believe not because of thy saying, but we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.

This is Samaria. So they had a hope in Samaria. Though their religion was all probably messed up, like a Catholic or a Mormon, they still had some understanding.

Simon had a lot of control, and that control was religious. You know, there is sorcery in religion, and that's the kind of sorcery we need to be careful of, even amongst those who worship and look for Messiah. Now here's the issue, and I've shared this the last couple of weeks.

It's been an emphasis in my teaching here. People don't want to live under the control of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's something about us that we struggle with that.

Lord, I want you to daily walk with me. I want you to daily fill me. I want you to daily lead me.

I want you to walk by faith. Walk by faith requires me to look to You. I want to look to You.

I want to honor You. I want to thank You. I want to glorify You.

I want to live a life where You're the Lord, and You're lording over me. I want to walk in the Spirit. I want to live by faith.

But there's something in us. It's the work of the flesh. It's called witchcraft.

We want a man to reign over us. We want men or a man, Simon, reign over us. If you don't believe this, turn with me to 1 Samuel.

We might have looked at this verse a number of months ago, but in 1 Samuel, look at 1 Samuel 8. And I'll jump down here to verse number 4. 1 Samuel 8, verse 4. Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together and came to Samuel unto Ramah and said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. We want to be like the world.

But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And this is human nature. These are Jewish people.

These are religious. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee, for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.

You know, this is a part of our nature. Just give us a bunch of men to rule us. Just give us a king.

And in church life, just give us an elder or elders to take control and reign over us. I'm not real comfortable with getting up every morning and having to seek God. Having to seek Him out in His Word.

Having to pray. Having to walk by faith. I'm not comfortable.

Can't we just set up a system where we can put some men in charge and they can lead us and do whatever they want and we'll just follow. Look down here at verse 10. Well, from verse 10 on down to verse 18, I'm not going to read it all, but Samuel, the Lord told him, here's what's going to happen.

This king is going to do this to you and he's going to take your children and bring them under bondage. And by the way, always remember this. Men are evil.

Even in their best converted state. And men have a thirst for power. If you give man an inch of power, what's he going to do? Take a mile.

It's just our nature. And yes, there are spiritual men that maybe won't go that direction, but we're tempted as human beings. Just look at the political system.

Give me control. I'll take care of it. It's in our evil nature.

Jump down to verse 19 here and we'll look at the conclusion. Verse 19, Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel and they said, Nay, but we will have a king over us, that we may also be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles. And Samuel heard all the words of the people and he rehearsed them in the ears of the Lord.

And the Lord said to Samuel, Harken unto their voice and make them a king. Okay, they want a king? Let them have a king. Samuel, they're going to regret they got a king in short time.

But make it. Go ahead and make it for them. But the issue, Samuel, is they're not rejecting you.

They don't want me to reign. I'm going to ask you that question this morning. Do you want the Lord to reign? Do you want the Lord to reign in your life? I want to walk by faith.

I want to walk in the Spirit. I want to get up each morning and seek God. I want to have a relationship with Him, a real one.

I don't want to be involved in a system, a church system where we set up a few men and they make the rules and we just follow the rules and everything's just fine. And I don't have to seek God and walk in the Spirit. You know, one thing you find as a nation, I've shared this before, but when nations begin to crumble, they always go to dictatorships.

And you know why that is? It's because people call for a dictator. In America, when America was established, there was a fear of God. We walked with God.

Many people did. You didn't need dictators. You didn't need a lot of rules because people ruled themselves.

God ruled their hearts. They walked with Him. But as people turn in their hearts to the Lord, you'll find in our nation, all nations move to dictators because people call for it.

We need someone to reign in our lives and rule over us and bring us into submission. Give us a man to do it. The Lord, we've forsaken Him.

You know, God wants to bring you into submission and rule. Here's the problem with looking to men. It will bring you under a spell.

And even as they in Samaria found out, they don't bewitch you. I don't know if this is true or not. I was going to have a children's lesson this morning on this.

Thank God Brother Chris had a children's lesson on Simon. Are you ready for this, children? Let's play a game. Simon says.

Hmm. I wonder where that came from. Simon says.

Simon controlled everybody. He ruled. I think if you're going to play that game, you ought to play it this way.

Jesus says do this. Jesus says do this. Why Simon? You think maybe that came out of the Bible? Simon, the sorcerer.

And so sorcery at its very root base level is your heart simply moving away from God and searching answers out in other places. And whenever you search the answers out in other places, just be reminded that behind that individual is a demon. Amen? Normally there's a spiritual entity and you're going to be bewitched and caught up.

Don't turn to men because men like to take control. And I believe sometimes God allows it. You know, our hearts get to the place like here it was in 1 Samuel.

We still want God to reign in us. Okay, let them have a king. Give it to them.

They want it. They can have it. And then in 10, 15, 20 years they say, oh, why did we do this? Now we're in bondage.

Now we're slaves. So my encouragement to you all is to avoid sorcery. And there's still Simons in the world who would love to bring us all under their bewitching.

And the only way to avoid sorcery is to just make sure you're walking with God. And everything you desire and want, you seek from Him. If you get sick, get on your knees and pray, God, is there any reason why I'm sick? Lord, I submit myself to You.

I'm going to seek You. And if You give me the permission, I'll go to the doctor. I'll go to the physician.

Lord, I need counsel. The Bible says that wisdom, oh, it comes from above. If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God.

If you need wisdom, go to God. And you know what? If I'm a wise person, if you seek wisdom, you come to me, I'm going to point you to God. Well, here's what God said.

If you need strength or power, go to Him. All power is given unto me, He said. Once you start looking elsewhere, you start dabbling in sorcery and witchcraft.

You say, well, it's not that bad. Yeah, it's not that bad. It leads you though down the road where you find yourself in bondage.

So, there are many Simons in our world today and there are many pitfalls we can avoid. But let's just make sure that we search our own heart and ask, are we really walking with God? Do we have a relationship with Him? Is He our safety? Is He our help? Is He our wisdom? Is He our salvation? Is He all in all? We're complete in Him. You believe that? All right, and we'll avoid the Simons of the world.

But praise God, we're going to see next week that Philip comes in preaching Jesus and Simon realizes there's a greater power than him. And Simon says, I'm turning to that Jesus. Simon then looks to Jesus and he is converted.

Praise God for that. Well, we'll look at that next time. So, let's have a word of prayer then we'll open it up.

Anyone like to share this morning? Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word again and for all that you instruct us and teach us. Lord, may we stay out of the snares, the spells of the sorcerers of this world and all the things that are happening, Lord. And may our hearts be attentive to your voice and to your word.

May we walk with you. Bless the congregation here, each one, that they might truly love you with all their heart, soul, strength, and mind. We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.