We spoke earlier about the faith of “Simon the Sorcerer.” We saw how people who stopped believing in God came to believe in anything. We also discussed the fallacy: “All roads lead to God.” Only one path leads to God so that the person is justified. Check out the previous message.

Continuing, the story says that Philip, a disciple of the Lord Jesus, went down to Samaria and began to preach the Word to the people, who were dominated by Simon’s religious deception. And the people believed in Philip.

“Then Simon himself also believed; and when he was baptised he continued with Philip, and was amazed, seeing the miracles and signs which were done” (Acts 8:13).

Simon knew that the sorcery he practised was an illusion. He knew he was deceiving the people, but he realised that Philip’s signs were true because they came from God. He “believed” and even baptised himself in the waters. However, then he expressed the desire to be put in the spotlight. He proposed to Peter and John, who came down to help in Samaria: “How much do you want to give me this power?” However, Peter rebuked him harshly.

But hadn’t Simon believed it? In fact, he had a “faith of demons.” Simon had demons inside him, and the evil didn’t come out. Simon’s heart wanted to join Philip so as not to “be left behind” in the city. He wasn’t freed. Evil wanted to use the Christian faith to deceive people.

See, the apostle James warned: “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!” (James 2:19).

It means it is not enough to say: “I believe in God; I have a lot of faith in Him”. I say to you: do you believe in God? Great, but the demons also believe. They know it’s true.

What is the faith of demons? It’s the one who says it believes but doesn’t obey. True faith involves a surrender of life. The person begins to live through that faith (like the Christians of the past who died by faith).

Simon had just been amazed by the signs and wanted to continue making money and fame by taking advantage of people’s faith.

Many live like this these days. And when they die, they will be shocked when God says, “I have never known you. You used Me to achieve personal benefits.”

That’s shocking. Imagine a person whose faith is not better than those of demons. How can that be changed? Genuine faith is the one that obeys the Word.

“But Peter said to him, “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 and bound by iniquity” (Acts 8:20-23).

In the next message, we will follow what Simon decided to do.

For now, check out this message in full through the video above.