Acts 8:1-25 - Gospel Lessons

Peter castigates him in language that fits every willful sin a Christian can commit. Heb 10:26-
31 pronounces the judgment against all who deliberately sin:
26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the
truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of
raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of
Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much
more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son
of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that
sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who
said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge his people."
31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Indeed, sorry is the deliberate sin, and sorry is the state of one standing before the judgment.
Simon, so recently saved from his sin by the grace of God and the blood of Jesus, now finds
himself in a state far worse than the one before his conversion, proving that Christians can sin
in such a way as to be eternally lost. Peter described the condition of Christians who willfully
sin in 2 Peter 2:20-22:
20 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end
than they were at the beginning. 21 It would have been better for them not to have
known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on
the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22 Of them the proverbs are true: "A
dog returns to its vomit," and, "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the
mud."
Based on the example of Simon and these scriptures there can be no such condition as the
popular false doctrine summarized by the words: once saved; always saved. Or by the more
formal words: impossibility of apostasy or perseverance of the saints.
Simon Repents
Acts 8:24-25
24 Then Simon answered, "Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me."
25 When they had testified and proclaimed the word of the Lord, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem,
preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.
Simon, just as all of us, recognized his desperate plight as a Christian sinning before God.
Repent and pray for forgiveness is the path to recover taught in the scriptures. John spoke to
this very same issue in 1 John 1:8-9: “8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and
the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our
sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” If we confess our sins he, who is our advocate
before the father, will forgive us of our sins. 1 John 2:1-2 explains: “But if anybody does sin,
we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense — Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He
is the atoning sacrifice for our sins. . . .”
Simon also understood the role of other Christians in our recovery when we sin. “Pray for
me,” he asked Peter. James also teaches us to pray for one another in James 5:16: “16
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.
The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”
As Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, they preached the gospel in many Samaritan
villages.
5