Acts
19:13 ¶ Then certain of the vagabond
Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the
name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.
14 And there were seven sons of one
Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. 15 And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus
I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? 16
And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them,
and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and
wounded. 17 And this was known to all
the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and
the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. 18
And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds.
19 Many of them also which used curious
arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and
they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces
of silver. 20 So mightily grew the word
of God and prevailed.
These Jewish exorcists
try to use Christ without having faith in Him and their paybacks are painful
and embarrassing. This episode brings to mind some verses. First understand
that workers of iniquity in the Old Testament are the wicked,
unrighteous in several verses. Here are two examples.
Psalm
64:2 Hide me from the secret counsel of
the wicked; from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity:
Psalm
92:7 When the wicked spring as the
grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall
be destroyed for ever:
Now, let us move to
Jesus’ sermon in Matthew 5-7.
Matthew
7:21 ¶ Not every one that saith unto me,
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will
of my Father which is in heaven. 22 Many
will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and
in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never
knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
There are probably
people right now preaching, teaching, supposedly casting out evil spirits,
supposedly speaking in the tongues of angels, ministering to the poor and sick
who are tares, the phony hypocrites who will be burned in the oven on the last
day. They make merchandise of the gospel and use Christ’s name without actual
faith and belief. I don’t have to say any names because I personally cannot
know one’s heart. But, the seven sons of Sceva may represent them.
Matthew
13:24 ¶ Another parable put he forth
unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good
seed in his field: 25 But while men
slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. 26 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought
forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. 27
So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst
not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?
28 He said unto them, An enemy hath done this.
The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? 29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the
tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. 30
Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I
will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in
bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn… 36 Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went
into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the
parable of the tares of the field. 37 He
answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;
38 The field is the world; the good seed are the
children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; 39 The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest
is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. 40 As therefore the tares are gathered and
burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. 41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels,
and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which
do iniquity;
42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire:
there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the
sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Notice the response of
an evil spirit when Jesus Himself ordered him out.
Mark
1:23 ¶ And there was in their synagogue
a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out,
24 Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with
thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou
art, the Holy One of God. 25 And Jesus
rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. 26 And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and
cried with a loud voice, he came out of him.
Bible scholar H.C.
Hoskier in his 1910 book entitled, Concerning the
Genesis of the Versions of the New Testament, an incredibly
important work for serious Bible students, talked about the prosperous book
trade in the first century. The literate were avid readers and much translation
work abounded. Verse 19 shows us that there was an enormous market in books on
the occult and magic as the amount of books destroyed by the owners of those
books exceeded a large sum of money. The curious arts, as you can imagine,
refers to these occultic and wicked practices among a people wholly given to
one religion or the other, worshipping and challenging nature and God Himself
for power they coveted to have.
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