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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