Simon, with all his possibility, Simon, with all that looked good, lost out on salvation. And as we look at his life and see the narrative that the Spirit of God has given us through Luke, we can see four characteristics of false faith manifest in this man, Simon. He had a wrong view of self, he had a wrong view of salvation, he had a wrong view of the Spirit, and he had a wrong view of sin. His view of self was egotistical, his view of salvation was external, his view of the Spirit was economic, and his view of sin was evasive; all wrong views. And, by the way, he is no solitary tragedy, he is simply an illustration of a tragedy that goes on all the time.
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http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/44-29/the-first-false-convert