Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to the Gospel according to Luke,
but chapter 24, not the chapter we read, chapter 24, and reading
from our text, verse 47. And that repentance and remission
of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning
at Jerusalem. Repentance and remission of sins,
or repentance and forgiveness, Luke 24 and verse 47. In this chapter we have our Lord
rising from the dead, the first day of the week, and that recounted
of what happened on that day, how he appeared to Seville, appeared
to the two on the way to Emmaus, and then they came back and they
rehearsed what had happened to the eleven as they were in the
upper room, and while they were speaking to them, then the Lord
appeared to them, and he spoke to them, he commissioned them,
and the words of our text are part of what our Lord said to
them, that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in
his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem. And the context,
if we read from verse 45, or read from verse 44. And he said unto them, These
are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you,
that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law
of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning
me. Then opened he their understanding
that they might understand the Scriptures. and said unto them,
Thus it is written, and thus it behove Christ to suffer, or
is meet for Christ to suffer, right for Christ to suffer, and
to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and
remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations,
beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these
things. And behold, I send the promise
of my Father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until
ye be endued with power from on high. Verse 46, the Lord clearly
sets forth how necessary it was, how vital it was that Christ,
the seed of the woman, the promised Saviour, the Redeemer, that he
should suffer. He had only just been with those
two on the way to Emmaus who were very sad. They said, we
trusted that it should have been He which should have redeemed
Israel. Whatever ideas they had, it didn't
seem to include that He should die and lay down His life and
redeem them with His precious blood. So Christ to them, he
said, O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets
have written. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and to enter into his glory, and beginning at Moses
and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures
the things concerning himself. To the message of that had already
been given to those two on the way to Emmaus, and here then
he gives this same message to the disciples, how vital, how
necessary, that Christ, the Anointed of God, the Eternal Son of God,
should die, should shed his precious blood, should suffer, and should
rise again from the dead the third day. This was the sacrifice
that put away the sins of the people of God. This is He who
said, I lay down my life for the sheep, I have power to lay
it down, I have power to take it again, This commandment have
I received of my Father. And so the sufferings of Christ,
for any blessing, for any forgiveness, for any repentance, it must have
taken place. No salvation without it. The
Scriptures are clear, without the shedding of blood there is
no remission, and that's not the blood of bulls and of goats,
nor of Abel, nor of any other, not the martyrs, but the blood
of the Son of God, spotless, pure blood of our Lord Jesus
Christ. He also testifies here that the
apostles, those whom he was speaking to, were the witnesses of these
things. They had been the witnesses of
all his ministry, his teaching, the miracles, the raising from
the dead, the opening of the eyes of the blind, the healing
those that were lepers, and the mad gathering, all of those things
they had been witnesses of. And they had been witnesses of
his death. of his sufferings and now of
his rising from the dead and appearing to them. How vital
it is! The Lord truly has suffered,
truly has died, and truly has risen again, and of course now
ascended up into heaven as it is told at the end of this chapter. I want to look with the Lord's
help and thinking of the theme, thinking of the message I do
decide to bring this evening, repentance and forgiveness. Firstly, the gift, the gift of
repentance and forgiveness of sins. And then secondly, the
means, of the gifts of grace, of which this is a gift of grace. And then thirdly, those things
that are joined together in the context that are here, just to
highlight and draw out to you that which cannot be separated,
they are all linked together. Firstly, the gift of repentance
and remission or forgiveness of sins. In Adam's fall, in Adam's sin,
transgression of the law of God, all the human race fell and became
from birth transgressors from the womb. All have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. Not only is it that we have sinned,
we go on in sin and carry on in this world without God and
without hope. We're on a course that is contrary
to God, the course of this world, a course that is in accord with
Satan. The hymn writer says, at peace
with hell, with God, at war, in sin's dark maze they wander
far. M76 in Gadsby's. And that is
the condition that men are in, you and I, and by nature we are
in that condition. And even those that are called,
those that are given eternal life, they by nature are still
as well prone to go into the ways of sin and evil and contrary
from the Lord. That's why there's exhortation
to those that are awakened those whom God has given a new nature
in the hymn we've just sung, to repent, to turn, to change
that course, and to seek forgiveness for our sins. We know, of course,
that the sins of all of God's children were put away at Calvary. All Abel's sins, all Abraham's,
all of the Church of God, those that are called at this present
time, and those that shall be alive when the Lord returns,
their sins were all put away there, not gradually, not some
in one place and some in another, but all at the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ. By one offering, he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified, those that God has set apart
For himself, this people have I formed for myself, they shall
show forth my praise. Those that the Lord has said,
thine they were, and thou gavest them me. Those that he laid down
his life for, those sins were put away in that one sin-atoning
sacrifice. That is remembered at the ordinance
of the Lord's Supper. This do in remembrance of me,
as oft as ye do show Eat this bread and drink this cup, you
do show forth the Lord's death till he come. That is the whole
ground of any forgiveness and pardon. It is not just mercy
that is shown, some of that, not just mercy, but it is mercy
through blood. That is, God pardons the sin. atones for it, he suffers in
the place of his people. There is a payment made, justice
is done. It is not just blotted out without
any justice. But no, the debt is paid. And that is vital for all that
follows, all of the preaching of the gospel, all of the hope
of the people of God, of glory, of forgiveness, All of the hope
that they should be turned from a sinful and evil and a wrong
way unto the Lord is based upon that debt paid, that the law,
the holy, righteous, just law of God has no claim upon them
to condemn them to hell. Paul says in Romans 8, there
is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. So then flowing out from the
death of our Lord comes this gift of repentance and forgiveness
of sin. A gift that will bring a people
that were walking contrary to the Lord to walk with Him, to
desire to do His will and to walk in His ways. Repentance
is a turning from and a turning to. turning from that which is
against the Word of God and against the Will of God, and turning
to that which is the Will of God, turning from that which
is unholy to that which is holy, it is a complete change. Not just a reforming, but a change
from one to another. It is also a godly sorrow for
those sins, a mourning over them, a real sorrow for walking in
that way. Godly sorrow that worketh repentance
not to be repented of. We'll never be sorry that we
repented, never be sorry that we were sorry for our sins. No. And that gift is a gift that
God gives to his children. We have this set forth in the
Acts of the Apostles. Acts of the Apostles, chapter
5, and verse 31. We have Peter testifying with
the other apostles over the Lord Jesus Christ, the God of our
fathers. In verse 30, have raised up Jesus,
whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted, with his
right hand, to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance
to Israel and forgiveness of sins. That is, not to every Israelite,
it is to Israel, it is to an Israelite, but it is to Jews
and Gentiles, and it is to the spiritual Israel, God's chosen
people, the same as his typical people, were a chosen people,
a redeemed people out of Egypt, so it is that God has exalted
our Lord Jesus Christ to give this gift, repentance and forgiveness
of sins. Paul takes this up when he writes
to Timothy in his second epistle to Timothy and chapter 2. We read these words, that the
servant of the Lord, this is verse 24, must not strive, but
be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient in meekness, instructing
those that oppose themselves, if God perventure will give them
repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may
recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken
captive by him at his will. And so the gift is reinforced
again, something that is not earned, something that is not
a duty, but it is the gift of God. We have a beautiful word
in John chapter 1 and verse 9. If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. That is, those unrighteous ways,
those evil ways, He will cleanse us from. That is repentance,
turning us away from those ways. What a Context there is here
in 1 John 1. If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess
our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say with that we have not
sinned, we make Him a liar and His truth is not in us. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. And every one of us, every one
of us need forgiveness, every one of us need the pardon of
our sin and repentance to turn and not continue in that path
of sin. May the Lord bless us with this
gift, to feel the need of it, and to see the blessedness of
the message of the Gospel that sets before us that this gift
is what the Lord Jesus Christ has to give. We read the portion
in Luke's Gospel, chapter 15, because we have there our Lord
addressing in a very practical way, repentance and forgiveness. The scribes and the Pharisees
were murmuring, saying, This man receiveth sinners and eateth
with them. The scribes and Pharisees were
the religious leaders of their day, and they were offended that
Christ, who They said they thought pretending to be a religious
leader was having anything to do with those that were walking
in a life that they viewed was sinful and wrong. The publicans
were sinners, they were tax collectors, they were working Jews, working
for the Romans, taking the taxes and extorting more from their
own people and living off really the fat of their own people under
the Romans. There were many that were walking
in ways that were openly sinful and wrong. And the Pharisees
and scribes, their thought was that these people, there was
no hope for them, that our Lord should not have anything to do
with them. There was no hope that their lives could be turned
around. There was no hope that they could
be forgiven what they were doing. But the Lord very clearly told
them that there was hope. And in fact, there was more hope
for them than those religious leaders who could not see their
own sin. They didn't believe that they
were sinners. They didn't feel any need of
changing from the course that they were walking in, and nor
did they see any need of being forgiven. So our Lord tells these
three parables, and the first two, well really all three, they
emphasize the joy that is in heaven over one sinner that repenteth. And in one he says that there's
more joy in heaven over one that repenteth The 99 just persons
that have no need of repentance, that is, in their own eyes, they
are just, they are upright, they're godly, they don't need repentance. There's not joy in heaven over
them. Our righteousnesses, the Bible
says, are as filthy rags. God sees the heart. He knows
that the heart is deceitful. above all things and desperately
wicked, and that all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. And so he tells these parables
of the joy when one turns, when one is found, one that was lost. The parable of the prodigal son
is very telling, especially in relation to the scribes and the
Pharisees. They are like the elder son. They are like the one that could
not receive one that was brought back. I believe it's a lesson
really to the end of time for the Church of God, even for those
that are really called by God's grace, that truly are with Him
and know Him and love Him. but have others that have gone
away, have gone into great lengths of sin, and God has brought them
back, and he's rejoiced over them, and those that truly discern
and love the Lord and see his grace, they rejoice, but there'll
be some that find fault and think, well, why is such a thing being
made of those that have gone in such lengths of sin? And so
it is a very clear message from the Lord himself to all that
feel that their ways are ways opposite to God, are wrong, that
there is hope, that he himself will give them a heart to turn
and to change their lives. He will in that also forgive
them, and pardon them of their sin. The great evidence of forgiveness
of sin is repentance. The two go together. All that
our Lord forgives and pardons, He will also change their lives,
change their hearts, change their feet as well. You won't get a
drunkard being forgiven his sin of drunkenness, and then going
on without any sorrow for it, without any trouble, just going
on in the same way that he's always gone. You won't get one
that was swearing and cursing to be pardoned and forgiveness,
find forgiveness for their blasphemy, They're taking the name of the
Lord in vain, and then they go on and they still do it, and
they still walk in that way. Wherever one has been walking
in ways of sin, then the Lord will give them, as they are pardoned
and forgiven those sins, that they have a desire to walk in
the ways of the Lord. They'll feel great opposition
to it. They'll feel like the Apostle
Paul said, the good that I would, I do not, and the evil that I
would not, that I do. He says, I wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? But the willingness
is there. He says, if I do that which I
would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth
in me. And it is a great mercy to desire
to walk in the ways of the Lord and to seek help from the Lord
to do so. And the Lord has promised there
in 1 John 1.9 that if we confess our sins, very often with us
we think before we come before the Lord, the first thing we
should do is to cleanse ourselves from our sins. and to change
our own heart and change our own way. But the Lord says, no,
that is not the first thing you do at all. You confess your sin,
you come before the Lord, you tell him, you tell him how much
you love your sins, how hard it is for you to break them off,
and how what a poor failure you have been in that. And you actually
acknowledge your sin, that they are sins, they are yours, and
that what you are doing is against God. and you confess that before
him. But it is a confession with sorrow
and with the desire that you change. You don't do what in
the Roman Catholic faith where they just go and make confession
with no intention of changing and then go away and do the same
sins again thinking, well, all I do need to do is next time
come and confess my sins and it's a get out card. I can just
keep doing this, just living my life of sin and just getting
pardoned. Years ago, the Pope used to sell
indulgences. If the person gave enough money
to the church, they could have a piece of paper so that they
could indulge some sin without having guilt or without having
the wrath of God upon them, allowed to walk in Ways of wickedness,
adultery and sinful ways. And that the church saying, that's
all right, you do that. You pay a bit of money, you can
do that. What blasphemy, how terribly opposite to the gospel
and what the Lord would have men to be turned away from their
sins. And where they're turned away
from, then you'll pardon those sins. And so we read there, where
we confess that He is faithful and just to do two things, to
forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And that is giving repentance,
cleansing us from our sinful walk and way, and that is God's
work. And that is what He will do.
That is what we want Him to do, though we might say our old nature
doesn't want Him to do it. is striving against it, but that
which is born of God, that which is pure from above, it wants
to be clean. And that is the way in which
the Lord would have us to do it. May we be helped to come
confessing our sins and the Lord cleanse us from our sins, pardon
our sins and cleanse us from that unrighteous, ungodly, walk
and way. So it is a gift, the gift of
repentance and remission of sins. Our Lord says here in our text,
and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in
his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem. Or secondly, I
want to consider the means of the gifts of grace. And of course we do, we tend
to refer to our chapels, refer to our gathering together for
preaching, for reading and prayer, singing, as the means of grace. Grace is the free unmerited favour
of God. Paul tells the Ephesians, by
grace ye are saved through faith and that not of yourselves, that
is faith is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. To grace
is a gift and faith is a gift. Repentance is a gift. Forgiveness
is a gift. They all are freely given through
our Lord Jesus Christ. He has purchased eternal life,
He has paid the debt, and He may give these things. He gives
them freely to His people. So what are the means of grace? We have it set forth in the words
of our text here, in the context. Firstly, and the main means here
is preaching. What is preaching? the authoritative
declaration of the Word of God. Preaching is not lecturing, it's
not a Sunday school lesson, it's not a talk, it's not a meditation,
it is preaching. The Lord Jesus Christ preached,
Philip preached, to the Union, the Apostles preached, and we
hope that we preach. Because it is the authoritative
declaration of the Word of God, thus saith the Lord. His command
to us is to preach the Word. So we preach the Word of God. We set forth authoritatively
the Word of God. And so really, there shouldn't
be much in the sermons, though we may use the terminology sometimes,
I think this, I think that, and we could To decide what this
means, no, the Word of God is to be set forth in what it really
means and how the Lord would have us to understand the Word
of God. If when the Apostle Paul preached
to those at Berea, they could then take the Old Testament Scriptures
and search the Scriptures daily whether these things were so,
and therefore many of them believed, if they could do that, to the
Apostle's preaching, we may know that his preaching was according
to the Old Testament Scriptures. And the Apostle, all of the Apostles
was the same, so was our Lord. Preach the word, and of course
in this Gospel day, we have the New Testament as well, as we
preach this evening from Luke. But in preaching, there's some
important aspects that are brought out in this verse and what follows. The first is this, that that
preaching is in His name. It is in the name of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ. A name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. When the apostles
went forth they preached, not only did they preach as the apostles,
but they also did the miracles that our Lord did, but they did
them in His name. And they did them, our Lord has
said, that greater things shall ye do because I go to my Father. And not only did they do the
miracles that our Lord did, but they preached and they had, we
might say, greater success with their preaching. than our Lord
did, because thousands believed. Thousands were saved when the
apostles preached. Our Lord had risen and ascended
up into heaven and sent them forth with power. But the important
thing is in the name of Jesus, not in anyone's name, but in
one name. And it is that name of Jesus
that so many find so offensive. Many times I've spoken to people
and they quite happy to believe in a God, but not in the Trinity,
not in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Jehovah's Witnesses
would rob him of his glory as of the eternal Son of God. The various other organisations
would take away the uniqueness of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is vital for us to emphasize
this, that there is none other name given among men whereby
we must be saved. Our Lord said, if ye believe
not that I am he, ye shall perish in your sins. The gift must come
through our Lord, it is by him that the world shall be judged,
and you and I must stand before his judgment throne at last. The blessings must come through
him. Peter says, unto you which believe,
he is precious. The Lord Jesus Christ is precious. So that is one vital aspect of
the preaching. Christless preaching is useless
preaching. It will never save a soul, however
enticing and lovely that sermon will be, It can never be effective,
the Lord will never own it and never bless it because it does
not exalt and put the crown on the head of our Lord Jesus Christ
from whom all blessings must flow. The second thing that is
vital with preaching, it must have begun at Jerusalem. How many cults, how many new
religions, you can date have begun some time since our Lord
died and rose again, ascended into heaven, and they don't begin
at Jerusalem, they begin at some other city in the earth. And you can trace those kind
of cults to a man or to a movement that begun at some other time. But the true faith, it begins
at Jerusalem. The prophecies are that their
waters shall flow half to the hind sea, half to the former
sea from Jerusalem, half to the Jews, half to the Gentiles. The disciples had been told that
they should tarry at Jerusalem first, that they should begin
their ministry there. And when they are persecuted
in one city or in that city, then they would go to the next
city. But they were to preach the word first there. And so,
when we preach the gospel, 2,000 years later, we trace it, we
preach the same gospel that Peter preached. We preach the same
gospel that went out from Jerusalem. It's not different, it's the
same. And that is vital. It doesn't
change with the changing years. It is unto all generations. The third thing that is vital
is that it is in the power of the Holy Spirit. The reason that
the Lord gave to tarry at Jerusalem was until ye be endued with power
from on high. Our Lord was to make intercession
for this one gift when he ascended up to the Father. I'll pray the
Father And He will give you another comforter, give you the Holy
Spirit. And that Spirit fell on the day
of Pentecost. The power of God fell. It was
signed in tongues of fire. It was seen in those that were
there speaking in tongues of fire. known languages of the
nations of those that had gathered for that day of Pentecost. And they heard them speak, not
just anything, but in their own language, they heard them speak
the wonderful works of God. God was going to send out his
gospel into every nation, kindred and tongue, and he was going
to say, this is different The Bible, when language was confounded
and separated that way, in this way you shall be separated because
of persecution, but the word shall be translated into the
languages of the world, and they shall hear it in their own language. That was very clearly signified
at Pentecost. And ever since, the Lord has
given, not miraculously like that, but given to gracious men,
godly men, men that have been called, men that have been witnesses
like here, the gift of languages to be able to understand and
translate the original languages into other tongues. And we have
a faithful translation in the authorized version here into
English, for which we would thank and bless God. But they had to
tarry, tarry at Jerusalem, and wait for the Holy Spirit. When
Paul writes to the Thessalonians, he said that the word came unto
them, not in word only, but in demonstration of the Spirit and
of power. It is vital that in preaching
that there is the power of the Holy Spirit attended, and the
preacher will depend on that, he'll look for that, he's not
using enticing words of man's wisdom, he's comparing scripture
with scripture, and he's looking for, praying for, and looking
for the work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of his hearers. And hopefully those spiritual
hearers, they will be looking for the same as well. The fourth thing of preaching
is that it is among all nations. Really, the Gospel of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ, one of its hallmarks is that wherever
you go in the world, there it will be. In the beginning, of
course, they were sent forth, they preached everywhere, and
they had to go among all nations. No doubt there are some nations
that have not yet received the Gospel, but many have. Many have
heard it. And this is one hallmark of the
true Gospel. The true preaching of the word
is not confined to one nation. The English nation cannot say
it belongs to us. The Australian nation cannot
say it belongs to us. No, nor even the Americans can
say it belongs to them. It is the gospel of our Lord
and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and it is to every nation and kindred
and tongue. The fifth point is this, that
it is preached by witnesses. Now I know we cannot have first-hand
witnesses in the sense that the apostles were here. Our Lord
says in verse 48, and ye are witnesses of these things. But one thing we can most certainly
say when it is preached, that the preacher is One that has
already been given repentance, given forgiveness, knows it personally,
has been given eternal life, has been called of God, he is
a possessor of that of which he's setting before the people.
And together with that, he is also called to the ministry,
sent forth by God into the ministry. He has had an inward call. He
has had an outward call in providence. And the people of God hear his
word and testify that the Holy Spirit is blessing it and attending
it with power. It's the most solemn thing when
there are those that stand up and preach the word, and they
preach it just like a job. They might for a while have been
working, in a city or some secular calling and just decide, well,
I'd like to be a preacher now. And so they do their job for
a few years and then they go back to their secular calling
again. I know many of the Lord's servants,
as it were tent maker pastors, they have a secular calling so
that they have enough to live on, but they're called and as
often as they're able and where they're called, they preach the
gospel. But they are truly called, and they're not just picking
it up, dropping it down. They're not just hired servants. It's the most solemn thing, when
there are those in our day, the same as in Christ, which he said
of these Christs and Pharisees, he are blind, leaders of the
blind, and then both will fall into the ditch. An unsaved preacher
will be of no use to the people of God. The means of grace, the
means that God uses to convey the blessings of repentance and
remission of sins, to give faith, to give grace, to give every
spiritual blessing through the Word of God preached, is in accordance
with these things. A preaching that is in His name,
a preaching that began at Jerusalem, a preaching that is in the power
of the Holy Spirit, a preaching that is among all nations, and
a preaching that is preached by those who know and have felt
and experienced the power of God in their own soul. And the
Lord has sent them forth and authorised them to preach the
Gospel. We'll want to look then in the
third place, those things that are joined together. I do like in the Word of God,
we have many things that we have change or things linked together. One well-known one, which you
may well know in Romans chapter 8. It begins in verse 28, three
verses, there's a beautiful linking together. We know that all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to his purpose. Then we have a glorious chain
here. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called
them he also justified, and whom he justified them he also glorified. And so we have the foreknowledge
of God, we have the predestinating of those whom he has foreknown,
that in this life they shall be brought to repentance and
remission of sins and live as the Lord was here below, rejected
by the world for the most part, known of God, and that is he
conformed to the image of his son as the Lord was here. The
Lord said, if they have received my word, then they will receive
yours. But if they've done these things
in the green tree, what shall they do in the dry? So we have
the predestinated, and then those that are predestinated, them
he had called, So we have called, justified, glorified, and each
one links together. And where you find one, where
you find one that is called or born again, you know that they
are, they will be justified and they will be glorified at last
in heaven. And so you have as well in our
text a linking together. Now some of these things, of
course, we have already gone over. But I want to, in this
last point, just refresh over how they are joined together. We have Christ's sufferings,
His death and resurrection is set forth in verse 46. Then we have repentance, and
then we have remission or forgiveness of sins. And then we have the
preaching, and preaching in the name of Jesus and among all nations. and beginning at Jerusalem, and
then we have the Holy Spirit, and we have God's promise. All
of these things are joined together in the compass of just a few
verses. One beautiful joining together
is that which we have in Psalm 84, and at the end of that Psalm, And it is this, Psalm 84, verse
11. For the Lord God is a sun and
shield. The Lord will give grace and
glory. No good thing will he withhold
from them that walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the
man that trusteth in thee. And may we notice throughout
the word, those things that are joined together. All of those
that will be in glory will be called by God's grace here below. They will be given repentance,
they will be forgiven here below, and they will at last be in glory
with the Lord. So may the Lord be pleased to
bless this word tonight and bless us with repentance and remission
of sins. Amen.