May it please God to bless us
this evening as we conclude our thoughts on this third chapter
in the Acts of the Apostles. And we'll commence this evening
from verse 19. You will no doubt remember that
this chapter speaks about, initially, a lame man who was healed. And we can observe how the Lord
uses a situation in our lives and in people's lives, perhaps
from an unusual position, to direct us to the important things
regarding our soul and the condition of our soul. And really that's
exactly what Peter was able to do here. And he and John, as
you will remember, went into the temple and they met this
man who was asking, an alms asking some money from them and Peter
told him, he said look on us and the man expected to receive
some money but Peter said silver and gold have I none but such
as I have give I thee in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth
rise up and walk and we remember how he leapt up and walked and
praised God and all the people when they saw this and saw him
walking and praising God and they knew that it was he which
sat at the for arms at the beautiful great of the city then they were
filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto
him and as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John
Peter and John, all the people, ran together unto them in the
porch that is called Solomon's Greatly Wandering. So, we see
the scene, don't we? A wonderful position there, and
all the people now running together. And now we see by the Spirit
of God, the Apostle Peter, he grasped the opportunity. And
I do think that we need to be very alert in our lives today.
As we see things occur, not perhaps in the same way as this, situations
when the Lord presents us with an opportunity that we should
not be ashamed of speaking forth the truth of God because Peter
said you men of Israel why marvel ye at this or why look ye so
earnestly on us as though by our own power or holiness we
had made this man to walk and then he reiterates the position
of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and he then says whom about then
the God of our fathers hath glorified his son Jesus whom ye delivered
up and denied him in the presence of Pilate when he was determined
to let him go but ye denied the Holy One and the just and desired
a murderer and be granted unto you and killed the Prince of
life whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses."
You see how the Apostle brings in the situation, brings in the
picture. And then he says, and his name,
through faith in his name, hath made this man strong, whom ye
see and know, yea, the faith which is by him hath given him
this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. And now,
brethren, I want that through ignorance He did it, as did also
your rulers, but those things which God before had showed by
the mouth of all his prophets that Christ should suffer, he
hath so fulfilled." So Peter gave the full picture of the
position with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ and they were well
aware that this man had been crucified And Peter directed
them and said, it was you that were the problem, you caused
this. And so he comes now, having laid this very clearly before
them, he says, repent ye therefore and be converted, that your sins
may be blotted out when the times are refreshing shall come from
the presence of the Lord. Well, how essential that was
in that day. And still today, how essential
it is in our day. that we also recognize the great
importance of true repentance. Repent therefore and be converted. In a nutshell, it really means
our life is changed. It means that we are turned around. This word converted means that,
to be turned. Repent ye therefore and be converted. And what did it mean? It meant
they had to give up all their false religion. You might say,
well, surely it wasn't false. Surely they'd been following
the true God. Well, they had, but then they'd
rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. They had not believed the things
that he had said. They had not recognised those
things which Moses had prophesied and others in the Old Testament
had prophesied with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ. They had
not accepted them as truth and they were unwilling to leave
such a situation. They were dependent on their
religion. They were dependent upon their
works. They thought they could gain
salvation by what they had done. The gospel is so, so different.
The gospel depends not on what we've done, but on what Christ
has done. And so with that view, and seeing
that, then they were told to repent ye therefore and be converted. And perhaps today in our lives,
we may not have been following the same way that the Israel
of old did, but we may have been following our own religion, our
own way, our own deductions, our own consideration, our own
plans. We had not been willing to submit
ourselves unto the will of Almighty God. You may think, well that's
a very obvious statement. Well so it is, but so many people
are so unwilling to submit themselves to the will of God. You know
the great thing is, surely, that we may know what it is to be
made willing in the daily's power, and therefore to repent and to
be converted, to be turned around, because if we follow a wrong
way, if we are still headlong in a wrong way, there'll be no
forgiveness of sin. and we shall not get to heaven.
There will not be any good end to our life. It will be disaster. Oh, that we might hear then the
blessed Spirit of God speaking to our hearts in the same way
that the Apostle was able to declare here, repent ye therefore
and be converted that your sins may be blotted out, blotted out
like a thick cloud Take it away. No more clouds. As we preached
recently, the clear view of the Son and the clear view of the
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, what a blessing that will
be if we are favoured to be like this so that our sins may be
blotted out. Now it's clear they cannot be
blotted out unless there is true repentance and unless there is
a true conversion. What a blessing then if the Holy
Spirit comes upon us today and blesses us with that knowledge
that we do possess and have possessed this grace of God so that we
have fallen down and indeed repented before our God. Indeed, when
the arrow of conviction has come home to our hearts and we realise
that we're the man, we haven't looked round, we haven't looked
at everybody else, we've only had a look at ourself and realised
our need. Until when the times of refreshing
shall come, from the presence of the Lord. Well, this can really
be taken in two ways. First of all, when the Lord does
bless with repentance, there is then that comfort, there is
that liberty, there is that true refreshing. We may have been
indeed bowed down, perhaps for many years, And yet, when the
Lord comes and blesses us with this living repentance, then
there is this refreshing that shall come from the presence
of the Lord. Because the Lord then reveals
Himself. Because it's when the Lord reveals
Himself as our Saviour, that we see our true state. And then
it is that we do fall down before our Holy God. and really desire
to be sorry for our sins and to turn and to change and know
what it is to be a new creature. And then the refreshing shall
come from the presence of the Lord. There is that time, of
course, when we shall have finished our life on this earth. And that
will be a glorious refreshing, won't it? When we've done with
sin, while we're on the earth, we cannot be free from sin. Sin
is in us. It's all around us. It's a burden
to us. To the Church of God, sin is
a burden to them. And therefore, it will be a wonderful
time of refreshing when we finish our course and enter in to the
presence of the Lord. What a glorious occasion that
will be. And ye shall send Jesus Christ,
which before was preached unto you. The Lord had been preached
to them. They hadn't received it. What
a blessing if Christ has been preached to us and our hearts
been touched and we received the preaching of the Gospel and
the Lord Jesus Christ has meant something to us. Indeed, He's
meant much to us. Indeed, He's been precious to
us. What a blessing then If it is so, ye shall send Jesus Christ,
which before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive,
until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath
spoken by the mouth of his holy prophets, since the world began."
There has always been this direction that this world would not live
forever. No, it was just a place that
one day would be burnt up and there would be a new heaven and
a new earth. So the apostle directs us to
this wonderful truth. The heavens must receive until
the times of restitution of all things which God has spoken by
the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. Then he moves on. For Moses truly
said unto the fathers a prophet shall the Lord your God raise
up unto you of your brethren like unto me him shall he hear
in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. Well we mentioned
last week a number of places in the Word of God where this
was prophesied so clearly. And what a wonderful soul-strengthening
truth it is to realise that the Lord Jesus was prophesied so
many, many years before he was actually born in that town of
Bethlehem. Wonderful to think that the Lord
gave those men, indicted those men, to write those things which
would surely come to pass. And now the Apostle is telling
them it's come to pass. Those things which you've heard
spoken of. Now the trouble was, of course,
it hadn't come to pass in the way they thought it should. They
expected an earthly king. They didn't expect a man so humble. A man so low. They expected a great knackle
king. He did come as a king and he
was of course the king of kings and lord of lords. But these
people didn't believe it and the Moses, Peter rather, is directing
them to the truth. And I suppose we need to be aware
in our lives that we haven't got a picture in our minds of
how things are going to work out. We should recognise the
Lord has told us really how things will work out. We know the true
picture. The picture is conviction of
sin, leading to Christ, and it's through much tribulation that
we shall enter the kingdom. That's the picture. That's the
truth. I love of mine so often paint
a different picture. Sometimes we need to be reminded
of the path of a true Christian. And the path of a true Christian
is a rugged way, and it's because we are a follower of the Lord
Jesus Christ. His way was much rougher and
harder than ours. Did Christ, my Lord, suffer?
And should I repine? My friends, we always need to
have the Saviour's example set before us and so then the apostle
comes and says and it shall come to pass remember what the Lord
says is certain and it shall come to pass that every soul
which will not hear the prophet shall be destroyed from among
the people and that's a very solemn statement isn't it it's
a very solemn statement it was true in this day it's still true
today We see people, people who listen to the gospel, who are
not moved. Just a head knowledge. Dead. Spiritually dead. And Peter doesn't
leave as it were a stone unturned. He tells them very straight and
very clearly. You see, he brought them this
fact. Their need was to repent and to be converted. and he directs
them to the situation which existed and he comes and tells them this
that they will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed for
among the people, yea and all the prophets from Samuel and
those that follow after as many as have spoken have likewise
foretold you of these days he reiterates the point making it
very clear and then he comes and says are the children of
the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers,
saying unto Abraham, and in thy seat shall all the kindreds of
the earth be blessed." Well, what a wonderful statement that
was. How encouraging for these people. And then he tells them, unto
you first, God, having raised up his son Jesus, sent him to
bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities. Now what a blessing that was
if that truth entered into their hearts and they realised that
they were the ones who were truly had crucified the Lord of life
and glory and they were condemned under it and they turned to worship
and to obey and to serve their master the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, today, we've moved on many
years. My friends, the same need is
there, that every one of us in our lives today need to recognise
the truth of these words and be found repenting of our hardness,
of our sinfulness, of our rebellion and turning unto the Lord and
to be refreshed in that situation and to realise the outcome, the
end of the road, glory, where glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's
land, eternal happiness, where we shall serve the Lord without
any sin for ever and ever. Oh, for His honour and glory.
My friends tonight, may these words enter into our hearts.
May they be a blessing to us. May we ponder them and realise
the wonderful favour that we have having the Word of God to
speak to us of all these things, to warn us and to encourage us
so that we might be right with God. Amen.