If you would turn in your Bibles
with me to the third chapter of the book of Acts. I'd like to read beginning with
verse 11 and read through verse 20. Verse 11 through 20. And as the lame man which was
healed held Peter and John all the people ran together unto
them in the porch that is called Solomon's Greatly Wondering. And when Peter saw it, he answered
unto the people, Ye 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. The God of Abraham,
and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified
his Son, Jesus. Amen. 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 to be granted unto you, and killed
the prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof
we are witnesses. 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 man, this perfect soundness,
in the presence of you all. And now, brethren, I want that
through ignorance you did it, as also did your rulers. But
those things which God before had showed by the mouth of all
his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he has so fulfilled. Repent ye therefore, and be converted,
that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing
shall come from the presence of the Lord. And he shall send
Jesus Christ, which was before preached unto you. In 1 Corinthians chapter 4 and
verse 20, Paul said, For the kingdom of God is not in word,
but in power. The power of God was demonstrated,
the first part of this chapter, in the healing of this impotent
man. The power of God was evident. Peter said in verse 6, 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 in verse
12, when Peter saw it, he answered, unto the people. The people had
come together greatly wondering, wondering if surely these men
are special men. Surely these men have some kind
of magic or power about them that has enabled this man to
rise up and walk and go leaping and praising God. And Peter saw
it, he answered the people, you men of Israel, why marvel you
at this? Or why look you so earnestly
on us? As though by our own power of
holiness we had made this man to walk. The God of Abraham and
of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified
his son Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence
of Pilate when he was determined to let him go. hath glorified
his son Jesus." He's glorified, he's exalted his own beloved
son. He raised him from the dead.
And Jesus said, all power is given to me in heaven and earth. So the power of God resides in
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it was through his
name that this man was made to walk and leap, stood up, and
praise God. Now after the miracle of healing
on the lame man, as the people gathered round about Peter and
John, we see that they were not at a loss for a subject on which
to address the people. These men were full of the gospel,
so they spoke to the people of that very message and that very
topic which laid nearest to their hearts. If we know the Lord Jesus
Christ, who I believe is the gospel, whatever situation or
position that we may find ourselves, we know what is the appropriate
subject for the people. When we stand before men and
women, The burden of our hearts is to preach Christ and Him crucified,
to set forth the glorious message of redeeming grace. Now the gospel
is always in season, brethren. It's always in season. Paul talked
to Timothy about preaching the word. And he said, you be faithful
in season and out of season. But the gospel is always in season. It's always appropriate. And if it is preached in the
power of the Holy Spirit from the heart, it will surely accomplish
the will and the purpose of our God. So turning to the multitude,
Peter began at once to preach to them the gospel without a
second of hesitation. Oh, be ready, brethren. Oh, that
our lamps will be trimmed, that they'll be bright, that our souls
will be on fire in the Spirit, ready Lord, grant it to be evermore. Let it be so that our spirits
will be ready, ready to preach the gospel, full of the gospel,
saturated with the gospel, that when we speak to men and women,
that that will be the message that they'll hear. Take note
how Peter turns the attention of the people from himself and
John to the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, as we read a moment
ago, why look you so earnestly on us as though by our own power
of holiness we had made this man to walk? Now we preach not
ourself, Paul said, but Christ Jesus the Lord. Look somewhere
else besides on us. Now the preacher's object must
be to get the attention of the people off of himself and on
to Christ always. He must be trying to direct the
attention of the people to the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said
we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord. Now the whole
power to bless men does not lie in the servants of God. We need
to remember that. The power to bless and to save
the souls of men does not lie in the servants of our Lord Jesus
Christ, but in the Lord Jesus Christ and in the gospel of His
salvation. That's where the power lies to
bless and to save the souls of men, in the gospel. Now Peter
did not beat around the bush about the gospel. He made the
gospel plain and clear. He preached not merely the gospel
of good news, but Christ. He preached the person of the
Lord Jesus. Christ crucified, crucified by
them. Christ risen, Christ glorified
of His Father. Depend upon it. This is the very
strength of the Christian message. It is to be saturated with the
name and the person and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Take Christ out of your message
and you un-gospelize the gospel. Christ is our subject. Christ is the message. It is
through Christ that salvation is brought to God's people. You
give the people the husk that are fit only for swine if you
take Christ out of the message. When you take away the precious
kernel of the gospel, which is the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ, you're just feeding up husk to the people. Now, Peter
would tell them about Jesus Christ and about nothing else but the
Lord Jesus Christ. He knew this to be the power
of God unto salvation, as Paul said in Romans 1 and 16. And
he would not flinch from it, even in the presence of those
who had crucified the Lord of Glory. Notice how he puts it. He said, in verse 13 and 14,
he said, Ye denied Him. Ye denied Him. This one, that
is the beloved Son of God. Ye denied Him. Ye delivered Him
up. Ye desired a murderer. You desired Barabbas rather than
the Lord Jesus Christ. My, what an indictment against
that generation. What an indictment against human
nature. Ah, you denied him. You delivered
him up. You desired Barabbas instead
of Christ. Now, Peter is not afraid of being
personal. He would touch their conscience.
He wasn't afraid of addressing the real issue. And so He was
not afraid of these people. And you can only stand before
people and deliver the message of Christ faithfully if you have
no fear of men. If we fear God, we need not fear
man. If you fear God, you won't have
any reason whatever to be afraid of men. You remember when the
Lord called Jeremiah. He said, Before I formed you
in the belly, I knew you. And before you came forth out
of the womb, I had sanctified you and ordained you to be a
prophet unto the nations. And you shall go to all that
I shall send thee. And he said, You will speak whatever
I tell you to speak, and you will not be afraid of their faces. You won't be afraid to tell them
the message. Now, He is not afraid of being
personal. He would touch their conscience.
He would make them feel, in reality, their sin. He would not cover
it up. He would reveal to them their
sin. Even so, brethren, when we preach
the gospel, we must preach while we preach the truth in love We
must preach the truth and no hedging and no trimming of the
truth. The truth must be set forth. Man is accursed from God. The wrath of God is on the sinner. A man is alienated from God. alienated from the life that
is in the Lord Jesus Christ, has no hope, and he's without
God in the world, and he thinks he's better off than he is, and
only the preacher of the gospel can reveal to that man, as the
Holy Spirit takes his message, what a state that that man is
in. And so we must be faithful in
declaring the truth as to where men stand with God. A curse let that man be that
would withhold the corn of the gospel from men. Men that will
not speak the truth, men that will not tell men and women that
there is no peace, saith my God to the wicked, that the wicked
are like the troubled sea that casteth up dirt and mire. There
is no rest, there is no peace. My friend, rest and peace is
not compatible with sin and rebellion against God. And if you're going
to be at peace with God, it can only come through the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is our peace. He made peace
for us through the blood of the cross. So a curse let that man
be which withholds the corn of the gospel from men and bates
his breath and smooths his tongue that he may please the unholy
throng. Well, we know that there have
been many examples Not only Peter and John, but there have been
many examples that we read after of men who would not pare down
the truth, but would tell it. I remember reading a story long
ago about an old man by the name of, I believe his name was Cartwright. And this old man was called upon
to preach a meeting down south somewhere. And he was sitting
on Sunday morning, getting ready to come into the pulpit, and
the preacher came to him and said, we've got a dignitary in
the audience today. And Andrew Jackson had come in
and sat down in the pews. And so the preacher said, you
don't want to in any way offend him. You be careful the way you
speak this morning. And so old Mr. Cartwright, he'd
preached the gospel for over 50 years, and he knew that the
fear of man would bring a snare. And so he got up, and on purpose,
in a little while in his message, he was preaching on repentance
and conversion, and he said, I understand that Andrew Jackson
is here this morning. And he said, if Andrew Jackson
don't repent and be converted, he'll go to hell like everybody
else here that's lost and unforgiven of their sin. And so, Andrew
Jackson, instead of being offended, it broke his heart. And he brought
him to faith and repentance, and him and that old man were
good friends as long as they lived in this world, because
God used him to bring the truth to Andrew Jackson's heart. And
beloved, we need to understand that the truth of God is sharp,
and is sharper than any two-edged sword, and it pierces to the
dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, and of the joints
and marrow, and is a critic of the thoughts and the intents
of the heart. The Word of God can break the
heart of a man like a hammer would break glass. The Word of
God is powerful, and it can bring salvation to the soul. Now, we
must preach directly then to the people and tell them the
truth. And that's what Peter did to
those that were gathered around him that day. Well, what did
he say? Well, in verse 19, we find the
exhortation which Peter and John gave to these people who were
gathered around. He said, Repent ye therefore,
and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out. when the
times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord,
and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto
you." Well, this is what he said. Now, there are four things here
that I wish to speak briefly on this morning. First of all,
Peter told them to repent and to be converted. That's what
He told these people, these ones that had crucified the Lord of
glory. Repent and be converted. Repent signifies in its literal
meaning, the changing of one's mind. It has been translated
after wit or after wisdom. What takes place in an individual
when the wisdom of God comes into him? Now the Bible says
that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. And when the fear
of God comes into a man's heart, or into an individual's heart
and mind, then what happens after that is, that that individual
is enlightened to the point where that they realize what an awful
person they've been, what a sinful person they've been, how depraved
and wicked they have acted, and they have some wisdom about their
situation and they know that it's time they have a change
of mind about it. God is pleased to give them a
change of mind. So it means after wisdom has
come in. You remember the prodigal son?
The Bible says when he came to himself. That's what I'm talking
about. When he came to himself. That's
when he left the pig pen and went home to the father's house.
was whenever He came to Himself. And so if you ever come to yourself,
you ever come to realize what you are, if you come to realize
that you hated Christ so much that you would crucify Him, that
you would stick a butcher knife in His back, or that you would
pull God down off of the throne, if you could get to Him, then,
my friend, you will have a change of mind if you know that you've
been wrong and that this sinful and wicked. Now it's a person
finding out that they were wrong and then rectifying their judgment. Somebody said repentance is to
leave the sins we loved before and to show that we in earnest
grieve by doing so no more. And I asked a question one time
in one of our young people's meetings what the word repentance
means, and one of our young people said, it's being sorry for your
sins. And that is a true statement.
And I added that it's being sorry enough that you quit your sin,
that you quit it. A schoolgirl was saved, and someone
asked her, what were you before you were saved? And she said,
well, I was a sinner. Then she was asked, well, what
are you now? And she answered, I'm a sinner. And they asked, well what's the
difference? And she answered, I was a sinner running after
sin, but now I'm a sinner running from sin. And so somebody who's
had this enlightenment of mind and got the wisdom of God in
them, they no longer are following after sin, but they're following
after righteousness and true holiness. Repentance is a discovery
of the evil of our nature and our depravity. Have you ever
discovered the truth about yourself? Have you ever really got to the
place where you hated yourself? where you had nothing but loathing
for yourself? Well, my friend, that's the work
of the Spirit of God in the heart of the sinner, bringing that
sinner to where they have a change of judgment in mind about themselves. a mourning, a loathing that we're
what we are, and a resolution to forsake that, repent, and
be converted. It is, in fact, a change of mind
of a very deep and practical character which makes the person
love what they once hated and hate what they once loved. Isn't
it wonderful to get around people who've had to change? who've
had a change, in whom God has worked a radical change, and
where they now love what they used to hate, and they hate now
what they used to love. Now the word conversion means
the actual turning around. As we said, the prodigal son,
he came to himself. And that was repentance. And
then whenever he turned and got out of the hog pen and started
toward home, that's conversion. It means a turning from and a
turning to, a turning from sin, a turning to what is right, a
turning to holiness. From the world to heaven, from
self to the Lord Jesus Christ, a complete turning. In the Greek
it is really repent and convert, or rather repent and turn is
what it is in the original, I understand. Repent and turn. Have you ever
repented and have you turned? Have you turned? Well, it's wonderful,
it's remarkable to see somebody turn and leave the old ways and
the old paths of sin and follow the Lord Jesus Christ and become
His disciple. Become a follower of the Lamb. To be His follower, His imitator. It's wonderful, it's remarkable
to see that. Now, repentance is a part of
conversion because apart from the repentance, you would never
turn. You would never turn. If you didn't have a change of
mind, then you wouldn't convert. You wouldn't turn around and
leave your sin. It is perhaps the gate or the
door of it. New birth, a new birth. Repentance,
faith are the effects that came with the new birth. When an individual
is born from heaven, when the Spirit of God came in and they
were brought to life, Then they repented. Then they had this
wisdom given to them, this enlightenment given to them. And then the enlightenment
is not there and leaves the person just enlightened, but he turns
because he must, because God not only is the author of regeneration
and the repentance that follows, but the turning about is also
the work of the new nature. And the first sign of that faith
in Christ is a consequent following. It's turning. It's a conversion
from the evil that has been in our life to good and to the walking
in the fellowship of the Spirit and the leaning on Christ and
becoming of a spiritual mind and not continuing on in the
way of the flesh or with a carnal attitude. So Peter is saying
change your mind, be sorry for what you've done, forsake your
old ways, be turned and become new men, new creatures in the
Lord Jesus Christ. I will say this, that repentance
and conversion are the works of the Holy Spirit of God. We've
said many times that it is not the act of the will of the natural
man. That this repentance and conversion
is the work of God's Holy Spirit. There never was any genuine repentance
ever in any church in America, in any revival meeting, in any
protracted meeting. Never was there any true or genuine
repentance in this world that was not of the work of the Holy
Spirit. You remember I said any genuine
any genuine, because there's a whole lot of what we would
call false repentance, where people are sorry that they got
caught in something, or got caught up in something, and they lost
their life savings, or they lost their marriage, or something
else happened, and they're very sorry about that. But that is
not the repentance that brings life. The repentance that brings
life is the repentance that makes one understand what it is to
be a sinner and to understand that they are one. And they agree
with God. They take sides with God against
themselves. They know that they're sinners. And so all genuine, genuine repentance
is of the Holy Ghost. For this purpose, our Lord Jesus
Christ has gone up on high. For this purpose. Now notice
this in Acts chapter 5. Notice, if you will, in verse
31. Just turn over and look at this just a moment. Now in verse
30, let me back up to verse 30. The God of our fathers raised
up Jesus, whom you slew and hanged on a tree. God raised him up
from the dead, you had slain him, and he'd been hanged on
a tree by you, him hath God exalted with his right hand. God has
exalted the Lord Jesus Christ to be a prince and a savior,
for to give repentance to the Israel of God. to God's church,
to His people, those that are chosen in the Lord Jesus Christ
from the foundation of the world, be they in the Old Testament
or New Testament, whenever they live this side of the flood or
that side of the flood, it didn't make any difference. It's the
Israel of God, the church of God. Christ has been raised,
exalted by the right hand of God to be a prince and a savior,
to give repentance. to Israel and forgiveness of
sins. Now these are two of the gifts
that God has exalted the Lord Jesus to give. And he's at the
right hand of God giving these two gifts. Have you been enabled
of God to receive these gifts? Now beloved, they can only come
from the Lord Jesus. They cannot be had, they cannot
be possessed by any who He does not give them to. Now if He's
given them to you, then you know you have them and you'll have
them eternally. but they're in the hands of the
Lord Jesus Christ to give. Now that doesn't offend anybody
here, I don't believe. I don't believe it would offend
you if I told you that these gifts, these soul-saving gifts,
these gifts that unites a soul to Christ, to God, that they're
in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ and they're His to give,
surely that would not offend you. not if you're willing to
acknowledge that He is God's Son and that He's been exalted
by God and glorified by God, raised from the dead by God,
the Father then surely would not offend you if I were to tell
you this truth, that He is sitting on the right hand of the Father
to give repentance and forgiveness. And if you get them, you have
to get them from Him. They cannot be had from any other
area. All true conversion is the work
of the Holy Ghost. We may rightly pray in the words
of the prophet, Turn Thou Us. And we shall be turned, for until
God turns us, turned, we never shall. None shall ever turn until
God turns them, until God gives them conversion. Now here's a
gospel summons. True belief and true repentance,
every grace which brings us nigh without money, come to Jesus
Christ and buy. You come to Jesus Christ by faith. You come to Him and you trust
Him for these gifts. The gift of repentance and faith. Some might object saying, you
tell us in one breath, repent and convert. And in the next
breath, that these things are the gift of the Holy Spirit. This, my friend, is correct. And if you would ask that question,
it just proves you're listening to what we're saying. You're
listening to what we're saying. I believe it is the duty of all
men to repent and to turn from their sin. And I stand here and
I speak to you this morning, I say repent and be converted. Repent and turn from your sin
unto Christ. God commanded it in Acts 17 and
30. And the times of this ignorance
God winked at, But now he's commanded all men everywhere to repent. And it is my duty to tell you
this morning to do it. That's my duty. Repent and believe
the gospel. Now then, you say I do not see
how that you telling sinners to repent should in any way be
likely to make them to do so. And I say I don't either, but
I know that it does. I don't either but I know that
he does. I know that God uses preachers
and he says that he sends preachers and he gives them this message
of the gospel and he tells them to go forth and command men and
women to repent. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Now I do not know why a poor
weak creature as myself saying to a lost sinner, a pitiful lost
sinner, a dead dog sinner, believe and live should lead them to
believe. But it does, and the Holy Spirit blesses it when a
man commands people to repent and believe the gospel, and the
Holy Spirit blesses it, and they do and have believed, and they
are saved. There are people here that have
heard the gospel, and they believed it. There are people here that
were told to believe and live, and you believed and lived. There
are people here that was told to repent and convert, and you
repented, and you were converted. And if we cannot see how, if
we see the fact, we will be content, I think, to bless God for it. You say, well, then we're going
to go on preaching. Is that right? Amen. We just
go right on preaching the Word. We just go right on. telling
men and women to repent and believe, not because they have the power
in themselves to do so. They have no power in themselves,
for we know them to be dead in sin in a state of nature. Not
that we believe there is any power in our voice, for my preaching
is less than nothing apart from God owning it. Beloved, the gospel
is the mysterious engine by which God converts the hearts of men. And while we bid the dry bones
live, the Spirit of God makes them live. When the deaf are
told to hear, the Spirit of God gives them ears to hear. Isn't
that right? The Spirit of God gives them
ears to hear. You say, I'm not hearing nothing, preacher. Well,
wait before the Lord. Your death in sin, death in sin,
and God says hear, and if He says hear to you, then you will
hear, my friend. When the blind are told to see,
the Spirit of God gives them eyes to see. That's right. And they see, and Jesus said
to His disciples, blessed are your eyes, for they see. Blessed
are your eyes. They see things that other men
might have desired to see, but they haven't been able to see.
And it's because I have given seeing eyes to you, and therefore
you see. Now it's wonderful to be able
to see. to see spiritual things and to
be able to see enough truth of the gospel to be able to rest
one's soul in the Lord Jesus Christ. To be able to know that
one's sins have been pardoned and put away and forgiven. It's
a glorious thing to be able to see enough and to have been able
to hear enough that we have this joy and peace through believing. It's wonderful, and we praise
God for His mercy toward us. Now when the impotent man was
told to stretch out his hand, a divine power goes with the
command and his hand is stretched out and his hand is restored
in the scripture. And so my friend, when God says
hear, then you cup your hand behind your ear. When God says
see, then you open your eyes as wide as you can. that you
might be able to see the glorious truth of the gospel. The power
lies not in the sinner, the power lies not in the preacher, but
in the Holy Spirit of God, which works affectionately with the
gospel by divine decree, so that when the truth is preached, the
elect of God are made alive by this truth. Their souls are saved
and God is glorified as they, like this man, leap and walk
and enter into the house of God, leaping and praising God, glorifying
God, giving glory, all glory to our God. I say the power lies
not in the sinner nor in the preacher, but in the Holy Spirit.
And I think that as we acknowledge that, you say, well, preacher,
I don't hardly believe that God's going to come down on 10th Street
and 7th Avenue South on the corner and that He's going to come in
this old building and that He's going to say anything to anybody.
Well, you go on in your unbelief if you want to, but God's in
the business of doing just that. And He's come into places like
this millions, multitudes of time, and he very likely is here
this morning. And I trust that he's taking
this message and bringing it home to your heart. It's not
by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. And
the Spirit of God does this work. So we must go on preaching the
Gospel boldly, and leave the results in the hands of God. For it is God that gives the
increase. For God has promised to make His gospel the power
to save, and so shall it be to the world's end. It will save
the sinner. So repent, my friend, and be
converted, that your sins be blotted out. Secondly, and I'll
be more brief on the rest of these, there was a good reason
for this command. that Peter gave to these people
that had gathered around wondering. There was a good reason for this
command. Why? Because these Jews had put
Jesus Christ to death. They had nailed Him. They had
slain Him. They had raised Him up on a gory
tree. They had put Him to death. And
there was a reason. Repent! Because you killed the
Lord of glory. This was literally true. they
had a part in Christ's execution. And this is spiritually true
of all of us. Spiritually true of all of us. Let me say that every sin, in
the essence of it, is a killing of God. Now, let me just say
that again, because I want you all to get it. Every sin, in
the essence of it, is a killing of God. Hear me, every time that
you break the law of God, every time you rebel and sin against
God and do that which you know that you should not do, in effect,
so far as you can pull down God off His throne and get up there
yourself, you've done it. Now, is that clear? Is that clear? I'm saying that when we sin against
God, we do in effect pull Him down off the throne and say,
no God for me. I'm going to get up there myself.
I've decided to live in sin. I've decided to go on in rebellion. And as far as I'm concerned,
God doesn't exist. And I'm going to live like I
want to live. And that's it. My friend, you have in effect
pulled God down off the throne. and the essence of your sin.
You disown the authority which belongs to the Godhead. You do
an intent so far as you can kill God. That's what you do. That
is the drift of sin. Sin is a God-killing thing. Every violation of the law is
treason in its essence. It's rebellion. against his sovereign
throne to which he has every right to set upon. When our Lord
Jesus Christ was nailed to the tree by sinners, sin only did
that literally and openly what all sin really does in a spiritual
sense. Now, I think that's clear. These offenses of yours, you
didn't think them out of anything. But you've been trying to stab
God in the back. Now that becomes a very serious
thing. Every sin says, let there be no God. Let there be no God. Will you not repent? I mean this
is enlightening to your heart. Will you not repent? You've sinned
against God and the wrath of God abides upon you. Will you
not repent of your sin? Do you think these folks ought
to have that Peter and John was talking to? Do you think they
ought to? If we took a vote here this morning,
I wonder if we would agree that they ought to have repented.
Well, you're awful quiet. I didn't hear a thing. I think
they ought to have repented. My friend, what a hell above
ground would this world become if you and I got our way by nature.
It's bad enough the way it is. It's the moral chaos that exists
in this world. It's becoming a den of beasts. But what an awful place it would
be if we were just left to ourselves. If you can really believe this
morning, that though you did not yourself personally, you
were not there when Christ was nailed to the cross, neither
did you plait the crown of thorns and put it on His head, nor stand
and mock Him there, yet that every sin, if you could really
believe that every sin is a real crucifixion of Christ, and a
mockery of Christ and a slaughter of Christ, this becomes an abundant
reason why you should repent and turn from your sin. My friend,
I'm saying there's reason you should repent and turn from your
sin. As much reason as there was for
these Jews that were actually there and had crucified Jesus
Christ. Does He deserve this of you? You're going around trying to
stab him in the back. You're sinning against him, rebelling,
this effort of keep pulling on him to pull him off the throne
so you can get up there and occupy it. Does he deserve this? Prince
of life and glory he is, king of angels. He's the one that
was adored by seraphs, yet despised of men. Men who shed His blood,
men and women, boys and girls who go on and on and on in sin
and will not repent. Well, the message of the Word
of God is repent or perish. The Lord Jesus said in Luke chapter
13, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. He said
in Matthew, except you repent and be converted and become as
a little child, you shall in no wise enter the kingdom of
God. Repent or perish. Now this ought to melt the icicles
out of our hearts. You say we will not have this
man take him away. Not this man, but Barabbas. Give us Barabbas. Give us the
world. We want this murderous world.
We want this killing sin of my life and your life left alone. We don't want anybody saying
anything about it. Sure, it's God-killing, but leave
alone. We want that. That's what we
want. But this blessed Savior, let
Him go. Let Him go. Let Him be hung on
a cross. Let Him not have the glory and
the crowns that belong on His blessed head. Let Him go without
the souls for whom He died. Let Him go. Let him go. Well my friend, there was good
reason why Peter and John gave them this message. Thirdly, now
without repentance and turning, sin cannot be blotted out. It
cannot be pardoned. Their sin cannot be put away
unless they are brought to repentance and turning from their sin. Now many oriental merchants kept
their accounts on little tablets of wax And on these tablets of
wax, they indented marks which recorded the debts. And when
these debts were paid, they took the blunt end of the stylus or
pencil and just flattened down the wax and the account entirely
disappeared. That was blotting out in those
days. Now he that is able to repent
and is pardoned is through the precious blood of Christ so entirely
forgiven that there's no record of his sin left. It's blotted
out. It's paid for and it's remitted. It's forgiven. The marks and
the wax has been leveled. There's no record left of your
sin. But now your sin remains. It
remains. Without repentance and faith,
it remains. Sin's all gone and gone forever
to those who have repented and converted. Now do you expect
God to do this for you without repentance? Do you expect that
God's going to make a way, a different way for you? Do you think that
somehow or other, you know, that you will get by, that somewhere
or other there will be such a crowd there at the judgment that you'll
get by without having repented and been converted? No, my friend. You're not going to get by. You're
not going to get by. Where is the honor and dignity
that's due the throne of God? From you. You're a creature of
God and you're here in this world. Where is his honor? Where is
his dignity? Why don't you repent and believe
the gospel? But rest assured it cannot be
removed except there be repentance and conversion as a result of
faith in the Lord Jesus. You cannot have your sins and
go to heaven. Will you leave your sin and go
to heaven? Or hold to your sins and unbelief and go to hell?
What shall it be? What shall it be? There must
be a divorce between us and sin or there can never be a marriage
between us and Jesus Christ. Just remember that. There must
be a divorce from our sin or no marriage between us and Him. He that confesseth and forsaketh
his sin shall find mercy of the Lord. Mercy. To this man will
I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and
trembleth at my word. For the proud and haughty Pharaoh
who says, Who is the Lord? That I should obey him. There
is nothing but eternal destruction for those from the presence of
the Lord. He who goes on in his iniquity and hardeneth his neck
shall suddenly be destroyed, the Bible says, and that without
remedy. without remedy. Now lastly, and
we close, repentance and conversion will be regarded as a very precious
thing to those who have been given the gifts of it. Regard
it as a very precious thing. I want you to look here in the
last part of verse 19. He said, When the times of refreshing
shall come from the presence of the Lord. is refreshing. Have you not found
it so? The presence of the Lord. I'm
going to tell you what, you take a fellow and he's all droopy
and cast down and miserable and he may even be ill, but if the
presence of God suddenly lights upon him and the Spirit of God
comes down and he gets a word from the Lord, how refreshing! That fellow, he just practically,
well you know, he's a different person Because the presence of
the Lord has come, and in His presence is fullness of joy. And so He says here, when the
times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord,
and He shall send Jesus Christ, which was before preached unto
you. I believe He's coming. I believe He's coming. And I
think it's going to be a tremendous day when the Lord Jesus Christ
comes back. His presence. He'll come down. He will appear in the clouds.
Now, I think that this text here means that those that have repented
and believed the gospel and have had the effects, true conversion
in their souls, that the very happiest time of their life is
the hours immediately following their being saved. They are coming
to Christ and the sin pardoned and they have had the word from
the Lord that He is theirs and that they're His. And they know
that. That's a happy time in the life
of a believer. Now you remember, you probably
have heard the story about this prisoner, POW, Jessica Lynch,
that was delivered from her captors over in Iraq. And can't you imagine
how she felt when her liberators came? Now when the prisoner first
gets out, I heard that when they carried her to the helicopter
that she held the hand of one of the doctors and begged not
to be left alone. How wonderful and marvelous she
must have felt. Well, my friend, whenever you
as the prisoner, when God delivers you, when He gives you repentance
and faith, how glorious will be the feeling. that the burden
is lifted, hallelujah, and the life of Christ is in the soul,
and the chains of sin have fallen off, and you're now free, free
of the Lord Jesus. A time of refreshing from the
presence of the Lord. When the sick get out of the
hospital, when the hungry man gets his first meal, oh my friend,
how wonderful, how blessed that is. You know, it's good to see
those that God saves when they come to hear the Word. That make
any difference? You know, the Bible says to the
hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet. And they come in and
they're hungry. And it doesn't matter to them
about who it is doing the preaching. It's just while the Word is being
set forth, while the table is being set, and the food of the
gospel, the bread of the gospel is being presented, and how they
rejoice in that. Times of refreshing. How glad
they are. You can't keep them away. They're
there, and they keep coming, they keep coming, and they keep
coming. The only reason in the world why I know you people keep
coming here is because of the bread of the gospel, because
of the word of the Lord, which you esteem very highly. And so we give praise to God.
But this is because of the presence of the Lord. If you only knew
the bliss of being forgiven, you would never stay away from
Christ. Oh, the bliss to know that I'm his and he is mine. And then I think it could be
talking about the second coming of Christ, as we mentioned. We
believe He's coming. He's coming. And what a day that's
going to be when He appears in the clouds with great glory. When He comes back from heaven. And we believe He is coming.
And He's going to come back. He that shall come will come
and will not tarry. He will come back and we'll see
Him. Every eye shall see Him, the
Bible says. And the Bible says that it's
not yet How does it put it in 1st John? We don't know now what
we will be, but we know when He shall appear. that we're going
to be like Him. You know why? Because we're going
to see Him as He is. The presence of the Lord Jesus. What a time! What a day that
will be! What a day! What a day! You remember
that old song that some of you sing? And I've tried to sing
it myself. What a day that'll be. When the
Lord Jesus Christ comes. When He takes us by the hand
and leads us through the promised land. What a glorious day! That
will be. Well, repent and be converted. That's the message of the hour. That's the message that Peter
and John gave these Christ-haters and these that had crucified
the Lord of glory. And so I asked you this morning,
have you repented? Have you believed? Well, may
the Spirit of God be pleased to give the gift. Give the gift. to your poor soul. We prayed
for you, others have prayed for you and we ask God every week
when we go in that room back here we ask God to save the lost
and we pray for certain ones and we've got a burden for them
and we pray for them. We pray for you that the Lord
will save you and I trust that God will visit your soul and
that you will not forget the message that has been brought
to you this morning. Repent and be converted when times of refreshing
shall come from the presence of the Lord.