In this sermon, Trent Moody emphasizes that the message of the miracle in Acts chapter 3 is the message of the cross. He highlights the importance of not getting caught up in the miracle itself, but understanding that it points to a greater truth. Peter's preaching focuses on the ignorance of the people and their rulers, calling them to repent and be converted. He explains that through faith in Jesus' name, sins can be blotted out and completely obliterated. The sermon concludes by pointing to the promise of times of refreshing that come from the presence of the Lord.

Now and ever we confess Christ our hope in life and death. Amen. This morning as we turn to God's word I want you to be thinking upon this theme that the message of the miracle is the message of the cross. The message of the miracle is the message of the cross. Acts chapter 3 beginning with verse 11 we'll read through the end of the chapter.

Thus says the word of the Lord, now as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John all the people ran together to them in the porch which is called Solomon's, greatly amazed. So when Peter saw it he responded to the people. Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this or why look so intently at us as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his son Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go. But you denied the Holy One and the just and asked for a murderer to be granted to you and killed the Prince of life whom God raised from the dead of which we were all witnesses and his name through faith in His name has made this man strong, whom you see and know.

Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given Him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all his prophets, that the Christ would suffer, he has thus fulfilled. Repent therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of the restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. For Moses truly said to the fathers, The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren.

Him you shall hear in all things, whatever he says to you. And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. Yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days. You are sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our fathers saying to Abraham, in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. To you first God, having raised up his servant Jesus, sent him to bless you and turning away every one of you from your iniquities.

Let's pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father we thank you for the Word of God. We thank you for the power of God that raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Lord, in this is our hope in life and death. You have given to us a living hope, and oh God, I pray that that would be realized and real and experienced in the life of every believer here this morning.

And Lord, for any of those who are just playing around in their faith or with religion, I pray oh God that today would be the day dawning in their hearts. That a bright light would shine into their darkness and that they would see and believe the gospel. That Jesus Christ died for their sins and that he rose from the grave and Lord that those times of refreshing would pour over their souls and Lord would you do this great work today we ask it in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated.

The message of the miracle is the message of the cross. Last time we were in the book of Acts I pointed out that the miracle in this text in the first part of Acts chapter 3 was really not the main event. It's often so easy for something like that miracle to catch our eye and catch our attention and it does and rightly so. However there is really something that's greater than the miracle of the lame man that took place and that is the miracle of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ that Peter was preaching. This is important to note because every miracle is pointing to a truth that God wants you to understand.

It is teaching you about who he is. It is teaching you about who Christ is. And so as I exhorted you last time that we needed to be careful not to get hung up on the miracle as if it was the end-all be-all or an end in of itself. The fact of the matter is that the miracle is only the call to your attention or to call to attention it is that as you remember that dinner bell if you would that calls your attention not to the bell itself but to what God or to the dinner if you would up to the main event It calls us to something greater than the bell itself, to the miracle itself. And that greater is the truth of the message that the miracle is pointing us to.

You see, if you'll notice in Acts chapter 3, this miracle that took place regarding this lame man, he was healed. But then Peter spends the next full chapter of chapter 3 and into chapter 4 explaining to you how this miracle came about. It was through the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was there to show you something that Jesus Christ though he died and was buried and though he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven that he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That his authority rules over all things, that all power has been given unto him in heaven and on earth.

That was the point of that. It was to point us to this glorious message of the power of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. It calls us to something greater. This miracle Peter uses to point us to God, the divine healer and not just to that moment of divine healing of a single individual, but the spiritual healing of all those who would repent of their sins and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. God has come, brothers and sisters, to heal us from the penalty and power of sin, which is much greater than causing a lame man to walk.

That lame man walked. He leaped and he shouted and he praised the Lord into the temple giving God glory. That lame man died later on. But brothers and sisters our Lord Jesus Christ though he died yet he lives And He gives us hope, a living hope, through the power of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We live because He lives.

He's come to set the captive free. He's come that we might have life and that more abundantly. He has come to blot out our transgressions. Don't miss this truth. In this message today I don't want you to miss that he has come to blot out our transgressions.

I want you to notice first and foremost how Peter turns the crowd's attention from the miracle to the message. I touched on this a little bit last time and I want to delve into it a little bit more and I really only have two main things that I want to talk about with a whole lot of substance around it. So two main things that we're going to look at. We're going to look first and foremost at verses 11 through 16, and then we're going to look at verse 17 through down to about 21 or 22. And I'm not going to get into the last part, there's just no way.

There's just too much glorious gospel in this first part that I can't get to the next part. So we will look at these two main points how Peter turns the crowd's attention from the miracle to the message. Look at this he says in verse 11, now is the lame man who was healed, held onto Peter and John. All the people ran together to them in the porch which is called Solomon's, greatly amazed. They were greatly amazed at what had just taken place.

So when Peter saw it, in verse 12, When Peter saw it he responded to the people. Notice here Peter's opportunistic awareness of what was going on. Here he was he had just witnessed this miracle. God had used Peter and John to give this lame man strength in his legs. He raised him up and this man was now leaping and praising God.

If that was me I would be standing in awe as well but Peter had this awareness about him because of the Holy Spirit. He recognized that this was an opportunity and so when Peter saw it he responded to the people. Peter was paying attention. Peter was looking for an opportunity to preach the gospel because Peter understood that the miracle was not the main event. He understood that the miracle was for the purpose of these Jewish people to see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That is why Peter had his eye on what was taking place. He was opportunistic, if you will, in watching what was going on. And just as a side note, we need to be the same way. We need to be looking for opportunities and be opportunistic to share the gospel. There are always gospel opportunities everywhere we go so that we can share with others about the glory of our Savior and King.

It is a great privilege that we have to be ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew Henry makes this note, he says, when he saw the people affected by the miracle and filled with admiration, Then he sowed the gospel seed in the ground which was thus broken up and prepared to receive it." I love the way Matthew Henry puts this. See this miracle if you will was the plow of God's grace. It was the plow of God's grace not only upon the heart of the lame man but also the crowd that was gathered. How do I know this?

Because later in chapter 4 if you look over in chapter 4 verse 4 you read this, however many of those who heard the word believed and the number of the men came to be about five thousand. So when the crowd had fixed their eyes on the miracle and upon Peter and John it is very to his commendation Peter was not about for one moment to receive credit. Peter wanted to give credit where credit was due, to God. It wasn't him that did this miracle, it was God who did this miracle. He says this in verse 12, the second part of verse 12, he says, men of Israel, why do you marvel at this?

Or why do you look so intently at us as though by our own power or godliness we made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of your fathers, glorified his servant Jesus. This is really important because what Peter was wanting to do was he was giving all glory to God. So often when you see these false or faux healers going around and on TV or wherever, they oftentimes want to receive glory for themselves. They want to glorify their faith, they want to glorify their power, they want to glorify their spirituality, they want to glorify their ministry, they want to glorify their pockets.

But not Peter and John. Men of Israel, why do you marvel this? Why are you looking at us? Well, it's not us. You need to understand who made this man walk.

This was the God of Abraham. The one that you profess to believe. The one that you say that you are his children. The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. The God of our fathers.

This is no new doctrine. Peter was establishing that the passion of the Christ and his resurrection was the work of the Lord. He goes on in verse 13, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, he glorified his servant Jesus whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go but you denied the Holy One and the just and asked for a murder to be granted to you and to kill and kill the Prince of life whom God raised from the dead of which we are witnesses." This term here, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, in other words, this is the work of the covenant God. This is the work of the God of Abraham, whom you profess to believe, whom you profess to be the children of, whom you say that you're searching the scriptures to understand and yet you do not see. He wanted them to understand This is not a new religion that we're professing.

This is not something that I'm making up here. This is not another sect of the Jews. This is the true and living faith and the true and living God, the same God of your fathers that you and as he mentions earlier the prophets had spoken of from the very beginning. It was the true and living God. They thought that they knew God.

They thought that they knew his plan, but they had totally missed it. You see the long-awaited Messiah that they were looking for, the Messiah, the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 which we heard read this morning during prayer time, this is the same Messiah that they missed. They missed the Messiah because they were blinded because of their sin, because of their greed, because they did not understand the kingdom of God. The long-awaited Messiah they killed. The Romans were not the only enemies of God.

They were. Peter lays this blame right at the feet of this Jewish crowd. He comes down pretty hard. He's pretty bold as Peter standing there in the temple. Remember not long ago he watched his Lord be crucified.

And now Peter through the power of the Holy Spirit, this great boldness, he stands up and he says some pretty bold things. He said, but you denied the Holy One and the just these are declarative statements of who Jesus is I want to take time in the future in the near future to Focus in there are titles given here in this chapter 3 of who Jesus Christ is He's called the servant of the Lord. He's called the just and the holy one. He's called the prince of life. He's given these titles here that are so important for us because they describe to us who he is.

It describes his character and his nature and there's so much that we can learn from that but that'll be for a future time. But he describes to them and he's basically laying upon and laying at their feet and upon their shoulders that they are the ones who denied the very one that they were supposed to be looking for. You asked for a murderer to be granted to you and killed the Prince of life whom God raised from the dead of which we are all witnesses. They are the ones who delivered up Jesus and denied in the presence of Pilate, they denied the Holy One and the just, they asked for a murderer, they killed the Prince of life. What a paradox that we are given here.

They killed the Prince of life as we learned last time this word Prince here could mean originator. They killed the originator of life? How is this? The one who gave them life, they killed. But Now through his death, he would give them true life that they needed.

They killed the prince of life and yet through his death he would give them life. What a glorious gospel that we have. No man can come up with this. This is the story, his story, of his redemption of his people for his glory. Whom God raised up.

All of our faith and all of our Christian belief, everything hinges upon that statement. Whom God raised up. Talk about a scheme being thwarted. Here they are, they're scheming, they're lying about the Lord Jesus Christ, they're denying Him, they're turning Him over to Pilate, they mock Him, they beat Him, they crucify Him. And they say, no, we don't want the Prince of Life, we want that murderer.

That's the one we want. And yet all of their schemes were thwarted. They killed the Prince of Life but God raised him from the dead. If God had not raised him from the dead, brothers and sisters, we would have no hope. This is what 1 Corinthians 15 says, it was read this morning.

Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preach to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved. If you hold fast that word which I preach to you, unless you believed in vain, for I delivered to you first of all which I also received, that the Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures and that he was seen by Cephas and then by the 12, after that he was seen by over 500 brethren at once of whom the greater part remained to the present but some have fallen asleep. After that he was seen by James and then by all the Apostles. Then last of all he was seen by me also as one born out of due time. This is Paul writing in 1st Corinthians 15.

He goes on and he says now if Christ is preached that he has been raised from the dead. How do some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen then our preaching is empty. Your faith is empty.

Yes and we are found false witnesses of God because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ whom he did not raise up if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise then Christ is not risen and if Christ is not risen your faith is futile. You are still in your sins. Did you hear what he said? You are still in your sins if Jesus is still in the grave.

But up from the grave he arose and he is seated at the right hand of the Father until all of his enemies are made his footstool. He is the King of Kings and he is the Lord of Lords. And he goes on, you are still in your sins if that's the case. And then also he says, those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ.

Listen, if in this life only we have hope in Christ. Listen, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most pitiable. But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Christ is risen from the dead. Christ is risen from the dead.

Christ is risen from the dead. And where is your faith, brothers and sisters? And if you're here just as a visitor, what are you believing in? Are you believing in the Lord Jesus Christ who was crucified, dead, and buried, and rose from the dead three days later for your justification so that you could be forgiven. You see not only this but Peter's eyewitness account of the resurrection gives it weight and power.

He says in verse 15 of which we are witnesses, This was important to the Jewish mindset. They had to have witness of what happened. You couldn't just take one man's word for it. Paul lays out in chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians that over 500 Brethren saw it. All the Apostles saw him.

And now Peter says we are witnesses of this. We saw it. The authority next I want to show you in verse 16 the authority of the name of Jesus. Look at what we read. Peter goes on in this message.

He has just laid some heavy weight upon them. You're the one, you're the one, you're the one. And then he says this, And his name, through faith in his name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know." They knew this lame man. They saw him every day that he had ever been there. He was born this way.

He had never walked and they knew him. He says, yes, the faith which comes through him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. You see this is the name through faith in his name that made this man whole. Matthew Poole in his commentary writes this, his name, his power for by it he is known or the name of Christ is put for Christ himself as the name of God is put for God himself through faith in his name calling by faith on the name of Christ being thoroughly persuaded that he could and would heal this cripple, the faith which is by him, not only faith as on Christ as its object, but by and from Christ as its author. Did you hear what he said?

Not only was it the faith that Christ being the object of their faith, but in fact Christ being the giver of their faith. For we read in the book of Hebrews that he is the author and finisher of our faith. It is Christ alone. He goes on and he says, faith being twice made mention of in this cure there, being required faith in Peter to heal and in the lame man to be healed. Now you need to know The purpose is that you like Peter and John and now this lame man would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? You must, you must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You see the purpose is that not only that this lame man would be healed but that you will now this day confess him as your Lord and Savior. Remember the lame man he jumped up He was leaping and praising God in the temple. He was giving God glory for what God had done for him.

And this crowd rushing around this day to find out what in the world was going on and Peter lays this out there for them and he wanted them to know that they were the ones who crucified him but there was hope. You see I want you to understand that it is at the name of Jesus that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. I want you to understand every human being ever born in all of history and in all of the future Every knee will bow to the King of Kings Jesus Christ and they will say you are Lord Now you can do it now as a servant of his and you will find mercy and grace to help you in your time of need and he will heal you from your iniquities he will blot out your transgressions or you can wait and deny or play games with the Lord Jesus Christ but you will still profess Him as your Lord and Savior. If you wait you'll do it on your way to hell. But I say brother do it now.

Sister do it now. Confess Him as your Lord and Savior. Now I'm not simply talking about faith to heal or faith in a sign and in a wonder. What Peter is getting to and what I want each of you to know is that it is through faith in his name and the authority of Jesus that you can be made completely healed, not of your lameness, not of your sickness, you can be healed from your sin, from the penalty and power of sin in your life. What greater thing is that?

There is nothing. Heal me of all diseases. It matters not if I die again, but heal me from my sin and I live forever. Praise be to his holy name and this we see that Jesus did. He has come to heal us from our sins.

But not only that I want you to notice secondly Peter's restless or relentless preaching of the gospel. He wasn't about to let them go and I'm not about to let you go. Peter's relentless preaching of the gospel Verse 17 through 21 he says this, Now brethren I know that you did it in ignorance as did also your rulers. Now that the Holy Spirit had come there was no timidity in Peter. He was at an instant ready to preach the crucified and resurrected Jesus Christ to anyone.

He would stand in front of religious leaders, he would stand in front of being tempted with death and tempted with crucifixion, he didn't care because he had seen the risen Christ. He had the power of the Holy Spirit and he began by pointing out that Jesus was the promised Messiah and laying the guilt as I mentioned at their feet. This prince of life that they had killed was squarely upon their shoulders. But now in verse 14, excuse me verse 17, we see something in Peter's tone. It softens a bit.

It's interesting. Peter, I can't help but believe, had some of the same tendencies as I seem to have that he gets excited about the gospel. He gets excited about preaching. But yet here he is and he's laying this this heavy weight upon these people because listen until the people feel the weight of their sin they're not going to understand the glory of the cure of sin. He first takes them to the ignorance of their understanding.

Look at what he says. Interestingly, he says, Yet now brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. So as he changes this tone, the preaching of the gospel we need to understand not only confront sinners with the guilt that they have, but must also move to a softer tone of reconciliation and the means to obtain that end. Yet now brethren I know that you did it in ignorance." Matthew Henry says this was the language of Peter's charity and teaches us to make the best of those whom we desire to make better. You see there's one way to preach the gospel in which all you do is tear people down and you leave them down.

That's not the full preaching of the gospel. If you only preach the law and no grace, you're only preaching half the gospel. He goes on, Matthew Henry does, and he says, Peter had searched the wound to the bottom and now he begins to think of healing it up. What a picture there. He's going down, he sees this wound that he makes by laying this heavy weight that you did this, you killed the Messiah, you killed the Prince of Life, and now he says he searched all the way to the bottom of that wound.

But now what is he going to do? He's going to begin to heal it up. In order to which he says it is necessary to beget in them a good opinion of their physician. And could anything be more winning than this? That which bears him out in it is that he has the example of his master praying for his crucifiers and pleading in their behalf that they knew not what they did.

So Peter in the same spirit of Christ himself recognizes that they did it in ignorance. It said of the rulers, Matthew Henry goes on he says, it is said of the rulers that if they had known they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 1st Corinthians 2 8. Perhaps some of the rulers and of the people did therein rebel against the light and the conviction of their conscience and did it through malice but the generality went down the stream and it and did it through ignorance. As Paul persecuted the church the Bible says ignorantly and in unbelief.

However Peter does not soften the effect of their ignorance and the punishment thereof. Even though he acknowledges their ignorance, he does not give their ignorance as a means of excuse. Look at what he says. He says, yet now brethren I know that you did it in ignorance as did also your rulers but those things which God foretold by the mouth of all of his prophets that Christ would suffer, he has fulfilled. He's told you about this from the very beginning.

Your ignorance is no excuse. If you're sitting here today and you're ignorant of the gospel, like you just don't understand it. I sympathize with your ignorance. I was once ignorant as well. It's not because I'm smarter or have more sense than you.

It is because the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ came to me in the Holy Spirit of God by His grace opened my eyes to my need. And I pray today that by the Holy Spirit he would open yours as well. That you would see things that you've never seen before as the prophecy regarding the birth of Christ was that to those who sat in darkness a great light has dawned. May the sun rise in your hearts today and that you would see the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was not an excuse to have ignorance.

You know, we see that ignorance is not a free pass into the kingdom of God. If it was let's close every church door and stop sending missionaries and everyone can be ignorant and go to heaven. Wrong. Ignorance is no excuse. In fact the weight is still laid upon them.

He laid the weight upon them. He laid it out there and he said, but you denied the Holy One and the just and you asked for a murderer to be granted to you and you killed the prince of life whom God raised from the dead. But he said I know you did it in ignorance but guess what it's as if he is saying to them I want you to be ignorant no more. You need to learn from the Lord Jesus Christ you need to learn from the gospel. As a side note not only is ignorance not an excuse, but also sincerity in belief is not a free pass either.

You can be sincerely wrong. And there are untold millions who are. They are very sincere in their false faith and false belief in a false God, but they're sincerely wrong. Both of these require the same cure, but this cure is what they did not understand. It required the suffering servant that Peter was preaching.

Peter wanted these Jews to know something. He wanted them to know, but those things which God foretold by the mouth of all of his prophets that the Christ would suffer, he has thus fulfilled. Peter is bringing the people from ignorance to understanding. He's saying you've been a Jew your whole life. Your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, it's the same God.

It's the same message from the very beginning. Nothing's changed Except more light and more light and more light and you're still in ignorance but I want you to be in ignorance no more. I want you to see the light. I want you to understand. All good preaching informs the mind and by the power of the Holy Spirit convicts the soul and may I say converts the soul.

In many mainline churches there is only mindless cliches and funny stories to dull the conscience of the hearer. But not here today and not in Peter's message He only wanted to give them Biblical preaching and there must be Biblical instruction. In fact, Peter later in his epistle, the second epistle of Peter in chapter 3, he ends it with this, but grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Don't remain ignorant any longer. Grow in knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And that's what I pray you do today, that by his Spirit you would grow in the knowledge of our Lord. Peter wanted to instruct their minds and convince them that all that God said through the prophets was true and it did come to pass. They just didn't see it, they didn't understand it, and they didn't see what the prophets had said. In fact, get this, Peter tells us that not even the prophets fully understood. In fact, Peter tells us that angels desired to look into these things.

They didn't have a complete and full understanding according to Peter in his epistle, But probably one of the most difficult things for the Jews to grasp was that their Messiah would suffer. What kind of Messiah is that? What kind of Savior suffers? What kind of Savior dies? Well, it's the kind that has the power to raise himself from the grave.

That's the kind of Savior. We see this in Isaiah 52. I'm not going to read it for the sake of time, you heard it this morning. He is the suffering servant. He was prophesied thousands of years before this took place where Peter is preaching.

They thought of the Savior as the only one who would deliver them from their physical enemies like King David did. Now let's stop and think about this just for a moment. Are you looking to Jesus only to deliver you from your physical ailments or your physical pain or your lot in life. Don't be like the Jews. Jesus came to save you from your sins.

He came to deliver you from the penalty and the wrath of God. He came because He loved you. He came to deliver you. They thought that He was going to throw down the Roman government. They didn't realize that their greatest enemy was not the Romans.

It was them. We found the enemy and we are Him. We're the enemy of God until Christ has come. They didn't understand that what they truly needed was deliverance from the penalty and power of sin. They didn't understand that all the animal sacrifices were not sufficient and therefore had to be offered daily for the sins of the people.

They didn't understand that God would send forth his Son to secure them eternal redemption through his blood, not the blood of animals. We see this in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 11. And every priest, he says, stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time, waiting till his enemies were made his footstool. For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified." He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. Do you see the power of the cross? The power of the resurrected Christ? The power of his justification for you on your behalf. But notice Peter's call to response.

This is so important. We can't miss this. I really had a hard time getting past this verse. I thought about just staying right here the whole time. It's so glorious.

Notice his call. Peter didn't leave them in ignorance. How awful to go to the doctor and he says you have cancer. See you later. Here's my bill.

No, Doc, I need the cure. Tell me what I need to do. And Peter's going to do that. That's what he's doing here. In verse 19, he tells them, he says, let me back at verse 18, but those things which God foretold by the mouth of all of his prophets that Christ would suffer, he is thus fulfilled.

And look at what he's saying, repent therefore, repent therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out. These two words, repent and be converted, are so very helpful in our understanding of what true repentance is. What is repentance? We've talked about it before. Repentance in the book of Acts that we mentioned earlier in chapter 2.

But here, Peter uses two words to aid us in our understanding. This first word, repent, literally means to change one's mind or purpose. To change one's mind or purpose. You're considering your own life and you've been confronted, these people had been confronted with their sin and they had no regrets about what they had done to Christ. Peter says repent you need to change your mind about that.

You're dead wrong. So to repent is to change your mind. The second word is be converted and it literally just means to turn or to return. In this case to turn. They needed to change their mind and they needed to turn.

Repentance therefore in the simplest form is a change of mind that results in a change of action or behavior. If you only have a change of mind you've not repented, you've regretted, and worldly sorrow produces death, But godly sorrow produces life. You need to change your mind about all of your sin, about your nature, about all that you've done. You need to change your mind about who Christ is, that He is the Son of God, He is the Messiah. When He died on the cross, He died to secure your salvation.

He was the propitiation for your sins. He satisfied the wrath of God on your behalf. And then you need to change your action. You need to live because that's true. You see a true Christian lives what he believes.

It's very difficult. Sanctification is a struggle brothers and sisters. It is a challenge. That's why Jesus said, take up your cross. How often?

Daily and follow me. Daily and follow me. It is a change of mind that results in a change of action and behavior. It changes from actions of sin and thinking of sin and it changes to one of obedience to God's word. These people had rejected the true and living God, they had rejected God's Messiah and now Peter is calling them to change their minds about him and what he went through and them to turn from their rejection and hatred of Him and to embrace Him and to trust Him and to believe all that He said and all that Peter is telling them about Jesus Christ.

Have faith that what Jesus did on the cross was the final cure that you need. Believe all that he said and all that he did. Many people stop with, I know what I'm doing is wrong. I acknowledge that. I just can't stop.

Christ has come to remove the can't from your life. Because we are told in the book of Ephesians that the same power which raised Jesus Christ from the dead is the same power that is alive and at work in every believer. You're telling me that a God who can raise the dead can't help you to put sin to death in your life? I don't believe that. If that's your gospel, that's no gospel.

Believe the gospel. He came that you might have power, that you might have life and have it abundantly. He can redeem you from the penalty of sin and everybody says amen to that, but he came to deliver you from the power of sin. That sin that has power over your life that you feel like you're a slave to and you can't beat it. Nonsense.

He came to deliver you from sin and he has more than enough power to do it. This halfway repentance is no repentance at all. They may give this intellectual assent to the death and resurrection of Christ, but they do not change their lives. A half- hearted repentance is no repentance. They acknowledge him as Savior, but they will not profess him as Lord.

Lord let me make one thing for sure and certain in your mind if Christ is not your Lord he is not your Savior. He is not your Savior. John 2 23 says this, Now when Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs which he did but Jesus did not commit himself to them because he knew all men and had no need that anyone should testify of man for he knew what was in man." So here we find a type of belief that actually was a damning belief. They believed the signs but no more. Next in James chapter two verse 19 and 20, you believe that there is one God?

You do well, even the demons believe and tremble. But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?" John 6, 65 and 66, and Jesus said, Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by my Father. From that time many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more." That saying is too hard, Jesus. Faith without works is dead. Faith without following is faulty.

Faith without lordship is fake. If you will not have Jesus as your Lord, He will not have you in the day when you stand before the Father and say, Well done good and faithful servant. Matthew 7 22 says this, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and done many wonders in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.

Don't tell me that you can have faith without works. He just says if you practice lawlessness as disobedience, You don't really have faith. You have a faulty faith. Do you have a faulty faith? Have you examined yourself to see if you're in the faith?

Have you tested yourself to see, is this, is what I have real? Do I only have a demon faith that I say, yeah there's one God and Jesus is son and man I'm terrified. Is that the end of your faith? Or do you believe to the point that your faith produces works. Your works do not save you.

They prove you. They just tell you if you actually have saving faith. It's that testing to say is it real? Is it real? This is presumption to think that you can have a Savior and not a Lord.

To think that you can acknowledge Him in all that the Bible says about him and then not do what he says. In the Old Testament there were offerings required to be made for sins of ignorance which proves my former point that the guilt of even being ignorant is a sin, they had to offer a sacrifice for that. And there were also sacrifices required for presumptuous sin, things that you knew were wrong but you did it anyway, Things that a person knows and refuses to stop doing. True repentance is a change of mind that results in a change of action. If you do not repent of your actionless faith then you will likewise perish.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to the saving of your soul. There's a really great message I listened to a week before last or last week. You ought to listen to it. It's on that passage that I just quoted. Many will say to me, Lord, Lord, Albert Martin had a message on this that I listened to that was wonderfully terrifying.

It's called A Warning to Christians. You can look it up on sermon audio. But I want to show you something else. Now listen, the gospel is a two-edged sword. The Word of God is a two-edged sword.

I've given you the sharp part to cut down any who were trusting in a faulty faith. But I also want to apply the other side. The other side of this sword is one that brings healing to your soul. So we could say it this way, There are some people when you share the gospel with them you can tell up front their pride. They're they're proud.

They're arrogant They're confident and they need the law they need to be humbled and Then there's those when you talk to them about the Lord you understand that they actually do have a saving faith but they're weak. They're like the bruised reed or the smoking flax and they need to be healed. The gospel does both. To those you give grace. You remind them of what Scott preached about last week, this abounding grace of God.

As I mentioned during the Lord's Supper, this much more of the gospel, this much more of grace, where sin abounded, grace abounded, much more. And some of you this morning need that. And only the Spirit of God can rightly apply this gospel to which heart is needed. I'm out of my league by a long shot. But I want you to see something in verse 19 he says repent therefore and be converted and this wonderful key word that that your sins may be blotted out.

That your sins may be blotted out. This word sent me into weeping this morning as I was considering you, I was considering how there are some of you here this morning who need to understand that your sins have been blotted out. Now that word might not have the full force because of the verbiage there, but let me give you a definition. It means to wipe out. It means to erase.

And here's the one I really like it means to obliterate it means to utterly destroy that your sins may be obliterated Jesus Christ rose from the dead so that your sins could be obliterated. That's good news. That's glorious news. And guess what? Where sin abounded, grace abounded to the point of obliterating all your sin.

Amen, hallelujah. Even a Reformed Baptist Church can say amen at that one. Come on now. Amen. It obliterates your sin.

Colossians 2, 13 and 14 says, and you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped them out, same word as blotted out, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us which was contrary to us and has taken it out of the way having nailed it to the cross. That's who our Savior is. He came to obliterate sin in your life. Isn't that glorious? He obliterates it.

It's as if when they wrote on a manuscript and they said, they scrape all that ink right off the page and there's nothing left. In my mind the way it works I'm thinking of this big atomic bomb that's dropped. And what makes an atomic bomb is it destroys the atom. It destroys the atom because it splits it. And Jesus came not to just wipe your sins and cover your sins.

He came to obliterate your sin. It's like an atomic bomb. It's like there's no more Adam. I changed the word. Left.

There's no more old man left when it comes to the penalty of your sin. No more Adam left when it comes to the penalty of your sin. Old man is gone when it comes to justification. Praise the Lord, hallelujah. Old man is gone.

Now when it comes to sanctification, we're still fighting that man. But guess what? The battle and the victory is won because he which began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. Amen. Hallelujah.

One of the most glorious truths is that by faith in the name and in the authority of Jesus Christ, by his life, death, and resurrection, our sins have been utterly obliterated. And this morning in my study as I was going over this sermon, in my notes this song began to ring in my ears and in my heart. Listen to it, you know it well. It is well with my soul. Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, let this blessed assurance control that Christ has regarded my helpless estate and has shed his own blood for my soul.

My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in part but the whole is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Oh my soul, do you believe this? Do you?

Do you believe this? Believe it my friend. This Jesus through faith in his name has obliterated the guilt of your sin. How can it be? Well, that led me to another song.

Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night. Thine eye diffused a quickening ray. I awoke the dungeon flame with light. My chains fell off. My heart was free.

I rose and went forth and followed thee. My chains fell off. My heart was free. I arose, went forth, and followed thee." But it gets better. No condemnation.

Now I dread. Jesus and all in him is mine, alive in him my living head and clothed in righteousness divine. Bold I approach the eternal throne and claim the crown through Christ my own and claim the crown through Christ my own. This my friend is what brings you to this next part and I'll make it quick I promise but it can't be left out So that times of refreshing may come. So that times of refreshing would come.

Look at what he says. This is all one sentence. Verse 19, wow, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Oh Dear friends, if you have never experienced those times of refreshing, then you need to heed the words of Peter. You need to repent therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.

Again, to gain help from our friend Matthew Henry, he says, the absolute necessity of repentance is to be solemnly charged upon the conscience of all who desire that their sins may be blotted out and that they may share in the refreshment which nothing but a sense of Christ's pardoning love can afford. Blessed are those who have felt this, but when sinners are convinced of their sins they will cry to the Lord for pardon and to the penitent converted and believing times of refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord will you then understand you will then understand what the hymn writer meant when he said, my chains fell off and my heart was free. My heart was free. I arose and went forth and followed thee. Let's pray.

Our most glorious Heavenly Father, Who is sufficient for such things? Lord, you know my prayers for your people. Lord, I pray that you bound up the brokenhearted. I pray, Lord, that the healing balm of Gilead will be applied. Of Gilead will be applied.

I pray oh Lord that you would, for the truly repentant Lord, that you would apply the times of refreshing and the presence of the Lord, that you would so fill them with joy in their hearts that they would no longer doubt because they have now seen the glory of the Lord. And Father we ask that you would also at the same time humble the proud and bring them to the point of repentance that he too may experience these times of refreshing. And Lord, I pray that your son Jesus Christ, the suffering servant, the holy one and the just, the prince of life, would receive all of the glory and the honor when sinners are converted. And I ask this in Jesus' name, Amen.