The sermon by Peter Allison explores the contrasting responses of Peter and Judas to their betrayals of Jesus, highlighting the differences between true and counterfeit repentance. While both displayed remorse, Judas' repentance was driven by legalistic conviction and self-reliance, ultimately leading to despair and his demise. In contrast, Peter's repentance was grounded in faith and trust in God's grace, leading to forgiveness and restoration. True repentance, according to the sermon, arises from a conviction of sin under the covenant of grace and is characterized by a sincere desire for deliverance from sin, a love for God's law, and a lasting transformation of the heart. It is contrasted with counterfeit repentance, which is temporary, motivated by self-interest and fear of consequences, and results in partial, external changes rather than a total change of heart. True repentance encourages a hopeful reliance on God's mercy and leads to a deeper communion with Christ.

Well, please turn to Acts 1. I'd like to read Acts 1 and then also in Matthew 27. Matthew 27. As we look today, I'd like to look particularly at this comparison between the differences between Peter and Judas. Acts chapter 1 verse 15, and Judas.

Acts 1, verse 15, And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, although the number of the names was about 120, and said, Men and brethren, this scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was numbered with us and obtained a part in this ministry. Now this man purchased a field with the wages of iniquity, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle, and all his entrails gushed out. And it became known to all those dwelling in Jerusalem, so that the field is called in their own language, Akal Dhamma, that is the field of blood. For it is written in the book of Psalms, let his dwelling place be desolate and let no one live in it.

And let another take his office. Therefore, these men who have accompanied us all the time that Jesus went in and out among us, beginning with the baptism of John to the day when he was taken up from us. One of these must be a witness with us of his resurrection. And they proposed to Joseph called Bar-Sabath, who is surname Justice in Matthias, and they prayed and said, O Lord, you know the hearts of all, Show which of these two you have chosen to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judah by transgression fell that he might go to his own place." And then over to Matthew 27 verse 3 Then Judas his betrayer Seeing that he had been condemned was remorseful and Brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders saying I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. And they said, what is that to us?

You see to it. Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed and went and hanged himself. But the chief priests took the silver pieces and said it is not lawful to put them into the treasury because they are the price of blood. And they consulted together and bought with them the potter's field to bury strangers in. Therefore that field has been called the field of blood to this day.

Then what was fulfilled by Jeremiah the prophet saying, then what was fulfilled was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet saying, and they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of him who was priced, whom they, the children of Israel, priced, and gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord directed me." Those who seek His precepts will walk at liberty. Almighty Heavenly Father, please anoint my lips this morning that they may proclaim the riches of Your grace and open our hearts that they may hear Your voice. Lord, may You speak to us by Your Word. May You move us. May we be sanctified by it this morning.

And I ask that you would sanctify and set apart my sinful lips for this. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, as I said earlier this morning, I wanted to look at these differences between Peter and Judas. And I draw heavily on a message by John Colcone in this. And I want to acknowledge at the outset, many of these points are points that He has made.

But I think there is something to be profited here from the Scriptures in looking at what was different between Judas, who was remorseful, it said. He saw that Jesus had been condemned and he was remorseful. He brought the pieces of money back and he said, I have sinned and I have betrayed innocent blood. I mean we might say, well that sounds like a good confession. That's what he did do.

That's what the Scriptures say that he did in Acts. Peter says that he was a guide to those who arrested Jesus. He betrayed Jesus. So, Jesus' confession is an accurate, according to the Scriptures, an accurate assessment, an accurate acknowledgement of His sin. He had remorse for it.

He was sorry for it. But Acts 1 clearly says that he was damned. That he must go to his own place. That he might go to his own place. By his transgression, he might go to his own place, to the eternal judgment of God.

Whereas Peter, who did something very similar, in some ways you might say it was worse. He denied with oaths that he even knew the Lord. He denied that he was his disciple. He denied Christ. This is why martyrs die, because they are unwilling to deny Christ.

They're unwilling to say, I recant my belief in Jesus Christ. They're unwilling to say, I don't know who He is. They're willing to die. Peter denied Christ. And yet here he is conducting the meeting that will Pick the replacement for Judas.

What is the difference? Why is Peter where he is? Forgiven, restored, and Judas dead, having hung himself. And the answer is in the difference between true repentance and what we might call a counterfeit repentance. A repentance that is commonly said is a repentance that needs to be repented of.

Repentance is a saving grace. We can't be saved unless we repent. Jesus says that several times in the Scriptures, that without repentance, we cannot attain eternal life in Heaven. I'm referring to a tragedy where people die when a building collapsed on them. And in another case where people were persecuted and were killed, Jesus says, I tell you, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

So what is true repentance? What characteristics set it apart from a counterfeit repentance that is not a saving repentance? And the first thing that distinguishes true repentance from false repentance, is that false repentance flows from a conviction of the law in the covenant of works. But true repentance flows from a conviction of the law in the covenant of works, true repentance, a conviction of the law in the covenant of grace. The difference is in how one responds to the conviction of the law.

You see, false repentance arises from the conviction that The law has been broken. Judas recognized, I have sinned. I broke the law. It arises from the recognition that there is a legal obligation, a binding obligation to obey the law. So we might call this the legal conviction of sin.

It flows from the work of the law written on the heart, convincing the conscience that the law of God has been broken and that its curses and judgments are upon us." So what is the conviction of the law in the covenant of works? Well, when the holy law convicts a conscience in the covenant of works, that person is forced to believe that the law requires from him perfect obedience as a condition of life. And that its tremendous curses for disobedience are pronounced against him. Romans 2, 14 says, For when the Gentiles who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these not having the law are a law to themselves who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or excusing them. Judas is having an accusing thought of his conscience under the work of the law, convicting him of sin.

He recognizes that that righteous law requires a perfect obedience, But under the covenant of works, that obedience is due from Him. And so even though He agrees with the curse and the requirement of the law, so that he becomes alarmed, so that he recognizes he can say, I have sinned, I have broken that law. But the only refuge that he has, the only recourse, the only response that he has to a conviction of the law under the covenant of works is that in order to pacify his guilty conscience, he must do works of obedience. He has to lay a foundation of hope in his resolutions, in his reformations, in his being able to do the right things and through his own works attain this righteousness that he knows he lacks. And so, what does Judas do?

He takes the money and throws it back. He knows it's blood money. And so, he's trying to do works of righteousness, self-righteousness, by His own merit to satisfy the requirement of the law. And so what's He going to do with the blood money? Well, it's not money I should have, so I'm going to take it back.

And He does. But the defects of his own attempt to obey the law, which he cannot do, only give rise to more fears. Fears that excite new endeavors to try and keep the law. A law that he knows he must keep, A law that He knows He must keep. A law that He knows He is broken.

But a law that He's seeking to keep by His own strength in order to gain some favor with God. And so thus, this legal penitent goes on in a vicious cycle because he's not seeking by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. That's what Paul said of Israel in Romans 9.31. But Israel pursuing the law of righteousness has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why?

Because they didn't seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone, which is Christ. So there may be this remorse. There may be an acknowledgment of sin. They may hope that God would be favorable to them, but it's only because of what they can do.

It's really a hope of redemption that Jesus Christ will impart His merit to His tears and to His reformations and to His works and Will make the things that He can do affectual To atone for His sins and purchase favor with God, but we can't See the person convicted by the law under the covenant of works can't trust that God will show mercy. Whereas the characteristic of true repentance follows the conviction of the law under the covenant of grace. Saving repentance is a true conviction of sin and misery that flows from the knowledge that We have broken the law of God, God's just law, but that there is also in accompanying it another conviction that there is forgiveness in Christ. And so true repentance, saving, we'll call it saving repentance, apprehends God's mercy in Christ to all those who confess their sins. And that apprehension is just as strong and just as certain as the conviction of sin.

Psalm 134 says, There is forgiveness with thee, that you may be feared. Saving repentance recognizes that God takes pleasure in those who hope in His mercy. Not those who seek to do by their own works what they can't do, but those who hope in His mercy. God takes pleasure in that. When we hope in His mercy, we're trusting in Christ's work, not our own.

Godly sorrow for sin and turning from it and trusting on, relying on Christ's righteousness are the title, are the basis for our pardon and our forgiveness. He who would repent acceptably must believe in Christ so that he can repent. Hebrews 4 says, without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Acts 11 speaks of the hand of God being with them, such that a number of people turn to the Lord. See, we must believe and know that there is safety in entrusting our guilty soul to Christ.

We must be united to Christ by faith, like leaves to a vine, before we can bring forth fruits that are fit for repentance. And so we can approach God through Christ with both a deep conviction of our guilt and our just reward of eternal rejection, but also an equally deep conviction of God's mercy. So David could say in Psalm 51, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin, create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. You see, that faith That God can do that and that He will do that. And if He loves, delights to do that, is what separates, is one thing that separates a counterfeit repentance from a saving repentance.

False repentance produces a guilty flight from God. And it produces these slavish and proud efforts to atone for our sins and make peace for God by ourselves, by our own acts. When you're convicted of a sin, maybe a significant sin, do you have the thought that, I can't go to Christ right now, that would be too quick? No. That's seeking to gain acceptance, seeking to atone for our sins by something we can do.

Something we can do to be more holy so that we can then go and ask the Lord for forgiveness. No. Saving repentance turns immediately to Christ. Immediately. Because we have this conviction of the law in the covenant of grace that God is gracious and that God forgives the guilty.

And there is nothing that we can do on our own to obtain that. The longer that we stay away seeking to do something in our own strength, the longer we are continuing estranged from Christ. But secondly, counterfeit repentance proceeds only from a sense of danger and dread of God's wrath. Whereas true repentance, saving repentance, is while it has a sincere mourning for sin and a loathing of ourselves, There is an earnest desire of deliverance from the power and the practice of sin. See, counterfeit repentance proceeds only from self-love, The danger that we are in.

And that's unsettling. And so that produces, well, we need to do something because we're in danger. Saving repentance proceeds from a loathing of the sin itself. Yes, we are in danger. Yes, we acknowledge that we are justly under God's wrath, but it is the hate of that sin, the loathing of that sin itself, not just because we're in danger.

See, in false repentance, a sinner is deeply affected by the dreadful consequence of their sin. But in saving repentance, a believer is chiefly affected by the sinfulness of that sin. And the fact that we have grieved the Lord God, a holy God, that sin itself is contrary to the very nature of God. That's why at times in counterfeit repentance, the repentance only is exhibited when those dangers are most real and impressed upon them. One such time is around death.

But it's not the only time. But it's times when the consequences of their sin stare at them. Judas was only convicted of the sin when he saw the effect that this righteous man had been condemned. There was No remorse over the guiltiness of His sin in the offense it is to God. What was Peter's response?

When did Peter show that remorse? It was when Christ looked at him. Before there was any consequence, before the crucifixion, before his condemnation, Peter was remorseful because he realized he had betrayed the one he loved. And there was a grief over the sinfulness of His sin, not just the dreadfulness of its consequences. The Bible speaks about this when it says, it talks about the worm that never dies and the fire that can never be quenched.

The false repentance can sometimes allay those fears, but they always come back. Like Peter says, like a dog returning to its own vomit, or a sow having washed herself to wallowing in the mire. The sincere believer, Godly repentance, mourns for the sin itself and wants to be delivered from that sin. And it's willing that nothing be spared, even the eye, even the hand that sins, it's willing to cut that out. Because it's the sin itself That is what is being fled from.

Third thing that differs is that in false repentance, a sinner is mainly affected by the gross and the open sin. When sin becomes exposed, when it becomes open and known. Whereas in true repentance, a believer is more deeply affected with the secret sins. The thoughts that produce those outward sins. The sins that we love to hold onto.

You see, encounter fit repentance chiefly arises when something is exposed, when it's public, when it's big, when it has a big effect on other people maybe. Somebody might be sorry for the harm that they've caused to somebody else, or the damage that's been done. Saving repentance is more deeply affected by the heart desires that led to those sins. By the desires of the heart, even maybe that never resulted in the outward expression of a sin, but nevertheless, those are sins. That's what lust is.

That's what covetousness is. Before somebody steals something, they desire it, they lust for it, they covet it. Before they fornicate, they desire to have what God hasn't given them. Before they slander somebody, there is the desire to see somebody else destroyed. Before there is an angry outburst, there is a desire to control something that we can't control.

And saving repentance is more concerned with those desires and those sins within us, and the will that gives rise, than it is with the magnitude of the outward consequence of our sin. Cain said in his regret over his sin, my punishment is greater than I can bear. My punishment is greater than I can bear. My punishment is greater than I can bear. It's greater than I can be forgiven.

Of all believers' actual transgression, There is nothing that we despise more than the sinful heart from which it arose. And so our sorrow and our grief is not so much over the outward consequences, but it's over our own spiritual condition. It's over our own desires. It's over a recognition that we don't love the things that God is loving. That we don't value the things that He is valuing, that we're not like Him, as we are called to be.

The fourth difference between false repentance and saving repentance is that false repentance often issues from and produces discouragement and despondency. It issues from, it arises from, and it often produces discouragement and despondency. But true repentance springs from an encouraging hope." Saving repentance. If you're ever corrected, or maybe you can correct yourself, maybe you realize you did something wrong, what happens from there? Is there these thoughts of, I'm no good, I can't do this, I don't want to do this anymore, somebody else can do it?

Those kind of self-deprecating thoughts of discouragement and despondency. That's remorse, but that's not arising from saving repentance. To counterfeit repentance, their sins and crimes appear dreadful. They know that they frequently violate their promises of new obedience. And they begin to be afraid that God will never pardon and accept them because they're such terrible rebels.

And though they dare not neglect doing their duties, yet They come with a sense of horror, afraid that God will never, never pardon them. They come to God as an enemy, as this one who is opposed to them, who is condemning them. They have nothing to keep them from sinking into this despair, but good resolutions and more endeavors in the flesh, which are of course defective. And they can't be the basis of any hope and comfort. True repentance has a deep sense of our wickedness, of our sin, of the greatness of our guilt.

It's probably far greater than any false repentance has. It doesn't yield to despairing thoughts about God's redeeming mercy, but we're able to trust in God's mercy. We may labor at times. You'll recognize it in all of these. We, even with saving repentance, labor under some of these false notions of repentance.

But Those are sins. We may labor for a time under discouragement, under despondency, but these are our weaknesses. They're not part of our repentance. Saving repentance exercises a living hope. It gives life, it gives activity to every other grace, and in particular to our perseverance.

And so this gospel hope that arises from our union with Christ, it relieves our fears that our sins are too great for God to forgive. And this hope in God's mercy is not inconsistent with a deep mourning and sorrow for our sin. Saving repentance can look over the greatest obstacle, the greatest sin that is before us, the greatest transgression, the greatest darkness of our heart, the greatest temptations of Satan. It can look over those to the greater mercy of Jesus Christ. And it's that mercy on which we base our hope.

Remember, hope in the Bible is not a wish for something, right? We say, I hope that the mail will come. I hope this package will come tomorrow. What is that? It's a wish.

That's not a biblical hope. A biblical hope is more like our hope that the sun will come up tomorrow. We know it will. We don't see it yet, but we know it will. That's saving hope.

It's a certain knowledge, a certainty of what God will do. It's based on His promises. And so saving repentance can look past the greatest sins, the greatest of our sins, to see and hope in God's mercy. We can be humbled and grieved for our iniquities. But that only leads to more vigor and more zeal in new obedience, because it's an obedience that's flowing from the power of Christ within us.

So true repentance is a flight away from discouragement, despondency, despair to Christ. Fifthly, counterfeit repentance springs from Fifthly, counterfeit repentance springs from enmity to God and to His law, but Saving repentance springs from a love of God's law. See, the terror, the remorse of a counterfeit repentance springs from dreadful fear of God as this exacting judge, of somebody who has inflexible justice. So the counterfeit repentance knows that God is just. It knows that He is angry and that they have provoked His wrath.

And they want to obtain a cover from it, but they only see God as His judge who is condemning them. And they see the law as something that just condemns them. But the psalmist says just the opposite, oh, how I love thy law. It is my meditation all the day. See, they counterfeit repentance.

It shows themselves to be enemies of God by their wicked works. They see God only as a judge, as an angry judge, taking vengeance. And they see the law as the basis for that, instead of seeing the law as a transcript of the character of God. And we love it because it shows us who God is and who Christ is. So we mourn our sin because it's contrary to the nature of God.

It's contrary to the one that we love. You ever see a little child, three, four, imitate Daddy? They want to be just like Daddy. They want to shave like Daddy. They want to wear Daddy's clothes.

They walk around in his shoes. They want to do the work that Daddy does. My Daddy was a preacher, so when I was young, we set up boxes of tissue boxes, and that was our little pulpit when we were three and four years of age. Why? Because we want to be like those whom we love.

And saving faith, saving repentance, desires to be like the God that we love. And the God that we love is defined, described, characterized by His law. It's a reflection of His very character. As John says in 1 John 5, the love of God is that the commandments of God are not burdensome to us. And so, saving repentance delights in being subject to the law of God.

It delights that our heart and our life should be regulated by obedience to the law of God. Because it's leading us to imitate the God that we love. And we long to have proficiency in faith and in holiness and obedience and a proficiency in a life of communion with Jesus Christ. So one looks on God with terror and aversion. The other looks on God as the one who justifies, the one who sanctifies, the one who forgives, the one who loves us.

The one loves the sin in his heart, and therefore is at enmity against the law that condemns it. The other hates the sin in his heart, and therefore is at peace and loves the law that condemns the sin he hates. The one finds no delight in outward obedience. It's just a burden. Saving repentance finds delight in obeying God's Word, in obeying His commandments.

And so one we say, counterfeit repentance arises from an enmity of God's law, saving repentance from a love of God's law. But also, physically false repentance produces only a partial external reformation. But true repentance produces a complete and total change of heart, a reversal turning from sin to God. The false repentance still clings to this world. It still delights in the pleasures of this world, and it only refrains from partaking in them the sinful pleasures because of some outward consequence.

See, there isn't a change in the heart. It's just a partial change. It's an external change. But the character of saving repentance is exactly the opposite. Saving repentance recognizes that we are not yet without sinning yet.

It presses forward. It strives against the world, the flesh, and the evil one. It strives against the corruptions of the heart because it hates them. Because it hates them. So one produces an external conformity, an external change, behavior modification.

The other, an inward and complete change of heart. A change of the will. A change of our loves and affections. As well as, of course, that change of the inward heart will also affect the outward as well. And lastly, one more counterfeit repentance is temporary.

Because it's only behavior modification. Because it doesn't deal with the will, what the heart desires, what it loves, it wears off. Maybe you have a tile. There are two different kinds of tile that they put in houses. Some tile, the color goes all the way through the tile.

Another tile, it's just a veneer on top. And what happens when that top gets scraped off? What happens if it gets chipped off? Well, then you see the true color underneath. But when the color goes all the way through the tile, permeates every part of it, then you can chip a little of the tile off and what's underneath it still does that same color.

That's analogous to this difference between saving repentance and counterfeit repentance. Counterfeit repentance is temporary. When The effect of the judgment or whatever is driving the remorse. When that wears off, the loves of the heart are exposed again, because they're unchanged. True repentance continues.

True repentance. True repentance continues. True repentance, evangelical repentance perseveres. It's a change of our total nature, a change of our whole desire, of our wills, our affections, our emotions are all changed. True repentance can remember, True repentance can remember, always remembers the sins that we have committed.

But with them, it remembers that the grace of God is far greater. You know, when somebody that maybe has sinned in the past, and you see that they are always able to speak about that in the context of God's redeeming grace, then you're seeing saving repentance. When past sins that are just completely covered up because We don't even want to talk about them. There is maybe an element of more repentance that needs to happen. I won't say that that alone makes it not saving repentance, but I will say that that repentance needs to grow.

So that in the context of that sin, the grace of God is seen as greater. And the shame of our sin is removed. So that like David, we can speak about it. And we can confess it and acknowledge it and and still trust in God's mercy to forgive us and to cleanse us and to remove that shame And to remove the guilt True repentance recognizes that every good thing we do is the result of God working in us, and is able to praise God. Paul could say, I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which is in me.

He didn't take credit for the good that he was able to do. Because we recognize that the good that's in us is that we live this life by faith. This life we now live in the flesh, we live by faith in the Son of God. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, Paul said. And so we don't seek to take credit for the things that we are unable to do.

Whereas a counterfeit repentance seeks to take credit because it's something they think is done in their own strength. Well, I hope that this has been a look at what godly repentance is. We all wrestle with various aspects of these, we all wrestle with aspects of false repentance. But may God by His grace more and more enable our repentance to be that which is, to have those characteristics that are true of saving repentance. Let us pray.

Almighty Heavenly Father, We thank you that you are the God who heals and who forgives. You are the God who cleanses and who makes whole what has been broken, what has been corrupted. And we hope this morning in your mercy. And we ask your forgiveness, Lord, for all of the times that our repentance has needed to be repented of. We ask, Lord, that you would give to us a sincere humility and a saving repentance.

In Jesus' name, Amen.