There is a price for forgiveness. And that is that we have to be. Honest with God, we have to lay ourselves bare before God. Say, God, be merciful. To me a sinner, then comes the promise.
of forgiveness. Our God is a God who forgives. That is such a wonderful truth that we find throughout the pages of Scripture. But God's forgiveness is not automatic. It comes only to those who truly repent of their sin.
and turn to him for mercy. Hello and welcome to Renewing Your Mind. I'm glad you've joined us on this Lord's Day as we continue sharing sermons from Dr. R.C. Sproll from the book of Acts.
If you found these sermons helpful, you can receive the hardcover edition of R.C.'s Commentary on Acts. Simply give a donation in support of this program at renewingyourmind.org. But right now, let's listen as Dr. Sproll explains how it is that sinful people can experience God's forgiveness. 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. It 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.
And you are the sons of the prophets. and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, and 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, in turning away every one of you, From your iniquity. You recall that the occasion for this Second sermon of Peter's that is recorded for us.
In the book of Acts. Was the healing of the man who was born unable to stand or to walk. When Peter and John encountered him by the gate, beautiful, as he was begging for alms. And you remember the account that Peter said, Silver and gold have we none, but such as we have we give unto you in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Rise up and walk.
And to the astonishment of all of those who were assembled there in that portion of the temple, this man stood, walked, began to leap, and praise God. And this crowd who marveled gathered around, and Peter uses that occasion to preach this sermon. The content of this sermon was a scorching. Denunciation of those who had gathered around on this occasion. Peter pointed the finger in their faces and said, You are the very people.
Who betrayed Christ who delivered him Though screened for his blood and are guilty of his murder. It's by the power of that same Jesus That you murdered, that this man was made whole. And again, Peter says: it wasn't by my power or John's power, it was by the power of his name. And so, as I said two weeks ago, this was not the most politically correct, winsome, and persuasive sermon ever preached on this planet. But in the middle of this scathing denunciation of the people who are standing there Peter mellows a bit For a moment.
And listen to what he says. Yet now, brothers I know. That you did it. In ignorance. In other words, one thing that I know, I know that what you did.
Was you murdered the Son of God? But I also know That you didn't know. What you were doing. And this, of course, brings to mind immediately The prayer of our Lord in the very midst of his execution When he prays to the Father from the cross, Father Forgive them For they know not what they Two. And that's where the scriptures say, had they known.
They wouldn't have crucified The Lord of Glory. And Peter says, I understand. You just didn't know. What you were doing. Let me just pause for a moment here and talk about this whole business of.
Ignorance In the Roman Catholic Church and their historic moral theology, Rome makes a distinction between two kinds of ignorance. One is called vincible ignorance. and the other invincible ignorance. That which is Invincible is that which may be conquered. or overpowered.
That which is invincible, of course, cannot be defeated, cannot be overpowered. and the distinction in moral theology is for this reason. If I do something out of ignorance. where I had no knowledge and had no way of knowing what was right or wrong. That would be invincible ignorance, and that kind of ignorance would excuse me.
On the other hand, if I did something out of ignorance. For which there was plenty of knowledge available, plenty of opportunity for me to learn it, but I was not diligent in my study. I was slothful, I was negligent. And I ignored that knowledge that was available to me. And then at the end of the day, cannot say, well, I'm sorry, I didn't know.
I have no way of knowing. My favorite illustration of this is: I take my car to Georgia. And I drive into the city of Atlanta and the light turns red and I keep on going right through the red light. Then I see another red light on the back of a car approaching me and the policeman pulls me over and he says, Hello, my name's Oscar and I'll be your arresting officer this afternoon. Oh no, that's in Winter Park that that happens.
It's not But in any case I get arrested, and I said, Why did you pull me over? And the policeman said, Well, because you went through a red light back there. And I said, Yes, so what? What's wrong with that? And he said, well, it's against the law to go through red lights.
You have to stop at a red light. And I said, Well, I'm not from Georgia here. How would I know that? I didn't know that you had to stop for that red light. He said, Well where do you live?
He said, I live in Florida.
Well, don't you have to stop Red Light Florida? Yes. But this is in Florida. This is Georgia. How do you expect me to know what your local traffic laws are here?
I don't live here. How much of an excuse do you think that's going to be when I go before the the magistrate? He's going to say, look, if you presume to drive your car in the state of Georgia, you are responsible to know what the driving code is because it's published, it's readily available, and it's basically not any different from what it is in Florida anyway.
So I could claim ignorance in a case like that, but it would be vincible ignorance that would not excuse me for a moment. But on the other hand, suppose the city planners of Orlando having a shortfall in their budget. And they come up with a scheme to add a lot of revenue to the city treasury in a hurry. They meet tonight at 11 o'clock. They decide among themselves the beginning tomorrow morning at 6 a.m.
It's going to be against the law. To go on green, you have to stop on green and go on red. And it'll be a $100 fine for everybody caught going through a green light. And we're going to have traffic policemen at every intersection in Orlando to arrest everybody that goes through the green light. But here's the catch.
We're not going to tell anybody. It's going to be our little secret. And so tomorrow morning at 6 o'clock, you drive downtown, you come to the green light, you keep going, all of a sudden, you're pulled over and charged $100 for going through a green light. And you go to the magistrate and the magistrate says, You're guilty because the law Sayers You have to stop. Add a green light.
Now you had no idea. About this secret law, no possible way of knowing anything about this secret law.
Now, that's a kind of ignorance. that the church called Invincible ignorance. There's no way you could have known. Therefore, your ignorance would excuse you.
Now I'm laboring this point here for a reason, ladies and gentlemen. There are countless millions of people in this world and in our own country. Who are counting On their ignorance. To get him past The judgment seat of God. I never went to church.
I never read the Bible. I never studied the things of God. How could you possibly hold me accountable for being a disciple of Christ when I didn't know anything about him. How much do you think that's going to wash? on the judgment seat of God.
Now That's vincible ignorance. that does not excuse Now, the ignorance that those who stood at the bottom of the cross and cried for the blood of Christ was not invincible. It was vincible. And despite that it was vincible, our Lord said. Forgive them.
And despite that, the ignorance that Peter acknowledges here of these who had screamed for the blood of Christ was vincible, he still. sees that they have a chance. Still to be forgiven. But the only chance they have is if they repent. There is a progression.
in the redemptive history that's unfolded for us in Scripture. Do you remember when Jesus warned? His contemporaries about their possibly committing the unforgivable sin? I get the question all the time from people. What's the unforgivable sin?
Have I done it? Or is it possible that I will do it? Because if I've committed that sin, I'm toast. I have no hope. I've I'm finished forever.
Well, there is an unforgivable sin. And our Lord warned his contemporaries about it. What was the occasion of that? Not only did these people not recognize him as the Messiah as they should have had they been diligent students of the word of God. But they actually accuse Jesus of being in league with the devil.
Now, Jesus put up with an awful lot of insults and an awful lot of hostility from his contemporaries, but at this point, He draws a line in the sand and he says, stop, hold it right there, fellas. You need to be very, very, very, very careful. Because you've already come perilously close to committing that sin. for which there is no forgiveness. He said, You may sin against the Son of Man.
and be forgiven in this world and in the world to come. But if you sin against the Holy Ghost. If you blaspheme against him. There'll be no forgiveness for you in this world or in the world to come.
Now that's serious business. But did you ever wonder about that linguist? Why would Jesus say? That if you sinned against him. It's forgivable.
But if you sin against the Holy Ghost. It's not forgivable. Is there something more egregious about sinning against the third person of the Trinity than there is against the second person of the Trinity or the first person of the Trinity? Because everybody in this room at some point in your life has blasphemed God. Do you ever take the Lord's name in vain?
Ever Blasphemy is something you do with your mouth. And it's a verbal disrespect and dishonoring of Almighty God. Whose name is protected in the Decalogue. and for whom the first petition our Lord put into the Lord's Prayer was Hallow it. Be thy name.
And so maybe if we've ever Use the name of Christ. Or the name of the father. As a curse word. Flippantly Then maybe it's too late for us. This is certainly blasphemy.
And there's not a person in this room who hasn't done it. Then we were all cooked. But fortunately, Jesus makes this distinction. You can sin against me. And get forgiveness, but you blaspheme the Holy Spirit.
You can't.
Now, if you notice later on in the New Testament, particularly in the book of Hebrews, that distinction between sinning against the Son and sinning against the Spirit evaporates. And the reason for it is this. On the occasion When Jesus was killed. The people that were blaspheming him all over the place. really didn't know what they were doing.
That was Friday. But on Sunday By the power of the Holy Ghost. God raised him from the dead. And the point is this. that once the Holy Ghost Convict you.
Of the truths. Of the identity of Jesus, if then you call him a devil. You're finished.
Now, I don't believe it's possible because of the mercy of God for any Christian ever to commit that sin. But even here In this text, this crowd had come perilously close to it because God, the Holy Spirit, this is what Peter does, he takes them through the scriptures. To the Old Testament. He said, You, he's speaking to Jews. He said, You people are Jewish people.
You're the children of Abraham. You're the descendants of Moses You're the children of the covenant. You remember when Moses predicted that a prophet would come like himself?
Well, he came. And you killed him. Locator says, but I know You didn't now. I listen to people blaspheme God every single day of my life. And I think.
If they only knew. But they had any idea. How offensive this was to God. They would rather die. them talk like this.
They don't know it. Should they know it? Yes, they should know it. But there's hope. If they don't know it.
But notice what Peter doesn't say the way our culture would say. Our culture would look at this and say, well, they didn't know. And God bless those dear souls. They didn't know what they were doing. But isn't it nice that God loves them anyway?
That's the way we preach today. It's not how Peter preached. I know that you did it in ignorance. And the rulers did it in ignorance. But those things which God foretold by the mouth of the prophets that the Christ would suffer A fulfilled.
Therefore what? Repent. And be converted. And have your sins blotted out. Boy, do I love that metaphor Have your sins.
Blotted ah. Aren't you glad? that pencils come. With erasers. I have a hobby every morning.
I do two crossword puzzles. And I have a problem. With pride. I refuse to use anything. But a pen.
You ought to see the mess that I make out of the morning paper with my pen, because I don't have anything to erase. My error. Can you imagine? God. Erasing Every sin.
Did you ever commit? That's why we're here, folks. That's the only reason. We're here really. It's because we have found The place.
of forgiveness. We have found the one. who will remove our sins. It will blot out our transgressions. Who will erase the writing that is on the wall against each one of us?
But the only way Those sins are ever erased. is if we humble ourselves. If we acknowledge our sins. If we turn from our sins. If we repent of our sins, and come before God with a broken and contrite heart.
Forgiveness by God is simply not automatic. The grace that is taught in this day and age is the cheapest thing that the church has ever heard. The idea is that God just automatically. Forgives everybody. No!
As long as you remain impenitent, as long as you refuse to confess your sins before him, he will not forgive you.
Sorry, Chris I know you didn't know it. But you shouldn't own it. Because what would happen here was fulfilled and what was taught ages and ages and ages time and time and time again. By the gospel. I remember going on an evangelism call.
In Cincinnati many years ago. When I was working with Evangelism Explosion, I had two of my elders with me, and we went. To this apartment, and all I can tell you was it was some kind of hippie pad with black strobe lights and everything. this one girl was dressed to kill and she was leaving and she excused herself and the other one was home. And she had visited the church for some musical event and She invited us in and one of my elders began to tell her the gospel and she stopped them right in mid sentence.
She said, hold it. She said, my uncle's a Baptist minister. She says, I've heard that. A thousand times.
So please, don't waste my time. or yours. And I you know, I just interrupted. I said, excuse me. I said.
You've heard this a thousand times. I don't deny that you have. I said, but could possibly hurt you. You hear it one more time?
So he said, Well, okay.
So I picked it up where my elder had left it off, and I finished the presentation of the girls. But I didn't ask her to make a response. I didn't do anything. I just thanked her for letting me finish. and be being polite enough to let us in our house.
And we left. Never heard a thing about her for six months. Six months later, she shows up in the new member class, and somebody said, What led you? to come to our church. They want to join the church.
And she told the story of this night, where these people that she didn't know came and knocked on her door. And she repeated what she said. I've heard that a thousand times. And she told them I told her I want to just hear one more time. And she said, they didn't impose themselves.
He said what he was going to do, and he did it, and he left. They said, as soon as those men walked out my door, I went in my bedroom and I fell apart. She said, My face was in the pillow. I flooded the room with my tears because for the first time, I really got it. And my sins Warfruit.
See she knew the gospel. But she didn't know it. She had heard it a thousand times. But she never had ears to hear. She had never been brought.
to repentance. She had never experienced. The erasing of her sin. I lay awake at night worrying about people in our own congregation who are here faithfully all the time, go to the Bible studies, sing the songs, hear the messages. But it's never Never.
Landed. in their souls. There is a price for forgiveness. And that is that we have to be. Honest with God, we have to lay ourselves bare before God.
Say, God, be merciful. to me a sinner. Then comes the promise. of forgiveness. One last point.
But he quotes Moses. It said, 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. Does that bring to mind anything? Moses said, There's going to come a day where God's going to send you another prophet just like me, another mediator.
And what you have to do. is listen to them. Hear him. Doesn't that take your mind right back to the mound of transfiguration? When Moses appears with Jesus there with Elijah.
And the glory of Christ begins to shine through the veil of his humanity. And the disciples are falling on their faces in terror before them. The glory cloud surrounds them. They hear the voice from heaven. What does that voice say?
This is my beloved son. Here in That's what Peter's saying. This is the Son of God? Listen to him. Because if you don't.
Your sins will not be erased. And your ignorance. will not save you. God's willingness to forgive our sins is indeed a glorious truth, and what a poignant reminder from R.C. that God's mercy ultimately comes to us only through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
You're listening to the Sunday edition of Renewing Your Mind, the daily Bible teaching podcast of Ligonier Ministries.
Next Sunday, we resume our study of Acts. And if you'd like to receive Dr. Sproll's commentary based on his sermons from this series, Make a donation today at renewingyourmind.org and we will send you his hardcover book. You can also give by calling us at 800-435-4343. You know, it's been said that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.
It's a helpful reminder that God is building His kingdom through the bold and often costly witness of His people. I hope you'll join us next Sunday as we explore the courageous witness of the church. Here. on Renewing Your Mind.
