A Prince and a Saviour

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Acts 5:31

Him has God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.

I. NOTE CHRIST'S TITLES and learn their meaning.

1. A Prince. This tells of —

(1) Honour as the reward of His sufferings on earth. While He was here He was treated as a felon. What presents the Prince of Wales brought home from his travels! But the Prince of Glory took home with Him His wounds only. But the shame and the rejection are now ended, and in glory Jesus is manifestly a Prince, reverenced, obeyed, and honoured.

(2) Power. His is no nominal princedom — He has both glory and strength. Unto Him is given the mediatorial kingdom, which includes all power in heaven and in earth, so that He is well styled "the blessed and only Potentate." There is no bound to this power:(3) Dominion. If Christ is to be yours you must let Him rule over you. "He must reign." He claims to be Master and Lord to those who ask salvation at His hands; and is not the claim a just one? Whom should we serve but the Lord who became a servant for our sakes? It must be so, or salvation is impossible. You must accept Jesus to be a leader and a commander to you, or you cannot win the battle of life. You must yield Him loving obedience, or He will not be married to your souls. His dominion is sweetly tempered by love; so that, as the prophet writes, "Thou shalt call Me no more Baali," that is, "My Lord," with a hardness of rulership, but Ishi, "My Lord," because Thou art my Husband.

2. A Saviour. Observe here —

(1) The perseverance of the Lord's love. He was a Saviour here; He is a Saviour now that He has reached His throne. "The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost," and now "He is able to save them to the uttermost," etc.

(2) The prevalence of the work He achieved here. Here He was able to save, but His salvation was not complete, for He had not yet said, "It is finished." Now His redeeming work is done, and saving is a simple matter to Him.

(3) His approachableness. You might be abashed at coming to a prince, but you may be encouraged in coming to a Saviour.

3. Put the words together —

(1) Prince-Saviour: one who is kingly in the salvation which He brings, and deals out no stinted grace, but makes us to receive of His fulness grace for grace.

(2) Saviour-Prince whose glory it is to save, whose kingdom and power and dominion are all turned in full force to achieve the work of rescuing His people.

II. Approach him, then, under these two characters.

1. As a Prince. And how shall we do that?

(1) With the sorrowful confession of past rebellion. "Kiss the Son, lest He be angry."(2) Accept His great purpose and submit to His rule. He is a Prince, therefore yield yourself to be His subject. The object of His rule is to make you love God, and to be like God.

(3) Surrender everything to Him. If He has redeemed you then you belong to Him; henceforth you are not your own, you are bought with a price.

(4) Pay your loving, loyal homage to your Prince. Behold Him in His glory, where all the angels cast their crowns before Him, while the elders adore Him with vials full of sweet odours.

2. As Saviour.

(1) Confessing that you need a Saviour.

(2) Believing that He is able to save you.

(3) Submitting entirely to His processes of salvation. He will not save thee in thy way, but in His way; and His way of saving thee is to make thee feel the smart and bitterness of sin, to make thee hate that sin, and so to turn thee from it for ever.

(4) Trusting Him as Saviour.

III. MARK HIS GIFTS.

1. Repentance. This does not mean to give space for repentance, nor to make repentance acceptable, but to give repentance itself. What is repentance?

(1) It is a change of mind.

(a) He can give thee to change thy mind about all the past, so that the things which pleased thee shall grieve thee, that which charmed thee shall disgust thee.

(b) He can also change thy mind as to the present and the future, so that instead of looking for present pleasure thou wilt find thy delight in future glory realised by faith.

(2) It includes a most needful sense of sin, and the Saviour can give thee this by His Spirit.

(3) He can work in thee desires after holiness and hatred of every false way; He can take the guile out of thy soul as well as the guilt out of thy life.

2. Forgiveness.

(1) He can pass an act of amnesty and oblivion for all thy sin. "I have blotted out thy sins like a cloud, and as a thick cloud thy transgressions."(2) When full forgiveness comes it brings with it the eternal removal of the penalty. The forgiven man cannot be punished.

(3) With pardon there shall come a restoration of every privilege.

IV. ASK HIM FOR THESE GIFTS.

1. Humbly. You do not deserve them. You have no claim to His love, and must not set up any.

2. Importunately. Do not come with a cold heart and a trifling spirit. Come with this resolve, "I will not leave the Cross till my sins have left me."

3. Believingly — believing that Christ can give, and that He is as willing as He is able.

4. Now. The Romans when they meant to bring things to an issue with an Oriental tyrant, sent their ambassador to bring his answer back — yes or no, war or peace. The messenger when he saw the king stooped down, and drew a ring upon the ground round the monarch; and then said, "Step outside that ring, and it means war; before you leave that circle you must accept our terms of peace, or know that Rome will use her utmost force to fight with you." I draw a ring round you, and I demand an answer. Sinner, wilt thou now be saved or not? To-day is the accepted time, to-day is the day of salvation.

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