Apostolic Exhortation

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Acts 3:19-21

Repent you therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out…

I. THE APOSTLE BADE MEN REPENT AND BE CONVERTED.

1. Repent signifies, in its literal meaning, to change one's mind. It has been translated "after-wit," or "after-wisdom"; it is the man's finding out that he is wrong, and rectifying his judgment. But although that be the meaning of the root, the word has come in Scriptural use to mean a discovery of the evil of sin, a mourning that we have committed it, a resolution to forsake it, the love of what once we hated, and the hate of what once we loved. Conversion means a turning from, and a turning to, from sin to holiness, from carelessness to thought, from the world to heaven, from self to Jesus. The words in Greek are "Repent and convert," or, rather, "Repent and turn." It is an active verb, just as the other was. When the demoniac had the devils cast out of him, that was repentance; but when he was clothed and in his right mind, that was conversion. When the prodigal was feeding his swine, and on a sudden began to consider and to come to himself, that was repentance. When he set out and left the far country and went to his father's house, that was conversion.

2. Repentance and conversion are the work of the Holy Spirit. And yet Peter says, "Repent, and be converted"! "How reconcile you these two things?" We tell men to repent and believe, not because we rely on any power in them to do so, not because we depend upon any power in our earnestness or in our speech, but because the gospel is the mysterious engine by which God converts the hearts of men, and we find that, if we speak in faith, God the Holy Ghost operates with us, and while we bid the dry bones live, the Spirit makes them live — while we tell the lame man to stand on his feet, the mysterious energy makes his ankle-bones to receive strength — while we tell the impotent man to stretch out his hand, a Divine power goes with the command, and the hand is stretched out and the man is restored. The power lies not in the sinner, not in the preacher, but in the Holy Spirit.

II. THERE WAS GOOD REASON FOR THIS COMMAND. "Repent ye therefore." The apostle was logical. It was not mere declamation. What, then, was the argument?

1. The Jews put Christ to death. And this is spiritually true of you. Every sin in the essence of it is a killing of God. Every time you do what God would not have you do, you do in effect, so far as you can, put God out of His throne, and disown the authority which belongs to His Godhead. When Christ was nailed to the tree, sin only did then literally and openly what all sin really does in a spiritual sense. Will you not repent if it be so? While you thought your sins to be mere trifles, you would not repent; but now I have shown you that every sin is really an attempt to thrust God out of the world. What, then, if the authority of God should be no more owned in the universe — where should we all be? What a hell above ground would this world become! Do you not see what a mischievous thing, then, your iniquity has been? Then, truly, there is abundant reason why you should repent and turn from it.

2. He whom they had slain was a most blessed person — one so blessed that God the Father had exalted Him. Jesus Christ came not into this world with any selfish motive, but entirely out of philanthropy, full of love to men; and yet men put Him to death! Now God does not deserve that we should rebel against Him. If He were a great tyrant domineering over us, putting us to misery, there might be some excuse, but, when He acts like a tender father to us, it is a cruel shame that we should live in daily revolt against Him. You who have not believed in Christ have mighty cause for repenting that you have not believed in Him, seeing He is so good and kind.

3. While they had rejected the blessed Christ they had chosen a murderer. Sinner, thou hast despised Christ, and what is it thou hast chosen? Has it been the drunkard's cup? Thy lust? What devilish things to set in the place of Christi What have thy sins done to thee that thou shouldst prefer them to Jesus? What wages have you had? Oh, then, this is a thing to be repented of.

4. Christ whom they had despised was able to do great things for them. "His name through faith in His name," etc. If you will trust Jesus to-day, all your iniquities shall be blotted out. Believing in Him, He can make thee blessed. And is not this cause for repentance? With hands loaded with love He stands outside the door of your heart. Is not this good reason for opening the door and letting Him in?

5. "I wot that through ignorance ye did it." As if He would say, "Now that ye have more light, repent of what you did in the dark." You had not heard the gospel, you did not know that sin was so bad a thing, you did not understand that Jesus was able to save to the uttermost. Now you do understand it. The times of your ignorance God winked at, but now "commandeth all men everywhere to repent." Greater light brings greater responsibility. Do not go back to your sin, lest it become tenfold sin to you. "Now ye have no cloak for your sin." Therefore, because the cloak is pulled away, and you sin against the light, I say as Peter did, "Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out."

III. WITHOUT REPENTANCE AND CONVERSION SIN CANNOT BE PARDONED. Many Oriental merchants kept their accounts on little tablets of wax. On these tablets they indented marks which recorded the debts, and when these debts were paid, they took the blunt end of the stylus or pencil, and just flattened down the wax, and the account entirely disappeared. Now, he that repents and is pardoned is, through the precious blood of Christ, so entirely forgiven that there is no record of his sin left. If we blot out an account from our books, the record is gone, but there is the blot; but on the wax tablet there was no blot. But sin cannot be removed except there be repentance and conversion. This must be so, for —

1. It is most seemly. Would you expect a great king to forgive an erring courtier unless the offender first confessed his fault?

2. It would not be moral; it would be pulling up the very sluices of immorality to tell men that they could be pardoned while they went on in their sins and loved them. Does not conscience tell us this? There is not a conscience here that will say to a man, "You can hope to be saved and yet live as you list." But whether your conscience shall say so or not, God says "He that confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall find mercy," but there is no promise for the unrepenting. "He who goeth on in his iniquity and hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy."

IV. REPENTANCE AND CONVERSION WILL BE REGARDED AS PECULIARLY PRECIOUS IN THE FUTURE, for my text says, "When the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord."

1. He that repents and is converted shall enjoy the blotting out of sin in that season of sweet peace which always follows pardon. When the prisoner first gets out of prison, when the fetters for the first time clank music as they fall broken to the ground! when the sick man leaves the sick chamber of his convictions to breathe the air of liberty and to feel the health of a pardoned sinner! Oh, if you did but know what a bliss it is to be forgiven, you would never stay away from Christ I But you do not know, and cannot. Oh, "repent and be converted," then, and you will.

2. Perhaps these "times of refreshing" may also relate to times of revival in the Christian Church. The only way in which you can share in the refreshment of a revival is by your own repenting and being converted. Of what use is a revival to an unpardoned sinner? It is like the soft south wind blowing upon a corpse.

3. The text means, according to the context, the second advent. Jesus is yet to come a second time, and like a mighty shower flooding a desert shall His coming be. His Church shall revive and be refreshed. But woe unto you who are not saved when Christ cometh, for the day of the Lord will be darkness and not light to you.

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