Overcoming Ignorance: The Call to Repentance

"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." [00:17:12]

"And if you remember two weeks ago we saw that 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, who screamed for His blood and are guilty of His murder. It’s that by the power of that same Jesus, that you murdered, that this man was made whole.” [00:16:01]

"Let me just pause for a moment here and talk about this whole business of ignorance. In the Roman Catholic Church in 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 vincible 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." [00:49:10]

"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 – I can then, at the end of the day, cannot say, “Well I am sorry I didn’t know. I had no way of knowing.” [00:55:08]

"There are countless millions of people in this world and in our own country who are counting on their ignorance to get them 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? No. That’s vincible ignorance that does not excuse." [01:31:24]

"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." [01:37:24]

"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 accused Jesus of being in league with the devil. Now Jesus put up with an awful lot of insults, 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.” [01:44:52]

"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 convicts you of the truth of the identity of Jesus, if then you call Him a devil, you’re finished." [01:50:28]

"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. That’s why Peter says, “I know you didn’t know it, but you should’ve known it because what would happen here was fulfilled, and what was taught ages and ages and ages ago, time and time and time again by the Gospel.” [02:04:44]

"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, she excused herself and the other one was home, and she had visited the church for some musical event. She invited us in, and one of my elders began to tell her the Gospel, and she stopped him right in mid sentence." [02:12:32]

"One last point, when he quotes Moses, he says, “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 Him, hear Him.” Doesn’t that take your mind right back to the Mount 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." [02:20:24]

"The glory cloud surrounds them, and they hear the voice from heaven. What does that voice say? “This is my beloved Son. Hear Him.” 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.” Now next week, God willing, we’re going to see the response. And like every time the Gospel is preached, the response is divided. Again a huge mass of people fled to the Gospel, embraced Christ, had their sins forgiven, while the rulers arrested Peter and John, but we’ll look at that next week." [02:28:52]