Part Nine

2. Part Nine Acts 3:19-26

4. Acts 3:19-26 Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may

5. Acts 3:19-26 send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His

6. Acts 3:19-26 holy prophets from the ancient time. Moses said, “The Lord God shall raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren; to Him you shall give heed in

7. Acts 3:19-26 everything He says to you. And it shall be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.”

8. Acts 3:19-26 And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors onward, also announced these days.

9. Acts 3:19-26 It is you who are the sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, “And in your seed all the families of the

10. Acts 3:19-26 earth shall be blessed.” For you first, God raised up His Servant, and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.

11. After Peter shares Christ with everyone who will listen, he then proclaims the necessity of repentance.

12. Throughout history, God’s spokesmen have called sinners to repentance.

13. God told Jeremiah to say the following to a rebellious Israel.

14. Jeremiah 8:4-7 And you shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord, Do men fall and not get up again? Does one turn away and not repent? Why then has this people,

15. Jeremiah 8:4-7 Jerusalem, turned away in continual apostasy? They hold fast to deceit, they refuse to return. I have listened and heard, they have spoken what is not

16. Jeremiah 8:4-7 right; saying, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone turned to his course, like a horse charging into the battle. Even the stork in the sky knows her seasons; and

17. Jeremiah 8:4-7 the turtledove and the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration; but My people do not know the ordinance of the Lord.”

18. God told Ezekiel to say the following to a rebellious Israel.

19. Ezekiel 14:6 Therefore say to the house of Israel, “Thus says the Lord God, Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn your faces away from all your abominations.”

20. II Kings 17:13-15 summarizes the sad history of God’s dealings with a rebellious people.

21. II Kings 17:13 Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah, through all His prophets and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep My com-mandments, My statutes

22. II Kings 17:13 according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets.”

23. II Kings 17:14 However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God.

24. II Kings 17:15 And they rejected His statutes and His covenant which He had made with their fathers, and His warnings with which He warned them.

25. II Kings 17:15 And they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which the Lord had commanded them not

26. II Kings 17:15 to do like them.

27. God’s message didn’t change in the New Testament.

28. John the Baptist came preaching repentance.

29. Jesus preached repentance.

30. The disciples preached repentance.

31. Paul characterized his ministry as one of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

32. Look at what he says standing before Agrippa in Acts 26.

33. Acts 26:19-23 “Consequently, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision, but kept declaring both to those of Damascus first, and also at

34. Acts 26:19-23 Jerusalem and then throughout all the region of Judea, and even to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds

35. Acts 26:19-23 appropriate with repentance. For this reason some Jews seized me in the temple and tried to put me to death. And so having obtained help from

36. Acts 26:19-23 God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, stating nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place; that the Christ

37. Acts 26:19-23 was to suffer, and that by reason of His resurrection from the dead He should be the first to proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.”

38. And the message still hasn’t changed.

39. Jesus gave us a wonderful illustration of repentance in the story of the two sons.

40. Matthew 21:28 But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, “Son, go to work today in the vineyard.”

41. Matthew 21:29 And he answered and said, “I will, sir”; and he did not go.

42. Matthew 21:30 And he came to the second son and said the same thing. But he answered and said, “I will not”; yet he afterward regretted it and went.

43. Matthew 21:31 Which of the two did the will of his father? They said, “The latter.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you that the tax-gatherers and harlots will get into the

44. Matthew 21:31-32 kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax-gatherers and harlots did believe

45. Matthew 21:32 him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.”

46. The second son not only changed his mind but also changed his behavior.

47. God longs for us to repent and He even gives us four specific prompts to respond.

48. Promptings • Knowledge of the truth • Sorrow for sin • God’s kindness • The fear of judgment

49. Knowledge of the truth!

50. Luke 16:29 But Abraham said, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.”