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I'm surrounded in my community by people who are ignorant of the things of God. Not because God hasn't shown us plainly what the truth is. Not because God failed to manifest the true identity of Jesus by raising him from the dead, which, by the way, he never did for Muhammad or Confucius or Buddha or anybody else. But God has raised Christ from the dead, certifying him as his only Son.
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When we stand before a holy God, some people think that they'll be able to claim ignorance, that they just weren't given enough information to believe in Christ. But is that true? Thank you for joining us for this Lord's day here on Renewing youg Mind. We're beginning a study this week from the Book of acts with Dr. R.C. sproul. Today we'll consider the claim of the agnostic. And as we explore Peter's sermon From ACTS, chapter three, Dr. Sproul will explain why no one can claim ignorance before God. This sermon series formed the basis of Dr. Sproul's commentary on Acts, and you can request it. It's in hardcover form for your personal library or with a donation@renewingyourmind.org but right now, here's Dr. Sproul with today's message.
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We're going to continue now with reading from the Book of acts from the third chapter, reading verses 11 through 18. Now, as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch, which is called Solomon's, greatly amazed. So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people, men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you. And you killed the Prince of Life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. And his name, through faith in his name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. 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 of his prophets, that the Christ would suffer, he has thus fulfilled. First thing I want you to notice about this sermon is the peculiar spirit of political correctness and sensitivity in which it was delivered to its hearers. This is the kind of sermon that would cast people in jail if they preached this way today. That's why I don't do it. But it begins with Luke's record that as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, now we know he wasn't holding on to Peter and John because he needed their physical support to stand. That was already established in the marvel of his miracle that we looked at the last time, where this man, who was congenitally crippled, had never stood on his own two feet in his entire life, were so miraculously healed by the touch of of the apostles that he not only stood, he walked, he jumped and leapt for joy without any assistance or handholding by Peter and John. Yet we're told here that this man, after running around praising God, jumping and leaping, he comes back to Peter and John and holds on to them for dear life. Wouldn't you, if someone had just cured you of such a malady that had afflicted you for so many years, you wouldn't want those people out of your sight. And so they came and held on tightly. And we read that all the people gathered together in the porch which is called Solomon's, and they were greatly amazed. And Peter saw this and he responded to the people and he said, men of Israel, why do you marvel at this when you look through the New Testament? In the record of the Gospels of the ministry of Jesus, which was ablaze of miracles, it's almost as if the authors of the Gospels had a literary formula in front of them whereby they would tell the circumstances of the affliction. They would tell of the miraculous power of Christ in healing that affliction. And it was always followed by the same response of the people. And it was the response of astonishment. One of the first verbs you learn when you're studying Greek is the word thaumatzai because of its frequency of use in the New Testament. The verb that indicates a astonishment, Peter asks a question here that sounds like the giving of a sign. Like the truck driver whose truck was stuck under the overpass and the policeman came up to him and said, get your truck stuck. The man had a tremendous grasp of the obvious without batting an eyelash. The truck driver said, no. He said, I was delivering the overpass and I ran out of gas. Here's your sign. There's Peter. He's saying, why are you people amazed? It's wonder somebody didn't say, are you crazy? Why wouldn't we be amazed? We've been walking past this man every day, and he's been crippled from the day of his birth. And now he's walking around leaping and jumping and praising God. How else should we be but in a state of absolute marvel and amazement? But Peter wasn't being facetious, because he adds to the question, not only why do you marvel at this, but while you're marveling, you're looking at us as if we had the power, as if we had the godliness to give this man his strength. Now, that would be amazing is the implication that if I could, say, rise up and walk in my own strength, or if I could do this by virtue of my own godliness, then there's reason for amazement and for astonishment. But nobody in this town should be amazed at all of what you just witnessed. Had you noticed that when we raised this man, we did it in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Then comes the sermon of all sermons. Why do you marvel? Why do you look so intently at us as though by our own power of godliness we made this man walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers? Now, let me just stop here for a second. Notice something different about this sermon from the first one we looked at on the day of Pentecost. On the day of Pentecost, there were three different sections to Peter's sermon, each one in which he gave an exposition of some Old Testament passage. And in this sermon, he doesn't do that. But it's not as if he's now abandoning the Scriptures, but rather he's compacting them, choosing his words carefully. And there is a summation of Old Testament prophecy about the Messiah that was to come. If you look carefully at the words that Peter chooses in this sermon, and he starts off by saying, you're looking at us as if we had the power in the God. Listen where you ought to look. Is it the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, who glorified his servant Jesus? Stop. Notice what Peter didn't say. He didn't say who glorified his son Jesus. In this case, he doesn't say who glorified the prophet Jesus, though he was that who glorified the Prince of Peace. No, the language that he used here takes them squarely back to the Old Testament. This work was done by the one who glorified his servant Jesus, identifying Christ now with. With the promised Messiah of the latter portion of the Book of Isaiah, the ebed Yahweh, the servant of the Lord, the one whose exploits are set forth before us in Isaiah 53. The man of sorrows acquainted with grief. The one who bears the sins of his people. That is, the servant of the Lord that every Jew looked to the future to have appear on the scene of history. And now the Peter is saying, don't look at me, don't look at John. Look at the God of our fathers who in this act glorifies his servant, the servant of the Lord whom you delivered up. Now, a sharp contrast. God, our God, is glorifying his servant, the same person. Here's what you did. You didn't glorify him, but you delivered him up first. Second, you denied him in the presence of Pontius Pilate when Pilate was determined resolute to let him go. But you denied the Holy One. Another Messianic title, you see. Another prophecy from the Old Testament that the Messiah would be known as the Holy One of Israel. The first to recognize the identity of Christ in the Gospel record were the demons who screamed out at Jesus. Why do you come to torment us before the time of O Holy One of Israel? They knew who he was. And so Peter says, God glorified the one you denied, the one you betrayed in front of Pontius Pilate, the one who is the Holy One and the Just One or the Righteous one. See, Peter's trying to communicate to these people something about the one they had crucified. He's the servant of the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, the Righteous One who is to come, who is our righteousness. And in this place, you ask for a murderer. He didn't have to say it. Who's not holy and who's not just. But he goes on. You delivered. You denied. Again, you denied. And he goes further. And you killed. You killed him. You put to death the very Prince of Life. How many of you remember where you were and what you were doing when you heard the news of the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy? Let me see your hand. Get him up there. Anybody who was old enough can answer that. Now, how many of you instantly can recall the name of the man allegedly killed by Lee Harvey Oswald the same day in Dallas? What was his name? How many of you know it was Officer Tippit? But how quickly we forget. And we remember all the details of the death of John Kennedy, but we forget the name of the man who was killed by the same assassin that same day in the same city of Dallas? Why, it's a terrible crime to murder a policeman. It's a crime to commit homicide at all. But the crime escalates in significance the higher the office of the victim. So that when you murder a president, it's now an assassination. It's now an unforgettable moment, a decisive moment in a nation's history. But the assassination of a president is nothing compared to the murder of the Prince of life himself. Remember, John begins his gospel. In him was life I am the way, the Truth, and the life. I am Alpha, I am Omega. Here he is called the Prince of Life. And Peter said, and you murdered him. This is preaching for conviction whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. Are you surprised by that? Are you surprised that when you take the servant of the Lord, the Holy One, of Israel, the righteous one, the Prince of life, and you deny him and deliver him, and you murder him, and now you marvel that the Son would be raised from the dead and his power would raise people from being crippled? What you ought to marvel at is that you're still alive. That fateful day in Connecticut, in Enfield, when Jonathan Edwards preached his sermon, sinners in the hands of an angry God. In the midst of that sermon, he said, o sinner, you cannot give any sound reason why you have not dropped into the pit of hell since you rose from your bed this morning, except that the grace of God in his hand has held you up. Can you give any reason for God to keep you from everlasting destruction? Do you have any merit before which you can stand in front of God and say, you owe it to me, God, to raise me up like you raised Jesus. You owe it to me to give me the same glory and the same honor because I have the same worth. God forbid that any of us would ever talk like that before God. You know, and I doubt if there's anybody in this room who would in fact say that to God. But my dear sweet people, we think it all the time. And his name, his name, not my name, not John's name, His name through faith in his name has made this man strong, whom you see and know, and the faith that comes through him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. Now, this little brief parentheses that I have to cover before I stop today. Yet now, brothers, 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. Now, do you see the exceptive clause here that's in this text? Maybe it's the thing you're counting on. Maybe it's the thing that you see as your ticket out of hell at the last judgment that God is going to give you a free pass on the basis of your ignorance. I was talking to somebody this week and they were telling me he said so and so. My friend is not an atheist, he's an agnostic. I said, an agnostic is the worst kind of atheist. And he said, what do you mean? I said, well, theism means that you affirm the existence of God or gods. Atheism covers everything outside the category of theism. And the agnostic is outside the category of the theist because he will not affirm the existence of God and then blames God for it. Says the reason I can't affirm the existence of God is because I am agnosco. I am without knowledge. The Latin translation of of agnosis or agnostic is ignoramus. I'm ignorant. Then the plea of the agnostic is this. Oh God, if you just would have made yourself known to me, if you just would have shown me a miracle, if you just would have given me sufficient data to make a rational judgment, I would have been your most faithful supporter that despite every moment of that person's existence, the heaven is declaring the glory of God and God is manifesting himself plainly and clearly to his eternal power and Deity before his very eyes and in the midst of his soul. So that every human being that walks upon this earth knows and knows with certainty that God exists. The sin of man is not that we don't know him, it's that we refuse to acknowledge him even though we do know Him. And when Paul says in Romans that they will be without excuse, what excuse do you think they'll be resting upon? The excuse of every self proclaimed agnostic. I didn't know the gun was loaded. If I just would have known that you were there, I would have repented. I would have embraced the Savior. But I just missed it. Didn't get it. Please forgive me for my ignorance. Paul warns that ignorance is not going to be an excuse on the Day of Judgment because it's not true. We are not ignorant. We are not without knowledge. We are not argonosis. And yet in the early days of Christendom, the reality of a certain kind of ignorance plays a role. On the cross our Lord cries out to his murderers, or in front of his murderers, I should say crying to the Father. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Father, be merciful to this mob. Lay aside your wrath for a moment because of their ignorance. They don't know what they're doing. And following on that, Peter is saying to this crowd, you murdered him. You killed him. You betrayed him. You denied him. But I know you did it in ignorance. And he goes on to say, but it was not an invincible ignorance, the kind that does excuse. It was a vincible ignorance. You were ignorant because you ignored the plain teaching of the Word of God. Because he goes on to say that all that happened here in Jerusalem recently had been predicted in detail in the Old Testament. And had you been diligent students of the Word of God, you would not have been surprised by the death of your Messiah, nor would you have participated in screaming for his blood. I'm surrounded in my community by people who. Who are ignorant of the things of God. Not because God hasn't shown us plainly what the truth is. Not because God failed to manifest the true identity of Jesus by raising him from the dead, which, by the way, he never did for Mohammed or Confucius or Buddha or anybody else. But God has raised Christ from the dead, certifying him as his only son. But our ignorance, we say, well, it doesn't matter what you believe. You just take whatever religion you like. You can trample the blood of Christ into the ground. Hang on to Confucius, hang on to Mohammed. They're good people following God to the best of their ability. No, they're running from God as fast as they can run into a religion of idolatry, Anything but the true God will satisfy the hearts of wicked people. And then when God shows plainly the truth of his son, we're amazed. Whoa. How could it be? Peter could have said, why aren't you running around the temple, jumping, leaping and praising God? Because it's your God, the God of your fathers, the God of your heritage, who is glorifying his son. You may think that what Peter said to these people was insensitive. You may think that it was harsh. You may say that it was offensive. But what you can't say is that it was false. Because he spoke the unvarnished truth to those people who had, in fact, denied the Son of God, betrayed the Son of God, and murdered the Prince of life. And we, by extension, are a part of that mobile until we, like the man healed, cling to Christ like he was clinging to Peter and John, praying that he will never let us go and we will not lose our grip on him because he alone is the Holy One, the righteous One, the Prince of life.
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Have you ever thought about that? That before we believed in Jesus. We were all part of that mob that shouted crucify. But praise God that He chose to meet our sin and ignorance with mercy. You've been listening to the Sunday edition of Renewing youg Mind, the daily Bible teaching podcast from Ligonier Ministries. If you'd like to go deeper in your study of the Book of Acts, we'd like to send you the hardcover edition of Dr. Sproul's commentary on acts. When you give a donation in support of this outreach, you can give today at renewingyourmind.org or when you call us at 800-435-4343 and let me invite you to come back next Sunday. As we resume our study of acts with Dr. Sproul, we'll consider how, even if someone is ignorant of Bible's teaching, their ignorance doesn't make them innocent before God. I hope you'll join us next Lord's Day here on Renewing your Mind.
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Sam.