Acts 3. 19. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out. When (so that RV[2]) the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. You will notice, of course, that our text is divided into four separate parts, and I want by God’s help to deal with them in this way. But ere I do this I think we should observe the circumstances leading up to the words spoken by Peter under the guidance of God the Holy Ghost. The disciples of our Lord are now feeling the tremendous responsibility of the work to which their Lord has called them and our chapter opens with a statement shewing that they are still followers of the Lord and are going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, and now the time has arrived to put their faith to the test. Here is a man in great need.. lame from birth. Will the promise of the Lord be made good to them, see Mark 16. 18[3]. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. These signs follow them that believe. Yes they believe in God is faithful who is promised and this lame man is enabled to leap and walk and praise God for his marvelous healing, and this of course caused a stir amongst the people and they ran together unto them greatly wondering. Now Peter’s time had come and he was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision and he takes the opportunity of explaining the matter to them, bringing home to them their sin in the crucifixion of the Lord of glory and charges them with His murder, and shews that the scriptures they (the scribes and Pharisees profess to understand) were being fulfilled before their very eyes. And they cannot say anything against it. Facts are very stubborn things[4], and now Peter calls upon them (the Jewish nation[5]) to acknowledge their sin and Repent and be converted. Now I want to point out that God’s dealings with nations, churches, and individuals are all the same.. and what is necessary for a nation or a church is “also” necessary for an individual, and nations, and churches are affected by individual sin[6]. Take the case of Achan as recorded in the book of Joshua[7]. God had made wonderful promises to His own people Israel as they marched into the promise land [sic]. None should be able to stand against them, but something has happened for we see them turning their backs and fleeing from their enemies. Has God failed to keep His promise NO NO that cannot be. One man has sinned, and that has brought defeat for the people of the Lord and it is not untill that fact was judged that victory came to the nation. Again let us turn to the Acts chap 5. There we see Ananias & Saphira[8] in an unholy union lying to the Holy Ghost. In this case God intervenes and both are removed by death and Paul uses very strong words in 1 Corinthians 3. 17 If any man defile the temple of God him shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy which temple ye are. Let me say emphatically I do not think Scripture justifies us in saying Ananias & Saphira were lost souls[9]. And this word destroy does not give us any ground for saying that a sinning saint is a lost soul. The words defile and destroy are both identical in the Greek[10] and are translated “mar” in some versions. All through the scripture both O and NT the path of blessing is the same. First it is Repentance. The Jewish Nation had committed their greatest sin and there was no evidence whatever of a national consciousness of it and the great word which ushered in the coming of the Messiah by the mouth of John the Baptist is the same word, that ushered in the dispensation[11] of the gospel to the Jews first and also to the Greek. Repent. Repent. What do we understand by it. Is it sorrow for sin. Yes but it is something far more than that. Where do we find repentance of the character of Billy Bray[12], John Bunyan[13] Richard Weaver[14], and others whose records all goes to shew that they were deeply conscious of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. I have been very interested and cheered by an article in the Readers Digest[15] by an apparent outsider shewing the lasting character of the Billy Graham conversions, but there is not one word about repentance, but God’s word abounds with it. It means a complete change of attitude towards God. It is the first step in the path of blessing and it is man’s responsibility. And in our text it is the only one for which man is responsible. Repent and be converted. I am afraid I always feel of suspicious of dry eyed conversion. To become conscious of what my sin has cost my Creator and His beloved Son cannot be treated lightly. Those who speak of hell as being beyond the merit of man’s sin, have never realized the awfulness of sin and have never repented. And repentance is not a thing that is experienced but once in a lifetime.. It is a life-time experience. But it is definitely a stepping stone and the next is conversion, and the conversion is that the evidence of the repentance. If there is no conversion then there has been no repentance. And conversion is an intensely practical thing. And we all of us do well to test ourselves continually by this standard. Do I remember a time when I became what I was not before. I was born with an intensely sinful nature, and I continued in sin and was a sinner by practice. Samuel Chadwick[16] a great Methodist preacher once said in the meeting: God not only saves from sin but He saves from sinning. A man in his audience stood up and said “It is a lie” Mr. Chadwick quietly asked his audience to stand up if they believe that God saved both from sin and sinning and the vast majority of the audience rose to their feet. If I sincerely Repent, then I am sincerely converted and if I am practicing sin, can I expect anyone to believe I am converted. The next point in our text is that your sins may be blotted out. I wrote a letter a few days ago and I wrote one word that ought not to have been there. It was nearly post time. I could not re-write the letter so I took a heavier pen and blotted that word out completely and it could not be seen. There is one word God has written against the whole human race, and there is only one thing that could block that word out completely. It is the precious blood of Christ, God’s own son. And without the shedding of blood there is no remission. Then there is one point in our text. And I want to point out that word “when” has been blotted out from all revised versions and this is how it is translated “So that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord[17]. This has a very special dispensational setting I believe but for our purpose as a gospel message we will be content to say that there are times of refreshing for every converted soul who sins are blotted out, and it is only those who have and are repenting who can lay claim to this. Are you being refreshed from His presence daily. Are you enjoying the truth that He walks beside you on the way, and is to you a wonderful Saviour. Do you daily rejoice in the fact that He is the Risen Christ, that deigns to be present with you to share your burdens and share you on your daily pathway. He longs to do this for you. You must Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out. Now let me pass on a few words concerning the last clause of our text. I have a pile of six different translation[s] of our New Testament[18], and not one of them leave this clause the same as we have in our Authorized version. And all seem agreed that instead of the word WHEN a better translation is SO THAT and it really amounts to this. Times of blessing cannot come to any church, nation or individual while sin is unconfessed and not repented of, and we are all agreed and our experience proves that we did not know blessing, or happiness untill we were brought to that point of confession and repentance but since that time and only last Monday morning riding on the bus between Ringmer and Lewes[19] I looked across the valley & saw the spot a mile or so a way where I confessed & repented and the burden of my heart rolled away it was there by faith I received my sight and now I am happy all the day[20] Hallelujah.
The time I was restored after 3 years of unhappy backsliding[21]
[1] This address, at his home congregation, is two pages longer than his usual length and is particularly intensely written. It would seem to give a clear account of Lloyd's underlying theological convictions about sin, repentance and the Christian life
[2] That is the Revised Version published in 1881 which sought to base the translation of the New Testament into English on a better Greek text, apart from other innovations. It was the forerunner of many new translations in the 20th century
[3] Scofield makes reference to this text from verse 2:47 under the rubric Church, true
[4] John Adams, 'Argument in Defense of the Soldiers in the Boston Massacre Trials,' December 1770
[5] Scofield 'The appeal here is national to the Jewish people as such, not individual as in Peter's first sermon… Here the whole people is addressed, and the promised a national repentance is national deliverance'
[6] It would seem reasonable to think that this kind of thinking would have been foremost in Lloyd's mind when trying to deal with the adultery of one of the members of the Witley congregation. This caused him great anguish because he did not like being judgmental but would have felt that it was spiritually necessary to address the sin.
[7] Chapter 7
[8] Normally Sapphira which is a better transliteration of the Greek
[9] cf. Matthew Henry Some put the question concerning the eternal state of Ananias and Sapphira, and inclined to think that the destruction of the flesh was that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. But secret things belong not to us
[10] pheiro
[11] A significant concept in brethren theology developed by Derby and popularized through the Scofield reference Bible which describes a dispensation as 'a period of time during which man is tested in respects of obedience to some specific revelation of the will of God. Seven such dispensations are distinguished in Scripture'
[12] William 'Billy' Trewartha Bray was born 1st June 1794, in Cornwall.… Whilst working in Devon he claimed 'I became the companion of drunkards, and during that time I was very near hell'. He returned to Cornwall a drunkard, spending all the money he had on ale, rather than to feed his wife and children. In November 1823, he happened to read John Bunyan's book 'Visions of Heaven and Hell' and from that time he had a desire to improve his life. He became a Christian and started to live by his faith. www.billybray.org.uk
[13] The famous author of Pilgrims Progress and also author of the spiritual autobiography "Grace abounding to the chief of sinners"
[14] Presumably this is the Revivalist who was born in Shropshire in 1827 http://ukwells.org/revivalists/richard-weaver
[15] Do Billy Graham's "Crusades" Have a Lasting Effect? by Stanley High. Readers Digest September 1955. "Does the Faith of the Converts Falter and Their Enthusiasm Wither Away? : Here is Vital Testimony Taken a Year After Billy's London Meetings". High published a biography of Billy Graham in 1956 and does not seem to have been as much of an outsider as Lloyd believed:
It was on assignment as an editor of The Reader's Digest that I first met Billy Graham at his home in Montreal, North Carolina, in May, 1954. Over the two succeeding years, at home and abroad, my repeated contacts with him and my opportunity to observe, firsthand, his "Crusades" and their consequences were almost wholly due to similar Reader's Digest assignments and resulted in five articles which have appeared in that magazine.
There are many to whom, for help in assembling the material for Billy Graham, I am indebted: to Ruth and Billy Graham for their wholehearted approval of and cooperation in this undertaking; to Mel Larson for his painstaking research; to members of the Billy Graham Team; to my associates, Dorothy B. Gardner and Mary Allen Thompson.
https://archive.org/stream/billygrahamthepe007977mbp/billygrahamthepe007977mbp_djvu.txt
This is taken from the Standard Bearer a Reformed magazine which did not support Billy Graham
In the September, 1955 issue of Reader's Digestappears an interesting article entitled: "Do Billy Graham's 'Crusades' Have Lasting Effect?" written by Stanley High. This writer traveled to England expressly to find an answer to this question.
He tells us that "a year had elapsed since the three months' Crusade at London's Harringay Arena in 1954 which, with associated meetings, resulted in 38,000 decisions for Christ. In scores of interviews with churchmen of many denominations, with church editors, laymen, converts, I sought the answer to these questions: What has happened to the Crusade's converts? What remains of the dedication and zeal which were stirred among so many preachers and churches? Was it all a passing show? These are the answers I got, supported by a mass of facts and firsthand testimony: A surprisingly large number of the Crusade's converts are carrying on; the dedication and zeal aroused at Harringay, far from waning after a year, are on the increase; Billy Graham, in the words of one of England's most widely known religious leaders, has aroused an appetite for religion which puts before us an opportunity such as we have not had in this century to claim the soul of the nation for God.'"
Mr. High's investigation and inquiry among the converts in every station of life resulted in conclusions quite contrary to the prediction of Billy Graham's critics. In the words of one of these critics "a tiny majority are genuinely converted . . . . No great harm, no great good, mostly just another show." And, "A London newspaper columnist, after telephone inquiries to 20 Anglican vicars, estimated that 'of outsiders, that is, genuine converts' not more than ten percent were still in the church."
However, when Mr. High contacted the converts themselves and the ministers of the churches to which these converts have come, the results appeared much more impressive. Mr. High found that sales personnel interested only in finding at Harringay some conversation material for a sales trip, or communists who went to Harringay only out of curiosity, were completely swept, off their feet, made decisions for Christ that lasted, and their lives now are filled with testimony for Christ.
According to Mr. High "The British Weekly poll revealed the remarkable fact that in the months after the 1954 Crusade the number of converts continued to increase. Many people, exposed to Billy Graham's message but undecided at the time, 'moved slowly and thoughtfully to the Christian faith over a period of months . . . . ' 'Before Harringay', says Sir Frank Medlicott, prominent London lawyer and Member of Parliament, 'if you wanted to avoid embarrassment, you didn't talk about religion save, occasionally in an abstract way about an abstract God. Now, thanks to Billy Graham, the average layman, like me, can talk without embarrassment to other laymen about the personal reality of Jesus Christ. A more remarkable fact is that so many laymen are doing just that."
[16] Samuel Chadwick (1860-1932) was a Wesleyan Methodist minister. This story illustrates his commitment to Wesleyan Holiness which opposed Calvinist antinomianism which it saw as separating justification from sanctification. The disadvantage of this Holiness Christianity was that it could create a rather legalistic morality that might identify sin with particular activities such as dancing and the theatre, something that would create alienation between Lloyd and his third son David.
[17] Schofield note on this verse 'that so many kind times of refreshing from the face of the Lord, and that he may send… Jesus Christ'
[18] We are not exactly
sure what these translations were but I believe included the Authorized
Version, the Revised Version from 1881, the Moffatt translation 1926 and the
Weymouth translation 1903. He may have had a copy of the Revised Standard
Version which came out in 1952 and maybe the 1890 Darby translation
[19] Lloyd's brother lived in Ringmer and I remember visiting his widow in the 1970s. It is a village to the Northeast of Lewes on the A26. Hamsey, his childhood home is about a mile from the road to the north and west.
[20] From the hymn by Isaac Watts:
Alas! and did my Savior bleed
And did my Sov’reign die?
Would He devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?
Refrain:
At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there by faith
I received my sight,
And now I am happy all
the day!
Thy body slain, sweet Jesus, Thine—
And bathed in its own blood—
While the firm mark of wrath divine,
His soul in anguish stood.
Was it for crimes that I had done
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!
Well might the sun in darkness hide
And shut his glories in,
When Christ, the mighty Maker died,
For man the creature’s sin.
Thus might I hide my blushing face
While His dear cross appears,
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt my eyes to tears.
But drops of grief can ne’er repay
The debt of love I owe:
Here, Lord, I give myself away,
’Tis all that I can do.
[21] Added as shown at the end of the text