From the cross, Jesus prayed for those who crucified Him, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). How could God’s old covenant people be forgiven for rejecting His promised Messiah and for putting Christ to death? In this sermon, R.C. Sproul considers the words that the Apostle Peter declared to the Israelites, stressing the critical need for repentance and the grace of God in forgiving sinners who trust in Christ alone for their salvation.

“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 His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. 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 restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. For Moses truly said to the fathers, ‘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. And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days. You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.”

An Ignorant Crowd

The occasion for Peter’s second sermon, recorded for us in Acts 3, was the healing of the man born unable to stand or walk. Peter and John encountered him by the Gate Beautiful as he was begging for alms. Peter said: “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk” (Acts 3:6).

To the astonishment of all those who were assembled in that portion of the temple, the man stood, walked, and began to leap and praise God. The crowd gathered around and marveled, and Peter used that occasion to preach this sermon.

Two weeks ago, we saw that the content of Peter’s sermon was a scorching denunciation of the people gathered on this occasion. Peter pointed a finger in their faces and said: “You are the very people who betrayed Christ, who delivered Him, who cried out for His blood, and who are guilty of His murder. It’s by the power of the same Jesus you murdered that this man was made whole. It wasn’t by my power or John’s power; it was by the power of His name.” This was not the most politically correct, winsome, or persuasive sermon ever preached.

But in the middle of his scathing denunciation of the people there, Peter mellowed for a moment. Listen to what he said: “Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance”—in other words, “I know that you murdered the Son of God, but I also know that you didn’t know what you were doing.”

Peter’s words immediately bring to mind the prayer of our Lord in the very midst of His execution, when He prayed to the Father from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34). Elsewhere the Scriptures say, “Had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:8). Peter said: “I understand that you didn’t know what you were doing.”

Vincible Ignorance

Let’s talk about the idea 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 may be conquered or overpowered. That which is invincible cannot be defeated or overpowered.

They make this distinction in moral theology for this reason: if I do something out of ignorance, where I had no knowledge and no way of knowing what was right or wrong, that would be invincible ignorance and would excuse me. On the other hand, if I do 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—if I was slothful, negligent, and ignored that knowledge—at the end of the day, I cannot say: “I am sorry, I didn’t know. I had no way of knowing.”

Let me give you my favorite illustration of this principle. Let’s say I take my car to Georgia, and I drive into the city of Atlanta. The light turns red, and I keep on going right through the red light. Then I see another red light on a car approaching me from behind, and the policeman pulls me over and says, “Hello, my name is Oscar, and I’ll be your arresting officer this afternoon.”

Officer Oscar arrests me, and I ask, “Why did you pull me over?” The policeman answers, “You went through a red light back there.” I respond: “Yes, what’s wrong with that?” He answers: “It’s against the law to go through red lights. You have to stop at a red light.” I say to the officer: “I’m not from Georgia, so how would I know that? I didn’t know that you had to stop for a red light.” He asks, “Where do you live?” I answer, “I live in Florida.” The officer looks at me and says, “Don’t you have to stop at a red light in Florida?” And I answer: “Yes, but this isn’t Florida; this is Georgia. How do you expect me to know what your local traffic laws are here? I don’t live here.”

How much of an excuse do you think that will be when I go before the magistrate? He is going to say, “Look, if you presume to drive your car in the state of Georgia, you are responsible to know what the driving code is because it’s published, readily available, and basically not any different from what it is in Florida.” I could claim ignorance in a case like that, but it would be vincible ignorance that would not excuse me for a moment.

Invincible Ignorance

Now, suppose the city planners of Orlando are having a shortfall in their budget, and they come up with a scheme to add a large amount of revenue to the city treasury in a hurry. They meet tonight at eleven o’clock, and they decide among themselves that, beginning tomorrow morning at six o’clock, it will be against the law to go on green. The law will say that drivers must stop on green and go on red, and it will be one-hundred-dollar fine for everybody caught going through a green light. Even more, they will have traffic policemen at every intersection in Orlando to arrest everyone who goes through a green light. But here is the catch: they are not going to tell anybody. It will be their little secret until it goes into effect.

So, tomorrow morning, at six o’clock, you drive downtown, come to a green light, keep going, and suddenly you are pulled over and charged one hundred dollars for going through a green light. You are taken to the magistrate, and the magistrate says you are guilty because the law says you must stop at a green light. You had no idea about the secret law and no possible way of knowing anything about it. That is what the church called invincible ignorance. There is no way you could have known; therefore, your ignorance would excuse you.

I am laboring this point for a reason. There are countless millions of people in the world and in the United States 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 God possibly hold me accountable for not being a disciple of Christ when I didn’t know anything about Him?” Do you think that will work at the judgment seat of God? No. That is vincible ignorance that does not excuse.

The ignorance of those who stood at the bottom of the cross and cried for the blood of Christ was not invincible; it was vincible. Despite that it was vincible, our Lord said, “Forgive them.” Even though the ignorance Peter acknowledged of those who had cried out for the blood of Christ was vincible, he still saw that they had a chance to be forgiven, but the only chance they had was if they repented.

The Unforgivable Sin

There is a progression in redemptive history that unfolds for us in Scripture. Do you remember when Jesus warned His contemporaries about their possibly committing the unforgivable sin? I am asked that question regularly: “What’s the unforgivable sin? Have I done it? Is it possible that I will do it? If I have committed that sin, do I have no hope? Am I finished forever?”

There is an unforgivable sin, and our Lord warned His contemporaries about it. What was the occasion? Not only did the people not recognize Him as the Messiah, which they should have if they had been diligent students of the Word of God, but they accused Jesus of being in league with the devil.

Jesus put up with numerous insults and hostility from His contemporaries, but at this point He drew a line and said: “Stop. Hold it right there. You need to be very careful because you have already come perilously close to committing that sin for which there is no forgiveness. You may sin against the Son of Man and be forgiven in this world and in the world to come, but if you sin against the Holy Ghost, if you blaspheme Him, there will be no forgiveness for you in this world or in the world to come.”

That is serious business. Have you ever wondered about why Jesus would say that if you sinned against Him, it is forgivable, but if you sin against the Holy Ghost, it is not forgivable? Is there something more egregious about sinning against the third person of the Trinity than there is against the second or first person of the Trinity?

Everybody, at some point in life, has blasphemed God. Have you ever taken the Lord’s name in vain? Blasphemy is something you do with your mouth, and it is a verbal disrespect and dishonoring of almighty God, whose name is protected in the Decalogue and for whom the first petition our of Lord in the Lord’s Prayer is, “Hallowed be Thy name.”

If we have ever used the name of Christ or the Father as a curse word or flippantly, then maybe it is too late for us, because it is certainly blasphemy. It is likely that all of us have done it, and we are all guilty. But fortunately, Jesus made this distinction: “You can sin against Me and receive forgiveness, but if you blaspheme the Holy Spirit, you can’t.”

Later in the New Testament, particularly in the book of Hebrews, the distinction between sinning against the Son and the Spirit evaporates. The reason is that when Jesus was killed, the people blaspheming Him did not know what they were doing. That was on Friday, but on Sunday, by the power of the Holy Ghost, God raised Him from the dead. The point is that once the Holy Ghost convicts you of the truth of the identity of Jesus, if then you call Him a devil, that sin is not forgiven.

I do not believe it is possible, because of the mercy of God, for any Christian ever to commit that sin. But even in this text, the crowd had come perilously close to it. Peter took them through the Scriptures of the Old Testament. He said to the Jews: “You are Jewish people. You’re the children of Abraham. You’re the descendants of Moses. You’re the children of the covenant. You remember when Moses predicted that a prophet would come like himself. Well, He came, and you killed Him. But I know you didn’t know what you were doing.”

I hear people blaspheme God every day, and I think: “If they only knew. If they had any idea of how offensive this is to God, they would rather die than talk like this.” They do not know it. Should they know it? Yes, they should know it, but there is hope if they do not know it.

Forgiveness Requires Repentance

Notice what Peter does not say. Our culture would look at what Peter said and respond: “Those people didn’t know, God bless those dear souls. They didn’t know what they were doing, but isn’t it nice that God loves them anyway?” That is the way we preach today. It is not how Peter preached. He said: “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. Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.”

I love that metaphor, “Your sins may be blotted out.” Are you not glad that pencils come with erasers? I have a hobby every morning. I do two crossword puzzles, and I have a problem with pride related to crossword puzzles—I refuse to use anything but a pen. You ought to see the mess I make out of the morning paper with my pen because I do not have anything to erase my errors.

Can you imagine God erasing every sin that you ever committed? That is why we are here. That is the only reason we are here—we have found the place of forgiveness. We have found the One who will remove our sins, blot out our transgressions, and erase the writing on the wall against each one of us. But the only way those sins are ever erased is if we humble ourselves, acknowledge our sins, turn from our sins, repent of our sins, and come before God with a broken and contrite heart.

God’s forgiveness is not automatic. Some people teach about grace today as if it were the cheapest thing the church has ever encountered. The idea is that God 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 is why Peter said, “I know you didn’t know, but you should have known, because what has happened here was taught ages ago, by the prophets and has been fulfilled by the gospel.”

Honesty with God

I went on an evangelism call in Cincinnati many years ago when I was using the Evangelism Explosion program. Two of my elders were with me, and we went to an apartment. All I can tell you was it was a hippie pad with black strobe lights. One woman, who was dressed up, was leaving. She excused herself, but the other woman was home, and she had visited the church for a musical event.

The woman who had visited the church invited us in, and one of my elders began to tell her the gospel, and she stopped him mid-sentence. She said: “Hold it. My uncle’s a Baptist minister. I’ve heard that a thousand times. So please, don’t waste my time or yours.” I interrupted and said: “Excuse me. You’ve heard this a thousand times. I don’t deny that you have. But could it possibly hurt you to hear it one more time?” She said, “Well, okay.” So, I picked it up where my elder had left off and finished the presentation of the gospel. I did not ask her to make a response. I did not do anything. I just thanked her for letting me finish and being polite enough to let us into her house. We left, and we didn’t hear a thing about her for six months.

Six months later, she showed up in the new member class at the church and was asked, “What led you to want to join our church?” She told the story of three people she did not know coming to her door one night, and she repeated what she said, “I’ve heard that a thousand times.” But she said that I told her I wanted her to hear it just one more time. She said that we did not push or impose ourselves: “One of them said what he wanted to say, and they left.”

She said: “As soon as those men walked out of my door, I went to my bedroom and fell apart. My face was in the pillow. I flooded the room with my tears because for the first time, I really understood it, and my sins were forgiven.” You see, she knew the gospel, but she did not know it. She had heard it a thousand times, but she never had ears to hear. She had never been brought to repentance. She had never experienced the erasing of her sin.

I lie awake at night worrying about people in our own congregation who are here faithfully, go to the Bible studies, sing the songs, and hear the messages, but the gospel has never landed in their souls. There is a price for forgiveness, and it is that we must be honest with God. We must lay ourselves bare before God and say, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” Then comes the promise of forgiveness.

Listen to the Son

When Peter quoted Moses, he said: “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 anything to mind? Moses said, “There’s going to come a day when God is going to send you another prophet just like me, another mediator, and you must listen to Him. Hear Him.”

Does that not take your mind right back to the Mount of Transfiguration, when Moses appeared with Jesus and Elijah? At that time, the glory of Christ began to shine through the veil of His humanity, and the disciples fell on their faces before them, greatly afraid. The glory cloud surrounded them, and they heard a voice from heaven saying: “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!” (Mark 9:7; Luke 9:35). That was what Peter was saying in his second sermon in Acts 3: “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.”

Next week, God willing, we will see their response. Every time the gospel is preached, the response is divided. A mass of people fled to the gospel, embraced Christ, and had their sins forgiven, while the rulers arrested Peter and John. We will look at that next week. Let us pray.

Our Father and our God, we cannot claim ignorance. We have heard Your Word. We know the Christ. We have not been diligent in learning all we could and should know about Him or about You, and there are many things for which we are ignorant. But Father, we ask that You have mercy upon us, that You would erase our sins forever, and that You would grant to us an ability to listen to Christ. For we ask it in His name. Amen.

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.