Half-Hearted Repentance
Exodus 9:13-35
- We’re continuing our study through the book of Exodus.
- As we make our way through this book, we’re asking the question, “What can I learn from this passage about honoring God?”
- Last time, we looked at the plague of boils.
- We compared it with the pollution of sin and we saw that sin is dirty, sin quickly spreads, and sin hides from God.
- This week, we’re going to look at the seventh plague, the plague of hail, and we’re going to discuss half-hearted repentance.
- One of the things I learned long ago is that sometimes, saying sorry is not enough.
- For example, my wife Sherri does a lot around the house for my family.
- She’s like Superwoman, always working, always keeping the house spotless…
- Well sometimes, she’ll ask for my help.
- I’m definitely not as good at housekeeping as her, but every now and then I do try.
- One day, she asked me to help her out by cleaning the laundry room.
- Well I didn’t want to, so I went and did something else.
- Later, I felt bad, so I told her I was sorry.
- She accepted my apology, but I could tell she was still hurt.
- At that point, I could have just gone back to what I was doing, but the laundry room still hadn’t been cleaned out.
- I still didn’t want to do it, but I realized that my apology was with words, but that wasn’t enough.
- In order to show her I was truly sorry, I had to actually go and clean the laundry room.
- And it couldn’t just be done my way…I needed to do it the way she wanted.
- That was a true apology because I actually did what she wanted me to do.
- I could have said sorry all day but saying sorry would not have gotten the laundry room clean.
- It’s the same way with repentance…
- You can say you’re sorry to God all you want with your words, but until you actually make a change through your actions, they’re just empty words.
- That’s what we see happen with Pharaoh here in Exodus 9.
- The plague of hail is very devastating, and it causes Pharaoh to half-heartedly repent…
- But that wasn’t enough!
- So let’s look at his half-hearted repentance this morning, and see what we can learn from it as Christians.
I. There is a warning- Vs 13-19
- During the Revolutionary War, a loyalist spy appeared at the headquarters of Hessian commander Colonel Johann Rall, carrying an urgent message.
- General George Washington and his Continental army had secretly crossed the Delaware River that morning and were advancing on Trenton, New Jersey where the Hessians were encamped.
- The spy was denied an audience with the commander and instead wrote his message on a piece of paper.
- A porter took the note to the Hessian colonel, but because Rall was involved in a poker game he stuffed the unread note into his pocket.
- When the guards at the Hessian camp began firing their muskets in a futile attempt to stop Washington's army, Rall was still playing cards.
- Without time to organize, the Hessian army was captured.
- The battle occurred the day after Christmas, 1776, giving the colonists their first major victory of the war.
- Obviously, since the Colonel had not taken the time to hear or heed the warning, the consequences for him and his troops were devastating.
- Here in Exodus, before He sends the seventh plague, we see God once again sending Pharaoh and his subjects a warning, but as we’ll see, Pharaoh didn’t heed the warning, so there were devastating consequences.
- Now obviously, the six plagues that God has sent so far have been pretty bad, and Pharaoh and his subjects have felt the brunt of them.
- However, with this warning, in vs 14, God says, “I will send all My plagues to your very heart…”, and then in vs 15, “I will stretch out my hand, to smite you and your people, and you will be cut off from the earth…”
- So basically, God was saying “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet! You think the first six plagues were bad? I’m about to send four more, and you’re going to feel the full force of them!”
- At this point, Pharaoh should have learned his lesson and taken God seriously…
- So far, every plague God said He’d send has been sent…
- However, he had hardened his own heart because he was a stubborn rebel against God, and he refused to give up.
- I think this shows us that he had a problem with pride.
- He wanted to have the power and be in control, and he refused to let God have it.
- But look at what God says in vs 16…
- “For this purpose, I have raised you up, that I may show my power in you, and My name will be declared in all the earth…”
- The only reason Pharaoh was on the throne was because God raised him up to it.
- You see, Pharaoh thought he was all powerful, and that he was a god, and he deserved the throne, and was there by his own might.
- God says, “No, Pharaoh, I raised you up, and I did it so that right now, as you refuse to let my people go, I can show you, and my people, and the entire world that I am God alone and I Am All Powerful…none can stand against Me!”
- I think that would have been warning enough, but look at what God says next….
- In vs 18, we once again see the mercy of the Lord displayed as He tells Pharaoh exactly what’s going to happen…He’s going to send very heavy hail…
- I think that was really generous of the Lord to tell Pharaoh what was coming, but notice God take it a step further in vs 19…
- “Therefore, send now and gather your livestock and all that you have in the field, or else the hail will kill them…”
- So not only did God tell Pharaoh, “I’m sending hail” but He also told him, “If I were you, I’d get my livestock to shelter!”
- The mercy and grace of God is such a wonderful, beautiful, amazing thing.
- Pharaoh didn’t deserve a warning.
- He didn’t deserve to be told exactly what was coming.
- He didn’t deserve to be told exactly what he should do if he wanted to save his livestock.
- Pharaoh deserved judgment, and that’s it!
- But God in His great mercy showed underserving Pharaoh and the Egyptians how longsuffering He is, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance!
- What about the world today?
- Has God sent warnings to the world?
- The answer is yes, and we needn’t look any further than the Bible.
- The book of Revelation is a prophesy of the 7-year Tribulation Period that is coming to the world sometime in the future.
- It gives some pretty scary visuals of things that will be happening to the earth as God pours out His wrath on the Antichrist and unbelieving mankind.
- I don’t have time to get into prophesy this morning, but I’ll tell you this…none of us want to be here for it!
- Thankfully, believers will be raptured before the Tribulation Period, but can you imagine your mother or father, your son or daughter, your cousin, your close friends, or anyone else close to you being left behind to experience God’s wrath?
- Of course not, and that’s why God has given us the message of hope, that men and women can be saved through Christ alone, through the free gift of salvation offered to all people!
- While God gives us breath, we need to be telling people about Christ and warning them of the consequences if they reject Christ.
- They must repent, not half-heartedly, but with a truly broken heart.
- We’re told in Isaiah 45:23, Philippians 2:10-11, and Romans 14:11 that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord!
- Those of us who belong to Christ will be doing so with joy in our hearts as we give our Great God the praise, honor, and glory He deserves!
- However, those who have rejected Christ will be doing so with the realization that they are going to spend eternity in the lake of fire where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth!
- They will realize that they should have responded to Christ and given their lives to Him, but it will be too late for them.
- We don’t want anyone to go there, and Christ died on the cross so that we don’t have to go there…
- So while there’s still time, you and I as Christians need to be warning people, and pointing them to Christ!
II. There is a reaction- Vs 20-28
- When I was in Iraq, one of the common attacks the enemy used was to fire mortars at our bases.
- You never knew when it could happen, so you were supposed to be prepared at all times.
- Eventually, the military installed some kind of radar devices so that troops could be warned in advance of the mortar hitting.
- Scattered all over the bases, there were huge concrete bunkers to protect troops from the blasts and shrapnel.
- So when they fired mortars at us, we’d hear a loud alarm go off, and the loudspeaker would shout, “Incoming, incoming, incoming!”
- As soon as we hear the alarm going off, we were supposed to immediately take cover in the nearest bunker we could find.
- Well I remember when we first got to Iraq and heard the warnings, we’d zoom over to the bunkers as fast as we could.
- However, as time went along, people began to be complacent.
- Instead of running to the nearest bunker, some troops would just keep walking, figuring that there were a hundred other places the mortar could hit besides right in front of them.
- Obviously, the correct reaction was the safest response, which was to take cover.
- Those who didn’t were risking their lives.
- Here in Exodus, after God warned Pharaoh and his subjects, they could respond in one of two ways…
- Either they could heed God’s warning and put their livestock and servants under shelter, or they could ignore His warning and leave their livestock and servants out in the field during the hailstorm.
- In vs 20 and 21, we see some of the Egyptians reacted wisely to God’s warning, while others foolishly ignored it.
- Those who heeded the warning “feared the word of the Lord…” and took the necessary steps to protect their livestock and servants.
- I believe that’s because they had already experienced six other plagues, each happening exactly as God said…
- If He sent the first six, there was nothing stopping Him from sending the seventh one too.
- Those who foolishly ignored God’s warning reacted unwisely, and they experienced the full force of this plague.
- Notice the description given of this hail…
- Vs 22-25 says, “The thunder and hail and fire will rain down on man, beast, and herbs, and it will be very grievous, such as has not happened in Egypt before.”
- This was no small hailstorm…these balls of hail falling from the sky were huge, and there were a lot of them.
- Not only that, but it says fire ran upon the ground…
- Because this was such a huge thunderstorm, there must have been lots of lightning.
- When lightning hits a spot, it sends sparks flying because it’s electrical, and if it hits in a dry place, it can cause a fire.
- In Egypt, it didn’t rain very often, it was a very dry place.
- The lightning from this storm was so powerful and there was so much of it that it was starting fires, and the fires were spreading.
- Obviously, nobody could go and try to put the fires out or try to help the servants and livestock or crops because these giant hailstones were falling everywhere.
- The Egyptians that ignored God’s warning could now see they were wrong, but it was too late.
- That reminds me of when Noah preached to the people while building the ark.
- He warned them of the coming worldwide flood, yet nobody believed him.
- When God sent the rains, it was too late for those people because they refused to listen, so they perished in the flood.
- So why did God send hail and thunderstorms for a plague?
- Once again, He was showing the Egyptians that their gods were useless and fake, and they couldn’t protect them…
- They worshipped Nut the sky goddess, but she couldn’t stop God from sending this storm.
- They worshipped Osiris, the god of crop fertility, but he couldn’t protect the crops from the hail and fire.
- They worshipped Set, the storm god, but he had no power over this storm and he couldn’t stop the storm.
- And of course, Pharaoh, who was supposedly a god, couldn’t do anything to stop this or protect his people, unless he was willing to repent.
- But once again, God protected the Israelites from this storm, showing the Egyptians that Israel truly was His nation and people, and He was their Protector.
- Notice Pharaoh’s reaction to this plague…
- “I have sinned this time…”
- Wait a minute…this time?
- Pharaoh had been lying and cheating all along, and had been shaking his fist at God, but he never called it a sin.
- Now all of a sudden, he’s sinned this time, but not the times before?
- No, God can see right through that.
- Pharaoh’s reaction of being sorry and asking for God’s mercy is not genuine.
- Notice that he also tries to point the finger somewhere else…
- “The Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked…”
- He’s so stubborn that he refuses to take the blame all by himself…
- He calls his own people wicked.
- Yes, many of them are following his lead, but he is their leader, so as their leader, he’s been leading the way with his wickedness, and they’re just following along.
- Now he has the nerve to ask Moses to intreat the Lord, and he tries to add a little bit of his own authority when he says, “For it is enough.”
- That right there would be enough for me to recognize that his next words are completely false when he says, “…and I will let you go…”
- Once again, he was trying to throw his authority around.
- “I’ll let you go…”
- No, it wasn’t up to Pharaoh…
- God had already made the decision that it was time for His people to go…it didn’t matter what Pharaoh said…
- No, Pharaoh’s reaction was a half-hearted repentance.
- So how should people be reacting to the Gospel of Jesus Christ today?
- 2 Corinthians 7:10 says, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.”
- So, the correct response to the Gospel is for a person to come to Jesus with a Godly sorrow and a repentant heart…
- Godly sorrow is a realization that you’re a sinner and you deserve hell because of your sin for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
- Godly sorrow believes Romans 3 which says, “There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”
- Godly sorrow sees that the only hope of salvation is through Jesus Christ alone, who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us.
- Godly sorrow leads a person to the feet of Jesus with a fully repentant heart.
- Godly sorrow, godly repentance is sincere and whole-hearted.
- On the other end of the spectrum, worldly sorrow brings death.
- Worldly sorrow is like what Pharaoh had…
- “Seven plagues have happened now, and my people and land are suffering because of it. I guess I’d better say sorry.”
- Worldly sorrow is an insincere, half-hearted repentance.
- It’s like after Judas betrayed Jesus, he felt guilty.
- Instead of trying to make things right and going to Jesus in repentance, he instead threw the money back at the Sanhedrin, then he hung himself.
- He thought his sin was beyond forgiveness.
- King Saul is another example…
- He disobeyed God’s commands several times, but his repentance was only half-hearted…
- He didn’t change, and God rejected him as king.
- A lot of people today will come to Jesus with a half-hearted repentance.
- “Oh, if I turn to Jesus I can have a mansion in Heaven instead of go to hell? I don’t want to go to hell, I’m in!”
- Or, “If I come to Jesus, I can still live a sinful, unchanged life because of grace? I’ll take that because I don’t want to give up my sin!”
- Or some people will only respond out of emotion, feeling pressured, but their heart isn’t fully repentant.
- Those are just a few examples.
- Our reaction to the message of salvation must be genuine and life-changing!
III. There are second thoughts- Vs 29-35
- All of us here today have probably had second thoughts before about something.
- Whether it was a huge life-changing choice we made, or an expensive purchase we made without thinking about the cost, or anything like that…all of us have had second thoughts before.
- Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about my weight and how I need to lose some of it.
- Well, I was looking online, and I read good things about the Slim-Fast diet.
- So I thought, “I should give that a try.”
- My wife tried to warn me that it wasn’t going to be what I thought it was, but I figured I’d try it anyways.
- So off to Wal Mart I went, and I bought $20.00 worth of Slim Fast shakes.
- I thought, “Good, this will take care of my hunger cravings.”
- Well, I drank one, or I tried to drink it, and it was disgusting.
- Normally I like Strawberries and Cream, but this had a gross medicine taste to it, and I couldn’t finish it.
- So after I tried it, I had second thoughts…
- Maybe the Slim Fast diet wasn’t all it was made out to be.
- It was too late though…I had opened the packages and couldn’t return them.
- But I didn’t want to drink them, so I poured them down the drain.
- I started out making a good, healthy choice, but then I had second thoughts, and changed my mind.
- In vs 27 and 28, Pharaoh was making a good decision.
- “Moses, I’ve sinned! Tell God I give up. I’ll let your people go!”
- If he would have done that, then the seventh plague would have been the last one, and he could have focused on rebuilding Egypt.
- However, Moses himself recognized that Pharaoh wasn’t going to keep his word.
- In vs 30, he says, “But as for you and your servants, I know you will not yet fear the Lord God!”
- Once again, God was showing His mercy and grace to Pharaoh and the Egyptians.
- God already knew Pharaoh’s heart, and so did Moses…
- Pharaoh was going to have second thoughts and change his mind again.
- Yet God still stopped the hail.
- Notice too that the text says in vs 32 that the wheat and the spelt were not struck, for they are late crops…”
- So out of 4 important crops, God only destroyed 2 of them with the hail, at least for the time being.
- So, God was showing mercy, and giving Pharaoh and the Egyptians reasons to repent and stop their foolishness.
- Yet we’re told in vs 34 and 35, “When Pharaoh saw the rain, hail, and thunder had stopped, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, and his servants did too. So, he wouldn’t let the children of Israel go.”
- Think about that…in the midst of his trouble, he cried out for God’s help…
- Then, once the problem was gone, he immediately had second thoughts and changed his mind about letting God’s people go.
- Isn’t that how some people treat God today?
- Think about it…a close friend or family member will be in the hospital with a serious illness and the doctors aren’t sure if they’re going to make it or not.
- So, you cry out to God, “Please heal them! I don’t want to lose them! I promise I’ll live for you if you heal them.”
- Then God heals them, but you have second thoughts about living for God, and you decide to give the doctors credit instead of God.
- Or how about coming down with a serious diagnosis, such as cancer, and you cry out to God, “Please don’t let me die! I promise I’ll change and live for you!”
- Then when God heals you, instead of living for Him, you go back to your old ways and you forget about God.
- How about when a person comes to Jesus and makes a decision to follow Him, and seems committed, but then things get really difficult.
- Instead of trusting God to help them through, that person instead has second thoughts, and decides maybe Christianity isn’t for them.
- Those are just a few examples…
- When it comes to our salvation, there is no room for second thoughts.
- We’re told in Ephesians 4:22-24, “…put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
- When a person half-heartedly repents, it will become evident rather quickly when they start to have second thoughts.
- They’ll have second thoughts about going to church…
- “I don’t think I want to go to church today. I’ll go play golf instead.”
- Then, one absent Sunday turns into 2, then 3, then 4, and the more you miss, the easier it gets to stay away.
- How about when people have second thoughts about reading the Bible?
- “It’s too hard to understand” or “I just don’t have the time.”
- That’s our spiritual food, it’s how we grow as Christians, it’s how we hear from God…
- But missing Bible reading one day turns into 2, then 3, then 4 days, then more and more, and before you know it, there’s a thick coat of dust on your Bible.
- Or how about when people have second thoughts about prayer?
- “I just can’t focus when I pray. My mind is somewhere else.” Or “I don’t think God is listening.”
- Well prayer is our direct line of communication with our Lord.
- If you’re not praying, you’ll become more and more vulnerable to attacks by the enemy, and you’ll grow distant from the Lord.
- So, second thoughts are often a sign of half-hearted repentance.
- If that describes you this morning, I encourage you to go to the Lord in prayer and bring that to Him.
- Christians must be fully committed to our Lord, ready to do His will, and obey His Word.
- If you’re watching on the tv, and you’ve never made a decision to follow Jesus, or maybe you made a half-hearted decision at some point in your life, but it’s never been real…I encourage you today, turn to Jesus.
- He loved the world so much that He died on the cross for all of our sin.
- Turn to Him today, receive His salvation and new life, and start living for Him today.
