Pitcher and True Repentance
May 22, 2022
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Question: When we come before God and truly repent, does he forgive us and restore sweet fellowship?
VIDEO The pitcher plants have sweet/paralyzing nectar to lure insects to the opening. The pitcher plant’s opening is slippery and heavily baited with nectar. When insects try to get this nectar they slip and fall into acids and enzymes below, which dissolve the insect. The pitchers then reabsorb the nutrient-rich fluid.
For people, sin, and especially letting anything get in the way of serving God is like a Pitcher Plant. It looks and smells so good we just have to taste it. But when we start out thinking we can maneuver the edge and stay out of trouble we end up slipping up and slipping into the death that awaits below as we become slaves of that which we thought would bring us pleasure.
Israel has become so good at this. If you remember, when we last left Judges, God had just punished Abibelech the man who killed Gideon’s sons, and also the people who supported him. Judges 10:1-18
We see in the beginning that there were two Judges that ruled in Israel. They may have been more like administrators, judging judicial matters, though military exploits are a possibility as well though we don’t know who their oppressors were. (Vs1Tola rose to save Israel)
Tola and Jair are known as minor judges. Because hardly anything is known about them or their exploits. Evidently, they weren’t all that great, or we probably would have heard; and they weren’t absolutely terrible, or God probably would have told us about that as well.
After those two Judges died, the Israelites again turned their backs on God. They didn’t just forget about God, they plunged wholeheartedly into following other gods.
The gods Israel served have now expanded from the Baals and Ashtoreths of the Canaanites. Now they are worshipping Chemosh – the main god of Moab, Milcom of the Ammonites, and Dagon, god of the Philistines.
Verse 6 lists 7 different gods they served. They once again had conformed to the world around them. Fully absorbed by the culture around them
Proverbs 26:11 As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly. Einstein’s definition of insanity
God in His righteous judgment sent two nations to punish them. The Philistines attacked them from the west, and the Ammonites attacked them from the east. After 18 years, the Ammonites even crossed the Jordan River and attacked the heartland. Vs8 “shattered and crushed them” Vs9 Israel was in great distress. The people were in misery.
They had walked the edge of the pitcher plant and fell in head first. Notice, the people’s responses:
Vs10 Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord, “We have sinned against you, forsaking our God and serving the Baals.”
Sounds good right..we have seen and heard this before in Judges. 3:9 Othniel-3:15 Ehud 4:3 Deborah-6:6 Gideon
What’s different here? God’s response: Vs11-14 The Lord replied, “When the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, 12 the Sidonians, the Amalekites, and the Maonites oppressed you and you cried to me for help, did I not save you from their hands? 13 But you have forsaken me and served other gods, so I will no longer save you. 14 Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble!”
So what’s different? What’s going on here? We have determined that when we come before God with a genuine heart of repentance, He will absolutely forgive us.
1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” What’s Up?
Psalms 21:2 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.
Proverbs 27:19 As in water face reflects face, So a man’s heart reveals the man.
1 Samuel 16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
Psalms 44:20-21 If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, 21 would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart?
God sees the heart and clearly what He sees here in the heart of these Israelites is not a true repentance. If it’s not repentance, what is it?
- Regret or Remorse. Regret touches the emotions, but it goes no deeper than that. Regret is remorse over the consequences of an act, but that is not true repentance.
- Remorse/Regret is the adulterer who repents when leaving their lover with the relationship still intact.
- Remorse/Regret is the angry person who repents and does nothing to put themselves in a position to change..Takes no steps
- Remorse/Regret is the anxious, fearful, worried person who repents of their anxiety-fear and worry…And then are anxious, afraid, and worried they won’t be able to do it.
- Remorse/Regret is the addict who repents and still has pills/dope in their pocket.
- Remorse/Regret is the drunkard that repents with a fridge full of beer
- Remorse/Regret is the sexually immoral person who repents and has no intention of changing their lifestyle.
God’s response to Regret/Remorse – VS13-14 But you have forsaken me and served other gods, so I will no longer save you. 14 Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble!”
I won’t deliver you without true repentance. Repent=turn away from
What does true repentance look like?? –VS15-16 But the Israelites said to the Lord, “We have sinned. Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now.” 16 Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them and served the Lord. And he could bear Israel’s misery no longer.
- Confession, We have sinned.
- Submission, Do with us whatever you think best.
- Deliverance, Please rescue us now
- Destruction – they got rid of their foreign gods among them.
- Construction – and served the Lord. They lived constructive lives. They once again drew close to God. No longer just lip service. They were serving and obeying God.
Vs16 “And He could bear Israel’s misery no longer.”
Our God is a merciful God, but He is also a JUST and HOLY God. We cannot serve sin and serve God.
God allows us the position of absolute misery, so we get so fed up by the pitcher plant of sin and serving other gods that we hopefully repent and return. He is like the father of the Prodigal son in Luke 15:20 “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
Vs17-18 When the Ammonites were called to arms and camped in Gilead, the Israelites assembled and camped at Mizpah. 18 The leaders of the people of Gilead said to each other, “Whoever will take the lead in attacking the Ammonites will be head over all who live in Gilead.”
The enemy in this case is not going to just fall down and die just because Israel repented. So too with us. The hold of bad habits/idols can be strong and so sometimes it takes strong measures to break that hold: Godly counsel, a study in the Word, prayer, fasting, accountability with other believers, removing yourself from people or situations that are pulling you away from God.
Pastor, I have cried out to God, I have asked for forgiveness and deliverance and God hasn’t moved in my life or delivered me…What’s the problem?
Your desire to be free has not yet surpassed your desire for sin.
When the desire to be free from what has mastered us, when our desire to be delivered from the Pitcher plant becomes greater than the desire to be in it, God will move in a mighty way. In fact, He has already delivered you from it, You just have yet to walk away from it.
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