True Repentance - Step Three

Charles Spurgeon said, "Those who repent in mimicry shall go to hell in reality." Of course, he is referring to the repentance unto salvation. What about false repentance for transgressions in the family of God? Paul has the answer to that question. Hebrews 10:26-27 says, "For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." There will be most certainly a retribution for grievous, willful sin committed by the believer who does not take the holiness and grace of God seriously in this life. I remember a man who came to viciously and verbally attack his pastor. He was warned not to lay his hand against God's anointed. He became angry and threatened the pastor. What was it all about? The pastor had refused to lie on a document that said the man's son and others were attending the church faithfully according to the church's stipulations for playing on the church basketball team when his son only attended two Sunday Schools per month. The father put vilifying words on the pastor's answering machine one night while the man of God was in church preaching the word and the man was at home plotting mischief. Many other ill words were said in church. The outcome: within six months this man in an unrepentant state of godless anger against the servant of the Lord contracted pancreatic cancer, suffered greatly for a year, and died a horrible death. Did the man soften in that year of battling illness? No, for every time the pastor and the chairman of the deacons drove by his house, if he was out in the yard he made a point to give a "thumbs-down" to them with a scowl on his face. And we read two verses later in the Hebrews text, "Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

Moses was standing in the gap, interceding vociferously for the lives of the children of Israel who had slapped God in the face by golden calf worship. The priest in Moses went to God for the people in prayer. The prophet in Moses went to the people for God and commanded them to do four things for repentance. Hear it again:

"And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strowed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it."

The third step of repentance will leave no doubt in the mind of the confessor that without the Forgiver all groanings in the contrition of repentance, be they of such agony, finds no relief. Once the idol has been burned and ground into the powder the third measure of repentance MUST take place. The minute particles of the idol were "strowed" on the water. It might seem so logical that the transgressor could not ingest the dry ingredients without liquid infusion of some kind, yet I have watched many a traveler swallow a dry pill without benefit of water. Let us not miss the significance of this curious instruction from Moses. The powder of their iniquity was strowed upon the surface of the water that it did not sink but floated. You can throw your sin in the greatest of efforts away from you but it still remains on the surface of the water when repentance is construed to be a self-effort alone. The Hebrew word for "strowed" also means "winnowed" as in the chaff of wheat so small and light, thrown to the wind, disappears. In this instance, on water, it is so finely ground that it cannot sink beneath the surface. The sight of its buoyancy does not leave until swallowed. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn forth from Immanuel’s veins. True repentance must leave the lasting impression on the sorrowful and stricken heart of the sinner that no matter how meticulous we may grind our sin in humble contrition it still takes the blood of Jesus Christ to float the sin into the oblivion of God’s forgetfulness.