The Repentance Which Glorifies God

“And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which has power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.”

What forces God has at his disposal, since all angels serve him! These bring forth the vials of his wrath.

What power these beings have over nature; for on the sun the angel empties his bowl, and men are scorched with fire!

No men are beyond the power of the judgments of God. He can reach them by any medium. He can make ill effects flow from our best blessings: in this case burning heat poured from the sun.

The judgments of God do not of themselves produce true repentance; for these men “repented not to give him glory.”

I. THEY MAY PRODUCE A REPENTANCE.

1. A carnal repentance caused by fear of punishment. Cain.

2. A transient repentance which subsides with the judgment. Pharaoh.

3. A superficial repentance which retains the sin. Herod.

4. A despairing repentance which ends in death. Judas.

   • There is nothing about any of these which gives glory to God.

II. THEY DO NOT PRODUCE THE REPENTANCE WHICH GIVES GOD GLORY.

True repentance glorifies God—

1. By acknowledging his omniscience, and the wisdom of his warnings, when we confess the fact and folly of sin.

2. By admitting the righteousness of his law, and the evil of sin.

3. By confessing the justice of the Lord’s threatenings, and bowing before his throne in reverent submission.

4. By owning that it lies with the sovereign mercy of God further to punish us, or graciously to forgive us.

5. By accepting the grace of God as presented in the Lord Jesus.

6. By seeking sanctification so as to live in holy gratitude, in accordance with favor received.

   • In the case before us in the chapter, the men under the plague went from bad to worse, from impenitence to blasphemy; but where there is godly sorrow sin is forsaken.

III. THEY INVOLVE MEN IN GREATER SIN WHEN THEY DO NOT SOFTEN.

1. Their sin becomes more a sin of knowledge.

2. Their sin becomes more a sin of defiance.

3. Their sin becomes a sin of falsehood before God. Vows broken, resolutions forgotten: all this is lying unto the Holy Spirit.

4. Their sin becomes a sin of hate towards God. They even sacrifice themselves to spite their God.

5. Their sin becomes more and more deliberate, costly, and stubborn.

6. Their sin is thus proven to be ingrained in their nature.

IV. THEY ARE TO BE LOOKED UPON WITH DISCRETION.

Hasty generalization will lead us into great errors in reference to divine judgments.

1. Used by the grace of God, they tend to arouse, impress, subdue, humble, and lead to repentance.

2. They may not be regarded as of themselves beneficial.

   • Satan is not bettered by his misery.
   • The lost in Hell grow more obdurate through their pains.
   • Many wicked men are the worse for their poverty.
   • Many sick are not really penitent, but are hypocritical.

3. When we are not under judgment and terror, we should repent.

   • Because of God’s long-suffering and goodness.
   • Because we are not now distracted by pain.
   • Because now we can think of the sin apart from the judgment, and are more likely to be honest in repentance.
   • Because we shall find it sweeter and nobler to be drawn than to be like “dumb driven cattle.”
   • Be it our one aim “to give HIM glory.”
   • Begin with this object in repentance, continue in it by faith, rise-nearer to it in hope, abide in it by zeal and love.

From Great Authors

Trees may blossom fairly in the spring, on which no fruit is to be found in the harvest; and some have sharp soul exercises which are nothing but foretastes of hell.—Boston.

Richard Sibbes says, “We see, by many that have recovered again, that have promised great matters in their sickness, that it is hypocritical repentance, for they have been worse after than they were before.” Dr. Grosart adds, by way of illustration, the testimony of a prison chaplain, to the effect that of “reprieved” criminals who, in the shadow of the gallows, had manifested every token of apparent penitence and heart-change, the number whose subsequent career gave evidence of reality is as 1 to 500, perhaps as awful a fact as recent criminal statistics reveal.

I believe it will be found that the repentance of most men is not so much sorrow for sin as sin, or real hatred of it, as sullen sorrow that they are not allowed to sin.—Adam’s Private Thoughts.

There is no repentance in Hell. They are scorched with heat, and blaspheme God’s name, but repent not to give him glory. They curse him for their pains and sores, but repent not of their deeds. True repentance arises from faith and hope; but there can be no faith of releasement where is certain knowledge of eternal punishment: knowledge and sense exclude faith. There can be no hope of termination where be chains of desperation. There shall be a desperate sorrow for pain, no penitent sorrow for sin. None are now saved but by the blood of the Lamb; but when the world is ended, that fountain is dried up. The worm of conscience shall gnaw them with this remorse, bringing to their minds the cause of their present calamities: how often they have been invited to Heaven, how easily they might have escaped Hell. They shall weep for the loss of the one and gain of the other, not for the cause of either, which were repentance.… They suffer, and they blaspheme.—Thomas Adams.

How awful to read, “men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail”! How true it is that affliction makes good men better, and bad men worse! Wrath converts no man. It is grace that saves. The chastisement that does not soften hardens. Judgments lead men to blaspheme; and the greater the plague, the more they blaspheme. What a solemn, but truthful, representation of the consequence of oft-neglected warnings! See the employment of man in the future state—in Heaven, to praise; in Hell, to blaspheme.—George Rogers.