2 Corinthians 7 – Comforted by a Church’s Repentance

[Music] 2 Corinthians chapter 7. Oh, what a passage of scripture we have before us here this evening. Verse one: "Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God."

Now, we need to come to an understanding of what Paul is talking about when he writes here in chapter 7, verse one, to the Corinthians. By what he has said previously, he's been dealing with this struggle between himself and the Corinthians. They didn't respect him, they didn't honor him as an Apostle. They did not give him the kind of respect that they should have.

Now, in light of all of that, Paul knew that there was a division, a rift, a breaking of the kind of friendship that there should have been between the Apostle and the people in Corinth. But despite all of that, Paul tried to read through and get to the real point of what the issue was. And the point of the issue was that the Corinthians had become worldly. That's why there was no sense of agreement and common mind and common fellowship between Paul and the Corinthian Christians. It's because the Corinthians were worldly.

That's why at the end of chapter 6, Paul gives that beautiful passage where he says, "Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. What fellowship has light with darkness?" He goes on and explains it in those kind of terms. And he says, "You need to separate and come out from the world."

Now, he closes chapter 6 by quoting two Old Testament prophecies, two Old Testament prophets that talk about the responsibility to separate from the world and the blessing to separate from the world. Take a look at 2 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 17. He says, "Therefore," and he's quoting from the Prophet Jeremiah here, "he says, 'Therefore, come out from among them and be separate,' says the Lord. 'Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters,' says the Lord Almighty."

In other words, if you'll just separate from the things of the world, if you just come and set yourself apart to the Lord, He blesses you. And what will He bless you with? Greater relationship, greater intimacy with Him than you've ever enjoyed before. "I will receive you," He says. "I'll be a father to you, and you'll be my sons and daughters."

Now, having these promises, look at verse one. Now, "Therefore, having these promises," the promise of closer intimacy with God, with the one who separates himself from the world, "having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God."

And it gives us two things essentially to do there in verse one, doesn't it? The first thing He says to do is a negative thing: cleanse yourself. When you cleanse yourself, you're taking away things. You're taking away filth. And He says, "cleanse ourselves from all filthiness." Now, I think it's significant that He says, "cleanse ourselves from all filthiness." You know, my friends, there's a cleansing which God alone does in our lives, right? When you came to Jesus Christ as a filthy sinner needing to be cleansed, you say, "Lord, I need to be born again. I want to trust in You." Did you have to clean yourself up before you came to the Lord? No. You come to Him as the filthiest, the rankest, the dirtiest sinner in the world, and He takes you and He just, like the father did the prodigal son, He'll wrap His arms of love around you and embrace you, even though you've been in the pigsty. And He'll come and He'll just love you and He'll cleanse you. "Bring out the best robe, clean up my son. I'm cleaning him up."

But now that we have been made alive to God and walking together with Him, now there are areas in our life where God says, "You know what? We need to cleanse ourselves." Not that we do it independently from God, but we do it in a partnership with God. God takes advantage of our will, our decisions, our desire to be cleansed. There is a cleansing which God wants to do in cooperation with us. And this isn't just something that God does for us as we sit passively. But the cleansing He's talking about here is a self-cleansing for intimacy with God that goes beyond a general cleansing for sin.

Now, again, my friends, there's a main aspect of cleansing which comes to us as we trust in Jesus and His work on our behalf. And this work of cleansing is God's work. It's not our work. This is the sense of 1 John 1:9: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us." Who does the cleansing? He does. Friends, there are other aspects of cleansing which God looks for us to do with a participation of our own will and effort. Again, it's not our work apart from God, but it's a work that awaits our will and effort. He says, "Let us cleanse ourselves."

And this aspect of cleansing is most intimately connected with intimacy with God and usefulness for service. It says, "Let's cleanse ourselves." Cleanse ourselves from what? See that verse one, "from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit." It's okay, all filthiness of the flesh. And I could just start naming them, but you know, rank sins, you know, this flesh, flesh, flesh. Okay, yeah. Cleanse yourself from all filthiness of the flesh. But you see what He said? He doesn't stop there. "Cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit."

Now, we can make an easy list here. Well, look at the drunkard over there. Look at the sexually immoral person over there. Look at this person over there. Yes, yes, filthy, filthy. Paul says, "Yes, there's a filthiness of the flesh." But Paul also says there's a filthiness of the spirit that you need to cleanse yourself from. Do you understand that? Sometimes it's easier to deal with the filthiness of the flesh than it is with the filthiness of the spirit. Think of how it was in Jesus's ministry. I mean, the people who were filthy in the flesh, the tax collectors, the harlots, the common sinners, they came to Jesus gladly and loved Him and submitted to Him and received His cleansing. Who was it that hated Jesus and rebelled against Him and rejected Him? It was those who were filthy in the spirit: the scribes, the Pharisees.

See, my friends, our pride, our legalism, our self-focus, our self-righteousness, our bitterness, and our hatred can all be far worse to deal with than the most obvious sins of the flesh. Charles Spurgeon said, "I wish we were more concerned about cleansing ourselves from the filthiness of the spirit." I agree.

But notice this, it's not only a negative thing here. He says in verse one, "Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit," and then He says the second thing, the positive thing: "perfecting holiness in the fear of God."

Now, when He says "perfecting holiness," please understand, Paul is not writing about some state of sinless perfection. "Perfecting" here, in the original language that Paul wrote in, had the idea of complete and whole. Instead of sinless perfection, Paul is writing about a complete, whole holiness, if you will. Your life is whole before God. And so He says, "Listen, it's not enough just to cleanse yourself from all filthiness. It's not just getting rid of the evil, but it's continually doing good and becoming good in the Lord."

I say, before I move on to verse two, I'm just blown away by one word there again. I see it again. It's like a neon in my Bible. In verse one, "let us cleanse ourselves." You know who's writing this? The Apostle Paul. I'm saying, "Paul, wait a minute. Are you telling me, Paul, that you will include yourself among these Corinthian Christians? I mean, really now, Paul, are you saying that you need to be cleansed just as much as they do?" And Paul would say, "Yes, yes, I do."

You know why that is? Now, let me read you another quote from Charles Spurgeon. "I suppose that the nearer we get to heaven, the more conscious we shall be of our imperfections. The more light we get, the more we discover our own darkness. That which is scarcely counted sin by some men will be a grievous defilement to a tender conscience." It's not that we're greater sinners as we grow older, but that we have a finer sensibility of sin and see that to be sin in which we winked at in the days of our ignorance.

Paul would look at you and say, "You know what? I need to be cleansed." Let's throw out this idea of sinless perfection forever. You know, if some guy were to come up to me and say, "You know, I have lived for the last five or six years and I haven't sinned once in word or in thought or in deed." You know what I think of that guy? I'd say, "Well, dude, you just blew it right now. You just boasted, and that's sin right there." We all need to be cleansed. Friends, we all need this cleansing from the Lord. We all can separate ourselves. And this is a beautiful encouragement. I can look at each and every one of you here, and you may excel far beyond me in areas of holiness. You may be way, way off the charts. But I can still look at you and say, "You need to cleanse yourself and draw closer to God, don't you?" Every one of us.

Do you know what else I think is great about that word "ourselves"? It's because I, I don't know if you mark up your Bible. Don't go scratching that word out and writing in there "themselves." Right? Isn't that what we want to do? You see, we've got to take care that we cleanse ourselves and not concern ourselves with cleansing others. That's what we want to do most of the time, honestly. Aren't we more concerned with the holiness of other people than we are with our own holiness? What's that? Oh, Lord, give us a heart to cleanse ourselves. It's far easier and much, I say, much more entertaining to look at other people's faults and to confess their sins and to work on their areas of holiness and cleansing. Oh, but it doesn't bear fruit to righteousness.

Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Now, in verse two, Paul is going to get very serious about his relationship with the Corinthians. And he says, "Open your hearts to us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have defrauded no one. I do not say this to condemn, for I have said to you before that you are in our hearts to die together and to live together."

See, Paul says, "Listen, I've been honest with you, Corinthians. I've opened my heart wide open to you. Now, open your heart wide open to me." See, Paul's getting at the pinpoint of what the difficulty was between him and the Corinthian Christians. The Corinthian Christians believed a lot of bad things about Paul. They believed that he wasn't really being used by God. They believed he didn't have the kind of image or authority or power that an apostle should have. But their problem was not an information problem. It wasn't that the Corinthians had bad information about Paul. You know what the problem was? The problem was with their hearts. Their hearts had been open to the world, but not to Paul. That's why Paul says, "You're unequally yoked. Break that unequal yoke and open your heart to me." Isn't it funny how we can open our hearts to the things of the world, but close them to God and to the people of God?

Now, it was the time for the Corinthians to open their hearts to him. And Paul says, "You've got good reason to." See verse two again: "We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have defrauded no one." Paul's saying this, "Despite what troublemakers may be saying about me, you've got no good reason for criticizing me. I have defrauded, I have cheated nobody."

And he goes on and he adds in verse three, "that I do not say this to condemn." Paul's desire is not to condemn the Corinthian Christians, but to restore the bonds of fellowship between them again. You know, he really loves the Corinthian Christians. Isn't that amazing? I mean, as we've got to know these Christians in Corinth, could anybody here say that they would be as loving towards them as the Apostle Paul? Not me. Oh, my heavens, if I was pastor of this church here, I would resign a long time ago. Can you believe that the kind of things Paul had to put up with from these people? What carnality, what unbelievable worldliness. A man of lesser love would have checked out a long time ago. But Paul really loved them, you know. And because he really loved them, he boldly confronted them. He won't deny that he really did boldly confront the Corinthian Christians. But he didn't do it to condemn. He did it to, uh, really bring their hearts together.

And that's what he talks about, his great boldness of speech. Look at verse four. He says, "Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort. I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation." Oh, wait, wait. Paul, you know this one. You just want to stop there and, you know, draw the question mark next to it in your Bible. Wait a minute, Paul. What are you getting off on one of your things again here, Paul? Okay. "Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my boasting on your behalf." Paul says, "Yes, I have been bold in my criticism of you, Corinthians. I have been." But he says, "You know what? I've also been bold in my boasting about you." Boasting? What do you have to boast about? You know what? Hang on, folks. Paul is going to explain in the rest of the chapter what he had to boast about the Corinthians. And it's exciting stuff, it really is. I mean, would to God that somebody could boast over our lives, over the things that Paul is going to boast over the Corinthians about. Matter of fact, when he considered what he had to boast over the Corinthian Christians about, look at what he says there in verse four. He says, "I am filled with comfort. I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation."

You know what that is literally in the original language that Paul wrote in? He says, literally, "I super abound in joy." It's like extra super, super duper joy is what he has. That's what he's saying. "I super abound in joy." He's saying, "I have joy beyond expression." That's wild. First of all, it's wild just to consider that anybody can say, "I super abound in joy in all our tribulation." What are you sick? It's talking about tribulation. You're not about going to... "I super abound in joy whenever I can take the kids to Disneyland." He's not talking about that. He's talking about tribulation. Now, for some of you, taking the kids to Disneyland, that is tribulation. But friends, you understand what I'm getting at here. Paul is talking about his tribulation, his conflict. He describes there in verse five, "We came to Macedonia. Our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Outside were conflicts, inside were fears."

He goes, "You know what? In the midst of all of that, I was not a little bit joyful. I was a little bit happy. I was a little bit cheered. I was exceedingly joyful." Some people think that God wants us to endure tribulation with a blank, stoic face. "Go ahead, you know, hit me with the trials. I'm ready for it. There you're going through the trials. I'm loving God. I'm loving Him all the way." You know, it's that stiff upper lip kind of thing, you know, right? Nothing's going to get me down. I'm dead on my course. You know what? That's not what God wants. God wants you to go through your trials with exceeding joy. What? Well, it can happen. You know why? Because if you'll look for it, God will bring you comfort in the midst of your trials. I think a lot of times the reason why we don't have joy in the midst of our trials is because we shut ourselves off from God's comfort. We shut it off. God wants to come in the door and give us comfort, and we lock the door and then we barricade it. Push the dresser door. No, you're not coming in here. Bring me your comfort.

Now, let me explain to you how this happened. Do you know how God brought comfort to Paul in the midst of his trials? Because Titus was sent to Corinth with what 2 Corinthians 2:1 calls a "sorrowful letter." It was a letter that, it was a, this was a heavy letter that Paul sent to the Corinthians. It was a letter full of stinging, full-on, in-your-face rebuke. This we don't have. And it's probably a good thing. The Corinthians probably burned it as soon as it came, because man, this letter was like, man, it was trembling stuff. But you know what? It worked. The Corinthians repented. God did a work in their heart, and they repented before God. And Paul's going to talk about that repentance in this chapter. They did a beautiful work of repentance there. It was glorious. And you know what Titus did? Titus went back to Paul and he said, "Paul, you should have seen how these people fell out when I, I mean, when I told them that, when I read this letter, they were beside themselves." But you know what they did? They repented. And Paul said, "Yes, yes. It doesn't matter what kind of tribulation I have. Doesn't matter what I'm going through. I'm comforted. I'm exceedingly joyful."

Now, here's my point. How did God bring the comfort to Paul? Through a messenger named Titus. A lot of times we shut our hearts to God's comfort because we don't recognize that He might want to bring us His comfort through another person. "Okay, Lord, You want to comfort me. All right, Lord, then I'm just going to go in my room and shut the door and pray, and You comfort me." And friends, sometimes that's how the Lord wants to comfort us, isn't it? Sometimes it is. But sometimes the Lord says, "No, I want to comfort you through another person." "No, Lord, I don't want that, because then they'll know that I need to be comforted, and then they'll think I'm not so spiritual. No, Lord, I'll just go to my room and I'll pray, and You comfort me." Then, Lord, would you realize that you're telling God how to comfort you? I tell you this in all love. God just doesn't want to hear that from you. And you shut the door to God's comfort.

Isn't it funny that sometimes we're in the biggest trials, in the midst of the most comfort from God, that we separate ourselves from God's people the most? God has comfort for you to give you, and it'll be exceeding joy even in the midst of a tremendous trial. Friends, no, no, no. Paul received it. He received it through Titus. And so here he is, he's talking about it. You know, all the trouble we had, "outside were conflicts, inside were fears." Did you read that in verse five? This is Paul's ministry. "We were troubled on every side. Outside were conflicts, inside were fears." On the outside, Paul was constantly in conflict with enemies of the gospel and worldly-minded Christians. On the inside, Paul battled daily with the stress and anxiety of ministry. But he says, "When Titus came," look at verse seven, "when he told us of your earnest desire, your mourning, your zeal for me, I rejoiced even more."

Paul said, "Yes, I, you know, Paul couldn't believe it. The Corinthians repented. I can't believe it." That would put Paul on a spiritual high for weeks, knowing that that's how great God was that He could make even the Corinthians to repent. It's like, unbelievable. This is fantastic. I'm comforted even in the midst of all my trials. Having this good news.

Well, now, in verse eight, he's going to talk more about this letter that he sent by the hand of Titus. He says, "For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it, for I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a little while." You see, again, this is the letter that Paul sent by the hand of Titus. And when Titus came back and told him, Paul says, "You know what? I do not regret it." Though I did regret it. Paul, what are you talking about? Almost sounds like a politician here, right? Out of both sides of his mouth. No, but it makes a lot of sense when we realize the context of what Paul's talking about.

When Paul first wrote this sorrowful letter, carried by Titus, he didn't enjoy the idea of being so confrontational to the Corinthian Christians, even though they deserved it. He goes, "You know, I kind of regret it. I put that letter in Titus's hand, and he left, and you know, um, um, yeah, okay. You know." And he had mixed feelings. But when Titus came back, he didn't regret it at all. He knew that God had used it. Paul was happy for the effect that the letter had. That's why he could write, "I do not regret it." And he says that the same epistle made you sorry, "though only for a little while." No, just for a little while. Yeah, major. So, you know, repentance and the sorrow that it brings, and the pain of conviction of the Holy Spirit, it it hurts, doesn't it?

This is interesting. When we sin, there's a pleasure in sin, isn't there? A lot of sin, there is. There's a pleasure in it. But it's a pleasure that passes quickly. But the sorrow from it remains. Now, when God is working on our heart and conviction, there's a sorrow that comes from that. But the sorrow passes quickly, and then the pleasure abides forever. God knows how to pour that oil of gladness into broken hearts. So Paul says, "Look, I know that I broke your hearts with this letter, but it's what had to happen."

And he goes on and he takes the same idea here. He says, verse nine: "Now I rejoice not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing." Oh, please notice this. He says, "not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance." Friends, Paul is making a very clear separation between two things here: between sorrow and between repentance. Do you understand that? Sorrow and repentance are not the same thing. One can be sorry for their sin without repenting from their sin. Sorrow describes a feeling. Repentance describes a change, both in the heart, in the mind, and in the life. Sorrow alone will accomplish nothing. You know, Peter was sorry he denied Christ, right? And he repented. Judas was sorry that he betrayed Christ, but he never repented. Both of them were sorry, but one repented, one didn't.

Friends, it's a glorious thing, repentance. Really. God wants to work in our hearts. Repentant hearts. You might say, "Well, David, I, I repented a long time ago. I turned over to the Lord a long time ago." You know what? We all need to live in repentant hearts. We need to have daily lives. We need to walk and live in repentance. And He says, "Listen, you had the sorrow, but you also had the repentance." And this is what gave Paul so much, so much trust and confidence and glory in God, that He had worked the work of repentance in the heart of the Corinthian Christians.

Now, what was it that the Corinthian Christians had to repent of? I don't know. Pretty much take your pick. It could have been any number of things. But no doubt, it probably included this also. There were some of an anti-Paul group or sect within the church there at Corinth, and they were criticizing Paul in his absence severely and unfairly. And a lot of the Corinthian Christians were either going along with it or not defending Paul. And this was sin, and they had to repent.

I think there's a line there in verse nine that is very striking to me. Paul writes, and he says, "For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing." Please notice this: "sorry in a godly manner." Paul did make the Corinthian Christians feel bad for their sin, didn't he? I mean, that's what sorrow is all about. The Corinthian Christians were sorry, and they were repentant. They felt bad for their sin, and Paul wanted to make them feel bad for their sin. But friends, Paul did this in a godly way. Look at it: "you were made sorry in a godly manner." You see, Paul did it by using the truth, not lies or exaggeration. He was honest. He didn't use hidden agendas or manipulation. Paul simply told the truth in love.

But let me tell you something, friends. Not every preacher or not every person can say the same as Paul. And it isn't right to make somebody sorry in an ungodly manner. There's some of that going on in pulpits and in interpersonal relationships, and it's not right. And you know why it isn't right? Paul tells you why in verse nine: "For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing." In other words, if Paul would have used an ungodly manner to produce sorrow in the Corinthians, then there would have been a loss in the personal relationship between him and the Corinthians. You see, you may succeed in making somebody feel bad by using lies or exaggeration or manipulation or anything you want to use that's not of God. You may succeed. They may feel terrible. But the relationship that you have with that person will suffer loss. So, you know what? You'll win the battle, "I made them feel sorry." You're going to lose the war because you're going to suffer loss in your relationship with that person. That's why Paul wanted to protect his relationship with the Corinthian Christians, and he said, "I am only going to make you sorry in a godly manner."

So he goes on and he says that in verse 10: "For godly sorrow produces repentance unto salvation, not to be regretted. But the sorrow of the world produces death." Friends, think about that line just for a moment. "Godly sorrow produces repentance unto salvation." Now, does this mean that we are saved by our repentance? No, my friends. Please don't misread Paul here. Nobody should think for a moment that we are saved by our repentance. Repentance is not the ground of our salvation. It's part of the package that we receive from God in our salvation, but it is not the ground of our salvation. You know, we sang it tonight, didn't we? "Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no longer cease? For my sin could not atone; Thou must save and Thou alone." Friends, it's not your repentance that saves you. It's the Lord Jesus Christ that saves you.

And so, repentance must never be thought of as something that you have to do before you can come to God. No, repentance describes what coming to God is. You can't turn towards God without turning against the things that He is against. Let me put it to you this way. Let's say you're in Los Angeles and you need to go to New York. And so I come to New York. Do I have to say, "Leave Los Angeles and come to New York"? No, because it's comprehended in it. Friends, you can't turn to the Lord without turning away from the things that are against the Lord. Repentance simply describes what coming to the Lord is like.

So, friends, we need to understand that repentance in and of itself does not save us, but it accompanies salvation. Oh, we need to have a work of repentance in our life. It's, um, frightening sometimes when people come to Jesus, so to speak, with no sense of repentance. Come to Jesus, and they come to Jesus, and they're there, "Jesus," but no sense of repentance, no sense of sin. It's just like they'll add Jesus in their life just like they'll add a new electronic gadget or soda pop to life. "Yeah, He's going to improve my life. I'll add it." But there's no sense of, "I'm a sinner. I need to turn from my sin. I need to repent for my sin."

And I was reading a sermon by Charles Spurgeon, and he thought it was bad in his day. Says, "People seem to jump into faith very quickly nowadays. I do not disapprove of that happy leap, but still, I hope my old friend repentance is not dead. I am desperately in love with repentance. It seems to me to be the twin sister to faith." That's what Spurgeon said. Friends, are you desperately in love with repentance? Do you love to turn away from the things that God is against?

Now, God will use godly sorrow in your life to produce repentance. That's what He says there in verse 10: "For godly sorrow produces repentance unto salvation." Sorrow in itself doesn't produce anything except bad feelings. But godly sorrow produces repentance. Now, since repentance is a change in both thinking and actions, we can tell if sorrow is really godly by seeing what it produces. If sorrow produces repentance, then it's godly. Can I tell you this? Godly sorrow cannot be measured by tears or feelings. Godly sorrow is measured by what it produces. Does it produce repentance?

You have one person up here, up front, weeping like, "Oh, I'm so sorry for my sin. Oh, I just want to..." Oh, they're carrying on. "Go yes, yes, Lord. We've been waiting for a weeper for a long time. Thank you, Jesus. Get out another box of Kleenex." Oh, it's so much beautiful work of God, and praise God. What else can you do but praise God if somebody's heart is being so touched and if they're so uninhibited before God? That's a beautiful thing. But was it godly sorrow? Time will tell. Does it produce repentance?

You have another person, "Well, I'm just so sorry before the Lord, and I just want it to be all different and all better." "Go, come on, man. I didn't even see your eye moisten up." Can you call that repentance? Maybe it is. Wait and see. Godly sorrow produces repentance. Friends, this shows us that it's not sorrow that in itself is the key. It's repentance. Alan Redpath said, "How sorry do you think you have to be? What's the purpose of your sorrow for sin? Is it to bring you in trust? It is to bring you to trust in the atoning work of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's not your sorrow that cleanses you from sin, but His blood. It is the goodness of God that leads a man to repentance." Has your sorrow for sin led you, at one time or another, to fling all the burden at the feet of a crucified, risen Savior? If it hasn't, anything short of that is what Paul here calls sorrow that leads to death.

Friends, there is a sorrow that leads to death. That just makes you feel terrible, condemned, sorry. I don't know, you might be crying. You might be, you might be the most sorry person here. But if it doesn't produce repentance, then it's a sorrow unto death. Friends, since godly sorrow does such a great work, did you see verse 10? He says, "For godly sorrow produces repentance unto salvation, not to be regretted." We don't regret godly sorrow, do we? It doesn't feel good. Feels terrible, doesn't it? Friends, we don't regret it. It produces such a good work in us.

Now, the sorrow of the world is different. It produces death. But godly sorrow produces repentance unto salvation. When sorrow is received or born in a worldly way, it has the deadly effect of producing resentment or bitterness. We can regret that kind of sorrow. But godly sorrow produces repentance unto salvation that is not to be regretted. You know, Job cursed the day of his birth, right? I never heard a man curse the day that he became born again. We don't regret that, do we? We don't repent of that. My friends, we're thankful for it. I don't know what it is. I can't describe it exactly. But in repentance, in our great sorrow over our sin, there's a bittersweetness, or maybe it's a sweet bitterness. I don't know. But it's something good. But it hurts. But I, I don't know of hardly anything better than to go to my Father in heaven and just sort of lay my head on His shoulder and say, "Father, I have sinned. But You've forgiven me. Oh, how I love You." I mean, it hurts, but it's so right. It's so good.

Now, if you want to see how great a work this repentance did in the Corinthians, look here. When He says, verse 11: "For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner." Does that say you can tell that sorrow was a godly sorrow and produced repentance unto salvation? What diligence it produced in you! What clearing of yourselves! What indignation! What fear! What vehement desire! What zeal! What vindication! And all these things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter."

You see, these things that He mentions in verse 11 show that the repentance and the sorrow of the Corinthian Christians was unto salvation and not unto death. What's the first thing He says there in verse 11? "What diligence." You know, godly sorrow produces, and repentance shows diligence. And you know what it means to repent? It means to turn around. Means you're facing in one direction and you turn around in the other direction. It means to think one way and then you turn and you change your mind and think another way. Well, friends, you've got to have diligence if you're going to repent right before the Lord, don't you? You can't say, "Okay, I'm going north. No, I'm going to turn and go south." You walk five steps south and go, "No, maybe I'll go east. No, I don't know." And then there's why the other thing. You need diligence, don't you?

Listen, you may have repented once. Are you walking in repentance? Repentance is something that we should walk in all the time. Takes diligence. But that's not all. Verse 11: "What diligence! What clearing of yourselves!" Godly sorrow produces, and repentance shows a clearing. Isn't that beautiful? Don't you want to be cleared before the Lord? Cleared of guilt and shame from knowing that we've brought our sin to God and now we're walking in the right way? You see, that's why the burden of guilt is upon you, perhaps because you never really repented. Oh, sure, you've done this or that. You've made your promises. You made your vow. Said, "I'll don't even come to church Wednesday night, God, anything." But that's not the same as repentance. No, no, my friends. When you really repent before the Lord, it's like a burden is lifted from your soul. And it's like, "Oh, God, I feel like I'm such a sinner before You, but thank You, Jesus, that I'm forgiven. And I just feel so free, even though I know I've sinned. Thank You, Lord. I feel clear."

What diligence! What clearing of yourself! Then you notice the next one. You listen, verse 11: "What is it? What indignation!" Friends, I'm here to tell you tonight that godly sorrow produces, and repentance shows indignation. I think indignation. I think we're indignant at ourselves for our foolishness and sin. We say, "How could I do that? I, I'm just not going to take that from me anymore. No, that's it. I'm indignant. I'm not having that." It's the kind of attitude that makes repentance last. And you know, the Bible allows you to get mad. It allows you to get mad at the devil. I mean, get indignant against him. You know, to think that he had the audacity to pull you down and to make you do that. Get some indignation at your own foolishness of sin. Indignation at the world. Indignation at Satan. Get a little indignant in your repentance. No, no, what? That's just not happening again. I'm indignant.

And the other aspect, you see it there, verse 11. He goes on: "What fear!" He says. Now, it's interesting because when he says "what fear," there's a lot of different kinds of fear in the Christian life. There's a fear of God. But you know, I don't think he's talking about I'm going to speculate just here for a minute, and I think the fear he's talking about is the proper and healthy fear of sin, a fear of falling into the same sin, and a fear of our own weakness towards sin. I think that's what Paul's talking about.

So I say, "What diligence! What clearing of yourself! What indignation! What fear!" Then he goes on again, verse 11: "What vehement desire!" Godly sorrow produces, and repentance shows a vehement desire. This is a heart that really desires purity and godliness and doesn't want to sin anymore. Friends, the vehement desire is expressed a lot of times through heartfelt prayer and total dependence upon God. So, friends, it's vehement desire. He goes on there in verse 11: "What Zeal!" Godly sorrow produces, and repentance shows Zeal. You know what the Greek word there is for Zeal? It has the idea of heat, of something being hot. Well, friends, we're hot towards God and His righteousness. We're hot against sin and impurity. And instead of laziness, instead of this lukewarmness, we have a Zeal in our walk with the Lord when we repent.

Then he goes on in the last sort of thing he lists there. He goes, "What Vindication!" Friends, isn't that glorious? Godly sorrow produces, and repentance shows Vindication. You are vindicated as a Christian when you repent. No, no, no. You see, you don't know. I sinned. You don't know about my sin. You know that? What do you mean, how could I be vindicated, Christian? Do you see my sin? No, my friends. You are vindicated as a Christian because even though you sinned, you repented. No one can doubt whether or not you're a Christian, because the measure of a Christian is not whether or not they sin, but it's whether or not they repent. You vindicate yourself as a Christian when you repent of your sin.

And finally, all verse 11, did you notice that he says, "in all things you proved yourself to be clear in this matter"? Now, when repentance is marked by the preceding characteristics, when it has the diligence, the clearing of yourselves, the indignation, the fear, the vehement desire, the Zeal, the Vindication, when it has all of that, you are clear of guilt and sin. The stain of sin is gone. It's just gone. You can feel it, and other people can see it. People can just see that the burden of sin isn't on you anymore. I got news for you, folks. The burden of sin, it's just going to plain make you an uglier person. I mean, uglier looking. It will put all these lines on your face, put the scowl on your face, put this hunted, fearful expression on yourself. So why don't you, you know, listen, before going to that plastic surgeon and spending all those thousands of dollars, why don't you just get clear before the Lord? That'll help the appearance of your face a hundredfold. And then, if you've got to go to the plastic room, well, get that out of the way first.

Well, listen, my friends, you get the idea here, don't you? It's a clearing. You prove yourself to be clear. Charles Spurgeon wrote, "Happy is that man who has had enough of the sting of sin to make it sour and bitter to him all the rest of his days, so that now, with a changed heart and renewed spirit, he perseveres in the ways of God, never thinking of going back, but resolved through floods or flames to force his way to heaven by divine grace, master over every sin that assails him." That's what God wants to develop in us is a determined repentance. He says, "in all things you proved yourself to be clear." Might I say that it was their actions of repentance that proved them to be clear? Wasn't feelings. Wasn't words, but it was actions.

So goes on now, verse 12: "Therefore, although I wrote to you, I did not do it for the sake of him who had done the wrong, nor for the sake of him who suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear for you." You know, Paul's saying, "You know why I wrote that sorrowful letter? For you. It wasn't to take sides in a dispute that was among you Corinthians. No, my purpose was to demonstrate my concern for you." How Paul loved these people. I don't know. I don't know if there was ever a church that Paul loved more. And I don't know if there was ever a church that was less worthy of his love. But he loved these people.

So, wrapping the chapter here, verse 13: "Therefore we have been comforted in your comfort, and we rejoice because, excuse me, and we rejoiced exceedingly more for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all. For if in anything I have boasted to him about you, I am not ashamed. But as we spoke all things to you in truth, even so our boasting to Titus was found true. And his affections are greater for you as he remembers the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling you received him. Therefore I rejoice that I have confidence in you in everything."

Friends, Paul says, "You know what? When Titus came back, he was refreshed by you Corinthians." Now, that was a mind-blower right there. I got the feeling that these Corinthian Christians are the kind of people that would just kind of suck all the life out of a minister. You know, and Titus would come back normally from the Corinthians, just be, "Oh, Paul, I need a vacation, man. I just spent two weeks with the Corinthians." But not this time. This time, Titus came back and he was refreshed. He was so pumped about the work that God was doing among the Corinthians that he was, "Yes, I'm back. I'm refreshed." And Paul says, "You know what? I boasted to Titus about you guys. I said, 'Hey, they're going to come through.' I bet Paul was just kind of wishful thinking right there. Oh, yeah, Titus, you know, keep, yeah, they'll do fine." Titus. Paul saying, "I don't know what I'm saying, but yeah, they'll do fine." And you know what? They proved good on Paul's boasting. And so he says, "Listen, Titus loves you more than ever now."

Look at verse 15: "His affections are greater for you as he remembers the obedience of you all." Titus isn't mad at you. He probably saw the Corinthian Christians at their worst, you know. My sense of this is, when Titus delivered that sorrowful letter, and he delivers it to the Corinthians, and they say, "Well, Titus, aren't you going to read it to us?" And says, "Okay, I'll read it to you guys." And he reads it, and man, it is just boom, boom, boom, boom. I bet those Corinthian Christians were like, "Who is this Paul? Who is he talking to us?" I bet it seemed like a riot there for a minute. And I bet Titus saw those Corinthian Christians about at their ugliest. And then, you know what? Then the Spirit of God started doing a work. And if you wait a minute, you know what? Maybe he was right about this. God's Spirit started doing work. And before you knew it, those Corinthians were humbly repenting before Titus, before Paul, even though he was at a distance. They humbly. And Titus saw them at their worst. Titus saw them at their best. And he says, "He loves you more than ever now."

So he says, "Hey, look at it. How he ends it there in verse 16: 'Therefore I rejoice that I have confidence in you in everything.'" Now, Paul gets pretty sarcastic in the book of Second Corinthians. And you kind of, "Paul, Paul, are you putting them on now?" And can you imagine Paul saying this to the Corinthians? "I rejoice that I have confidence in you in everything." Yeah, right, Paul. You're smirking like crazy as you write that, right? No, I don't think he was. I think he was simply trying to encourage the Corinthians, showing them that he is convinced that their repentance was genuine. They needed to hear this from their Apostle. They're like, "Gee, Paul, you really think so? You, I mean, you really, really..."

Think about how this chapter ends. This chapter ends in victory. Paul is saying, "I have confidence in you in everything. God did this glorious work in you. It's fabulous." Now, in the beginning of 2 Corinthians, there's not a lot of victory. Paul's hitching up his pants. And with that sorrowful letter he wrote before Second Corinthians, I'll tell you, there's a lot of confrontation that had to go on, wasn't there? What was the difference? What brought the Corinthian Christians from this place of sin that needed confrontation to the place where Paul says, "I rejoice about you in everything. I'm confident in everything"? What was the difference? Repentance. Godly sorrow and repentance.

Friends, repentance isn't the kind of thing that you do just once when you come to Jesus. Repentance is a mode that God puts us on. And I don't want to know if you have repented. I want to know if you're walking in repentance tonight. That's where the Lord wants us to be. Friend, He'll pour out His Spirit upon us as we do that. So let's pray that God works that in us right now.

Lord God, we come to You tonight in the name of Jesus, just grateful for who You are, the work You do in us, Lord. And we just ask, Lord, we plead with You that You would work within us hearts of repentance. Lord, um, I pray first of all that if there's anybody here tonight who never really has repented before You, maybe even, Lord, they think they've come to Jesus, but they've never really turned from their sin. I pray, Lord, that You'd work that work of repentance deeply in their heart right now tonight and cause them to cry out before You in the secret place of their heart. Lord, for those who would say tonight, and honestly so, that they have repented, Lord, I pray that You would move on them to walk in repentance. Move on me, Lord, that we can experience the glory, so that we can be the kind of Christians that Paul would say he has confidence in us because of the work You're doing. Thank You, Lord. We love You. We praise You tonight. In Jesus' name. Amen.

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