SPEAKER_00: We invite you now to open your Bibles to Second Corinthians again, this time to chapter seven.
SPEAKER_00: Tonight we'll be looking at verses ten through twelve.
SPEAKER_00: Martin Luther, when he wrote his ninety-five theses and nailed them to the door in Wittenberg, something we talked about a few weeks ago as we celebrated Reformation Day, began the 95 Theses with these three declarations.
SPEAKER_00: This is the introduction to them, the first of the ninety-five.
SPEAKER_00: He did number them, and these are numbers one, two, and three.
SPEAKER_00: And we could go on and on.
SPEAKER_00: I stopped at three because the fourth one I'm not sure is entirely corresponds to how we would understand and articulate the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And so I left that one out.
SPEAKER_00: But numbers one through three certainly overcome, certainly reflect the tone of the whole here.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, when our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said repent, he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus' first words in the Gospel of Mark, for example, Mark 1, but his first words of his ministry in Matthew 4 are the same words, the word repent.
SPEAKER_00: And what Luther is deducing from this is that when Jesus begins his ministry with the word repent, it's not a one-time action that he's after.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the statement from Jesus' lips shouldn't be interpreted that you repent once and then never again.
SPEAKER_00: But rather, he's describing the lifestyle of his disciples, one of continual repentance.
SPEAKER_00: This is understood in contrast with the Catholic doctrine of penance, which he goes to in his second.
SPEAKER_00: This word cannot be understood, this word repentance, repent, as referring to the sacraments of penance, that is confession and satisfaction as administered by the clergy.
SPEAKER_00: That's a pretty basic contrast there in the Catholic Church.
SPEAKER_00: Repentance looks like going to a priest, telling your sin to the priest, the priest then gives you some kind of penance to do, some kind of action.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's in the form of a uh money given, an indulgence of some kind, maybe it's in the form of a prayer or a work, and that that exchange there, the completion of that work or action, is what removes the penalty of sin from you.
SPEAKER_00: Luther says that's not biblical repentance.
SPEAKER_00: It cannot refer to that, because again, if you take the first point, your lifestyle should be that of repentance.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not something contingent upon an interaction with a priest.
SPEAKER_00: And he further narrows this down in his third thesis here.
SPEAKER_00: It does not mean solely inner repentance.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what he means by inner repentance is what we're going to talk about tonight.
SPEAKER_00: Solely by inner repentance, such inner repentance is worthless unless it produces various outward mortification of the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: So that's the key one I wanted to get to.
SPEAKER_00: Luther has this contrast in his mind, and Luther is not coming to this with centuries of best-selling books on this topic.
SPEAKER_00: Luther is coming to this realization being a Catholic monk and understanding what Catholicism teaches about penance, and he realizes that's not it.
SPEAKER_00: Now he has discovered the scriptures, and he's working through what the Bible teaches about repentance, and he realizes there's a very reality in the world that there are those who have inner repentance and yet who don't have saving faith.
SPEAKER_00: That so-called inner repentance is worthless.
SPEAKER_00: And he's talking about people that are moved by something inside of them to go to the priest.
SPEAKER_00: Luther is talking from firsthand experience here.
SPEAKER_00: He very much had that inner repentance.
SPEAKER_00: He had a hatred of his own sin before he knew the gospel, and that self-hatred was powerless to absolve him of his sin.
SPEAKER_00: And so what he's saying here is that inner repentance is not sufficient.
SPEAKER_00: Now we would choose a different word than inner repentance, probably.
SPEAKER_00: Normally today, when you hear the word inner repentance, it's contrasted with worldly or external repentance.
SPEAKER_00: So when we hear the phrase inner repentance, we're more inclined to think, oh, that's true repentance.
SPEAKER_00: When we hear inner repentance, we think, no, that's the right repentance.
SPEAKER_00: Where we get confused at number three here, where Luther seems to be implying that that inner repentance is worthless.
SPEAKER_00: Well, not implying, I mean, he says it's worthless.
SPEAKER_00: Unless it produces mortification of the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: What Luther is going for here, and I think he's right in this statement, is that unless your repentance produces fruit or change, it's not real repentance.
SPEAKER_00: And the classic Protestant illustration of this is that of the fruit tree.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the orange tree doesn't become an orange tree because it grows oranges, it is an orange tree because it grows oranges.
SPEAKER_00: It was an orange tree before it grew oranges, but the realization that it is authentically an orange tree comes when it grows oranges.
SPEAKER_00: That's the point here.
SPEAKER_00: Luther is saying that your inner repentance is worthless if it doesn't grow on to bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
SPEAKER_00: This is a critical distinction, that of repentance.
SPEAKER_00: And it is often lost in gospel presentations and gospel preaching.
SPEAKER_00: It's often lost in American theology, which gets so wrapped up around health, wealth, prosperity, how to lead a good life and have a good marriage that repentance often gets sidelined.
SPEAKER_00: But repentance is not incidental to the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible continually calls people to repentance.
SPEAKER_00: And I think beginning in 1 Kings chapter 8, I have a lot of verses, so I wouldn't even bother trying to take notes here.
SPEAKER_00: There's going to be a lot of them coming your way.
SPEAKER_00: But if you're up for the challenge, go for it.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Kings 8.
SPEAKER_00: This is Solomon's prayer and the dedication of the temple, his first, in this sense, public act of leadership, the first worship service that takes place at the temple.
SPEAKER_00: And Solomon prays, speaking of the Israelites in exile and even the foreigners and other nations, if they repent with all their mind and with all their heart in the land of their enemies and pray to you, here in heaven, forgive your people who've sinned against you.
SPEAKER_00: Solomon in his dedication of the temple makes salvation in this sense contingent upon repentance.
SPEAKER_00: If they repent, then you will hear and you will forgive.
SPEAKER_00: There's a chain that he has in mind here.
SPEAKER_00: Repentance leads to forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to clarify how that actually works in salvation in a minute, but I'm just using this verse to make the point that when the temple ministry began in the Old Testament, it began with a call to repentance.
SPEAKER_00: I could choose a hundred other verses to go to next, but I'm choosing Joel 2.
SPEAKER_00: This is a very well-known messianic prophecy in the context of Joel 2.
SPEAKER_00: Joel is pointing people forward to the Messiah, but he says, in light of, this is, you know, hundreds of years before Jesus, Joel is pointing people forward to the Messiah, and he says, Even now, declares Yahweh, return to me with all your heart.
SPEAKER_00: This is kind of the living out of Solomon's prayer.
SPEAKER_00: The Jews are in exile, the Jews are wandering from God, and yet even now, if they return to me with their hearts, with fasting, with weeping, with mourning, and they rend their hearts and not their garments, return to Yahweh your God.
SPEAKER_00: He's gracious and merciful, Joel says.
SPEAKER_00: Slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and he relents over disaster.
SPEAKER_00: The word return there is the word for repent.
SPEAKER_00: It's used three times, twice of people, once of God, and we know that God doesn't really repent, but this is the image here that even now you can repent of your sin.
SPEAKER_00: When you repent of your sin and you turn towards Yahweh, God in that sense repents of the disaster he has.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to remove the consequence of your sin from you in light of your repentance.
SPEAKER_00: This is not merely an Old Testament phenomena, but you see it in the New Testament, you see it in the church.
SPEAKER_00: This is after the resurrection, Luke 24 is.
SPEAKER_00: That was the conversation until this point.
SPEAKER_00: You should have known that the Savior would die and be resurrected on the third day.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the Old Testament says.
SPEAKER_00: So go in the world and preach that is not what he says.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, he says, You should have known that the Savior would be crucified and resurrected on the third day.
SPEAKER_00: So go into the world and preach repentance.
SPEAKER_00: Now repentance for forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_00: That's what should be proclaimed.
SPEAKER_00: There's a tendency to think that preaching repentance is preaching work salvation, but certainly that's not the case.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus himself said, Go in the world and preach repentance.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what you see in the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: Again, there's dozens of verses to choose from, but I will choose only a dozen.
SPEAKER_00: This is the first gospel sermon, Acts chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: Peter preaching the day of Pentecost, and the crowd is torn, their hearts are rent, they're somber.
SPEAKER_00: They respond to Peter's preaching by asking what must be due to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter's response is repent and be baptized.
SPEAKER_00: And that's his response to the question.
SPEAKER_00: What do we have to do to be saved?
SPEAKER_00: We confess that Jesus is the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: We confess that He was God in human flesh, that He did die on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Now what?
SPEAKER_00: Peter says, Repent.
SPEAKER_00: Repent for the forgiveness of your sins.
SPEAKER_00: Repent and be baptized.
SPEAKER_00: That was not a one-time event.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 3, another gospel presentation.
SPEAKER_00: He preaches again, repent.
SPEAKER_00: This is a sermon to the Jewish rulers when they were arresting him, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 3, verse 19, repent and turn again that your sins may be blotted out.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of a reiterated phrase there.
SPEAKER_00: Repent and turn again.
SPEAKER_00: Come back to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It's really a reference that that way he says it right there is a reference back to Joel 2, which we looked at earlier.
SPEAKER_00: Repent and return so that your sins can be blotted out.
SPEAKER_00: Peter is driving home to even the Jewish leaders that they must repent.
SPEAKER_00: Later on to Simon the Sorcerer, when Simon tried to buy the gift of the Holy Spirit, Peter rebukes him.
SPEAKER_00: Says, May your your silver perish with you.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, Repent therefore of this wickedness of yours and pray to the Lord, that if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.
SPEAKER_00: For I see that you're in the gall of bitterness, the bondage of iniquity, all kinds of incredible phrases in here.
SPEAKER_00: We could pull the car over in any one of these verses, but this one is worth noting here that Peter understands that true repentance is a work of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He gets that, but he's still commanding sinners to repent.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say repent if, you know, people criticize God's sovereignty over salvation by saying, if you really believe God is sovereign over salvation, you should tell someone, repent if the Lord lets you.
SPEAKER_00: But no, the call for repentance is global.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter tells Simon here, you better repent.
SPEAKER_00: Repent.
SPEAKER_00: And then let's see if God saves you.
SPEAKER_00: That's his attitude toward Simon.
SPEAKER_00: Repent.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe if it's possible, God will forgive you.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 11.
SPEAKER_00: The apostles are arguing, struggling, trying to make sense of how God could save the Gentiles in the same way he saves the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, shouldn't the Jews there's you know, they have the law and they have the centuries of faithfulness to the law?
SPEAKER_00: And now here comes Gentiles from Corinth or wherever, Galatia, they just strolling in.
SPEAKER_00: They don't even know what a commandment is, much less ten of them.
SPEAKER_00: And now they're gonna get saved through nothing more than faith in the Savior and the Messiah?
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't seem fair.
SPEAKER_00: And in their discussion, Acts 11, verse 18, they decide, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: God has granted the Gentiles the repentance that leads to eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: That's how they land the plane in that discussion.
SPEAKER_00: If the Gentiles repent, that means they can be saved.
SPEAKER_00: And God has granted them repentance.
SPEAKER_00: It is true.
SPEAKER_00: And then in that point in the book of Acts, the preaching shifts from Peter and the apostles over to Paul.
SPEAKER_00: And his perhaps his most famous sermon, Acts 17, on Mars Hill, he's preaching to the philosophers and Athens, and he declares to them, Acts 17, verse 30, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent.
SPEAKER_00: This is the global command of repentance.
SPEAKER_00: He's preaching to the crowd who has unknown gods and unnamed gods, and he says the main the bottom line from this, there is a real God that I know.
SPEAKER_00: And he's telling you to repent.
SPEAKER_00: And this becomes Paul's pattern throughout his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, when Luke describes Paul's preaching in Acts chapter 20, he says Paul was solemnly testifying to both Jews and Gentiles of repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing how many of these verses, by the way, pair repentance and faith.
SPEAKER_00: That's the main motif.
SPEAKER_00: You repent from your sins, you have faith in God, or repent and be baptized in Acts chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: There's this tag team that's happening repeatedly in these verses we've looked at, even in Joel, repent from your sins, turn towards Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: In Solomon at the temple, repent from your sins, turn towards God.
SPEAKER_00: Here it's just clearly articulated by Luke as he describes Paul's preaching.
SPEAKER_00: There is repentance towards God and faith.
SPEAKER_00: And that is what brings salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Paul closes out his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 26, summarizing what he's been preaching.
SPEAKER_00: This is Paul's own words.
SPEAKER_00: That people should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, that's what Jesus preached as well.
SPEAKER_00: We saw that earlier.
SPEAKER_00: It's what is repeated throughout the New Testament, the call for repentance.
SPEAKER_00: This is why Luther was correct when he described the Christian life as the life of repentance.
SPEAKER_00: You can't have a real saving encounter with Christ unless that encounter comes with repentance.
SPEAKER_00: This is why we are repentant people.
SPEAKER_00: And yet it's worth being very careful in how we think about this theologically.
SPEAKER_00: Your repentance is not a work that produces salvation.
SPEAKER_00: You understand how salvation comes through faith alone, by grace alone.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation is not a work, and yet the Holy Spirit regenerates the human heart.
SPEAKER_00: So the human heart is lost in sin, the human heart hears gospel preaching, the human heart is closed, and the ears are closed.
SPEAKER_00: The human heart refuses to believe, refuses to surrender, refuses to repent.
SPEAKER_00: But the human heart may have outward signs of grief over sin or worldly sorrow, but not saving faith and not what I'd call saving sorrow, genuine godly sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: And then at some point the Holy Spirit comes into the person's life, opens their eyes to the truth of what the scripture says, gives their heart a heart to hear the gospel, and a heart to see and believe.
SPEAKER_00: And when the heart opens, now the person is able to see their own sin and God's glory.
SPEAKER_00: And they look at their own sin compared to God's glory, they grieve over their own sin.
SPEAKER_00: This is genuine repentance.
SPEAKER_00: As part of that genuine repentance, they place their faith in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation comes through a ministry of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit produces faith.
SPEAKER_00: Genuine faith is always accompanied with genuine repentance.
SPEAKER_00: But in different people's lives, the exact sequence of that, as you experience it, may be different.
SPEAKER_00: This is all compressed in God's economy.
SPEAKER_00: Some people wrestle with their sin and the conviction of sin for weeks, months, perhaps, with a full awareness of their sin and grief over their sin before they turn to God in faith.
SPEAKER_00: Some people have an immediate encounter with the Lord where they hear the gospel for the first time and they're broken over their sin and they put their faith in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But we understand conceptually this is all a work of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It's the Lord who brings to repentance, it's the Lord that brings saving faith.
SPEAKER_00: You're not saved through repentance, you're not saved through the work of repentance.
SPEAKER_00: It's not as if repentance is the means by which you acquire your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: No, the Holy Spirit regenerates you and gives you saving faith, and that saving faith, if it is genuine, will produce repentance.
SPEAKER_00: That may seem like, you know, just wordplay to get out of a theological problem, but I think it's very significant.
SPEAKER_00: You take the full teaching of the Bible that calls people to repent, but you recognize they can't repent unless the Lord works in their heart.
SPEAKER_00: But that's the way the preaching happens in the in the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: All men everywhere, Paul says, should repent.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing that genuine repentance is a work of God in the human heart.
SPEAKER_00: Now this is what we encounter here in 2 Corinthians 7, verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
SPEAKER_00: See what earnestness this godly grief is produced in you.
SPEAKER_00: What eagerness to clear yourself, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment.
SPEAKER_00: At every point you've proved yourselves innocent in the manner.
SPEAKER_00: For although I wrote to you, I was not for the sake of the one who did the wrong, nor for the sake of the one who suffered the wrong, but in order that your earnestness for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God.
SPEAKER_00: So this is somewhat complex, these three verses here.
SPEAKER_00: It can be confusing because godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation, that can sound at first glance like you're repenting in order to one day obtain salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Certainly, Paul has in mind here the salvation of eternal life that you encounter when you die and go to God in glory.
SPEAKER_00: A godly repentance is going to lead to that kind of life.
SPEAKER_00: A godly repentance marks your life, the life of eternal life, the life of the contrite, repentant person that culminates in saving faith they experienced at the end of their life.
SPEAKER_00: But you recognize that true repentance is paired with saving faith at the moment of conversion.
SPEAKER_00: That's an important distinction because that helps make sense of what Paul's dealing with here.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is dealing with Corinthian believers.
SPEAKER_00: They claim the name of Christ, and yet they're not repentant.
SPEAKER_00: They claim the name of Christ, and yet they're walking in sin.
SPEAKER_00: We know some of the sin they're walking in, sexual immorality, such as that wouldn't even be named among the Gentiles, suing one another, division in the church, divisiveness in the church.
SPEAKER_00: There's all it's just chaos there.
SPEAKER_00: And you would think, how could believers act like that?
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what Paul is thinking.
SPEAKER_00: How can believers act like that?
SPEAKER_00: They should repent.
SPEAKER_00: And some of them do repent.
SPEAKER_00: With the sarcastic quote, Marks are unrepent there.
SPEAKER_00: It's not saving faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's not true repentance.
SPEAKER_00: So it's interesting here that Paul makes sorrow over sin really even more than repentance is sorrow over sin that leads to worldly grief.
SPEAKER_00: That grief leads to repentance.
SPEAKER_00: That worldly grief there is what I'm sorry, that that godly grief, that godly sorrow there is what produces repentance and that leads to salvation.
SPEAKER_00: So notice that here, the efficient cause in Paul's mind here is the sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: That sorrow produces this real, genuine repentance, which leads to eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Now, as I mentioned, truth is a razor's edge here.
SPEAKER_00: This whole thing is compressed.
SPEAKER_00: You understand it's the Holy Spirit that brings somebody from darkness to light.
SPEAKER_00: And that when they're brought to darkness and light to light, their eyes are open to the truth of their sin, the truth of saving faith.
SPEAKER_00: A broken spirit and a contrite heart are the marks of repentance, and these are not despised by God, but God does despise sin.
SPEAKER_00: The result of a broken spirit and a contrite heart is repentance.
SPEAKER_00: God despises the roots of sin in the heart as well as the fruit.
SPEAKER_00: And when a person has genuine repentance, God is at work in their heart.
SPEAKER_00: God is opening their eyes to his glory, making them aware of their sinfulness, and the person encounters the substitution of Christ and the cross in their place.
SPEAKER_00: They place their faith in Christ and the cross, which frees them from the power of their sin.
SPEAKER_00: They confess their own sins.
SPEAKER_00: As I mentioned, this is all together.
SPEAKER_00: It's like parting.
SPEAKER_00: The Puritans used to use the example of trying to put the order of repentance and faith and salvation in order.
SPEAKER_00: It's like trying to parse the light and the heat from the sun.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you get conceptually the rock of the sun is first, followed by the light, followed by the heat.
SPEAKER_00: Like you understand that conceptually.
SPEAKER_00: But chronologically, it's chronologically that's different.
SPEAKER_00: Chronologically, you might feel the heat before you see the light, before you see the sun.
SPEAKER_00: Chronologically, it might play out different, but that doesn't mean in God's economy, chronologically, they're they're different.
SPEAKER_00: Like logically, rock light heat, but experientially, who knows?
SPEAKER_00: And the same thing is true with this.
SPEAKER_00: It's important to understand because you encounter in the world people that say they're repentant over their sins.
SPEAKER_00: But don't seem to have a love for the Lord in their heart.
SPEAKER_00: That's just the reality of the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus himself talks about these people in Matthew 7.
SPEAKER_00: They're going to die and they're going to stand before the Lord for judgment, and they're going to say, knock, knock, open up, let me in.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, didn't I know you?
SPEAKER_00: So they can have a list of things they did.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I did this, I did that, and I did the other thing in your name.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is going to say to them, Depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I never knew you.
SPEAKER_00: But just think about how those people in Matthew 7 addressed Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They address him as Lord, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: They talk to him as if he is their Lord.
SPEAKER_00: They call him Lord.
SPEAKER_00: They're expecting to go to heaven when they die through their faith in Jesus, but Jesus says, You may know me, I did not know you.
SPEAKER_00: They did not have genuine repentance, and it is very much worth asking, what is the difference between their repentance in Matthew 7 and the genuine believer's repentance?
SPEAKER_00: Or another very obvious example from the New Testament about this.
SPEAKER_00: What is the difference between Judas and Peter?
SPEAKER_00: Judas and Peter both heard gospel preaching.
SPEAKER_00: They both knew the truth of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: They both had grief over their sin.
SPEAKER_00: And yet Peter's grief led him to the feet of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And Judas's grief led him to hang himself on a tree.
SPEAKER_00: Tears don't even help.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure they both cried.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not a good way to distinguish true and false repentance.
SPEAKER_00: This is exactly the problem.
SPEAKER_00: The Peter-Judas problem is the problem Paul is having with the Corinthians because he's confronted them on their sin.
SPEAKER_00: He's confronted them for the way they're living.
SPEAKER_00: They have not repented.
SPEAKER_00: There's one particular ringleader of this that was put out of the church, disciplined out of the church.
SPEAKER_00: There's other people that are now repenting from their sin in light of what happened to that ringleader.
SPEAKER_00: Now it appears that that ringleader is repentant and wants back into the church.
SPEAKER_00: They're trying to figure out what to do.
SPEAKER_00: We, of course, don't know all the details because Paul is, first of all, trying to make 2 Corinthians applicable to the church universal to us, where more details wouldn't necessarily be helpful in our own circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: But here in verse 10 through 12, the three verses we'll look at tonight, Paul wades into this by trying to discern, decipher between true and false forgiveness, true and false repentance.
SPEAKER_00: He begins with this category of godly grief.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be contrasted with worldly grief.
SPEAKER_00: Godly sorrow, worldly sorrow, or with homage to Charlie Brown, good grief.
SPEAKER_00: Versus worldly grief that produces nothing.
SPEAKER_00: I want to go through the list of descriptions that are given with good grief to help you discern the difference between true and false salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Before we get to the first one on the list, I mean I beg you to listen to this message tonight.
SPEAKER_00: I beg you to listen in your own heart.
SPEAKER_00: And as we're going through this list, I want you to ask yourself, is my repentance over sin the good kind or the worldly kind?
SPEAKER_00: Notice on this list is not how long you've been to church.
SPEAKER_00: One of the things in this list is not have you been to church more than five times?
SPEAKER_00: Have you been to church for ten years?
SPEAKER_00: Do you have a MacArthur study Bible?
SPEAKER_00: That's not on this list.
SPEAKER_00: It's a different kind of list.
SPEAKER_00: And so I know that there would be those in church for five years, ten years, twenty years that have MacArthur study bibles that don't have godly sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: And that makes me sad.
SPEAKER_00: I know the only thing at my disposal to help a person in that scenario is this kind of text, is this kind of list.
SPEAKER_00: And so I would beg you as I go through this list not to get lost in the minutia of which word goes with which word, but to just listen or write it down if you want to.
SPEAKER_00: But ask yourself, what category is your grief over your sin in?
SPEAKER_00: And this is, by the way, is presupposing that you've had grief over your sin.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is one of those things.
SPEAKER_00: If you haven't grieved over your sin, you're not even, this flow chart doesn't apply.
SPEAKER_00: If you've never realized that you're a sinner, if you've never said, I'm a sinner and I deserve judgment, you're not, we're not here.
SPEAKER_00: This is a helpful exercise to go through these verses for the person who recognizes that they're a sinner, who recognizes that their sin separates them from God.
SPEAKER_00: But if you don't get, if you're not there, this doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: So step one is recognize that your sin separates you from God, that you're a sinner based upon who you are.
SPEAKER_00: You have sin in your heart, your body produces sin, your heart produces sin, your affections, your mind, all of that produces sin.
SPEAKER_00: God judges sin, and your sin separates you from God.
SPEAKER_00: And so now let's, if you get that, and you're like, ah man, I wish I didn't sin.
SPEAKER_00: I have sorrow over my sin.
SPEAKER_00: What kind of sorrow is that?
SPEAKER_00: Is it godly sorrow or worldly sorrow?
SPEAKER_00: Is it good grief or poor grief?
SPEAKER_00: We get a description here.
SPEAKER_00: Good grief begins with conviction.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 11, see what earnestness, that word earnestness there, it could be rendered conviction.
SPEAKER_00: It's this desire, a conviction to act, a conviction to pursue what is righteous.
SPEAKER_00: It's rendered earnestness here, and that word works fine as well.
SPEAKER_00: Earnestness is a desire to act with pure motives.
SPEAKER_00: Where you're eager to do something, maybe.
SPEAKER_00: The earnestness here that we're talking about, I think, is convictional.
SPEAKER_00: That comes from knowing your sin.
SPEAKER_00: This is where Paul starts with.
SPEAKER_00: Good grief, godly sorrow, begins with an actual knowledge of your sin.
SPEAKER_00: And it does not deny.
SPEAKER_00: It does not deny sin.
SPEAKER_00: This is the whole plea bargain system in the American jurisprudence.
SPEAKER_00: When you take a plea bargain, you have to stand before the judge, and you can't say, Yeah, I'm just taking the plea bargain to get out of this.
SPEAKER_00: You have to actually tell the judge, no, I really am pleading guilty for this crime because I really did do this crime.
SPEAKER_00: This is where worldly sorrow is different than godly sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Godly sorrow begins with the actual confession of you saying, No, I am actually guilty of this sin.
SPEAKER_00: I am convicted in my own heart that I am guilty of this sin.
SPEAKER_00: This requires humility.
SPEAKER_00: It requires making yourself low.
SPEAKER_00: Godly sorrow is not an excuse factory, godly sorrow is bringing yourself down low.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus himself said that he's gonna leave us, John 16, 17, and says he's gonna leave us and send the Holy Spirit to be a comforter for us and a helper for us.
SPEAKER_00: So the Holy Spirit's gonna come be a comforter for us, and Jesus expands on that.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say the Holy Spirit's gonna come and make you feel good about yourself.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna comfort you by making you feel good about yourself.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's gonna be worth asking.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you need comfort?
SPEAKER_00: You need comfort because Jesus is going away, and you need comfort because the Holy Spirit is gonna come and bring you conviction concerning your sin.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus says.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit will come and convict you concerning sin.
SPEAKER_00: This is the first mark of the Spirit's work in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: You know that you have godly sorrow, which can only come through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: If you are convicted about your sin, because that's what the Holy Spirit does.
SPEAKER_00: So, do you know that you're a sinner?
SPEAKER_00: Are you aware that you are a sinner?
SPEAKER_00: It's the first mark of godly sorrow, and not just a general awareness, but concrete awareness.
SPEAKER_00: I am a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: That's who I am.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, an eagerness to clear your name.
SPEAKER_00: An eagerness, verse 11, this godly sorrow is produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves.
SPEAKER_00: This is again hinges on the idea that God is the one at work.
SPEAKER_00: You think clearing yourself sounds kind of man-centered here.
SPEAKER_00: Well, remember the context that Paul has rebuked them and Paul has caused them to discipline people out of the church.
SPEAKER_00: If their sorrow is genuine, they want to make things right.
SPEAKER_00: They want to clear their name.
SPEAKER_00: They want to be back in good standing with the church.
SPEAKER_00: Rurepentance doesn't just drift away somewhere else.
SPEAKER_00: Rural repentance wants their name cleared to be back in Christian fellowship.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about your own reputation, it's about the reputation of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's a desire to be made right.
SPEAKER_00: To confess your sin and let others know, I did that, I was wrong, I repent.
SPEAKER_00: That's how you clear your name.
SPEAKER_00: You don't clear your name by worming yourself out of it.
SPEAKER_00: That's a that's the worldly kind of sorrow we'll look at in a few minutes.
SPEAKER_00: You clear your name in the true, godly kind of sorrow by confessing your sin, recognizing that Jesus atones for your sin.
SPEAKER_00: That's how you clear your name in a Christian context.
SPEAKER_00: Not by explaining how they got the wrong guy and you didn't really do it.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't clear your name in a Christian context.
SPEAKER_00: In the Christian context, your name is cleared when you confess your sin to others and tell them you're turning to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Thomas Brooks in his book, Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices.
SPEAKER_00: What a cool title.
SPEAKER_00: You want people to help you deal with your sin because you recognize it is mischievous.
SPEAKER_00: I don't fully understand it, but I want to be right with those that I've sinned against.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Paul's saying.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, you can tell, Corinthians, you can tell if somebody's gen repentance is genuine because they want to be back with you.
SPEAKER_00: You put them out of the church, they want to be back.
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, indignation, he says in verse 11, what indignation?
SPEAKER_00: It's an internal anger.
SPEAKER_00: It's an anger, of course, over their sin.
SPEAKER_00: It goes with the shame for what they did to the reputation of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's a conviction, not just this indignation, listen, this indignation is not just a conviction that you did sin.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's a conviction that you're that you're sinful.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see the difference?
SPEAKER_00: You know, you doing sin, that's gonna make you sorry or sad.
SPEAKER_00: But when you understand that your heart is the factory that's producing sin, that brings indignation.
SPEAKER_00: It brings despair.
SPEAKER_00: It brings you low when you realize that it's who you are that produces these kind of sins that are loathsome to God.
SPEAKER_00: You hate the totality of your sin.
SPEAKER_00: You don't just hate the poison, but you hate the dish the poison is served on.
SPEAKER_00: That's this idea.
SPEAKER_00: You recognize that you are low.
SPEAKER_00: And you it it cuts you.
SPEAKER_00: It hurts, it hurts you to realize the extent of your sin.
SPEAKER_00: And you re to realize even that you never fully understand the extent of your sin.
SPEAKER_00: That brings indignation.
SPEAKER_00: It brings fear.
SPEAKER_00: Fear of God is the next phrase that he next word he uses here.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 11, what indignation?
SPEAKER_00: What fear?
SPEAKER_00: Speaking of fear of the Lord, which is the foundation of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: This is a fear that comes from the word of God, not merely conscience.
SPEAKER_00: When your conscience convicts you of sin, that doesn't produce fear in your life.
SPEAKER_00: As anyone who's ever had a conscience that is convicted can attest.
SPEAKER_00: Your conscience convicts you by saying, hey, you shouldn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: And then you do it, and your conscience says, I hope you feel guilty.
SPEAKER_00: That's not fear.
SPEAKER_00: Biblical fear is recognizing that God sits in the judge of your conduct.
SPEAKER_00: God is the judge that you've sinned and you fall short of the glory of God, and you'll have to give an account to God.
SPEAKER_00: That produces fear.
SPEAKER_00: It comes from being convinced from the scriptures that your actions are sinful and that you are a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: Your conscience can convict you on worldly standards.
SPEAKER_00: Your conscience can convict you in a way that doesn't produce fear.
SPEAKER_00: Your conscience can persuade you that you have done sin and that some of the things in your life are bad and you've made mistakes, we've all made mistakes.
SPEAKER_00: Your conscience can convict you of that in a way that doesn't produce fear of God.
SPEAKER_00: But biblical, godly sorrow, godly grief has a fear of the Lord in it.
SPEAKER_00: Where you recognize your sin is primarily against God.
SPEAKER_00: It's always struck me with David's repentance to Nathan.
SPEAKER_00: Nathan confronts him for his sin.
SPEAKER_00: You're the man, and you think, man, his sin is against Bathsheba, of course, your sin is against Uriah, his sin is against Uriah's parents, Bathsheba's parents, his sin is against his troops that are fighting a battle.
SPEAKER_00: Against Abner.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's no shortage of people David sinned against in there.
SPEAKER_00: But remember when he realizes that he's sinned, the first thing he says is, I've sinned against the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I've sinned against Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: That's godly sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Godly sorrow with a fear of the Lord in it.
SPEAKER_00: Comes from being convicted by God's word.
SPEAKER_00: That leads to a longing to restore relationships.
SPEAKER_00: This is where Paul goes.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 11, what fear, what longing, and I think the longing here is for others to be restored back to the church, to restore the relationship.
SPEAKER_00: Again, recognizing it as God's work in the human heart.
SPEAKER_00: Repentance requires his confession.
SPEAKER_00: There's a longing to confess, a longing to come clean, a real desire to be made right.
SPEAKER_00: Where you want your sin in that sense exposed because you want to be made right.
SPEAKER_00: There's a longing to be restored.
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing how many times in the church discipline process you find people that repent but have no desire to restore the relationships.
SPEAKER_00: They repent, oh I admit it, I'm a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: Can we move on now?
SPEAKER_00: With no desire to restore the relationships.
SPEAKER_00: Godly sorrow has a longing for things to be made right.
SPEAKER_00: Not a longing to move on, but a longing to be restored, which leads very quickly to the next point, a zeal to be made right.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 12 again.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, verse 11 again.
SPEAKER_00: What zeal?
SPEAKER_00: Zeal is loving something so much you detest anything that stands in its way.
SPEAKER_00: There's lots of different ways to define zeal, but that's a definition I've settled on.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, it's used of Jesus when he turns over the tables in the temple, and they say, Oh, we should have known, because zeal for your father's house would consume you.
SPEAKER_00: It's loving something so much that you detest.
SPEAKER_00: You get angry at things that stand in the way.
SPEAKER_00: So here, it's a godly zeal.
SPEAKER_00: You want things to be made right so much that you get angry at things that are standing in the way.
SPEAKER_00: You want to be restored.
SPEAKER_00: This is an obstacle to my restoration, so I'm angry at that.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, what is the obstacle to your restoration?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's the sin.
SPEAKER_00: This is focused on your sin.
SPEAKER_00: It's wanting to obliterate your own sin.
SPEAKER_00: It's being, it's a real zeal to get rid of your sin.
SPEAKER_00: Samuel encountering Agag hiding in the baggage, hiding among the sheep that supposedly weren't there, bringing him out.
SPEAKER_00: Says Agag was happy because he thought the moment for revenge had passed.
SPEAKER_00: And Samuel turns to Saul and says, Can I borrow your sword?
SPEAKER_00: And hacks Agag to pieces.
SPEAKER_00: That's a picture of zeal.
SPEAKER_00: That's wanting to be made right.
SPEAKER_00: That's recognizing that our our nation, right here, in the context of 1 Samuel, is not acting in a way that is godly.
SPEAKER_00: The prophet calls them out.
SPEAKER_00: Saul does his all is like a you know character study and worldly sorrow, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: Saul set sheds all kinds of tears, but it's not about the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: All kinds of tears about his kingdom, all kinds of tears about his plans, the great prayer meeting he was expecting to have.
SPEAKER_00: Well man, it would have been cool.
SPEAKER_00: People would have loved him.
SPEAKER_00: Samuel ruined it all, and Saul is so sorry.
SPEAKER_00: Saul would really like to bring Eggag home, though.
SPEAKER_00: That's neat to put a king on the mantle.
SPEAKER_00: And Samuel shows up and hacks him to pieces.
SPEAKER_00: This zealous attitude to make things right, you recognize this doesn't happen like that.
SPEAKER_00: You go to battle against your sin, you battle against your sin the rest of your life.
SPEAKER_00: This is a lifelong battle.
SPEAKER_00: This is why this is a package deal here.
SPEAKER_00: It's a lifelong battle.
SPEAKER_00: This takes time.
SPEAKER_00: You act in a zealous way towards your sin, you want it eliminated, you want to fight against it, but you recognize that this takes time.
SPEAKER_00: And then finally, Paul ends his description in verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: What punishment.
SPEAKER_00: And I wish Paul would have described more about what he means by all these words, but the context here is that I think that they were embracing the punishment their sin had brought.
SPEAKER_00: This is somebody who wants justice done no matter what the cost, recognizing, of course, that God is the aggrieved party, recognizing your sin deserves hell.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has borne the penalty for your sin on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: The power is the word of God and not in yourself.
SPEAKER_00: The power belongs to God to have justice, so you turn this over to God.
SPEAKER_00: It's always skeptical when somebody repents of their sins but doesn't want others in authority to find out.
SPEAKER_00: Like I repent from stealing from work, but please don't tell my boss.
SPEAKER_00: That's not this.
SPEAKER_00: I repent of the affair I was having, but please don't tell my wife.
SPEAKER_00: That's not this.
SPEAKER_00: This is the kind of repentance that wants justice done, that wants the punishment.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, let me just get this over with.
SPEAKER_00: Let me confess my sin and deal with the consequences and then start over and move on from there.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just get done with it.
SPEAKER_00: That's godly sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Not these halfway confessions of some of my sins, but I want the punishment.
SPEAKER_00: Let me embrace it as part of my repentance.
SPEAKER_00: That's the sorrow that the Corinthians had.
SPEAKER_00: This is why Paul can tell them at every point, you've proved yourself innocent in the matter.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Paul, I think, is giving them this list so that they would apply it to themselves.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to say that again in chapter 13.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to say, examine yourself to see if you're in the faith.
SPEAKER_00: He wants them to go through this list.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, he's giving them this letter for this purpose.
SPEAKER_00: He's not there.
SPEAKER_00: Titus has brought him the good report.
SPEAKER_00: We'll look at that next week.
SPEAKER_00: Titus has brought him the good report, though, and so he's trying to encourage them.
SPEAKER_00: But hey, look at this.
SPEAKER_00: Prove yourselves innocent in the matter.
SPEAKER_00: Go through it.
SPEAKER_00: What a contrast with worldly sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Back up in verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: Worldly grief produces death.
SPEAKER_00: Now I would have liked another long list from Paul about what worldly sorrow looked like, but he doesn't give you one.
SPEAKER_00: Just godly sorrow, life, worldly sorrow, death.
SPEAKER_00: But I think it's pretty easy to fill out this list when you look at these words as a point of contrast, and so I'm going to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Worldly grief does not have the joy that goes with eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Worldly grief has despair.
SPEAKER_00: This is the person who cries over their sin but with no hope.
SPEAKER_00: They cry about their sin, but they don't have a joy that comes with forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: They have a sorrow without hope.
SPEAKER_00: Don't grievous as those who have no hope.
SPEAKER_00: Death comes to all.
SPEAKER_00: Christians die, non-Christians die.
SPEAKER_00: But don't grieve as those who have no hope.
SPEAKER_00: A worldly sorrow is marked by despair, not by a joy in coming clean about your sin.
SPEAKER_00: A worldly sorrow has an eagerness to vindicate.
SPEAKER_00: What a contrast.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the godly sorrow has an eagerness to clear name for the context of the church, to confess with your sin, so everybody knows that you've confessed.
SPEAKER_00: Your punishment is taken away by the Lord, you can be restored.
SPEAKER_00: That's godly sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: That's not worldly sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Worldly sorrow wants to be vindicated.
SPEAKER_00: Worldly sorrow wants everybody to know this is a big misunderstanding.
SPEAKER_00: Worldly sorrow might even say clear my name, but not through repentance, not through confession.
SPEAKER_00: Worldly sorrow wants their name cleared, realizing that, hey, it wasn't as bad as you thought.
SPEAKER_00: That is a component to it, by the way, with worldly sorrow, where the person thinks that the power to fix their relationship is in their own.
SPEAKER_00: And how they manipulate it, how they explain it.
SPEAKER_00: They can explain it in such a way, you see, that where it doesn't seem like they're the bad person.
SPEAKER_00: They explain it in such a way that it sounds reasonable what they did.
SPEAKER_00: Actually sounds reasonable when you listen to them describe it.
SPEAKER_00: That's not godly sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: That's worldly sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Vindicating themselves, explaining themselves in such a way that they seem like they're the innocent party.
SPEAKER_00: That is not godly sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: And that's closely connected to the third point here.
SPEAKER_00: If godly sorrow has this indignation at your sin, worldly sorrow has this concern about your reputation.
SPEAKER_00: You don't want people to think less of you.
SPEAKER_00: What if what if people knew you were a sinner?
SPEAKER_00: That's worldly sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so concerned about my reputation.
SPEAKER_00: Which is closely connected.
SPEAKER_00: Again, the contrast with the fear of God is the fear of man.
SPEAKER_00: Worldly sorrow is focused on who knows?
SPEAKER_00: Who knows?
SPEAKER_00: What do they know?
SPEAKER_00: When did they know it?
SPEAKER_00: Let me explain this.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want people to think less of me.
SPEAKER_00: That's worldly sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Worldly sorrow, of course, can come through the conscience.
SPEAKER_00: I mentioned this earlier.
SPEAKER_00: Conscience is, of course, a it's a God given gift to you, but it's informed so much by your own thinking.
SPEAKER_00: It's very Man-led, man-driven, your own consciences.
SPEAKER_00: It's head knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: You can have head knowledge that stealing is wrong.
SPEAKER_00: You can know the Bible says stealing is wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Your conscience can convict you that stealing is wrong.
SPEAKER_00: You can get caught stealing and shed lots of tears and then not want your parents to know, or not want your boss to know, or not want your wife or your kids to know, and that's not godly sorrow, even though you got tears and everything.
SPEAKER_00: It's not because you were convicted that you're violating the eighth commandment.
SPEAKER_00: It's that you're you know stealing's wrong and you don't like that you got caught.
SPEAKER_00: You don't want people to know.
SPEAKER_00: That's head knowledge that shows you you're a sinner, and now you're sorry that you got caught, and now you cry about getting caught, and now you really want to manage this well so people don't know about it.
SPEAKER_00: It's the fear of man.
SPEAKER_00: Which has, of course, a focus on what you've lost through this.
SPEAKER_00: What does your sin cost you?
SPEAKER_00: That's what makes you sorry.
SPEAKER_00: You have an affair and your spouse leaves you and you lose your family.
SPEAKER_00: Are you sorrowful that you lost your family or sorrowful that you sinned against God?
SPEAKER_00: Worldly sorrow versus godly sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: I'm struck in Revelation 18, something I barely noticed when I preached to Revelation a few years ago.
SPEAKER_00: But in Revelation 18, I was reading it recently, and it's, you know, Babylon has fallen and the kings of the world are freaking out.
SPEAKER_00: The kings of the world are mourning and they're so distressed that Babylon has fallen.
SPEAKER_00: But there's a line in there, Revelation 18, verses 12 to 13, it lists the things the kings are sorrowful about.
SPEAKER_00: And one of them is slaves.
SPEAKER_00: They're sorrowful, they are stuck with these slaves they had.
SPEAKER_00: They have all their spices and all their golds, and they have these slaves.
SPEAKER_00: And they're so sorrowful that Babylon fell.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the world is in turmoil.
SPEAKER_00: It's the apocalypse.
SPEAKER_00: And they're weeping that they had, they can't, there's no market for the human lives they have.
SPEAKER_00: What a picture of worldly sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: That's like the extreme version of it.
SPEAKER_00: They're not sad that they sinned against God.
SPEAKER_00: They're not sad that they've missed the rapture.
SPEAKER_00: They're not sad that Jesus is coming back to judge them.
SPEAKER_00: They're not sad about those things.
SPEAKER_00: They're sad that they're they're stuck with capital that they can't capitalize on.
SPEAKER_00: Man, this this apocalypse thing is bad for the pocketbook, is their attitude.
SPEAKER_00: You see that in minimalistic, more minimalized ways in your own life, though.
SPEAKER_00: When you get caught in sin or exposed in sin and you're focused on what it's going to cost you.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if I told my boss I'd be stealing from them, it would cost me this, that, or the other thing.
SPEAKER_00: Focus on the loss.
SPEAKER_00: That's worldly sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: It's not godly sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Which leads to the next contrast.
SPEAKER_00: Godly sorrow has the zeal to make things right.
SPEAKER_00: You want to make things right, you want to make them right quickly.
SPEAKER_00: Worldly sorrow just wants to move on.
SPEAKER_00: Can we be done with this?
SPEAKER_00: Can we just put this whole thing behind us?
SPEAKER_00: Can we pretend this never happened and move on?
SPEAKER_00: That's worldly sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Godly sorrow works through it.
SPEAKER_00: Worldly sorrow wants it in the rearview mirror.
SPEAKER_00: Worldly sorrow views confession as a means to an end, and the end is getting past this.
SPEAKER_00: Worldly sorrow implies that repentance is an easy work.
SPEAKER_00: I can repent easily.
SPEAKER_00: I'll do it right now.
SPEAKER_00: Repented.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go on.
SPEAKER_00: Whereas godly sorrow is recognizing that repentance is hard work.
SPEAKER_00: You're zealous for it, and it will take time.
SPEAKER_00: And ending back where we kind of begin.
SPEAKER_00: Godly sorrow wants justice to be done.
SPEAKER_00: Worldly sorrow just is bitter.
SPEAKER_00: It starts with despair, it ends with bitterness.
SPEAKER_00: It's bitter because you know there's consequences for sin, and you don't want those consequences, and you're bitter if you have to go through those consequences.
SPEAKER_00: You're bitter about having to deal with the consequences of your sin.
SPEAKER_00: You're angry at those that want to bring the consequences to bear.
SPEAKER_00: You're bitter about having to go through it.
SPEAKER_00: Bitterness is not a fruit of the spirit, but a work of the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: Bitterness is something it's it's Esau, who sold his birthright for soup, and then was sad about it.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says he sought repentance and he sought it with tears even.
SPEAKER_00: Esau cried his eyes out, but he couldn't readly sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: He had worldly sorrow, lots of tears, and then what came right after his tears?
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember what Paul says?
SPEAKER_00: Bitterness.
SPEAKER_00: His tears were dried up and they gave way to bitterness.
SPEAKER_00: That shows that it was worldly sorrow, not godly sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob, he was a rascal, he was a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: And he had godly sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: His sorrow over sin didn't produce bitterness.
SPEAKER_00: I mean he wrestled the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And finally expressed his faith in God.
SPEAKER_00: What a contrast.
SPEAKER_00: Worldly sorrow from godly sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Look at Paul, though, in verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: Although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the one who did the wrong.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul wrote the letter saying, These sinners put him out of the church.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's the letter.
SPEAKER_00: I'm done with you guys.
SPEAKER_00: This is the severe letter.
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about this before.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I wrote it to you.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't write it to you for the sake of the one who did the wrong, though.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't write it to you for the sake of the sinner, nor for the sake of the one who suffered the wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Paul is the one who suffered the wrong.
SPEAKER_00: He's referring to himself in the third person here.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't write it to you because I wanted that guy out.
SPEAKER_00: Paul wasn't telling them to discipline people out of the church because he wanted justice, and he wasn't telling them to discipline people out of the church because he wanted to be vindicated or protected himself.
SPEAKER_00: What other option is there?
SPEAKER_00: People are sinning against Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, throw them out of the church.
SPEAKER_00: The options are either I'm writing it for this guy's sake, I want justice done to them, or I'm writing it for my sake, I want protection.
SPEAKER_00: That's how that's the categories we normally think in.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's got an entirely third category here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm writing to you in order that your earnestness for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God.
SPEAKER_00: He's writing to the whole church so they would go through this and see if they are earnest for the Lord or not.
SPEAKER_00: Earnest is the same word earlier.
SPEAKER_00: That's where he started in verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: Ends in verse 12 that way.
SPEAKER_00: I want to see if you have actual conviction about sin.
SPEAKER_00: This whole series is about church discipline.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, I called it Matthew 18, incarnate, what it looks like played out sometimes in church discipline.
SPEAKER_00: It's very easy to think, you know, here's one party and here's the other party.
SPEAKER_00: Should we discipline that party or that party?
SPEAKER_00: Which side is right, which side is wrong, and we're taking sides here.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, set that aside for a second.
SPEAKER_00: The point of this is to see if you as a congregation have godly sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: That you want people to deal with their sins, and if they're unwilling to, they will be put out of the church so that your earnestness will be seen not before Paul, not before Titus, not before Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: Look, so your earnestness will be seen and proved before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That God sees the church.
SPEAKER_00: That's why people get put out of the church, because God sees the church.
SPEAKER_00: Do you want a church that has a godly sense of sorrow?
SPEAKER_00: That leads to eternal life or a worldly sense of sorrow?
SPEAKER_00: It leads to excuse making and justification and dodging and fear of conflict, and we don't want to lose things, and yeah, we know this is wrong and that is wrong, but you know, if we try harder, we can fix this next time kind of attitude.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the Corinthians are doing.
SPEAKER_00: That's worldly sorrow applied to the church.
SPEAKER_00: It really is jarring when you see verse 12, he just shifts so quickly from you and look at your heart to how is this going to play out in the church?
SPEAKER_00: What kind of church are you going to be?
SPEAKER_00: What kind of church will you be?
SPEAKER_00: All this, of course, is rooted, the whole idea of punishment and justice is rooted in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus bears the penalty for our sin.
SPEAKER_00: We cannot atone for our sin.
SPEAKER_00: We just can't.
SPEAKER_00: We can't make our sin go away on our own.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus atones for our sin.
SPEAKER_00: And we encounter him when the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the truth about Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And we know we believe the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: When we see worldly godly sorrow in our life, when we see worldly sorrow dissipate and godly sorrow embraced, we know we have an authentic saving faith as we turn to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We grieve over our sin.
SPEAKER_00: So I said earlier, I want you to examine yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes people get so easily confused about whether or not they're in the faith or not.
SPEAKER_00: But as you think back to that list, as you think back to it, it's not a lot of gray area.
SPEAKER_00: There's not a lot of neutrality area between these two poles here.
SPEAKER_00: There's darkness and light.
SPEAKER_00: We're thankful the Lord died on the cross to bring us from darkness to light.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we're thankful that you did not call us to work our way out of our sin.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't call us to pick ourselves up by our spiritual bootstraps and get to work.
SPEAKER_00: But you called us to repent, to grieve over our sin and repent from it.
SPEAKER_00: So I pray for the hearts of those who are here tonight.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that there would be real godly repentance in their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: They would look at the crucified and resurrected Christ with the eyes of faith, that they would see their own sin that held them on that tree, and they would cry out to you for salvation.
SPEAKER_00: We're thankful that you don't save us because we repented enough.
SPEAKER_00: You save us because your spirit opens our eyes.
SPEAKER_00: You save us by grace, it's a gift.
SPEAKER_00: But we know those whom you save.
SPEAKER_00: That gift comes with receipts.
SPEAKER_00: That gift produces, it's effectual, it works in us.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, we're thankful that your spirit is the one who works.
SPEAKER_00: This is all by grace.
SPEAKER_00: We can never earn it, we can never deserve it.
SPEAKER_00: So we give you thanks for your amazing grace that saves us.
SPEAKER_00: It's in the name of Christ we pray.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us today.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our service times and church information are on our website at ibc.church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: location, go to tms.edu.
SPEAKER_00: I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily.
SPEAKER_00: Serve others around you, and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with boldness.
SPEAKER_00: May the Lord bless you.