Now let me, just as you're thinking
about those passages, make a couple of points, if I may, regarding
what we have to think about today. It's probably useful for us to
note this passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. It came in a previous
letter that the Apostle had written, the Apostle Paul had written
to the church at Corinth. And in 1 Corinthians chapter
five, verses one to eight, he refers to a sin, a particularly
grievous sin that existed in the congregation and which had
not been dealt with by the congregation. And he made some criticisms as
to that sin and also the fact that the matter had not been
dealt with. And he supplied some remedies,
some instructions to remedy the situation. And that included
the fact that the Apostle Paul was handing the guilty person,
he had been guilty of fornication and it appears incest, over to
Satan for the destruction of his flesh, the apostle says,
with a view to the salvation of his soul. And it also included
a request on the part of the Apostle that this individual
should be excluded or excommunicated from the congregation. and that
he no more enjoy communion with the believers there. And I think
today's verses in 2 Corinthians chapter 7 will be more meaningful
if we just read a few verses from 1 Corinthians chapter 5.
So first of all, 1 Corinthians chapter 5 and I want to read
a few verses at the beginning of the chapter. The apostle writes
to them. It is reported commonly that
there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not
so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's
wife. And ye are puffed up, and have
not rather mourned that he that hath done this deed might be
taken away from among you. For I verily, as absent in body,
but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present
concerning him that hath so done this deed. In the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit
with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one
unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit
may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is
not good. Know ye not that a little leaven
leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven,
that ye may be a new lump as ye are unlavened, for even Christ
our Passover is sacrificed for us. So let's just stop there and
turn now to 2 Corinthians chapter 7. And the apostle seems to have
in mind this first letter and this first rebuke when he is
speaking here in chapter 7. And let me just say, by way of
introduction to that, before we read that passage, it's never
easy to be sure how criticism, even well-meant criticism,
is going to be received by the criticised party. And we may
well imagine that there was a degree of anxiety in Paul's heart that
opposition against him might grow and that there might be
powerful forces and even sort of church politics that would
harm the faithful believers in Corinth, whom Paul dearly, dearly
loved, and whose spiritual well-being he so much desired, which was
the reason for this rebuke in the first letter. So it was with
great gladness, and we're going to read about this in a moment,
it was with great gladness that he received good news from Titus,
who had recently been at Corinth, that the believers there in that
city had received Paul's rebuke and direction graciously. they had received the rebuke
with what the Apostle calls godly sorrow. So let's read these verses
now together. Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter
7 and verse 2, We have wronged no man, we have
corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man. I speak not this to condemn
you, for I have said before that ye are in our hearts to die and
live with you. Great is my boldness of speech
toward you, great is my glorying of you. I am filled with comfort,
I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation. For when we
were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were
troubled on every side. Without were fightings, within
were fears. Nevertheless, God that comforteth
those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus." Titus
had been at Corinth. and not by his coming only, but
by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you, when
he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind
toward me, so that I rejoiced the more. For though I made you
sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent,
for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry,
though it were but for a season. Now I rejoice, not that ye were
made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance. For ye were made
sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us
in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance
to salvation, not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world
worketh death. For behold this selfsame thing,
that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought
in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation,
yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea,
what revenge! In all things ye have approved
yourselves to be clear in this matter. Wherefore, though I wrote
unto you, I did it not for his cause that had done the wrong,
nor for his cause that suffered wrong, but that our care for
you in the sight of God might appear unto you. Therefore we
were comforted in your comfort. Yea, and exceedingly the more
joyed we for the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed
by you all. For if I have boasted anything
to him of you, I am not ashamed. But as we speak all things to
you in truth, even so our boasting which I made before Titus is
found a truth. And his inward affection is more
abundant toward you, whilst he remembereth the obedience of
you all, how with fear and trembling ye received him. I rejoice therefore
that I have confidence in you in all things. Amen, may the
Lord bless this reading. So this is the Apostle Paul talking
about the coming of Titus and the way in which Titus was able
to tell him about how the Corinthians had received his letter with
its rebukes and its direction within it. This is, of course, a particular
situation in one congregation, but I thought that it might do
us all some good if we just touched a little on some of the things
Paul mentions with respect to this little phrase, godly sorrow. Godly sorrow for and over sin. In verse 10, the apostle tells
us that there are two kinds of sorrow. There's godly sorrow
that leads to, or he says, worketh repentance, and there's a worldly
sorrow that leads to, or worketh death. Worldly sorrow is a natural
grief. It's a regret for a worldly loss. Now I'm not denying that it's
very real. And it's in our emotions, in
our psychology, in our physical nature, this is sorrow that can
shake an individual to the core. But inherently, It flows from
selfish principles of longing after worldly things, even bereavement. It's because of the loss that
we feel, or because we're frustrated about something, or that we cannot
achieve what we aim for in this world. And the Apostle says that
this worldly sorrow works death. because that sorrow can bring
on physical and mental diseases or else it can involve the pursuit
of selfish aims which will always end in the decline of our natural
bodies and bring on a sorrow of loss and of failure and of
dissatisfaction. And ultimately, it will bring
us down to that very place where there will be a dread of eternal
loss. And this would appear to be the
worldly loss that afflicts all men and women in this world. but there's also a godly sorrow,
and this is the contrast that the apostle is making here. He
speaks about a worldly sorrow that worketh unto death, and
a godly sorrow, which is something else on the other side of that,
that contrasts with it, which is altogether more positive,
even blessed. It has a beneficial aspect because
it's a spiritual sorrow. And again, it is something that
is very real. I'm not underestimating the intensity
of these emotions and experiences in any way. But this godly sorrow,
as well as having a physical and a mental aspect, also is
a spiritual experience. And it is this godly sorrow that
the apostle has discerned amongst the Corinthians. He speaks of
it as a grace. It's a grace that comes from
God. It is constructive and helpful because it reflects gospel principles
in a believer's soul rather than the destructive legal fear and
dread which there is in the worldly sorrow. So here's just a few
things that I want to draw your attention to with respect to
this godly sorrow that the Apostle Paul mentions. If you look in
verse nine, he tells us where it comes from. He says there
that, for ye were made sorry after a godly manner. So here he is telling us that
this sorrow, this godly sorrow, came after a godly manner. And he's speaking here about
what we sometimes call evangelical repentance. It's a sorrow that
comes from God. It's a gift that comes to believers
from God. It's a work of grace in the soul,
a work of mercy for a sinner, and it is a blessing, though
it sometimes comes in disguise. It's a blessing because it causes
us to look to Christ in that moment of a deep affliction because
of the sorrow for our sin and the repentance that that generates. Let me just show you a couple
of verses which speaks to us of the fact that this is a gift
from God. In Acts chapter 5 and verse 31,
we're told there about Peter is speaking to the scribes and
the Pharisees, the Sanhedrin. and he says this, him that is
the Lord Jesus Christ hath God exalted with his right hand to
be a prince and a saviour for to give repentance to Israel
and forgiveness of sins. So this was a work of Christ,
one of Christ's resurrection and ascension gifts is to give
repentance to the elect of God and a knowledge of the forgiveness
of sins. And in 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse
25 we have another example of that where the apostle is speaking
to Timothy with respect to the work of the preacher and he says,
In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God
peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. So once again we see that not
only is faith a gift, we speak about repentance and faith, not
only is faith a gift from God, but so too is repentance, evangelical
repentance, godly sorrow for sin. And that's what the apostle
is speaking about here. He speaks about the effect of
this godly sorrow. Because it is a gift from God,
because it is a spiritual work, it's quite different from worldly
sorrow and even a natural repentance, which is really little more than
regret. We're told that Judas repented. but then he went out and he hanged
himself. And that was definitely an example
of the worldly sorrow that worketh death. So that's not an evangelical
repentance, but it is rather a deep regret for what has happened. kind of repentance. Let me call
it false repentance just because to distinguish it from a true
spiritual repentance. That repentance is a sorrow for
the consequences of sin rather than the cause of sin. It's a sorrow that sin has been
found out and that it will bring punishment and it's the effect
of fear, and it goes no further than the dread of the penalty
and the punishment that it will incur. Whereas true repentance
flows from a consciousness, a consciousness of sin itself, an awareness that
we have offended God, and it's the result of love towards God. It's a feeling of shame towards
God that we have dealt with him and treated him in such a way. We regret for having shamed the
Lord. We feel sorrow for having aggravated
his suffering and for having tarnished his testimony. And it's a grace that humbles
us and it dwells a long time with us as a chastening reminder
of our personal weakness and our personal dependence on the
Lord. Even, I would say, despite an
awareness at the same time that God has forgiven and forgotten
our sin. So that we can have a knowledge
of forgiveness and cleansing in the blood of Jesus Christ
and yet an ongoing godly sorrow for our own personal weakness
and our unworthiness. And Paul gives some outcomes. Look at verse 11 with me here.
He gives some outcomes of this godly sorrow. He says, for behold this selfsame
thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sword, what carefulness
it wrought in you. Yea, what clearing of yourselves? Yea, what indignation? Yea, what fear? Yea, what vehement
desire? Yea, what zeal? Yea, what revenge? In all things you have approved
yourself to be clear in this matter. So that as this repentance
and godly sorrow are gifts, so too are these outcomes of that
godly sorrow. And I'm just going to quickly
run through these seven and just touch upon them briefly, and
then we will be done. But he says that there are these
seven outcomes that are produced by this godly sorrow. He says,
what carefulness it worked in you. What carefulness it worked
in you. Godly sorrow makes us sensitive
to the circumstances and nature of our sin. It's when we fall
into sin, it's when we succumb to temptation that we realise
how weak we are. Now I can tell you, I could tell
anyone, I could say, be careful, be careful. I could say, be aware. I could even say, beware. like
the Lord did to the disciples on Sunday. Beware the scribes,
beware the leaven of the scribes and the Pharisees. But sadly,
the reality is that it's only when we've tasted the bitterness
or felt the sharpness of godly sorrow that our spiritual senses
are stirred up to take greater care. but carefulness was worked
in these Corinthians because of this godly sorrow. The second
one he points to is this. What clearing of yourselves. Now this doesn't mean that they
denied that there was anything wrong with them. Rather it meant
that they were confessing their sin. And that's another aspect
of godly sorrow is that we confess our sin before the Lord. It's
an admitting and are repudiating our sin and the trouble that
that sin has caused and the distress that it has generated. He goes
on, he says, what indignation this godly sorrow brought on.
And that is indignation or anger even. It's a hatred of sin. When
we have tasted that godly sorrow, we see sin in its proper dress. We see it in its proper guise. We see the true evil nature of
sin. And we get a little bit of a
glimpse at just how disgusting sin is in the sight of God. He says, what fear? And that's
not a fear of hell or a fear of damnation because we trust,
we believe that our sins are forgiven in the blood of Jesus
Christ. But it's a recognition that we
have offended God by our conduct, that we have shamed his church,
that we have hurt the gospel and that we've spoiled our testimony. He speaks about a vehement desire,
and that is of not committing such a sin again. It doesn't
always last, but that's one of the aspects of godly sorrow for
sinners. We say, Lord, I don't want to
be there again. I don't want to feel that. I
don't want to know the smart, the pain of this experience. and we commit ourselves to behaving
differently in the time to come. We have a desire that the Lord
will keep us from evil and that we will honour the Lord in our
life and in our walk and in our conversation. He speaks about
godly sorrow generating a zeal, a zeal for the Lord, a zeal for
the glory of God, for restoring and upholding the truth in our
lives amongst the people of God, for the cause of the gospel and
for the reputation of Christ's house and people and family. And he speaks about godly sorrow
generating revenge, not against another person, because that's
God's business, but against the sin that so easily besets us,
against the odious and the hideous ease with which sin creeps into
our lives, and that Satan can find a hold in our hearts and
in our minds. And it's a rededication to rid
it out of our lives by the grace of God and to resolve to protect
our own testimony and preserve the well-being of others around
us from the same sin. So that in the end, this godly
sorrow is a humbling of a penitent believer and a rededication to
the love of Christ that brings forgiveness and cleansing through
the blood of the cross. It's a deepening sense of gratitude
and an awareness that God repeatedly has to show us grace and mercy
in the Lord day by day. And the last wee point is this,
godly sorrow proves to be effective of forgiveness. Because the Apostle
Paul says, in all things, he's speaking to the Corinthians again
about this particular sin that had gone on in their church.
He said, in all things ye have approved yourself to be clear
in this matter because of that godly sorrow. And then in the
very last verse of the chapter, he says, I rejoice therefore
that I have confidence in you in all things. So there is a
godly sorrow that comes because of our sin. It is to be embraced
and appreciated as a gift from God. And it is to be followed
through in these various outcomes as the means by which the Lord,
even through our own sin and unworthiness, brings us closer
to himself and an awareness of what the Lord Jesus Christ has
done. Amen.