Brethren, let's turn in our Bibles
to 2 Corinthians chapter 7. Let's begin reading in verse
4. Paul says, Great is my boldness
of speech towards you. Great is my glorying of you. I am filled with comfort, I'm
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 comforted those that are cast down, comforted us by the
coming of Titus. 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 you were made sorry, but that you sorrowed
to repentance. For you were made sorry after
a godly manner, that you might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance
to salvation, not to be repented of. But the sorrow of this world
worketh death. For behold this selfsame thing,
that you 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, You have approved
yourselves to be clear in this matter." Now the apostle was
a force to rebuke these Corinthians because they were guilty. There were many things going
on in the church at Corinth that was not honorable. And so Paul
rebuked them and through his rebuke, God granted them repentance. In our text here, we see that
repentance involves seven things. He spoke of carefulness, clearing,
indignation, fear, desire, zeal, and revenge. That's repentance
not to be repented of. The sorrow of the world stops
short of this. A man can become sorrowful, and
not have all of these different gifts that God gives that are
included in repentance. And so His repentance is not
true repentance. So I want us to look at these
seven things this morning and see what true godly repentance
is. This is what God works in the
heart when He grants repentance. Now first of all, when God grants
repentance, He works in us carefulness. Paul said in verse 11, You saw
right after a godly sort and he said what carefulness it wrought
in you. Now while we're dead in our sins,
we're totally unaware of just how awful our sin is and how
much God hates it. We have no awareness of that
while we're dead in our sins. Scripture says of the natural
man, he may be religious. He's talking here about an idolater,
worshiping the God of his imagination. But he says, he feedeth on ashes.
A deceived heart hath turned him aside that he cannot deliver
his soul. We all have that deceived heart
by nature. And he can't say, there's a lie
in my right hand. We can't do that by nature because
we don't see our sin. We don't see that our very best
righteousness in all our religion is nothing but sin and idolatry. And as believers, we sometimes
fall into a stupor and we need to be rebuked and we need to
be woken up because we fail to see how awful our sin is and
how God hates it. But when God rebukes us through
His Word, that's what He does. He wakes us up. He wakes us up
and He works carefulness in us. That word means speedy, diligent,
Earnest turning from sin. That's what carefulness is. You're
careful now. You don't want to... Before you
just go without any carefulness, any thought, you go right into
sin. Now it makes you careful. It turns you and you want to
be careful not to go into sin. The Lord said, Thine ears shall
hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, when you would
turn to the right or to the left. That's the Spirit of God speaking
into the heart, into the conscience, saying, this is the way. Walk
in this way. And He said, and when that happens,
then you will defile the covering of your graven images. You'll
cast them away from you. And you'll say, get thee hence.
You'll say, that's like a mistress cloth to me. Get thee hence.
And you don't want to touch it. That's this carefulness He's
talking about when God grants you true repentance. The first
thing in repentance is to wake you up to see how God hates sin
and how awful sin really is. Then you can see you have a lie
in your hand and you cast it from you. Now secondly, when
God rebukes in truth, He makes us want to clear ourselves. He
said in verse 11, Behold this selfsame thing that you sorrowed
after godly sort, what carefulness it wrought on you, yea, what
clearing of yourselves. The Greek word for clearing is
where we get our word apology. The Corinthian brethren, when
God woke them up, gave them this carefulness, the next thing it
did in them was it made them not make excuses for their sins. But when a man's dead in his
sin, you can preach depravity to him and he'll begin to try
to justify himself. Well, you believe all men are
that bad. I see some good men in the world. And what he's saying
is, I don't think I'm that bad. I think I'm a pretty good man.
That's what he's saying. But when God works repentance
in the heart, He makes you no longer Justify yourself. That haughty, arrogant, self-righteous
man hears the gospel and he doesn't want to have anything to do with
it. But when God works repentance, He makes you see that you really
are guilty. And instead, what the Corinthians
did is they acknowledged their sinfulness. They acknowledged
it. And they did it first and foremost,
acknowledged that first and foremost their sin was against God. And so you won't... It makes
you want to clear yourself and be clear with God first. David is a good example. Go with
me to Psalm 51. Look at Psalm 51. Listen to David. He says in verse 1, Have mercy
upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness, according
unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. For I
acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me
against Thee. Thee only have I sinned and done
this evil in Thy sight, that Thou might be justified when
Thou speakest, and be clear when Thou judgest. You see, when you
seek to be clear before God, you don't try to seek to be clear
by defending yourself. You don't seek to be clear by
your own works. You seek to be clear by coming
to God and saying, Lord, have mercy on me. I need mercy. I need mercy. It's to seek God's
cleansing. Wash me throughly. You want to
be clear, but you want God to do the clearing. You want Him
to do the washing. You come to God confessing your
sins against God. Against Thee and Thee only have
I sinned. You come to Him saying, Lord, You're clear. I'm the one
that's not clear. That Thou mightest be justified
when Thou speakest and be clear when Thou judgest. I'm guilty.
And you clear God. You clear God. You clear Him
of any wrongdoing in declaring you guilty. That's a man being
honest, taking sides with God against himself, desiring God
to clear him, knowing that if God doesn't clear me, I can't
be cleared of this. And also, God makes us seek to
be cleared with our brethren. Just as you don't want God to
look upon your sin and have something towards you, some anger towards
you, you don't want your brethren to either. And it makes you go
to that brother that you have offended and acknowledge your
sin against your brother. And acknowledge their kindness
to you for rebuking you. Paul said there in verse 7, 2
Corinthians 7, 7. He said when Titus came, he said,
Titus was comforted in you. And he said, Titus was confident
in you when he told us of your earnest desire, your mourning,
your fervent mind toward me so that I rejoice the more. You
see, they wanted Paul to know something. They wanted him to
know that they needed to be clear with him and they wanted him
to be cleared. They didn't want him to think
that he was in the wrong or that they thought he was in the wrong.
They wanted him to know that yes, you were right Paul, we were
wrong. That's what comes with repentance. Zacchaeus stood after
the Lord came and called him down out of that tree. Zacchaeus
stood and he said, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the
poor. And if I've taken anything from
any man by false accusation, I'll restore him fourfold. Why
did he say that? Because he was a thief. That's
why. But he wanted to be cleared of
that. Now, he wanted to give, restore men, not only what he
stole from them, but fourfold. Above and beyond what he stole
from them. Because he wanted to be clear. He didn't want his
brethren to see him as an offender anymore. He wanted to be clear
with his brethren. You see, this is involved in
repentance. God makes you want to be clear with God and be clear
with your brethren. Now, thirdly. When God rebukes
in truth, He fills us with indignation. The next thing Paul mentions
is, yea, what indignation? God-given repentance is a radical
change of mind. A radical change of mind. When
we are dead in our sins, we hate, we have unrighteous indignation
against God and against His people. A natural man, the carnal mind
is enmity against God. We hate God by nature. We hate
His people by nature. Anybody that speaks this word
in truth declares to us God sent His Son to die for a particular
people, and them only. And He succeeded in redeeming
them, and now God's calling them out, and God's justifying them,
and God's going to preserve them, and God's going to save them,
so that God gets all the glory and we get none. You declare
that, and the natural man has indignation toward God. I will
not have this man reign over me, He said. But when He gives
you repentance, When He gives you repentance, there'll be righteous
anger, righteous indignation against sin and against all lies. First, within yourself. You'll hate your sin, your own
sin. You'll have indignation towards
your own sin and toward your own lies that you've believed
in. Paul said in Romans 7, I was alive without the law once. Thought
I was. Thought I was keeping it. Touching
the law outwardly, I was blameless and I thought I was keeping the
law. Without the commandment, I was alive. But when the commandment
came, when God entered my heart and He gave me repentance, sin
revived. Sin was quickened. Sin became
alive. Sin stood up and I saw sin in
me. And He said, and I died. My old
self-righteous man died. And then He said this, ìThat
which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not.î
But listen, ìBut what I hate, that do I.î What I have indignation
toward, what I hate is what I do. Oh, wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Heís my deliverer. So you have
indignation, first of all, against yourself. And also in that new
man you have indignation against lies. You don't want to hear
lies told anymore against God your Father, against Christ your
Redeemer. This is what Paul was speaking
about. We ought to have righteous indignation
against lies. Remember the Lord told the church
in Revelation, He said, I don't want you being lukewarm. I'll
spew you out of my mouth if you look warm. And Paul said in Ephesians
4.26, Be ye angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon
your wrath, neither give place to the devil. And the psalm from
which that came from says, Go to the Lord and meditate upon
the Lord from your bed and ask Him mercy, ask Him for grace.
See, you have indignation against lies, you have indignation against
sin, against all unrighteousness. Before God saved me, I was unlike
some people. I grew up in a church where the
gospel was preached. And so I knew the doctrine in
my head long before God saved me. And I would argue doctrine
with friends and tell them what the Bible said. But if they said,
well, we believe Christ died for everybody and wants everybody
to be saved. If they called Him a failure,
He didn't offend me. He didn't bother me. But when God saved me, He put
the love of God in my heart. Now God's my Father. Now Christ
is my elder brother. Now He's my Redeemer. Now when
you speak lies against Him, I don't like it. It fills me with righteous
indignation against lies and against sin and against all unrighteousness. You see what I'm saying? This
is part of Him granting you repentance. Fourthly, when God rebukes in
truth, He fills us with a true fear. He says there, Yea, what
fear? Now this is not a fear of hell
and a fear of condemnation. Man can be scared sometimes and
come under a legal fear And that's when men will turn over a new
leaf, you know. And they'll get religion and
they'll go join a church and for a little while they'll do
that and then the fear wears off and they're back to where
they were. This is not that kind of fear.
This is true godly fear. This is true reverence that God
puts in your heart. A reverence for God. And it's
due to God making you see that there's forgiveness with God.
He said, ìIf thou, Lord, should mark us iniquity, O Lord, who
shall stand?î If the Lord marked our iniquity, this is what He
makes you to see. If the Lord marked iniquity,
thereís not a man on the top side of this earth that could
stand before God. We cannot stand before God if
the Lord marked iniquity. He makes you behold this. But
then He says this, ìBut there is forgiveness with thee, that
thou mayest be feared.î What's going to work reverence in the
heart? The holding that we're guilty, but there's forgiveness
with God. That's what works reverence in
the heart. This is reverence for Christ. It's reverence for
the gospel of Christ. It's reverence for His ministers
that preach it. Reverence for His people. He
makes you now to see anything that God is involved in. That
God truly, where He's working, makes you have a reverence for
Him. reverence for Him and His work in His people. God's grace,
brethren, free forgiveness of sin by our Lord Jesus Christ
teaches us to fear offending Him. It teaches us to fear we
want to serve Him acceptably with reverence and godly fear. That's what the Scripture said.
That's this repentance. That's this fear that He gives
in repentance, see? So let me review up to this point. God grants repentance and He
creates within us carefulness, makes you want to depart from
sin. He creates in you clearing of ourselves, makes you want
to seek mercy with God, take sides with God against yourself
to be clear. Indignation, He makes you hate
sin and falsehood and untruth against your God. Fear, He works
reverence for God in His gospel, for His church. Now fifthly,
When God rebukes in truth, He gives us desire. Desire. He says, Yea, what vehement,
what earnest desire. When God gives a new heart, when
He creates a new heart within, in that new heart there is a
new earnest desire for Christ Himself. That was the difference
that God made in me. Before, I didn't have a desire
for Christ. I didn't even really have a desire
for His doctrine. I just understood some doctrine.
But then, when He gives you a new heart, now you have a desire
for Christ, a longing for Christ, a hungering and a thirsting after
Christ, your righteousness, that was not there before. There's
only a real desire for Christ when we've been saved by the
truth. That's when you'll desire Christ. That's when you'll desire
to truly hear Him exalted in the Gospel. and you will not
want to hear any other gospel. Paul said, we preach Christ crucified. Unto the Jew who is yet dead
in his sin, that's a stumbling block because he's looking to
his works. He doesn't want to hear that the works are fulfilled
by Christ. He's looking to his works so Christ is a stumbling
block to it. He has no desire for Christ.
And to the Greek it's foolishness. To the man who's preaching philosophy,
and who's focused on science, and who's focused on the earth,
this is foolishness to him to just preach Christ crucified.
Because he's looking to his wisdom. And he don't want to hear Christ
is all the wisdom. And he gives the mind of Christ
in the heart of his people. He don't want to hear that. But
unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks. It matters not
what our background is. To them who are called, Christ
is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Now you have a desire
for Christ, a true desire for Christ. And there's a desire
now where you want God's continual abiding presence with you. Before,
you were like Adam. You were constantly trying to
cover your sin, to soothe your conscience and hide from God.
You want God's presence with you all the time. That's your
desire. Moses was leading all those children
of Israel in the desert. Can you imagine what a task that
must have been? Millions of people he's leading
through that desert. And he prayed to God and he said,
If thy presence go not with me, carry us up, not hence. Why did he want God's presence
with him? He said, ìFor wherein shall it be known here that I
and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not in that
thou goest with us? So shall we be separated.î Moses
didnít believe in self-sanctification. He didnít believe in a progressive
sanctification that he accomplished by himself. He said, ìThereís
one way weíre going to be separated. Thereís one way weíre going to
be sanctified. Itís by Godís presence.î by God dwelling in
us. When He entered that tabernacle,
that old tabernacle was sanctified. And when He enters you, you'll
be separated. When His presence is dwelling
in you, you'll be separated. That's why Christ said, you abide
in Me and I in you, for without Me you can do nothing. He says,
this is how it's going to be known, that we're separated,
I and thy people from all the people that are on the face of
the earth. Because you go with us, your presence is with us.
And He makes you desire that presence. Lord, never leave us,
don't forsake us, please. And Christ says, I'll never leave
you and I'll never forsake you. Because He was forsaken in justice
for His people. He promises His people, I'll
never leave you and I'll never forsake you. Lord, I'm with you
always. That's what Christ said. He makes
you desire that presence. When you begin to feel His presence
is gone and you feel cold and you feel no desire for Him. He kindles you and makes you
desire Him, makes you cry out for Him. And there's an earnest
desire to walk in a new way, in a way that's honoring to God.
See, this thing of repentance is not just a one-time thing.
It's something that affects everything about the sinner. He said in
Titus 2.7, in all things, In all things, show thyself a pattern
of good works. In doctrine, in what we preach,
show uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity. God's preacher and
his people do not want to speak a word that's not true about
Christ. You won't hastily run in speaking lies. You want to
speak truth, sound doctrine. sound speech that cannot be condemned,
that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no
evil thing to say of you. You don't want to bring reproach
on the ministry. You don't want to bring reproach
on Christ. This is your desire. So you want to speak sound speech.
You want to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.
Why? Because the grace of God that
brings salvation has appeared unto all His people, teaching
us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live
soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, all the
while looking for Christ to return. This is what He makes His people
do. That's your desire. Now let's look at this sixth
thing. When God rebukes in truth, He makes us to want God to have
all the glory. That's what this next word means.
Yehwazil. The word means jealousy. Jealousy. Like a bride for her husband
and a husband for his bride. You remember Romans 10, Paul
said, I'll bear them record. Speaking of his countrymen after
the flesh who were yet dead in their sins, he said, I'll bear
them record. They have a zeal for God, but it's not according
to knowledge. Because they're going about to
establish their own righteousness. What was their zeal for? What
was their jealousy for? That they would get some glory.
That they would be commended for the works they had done.
Their zeal and their jealousy was for themselves and their
own work. But when He grants you repentance,
He gives you a zeal, a jealousy for God to have all the glory,
for Christ to be magnified and honored in Him alone. God said
in the very first commandment, you shall have no other gods
before Me. I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous
God. And when He saves us from our
sins, He puts His Word in our heart, His covenant in our heart,
and He makes us jealous for Him. and for His glory. Just like
a husband to a wife and a wife to her husband. He said, that
picture in Hosea-Gomer, when He called her and redeemed her
off that block, He said, Thou shalt not be for another man,
so will I also be for thee. And that's what He does in the
heart. I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine. It's not
a zeal without knowledge. It's a zeal for Christ our righteousness. You want Him to have the glory.
You want to tell people that I didn't choose God. God chose
me in Christ. He elected me freely. It wasn't
because He saw something in me. It was to the honor and the glory
of His grace that He chose me. And that's how He chose all His
people. You want Christ to have the glory of being the only begotten
Son who came forth and took the form of a servant and honored
and magnified God's law, and He's the only one that ever did
it. Going to the cross and laying down His life for God and for
His people, justifying us from all our sin. He's our righteousness
alone. You want God to have all the
glory for preserving you and keeping you in faith. You don't
go around now in this great zeal bragging about how strong your
faith is. You go around now and your zeal
is to declare to people, it's God who keeps me. It's God who's
working in me both to will and do of His good pleasure. Without
Him, if He took His hand off of me for a second, I'd go after
the silliest falsehood there is. You want Him to have all
the glory for resurrecting you one day to be with Christ and
to be glorified with Christ. He's going to do it all. He's
the Alpha and the Omega. He's the Author and the Finisher.
I have nothing to boast in. As Scripture says, let him that
glory, glorieth glory in the Lord. And that's what He brings
you to do. Zeal for God. Zeal for your Savior. Now lastly, when God has rebuked
us in truth, He grants repentance by making us take revenge. Verse
11, Yea, what revenge? This means to do justice to all
parties, acquitting the innocent. Before He comes, before He grants
this, we accuse everybody else. We do unjustly. We accuse everybody
else. And we are law mongers. We make
ourselves judges. We go around condemning men.
When He makes you see that you are the condemned one, when He
makes you see you are the worm, He destroys that pointer finger.
You quit pointing at others. He makes you to see you take
revenge now on your own self. You realize, I am guilty. I have no reason to boast. I
have no reason to glory in myself whatsoever. And He makes you
now do justice. Makes you do justice. Makes you
begin to do what's just and right toward one another. Makes you
acquit the innocent. Even when your brother sins and
he falls into sin and you know he's guilty, so long as it's
not interfering with the gospel, so long as it's not going to
cause a disruption among God's people and they can worship Christ
in peace, you cover his sin. You don't make light of it, you
don't ignore it, you don't not say something to him, but you
don't go broadcasting it to everybody. You don't go trying to make an
example of him and trying to shame him and all that stuff
like religion does. And like we once did. Now, you
do like Noah's two sons. They would even look upon Noah
in his drunkenness. The one brother goes out saying,
look at daddy, he's drunk, he's drunk, he's drunk. God makes
you take revenge on that kind of spirit. And He makes you do
justly. They turn their back knowing
Noah is a child of God's grace. Knowing in Christ he's complete.
Knowing in Christ that he has no sin. He makes you turn your
back. and they took a blanket and walked backwards and covered
him up and wouldn't even look on his nakedness. Makes you take
revenge, makes you do that which is right and just acquitting
the innocent. By the deeds of the law there
should no flesh be justified in God's sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested, witnessed by the law and the
prophets. Even the righteousness of God which is by the faithfulness
of Jesus Christ our Lord. You see, He is the only one who
has ever kept the law. And now when any man wants to
accuse and condemn, you are quick to do what is just and say, hey,
none of us have kept God's law. Anybody here without sin, you
cast the first stone. And He makes you do that which
is right and just. The only way that we're innocent
is in Christ our Lord. So as long as this man is not
disrupting our service, we need to have mercy. We need to show
him mercy. But now if he is disrupting,
if he is promoting falsehood, then you do what's just and you
say, you've got to go. Until this is gone and we can
come back and worship with us, when God's granted you this repentance
and you take revenge on yourself and do what's just and glorify
Christ only, then you can come back. But when this is disrupting
and turning people from Christ, you can't be with us. Now that's
to do justly. If it's not disrupting, you cover
the man's sin and you show him mercy. But if it is disrupting,
then you do justly. It's all for the good of God's
people so that Christ is getting all the glory as He preaches
and speaks in the hearts of His people and that's not interrupted.
That's what it's for. Because see, we can be disrupted
just by not covering a brother's sin. We can be disrupted by that. We can become lawyers and get
in our flesh and become judges of unjust things that way. or
just the opposite of what the Corinthians were doing. They
overlooked the sin of a man who was committing such sin in the
church that it was turning everybody away from Christ. And we don't
want to do that either. So He makes you take revenge.
He makes you to know we're justified freely by His grace to the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus so that you're no longer unrighteous,
self-righteous judges. And when He does this in your
heart, you want to follow after righteousness in Christ in your
life. And then, when God's worked all
this in our hearts, He's granted us repentance, then God comes
in the Spirit and He speaks peace in your heart. When He's brought
you to the feet of Christ, He's given you a radical change of
mind, granted you repentance, worked these seven things in
you, He's brought you to Christ now. And God speaks this word
in our heart. Look at verse 11, 2 Corinthians
7, 11. God says, look at the very end there, in all things
you have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter. When He does that, brethren,
you have forgiveness. There is therefore now no condemnation. He said if we confess our sins,
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. That's when He grants you repentance.
You'll come to Him. And you'll say, Oh my Lord Jesus,
be my advocate with the Father. Be the propitiation for me. I
need mercy. And He brings you to Christ's
feet. And then God says to you, you're clear. In Christ my Son,
robed in His righteousness, you're clear in this matter. And I pray
God grant repentance to those that need repentance. And bring
us to Christ's feet, working these seven things in us. Amen. All right, brethren, let's stand
together. Our great God and Savior, we
thank You that You alone can give the gift of faith and the
gift of repentance. We want You to have the glory.
We would surely boast in ourselves otherwise. Lord, as we see these
seven things, we pray that you would work them in your people,
work them in our own hearts. Make us repent from that which
you hate and love that which you love. Make us come to Christ's
feet and trust Him and rest in Him alone. Lord, we pray you
grant repentance to those that are falling away and turn them. Make them see that
there is indeed the lies not in our hands, it's in their hands.
Lord, grant them repentance. Bring them to Christ. We ask
this for Your glory, for Your honor. It's in Christ's precious name
we ask it. Amen.