Alright, I'd like for you to
turn with me this morning to 2 Corinthians chapter 7. The lesson this morning is about
godly sorrow. The Apostle Paul had written
his first letter to this church at Corinth about some things
which were going on that were ungodly There's always things
that are ungodly going on in any church, but these things
were being flaunted in the public so that they brought reproach
on the kingdom of God, upon Christ, upon the minister of the church,
and upon the church itself. And it brought also about a stumbling
block to those who didn't know any better. The Lord's Table. was one of the things that he
talked about. They'd turned that into a public
feast. It was no longer the Lord's table,
but they'd made it a public festival. And then there was a man living
in open adultery with his stepmother. And men and women in that church
were bragging on men used to bring about their conversion
as if there was something special in those men, some special gift
or some special ability in those pastors or in those men which
brought about their calling. And Paul wrote this letter to
them and exposed these things and told them to do something
about it, that it was not the right thing to do to just let
it go and to do something about it. And when they received his
letter, the Holy Ghost attended the things that Paul said, and
the people there were convicted of their sins. And they saw what
they'd done and repented of it, and they took action to correct
those wrongs. Now, in this second epistle,
he's commending them for their attitude and conduct and their
godly submission to be taught to be corrected, to be rebuked,
and exhorted. All right, let's read verse 8.
2 Corinthians chapter 7 and verse 8. For though I made you sorry with
a letter, I do not repent. though I did repent, for I perceived
that the same epistle or letter had made you sorry, though it
were but for a season." You know, when a father corrects his child
in the right manner, lots of times we don't. The Lord said
that we do those things for our pleasure, that is, for our own
peace of mind. But when a father corrects his
child in the right manner, the child sees his error not so much
against something that's been said, not so much against a commandment,
if you will, but against the loving instruction of their father. Now, having read and studied
his first epistle, we know his rebuke was a loving rebuke. He didn't just come in ripping
and tearing. But he loved these people, he
had an interest in these people, and he had a hope that these
people were called of God. And then he says this, he said,
I do not repent having written it, though I did repent. That is, he repented of having
made them sorry, of hurting them, but not of the result of it,
not of the correction that had taken place. Now in the book
of Hebrews it says, "...for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth,
and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." Now watch this,
Hebrews 12, verse 7. If you endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father
Chasteneth not. How does God chasten His sons? How does He do that? How does
God chasten His sons? Well, I can't tell you just in
so many words. But I can tell you this, the
chastening is in proportion to whatever breach of conduct that
you do. It's in proportion to it. It's
a right proportion. It's an equal proportion. And
the amount of chastening is in proportion to our readiness to
comply. If you're his son, you're going
to comply. And if you don't, you should
just make it hard on yourself, because you will in time. And
I have three children that I raised, and I can tell you for sure,
some of them quickly learned when they were rebuked and when
they were chastened. I had others. They were slow
to learn. Slow to learn. Now go back to
our text and look at the next verse. 2 Corinthians 7 verse
9. 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. Now, let me tell you something.
When something evil or out of place is taken from you, it's
not a crime against you. It's a blessing. It's a blessing. It's not a crime. Nobody's trying
to hurt you. Nobody's trying to do you damage. It's a blessing. And no loving parent enjoys hurting
their children or seeing their children sorrowing, but loving
parents, especially experienced ones, can see past the sorrow
to the blessing. They understand what this blessing
is, and they can see past that chastening to the benefit. And even though my words brought
sorrow to you, Paul says, it was a godly sorrow. and you were
not damaged by us in anything." Some are damaged. Some are damaged. They are damaged
in correction and rebuke. That man who will not submit,
will not listen, will not be corrected, he exposes himself
for what he is. 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 10 and
11 tells of those who would not receive the love of the truth
that they might be saved. It says, And for this cause God
sent them strong delusion that they should believe a lie and
be damned. Some cannot receive instruction,
will not receive instruction. And Paul rejoiced in their godly
attitude and conduct even though all of these things had taken
place. He rejoiced in their attitude and conduct, seeing a godly repentance
and sorrow not to be repented of. He saw the hand of God in
their correction and in their attitude. I don't know. I guess we need
to be reminded of this every day. But we who are of God are
sinners being saved by grace. We're sinners being saved by
grace. We're men and women brought by
the power of God to submit ourselves to the King of glory. How is this submission made known? First of all, by their submission
to the Word of God. They submit themselves to the
Word of God. All you need to establish a doctrine
or rebuke an error or correct a problem in a believer is to
show him what God says on the matter. And it's over. It's done. He doesn't argue about
his experience. He doesn't argue about what he
was taught as a child. He doesn't go back and try to
Find something that his grandmother said to him and build on that.
He looks at the Word of God and he said, let God be true and
every man a liar. He submits himself. We're talking about submission.
Before there can be correction, there has to be submission. And
this submission is a godless submission. And we submit ourselves,
first of all, to the Word of God. That's how the submission
manifests itself. It doesn't matter where the Baptists
stand, or the Methodists, or the Presbyterians, or the Catholics.
It doesn't matter where they stand on these issues. We say,
let God be true. And we build on that. Secondly,
believers submit themselves to God's delegated authority, both
civil and spiritual. They submit themselves. In Romans
13, verse 1, it says, Let every soul be subject unto the higher
powers. For there is no power but of
God. The powers that be are ordained
of God. Whosoever resisteth the power
resisteth the ordinance of God. If he ordained the powers and
we resist the powers, then now we are resisting the ordinance
of God. And they shall receive to themselves
damnation. He goes on to tell us that these
powers were ordained of God and act as ministers of God for us
for good. They're neither a hindrance nor
a terror to good works. In fact, he says, they reward
it. What would this world be without
civil authority? I know it's corrupt. Everything's
corrupt. Man simply fell in the garden.
I understand that. I know politics and all that.
I know it's full of corruption. But what would this world be
without civil authority? Can you imagine? Look at some
of these third world countries where this authority has been
taken down and there's kind of a vacuum there and there just
is no civil law, is no civil authority. Look at what goes
on there. It's just unthinkable. And then what about spiritual
authority? As helpless, hopeless sinners,
spiritual beggars, we ought to be thankful for whatever help
our gracious God is willing to give us, shouldn't we? Would you really care? about
this man who brought this gift of God to you? Would you really
care if you knew that it was the gift of God? Would you care
what he looked like or what color he was or how tall he was or
how old he was? It wouldn't make much difference,
would it? Well, it won't if we take our
place for what we are, spiritual beggars, totally dependent on
these gifts of God. And to ignore and disregard and
refuse to submit to God's ambassadors is, according to the Scriptures,
judging yourselves to be unworthy of the kingdom of God. Paul preached
at Antioch to both Jews and the Greeks. And many of the Jews
and the Gentile proselytes, these converts to Jewish religion,
they followed Paul and Barnabas and they persuaded them to continue
in the grace of God. But the Jews, being jealous of
what they were seeing, they were jealous of these multitudes who,
under the power of God, had begun to be swayed and were now beginning
to follow after Paul in Barnabas. And envious of it, they spake
against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting
and blaspheming God. And Paul said to them, it was
necessary that the Word of God should first have been spoken
to you. But seeing you put it from you, now listen, and judge
yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. We turn to them. He sent his
disciples out to preach, to preach to the lost sheep of the house
of Israel. And this is what he said to them,
Whosoever shall not receive you, that is, welcome you into their
homes, and welcome you into their hearts and provide what's necessary
for you. Whosoever shall not receive you,
now watch this, nor hear your words. When you depart out of
that house or out of that city, shake the dust off your feet
as a testimony against it. It will be more tolerable for
those in Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for
them. God's preachers are not sent
forth of God to judge this world, but there is a judgment that
follows their preaching and teaching and rebuke. And refusing to submit
to God's delegated and spiritual authority is like slapping the
gift of a king out of the hand of the servant who brings it.
That's what it is. Not my intention to hurt you
nor any other preacher sent of God to hurt you. or cause you
damage in any way, I'm here to point you to Christ and watch
for your souls as one who must give an account." That's not
talking about giving an account in the day of judgment. It's
talking about a daily account before God who can put you in
the ministry or take you out, who can bless your preaching
or make it a curse. Paul said, I know your election
of God because you become followers of us and the Lord. And in that
following, in that submission, you become examples to all that
believe. And my point is this. Believers
want to be led. They want to be led. It's not
that they're forced to be led or that they fear the penalty
of God and so Even though it's against their will, they still
will let you lead them. They want to be led. They see
the benefit in it. They see it to be God's blessing.
They want to grow in grace. They don't want to stay like
they are. They want to be taught. They want to be rooted and grounded
in the truth. They want to be warned of impending
dangers, and they want to be corrected. I don't want to continue doing
something that brings dishonor and shame on the name of my Savior. Do you? No, I want to be corrected. If I'm doing something and I'm
not aware of it, do you know there was provision made under
the law of God for sins that were not known? Sins that the
people did, sins of ignorance. They weren't even aware that
they were sinning. And if I'm doing so, I want to be corrected.
I don't want to keep on going down that road. I don't want
to keep traveling in that direction. And a good evidence of a new
heart, of a work began in us by God Himself, is willing submission. The third thing I know about
submission is that we submit ourselves to the Holy Ghost.
Paul said to the church, quench not the Spirit. In Ephesians
4, verse 30, he says, "...grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby
you are sealed unto the day of redemption." Now, the Holy Ghost,
I've showed you this several times in the Scripture, and I
won't take time to go through all that this morning, but the
Holy Spirit works through the preaching of the Gospel. To be
complacent, unresponsive, self-satisfied is to grieve. the Holy Spirit
of God. It's to grieve the Holy Spirit
of God. The Holy Spirit is both the author and revealer of the
Word of God. To disregard, ignore, or treat
God's Word as a non-essential thing is to grieve the Holy Spirit
of God. The Holy Spirit brings forth
fruit in the believer. But to think of these things
as common and unnecessary or to disregard them altogether
is to grieve the Holy Spirit of God. And I believe that the
Holy Ghost works in the assembling of the saints together as they
come together to worship God. And special blessings of God's
presence are promised with that. You know, the Jews ordered the
disciples not to preach Peter in particular. They said, don't
you preach in this name anymore. Anymore. And they let him go.
And Peter said, whether it be right in the sight of God to
hearken unto you or God, he said, I'll let you make that judgment.
But as far as we're concerned, we cannot but speak the things
which we've both seen and heard. And then the Jews let him go,
and Peter said, Now, Lord, behold their threatenings, and grant
unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word."
And when they had prayed, now listen to this, the place was
shaken where they were assembled together. Every place wasn't
shaken, but that place was. That place was. And they were
all filled with the Holy Ghost. On the day of Pentecost, they
were all together in one place. And the Spirit of God came down
with cloven tongues, and they all began to speak in languages
that everybody there could understand. Paul said, Let us consider one
another to provoke unto love and to good works. Now listen
to this. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the
manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the
more as you see the day approaching. To willfully or flippantly absent
yourself from the worship of God is to grieve the Holy Spirit
of God. It's to quench the Holy Spirit
of God. Godly sorrow that worketh repentance
unto salvation comes through godly submission. Alright, go
back to our text, 2 Corinthians 7, verse 11. For behold this selfsame thing,
that ye sought after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought
in you! Yea, what cleansing of yourselves! Yea, what indignation! Yea, what
fear! What behemoth desire! What zeal! What revenge in all things! You have approved yourselves
to be clear in this matter." Now, in this verse and by outward
and inward evidence, he commends them on their sincerity and the
genuineness of this godly sorrow. He said it worked carefulness
in them. That is, they were careful to
correct their behavior before God and careful to avoid those
things in the future. Cleansing of yourselves, he says,
not by denying our involvement, but in confessing our sins to
God and asking for His mercy. Indignation, he mentions, not
against God, but against ourselves and in those in whom these sins
were being committed. And here's another sure evidence,
fear. Not of hell or damnation, but
of God, of bringing reproach on Christ or incurring God's
displeasure. And desire. What's he talking
about there? He's talking about a desire to
honor God. A desire to right the wrong,
to do the right thing. And a desire to live for His
glory. And then he said it worked in
them zeal. A renewed zeal for God in His
glory and the testimony of His gospel and the unity of that
church. And then he says this, "...it
wrought in you, last of all, revenge." Not against people
in a private way, but against sin and disobedience whether
in themselves or somebody else. Wherefore, verse 12, "...though
I wrote unto you, I did it not for his cause that had done the
wrong, nor for his cause that suffered the wrong." But here's
why I did it. That our care for you in the
sight of God might be manifest to you. It might appear to you. If you love someone, you're going
to correct them. You're going to tell them the truth. You're
not going to just be silent and say, well, I don't care what
he does. I don't care what he does. I know people in relationships
right now, people close to me in relationships, not saved people,
but people I know in relationships whose husbands have got to the
point where they just don't care anymore. The wives just don't
care. You want to do that, go ahead.
You want to do this, go ahead. Now let me tell you something. God will never treat His people
that way. and cares for you. And that's
why He rebukes you, and that's why He corrects you, and that's
why He gives you the ability to repent and to cleanse yourselves. And then in all of this doing,
He glorifies Himself and glorifies His own name.