A Godly Sorrow - Part 1

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts.

Morse Corner is a non -denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist

D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's Word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message.

2nd Corinthians chapter 7 starting in verse 8. For even if I made you sorry with my letter,

I do not regret it, though I did regret it. For I perceived that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while.

Now I rejoiced, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance.

For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing.

For godly sorrow produces repentance, leading to salvation. Not to be regretted, but the sorrow of the world produces death.

For observe this thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner. What diligence, what it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication, in all things you proved yourself to be clear in this manner.

Therefore, although I wrote to you, I did not do it for the sake of him who had done the wrong, nor for the sake of him who suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear to you.

Therefore, I have been comforted in your comfort, and we rejoice exceedingly more in the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.

For if in anything I have boasted to him about you, I am not ashamed.

But as we spoke all things to you in the truth, even so our boasting to Titus was found true, and his affections are greater for you as he remembers the obedience of you all.

How with fear and trembling you received him. Therefore, I rejoice that I have confidence in you in everything.

May God add his blessing to the reading of his word. Thank you. So as we've talked about several times, the letter of 2

Corinthians is a very personal letter written by the Apostle Paul. The church had a lot of problems.

We know about them. One of the problems that continued, however, was the people were listening to the false teachers and some of the false teachers were trying to gather a group together to stand against Paul and his ministry.

So that partially is what is being spoken about in the latter part of this chapter.

So the people, they repented. And this morning's message is on the subject of repentance.

What is it? What is true repentance? Is it necessary?

Is repentance part of the gospel? Well, the word repent or repentance is found all throughout the

Bible as most of you know. But what does it mean, the word itself? Well, the

Greek word in the New Testament, metanoia, literally means to change one's mind, have a change of mind.

And when a person has a change of mind, it typically, you would expect, it would lead to what?

A change of behavior. In the Old Testament Hebrew, the word translated repentance is nakam, which means to be sorry, to have this feeling of sorrow.

So this information hopefully is helpful as we approach this text of 2

Corinthians 7, 8 through 16. And before we pray, I just want to read this brief statement from 2

Corinthians 7, 10a. Some of you have probably heard this term, you weren't sure what it referred to.

So 7, 10a, that's just the first part of the verse. If we said verse 10b, it would be the latter part of the verse.

So 2 Corinthians 7, 10, Paul says, for godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation.

Let's open in a word of prayer. Our father, as we look to your word this morning,

I pray that you would prepare each and every heart. Lord, some of us need instruction.

Some need correction. Some need encouragement. Some need strength and spiritual renewal.

And only you, Lord, know each and every heart with perfect knowledge. So please speak to each and every one through the preaching of thy word and may

Christ, who is the word of God made flesh, be exalted. And we ask this in his name.

Amen. Amen. So the title of this morning's message is Repentance Leading to Salvation.

Repentance Leading to Salvation. Paul writes in verses 8 and 9, for even if I made you sorry with my letter,

I do not regret it. Though I did regret it, for I perceived that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while.

Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance.

For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing.

Now I have to admit, I find Paul's statement here a little amusing.

He makes reference to this letter that he sent the church and he says, for even if I made you sorry with my letter,

I don't regret it. But I kind of do, or I kind of did for a little bit.

You know? And this is relatable. You know, when you have to do something and you know it must be done, but you don't really want to do it, it doesn't really feel good to do it, but you do it and it's necessary, but you don't really like it and you know the other party isn't going to like it very much either.

That's kind of how Paul is feeling about this letter. It made them sorry. I don't regret it, but I did for a little bit.

So I kind of find that funny. But about this letter, what was it about the letter?

Most people might assume that he's talking about 1 Corinthians, right? We're reading 2

Corinthians. He talks about this letter that made them sorry. He must be talking about 1 Corinthians. Actually most

Bible students, most pastors and teachers generally accept this idea that Paul actually wrote four letters to the church at Corinth.

So the letter we call 1 Corinthians was probably the second letter and then 2 Corinthians is most likely the fourth.

So hopefully that doesn't confuse you, but four letters total. So Paul may have been referencing 1

Corinthians, but most believe that he is referencing one of those letters that was lost to history that theologians call the severe letter.

Have you ever read 1 Corinthians? You're like, wow, these are some harsh rebukes Paul's giving. Well, that's nothing compared to this other letter.

What was in it? I don't know, but it was severe apparently. So Paul says, well

I made you sorry. I don't regret it, but I kind of did.

Well, why didn't he regret it? Because it got the job done. All right.

It got the job done. It did make them sorry, but only for a while. Verse nine.

Now I rejoice. Not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to metanoia, led to repentance.

And this gives us an idea of what Paul was saying. I think great insight into what repentance is.

So you want to know the difference between a true believer and a false convert? Here's one of the differences.

A true believer, when confronted with biblical truth or made sorry because of their sin, a true believer responds.

Just like the Corinthian church. Ain't a lot of problems, but they responded. What does the false convert do?

Well, they get offended. True believers could get offended. That's true. But a false convert, they'll get offended.

They'll get angry and it's like, oh, never going to see them again. And that's what happens.

A true believer though, when confronted regarding their sin, they might not like it initially either.

It happens, but they change. They respond.

The Corinthians were made sorry, but the true believer will respond to biblical truth.

So Paul sent this letter. It wasn't fun. It wasn't enjoyable, but it brought about true repentance.

They had a change of mind, a change of heart, and it resulted in a noticeable change of behavior.

Paul hears about it. He writes this letter of second Corinthians where we've seen in the past week or two that Paul's really praising them up.

Paul is encouraging them. He's bragging about the church at Corinth. Paul writes in verse 9b, for you were made sorry in a godly manner that you might suffer loss from us in nothing.

So let's think about this phrase made sorry in a godly manner.

Let me just take a moment to explain what this isn't. This is not Paul laying a guilt trip.

You know what it feels like when someone lays a guilt trip on you, right? No, this wasn't that.

This was real sin confronted by a real apostle, which brought about a real result of genuine repentance.

Guilt trips are something a little different. Guilt trips are what people do in order to manipulate others into doing what they want.

The church should never be engaged in this behavior. Okay, listen.

I mean, everybody, let's face it. Everybody has probably experienced this. Everybody's probably done it. Some people are not even aware that they're doing it, but Christians should not be laying guilt trips.

Pastors, I don't think, should be laying guilt trips. It is universal. People do not like feeling bad, and we don't really want the church being a place where you come just to feel bad.

It happens sometimes through the conviction of the Holy Ghost, but that, again, is something different.

So we shouldn't want to try to make people feel bad. Paul expresses he did not want, you read it, right?

He did not want to make them sorry. That's what he said. He regretted it because that wasn't his intention.

But if somebody is made sorry by the truth and through the conviction of the

Holy Spirit, through the ministry of the word, they should be sorry, not because of a guilt trip.

They should be made sorry in a godly manner, a godly manner.

What does that mean? They should be sorry that they have offended God, not that they are not measuring up to other people's standards.

To illustrate this, let me use this as an example. David, when he wrote Psalm 51, after his sin with Bathsheba, we all know the story.

David says to the Lord, you remember what he said to the Lord? Against you and you only have

I sinned. When you think about it, David sinned against a lot of people, not least among them was

Bathsheba's husband who never had the pain of knowing that his wife had committed adultery because David had him killed.

This is one of the worst sins you ever see in Scripture that's recorded, sin done by a man of God.

David sinned against a lot of people. You could say he sinned against the whole nation as king doing such a thing.

David, and I'm sure after he was confronted he did what he could to make things right in many of these situations, but when he was confronted by Nathan the prophet, he experienced a godly sorrow.

David recognized that he had sinned against God first and foremost.

When you think about the things that you've done wrong or you're not really proud of, are you sorry that you got caught?

Are you sorry that you made someone else upset or that it ruined this situation? Or are you sorry that you offended a holy