Repentance Once, And Daily Too - [2 Corinthians 7:8-11]

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I'm going to preach this morning out of the book of 2 Corinthians chapter 7, if you'd like to turn there.
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2 Corinthians chapter 7, and I'd like to just say a couple of things before I preach.
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One is that you know Pastor Mike is preaching through 1 Corinthians, and he's around chapter 7 in 1
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Corinthians, but if he continues on to 2 Corinthians, which I don't know if he will do, it still will be another 8 or 10 years before he gets to this text, and then he can correct what
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I messed up this morning. He'll take care of it then. 2 Corinthians chapter 7.
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The second thing that I'd like to say this morning is sometimes Christians might say this when you're hearing a message.
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You might say, oh I wish so and so was here this morning to hear that message.
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It would have been a real good one for them, but I want us to be careful this morning and not forget that we all need to hear it.
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We all need to hear the message, and the message this morning is going to be on repentance, and we might think that repentance is something for the lost.
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Something for someone who is outside of Christ, and true, it is. The message of the gospel is to repent and believe the gospel.
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We're going to hear more of that, but repentance is also vital and necessary within the local
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New Testament church, and we're going to see that here in this chapter. So we should all have ears to hear and be ready to obey the claims of the gospel upon all of us.
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I'd like to speak again as I said on the topic of repentance, 2
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Corinthians chapter 7, and I'd like to begin reading in verse 5. If you'd follow along with me,
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I'd like to read just a few verses here. 2 Corinthians 7 verse 5. For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn, fighting without and fear within.
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But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoice still more.
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This section is dealing with, particularly Paul is rejoicing about the report that he heard from Titus back from this church.
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Verse 8, for even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it, for I see that the letter grieved you, though only for a while.
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As it is, I rejoice not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting, for you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.
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Verse 10, for godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
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For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourself, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment.
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At every point, you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter. So although I write to you, it was not for the sake of the one who did the wrong, not 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, therefore we are comforted.
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And he goes on and finishes the chapter about the comfort that he's received. But here we see that the apostle
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Paul is rejoicing. You notice that he says that he rejoiced when he got this letter back, but he rejoiced in the fact that they had godly grief, that they had sorrow, that there was this brokenness inside the church of Corinth.
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And you might think, and we could get this wrongly, that Paul was rejoicing in a wrong fashion.
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He knew that he had caused them grief with one of the four letters that he had, he had written four letters altogether, this is one of the previous ones, and he had caused them grief when he confronted them over their sin.
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And though the apostle Paul sorrowed, he said he did sorrow for a while, his heart was made glad because the church responded in the right way, and any leader of any church would be glad when the church responds properly, when the church obeys the scripture, when the church submits to the working of the spirit of God.
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They had repented and it was real, and there was some real lasting fruit to prove it.
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And this morning I asked the question, is repentance important? I mean, if repentance is necessary for salvation, right?
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It's necessary for salvation, and once we are saved, it is part of the daily
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Christian experience, or at least it seems to be borne out in the scripture that it is in the church. I mean, he's writing this to believers and about believers, they had repented.
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Then, if it's part of the daily Christian individual's experience or the church's experience or life within the church,
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I think it's vital for us to learn something about repentance this morning. Paul said in verse 9 that he rejoiced that they were sorry, as I was saying earlier, or that they grieved, and that they had turned and they had exhibited true repentance.
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He didn't get pleasure out of making them sorry, don't get that muddled in your mind, because no
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Christian who ministers to other people and deals with them out of the word of God should get pleasure in inflicting pain.
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We don't desire to make people miserable by calling them to repentance. We don't get a thrill out of it when people are heavy under conviction, but we do rejoice when we understand that this could be a work of God in their heart.
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Then we rejoice in it. We're glad to see them sorrowful and grieving and crying and calling out to the
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Lord and confessing their sin, because that could mean that God is granting them repentance.
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Now, you don't have to turn there, but my latest part of memory verses is in 2
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Timothy 2, and it's verses 24 to 26, where in those verses, the
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Apostle Paul's instructing Timothy, and he says that the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, and then it says, if God perhaps will give them repentance.
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One of the things that we need to understand this morning, first and foremost, about repentance, the nature of repentance, is that it is
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God -given. Repentance is something God gives, it is not something that we stir up in ourselves.
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Is your faith God -given? If you're a believer, yes, then your repentance is also God -given.
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It is God -produced. In that verse there, in 2 Timothy 2, 25, it says that if God would perhaps give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
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If you're taking notes, you can also write down Acts chapter 5, and in verse 31, where it says that God granted repentance,
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God granted it, God gave it to Israel, to the Jews, and then in Acts chapter 11, and in verse 18, it says there that God gave repentance to the
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Gentiles. So we see in the scriptures, and that's just a quick synopsis of it, that God is the one who gives repentance.
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It's a grace from God. When God favors a person with salvation, it is preceded by the gift or the grace of repentance and the gift of faith, both of them coming down from on high.
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And Paul rejoiced when he saw this repentance, and he heard of this testimony of the repentance in the
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Corinthian church. Their repentance, or their sorrow that he had heard about, was a sorrow unto repentance.
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You notice that in the text here, in verse 10, it says that they had a godly grief that produced a repentance that led to salvation.
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Grief, good grief, godly grief, repentance, and salvation.
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In our text, we see the Corinthians had a sorrow for their sin that had led them to action to put away their sins, those sins which were known by all, and of course by the
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Apostle Paul, and he wrote about it, and he dealt with it. He wrote them that strict and stern letter, that exhortation for them to deal with that, to discipline in the church, to deal with that sin in the church, and Pastor Mike had dealt with that in 1
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Corinthians chapter 5. This repentance was after a godly sort, or after a godly manner, or it was godly grief, as we see here in the text.
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It was according to God. And as through this experience of what's happening in the church here,
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Paul says at the end of verse 9, he says, you have not suffered loss through us, or your text might say, you have received no damage in anything, and what
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Paul was saying there at the end was, though there was great sorrow, there was no true injury done to them by Paul.
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As a matter of fact, he's saying that they hadn't been injured, but they had been benefited. The word had come to them, and they had repented, and there was a change in their lives.
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And isn't it wonderful when we see God working, doing a work in the heart of a sinner, or doing the work in the heart of a saint to turn that heart towards him, away from sin and towards the
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Lord. Albert Barnes wrote, no man suffers loss by being told of his faults, if he repents.
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I'm going to say that again, no man suffers loss by being told of his faults, if he repents.
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And we should be thankful and obligated to those faithful pastors and Christian friends who tell us where we are wrong biblically, and who are the means where God uses to bring us to true repentance and dealing with us and ministering to us out of the word.
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So the first thing, and I was thinking there, when someone helped, like Paul did this to that church, it reminded me of Proverbs 27 in verse 6, where it says, faithful are the wounds of a friend.
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You know when you don't love somebody is when you don't tell them the truth. You realize that. If you know somebody needs your help, know somebody is going astray, and you don't say anything, it proves you don't love them.
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But you love them when you tell them the truth, and that's what the Apostle Paul's ministry is all about. And we can apply that here in the church this morning, from the leadership down, that we should be a group of people that want to help others and point them in the right way.
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So for us to minister as a New Testament church properly, and to properly respond to God as individual believers, first, my first point is, is that you must understand the nature of true repentance.
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You must understand the nature of true repentance. Repentance, as I have said first and foremost, is a gift from God.
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It is God -granted. It is from heaven. It is a grace. It is a favor that God bestows upon people who are not deserving.
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That's why it's grace for us. And Paul says that it begins in the life in this church.
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He explained it, or how it was described in the church at Corinth was that there was this godly grief.
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In verse 10, you see it, for godly grief. He begins that sentence there.
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And then it says, produces a repentance that leads to salvation.
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I want to kind of deal a little bit with this progression here. Godly sorrow works repentance to salvation.
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Or in other words, the repentance that comes from God will lead a person back to God.
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Makes sense, right? The repentance that comes from God, the purpose of that is to lead that person back to God.
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If a person says they've repented and they've not gone back to God, they've not turned from their sin or turned from their idolatry, and they haven't turned to the
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Lord, then they haven't experienced a repentance which comes from God. God's desire in granting the grace of repentance is to return the sinner back to himself in salvation or his erring child, to bring that child back into fellowship with him, that person who is a believer.
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There can be no returning to God without true heartfelt repentance, and there can be no repentance without this sorrow for sin that Paul talks about here.
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It is a godly grief. It is not just some flighty superficial thing, but it is deep, and it is penetrating, and it is that which rips the soul apart when we come to the place where we understand that we've sinned against our holy
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God. There could be no repentance without that genuine sorrow, a genuine grief that leads to a genuine repentance, which is the way which leads to God himself and brings salvation.
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Why then, why is there this sorrow? Well, we're going to see here that there's a couple of different types of sorrow.
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Why is it that we ought to be sorry? Well, it's because we are great sinners who've offended a great and holy
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God. By God's grace, we receive a proper perspective of our sin when
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God convicts us, and when we see the sin as God sees it, we begin to experience a sorrow for the way that our sin grieves and offends and hurts
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God. This type of godly grief was expressed by David in Psalm 51 in verse 4, where he said, "...against
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you, and you only, have I sinned." Now, that's interesting because David sinned against more than just the
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Lord. He sinned against Bathsheba, he sinned against Uriah, and he sinned against the nation
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Israel. But David came to understand that in his sin, there wasn't anybody that he had offended and grieved more than God.
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I've sinned against God. And when he came to the place where he sinned against God, he turned from that sin and turned to the
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Lord. David knew he had displeased God with the sin he had committed, and his view of sin led him to a godly sorrow, which resulted in godly repentance, which ultimately led him to return to God.
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True repentance brings the sinner to awareness that they have sinned against God, and they turn from their sin and turn to God.
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There's a place in the book of Acts, and I was trying to find it ahead of time, you know, you're just trying to cram more things into your notes, it's something when you teach or preach, you've just got to put more in there, it'll make it better.
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There's a place in the book of Acts, and I can't find it, somebody will tell me afterwards, but the message was repentance towards God and faith in the
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Lord Jesus Christ. It's like a coin, there's no repentance without faith, there's no faith without repentance when it comes to salvation.
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When it comes to this repentance, if I was to define what repentance is, this metanoia in the
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Greek, it is a change of heart, it is a change of life, it is a turning from sin to God, it is a turning away from sin and turning to the
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Lord, it is repentance of our sin and everything we thought about God and who
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God was and who Jesus was, it's all wrong, we turn from it and we turn to the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Part of it, as Paul says here, it encompasses, as a component of it, this godly sorrow, and I heard somebody one time, many years ago, asked a five -year -old child, what does repentance mean to you?
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And the little child said, sorry enough to quit my sins, and that's a perfect, perfect definition of what repentance is, sorry enough to quit them, sorry enough to leave them and to turn to the true and living
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God. True repentance will always bring a person back to the
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Lord. You remember this man's account, in Luke chapter 15, you don't have to turn there, there was a man who is, as we would know him as the prodigal son, and he wanted to check out early, get his inheritance, and he did from his father, and he left the family, left his father, went off into a foreign country, and he wasted all that he had, he wasted his substance, wasted that inheritance, and then he came to the place where he had nothing, and then he would have eaten the pig's food, it says there.
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He would have eaten that, and he came to himself, now, he came to himself, but we know that when this is all going on here, this repentance coming to him,
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God is working in his life. He comes to himself and he says, my father's servants have more than what
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I have here, I think I'll go back to the father, and I'll confess that I have sinned against heaven and before you, and he returns.
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That is repentance. He was sorry for what he had done, sorry for where he was, and he turned, now, on the other hand, you want to see somebody who doesn't repent, and does things incorrectly, does the opposite of that, you would have somebody who would be like Judas Iscariot.
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Do you remember the account of Judas Iscariot? I think it's around Matthew 26 or 27, the first five verses there.
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He had betrayed the Lord Jesus, right? He had turned him in for the 30 pieces of silver, and it said that he went back, and it says in those verses that he repented, interesting, he repented, but it wasn't the same type of repentance that I just spoke of.
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It said that he confessed, but he confessed to the wrong people. Do you remember who he confessed to?
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Did he confess to God? No. Was he sorry before God? No. Did he go back to Jesus and say,
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Jesus, I'm sorry that I gave you up and sold you for these 30 pieces of silver? No. He went to the religious leaders instead.
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His repentance is one that we're going to see is of a different sort, and it's so important for us to be able to understand between the two.
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There are two types. The one that I'm speaking of right here, though, is a sorrow that, a true godly sorrow that leads to God for forgiveness and to get things right with God, a heart that is truly penitent and broken and contrite will want to seek
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God for a clean slate, to get things right, to be in right standing with God through his son, the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Godly sorrow in the heart will drive the sinner to the mercy seat where they beg for mercy and they desire a relationship with the
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Lord. And let me say this, any other type of sorrow will lead a person away from God.
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Any other type will lead a person away from God. A person who has not this type of godly grief or this brokenness, this contrite spirit before the
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Lord will seek consolation in the world from something else or someone else. If a person hears
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God's word and they're truly convicted about their sin in their life, and if that sorrow is not a godly sorrow, they will try to excuse themselves, they will try to justify themselves, they will shift the blame, they will try to cover it up, they'll try to squirm away from it, but they won't deal with it.
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Between them and God, they will just not deal with it. It's kind of like we saw that from really out of the gate in the book of Genesis, didn't we?
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When Adam and Eve sinned, do you remember when God came and found them, came to them where they were, and he began to speak to Adam about what
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Adam had done? Do you remember what Adam's response was? It was, oh God, I'm so sorry, right?
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No, he said, God, this woman that you gave me, that was not repentance.
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And then goes to Eve, said, Eve, what have you done? What did she say?
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Oh God, I'm so sorry, I should not have eaten that fruit and brought it into the family and done what
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I had done. But she said, the serpent beguiled me.
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This blame shifting. And if you ever come to the place in your life where you're confronted with your sin, you're confronted with that you've fallen short of the glory of God, that you've hurt somebody else, and it's put right before you, and the facts are undeniable, please don't run.
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Please don't squirm. Please don't blame shift. But just, you know, you don't even have to deal with people to begin with.
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Just get on your knees just like that publican in Luke chapter 18. He was one who had truly repented because what did he cry out?
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He said, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. That was a godly grief and a godly sorrow that led to a repentance that led to salvation in that person's life when they have the right attitude before the
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Lord. Genuine sorrow for sin leads the soul to God every time.
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That is the nature of this repentance that comes from God. In Acts 26 verse 20,
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Paul summarized his message by saying that they, his hearers, should repent and turn to God.
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You see, it's everywhere. Repent and turn to God. I think
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I have another example in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. Why don't we turn there? Hold your place here in Corinthians.
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And if you would, go to the right until you come to the books of the Bible that begin with the letter T. And if you've gone to Timothy, it's too far.
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Back up to Thessalonians. If you've gone to Titus, you're way too far. Back up to Thessalonians chapter 1, 1
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Thessalonians chapter 1. And notice the power of the gospel coming to this region of the country here.
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In 1 Thessalonians 1 .9. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you.
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And notice when Paul said he came there earlier, he says you received the word of God. It was the work of the
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Spirit of God. And he says, and how, the second part of verse 9, and how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true
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God. There it is. Another practical illustration of repentance in the
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Bible. When a person, it says that they turned to God, but they turned from something.
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You turn from your sin, they were idol worshipers, they turned from their idolatry and they turned to the true and the living
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God to serve the living and the true God and to wait for his son from heaven whom he raised from the dead,
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Jesus who delivered us from the wrath to come. See how they're turning from their sin and turning to God, turning and waiting for the
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Lord Jesus, turning to Jesus Christ. That is the mark, that is the description, that is an illustration, a biblical illustration of this godly sorrow that produced this true repentance which resulted in these people turning unto the
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Lord. This godly sorrow working repentance, it works a total change in the mind, a change in behavior.
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When you are sorry for your sins before God, you are, like that little girl said, sorry enough to quit.
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It produces a permanent reformation in the life. It is not just a mere regret, it just doesn't come and go quickly.
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I mean, I remember the example where Herod was confronted in his sin by John the
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Baptist and when he heard him, he heard him over and over again but he would not repent, he would not turn, he would not leave his sin and cry out to God in mercy, just the opposite of what we're talking about.
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Spurgeon described godly sorrow this way, it is a sorrow for sin committed against God. It is a sorrow arising out of an entire change of mind.
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It is a sorrow which joyfully accepts salvation by grace. It is a sorrow that leads to future obedience.
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It is a sorrow which leads to perpetual perseverance in the ways of God. The way of sin is forsaken because that way is now disgusting to the person.
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So first and foremost, we must understand the true nature of repentance. But secondly, we'll see this in verse 10, there's another point that needs to be shown here and I kind of introduced it a little bit with a couple of examples.
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But in order for us to understand what repentance is and how important it is in the individual's life and how important it is in the local
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New Testament church, we must understand the difference between the two types of sorrow that are mentioned here.
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There are two types of sorrow that are mentioned. You notice as he goes on in this verse 10, he says,
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For godly grief produces repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas, he says here, worldly grief produces death.
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Paul warns of a kind of sorrow that leads people away from God. Because isn't that a perfect description of what death is?
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Separation from God, away from God. He calls it, worldly grief, or your translation might be the sorrow of the world.
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And this is a sorrow which is not towards God, it does not come about by a correct view of the awfulness of a person's sin.
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And worldly sorrow comes from worldly causes, where like a person with the sorrow of the world is really, really not sorry before God.
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They are only sorry because they got what? They got caught. Maybe that's one example of worldly sorrow.
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They're sorry because they got caught. If they hadn't got caught, they'd just continue on in their sin.
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They might be sorry because others will know something about what's in their closets of their lives.
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How weak they are. People are going to know their personal business. They are only sorry because they might lose their supposed good name, or there might be some shame involved, or they might lose something monetarily or relationships or something, but they're never sorry before God.
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They're only concerned with their relationship with man, but not with God when it comes to their sin.
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And again, Judas Iscariot was a perfect example of that. Did not deal with God, did not confess, it says he repented, but it was inappropriate.
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It was this worldly sorrow. It did not lead to true broken, contrite -ness. He did not go back to Jesus.
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He only went to man, not to God. And there is no forgiveness. There is no covering of our sin if we don't go to God to seek that forgiveness and to seek that mercy.
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And I exhort all of you to be honest with God and be honest with yourselves this morning when it comes to the type of sorrow that you exhibit in your life.
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The sorrow of the world is caused by the shame of being found out. Spurgeon said, that type of sorrow can lead to harsh thoughts about God.
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That's why it's so dangerous. It can lead to vexation of the soul. The mind is overwhelmed with guilt.
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There's no release, no comfort, and no peace with that type of sorrow. It ultimately will harden the heart, end quote.
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Worldly sorrow puts the soul in despair because it leads away from God, away from the God of mercy, away from the
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God who forgives, leaving the sinner with no hope. And the worst of it all, it says here in this text, says that worldly grief produces what, congregation?
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Death. Do you know what's so frightening and terrible about the text in Matthew 27, verses 1 through 5, where it speaks of Judas?
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After he had repented, after he had confessed, after he had given back the money, after he had not gone to God, after he exhibited this worldly sorrow, he went out and hanged himself.
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Worldly sorrow, worldly grief produces death. We need to flee from this type of thing.
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We need not to exhibit or hold on to or look to hang our hat, so to speak, on this type of sorrow, but instead, godly sorrow, the right type of sorrow.
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It says there that this type of worldly sorrow produces or results in death.
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It ends in death. That spiritual death for the sinner who by nature has no spiritual life, who has not turned to God and been saved through the
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Lord Jesus Christ, and physical death because the wages of sin is death, for as by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin, and so death is passed upon all men for that all have sinned, and ultimately, eternal death for those who refuse to turn from their sin.
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Again, that soul suffers eternal separation from God, and for what reason?
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In the book of Hebrews, it says that some people, they enjoy sin for a season, and really that's just a short lifetime that we live.
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Is it worth it to enjoy sin for a season, not repent, not lay hold of the
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Lord Jesus Christ, and be separated from God for all eternity, and suffer the pangs of hell?
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No, not worth it. I want us to be warned this morning.
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Let us never entertain or practice worldly sorrow, for it works death, and thanks be to God for the grace of repentance that he gives, and how favorable he is.
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So first, we need to know something of the nature of repentance, and secondly, we need to know of the two types of sorrow here to be able to understand this godly sorrow versus this worldly sorrow, but thirdly, and I really want to focus some time here in verse 11, it's important for us to be able to know how to minister in the church, and as we deal with people, and we see
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God working in the hearts of others, and there is a sorrow that comes for us to be able to maybe discern what type of a sorrow this is, as we just heard about, and then like the
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Apostle Paul, we might be able to rejoice when we see that God works a good work of repentance in others' lives, and we should not rejoice until verse 11, until we see verse 11,
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I don't know if you remember this, but a couple three weeks ago I read out of, I think it might have been Acts chapter 8, and it said that Philip went into Samaria, and when he went in to preach the gospel, it says that he rejoiced, and it says that he saw the grace of God, I love that phrase in there, where he saw the grace of God, he saw what
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God was doing in people's lives, and what a wonderful thing, and Paul in this book here in Corinthians, after writing the letter about their sin in chapter 5 of the first book, he gets this report back from Titus who had been with them, and he finds out that they had repented, that they had done the right thing, that they had changed, that they had dealt with the sin in the church, and Paul rejoiced because, why?
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He's so good, he had a great ministry, he left them his outlines of his sermon, do you want to see mine?
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No, because God had great work in that church, it was a work of God, and we should not rejoice until the fruit in our lives or the lives of others proves the genuineness of repentance, we should not rejoice until the fruit in our lives or the lives of others proves the genuineness of your repentance, how is true repentance to be practically worked out in our lives?
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Well let's look what Paul says in verse 11, to this church he's talking about the fruit of repentance, and up front he says in verse 11, for you, for see what earnestness this carefulness, this earnestness, it means in the
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Greek, it means diligence or earnest effort, it means that they had exercised diligence and great anxiety to remove the evils which were among them, it wasn't a nonchalant dealing with or superficial dealing with sin, it was an eradication, it was a surgery, it was a cutting out of that sin, they were no longer complacent about the sin, they went to work to remove sin in their own lives and in the church, and there was a spiritual house cleaning,
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I don't know if you've ever done that but just to take an inventory of what's in your life, everything that you let pass through your mind, your hands, or your checkbook or whatever, to do a house cleaning to make sure that we do all to the glory of the
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Lord and we're not inadvertently or mistakenly tied up in sinful practices or behavior or supporting things that we ought not to be, they didn't just sit down and mourn over their sin, they weren't waiting for somebody else to do this, they did it themselves, this kind of reminds me of 2nd
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Timothy 2 .19 where it says, nevertheless the foundation of God stands sure, having this seal, the
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Lord knows them that are his and let everyone that names the name of Christ cherish your sin, hold on to it like a little doll baby, right?
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No, let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity, run from iniquity, flee like Joseph did, you remember in the
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Old Testament, when he was caught in that predicament, rather than sin, he just ran, ran away, it was a carefulness, and if we're convinced and convicted about our sins before God, then we will set ourselves to repent daily.
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Did you notice that these are words about repentance for the church? And I think that sometimes we get that mentality that, you know, that person that is my neighbor needs to repent, that guy that bags my groceries and has the tattoos all over and swears, that person needs to repent, or that person at work that I know that drinks alcohol or smokes those cigarettes, that person needs to repent.
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Brethren, it's very clear to us in this text here that Paul was writing to a church, and the church needed to repent once upon salvation and daily too.
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It is something that we need to keep in the forefront of our mind that we're not above sinful attacks or temptations or things that will come in our lives, but we need to deal with sin on a day -to -day basis, and the
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Corinthians did, and they didn't just do it in some half -hearted way, but it was earnest.
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And then he also goes on and he says, what eagerness to clear yourself. Clearing yourself.
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This word means an apology and not saying sorry, but it's a plea or defense in a court of law.
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And basically what Paul is saying here is that the Corinthians had a strong desire to clear their name.
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They had a bad testimony. They were an impure church. They were a church that allowed sin to not...
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it encroached at the door, but they let open the door and they had let it in. And now they've dealt with it, and they wanted to clear their name and prove that they were now trustworthy and dependable servants of Jesus Christ.
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And this comes to pass, and this could be shown by exercising church discipline.
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That's why it's an act of love in the church. It's to restore people, not to beat people over the head.
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It is to do the right thing. But it also may come about in our lives in a clearing of ourselves when we've sinned against each other, when we've done something to hurt someone else, and we want to make it right, and we want to clear our name, and we want our testimony to be pure before God.
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So we seek people out so that we can have a clear conscience. That's missing today. There was a man that I had read about.
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His name was Thomas Oliver, and he was a traveling cobbler in the time of the
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Westleys and the Whitfields, 1700s. And he went... it was in England, went around the countryside, but he was not a reputable businessman.
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He stole from people. He could pinch a pence here and there from people, and he did this for many years.
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And he was saved under the ministry, the preaching of John Wesley. And when
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God saved him, it was a Zacharias moment. I mean a Zacchaeus moment. You remember
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Zacchaeus when he wanted to get up in the tree to see Jesus? And Jesus came by, and he said,
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Zacchaeus, come down today. I'm going to come into your house because salvation has come to your house. Zacchaeus is saved. And he says,
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Zacchaeus, to Jesus, I know I've stolen from a lot of people. He was a tax collector, unscrupulous, and he stole from people.
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And he said, I'm just going to hold on to that. No. Zacchaeus said to the Lord Jesus, the half of my goods
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I give to the poor. Luke 19, 11. The half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone,
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I will restore them fourfold. If he stole a dollar, he's going to give them four dollars back.
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That's what Zacchaeus had said. And this Thomas Oliver, same thing happened in his life. What he did was he had gone all over the countryside stealing all this money.
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From people pilfering it here and there. So he bought himself a horse. He bought himself a saddle, and he bought himself a bridle, and he rode around the countryside restoring, giving back all that he had stolen from people.
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And his count was that he had gone to 70 homes, and he had some more to go to, and he had no more money.
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So he sold his horse, he sold his saddle, and he sold his bridle. It's going to cost.
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It's going to cost to do the right thing, but it was the right thing for him to take that money that when he had sold those, and he gave the money back to the people that he's stolen from.
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And I don't know, maybe something's bugging somebody here today. You might have had something that you've stolen from somebody.
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Maybe you've said something to somebody in the past, and you need in your repentance for it to be true.
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There needs to be fruit in that, and you need to clear yourself. You need to strive for a good name.
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You need to go back and get it right. It might be that you'll need to approach those you've wronged and make it right.
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Apologies, and confessions, and humility, and seeking forgiveness, and restoring what you've stolen.
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Kind words and actions compared to hatred and mistreatment. Truthfulness instead of lies. Harshness replaced by tenderness.
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A full day's work on the job rather than laziness on the job. Telling the store owner, or your boss, or your parents, or your spouse, or your friend that you are really, really sorry, and you put your money, or your time, or your mouth where your mouth is.
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You do the right thing before the Lord. You make it right, and make it up to them. Then Paul goes on and he says, as I wind this up, what indignation.
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Did you notice the what's? He goes, what earnestness, what clearing, what indignation.
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I mean, it's visible. It's noticeable. It's not just off the radar. God -brought repentance produces noticeable fruit in the recipient's life of that repentance, that grace.
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He says, what indignation, and that's against your sin. The Corinthians, the effect of true repentance produced a hatred for sin.
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It's not just a superficial regret or remorse. Here's a bad confession when it comes to this.
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You've done something against somebody, and you go to them, and you say, I'm sorry. Maybe you've heard this before.
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I'm sorry if I've done anything to offend you, or I'm sorry if I've done anything to hurt you.
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Of course you have. There wouldn't be the offense. There wouldn't be the problem, so name it, whatever it was.
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What did you say? What did you do, and get it right? Do just the opposite, and do it fourfold.
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Just lavish on them if you've stolen from somebody, and do it right before the
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Lord, because that's how we would clear our name, and show how we hate sin, and outrageous is us, and we want to repent once and daily, too.
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He goes on, and he says, what fear? Fear of the sin being repeated. Fear of falling back into that sin.
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Fear of offending God again with our sin. Fear that it might not be fully removed from our lives, or homes, or church.
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Fear of displeasing the Lord, or my pastor, or my Christian brother or sister who is counting on me, and fear of putting another frown upon the face of our loving
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Heavenly Father. In verse 11, he goes on, and he says, what longing, or what vehement desire in your text?
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A true desire that all the wrongs that had been done had been corrected, and that would involve repentance.
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All these R's go together. Repentance, reconciliation, restitution, restoration, and I've already dealt with that.
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Complete restitution, making sure that you take care of it. MacArthur put it this way, repentance brought purity to the sinning saints in the
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Corinthian assembly, and every aspect of their lives reflected it. And I asked the question this morning, has anyone ever seen the fruit of your repentance?
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Has anyone ever seen the fruit of your repentance? And maybe not in the past, but this moment forward when we wrong and hurt others, may that fruit be seen in our lives.
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Then he goes on, and he says, what zeal? That's a change of behavior. Be ready.
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Be complete. It's unexhausted. It's just, we're going to do the right thing with nothing hid, and we're going to take care of it all.
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Then he says, a couple more, what punishment or what revenge? And this word means an avengement.
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It denotes a legal punishment by the judicial system, and basically what it means is the
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Corinthians immediately carried out what they should have carried out before church discipline.
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They did the right thing against those who had sinned, and they did it in love. They did it with balance with truth, but it was with a zeal and a revenge.
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It was the right thing to do. And then lastly, he says in this verse, the result.
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You've proven yourself innocent or you are clear in this matter, might be in your text.
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You have come clean. You've been open. You've been honest. MacArthur says the
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Corinthians demonstrated the genuineness of their repentance by their purity.
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There was nothing hidden. It was open, honest. It was the right thing. They desired to do right before God and live right before God and respond in the right way.
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So their godly sorrow worked repentance, which resulted in personal holiness in their lives.
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And that is the mark that ought to be there when we consider our lives as far as repentance. My desire this morning was to see a little bit about what
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God's word has to say about true biblical repentance. Not everything, of course, we couldn't cover it, but for us as a look at this in a fashion and let it let it sink in, let it let it hit us that we shouldn't be pointing the finger at other people who need to repent.
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But since we've repented once, but daily to over and over and over again, when we sin before others and sin before the
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Lord, we we get things right with God and then we get right things right with other people who is supposed to repent.
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The answer to that question is in the Bible, because in Acts chapter 17, in verse 30 and 31, it says that God commands all men everywhere to repent because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ.
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This is not optional. This is not one of those Christian things. You know, you open up, you ever read your
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Christian books this way, you open them up to the table of contents and you pick and choose which chapter you want to read.
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I'll get to the other one, the tougher one later. This one's much, much better. This, this one over here,
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I don't want to go there because it might point to something in my life. We need to be a people who are always desiring for God to search me.
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Oh God, know my heart, know my thoughts, see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.
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If you're here this morning and you are lost, I can only say, show me a person who has not repented and I will show you someone who is not a
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Christian because you first and foremost to become a child of God must see that you're a sinner before God, fallen short of the glory of God and here is your sin before you and God has revealed it to you and rather than love it and embrace it and hold on to it and live in it to detest it, to abhor it and to flee from it, to run from it and to turn from it and to turn to Jesus Christ the only
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Savior of sinners. Repent because you've broken God's pure law.
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Repent because you've grieved God with your rebellion. Repent because your sins have nailed
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Jesus to the cross. Repent because you've been ungrateful to the goodness of God in your life.
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You see, you realize that as a person outside of Christ, if you're to die, hell and an eternity separating you from God is before you and it's the mercy of God that you have not died yet and because of God's goodness,
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Paul wrote to the church at Rome in chapter 2, he said that the goodness of God should lead you to repentance.
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God has spared you for this moment and you can call upon the name of the Lord, repenting of your sin and turning to Jesus Christ, calling upon the name of the
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Lord and what does the Bible say? The Bible says that you will be saved.
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That's repentance once but there's also repentance daily too and if you're a child of God, if you've sinned before God, there is a break in your fellowship with the
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Lord and the only way that that will be restored is if you turn from that sin.
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Proverbs 28 13 puts it this way, he that covers his sins shall not prosper but whoever confesses and forsakes their sin shall have mercy.
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The slate will be wiped clean. I remember Bob Bowman taught that 1985, he's pastor of the church here, a couple of pastors, two or three back at the middle school here in town.
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I remember him teaching 1 John 1 9, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and he illustrated it by saying that God wipes the slate clean and that's exactly what
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God does but we must first as believers repent and turn to the Lord, being sorry for our sins, repenting once and daily too.
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It's important for us to know this in order to walk with God. We will need to repent daily.
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We need to know that we have a responsibility when we sin to repent as believers also. Have you been disobedient?
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Have you grieved God as a child of the Lord? Are you sorry that you've been ungrateful for his goodness towards you too?
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Have you been so foolish as to entertain sin that your fellowship is broken?
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Paul rejoiced when he saw this fruit of repentance in the life of this church.
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You know quickly, I really just need, I forgot to mention this, when it comes to sin, when it comes to this repenting in the child of God's life, there's just a few practical things that you can do, that you can think of, ways that you can break the pattern of sin and one of them would be like Joseph, to run from it.
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When the temptation comes, if you're around people who are backbiting, if someone says, I want to tell you that,
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I want to tell a joke and you know what's coming, to leave, just to leave, get away from it, to not set yourself up for a fall.
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Secondly, Psalm 119 verse 11 says that we are to hide God's Word in our heart that we what?
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That we might not sin against him. Memorize scripture, powerful in the life of a believer. Third, don't entertain sinful temptations.
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Men, this time of the year, learn the art of bouncing your eyes off of women that are not dressed appropriately.
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Learn it. Women, learn to trust the Lord no matter what is happening in your life.
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Don't entertain any sinful temptations or thoughts. Don't, remember this, no sin in your life is hidden from God.
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That will cause us to live in the fear of the Lord. Don't cherish sin, but see it as it really is.
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A poisonous snake, and we don't play with snakes, so we don't play with poison. We can't do that.
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I want to close by just kind of wrapping up what took place in these few verses.
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Paul said that we need to know the nature of repentance, that it's from God. It's something that's vital in the individual life of the
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Christian in the believing church. He showed the two differences and we need to understand the godly sorrow and the worldly sorrow because one leads to repentance, true repentance and salvation.
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The other leads to death, and we ought not to entertain the second, but we need to make sure that we humble ourselves and submit to the
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Word of God and the work of the Spirit of God in our lives and in the church so that we respond properly. And then thirdly, we can, like the
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Apostle Paul, rejoice when people around us are convicted. We ourselves are convicted and we see
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God working in our lives and there's true repentance and there's true fruit and true brokenness, repenting once and yet daily too.
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And that fruit that comes in the life of that person shows and proves that that repentance was genuine.
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And isn't that what we desire? A genuine work in the lives of those around us, in the lives of Bethlehem Bible Church, causing people and that repentance, that fruit can cause others to rejoice in the
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Lord for granting the special gift of godly grief that leads to repentance that results in salvation.
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How good of the Lord to give us this example in this chapter, because this is something for us as a church, not for somebody else as I started the message, but for us as a church to remember that it is right and it is appropriate for us to repent once and daily too.
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Shall we pray together? Our Father in heaven, as we consider this subject this morning, realizing that we could not have looked at everything there is about the subject of repentance, yet just this brief snapshot, this summary, this illustration, this illustration of how it worked out, how you worked it out in the life of the
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Corinthian Church is so needful and so helpful for us today. We as a
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New Testament church would desire to live appropriately and live right before the Lord, serving you in the fear of the
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Lord, serving you in purity, serving you in a way that brings honor and glory to Jesus Christ.
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And we would ask that when we come to the place as individuals or as a church where we have wronged others, where we have hurt and offended others, we have sinned and ultimately we understand we have sinned against you, we pray oh
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God that you would work this godly sorrow, this true repentance so that it would be genuine, so that we would desire to be holy and to clear our name and to have an earnest zeal to make things right.
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Help us, we would ask. We desire this because we want to be more like our
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Master the Lord Jesus. We desire that we might walk as he even walked with an eye towards our
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Heavenly Father, desiring to be a pure people in a crooked and perverse world, desiring to be holy before our