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2 Corinthians chapter 7 verse 10, which was the memory verse. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. The title of the sermon this morning is Godly Sorrow, Godly Sorrow. For godly sorrow worketh repentance. So, let's pick it up from verse number 1, 2 Corinthians chapter 7 verse 1. Having therefore these promises... Now, it's interesting that chapter, you know, verse number 1 picks up with this thought. Having therefore these promises. Because you might be wondering, well, what promises? Having what promises, right? Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Now, if I was the one that was creating chapter divisions in the Bible, if that was my job, I was creating the chapter divisions, I would throw verse number 1 here into chapter number 6. Right? Because if you look at chapter number 6 again, just to go back to 2 Corinthians chapter number 6, look at the end there, remember it said there in verse 17, Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, sayeth the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. Remember the thought that we left with chapter number 6, was to not be associated with the world, not to be associated, not to build, not to be yoked up with wicked people of this world, with unbelievers, right? And so he says, hey, we need to separate ourselves from that, verse 18, and I will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, sayeth the Lord Almighty. So we spoke about the fellowship that we can have with God the Father, if we cleaned up our lives and separated ourselves from the world. And so picking up from verse number 1, I feel like it's a tail end of all of that, having therefore these promises. What promises? The promise that God will fellowship with us. He will be for us a father, and we will be his children, if we walk in the light, if we walk after his commands, if we walk after his ways. This is the promise that we have, that we would be in fellowship with the God of the universe, with God our Father. And this is because we have these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. So again it's that same thought, to cleanse ourselves from this world, from the wickedness, perfect in holiness in the fear of God. So what's interesting about verse number 1 there, it says to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. Now you might be saying, well hold on, don't we have a new spirit? If we're saved, isn't this new spirit, isn't that cleansed? Isn't that perfect? Isn't that without sin? Yes it is. But what I think this is referring to here, it separates cleansing ourselves in the flesh, which is the outward sins done in our body. There are a lot of sins done with this physical body. And God wants us to cleanse ourselves from those sins. He wants us to repent from those sins, yes, to repent from those sins, not for salvation, but that we would have that clean fellowship with God Almighty. And then when it says filthiness of the spirit, I believe that's talking about the internal sins that we have within ourselves. You know, the wicked thought life that we can have, you know, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, these kind of things that are internal, not so much seen externally, but definitely internal in the man. So we need to make sure that we cleanse ourselves, not just from the physical sins that we do, but the sins that we commit in ourselves, in the inner man, in our minds and in our hearts. These are the two areas of our life that we need to work in. And quite often, you know, it's easy to cleanse the sins on the outward, because people can see the outward. They can say, wow, this seems like a godly man. He seems like he's serving the Lord, seeking after the Lord, and yet internally full of dead man's bones. That was the Pharisees. Remember the Pharisees, they were clean on the outside, but inwardly full of dead man's bones. They were not even saved, in fact. Let's look at verse number two. Receive us. Now, we're in 2 Corinthians 7. If you remember 2 Corinthians 2, we were left with the thought that Paul was going to come and visit this church. So now, having sort of gone through the previous chapters, we come back to that thought that was in chapter two, that Paul was going to come and visit them himself. So when he says, receive us, he's talking about the fact that he will come there physically, plus the other believers that he was sending out there, other leaders that would be able to lead this church. He says, receive us. Why? We have wronged no man. We have corrupted no man. We have defrauded no man. So we see that Paul is not going to defraud them. God's not going to take advantage of them. He doesn't take advantage of them financially. He doesn't take advantage of them in any way possible. He comes and is honest in his dealings. And he's saying, look, please, receive us, because we're going to come and continue to help you set things right in this church. Verse number three. I speak not this to condemn you, for I have said before that ye are in our hearts and die and live with you. So Paul was not seeking to destroy this church. He wasn't seeking to condemn the church. He wasn't seeking to damn the church. Right? He wrote, remember, 1 Corinthians, that letter was a very harsh rebuke on this church for being a Christian. For being so ungodly, for being so carnal, for being so divided, for lacking charity in their service toward one another. He says, look, I didn't write these things. I don't speak these things to condemn you. I'm not trying to destroy you. Okay? But he says, look, he's got a genuine love for this church. He says, for I have said before, that ye are in our hearts. You know, he's very sincere in his rebuke. And I want you to be a church that if I have to rebuke you, you know, either behind the pulpit or rebuke you privately over some sins, over some matter, you would know, well, it's because Kevin loves me. I would hope you would know that Kevin's not trying to destroy me, he's not trying to damn me, he's not trying to make me feel so bad about myself and destroy my walk, but he's doing so because he loves me. And if you have a faithful friend that tells you some harsh truths, if you have a godly leader that reveals some sin in your life, you will know that it's out of love. Okay? In the same way Paul had this great heart for this Corinthian church, even though they were so messed up. And I think what I said in chapter 1, if some of us had seen this church in our area, the Corinthian church in our area, whatever church it may be, we would think so harshly about it, we would probably want that church to fall and be destroyed, but that is not the heart of Paul. Right? If a church has not gone, you know, if a church is still running, if it's still the body of Christ, Paul wants that church to be changed, he wants that church to repent and be corrected. And it's interesting that he says that ye are in our hearts to die and live with you. I believe this is a figure of speech in the sense that he would sorrow with them in their failures, and that he would rejoice with them over their successes. Okay, so that harsh rebuke isn't, again, just to make himself there full of pride, but he's sorrowing about that. He's upset that they're so bad. He's upset that they're divided and carnal. And so he's saying, hey, you're in our hearts. When you're down, when you're dying, I'm dying with you. And when you're living, I'm living with you. I'm rejoicing in your successes. And what we see in this chapter is that Paul identifies that they have had some major improvements since the last time he's heard of that church. Well, see, it's like he's encouraging this church, hey, I've heard great news that you've repented, you've done so much great things, that godly sorrow that we read about in verse number 10 has driven them to repent and correct things in their church. Look at verse number 4. Great is my boldness of speech toward you. You know, he was bold in his speech. He was bold in his letters. He didn't sugarcoat the sin in this church. And, you know, we need to be people, I need to be a pastor that does not sugarcoat sin in our church. You know, if he needs to be called out, we need to call out that sin. If there's somebody that needs to be kicked out of the church, we need to kick them out out of boldness. Okay, we don't want to sugarcoat or hide sin in the church. We need to make sure he gets exposed and speak with boldness against it. And he says, look, great is my glorying of you. I am filled with comfort. I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation. So it's interesting that in this church, the Corinthian church, he can glory. He's comforted in the church and he's joyful about the church. And you go, well, why is that? Why is he glorying? Why is he comforted? Why is he joyful in this church? Why is he joyful in his tribulation? Because Paul was facing, like you know, numerous tribulations, numerous troubles, numerous fightings. He was being persecuted and yet in the Corinthian church, that was so messed up, he was able to rejoice in them in his tribulation. Why is that? Well, look at verse number 5. Verse number 5 gives us the answer. And verse number 6 as well. Verse number 5. For when we were coming to Macedonia, our flesh had no rest. Now, if you remember, why did Paul go into Macedonia? If you remember, he was looking for Titus. I think it was Troas. He was looking for Titus and he couldn't find Titus. And this is why he had not come yet to visit the church. Because he was on his way to visit the Corinthian church, went to Troas, was supposed to meet Titus there, and Titus was nowhere to be seen. So he went into Macedonia looking for Titus. And that's what caused the delay for him to come and visit this church. But we know it was God's plan to delay Paul. It was God's plan to delay him because as we've seen before Paul was coming to criticize this church even more but yet they had done a lot to fix things. And they were on their way to fix things so he could have caused more damage in the church. And you know, sometimes God will send away godly men. Sometimes God will send away godly leaders because they're causing more damage to the church than necessary. And we see Paul being held up in Macedonia and he says our flesh had no rest but we were troubled on every side without our fightings within were fears. They were fearing for their life. They were being greatly persecuted in Macedonia as he was looking for Titus in this city. Verse number 6 Nevertheless God that comforted those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus. So he goes into Macedonia looking for Titus but it's actually Titus that goes to Macedonia and finds them. Titus is the one that comes to them and he says I'm greatly comforted and encouraged by Titus. We finally found him. He was missing and I'm encouraged that I've got my fellow brother in the Lord my fellow worker in the Lord by my side and he's greatly comforted by the coming of Titus. Okay. But why is he comforted? Yes he's comforted for the fellowship. Yes he's comforted that he's found his lost friend but look at verse number 7 and not by his coming only. So it's not by his coming only that I was comforted but by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you. So Titus had gone to the Corinth church to the Corinthians and he had been comforted by the Corinthian church. And look what it says here when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning your fervent mind toward me so that I rejoiced the more. So that was good report from the Corinthian church. There was good reports of this church. This church that had been so bad. That had been so divided. That was lacking charity. Titus gets encouraged by the church. He sees that they're improving and he's able to pass that information on to Paul and Paul is now rejoicing that the church had done so well that he had turned a corner. He says he told him of his earnest desire. They were honestly desiring to improve as a church. They didn't want to be where they were anymore. It says your mourning your mourning. They had mourned over that first letter, 1 Corinthians. They had shed tears about it. The fact that they had been revealed for being a corrupted church. Okay? And then he says your fervent mind toward me, toward Paul. They didn't hate Paul. Paul had rebuked them sharply in that letter but they did not hate him. They accepted the truth and said yes. You know what? Paul loves us. He wants us to improve and so they had this fervent mind toward Paul. They loved him. They didn't hate him and that's why he rejoiced. He said yes. The letter worked. Instead of getting angry, instead of becoming prideful, instead of becoming bitter, you took my letter to heart. You knew that I loved you dearly and you turned the corner. So even when I'm facing tribulations even when I'm being persecuted, I can rejoice in the fact that this church which was once so bad had improved and was on their way of improvement. And let me just say something to you. A lot of people put themselves down for being immature believers for lacking knowledge, for not knowing much of their Bible. They put themselves down for not having read their Bible cover to cover. But let me say to you, more important than all of that is the journey. Which way are you going? I would rather fellowship with a Christian that's carnal. That's got their favorite preachers and creates divisions but they recognize where they are and they're on the road to improvement. They go in this way. They're making improvements they can see that they need to change things in the Word of God about themselves. I would rather fellowship with that person that's on the same journey of improvement than the Christian who's got everything together that knows the Bible cover to cover, that's been going to church their whole life but is backsliding, is going the opposite way. They're getting worse and worse. I would rather fellowship with that carnal Christian that's trying to get better than the Christian that's all mature but on a downward spiral. And so we see even Paul here, even though this church was so messed up, he could see the improvement and he's able to rejoice in that. Even in his tribulations and persecution. Verse number 8 For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent. Though I made you sad. Though I made you sorrow. Though I made you mourn about what I had written. He goes, I don't repent. I don't have a change of mind. I'm glad that I made you feel this way. I can see now that you're putting these things into place. You're putting corrective action into place. But then he goes, though I did repent. So after he had written the letter after he had sent it out he did repent for a while. He was like, in his flesh he's like because remember he wrote it in tears. So he's like, maybe I was too harsh. Maybe I shouldn't have sent it out just the way it was. He did repent but now when he heard the news that they had taken it to heart and were changing things he goes, I don't repent. It was worth it. Yes, I don't repent after all. Though I did repent for a season. There was a period of time where I did repent but I don't repent anymore because I received the great news out of Titus that you guys are doing great things. He says, for I perceive that the same epistle have made you sorry though it were for a season. So yeah, this church needed to mourn. This church needed to sorrow. This church needed to face reality that they were a long way off from the church that they needed to be but the sorrow was for a season. Okay, we need to make sure that if we sorrow either as a church or if we sorrow as individuals for our past mistakes, for our past sins that we remember it's just for a season. Don't be a Christian that's always mourning. Don't be a believer that's always sorrowing. Don't be someone that's always negative. There's a time for that. There is a time for that. If you've done wrong, there's going to be a time of sorrow. But make sure you understand it's for a season. You feel the sorrow because you know you need to improve. You know you need to make changes in your life. You know you need to be positive and you need to be an encouragement to other believers around you. You need to be an encouragement to your friends and to your family and to your church and seek to walk after the Lord. Please, if you're in a state of sorrow you need to get over that. It's for a season. You need to make work to make improvement in your life where possible. Let the sorrow do its work but don't stay in sorrow. It's just for a season. Verse number 9 Now I rejoice not that ye were made sorry but ye sorrowed to repentance. Let's keep the context here. Let's keep the context of chapter 7. What had they repented from? Their carnality. Their divisions. Their lack of charity. Their false doctrine. What other problems did they have? They had heaps of problems. I can't even remember. Their pride. They weren't serving one another. They were selfish. They weren't looking out for the needs of others in their church. He says because they sorrowed they repented from these things. Is this saying they got saved? Did they get saved now? No. We'll cover that in verse number 10 in a minute. But that ye sorrowed to repentance for ye were made sorry after a godly manner. Okay? There's a godly manner to be sorry. And what we'll see in verse number 10 there are two types of sorrow that you can experience in your life. One is a godly sorrow and one is a worldly sorrow. We'll look at that later on. That ye might receive damage by us in nothing. So he goes look you were made sorry you were sorrowful in a godly manner. You understood that these were the instructions of God. These are scriptures. It's the word of God. It's God himself that made you sorry. And then he goes that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. He goes it's not like you were hurt or mourning because of what we've done. No. We were just speaking the word of God. Okay? And it's my goal that if I hurt you, I hurt you with the word of God. It's not my goal to hurt you out of my own flesh. You know? That's not my goal. My goal always as a preacher is to use the word of God and preach it boldly as he has. And if you go into sorrow about anything it's because the word of God has shown you an area of your life that you need to fix. An area of your life that's suffering. And you need to work on it. You need to improve as a believer. Verse number 10. I love verse number 10. I really do. But unfortunately verse number 10 by so many churches, by even the independent fundamental Baptist in many ways have taken this verse and taken it out of context. Have twisted it and tried to add more to salvation than faith alone. Let's look at verse number 10. Look, you can't just take a verse and say this is about salvation of the soul. You can't just take a verse like this completely out of context and not look at the surrounding context. Let's learn what verse number 10 is about. For godly sorrow, worker of repentance to salvation, not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. Now, some people now, I haven't preached on repentance for a while, but some people believe repentance is a turning of sin. In other words, the keeping of the commandments. So they're adding works to salvation. Okay? And that's a false doctrine. That's a damnable heresy to say you've got to keep the law of God for salvation. But then you have another group of people, and I'm not saying they're teaching damnable heresies, but they've misunderstood what the word repentance means. Because they've taken this verse in verse number 10, and it says for godly sorrow, worker of repentance to salvation. Now, was this church in need of the soul? Was this church in need for eternal life? No. What was this church in need of? To improve, to fix the problems that they had in their church. So what were they being saved from? I'll let you think about that in a minute. What were they being saved on? But look, some people say that repentance is sorrow for your sins. They say, well if you didn't cry tears, if you weren't on your knees with your head down on the ground in sackcloth and ashes then you're not really saved. And I've heard that. I've heard people say look, if you weren't just weeping at the point of your salvation you may not even be saved. And they take a verse like this saying you need the godly sorrow because see that defines what repentance is. If we all agree that we need to repent for salvation, and I believe that. If we believe in repentance then they will take this verse and say repentance means godly sorrow. But this is not about salvation of the soul. The Corinthian church were already saved and were not in need to be resaved. They were already saved. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 2 says unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be saints with all that in every place call upon the name of the Lord call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours. So when Paul writes his first letter he recognizes that they're saints of the Lord. They've already been sanctified. They've already been forgiven. They're already saved believers. Now if you believe here that they need to be saved again then obviously you believe they've lost their salvation. That's not true. They didn't lose their salvation. It is foolish. I mean look, even if this was about salvation of the soul wouldn't you think it's completely foolish to finally bring this up in 2 Corinthians chapter 7 wouldn't you bring that up in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, their need for salvation? Why would you put first the need for them to have charity for one another? For their need to stop this division, to be of one mind. Why would you be teaching them about the Lord's Supper in the first letter if they weren't even saved? It's just foolish to think you'd get to chapter 7 of 2 Corinthians oh by the way you need to get saved. What? What in the world? But that's what pastors do all the time. Many pastors take this verse and apply it to the salvation of the soul. There's only two ways to understand this. Number one maybe they're just completely ignorant. They just haven't read their Bibles they haven't studied their Bibles they haven't read through 2 Corinthians in full. That's one possibility they're completely ignorant. The other possibility is they're just a complete false prophet. A complete false teacher, unsaved wolf in sheep's clothing. That's the other option. I mean what other options are there? This is not about salvation of the soul. So number one it's not about salvation of the soul because the church was already saved but the second reason is that the immediate context around verse number 10 before and after is that the church had to repent had repented from the correction that they had received from Paul. That's what the context is. It's not about repenting for the salvation of the soul but it's about repenting for being a carnal church with various problems. They had to repent from the problems and the sin. They had allowed a man with a great sin who had been sleeping with his step-mother I believe, to be allowed in the church. And that's what they had to fix. They had to kick this guy out of the church. That was one of the major problems that they had in this church. That's what they repented of and you'll see that later on in this chapter as well. So people will say, well see repentance is godly sorrow for your sin. Now look, am I against godly sorrow? Absolutely not. Do I believe somebody that experiences godly sorrow that experiences sorrow for the sins if they're unsaved that they can lead them to salvation of the soul? Absolutely I believe that. I'm not against godly sorrow. I'm not against you sorrowing for your sins. That could very well lead you to salvation of the soul. You know, eternal life, yeah. But your emotion does not determine your salvation. Okay. I've preached the gospel. I've seen people saved when they have had a tear in their eye. Some of my children when they got saved had tears in their eyes and they sorrowed. Does that mean they're more saved or they're the ones that are truly saved versus the others that rejoice in their salvation? There are other people who have given the gospel they've not shed a single tear but they've just rejoiced. Now I understand the gospel. Now I know I'm saved and they're happy about it. Okay. Your emotions doesn't matter. I've heard this from people I feel the same. I don't feel any different. Salvation is not about your feelings. How do you know you're saved because you feel saved? No. You know you're saved because the word of god says that if you place your faith on Jesus Christ you will be saved. Okay. And you know you're saved because you know God cannot lie and he keeps his promises. And if there's a promise that God gave us then we know we're saved. And we have the Holy Spirit in the believer that will testify of your salvation. That's how we know we're saved. It's not your emotions. But I'm not against godly sorrow. If that's what leads someone to salvation praise God. If God can use someone's sorrow praise God. That's what he's going to use to better help that person to get saved. Okay. But what is it saying? I want to park it here on verse number 10 because just because it is so badly interpreted in so many places but if it truly means what they say it means that repentance means godly sorrow then you could read it this way. Godly sorrow worketh godly sorrow. Is that what it's saying? For godly sorrow worketh godly sorrow. No. The Bible in fact this verse proves that repentance is not godly sorrow. Because godly sorrow is what worketh repentance. And if these two things are the same thing you can also read it this way. For repentance worketh repentance. So if I'm a drunkard I'm a drunkard and I repent from my drunkenness I repent from my alcohol and I'm like no more I've repented and I know repentance worketh repentance. So I'm going back to my alcohol. Is that what's happening? Repentance repentance. Back to his alcohol. No. But that's how they interpret it. They don't understand how one thing is leading to the other. In this case this church needed the sorrow to get to the point of repentance. That's what God used. God used the godly sorrow that they had in their church. Keep your finger there. Turn to Romans chapter 5. Keep your finger there. Turn to Romans chapter 5. I mean, look the natural reading even a child can read this and know that one thing is leading to the other. That these are not the same things. But I just want to show you somewhere else in the Bible that uses very similar language. Romans chapter 5 verse 3. Romans chapter 5 verse 3. The Bible reads and not only so, but we glory in tribulations also. So what's one reason we can glory in troubles in our life? Knowing that tribulation worketh patience. So is patience is the definition of patience tribulation? No. Tribulation problems helps you develop patience in your life. Helps you become more long suffering in your own personal life or amongst other people. And then verse number 4 says and patience experience and experience hope. One thing works the other. One thing leads to the other. But tribulation is not patience. Patience is not experience. Experience is not hope. But this is a process that will lead one thing after another. If you want to be more hopeful, if you want to have a greater experience, if you want to have greater patience in your life, then God may have to throw some tribulation your way to help develop these things in your life. Okay. So it's not one thing works another is, no, another way to say you can go back to 2 Corinthians chapter 7 go back to 2 Corinthians chapter 7 another way of saying this is study okay, study worketh knowledge. Right? I mean one way to gain knowledge is to study. Right? But is study the only way to gain knowledge? No. The Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Right? So we can say the fear of the Lord worketh knowledge. Life experience, just your life experience worketh knowledge. Right? Your maturity as you grow and you grow you know, you become more mature, maturely minded, that will also work knowledge. So yes, godly sorrow worketh repentance. If you want to apply this to salvation of the soul yes, I can see that but it's not the only thing that worketh repentance for salvation. Okay, there are many things that can be used, but in the case of this church in the context of this chapter it is godly sorrow that led this church to improve. Now, unfortunately we have to address this misunderstanding. I just wasted, what, 10 minutes trying to you know, show you how this verse is clearly misused by many believers. The main thing we want to know is what is this verse about? Okay, what is this verse about? It basically compares godly sorrow with worldly sorrow, right? Worldly sorrow there? Sorry, but the sorrow of the world or we can say worldly sorrow the sorrow of the world, compares those two things. So you can be sorrowful about, in two different ways. You can have god's sorrow that comes from him, or you can have the world's sorrow, okay? Now, I haven't really heard any good preaching over worldly sorrow so I'm going to tell you what I believe this is talking about. So godly sorrow is sorrow that is pressed upon you directly by God, or directly by the word of God. Okay, and again in this case it's that this church would repent would fix things, would take corrective action in their church. You know, they were a church that was idolizing men, they were lacking charity, they were lacking love, they were selfish they were carnal. And the question is, well what were they saved from? You know, if work of salvation, or sorry godly sorrow what was it again? Sorry, godly sorrow work of repentance to salvation. What were they being saved from? All these problems, there was plague in their church. That's what they were being saved from, they were being saved from the divisions and the carnality of the church. It would have destroyed the church and they needed to be saved and what saved this church was 1 Corinthians, was that letter, was that epistle from Paul. So, just as I think for you guys, when you read the word salvation, or saved in the Bible, it's not always about the salvation of your soul. It's not always about eternal life. It could be your physical salvation of your life, right? This church needed to be saved. Let me give you one, I'll just quickly read to you 1 Corinthians 5, 6. This is when they were instructed to kick out this man for his grievous sin. The Bible says, your glory is not good, know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. So it says look, this man committing this sin is like a little leaven and if you don't kick him out you're going to leaven the whole church. The whole church is going to be filled with these wicked sins. So what were they saved from? They were saved from being leavened as a church by kicking out that man. How else can a church be saved? How else can a church be saved? Keep your finger there, turn to Revelation chapter 2. Revelation chapter 2 verse 5. Revelation chapter 2 verse 5. Just very quickly, Revelation chapter 2 verse 5. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen talking about a church here and repent and do the first works. This church had stopped doing the first works and what I believe that is the great commission that God has left us to do. Or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent. Okay? So if a church stops doing the great commission, that's what I believe the first works are for the church. Okay? Then Jesus Christ says I'm going to come and remove the candlestick out of your church. You will no longer be a light of Jesus Christ. You will no longer be a representation of the body of Christ. You will no longer have my spirit amongst you in that church. You will be a dead church. You will not be a church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so had this church the Corinth church, I believe if they had continued down this path and not repented then I truly believe their candlestick would have eventually been removed. They no longer would have shined the glory of Jesus Christ in their church. So we need to be careful as a church. We need to learn from these things. Okay? We need to be potentially saved if we ever go down a bad path. If we ever become wicked and carnal. If we ever allow wicked sinners in this church and not cast them out. If we stop doing the first works we need to understand we need to repent from that otherwise you know, we could lose our status as a church of God. Okay? And we may need to be saved from that situation. So that's what verse 10 is talking about. That's the salvation that's been referred to here to the Corinthian church. But again, the two types of sorrows that you can experience. We talked about godly sorrow that comes from God. You recognizing, boy I fall short of where I need to be. Okay? And I need to improve this. Then you have the sorrow of the world. Okay? Worldly sorrow is when you're sorry for being caught but you're not sorry for what you did wrong. This happens a lot, right? Especially if your parents and you have kids. You know, they've done something wrong. They get caught and now they're sorry. They should have been sorry when they did the wrong. They should have come to their parents and said mum and dad I did wrong. Then I would know, hey, you're definitely sorrowful for what you've done. But if you just get caught and then you're sorry then you're actually sorry for being caught. Okay? And you know we need to make sure that this is the worldly sorrow. Okay? This is worldly sorrow. Another type of worldly sorrow is you could be sorry for the consequences sin has brought into your life. Okay? You've committed sin you're not sorry about committing the sin but you're sorry for the consequences it's had in your life. Okay? Let me give you some examples of this. Well actually let me quickly explain the differences. You know, godly sorrow will cause you to confess and make corrective action. Okay? And move on with your life. Because it's only there for a season, remember. Worldly sorrow will cause you to continually beat up on yourself. Continually beat up yourself every day for the wrong things that you've done in your life. And usually it's because you're facing the consequences of those past mistakes, of those past sins. They continue to plague you for the rest of your life because that's just the natural order of things when you do great sins. Okay? But you need to understand that if you've done some great sin in your life in the past that Jesus Christ paid for your sins on the cross. He's been paid by his shed blood and you're already forgiven and saved from those sins. You know, god does not want you to dwell on your past. God does not want to make you dwell on your past mistakes. He wants you to move on from that. Okay? Philippians 3.13 is such a great passage in 14. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind. Paul says I've made mistakes in the past. You know what? I'm choosing to forget those things. And reaching forth onto those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. That's how you move on with your life. That's how you remain positive. That's how you remain effective and productive for the Lord. You forget about your past sins. Move on. If you can't fix them, move on. Yes, you've sorrowed for them. Yes, Christ has paid for them on the cross. Now it's time for you to move on to the high calling of God. Doing great things for God. Forget about it. Let godly sorrow have done its work for a season. Now you've learnt your lesson. Now you can help others that might be making that same mistake you've done in the past, but you've moved on. You're doing great things for God. But worldly sorrow will keep you in bondage. Worldly sorrow will continuously cause you to beat up on yourself for the past mistakes. You're like, I can't forgive myself. Well, God's forgiven you. If God's forgiven you, you need to learn to forgive yourself and move on. We've all done mistakes in our life. Some have done worse mistakes than others. Some have done greater sins than others. It's time to move on. Otherwise, that's worldly sorrow. It's worldly sorrow. That's not where God wants you to be. He wants you to make changes just like this church needed to make changes and be productive for the Lord. Move on. Rejoice. And if you're sorrowful for the sins you've done in your past, you need to figure out, is this godly sorrow? Is it lasting a season? Have I taken corrective action? Then that's good. But if you find yourself just continuously beating yourself up and not moving on, that's worldly sorrow. Okay, that's worldly sorrow. Verse 11. Let's go on to verse 11. For behold this self-same thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort. What carefulness it wrought in you. So, you know, they were sure. They were careful. They did not make the same mistakes again. They did not continue down the same path. You see how this church has improved. It says, yea. Verse 11. Yea, what clearing of yourselves. You know, you've cleared yourself of major sins. You're working toward being more holy. Being more blameless. Being children of God. Yea, what indignation. Do you know what indignation is? It's having a great anger. They got angry about the state of affairs. Not only did they mourn, but they got angry. How could we have let ourselves get to this point? And there is righteous anger. Anger is not a sin in of itself. God can use anger to get you to do great things for Him. They were angry about the sins in the church. Praise God. Then it says, yea, what fear. I would say it's a fear of God's judgment over them. They were fearful. If we don't fix things, we could potentially lose the candlestick. They were afraid of God's judgment upon their church. Then it says, what vehement desire. They had a desire to change. They were zealous. I think it says zealous later on here. Yea, what zeal. They had rekindled their drive for holiness. They had rekindled their drive to be godly and to want to know the word of God and improve. Yea, what revenge. They go, Kevin, aren't we supposed to not take revenge? Yea, but sometimes revenge is okay. In this case, they needed to take revenge on themselves. They needed to fix things. Revenge also means to vindicate. That word revenge to vindicate to set things right. They were reacting and taking corrective action within their church. In a way, taking revenge upon themselves for the state that they were in and they had to fix this. They had to take corrective action and change things. Can you guys turn to, just to show you this a little bit further, turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Chapter 10 verse 6. Chapter 10 verse 6. 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 6. It says, and having a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. So they had taken revenge upon their disobedience to the scriptures. It's not like they were taking revenge on an enemy. They were taking revenge on themselves for being disobedient. That's the context that God uses this word revenge. I'm not saying it's ever good for you guys to go and take out revenge on your enemies or someone that's done you wrong. You can take revenge on yourself if you need to. Okay, that's fine. Verse number 12. Back to chapter 7. Chapter 7 verse 12. So who's this His cause? I believe this is the person they had to kick out of the church. That had done the wrong. Not for His cause that suffered wrong but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear unto you. Again, you can read chapter 5 in your own time. 1 Corinthians chapter 5. They had to kick this man out of the church for his ungodly wicked sin. But he says, I did not write that for His sake. For His cause. It wasn't so much about Him. It was about you as a church. That you would not be leavened with this sin. He wrote 1 Corinthians for the protection of the church. Church discipline was the primary purpose but it wasn't about punishing that person. It was to protect the church. And yes, a secondary application is the punishment of that individual. But it was about protecting the church. I want you to keep that in mind. If we ever need to kick an individual out of this church it's not because it's that one person. No, we're protecting the whole. That's what verse 12 is teaching us. Verse 13. So again, just that idea that Titus came he was refreshed, he was energised his batteries were recharged when he saw that this Corinthian church had obeyed. They had kicked this guy out of the church. They were fixing things in the church. They had received him in love rather than being full of pride and saying, who are you to tell us what we ought to be as a church? He was refreshed. Even a messed up church can bring comfort and refreshment to fellow brethren. Again, if they're on the right path. A messed up church that's on the wrong path, they're not going to bring joy to anybody. Verse 14. I'm not ashamed. But as we spake all things to you in truth even so our boasting, which I made before Titus, is found a truth. So, boasting in the general sense, again is a sin, because generally speaking when someone boasts they boast of themselves. They talk themselves up, right? But in this sense you can boast about fellow brethren. You can boast about what God has done in your life. That boasting is fine. Boasting of other people boasting of God. What he's saying is basically my boasting is well-founded. It's not a lie. It's true. You guys are on your way of improvement. He's encouraging the church saying, hey, you guys are doing so much better that I'm even boasting about you to others. We can see that I had turned a corner. Verse 15. And his inward affection Titus' inward affection is more abundant toward you whilst he rememberth the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling ye received him. So Titus testifies of their obedience to Paul's letter, which is ultimately the Scriptures. The words of God. He testifies of their obedience. And that they had the right attitude when they received him. They received him with fear and trembling. They didn't receive him in pride. They received him in fear and trembling. Verse 16. I rejoice, therefore, that I have confidence in you in all things. Wow. I mean, think about where they are now. Paul says, I'm confident in you in all things. I've seen you change these things. Now I have the confidence that in every aspect of your church that you're doing things right. You've fixed things now. And if we didn't have 2 Corinthians, come on, if we just had 1 Corinthians, we would think, wow, this church just got destroyed. We'd think this church had no chance. We'd think this church had blown it. Paul says, I have confidence in you in all things. We can see how things have changed. The news was awesome. You know, let's be mindful about that. Again, with fellow churches that may not be doing the first works, that may not be preaching the Bible as they once used to. You know, we need to be mindful, hey, they need a chance to fix things. You know, if you have the ability to encourage people in that church, then do so. You know, if you have the ability, you have the authority to rebuke people, then do so. If it's within your authority. Paul, obviously as an apostle, had that authority over the church. He had established this church. Do so with the mindset that this church needs to repent and get back on board serving the Lord. But be patient. We saw that it took a while for this church to fix things. But, wow, they really turned the corner. For Paul to say, I'm confident in you, in all things, we know how rough sometimes, we know how, what's the word I'm looking for? I guess how rough Paul was. You know, he would be very critical with brethren. Like, he wasn't a soft person. For him to give this recommendation, to say, I'm confident in you, must mean this church had really turned the corner and was doing the right things now. Had been serving the Lord, putting things into place. So, you know, praise God for 2 Corinthians. I hope that if we ever mess up as a church, we will just remember and not get discouraged. We will have godly sorrow for a season and get things fixed up and once again be on the right track serving the Lord. Let's pray.