2 CORINTHIANS 7 GODLY SORROW PRODUCES REAL CHANGE2020 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 2 Corinthians 7 Godly Sorrow Produces Real Change

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2020.

Well, as we jump into 2 Corinthians, there's a lot of things that have happened since 1 Corinthians. So much has taken place. Paul wrote the letter of 1 Corinthians, and he was addressing some serious problems within the church and answering some of their questions. Well, in between 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, it seems that there was a real big conflict that took place within the church and specifically against Paul.

Very possibly, it was led by the man that Paul was addressing in 1 Corinthians 5, the man that was involved in sexual immorality. And church tradition tells us that this man led a kind of a strong revolt against the apostle Paul. And so it caused Paul to make a quick corrective visit.

And we don't have a record of this visit, but from the implications that are given within this book, 2 Corinthians, he stops in for a brief visit to try to correct the situation, but it seems that it made things worse. And there was a greater rebellion that went on there within the church of Corinth against Paul and really attacking Paul's character, attacking his ministry, and really fighting against the ministry of the Apostle Paul.

And so it seems that as things got worse, and Paul heard about that, he wrote another letter to the Corinthians to bring rebuke for the sinfulness and the hardness of their hearts.

Now, this letter isn't 2 Corinthians. It's actually a letter that we don't have access to today. We don't have it preserved in the scripture record. But Paul refers to it. And so we believe that there was this encounter that Paul went there, he wrote another letter. And then now 2 Corinthians is really kind of the follow-up of

after they have responded to this very stern and important letter where Paul calls them to repentance. And Titus is the one who brings back word of it to the Corinthians. And so it's dealing with this issue of sin within the church of Corinth, and specifically a sin that really affected the church's relationship with the Apostle Paul. And as we consider these things this morning, I think that's important to consider, that

relationships are impacted and affected by our sin. And in sin, we break fellowship, not only with God, but with others around us. Pastor Warren Wiersbe puts it this way. He says,

And they can be repaired and strengthened only when people face problems honestly, deal with them biblically and lovingly, and seek to get right with God. And so this morning I would ask you to consider if there is some shattered relationships.

And if those relationships are in need of repair, we can understand that there is a need to get right with God. It always boils down to our heart for the Lord and our relationship with the Lord, even as we have conflict with one another. Now, the idea here is not to look at, you know, and try to blame others, you know, for the relationship issue, but to seek the Lord about, well, what

is my heart right with God? And is that a source? Is that a cause for this broken relationship that I'm experiencing today? Now, as we consider 2 Corinthians 7, we're really going to zero in and focus in on verse 11, which is the repentance that Paul observes in their life. Looking again at verse 11, he says, "...for observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner."

Paul here is celebrating and rejoicing their response today.

to his previous letter, to his correction, and the repentance that had taken place. He's rejoicing and celebrating, and he calls them to observe in their own lives this repentance as it's demonstrated by their conduct. I've titled the message this morning, Godly Sorrow Produces Real Change. And that's what Paul's observing, that's what he's celebrating, even though he had to make them sorrowful.

He didn't rejoice in the sorrow, and sorrow, of course, you know, isn't something really to rejoice about, but Paul says, I'm glad that I did it afterwards. I was tormented by it. I sent you the letter, and I was conflicted by it, but now I'm glad because I see that it stirred up not just a sorrow, but a godly sorrow, and that produces real repentance. It produces real change.

Now, as we look at this verse this morning, I would point out that Paul is seeking to help them validate their own repentance. I would advise against looking at this verse and trying to use this to evaluate other people's repentance. You might be tempted to do that. But instead, I would really follow the lead here of the Apostle Paul and say, hey, look at this that has been stirred up within you. He says, observe this very thing.

There's real change that has taken place. Your life has changed. It's observable. You can tell. And he's going to walk through these different qualities that have changed. Paul says, I'm a witness of it. But you consider it for yourself and understand that you have changed. You're not in the state and the condition you were in before. But now you can move forward in right relationship with me, Paul would say, and right relationship with God. And so godly sorrow produces real change.

change. Now, there's a lot of change that Paul addresses here, so we're going to kind of move quickly through these things, but there's eight points. I know, usually I have like three points, four points, maybe five points, right? Eight points. So, as I said, we're going to move quickly, or we're just going to be here for a long time. We'll see how it goes. So, the first change that we see here in verse 11 is diligence. Godly sorrow produces diligence.

Diligence. He says in verse 11 again, for observe this very thing that you sorrowed in a godly manner. What diligence it produced in you. As Paul is calling them to pay attention to the change that God has done in their lives, the change that godly sorrow has brought about, one of the things that has taken place is there has been this new diligence that wasn't there before.

This word diligence can mean a few different things. It speaks to the idea of haste or to do something with haste, which also leads us to understand it as earnestness or diligence. It's the idea of something is important and so I'm getting right to it and I have an urgency to complete it.

Godly sorrow produces an urgency, a diligence to, you know, get right on it, not to postpone it, not to delay it, but to really get to work and to make sure it's fully completed. This is the idea of diligence. When it comes to repentance, when it comes to change, there is a diligence that is involved whenever it's produced by or whenever there is real godly sorrow.

that godly sorrow does not, you know, lead to a kind of a casual attitude towards the sin that was committed. Like, you know, yeah, I know, it wasn't so great, it wasn't, you know, too bad, and so I can get around to fixing it later. I can address this later.

It's diligence as opposed to kind of a casual attitude or a laziness or a procrastination. You know, like, oh man, you know, addressing this sin is going to be kind of difficult and painful. And so I'm going to put it off until a little bit later. You know, I'm going to, I'll deal with that in due time. But now is not the time. That's not diligence. That's not diligence.

That's not what godly sorrow produces. Godly sorrow takes the issue and puts it right in the forefront and says, I need to take care of this. I need to get on this immediately and work out this situation that is the result of my sin. Commentator Albert Barnes says, when people are thoroughly convinced of sin, they will set about removing it with the utmost diligence and

they will feel that this can be done and must be done. Diligence. It speaks to us of it can be done and it must be done. I'm not going to just let this continue. I'm not going to give up and not address this sin situation. No, I'm going to take care of it. It can be done, it must be done, and it must be done right now. Godly sorrow produces this kind of diligence in our lives. Now,

As we think about sorrow, of course, there's different kinds of sorrow. You can be sorry about the consequences of sin. You can be sorry that you got caught in sin. You can be sorry in a variety of ways. But godly sorrow is a unique sorrow that is capturing the heart of God. And how do we get this godly sorrow? You know, the reality is sometimes we have sorrow. We know about sin, but we don't have godly sorrow.

And so what do we do if we find that, you know, I don't see this diligence in me. I know about this area of sin. I know about this issue of sin, but I'm not seeing this. As Paul called them to observe in their lives the things that godly sorrow had produced. What do we do if we do not observe those characteristics in our own life? How do you get godly sorrow? Well, I think it's right there in the phrase, godly sorrow.

If you see the issue, you see the sin, but you don't have godly sorrow, ask God. Ask God. And I think that's the reality of where we need to go with this, is that our hearts are wicked and deceitful, and we can be caught up in sin and know about sin and have issues of sin and even feel sorry for sin, but have no real change in our lives because we don't have godly sorrow. And we need to recognize that and allow God...

I forget the song, but the song lyric is in my head. You know, break my heart for what breaks yours. Allow God to work in our hearts to produce in us a sorrow that is from him. A sorrow so that we have his heart and his mind on the matter. And when he works in us that way, and when we allow him and invite him to work in our hearts in that way, it will produce in us diligence.

A diligence to get things right, to get right with God, and to make amends and deal with the issues and hurts that we have caused by our sin. Well, moving on to the second thing that godly sorrow produces. Godly sorrow produces a clearing of self or a clearing of yourself. Again, here it's from verse 11. What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves.

Now, when we think of clearing of yourselves, we might think of, you know, trying to explain away or excuse ourselves or, you know, explain why our sin really isn't an issue. But that's not really what Paul is talking about here. The word, as he talks about clearing for yourself, it means to give a verbal defense, right?

It's the word in the Greek, apologia, which we get the word apology from, but that might kind of confuse us a little bit and just think it's all about saying, I'm sorry. But the word really speaks of a reasoned statement or argument. I would maybe explain it this way. The clearing of yourself is giving a real, honest, and thoughtful explanation.

Not an excusing, not a trying to, you know, say that I didn't commit sin, not just an apology and saying I'm sorry, you know, for it, but this is what happened and this is what took place.

This same word is used by the Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 3, verse 15, where he says, When he says to give a defense, it's that same word, apologia.

Which is the idea of giving a thoughtful, reasonable response to the question that is asked. In a similar way, godly sorrow produces in us not a dismissing of sin, not a, I'm not going to think about it, I'm not going to think about what led up to it, I'm not going to think about why I did what I did. No, it's a real and honest and thoughtful response

response to what took place or explanation of what took place. Clearing of self is not being defensive or making excuses or trying to proclaim your innocence. It's an acknowledgement of sin, an acknowledgement of the issues that were going on. And so godly sorrow produces this. What if you don't have godly sorrow to produce this kind of real and honest and thoughtful explanation? Well, you need to ask God.

to turn your heart to be like his. Continuing on, we see that godly sorrow brings indignation. Godly sorrow brings indignation. Again, it's here in verse 11. What clearing of yourselves, what indignation. He says, observe this very thing. Look at your lives. And you can see that there was this indignation that came that wasn't there before. What is this idea of indignation?

The word can mean indignation, irritation, or vexation. But I kind of like the English definition. I think it captures some important ideas for us. Indignation is anger or annoyance provoked by what is perceived as unfair treatment. Anger or annoyance, that comes up from what you perceive as unfair treatment. There's this anger that is stirred up, this annoyance.

Now, the idea here is not that you have been unfairly treated, but the reality is when I'm repenting of sin, when I'm having a godly sorrow over my actions and attitudes, it's me having an anger that is annoyed by, stirred up with the way that I have treated others and the way that my actions have hurt others. And others have been treated unfairly because of what I have done.

indignation, as opposed to indifference, not really caring about, you know, how our sins and decisions have impacted others. No, there's an anger that is stirred up from godly sorrow that is angry over the sin, that is angry over the unfairness of what others have experienced at my hand. Commentator Albert Barnes puts it this way, one effect of true repentance is to produce decided hatred of sin and

It is not mere regret or sorrow. It is positive hatred. There is a deep indignation against it as an evil and a bitter thing. Godly sorrow produces this kind of anger, this kind of indignation where we're upset over the sin and over the damage that it has caused. Well, we also see here in verse 11 that godly sorrow produces fear.

Godly sorrow produces fear. Again, it's here in verse 11. What clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear. And fear is not a complicated word. It means to have fear or to dread or to have terror. It can also be used in the sense of reverence, of course. I don't know what kind of phobias you might have. You might be afraid of heights or you might have a fear of spiders or a fear of clowns.

But godly sorrow produces a fear of sin. A fear of sin and the realities of it. A fear of the ease that my flesh can slip back into a pattern of sin. A fear of my heart that can easily get entangled and wrapped up in sin once again. Godly sorrow produces a very healthy fear for us. Pastor David Guzik puts it this way.

Paul isn't writing about a fear of God here as much as a fear of sin and a fear of our own weakness toward it. There's a real healthy fear that helps me to realize that, boy, I can easily get sucked back into a life of sin, a pattern of sin, and it causes so much damage.

Some fears that we have, we perhaps have had forever. We've just kind of always had this fear. Some fears are the result of some traumatic experience that has taken place. I have a fear that comes from wiping out an entire style sheet on a customer's website. That maybe doesn't mean a lot to you, but thousands of lines of code were just completely erased and

As I was working on it, and I had this habit of copying and pasting, and I was going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And the last time I did it, I actually selected all of the code and then pasted over it something that was completely different and saved it. Because, you know, I save it really good, really frequently. And so, all right, good to go. And then all of a sudden, I look at the website, and I realize everything is broken already.

Because I made this change. And it changed my behavior forever after that. And now every time I'm working on those situations and that kind of code, I'm always fearful of that kind of mistake. And in a similar way, godly sorrow produces this healthy fear for us that we would realize how easy it is to get wrapped up and entangled in sin forever.

And so we have this high alert that takes place, this change of behavior that results, as opposed to being unafraid or thinking that we can handle sin or thinking, ah, it's not going to be so bad. Godly sorrow produces fear, recognizing the reality and the dangers of sin.

Well, we also see here that godly sorrow produces vehement desire. That's a really strong desire is what Paul is communicating here. Vehement desire, it's defined this way, to desire earnestly. It's earnest desire or strong affection. When God changes our heart and gives us godly sorrow, it doesn't give us an attitude of apathy or lethargy.

It's not kind of a, well, you know, if things work out, hopefully, you know, things will be okay. But it's this vehement desire. It's this really strong emotion that is stirred up.

There's a strong passion that is stirred up, and some of these definitions kind of overlap each other, and we're not necessarily meant to try to define specific borders around all of them. I think vehement desire ties in strongly with the next one, and so I'll go ahead and jump to that. Godly sorrow also produces zeal. Godly sorrow produces zeal. And zeal is, it's a word that speaks of being hot, right?

It can also be understood as a passion. Now zeal itself, the word, it can mean a variety of things. An excitement of the mind. It can mean this pursuit of anything or a zeal. It can also be used in a negative sense of envy and rivalry and jealousy. But the word comes from the idea of being hot, being fervent.

And it can be used in this good sense of having a passion and a real fire for something. And so, again, there's this vehement desire, there's this zeal, as opposed to, well, you know, there's this issue of sin, but instead of being hot regarding it, I'm cold regarding it. Uncaring, dismissive, unemotional, unmoved, that's not godly sorrow. There is a sorrow, perhaps, that can respond in that way and not care, but it's

But godly sorrow produces this fire, produces this passion in regards to getting things right, to working out the situation and to moving forward with God and bringing restoration to the relationships that have been broken. Pastor John Trapp says, "'Zeal is an extreme heat of all the affections for and toward God. David's zeal ate him up. Paul was just as mad for Christ as ever he had been against him.'"

And that example of the Apostle Paul, I think, is a really good picture. As much as Paul was zealous against Christ when he was persecuting the church and attacking the church...

As he was repentant, as God gave him a godly sorrow and he turned his life around, he was just as passionate, just as zealous for Christ as he had been against Christ previously. It's that fire, that passion that God stirred up to move him in the right direction. Godly sorrow produces that kind of zeal.

So that although one time we were pursuing the things of sin, now with a greater intensity, we turn around and we pursue the things of the Lord and getting right with God. Well, number seven, we find that godly sorrow produces vindication.

Vindication. Now vindication, again, usually is a word that we would use in a different context. We would use the idea of vindication when we are falsely accused and then proven innocent, then it's like, yes, I'm vindicated. And that's the way that we might use the word. The word vindication itself speaks of a revenging, a vengeance, or a punishment.

Again, the English definition perhaps gives us some insight. The action of clearing someone of blame or suspicion. And again, used in the context of a false accusation, it's a good word and it makes lots of sense to us. But in this case, we're not talking about a false accusation. We're talking about a real issue of sin in which we are guilty. And so there is not the clearing of ourselves where we are proven that we were innocent and, you know, it was a false accusation.

But the clearing of ourselves in this way is something else entirely. It's really about making things right. Cleared of blame, not because you weren't guilty, not because you didn't commit the sin, but because you turned around and made things right. You got right with God. And there is a forgiveness that comes from God where the slate is wiped clean. And we have that opportunity to stand before God just as if we'd never sinned.

And so there's a vindication there. But also as we sin against others around us, as we break relationships and hurt others,

There is the appropriate consideration of retribution or reparations. And there is the appropriateness of making things right. And a lot of times, you know, you can't take back what you've done and you really can't make up for what you've done, but you can move forward and make things right as you go forward in the relationship. And so there is this vindication that takes place, a vindication before God, a vindication before,

between our relationships and those things that were affected by our sin. And so Paul says, look at all these things that have been produced by your godly sorrow. And the end result is, he says, in all these things, you proved yourself to be clear in this matter. And that gives us the eighth point to consider this morning. Godly sorrow produces a fresh start.

And all these things, you had this diligence, you had this clearing of yourself, you had this anger and this fear, this vehement desire and zeal, you had this vindication. And all of these things, he said, you proved yourself to be clear. Now this word clear, it's a different word than he used before in clearing of yourself. It means a purity. Again, kind of combined in and wrapped in the idea of reverence.

a cleanness. It's a freedom from defilements or impurities. You know, sometimes we can think that we're okay because, well, I was involved in this sin, but I'm not doing it anymore. And so we walk away. But if you're playing in the mud, and then you say, okay, I'm going to repent of playing in the mud, and then you walk away, well, if you don't clean yourself, there's still a problem. There's still an issue.

Because you still have mud all over. And everywhere you go, you track it into the house. Everywhere you go in the house, your footprints are there. You know what I mean? Your muddy footprints are left behind everywhere you go. And sometimes we try to address sin in that way where it's like, okay, I've put a stop to that. That's it. And then, but we don't actually clean up. We don't go back and make things right. Paul says, look, in all these things, you've proven yourself to be clear. You've washed up. You've, you know,

Taken a shower and put on fresh clothes and you have a fresh start now. This godly sorrow has produced in you this fresh start that you can go forward. Not that you'll never sin again and not even that you won't ever sin in the same way again. But there was this repentance that God produced in you. It was real change that took place in your life. And you didn't just like ignore it. You didn't just stop the sin. You didn't pretend like the sin wasn't there. You didn't explain away the sin or make excuses for the sin. You didn't just ignore it.

No, but you had a real diligence to address the situation, to bring a clearing of yourself. Again, not to explain it away or to pretend like it didn't happen, but to make things right. You had this indignation, this anger that was stirred up and this fear that came and this vehement desire and this zeal and this vindication and these things came together to cause you to live differently and you're going forward now with a clean heart, with a clean state, with a fresh start.

You're able to move forward now and right relationship with God. And throughout this chapter here in chapter 7, Paul is saying, and right relationship with us. Oh man, we're so rejoicing and open your hearts to us. And we have this opportunity for reunion and restoration in our relationship as well. Even though they had hurt Paul and harmed Paul in this whole situation.

There is now a restoration because there is this real change that has taken place in their lives. Godly sorrow has produced repentance, real change. Now, godly sorrow, one last thought. It's called sorrow for a reason. It's sorrowful. It hurts. It's painful. And none of us are really fans of sorrow or pain. But it's important to remember the perspective. It is sorrowful, painful.

but it's for a season and it's helpful and it's for our good. And let me close with this last thought from Pastor John Trapp. He said, in sin, the pleasure passeth, the sorrow remaineth. But in repentance, the sorrow passeth and the pleasure abideth forever. God soon pours the oil of gladness into broken hearts. We can hold on to sin because of the pleasure, but the pleasure passes and what we're left with is sorrow.

And we could avoid repentance because, oh, it's sorrowful, it hurts. But it's just for a season, and the sorrow will pass. But the joy that comes from repentance and from right relationship with God, he says it abides forever. And so it's worth it. It's important for us as believers. Remember, Paul is writing to the church of Corinth. He's calling the church to repentance.

For you and I as believers, we need to understand there's sin and areas that God wants to address and he will bring it up from time to time for the rest of our lives. We'll be repenting of things that God calls to our attention. Let's ask him for godly sorrow to produce in us real change and lasting joy. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this reminder, Lord, of the opportunity that you give us to be

clean, to be given a fresh start. Lord, even though we play in the mud and fall short and mess up, and not only does it affect us, but it hurts and impacts all of the people around us. God, I pray that you would stir up within us a godly sorrow. Lord, that we wouldn't be cold or indifferent or uncaring about sin. Lord, that we wouldn't be procrastinating and pushing off

the need to get things right, but Lord, that we would have your heart and your mind, and so we would deal swiftly, we would deal seriously with the sin that you place upon our minds, that you remind us of or show us and reveal to us that is taking place in our own hearts. Help us, God, to respond as you speak to us, Lord, that we might have the joy that abides. Godly sorrow produces real change and lasting joy. May we have your heart.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.