Godly Sorrow

Okay, let's turn in our Bibles to 2 Corinthians. We're moving along. I got the wonderful privilege this last week to be in Florida.

And it was probably an 80, 85 every day and sun. We have a little shower one day, but and then come back to this last night at one o'clock, I got an Uber at Judson, I and Zach got an Uber from the airport in Columbus. First Uber I've ever been on.

Got a nice guy and nice car and picked us up, waited for us, we had our luggage was held up because those conveyor belts, for some reason, they wouldn't work and they couldn't figure it out. It didn't seem like anybody cared. And finally, one guy started pushing the things out of the back door and people started to run for their bags.

It took us a while to get out, but one o'clock we got in last night. So it looks like I got to bed last night at one o'clock. It's because I got to bed last night at one o'clock.

That's why. All right, let's look at 2 Corinthians chapter seven. And I'm not gonna do a lot of review here this morning.

So we're going to jump into verse number eight and we'll take these verses one by one, but I'll give you a little bit of review once we read here in verse number eight. So let's start, let's pray first. Heavenly Father, we want to thank you this morning that we have the privilege of owning or having a book called The Word of God and something that is the most valuable thing a man can own and possess and to know you and to understand your will and purposes.

And so Lord, help us to, even as we sit here, to open our hearts and minds to realize how important this book is that we have. And that we live by the word and that faith comes by this book. And so Lord, may you stir our hearts today and bring forth faith.

Lord, wash us each one in the blood of Jesus Christ and help us to be a clean vessel to not only convey the word, but also to receive it. And so Lord, we submit ourselves to you. We acknowledge your greatness and that we tremble before you and desire to please you and to do your, and fulfill your will and do your purposes, Lord.

And so bless our time together here as we open up your word, in Jesus' name, amen. All right, we're gonna start out here in verse number eight and I'll do a little bit of review back in 1 Corinthians. It says in verse number eight, this is in 2 Corinthians chapter seven, for though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent.

Though I did repent, for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were, but for a season. Now, this is the second epistle that Paul has written to the church at Corinth. And he refers back to his first epistle, which he says he made them sorry.

Have you ever written a letter to someone and you know that this letter is gonna cause them a lot of grief? It's gonna cause them a lot of sorrow? Well, Paul wrote a letter to this infant church. By the way, it's his baby, it's his church. He established the church and you know what it's like to have new convert and maybe have 15 or 20 converts and you just love them to death.

They're babes in Christ and you enjoy them. And so he is writing this letter, but he has to write things in this letter that are very severe and very difficult for him to write. And he is referring to 1 Corinthians chapter five, which we have already alluded to and it's mentioned a couple of times here in 2 Corinthians, but I wanna read to you a part of that letter.

And here's what he says in 1 Corinthians chapter five, it is reported commonly that there is fornication among you and such fornication as is not so much named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife and you are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he that has done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I verily as absent in the body, but present in the spirit have judged already as though I were present concerning him that has so done this deed in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ when you are gathered together and my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such at one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Now, this first letter is a letter that Paul wrote.

And in many cases, a lot of things in here, but this specifically is what we're gonna talk about today because he's gonna allude to it here in 2 Corinthians chapter seven, but this letter brought sorrow. You can imagine we as a congregation getting a letter like that and having rebukes like that. But he says here in verse number eight, he said, I do not repent though I did repent.

Now, what does that mean? I do not repent, present tense. In his heart presently, I do not repent that I did it, though I did repent, past tense. Now, there's indications here that when Paul wrote that letter, he had some second guesses.

He sent the letter out, I don't know if he sent it by a messenger, but maybe after he sent this letter out, he said, oh boy, was I too tough? Maybe I shouldn't have said what I said. You know how that is? And you know, you feel like maybe you were too mean or you too firm. And so maybe Paul here is second guessing the fact that he did repent in the past, but now he sees that there's repentance.

He says, I'm not repenting. I do not repent because of what has happened. And so it seemed like that Paul here somewhat struggles with having to write this first letter and giving rebuke.

Now, there's a lot of rebuke in that first letter for many different things. And we've talked about some of those things, but he's struggling. And I love that about this whole situation that Paul struggles greatly to bring these rebukes, to bring these admonitions.

And one of the reasons why he does that is because love is long-suffering. Love is kind. And he truly loved these people.

They were his babies, spiritual babies, just probably two, three, four years. This church has been established. You can imagine he's given his life there at Corinth.

He suffered at Corinth. He's won souls. He loves these people.

And yet these people are going some wayward. And so he has this difficult struggle in his heart. I love them dearly, but yet I need to bring rebuke.

And so he writes this letter. And it's not a letter that was easily written. You remember in 2 Corinthians chapter two, it says this, for out of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote unto you with many tears.

So you can imagine. I mean, he's weeping over this letter. He's anguishing over this letter as he writes it.

He says, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have more abundantly towards you. Now, one thing that I can learn from this, I think we all learn from this, is that rebuke is sometimes necessary. And these words are sometimes necessary, but it ought to deeply grieve us.

It ought to be something that troubles us. Now, I've done a lot of evangelistic work on college campuses, and I've met a lot of evangelists and a lot of preachers on college campuses. And sometimes you get the idea that these guys just love to go out and rip people.

And, you know, you sometimes wonder, do you really care for the people? And maybe even my own heart, do you really care for these people? And do you really have compassion on them in the situations that they're in? But I've seen many college campus preachers, street evangelists, that seem to just be harsh, that seem to love to just get out and just rebuke sin and rebuke people. And I think rebuke is necessary. The Bible encourages us to do so, but it seems like here, Paul's heart is, I love these people.

Maybe mothers, you understand what Paul is going through here. You know, you love your children, fathers, I'm sure too, but you need to bring some rebuke. And that rebuke is sometimes, it's anguish.

And so understand his heart. I mean, if we went and talked and he's saying, I hated to write that letter. It was just so grievous to me, but I knew I had to say what I had to say.

And that's a good heart. And so that's the heart that Paul is trying to express here. Acts chapter 20 says this, therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years, I cease not to warn everyone, night and day with tears.

I love that passage there. I am warning them, but I'm doing it with tears. It is grievous.

It's hard for me to do that. And so let's remember that God does not take any pleasure in the death of the wicked. Scripture says he takes no pleasure in it.

It's not like God's up in heaven. Oh, this is just great. I like to rip these people.

I like to see them die and go to hell. No, it's the heart of God. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked would turn from his wicked way.

And so that same heart is in the apostle. I take no pleasure in having to rebuke you and admonish you for what's going on there. I take no pleasure in it.

But God is gonna destroy the wicked and we need to rebuke the sinner, even though it may be difficult. I love Charles Finney. Some of you know Charles Finney and he's considered the greatest evangelism here in America by many.

But I love to read his autobiography. It's his personal writing and his notes and all the things that he had gone through. I've got this book at home.

It's a wonderful book. But one of the things, probably the only thing that troubles me about some of the things that he writes is occasionally he'll write and talk about this meeting he had in a certain city where he preached. He really, he said he really ripped them and there were people crawling under the pews and he was almost talking about it in such a way he was laughing about it.

He was just kind of joking about it, about how people run such conviction. Kind of gave me a little check, you know, about, I do a lot of evangelistic work and preach the gospel and preach oftentimes hard messages and the deal with sin and things of that nature. But it's not a laughing matter.

It's not a joking matter, obviously. It's something that Paul does here and he says this is a grievous thing to have to do. Verse number nine, let's keep reading.

Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that you sorrowed to repentance, for you were made sorry after a godly manner that you might receive damage by us in nothing. Now his pleasure is not that they were made sorry or that they grieved, but he was rejoicing and his pleasure is in that their grief brought about a repentance. And not only a repentance, but a godly repentance or a godly sorrow.

Now what is a godly sorrow? I wanna spend a lot of our time here this morning on that. What is this godly sorrow? Well, look at verse number 10. It says, for godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world works death.

And so there's two kinds of sorrows here and you experience them, I experience them and I trust that we lean more heavily to the things that deal with a godly sorrow. But what is a godly sorrow? What is the kind of sorrow that is a good sorrow and it's a godly sorrow? Well, remember last week, I shared here a little bit on what holiness is and we talked about holiness as being not just turning away from the bad, you know, putting away the bad, but it's actually then connecting ourselves with the good, connecting ourselves with the Lord. So repentance from dead works and turn to God.

There are many people in the world who put away bad, who put away bad, who put away bad, but never embrace the Lord. And yet here is a sorrow. It's a sorrow that puts away or desires to put away sin, but it's a sorrow that is towards God.

It is a godly sorrow. There are many people in the world that want to put away sin. There's people out there that want to get rid of alcohol.

They don't want to do drugs. They don't want to be immoral. They're tired of being in bondage to pornography.

There's a lot of people who are atheists who want to get rid of sin and don't want to live this way anymore. And they are sorrowful, grieving over their life. You can imagine being a drunk.

My dad was a drunk for a while. I mean, I remember times in my youth when he'd come home from the golf club and he'd stumble into the house. And I remember one time my mom drug him down.

She was a pretty tough young lady. She drug him down the hall, threw him in the shower and turned the water on cold. I have that in my memory as a child.

Did my dad rejoice in the fact that he was drunk often? No. He had sorrow about it, but that sorrow was not something that was turned in the right direction. Turn to the Lord.

Sorrow for sin is not just a turning away from sin and grieving over it, but it is also a turning to God. The prodigal son repented, but in his repentance, he said, I will go to my father. Now, he could have been down there eating the husk of the swine.

He could have been down there. He said, I don't like this life. I don't like the way I'm living.

I'm going to repent. And go where? You know, go to a psychologist, go to, you know, turn over a new leaf. But godly sorrow is something that turns to the Lord.

It recognizes that it's sin is against the Lord. Now, many people are sorry for their sins. Zach, sitting over there with Mr. Thomas, he and I were down in Florida.

We were at, just got a chicken supper and a nice location there, Indiantown Road there in Jupiter. And it was a nice warm night. So we get our chicken.

We go out and sit on the curb out in front. A lot of people around and cars going back and forth. We just got a couple of bites into our meal and we hear this boom.

I mean, it was a boom. And it wasn't metal on metal. It seemed like more like plastic or the fiberglass.

And I looked around and there was a black truck, pretty new black truck, had just plowed into another truck. And I think that truck either had come out in front of him or he was, the other one was going through the red light, but they just plowed into each other. So I walked up to take a look and there's this nice black truck, you know, probably a 20, 23 kid, probably 20 years old.

He's there just with his hair just, oh, just so angry and so frustrated. His car was just demolished. He was sorrowful.

I didn't see any God this sorrow though. He was sorrowful because his insurance rate is probably gonna go through the roof. He was sorrowful because he's just lost this nice car.

I mean, the windshield wipers were doing the, the airbags had been blown. The whole front end was smashed in. He hit him hard.

And there's a lot of that that goes on. There's a lot of sorrow, but it was not towards God. Many sit in jails today.

You go to the jails, you can visit them. They're sorrowful. I wish I would've never done what I did.

And I'm sitting here in this jail for five, 10, 15 years. And it's not a, it's not a happy time. They're sorrowful, but that sorrow is not directed in the right way.

It's not directed toward the Lord. That's why if you've been in jail ministries, that's why you'd go oftentimes to jails. But you see a lot of people that want to participate and have Bible studies and all those things.

They have a sorrow about their condition, about their confinement, but that sorrow is not truly a godly sorrow because when they leave that place, they go right back to doing what they wanted to do anyway. And oftentimes end up right back in the same condition. Let me read to you a godly sorrow here.

And there are many examples of this in the Bible. Psalm 51 is David's cry. And I want you to notice which direction his cry goes.

He says this. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgression and my sin is ever before me. Now I like this one here.

Verse four, against thee and thee only have I sinned. Well, what about Bathsheba? What about Bathsheba's husband? Against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this little evil, this evil in thy sight. Now that's where I know that God is working in the hardest when the sorrow is turned toward him.

Lord, have mercy. I've sinned against you. And not, oh Lord, I just crashed my truck and this is such a grief.

My insurance rates are gonna go up. You know, if that young man was truly repentant and God was working his heart, first thing he would have did like Jonah. Lord, forgive me.

Lord, you've been talking to me. Lord, I know I shouldn't have gone that fast. Lord, have mercy.

But I didn't see any of that. I saw a young man that was sorrowful, but for the wrong reason. Jonah experienced that.

You know, Jonah got in the whale's belly and he realized real quick, oh God, I'm sorry, Lord. And so he sorrowed in a right way. Many stand in courtrooms on sentencing day.

You've seen this. And they express true regret. And I think they're true.

Their heart is true. And they look to the family. Maybe they've murdered someone or they were drunk and they were driving and they killed someone.

And you have mom, dad, grandma and grandpa, brother and sister sitting in the courtroom and they turn and say, I am truly sorry that I killed your son. I'm truly sorry. And I believe they are.

But it doesn't get them anywhere as far as towards the Lord. And yes, the judge says, well, I'm glad you're sorry because some people aren't very sorry. They're belligerent.

But what we're talking about here is a sorrow that says, God, most of all, I'm sorry towards you. I agree that I sinned against you. I murdered someone.

And that's the way certainly it ought to be, a godly sorrow. And I believe that the Spirit of the Lord works that in us. And I think that we ought to have that on a regular basis here.

I think when you sin, the first thought ought to come to your mind is, oh God. Not, oh me, what's this gonna do to me? But oh God, have mercy upon me. Well, it says here that the sorrow of the world works death.

Back here in 2 Corinthians, the sorrow works death. The godly sorrow works repentance to salvation. But the sorrow of the world works death.

And you see this a lot. Suicide, you see this a lot. People become hopeless.

They have done something awful. They have committed an awful crime. And they sit in a jail cell maybe and they don't see any hope.

And they're sorrowful and they're grieving and they're depressed. And the only option they see at that point is get the sheets, make a noose, I'll hang myself. Happens a lot.

That kind of sorrow is hopelessness. The same sorrow that Judas had when he went out and hung himself because he didn't see any opportunities. His sorrow was not towards God.

No place in the Bible do we ever see that Judas cried out to God for mercy. And I believe God would have been merciful to him had he sought a godly sorrow and a godly repentance. The Bible says he sorrowed because of his position before the Pharisees and the high priests.

And he went back to them and tried to make it right. Great thing, try to make it right. But there was no sorrow towards God.

Well, here in verse 11 is a good example of what true repentance is. And not only this man here is one who expressed, you know, the man who committed this act in 1 Corinthians chapter five, he got his heart right. It seems like he got right with God and he did a thorough job of repenting.

And they were rejoicing that this whole situation turned for the good. But notice here what happened in this man's heart and in these others' hearts who were glorying in this whole situation. It says here in verse 11, for behold this selfsame thing that you sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge.

In all things you have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter. Now there's a bunch of things listed here, but this is what real repentance is. If you have real repentance in your heart, you'll see this in your life and you'll see this.

If it's God's work and he's producing repentance, you'll see each of these things. I'd like to go through each of them one by one. This is what real godly sorrow brings about.

First thing is what carefulness it wrought in you. It starts out there. You know what carefulness means? You look it up, it means this.

Speed, eagerness, or diligence. It's the idea of I want to get right as soon as I can. I want to get right.

I have an eagerness. There's a carefulness about me that says I want to get things cleared up as soon as possible. It does not linger like Lot, lingering.

Lot had little repentance in his heart toward what he was doing there in Sodom and his heart going toward the wealth there at Sodom. He wanted to linger. I want to get right, right now.

What carefulness it wrought in you. There's many examples of this. I'd just like to read one for each one of these here.

In Acts chapter two, you don't have to turn there, Peter preaches to this great multitude of people on the day of Pentecost, and he says this. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? This is carefulness.

Right now, speed, diligence. We were guilty. We did crucify the Savior.

What should we do? Amen. Not wait till tomorrow, wait till next week, and well, I don't know, maybe I'll deal with it sometime. No, it's like right in the end of the sermon, what should we do? That's the spirit of God.

That's carefulness, that's diligence, that's speed. I love it when we're, this is a great example of the spirit of God moving. You're preaching a revival meeting, before you finish this sermon, people are getting up and coming down and praying.

I'm not gonna wait till the service is over. I'm gonna get up, I'm gonna deal with God now. That's repentance.

There is a carefulness in the heart. And so Peter says to them, be baptized, repent, and be baptized, then in the next verse he says, then they that glad and received his word were baptized the same day. And so real repentance is not something that, well, it'll linger, we've got time.

No, it's today, that's why the scripture says today is the day of salvation. God is granting you repentance, and there ought to be a willingness to move. You say, you sit here, you say, well, someday I'll deal with my sin.

Well, that's not a work of God. That's your own mind. Someday I'll deal with my sin.

No, no, no, that's not God. If God is dealing with you and granting you repentance, your heart ought to be now, today. There's a carefulness.

Saul, he learned this in his own life there on the road to Damascus. It was right away, what do you want me to do? I'm done. Let's deal with it right now.

And he got right. The second thing here is mentioned is clearing of yourselves. So you're speedily getting things in order.

You want to get things in order. The second thing is the clearing of yourselves. What does it say? For behold, this selfsame thing that you sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you.

Yea, what clearing of yourselves. You know what that is? It's the word apology or restoration. If I have to deal with anything, I'm gonna make an apology.

First and foremost, what did David do against thee? Have I sinned and done this great evil? I'm going to clear myself with God. Prodigal son, I must go back to my father. What's the first words out of his mouth? I have sinned against you and I wanna make it right.

I want to clear my heart. That's a good work that the spirit of God does. Diligently stepping out and saying, first thing I gotta do is clear my heart.

I wanna repent. Yea, what clearing of yourselves. An apology and maybe even a restoration.

Zacchaeus, when his salvation came to his house. Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore.

There's your word. I restore him fourfold. Do you think when he went to the door, somebody opened the door.

Excuse me, I just want to apologize to you. I want to confess something. I robbed you, I ripped you off.

And not only am I gonna give you what you got, I'm gonna give you four times back in return. I want to clear my heart. I want to make things right.

And maybe one to one is not sufficient because you've been through some trouble. I'm gonna give you four times what I took. I want to make sure you're clear.

I like that. Yea, what clearing of yourselves. Sometimes clearing yourselves with God means to destroy sinful articles.

I remember Brother Craig, when he was converted, he wanted to clear his heart. He brought his marijuana bong. He brought his videos.

He brought his rock music. He brought his drug paraphernalia. We put it all in a big barrel and we burned it.

There's this desire to clear yourself with God. That happened in the book of Acts. You and I went over this when we went through the book of Acts, but in Acts 19 it says this, that many that believed came and confessed and showed their deeds.

Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together and burned them before all men. And they counted the price of them and found it 50,000 pieces of silver. I gotta clear my heart with God.

I gotta get rid of this stuff. And I'm not gonna go and sell it. Because it's wicked.

Why would I take it down to the thrift store and let someone else get involved in this wickedness? We're gonna burn it. I wanna clear my heart. And so there's a carefulness.

There's a clearing of ourselves. Boy, you know, do we see a lot of repentance today like this? That's concerning to me because you know, God is the one who gives us repentance. He grants us that kind of repentance.

Well, the next one here is indignation. Yay, what indignation. I cannot believe I did that.

I can't believe it. Probably that boy that wrecked, crashed his truck. Just was so angry.

Why did I do that? Ah, what indignation. I'm gonna stir you up a little bit. Anger at yourself, anger at your sin.

You don't make any excuses for it. You know, that's the problem today. Well, instead of being angry at myself and my sin, I said, well, I have someone to blame.

It's the way I was brought up. It's my mother's fault. It's my father's fault.

It's my sibling's fault. It's the government's fault. It's the church's fault.

It's the pastor's fault. It's all these people to blame for my sin. That's not gonna work, is it, Caleb? No, it's not gonna work.

What indignation. Next one is fear. This is what true repentance brings out in the heart.

Oh, I gotta get right with God. Oh, I've gotta clear myself. I cannot believe I did that.

I'm not gonna do it anymore. I hate it. Indignation.

And then comes fear. Yea, what fear? Yea, what fear? The fear of God. You know, there's so little of that today, too.

The fear of God's judgment. Usually when the Spirit of God convicts and brings a person to repentance, there is a fear of God. You know, the fear that this is going to displease God.

This may even send me to hell. This sin, it's sending me down to a devil's hell. I fear God.

True repentance involves the fear of God. I like the story there of the Philippian jailer. It says he came into Paul and Silas trembling.

Now, I know that earthquake caused him probably a little shaken up, but he came trembling. He said, what must I do to be saved? I fear your God, the one you've been praising. And now this thing happened.

I fear God, help me. Here's something I thought about this morning. We all always ought to live in the fear of God because the Bible says to serve the Lord with fear.

Rejoice with trembling. We ought to be a repentant people all the time. Amen.

Oh, Lord, I don't want to do that. Oh, I don't want to do that. When we lose the fear of God, it's like, oh, I don't care.

I'll just do whatever I want. I'll sin, it doesn't, I can use 1 John 1, 9. I can just take care of it. It's, we lose our heart of repentance.

By the way, repentance is not for some wicked people. Godly sorrow is not for some, you know, unconverted people. It's for us too.

Godly sorrow, not a fear of circumstances. We don't fear circumstances. We don't fear people.

We fear God. The next one here, I'm going to combine these next two together here. It says, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal.

People who have repentance, they have vehemence, that's heat. They have zeal, they get after it. They have zeal for the things that are good and the zeal for the things that are godly.

You know, I think of Paul's example on the road to Damascus, a very good example. As soon as he got smacked to the ground, as soon as God granted him repentance, he said, what do you want me to do? And God told him and he got at it. There was some zeal there.

And then the next one here is revenge, yea, what revenge. I like this one. You know, it produces in the heart this idea of I want to get back at he who has deceived me and sought to destroy me.

I want to get back at the devil. I remember Brother Craig, I like to use him oftentimes because he has such a clear testimony. And this is all in his life.

He said, I'm going to do to the devil by the power of the spirit what he's done to my life. I have this revenge. You know, Donald Trump has said to be on his revenge tour.

We ought to be on a revenge tour too. And you know, revenging what the Lord or what the devil has done in our life to the evil, we ought to give ourselves to the good. I like this.

Turn over to 2 Corinthians 10, just a page or two. It talks about this very thing here in 2 Corinthians 10, starting in verse three. It says, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh.

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ and having, notice this, and having in readiness to revenge. There it is. Having in readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

You ought to have a little revenge. Nothing wrong to have some vengeance against the devil. You know, you did that to me, I'm gonna get you.

I'm gonna, by the power of the Spirit of God, I'm going to destroy your works. Not only in my life, but I'm gonna reach out and help others. Like Brother Irving was telling, I'm gonna reach out and help the man in the ditch.

And I'm gonna take my revenge. And so those here, these are the things that are real, real serious, true, this is the work of the Spirit of God. We ought to ask ourselves the question, is that the kind of repentance that we have? Or something similar to that? Now let's keep reading.

We're gonna change our subjects here a little bit. Verse 12 says, wherefore though I wrote unto you, I did it not for his cause that had done the wrong, that one who sinned, nor for his cause that suffered the wrong, the one who was hurt by that sin, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear unto you. Now, Paul says here, I did not write that letter, that first epistle for the individuals.

I wrote it for the body. And by the way, if you have a body, you know, my body here, you can't really write for an individual member that's hurting because the Bible says when one member suffers, what happens? All the members suffer. So, you know, Paul's not singling out this man who sinned and the one who was afflicted by it.

He said, I wrote this for the whole congregation. Because it's a congregational issue and how it is affecting the whole body. Turn with me back to 1 Corinthians chapter five.

Let's read that and see how it affects the whole body. I'm not gonna read down through the whole passage here, but this man is committed fornication with his, I don't know, stepmother. I don't know how that whole situation worked out there, but it wasn't a good one.

In 1 Corinthians chapter five, let's jump in here in verse number five. It says, to deliver such in one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good.

Know you not, and this is right on the doorstep of verse five. Know you not that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Oh, I'm concerned about not that little leaven, that one or two individuals.

My concern is that this sin is going to leaven the whole lump. So I'm writing to the church about this leaven. Notice in verse six, your glorying is not good.

Now the leaven is these individuals who are glorying over this sin. It's not a problem. And that attitude, that attitude is what brings leaven.

I know when I was in the Baptist church, and this is happening to many churches right now, they used to take a strong stand against divorce and remarriage. But one day they stood up. I know the young man got divorced.

And I was a friend of his. I actually owned a Domino's Pizza, read a Domino's Pizza in Mansfield, Ohio. I delivered pizzas for him for a while.

His wife divorced him. He was in the Baptist church. Awful thing.

Then about a year or two, and the church for 20 years stood against divorce and remarriage. They wouldn't do it. But I saw them take this young man, and he got another wife, and in the church, all the people married him.

I'll say this. My parents go to that church right now, but the church is filled with divorced and remarried people. Filled with them.

Because they embraced, they gloried, they embraced something that was sinful, something that was wrong, and the people stood there, and they watched it, and they said, well, if it's not a bad thing, I'll do it. And their minds were leavened. And pretty soon the whole congregation, not only that, people were coming to that church because of their position.

And the church was filled with it. When I was there at the beginning, it was something that was very much against. And so we need to be careful that we don't glory and accept, and even lift up sinful behavior.

Because these minds here, especially these young ones, can become leavened. I must not be that bad. So I can do it.

Verse 13, I'm gonna leave you here with some encouraging words and go along with what we've shared already this morning. But in verse 13 here, it says this, therefore we were comforted in your comfort, yea, and exceedingly the more joyed we for the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all. Now these people, they did repent.

And that brought comfort, not only to themselves, but also to Titus. Now Titus is evidently one who is helping Paul in this church. And maybe Paul had gone someplace else and Titus was staying there and he was visiting and helping the church.

Seems like his heart is very much involved in a church at Corinth. And he's been going through this grief over what's happening. Now there's repentance.

And now Titus is rejoicing. Notice verse 14, For if I have boasted anything to him, to Titus of you, I am not ashamed. But as we speak all things to you in truth, even so our boasting, which I made before Titus, is found a truth.

Now think about this for a minute here. Paul boasted of Corinth to Titus before all this happened. He's telling, oh that church there at Corinth, they're just great people.

They love Jesus. And they're just babes in Christ. But Titus is doing such a great job.

And he's boasting in them. And now he's concerned he's going to be ashamed. Like, oh my.

Things have gone off the rails. And I told Titus this church is doing wonderful. And now he's finding out this whole mess.

So Paul boasted of Corinth to Titus and then all these things fall out. But now there was repentance. And he says my boasting is truthful now.

Which I made before Titus is found truthful. Now, I don't, I don't, I don't understand these things. But Paul was boasting.

There's some things we can boast about. And Paul seemed to boast about the people. This church is a great, there's a lot of writings.

This church is doing great. They're full of faith. They're full of love.

And so he loved to boast. He loved to boast about the churches. And Corinthian church he boasted a lot about.

Especially he says to Titus, Titus this is a great church. These are great people. They love God.

They're holy people. And all of a sudden all this stuff happened. Look over to 2 Corinthians 9 here.

I just give you an example of this. We're gonna see this a little later on here. But the same thing.

Notice these words boast and ashamed as I read down through a couple of verses here. In verse one of chapter nine. For as touching the ministering of the saints it is superfluous for me to write to you for I know the forwardness of your mind for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia.

These people at Corinth. These people are great givers. For which I boasted of you to them of Macedonia that Achai was ready a year ago and your zeal hath provoked very many.

Yet have I sent the brethren lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this behalf that as I said you may be ready lest happily if they of Macedonia come with me and find you unprepared, we that we say not ye should be ashamed in the same confident boasting. In other words, I'm telling all these people how generous you are. And I'm bringing them along with me to show them their generosity.

Would you start taking up offerings now just to make sure that when I get there your generosity can be seen so I'm not ashamed. It's like me boasting of this congregation here. These are the most generous people.

I mean, brother, when you come here and you speak here, they're gonna give you a wonderful love offering. And then we take a love offering and get 20 bucks. I'm ashamed.

Here brother Sean, here's your offering, 20 bucks. It's all I could get out of these people. But it's interesting that Paul says, go ahead before me.

I wanna make sure that money's ready so that my boast of you will be true. So Paul, he wants to speak, this is what I wanna bring out here. He wants to speak highly of the church to others.

And you know, a lot of people today wanna tear the church down. Everybody wants to tear it down, look for some fault. But you see here a desire, look at verse 15.

I'm gonna finish up here and look at verse 15 and 16. And his inward affection is more abundant towards you while he remembers the obedience of you all. How with fear and trembling you received him.

I rejoice therefore that I have confidence in you all, in all things. Notice his words, he rejoices in you all. He has confidence in you all.

Our boastings of you. You know, one thing I've seen here as I've gone through this 2 Corinthians is that it seems like Paul has a real desire to be positive. Some of you mentioned some of these things this morning, but a real desire to be positive.

You know, I don't wanna like, I don't like this writing this letter about this negative and rebuking. I know I have to do it, but I do it with anguish. I do it with tears.

I'd much rather be positive. But he has a desire for the positive, a desire for the church to do well, a desire even to boast. Oh, the church had remnants.

Such a great church, such a great group of people. That is in his heart. And you know why that is? I believe this to be the case.

Love hopes all things. Love believes all things. Love endures all things.

And I believe as Paul looked at the people of God, and we ought to look at the people of God this way, is he looked at him with great hope. You can be something incredible. And I'm not looking at you with your failure.

I'm looking at you as what I see as what you can do. And I'm looking at this church as what they can do, not their failure. You know, this church has so much failure.

You got people taking the Lord's Supper and some of them are dying. You got the misuse of gifts. You got all kinds of stuff, division going on in the church.

And yet he's boasting in them, rejoicing. He says, I have confidence in you. Wow, I don't know if I would.

You know, that's a beautiful place to be, to have that hope and confidence and rejoicing, even though there's problems. And yes, there comes a place where you may have to, with tears and anguish, say, you're doing something dead wrong. And I'm gonna admonish you for it, in tears.

It sure is totally opposite to what most people are involved in, just criticism, criticism, negative, bad. Everything is bad. Love hopes all things.

Love believes all things. Love endures all things. Do you know that God wants to forgive you? Do you know he wants to forget the bad that you do and reward you for the good? You know, it says he buries your sins in the deepest sea.

He doesn't impute your sinning. In his heart, he's, I don't want to judge them. I don't want to chastise them.

I want what's good for them. Love says, I have confidence in you. You know, if you love someone, I have confidence in you.

Me? Yeah, you, I have confidence. I have a lot of hopes for you. As a matter of fact, I'm boasting of you.

Mothers, do you ever do that? Your children, you boast about them. Oh, they are so good. You know why you do it? Because you love them.

You can do this. You know, all these things are out of a heart of love. You start getting into critical and condemning and negative and blah.

It's not a heart of love. And so I'm gonna read to you here one verse, which is, you're probably familiar with it. And then I'll finish here.

Listen to what the Lord says in Jeremiah 29, a very familiar verse. For thus saith the Lord, that after 70 years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word towards you in causing you to return to this place. Now, Israel's done wrong.

They've sinned grievously and they've put in captivity. And yet here's God's thoughts toward them. For I know the thoughts that I think towards you.

I know the thoughts that I'm thinking, even in captivity. Maybe some of you are in captivity here this morning. I know the thoughts I'm thinking about you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you unexpected end.

I have good things in mind. And you know, God is love. And he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

I don't think God takes any pleasure in seeing anyone go into hell. Being perished. I think he says, oh, it's a grievous.

But even us, as he looks at us, maybe we're struggling with things. He says, I've got good thoughts for you. Good thoughts.

I have an expected end for you. So let's not be discouraged here. Let's respond to love.

Let's respond to him. I know my thoughts that I think towards you. You know, God thinks thoughts.

As a matter of fact, the one of the psalmist says, he thinks more thoughts towards you than the sand of the sea, brother Thomas. And I was just down in Jupiter by the sands of the sea. And there's a lot of them down there.

I brought some home in my shoe. As a matter of fact, what I brought in my shoe, it would take me weeks to count the sand. And yet it says his thoughts toward us are more than the sands of the sea.

So whatever position you're in, if you're in captivity, just realize that God has got good things. And I'm not a positive thought preacher here, but God is positive. He is.

So that excuse helps us understand how Paul says about the Corinthian church. I have confidence in you. I rejoice in you.

As a matter of fact, I'm boasting about you all over the place. And yet you've got all kinds of problems. But I see better things.

We need to look at our children that way. Amen. Amen.

We look at our husbands and wives the same way. Amen. We need to look at our brothers and sisters that way.

Love them. Amen. All right, I've said enough.

Let's have a word of prayer and we'll close. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the revelation of your word. Thank you that you love us and that you have good things in your heart towards us.

Lord, may we be open to receive that. And may we truly love one another and be positive toward each other. Yes, Lord, we may have to rebuke, but we do it with tears and grief and sorrow.

And so Lord, may you change us into the image of your son. And bless the teaching here of your word to each one of our hearts. Lord, we do love you this morning.

Thank you for all you do for us. In Jesus' name. Amen.