The Suffering No.7 Sunshine after pain

If you don't have a Bible with you, then the person alongside, I'm sure, will share it. If you come regularly to the tab, we do encourage you to bring a Bible because we like the syllabus for the preaching to be directed by what we find within Scripture, and it's helpful for you to listen to the preacher as he directs your attention time and time again to what the Word of God is saying. 2 Corinthians 7, verse 2. Make room for us in your hearts.

We have wronged no one. We have corrupted no one. We have exploited no one.

I do not say this to condemn you. I have said before that you have such a place in our hearts that we would live or die with you. I have great confidence in you.

I take great pride in you. I'm greatly encouraged in all our troubles. My joy knows no bounds, for when we came into Macedonia, this body of ours had no rest, but we were harassed at every turn.

Conflicts on the outside, fears within, but God who comforts the downcast comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort you had given him. He told us about your longing for me, your deep sorrow, your ardent concern for me, so that my joy was greater than ever. Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it.

I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while. Yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance, for you became sorrowful as God intended, and so were not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.

See what this godly sorrow has produced in you, what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you've proven yourselves to be innocent in this matter, so even though I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did the wrong or of the injured party, but rather that before God you could see for yourselves how devoted to us you are. By all this we are encouraged.

In addition to our own encouragement, we were especially delighted to see how happy Titus was, because his spirit has been refreshed by all of you. I had boasted to him about you, and you have not embarrassed me, but just as everything we said to you was true, so our boasting about you to Titus has proved to be true as well. And his affection for you is all the greater when he remembers that you were all obedient, receiving him with fear and trembling.

I am glad I can have complete confidence in you. Let's sing and also hear some verses sung to us, number 446. It's a prayer for when we come around the word of God, so it's very appropriate to sing it now.

Lord, thy word abideth and our footsteps guideth, who its truth believeth, light and joy receiveth. Let's sing and listen and ask God's blessing to be upon the exposition of Scripture. Lord, thy word abideth and our footsteps guideth, who its truth believeth, light and joy receiveth.

Let's sing and listen and ask God's blessing to be upon the exposition of Scripture. We're thinking in terms of sunshine after the pain, because there has been a great deal of pain in this letter that Paul wrote to the church at Corinth. One of the reasons why we study these letters in the New Testament and indeed the books of the Old Testament as well as the Gospels in the New is because God speaks to us through his word.

So when you think of the church at Corinth, forget Corinth, that's not terribly important. Think of Worthing. When you think of ordinary Christians of 2,000 years ago, leap forward to the present generation and look in a mirror and think of yourself and ask God to minister to you as you listen to the exposition of Scripture.

That is how God speaks generally to us today. One of the hardest things in life is to receive correction. It's much easier to sing hymns than actually to work through the implication of the hymn.

It's not particularly hard to sing Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound, that saved a wretch like me, and then receive a letter saying, hey, you said you were a wretch. This is the reason, A, B, C, D. That gets a little bit too personal. And so it's not the easiest task for a Christian leader either to receive himself or to give correction because the possibility is that the person corrected will take, as we say, umbrage, offense, and not realize that the reason for the correction actually was for the spiritual benefit of the recipient.

For the whole area of church discipline has as its base not punishment but love. And in the correction of our lifestyles, we increase the joy that we bring to the heart of our Lord, and the overspill is we feel more joyful and content ourselves. And I speak now weighing each word.

I do believe God is saying to this congregation, there are some here who need to take and find it very difficult so to do a corrective in their life. No church was ever carnal when it was commenced. No Christian was ever carnal when they first committed their life to the Lord.

Churches are formed as a result of pioneering activity or as a manifest expression of revival. People come to a knowledge of Lord Jesus Christ as Savior with a sense of great indebtedness, a sense of great need. And at the point of conversion, the point of the establishing of a church that is little in the way of carnality, of worldliness.

Rather a church exists to reflect the light of the glory of the gospel of Christ, and so does the individual who has committed his or her life to the Lord Jesus. So correction is necessary when there is a slip. And really you could entitle this letter that Paul writes to the Corinthians as a letter addressed to the church that fell down and the church that got up.

So it's not just the negative, it's the positive also that we want to emphasize today. The church that fell down, yes. Read the first letter and you will find time and time again the apostle is picking out faults within the church.

But when you come to this seventh chapter of the second letter, you discover him saying in the sixteenth verse incredibly, I am glad I can have complete confidence in you. Yet in the first letter he wrote he spoke of one group in that church, who if I translate it from the original, he actually called women windbags, who were always expressing their opinion and very often to the detriment of themselves and others. There were so many things that went wrong in the church.

And so Paul gets a letter or gets a pen and he dashes off a letter inspired by the spirit and he sends the corrective. And now you can see the difference. Here is the apostle at the end of this chapter saying, I'm glad I can have complete confidence in you, when before he gave every impression of a complete lack of trust in this church.

My friend, when you've dropped in your Christian testimony, you can get up. When a church has lost its first love, it can be recovered. That's the message of the Bible.

That's the emphasis that we want to underline today. So with brevity as my goal, even if I don't achieve it, I want to talk to you about the writer, and then the messenger, and then the letter, and then the reaction of the people. But let me give you a little summary of what's contained within this chapter by having recourse to a good friend of mine who is now with the Lord, Alan Redpath.

It says Redpath summarising Paul, one day I was in the very depths of despair. I was in Macedonia at the time, actually in Philippi, and while there I had no rest for my body, and I was attacked on every side. Without were fighting, and within me were all kinds of fears.

I was at Loeb. I was really with my back to the wall. But God knows just when to bring us a word of encouragement, when we are like that.

And at that moment Titus arrived on the scene, having come to me from Corinth. Not only was I refreshed because he came to talk and pray with me, but I was so refreshed because of what he told me about you. He told me how you'd received my first letter.

It had rocked you, and grieved, and hurt you. But it had brought you down, not in anger, but in utter repentance. Not merely sorrow, but real godly repentance.

You dealt with the thing about which I had spoken to you, and you have borne ever since all the marks of repentance and the fruit of it in your lives. Because of this I am both refreshed and encouraged. Why? It's worth all that I've been through in my ministry to know that this has happened to you.

And that's a lovely summary statement of the verses that we're looking at at this moment. As for the author, the writer, well of course it's the Apostle Paul. And it's within the first few verses, verses 2 to 5, that the spotlight is particularly centered on him.

It's fairly easy to misjudge Paul as being a hard-bitten ex-Pharisee. But actually he's far more than just that. He's a man who has a great sensitivity.

Look at the opening verse, the second. Make room for us in your hearts. I have got spacious accommodation in my hearts for you people who I led to the Lord.

Could you describe your affections for people in the tab in that terminology? There are three things in the way that Paul develops the thought. He talks about the great love that he has and suffering great hurt that he endured. And then he demonstrates that he was not vindictive.

Great love, well we've looked at the first of the verses that call for our attention. Make room for us in your hearts. Great suffering, well that's implicit in the whole of this letter.

And especially when you read of the circumstances through which he was passing in the fifth verse. No vindictiveness, for he says, I take great pride in you. I'm greatly encouraged in all our troubles.

My joy know bounds. The apostle is showing that he has such a great affection for these readers of his letter that when they have corrected what was wrong, and in some way the insults that they delivered towards him, he bears no vindictiveness whatsoever. Do you remember the prophet Samuel? On one occasion when he's drawing towards the end of his ministry, he gets a number of witnesses of the Israel people together.

And he says to them, and you'll read it in the first book of Samuel and the twelfth chapter, that there is no way when they look into his ministry, that they can possibly say there was any inconsistency in the way that he lived. I've listened to everything you said. Here I stand, verse three of chapter twelve, once Samuel, testify against me in the presence of the Lord.

Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I cheated? Whom have I oppressed? From whose hand have I accepted a bribe to make me shut my eyes? If I've done any of these things, I will make it right. And they say, Samuel, we acquit you. You've acted honorably.

Here is the apostle saying the same thing. We've wronged no one. We corrupted no one.

We exploited no one. And what is more, we are not vindictive towards anyone at all. You have such a place in our hearts that we would live or die with you.

The literal version renders it, that we have you nestle up in our hearts and we love you. When our Lord was crucified and then raised from the dead, one of the first things that he said was, go and tell my disciples and Peter that I've come back. His love for his disciples knew no bounds, but he was particularly concerned for Peter, who had, at the human level, offended him.

Now here is Paul, like the beloved Lord, the writer of a letter that causes some hurt, and he is keen to emphasize the fact that he still loves the church and doesn't bear a grudge. This is the writer. To what degree are you like that? Well, if that is something of the nature of the one who pushes the pen and eventually releases this note, what about the messenger to whom reference is made when you move to the sixth verse? You see, the apostle has sent a letter to the church that has caused them difficulty, but he can't wait for the postman bringing their reply.

He is so agitated. He is so concerned. He has these conflicts, verse six, verse five, within, and he has fears outside.

And so he sends Titus to find out how it is. And Titus with the church, this little bunch of Christians in Corinth, this group of Christians in Worthing Tabb, how have they reacted when somebody has come alongside them and said, hey, that is inconsistent. Have you noticed, my friends, how the apostle Paul was not a loner? I've always felt that it was a retrograde step, although perhaps it cannot be helped, that in many of our European churches there is one so-called leader.

That was never the case in the days of the Acts of the Apostles. Men did not work alone. They always worked together.

And the apostle has an apostolic team. Members, well, Silas was, Barnabas was, Timothy was, and now reference is made to Titus. He is the man that Paul has sent to Corinth to discover how things are in Corinth, these folks having received his earlier communication.

And indeed in the second chapter of this letter and the thirteenth verse, Paul gives you a little bit more information about his state of anxiety. I still had no peace of mind because I did not find my brother Titus there, so I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia. What follows next from the fourteenth verse right through to this passage in the seventh chapter is really a little digression.

Now Paul picks up on what he said in the second chapter and he speaks about him sending Titus as his ambassador. When we came into Macedonia, this body of ours had no rest. We were harassed on every turn.

Conflicts on the outside, fears within, and one of our greatest concerns was, how is it with you people in Corinth? Do you know what the biggest problem is in mission today? I'm talking about missionary societies. It's not lack of personnel. It's not basically lack of finance, though God knows they could do with more.

The problem is people hanging in together. In my travels abroad, the small proportion of my time is given over to preaching. The major proportion of my time is given over to, shall we say, missionary politics.

Who said what, where, and when, and what do we do now? It's a sort of troubleshooting ministry. When you read the apostle Paul later in Corinthians, he will tell you of the pressures that were on him as a Christian leader. He gives a list of them in the eleventh chapter.

You can hardly read from verse sixteen down to verse twenty-seven without feeling that the apostle had a load on him which was intolerably heavy. But the twenty-eighth verse is an eye-opener. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.

Were they hanging in together? Did they really believe in fellowship? At Corinth, as a result of his corrective letter, were they now like a pack of wolves, snarling at one another and snarling at him? I must have information, says Paul. Do you know why Charles Spurgeon died young? At least I think fifty-six is young. I didn't used to.

Because of the incredible burden that was placed on him at the human level as a leader of British evangelicalism last century. There is nothing that delights those who are called into leadership than knowing that the churches are in harmony one with the other. Here's Paul.

He's got so much hay on his fork and yet he's still concerned about this insignificant little group of people in Corinth who've had so many problems he's had to send them a corrective letter. How is it with the Corinthians? And bless God, Titus dovetails with Paul and at Macedonia returns and brings the apostle. Most encouraging news as to how the Christians have reacted to his letter.

Titus has a safe return. He brings comfort to Paul. He speaks of the desire that the Christians at Corinth have for Paul to return to them.

He told us about your longing for me, your ardent concern for me. And the news that Titus came, I was almost dancing for joy. My joy was greater than ever.

Look, he's still got the pressures. He's got the physical difficulty. He's got the hardships as a result of his lifestyle.

But he can cope with that because within his spirit he's at peace because the people that he loves are happy with one another and happy with him. What about the letter he wrote? Paul has used Titus to be a blessing to, sorry, God has used Titus to be a blessing to Paul. Paul has now been comforted, verse 6, by Titus.

But what about the reason why Titus went to Corinth in the first instance? This letter verse 8, even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it. What was this letter? Well, right up to the 20th century, the traditional answer of the church theologians was that it was the first letter, the first Corinthian epistle. It's only in the 20th century when theologians have engaged in novelty and suggested that there was another letter.

I think the 20th century theologians have got it wrong. I think invariably if it's a choice between the 20th century theologians in the church and what went before, go for the ones that went before. But could the apostle Paul ever have regretted sending 1 Corinthians, that great letter which has the love sonnet on it? You remember, though I give my body to be burned and have not charity and so forth? And now abideth faith, hope, and charity.

These three, the greatest of these is charity. Could Paul ever have regretted sending that letter? And the answer is, he never did say he regretted sending the letter. What he regretted was the sorrow that the letter caused.

Why did it hurt them? Well, you see at Corinth there were those Christians who were tolerating a situation of compromise, blatant compromise. Someone had committed the sin of incest. You'll read the unsavory story in the fifth chapter of that first letter.

And the apostle had spoken about the way you handle discipline in the churches. Not a popular message today. Tim Saunders preached on it and made comment to that extent some months ago.

But you see in Corinth it was imperative that the Christians show that they were different from the Corinthians. To be a Corinthian was just an expression popularly used in the Roman Empire as those who live a profligate life. Well, here are the Corinthians, blood-bought, people who are following the Lord Jesus.

If you are what you say you are, then act differently from the way that the Corinthians are living. And you've got this intolerable incestuous relationship. And Paul speaks in such language, having exposed it, as delivering the offending partner to Satan.

Now you imagine if the elders came along here on a Sunday morning and said, we're going to commit a bunch of people to Satan. And we would wonder what on earth it was all about. This heavy-handed discipline or seemingly so.

No wonder when the apostle in the tenth chapter of the second letter refers to his epistles, he says sometimes they terrify you. I was once in a church in Thailand and they spent ten minutes reading out the lists of names of people that they had just excommunicated. You see, in the apostles' day and out there in Southeast Asia.

And I could think it's arguable that here in Worthing, it is necessary for us to take very seriously this whole business of church discipline. Now what Paul was doing was very severe and it was very unusual. And probably the circumstance for that will only crop up once in a blue moon.

But nonetheless, when it happens, the church has to do something about it. So Paul writes this letter. And there are other things that are wrong in Corinthians.

There are Christians who are going to the local pub and turning up in an intoxicated fashion in the meetings. All this has to be put to rights. So Paul takes out a letter, a pen, and he writes this letter to these people.

And he's sorrowful, he's regretful that writing this letter causes hurt. My friends, sometimes the greatest expression of love that I can show for you is by telling you when you are wrong. And the greatest duty our elders can perform for me is telling me when I am wrong.

He wrote a letter about incest and other things in the church. What was their reaction? Well, they repented, didn't they? Verse 9, I'm happy not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. There are two types of repentance, says the apostle.

Verse 10, there's godly sorrow and then there is worldly sorrow. What does he mean? Well, godly sorrow is that sorrow which grips the Christian who realizes that he has offended the Lord Jesus, that he has added more weight of responsibility to our Savior being pinned to the cross, and in utter remorse he comes back and pleads for forgiveness. Godly sorrow is illustrated by David, who would have had difficulty getting into the membership of Worthing Tabernacle, and we would have been wrong for preventing him.

Against thee, the only, have I sinned and done this in thy sight. Here's a farewell, Bathsheba. But he writes the wrong, not by a holocaust of sacrifices but by a public display of contrition and repentance.

And he cries out, take not the joy of my salvation from me. And God in his grace responds to godly sorrow and elevates David again and his sins have been expunged in anticipation of the work of Jesus Christ. That is godly sorrow that leads to salvation and leaves no regret.

Worldly sorrow, well it's like that of Esau. You read of him in Hebrews in chapter 11 and 12, chapter 12. So sorrowful because of the pain, so sorrowful because he's lost his birthright, but not a sorrow that brings repentance, not a sorrow that brings him back into a relationship with God.

Now, says the apostle, when I think about this letter, what did it do? It caused you pain, that I regret, but the pain caused you to seek God in repentance and you sought him in repentance and he received you back into the level that you were at before as blood-born sons of God. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you.

Here is their reaction as I move to the last part of this address. Their reaction, what is the effect? Well, look now at the earnestness, look at the eagerness, look what longing, verse 11, and what concern, what readiness to see justice done. You see, as the Living Bible translates it, originally they just shrugged their shoulders, it didn't really matter.

So what, there was compromise. Well, you know what Christians are, they're only human. Now, do not misunderstand me, we always have to deal very gently and very lovingly with all who fall.

For at times we all fall and that's one of the great blights of being a Christian leader, when you fall it savages you. But then when repentance comes and you see what you've been involved in either directly or indirectly, then you want to put it to right. What earnestness, what indignation, what alarm.

Here's Paul almost in an ecstasy, you can feel him, his pen is rushing across the page as he describes this about turn, as he describes this psychological change that has come in the attitude of the Corinthians as a result of him sending that letter and Titus has brought him news of the way that the letter has been responded to and the good that it has done. I, says Paul, verse 13, by all this we're encouraged. And he says, with pride now in his chest, for it's right to be pride, proud in what the Christian gospel achieves.

In addition to our own encouragement, we were delighted to see how happy Titus was. And then there's almost an aside, an undertone in verse 14, I boasted to him about you and you've not embarrassed me. I told him how good you really were.

I really bettered, so to speak, on the fact that after all, even though I took the risk with that letter, I gambled that in the grace of God that letter would have its effect and when Titus came, you would receive him as though you were receiving me with respect, with love, and ministering to his every need. And Titus, well, he's absolutely overwhelmed. He's delighted because his spirit has been refreshed by all of you.

Now Paul brings this to a great crescendo. Verse 16, I am glad I can have complete confidence in you. Well, what a change.

I mean, when you read the first letter, you would have thought they hadn't got a genuine Christian among the bunch. They're all dud. But Paul had to speak in such a heavy-handed fashion because the situation was so grave.

But Paul knew that they were blood-bought, but they'd gone down, the church that fell. Rejoice not, O my enemy, says Micah. When I fall, I shall arise.

When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be aright unto me. I repeat again. What is a tab? A collection of middle-class successful people.

May the thought be perished. The tab is a collection of people who have fallen and help one another to rise. There are times when we get it wrong.

There are times when individuals let us down. And when that happens, the corrections have to be applied. Always in love and with the goal of remedying the damage and restoring the person so he and she can walk with dignity.

And when that has happened, our testimony before the world is lifted again and we say, well, this is what it's all about. We never did say, though you may have cartooned us, caricatured us as such, that we were a bunch of successful people, a holy club, that we were training people to go into monasteries and convents. We are a people of sinners whose only hope is the salvation work of our Lord Jesus.

We are people who constantly need to be revived and forgiven. But we do not sponge upon that grace of God because the repentance when it comes, when it hits us, it's painful. There are tears.

We look into ourselves and we think, how could it be that the devil could achieve this in me? What indignation, what wrath you were showing towards the evil one that he should have taken you as pawns and moved you around the board when you should have been in control? And it is right for us sometimes to show an indignation after we have repented of our sin and get mad at the devil and open our hearts again to this great and glorious God who pours out his blessings of forgiveness upon us. May it be that on this hot Sunday morning something of the wonder of this chapter has impressed itself upon you. After the pain, the sunshine.

After the fall, the resurrection. In all his distress, Paul got news from Titus that the Christians in Corinth were now doing fine. May there be many of you who can act as a Titus to me and to the leadership of this church and tell us just how well the various departments are doing.

And you pray for us in leadership that we do not fall and that we retain the credibility of the gospel in our lives and witness. Let's sing together shall we? Number 60 in mission praise. It's an old hymn.

I'm glad they've smuggled some old ones into mission praise as well. Bless be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love. The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above.

Let's sing it feelingfully and let's mend any broken relationships as we sing and go up to the persons concerned and show our love and our affection towards them. Let's take out a pen this afternoon perhaps some of us and drop a note. Not a condemnatory note but an encouraging note to one of our missionary friends.

And let's all of us commit ourselves if possible to be back here around the table of our Lord Jesus this evening as we remember his death on the cross. Number 60 in mission praise. Bless be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love.

The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above. Let's sing it feelingfully and let's mend any broken relationships as we sing and go up to the persons concerned. Let's take out a pen this afternoon perhaps some of us and drop a note.

Not a condemnatory note but an encouraging note to one of our Lord Jesus this evening as we sing and go up to the persons concerned. Let's sing it feelingfully and let's mend any broken relationships as we sing and go up to the persons concerned. Father we thank you for this lovely hymn and the way that it works through the application of what we've shared.

Some of us are in pain. Some of us think of loved ones far away. Physically that's hard to bear but spiritually that's intolerable.

We bring them before your throne. Some of us are mindful that we've hurt others that we love and seek your forgiveness and grace to find forgiveness from them. Some of us have been so proud, so haughty, so hurtful.

Some of us are in pain. Some of us are in pain. Needing so much to be bathed in your grace and to be humbled and to become like the apostle and our beloved Lord.

We see what we should be and our desire is to bridge the gap between what we are and what you would have us be. So by the power of your spirit and by the stimulus of the love of Christ enable the gap to be narrowed. And send us out from this place not despairing but in great hope that after the pain can come the sunshine.

After the fall can come the resurrection. Lord I ask for your grace to be upon this beloved group of people. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost.

Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen.