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Man, 2 Corinthians chapter number 7, the Bible reads in verse 1, Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Now whenever you see a therefore in the Bible, you need to see what it's there for, okay? Because therefore is connecting it to something else. Therefore simply means because of this or for this reason. So let's see what the reason is because he says having therefore these promises. What promises, right? So let's back up to the end of chapter 6 that we didn't cover last time, conveniently. Look at chapter 6 verse 14, Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God. As God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, here come the promises, and I will receive you and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty, having therefore these promises. What promises? The promises, I will receive you, I will be a father to you, you shall be my sons and daughters. Because of those promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Now the word holy simply means set apart. The best way to define words in the Bible is to compare scripture with scripture, compare spiritual with spiritual, and if you go back to Exodus, you don't have to turn there, but if you go back into Exodus 13, you'll see that the words set apart and sanctified or set apart and made holy, these words are used interchangeably. So by comparing scripture with scripture, you get a biblical definition of holiness, being set apart is what that means. Now that makes perfect sense that at the end of chapter 6, he's telling you, come out from among them and be ye separate, right? Being separate is similar to being set apart, right? Being different is what he's saying there. And so he says, come out from among them and be ye separate, and if you do, you'll get these promises, and so because we have those promises, let's do what? Let's perfect holiness in the fear of God. So you can see how chapter 7 verse 1, you can't really understand it without tying it in with the end of chapter 6. The end of chapter 6 leads to that conclusion in chapter 7 verse 1. So just because the Bible has a chapter division, you have to understand that often the thought continues into the next chapter, and so part of the context is sometimes in the previous chapter or the subsequent chapter, so be aware of that. So what's he saying here? Look, don't be buddy-buddy best friends with this world and being unequally yoked together with unbelievers. What are some examples of this? Well, clearly, God would not want you as a saved person to marry someone who's not saved, because that's a major yoke right there, so being unequally yoked would for sure be marrying someone who's not saved. Now, look, if you've already made that mistake, obviously you need to stay married and you need to find a way to make it work, but for those that are single, don't even date an unsaved person. Don't even think about marrying an unsaved person. You want to be equally yoked, because what in the world could you have in common? What part hath he that believeth with an infidel? Infidel means unbeliever. You know, what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion hath light with darkness? But not only just marriage, we should not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers in the sense that I, as the pastor of a Baptist church, should not be getting together and having some prayer breakfast with a Jewish rabbi and a Muslim imam, a Catholic priest, right, the Mormon elder, and just say, hey, let's just all pray to the supreme being together or something. No, friends, we are supposed to be separate from unbelievers, and he specifically mentions idolatry. You know, what part does the temple of God have? What agreement does the temple of God have with idols? And you know, we are the temple of God, the Bible says at the end of that verse, so we can't have anything to do with idolatry. People that are praying to a little statue and burning incense before a statue, you know, we can't fellowship with that. We can't have anything to do with that. Now, the Bible does not teach, however, that we should just withdraw from this world and go live out on some kind of a property somewhere and be in a cult somewhere. We're to be in the world but not of the world. Jesus said, I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. So God wants us to be in the world but not of the world. So we're going to go to work and we're going to be around people that are unsaved, and we're going to be around people at school that are unsaved, and in our neighborhood we're going to be around unsaved people. And I'm not saying we should just shun them and say, hey, get away from me. You're Buddhist. Get away. You know, that's not what I'm saying. What I am saying, though, is that our close friends should not be unsaved people. We shouldn't be best buddies with unsaved people. Our close friends should be people who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And especially if you marry someone, they need to be a believer. Okay. Now, obviously we're going to have acquaintances that are idolaters. We're going to have acquaintances that are unsaved. But that's not going to be our bosom buddy. And we certainly don't want to have fellowship with them or be like unto them is what fellowship means. We don't want to be like them. So a big thing amongst independent Baptists is separation. You'll hear sometimes even when they're listing all the adjectives about their church, you know, we're independent, fundamental, separated. Who's heard that before in the list? You know, King James Bible, soul winning, you know, when they're listing all those adjectives, they'll often throw out there we're separated. And what they mean by that is that we're not trying to fit in with this world, be patterned after the world, be conformed to this world. We want to be a peculiar people. We want to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. We don't want to be conformed to this world. We want to be different. We want to be set apart. We want to be holy. What does that mean? They're fornicating. We're not. They're drunk. We're not. They do drugs. We don't. They get tattoos. We don't. Okay. We are different. We're not just following all the trends out there. You know, if men start walking around in a one piece romper like a toddler, we're not going to do it. We're not going to do it. Oh, well, you know, that's the style. Not for us it isn't. You know, and whatever they do that's ungodly or wicked, we're going to be different. We're going to follow the Bible. We're not going to commit adultery. We're not going to commit murder. We're not going to steal. Now, look, obviously nobody's perfect. This is a process of sanctification. Sanctification simply means being made holy. And that's why he says in chapter 7 verse 1, having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves. He's including himself in that because he's not perfect. I'm not perfect. The apostle Paul wasn't perfect. The Corinthians aren't perfect. So he's saying, hey, let's cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. And then he says, perfecting. Is that a done deal? Is it over? Are we done? Are we perfect? Have we arrived? No. But we're in the process of perfecting holiness in the fear of God. We should fear God and we should be in a process of getting the sin out of our life. We should be in the process of cleaning up our lives, coming out from among this world, being separate, and not being conformed to the world is what he's saying there. Now what are the promises? The promises are I will receive you and will be a father unto you and you shall be my sons and daughters, stay at the Lord. Now some people might be confused when they read this because they think, wait a minute, I thought we're already his sons and daughters just by believing in Christ. I mean the Bible says, but as many as received him, to them gave you power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. I'm already a son of God. So why do I have to come out from among them and be separate? And why do I have to perfect holiness and cleanse myself of all the filthiness of the flesh and spirit in order for him to be my father and for me to be his son? I'll tell you exactly why, because when you got saved, the only part of you that got saved is the spirit, not the flesh. The flesh is unregenerate. The flesh is not saved. Folks, when you got saved, your spirit was regenerated, your spirit was quickened, but your flesh is the same old sinful flesh and now you have both the flesh and the spirit and the flesh lusted against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would. Okay, so here's the thing. Part of you is born again and part of you isn't. The spirit, the soul is born again, both, but the body isn't. Your body is not born again. Your flesh is not born again. You still have that fleshly mind, that carnal mind, that unregenerate mind, but then you also have that spiritual mind, okay? And that's why every day we're told to put on the new man, to put off the works of the flesh and put on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible says. And Paul said, I die daily. Why? Because we have to mortify the members of our uncleanness every day. So we have a choice every day whether we walk in the flesh or whether we walk in the spirit. Nobody walks in the spirit 100% of the time, okay? If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. So nobody's perfect. Nobody walks in the spirit 100% of the time, but if we walk in the spirit, we'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And if we walk in the flesh, we're going to do the lust of the flesh, okay? So here's the thing. The part of us that is a child of God is the saved part of us, which is the spirit. Now someday when we die or at the second coming of Christ, the flesh will be gone forever and we're going to get a new body and then we will be saved in body, soul, and spirit. But the Bible tells us in Romans chapter 8 that we're still waiting for the redemption of our body. The redemption of our spirit's a done deal. We're still waiting for the redemption of our body, okay? And it's a sure thing, but we're not there yet, okay? So when he says, hey, if you live a holy life, I will receive you and will be a father unto you and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Look, if we're walking in the flesh, yeah, okay, God's our father of our spirit, but is he being a father unto us? If we're out living a worldly sinful life walking in the flesh, we're not going to have that father-son relationship with him. We're not going to have that father-daughter relationship with him that we should unless we are walking with him. The Bible says if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin. So it's about fellowship, him receiving you, being a father unto you, you being his son or daughter. Yes, positionally we are already saved so we are already children of God, but that's the spirit. In order to have this relationship de facto, now he's de jure our father, but for him to de facto be a father unto us and us to be as his sons and daughters, we have to walk in the spirit for that and we have to put off these works of the flesh. So that thought kind of ends at the end of chapter 7 verse 1 and then in verse 2 of chapter 7, he starts a new thought. But it kind of ties in because he says receive us. Well what was the promise? If you come out from among them and be separate, God said I'll receive you. So then that leads Paul to say in chapter 7 verse 2, receive us. Why? We've wronged no man. We've corrupted no man. We have defrauded no man. So he's saying receive us. Now this book, like 1 Corinthians, contains a lot of hard words toward the Corinthians because there was a pretty bad element at the church of Corinth that needs to be rebuked a lot. And then there are a lot of great people at Corinth and I think it's like that in every church. There are going to be problem people and then there are going to be great people and people that fall somewhere in between. So you'll see some really gentle words coming from Paul and then you'll see some kind of harsh words. So he's saying receive us. There are people out there that are rejecting Paul and he talks about that in chapter 13 how they don't respect him, they're not receiving him. And so he's saying look, what do you have against us? I mean we haven't wronged anybody. We haven't corrupted anybody. We haven't defrauded anybody. What's your problem? What is your problem, right? Receive us. What is it with you? But then he says in verse 3, I speak not this to condemn you. I'm not trying to just get on your case here. For I've said before that you are in our hearts to die and live with you. And this is another theme that comes up a lot in 2 Corinthians. I'm saying look, I love you guys. That's why I'm correcting you. That's why I'm rebuking you. I'm not here just to condemn you. Look, I love you. You're in my heart. I'm trying to fix this relationship here. He says in verse 4, I like what he says here. Great is my boldness of speech toward you. Great is my glorying of you. Now what does glorying of you mean? Basically glorying of you has to do with him praising them to other people. And he talks about this more in chapters 8 and 9. But basically Paul would tell other churches, oh man, that church at Corinth is a great church. Oh man, those people at that church in Corinth, they're great people. And here's all the good things about them. So he's saying look, I've said a lot of good things about you. My glorying of you has been great. And he goes into more detail about that in chapters 8 and 9, how he had praised them to other churches and even used the word boasted. He said I boasted about you in other churches, how great you guys are. But he says great is my boldness of speech toward you. Great is my glorying of you. And again, I would liken this to the relationship between parents and their children. Parents sometimes use great boldness of speech when they correct their children. They use harsh words sometimes to correct their children. When their children need to be corrected, they're not shy about telling their children you're wrong, no, you need to stop, right? They use boldness of speech. But then those same parents will turn around and say what, oh, I'm so proud of my son. Let me tell you about his achievements, oh, I'm so proud of my daughter. Let me tell you all the great things he does, right? We love our children. Does that mean we don't correct them? No. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourges every son and we receive it. The Bible says he that spareth his rod hated the son, but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. And so we as parents, because we love our children, we do what? We correct them. We use great boldness of speech toward them. And we tell them no because we love them. But then don't we also brag about our kids to other people? Why? Because we love them. I mean, if we love our kids, we're going to tell people, oh, man, did you hear what my son did or what my daughter did? That's my boy. That's my girl, right? So that is what he's saying here. And then he says I'm filled with comfort. I'm exceeding joyful in all our tribulation. So the Apostle Paul is going through some hard times. He's going through trials and troubles and tribulations. But he's really joyful because the Corinthian believers, the good ones, they're bringing him joy. They're putting him in a good mood. Now why is he exceeding joyful in all the tribulation? Four, four means because in verse five, right? Four because when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest. But we were troubled on every side without were fightings within were fears. So he's saying, look, I'm exceeding joyful in our tribulation. Look, when we were coming out of Macedonia, man, we, or come into Macedonia, we were troubled on every side. I mean, we were just getting it from all directions. Things were going bad, trouble, trials, tribulations. But we were exceeding joyful in that. But he said, nevertheless, verse six, God that comforted those that are cast down comforted us by the coming of Titus and not by his coming only, but by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind toward me so that I rejoice the more. He's saying, look, everything was going bad when we came into Macedonia. Tons of trouble, tons of problems, tribulations were troubled on all sides. But when Titus showed up and gave us a good report about the church at Corinth, that was so encouraging to us. I mean, we were exceeding joyful even in all that tribulation. We were really happy. He really comforted us just when we heard about how great you guys have done here, you know, your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind toward. So look, we're going to go through hard times in our life, right? Just like the Apostle Paul went through all these troubles. But what keeps us going is when we hear about maybe people that we've won to Christ and they're thriving in the Lord, or if our physical children, if we raise them to live for the Lord, but that's encouraging, right? So those kind of things encourage us when we see people that we've invested in, when we see them thriving or churches that we've invested in and we see those churches succeeding and doing well, that good report, that good news from a far country is very encouraging. Because he said, look, we're troubled on every side. And you know, here he says, without we're fighting, within we're fierce. I can never read that without singing the song in my head. Who knows what song I'm referring to? My son. My son is the one who knows. Did somebody else know? One of the first. Yeah. Fightings and fears within, without a lamb of God. Who knows what I'm talking about now? That's where it comes from, folks. Every time I've read this my whole life, I'm always thinking about that song. Anyway, that had nothing to do with the sermon. It's a great song. That's one of my favorite hymns, by the way. Just as I am. That's a great song. 270 in the hymnal, but we're not going to sing it now. He said, look, I was comforted by the coming of Titus, right? So you know, we're in a bad mood, trials, tribulations, trouble, every side. I mean, without our fightings, externally we're fighting people, and then on the inside we're scared. Fear within, fighting without. But man, when Titus showed up, that put us in a great mood. That was encouraging when Titus showed up. And not just the fact that Titus showed up, but the fact that Titus gave us such a good report about the church at Corinth, and we heard about, what did we hear about? He says at the end of verse 7, your earnest desire. Now look, that is one of the most important elements in the Christian life, desire. It's the one thing that I can't give you as your pastor. I can get up here and preach till I'm blue in the face, but the one thing I can never give you is desire. You have to provide the desire. Now keep your finger here in 2 Corinthians and go back to Proverbs 18, because I'm going to show you how this actually ties in with what we just read about in the end of chapter 6 and 7 of 2 Corinthians. Go back to Proverbs chapter 18. This is a really powerful verse that I've meditated upon more times than I can count. Proverbs chapter 18 verse 1 says, through desire a man having separated himself. Now isn't that what we just read about in chapter 6, come out from among them and be separate? Through desire, a man having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom and then conversely, a fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself. Discover, typically in the Bible, means to uncover. So what he's saying there is, the only thing he cares about, he doesn't delight in understanding, he just wants to tell you what his stupid heart has come up with. It's not even wise. The fool just wants his heart to discover itself. He just wants to just, hey, here's what I think. Here's my opinion. It's not based on facts. It's not based on the truth. It's not based on the word of God, because he's a fool, folks, right? But the wise man, he doesn't just want to hear himself talk and just blow off his mouth about things that he doesn't understand and talk about things that are over his head and that are too high for him. The wise man, through desire, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom. So it starts with what, though? It starts with desire. Desire is the vehicle through desire. How do we separate ourselves and intermeddle with all wisdom and learn and seek the truth and learn the truth and understand the truth and become wise so that we're not just this idiot, this fool, who just talks about stuff and blows off their mouth and they just want to say what's on their mind, whether it's right or wrong. How do we get there? We get there in this vehicle called desire. Desire is something that I can't give you. You must have a desire to serve God. Now, what's going to give you that desire is love, loving the Lord, loving the word of God, loving church, loving the brotherhood, loving lost souls. When you have that love in your heart, then that's going to lead you to desire. What? Boy, I want to know the Bible. I want to learn the truth. I want to become a better Christian. I'm going to separate myself. Why? Because the pleasures of this world are not worth it. So I'm going to cleanse myself of the filth of the flesh and the spirit and I want to perfect holiness and the fear of God. I'm going to seek the truth. I'm going to search the scriptures daily. I'm going to seek an inner metal with all wisdom through desire. And boy, there's nothing better than someone who has a sincere desire to serve God. Look, if you have a desire to be right with God, if you have a desire to go to church, if you have a desire to love the Lord and learn the Bible and win souls to Christ, boy, we can work with that. You're going places. Say, well, I don't have a lot of talent. Yeah, but do you have desire? Well, you know, I don't really have a lot of abilities or I don't know the Bible very well. Hey, but do you have a desire though? Because guess what? Your desire is going to get you to the destination. It's a great vehicle, friend. You get in that car and it will take you to the promised land. Okay? Desire. But have you noticed that some people just don't have any desire? They don't desire to be a better Christian. They don't desire to win anybody to Christ. They don't desire to know the Bible. They don't desire to get lost souls saved. What do they desire? Just simply pizza, ice cream, right? Fornication, cheap thrills, riding a roller coaster, ice cream, candy, playing, movies. I mean, and look, I'm not saying that all of these are bad things. There's nothing wrong with pizza, okay? There's nothing wrong with having some fun in your life, but you know what? If all you live for is just food and fun and games and cheap thrills, you're similar to an animal. I mean, are you a beast? Isn't that what animals live for? Just a little cheap thrill, go grab the Frisbee, bring it back, chew on the bone, chew on the rawhide toy, somebody scratch your ears, right, you know? You know, it's like that. You just want to be petted and eat, you know, hey, it's Alpo, it's a new formula or whatever, you know, canned dog food instead of the dry stuff. Life is good. Well, folks, we're more than that. We have a soul, we have a spirit, okay? We're not just an animal. And so we need to desire something beyond that which is carnal. You know, an insult that I remember hearing growing up that my dad would say is that so and so doesn't have a spiritual bone in his body. That was just something that he would say, you know, and it's to describe somebody who just has no care for the things of God. And we've all seen people like that. And you know, I'll bet you that a vast majority of people in this room tonight would say, you know what, there was a time in my life when I had no desire to serve God, I had no desire to go to church, I didn't care about the things of God at all. I think probably the majority of people would raise their hand if they're honest because most of the people in our church didn't grow up in church, okay? But now, now they love God, they desire God, they want to serve him, they want to know him. And boy, isn't that great? That, boy, that is so important and you know, if you don't have that desire, you better get it. You better figure out a way to get it. You better read the Bible, pray, sing songs until you have that desire because that desire is one of the critical components of the Christian life because it's through desire that we seek an inner metal with all wisdom. Look, have you noticed that if you don't want to learn something in school, you don't learn it? How many of you went to two years of Spanish but you don't speak Spanish? Put up your hand if you went to two years of Spanish but you don't speak Spanish. Look around the room. Here's why. Because you did not have a burning desire to learn Spanish. You know why you learned Spanish was because you're being forced to learn Spanish. You just needed those two years in order to graduate from high school. I know in California it was required two years of Spanish but here's the thing, those who went to Spanish 3, they did it through desire because only the first two years were required. Spanish 3 was through desire. If you don't want to learn, you're not going to learn. And you know what? Even if you got an A, who got an A in Spanish and you still don't speak Spanish? Right. Because look, you desired an A. You desired a good grade but look, Spanish wasn't your priority so over time you forgot about it, you neglected it. You learn things you want to learn. But then I guarantee you that most people in this room later on in life found something that they really cared about and were passionate about and they went and learned it on their own. And they didn't need a classroom, they didn't need a teacher, they didn't need quizzes and tests and reports and term papers. They just went and sought out knowledge on their own. Let's say they got interested in the Civil War or the French Revolution or World War II and they just went and learned about it on their own because they like it. They enjoyed it. See, desire takes you further than going to a classroom. You can sit in this classroom of God's house, sit in church, but if you don't have the desire to learn the Bible, you could sit here and Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night listen to me rattle my cage for years and go nowhere spiritually until you have a desire inside your heart where you say, I want to know the Bible. I want to serve God. I'm not here because of my parents or my spouse or anybody. Look, I'm here. I want to be here. I want to hear this sermon. I want to learn 2 Corinthians. I want to know what the Bible has in this Bible study. You know, those are the people that are going to learn a lot. Desire, my friend, it's critical. So what was so encouraging to Paul about the church at Corinth? When he heard about their earnest, earnest means it's serious, it's real, it's not just something that's light for them. Their earnest desire. Well, that's what made him encouraged. The earnest desire. But then he also said you're mourning. Now why, why is he happy about the fact they mourned? Because of the fact that they had some serious sin and he rebuked him for the sin and they mourned. Why? You know, if we're deep into sin and we get called out for it, we ought to be sad. We ought to feel bad about that, right? Should we feel bad when we sin? Yeah, we ought to mourn. The Bible says, be afflicted and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to sorrow and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves on the side of the Lord and he shall lift you up. So there's a time to mourn and a time to dance, right? There's a time to weep and so forth. And so he says here, you're mourning your fervent mind toward me so that I rejoice the more. Verse eight, 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. So he's saying my epistle or my letter unto you made you sorry. What does sorry mean? It means sad. It comes from the same root as the word sorrow, right? Sorrow is sadness. So to be sorry is to be sad. Now we use this not to talk about being sad typically in 2019. We just use this as an apology like, oh, sorry. We might say sorry with a big smile on our face. Sorry. You know, but we're not, what this means is I'm sad. If I said I'm sorry, it means I'm sad. I'm sorrowing, right? Now the reason that this is an apology is what you're saying. When you say I'm sorry, you're basically saying like, hey, the fact that I did that to you brings sorrow to my heart. So let's say I bump into you and knock you over, oh, I'm sorry. You're basically saying like, I feel bad about this. I regret this. It brings me sorrow. In fact, the way that you say this in German, you say estut milaid, which means like it does me sorrow. It causes me sorrow, estut milaid, okay? And then in Spanish, you would say lo siento. Now correct me if I'm wrong, doesn't that basically mean I feel it? Is that what it means? All right, yeah, I feel it. It's like bumping into somebody, I feel it. What does that mean? You're basically saying like, I feel bad about it. They're just leaving out the bad about it part, just hey, I feel it, you know, lo siento means like I feel bad about it. So and I'm not an expert on Spanish, but you know, I got a lot of nodding heads, no one's correcting me. So that must be what that means, okay? Because we just learned it's lo siento, but they never explained to us why. So I had to figure that out on my own, apparently I'm on the right track. So basically, you know, he's saying, look, I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent. Now what does it mean to repent? Well, the word repent means to turn, okay? Now this is a word that can basically be used in a lot of different ways. So it's really important that you get the context. This is a word that's abused a lot. So the word repent simply means to turn. So to repent of sin means to turn from sin. To repent of unbelief means to turn from unbelief. To repent from idols means to turn away from idols, right? So a repentance is a turning, now it can sometimes just be a change of mind. It can just be you change your mind, you know, it could be a change of opinion or it could be a change of action, you know, if I'm going one direction and then I change my mind and go the other way, that's repentance, right? Well, you know what, I was going to go soul winning this Saturday but I repented. It means I'm no longer doing it or I changed my mind or whatever. So this is used all throughout the Bible in a variety of ways. It's a very broad word so we need to always get the context of what he's talking about repenting of or from. So a lot of people just automatically when they see repent, they think repent of sin. That's not typically what it means. In fact, the person who repents more than anyone in the Bible is God. He doesn't have any sins. So when God repents, what is God doing? God is basically changing his course of action, okay? Because God doesn't change his character. God doesn't change who he is. He doesn't change his opinions, okay? Because he's already perfect. He said, I'm the Lord, I change not, okay? So Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever but yet God repents, why? Because he was gonna do one thing and then he repents and does something different, okay? Now what is he saying here? I don't repent. You know what he's saying? He's saying, you know what? I wrote you that letter and I'm glad I wrote you that letter. I don't regret writing you that letter. That's what he's saying. I do not repent. But then he says this. Are you there in verse 8? And stay with me. This is a little complicated but stay with me. I do not repent though I did repent. What does he mean there? He's saying when he first wrote the letter, the first epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians, when he threw it in the mailbox, he was like, I shouldn't have written that. Isn't that what it means? He's saying, I did repent. So I mean, he's ripping face and telling them how it is. He throws it in the mailbox, okay, and then he's like, oh, I shouldn't have written that. I was too harsh. I was too mean. I shouldn't have done that. There have been times when I got up and preached and then I'm done preaching. I'm like, oh, man, maybe I went a little too far. You know, I was a little too rough, a little too harsh. But then later you're like, no, actually, that was what needed to be said. So that's how Paul was. Paul put the letter, first Corinthians in the mail, and then he regretted it, felt bad about it. But then later he's like, no, I did the right thing. So he's saying right now as I write this, I don't repent. I did write. But I did repent. You know, he doubted himself. Now obviously we know he was right because God was leading him to write that first epistle to the Corinthians. It's inspired by God and it's 100% right on the money. But Paul in his humanity, you know, his human weakness as a human being, he doubted himself. And he felt bad about writing the letter even though now he realizes that it was the right thing. Now why did he repent? Why did he feel bad? He perceived that the same epistle had made them sorry. And he doesn't want to be a downer. He doesn't want to make people feel bad or make people sad. Though it were but for a season, he's saying, look, it made you sorry. It made you sad, but only for a little while. Verse nine, now I rejoice. Not that you were made sorry. It's not that I just enjoy making you suffer. It's not that I just enjoy your sadness. Oh, great. They're depressed. Great. That's exactly what I was trying to do when I wrote that letter. Just make them feel bad. Tell me more about their pain. Titus, pull up a chair and tell me, you know, because I enjoy the suffering. He's saying, look, I don't rejoice that you were made sorry, but that you sorrowed to repentance. He's saying, look, I'm glad that you were sad. Why? Because you being sad about your sin actually led to you cleaning things up. You know, you regretting the situation actually caused you to do the right thing and clean house and fix things in Corinth. So I'm glad that you sorrowed to repentance, for you were sorry after a godly manner that you might receive damage by us in nothing. Now look, there's a godly manner to be sorrowful and a wrong kind of sorry, okay? So let's say somebody gets busted for their sin. Let's say somebody gets called out for their sin. Let's say Bill Clinton, you know, he got busted with Monica Lewinsky, right? Well, he looked sad because he's crying and he's sorry, but did he sorrow unto repentance or was he just sorry because he got caught? So a lot of times people, yeah, they're really sad and they're crying because they got caught, because they got busted. It doesn't mean that they're going to stop committing adultery or that they're going to stop doing those things. And how many people have cried, oh, I'm so sorry, you know? You know, let's say they're a drunk or they're a drug addict or they have a gambling addiction or a fornicator, an adulterer, and they, oh, I'm so sorry, and then they just keep going out and doing it again. What does that show? It shows a lack of repentance, right? Now you say, well, is anybody really sorrowful that doesn't repent? Well, look at Saul. I mean, King Saul's crying and telling David, oh, I've played the fool. You're so much more righteous than me. And then, like, shortly thereafter, let's go do it again. He's hunting David again. So there's a godly sorrow that worketh repentance, okay? So godly sorrow, the right kind of sorrow, actually causes something to change, something to turn, whereas the sorrow of the world, the Bible says, worketh death. So look at verse 10. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death, okay? Now what about this? What if someone's really sorry about what they did? Oh, I'm so sorry, I can't believe I did this. And then what if they just go out and kill themselves? Is that what God wants them to do? You know, I mean, look, there have been people who went out and did something awful. Let's say they committed adultery, or let's say they went out and got drunk and accidentally killed someone in a drunk driving accident, or they took drugs and they let their family down, they let their friends down, or whatever. And those kind of people can sometimes be swallowed up of overmuch sorrow, the Bible says, and they could actually kill themselves. And that's sad. We don't want to see people kill themselves because of the fact that they messed up, okay, because they went out and committed this sin or that sin. So that's the sorrow of the world that worketh death. This is like Judas Iscariot. He betrays the Lord Jesus, and then it says he repented and brought back the money, and the Pharisees won't take the money back. He throws it on the ground, and he goes out and hangs himself. That's the sorrow of the world. That was not a godly sorrow. So it's possible for people to have sorrow for their sin and be insincere. So if someone commits a sin and they're crying and sad, does that really mean that they have godly sorrow? No, because there's another kind of sorrow that's just, oh, poor me, I got caught. Poor me. And the poor me sorrow sometimes will even result in suicide. Why do people commit suicide? Is it because they feel sorry for themselves? Yeah. They're sad. They're feeling sorry for themselves. They commit suicide, okay, because they just want to end it all. They're not committing suicide for the benefit of other people. You think your wife wants you to commit suicide? You think your husband wants you to commit suicide? If so, you've got a really messed up marriage. But you really think that if you commit suicide, you could ruin the lives of the people around you. Yeah, right. I mean, think about it. What if I committed suicide? Boy, my wife would probably feel guilty and depressed. My kids would feel guilty and depressed. My parents would feel guilty and depressed. My church members would feel guilty and depressed. My preacher friends would feel guilty and depressed, right? I'd just be hurting everyone, harming everyone, making everyone feel bad. And just for the record, I will never kill myself. So if you ever read a report that I committed suicide, I was murdered and they made it look like a suicide, period. Let me just go on the record right now. I will never commit suicide. So don't let the government try to pull that number on me, all right? So the point is, there's the sorrow of the world that work at death. Look, I've seen it in my kids where they'll be sad when they get busted, but they don't sorrow into repentance. They're doing the same thing five minutes later, okay? They have the sorrow of the world. Now, sometimes they have the godly sorrow that work with repentance, but I'm saying I've seen both as a parent. Okay, you've seen both as a parent as well. So he says, godly sorrow work with repentance to salvation not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world work at death. Let me just park it on this verse right here, because like I said, this concept of repentance is often abused. Now, when the Bible says here, for godly sorrow work with repentance to salvation not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world work at death, if we actually get the context, folks, don't take this verse out of context. What's the context? The context is that there was a guy in the church who was committing fornication, and there were other sins going on in the church, other people that were drunks, that were fornicators, that were idolaters, and all these other things. The apostle Paul sent them a stern rebuke about these people. You've got to put away from among yourselves that wicked person that is called a brother and he's a drunkard, a fornicator, an extortioner. He sent them this stern rebuke in 1 Corinthians, right? They got the letter, and they're sad. They're like, oh, man, we have blown it. We've let the apostle Paul down. We've let the Lord down. We've got this horrible sin. We need to fix this. So they were really sad, and that godly sorrow worked repentance where they said, we're no longer going to let all this stuff just go on unchecked in the church. We're going to clean house. And they threw out the wrong people. And then some of the people that got thrown out got right with God, and then they were brought back in. They sorrowed unto repentance. And even the guy who committed fornication, he was restored to fellowship. And then Paul's telling them in chapter 2 of 2 Corinthians, hey, confirm your love toward him. We don't want him to be swallowed up of overmuch sorrow. So when he says, godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death, the salvation here in context is not talking about the eternal salvation of your soul, whether you go to heaven or hell. It's talking about saving their church. It's talking about the situation, because it's not like these people were not saved. The leaders of the church at Corinth that threw out the fornicator, they just got saved? No, they were already saved, folks. But often the Bible, when it says saved, it's not talking about eternal salvation of the soul. It's just talking about being saved of something else. Like for example, when Peter's drowning and he said, Lord, save me, you know, that's when he was on his way to heaven. He just means pull me out of the water, folks. Or when the Bible says, except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved. Or when the Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter 2, she shall be saved in childbearing, does that mean you have to give birth to babies to go to heaven? No way. It says she shall be saved in childbearing. The context there is she's going to be saved from all the pitfalls of these busybodies and tattlers and so forth, right? So that's what she's going to be saved from that we talk about in 1 Timothy 2 and 5. So you've got to get context, folks. But what people will do with this verse, they'll try to take this verse, and here's what they'll try to teach with it. They'll try to teach you have to be sad in order to get saved. Okay. Now, like I said, I don't believe that the context of this verse is primarily about salvation of the soul. I think he's more talking about saved from the hardship, saved from the messed up situation in their church, saved the church. That's what I think it means from all the problems. But let's just for a minute, let's just say that this is referring to the salvation of your soul. Okay? Let's just say for a minute this is talking about going to heaven or hell. It says, for godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. People want to use this to say, yeah, you have to have godly sorrow to be saved. You have to be sad. And I've heard people say, you know, if I'm giving the gospel to somebody and there's no sadness, then, you know, I can just tell that person's not ready to get saved. Folks, it's called the good news. Gospel means good news. So what? When I tell you the good news and you don't get sad, you can't be saved. How stupid is that, folks? Now look, I've given the gospel to people and had them get sad before. Who's given the gospel to somebody and they start crying or got sad, right? Okay. But how many times have we given the gospel to someone and they didn't get sad? They got happy because it's good news. Folks, you don't have to get sad to be saved because being saved is not some emotional experience of getting all sad. Now look, it might include that, but it might not. Now let's see what the verse actually says. It says godly sorrow work and repents to salvation not to be repented of. Let me ask you this. Is that saying that that's the only way to get to that destination? No. What if I said this? Lifting weights buildeth muscle. If I got up and said lifting weights buildeth muscle, is that true? Yeah, lifting weights buildeth muscle. You wouldn't get that from it, okay? You know, godly lifting worketh muscle not to be repented of. Is that saying that the only way to get muscle is to lift weights? Now is it true that lifting weights builds muscle? But are there other ways to build muscle? Yeah, because you could build muscle by doing swimming. You could ride a bike. You could do calisthenics. You could do body weight exercises. You could build muscle all kinds of ways, but lifting weights buildeth muscle. Will godly sorrow worketh repentance? That's not saying you can only repent through sadness. You know, the only way to get repentance, the only way to get to salvation is through godly sorrow. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible's just saying that's one way to get there. Yeah, I'm glad I made you sorry because it was godly sorrow and godly sorrow worketh repentance. But you know what? There are other ways to get to repentance without sorrow. I mean, what if I'm just in church and I have some sin in my life that I didn't even know it was a sin? I'm doing something wrong in my life and the pastor preaches and says, hey, that's a sin. You need to stop doing that. I might say to myself, like, oh, I didn't realize that was a sin. I'm going to stop doing that. And I might not be sad. Well, I'm glad I heard that. Great sermon. I'm going to clean that up. Okay, and then in regard to salvation, what kind of repentance gets us saved? It's not repenting of your sins that get you saved. It's repenting of your wrong belief. Okay, so what if I tell someone the gospel and I tell someone how easy it is to be saved, you've got to believe in Jesus, you've got to put your faith in Christ. And let's say they're a Hindu, right? So this Hindu man, I preach the gospel unto him and he's going to have to repent from his idols that he thinks are God and all his false gods and turn to the true God because he can't just add Jesus to his pantheon of Hindu gods. He has to actually get rid of Hinduism and embrace Christianity because you cannot be both Hindu and Christian. Okay. So the repentance in regard to salvation is repenting from Hinduism and turning to Christianity. Repenting from idols to serve the living and true God. You know, repenting from workspace salvation to a faith-based salvation. Trusting self goes to trusting Christ. That's the repentance. That's the turning. That's the thing that needs to change in regard to salvation. Amen? So could godly sorrow do that? Yeah, because they could get to a point where they said like, oh man, I'm so sad. I've been offending the Lord. I've been worshiping the devil. When I bowed down to all this four armed Goro from Mortal Kombat and I thought that was God. You know what I mean? When I'm bowing down to this Hindu god that looks like a nineties video game, you know, when I'm bowing down to these idols, you know, I've been worshiping the devil. You know that look, if somebody put a lot of effort into Hinduism, could you see how they might start crying when they find out it's actually not biblical, when they find out thou shall not make any graven image? They might start crying and be like, oh man, all this time, you know, Jesus was right there ready to save me and here I am worshiping the devil. God, I'm so sorry I offended you. Or what if you've been trusting in your own works for decades and then you find out, no, salvation is not of works, it's by faith. And then you're weeping like, oh man, here I am. I've been trying to work my way to heaven. I've been just, just completely disdaining the sacrifice of Christ and, and completely disrespecting the fact that his son died, that God's son died for me on the cross and here I am trying to do it myself. You know, you could see how people would be crying or sad. Or how about this? What if somebody thought that there's no way they could be saved because of the sin in their life and then they realize just as I am, you know, that we can come to Christ as we are and be saved. Boy, that's where a lot of the tears would come from. So okay, godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of. You could apply that to spiritual salvation as a secondary meaning. Okay. But the sorrow of the world worketh death. What's that saying? It's saying that godly sorrow worketh repentance. But it doesn't say there's no repentance unless there's sorrow there and there's no salvation without sorrow. That's garbage, folks. Now can repentance involve sorrow? Absolutely. What does repentance mean, folks? It means you're turning or doing something different or changing your mind, okay? So stop and think about this. If I was doing one thing and I decided to do something different, could there be sorrow involved? Yeah, because you'd be like, man, I, I wish I hadn't done that. So that's why I'm going to do something different. Or I might not have any sorrow and just be like, I was going to do this. Now I'm going to do this. Let me give you an example. And this is the last thing we're going to cover tonight is about repentance. But keep your finger in 2 Corinthians 7. Go back to Genesis 6. Let's go back to the very beginning of the Bible where we see repentance come up in Genesis 6, okay? Genesis chapter 6. And in Genesis chapter 6 verse 6 it says, and it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, watch this, and it grieved him at his heart. So when God repented about making man on the earth, is there sorrow involved? Yeah, because it grieved him at his heart. So when it says that it repented the Lord, it says it grieved him at his heart. So we can see sorrow and repentance connected there, right? And what does he mean? He's saying, I wish I hadn't made them or I regret. Now go to Jonah chapter number 3. Jonah chapter number 3. And we're going to see another instance of God repenting, and there are many we could look at, but we're going to look at two of the best examples. Genesis 6, repentance was accompanied by sorrow on God's part, right? Okay, now let's look at Jonah 3.10. And God saw their works that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them, and he did it not. In Jonah 3.10 we see God repenting, but is God sad here? Has sorrow led him to this repentance? No. Now in Genesis 6, sorrow led God to repentance. I mean, he looks down at the earth and he sees how mankind has corrupted the earth and how it's filled with violence, and he looks down and makes God sad. God is sad. He's grieved at his heart. He's sad about what humans have turned into. And that leads him to the point where it repents him that he even made man on the earth, right? He repents. Whereas in Jonah 3.10, he looks down at something good. He looks down at the fact that they turned from their evil way. He looks down that people got right with God, and he repents and says, I'm not going to wipe them out anymore. So God's happy. So here in Jonah 3.10, we have a happy repentance. So don't get this idea, oh, well, repent means you're sad. All the time? Well, repent means repent of your sins. All the time? No. Repent could be repent of your sins, or it could be repent of Hinduism, repent of Buddhism, repent of Islam, repent of idols. It could be repent of anything, okay? Repent means to be sad and to be sorry for your sins, no, because repent could mean or include sorrow, because often when you change a course of action, there's sadness about the previous course of action, but repenting could be a happy thing. So don't get sucked in. Go back to 2 Corinthians 7. Don't get sucked into this thing of, oh, well, if there's no sorrow, there's no salvation. There's no sorrow. There's no real repentance. No, you can have repentance without sorrow, and you can have salvation without sorrow. Look at 2 Corinthians 7, 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've approved yourselves to be clear in this matter. Wherefore though I wrote unto you, I did it not for his cause that had done the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear unto you. He's saying, look, I love you. I care about you. That's why I rebuked you. I felt bad about it for a minute, but then I realized, nope, I did the right thing by making you sad, because when you were sad, that caused you to repent, and you sorrowed after a godly sort, and that godly sorrow worked repentance unto salvation, you know, so that you saved your church, because their church was going downhill fast. They were in danger of having the candlestick removed, based on what we learned from Revelation 2 and 3, and the type of things that will get the candlestick removed, they were doomed as a church, but they saved the church, okay. But you could also take a secondary application, personal salvation from heaven and hell, and say, hey, godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, that, okay, a lot of people are going to be sad, and they might hear the gospel, they might hear about Jesus dying on the cross and be sad. Don't you think some people, when they hear about Jesus being beaten and spat upon, get sad and start crying? Isn't that a normal reaction to the gospel? But guess what? Another person might not feel sad when they hear the gospel. They might just be joyous, like, well, this is great that God loves me, and that I have this pathway to heaven, and I can be saved, all I have to do is believe. So don't try to make salvation an emotional experience. Could salvation be an emotional experience? Sure. But don't add that and say, oh, well, in order to be saved, you've got to be sorry for your sins, and you've got to be sad that you offended God, and you've got to feel bad for your sins. You know what? You might just feel good that you're getting saved, right? Don't add to the gospel, folks. The gospel is that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. It's not that whosoever feels bad, that whoever repents of their sins and regrets their sins and is grieved by, no, no, no, no, no. It's faith that saves us, not sadness and emotion. Don't make it an emotional experience. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this great chapter, 2 Corinthians chapter 7, Lord, and we just pray that you would help us to apply this to our lives, that we would want to perfect holiness and get the sin out of our lives. Help us to have that desire to do right and to get sin out of our lives and to live right. When we do sin, Lord, help us to be sorry about it. Help us to have a godly sorrow and help that godly sorrow to lead us to repentance, to get the sin out of our lives, to perfect holiness, to be separate, to be a good son and a good daughter, Lord, and help us to understand your word, Lord, and not to be deceived by people who try to twist salvation into a work salvation and an emotional experience, Lord. Thank you for your unspeakable gift that is just a faith that saves us and it's a free gift, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.