2 Corinthians 7:9-11 – Repentance – Bible study

2Cor 7:9-11 Repentance The Bible talks much about repentance. The Bible speaks of it being necessary for the salvation of the lost and for the reconciliation of the saved who have sinned. \#1Cor 11:28-29\ command the believer to examine himself lest he partake of the Lords supper unworthily. Such a command would require repentance from the partaker if sin was found. That makes repentance necessary for all who will be right with God. We are not unfamiliar with repentance for I speak of it often. We know that the word carries with it the idea of turning around as Ezekiel used the word: Eze 14:6 Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations. Eze 18:30 Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. But that is but a picture of what the word means and the beginning of what repentance does to the soul who experiences it. Paul gives much more detail in once verse of the Bible. 2Cor 7:11 For behold this selfsame thing, that ye 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 ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter. Godly sorrow – Sorrow is the mark of repentance that lead Paul into this conversation. Paul had heard of sins which were consuming the church at Corinth. Unable to return himself, he wrote a letter and sent it by the hand of Titus. All the while that Titus was gone, Paul was concerned over how the church would receive his letter. Once Titus had returned, Paul was relieved to hear that the church had displayed sorrow at the letter for sorrow is a characteristic of true repentance. Now on a follow up letter, Paul told the church of his thoughts and hopes. He prayed that the sorrow the church had first experienced lead them to a continued repentance. 2Cor 7:9 Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. 10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. So then, godly sorrow is the first mark of the repentant. 1. Repentance produces a sorrowing soul. a. Sorrow for sinning against God. b. Sorrow for sinning against others. 2. This is not a mere emotion. It is a metamorphosis. a. It is a change at the very heart of the human soul. b. It is the change of one having been hard and uncaring about what God thought of his action to being tender, thoughtful, and greatly concerned about what God thinks. c. While humans run through their gambit of emotions on a daily if not an hourly basis, this sorrow never leaves. d. It is a new scar across the heart which will not prevent the repentant from laughing, loving, or living as before it arrived but still brings a difference, an awareness, a thoughtfulness that was never there before. 3. Consider that repentance brings a perpetual brokenness to the those who have experienced it. a. It is profound, pervasive, and permanent. b. Most often, this is the single outward characteristic that marks the repentant soul as changed. A great carefulness or cautiousness – Once we repent, there will be a new carefulness to avoid offending God with sin because 1. Repentance gives us an awareness of a holy God. a. A new found fear of offending Him. b. Like Isaiah of the Old Testament, repentance is experiencing God. c. It is having a heart-pounding, earth shattering, soul searching realization that I have offended the Almighty God with my sinfulness and I do not want to do that again! 2. I think many times, people get tired of some sins but that is not all there is to repentance. 3. If this is accomplished, there will be a carefulness about all sin not just some sins. a. Many who claim to have repented are too selective in the sins that repent of. b. They may want to cleanse themselves of drinking, drugs, stealing, pornography, or lying. c. But have no qualms with missing worship, not reading their Bible, watching raunchy movies, listening to vulgar music, telling dirty jokes and so forth. d. Either we do not understand that a sin which is pleasurable is still offensive to God or else we do not care that it is offensive to God. e. Both are contrary to the nature of repentance! A great clearing 1. The Greek word is the word we get apology from. 2. It means to clear or clean out. 3. So there is a cleaning that goes with repentance. The repented soul "cleans house" so to speak. 4. This goes along with and is no doubt the result of the great carefulness just mentioned. a. The repented soul wants to get rid of anything that might offend God and hinder his walk with God. b. That would be sin. c. But that would also be any baggage with others; hence the Greek word which gives us apology. (1) A repentant soul would be a humble soul, seeing himself as the source of wrong. (2) A repentant soul would be a responsible soul, assuming the responsibility for the wrongs and working to make the right. (3) A repentant soul would be an apologetic soul, asking forgiveness of those they had wronged. Indignation 1. Indignation means anger at some thing or some offense. 2. Repentance does leave a new anger against sin, both personal and public sin. 3. And why? Because it offends them? a. No. That should not be the reason but I often think it is. b. Because it offends God. (1) Sin is against God. (2) It is always against God. c. Psalm 51 was written by David when he sinned with Bathsheba. d. When David sinned with Bathsheba, he did many things wrong. (1) He sinned against Bathsheba but putting her in that place. (2) He sinned against Uriah, one of his chosen men, who was out in the field serving his king while David slept with his wife. (3) The sins against Uriah mounted as David brought Uriah home, attempted to trick him to thinking the child might be his be sending him to his wife, then getting him drunk, and the killing him, (4) David sinned against all of this other wives when he unlawfully took another. (5) David sinned against his children in depriving them of a godly father and heritage. (6) David sinned against the nation of Israel by being a hypocrite and putting their blessings from God in jeopardy. (7) David sinned against all those in the palace who knew what he did and felt they had to keep it a secret. (8) David sinned against every other wrong doer he had ever punished or would ever punish for now he needed to punished himself and would not do it. (9) Yet look at what David said in his repentant and revival prayer. Psalm 51:4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: 4. So repentance brings an anger against sin for Gods sake. a. That means this anger must be tempered. b. It is anger for Gods sake but since God is well able to represent Himself in such matters, it must not be a violent or abusive anger. c. Rather it must be a holy indignation which reveals both the loving, merciful God but also the angry and offended God. d. That is a balance is which difficult to maintain and often misunderstood but it is the real characteristic of the repentant soul. Fear 1. The repentant soul is not fearful of God nor sin nor Satan nor man, but he does fear failing God. 2. Like the scar of sorrow, the repentant soul will wear this mark too. 3. It will move him to work at being right with God and it goes with some of the other words mentioned. Vehement desire 1. That is a strong, consuming desire. 2. To what? To not fail. To not fall back into sin again. 3. These two go with another word. Zeal 1. Zeal is passion, a passion characterized by doing whatever is necessary to accomplish something. 2. All three of these, fear, vehement desire, and zeal are emotions which lead to the strongest of actions. a. We have all seen someone who in a state of fear reacts violently and unpredictably. b. We all know someone who with lust or anger has done some thing extreme and surprising. c. These are the emotions which drive people to do the unexpected to satisfy themselves. 3. These three being the characteristics of the repentant mean the repentant will never fail God or fall into sin for they will do whatever actions are necessary to keep these things from happening. a. The repentant will make plans, he will dream dreams, he will devise methods to live as God would have him and if they do not work the first time, he will refine them and retool them until they do. b. Falling back into sin is not an option nor a possibility for it is an unacceptable condition which will not be tolerated. 4. The repentant live different not because they are more spiritual or have greater understanding but because they are repentant. a. Their repentance itself is what makes them strive to be more spiritual and to have greater understanding. b. An abiding fear, desire, and zeal moves and motivates them so that they can do nothing less than overcome sin. Revenge 1. Revenge means retribution, vindication. It means setting things right. 2. The repentant will not become avengers for God against others, but they do become the avengers for God against themselves. 3. These do not need accusers to point out their sins. They will find their own sins. 4. They will and do put the magnifying glass to their lives and to seek out and destroy that which is wrong and to make things right again.