2nd Corinthians 7:11-16 | Sevens Signs of Genuine Repentance
We are in 2nd Corinthians Chapter 7. Of course on Wednesday nights we’ve been making our way through the book of second Corinthians. Last time we looked at the idea of godly sorrow vs worldly sorrow. I’m not going to re-preach that sermon but I would encourage you to go back and listen to it if you weren’t here for that because these two sermons are connected. Obviously they’re within context of each other.
Worldly sorrow is sorrow over getting caught or sorrow over suffering the consequences. That is not necessarily a good sorrow but just the fact that there is an embarrassment or pain as a result of the consequences. We learned that godly sorrow is when your heart is truly broken over sin and the effects of sin. The Apostle Paul taught us about that. We looked at that. Now the Apostle Paul is going to talk to us about repentance. If you remember, he rebuked the Church in 1st Corinthians in 2nd Corinthians he is explaining that they had godly sorrow.
2nd Corinthians 7:9 “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…”. If you remember, we talked about last week that this is not a spiritual salvation of the soul. It’s not the eternal salvation of going to heaven. 2nd Corinthians 7:10 “10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.”. He’s referring to the fact that they had a godly sorrow.
My wife and I have a lot of experience with this because we deal with a lot of counseling after major sins take place. Obviously we all sin but sometimes have major moral sins and they need help with. You might look at someone who has committed adultery and they might seem very sorrowful. However, the question we have to ask ourselves is if this is godly or worldly sorrow. Why? Because godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation and the sorrow of the world worketh death. One will help you and one will hurt you. The Apostle Paul is speaking here to this Church and he’s explaining to them that he has confidence that they really did get right with God. It is a result of the actions that followed the repentance that gave him that confidence.
2nd Corinthians 7:11 “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.”. In this verse we see 7 sings of genuine repentance. These are the signs that someone has truly gotten right with God. Again, the context is not salvation. We’re not talking about somebody getting saved. Salvation is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Here we’re talking about somebody who has had a major sin in their lives, has had a major fall morally or some sin in their lives and they’re trying to get right with God.
How do you know if someone is actually getting right with God? Some of you may be raising some young people. Your teenagers are going to have some sin and moral failures in their life. How do you know if they are really getting right with God? How do you know when a Church member is truly getting right with God? How do you know if a spouse is getting right with God? The Apostle Paul gives us 7 signs of genuine repentance.
Notice again verse 11. “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.”. There are 7 things they did that showed they had genuine repentance. These might be seven things that you should be looking for and paying attention to. Before we delve into that, let me just say this one thing that I’ve learned. One thing my wife and I have learned over the last 11 years of ministry and last 11 years of doing all sorts of different types of counseling when it comes to repentance. You can get somebody to sit down with you in an office and begin to cry.
What we’ve learned over the last 11 years of ministry is that as you are dealing with people especially recovering from sin or getting past some sort of major sin and trying to get right with God or repent, you pay way less attention to what they’re saying to you and you start paying a lot more attention to what they’re actually doing. Why? Because actually what people are doing will reveal if they had godly sorrow or just worldly sorrow. Sometimes people are really upset but it is just a big show, a whole lot of worldly sorrow. They’re upset because their spouses are mad at them or their parents are mad at them. They are taken classes for losing their license or losing their job and they are upset at the consequences. That doesn’t mean they are actually upset with the sin in their lives. How do you know if they are really getting right with God? Here are 7 signs of genuine repentance, that someone is really getting right with God.
2nd Corinthians 7:11 “11 For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you,…”. Paul says that 1 reason he knows the sorrow of the Church of the Corinth was genuine is because it results in carefulness. Keep your place there but go to Ephesians 5. Let me define this word carefulness. The word carefulness is defined as someone being cautious or attentive. In Ephesians 5:15 we see another word that means something similar. Ephesians 5:15 “15 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,”. God wants us to walk circumspectly. The word “circumspect” means cautiously, very careful, unwilling to take a risk. A fool walks around carelessly.
When I was a kid, I was at a preaching service somewhere and they were preaching out of this verse. They made an illustration. The took a bunch of thumb tacks and put them all over the platform. Then they had a volunteer come up and take off their shows and they blindfolded him. The preacher guided him through the stage around the tacks. He had to listen to what the preacher said to make sure he didn’t step on them. What was happening? He was walking very circumspectly or carefully or cautiously.
What the Apostle Paul is saying is that he knows they got right with God because they are following directions, avoiding risks. There was this carefulness that came about. When somebody is struggling with alcohol and it’s causing problems in their life and they get a DUI and their wife threatens to leave them, then they might come to get guidance and advice. One of the things we will say is to make no provision for the flesh. If you are struggling with alcohol then avoid the alcohol at the grocery store, avoid hanging out with friends that are drinking. You have to be careful. You have to be careful about getting right with God, careful about going down the right path, avoid taking dangerous risks. If someone commits adultery and you advise them to cut off all contact with those of the opposite gender except their relatives and they immediately balk at that. That tells you that they don’t want to get right with God yet. Why? They aren’t willing to walk circumspectly.
I want you to notice secondly that not only does godly sorrow result in carefulness but it results in clearing of yourselves. 2nd Corinthians 7:11 “11 For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves,…”. “Clearing of yourselves” means to remove or to be free from accusation. It is the same idea of living blamelessly. When somebody really gets right with God, not only do they want to be careful that they don’t go back down that road that took them to that sin but they also want to have a clearing of their name. They want to remove themselves as far away as they can from that situation because they want to be blameless.
1st Thessalonians 5:22 “22 Abstain from all appearance of evil.”. A heart that truly wants to get right with God, they want to have a clear testimony. My wife and I were traveling this last week to Idaho and we stopped somewhere on the road and the GPS said there was a pizza place and we stopped to get lunch. We put in the effort to get all of the kids out and we opened the door to the pizza place and we immediately decided that we weren’t going to go in. Why? Because the place was dark and smelled like alcohol with a big bar in the middle. You say “Pastor, couldn’t you have just sat somewhere else inside the restaurant?”. If you are right with God, you actually consider the “abstaining from all appearance of evil.”. I realize someone of you think that we take it overboard but I think some of you don’t go far enough.
My wife and I sat down at a restaurant on our date night and they put some wine cups in front of us. We asked them to remove the cups. Why? We don’t want somebody to walk by and think that we are using those. I’m just telling you that you need to reach a point where you actually care enough about God that you want the clearing, you want to live blameless. Young people are notorious for this. They will ask “What’s wrong with it?”. Why not ask “What’s right with it?”. Paul said that he knew they had godly sorrow because of the carefulness it wrought in them but also because of the clearing of themselves.
2nd Corinthians 7:11 “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,…”. The word “indignation” means a mixture of anger and annoyance. It means an outrage. Here is what is interesting. It’s really easy for us to get angry about somebody else’s sin but we’re often hypocrites as we don’t get outraged by our own sin. Someone gets caught showing up late for work and you’ve been showing up late for weeks but you say “I can’t believe that he was showing up late.”. The Bible says there is such a thing as righteous indignation.
Let me give you an example of righteous indignation in 1st Samuel 11:6-7 “6 And the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard those tidings, and his anger was kindled greatly.”. I don’t have time to develop it but this is the story of Nahash the Ammonite who threatened to thrust out the eyes of the men of Jabeshgilead unless they surrendered. If they didn’t surrender then he would kill them and if they did surrender then he would thrust out their eyes. Saul has been anointed King but not yet taken the position of leadership. When he hears this, his anger is kindled. 99.9 % of the time we get, it is not a righteous thing. However, there is such a thing as “righteous anger” or “righteous indignation”. The Bible does say “Be ye angry and sin not.”. The vast majority of the time that we get angry, we are sinning. However, it is possible to be angry without sinning. There is a righteous indignation.
Paul spoke about the carefulness, clearing of yourselves and indignation that the godly sorrow resulted in. When Paul brought up the sin and rebuked them for it, they got angry with themselves. They are angry that they allowed this sin. Godly sorrow results in an outrage toward your own actions but not somebody else’s actions. When you’re truly right with God, there’s an anger, annoyance and outrage. Oftentimes when people get caught, they are angry at somebody holding them accountable and making them do right in the situation. Paul said that the Church of Corinth got indignant and angry but not at the message or the messenger or the preacher but because of their own sin.
Let me give you the fourth one. How do we know if you have godly sorrow? How do we know that the Church of Corinth really was repenting to the salvation of their lives and Church? There was a carefulness that results, there was a clearing of themselves because they cared about their testimony, there was a righteous indignation, there was a fear. 2nd Corinthians 7:11 “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,…”. What does that mean? It means fright, panic. Go to Proverbs Chapter 8.
The Bible says “God hath not given us the spirit of fear”. Fear is always a negative thing except when it is in relation to God. I won’t go through all of the verses but there are verses that say Fear not him which is able to kill the body but fear him which is able to kill both body and soul in hell.”. The Bible says “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.”. The fear of the Lord is where we must begin in the Christian life. I believe that when Paul speaks of fear, he is speaking to the fear of the Lord that was brought about. We talked about it a couple weeks ago when Nathan rebuked David.
Proverbs 8:13 “13 The fear of the Lord is to hate evil:…”. Don’t tell me you fear the Lord when you still love evil. Then we get a list of things mentioned in this verse “13 The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.”. If you fear the Lord, you will hate pride & arrogancy. You also hate the evil way and frorward mouth. This hatred should cause you to separate and be afraid of the sin and also the consequences from God that it could bring about for participating in those things. Paul said he knew they got right with God based on the fear that resulted.
Let’s look at number 5. 2nd Corinthians 7:11 “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,…”. Vehement means to be intense, to be passionate. It is something you want or wish for. Paul said that he knew that they got right with God because of the carefulness, clearing of themselves, indignation, fear and vehement desire. I believe he is referring to a human desire for the things of the Lord and of that which is spiritual.
Go to Proverbs 29. Sometimes I worry when I see Christian who just have no passion, no vehement desire, no pushing them to love the Lord and get right with God. Proverbs 29:18 “18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.”. You need to have a vision and an intense desire to serve God. However, you see a lot of lukewarm Christians that just have no real pushing to get them to want to do right.
Let me tell you something dad and mom, you need to get a vision for your children. As husbands or wives, you need to get a vision of what you are trying to accomplish. You need to get a vision for your Christian life and soulwinning and your spiritual walk with God. Why? Because where there is no vision, the people perish. Some people show up to Church because their parents or their spouse makes them come. If you really are getting right with God, there is a vehement desire. There is going to be this fire inside of you like the Holy Spirit coming upon you.
Let us look at number 6. 2nd Corinthians 7:11 “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,…”. The 6th one we see is “zeal”. When you are actually right with God, there is a zeal in your life. If there is not this zeal in your life, ask yourself why you don’t have a strong passion to serve God? When you preach like this, the people that are right with God get it and the lukewarm Christians are wondering when this sermon will be over.
Psalm 69:9 “9 For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.”. See, Jesus had a zeal for the house of God. If you’re right with God, you’re going to have a zeal. There is a zeal or passion or enthusiasm. Paul said that he saw them get right with God because of the excitement for the things of God. When you get zealous for God, you get serious about getting sin of your life and starting to work for God and love God. The proof was they started turning off the tv, stopped listening to worldly music. There is a zeal that results when someone gets right with God.
Let’s look at number 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.”. The 7th one listed is revenge. When someone gets right with God, one thing that results is revenge. Revenge on who? Well turn to John 10:10 and we will answer that question.
John 10:10 “10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” The Devil wants to act like your friend and then destroy your life. The devil walketh about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Let me just make something real clear. We like to blame everybody else for our problems. People like to say that the Devil made them do it. Learn to grow up and take responsibility for your own actions. Nobody made you do it. However, the Bible is clear that the Devil is the tempter. What the devil does is he puts this temptation in front of us to entice us. The Devil doesn’t make us do anything but he might put something nice and tempting and enticing in front of you. Then once you take it, he points at you and says “Look at him. Look at what he did. Look what he did.”. The Bible says that he is the accuser of the brethren. If you sinned then it is your fault but it could mean that you got tempted by the Devil and you fell for it.
Ephesians 4:26 “26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:”. Notice verse 27 “27 Neither give place to the devil.”. Don’t give the Devil a hold in your life or an opportunity to bring a temptation. Don’t let him trick or tempt or entice you to go down that road. We shouldn’t blame the Devil for your accounting but we won’t allow him a place in your life.
Ephesians 4:28 “28 Let him that stole steal no more…”. It doesn’t say let me that stole feel really sorry about it. See, true repentance brings a chance. I’m not talking about salvation here. I’m talking about getting right with God about sin in your life. Let him that stole, steal no more. Let him that drinks, drink no more. Let him that fornicates, fornicate no more. Let him that lies, lie no more.” 28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.”. See, true godly sorrow results in revenge where you want to avenge yourself. Obviously the Bible teaches to let the Lord revenge us in matters where human beings wrong us. However, when we allow the Devil to tempt us and give in to that temptation, it makes you want to revenge.
How did Paul know that they had godly sorrow? There was a carefulness, there was a clearing of themselves, there was indignation, there was fear, there was vehement desire, there was zeal, there was revenge. 2nd Corinthians 7:11 “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.”. What I love about this is that Paul is teaching that this matter doesn’t have to be the defining moment of your life. You don’t have to let this sin, this fall, this moral collapse define you. He said that you can get right with God. Aren’t you thankful that the Bible teaches that if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness? Let us look at the last few verses of this chapter. Just by way of conclusion, let me give you three points in regards to this idea. Once we get to chapter 8, we are completely shifting gears to something different.
2nd Corinthians 7:12 “12 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.”. Paul is saying that he didn’t really want to take sides or get involved. That’s not the reason he spoke up. He says that he spoke these things because he actually cared. 2nd Corinthians 7:13 “13 Therefore we were comforted in your comfort: yea, and exceedingly the more joyed we for the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all. 14 For if I have boasted any thing to him of you, I am not ashamed; but as we spake all things to you in truth, even so our boasting, which I made before Titus, is found a truth.”.
What is he talking about? Paul is saying that he preached that sermon that they did not want to hear because he actually cared about them. The Bible says “faithful are the wounds of a friend.”. The Bible says “Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?”. Paul’s love and care for them is what caused him to correct them. The result was that they got indignant with themselves but not at Paul. That was a comfort to Paul.
We know that Paul didn’t write his own letters. He would dictate them and someone would write it. I’d imagine that Titus is writing this down and he is going to be the one to deliver it and he is probably thinking “Wow, this is hard preaching. I’m not sure how they will take it.”. He is probably a bit nervous and wondering if they will shoot the messenger. He speaks of the joy of Titus and you can imagine Titus showing up with a smile and Paul is relieved that they took the message well. Paul was comforted from how they took the rebuke and by the true, godly repentance.
Verse 15 “15 And his inward affection is more abundant toward you, whilst he remembereth the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling ye received him.”. Titus comes and gives the letter. It says they had fear and trembling upon receiving him. Probably they found out the letter was from Paul and they were worried. There was a tradition that when a letter was given, it would be read before the whole congregation. That’s why we read a chapter of the Bible before getting started with the service. It’s a tradition or principle found in scripture. He is reading this letter which is really negative toward them and they have fear and trembling toward the message. As a result, they obeyed.
Verse 16 “16 I rejoice therefore that I have confidence in you in all things.”. You say “Pastor, how can I have confidence in someone spiritually? How does a Pastor or Pastor’s wife have confidence in someone that they are repentant and trustworthy?”. Confidence is connected to your willingness to submit and obey the word of God. Sometimes we hear about trials that certain people go through. We get news about some major devastating thing that happened in someone’s life. Sometimes my wife and I look at each other and say “They’re going to be fine. It’s going to hurt. It’s going to be uncomfortable but they love the word of God and are good Christians and will get through this. They will take the correction well.”.
However, sometimes we hear about somebody going through some trial or tribulation or some issue and my wife and I think to ourselves “They may quit the Church. They may get backslidden.”. We don’t have any confidence that they obey the word of God. Which one of those are you? Paul said about the Church of Corinth that they didn’t make excuses. Instead, it wrought carefulness, clearing of themselves, indignation, fear, vehement desire, zeal and revenge. Paul said that he had confidence because he saw their obedience. Their repentance was a comfort to him.
Let’s pray.