Scripture referenced 9 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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2 Corinthians 2:10-13 read aloud as the passage Paul left off from before the digression, about forgiving and finding no rest without Titus
10 Now I also forgive whomever you forgive anything. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ,
11 that no advantage may be gained over us by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his schemes.
12 Now when I came to Troas for the Good News of Christ, and when a door was opened to me in the Lord,
13 I had no relief for my spirit, because I didn’t find Titus, my brother, but taking my leave of them, I went out into Macedonia.
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Keep this verse
2 Corinthians 7:5
picked up as the parallel to 2:13, bodies had no rest, afflicted at every turn, fighting without and fear within
5 For even when we had come into Macedonia, our flesh had no relief, but we were afflicted on every side. Fightings were outside. Fear was inside.
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2 Corinthians 7:6-7
but God who comforts the downcast comforted Paul by the coming of Titus and the good report from Corinth
6 Nevertheless, he who comforts the lowly, God, comforted us by the coming of Titus;
7 and not by his coming only, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you, while he told us of your longing, your mourning, and your zeal for me; so that I rejoiced still more.
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2 Corinthians 7:8
even if I made you grieve with my letter I do not regret it, though I did regret it for a while
8 For though I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it. For I see that my letter made you sorry, though just for a while.
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2 Corinthians 7:9
I rejoice not because you were grieved but because you were grieved into repenting
9 I now rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that you were made sorry to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly way, that you might suffer loss by us in nothing.
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2 Corinthians 7:10
godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret whereas worldly grief produces death
10 For godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation, which brings no regret. But the sorrow of the world produces death.
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2 Corinthians 7:11
what earnestness, eagerness, indignation, fear, longing, zeal, and vindication godly grief produced in them
11 For behold, this same thing, that you were made sorry in a godly way, what earnest care it worked in you. Yes, what defense, indignation, fear, longing, zeal, and vengeance! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be pure in the matter.
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2 Corinthians 7:12
I wrote not for the sake of the one who did wrong nor the one who suffered the wrong but that your earnestness for us might be revealed
12 So although I wrote to you, I wrote not for his cause that did the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered the wrong, but that your earnest care for us might be revealed in you in the sight of God.
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2 Corinthians 7:13-16
comforted by Corinthians receiving Titus well, his spirit refreshed, boasting about them proved true, complete confidence in them
13 Therefore we have been comforted. In our comfort we rejoiced the more exceedingly for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.
14 For if in anything I have boasted to him on your behalf, I was not disappointed. But as we spoke all things to you in truth, so our glorying also which I made before Titus was found to be truth.
15 His affection is more abundantly toward you, while he remembers all of your obedience, how with fear and trembling you received him.
16 I rejoice that in everything I am confident concerning you.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
This message came from 2 Corinthians 7, where Paul resumes a thread of thought he had set aside five chapters earlier. The sermon traced Paul's anxiety over sending a severe letter to Corinth, his relief when Titus finally arrived with good news, and what those events reveal about the difference between grief that leads toward God and grief that leads nowhere good.
What was said
Pastor Nathan opened by explaining where we are in the series. Paul had left off in chapter 2 worried about Titus, then spent five chapters on what looks like a digression but is really the heart of the whole book. Today he picks the thread back up: Paul still hadn't found Titus, his body had no rest, and he describes himself as afflicted at every turn, fighting without and fear within. That is a very human and honest description of where Paul was.
The turn comes with two words: "but God." God who comforts the downcast comforted Paul, and He did it through the arrival of Titus and through the news Titus carried. The Corinthians had received Paul's severe letter well. They showed longing, mourning, and zeal. Paul says that mourning, even though it doesn't sound like comfort, brought him real joy, because its depth pointed to something genuine happening in them.
That sets up the key verse. Godly grief, Paul says, produces repentance that leads to salvation without regret, while worldly grief produces death. Nathan described grief as essentially neutral in itself. The question is which direction it goes. Grief shaped by God and His purposes moves a person toward repentance and change. Worldly grief just runs out into death, with nothing redemptive at the end of it.
The sermon then worked through what godly grief actually produces, following the list in verse 11: earnestness, eagerness to be clear of the charge, righteous indignation, fear, longing, zeal, and what the ESV translates as punishment, which Nathan described as vindication, the just settling of the offense through what Christ has already absorbed. He noted that worldly grief gets only one word attached to it in the text, and he didn't want to go further than the text: death.
Nathan tied in the Longfellow poem he opened with, "The Arrow and the Song," to describe what it felt like to write a hard word to someone he loves. He didn't know where that arrow would land, just as Paul didn't know whether his severe letter had done harm or good. He said he found himself seeing his own sin more clearly in the act of calling out someone else's, and that this week he had been living the sermon rather than just preparing it.
The passage closes with Paul's relief confirmed. Titus' spirit had been refreshed by the Corinthians. The boast Paul had made about them before sending Titus proved true. They had received the word with fear and trembling rather than fighting against it. Paul moves from his lowest point of anxiety to saying he has complete confidence in them, and Nathan pointed out that Paul is not an ivory-tower figure who doesn't feel things. He feels them very deeply, and he knows from his own history what it cost to have that godly grief do its work in him.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- The pastor read Longfellow's poem about shooting an arrow into the air and not knowing where it lands, then finding it later in unexpected places. Has there been a moment in your life when something said to you years earlier finally landed and made sense? What was that like?
- Paul describes being 'afflicted at every turn, fighting without and fear within,' and then says 'but God.' When have you been in a season like that, and what did the 'but God' moment look like for you?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Read the full transcript 6,634 words
0:13
Good morning, everybody. Good morning, everybody.
0:16
Yep. We sing the
0:18
song? Yes. Good morning, everybody. Welcome. Glad y'all are here.
0:24
What do you say we stand up and sing together? Start the morning off. Come on. Join in.
0:29
Capo four.
0:31
Capo four. If that matters to you. Yeah. Oh yeah. It's fun.
3:52
Y'all can have a seat. I've got a few announcements. I'm trying to eliminate these altogether but we still need to announce stuff. It's in the bulletin and they hand them out when you're coming in. So, if you would grab a bulletin, you'll know what's going on within the next week.
4:05
There's a connect hour we call it between the services. This one starts at nine. It is nine this morning. Although that clock says it's ten something. It's nine something right now.
4:14
Between services, we'll have the in the fellowship hall, a connect hour. Monday nights at First Beat happens every Monday night. Carl is in Philippians right now preaching his way through and it is great. It's just really, really great. There is a small group that's starting this week at Rob and Elizabeth Miller's.
4:31
It's on Wednesday nights at 06:30. Their house is in East Jackson, 640 Cedar Lane, and this is the book they're doing counterculture by David Platt. We've got some folks who used to go to David Platt's church that are here. Renzi, looks like you have something
4:44
to say. And I think Elizabeth has books today. If you need a book, you can come see her. She is right here. She's got them.
4:50
If you're planning on joining in on that or if you just want a book to read.
4:53
Yeah. There you go.
4:54
She's got them.
4:56
Sounds good. Solid Rock Student Ministry, Renzi.
4:59
Yes. And the bulletin says there's no middle school, high school this week. That is not true. There is middle school on Thursday and high school breakfast Friday morning. So, we'll see you guys and gals there.
5:10
Alright. Thank you. And we have a seminar that starts next Friday. So, that's November sixth, seven to nine in the evening, and November 7, nine to twelve in the morning till noon. That's tough guys and drama queens.
5:24
It's particularly a parenting seminar about parenting teens but those of you who have preteens and folks on the way, this is gonna be good. Anybody? Melissa, you wanna stand and say a word? You said your piece last week. Okay.
5:43
I love the book by the way. So, this ought to be really, really good. Plan will be there. November 6, seven to nine, November 7, nine to twelve and then everything else, please check your morning's bulletin and that'll tell you about this week. The the gals, the band, the rest of us will bring you back together with a song.
5:59
Would you stand and just greet one another warmly? See if you can find somebody you don't know. And we'll bring you back together with the song. Is this a blessing? I want to get in on that.
6:21
She's reached out to An elbow blessing. I haven't heard that one. What's next? I'm just going to watch your fingers on this one.
6:47
No, can look off here. I know the words. Hallelujah. Thank you, father. Oh, you're absolutely worthy to be praised.
13:40
Thank you, Abba, for gathering us here together. Set apart this time to direct our hearts to you,
13:51
that you would be magnified in this place. We love you, Jesus. Be it for me to not be even when my eyes can't see and this mountain will be thrown into the midst of the sea Do that one more time.
19:49
Lord God, thank you for this morning, for this beautiful place, for this warming at least for me, lord, warm and receiving church. I thank you for for using this body of believers in my life and I thank you for for all that you've given us this week, for all that you've given us throughout our lives, lord and we acknowledge that every good and perfect gift is from you. Lord, would you accept back some of what we're given, lord, to see your gospel advance, to see your word spread, your comfort, your joy, your peace, to see it spread to the uttermost parts, lord. Would you use this church body to do that here in this community, this neighborhood, and spreading out to the absolute other end of the earth. Other side.
20:37
In Jesus name, would you bless these tithes and offerings as we give, lord, acknowledging you. Amen. Alright. It's time for the children. I started to say young ones.
24:01
After singing that song, I said, time for the young ones to get out of here. Time for the children to go downstairs. Peak Children's Church starting right now. And the middle school groups and high school groups are going on too if you want to go. Go on down.
24:15
Stairs to pray. So, last week, we started off. I started off with Deuteronomy and it confused a bunch of y'all and that was the purpose of it and I was trying my best to start. I started off in Deuteronomy to get to Paul's speaking about being unequally yoked in second Corinthians and we just got past that point. We had the heartfelt plea and then we had this call to holiness and then we had another heartfelt plea and I've told y'all time and again in second Corinthians, it's like you don't really know where to stop.
24:55
You can you can go through this book and everything is tied to what's in front of it and what's behind it. So, in most most books of the Bible, when you're reading commentaries, the first few pages of the commentary are gonna be a methodology and then it'll have an outline of the book and the outline of the book says, you know, Paul's greetings and salutation this much and then it'll say, his call to prayer, this much, this much, holiness, whatever. In second Corinthians, you read 100 different commentaries and they all have a different outline because nobody can agree on exactly what goes with what but everybody agrees it all goes together. I've told you time and again, I just like to read the whole thing. It's that good where you can just do it straight through, but we in our modern day don't take in that much information at one time very well.
25:41
So we're gonna take another piece of it today, but this guy, that don't have anything to do with Paul. That is Henry Longs Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and if I can find something, I've got a poem to read. It's interesting to me anyway. It's called the arrow and the song. Now, Longfellow in his day was like the biggest poet ever.
26:08
Everybody just loved him, and now people kinda make fun of him, quite honestly. They make fun of him as just kinda prosaic. He's not he's not all that he was cracked up to be because he's incredibly popular in his time. I want you to hear this. It's a short poem.
26:19
Three verses, and y'all heard it before. I'm sure you've heard it before and you hear people say one line out of it all the time. In fact, I catch myself saying it all the time. I shot an arrow into the air. Do you all know that line?
26:32
I shot an arrow into the air. It fell to earth. I knew not where. For so swiftly, it flew the sight could not follow it in its flight. I breathed a song into the air.
26:45
It fell to earth. I knew not where. For what has sight so keen and strong that it can follow the flight of a song. Long, long afterward, in an oak, I found the arrow still unbroke, and the song from beginning to end, I found again in the heart of a friend. There's a lot there.
27:09
I had an art professor. I used to have my classes and Tanya's classes when we met in art art school were three hours long, and some of them were supposed to be painting classes or sculpture classes, and they would lecture the whole time, one guy in particular. And this was one of his favorite lines was I shot an arrow into the air, felt earth I know not where. I didn't really understand what he was talking about. But in a three hour class, he'd mentioned it two or three times.
27:31
You know? And it's funny that I remember it now because this is where it's landed. You know what I'm saying? That's where that's where the arrow was landing. And that was his point.
27:40
He was saying, you don't know what I'm talking about right now, but you'll get it later. There are a lot of applications to that that idea. And so when we get into what is this? That's nostalgic. When we get into this next portion, I've mentioned a couple of times that we have this great digression.
27:58
So, the last two and a half months, we have been in a digression. So, Paul was going up through chapter two verse 13. He was going with one line of thought. It seems like and then all of a sudden, he backs away from that line of thought and he has a whole bunch of sermons in a row. Some of it's about his apostolic authority.
28:19
Some of it's a call to holiness. Some of it is just general instruction and that's what we've been covering week after week for the last two and a half, three months. But then, today, we're going to pick back up where he picks back up with that same line of thought and I want you to see this. So, second Corinthians two ten through 13 reads like this. This was August 23.
28:39
We did this one. Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, I have forgiven, if I've forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, so that we would not be outwitted by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his designs. Do you remember that sermon? We're not ignorant of the designs of Satan.
28:57
He wants to divide us. That's what he's always been doing. If we can forgive and get through it and be unified, then we have gotten over the devices of Satan. We're not ignorant of his designs and then, he's talking about his travel plans. When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though a door was open for me in the Lord, my spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there.
29:21
So, I took leave of them and I went on to Macedonia. So, Paul had sent Titus to Corinth. He sent him with a severe letter. He had made a painful visit and he sent Titus back to take care of these folks, kind of an under shepherd. You know, it was Paul's authority that sent him there.
29:38
He was worried about him because he's supposed to meet up with him in Troas. So, when I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though there was a door open for me and the Lord, my spirit was not at rest because I didn't find my brother. You know, you're supposed to meet somebody nowadays. We got cellphones. Where are you, buddy?
29:53
Come on. Do y'all remember what it was like to not do that? Anybody ever sit outside waiting for their parents to pick em up from something? Watching ice freeze? I watched ice freeze in Georgia.
30:03
I know y'all have watched it freeze. My spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. You don't even know if he got the message. You don't know what's going on. He's not there.
30:15
He could've been killed. They were always getting beat up. You know, my spirit was not at rest. Even though things were going well for the gospel there, my spirit was not at at rest. So, I took leave of them and I went on to Macedonia.
30:28
He goes into the digression there and it's full of really good stuff. Just because it's a digression doesn't mean it doesn't matter. That's the heart of the of the whole book of second Corinthians is within that five chapters but the next thing says, for even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest. It says, if he didn't say anything in between, he picks right up where he left off. For even when we had come into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest.
30:51
In fact, this is what it reads. My spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So, took leave of them, went to Macedonia and even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest. There's this is separated by five chapters. It parallels exactly.
31:07
No spiritual rest, no body, rest, but we were afflicted at every turn, fighting without and fear within. Have you ever been there? Yes. Have you found yourself there this week? Yes.
31:21
Fighting against somebody or something and you feel like you just can't get out of your own way and a lot of it is associated with our own fear on the inside and so Paul was just really in a tough situation personally speaking. He's really in a tough tough situation because he's looking for Titus, looking for Titus. Even when I came into Macedonia, bodies had no rest, afflicted every turn, fighting without fear within but God. Amen. Whoo.
31:49
But God, everything hinges right there. He feels horrible. He's completely ridden with aggravation, fear, guilt, wondering, but God who comforts the downcast, comforted us, and how did God comfort Paul? He comforted him by the coming of Titus and not only by him just showing up and at that point, Paul's wondering, is he going to show up? Is he alive?
32:15
Have I lost him forever? Did I send him into death? Did I send him into a place where he was going to be overwhelmed more than he could take? He says, I'm not only comforted, God comfort us. He comfort us by the coming of Titus.
32:32
That's great but not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you. Titus was alive and he had good news. He had a good report that the folks at Corinth had received the letter, the instruction well. And Paul says he was comforted by afflicted, afflicted, afflicted all this, but God, he was comforted by the Corinthians, the story that Titus told about the Corinthians and he told us of your longing, your mourning, and your zeal for me and Paul is the apostle, the apostolic authority. God's given him this message.
33:12
People are accepting it and Paul knows that there are people that are there. They're gossiping, talking about Paul, trying to discredit him and his authority and his message and turn it in into another gospel, prosperity gospel on one hand, legalistic gospel on the other. But he was comforted. It's funny that he's comforted by their longing and by their mourning and their zeal And if you look at all these together, that that's what brought Paul comfort and joy, he'll say in a minute. Longing, mourning, and zeal.
33:46
When you look at mourning especially though, that doesn't sound like something that should bring you comfort. To know that somebody else is mourning, especially mourning for you. But the depth of mourning is deeper than almost anything else. Would we agree? The depth of grief in your life sometimes feels like it's more overwhelming than the joy that we experience in a lot of places but Paul finds comfort in that because actually they were wrong.
34:12
You know, they were wrong and Paul had sent them a message to let him know and he says it was harsh. He said it was severe and he said it was tearful. Those three things he said about this letter and it caused in them mourning and that brought Paul comfort and joy. So, this is where this comes from. That is Charlie Brown's shirt, right?
34:33
What does Charlie Brown say all the time? Good Good grief. There is such a thing as good grief. That mourning points to it. And then this next part of the letter.
34:46
Now, I will say this too. This is the first time, I mean, I've mentioned a lot of the same scriptures as peripherals, you know, supporting text or whatever in sermons but this is the first time I've ever come to a text that I had to re preach since I've been here. I did this one very early on right after I got here in June 2012. I think I did it in September and I looked on the internet to see if it's still up there and it's not. Thank goodness.
35:11
So, I remember the I remember how I felt delivering it. And I remember people responding to it because the text is really, really stinking good and it it's got a lot of power in the word of God. There's a lot of power there but I felt after it was over, it was one of those where I was going, ugh, I've just exhausted every ounce of energy that I had saying this because calling people to book basically about sin is not something I enjoy doing. I don't like it at all. And I mentioned I mentioned this and somebody responded to it and it went really really well for him and it's still going well for him but when I got through, I felt like Paul.
35:55
I had the fighting and the fears. So, I'm re preaching this and this week, I've been living this sermon and I didn't want to. I had the same fightings and fears kind of business. I didn't want to but I'm experienced in it now rather than just studying and presenting it. So, even if I made you grieve, Paul says, with my letter, I do not regret it now.
36:18
Though I did regret it for a while. Now, if he's waiting on Titus and he sent this incredibly severe letter with Titus and he doesn't see Titus showing up and he's going, I went too far. I went too far. I called them out too much on their sin, their sexual sin there, whatever their sin. I I went too far.
36:36
I did regret it. I wish I hadn't done that. Why? What was I thinking? How did I send him in?
36:40
Ugh. But he knew he was sending the message of God. Though I did regret it for a while, for I see that the letter grieve you. That letter grieved you. Though only for a while.
36:54
As it is, I rejoice. I am filled with joy. I'm joyful. Not because you are grieved or you're mourning, not because you stayed in that mourning stage or grief stage. As it is, I rejoice not because you are grieved but because you are grieved into repenting.
37:11
Does that make sense? It's not that you felt bad. It's that when you felt bad, there was a change that God made in your life. You finally got to the end of self and took his hand and believed him for You are grieved into repenting for a you felt a godly grief so that you suffered no loss through us. Amen.
37:34
Because grief is all about loss, right? When we've lost someone we love or something we love, some job we love, whatever. That's where you get grief is when you suffer loss. You felt a godly grief so that you suffered no loss through us. Now, for a while, you grieved your own sin.
37:49
You grieved your own allegiances. You grieved the problems in your life but you grieved it to the point that there's no loss. You've repented of it and you've walked away from it. You suffered no loss through us and then here's the verse, seven ten, for godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret. Is there anybody in here that regrets having been saved?
38:17
No. When you get to the point of realizing that you need Jesus and you reach out and it, he grabs hold and it you're saved and you know it. You don't ever regret that. Ever. You don't ever back up away from your salvation.
38:31
Now, you might regret a church experience. You might regret something else. You might have been wounded by church. Hey, we've all been there. But you don't ever regret salvation.
38:41
You don't ever regret your savior. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation, and that's without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. So grief can go either way. And I I would say that everybody grieves, period. I don't I don't know of anybody who doesn't grieve.
38:58
They would put you in an asylum if you didn't have some grief. If it was just ecstatic joy, spotless mind all the time. Grief can go either way. So I say grief is neutral, but how you accept the pain of grief goes one or of two ways. It either goes in a godly way or a worldly way.
39:17
It can be grief according to God. That's the Greek. Grief according to God in his design, his way, according to his plans. That's godly grief or good grief. And if you're experiencing grief and sorrow right now, yours can be that, or it can be grief of the world.
39:35
Just the typical run of the mill grief that everybody experiences, and it's worldly grief or bad grief. Good grief. Actually, my my Greek textbook when I was in seminary was called Greek is Good Grief. He was saying it's worth it to go through the aggravation of studying this stuff for two straight years. The first volume of the book was called Greek is Good Grief and the second one was called Greek is Great Gain.
40:05
Great gain comes out of good grief. It's the next step. So, godly grief is better than worldly grief because of what it produces and if you look just at at verse 10, it'll tell you what it is that godly grief produces. Repentance, first and foremost. He said that up in the in the verse.
40:23
For godly grief produces a repentance. That leads to salvation, which cannot be regretted, not to be regretted. So everybody in the whole wide world starts off in the same exact predicament. Sinners in need of a savior and our grief and our pain should direct us toward the savior, towards him. That's by his design.
40:51
Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and that is without regret. But what else does it produce? It goes on. Verse 11 tells us what it is. Foresee what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you.
41:14
Earnestness. Rather than just being flippant about things and not really being sincere about them and not really having weight behind your words but just living kind of frivolously. He's saying that godly grief produces an earnestness, a sincerity, a depth of conviction, a depth of speech, depth of everything that you do. This godly grief has produced earnestness in you but also, what eagerness to clear yourselves. Now, I can read clear yourselves a couple of different directions.
41:44
One of em is deny, deny, deny, deny, pledge not guilty, you know, clear yourself but no, Paul saying, to actually be clear of the charge, to actually be clear of the charge of sin that he had thrown out there that they were actually guilty of. He's saying, yes, I was guilty but here and no further. That was the end to the sin. That was the end to what it is that you've called me out on whatever that is. I'm I'm typically not I typically don't call people out directly.
42:18
I like to hide behind this. You know what I'm saying? Just hide behind this. I don't see somebody and go, that guy. This is his sin.
42:25
And then go to that guy and say, hey, here's your sin. I almost never do that. I don't feel like it's, I feel like this is what needs to convict of sin. That's what the job of the Holy Spirit is. That's what the job of scripture is.
42:37
But this week, early in the week, I did that and I did it in text form like I actually wrote out, typed out, whatever and I wrote it to somebody that I love dearly. I care for a great deal. I'm not not here, not at this church but I knew what was going on. I felt like it was actually that kind of problem. I have the kind of close relationship with them that I feel like I can that he that they listen, you know, and I did that and man, I started seeing my own sin more than I have in years.
43:11
And there is an eagerness to clear myself. I don't want to be guilty of it but just the sins of pride and everything else, they come rushing in just as soon as I started trying to pull a speck out in my every honest good judgment. I was trying to pull a speck out of that guy's eye and then all of a sudden, my eye starts hurting from having this huge mode in it, you know? So, anyway, confessional preaching. I shot an arrow into the air.
43:37
I really did. I shot an arrow into the air and I didn't know until they received that what it was gonna do. I still don't know actually what it's gonna do but I shot an arrow into there. Fell to Earth. I know not where.
43:49
I don't know if it landed on my target. I don't know if it missed the mark completely. Don't know anything about it. What indignation? That is righteous anger.
43:58
That is being upset in a godly and good way. It's like Jesus in the flipping the tables over in the money changers of the money changers. That was indignation. Righteous and good anger. Now, not everything is an indignation event, okay?
44:12
You can't just claim all of your anger is righteous. But this is what Paul says, godly grief produces in people a righteous type of anger to be upset about the things that God is upset about. What fear? Reverence, awe, or respect. English Standard Version almost always translates to fear.
44:33
What longing? Again, with the longing. Longing is that deep sense of being unfulfilled but finding your fulfillment somewhere and looking for wherever that fulfillment is. Whether it be in God, Christian friendship, his word, spirit, having a deep desire for God, a longing. That's what godly grief produces.
44:54
When you when you are going through especially the loss of a loved one, most of us can relate to that. We have a godly grief that produces. It makes you know that there is more than just this. Do you agree with me? Like, just seeing that this cannot be all that there is.
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Godly grief produces in us that kind of a longing for what is more. The God shaped void as Pascal and has called it Blaise Pascal. That longing is there. There's something deep that calls out to be filled by God. What zeal?
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This is zeal. Same words used for jealousy. You know how fiery jealousy is? How driven jealousy can be? Zeal comes from the same exact root.
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Zeal is when you are all in. Absolutely all in, completely passionate, and that's what godly grief produces especially if it's grief about your own sin. You don't wanna revisit that place again. You don't wanna find yourself in that place again. So, godly grief, this neutral grief that we receive can be the godly or worldly and godly grief produces zeal.
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Worldly, I I don't wanna speculate. Worldly doesn't do that. It doesn't do that. I don't wanna speculate. I'll go with what it says in just a minute.
46:09
And what punishment? When I saw that in the ESB, I'd already decided to use this version and I thought, I don't like punishment. What godly grief produces punishment? And as I started studying that, it is. The grief itself is is kind of punishment, isn't it?
46:25
It hurts. It produces punishment but probably the word that we would use is vindication. That is a just end completely just end to whatever the offense was. So, So, if God's already covered the offense in the blood of Jesus and you get to the point of, I just did X, Y, Z, sin, whatever it was or I repetitively do X, Y, Z, sin, whatever it is. And you take that punishment that Jesus offered, you accept that for that particular thing, that's punishment enough.
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Jesus has already received the full punishment for it. There's vindication enough. You have been completely vindicated by him. And so that godly grief has produced. You've come to the point of saying that's been forgiven, and I don't ever wanna go there again.
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I don't wanna ever step in that again. At every point, you've proved yourselves innocent in the matter. From that point forward, you've been living this life. You've proved yourself innocent. Now that's what godly grief does.
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But what does worldly grief produce? Now we've already seen that godly grief produces salvation or repentance that leads to salvation which can't be regretted and actually earnestness, eagerness, indignation, fear, longing, zeal, vindication, and innocence. That's what godly grief produces but what does worldly grief produce? There's only one thing listed and it does not expound on it and this is what I said. I don't want to expound.
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I don't want to go any further than the text. The text says, death. That's the end of worldly grief. The only thing that ends worldly grief, the only thing that ends it. The only thing that it produces is death.
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So, you can take whatever the sin is and I'm being vague about it. Whatever the thing is in your life and you can grieve your sin. But the only thing that's going to end it is either God and what he's offered or death as the payment. That's it. That's the end of it.
48:30
I don't know if that's the end of the sermon or not. Good. It's not. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret whereas worldly grief produces death And that's all it produces. There's nothing good that comes out of worldly grief.
48:48
When you have that sense of deep lung and eventually you get over that or people say they get over it and psychiatrists try to convince you that it's not real, that that there's a guilty feeling that's bad but there's such a thing as guilt and that's bad and God has given us the the way to sense guilt and it hurts. It doesn't feel good. It should cause us to grieve but that grief should cause us to reach out. That is sorrow right there. Yeah.
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Godly grief. The purpose of grief for those who have never put their faith in Jesus Christ is that grief prompts you to turn towards God, your maker. That's what it's for. It points out your need for him. There is more here than you can see and the walk of faith is what it is.
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That's the purpose of grief for those who have never trusted in Jesus and our pain is designed to help us escape a perilous situation and anybody who's got young and knows this. If they're going for the stove, you can tell em, tell em, tell em, hey, you're going burn yourself. Oh, that's hot. Hot, hot, hot. But once they touch it, they know it's hot.
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Right? God has warned and warned and warned and warned us about the things that are good for us because he loves us and he doesn't want us to have to experience the burning sensation of grief. He doesn't want for us to have to experience that. It's a fact of life. We're going to do some of the stuff that he told us not to and we're going to hurt for it but we can either decide, you know what?
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I don't care. I'm going to cauterize that wound and just keep on feeling it. Keep on sticking my hand in there. Keep on doing it until I can't sense anything anymore and you're going to die with no sense of grief or pain and you're going to hurt a lot of people on the way out. God gave us our ability to sense pain for our protection.
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So, godly grief produces repentance that leads to salvation without regret whereas worldly grief produces death. And then verse 11 was all that earnestness stuff and then this is 12. So, although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the one who did the wrong. That's not why I wrote, not just for that one guy. It wasn't to put him to shame.
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That wasn't why I did. I didn't write just for that one guy who's stirring up all the problem nor was it for the sake of the one who suffered the wrong. Actually, it could've been Paul himself. He was suffering at the hands of this guy, gossiping against him and trying to tear down his ministry. I didn't do it for my sake either or for anybody else that he destroyed.
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So, although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the one who did the wrong nor for the sake of the one who suffered the wrong but it was in order that your earnestness which is produced by godly grief, right? But in order that your earnestness for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God. He's saying, folks, like, for the fifteenth time, I'm sincere, called of God. I've thrown it out there. I wanted you to see that you really do trust me in this message.
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That's why I wrote it. So, the earnestness for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God and therefore, we are comforted. You got that message. Praise God. You got the message.
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We're comforted in that and besides our own comfort, we rejoice still more at the joy of Titus because his spirit has been refreshed by you all. Do you get that? He was worried Titus wasn't going to make it. He was going to worry that he'd written too much of a severe letter. Oh my goodness.
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I was regretting it. I shouldn't have done that to him but they received the message well. They received Titus well and he says, his spirit has been refreshed. The next verse goes into whatever boast that I had made to him ahead of that trip. I told him, you're going to love these Corinthians.
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They're fantastic. I mean, they are in a pagan society and all but they're warm and receiving people and they love Jesus and you're going to love em. I can't wait for you to get there. I know they're off track. Yeah.
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But still, they're they're going to be good with it. I promise they're going be good with it. He's making boast about them. I know em and I think they're going to accept this message well. I know how they accepted it at the first and they're going to accept it.
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Whatever boast I made to him about you, I was not put to shame. But just as everything that we said to you was true, so also our boasting before Titus has proved true. Because of the way you accepted the message, You took this that could have caused you great harm and grief and you took it in a godly way. It proved to be true what we said about you and his affection. That's Titus' affection for you, Corinthians, is even greater as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling instead of battling against the word of God and God's messenger.
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You receive the word of God with fear and trembling. I rejoice because I have complete confidence in you and that's that sounds like pretty extreme lows and pretty extreme highs. Paul is not some ivory tower guy that does not feel. He feels things very very deeply and he understands the consequences of people sin and he knows what the pain, the pain that's involved. I mean, he had been persecuting Christians and he still remembered all of those evil, bad things that he'd done against the church of God but Jesus said, why are you persecuting me directly?
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He remembered persecuting Christ directly. That's a that's a powerful thing that he remembered it and that godly grief produced what in him? Earnestness. A zeal. Want to clear himself to make sure that he doesn't have any personal agenda tied up in anything.
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It's all just the message of the cross. I think that that's it. That is it. Is there anybody here that's experienced that grief at the lowest point that that's where God did his best work. Can y'all just raise your hand?
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If you feel like it's in your grief that he does his best work. That's where he always does his best work for me and I I took a couple of good licks this week and I and I've been grieving through em and I want y'all to pray for me because it's not a it's not a it's not an easy thing to stand up here every week and pontificate. So, thank you. Would you stand with us?
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To bear them dreadful curse on my soul. When I was sinking, when I was sinking down, sinking sinking down, down. When I was sinking down, sinking down. When I was sinking down, beneath God's righteous frown, Christ laid aside his crown for my soul, for my soul. Christ laid aside his crown for my soul.
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And to God into the land, to God into the lamb I will sing, I will sing. To God into the lamb I will sing. To God into the lamb who is so great I am. When millions join the theme, we'll sing, I will sing. While millions join the theme, I will sing.
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And when from death and when from death I'm free, I'll sing on, I'll sing on. And when from death I'm free, I'll sing on. And when from death I'm free, I'll sing and joyful be. And through eternity, I'll sing on. I'll sing on.
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And through eternity, I'll sing on.
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Alright. So, I shot an arrow into the air. Out that way. I actually shot a bunch of arrows out into the air, out that way. The one hit me hard this week but I'm praying for where this one lands.
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So, that arrow is the sermon and the song is this song. What wondrous love is this? Okay? So, sing that song. In Jesus name, sing his song.
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Amen.
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