Sorrow, Repentance, Salvation
I.
2 Corinthians 7:8-Sorrow
to Repentance, Repentance To Salvation
A. Something he preached
made them sorry-uneasy,
grieved, offended, affect with sadness
1.
2 Timothy 3:16-The preaching
and teaching of the word will expose stuff in your life, it will show you your
faults, it will correct you and reveal to you the corrections that need to be
made
a. The Word is for reproof-rebuke,
tell (one's) fault, To Convict, To bring to the light, to expose, To find fault
with, correct, To reprehend severely, Show one his fault,
b. The Word is for correction-Improvement
of life or character
c. Is everything that you hear from the Word and in church
supposed to be light and fluffy and make you feel comfortable and happy and
good? Would the preaching of the word challenge you, correct you and even show
you your faults?
2.
Who needs correction? –
Imperfection needs correction. So everybody
needs to be corrected.
a. Everybody needs some
correction from time to time because you don’t know everything and you’re not
right about everything and you haven’t done everything right
b. Then why are so many
surprised and offended when they get corrected?
3.
Will
God use people in authority over you to correct you? YES. That’s what is
happening here
a. Would you have a problem
with God using somebody in authority over them to correct you?
4.
John
3:19-20-People who are doing wrong and don’t want to repent (change) hate the
light because the light reproves
their deeds and makes them see their need for change
a. If you’re more interested in getting it right than being
right you’ll love the light
b. Humility loves the light because it wants to get it right;
Pride loves the night because it wants to be right (So if I stay in the dark I
won’t see I’m wrong)
c. Some people are too proud
to see that their doing it wrong; pride blinds you humility brightens you
B. ***Repentance of Sin
would be to change from doing something wrong to doing it right
1.
Repentance
(Regret and Reform-You care that you missed it, you’re sorry about it and you
change)
a. A change of mind, as it
appears to one who repents, (of a purpose he has formed or of something he has
done); To change one's mind for better
b. Heartily to amend (change,
improve, alter, adjust, modify, correct)
c. Repent means to change (Meta)
d. To care afterwards and
can include the idea of regret
1)
It’s
not just crying and feeling bad it’s changing-If you didn’t change you didn’t
repent
2)
Repent
involves acknowledging that you did it, confessing that you did it, and caring
about it in your heart and being willing to change it and make the change right
now
2.
Sin-To
miss the mark, To error, Be mistaken; Wonder from the path of uprightness and
honor; To do or go wrong; To wander from the law of God
a. If God shines the light
in an area and you see that you are missing the mark what do you need to do?
REPENT-CHANGE
b. James 4:17-If you know
you should be doing something and you’re not to you it’s sin (miss the mark)
1)
If
you know to do it and you aren’t doing it, then you’re missing it-1 John 3:21
c. 1 John 1:8-Walk in the
light you have and the blood will cleanse you of all the other stuff you
C. Sorrow to Repentance
1.
When
you get corrected you don’t stay sorry about it for six months you repent
a. It made them sorry for a
season (AMP-A little while)
1)
Seasons
don’t go on forever; Seasons begin and end; You’re not supposed to be sorry
forever
b. It’s not sorrow to sorrow, but rather it’s sorrow to
repentance
2.
You’ll
be at the sorrow stage as long or as short as you want; You can move onto
repentance anytime
a. God doesn’t correct you to sorrow you; He corrects you so
that you’ll repent
3.
People who don’t know
what to do with correction end up in condemnation
a. Reason being is they stay
at sorrow and don’t go to repentance
b. When you stay at sorrow
you give Satan an open door to turn conviction into condemnation
D. Repentance to Salvation
(Deliverance, Preservation, Safety, Victory)
1.
When you get corrected
and experience that sorrow and repent of it, you’ll go from sorrow to
repentance and repentance to salvation (Victory)
2.
If
you are doing something wrong or heading down a wrong path or have a wrong way
of thinking if you don’t get the correction you’re end will be destruction; If
you hear the correction, but don’t repent your end will be destruction; If you
hear the correction and experience the sorrow and the sorrow leads to
repentance then the repentance will lead to salvation (victory) and you’ll miss
the destruction and then you wouldn’t be sorry anymore you’d be happy
3.
1
Corinthians 11:30-31-If you’ll judge yourself and repent you won’t be judged
E. ***Many times your
victory is going to begin with you hearing something that you didn’t like all
that much***
1.
They
got the victory because when they were corrected rather than fussing with it or
trying to justify it they repented – Repentance to Salvation
2.
When
God says something that corrects you (makes you uneasy, grieves you, saddens
you, offends you) it should lead to repentance
3.
If you hear it and don’t
repent, but rather harden yourself you’re going to miss out on your Victory
a. When you get corrected and the hard thing was said and you’re
feeling sorry what’s it time to do?
b. Matthew 21:28-32-Seeing it and not repenting is a
dangerous thing; they saw it and didn’t repent
F. As a Christian it’s vital
to your victory that hard things be said to you; things that challenge you/correct
you
1.
9-He
says had we not said this to you, your destruction would have been on us
a. If he would not have
wrote it there would have no sorrow (everybody would have loved him), there
would have been no repentance, and there would have been no salvation and their
destruction would have been by him
b. There would have been No
Sorrow, No repentance and a lot destruction
2.
12-He
says he wrote the “hard” stuff because he cared about them
a. If you never say the “hard stuff” it will appear as if you
don’t care
b. Saying the “hard stuff” is one way we show people that we
care
3.
2
Corinthians 2:4-Correcting them was no fun for him, but he did it because he
loved them
a. If you love somebody
enough you will say/do what’s best for them even if it causes them to not like
you for a while; you’ll put up with that and tolerate that because you care
that much about them
II.
The alternative to
repenting is perishing
A. ***2 Peter 3:9-Those who
refuse to repent (change) will perish***
1.
Is
God patient with us? (Longsuffering-Be patient, Have long patience, Slow to
anger)
a. Why is he so patient?
Because he doesn’t want us to perish, he wants us to repent;The mercy of God
2.
Perish-Destroyed, Ruined; You
can experience destruction or ruin in any area of your life (Spirit, Soul,
Body, Relationships, Finances) and you can experience those things on different
levels
a. It is not the will of God
the any perish; His will is
that zero people perish (John 10:10-Satan destroys)
3.
If
it’s not God’s will that people perish, then why are people perishing?
a. People are perishing because they are not repenting
b. EX: People who God
corrects in finances who don’t repent will perish financially
4.
There are some who teach
that you can perish if others don’t repent: Wrong
B. 2 Timothy 2:23-Through
and by repentance you can recover yourself out of Satan’s hands and not perish
1.
Avoid
these unedifying questions and conversations (Just because you can ask a
question that people don’t have an answer doesn’t make you smart)
a. Stop debating with
sinners and trying to talk people into believing; JESUS NEVER DID THAT
2.
When
it comes to teaching somebody in an area that they are missing it or confused
in there’s an approach to take and it’s not a hard, know it all, judgmental
approach
a. Not striving-Combative, quarrelsome, Gentle-Kind (You can be kind and strong), Patient-Forbearing, In meekness-Humility
3.
If
you are doing something wrong and you are not repenting who is it hurting?
a. Not only is the devil
against you, but you are against you
4.
Acknowledging the truth
and repenting go hand in hand
a. You have to acknowledge that you are not doing it right if
there’s ever going to be motivation to repent (There will be no motivation to
change what you believe is right)
b. Some people don’t want to own up to it and don’t want to
acknowledge that it is really wrong and if it’s not really wrong then you don’t
need to really repent
1)
“Well
it’s not that we are doing something wrong,” No you are doing something wrong
and you might not have seen it until now, but now that you see it, it’s not
time to try to explain it, or justify it, or cover it, it’s time to repent (to
change)
c. Proverbs 28:13-If you
cover your sins you won’t prosper and I don’t care how many confessions you
make or how many prayers you pray
d. Repentance requires humility because both repentance and
humility deal with reality (2 Corinthians 12:6, Obadiah 3)
5.
If
you would repent instead of perishing you would recover yourself and not
perish; you’d be preserved
a. Why are some in the snare
of the devil? Why are some taken captive by his will? They won’t repent
C. Luke 13:1-You have here a
group of people who were destroyed because they wouldn’t repent
1.
Often
times when things like this happen you’ll have people try to say that it
happened because the people were so bad and the insinuation is it’s not
happening to us because we are so good-WRONG
2.
If you don’t want to
perish, what is it that you must do when God corrects you? You must repent
a. They didn’t perish because of what they did, they perished
because of what they didn’t do after they did what they did --- They wouldn’t
repent
b. It’s not just what you do that is the issue; It’s what you do
after that will determine whether you perish
c. People are not perishing because of what they did, but rather
what they won’t do after they did what they did
d. If you’re going to get
protected when somebody else doesn’t it’s not going to be because you were so
much better than them, it will be because you repented and they wouldn’t and
you believed God and they didn’t
3.
Why did God allow this
not the right question; Why wasn’t God able to protect them? Why wasn’t God able
to protect you? Those are the right questions because it’s not his will that
any perish
a. Maybe something happened to you; Lord what happened? What did
I do or not do? I didn’t repent, I didn’t get something changed and you weren’t
able to protect me on that; And repenting allows him to protect us
4.
God
is gracious and he is merciful and he will give you time to repent; That being
said I don’t want to be one who he needs to give a lot of time to; I want to be
quick to repent
a. Be quick to repent; Stop
fussing with right; don’t argue with right; Wrong is wrong
b. John 13:8-Peter was quick
to repent
c. To do so requires great
humility; You have to be more concerned about being right with God than how
your perceived by people
D. For those who don’t
repent it’s not God’s judgment that they encounter; it’s the judgment of the
path they choose to take
III.
A willingness to change
is the attitude of repentance
A. This is so big in being
used of God-You’ve got to show some humility and you’ve got to be flexible and
know that you don’t know everything and you’re not right about
everything-Numbers 12:3, 1 Peter 5:5
1.
An unwillingness to
change is a manifestation of pride (I don’t need to change because I’m already
doing everything right)
2.
The proud get no grace
and are not used by God
B. If you like not
perishing, then you should love repentance/change
1.
To be stuck in your ways
is pride and it’s being slow to repent