In preparation for our time around the Lord's table, I'd invite you to turn with me this morning to 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 7. I'd like to read a section of the chapter beginning in verse 1. And with God's Word open before us, let's seek the Lord in prayer. Ask the Lord now to speak to our hearts through his Word. Let's pray. Dear Lord, we thank you now for the Word of God. We ask, O Lord, that we may hear from thee now as we read it, as we contemplate it. May the Holy Spirit move powerfully through thy Word on each and every heart to prepare our hearts for the remembrance of Christ. To this end, O Lord, I plead the blood of Christ over my life. I am mindful, O Lord, of my inability and my unworthiness to take up the task in front of me now. But I plead the blood of Christ, and I thank you for his merit, and I ask that for his sake and for the good of thy people and for the advancement of thy cause, that thou wilt bless thy word now and make me a vessel fit for thy use. And may it please thee to grant to me strength of heart and mind, clarity of thought and speech, and especially unction from on high. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. 2 Corinthians 7, we begin in verse 1, this is the word of God, let us hear it. 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. Receive us, we have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man, I speak not this to condemn you, for I have said before that ye are in our hearts to die and live with you. Great is my boldness of speech toward you. Great is my glorying of you. I am filled with comfort. I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation. For when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Without were fightings, within were fears. Nevertheless, God that comforteth 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. 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. 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. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. 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. Amen. We'll end our reading in verse 11. And we know the Lord will add his blessing to the reading of his word for his namesake. I want to call your attention in particular to that part of verse 11. that reads like this, for behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort. He sorrowed after a godly sort. In the course of Paul's ministry to the Gentiles, it's not hard to detect that he faced many anxious moments. Always a good thing, you know, when you're reading the epistles to tie them into the narrative in the book of Acts. And when you approach your reading and study of God's word that way, then you will come to know and appreciate the causes on occasion for Paul's anxiousness. For example, we have the account in Acts chapter 17 of Paul going to Thessalonica And when you read that account, you come to learn that he had to flee the city prematurely. And when he fled the city ahead of what would have been his scheduled time to depart, he became very anxious. What about those I have left behind in Thessalonica? What is to become of them? Will their faith hold? Did the gospel really take root? And we read of that in 1 Thessalonians 3, beginning in verse 6. But now, when Timotheus came from you unto us, and brought us good tidings of your faith in charity, and that ye have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to see us, as we also to see you, Therefore, brethren, we were comforted over you in all our affliction and distress by your faith, for now we live if ye stand fast in the Lord. For now we live if ye stand fast in the Lord. You can almost sense the sigh of relief that Paul is heaving there, that they did come through, that their faith had not been shaken to the point of being abandoned in the midst of their afflictions. The church at Corinth, we face a slightly different scenario, but with the same spirit of anxiousness on Paul's part. Paul had written a letter to them. This is the second letter that we've read from. You are familiar, of course, with the first letter that he wrote to them. And in that letter, you find Paul dealing with them in a very straightforward and at times very stern manner with them. And that created a spirit of anxiousness in his heart. How would they respond? How would they respond to that letter that Paul wrote? Well, look with me with that question in view. Look with me in chapter five, chapter seven, rather. Verse five, words that we've read. For when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side, without were fighting, within were fears, Nevertheless, God that comforteth 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 rejoiced the more. For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent. For I perceived that the same epistle had made you sorry, though it were but for a season." And once again, you find the apostle heaving a sigh of relief. They took my letter to heart, in other words, okay? What Paul had done in the previous epistle was deal with them, as I said, very sternly. And what was it in that epistle that would have made them sorry? Well, basically what he had done was to apply the gospel of Christ to the many problems that they were facing in Corinth with regard to divisions in the church, We read in 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 10, Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. With regard to grotesque immorality in the church, even by Gentile standards, We read in chapter five in verse seven in 1 Corinthians, purge out therefore the old leaven that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. And by purging out the old leaven, what he's calling on them to do is to excommunicate the man that had been guilty of gross immorality. With regard to fornication, we read in 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 20, There's a lesson to be learned, you know. when it comes to dealing with sins in the church, or with sins in an individual for that matter, where the seed of God's word has taken root in the heart of sinners and brought forth true conversion, a right response of faith inevitably follows. Paul's dealings with the Corinthians in his first epistle had not been merely cordial dealings. They had been straightforward dealings regarding the corrections that were needed among them. Had the gospel not taken root in their hearts, It would have been easy for them to have responded carnally from wounded pride and hurt feelings, and they might have had occasion to align themselves with the enemies of Paul by rejecting Paul's preaching of the gospel. But as Proverbs chapter 9 and verse 9 tells us, give instruction to a wise man and he will be yet wiser. Teach a just man and he will increase in learning. Or as the psalmist says in Psalm 141 in verse 5, let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness, and let him reprove me. It shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head, for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities. The effect of Paul's first letter, you see, is given to us in verse 9. where he writes, for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. I like the way Young's literal translation translates the phrase godly sorrow. The phrase reads literally, sorrow toward God. For ye were made sorry toward God, verse nine. For sorrow toward God, verse 10, worketh repentance. The right kind of repentance. This can be noted as a mark of grace then. The word of God, or to make the application broader, the means of grace works sorrow toward God. The Lord's table serves the very same purpose. It should, among other things, create sorrow toward God. And just as this sorrow in the case of the Corinthians, in 2 Corinthians 7, worked repentance to salvation, not to be repented of, so in the words of institution that we read in 1 Corinthians 11, we make the application that godly sorrow should lead us to judge ourselves. That is a privilege, you know, a duty, a responsibility, and a privilege that God gives to Christians to judge ourselves. This is one of the problems at Corinth. They were not applying the means of grace toward their sin. As a result, they became altogether careless toward sin. and that carelessness had reached such a point to where Paul informs them that many were weak and sickly, and that many slept, the meaning being that God's chastisement had been upon the church of Corinth, leading to weakness and sickness, and in some instances, even death. The remedy for this chastisement from God is given in 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 31. Paul says, for if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. That's one of the hardest things in the world, you know, for a man to do. So easy, so very easy to judge others. Seems very, very difficult though to judge ourselves. And yet, that's what the need oftentimes is. And this is where godly sorrow will lead a godly man to judge himself, to deal with his own sin, to take it seriously enough to make corrections to his own life. Now, our text reveals to us just how fervent the Corinthians became in their godly sorrow or their self-judgment. Look at how Paul describes their practice in verse 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. Oh, there's not a trace of half-heartedness or cold indifference in that verse, is there? Quite the contrary. Paul multiplies expressions of earnest zeal as he describes the effect of godly sorrow upon them. So I would like this morning then to take a closer look around the Lord's table at this text and I want to draw from this text the good effects of godly sorrow and how those effects are produced by the Lord's table. The good effects of godly sorrow. and how those effects are produced at the Lord's table. Let's look at the effect of godly sorrow then, first of all, upon our understanding. The effect of godly sorrow upon our understanding. For behold, this selfsame thing, verse 11, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves. Underscore that phrase, what clearing of yourselves. At the end of verse 11, note also, in all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter. We are, by the language of the verse, brought into a courtroom, so to speak. Or perhaps more precisely, we're brought before the judgment bar of God. In the first instance, the word clearing refers to our defense. It's actually the same word in the Greek from which we get the word apologetics from. Apologetics, if you don't know, that does not mean apologizing to someone, the way we commonly think of that word. Apologetics is that brand of theology, that branch of theology in which we defend the faith, okay? We defend what we believe. We learn how to defend it against the accusations that are brought against it. One lexicon assigns this meaning to the word, a reasoned statement or argument, a clearing of yourselves. This is why I say the term is referring to our understanding or to our reason. In the case of the Corinthians, I think the term would refer to the action they carried out through Paul's instructions of excommunicating the man who had been guilty of grotesque sins, even by Gentile standards. But what I want to do this morning is to broaden the application and make it apply to the sin that we discover and judge in our own lives. The question that naturally arises is, how can we possibly defend or clear ourselves before God? What hope do we have of making a reasoned statement, there's the literal rendering of the word, a reasoned statement or an argument by which we can defend our sin? The answer is, of course, we can make no such argument. There is no defense for sin. The effect of the law of God upon every believer, whether he be Jew or Gentile, according to Paul in Romans 3.19, is that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. There is no defense for sin. Every attempt to justify sin before God becomes futile. Oh, Adam may blame his wife Eve, and Eve may blame the serpent, but at the end of the day, God finds them both guilty of rebellion against God's word. Now it's true, and we know this, don't we, that sinners between themselves can become quite shrewd and very skillful when it comes to the matter of justifying sin. It seems that in our culture, lawyers may pride themselves in their skills of manipulation that enables them to set guilty men free. Children can be very cunning at times in defending their sin before their parents. Workers can be very cunning in defending their ways before their employers. It seems that politicians in particular are masters of the art of defending the indefensible. But none of that can apply toward God. In the parable of the marriage feast found in Matthew 22, The man who attempts to enter the feast without a wedding garment is found in the end to be speechless. In other words, there's no possible excuse that he can present to the host of the feast that could possibly justify his action of being present without the required wedding garment. So is this the case with sinners before God. There is no excuse for sin, for any sin. There are no excuses for our failures to measure up to God's law. There are no excuses for any transgressions of God's law. And yet, in His condescending grace, God nevertheless invites us to reason with Him. Following one of the most vivid descriptions of man's depravity found in Isaiah chapter 1, where sinful man is described this way, Isaiah 1 and verse 6, from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. and following such a description of man's spiritual condition, a few verses later, and this is really quite an incredible statement when you think of it in comparison to that description of man's sin, God actually invites the man in that condition to reason with him. Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Can that really be true? Would God extend an invitation to totally depraved sinners to reason with Him? He does extend such an invitation. But it's important to know that the reasoning process has nothing to do with defending sin. It has, rather, everything to do with God's gracious provision for our sin. And so the invitation continues. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. What defense do we bring before God then? Well, we certainly do not attempt to excuse our sin, but the way we reason with God is through the reasoning process of a broken body and the shed blood of Jesus Christ. This is the ground, you see, for our sins being washed away and for leaving us white as snow, that Him, that I acknowledge has been sorely abused at times at some evangelistic crusades, yet it expresses it well. Just as I am, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou biddest me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come. That hymn expresses well the way you want to reason with God. Just as I am, Lord, I'm not denying my sin, I'm not making excuses for my sin, I'm not blaming my sin on others. Just as I am, without one plea, I have no plea. But Lord, because you invite me to come to thee, and because your blood was shed for me, O Lamb of God, I come. So our plea is not based then upon the defense of our sin, it's rather based on the confession of our sin, and it's based on God's faithfulness to his own name and attributes, so that on account of Christ's broken body and shed blood, we can read in 1 John 1 and verse 9, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Oh, there's an example, and I know I've said this before, but there is an example that shows you so clearly the practical value of theology. What is the theology of 1 John 1, 9? It is just this, God's faithfulness and God's justice. And you can be assured that he will always cleanse and he will always forgive because he's just and because he's faithful. You see then how godly sorrow leads us to reason from the vantage point of God's grace and the provision in that grace of God's Son who gave himself for us. Godly sorrow for sin then addresses our understanding and it compels us to reason with God on the basis of the broken body and shed blood of Jesus Christ. Well, let's consider next the effect of godly sorrow upon our attitude. Okay, it affects our understanding. It should also affect our attitude. Note the word from our text, indignation. For behold, the selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation. I think it would be true to say that the argument presented by the broken body and shed blood of Christ should affect our attitude toward sin in such a way that we view sin with indignation, which means simply displeasure. Unfortunately, such an attitude toward sin has become a rare thing in our day. We find it much more common to downplay sin or to sport with sin, deceiving ourselves into thinking that the consequences for sin are not really all that serious. And when the world seems to run after sin and the church seems to run after the world, it makes it all the easier for us to regard sin lightly. We tend to view it relatively, in other words. In comparison to terrorist murderers and gang members who wreak havoc, what does my little sin amount to? We reason. In comparison to greedy, profit-mongering corporations who bring in money hand over fist, what does my petty theft really amount to? We reason. And all it takes in our culture to treat sin lightly is to find others that you feel are much worse than you. You remember from Genesis chapter 19, Lot's request to the angel, the angels had just come to his door, they've rescued him from Sodom, they've told him to flee, and Lot's request to the angel who told him to flee from Sodom to the mountains, Lot instead sought to negotiate with the angel in order to flee to a nearby city of Zoar. So in verse 20 of Genesis 19, this is Lot speaking. He says, behold, now this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one. Oh, let me escape thither. Is it not a little one? And my soul shall live. Oh, I think we can borrow from Lot's language in order to describe what our attitude often is towards sin. It is a little one. Is it not a little one? The argument, however, from the broken body and shed blood of Christ puts sin in an altogether different perspective. That so-called little sin, you see, brought the fury of God's wrath upon his Son. That sin that you may regard as being a thing of little consequence brought the lashes of the Roman whip to Christ's back and pressed the crown of thorns into his brow and drove nails into his hands and feet. That insignificant sin planted the cross of Christ in the ground and left the Son of God suspended, nailed to that cross between heaven and earth. Oh, here at the cross is where we learn God's attitude towards sin. See what he subjected his son to. Here is where we learn Christ's attitude towards sin. As the hymn writer puts it, see from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down. And when the veil of darkness is drawn over the scene, from the sixth to the ninth hour, we hear Christ's cry, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? then you should know and appreciate that God had forsaken his Son because our iniquities had been imputed to his Son, and God would not spare even his only begotten Son in spite of who he was when once he stood in our place condemned as our covenant head. The broken body and shed blood of Christ teach us, then, what our attitude toward sin should be. we should be indignant against it. When we discover it in any form, in our own minds and hearts and words and actions, we should be indignant toward it. We see this very vividly in the Sermon on the Mount when Christ says in Matthew 5 that it's better to pluck out your eye than to have that eye offend thee. Better to cut off your right hand than to have that hand commit sin. Now, I don't believe that Christ is speaking literally in those verses and calling for mutilation of our bodies, but what he is calling for is a holy indignation against sin, our own sin. Sin, after all, is what condemns us to hell. Sin is what cost us paradise originally. Sin is what brings guilt and misery to a lost world today, and sin is what brought the sufferings of Christ upon him. Oh, may the memory of Christ's broken body and shed blood stir our hearts to great indignation toward the sin that we too readily excuse. But not only does the broken body and shed blood of Christ affect our attitude towards sin, but it should also affect our attitude toward Christ himself. Would you note that after indignation, Paul makes reference in the text to fear. I take this fear to be a reference to the fear of God, which is the beginning of all knowledge and wisdom, we're told in Proverbs and in the Psalms. It is that fear that contains an element of fright. For it is frightful to contemplate the condemnation of sin. It is frightful to contemplate the judgment that we deserved. But this fright is tempered into reverence when we behold Christ dying in our place. Godly sorrow for sin then moves us to bow our hearts at the foot of the cross. Notice the word from our text, revenge. Yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge. The word means full punishment and has the sense of vindication or acquittal. The broken body and shed blood of Christ, you see, communicates to us that a full punishment has taken place. This is something that you and I could never meet ourselves. Punishment, you see, will never be full to those who are condemned forever for sin. The condemned sinner might wish that it were so. And there are Christians, I'm sure, that even wonder, why is hell forever? A number of reasons might be cited. But one of the reasons that hell is forever is because sin is forever. Sin does not stop in hell, you see. In hell, God's restraining grace is lifted from the sinner, and in hell, he reaches the full potential of his depravity. That, to me, is one of the most frightful aspects of hell, being given over totally to a sin nature. Part of the punishment for sin is to be given over to sin. But in Christ, and in Christ alone, we find full punishment. In Christ, we find one who could not only endure such punishment, but in his power and love, he could prevail through the wrath of God to at last make the announcement that atonement for sin was finished. It is finished. Glorious words those are. They ought to lead you to shout hallelujah every time you read them. Does this not move your heart then to bow before Christ in humility and reverence? Do you not find your attitude towards sin and toward Christ affected by the godly sorrow that the means of grace produces? And so we find our understanding affected by the godly sorrow brought within us. We find our attitude affected by that same godly sorrow, an attitude that moves us to great indignation towards sin as well as great reverence toward Christ who died for our sins. Let's consider finally the effect of godly sorrow on our walk. The effect of godly sorrow on our walk. This brings me to a term that I passed over in the beginning of the verse. For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you. I dare say that following this episode in which the Corinthians had failed to discipline a member who was guilty of great sin, the Corinthians undoubtedly exercised greater care and scrutiny when it came to dealing with sin in the church. And so it follows that the broken body and shed blood of Christ should lead us to greater care when it comes to our walk with Christ. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. Paul writes in Ephesians 5 in verse 15. Underscore that word circumspectly. I'll never forget the illustration given by Dr. Paisley and by other Ulster ministers that describes a circumspect walk. They tell how in Northern Ireland it's not an unusual thing to see high stone fences running along people's property. And the tops of these stone fences are very jagged, being made up of sharp stone edges. Not uncommon to see cats walking along the tops of these stone walls, but because of the jagged edges along the top of the wall, one might see a cat that takes each step very gingerly, testing the step he's about to take with his paw to see if he's able to plant his paw in each particular place before he puts the weight of his body behind the step. walking circumspectly. That's a good illustration of it. So should the Christian take great care to make sure that each step he takes will be pleasing to his Lord. If his understanding has been affected by the gospel of Christ, And he knows and appreciates the high price that was paid for his redemption, that he will not take a step in his walk without first gaining the confidence that his next step will be in keeping with what is pleasing to God. After all, he desires to please Christ. His vehement desire now is to walk with the one who loved him and shed his own blood for his soul. He sees and appreciates what sin would have done to him and what it did do to Christ. So now he walks circumspectly, being careful about what he allows or disallows with an aim in both to glorify his Redeemer. I think verse 1 in the chapter we've been studying summarizes this entire process. Look at verse 1, 2 Corinthians 7. 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. This is what we ought to accomplish around the Lord's table this morning. We come for cleansing, and we come to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord. There is a sorrowful element to our practice. The broken body and shed blood you see do bring sorrow to our hearts. It was our sins that nailed our Savior to the cross. Thankfully, it's godly sorrow, and godly sorrow is beneficial sorrow. It affects our understanding and our attitude and our actions. It works in us in such a way that our indignation toward our own sin increases, as well as our vehement desire and reverence toward Christ. Oh, may these elements accomplish in us then all that they are designed to accomplish, even by working godly sorrow in our hearts. Let's close then in prayer before we distribute the elements Let's all pray. O Lord, as we bow in Thy presence now, we offer to Thee our thanks that we have, by Thy grace, been enabled to see sin for what it really is. We thank Thee, Lord, for the provision that was made for our sin. We thank Thee, dear Lord, that there is forgiveness with Thee that Thou mayest be feared. We ask, O Lord, that as we partake of the bread and the cup, we pray that our understanding will be impacted as well as our attitude and our actions. May we indeed treat sin with great indignation, and may we treat Christ with deep affection and reverence and godly fear. So Lord, work in our hearts now and bless us in the remembrance of Christ. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.