Open the Bible

Colin Smith: I know my transgression and my sin is always before me. See, here is a man who, unlike Saul, has faced his sin. He sees it. He doesn't minimize it, he doesn't blame it on other people. There are no excuses here. This is godly sorrow.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. Colin, I'm sure that you have run across people in your years of ministry who have been sorry for their sin. Maybe they've even said, "Yeah, I know I'm a sinner," but they have not expressed godly sorrow over that sin. What would you say to that person?

Colin Smith: That's a great distinction, Steve. There is a huge difference between, "Oh yes, I'm sorry," and a real recognition of having grieved God and having a heart that breaks for what breaks the heart of God. I think that that comes when there is light that comes from God to actually see my own sin for what it is.

There is a godly sorrow the Bible says that leads to repentance. So we shouldn't just jump to repentance and say, "Well, that's just being sorry and moving on." No, there's a godly sorrow that leads to the repentance, which is a change. So if there's a pattern in my life of sinning, saying sorry, sinning, saying sorry, but never really changing, then I've not really got to the heart of what repentance is all about.

Steve Hiller: I don't know if it's pop psychology or what, but I've heard things along the lines of, "Well, God doesn't want you to be beating yourself up over this." So what is appropriate godly sorrow then?

Colin Smith: I think that's right. God doesn't want you to be beating yourself up, but God does call us to change. He's in the business of calling us to a transformed life. That's very different from, "I'm sorry," and carrying on in the same regard. So we're trying to get at the heart of what repentance actually looks like. There is a work of the Holy Spirit to bring us to an awareness of what our sin is, what our sin cost, what its effect has been on us, what its effect has been on others, and most of all what its effect has been on Christ, because he died for it. When I begin to see that, then something deeper is going to happen that's more than just being sorry. It's the beginning of a path of actually changing.

Steve Hiller: So what is true repentance? That's what we're looking at in today's message. It's titled "Distinguishing Marks of True Repentance." If you can, join us in 2 Corinthians chapter 7. Here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Today we're coming to a very important question. How do you know if you are on the path of repentance? How do you know if you have really repented? What are the marks of being on the hidden path to a transformed life? How could you recognize or discern true repentance in another person?

These are very important and very practical questions, and I want us therefore to look at the distinguishing marks of true repentance. That subject is addressed for us in 2 Corinthians in chapter 7. So I do hope that you'll have your Bible open at the passage that has just been read, as we focus particularly on verse 10 together.

Notice that Paul says here that godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret. But, he says, worldly sorrow brings death. Straightaway you will see from this verse that there are two very different kinds of sorrow. The difference between them is seen most clearly in their effect or their result.

There is worldly sorrow, Paul says, and that brings death. That's telling us something very important. It is possible to be full of regret and yet never to change. You can be sorry without ever repenting. There is a kind of worldly sorrow that does not lead to repentance but just leads, Paul says, to death.

Now that is telling us something important to grasp: that being sorry and repenting are two different things. They are not the same thing. And we're going to see some examples from the Bible today of people who were very sorry about things that they had done and yet never really changed. Their sorrow did not heal them; rather, it destroyed them. That is worldly sorrow. It just brings you down, it caves you in, and eventually brings you to death itself. It makes a person bitter and angry and living in the past and full of self-recrimination and even despair.

Now nobody here wants to be there, and so it is good news that there is a second kind of sorrow. Paul says here there is also godly sorrow. And it's very different in its nature and in its results. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and will leave a man or a woman without regret.

In other words, this godly sorrow leads to real and lasting change in your life. It takes you onto the hidden path to a transformed life, and it is the kind of sorrow that God wants all of his people to experience. And he says it is a sorrow that will not harm you in any way. It's a sorrow that's redemptive. Verse 9: "You became sorrowful as God intended and so you were not harmed in any way."

So, two kinds of sorrow that lead in opposite directions: one that takes you downwards to death and the other that brings you upwards to life. And the obvious question then is: what is the difference between these two kinds of sorrow, the worldly sorrow on the one hand and the godly sorrow on the other hand? And really it boils down to one word, and that's the word "godly." The sorrow that is redemptive is God-centered. God is infused into it, and I want us to see what that looks like from the Bible together today.

I want to suggest three distinguishing marks of godly sorrow. That is three evidences by which you may know with confidence that real and lasting change is going on in your life or in the life of another person. And very simply, so that you know where we're going, godly sorrow means first that you have light from God, second that you have desire for God, and thirdly that you have hope in God. These three, and we're going to see them from the scriptures together.

First then, godly sorrow is distinguished by this mark: that in it you have light from God. Let me try and paint a picture so that we can get a frame of reference here. I want you to imagine for a moment that you are in a darkened cellar. It's pitch dark and you are struggling to find your way around. In this cellar, there are large planks of wood, heavy filled barrels, and large suitcases full of stuff. And so you find yourself stumbling over these various things that are strewn around the cellar, though you think to yourself, "If I was here for long enough, I could locate where all of these things are and I could find my way around safely."

But there's another problem. Someone else is in the cellar. You can't see that person in the darkness, and he never makes himself directly known to you. In fact, he hates you and he wants you to stumble. And so he is constantly moving the barrels, moving the suitcases, moving the planks of wood so that as you move around in the cellar, you keep stumbling over the same things in different places. You don't know where you're going to encounter them next. But you keep falling over the same obstacles and you injure yourself on them again and again.

Now I paint that picture because it really is, I think, a good picture of our natural human condition. In Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 18, Paul says that we are darkened in our understanding. That is by nature. That is our human condition, to be darkened in our understanding. In other words, our natural condition is simply that we do not see. We don't see clearly.

That's why Jesus spoke in his teaching about people who are always seeing with their eyes but never perceiving. They're always hearing; they hear many truths in church and so forth, but they're never really understanding. They just don't get it. Because this is the natural condition of the human heart: that in that inward way, we just don't see. We're in the dark.

That's why Jesus spoke on one occasion about a person who is able to identify a speck of sawdust in someone else's eye. But using a remarkable illustration, Jesus said even if there was a plank of wood in their own eye, they wouldn't be able to see it. In other words, here's a person who has very heightened sensitivity to failure in others but no capacity to discern or see what really needs to be changed in his or her own life. Now that is the natural human condition, and worldly sorrow is in the first instance sorrow that cannot see. It is like the man in the cellar who injures himself repeatedly by falling over the same things many times because he does not know where he's going to stumble against them next.

Now the obvious example of this from the Bible is King Saul. And let's take a moment to think about what this looks like in the life of a real person: worldly sorrow, the sorrow without light, the sorrow that doesn't see. We're told in the first book of Samuel that King Saul was given a special assignment by God and he didn't do it. And so Samuel the prophet came to Saul and called him on his disobedience.

When that happened, Saul came up with a whole list of evasions, excuses, a kind of spin, we would say today, to try and get out of his responsibility. But then Samuel spoke to him very directly because God had already revealed the hidden truth to Samuel as a prophet. When that happened, this is what Saul said in 1 Samuel chapter 15 and verse 30: "I have sinned, but..." Very interesting, these words together: "I have sinned, but please honor me before the elders of the people and before Israel. Please come back with me so that I may worship the Lord your God."

Now you see what Saul is saying here. He's very sorry. And rightly so, because he has lost his kingdom as a result of his disobedience. So he's very sad about what has happened. He acknowledges that he's done wrong: "I have sinned." But it is the kind of sorrow that does not see, which is why his instinct is to say, "Okay, I've sinned, but let's just now put all this unpleasantness behind us and let's go to worship, and please will you come with me because I don't want to be let down in front of the elders and all the people."

So he's saying to Samuel, "You're right, I was wrong, but now let's just go to church and put all that behind us." Now that is worldly sorrow. There is no ownership here on Saul's part of his actions, nor of the problem within his heart that led him to these actions. So what happens, remaining in the darkness, he goes on through his life stumbling over the same heart problem that was never addressed in 1 Samuel chapter 15 and stalks him and injures him again and again throughout the entire course of his life.

And you can read about it in the book of 1 Samuel. You see that he continued as king, but he never changed. Worldly sorrow leads to death because all it is is sadness about, "Well, you know, I did wrong and it didn't work out as I hoped." But it takes no ownership, and so there is no fundamental change in the person's life and they continue. Saul bumbled his way through life, neither knowing God nor knowing himself, full of his own pain, full of self-pity, a misery to his family, and a burden to his people.

Now contrast that with David, who of course is the model of true repentance, especially in Psalm 51 where he lays out for us a pattern of what real and lasting change looks like. And in Psalm 51, where David asks God for mercy, he says this in verse 3: "I know my transgression. I know it." Now that's a different world from Saul. "I know my transgression and my sin is always before me."

See, here is a man who, unlike Saul, has faced his sin. He sees it. He doesn't minimize it, he doesn't blame it on other people. There are no excuses here. This is godly sorrow. And it's a painful thing, of course, but look at its result. It brings repentance, which leads to salvation, Paul says, and leaves no regret, for God wipes away all tears from our eyes.

And you look at the contrast between Saul and David and it's a no-brainer, isn't it? Would you want to be like Saul or would you like to be like David? Worldly sorrow leads to death. Godly sorrow, in which a man or a woman has light from above, brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret.

Now I'm struck, therefore, by how often we find David in the Psalms asking God for light. Once you start spotting that theme, you'll see it's all over the Psalms. He says in Psalm 19, "Who can discern his own errors?" And so, recognizing that there are things in ourselves that we just don't see, what do you do? You pray to God for light. And so David says, "Will you search me and try me and know me and show me? Will you shine your light upon my path? The entrance of your word gives light."

The more I've looked at that theme in the Psalms and then thought about how it relates to David's experience, I'm sure that some of it must have come under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit through David's long experience of observing Saul. "Lord, I saw that man drift through his life without ever seeing what needed to be changed. I saw that in Saul and it's death. Don't let me be like that, Lord. Give me light. Let your word be a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." Godly sorrow is marked by this distinguishing mark: that there is light from God, in which a man or a woman comes to see in the light of the scriptures and by the work of the Holy Spirit what needs to be changed and thereby to find the power to do it.

First distinguishing mark: godly sorrow means you have light from God. You're not like Saul; you're like David. Second distinguishing mark of true repentance is a desire for God. And it seems to me that that feature is particularly clear if we contrast this time again David, who's the model of true repentance, with on this occasion Esau, who goes the other way of worldly sorrow. Now you may remember that we looked at Esau earlier in our series, and you might like to turn over to the book of Hebrews in chapter 12 for a moment here.

Hebrews chapter 12 gives us the New Testament commentary on the life of Esau. And in Hebrews 12 and verses 15 and 16, we read these words: "See to it that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. And see that no one is sexually immoral or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son." Now the striking thing about Esau is that he was deeply sorry about what happened in his life. In fact, I think you could make a case for saying that no one was more deeply or longer sorry in all the Old Testament than this character Esau.

The book of Genesis places particular emphasis on the intensity of his regret. It talks about how he cried out when he discovered that he had lost the blessing that Isaac gave to Jacob. He wept and cried out with a loud and bitter cry. There's a kind of an agonized shriek that comes from the core of this man. And this remorse, this regret, this churning pain as to what he had lost in his life went on and on, and he never got over it. Never got over it.

And I'm sure that if you could have met Esau, he would have told you his story with deep feeling. "I was the firstborn, you know. I could have been the father of the faithful. But I lost it and it was all my fault." Esau blamed himself and he never got over it. Full of remorse.

And of course remorse, which always looks backwards—repentance always looks forwards, that's the difference—remorse kills you. It ties you to a failure in the past, and Esau never got beyond that, grieving over what might have been. And Esau lived a life of regret, but here's the tragedy: he never changed. And the New Testament tells us just two things about him here in Hebrews chapter 12. The first is that he was bitter. "See to it that no root of bitterness grows up among you," the writer to Hebrews says, "that will defile many, like what happened with Esau." So he was bitter. And then the second thing that we're told in the New Testament about Esau is that he was godless. "See to it that no one becomes like Esau, a godless man." Now you see, that is what worldly sorrow will do to you. It will make you bitter and it will distance you from God.

Steve Hiller: A great reminder from Pastor Colin today that being sorry doesn't necessarily equal repentance. There are these two kinds of sorrow: worldly sorrow leading to death and godly sorrow that leads to true repentance. You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and our message today is called "The Distinguishing Marks of True Repentance." And we've just gotten through about the first half. We'll continue this teaching next time.

If you ever miss a broadcast in the series, you can listen online. Come to our website, openthebible.org. You can stream the program or you can download an MP3 for free. Again, that's at openthebible.org. Another way to listen is through the Open the Bible app, which you'll find for free at your app store. It's a great way to listen whenever it fits your schedule, basically listening on demand. So again, look for the Open the Bible app at your app store.

Well, Open the Bible is a listener-supported ministry. It's your generosity that allows us to bring you Pastor Colin's teaching, whether you listen online, on the radio, podcast the program, or however you've connected with us. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to send you a copy of Pastor Colin's brand-new 30-day devotional. It's called "Grow in Faith." And Colin, why did you write this book?

Colin Smith: Well, the Bible speaks to us repeatedly about the central importance of faith and of hope and of love. At the end of 1 Corinthians 13, Paul speaks about everything else is going to pass away, but these things are going to remain: faith, hope, and love. So they're of central importance, and of course, they speak to the needs of our world today. I mean, we're living in days where so many people experience fear and a sense of gloom and where there's so much conflict. We need faith, hope, and love. And so, "Grow in Faith" is actually the first of a series of three books that are coming out, beginning this month and then in the two months that follow.

Really excited and grateful for the opportunity to do this. If God's people can grow in faith, grow in hope, and grow in love, then the world is going to see something distinct about us that is very powerfully attractive. And so I hope that these books are going to be a means of God's blessing and encouragement to many. Start this month with "Grow in Faith" and follow up next month with "Grow in Hope" and the month after with "Grow in Love."

Steve Hiller: Well, we'd love to send you "Grow in Faith" this month to say thanks for your financial support. You can give online at openthebible.org or when you call 1-877-OPEN-365. That's 1-877-673-6365 or openthebible.org. For Pastor Colin Smith, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening, and I hope you'll join us next time. This program is a listener-supported production of Open the Bible.

Colin Smith: Hi, this is Pastor Colin again, and I want you to know about "Watch Your Doctrine." "Watch Your Doctrine" is a six-session course that is geared for leaders but accessible for every believer. The six sessions will introduce you to six central truths of the Christian faith: how we know God, how God speaks to us, how sin affects us, how God's Spirit brings new life, how we're made right with God, and what Jesus accomplished on the cross. There are questions at the end of each session, and you can use them on your own or you can discuss them with a friend. For more information or to begin this free online course, visit openthebible.org/courses. That's openthebible.org/courses.