A TWOFOLD SORROW

The apostle Paul never could forget the work which he had done in Corinth. By the grace of God it was a blessed work. Many were brought from darkness to light. A large congregation was instituted in that very ungodly place. Yea, Corinth was known in the old world as an ungodly place. Nearly all the iniquities of the old times were to be found there. But to encourage his servant in his work, the Lord had said to Paul: Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city. A very blessed place Corinth was, although it was an ungodly city. The apostle laboured among the Corinthians a year and six months and was teaching them the Word of God. Alas, however, when the Apostle was gone away many terrible errors and sins were to be found in that place. Therefore the Apostle has written the first epistle to the Corinthians and as a good servant of the Lord, he did not spare them, but he warned them fervently, admonished them with a holy zeal, yea chastised them with sharp words and also comforted them with words of grace for those who repent. After a while he received a report of the congregation by Titus and he was very much pleased that his letter by the mercy of God was bearing such fruits as it did. He heard that the epistle caused them to be sorrowful. A sorrow which he called a godly sorrow. So we can read in the words of the text whereupon we want to meditate for a while.

The apostle says that there are two kinds of sorrow. A godly one and a sorrow of the world. What is the difference?

A godly sorrow is in the first place a sorrow according to the will of God. He has declared in His law how that we ought to live. That law is the Law of Love, because the main commandment is to love God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind and with all our strength. And it is according to the law to sorrow for the offences with which we offended the most High. A godly sorrow is in the second place to the glory of God, because those who sorrow will glorify the greatness of the long-suffering and patience of the Lord; they will glorify the righteousness of His commandments; the holiness of His divine Nature; the truth of His judgments. They will undoubtedly submit themselves to the Lord to all His ways. They will wonder that they are not yet taken away by His holy and righteous hand.

That godly sorrow is wrought by the Spirit of God. It is a work of heaven. Men by nature are lovers of sins and of all kind of worldly affairs, but when the Lord comes to convince them they will see the loathsomeness of sin, and full of a holy self-abasement, they will loathe themselves. No, that is not the work of man, but the work of that powerful Spirit of God. Man can have some common convictions of the Spirit, which will let the sinner in the state wherein he is, and which will cause him for a while to turn away from the ways of the world, but not for the fact that sins themselves are hated, but for fear of punishment. There is no love towards the holiness of the divine Being and therefore no true sorrow. But there where the very work of the Spirit of the Lord will start His saving work, there the first mark of grace will be a godly sorrow. What will be the fruit of such a sorrow? The text explains: a godly sorrow worketh repentance.

What is that repentance? The Greek word (metanoia) really means: a change of the mind, and therefore we can explain the word repentance the best if we think about the word conversion. A sorrow that does not bear this fruit is not a godly sorrow. Some persons can be very sorrowful, especially when they come near death, so as on sickbeds, or in other great dangers and they seem to become for a while religious and spiritually minded, but the fruit of a true repentance is not to be seen in their life. As they rise up again by the Lord’s goodness they turn themselves to the very same life as they were living before. The true conversion, the change of life is not to be seen. But the godly sorrow has that fruit. There comes a change of the heart, of the mind and therefore of the whole life. I know and acknowledge that there are differences. If a person was a gross sinner and hated religion, you will see the fruit of the sorrow better than if a person was already religiously educated from his youth and was an outward professor of the truth. But nevertheless, whatever kind of life we were leading before, when the godly sorrow is wrought, there will come a true repentance. For the gross sinner a turning away from all the pleasures of the world he was seeking before, but for the outward professor of the truth, a turning away from the performance of all kind of religious duties with that cold and lukewarm heart he had before. Oh, how sweet and precious the institutions of the Lord will become to his heart then. How different will be his reading of the Word of God, his going to the House of the Lord, his prayers and supplications, his affection towards the people of God. That true repentance is a work of the heart that bears its fruits in every work we will do and in every word we will speak. How wonderful such a change of the whole life. The Apostle spoke of what was working in the Corinthians: Carefulness, learning of themselves, indignation, fear, vehement desires, zeal and revenge. That repentance is a repentance to salvation. The person in whose heart this repentance is wrought cannot be satisfied with his sorrow or with his repentance. The very desire of the heart becomes to be reconciled to the Lord. His sorrow is that he has offended the Lord and deserves His judgments and has to be separate from God; therefore such a person cannot be satisfied with anything less than with the restoration of that which was lost. Oh, it has to be said very explicitly, especially in these times: We have to be reconciled with the Lord and let therefore our souls not be deceived by the idea that with some feelings of sorrow, or with a repentance we can comfort ourselves, as being now partakers of the grace of God. Surely we may and must encourage such ones, saying that all the saints whom the Lord ever saved had such feelings and such repentance, but we have to teach always the necessity of finding no rest for our souls until we have found rest in the Lord and in His salvation. Let not our hope be founded in our own workings and our own experiences, but teach one the other to find our only reliance in that Rock of Salvation that the Word of God has offered unto us. Here is the lesson for the repentant ones, who long after the fellowship of the Lord, that there is in that Redeemer Whom the Word of God has revealed unto us, a complete salvation. Behold the perfectness of that sacrifice He has performed and the glory of that righteousness He has earned for the church of God. Although your sins and transgressions testify against you, however it is His true and wonderful word: Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. O, that repentance may never cease until we experimentally may know the truth of these words in our own heart. That we may be cleansed by the power of that blood that cleanseth of all our sins and that by the Lord’s grace our joy then be in Him, Who is the Chief among ten thousand. Then the sorrow will be removed and there will

be a holy happiness in that wondrous service of the Lord, the Most High. There will be many reasons for God’s people to sorrow again, because the heart is so often backsliding from the ways of the Lord and turning to the world again, but that godly sorrow may be given us time and again to repent unto salvation. Never can we enjoy salvation without that true and holy sorrow, because these things belong together. How very different is the sorrow of the world.

They too have sorrow, who are strangers of this godly sorrow, because the life of men is full of all kind of adversities and troubles. The world is a house of sorrow. But this sorrowing is more a sorrow about the results and consequences of sin than about the sin itself. The world is sorrowing about their losses, their troubles, their disappointments, because these things take away their joy in the world, their peace in the life wherein they are, but they never sorrow about the real cause of all the troubles we are submitted to: our departure from God and sin against Him. The fruit of that sin will be nothing but death, where the sorrow of the world will be transformed into an everlasting sorrow in that place, where is wailing and gnashing of teeth. O, that we may pray the Lord to give this godly sorrow that will lead us to repentances, and that will work salvation in our hearts. He is the only Author thereof. It is our duty to sorrow with a godly sorrow, but the Lord can work it in us. May He lead us to the throne of grace with the prayer: O, Lord, make me to sorrow with a godly sorrow, because they who do shall be comforted by His own word and spirit:

Needy and sorrowful to Thee I cry,
Let Thy salvation set my soul on high,
Then I will sing and praise Thy holy name,
My thankful song Thy mercy shall proclaim.
With joy the meek shall see my soul restored,
Your heart shall live, ye saints that seek the Lord,
He helps the needy and regards their cries,
Those in distress the Lord shall not despise.

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