Guilt

 (Sermons/List1)

Text:  Psalm 51:1-3. Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your loving kindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions.  Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me.

Introduction

    Guilt is probably one of the strongest negative emotions a person can feel.  None of us like being faced with guilt or with the regret it brings. It can make us break out in a cold sweat on a hot day.  It can make our stomachs churn and our blood run cold - as we are reminded of the awfulness of our misdeeds. Feelings of guilt have robbed people of peaceful sleep, and made their days nightmares of despair, over long periods of time.  But, even so, is guilt all bad? 

Our worst enemy?

    Think about it. Is guilt our worst enemy, as men have thought when they could not find peace? Or, does it have a redeeming quality?  God wants us to be bothered by our sins. A guilty conscience is His gift to us, a gift designed to “lead us to repentance.” (Romans 2:4).  Moral guilt can be compared to physical pain. Both are intended to keep us from hurting ourselves. So don’t fight it; thank God when your conscience produces remorse for your sins.

Example

    Can you remember an occasion when guilt kept you from repeating a sin?  Look at a Biblical example where that was the case. The Psalmist David was guilty and he knew it!  He wanted desperately to be released from the web of despair he brought on himself with four awful sins.

This King of Israel, who had been called a man after God's own heart (Acts 13:22), was guilty of theft, adultery, murder, and of living a lie. He stole another man's wife, impregnated her through adultery, had her husband killed, and then lived with her as his own wife - as if all of that was acceptable.

David’s sins were absolutely despicable.  They were almost as bad as some of your sins, and mine.  He would never be able to justify them in any fashion. He was well aware of his awful condition. He knew he was lost in sin and could not undo his actions. And, I believe, he was determined not to repeat them.

However, despite his guilty conscience, David pretended things were all right - until God’s prophet confronted him and he was overwhelmed. David could do nothing for Uriah, the faithful servant he betrayed, but he had to do something. So he quit pretending and sought peace with God through confession.

Confession

    I’m glad David’s prayer is recorded in Psalm 51. Like many before me, I have used it as an example when confessing my own sins. Look at it in context. (Psalm 51:1-3 & 5-17). “Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your loving kindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions.  Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me. “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.  Make me to hear joy and gladness, That the bones which You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me with Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You. “Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, The God of my salvation, And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, And my mouth shall show forth Your praise.  For you do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering.  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart - These, O God, You will not despise.

Only hope

    If David had repented for his sins before the Prophet Nathan confronted him he might have spared himself a lot of grief. He needed to admit his guilt; he had to face it squarely.  Honest confession and heart-felt repentance was his only hope for finding peace. Remember that when you regret something you’ve done or, perhaps, something you failed to do. Honest confession and heart-felt repentance are the first steps toward finding peace. God is not swayed by gifts; He owns everything already. He is not open to argument or appeasement; He is sovereign. The one sacrifice He accepts from guilty sinners is repentance based on “a broken spirit” and “a contrite heart.” (Psalm 51:17).

David forgiven

    God forgave David’s sins; He did not spare him sins consequences. Nathan warned him he would pay for them through severe problems within his family: “Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. Thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.’” (2^nd Samuel 12:10-12).

Gratitude

    I'm sure David was thankful for God’s mercy and grace. I'm sure He was grateful for relief from guilt, even though he knew he would suffer for his transgressions. We can be thankful too; God’s mercy and grace are also available to us. We may endure the earthly consequences of our sins, as David did, but Jesus paid our sin debt in full.

Eternal salvation is ours based on a gift of righteousness we did not earn, and cannot keep, through our own efforts. (2^nd Corinthians 5:21, Isaiah 64:6 & Titus 3:5.” God longs to forgive our sins in spite of our wickedness. “For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. (Psalm 103:14). His compassions are available to all. They have never failed and “they are new” again “every morning.” (Lamentations 3:22-23). God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He waits to grant His mercy to all who repent. But we must turn from our wicked ways in order to live. (Ezekiel 33:11). 

All are guilty

    Joe Goodspeed once wrote an article about guilt; I read it in "Pulpit Helps." (Published originally in "20th Century Christian," in July 1982). Joe wrote about watching a famous comedian on television.  Eventually, the subject of religion came up and the entertainer said this: "The churches had better wise up and quit talking so much about sin.  If the ministers don't get off the case of sin, they are going to find themselves in the real estate business!”

The studio audience applauded; glad to find someone speaking out against their common enemy. Some were struggling with guilt and wanted desperately to laugh it off.  But guilt cannot be dismissed easily. And we are actually fortunate when it bruises our consciences enough to make us want to quit sinning.

Don’t be foolish

    What happens when someone continually ignores the symptoms of cancer in his body?  It continues to grow and spread until it claims his life. What can a smoker expect when he refuses to give up cigarettes that give him fits of choking and coughing each morning? His quality of life cannot improve under those circumstances. If he doesn’t quit soon enough he may lose a lung before dying prematurely.

Worldly problems

    Can we afford to either laugh at or ignore any problem that generates guilt for offenders? No, of course not. We have no good reason to laugh about sins that are destroying our Nation. We cannot afford to snicker at television comics who belittle the effects sin either.

    Actually, we should not laugh at anyone who excuses moral wrongs of any kind.  Rather, we should shed some tears for our collective evils. God hates sin - because of what it does to us and because it cost His Son’s life at Calvary. We should hate it too, for the same reasons and, perhaps, a few more as well.

When you are bothered with a sense of guilt thank God and allow it to do its work in you. Come to the cross of Jesus to find strength to go on with your life. People who refuse to face their guilt and repent only add to their problems.  They don't do much to improve things for the rest of us either.

No excuses

    Sin is often excused as the result of “troubled lives.” Criminals plead "temporary insanity;" weak-willed officials let them get away with it. Our jails contain repeat offenders who should have been executed long ago. As Ecclesiastes 8:11 says, “Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” The evil ones simply go on with their lives of crime, making things difficult for the people they molest and for the taxpayers who must subsidize them in one way or another.

What happened to sin?

    Karl Menninger, one of the best-known psychiatrists of our time, asked the question, "What ever became of sin? He said, "The big troubles of our time are not mere maladjustments, but sin." Dr. Menninger recommended telling it like it is.  Sin is sin, no matter what other names it carries. That fact should certainly be proclaimed in the pulpit.

It matters   

    Should we pretend it doesn't matter when social engineers kill babies and call it freedom of choice? Are they better than the heathens who burned their babies alive as sacrifices to the god molech in Bible times? (Jeremiah 32:35). We have no reason to believe murdered babies could distinguish between the motives of the two and I can’t believe God even tries. We may receive the same punishments God inflicted on the ancient baby killers. How can we expect less when we kill more children each year than they killed in a life‑time?

Have you wondered why our once great country is going downhill so fast, and why we are overrun with illegal immigrants who threaten to destroy our economy? Could it have something to do with substitution, or replacing our murdered offspring with other people’s children? Is God simply reassigning the heritage we stole from our unborn children by aborting them?

Don’t ignore sin

    Can we assume our children will not be harmed when our school systems permit sexual deviants to indoctrinate them with insane perversions? Are we any better than the perverts when we do not denounce their sins and rebuke them forcefully? Our failure to act is actually foolish in the extreme.

What would you do if lepers were free to infect society in general and your family in particular? If you were wise you’d restrain them, exactly as has been done already. The only reason leprosy does not run rampant in the world today is because lepers have been isolated from the rest of society for centuries.

Laughable?

    Can we afford to laugh at "situation comedies” that portray sodomites as normal? Their unhealthy practices are learned, not inherited. They suffer (however they were infected) from the moral and spiritual illness that brought destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah.

Satan failed to destroy the human race in the Garden of Eden but he did not quit trying. Like abortion, homosexuality is one of his ploys. The ways to resist him successfully cannot include granting homosexuals the right to recruit our children. We must keep them away from the innocent. Homosexuals cannot reproduce themselves naturally. They must depend on recruits to satisfy their cravings. Don’t grant them liberty to work openly at infecting your family.

Aids, which may be worse than leprosy in some ways, is not an accident of nature. “Nature” simply responded to our flagrant abuse of God’s laws. Gay people, and I use the word ‘gay’ advisedly, are dying like flies, with a total lack of frivolity in the death experience.  But the worst is yet to come; they must face God eventually. Of course we should love sinners. But love does not permit the depraved to infect others. Love denies them access to our children while warning them of God’s wrath and pointing them to hope through His saving grace. 

The rest of us

    Now, if you are not a baby killer or a homosexual don’t feel left out; there is something here for everyone. We are all guilty of something (Romans 3:23), and all sin is destructive.  Yours may only be more visible than mine, or vice versa. Some results are evident immediately; others are not. 

Perhaps you only watch as Rome burns. But that may be as shameful as doing nothing to save the lost and protect the innocent. And it isn't possible to ignore reality forever.  We must pay our dues sooner or later.  Every account will be settled one way or another. (Galatians 6:7).

Thank God for reminders that prompt us to do something about our sins while we are able. God could leave us sinners to stew in our own juices. That seems to account for the fate of the ones addressed in the First Chapter of Romans. They were, as described, almost unspeakably wicked. Ignoring God brought them to that state: “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.” (Romans 1:28).

Get political

    Do you want to help slow the rise of ungodliness around you? Love the lost. Pray for them compassionately. Warn them of the error of their ways as lovingly as possible. And get political.  Check out candidates for office before you vote. Find out what they do as well as what they say. Don't support immoral, God-hating men and women.

Make your wishes known to office holders. Write or call your representatives as often as necessary to prove you are serious. Satan’s helpers seem to have deep pockets and they use them to win elections. When good politicians are attacked by bad people, support the good ones financially as you are able.

Hunger

    All men hunger for righteousness; some don’t understand either their emptiness or the cause of it.  But nearly everyone longs both to be right and do right. When hunger for righteousness is either denied or suppressed conflict follows. And the resulting confusion can lead to chaos. So recognizing sin through guilt is a good thing.  Don’t fight it and don’t ignore it. Let it work repentance in you and draw you to God. If you simply cannot restrain yourself from a sinful practice, think deliverance. And look for Christians who might be able to help you obtain it.

Others

    The Bible names several men who endured valleys of guilt when they sinned and enjoyed God’s peace when they finally repented. David is one example; He recognized His evil nature and said, "My sin is ever before me." (Psalm 51:3). Godly sorrow brought him healing and restored the "joy" of his salvation. (Psalm 51:12).

Simon Peter is another example; he wept bitterly from guilt after he denied his Lord. Later he told us how to enjoy better times: “He who would love life And see good days, Let him refrain his tongue from evil, And his lips from speaking guile; Let him turn away from evil and do good; Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, And his ears are open to their prayers; But the face of the LORD is against those who do evil." (1^st Peter 3:10-12).

Goodspeed’s Comedian

    The studio audience of Joe Goodspeed's "comedian" saw guilt as an enemy.  They did not want to be reminded of their sins. But Satan was their real enemy. He works at tempting men to sin and at preventing them from finding restoration and peace. Learn to recognize your sense of guilt as a gift from God. He reminds you of your failures because He wants you to repent and find forgiveness in Him.

Peace with God 

    Let your guilty conscience bring you to your knees. Confess your sins and let go of your guilt as the blood of Jesus covers the sins. Don’t hesitate to let Jesus have control of your life. He loves you and He said: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30).

Experience the joy of salvation, as David did, and keep it by submitting to the Lordship of Jesus anew each day. As Romans 8:1 says: There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. One thing more: Thank God for your guilt when you have it - but don’t keep it longer than necessary, which should be just long enough to bring you back to fellowship with Him.

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David E. Beneze, Canon City, CO. See Page 28 of Pulpit Helps for Sept. 1983. Used at Widefield Foursquare, 8/28/83, and at Salida, CO 6/27/93. Latest update 06/12/2007.