Guilt: Who Do You Blame, and What Do You Do?
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Introduction
Introduction
I want to ask a very important question this morning: Who is responsible for your sin?
When you do something wrong . . . who is to blame?
Some might say it is because their parents didn’t raise you just right . . . or because the government failed in its responsibilities somehow.
To ask it another way, is someone else responsible for your sin?
For the answer to that question, turn with me to the book of James. Page 1158
Read James 1:13-15
In this book, James emphasizes the mind a lot . . . he wants you to know certain things.
And in these verses, James wants you to know the right things about sin and temptation.
And the first thing you need to know about sin and temptation is that God will never cause you to sin.
look again at verse 13.
This verse is saying that no one can blame God for the sin that they commit, or for their temptation to commit those sins.
We need to be clear about that word “temptation”
The temptation that James is talking about here is your internal desire to commit a sin . . . to do something wrong.
to be clear, God does put people in difficult situations to test them. You can see that even in verses 1 and two. That testing of your faith is the same Greek word for temptation in verse 13.
God the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be “tempted” or “tested” by the Devil. This is the same word for “trial’ or “temptation in James 1. But in that story we see that Jesus didn’t sin once . . . even though He was hungry and thirsty.
Jesus didn’t sin when He was tempted because He had no sin in Him.
And when you read the story of Jesus being tempted by Satan in the wilderness, the author, Matthew, is probably alluding to the Old Testament story of when God led the Israelites into the wilderness to be tested.
40 days . . . 40 years
So why did God lead the Israelites into the wilderness? Well . . . Deuteronomy 8:2
“You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.
God wanted the Israelites to see that they couldn’t obey perfectly . . . they had sinful hearts that needed to be renewed. He let them be hungry to show them that He is the one who prvoides. He wanted them to know that He disciplined them like a father disciplines a son.
But they failed the test—they sinned and complained and acted wickedly for those 40 years such that they couldn’t enter the promised land.
But Jesus—when He was in the wilderness—acted perfectly. Why? Because He didn’t have any sin in Him. He obeyed perfectly . . . something no one else could ever do.
When you sin . . . even when you want to sin when faced with an opportunity . . . you prove to have evil in your heart that you can’t blame anyone else for.
James is saying that God is not responsible for that, you are.
God puts us in situations to help us see that we have that sin in our hearts already . . . why would He do that?
Well . . . just like the people of Israel, to humble you, to show you what is in your heart, and ultimately, in His grace . . .
So that you can repent of that sin. (ask God for forgiveness and turn away from that sin).
We would have no reason to repent of sin that we didn’t know was there, would we?
But when God puts you in a tough situation, and you sin, you are faced with a simple fact: you have sin in your heart that you need to repent of . . . seeking forgiveness from God because of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
Sadly, instead of turning to God through Christ in response to their own sin, many people choose to blame other people for it . . . perhaps many of your here today.
You’ve lived your life up to this point blaming all your problems, all your sin, on other people and circumstances.
But that is a dangerous thing to do because you are essentially blaming God for that sin instead of taking responsibility for it yourself.
So why can’t we blame God for that sin? Because it isn’t in His character to sin. That’s why it says that “God is not tempted by evil”.
It would be a sin to cause someone else to sin . . . and God cannot sin, He can’t even be tempted to sin. There is no evil in Him.
You can see this in verse 17—Good gifts come from God and He never changes.
This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
So if you are faced with a situation in which you could sin, that is a trial ( a temptation of sorts) . . . but as soon as you want to sin (It becomes tempting to you), it reveals your sinful heart.
And that’s exactly what James says in verse 14.
You are lured and enticed by your own sinful desire. These words make you think of a fish biting a hook.
So here’s an important question . . . How do you blame God when you sin? Most of us wouldn’t say that “God made me sin” . . . but in what ways do you blame God?
Well . . . when you blame anything other than you.
When you blame other people
When you blame circumstances
Why? because God is in control of all those things. God is in control of how people treat you, and God is in control of all of the circumstances you’re in.
So if you say, “I wouldn’t have sinned if so-and-so didn’t____” or “I wouldn’t have sinned if such-and-such never happened” you are not viewing your temptation or your sin rightly.
Put simply . . . no one can make you sin.
No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.
“For there is no good tree which produces bad fruit, nor, on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit.
“For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush.
“The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.
“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit.
“You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.
“The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil.
“But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.
“For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
So the only person you have to blame for your sin is yourself . . . and it is vitally important that you understand this because sin leads to death.
And that’s what we read in verse 15.
Here is the sequence:
The trial (opportunity to sin) comes
It reveals sinful lust in your heart
the lust is conceived (acted upon) and brings forth sin
the sin is accomplished and brings forth death (“brings forth” is a medical term denoting safe delivery)
So what now?
If you can’t anyone but yourself for your sin, what should you do?
Well, for some of you this might be terrible news. Some of you might be rejecting everything I am saying right now.
But I want you to know that really believing that your sin is your fault and only your fault is the first step toward true freedom from that sin.
Why?
Because you cannot be forgiven of sin that you don’t think is your fault.
And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.”
Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, “We are not blind too, are we?”
Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.
So back to my earlier question . . . If your sin is no one’s fault but your own, what do you do now?
Psalm 32 (go there)
Psalm 32 (go there)
What do you do if you feel sick?
You go to the doctor.
What do the doctors do?
They look for the problem. And it’s only after they find the problem that they can do anything about it, right?
If they find that you are diabetic, they prescribe insulin shots to regulate the insulin in your blood.
If they find cancer, then you go through a chemo regimen to try to kill the cancer cells.
Bottom line . . . the doctors prescribe a treatment based on what the problem is.
And that’s not only true of physical problems. When we talk about spiritual problems, the Bible says that you have a very serious issue.
And that issue is that the sin that you commit . . . the sin that you can’t blame anyone or anything else for . . . means that you deserve eternal death because you have sinned against a holy God.
And this is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
And He requires you to be obedient to Him.
“Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
But there’s where the big problem is—you have broken God’s law.
Rom 3:10
as it is written,
“There is none righteous, not even one;
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
And the payment—what you and I deserve because of the fact that we’ve broken God’s law—is death . . . both physical and eternal death in Hell.
Romans 6:23 (LSB)
For the wages of sin is death,
That’s what we all deserve because of sin.
To use a different word, our biggest problem is guilt
For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.
So if that’s our deepest problem—the diagnosis of our problem—what is the cure? What do we need?
Sadly, there are so many who get that question wrong. They think they just need to work harder to be a better person . . . or they need to think better about themselves . . . or do good things to either make themselves feel better or to appease God.
There is a story of a teenage girl who lost 50 pounds in a short period of time . . . and the doctors diagnosed her with anorexia.
But it turned out that she didn’t have anorexia at all . . . she had a rare form of cancer instead.
Those have completely different treatments don’t they? To put it mildly, a wrong diagnosis for that teenager almost cost her life.
But the truth is . . . a wrong diagnosis of your spiritual condition has far worse consequences . . . even worse than misdiagnosing cancer.
And having a right diagnosis will lead you to the proper treatment.
What is that treatment? What do you need?
Very simply your deepest need is to have your guilt taken away . . . to be forgiven of your sins . . . to be reconciled with a holy God.
And you can’t do that on your own.
One of the verses I quoted before, Romans 6:23, has a second part that I didn’t read. It says:
For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Eternal life is a gift of God through faith, or trust, in Jesus Christ.
We see that in Romans 4 where Paul uses Psalm 32 to talk about Justification by faith alone.
It is only by trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ can you be forgiven and saved from your sin.
What is that finished work? It’s that he never sinned . . . He lived a perfect life. But He died on a cross as punishment for the sins of those who would trust in Him.
The Bible says that if you are saved through Christ’s finished work on the cross, that “We are now under no condemnation, because “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor 5:21).
Christ, who had no sin of His own, took the sin and punishment of those who would confess their sins and trust in Him, and instead gave them His righteousness.
Put simply, He died to pay for the sins of those who trust in Him. And to prove that He is God and has authority to forgive sins, He rose again three days later and promises to raise with Him all of those people who have trusted in Him.
What tremendous kindness that is!
But how does that happen? How can you be forgiven?
You’ll want to follow along with King David—he’s going to show you from his own personal example.
Context
Context
Some of you might know about King David and his major sin.
The story is told in the book of 2 Samuel chapter 11. Turn there with me and follow along (Page 335).
**Explain**
So David hid that sin from everyone . . . only he and Bathsheba knew about it.
So David knew what it was like to live with un-confessed sin. Day after day, week after week, month after month, knowing what he did while Bathsheba became bigger and bigger as the baby grew up.
But the guilt crushed him.
Until one day, in 2 Samuel chapter 12, David got an unexpected visitor.
**Explain**
And after David realized he truly was guilty . . . he melted. His shame and penitence led him to say in verse 13, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
And even though David deserved to die, the Lord had mercy on him, and he did not die.
And David experienced true freedom from the guilt of his sin.
Don’t you want to experience that freedom as well? Don’t you want to be reconciled to God . . . to be forgiven?
David will show you how in Psalm 32
You’ll see there that this Psalm is called a “Maskil.” A “Maskil” is probably an instructional Psalm.
David is going to write this instruction using three commands for you to follow so that you can have forgiveness from your sins:
1) Confess your sin to God (1-5)
2) Pray to God (6-10)
3) Rejoice in God’s forgiveness (11)
Confess your sin to God (1-5)
Confess your sin to God (1-5)
Look with me again at verses 1-2
“blessed” here could be translated “happy” or “joyful”
“Happy is he….. Joyful is the man….”
There are so many who boast that they have found the source of true happiness, but this is the key; to have your sins forgiven.
Literally, the word for forgiven is that the sins are “lifted off”
So the blessed man is the one whose sin is “lifted away” and “covered”
Remember: to have your sin forgiven is your greatest need! So you might wonder, what is a sin?
Well, David uses four words here to describe sin:
1. Transgression = “willful rebellion”
2. Sins = “missing the mark” in specific actions or thoughts (Romans 3:23)
3. Iniquity = “twisted, crooked, corrupt”
4. Deceit = lying about or hiding sin.
You might say, “what does it look like to confess your sins to God?”
Well, David continues by providing the example of himself.
Look at verses 3-5
“When I kept silent, my body (bones) wore away through my groaning all day long”
When he remained outwardly silent concerning his sin, inwardly his soul groaned. Outward silence, inward agony.
Why this inward agony?
“for day and night Your hand was heavy upon me”
This wasn’t simply David feeling guilty because David misunderstood the situation. David didn’t feel guilty because he was being too hard on himself and just needed to trust himself not to do it again. David didn’t feel guilty because someone else made him sin. David felt guilty because he was guilty!
And because he was guilty, God caused him to be in agony inwardly.
David was objectively guilty, and because of this, he felt the wight of God’s heavy hand crushing him.
What did this crushing hand cause?
“my vitality (juices) (strength) was drained away as with the fever heat of summer”
The heavy, crushing hand of God squeezed the life out David, which then felt as though they were drying up in the dry, summer heat.
Now, as you listen to this, It may seem like a terrible thing that God made David feel so terrible about his sin.
But the truth is . . . there are so many people who never feel bad about their sin, right?
The truth is, the fact that God caused David to feel guilty of his sin . . . and then to send Nathan to confront David in that sin . . . are all examples of God’s tremendous grace.
Maybe some of you are here today and don’t feel guilty . . . you don’t feel bad about your sin.
But realize that just because you don’t feel guilty doesn’t mean that you aren’t guilty. It means your conscience isn’t working properly.
You need to pray and ask God to help you view your sin rightly . . . as rebellion against a holy God and deserving of His wrath.
You need to pray ans ask God to help you see your sin as your own . . . some something that someone else made you do.
But if you do feel guilty, you can take heart because David shows you in the next verse what to do:
Psalm 32:5
That verse can be translated:
“I made known my sin to you, my guilt, I did not cover. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord” and you lifted off the guilt of my sin – sela.”
Do you see the repeated “covering” and “lifting off?”
V1 whose sin is “covered”
V5 I did not cover my guilt
V5 You lifted off the guilt
As long as you are covering your sin, there is no hope. But as soon as that sin is uncovered—you confess that sin to God—the guilt can be lifted away, covered, and forgiven.
So what about you? Have you gone to God and confessed your sin to Him?
That’s the first step in being reconciled with God—realize you’re a sinner and confessing your sin to God.
You may ask, “Exactly how do I do that? How do I confess my sin to Him?”
That leads to the second command:
Pray to God (6-10)
Pray to God (6-10)
It might sound obvious, but to confess your sin to God you need to pray to God.
And When you pray, there are 4 attitudes you should have:
The first attitude is found in verse 6.
This is the attitude of urgency.
This is literally “in a time of finding you” – some translate this as “a window of opportunity” or even “Immediately” – whatever the translation, it has the idea of urgency.
This is the opposite of waiting and thinking about it. It’s as if you were poisoned and you were looking for the antidote.
Why would you wait?
If your biggest problem is that you have sinned against a holy God and you need to be reconciled to God . . . why would you wait to do that?
David gives an analogy of escaping flood waters.
“surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him”
You probably know what flash floods look like. They happen in the middle east—a river bed will fill up quickly and cause a lot of damage.
But David says that when you run to God, you will be safe.
Don’t wait to pray for God to forgive you through Christ. Don’t leave this building without being sure you’re forgiven.
The next attitude is found in verse 7.
This is the attitude of confidence.
From what is David hiding?
From God!
God is David’s hiding place from God.
God is the most terrifying person when you are hiding your sin—hiding from Him—but He is the most comforting presence when you humble yourself, confess your sin, and run to Him.
And you can do that with confidence because He is kind. He will never turn away anyone who comes to Him in faith on account of Jesus Christ.
Whoever enters in will forever dwell with Him, and He will by no means cast you out.
Run to Him. Hide in Him with confidence.
The next attitude is found in verse 8.
This is the attitude of dependence.
I believe this is God speaking now.
Not only will God not be coming for you in judgement, but He will actually guide you through life, providing you with counsel, with His eye upon you.
And the truth is, you need His counsel. No one can get through this life in a way that’s pleasing to Him . . . without Him.
You must pray to God with urgency, hiding in Him with confidence, and understanding your utter dependence on Him.
Finally, the last attitude is found in verse 9.
This is the attitude of submission.
What lessons do we learn from the horse and mule?
It is foolish to resist – If God will forgive you and lovingly teach you and counsel you with His eye always upon you, why would you be so stubborn to resist?
It doesn’t make any sense.
Don’t resist like a donkey. Submit to God, and humble yourself before Jesus Christ. Trust in Him alone for your salvation, and turn from the sin you’ve held onto for so long.
And verse 10 stands as an ultimatum—will you submit to Christ or will you be like the stubborn donkey?
If you choose to reject God’s free offer of forgiveness and grace today, David is clear that that is the path to sorrow and greater sorrows—eternal sorrows.
but if you choose the path of faith in Christ, God’s steadfast, never-ending love will surround you.
David didn’t even know about Jesus Christ. He knew that there would one day be a Messiah who would save His people, but he didn’t have much information.
But you and I today have the completed Bible that tells us all about Jesus the Messiah. He’s the one who I told you about ealier and He is your only hope to be forgiven of your sin.
Have you trusted in Christ? Have you run to Him for forgiveness of your sins?
Choose today to humble yourself, confess your sins to Christ, and trust in Him alone for salvation.
And if you choose Him, David says that there’s only one proper response:
and that is to rejoice at God’s forgiveness.
Rejoice at God’s Forgiveness (11)
Rejoice at God’s Forgiveness (11)
These are commands.
The cancer patient who finds out he’s cancer free—he can rejoice, can’t he?
The man under crippling debt—he should rejoice if his debts get paid by someone else, shouldn’t he?
Well how much more should the man who was facing eternal punishment in hell for his sins against God rejoice when his sins are forgiven!
If you humble yourself, confess your sins to God through faith in Jesus Christ, you have all the reason in the world to rejoice and exult because Jesus paid for you sins once and for all!
So instead of eternal suffering, you’ll look forward to eternal life with the Father who will wipe away every tear and comfort every sorrow.
Won’t you confess and turn away from your sin? Won’t you do that so you can rejoice that you have been saved by the sacrificial blood of Christ! There is no better news!
That’s the good news of Christ.