The Remedy For Guilt 8/18/2019
Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 35:25
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· 447 viewsWe are all guilty of sin, but God has a remedy for our guilt.
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You are guilty or “we find you guilty” has to be among the most discouraging words or phrases. The guilty once condemned must deal with their guiltiness. Many take the approach of denial. As one person made the observation “in prison no one committed the crime.”
Every guilty person has to deal with the issue of their own guilt.
One man took a very different approach. He was arrested and convicted of grand larceny. He decided if I can’t beat the charges, I will join the side of those charging me. He sued himself for what he had done. Then ask the state to pay the judgement against himself.
Robert Lee Brock, a prisoner at the Indian Creek Correctional Center in Chesapeake, filed a handwritten, seven-page lawsuit in federal court. "I partook of alcoholic beverages in 1993, July 1st, as a result I caused myself to violate my religious beliefs. This was done by my going out and getting arrested," wrote Brock, who is serving 23 years for breaking and entering and grand larceny.
"I want to pay myself 5 million dollars," he continued, "but ask the state to pay it in my behalf since I can't work and am a ward of the state."
It is not only this man who has to deal with the issue of his own guilt. We all do and there are all kinds of responses.
I am reminded of a cartoon:
Two convicts in a prison courtyard are whispering about a third convict. The first convict says to the second, “You know, the thing that I can’t stand about that guy is his guiltier than thou attitude.”
To be honest, in our society we have moved from a healthy awareness of wrong into many people not being willing to accept responsibility. We have become a “It is someone else’s fault.” society.
This is true in our relationship with God. When it comes to religion, there has probably never been generations so resistant to guilt motivation as baby-boomers, Gen Z, and Millennials.
At times we talk about the blessing of forgiveness...
If it is true that forgiveness is the most therapeutic fact in all of life, then guilt must be the most destructive.
We are not built to carry around a load of guilt. So we automatically try to atone for it. To get rid of it. To pass it off.
Some people carry it around in their bodies and minds, it affects their entire personality and life.
Others put it into a bag and dump it on someone else.
It is Adam and Eve hiding themselves from God in the garden. “I heard your voice and I was afraid”. Why? Because I am guilty. I have done what I was not supposed to do.
It’s Adam saying “The woman You gave me, she gave me and I ate.”
It’s Eve saying “The serpent deceived me and I ate.”
What we need is a God encounter. Something that forces our guilt from the dark closet of our life and causes us to deal with it before God.
Remember King David’s greatest failure. He had an adulterous affair with a woman who was not his wife. Then when evidence of the affair, reaping what was sown, was about to happen. He attempted to cover it up. First by bringing her husband home, then by having the husband placed on the front lines of battle so death was certain.
Think about how God dealt with David.
1 Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him, and said to him: “There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. 3 But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him. 4 And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him; but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”
5 So David’s anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die! 6 And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity.”
7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.
We need a “You are the one!” moment.
Sin is not something remote and far removed from us. It sits in this room… among hurting people.
The unbeliever struggles with sin.
The saint struggles with sin.
We all struggle with the failure of sin. But, there is a remedy offered.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
The by-product of preaching and the word of God is the realization that we are guilty. We are forced to look in the mirror… the calling of sin as sin.
Rational guilt is deserved.
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Redemptive grace resolves rational guilt.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.
In a word, we all are guilty.
But there is a remedy.
The Grace of God.
11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.
Grace of God that brings salvation appeared to all men.
Faith.
1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Through Jesus Christ we have access by faith into this grace.
Obedience.
It is not just grace and faith, but obedience also.
We must obey the gospel.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
What is the gospel?
1 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
Death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We must apply the gospel.
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
We die with Him in repentance. We are buried with Him in baptism in His name. Resurrected through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Altar Music
Acts 2 shows us that it is not some abstract theology hung out there somewhere...
1 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
6 And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language.
What sound? The sound of the people speaking in tongues.
12 So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “Whatever could this mean?”
What does this speaking in tongues mean?
14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. 15 For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. 16 But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
17 ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream dreams.
18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days;
And they shall prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in heaven above
And signs in the earth beneath:
Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
20 The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
21 And it shall come to pass
That whoever calls on the name of the Lord
Shall be saved.’
Peter begins to bring home his message.
36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
whom you crucified.
It becomes personal… the sin you have done.
Having that physical relationship outside the covenant of marriage.
The lie you told the employer so you could benefit.
The drunken stupor of your life.
Ok, ok! I am guilty! Now what? What can be done?
37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”
There is a remedy by God’s grace.
38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The obedience of faith, Repentance, baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, the promise…the gift of the Holy Spirit. The same experience as those who were in the upper room in verses 1-4.
I believe God wants to forgive someone of sin today!
I believe God wants to wash someones sins away in the waters of baptism in His name.
I believe if some one who has not received the baptism of the Holy Spirit wants it and asks today… God will fill you with the Holy Spirit and you will begin to speak in tongues as the Spirit gives the utterance just like in Acts 2.