Guilt
Scripture: Psalm 32:1-5; Romans 3:22-24
The title of my message this morning is “Guilt.” I do not know about you, but there are times when I lay in bed at night thinking about things that I have done that were not right and actually hurt others. I think about the repercussions of decisions that I made in the moment that impacted my life years later. This is the one thing that connects all of us – we all have a past, a present and a future. These three things, while different, are the three things that everyone who has ever walked the earth shares in common. Our past is different from our present which is different from our future. But even though there are differences between the three, each one is connected by what preceded it. Our past impacts our present while our present will impact our future. How our past impacts our present and future depends on the decisions we made at that time. I want you to listen closely to me now; our decisions only affect our future. The decisions you made thirty years ago are affecting your present and will also impact your future. But those decisions did not impact what happened prior to it. The decisions we make today cannot change our past. It can only impact the future. This is why guilt takes such a heavy toll on the person carrying it. The mistakes of our past – we can do nothing about any of them. All we can do today is make better decisions for our tomorrow. But, those memories lingers. The pain from the results of the decisions lingers. Knowing the impact on the people we hurt lingers. It’s like we are walking under a cloud with the belief that the only way out from under it is to go back in time and undo the moment which we know can’t happen.
I was reminded recently about something that had happened in my past. This was during a time when I did not always make the best choices. When I was reminded of this incident, the one thought that attempted to move into my heart was: “you have not changed; you will always be the way you were then.” Have you ever had that happen to you? Have you ever had your past failures flash before your eyes just when it seemed like you had made progress dealing with the past? We know that our enemy uses our past in an attempt to keep us in bondage, but since God has given us a way out, I believe that more often than not, it is not our enemy who keeps us in bondage to our past. We are the ones holding on to the past. We are the ones holding on to the guilt. Now do not get me wrong – yes, our enemy can be involved, but we freely help him out. If we could get to the point where we are no longer helping him keep us in bondage, half the battle is won. This morning I want us to focus on the impact guilt is having on our lives and how we can begin to move towards being free of it. Remember, we have no guilt about the future, only about things that have happened or decisions that we “have made” which could affect the future. We can have feelings of guilt about a decision we make about something upcoming, but the guilt does not take hold until the decision is executed.
So let’s talk about guilt. Guilt is defined as, “an awareness of having done wrong or committed a crime, accompanied by feelings of shame and regret.” In this sense, guilt is a good thing because we are aware that we have done something that we should not have done. This opens the door for us to acknowledge the mistake and learn from it. And herein lay the problem for some of us. When we make mistakes and we do not seek to fix it, it eats at us. When we step outside of God’s will and we do not repent because we felt justified or because it was so normal in the world that we did not feel the need to repent, it eats at us. You see, the Spirit will convict us even when we are trying not to hear. David captured this clearly in Psalms 32. He wrote the following, “(1)….How blessed is he whose wrongdoing is forgiven, whose sin is covered! (2) How blessed is a person whose guilt the LORD does not take into account, and in whose spirit there is no deceit! (3) When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. (4) For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality failed as with the dry heat of summer. Selah (5) I acknowledged my sin to You, and I did not hide my guilt; I said, ‘I will confess my wrongdoings to the LORD’; and You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah” (Psalms 32:1-5)
In Psalms 32 David paints a very vivid picture of what guilt can do to our life when we cannot release it. To paraphrase David, “Guilt sucks the joy out of life and serving God.” In Psalms 32, David evaluates his life, his un-confessed sin as compared to those who had confessed their sins. Now I am sure that all of us have previously confessed our sins, but I like this Psalms because of the conclusion that David reaches. If you have ever had a situation where you hurt someone but did not want to admit your wrong doings, then you can clearly understand what David is saying. Think about how you acted towards the person you hurt; the shame you felt, the tension, the replaying of the situation in your head. When you finally reached the point of seeking forgiveness and you approached the person to ask them to forgive you, how heavy your chest felt as you awaited their response. But when they did forgive you how that heaviness disappeared and was replaced with relief and joy as the relationship was repaired. There was such a release that the situation was finally over and you were able to resume your life with the person being a part of it. This is what David was talking about – it was such a release that it brings joy – happiness. He also states that the sins are covered. What does it mean to “cover” something? It means that it is no longer in sight; it is no longer visible for people to see and use against you. The Greek word also means, “to conceal”. To conceal something means to hide it or keep it a secret. What David is saying is that when our sins are forgiven, God hides them as if they never happened. God conceals them from His memory even though people might continue to carry them – but that is what people do!
We have to walk in the knowledge that Jesus paid the price for our sins and through Him we are cleansed as if our sins never happened. Even though we know that when people know our failures they do not want to let us forget about them, especially when we hurt them, but when God forgives us, their opinion no longer matters. I am not saying that we should not try and make amends, but what I am saying is that when I have failed God and others, once I truly repent before Him, He cleanses me and wipes the slate clean. Now if there are people who have been hurt by my actions, all I can do is confess my sin to them, ask their forgiveness, and move forward. While I cannot make anyone forgive me, I can ask and make sure that I do not repeat the mistake. People are more likely to forgive us when our repentance is genuine, but that is not always guaranteed. So David said the person whose sins are forgiven, whose sins are covered, is blessed. Paul also referenced this in Roman 4:7-8 when he was talking about our being justified by faith. When our sins are forgiven, the “result” of the guilt should cease. It should stop hindering us from moving forward in our lives. Now here comes the good part because David elaborates more on what he is saying. He said in verse two, “How blessed is a person whose guilt the LORD does not take into account, and in whose spirit there is no deceit!” This is deep. It would appear that he was talking about two different things here, but is he? Again he states that the person is blessed whose sin the Lord does not count against them. The last part of the sentence stresses in whose spirit is no deceit. Why does this appear here? The person who is honest with God will receive a pardon. We cannot hide our sins from God, nor can we justify them. When we openly confess them, we are forgiven. When we get to the point where we are tired of the sin, we confess it to release it. Then and only then are we able to enjoy a new, full life without the guilt. Do you understand what I am saying to you? When you release the guilt, when you let it go, because those things were part of your past, you begin to look towards your future. The past no longer dictate your future – every day is a new day. The person who is pardoned is taught to deal honestly with himself, his sin and his God. Forgiveness is no sham and the peace that it brings is not caused by playing tricks with your conscience.
Paul wrote in Romans 3:22-23, “But it is the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction, (23) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We are all the same; no one is perfect; no one is without sin; and no one is so clean that they can look down their noses at someone else. I want you to think about your guilt from past sins, not all of them, just the ones where although you have asked for and received forgiveness, you still carry around the guilt. I am talking about the ones that may have been so bad that you cannot let it go and the enemy keeps reminding you of them, day in and day out, over and over. I am talking about the mistakes where you let yourself, your family, or even your friends down. The sins that if anyone knew they’d look at you and say “I cannot believe YOU would do that.” The guilt from these sins is what I want you to think about. Those, that although you have tried to forget their memory, they remain vividly before you, ever a present reminder of a time when you were not at your best. Do you have it? Can you see it now? Okay, now that all of us have that one thing, I want you to turn to your neighbor and confess it to them – just kidding. The sins which cause us to almost panic if those close to us found out about them are those that we tend to carry with us and give us the most guilt. Now I am not saying that we need to tell all our business to everyone in order to feel free, but what I am saying is that we must understand the impact of walking with the guilt of those sins once we have been set free.
In Psalm 32, David takes a look at his life and talks about his own experience. It is the teacher, who testifies about what he himself has experienced, who is able to touch the hearts of those to whom he is speaking. David said, “(3) When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.” Carrying around the guilt and the sins that he had not confessed had a physical reaction on him – he literally became weak – his energy was gone. His guilt caused him to lament heavily until he could no longer speak, but was given to groaning. You cannot understand the pangs of conviction until you have fully been there. Have you ever met or known someone who could not forgive themselves or let go of something to the point that they became physically ill? David had sins that he had not confessed – he kept them within, until he began to get sick.
David went on to say in verse four, “(4) For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality failed as with the dry heat of summer.” Ever been out in the heat of summer and when you come in you found yourself without any energy? This is how David describes what he was feeling when God was dealing with him. During this time, you cannot rest peacefully, nothing seems right and your internal joy is gone. Un-confessed transgressions are like a fierce poison that dries up the fountain of a person’s strength. Through all of this, David realized he needed a change, he needed deliverance. David came to his right mind and he said, “(5) I acknowledged my sin to You, and I did not hide my guilt; I said, ‘I will confess my wrongdoings to the LORD’; and You forgave the guilt of my sin.” David came to himself and confessed his sin, and then he received forgiveness as God took away the sin. Can you see the process? He received his blessing and was able to move forward. Notice, not only was the sin itself pardoned, but the iniquity of it, the virus of its guilt was put away – as soon as the sin was acknowledged. God’s pardons are deep and thorough; the knife of mercy cuts at the roots of the weed of sin. David said when God forgave his sin; he also took away the guilt – that result of sin that was causing him much grief. You must remember it is the guilt from the sin that causes us the grief – not the sin itself. It’s knowing that we have sinned against our Father which causes the unrest in our spirit. When David confessed his sins, he received forgiveness and he was able to be free from the guilt.
As I close I want to remind you again of what Paul said in Romans 3:22-24. He wrote, “(22) But it is the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction, (23) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (24) being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:22-24) The term justification came from the Israelite law courts. The Greek translation means acquittal; an innocent judgment of the accused. The judge who would state the innocence of a person may very well have been one of the accusers. If this was the case, the justification becomes a vindication. God is the judge who justifies or condemns the people, therefore God justifies sinners. In other words, God proclaims us innocent of our sins when we repent because another has taken our place – Jesus Christ His Son. What this means is that we have no more accusers at this point and therefore we should be able to release the guilt. We start the process by fully acknowledging what we did, accept God’s forgiveness and begin to live for our future. When it comes back up, whether from you, Satan or someone else, just confess to whoever it is, yes that was my past, but not my present or my future. Your future starts today, right here, right now. You can do whatever you choose to do with it, but understand you do have help. What will you do, start anew or live in the bondage of the guilt of your past sins? I ask you to start new – envision what your potential and your possibilities are and go for it.
I have shared with you in my last two messages about how fear leads to anger which leads to hate. I told you that this is the process that people will go through in fulfilling what Jesus said in Matthew 24:12 that because of the increase of sin, the love of many will grow cold. Now stay with me on this point, guilt, when appropriate, can help ensure that we do not reach this point. Remember the definition of guilt is “an awareness of having done wrong or committed a crime, accompanied by feelings of shame and regret.” It is this awareness that we have done wrong that generates the feelings of shame and regret. These feeling, for a child of God, should help us recognize our sin and choose to repent because of our love for God and everything He stands for. However, for the person whose love grows cold, the idea of guilt and repentance will become a foreign concept for them. If you have any guilt today about something that you have done and have not repented from, please do not leave this service without getting it right with God. If you have guilt for something you have repented from and you have been cleansed, recognize it for what it is; a memory of a past mistake that you were forgiven for. Remember we cannot change the past, but the decisions we make today and moving forward will reduce any feelings of guilt in our future.
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
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