Grace Church
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Burlington, WI 53105

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How to Cancel Your Guilt Trip Psalm 32 Dealing with Feelings Sermon Series Sermon #8 [Open with Film Clip from beginning of Les Miserables scene in the courtroom when he admits that he is Jean Valjean rather than let the other man take his penalty.] What do you do with the guilt? Do you let someone else take your rap?   Have you ever thought when you see some of the horror movies being produced, “What kind of mind comes up with those ideas?” What kind of mind comes up with horror movies...sometimes a guilty one. No one who watched the film, Alien, will ever forget the scene that takes place when the astronauts are having dinner: A lizard‑like creature comes bursting through a crewman's torso and scurries away. It’s horrifying.   Alien is one of the most frightening films ever made. But the story behind the horror genre is even scarier. In his book, Monsters from the Id, Temple University professor, E. Michael Jones, writes that horror fiction grew out of the sexual decadence and immorality of the Enlightenment. Dr. Jones suggests that horror is the product of a guilty conscience.   Few people embraced that decadence more eagerly than the English poet, Percy Shelley. Shelley's first wife killed herself after he abandoned her to live with Mary Godwin. Shelley then victimized his new wife, Mary, even encouraging her to sleep with his friends.   Tragedy followed tragedy and a remorseful Mary Godwin Shelly became disillusioned with her husband’s radical ideals. But she could not relieve her conscience, Jones writes, because she didn't understand repentance. "Literary catharsis seemed the only way" to purge her soul. Mary began writing Frankenstein and gave birth to the horror novel.   Dr. Jones writes that when we try to suppress our guilt, silence our conscience, it comes back in our imagination as an avenging monster. That's certainly true in Frankenstein. Dr. Frankenstein wants to play God, to create life on his own terms, just as the Shelleys had created their own sexual ethic. But instead of designing a superb new species, Frankenstein gives life to a murderous monster.   The avenging monster from the id, as Jones dubs it, took new form during the second phase of the Enlightenment, a time when syphilis had contaminated European blood. Tragically, adulterous husbands often infected their innocent wives. Dracula, a novel about a vampire who infects the blood of innocent girls, symbolizes this deadly plague. Dracula's author, Bram Stoker, had syphilis himself.   As with Frankenstein the true story of horror in the author's life, sexuality divorced from moral absolutes, "is repressed and replaced by a monster who points to the [truth.]" A century later, another vengeful monster emerged in the wake of the modern sexual revolution: The creature in the 1979 film, Alien. Interestingly, the creator of the monster in Alien, H. R. Giger, claims he never procured an abortion for his mistress. And yet, Dr. Jones notes, "his art is full of images of abortion and dead babies." Giger's conscience sought relief by creating a fetus‑monster for Alien. At the film's end, a female astronaut kills the monster in a manner that strikingly resembles a suction abortion. When we spurn morality, we spawn avenging monsters. You have to do something with the guilt.   It’s the stuff of Edgar Allan Poe’s story, The Tell‑Tale Heart, in which the main character commits a murder. Unable to escape the haunting guilt of his deed, he begins to hear the heartbeat of the victim he has buried in his basement. A cold sweat covers him as he hears the beat‑beat‑beat of a heart, that goes on relentlessly. Ultimately the heartbeat drives the man absolutely mad, not knowing that it was not coming from the body in the basement, but from his own heart within his own chest. It’s Lady Macbeth incessantly washing her hands, trying to wash away the blood from her conscience. You have to do something with the guilt. Psychoanalyst, Erich Fromm, notes “It is indeed amazing that in as fundamentally an irreligious culture as ours, the sense of guilt should be so widespread and deep-rooted as it is.”   Yet modern culture had declared war on guilt. One does not sin, one has a disease, has chosen an alternative lifestyle, or is a victim. Remember the Twinkie defense? San Francisco supervisor Dan White murdered another supervisor, Harvey Milk, and the Mayor of San Francisco, George Moscone. Dan White’s defense: he did it because he ate too much junk food, especially Hostess Twinkies. A lenient jury found him guilty of manslaughter rather than double murder.  Yet in spite of all of the rhetoric and re-labeling, guilt is still prevalent and miserable. Few human emotions are as distressing and as painful as guilt.   In a study on guilt by Dr. Roy Baumeister, a psychologist at Case Western University in Cleveland, Dr. Baumeister found that the average person spends approximately two hours a day feeling guilty.   How are we to handle guilt? How can we cancel the Guilt Trip? God has given us the solution in His Word. You and I do not have to wallow in guilt. 1. Guilt is God’s Warning System against sin. Guilt is good. Yes, you heard me right. Guilt is to the soul what pain is to the body. You and I need guilt. Guilt is what activates the conscience and drives us to God and to repentance. God gave us the gift of guilt to bring sinful man back to Himself. Guilt has redemptive purposes. It is also a restrainer, challenging us with a sense of right and wrong. It warns us when things are not right in our lifestyle or thinking.   What is guilt? “Guilt is the constructive feeling of remorse based on a reasonable understanding of God’s standard of right and wrong.” It’s guilt that causes even a toddler to look over their shoulder to see if their parents are watching as they reach for the electric outlet after being warned to not touch it. It’s guilt that causes a pit in our stomach when we tell a lie or cheat on a test. Guilt is that inner voice that instructs us to choose right over wrong. It’s the emotion that leads us to live lives of moral responsibility. While anxiety is fear of the future, guilt is a dread of the past.   Psalm 32 provides four terms that reveal the source of my guilt. With Old Testament poetry, I prefer to use the NASV. Listen as I read verses 1-2, “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit!”   The psalmist uses the word Transgression: That means “to step out of bounds, cross the line.” The choice to take a step out of line is willful disobedience. Sin: “to miss the mark of God’s perfection.” None of us is as good as God requires. God requires perfection and any person who is not as good as God is not acceptable to God. Iniquity: “to incur guilt, be subject to punishment.” You can actually feel guilty because of your choices. Then, Deceit: “to practice falsehood or deception.” This is the disposition of heart (spirit) that disregards the truth. Each of us has stepped out of bounds, missed the mark of perfection, become guilty of sin and disregarded the truth at some point. Scripture says that we miss God’s mark of perfection with our thoughts, words, or deeds.   Imagine if you only sinned 10, no 5, no just 3 times per day in thought, word and deed. Most people would think that you’re a walking angel. But that’s still a thousand sins per year. Think of your age right now, multiply that by 1000. That’s a lot of sin. What would happen to an habitual offender in a criminal court with that kind of a record?   James writes, “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (2:10). How many cracks in a window make it a broken window? Just one. You don’t have to break every law in the book to have the police looking for you, just one violation makes one a lawbreaker. Underline the words “one point” and circle “guilty.” If you’ve ever sinned, you’re guilty. Just one violation produces guilt. 2. Guilt causes great agony. Because guilt is so painful, people will do anything to rid themselves of the pain. Many years ago, while on a visit to America, a wealthy Chinese businessman was fascinated by a powerful microscope. Looking through its lens to study crystals and the petals of flowers, he was amazed at their beauty and detail. He decided to purchase one of these devices and take it back to China. He thoroughly enjoyed using it until one day he examined some rice that he was planning to eat for dinner. Much to his dismay he discovered that tiny living creatures were crawling in it. Since he was especially fond of this staple food in his daily diet, he wondered what to do. Finally, he concluded that there was only one way out of his dilemma – he would destroy the instrument that caused him to discover the distasteful fact! So he smashed the microscope to pieces.   Some will deny that they have any guilt, but in spite of all the protests, the guilt is still there. Others seek to drown it in booze or drugs. Some attempt to drown it with pleasure or other obsessions. Some will try to talk it out. They’ll pay a counselor thousands to help them stop feeling guilty. Why? Because guilt is painful and miserable.   David talks about the agony of guilt in Psalm 32:3-4. When guilt sets in, like David we are silent. We can’t talk to people, we don’t anyone else to know. We don’t talk to God. We’re hiding from Him. The David felt weak. Guilt took its toll on him. Though a great army stood at his beck and call, though a palace full of servants obeyed his every whim, David felt sapped of his strength. His feelings of guilt were beyond his control...because he was guilty.    David wrote Psalm 32 after he had committed adultery and murdered his lover’s husband. He was trapped inside his own guilt. The one who used to sing the praises of God could only now sing the blues.    Someone has suggested that guilt is like driving with the warning lights on. Ignoring it produces serious consequences. If it is not handled Biblically, it will spread and cause other problems. Those who do not resolve their guilt often become defensive, critical, bitter, depressed, angry, fearful, anxious and judgmental. Guilt causes about every other problem that we’ve dealt with previously in this series. 3. Man’s Guilt-Meter, his conscience, is a gift from God. When we think of guilt, most of us think of something undesirable. A conscience is like a smoke alarm. Guilt hits my conscience and my conscience sends off alarms and protects me...from me. To be sure, some people have an overactive conscience. Sometimes my smoke alarm goes off when it doesn’t need to. But for the most part that smoke alarm protects us and so does our conscience.    Without a conscience we would never realize that we are guilty before God and need a Savior.   If you think man is bad now, just imagine what he would be like without a conscience. Ted Turner is known for his antagonism toward Christianity. But in an interview with David Frost, Ted Turner was asked whether he had any deep regrets along the way to his trophy‑studded life. There was a sudden melancholic expression on his face, an evident twinge in his emotions, and somberly Turner said, “Yes, the way I treated my first wife.” Even Ted Turner has a conscience.   The conscience is the instrument God installed in our souls to warn us of danger. The Old Testament equated the conscience with the Hebrew word "heart."  Pharaoh "hardened his heart." The Old Testament speaks of a tender heart, alluding to a sensitive conscience. An upright heart is a pure conscience.  King David prayed for a cleansed conscience, "Create in me a clean heart." The Lord Jesus compared the conscience to a window, (Matt 6:23‑24).  A window doesn't manufacture light, it lets the light in. You and I have an inner window in our souls through which God shines His light.  But we must keep the window clean. The human conscience, then, encourages us to do right and rebukes us for wrong done. The conscience though is not infallible. Scripture speaks of several types of consciences.    A. The Natural Conscience.  From the darkest jungles of the world to the most sophisticated cities all have in common a conscience (Rom. 2:14-15). God wrote this law in our hearts that when we transgress His moral law, we experience guilt. The conscience is an innate ability to sense right and wrong.    Without question the conscience can be trained improperly. It’s one of the serious dangers of the conscience. Ancient pagans offered human sacrifices with a hearty endorsement of the conscience and the strict Buddhist feels guilty for killing a fly. Both extremes are wrong. The conscience is a precious gift and must be educated and monitored by God's Word.   B. The Seared Conscience, "... whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron" (1 Tim. 4:2).  The spiritual nerve endings have become damaged, burned, thus unable to feel the prick and pain of wrong.  Sensitivity is lost due to spiritual scar tissue. Sin no longer bothers them.     Some people can lie and never lose sleep. They can steal and do evil things and it never seems to upset them. Why? They have allowed sin to callous the conscience. They have suppressed, overruled and silenced their conscience by repeating acts of sin.  The Bible calls this a "defiled conscience" (Tit. 1:15).    It’s hard for the individual to determine right from wrong. It’s a dangerous place to be in! And even believers can get there. Let me give you an example. Many believers are appalled at the murder of abortion, yet never blink an eye at the hateful language that they use with their spouses or children. While one is physical murder, the other is often soul murder. Thomas Carlyle warned, “The deadliest sin is the consciousness of no sin.”   C. The Weak Conscience, "But it is not in all of you that such knowledge is found.  Some, because of their past habits with idols...still eat such food...and their consciences, because they are [overly sensitive], are contaminated" (1 Cor. 8:7). The church at Corinth had a problem with those who ate meat that had been offered to idols. Some believed it was sinful. It bothered their consciences. But it was not a biblical issue, it was a matter of a weak conscience. A weak conscience feels guilty because it has been trained with human teaching versus God's truth. A weak conscience is hyper‑sensitive about issues that are not biblical. Usually, a person with a weak conscience is easily wounded, offended and tends to be very critical of others.   A weak conscience must motivate us toward spiritual growth. Paul expected those with a weak conscience to grow out of their immature state, just as children outgrow their fear of the dark. It’s one thing to be childlike; it’s another to be childish. We must bring our conscience into harmony with God's Word.    Let me illustrate this. For years many believers preached against going to the theater. My wife was taught that it was a sin to go to the show. That has no Biblical basis. The Biblical principle is that there are certain things that I should not watch, whether in my home or in the theater. But it has absolutely nothing to do with location.   Someone with a weak conscience would feel that they had sinned if they went to the theater. They are also offended that other believers go there. Paul teaches that they need to grow up spiritually. Any point of offense that does not have a Biblical basis, but is cultural or traditional, is a matter of spiritual immaturity and a weak conscience, and that believer needs to grow up.     D. The Confused Conscience. Last week USA Today had an article about an American soldier who had to shoot and kill two Iraqi boys who were picking up a rocket launcher to shoot at American soldiers. It’s tragic but what that soldier did was not wrong. That soldier though will struggle with guilt.   People who have been molested often struggle with false guilt. It’s the result of a confused or an abused conscience. If a partner has an affair, often the innocent spouse feels guilty. There are many parents who never tell their children “no” or stick to their guns because they feel guilty. They become permissive or passive, and are manipulated by their child. That’s a confused conscience. Parents who have a child born with a handicap often feel guilty. Yet, there is no moral guilt in these situations. God does not want us to have a confused conscience.   E. The Good Conscience, "The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith" 1 Tim. 1:5.  Paul refers to this as a strong conscience, Rom. 14:1. One of the qualifications of a deacon is to have a "clear conscience" (1 Tim 3:9).  Paul said, “I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man" (Acts 24:16).   A strong conscience does not give us the right to sin. In fact, a great many problems in the church would be solved if believers would discipline themselves toward a strong conscience. A good conscience is activated by sinful activity and motivates us to repent. It helps us be people of honesty and integrity (Heb. 13:8) and gives us boldness in witnessing (1 Peter 3:14-17). A good conscience is enlightened by the Word of God and guided by the Spirit. As we mature spiritually, our standards grow higher and we become even more sensitive to sin. The closer we draw to the Light, the more we are aware of the horrible darkness of sin and the things that do not please the Lord. 4. God has the answer for my guilt problem.  When it comes to sin, Satan lies to us on the way in and...on the way out. Satan tempts us, telling us sin won’t hurt us. But after we have sinned, Satan tells us that the sin was so bad and so horrendous that God will never forgive us. For some it has been marital unfaithfulness; for others, theft; for some, incest or violence. But the Cross of Jesus covers them all. You and I can never exhaust God’s ability to forgive.   Perhaps you’re sitting here this morning and you’re thinking, "OK, Scott but what should I do when I feel guilty?" No one need to wallow in self‑pity and remorse over sin. God has a prescription to follow:    A. Confess and repent of the sin, "He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy" Prov 28:13.  We must admit our guilt. We must stop blaming our circumstances or others for our sin. “I was tired, I don't know what got into me," etc. Our sin is against God, "against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight" (Ps 51:4). Take full responsibility for your sin. To confess sin means to agree with God about it. He promises forgiveness, Isa 1:18 "Though your sins be like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool."    "But I've confessed that sin a 1000 times, but I don't feel forgiven!" That in itself is sin. It’s a failure to believe and take Him at His Word. Confess sin once, then praise Him 999 times for His forgiveness. Soon your feelings will catch up to your theology!    True confession includes repentance. Oftentimes parents will have small children say they’re “sorry” to one another. The tykes may go through the motions but there is no change in attitude. They say the right words but if Mom and Dad weren’t looking, they’d get into it again. Repentance means that I not only admit that I sinned, but I change my behavior and head a new direction. God will not forgive sin when I still intend to keep committing the sin. That’s not repentance, it’s remorse.   Repentance means that by God’s grace and by the power of His Spirit, I determine to change. We must "put off" the old man and "put on" the new man. We must live a new way. "Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires" (Rom 6:12).  B. Seek the forgiveness of others wronged and make restitution, "confess your sins to each other" James 5:16.  We confess in the circle of influence.  We must seek forgiveness when we've wronged others. In fact, it’s more important than worship, (Matt 5:23‑26).  We need to say, "I was wrong, will you forgive me?"   I read the story of a man who had stolen a gold watch. He was arrested and brought to trial. The judge listened to the testimony, then gave this verdict: “Acquitted.” The accused man looked at the judge and asked, “Does that mean I’ve got to give the watch back?”   Benjamin Franklin once stated: “How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them!” If you’ve stolen money, you need to repay it. If you’ve gossiped about someone and hurt their reputation, you need to ask forgiveness of the one that you talked about and then go to the people that you talked to.   Now there are some things that you can’t make restitution for. This is where we rest in the grace of God. The Auca Indians who killed the five missionaries could never bring those five men back to life. They could only admit that they were wrong.    C. Trust in God’s forgiveness and forgetfulness. Our Heavenly Father promises in Hebrews 8:12 “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” Satan loves to convict us about sin that we’ve confessed and repented of. In doing so he gets us to feel guilty about that which God has forgiven and gets us to doubt God. Friend, when God forgives, He forgets.   D. Realize that sin sometimes has long term consequences. Because of King David’s sin his infant child died. Though God forgives oftentimes we still suffer from the natural consequences of sin. We can’t sow our wild oats and then pray for a crop failure. Immorality may result in an unwanted pregnancy. Stealing may result in the loss of a job. Sin often has long term consequences. Conclusion: Are you guilty? You can receive genuine forgiveness. Your past need not control your future. God offers hope, pardon, mercy and grace in Jesus Christ. If you have never come to the Cross, if you have never accepted God’s forgiveness and payment for all of your sin, please come today. Commit your life to Christ. David said, “Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered” (Psalm 32:1). It’s a blessing to be forgiven!    In the powerful motion picture The Mission, set in the South America of 1750, we are told the story of Captain Rodrigo Mendoza, a slave trader. Capturing Indians and selling them into bondage doesn’t bother Mendoza’s conscience; in fact, he seems proud of his ability to do his job well. But then one day, in a fit of anger over a woman they both love, Mendoza kills his brother Felipe. His crime overwhelms Mendoza with guilt and remorse. Wanting to die, he goes to the local church and shuts himself off in a back room, refusing to eat. Finally, a priest named Father Gabriel comes to him and manages to engage him in a brief conversation. “For me there is no redemption,” Mendoza insists. Eager to “pay” for killing his beloved brother, Mendoza accompanies Father Gabriel and his band of Jesuits back to their mission in the jungle, upriver from a spectacular waterfall hundreds of feet high. And as his penance, Mendoza drags behind him, everywhere he goes, a cargo net full of iron – armor, helmets, and the like. Each step he takes, even on level ground, requires enormous effort because the load he drags is so heavy.                                    In one of the film’s most dramatic scenes, Mendoza ascends the waterfall still dragging his burden. Climbing enormous, spray‑slicked boulders, the swinging weight of his load threatening to yank him off the face of the cliff to certain death at any moment, he labors his way inch by inch to the top of the falls with steadfast determination. Nothing will keep him from making the climb; nothing will keep him from carrying his burden with him. As the journey continues, Mendoza and the party of priests reach a steep, wet hill that seems as if it must at last put an end to his efforts. He simply can’t make it to the top, though every time he slips and falls back down the hill, he rises and tries again. Finally, in pity and frustration, one of the priests takes out his knife and cuts the rope binding Mendoza to his net full of iron. The load goes rumbling and crashing to the bottom of the hill. Mendoza, watching it go, says nothing and shows no change from his stoic expression. When it smashes to a landing, he just walks down to it, ties it around his waist once again, and starts laboring back up the incline.                                   In his stubborn conviction that God will not forgive him, and that he could never forgive himself, Mendoza is a picture of so many Christians today. Whatever our sins, whether or not they’re anywhere near as bad as Mendoza’s, our feelings of guilt have led us to the ironclad conclusion that for us there is no redemption, or at least no lasting peace with God. We have tied ourselves to a burden, a sin‑debt, that we will not let go.   John 8:36 says, “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Jesus Christ died to forgive you and set you free...will you trust Him and let Him set you free from all of your guilt today?