January 26, 2003 Zechariah 3:1-10
¡§The burden of guilt¡¨
INTRODUCTION
In January of 1985 Roger Boisjoly, an engineer for Morton Thiokol, observed that under unusually cold conditions, an o-ring seal on the Space Shuttle¡¦s solid rocket booster would fail. Further tests were done, and in July of 1985 Boisjoly wrote a memo to the Vice President of Engineering at Morton Thiokol which stated: ¡§It is my honest and very real fear that if we do not take immediate action to dedicate a team to solve the problem, ¡K then we stand in jeopardy of losing a [space shuttle] flight¡K¡¨ (Roger Boisjoly January 1985 ). Even in the hours leading up to the launch of the Challenger in January of 1986, Boisjoly and other engineers were stating their belief that it was not safe to launch the shuttle. Despite the engineer¡¦s concerns, a general manager for Morton Thikol said, ¡§We have to make a management decision¡¨ (address given at MIT ). They made the decision to launch.
I wonder how many months and years it took those men who made ¡§a management decision¡¨ to be able, once again, to sleep through the night. I wonder about the guilt that they felt for making a decision that cost the lives of those astronauts.
To some extent, we all deal with guilt. Our crime and therefore our guilt may not be as severe as those who have caused the loss of a life. It may be something so small cheating on our diet. Some of you may like the way that Erma Bombeck says that you should deal with those temptations to indulge in forbidden foods. She says, ¡§Seize the moment! Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart.¡¨ Tax time will soon be upon us, and some of you will be tempted to fudge a little bit on the income that you report, or you may be reminded of a time that you yielded to that temptation. One man was reminded of a tax debt that he owed, so he sent a check to the government for back taxes with a note attached that said, ¡§I felt so guilty for cheating on my taxes I had to send you this check. If I don¡¦t feel any better, I¡¦ll send you the rest.¡¨ ¡V Nicky Gumbel
Our guilt can get so great that we can echo the thoughts of David when he said in Psa 38:4 ¡§My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear.¡¨
¡§We live in a world where one of the greatest problems [we face], one of the most powerful forces we feel, is guilt. So what do we, as Christians, have to say to this situation? What does the Bible have to say?¡¨ ¡V Chris Appleby Is there a better way to deal with our guilt than to drown it with alcohol or to try and cover it over with deeds of pennance?
This morning, I want us to take a look at someone who stood guilty before the Lord and see how his guilt was removed and how he was restored to a place of blessing. In the process, we will discover five answers to the question of how you can be free of the burden of guilt that you may have been carrying for a very long time.
1. Re-examine God¡¦s statements about you. (vs. 1-2)
In this passage, we are presented with a vision about ¡§Joshua the high priest, standing before God, with Satan accusing him. So what is he being accused of? As the high priest he stands as the representative of the people, so perhaps the accusation has to do with the way the nation has turned away from worshipping God to idols. Let me read you the account in 2 Chronicles 36:13-16, of the final state of Israel before the Babylonians captured the city: "Zedekiah also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God; he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the LORD, the God of Israel. All the leading priests and the people also were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations; and they polluted the house of the LORD that he had consecrated in Jerusalem. The LORD, the God of their ancestors, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place; but they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words, and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD against his people became so great that there was no remedy." So there was plenty for Satan to accuse him of wasn¡¦t there?
¡§What we see here is something that we all experience from time to time. Satan comes and accuses us of disobeying God.¡¨ In Rev. 12:10, Satan is described as ¡§the accuser of the brethren¡¨. He stands in God¡¦s presence pointing out to God all of our sins and making accusations about us to God just as he did about Job. And he comes down to us and reminds us of all those things that we have done so that he can keep us in the clutches of guilt. He is not the only one who brings our sins to our attention though. The Holy Spirit does the same thing. In John 16:8, it says that the Spirit ¡§will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:¡¨ Guilt, regardless of its source makes us feel miserable.
So what is the difference between the guilt that Satan brings and guilt the Holy Spirit brings? The difference lies in the purpose and desired result that the two sources have in magnifying our guilt. Let¡¦s call the guilt that Satan brings ¡§harmful guilt¡¨ because everything that he brings into our lives is harmful. Satan can try to make us feel guilty about a host of things ¡V some of which are real offenses to God and others of which are just his means of trying to control us. His purpose in bringing these things to our attention is to get us to feel condemned in the presence of God, because if he can get us to feel condemned, then he can get us to run away from God. He will say things like, ¡§There is no way that God could love you! Look at all the things that you have done. God could never forgive a person like you; in fact, you need to stay as far away as you can from God and anything that reeks of God. Run away! Run away as far and as fast as you can!¡¨ By so doing, he keeps people from the one Person who can take away their guilt. He uses this tactic on people to prevent them from ever coming to salvation. But he also uses this tactic on saved people in order to keep them weak. He reminds them of sins that they have committed. Maybe they had an abortion. Maybe they had an adulterous relationship. Maybe they abused one of their children or their spouse. It¡¦s in the past, and they¡¦ve already repented and sought God¡¦s forgiveness, but Satan won¡¦t let them forget about it. He keeps them feeling dirty and unworthy of God¡¦s love because he does not want them to live the victorious Christian life. He wants them to feel condemned. You could draw it like this:
Harmful guilt „³ condemnation „³ run away from God
God¡¦s desire is not that we feel condemned. John 3:17, ¡§For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.¡¨ The only way that we receive condemnation is if we listen to Satan¡¦s lies, refuse God¡¦s offer of forgiveness and reject God¡¦s hand that is reaching out for us. Verse 18 of that passage goes on to say, ¡§Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.¡¨
And that brings us to what the Holy Spirit is trying to accomplish in your life by making you feel guilty. Let¡¦s call the guilt that He brings ¡§helpful guilt¡¨ because everything that He does in our lives is helpful. His purpose in bringing our sins to our attention is so that we will feel conviction. Conviction is that inner pain that you feel whenever you have done something that is contrary to what God wanted you to do. Conviction serves the same function as pain. Neither one is pleasant, but both are ¡§useful to indicate that something is wrong and needs to be fixed.
The Holy Spirit¡¦s desire is that when we feel His conviction, we will choose to seek help. We will run to God. You could draw it this way:
Helpful guilt „³ conviction „³ run to God
He is the only one that can take that burden of guilt off of our shoulders. And regardless of how good you may consider yourself to be and how successful you have been at suppressing the convicting voice of God¡¦s Spirit in your heart, you are still guilty. And no matter how able you have been at drowning your guilt through activity, entertainment or destructive behaviors, you know that it is still there. You can bury it; you can deny it; you can¡¦t get rid of it. But God can. That is His great desire. So run to Him.
¡§The trouble is, too often we get confused between what¡¦s real guilt and what¡¦s false guilt. ¡KWe feel guilty for things that don¡¦t really entail guilt [in God¡¦s eyes]¡KSome people feel guilty if their house is untidy, or if the lawn isn¡¦t mown. And Satan takes delight in accusing us of these trivial things, because he knows how much they distract us from the important things in our lives.¡¨ Guilt can make us impotent to accomplish the objectives that God has for us. It can keep us stuck in the past, constantly reliving the mistakes that we would so desperately desire to correct. It will destroy our confidence making us unwilling to take risks whereby we might find the joy that God has in store for us. And it can cause us to relate to other people in an unhealthy way such as when a divorced parent indulges his/her children in order to compensate for the guilt that they feel over the breakup of the marriage. ¡§What guilt does is it tends to replay in your mind over and over and over... the things you wish you could change but you¡¦re never going to change. Guilt cannot change the past just like worry cannot change the future. It just makes today miserable.¡¨- Jeff Seaman
¡§So how do we work out whether the guilt we¡¦re feeling is real or not? Only by going to God¡¦s word and asking him. You see, Joshua is standing in the right place to face Satan¡¦s accusations. He¡¦s standing before the Lord. If you want to know whether the guilt you¡¦re feeling is real or not, then bring it to the Lord for his examination.¡¨ Others can try and judge your life and make you feel guilty for not living up to their expectations. But their expectations of you may have nothing to do with what God expects of you. It is only God¡¦s standards that I have a responsibility to obey. And it is only God¡¦s standards that can bring true legitimate guilt into my life when I fail to meet them. ¡§Only God can say whether something is wrong or not. Satan can accuse, but he can¡¦t condemn.¡¨ So here¡¦s the first answer we find to releasing the burden of guilt. Stand before the Lord and listen to what he says about you:
(Isa 38:17 NIV) ¡Kyou have put all my sins behind your back.
(Isa 43:25 NIV) "I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.
If there ever comes a time in your life when you think you¡¦ve gone too far to ever receive God¡¦s forgiveness, then just think about this verse: (Rom 5:20 NIV) ¡KBut where sin increased, grace increased all the more,
(Rom 8:1 NIV) Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
(1 Cor 6:9-11 NIV) Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Do you know what that word ¡§justified¡¨ means? The easiest way of saying it is that God treats you as a holy person. It is just as if I¡¦d never sinned.
(Jer 31:34 NIV) ¡K¡¨I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."
(Micah 7:19 NIV) You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.
(1 John 1:7 NIV) the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
(Isa 55:6-7 NIV) Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
¡§The next time Satan attacks you with feelings of guilt, show him the Word of God.¡¨ ¡V InTouch Ministries, ¡§How to handle guilt¡¨ You might have been snatched from the fire like Joshua was, but your guilt is gone because God has declared you justified.
2. Remember God¡¦s choice is you. ¡§chosen¡¨
¡§As Joshua stands before the Lord, and as Satan brings his accusation, what happens? The LORD says: "The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this man a brand plucked from the fire?" Satan is rebuked, not because his accusations are without foundation. As we just saw, his accusations are well-founded. No, he¡¦s rebuked because he fails to understand the call, the choice, of God. And notice what that choice is. The Lord has chosen Jerusalem. Satan thought he was on solid ground accusing Joshua, as a representative of Israel, for all the sins that had led to the downfall of Jerusalem, but in fact he¡¦s misread the situation. Far from his rejection of Jerusalem being final, God has again chosen it and with it Joshua and the people of God, despite their sin. It¡¦s his gracious choice. That¡¦s what matters here you see?
Israel had done nothing to deserve God¡¦s original choice of her. In Ezekiel 16, it speaks of Israel as a child born to parents who do not want it. When the baby is born, no care is shown for it, and the baby is thrown into a ditch by the road. And then God comes along and sees the baby wallowing in its own blood. No one else wanted the newborn child, but out of the compassion of His heart, God reaches down to that child and decides to take it as His own. He didn¡¦t take it because the child was unusually beautiful or because the child had something to offer Him that He did not already have. He simply chose it. In this allegory that God told, the child grew up. And rather than responding in obedience out of thankfulness to the one who had rescued her, she rebelled. She went off into prostitution and committed terrible acts of sin. God punished her for it ¡K but He did not reject her. At the end of the chapter, God reestablished His promise of protection and provision for her and offered atonement for her sin. It¡¦s a wonderful thing to be chosen. It¡¦s an even more wonderful thing to be chosen again after you have messed up ¡V after you have failed the one who chose you to begin with.
On New Year¡¦s Day 1929, Georgia Tech played UCLA in the Rose Bowl. In that game a young man named Roy Riegels recovered a fumble for UCLA. Picking up the loose ball, he lost his direction and ran 65 yards toward the wrong goal line. One of his teammates, ran him down and tackled him just before he scored for the opposing team. Several plays later UCLA had to punt. Tech blocked the kick and scored a safety, demoralizing the UCLA team.
The strange play came in the first half. At halftime the UCLA players filed off the field and into the dressing room. As others sat down on the benches and the floor, Riegels put a blanket around his shoulders, sat down in a corner and put his face in his hands.
When the timekeeper came in and announced that there were 3 minutes before playing time, Coach Price looked at the team and said, "Men, the same team that played the 1st half will start the second." The players got up and started out, all but Riegels. He didn¡¦t budge. The coach looked back and called to him. Riegels didn¡¦t move. Coach Price went over to where Riegels sat and said, "Roy, didn¡¦t you hear me?" The same team that played the 1st half will start the 2nd." Roy Riegels looked up, his cheeks wet with tears. "Coach," he said, "I can¡¦t do it. I¡¦ve ruined myself. I can¡¦t face the crowd out there." Coach Price reached out, put his hand on Riegel¡¦s shoulder and said, "Roy, get up and go on back. The game is only half over." Riegels finally got up. He went onto the field, and the fans saw him play hard and play well.
¡§How do we read this today? Well, we¡¦re in a similar situation aren¡¦t we? We too are faced with Satan¡¦s accusations. Yet we too are the objects of God¡¦s choice.
(John 15:19 NIV) ¡Kyou do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world...
(Eph 1:9-11 NIV) And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment--to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In him we were also chosen¡Kin order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.
(Col 3:12 NIV) Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
(1 Th 1:4-5 NIV) For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. ¡K
(James 2:5 NIV) Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?
(1 Pet 2:9 NIV) But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
¡§You might like to keep one finger in this passage while you turn to Rom. 8:28ff. There we read: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? ¡K
God chose you. But when you mess up, you are tempted to think that God is going to unchoose you ¡V reject you ¡V or at least be sorry that He chose you to begin with. Remember this though. He didn¡¦t choose you because of your merits or how great you are or how good you are. So when you mess up, it doesn¡¦t change His desire to have you a part of His family or a part of His team.
¡§You see, it matters a lot that God has chosen you. If he¡¦s chosen you and sent his son to die for you, none of Satan¡¦s accusations will carry any weight, will they?
¡§So when you¡¦re faced by feelings of guilt, first stand before the Lord.¡¨ Re-examine what He has said about you ¡V how He loves you and how He has taken your sin and cast it into the deepest sea. And second, remember God¡¦s choice of you. You are chosen by God. He chose you even though he already knew of all your guilt before coming to God and even though He already knew how much you would fail Him after He saved you. He chose you.
CONCLUSION
A little boy visiting his grandparents was given his first slingshot. He practiced in the woods, but he could never hit his target. As he came back to Grandma’s backyard, he spied her pet duck. On impulse he took aim and let fly. The stone hit and the duck fell dead.
The boy panicked. Desperately he hid the dead duck in the woodpile, only to look up and see his sister Sally watching. Sally had seen it all, but said nothing. After lunch that day, Grandma said, "Sally, let’s wash the dishes." But Sally said, "Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen today. Didn’t you, Johnny?" She quickly whispered, "Remember the duck!" So Johnny did the dishes.
Later Grandpa asked if the children wanted to go fishing. Grandma said, "I’m sorry, but I need Sally to help make supper." Sally smiled and said, "That’s all taken care of. Johnny wants to do it." And again the whisper, "Remember the duck!" Johnny stayed while Sally went fishing.
After several days of doing both his chores and Sally’s, he couldn’t stand it. He confessed to Grandma that he killed the duck. "I know, Johnny," she said, giving him a hug. I saw the whole thing. I was angry, but because I love you, I forgave you. I was just wondering how long you would let Sally make a slave of you."
INVITATION
Some of you have been allowing guilt to enslave you for a long time. If that guilt is real because of undealt with sin in your life, then the only way to get rid of it is by confessing it to God and seeking His forgiveness. (1 John 1:9) If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If you are a Christian that has messed up, then come to God. Don¡¦t run away from Him. He hasn¡¦t rejected you. He has chosen you to be one of His trophies of grace. If you are not a Christian, then come to God, and recognize for the first time His choosing of you so that the blood of Christ may wash you as white as snow and remove that burden of guilt that you have been carrying for so long. (Psa 32:5 NIV) Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD"-- and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
You may be carrying false guilt today. Guilt over sins that were confessed and forgiven long ago or even guilt over things done or not done that were never even offenses against God. You¡¦ve been listening to the judgments of Satan and other people for too long. God is the only one who has a right to judge. He is the only one who has a right to condemn, and He has chosen not to. Instead, He has chosen to forgive you and use you to accomplish His plan on earth. Stop listening to any other voice but God¡¦s voice. And the next time that Satan or someone else tries to give you their opinion of you, just tell them what God has already said. His is the final word.
*NOTE: All quotes, unless otherwise noted are from a sermon by Chris Appleby entitled ¡§Dealing with guilt¡¨
