Messages with Meaning


Sermons delivered at Sanlando Springs by Pastor Jack Parrott

Facing Yourself

Psalm 38
Presented on April 13, 2008, © Dr. Jack Parrott
I. Introduction

  1. Second in series on "Don't Fake It -- Face It!" Last week we looked at Pharaoh who refused to face the truth and instead faced the plagues. Today we look at facing ourselves when we do wrong.
  2. This week's news brought two stories about facing the truth about right and wrong and making good decisions:
    1. Six teenage girls and two boys were charged with beating a high school girl and recording it to show on YouTube. Front page headline: "Does YouTube generation lack sense of right and wrong?"
    2. Another story about group of students from a private liberal arts college in Lynchburg, Virginia who were touring a brothel outside Las Vegas as part of a college class on American culture. One student said: "I think this is fascinating...."
    3. Do you see anything 'wrong' with this? Should they have felt guilty?
II. Do you ever feel guilty?
  1. There are times when you can feel good about feeling bad!
    1. We ought to feel good about doing good, and feel bad about doing bad. When you feel good about doing wrong, there's a problem with your moral sensors. We call those sensors our "conscience".
    2. Conscience is part of the God-nature the Lord placed in you before you were born. John R.W. Stott said, "we are moral beings with an urge to do what is right and a sense of guilt when we do what we know to be wrong."
    3. When you are tinged by your conscience it is because the Holy Spirit is sounding the alarm. God is at work in you. Remember Adam and Eve hiding from God after they had done wrong in Eden? Why did they hide? Conscience.
  2. Where does guilt come from?
    1. Our own personal feelings of having violated what is morally right or good. Freud would say it's because of your upbringing. (I wonder how he would explain the guilt of Adam and Eve who had no parents???)
    2. Other people make us feel guilty (see Psa 38.11-12). A word of caution: in this morally relative society you can't set your moral compass by the crowd. (Remember the YouTube story?)
    3. We are guilt because the Holy Spirit within us as believers is speaking the judgment of God against our sins. Ultimately sin is not against our neighbors or the environment or even ourselves, but against Holy God.
  3. When you feel guilty ask, Why do I feel as I do?
    1. Is this "real" guilt or am I being made to feel guilty over something that I really shouldn't be worrying about?
    2. If there is wrong thoughts or actions they need to be dealt with, otherwise they will continue to produce the pain of guilt and regret.
III. What do we do to try to get rid of our guilt?
  1. Some don't or can't feel the tinge of conscience. They have moral neuropathy...their moral sensors are deadened by abuse. See 1 Tim. 4:2 where Paul warns Timothy about "hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron" ... they wouldn't know truth if it smacked them in face!
  2. Others try to deny or bury their guilt like a bad dream. St. Augustine said, "My sin was all the more incurable because I did not think myself a sinner."
  3. You can try to cover your guilt; you can try to hide it (or hide from it).
  4. There are those who despite being numb to their guilt, or trying to deny it, forget it, or hide it, their guilt comes flooding over them and they drown in a sea of remorse and regret. Ultimately your actions confront you. Like ghosts of sins past they keep showing up. When they do they drag with them the chains of pain. See Ezekiel 36:31.
    1. King David, when confronted about his sins by the prophet Nathan and told his sins would result in the death of his son, spent the nights in anguish locked in his bedroom, lying on the floor and refusing to eat. He was so despondent that when his son finally died his servants feared telling the king. (see 2 Samuel 12).
    2. Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus to the Sanhedrin (See Matthew 27:3). Judas was so overcome by his guilt that he couldn't bear it - he hanged himself.
    3. Peter denied Jesus three times and he was filled with guilt and anguish when he heard the rooster crow just as Jesus had said it would.
    4. Jesus said, "Be sure your sins will find you."
IV. What should you do with your guilt?
  1. You should confront your guilt by confessing your wrong-doing. A convicted conscience should lead us to confession where we can find cleansing and a new beginning. See Psalm 38:18 and 51.3-5. Perhaps you ask, to whom do I confess? To the one you have wronged. Spouse, relative, friend, co-worker, God.
  2. Take responsibility for your actions. Stop hiding. Stop running. Come clean, confront your sin, confess it, and get on with your life.
V. What does God do with my guilt?
  1. He removes the root cause by covering it in the blood of Jesus Christ. (See Psalm 51:1-2, 7-10). We try to cover our sins with a blanket and hide them; God reveals them so He can cover them in the blood of Jesus. Duncan Campbell said, "Do not expect God to cover what you are not willing to uncover."
  2. He releases me from the judgment which binds me (See Psalm 32.1-5)

    3. Jesus said he came to release the captives. One of the leg irons we wear which causes us to drag our feet through life is our own sense of guilt. Jesus sets the prisoner free! He replaces My sin with His forgiveness
  3. He restores the joy. (See Psalm 51.12) Satan is a robber; Jesus is a restorer! Burdens are lifted at cavalry
  4. Perhaps you sit there asking why. Why does God remove my sin, release me from my guilt, and restore my joy? Why? Two words: LOVE and GRACE!


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