It seems to be one of the major
problems, one of the perplexing problems that God's
children face day by day.
Even though we have been saved by the
blood of Christ, have been brought into the
family of God, it seems as though many
are plagued by the knowledge, the remembrance of
past sins, past failures, perhaps of wasted life
or wasted years, and they consequently know little
of the peace of God as their daily
portion.
I had a call in my office the
day before yesterday when a stranger spoke when
I answered the phone, and evidently this one
had dialed a seminary number and asked to
talk with someone there, because I had made
a call through a switchboard a few minutes
earlier.
They knew I was in my office, and
so rang my office, and they called her,
asked to whom she was speaking, and I
identified myself, or I should say I gave
my name.
It obviously didn't mean anything, and she hesitated
a moment and said, Do you know anything
about the Bible?
And I said, I've studied it some.
She said, I'd like to ask you a
question.
If a person has accepted Jesus as her
Savior and commits a sin, can she still
go to heaven?
Several scriptures came to my mind, and I
quoted the scriptures, and I said, Let the
Bible answer your question, not me.
She said, Yes, but you don't know the
sin that has been committed.
And she said, If a person is guilty
of such and such a sin, is it
still possible for them to go to heaven?
It was my joy, once again, to point
out that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanseth us from all sin.
And the caller dissolved in tears and hung
up the phone.
Two weeks ago, I had a letter from
California, shortly after returning from a ministry in
the West Coast, and the writer wrote a
letter that brought tears to my eyes as
I read it.
The writer had notified herself as being in
her late fifties, as a young girl had
walked in paths of sin as a young
woman, and went through an extended period of
distress and turmoil, seeking some knowledge of God
and forgiveness of sin.
She told me that about 25 years ago,
somebody had told her that Christ died for
our sins, and that she had at that
time accepted him as her personal Savior.
She said, I heard you preach one night
this past week.
You indicated that you believed that a person
who had accepted Christ could be certain that
sins were forgiven and that the guilt of
past sin was gone.
And she said, I've lived 25 years since
I accepted Christ in constant fear and dread.
Lest, perchance, what I did in my youth
would exclude me finally from heaven.
And it was my joy to write to
her and point her to passages of scripture
like these, that the blood of Jesus Christ,
God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin.
A good part of my ministry outside of
the public teaching or preaching ministry is in
the ministry of counseling, and it has come
to my consciousness that the one problem people
have come to me to get help with
more than any other is the problem of
guilt.
These are not unbelievers who are coming, but
believers, people who have been saved and know
that they have been saved, but whose lives
are plagued by the past.
I cannot help but notice the great difference
between my present ministry and ministries that I
had in former pastor.
For a good while, I could not understand
this different type of ministry in which I
was more and more becoming involved in counseling
with people individually.
It came to my realization that those to
whom I was ministering in former pastorate were
people who had been born in at nominally
Christian homes, who had been brought up in
Sunday school and in church, whose lives had
been molded by the word of God, at
least as far as external things were concerned.
Oh, true, many of them were not saved
and knew Christianity and not Churchianity, but their
lives had been guarded because of that early
exposure to the word of God and to
the truth concerning Christ.
But I would say that the majority to
whom I minister from week to week are
individuals who have come to know Christ when
they were of adult age, who did not
come from Christian backgrounds, whose lives were not
molded by the truth of the word, and
consequently wandered in darkness and then came to
know the light that is in the face
of Jesus Christ and were saved, may I
say it bluntly, out of heathenism.
Without the benefits of the application of the
word of God to the earlier years in
their college and young adult years, they were
involved in all sorts of things of which
they are now ashamed.
But that life has left an indelible mark
upon them, and they wrestle with the problems
of guilt.
I believe that the word of God has
an answer to this problem.
We recognize, to begin with, that guilt is
the individual's response to his consciousness of a
violation of God's holiness, an individual's response to
his own consciousness of having violated the holiness
of God.
Paul says in Romans 3.23, "...all have
sinned and come short of the glory of
God.
And that in which God glories above all
else is his ineffable holiness, his unalterable righteousness.
And God sets as his standard his own
holiness, and anything that falls short of the
holiness of God is classified by scripture as
sin.
And when an individual falls short of God's
standard, that individual suffers the pangs of guilt.
Now, there is no man so depraved that
he does not have a conscience, and a
conscience is the voice of God that convicts
an individual of his failure to attain the
standards of God's holiness and God's righteousness.
I repeat it, there is no people on
the face of the earth so depraved that
they are without this inner convicting voice that
points them to their failure to attain the
standards of the holiness and righteousness of God.
Therefore, men apart from the work of Jesus
Christ are guilt-ridden.
This is true in a sophisticated city such
as Dallas, or in the jungles of Peru
or Africa."
The Apostles testify to the existence of this
convicting work of God in the second chapter
of Romans, verses 14 and 15.
The Apostle is showing that the Jews fall
short of God's standard of holiness because they
have violated the written law of God.
The Mosaic law was given to Israel, and
Israel had the requirements of divine holiness spelled
out line upon line and precept upon precept.
When Israel sinned, they were guilty because they
transgressed a known law.
Then the question arises in the mind of
the reader, since the law was given to
Israel and the Gentiles did not receive a
written law, are Gentiles guilty before God?
Do Gentiles suffer the pangs of guilt the
same way the Jews suffer the pangs of
guilt?
The Apostle Paul's answer is in the affirmative.
Yes, Gentiles, even without the law, suffer from
guilt.
Now, how can you explain that?
Paul explains it in verse 14 of Romans
2, when the Gentiles, which have not the
law, that is, the law of Moses, do
by nature the things contained in the law.
These Gentiles, having not the law, are a
law unto themselves which showeth the work of
the law written in their hearts, their conscience
also bearing witness.
Now, what does the conscience bear witness to?
The same thing that the written law of
Moses bears witness to, the demands of divine
holiness and righteousness.
So, Paul says that God has written the
law in the hearts of men so that
that written law, or the conscience, convicts man
when they fall short of God's holiness and
they are guilty before God, and a man
who is guilty before God suffers the pangs
of guilt.
Now, when a man is guilty, or when
a man suffers the pangs of guilt, he
may try to cover that guilt in a
number of ways, and I am not talking
just about unbelievers, but I am talking principally
about believers now.
We must reckon and recognize that guilt is
one of the greatest drives that an individual
has, one of the greatest drives that he
has.
Guilt may drive one man in a mad
pursuit of pleasure, and he goes from round
to round of pleasure, seeking to cover his
guilt in that which he feels, appreciates, or
satisfies himself.
The pleasure may take one form or another
form.
It may be a dope or alcohol to
deaden his senses and to give him a
false feeling of placidity or of contentment or
of joy, but that mad pursuit of pleasure
is only an attempt to cover the guilt
of the conscience within.
Or, in another individual, it may lead to
a reckless abandonment to a life of sin.
This energizes the criminal who goes from one
crime to another crime, seeking through some thrill
in breaking the law to cover up the
guilt of the broken law that is within
him.
With another individual, guilt may take more acceptably
social forms of drive, and the man may
become totally immersed in his work or in
some hobby in which he gives himself to
this restless activity constantly.
He's not working just for the job or
to build a business, but he's working in
order that he can work off some of
the frustration that the guilt produces.
Or, in another individual, it may produce a
restlessness in which the individual must occupy himself
with something or other.
A magazine, of course they're old-fashioned now,
but the TV takes its place on a
telephone conversation, on running out to see this
one or that one.
This constant restlessness that will not let, or
guilt, will not let a man be quiet
with himself for two minutes because that guilt
raises up an accusing finger and makes the
man miserable.
What I'm trying to show you is that
a child of God may react to this
thing of guilt as well as an unsinged
man may react to it, and it may
produce a feverish activity or a pursuit of
pleasure that puts God out of the picture
that seeks to deaden the conviction of the
Word of God and the accusation of the
Spirit of God that dwells within.
The child of God may manifest this restlessness
in what seem to be perfectly good ways,
and he may want to go from one
public service to another public service, neglecting that
which is responsibility at home or at business,
but he is covering up that guilt by
frequent attendance at this place, or that place,
or this meeting, or that committee, or this
activity, or that Bible class.
Driven by guilt, they may seek to cover
up the accusing function by activities of which
the children of God would approve.
Now, when we come to handle this problem
of guilt, I believe that there are two
different facets of the truth that we want
to present.
There is the doctrinal, and then the practical.
The practical must always be based on the
doctrinal, and so we begin with that, and
I want you to turn with me to
Hebrews chapter 10, where the apostle is writing
concerning God's answer to guilt, or to a
guilty conscience.
You'll notice in verse 2 he begins the
chapter by telling us that under the Old
Testament sacrificial system, there was no final solution
to the problem of guilt.
For he tells us, we better read verse
1 and 2, the law having a shadow
of good things to come, and not the
very image of those things, can never with
those sacrifices which they offer under the law
year by year, continually make their comers thereunto
perfect, for then would they not have feat
to the offerer, because that the worshipers once
heard should have no more conscience of sins."
No more conscience of sins if there were
a perfect, final, and completed covering for sin
under the old order.
Now, the old order, or the Old Testament
sacrificial system, was not designed to give peace
of conscience.
It was designed to remind men that they
were guilty.
That was the design of the whole system.
On the day of atonement, the high priest
took one goat, he sacrificed it, he took
the blood of that goat, and he sprinkled
the mercy seat.
God dwelt above the mercy seat in the
cloud of glory, and that blood was put
between the visible manifestation of the presence of
God and the broken law that was in
the eye.
See, blood was put between God and the
broken law.
And then the priest took the second animal,
he put his hands on the head of
that animal, and confessed the sins of Israel
over the head of that animal, and then
that gate goat was led out into the
wilderness to die.
Blood was put between a holy God and
broken law, and then by confession sin was
removed from the camp of Israel.
But how long did that last?
Permanently?
No, 12 months.
And as the painful Israelite went through the
first month, and the second month, and the
third month, he could say, that blood is
covering my sin.
And he had a feeling of peace, but
as it got along to the ninth month,
and the tenth month, and the eleventh month,
he got the feeling that that blood was
wearing pretty thin, and there wasn't much between
him and a holy God.
And by the time it got down to
the twelfth month, he was so miserable with
his guilt, he was feeling, why doesn't the
day of atonement hurry up and come so
the priest can put blood between a holy
God and the broken law, and sin can
be confessed on the head of the priest
and they can be removed from the camp?
You see, every year Israel was forced by
God to renew a note of indebtedness.
That's an unpleasant thing, isn't it?
I hope you've never had that experience of
having something half paid off, and then not
being able to keep up payments, and so
you go back and refinance that whole note
and have to start all over again and
sign a new note of indebtedness.
Think of what it would be like every
12 months to have to come to God
and sign a new note of obligation, a
new note of indebtedness, but God purposed it
that way.
Why?
Because the blood of bulls and goats could
not take away sin.
It could make only a temporary covering, and
since Israel was covered by a temporary covering,
God gave them a conscience concerning sin so
that that note would be renewed year by
year.
You see the first point, then?
If they had been once and for all
purged, they would have had no more conscience
about sin.
But they did have a conscience about sin.
Now, drop down to verse 22.
"'Since we have such a high priest, let
us draw near with a true heart and
full assurance of faith.' Now, notice these glorious
words, "'having our heart sprinkled from an evil
conscience.'" Having our heart sprinkled from an evil
conscience, there's cleansing, there's forgiveness, there's restoration, and
there is no more an annual remembrance about
sin.
Guilt is gone.
So he starts off in verse 2 with
a remembrance of guilt, and in verse 22
there is no more remembrance of guilt.
Something has happened in between so that there
is no more conscience about sin.
What is it?
Well, I realize in due time we're going
to come to the tenth chapter of Hebrew,
but I can foresee that that's a long
way down the road yet, and so you
following the normal pattern will have long since
forgotten anything I say tonight about Hebrews 10
when we come to it in our studies
in the morning.
So I'm going ahead and outlining what the
apostle is trying to get across here as
he goes from a conscience about sin to
no more conscience about sin.
You'll notice that he tells us in verse
7 and again in verse 9 that Christ
has made a voluntary sacrifice.
"'In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou
hast had no pleasure.' Then said I, Lo,
I come in the volume of the book
to do thy will, O God.' Verse 9,
I come to do thy will, O God."
And here Christ is contrasted with the Old
Testament sacrifices.
The sacrifices of the Old Testament were animal
sacrifices, because of that fact their blood had
limited value, and he is coming as the
infinite Son of God to give himself as
a sacrifice for sin.
But there's something more.
Every animal sacrifice in the Old Testament was
an involuntary sacrifice.
Involuntary.
It went to sacrifice against its will.
A sheep or a goat can sense the
presence of death or the presence of blood,
and that goat or that sheep will instinctively
turn and flee from the place where blood
has been shed.
That was why the law said that the
sacrifice had to be bound with cords to
the horns of the altar, because it was
an involuntary sacrifice.
That which was sacrificed against its will had
little value in the sight of God.
When Jesus Christ came as the Lamb of
God, he differed from all Old Testament sacrifices.
He was a voluntary sacrifice.
He said, not my will, but thine be
done.
That's the first thing that gives the guilty
sinner a clear conscience.
Then the next thing, in verse 12, that
Christ's sacrifice was a sufficient sacrifice.
This man, after he had offered one sacrifice
for sin forever, sat down at the right
hand of God.
Did you notice the one sacrifice in contrast
to the tens of thousands of sacrifices of
the Old Testament?
One sacrifice.
Even the blood of the goat on the
Day of Atonement could avail for only 12
months.
But his blood availed for how long?
Forever.
For how long?
Forever.
And he has given a sufficient sacrifice for
sin.
Then the next thing that the Apostle points
out in verse 10 is that, through this
willing sacrifice, we are sanctified through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ once and
for all.
We are sanctified, and the word sanctified doesn't
mean made holy.
It means set apart.
To whom were we set apart by the
sacrifice of Christ?
We were set apart to God.
We belonged to him.
We became sons in his family.
His name was put upon us.
We are his.
We are set apart to God by the
sacrifice of Christ.
Then again, in verse 14, the Apostle tells
us that not only are we set apart,
but by one offering he has perfected forever
them that are sanctified.
He has perfected.
Why does God have to separate a sinner
from himself?
Because he sees the sin in the sinner.
But when the blood of Christ perfects us,
removes every sin, what is there that God
can find in us as a basis of
condemnation?
Not a sin.
The glorious truth is that when we are
covered with the blood of Christ, God looks
upon us just as he looks upon his
own beloved son.
And there is no more reason for God
to reject the one who is covered by
the blood of Christ than there is for
God to reject the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
You see, by this sacrifice we are perfected
forever.
Then there's something else in verse 15.
The Holy Ghost also is a witness to
us.
What is the Spirit's ministry?
It is ministry to assure us that we
who have received Christ and believed in him
are the sons of God.
What does John say?
He that believeth hath the witness in himself.
The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that
we are the children, the sons of God.
And it is the Spirit's witness that thanks
to the one who is ridden with guilt
that Christ has voluntarily made a satisfactory sacrifice,
that we have been set apart to God,
we have been perfected so that in God's
sight we are flawless, and the Spirit convinces
us of that truth.
Then, in verse 17, the Apostle concludes his
argument here by telling us that the Father
dismisses from his mind the memory of every
sin that is covered by the blood of
Christ.
The Apostle here is quoting Jeremiah, and Jeremiah,
in the rankage of the Hebrew, gives us
this most glorious truth that I know in
all the word of God, for God said,
their sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more.
The Apostle was so impressed with that and
wanted to impress it upon his hearers that
he referred to it back in Hebrews 8
and verse 12, I will be merciful to
their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more.
And in dealing with the question of a
guilty conscience, he affirms it again in chapter
10 and verse 17, their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more.
Now, what I have been trying to trace
is the doctrinal argument of the Apostle here
in chapter 10, whereby he shows us how
one passes from a guilt about sin to
a guiltlessness about sin.
That guiltlessness, or that clear conscience, is the
result of appropriating by faith the work of
Jesus Christ on the sinner's behalf.
Now, freedom from guilt is not the result
of sinless perfection.
It does not depend upon abstinence from all
sin, it depends on the value of the
blood of Christ which cleanseth us from all
sin.
Do you have that doctrine straight?
Do you know that all your sin was
under the blood of Christ?
It has been dismissed from God's memory, and
it is treated as though it had never
been committed.
Would God that we have the gift of
dismissing from our minds that which brings guilt
to our conscience, we've not been given that
power.
But God, by a sovereign act of his
will, can and does dismiss from his mind
the memory of everything that has been covered
with the blood of Christ.
That's the doctrine of a good conscience.
Now, I believe we have to come to
the practical side.
How are we to respond to this doctrine?
I want you to turn with me in
this connection to 1 Peter, chapter 5, verses
8 and 9.
1 Peter 5, where Peter says, "'Be sober,
be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as
a roaring lion, walketh about, teaching whom he
may devour, soon resists headfast in the face.'
Now, Satan is called by the Apostle John
the accuser of the brethren.
We know from, for instance, a passage in
Zechariah, or a passage in 1 John 2,
1 and 2, that when a child of
God commits a sin, Satan can take the
occasion to appear in the presence of God
and accuse that believer before God.
One of the tactics of our adversary, since
he cannot take away our salvation, is to
take away the joy of our salvation.
Since our sonship is settled, he seeks to
keep us from the enjoyment of our sonship.
And what is one of his subtle and
clever methods of doing this?
He comes to remind us of some tactic.
It may be something years and years ago
that he delights to torment us about.
It may be something of which we were
guilty before we ever came to know Jesus
Christ as a personal Savior.
Some alliance, some involvement, something that, when we
accepted Jesus Christ as a personal Savior, was
put under the blood.
But Satan hasn't forgotten.
Now, remember this.
If God has dismissed from his memory every
sin covered by the blood of Christ, that
feeling of guilt cannot come from God, God
the Father, God the Son, or God the
Holy Spirit.
Isn't that self-evident?
If God has dismissed from his mind, God
cannot be the one who makes us miserable
over guilt.
Well, now we have an alternative.
He's the only other one who can.
By a process of elimination, we see the
subtlety and craft of the accuser of the
brethren who accuses us not only before God,
but he accuses us to our own conscience.
And the conscience that has been cleansed from
the defilement of sin is now aroused to
consciousness over sins that are already dismissed from
the mind of God.
And the child of God breaks emotionally or
mentally or physically because he keeps on listening
to Satan's accusation, throwing up a conscience about
guilt.
How do we dismiss this?
James says, I'm sorry, 1 Peter says, chapter
5 and verse 9, resist this one head
fast in the face.
Resisting.
This word means to withstand.
The same word used by the Apostle in
writing to the Ephesians concerning the honor of
God, that we might be able to stand
an evil day in having done all to
stand.
What the Apostle is saying here is that
we have the right and the authority as
the sons of God, when Satan accuses us,
to forbid him to keep on accusing because
we believe what the word of God says
about our sins, that they are under the
blood, that they're dismissed, that there's no remembrance
of them in heaven.
How far does Satan get when he accuses
the brethren before God?
He doesn't get anywhere.
Why?
Because we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the Righteousness, who frees his blood,
and Christ offers his blood to the Father
as that which keeps on cleansing us from
all sins.
Now, if Satan can't get anywhere with God
because Christ frees his blood, what is our
defense?
The blood of Christ.
And we can stop and silence the accuser
of the brethren when he accuses our conscience
and stirs up guilt over forgiven sins by
pleasing the efficacy of the blood of Christ.
You see, he says we resist him head
fast in the face.
We believe that these sins are covered, that
there is no remembrance of them with God,
and if God has forgotten them, what right
does Satan have to make us miserable about
them?
Then I believe there's another word in 1
John, in chapter 3, verses 20 and 21.
If our heart condemns us, this is the
very problem about which we're talking.
For here we are, children of God, who
have some guilt about something in the past.
Our heart condemns us, and what does he
say?
God is greater than our heart and knoweth
all things.
What does John mean?
That God knows that the blood of Christ
has already been applied to that sin.
God knows, 1 John 1 and verse 7,
that the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son,
keeps on cleansing us from all sin.
You see, Peter said, resist him head fast
in the face, believing what God says.
You don't have to exhort God to believe
what he knows is already true, because God
knows that those sins are under the blood.
If our heart condemns us, we have this
joy that God is greater than our heart
and knows all things, knows that those sins
are under the blood.
But then there's often this disquieting fact that
comes up.
We say, suppose I've done something, and I'm
not conscious of it.
Suppose I have dreamed of spirits, and maybe
I don't know about them.
There are some people who are living with
a morbid introspection, afraid that they've done something,
and are miserable because they can't pinpoint what
it is they may have done.
That's a problem John is meeting when he
says, if our heart condemns us not, then
don't get worried about it.
We have confidence toward God.
Why?
Because it is the ministry of God, the
Holy Spirit, to convince us of anything that
displeases him, and he'll do his work perfectly.
Isn't it strange?
Some people get all upset if they have
guilt feelings, and other people get upset if
they don't have them.
One is as wrong as the other.
The answer to either one is the same.
Trust God to do his work.
Jesus Christ will keep on applying the benefits
of his death to the experience, to the
life, to the path of the child of
God, so that he is acceptable to God
the Father.
And God the Holy Spirit will keep on
his work of convincing, reproving, rebuking, rejoicing to
deal with anything in the present experience that
may grieve the heart of God.
If we are guilty, then we trust God.
If we are not guilty, then we trust
God's spirit to do the work which the
Holy Spirit has come to do.
Much has been written about this problem of
guilt, but I believe for the child of
God it is relatively simple.
I realize there's danger in oversimplification, but I
believe it's just simple.
The child of God, first of all, must
know and accept the facts of the doctrine
of the Word of God that God has
dismissed from his mind because of the work
of Christ.
Everything the one who's accepted Jesus Christ to
save is found in the facts that he
believes.
It's the basis of our sin.
If guilt arises, it does not arise from
God, it arises from Satan who is seeking
to destroy our joy.
And Satan, on the basis of the blood
of Christ, is to be resisted or rejected,
and the blood of Christ will silence the
accuser of the breath.
Don't listen to him.
Don't entertain the suggestions and the doubts that
he puts in your mind, but claim the
efficacy of the blood of Christ, and stand
on the promise that the blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin.
Praise God tonight for the blessed truth that
God has affirmed.
Their sin and their iniquity will I remember
no more, and the best way to deal
with Satan when he comes to make you
miserable is simply to say bluntly, shut up!
My sins are under the blood.
In effect, satisfy God.
It certainly ought to satisfy any one of
God's sins.
I realize that there can be no easing
of a guilty conscience, because you come to
know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.
I have been teaching and preaching tonight for
the benefit of God's children who may wrestle
with this problem, and I don't want to
relieve your guilt one bit if you have
never accepted Jesus Christ as Savior.
I want you to be the most miserable
person in the world so that you can't
go to sleep tonight until you have faced
this question seriously, until you realize that God
loves you and Christ died to save you,
and that you must bear your own guilt
until Jesus Christ takes that guilt away by
covering your sins with his blood.
I invite you to accept Christ personally as
your Savior, and urge you to do it
right now.
We pray, our Father, that God the Holy
Spirit may instruct us out of the works,
may give us the assurance that God has
dealt with our sins so perfectly by the
blood of Christ that there is no remembrance
of them forever in heaven.
May that which is covered by the blood
be so dismissed from our minds that the
accuser of the brethren cannot destroy our joy
in the Lord by reminding us of what
God has forgiven and forgotten.
Let the riches of thy grace and mercy
and peace rest upon us, we pray in
Jesus' name.
Amen.