Repentance Leads to a Clear Conscience

Today I want to address the topic, one of the struggles we have in breaking free from certain types of slavery. We know that today's Voilaevan bread picture coming out of sin, and yet there are things that we struggle with from our past, in trying to overcome our past, trying to overcome the influences, some of the things that we've been through. Every one of us here has been potmarked one way or the other, and stressed by certain things that have occurred to us and happened to us. And so I want to address one of those today and focus on it in a very specific way.

Are you paralyzed by guilt's grip on your inner being? Now you might say, well, I don't feel guilty about anything. If you are, you're the lone bird out there, because I think most of us struggle with guilt.

Many times we're filled with shame, we have pain, we're tormented by feelings of hopelessness and despair. And I don't know how many people I've talked over the years that just feel hopeless. Want to quit, want to give up. Don't have the strength to just move forward and to go forward. All of us from time to time feel guilty and ashamed about things that we've done or things that we're doing. And we wish we could stop them, or we wish we had never done what it was. I don't think there's one of us sitting here today who's not experienced this one way or the other. Guilt and shame can be healthy if you know how to deal with them, but they can also paralyze you. We know the guilt is associated with the conscience.

That is, a sense of knowing right and wrong. You know, that's where guilt comes in.

When we don't do what we know we should do, we should feel guilty. Let me give you a definition of guilt. This is taken from Wikipedia, Encyclopedia, under the definition of guilt.

It says, guilt is a cognitive or an emotional experience that occurs when a person realizes or believes, whether justified or not, that he or she has violated a moral standard and is responsible for that violation. I've sinned, you know, moral standard. I've broken God's law. I've done whatever it might be. It says, it is closely related to the concept of remorse in psychology and ordinary language. Guilt is an effective state in which one experiences conflict. Having done something that one believes one should not have done, are conversely something that somebody should have done. You may feel guilty because, well, I didn't pray enough. I didn't study enough. So we begin to feel guilty. He gives rise to a feeling that does not go away easily, driven by the conscience. Now, even philosophers and psychologists recognize that living with guilt can be very debilitating. It can sap a person's sense of well-being and happiness, and a person can walk around like Joe Blipschnick. I'm sure all of you know who Joe Blipschnick is. Little Abner? Where did Little Abner go? He's no longer in the comics, but he used to have this cloud always raining over the top of his head.

Another way of saying what I just said here is that there's no such thing as sin, because this is what psychologists want to do. They want to free human beings, humankind, from feeling guilty about anything. And how do they do that? Well, they do it by trying to do away with ethical standards and morals, and so they say there's no such thing as sin. And if there's no moral standards, you violate, so you shouldn't feel guilty. You go talk to a psychologist, and he says, well, you shouldn't feel guilty, and he will go in that direction.

Our culture has declared war on guilt. It is considered medieval, obsolete, unproductive. It's not something you should experience. People with feelings of personal guilt are usually referred to a therapist today, whose task it is then to boost their self-image and to get their self-ego up there. No one, after all, is supposed to feel guilty. The problem is, when you eliminate guilt, then you do away with conscience. Now, I think a while back I gave a sermon, and I mentioned looking up in the periodical catalog a list of recent magazine articles about guilt, and I thought I might mention those again because they certainly apply here.

How to stop being so tough on yourself. Guilt can drive you crazy. Guilt-mongering. Getting rid of the guilt. Stop pleading guilty. Guilt letting go. Don't feed the guilt monster. See, these are all articles that are out there telling you, well, you shouldn't feel guilty.

What we find in the last century have been three principal schools of psychology that have tried to free humankind from feelings of guilt. The first school of psychology to significantly affect American behavior and American thought was Freud. And we're all familiar with Freud, or psycho-analytical approach. Freud claimed that all abreant behavior stems from repressive sexual needs. All of these occurred during development stages of human growth as children. So children are repressed sexually and they grow up with all of these problems. Second school of psychology was behavioralism. It came along and said that abreant behavior was due to the environmental conditions that a person lives in. So blame it on the environment. It's the air you breathe, the water you drink. I mean, it's the people you're around. Then the so-called third one was the third force psychology, perceptual existential humanism. This came along and said that humanity must actuate themselves. You've got to become actuated and come to be what they desire to be. That we must be guided by self-actualization and realization. Now, these philosophies have had a profound effect upon our culture, especially the last one. The schools teach you that you're free and responsible or to do whatever you want to do as long as it doesn't hurt anybody. You ever heard that? Ever heard somebody say, well, why should you care what I do? As long as it doesn't hurt anybody. Sadly, there's been much more focus on freedom than there has been on responsibility. See, when God brought Israel out of Egypt, he freed them. But they had to be responsible. He didn't just say, okay, go out here and run amok, do anything you want to do. I don't care. You're free now. You just roam through the desert and do whatever you want to do. No, he gave them laws. He gave them a way to live, and he was guiding and directing them.

Notice from Harper's Bible dictionary what it has to say. And this is a biblical explanation from Harper's about guilt. This is their write-up. It says, In the Bible, guilt appears to have two primary presuppositions for its existence. First, human beings are responsible and accountable for their actions. Well, who would have thought that? You have to be responsible for their actions. That, you have to be responsible for your actions. Thoughts and attitudes. And secondarily, these actions, thoughts, and attitudes constitute a state of guilt when relationships between human beings and God or other human beings have been broken because of sin. So, let me give you an example. You get angry with your wife, for your wife gets angry with you, and you have this yelling match, and you stomp off. And later on, you think, why'd I do that? And you feel guilty. And you feel guilty, you know, I shouldn't have done that. I should have been loving and kind and gentle and understanding. And you feel guilty because you know you've done something wrong. You've broken a relationship principle. And so, you go back to them, and you apologize, and you ask for forgiveness.

So, one of the things, according to the scriptures in the Bible, and I think this is absolutely true, is that there is responsibility, very clearly outlined in the Bible, over our actions. Whatever our actions are, we are responsible for them. Now, today they want to blame your mother, your father, your grandmother, your grandfather, your aunt, your uncle, the environment, anything but you. So, it's not you doing something wrong, it's everybody else. Well, you're the way you are because, you know, you were mistreated when you were a child. Now, you may not remember being mistreated, but you had to be mistreated, you wouldn't be acting this way. So, the principle ingredient of the biblical concept of guilt appears to be the dimension of responsibility. Human beings are accountable for what they do, for the consequences of what they do. This accountability lies at the center of biblical understanding of guilt. You and I must be responsible for our actions. What is one of the first things that God teaches us when He calls us? You began, at some point, to be called by God. Your mind was open. You read a booklet. You read a magazine. You started looking into the Bible for yourself. And one day, you woke up, after you read the booklet on the Sabbath, and said, we've been keeping the wrong day. And so, what was one of the first things you learned to do?

Repent! What is repentance? Except acknowledging that you've sinned, you've broken God's law, you're sorry, and you want to change. So you find God holds us responsible. How can a person ever repent unless they take responsibility for their actions? You have to be responsible for what you've done. And so we say, Lord, forgive me. I have sinned. Notice in Psalm 51 here, Psalm 51, David's attitude.

Now David had a man murdered. Uriah was murdered. Took his wife, Bathsheba, committed adultery with her. They had a baby. Now, what did David say when finally this came to his attention? It took him a year before he finally realized what he had done.

Verse 3, I acknowledge my transgression. I admit it. I acknowledge it. I did it.

My sin is always before me. See, it was there before him. And against you, you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight. So David realized he did the action. He committed the action. His sin hurt people. Certainly hurt Uriah. Got him killed. Destroyed a marriage. He took somebody else's wife. And, you know, certainly our sins hurt people. But when we sin, we sin against God because we're breaking his law. And we are held responsible. You can read that whole chapter. We're all familiar with it because it describes taking responsibility for what we do. Now, if we don't handle guilt properly, guilt can crush a person.

Guilt is meant to lead to repentance. And if you don't lead you to repentance, if you just bear that guilt around and you don't know how to deal with it, you'll be like David over here. Notice chapter 38 of the book of Psalms. Psalm chapter 38. The title here is a prayer in the time of chastening, beginning in verse 3.

There is no soundness in my flesh because of your anger, nor any health in my bones because of my sin. This is Psalm 38 verse 4. For my iniquity has gone over my head like a heavy burden. They're too heavy for me.

So there are times that we think, you know, this is just too much. We're carrying it around. My wounds are foul and festering because of my foolishness. Verse 6. I'm troubled. I bow down greatly. I go mourning all the day long. For my loins are full of inflammation, and there's no soundness in my flesh. Then he says, I am feeble and severely broken. I groan because of the turmoil of my heart. Because what was going on? The turmoil that he was going through.

The trouble he was experiencing. Finally, verses 21 and 22, David knew that he had to go to God for help if he was going to overcome. So he said, do not forsake me, O Lord. O my God, do not be far from me. Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation. How many times have you felt so unworthy and you get down and you don't know what to say to God? One of the best things you can do is open the book of Psalms up almost anywhere and go through and start reading the Psalms. And you find many times David is overwhelmed and he cries out to God and he always ends up seeking God and seeking God's aid and assistance.

Well, in the wake of the psychological movement in the Western society, instead of helping people overcoming their guilt, what they've done is that they have dunked society into a morale of chaos and confusion. People don't know what to do. They're given solutions. And all the time you can read in all of these self-help magazines, they'll tell you different things to do. And it's just like fad diets. People are always trying this and they're trying that and they're trying this to get help and they don't know where to go.

Now what you find, politicians and educators today are trying to clean up behind the amorality that this kind of thinking has produced.

Now, what I mean by that, the focus now in society is on prevention or preventing the consequences of wrong actions. Not stopping the wrong actions, but preventing the consequences. In other words, we treat the effect not the cause. What about sexual education in school?

It's supposed to solve the problems resulting from licentious behavior in society. And so why do they tell children? They give them birth control pills. They give them condiments. And if that doesn't work, the government will sponsor abortion. So we've got you covered all the way down the line. I mean, that's their way of dealing with it. Instead of having classes and saying, God says, thou shall not do this, thou shall not do that. Of course, we wouldn't dare do that in schools today, in classes. Children are taught to be tolerant of so-called abreant behavior.

And they're taught that there are many types of sexual preference today. So instead of dealing with this is wrong behavior, this is not the right proper type of behavior, and so if you do it, you should feel guilty and change. No, but accept everybody, and therefore you don't have a problem.

Alcoholism has become a disease. So it's a disease today, and all sorts of abreant behavior is called normal, while we are told there are no more norms. So they tell you the things are normal, and then they tell you, well, there are no norms and no standards to really go by.

We live in a society today where people struggle with guilt, with shame, with hopelessness, with despair, with despondency, and they don't know how to deal with those particular problems and those issues. We are led to believe that there are no absolute standards that govern human behavior.

It's like an advice column I read to you once that was titled, It's Not Your Fault.

So it doesn't matter what you do, it's not your fault. A woman had written to say she had tried every form of therapy she knew, and she still cannot break a bad habit. So you got this bad habit, so what if it's, you know, you name it. You know what your bad habits are, and you put it in there. The columnists responded, the first step you must take is to stop blaming yourself. So you can't blame yourself. You can't blame yourself. Your compulsive behavior is not your fault. Refuse to accept blame. And above all, do not blame yourself for what you cannot control. In other words, if you can't control this bad habit, these impulses you have, then stop blaming yourself. You can't control it. Keeping guilt on yourself only adds to your stress, low self-esteem, worry, depression, feelings of inadequacy, and dependency on others. Let go of those guilty feelings.

So how do they tell you to get rid of guilt? Well, just let go of it. Deny it's there. Don't blame yourself, and therefore you won't feel guilty.

Well, we know that when God created us, and when you were first born, you were created morally illiterate. You didn't know right from wrong. Well, you didn't know much of anything. You knew where to nurse sometimes, and that was about all that you knew how to do. We find that when it comes to morality, we have to be taught right from wrong. So what if you grow up in a home where you're told what's wrong? You're allowed to do what's wrong. You're encouraged to do what's wrong, and that's how you grow up. Back here in Deuteronomy 1, Deuteronomy 1, verse 39, we find this, God and Moses speaking here.

Notice what he says, an interesting principle. More for your little ones and your children, who you said would be victims, who today have no knowledge of good and evil. Talking about those who were so young, they had no knowledge of good and evil. They shall go in there. To them I will give it, and they shall possess it. So when a child is first born, they don't know right from wrong. They have to learn. That's why it is so important for parents to teach their children properly, from as early of an age as possible, to try to ingrain and inculcate the right way. Isaiah 7, verse 15, mentions somewhat the same thing here. Isaiah 7, verse 14, talks about a virgin will conceive, bear a son, you shall call his name Emmanuel. Curds and honey he shall eat, that he may know to refuse evil, and choose the good. For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that you dread will be forsaken by both of her kings.

So there is a time when young people don't know good or evil, and we learn. So we learn as we grow older. A child must be taught right and wrong, good and evil. Most people's ideas about values and morals are shaped by family, by their peers, by society, by the educational system around them.

How do many parents go about teaching their children, training their children right from wrong? Remember the old proverb, love the sinner, hate the sin? Do you ever think about applying that when it comes to rearing children? So many parents condemn their children more than the wrong behavior. See, a child has to know that you love them, and you condemn the wrong action. You can make a remark, and sometimes we do these things without thinking about it, such as, you're such a bad boy for making such a mess. You're a bad kid. You know, you're bad. Well, his actions are bad. What he did was bad, and you could say, well, you're stupid. I've heard parents call their children stupid. You're ignorant. Instead, well, you know, that's not a wise action, and you put the emphasis on the action. You correct them, but you find that so often a child will grow up with this type of language, and you're trying to teach your child right from wrong, and you begin to teach them that they're bad, that they're wrong. Children learn method more than they learn content. In other words, they come to behave in the same way their parents behave.

Guess what? They're little imitators, aren't they? Have you ever found your child walking the way you walk? You do something, and they do the same thing. You know, maybe you're throwing, you wad your paper up and throw it in the waste basket, and you think you're a great ball player, and you can hit the waste basket. And the first thing you know, you see a child, and he's doing the same thing. He imitates you. Well, children imitate their parents, and they also imitate their peers in the around. It seems that more and more parents today don't know the difference between right and wrong. So children are growing up not knowing the difference. Children need to feel good about themselves while being taught the difference between right and wrong.

There's a great deal of emphasis in modern time on self-esteem, and especially back in the 80s into the 90s, perhaps even into the 70s, there was a lot of emphasis on self-esteem.

Well, again, the Wikipedia encyclopedia under the article on self-esteem has this to say, in psychology, self-esteem reflects a person's overall self-appraisal of their own worth. Self-esteem encompasses belief. For example, I'm competent, I'm incompetent. And emotions, where you have triumph or despair, pride or shame. Behavior may reflect self-esteem. Synonyms for near synonyms for self-esteem would include self-worth, self-regard, self-respect. Now, I want you to notice all the emphasis on self.

Now, it is true that as our children grow up, they need to develop competency. This is why we train them. We try to give them every opportunity to learn how to play sports, learn how to dance, musical instrument, become good at something. That's good! I mean, there's nothing wrong with that. And that's what we should do with our children. But this is led in a different direction in society. There's a proper use of feeling, you know, training children to feel good that they can accomplish things, that they have abilities, that they have talents, that they can do that. Children learn to love and trust their parents. And you need to realize that they can look at your face, they look at your eyes, they look at your emotions, they see everything that we do. And they imitate that. What we need to realize is that parents play a significant role in developing the love, respect, and care within a child. That a child needs to feel cared for, needs to feel loved, needs to feel that there's someone who matters. Actually, what we realize when you realize this, we kind of realize that other people, in fulfilling our needs, are needed to fulfill our needs in love and security and trust.

All of us are beings who need to be loved.

Can we just go through life without somebody loving us, respecting us? But that's one reason we get married, isn't it? You find somebody, and maybe you're attracted to them, that's true. Better be true. But you find somebody who loves you, who appreciates you for what you are, who likes you, your way of thinking, your way of doing things. So, we find that other people are there, and they help us to fulfill our needs. What happens when a divorce takes place?

When a divorce takes place, a love bond is broken. There was this love, this bond between two individuals, and for some reason, one individual has broken that bond. Many times, if our needs are not met, we tend to feel abandoned and alone.

There may be times that we think, God doesn't care about me. You see, we tend to, as human beings, to translate our feelings, especially how we deal with other people, and we relate them to God. And there are times that we think that God, maybe He doesn't care for me. And yet, God has told us in Hebrews 13, Hebrews 13, verse 5, that we should let our conduct be without covetousness, be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we have the absolute promise that God would never leave us or forsake us.

So we may boldly say, if Lord is my Helper, I will not fear what man can do to me.

The Bible clearly explains that God is love.

And God loved us so much, John 3 16, that He gave His only begotten Son. So God gave His Son, and Christ was willing to die for us. So this is what this whole thing is all about. I mean, this is why we have the physical creation, why we're here, why God created us with the minds, with the potential that we have. Because He wants us in His family. And what He calls us, He's not going to let go of us. Philippians 1 6 says that God will complete the work that He's begun in us. So God isn't going to let go of us.

Now, God does, at the same time, set boundaries in which we have to operate. Those boundaries are His laws, His commandments. Now, at the time that psychologists tell people that they need to be loved and stroked and nurtured, they also tell us that there are no standards. They say, you know, there are no eternal truths and no standards. Whatever you decide is right for you, that's right for you. And they don't realize that there are eternal laws and standards. And that administering loving discipline is good for you. They believe that discipline will actually harm you, or will harm a child as he's growing up. And how often have you read about the fact that if you discipline your child or spank your child, that you are beating? It's always funny, the terms they use, they say you are beating, abusing your children.

I think that Dr. Benjamin Spock has done more damage in our society than almost any man with his attitudes and approaches toward child rearing. Psychologists admit that guilt stems from expecting some form of punishment for wrong behavior. But then they try to tell you, you shouldn't feel that way. But the Bible is very clear on this point. Hebrews 12 and verse 5, notice what the Bible says. Hebrews 12 and verse 5. Hebrews 12 and verse 5.

If you do not correct and direct your children, then you are saying they can grow up any way they want to. If you know what is right and what is good for them, you try to direct them in that direction. You find that there are just so many who have totally wrong concepts and ideas. Notice in 2 Timothy chapter 3 that we find that God has given us the Holy Scriptures for a reason.

Timothy was told here in 2 Timothy 3 verse 15 that from a childhood he had known the Holy Scriptures. What do the Holy Scriptures do? They make you wise to salvation. Then he says, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God or is God breathed, and it is profitable for doctrine or for teaching. Notice, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Why does God correct us or reprove us? Because if we're doing something that's going to cause us to miss out on salvation or is going to hurt us, God wants us to stop that. If you find your child is doing something that is wrong, you don't want them to get hurt. What if a little child wants to run out in the street and get run over by a car? You know, that's not his intent to be run over by a car, but he doesn't know any better. You have to correct him. You have to restrain him. You have to teach him. And as it says here in verse 17, God does this, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

John 15, I'll just refer you to that, shows that Christ prunes us. God prunes us back. That God is the vine dresser. We're the branches. He's the vine. And God will prune us. He will correct us. And He'll do it for our good. Why? So that we will produce more fruit.

Now, what you find, the Bible is very clear, that correction done in a loving manner.

When I say a loving manner, I'm not talking about beating. I'm not talking about abusing. But I'm talking about where you teach, you love, and then you correct. The Bible is very clear that that's proper.

However, on the other hand, Satan the devil appears as the father of liberty. Satan fosters a false, obsessive concept about loving the self. It's called Narcissus.

And let me read to you from an article titled, New Narcissus.

It says, a survey carried out in America on college students has shown that today's students are more narcissistic than previous generations. I don't think we need a study to find that out. It seems to be pretty apparent. But results show after a Narcissistic Personality Inventory completed between 1982 and 2006, and this was a study that was published in 2007, so it's very current, by more than 16,000 students were analyzed by the experts. Study linked Narcissism to poor social skills, higher levels of infidelity, game-playing, violent behavior, and relationships that are less warm and intimate, where people have trouble relating to one another. Narcissuses tend to lack empathy and show greedy and competitive behavior. The study said, during the 1980s, there was the self-esteem movement carried out in America's schools, which involved children citing, I am special. I'm special. I'm somebody. So today, kids go to school, and they can have the most horrible grades, and they're told, oh, you're great, and you're okay. And so what this does, it plays, it says, apparently, this plays a big role in making children more self-centered than they already are. And so we find young people becoming more and more turned to inward and self-centered in thinking that the world revolves around them. Shockingly, the study also pointed out that MySpace and YouTube for those who are older, you may not know what this is, but MySpace and YouTube are possibly contributors as they involve in promoting yourself to the outside world. You've got all of these thousands of videos out there where people have taken a camera or, you know, their phone, they've taken pictures of themselves doing whatever, put it on the internet. Millions of people can see it. Many of today's children all over the world are part of MySpace.

Definition of narcissism is concerned only for oneself.

That pretty well describes a lot of people in society today. The opposite, the anonyms of that would be sacrificing, self-evacing, or facing unselfishness, outgoing, concerned for others. What is that describing? Isn't that describing the way a Christian should be? Isn't that what God's Spirit is? A spirit of outgoing concern? God's love is outgoing concern for others, equal to love for yourself. You're to love your neighbors, you love yourself. You're not to love yourself and, you know, this much, your neighbor this much. No, you love your neighbor, you love yourself. And yet the world doesn't see that. The Britannica, concise encyclopedia under the term narcissism, says this. It's a mental disorder characterized by extreme self-absorption, an exaggerated sense of self-importance. You know, I'm concerned about three people, me, myself, I. And, you know, that's about the way most people function. Need for attention and admiration from others. It was first identified by Hevelock, Ellis, in 1898. This disorder is named for the mythological narcissist who fell in love with his own reflection. He looked in the pond, oh, that's such a beautiful person. He fell in love with himself. In addition to an inflated self-image, in addition to fantasies, narcissism is characterized by unusual coolness and composure, which is shaken only when a narcissistic confidence is threatened and by the tendency to take others for granted and to exploit them.

Now, what you'll find is that Satan the devil has so sensitized and deluded the populace in the area of self-esteem and guilt that any person today who dares to stand up and say, thus says the Lord, thou shall not do whatever it might be, is immediately characterized as what? Intolerance! Somebody who's a religious white ring, white ring, right-wing nut, right-wing nut. Make sure we get that. So, what you find happens is when somebody stands up and says that, people tune them out. Stop listening. He doesn't know anything. If he did, he wouldn't say that. See, as long as you are in your sins, brethren, as long as we continue along in our sins, you cannot be free of guilt. People can say, they go to psychologists, get therapy, and the therapist can say, well, you shouldn't feel guilty, don't blame yourself, you're not at fault, but unless they know how to handle sin, which does produce guilt, and you don't face the source of your guilt and your anger, then you're going to suffer problems psychologically, emotionally, and mentally. You're going to be wrestling with that until the day you die. Sometimes, we in the church become so concerned about our own personal situations, our family relationships, our husband, our wife, our children, our health, our finances. We didn't pray. We didn't study. Where do I get these evil thoughts? You know, we have all of these type of emotions and feelings that we become laden with anxiety, with guilt, with fear, and we wonder how to handle these. It's almost like we become split inside that causes us to be fragile in the verge of despair. In fact, I've even heard people say they want to come to church because of that. Church services all often become an endurance contest. Why? Well, instead of coming to church and feeling refreshed, they're afraid they're going to come and hear something they need to do. They're going to come and hear a correction, or experience something that's going to push them further back here into despair, and so they don't want to do that. Today, it seems that sermons that contain emotional stories are perceived to be more helpful, but in the long run, they don't solve the problem. They're good stories. They help maybe to inspire us for the moment. And then we have a younger generation in this society who believe they're different. The Word of God is not sufficient for them. It's out of date. You're a bunch of old folkies, and you don't understand. Well, when people become laden with guilt and their human failings, you can't hear what God's saying. We can become so obsessed with our own problems that sometimes we don't see the solution when it's right in front of our face. And we overlook it. We become a victim of, my problem is my problem.

I've gone and counseled people before, and they've told me, you can't help me because, have you ever done this or experienced this? I say, no. Well, my problem is my problem. And so, therefore, there's no way you can possibly understand it. Well, I might not fully understand everything you've gone through and experienced it, but I can understand what God says and how He says to handle it. And that's what we need to focus on. In Psalm 77, notice the state of mind here of the Psalmist as he wrote Psalm 77, beginning in verse 1.

Notice what he says. I cried out to God with my voice, to God with my voice, and He gave ear to me. In the day of my trouble, I sought the Lord. My hand was stretched out in the night, without ceasing. My soul refused to be comforted. I remembered God when I was troubled. I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Do we ever feel overwhelmed? Things we just don't know what to do, how to handle problems? It says, you hold my eyelids open. Well, we're all familiar with that. Go to bed, can't go to sleep. You know, the mind's racing. I am so troubled that I cannot speak. I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. I called a remembrance my song in the night. I meditate within my heart, and my spirit makes diligent search. Again, many of these psalms go through and show that people who become obsessively concerned with their own problems leads to loneliness and feelings of hopelessness, sometimes despair.

Now, one of the things that we have to do, brethren, if we want to overcome this, is that we've got to be willing to repent. Realize that guilt leads to repentance, and once you repent, you don't have to feel guilty. But then, part of the solution is to get our minds off of ourselves and begin to become involved with others. You pray for others. Maybe you call others if you know they have problems. You write letters. You write cards. You serve people. Many different things, many different ways that we can serve, not only within the body of Christ, but also within society, likewise.

Now, what you find is when a person becomes obsessive just with themselves, it prevents correction or correcting the problems. Sometimes it can lead a person to hating instructions because if you ever felt like somebody's trying to tell you how to do something, that they're condemning you, this happens in marriage all the time. One mate says, well, you shouldn't do it that way.

They try to tell you how to do something, and you begin to think, well, they're condemning me for how I do something. So we begin to feel we're being condemned. Sometimes it can cut off love and growth within us. Well, if you and I are ever going to be free from the feelings, we have to come to realize one thing that the world does not realize at all about what I'm talking here, that moral and spiritual issues are spiritual in nature.

Now, you would think that would be obvious, but they're spiritual in nature and require spiritual solutions. Man is dealing with spiritual problems emotionally, psychologically, mentally, and you find there are spiritual solutions to those problems, and human beings try every kind of physical solution to it that they can think of instead of the spiritual. All relationship, our relationship with God, our relationship with one another, our relationship with our mate, our children, all of these are based upon spiritual principles. As Psalm 19 says, notice, 19 verse 7, The law of the Lord is perfect. And what does it do? It converts the soul.

The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statues of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandments of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true in righteousness altogether. You find that God's law, back in Romans 7, is a spiritual law. You find that it is spiritual, and so if we're going to begin to deal with our problems, we have to deal with it on a spiritual plane. The resolution for removing guilt and shame and pain is spiritual.

It's not psychological. It's not just going to a therapist. It doesn't matter when it's all said and done how you were reared, how many serums in life, trials and tests and bad breaks and whatever you've gone through and how you feel your esteem has been battered. We've all sinned. Come short of the glory of God and need forgiveness. I mean, that's the bottom line. We need to be forgiven, and once we're forgiven, we can let go of the guilt.

And God sent Christ to die for our sins so that we could be forgiven. Psychology sometimes can help a person understand certain aspects of behavior, but no school is psychology. Fraudian, Adler, whoever you want to look to as a psychologist, none of them are going to remove sin and guilt from your life. Sin is a fact of life that separates us, number one from God, number two from each other, and sometimes from ourselves.

We create ourselves a problem. And the only way we can get our sins forgiven and be reconciled is to be forgiven by God. And to go to God to repent of our sins to God to repent of our sins and accept Christ's sacrifice. And isn't that what these days really are all about?

See, God, in His mercy and His love, hasn't waited for us. What if God waited for you and for me to make the first move? And God says, okay, when they will finally admit to me that they're wrong, then yeah, I'll begin to deal with them. I'll forgive them. What if God did that? None of us would probably ever be forgiven. Isn't that how sometimes we are in a marriage? You and your wife have a problem, and you think, well, when she will finally admit that she is wrong, then yeah, I'll admit when I'm wrong. Or, you know, I did something wrong. And so what happens?

There are people who have gone for years and for decades not talking to one another because one person wasn't willing to say, you know, I don't know what we were really arguing about, but I'm sorry. You know, forgive me and be willing to do that. Well, let's notice in Romans chapter 5, God's attitude towards us, Romans the fifth chapter, beginning in verse 6, For when we were still without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.

So you'll find God's love and mercy was extended to us. God did it while we were yet sinners. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet for adventure for a good man, some would even dare to die. But God demonstrated His own love towards us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So Christ has died for us so that we can be forgiven. God has not created us to wallow around in the mire of guilt, to walk around in the muck of guilt and self-pity. God wants us to change. He doesn't want us to be filled with anxious care, fear, doubt, and human reasoning. In Matthew chapter 6.25, Christ summarized one of the main problems that all of us have, and that is just daily living, making you ends meet. Verse 25, He said, Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on, is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing. And then verse 31, Therefore do not worry, saying, What shall we eat? or what shall we drink? or what shall we wear? Now, does God not want us to be concerned about our physical needs? Well, certainly. But the word worry here means to take anxious thought, to be troubled, to be just to become overly obsessed or occupied and anxious over it.

So He says, After all these things, the Gentiles seek. See, that's their main drive and focus.

The Gentiles seek, for your heavenly Father knows you have need, or you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God in His righteousness. Seek to be righteous, to do what is right. Seek God's kingdom, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not worry, or don't have anxious worry. About tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about the things of tomorrow.

So, brethren, God doesn't want us to grow weary and worry and be overly anxious. God wants us to simply repent. And God's provided a way for that. We know that He says to repent. We read this Passover night, but notice Hebrews 10 and verse 22, I think it is. Hebrews 10 and verse 22. It says, Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our conscience sprinkled, or having our heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our body washed with pure water. So we can have our evil conscience cleaned up. And God's Word has been given to us to help clean us up. If we want to have the right way of thinking, the right outlook on life, the right way of going about things, study God's Word. Fill your mind with God's Word. The Word of God is sound-mindedness. And if we're not sound-minded in the way that we should be, fill our minds with God's Word. I submit to you that your frame of mind, your mental state, and your spiritual state is to a large degree a result of our own choosing.

We can choose to do what's right. We can choose to obey. And yet, we need God's Spirit. We need God's power to be able to do so. And it is through God, through Christ, through the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, so we can have freedom and peace of mind. To a large degree, our state of mind will be determined by our focus. And I've mentioned that before, in the last few days. Our state of mind will be shaped by who we choose to believe, what we choose to study, what we choose to allow to come into our minds, and to influence our thought. Satan the devil is the father of sin and death. Satan the devil wants you to believe that life is hopeless. And, you know, you have no hope and to be filled with despair. Or, he wants you to believe that you are accountable to no one and thus throw your life away. So, you can do anything you want to do. Our friends become a great source of encouragement to all of us, our discouragement. And it's very important to choose your friends correctly. And this is especially true of young people, because they will have a profound effect upon your character and influence you for good. 1 Corinthians 15.33 states that evil company corrupts good habits. 1 Corinthians 15.33. Evil company corrupts good habits.

Now, you can be your own worst enemy by playing I'm No Good game. I'm no good. Nobody could ever love me. I mean, nobody could possibly love me. If anybody knew who I was, what I'm like, how could they really love me? You ever felt that way? Many, many people feel that way. Or, you can believe that God has freed us from all of these things, that we are loved by God. The greatest being in the universe chose you, put you here, has given you His Spirit. You are now uplinked to Him. You have contact with Him. His Son is there to help you. The Holy Spirit has been sent to give us the power and the strength to overcome, defeat the power of darkness. So, you and I are loved, and we're loved by one another because we're one family. We are a family here. God has given us His Spirit. We are united just as much as I've got four siblings. We're united by blood. You and I are united by God's Spirit, and we're part of that family. In closing, I want you to notice what Paul said back here in 2 Corinthians, chapter 10. 2 Corinthians, chapter 10, verses 3 through 7.

It says, Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments in every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity through the obedience of Christ and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. So we're told not to look at things according to the outward appearance. We are to look at the heart and to the mind. So, brethren, now, during the days of Unleavened Bread is the time that we need to learn to put our trust, our faith, our complete confidence in God, and begin to, as we found out yesterday, to make sure we have the mind of Christ, that we come out of this world. And that if we're still struggling with some of these guilts, shames, hopelessness, and these are things that pop up all the time in our lives, that you and I have a way to overcome these, that God will set us free. Again, the days of Unleavened Bread picture freedom, proper freedom from sin, from Satan, and the world. And we can have the right psychological outlook and feelings and emotions. We can be free of the inner turmoil that so many struggle with in the world. We can have peace of mind and godly confidence that we have a right relationship with God. Because, you see, as 1 John 3 tells us, 1 John chapter 3, and verse 19, 1 John 3, 19, By this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. If our hearts condemn us, if our hearts are telling us, hey, you've done something wrong, they condemn us. God is greater than our hearts and knows all things. So God will work with us through his Spirit. He will reveal to us where we need to change, what we need to do.

Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, see, if there isn't that guilt there, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. So, brethren, we can have the proper and the right confidence. So as we go through the days of Unleavened Bread, let's focus on the calling that God has given to us, knowing that we have a great God who has done everything that we need to help to bring us out of this world, and the morass and the chaos that we see about us in society.