SINGLE SERMON SERIES
THE TOPIC OF GUILT
DR. JIM DIXON
2 SAMUEL 16-19
DECEMBER 15, 1991
Last Wednesday in a Florida courtroom, William Kennedy Smith was pronounced not guilty, but of course, William Kennedy Smith is guilty. He might be innocent with respect to the charge of rape or sexual assault. He might be innocent with respect to the laws of men, but with respect to the laws of God He is guilty. All men and women, all people everywhere, are guilty. It was Adam and Eve who first violated the laws of God in Eden long ago, and when they sinned, they felt guilty. Their feelings of guilt were manifested in their sudden awareness of their nakedness and their effort to hide themselves from the presence of God amongst the trees of the garden. Nowadays, everybody feels guilty. Consciously or subconsciously, everybody feels guilt. It’s not just pastors, ministers and theologians who tell us this, but also counselors, psychologists and psychiatrists agree. At some level, everybody feels guilt. Satan loves guilt and to see people feel guilty. We do not know whether Satan felt guilt when he sinned and was cast out of the glory of heaven. Satan knows that unresolved guilt destroys people from the inside out.
This morning, I would like us to examine two different types of guilt. The first is pseudo-guilt. Pseudo-guilt is false guilt. It is the guilt we feel when we think we’ve done something wrong, but in fact, we haven’t. Now, I’m sure most of you have heard the story of Oedipus. Oedipus was the son of King Laius, the King of Thebes. When Oedipus was born, he was immediately separated from his mom and dad, and taken to a far country where he grew up not knowing his parents or heritage. As a young man, Oedipus was walking along a country road and he came upon a stranger. He began to talk to the stranger, and they began to argue. The stranger drew his sword. Oedipus drew his sword and they began to fight. Oedipus, being younger and stronger than the stranger, ran his sword through the stranger, killing him, not knowing the stranger was the king, his very own dad.
Some time later, Oedipus came to the city of Thebes. At this time the city was in disarray. The king was presumed dead and the throne was empty. The city was in chaos and crisis. Oedipus, by his wisdom and courage delivered the city from crisis and the people of Thebes made Oedipus king. He became the King of Thebes, not knowing that his father had been king. He took the past king’s wife as his own, not knowing that she was his mother. Unknowingly he killed his dad and married his mom. For three years, Oedipus ruled with strength, wisdom, and great character.
After three years, a plague swept over the city of Thebes and a certain seer who was called the Delphi Oracle knew who Oedipus really was and who his parents were. Seeing the plague fall upon the city of Thebes, this Delphi Oracle pronounced the gods were angry. Judgment fell upon the city of Thebes that had come from the transgressions of Oedipus. The seer went to him and told him who Oedipus really was and what he had done. Oedipus was cut to the bone because he was a just man and wanted to be a moral man. He was cut to the bone when he realized that he’d killed his dad and he married his mom. He was suddenly riddled with guilt. He went into his private chamber and plucked out his eyes with his own hands saying that he no longer deserved to see. He put himself in permanent exile and lived in the darkness of utter complete guilt all the remainder of his days. Now, of course, this story is from Greek mythology and Oedipus didn’t really live, but nonetheless guilt is real.
We live in a world of guilt. The guilt that Oedipus felt was pseudo, false guilt. What he did and what happened to him was tragic; he was ignorant of the transgressions. He didn’t mean to kill his father or marry his mom. What he did, he did in ignorance. In that sense He was innocent but the guilt that buried him like an avalanche was pseudo, false guilt. Everyone experiences pseudo, false guilt.
In the 10th century, before Christ, there lived a man whose name was Shammah. Shammah was the son of Agee. He was a Benjaminite of the family of the deceased king of Israel, whose name was Saul. Shammah was a kind of prophet, and he was kind of a pest. He hated King David because Shammah believed David caused the death of King Saul and the death of Abner who was the head of Saul’s armies. We’re told in Second Samuel chapter 16 when King David ran into Shammah. David was fleeing from his own son; whose name was Absalom was trying to take over the throne in a military coup.
David, with armed guard, traveled southeast of Jerusalem, and came to a little town called Beheram. Shammah began to shout at David and threw mud and stones at him. He shouted, “Be gone, be gone. You man of blood, you worthless person.” He began to accuse David and told him that the judgment of God had come upon him. He told David that he alone was responsible for the murders of Saul and his family. He told David that God was angry with him and that is why his son, Absalom was in rebellion. The head of David’s armed guard was not buying it. In fact, he looked at this little prophet and he said, “Who is this dog carcass to curse my Lord and King?” He asked David for permission to separate Shammah’s head from his body. David was feeling guilty from the guilt trip Shammah laid upon him. The truth is, David didn’t kill King Saul or Abner.
In fact, the Bible tells us clearly that David treated both men with incredible integrity. David was not responsible for their deaths. Somehow deep in David’s heart, he must have felt guilty because he was on the throne that Saul once sat. It is true that Saul, Abner, and other members of Saul’s family died and somehow in David’s heart, there must have been a part of him that felt guilty or responsible. And of course, David wasn’t responsible for the rebellion of his son Absalom. Absalom was responsible for the tragedy of his own life. But like all parents, when our children don’t turnout, there are oftentimes feelings of guilt. When Shammah laid this guilt trip on David, he believed it and said, “Maybe God is angry with me. Maybe God is judging me. Maybe I am guilty.” Later as you read second Samuel, you’ll see how God vindicates David. In 2 Samuel, chapter 19, Shammah comes and apologizes to David. The guilt that David felt that day was pseudo, false guilt.
We live in a world where we all at times feel pseudo-guilt. Growing up, I attended a church that kind of laid a guilt trip on me. I was told that it was a sin to dance or go to movies. It was wrong to smoke, drink, chew, or date girls who do. I remember the first time I ever went to a movie I felt so guilty. The movie was Swiss Family Robinson. The guilt I felt was pseudo-guilt. I had not violated the laws of God. My guilt was not based on the pages of scripture, but on a subculture in its own peculiar perspectives. We live in a world like that.
My guess is there is pseudo-guilt in this room. Counselors and psychiatrists are coming to understand that when parents’ divorce, children feel guilty. When husbands leave their wives and commit adultery, somehow the woman feels guilty and like she must be responsible. When a child is sexually abused by a parent and years later that memory comes to the surface, the child tends to be riddled with guilt. The victim feels guilty as though somehow some way they must have done something to make this happen. We live in a world with so much false guilt. People in our society who may be overweight, by our society standards, but don’t overeat often feel so guilty. Maybe God just made them a little bigger than other people. Oftentimes, we think guilt comes from sin, but that’s not true.
False guilt comes from accusations. It was that seer who accused Oedipus. It was Shammah who accused King David. The Bible tells us that the greatest accuser in all the world is Satan. In fact, one of the titles of Satan in the Bible is the devil. The word devil means accuser. Satan is the accuser. He loves to accuse the saints and you. He accuses me. Oftentimes it is in an effort to try to produce pseudo-guilt. He knows that if we have pseudo-guilt, any kind of guilt, and it’s not dealt with, it can destroy us from within. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we need to learn to begin to rebuke the accuser.
In Numbers chapter thirty-five, the Bible tells us that by the command of God, Israel established six cities that were called cities of refuge. Men and women in Israel who were accused of crimes that they never committed or did unintentionally, in ignorance, could flee the avenger if they could make it to those cities of refuge. In those cities of refuge, they would be treated fairly. The churches of Jesus Christ are meant to be cities of refuge. This church is meant to be a city of refuge where people who are riddled with pseudo-guilt can come and find loving people. The church is meant to be a place where we minister to one another by the grace of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Churches don’t always function like that.
There’s another kind of guilt I want us to examine this morning, genuine real guilt. Genuine guilt is the guilt we feel when we think we’ve done something wrong and we really have. That was the guilt that Adam and Eve had in Eden so long ago. They violated the laws of God and they felt guilty. Satan loves genuine guilt even more than he loves pseudo-guilt. Satan loves genuine guilt because if he can get you to feel genuine guilt, then he’s also brought you to the point where you’ve sinned. He loves genuine guilt because he knows that genuine guilt is like pseudo-guilt; in that if you don’t deal with it, it can destroy you from the inside out. He also knows that if your guilt is genuine, then one day you’re going to stand before God and get into a lot of trouble. Judas felt genuine guilt when he betrayed the son of God, and that guilt swept over him like a tidal wave. He could not handle the guilt and he went out committed suicide. For most people, guilt does not drive them that far. Most people die a little bit every day, dying from the inside out because of the guilt.
Carl Menger, the famous psychiatrist, once said that if we could convince people in psychiatric hospitals all over the world that their sin was forgiven, 75% of the people in psychiatric hospitals would walk out healed. You see, when sin is not forgiven and when guilt remains, it begins to affect us emotionally. Relationally it affects our disposition. It affects us spiritually and physiologically.
You know how when an airplane goes down and crashes, investigators look for the little black crashproof, fireproof, waterproof box? It has the flight recorder, and contains a record of everything the pilots said and did prior to the crash so the investigators can understand what went wrong. God has created all of us. God has created us in such a way that within each of us, he has put something like that little black box. Some people might call it the conscience, but it has a memory component which records everything we’ve ever done wrong. It’s all on tape, and it’s playing in there down deep, whether we know it consciously or not. It’s all on tape, playing and producing guilt. It’s producing guilt unless somehow we can erase that tape. The guilt eats at us from the inside out.
The Bible tells us the Greek word for guilt is the word “hupodikos.” “Hupodikos” literally means under judgment. You can’t live under judgment day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. If deep within yourself, you’re under judgment, it’s going to begin to destroy you emotionally, relationally, spiritually, and physically. Most people in the world understand this. They know they need to erase the tape. They need to stop that tape from playing. They want to get rid of the guilt. Some people perform their own private penance. They’ve created their own private purgatory trying to erase the tape, trying to pay the price themselves, hoping they can get rid of the guilt, and it just doesn’t work. Some people started drinking and have become alcoholics trying to drown the tape and remove the guilt. It doesn’t work. It just makes things worse.
Some people go to counseling and psychotherapy, and they hope that somehow that might remove the tape. But I got to tell you, even though counseling can be very helpful, I’ve got to say there’s not a counselor or a psychiatrist in this world that can take away genuine guilt. They don’t have the power. The tape keeps playing. Even if you come to the point in your life where you think there’s no God, and there’s no such thing as sin, God has made us in such a way that the tape down deep is still going to play, and the guilt’s still going to be there, just eating away.
In the Old Testament, the Jews, understood this and they placed their hopes in that sacrificial system. They had a particular offering they called the guilt offering. You can read about the guilt offerings in the Book of Leviticus. Those guilt offerings were simply a foretaste of one who was to come, who truly would take away guilt, that one was and is Jesus Christ.
There are people that turn to the religions of the world to try to get rid of the guilt and to stop the tape. There is no provision or atoning sacrifice for sin in the religions of the world. It’s only Jesus Christ who can clear the tape and remove the guilt. Only He has the power. And really that’s what Christmas is about. In the gospel of Matthew, the angel said to Joseph, “You shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.” The name Jesus means savior. He came to save us from sin and guilt. That’s part of what Christmas is all about. In the Old Testament, the Jews had the sin offering, which was called the “hatat;” and, they had the guilt offering, which was called the “asham.” Now, the “hatat” and the “asham” were sometimes viewed as the same. They were used interchangeably and treated as though their meanings and significance were identical.
At other times in Israel’s history, the sin offering was for those transgressions of God’s laws. And the “asham,” the guilt offering was for those sins committed against brother or sister. At other times in Israel’s history, the sin offering was for sin that was unintentional in which you might have violated God’s laws. The “asham” was for sin that was premeditated, done knowingly. The important thing to realize is when you come to Isaiah chapter 53, that beautiful chapter that prophesied the coming of the son of God and where it speaks of the suffering servant who will take away the sin of the world. In that chapter, Jesus Christ is called both the “hatat” and the “asham.” He is our offering for sin and guilt, all of it.
The message of the Bible is very simple: believe and repent. Believe that Jesus Christ is the “asham” and “hatat,” the only offering for sin and guilt. Maybe there are some people here that come to church from time to time or regularly, but you’ve never dealt with sin and guilt. You’ve never placed your faith in Jesus Christ as the offering for sin and guilt. You’ve never reached that point of repentance where you have said, “Lord Jesus, be my savior, cleanse me, wash me, make me whiter than snow. I want to begin to live for you. I want you to be my Lord and Savior.” You can do that today. You can stop the tape.
Some of you are Christian and you took Christ as savior, sometime ago, but there’s sin in your life that you haven’t repented of. You hear that tape too. Maybe you feel sorry about it, but that’s not the same as repentance. Repentance means, “to turn.” It means you walk a new way. If you come to Christ today in the midst of whatever sin you have and you confess it, and believe that he’s the “asham” and the “hatat,” and you would say, “I want to live for you, change me.” You will find the healing and cleansing power of Christ. Christ alone can wash us whiter than snow. He takes our sin and removes it as far from us as the east is from the west. He can stop the tape. Let’s close with a word of prayer