You've sinned and you still feel guilty; what should you do?

Hi, welcome to today's little lesson.

The Scripture says that everybody's sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

So if you've sinned, welcome to the human race.

But I'm not trying to give anybody any excuses because when we believe in Jesus we've set

ourselves on a course to follow him, which is another way of saying obey him, which is

another way of saying keep his commandments.

And that's our intention, we repent of our sins, we're turning away from that which we

know is displeasing in God's eyes, and we set ourselves on a course every day, take

up your cross, deny yourself, and follow him.

But still, James said, "We all stumble in many ways."

He talks specifically about how we so often stumble with the things that we say.

Stumbling implies unintentional, it implies accidental, that is, within our hearts, within

our minds, within our will we want to obey the Lord, we want to do what's pleasing in

his eyes, and that's the mark of the genuine Christian.

If you don't care, if you're not concerned, well, Jesus is not your Lord.

So every day we're striving to please him, yet still we fall short.

The Scripture talks about that there is a progression called sanctification, that Jesus

said, "If you're truly my disciples, you will abide in my word and you will know the truth,

and the truth shall make you free."

He's talking specifically there about freedom from sin.

So that's a progressive thing, as we renew our minds upon the word of God, as we learn

God's will, as we walk with him every day and try to learn what is pleasing to him,

then we're growing in holiness and sanctification.

But all along that way we are fraught with our own weaknesses and frailties and we face

temptations, and we are apt to give in to those temptations.

So we all know what to do.

When you fail, of course you feel guilty.

Now, let me encourage you just by virtue of that sense of guilt that you have, if God

was giving up on you, you know, and if this was the end and he was saying, "You're hopeless."

Well, there wouldn't be any reason for him to make you feel guilty.

The whole idea of guilt is to give us some motivation to repent, and within that of course

is contained the realization that the Lord wants to forgive, the Lord wants to restore,

he's still on my side and he's helping me along the path of sanctification, and guilt

is a part of that process.

So you recognize right off the bat, you know, the guilt that I feel is another indication

of the love of God.

Don't ever forget, he is our Father.

If you're a father, or if you're a mother and you have children, think of the compassion

that you have upon them.

Even when they disobey you blatantly, you still love them and you still want them to

come to their senses if they're not realizing what they've done, and you try to help them

see that they've done wrong.

You might explain to your little daughter or your little son, "Well, here's the reason

we don't do that.

That hurts other people's feelings."

Or, "That's not right, you have to share, because God wants us to share."

So we're helping them to understand what's right and what's wrong.

The Lord's the same way with that sense of guilt that he lets us all experience when

we sin.

All right, so what do you do when you sin?

Scripture's very clear, you confess it.

Proverbs 28 and verse number 13, "He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he

who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion."

You know how that works.

In our relationships with other people, when people offend us, when they sin against us,

the way to heal that breach in our relationship is if they'll come and ask for forgiveness,

if they'll acknowledge and confess that what they've done has been offensive and, "Would

you please forgive me?"

Then it's very easy to forgive people who humble themselves like that.

So if you and I have that capacity to forgive people and give them another chance, we being

human beings, well, how much more does the Lord have that capacity?

You know, he's longing to forgive us, he wants to bring us to a place where we can acknowledge

our sin, and as we read there in Proverbs, not just confess, but also forsake them.

Okay?

So there has to be a determination, and of course naturally there is if you're sincerely

asking forgiveness, and naturally, naturally, you don't want to do it again, just like you

didn't want to do it the first time.

Then we have a promise from 1 John chapter 1 and verse number 9.

I think this is the first Bible verse that I ever memorized, and for good reason, because

I so desperately need it.

"If we confess our sins," there it is, "he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our

sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

So there it goes.

And God has made other promises similar to that, you know, if we'll confess, if we'll

forsake our sins, though they be as scarlet, they'll be as white as snow.

So he erases it and he casts our sins as he says, "Into the sea of forgetfulness."

There's these beautiful analogies in Scripture that help us to understand how gracious and

forgiving and merciful God is.

Now, our question on today's lesson was, "I confessed it, but I still feel guilty; what

should I do?"

Well, now is the time to learn a little lesson about faith.

Faith doesn't go by what it feels, it goes by what God's word says.

So if God says he's forgiven you because you confessed it, you met the conditions, then

he has forgiven you.

So believe it.

If you believe it, then you're not going to wallow in depression over it.

Now, again, if you've harmed somebody, the consequences you often can't change.

If you've messed things up, you can't fix the consequences, and so you can't get rid

of that regret.

But I'm talking about if you feel like God is still holding it against you, then that's

a feeling that doesn't line up with God's word or God's promise, and so you need to

get hold of yourself and say, "Wait a second here, buddy, God said if you confess he forgives

you, and so you're forgiven.

So go on as if you're forgiven."

Just like you would if you sinned against me and you asked me to forgive you.

I'd forgive you and I'd want you to go on from then on not wallowing in it, not thinking

I'm still upset at you.

I want you to know, you truly are forgiven.

Okay?

A little more to say about this same subject on tomorrow's little lesson.

Hope to see you then and hope that you'll click that little like button.

Okay, thanks.

God bless you.