Guilty As Sin – Part 2

Pastor Kyle gave us four things to know about guilt. (1) Some guilt is from the world. Sometimes, we carry false guilt around that is caused by the expectations and opinions of ours, which are not aligned with God’s Word, Will and Way. Such thinking causes us to idolize these people and their thoughts, making them, metaphorically gods and making us frozen by the fear of guilt. (2) Some guilt is from the sinful flesh nature. Our guilt can come from our sense of our choices for sin. We kick ourselves for the weak choices towards temptations that we make. This side of eternity, there is a battle going on between our sin nature and the indwelling Spirit of God within us. It’s a conscious daily choice as to which one we walk with (Gal. 5:16-25). A true spiritual battle is raging (unseen) to distract us from the fruit of the Spirit life of holiness and righteousness. (3) Some guilt is from the Devil (Greek: διάβολος or diábolos = slanderer or accuser), who deceives, lies, and tempts us to sin, internalizing religion leading us to wonder and doubt if godly living and Christian institutions are necessary or the whole thing really works, then he accuses us for the decisions that we make. Satan schemes against us and prowls around looking for those that he can devour (1 Peter 5:8). Take up the full armor of God and defend yourself daily (Eph. 6:10-17). (4) Some grief is from God, as Godly grief. God will bring a “wake up call” to those who “harden their heart” and numb themselves to the Spirit of God, in order to compel us to change with repentance unto salvation. God wants us to have a desire to change, with our spirit agreeing with God’s Spirit that what we are thinking, saying and doing is guilty as sin and repent to change our behavior aligned with God’s nature and character.  

1 Peter 2:16 “Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves.”

Pastor Kyle gives us three questions to ask ourselves in order to continually let go of guilt: (1) Have I prayed about it? Unless we pray, we cannot free ourselves. In honest prayer, ask God: “What do you want me to do?” (2) Have I confessed it to God and to someone else? Be accountable with your admission of guilt to a friend that loves God and loves you. (3) Is it because of an event or something that keeps coming up (meaning a deeper root issue)? This side of heaven is a journey of faith. The goal of the Christian life is freedom to glorify God and enjoy the walk with the Lord, not slavery to sin and guilt. God’s aim is not to condemn; we are unquestionably “guilty as sin” and condemned already. God’s goal is to “right the vessel”, bringing us back to an upright position before Him in righteousness. But freedom does not mean that we can make decisions to do whatever we want, whenever we want without guilt. No, that is not freedom. Freedom “with God” is not freedom “from God”. Jesus said in John 8:31-32 Jesus said to those  who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Galatians 5:1 “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”

We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Walking in guilt is like walking in the pit of darkness. Nobody has the right to stop, point and say: “Look at the pit that this person or that person came out of!” The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23a), so we are all in the same boat. Let’s focus of the second half of that Bible verse in Romans 6:23b: “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We truly need to be celebrating the finding of people’s way out of the pit and off of the highway to Hell by accepting Jesus as Savior and following Jesus as Lord. Cheering people on in their Christian walk is part of the church body’s purpose. When guilt raises its ugly head, run to the loving and merciful arms of God; not away from God. We all may be guilty as sin, but God removed that guilt away, as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). John 8:36 ^“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” - Freedom.


2 Corinthians 3:17 “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”


In Chris, Brian