Persistent Guilt

Morning all. this morning, we're going to look at, chapter 4. I don't know if you had a chance to read it. It's one of those, those books that's short enough and easy enough you can actually read it. some of the homework and stuff is a little But this is pretty good. very, very easy to go through and get packed with some good solid teaching and help that will actually help us in our walks down here. I do not nullify at the top of the page. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died in vain. Galatians 2:21. And I love how he contrasts, and he does a great job of contrasting the works of the law versus the righteousness of Christ. We cannot nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness came through the law, Christ died in vain. We're going to find out this morning as we go down. And take a look at Adam and Eve, that even in the best and the best and the best of circumstances, the greatest environment ever. no sin nature yet. No devil yet, only walking with God in the cool of the day, picking fruit all day, just having a great time, even then. There was a susceptibility. To, lawbreaking, if you will. And it all started there and we get the, we're way down the chain and it's, so if anyone thinks they can keep the law now. When it, when even one little tiny law couldn't be kept, don't touch that tree, they, they couldn't do it. So if we, if we think in our environment with a sin nature, with everything else going on that we can keep the law for righteousness. It just doesn't make any sense. So chapter one, by way of review, we went through chapter one. Chapter 1 is bookends of the Christian life, the righteousness of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, and quickly the analogy or the metaphor he uses is our life as a series of books, spiritual books, regular books. our natural life, our spiritual life, it's all represented in a series of books, and it's sitting on a shelf thankfully, and the shelf is a representative of our salvation in Christ. We do have a firm foundation in Christ to put our life on. Problem is, is that if you leave books on top of a shelf with no bookend to hold it up, they'll go flying all over. You go take one down and, the rest of them will fall. There's the stability, there's no stability. And so God has already granted us two bookends to shore up our lives for us to lean on as opposed to trying to stand by ourselves. The one bookend is the righteousness of Christ, His and His alone, and the other bookend is the power of the Holy Spirit. Now we're gonna, we're spending 5 weeks in the righteousness of Christ. Next week will be week number 5, and then we're gonna have Easter, and then the next 5 weeks we'll go through the power of the Holy Spirit in our life. And it's, I, I, again, I admire him for taking that subject on in a non-charismatic setting. because we need to know what does the scripture say about living according to the power of the Holy Spirit, because the Lord says, I'm going to send you a comforter. He will be with you and in you, and he's not just here just to walk, go for the ride. There are many things we need to rely upon Him. He is our strength. He's the right. He brings all things that are heavenly into us and so we can, we need that as well. So we'll get to that one. Later, chapter 2 was the motivation of the gospel taught by Bob Gall again saying if we, if we're righteous in Christ and we're forgiven completely and God doesn't remember our sins and oh goody, then that means I can just go out and sin my brains out. No, may it never be Romans 6:1. Because what happens is because people who have been transformed by the grace and the forgiveness of God through Christ, when that hits them, when they realize it and they fall at the Lord's feet, they don't want to get up and go sin anymore. Part of the benefit that we have as Christians being born again by the Spirit of God is that we don't want to live in sin. We, we pull away from it. And although we certain sins seems to get our attention and we fall over all the time. It leaves us, leaves us heavy. It leaves us sad. We don't want to live that way ultimately. So he has given us the grace, the motivation of the gospel can take us as far as even righteous, right living. It can take us way past what the law could ever think of doing. you get somebody who wants to follow the law and someone who is going to walk by the power of the Spirit under the grace of God, the law, the lawkeeper, he can say, thou shalt not kill and go. That's right. I've never killed anyone. Or thou shalt not commit adultery. Yeah, that's right, you losers. I've never committed adultery. So the Lord comes along and says, Well, you've heard it said to you, you shall not kill nor commit adultery, but I say to you, if you hate your brother in your heart, you're guilty as murder. And if you even look at a woman and you think about it, you're guilty of adultery. So he took away the facade and that standard that we think we can take, and the reason he did it was, we could go, and he could have kept going. He said, Do you really want me to tell you what the law is like and what you're like? He could have kept going, but he says that should be sufficient enough to destroy any hope you have of pleasing God and walking with Him. Perfectly according to the law. It's just not gonna happen. So what option do you have? We have one option, the righteousness which is of God through faith in Jesus Christ. That's our option. chapter 3, gospel enemy number 1, self-righteousness. Self-righteousness, Romans chapter 10 brought up the, the, the, concept and the truth that there are basically two righteousnesses our own or self-righteousness and the righteousness of God through faith, one or the other. Self-righteousness is anything you think that you can manufacture. Like, I think of Cain and Abel. Abel was, did what God said to do as far as sacrifices go. It could have, it could have been a, a, a picture of a blood sacrifice or it just was something God said he wanted. Cain decided, what, whatever God told Cain, Cain goes, Nah, I got this, no, I'm not gonna do that. I got some nice fruit here. I'm just gonna throw it in my barrel like they do at those little farmer markets and take it on over to the, to the altar and here you go. I have decided that what you said, I don't need to do, I'm going to do what I think is to do and you'll really love this. And he dumps it out. God didn't really love it, and he was really mad because he really thought he had it. Self-righteousness versus the righteousness of God through faith. so we're, this morning we'll look at, gospel enemy number 2. Number one, gospel enemy number one is self-righteousness. If I'm not going to rely or lean on the righteousness of Christ, and I'm not going to trust him to be my righteousness, then I'm going to try to manufacture my own, so I'm self-righteous. Anytime your behavior becomes the focus, anytime you become the focus, anytime your works become the focus, and anytime your works, your labor, your faithfulness, and your goodness or bad, anytime that becomes the focus and out in your own mind or heart outweighs the finished work of Christ, things are backwards. It's upside down. It needs to be changed. So gospel enemy number 2, if you're not going to overtly go into the self-righteous mode and work your way, etc. and by the way, this happens on grand scales. where unbelievers, they have their own works and codes and things that they think pleases the deity, and it also comes home right here with me and you in our own little way, yeah, I know that I have the righteousness of Christ, but But, I'm really trusting the focus is my work or my lack thereof. The focus is my sin, my lack thereof. My focus is that, so if I don't go self-righteous, I'll go, I'll go, I'll go into the persistent guilt part because I decided, yeah, that's true. Thank you, Lord, for what you've done for me in Christ, but now I got to get busy. Thanks for that being true, but that's the milk of the word. Now I need to go into the meat, and the meat is me pleasing you as a Christian walking the way I'm supposed to in maturity. I've been in churches teach that they literally evangelical churches teach that. That's the milk, the righteousness of Christ. Now get busy. And start. Come on, he didn't save you just to sit around and trust him. Come on, let's get going. And comparing each other and all that. So depending on our own performance under Chapter 4 to merit God's approval and favor, we spurn the support and security of the first bookend, which is the righteousness of Christ, and wind up either self-righteous or with persistent guilt. And I want to take a look at the ones that started it all. So Adam and Eve, the guilt syndrome. Let's see if we can relate to this. In Genesis chapter 2, verse 15 and 17, it says that then the Lord took the man and put him in the garden and to tend it and keep it, and the Lord commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it, you will die. So in a sense, God dropped the first law in human history. See all these trees, and by the way, I don't know if you thought about it, but how big the garden was. I don't think it was an acre or two. It could have been massive., the Garden of Eden trees., let's go with 100 acres, just, just for grins, go with 100 acres. So he says you can eat of any tree you want, and every tree is good and beautiful and looks good to eat, and then they're standing there listening, and they probably walk by that. I don't know if it's later on after creation, probably walk by that tree 10 times like your kids. If you take a box. And you put it somewhere on a shelf and the kids don't notice the seal. Two or 3 days later you go, oh, by the way, little, little Billy, you see that box right there? Uh-huh. Don't touch it. Guess where little Billy is gonna be hanging around for the next 4 or 5 hours. My grandson would have that thing open in about 2 minutes, literally. Don't touch that box. What box? That one. It's just bad. It's human nature. It's not just sin nature. We all have a little sin nature. It must be human nature because God says, see all these trees? Don't touch that one. And where were they hanging out the rest of the time? By the time the shining ones showed up, where were they? Were they on the other side of the 100 acre, 50 acre garden? staying up. Let's stay away from that tree. You mean that tree? Yes, that tree. OK. What is it about that? when the serpent came, he didn't have to say, Here, let's take a walk to that tree of knowledge of good and evil. He just said, Has God said you can't eat every tree? Well, yeah, he said we can't eat it. However, she responded, he goes, that's not true because God knows the day that you eat that tree, you're not gonna die. You're gonna become like him. You're gonna become like God. And so then it says that she saw the tree. It was beautiful. Well, she didn't have to go very far. It seemed like she's right there. So there's something in human nature, even pre-sin human nature, that's drawn to this. So, the thing is, if she can't do it with a perfect environment and a perfect setting, what makes you think we can keep the law? Look at us. We have everything going against us as far as that goes. So, So, this is the first law of God. Secondly, Genesis 3:1-5, the temptation. verse chapter 3, verse 1 to 5. Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made, and he said to the woman, Has God said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden we shall not eat. God has said, You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it. I didn't read nor shall you touch it when God said it, so I'm not sure what she was talking about, lest you die. Then the serpent said to the woman, You'll not die, for God knows on the day that you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you'll be like God, knowing good and evil. Well, that was enough for her. And she, she then after that in Genesis 3:6-8, she goes ahead and looks at it. That's number 4. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took the fruit and did eat. She also gave to her husband with her. I know there's millions of sermons that have been preached. Preachers, they, they have these, sometimes they like these certain passages because they can really get into it. So they'll go, there's the woman. She got tempted by the serpent. And where was the husband? You need to be the head of your house, husband, and take care of your wife, and you need to make sure that that, well, he was right there. So I don't know all those sermons, I don't know where they're going to go, but She said he gave, she gave to her husband with her. Why he was just standing by watching, I have no idea. But it says he gave her husband with her. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew they were naked and sewed fig leaves together and made themselves a covering. By the way, just a side note. In temptation, so the serpent came and tempted the woman. And she was not she should have been on the other side of the garden, but there she was, seemingly pretty close to it. And it was just an exhortation to me and I think to us is that if there's a sin that you get tempted with and fall and then get tempted with and fall, you get tempted with it and fall, you get tempted. Go get the video, the security video, and rewind it a little bit of, of what happened before you fell, and I would wager that you and I, before, if we're having a problem, you and I are probably walking into it. When we should have been walking away from it. So the woman should have been way over there, but there she was. On that tree she's not supposed to touch. The fascination, the thrill. Same with sin. So if you get tempted and you keep falling, retrace your steps and you'll probably find out more often than not that you're walking, you're setting yourself up by walking toward it or leaving that door open or whatever it might be. So rewind the tape and go, OK, I need to go instead of that, this way, I'm gonna go that way. Save yourself a lot of headache. and verses, chapter 3, verses 6 to 8. It says, so when the woman saw the tree was good, she ate. The eyes of both of them were opened. They were naked and sewed fig leaves together. The first act of self-righteousness, sewing the fig leaves together. Oh, we're naked. What are we going to do about it? Well, I know. Well, let's fix it. God won't see it. And then they heard the voice, the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden. Why did they hide? Because they were guilty. guilty. Temptation, sin, guilt. It's how it works. Temptation, sin, guilt. And so they hid and then after that verses chapter 3, verse 9 to 13, the finger pointing started. That's another sub sublette of the sin sin syndrome is that, well, it wasn't my fault, it was his fault. It was her fault. Well, she made me mad. He did this to me and I, I got so angry because it's his fault because I was fine until he made me mad, OK, but you're the one that sin. So the finger pointing starts. It was my mom. I was raised in a bad home. It was the guy I went to school with. It was all and not everybody but me know it was me. It was me. So, The finger pointing starts. And then let's take a look at the conscience. Because that guilt was produced by a conscience, and God has given the conscience, and I love what he wrote in the book, the conscience is our God-given inner voice, an internal witness that testifies to the level of our personal obedience using God's perfect law or some moral code. As a measuring stick, sometimes it whispers and sometimes it shouts. Is that not true? When my conscience goes off, it doesn't go. Wait, yeah, you're going the wrong way. Well, thank you. Don't do that. I'll start going the wrong way or I sin and I go and all of a sudden someone just knocked me in the head with a bat, baseball bat, and is screaming at me. My conscience is. Brutal. No manners. My conscience has no manners, no filter, no nothing. It is brutal. Especially if I'm All right, I'll give you an example. I had one this week. So having an exchange with someone and it's, yeah, and, this exchange built up and I'm trying to, I'm trying to come down and Yeah, but if we do it that way, and so I go in the other room, I'm sweeping and I'm, oh man, and I'm feeling it blowing up. So I'm confessing to you all. I'm trying to be quiet, but I can't. It's like, and man, so I was angry, very angry. Thankfully, I prayed, I, I found there was a little spot and I went, Lord, please help me because, you can't think straight. And my conscience Well, look at you. You think you're saved, you're this, you're that. And the problem is, is that I don't know if you remember wrestling, old-time wrestling where they have tag team wrestling, those two guys who go after two guys. Well, both my conscience and the devil often team up. They love to hang out together and man, when they come in together, my conscience points guilty, guilty, you're done. The devil goes, that's right, you're guilty. Are you even saved? What's wrong with you? I can't believe you're doing this. Oh, and they just beat the tar out of me. My conscience, not a very nice guy. So, but the, the conscience does have good purposes. In under the conscience letter A, good purposes of the conscience, it does send warning signals when we're about to go astray, and it's pretty interesting to pay attention to it. You can actually, when you're doing whatever you're doing, going. About to go astray, whatever that is for you. And you go. Your conscience will I go. And you have to push past it if you're going to go sin. You have to push past it. Because he's trying to warn you, and that's what the purpose, the good purpose of the conscience is, but also it declares us guilty when we sin. It just says you sin guilty, no hope. I like the law. No hope, no remedy, no help, no advice, no nothing. Just you are guilty. You're guilty of sin. Yes, sir. Is that you mentioned. I, I'm trying to train myself. That's the time to ask for help. Yep. Because I don't have the power within myself to say no. Right. That's the time to ask for help and then, Tried to train myself to give the Holy Spirit time to answer that. Very well put. Instead of temptation. a little bit of, a little bit of fight to, yeah, asking for help, yes, and then I would say also, and then I'll be quiet. I believe God is pleased to answer that. Yes, it's not like, no, that's the icky stuff. You got to deal with that yourself. I don't deal with icky. Figure that out. Be transformed by their own. That's not who God is. Oh no, I think he's pleased to answer those questions just like we see all over the scriptures. Jesus, help me. Yes, amen. That's very well put, by the way, if something pops up in your head, just go ahead and shoot your hand up. I won't stop until you do. Yeah, what was saying, I think part of that is that we deal with our conscience with our Father. Amen. We talk to him about our conscience with our Father. It's when we are not in. and talking to is saying to us. That's what Jesus died. Jesus died. Yeah. Very good. And that gives a little light on why the Lord in the Lord's Prayer, which the disciples were when he said, lead us not into temptation. Didn't you ever, don't you read that and go. Why is that? Why does it say it like that? lead us not into temptation. I don't know the full impact of it, but John Bunyan said after he went through his horrifying nightmare before and even after he was saved of horrifying condemnation, he finally came out of it and he said, a couple of things I learned while I was going through that, I should probably have many times prayed before. If I'm going to a, into a scenario where I know something's coming, oh, your sister's going to come down and visit. It's probably a good idea for me before she gets here to go, Lord, please lead me not in temptation. Please help me. Before I get started, that really actually God answers that very visibly often, to pray ahead of time, but if you're stuck in the middle of it like I was and I, all I could say was in between my, was that Lord, This train took off. I can't stop it. I can't stop it. Please help me. And he will do that. He'll do it and he'll do it. I watched it and then, peace, be still, and I've watched things. Hey, what do we, it's really a a blessing. So your conscience has good points to it, but it also has negative aspects. Number 1, your conscience isn't always right. It says sin, sin, sin, it says wrong, wrong, wrong, but a lot of it's based on your understanding of right and wrong. Sometimes we, we have the scriptures thankfully, but there's people in the world, their consciences are going up. AW Tozer said that you could empty out probably 80 80% of the mental hospitals in the entire world if people's consciences were quieted. Or, or clans. They could, a lot of people would walk free. Because the conscience just beats them, so it's not always right. to the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but even their mind and consciences are defiled, so a conscience can be defiled. also, Titus verse 1 and 15. At least numbered funny, to the pure all things, oh, to the pure, all things are pure, very similar, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but even their mind and conscience are defiled. That's the same verse, OK. And then, First Timothy 1:19 says, Having faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected concerning the faith and have suffered shipwreck. So part of what our blessing is from God as we walk by faith is that we walk in good conscience. Now, our good conscience, again, when we sin, it'll, it'll call us out on it. but also there's something about that God does for our consciences that we can't do. And we'll get into that in a second. It's not always right. And then number 2, under letter B, under the conscience, not naturally subservient to the gospel and to the righteousness of Christ. The message of the cross is absent, and I like the way the author put that, that in the conscience there's no message of the cross. It doesn't bring that. It's pure law. Whatever your law is, that's all it knows. It doesn't know the redemption of Christ. It doesn't know that Christ died for those sins. It doesn't say you're guilty. But that's OK if you confess your sins. It doesn't go there. It just says bad, guilty, bad, guilty. So it's not trained. To acknowledge or acquiesce to the blood of Christ or to the righteousness of Christ or justification. Amen. Yes, yes, Jimmy the Cricket. The conscience often produces. Persistent guilt but offers no remedy. And so we're going to look at how we can get to that remedy, if you will, as a part of our life. Here's some things that the conscience accuses us of. Sins Well, I like this past and present. You ever sit there minding your own business? Doing something completely unrelated to anything, and I'm not kidding you, man. This is. I'm not kidding. The devil has an archive. And he has an archive set that's way better than AI. I'm honestly sitting there just all of a sudden, a sin, get this, from 1968. That I committed that I forgot about. There it is in full color. I go, How did that happen? I, I haven't thought about that in literally decades. How'd that happen? Oh, because, because Satan went, Who You just, and then it's a failure. It's, it's a downtime, a dark time of mine, and the whole purpose is so that you go with it, that you absorb it and go down with it and go, man, that was an awful time. I have still awful., there's a point of being humble, like, Lord, I'm a sinner. I always sin, but there's another purpose of Satan that he wants to drag you down and take, put you in a big old slog of mud and just throw a rock on you and just let you sink. And old Sims is perfect. Oh, he's really clever and his timing is great, not great, but. be it in church, oh Lord. Whoa. How did that happen, right? You're in church, you're singing praises to God, hearing the word of God, and remember this? Oh boy, do I. So, and I thought my memory was going. It is going. I can barely remember my kids growing up, but man, I can remember that day in 1968. So, it's, it's got a lot of help. Yes sir, the fiery darts, yes. Excellent. Yes. Extinguish all the firing. Um-hum. That's very good. No, that's a great point. And it's not like the devil goes, oh gee, they're saved, so what can I do? Well, I'm just going to make them, I'm just going to make them feel bad. It's like, no, no, there's a big purpose behind self-condemnation. And that guilt that he wants us to go under, there's a grand purpose. It can completely neutralize us as far as our effectiveness, our personal on this side, fellowship with God. It can knock us out and make us totally ineffective and sometimes, sometimes it can unchecked, persistent guilt can lead to things like suicide. I don't know. The guy's a youth pastor. He was fine. He was smiling at his kid's birthday party the other day, and all of a sudden he took his own life. Why? Like the Chinese water torture, they call it the one drop at a time, enough drops of persistent guilt that go unchecked and go undealt with, taken where they should go, which is the cross of Christ. If you keep that up and you keep adding up to it, sometimes people can't handle it. So he's very serious about what he does when he's trying to make you feel bad. It's not just to make you feel bad. He wants to kill you and destroy you. So it's not something to take lightly. A guilty conscience is not something to take lightly or just walk with all the time. Past regrets, things we should have done but didn't, and number 4, things that we've done. Believe myself that we shouldn't have. Persistent guilt. If the conscience isn't subjected to the righteousness and forgiveness in Christ, guilt from our sins has nowhere to go and nothing to stop it. So that's what happens often. We try to cover persistent guilt or guilt from sins with, oh, OK, that was bad, but But I can handle it. I, I won't do it again. it's been, I, I've done worse and, there's this self, I'll take care of it thing or ignore it or whatever it might be, but we can't do that. in Hebrews chapter 9, by the way, here's a, here's a quick note. It says, solution to all these things. Run to the first book in and lean on it, the righteousness of Christ. We have to, it's, it's like developing a habit. My dad had strokes when he was young. he was like in his 40s and he had 2 or 3 strokes, and it hit him in the motor control thing. So he, he didn't just like one side was bad. It was his balance. So he'd stand up and just fall over. He couldn't even use a walker. We went to a neurologist and she said, you can walk because if you want to, if you go through therapy and rehab and keep doing it, it's very awkward at first, but eventually a different part of your brain will take over. So you can actually do that. He didn't do it, but he said you could have even walked again because a different part of your brain would take over. so we need to make sure that we don't, not necessarily, we take what the devil means for evil and we turn around and we use it for good. Don't run. Don't necessarily run from guilt and from memories and things like that. What we can do is turn it around and say, yeah, that's true, like Bunyan did when he's fighting Apollo, Apollo Pollon. And he said, Yeah, all that you said about me is true, and then some, he says, but I have received pardon from my king. We can actually use some of those memories of our sins to say, Yeah, such was some have I, and I remember the Lord. He actually cleansed me from it and delivered me from it. Thanks for reminding me about that. Oh praise you, Lord. Thank you again for what you've done for me in Christ and how you delivered me from that wickedness, so you can use these guilt things against Him. And part of what we have to, but that's gonna take, it's gonna take time, if you will, to go from, go from receiving guilt after you sin and going to the cross and to his word. It's going to be awkward at first because we're not used to doing it just like my dad wouldn't have been used to walking, but if we make it a habit, keep doing it, keep going, no, I'm not going to walk with this. I am going to take my guilt where it belongs, and that's to the sacrifice of Christ, and that's a legitimate, very real thing to do. chapter verse wiring of faith. OK. Hebrews 9:14. The sacrifice and blood of Christ is the only thing that can cleanse the conscience, and I love how in 9 and 10 that the writer of Hebrews talks about not just cleansing your sins, but your conscience. There's only one thing that can cleanse a conscience, and that is the sacrifice in the blood of Christ, the righteousness of God. But it has to be a part of our life. That's like I'm going to take this sin and guilty conscience, and I'm going to go to the Lord and I'm going to, recall His word and hide His word in my heart so that my conscience gets clean, not because some time has passed and I feel better now, but because the blood of Christ cleanses me from all sin. And essentially yes John Bunyan because that's exactly how the book ended. He was carrying his burden with him the whole time. It ended with him dropping it at the foot of the cross. And at some point we have, we do that, we go, I know my sin is horrible. I know it's bad. I confessed it to him, but sitting there pondering it after I've confessed it and saying, He's, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins, not righteous or not merciful and, and, gracious, faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So I confess, he does the rest. He does the, the, he's faithful. He's just. He does the cleansing. So yeah, I can go on and the devil. how good I'm gonna make this quick. How the devil is, how smart he is. When you do that, when you go, Lord, I confess my sins, and then you try to go on, he goes, Hey, hey, hey, wait a minute. Aren't you taking this a little lightly? That's pretty serious. Aren't you serious about your sin? Now he'll do all these things. He is such a snake. Yeah, it is a snake, and he'll sound righteous, like you need to do more to show you're serious. No, you don't. You go to Christ. You do what he says. You confess your sins to Him. You believe in His Son, that He has washed you from your sins. You believe that your sins have already been taken away and cast into the depths of the sea and laid on Christ, never to rise again. That's God says, perfect. That's all I need from you. You're completely righteous. I'll take care of the rest of this, including your adversary. 6 things real quick. I hate it when I do this. 6 things to shift your focus you want to do this, you've got to shift your focus. It's on the bottom of the 2nd page. Number 1, it's written by Thomas Wilcox, a Puritan writer who Puritan writers get really bad raps. Some of them have nobody can touch them when they talk about the grace of God. Number one, shift your focus away from your sin and on to Christ. Wallowing in it is an act of self-righteousness. It's not going to buy one drop of forgiveness or pity. Do not wallow in it. You're wasting your time. don't wallow in it. Take it to the cross and leave it there. Shift your focus to Christ, our mediator. You sin, you go to someone. He is already our mediator. Your sins are already forgiven, and He is the one who prays for us, strengthens us, forgives us, etc. Number 3, shift your focus to Christ crucified, as risen, and ascended. He was crucified, buried and raised from the dead. And we are the same in baptism, raised to walk in newness of life. We left our sins in the grave, and He took our sins away. Number 4, shift your focus to the glory of Christ. If you're raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is and set your minds on things above, not on things of the earth. You're not going to fix your sins if you try to fix it here. Number 5, or shift your focus off self. Condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation in Christ Jesus. Do not go for that trap. Well, if I feel bad enough, God will have mercy on me. No. Number 6, last one, shift your focus off of your self-contempt. Paul did not wallow in his self-contempt. He said, But I received mercy and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me. And if you hear a word of condemnation about your sin after you've confessed it, The bad, just understand and know for sure it's not from God. Know it, it's not from Him. He doesn't say, Well, yeah, I've forgiven you. You confess your sins, but yeah, we got to deal with that. It's like, no, that's not him. It's not him. You've got nothing. We have sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. We don't need to wallow in our sins, right? Not when we have a savior and an advocate if we do sin with the Father. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for today, for this morning, for your goodness and loving kindness, help us to understand these things, completely and to walk in them, taking our sins away and doing according to your word with them. Thank you for the power of your spirit. Thank you for the blood of Jesus and the righteousness of Christ. Thank you for what you've done for us. help us be faithful to your word in this respect, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.