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Steve Brown: Forgiveness grows in the soil of awareness. Let's talk on Key Life.

Matthew: Welcome to Key Life. I'm Matthew, executive producer of the program and our host is author and seminary professor Steve Brown. The church has suffered under do more, try harder religion for too long, and Key Life is here to proclaim that Jesus sets the captives free.

Steve Brown: Thank you, Matthew. If you were listening yesterday and the day before, we're looking at one of the lies that destroy our lives. And that's what we're talking about, lies that are the cause of shame and guilt and fear and regret. And yesterday, we talked about the importance of having real expectations, not false ones. One of the problems in the church sometimes is that in sermons and in teaching, we create expectations that are not realistic, that are not—for instance, to live the victorious Christian life, we think means that we're walking it. We have a lot of faith. We are doing well. We are serving Christ when, in fact, the victorious Christian life is more keeping your nose above the water than anything else.

Awareness of reality is so important. And by the way, forgiveness is a side benefit of awareness. A good definition of forgiveness is cutting slack for others. When President Clinton was brought up on articles of impeachment and won that battle, he was asked if he planned to forgive those who had brought the charges against him. You know what he said? He said those who need forgiveness need to forgive. They do. The more we face the personal implications of a fallen world, the more inclined we are to cut slack for others and to forgive. Let me give you a principle: You can't forgive until you've been forgiven, and then you can only forgive to the degree to which you have been forgiven.

Nobody escapes the repercussions of the fall. That is so true that another name for the fall is original sin. It's at the heart of biblical anthropology. It's an old saying with some truth: There's so much good in the worst of us and so much bad in the best of us that it ill behooves any of the rest of us to find fault with the rest of us. The Bible suggests that whoever said that is an optimist on steroids. The truth is that there is an incredible degree of bad in all of us that makes throwing rocks at others outright hypocrisy. Jesus asked this, and this is Luke 6:41 through 42: "Why," he asked, "do you see the speck that's in your brother's eye, but you don't notice the log that's in your own eye?"

Then he admonished us by saying, "How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take out the speck that's in your eye,' when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck that is in your brother's eye." Now, that's a tongue-in-cheek comment. Jesus is not saying that you can fix the log and then be qualified to judge others. Jesus is talking about a universal reality. Logs, like weeds, are everywhere, and you simply can't get rid of them. I've been a pastor for a whole lot of years, and I've listened to more confessions than you would believe.

So many confessions have been from faithful Christians and even Christian leaders. The proper biblical and Christian response to those who listen to confessions from Christian friends should always be: "No kidding. You too?" That was so often my response. But there's more. Not only did I see myself in their confessions, I realized a universal truth: Everybody has secrets that are so shaming and so dark that if others knew, we would hide in shame. You'd be surprised at how freeing "You too" is for the Christian. It ameliorates our shame and guilt and fear and regret. It doesn't fix it, but it makes it a whole lot better.

But there's more. Awareness of the reality of the nature of a fallen world is where God gets glorified. And given that's the business of being a Christian, it is also where a Christian can find meaning and peace. An interesting incident is described in John 9. Jesus heals a man born blind. His disciples ask if that blindness was caused by the man's sin or his parents. Jesus said it was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. Now, we're going to talk about that more tomorrow. Jesus didn't say that the blind man wasn't a sinner or that sin doesn't sometimes have painful consequences. Jesus simply pointed out the world's dark side is where God is seen and praised. You think about that. I'm out.

Matthew: Thank you, Steve Brown. If you're just joining us, we have just started a teaching series based on Steve's upcoming new book. It's all about confronting the lies of guilt, shame, fear, and regret, something I think we can all relate to. And tomorrow, Steve will dive into a subject that always generates a lot of questions: blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. I think you're going to find his comments encouraging. So, guilt is bad, right? Actually, no. Guilt is supposed to be a good and mighty instrument in the hand of God. The problem is we haven't made the Gospel good enough. Steve spoke about this in a sermon called "What Good is Guilt?" Take a listen to part of that message, then I'll be back to tell you about a special free offer. Here's Steve.

Steve Brown: People often ask me why I talk so much about sin: because I'm such a great sinner. I was in Philadelphia a number of years ago, and a man came to me after the conference. He had been a missionary on the mission field for 20 years. His wife had become ill. He was a physician, and he had come back to establish a very successful practice in Philadelphia. He was a very active churchman. He came up to me after the service and he said, "You know, Steve, I've been a Christian since I was 12. All my life on the mission field and in the church and at conferences, I've heard pastors and evangelists say they were sinners, and you're the first one I ever believed."

I sometimes wonder why God allows me the great, high, and holy privilege of doing this. If I had been God—and that's highly presumptive to even say that—but if I had been God and I had been choosing somebody to do what I do, it wouldn't be me. And I've often asked him—he talks when he wants to and hardly checks with me about anything—but sometimes I recognize that the reason he has called me is because the people of God need somebody who can model it for them. And they can say, "If Brown can do it, anybody can do it." So, this evening, I want to talk to you about guilt as a man who understands about guilt. I haven't liked it, but I've faced it and I've dealt with it, and I'm going to share with you some things from the 32nd Psalm that are absolutely mind-blowing and life-changing.

Albert Camus said the only question with which modern man must deal is the question of whether or not he should commit suicide. I never understood that, though Albert Camus was my hero before Jesus became my hero. I could look at the world and could say it really is meaningless and it doesn't matter what you do. You can collect matchbook covers or stomp on Dixie cups or build a hospital in Africa. It doesn't matter because when you're dead, you're dead, it's over, and there is no ultimate meaning. I read Camus' *The Fall* and recognized that here was a man—and I was young in those days—here was a man who was fascinated with guilt and grace.

There were many who thought that Camus became a Christian shortly before his death in an automobile accident. He was an atheist, but an atheist who had an argument with God. And he was a man who was guilty. I don't know his sin. He never said, but I suspect it was deep, and I suspect that it was real, and I suspect that it was something he didn't want to share with other people. But as I read Camus, I realized that here was a man who was absolutely fascinated with guilt and grace. I was in graduate school then, and I don't know if I understood except intellectually. I teach at a seminary, and I wish I knew as much as seminary students.

They have a tendency, and probably properly so, to be very jealous for the holiness and the purity of the church. They have a tendency sometimes along with that to be very critical and very judgmental, and I suspect that that is proper too. But sometimes, when it gets out of hand, I say to the students, "Boys, you haven't lived long enough and you haven't sinned big enough to even have an opinion on that matter." When I say that, rather than their becoming angry with me, there is a strange sort of silence, maybe the silence that I offered before Albert Camus, a silence that says I don't really understand what you just said, but it's true and I sense it's true.

Matthew: You are going to love this sermon because in it, Steve explains what God actually says about guilt. We'll send it to you on CD for free. Just call us right now at 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That's 1-800-539-5433. You can also email steve@keylife.org to order that CD or go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses. Again, ask for the CD called "What Good Is Guilt?" Before you go, if you've been blessed by the work of Key Life, would you share that blessing with others through your financial support?

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