In this episode, Scott continues the True Crime Series talking about the complex themes of guilt and shame within a biblical context. Scott discusses the uncomfortable feelings of shame that Christians might experience when standing up for Christ, especially in the face of societal pressure and opposition. He emphasizes the importance of serving Christ over seeking approval from others, and acknowledges the internal struggle between maintaining a positive reputation and being a bondservant of Christ. The episode also touches upon the need to return to the gospel during times of emotional turmoil and Scott highlights the significance of Christ's sacrifice in removing guilt and enabling believers to draw near to God with full assurance.

Scott also sheds light on the concept of biblical shame, distinguishing it from mere embarrassment or self-deprecation. He discusses instances where biblical shame should be felt, such as when engaging in actions that go against Christian principles. He emphasizes that the origin of shame can be traced back to the entry of sin into the world through Adam, further exacerbated by Satan's accusations. Scott also talks about the importance of employing the shield of faith, as mentioned in Ephesians 6, to deflect the fiery darts of doubt and accusation. He concludes by encouraging confession and trust in God's unwavering love and forgiveness.

Key Topics Discussed:

• Shame for standing up for Christ
• Biblical guilt and societal pressure
• God's approval versus human approval
• Distinction between biblical shame and embarrassment
• Running back to the gospel during emotional turmoil
• Importance of the shield of faith in Ephesians 6
• Instances where biblical shame is appropriate
• Role of Christ's sacrifice in removing guilt
• Confession and trust in God's forgiveness
• Historical and modern perceptions of shame

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Hi. If you're looking for greater hope, assurance, and confidence through the shifting sands of life, then join me on today's episode as we dig deep into the bible to discover rock solid truth for life and living from the God of the bible. I'm your host, Scott Keffer. Hi, and welcome to today's episode. As always, for a deeper experience, you can go

to the show notes and download the blank insight sheet. Fill in the blanks along with the group. Depending on

how you're listening to this, there will be a link to the episode website at beholdingbibletruth.com, and a sheet with the answers is included as well. Enjoy today's episode. Well, think about the last time you called a shame. And remember one that maybe is an indicative of something. The question is, what's the difference between guilt and shame? What's the difference between guilt and shame? Not gonna share these, but just when you think about them in your head, what would you say is the difference between guilt and chain?

You'll get you've clearly done something bad. I'm so later on, you think about it. It it's I think it's guilt would be more of a exacting thing than a shame to me.

Okay. So feel like you've done something wrong with guilt?

I think I think, miss Shane, you're you're remorseful.

Remorseful, miss Shane. Well, you're those interesting.

If we

look in, Genesys 225, the Lord made everything, and it was good. Good. And it says the man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed. Interesting. They were not ashamed. Not ashamed. So the the Hebrew word literally means pale, which we'd say would be the blush, right, to to to or have the blood flow out of you. Right? Either way.

Right? Blood or or, the blood flow out to be ashamed, to be disappointed. So when God created Adam and Eve in the garden, they were not ashamed. So let's look at what changed. So she took from from his fruit and ate, and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. They heard the sound of the lord god walking in the garden in the cool of the day. The man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the lord god among the trees of the garden.

Then the lord god called to the man and said to him, where are you? He said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was prayed because I was naked, so I hid myself. And god said, who told you that you were naked? 2 in here. What do we see? Write down some things and then I'll share. What do we see? What changed? Sent. Did you go. Entered the world. Right? Okay. 4.

Right? All is good. They're not the same entered. And what else changed?

They realized they weren't guilty.

They were Guilty. They were guilt. K. They were guilty.

They tried to cover it up.

They tried to cover it up. And did.

Tried to cover it up. They hit Afraid.

They were afraid.

And someone told them they were naked.

Someone told them they were naked.

They understood. They understood, thanks, because now they have knowledge.

They understood. And what did they understand? Good and evil. Good and evil. Is what they wanted, right, to understand that's what he said. Either the tree, you'll know good and evil Not that they were told it was. Yeah. Someone told them they were naked. What else? Anything else? They knew they had violated god's commands.

They knew. They had vile Well, it must have been a shame because before they were not ashamed. Interesting. So the first blank is shame. Shame. So but shame. Said that they lost that blessed blindness, the ignorance of innocence, which knows nothing of nakedness. So nakedness, they were only fit they were not only physically naked and but there was nothing hidden.

There was no need to hide anything in their life from God. And now they needed to hide and to cover themselves. Of course, they figured that they could cover it up themselves. They figured they could cover it up themselves. Right? So shame. Right? The, in, in Psalm 3117, it says, fear not for you not be put to shame, neither feel humiliated. Actually, that's from Jeremiah. For you will not be disgraced, but you will forget the shame of your youth and the reproach of your widowhood widowhood, you'll remember no more.

So here, they're talking about the shame of your youth was the bondage in Egypt. And the, where god called them out and became their husband, if you will. Right? And so the reproach of widowhood was Babylonian captivity. So there was shame and reproach. What else? Humiliation, disgrace. But I thought about what's happened in the world over time, and that is the desire to to remove the power of words. Right? To remove the power of words. That's because in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, the logos.

Right? So to to remove the power of words so in, Noah Webster's 18 28 dictionary, it says that shame was a painful sensation, and it was excited by a consciousness of guilt. So a painful sensation. Right? Excited by consciousness of guilt or having done something which injures reputation or by the exposure of that which nature or modesty prompts us to conceal. Yep. Quite a bit. Alright? So that was 18/28. Was that, on target? No. No.

No. Webster was a Christian, and then I've got his original dictionary. It's about this thick, and he used a scripture to define words. And, of course, the point is if there is no definition or we don't agree on definition, communication gets lost. Right? Today, if you look in, American Heritage Dictionary, the first two definitions are similar. The third definition you know how they have multiple definitions. The third is pervasive negative parents' fault. Right? Marked by chronic self reproach in a sense of personal failure.

So there's a transition for what it used to mean to what it is now, but at the core of it, it it, it's not your fault. Right? Shame is not your fault. Wikipedia, which of course is filled with really factual and powerful things. Let's everybody go on and make up their own stuff. Right? And we have, the the value of the fact that we all agree to what's not true, that it must be true. Unpleasant, self conscious emotion. So now it's internal self conscious. Right? Often associated with negative self evaluation, motivation to quit.

Right now, it's just because you're not a winner. And feelings of pain, exposure, distress, powerlessness, and So there's some evolution of what the word and the concept means. And as a result in the in this in the world today, in psychology and a lot of places, it's how do we you know, if you look at ways to get rid of shame and guilt. Right? So so it used to come. Right? So guilt prompted shame, the feeling of shame, which came as a result of being guilty, like you said, Joe. Right? But now it's how do we get rid of shame and how do we get rid of guilt and how to how to absolve yourself is literally where we're going today. Right? So shame has sort of been neutered, like they're seeking to, to neuter God. Then the second piece of that is guilt, David guilt.

So in Leviticus, it said now if a person sins,

a person

sins and does any of the things which the Lord has commanded not to do, though even though he's unaware, this was talking about a temple worship, but he said, even if you're unaware, still he is guilty. Right? And shall bear his punishment. So the question, what's the difference between the 2? So the Hebrew noun, which means both guilt as well as guilt offering. The guilt as well as guilt offering that there needed to be an offering. The difference between guilt and sin is important. Rest of the words for sin focus on its quality as an action, of course, what I've done. Guilt points to the breach in relationships that sin causes and in particular to the indebtedness that results. So there's a brokenness and an indebtedness.

So so a a a guilt or guilt offering is a debt for which we must make amends. So there's a debt that has to be repaid. So we see in place to reset our so what I found is if I step back from the actual is today, it's really important to define what you're talking about. Because most often, you don't we don't have common definitions when we talk about things. So it's important to step back and say, okay. What are we talking about here? Sin prompts guilt and guilt offering. Right? So here here here, right, that we're we're going along. Right? We send, and that prompts guilt and this idea of guilt offering.

Right? Because a debt has been created. Right? Offering. And then the result is the shame which comes from that. So the so the shame is prompted by the guilt. This requires a debt. I don't even think I don't sin. Requires a debt. Right? Which requires an offering, and then the is the the feeling that that follows it.

Does that make sense? So often wrapped in together. It's very important to understand if we go through okay. So what are we talking about? So in the video, he's gonna talk about the difference between the 2, and you're gonna notice he's gonna talk about chain more in the sense of where it is today, which is the the the people's response to you or your feeling about people's response to you. Then we're gonna look at biblical, some biblical concepts to see if we can put this in context. Does that make sense?

Yep. Okay.

So let's see if we can get the scripture because it does seem like we're wrapping different pictures and different concepts. So if you flip over, I think if we identify where shame's coming from because we have to start, right, that this has to do with when all things were good, there was no shame. When all things were good, there was no shame. When sin entered the world, right, through Adam, then there was guilt as well as shame. So now we've got, different kinds of shame. So first, let's identify Satan's shame. Identify Satan's shame or the world system. Satan is the father of lies, which means he's really good.

He's a master of lying, and he's he's well equipped at it. He's been a murderer from the beginning, which means his basic intent is to kill you. He can't kill you, if you will. He can't kill your faith, but he would love to. And he is also an accuser. The liar and then accuser. He is the accuser of the brethren who accuses them, underline this, before god, day and night. What's that mean? He's all he's always accusing.

So he's lying, and he's accusing. And by the way, he's not only accusing you before god, he's also accusing you to you. He's an accuser. What's he say? Things like, you don't deserve God's love and favor. You ever heard that one? How about you're worthless or you're not a Christian or if other Christians knew oh, if other Christians knew, I'm gonna get that one. Well, that may be true if other Christians knew my thoughts and my stuff, but that's their issue. Or you're a failure. Or you got what you deserve.

God's gonna give you what you deserve. How many times have you heard that, Brett? He's gonna pay you back for things you did in your past, or you're never gonna change, or you're hopeless, or you're disgusting, or god is sick of you. I mean, for that one. Felt that one. Got sick of hearing this. Right? God's not gonna forgive you this time, one too many times. You're probably going to hell. So circle on there are the ones you hear regularly.

Which are the ones that you are most vulnerable to? Purple the ones that you hear regularly. Which ones does he load up his flaming arrows and fire at you? And the right to the left of it so I put it under I thought it was gonna give it its own category, but I put it under Satan's shame. To the left of that column, right, self accusation. Right. Self accusation. To the left of all of those lovely sayings. So under Satan's accusation, it's when we help him out. And they do have a phrase.

Right? I'm gonna be the devil's advocate. K? So how many times are you the devil's advocate? Self accusation. So how do you accuse yourself? Which one of those do you load up the arrow, set it on fire, pull the bow back, and then walk around and let it shoot. Which ones are your favorite to fire it yourself? So scripture says that we should despise and disregard Satan and the world system shame. Despise and and disregard Satan and the world systems shame. Because at the core of that shame is he's firing at your relationship with God, isn't he? Your identity in Christ. Whoever what he's doing is to disable you. He's trying to disable your ability to stand by faith.

So scripture says, if god is for us good question. So who is against us? Who is against us? Then he says, here, think about this. God the father did not spare his own son, but he delivered him up for us all. How will he not also with Christ freely give you all things? In other words, if god the father gave his son, is there anything less than his son that he would hold back from you? If he gave the most valuable thing, his son, is there anything he would hold back from you? Then he asked the core of this question, which is who will bring a a charge, an accusation. Right? You're you you know, he's bringing guilt against you. Right? So who's charging you? He says, who's gonna charge you? Who's gonna charge god's underline that. God's chosen elect. This is really important.

How many have received the charge? You see that up there, those are all charges. Are they not? They're accusations against you. So he asked the question, okay. So who's gonna charge god's chosen? I love this. So he says, okay. God the father. Okay? God the father is the one who he justified you. So the god the father justified you.

Who's the judge of the earth? Christ. God the father and Christ. So he says, god the father justified you. In fact, you're his elect. He justified you. So could he be accusing you or charging you? Oh, the answer is no. So god the father, no. Okay.

Maybe Jesus. Right? Christ Jesus, messiah Jesus, he he is he what did he do? He died. Yes. Rather, he was raised. Where is he?

Where is he?

He's at the right hand of god. What is he doing? Interceding for you. Okay. So god the father is not charging you. Christ Jesus is not charging you. Who's left? Well, it's either the enemy or me. Maybe other people. But it it's not the ones that could bring a charge.

So then he says, here's the deal. Who will separate us? That's at the that's at the core of the charge is to fire our identity in Christ. This is enough to to bring a charge to separate you. That's what he's saying. That's what he's saying. For I'm convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creative thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. So if if if a charge is being brought against you, who's bringing it? Usually, the enemy and or yourself and or yourself. So he says, hey.

The world system also does bring shame when you follow Christ. And perfector of faith. He's writing

our story. And who for the joy set

before him, he endured the cross, and it says despising the shame. Despising the shame. What's that mean? The world was bringing shame against Christ, the world the world system. And Jesus said, grow whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the son of man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in glory. Right? So that that idea that the world system is bringing shame to follow Christ, aren't they? They're bringing shame in Christ, and they're bringing shame against the gospel. So he says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's easy when you get out in the world, isn't it? To to to share Christ Jesus. Right? The name Jesus Christ.

You can say god sometimes and be okay. But you say Jesus Christ, and it's like,

we will do it. Right? Right?

Right? And the gospel and the gospel. It also says, don't don't let the world's system shame of Christians who are suffering. He said, therefore, do not be

Ashamed.

Ashamed. But the testimony of our lord or me, his prisoner, to join me in the suffering for the gospel according to the power of god. So the world system will bring shame to trust in Christ Jesus, to share the gospel, and for those who suffer on on that behalf. That make sense? So he's saying you should do what Jesus did. He despised the shame, which means he scorned the shame that the world system brings on you. Who's behind the whole system? Satan. Of course. So he's gonna bring shame, try to use that shame.

He says, I'm not ashamed. So I thought, so what is biblical shame? What is biblical shame? Beside it, write this phrase. It is not embarrassment. Biblical shame is not embarrassment. So there is that sense of self deprecation, that sense of I'm worthless, and I'm unworthy as a person that that gets wrapped into shame. That's not biblical shame. Embarrassment with what other people think about me is not biblical shame. Does that make sense? Their feelings, their real feelings.

Right? And indeed an issue, but biblical shame is not embarrassment. It's different. So he says there are, some categories where Christians should be ashamed. 1, he said, if if you have an issue with a Christian and you go to court, you should be ashamed. That's a biblical shame. I say this to your chain. He says, you should be ashamed. Isn't there someone among you who can decide? So if you have if you have 2 Christians who are in dispute,

if you

go to court, he's saying you should be ashamed. He also says if if doubting if you're doubting the resurrection and therefore partying it up, you should be ashamed. If the dead are not raised, well, it's eating great for tomorrow, we die. Become sober minded as you are. Stop sinning. I speak this to your shame. So there's this is biblical shame. If If you're saying, well, the resurrection isn't happening, so, hey.

Let's party hardy. And then also, he says, if if a Christian is not willing to work, they should be ashamed. What? Which means able, but not willing. Not unable, but able and not willing. Right? If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that person. Do not associate with them. Why? So that he will be put to shame. So there is that sense of this has, a connection to the body.

Right? And and, that he'll be put to shame. Yet he says, do not regard him as an enemy. Don't don't figure he's an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. So in this case, shame is used to bring about repentance, if you will. So there's biblical shame, which is not embarrassment. Self embarrassment. So I thought, okay. So how do we understand biblical guilt and shame separated from Satan's himself and the world system, and then what do I do in the midst of that? That make sense? So there there's good guilt, good shame, in that sense, but there's there's no guilt in the sense of where's our do is is the Christian guilty? No.

What's what's been the offering that's been made? That's what Guilt. Yeah. The guilt has been paid for in that sense. There's therefore now no condemnation. So he said there is a sense of shame if there are actions that would bring about biblical shame. Right? That's a that that would be a good emotion. Right? The guilt offering's already been made on the cross. So the first thing is to understand that you can draw near with full assurance under that underline that.

Draw near with full assurance. A story I've shared before, just many, many years ago. So Beth and I had a vigorous discussion. I wish we had vigorous discussions

Mhmm.

Where I'm absolutely right, and she's absolutely wrong, and I'm really mad. So I get in the car. I'm driving, and I'm trying to, dislocate the steering wheel from the the the the, like, the steering column. It wasn't working, but I was trying very hard to do that. And I'm just and I felt the prompting of the Lord saying, like, draw near. And I said, I can't. I felt like I can't do that. Like, Laura, I can't.

I mean, you hear what I'm saying. You know what I'm feeling and thinking and wanting to do. And it was as if the lord get not audible voice, but that sense of, so you're gonna clean yourself up before you come to me. How's that gonna happen? You in those moments, there's only one place to go. In the moments when you feel like I cannot go, that's when you need to go. And he's saying that's when you can draw near with full assurance. But I'm broken. I'm sinful.

I'm angry. I'm I'm I'm ending. I'm lusting. I'm what you're saying. Don't be there's no other place to go. Like saying to a fitness coach, well, as soon as I get in shape, I'll come and work with you. Yeah. It was silly.

Right? As soon as I clean up my sin, Lord, I'll come to you. There's no other place to go, so we draw near in full assurance. Right? Therefore, he says, brother, since we have confidence, what do we have confidence to do? Enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus. Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith. Why? Our hearts have been sprinkled clean from an evil conscience. Right? From the guilt. The guilt is gone. The guilt is gone.

He's washed it away. Right? And our bodies are washed with pure water. It's the blood of Christ. It's the blood of Christ. We draw near in full assurance because the blood is covered. The blood is the guilt offering. There's no more guilt. There's no more condemnation because there's no more guilt.

Everybody get that? So I can draw near because my conscience my conscience is sprinkled clean. David would say, oh lord, for thou does desire truth in the inward parts. How many can clean your inward parts? You can't, but the blood of Christ can't. Blood. So he says draw near through the blood of Christ. Confess your sins. Thank you. Confess your sins.

I acknowledge my sin to you, oh lord. My iniquity, I did not hide. I said I will confess my transgressions to the lord. It's important you forgave the guilt of my sin. It's the feeling of guilt because the guilt has been paid for, but it's that sense of guilt that I have. So I confess my sins. I confess my sins. Well, some of the shame, right, is that world system shame when we stand for Christ.

So he says, be convinced that god is able. Be convinced that god is able. World's system shame, shame

for Christ, shame for his word, shame for

making a stand for him, shame shame for sharing the gospel. He says, for this reason, I also suffer these things, but I'm not ashamed. So there are times when we stand for Christ and you feel ashamed, don't you? Because you're getting, like, the pressure. You're getting, right, feeling that you should be ashamed. He says, yeah. I know whom I have believed, and I'm convinced that he is able to guard that which I've entrusted to him until that day. So there's a sense when the world systems right? When Satan tries to shame you, I know whom I have had believed, and I'm convinced to evade. Evade.

About biblical guilt when I feel the the shame that draws me near, because of my sin. And the

last 2 are about when I ask Satan

to shame. Right? I'm convinced that God is able as I stand. And lastly, he's Paul says, for I if for am I now seeking the favor of men? Well, the answer is, yeah, to some degree. I'm always seeking the favor of men. Right? We want positive. Right? That's the that's the the the power of embarrassment, not that's the root system shame that brings embarrassment. Yes. I am.

Or am I striving to please men? Yeah. Sometimes I am. Right? Sometimes I want that positive reputation. I want that positive word. I want right from the world around me, the system. He said if I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. So he's saying, here's kinda here. We have this desire to please men, right, and to get a good report from the world system, and we're struggling with that.

I want I wanna serve you. Right? That's the serve. So I put on there, lord, free me. Lord, free me. Heal me. Help me. Lord, free me. Don't we need free for that? I need freed from Satan's shame because he's really good at bringing it.

He's really good at bringing it. As he, you know, to to stay disable me or distract me or, you know, just get me out of the game or what whatever he's doing. Right? It ain't good. He's a murderer. Right? So biblical guilt and shame is so biblical guilt is gone. Biblical shame is desire to bring us back to him. So we draw near with a, full assurance and we confess our sins. We think about Satan's shame, just be convinced when he brings it against you that God is able and pray that the Lord free us, doesn't that desire to not be embarrassed among men.

Alright. So Satan's shame. You despise it. You stand against it. There's biblical shame, which is not the same as embarrassment, and we've got ways to respond in the midst of it. So write down an insight you got today. There's somebody I'd like to chair.

Kind of like you've always said, run to the core because these ones at the top are something that I experienced, but I know better. And so I have to drag myself back to the gospel and know what he says.

Mhmm.

Quickly enlighten which it is, whether it's something legitimate that is guilt, which he's already taken care of, but I need still to confess

Mhmm.

Or the top ones you tend to live under.

And it's interesting, Martha, because when I think about it, in Ephesians 6, it gives us a visual picture that the shield of faith is designed. It's, you know, leather on it, soaked in oil, and it's designed to take the the flaming missiles of the evil one. These aren't just accusations. They're they're arrows. Right? And they're they're dipped in oil and flaming, and their desire to shoot you and set you not only to to penetrate you, but to set you on fire. Like, there's nothing about it. It's not it's not a simple accusation. It's a flaming missile.

And so the shield of faith is designed so that those arrows stick into the leather and the oil puts out the the the plane. So they're flaming missiles. So they're not just words. Their desire their desire is to murder your faith. That's what he desires, through a lie and an accusation to to to kill your faith. Good news is he can't because Jesus is the author and perfector. He's the beginner and the ender. He's the first and the last for our faith.

He's the author and perfecter of our faith. Yeah. Who else? Anybody else get something today? And may the god who sent forth his son to remove your guilt. May he bless you. May he keep you. May he cause his face to shine upon you. May he lift

up his countenance and grant you shalom deep in your soul as you walk through

your day. May he bless you and keep you. Amen? Okay. Amen. Amen.

Thank you.

Thanks for listening. I hope you have greater hope, assurance, and confidence in your life and a deeper trust in the God of the bible and his son, Jesus Christ. Until next time, may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. And may the Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you his peace, his shalom in your soul and in your life. Until next time, may God bless you and keep you.