Escape for the Scapegoat [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Allen Wright. How would you ever know that you'd ever paid the debt? The debt is too big to pay. The way that people deal with their shame apart from Christ is absolutely clear. What people do apart from Christ to try to deal with the pain of shame is simply this. Put the shame on somebody else.

Find a scapegoat. It's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in our series called Moses as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It'll be yours for your donation this month to Allen Wright Ministries.

So as you listen to today's message, we encourage you to go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Allen Wright. What we would like to term little small sins are actually deserving of a much bigger punishment. And because of all of this, there's a huge shame that is lurking in the heart. I can't pay this enormous debt for my sin, and I don't know if I can ever be thoroughly fully accepted. So God in the Old Testament gave the people a wonderful gift.

He gave them the gift of the rituals of the sacrificial system that they could have at the tabernacle and later at at the temple. It was in essence this, a minimum payment plan. It was like if this, going back to the image of this debt, if you have a big debt with a credit card, they send you a letter and say here is your minimum payment due this month. If you make that minimum payment each month, then you won't be taken to court. They're not going to come and foreclose on your house or take your car.

They're not going to throw you into jail. As long as you make the minimum payment, it will be as if you are not guilty of having this big debt. But in fact, in the matter, you do have this big debt. This is what the sacrificial system was. And people would bring their turtle doves and their lambs at Passover. And on the Day of Atonement, the high priest would go in on this one day and would offer this innocent animal's blood. And the Lord was looking on this, again by way of analogy, like a minimum payment due. It did not remove the sin of the people. It didn't pay their debt. But it was as if the Lord was saying, I'm going to give you a wonderful gracious thing.

I'm giving you a sort of a payment plan. I'm going to, instead of bringing down the full punishment for the wages of sin is death, I'm going to let the death of this lamb serve for this next year to cover the sins of the people. So the Day of Atonement was such a holy, holy day because on this day, the sin offering was not just on behalf of the priest, not just on behalf of an individual or a family, but was on behalf of a whole nation. And the people would be gladdened at this.

Though it was a somber day, it was also a day to be gladdened because our debt has at least been covered for this next year. And this was the system that they had. And what happened is that then there were prophecies that began to emerge that there would be a system that would be like this, but different and altogether better. And so prophets like Jeremiah had words like he had in Jeremiah 31, where he said, the day is coming in which I'll make a new covenant with my people. And it won't be like the old covenant, the covenant of works that they couldn't keep, but it would be a new covenant. He said, in that day, no longer will a man say to his neighbor, know the Lord, for they'll all actually know me. They will have intimate knowledge of me in this new covenant. And he said, and in this new covenant, something's going to be absolutely different.

I will remember their sin no more. What was being prophesied is there was a day that was coming in which there wouldn't just be a partial payment against this debt, but there'd be a payment in full, and that it would be completely absolved. Prophecies like this in Isaiah 53, in which the prophet said, surely he has borne our griefs, and he's carried our sorrows, yet we have steamed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, and upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we've turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

So these prophecies begin to emerge of a much better day that is coming. That was how God was dealing with their guilt, and how God was going to one day deal with their guilt. But then there was a second goat, and this is part of God's gift to Israel, is because on this same day of atonement, there was not just the goat that was slain, but there was this goat that lived.

And this was the answer for their shame. The goat that was slain was for their guilt, this goat was for their shame. And how did they decide on which goat it would be?

By random choice, the casting of lots. The idea of a scapegoat is that any goat will do, as long as everybody agrees, this is going to be the goat. And so this live goat received upon it the hands of Aaron, who spoke on behalf of the people every unclean thing in the life of Israel.

You can just imagine how horrible this is. You just wouldn't want to hear the things that that Aaron is speaking onto this goat. Everything that was disgusting in humanity, everything that was in the heart of the people that was ugly, and unworthy, and sinful, and all of this just announced over this goat's head. This poor goat, who had not done anything wrong, is just laden with all these words of how vile the goat is, how awful the goat is, how terrible the goat is, how stupid the goat is, how unclean the goat is. Everything that is the worst about the people of God proclaimed over this goat's head.

And then they take the goat instead of killing it, and they'd send it out to the wilderness to Azazel, out into the dry place, to the unproductive wilderness. The scapegoat has to go out and stay alive, but be in the unproductive place where it can never be successful. Every Charlie Brown has to be told you're always a loser, because if you started winning it would upset everything. You can't be productive, or else you can't be our scapegoat. And so we're always going to keep this image of you, and the scapegoat goes out into the wilderness, unproductive, unsuccessful, and has to live, but live in isolation. Keep living so you can carry our shame, but do so without ever touching us.

Never come back and touch us. We can't stand the sight of you, because you are so ugly. In other words, the scapegoat exists so that you, scapegoat, will carry my shame, and I will therefore feel better about myself. And this is the heart of people. We have guilt, and we have shame. And the way that people deal with their guilt and their shame apart from the gospel is empty.

People that are trying to deal with their guilt, their status of guilt, that don't know Christ either, and this is really simply put, but they either rebel or they become really religious. The rebel says about guilt, I don't care anymore. I'll do whatever I want to do.

I might as well just try to grab some happiness. You're not going to tell me what's right and what's wrong. In fact, I'll tell you there is no right or wrong, and I'll do whatever I want. I will make my guilt go away by determining that I'm not guilty, because there is no right or wrong, and I'll do whatever I want to do. The opposite side is the religious person, the person who says what I'll do is I recognize that there's right and wrong, and I'm going to be better than everybody else. I'm going to do enough good to make up for my sin.

I'll do penance. I'll keep the rules, and I will be better than other people, but neither rebellion or religion ever works to resolve the soul of the pain of guilt. The rebellious might become insensitive because of a calloused heart, but always has a lust for more. Every addiction doesn't satisfy, but leads into deeper slavery, right? And so it is that the religious never can do enough, never could be good enough, no matter how hard you try, how much penance you do, how would you ever know that you'd ever paid the debt?

The debt is too big to pay. The way that people deal with their shame apart from Christ is absolutely clear. What people do apart from Christ to try to deal with the pain of shame is simply this, put the shame on somebody else. Find a scapegoat.

Find someone, a Charlie Brown. So instead of facing the pain of my own shame, this terrible feeling that makes me feel so flawed, anxious, or unacceptable, I'll transfer it to the scapegoat. And we don't put hands on them, but we do it in a thousand ways. Name-calling, gossiping, ostracizing, ridiculing, blaming, prejudice, racism. It happens in our homes, happens on the playground at school. It happens in a whole races of people, whole nations have done it.

And you try to get everybody else to agree. This person is the problem. This race of people, they're the problem.

This institution, that's the problem. And because we don't talk about our own pain easily, we can talk easily about the other person's shortcomings. We can shame that person. We don't have to look at our own painful shame, just talk about them. Any random scapegoat will do.

Any Charlie Brown who will agree with the image. Keep the scapegoat isolated. Keep the scapegoat unsuccessful.

Keep the scapegoat bearing the shame of the people. So often it happens even in our own homes. You see what happens is when we have problems and dysfunctions in our home, instead of knowing how to bring it to Christ and bring it out in the light and be able to talk about our own pain and work through difficult things. And so often what happens is it might be one kid is a little bit rebellious and everybody says, well, the problem is this kid.

We got this problem kid. And everybody starts talking about Johnny. And Johnny becomes a scapegoat for the family's problems. Johnny's not so bad. Johnny just becomes scapegoat.

That's Alan Wright. And we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Ever feel like something's holding you back as if you lack an important key that could change everything?

Is there someone you love who seems stuck? You'd like to help them, but how? What's missing? Blessing. We all need a positive, faith-filled vision spoken over our lives. You can learn how to embrace the biblical practice of blessing through Pastor Alan Wright's new book, The Power to Bless, which quickly became an Amazon number one bestseller after its recent release.

Until now, the hardcover book has only been available through retail sales. But this month, Alan Wright Ministries wants to send you the book as our thank you for your donation. Make your gift today and discover the power to bless. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. We'll often do this just in our attitudes and our societal attitudes. It explains what's behind the horrors of racism.

It explains the atrocities that go on in our world. You're the problem. Find somebody you can shift your shame towards. I know this is painful stuff because some of you are going, I feel like that's what my life's been like. You wonder if you've been made into a scapegoat, how would you know? Well, how do you think about yourself? Is there a tape recorder in your mind that says I don't measure up and I'm not like other people?

There's something about me that's unacceptable. How do people treat you? Do others tend to abuse you? People try to isolate you?

Do you go along with it? How do you respond when people mistreat you? Do you just take it like you deserve it? Do you get mad in an unproductive way so you can't really have a civil conversation? What kind of boundaries do you have?

People that live the life of the scapegoat have a hard time ever saying no without feeling guilty. You feel like people have access to you and your energy and your emotions until you're depleted and you're empty. Do you know where the line is?

Do other people know where the line is? How do you view your body? How do you see yourself as something holy to be protected not violated or do people tend to just do what they want? What is wrong with you? What is it like on the inside of you when there's a problem that emerges around you? I think one of the issues for me I recognized years ago in my life that was part of the shame in my life was I had like this false alarm that would always go off. That's the way I put it. It's like somebody talked about a problem and inside of me was this false alarm like I've got to fix it.

You know what I'm talking about? Like in our house in the middle of the night the alarm goes off and all of a sudden your blood is pumping and you're like is there really a thief in the house? We've had enough false alarms that I don't even think about it now.

I just walk downstairs in my underwear and if there is a thief it's not going to be pretty. But you know every time something happens every time somebody asks you to do something is there a false alarm that goes oh no I'm going to disappoint them. See these are all pictures of the scapegoat mentality. What's your resentment level like? Scapegoats carry a lot of resentment because they don't want to be the scapegoat.

They hate being treated this way. What's your motivation in life? Are you doing and serving and giving because you feel full of faith and you want to make a difference?

Or do you feel more like you're unaccepted and you're trying to become acceptable? The first is faith but the second is fear. And the gospel is the only answer for this beloved. The gospel is the only answer for this. And what was prefigured on the day of atonement in the life of Israel comes to pass in the person of Jesus Christ. The first goat we understand better.

The first goat that was slain. He's the answer to our guilt. The gospel is the answer because if you could imagine that picture I was describing having a 500 million dollar debt and the judge saying if you could pay it plus interest then the charges would be dropped but I would never be able to pay it. So much greater figuratively spiritually is our debt to God. Is our debt of sin. The punishment that we deserve is a debt that is too high.

We can never pay and we don't know anybody wealthy enough to be able to pay it. That's the image of the scripture. And so somebody that was perfect, somebody that was infinitely wealthy, somebody that was absolutely deserving would have to come and stake everything on our behalf. And so it was that Jesus came the sinless one and he died in our place and he shed his blood because the Bible said the wages of sin is death and a death had to take place and so Jesus died in your place. He is the lamb that takes away the sin of the world and what this means for us is glorious. What this means for us it causes us to shout hallelujah now and for all eternity your debt has been paid in full.

And the judge has dropped down the gavel and said not guilty the charges have been dropped. There is no more debt to be paid. Jesus was the first goat. He is the one who bled for you and it's not a partial payment.

It is not minimum payment due. It is as Jeremiah had prophesied the Lord remembers your sin no more. But Jesus came not just to deal with the human problem of guilt but Jesus came to deal with our shame. He's not just the first goat. He's the second goat. He's also the scapegoat. He was ridiculed. He was isolated. He was mocked.

He was stripped. He was hung and sent to the utter spiritual wilderness until he felt so alone that he said my God my God why have you forsaken me. And this work of Christ that I speak of is not about paying the penalty. It's about letting every unclean thing in this world go into him literally physically emotionally spiritually because what the Bible says is that he who knew no sin became our sin. It was as if he were the goat and the and the and the hands of the people were laid upon him and every reviling and unclean thing about the people that they didn't want to deal with was injected into him. He took on our sin. He became our sin and so it is that he not only paid the penalty but he took the shame of the of the world into his being and then an even greater miracle here's what the gospel clearly says is not only that he who knew no sin became our sin became my sin he bore it in his body he bore it himself he became it he became a scapegoat but not only that but in an even greater miracle the Bible says and we who were so full of sin were declared to be the righteousness of Jesus Christ because I tell you the answer to our shame beloved the answer to our shame is the only answer for shame and that is to know that you are radically accepted and loved forever and forever it's one thing to know that the debt has been paid and it's another thing to know that you are beloved by God it is one thing to know that there is nothing else that you could ever do to pay this debt because you've been declared not guilty but I tell you it's just as blissful to know that your shame has been lifted because now you've been accepted in the beloved what I'm saying is so wonderful because what it means Christians is that you can know that you go to the father and you don't ever have to hang your head in shame because not only has he forgiven you but he has made you ultimately perfectly attractive to him and he looks on you the way he looks upon his own beloved son as Jesus is so also are we in this world wow wow so what this means is if you've ever played the role of scapegoat for anybody when you start realizing how radically accepted you are in Jesus Christ when people try to scapegoat you you have to say excuse me you must be confused I realize right now that you're trying to label me as the one who is the problem and I do have problems but I'm not your problem and I realize right now that you would like to make me the one who bears your shame but I can't be your shame bearer and I will not be and I of course you're saying this in a very christlike way and I'll be glad to love you and relate to you but I will not be able to be your scapegoat any more beloved Linus was wrong Charlie Brown was not the Charlie Browniest of them all Jesus was and it was by his choice to be the scapegoat so you wouldn't have to be and that's a gospel get Alan Wright's daily blessing it's free and just a click away at pastor alan.org ever feel like something's holding you back as if you lack an important key that could change everything is there someone you love who seems stuck you'd like to help them but how what's missing blessing we all need a positive faith-filled vision spoken over our lives you can learn how to embrace the biblical practice of blessing through Pastor Alan Wright's new book the power to bless which quickly became an amazon number one bestseller after its recent release until now the hardcover book has only been available through retail sales but this month Alan Wright Ministries wants to send you the book as our thank you for your donation make your gift today and discover the power to bless the gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries this broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support when you give today we will send you today's special offer we are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries call us at 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastor alan.org alan what a freeing teaching and what a way to end there with a sigh of relief now what what's the what are some next opportunities now that you've understood this and you let it soak in deep well one of the things Daniel always like to point our listeners to is that if this starts touching upon the issues of shame in your life we've devoted a lot of our ministry to help people be liberated from the the toxic effects of shame we have materials for yourself be yourself and other materials through our website but here here's the takeaway from this there were two goats on the day of atonement and the first one paid the penalty was shed blood that was about guilt but the second one stayed alive and was sent out in the wilderness with all the sins of israel confessed over that was about shame jesus came both to pay the penalty for your guilt but also to bear that toxic sense of shame that adam and eve first felt so you can know yourself to be 100 accepted in christ so that shame no longer has to bind your heart that's been one of the great journeys that i've been on in my life and so anybody's hearing this and it's uh pricking something in your heart i encourage you it is worth the journey um to understand the issues of shame and let jesus become your healer thanks for listening today visit us online at pastorallen.org or call 877-544-4860 that's eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty if you only caught part of today's teaching not only can you listen again online but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching delivered right to your email inbox free find out more about these and other resources at pastorallen.org that's pastorallen.org today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries