WILL THE TRUE CHRISTIAN CONSCIENCE PLEASE STAND UP?

John 3:17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Romans 8:1-3  There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

Hebrews 10:22  Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

Conscience:  (OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY) Consciousness of right and wrong; moral sense.

The internal acknowledgement or recognition of the moral quality of one’s motives and actions; the sense of right and wrong as regards things for which one is responsible; the faculty or principle which pronounces upon the moral quality of one’s actions or motives, approving the right and condemning the wrong.

Opinions as to the nature, function, and authority of conscience are widely divergent, varying from the conception of the mere exercise of the ordinary judgement on moral questions, to that of an infallible guide of conduct, a sort of deity within us. Popularly, the word is often used for the whole moral nature; for its gradual individualizing and personification in this sense

• How should a true Christians' conscience make the believer feel?
• Over what will a true christian conscience cause you to feel guilty?

The conscience is the part of you that gives you "convictions" as to what is right and what is wrong.

• But an evil conscience is going to improperly convict you of things.

• And we will show you whether you have an evil conscience or not, also.

• True Christians (as opposed to false ones) need to experience a lot of correction in their minds after they are saved, to have their thinking fall in line with what the Word of God teaches about them.
• When we are saved, our minds still think the way they did when we were lost.
• God changed us so much that without teaching from the Word, you will not understand who you now are as a saved person without teaching from men and women of God who are called to minister the Word to people.
• Get some good books by good Christian teachers.
• Come to church and hear teaching and preaching from the Word.

There is a form of pride in the world that looks very religious and spiritual, but it is actually antichrist.

• FALSE HUMILITY.

 

 

Colossians 2:20-23  Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, (Touch not; taste not; handle not; Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.

• But he said that such a life does not have any value, or honour, in solving the problem of fleshly indulgence.
• Such a lifestyle is OUTWARD oriented.
• It stresses outward things.
• Count how many sermons you heard me preach about outward things, and then count how many sermons I preached about inward faith and spirituality.
• I want to stress what Paul stressed.
• I want to preach what the apostles preached.

• Paul said that this concept of acting as though we are very pressured to not even touch, taste nor handle things, and concentrate on OUTWARD asceticism (or convent and monastery lives of isolation from the world) is a concept that in reality makes us people "as though living in the world."
• Being part of the UNSAVED WORLD is being a person who is under the pressure of sin all the time.
• Being part of the UNSAVED WORLD is being a person who is defeated and a loser.
• Paul said salvation and the cross of Jesus actually caused us to become DEAD WITH CHRIST FROM THE RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD.

We're supposed to be ABOVE the thoughts of being sinners and "good-for-nothings."

• This humility that says, "Oh, Im nothing but a sinner saved by grace," is a false humility that is antichrist and anticross.
• That is so, because the cross took everything that was sinful and everything that was "loser" material and crucified it with Christ.
• We are supposed to be DEAD with Christ.
• So why do we act as sinners who are not dead to the world yet, by thinking about ourselves the way God thinks of them?

Colossians 1:21  And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled

James 4:4  Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

• They feel guilty.
• Now, let me make it clear that if we live sinfully we are guilty and have a right to feel that way.
• If we purposely go out and commit adultery or lie and cheat, and come to church and say Hallelujah, we are hypocrites and have LOST our salvation.
• I do not for one moment believe that damnable doctrine of once saved always saved.
• An evil conscience condones sin and says you are still saved so long as you ONCE IN THE PAST gave Jesus your heart.

 

 

Colossians 1:21-23  And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and [be] not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;

• We will presented blameless IF we continue in the faith.
• Thank God that He delivered some of you from that doctrine!

• A TRUE CHRISTIAN CONSCIENCE SHOULD ONLY CONVICT YOU IF YOU SIN AND YOU HAVE NOT YET TRULY REPENTED.
• But if you deeply repent and genuinely feel sorry about your sin, and you still feel guilty, YOU HAVE AN EVIL CONSCIENCE.

• It is because the truth of the matter is that CHRIST FINISHED THE WORK OF DEALING WITH SIN ON THE CROSS.
• But if we do not understand that, and we think the work IS NOT finished, then what do you try to do with unfinished work?
• You try to finish it YOURSELVES!

• You are saved, but still no-good.
• So you automatically try to IMPROVE.
• But since in your conscience the CROSS did not finish to job, and you are weaker than the CROSS, then what you end of doing is trying to improve yourself but never being able to do so.
• You try to improve since your conscience drives you batty, but at the same time you know that you are less powerful than the cross.
• So you are in a conundrum!
• Your life is confusion!

Until you get a revelation of the finished work of the cross, you will be condemned all the time.

Philippians 3:18  (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:

• Paul said that MANY are enemies of the cross.
• And he was not talking about the world that has nothing to do with Christianity.

• The cross FINISHED the work to do with sin.
• Jesus condemned sin once and for all on the cross.

• But Jesus came not to condemn the world, but to condemn SIN IN HIS FLESH on the cross.
• We read that in our opening texts.

Hebrews 10:1  For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.

• What does "perfect" mean?
• COMPLETE.

Hebrews 10:2  For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.

• Hmmmm.....
• Notice that Christ had to die HOW MANY TIMES????
• ONCE.

• If one was made perfect or complete, thereby causing any further sacrifice to cease being offered....
• And if Christ's sacrifice (the one we believe in) was only accomplished ONCE AND FOR ALL.... He does not die over and over again, but died ONCE...
• Then that can only mean one thing.
• HIS SACRIFICE MADE THE COMERS THEREUNTO PERFECT!!!!

• WRONG!!!!
• I AM PERFECT IN JESUS CHRIST.
• I AM COMPLETE IN JESUS CHRIST.

Verse 2 says that if the sacrifices of Law PURGED the people and made the comers thereunto perfect, THERE SHOULD BE NO MORE CONSCIENCE OF SINS.

• Now, to look at some believers, you would think Jesus' sacrifice was no better than the Law's sacrifices.
• Because THEY HAVE A CONSCIENCE OF SINS.
• They feel guilty and sin-ridden.

 

 

"...because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins."

2Peter 1:9  But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

• People STILL have this problem in church.
• WE WERE purged from our old sins.
• But some people forgot and worse, some never knew!!!
• But we were purged from our old sins by the blood of Jesus.

Hebrews 10:3-4  But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.  For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

• You would think Jesus' sacrifice was no better than those ones, because some Christians also have a remembrance of sins.
• They have conscience of sins.
• You would think it was not possible that the blood of Jesus could take sins away by the way many believers think about themselves after they are dead with Christ.

 

 

Hebrews 10:5  Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:

• Jesus is foretold to say that God's will was not to have continual sacrifices all the time.
• So instead... A BODY HAST THOU PREPARED ME.
• Why was it foretold that Jesus' attitude would say "A body hast thou prepared me"?
• What was it about that Body that would make an end of sins?

 

 

Romans 8:3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

• He would not condemn US, but condemn SIN.
• God had you and your sins CRUCIFIED in Jesus Body when it was crucified.
• And He condemned SIN.
• But HE RESURRECTED YOU.

• You would think He came to condemn YOU by the way some Christians think.

 

 

Hebrews 10:9-10  Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

• ONCE AND FOR ALL.

 

 

Hebrews 10:11-12  And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;

• But you would not think so due to the concepts of some Christians.
• THEIR EVIL CONSCIENCES MAKE THEM STILL FEEL GUILTY WITH THE GUILT THEY FELT BEFORE THEY WERE SAVED.

• Where is there someone whose conscience works upon a PROPER UNDERSTANDING OF THE GOSPEL?

We are dead with Christ.

• Why do we act as though we were still enemies of God and not yet dead from the world, but alive in the world, by feeling so guilt-ridden all the time????
• I will tell you why.
• You have an EVIL CONSCIENCE that is actually ANTICROSS and ANTICHRIST in its thinking.
• Any conscience that makes you feel guilty about yourself with the same guilt you felt before you were saved is a conscience that was never educated and corrected as to WHAT DIFFERENCE THE CROSS made in your lives.
• SInce it contradicts what the cross did for you, by making you feel guilty over something you should never feel guilty about any longer, THEN IT IS ANTICROSS.
• AN ENEMY OF THE CROSS.

When we are purged we should have no more conscience of sins.

• BUT WHY DO PEOPLE STILL HAVE CONSCIENCE OF SINS?
• It is because they MISUNDERSTAND the cross.
• Every year under law, sin was brought up again because their sacrifices could never wash away sins.
• But some Christians bring up sin in their consciences all the time... ALMOST EVERY WEEK...
• And even some preachers run a "SUNDAY GO TO BEATING" rather than a "SUNDAY GO TO MEETING".

• But that is not the message of the cross!
• The cross hammered SIN.
• The cross crucified sin.
• And yes, it crucified us, BUT ONCE AND FOR ALL... not for ever and ever.

 

 

Hebrews 10:12-14  But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

• And you will be hear listening to me preach about it.
• But don't categorize yourself as a sinner burdened with sin if you are saved and living a holy life, not purposely sinning to spite.
• Thank God you were set free from what these others need to be set free from.

Hebrews 10:15-17 Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.

• That covenant is the one we now have.

Hebrews 10:18  Now where remission of these [is, there is] no more offering for sin.

• Jeremiah said, "THEIR SINS AND INIQUITIES WILL I REMEMBER NO MORE"/
• WHY DO WE REMEMBER THEM???

• Well, the same cross that crucified YOUR past SINS also CRUCIFIED YOUR PAST YOU.
• "Well, all my life I've been a loser."
• BUT THE CROSS CRUCIFIED ALL THAT WAS A LOSER ABOUT YOU AND THE BIBLE SAYS YOU ARE NOT A LOSER BUT MORE THAN A CONQUEROR!

• Did you know that some conquerors never conquer anything?
• It is because THEY DO NOT KNOW THEY ARE CONQUERORS.
• They don't have a revelation of what the cross did to them.

• They need their MINDS RENEWED to who they NOW ARE in Christ.

• It makes you think that the cross did NOT do what it actually DID do.

• YOU FEEL DOWN ON YOURSELF.
• YOU LOOK IN THE MIRROR AND THINK, "LOSER".
• YOU LOOK AT YOURSELF AND THINK, "WHAT A DEFEATED EXCUSE FOR A CHRISTIAN".

All us who were losers with the rest of the world, who experienced the cross of Jesus one day, were cut off from "loserhood."

How can you have that evil conscience corrected?

Hebrews 10:22  Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

HOW DOES THE TRUE CHRISTIAN CONSCIENCE BEHAVE?

Hebrews 9:14  How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

• Remember the TOUCH NOT, TASTE NOT and HANDLE NOT of Colossians 2 and the falsely humbled people?
• These are the DEAD WORKS from which we must be purged.
• A life that thinks it can hardly even MOVE without making God angry.

• The mention of the BLOOD OF JESUS is reference to the proper understanding of the WORK OF THE CROSS.
• It means that THE TRUTH OF THE CROSS FINISHED WORK IN SMASHING SIN ONCE AND FOR ALL IS APPLIED TO YOUR CONSCIENCE AND CORRECTS YOUR MISUNDERSTANDINGS AND REVEALS TO YOU WHAT YOU ARE NOW THAT YOU ARE SAVED.
• All the incorrect convictions are purged away.

1Timothy 1:13  Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

• His conscience made him feel it was good.
• But his conscience was evil and wrong.

Acts 23:1  And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.

Acts 24:16  And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.

How could Paul stand upon the fact that his conscience confirmed he was void of offence if a conscience can be evil and incorrect?

Here is the answer:

2Timothy 1:3  I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, ...

• The blood of Jesus purged it.
• That did not happen as soon as he was saved.
• His sins were purged by the blood of Jesus when he was saved.
• But his conscience was purged by the blood AFTERWARDS through TEACHING and REVELATION FROM THE WORD OF GOD about the WORK OF THE CROSS.

1Corinthians 8:7  Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.

1Corinthians 10:29  Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the other: for why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience?

• It incorrectly assesses what is evil and what is good.

Ever worry about whether or not you committed to unpardonable sin?

• You are sincere and want to serve God and go to Heaven, but you worried over that?
• Well, your conscience is at least PARTLY evil.
• And you need to get a revelation of the finished work of the cross, and of Christ's blood.
• As long as you are sincere and truly desiring to live right, YOU CANNOT COMMIT THE UNPARDONABLE SIN.