Part 11 “The Gift of a Clean Conscience”
Hebrews 9:11-14
Intro – Story One -- young adult in youth group who had guilty conscience about stealing from Sears…
Story Two -- Albert Speer was a confidant of Hitler who was in charge of keeping the Nazi factories running throughout WW II…He was the only one of 24 war criminals tried in Nuremberg who admitted his guilt. Speer spent 20 years in prison. Just before his death in 1981, he was interviewed on Good Morning America.
A guilty conscience is a massive problem for many people, even fine Christian people. So many of us go through life carrying inner guilt which our conscience painfully reminds us of…
I don’t have toell you how hard it is to deal with a guilty conscience…to know we have done something wrong in the sight of God and having that inner anguish that keeps reminding us of that…the emotional and spiritual anguish… often even a physical discomfort that comes from keeping our sin hidden and buried…When we violate our conscience it condemns us, triggers feelings of shame, remorse, insecurity and even fear…Yet when we follow our conscience…honor it… we experience joy, self-respect, well-being and gladness…We try many ways to deal with a guilty conscience: through mind-numbing entertainment, or alcohol or self-harm or porn…or doing good deeds, working harder, going shopping…
Listen, as a Christian, you have the capacity to walk before God everyday with a clear conscience…God has given you every spiritual resource to make your conscience clean and to keep it clean…That’s what our passage today in Heb. 9 is talking about…God’s gift of a clean conscience…and it is my hope today that every one of us, especially those of us who are carrying around a guilty conscience today, will find God’s help for that so we can leave this place free and joyful…turn to Heb. 9: 11-14…Prayer…
-in the first part of ch. 9 the writer is describing in detail the OT tabernacle that was the place where the priests went to meet God and offer sacrifices…and he is about to show how superior the new and perfect tabernacle is, which is the presence of God Himself, access into which is made possible by Christ Himself…
…read 9:11-14…
The point of verses 11-14
Christ’s blood offers true, inner cleansing. We receive complete forgiveness from sin both inside and out…even at an emotional level…and our guilt is permanently taken away…so we can have a clean conscience…and freely, joyfully serve the living God…this is also mentioned in ch. 10:22…(I have noticed in my study of Hebrews that the writer sometimes repeats things a couple of times in different parts of the book…like a good teacher using repetition to make sure his point is understood…)
The Only Answer For A Guilty Conscience
So, what then is the answer to a guilty conscience? Acc to v.14 the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ. When your conscience rises up and condemns you, where will you turn? You can either turn to “acts that lead to death” …or you can turn to the blood of Christ (v.14).
Acts that lead to death
-turning to acts that lead to death would be trying to find a cure apart from Christ, through the things I mentioned earlier: therapy, mind-numbing entertainment, substance abuse…But specifically for us Christians today, the acts that lead to death can be good things, good works, doing more outwardly religious things, doing something for God…being more dedicated to lifeless religious rituals… it would be like those to whom the book of Hebrews was written, asking God’s forgiveness through Christ’s blood but then going out and offering an animal sacrifice as well, just to make sure…really get forgiven…
For us today, we tend to try to further atone for our sins through some deeds of penance, or an increase of service for God, or giving more money…or any number of things…and when we do that, we become bound to another form of self-righteousness…another form of works religion…a form of legalism that tries to add something to the finished work of Christ on the cross…acts that lead to death…
The Cleansing Blood of Christ
Instead of choosing that answer to a guilty conscience, the Bible offers us one thing and one thing only: the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ. look at the classic 9:22 “…the law requires than nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” All we have to do, in a simple prayer, is to confess our sin to God; admit to Him whatever it is that is defiling our conscience and making us feel guilty…confess it…ask for God’s forgiveness…and pray, “Jesus, cleanse me with your blood…” (1 John 1:9)
I don’t know how it works, but I do know that it does… …because I’ve had to do this many times…”Jesus, by Your blood, make me clean…forgive my sin…take away my guilt…set me free…” And He does! It’s not getting the words perfectly right; it’s the cry of a sincere heart…
And tell the Lord you’re finished with trying to fix your guilty conscience on your own…that you renounce dead works that lead nowhere…and you receive His blood as the only cure for your sin and guilt…
Be Conscious about your Conscience
• Beware of a weak or over-sensitive conscience (I Cor. 8:7)
-this is wide-spread among genuine Christian people…where we have a weak conscience that get easily offended by other people…
…this usually has to do with some outward, external standard of behavior…that we impose on ourselves or others…
eg what people wear, music/worship style they prefer, some pet doctrine they think everyone should be passionate about…
We also see over-sensitive consciences…where we feel guilty about things we need not feel guilty about…
-false guilt is a big issue for many Christians because many of us have sensitive hearts…we really want to do the right thing and please God and when we have doubt, then we worry…and feel guilty…
…it takes Biblical discernment and HS insight, along with the wise counsel of a fellow believer, to sort through some of those issues…
-beware of letting feelings and emotions guide your conscience…those are not reliable…will get you unnecessarily distracted…
• pay attention to a lingering guilty conscience
-even after you’ve confessed your sin to God…
a. undefined guilt…possible that Satan is accusing you …(Rev. 12:10)
-undefined guilt is what Satan specializes in…wants us to feel like horrible people, failures, losers…
-we deal with that through prayer…spiritual warfare prayer…in the name of Jesus breaking down those lies and setting us free through the truth of who we are in Christ…
b. specific guilt…God is likely prompting you to take another step…eg. make things right with a person you’ve sinned against…(Jm 5:16)
-God is very clear about why we feel guilty and gives us a way to deal with it…He will show us exactly what we need to do…
-again important to check this out with a trusted brother or sister in Christ…
• don’t let your conscience become seared (I Tim. 4:2)
-it is possible through persistent sinful choices…
…hardening our heart, resisting God, ignoring His voice, giving ourselves repeatedly to evil…over a long period of time…
eg. pshycopaths, serial killers, pathological liars…people who can do horrible things without any sense of remorse or guilt…
When we repeatedly ignore our conscience, we do so at our own peril… we give Satan a foothold in our life of unresolved sin that he will use to keep us defeated, discouraged, fearful and down on ourselves…
• strengthen your conscience through scripture (Rm. 12:2)
-having a biblically-informed mind will strengthen our conscience…so we can become mature and learn to be Spirit-led…
-God’s word will strengthen a weak conscience and restrain an overactive one…
-God’s Spirit will keep our hearts soft and responsive to Him…able to hear His voice and desire to follow Him…
-although there is truth to, “let your conscience be your guide”, it is better to let God’s word be your guide…
Conclusion
So, which one is your story? …the young adult who made things right with his former employer and came away full of joy and freedom…with a clean conscience? Or Albert Speer who likely went to his grave still carrying the guilt of his past sin believing that you can never find a clear conscience? The difference between those two stories is the blood of Jesus Christ…and how we choose to respond…Take some time during communion to talk to God about all this…and I would urge you talk to someone you trust…