Would you turn with me to the
ninth chapter of the book of Hebrews? I have entitled this message,
What Satisfies the Conscience? What satisfies the conscience? The conscience. something we
were born with, everybody has a conscience. We were created
in the image of God, and because of that, we're born with a conscience
regarding right and wrong. It's natural to us to know that
there is a right and that there is a wrong, because God is There
is right and there is wrong. Now, if there's no God, who's
to say what's right and what's wrong? But if God is, there are
moral absolutes that are non-negotiable. You see, God does not negotiate
with sinners. There is absolute proof. There is right, there is wrong,
there is sin, there is righteousness, and people are born with that
knowledge in their conscience. We all have a conscience. I deal
with my conscience every day. I was listening to a preacher
once and he said, I never feel guilty. And I thought, well,
I always feel guilty about something continually. The conscience. The conscience was like every
other faculty of man destroyed in the fall so that it cannot
save the man. Now, before the fall, we had
an intellect. We have an intellect now, after the fall, but it's
been defiled by sin. Before the fall, we had a will.
After the fall, we have a will, too, but it's changed to sin. Before the fall, we had affections. After the fall, we have affections,
but they're changed to sin. Before the fall, there was a
conscience. a perfect conscience. Now there is a fallen conscience
so that it cannot save us. As a matter of fact, it can become
put out by sin. You've been around people who
seemingly don't have a conscience. They can do horrible, terrible
things that doesn't seem to bother them. They're fine with it. A
conscience can grow numb. As a matter of fact, the scripture
uses words like a weak conscience and a defiled conscience. a seared conscience, one that
doesn't work anymore. Now, that being said, we still
are born with a conscience at work. Let me show you how it
works. Turn to Romans chapter 2. Hold your finger there. Hebrews
9. We'll come back there. Romans chapter 2, verse 14. For when the Gentiles, that's
the folks who never had a Bible, which have not the law, they
weren't given a copy of the scriptures or the Ten Commandments, they
do by nature the things contained in the law. These, having not
the law, are a law unto themselves which show the work of the law
written in their hearts, their conscience. also bearing witness,
and here's what it does, they're thoughts that meanwhile either
accusing or else excusing one another. Now, that's what a conscious
does. It either accuses you so that
you feel guilty and you feel bad, or it tries to come up with
an excuse to make you feel better about yourself. Now, we do all
kinds of mental gymnastics in order to satisfy an accusing
conscience, don't we? a genius at this. I've had a
lot of experience of trying to satisfy an accusing conscience. I believe that much of what goes
on under the name of therapy and counseling is trying to teach
guilty people how to not feel guilty. It's not your fault. This kind of thinking began directly
after the fall. Do you remember what Adam said
after the fall? Where art thou? Have you eaten
of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that I forbid
you to eat? What was his answer? Remember? The woman that you gave me. She gave me of the fruit, and
I did The implication being, if you
wouldn't have given me this woman, it would not have happened. He was blaming God on what took
place. Now, the only thing that can
satisfy the conscience, and that's what I'm asking, what satisfies
the conscience? The only thing that can truly
satisfy the conscience is to have nothing to feel guilty about. It's one thing to not feel guilty,
but it's quite another thing to have nothing to feel guilty
about. With that in mind, let's go to
Hebrews chapter 9, verse 1. Then verily, the first covenant,
talking about the law, talking about the sacrifices, talking
about the Ten Commandments, talking about the ceremonies, talking
about the feast days, talking about the moral law of God, talking
about the civil law of God, the Old Testament. Then verily, truly,
the first covenant had also ordinances, ceremonies, rules, of a divine
service and a worldly sanctuary. Now, I think this is interesting.
He calls the tabernacle a worldly sanctuary, and that's not good.
Worldly is never used in a good way. He calls that tabernacle
that had the holy place and the holy of holies, he calls the
altar, he calls the laver, he calls the incense, the Ark of the Covenant. He calls all those things a worldly
material sanctuary that really didn't have anything to it. Now,
that's God the Holy Spirit, and I inspire him to say that. Now,
the tabernacle is a beautiful portrait of the Lord Jesus Christ,
but here he calls it a worldly sanctuary. Verse 2, For there
was a tabernacle made, the first wherein was the candlestick,
Christ our light. And the only light that I have
that God can have anything to do with me is Christ. He's the
light as to how God can embrace me, how He can accept me if I'm
in Him. The table of showbread, that's
the bread of presence. Christ is the presence of God.
If I have Him, I have the very presence of God, Emmanuel, God
with us. which is called the sanctuary,
the holy place. And after the second veil, the
tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, talking about
the holy of holies, that the high priest would go in once
a year, which had the golden censer. Now that was to offer
up incense. That's Christ, my intercessor. He represents me.
He prays for me. He represents me. And the Ark
of the Covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was
the golden pot that had manna. Christ Jesus is who I feed off
of. The only sustenance for my soul
is Christ and Him crucified. It's the only thing that satisfies
my hunger, my completeness in Him. Christ, the man of the kingdom
from heaven. And then in that Ark of the Covenant,
we also have Aaron's rod that budded. That rod, dead in and
of itself, and yet life budded out of it. Christ, my life before
God. He's my life. His life is my
life before God. And then, next, he speaks of
the law. The law is in that covenant.
Christ, the keeper of the law, Christ by righteousness before
God. He's all those things to the believer. Now, he says in
verse 5, And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy
seat of which we cannot now speak particularly. It's like the writer
was saying, I want to get in a hurry to what I want to get
to. Now, when these things were thus ordained, The priests went
always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of
God. They were always doing something,
offering this sacrifice, lighting this candle, burning this incense. It was a continual process. But,
verse 7, into the second went the high priest alone, once. every year, not without blood,
which he offered for himself and for the heirs of the people."
Now, that's a reference to the great day of atonement. We looked
at that last Sunday night. Now, verse 8, the Holy Ghost,
this signifying by these ceremonies, actually all they talked about
was a barrier. A barrier. Is it something that keeps us
from God? Every one of these things, it didn't say draw near,
it says worship afar off. They acted as a barrier. Now
these, the Holy Ghost, by this signifying that the way into
the holiest of all, into the true presence of God, was not
yet made manifest while this first tabernacle was yet standing.
All it told us was the way isn't made plain yet. This is all material. This is worldly. This is physical. It can't really bring you into
the very presence of God. Verse 9, which was a figure,
literally a parable, for the time then present in which were
offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that
did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience. Nobody's conscience was ever
satisfied by any of this. They couldn't make us perfect
as pertaining to the conscience. Now, I like that word perfect. How good do I have to be for
God to actually love me, and embrace me, and have communion
with me, and have fellowship with me, and count me His friend,
count me His bride? Count me His altogether lovely
one. How good am I going to have to
be? What am I going to have to be? I'm going to have to be perfect.
God can accept nothing short of perfection. If He could, He
would cease to be God. God is holy. He can only embrace
me if I myself, in my person, am perfect, without spot, seamless. Now, all of these ceremonies
could never perform that. They couldn't make that person
who did them perfect according to the conscience. The conscience
never really felt satisfied by any of these ceremonies. Verse
10, "...withstood only in meats, and drinks, and divers washings,
and carnal ordinances imposed on them." into the time of Reformation. And that's the way he describes
all these laws and rules. He calls them meets, drinks,
different washings, ceremonies that were imposed, enforced on
them. Now, any time something's imposed
on you, you don't like it, do you? I mean, you really, you
go through the motion, you don't really enjoy it. It's not something
you like if you feel like it's imposed on you. And that's what
all these rules were. They were imposed on them. into the time of Reformation,
and we're going to consider that next week, the time of Reformation.
But let's deal with this thing of the conscience. These things
could not satisfy the conscience because they didn't do anything.
They pointed to sin being put away, but they didn't really
put away sin. You know in your conscience that the blood of
a blotted goat, slain, cannot put away your sin. You know that,
don't you? deep down, on a very grassroots
level, you know that could never put away your sin. You look at the law. That law
shows God's righteous requirements. I love God's law, but it doesn't
show me how to keep it. All it does is convict me. I
can't look at that law and have my conscience satisfied. The
priesthood showed the need of a priest. I need a priest to
represent me. I can't come to God alone. But
the priests under the Old Testament law couldn't do me any good.
Do you think Aaron could do you any good? I mean, Aaron, my soul,
he met his own death. He led the children of Israel
into idolatry. He was a weak, sinful man. Could Aaron do you any good?
Not a bit. Those sacrifices. They pointed
to our need of an atonement. But they didn't atone. They didn't
put away one sin. The conscience never could be
satisfied by these. Look over in chapter 10, verse
1. For the law, having a shadow of good things to come. And that's
all the law is. It's a shadow. A shadow. No substance to a shadow. 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 there into perfect.
Couldn't be done. For then would they not have
ceased to be offered, because if the worshipers once purged
should have no more conscience of sins. If those sacrifices
actually purged away sin, I'd have clear conscience. I've got
no sin. 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. Now, what does satisfy the conscience? Men will do many things in order
to quiet their conscience and give them some peace in their
conscience, but what actually satisfies the conscience? The only way I know how to answer
this is to a believer. You see, a believer is unlike
an unbeliever in this sense. God's done something for him,
and because God's done something for him, he's honest before God.
He's not going to play games before God. He's honest. Psalm
32, 1 and 2 says, Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impugn sin and in whose spirit there is no guile,
no deceit. He's honest before God. That's
why he sees himself as nothing but a sinner. That's why he sees
himself as deceitful and sinful before God, because he knows
that's what he is. He's honest before God. He can't rest in
a refuge of lies. He's got to be honest before
God, every believer, because they've got this new nature,
because they've got this pure heart, this heart that was not
there before. They are honest before God about
who they are. And so the only thing with this
honesty, this God giving honesty, remember the parable of the sower
where the Lord talked about the good ground here? He called it
an honest and good heart. That's the heart that received
the word. an honest and a good heart. Every
believer has that, and because of that, they cannot be satisfied
in their conscience with anything but a perfect ground for satisfaction. It's got to be a righteous ground.
It can't be just something they make up to make them feel better
temporarily. It's got to be a truly righteous
ground of peace or rest. Now, I already read this at the
beginning of the service, 1 Timothy 1 verse 5 says, the goal of the
commandment, the purpose of the commandment, is charity out of
a pure heart, and that's what God gives. That's the blessing
of the pure in heart. God gives a new heart, and out
of that heart comes charity, love to God, love to his people,
love to men. Charity out of a pure heart,
and a good conscience, he says. And faith, unfeigned, is not
fake faith. It's the real thing. It's the
real deal. They really believe. Now, what is this good conscience
spoken of? What is a good conscience? Is
it one that is tender and feels great guilt and remorse and walks
around with a cloud over its head? No, that's not a good conscience. That's an accusing conscience. Well, is it one that doesn't
feel guilty? No, that's a seared conscience.
That's one that's just not working properly. And you can have either
one of those two and still not have a good conscience. There's
all kinds of folks who feel real guilty and feel very bad about
the things they do. And it ruins their outlook, and
they're just sorry to sit down. And some people make a righteousness
out of that. Listen, there's no righteousness
in that. All that is is an accusing conscience. I've got that all
the time. I mean, it's always over my head. I always feel guilty about something. I got reason to. Sure, just like
you do. What about that person who ever
feels guilty? I'm not guilty. You're a liar,
you are too. You are guilty. Your conscience
is sincere, you just don't see. What is a good conscience? A
good conscience is one that has absolutely nothing to feel guilty
about. That is a good conscience. Sin is what produces guilt, but
where there is no sin, There is no guilt. Now, how can I, Todd Noggers,
how can I have a good conscience? One that has nothing to feel
guilty about. Would you turn with me to 1 Peter
chapter 3. Verse 21. The like figure, whereunto even
baptism, doth also now save us. Not the putting away of the filth
of the flesh, not the act of baptism, but the answer of a
good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus Christ is the answer to a good conscience. conscience. Now, all of the things that make
me feel guilty, the sins that I commit that I'm so guilt-ridden
over and that make me feel so bad and just make me feel ashamed
and make me think, oh, what is wrong with me? All those sins
became his. He bare our sins, and that makes
me, it makes me rejoice, but it makes me sad, because I think
of what my sin makes me feel like. And how would it make him
feel? When he was made, sin, all the
shame, all the guilt, all the degradation, all the mildness
of my sin became his. Now, I've got a question. Did
my sin literally become his? Or is this just a figure of speech?
Or did my sin actually become his, so that he was actually
guilty, deserving of the wrath of God? Well, there's one way
to answer that. Did he die? Yes, he died. The wages of sin is death. He was guilty, and his death
actually satisfied the wrath and the justice of God. Turn
with me to Romans chapter 4 now. Remember the answer of a good
conscience by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Romans chapter 4, verse 25. who was delivered. I'm talking
about being delivered to jail, delivered to judgment, delivered
to the wrath of God, who was delivered for our offenses and
was raised again for what? For our justification. When he was raised from the dead,
it's because God was completely satisfied with what he did. Sin
was paid for. God said, I can require no more.
I'm satisfied. He was raised from the dead for
or because of our justification. I was justified. That means I
do not have anything to feel guilty about. Now, I feel guilty. I do. I feel guilty all the time,
but I do not have anything to feel guilty about, because he
was raised because of my justification. I was justified. Justification means not guilty,
no sin through Christ. My conscience does not have anything
to feel guilty about. And you know what? There are
sins I've committed in the last 24 hours that I feel very guilty
about. but I don't have anything to
feel guilty about. Isn't that wonderful? Turn with me to 1 John chapter
3, verse 5. And you know that he was manifest
to take away our sins. Did he do it? Did he do it? Yes, indeed, he did. And in him is what? No sin. In him I have no In him I have nothing to feel
guilty about. I feel guilty. Can't get away
from it, and it's going to be with me until I die. But I have
nothing to feel guilty about. I am just before God. I have
no sin. Now, we read of a believer having
a pure conscience. A good conscience is a pure conscience.
We read, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience,
2 Peter 3.9. And then in Titus 1.3, we read
that where Paul said he served God with a pure conscience. Now,
what is a pure conscience? The word pure means cleansed. It means purged. And what is
it that makes pure or clean or purges the conscience? Back to
Hebrews chapter 9. Verse 13, For if the blood of bulls and
of goats and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean,
sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh, what that's talking
about is a ceremony. But if you came into contact
with something dead, you were unclean, and these ashes had
to be placed upon you, and they made it so you were no longer
ceremonially unclean. We're going to look at that in
a few weeks. But he says in verse 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. Now, what in the world does that
mean? Purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living
God. What are dead works? Now, not
all works are dead works. The believer has good works.
We're created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath
before ordained that we should walk in them. When the Lord talked
about that woman who broke the alabaster box of ointment, he
said, she's brought a good work on me. And if the Lord calls
it good work, you know what? It's a good work. Every believer
has good work by the grace of God. Well, what's this dead Dead works are any works that
we think contribute to our salvation, beginning, middle, or end. If I think that faith comes from
me, as an act of my will, and that it is the cause of my salvation,
and that's what applies the work of Christ to me, that is a dead
work. And you know what, my conscience
can't be satisfied with it. It really can't. I still feel uneasy
when I hear a message like that. My conscience cannot be satisfied. If I think that some work I do
after being saved causes me to be more saved, more holy, that
is a dead work. If I think some work that I did
while here on earth gives me a higher reward in heaven and
a greater position in heaven, that is a dead work. He says, purge your conscience
from these dead works. You see, as long as you're looking
to your works in any way, you're not going to have this good conscience.
The only way I can have a good conscience is if I see my works
have nothing to do with my acceptance before God and I rest in Him
alone. Cleanse your conscience from
dead works to serve the living God. Now, here is what my conscience
is satisfied with. I believe that God is satisfied
with what Christ did. You believe that? That's where I get my satisfaction. I'm satisfied with the same thing
God is. He is satisfied with the death
of His Son. You know what? I am due. I need no other argument. I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died
and that he died for me. Is that enough for you? It's
enough for God. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's anger? It's God that justifies. Who
is He that can condemn? It's Christ that died. Is that enough? Yea, rather, that for reason
again. Remember, He was raised for our justification. Who is
even on the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us? that satisfies my conscience. Let's pray.