Hebrews chapter 10 is where you'll
find our text. I've titled this message, An
Evil Conscience. What's an evil conscience? It's
defined a little bit here in this particular verse, this particular
portion of scripture. It gives us two contrasts. One
is a true heart. We heard that on Wednesday. I
preached the message, the true heart. Lord gives that to his
people, doesn't he? Takes out the heart of stone,
puts in the heart of flesh. That's a true heart. A true heart
looks to Christ is all your righteousness. A true heart believes God. So
what's an evil conscience? Well, it's exactly the opposite
of all of that. It's exactly the opposite of all of that.
So who has one? If an evil conscience doesn't
believe God, doesn't look to Christ, who has one? Well, everyone
that doesn't look to Christ and believe God. We're born with
an evil conscience. We're born with a deceitful heart
that's desperately wicked. We need a heart transplant and
we need the Lord to cause us to have a true heart, one that
gets rid of our evil conscience. Now, either we have a pure heart
or we have an evil conscience and there is no in between. There
is no in between. I hope by the time this message
is over, will be able to answer the question, do I have a pure
heart or do I have an evil conscience? Let's read Hebrews 10. We're
going to read 19 through 23. Having therefore brethren boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the
veil, that is to say his flesh. and having a high priest over
the house of God, 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. Let us hold
fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful
that promised." There's sufficient evidence here to tell us what
an evil conscience is, what it looks like, and what it does.
He says, hold fast the profession of your faith. having a true
heart. Well that means they that have
evil conscience, they don't hold fast the profession of faith,
true faith in Christ. Having an evil conscience means
that you have severed your conscience to make it think, make yourself
think that you are good enough for God. You've done enough works,
you've done enough things to where God will be pleased with
you and therefore you can rest. But that's an evil conscience.
The true heart realizes there's nothing we can do. Nothing we
can do to be accepted of God. Nothing we can do to choose God.
Nothing we can do to merit righteousness or put away a single sin. An
evil conscience will constantly say, you've done enough. You've
done enough. You've done this and you've done
this and you've done that. That's an evil conscience. Only those that have the pure
heart are able to hold fast the profession of their faith. And
as we heard first hour, who is the profession of our faith?
Somebody said, what is your profession at your church? Christ is all.
Well, what do you preach? Christ is all. Yeah, but what
do you believe brings salvation? Christ is all. Yeah, but what
about the doctrine of this and the doctrine of that? Christ
is all. That's our declaration. And only those that are given
a true heart have the ability to say that from the heart. Christ
is all. Christ is all. Somebody said
to me, well, that's too simple. That's too simple. Thank God
it's too simple. It's the stumbling block for
the religious, isn't it? And it's foolishness to the wise
of this world. That's what Paul said. But to
us who believe, it's our salvation. Christ is our salvation. It's
too simple for some. I'm glad it's simple. If it was
complicated, we'd be in trouble, wouldn't we? We'd be in trouble,
but no, it's simple. It's simple. Those who are given
a new heart are given that new heart by grace alone. It's his
choice, and it's that simple. And only those who have been
given the true heart have the ability to hold fast to Christ,
who is our profession, who is our profession. Never wavering,
he said that, never wavering. No, we look to Christ. with full
assurance of faith. We hold fast the profession of
our faith without wavering because he's faithful, as we heard the
first hour. He's the reason, he's the reason.
So what is an evil conscience? Well, it's seen in a person who
has a righteousness of their own. I have heard somebody say before, I
was trying to debate if I was to say who it was or not. I chose
not to for the sake of peace. I know somebody who said this.
They said to somebody else, if you would get faithful to church,
God would give you a husband. God would bless you with a husband.
And then the same person, I heard him say, well, if you would start
being more faithful to church, you wouldn't struggle so much
financially. You wouldn't struggle so much financially. The motivation
for these people having an evil conscience is that their faithfulness
determines God's faithfulness. We heard that's not true the
first hour, didn't we? That's not true at all. Matter of fact,
I can't constrain him or restrain him. If it's based on my faithfulness,
we're in trouble. I'm in big trouble. It's all
based on the faithfulness of Christ. What you do, should not
be motivated by, I'm going to do this to obligate God. That's
what she's talking about doing. Coming to church in order to
have a husband, I'm going to obligate God. Lord, I've been to church
372 times now. Where's my husband? Doesn't work
that way. He's God. I'm not God. I can't
make him do something. I can't obligate him to do anything.
See, that's an evil conscience that thinks that way. That's
an evil conscience that thinks that way. What this working does, you can
fill in the blank whatever work you want to put on it. Working
could be coming to church. I hear people all the time. They
say, yeah, I need to get back to church. I need to get back
going to church. You ever heard that? I need to get back going
to church. I need to start going back to church more. I need to
go to church more. Well, that can be a work. That can be made
a work. But Lord, I went to church all
these times. Surely that's good enough. Lord
says, no, there's one I'm looking to, and it's not your church
going. It's the faithfulness of Christ. So an evil conscience
is severed. It's seared because of everything
that's done. It excuses them. I'm not like
this person and I'm not like this person. I'm not like this
person. Therefore their conscience is seared. It's severed. My righteousness
is then, if that is the case, is based upon what I do or what
I do not do. That's an evil conscience. Now
understand something about the conscience. It cannot bring you
to the knowledge of Christ. It can tell you what's bad and
what's good. It can help with wrong from right,
but it cannot point you to Christ. That's the gift of the Lord.
That's the gift of the Holy Spirit. That's whenever he gives repentance
and faith, salvations of the Lord. That which we perform can never
cleanse the conscience, it can only sever it. If we're doing
to try to, I think the word satiate, when you're thirsty and you finally
get a drink, satiate, it's gone now, you're not thirsty anymore,
it's satisfied. If we're looking to satisfy that thirst for righteousness
before God, if we're looking to satisfy that hunger for righteousness
before God and we attempt to do something in order to guarantee
the reception of that drink or that food, That's an evil conscience. That's an evil conscience. It's
not true. Because what we'll do is, is we'll sever our conscience
by thinking that we're good enough for God. I've done this, and
I've done this, and I've done this. Nothing that we can do can cleanse
the conscience. It never puts away sin. That's
why we need the blood. That's why we must have the blood.
The blood's the only thing that can cleanse the conscience. The
blood's the only thing. When the Lord shows you that
your sin is gone, what do you have to feel guilty about? Sin's
gone. There's nothing to feel guilty
about anymore. That's a clear conscience before the Lord. He
does that by His Spirit. He does that by His Spirit. He
says it right here. Verse 22, let us draw near with a true
heart and full assurance of faith. Why? Because our hearts are sprinkled
from an evil conscience. What are they sprinkled with?
It's the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the washing of water
by the word. It's the Lord's, it's the fountain
of living water. He washes his people. He washes
his people and cleanses them of this evil conscience. I don't
look, we don't have evil conscience anymore. No, we say Christ is
all, we have a true heart. Not unto us, oh Lord, but unto
thy name be all glory and praise and honor. Christ put away the sin of his
people for the sacrifice of himself. And you and I can't do anything
to mess that up. Can't do anything to add to it or take away from
it. It's finished. It's forever settled. You and
I rest in what the Lord did on the cross of Calvary. We rest.
in the blood, there's no more, and he's dealing with the issue
that he's been dealing with throughout the entire book of Hebrews, it's
the law and it's grace. And that's what this is about,
again, is I'm gonna run to the law, and I'm gonna keep doing
something towards the law, whether it's the civil law, whether it's
the moral law, whether it's the ceremonial law, that's the three
laws men do, to try to satisfy my conscience, to try to make
me feel like I'm good enough for God, like God approves of
me, that I'm going to be accepted into his heaven. That way of
thinking is an evil conscience. It's an evil conscience. Christ put the sin away that
you and I never could. This is the new and living way
he talks about in this portion. Verse 20, by a new and living
way which he hath consecrated for us to the veil that is to
say his flesh. Consecration means to be made new. We're new creatures
in Christ Jesus. That's the new and living way,
a new heart. It's eternal life. Not that we
work enough to attempt to please God, but God was pleased to please
God on our behalf. The Lord Jesus Christ pleased
God on our behalf, his people's behalf. There's nothing else that can
cleanse the conscience other than the Lord himself. We don't. We can sever it. We can sear
it with a hot iron. Scripture talks about that. Lord
talks about the reprobate given to them, left to themselves.
They're going to call good evil and evil good. We see a lot of
that going on, don't we? The evil conscience that men has
by nature will justify themselves because of what they do and condemn
others because of what they do. The evil conscience will say,
look at me and what I've accomplished, or look at me and what I'm, what
does faith say? Look to Christ. Look to Christ. He's the only one that can justify.
He's the only one that can purge, purge our conscience. from dead
works to serve the living God. And that's what an evil conscience
does, is it works dead works, because it's dead. But what he
did on the cross of Calvary was, is he put away the sin, so therefore
there is no more condemnation, there is no more accusation to
the conscience. We're clean before the Lord.
If your conscience is eating at you, it's because you're not
looking to Christ, you're looking at what you do. If your conscience
is eating at you, if it's bothering you, there's gonna be times whenever
you do something and your conscience will convict you, run to Christ. Lord, I need a substitute. You've
confessed your sins. He's faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Christ
is all. An evil conscience, whether intentional
or not, does not rest in the work of Christ. It works in the
rest of me, works in the rest of my hands, works in the rest
of my thoughts, my actions. That's what an evil conscience
does. Really, it's not resting at all. Their toil and labor
and the work is never done. Have you ever noticed that with
the religious people? If going to church was your righteousness,
couldn't you just go one time then and be righteous for the
rest, for the rest of your life? Somebody said, well, that sounds
silly. No, I'm being serious. It's just not how it works. They keep going to try to keep
establishing this righteousness. Here's what I'm doing, and I've
done it for this long so that God will be pleased with me.
And it's not true. They're lying to themselves.
An evil conscience says do, but a true heart says done. It is
finished. It is finished. Evil conscience
looks to self, a true heart looks to the Lord Jesus Christ. An
evil conscience says look at me, a true heart says look to
Christ. Do I have an evil conscience?
Well, am I looking to myself as any part of my righteousness?
Do I have an evil conscience? Am I looking to myself as any
part of my salvation, any hope of me pleasing God based upon
what I do, my merits? If that's the case, yes, that's
an evil conscience. But if the Lord's given you a true heart,
you look to Christ as all, as all your righteousness, as all
your wisdom, as all your sanctification and all your redemption. Do you
see yourself as the chief sinner, that all you can do is sin? And
that's the thing about the conscience is it doesn't fully tell us how
bad we are. Everything about the conscience
is based upon what we learn wrong from right. But in God's standard,
everything we do is wrong. Everything we do is sinful. That's
why we need a substitute. That's why we need a substitute.
Somebody told me recently, well, I'm not really that bad in a
conversation. That's what they said. I'm not
really that bad. And I said, well, what do you think bad is?
And they said, well, you know, I'm really good to people. I
try to be good to people. So now here we're establishing
righteousness based upon what we do for others. That's called
the moral law, or I'm sorry, that's called the civil law,
how I treat others, the civil law. And I said, but the scripture
says the wages of sin is death. You've sinned one time, you're
guilty to die. And the person said, I understand, but I've
been a nice person, I've been a good person, so when I get
there, I'm just gonna talk to him, and he'll understand. I
thought, you don't have a clue who God is. You're gonna talk
to him. There won't be anything for you
to say. The only thing that'll be said out of the mouths of
people that have that mentality, that evil conscience, the only
thing that's gonna be said is, It'd be me again, they'll be
offering their righteousness again, Lord will say depart from
me. Depart, no, I'm looking to one. Throughout scripture, this person
did say, well yeah, I've sinned, and this prompted this message,
this conversation actually prompted this message, partly. Throughout
scripture, men have said I've sinned, and the majority of them
that said they have sinned were not given repentance. We're not
given repentance. Saul, when he sinned, whenever
he was waiting on Samuel to come to him to prophesy unto him what
the Lord's purpose was going to be for the war that they were
facing, Saul got tired of waiting and he made a sacrifice on his
own. He took the place of the high priest. He offered up something
on his own. And then later on, whenever Samuel
had died, he goes to a fortune teller to conjure up Samuel.
That's what it says. Try to conjure him up. I want
to talk to him. Bring him back from the dead. I want to talk
to him. And people, they do that kind of stuff still, yeah, don't
they? How old does that work? I'm not really sure. I'm not
really sure. We'll leave it at that. All I
know is what the scripture said about it. It says, at the end of it,
the prophet came to him and said, the kingdom's rent from you.
The kingdom's rent from you, Saul. You took the place of the
high priest, and then you acted as if you were God trying to
bring one from the dead. The kingdom's taken from you. And
Saul says, I've sinned. I've sinned. But it wasn't under
repentance, because the last part of Saul's life, he commits
suicide. And anyone that does that, they're
offering themselves up to God for righteousness. That's what
suicide is. It's ugly and it's horrible, but that's what it
is. Everybody in the scripture that ever did that, there's no
account of them being believers. No account of them being believers. Saul wasn't the only one. Pharaoh
said, I've sinned. Let's turn to Exodus chapter
nine. I've got a few places we're going
to turn to over the next little bit. Exodus chapter nine. Now here
we have all the plagues that have been happening. In this
last plague that had happened, hail fell from the sky and it
was fiery hail and it was burning. It burnt up the crops. It did
a number of damages you can imagine. And Pharaoh calls for because
previously many times, and you've probably heard this before, but
how many times did Moses go to Pharaoh and say, the Lord commands
that you let his people go. And Pharaoh says, I'm not going
to let them go. And Moses says, okay, well, the
plague is going to come and this is going to be the plague if
you don't do it. And he says, he's hard and he's hard. He said, I won't do it.
And then after the plague started, he calls for Moses and says,
I need you to make this stop. I need you to make this stop
because the It's causing too much grief. It's causing, of
course I'm paraphrasing, but it's causing too much grief. It's
causing too much problems. And Moses said, well, let us go.
And he says, okay, okay. I'll let you go if you stop it.
And he says, okay, and he stops it. And then it says, and Pharaoh
sinned again and did not let him go. And it was just a pattern,
wasn't it? It was all a pattern to show
the Lord's wonders and his might and his power in the deliverance
of the children of Israel. And it's a picture of what Christ
endured on the cross. Every one of those plagues are. That's
what it took for you and I to be delivered from the bondage
of the law, from the bondage of our sin. But here we just
had the hell that took place and It says in verse 24, so there
was hail and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, so that
there was none like it in the land of Egypt since it became
a nation. And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt,
all that was in the field, both man and beast, and the hail smote
every herb of the field and break every tree of the field. Only
the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was
there no hail. Pharaoh sent and called for Moses
and said unto him, I have sinned this time. There it is. Pharaoh
said, I have sinned this time. I'm gonna confess to you that
I have sinned. The Lord is righteous. Well,
that's a good confession. I have sinned, the Lord is righteous,
and I and my people are wicked. Entreat the Lord, for it is enough
that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail, and I will
let you go, and ye shall stay no longer. Moses said unto him,
as soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my
hands to the Lord, and the thunder shall cease, neither shall there
be any more hail, that thou mayest know how the earth is the Lord's.
But as for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will not fear
the Lord God. You will not fear the Lord God. Moses knew that he wasn't gonna
let them go, even though that happened. But he says to them, I've sinned.
The Lord's righteous and we're wicked. But it wasn't unto repentance. It wasn't unto repentance. He
could own the fact that he had sinned or he had upset God, if
you want to put it that way. That's the most simplest way
to say it. He upset God and he acknowledged that he had upset
God. But what he couldn't acknowledge is that he was born in sin, he
was shapen in iniquity, that he needed a substitute. He believed
himself as God. He's like, okay, well this God's
more powerful than me, and I can't control him, but this guy can
control him. So I'm gonna say I have sinned, and God is righteous,
and the people's wicked, so that he'll stop that God from causing
us any more problems. And isn't it, it's the same thing. Whenever something happens, a
tragedy happens, Anytime it happens, everybody gets really religious
for a little while, don't they? They run to the nearest church,
they pack them out, and everybody starts trying to live better,
do better. It's a moral thing. That's what,
that's all this was, is just morality that he's showing forth
to appease Moses. And Moses says, I know you, you
won't believe. You won't, but this isn't unto,
this isn't unto repentance and faith. You're not going to believe. This was not the revelation of
Christ. This was a confession of just a trespass, nothing more.
And you and I have that confession. We can confess that we've trespassed, but he had an evil conscience.
Think about what all he saw. Think about what all the Lord
has him charged with. This is, I'm not sure what hill, what
number hill would have been. I should have probably researched
that first. But there's several plagues that's already taken
place up to this point. So he saw all of this happen right
before his eyes. And it reminds me of the Lord Jesus Christ being
on the face of the earth and men walking up to him, walking
past him, seeing him with their natural eyes and not having a
clue who he was. Not having a clue, missing him
completely. Isn't it the same thing with Pharaoh seeing all
these signs and wonders and seeing all the things he's never seen
anything, nothing ever happened like this before. You know the
truth and it's sometimes it is shocking to think about but we
know it's true. The rich man lifted up his eyes
in hell being in torment. He didn't ask for the fountain
of living water. He didn't ask to have mercy upon his soul.
He didn't ask to be saved. He didn't ask for Jesus Christ
to deliver him. He said, I want one more drop of water. I want
one more drop of water. Hell itself is not enough to
cause a man or a woman to believe. It's not. It takes faith and
repentance, and that is the gift of God to his people. It is the gift of God to his
people. Otherwise, we're gonna follow that evil conscience all
the way down to the pit. just like Pharaoh did, just like
Pharaoh did. He hardened his heart and sinned
the more. Look at verse 34 and 35. When Pharaoh saw the rain
and all the hail, the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more
and hardened his heart. He and his servants, and the
heart of Pharaoh's heart was hardened, neither would he let
the children of Israel go as the Lord had spoken by Moses.
He hardened his heart. Seeing all that, everything that
he had witnessed wasn't enough to drive him to Christ. Salvations
of the Lord. Oh, we need a true heart, don't
we? This is what happens if you follow the heart of the evil
conscience, but oh, we need a true heart. And it's no different
here, brethren, than it is today when men and women hear this
gospel, they refuse to bow to it. They refuse to bow to it. We will not have this man reign
over us. We'll not bow to him. They look to their own evil conscience
to satisfy their desire of acceptance before God. I'm good enough.
Jesus loves me the way that I am. I've heard that so many times.
That's not true. The Lord loves his son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and we have to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember when Cain slew Abel? See, salvation's of the Lord.
And another example of that is when Cain slew Abel, it said
that he sought repentance with tears, but never found it. He found no place of repentance,
though he sought it with tears. Couldn't find, because it can't
be found, it can't be merited, it can't be earned what we do.
Repentance and faith is by the grace of God alone. And it comes
to his people, giving us a true heart that no longer looks to
ourself, that no longer justifies ourself like Cain was going to,
Cain justified himself, that's why he got angry at Abel, as
Abel obeyed the Lord. It's a picture of our inability
to fix our sin. It's impossible to fix our sin.
If the Lord doesn't give us repentance and faith to believe Christ there
will be no fix for sin. Christ is the only remedy for
sin. The blood is the only remedy for sin. Now let's look at a
true heart given whenever someone says, I have sinned versus Pharaoh
who didn't have a true heart. Let's turn to 2 Samuel chapter
12. David, and this is just two chapters
before, or this is just three chapters after he called for
Mephibosheth. Do you remember that? Called
for Mephibosheth. Three chapters later, tells us when the time
of the kings went to war, David stayed behind. He was at the
wrong place at the wrong time. He shouldn't have done it. And
because of his lust, he saw a woman, and he took that woman as if
it was his wife, but it wasn't, and she became a child. And after
she became a child, David said, well, I gotta cover this up.
I gotta fix this. So he calls for her husband to come in. His
name is Uriah. He's out fighting the war that David should be
fighting. Calls for this man, Uriah, to come in with the hopes
he'll go home to his wife, and then it won't look like David
did anything. But the servant stays on the
front porch and won't go home. See, he loved David. He loved
David. He was a good servant, a good
servant. And he said, it's not right for
me to go home to my wife when my brethren are out there fighting.
And he leaves. And David didn't know what to
do. So he gave a letter to Uriah. He said, here, give this to the
captain of the guard when you get there. And the letter read, put Uriah
in the hottest fore part of the battle so that he may die. That's
exactly what happened, and he died. After he died, David called
for Bathsheba, Uriah's wife, and the scripture says, the thing
which David did displeased the Lord. Displeased the Lord. Nathan came to David, and we
know that it had to be about nine months to a year after this
because the child had been born at this point, Because one of
the judgments upon David is the child will die. If the child
was born, the child would die. So it's nine months to a year,
something like that. But Nathan tells him a story. He says, there
was a rich man who had many flocks and many herds. And there was
a poor man who had one ewe lamb who nurtured it as his own daughter. And it slept with him and ate
off of his table and he took care of it. One day, the rich
man was going to have a party, and he, rather than taking up
his own flocks and herds, he went and got the one ewe lamb,
and he killed it and dressed it and served it to his guests.
Now, David was a shepherd, I'll remind you of that. And you know,
anything that you do, you have a tender spot for. The Lord knows
how to hit those buttons, don't he? He really does. He knows
exactly how to press the button to cause us to say, oh, I did
not mean to do that. Well, that's exactly what happened.
Nathan said, what shall be done to the man? And David said, that
man will surely die. That man will surely die. Now
look here at verse seven, chapter 12. Nathan said unto David, thou
art the man. Thou art the man. Now, when the gospel comes to
an individual, That is exactly what the gospel declares to every
single individual. Thou art the man. You have sinned
against God. You need a substitute. You need
a surety. Thou art the man. There's two responses to that.
If the Lord gives repentance and faith with a true heart,
this will be the response. Verse 13, David said unto Nathan,
I have sinned against the Lord. Now you notice Pharaoh just said
I've sinned. David said, I've sinned against
the Lord. I've sinned against the Lord. Nathan said unto David,
and here's the difference, the Lord also hath put away thy sin. Thou shalt not die. That's the gospel. That's the
gospel. Thou shalt not die because God
put away your sin. God put away your sin. This confession
that David had, we're gonna turn here in a second to Psalm, let's
turn to Psalm 51. Look at this confession. His
confession wasn't just that I have sinned, but that I'm the chief
of sinners and I need a savior. And that's evident because in
Psalm 51 is the prayer of David after Nathan came to him. Psalm 51, look at verse one with
me. Have mercy, look at the heading.
To the chief musician of Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet
came to him after he had gone into Bathsheba. Have mercy upon
me according to the multitude, according to thy loving kindness,
according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out
my transgression. Wash me thoroughly from mine
iniquity and cleanse me from my sin for I acknowledge my transgression
and my sin as ever before me. Against thee, thee only have
I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that thou may be
as justified whenever thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the
hidden parts shall thou make me no wisdom. Purge me with hyssop,
and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be made
whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the
bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide not thy face
from me. Hide thy face from my sins, and
blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O
God, and renew in me a right spirit. Cast me not away from
thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore
unto me the joy of thy salvation. Uphold me with thy free spirit.
Then will I teach the transgressors thy ways and sinners to be converted
unto thee. That's his prayer of repentance
unto the Lord. This was him pouring out his
understanding from a true heart unto the Lord. Lord, if you don't
purge me, I'm not gonna be purged. If you don't cleanse me, I'm
not gonna be cleansed. If you don't create in me that which you desire,
I'll never have it. Create in me a clean heart. This
one's dirty, this one's corrupt, this one's evil. Lord, don't
leave me to myself is what David's saying. He says, you're right
in everything that you do, everything from here on out, whatever you
choose to do, whatever you've ever done and whatever you're
gonna do because of what I've did, you're justified in doing it.
If you send me to hell because of this, you're justified in
doing it. That's what he said. My sin is ever before me, Lord,
save me. Have mercy upon me, the sinner. That's the confession of a true
heart, isn't it? That's the confession of a true
heart. Now, what would a evil conscience do? Well, an evil
conscience, on the other hand, would be one like Judas. And
I mentioned that we were gonna talk about him this hour, last hour.
But what did Judas do whenever he had sinned? And for the sake
of time, I'm just gonna tell you this account, and have one
more place to turn after that, and we'll go back to our text
to end. Judas sold the Lord for silver, didn't he? And he said,
the one that I kissed, that's him. And after that had taken
place, Judas's conscience convicted him. Judas's conscience, you're
saying a non-believer has a conscience? Yes, yes. But what did he do
in reaction to that convicted conscience? Did he say, have
mercy upon me according to my loving kindness, according to
the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgression? Lord,
save me, I'm a sinner, I'm the chief sinner. I didn't, no. No, not at all, not even close.
He went back to the money changers. He went back to the temple where
the high priest was and he said, here, I have sinned because I
have betrayed innocent blood. Now I'm gonna fix it. That's
what he's doing. I'm gonna fix it. I'm gonna sear
my conscience of this guilt. Here's the money back. And they
said, we can't take it. It's blood money. And he threw it
down and he ran out. And he said, I can't fix it.
They wouldn't take it back. Now what am I gonna do? And you
know what he did next? He hung himself. He offered himself
up to God for his own righteousness. He said, well, if I take my life,
God will be pleased with me. It's not true. It's not true. It's an evil conscience. It's
an evil conscience. He didn't beg, he didn't, Cry
out unto the Lord, he took matters into his own hands, and that's
what you'll see people do every single time, is they will take
matters into their own hands and try to fix something when
it comes to God, but we can't fix anything. They of a true heart, the elect
of God, saved by the grace of God, are like the prodigal son.
Turn with me to Luke chapter 15. Here in Luke chapter 15, we have
the account of a young man who decided he had grown tired of
being at home with his dad and his family, and he wanted his
inheritance. And he asked for his inheritance from his father,
and his father gives him his inheritance. And he goes into a far country,
the scripture says, and he squanders it away frivolously. He spends
it on power, popularity, and pleasure. He's spending all the
money. Well, the day comes when the money runs out and he finds
himself feeding hogs. And I want you to understand
that feeding hogs as a Jew would have been a repulsive thing because
a hog is a unclean animal under the law. That's exactly what
he's doing. And it said he would have feigned,
filled his belly with the husks that the hogs were eating. And
that's exactly what all men are doing with an evil conscience,
is they're feeling themselves at the husks of the unclean thing
over and over, and they're searing their conscience. But here we
find that the Lord gave this young man repentance. He gave
him repentance. Verse 17 says, and when he came
to himself, now don't misunderstand what that means. He didn't just
wake up all of a sudden. The Lord said, live. The Lord
said, wake up. The Lord says, look at you in
this situation. And he says, how many hired servants
of my father's have bread enough to spare and I perish with hunger.
I will arise and go to my father and I will say unto him, father,
I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am no more
worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose. And he came to
his father, but when he was a great way off, his father saw him and
had compassion and ran and fell and kissed his neck, ran on his
neck and kissed him. And the son said unto him, father,
I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight and in no worthy
to be called thy son. Well, I love this part right
here. The father does what? To his
servants, bring forth the best robe, bring forth the ring. Put it on him, put shoes on his
feet, bring hither the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat
and be merry for this my son was dead and is alive again.
He was lost and is found and they begin to be merry. That's what the Lord does for
every single one of his children. Every single one that he gives
this true heart to. That young man didn't say, I
know how I can fix this. I'm gonna go to my father, I'm
gonna do this and this, and then I'm gonna go to my father and
I'm gonna do something so that he'll have compassion upon me
or do something so that he'll have mercy or show me grace.
No, he said, I'm gonna go tell him, father, I'm not worthy to
be your son anymore. I've sinned against you, I've sinned against
God. I'm not worthy. That's the confession of every
believer. Lord, I'm not worthy. I'm unworthy. I can't present
anything to you as my righteousness. I cannot present anything to
you as my righteousness. Have mercy upon me. And the Lord
says, bring the robe. Robe of righteousness bought
by the blood of Christ. And he puts it on her back. Bring
the ring, the signet. That'd been the family crest,
wouldn't it? He said, you're my son. You're
my son. I'm well pleased with you because
you're in Christ Jesus. You have a true heart. You're
in Christ Jesus. You're not looking to your own
righteousness, your own law keeping, but you're looking to my son.
That's what he does for all of his people. This young man didn't just feel
bad and said, what can I do to fix this? He was given repentance.
Repentance, that's what the picture is here. And when the Lord gives
repentance, it always is paralleled with faith and we look to Christ,
we look to Christ, we flee to him. It's they're inseparable.
True heart believes Christ and flees to Christ. Now in closing,
let's read our text again, Hebrews chapter 10. Look at verse 19. Having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter the holiest by the blood of Christ, the blood of Jesus,
by a new and living way which he had consecrated for us to
the veil that is to say his flesh, and having a high priest over
the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full
assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold
fast the profession of our faith without wavering for he is faithful
that promised it. Do you know what that word boldness
means? We talked about this last Sunday,
I believe. Complete, total, absolute confidence
Complete, total, absolute confidence. Let us have boldness to enter,
how? By the blood of Christ. You can
enter into the holiest of all by the blood of Christ because
of what he done. Have complete confidence in him.
I believe it was Paul that said we have no confidence in the
flesh. Have no confidence in the flesh. Why? Because the Lord's
shown us what the flesh is in his sight. but we have complete
confidence resting in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ
alone as all of our salvation. If that's you, you have a true
heart. You have a true heart. We're not looking to an evil
conscience, trying to sear it so that we can feel that we can
approach God. We come pleading the blood alone, the blood alone
with the true heart of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. God's
chosen people have been sprinkled Their conscience has been sprinkled
clean. They've been washed in the blood of Christ. They have
been justified. They have been sanctified. They
have been glorified. They have been perfected forever.
They've been made the very righteousness of God. We no longer look to
try to appease our conscience. We look to the one who had a
perfect conscience, who had a perfect, our perfect savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And if you and I have a true
heart, We're not looking to our evil conscience to try to justify
ourself. If you and I have a true heart,
it's by one reason and one reason only. The Lord's faithful. And he gave it to you by grace,
by grace, his amazing grace. Let's pray. Father, cause us
to believe. Bless us to our understanding
for your glory in Christ's name. Amen.