We take your Bibles out To the book of Hebrews So good to have everyone here today. We've been studying together The conscience and we come today to our third message. So we are going to consider What Hebrews 9 and 10 have to say about the conscience? So I invite you to turn to that passage that we read today in its entirety and we will consider what the Bible says. about the conscience cleansed, the conscience cleansed. Let's bow together, my dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, asking for God's help as we seek to understand his word. Father, as we consider your word today, we ask today that you would make it plain to us. We realize that apart from the illumination of the Holy Spirit, we cannot understand what we need to know. But so graciously, you've sent your spirit to guide us in the truth, to guide us, to help us understand what you say in your word. So Father, we pray for that to happen now. And as we learn what is here, may we take the admonition of this book to not harden our hearts against what we hear, but to receive it. to not turn back, but to endure in the faith. Father, we pray for that in Jesus' name, amen. I grew up with a playground across the street from my house, and I loved to play there. That playground equipment is actually identical to the equipment that used to be in Oriskany Falls, until they changed it recently. But you remember that when we spent our time playing, that our time came to an end. Dinner time came and my parents would blow a whistle as a signal for us kids to come home. But before we could get to the dinner table, we were directed to go to the bathroom. Why? Because we had to wash up before we could go to dinner. And we've been studying the conscience for two weeks now, and hopefully we are getting a grip of what the conscience is. The conscience is your inner impulse to do what you should do. And everyone has a conscience. And everyone's conscience functions the same way. It functions based on what you know. It urges you to do one of two things. Urges you to do what's right, and to reject what is wrong. It's a feature that is yours because you were made in the image of God, which distinguishes you from the rest of creation. That is to say, the animal kingdom does not possess this faculty of the conscience that mankind possesses. Now, we've covered the fact that the conscience in the Bible is something that people have. We've talked about references to my conscience, your conscience, their conscience, et cetera. But what we need to further realize is that this term for conscience is often modified in some way. We don't often see the word conscience alone. We see types or states of the conscience. For example, we see a good conscience, a clear conscience, a pure conscience, a weak conscience, an evil conscience. We also see that the conscience can be impacted. We see it can be cleansed, it can be wounded, it can be defiled, it can be rejected, it can be scared. We're gonna get to those in the course of our study, but let's consider as we begin The natural man's conscience. The natural man's conscience. I'm talking about the person who is not a believer in Jesus Christ, but a normal Joe. The natural man's conscience, that his conscience is in a deplorable state and in desperate need. And the natural man's conscience is described in Hebrews 10, verse 22. So I invite you to look down at your Bible, Hebrews 10, 22, where we see an evil conscience that needs cleansing. The Bible says, let us draw near with the true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean, from what? From an evil conscience. You see, the natural state of a man is that his conscience is evil and needs cleansing. The good news is that God has provided the means for a clean conscience, which is the wonderful experience of every true believer in Jesus Christ. So we're gonna study today Hebrews 9 and 10 say about the conscience under three headings today, three points. First, mankind labors under an evil conscience. Second, the blood of Jesus cleanses the evil conscience. And third, those with a cleansed conscience may draw near to God. So first from Hebrews 10.22, man labors under an evil conscience. What's an evil conscience? Well, this does not mean that the conscience itself is evil. That conscience is a bad thing or an evil thing. Instead, an evil conscience is one with sin lying upon it. Remember that the conscience functions based upon what it knows, and the conscience knows the evil within. You've often heard said that people are good at heart and most people will claim that they are good people. But no matter what people say, no matter what people claim, the conscience knows better. A person may say that the car runs good and the car will last a long time. He may say that because he's trying to sell it. But if you plug a diagnostic scanner into that car, it is not going to lie about all the problems underneath the hood. code upon code upon code is going to be displayed on that diagnostic scanner. And like that scanner, the human conscience knows what's underneath the hood of you, of me, and of every man, because the conscience knows the evil within. and the conscience testifies to the evil within. Remember, the conscience not only functions based on knowledge, the conscience bears witness either for or against. We saw that in Romans 2.15, where we saw their consciences also bear witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them. Now, in the American system of justice, Someone who is alleged to be a criminal is tried in the court of law. And you may say that he has never done such a thing, that he would never hurt a fly. Oftentimes in the court of law, witnesses called, multiple witnesses are called. And it may be proved true through the witness's testimony that the alleged criminal indeed did what he should not have done. And even so, it is the human conscience within that knows the evil and gives testimony in the heart of man that he has done what he shouldn't have done. You say, when does this kind of thing happens? Well, proverbially, this is how it happens. A child sneaks a cookie from the cookie jar. He successfully returns to his room without anyone noticing. But his conscience notices. His conscience says to him, you shouldn't have done that. And that proverb is repeated a thousand times on different levels in all of our lives. A more advanced reference to literature would be Edgar Allan Poe. He authored The Telltale Heart. That's a story that you and I had to read in high school. Well, that's a story of a murder. The story of a man who murders another man and hides the body. The police come to investigate, but it seems that the murderer has successfully covered his tracks. But then the murderer begins to hear what he thinks is the beating heart of the man he slew. And he is dumbfounded that the police can't hear the beating heart as well. And eventually he can't take it any longer and he confesses to his crime. Of course, that sound was not the sound of a heart that was beating of a murdered man. It was the man's conscience within him witnessing against him. Such is the state of the natural man. His conscience witnesses against him because of the evil within him. I've been reflecting on this truth this last week, and I've thought of my friends who don't know the Lord, who aren't believers. Friends who refuse to believe that God even exists. Friends who will one day stand before Jesus Christ to be judged by Him, whether they believe it or not. Now imagine for just a moment someone who has rejected God all their life. They stand before the Lord and they protest. They say, I had no clue that I would be on trial for what I did in life. I never realized I was supposed to live for you. I mean, I tried to follow my heart and live the best that I could. And perhaps the Lord would then answer, you knew that this day was coming. You knew that I would judge you for what you've done because I graciously placed a conscience in you which has been witnessing against you for years. You see, the conscience knows what's in the heart and he witnesses against man to his evil, even as the Lord Jesus Christ searches the mind and the heart, Revelation 2.23 says. And in the court of law, what happens when the alleged criminal is proven to have performed the crime? What does the jury say? Guilty. Even so, an evil conscience is a guilty conscience. An evil conscience is a guilty conscience. In fact, that's how the NIV and the NLT interpret the evil conscience here. So if you have an NIV today, it reads this way. Our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience. A guilty conscience is the heaviest load that one could ever bear in life. Some of you have read John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress. In that story, a man is portrayed clothed in rags with a book in his hand and a great burden on his back. And you know that that burden represents his sin, and its heaviness is the guilt he feels from his sin. Another man comes to him and says, how did you come by that burden? And he says, by reading this book in my hand. What we realize from this is that the guilt of the conscience is made heavier by the knowledge of God's law of what we ought to do. You see, in the Bible, we learn about sin. We learn about the sin that our conscience condemns us for. We learn about the condemnation that our conscience calls for that we're guilty. So the man in Bunyan's story did all he could to get rid of his burden. Now many of you know that I grew up in a pastor's home. So I was taught the Bible regularly. I was always in church when the doors were open, often because I opened them. And I was about my son's age when I actually felt the weight of the burden of my sin. My conscience had already been at work. My conscience had already been witnessing against me about the times that I disobeyed my parents, about the times that I became angry with my brothers. But it was when the Bible was taught to me that I became more aware of my guilt and I was driven to be rid of my burden. And that's what brought about my conversion. It is when the conscience and the Bible work hand in hand, because the conscience knows the thoughts and reasoning of our hearts, and so the word of God discerns the thoughts and the intents of the heart, Hebrews 4, verse 12. And it is when we sense that, that we seek to be rid of that burden, of that guilt. The question is, how can a person get rid of it? Well, in the words of Hebrews 10, 22, how is it that an evil conscience is cleansed? Well, by nothing that we could ever do, only what Jesus Christ has done for us. So we learn secondly this morning that the blood of Jesus cleanses the evil conscience. The blood of Jesus cleanses the evil conscience. We need to turn to Hebrews 9 now. We're going to find a solution that most people don't employ. When people feel guilt, they often do something else to cover up their guilt. Most people attempt to drown their guilt with alcohol. Or they try to escape their guilt by doing drugs. Neither of those things work. Other people try to make up for their guilty conscience by doing something good. And this thing can happen in many different realms of life, but let me just give you one example. Imagine a parent returns home to find the kitchen cleaned and the rooms all picked up. And the parent thinks, well, that's not usual. What happened? And it's then that they find that the lamp has been broken. You see, people try to make up for the wrong things that they do. That's just what people do. But even when people try to do something to make up for the wrong that they have done, are their conscience cleansed? No. You see, even righteous acts can't cleanse the conscience. Look at Hebrews 9.9. The Bible says, accordingly, both gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot make the worshiper perfect, as far as the conscience is concerned. You see, in the old covenant, which is the first covenant, you see that in chapter nine, verse one, the first covenant, there were regulations about worshiping God, which included gifts and sacrifices. And the deficiency of those gifts and sacrifices was that they couldn't change the worshiper. They couldn't fix his evil conscience. Turn to chapter 10, verse 1 and 2. It says this, for since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it says, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, it can never make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all and no longer have felt guilty for their sins? You see, there is a deficiency there. Oh man, have you ever checked your car and how much oil you had in the engine to see if it was low? I've done that, and it was my experience with our previous van that I would check the oil, and it'd be low. It'd be a half quart low, so I'd put a half quart in. I'd check it a month or so later, and it'd be low. So, I'd add some more oil. Say, why did I do that? Well, I was happy to do that because it was an old van, and the fix would be really expensive. So, I just added more oil. Now you may say, what does a car that leaks oil have to do with a worshiper in the old covenant? Well, as I had to repeatedly add oil to the engine, so the worshipers of the first covenant had to repeatedly offer sacrifices. And both of us knew something. Both of us know that the problem is still there. We know there was still a problem because of what we had to keep on doing. The continual sacrifices were the reminder that the conscience had not been cleansed yet. So look at Hebrews 10, three and four. In these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year. Not the cleansing of that, but the reminder of that. Verse four, for it's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. So sacrifices can't solve the problem. So if sacrifices can't solve it, why did God prescribe them in the first place? Remember, it's God who established the old covenant. It was because those sacrifices pointed forward to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, John 1.29. Look in Hebrews 9.14, it says this, You see, it's only the blood of Jesus that can cleanse the conscience. Many of us grew up with the gospel song, there is power in the blood. One of those stanzas says this, would you be whiter, much whiter than snow? There's power in the blood. Sin stains are lost in its life-giving flow. There's power, there's wonderful power in the blood. Now we're not to imagine that the blood of Jesus Christ was anything different from normal human blood. Yet we know from the scriptures that Jesus was different from the normal human being because he was without sin, Hebrews 4.15. And he offered himself in our place for our sin, the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God. Now what impact does His blood have upon our conscience? Well, I want you to remember, and I'll come to this again and again in the course of our study, I need you to remember that the conscience functions based on what it knows. It knows of right and wrong because of the work of the law within. It knows our inner reasonings and our outward actions. It is informed by many other norms, whether they're scriptural or societal. And when all that knowledge is calculated, the conscience of the natural man reports, guilty, guilty. And when people try to make up for their guilty conscience through good deeds and religious acts, the conscience still registers guilty. But when the gospel of Jesus Christ is heard, the conscience becomes aware of something it didn't previously know. The conscience learns that one has died in my place for my sins. The wrath of God toward me has been appeased. The sin has been taken away. God no longer condemns, and the conscience registers an agreement with God, not guilty. Romans 8, 33 and 34. Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Jesus Christ is the one who died. You see, when God no longer condemns, the conscience follows suit. And that's the subjective sense that often first comes over a new convert. When we ask someone about their conversion, they often confess that they feel different. They're confessing that they have a cleansed conscience. The guilt is gone. That burden is gone. You say, what does a cleansed conscience feel like? It is that one no longer has this sense where they need to strive for God's works. Strivings have ceased and instead their soul rests upon Christ. They have a cleansed conscience. So we've seen this morning that mankind labors under an evil conscience, that the blood of Jesus cleanses the evil conscience. Now we need to consider as we close with our last, why is this truth so important for Christians? Remember, this book was written It was written to Hebrews who were being tempted to abandon the faith and go back to the old covenant. So in Hebrews chapters 9 and 10, there are two covenants that are compared, particularly by their impact upon the conscience. Sacrifices couldn't cleanse the conscience, yet the blood of Jesus can. And the practical difference between those two covenants is very significant because it is those with a cleansed conscience who may draw near to God. You see, an evil conscience is afraid to approach God. Young people, remember back to the first sin. Remember the first thing that Adam and Eve did, their first impulse of their guilty conscience was to hide from God, Genesis 3.8. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. You see, someone who is guilty isolates himself. Wrong is often done in the dark, in secret, because it feels guilty. And those who have done wrong are afraid to approach God. And that kind of reality shows itself in our relationships with other people. We avoid people that we've wronged. It's just unsettling. We feel nervous when we see someone like that. That's what Adam and Eve did. They tried to separate themselves from God when they knew their sin. And the impulse of the guilty conscience is displayed in the old covenant sacrificial system. I'm starting to make some theological jumps and leaps here that are more technical, so stick with me. A guilty conscience does not want to be close to God, but to be separate from God. Now consider the old covenant. God has redeemed his people Israel out of Egypt. He's promised to dwell among them. He's given them instructions to build a tabernacle with an outer court, and then with the two-room inner tent, that's in the book of Exodus. And so God dwells among his people, yet when you look at the tabernacle, God is separated from his people. Anyone can go into the outer court, but only scheduled priests can go into the first section of the tent. Remember, that's the holy place. We see that in Hebrews 9, verses 1 and 2. And then behind the curtain of the holy place is the most holy place, verse 3. Say, what was the point of all of those tents and rooms and curtains? Look at verse 8. Hebrews 9.8. By this, the Holy Spirit indicates that the way to the holy places is not yet opened, as long as the first section is still standing. Here's the point. Separation from God was built into the blueprint of the tabernacle. It proclaimed to everyone that things are not right between God and man. Sinful man cannot drawn near to God. He needs to keep distanced from a holy God. Now take that understanding of the old covenant and remember with me when Christ inaugurated the new. What happened the moment Jesus breathed his last? Matthew 27. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. A curtain that's about the size of the floor plan of this room was torn in half. God tore it in half. Why? Because he didn't want there to be any more distance. No more distance. You see, the cleansed conscience is then emboldened to approach God. to draw near to God. This passage is about the great benefit of the new covenant and being able for us to approach God. Look at verse 1 of chapter 10. The sacrifices of the old covenant continually offered every year can never make perfect those who draw near. Verse 22, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith with hearts sprinkled clean. from an evil conscience. You see, the great advantage of the new covenant is our sense that we don't have to hide from God because of our sin. We may boldly approach God to receive his grace. So brothers and sisters in the Lord, we need to continually be reminded of the fact that we may be close with God not because of what we've done, but because of what Christ has done. It is so easy to slip into the mindset that God is pleased with us because of our high Christian standards or our devout promises that we've made to God. It is easy for us to slip into the mindset that God is pleased with us as long as we do something to compensate for the sins we commit. We can't have that mindset. It's burdensome, it's restless, and it has no place in the new covenant. The truth of the new covenant is that we've been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ so that we can draw near to the Lord. When I was young, I used to play at the playground across the street. And when I came in for dinner, I had to go to the bathroom to wash up before I could go to the table. And even so, a person has to be cleaned, has to be cleansed of an evil conscience if he's going to draw near to the Lord. The good news is that God has provided the means in His Son, Jesus Christ, for us to draw near. And that is our hope. and the great comfort of your conscience and my conscience. Father, we thank you today that you have given us such a gift as to have an evil conscience that has been cleansed. A conscience that no longer condemns, but instead is in full agreement with what you have declared about us, that we are just and right because Christ has died for us. And we have no need then to fret and worry, to feel that we need to hide from our creator, but instead may we be emboldened to approach him and to seek his mercy and grace. And may you encourage anyone today who senses that he still has an evil conscience or that he still has some sin that needs to be dealt with. May he realize that he may go to the Lord to have it handled. and you will be gracious and merciful and cleanse the conscience. We pray that you would do that work in our hearts, in Jesus' name, amen.