Now as pertaining to the perfect conscience , it is truly and completely a matter of being done with one’s self. The guilt of sin should never again cross the mind of someone who has truly relied upon the all sufficient cross - work of our Lord Jesus Christ. If someone is consumed in their thoughts concerning a guilty conscience due to sin, they have never truly by faith , accepted our Lord Jesus Christ as their savior . They have not truly by faith accepted Him as their perfect sacrifice for sin They are still in unbelief that His sacrifice was sufficient . They are without faith. We often hear of someone ‘rededicating’ their life to Christ. Because of an observation of sin being present in their life, their ‘guilty conscience’ causes them to repeat the former dedication, only to prove the definition of insanity It’s as though they think it will finally ‘take’ ... this time. And so, concerning someone who is continually asking God for forgiveness of sin , the Spiritual man realizes that there are ‘two’ issues which that person has not dealt with. And it is the very first issue that must be dealt with first ... that stands in the way of the second issue also being dealt with. The first issue is not so obvious to man ... because of his sin nature. Satan’s work in him from conception , keeps it hidden. The first issue that is obviously not dealt with in someone who is either ‘rededicating’ their life to Christ ... (or in the same sense) ... continually asking for forgiveness of sin, ... is that they are not done with themselves . When we are still focused upon ourselves and our actions, and our perceived abilities, there will be by necessity a guilty, even a defiled conscience before God. This then brings the second issue , there can be no total reliance upon Jesus Christ , there can be no true faith , because there is still some reliance dedicated to ‘self .’ This is the putrid dedication that the unbeliever is occupied with. It is a dedication to God to self - discipline to do better next time The dedication is not left to the work of God ... nor to His Son, both, ... whose dedication for us is perfect and complete And this is what the Law of Moses should cause a man to realize. It should be that school - master that leads someone to our Lord Jesus Christ ... and what He has now done ‘once’ ... and for ‘all.’ Unfortunately, the sin nature in man causes him to remain focused upon his performance concerning sin, blocking out what our Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished for us. This was indeed the Law. It called for man to be focused upon himself and his ability to ‘ stop sinning. ’ This continually could only prove his guilt before God. That’s the way God wanted it. This was His purpose in giving the Law. God’s design was for man to ‘repent’ (that is change his mind) and admit he could not deliver himself from a guilty conscience before God. The Law called for man to ‘turn from sin.’ And so, the thought that man could turn from sin is what man is to repent from. Change your mind ... and believe ... that you cannot turn from sin. So, under the Law, the carnal priestly mediator would every year ‘cover’ the sins of all the people. What a yoke of bondage! What a never - ending focus upon your inability to turn from sin. What a never - ending guilty conscience ! This is the explanation of Hebrews 9:9. Speaking of that whole priestly system of ‘covering’ sin... Heb 9:9 Which was a figure 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; Those under the Law could indeed come to the end of themselves, yet never have a pure conscience. This was found in the publican who prayed, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” He had come to the end of himself insomuch as ... he “would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast...” (Luk 18:13) As we can then see, he had repented of the idea that he had power to turn from sin, yet, his conscience remained guilty And this is because all he had at his disposal for the time then present to deal with sin, was the blood of bulls and goats spilt once every year. Yet, for us , Christ’s blood solves the guilty conscience forever. And this is what verses 13 and 14 bear out. Heb 9:13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: Heb 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 ? Whether it be ‘self - discipline’, resolutions, dedications, rededications, oaths, whether it be priestly mediators claiming to forgive sins, whether it be the blood of bulls and goats, they are all dead works feeding the self - sin nature and a guilty conscience . All dead works will do is keep a person from true faith in the appropriate sacrifice, our Lord Jesus Christ. Dead works keep men FROM TRUE FAITH But for the person who has come to the end of himself concerning his own ‘works’, we read... Heb 9:24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands , (the carnal tabernacle or the temple ) which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us : Heb 9:25 Nor yet that he should offer himself often , as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; Heb 9:26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: (on a cross) but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself Sin is no longer covered but “put away”! Covered sin is always that lump under the rug. And that lump under the rug causes the conscience to remain guilty and impure . But Jesus Christ has put away sin. And in this we believe unto the clearing of our conscience. Heb 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 Those sacrifices could only ‘cover’ sin, and leave you in need of the next sacrifice . All this could produce is a guilty conscience. Those sacrifices were not sufficient to ‘take sin away.’ Paul here is asking us to consider, that if those sacrifices were sufficient ... then they would have stopped offering them. Heb 10:2 For then (if the sacrifices satisfied our conscience that we were now pure?) ...would they not have ceased to be offered ? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. Heb 10:3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. Heb 10:4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Just as our Lord Jesus Christ surrendered Himself, (that is came to an end of Himself) on the cross, so must we in accepting that great true communion of being ‘joined’ to Him in death . It is the person of true faith that has taken up his own personal cross ... and followed our Lord Jesus Christ in death . Death is the issue of taking up your own cross. This is the beginning of a pure conscience ... freed from all guilt. The person of true faith will see himself as a pure worshiping priest, (1 Peter 2:5,9) not a guilty convicted sinner. How much sin can a dead man do? Do we truly see ourselves as ‘joined’ to Jesus Christ in death? How can we have a guilty conscience, if the person responsible has been crucified with Christ, and is now dead ? How much guilt can a ‘dead man’ feel? (See all of Romans chapter 6) S omeone who still feels guilt concerning his sin, has truly never put his faith in our Lord Jesus Christ ... the perfect and complete sacrifice for us. A person who is thinking in this carnal manner feels he has some ‘ good ’ or ‘ righteousness ’ to offer God. He then imagines God sees it the same way he does, and that God will receive it as such. He is an ... unbeliever ... still caught up in his own ‘ works ’ ... which are nothing but ‘dead works.’ He does not believe in the sufficiency of his sacrifice. This is becaus e he is still looking at ‘himself’ and not at his sacrifice. A man must stop looking at himself , and reckon to be true what God says is true. What God says is true is that, He is no longer looking at the person who sins. In fact, God has ‘crucified’ the person who sins. Paul said it this way, Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live ; yet not I , ( I am dead ) but Christ liveth in me .... This may be hard for us to understand, since our natural born way of thinking always focuses on ourselves as we are in this world , ‘naturally sinful’ human beings. Paul says that even though he has been ‘killed’ (that is crucified ) , Nevertheless, he is still breathing oxygen in a sinful body . But then the words come, “ yet not I .” Paul is done with his ‘old self.’ Paul also says in Romans that when he sins, it is not him that does it. Rom 7:17 Now then (When I sin) it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me Sin dwells in Paul’s body, this he cannot change, but Paul no longer identif ies as a sinner. This is because God has made him a ‘new creation’ in Christ Jesus , our perfect sacrifice , the sinless lamb of God Paul did nothing but “ reckon ” to be true , what God did through our Lord Jesus and His cross. (Rom. 6: 1 - 11) This is how our sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ was sufficient in ‘taking away sin’, to no longer plague our conscience. All has been done. As our Lord Jesus said, “ IT IS FINISHED .” There is no more need for forgiveness of sin past, present, or future. Forgiveness has been done “once” and “for all.” Notice in these following verses that for giveness is in the ‘past tense.’ Eph 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Col 3:13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. May all men everywhere ‘believe’ the truth of what God did through the cross of His Son , even for the life which we presently live ! May the truth of the sufficiency of our sacrifice Jesus Christ become evident to all men. Pertaining to the Conscience Hebrews 9:9 – 10:22 www.blackhillsgracechurch.com