Camp Day, which is our church picnic, will be August 5th, also at the camp property. And that's a day where we come to church here, and then afterwards go up to Vesper Point's property, have a great meal in our air condition dining hall. And then if you want, you can enjoy the facilities, the lake, and the fields, and all that. So please mark your calendars for that. And come casually dressed that Sunday, so you can make your way up to camp afterwards. A couple of announcements a little closer to the moment. Today is Sarah Snyder's last day with us, before she goes and gets married. And we're going to have a reception for her after the service and after our congregational meeting, just in the Nell Davis classroom. So please come and tell her how much you appreciate the ministry she's had to our kids and to us in the choir of the last couple of years, Sarah, we will miss you. And one way we can show you we're going to miss you is by having a congregational meeting. Sometimes you got to work on your segues. After the service today, if you're visiting with us, we're going to have a benediction and then we'll have some music. And if you want to get up and leave at that time, that's normal when we dismiss. If you're a member of the church, I want to ask you to stay either here or in the chapel. We have a brief bit of business to elect some elders and deacons. And if you're a visitor and you just want to see what Presbyterians do in their free time, you can kind of hang out and watch us. But we're going to have that brief meeting. I do ask if you're a communing member of the church that you stay. This is important business and it will be fairly brief. So thank you for that. Having said all of that, we don't come to church to have elections and to make programs and announcements. We come here to worship Jesus Christ as our Savior. I want to invite you now to repair your hearts and minds to do so. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. So I am grateful for you. My flesh for you as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life. My lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live. In your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips.
Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father, as we have just sung, indeed, may our lips praise you. May we sing alleluia with our hearts and minds and all of our being to the praise of your name. Father, we belong to you. Your name is written upon us and we, in turn, are written on the palms of your hands. We thank you that your glory will not be diminished in any way, but we can simply come and worship your majesty, your power. We can proclaim that your love is indeed better than life as we reflect on your promises and alternatives. So Lord, as we come together, corporately is your people. Let us show forth the praise and glory of your name. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. We come to our affirmation of faith. Many times, again, as we've talked about before, we have very powerful statements of faith such as the Apostle's Creed. But just being human nature, we sometimes can grow kind of callous, even as we're saying it, to what we're really saying. If you do something enough, that's our tendency. I'm not saying it's right, but it's what we do oftentimes. So I find it helpful as an alternative occasionally in our worship to use the Heidelberg Catechism. That's one of my personal preferences. These questions are powerful and the answers to them are very biblical and powerful as well. So I invite you, along with me, responsibly too, the first question of the Heidelberg Catechism for our affirmation of faith today. What is your only comfort in life and in death that I am not my own, but belong body and soul in life and in death to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood. And has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven. In fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to Him, Christ, by His Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for Him. You may be seated. We will together confess our sin with the unison reading in your bulletin. And then as is our practice, you have the opportunity individually and silently to bring your personal confessions before the Lord. O Lord, how can we stand before you with our numberless and aggravated offenses? We have taken your grace for granted. It has failed to stun us today. We have arrogantly believed that we deserved your grace. And thus we have mocked your gospel. We have run after vain idols and thus forsaken your sufficiency. We have not loved your church that you bought with your own blood. Forgive us, Lord. It is only because of your compassion through Jesus Christ that we are not consumed. Lead us to repentance and save us from despair. Lord, we have no excuse, but we have Jesus who has become sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Father, we so often think we're doing well and we don't need God. And Father, we so often think we've done things so horrible that God could ever love or need us. Father, bring to us the assurance of our faith that we are deeply loved by our Savior, Jesus, and that while we may be much worse off than even we can imagine, we are so much more loved than we could ever hope for. Lord, that your grace might penetrate our lives in such a manner that we recognize our hope to be in the cross in the empty tomb and not in ourselves. And in that we have assurance. So as we look to our Savior, Jesus Christ, as our hope of salvation, our assurance of salvation, that we know in our belief in Him that He died that we might live. And so when He tells us to pray like this, we model that prayer together, saying corporately, our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Amen, we take a moment now to greet those around you in the name of the Lord. Let us now go to our Father in prayer. Lord, as we come to this portion of the service, we have sung your praises. We have in that recognized our need for confession. We have affirmed your giving of assurance and salvation. And Lord, we recognize that the journey of the believer, while we do it together on this earth, is not our final spot, and that we seek and yearn for your kingdom. And Father, we recognize that in just very pragmatic and practical ways this morning, even as we know our dear sister Ann Landris has returned to the hospital. Ken Simons has gone. Lord, even as we know that Clay and Liz Warner, Clay, a pastor who previously served here, have a newborn who is in surgery today. Father, we recognize that our midst, those who are recovering and rehabilitating from physical woes, we recognize those who are struggling emotionally, spiritually. We recognize that there are those among us who suffer from chronic pain or fatigue. Lord, as we read the scriptures from Genesis to Revelation, the tone of the Bible, the final words of Scripture, call us to cry out, come, Lord Jesus, come quickly, or come and make all things right. And Father, even as now as we collect hides and offerings, we do so that your kingdom work might be done for your glory, not for our pride, and not for our institution, Lord. Even as we meet here this morning in a fellowship hall where our sanctuary is being renovated, we are mindful that the church is the people not the building. And we don't come for a program, but for a person, and that is Jesus Christ. Bless that which is given. Bless that which is kept back. And most of all, bless us in the giving. Amen. I invite you to stand with me. Bibles in hand, we're looking at the ninth chapter of Hebrews, we're reading verses 11 through 14. We just say that the premise for this message, how you might say, how is it related to discipleship? I think you'll be able to see that as we build on it, but a disciple has a relationship both first, primarily with God himself through Christ and then with others in the body. And as we discuss today how our conscience plays a role in that relationship, I think you'll see that it has dramatic effect on the type of disciple that we're called to be. Here then, God's Word, in the verse 11 of chapter nine. But when Christ appeared as a high priest to the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is not of this creation, he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bowls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. This is the Word of the Lord. Thank you for your time. Maybe see. The famous author, sir, famous author, sir Arthur Conan Doyle decided to pull a prank on 12 of his closest associates. And so he sent out a telegram to 12 of them saying, only this, flee at once all is discovered. Within 24 hours, all of the 12 had left the country. Now, lest you think that that kind of guilty conscience or marred conscience is only susceptible to the secular world or non-Christians, let me share another illustration with you. Jonathan Edwards was having a permeating with 800 men, that in itself would be news, I would think. 800 men had gathered together with him for prayer and he received a written note from the wife of one of those 800 men. And it said, please pray for my husband. He has been difficult, unloving, and prideful. Now, I'm not recommending this approach, but Jonathan Edwards decided to call out whoever it was and so he read the note and he asked if the man would please stand upon which 300 men immediately went to their feet. There are other issues at work here. Anyway, our conscience is a very interesting and sensitive thing. It's one that's meant to be under God's direction and persuasion at the point that we become believers. Our faith makes a difference in the way that our conscience should operate and impact itself. The Greek word for conscience, by the way, means to know with or to agree to. To know with or to agree to. And I think what that brings out, and the list it's in fact, is that our conscience, such as we can define it, is the conversation that so often is going on inside that no one else but the Lord is privy to, but we're almost having a conversation with ourselves, doesn't it seem like that sometimes? I've said it before from the pulpit, but it's true, we think in counseling. As in counseling, you receive more counseling from yourself than anybody else. Doesn't matter how many appointments you would set up with a professional counselor and amateur counselor, doesn't matter how many times you would go and sit in a circle of your friends or acquaintances. You're going to receive more counsel in conversation if you will from your conscience, then you will from any outside source. So it's important to have an understanding of what the conscience is influenced by and what we need to be influenced by as Christians. I guess my first point is, how is it that we can even talk about having a good conscience or a purified conscience, not a perfect conscience, mind you? But how can we even talk about having a good conscience? I think that's the first point that needs to be established. If you look, the author of Hebrews does a beautiful job in just this part of the passage of describing. Now again, he's writing to Jewish believers who understand the Old Testament, they understand the Old Purification system. They understand the struggles that people had with their sin before a Holy God with no real way to address it. And the sacrificial system was meant to be done out of obedience. It was largely ceremonial and symbolic. There was an obedience to going through and providing the sacrifices for purification and for forgiveness of sins. But everyone understood that it was obedience to those and there was no saving work. In another place, in the same chapter, in fact, I believe the author of Hebrews says that without the shedding of blood, there could be no forgiveness of sins. The people weren't ignorant of that. They simply had at that point no better way to come away with a sense of being cleansed of having a conscience that was unburdened from the guilt and the shame, whether they had put that on themselves or others because of their sin. But we'll look at this beautiful passage showing the perfect person of Christ and his perfect work as our high priest. Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come. He pushed aside the old sacrificial system. He went to the cross, it's the gospel. It's believing the gospel and it should have a major impact on our consciences as believers because of that fact. Christ went to the cross. He shed his own blood three things very quickly that could be summarized from this passage. Number one that you're forgiven. If you're a believer with faith in Christ, trusting Him alone and not your own good works, you first of all are forgiven. Christ has taken the penalty upon himself. Christ has paid it all, the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh and quickened by the Holy Spirit. You are forgiven and redeemed. And by repentance and faith, you are His. The penalty of death is taken away. Number one, secondly you are cleansed. You are not only forgiven from your sins but you are cleansed of your sins. It talks again about the blood of Christ, being shed on your behalf. The blood of bulls and goats could not suffice. Experts have estimated. It's almost an impossible number to estimate but from the time of Moses when the sacrificial system was placed in place until Christ coming over two million lambs were sacrificed on the days of atonement between Moses and Christ. Over two million lambs in a symbolic effort to bring cleansing, to bring freedom from the guilt and shame of our sin but only Christ, the once and for all Lamb of God and sacrifice could accomplish that very thing. So you have been purified by the shed but of Christ and we celebrate that again and again at the Lord's Supper. So you have been forgiven. You've been cleansed and you also have been clothed in Christ's righteousness. I'm told this, I don't know any Chinese but I'm told in the Chinese language and that's probably in itself a challenge because there are several dialects but just keep it on the simple level. In the Chinese language, the word for righteousness is a two-part word picture. It is a symbol of a lamb over the symbol of a human being, a person. Is that not the perfect description for righteousness when you consider the perfect Lamb of God and Him clothing us as believers with His righteousness through His shed blood and perfect sacrifice? What a beautiful imagery of righteousness that is so that when the Father as He will looks down He sees the Lamb before He sees us. He only sees us through the Lamb if He prefer. Colossians 3.3 says, for you have died and your life is hidden in Christ with God. So I guess my first point in summarizing the beautiful imagery of this passage of what Christ accomplished on the cross and by His perfect work and by being the perfect person, the second person of the Trinity is the gist of the gospel is that you are forgiven. You are cleansed and you are clothed in His righteousness and you look in faith to Him and Him alone. Well, secondly, then, that's what allows us to even consider having a conscience. As you see from the last part of the passage there in verse 14, we have been purified. All of this which Christ accomplished purifies our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. That's the thrust of the rest of this message. So what does a good conscience look like? Secondly, what does a good conscience then look like? It's a purified conscience. We can talk about it and I use those words interplaceably calling it a good conscience, but it's not a perfect conscience. As we all well know, we're not perfect in the way that our conscience operates apart from anything that we know this side of glory. But a person with a good conscience certainly must recognize that they are forgiven, they are cleansed and they are clothed in Christ's righteousness. There are three things that influence the Christian conference as you conscience as you look at the summary of scripture, not so much in this passage. There are three things that are brought out that are to have a major influence on our conscience and how it operates. It's not independent. It's not solely on itself. The first, of course, is God's Word. We know that. Second, Timothy 3, 16, and 17, among many passages that could be cited says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness that the man or woman of God may be fully equipped for good service. What it says right there is God's Word is to be an integral part of influencing, on a moment by moment, a daily basis, our conscience as we have relationship with him. As we have relationship with each other, the Word of God is, I like to use the word marinate, meditate works, but we're to marinate on God's Word. We're to put it in our heart, as Asama says. For I word have I put in my heart that I might not sin against thee. The word must be close to us because we recognize that our conscience is insufficient to carry the water. We don't carry the water of righteousness on our own. Our righteousness comes from Christ. It's borrowed. It's alien to us. And for our conscience, therefore, to be a good, purified conscience, and to be going in the right direction and guiding us spiritually in our walk of sanctification, we have to recognize that the Word of God must be a regular part. The times in my life when I have been dry as it has been, when I settling, I wasn't telling myself this out loud, when I suddenly realized that I wasn't spending the time marinating in God's Word, not just cursory reading through it, but really marinating on the Word of God to where it could be infused in me, so that when my conscience needed that divine direction and stimulation, the Spirit could take the Word and apply it to my heart by conviction, by affirmation, whatever that might need to look like in that given moment. And when I got away from the Word on a healthy basis and thought that it wouldn't make any difference, over time I could see and assess the difference and the Spirit would convict me about that and bring me back. Maybe you've experienced that too. I've already kind of given away the second element. In addition to God's Word being so important, and for another reference you have Hebrews 4, there were talks about the Word of God being as a sharp sword dividing soul and Spirit, but in addition to that, it's the fact that the Holy Spirit works in conjunction with the Word of God. It's not a separate either or the Spirit is powerfully working on us. Again, remember that the Spirit is primary in our sanctification, but the Spirit doesn't work in a vacuum-like thing. Sometimes the Spirit puts certain things on your heart, but primarily the Spirit takes the very Word of God or applications from the Word of God and puts it on a heart, in order that we might know the way that we should go. It changes the kind of disciple that we're gonna look like. It changes the way that we intermeaningfully into each other's life as disciples when we are involved in that kind of constant work on our conscience, it needs it. Those two are infallible. The Word and the Spirit are infallible resources that influence our conscience. There is a third important aspect to it, but I wanna say very quickly, it is not infallible, and that is Godly counsel from mature believers. The scriptures repeatedly call us to seek counsel from believers who have a maturity in the faith. They've demonstrated it may be by their lifestyle. They may have the position that dictates that too as an elder or perhaps a deacon, but not necessarily that. It's not always a position of office. It's more of a role that's been demonstrated by their lifestyle, by their modeling of their faith, by the way in which they have ministered to other people. You know who they are, and the scriptures repeatedly tell us to go and seek their counsel when we're wrestling with a matter of conscience, when we're struggling with direction or guidance. That is a very effective part of our sanctification as the body one to another. So those are the three prime elements, scripture reveals that are important in influencing our conscience to pursue after Godly things. And that's very, very important. Paul, again and again interestingly as mature as he was constantly talked about seeking to have a good conscience. Paul was very, very concerned about having a good conscience as he served these different churches as he went and proclaimed the gospel because he recognized that if his conscience was not properly being influenced by the word in the spirit or even by the counsel of say elders in the different churches, that he had incredible capacity to lead people astray. Or even to fall into to various influences that he himself, although his flesh might be attracted to, that he himself knew would be bad for the gospel, would be bad for the church, would be bad for his relationship with Christ. Our conscience itself doesn't normally take action, but it either affirms accuses us in almost every situation. It either affirms accuses us in the situations of life. And we either go in conformity or conflict to God's word as a believer oftentimes in that outcome. I mentioned to you already that our conscience cannot be trusted on itself. You know, again, we're constantly being sanctified, we're being influenced by the word in the spirit, by the counsel of Godly people, and that's a good thing. And I don't want us to be afraid of our conscience, but left to ourself, our conscience is not a good thing, given our fact that we're still sinners saved by grace. This side of glory, we are sinners saved by grace. We still have fleshly desires and struggles, and therefore we cannot take confidence in our conscience, left to its own resolve. Jiminy Cricket in that classic Disney movie said, let your conscience be your guide. Well, he didn't have the whole picture, I'm sorry to say, but Jiminy didn't get it all. I want to share with you just an example, because it's, I don't want it to sound like theory, and we all have had experiences like this, but just to see how something like this may be helpful as we are exposed and allow ourselves to be exposed, our conscience to the word and the spirit and to other believers' counsel. Many years ago, I was in a large church, and I was with my boss, and we had just finished dealing with some things. And I was really kind of almost on my way out the door, and he happened to bring up one other item of ministry business that I had agreed to do or had been assigned to do, I don't really remember. And he asked me if I had taken care of it yet, and for whatever strange reason, I told him I had, but I hadn't, but I told him that I'd taken care of it. And my office was a long way down that hall, it was a long hallway where our offices were, and by that response, and I'm grateful for this, it was made even longer. I'm walking down that hall, and I'm saying, why did I tell him that I had done that? Why did I tell him that I had taken care of that? I lied to my boss, and that wasn't the worst thing. I lied before the Lord. What does that say about my relationship? Yes, I know I'm a sinner, I didn't need to confirm that one more time, but I really struggled it, but I'm so grateful it's not always this immediate, as you know. Sometimes there are certain pernicious sins that we just don't want to let go of, or that we're willing to admit and come clean on, and it takes longer, and we're more immune to even the spirits making a sensitive to it and conviction, good conviction for our growth and for our benefit. But it was a long walk down that hall, because I was almost immediately convicted about it. And I don't remember exactly how long it wasn't a long period of time, but I had to walk back down that hall, and I had to interrupt my boss, or at least find out when I could find a time to go in and talk with him, and I had to go in and I had to ask his forgiveness. I had to tell him, I flat out lied to you, I hadn't taken care of that yet. I had every intention of, well that sounds good, doesn't it? I had every intention of doing it, but I had no excuse for telling him that I had done that when I hadn't. I lied to him and I asked his forgiveness. And as God often works in that, and facing up to it and having the courage to do that, it actually strengthened our relationship and our respect for one another. But I don't say that to pat myself on the bat because there have been plenty of those kind of occasions. I think that many of us can relate to that kind of thing. The important part is though, how is your conscience when that sort of thing happens? And it may not be saying an untruth, it may have been sliding somebody in any way or we sin or we grieve the Holy Spirit by what we do with one another, or what we do directly with our relationship to God. The real sign of repentance and a sensitive conscience is when we recognize that our sin, and we don't have time to go to it, but David in Psalm 51 does it very well. When we recognize that our sin primarily affects our relationship to God first and foremost, and that's what David realized. As egregious as his sin was, he recognized that the most precious thing that he was missing out on was that his relationship to God had been affected. Far more than he thought about even the implications of his own reputation. You know your conscience has been sensitized to the Holy Spirit when your relationship with God is the most important thing you're looking to recover rather than I've got to clean up my image, I've got to get a good PR campaign, I've got to get some good marketing going out there so that I can cover this atrocity up and everybody will still think highly of me or they'll think even better of me than I was. It's interesting how God can make our spirit sensitive those things, but can you see that it's God's desire for your growth? He has purified your conscience through the perfect and finished word of work of Christ, but in your ongoing sanctification as a disciple of his, interacting with other disciples of his, his desire is that your conscience would continue to be purified by the word and the spirit and by seeking God the counsel in the body to grow you more and more into Christ's likeness. It's a very, very powerful thing. You know, one of the things that it also helped with is it brings out other questions. Not only did I have to face going and confessing that I lied to my boss and it could have been something really significant, but it wasn't even that significant. That's the silly part about it, isn't it? So silly power about our sin when we want to cover it up, it doesn't matter how insignificant it may be or how significant it might be. We simply want to cast a dark shadow over it and cover it up. We don't want the light to expose it for what it is. And I had no reason not to simply say, you know, I'm working on it, but I haven't completed that task yet. So what also worked out in terms of my conscience before the Lord and my relationship with the Lord is, it caused me to raise other far more important questions than why did I say that untruth to my boss. It caused me to have to examine my heart. And again, is that not what the Lord wants for each of us who Christ has paid the ultimate price for. We belong to Him. He wants the best for us. It caused me to examine my heart and say, why do I think so little myself? Do I am I so concerned about my reputation before men? Did I feel the need to speak an untruth whether it happened in a church ministry or whether it happened down at the print shop? That really wasn't even the issue. Why did I feel so needful to have to give a false image to my boss of who I was or what I'd accomplished? Or how big a shoes I was feeling, that's where the real issue came down because that's a hard issue. And that's something that God says, as part of a growing conscience that I've purified in Christ, I want you to ask those questions and begin to find some answers. I don't want you to be content with staying where you are for the rest of your life on this earth, Chris. I want to see you grow in Christ's lightness. That's what it's all about for each one of us. So I had to ask some of those hard questions, why did I do that? What was I feeling needful in a certain sense? I was not believing the gospel. Chris, you've been forgiven. You've been cleansed. You've been clothed in Christ's righteousness. What more ultimately do you need to stand before me, much less to stand before man? So the question was what part of the gospel was I'm not believing at that time that I felt the need to go to my own ends to make it work. And of course it didn't work. But I'm so grateful for the conviction of the word and the spirit. It wasn't just the spirit of bringing those passages to bear that clearly exposed my sin for what it is. I hope that every one of you hungers for that and has experienced that, because that's what God wants for his children. What is the biggest obstacle then, as we begin to wrap all this up? What is the biggest obstacle? Well, again, because our conscience is not perfected the side of glory. We desperately, desperately need to preach the gospel to ourselves every day. Because otherwise we'll get away from it, we'll stop believing some aspect of it, and we'll start behaving as if we have a better answer. Our idols start to come to the surface. I wasn't believing the gospel in that situation. So I had to ask myself the questions of what I wasn't taking confidence in Christ's end. What voice was I believing more loudly than that? Paul says sometimes the marred conscience, or certainly the seared conscience, is an indicator of unbelief. What is the biggest challenge for our conscience? One is unbelief. If you're not a believer, then you don't have a purified conscience. You don't have the opportunity to really receive a good conscience and experience what that's about. You certainly can receive the conviction of the spirit. We don't come to Christ without the conviction of God's spirit about our sin to confess it into a pen of it. But for some, it's unbelief. Paul talks in 1 Timothy 1 about a couple of his co-workers who are no longer with him, and he says the reason being, apparently, even though they've made public professions of faith, is he says they've rejected a good conscience, and they have shipwrecked their faith. Paul is simply looking at the fruit of their lives and their unwillingness to allow their conscience to be subjected to the things that God brings to bear to bring real growth. And he says, I can only conclude at this point that they're not believers. Secondly, of course, and we are very aware of this one, Satan, who is the great accuser. There's a story about the devil meeting Martin Luther. There's a lot of these stories about Martin Luther. But the devil met Martin Luther and presented him with this incredible list of sins that Martin Luther had committed. Martin Luther took them from the devil, and he read through them, meticulously read through them, and when he got to the end of the list, he basically corrected Satan. He said, but you've missed a number of them, and he began to add them on to the end of the list. And then at the bottom of the list, he wrote 1 John 1, 7, which says, but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin. Martin Luther had a freedom of conscience that maybe many of us would even marvel at, because he did get to know his sin. He didn't just say, well, I've sinned today. Forgive me, Father, I've sinned and moved on. He looked very specifically at the nature of his sin, and he asked the hard questions by God's grace so that he could move on. So that, again, that's a made up story, but the accounts are legend of how Martin Luther was in touch with his sin. I mean, we know in the early goons when he was pursuing a relationship of grace with the Lord, and yet he didn't know where there was. He agonized, he would physically abuse himself. I'm not recommending any of that, by the way. But the point was, he took his relationship with God, so seriously, that he wanted to understand and know what his sin and his susceptibility was, so that he could move beyond that with the freedom that he knew Christ gave to him. Martin Luther preached the gospel to himself every day, and therefore he wasn't in bondage to a sin. Satan, as the accuser, is constantly reminding us as he has the opportunity of our sins. You know, in some of Satan's accusations are false, but others of them are absolutely true. That's the tough part. Some of what he's saying is it rings in our heads, is absolutely true of us. So how do we respond then? Do we begin living under a cloud of guilt and shame and do we become ineffective disciples? I can't enter meaningfully into, I'm sorry, Monty, I'm picking on you, you don't even know it. I can't enter meaningfully into Monty's life as a fellow disciple, because I got too much baggage. I got too much going on, I'm too big a mess. I can't do this. And so, Satan's words of accusation, some of which would even ring true, except for the fact that Christ has paid the ultimate penalty, and taken the penalty of my sins upon him, and cleansed me and clothed me in his righteousness, to where I don't have to be encumbered and shackled by my own sin any longer. I've been purified of conference, conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Now, if I take that to heart, I don't have to be in bondage to Satan's accusations. Not just because of clever replies from scripture that I've memorized, but because I understand and believe the real gospel lives and breathes in my life, breathes in your life as a Christian. So I can move meaningfully and yet into Monty's life, or in anybody's life as they give permission, and as we interact about the transparency and the reality of our own struggles and our own sin, but at the same time, we can encourage one another because the hope is in Christ. The hope is in the gospel. Paul says in Romans 5-5, we don't need to live in shame, but we live with the hope because the gospel is true. We live because what we read here in Hebrews 9 Christ did so powerfully to intervene into our lives that we are purified of conference, conscience, from dispensing our own dead works by our own effort or by the motives of our own heart. We don't do it purely or perfectly, but now we can serve the living God. That's what it means to be a disciple of Christ with a good conscience, I think, as we look at scripture. And it's very powerful because it frees us up to intermeaningfully into each other's lives. Not to be afraid to have light shed on our feet of clay that we all know we actually have, but we somehow put shoes on and posh them up and hope that no one will notice that we've got them. Christ gives us the freedom to begin to meaningfully do that with one another. That last phrase there as we close says that we have been purified in our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. That word serve in the Greek literally means complete total surrender. As a disciple of Christ with a relationship with him and a relationship with his body that's what we've been called to do in serving one another. Let us pray. Father, as we close, we are going to struggle at times with guilt and shame. Some of the guilt will be false and some of it's gonna be absolutely true and real. And we need to repent of it. But Lord, most of all, we need to have the gospel preached to us every day and we need to believe the gospel so that we do not become prisoners to our conscience listening to the accuser or to our own indictments or to the indictments of others. Lord, you have redeemed us from all that and it's not just talk. Father, as we come in closing in prayer, I would ask that each one of us would consider a question in light of the gospel in light of this testimony of Christ's perfect person and accomplishment. What would each of our lives look like as believers? What would each of our lives look like if we knew for certain that all our sins were forgiven?
How would we treat our family members differently if we really believed the gospel in that regard that we're truly forgiven and freed? How would we relate to one another differently in the body? Lord, help us to work through these questions, help us to get those answers as we see the application for our own lives as disciples of yours, amen? Let's stand for the benediction and now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with each of us both now and forever, amen. Behold him there, the risen Lamb, my perfect sportness, righteousness, the great unchangeable, the king of glory. Please, if you're a community mayor, please stay for the Congational Meeting immediately.