ASTRONOMICAL GRACE
PART 5
THE POWER OF A GOOD CONSCIENCE
For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a (red) heifer sprinkling those who have been
defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ , who
through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from
dead works to serve the living God?
Hebrews 9:13-14
(see Numbers 19:9)
1. The power of your conscience
"Conscience" = To be one's own witness
A knowing of oneself
Measuring one's own moral standing.
The Bible speaks of a defiled/weak/good conscience
Psychologists speak of cognitive dissonance.
A conflict between belief and behaviour.
The resolution of the conflict occurs when belief and behaviour line up.
Dictionary of Psychology
"I loved what I was learning-but I couldn't make it stay in my head. It was already too different
from what I had learned so my brain kept switching to default mode"
A Christian student
The default mode is condemnation!
Beloved if our heart does not condemn us we have confidence before God. 1 John 3:21
All to often there is a difference between what we think/feel and what we do?
GRACE DEALS EVEN WITH THIS PROBLEM.
1. It's receiving not achieving.
Series key verse- much more those who receive the abundance of grace....Romans 5:17
World built upon the twin towers of self effort and diligence.
Grace built upon NOTHING we can do.
The work has been finished....
But this man after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of
God..For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
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Hebrews 10:12-14
There wasn't even a chair in the tabernacle-the priest could never sit down!
Also we readBut God who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we
were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ , and made us sit together in the
heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:4-6
2. Perfected for ever.
This is what we read in Hebrews 10:12-14
Consider how the Bible refers to sin as the law of sin and death. (Romans 8)
When our conscience is troubled it dabbles with all kinds of dead things
-Low self esteem
-insecurity
-Pitch fork christianity
-meritocracy.
Look at this weeks text-which talks about the red heifer-the details of which are found in Numbers
19:9
Death is considered unclean-you couldn't touch anything or anyone dead.
If you did there had to be a sin offering.
They took the ashes of a red heifer/hyssop/scarlet thread and made an ashy water which was
permanently available.
This cleansed you from death and dead things.
Compare the similarities between it and Christ.
3. Inform your conscience
Remember what John said-grace was married to truth!
We shall know by this that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him, in whatever
our hearts condemns us; For God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.
1 John 3:19-20
But to me it is a very small thing to be examined by you , or any human court, In fact I do not even
examine myself.
1 Corinthians 4:3
You can keep going to the ashy water!
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