The Only Conscience-Cleanser

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. (Hebrews 9:14)

Here we are in the modern age — the age of the Internet, smartphones, space travel, and heart transplants — and our problem is fundamentally the same as always: Our consciences condemn us and make us feel unacceptable to God. We are alienated from God. And our consciences bear witness.

We can cut ourselves, or throw our children in the sacred river, or give a million dollars to charity, or serve in a soup kitchen, or a hundred forms of penance or self-injury, and the result will be the same: The stain remains and death terrifies.

We know that our conscience is defiled — not with external things like touching a corpse, a dirty diaper, or a piece of pork. Jesus said it is what comes out of a man that defiles, not what goes in (Mark 7:15–23). We are defiled by attitudes like pride and self-pity and bitterness and lust and envy and jealousy and covetousness and apathy and fear.

The only answer in this modern age, as in every other age, is the blood of Christ. When your conscience rises up and condemns you, where will you turn? Hebrews 9:14 gives you the answer: “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.”

The answer is: Turn to the blood of Christ. Turn to the only cleansing agent in the universe that can give you relief in life, and peace in death.

John Piper 

Bible Study

1 Peter 4:2

[2] so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.

Romans 6:13-14

[13] Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. [14] For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Hebrews 10:23

[23] Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

Hebrews 9:12

[12] 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.

Lost Cause

You need to be saved from yourself.

You constantly battle in your soul. 

You are told over and over you are a lost cause.

You drink too much.

You cuss too much. 

You do drugs.

Your lifestyle is atrocious.

You are trapped in deep dark despair.

You are told you are broken beyond repair.

I'm here to tell You Christ rescues every soul who He calls.

There is no vice too bad from which He can't deliver.

Heed His call for sweet salvation. 

There must be repentance.

Romans 5:8

[8] but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Colossians 1:16-20

[16] For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. [17] And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. [18] And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. [19] For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, [20] and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Hebrews 9:22

[22] Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

Colossians 2:14

[14] by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

How to Protect Your Family

PRAY OVER THIS

“Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows; for so He gives His beloved sleep.”

(Psalm 127:1-2)

 

PONDER THIS

Imagine you are at the pool and there is a beach ball in the water. You could keep it under the water as long as you sit on it. But suddenly it pops up to the surface again. Even if you have two or three people trying to keep it under, you can only hold it down so long before it comes back up. That’s the way people often fight sin. They say, “I’m not going to do this anymore. I don’t like this. I’m against it.” And they put it down in their minds, but then it just comes to the surface again. And they are fighting a hopeless battle.

Let me tell you one way to keep that ball sunk. Let the air out of it. You need to let the air out of Satan’s lies too. One way is to remove temptations. This is also a way to help others avoid sin. Ultimately there is absolutely nothing you can do to keep your kids from sin because God gave them a will. But I’ll tell you one thing I don’t want to do: I don’t want to build a home that is dangerous for children. If they want to climb over the wall and jump off, that will break my heart. But I don’t want to have the kind of home where they fall accidentally because I have not removed the temptations from that home. Do you understand what I am saying? You need to at least build the wall.

What are some boundaries against temptation you have in your home? How are they beneficial to you and your family?

What are some sin struggles that keep popping back up in your life? What are some lies from Satan you need to “let the air out of”?

PRACTICE THIS

Pray and consider what sin struggles repeatedly arise in your life. Repent and surrender them to God.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Root of Ingratitude

Although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Romans 1:21)

When gratitude springs up in the human heart toward God, he is magnified as the wealthy source of our blessing. He is acknowledged as giver and benefactor and therefore as glorious.

But when gratitude does not spring up in our hearts at God’s great goodness to us, it probably means that we don’t want to pay him a compliment; we don’t want to magnify him as our benefactor.

And there is a very good reason that human beings by nature do not want to magnify God with thanksgiving or glorify him as their benefactor. The reason is that it detracts from our own glory, and all people by nature love their own glory more than the glory of God.

At the root of all ingratitude is the love of one’s own greatness. For genuine gratitude admits that we are beneficiaries of an unearned bequest. We are cripples leaning on the cross-shaped crutch of Jesus Christ. We are paralytics living minute by minute in the iron lung of God’s mercy. We are children asleep in heaven’s stroller.

The natural person, apart from saving grace, hates to think of himself in these images: unworthy beneficiary, cripple, paralytic, child. They rob him of his glory by giving it all to God.

Therefore, while a man loves his own glory, and prizes his self-sufficiency, and hates to think of himself as sin-sick and helpless, he will never feel genuine gratitude to the true God and so will never magnify God as he ought, but only himself.

Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17).

Jesus did not come to minister to those who insist they are well. He demands something great: that we admit we are not great. This is bad news to the arrogant, but words of honey to those who have given up their charade of self-sufficiency and are seeking God.

John Piper 

Bible Study

Ephesians 4:17-20

The New Life

[17] Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. [18] They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. [19] They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. [20] But that is not the way you learned Christ!—

2 Kings 17:15-18

[15] They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the LORD had commanded them that they should not do like them. [16] And they abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made for themselves metal images of two calves; and they made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal. [17] And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger. [18] Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. None was left but the tribe of Judah only.

Jeremiah 2:5-9

[5] Thus says the LORD: 

    “What wrong did your fathers find in me

        that they went far from me,

    and went after worthlessness, and became worthless? 

    [6] They did not say, ‘Where is the LORD

        who brought us up from the land of Egypt,

    who led us in the wilderness,

        in a land of deserts and pits,

    in a land of drought and deep darkness,

        in a land that none passes through,

        where no man dwells?’ 

    [7] And I brought you into a plentiful land

        to enjoy its fruits and its good things.

    But when you came in, you defiled my land

        and made my heritage an abomination. 

    [8] The priests did not say, ‘Where is the LORD?’

        Those who handle the law did not know me;

    the shepherds transgressed against me;

        the prophets prophesied by Baal

        and went after things that do not profit.

    [9] “Therefore I still contend with you,

    declares the LORD,

        and with your children’s children I will contend.

Ephesians 2:12-13

[12] remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. [13] But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

How Can You Teach Children to Discern Truth?

PRAY OVER THIS

“Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” James 3:13–18

 

PONDER THIS

If a dog has a nasty bone in his mouth and you try to take it away from him, you might get bitten. But if you put a steak on the ground and the dog sees the steak, he’ll drop the bone to get the steak. That dog discerns. He looks: Here’s the bone, there’s the steak. There’s a discernment. He thinks, “That is better than this.” Then there’s a choice. He says, “I want the steak. I choose the steak.” Then he refuses the bone.

You’re going to have to spend some time with your children helping them understand what the values of life are. I would not trade anything for fellowship with God. The ability to have a godly family is valuable and precious. Don’t let them sacrifice these things. Lead them to Christ. Help them to see through Satan’s lies. All of their sin struggles are based on a lie. The lie is that this is somehow good, tantalizing, titillating, that it will somehow satisfy. It is all a lie. Satan is a liar. Show your children the One who is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

Who has taught you the most about discernment? How has that impacted you?

How do you seek to communicate the value of Christ to those around you?

PRACTICE THIS

Share with another person how precious and valuable Jesus is to you.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers