Psalms 91:1-5 KJV He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. (2) I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. (3) Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. (4) He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. (5) Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
THE SECRET PLACE is the MOST HOLY PLACE.
Tonight we are going to study the meaning of being in the Most Holy Place.
Hebrews 9:12 KJV Neither by
the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once
into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
And Hebrews says we enter this holiest by that same blood also. Hebrews 10:19 KJV Having
therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of
Jesus,
This means there is an something about the blood of Jesus that we require in order to enter into the most holy place where God, Himself, is.
And this most holy place is a place where we have full confidence In the Old Testament, the common Israelite watched the blood as it was sprinkled on the altar and they trusted in it for their forgiveness. Exodus 29:15-16 KJV Thou
shalt also take one ram; and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands
upon the head of the ram. (16) And thou shalt slay the ram,
and thou shalt take his blood, and sprinkle it round about upon the
altar.
But the priests who actually worked for God and ministered to others had that blood sprinkled directly on them. Exodus 29:19-20 KJV And thou
shalt take the other ram; and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands
upon the head of the ram. (20) Then shalt thou kill the
ram, and take of his blood, and put it upon the tip of the right ear of
Aaron, and upon the tip of the right ear of his sons, and upon the
thumb of their right hand, and upon the great toe of their right foot,
and sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about.
Many Christians are outer court Christians who only know the blood shed on the cross and they have trusted in it for their forgiveness.
The sprinkling of the blood gives us ACCESS TO GOD.
Hebrews 9:13-14 KJV 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:
(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?
Verse 13 refers to the cleansing of one defiled by a dead body through the ashes of the red heifer.
People who are involved in DEAD WORKS are people who are trying to worship and do a work for God without any LIFE OF THE SPIRIT in it.
Your conscience may be evil and incorrect.
If you trusted in Jesus' sacrifice, then you were made complete.
Hebrews 10:1-2 KJV 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. (2) For
then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the
worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
We act sometimes as though Christ's sacrifice was no better than sacrifice under law.
Hebrews 10:11-14 KJV And
every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the
same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: (12) But
this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat
down on the right hand of God; (13) From henceforth
expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. (14) For
by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
Jesus' sacrifice was done once and perfected us! Who said, "I'm not perfect, just forgiven"?
When people brought animals for sacrifice year after year, that means the offering that was made could not perfect them.
So what is the problem with Christians if THEY DO have a conscience of sins, and yet Christ's sacrifice they believed in perfects us?
Heb 1:2 ...worshippers once purged
should have had no more conscience of sins.
2Peter 1:9 But he that
lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath
forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
What is worse than forgetting you were purged is NEVER HAVING KNOWN you were purged. Hebrews 10:3-4 But in those
sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take
away sins.
At this point I want to differentiate between the two words CONSCIENCE and CONSCIOUS, since they do not mean the same thing but are connected together, and since some people mix them up. A CONSCIENCE is what tells you that something is good or evil, including yourself being a good person or a bad person. CONSCIOUS is being aware.
When people have an evil CONSCIENCE, it causes them to be sin-CONSCIOUS.
Acts 23:1 KJV And Paul,
earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived
in all good conscience before God until this day.
Paul sincerely felt he was serving God by slaying Christians!
What is the impression that church leaves you with all the time?
When someone claims to be a Christian, are you immediately questioning how how true that is by the way they dress?
When you hear the word holiness, if you think of dressing a certain way, you are too sin-conscious.
We refrain from certain things, sure!
Sin-consciousness makes you overly criticial of everyone. We need to be LIFE-CONSCIOUS!
Hebrews 10:5-10 KJV
Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and
offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
(6) In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no
pleasure. (7) Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the
book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. (8) Above
when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering
for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are
offered by the law; (9) Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy
will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the
second. (10) By the which will we are sanctified through
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
To see some Christians and how they feel, you would think Jesus' sacrifice did no more than the animal sacrifices.
The true Christian conscience is one that understands that, and has been taught about it, and knows they are so cleasned by the blood of Jesus, that they can boldly enter and stand before God! This position of boldness and opening yourself up for God to use you, because you know THE CROSS MADE YOU WORTHY, is what it is to live in the holiest of holies. Psalms 91:1-3 KJV He that
dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the
shadow of the Almighty. (2) I will say of the LORD, He is
my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. (3)
Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the
noisome pestilence.
SURELY he shall deliver!
They do not look to themselves for support, but GOD IS THEIR FORTRESS.
An evil conscience makes you think you are no-good even after the blood of Jesus washed away your sins. Preachers need to be LIFE-CONSCIOUS.
People who hear a sin-conscious preacher walk away beaten down and condemned. People who hear a life-conscious preacher walk away encouraged to believe God after having tried on their own and failed. Hebrews 10:15-17 Whereof the Holy
Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This
is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the
Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I
write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
THIS IS SPRINKLING THE HEART:
He quoted Jeremiah 31:33-34. * That covenant is the one we now have. Now let's read Paul's remarks. Hebrews 10:18 Now where remission of these [is, there is] no more offering for sin. When Jeremiah prophesied that God would forget our iniquities through some new covenant, God implied that THERE IS NO MORE OFFERING FOR SIN. Jeremiah said, "THEIR SINS AND INIQUITIES WILL I REMEMBER NO MORE"
SYMPTOMS OF AN EVIL CONSCIENCE. * YOU FEEL DOWN ON YOURSELF. * YOU LOOK IN THE MIRROR AND THINK, "LOSER". * YOU LOOK AT YOURSELF AND THINK, "WHAT A DEFEATED EXCUSE FOR A CHRISTIAN". Colossians 2:20-3:4 MSG (20) So, then, if with Christ you've put all that pretentious and infantile religion behind you, why do you let yourselves be bullied by it? (21) "Don't touch this! Don't taste that! Don't go near this!" (22) Do you think things that are here today and gone tomorrow are worth that kind of attention? (23) Such things sound impressive if said in a deep enough voice. They even give the illusion of being pious and humble and ascetic. But they're just another way of showing off, making yourselves look important. (3:1) So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. (2) Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ--that's where the action is. See things from his perspective. (3) Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life--even though invisible to spectators--is with Christ in God. He is your life. (4) When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you'll show up, too--the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ. Notice that living in the world and acting like the world is something that is not supposed to be true of us any more.
Colossians 3:12-17 MSG So,
chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God
picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength,
discipline. (13) Be even-tempered, content with second
place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely
as the Master forgave you. (14) And regardless of what else
you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be
without it. (15) Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune
with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and
doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. (16) Let
the Word of Christ--the Message--have the run of the house. Give it
plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using
good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God!
(17) Let every detail in your lives--words, actions, whatever--be
done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every
step of the way.
Look at the references to faulty consciences: 1Corinthians 8:7 Howbeit
there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of
the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and
their conscience being weak is defiled.
1Corinthians 10:29 Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the other: for why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience? It's not true that one person's conscience will convict another person of the same thing, as though all convictions in our consciences are of God. 1 Corinthians 8:4-12 MSG
(4) Some people say, quite rightly, that idols have no actual
existence, that there's nothing to them, that there is no God other
than our one God, (5) that no matter how many of these
so-called gods are named and worshiped they still don't add up to
anything but a tall story. (6) They say--again, quite
rightly--that there is only one God the Father, that everything comes
from him, and that he wants us to live for him. Also, they say that
there is only one Master--Jesus the Messiah--and that everything is for
his sake, including us. Yes. It's true. (7) In strict
logic, then, nothing happened to the meat when it was offered up to an
idol. It's just like any other meat. I know that, and you know that.
But knowing isn't everything. If it becomes everything, some people end
up as know-it-alls who treat others as know-nothings. Real knowledge
isn't that insensitive. We need to be sensitive to the fact that we're
not all at the same level of understanding in this. Some of you have
spent your entire lives eating "idol meat," and are sure that there's
something bad in the meat that then becomes something bad inside of
you. An imagination and conscience shaped under those conditions isn't
going to change overnight. (8) But fortunately God doesn't
grade us on our diet. We're neither commended when we clean our plate
nor reprimanded when we just can't stomach it. (9) But God
does care when you use your freedom carelessly in a way that leads a
Christian still vulnerable to those old associations to be thrown off
track. (10) For instance, say you flaunt your freedom by
going to a banquet thrown in honor of idols, where the main course is
meat sacrificed to idols. Isn't there great danger if someone still
struggling over this issue, someone who looks up to you as
knowledgeable and mature, sees you go into that banquet? The danger is
that he will become terribly confused--maybe even to the point of
getting mixed up himself in what his conscience tells him is
wrong. (11) Christ gave up his life for that person.
Wouldn't you at least be willing to give up going to dinner for
him--because, as you say, it doesn't really make any difference? But it
does make a difference if you hurt your friend terribly, risking his
eternal ruin! (12) When you hurt your friend, you hurt
Christ. A free meal here and there isn't worth it at the cost of even
one of these "weak ones."
Your conscience may convict you of something God never convicted you of.
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