Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright.
His blood has been sprinkled upon the throne of grace so that every single believer can know you can come into the presence of God because the blood of Jesus and therefore the blood of Jesus has cleansed your conscience. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series, Belonging to God, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer.
Contact us at PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.
Here is Alan Wright. The conscience of a whole culture has become seared. Another way that you can deal with the conscience is instead of searing the conscience by saying, well, that's just not even wrong, is that you say, yeah, I feel bad about it, and so I've got to do something about it.
And religiously speaking, what this leads to is what the writer of Hebrews calls dead works. There's something wrong with me. I don't belong in the presence of God. I'm too unholy, so I must do something to make myself more holy so that I can be in the presence of God. And it doesn't matter what it is that you try to do.
It's a dead work. It might be a good thing to do. It could be a very good thing to do. There are a lot of good things to do. The saving of your money, praying, being in the Word, fasting, fellowshipping with others, being faithful to be in church.
All of these things, wonderful things, wonderful things. But if you're doing them to try to soothe your conscience, they're just dead works. So there's only one other way that you can deal with a conscience, and that is to actually have the blood of Jesus cleanse it.
It's so important to have your conscience cleansed, because otherwise you will disqualify yourself from being in the presence of God, and you will disqualify yourself from the destiny that God has given you. We were driving in Salt Lake City in a 15 passenger van. Our host was driving down what's called the Legacy Freeway. And it was nighttime. And it was such a funny sight because they had a big, big sign up.
I've never seen this before. And it had a big illuminated warning sign. You know one of those red circles with a slash, the Ghostbuster sign? You know it was saying, no, none of this. And yet that was really bright, but whatever it was telling us no to was not bright enough to see. Somebody said, what are we not supposed to be doing?
And then some mission team member just quipped, said, all it's saying is you're doing something wrong, but we're not going to tell you. A lot of people feel that way. You know it's like I'm doing something wrong.
I don't really know what it is, and I don't know how to fix it, but I see that big red warning sign. It's a horrible way to live. That's a living with the life of a conscience that has not been cleansed by the blood of Jesus. Several weeks ago I used the illustration of the odd feeling that you have if you've been like I have and you're at a sports arena and you are sitting in your bad seat that you bought for $10 and you look down there and the $100 seat is available because the people haven't shown up and moving down to the good seat. And yet you sit there and you're kind of wondering, is somebody going to tap me on the shoulder and say, hey, this is my seat. And so it's hard to get comfortable in that seat to fully enjoy your 50 yard line seat.
And so there's only one real way to totally fully enjoy a beautiful 50 yard line seat and that is if somebody has actually purchased that ticket and you have the ticket and then it's your seat. Then the matter is to feel comfortable being in the seat that is really your seat. Because have you ever had it where you actually have a ticket or you actually had the invitation or you actually were the one who had been assigned the position and yet something within you didn't feel comfortable. You felt like I'm an imposter. I feel that way a little bit when I sit in the really good seat because I normally sit in the bad seat and so when I'm in the good seat even if I got a ticket for it, I'm a little bit uncomfortable in that good seat even though it's mine.
So you're battling your conscience because your conscience is not aligned with the proper truth. Hey, I've got a seat and I'm here in good standing. See, I'm comfortable now preaching almost any place in the world, really am, but it didn't start that way. I started in youth ministry. I was comfortable speaking to my youth group. I preached once in the small start-up church, but then when I was in my second year of seminary, I interned at historic First Presbyterian Church Atlanta and I served under one of the greatest preachers in the country at that time.
In fact, in the whole era of his time, Paul Eccle, he was a prince of preachers and I loved him and there came an opportunity where I as a young seminarian was given the privilege of preaching in the pulpit of First Presbyterian Church Atlanta. And I remember stepping into that pulpit and going, what am I doing here? And I'm looking out at men and women who have been Christians much longer than I'd been alive and people that knew the Bible better than I did and I'm like, how am I going to preach? There's an accusing voice.
Do you see what I'm saying? There is an accusation that is coming against me, look at you, you don't deserve to preach the gospel. And so what did I do? I just read my scripture and I started preaching my sermon. And you know what happened when I started preaching my sermon? The anointing of the Holy Spirit came upon me, just like the Holy Spirit's upon me even as I preach right now and I got lost in it and I forgot where I was and I didn't think about that anymore.
What happened? My conscience got aligned with a different truth. At first my conscience was being aligned with a natural mind that was saying look at you, in the flesh you don't even deserve to be here, but once I started preaching the Holy Spirit came and anointed the truth to me. That though you're young, though you're inexperienced, though you've never preached in a context like this, you're my servant in this moment and I'm blessing the word that's coming out of your mouth, it is anointed of the Holy Spirit and so my conscience became clear. And how can you preach the gospel if part of your conscience is nagging you the whole time saying you don't belong here, you ought to sit down.
Hello? How can you come into the presence of God if your conscience is saying look at all the sin in your life, you don't belong here, you don't have the cleanliness to be here. That's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. I don't want to pressure my kids and I sure don't want to shame them, but I do want them to try hard and be all they can be.
That's the desire of every well-meaning parent. For over a decade Alan Wright has been teaching all over the nation about the toxic effects of shame and the amazing power of the gospel of grace to heal and set free. Now for the first time Alan has been joined by his wife Ann to produce a video series about shame-free parenting. It's called Good News for Parents, Raising Grace-Filled Kids in a Pressure-Filled World. The eight DVD video sessions are chock full of humor, deep gospel insight and loads of practical advice.
Use them for personal growth or with your spouse and they're also perfect for use in your small group. The DVD album comes with a detailed step-by-step study guide as well. When you make your gift this month, we'll send you the DVD album as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Make your gift today and start raising kids by the power of the gospel. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.
That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues.
Here once again is Alan Wright. See, the Hebrew people had all of these ceremonial laws that were designed to help those that were called ceremonially unclean to then become clean. We don't have time to go back and look at all of these laws, but in ancient Israel, there was the clean and there was the unclean. If you touched a dead body, you were unclean. If you had an infectious skin disease, you were unclean. Now many of these cleanliness laws actually served Israel well because in an ancient time where nobody had any inkling of bacteria or how disease was actually spread, the Israelites had these weird quarantine laws wherein they were actually protecting their nation from infectious disease and didn't know it. Ceremonial hand washing laws and ceremonial bathing laws in a world in which people had no concept, no concept whatsoever that dirty hands and you put them in your mouth could lead you into horrible disease.
No concept of that. And yet they just followed these laws. Now some of the laws you'd say, well, I don't see any rhyme or reason to it. The animals that they could eat that were clean and the animals that they wouldn't eat were called unclean. And so the scavenger animals and birds like a vulture that just eats dead things, they weren't supposed to eat those. Again, much of this is something we look at now and go, wow, how could they get a revelation about something like that?
Because they're eating probably healthier foods. But on the whole, the bigger purpose of the designation of the clean and the unclean was God was saying I am holy, I am clean, and only that which is holy and clean can come into my presence. And all of this was typified in the tabernacle. Now if we were to take time and read Hebrews 9 starting at verse 1 before we came to our text today, what you would see there is the description of the tabernacle. The tabernacle was a portable tent of meeting and they would set it up in the camp and it had a big fence around it and that fence had one gate, one narrow entrance. There was only one way in.
All of this becomes a symbol that is fulfilled in Christ. And inside of that tent only the Israelite, one of God's own people was allowed. Unbelievers are not even allowed in. So you come in through one gate and only the believers are allowed in. The only place that you could minister in the things of God though was once you went inside the tent. So outside of the tent in the courtyard there was a brazen altar and there you could offer sacrifices that would be gestures of payment for your sin temporarily covering your sin and a big laver or a wash basin in which ceremonial washings could take place.
And so the Israelites could come in and they could come into this area and bring their sacrifices. But inside the tent there were two sections, the holy place and the holy of holies. And in the holy place there were three primary pieces of furniture there, a table that had 12 loaves of bread stacked called the table of the bread of the presence or the showbread that this bread was always in the presence of the Lord.
And there was a candelabra that was made of gold and would burn always bringing illumination inside this dark tent. And then there was a table of incense and at the altar of incense there would always be incense rising up like prayer and worship to the Lord. Then there was a thick veil four inches thick woven together with beautiful cords and fabrics of crimson and blues and purples and that veil concealed the next chamber which was called the holy of holies or the holiest place of all. And in there was one piece of furniture the Ark of the Covenant and it had a lid of solid gold with solid gold cherubim facing one another and on that lid there one day a year the high priest would enter and would sprinkle blood of a sacrificed animal on behalf of himself and on behalf of all the people. And there on that lid that was called the mercy seat God's manifest presence was palpable.
It was the glory of God that would rest upon it so that lid, that place in between those cherubim was known therefore as the mercy seat and it is what Paul calls the throne of grace. So what happened is that the Hebrew people had been conditioned for year upon year upon year there's the clean and there's the unclean and there's the holy and the unholy and there are levels to the holiness and you can't come in the outer court unless you are chosen of God you can't go into the holy place unless you're a priest of God and you can't go into the holy of holies unless you're a high priest and then only once a year. So they understood you can't come into the presence of God if you are not the high priest who is utterly consecrated and utterly clean through ceremonial washings and ceremonial sprinklings.
This is what they're conditioned with. So imagine if this author Crowley said he had a hard time just after living in Southeast Asia coming back to America and stepping over somebody's legs in the living room how much harder would it be for the gospel to be proclaimed to a person who was steeped in Judaism and now all of a sudden they're saying the veil has been torn asunder and you are welcomed into the presence of God can you see how the Hebrew believers mind is going you don't understand I'm not clean enough for that and that's why the writer of Hebrews says the blood of Jesus cleanses the conscience. Watchman Nee has written much about the conscience and he says it succinctly and powerfully when conscience is unclear one's approach to God becomes forced and is not true because he cannot fully believe that God is for him and has nothing against him. The Christian must not have the slightest accusation in his conscience. He must be assured that his every sin is entirely atoned by the blood of the Lord and that now there is no charge against him. You see God wants you Christians to not only know that you're forgiven but for you to know that you're clean. In God's eyes you have been washed by the atoning blood of the Lord Jesus.
It paid the debt that you owed so you no longer owe a debt and it did something else. The blood of Jesus was an ample sacrifice wherein you now figuratively, mystically, spiritually have been sprinkled with the blood of Jesus so that you have been like the high priest was of old authorized by the blood of a heifer to go into the holy of holies. You now in the spirit have been authorized by the blood of the Lord Jesus to come into the holy, holy, holy presence of God.
Let us draw near with full assurance of our hearts. Let us draw near to the throne of grace in our time of need because our consciences have been cleansed by the blood of the Lord Jesus. All of this is wonderfully summed in what is one of the most marvelous verses in the entire Bible. John chapter 1 verse 14 in which in the prologue to John the apostle says the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we've seen his glory. And the word for dwelt among us literally means pitched his tent. It is he tabernacled.
Do you see what John was saying? He is saying that everything you see in the ancient Israelite tabernacle the tent of meeting has now found its yes and amen in Jesus Christ. He is the tent of meeting. He is the one gate by which you come in. He is the lamb that's been offered on the brazen altar. He is the laver, the place where you are washed and allowed into the holy place. He is the golden lampstand, the light of the world. He is the showbread for he said I am the bread of life.
The true manna has come down from heaven. He is the altar of incense for he is the intercessor always letting his intercession for all the saints be rising up into the Father's own nostrils. He is the thick veil who was crucified and as his own flesh was pierced the veil literally in the temple was torn asunder and now by his own flesh we come into the holy of holies where he himself, his blood has been sprinkled upon the throne of grace so that every single believer can know you can come into the presence of God because the blood of Jesus and therefore the blood of Jesus has cleansed your conscience. It means therefore that no matter what you're doing believers the blood of Jesus is your answer. When you're praying for somebody and your faith starts feeling small and you go who am I to pray for such a mighty miracle you need to remember the blood of Jesus. You are every bit as much qualified to pray for a miracle in somebody's life as any saint has ever walked this earth.
You are every bit as qualified to be in the presence of God as any high priest and more so ever was in ancient times. It means that when you have done wrong and you bring yourself before God and something within you says I need to shrink back you need to remember the blood of Jesus. And when God gives you an assignment and it seems too big, it seems too good and it seems like it should have been reserved for somebody else I want you to remember the blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus cleanses the conscience so that you can say hey I got a ticket in good standing for this seat so I'm going to enjoy it.
What I'm saying is go ahead glorify God and enjoy him forever because the blood of Jesus has washed you clean and that's the gospel. Alan Wright In today's teaching wash clean in the series belonging to God. Alan is back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life and today's final word. I don't want to pressure my kids and I sure don't want to shame them but I do want them to try hard and be all they can be.
That's the desire of every well-meaning parent. For over a decade Alan Wright has been teaching all over the nation about the toxic effects of shame and the amazing power of the gospel of grace to heal and set free. Now for the first time Alan has been joined by his wife Ann to produce a video series about shame-free parenting. It's called Good News for Parents, Raising Grace-Filled Kids in a Pressure-Filled World. The eight DVD video sessions are chock full of humor, deep gospel insight and loads of practical advice.
Use them for personal growth or with your spouse and they're also perfect for use in your small group. The DVD album comes with a detailed step-by-step study guide as well. When you make your gift this month we'll send you the DVD album as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Make your gift today and start raising kids by the power of the gospel. Call us at 877-544-4860.
That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website PastorAlan.org. Alan, I wonder, oftentimes we'll say it's a battle of my mind and I can sit and I can hear a sermon like this and I can hear teaching and say yes, I've been washed clean. But then my mind will wonder and I know the evil thoughts I have and I think, well, how can I be clean if I'm still thinking this?
How can I be holy when I still think this? Well, you say it's maybe not so much a battle of the mind, maybe it's a battle of the enemy. Well, it is a spiritual battle and I think this is one of the main battlegrounds.
It takes place in the mind about how we think about things because Satan literally means accuser. So much of the spiritual battle is that all the promises of God, which the scriptures say are yes and amen in Christ, we begin to doubt whether they can be real for us because we feel as though we've disqualified ourselves. And at any point in your Christian life, if you feel like, well, yeah, but Pastor, you don't know about what's going on in my life and you don't know the thoughts I've had and you don't know the things I've done and therefore I can't have a clean conscience, then what you're saying is that you must do something to add to the finished work of Jesus. There is no other way around it really, is there, Daniel?
And I think that's the key. And for me, coming to realize that I've got to accept the finished work of Jesus on the cross or not, but don't add to it by thinking that me and my efforts are going to somehow add to it. Well, all this is to say God wants you to have a clear conscience. And by that, it means that when you sin, you're able to quickly just bring that to the Lord, know that you're forgiven, but you don't have this nagging sense that therefore something about me is flawed and disqualified. Know the blood of Jesus has covered it and washed you clean. You're clean, you're clean, you're clean. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.
