Washed Clean [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. 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. Giving 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. 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.

877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But now let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. Are you ready for some good news? As a Christian, you're not just forgiven, you're clean. I want to talk to you about how the blood of Jesus cleanses the conscience so that you could become totally free in the presence of the Lord. How the blood of Jesus cleanses the conscience. We're going to read two scriptures in Hebrews, which if you're newer to your Bible, can it first seem like it's a complex book.

And in fact, today's message is sort of thick in its richness. But in every place of your walk with Christ, you're going to be able to connect in with this. Hebrews chapter 9, and then a passage also in Hebrews 10. Hebrews chapter 9, verse 11. When Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, speaking there of the tent of meeting or the tabernacle, which we're going to look at a little bit later on.

Not made with hands, that is not of this creation. He entered once for all into the holy places. Now he's speaking here figuratively. He's not talking about Jesus literally going into the tabernacle. He's talking about in the heavenlies, figuratively. So what we'll see today is the tent of meeting or the tabernacle that was a physical structure in ancient Israel was actually a symbol foreshadowing this spiritual reality that Jesus accomplished for us. So Jesus has figuratively entered verse 12 once for all the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, not by the sacrifices like the ancient Israelites would bring into the outer courtyard of the tent of meeting there upon the brazen altar, not like that, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption, not something that you have to keep repeating, but eternal. So the whole scope of what Jesus did is like what was happening in the old, but it is categorically new and different. It's eternal.

It's perfect. Verse 13, for if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh. He's talking about if the old testament Levitical laws were in a person who had been called ceremonially unclean for a variety of reasons could be sprinkled with the ashes of a heifer that's been sacrificed and go through a ritual and at least for that time being would make them worthy of coming into the temple. How much more verse 14 will the blood of Jesus who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. So the blood of Jesus does something the writer of Hebrews says cleanses the conscience purifies us from dead works, works that have no life in them. They bring no life and when you try to do them are actually deadening to the soul. Now look over in chapter 10 at verse 19 Hebrews 10 verse 19. Therefore brothers since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus by the new and living way that he opened us for us through the curtain so there was a thick veil in the tabernacle and that veil was rent asunder when Jesus was crucified and now we come we come in not by bringing animals to sacrifice dead things we don't come by our dead works we come by a new and living way because Jesus is alive that's what he's saying here by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is the veil which is his flesh so again symbolic we'll see this in a little bit later on the veil that was in the tabernacle was symbolic pointing to the actual body of Jesus which was torn asunder on the cross as a symbol of the fact that the veil would be torn open for all who are in Christ and since verse 21 we have a great priest over the house of God let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith let us draw near that's what this is all about today this is what he's talking about your confidence to draw near to God that's what we want to come to with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water what's the best shower you ever had you know I mean like the time you were the dirtiest or you just couldn't wait to get a bath couldn't wait to get a shower I mean can you think of it I mean can you think of a time where you just I don't know maybe you're just like working in the yard and you're just covered with stuff you just can't wait you just get that shower just feels so good for me I think it'll always be this some years ago my daughter and I had a chance to go to visit our missionaries Jeff and Cissy Dejournis on an island off of the mainland of Papua New Guinea on the other side of the world it's very near the equator and we got to see a viable dedication they didn't have any electricity there and having running water there they have no showers on the island they have no way to bathe except the the local Papua New Guineans there was a little trickle of water that came out of kind of a rock down towards the beach and it formed about a two foot by 10 inch deep pool and they would come down there with a little bucket and they'd kind of like this and we we if we went over there we didn't know how to do it we'd muddy it up and so we didn't even you know so there was no there was no showering thing and it's basically 95 degrees and 95 humidity every single day every day is the same they're just about on the equator 95 degrees 95 humidity and we tell you what you do in that you sweat all the time you sweat while you sleep and add to it that my daughter and I were irrationally afraid of being bitten by a malarious mosquito and so we kept ourselves slathered in the mosquito repellent so the only thing worse than sweating in 95 humidity and 95 degrees is to do so with mosquito slather all over you while you're doing it and just lie in this stuff for three days the only thing I do is go get out in the ocean to try to get a little cool off but then you just come out more salty than you were before and after we did this for three days on this little island we shuttled our little flight back over to the mainland of the highlands of ucarampa where they had mission houses and we could take a shower and I got in that shower and I was like this is the best shower I've ever had I want to talk to you about the best bath you could ever have and we're talking about something in the spirit we're talking about the cleansing of the conscience it's a chance that you've never heard a sermon on the conscience we talk about the heart we talk about spirit soul and body but conscience is something that's mentioned 22 times in the new testament and I don't know if I ever heard a sermon on on the conscience before I want to talk to you today about what the conscience is why it's so important that the conscience is cleansed and how the blood of Jesus cleanses the conscience that's what we're going to talk about so to be washed to be made clean to have the fulfillment of what David prayed in psalm 51 created me a clean heart all of this is related to this concept in hebrews that we see here in chapters 9 and 10 that your conscience would be cleansed so that you could come into the presence of God with full assurance and confidence rather than a shadow of concern doubt worry or fear that you don't belong there and that's what we're talking about so what is the conscience well the the conscience is that faculty that you have that well I think we all know this it is alerting you to what's right and wrong or less it's supposed to I chuckled to see a man who wrote to the internal revenue service and he sent in a check for a thousand dollars and he said to whom it concerns said some years ago I cheated on my taxes and my conscience has been bothering me ever since so I've been closed to check for a thousand dollars and then he said p.s if my conscience continues to bother me I'll send in the rest a conscience is that thing that gives you a little voice that says you ought to be somewhere else right now when I had my preaching on Friday afternoon which I do for video capture as I was leaving the house to get over to church and preach and I've just been immersed you know in this word I step in to change my clothes in the bedroom and heard a kind of fluttering sound in the bedroom and I thought what what was that is there a bug or something in here and then much to my chagrin I discovered there was a bird in the bedroom and I proceeded for the next 30 minutes making me late to my preaching assignment to try to get the bird out of the bedroom you know with the broom and the sheet and everything and the more I tried to get him out the crazier he got until finally I had to just go preach my wife wasn't around and I had to just close him up in the bedroom knowing that he is in there while I'm gone after preaching I was scheduled to go and have some fun and just have some coffee with a friend and I thought you know the bird is in the bedroom how can I go drink coffee with a friend with a bird doing who knows what in the bedroom so I gave up the coffee and the friend and I went home to deal with the bird all right so you have a conscience that says you got no business sitting around drinking Starbucks when you got a bird flapping around and worse your wife's going to be getting home soon and if you leave her there alone with the bird well we're going to have some discussions about that so you see this is kind of how the conscience works in the old testament the word conscience is not mentioned the closest thing is probably David speaking about the heart I don't think the conscience is the same thing as what the bible means by the heart but it's the closest thing in the old testament like when David's heart troubled him in first Samuel 24 or he said created me a clean heart in psalm 51 the word in the new testament for conscience soon edasis is a word that has a prefix soon or you might see it in english like s-y-n and it means with and the root of the word means to know or knowledge so it is knowledge with an interesting in english the etymology of this from the latin is the same conscience c-o-n means with that's a prefix when you see it means with and if you ever see s-c-i-e that root means knowledge that's what that's what conscience is it means joint knowledge it means knowing with it began to emerge during the time of socrates they would talk about conscience but started out according to the ancient literature just like self-awareness but soon the word began to be known like so it meant initially like knowing within myself you know being aware of myself but soon it began to be known as knowing right and wrong and a faculty and so this is the word that comes in that paul is using and that we see here in the writer of hebrews to know with 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 and 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 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 pastorallen.org today's teaching now continues here once again is alan wright to know with implies that the conscience is not functioning alone so to speak but it is a joint knowledge with something else and what i would suggest to you is that your conscience is a god-given faculty it is something that is different than who you are as a spirit living spirit and it's not the same as your soul or your mind but your conscience is in and of itself a gift because working with god's revelation of truth the highest truth when your conscience is working with that then your conscience is serving you apart from just the promptings of the holy spirit just for you to inwardly know what is right what is wrong where to be where not to be but the problem with the conscience is that the conscience is not something that is utterly reliable because it is joint knowledge and if what's joined to the conscience is something that is just the natural mind that is not necessarily walking in spirit revealed truth of god's word then it's something that could be unreliable to you interestingly enough both christians and non-christians have a conscience paul talks about this in romans chapter 2 we won't go there but what he says is that the gentiles the non-jews had a conscience and at times just because of their conscience they were being they were conforming more to god's standards than even the people of israel were who had been given god's law that's what he talks about in romans chapter 2 so this idea of a mystical yet real faculty that is some part of the human makeup in which there is joint knowledge that is either agreeing with spirit revealed truth the word of god or agreeing with natural thoughts that may not at all really be the revealed truth of god the conscience is therefore relying on joint knowledge with therefore it can be that it's a wonderful gift but not always reliable i was reading a book this week by jd crowley and andrew nacelli who've written on the idea of conscience and crowley said that the reason that he's decided to write this book was because of his hesitancy to step over someone's legs when they propped him up on the coffee table he had been living in cambodia and he came in back home to united states and was at a family gathering after years of being in cambodia and he got up to get some chips and salsa and somebody in the family was sitting on the couch had their legs propped up on the coffee table and he stood up and assumed that they would move their legs but they didn't and he his conscience wouldn't allow him to step over the person's legs because in southeast asia you would never do such a thing it would be utterly disrespectful in the culture in which he'd been living for the last years and now he's in america you know we're americans feet up go get your own chips step over my legs i don't care so it wasn't wrong for him to step over his brother or cousins or whoever's legs it was but his conscience was telling him don't you do that and he thought wait a minute that's not necessarily reliable in this situation my conscience has been conditioned it it's it's uh it always has to do with the context so for example i i was preaching last week in salt lake city and the presbyterian church where i preached was a little bit more formal than what we're accustomed to they had a little little young guy in a white robe who came in as an acolyte before the service and lit the candles they had more written prayers of confession they had more written uh liturgical elements and so i knew it was a little bit more formal i didn't know fully the culture of the church someone had provided for me when i preached a cup of water and it was one of those red plastic cups and after i preached i was standing up front and i was talking to people after the service and i drank some of the water and i set it down on the communion table and when i set it on the communion table all of a sudden a memory came back to me from 20 years ago or 25 years ago that a friend of mine who was a very who was a very casual and informal pastor was speaking at an episcopal church and he was speaking casually and standing in front of the communion table and in the episcopal church the sacrament is held very very highly and he leaned back against the communion table and next thing you know without thinking he hoisted himself up and sat on the edge of the communion table and the whole place did what you did that story was 25 years ago and when i set the red plastic cup on the communion table it came back to me and i picked up the red plastic communion cup and i put the plastic cup of water and i put it somewhere else because i thought in this culture probably they're holding this this table in a more high view and i don't want to offend somebody that was my conscience that was at work in that particular context you see how complicated it is in first corinthians chapter 8 and in first corinthians chapter 10 paul talks about matters of conscience and interestingly he says you can have a weak conscience which i think by this he means an undeveloped or immature conscience so the conscience is something that's not always reliable and some people's conscience is going to be more clear and more mature than others and yet in the sense in which what he teaches here is you've got to go with the conscience that you have because what he says in first corinthians chapter 8 is he's talking about this this issue that they had in the early church in which paul teaches that we are free in jesus christ it doesn't matter the rituals that you do it doesn't matter the things that you eat and drink that's not what makes you closer to god or not closer to god but there was food that would be offered to pagan idols and then would be eaten and paul is talking about is it okay to eat this food and what he says in first corinthians chapter 8 verse 7 he says not all possess this knowledge but some through former associates with idols eat food that's really offered to an idol and their conscience being weak is defiled so if you think that it's wrong to eat food that's been offered to an idol even though it's not wrong to eat food that's been offered to an idol because paul's saying listen we are free we are set free by the blood of the lord jesus you're not going to be defiled by something that you eat but if you think that you are being defiled and then you violate that you violated your conscience or if the person that you're with thinks that it is wrong and you know that they think that it is wrong and you still do it you're now violating conscience because it's going to offend them even though it's not wrong do you understand what i'm saying that there are times in which there is something that is not wrong and yet because somebody thinks that it is wrong you have to pay attention to that and he's even saying that you have to pay attention to your own conscience even though you know your own conscience is not reliable because until your conscience matures and until you become more in line with the knowledge of the knowledge of the gospel and until you see it at that level then you still have to heed your conscience which is an odd thing to say because on the other hand the conscience is not always reliable Alan Wright and the kids these days they say mind blown okay i'm really getting this it's a part of our teaching it's called wash clean and the big series belonging to god alan is back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life and a final word stick with us 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 and 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 eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty that's eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty or come to our website pastor alan.org alan i do think it becomes a situation and you have a another message for another day that you that you've it's titled why wouldn't everybody want to be filled with the holy spirit and i often think of that you know fill in the blank there why wouldn't everybody want to be washed clean and and and yet that transformation is happening yeah well i think that it's one thing to say okay i've been made holy it's another to begin to have a sense that i am clean and that what god's done is so thorough that i could have a clear or a clean conscience and um you know and i give this along with other illustrations but um we'll be talking about in this message you know anybody can think of the time if you go to sporting events like i do or maybe you didn't have a good seat and then you move down to a better seat um because somebody didn't show up for their seat but the whole game you know you can be sitting there going at any moment somebody could tap me on the shoulder and say this is my seat and you'll feel really bad right well that's where you don't have a totally clean conscience right it's not totally clear it's like you know the other shoe could drop something going on yeah well god wants every believer to not only know that they're forgiven but for them to have an absolutely clear conscience and that's what we're talking about today uh how much different and freer life is with a conscience that's been washed clean today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Alan Wright Ministries