Day 10/5 – A Clean Conscience (Part One)

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Thoughts from the Diary of a Desperate Man by Walter A Henrichsen (“Walt”)
A Clean Conscience (Part One)
Day Two Hundred Seventy-eight

“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 9:14

The author of Hebrews talks about a clean conscience. How this happens and the process by which it takes place requires understanding the nature of sacrifice and the fact that you cannot shape the destiny of others.

In the Old Testament sacrifices were offered by man for man. The Levitical priests were human. They offered unwilling animals, using their blood to cover the sins of the people. God established this system until the coming of Christ. In the New Testament Christ’s sacrifice was offered by God for God. Jesus, the eternal Son of God, willingly offered Himself to satisfy the justice of God. At that time, all Old Testament sin was uncovered and placed on Christ. Christ’s death answered the question of how a just and holy God can allow the sinner into heaven without violating His justice and making heaven dirty.

Justice must be satisfied in order for your conscience to be clean. If you are forgiven in an unjust manner, your conscience tells you that it is wrong. You cannot have a clean conscience without satisfying justice, and this Christ did when He died on the cross. This does not mean that you are no longer conscious of sin. Just the opposite, for the Holy Spirit’s presence in your life gives you an increased sensitivity to sin. Rather, you no longer wait in terror for the wrath of God. Your conscience is clean.

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Isaiah 23-25 Philippians 1 (New King James Version)

Isaiah 23-25
Proclamation Against Tyre
23 The burden[a] against Tyre.
Wail, you ships of Tarshish!
For it is laid waste,
So that there is no house, no harbor;
From the land of [b]Cyprus it is revealed to them.
2
Be still, you inhabitants of the coastland,
You merchants of Sidon,
[c]Whom those who cross the sea have filled.
3
And on great waters the grain of Shihor,
The harvest of [d]the River, is her revenue;
And she is a marketplace for the nations.
4
Be ashamed, O Sidon;
For the sea has spoken,
The strength of the sea, saying,
“I do not labor, nor bring forth children;
Neither do I rear young men,
Nor bring up virgins.”
5
When the report reaches Egypt,
They also will be in agony at the report of Tyre.
6
Cross over to Tarshish;
Wail, you inhabitants of the coastland!
7
Is this your joyous city,
Whose antiquity is from ancient days,
Whose feet carried her far off to dwell?
8
Who has taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city,
Whose merchants are princes,
Whose traders are the honorable of the earth?
9
The Lord of hosts has purposed it,
To [e]bring to dishonor the pride of all glory,
To bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.
10
Overflow through your land like [f]the River,
O daughter of Tarshish;
There is no more [g]strength.
11
He stretched out His hand over the sea,
He shook the kingdoms;
The Lord has given a commandment against Canaan
To destroy its strongholds.
12
And He said, “You will rejoice no more,
O you oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon.
Arise, cross over to Cyprus;
There also you will have no rest.”
13
Behold, the land of the Chaldeans,
This people which was not;
Assyria founded it for wild beasts of the desert.
They set up its towers,
They raised up its palaces,
And brought it to ruin.
14
Wail, you ships of Tarshish!
For your strength is laid waste.
15 Now it shall come to pass in that day that Tyre will be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king. At the end of seventy years it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot:
16
“Take a harp, go about the city,
You forgotten harlot;
Make sweet melody, sing many songs,
That you may be remembered.”
17 And it shall be, at the end of seventy years, that the Lord will deal with Tyre. She will return to her hire, and commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. 18 Her gain and her pay will be set apart for the Lord; it will not be treasured nor laid up, for her gain will be for those who dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently, and for [h]fine clothing.
Impending Judgment on the Earth
24
Behold, the Lord makes the earth empty and makes it waste,
Distorts its surface
And scatters abroad its inhabitants.
2
And it shall be:
As with the people, so with the priest;
As with the servant, so with his master;
As with the maid, so with her mistress;
As with the buyer, so with the seller;
As with the lender, so with the borrower;
As with the creditor, so with the debtor.
3
The land shall be entirely emptied and utterly plundered,
For the Lord has spoken this word.
4
The earth mourns and fades away,
The world languishes and fades away;
The haughty[i] people of the earth languish.
5
The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants,
Because they have transgressed the laws,
Changed the ordinance,
Broken the everlasting covenant.
6
Therefore the curse has devoured the earth,
And those who dwell in it are [j]desolate.
Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned,
And few men are left.
7
The new wine fails, the vine languishes,
All the merry-hearted sigh.
8
The mirth of the tambourine ceases,
The noise of the jubilant ends,
The joy of the harp ceases.
9
They shall not drink wine with a song;
Strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
10
The city of confusion is broken down;
Every house is shut up, so that none may go in.
11
There is a cry for wine in the streets,
All joy is darkened,
The mirth of the land is gone.
12
In the city desolation is left,
And the gate is stricken with destruction.
13
When it shall be thus in the midst of the land among the people,
It shall be like the shaking of an olive tree,
Like the gleaning of grapes when the vintage is done.
14
They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing;
For the majesty of the Lord
They shall cry aloud from the sea.
15
Therefore glorify the Lord in the dawning light,
The name of the Lord God of Israel in the coastlands of the sea.
16
From the ends of the earth we have heard songs:
“Glory to the righteous!”
But I said, [k]“I am ruined, ruined!
Woe to me!
The treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously,
Indeed, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.”
17
Fear and the pit and the snare
Are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth.
18
And it shall be
That he who flees from the noise of the fear
Shall fall into the pit,
And he who comes up from the midst of the pit
Shall be [l]caught in the snare;
For the windows from on high are open,
And the foundations of the earth are shaken.
19
The earth is violently broken,
The earth is split open,
The earth is shaken exceedingly.
20
The earth shall reel[m] to and fro like a drunkard,
And shall totter like a hut;
Its transgression shall be heavy upon it,
And it will fall, and not rise again.
21
It shall come to pass in that day
That the Lord will punish on high the host of exalted ones,
And on the earth the kings of the earth.
22
They will be gathered together,
As prisoners are gathered in the [n]pit,
And will be shut up in the prison;
After many days they will be punished.
23
Then the moon will be disgraced
And the sun ashamed;
For the Lord of hosts will reign
On Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
And before His elders, gloriously.
Praise to God
25
O Lord, You are my God.
I will exalt You,
I will praise Your name,
For You have done wonderful things;
Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
2
For You have made a city a ruin,
A fortified city a ruin,
A palace of foreigners to be a city no more;
It will never be rebuilt.
3
Therefore the strong people will glorify You;
The city of the [o]terrible nations will fear You.
4
For You have been a strength to the poor,
A strength to the needy in his distress,
A refuge from the storm,
A shade from the heat;
For the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
5
You will reduce the noise of aliens,
As heat in a dry place;
As heat in the shadow of a cloud,
The song of the terrible ones will be [p]diminished.
6
And in this mountain
The Lord of hosts will make for all people
A feast of [q]choice pieces,
A feast of [r]wines on the lees,
Of fat things full of marrow,
Of well-refined wines on the lees.
7
And He will destroy on this mountain
The surface of the covering cast over all people,
And the veil that is spread over all nations.
8
He will swallow up death forever,
And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces;
The rebuke of His people
He will take away from all the earth;
For the Lord has spoken.
9
And it will be said in that day:
“Behold, this is our God;
We have waited for Him, and He will save us.
This is the Lord;
We have waited for Him;
We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.”
10
For on this mountain the hand of the Lord will rest,
And Moab shall be trampled down under Him,
As straw is trampled down for the refuse heap.
11
And He will spread out His hands in their midst
As a swimmer reaches out to swim,
And He will bring down their pride
Together with the trickery of their hands.
12
The fortress of the high fort of your walls
He will bring down, lay low,
And bring to the ground, down to the dust.
Footnotes:
• Isaiah 23:1 oracle, prophecy
• Isaiah 23:1 Heb. Kittim, western lands, especially Cyprus
• Isaiah 23:2 So with MT, Vg.; LXX, Tg. Passing over the water; DSS Your messengers passing over the sea
• Isaiah 23:3 The Nile
• Isaiah 23:9 pollute
• Isaiah 23:10 The Nile
• Isaiah 23:10 restraint, lit. belt
• Isaiah 23:18 choice
• Isaiah 24:4 proud
• Isaiah 24:6 Or held guilty
• Isaiah 24:16 Lit. Leanness to me, leanness to me
• Isaiah 24:18 Lit. taken
• Isaiah 24:20 stagger
• Isaiah 24:22 dungeon
• Isaiah 25:3 terrifying
• Isaiah 25:5 humbled
• Isaiah 25:6 Lit. fat things
• Isaiah 25:6 wines matured on the sediment

Philippians 1
Greeting
1 Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ,
To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the [a]bishops and deacons:
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thankfulness and Prayer
3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, 5 for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; 7 just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace. 8 For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ.
9 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, 10 that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, 11 being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
Christ Is Preached
12 But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, 13 so that it has become evident to the whole [b]palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ; 14 and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
15 Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: 16 [c]The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; 17 but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.
To Live Is Christ
19 For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, 20 according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I [d]cannot tell. 23 [e]For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. 24 Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. 25 And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith, 26 that your rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again.
Striving and Suffering for Christ
27 Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but [f]to you of salvation, and that from God. 29 For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, 30 having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me.
Footnotes:
• Philippians 1:1 Lit. overseers
• Philippians 1:13 Or Praetorium
• Philippians 1:16 NU reverses vv. 16 and 17.
• Philippians 1:22 do not know
• Philippians 1:23 NU, M But
• Philippians 1:28 NU of your salvation