Day 10/6 – A Clean Conscience (Part Two)

——://///

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

“According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper.” Hebrews 9:9

A clean conscience differs from a clear conscience in that with the former you can know that you are guilty and still be clean. Our Lord’s propitious death makes this possible. You can have a clear conscience without being clean in that you may be guilty while “searing your conscience with a hot iron.”357 Just because you talked your conscience into excusing you does not mean that you are innocent. To have a clean conscience you need the satisfaction of justice.

There is a second ingredient in obtaining a clean conscience, however, and that is, you must realize that you cannot shape another’s destiny. When people sin they participate in God’s eternal plan negatively; they do not alter His plan. When King David murdered Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba, Uriah arrived in the presence of God on time. Uriah did not die early. David elected to participate in God’s plan negatively by having Uriah killed, and God held David accountable for his sin. Thus David realized that “against Thee and Thee only have I sinned.”358

Let’s say you go hunting with your best friend and accidentally kill him, leaving a widow with five children. How do you forgive yourself and make amends? You can try to be a surrogate father, set up a trust fund for the education of the children, etc., but how much is enough? If you conclude that you must cleanse your own conscience, you will never be able to answer that question. You must realize that you did not alter the destiny of your friend, even though you killed him. God may want you to make restitution, but it cannot be according to your conscience or the will of the offended party. It must be according to the will of God. Never use restitution to alleviate guilt. Only the blood of Christ can remove your guilt.

357 I Timothy 4:2
358 Psalm 51:4

———/://///

Isaiah 26-27 Philippians 2 (New King James Version)

Isaiah 26-27
A Song of Salvation
26 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
“We have a strong city;
God will appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks.
2
Open the gates,
That the righteous nation which [a]keeps the truth may enter in.
3
You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
4
Trust in the Lord forever,
For in Yah, the Lord, is [b]everlasting strength.
5
For He brings [c]down those who dwell on high,
The lofty city;
He lays it low,
He lays it low to the ground,
He brings it down to the dust.
6
The foot shall [d]tread it down—
The feet of the poor
And the steps of the needy.”
7
The way of the just is uprightness;
O Most Upright,
You [e]weigh the path of the just.
8
Yes, in the way of Your judgments,
O Lord, we have waited for You;
The desire of our soul is for Your name
And for the remembrance of You.
9
With my soul I have desired You in the night,
Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early;
For when Your judgments are in the earth,
The inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
10
Let grace be shown to the wicked,
Yet he will not learn righteousness;
In the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly,
And will not behold the majesty of the Lord.
11
Lord, when Your hand is lifted up, they will not see.
But they will see and be ashamed
For [f]their envy of people;
Yes, the fire of Your enemies shall devour them.
12
Lord, You will establish peace for us,
For You have also done all our works [g]in us.
13
O Lord our God, masters besides You
Have had dominion over us;
But by You only we make mention of Your name.
14
They are dead, they will not live;
They are deceased, they will not rise.
Therefore You have punished and destroyed them,
And made all their memory to perish.
15
You have increased the nation, O Lord,
You have increased the nation;
You are glorified;
You have expanded all the [h]borders of the land.
16
Lord, in trouble they have visited You,
They poured out a prayer when Your chastening was upon them.
17
As a woman with child
Is in pain and cries out in her [i]pangs,
When she draws near the time of her delivery,
So have we been in Your sight, O Lord.
18
We have been with child, we have been in pain;
We have, as it were, [j]brought forth wind;
We have not accomplished any deliverance in the earth,
Nor have the inhabitants of the world fallen.
19
Your dead shall live;
Together with [k]my dead body they shall arise.
Awake and sing, you who dwell in dust;
For your dew is like the dew of herbs,
And the earth shall cast out the dead.
Take Refuge from the Coming Judgment
20
Come, my people, enter your chambers,
And shut your doors behind you;
Hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment,
Until the indignation is past.
21
For behold, the Lord comes out of His place
To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;
The earth will also disclose her [l]blood,
And will no more cover her slain.
Israel Will Be Restored
27
In that day the Lord with His severe sword, great and strong,
Will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent,
Leviathan that twisted serpent;
And He will slay the reptile that is in the sea.
The Restoration of Israel
2
In that day sing to her,
“A vineyard of [m]red wine!
3
I, the Lord, keep it,
I water it every moment;
Lest any hurt it,
I keep it night and day.
4
Fury is not in Me.
Who would set briers and thorns
Against Me in battle?
I would go through them,
I would burn them together.
5
Or let him take hold of My strength,
That he may make peace with Me;
And he shall make peace with Me.”
6
Those who come He shall cause to take root in Jacob;
Israel shall blossom and bud,
And fill the face of the world with fruit.
7
Has He struck [n]Israel as He struck those who struck him?
Or has He been slain according to the slaughter of those who were slain by Him?
8
In measure, by sending it away,
You contended with it.
He removes it by His rough wind
In the day of the east wind.
9
Therefore by this the iniquity of Jacob will be covered;
And this is all the fruit of taking away his sin:
When he makes all the stones of the altar
Like chalkstones that are beaten to dust,
[o]Wooden images and incense altars shall not stand.
10
Yet the fortified city will be desolate,
The habitation forsaken and left like a wilderness;
There the calf will feed, and there it will lie down
And consume its branches.
11
When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off;
The women come and set them on fire.
For it is a people of no understanding;
Therefore He who made them will not have mercy on them,
And He who formed them will show them no favor.
12
And it shall come to pass in that day
That the Lord will thresh,
From the channel of [p]the River to the Brook of Egypt;
And you will be gathered one by one,
O you children of Israel.
13
So it shall be in that day:
The great trumpet will be blown;
They will come, who are about to perish in the land of Assyria,
And they who are outcasts in the land of Egypt,
And shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.
Footnotes:
• Isaiah 26:2 Or remains faithful
• Isaiah 26:4 Or Rock of Ages
• Isaiah 26:5 low
• Isaiah 26:6 trample
• Isaiah 26:7 Or make level
• Isaiah 26:11 Or Your zeal for the people
• Isaiah 26:12 Or for us
• Isaiah 26:15 Or ends
• Isaiah 26:17 sharp pains
• Isaiah 26:18 given birth to
• Isaiah 26:19 So with MT, Vg.; Syr., Tg. their dead bodies; LXX those in the tombs
• Isaiah 26:21 Or bloodshed
• Isaiah 27:2 So with MT (Kittel’s Biblia Hebraica), Bg., Vg.; MT (Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia), some Heb. mss., LXX delight; Tg. choice vineyard
• Isaiah 27:7 Lit. him
• Isaiah 27:9 Heb. Asherim, Canaanite deities
• Isaiah 27:12 The Euphrates

Philippians 2
Unity Through Humility
2 Therefore if there is any [a]consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. 3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
The Humbled and Exalted Christ
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it [b]robbery to be equal with God, 7 but [c]made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Light Bearers
12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
14 Do all things without [d]complaining and disputing,[e] 15 that you may become blameless and [f]harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.
17 Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. 18 For the same reason you also be glad and rejoice with me.
Timothy Commended
19 But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, that I also may be encouraged when I know your [g]state. 20 For I have no one like-minded, who will sincerely care for your state. 21 For all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus. 22 But you know his proven character, that as a son with his father he served with me in the gospel. 23 Therefore I hope to send him at once, as soon as I see how it goes with me. 24 But I trust in the Lord that I myself shall also come shortly.
Epaphroditus Praised
25 Yet I considered it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier, but your messenger and the one who ministered to my need; 26 since he was longing for you all, and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick. 27 For indeed he was sick almost unto death; but God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. 28 Therefore I sent him the more eagerly, that when you see him again you may rejoice, and I may be less sorrowful. 29 Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness, and hold such men in esteem; 30 because for the work of Christ he came close to death, [h]not regarding his life, to supply what was lacking in your service toward me.
Footnotes:
• Philippians 2:1 Or encouragement
• Philippians 2:6 Or something to be held onto to be equal
• Philippians 2:7 emptied Himself of His privileges
• Philippians 2:14 grumbling
• Philippians 2:14 arguing
• Philippians 2:15 innocent
• Philippians 2:19 condition
• Philippians 2:30 risking