Conscience and Guilt

God's Healing Series #8

Fred R. Coulter

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We need to understand something concerning guilt and we need to also understand that guilt complexes can lead to a lot of sickness. We'll see what that has to do with health and especially how we deal with each other.

Guilt comes from the human conscience and there's also something that's important to understand, and that is only human beings have an inner conscience; none of the other created beings, outside of the angelic realm. I can't speak for the angelic realm, we'll let God tell us that in due time when we see Him as spirit beings. Let's talk about the human conscience. Here's the definition of it:

From The Unpardonable Sin—Summary (cbcg,org):

The Human Conscience: The human conscience is an inner creation of God in all men and women—part of the heart and mind. When anyone sins there is an automatic sense of guilt.

That's why God has given the conscience: to alert you that your behavior is not correct.

The worse the sin the greater the guilt and hence, dread.

From Cruden's Concordance:

Conscience is that facility within us which decides [makes us conscious of actions and thoughts] as to the moral quality of our thoughts, words and acts. It gives consciousness of the good of one's conduct or motives, or causes feelings of remorse at evil-doing, but its action is involuntary. A good conscience is one which has no feeling of reproach against oneself, does not accuse oneself of willful wrong."

The worst the sin, the greater the guilt—and hence, dread. "Conscience is that faculty within us which decides as to the moral quality of our thoughts, words and acts [i.e., makes us specially aware of our thoughts and actions]. It gives consciousness of the good of one's conduct or motives, or causes feelings of remorse at evil doing, but its action is involuntary. A good conscience is one which has no feeling of reproach against oneself, [and] does not accuse oneself of willful wrong."

The ultimate that God wants us to have is a clean conscience or pure heart.

Let's see how this works. What we're going to find out is if you constantly go around with a guilty conscience over things you have repented of,you in fact, do not believe that God forgives your sins! If you believe that God forgives your sins and forgets your sins, then you are only torturing yourself with self-condemnation and guilt and you carry this load around. We'll see how you can get rid of this load a little later. Let's see how God does this. We will also see as we go through this that the conscience can also be destroyed.

This is a very key one: Proverbs 23:7: "For as he thinks in his heart, so is he..." Whatever a person thinks in his heart—these are the inner thoughts that everyone has that only that person knows about—that is how he is or what he is. It's a very key important thing. That's why it's very important that you guard the door of your mind!

You need to understand that as you think in your heart, that's how you are! Whatever you're constantly thinking about, that's actually what you are and who you are. That's why when people give themselves over to evil they truly become evil. That's why we are to:

• think on the things that are right
• think on the things that are good
• think on the Word of God
• have the Word of God written
• in our hearts
• in our minds

and let that be as we think!

As I've said before, in learning and studying the Bible, what we need to do is learn to think with the Scriptures. If you understand that the Bible is:

• the Word of God
• inspired by God
• from the mind of God

if you

• think with the Scriptures
• think on the Word of God

and these are the central things in your thoughts, motivated with

• love
• service
• doing the things you need to do

then you will be thinking more and more like God. It's a process that takes time, but then you will have the mind of Christ, 'Let this mind, which was in Christ Jesus, be also in you.'

Proverbs 4:20: "My son, attend to my words..." If God is our Father, let's understand that all the words that Jesus spoke were the commandments of the Father. Everything that is in the Bible comes from God Who is our Father. Look at it this way: God the Father is talking to you.

"...incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart, for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh" (vs 20-22).

What happens is this: He says, 'The more that you think the way that God wants you to think, the more that you control your emotions the way that God wants you to control them, it says here that it's "…health to all their flesh." What we're talking about is prevention of sickness! Later we'll talk about sickness, anointing, and things like this.

This ties in with v 13: "Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; keep her, for she is your life.… [It also talks about the wicked. We'll also be talking about the wicked] ...Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not into the way of evil men.... [that's how they think; that's how they act] ...Avoid it; do not go in it; turn from it, and pass on!" (vs 13-15). That's the same thing that the New Testament says: 'flee fornication.' Run away from it, exactly the same thing!

Verse 16: "For they do not sleep except when they have done mischief... [those who have 'seared their conscience with a hot iron] ...and their sleep is taken away unless they cause some to fall." Sounds like a lot of religionists, as well as evil people. Some of the most evil people in the world are religionists who preach in the name of Jesus, but preach false doctrines and lead people astray.

Likewise, it applies here, v 14: "Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not into the way of evil men"—because if they give you a pseudo-Christianity, it is false. Pseudo means: fake, false. If they tell you something that the Bible says, and the Bible does not say it, then it is not true.

Verse 16: "For they do not sleep except when they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away unless they cause some to fall, for they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shines more and more to the perfect day" (vs 16-18). That ties right in exactly with what Peter wrote in 2-Peter 1 about shining into the time of the resurrection.

Verse 19: "The way of the wicked is as darkness; they know not at what they stumble." Lots of times we're not doing wicked things, but when we go around with a guilty conscience all the time, then what happens? We're stumbling at things and we don't know what we're stumbling at! We're looking at something that is not the cause.

Verse 20: "My son, attend to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart... [Note: Heb. 10:16-17, to let the laws of God be written in your heart and mind by God's Spirit.] ...for they are life to those who find them... [Of course, it is the Holy Spirit of God that we receive which does that. It's not just the letter of the law that we're talking about, but the whole of the Spirit and the Holy Spirit of God.] ...and health to all their flesh."

Ecclesiastes tells us that there's a time to be born and there's a time to die. Death comes to all. God has already determined that it does. If someone dies—like someone recently died 96-years-old—it's time to go, it's time to die. Bob Hope died at 100. It was time to go. Again, you look at the lives of even those men and women in the world who live long lives and what do you see? You see people who:

• didn't worry
• didn't fret
• didn't stew
• didn't have guilt complexes
• thought positive thoughts

The Word of God and the application of these things, anyone can learn. It's not a doctrine of the Church. This is the teaching of the Bible. Just as we will see with the conscience, that even without the Law of God, some people have come to the conclusion that these things are so and true. They're truisms that actually uphold the Word of God, though they know it's not the Word of God.

1-Corinthians 11:30: "For this very reason..."—because of not taking the Passover correctly. What is more correct about the Passover has to do with the inner attitude, heart and conversion which is the profound and important thing.

"For this very reason many are weak and sickly among you, and many have fallen asleep" (v 30). That is, they have died. We're not talking about those whose lives are coming to an end because it's time. If you live to be 70 and on into 80, God has given you plenty of long life. Be happy and thankful in it. There's going to come a time that you are going to know that it's time. As God has said, 'in Adam, you die,' but you have the resurrection to look forward to.

In the meantime, here's the key thing: v 31: "Now if we would examine ourselves..." That is take the Word of God, apply it to ourselves and look at these things that we're getting into in the book of Proverbs, and so forth.

"...we would not be judged" (v 31). Many of the things that have come upon people in the Church have been in the way that, we could say is 'the curse comes not causeless.' In other words, there's a cause for a lot of these things. A lot of these things we can avoid if we take good care of our health and take good care of our mind! You can take good care of your body all you want, but:

• unless you have the right thoughts
• unless you use the Spirit of God
• unless you grow and overcome
• unless you think the way that God wants you to think

it could create problems for you.

Verse: 32: "But when we are judged..." That is judged of God. God is judging us. Judgment is now on the house of God; it's just that simple. It's on the world, too. It's on everybody's lives in the world, whether they know it or not. But they're not being judged unto salvation like we are.

"...we are chastened by the Lord, so that we will not be condemned with the world" (v 32). That's a profound and very important thing. That's why we need to think like God and not think like the world. That's why we need to have the Word of God written in our hearts and in our minds. That's why we need to apply these things, so that we don't get sick.

We'll talk about anointing and healing later. First of all I want to concentrate on these things which are the prevention of sickness and disease and the keys to help maintaining good health. It's more than just not eating unclean foods. We're not going to get into things concerning everybody's health, because one is different from another. What is one man's poison is another man's nourishment. You can't take everything exactly the same for everybody. That's something you have to work out yourself. What we're getting into is what each one of us is responsible for:

• our health
• our minds
• our bodies
• our attitudes

—all of these things

Too many times in the past, and especially in the hierarchical Churches—of which the Catholic Church is certainly one of the most rigid hierarchical Churches in the world—they rule by fear, they rule by guilt and they make people dependant upon the ministry. God wants you dependant upon Him, not on the ministry! The ministry is not God, even though the pope has claimed, 'What else can I say of myself, but I'm God!' God wants you to have a relationship with Him. God wants you to be responsible to Him. After all, that's Who you're going to answer to—is it not? Yes, it is!

Proverbs 4:23. "Above all guard the door of your mind with diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." We've covered that before, but this is so important. Everything concerning the issues of life have to do with how you think! That's why God has given His Word. There are some things we are to do.

Verse 24: "Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and devious lips put far from you." We could also say:

• put away anger
• put away bitterness
• put away guilt
• put away condemnation
• put away judging other people's hearts

—put all those things away.

Verse 25: "Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet, and all your ways will be established.... [in the Lord] ...Do not turn to the right hand nor to the left; remove your foot from evil" (vs 25-27). Those are the key things.

Let's see something concerning how the conscience works. God created it in us for a purpose. If He didn't give a conscience to men, how on earth would even the carnal society get along? How would they have any kind of standard whatsoever of right and wrong? They would not do that! They would not be able to do it. It would be nothing but total anarchy all the time. Even the laws of most countries find their roots in the Bible anyway—don't they? Sure!

Here's how God has done it, Proverbs 20:27: "The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly." That is, the inward parts of your whole self. We're going to see that the conscience is because God has put spirit in man.

Let's look at the spirit in man and see that this is vital for the working and functioning of a conscience. Conscience can be your friendwhen you sin and it convicts you,so that you may repent! Conscience can be your enemyif you go around with a guilt complex all the time or if you sear your conscience with a hot iron!

Job 32:8 "But there is a spirit in man..."—which He gives to every human being. It's called the spirit of man; this is what gives you:

• thought
• conscience
• heart
• mind
• intelligence
• life

The body is dead without the spirit! You've heard of people being brain dead—haven't you? Yet, if they have them on life support, they can keep the physical part of the body going for quite a length of time; but when they're brain dead, it actually is saying that the spirit of that person has returned back to God. They're no longer alive. You can keep the 'soul' alive—which is the chemical running of the physical body—all souls that sin will die, even though they can keep it going for a while. All they have to do is take it off the life support system and that individual is dead.

"...and the inspiration of the Almighty gives them understanding" (v 8). Just like it talks about the spirit is the lamp by which God knows the inner most parts of a person—same way. The way that you understand, grow and overcome is the inspiration of the Almighty Who gives understanding! Whenever you have understanding of the Word of God, that's an inspiration of God. It is God Who put this spirit in man. The creation of man is so fantastic and so absolutely marvelous, that anyone who believes in evolution is—as the Bible says, doesn't believe in God—a fool.

Zechariah 12:1: "The burden of the Word of the LORD for Israel. Thus says the LORD, who stretches forth the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth... [What's the most important thing, after the physical creation, that God has made for us?] ...and forms the spirit of man within him." In other words, if we didn't have the spirit of man within us—all men and women—we would be robots!

• we wouldn't have conscience
• we wouldn't have thought
• we wouldn't have connection with God
• we wouldn't have understanding of God's Word

You could just:

• program us up
• put in a sophisticated chip
• send it on it's way
• make everyone like universal soldiers

Just put chips in the back of their head and send them on their way. God is the One Who forms it in us!

Here, again, we are going to see how profound the spirit of man is in relationship to what God is doing and in relationship to Christ.

Isaiah 42:5: "Thus says the LORD God, He who created the heavens and stretched them out, spreading forth the earth and its offspring; He who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it." Having the spirit of man, which God has given to all human beings, is a profound and important thing; right next to creating the heavens and the earth. We need to quit downgrading human beings and downgrading God's creation. Lots of times we downgrade ourselves so much that all of that can lead to a guilt complex!

A lot of people think today we're so advanced; we have so much knowledge. Let me tell you something, the book of Job was probably the very first book written after the Flood, long before Moses, even before Abraham. The reason we know is because of the timing and the setting of it, and also because Job acted as the patriarchal priest of the family. He's the one who offered sacrifices for his sons and later for his friends.

Job 20:1: "And Zophar the Naamathite answered and said, 'Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer... [here we have a thinking man] ...even because of my inner turmoil. I have heard the rebuke which puts me to shame, and the spirit of my understanding causes me to answer'" (vs 1-3). They knew about the spirit of man back then—didn't they? They understood the special creation of God.

Verse 4:"Do you not know this from days of old, since man was placed upon earth, that the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite is for a moment?.… [Of course that's true today. These are living things that continue all the way through life.] ...Though his excellency... [Again, what I want to emphasize is whenever they're talking about the spirit of man, it refers back to the heavens.] ...mounts up to the heavens, and his head reaches to the clouds" (vs 4-6).

You talk about a big head! He's talking to Job. He's saying, 'Job look, you've exalted yourself up to heaven. You've got your head in the clouds so high that you can't even see what's going on around you and you're sitting here suffering this horrible calamity.

Verse 7: "He shall perish forever like his own dung..."

Let's see what Paul says about the spirit of man. It is of the spirit of manthat gives us heart, conscience, thought, and all these things together. That's why the Holy Spirit makes us complete. No one is a complete person without the Holy Spirit!It's that simple. God made us to receive the Holy Spirit! Those who do not have the Holy Spirit, they may not like to hear it, but they are only half here. Granted, they:

• have the spirit of man
• have conscience
• have emotions
• can think

but without:

• the knowledge of God
• the Truth of God
• the Spirit of God

Of what value are all of those things? This is why it's so important in what we're doing, brethren, and our calling.

1-Corinthians 2:9: "But according as it is written, 'The eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.'" That's the whole key. Loving God! Loving God on an on-going, continuous basis! If you're loving God:

• you'll be believing God
• you'll be obeying God
• you'll be hoping in His promises

If you have 'religion' without the love of God, then you truly have a 'religion' and not the way of God. The way of God is to love God!

Verse 10: "But God has revealed them to us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things... [This is referring to the Spirit of God, which He gives to us.] ...—eventhe deep things of God." That's what gives us the understanding of the Word of God.

Of course, in dealing with people in the world, as many do, you soon understand that only with the spirit of man, can they understand the real things of God. They may know how to do their job well. They may be a genius in this, that or the other thing. They may be inventors, artists or writers. Whatever they may be, they're limited. All of that is well and good. To function in the world that's well and good; but they have no knowledge or understanding of the spiritual things, because that comes from the Spirit of God.

This is what Paul talks about here in v 11: "For who among men understands the things of man except by the spirit of man which is in him?…." I often marvel: I love to listen to piano playing. You look at these little, old, stubby hands. I can only reach an octave if I do it on the edge. You look at some of those who have the brains, the spirit and the hands. If you ever get a chance to look at a picture of Rachmaninoff and can see his hands, they said his hands are like coal shovels. In other words, his four fingers were almost all the same length.

When you listen to Rachmaninoff's concertos, that's why there are so many notes being played in such a range; because he has these huge, big hands and he can reach them. That's a talent. He's got to have the spirit of man within him to be able to do that; to sit down, not only write the music, but to play the music. When I see someone who can really play the piano and memorize—play by memory a whole long concerto and never miss a note—that tells you how great that God has made human beings and given the spirit. See if a horse can do that or a chimpanzee! Never happen!

They claim a chimpanzee has 94% the same genes as human beings. I doubt that. I think that when they know more about genes, they'll find that they're extremely different, even though there are similarities. I think God made the chimps and the primates to let us know, that even though you get something close to what you think man is, without the spirit of man, it's just an ape. That's all it is. There are some special gifts. For example: There's a young boy who has a talent. He just sat down, listened to some jazz music, memorized it as it was being played, got up and played exactly the same thing himself. He never had piano lessons or anything like that. He didn't know anything about this tune until he heard it.

That's something like Mozart. When they asked him, 'How do you do this music?' His music, from a music point of view, is what you call 'near perfection.' That is, horizontal—going across from left to right—and vertical; that is, going through all of the instruments, all the chords and everything for an entire symphony orchestra. He said, 'It's in my head. I hear it in my head, and then I write it.'

As we said when we started this off, Art Linkletter—still alive at 95/96—said, 'We live between our ears.' That's where we really live. God intended it to be that way. The greatest thing about it is, God wants to dwell in there with you with His Spirit! That's what's the fantastic thing about it.

Verse 11: "For who among men understands the things of man except by the spirit of man which is in him? In the same way also, the things of God no one understands except by the Spirit of God.... [here's what God's Spirit is to do]: ...Now, we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is of God... [What is the spirit of the world? We haven't received that!]: ...so that we might know the things graciously given to us by God" (vs 11-12). That's what we are to know!

Verse 13: "Which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Holy Spirit in order to communicate spiritual things by spiritual means. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned" (vs 13-14)

That's why it's very important  that those of us who have the Holy Spirit of God don't get hung up with fear and guilt complexes. We are to let the conscience that God has given us operate in the way that God wants it to operate and we will see that what God wants is:

• a pure conscience
• a clean conscience
• a clear heart

That can only be done on a day-to-day basis.

Let's see what the spirit of the world does. Part of the reason why your conscience can be your enemy and condemn you all the time is because you go around with guilt feelings, or as they are called in the world guilt complexes. This is something that's not restricted to just people within the Churches of God. It's everybody! Sooner or later even the spirit of man that is in them shows them, 'Look! You can't continue this way.'

Romans 8:14: "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. Now, you have not received a spirit of bondage again unto fear..." (vs 14-15). That is the thing that comes down to all the things that we've gone through. Fear is a key source:

• of guilt
• of anger
• of bitterness

fearful of:

• things around you
• people around you
• fearful to follow God

It can operate in all those things.

This is what holds us back health-wise. They're just many things that we can do to improve our health. We all have to start with what we've inherited; in some cases that may give us an automatic limitation. Nevertheless, even some of those who supposedly have had some of the most sickly inheritance, by taking care of themselves, live to be well into old age. They learn how to handle and do those things.

Let's see how the conscience works. We're talking about people in the world. We're talking about those who don't know God; they still have a conscience. Of course, what Satan wants to do with education and with the things that he wants: he wants to lower the sensitivity of the conscience, so that you will accept, and people in the world will accept, doing more evil things; or things that are more evil in degree.

I think we're seeing the flight of this with the onslaught of the vomit of the sodomites trying to get across their same sex marriages. What do they call that, to 'lower deviancy down'? In other words, if there's a high level of resistance against deviancy, and people have conscience, then they won't do it. But if you gradually break the conscience down, one of the first ways that Satan begins to break the conscience down is through teaching kids, and it begins right in kiddie cartoons, and then goes right on into their education.
As I've said before, if there's any way you can home school your kids, home school your kids. If you don't and they go to the public schools, they're going to be taught by sodomites. Don't be too surprised if your kids grow up and make an announcement and 'come out of the closet,' like Dick Gephardt's daughter did and said that she's a lesbian. How did she become one? The high threshold of deviancy was brought down to normalcy and it is accepted! The conscience, then, becomes seared to a certain degree. Maybe not seared to the point of the unpardonable sin. But normally the conscience works this way:

Romans 2:14: "For when the Gentiles, which do not have the law... [In other words, they don't have the Law of God to guide them.] ...practice by nature the things contained in the Law..." They conclude:

• adultery is wrong
• murder is wrong
• thievery is wrong
• lying is wrong
• stealing is wrong

Those are a law unto themselves. It's still based on the laws of God, even though they don't have the Law. It was never given to them.

Verse 14: "These who do not have the law are a law unto themselves; who show the work of the law written in their own hearts... [In other words, they have decided to think this way: that these things are right and these other things are wrong.] ...their consciences bearing witness... [here's the activation of the conscience] ...and their reasonings also, as they accuse or defend one another" (vs 14-15).

Because of this, this is how God is going to judge those who are worthy for the second resurrection. That's how He's going to do it.

Verse 16: "In a day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my Gospel." When God does that, those who qualify for the first resurrection will be in the first resurrection. Those who did not have the Law and qualify for the second resurrection, will be in the second resurrection. God is going to make the judgment based upon what their choices and what their conscience was, even though God had blinded them. Is that not fair? Is that not love? Yes, it is!

(go to the next track)

What I'm talking about in this case, is a conscience that becomes progressively dull! Of course, who has the dullest conscience of all? We'll talk about seared consciences in a little bit. Fear, guilt and conscience together means that you are living in dread. That means you're not repenting of guilt. Even though you may repent of the sin, if you still carry a guilt conscience, you have not repented of guilt!

Let's understand something. Guilt can also come about because you are trying to work everything out yourself without the Spirit of God and without repentance, hoping that your works will be good enough for God to accept you. All the good works without repentance does not mean acceptance with God, in the spiritual sense. Yes, good works are good works, that's fine. If you go around with a guilty conscience or you have some major sin in your life that you think: 'God can forgive me of all these little ones over here, but God can't forgive this big sin'—whatever it may be—then you really don't believe God. If you believe God is going to save you, if you believe God is going to have you in His kingdom, but you do not believe that God can forgive you and forgive your sin so that you do not have a guilty conscience, then your level of belief is infantile indeed! You need to understand that.

Proverbs 18:14: "The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a broken spirit who can bear?" Have you ever been around anyone who has a wounded spirit? It can be wounded with:

• bitterness
• guilt
• fear
• doubt

all of those things. Christ came to heal the broken hearted—didn't He? Yes, He did!

We're going to talk about how to heal the conscience in just a little bit. Let's go just one step further. Let's see what happens when people give themselves over to evil. When people give themselves over to evil and do not repent of it, then they come to the point of a seared conscience. How does a person get a seared conscience? A person gets a seared conscience by seeing and ignoring the moving of the conscience that God has put in them! That's how you sear the conscience. It's by choice that it happens. It also gets into things having to do with the spirit of Satan the devil and demons, both.

1-Timothy 4:1: "Now, the Spirit tells us explicitly that in the latter times..." Are we living in the latter times? We have to be living in times later than what Paul was living—right? I would say we are living in the latter times.

"...some shall apostatize from the faith... [Have we seen that happen? Yes, indeed!] ...and shall follow deceiving spirits..." (v 1)—which then, leads you to sear your conscience by saying, 'That's okay.' The book that came out I'm OK, You're OK was the first step in beginning to 'dumb down,' dull and sear the conscience—correct? It has laid the whole foundation for the society of Sodom and Gomorrah that we're now creating.

Then what happens? "...and doctrines of demons... [you begin to listen to the teaching of demons] ...speaking lies in hypocrisy, their consciences having been cauterized with a hot iron" (vs 1-2). Once that happens, anything goes. What happens when a whole society comes to the point of searing their conscience? Let's find out! It happened before and we're getting to the point that it's beginning to happen again.

In Gen. 6 they didn't even have their conscience prick them when they did evil. In other words, when people practice evil all the time, it affects your conscience and it affects you to the point that you accept evil as good. Look what happened here. This took over 1,500 years to do:

Genesis 6:5: "And the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." In other words, they had all seared their conscience through the evil practices that they were doing! Do we have that today? Yes, we do! We have that particularly and most notably in the sodomite legislation that they are trying to get through everything. They are trying to force evil on everyone and people are gradually being beaten down, beaten down and beaten down to accept it!

The goal of the whole homosexual establishment is to silence every church so that they will not speak against the evils of homosexuality. That is their goal! That's what the legislation is all about. That's what the facilitators in the political parties are doing to assist them. That's why they have so many of the homosexuals in the legislatures of various states and in the U.S. government that will back and support those things. The Supreme Court of the land has already opened the door. It is near at hand and we will end up just like here in Gen. 6. What did Jesus say? 'As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of man.' Those things have got to affect us because we live in the world!

Just recently in New York, they had an all homosexual high school. Can you imagine how pitiful the state of the students of America are, that they have an all homosexual high school with:

• homosexual principals
• homosexual men
• homosexual women

Where did they get this? They were taught it with the sex education program in the public school. It's called the Harvey Milk High School, named after the homosexual mayor who was assassinated in San Francisco back in the 70's[transcriber's correction].

They don't understand that God left Sodom and Gomorrah as a perpetual witness against this kind of thing. No nation or empire has lasted more than 50 years when they have openly accepted homosexual behavior. Here we have the whole society. What did God have to do? Destroy it with a flood! How corrupt was it? So corrupt that God had to select the animals and send them to Noah so he would get the right ones. He had to destroy everything! Everything else but Noah, his wife, his sons and their wives, and those animals that God sent to be on the ark.

We're rapidly reaching that kind of thing in the society that we're in today. Does it affect those in the Church of God? Yes! The last era of the Church of God is called—and you've heard it many times—Laodicean! Why are they lukewarm? Why are they ready to be spewed out of the mouth of God? They have allowed their conscience to become callous, maybe not seared, but callous.

What happens when a conscience is seared completely? Let's see what happens with the seared conscience, the one who can no longer be moved by evil and the perpetrators of evil. That's why the Iraqi people are very happy that Uday and Qusay are gone, because they were evil and perpetrators of evil, knowingly so!

From: The Unpardonable Sin—Summary (cbcg.org)

The Unpardonable Sin is a Deliberate, Willful Choice and Rejection of God the Father and Jesus Christ, and a Repudiation of the Forgiveness of Sins and the Gift of Salvation Through Jesus' Sacrifice and His Blood

The unpardonable sin is a deliberate and calculated renunciation of God. It is not and accidental sin...

The reason we're going through this is to help you get rid of any guilt complex you have toward any sin that you have done. If you've repented of those, God expects you to have a clean conscience. He will give it, but only He can give it and you must accept it! If you continually live in your sins by living them in your mind, though you have attempted to repent of them, you have not repented of them. What you're actually saying by having a guilt complex over these things all the time is that 'God cannot forgive me'! That's not quite like the unpardonable sin where you rejectthe forgiveness of God.

...nor is it a sin committed under temptation or through weakness. But the unpardonable sin is a knowing, determined, calculated, premeditated, willful decision and choice arrived at by rejecting any pangs of conscience, leading of the Holy Spirit, pleadings of the Word of God, or ministers and brethren.

We could put in there families and friends.

It is a willful, determination to reject the gift of repentance, and hostile contempt for the commandments of God, the Spirit of God, a willful repudiation of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and His blood for the forgiveness of sins and the salvation of God. Those who have committed the unpardonable sin have no regrets, no sorrow and no conscience that they have turned their backs on God the Father and Jesus Christ, and the Word of God. It is impossible to renew them to repentance—it is impossible for the Holy Spirit to move them to repentance, for others to move them to repentance, or to move themselves to repentance. They have seared their consciences with a hot iron and there is no power—human or Divine—that is able, or has the ability to renew them to repentance.

Or for others to move them to repentance, or to move themselves to repentance.

They have seared their consciences with a hot iron and there is no power—human or Divine—that is able, or has the ability to renew them to repentance. Their choice is final, and God's judgment against them is final.

If you're worried about committing the unpardonable sin, that's the first clue that you haven't. If you have committed the unpardonable sin, you would never worry about committing it.

From: Lane, Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 47A, p. 142).

In [the book of] Hebrews, the characteristic terms for sin that display contempt for God are compounds of para, many of which occur nowhere else in the New Testament.

When Paul was writing the book of Hebrews, he was talking to a generation very much like what we have today. The book of Hebrews is written for Laodiceans that they will not commit the unpardonable sin. Here are the words:

• paradeigmaizein, to expose to public humiliation (6:6)

That is, of Christ, exposing Him to public humiliation.

• parapikainein, to rebel (3:16)
• parapikrasmos, rebellion (3:8,15)
• pararrein, to drift away, fall away (2:1)
• parapherein, to carry away (13:9)
• pareinenos, being listless (12:12)

All of those things lead to a decline in faith and can lead to contempt and rejection of God.

There is no other repentance than that provided through Jesus Christ. There is no salvation apart from the purification for sins accomplished by the divine Son in the final period of God's redemptive activity (1:1-3). The adunatou adunaton [the impossibility]…

'adunaton' means: the powerlessness of

...which is used, absolutely and without qualification in Heb. 6:4, expresses an impossibility because the apostate [has] repudiated] the only basis upon which repentance can be extended. To repudiate Christ is to embrace the 'impossible.'

You can see why that's the only commentary I use because it gets into the words and the meanings of the Greek and does not deal in doctrine; it just deals in the words and explanations of it. What does this tell us? This tells us that anyone who deals in the Word of God can understand the Truth of God to the extent that they know what sin is and what sin is not!

Let's see what the sacrifice of Christ is to do for us. We've gone all the way from a guilt feeling, to searing the conscience with a hot iron, now let's come back to the guilt feeling. Let's come back to see how we need to begin to handle this. The way you handle it is with repentance and belief!If you're all done praying a prayer, if you're all done repenting, and you start to get up off your knees and you say to yourself, 'I wonder if God will forgive me?' Get right back on your knees because your prayer has just been negated, because you don't believe God.

God cannot lie! What you need to do is get right back on your knees and say, 'O God, forgive me for that thought. Forgive me for saying that You won't accept my repentance. Forgive me that I accuse You of not forgiving my sins.' What does it say? He forgives all your sins!

• How many is that? Every one of them!
• How many is that? All of them!
• How many is that? Every single one of them!

If He says that, why would you get up off your knees and say, 'I wonder if God will forgive me?' Why did you get down and pray in the first place? That's much like the question: How many people in the cemetery are dead? All of them! Consider your sins in the cemetery of repentance and forgiveness—they're all dead! Paul said, 'Consider yourself dead to sin.'

1-John 1:7 "However, if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His own Son, cleanses us from all sin." Every sin! Every evil thought! That's why it says we are to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. That's the inner battle that goes on. If you're fighting the evil thoughts in you mind, you have not committed the unpardonable sin, by a long shot, and your conscience is pricking you to repent. So, yield to the Spirit of God! It cleanses us from all sin!

Verse 8: "If we say that we do not have sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the Truth is not in us." That's what happens when people begin to:

• dumb down their conscience
• dull their conscience
• ignore their conscience

They say, 'Well, it's not so bad.' What have you just done when you do that? You begin to stifle the conscience. If your conscience is working full time, it will prick you in heart (Acts 2). In other words, you'll be moved. You'll see what is wrong. You will let your conscience shame you into remorse and repentance.

On the other hand, v 8: "If we say that we do not have sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the Truth is not in us. If we confess our own sins... [Confess your sins! Confess your guilt! Let God give you a clean conscience!] ...He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (vs 8-9). Every single bit! No doubt about it!

• we could apply this to worry
• we can apply this to anger
• we can apply this to a guilty conscience
• we can apply this to fear

All the things we've talked about in this series. Here's where most people get themselves in trouble: We have to live in the world but we're not to be a part of it!

James 4:4: "You adulterers and adulteresses, don't you know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever desires to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." You don't want to put yourself in that position.

Verse 5: "Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, ' The spirit that dwells in us lusts with envy'?.… [you've got to fight to go on] ...But He gives greater grace. This is the reason it says, 'God sets Himself against the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.'.… [you need to humble yourself to God] ...Therefore, submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded!" (vs 5-8).

If you go around with a guilt complex all the time, you end up being double-minded! You can't help it. You say, Oh God, forgive me for my sins! Oh, God can't forgive this sin. Oh, God, forgive me for my sin; but oh, God, I don't know how you can forgive this sin.' It makes you vacillating. How is it that you can have friendship with the world? It's been very well expressed: you have one foot in the world and one foot in God's camp. That in itself will give you a guilt complex. If it gives you a guilty conscience, then you need to run and repent. When you run and repent, also pull that foot out of the world and put them both on the Rock of Christ. That's what it's talking about: submit to God!

Verse 8: "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded!" We'll show you how to purify your hearts in just a minute. That's what it's all about, purifying the heart! God's purifies the heart and that's how you overcome a guilt complex!

• repenting to God
• believing He forgives you
• having faith that He will
• letting Him cleanse your heart

That's why most religions in the world—Catholic, Jew, Muslim and Hindu—always keep people in a guilt complex and fear, so they can manipulate them and, of course, make money on it, too; put fear in you and give you a guilty conscience. The priest would say, 'So-and-So is in purgatory but for so many masses and for whatever amount we can probably get them out.'

Acts 15:6: "Then the apostles and the elders gathered together to see about this matter. And after much discussion had taken place, Peter stood up and said to them, 'Men, brethren, you know that from the early days, God made the choice among us that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the Word of the Gospel, and believe. And God, Who knows the heart...'" (vs 6-8). Very interesting! The Greek is the heart-knowing God!

God knows your heart, your mind, your conscience and, as we have seen in the series in Hebrews, when you come before the throne of God you are naked and laid bare before Him. There is nothing that is hidden.

When you go before God to repent of your sins, and get your heart and your mind squared around, God knows everything. He knows it all. Therefore, that's why when you confess your sins to God you can be honest. If you go to a priest in a confession booth, you don't want to be too honest. You want to say some of it, but if you're too honest you'll have to do 'hail Marys' and 'our fathers' and have Masses for the rest of your life. That's not God's way!

Verse 8: "...'bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, even as He did to us, and made no difference between us and them and has purified their hearts through the faith'" (vs 8-9).

I'm going to do a little extrapolating on this, v 10: "Now therefore, why do you tempt God by putting a yoke upon the necks of the disciples..." That can apply to anything. That can apply to the thing of the laws of Judaism:

• Why do you put the yoke of guilt around yourself all the time?
• Why do you wear the yoke of bitterness?
• Why do you wear the yoke of fear?

Those can all apply. He purifies the heart.

Hebrews 10:22: "Let us approach God with a true heart, with full conviction of faith... [or confidence of faith, not doubting, not questioning, but believing in your heart] ...our hearts having been purified from a wicked conscience..." God wants you to have a pure conscience. God—since He created the conscience and gave it to us in the spirit of man and with His Holy Spirit—can purge our conscience!

Paul talks about this in Hebrews 9:14: "To a far greater degree, the blood of Christ..."

• Do you believe in the sacrifice of Christ?
• Do you believe that His blood forgives your sin?
• Do you believe that if you confess your sins He will forgive all your sins, all your unrighteousness?
• Do you believe that?

If you believe that, you cannot have a guilty conscience, unless it is over some sin you have not repented of. When you repent of it then ask God to give you a pure conscience, because that's the whole part of it. That will do more for health:

• physically
• mentally
• spiritually
• emotionally

than anything else can do.

"...Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, shall purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God" (v 14).

• fear is a dead work
• worry is a dead work
• bitterness is a dead work
• anger is a dead work
• guilt complex is a dead work

You are working it, choosing it and it is adead, dead, dead act! Most people don't understand that. There are some people who because:

• they like to be bitter
• they like to have resentment
• they like to have anger
• they thrive on a guilty conscience so they can inflict it upon other people

and never come to the point of understanding that. When you're finally dead and buried you're not going to have a U-haul trailer be towed behind the hearse with a big sign on it: 'In here resides:

• his guilt
• his anger
• his bitterness
• his resentment

which we need to bury with him.'

We're always fighting sin. As long as we're in the flesh we are going to sin. That's why we live under God's grace; so that we can constantly come to God when we do sin, that we can have those things forgiven.

1-John 3:18: "My little children, we should not love in word, nor with our tongues; rather, we should love in deed and in truth.... [that's what we need to do in our own personal lives] ...And in this way we know that we are of the Truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him, that if our hearts condemn us... [if you have a guilty conscience or if you have a guilt complex] ...God is greater than our hearts, and knows all things" (vs 18-20).

In reality, if you go around carrying a guilt complex all the time, what are you really saying? You may not express it in these words, but your actions are saying, 'I am greater than God because I can bear my own guilt.' No wonder your heart condemns you! That's why you need to repent.

• God is greater than your heart
• God is greater than guilt
• God is greater than bitterness
• God is greater than
• anger
• hostility
• worry
• fear
• doubt

and all of the works of the flesh.

Verse 21: "Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, then we have confidence toward God." What you need to do, if you have a guilt complex, or any of the things that we talked about here that affects our health, go to God and pray. Continue praying and staying at it until you come away with a clean conscience. Pray for a clean conscience! Don't just ask for forgiveness of sin and then get up and still carry the guilt complex; also ask God to purge your conscience and make it new and pure!

Verse 22: "And whatever we may ask we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and practice those things that are pleasing in His sight."

• Can God answer that prayer? Yes!
• Will He answer that prayer? Yes!
• Does He want to answer that prayer? Yes!
• Is He going to answer that prayer? Yes!

What are you waiting for? Go repent!

We're going to look at this a little differently, 1-Peter 5:5: "In the same manner, you younger men be subject to the older men; and all of you be subject to one another, being clothed with humility because God sets Himself against the proud, but He gives grace to the humble." If you keep any of these things that we've talked about:

• anger
• guilt
• worry
• fear
• a guilty conscience

That is spiritual pride! You're exalting that against God because you don't believe that He can forgive you. You don't want to function without it, so you hold on to it. That is spiritual pride! Here's how to take care of it.

Verse 6: "Be humbled, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that He may exalt you in due time; casting all your cares upon Him, because He cares for you" (vs 6-7). For if you think that God cannot forgive a sin, you're not willing to cast that care upon Him—are you?

Verse 8: "Be sober! Be vigilant! For your adversary the devil..." He's the one whose going to come along and keep pumping it into your head that that's what he wants you to do. God does not want that. God wants you to have:

• a pure conscience
• a pure heart
• a pure mind

and that only comes through repentance and casting everything to God. Another thing about a guilt complex, or not having your conscience purged of guilt, is this: You let other people keep putting it on you. If you put a guilt trip on someone, you're sinning.
In bringing this out, I'm not trying to put a guilt trip on anybody. I'm trying to say: Get out of the guilt trip. Don't put it on anyone. Whenever something goes wrong, don't go back, re-live the past, bring it up and vomit it out all over them again and again. All you are doing is letting your guilt, which you have not repented of, come out in judging, condemning and throwing guilt down before other people. So, it works that way, too. Yes, indeed! That's got to stop! That cannot be!

Let's see the other part of the solution. God is using those 'small' words again: 'all' and 'if.' Cast all your cares, not just some of them, not the worst ones, all of them: big, little, and in between. Another way to help you understand this is to get your eyes on Christ and what He's done.

Matthew 11:25: "At that time Jesus answered and said, 'I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent, and have revealed them to babes. Yes, Father, for it was well pleasing in Your sight to do this. All things were delivered to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; neither does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son personally chooses to reveal Him'" (vs 25-27). You've had Christ personally reveal the Father to you.

Here's the solution, v 28: "Come to Me, all you who labor and are overly burdened, and I will give you rest." Why don't you let your conscience be purged and cleansed and have rest? Why have:

• torment
• fear
• doubt
• guilt
• anger
• bitterness
• resentment

all of those things that

• kill the spirit
• make you double-minded
• bring you ill health

"…I will give you rest." Let yourself and those around you have rest and peace from these things.

Verse 29: "Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me..." What is Christ's yoke?

• love
• faith
• joy
• peace

all the fruits of the Holy Spirit

• gentleness
• goodness
• temperance
• meekness

That's the yoke. Keeping the commandments of God is not a yoke. Those free you.

"'...for I am meek and lowly in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls... [Why be tormented any more with a guilty conscience?] ...For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light" (vs 29-30).

All you have to do is go to some quiet, private place and pour your heart out to God. Cast all your cares upon Him. He will hear and answer you. Let God cleanse your heart and conscience and let a pure conscience be your friend!

All Scripture from The Holy Bible In Its Original Order, A Faithful Version by Fred R. Coulter.

Scriptural References:

• Proverbs 23:7
• Proverbs 4:20-22, 13-16, 14, 16-19, 20-22
• 1-Corinthians 11:30-32
• Proverbs 4:23-27
• Proverbs 20:27
• Job 32:8
• Zechariah 12:1
• Isaiah 42:5
• Job 20:1-7
• 1-Corinthians 2:9-14
• Romans 8:14-15
• Romans 2:14-16
• Proverbs 18:14
• 1-Timothy 4:1-2
• Genesis 6:5
• 1-John 1:7-9
• James 4:4-8
• Acts 15:6-10
• Hebrews 10:22
• Hebrews 9:14
• 1-John 3:18-22
• 1-Peter 5:5-8
• Matthew 11:25-30

Scriptures Referenced, not quoted:

• 2-Peter 1
• Hebrews 10:16-17
• Ecclesiastes
• Hebrews 6:4
• Acts 2

Also Referenced:
Books:

• Cruden's Complete Concordance by Alexander Cruden
• I'm OK, You're OK by Thomas A. Harris, M.D.
• Word Biblical Commentary, by William L. Lane

Sermons: Hebrews Series
Article: The Unpardonable Sin—Summary (cbcg.org)