Latest / Reformed Thinking / A Clear Conscience (Psalm 119:6) | Charles Spurgeon

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A Clear Conscience (Psalm 119:6) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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Usually, when we think about strict rules and really rigorous
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moral standards, we picture a suffocating environment.
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No. Absolutely.
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Yeah. We just imagine a person
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trembling under the weight of this impossible checklist, just
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sweating over every minor infraction.
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Right. And yet, well, there is a
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bizarre paradox in human psychology and theology.
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When you try to earn your own salvation by perfectly keeping
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the law, it leads to total crushing shame.
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Yeah. It really does.
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But when you flip the script, when you embrace joyful
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obedience to those very same rigorous moral standards after
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receiving unmerited grace, it produces absolute, unshakable
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boldness. That is such a massive shift in
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perspective. It is welcome to reform
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thinking. Today we're taking an audio deep
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dive into a really sharp piece of historical text to figure out
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why we get this paradox so wrong.
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Yeah, it's a fantastic topic. We're looking at an excerpt from
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Charles Haddon Spurgeon's 1878 sermon A Clear Conscience, which
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is based on Psalm 119.6. Such a great text.
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Our goal today is to examine the really intricate relationship
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between unmerited grace, comprehensive obedience, and the
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psychological freedom of a clean conscience.
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Right. We are going to unpack why
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trying to earn your own salvation guarantees total
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shame, while you know joyful obedience to rigorous moral
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standards leads to absolute boldness for you.
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It is a fascinating 10. I mean, it strikes at the very
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heart of how we understand our standing before the divine.
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To grasp what Spurgeon is arguing here, we have to look
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closely at his fierce attack on the concept of self
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righteousness. Right out of the gate he goes
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after. It he really does, he targets
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the notion of keeping the law to earn salvation.
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He calls any attempt to be saved by the law a guaranteed failure.
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He uses the word presumption to describe it.
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Right. Yes, but the language gets even
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sharper. He says that to earn eternal
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life via works of the flesh is an execrable trade in the sight
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of God, no matter how estimable it looks to men.
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Wow. Execrable.
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That's a harsh. Word it is.
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It means utterly detestable or abominable.
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So God looks at a person trying their absolute best to be a good
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moral citizen and calls that specific effort execrable.
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Yes, and you know, we need to unpack why human righteousness
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is considered so offensive in this context.
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Yeah, why is it? The reason lies in the nature of
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divine truth. God states categorically that
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justification is by faith alone. Right, Total depravity means we
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bring nothing to the table. Precisely so.
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When a human being tries to prove God wrong by bringing a
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resume of good deeds, they are essentially calling God a liar.
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Oh wow, that puts a completely different spin on.
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It it is an offense to the divine law giver because it
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denies the necessity of the sacrifice he provided.
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Yeah, it's an arrogant claim. You're saying you don't need
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mercy, you only need fair compensation for your supposed
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goodness. That is it.
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Spot on. I mean it is like trying to pay
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off a billion dollar debt with monopoly money.
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Yes, perfect analogy. And while you're handing over
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the colorful paper money, you are openly insulting the person
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who already offered to cancel the debt entirely out of their
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own pocket. Right.
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Your Monopoly money is completely worthless in that
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economy. And insisting on using it just
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shows a staggering lack of awareness regarding your actual
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bankruptcy. It really does.
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Spurgeon points out that people who do this are vainly trying to
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keep up a respectable appearance.
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They are screening their palpable delinquencies behind a
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thin veil of piety toward God and charity toward men.
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Yeah. A very thin veil.
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Why do people still still insist on screening those palpable
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delinquencies behind that veil? Well, the psychology behind that
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thin veil of piety is rooted in pride and a desperate desire for
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self preservation. Earning your own salvation puts
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you in control, doesn't. It yes, If you can earn it, you
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can manage it. You don't have to rely on the
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terrifying vulnerability of pure grace.
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Right. So in the modern era, what does
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this look like for you and me? It looks like respectability
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politics within the church. Or, you know, even in secular
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moral frameworks. Oh sure, people curate an
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outward image of faultless behavior.
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Like having aggressive theological correctness on
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social media. Exactly.
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Or a highly visible record of charitable giving?
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Or just being the most reliable volunteer in the community.
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They construct a facade of righteousness to convince
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themselves and others that they are inherently good.
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But behind closed doors, the palpable delinquencies remain.
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The hidden addictions, the private cruelties.
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The bitterness, the greed, it inevitably leads to shame
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because the conscience cannot be fooled permanently.
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When you know the gap between your public resume and your
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private reality is vast, you live in constant fear of being
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exposed. Right, because earning salvation
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is a legal transaction, and in a purely legal framework, one
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failure nullifies the entire contract.
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The shame comes from the exhausting, impossible effort of
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trying to hold up a mask that is constantly cracking.
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Cracking under the weight of your own actual nature, earning
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life by a trade of works, is an insane, futile task.
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Which is why Spurgeon advises us to renounce the folly of of
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defending our own 'cause right? So if we let go of that defense
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attorney mindset, we have to figure out what replaces it.
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Because running salvation is a failure.
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But the alternative Spurgeon presents is where the real
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freedom lies. He argues that once a person is
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justified by faith and their sin is blotted out, they are
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entirely free from the curse of the law.
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However, he insists this does not create lawless libertines.
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Believers come under a different constraint.
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We transition from the courtroom to the discipline of a home.
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Spurgeon contrast the police court with the father's house.
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Yes, that analogy is brilliant. A child might be completely free
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from the jurisdiction of the magistrate and the executioner.
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But that child is certainly not free from the rules of their
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father's house. Not at all.
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There is a rod at home. There is a father's smile and
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there is a father's frown. You are no longer trying to
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avoid a judge's gavel, you're trying to delight a parent.
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But if the threat of the executioner is gone, what stops
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someone from just taking advantage of the Father's grace
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and slipping into sluggish, lazy Christianity?
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Well, people often assume that unmerited grace will lead
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directly to what theologians call antinomianism.
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Right. The dangerous idea that because
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grace is free, the law is completely thrown out the
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window. And you can live however you
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want. But Spurgeon counters this by
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highlighting the drastic shift in relational dynamics.
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How so? In the police court, your
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motivation is entirely driven by fear of vindictive retribution.
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You obey the law simply to avoid being punished.
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Yeah, that makes sense. But in the father's house, the
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motivation shifts to seeking approbation.
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You desire the Father's smile? And that doesn't lead to a
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sluggish, lazy Christianity. No, because the discipline of a
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loving home is often far more comprehensive and rigorous than
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the laws of the state. Oh wow, I never thought about it
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like that. The state only cares if you
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break a specific statute, right? It does not care about your
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attitude, your internal motivations or your character
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development. Father cares intensely about all
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of those. Things exactly.
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The chastisement in the Father's house might be sharp, but it is
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driven by compassion, not legality.
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The father corrects the child to mold their character.
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To protect them from harm and to bring them into full maturity
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when you realize that the God of the universe has brought you
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into his family. Not just pardon you and left you
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on the street, right it. Sparks a strong inclination
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toward obedience. The motivation is gratitude.
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The suffering that comes from discipline in this House is
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bitter. But as Spurgeon notes, though he
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caused grief, he will have compassion.
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It is a discipline of chastisements entirely devoid of
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illegal caste. You obey because you love the
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Lawgiver. Not because you're terrified of
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the executioner, right? I mean, the state does not care
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if you are sullen or resentful as long as you pay your taxes.
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So the father cares if you are sullen because a father wants a
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genuine relationship. So if we are truly living in the
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Father's house, then the Father cares about our character in
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every single room of that house, not just the front porch.
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Yes, and this brings us to Spurgeon's concept of being
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undefiled in the way referencing the opening of Psalm 119.
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This requires respecting all commandments, not picking and
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choosing. He is very clear that
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slothfulness is forbidden. There must be progress and
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practical action. A man sitting down the middle of
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the road might not be soiling his clothes with mud, but he is
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not walking the path either. Spurgeon warns that pure
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theology and loose morality cannot blend.
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But you know, we have this tendency to pick and choose our
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obedience based on our natural dispositions.
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Oh. Absolutely.
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We gladly obey the rules that already aligned with our
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personality. And we conveniently ignore the
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commands that cause friction with our desires.
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The psychology of selective obedience is a trap almost
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everyone falls into without realizing it.
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If you are naturally an introverted, cautious person,
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you might find it very easy to obey the commands to be quiet.
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To be sober minded and to avoid reckless behavior.
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But you might entirely ignore the commands to boldly proclaim
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the truth to strangers. Or to show hospitality.
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Right. Conversely, an extroverted,
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highly social person might excel at hospitality and public
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charity. But completely fail at the
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commands demanding private prayer, self-control and
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guarding the tongue. When we pick and choose like
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that, we are not actually submitting to God's authority.
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We are just endorsing our own preferences and slapping a
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divine label on them. Spurgeon argues that a pure
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theology cannot coexist with loose morality without
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developing into a pernicious fallacy.
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If you claim to hold a robust orthodox understanding of God's
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sovereign holiness. But you casually indulge in
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unseemly habits or make light of your own sins.
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Your. Theology is entirely
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disconnected from your reality. Wisdom will not hold a seat in
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the head of a man who has yielded his heart to folly.
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Eventually your loose morality will force you to alter your
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theology to justify your actions.
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The mind will bend the doctrines to accommodate the sins of the
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flesh. Therefore, universality and
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obedience, respecting all the commandments is the only way to
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avoid defilement, right? But if we look at the reality of
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human nature, we are falling from birth, totally corrupt in
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our nature. Yes, that is true.
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So if we know we're going to fail, isn't perfect universal
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obedience impossible in this life?
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It is a valid question. Did anyone ever dare pray to be
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perfectly free from sin? If we know we cannot achieve
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absolute perfection while living in these physical bodies,
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demanding universal obedience seems like setting ourselves up
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for a psychological breakdown. Spurgeon actually anticipates
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this exact tension. Oh, he does.
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He acknowledges that perfect obedience has not been obtained
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by anyone, yet we are continually pressing on toward
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it. OK, so then how do we handle it?
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Well, while perfection isn't obtained yet, it is the only
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valid desire. The desire itself is what
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validates the state of the heart.
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That makes a lot of sense. Spurgeon makes a striking point
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here. No man ever dared pray to God
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for partial obedience. Wow, bowing your head and saying
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Lord help me to overcome some of my sins, but not all of them.
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Keep me from great open sins today, but permit me to enjoy a
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few private sins that I am exceedingly fond of.
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Such a prayer, Spurgeon declares, would be worthy of a
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devil worshipper, not a Christian.
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That is intense. A heart renewed by grace craves
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to be perfectly set free from sin.
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You cannot negotiate terms of surrender with the Almighty.
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You can't ask to keep a small province of rebellion for your
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own amusement. Exactly.
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Even though we stumble, the trajectory of the believer's
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will is aimed at complete conformity to God's statutes.
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We do not make peace with our remaining corruption.
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No. So while the execution of
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universal obedience is flawed in this life, the intention and the
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prayer for it must be absolute. Any tolerance for a pet sin
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demonstrates A fundamental misunderstanding of what sin
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actually is. Treason against the Father's
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house. Treason.
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Negotiating A treaty where you get to keep a small province of
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rebellion shows the absurdity of our internal bargaining.
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It really does. So we have to figure out how we
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actually build our lives without creating these secret provinces.
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And this is where Spurgeon moves into the architecture of
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character. Specifically, balancing
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spiritual duties with moral duties.
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Yes, he uses the analogy of a builder constructing A
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magnificent cathedral. An architect does not throw all
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his strength into just the nave or just the transept, or the
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chancel or the Spire. He tries to make each part of
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the magnificent pylicist and contribute to the general
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harmony of the entire structure. The foundation must be deep, the
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walls must be sturdy, and the windows must be beautiful.
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In the Christian life, spiritual duties like prayer and faith
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must be balanced with everyday moral duties like honesty,
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fairness, and paying your workers on time.
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Spurgeon uses incredibly vivid, sarcastic examples of unbalanced
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architecture. Doesn't.
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He, Oh yes, he mocks the idea of a devout thief or an adoring
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murderer. And he specifically critiques
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the high flying spiritual professor who prays loudly at
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prayer meetings. But oppresses his laborers and
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his wages, and lies to his customers about when a job will
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be finished. We see this all the time,
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justifying bad business ethics with charitable donations.
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Like Aceo shortchanging his workers but making a massive
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donation to a Children's Hospital to balance the scales.
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How do we deceive ourselves into thinking that spiritual fervor
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cancels out moral failure? Well, we deceive ourselves by
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creating a false hierarchy of holiness.
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What do you mean by that? We convince ourselves that
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spiritual activities like intense prayer, attending church
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services, theological debates, or grand public acts of charity
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are somehow on a higher plane of existence than mundane ethical
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obligations. Like paying a fair wage or
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keeping a delivery promise. Right.
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We treat everyday morals as minor obligations.
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Spurgeon vehemently argues that if you are not moral, you are
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not a disciple of Christ. He says it's all nonsense to
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talk about your spiritual experiences if you make twice 2
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into 5 in your business dealings just to increase your profit
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margin. The deception happens because
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public spiritual tax bring immediate validation from peers.
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People see you praying eloquently or dropping a large
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check into a charity fund and they praise you.
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But nobody claps when you accurately report your taxes.
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Or when you patiently deal with a frustrating employee without
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losing your temper. Because the moral duties are
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often invisible to the public, our fallen nature discounts
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their value. But to God, a false weight and a
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deceptive tongue are abominations.
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Treating everyday morals as trivial proves a person has no
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genuine connection to the architect of character.
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You cannot build a cathedral entirely out of stained glass.
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No, you need the rugged, unglamorous stones of daily
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integrity to hold the structure up.
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If your theology does not make you a more honest shopkeeper, a
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more truthful neighbor, and a more reliable worker.
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Then your theology is entirely theoretical and practically
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useless. So if public validation is the
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drug of choice for the hypocrite, then the most
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dangerous place to hide is in the middle of religious
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activity. Yeah, that is a sobering
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thought. Spurgeon takes this concept of
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balancing duties to an even darker, more sobering place.
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He warns that duties cannot cancel each other out.
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And he uses a phrase that is really hard to shake.
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We must never bring God a sacrifice smeared with the blood
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of another duty. To illustrate this, he shares a
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devastating anecdote. He talks about a man he knew
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well, a man who attended every local preaching event.
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Every track society meeting and every missionary anniversary.
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If there was a public service connected with the church, this
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man was there. But the one place you never
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found him was at home with his boys.
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That is just heartbreaking. Spurgeon says he had the misery
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of teaching one of those boys who died in drunkenness before
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reaching manhood. While the other sons became the
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pest of the town. The man was eminently good at
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doing things for other people's families, but he entirely
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neglected his own. The phrase smeared with the
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blood of another duty implies a kind of spiritual violence.
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It really does. Why is it so intensely tempting
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to seek public validation in church work or community service
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while completely neglecting the quiet, unseen duties of the
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home? Because the temptation lies in
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the immediate return on investment, public duties offer
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applause status and a measurable sense of accomplishment.
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When that man went to the Missionary Society, he was
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likely greeted with handshakes, smiles and recognition of his
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zeal. He felt vital and appreciated.
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Raising children, on the other hand, is arguably the most
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rigorous, exhausting, and unacknowledged work a person can
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do. Children do not give you awards
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for your consistency. They do not applaud your
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patience when you correct them for the 100th time.
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The duties of the home require a slow, grueling dying to self
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that yields fruit only over decades, not days.
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The tragedy of the bloody sacrifice occurs when a person
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uses religious activity as an escape mechanism to avoid the
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friction and difficulty of domestic life.
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They convince themselves they are doing the Lord's work.
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But they are actually abandoning the primary jurisdiction God
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gave them. They are sacrificing their
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children on the altar of public praise.
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God does not accept a sacrifice that requires the dereliction of
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a prior command. You cannot honor God by
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abandoning your family to preach to the masses.
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Because the God who commands you to spread the gospel is the
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exact same God who commands you to train up your children.
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Pitting God's commands against each other is a massive act of
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rebellion disguised as extreme devotion.
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It makes me think of someone winning employee of the year
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while their actual house burns down.
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Right, because they were never there to check the wiring or
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maintain the property. You get the plaque, you get the
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applause from your coworkers, but you lose the very foundation
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of your life. This requires you to examine
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your own schedule and priorities.
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Are there quiet duties being sacrificed right now on the
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altar of public praise? And you know, this self
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examination gets even more difficult when we consider
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Spurgeon's next point about sins of ignorance.
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What if we do not even know we are abandoning a command?
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Spurgeon states clearly that obedience includes unknown
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duties. And that ignorance is not a
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valid shield against the consequences of sin.
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He makes a bold claim. Conscience itself is an
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untrustworthy standard. Only God's Word is the standard.
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If a man's conscience is unenlightened, he may be sinning
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and reaping the ill consequences without even realizing why his
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life is falling apart. People often wink very hard to
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avoid seeing truths that demand a change in their lifestyle.
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Spurgeon points historically to Southern slave owners reading
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the Golden Rule. Do unto others as you would have
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them do unto. You and deliberately putting a
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finger on the eyeball to avoid the glaring light of conviction.
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The slave owner example is piercing.
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It shows the terrifying capacity of the human mind to
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compartmentalize truth. The slave owners read the very
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words of Christ, words that completely dismantled the
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institution they profited from, and their response was to
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willfully blind themselves. They embraced an unenlightened
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conscience because the economic and social cost of enlightenment
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was too high. We see this dynamic constantly
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today, don't we? Yes.
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If we do not study the text, if we do not expose ourselves to
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the full counsel of God's Word, we can maintain plausible
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deniability. We tell ourselves, I didn't know
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that was a sin, so I'm not responsible.
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But Spurgeon shatters that defense.
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Ignorance of the law does not prevent the consequences of
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breaking the law. If you ingest poison because you
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did not read the label in the bottle, your ignorance does not
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stop the poison from killing you.
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The law of God is the structural reality of the universe.
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When you violate it, whether consciously or ignorantly, you
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suffer the structural failure that follows.
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Our conscience is damaged by the fall.
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It is shaped by our culture, our upbringing and our biases.
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It is a faulty compass. If you rely solely on your
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conscience, it will eventually lead you off a Cliff while
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assuring you that you are perfectly safe.
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Avoiding the text is a strategy of self destruction, right?
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We cannot just passively wait for conviction to hit us,
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Spurgeon says. We need the text to photograph
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itself upon our understanding. A photograph captures everything
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in the frame. The beautiful and the ugly, the
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intentional subjects in the background clutter.
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How do we facilitate that kind of exposure to the text,
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ensuring we aren't just reading it to confirm what we already
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believe, but actually letting it expose our hidden faults?
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Facilitating that exposure requires a deliberate posture of
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vulnerability when approaching the text.
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It means praying the prayer of Psalm 139.
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Search me, O God, and know my heart.
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See if there be any wicked way in me.
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You have to come to the scriptures assuming that you are
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currently wrong about several things.
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If you read the Bible for years and it never contradicts your
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political views, your financial habits, or your relational
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patterns. You are not reading the Bible,
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you're reading a mirror. To let the text photograph
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itself upon your understanding, you must study it
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comprehensively. You cannot just read the
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comforting Psalms, you must read the minor prophets demanding
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justice you. Cannot just read the promises of
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grace. You must read the Sermon on the
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Mount demanding radical purity. And when the text creates
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friction with your lifestyle, you do not put a finger on the
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eyeball. You stare directly at the
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contradiction until the text wins the argument.
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You seek out the light by inviting the critique of the
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Word and the critique of the Christian community.
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Allowing others to point out the blind spots that your own
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conscience has comfortably ignored.
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Taking the light in removes the dark, and with it the shame.
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The text from Psalm 119 says, Then shall I not be ashamed?
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As sin is cast out of the believer's life, shame is cast
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out in equal proportion. Spurgeon makes a keen
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psychological observation here. Excessive habitual sin
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eventually kills shame. He calls it developing A
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harlot's forehead, A biblical phrase meaning someone who has
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become so hardened they no longer know how to blush.
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But for the believer, pursuing holiness, true obedience creates
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immense courage before men. This is the armor of a guileless
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life. Spurgeon shares a personal
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anecdote of walking down the street and being mockingly
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called John Bunyan by a detractor.
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Instead of feeling insulted, Spurgeon took off his hat to the
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man and felt flattered, wishing he were actually more like
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Bunyan. He talks about proudly wearing
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labels that the world uses as insults.
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Methodist, Presbyterian. Puritan.
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When your conscience is clear before God, the slander of men
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loses its sting. Why is a clear conscience the
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ultimate defense against public slander and mockery?
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A clear conscience is the ultimate defense because it
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removes the internal ally of the external accuser.
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What do you mean by an internal ally?
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When someone slanders you, the accusation only causes deep
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psychological damage if some part of you fears that might be
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true, or if you are hiding other secrets that make you feel like
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an imposter. Oh, that makes total sense.
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If you are living a double life, a false accusation terrifies you
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because it draws attention to your facade.
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And you fear the subsequent investigation might uncover your
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actual sins. But when you are walking in
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guileless integrity, your internal reality matches your
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external profession. Spurgeon points to Job as the
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supreme example of this. Job was stripped of his wealth,
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his children and his health. He was covered in agonizing
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boils, sitting in ashes. His friends surround him and
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hurl theological accusations at him, insisting he must have
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committed some heinous secret sin to deserve such suffering.
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Job finds his entire backbone of patience and the fact that his
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conscience is clear. He knows he is pure in heart.
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He can defy his accusers and appeal directly to the Eternal
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God as His vindicator because the charges are simply false.
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He had not sinned against God in the way they claimed.
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When you know that the God who sees your darkest, most private
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moments approves of your trajectory and has covered your
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failures with Christ's blood, the opinions of men become
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incredibly small. You can take off your hat to an
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insult because the insult has no jurisdiction in the court of
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your. Conscience.
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Exactly. But if the insulation against
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slander is actually internal, we have to look at different kind
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of shame. Not the shame of public slander,
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but internal imposter syndrome before God.
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Spurgeon notes that sometimes believers feel ashamed to claim
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God's promises because we feel like strangers.
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We read a magnificent promise in the Bible, and our immediate
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thought is that it applies to the real Christians, the varsity
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team, not a struggling mess. We hesitate to grasp the
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abundant things of the Covenant. How does a clear conscience
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achieved through diligent obedience, remove that specific
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hesitation and cure spiritual imposter syndrome?
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Spiritual imposter syndrome almost always stems from a lack
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of careful walking before God. When we are tolerating known
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sins, winking at the light, as we discussed earlier, our
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fellowship with God is chilled. The Holy Spirit is grieved.
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In that state of spiritual lethargy and compromise, reading
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a massive promise of God's favor feels unnatural.
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It feels like wearing someone else's clothes.
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Your conscience is quietly whispering that you are not
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living like an air of the Kingdom, you're living like a
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squatter. But when you labor to keep your
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ways undefiled, when you are quick to repent, quick to obey,
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and striving to honor God in secret, the Holy Spirit bears
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witness with your Spirit that you are indeed a child of God.
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The imposter syndrome evaporates because your daily life is in
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harmony with your stated identity.
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You are not earning the promises, they are blood bought
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gifts, but your obedient life gives you the subjective
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assurance and the boldness to reach out and take them.
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You stop viewing the promises as forbidden fruit and start
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viewing them as the daily bread provided by your father.
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This internal assurance leads to external boldness in the
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community. Spurgeon argues that a clear
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conscience allows for bold admonishment of others.
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If a minister or a friend has a compromised life, they falter
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when trying to state a grand doctrinal truth or correct a
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brother. They lack the courage of the
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prophet Nathan who could stand before King David and say Thou
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art the man. If your own life is a mess of
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hidden compromises, you cannot look someone in the in the eye
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and call them to repentance because you fear they will point
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right back at you. Beyond just interpersonal
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boldness, Spurgeon looks at the end of life, the legacy left
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behind. He contrasts 2 kings of Judah,
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King Amaziah and King Hezekiah of.
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Amaziah, the record states he did what was right, howbeit the
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high places were not taken away. There is a qualification to his
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obedience. He left the altars of idolatry
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intact. But Hezekiah's record is
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unclouded. He removed the high places, cut
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down the Groves, and even broke in pieces the brazen serpent
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that Moses had made, because the people had turned it into an
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idol. Hezekiah left nothing standing
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that competed with God. This comprehensive tearing down
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of idols creates a runway for the final benefit.
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Boldness at the mercy seat. To illustrate this, Spurgeon
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uses an analogy of two brothers. One has offended the father, the
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other has not. They both want a holiday.
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The offending brother says to the other.
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You ask him, I know Father loves me, but I have offended him and
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this is not the time for me to ask a great favor.
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The analogy of the two boys perfectly captures the
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theological nuance of the believer's relationship with
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God. Spurgeon clarifies that sinning
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does not break the sonship. As he says, they are Calvinistic
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enough to know they are not going to be kicked out of the
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family or threatened with the loss of their justification.
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The offending boy knows his father still loves him and that
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he is still a son. The legal standing is secure.
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But the sin absolutely breaks the fellowship.
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General habits of sin, tolerance of the high places in our lives
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cause a believer to lose their liberty in prayer.
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When you are harboring rebellion, you can perhaps
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mumble a prayer for basic forgiveness or common mercies,
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but you cannot approach the throne of grace with the swagger
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of a beloved child asking for the nation's as an inheritance.
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You feel estranged, but when you walk in the light, the
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fellowship is unbroken. You draw near to God, not
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pleading your own perfect obedience, because you know your
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obedience is still flawed, but you plead the blood and
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righteousness of Christ with supreme boldness.
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Your heart is sprinkled clean from an evil conscience.
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You have the liberty to ask great things of God because you
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are walking in step with His Spirit.
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A heart sprinkled clean doesn't walk into the throne room waving
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a list of its own accomplishments.
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The boldness does not come from pointing to a flawless cathedral
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of good works. The boldness comes from pleading
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the blood of Christ, but doing so with a conscience that isn't
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actively contradicting that plea through hypocrisy.
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The Holy Spirit who wrought the obedience in the believer is the
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same Spirit working the adoption, teaching the believer
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to speak so that the Father listens.
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It brings everything full circle.
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Earning salvation brings the shame of the police court, but
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trust in Christ and joyfully obeying the rules of the
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Father's house brings the courage of a true heir.
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The law ceases to be a terror and becomes a guide for the
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believers. Gratitude.
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The believer looks at the rigorous moral standards not as
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a ladder to climb out of hell, but is the eliminated path of
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the father's estate. It is the joy of walking in the
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light. As we wrap up this deep dive, I
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want to leave you pondering Hezekiah and the Brazen Serpent,
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which he called Nehushten, meaning just a piece of brass.
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Think about the gravity of what Hezekiah did.
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He had to destroy a historical, spiritually significant relic
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that Moses himself had made by the command of God.
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God used that serpent to heal the Israelites in the
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wilderness. It was a good thing.
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But centuries later, it had become a snare.
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The people were burning incense to it.
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It'd become an idol. Hezekiah's unclouded legacy was
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secured because he possessed the ruthless courage to smash a good
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thing that was competing with. Consider your own life.
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What good historical or seemingly spiritual things,
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Perhaps a ministry position, a theological tribe, a specific
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tradition, or a public reputation have secretly become
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idols. What good things do you need to
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tear down to maintain a truly clear conscience and an
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unclouded fellowship with the Father?
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Thank you for joining us on this audio deep dive into reformed
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thinking. Keep your conscience clear, keep
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your idols smashed, and keep your fellowship unbroken.