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Conscience – An Insensible Conscience, Part 7

[Study Aired November 25, 2023]

As similarly stated in Part 6 of this Conscience series, by the time we get through all seventeen parts, we should have all nuances of conscience etched in our hearts for instant recall of the still small voice behind saying, “This is the way, walk you in it” (Isa 30:15-21). Subsequently, the many subtleties of an evil conscience overlap, and now also with our study on “An Insensible Conscience”.

The expression “insensible”, by its prefix ‘in’, means not or no and means being insensitive, unconscious, numb, impervious, unaffected or dead, and for this cause becoming unaffected by sin once acknowledged and forgiven. It is the positive meaning and mostly for this study’s purpose, it is our practised good conscience that becomes impervious to being manipulated by the many nuances of an evil conscience, and we subsequently are blessed with a peaceful conscience.

Heb 10:1  For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
Heb 10:2  For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience [Insensibility] of sins.
Heb 10:3  But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. 
Heb 10:4  For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

The Elect of God, by ‘instantly’ choosing good over an evil conscience, knows that it is not his strength that carries the glory of righteousness, but Christ’s strength, since of ourselves, we are incapable of overcoming anything without the holy spirit. The process is that we see the evil approaching and resist the devil by submission and acknowledgement of Christ’s strength by instantly asking the Lord for his power and workmanship to not enact a particular sin. We can’t overpower Satan, and as some so-called charismatic Christian denominations say, “We’re gonna twist ole Satan’s tail tonight” with their services that are a contemporary version of Jezebel’s priests of Baal cutting themselves mythically forcing Baal to submit to their requests (1Ki 18:19-40). 

In fact, Christ and Satan (by association) laugh at the absurdity (Psa 37:9-15). Being told to “resist the devil” implies their power and will is the impetus of change; we cannot resist anything without Christ. Our God-given action is to immediately ask our Father in heaven, in Christ’s name, to put the sin out of our life ~ that is the act of resisting the Devil. Being told to “resist the Devil” is another parable enabling strong delusion for the spiritually barren.

Jas 4:7  Therefore submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
 Jas 4:8  Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners; and purify your hearts [resultant good conscience], double-minded ones. 

Our Lord is making for himself a Wife with a single-minded focus on His ways; a beautiful woman who sees Him as the ‘prize’ as opposed to her former Queen Vashti self, manipulating her husband and all around her to vainly assure her statehood and glory above her husband. The irony is that when a Godly wife glorifies her husband as in the Lord, she becomes the recipient of all her desires, inclusive of the highest honour. In the Elect’s case, she becomes Christ’s Wife.

Mat 6:21  For where your treasure is [in this case, oneself], there will your heart be also. 
Mat 6:22  The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 
Mat 6:23  But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! 
Mat 6:24  No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon [the treasure of self-righteousness].

Our forebearers in Old Israel and their ponderous journey for our ensamples are twofold. First, to create the sons of God as numerous as the stars of heaven, and second, to tediously grind every man ever to exist to powder (Mat 21:24) to guarantee that we will seek to be free from these bodies of decaying flesh and demand only Christ’s spirit; to shudder at the thought of looking back to lust for some delusionary nirvana of so-called ‘perfect flesh’ with its regalia. As such, we will intensely desire, to the soles of our feet, to have “no more conscience of sins” (Heb 10:2).

Old Israel and we, since we are highly corruptible flesh prone continuously to sin, need to be reminded constantly to be watchful for its treachery. It is only after falling seventy times seven (Mat 18:22) and coming back to Christ for innumerable forgiveness that we become weary of the flesh and spew out the evil conscience. We cry to be free, to be ‘insensible’ to evil by a practised good conscience and abiding peace.

Heb 8:10  “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My Laws into their mind and write them in their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 
Heb 8:11  And they shall not each man teach his neighbor, and each man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest. 
Heb 8:12  For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more.” 
Heb 8:13  In that He says, A new covenant, He has made the first one old. Now that which decays and becomes old is ready to vanish away.

When we are sanctified, that is set apart for Christ, and some aspect of impurity vanishes, we become ‘insensible’ to its whereabouts, and when our Lord likewise remembers our impurity no more, we are at one with Him and the Father.

Joh 17:17  Sanctify them through Your truth. Your Word is truth.
Joh 17:18  As You have sent Me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world. 
Joh 17:19  And I sanctify Myself for their sakes, so that they also might be sanctified in truth. [When Christ returned to his former glory, he was divested of corruptible flesh and automatically became ‘insensible’ to an evil conscience]
Joh 17:20  And I do not pray for these alone, but for those also who shall believe on Me through their word, 
Joh 17:21  that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.
Joh 17:22  And I have given them the glory [the same pure spirit nature] which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one, 
Joh 17:23  I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know [through Christ and his Christs] that You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me. 

The key scripture of Heb 10:2 and us being purged of an evil conscience and therefore becoming insensible to evil is in the Aorist Tense; thus, we are being purged. Once we have the authentic spiritual mindset to have vanished all nuances of an evil conscience, we become insensible; we forget what is behind us and push forward to greater unity in Christ and the Father.

Heb 10:1  For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.

… meaning that while we are in these bodies of sinful flesh, we will never be entirely free of sin. We are being made perfect even as the man Jesus was made perfect to be Christ.

Heb 10:2  For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had [G2192, G5721] no more conscience of sins. 

Jesus, once purged of His corruptible body, was made impossible to return to sin. However, and for us remaining in these bodies of decaying flesh, we are always prone to sin even while we are forgiven and righteousness is attributed to us regardless of a random sin since the Lord knows our purged hearts. “Once we are purged, [we] should have had no more conscience of sins”, but in all fleshy likelihood, we are cursed with weak flesh that is highly likely to return to our vomit and retain consciousness of repeated sin.

The glorious state is to be given to be entirely free of the consciousness of sin, and our conscience thus being/becoming “insensible” to the current sin in question. It is the same state of insensibility to sin. Christ and the Father exist, yet while man exists, we are a vexation to the spirit.

A significant purpose of the sacrificial Laws of Moses offered year after year was to ponderously etch in the hearts of our forebearers the Lord’s plan of salvation and, most importantly, that our works to attain righteousness can never be gained by the sweating of our hard work since we in the New Covenant are our Lord’s workmanship (Eph 2:10).

The outcome of Hebrews 10:1-18 is in verse 18,

Heb 10:18  Now where remission [G859] of these is, there is no more offering for sin. 

Remission G859 –  Definition: 1. release from bondage or imprisonment 2. forgiveness or pardon of sins (letting them go as if they had never been committed), remission of the penalty.

From G863 – 1. to send away a. to bid going away or depart of a husband divorcing his wife.

In other words, upon acknowledging our sins and being forgiven, sin isn’t attributed to our lives even while still in sinful flesh. We are pardoned and released from the bondage of the physical ordinances of the Law we now live spiritually. For this study’s purpose, it means that our conscience becomes “insensible” to that particular sin ~ no more conscience [Insensibility] of sins – Heb 10:2. We are released from marriage in the death of our old wife (Jezebel; Vashti; harlots and Old Jerusalem) of sin ruling our hearts.

Rom 3:23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 
Rom 3:24  Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 
Rom 3:25  Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation [reconciliation; atonement] through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past [now insensible], through the forbearance of God; 

Of course, and as seen in a previous part of this series, a “seared conscience” is the most damning version of being insensible to our conscience since we are then impervious to sin. We run the risk of having no more remission for that sin since we stubbornly refuse to address that sin, and it is likely an idol of the heart. Of course, no being has a greater ‘seared conscience’ than Satan, our unwitting first father. He is the epitome of self-righteousness, stubbornness and ALL conceptions of evil.

Eze 14:1  And some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me. 
Eze 14:2  And the Word of Jehovah came to me, saying, 
Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts, and put the stumbling-block of their iniquity before their face. Should I at all be inquired of by them? 

Eze 14:5  so that I may capture the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are estranged from Me by their idols, all of them.

All of the Elect of God at some time have an experience or several adventures of estrangement from God by idols of the heart.

Eze 14:6  Therefore say to the house of Israel, So says the Lord Jehovah: Repent and turn from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations. [Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you] 

Eze 14:4  Therefore speak to them, and say to them, So says the Lord Jehovah: Every man of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart, and puts the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet; I Jehovah will answer him in it by the host of his idols; 

Why?

Eze 14:5  so that I may capture the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are estranged from Me by their idols, all of them.
Eze 14:6  Therefore say to the house of Israel, So says the Lord Jehovah: Repent and turn from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations.
Eze 14:7  For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger who lives in Israel, who separates himself from Me and sets up his idols in his heart, and puts the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to a prophet to ask of him concerning Me; I Jehovah will answer him Myself. 
Eze 14:8  And I will set My face against that man, and I will make him desolate for a sign and for proverbs [an example to the Church]. And I will cut him off from the midst of My people; and you shall know that I am Jehovah. 
Eze 14:9  And the prophet, if he is deceived, and he speaks a word, I Jehovah have deceived that prophet. And I will stretch out My hand on him and will destroy him in the midst of My people Israel. 
Eze 14:10  And they shall bear their iniquity. As the iniquity of the inquirer, so the iniquity of the prophet shall be. 
Eze 14:11  So that the house of Israel [The Bride of Christ] may never again go astray from Me, nor be defiled again with all their transgressions, but they are to Me My people, and I will be to them for God, says the Lord Jehovah. 

Previous studies in this series have reflected that our brother Cain is a classic foil for us of not joyously receiving correction (Gen 4:13). Cain saw his sin, and his attitude is endemic to us all by looking for ways to ” accuse [and] excuse” (Rom 2:15) our way out of acknowledging our sin. Like Cain, our unrepentant hearts cause us to be a “fugitive”, always imagining we are “hiding” from God and unwittingly causing us to be “vagabonds” and always beset by our greatest enemy, which is sin.

Heb 10:26  For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, 
Heb 10:27  But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries [within].

Rev 16:10  And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,
Rev 16:11  And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds. 

Pro 16:5  Every one that is proud in heart [unyielding to acknowledge sin] is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished. 
Pro 16:6  By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil. 
Pro 16:7  When a man’s ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies [our forgiven sins] to be at peace with him. 

Rom 3:9  What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; 
Rom 3:10  As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
Rom 3:11  There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 
Rom 3:12  They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 
Rom 3:13  Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 
Rom 3:14  Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
Rom 3:15  Their feet are swift to shed blood: 
Rom 3:16  Destruction and misery are in their ways: 
Rom 3:17  And the way of peace have they not known:
Rom 3:18  There is no fear of God before their eyes.
Rom 3:19  Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Rom 3:20  Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

Of course, as we are advancing spiritually, Babylonian Christianity remains immutably blind to the way of peace. It is undeniably and exponentially evident today that every man’s hand is at war against his neighbour. The West, the paragon of formally imagined Christian virtue, is being answered according to the idol of their hearts, and that idol is their utter insensibility to the knowledge of sin by God’s Law. Every man does what is right in his own eyes, even if he or she wants to identify as a cat or an adult baby literally in nappies (diaper), in a cot sucking on a bottle of milk making loathsomely ‘cute’ baby sounds. Cast God’s laws aside, and anything goes, and how dare anyone question that person’s non-binary identity!

The covert purpose of these absurdities to which the world is utterly blind is Satan’s vain hope to make the Body of Christ insensible to a Godly conscience and be swept away by its great flood of lies. Satan’s frustrations for not having his own will he knows will equally be frustrated in knowing the good outcome the Lord has designed for the “remnant” of the First Woman who brought forth Christ, the “man child”.

Rev 12:13  And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman [Gentile Christianity] which brought forth the man child.
Rev 12:14  And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

Even though the growth of Christianity since Christ has been turbulent and violent, it grew massively into the largest religious denomination the world has ever seen. Her growth in the heat of the day was an immense benefit to her younger sister, the Bride of Christ.

Rev 12:15  And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
Rev 12:16  And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. 
Rev 12:17  And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. 

The world is in a seemingly headlong rush to oblivion, and the following verses outwardly are their depiction when the Commandments of God are jeered. Of course, as we read these verses, as always apply them spiritually to ourselves.

Isa 33:7  See, the men of war are sorrowing outside the town: those who came looking for peace are weeping bitterly.
Isa 33:8  The highways are waste, no man is journeying there: the agreement is broken, he has made sport of the towns, he has no thought for man. (See all of 2Ti 3:1-9).
Isa 33:9  The earth is sorrowing and wasting away; Lebanon is put to shame and has become waste; Sharon is like the Arabah; and in Bashan and Carmel the leaves are falling. 
Isa 33:10  Now will I come forward, says the Lord; now will I be lifted up; now will my power be seen. 
Isa 33:11  Your designs will be without profit, and their effect will be nothing: you will be burned up by the fire of my breath.
Isa 33:12  And the peoples will be like the burning of chalk: as thorns cut down, which are burned in the fire. 
Isa 33:13  Give ear, you who are far off, to what I have done: see my power, you who are near. 
Isa 33:14  The sinners in Zion are full of fear; the haters of God are shaking with wonder. Who among us may keep his place before the burning fire? who among us may see the eternal burnings?

Heb 12:11  Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

Since Christ is our perfect sacrifice, He has cleaned out the old leaven and the physical Laws with the works of the flesh that once contaminated our consciences. We are, by His power, becoming spiritually clean as the Father has always existed with no conscience of sin, “… because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience [insensibility] of sins.” – Heb 10:2. 

The Bride of Christ is the first and remnant sinners in Zion who are given to see their insensibility to their seared consciences and now shake in fear and are humiliated for having been haters of God. They shake positively in awe and a shift in wonder for the marvellous works the Lord is labouring in their lives (Joh 5:17  But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work). They are the ones who are first to become positively insensible to an evil conscience since he has placed his stamp on their foreheads (Deu 6:8) as his very own people as the First Fruits faithfully following Christ, him being the beginning of the creation of God.

Rev 3:14  And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;

Lord willing, we, too, will endure to be in lockstep with Christ, the first of the first fruits, continuing the creation of God until our brothers remaining in Babylon finish their solemn assembly and re-creation in the fiery furnace on the Eighth Day (2 Ch 7:9).