Sermons on Conscience

Eric Aboadwe
August 9, 2017 ·

DO YOU HAVE A GOOD CONSCIENCE? (Part 1)

Our Scripture reading for this new day is taken from the gospel of John where it says:

“Then those who heard it, being CONVICTED by their CONSCIENCE, went out one by one, beginning with the OLDEST even to the last. And JESUS was left ALONE, and the woman standing in the midst” (John 8:9).

After the Pharisees dragged “the woman of adultery” to JESUS in order for her to be executed according to God’s judgment which is based on the LAW of Moses, they did not know that JESUS will expose their SIN at that very moment, else they would have preferred to leave the woman than bringing her to JESUS to suffer humiliation with their ARROGANCE broken into pieces by the words of JESUS.

The Scripture passage which we read above is the evidence of the fact that God gave us His just and holy LAW so that no human being can hide his SINFUL NATURE before God. The LAW of the Almighty God is a powerful SPIRITUAL MIRROR which enables everybody to see himself as he is so that “all the world may become GUILTY before God” (Romans 3:19).

The word “GUILTY” refers to the human “CONSCIENCE” which testifies against man and which keeps records of the SINFUL acts of men in their failure to do “GOOD.” Therefore when the Scripture says that, “There is NONE RIGHTEOUS, no, not one; They have ALL turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is NO ONE who does GOOD, no not one” (Romans 3:10,12), we must know that the human “CONSCIENCE” bears witness to this fact.

Therefore when the Pharisees and those who were holding STONES in their hands were “CONVICTED by their CONSCIENCE,” the Bible says they went out one by one, beginning with the OLDEST even to the last. This is the PROOF to all human beings that “There is NONE RIGHTEOUS, no, not one” and there is “NO ONE who does GOOD, no not one.”

That’s why our Scripture reading says that “And JESUS was left ALONE, and the woman standing in the midst.” It means that ONLY JESUS was a RIGHTEOUS Man who lived on this earth with a PERFECT “GOOD CONSCIENCE” because He never committed even a single SIN. And the Apostle Paul testified about this in Hebrews when he said that JESUS “was in all points TEMPTED as we are, yet WITHOUT SIN” (Hebrews 4:15).

Therefore unless Christians and all human beings understand this fact and accept it with all HUMILITY, they CANNOT be SAVED from their SINS. This is because JESUS the spiritual Doctor did not come to “HEAL” those who don’t see themselves as people who commit SINS until they die. That’s why He said, “Those who are WELL have no need of a PHYSICIAN, but those who are SICK. I did not come to call the RIGHTEOUS, but SINNERS to repentance” (Mark 2:17).

When our LORD says that “I did not come to call the RIGHTEOUS” He is referring to the Olden Day Pharisees and the Modern Day Christian Pharisees who think they are RIGHTEOUS because they did not commit “ADULTERY.” However we must know that “FORNICATION” is NOT the only SIN because JESUS said that having a look at a woman and lusting after her is also tantamount to “ADULTERY” (Matthew 5:28).

However Satan DECEIVED the Olden Day Pharisees and he has also DECEIVED the Modern Day Christian Pharisees to see “FORNICATION” as the only SIN. That’s why when JESUS told the Pharisees that they do the deeds of their father the Devil, they replied Him, “We were NOT born of FORNICATION; we have one Father – God” (John 8:41). This is the kind of illusion and deception which many Christians are currently living in. JESUS cannot SAVE such people from their SINS because they are not HONEST with themselves.

Both the Olden Day Pharisees and the Modern Day Christian Pharisees have been DECEIVED by Satan to think that “FORNICATION” is the greatest SIN according to their own criteria. Therefore the moment a church member commits “FORNICATION” they dispose him from his position and expel him from the church. But JESUS referred to such churches as “Synagogue of Satan” (Revelation 2:9). JESUS did not come to EXPEL SINNERS but to SAVE them with His LOVE of the water and the Spirit.

Even thought they Pharisees were claiming that they were “NOT born of FORNICATION,” and therefore they obey the LAW of Moses, still the Lord JESUS told them, “You are of your father the Devil, and the desires of your Father you want to do. He was a MURDERER from the beginning, and does not stand in the TRUTH, because there is no TRUTH in him. When he speaks a LIE, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a LIAR and the father of it” (John 8:44).

Here JESUS was telling the Olden Day Pharisees that even if they don’t commit “FORNICATION,” they still belong to Satan because he is their “father.” That is what JESUS meant by “You are of your father the Devil,” and He is saying the same thing to hypocritical Christians who are hiding in the caves of Satan. What JESUS told the Pharisees is enough proof that you can NEVER be BORN AGAIN just because you stayed away from “FORNICATION.”

Unless a person is “born again of the water and the Spirit”(John 3:5), staying away from murder, fornication, stealing, etc, is nothing but ZERO (0) before God. If a person can enter “The Kingdom of God” by staying away from these things, then why should JESUS be BAPTIZED in the Jordan River to accept everyone’s SIN upon Himself? Why should He suffer and DIE on the Cross with the chastisement of our peace upon Him?

Many Christians denominations are built on the FAITH of the Olden Day “Pharisees.” Therefore just as the Olden Day Pharisees dragged the woman of “adultery” to JESUS with the aim of STONING her, most of the Modern Day Pharisaic Christian denominations are also like that. They have been expelling those who commit “FORNICATION” from the church, and STONING them spiritually as if they are BETTER than them.

This is the reason why JESUS was telling such people “You are of your father the Devil, and the desires of your Father you want to do. He was a MURDERER from the beginning.” In other words they KILL sinners just like Satan. Instead of pastors and preachers to “RESTORE” sinners through the RIGHTEOUS work of JESUS by His water and the blood, they rather expel them just like what the Pharisees did to the woman of adultery, and they disassociate themselves completely from those who commit such acts by KILLING them with “self-condemnation.”

Christianity has LOST the “Light” and so everyone must RETURN to the TRUE GOSPEL of CHRIST in order to have a “GOOD CONSCIENCE” so that God will “restore” to them “the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust” (Joel 2:25).

Our study continues.........

BLESSED are the “MEEK” (Matthew 5:5).



Eric Aboadwe
August 10, 2017 ·

DO YOU HAVE A GOOD CONSCIENCE? (Part 2)

Our Scripture reading for this new day is taken from the gospel of John where it says:

“Then those who heard it, being CONVICTED by their CONSCIENCE, went out one by one, beginning with the OLDEST even to the last. And JESUS was left ALONE, and the woman standing in the midst” (John 8:9).

By looking at what the Scripture says here, we would have expected that at least one person will stay behind with all BOLDNESS and declare to JESUS, “Teacher, I am standing right here with the STONE in my hand because I don’t have SIN.” But was there anybody who was able to say that? The answer is a big “NO”.

This shows clearly that religion is a spiritual poison which is prepared and spearheaded by Satan the Devil to lead billions of people to “hell.” It is very SERIOUS! If the very people who were reading the Bible and praying every day could not “STAND” before JESUS, then what about those who don’t know God? None of the Pharisees who were following the “written code” of the LAW could “STAND” in front of JESUS with a “GOOD CONSCIENCE.”

We must not see what our Scripture reading is saying as a past event because currently Christianity is in the same situation being POLLUTED by the “doctrines” of theology which is not based on the TRUE SALVATION in JESUS CHRIST. It is actually lamentable that Christianity is still keeping the FAITH of the Pharisees, meanwhile none of them can “STAND” blameless before God when they are evaluated by the scope of the LAW.

When the Pharisees kept on asking JESUS and pestering Him for the woman to be STONED, the Bible says that JESUS stooped down again and “wrote on the ground” (John 8:8). It reminds me of what happened in Babylon when the “fingers of A MAN’S HAND appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall” of king Belshazzar’s palace (Daniel 5:5). The writings were “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN” (Daniel 5:25).

And when Daniel came to give the interpretation by the Spirit of God, he told king Belshazzar that the word, “TEKEL” means that “You have been WEIGHED, in the BALANCES, and found WANTING” (Daniel 5:27). When JESUS also “wrote on the ground” He did it for a purpose. We must know that he LORD JESUS does not do anything without a purpose.

Therefore when JESUS “wrote on the ground” and told them “He who is WITHOUT SIN among you, let him throw a STONE at her first,” He was telling the Pharisees, “TEKEL: You have been WEIGHED, in the BALANCES, and found WANTING.” This is what the LAW of God does. God wrote His holy LAW on the “tablets of STONE” and He wrote the SINS of human beings “with a pen of iron; with the point of a diamond, engraved on the tablet of their HEART” (Jeremiah 17:1).

And by doing this, God is speaking to all human beings including FALSE Christians by saying, “TEKEL: You have been WEIGHED, in the BALANCES, and found WANTING.” So who can STONE the woman of adultery? That’s why they “went out one by one, beginning with the OLDEST even to the last. And JESUS was left ALONE, and the woman standing in the midst”

But on a serious note, I was expecting one person to say, “Teacher, I didn't go with them because I don’t have any SIN. This is because when You were BAPTIZED by John the Baptist, he TESTIFIED to us that You are “The LAMB of God who TAKES AWAY the SIN of the world.” Therefore my standing here is not to STONE the woman because I am not even better than her in the FLESH. But I am standing here because I believe in Your WATER which has WASHED AWAY all my SINS, and I know very well that You will soon DIE for my SINS as prophesied in the Torah and the Prophets.” But none of them had such a FAITH.

Also when our Scripture reading says that, “Then those who heard it, being CONVICTED by their CONSCIENCE, went out one by one, beginning with the OLDEST even to the last,” it also confirms the words of King David when he confessed to God, “If You, LORD, should MARK iniquities, O Lord, who could STAND?” (Psalm 130:3). Again it confirms the words of David when he told God, “Do not enter into judgment with your servant, for in Your sight NO ONE living is RIGHTEOUS” (Psalm 143:2).

Therefore when JESUS MARKED the “iniquities” of the Pharisees with the words, “He who is WITHOUT SIN among you, let him throw a STONE at her first,” none of them could “STAND.” Have you seen how TRUTHFUL the Word of God is? Whiles the Pharisees were holding the STONES in their hand, the words of JESUS sank deep into their “CONSCIENCE” revealing their iniquities and abominations in secret. Therefore they could not stone the woman because before God, “NO ONE living is RIGHTEOUS” according to David.

But I am very surprised that the Pharisees were reading the Torah (Pentateuch) and the Psalms of David and yet they didn't accept what King David who was a predecessor of the FAITH was telling them in Psalm 130:3 and 143:2. They were reading the Psalms including Psalm 51 where David committed “adultery” with Beersheba, but because they were SPIRITUALLY BLIND, they didn't get any revelation from that incidence. They couldn't perceive the revelation of God’s “MERCY.” Had it been so, they wouldn't have attempted to STONE the woman.

But the moment JESUS told them, “He who is WITHOUT SIN among you, let him throw a STONE at her first,” their “CONSCIENCE” started to do its work by telling them, “Have you forgotten that last night you were ANGRY with your neighbor and you didn't love him as yourself?” And to others their “CONSCIENCE” arrested them by saying, “Have you forgotten that when you were on your way to the Synagogue you met an attractive and bosomy woman and you LUSTED after her?” Others too their “CONSCIENCE” was nagging at them, “You had a WET DREAM last night, so how can you STONE the woman?”

This is how the human “CONSCIENCE” given by God works to silence ARROGANT. It is like a CAMERA which captures everything which humans do or think. In fact this “CONSCIENCE” even has the power to remind people if they have forgotten what they have done. Our “CONSCIENCE” governs our THOUGHTS and ACTIONS, and it works hand in hand with the BRAIN, and the two are inseparable.

The only way to “ESCAPE” from SIN is to believe in the BAPTISM, BLOOD, and RESURRECTION of CHRIST JESUS. That’s why it is written, “How shall we ESCAPE if we NEGLECT SO GREAT A SALVATION, which at the first began to be spoken by the LORD, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him” (Hebrews 2:3).

BLESSED are we for KNOWING and BELIEVING in the pure Word of God.

Our study continues.........



Eric Aboadwe
August 11, 2017 ·

IS YOUR CONSCIENCE ACCUSING YOU?

Our reading of the word is taken from Romans where it is written:

“For when Gentiles who do not have the LAW, by nature DO the things in the LAW, these although not having the LAW, are a LAW to themselves, who show the work of the LAW written in their hearts, their CONSCIENCE also bearing WITNESS, and between themselves their thoughts ACCUSING or else EXCUSING them” (Romans 2:14-15).

We thank God for feeding us with His Word continually. Through His Word, He has enabled us to know that He is the only God who is full of compassion, gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in MERCY and TRUTH (Psalm 86:15). May His holy name be PRAISED forever and ever.

In our Previous study, we learnt that when the Pharisees were “CONVICTED by their CONSCIENCE” they threw the STONES away and left one by one from the oldest to the least, leaving JESUS alone and the woman standing in the midst due to their GUILTY “CONSCIENCE.”

But because LAWYERS were strict adherents of the LAW, in their own “judgment” and assessment, they thought that they were BLAMELESS regarding the do’s and the don’ts of the LAW. But to understand WHY they left, our Scripture reading through the Pauline Epistle to the Romans is revealing to us that it was their “CONSCIENCE” which was actually “ACCUSING” them in their “thoughts.”

It means that even in the absence of the holy LAW of God, the human “CONSCIENCE” acts exactly like the LAW to check on people. That’s why Paul was confirming the fact that the human “CONSCIENCE” bears “WITNESS” in our “thoughts” by doing the work of “ACCUSING” or “EXCUSING” us.

In the gospel of John, JESUS told us clearly that it is the Law of Moses which “ACCUSES” us. He said, “Do not think that I shall ACCUSE you to the Father; there is one who ACCUSES you–Moses, in whom you trust” (John 5:45). In other words even though the LAW of Moses “ACCUSES” us as JESUS told the Pharisees, our Scripture reading from Romans also tells us that the human “CONSCIENCE” does the same work of “ACCUSING” us.

Therefore unless a person BELIEVES in God’s RIGHTEOUSNESS fulfilled by the water, the blood, and the resurrection of JESUS, that person cannot “STAND” blamelessly before God. God chose in CHRIST to be “holy and without blame before Him in LOVE” (Ephesians 1:4) when we believe in His only begotten Son. But we can NEVER be “holy” and “without blame” through the LAW, but it is through the “LOVE” of God manifested by the “ETERNAL PURPOSE which He accomplished in CHRIST JESUS our Lord” (Ephesians 3:11).

Also when the Apostle Paul says that “For when Gentiles who do not have the LAW, by nature DO the things in the LAW,” we don’t have to think that it is only talking about human behavior and character. We must know that the SACRIFICIAL SYSTEM of atonement of SINS which is the “GRACE of God” was also attached to the “LAW.” It was part of "the things in the LAW."

Due to this, when a person committed SINS and the “LAW” and his “CONSCIENCE” “ACCUSED” him, he brought a live goat without blemish (Leviticus 1:1-3), laid hands on its head for the TRANSFER of sins (Leviticus 16:21), and then killed it for it’ blood to ooze out (Leviticus 1:5). God gave this BLESSING which was “a shadow” of the sacrificial work of CHRIST so that they can overcome the “ACCUSATIONS” of the “LAW” and the “CONSCIENCE.”

Therefore when our Scripture reading talks about those who “DO the things in the LAW,” it is talking about those “who walk with God” in HUMILITY like Enoch (Genesis 5:24). The likes of them are Abel, Set, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob etc. Such men of FAITH were doing “the things in the LAW” when they confessed their INABILITY to obey the LAW (SIN) and offered the animal sacrifice to transfer their SINS on its head.

For example when Daniel confessed his SINS and that of his people by saying, “We have SINNED and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments” (Daniel 9:5), we must know that this CONFESSION is not like the way many Christians are doing. But rather when they CONFESSED like this, they offered daily sacrifices in the morning and evening.

Daniel confirmed this when he said, “Yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the EVENING SACRIFICE” (Daniel 9:21). This shows that there was a MORNING SACRIFICE as well. Therefore Daniel and all the people in the Old Testament were doing this because “according to the LAW” almost all things are “purified” with BLOOD, and without the shedding of BLOOD “there is no REMISSION” (Hebrews 9:22).

This is how the predecessors of FAITH in the Old Testament were doing “the things in the LAW,” and this is how they were able to obtain “A GOOD CONSCIENCE.” However theirs was a “SHADOW of the good things to come” (Hebrews 10:1) because JESUS was coming to give us the “REAL” one. And concerning this, the Apostle Peter tells us, “Of this SALVATION the prophets have INQUIRED and SEARCHED carefully, who prophesied of the GRACE that would come to you” (1 Peter 1:10).

People like Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Hosea were not like the Pharisees, but just like Daniel, they confessed to God by saying, “O Lord, RIGHTEOUSNESS belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day...” (Daniel 9:7). Therefore if the Pharisees had known and believed that “RIGHTEOUSNESS belongs to” God, they wouldn't have attempted to STONE the woman of adultery. But the Pharisees were holding STONES in their hands as if “RIGHTEOUSNESS belongs” to them.

JESUS said that “BLESSED are the MERCIFUL, for they shall obtain MERCY (Matthew 5:7), but the Pharisees had NO MERCY, and the Modern Day Christians Pharisees are also like that. The pastors and evangelists of the Modern Day Pharisees preach the kind of GOSPEL which insult prostitute and SINNERS. Therefore they will NOT “obtain MERCY” but they will end up in hell unless they repent.

People like Daniel accepted the fact that “RIGHTEOUSNESS belongs to God..” And to such people God revealed to them that the MESSIAH will “Finish the transgression, make an END of SINS, make reconciliation for iniquity,” and “bring in EVERLASTING RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Daniel 9:24).

Therefore they were able to overcome the “ACCUSATION” of the “LAW” and the “CONSCIENCE” through the “shadow” of the work of CHRIST which was to be fulfilled by His “water and blood” (1 John 5:6). This is how their “CONSCIENCE” changed from “ACCUSING” them to “EXCUSING” them (making them blameless).

In our next topic, we will look at how a person can obtain “A GOOD CONSCIENCE” before God in order to stand in the “Judgment Day” without any “fear.”

Our study continues.......



Eric Aboadwe
August 12, 2017 ·

HOW TO OBTAIN A PURE CONSCIENCE

Our Scripture reading for this new day is taken from the 2nd Book of Timothy where Paul says:

“I thank God, whom I serve with PURE CONSCIENCE, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day” (2 Timothy 1:3).

We thank God once again for giving us His Word which is forever settled in Heaven (Psalm 119:89). In our previous study, our Lord made us to understand through the Epistle of Paul to the Romans, that our “CONSCIENCE” does two things which are “ACCUSING” and “EXCUSING” us.

We also studied how the people of FAITH such as Daniel were able to overcome the ACCUSATIONS of the “LAW” and the “CONSCIENCE” through the sacrificial system which was the “shadow” of CHRIST (the good things to come), and which also enabled them to be “EXCUSED” (made blameless) from SIN.

Therefore if the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 2:15 that the human “CONSCIENCE” does the work of “ACCUSING” or “EXCUSING” us, and now He says in our Scripture reading from 2 Timothy 1:3 that he served God “with PURE CONSCIENCE,” then the question is “HOW did Paul OBTAINED A PURE CONSCIENCE?”

First of all, to obtain a “PURE CONSCIENCE,” the Apostle humbled himself and accepted the fact that he was the most wicked SINNER on this earth. That’s why he said, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that CHRIST JESUS came into the world to SAVE SINNERS of whom I am CHIEF.” (1 Timothy 1:15). Only the people of HUMILITY can make this confession, and it is on such people that God bestows His “MERCY.”

Paul was saying he was the “CHIEF of SINNERS,” and he said that whether somebody agrees with him or not, it is “worthy of all acceptance.” In others words he was saying that everybody should accept it like that no matter what they think. But his statement also shows clearly that “CHRIST JESUS came into the world to SAVE” even the most “wicked” person because JESUS did not exclude anybody from His SALVATION plan irrespective of the degree of their wickedness.

Secondly, Paul obtained a “PURE CONSCIENCE” when he accepted the fact that there is nothing he can do to SAVE himself. He realized that “nothing good dwells” in his FLESH, and therefore he cannot do any “good” but “evil” (Romans 7:18-19). He came to this realization through the “LAW” of God. This made him to confess his deplorable SINFUL NATURE when he said, “O wretched man that I am! Who will DELIVER me from this BODY of DEATH?” (Romans 7:24).

To those who realize their spiritual DISEASE of SIN just like what Paul is saying here, JESUS will SAVE them from their SINS once and for all. But for those who think that they can obey the “LAW” through their acts of RIGHTEOUSNESS, JESUS says, “For the HEARTS of this people have grown dull. Their EARS are hard of hearing, and their EYES they have closed, lest they should see with their EYES and hear with their EARS, lest they should UNDERSTAND with their HEARTS and TURN, so that I should HEAL them” (Matthew 13:15).

Here JESUS tells us that nobody can be “HEALED” from SIN if he does not “UNDERSTAND” the spiritual disease of his SINFUL NATURE. If people do not accept the Word of God that they cannot obey the “LAW” to become “RIGHTEOUS,” JESUS is saying it is because their “EARS are hard of hearing” and they have “closed their EYES.” As a result, they cannot “UNDERSTAND” the revelation of why God gave us the “LAW.” Such people do not know that the LAW was “Knowledge of SIN” (Romans 3:20), and also “our tutor to bring us to CHRIST that we might be justified by FAITH ” (Galatians 3:24).

Paul UNDERSTOOD all these things, and that’s why he was able to obtain a “PURE CONSCIENCE.” Formally Paul had also “closed his EYES” as JESUS was telling us in Matthew 13:15. But when he was on his way to Damascus, He met JESUS and He struck him with PHYSICAL BLINDNESS for standing against Him (Acts 9:8). At that time Paul was already a SPIRITUALLY BLIND person.

This is the reason why he confessed, “Although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and n insolent man; but I OBTAINED MERCY because I did it IGNORANTLY and in UNBELIEF” (1 Timothy 1:13). It means that IGNORANCE and UNBELIEF are the two most DANGEROUS SINS which is leading the mankind including Christians to hell.

God spoke about the DANGERS of IGNORANCE when He said, “My people are DESTROYED for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). And JESUS also spoke about the DANGERS of UNBELIEF when He said, “Therefore I say to you, every SIN and BLASPHEMY will be FORGIVEN men, but the BLASPHEMY against the Spirit (the SIN of UNBELIEF) will not be FORGIVEN” (Matthew 12:31).

But just like the Pharisees, many Christians think that “fornication” or “adultery” is the most dangerous SIN which will “DESTROY” people in hell. But God tells in Hosea that many Christians will be “DESTROYED” in hell as a result of their “lack of knowledge” about the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God and their “UNBELIEF.” Paul also had the same SPIRITUAL DISEASE. That’s why he said, “because I did it IGNORANTLY and in UNBELIEF.”

However the Bible tells us that after Paul believed in JESUS, he went to meet “Ananias” in order to get BAPTIZED after believing in JESUS BAPTISM which fulfilled “all RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Matthew 3:15). Therefore because Paul believed in the “WATER” of JESUS and he went to “Ananias” for BAPTISM, the Bible says that “Immediately there fell from his EYES something like SCALES, and he received his SIGHT at once; and he arose and was BAPTIZED” (Acts 9:18).

This gives us the proof that the BAPTISM of JESUS is an “EYE OPENER.” Because Paul believed in the WATER of JESUS, his even received his EYE “SIGHT” before he was BAPTIZED. It is just like what happened in Cornelius house when they believed in JESUS BAPTISM and they received “the GIFT of the Holy Spirit” before they were BAPTIZED (Acts 10:44-48). We must know that what matters before God is “FAITH” and not rituals an ceremonies.

However when it says that “Immediately there fell from his EYES something like SCALES, and he received his SIGHT at once,” we must know that the “SCALES” which fell from Paul’s “EYES” refers to the BLINDNESS of religion. Satan is using religion to lead people to hell. But THANKS be to God that the “SCALES” fell from Paul’s “EYES” and he received his SPIRITUAL “EYE SIGHT” after meeting JESUS CHRIST.

Therefore the Third point by which Paul obtained a “PURE CONSCIENCE” was the fact that he believed JESUS “came by WATER and BLOOD” (1 John 5:6). He understood that CHRIST was baptized by John the Baptist to fulfill “all RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Matthew 3:15). This made him to speak a lot about the BAPTISM of JESUS (Romans 6:3; Galatians 3:26-27; Hebrews 10:22). Also in Titus, Paul referred to being “born again of the Water and the Spirit” as “the WASHING of REGENERATION” (Titus 3:5).

And because Paul believed in this way and he obtained a “PURE CONSCIENCE,” he was able to declare, “I thank God - through JESUS CHRIST our Lord! So then, with the MIND (PURE CONSCIENCE) I myself serve the LAW of God, but with the FLESH the LAW of SIN” (Romans 7:25). It means that if we base our FAITH in the “FLESH,” we can NEVER obtained a “PURE CONSCIENCE.” Therefore as a Christian, don’t allow Satan the Devil to deceive you that you can become RIGHTEOUS in your “FLESH!”

Our study continues.........



Eric Aboadwe
August 13, 2017 ·

THE ANSWER OF A GOOD CONSCIENCE

Today’s reading of the Word is taken from the 1st Epistle of Peter where it says:

“There is also an ANTITYPE which now SAVES us – BAPTISM (not the removal of the filth of the FLESH, but the ANSWER of A GOOD CONSCIENCE toward God), through the RESURRECTION of JESUS CHRIST” (1 Peter 3:21).

In our previous study, our study was cantered on the words of the Apostle Paul when He said that He served God with a “PURE CONSCIENCE.” And through his Epistles which He wrote by the inspiration of the “Holy Spirit,” we learnt how Paul obtained this “PURE CONSCIENCE” by (1) Accepting his SINFUL NATURE with all humility, (2) Realizing his inability to obey the written code of the Law, and (3) having FAITH in the water and the blood of CHRIST.

And in our Scripture reading today, the Apostle Peter also tells how we can obtain “A GOOD CONSCIENCE” by drawing our minds back to a historical event which speaks about the mystery of JESUS’ BAPTISM as an “ANTITYPE” of SALVATION from SIN. Therefore our Scripture reading is drawing our minds to the fact that during the time of Noah, the antediluvians did not BELIEVE in the Word of the “WATER” by which Noah and his household were SAVED from God’s judgment (1 Peter 3:20).

WATER is a symbol of “purification,” and it was created by God to give “temporal life” to human beings in the FLESH, but “eternal life” to our SPIRITUAL bodies. Therefore JESUS CHRIST was BAPTIZED in order to take away our SINS upon Himself so that He can “purify” our SPIRITUAL bodies of the soul and spirit. This is the main reason why the Apostle Peter says in our Scripture reading that the WATER of JESUS is “NOT the removal of the filth of the FLESH, but the ANSWER of A GOOD CONSCIENCE toward God.”

The Apostle Paul described this particular work of CHRIST when he said, “That He might SANCTIFY and CLEANSE her with the WASHING of WATER by the WORD, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:26-27).

JESUS CHRIST is the “WORD,” and He was BAPTIZED by John the Baptist for purification purpose. He was not baptized for Himself but for us. And unless a Christian understands this fact, there is no way he can obtain “A GOOD CONSCIENCE.” This is the reason why when you ask a Christian, “Are you a SINNER or a RIGHTEOUS person?” he will pause for a while and reply, “But nobody is PERFECT so why are you asking me this question?” Such a Christian does not have “the ANSWER of A GOOD CONSCIENCE toward God.”

The reason why he is still a SINNER is all because the BAPTISM of JESUS is missing from his FAITH. His half-oriented FAITH make him chant everyday “God forgive me, sanctify me, purge me, purify me, cleanse me, make me pure, make me holy” He will use so many words but he is always at “square one” (old creature) and not a “new creature in CHRIST” (2 Corinthians 5:17). WHY?

Because he did not allow JESUS to “SANCTIFY and CLEANSE her with the WASHING of WATER by the WORD.” When John the Baptist baptized JESUS, it was done in order to fulfill a very important prophecy about the TRANSFER of SIN onto the lamb in the Old Testament (Leviticus 16:21). And the purpose of this “One Man’s RIGHTEOUS act” (Romans 5:18) was to give us “A GOOD CONSCIENCE towards God.” This is because when you believe that all your SINS have been TRANSFERED onto JESUS, you know very well that the SINS have been taken away from you and it has been handed over to JESUS.

But many Christians do not know this because their denomination was founded according to someone’s own belief system. Therefore If you ask a Christian, “WHY did JESUS die on the Cross?” He will say, “It is because of our SINS.” But when you ask further, “Did JESUS committed any SIN?” He will say, “No.” But if JESUS did not commit any SIN and the Word of God says that, “For the wages of SIN is DEATH” (Romans 6:23), then a Christian must know that thinking that JESUS died on the Cross before God laid our SINS on Him does not fit into the “JUSTICE” of God.

If a Christian overlook this, he can NEVER have a “A GOOD CONSCIENCE towards God.” Isaiah said that, “For the LORD is a God of JUSTICE” (Isaiah 30:18b). So how can God punish JESUS if the “SIN of the world” were not laid on Him? This is the reason why John the Baptist who TRANSFERRED our SINS on JESUS declared, “Behold! The LAMB of God who takes away the SIN of the world” (John 1:29).

John the Baptist was sent from God (John 1:6) to make this declaration to all human beings so that they can have “A GOOD CONSCIENCE towards God.” Whoever believe in the testimony of John concerning what JESUS did in His BAPTISM can stand before God “blameless” with a “A GOOD CONSCIENCE.”

Therefore when you BELIEVE in JESUS BAPTISM in addition to His BLOOD and RESURRECTION, the Bible tells us clearly that even if your “CONSCIENCE” make attempt to ACCUSE or CONDEMN you as a “SINNER,” what JESUS did for you cannot CHANGE, and therefore you are still “RIGHTEOUS.”
The Apostle John explained this when he said, “For if our heart CONDEMNS us, God is GREATER than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not CONDEMN us, we have CONFIDENCE toward God” (1 John 3:21).

Therefore in order to overcome SELF-CONDEMNATION, the Apostle Peter spoke to us by the inspiration of the “Holy Spirit” that the BAPTISM of JESUS by which He accepted our SINS onto Himself gives us “A GOOD CONSCIENCE towards God.” This is because it is God who made JESUS “To be SIN for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21), and He is “GREATER” than our heart which “CONDEMNS” us.

In order words the Apostle Peter was telling us that if we BELIEVE that God made JESUS “who knew no SIN to be SIN for us” in His BAPTISM, then we can have “the ANSWER of A GOOD CONSCIENCE toward God.” Therefore if somebody ask you, “Are you a SINNER or a RIGHTEOUS person,” You can boldly say in the affirmative tone “YES, I am RIGHTEOUS.”

If God who cannot lie (Numbers 23:19) says that He made JESUS to be SIN for us in His BAPTISM so that we will become His RIGHTEOUSNESS in Him, then it give us “A GOOD CONSCIENCE towards” God Himself. This is the reason why the Apostle Paul clarified everything by saying that, “For He made Him who knew NO SIN to be SIN for us, that we might become the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

It means the Apostle Paul also believed that God made JESUS to be a SINNER for him when He was BAPTIZED, and that’s why in our previous study, Paul said that he served God with a “PURE CONSCIENCE.” This confirms what the Apostle Peter is also saying in our Scripture reading about JESUS BAPTISM as the “ANTITYPE” of SALVATION which gives us “the ANSWER of A GOOD CONSCIENCE toward God.”

However, Paul also explained that the BLOOD of CHRIST also “CLEANSED” our “CONSCIENCE.” He said, “How much more shall the BLOOD of CHRIST who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, CLEANSE your CONSCIENCE from dead works to serve the Living God?” (Hebrews 9:14).

Therefore the Christian FAITH which believes in only the “BLOOD” of JESUS is wrong because it is both His “WATER” and “BLOOD” which “CLEANSED” us to give us a “GOOD CONSCIENCE” towards God.

Those who BELIEVE according to His holy Word are BLESSED!



Eric Aboadwe
August 14, 2017 ·

YOU HAVE BEEN LIFTED UP FROM SIN

Our Scripture reading is taken from the Epistle of the 1st Book of Peter where it says:

“By whom also He went and PREACHED to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ARK was being prepared, in which A FEW, that is eight souls, were SAVED through WATER” (1 Peter 3:19-20).

We thank God that through His Word we do not lose heart. And even though our outward man is perishing, our inward man (spirit and soul) is renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16). We must therefore thank Him for given us His Word for the nourishment of our souls.

As people of God, it is only by FAITH that we can taste the kindness of the LORD, and it is by this same FAITH that we can know and realize that JESUS CHRIST is “He who made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture” (Psalm 100:3). In other words we haven’t done anything, but it is JESUS CHRIST who made us, SAVED us from SIN, and fed us with His Word of Life.

In our Scripture reading, Peter the Apostle was telling us how the “WATERS” of the flood SAVED Noah and his household from SIN and JUDGMENT through the SALVATION which God planned in JESUS CHRIST. But in order to understand what the Apostle Peter mean by the words “In which A FEW, that is eight souls, were SAVED through WATER,” we have to go back to Genesis and read what actually happened so that we can understand how Noah and his family “were SAVED through WATER.”

The account in Genesis says, “So those that ENTERED, male and female of all flesh, WENT IN as God had commanded him; and the LORD SHUT him IN. Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The WATERS increased and LIFTED UP the Ark, and it rose high above the earth” (Genesis 7:17).

The words above is telling us that whiles the people of the world were submerged deep inside the “WATERS” under God’s judgment, the same WATERS “LIFTED UP” Noah and his household above the earth. It means that they were “LIFTED UP” from sin, death, curse and judgment. Thus God SAVED Noah and his household with His “Word” of the “WATER,” but judged the antediluvians who didn't believe in “WATER.”

When it says in Genesis that “The WATERS increased and LIFTED UP the ARK, and it rose high above the earth,” it is talking about the SALVATION of JESUS CHRIST through His water, blood, and resurrection. When JESUS took away our SINS in the “WATERS” of the Jordan River after being BAPTIZED by John the Baptist, He DIED and RESURRECTED.

We must therefore know that the “ARK” itself represent JESUS, and He used the “WATERS” to LIFT the “ARK” upwards. It means that JESUS Himself SAVED us with His own WATER BAPTISM, dying on the Cross and RESURRECTING from the death to “LIFT” us “UP” from SIN. That’s why the Apostle Peter was saying that “There is also an ANTITYPE which now SAVES us – BAPTISM, ... through the RESURRECTION of JESUS CHRIST” (1 Peter 3:21).

It means that after JESUS took our SINS upon Himself in the “WATER” of the Jordan River, He DIED after being “LIFTED UP” on the wooden Cross so that we will DIE together with Him in order for our “body of SIN to be done away with, that we should no longer be SLAVES of SIN” (Romans 6:6). This is the reason why JESUS Himself said that, “And I, if I am LIFTED UP from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32).

Please just pay a close attention to what JESUS is saying here. If JESUS says that, “And I, if I am LIFTED UP from the earth, will draw all people to myself,” we must remember the account in Genesis which tells us that, “The WATERS increased and LIFTED UP the Ark, and it rose high above the earth.” Just relax and see how Genesis 7:17 is connected to what JESUS is saying in John 12:32. We must know that JESUS was “LIFTED UP” so that we can also be “LIFTED UP” from SIN and JUDGMENT.

If JESUS was not BAPTIZED to accept our SINS upon Himself, there was no way He could DIE on the Cross. Therefore after He accepted our SINS in the “WATERS” of the Jordan River, He was then “LIFTED UP” by dying on the Cross. As a Christian, you must believe that it is JESUS BAPTISM that “LIFTED” Him “UP” to the Cross. This is because JESUS never committed any SIN (Hebrews 4:15). If the SINS had not been laid on Him by His WATER, He couldn't have been “LIFTED UP.”

This is the reason why after the Apostle Peter spoke about JESUS’ “BAPTISM” in our Scripture reading, he also spoke about His “RESURRECTION” when he said, “through the RESURRECTION of JESUS CHRIST.” However this does not mean that the DEATH of JESUS is not included in the passage. It is inclusive, but it is only those to whom “it has been given to KNOW the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 13:11) will understand.

However the “Natural man” cannot understand these SPIRITUAL mysteries because it “does NOT receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he KNOW them, because they are SPIRITUALLY discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

If the Word of God says in 1 Peter 3:21 that “There is also an ANTITYPE which now SAVES us – BAPTISM,” it means that the BAPTISM of JESUS CHRIST by which He accepted upon Himself “the SIN of the world” (1 John 1:29), has also “LIFTED” us “UP” from sin, death, curse, and judgment.

If Noah and his household had not been “LIFTED UP” from the earth and it’s SINS, they would have sank in God’s judgment and perish like the others. Therefore unless we are also “LIFTED UP” from SIN by the BAPTISM of JESUS CHRIST in addition to His BLOOD, and RESURRECTION, we cannot escape from God’s fierce judgment.

It was God who did whatever He has to do to “LIFT UP” Noah and his family from the judgment of “the SIN of the world.” They didn't do anything. Noah didn't contribute to the SALVATION of God. That’s why it says that, “and the LORD SHUT him IN.” So let us understand that it was not Noah who “SHUT” himself “IN” the “ARK,” but it was God who “SHUT him IN.”

In the same way, God has also “SHUT” us “IN” JESUS CHRIST through His water, blood, and resurrection. This is the reason why the Apostle Paul said that, “For you died, and your life is HIDDEN with CHRIST in GOD” (Colossians 3:3). It is a great blessing to be “SHUT IN” in JESUS CHRIST through the Holy Spirit who is the “guarantee of our inheritance” (Ephesians 1:13-14).

BLESSED are those who have been “LIFTED UP” from SIN.