What Is The Conscience? (Romans 9:1-5)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.720 --> 00:00:10.310 Let's hear God's word. Now from Romans chapter nine, I begin preaching a 2 00:00:10.550 --> 00:00:15.349 new section, one of the final sections here in the book of Romans, 3 00:00:15.429 --> 00:00:22.859 Romans Chapter Nine, a famous chapter of an important chapter, one that we 4 00:00:22.940 --> 00:00:32.500 will go probably slowly through for fun, for edification. In fact, this 5 00:00:32.659 --> 00:00:36.450 morning I'm only going to be focusing on verse one, on kind of a 6 00:00:36.649 --> 00:00:41.490 secondary point that Paul is making here, but I'm going to read versus one 7 00:00:41.609 --> 00:00:47.969 through three Romans Nine, verses one through three. This is God's word. 8 00:00:49.369 --> 00:00:54.640 I am speaking the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience 9 00:00:54.840 --> 00:01:02.159 bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish 10 00:01:02.240 --> 00:01:07.670 in my heart, for I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut 11 00:01:07.709 --> 00:01:11.430 off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsman according to the 12 00:01:11.549 --> 00:01:23.939 flesh. May God bless his word. You may be seated. My brother 13 00:01:23.099 --> 00:01:29.060 is a detective and one year I bought him a book called spy by the 14 00:01:29.140 --> 00:01:37.370 lie. It's about three former CIA agents who reveal how to spy the lie, 15 00:01:37.650 --> 00:01:42.650 how to tell the truth from fiction, how to read people, in 16 00:01:42.769 --> 00:01:49.159 other words, and figure out who's telling the truth and WHO's not. Well, 17 00:01:49.319 --> 00:01:53.200 I got to stay with him on during our vacation and I saw this 18 00:01:53.280 --> 00:01:55.480 book on his shelf and I picked it up. Of course, you know, 19 00:01:55.680 --> 00:01:59.239 you buy the gift and you like the gift. Anyway, I picked 20 00:01:59.239 --> 00:02:01.069 up the book and I started reading. In one of the early stories in 21 00:02:01.109 --> 00:02:07.109 the book is one of these these former agents, these CI agency, tells 22 00:02:07.189 --> 00:02:12.590 this story about how he had to go do this sort of routine check up 23 00:02:12.710 --> 00:02:15.139 on an asset that they had. He goes meets with them. This has 24 00:02:15.180 --> 00:02:20.020 been a very reliable person for many years, and then, as he gets 25 00:02:20.020 --> 00:02:23.300 into the interview, he asks a kind of routine question and then the guy 26 00:02:23.460 --> 00:02:28.580 starts dropping all kinds of signals that this man knows how to read and purports 27 00:02:28.620 --> 00:02:30.849 to tell you how you will be able to read that he is lying. 28 00:02:31.490 --> 00:02:36.250 And what he uncovers, and the the rest over the next few hours, 29 00:02:36.849 --> 00:02:40.650 is that this person who was supposedly this helpful acid had it actually been working 30 00:02:42.250 --> 00:02:46.400 for the other side and had been doing so for a long, long time. 31 00:02:47.680 --> 00:02:53.000 He realized that this person he was talking to was someone who had been 32 00:02:53.080 --> 00:02:59.229 living this life of duplicity. They'd been acting one way or saying one thing 33 00:02:59.590 --> 00:03:06.949 but really doing another. I wonder if you can understand what that kind of 34 00:03:07.150 --> 00:03:13.139 life is like, what that kind of life feels like. I'd like to 35 00:03:13.259 --> 00:03:15.939 say that I hope not, but my guess is is that we all, 36 00:03:16.020 --> 00:03:20.500 at some point or another, have found ourselves in this kind of position. 37 00:03:21.740 --> 00:03:28.449 Perhaps you find yourself deep in this position, maybe like this man, having 38 00:03:28.650 --> 00:03:35.569 lived decades of a life. That is not true. You don't have a 39 00:03:35.729 --> 00:03:40.009 clear conscience. Perhaps you feel like David felt when we were reading Psalm thirty 40 00:03:40.050 --> 00:03:50.599 two. David's conscience was bothering him in a big way. It's not just 41 00:03:50.800 --> 00:03:55.030 that he knew something was wrong, he feels it even in his body. 42 00:03:55.349 --> 00:04:00.789 Remember what he says. He says when I kept silent about his sin, 43 00:04:00.669 --> 00:04:06.990 when he was suppressing the guilt that he felt instead of confessing it. He 44 00:04:08.150 --> 00:04:15.579 says my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long, day and night. 45 00:04:15.660 --> 00:04:20.339 Your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was dried up as by 46 00:04:20.459 --> 00:04:26.889 the heat of summer. I wonder if you've ever felt like that, if 47 00:04:26.930 --> 00:04:30.850 you've felt the weight of your conscience, the spirit of God, through your 48 00:04:30.889 --> 00:04:39.120 conscience, pressing you down, heavy, groaning, losing energy, depressed. 49 00:04:42.160 --> 00:04:46.959 This is not how Paul speaks at the beginning of Romans nine. Paul is 50 00:04:47.160 --> 00:04:53.110 just the opposite of this. He speaks openly, confidently. He says, 51 00:04:53.550 --> 00:04:58.189 I am speaking the truth in Christ, I am not lying. And then 52 00:04:58.230 --> 00:05:04.430 he says, my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have 53 00:05:04.550 --> 00:05:10.139 great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. Now he's going to go on 54 00:05:10.259 --> 00:05:14.540 and talk about why he has unceasing sorrow and anguish in his heart. It's 55 00:05:14.540 --> 00:05:18.060 because of his brothers and sisters, if fell, his fellow Jews who do 56 00:05:18.220 --> 00:05:24.089 not know the Lord Jesus. But this anguish that he's feeling, he wants 57 00:05:24.129 --> 00:05:27.449 to express it to them and to us and say this is really true. 58 00:05:27.490 --> 00:05:30.089 I'm not sort of putting on a show of emotion for you. I'm not 59 00:05:30.170 --> 00:05:35.800 really I'm not faking this, I'm speaking the truth. Notice how strongly he 60 00:05:35.959 --> 00:05:40.240 wants to affirm this. He says, I'm speaking the truth, I am 61 00:05:40.399 --> 00:05:46.319 not lying. He does this in Christ and he adds this my conscience bears 62 00:05:46.360 --> 00:05:51.149 me witness in the Holy Spirit. This is how he drives his point home, 63 00:05:51.189 --> 00:05:56.870 how he affirms the truthfulness of his statement. He does it on the 64 00:05:56.990 --> 00:06:04.259 basis of conscience. Conscience a much a neglected topic, I think, when 65 00:06:04.300 --> 00:06:10.459 we need to think about our lives as Christians, our nature, and so 66 00:06:10.579 --> 00:06:14.819 I want to take the time this morning and focus on this in particular, 67 00:06:15.579 --> 00:06:20.290 to think about Paul's example and to consider how what it is to communicate truthfully 68 00:06:20.370 --> 00:06:27.329 and, by extension, to live lives truthfully and openly. If we want 69 00:06:27.370 --> 00:06:33.560 to communicate truthfully, openly, confidently freely, as Paul does here, then 70 00:06:33.639 --> 00:06:41.639 we must have calibrated consciences. We must have consciences that are attuned to the 71 00:06:41.879 --> 00:06:48.670 Holy Spirit, to God his word. So I want to do this in 72 00:06:48.870 --> 00:06:55.470 four points this morning. First, considering what the conscience is. Second, 73 00:06:55.709 --> 00:07:00.310 why it's important. Third, how we make it work or how we calibrate 74 00:07:00.350 --> 00:07:04.660 it, how we use it well, and then, finally, how to 75 00:07:04.779 --> 00:07:11.660 clean it. How do we find what David found when he felt the guilt 76 00:07:12.060 --> 00:07:20.170 and wait, but then blessedness forgiveness a lifting? How do we clean it 77 00:07:20.209 --> 00:07:24.569 when it gets stained with the guilt of Sin? That'll be our fourth point. 78 00:07:26.329 --> 00:07:29.970 So first, what is the conscience? I wonder if you've thought about 79 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:32.759 this before. It's one of those topics that will make your brain hurt a 80 00:07:32.800 --> 00:07:36.560 little bit if you press really hard on this. And you read a lot, 81 00:07:36.959 --> 00:07:41.079 but I think you can think of it very in a very simple way, 82 00:07:42.040 --> 00:07:46.709 and you could say this, that the conscience is this God given ability 83 00:07:46.269 --> 00:07:53.589 that every single one of you have to make moral judgments. It's a God 84 00:07:53.790 --> 00:07:59.259 given ability or capacity to make judgments, a particularly about yourself, to say 85 00:07:59.699 --> 00:08:05.779 I'm doing right or I'm doing wrong. These judgments might be about future actions 86 00:08:05.899 --> 00:08:11.100 or about past actions. If they're about future actions, how does your conscience 87 00:08:11.220 --> 00:08:16.970 work? Well, it works kind of like a guide. Right. Imagine 88 00:08:16.050 --> 00:08:20.209 you're on a trail and you have a guide who's taking you down this trail 89 00:08:20.250 --> 00:08:24.769 and says, don't go that way. That way is death, that way 90 00:08:24.850 --> 00:08:28.480 is a cliff. Do go this way, it's an enormous or it's a 91 00:08:28.560 --> 00:08:33.080 wonderful view, right. A guide who says yes, no, yes, 92 00:08:33.440 --> 00:08:37.679 no, when it comes to possible actions or future actions. That's what our 93 00:08:37.720 --> 00:08:43.909 conscience does. It guides us, but it takes a little different flavor when 94 00:08:43.909 --> 00:08:48.389 it comes to past actions. When the guide says go this way and you 95 00:08:48.590 --> 00:08:52.870 say I'd rather not and you fall off the edge of the cliff, then 96 00:08:52.950 --> 00:09:00.620 the guide turns around and acts as judge and accuses you and says, I 97 00:09:00.940 --> 00:09:07.899 said no and you went anyway. It also acts as as an not only 98 00:09:07.940 --> 00:09:16.690 an accusing but also in excusing. Sometimes the conscience says you're innocent, you 99 00:09:16.850 --> 00:09:22.769 are free of guilt, and this is very important because sometimes we need confidence 100 00:09:22.889 --> 00:09:28.080 in our innocence. People accuse us of doing things wrong and we need to 101 00:09:28.159 --> 00:09:31.279 be able to look inside our hearts and say, did I mess up or 102 00:09:31.360 --> 00:09:35.679 did I not? Did I sin against this person or did I not? 103 00:09:37.320 --> 00:09:43.070 You remember that story of Martin Luther standing the Diet of worms and he says, 104 00:09:43.190 --> 00:09:48.629 unless my conscience is abound by the word of God, unless you can 105 00:09:48.750 --> 00:09:54.340 prove to me by reason or by scripture, I will not recant of these 106 00:09:54.460 --> 00:09:58.620 things. They were accusing him of all kinds of things and he says I 107 00:09:58.779 --> 00:10:03.820 will not deny them. You remember we when we were reading in First John, 108 00:10:03.899 --> 00:10:09.049 Chapter two. Where is this talk about the antichrist or antichrists who deny 109 00:10:09.330 --> 00:10:15.490 the son? Christians are called to stand up, even against accusations, and 110 00:10:15.730 --> 00:10:20.960 affirm the son, to say in him, I believe the opposite. It's 111 00:10:20.960 --> 00:10:28.600 also true sometimes we can be condemned when we're innocent, but sometimes we can 112 00:10:28.679 --> 00:10:33.399 be thought of as good when we're really bad, and our conscience bears wait 113 00:10:33.559 --> 00:10:39.029 there as well, doesn't it? It tells us you are guilty, you 114 00:10:39.070 --> 00:10:45.110 should be ashamed, even if everyone else in your life says you're an amazing 115 00:10:45.230 --> 00:10:48.350 person, you're so smart, you're so talented, you're so godly, you're 116 00:10:48.350 --> 00:10:54.779 so wonderful. But your conscience, this God give an ability to make moral 117 00:10:54.820 --> 00:11:01.299 judgments, to tell right and wrong. If it's working properly, which it 118 00:11:01.460 --> 00:11:09.009 usually is, it knows what's going on. There's a helpful book. I 119 00:11:09.169 --> 00:11:11.649 haven't finished it yet, but everything I've read so far has been good. 120 00:11:13.970 --> 00:11:16.809 It's called conscience, what it is, how to train it and loving those 121 00:11:16.889 --> 00:11:22.879 who differ. It's by Andrew Nescelli and JD Crowley. They define conscience this 122 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:26.759 way, and I bring this up for a particular reason. You'll see in 123 00:11:26.840 --> 00:11:33.750 the second they say the conscience is your consciousness of what you believe is right 124 00:11:33.830 --> 00:11:39.870 or wrong. The conscience is your consciousness of what you believe is right or 125 00:11:39.909 --> 00:11:45.309 wrong. I bring this up mostly for the kids, just to make a 126 00:11:45.669 --> 00:11:52.779 important definition distinction. Perhaps you've heard the term of being conscious, of being 127 00:11:52.860 --> 00:11:58.940 aware of things. That's different than the thing that you have, your conscience 128 00:12:00.100 --> 00:12:05.649 that gives you this ability to tell right from wrong. There's a joke I 129 00:12:05.889 --> 00:12:11.889 read of a mother who is helping her son distinguish the differences between conscience, 130 00:12:13.570 --> 00:12:16.799 the thing that you are, you are aware of, or unawareness, and 131 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:20.440 conscience, which is this thing that you have, and she says do you 132 00:12:20.519 --> 00:12:24.559 know the difference? And he says sure, mom, I know the difference 133 00:12:24.279 --> 00:12:30.549 conscience. Conscience is where you're aware of something. Conscience is when you wish 134 00:12:30.549 --> 00:12:35.389 you weren't. There's this way would we say, I don't want to be 135 00:12:35.509 --> 00:12:39.470 aware of that, I don't want to deal with that. Unfortunately, that's 136 00:12:39.509 --> 00:12:46.580 a bad way of dealing with our conscience. One more thing to add that 137 00:12:46.779 --> 00:12:52.139 might be helpful to you in thinking about your conscience, what it is as 138 00:12:52.220 --> 00:12:56.620 a capacity, as it as an ability, I think you might compare it 139 00:12:56.100 --> 00:13:01.450 to one of your five senses. God has given you these senses that you 140 00:13:01.570 --> 00:13:07.809 might interact with the physical world around you. He's given you your eyes, 141 00:13:09.009 --> 00:13:16.799 for example, which can tell distance, color, proportion the sizes of things. 142 00:13:16.840 --> 00:13:20.639 He's given you a sense of smell. I'm kids, you know the 143 00:13:20.720 --> 00:13:26.720 difference right between a flower that smells really nice and a stink bug that sprays 144 00:13:26.759 --> 00:13:30.830 you or a putrid potato that you find in the bottom of your pantry. 145 00:13:31.830 --> 00:13:35.190 Do you know the difference between these things? Because God has given you a 146 00:13:35.029 --> 00:13:41.110 nose to tell the difference. It has this ability. Same thing with touch. 147 00:13:41.620 --> 00:13:45.940 We can tell things that are smooth, rough, hot, cold because 148 00:13:45.980 --> 00:13:50.340 of this ability that God has given us. or conscience is like that, 149 00:13:50.539 --> 00:13:58.330 except it doesn't sense smelly things or feeling things or visual SI things. It 150 00:13:58.490 --> 00:14:05.370 senses moral things, right, wrong, good, bad. When in that 151 00:14:05.490 --> 00:14:11.519 way it we feel it. We feel right and wrong, we feel good 152 00:14:11.799 --> 00:14:18.519 and bad. That means conscience is different than just knowledge. It's different than 153 00:14:18.639 --> 00:14:24.240 just knowing something is right knowing something is wrong. It's having it impressed on 154 00:14:24.350 --> 00:14:30.950 your heart, like smelling right or smelling wrong. We're seeing right or seeing 155 00:14:31.190 --> 00:14:35.190 wrong. It's also, we might say, not the Holy Spirit. The 156 00:14:35.309 --> 00:14:39.779 Holy Spirit may speak to us here. Paul makes that point. He says, 157 00:14:39.059 --> 00:14:43.740 I'm not lying, my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit. 158 00:14:45.740 --> 00:14:50.379 The Holy Spirit, just as he can open a blind man's eyes or cause 159 00:14:50.500 --> 00:14:52.809 you to see an angel that you didn't see before, as he does. 160 00:14:52.929 --> 00:14:58.210 We see examples of this in scripture, he can also open our consciences up, 161 00:14:58.330 --> 00:15:03.970 soften them, work on them, teach them, but they're different, 162 00:15:03.090 --> 00:15:07.799 they're distinguished from one another. We know that everyone has a conscience, but 163 00:15:07.960 --> 00:15:15.480 not everyone has the Holy Spirit. Two places we know that everyone has a 164 00:15:15.720 --> 00:15:20.679 conscience, and will be important for some of our thinking about conscience later on, 165 00:15:20.240 --> 00:15:24.950 are two versus Paul has already given to us in Romans. First, 166 00:15:26.269 --> 00:15:28.509 Romans one, a versus that couple verses there, and then one in verse 167 00:15:28.590 --> 00:15:33.429 two. I'll read them to you. Listen to versus Romans One, versus 168 00:15:33.509 --> 00:15:41.940 nineteen through twenty. He says about all people who have been created, for 169 00:15:41.139 --> 00:15:46.139 what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it 170 00:15:46.220 --> 00:15:52.409 to them, for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, 171 00:15:52.769 --> 00:15:58.129 have been clearly perceived. Like you see something, you smell something, 172 00:15:58.929 --> 00:16:04.600 you perceive God's Eternal Power and divine nature ever since the creation of the world 173 00:16:06.159 --> 00:16:11.600 in the things that have been made so that they are without excuse. You 174 00:16:11.639 --> 00:16:15.360 see what Paul say. He says that in the world that God has made, 175 00:16:15.559 --> 00:16:18.990 we that we live in, we are able to see this world and 176 00:16:19.149 --> 00:16:25.549 when we see it we know certain things, we perceive certain things, not 177 00:16:25.750 --> 00:16:32.029 just color, not just smell, but morality. Right and wrong, good 178 00:16:32.309 --> 00:16:37.539 and bad, and because of this we are without excuse. We can't go 179 00:16:37.740 --> 00:16:40.980 before God and say, I didn't know. He says, you did know, 180 00:16:41.899 --> 00:16:45.379 you have a conscience, I gave it to you. You tell these 181 00:16:45.500 --> 00:16:49.649 things in the very world that has been made. Paul makes this point even 182 00:16:49.690 --> 00:16:57.129 further in Romans too, verses fourteen through sixteen. Here he's talking about people, 183 00:16:57.169 --> 00:17:02.840 a group of people, the gentiles, who have not received the law 184 00:17:02.919 --> 00:17:07.519 of God, people that didn't receive God's word like the Jews did. And 185 00:17:07.599 --> 00:17:11.279 listen to what he says about those people. He says, for when gentiles 186 00:17:11.359 --> 00:17:15.390 who do not have the law, by that means that he means the Torah, 187 00:17:15.589 --> 00:17:18.109 the five books, the first five books of the Bible, or the 188 00:17:18.230 --> 00:17:26.430 Mosaic Law, when the gentiles who do not have the law by nature do 189 00:17:26.950 --> 00:17:30.579 what the law requires, they are a law of themselves. Even though they 190 00:17:30.619 --> 00:17:37.619 don't have the law. They show, the gentiles show by this behavior that 191 00:17:37.779 --> 00:17:42.460 the work of the law is written on their hearts. While they are conscience 192 00:17:42.740 --> 00:17:52.250 also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accused or even excuse them. So he 193 00:17:52.369 --> 00:17:56.009 want to see what he's saying. He's saying you don't have to know right 194 00:17:56.210 --> 00:18:00.640 and wrong only from God's word. Certainly, we find it there and we 195 00:18:00.759 --> 00:18:06.359 find it with a lot of clarity and it gives us direction and it definitely 196 00:18:06.559 --> 00:18:12.309 rules above even that which we find in creation. But nevertheless he is saying 197 00:18:12.509 --> 00:18:19.829 that no one Jew gentile. Everyone is under the law of God, because 198 00:18:19.829 --> 00:18:26.339 everyone has a conscience. Everyone knows these things. So what is a conscience? 199 00:18:26.380 --> 00:18:33.619 A conscience is something that every one of us has our hearts, and 200 00:18:33.980 --> 00:18:38.539 the Bible teaches us this and it guides us in right and wrong and, 201 00:18:38.700 --> 00:18:42.130 depending on whether we follow it or not, it will do as it does 202 00:18:42.210 --> 00:18:47.210 for these gentiles. It will either excuse us and say, good job, 203 00:18:47.410 --> 00:18:52.289 you did it right, or it will accuse us and say you did it 204 00:18:52.410 --> 00:19:00.640 wrong, you sinned. Well, now that we're on the same page about 205 00:19:00.640 --> 00:19:07.440 what conscience is, let's talk about why it's so important for communicating truthfully, 206 00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:12.950 for living our lives openly and confidently, as Paul is here in Romans nine. 207 00:19:15.190 --> 00:19:19.029 To consider that, to consider the importance of our conscience, and a 208 00:19:19.430 --> 00:19:26.539 properly calibrated one. Consider what happens when you ignore your conscience. Consider what 209 00:19:26.660 --> 00:19:30.220 happens when you do the thing that you know you ought not to do. 210 00:19:32.779 --> 00:19:37.460 I was recently. I was or I received a letter from someone recently who 211 00:19:37.539 --> 00:19:47.089 was talking about an addiction to pornography at work and he was describing how this 212 00:19:47.609 --> 00:19:53.119 thing that was going on in his life was destroying him in every other area 213 00:19:53.319 --> 00:19:59.200 of his life. The shame that and the guilt that was going on there, 214 00:19:59.200 --> 00:20:04.519 that secret guilt and shame was affecting all kinds of other things. Who 215 00:20:04.599 --> 00:20:10.230 was tearing him apart, not just the sin, and of course it does 216 00:20:10.390 --> 00:20:12.869 that too. That's a whole other topic. But what I'm saying is the 217 00:20:14.069 --> 00:20:22.619 is conscience, the shame of it. Conscience has another thing that it does 218 00:20:22.660 --> 00:20:26.059 as well. It has this way of kind of not only affecting your other 219 00:20:26.220 --> 00:20:30.180 live, the other areas of your life, when we go against it, 220 00:20:30.539 --> 00:20:33.220 when we don't listen to it, but has this way of kind of hanging 221 00:20:33.380 --> 00:20:40.529 on to us, of gripping us. Remember David's description right his bones wasting 222 00:20:40.569 --> 00:20:47.650 away, is groaning all day long. Perhaps you've felt this way. Perhaps 223 00:20:47.650 --> 00:20:52.319 there's been some deed that you've not done or an obligation that you haven't fulfilled. 224 00:20:53.359 --> 00:20:57.559 Maybe you said you'd be there for someone and you weren't maybe you said 225 00:20:57.559 --> 00:21:03.309 you'd pay for something and you didn't, or you tell the truth and you 226 00:21:03.470 --> 00:21:10.109 lied. These things can stay with you for a long, long time. 227 00:21:11.950 --> 00:21:18.390 People who confess regrets on their deathbed, seeking to clear their conscience, will 228 00:21:18.470 --> 00:21:25.740 sometimes tell of things decades and decades and decades ago, things long ago, 229 00:21:26.059 --> 00:21:30.460 sometimes things even very small. Maybe we think, oh, it's not a 230 00:21:30.579 --> 00:21:34.210 big deal that you stole a pencil from your teacher when you were five. 231 00:21:36.609 --> 00:21:41.690 But it is a big deal, isn't it? It's a sin. Theft 232 00:21:41.849 --> 00:21:45.809 is a sin and our consciences know that and we carry those things with us 233 00:21:45.690 --> 00:21:52.359 for a long time. God knows our hearts, but so do you. 234 00:21:52.960 --> 00:21:56.319 He bilds, builds into us this ability to know ourselves, and so we 235 00:21:56.400 --> 00:22:03.470 see the importance of conscience and the way that the consequences it has when we 236 00:22:03.509 --> 00:22:08.150 go against it. Someone compared conscience to a square, a square peg in 237 00:22:08.190 --> 00:22:11.710 a square hole. And when we go start to go against to the things 238 00:22:11.789 --> 00:22:15.900 that the conscience is guiding, that square pag and that square hole starts to 239 00:22:15.980 --> 00:22:23.380 turn and pushes against those walls and it hurts and it hurts in our hearts 240 00:22:23.420 --> 00:22:30.450 and it pushes and it grinds, but that leads us to an even another 241 00:22:30.569 --> 00:22:34.809 point. What happens when we try to suppress that feeling, when we try 242 00:22:34.809 --> 00:22:38.009 to push down that and say I don't feel it, I don't feel it, 243 00:22:38.089 --> 00:22:48.319 it's not important. Well, those corners get rounded, that PAG turns 244 00:22:48.519 --> 00:22:56.039 and turns until there's one day just a hole and it spins freely, and 245 00:22:56.160 --> 00:23:00.549 then we become people that do bad things and we do them easily. You 246 00:23:00.670 --> 00:23:03.349 See, one of the reasons conscious is important is because it prevents us, 247 00:23:03.869 --> 00:23:07.950 it keeps us, it guides us. Who would want to go on a 248 00:23:07.990 --> 00:23:14.740 dangerous and treacherous hike without a guide? These sure PA's that head people up 249 00:23:14.819 --> 00:23:18.539 Mount Everest? They are very important to these adventurers. They are their life. 250 00:23:22.420 --> 00:23:29.730 Paul talks about a conscience that can be seared. You know what searing 251 00:23:29.930 --> 00:23:33.009 is like? When you cook a piece of meat and you see the outside 252 00:23:33.089 --> 00:23:37.009 of it so that moisture can't really get in and out you you get it 253 00:23:37.170 --> 00:23:42.240 really hot so that it closes it up. That's something that can happen to 254 00:23:42.279 --> 00:23:47.839 our conscience when we don't listen to it, when we don't pay attention to 255 00:23:48.119 --> 00:23:51.920 it. One of the ways you can deal with a guilty conscience, in 256 00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:56.349 other words, is by ignoring it, suppressing it, not dealing with it. 257 00:23:56.789 --> 00:24:03.269 Perhaps that was even your plan when I started talking about conscience this morning 258 00:24:03.309 --> 00:24:08.710 and you said, or your conscience said, Oh, okay, we know 259 00:24:08.829 --> 00:24:14.259 how this game goes. We start feeling these feelings, we start feeling the 260 00:24:14.339 --> 00:24:18.259 pressure, we start feeling that peg turning and you start employing, maybe you've 261 00:24:18.259 --> 00:24:25.730 already begun employing, those strategies that you're so practiced in to avoid the feeling. 262 00:24:29.369 --> 00:24:33.769 I understand this, of course it's painful. A guilty conscience is painful. 263 00:24:33.849 --> 00:24:38.319 David understands this, Paul understands this. But I promise you there is 264 00:24:38.359 --> 00:24:47.440 a better solution than suppression. It's salvation, it's cleansing in Jesus. But 265 00:24:47.559 --> 00:24:52.269 for the moment the implorant point is this. Your conscience is important. Ignoring 266 00:24:52.430 --> 00:24:57.549 it is dangerous and even deadly. It leads to dark deeds, it sinks 267 00:24:57.589 --> 00:25:02.430 its clause in you. It brings all sorts of consequences in your life, 268 00:25:02.910 --> 00:25:11.660 depression and more and more. You can also consider the opposite it. Consider 269 00:25:11.740 --> 00:25:17.380 what life is like with a clean conscience, a clear conscience. Perhaps you've 270 00:25:17.700 --> 00:25:21.569 met people like this, perhaps you are a person by God's grace, who 271 00:25:21.890 --> 00:25:30.930 does live your life freely and clearly? Second Corinthians, Second Corinthians one. 272 00:25:33.890 --> 00:25:42.799 That's not correct. Let's try to Second Corinthians. Let's go forth. Second 273 00:25:42.839 --> 00:25:48.039 Corinthians, fourth to I'm sorry, can't read my writing. He says. 274 00:25:48.960 --> 00:25:56.309 Okay, we're in First Corinthians. That's the problem. Yeah, Second Corinthians, 275 00:25:56.309 --> 00:25:59.509 one hundred and twelve heats A. Paul says this, and I want 276 00:25:59.549 --> 00:26:03.109 you to imagine this. Can this be your words? Can these be your 277 00:26:03.190 --> 00:26:07.819 words as a Christian? Okay, are you ready? Second Corinthians one twelve 278 00:26:08.819 --> 00:26:15.299 for our boast. Is this the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved 279 00:26:15.460 --> 00:26:21.849 in the world with simplicity, with Godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but 280 00:26:21.970 --> 00:26:26.009 by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you? Ah, doesn't 281 00:26:26.009 --> 00:26:30.890 that feel good to just hear that, to know people who come up to 282 00:26:30.970 --> 00:26:34.799 you and say hey, and you know there's no ulterior motives, there's no 283 00:26:34.960 --> 00:26:42.720 sneaking thing behind it, they're just saying hi. Paul says. Their testimony. 284 00:26:44.039 --> 00:26:48.230 There are boast. Is this the testimony of our conscience? We behaved 285 00:26:48.390 --> 00:26:53.829 in the world well? Isn't it nice to be able to say things like 286 00:26:55.029 --> 00:26:59.589 that when we don't pay attention to our conscience, in other words, it 287 00:26:59.829 --> 00:27:03.180 binds, it grinds at Clause, at Nas when we do pay attention to 288 00:27:03.259 --> 00:27:11.180 our conscience, we have confidence, openness, freedom, peace. Second Corinthians 289 00:27:11.259 --> 00:27:19.170 for verse two. But we have renounced disgraceful and underhanded ways. We refuse 290 00:27:19.329 --> 00:27:25.529 to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement 291 00:27:25.730 --> 00:27:30.160 of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of 292 00:27:30.240 --> 00:27:34.359 God's word. Paul so confident about the way he's living, about what he's 293 00:27:34.400 --> 00:27:38.359 doing, that he says, examine your own conscience about these things. Are 294 00:27:38.400 --> 00:27:44.630 we not doing it right? Judge by yourself, your own God given capacity 295 00:27:44.750 --> 00:27:49.230 for right and wrong, and and you will see these things. In case 296 00:27:49.269 --> 00:27:52.950 you think that, well, this is just for Paul, a super duper 297 00:27:53.069 --> 00:27:59.180 Paul. It's not. Listen to what Peter says in First Peter, Verse 298 00:27:59.420 --> 00:28:07.660 Sixteen. He speaks to us, to you, and says I I'll start 299 00:28:07.700 --> 00:28:11.740 in verse fifteen, he says, but in your hearts, honor Christ does, 300 00:28:11.660 --> 00:28:15.009 the Christ, the Lord is holy, always being prepared to make a 301 00:28:15.130 --> 00:28:19.529 defense to anyone who asks you for the reason for the hope that is in 302 00:28:19.690 --> 00:28:23.130 you. So you see what he's saying. HE SAYS BE READY TO AFFIRM 303 00:28:23.210 --> 00:28:26.799 JESUS CHRIST, be ready to do what John asks us to do in First 304 00:28:26.839 --> 00:28:32.119 John Too, and then he says, but do it in a certain way. 305 00:28:32.640 --> 00:28:38.599 Reading on, yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good 306 00:28:40.279 --> 00:28:45.670 conscience, so that when you are slander those who revile your good behavior in 307 00:28:45.710 --> 00:28:48.829 Christ may be put to shame, for it's better to suffer doing good. 308 00:28:49.309 --> 00:28:53.029 If that, if that should be God's will, then for doing evil. 309 00:28:55.190 --> 00:28:57.660 See what Peter say. He's saying you are going to have to suffer for 310 00:28:57.779 --> 00:29:02.940 Jesus Sake, you're going to have to go out and speak of him. 311 00:29:03.619 --> 00:29:07.779 But when that happens, make sure that you're living your lives in an open 312 00:29:07.819 --> 00:29:11.890 way, that you have a good conscience, a clear conscience, so that 313 00:29:11.970 --> 00:29:15.049 when people slander you, which they will, and accuse you of things, 314 00:29:15.210 --> 00:29:21.170 you'll be able to say I stand on the truth, my works prove themselves. 315 00:29:22.089 --> 00:29:23.799 I don't have to dance, I don't have to pretend, I don't 316 00:29:23.799 --> 00:29:30.279 have to do some kind of cunning twist here. I live my life openly. 317 00:29:30.759 --> 00:29:37.160 Accuse me all you want. This is what Jesus wants for us. 318 00:29:37.839 --> 00:29:41.430 This is the kind of life he wants us to live. It doesn't happen 319 00:29:41.509 --> 00:29:47.710 by searing our consciences, ignoring them, suppressing them. We live with a 320 00:29:47.829 --> 00:29:52.859 good conscience by becoming sensitive to it. And this takes us to our third 321 00:29:52.900 --> 00:29:57.059 point. We've seen it's importance. Well, how do we use it? 322 00:29:57.299 --> 00:30:04.420 Well, how do we calibrate it? The conscience is this. God give 323 00:30:04.460 --> 00:30:08.970 an ability to discern right and from wrong, to feel it in your heart. 324 00:30:11.410 --> 00:30:15.730 But though it is in us, it's not perfect. Same with your 325 00:30:15.769 --> 00:30:19.210 other senses. Right, some of you have not good eyesight, some of 326 00:30:19.289 --> 00:30:23.480 you have a bad sense of smell, maybe the nerve endings in your fingers 327 00:30:23.559 --> 00:30:29.200 don't work quite like they should anymore. The same can happen for conscience. 328 00:30:29.720 --> 00:30:33.680 Except one of the good things about consciences it can actually get stronger with age 329 00:30:33.680 --> 00:30:44.390 rather than weaker. But conscience also can go wrong through ignorance, through suppression, 330 00:30:44.750 --> 00:30:48.869 through searing, through lack of use. Remember Peter, for example. 331 00:30:48.910 --> 00:30:53.140 He had to have his conscience changed. Remember he said, I won't eat 332 00:30:53.180 --> 00:30:56.819 any of the forbidden foods, I won't mix myself with the gentiles. And 333 00:30:57.019 --> 00:31:02.220 the Lord came to him and said, Peter, you will, and Peter 334 00:31:02.339 --> 00:31:07.369 said, okay. Peter had to change change his conscience kind of on the 335 00:31:07.410 --> 00:31:12.569 spot. He had to inform, or rather the Lord informed, his misinformed 336 00:31:12.730 --> 00:31:18.170 conscience and he had to change quickly. Maybe that's happened with you too. 337 00:31:18.289 --> 00:31:22.279 Maybe there's been some issue on alcohol or music or schooling or all kinds of 338 00:31:22.359 --> 00:31:26.759 other things that you've had to say. Well, I guess the Bible doesn't 339 00:31:26.759 --> 00:31:30.880 say that after all. Or I guess the Bible does say that and I 340 00:31:30.039 --> 00:31:36.549 better change my mind. PS. This happened to me in a later part 341 00:31:36.589 --> 00:31:40.470 of Romans nine, as will get to. There came a point where I 342 00:31:40.589 --> 00:31:45.589 a doctrine wants when I had to sort of submit myself and say, I 343 00:31:45.670 --> 00:31:53.019 don't like it, but this is what the word teaches. Anyway, the 344 00:31:53.380 --> 00:32:00.259 the conscience in other words, needs to be calibrated. We need to correct 345 00:32:00.259 --> 00:32:04.329 it when it's wrong, we need to fine tune it. I knew a 346 00:32:04.450 --> 00:32:07.130 teacher once, a cello teacher, who every time her students would come in, 347 00:32:07.289 --> 00:32:12.130 she'd say sing an a and they'd sing an a and then she play 348 00:32:12.170 --> 00:32:15.250 it on the piano to see whether they got it right or wrong. And 349 00:32:15.450 --> 00:32:17.759 as over time. What would happen is the students got better and better. 350 00:32:19.039 --> 00:32:24.000 They're hearing got better and better. They were calibrating their senses to a standard, 351 00:32:24.000 --> 00:32:29.799 and this is what we are to do too. When Paul says that 352 00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:35.670 his conscience bears him witness in the Holy Spirit in Romans nine, he's saying 353 00:32:35.710 --> 00:32:43.150 that he's submitted his conscience to the Lord. He's calibrating it according to God's 354 00:32:43.190 --> 00:32:49.579 word. He's using the Holy Spirit as his tuner to tell him yes or 355 00:32:49.740 --> 00:32:55.500 no, right or wrong. So the Bible teaches us that after the fall, 356 00:32:55.700 --> 00:33:01.890 your conscience still works, but not always perfectly, and we can certainly 357 00:33:01.970 --> 00:33:07.650 do it harm. Some of you have done your consciences great harm, like 358 00:33:07.849 --> 00:33:10.329 a warning light that's gone on your dashboard and you've decided to ignore it for 359 00:33:10.410 --> 00:33:16.079 a long time. You hardly pay attention anymore. Let this word of God 360 00:33:16.319 --> 00:33:22.680 be to you a message that says wake up, that lights important. You 361 00:33:22.799 --> 00:33:28.750 need to pay attention to it. Let the truth of God's words speak to 362 00:33:28.829 --> 00:33:35.549 your heart and if your conscience is over sensitive, like a like a smoke 363 00:33:35.589 --> 00:33:38.150 alarm that cold keeps going off, even when when nothing's burning in the house, 364 00:33:39.349 --> 00:33:45.180 use the God's word here as well. The devil is the great accuser. 365 00:33:45.220 --> 00:33:49.460 He tells us all kinds of wise he tells us that we've done wrong 366 00:33:49.579 --> 00:33:52.140 and of him when we haven't done wrong. Stop Him in his tracks, 367 00:33:53.059 --> 00:33:58.970 speak to him in the Holy Spirit, use God's word, study God's word, 368 00:33:59.210 --> 00:34:04.450 calibrate your conscience so that you might know when you've unright and when you've 369 00:34:04.490 --> 00:34:13.159 done wrong. Well, that brings us to our final point. If your 370 00:34:13.519 --> 00:34:20.480 conscience has been properly calibrated, if your conscience is in good working order and 371 00:34:20.559 --> 00:34:24.269 you're do using it will then I can say with a lot of confidence that 372 00:34:24.349 --> 00:34:29.190 each one of us is going to find areas in our lives that need to 373 00:34:29.269 --> 00:34:36.429 be fixed. We're going to find things that we've lost the can't be regained, 374 00:34:36.590 --> 00:34:39.780 things that we've done that we can't be taken back. Maybe there are 375 00:34:39.940 --> 00:34:45.619 some things that you can fix, something you've stolen that needs to be returned, 376 00:34:45.980 --> 00:34:51.860 something you've said that needs to be apologized for. Do this and do 377 00:34:52.019 --> 00:35:02.610 it immediately. But sometimes those opportunities are gone and the stains set in, 378 00:35:05.130 --> 00:35:08.719 and this is why people in the latter years of their lives can ache and 379 00:35:09.679 --> 00:35:16.199 Groan and find themselves under much, much sorrow. But God speaks to this 380 00:35:16.440 --> 00:35:22.829 too. No matter where you are in your lives and no matter how clear 381 00:35:22.110 --> 00:35:28.949 or not clear your consciences, the one who made your conscience, the one 382 00:35:28.989 --> 00:35:35.900 who corrects your conscience, also gives an opportunity to you to have your conscience 383 00:35:36.139 --> 00:35:45.420 cleaned by Jesus himself. In some ways, the more our conscience is calibrated, 384 00:35:45.260 --> 00:35:51.090 the more we understand, the more we realize God's perfect standard of holiness, 385 00:35:51.409 --> 00:35:57.170 the more will recognize in our own hearts how bad things are and we 386 00:35:57.289 --> 00:36:00.809 begin to look at things in a new way. It's like if you walk 387 00:36:00.889 --> 00:36:05.199 in and your first glance you say, Oh, this carpets pretty good, 388 00:36:05.239 --> 00:36:08.239 and then you start working on one little stay and you know and there's one 389 00:36:08.280 --> 00:36:12.360 over here and there's one over here and there's one over here. Next thing 390 00:36:12.360 --> 00:36:15.519 you know, you find yourself doing lots and lots and lots of spotting and 391 00:36:15.719 --> 00:36:20.909 cleaning. The thing is, brothers and sisters, there's no amount of spotting 392 00:36:20.909 --> 00:36:24.909 and cleaning that we can do to perfectly clear our consciences. And the Old 393 00:36:24.989 --> 00:36:30.630 Testament God had a system of sacrifices that that helped with this to a degree. 394 00:36:30.670 --> 00:36:36.699 A symptom of sacrifices and where you would take an animal and, in 395 00:36:36.900 --> 00:36:40.340 essence, put your sins on that animal and that animal would be put to 396 00:36:40.539 --> 00:36:45.739 death. That's the seriousness of our guilt and sin. That animal would be 397 00:36:45.780 --> 00:36:49.329 put to death and you would say they're my conscience is cleared, right, 398 00:36:49.849 --> 00:36:54.130 because now it's on that animal. God has accepted that sacrifice. He did 399 00:36:54.329 --> 00:37:00.329 this so that our consciences could be cleared, so that we could walk away, 400 00:37:00.610 --> 00:37:05.800 so that we could worship God and live under him. But, as 401 00:37:05.960 --> 00:37:12.159 we know, this wasn't a perfect system. The cont the offers, the 402 00:37:12.280 --> 00:37:15.230 sacrifices had to be offered over and over and over again, because ultimately they 403 00:37:15.269 --> 00:37:17.869 were pointing to something else. And you know what it is, don't you? 404 00:37:20.190 --> 00:37:27.869 The sacrifice of Jesus Christ, this detergent blood of his that perfectly cleanses 405 00:37:28.269 --> 00:37:32.619 all of our sin, all of our guilt, washing it away. Do 406 00:37:32.739 --> 00:37:39.780 you want a clean conscience? Well, living according to it's a good start, 407 00:37:39.900 --> 00:37:45.889 but because of original sin, because we start out with a bunch of 408 00:37:45.090 --> 00:37:51.409 stains and everything dirty and filthy from the very beginning, the hope of cleaning 409 00:37:51.570 --> 00:37:59.320 your own conscience is lost. Listen to what God says about Jesus here in 410 00:37:59.559 --> 00:38:08.440 Hebrews Nine, he says, according to this arrangement, that arrangement of sacrifices, 411 00:38:08.519 --> 00:38:14.429 gifts and sacrifices are offered, that cannot perfect the consciences, of the 412 00:38:14.510 --> 00:38:19.630 conscience of the worshipper, but only deal with food and drink and various washings. 413 00:38:20.869 --> 00:38:23.670 Then he goes on to say in verse fourteen, how much more will 414 00:38:23.710 --> 00:38:29.420 the blood of Christ, who threw the eternal spirit, offered himself with out 415 00:38:29.460 --> 00:38:36.900 blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the Living God? 416 00:38:38.219 --> 00:38:45.329 Purify how would you like? A pure conscience, a clean conscience, 417 00:38:45.809 --> 00:38:50.969 a clear conscience? See, brothers and sisters, it's not enough to know 418 00:38:51.090 --> 00:38:54.409 that, oh, I stained my shirt. That doesn't clear it. To 419 00:38:54.610 --> 00:38:59.360 recognize your conscience, to be sensitive, to call your conscience only tells you 420 00:38:59.599 --> 00:39:04.239 the mess that's there. It must be cleansed, it must be made clear, 421 00:39:04.360 --> 00:39:09.429 it must be purified, and that's what Jesus does. He purifies our 422 00:39:09.550 --> 00:39:17.670 conscience from dead works to serve the Living God. And that cleansing that Jesus 423 00:39:17.750 --> 00:39:23.579 offers in the cross is a complete cleansing, a full cleansing, every nook 424 00:39:23.699 --> 00:39:31.860 and cranny, every detail every spot is gone as wide as wool. It's 425 00:39:31.900 --> 00:39:38.010 one of the ways that scripture describes our forgiveness, and this goes on in 426 00:39:38.090 --> 00:39:43.409 our lives. When we sin again and again, we come to Jesus again 427 00:39:43.449 --> 00:39:45.730 and again, and you know what he does? He keeps cleaning us, 428 00:39:45.969 --> 00:39:52.650 he keeps washing us over and over and over, and that makes a Christian 429 00:39:52.599 --> 00:40:00.519 a bold person, a courageous person, a Christian whose living in faith in 430 00:40:00.679 --> 00:40:10.349 the blood cleansing power of Jesus, in the purifying conscious work that God does, 431 00:40:10.429 --> 00:40:15.150 is a person who goes out into the world and says, I'm ready 432 00:40:15.190 --> 00:40:24.099 to testify to Christ bring whatever accusation you may against me. It's a person 433 00:40:24.179 --> 00:40:29.619 who can enter freely into worship. Listen again to Hebrews, the next chapter, 434 00:40:29.699 --> 00:40:34.539 Verse Ten, Verse Twenty Two. Let us draw near with a true 435 00:40:34.619 --> 00:40:38.570 heart, in full assurance of our faith, or of faith, with hearts 436 00:40:39.090 --> 00:40:49.730 sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water the pot. 437 00:40:49.809 --> 00:40:53.360 The writer here points to our Baptisms, points to the work that Jesus 438 00:40:53.400 --> 00:40:58.360 has done on the cross, this sprinkling cleaning. He says now you can 439 00:40:58.440 --> 00:41:01.039 go forth and to worship, you can go before God and you can say 440 00:41:01.840 --> 00:41:06.789 praise him, you can worship him, you can thank him, you can 441 00:41:06.949 --> 00:41:10.989 seek him, you can know him as your heavenly father, because you don't 442 00:41:12.030 --> 00:41:15.349 come before him as one who is dirty, as one who's trying to clean 443 00:41:15.389 --> 00:41:21.699 himself, as one who's trying to wash away or atone from your atone for 444 00:41:21.780 --> 00:41:27.460 your own sins. We come with the sprinkling of the spirit, but the 445 00:41:27.579 --> 00:41:34.489 washing of Christ. That's how you have a clean conscience, by the Work 446 00:41:34.570 --> 00:41:43.369 of God working in you, through faith in him. So where are you 447 00:41:43.530 --> 00:41:51.559 at to day? Is your conscience clear? Is it clean? If not, 448 00:41:51.719 --> 00:41:55.239 then seek the Lord. The Bible promises that Jesus will and can and 449 00:41:55.400 --> 00:42:00.670 does forgive the conscience. He purifies it, he makes it anew, he 450 00:42:00.829 --> 00:42:07.750 gives what David describes as a clean heart, a refreshed heart, a new 451 00:42:07.989 --> 00:42:15.900 heart. And if your conscience is clear as one who has been washed by 452 00:42:15.019 --> 00:42:22.059 the word, who lives according to him, then be encouraged, be thankful 453 00:42:22.139 --> 00:42:27.179 and praise God for his work in you. Continue to become more and more 454 00:42:27.380 --> 00:42:32.570 sensitive to your conscience and then use your strength not to oppress others or make 455 00:42:32.690 --> 00:42:37.530 fun of others, but to leave them to the same Lord who also makes 456 00:42:38.130 --> 00:42:47.000 all, makes others clean by the cleaning and calibrating grace of God. May 457 00:42:47.079 --> 00:42:52.920 All of us learn how to live our lives with good and clear consciences. 458 00:42:52.760 --> 00:42:53.400 Let us pray