Necessity of a Good Conscience

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces keeping a good conscience as a second private means of perseverance and uses 1 Timothy 1:3-5 and 1 Timothy 1:18-20 to demonstrate that perseverance in faith and…

Paul's personal experience of being shipwrecked three times makes the metaphor of 'shipwreck concerning the faith' vivid, illustrating the utter destruction of one's faith when a good conscience is cast off.

Now, remember, here's a man who according to 2 Corinthians 11.25 was shipwrecked 3 times. Thrice, he says shipwrecked. It was a vivid image to Paul.

19:18 - 19:32 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces keeping a good conscience as a second private means of perseverance and uses 1 Timothy 1:3-5 and 1 Timothy 1:18-20 to demonstrate that perseverance in faith and…

The analogy of a good conscience as the rudder of a ship illustrates that without it, the ship (faith) is rudderless, at the mercy of winds, and will be destroyed on rocks, emphasizing the guiding role of conscience.

That was a very vivid image to Paul. And he said certain people have made shipwreck concerning the faith when they cast off or thrust away from them a good conscience. And some of the commentators suggest that Paul may even have in mind the imagery that the rudder by which the ship is steered is a good conscience. And when you take the rudder and throw it away, that ship then being rudderless is without direction, is at the mercy of the wind and can be driven upon the shoals and upon the rocks and utterly destroyed.

20:00 - 20:42 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin defines conscience as an innate faculty of self-judgment distinguishing right from wrong, and describes its function using Romans 2:14-15 as a non-sleeping internal monitor…

Conscience is described as a 'non-sleeping internal monitor' with a limited vocabulary ('right, wrong') and bad manners (comes uninvited, thick-skinned, keeps talking when told to shut up), to vividly portray its persistent and inescapable function.

And I like to think of conscience in this working description as that non-sleeping internal monitor continually passing judgment upon all of our thoughts and actions. He's a very strange character. He never sleeps. Always awake.

32:12 - 32:36 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin illustrates how stifling conscience makes its voice less distinct and intense, warning that persistent sin can cause conscience to 'sleep' until the day of judgment, when…

The story of Johnny hearing his father's call to come home, first clearly, then indistinctly, illustrates how stifling conscience makes its voice less distinct and its volume less intense, leading to spiritual danger.

You've done everything possible to stifle his voice. And it is possible, it is possible to so treat conscience that his voice becomes less and less distinct and his volume becomes less and less intense. Let me illustrate. There's a little boy by the name of Johnny out playing in the field about a hundred yards from his house.

41:10 - 41:37 Read in full sermon

Driving home: My friend, you can no more rid yourself of conscience than you can unman or unwoman yourself. You can now, through the hardness of heart and in the language of John 3, through the love of sin, refusing to come to the lig…

A lengthy quotation from Alexander White, analyzing John Bunyan's experience, describes how conscience's protests weaken with repeated sin until it 'sleeps' by one's sinful side, only to awaken in hell as 'the worm that dieth not'.

You're ripening yourself for hell. And in his classic work that has captured my own heart in recent days, Alexander White, in analyzing the spiritual experience of John Bunyan, according to Bunyan's own autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, says these things about conscience. Listen carefully. The first time you commit a certain sin, your conscience will seize you by the throat and hail you to judgment.

43:51 - 44:25 Read in full sermon