Functions of Good Conscience, Part 2

Driving home: The man who is prepared to give up a good conscience for the sake of social acceptance or the relief of pressure and persecution and affliction manifests that he has never prized a good conscience as every true believer …

The parable of the sower and the stony ground hearer is used to illustrate how suffering acts as a sifting mechanism, revealing whether a person has true spiritual roots or merely temporary faith.

Sometimes they come in terms of intense physical pain. Sometimes in the form of the emotional trauma of rejection and disappointment and broken relationships. The tribulation promised by our Lord, the affliction, the trouble, the suffering that we share in union with Christ comes in many forms, in many shapes, through many, many avenues, but come it will all along the path between here and our entrance into glory. Now you say, what in the world does all of that have to do with a good conscience and perseverance in relationship to the subject of suffering? Well, just this. It is the reality of ...

11:12 - 12:41 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He expounds 2 Corinthians 1, showing how Paul's good conscience provided internal stability and enabled him to hold a steady course amidst life-threatening afflictions…

The analogy of keeping a steady hand on the rudder of life is used to describe how a good conscience provides internal stability amidst unusual circumstances of affliction and suffering.

that in the midst of this unusual unusual concentration unusual concentration of afflictive circumstances which caused him and his companions even to despair of life itself there was something that brought them to the place where they thought this is it we've had it finute dumb we've had it and yet he said God intervened in the midst of that situation and when God intervened how did he find us? Did he find us afflicted saints whose consciences were tormented is this unusual circumstance of affliction which has come upon us chastisement for our deviation from the will of God is it God dealing w...

19:09 - 20:38 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He provides examples from biblical history, such as Job, Joseph, Daniel, and the three Hebrew children, to illustrate how a good conscience enabled them to maintain integrity and…

Job's story is used as a prime example of a man who, despite not understanding the spiritual battle behind his suffering, held onto his integrity and trusted God due to a good conscience.

old and in the New Testaments. Reading our Bibles with this perspective, we see the great sufferer Job and what held that man on his course when he didn't have a clue of what was going on in the invisible spiritual world. If only Job could have been there when the adversary presented himself before God and says, ha, look at the way you treat Job. No wonder he loves you and serves you. Why, you've just blessed him with everything materially and his family's well and he's prospering and, why, he's a fair-weather Christian. Job didn't know there was this conversation between God and the enemy, th...

29:59 - 30:55 Read in full sermon

The point: Have assurance that you will hold to your course in affliction by determining in fairer days to walk with a good conscience before God and man.

Joseph's life of obedience leading to slavery and false accusation is presented as an example of a man holding steadily to his way because of the testimony of a good conscience.

We read in the word of God about Joseph. His life of obedience brought him to what? Brought him to being sold into slavery? Brought him to the accusation?

32:17 - 32:31 Read in full sermon

The point: Have assurance that you will hold to your course in affliction by determining in fairer days to walk with a good conscience before God and man.

Daniel and the three Hebrew children facing the lion's den and fiery furnace are cited as examples of courage rooted in consciences void of offense to God and man.

the accusation of being an immoral man and into a prison. And yet in amidst of all of that what do we see in Joseph? A man holding steadily to his way. Why? Because in the midst of all the false accusations he has the testimony of a good conscience. Daniel. The three Hebrew children. They can face a den of lions. They can face the fiery furnace. Why? How? How? Why? Why is that in the book? Oops! Why not? No good conscience!

32:31 - 33:01 Read in full sermon

The point: Acknowledge if you do not have a good conscience in the midst of affliction, and deal with unconfessed sin, unresolved situations, and unrectified relationships.

The historical examples of little girls and boys singing at the stake, and men going to their deaths as if to a birthday party, illustrate the power of Christ's companionship and a good conscience in extreme suffering.

That's what's enabled little girls and boys to go to the stake and die singing in times of open persecution.

35:20 - 35:30 Read in full sermon

The point: Acknowledge if you do not have a good conscience in the midst of affliction, and deal with unconfessed sin, unresolved situations, and unrectified relationships.

Martin Luther's stand at Worms, where he declared his conscience captive to the Word of God, is used as an example of fearless confession stemming from a clear conscience.

That's what enabled Martin Luther to stand before that august body at Worms. And you remember what he kept referring to? It is never proper for a Christian to violate his what? His conscience.

35:32 - 35:46 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin examines Acts 22-24, detailing Paul's fearless confession before an angry mob and the Jewish council. He emphasizes Paul's steadfast gaze and his immediate declaration of…

Martin uses the frightening experience of seeing an uncontrolled mob on a television news report to help the audience grasp the terror Paul faced in Jerusalem.

They cried out, threw off their garments, cast dust up into the air. Can you kids see what a time that would have been? Can you imagine? Coming on a group of people, where people are tearing their clothes off, they're grabbing their dirt, they're throwing it up into the air, saying, Kill him! Kill him!

45:01 - 45:15 Read in full sermon

Driving home: I have lived before god you in all conscience until this day when a man stands before the living god with a conscience at rest through the blood of christ and by the grace of god in the context of a walk and life of righ…

The analogy of how fear registers in darting eyes, contrasted with a man looking steadfastly at a lion, is used to highlight Paul's extraordinary courage before the council, indicated by Luke's description of his 'steadfast' gaze.

Now, why did Luke record the activity of his eyes? That word, looking steadfastly, is translated other times in our English Bibles, fastening the eyes upon. Now, you know what happens when you kids go into a situation where you're afraid. Now, you can always tell, watch your eyes.

47:08 - 47:34 Read in full sermon

The point: Let your conscience work, even if it is painful, to reveal areas of inconsistency.

Martin shares a personal anecdote from his childhood about smoking cigarettes and his father's credible discipline versus a neighbor's hypocritical discipline, illustrating how inconsistency undermines authority and confession.

I can remember as a kid, even before I was converted, laughing about it with some of my buddies on the block. And I don't say this proudly, you young people. I trust you never do this. But when we would sneak off and smoke a cigarette because we knew it would displease our parents, when I'd go home and my folks would find out, and they laid into me for it, they could lay into it and lay into me and make it stick.

59:11 - 59:38 Read in full sermon