Means of Our Spiritual Health: A Good Conscience

Introduction: The Basics of Spiritual Health and the Super Bowl Analogy

0:01 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, January 26, 1997, at the Trinity Baptist Church of Montville, New Jersey.

0:16 Now will you follow with me, please, as I read two brief portions of the Word of God as setting the framework for introducing our study in the Scriptures this morning. The first is found in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, Paul's letter to the Corinthian church, the first of those two letters, chapter 9, and I shall read verses 24 and 25.

0:50 1 Corinthians 9 and verse 24. Do you not know that they that run in a race all run? But one receives the prize, even so run that you may attain. And every man that strives in the games exercises self-control in all things.

1:22 Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. And now over to Paul's second letter to Timothy. 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 5.

1:42 2 Timothy 2 and verse 5. And if also a man contend in the games, he is not crowned except he have contended lawfully.

2:01 In both of these passages, references are made to the Grecian games. The Grecian games were celebrated in several places throughout the Roman Empire during the days in which the Apostle Paul lived and labored as a servant of Christ. Now some of the elements of those games were patently immoral, and they would have in no way the approbation of the Apostle Paul or of any godly leader. Man or woman.

2:40 However, the Spirit of God is not at all embarrassed, through the mind and pen of the Apostle, to use certain aspects of those athletic contests to illustrate some crucial truths with respect to the Christian life. In both of those texts, without any qualification, there is reference to the Grecian games. reference to the Grecian games. reference to the Grecian games.

3:08 reference to the Grecian games. And a highlighting of certain principles that were present and concerning which most of the people to whom Paul wrote would have some knowledge with respect to the games, and they are used to highlight vital lessons of the Christian life.

3:30 Now you have to be living on another planet not to know that this is a week that is culminated in a day in which there is a game which will occupy the minds and the attention of probably more than one half of the populace of our country and millions more throughout the world. It has the terrible name this day does, Super Bowl Sunday. And while there are many things concerning that event which are likewise patently immoral and in constant conflict with the Christian faith, in conjunction with which I trust none of us will have any sympathy, much less participation, for example, watching the thing on this, the Lord's Day. Nonetheless, as the Grecian games formed a framework for extracting principles by which to illustrate and enforce vital lessons of the Christian life, so there are things in the moral madness of Super Bowl XXXI that form a very natural bridge to underscore some vital biblical lessons.

4:54 And one such lesson is this. During the past two weeks in which the coaches and their assistants have been preparing their teams for the contest, no doubt they've been hammering out what they call their goals. They've been hammering out their goals. They've been hammering out their goals.

5:09 They've been hammering out their game plan. And within that game plan there are, among other things, the attempt to work into certain defensive alignments, things that the other coaches and teams have never seen. Certain offensive plays that will not show up in the most careful scrutiny of all the previous game films in order to gain an advantage upon one's opponent at a strategic point in the contest. However, in the midst of the game plan and the setting forth of unusual defensive and offensive alignments and perspectives, there is one thing that both coaches, above all else, have been thumping home ad nauseum. Kids, that just means again and again until you're sick of hearing it. So sick you could puke. That's ad nauseum, okay?

6:05 When you read that somewhere, that's what it means. That's the way you feel when, oh, no, mom and dad saying that again. That's ad nauseum, all right? And the coaches, no doubt, have been saying ad nauseum to their players.

6:19 Remember, guys, whatever trick plays we've worked in, whatever new defensive alignments we have proposed, this game, like most athletic contests, will be won or lost in the trenches of the basics. And whatever else we do, we've got to execute in the basics. Football is a game made up of blocking, of tackling, of running precise passing routes, of making coverage on special teams' efforts, making sure you don't fumble the ball, remembering your assignments. And from the time these men first began to play football in the Pop Warner leagues, in their pre-teen days, all the way up through high school and on into college and then into the pros, it has been thumped into them again and again and again and again that as a general rule, the team that wins the contest is the team that most efficiently remembers to master the basics. Now, if they do that to obtain a corruptible contest,

7:41 you see how the apostle uses the lessons from the Grecian games. How much more should we to obtain an incorruptible crown? For as surely as those athletic contests are won or lost ordinarily, not in the extraordinary, not in the spectacular, but in the trenches of the basics, so the crowns, christian life is won or lost there is advancement or retreat in direct proportion to our efficiency in the basics of the christian life and so because at the beginning of a year we are more naturally reflective and i hope more susceptible to consider such issues we are addressing this subject back to the basics at the beginning of this new year and the format for this series of sermons is that of several simple straightforward exhortations exhortation number one was this remember afresh the exclusive source of your spiritual strength for the coming year

Review of Previous Means of Spiritual Health

9:03 and that source is christ himself christ christ alone and christ strength is ours if we are in union with him and are appropriating by faith and in the context of communion with him that strength which he supplies to his own and then we took up the second of those exhortations and it was this to remember afresh the god appointed means for for to remember afresh the god appointed means for your spiritual health in the coming year and having established that these means are necessary by the appointment of god himself we are now in the process of identifying what those precise means are and i've suggested that it's helpful to put them in three broad categories or to think of them in three broad broad categories the individual or private means and to think of them in three broad categories the individual or private means the corporate or social means and thirdly the domestic or familial means and thus far we've identified two of those personal or private means and i've described them this way if we would take seriously the means appointed by god for our spiritual health

10:30 by which we will as it were access and enjoy in our experience the very means that we have in our spiritual health the very means that we have in our spiritual health we must know something of the disciplined assimilation of the scriptures we must be able to say with jeremiah thy words were found and i did eat them not merely smell them not sniff them not drool at them not point to them and say they're good food but we must eat them assimilate them in the way of god assimilate them in the way of god a point then we must the kind which of colossians three sixteen l zeros triptan and then last lord's day we looked at the second of those individual means for the maintenance of spiritual health that which i called the habitual engagement in secret prayer and our pivotal text would be this still to first

11:39 1 Thessalonians 5.17, pray without ceasing, and the words of Jesus in Matthew 6.6, but when you pray, enter into your closet, shut the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And in those two texts is distilled all that I attempted to say concerning the habitual engagement in secret prayer.

The Importance of Maintaining a Good Conscience: Biblical Witness

12:07 Now we come this morning to the third of these individual means appointed by God for our spiritual health, and it is this. The careful maintenance of a good conscience. The careful maintenance of a good conscience. Now let me say at the outset, it is not my purpose to give either an exhaustive, or fully comprehensive treatment of the biblical doctrine of conscience.

12:43 But to treat as much of that doctrine as is vital and essential to give a responsible treatment of our subject. We are concerned with, what is it that God has appointed for my spiritual health in the coming year? What is it that God has appointed as a means by which, I will know in measures I've never known before, the very strength, and power, and life of Christ experientially operative in my life. And I'm asserting that the third of those means, in addition to the disciplined assimilation of the scriptures, the habitual engagement in secret prayer, is the careful maintenance of a good conscience. And I plan to open up this subject under three distinct heads. First of all, the biblical witness concerning the importance of maintaining a good conscience. The biblical witness concerning the importance of maintaining a good conscience.

13:57 And we're going to look at three witnesses from the word of God. The first is Acts chapter 24 and verse 16. Acts chapter 24 and verse 16. Here we have Luke's spirit-inspired record of a segment of the life of the Apostle Paul, in which he is officially a prisoner of the Roman authorities.

14:25 And here in Acts 24 he is standing before the Roman authority, and he is giving what we call his defense. He stands before Felix. And in the midst of that, we have Luke's spirit-inspired record. that defense he says in verse 14 of acts 24 but this i confess unto you that after the way which they call a sect so i serve the god of our fathers believing all things which are according to the law and they're written in the prophets having hope toward god which these also themselves look for that there shall be a resurrection both of the just and unjust as he begins to unfold what it is that he does believe who he is as a servant of christ he makes reference to the fact that in keeping with the overarching teaching of the scriptures of the law and of the prophets that there is indeed a resurrection that will involve both the just and the unjust you and now he says in verse 16 here in or on this account with this reality as a reference point

15:43 the sober solemn reality that a period a moment in human history will dawn when god will summon all men to stand before his presence in order to be judged the just and the unjust shall be judged and in the light of that the just and the unjust shall be judged and in the light of that the just and the unjust shall be judged the just and the unjust shall be judged and in the light of that

16:34 the just and the unjust shall be judged the just and the unjust shall be judged and with equal integrity before man who though he is not my judge is yet one for whom i have responsibilities now the apostle indicates that in what we would call the psychology getting inside his psyche getting inside his head as we say in common parlance if you and i were to get inside his head and be able to trace how he thought and what shaped in more and more of his life and his life and be able to trace how he thought and what shaped in more and more of his life and his life he says that whenever i contemplate that my life and the life of every human being will ultimately be unmasked and unfolded and declared before the whole universe for what it really is in the day of judgment

17:51 that brings me to a fresh reminder that i am under a constant conscious spiritual exercise discipline spiritual drilling of myself that brings me to a fresh reminder that i am under a constant conscious spiritual exercise discipline spiritual drilling of myself that brings me to a fresh reminder that i am under a constant conscious spiritual exercise discipline spiritual drilling of myself that brings me to a fresh reminder that i am under a constant conscious spiritual exercise discipline spiritual drilling of myself to have a conscience void of offense towards that god who will judge me and toward all of my fellow man you see for paul keeping a good conscience was not an afterthought that occasionally flitted through his head it was a conscious deliberate continuous high priority spiritual discipline and it was said by the very man who said the life which i now live i live by faith in the son of god who loved me and gave himself for the very man who said i can do all things to christ who strengthens me the very man who said god forbid that i should glory save in the cross of our lord jesus christ the very man who made it plain that he was convinced that christ himself and christ alone was the source of the straight his strength this man tells us he did not so think that christ's strength would be automatically conveyed to him that all he needed to know in the way of any conscious spiritual discipline was

19:18 keep your mind fixed on christ keep your heart fixed on christ draw upon the grace of christ that approach is patiently unbiblical it sounds so drippy spiritual but it heightens a pseudo spirituality that goes beyond the experience of the apostle paul this man who was convinced more than any that christ was his life christ was his strength christ was his wisdom christ was his power says herein i am continually under a personally imposed spiritual discipline calculated to maintain an uninjured conscience before my god and before my fellow men and the last word in the original says all the time this is not something that happens when i get agitated under preaching for a moment not something that happens when a tragedy comes into my life and is god's wake-up call to get my act together this is base line nuts and bolts in the trenches christian experience that's why he can say in all most of all finding the way when standing now not the poorer allistar

20:42 that before the highest jewish tribunal it's highest ecclesiastic lensable court the center in just two faculty chapter twenty three Innova's help usually paul conceit and unless you have evidence to say this man is the deluded self-righteous hypocrite bragging about something that doesn't exist is the way he looks 티 Saul, looking steadfastly on the council, that's the Sanhedrin, said, Brethren, I have lived before God in all good conscience until this day. Think of it. The man who wrote Romans 7, The good that I would, I do not. And the evil that I would not, that I do. The man who said that I find that when I would do good, evil is present with me. Yet this man could say, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.

21:50 Now no man can say that who cannot say with call, I continually ask, I continually exercise myself, I continually keep myself under a deliberate spiritual discipline that I will not do good. To maintain a conscience void of offense to God and to man at all times. That's witness number one with respect to the importance of maintaining a good conscience. Witness number two, turn to 1 Timothy chapter 1.

The Importance of Maintaining a Good Conscience: Apostolic Precept

22:28 1 Timothy chapter 1.

22:38 You can often tell a man's priorities not only by what he says concerning himself, but what he passes on to others as important lessons.

22:49 Important concerns, priority issues. Now having left his spiritual child and companion in ministry, Timothy at Ephesus to carry on work in that church, he writes, verse 3 of chapter 1, As I exhorted you to tarry at Ephesus when I was going into Macedonia, that you might charge certain men not to teach a different doctrine. Timothy, if there's any question as to why I left you, behind at Ephesus, I'm going to clarify it. Here is one of the first reasons I left you there.

23:25 I want you to charge. And that verb to charge means to give a solemn, serious, authoritative directive. It's not to lean over the pulpit and say, Hey guys, some of you are messing around with things that aren't quite kosher. And you know, it'd really make things a lot more peaceful around here if you just, you know, sort of get on board.

23:45 No, no. He said, you charge certain men. And then he identified, he identifies what those men are and what their false doctrine was. That's not relevant for our purposes this morning.

23:57 The identity of that teaching is given in verse 4. But now notice verse 5. But the end of the charge, same Greek word. The end of the charge.

24:09 What charge? The charge, verse 3. Timothy, I'm telling you what to do. You're to charge certain men not to teach a different doctrine.

24:18 But now, Timothy, having identified, who those men are and what their doctrine is, I want to tell you why I'm giving you this charge. If you should write back to me and say, Now, Paul, why are you so pernickety about pure doctrine? Why are you so concerned that I charge these men? He said, I'll tell you, Timothy.

24:37 Here's the end of the charge. Here's the goal for which that charge was given. Now look at it. The end of the charge is love out of a pure heart and a good heart.

24:50 Good conscience and faith unfeigned. That is genuine, unfaked, non-sham faith. So, the end of the charge to maintain pure doctrine by telling these men that they must cease from teaching error is that these graces might flourish in the hearts of the people of God because Paul understood. The principle that pure doctrine alone is the mother of godliness.

25:27 Pure doctrine is the mother of godliness. In Titus 1.1, Paul says, It is the truth which is katha, according to godliness. It is the truth which alone gives birth to true godliness.

25:42 And true godliness is the child of truth under the operation and blessing of the Holy Spirit. Now, from what you know of your Bible, how central are the graces of love and faith to a healthy soul?

26:01 How central are the graces of love and faith to a spiritually healthy soul? Would you say they're right here at the center or out here at the perimeter of things? Well, you know your Bible to know well enough. Now abide at these three.

26:18 Faith, hope, and love. When Paul is focusing on a trilogy of graces, graces in 1 Corinthians 13, two of the three are faith and love. If any man love not our Lord Jesus, let him be anathema. 1 Corinthians 16.

26:37 The fruit of the Spirit is, what's at the top of the list? Love. If you love me, surely a cursory acquaintance with the Bible says love as a grace of the Spirit is central to spiritual health. What about faith?

26:57 Well, absolutely central. Without faith, it is impossible to please Him. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. But now sandwiched between the graces of love and faith is a good.

27:16 I didn't put it there. The Holy Ghost put it there. And the Holy Ghost put it there through the pen of the Apostles saying, Timothy, take seriously my directives to charge these. These teachers of error to cease and desist.

27:33 Because, Timothy, these central graces will only flourish in the context of pure doctrine. Love out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and faith unfeigned. Now you see what that tells us about the importance of maintaining a good conscience? An acid test of whether God's purpose in giving you men who teach and preach pure doctrine to you is accomplishing its divine end is the extent to which you are growing in the possession of a good conscience.

28:24 If you're not, then the end of the maintenance of pure doctrine is being frustrated in your life or in your life. You see that connection? You see it from the passage. So you can't blow it off as, oh, one of Pastor Martin's pet things, good conscience, good...

28:45 The Holy Ghost has made it one of his pet things.

28:49 And you better make one of your pet things what the Holy Ghost makes his pet thing.

28:56 Or you may be stumbling about a mass of spiritual self-delusion thinking you're growing in grace when in reality you're regressing at a frightening moment. Great. That's witness number two to the importance of maintaining a good conscience. The Apostle's own personal testimony.

The Importance of Maintaining a Good Conscience: Apostolic Warning

29:18 Now, the Apostle's perceptual directive to Timothy. Now, our third witness is a frightening warning just later on in this very same chapter. Let's look at it together. Verse 18.

29:31 This charge, back to his same word again, as is in verse 3 and in verse 5, this charge, I commit unto you, my child Timothy, according to the prophecies which led the way to you, that by them you may war the good warfare. Timothy, I'm laying this charge upon you that in your spiritual warfare there may be true success, that you may wage an effective, successful warfare. And notice now what he says in verse 19. Holding or having, continuing to, to possess faith and a good conscience. Timothy, if you are engaged in a warfare that in any way can be called a good warfare, it will be flanked on the one hand by your evident framing of your life according to the will of God made known to you through those prophetic utterances that surrounded Timothy's call. There are other references in the pastoral epistles to that. He said, Timothy, if you're waging a good warfare, you'll be in the territory assigned to you by God, taking your rank in the army of God as God defined it in his own word.

30:55 You won't be trying to be a foot soldier if God's made you a general. And you won't be trying to be a general if God's made you a sergeant. You'll take the place that God has assigned for you, to you, and for which he's equipped you in that warfare. You'll be a soldier.

31:10 But while a good warfare will be flanked on the one hand by Timothy taking his place according to the revealed will of God, it is flanked on the other hand by the soldier possessing these two commodities. Having or holding, possessing faith and a good conscience. Timothy, the minute you drop the shield of faith, you've had it. It's the shield of faith with which you quench the fiery darts of the wicked one.

31:40 It is in faith that you take these seemingly puny weapons that are not carnal but mighty through God through the pulling down of strongholds. Preaching and praying and exhorting publicly and privately. Timothy, if you're waging an effective warfare, you'll be found holding faith and a good conscience.

32:05 Timothy, how important is it that in this warfare you maintain a good conscience? Look at the next verse. And here's where we have limitations of our English translations. Which, and you say, well, which refers to what?

32:20 Well, in English, it could refer to faith and a good conscience together. But in the Greek, it's much more precise, no? We could render it which thing. In number and gender, it refers unmistakably and exclusively to conscience.

32:40 Which, that is a good conscience. Some having thrust from them, having pushed them, pushed away from them, having become weary of the task of keeping a good conscience, they've said, I've had enough of this. And they push it aside as no longer a vital companion in their Christian profession and what happens to them. Look at the passage.

33:10 Holding faith and a good conscience, which thing some having thrust from them made shipwreck concerning the faith. Now kids, when a ship gets wrecked on the rocks, what's the picture? It's all over with. Oh, a few people may jump out and swim to the shore, but the ship's done, down to Davy Jones' locker.

33:35 For people to go snorkeling and looking at it, maybe put the tin on their back and put their mask on and go down and find hidden treasure. But when it's wrecked, doesn't say who bumped the hull, get a little shipwreck. Shipwreck means it's done, it's over with, finud. Nothing left.

33:55 They've sunk to the bottom. And what put the hull in the hull? They gave up the good conscience. They thrust it from them, pushed it away from them.

34:08 It was no longer a central, vital concern of their quote, Christian experience. They at one time professed to have a good conscience. You can't thrust away from you something you never had. And then he names them.

34:26 Isn't that a shame? You have publicly embarrassed them. Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander, for I have formally and delivered over unto Satan that they might be taught not to blaspheme. How did they become professing Christians to blasphemers when they gave up maintaining a good conscience?

34:53 That put a little fear in you? It better, because it was meant to put fear in Timothy, a naturally timid man. Oh. Oh.

35:02 who many times paul is coming along and stroking him encouraging him he says don't be ashamed of me the lord's prisoner of the testimony of christ god has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind timothy don't be timid i know your temperament i know your psychological predisposition to shyness and backwardness often he's comforting encouraging strengthening be strong in the grace that is in christ jesus but it's not beneath him to shake and rattle his cage with holy fear and some of you need to have your cage shaken and rattled because you're playing with your conscience you're pushing away by degrees keeping a good conscience you're just getting too weary of all the pressures from within your own heart in your remaining sin from the world around you from society from your peers and you are by degrees pushing away a good conscience keep it up and your name will be added to the list of hymnias and alexander dear people when i say

36:21 consider afresh the god appointed means for your spiritual health at the beginning of this new year and i add to what most people would obviously identify as means of health and peace so i'm going to thank you on this day and we will see you next time ordained for spiritual health, when I add to assimilation of the Scriptures and habitual engagement in secret prayer, this matter of the maintenance, the careful maintenance of a good conscience, this is no puritanic or personal emphasis of mine. It's the emphasis of the Word of God.

37:05 So from these three witnesses, we see the importance of the maintenance of a good conscience by apostolic examples of apostolic precept and apostolic warning.

Conscience as a Spiritual Health Index

37:20 I'm trying to think of an earthly illustration. I thought in the medical realm, you're not feeling too well, you don't know quite what's wrong when you go to the doctor. What's the first thing he does? Before he even sits down and says, all right, let's trace out how'd you get here, what are the symptoms?

37:36 What are three things, almost invariably, a doctor's going to do?

37:41 Stick a thermometer in your mouth, take your temperature. Put a cuff on your arm, take your blood pressure.

37:48 Put his hand over here, or here, and take your pulse. Temperature, blood pressure, and pulse.

37:57 May I say, assimilating your Bible, habitually pray, keeping a good conscience.

38:06 Those are the three most obvious indexes is now proper. Some of us still want to say indices, but both are acceptable. And I know some of you will be perverse enough to check it in your dictionary. Go ahead, I already did yesterday.

38:21 Indexes is now proper. Indices.

38:25 And you see, if we're not in a state of spiritual health, we don't need to look for something far more exotic. The signals and the symbols and the manifestations of it are there on the surface. And so I plead with you, as I've pleaded afresh with my own heart, to be careful to maintain a good conscience in the coming year. But having looked at the biblical witness concerning the importance of maintaining a good conscience, now, secondly, consider with me the biblical teaching concerning the identity and function of the conscience.

The Identity and Function of Conscience: A Children's Illustration

39:06 The biblical teaching concerning the identity and function of the conscience. What is this thing, this faculty that we call conscience? Well, if I was speaking to the kids in the Christian school or in some other context where I just had a bunch of kids and was trying to teach this, what I would do is I'd tell them that conscience is that little shrunken man or woman hidden away somewhere in our souls who has some unusually prominent features. And all you little girls, it's that little girl stuck somewhere in your soul and you can never find her and take a stick and drive her out. Every time you try, she hides somewhere else. And the next thing you know, she's a-working again. And you can't get rid of her.

40:01 And it's that little guy that's in all of you boys and has some very unusually prominent features. On the right hand is a big, long finger, just as long as a blackboard pointer.

40:15 And that's what conscience is, is that little man in you, very elusive, always hiding, can't find him, wish you'd get him by the back of the neck in the seat of the britches and yank him out and throw him in a snowbank or in a pool of water or whatever and get rid of him. But he's in there. And he's got a big, long finger. Then he has another feature that's very prominent.

40:35 He's got a very powerful left hand. He's got a big, long finger on the right hand and a very powerful, strong left hand.

40:44 And then he's got a big, booming voice but a very limited vocabulary. A booming voice but a limited vocabulary. You say, Pastor, by now you've got the kids thinking you're crazy. Oh, no, by now I've got the kids on the edge of this chair listening.

41:03 They're not insulted when you talk to them that way. I wouldn't insult adults by telling them that. But just the kids. We're talking about the identity and function of conscience.

41:14 What are we talking about? Well, you see, conscience is that little moral monitor implanted within us by God himself who is an inveterate finger pointer. Now, one of the lessons you try to teach your kids is don't point your finger at people. That's not polite.

41:30 Well, you see, nobody ever taught conscience his manners. Or her manners. Constantly points. And you know what conscience points to?

41:40 Points in the direction of two alternatives as we're thinking about an action and conscience says with his big finger, that little guy, little gal within us, that way is right, that way is wrong. That way is good, that way is bad. And that finger points right out in front of us so there's no question in our minds that's the good way. That's the bad way.

42:06 And then conscience has that strong hand. Once we've seen where his finger points, his left hand comes behind and gets in the middle of our back and tries to nudge us in the direction of where the finger pointed when it said good.

42:23 Conscience is not passive. Once he's pointed out the good, in contrast to the bad, conscience urges to the good. Now there's something else in us that's pulling us in the direction of the good. That's the bad way.

42:35 That's the good. That's the bad way. That's the bad way. That's the direction of the bad.

42:37 But that's not conscience. That's something else. The Bible has a name for that. But conscience has a big, long, pointy finger.

42:46 Conscience has a big, strong hand that he puts in the back and nudges us. And then he's got a big, booming voice. And if you've not gone in the direction he nudged you, but you went the other direction, and you went in the path that when he pointed to it, it said wrong, you know what conscience booms out? Guilty!

43:08 If we go in the direction to which his finger pointed and his hand nudged us, conscience says, right, good, no guilt. Now that's who conscience is. You ever met him? Hmm?

43:34 Ever had that little guy in there with the big, long finger? That little gal in there with the long finger? The big hand? And the booming voice?

43:46 You say, I'm not so sure. All right. What happened the first time you were tempted to cheat? In school, whether home school, Christian school, public school?

43:56 You knew you're not quite sure of the answer, and you attempted to either look at the answer book at the back, or look over your shoulder. The minute you did, what did conscience do? Conscience came right smack in front of you. You didn't know where he'd been, where she'd been.

44:10 She was off hiding somewhere, but all of a sudden, there she was, right in front of you. There he was, right in front of you, and his finger was pointing. And when you thought of cheating, conscience pointed his finger and said, you go in that direction, that's wrong. Turn your head away.

44:23 Don't look at the answers at the back. Don't sneak out your answer book while mom and dad are not watching. Conscience said, good. His finger was pointing.

44:32 You knew where he was pointing. Then no sooner did his finger point, but you felt yourself nudged. The right thing to do is turn my eyes away. The right thing to do is, and I feel it.

44:44 And you felt the push of conscience hand on your back. If you obeyed that push, and you finished the test, even though you got the answer wrong, you finished the test, even though you got the answer wrong, you felt good. Because conscience was saying, good. But you got very little pleasure out of that good mark when you cheated, why?

45:09 Because conscience said, wrong, sin, guilt. And he wouldn't shut up. You tried to teach him to enlarge his vocabulary. That's just weakness.

45:22 Everybody does it. And you try to teach conscience a bigger vocabulary and looks at you with a dumb look and says, you know, Gabish, I'm not talking to you. I only speak English. I don't understand you.

45:34 I don't speak English. I don't speak Chinese. I don't speak Italian. I only speak two languages.

45:39 One language. Right, wrong. Not even Urdu. You know that little guy?

The Identity and Function of Conscience: Biblical Teaching from Romans 2

45:45 You know that little girl? You turned to Romans 2. Paul didn't descend to the depths of my folly and trying to make it plain with a crude illustration of the little man and the little girl. But here is the classic text on the identity and function of conscience.

46:03 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . As Paul is seeking to acknowledge şey.

46:04 seeking to indict the whole human race as guilty before God, and therefore in desperate need of a righteousness provided by God in the person and work of His Son. He knows it's not enough to go around to the Roman Empire saying, Jesus is the answer, Christ is the answer. No, people didn't know what the question was. And he says, here's the question.

46:27 How can you, a sinner, be right with a holy God? And you are a sinner, and He is holy, and He'll pour out His wrath upon all sin that is not righteously pardoned and cleansed and forgiven. And so he's corralling all the different segments of humanity, proving them guilty before God. And now he's dealing with people that never saw the lids of a Bible, Old or New Testament.

46:51 They never saw a plaque with the Ten Commandments on it. Never heard a gospel sermon. And now notice what Paul says about them in verse 13.

47:02 Or verse 12. For as many as have sinned without the law, they've never seen the lids of a Bible, never saw a plaque with the Ten Commandments on it in their language, never heard a preacher expound God's moral standards. Many as have sinned without the law shall perish without the law. As many as have sinned under the law shall be judged by the law.

47:24 For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the...

47:31 The Gentiles who have not the law do by nature the things of the law. They do things that are in conformity to God's law. These, not having the law, the written law in the Bible, in the Ten Commandments, are a law unto themselves. And how do they become that?

47:53 In that they show, not the law written on their hearts, that's not what it says, it says they show the work of the law. They show the work of the law written in their hearts. They show that apart from any influence from society, any influence of home and education and church, they show that in their very constitution as creatures made in the image of God, no matter how debauched they may be, no matter how much ignorance and darkness, because they've never heard the scriptures, yet they show something, they show the work of the law written in their hearts. Something has been written in their hearts that connects them to God's standard of right and wrong. And how is it shown? Well, he's going to tell us. Look.

48:47 Their conscience bearing witness therewith, their thoughts one with another accusing or else excusing them. He says it is the inevitable, constant function of conscience within them that is the undeniable evidence that there is in them a sense of moral rightness, no matter how it's been distorted or obscured, it's not been obliterated. And every man has within him that little man with the long finger, with the big hand, and with the thundering voice, and though the standard may be inaccurate at many points and obscure at others, nonetheless, the fabric of the inner life of every man is such that when he contemplates an action, conscience points the finger and says, right, wrong. Conscience nudges in the direction of right. And when actions are taken that are in accord with that nudging, it says their conscience is excused, their conscience gives them a sense, I did what was right in that moral choice. Not that that earns heaven, no.

50:15 Later on he'll go to show that no works can ever earn our righteousness. But in this issue of moral choices, even unconverted people make right moral choices, and when they do, conscience doesn't trouble them for that. When did conscience trouble you? When you didn't cheat in school long before you were converted.

50:35 No, you can't. Conscience didn't trouble you and didn't cheat because you didn't sin. Now, you were a sinner, you weren't loving God, and the broader framework of your life was that of sin, but in that moral act, conscience didn't point the finger. Conscience didn't accuse when you chose what was right.

50:53 And this passage, this fundamental passage, central to the whole biblical doctrine of conscience, underscores precisely, or not precisely, but in broad strokes, the identity, and the function of conscience. Now, dropping the imagery of the little man, the little boy within us, what can we say about conscience in the light of this watershed passage, and the general teaching of scripture? Well, the first thing we can say is it is a divinely created faculty. It is something that is part of every man in virtue of his being created in the image of God.

51:34 You better be clear on that, because we live in a generation that says since you came up from the slime, anything that affects the mental processes and the moral judgments are somehow things that were brought from within this or that influence to condition those moral judgments. Nothing is inherently right or wrong by divine implantation because you were not divinely created. And you wonder why we're in the moral mess we're in as a nation? Tell people they're animals?

52:11 With no fixed moral standards imposed by God, and they'll take the doctrine seriously and act like animals. And then the great tragedy is that the very same people then turn around and say it's wrong to act like animals, and then blame society in general for each individual that acts like an animal when they've conditioned the society to produce such massive contradictions, moral and ethical mush and mess. But you see God's word stands. Conscience is that divinely created faculty.

52:50 It is not only a divinely created faculty, it is a distinguishing faculty. It points the finger and says right or wrong. It is an urging faculty. What conscience points to, conscience urges us to in the direction of right.

53:08 And conscience is a judging faculty. And all of that, with reference to God as creator and God as lawgiver and God as judge. Creator, lawgiver, and judge. And conscience functions under those great realities.

53:32 Now do you see why we have the moral breakdown? Throw out God as creator, lawgiver, and judge. How can you sustain a biblical doctrine of conscience? Can't do it.

53:42 Can't do it. You see it. Are the wheels going? Are the lights flashing?

53:46 Do you see the connection? How can there be conscience when the stuff of which conscience is composed and out of which it grows and which gives birth to it is annihilated in the fabric of the thought of any given society? God as creator, lawgiver, and judge. Those are the things Paul thunders again and again in these opening chapters of Romans.

54:12 Notice how after this classic statement on conscience, he takes us right to that issue. In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men according to my gospel by Jesus Christ. That, my friends, is the biblical teaching concerning the fundamental identity and function of conscience. And that function, hear me carefully as I speak very soberly, that function will go with men.

The Eternal Function of Conscience

54:46 It will go with men into heaven and into hell.

54:56 Now, some aspects of it in heaven are going to be changed because there will only be one direction available to us. We'll be, as the old theologian said, confirmed in righteousness. But we will, as rational creatures rendering voluntary obedience to God, we will make moral choices in heaven. But, bless God, they'll all be the right ones.

55:21 They shall follow the Lamb. And whithersoever he goeth, our obedience will be like that of the unfallen angels. Quick, filled with holy enthusiasm and divine energy and power and all of the other glorious things that will make heaven, heaven. But I tell you, it's frightening to realize that little man, that little woman, a grown man, a grown woman within you will be there with you in hell if you perish.

55:52 Think of it. Think of it. To have conscience fully present and active in hell. Conscience active saying you're there because you chose the way that was opposite to that which conscience pointed.

56:12 Loading you with guilt upon guilt upon guilt that you'll not be able to shift. If anything is the worm that never dies and the fire that is never quenched, it will be the gnawings of an accusing conscience in outer darkness. You who want to take lightly the peace to repent and believe the gospel. Treat lightly your never dying soul.

56:39 Treat lightly our savior. Sit for five minutes to death. Take the TV and say, look at the clock. Five minutes I'm going to sit here and think what would it be to be in hell and have my conscience constantly pointing a finger and its voice accusing me for all of my lies, for all of my filthy words, for all of my lust, for all of my immorality, all of my rebellion to mom and dad, all of my Sabbath breaking, all of my indifference to God's name in his worship.

57:20 Think for five minutes. It'll be enough to drive you to your knees saying, God have mercy on me a sinner. How could I sustain that for eternity? You couldn't unless God by his almighty strength strengthened every soul in hell with the strength needed to bear the suffering of eternal punishment.

57:44 Is that what you want? God have mercy on you if that's what you want.

Personal Application: Responding to the Truth about Conscience

57:52 Well, we've considered the biblical witness concerning the importance of maintaining a good conscience, the biblical teaching concerning the identity and the function of conscience and our time is such that I had hoped to move to heading number three, the biblical directives for the maintenance of a good conscience under two headings, the initial attainment of a good conscience and the continuous maintenance of a good conscience. But as I said to my fellow elders a few months ago, I said I believe those of us who preach need a fresh commitment not to preach over many things but preach out and preach in a few vital things. And I believe God's helped me to preach out the importance of a good conscience and something of the identity and function of conscience. And I want to take these remaining minutes then to seek to preach in those two headings. Let me ask you, dear Christian, as you sit here this morning, when I opened up those three passages, Acts 24, 16, 1 Timothy 1, 5, 1 Timothy 1, 18 and 19, what was your reaction?

59:19 Did you say, Oh Lord, I didn't understand why this has been such a passionate concern of mine and why maybe my husband or my wife or my close friends, even Christians, keep telling me, Look, you've got too sensitive a conscience. You've got an over-scrupulous conscience. Lord, now I see why. Lord, I thank you that I didn't know why.

59:41 But now I see from Scripture why keeping a good conscience has been such a spiritual obsession with me. Is that what happened when you heard those verses opened up? Or was your reaction this? Hmm, never thought of that before.

60:03 Yeah, that's something I think maybe I'll have to look into. Is that your reaction? Or was your reaction, Oh Lord, I see now why your Spirit has been continually pressing me to take more seriously that little man within with the long finger and with the big left hand and with the thundering voice. And oh God, where I've rationalized and said, He's an uninvited guest.

60:32 I don't know where he came from, what he's doing here. I'm not so sure I should be concerned with his finger and with his hand and with his voice. Oh God, you've shown me what a fool I've been. I've toyed with the very thing that could have put me on the slippery slope to apostasy.

60:52 It could have put me in the shoals that bring shipwreck. It could have ripped such holes in the hull of my professed Christianity. I could be down at the bottom. God, thank you for your mercy in sparing me.

61:07 Oh God, from this day forward, I'm not going to treat this lightly. Now, I believe that every Christian in this place, professing Christian, had at least in those basic categories, that was your reaction. Which was yours? Don't answer out loud, but answer with the same honesty with which you'll be forced to answer in the day of judgment.

61:34 Was it a glad response, Lord? Thank you for confirming. I've not been wrong. I've not been overly sensitive, Lord.

61:42 I now have biblical feet to my determination, carefully to maintain a good conscience. Or was it another response of your frighteningly, overgrowing hardness of heart? Well, that's interesting. I'll give it a little thought.

62:03 My friend, that is almost an infallible sign that you're playing dangerously close to joining the ranks of Hymenaeus and Alexander. I pray God that there'll be not a few who are in category number three, who'll say, now I understand. All of my rationalizing about some of the things I've been watching on TV and the way I've been spending my time, and some of the things I say, I say on the phone and the way I've rationalized on Wednesday nights when I was nudged to keep my commitments to be at prayer meeting and I rationalized. Now I understand, Lord.

Application for the Unconverted: Cleansing a Defiled Conscience

62:41 They've all been the gracious influence of the Holy Spirit through the instrumentality of conscience, pointing to the right way, His hand nudging me in the right way, and His voice confirming or condemning in the choices that I made. Oh God, I'm going to stop by Your grace and in the strength of Christ, my light treatment of a good conscience. And then for you who sit here, and you have what the Bible calls an evil conscience, a defiled conscience, that's biblical language, a seared conscience. Some of you young people and children, you've lied so often now, you don't even lose a minute and a half sleep coming from a fresh lie to your mom and dad. Remember when you first lied to them? You'd lie there in bed and you'd toss and turn.

63:41 Now you can lie ten times a day and go off to sleep like a little baby in the crook of its mama's arm. Don't be proud of that. That's a harbinger of the horrible awakening that will come when you stand before Almighty God and conscience will suddenly be awakened. You'll have a whole eternity to remember.

64:07 You know what it says of hell? They have no rest, day nor night. There's no going to sleep in hell and one of the reasons is conscience's finger will be pressed under your nose and his voice will thunder in your ears. And when you think you're going to drift off, he'll thunder louder!

64:34 Darkness! No rest, day nor night, forever and forever. Though it must await God's sparing us, there's only one place for a seared, an evil, a defiled conscience to be made a good conscience. That's through the work of Jesus Christ as we shall see Hebrews 9.14, Hebrews 10.22, 1 Peter 3.21.

65:04 Those are the texts. Go home and shut yourself up with them. It is through the eternal spirit that Christ offered himself to God and it is in that work of Christ alone that we can have our conscience and our conscience is purged from dead works to serve the living and the true God. We can get the interrogation of a good conscience to God only on the grounds of the resurrection of Christ from the dead, 1 Peter 3.21, the culmination of his redemptive work for sinners. Oh, my unconverted friend, go to Christ who died for sinners, whose blood is the fountain open for sin and uncleanness and ask him to wash you in his blood to wash that defiled and evil conscience and know for the first time the blessedness of being at home with your conscience. Now to welcome the companionship of conscience under the tutelage of the word and the influence of the spirit to be no little factor in your walk to the celestial city. May God write his word upon our hearts and cause us this day

Concluding Exhortation and Prayer

66:18 to determine that as surely as we shall seek our strength to live the Christian life in Christ himself and Christ alone, not only in the coming year but until God takes us to himself, that we will consider afresh the God-appointed means for our spiritual health and while we give ourselves to the disciplined assimilation of the scriptures and to habitual secret prayer, give ourselves with determination to maintain a good conscience. Let us pray.

67:01 Our Father, we thank you for your holy word that it is a lamp unto our feet and a light to our pathway and how we plead that your spirit who gave that word will take it now and so write it upon our hearts, cause its truth and its sound to reverberate within the chambers of our hearts, that this may not be just another Sunday when we went to church and went our ways no better than when we came, even worse. O Lord, have mercy, have mercy, that you will so own your word that it may profit many in discernible and undeniable ways this day and in many days to come. Hear our cry. Preserve us from the wickedness that is so heightened on this particular Lord's day. May we who name the name of Christ joyfully bear witness against our sports-crazed, pleasure-mad society by shamelessly being found amongst your people and sanctifying your day in our homes and about our tables.

68:21 Gracious God, make us light and salt in every place in which your providence has put us. Hear us and answer our cry, we plead, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.