Our Spiritual Health: Attaining a Good Conscience

Introduction: The Importance of a Good Conscience

0:01 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, February 2nd, 1997, at the Trinity Baptist Church of Montville, New Jersey. I want to read just two verses in your hearing. The first, Acts 24 and verse 16. Acts 24 and verse 16.

0:34 The Apostle Paul making his defense before a secular ruler in the midst of that defense declares in Acts 24, 16, Herein or on this account, that is, on account of the certainty of a future resurrection and judgment of both the just and the unjust, herein or on this account, I also exercise myself to have a conscience void of offense, toward God and man always. And then in Paul's first letter to Timothy, 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 5, having charged Timothy to remain at Ephesus, among other reasons, to secure the ongoing presence of true and pure doctrine, the Apostle now says,

1:38 is love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfamed.

The Analogy of the Scholar and the Alphabet: Spiritual Basics

1:50 Now as we begin our study in the word of God this morning, I want you to activate with me that marvelous God-given faculty that we call imagination. I want you to imagine with me that there is sitting here, in this auditorium this morning, a brilliant, world-renowned scholar. This scholar's expertise is in the field of early American history.

2:25 The books that he has authored in this field are used by the standard by which to evaluate all other books in that field. His mastery of primary sources of historical knowledge, about possible research in early American history, coupled with his ability to express himself in writing, with a lucid gripping style, with an impeccable use of English grammar and with precise vocabulary are unsurpassed by any scholar in that field.

3:07 Now what would happen to this imaginary scholar, in terms of his further不錯, раньше voca Moleon. literary and historical productions if suddenly he lost the ability to distinguish the letters of the English alphabet? What would happen if, because of a rare infarct to that part of the brain that distinguishes the letter A from B, and B from C, and C from D, and all the way through to Z, or for some of our visiting friends from other countries, to Z, all ability to distinguish those basic building blocks of the English language that we call the alphabet, all of that ability was lost. That when his eye took in those symbols, his brain got them totally scrambled so that he could not distinguish one from another. They were all amassed, lots of jumbled markings. When he attempted to sit at his word processor, the ability to distinguish those basic building blocks out of which words are made, and words built into

4:26 phrases and sentences, all of that was gone so that he had no ability to give this visual expression of his thoughts at his word processor. Well, he and all who know him, and could observe his present dilemma, his intense frustration would be reminded that all of his ripened scholarship, and all of his literary skills, were based upon his ongoing ability to traffic freely in those basic building blocks of expressing thought in words, and of absorbing the words of others embodied in words that we call the alphabet. And once his ability to traffic freely in those basic building blocks of communication was either lost, displaced, or rendered non-functional, his ability to continue as a developing scholar and an accomplished writer would virtually stop. Now, why have I asked you to use your imagination in this way? Well, for the simple reason that what

5:52 is true of this scholar, of this historian, of this author, is true of each one of us with respect to the Christian life. Our ability to grow as the people of God, our ability to continue to develop and mature as God's children, our ability to grow as the people of God, our ability to continue to grow as God's children, is dependent upon our ongoing, efficient grasp upon the fundamental building blocks of the Christian life. And if they are lost, or displaced, or we become inefficient in our use of them, then our growth is stunted, if not actually halted. And because of this fact, I have chosen, at the beginning of my life, to be a Christian. I have chosen to be a Christian. I have chosen to be a Christian throughout these years. And I am giving you the opportunity,

6:50 at the beginning of this new year, to bring a series of studies entitled, Back to Basics, at the beginning of a New Year. And the format of the series of sermons is very simple and straightforward. I am setting before you some exhortations, and then fleshing out those exhortations into specifics and into particulars. The first was to remember afresh the exclusions of one's body, and the other was to remember the characteristics of another's body. And then, in the last few verses, I used to summarize these sites and terms, to remember the related laws of the reasons for which the subject can be so established that we can learn from source of our spiritual strength for the coming year and the whole thrust of that message is bound up in John 15 5 and in Philippians 4 13 without me you can do nothing I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me and then the second exhortation is this remember afresh the God appointed means for your spiritual health in the coming year and after demonstrating the

God-Appointed Means for Spiritual Health: The Good Conscience

7:49 necessity for these means we then began to identify these means in their specific God appointed identity and I've suggested that it's helpful to think of them in terms of three categories the individual or private means of God appointed means for your spiritual health in the coming year and after demonstrating the necessity for these means we then began to identify these means in their specific God appointed means for your spiritual health in the coming year and after demonstrating for our spiritual health the corporate or the social means appointed for our spiritual health and then the domestic or the familial means appointed for our spiritual health and under this fast first category we've noted first of all the disciplined assimilation of the scriptures man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God the second is the habitual engagement in secret prayer Luke 18 1 men ought always to pray and not to faint and then last Lord's Day we began to take up the third of these individual means appointed by God for our spiritual health and I described it this way the careful maintenance of a good conscience and we had time only to work out the first two heads of that study the first heading was the

9:17 biblical witness concerning the importance of maintaining a good conscience and we looked carefully at three texts of scripture two of which were read in your hearing acts 24 16 1st Timothy 1 5 and 1st Timothy 1 18 and 19 and those three texts by way of the Bible were read in your hearing or in church and were the name of the Bible an Bowl standing on the ground you can see and what this book said to me is that that you are not allowed to speak and this was because in the Bible the scripture and theрипhere was your schools before your eyes and in the Gospels exemplo of the church had of the Holy Spirit an epiphany shouldn't that this story for us let me be the scripture that and then 여 Debatte haven't you been having the second section I spoke to you from scarlet Großavikish and as you can see the lip the scripture when you read from Exodus you have to just read all of that from the Bible I guess it keeps us awake it keeps you awake is surely the same bible that teaches us that would not leave us in the dark as to the function and identity of this thing that we call conscience and with romans 2 14 and 15 as our pivotal text we use the analogy of conscience functioning as that little man that little woman within each one of us with its grotesque caricature like features of a long finger continually pointing

10:44 either in the direction of what is right or wrong distinguishing the two the large hand in the small of our back nudging us in the direction of what the finger points to as right and then a loud voice that either you you A voice that either speaks that word excusing the action is right or accusing as wrong in the language of romans chapter 2 now today having considered the biblical witness concerning the importance of maintaining a good conscience the biblical teaching concerning the identity and function of the conscience we come thirdly to the biblical directives for the maintenance of a good conscience the biblical directives for the maintenance of a good conscience and I would like to set those directives before you in two broad categories first directives for the initial attainment of a good conscience to god and man and then directives for the directives 4 and 6

Directives for the Initial Attainment of a Good Conscience: Introduction

12:06 hacks and 23 with with with I for a to making your car ing in good working order, I'm assuming you have a car to maintain.

12:42 If I tell you, maintain your good health, I'm assuming you already possess good health. You cannot maintain a good conscience if you have never attained that commodity. And the reason Paul could say, I exercise myself to maintain a good conscience, is that by the grace of God, he knew what it was to attain a good conscience towards God and towards man. How then do we initially attain a good conscience?

13:21 And the answer of Scripture is straightforward. Two things must be true of us if we are ever to attain initially a good conscience. The first, there must be...

Directive 1: Believing Appropriation of Christ in His Saving Work (Toward God)

13:36 There must be a believing appropriation of Christ in His saving work. Now please don't take those words lightly. There must be a believing appropriation, not of the saving work of Christ, as though it were possible to have that apart from Christ. Nor is it the believing appropriation of Christ, with no reference to His saving work.

14:03 But it is in the believing appropriation... of the creation of Christ in His saving work, by which alone we can come to attain a good conscience.

14:18 When a boy, when a girl, man or woman, in any place, at any time in human history, subsequent to the fall of our first father and mother, when any person is awake to the realities of who God is as creator, law giver, and judge and await to what he is as a sinner by nature and by practice. Whenever anyone becomes awake to those realities of who God is and what he is as a sinner, he will know what we call conviction of sin. That is, he will know conscience functioning as a thunderous accuser in the depths of his heart. He cannot escape that loud voice that says you are guilty not because society has imposed upon you this so-called conditioning factor of guilt, but because you have come to this world as a sinner. You have come to understand something of who God is as your creator, lawgiver, and judge, and you've come to

15:38 understand and have a felt awareness of what you are as an accountable, polluted, vile, guilty, wrath-deserving sinner in the presence of this God. And once conscience begins to accuse in those categories, its voice cannot escape that loud voice that says you are guilty not because society has imposed upon you this sin. you cannot do something that will make this thinker oraver lose his action if his conduct, impertinence, fence or dage or political prudence will not be silenced righteously or safely apart from a believing contrasting what God was pleased to do in the Old Testament types and shadows with what He now does in the fullness of His revelation of saving mercy in the person and work of Christ. The writer to the Hebrews in verse 13 of Hebrews 9 says, If the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling them that have been defiled,

17:02 sanctify to the cleanness of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish unto God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without blemish unto God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Here we are told that there is an intimate connection between the saving work of Christ, the spilling of His blood as a sacrificial victim, yet at the same time, an ever-living active priest, who in the power of His own divinity offers up Himself unto God that work that He Himself accomplished in His once-for-all sacrifice is said to be the means by which our consciences are cleansed from dead works

18:30 to the end that we might, that we might serve the living God. Now, it's not my purpose to give a detailed exposition of this verse, but to look at it in terms of our concern. How does one initially attain a good conscience? And I have said the only way for one who has begun to be awake to the realities of who God is as Creator, Lawgiver, and Judge, and what he or she is, as a guilty, vile, polluted, hell-deserving sinner, is to come to a believing appropriation of Christ in His saving work.

19:15 And our text clearly establishes that that is so. Here is the picture of the man who has an evil conscience. He has a conscience plagued with the awareness that what his works are, are not good. They are marked by death, that they grow out of death, that they lead to death.

19:39 They are smothered in death. As one has said, an evil conscience is a conscience burdened and polluted with the sense of unpardoned guilt. Well, how is that conscience to be cleansed? How is that evil conscience weighed down with the awareness of the death smell?

20:04 That exudes from all that the person is and does who has that conscience. How is it to be cleansed and made a good conscience? Our text tells us it is only through the virtue of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ applied to that conscience. And we know from the analogy of Scripture that Christ in His saving work is appropriated only by faith.

20:37 And notice, it is only then that people can come into the glad service of the living God. What is it that drove Adam from the service of God to hide from God among the trees of the garden? It was a guilty, evil conscience.

21:02 You see, before Adam sinned, the first indication, the second indication of God's theophanies, His visible appearance to come in special communion with Him, caused His heart to leap within Him and His feet to run towards His God. But when His good conscience became a conscience marked by the dead work of His rebellion and by the death of His separation from communion with God, the thought of God produced dread, and the dread produced of God, aversion, and surrounding that dread and aversion were hard thoughts of God and an indisposition to serve God and to commune with God. A guilty conscience put an ocean between Adam's affections and desires and His God. And so it puts an ocean between every one of us and the living and true God. And we can never serve this God.

22:06 We can never render to Him joyful, spontaneous, delightful, communion, worship, adoration, love and obedience unless conscience is made of good conscience. That we can think of God as creator, as lawgiver and judge, and yet run to Him with delight, not run from Him, crippled with guilt, swallowed up with heart, hard thoughts about Him, and an internal emotional and psychological aversion to any thought of close dealings with Him. This text says if you're ever going to get a good conscience that will have as its result your drawing near in the service of God, you must have faith, dealings with the virtue of the blood of Christ who offered Himself unto this God. Second text, Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 22. In verse 19 the paragraph begins, having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which He dedicated for us, a new and living way through the veil, that is to say His flesh,

23:33 having a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, now notice, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. The punctuation of the 1901 that puts a coal in there and joins having our body washed with pure water, let us hold fast, is an exegetical point. John Brown in his commentary on Hebrews makes what I believe is a convincing case that this is the right punctuation and the right gathering together of the thoughts but for our purposes all we need to do is focus again upon the central issue relevant to our message and here's the issue. We are told in the light of our gospel privileges, the gospel privileges of having a new and living way that has been made by the blood of Christ, having a living high priest in heaven, Jesus our exalted Lord Himself, we are to draw near and then using a perfect passive participle, we draw near as those who are in the state and condition of having had and remaining in the experience of

24:57 the cleansing of an evil conscience. That's the emphasis of the grammar. Let us draw near with a true heart, conscious, a new and living way has been made, we have a high priest and we know that somewhere in the past we have experienced the sprinkling of our evil consciences and in the present enjoyment of that sprinkling we draw near by the new and living way in the confidence of our priest at the right hand of the Father. How did they get that sprinkling from an evil conscience?

25:41 It is when there was a believing appropriation of Christ in His saving work, which under the Old Testament imagery is likened when by faith we lay hold of Christ in His saving work as Moses sprinkled the book and the people to demonstrate among other things that the virtue of the innocent sacrifice was now applied to them and became the basis of their covenantal bond with God. So when a penitent sinner lays hold of Christ, not in some nebulous religious experience, he's the big boy upstairs, he's the friend of sinners in some nebulous way and I'm for Jesus and he's for me and I feel good. No, no, no! When you lay hold of Christ as he comes in the chariot, as he comes in the chariot of gospel truth, Christ the God-man, Christ in the perfection of His sinless obedience, Christ in the voluntary laying down of His life the just for the unjust, Christ the victim immolated upon the altar of God by His own action as a high priest, when by faith we lay hold of this Christ in this saving work, the Spirit of God applies to the conscience

27:07 the virtue of that saving work. We know wonder of wonders that every cause of just controversy that the living God has with us has been swallowed up in the person and work of our great high priest. God says, sins and iniquities I'll remember no more. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin and for the first time in our lives we know what it is to have a conscience void of offense to God.

27:44 A conscience attained void of offense. How? By a believing appropriation of Christ in His saving work. A third text.

27:56 1 Peter 3 and verse 21. 1 Peter 3 and verse 21. Now any of you familiar with this section in Peter's epistle, you know that from verses 18 to 21 we have a section that is difficult to understand. And if Peter said of Paul, our beloved brother Paul, as also in all his epistles has written some things hard to be understood, I believe after Paul read this section he would have said, et tu Brute?

28:37 Yes. And you Paul have written hard things, he would say yes Peter and you too have written some things hard to be understood which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction. People will use some things in this passage to teach all kinds of strange doctrines. Baptismal regeneration, that the application of water actually saves you.

28:58 They will teach that there's a second chance for some people who are spirits in prison and that Jesus between His death and resurrection went and preached all kinds of weird things. But I'm not going to trouble you with all those weird things because the one thing that's indisputably clear in the passage is the very thing that we're seeking to establish and that is the connection between the saving work of Christ and obtaining a good conscience. And I want us to look at that connection. Verse 21 Which also after a true likeness doth now save you, even baptism.

29:33 Now don't get hung up on that, that's not our concern. Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but now notice, but the interrogation, the inquiry, the appeal. You say, well, why can't the translators be more definitive? Because this is the only place in the whole New Testament where this word occurs.

29:51 And it doesn't even occur in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures so you can't get a flavor, can't get a feel for the flavor of its use. So you have to use other means to try to ascertain the precise significance. Is it the inquiry, the appeal, the interrogation of a good conscience? Well, whatever it is, notice this.

30:12 Notice this. Whether it's the interrogation of a good conscience, an appeal made to the conscience and it comes back saying, my conscience is a good conscience. It's no longer a defiled conscience. No longer an evil conscience.

30:28 It's no longer an accusing conscience. Or if it's the inquiry or appeal, one thing is clear. Look at this. Look at the connection.

30:36 But the interrogation, the inquiry, the appeal, the answer of a good conscience towards God by the instrumentality of be all with the truth. Going to the latest guru on channel 13 telling you now you've all been conditioned to have hang-ups. Your parents loaded your conscience with all kinds of stuff that makes you feel guilty and you got to get all of that out and reprogram yourself. That guy is a vicious, wicked, hell-deserving and hell-taking heretic who panders that stuff over public television.

31:19 Got to get all those things out that your parents imposed upon you. The way you get a good conscience is to end up with no conscience. No. Look at the text.

31:33 The answer of a good conscience toward God through the instrumentality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And what is the resurrection of Jesus Christ? The culmination of His saving work on earth. His saving work is carried on in heaven as the next part of the text shows as He is taken back to the right hand of the Father seated in a place of unrivaled exaltation and power and He carries on His saving work in heaven.

32:06 But the accomplishment of His saving work on earth was culminated in the resurrection. So what is Peter saying? He says you get a good conscience when there's a believing appropriation of Christ in His saving work. The saving work that not only involved the shedding of His blood but His triumphant resurrection from the dead validating that when He cried Petalesti it stands accomplished.

32:38 It is finished. Payment is made. That is no wishfulness. That is no wishful dream.

32:45 That's reality. I can come into the presence of the God who knows more of my sin than I could ever know. What I know gives me a horrible sense of uncleanness and guilt and aversion and dread and fear and puts distance between me and God. But I can come to that God open faced with joy with alacrity.

33:13 I can call Him Abba Father. How? Not by searing my conscience. Not by reaching in and excising my conscience.

33:22 But by bringing to my conscience all the virtue of the perfect life the substitutionary death the triumphant resurrection of my Lord Jesus Christ and know that in Christ and in His work God has made full provision to satisfy all the demands of His justice with respect to my sin so that I now have a good conscience towards God through the blood of Christ by the sprinkling of that blood by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Now surely these three texts as far as I'm concerned are indisputable in their clear answer to the question how can I initially attain a good conscience towards God? The answer is only by a believing appropriation of Christ in His saving work can any man, woman, boy or girl have a good conscience towards God. But thank God any man any woman, any boy, any girl who will come in penitent faith and lay hold of faith in Christ in the virtue of His saving work you can have a good conscience

34:48 a conscience that will accurately state that not one of your mountainous number of sins will ever be brought before you in the court of heaven. Jesus paid it all all to Him I owe. That's it. You'll never get a good conscience.

35:13 That's why as we saw last week the function of conscience in hell will be no little part of the worm that never dies and the fire that is never quenched because in hell you'll not be able to excise your conscience. You'll not be able to take away the two reference points of conscience that you as a creature are accountable to God your Creator, Lawgiver and Judge and as a creature you are sinful and vile and depraved and wicked and conscience cannot change the direction of its finger pointing the direction of its pressure nor the sound of its voice and all eternity will never silence the voice of conscience if it's not been righteously silenced by the blood of Christ by the virtue of Christ and His saving work. Have you ever attained a good conscience toward God His way? These texts make it abundantly clear that is God's way. It is the only way.

Directive 2: Thorough Righteous Adjustment of Rectifiable Moral Abnormalities (Toward Man)

36:28 But you see Paul said he exercised himself not only to have a conscience void of offense towards God always but he said also towards man always. Now why would he be concerned if my conscience is at peace with respect to God? Isn't that enough? If the judge is satisfied with what's happened to my sin should I be concerned about mere fellow creatures?

37:00 Well yes I have to be because that very God said I'm not only to love Him with all the heart, mind, soul and strength but I am to love my neighbor as myself. And that God says if I'm not rightly related to my neighbor whom I can see first John how can I claim to be rightly related to the God whom I cannot see? So you see attaining initial attainment of a good conscience not only involves the believing appropriation of Christ in His saving work but it involves the second thing it involves a thorough righteous adjustment some of you take notes I'm going to go back and break this down I've labored long enough to bring these words together this way to give the distilled essence of the biblical teaching there must be a thorough righteous adjustment of rectifiable moral abnormalities towards men. You want a good conscience not only to God but to men you want to attain it initially then you must join to that believing appropriation of Christ in His saving work a thorough righteous adjustment of rectifiable moral abnormalities

38:30 towards men. Now what do I mean by that mouthful of verbal mush? Well I hope to state something clearly notice the key words are moral abnormalities towards men all sins are against God David in Psalm 51 who had committed the sins of adultery murder by proxy deception hypocrisy towards the nation towards his fellow leaders yet when he is broken before God you remember his prayer against you O God and you only have I sinned and done that which is evil in your sight all sin is ultimately and primarily and essentially against God but some sins are not only against God they are also against our fellow men if your brother sin against you Jesus said in Luke 17 rebuke him there is such a sin against a fellow human being if a brother sin against you rebuke him he assumes that there are sins against fellow men when you tell a lie you are not only sinning against God and violating the sanctity of truth in the presence of the God of truth but you are violating someone else giving a misconception taking advantage if you steal if you commit an act of immorality

39:58 not a thought but an act of immorality you violated another body as well as the law of God and the sanctity of human sexuality now God's forgiveness hear me carefully now God's forgiveness covers the guilt the wrath deservingness the moral culpability in the court of heaven of all sins of all kinds no matter what the direction those sins may take as we saw last Lord's day evening when God said to that woman in the person of his son your sins are forgiven you all of them all of them and apparently many of them were sins at a horizontal level for she was a notorious sinner her sins were not heart secret sins alone they were open public social sins whatever they were and the Lord said they're all forgiven but sins against our fellow men though fully unqualifiedly forgiven in the court of heaven must must if they are moral abnormalities in relationship to our fellow men they must be rectified that means where I stole something it is not enough to go to God and acknowledge that in the virtue of the blood

41:24 and resurrection of Christ there is provision made that that sin may be pardoned in the court of heaven fully and completely pardoned I now have a moral abnormality and that is I possess a bicycle a purse a dollar a fist of money I possess something that does not rightfully belong to me and I must commit myself to adjust that moral abnormality you children you young people in the period of your rebellion against God you often showed that rebellion by total disregard for the respect and honor due your parents by the fifth commandment and the moment you lay hold in penitent faith of Christ in his saving work you can have a good conscience toward God that all of those sins of disrespect and disobedience to your parents are fully forgiven and pardoned however there is a moral abnormality that needs to be corrected by you going to those very parents and in the joy and knowledge that sins have been pardoned in the court of heaven to seek the pardon and the forgiveness of those parents against whom you sinned and that is what I mean by the words a righteous adjustment of these moral abnormalities where it involves confessing a sin I must confess it where it means

42:53 making restitution of a commodity I must restore it where it means seeking to reconcile a fractured relationship I must make the efforts to do so but then there are two qualifiers in my statement the word thorough and rectifiable there must be a thorough righteous adjustment a willingness to adjust anything and everything that needs adjustment if it is possible to adjust it it is rectifiable if you stole money from someone who has moved to Timbuktu and you don't know how to track them down obviously you can't make restitution that is a non-rectifiable moral abnormality you confess to God and say Lord you know if I could get hold of John Jones and pay him back I would with interest but I don't know how to get hold of him I suggest you give that money as the old saying goes give that money as the old testament directive said when you couldn't find a person to whom you ought to make restitution bring it into the temple or the tabernacle and offer it to the Lord and the Lord will accept the willingness for the deed so that's what I mean by that combination of words and now I want to turn to the scriptures and show you the scriptures out of which they come I could have begun with the scriptures and tried to summarize but I thought it better to summarize in human words and then show the scriptures out of which they come out of which they arise

Scriptural Witnesses for Rectification: Zacchaeus

44:22 on what basis dare I say to you my fellow sinners you can never attain a good conscience to God unless you are willing to make a thorough righteous adjustment of rectifiable moral abnormalities toward men well the first text you kids probably already anticipated that little fella who was nicknamed Shorty everybody else got a growth spurt in the early teens he was left behind always hoping his would come but it never came you can imagine some of the psychological battering poor Zacchaeus must have felt one long before everybody called him Shorty and he had to learn to live with his nickname Shorty so that even when Luke records the incident of his conversion he's still identified as Shorty Luke chapter 19 and Shorty hears that Jesus is passing that way and he's heard some things about him and he was a chief publican that is a tax collector and he was rich and often this happens with men of exceeding and abnormally short stature they can be very driven men they overcompensate for their physical liabilities by tremendous drive and often often I didn't say always often can be quite abrasive and whatever it was we know this man had drive he had savvy he had the industriousness to make him not just

45:51 any old rank and file publican but he rose up in the ranks he was shop steward of the local publicans and he was rich he was a fat cat no new thing under the sun Bible doesn't say fat cat that's just modern parlance but that's what he was he was a driving entrepreneurial successful fat cat tax collector and most of them got that way by the same way people become fat cat entrepreneurs in our day trample over anything and anybody in your way to get what you want and so we see something of his temperament verse 4 he ran on before he didn't just saunter and say oh Jesus come into town be nice if I can see him here he's coming he sees the tree and he splits he makes his way like a little scat back and just see the people flying as he's making his way he ran climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him when Jesus came to the place he looked up and said Zacchaeus make haste come down for today I must abide at your house and he made haste and came down and received him joyfully when they saw it they all murmured saying he Jesus gone into lodge with a man that is a sinner now whether this was the prejudicial and unwarranted designation you see the Pharisees and many of the Jews felt any tax collector because he was holding hands with Rome was a betrayer of the country and even though

47:20 he was scrupulously honest he was still considered a sinner because he was hobnobbing with these Romans who were the conquering power imposed upon them and as far as they were concerned no tax collector was worth any other designation but a sinner on the other hand he may have earned this reputation like most of them did who were rather loose Rome said look you have this toll booth on this particular road you collect taxes in this particular area here is our minimum requirement that you bring into Rome's coffers how you get it what you take for yourself will turn the other way and so they had earned the reputation for being a bunch of scallywags and extortioners so when you want to talk about Palestinian riffraff you said tax collectors and harlots and sinners and so whether out of prejudice or out of earned reputation they see Zacchaeus receiving Jesus and they start complaining about Jesus he's gone with a man that's a sinner so I take the time to say this why not just to embellish the story and try to make it come alive and break us out of the horrible wretched crippling influence of a non-imaginative reading of our Bibles that they're flat and one dimensional they didn't occur one dimensional they were three dimensional get into your Bible let your Bible get into you seek to see it live it

48:48 feel it and in that situation what happens Zacchaeus stood and said unto the Lord Lord behold the half of my goods I give to the poor and if I have wrongfully exacted any thing of any man I restore for full see what he's saying he's pretty much admitting that his reputation was earned it wasn't imposed by association it wasn't guilt by association it was reputation earned by performance and he says to demonstrate that my heart is changed from a grasping thieving covetous heart Lord the half of my goods I give to the poor the Lord didn't require that of him no indication the Lord suggested it of him it was his spontaneous expression saying Jesus when you said come down I must abide you didn't just take a walk to my house you've taken a walk into my heart and you've totally rearranged all the priorities of my heart and all the perspectives of my heart and where once my heart had nothing but dollar signs from one end to the other from the front door to the back and down into the basement

50:14 and in every closet Lord I have a new heart the half of my goods I give to the poor furthermore I'm conscious that I've sinned against my fellow men and I am prepared and I am prepared with respect to anything whether it's just a few denarii a few shekels or whether it's tens of thousands if I've exacted anything of any man I am restoring it fourfold and there his mind was probably influenced by truths he learned as a little boy in his Jewish upbringing in terms of specific directives in the Levitical code of Moses imposed upon the people he said that's what I'm committed to and Jesus said unto him alright Zacchaeus after you've tracked down every single person with whom you have a moral abnormality and where it is rectifiable you've rectified it then you can know that you are saved no Jesus said unto him today is salvation come to this house today salvation is come Zacchaeus in the court of heaven every single account is thoroughly irrevocably perfectly adjusted you see Zacchaeus did not have any sense

51:42 after Jesus spoke to him that his commitment to thorough rectification of these moral abnormalities was completing his salvation no it was an expression of the joy of a salvation immediately and freely conferred but if he was to enjoy it he had to have the ability not only to look up into the face of his God and say I'm a forgiven man but when he looked into the face of any fellow man and said I am a forgiven man and God has shown mercy upon me to know that nobody can say mercy upon you man you owe me 500 bucks if your God's done anything in you pay up what you squeezed out of me by extortion he wanted to have a good conscience toward man as well as to God and the only way to get it was by a thorough thorough not partial not one measured by convenience a thorough righteous adjustment of every rectifiable moral abnormality and when he expressed those instincts of his renewed heart Jesus did not say today salvation has come to your house and because it has and it would be legalistic to think you need to do all this thanks for having the good will to do it Zacchaeus but forget it all is forgiven all is forgotten go on out and rejoice in your salvation

53:10 Jesus didn't tell him any such nonsense as some people tell people today if you claim to be a Christian and you may well be a Christian but you have never committed yourself to a thorough righteous adjustment of rectifiable moral abnormalities toward your fellow man you never have done a good conscience toward man and there's no way to get it no way to get it but by a thorough righteous adjustment of those rectifiable moral abnormalities not done with any sense of earning salvation but done under the impulse and the joy of salvation using those very circumstances to bear witness to the change that God has wrought in your heart where once you could go to bed at night knowing you had a bad debt that you never intended to make good you go to the person and say man you know that for the past five years I've had that bad debt I just dismissed it I figured well you lose some you win some you lose some you win some but I want to tell you something I'm committed to paying back every last cent of that with a reasonable interest now it may take me five years but I want you to know I'm committed fifty bucks a month why? he wanted to have a good conscience toward man well what's made the difference? you've got five minutes I'll tell you

54:38 I wonder how many people heard the gospel from the lips of Zacchaeus when he went back through all of his records and saw all the places where he extorted more than he should have legitimately received for this or that dimension of the tax laws it took him time it took him time to get a good conscience in a moment a good conscience to God through the virtue of Christ that was applied to him before he even died upon the cross even as it was applied to every saint from Abel onward but to get a good conscience to man if I've exacted anything of any man I restore fourfold second passage Philippians I'm sorry Philemon verses 18 and 19 and it's obvious that we'll get no further than this first aspect of attaining a conscience but as I've said right along dear people this stuff is so fundamental and I'm convinced I'm convinced in the depths of my being that there's some of you who've never, never known a good conscience toward man because you've waffled right at this point and you're never going to get it and you're never going to be strong

Scriptural Witnesses for Rectification: Onesimus and the Ephesians

56:01 for a bad and an accusing conscience to man is a worm in the cord of any kind of flourishing spiritual health let these texts filter down in and exert their pressure upon your conscience the book of Philemon that precious little one chapter book that lies between Titus and Hebrews you remember the circumstances this man Philemon a godly Christian Colossi had a slave who ran away from him and somehow in the providence of God he ended up in the big city Rome like most runaways they like to get lost in the big city and somehow again even in God's inscrutable providence he ended up under the influence of Paul and under the blessing of the Holy Ghost he becomes a Christian he's saved in the court of heaven all his sins are dealt with he has a good conscience the man who no doubt every time he turned a corner looked over his shoulder with a bad conscience has my master got people out looking to track me down I the guilty runaway slave no longer has a good conscience can look up into the face of his God and know that all his sins are forgiven he is called the one verse 10 Paul's spiritual child whom I have begotten in my bonds Onesimus who once was unprofitable to you but now is profitable to you and to me

57:29 whom I've sent back to you in his own person that is in my heart you see Paul recognized he had to condition the conscience of this man you have a legal obligation to go back to your master he didn't say well slavery and its origins is essentially evil and wicked and therefore you can unilaterally and individually and arbitrarily overturn the existing state of things no he didn't do that Paul the apostle said though God has made him a free man in Christ he is still at the horizontal level the legitimate property of Onesimus and I'm sending him back to the one who owns him I'm sorry the legitimate property of free man Philemon sends Onesimus back not only so but now look at verse 18 and 19 but if he has wronged you at all or owes you anything since God has forgiven him freely pardoned him can't you be like God and just forget the whole thing that isn't what he said look at the text he says if he owes you anything put that to my account I Paul write it with my own hand I will repay it

58:57 then a little bit of sanctified cheek he says but in reality if you really think about all you owe to me you may voluntarily cancel the debt look at the next thing but I say not unto you that you owe to me even your own life besides but you see the point Paul as an apostle had no right unilaterally to say to Philemon look he's now saved he's a Christian forget his debt no no he says he owes you anything put it to my account he's got no money to pay it but it must be righteously rectified and if the only way to do it is charge it to my account and at that point if Paul were dictating this letter he actually picked up the pen and scribbled in this part in his own signature handwriting he says I Paul write it with my own hand I'll repay it I ask you what in the world is all this about if Paul did not believe that if this man Onesimus was ever to say I have a good conscience to God and man this was the only way to get it you see it now some of you begin to feel uncomfortable you know why because conscience is starting to get active about all the things about all the rectifiable

60:25 moral abnormalities that you've never dealt with since you've professed to be a Christian and you are frankly uncomfortable and I'm glad you are why because I'm a meanie no because I want you to know perhaps for the first time in your life the exquisite indescribable joy of moral when you've attained a good conscience to God and man in the way of his appointment you can look any fellow creature straight in the eyeballs back to the retinas and stand upright with moral integrity while clothed with Christ like humility and some of you have never known that exquisite joy and I want you to have it and that's why I'm willing to make you uncomfortable with my Bible say well there's two witnesses the mouth of two or three let every word be established alright I quickly bring the third witness Acts chapter 19 what am I trying to prove that if you're going to have a good conscience toward man if you're ever going to attain it there must not only be a believing appropriation of Christ in his saving work

61:53 but a thorough righteous adjustment of rectifiable moral abnormalities toward men and here's the third text Acts chapter 19 it's the account of the mighty operations of the Spirit of God in the city of Ephesus there's a great turning to the Lord and people who had been idol worshipers had been up to their ears in the occult pick up the reading with me at verse 17 after this strange incident with the seven sons of Sceva this became known to all both Jews and Greeks that dwelt at Ephesus fear came upon all and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified many also of them that believed came here are people who believed they laid hold of Christ in his saving work and they had a good conscience toward God that all of their sins even the wretched sins associated with the horrible practices of the worship of Diana in which part of cultic worship was immoral fornication with temple priests and priestesses by and homo sapiens and sexual acts as part of worship they believed and they had a good conscience it was all forgiven the bowing down to idols the worshipping of foreign gods

63:22 the violation of all the commandments outwardly inwardly in deed and act in thought and word they believed they had a good conscience to God but now notice what the Holy Spirit underscores many of them that had believed came confessing and declaring their deeds and declaring their deeds well I thought all we need to do is confess our sins to the God against whom we've sinned well obviously there were things that needed some parallel horizontal confession came confessing and declaring their deeds and and not a few of them that practiced magical arts brought their books together and burned them now notice not in a private burning ceremony but in the sight of all what were they doing they said we want a good conscience toward men when word gets out that we've abandoned the occult and we've abandoned our heathen practices we don't want anyone running out you have let me look in your closet let me look in your dresser drawers and see what kind of magazines and what kind of books you've got there they said no no we're openly declaring this is what we've been this is what we now are in Christ and to validate it this is what we're going to do and listen it cost them something they counted the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver you see they could have rationalized

64:50 said well let's sell this to people who are going to want involved in these things take the money and give it to the Lord and support missions and send out the apostle no these things were so smothered with the devil's fingerprints God didn't want it any more than he wanted the price of a dog or the price of a whore brought into the temple in the old covenant there's some things you can't sanctify to God and these were some of them and what were they doing they were committed to a thorough righteous adjustment of rectifiable moral abnormalities toward men even when it cost them now we could multiply not multiply but several other witnesses could be brought but surely if these do not persuade you you're unpersuadable you're stubborn you're resistant and I leave God to break down your stubbornness but for those of you who are not do you see from these passages the principle is this why some of you have not been strong in the Lord and in the power of his might because every time maybe you've even found it in the last few weeks God dealt with you when we addressed this matter of the disciplined assimilation of the scriptures and no sooner did you begin a new intensified commitment to assimilate your Bible then something happened you got a little taste of the sweet invention the sweet invigoration of the new influx of divine life into your soul

Consequences of an Unresolved Conscience and Call to Action

66:17 a new liberty to draw near to God a new freedom in prayer but you know what happened with that new liberty came a renewed sensitivity of conscience and in the last couple of weeks issues that have long been lying dead in the deep recesses of your heart have come alive and you now remember that course in which you cheated in college and you never made the issue right you remember that incident where you deliberately lied to personal advantage and you've never confessed that lie and you even see that person from week to week that person may be your wife or your husband to whom you vowed if there were ever this or that moral abnormality you would come clean and tell them and you've been hiding and rationalizing and in the past few weeks as you've made a fresh commitment to assimilate the word of God you've had a taste of the sweetness and the influx of fresh vigor but with that has been a reactivated conscience and the problem is not a conscience that is condemning you toward God but there are issues at the horizontal level that are now plaguing you and as you made a fresh commitment to a life of prayer that was indeed an engagement of God you're no sooner drawn nearer to God determined not to say your prayers but truly to pray that in the more intense light of His countenance as David said

67:45 our secret sins are known in the light of His countenance the ethical and moral abnormalities have come right into the crosshairs of your mental and moral consciousness now what are you going to do? you're either going to go back to the same round of inconsistent dull lifeless quote devotions the same round of dull lifeless quote devotions the same round of dull lifeless inconsistent prayers no real engagement of God in prayer as a habit of life and of soul or you're going to rear back on your hind legs and in the strength of Christ the only the ultimate the exclusive source of strength say Lord Jesus give me the strength to get a good conscience at any cost if I must sit as a pauper like Job on a heap of ashes to be able to sit there and look at anyone who comes by and look him straight in the eyeballs back to the retina and say I have a good conscience to you as well as to my God it's worth any price you've got to pay have you ever had a good conscience? we're not even talking now about the maintainies not because the notes are all there

69:14 the outlines there the texts are there but have you ever had a good conscience? a good conscience in terms of these biblical directives the answer can you think of God creator infinite eternal unchangeable who knows every thought and word and deed lawgiver who has spelled out his demands as they touch the outer to the inner springs of life judge before whom I'll stand and the books will be opened have you taken seriously what you are a sinner by nature a sinner by birth a sinner in practice guilty vile polluted deserving wrath have you ever known what it is to have your conscience at rest as you fled to Christ a guilty needy vile helpless sinner laid hold of Christ in his saving work and for the first time can pillow your head without the help of anything to drug your conscience pillow your head knowing your conscience that my soul now that I lay me down to sleep I know the Lord

70:40 my soul will keep if I should die before I wake I know the Lord my soul will take you say pastor you changed the word I sure did because the way it's penned is the way I used to pray it every night before I was converted of them oh god don't let me die tonight because i die with a bad conscience that i know is but the four rumblings of the horrors of hell and i shall never forget when as a senior in high school you talk about going to bed with a good conscience being worth more than a whole world it was to me i could put my head on my pillow at night and say now i lay me down to sleep i pray lord my soul to keep if i should die before i wake i know the lord my soul have you had a good conscience to god through a believing appropriation of christ in his work what about a good conscience to man some of us it took a long time to get it and meant writing letters to our high school when we had passed away

72:05 passing grades where we should have had flunk because we cheated it meant the humbling process of going to people that we had deceived and lied to and acknowledging our deception and our lies what would it mean for you you can forget knowing any increase of the strength and grace of christ in your life if you're grieving and quenching the holy spirit by moral controversies in this very area now SOME THINGS ARE NOT RECTIFIABLE AND FOR TENDER SENSITIVE CONSCIENCES PLEASE REMEMBER I USE THAT QUALIFYING TERM IF YOU CONTRACTED AN UNBIBLICAL MARRIAGE IN YOUR DAYS OF UNREGENERACY OR EVEN AS A CHRISTIAN AND GOD'S BROUGHT YOU TO REPENT OF IT YOU DON'T UNSCRAMBLE AN EGG BY SCRAMBLING IT WORSE YOU JUST HAVE TO SAY LORD YOU KNOW I CAN'T RECTIFY THAT SITUATION ANY MORE THAN THE MAN WHO MURDERED ANOTHER IN A FIT OF ANGER CAN BRING HIM BACK TO LIFE AGAIN SOME THINGS ARE NOT RECTIFIABLE DON'T BRING UP ALL THE WELL WHAT ABOUT ONE ANOTHER THE THINGS YOU NEED TO DO TO GET A GOOD CONSCIENCE ARE VERY RECTIFIABLE IF YOU ARE WILLING TO PAY THE PRICE I ASK YOU YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN WHO HAVE OPENLY CONFESSED CHRIST DO YOU HAVE THE CONSCIENCE OF YOUR PARENTS HOLY ON YOUR

73:33 SIDE HAVE YOU SOUGHT TO BE THOROUGH IN MAKING RIGHT THE WRONGS THE DECEPTIONS THE LIES THE MANIPULATION HAVE YOU BEGGED THEIR FORGIVENESS HAVE YOU GONE WITH SHAME AND SAID OH FORGIVE ME THAT I TREATED YOUR LOVING PARENTAL INFLUENCE WITH SUCH DISDAIN WHEN WE HEAR ALL THE TIME OF PARENTS WHO EXPLOIT THEIR CHILDREN FATHERS WHO USE THEIR DAUGHTERS AS SEXUAL PLAYMATES MEN THAT VERBALLY AND PHYSICALLY ABUSE THEIR SONS AND HERE YOU HAD A FATHER AND MOTHER THAT WITH ALL THEIR FAILURES LOVED YOU AND PRAYED FOR YOU AND NURTURED YOU AND SET REASONABLE AND RIGHTEOUS STANDARDS AND YOU'VE KICKED THEM IN THE CROIN AND YOU'VE FUNGED YOUR NOSE AND YOU SAY YOU'RE SAVED AND YOU'VE NEVER GONE IN BROKENNESS AND ASKED THEIR FORGIVENESS YOU'LL NEVER HAVE A GOOD CONSCIENCE TO YOUR PARENTS THOSE PEOPLE YOU LED INTO PATHS OF SIN THAT ARE SITTING RIGHT HERE IN THIS PLACE YOU NEED TO GO TO THEM DEAL WITH THE ISSUES PAUL COULD SAY HEREIN DO I EXERCISE MYSELF TO HAVE ALWAYS A CONSCIENCE VOID OF OFFENSE TO GOD AND MAN HE WAS ABLE TO MAINTAIN IT BECAUSE BY THE GRACE OF GOD HE ATTAINED IT HE COULDN'T BRING BACK TO LIFE STEPHEN HE WAS CONSCIOUS TO THEM HE WAS CONSCIOUS TO THEM HE WAS CONSCIOUS TO THEM

74:54 CONSENTING TO HIS DEATH HE LIVED WITH THAT INTERNAL WOUND BUT HE HAD A GOOD CONSCIENCE IF HE'D HAD THE POWER HE WOULD HAVE GONE TO STEPHEN'S GRAVE AND RAISED HIM AND APOLOGIZED TO HIM GOD TOOK THE WILLINGNESS FOR THE DEED SOME THINGS CAN'T BE RECTIFIED MANY CAN BE MAY GOD GIVE US GRACE DEAR PEOPLE DO WE REALLY WANT TO GROW IN GRACE IN THE COMING YEAR HERE'S THE MEANS THE MAINTENANCE OF A GOOD CONSCIENCE YOU CAN'T MAINTAIN WHAT YOU HAVEN'T GOT AND HERE'S THE ONLY WAY TO GET IT MAY GOD GRANT THAT YOU'LL GET IT GOD'S WAY AT ANY COST AND SET YOURSELF TO GET IT TODAY OUR FATHER WE'VE BEEN SOBERED BY THESE ISSUES THAT BRING NEAR THE AWESOME REALITIES OF OUR MORAL ACCOUNTABILITY TO YOU AND WE PRAY THAT YOU WOULD HELP US TO STOP TRYING TO PLAY GAMES WITH OUR CONSCIENCES THIS WONDERFUL FACULTY THAT YOU'VE IMPLANTED WITHIN US TO BE A HANDMAIDEN

76:05 TO HOLINESS A HANDMAIDEN TO RIGHTEOUSNESS TO FAITH TO REPENTANCE O LORD MAY WE NOT TRIFLE WITH THAT WONDERFUL GIFT OF CONSCIENCE FORGIVE US FORGIVE US WE PRAY WHEN WE HAVE WHEN WE'VE DEFILED AND BLOODIED OUR CONSCIENCES WE PRAY FOR THOSE WHO SIT HERE TODAY WHO'VE NEVER KNOWN A GOOD CONSCIENCE TO YOU AND TO THEIR FELLOW MEN O LORD MAY THEY IN THE STRENGTH OF CHRIST IN THE GRACE OF CHRIST BY THE VIRTUE OF THE WORK OF GOD WE PRAY THAT YOU'LL GIVE CHRIST MAY THEY COME TO SUCH A POSSESSION SEAL YOUR WORD TO OUR HEARTS WE PRAY AND HAVE DEEP AND LASTING DEALINGS WITH EVERY ONE OF US WE PLEAD IN JESUS NAME AMEN