Our Spiritual Health: Maintaining a Good Conscience

Introduction: Paul's Holy Obsession with a Good Conscience

0:01 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, February 9th, 1997, at the Trinity Baptist Church of Montville, New Jersey.

0:16 Now as we begin our study in the Word of God this morning, I want to read without comment two texts of Scripture in your hearing. The first in Paul's second letter to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, and chapter 1. Here the Apostle speaking for himself and for his companion in ministerial labor, named Timothy, writes, 2 Corinthians 1 and verse 12, For our glorying is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom, but in the grace of God, we behaved ourselves in the world, and more abundantly to you, Word. The testimony of our conscience is that we behaved ourselves in such a way before the world and before you, Corinthians. And then in Acts chapter 24 and verse 16, in a totally different setting,

1:36 before pagan authorities, the Apostle declares in Acts 24 and verse 16, Herein, or on this account, I also exercise myself to have a conscience void of offense toward God and men always. Now from these words of the Apostle, read in your hearing, it is abundantly clear that the possession of a good conscience towards God and man and the ability to protest in the presence of God that he possesses such a conscience was an issue of no little concern to the Apostle Paul both as a Christian man and as a servant, but also as a man of God and a servant of Christ. This very same man who could say for to me to live is Christ, who could say God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of Christ,

2:57 the very man who could say I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, the very same man who could say I live, yet not I, and who lives in me, is the man who makes it clear that the maintenance of a good conscience was a kind of holy obsession with him. increase your navigation obviously felt no tension much last or contradiction between this twin obsession his obsession with the person and the work of Christ his obsession with his work of Christ and his obsession with maintaining a good conscience. He felt no contradiction. He felt no tension. He declares with equal liberty and freedom his obsession with Christ and his obsession with the maintenance of a good conscience. Now, why do I underscore those obvious facts?

Context: Back to the Basics Series and Attaining a Good Conscience

4:05 Well, for the simple reason that on the first Lord's Day of this new year I began a series of studies entitled Back to the Basics at the Beginning of a New Year. And in the opening up of that series of messages we began with this simple exhortation that we remember afresh the exclusive source of our spiritual strength for the coming year. And that source is Christ himself. Christ himself and Christ alone.

4:39 We then moved on to a second exhortation namely to remember afresh the God-appointed means of our spiritual health in the coming year. And we have been opening up some of those means. We've started with the private or the personal or individual means thus appointed by God. The first is the disciplined assimilation of the scriptures.

5:07 The second, the habitual engagement in secret prayer. And now we are presently contemplating the third of these God-appointed means, the careful maintenance of a good conscience. And in seeking to open up the broad and basic lines of biblical teaching on this subject, we consider the biblical witness concerning the importance of maintaining a good conscience. And that brought us to sit one Lord's Day morning on three basic texts of scripture.

5:43 Acts 24, 16, 1 Timothy 1, 6 and 1 Timothy 1, verses 18 and 19. We then moved on to consider secondly the biblical teaching concerning the identity and function of conscience. And there we parked primarily on Romans 2, 14 and 15 and then we moved on to the biblical teaching and I introduced the rather grotesque illustration of the little man, the little woman, the little boy, the little girl who dwells within each of us that has the long pointing finger, the oversized pressuring hand and the thundering voice. Conscience being that God implanted moral monitor within the soul that points with its finger in the direction of what is right, what is wrong, has its oversized hand always nudging in the direction of what it points out to be the right and then a thundering voice that either in the language of Romans 2 accuses or excuses us for the moral choices we have made. Then last Lord's Day, having considered the biblical witness concerning the importance of a good conscience, the biblical teaching concerning the identity

7:09 and function of conscience. We took up the third line of thought, the biblical directives for the maintenance of a good conscience. And we had occasion to assert that you cannot maintain what you don't possess. You can only maintain a car if you possess a car.

7:29 You can maintain good health if you have good health, but if you are in ill health, or sick. Your task is to get healthy and then find out what means under God's blessing will be effective to maintain the state of good health. And we turn to the scriptures with this question, how can I initially attain to a good conscience? And we considered from the word of God that there is no way to attain a good conscience, but first of all to appropriate Christ in his saving work.

8:11 And we looked at Hebrews 9, 14, Hebrews 10, 22, and 1 Peter 3, 21, where in these three texts there is this most intimate connection between the attainment of a good conscience, a conscience that is no longer a good conscience, but a conscience of good conscience. and evil, condemning, galling conscience in the presence of real guilt before the living God, the only way to attain a good conscience is to appropriate Christ in His saving work. And in those three texts, the Scripture is clear that it is by the blood of Christ, it is through the resurrection of Christ alone that we attain a good conscience. But if it's to be a good conscience not only to God, but to man, to attain initially a good conscience, there must not only be a believing appropriation of Christ in His saving work, but there must be a thorough, righteous adjustment of rectifiable moral wrongs against our fellow men. We looked at Luke chapter 19 and the conversion of Zacchaeus.

9:29 We looked at the incident of the position and the subsequent responsibilities of this runaway slave called Onesimus. And how the Apostle Paul clearly indicated that it was vital that some horizontal moral issues be righteously adjusted if this converted slave was to go back and take his place with his former master with a good conscience. And then we looked at Acts 19, 18 to 20 as a further example. Now this morning we come, having considered the biblical directives for the attaining of a good conscience, to take up this second line of thought that is so critical, the directives for the continual maintenance of a good conscience. Once we have attained a good conscience, by a believing appropriation, appropriation of Christ in His saving work, and in the joy of forgiveness, have done whatever we must do, however long it takes us, whatever it may cost us, as it did with Zacchaeus, we have sought to make every adjustment to every moral issue at the horizontal level that can be adjusted.

10:57 And we have a good conscience. We can look up into the sky, and we can see that there is a good conscience. We can look up into the sky, and we can see that there is a good conscience. We can look up into the sky, and we can see that there is a good conscience.

The Indispensable Link: Good Conscience and Communion with God

10:59 We can look out into the face of our God, uncondemned with confidence in the perfection of the work of Christ on our behalf. We can look out into the face of any and all of our fellow men, knowing that no one has a just cause to say there is a moral inequity which we have not sought to rectify with them. Once we have attained what I called last week the exquisite joy of God, the joy of a good conscience, how does the Bible say we are to maintain that good conscience? And remember, if you're tempted to say, teach me more how to know... That's a cop-out, my friend.

11:55 For remember, it was the very Paul obsessed with Christ who was obsessed with maintaining a good conscience. For in reality, vital, real...

12:08 with the triune God can only be maintained in the context of a good conscience.

12:15 Specious, mystical, self-delusionary communion with God may be maintained with an evil conscience, but not real, vital communion. For the Scripture says it's only as we walk in the light, as He is in the light, that we have fellowship one with another. And therefore, it ought to be of the utmost importance that we have fellowship with God. And therefore, it ought to be of the utmost importance to everyone who desires to know Christ more intimately, to walk with Him more closely, to enter in more fully to an ongoing conformity to His image, to know what does the Bible teach me about the maintenance of a good conscience.

Directive 1: Diligent Pursuit of Universal Obedience (Part 1 - Definition)

12:59 And here, as time permits, I lay before you three straightforward directives from the Scriptures. First, you must diligently...

13:08 You must diligently pursue a life of universal obedience to God in terms of your present understanding of what is pleasing to God. Now, I wish I could reduce that to something briefer. I've made every effort to, but as I've looked at that effort, I've said, no, it is shot through with inaccuracies, and so I must give you the mouthful and then break it down. Now, would you mainly...

13:39 Would you maintain a good conscience? Would I maintain a good conscience? Then you and I must diligently pursue a life of universal obedience to God in terms of our present understanding of what is pleasing to God. Now, let me break down the main components of that statement.

14:03 What do I mean? We must diligently pursue a life of universal obedience. Well, universal obedience refers to the disposition that is very clearly expressed in a number of places of the Scriptures, but particularly in the 119th Psalm. And I want you to look with me at several verses in that lengthy psalm.

14:29 What do I mean by diligently pursuing a life of universal obedience? I'm using human words to express what God gives us, in this portion of His Word. Notice in Psalm 119, beginning in verse 2. Blessed are they that keep His testimonies, that seek Him with the whole heart.

14:58 Yea, they do no unrighteousness. Notice, they walk in His way.

15:07 Their lives are framed by the ways of God. Not one way that is convenient, or part of a way of God, but His ways. That is, all patterns of life which God has laid out in His Word as that which is pleasing to Him, they walk in His ways. Not one of His ways, two of His ways, some of His ways.

15:37 Their pattern of life is described as walking in His ways. Now, they do not walk in His ways, perfectly. They do not walk in His ways with equal zeal and alacrity. They do not walk in His ways with the same degree of strength and speed at all times and in all circumstances.

16:00 Yes, this verse must be understood in the light of the whole teaching of the Bible. But at the end of the day, the blessed people, the true people of God, are described as those who walk in His ways. That is, universal obedience is the diligently pursued path of their lives. Verse 5 and 6, Oh, that my ways, all the patterns of my life, my thoughts, my motives, my words, my deeds, my life in the home, my life in the workplace, my wife in... my life in social interaction.

16:49 Oh, that my ways, all of the patterns of my life, in all of the broad spectrum of what makes my life, my life. Oh, that my ways were established to observe thy statutes. Then shall I not be put to shame. Notice, when I have respect unto most of thy commandments, unto the vast majority of thy commandments, unto your commandments that it is relatively easy for me to obey.

17:24 No. Then shall I not be put to shame when I have respect unto all thy commandments. That's universal obedience. Having respect unto all of the commandments of God.

17:40 Wherever God has revealed what is pleasing to Him, I desire to have my life be a reflection of the commandments of God. Of a sincere, diligent determination in the strength of Christ to walk in that path. Verse 101 of this same psalm. What is universal obedience?

18:02 Here it is from the negative perspective. Verse 101. I have refrained my feet from most evil ways that I might observe your work. No, from every evil way.

18:17 Not I have refrained my feet, from the evil ways that would bring me into church discipline. From the evil ways that would shame my name, that would disrupt my marriage. No. I have refrained my feet from every...

18:40 If God defines it as evil, then by God's grace I refrain from walking in that way. That's universal obedience. Verse 104. Verse 104.

18:53 Verse 104. Verse 104. Verse 104. Verse 104.

18:53 Verse 104. Verse 104. Verse 104. Through your precepts I get understanding.

18:58 Therefore, I hate most false ways. The false ways that there is a present consensus with respect to their being false. No. As long as God identifies it as a false way, the psalmist says, I hate what you hate.

19:16 It's through your precepts that I get understanding. It is your precepts that regulate the function of my conscience. My conscience is the function of my conscience. My conscience with its finger is going to point at that which you say is evil and it will call it evil.

19:32 That which you call righteous, it will point to it and say it is righteous.

19:38 Universal obedience. I hate every false way. Or in the New Testament, the language of our Lord Jesus, He who has my commandments, plural, and keeps them. Not those that He has a psychological and a personal and a genetic predisposition to keep.

19:59 A little bit easier. No. He who has my commandments, any and all that He has, and keeps them, He it is that loves me. That's universal obedience.

Directive 1: Diligent Pursuit of Universal Obedience (Part 2 - Present Understanding)

20:14 So when I say, if you are to have the exquisite joy, not only of attaining a good conscience, but maintaining a good conscience, you must diligently pursue a life of universal obedience to God.

20:36 In terms of your present understanding of what is pleasing to God. And what do I mean by adding that qualifying statement? In terms of your present understanding of what is pleasing to God. Now listen carefully.

20:55 Because I don't purpose to give an extensive, treatment of the doctrine of conscience. If I did, I'd have to spend one or two messages on this. I'm passing it over in a sentence or two. Conscience functions according to its present understanding of what is pleasing or displeasing to God.

21:15 But you see, the function of conscience is not perfect. In our unconverted days, there are many ways in which conscience, according to scripture, is defiled. Jesus said, the time will come when those who kill you, my followers, will think they do service to God. Conscience has been so twisted that it points to the martyrdom of believers as a virtue.

21:43 And when we are regenerated, made new creatures in Christ, conscience receives a renovation along with all the other faculties of the soul and coming under the reign of God's grace, conscience now becomes a handmaiden in the ongoing, ongoing progress of the Christian's life. But it is not made perfect in its understanding, perfect in its judgment. It must constantly be educated by the word of God. But while conscience functions according to its present light and knowledge of what is pleasing to God, and at times its voice may be imperfect, while its light and therefore its voice may be imperfect, its claims, are always absolute.

22:36 Its claims are always absolute. Turn to Romans 14. A crucial issue if you're to have a good conscience before God. Here Paul is dealing with the subject of Christian liberty.

22:52 How a Christian is to relate to matters that are not openly condemned by God's law.

23:01 They are neither sinful nor virtuous. They are things indifferent. The keeping of certain religious days, the eating of certain meats, the drinking of certain beverages. And as he comes toward the end of chapter 14 to deal with some summary directives after laying out many principles, notice what he says beginning in verse 21 of Romans 14.

23:24 It is good not to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor do anything whereby your brother stumbles. The faith which you have, the faith which you have, that is the faith to partake of all kinds of flesh, kosher and non-kosher, to drink all kinds of beverages so long as you don't get drunk. He says if you have that faith that you can in confidence receive your meat and your drink as gifts of God and you can ingest them to the glory of God. He says the faith that you have, you have to yourself, before God.

24:06 Now notice, happy is he that judges not himself in that which he approves. Happy is the man who doesn't have conscience at war within his breast when he sits down to eat what he eats and drinks what he drinks. He is a happy and a blessed man whose eating and drinking leaves him with a good conscience. Not an accusing conscience, not a defiled conscience.

24:38 But now notice verse 23. But he that doubts is condemned if he eats because he does not eat of faith and whatsoever is not of faith is sin. What is he saying? He is saying if under the present light of conscience to reach for that piece of pork and to eat it, your conscience has not yet been instructed that God has made all meats clean, that pork can be eaten to the glory of God, you still have a conscience that says, no, no, pork is a no-no.

25:18 It's an unclean thing. Or you have a conscience that says for one reason or another, under any circumstances to touch a glass of wine is displeasing to God. He says if you touch that glass of wine and imbibe it, and your conscience thunders in your ears, that is sin. He says for you it is sin.

25:42 For you it is sin. And what is the sin? Not in the meat, not in the wine, but in the fact that you have violated the voice of conscience. And though conscience is inaccurate in what he is saying, his voice is inaccurate, his claims are absolute.

26:03 And if you and I are to have a good conscience, we must diligently pursue a life of universal obedience to God in terms of your present understanding of what is pleasing to God, not the understanding of your brother or sister. And Paul envisions a situation where someone admires a mature Christian who can eat his pork to the glory of God. And he says, well, he obviously knows God and loves God and walks with God, and he is bowing over his pork roast and thanking God and eating with joy. Well, surely there must be nothing wrong with it.

26:45 Therefore, because he can do it, I will do it. Paul says, no, simply because your brother can do it with a good conscience. Until the light of your conscience catches up with his light, until your conscience can point to that pork roast and say, good to the glory of God, and your hand of conscience nudges you in the direction, rather than nudging you away from the pork roast, you must abstain. Because whatsoever is not of faith, whatsoever is not done in the confidence that it is pleasing to God, that's what this means, whatsoever is not of faith.

27:26 What does he say? He says to you, it is sin. Why? Because you are making a moral choice in the direction of what conscience says at that point in your present understanding is sin, and you're not to do that.

27:42 See the principle? That's why I'm saying, and I'm laboring most on this point of the three heads, if you are to maintain a good conscience, you must come to the place where in one sense you insulate yourself from what John and Mary and Henry and Pete and anyone else does in moral essence. Not that you are not ready to be instructed, to be instructed by your brethren, instructed by the servants of God, instructed by the word of God, but at any given point, if you are to have a good conscience, you must diligently pursue a life of universal obedience to God in terms of your present understanding of what is pleasing to God. Now that's absolutely crucial, my dear brothers and sisters. If you don't get hold of that, you will not know the exquisite joy of maintaining a good conscience. Now, let's look at several texts that indicate the truth of this.

Directive 1: Scriptural Witnesses to Universal Obedience

28:58 I've explained what I mean by the words, turned you to several pivotal scriptures that I hope convince you that these are human words collating the essential truth of scripture. Now, where in the scriptures is a life of universal obedience tied in with the maintenance of a good conscience? Turn first of all to 1 Peter chapter 2. We're going to look at three witnesses from the New Testament where the very word conscience is used.

29:36 1 Peter chapter 2, verses 18 to 21. Peter has given a general injunction in verse 13 that all believers are to be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. He is calling the community of God's redeemed ones, though Christ is their Lord and sovereign, that does not overturn the structures of human authority instituted by God. And therefore, he says, you believers are to be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake.

30:14 And then he gets specific. Governors, kings, etc. Now he's going to turn to servants, verse 18. Servants, household servants.

30:24 They could be bond, they could be free. But they are nonetheless bound to the service of their masters. Whether they are bond slaves, whether they are free, they sustain a servant master relationship. In fact, the very word for masters used here is the English transliteration for the English word despot.

30:47 The master was the master and the servant was a servant. Now what does he say to them? Servants, be in subjection to your masters with all fear. Not the fear of what your master may do, but the fear of God.

31:03 With all recognition that God in his providence has put you in the place of a house servant, he's put that man over you as a master. And in the parallel passage in Ephesians and Colossians, it's evident that that fear is the fear of God, the recognition of God's ordering of these structures of relationship where one gives the orders and another takes the orders. Servants, be in subjection to your masters with all fear. Now notice, not only to the good and gentle, masters who reflect something of the disposition of God himself who is good and gentle and gracious, but also to the crooked, the scolios ones, the perverse ones, the sadistic ones, the cruel ones, the unreasonable ones. Well, why in the world would they be called upon to be in subjection to crooked, unreasonable masters? Well, read on. For this is acceptable, this is grace, if for conscience towards God a man endures griefs suffering wrongfully.

32:27 You see what he says? He says, you servants, I feel for you. Some of you have masters that are good and gracious and kind. Some of you have scoliotic masters.

32:40 Crooked, perverse, unreasonable, harsh masters. Nonetheless, be subject towards them because, listen carefully, the revealed will of God for every servant is submission to his master. And if you do not walk in universal obedience at this point, you will lose a good conscience toward God. Of all the reasons he could bring forward, he says, this is acceptable if for conscience towards a servant with an unreasonable master. He gives him the most demeaning He never commends him. He is in every sense a scolios master. What is it that keeps this servant dutifully, cheer-fungering obedience, still respecting him in the way he addresses his master, still showing submission by the manner in which he carries out his task?

33:56 It is the matter. He knows the exquisite joy in the midst of his master's insults and curses and unreasonable demands. He knows the exquisite joy of having a good conscience before his God. And he won't give it up.

34:15 You see how vital is this matter of the commitment of universal obedience to the maintenance of a good conscience? It gets right down into the nitty-gritty of an unreasonable master, a tyrannical master. But a servant who says, whatever satisfaction I might get from grumbling, from grousing, from standing up to my master, the price I would pay would be the loss of a good conscience to God. And nothing is worth it.

34:48 Nothing is worth that. Then in 1 Peter chapter 3, we find Peter writing to suffering, saying, suffering in many ways, again bringing forward the place of conscience. Verse 13, Who is he that will harm you if you be zealous of that which is good? See what he's saying?

35:11 Who can really harm you? Who can do anything wrong to you if you're zealous of that which is good? If you are committed to a life of universal obedience, the direction of the good as defined by God is what you're committed to, and you're committed to it not half-heartedly, not indifferently, but with holy zeal. You are zealous for that which is good.

35:36 But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, in following out the good as defined by God, you suffer, blester you, and do not fear their fear, neither be troubled, but sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord, being ready always to give answer to every man that asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, yet with meekness and fear. When you live this kind of life, where you're so committed to universal obedience, and in that course you suffer even for doing what is right, your reaction is such that it must eventually provoke the question, man, what makes you tick? I abuse you, I insult you, and yet you go on in rejoicing. You go on blessing God for His mercy and His kindness. What in the world makes you tick? And He says, you give an answer.

36:34 Tell them what it is that enables you to react this way. And notice verse 16. All of this is done in the context of having possessing, holding a good conscience, that wherein you are spoken against, they may be put to shame who revile, now notice, your good manner of life. And that Greek word translated manner of life means your patterns.

37:12 Psalm 119, your ways. We could without any injustice to the thoughts say, having a good conscience, that wherein you are spoken against, they may be put to shame who revile your course of unions in Christ. They're looking for flaws. They're looking for inconsistencies.

37:42 But they can't find any. And they speak against you as those who have a course of universal obedience. And what holds them in that course, He says, you are possessing a good. And no one can possess a good conscience in any other context other than that of a good manner of life.

38:12 It's an agathane conscience in an agathane manner of life. You want a good conscience, good manner of life. A sincere, honest endeavor for universal obedience is the first essential element in the maintenance of a good conscience. And then Hebrews chapter 13.

38:41 Hebrews chapter 13. Please turn this cassette over to continue the message. The most unusual verse coming at the end of this epistle, the writer, whoever he was, the human author, we know the Spirit of God was the true and divine author, writes saying, brethren, verse 18, pray for us, pray for us. The word brethren is not there.

39:10 Pray for us. Oh, why in the world should you pray for us? Are we a bunch of religious zealots attacking all that is sacred among your fellow Jews? No, we've written what we've written with all of its marvelous displays of the better things, of the better way in the new covenant in Christ and all of the solemn warnings that we have given.

39:40 Pray for us for we are persuaded that we have a good conscience. We are persuaded that we have a good conscience. Strange terminology, isn't it? He doesn't simply say we have, but we are persuaded.

40:00 The implication seems to be that there is a recognition that you might not have grounds to assume that you have a good conscience. There needs to be some serious self-examination to know whether or not you have a slumbering conscience, a dull conscience, and conscience is not active and therefore you seem to be at peace. He said, no, we are persuaded we have a good conscience. Now notice the next phrase, desiring to live honorably in all things.

40:34 As he appeals for their intercession, he makes a protestation of the possession of a good conscience and what is the root of it? It is a commitment to a life of universal obedience. He says, we have a good conscience desiring to live well. Well, literally, well in all things.

40:58 It's the word used, kalos, in 1 Timothy 3, 4, if a man does not rule his own house well, how shall he take care of the church of God? You were running well, Paul says to the Galatians. He says, we have a good conscience desiring to live well. Now notice, not in the majority of things or in the things that people observe in which if they saw inconsistency we would no longer have credibility.

41:29 No, he said in all things. The things that men see, the things that only God sees. Desiring to live well in our thought life, in our motives, in the secret place where none is present but Almighty God. We have a good conscience desiring to live honorably.

41:56 Universal obedience is the setting of a good conscience. Now, in the light of these three clear texts of Scripture, what can we say in summary? Well, surely it is right to say if you are ever to maintain a good conscience toward God and man, this directive is indispensable. You must, I must, diligently pursue a life of universal obedience in terms of your present understanding of what is pleasing to God.

Application: Addressing Chronic Spiritual Sickness (The Festering Splinter)

42:31 Now, yes, it must be done in the strength of Christ, in dependence upon Christ, in constant desire to have conscience instructed and educated by the word of Christ. Yes, yes, yes. But it must be done by you in the strength of Christ, in dependence upon Christ. But I say it reverently, Christ will not be able to keep a good conscience for you.

42:59 Paul said, Herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense to God and man. The very one who said, I live by the strength of Christ, it is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me. Christ did not so live in him that Paul said, Lord, I hand over to you the matter of keeping a good conscience. No, the Lord had handed it over to Paul, and he said, In dependence upon me, you keep a good conscience.

43:26 And I ask you sitting here this morning, has this become, as it was with the apostle, a kind of holy obsession to maintain at all times a conscience void of offense to God and to man. If you are not diligently pursuing a life of universal obedience to God, in terms of your present understanding of what is pleasing to God, you will not know the maintenance of a good conscience. And here I want to apply, I trust with pastoral love, compassion, but with the faithfulness of the surgeon who when he knows the knife must be placed on a tender spot, subdues every bit of human sympathy and all reluctance, and cuts as deep and as long as he knows is necessary for the patient's healing. I'm convinced, and I'm not a novice when I say this, that the root cause of some of the chronic spiritual sickness of members in Trinity Baptist Church lies right here. Right here. At this very point.

44:43 And I trust to prove it in the theater of your own conscience. Sitting here this morning, what is the issue concerning which you do not have a good conscience? Or a good conscience? Whenever the preacher says, now for application, your heart beats a little faster wondering, is he going to touch that issue?

45:09 Is it going to be something about undisciplined, inordinate? What's coming to your mind? Come on, what's coming to your mind? Don't say it out loud, but let your mind register.

45:20 Is he going to touch about careless, unprincipled, inordinate? What's coming to your mind? Where's the area of controversy? Is pointing his or her big finger inordinate, careless, undisciplined, TV watching, kind of music you listen to?

45:48 Some of you with your chronic quote, problem of digging your grave with your teeth. You can't look yourself in the mirror without conscience screaming at you. That your belly is your master. Others of you, it's your suspicious spirit.

46:21 You have a squinty-eyed, negative, unfounded suspicion of people. If there's three ways to interpret a word or an act or a look, you always put the worst connotation above it. You know nothing of the love that believes, keeps no account of evil, thinks no evil. And there are factors that have led you to be that way, yes, but there are dynamics of God's grace that could change you from the squint-eyed, suspicious, mean-spirited person you are into a trusting, loving, beloved brother or sister with whom people would be delighted to have intimate relationships. What is the area that every time preachers get closely applying, even now this morning, you say, well, he didn't get me there. Lord, what is the issue? I don't need to tell you.

47:22 Your conscience is telling you. Until you come to grips with that thing, saying, I am persuaded, I have a good conscience, desiring to live honorable in all, and one of the things that you're now determined will come into the orbit of honorable living is that area where you've struck a peace treaty for months or years, that appetite, that reaction, that perspective, that disposition, that spirit of unforgiveness, that attitude of self-pity. It may be deep and inward and known only to you or God. It may be something that can be observed by others, but whatever it is, you are violating what you know to be something that is displeasing to God. There is something you know you ought to be doing that would please Him, that you are not setting yourself to do, to Him that knows to do good, and does it not. To Him it is sin.

48:37 And how can you persist in that sin of omission and maintain a good conscience to God? You simply cannot. And the reason some of you limp in your Christian life and may go limping all the way to heaven is that those areas where you don't have a good conscience are like a festering splinter in the ball of one of your spiritual feet. Ever get a festering splinter in your foot?

49:08 It may not infect the whole foot until you have to have it amputated. And sometimes it remains rather localized, but as long as it's there, every step you take, you limp. You limp. You limp.

49:24 Some of you have been limping for years. And you know exactly what the splinter is. And you won't take the scalpel of holy resolution in the strength of Christ and lance it and the tweezers of true evangelical repentance and extract it and pray God to heal the wound that has been made. And begin to know what it is to say with David, I will what?

49:55 Not limp. I will your commandments. Some of us saw the Milrose games Friday night. There was nobody on the track with a festering splinter in the ball of the foot.

50:14 And they get in those starting blocks or lined up for the 440 or the 800 meters, whatever it was. Not a one of them had a splinter in the ball of his foot. And if he had picked one up three months ago and had any serious intentions, a running in the Milrose games, they would have had that splinter removed. Why?

50:36 Because they knew they couldn't run with the splinter in the ball of the foot. They do this to obtain an earthly ground. And you say you're running on your way to heaven to the glory of God? What are you doing with a foot full of splinters?

50:55 Stop this excuse. I'm a single man. I can't help my personal sexual sins. Are you ready to say the Son of God was a eunuch?

51:14 You say no! Are you ready to say that he indulged secret sexual sin because he was celibate? Then the strength of Christ is available to you, single man, to be pure until God gives you a wife and gives you God-ordained outlet for wholesome sexual appetite and drive. That's the splinter in your foot.

51:43 Where's your splinter? Where's your splinter? Oh, yes, you can rationalize. Yes, yes, you can try.

51:54 But you see, you're limping. You're not running. And with all the privileges some of you have had of light and opportunity, why are you not outstripping many of us? Because you're limping.

52:08 And you're limping as long as the festering splinters are there in your spiritual foot. To have a good conscience, to maintain a good conscience, we must, we must, we must. It is non-negotiable. We must diligently pursue a life of universal obedience to God in terms of our present understanding of what is pleasing to God.

52:41 And this is critical in a congregation where we have differing backgrounds, many in differing stages of spiritual life. Some have strong consciences, some have weak. And we must learn what it is in the language of Scripture. Those of us who have a weak conscience in a given area where conscience is pointing the finger saying wrong when maybe the thing is not wrong but to us it is wrong.

53:07 We must respect the fact that conscience in our brother or sister points to that very same thing and says right. And we do not judge them, Paul says. But neither do we imitate them while our conscience is pointing in the other direction. Don't you make someone else's conscience the rule for your walk before God.

53:29 You must have a good conscience, happy as the man who condemns not himself in the thing which he allows. Paul could say, I know nothing against myself. I must be at peace with the voice and finger and hand of conscience within my own breast in terms of my own present life. But then very quickly, if you are to maintain a good conscience, you must not only diligently pursue a life of universal obedience to God in terms of your present understanding of what's pleasing to God.

Directive 2: Continual Penitence and Appropriation of Christ's Work

54:03 You must, you must, you must, you must continually engage in a penitent believing appropriation of Christ in His saving work. You see the way you got a good conscience in the first place in reference to Christ and His saving work. That's the same orbit within which you keep good conscience. Proverbs 28, 13 says, He that covers his sin shall not prosper.

54:34 He who allows the thorn in his foot, the speck in his eye, shall not prosper. But whoso confesses and forsakes them shall obtain mercy. And that confession, generically addressed in Proverbs, is specifically addressed in New Covenant terms in the familiar words of 1 John 1 in verse 9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous.

55:04 The righteousness of God is on our side to forgive us where once it was a frightening specter to damn us. Righteousness is now our friend to forgive us. He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins. How does righteousness become our friend to forgiveness?

55:25 Because God has exacted punishment from His Son and double payment He will never exact. And I can come to Him and say, Oh God, I sinned in that area and no one else saw it but You did. There was that disposition of envy. There was that stirring of resentment.

55:46 There was the squinty eye of unfounded suspicion. There was the thought of that string of curse words when that guy cut me off there on Bloomfield Avenue and Lord, but they were reverberating in the chambers of my head. Oh Lord Jesus, cleanse me and wash me. Holy Father, I confess the sin known only to You and I plead on the grounds that Jesus died for all of my sins that You will forgive me and cleanse me from all unrighteousness.

56:24 Listen to me carefully. If you must 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 times a day engage in the penitent, believing appropriation of the saving work of Christ for the very same thing, what other alternative do you have? What did the Lord say to Peter? He thought he was doing something great.

56:54 He said, If my brother sinned against me seven times, shall I forgive him? What did the Lord say? Not seven. Until 70 times seven.

57:06 Do a little math. Seventy times seven. In other words, He says, the spirit and disposition of forgiveness keeps no ledger book. And if God requires, is He saying our hearts are to be larger than His?

57:24 What is it that keeps you from going back again and again and again and again and again if necessary a hundred times for the same heart that's bloodied your conscience? Well, it's either. Either. It's a lack of understanding of the magnitude of the love and mercy and grace of God.

57:46 Or it's your stinking rotten pride. Because whenever you go to Christ in His saving work, you go as a beggar and you come away as a debtor. And nobody likes to be both beggar and debtor all the time. But if you're going to get to heaven, that's how you're going to get there.

58:11 Once you get to heaven, you don't see beggars and debtors going around strutting. Unless they're crazy. That's why Jesus said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Because God makes them all beggars and debtors.

58:26 And it's our pride that wants to say I'm something less than a beggar. I may not be upper cross, but I'm sure lower middle class. No. There's a debtor saying, I have no claims, but God has all the claims on me because He's conferred all the mercy and all the grace upon me.

58:52 And if you're going to keep a good conscience, dear child of God, you and I must continually engage in penitent and believing appropriation of Christ in His saving work. When the Scripture says in Zechariah 13, 1, that under the days of Messiah there shall be opened a fountain for sin and uncleanness. That fountain was opened in the vicarious curse bearing and the goring of the Son of God. And it has never, never been closed.

59:27 The Scripture says the blood of Jesus Christ goes on cleansing us from all sin. You remember what Jesus said in John 6, 54 to 6. Just for a moment, look at this passage. May God grant us to grasp it afresh or grasp it for the first time.

59:45 When these Jews were offended at Jesus' teaching concerning Himself as the bread sent down from heaven which men must eat and His blood, that which they must drink. Notice what He said in John 6, 54 to 6. He who eats, present tense verb, He who is eating My flesh and drinking My blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day for My flesh is meat and deed and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I and communes by eating and drinking His blood for His sustenance of life. What is that? It is a metaphorical way of describing what I am saying to you now. In a penitent believing nation of Christ in His saving Word.

60:46 Christ's body and blood, His flesh and blood are not food for an occasional banquet. They are the daily bread of the soul. And when we pray, give us day by day our bread, bread for the body, bread for the soul upon whom we are to feed continually. If you seek to maintain a good conscience in any other orbit but the beggar who comes as often as you need to come and who leaves the debtor to God's mercy, then you see you'll never understand a passage like this.

61:25 You'll never understand Paul who says, I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, not I, but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God. Now of all the things he could have said about the Son of God who created the worlds and sustained them, the Son of God who is sovereign Lord of the...

61:46 No. He says the Son of God who what? Loved me and gave Himself for me. His faith as a Christian man was focused peculiarly upon Christ in the virtue of His saving work.

Directive 3: Continual Righteous Adjustment of Wrongs Against Others

62:02 And so must yours and so must mine. And then finally and even more briefly, if you are to maintain a conscience void of offense to God and to man, there must not only be the commitment to a life of universal obedience, continual engagement in the believing appropriation of Christ in His saving work, but you must continually make righteous adjustments of rectifiable moral wrongs against others. You must continually, continually make righteous adjustments of rectifiable moral wrongs against others. And here in the interest of time I'll quote the text.

62:47 They're familiar to you. Matthew 5, 23. If you are bringing your gift, that is the act of worship in temple service, and there remember your brother has ought against you. Leave your gift before the altar.

63:01 First go be reconciled to your brother. Then come and offer your gift. In other words, once there is the remembrance of a moral equity with a brother, God says, I don't want your worship. I want you to worship with a conscience void of offense, not only to me, but to your fellow man.

63:19 And when conscience is activated in the act of worship, the Lord says, suspend your act of worship. Deal with the horizontal issue. Matthew 6, 14 and 15, the only appendix, the only petition that has an appendix in the Lord's prayer has to do with horizontal relationship. If you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you your trespasses.

63:45 Ephesians 4, 32, be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. Some of you, I'm sure, have thought, you know, is Pastor Martin just overly sensitive? When at times at the end of a sermon, he'll confess to us that he felt he said something in a wrong spirit or said something that was inaccurate and asked forgiveness. Is that necessary?

64:15 Of course it's necessary. When I stand in this pulpit, if I don't know that your conscience forces you, if you're honest with reality, to say, whatever that man is, is an imperfectly sanctified saint, he is walking before God with integrity, anything is worth knowing. Your conscience must be on my side. And if I'm to have a conscience void of offense, then I've got to confess public sins publicly.

64:46 Oh, you say that must take an awful lot of grace. No, frankly, it doesn't. If for no other reason, I want to avoid the misery of having a closed heaven and a shriveled heart and a distant Christ. That's hard.

65:04 But some of you haven't learned that. Some of you husbands, you don't confess to your wife when you speak sharply to her. When in the press of responsibilities, you ignore her and she sends out her signals of an aching, lonely heart and she graciously tries, perhaps a bit awkwardly, to let you know and you put her down. When she tries to get into your conscience, you're too proud to say to your wife, Dear, I sinned.

65:38 Will you forgive me? Wives too proud to say to your husbands, Dear, I was bippy and rebellious and insubordinate and insubordinate. You gave a reasonable, righteous directive as the head of this home and I defied you and in so doing I defied Christ. I've asked His forgiveness.

65:58 Will you forgive me? Then get ready to catch him. Some of your husbands might faint in your arms if they heard that from some of you wives. And you fathers, when you've spoken harshly and sharply, Yes, the kid did something wrong.

66:12 But you did not respond as a mature spirit of self-control. You responded in carnal good conscience when you try to lead them in family worship until you've said to that child or to all who heard it, Listen, that issue was wrong and daddy needed to deal with it, but daddy dealt with it in a way that was displeasing to God and he's asked God's forgiveness. Will you forgive me? That's what it is to have a good conscience toward men, toward your children, to your wife, you siblings, to one another, you who are young men and women in your homes when mom and dad have given direction and you've gone sulking off to your room because it crossed your plans.

66:56 Maybe you didn't bad mouth them, you wouldn't dare do that, but inwardly you were bad mouthing them. How can you look them straight in the eye and have a good conscience if you don't go and say, mom and dad, if God somehow let the words be heard in your ear that I know were heard in my heart, you'd have whipped the tar out of me. God's displeased, will you forgive me? That's what you kids do.

67:19 You're gonna have a good conscience toward God and men. That's what you gotta do. That's what pastors have gotta confess their sins to their people. And people need to confess their sins to their pastors.

67:33 When you've entertained hard thoughts to God's servants and there's no grounds for them, you need to come to them and acknowledge it and ask their forgiveness. It's not all that difficult, folks. It's not all that complicated. It really isn't.

67:52 You wanna have a good conscience to God and man? Get it in God's way as we saw last week. And then you're gonna have a good conscience in the strength of Christ. Maintain it in God's way.

The Danger of a Hardened Conscience and the Joy of Integrity

68:06 Oh, to be as David was in his early days when just cutting off a square inch from Saul's garment, it says, his heart. Smote him! 2 Samuel 24, 10. He got to the place later on in life when he could lust, send for the woman, commit adultery with her, murder her husband by proxy and cover it up for a whole year and never deal with it.

68:37 How did he get from there to there? I don't know. But somewhere along the line, a hardening process set in to his conscience. In spite of all the agonies, Job went through no little comfort as he speaks of it in Job 27, 5 and 6.

68:54 He says, I don't understand all of you accusers and all that's going on and I've lost my sense of direction and bearings even in my relation to God. But one thing I know, I will not relinquish my integrity to God. I have a good conscience to God and man. What a blessed thing to sit on a pile of ashes scraping boils and say, I don't have a clue what God's doing with me and why he's doing it.

69:21 But one thing I know, I have a good conscience to God and to man. Sitting on my pile of ashes and scraping my boils. Dear people, do we want to be spiritually healthy in the coming year? Then some radical steps need to be taken in some of your lives at this very point.

Call to Action: Deal with Your Conscience at Any Cost

69:43 The word of God is the real impediment to your growth has not been some framework of assimilation of the scriptures. Some reasonable framework in the discipline of secret prayer. But here's been the rub. You've played loose with your conscience.

70:01 And until you deal with God at that point, this day, say, Oh God, at any cost, I'm prepared to pursue a good conscience in the way of your appointment. And having attained it, I'm ready I'm prepared to keep it no matter what the cost. For some of you it may be humbling. I had someone come to me this week and look me in the eye and say, 25 years ago you asked me a question of a very clear pointed nature.

70:34 And I lied to you. And that lie has gone unrectified for 25 years. What do you think I did when they asked my forgiveness? You think I told them go squirm a while.

70:51 25 years, you have plenty of time to cover your sin. I got plenty of time to forgive. See you again. What a joy it was to say, I freely, unreservedly, in Christ's name, forgive you.

71:06 What have you been covering up? What skeletons are rattling around in the closet of your conscience this morning? In God's name, dear people, deal with it. When the secret things Jesus said will be shouted from the rooftops and then all your saving will be stripped away far better than what concern accepted a little face now if necessary before this whole congregation, before the whole state of New Jersey, before the whole United States.

Closing Prayer: Mercy for Cleansed Consciences and Renewed Wills

71:48 Go on National Television if you need to, to have the Lord Jesus and your Fathers stand in the last day and vindicate you. Will make any any present Difficulty seem as nothing. Let us pray. Our Father, We confess to you that the wickedness in this world wickedness the ingrained disposition of our sinful natures is such that we would rationalize excuse justify ourselves while constantly judging and condemning others lord have mercy upon me have mercy upon everyone in this building this morning that we may take seriously the things we have considered from your word that there may be a renewed commitment in the heart of every one of your children to pursue a life of universal obedience according to our present understanding of what is pleasing to you a determination to have the voice of conscience continually educated by the scriptures oh lord may we not allow our consciences to be educated by our depraved and

73:16 degenerate society you so that what we refused and blushed at a year ago we now look upon with indifference and in a few months would partake of without a twinge of conscience lord have mercy on us have mercy upon us we pray and all we ask that this day there would be deep and thorough dealings with you by your spirit and in the blood of christ make consciences be cleansed may wills be renewed in the memory of you the son of god we pray in your spirit and in the spirit and in the spirit of you of achievements may we see some rättes here past our own problems as possible for all the nations we pray for for a ministry of freedom that may be harmonized and for all nations in all countries many nations of the world and many nations of the world may we look forward with 개 guarding all the kindled trust that you прав having the sixth day the last day of ministration of the second加油 of mind the most powerful basin trying to red authoritarianism and the Have mercy, our Father, that in this place we, as the people of God, may know that exquisite joy and that validated testimony of those who walk with a good conscience before you and before our fellow men. Seal your word, we pray, to the salvation of those who are yet in their sins

74:41 and to the further sanctification of your people. We ask through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.