Getting a Good Conscience

The Narrow Way to Life and the Role of Conscience

0:01 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, September 26, 1982, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. In his own infallible word, the Bible, Almighty God has made it abundantly clear that no one person will go to heaven when he dies unless he is in the way to heaven while he lives. None will enter heaven when they die, but those that are in the way to heaven while they live. A specimen statement of this truth found throughout the scriptures is to be seen in the well-known words of our Lord Jesus in Matthew 7, verse 13, in which he said, Enter in by the narrow gate. For what? Wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are they that enter in thereby.

1:14 For narrow is the gate, and straightened or compressed the way that leads unto life, and few there be that find it. There is a way that leads to life, and none will come to the life of heaven but those who are upon that way. And none can walk upon that way who do not enter by the gate that stands at the beginning of that way. Now you may say, but Pastor Martin, that sounds so narrow.

1:54 And I respond by saying, you and I cannot afford the luxury of being more broad than the Son of God. For he is the appointed judge who will deal with you. He is the appointed judge who will deal with you. He is the appointed judge who will deal with you.

2:06 He is the appointed judge who will deal with you. He is the appointed judge who will deal with men in the last day, and he will deal with them in terms of his own revealed will. And he has made it abundantly clear that none will enter heaven when they die, but those that are on the way to heaven while they live. Because of our conviction of that biblical truth, we have been studying for several months in our Lord's Day morning meditations what the scriptures have to say.

2:37 What the scriptures have to say about that way that leads to life, and in particular, what the scriptures tell us about the necessity of continuance in that way, the way of faith, holiness, and obedience, and the means that God has appointed for our continuance in the way. And in the unfolding of this study, we have examined some of those means appointed by God, to keep us in the way, means that are associated with the life and ministry of the church, and are now considering those means which are more peculiarly, individually exercised means. They are individual, private, spiritual disciplines without which we cannot, we will not, continue in the way that leads unto life. The first of those means...

3:37 The second of those means that we considered was the keeping of our hearts constantly and carefully before God. And now we're examining what the scriptures say about the keeping of a good conscience before God. In our study last Lord's Day morning, I attempted to do basically two things. Number one, to show the inseparable relationship between a good conscience and keeping in the way.

4:07 We have a short term for that, perseverance. And we noted in first Timothy one, two passages in which the apostle brings into the closest relationship, a good conscience and keeping in the way of faith. And then I attempted to set before you a definition and a description of the fundamental functions of conscience. Number two, to show that we have a good conscience and keeping in the way of faith. And then I attempted to set before you a definition and a description of the fundamental functions of conscience.

Defining Conscience and Its Accusing Function

4:37 And we defined conscience as that innate faculty of self-judgment by which a man tries the moral rightness or wrongness of his own thoughts and actions. And then I tried to personify conscience into that funny little man who comes uninvited, who never sleeps, who has terribly bad manners, and who has a very limited conscience. That moral monitor implanted within the mind and heart of every single human being who has not lost his rationality, that moral monitor who continually says of every thought and word and deed, right or wrong, good or bad, in the language of Romans 2, action, accusing us or excusing us for our actions. And though we insult him and attempt to put tape on his mouth and stuff a cork down his throat, he continues to speak, albeit in some cases in very muffled tones because of the layers of tape over his mouth. He continues to mumble and seek to gain a hearing in the theater of our hearts,

6:02 passing judgment upon our actions. Now this morning, what I want to do with you in our study of the Word of God is to address ourselves to this question, how can we get and keep a good conscience? We have seen this inseparable relationship between a good conscience and keeping in the way that leads to life. We've digressed, as it were, to focus upon the good conscience, and we've begun to focus upon the good conscience.

6:35 We've begun to focus upon the good conscience, and we've begun to focus upon the good conscience. We've begun to focus upon the function of conscience so that when we use the terminology, we understand what we're talking about. Now we come to the heart of our consideration of this vital subject, how can we get and keep a good conscience before God? And what we'll do this morning is consider the two things that we must do to get a good conscience, and then God willing, next Lord's Day, what we must do in order to keep a good conscience.

Two Essential Steps to Getting a Good Conscience

7:10 Now since every man, woman, boy, or girl in this place has a conscience, you cannot feel yourself exempt from this study. We're dealing with something that touches very intimate and personal matters, matters of great concern to your own soul. How can I get a good conscience? How can I get a good conscience?

7:34 For without it, I have no reason to believe I'm in the way that leads to life.

7:41 And I cannot understand how to keep a good conscience unless I first of all know how to get a good conscience. And so these are issues of spiritual life and death. And I would suggest to you that the two things which every man, woman, boy, or girl must do if they would have a good conscience, if they would first of all get a good conscience, is, or are, number one, we must listen to its accusing voice with judgment day honesty, and number two, we must embrace the one divinely appointed means for the silencing of its accusing voice.

8:32 You will never get a good conscience

8:37 unless you first of all listen to the accusing voice of conscience with judgment day honesty, and then embrace the one divinely appointed means for the silencing of its accusing voice. First of all, then, if you would get a good conscience, you must listen to its accusing voice with judgment day honesty. Now, what I propose to do is to address that principle with three simple questions. Question number one, what do I mean by those words?

Listening to Conscience with Judgment Day Honesty

9:15 Question number two, why is it so important? And thirdly, what will be the results if we do what those words convey? What do I mean by the words listening to the accusing voice of conscience with judgment day honesty? Well, if you will return, to Romans chapter two, verses 14 and 15, you will notice that this function of conscience, a function of accusing or excusing, a function present in people who've never even seen the pages of a Bible, for in this setting, Paul is dealing with those who do not have the written law of God. Notice how he brings the subject of conscience, into the closest proximity to the day of judgment. We'll begin with verse 12 of Romans two. For as many as have sinned without the law, shall also perish without the law, and as many as have sinned under the law, shall be judged by the law.

10:29 For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified for, when the Gentiles that do not have the law, do by nature the things of the law. These not having the law, are the law unto themselves, in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness therewith, and their thoughts one with another, accusing or else excusing them. That's the parenthetical statement is ended. And then the thread of thought probably dropped up, in verse 12, is picked up again, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel by Jesus Christ. Now without having to settle precisely, what the sentence structure is, this much is clear. Paul begins speaking about God judging men. He brings in the subject of conscience, and then he completes the statement by speaking, of the day of judgment.

11:36 So whatever the precise grammatical construction may be, this much is clear. Conscience functions in an intimate relationship to the day of judgment. You see that? Conscience functions in an intimate relationship with the day of judgment.

11:56 Now because of our sinful hearts, we have a constant tendency to put down the voice of conscience. Conscience, which is the light of God upon our true moral state, is not, his function is not welcomed, because the scripture says in John 3.19, this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. Anything that tends to expose us for what we are, is something to which we have a strong, reflexive, antipathy.

12:37 There is a rejection syndrome in every human heart by nature. And left to ourselves we'll stifle conscience, we'll seek to evade the voice of conscience, we'll try to rationalize the dictates of conscience, we'll attempt to dull and to sear conscience, now follow me closely, and all of those activities, are directly opposite, to the attainment of a good conscience. You'll never get a good conscience, until first of all, you begin to listen to the accusing voice of conscience, with the same honesty with which every impenitent sinner, will hear the voice of conscience in the day of judgment. For in the day of judgment, the scriptures tell us, God will judge all men according to their deeds. Revelation 20, verses 11 through 13, give us that graphic picture, of the throne of God's judgment being set. And when that throne is set, the scripture tells us, before it are gathered all men, and the dead, the great and the small, stand before the throne, Revelation 20, 12,

14:01 and the books were opened, and they were judged, according to the things written in the books, according to their works. Now God doesn't need books to record, and then to give before men a transcription, of all of their thoughts, and words, and deeds, and attitudes, contrary to his holy law. It's a very graphic figure, in which almighty God is a great recorder, fully and perfectly omniscient, knowing every motion, of every heart, of every man, woman, boy or girl, that's ever lived, will bring out to men's own consciousness, those thoughts that have been contrary to his law, those words, those deeds. They will be judged according to their works, and in that day, conscience, which smote them on issue after issue while alive, but the voice of conscience, which they sought to stifle, and evade, and concerning which they rationalized, that voice that they sought to dull and to sear, that voice will say an amen, to every pronouncement of the righteous judgment of almighty God. And when I assert that you'll never get a good conscience, until you listen to its accusing voice,

15:28 with judgment day honesty, here and now, that's what I'm talking about. In other words, the path to a good conscience, is to experience a mini-judgment day here on earth. It is to take the voice of conscience seriously. Furthermore, it is to bring to bear upon conscience, the divinely appointed means, to make certain its voice is speaking accurately.

16:03 In the day of judgment, everything will be perfectly just, because all the pronouncements will be according to reality. Here and now, if I may use the analogy of a three-way light bulb, you see printed on the top of it, 50, 100 and 150 watts. We may liken that to the function of conscience. In the person who has little acquaintance with the Bible, who may have been greatly influenced by patterns in his home and in society, where right was called wrong, and wrong was right, the light of his conscience, may be very inaccurate on many points, but there is still the voice of conscience, accusing and excusing. You've got to begin to be honest with that 50 watt dimension of its light. But furthermore, your heart must come into contact with the 100 watts of the law and the 150 watts of the gospel. You must turn that switch in which the light is intensified.

17:07 And when you bring your conduct to the touchstone of God's holy law, the Bible says, by the law comes the knowledge of sin. When conscience begins to accuse you for everything that is a deviation from God's holy law, every deviation from that law as epitomized in the 10 words of Moses, thou shalt, thou shalt not, when we begin to examine the totality of life in the light of that, then conscience begins to speak with a voice that borders on a frightening thunder. For by that law comes the knowledge of sin. As Paul said in Romans 7, I had not known sin, really known sin, except the law said, thou shalt not covet. And when he began to look at his heart in the light of the 10th commandment, a heart that he thought was in pretty good shape, he said, I saw that heart to be nothing less than a seething cauldron of all kinds of impure and unholy desires. He saw his heart to be a veritable sink of iniquity. And conscience began to thunder about the state of his heart.

18:26 And then when we bring conscience to the light of the gospel, there conscience, when he begins to speak according to the blood and the agony and the forsakenness and the dereliction and the abandonment of Golgotha, when we begin to view every lie, every word of meanness and dishonesty and impurity, every disposition and attitude of selfishness and godlessness, every single pattern indeed of life that is contrary to God's law, when we begin to look at those things in the light of the cross, and we begin to say, O God, is that your estimation of human sin? Is that your disposition to human sin, that you must bruise your son, that you must inundate him beneath the ocean waves of your wrath, until he cries, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Then conscience almost wishes he could go into oblivion. We wish we could, as conscience thunders from Mount Calvary as well as Mount Sinai. When I say you and I must listen to the accusing voice of conscience with judgment day honesty, I'm asserting that we will never get a good conscience

Why Listening to Conscience is Necessary: Facing Reality

19:53 until we listen to its accusing voice as that voice comes to us natively, as it comes to us under the light of the gospel and under the light of the law. Now, why is this necessary? Some would say in our day the problem with men is not that they don't feel guilty. They feel guilty.

20:18 We need to tell them they're all right and they're good and think positive thoughts about themselves. Or the idea of telling people that they need to accept the thunderings of conscience with judgment day honesty, why, that will make people psychological misfits, will it? No, my friend, this is necessary for the simple reason this is God's appointed way of causing us to come to grips with the reality of our true condition. This is God's appointed way of having us come to grips with the reality of our true condition.

20:56 Now, what is our true condition? It is a condition of accountability to God on the one hand and of guilt and liability to God's wrath on the other hand. Now, that's our true condition. The Bible says in Romans 14, 12, So then, every one of us shall give an account of himself to God.

21:16 Now, you have no choice in the matter. My friend is sure as you sit in this building and your eyes, I trust, are fixed on mine, and that seat on which you sit feels the pressure of the weight of your body, just as surely you will stand before God your maker in the last day. And all of your whistling in the dark won't change that. You know what whistling in the dark is, kids, don't you?

21:44 I remember I used to do it as a kid. I was scared to death of the dark. You know, my mommy and daddy told me, look, there's nothing there in the dark that isn't there in the light. I was scared of the dark, terribly scared.

21:54 And I can remember when I'd be walking home from my buddy's house, it was about a quarter of a mile, three-eighths of a mile, something like that. Oh, I used to whistle, trying to tell myself I'm real brave. I'm not scared of anything. But you just let a twig break under my foot.

22:09 And I'd feel the goose bumps go up my arms and down my back, and I think more than once I broke the hundred-yard dash record. But I'd whistle. You know, big brave guy walking in the dark. But you see, all my whistling didn't rid me of those fears.

22:26 And this is what men do spiritually. Try to whistle in the dark. Conscience accuses. Conscience says judgment is coming.

22:34 You're accountable to God. You're accountable to God. And we think that by whistling in the dark, we can just rid ourselves of that reality. You can't.

22:42 That's reality. You are going to stand before God. That's reality. And furthermore, by nature, that accountability lands you in a position of guilt and liability to punishment.

22:55 The Bible says, in no uncertain terms, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans 3.23 The wages of sin is death. Romans 6.23 Now that's reality. That's reality. Now do you see why we can never get a good conscience? Until we listen.

23:16 Listen. Listen to the accusing voice of conscience. Listen with judgment day honesty. Why?

23:23 Because that's reality. The reality of our accountability and the reality of our guilt and liability to punishment. In other words, conscience is not making up a story or playing head games on us. Conscience is God's preacher planted in our hearts to call us to face reality.

23:48 And the day of judgment will be the irreversible manifestation of that reality. In a sense, we could say hell will be the acknowledgement of those realities. Too late. There's nobody who will sink into hell with the sentence of, Christ ringing in his ears, depart from me you cursed, who will deny either his accountability to God or his guilt before God.

24:18 Not one will be able to deny those realities because his experience will be but the manifestation of them. My dear friend, you will never get a good conscience until you first of all heed that accusing voice of conscience. I've explained what I mean by the words, why this is necessary. Now what will be the result?

Results of Heeding an Accusing Conscience: Fear, Dread, and Aversion

24:46 If you and I come out of the never-never land of self-imposed efforts to stifle conscience and stop all of our whistling in the dark about our sense of sin and even draw close to those means that will make us see with ever increasing accuracy our true state, what will be the result? Well, you know what the result will be? The result of listening to the accusing voice of conscience will be a fear and a dread of God. It always is.

25:23 Listen to the prophet Isaiah. He addresses himself to this very issue. The fear and dread of God that comes when sinners listen to the voice of an accusing conscience. Isaiah 33, verses 13 and 14.

25:40 Hear you that are far away are off what I have done. And you that are near acknowledge my might. The sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has seized the godless ones.

25:58 Who among us can dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings? And that's not a reference to hell. That's a reference to God.

26:16 Who among the sinners in Zion can dwell with a God who is a consuming fire? Who can take seriously his accountability to God? His liability to punishment for all of his sins? Who can contemplate that without a sense of dread and terror in the presence of God?

26:41 The first result of listening to the accusing voice of conscience with judgment day honesty will be a fear and dread of God. And then always joined to it there will be an aversion to God. You remember what happened to Adam? When he sinned the first manifestation was an aversion to God.

27:04 We read in Genesis 3 that the Lord God came walking in the garden in the cool of the day and Adam ran to hide himself. Among the trees. And God spoke Adam where art thou? What a tragic thing.

27:26 The creature made for face to face open faced communion with God now is filled with an aversion to God. But listen. There is only one way Adam could have strutted up to God and said how are things going today God? It would have been if he had totally seared his conscience.

27:46 That dread of God and that aversion to God was proper given the circumstances of Adam's sin against God. And being in touch with reality it was right for Adam to have a dread and aversion of God. And listen to me. When you get in touch with reality it will be right for you to have a dread of God and an aversion to God.

28:16 A conscience speaking according to reality that has not been silenced in the way of God's appointment is the greatest barrier to communion with God. And that's the agony of Holy Ghost conviction. Because the sinner has come to grips with the fact I'm accountable to God. I was made for God.

28:44 I must be right with God or I'll be consumed by the anger of God. So on the one hand I know I must have dealings with God. But on the other hand God is holy and I am sinful. God is the judge and I'm the guilty criminal.

29:02 God is the righteous one and I'm the unclean one. He is the consuming fire and I in my sin am nothing but stubble. That's the dilemma of someone under Holy Ghost conviction. Do you know anything about that?

29:21 Have your thoughts of God ever filled you with terror? Or has your God been that big unprincipled benevolent granddaddy off in the sky somewhere with his pockets full of nickels and quarters with his eyes rather set and dim who'd never heard a flea? If that's your God He is an idol and you'll perish with Him. Scripture says our God is a consuming fire.

29:55 When you begin to take the accusing voice of conscience with judgment day honesty the results will inevitably be a fear and a dread of God and an aversion to God. And it's interesting in the providence of God and I didn't mention this to Pastor Nichols when he selected that passage in Revelation. It's the passage I wanted to turn to in this connection. For this accusing conscience will come to its pinnacle expression in the day of judgment.

30:32 Notice this element of dread and aversion. How does this express itself in the day of judgment when men can no longer stick a cork in the mouth of conscience? No longer plaster tape over his mouth? Notice how conscience will work.

30:49 Revelation 6 and verse 14 The heaven was removed as a scroll when it is rolled up and every mountain and island were moved out of their places and the kings of the earth and the princes and the chief captains and the rich and the strong and every bondman and free man. No distinction amongst sinners in that day. They hid themselves. They hid themselves.

31:18 They hid themselves like Adam did in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains and they say to the mountains and rocks fall on us. Hide us from the face of Him that sits on the throne. There is an aversion to God. Hide us from His face.

31:38 O rocks, O mountains, crush us. But somehow spare us looking upon that face. And from the wrath of the Lamb conscience does her work. Too late.

31:54 Conscience does her work. Too late. That's why I say in a sense, no one is converted until the day of judgment has a preview in his own heart here on earth. My friend, listen.

32:12 Listen carefully. You will never attain, you will never get a good conscience until you listen to its accusing voice with judgment day honesty. But thank God I don't need to stop there. For that's a little bit of hell here and now to have an accusing conscience.

Embracing the Divinely Appointed Means: The Blood of Christ

32:33 The worm that never dies and the fire that is never quenched in the hell to come is but the extension of the activity of an accusing conscience stretched out to an eternity. And it's a doleful thing even to have to preach on that subject but that's reality. But thank God I have a second point to bring before you this morning. You and I can come to a good conscience only when having listened to the voice of an accusing conscience with judgment day honesty, we then embrace the one divinely appointed means for the silencing of its accusing voice. We must embrace the one divinely appointed means for the silencing of its accusing voice. Now again, three questions. What do I mean by that language?

33:33 Well, I mean simply this. God in His amazing grace, His pity to sinners, this offended, incensed God has made provision for the righteous silencing of an accusing conscience. Think of it. Think of it.

33:53 Conscience which hails us into the presence of God and says, Guilty! That very God in love and pity and compassion has devised a way whereby that thundering of conscience may be silenced righteously without jumping out of the world of reality, without wishful whistling in the dark, where conscience in full touch with reality may have all of its accusation. What is that way appointed by God? Turn please to Hebrews chapter 9. Here we have perhaps the best statement in short compass of the answer to that question. What is the one divinely appointed means for the silencing of conscience's accusing voice? Hebrews 9 and verses 13 and 14.

35:03 If the blood of goats and bulls, referring to some of the Old Testament rituals, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling them that have been defiled, sanctified 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 cleanse your conscience? Turn over to chapter 10 and verse 19. 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, and having a great priest for the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. Having boldness to enter by the blood of Jesus,

36:31 by our great priest, having our consciences sprinkled. What is the one divinely appointed means for the silencing of the accusing voice of conscience? In the language of these texts, the one divinely appointed means is the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ.

37:00 Now what in the world does that mean? Christ shed his blood two thousand years ago. He has gone back to the right hand of the Father. There is nowhere upon earth I can come into contact with the blood that actually poured from his veins. And even if I could, how could I get it into my conscience so that it would cleanse it and make it a good conscience? My friend, if you think in those crass material terms, you'll never understand God's one appointed provision. The blood of Christ is a synonym for the violent death of the Son of God upon the cross as a sacrifice for sin. You see, when the blood of the animal sacrifices was shed, it was evident that they died a violent death.

37:53 The animal did not die a normal death. It was brought living. It was brought whole. And it was the animal that underwent the violent death at the hands of the priest and its blood was caught in a basin and in various avenues of divinely directed service became part of the ritual approach to God in the Old Testament.

38:19 And each bleating of every lamb, each fluttering of the wings of every dove whose head was wrung off and whose blood spurted forth, was pointing forward to the violent death of the Son of God. A violent death enacted from the human side by the hands of Roman soldiers, but in its true significance, a violent death enacted by his own hands. You remember what we just read in Hebrews 9? Who through the eternal spirit offered himself!

39:02 He was the great priest as well as the victim. And the scripture says he poured out his soul unto death. He told us that as the great shepherd he would lay down his life for the sheep. And he was both priest and victim, offerer and offering.

39:22 And when through the spirit he offered himself up unto God, it was in this context of the violent death of the cross in which in the language of scripture he who knew no sin was made sin for us. In the language of Galatians 3, he was made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. And in the death of Christ, God says to us, sin is a commodity I take seriously.

40:00 Sin is a commodity which I so abhor with all of my soul that I will sooner spare not my son. I will sooner bruise him than let sin go. Unjudged and unpunished and in the cross of Christ God has punished sin. God has manifested his hatred to sin.

40:31 And the Lord Jesus conscious that he was dying for sin and on behalf of sinners cried out in those closing moments, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It was the forsakenness, the abandonment that comes as the result of sin. The wages of sin is death and the essence of that death is separation, separation from God. Sin which produces that aversion is a reality in human experience.

41:10 And when sin was transferred to our Lord Jesus, his agony was real. The pain, the abandonment was real. And in that abandonment is our hope as sinners. And when we come to the cross and see that God has punished sin in the substitute for sinners, then embracing the Savior, that work of satisfying God's law, of answering all the demands of justice against my sin, that forms the basis of a righteous, silent cleansing of the voice of conscience.

41:51 So that when conscience accuses and rightly accuses, I can say, yes, conscience, you have judged that deed and that word and that thought and that attitude to be sin, deserving of the judgment of God. Oh, conscience, your accusations are true and right, but the blood of Christ has been spilled for guilty sinners and I have fled to the Lord Jesus and asked Him to pardon and cleanse me of all of my sins in His own precious blood. And I am willing to rest the whole case of my sin-laden soul with Jesus Christ who died for sinners. And it's precisely that point that the Apostle Paul makes in Romans 8. Turn there for a moment. When he rises to a height, perhaps unparalleled in some ways in all of the Roman epistle, he has demonstrated universal sinfulness in the opening chapters, and yet this very man who has demonstrated universal sinfulness, the necessity of listening to the voice of conscience with judgment day honesty, notice the challenge that he throws out in Romans 8.33.

43:17 Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is He that condemns? Now notice the basis of that confidence.

43:31 It is Christ Jesus that died, yea rather that was raised from the dead. Who is now at the right hand of God who makes intercession for us when He asks the question who can condemn? Where in the world of reality can anyone lay a just sentence of guilty before anyone who has fled to Christ? He said none can do it because Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ intercedes, and on the basis of what Christ has done and is doing, all the accusations of my conscience have been righteously Now when I use the terms we must embrace the one divinely appointed means for the silencing of an accusing conscience. That's what I'm talking about. That one appointed means is Christ in His death for sinners. Why is this so vital?

Why the Blood of Christ is the Only Means

44:38 Oh hear me now, because Satan in our own hearts will seek any other means but the one divinely appointed means. Left to ourselves we will seek any other means. That's why the prophet Jeremiah had to cry, they say peace, peace, when there is no peace. And that's why people will busy themselves in all kinds of reformation and self-help and religious activity.

45:11 They'll look to the church, to the priest, to the minister, to the rabbi, to the sacraments, to baptism, church membership. Conscience is accusing. Conscience is relentless. And they can't silence His voice.

45:25 And so they say somehow religion must be connected with a good conscience so I'll take up religion. And so they become active in religion and active in the church and active in all kinds of things connected with the life and ministry of the church hoping thereby somehow to silence the voice of conscience. And all the while all they are doing is pressing themselves into a path of self- deception and spiritual delusion. My friend hear me this morning. There is only one divinely appointed means to silence the accusing voice of conscience. And that means is the Lord Jesus as crucified for sinners. John Bunyan understood this well in all the terrors and the agony through which he passed. Listen to the way he captured what I'm trying to say in these words.

46:24 Though I was thus troubled and tossed and afflicted with the sight and the sense and the terror of my sin yet I was afraid to let this sight and sense of my sin go completely off my mind. You see what he's saying? Conscience was terrifying me and it was uncomfortable and yet I was afraid to let that sense of the voice of conscience go for I found unless guilt of conscience was taken off the right way that is to say by the blood of Christ a man grew rather worse than better for the loss of his trouble of mind. Unless guilt of conscience was taken off the right way that is to say by the blood of Christ a man grew worse rather than better in getting rid of this accusing conscience. Wherefore if my guilt lay hard upon me then I should cry that the blood of Christ should take it off and if my guilt was going off without the blood of Christ then I should strive to bring my guilt back upon my heart and my conscience. You see that's a form of

47:51 masochism. That's a form of self-destruction. No that's reality. When conscience accused him in the light of God's law and God's gospel conscience had him in touch with reality. When he was terrified he had grounds to be terrified. God was angry and Bunyan was exposed to his righteous anger. He says if I found that sense of dread leaving me but it didn't leave by way of the blood of Christ he said I strove to be miserable again. Why? Because he knew if the sense of his guilt were leaving him any other way than by the blood of Christ it was a false peace that would ultimately damn him. Bunyan understood what some of you need desperately to understand. You've been able to quiet the voice of conscience that at times has well nigh driven you to distraction. You've whistled loud enough and long enough that conscience in a sense has been silenced to a degree but not wholly.

49:09 Oh my friend I plead with you this morning. Don't be comfortable and don't congratulate yourself if conscience troubles you less this morning than in former days or years. Don't congratulate yourself unless the voice of conscience accusing has been silenced by the blood of Christ. What will be the results if we do embrace the one divinely appointed way than in the language of Hebrews 10 we can draw near.

Results of Embracing Christ's Blood: Drawing Near and Serving God

49:50 You see the emphasis look at it Hebrews 10 the emphasis is upon drawing near when the voice of conscience is righteously silenced in the blood of Christ the voice of an accusing conscience not the voice of conscience accusing voice then the scripture tells us having boldness to enter let us draw near how in the world can I a guilty sinner draw near to the God who is a consuming fire isn't that moral madness that's the language Binney expressed in one of the hymns I wish were in our trinity hymnal eternal life eternal light how pure the soul must be which placed within thy burning light shrinks not but with calm delight can live and look on thee the spirits that surround thy throne may bear this burning bliss but surely that is theirs alone for they have never never known a falling world like this but how shall I whose native sphere is dark whose mind is dim before the ineffable appear and on my naked

51:17 spirit bear the uncreated being you see there's the dilemma angels who've never known sin they can draw near they can be at home in the presence of God spirits that surround the throne who've never known the stain of an accusing conscience they can delight but how shall I a sinner and then he answers it in the language of the gospel there is a way for man to rise to this sublime abode an offering and a sacrifice a holy spirit's energies an advocate with God an offering a sacrifice a holy spirit's energies an advocate with God these these prepare us for the sight of holiness above the sons of ignorance and the light may dwell with the eternal light through the eternal love that's it that's what we sing about when in our hymn we sing not all the blood of beast on Jewish altar slain could give what the guilty conscience peace or wash away my sin but Christ the heavenly lamb bears all

52:46 bears all my sins away oh my friend the result of embracing the one divinely appointed means for the silencing of the accusing voice of conscience the first result will be that you can draw near to God with delight no longer that cringing dread of him no longer that aversion that's why Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life no man comes to the father but by me but thank God the reverse is true we do come to the father through him and the second great effect is underscored in Hebrews 9 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ do what how much more shall the blood of Christ cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God now the emphasis of that verb serve means or points primarily in the direction of serve in the sense of religious worship but it spills over into the totality of life life becomes one succession of the life of worship that is as it is lived to the glory of God under the lordship

54:15 of Christ by the rule of scripture my friend listen if your conscience has been silenced in the one divinely appointed way all of its accusations silenced the fruit will be that God has given you a heart to serve him and say not you are cleansed in the blood of Christ if you count not the service of God your greatest delight the conscience is cleansed not to run around saying I'm not free by the blood of Christ do the please that's turning the grace of God into lasciviousness but thank God there is no motive to service like a conscience purged in the blood of Christ the sense of indebtedness to such mercy the sense of obligation to so gracious and loving and pitying of God oh my friend I ask you this morning have you ever had biblically a good conscience have you if you have then you're no stranger to what I've preached about this morning you've known to one degree or another you have known to one degree

55:43 or another something in your own religious experience that has answered an amen from the depths of your being to this concept that you have listened to the accusing voice of conscience with judgment and very honesty you're not sitting there this morning saying what in the world does that preacher talk I don't have my friend if that's so you need to cry to God that you will bring your conscience into contact with his own holy word and get in touch with reality if you have a good conscience you've gone beyond merely being terrified at the voice of an accusing conscience you've embraced the one divinely appointed means to silence that conscience and you sit here with a measure of peace and joy this morning because when we sang Jesus thy blood and righteousness my beauty are my glorious dress you were singing that which is an expression of your own relationship to God in Christ how do you get a good conscience that's the only way according to this book and if you leave this morning with no accusing conscience a stranger to Christ in the cleansing of his blood my friend you leave in a

57:11 condition that is to be pitied because you're out of touch with reality the Bible says the wrath of God abides present tense verb it abides it hangs above the head of him that believes not you leave with that wrath above you suspended only by the sovereign mercy of God thank God dear Christian if your conscience speaks peace from the cross that is a righteous peace that is a peace which will not be disappointed in the last day but will find its vindication before all the gathered assembly of all the peoples of all ages and nations and God will receive an abundance of glory when a multitude whom no man can number out of every kindred tribe and tongue and nation who in themselves were guilty and blameworthy are ushered into his presence on the basis of the doing and the dying of another well I feel that I've so inadequately treated a subject that is so vital but may God take some of the strands of his own truth from his word and embed them in each of our hearts let us

58:38 pray our father we plead with you in Jesus name that you will honor the proclamation of your own word the attempt to set forth your dear son as the only savior of sinners and may that word be effectual in bringing some out of their never never land of spiritual deception oh may they be brought into the world of reality the reality of their own guilt the reality of your impending wrath upon them and oh that they may flee to Christ and Christ alone we ask for us who are your people who have by your grace known what it is to get a good conscience teach us Lord how to keep a good conscience deliver us we pray from all of the devious actings of our own remaining sin and may we know what it is to have a conscience void of offense to you and to our fellow men at all times in the way of obedience to your word hear our prayer and seal the word to our hearts

60:07 for the sake of your own name and for the honor of your beloved son amen