Educating Standard of Conscience

Introduction: The Perseverance of the Saints and Keeping a Good Conscience

0:01 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, October 24th, 1982, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:12 For several months in our Lord's Day morning meditations, we have been considering together the very crucial biblical doctrine often designated as the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. Now, by such language, we mean simply this. The Bible affirms that all true believers in Jesus Christ most certainly shall and most assuredly must continue in the life of faith, holiness, and obedience to the end of their days.

0:57 The biblical doctrine of perseverance is that the true people of God, truly, true believers most certainly shall and most assuredly must persevere, continue in faith, holiness, and obedience all of their days. This doctrine is clearly stated by our Lord in such well-known words as we find in the Gospels in which he said on the one hand, I give unto my...

1:35 I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish. And yet on the other hand, he said, but he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved. Now, having demonstrated from the Scriptures the necessity of this continuance in faith, holiness, and obedience, we are now concerned with discovering from the Scriptures those means which God has ordained, by which His people are enabled to continue in a life of faith, of holiness, and obedience.

2:15 And the means that we are presently considering is that which we have described as the getting and the keeping of a good conscience before God. Now according to such passages as 1 Timothy 1, 5 and 6, and verses 18 to 21, we have the following. in 6 and verses 18 to 20 a good conscience is an essential companion to those who are determined to continue in the faith concerning certain ones paul wrote saying when they cast off faith and

2:52 a good conscience they made shipwreck concerning the faith now having established the necessity of keeping a good conscience before god and men if we are to persevere we are seeking to answer from the scriptures how does one get this good conscience having gotten it how does one keep it and in answer to the first question we have seen that the scripture is very clear if you would get a good conscience initially you must listen to its accusing voice

3:33 with judgment day honesty and then you must silence its accusing voice in the only divinely appointed way even the way of coming to jesus christ by whose blood alone we are cleansed from a guilty and an accusing conscience now the second part of the question how does one keep a good conscience has at least four parts or at least elements to its answer. Having shown you from the scriptures the possibility of keeping a good conscience, that this is not some noble but unattainable ideal, we have examined two of those

Elements of Keeping a Good Conscience (Review)

4:17 four elements which are part and parcel of keeping a good conscience. The first, we must never violate its present dictates. If you and I would keep a good conscience, we must never violate its present dictates. As one has accurately written, the dictates of conscience in a believer, even when grounded on misconception, are authoritative. That's just another way of

4:50 expressing the biblical truth, whatsoever is not of faith is sin. To him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. And even though his judgment may be erroneous consciousness says no, it is morally wrong, conscience must be obeyed. And if you would

5:15 keep a good conscience, you must learn never to violate its present dictates. And then secondly, if you would keep a good conscience, you should keep a good conscience rather than a good independent caseabild.

5:26 You must learn immediately to silence its every accusation. Immediately silence its every accusation. On the one hand, we must not attempt to silence it by ignoring its accusations, by debating with its accusations, by trying to drown out its accusations,

5:51 or by giving payola to its accusations, trying to appease its accusations. But we must silence its every accusation by eagerly listening to that voice of accusation, by freely confessing the cause of its accusation, by believingly clinging to the promise of divine forgiveness, and by thoroughly making amends at the horizontal. At the horizontal level, wherever necessary. Now, in about six minutes, I've given you the distillation of about five hours of instruction, and I hope that's not left our visitors in the lurch.

6:34 But so that you might have a bit of a feel of where we've been, I felt it necessary to give that capsule form of what we've been studying. Now, would you keep a good conscience? If so, you must not only learn the great principle of never vexing, violating its present dictates, immediately silencing its every accusation. But there is a third element in keeping a good conscience, and it is this.

Third Element: Continually Educate its Standard of Judgment

7:04 We must continually educate its standard of judgment. We must continually educate its standard of judgment. Now, in thinking our way through this third element of keeping a good conscience, we must continually educate its standard of judgment. Now, in thinking our way through this third element of keeping a good conscience, we must continually educate its standard of judgment.

7:18 Now, in thinking our way through this third element of keeping a good conscience, we must continually educate its standard of judgment. Now, in thinking our way through this third element of keeping a good conscience, we must continually educate its standard of judgment. Now, in thinking our way through this third element of keeping a good conscience, we must continually educate its standard of judgment. conscience, I need to say something by way of introduction about the manner in which conscience functions. The manner in which conscience functions. Conscience always functions

7:37 as a judge, but not as a lawmaker. Conscience does not make laws, but simply looks at its present understanding and perception of the laws that exist. And on that basis, conscience approves or disapproves of our thoughts and of our actions. Conscience looks to its present understanding of the will of God, and in the light of that, either encourages us to perform a given act as conformable to the will of God, or it discourages us,

8:20 from the performance of that act as non-conformable to the will of God. Now that's true in all men. No matter how far they have strayed from God, unless they have been given up to irrationality, Romans 2 verses 14 and 15 make it abundantly clear that those who have never received the law of God in written form, they have not had the Bible honing their conscience. Nonetheless, they experience the function of conscience accusing them or excusing them because

8:58 the work of the law is yet manifested as written upon their hearts. Now in sinful man, this nature or this function, I'm sorry, of conscience creates a problem. Before the fall, the law written within man's heart, and the law revealed in the objective word of God without man, found perfect consistency and harmony. The bias of Adam and Eve's will was a bias of doing everything that was consistent

9:42 with the standard to which conscience looked in their own hearts. Now that standard, as originally written upon their hearts, was not consistent with the standard to which conscience looked in their own hearts. Now that standard is perfectly consistent with that devout conscience, but having a moralinas, responsible conscience to ange all of them . And then God revealed certain aspects of his will by His Word without they were commanded to dress the garden and to keep it. Adam was they were commanded

10:10 to be fruitful and multiply. They were commanded to subdue the earth. So when Adam and Eve looked to the law within them they saw accurately what they had been given by their own hearts . They saw accurately what the will of God was.

10:24 Moreover, there was a bias in the direction of delighting to do the will of God. So when conscience looked to the standard within, that standard was accurate. The bias of the heart towards that standard was positive. When they looked to the standard without, they saw accurately the will of God.

10:47 They had a bias, a predisposition to keep that law without. And so there was this beautiful harmony in the whole internal life of Adam and Eve in the presence of God and His revealed will. But now when sin entered, there were cataclysmic upheavals in the inner life of man. The entrance of sin affected the judgment.

11:17 The judgment, the bias of the heart and of the will, the bent of the affections, and, follow now, conscience was radically affected by the entrance of sin. Conscience was not annihilated. Conscience is still the moral monitor in fallen Adam and Eve. Conscience still looks to its understanding of the will of God, but since the fall, something has happened to the statute book within man's heart.

11:54 Certain lines have been blurred.

11:59 Others have been torn out. Pages have been ripped from the statute book to which conscience looks. Others have been inserted that were never put there by God. So that when conscience looks to the statute book to say, Is this man?

12:20 Guilty or not guilty with respect to this given act, he does not have an accurate statute book within his heart. Now some of the lines are accurate. And in terms of a number of differing factors of God's work in common grace in society, the measure to which people have come in contact with the Bible and many other things, that statute book may be more or less, but in sinful man it is never what it once was in unfallen man. So there's the problem.

13:01 When we contemplate a given act and we look to the standard, the standard does not accurately reflect all of the mind and will of God. Furthermore, we've got another problem. Instead of having a positive bias to read the statute book correctly, we've got a bias. We've got a bias to put on glasses that make us read it incorrectly.

13:25 For the Bible says this is the condemnation that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light. And though they see upon first glance what the statute book says, clever man puts on a set of glasses which makes its reading change before his very eyes. And so he rationalizes. Even though he knows that a certain contemplated act is wrong, he rationalizes, he excuses, and he won't listen to that which he ought to know from looking at the statute book.

14:04 And so the result is that the Bible speaks of sinful men who have defiled consciences, who have seared consciences, and the conscience is far from accurate and far from infallible in its judgments. And yet conscience still exists. And still excuses or accuses. Now in the marvelous process of bringing sinners into a state of grace, God does many amazing things, not the least of which is what he does in the area of conscience.

Conscience in Regeneration: A Cleared Statute Book and New Bias

14:44 And one of the first things he does when he's bringing a sinner into a state of grace is he begins to make the statute book. The statute book gets cleared up in terms of some of its indistinct characters and letters because by the law comes the knowledge of sin. And God begins to bring to bear upon sinners the consciousness that they have broken God's holy law. And he presses upon men the significance of his law.

15:20 Paul said, He had not known sin except the law said, Thou shalt not covet. And he began to understand the statute book. And when he did, proud religious Pharisee that he was, he began to see that his heart was a veritable sink of all forms of uncleanness and sin. And he knew himself to be a sinner in need of a savior.

15:48 And when God graciously regenerates a person not only does that person come to faith in Christ whose blood pacifies the accusing conscience, but God wonderfully does something called in the book of Ezekiel the implantation of a new heart. And he writes his law upon that heart. In other words, he gives man now a bias, a positive bias to know and to do the will of God. And he writes his law upon the heart.

16:23 That is, he does something effectually and powerfully in the heart of a man that brings him at least in principle back to that which man had in his integrity. A desire to be obedient to the statute book. A desire to understand it clearly. A desire to have the inner life and the outward revelation of the will of God meshing again as man the creature embraces as good, acceptable and perfect the will of God his creator and his redeemer.

17:01 And so the functions of conscience, you see, do not fundamentally change. Conscience is always the judge who looks to the statute book. But when God has brought us to himself in grace there is now a love for righteousness. John 3, he that does the truth continually comes to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God.

17:29 There is also this bias in the direction of the truth and a bias to a life of holiness. I delight to do thy will, yea, thy law is within my heart. Now why have I given all of that background? Well, for the simple reason if you do not understand that fundamental biblical concept, about the function of conscience, you are going to get hung up in all kinds of problems trying to keep a good conscience.

Necessity of Constant Conscience Education: Authority and Accuracy

17:56 You must understand the fundamental function of conscience is that of a judge who makes pronouncements as he looks to the statute book. And what he understands the statute book to say determines his judgment, guilty or not guilty. Now with that as a background, do you see in the first place the necessity of the constant education of conscience? You see this necessity rests upon two simple realities.

18:29 The authority of conscience even in a Christian is not ultimate and the judgment of the conscience even in a Christian is not automatically accurate. Do you have those two things? What lies behind the necessity of the constant education of our consciences if they would be good consciences? The fact first of all that its authority even in a Christian is not ultimate.

19:01 Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 4. The authority of conscience is not ultimate. It is not enough that my conscience clears me. There is an authority higher than conscience.

19:19 1 Corinthians 4 and verse 4. Perhaps we could back up to verse 3. But with me, it's a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of man's judgment. Yea, I do not judge my own self, for I know nothing against myself.

19:42 Now is Paul saying that he was sinlessly perfect? Not at all. This is the same man who wrote Romans 7, 14 to the end. This is the same man who records the struggle of every believer in his epistles.

19:58 But he's saying at the point that he wrote this letter he had a clear conscience with respect to his conduct and motives as a minister of the gospel. That's the setting. He said, I know nothing against myself. Now you Corinthians, you think you've got a real case on me.

20:17 You think you've got such a case that you can de-apostolize me. In other words, the Corinthians had come to the place where they no longer regarded Paul as an apostle. And therefore, no longer worthy of being their spiritual mentor and guide. You see, the false apostles knew they had to undermine the credibility of Paul the man and the apostle if they were to neutralize the influence of Paul the teacher.

20:47 And that's precisely what they did. By innuendo, by sheer slander, by twisting things, they undermined his credibility. And he was being judged of these Corinthians. And he says, frankly, that doesn't get me uptight.

21:09 He said, now in the midst of all these things I know nothing against myself. My conscience is clear. But now notice, yet am I not hereby justified but he that judges me is the Lord. Wherefore don't you judge anything before the time until the Lord come who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the hearts and then shall every man have his praise from God.

21:45 Do you see what Paul is saying? As he takes the place in his own conscience, of judge, who looks to the statute book, he said, my conscience comes back with a verdict, not guilty. My conscience is clear before God. As a minister, my motives and my message conform to the will of my heavenly commissioner, the Lord Jesus.

22:15 But he said, the authority of my conscience is not ultimate. There stands over and above it the authority of the living God himself who will judge me in the last day. Now the necessity for the constant education of conscience rests upon that first pillar. You see, it is not enough to be able to say at any given point, I know nothing against myself.

22:46 If the authority of your conscience were ultimate, then there'd be no need for further education. In a sense, ignorance would be bliss. Because the more you know of the will of God, the more possibility there is that you might discover some area in which you're not conformed to the will of God. If the statute book grows, there's more possibility that you may be found guilty on this point or that.

23:11 So Paul recognized that there was an authority that stood above and over his conscience, and that authority was God. And then flowing out of that in the second place, we must, we must see the necessity of its constant education not only because its authority is not ultimate, but its judgments, even in a Christian, are not automatically accurate. And here I ask you to turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 8. Its judgments, even in a Christian, are not automatically accurate.

Inaccurate Conscience Judgments: The Case of Meat Offered to Idols

23:45 And here in 1 Corinthians 8, we find two fundamental, inaccurate judgments of conscience. You had one group of people, that when conscience looked to the statute book, it said guilty, when it shouldn't have said guilty. And then you had another group, when conscience looked to its statute book, the verdict came back not guilty, and here they were guilty of a terrible sin, a sin that Paul calls sinning against Christ himself. So you had a case of somebody who was under guilt when he shouldn't have been, and somebody who felt innocent when he shouldn't have felt innocent.

24:26 Now look at the passage. The whole subject in view is this matter of eating meat that was offered unto idols. And in my background reading, and I think the men whom I've read are to be trusted in terms of their understanding of the customs of that day, apparently it was the practice that when a pagan worshipper came up to the pagan temple, among other things, he would bring his sacrifice. And once that sacrifice was slain, or the animal was brought for a sacrifice, a third was consumed in the offering process, a third was kept by the priest, and a third was kept by the worshipper

25:09 and taken home and eaten by him, or actually eaten in the temple as a feast unto the god, or the gods. This is referred to in chapter 10, the actual eating of the meat in the idol's temple. Now here was a person, try to think of his conscience, for years he was involved in this pagan worship in which he brought his sacrifice to the temple, gave it to the temple priest, the priest kept some, some was kept for himself, some was consumed, and then he noticed that there are times when the priest simply could not consume all of his portion, so the priest would make a buck on the side,

25:52 so he would have his portion sold as a bargain cut of meat. So Christians then many times were bargain hunters as they are today, so they'd go to the bargain meat counter where you could buy a good piece of meat at a cheap price that had been offered in the pagan idol temple. The priest's portion now ends up on the bargain meat counter. Now here's a man who for years, you see, has eaten that meat as part of that sacrifice in conjunction with the worship of the pagan god, so the thought of putting to his lips one cubic centimeter of that meat

26:36 fills him with a sense of guilt and dread. When his conscience looks to the standard, shall I eat the meat offered to idols, the statute book in his heart said, no, it is sin. Now that's the subject. Look at the passage.

26:54 Now concerning things sacrificed unto idols. That's the subject he's taking up. Now to help this poor fellow, he says, look, your conscience is sending back a false message. Your statute book is telling you it's sinful to eat that meat.

27:15 Now I want to instruct your conscience, Paul says. It is not sinful to eat that meat in itself for two simple reasons. Reason number one, verse four. Concerning the things therefore, I'm sorry, concerning therefore the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world and that there is no God but one.

27:43 And then he develops that thought. He said, now how can eating that meat be an act of sacrilege? It was offered to a nothing. So if it's been offered to a nothing, nothing's happened to it.

27:55 It's still a piece of meat. Piece of meat it was in the living animal. Piece of meat it was when it was slain. Piece of meat it was when it was offered to the idol.

28:05 Piece of meat it is out there in the bargain counter. So go home and enjoy it for what it is. Piece of meat. You see what he's doing?

28:15 He's educating the conscience of this poor fellow who thinks that because it was involved in that ritual, it is somehow not merely a piece of meat, but it's a piece of meat inextricably bound up with an idol. But he says an idol is nothing. There's only one God. So if it's been offered to a nothing, nothing's been added to it, it's still a piece of meat.

28:38 Then the second thing he tells them is in verse 8. But food will not commend us to God, neither if we eat it, are we the worse, nor if we eat, are we the better. He says that our relationship to God is not dependent on what we do or do not eat. Now you see what he's doing?

29:01 He's trying to educate the conscience of that sincere Christian. When that sincere Christian asks the question, shall I eat the meat offered to idols, what was the statute book saying? Don't eat. It is sin.

29:18 Now Paul says as long as you feel that way, don't eat. Because if it's sin to you and your conscience, don't violate your conscience. But I want to educate your conscience. I want to help you with your family budget.

29:31 No reason why you can't get some of that budget meat. So he gives them two pieces of knowledge. Idols are nothing. Meats do not commend us to God.

29:41 And by means of that knowledge, he seeks to educate the accusing conscience of this brother whose conscience should not be accusing him. But now there's a guy over here. Lo and behold, he knows those things. He knows that idols are nothing.

29:59 He knows that meat will not commend us to God. So what does he do? With no other consideration but the fact that he can eat that meat because an idol is nothing and foods do not commend us to God, he doesn't care where he eats it, in whose presence he eats it, even when he has his friend over whose conscience is still uninstructed, whose conscience still tells him eating that meat is sin. And in the presence of that very brother, he eats that meat and the brother seeing him follows his example and violates his own weak conscience and does what for him is sin.

30:42 So what does Paul do with this character? He starts educating his conscience. He says, look, when you eat your bargain meat in the presence of your weak brother for whom eating such meat is sin, you are sinning and yet your conscience doesn't condemn you. Your conscience is sending back a false message.

31:05 When your conscience sits as judge and says, statute book, is it all right for me to eat a piece of bargain meat bought on the bargain meat counter out behind the temple of the idol? Is it all right for me to eat that meat under any circumstances? You know what his conscience told him? A-OK.

31:26 All systems go. Eat it. And Paul goes after that man's conscience to instruct it and say, it's giving you leave to do what it ought not to give you leave to do. And notice how strong is his language.

31:45 Verse 10, For if a man see you who have knowledge, you know those two things, idols or nothing, meats do not commend us to God. If a man see you who have knowledge sitting at meat in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, if he's weak, be emboldened to eat things sacrificed to idols? For through your knowledge he that is weak perishes, the brother for whose sake Christ died and thus sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. He said, Mr. Knowledge Man,

32:29 Mr. Man full of knowledge, you're proud of the fact that you can eat that meat with a good conscience anywhere under any circumstances. I want to re-educate your conscience because the fact is, though your conscience does not condemn you, it ought to scream at you because you're destroying a brother and you're sinning against Christ. Now when the statute book says, destroying a brother and sinning against Christ, should conscience condemn?

33:02 You bet your boots it should. Now what is Paul doing in this chapter? He is educating the consciences of the people of God. Why does he need to do that?

33:15 Because the authority of conscience in a Christian is not ultimate. God is Lord over the conscience. And the ultimate authority for moral conduct and judgment rests with Almighty God Himself. And secondly, its judgments, even in a Christian, are not automatically accurate.

Goal and Standard of Conscience Education: The Written Word of God

33:43 And so the great goal then in the education of the conscience is this, so to educate it that it will never condemn me when it should not and that it will always accuse me when it should. That's the goal in educating the conscience, that it will never condemn me when it should not, but will always accuse me when it should. Well that brings us then to a very natural and burning question. Having seen the necessity of its constant education, what is the standard for that education?

34:25 What is the standard of its education? And here I want to speak in language that I trust the youngest child will understand. There is but one absolute unchangeable standard by which to educate our consciences, and that is the written word of the living God. The written word of the living God.

34:55 David could say in Psalm 119 in verse 105, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my pathway. And as you read that beautiful 119th Psalm, you are reading the sighs and the breathings of a soul that longs to have a conscience that is held captive by the word of God. He prays, O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes. Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.

35:36 And that great burning passion breaks out in a number of various petitions, but the bottom line is this. David, the man of God, longs to have as the standard by which his conscience is educated the word of God and the word of God alone. And 2 Timothy 3, 16 makes it abundantly clear that that's the great end among other things for which Scripture was given. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for teaching, for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction

36:18 in righteousness. Righteousness, what is conformable to God's standard of right and wrong? It is the Scriptures that are given, the God-breathed Scriptures are given to train us in righteousness. And that word, instruction in righteousness, means child training, the education in righteousness, which is the education of the conscience by the word of God.

36:48 And we must never allow anything else to bind our consciences. We must take our stand with Martin Luther. And I referred to that incident several weeks ago, but I want briefly to refer to it again in one of the few treatises on the subject of conscience. O'Halesby has written concerning that incident at the Reichstag at Worms, Luther took the first and decisive step in this regard.

37:17 When speaking before the ecclesiastical and secular authorities assembled there, he said, my conscience is bound in the word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything. Since it is unsafe and dangerous to act against conscience, here I stand, I can do no other work otherwise God help me. Amen.

37:49 O'Halesby goes on to say, he, Luther, restored conscience to its biblical place. We too must stand or fall by the convictions of our own conscience bound in the word of God. Luther had also restored the word of God to its proper place. We must live and teach to the word of God as we ourselves have become convinced of its truth through our own conscience, enlightened by that word, not permitting ourselves to be bound in our conscience by the opinions of others.

38:29 You see his point? Luther restored conscience and the word to their proper place in the life of the people of God. The word of God's supreme authority, and the conscience standing bound in that word. And oh, listen to me.

38:48 Listen. It is not enough for conscience to stand outside of it and point to that word saying it is authoritative in general or generically, but for my conscience to be bound in it. You see the difference? In one I can point and say as a good Protestant, I regard no conscience as Lord of my conscience.

39:16 I regard no councils, no bishops, no popes, no ecclesiastical structure as Lord of my conscience and point to the word of God and say it and it alone is Lord of the conscience. It is another thing to have my conscience personally bound up in that word so that every facet of my life to which this book addresses itself that is bound by the word of God. The one standard for the education of the conscience is to be the scriptures. Now that has some very practical applications.

Practical Applications of Conscience Education

40:00 Do you see why we seek to give the scriptures the place we do in our public worship? Why this constant comprehensive exposure to the whole word of God in our public worship? Why this sometimes teeming tedious plowing through various sections of the word of God that don't give you much of a thrill? Why this reading through sections that on the surface of things seem to hold very little in the way of edification?

40:33 I'll tell you why. Because the whole of the word is given to the church to bind its conscience. There must be this constant comprehensive exposure to the word of God in keeping a good conscience. Furthermore, do you see the place of applicatory preaching in keeping a good conscience?

40:59 The word of God is profitable for what? Not just for objective teaching. That's what some people love. Oh, I love to have the scriptures expound.

41:09 I love to have the word of God opened up. I love to be able to sit and think through the marvelous outline and contents of Ephesians and Colossians. But the problem is, they don't want that word worked to the conscience. And it's in application that the word is worked into the conscience.

41:37 If this is what the text says, this is what the text demands. And an aversion to applicatory preaching is an aversion to a holy life. And all the sophistry and smoke when it's blown away makes that evident. People who are hungry to be holy will pay a tremendous price to sit under an applicatory ministry.

42:10 You remember the story told at one period of Scottish church history where a group of boys who worked in the fields were so thirsty for a ministry that would work the word into their consciences and there was none to be had in their district. They would leave the fields on Saturday afternoon and walk all night. I forgot what the distance was. It was something like 40, 50 miles, singing psalms and hymns and sit under such a ministry all Lord's Day and then walk back Sunday night and show up in the fields Monday morning.

42:53 Why? Because they were determined to be holy young men and they knew they had to have a ministry that would continually bring the word of God home to the conscience. And some of you grow restive and resentful of that very ministry. You want to go to hell comfortably and some of us are determined that if you go to hell you're going to go there miserably.

43:25 And we're determined if you're content with any standard of Christian life that is beneath the standard of the word of God you will be miserable in this place. Why? Not because our reputation is at stake. The glory of Christ is at stake in the holiness of His people, in the purity of their walk, in the purity of their worship, in the fervency of their prayers, in their zeal to see His kingdom advanced.

44:02 And therefore, as long as God gives some of us breath and spiritual sanity and any spiritual vivacity, this pulpit will be a pulpit by close, fervent, applicatory preaching. Because it is in that way that your consciences are educated to the will of God. How thrilled I was this past week when someone called me and said one of the applications a couple of weeks ago I was using an illustration about how we must be dealt with even in the area of our thoughts and I talked about that whole matter

44:46 of getting angry with the way people drive here in the metropolitan area and I know at least two people said they got a good conscience now because before they ever go into their cars now they pray, now Lord, you know I'm going to blow my cork if somebody does some stupid thing. Lord, before I go out deal with me. Lord, give me grace. And there's two people who thank God that there was pointed, specific application because they now have a good conscience where before they didn't.

45:17 Now was I their friend in meddling around with something so personal as what you think and mutter in the privacy of your car driving in the metropolitan area? Ask those people who can pray with greater liberty now. To whom Christ is more precious ask them if I was their friend or if I was some kind of a relic left over from the age of Puritanism that ought to be buried with John Owen's bones somewhere in Bunhill Fields outside of London. Hmm?

Personal Self-Examination and Living in the Preceptive Word

45:53 No, no, dear people. If the standard of the education of conscience is the word of God there must be a constant comprehensive exposure to the word. There must be applicatory preaching. Thirdly, there must be personal self-examination Psalm 77 in verse 6 is a beautiful example of what I mean by personal self-examination.

46:20 Psalm 77 in verse 6. Listen to the statement of the Psalmist. I call to remembrance my song in the night. I commune with my own heart and my spirit makes diligent search.

46:41 You see the beautiful conjunction of a happy singing Christian who's engaged in earnest intense self-examination. There are those who tell us self-examination leads to nothing but morbidity. He says I call to remembrance in my present state of distress my song in the night. I call to remembrance the time when there was greater joy than there now is and in the night seasons like a man who would take a candle searching in every nook and cranny of the house for some possession.

47:20 He said my spirit makes a diligent search. I'm asking if the cause of the loss of my song in the night may be the violation of my conscience. And so his spirit made diligent search. No one can keep a good conscience under the standard of the word of God who does not take time for self-examination.

47:46 And for some of us the only time when we can have uninterrupted moments is the night seasons when we lie upon our beds and all is still. And then we let our minds reflect upon the patterns of our life. And then we think of what we've heard in the preaching and the reading of the word. What we've read in family worship and personal devotions.

48:11 And we are bringing our lives into contact with the word, with the prayer. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.

48:28 O'Hallisby, speaking to this very point, again let me give you this brief quote from him, says this, In general we can say that a believer's conscience will develop as far as its conscience is concerned in the same degree that the believer permits himself to be enlightened by the word of God concerning the will of God. The development of conscience is therefore conditioned fundamentally upon the believer living himself in the word of God, particularly, now listen, particularly that part of the word which deals with the will of God,

49:12 the preceptive parts of the will of God. The book of Proverbs, the sermon on the mount, the latter part of the epistles where the precepts come in concentrated doses in large chunks, the man, the woman who is determined to have a good conscience will not be long away from the preceptive parts of the word of God. You live in the book of Proverbs, a chapter a day for a year and oh how your conscience will be honed and you'll find yourself beginning to say things and one of those words of Solomon will come like an arrow

49:56 and the judge is looking at the statute book and the statute book has got a lot more written in it than it did before you started reading the book of Proverbs about the use of your tongue and about attitudes and perspectives on life. Oh dear people, may we be a people who are marked by consciences continually educated by the word of God and then in closing I'll just touch on this briefly. I need to say a word about the timing of its education. We've looked at the necessity for its constant education, the standard of its education.

Timing of Conscience Education: Avoid Accusation and Temptation

50:30 Now it's very vital that you learn a simple lesson about the timing of its education. You see, conscience should not always be sent to school under any circumstances. Unlike you kids, unless you're really sick and got a bad heart, a bad tummy ache and got the flu, you've got to go to school Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Too bad, but it's got to be.

50:51 But you don't send conscience to school any old time and under any old circumstances. Let me give you just two little warnings. Don't try to educate conscience when he's accusing you. When he's saying something to you, don't try to say something to him.

51:08 You just shut up and listen. Often people try to educate conscience when conscience is accusing. Take that man, you see. He got too close to his brother's piece of meat and it smelled so good and he began to salivate and he began to think how nice that piece of meat would taste.

51:25 Conscience was saying, don't. It's offered to idols. You're sinning. But what happened?

51:30 All of his salivating and smelling that nice meat suddenly got the best of him and he starts to try to educate his conscience while he's cutting his piece of steak. And he says, conscience, you shouldn't be condemning me. Look at my brother. He's given thanks to you for that food and everybody knows it.

51:47 And you don't try to educate your conscience when it's accusing you. You educate your conscience when you can say at any given point, I know nothing against myself. When conscience is quiet and not accusing, now he's in the learner's chair, teach him from the word of God. So don't try to teach him when he's accusing and secondly, don't try to teach him in the midst of enticement to sin.

52:15 Don't try to teach him in a situation of temptation because your remaining sin will put a bias in your judgment. It will blur what you read in the statute book. You young people, hammer out such issues as how much physical contact will I indulge in the relationship of courtship. Hammer it out before all your juices are flowing and before you're looking into it.

52:47 And the moonlight is filtering through the trees. Hammer it out from the word of God on your knees before God long before your heartstrings are all playing tricks on you. You start trying to educate your conscience about what's appropriate between a Christian couple prior to marriage when your heart is already gone and you're in for trouble. Don't educate your conscience in the midst of temptation.

53:20 Don't buy all the things in the monthly magazines on the new cars. Get your heart set idolatrously on that new car and then begin to ask yourself do I really need it and can I justify it when you've already made an idol of a certain model and you've already got all the reasons why you ought to have it. Don't educate your conscience in the midst of temptation. In the midst of temptation you're to watch, you're to pray, you're to cry to God, you're to cut off right hands, pluck out right eyes.

Conclusion: The Blessedness of a Good Conscience

53:58 That's not the time to educate your conscience. Well, dear people, do you want a good conscience? Do you want a good conscience? Then this third element must be present.

54:11 Not only must we determine not to violate its present dictates, we must learn immediately to silence its every accusation. But thirdly, we must continually educate its standard of judgment. May God help us that at any cost we with the Apostle Paul will say that we exercise ourselves to have always a conscience void of offense to God and to man. And it's a wonderful thing when you can say I know nothing against myself.

54:50 It's a blessed thing. It gives liberty in prayer. It gives joy. It gives boldness.

54:58 It gives certainty. Whereas the man or the woman who is constantly bowed down with a guilty and an accusing conscience is a pitiful creature. May the Lord have mercy upon any who are in that state this morning. Go to the one place where you can be remedied.

55:20 Go to Christ. Go to the blood of cleansing. And if there are ethical issues that need to be sorted out, determined to sort them out at any cost, at any price, no matter what the price may be of humbling yourself before your fellow men, of having to make right things that may publicly shame you, things that may keep you in debt for years, matters with the government, your income tax, whatever it is. Oh, may you know the blessedness of a good conscience.

Prayer

55:55 For in that blessedness alone can you know the greater blessedness of real communion with Jesus Christ. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you that you have given to us the Holy Scriptures, this blessed book which is indeed a lamp unto our feet and a light to our pathway. And we confess this morning that we do desire to have our consciences bound in the Word of God.

56:34 We want something more than an orthodox doctrine of conscience and its relationship to Scripture. Oh, Lord, we want that our whole inner life will feel the impress of your authoritative Word. We cry with David, Oh, that my ways were directed to keep your statutes. I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart.

57:06 Oh, God, write these things upon our hearts. Make us a people who walk before you and before one another with consciences void of offense. For those who sit amongst us who've never known a good conscience, because they've never owned its accusations and fled to Jesus Christ for cleansing, God, have gracious and merciful dealings with them and draw them to yourself before that awful day when conscience will come alive and when they hear the sentence, depart from me, ye cursed. Oh, God, arrest them

57:50 before that day and draw them to yourself. Hear our prayers and receive our thanks again for your holy Word through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.