The Diseases of Conscience, Part 1

Introduction: Perseverance and the Means of Grace

0:01 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, November 7th, 1982, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. In these, our present Lord's Day morning meditations in the scriptures, we are considering together some aspects of the teaching of the Word of God relative to the vital doctrine commonly called the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. Now that terminology is used to express the teaching of Holy Scripture that all true believers, and I must emphasize that it is all true believers,

0:47 most certainly shall and most assuredly must continue in the way of faith, holiness, and obedience if they would enter heaven at last. Jesus, summoned men to enter a narrow gate which would lead to a narrow way which alone would issue in life. And as surely as there is no entrance upon life if we miss the gate of true conversion, there is no entrance upon life if we do not walk the way of biblical perseverance. Now the teaching of the Bible is not,

1:32 that this entrance to heaven at the end of the way is grounded by merit upon our keeping in the way. Our perseverance is not the ground or the procuring cause of our entrance to heaven. Men enter heaven because they are justified and sanctified by the grace of God through the salvation that is in Christ Jesus. Rather, the teaching of the Bible is that all true believers continue in faith, holiness, and obedience

2:11 as the necessary evidence and confirmation that they are indeed partakers of grace. And so there's no contradiction between the words of Ephesians 2.8, for by grace you have been saved, and the words of Matthew 10.22, he that endures to the end.

2:33 And the same shall be saved. Now at this point in our study, we're considering the teaching of Scripture with respect to the means, the means ordained of God to keep his people in the way. Some of those means are found in the context of the corporate life of the people of God, the preaching of the word by proven, Christ-given shepherds of his people, the ministry of mutual exhortation, the ministry of reproof and correction, the ministry of baptism in the Lord's Supper.

3:12 All of these are means by which the people of God are enabled under the blessing of the Spirit to continue in the way. But then there are other means that are more individualized and personal. One of them is the constant guarding of the heart, Proverbs 4.23, and now the one that we are presently examining, the getting and the keeping of a good conscience before God.

The Essential Role of a Good Conscience

3:40 I remind you that according to 1 Timothy 1.18-20, the keeping of a good conscience is absolutely essential to perseverance. When men cast off a good conscience, it is only a matter of time before they will make shipwreck concerning, the faith. That's not the opinion of Albert N. Martin.

4:04 That's the language of the Holy Ghost in 1 Peter 1.18-20. Now, having examined a number of scriptures, which teach us how to get a good conscience, we are concerned now with how to keep a good conscience. And I've laid out three general directives for the keeping of a good conscience and this morning we begin to take up a fourth.

4:31 The first three already examined are, never violate its present dictates. If you would keep a good conscience, be persuaded that whatsoever is not of faith is sin, Romans 14, 23. Though the voice of conscience may be inaccurate, it is always authoritative and must be obeyed. Secondly, we must immediately silence its every accusation.

5:05 Silence it not by ignoring or despising its voice, by debating its judgment, drowning its voice, or trying to bribe its voice, but by eagerly listening to its voice, freely confessing the cause of its accusation, believingly to cling to the promise of God's pardon and forgiveness, and where necessary. It is necessary to make amends to our fellow human beings for wrongs done. And then thirdly, if we would keep a good conscience, we must continually educate its standard of judgment. The function of conscience is that of a judge, and the judge looks to the statute book

5:49 and makes a pronouncement on the basis of his understanding of statuary law. And so conscience must continually be...

5:59 educated by the only... absolute and final Authority, namely, God's speaking in the Holy Scriptures.

Directive Four: Recognizing and Treating Diseases of Conscience

6:08 Now then we come today to begin to open up the fourth Directive for the keeping of a good conscience, and it is this. We must learn to recognize and treat the common diseases of the conscience. We must learn to recognize and treat common diseases of the conscience. In other words, this morning I hope to give you some practical lessons in spiritual diagnosis and in the prescription of spiritual remedies.

6:46 Because of the reality of remaining sin in a believer, the reality of physical and psychological disorders and imbalances due to the presence of sin and this present condition of infirmity, there are common diseases of the soul and therefore of the conscience. And if we are to exercise ourselves to have a conscience void of offense to God and man, we must learn to recognize and to treat some of these common diseases of the conscience. Now when I grew up, there were certain common childhood diseases. You normally did not get

7:29 out of your pre-teen years without some personal acquaintance with mumps, measles, and chicken pox. And everyone who knew anything about childhood diseases knew something about mumps and measles and chicken pox. And I understand we've had a little mini-epidemic, I think, of the last of chicken pox. We've had some chicken pox recently among some of the children in the congregation.

7:57 Well, we're going to be dealing with the mumps, measles, and chicken pox of the consciences of God's people. Common disorders of the conscience. Disorders that have troubled the people of God as long as the people of God have been in existence. And if you would press on in the way of biblical perseverance with that companion of a good conscience, you might be able to just, to some degree, learn to recognize and properly treat these common diseases of conscience.

Disease One: The Excessively Scrupulous Conscience

8:33 We're going to take up just one disease this morning. It's the disease of an excessively scrupulous conscience. The disease of an excessively scrupulous conscience. Now the word scrupulous, in itself, simply means to give care to the poor. Tell you that.

8:51 cu entschex cu� give careful attention to what is right honest or proper we say about a certain person he's scrupulous in the handling of his money what do we mean well we mean he doesn't throw around dollars like rockefeller threw around dimes we're talking about a man who's very careful to keep very close accounts of how he handles his money and so we say he's very scrupulous in the handling of his money or we might say that man is scrupulous about his manners what do we mean he's very careful to say please when he ought to say please to say thank you when he ought to say thank you

9:32 to say excuse me pardon me and he knows the difference when he ought to say them he knows when to bow when to stand erect when to shake a hand when not to he's very scrupulous about his manners he's very careful he's very precise he's very upright with respect to his manners now someone might say though it would be very shocking perhaps in most cases of a certain youngster that he's very scrupulous about keeping his room neat now every mom and dad here would love to be able to say my son or daughter is scrupulous about keeping his room neat and once in a while you meet a neat nick who's that way but for the most part that's not true but you get an

10:16 idea what the word scrupulous means now a true believer in the law of law is a believer in the law of law a believer is scrupulous about keeping the law of god of obeying god of keeping his conscience sensitive to the law and will of god is revealed in the word of god and coming as it were to its echo in his own conscience but now we are dealing with this poor child of god who has an excessively scrupulous conscience in other words

Symptom 1: Distracting and Crippling Anxiety

10:51 he has a concern for what is right and honest and proper that goes beyond the standard of the word of god and rather than give you a technical definition i want to describe the symptoms and i want to give you three of the symptoms of the person suffering from the malady of an excessively scrupulous conscience symptom number one you will always be able to detect or almost always someone suffering from this malady because he will have

11:30 distracting and crippling anxiety concerning the precise form and motive of every action and word a distracting and crippling anxiety concerning the precise form and motive of every word and action a person afflicted with this disease is the kind of person who may be taking a walk on a lord's day afternoon out in a cornfield and it's fall and the corn has been harvested and

12:09 the stalks just stand in the rows and as he's walking along he just breaks off a corn stalk to have something in his hand as he walks along maybe to just rustle the leaves and to turn over a cloud of dirt but he's no longer no sooner broken off that corn stalk and walked for three feet when all of a sudden he says uh-oh did i steal a corn stalk that really doesn't belong to me that was planted by that farmer and i know in the patterns of the farms in this area that it's not going to be put to any use it eventually will be plowed under but it would give a certain degree of reproduction of certain nutrients

12:52 to the man's soil when it was turned under so in a sense i've robbed his soil and the poor fella has the rest of his walk tortured by whether or not he ought to find the farmhouse and tell the farmer that he stole a corn stalk and you say that's ridiculous nobody has that problem you don't think so the person who's afflicted with the malady of an excessively scrupulous conscience does let me use another illustration of how this malady will manifest itself in this pattern that i have described you see as a

13:30 distracting and crippling preoccupation with the precise form and motive of every action he seeks to be thoughtful and considerate of his wife perhaps she's ill and it's meant that she's not been able to carry her normal amount of workload and so when he comes home from work he says now dear you go lie down and he goes into the kitchen and he seeks to help that puts supper on the table and help with getting children to bed and when he goes to bed at night and have instead of having a sense of well-being that by the grace of god he's been able to minister to his wife you know what he does he lies upon his bed and he says now i came home

14:10 and i i helped my wife and she's thanked me and i'm grateful for that but i wonder if i really did it out of love to christ i wonder if i just did it so she'd say thank you to me i wonder if i just did it so the kids would think i was a good dad i really wonder if i did it out of sheer pure love to jesus christ and he drifts off to sleep not with joy but with an agitated spirit questioning the sincerity and the purity of his motive you see there is an excessive and a crippling preoccupation with the precise form and motive of every action

14:54 and of every deed he's like the man who goes out to plant his garden and he takes the package of seeds and he reads in the back and it says plant in early spring in finely in fine soil one each deep one inch deep and pack the earth lightly so he looks at the direction and he makes sure that where he's going to plant his row of seed that he either sifts the soil or works it through his hands to get it nice and fine and he plants the seed what he thinks is about an inch deep and he covers it over and pats it then he gets back in the house and he begins to be troubled

15:35 was it really fine enough did i really work out enough lumps and did i plant it exactly an inch deep i mean i guessed it was an inch but i didn't take a ruler and actually stick the ruler in and make sure it was an inch and and i did tap some of them a bit it might not be quite just lightly tapping the soil but semi firm and the poor fellows in such a tizzy you know what he does he goes out and he digs up the whole row of seed and he goes back over and he completely reworks all of that soil he says now i know it's really

16:15 fine soil it's really fine now and then he actually takes a ruler and where he plants every seed he lines it up with his eye exactly one inch drops his seed in covers it over and taps it and he goes back in the house do you think he's satisfied no he goes back through the whole process and the poor fellow never gets a crop of beans because he is so concerned about the precise form in which he planted the seed he won't let the poor seeds alone long enough to grow now that's a little picture of the dear child of god who's so anxious to please god and listen

16:59 so convinced that the law of god touches every detail of his life even the deepest springs of his motives that he becomes so preoccupied with examining the precise form and motive of every action and word that he is utterly crippled in walking the christian life he is like a runner so concerned about his form that every step in the race he stops looks down at his feet and sees if they're pointed exactly as a good runner's feet ought to be pointed if his hands are placed properly he

17:42 says okay everything's in shape now now we'll take oh you know by the time he takes five strides the race is over concern with his precise form but he doesn't just get on with it and again that's the picture of the poor child of god afflicted with a problem of an excessively scrupulous conscience that's the first symptom of the person who has this disease anyone afflicted this morning now there's a second symptom and it's this he will often have

Symptom 2: Reservations About Lawful Things

18:24 reservations of conscience about the lawfulness of things clearly not condemned by the word of god he will have reservations of conscience about the lawfulness of things clearly not condemned by the word of god you see for the person with this disease the law of god is not enough to regulate his conduct the precepts and principles of scripture are not complete enough to them he must add a detailed list of

19:09 do's and don'ts which go far beyond the scriptures now i am not talking about recognizing the legitimacy of voluntarily relinquishing many things that are lawful that's a healthy man who does that you but i'm talking about the man with a sick conscience who has reservations of conscience about the lawfulness of things clearly not condemned by the word of god though he perhaps would not go so far as those false teachers in first timothy who are described in this way

19:53 who through the hypocrisy of men that speak lies branded in their own consciences with a hot iron forbidding to marry and to abstain from meats which god created to be received with thanksgiving here are people they are not christians but it's a similar melody where they try to bind the consciences of people in areas where god does not bound their consciences these people bind their own it's not a matter that they say i recognize that they are not reflect what god has founded on them in terms of their volition and what god opens and

20:34 microscopes to move their hands to speak to those things their teachings and their practices etc at all at all at all at all it's a smart thing to do this sentence is artificial it's competing with the rules of it and the rules ofit melisandre there are również other composed of practices that opposite a significant limit of privilege but you decide the good science is like all woods temperature energy belly stuff and forbid to marry saying that the state of marriage brings a man into a less holy condition so people who have this affliction this problem of an excessively scrupulous conscience have reservations of conscience about the

21:19 lawfulness of things clearly not condemned in the Word of God and they place themselves under strictures that become a straitjacket to their own lives and there is little of joy and liberty and spontaneity in their experience when they come across a passage like Romans 14 17 they don't know what to do with it the passage in which Paul dealing with the matters of food and drink and how a Christian is to relate to these things says the kingdom of God is not

21:56 eating and drinking but righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Spirit they know so little of all kinds of rules and regulations that have become a self-imposed straitjacket of constant disturbance of conscience have I gone too far here or not far enough there of inward agitation they know much of the sadness of a conscience that is never at rest they know much but of righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost they know precious little they are afflicted with the malady of an excessively

22:39 scrupulous conscience Calvin with a little bit of humor describes such people as he observed them in his own day in his classic treatment of the subject of Christian liberty in the Institute's Calvin speaks of this whole matter of God and the world and the Christmas dinner at the discussion table matter of the christian's liberty from any kind of bondage to things that are not condemned by the word of god any kind of bondage to think he cannot partake of them if god has not forbidden them and he says these matters are more important than is commonly believed for when consciences

23:16 once ensnare themselves they enter a long and inextricable maze that's a thing you can't get out of you kids have those puzzle books where it shows a little place called home and then out here you have a start and you've got to make your way with the pencil and not cross any line and get in there that's an inextricable maze that's a big word to describe your little puzzle but that's what it is he says they enter a long and inextricable maze not easy to get out of it if a man begins to doubt whether he may use linen for sheets for shirts and handkerchiefs and napkins

23:55 he will afterward be uncertain about hemp in other words just rough stuff out of which you make rope finally doubt will even arise over towel for he will turn over in his mind whether he can sup without napkins or go without a handkerchief you see that's not necessary what does that add it doesn't cover anything it's just a little something to add a little color tie the tie and the suit together well isn't that being gaudy so what that it is I better take that

24:36 off and then what about my tie what does that and then the tide will come on you see Calvin says once you start down that road that you'll say well I can sup without napkins napkins or go without a handkerchief if any man should consider dainty or food unlawful in the end he'll not be at peace before God when he eats either black bread or common finished food usually he'll not be at peace before God when he eats either black bread or common food instead he will be at peace before God when he eats either paint or something useful or something common food, while it occurs to him he could sustain his body on even coarser foods. If he boggles at sweet wine, he will not with clear conscience drink even flat wine. And finally, he will not dare touch water if sweeter or cleaner than the other water. To sum it up,

25:19 he'll come to the point of considering it wrong to step upon a straw across his path, as the saying goes. You see, Calvin saw people with this malady in his day. This is a common affliction to the true people of God, the affliction of conscience that I'm calling an excessively scrupulous conscience. Symptom number one is this matter of a crippling preoccupation with the form and motive of every deed and word. Then there is this reservation

Symptom 3: Straining at Gnats and Swallowing Camels

25:55 of conscience. Conscience about the lawfulness of things clearly not condemned by the word of God. And the third symptom is this, a general tendency to strain at gnats and swallow camels. You say, what in the world do you mean by that? Well, turn to Matthew 23, and I'll answer your question. A general

26:17 tendency to strain at gnats and to swallow camels. Now, of course, our Lord is not dealing with Christians in this passage. But with Pharisees, hypocrites, unconverted children of hell. But the poor true Christian with an excessively scrupulous conscience has imbibed some of the principles by which Pharisees operate. Verse 23 of Matthew 23. Woe unto you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites! You tithe mint

26:50 and anise in common. Those were common spices. And if left undone, the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, these you ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone. You blind guides that strain out the gnat and swallow the camel.

27:10 Now, the Lord is using a very vigorous, and what we would say, a grotesque figure of speech. In those days, the wine was pressed in open vats. The wine, the grapes would be brought in from the fields, and people would tromp them in hollowed-out stone vats. And obviously, you know what happens in our day if you have a bowl of fruit and leave it out for a day or two. Where do those crazy little fruit gnats come from?

27:39 The little fruit, where do they come from? I don't know, but they're there. Before you know it, they're buzzing around the bananas and whatever's there in the fruit dish. Well, you can imagine what it was like when you're in the warm Palestinian climate and people are tromping on their grapes. You know, a few little winged creatures might get into the fresh wine.

27:58 So when it was put in the wineskin, they didn't have bottles as we have them – plastic or glass or otherwise. But they'd take the skin of a goat, and they would tie it off where the legs came out, and that goatskin became the bottle for the wine. So the new wine would be put into that fresh goat skin. And there it was kept and one of the things was opened as a spigot when someone wanted to draw off his wine. So when they noticed that they had gone out of the jar because they knew how fine this wine is, so they dug in and they bought a new pot.

28:23 And you can imagine the matter of having the wine in their hands, that's just like niewVoice. So non-interesting, but nothing would happen. So as we learn more of Jesus and Jesus and the Word, and Jesus reported, they knew how to make good wine as long as they endured Point Boys and Boys, but they never ceremony could be allowed to fear sin. as a spigot when someone wanted to draw off his wine.

28:28 Well, knowing that some of those little winged creatures might have gotten in when the wine was trampled out, it was not uncommon to take what we would call a piece of cheesecloth or muslin, and you would put it over the mouth of the vessel into which you were going to collect the wine and from which you're going to serve it. Now, here's the picture. Someone so concerned he won't have any gnats in his wine, so he's very carefully putting a strainer over the mouth of the vessel, and after he's carefully strained it and all the little dead winged creatures are cast aside and he knows that his wine is pure, non-nat infested wine, he sets the vessel by his side and while he's talking with his friends,

29:12 lo and behold, one of his camels,

29:16 if he could happen, he couldn't fit, but just as imagined, one of his camels gets in the cup and he reaches over picks up his cup and gulps down the camel. Now, that's what the passage says. You strain at the gnat and you swallow the camel. Now, obviously, no one could swallow a camel, but it's a figure of speech to get the point across.

29:44 Jesus said, you people become so preoccupied with this excessive application of the law with regard to tithes that even when you say, set aside a little bit of spice as you're sure to take a tenth of it and set it apart unto God and you spend so much time in all of these little details that even God has not required at your hand. It is noble to do it. These ought you to have done, yes, but you allow yourselves to be indifferent to the great demands of the law, which are what? Justice and mercy and mercy and mercy.

30:25 And you set aside a little bit of spice as you're sure to take a tenth of it and set it apart unto God, and you spend so much time in all of these little details that even God has not required at your hand, And faith, those are the great issues. And you've become so preoccupied with these lesser issues that you leave the greater undone. And the poor Christian who is afflicted with the malady of an excessively scrupulous conscience almost invariably ends up straining at gnats and swallowing camels. Let me give you a couple of specific illustrations.

30:58 The scripture tells us that the fulfilling of the law is to love our neighbor as ourself. But when you get in the presence of a person afflicted with this malady, he or she is usually so taken up with all of his or her problems of conscience and what about this and that, they completely dominate all of the conversation. Everyone's spiritual energies have to be bent in the direction of trying to sort out their problems with this little niggling thing and that little niggling thing. And what happens?

31:31 They become, without realizing it or purposing to be, they become the object of all of the attention. Please turn to side two for the second half of this message. They become the object of all of the attention. They become, as it were, the sponge that's continually sapping the strength.

31:56 and mental and spiritual energies of others. I know of an incident where someone so taken up with this kind of mentality wrote me a 90-page letter and expected me to answer it and to read it as though I had nothing to do but read and answer 90-page letters.

32:18 Now, that's an advanced case, granted, but nonetheless, it's true. It's true. It's true so that the person's heart is not free to be sensitive to the needs of others, to ask the question of others, how are things with you? Is there something I can do to help you?

32:37 The whole world is always revolving around the mint and the anise and the cumin and the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith are overlooked. Bridges, in his commentary on Psalm 119, has a very, very perceptive description of this malady and of this particular symptom of it. The exercises of this state of feeling are both endless and causeless. In the well-intentioned endeavor to guard against a devious track, the mind is constantly harassed with an over-anxious inquiry whether the right path is accurately discovered,

33:22 and thus it wants the pleasure and the progress of the divine to be discovered. The ways of the journey are materially hindered. This mentality renders the straight way more straight than God has made it. It retards the work of grace in the soul.

33:38 It is usually connected with self-righteousness. It savors of and tends to produce hard thoughts of God. It damps our cheerfulness in His service and unfits us for the duty of the present moment. And then he goes on to, draw out in even greater detail this symptom of the excessively scrupulous conscience, a tendency to strain at naps and swallow camels.

Why Some Don't Relate: The Seared Conscience

34:10 Now, do you know anything about that disease? Do you?

34:17 I venture to say there are some sitting here today who wonder if I've lost all my sanity even describing it. You say, what in the world is that preacher talking about? I've never had any such troubles.

34:32 You probably have not. And you know why? Because you're afflicted with a disease that is fatal. This disease is not fatal.

34:42 It is crippling.

34:45 It is troubling. But it's not fatal. But the reason some of you know nothing of what I'm speaking about and you've really wondered what in the world is he talking about is because you have what the Bible calls a seared conscience. It doesn't feel anything.

35:02 You have what the Bible calls a defiled conscience. It troubles you about little or nothing. You have what the Bible calls an evil conscience. And if you've never struggled with the symptoms of an overly scrupulous conscience, it is doubtful you've ever obtained a good conscience through the blood of Christ and by the renewal of the Holy Ghost.

35:29 For it's only those whose hearts have been renewed, who are determined to keep a good conscience before God at any cost, who are liable to contract the disease of an overly scrupulous conscience. But there are others of you who say, Pastor, you've described me this morning. I've got that symptom and I've got that one. Not so much of this one, but more of that one.

Divine Remedy Part 1: Cry for Good Judgment (Psalm 119:66)

35:58 What do I do with it? Well, in the time remaining, let me seek to set before you the divine remedy for this disease. Having described the malady in its symptoms, now let me seek to prescribe a remedy from the Word of God. And the first part of the remedy, the prescription, begins with crying to God in the language and spirit of Psalm 119 and verse 66.

36:30 Now, this is a very important part of the Bible. Now, this is a very important part of the Bible. Now, this is a very important part of the Bible. This is not the only place you will find this prayer.

36:34 You will find it again and again in Psalm 119. But this is one of those texts in which much that is repeated in the psalm comes to a very focused expression. Look at the prayer of the psalmist in Psalm 119.66.

36:53 And it's in commenting on this text that Bridges launches into this treatment of the over-scrupulous conscience. Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I have believed in thy commandments. He is asking God to teach him good judgment along with knowledge. You see, he does not want mere knowledge without the ability to make practical use of that knowledge in the outworking of a life of obedience.

37:28 As one who... Who has from the heart believed in the commandments of God, who believes in them not only in their objective validity as God's commandment, but in their subjective authority over him, he's praying, Lord, give me good judgment and knowledge.

37:49 I have believed in your commandments, but I need good judgment and knowledge to know precisely how the commandments should work out in my own experience. So that I may walk with a sensitive conscience, with a healthy conscience, with a conscience under the light of the word, but that I may be kept from the malady of an excessively scrupulous conscience, going beyond what God requires, mistaking what God requires, and coming under guilt for things for which I ought not to feel guilt, feeling myself pressured to do...

38:30 to do the duties which God has not laid upon me, which robbed me of my joy and of my peace. Child of God, cry to the heavenly physician to immunize you against the malady of an excessively scrupulous conscience. He's a good physician. Cry to him to do his work upon your conscience.

Divine Remedy Part 2: Rest in Philippians 3:13-16

38:54 Then the second part of the prescription is this. Rest in the great truth of Philippians 3, 13 to 16. And I don't often do anything that borders on personal testimony from the pulpit for the simple reason that I'm called to preach the word, but this text, I must confess, has been God's greatest immunizing principle in my own life because I speak as one who is constitutionally predisposed to this malady.

39:32 And I could tell you some things about it, about how predisposed I am and how powerfully I have come under the influence of this disease at times, standing in front of a refrigerator at night wondering, can I or can I not take a glass of milk and glorify God, paralyzed to know whether I could. And don't laugh. It was serious with me. Whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God.

40:02 I've had three squares today. Can I glorify God by taking that drink of milk? I'd like it, but it's not necessary for my sustenance. I'm not starved if I don't take it.

40:14 Is it sin or is it not? Simply to drink it because I'd like a drink of milk and standing in front of a refrigerator in the throes and in the paroxysms of this agony of conscience. Can I or can I not? Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

40:35 It's very real. Some of you, perhaps, can relate to that very personal incident, and I could multiply those many times over. This is the passage that God has used more than any other to help me in overcoming this malady. In this passage, you remember Paul acknowledges he's not yet reached perfection, but in the consciousness that he's not yet reached perfection, he's pressing to the goal.

41:03 Verse 13. Brethren, I do not count myself, yet to have laid hold, but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things that are before, I press toward the goal of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us, therefore, as many as are perfect or full-grown or mature, be thus minded, show the same attitude, fix your eye upon the goal, forget the things that are behind, be taken up with pressing on in positive acts of obedience to Jesus Christ,

41:48 pressing to the perfection that one day will be your attainment when you are glorified.

41:57 Let us, therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded, and, if in anything you are otherwise minded, this also, shall God reveal unto you. Only whereunto we have attained by the same rule let us walk. And I shall never forget when that passage came home to me the first time with any degree of understanding. It made plain to me that I did not need to be checking my step at every single stride in the race, wondering if I'm doing it just exactly the way it ought to be done.

42:37 With my eye fixed upon the goal, the prize, and with my eye fixed upon the Lord Jesus, and with the determination to run that race, God would, in the ordinary use of the means of grace, He would reveal to me if there was anything contrary to that honest intention of the heart. And I did not need to spend all of my time scrutinizing every deed as to its form and to its motive so that I, who was crippled in the race. And I say to some of you afflicted with this malady of an excessively scrupulous conscience, rest in the great truth

43:21 of this passage. It is the responsibility of your great shepherd to lead you in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. He's more concerned about seeing his image reflected in you than you are. And you can trust the great shepherd to lead you, to lead you in paths of righteousness.

43:42 And when you can say before God that you are not knowingly harboring any controversies with him, and you can pray, search me, O God, and know my heart, try me, and see if there be any wicked way in me, you need not then spend the rest of the waking hours of that day raking over every deed and every act. Fix your eye upon Christ. Fix your eye upon the goal. Run with patience.

44:10 The race that is set before you. Look him off unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of the faith, and in loving communion with him when you do or say or think or purpose that which grieves and quenches his spirit and is contrary to his word, this he'll reveal to you. And you'll learn to detect those smitings of conscience that come as the fulfillment of his own precious word. But then there's a third part to this.

Divine Remedy Part 3: Study God's Father Heart (Psalm 103)

44:41 It's the remedy. And it's this. Study the largeness and the tenderness of the Father heart of God. Study the largeness and the tenderness of the Father heart of God.

44:57 You remember Bridges said that one of the marks of the person who has an over-scrupulous conscience is he generally has hard thoughts of God? And that's true. You see, a God who, who would have his children continually bowed down with uncertainty and guilt and hesitancy. Are my motives exactly perfect?

45:22 Did I do it precisely right? Are the seeds exactly an inch deep? Was the soil fine enough? What kind of a heavenly Father is it that such a Christian has?

45:36 Well, such a person needs to meditate long and frequently upon the Lord God. The largeness and the tenderness of the Father heart of God. Psalm 103. Psalm 103.

45:50 After speaking of the forgiveness of God,

45:57 the removal of our sins, verses 10 through 12, then he points us to the largeness of the Father's heart. Like as a father pities his children, so the Lord, the Lord pities them that fear him. For he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust.

46:31 God's expectations of us take full recognition of what we are. Now, I am not suggesting that the standard of his holy law in the courtroom of heaven is adjusted to human frailty. It is not. And therefore, if we are to enter heaven, we must enter with a righteousness not our own.

46:55 What the old writers called an alien righteousness. A righteousness that meets the absolute perfection of the standard of God's law. And that is the righteousness which is ours in Christ.

47:10 And in no way would I say a thing that would cast the slightest shadow over that great grouping of divine truths. But here's another truth. He knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust.

47:25 Grace has implanted within us a longing to serve him like angels. There is no hesitancy in their obedience. There is no weariness. An angel sent this morning from the throne of God to the farthest part of the universe on an errand can go there and come back and not have a drop of sweat upon his brow.

47:50 Weeriness is unknown to the angels in their service. Distraction and dullness unknown to the angels. They have no bodily form in which to carry out that task though they may assume such a form for the purposes of God. Ordinarily, they are ministering spirits, the Bible says, sent forth to do service to the heirs of salvation.

48:19 But we do not serve God with an angel. We do not serve God with an angel's form. He knows our frame. And he knows our frame in his own incarnate Son who at noontime rested by a well being what?

48:38 Wearied with his journey. We have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Weariness, dullness, lethargy, these things that so often afflict us. The person we serve, the person with the excessively sensitive conscience, the excessively scrupulous conscience is continually coming under false guilt.

49:05 And he has a perception of God that God's demands and expectations are so far beyond anything that he can perform even by grace that he's nothing viewed in any light but a miserable wretch and a failure. And the thought that he actually could be pleased with God never enters his mind. And my dear friend, if you're struggling with that, I urge upon you to listen to the series of Sunday School lessons that Pastor Nichols brought some months ago on the biblical doctrine of good works because the Bible teaches that his children do please him. They do please him.

49:48 They do please him. Paul said in 1 Thessalonians, look at the passage so you just don't take my word for it. In 1 Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians 1.3-4.

49:58 Finally, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that as you received of us how you ought to walk and to please God even as you do walk that you abound more and more. Why, he told those people they were walking in a way that pleased God. That's right. Were they sinless?

50:20 No.

50:22 In the very next verses, he's warning them about fornication indicating that even Christians can fall in fornication. But he does say to them that I told you in time past how you ought to walk so as to please God even as you walk. Oh, study the largeness and the tenderness of the Father heart of God. Study it until you become convinced that as a father pities his children so the Lord pities those who fear him.

Divine Remedy Part 4 & 5: Liberty and Scripture's Authority

50:55 He knows our frame. And then the fourth part of the prescription is this. Study and appropriate your blood-bought liberty in Christ. Study and appropriate your blood-bought liberty in Christ.

51:15 Galatians 5.1 For freedom did Christ set you free. Be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage. And in the context, of course, he is speaking of the freedom that Christ has purchased.

51:30 From the mosaic framework of worship and ritual and all that was attached to it. For freedom did Christ set you free. Stand fast and don't be entangled in a yoke of bondage. Now it's possible for us never to think of going back to a mosaic yoke of bondage and taking up the ritual of the ceremonies and of the regulations that were, that were articulated in that framework and yet to set up one of our own that's just as full of detailed regulations for living that goes far beyond anything God requires of us.

52:14 Study and appropriate your blood-bought liberties in Christ. And then, if you would be kept from this disease or cured of it, constantly, constantly demand that your conscience speak to you with the word of scripture.

52:34 You see, the problem with the person who gets this disease is they begin to listen to conscience when conscience doesn't come speaking with a Bible in his hand. And once you begin to let conscience, conscience mouth off to you without a Bible in his hand, he gets very bold and he'll start barking orders left, right, and center. It's like a little kid in the house. Maybe just for fun you think you let him give orders for an hour.

53:01 Why, he'll get so drunk with the heady whine of running the household he'll want to start barking orders all day long and all week long. And you soon learn as a parent you've got to let him know there's one captain in the ship and he ain't it and she ain't it. Well, conscience is that way and the devil seizes upon that weakness and if you begin to let conscience speak according to a standard other than the word of God it waxes more and more bold to speak and the enemy of our soul seizes upon that and as it were pumps energy and boldness into such a conscience until it becomes paralyzing

53:43 and joyless, paralyzed Christians become the fruit of a conscience that is bound by this excessive scrupulosity and so constantly demand that conscience speak with a word of scripture. Psalm 119 in verse 105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my pathway and you must determine that the word will mark out your path and when a false conscience would try to speak demand of it that it speak to you in the name of the God of heaven who has spoken in his word and if it does not speak according to that word

Distinguish Feelings from Conscience

54:27 then you're not going to listen to its voice. And that brings me finally to the question of the word of God and the word of God and the word of God and the word of God and the word of God and the word of God and the last line of the ingredient for such a conscience learn to distinguish between your feelings and the voice of conscience. Learn to distinguish between your feelings and the voice of conscience. And what do I mean by that?

54:51 Well, let me illustrate. Here's a person born in an old-time Roman Catholic home. And from his infancy he has been taught every morning and every night to say the rosary. The kid says, the kid can't remember or the adult now when he or she did not have a string of beads in his hand every morning and every night and say so many Hail Marys and so many Our Fathers.

55:17 It's programmed into the very psyche and the very pattern of that person's life. So the conscience tells him every morning, every night I must go through the rosary. Conscience tells him and if he doesn't he feels tremendous accusations of conscience. Now God, in His mercy brings the gospel to this person.

55:39 And this person sees that all of the teaching that he's had all of his life to look to the church and the channels of grace through the church, all of that has no foundation in the Bible. That grace is stored up in Christ and Christ is freely offered to sinners. And that in the gospel the sinner in all of the nakedness of his need embraces the Savior in all the plenitude of His grace with no priest, no water, no wafer in between. It's the sinner who embraces Christ.

56:13 And under the preaching of the gospel this poor, deluded, sincere Roman Catholic is brought to joyous pardon and liberty and acceptance in Christ. Given perhaps an immediate sense of assurance and that acceptance the very next morning after a glorious night's sleep he wakes up and the first thing he does is to reach for his rosary. He's done it all his life. Now he has a problem.

56:40 He says, something tells me I ought to go through the rosary. Something is urging me. If I don't I'll feel funny. I'll feel uncomfortable.

56:50 I'll feel like I'm going out to work without my shoes on. But now he's got to make a distinction. Is that the voice of conscience speaking by the light of the gospel he's embraced? Or is that just a funny feeling because he's altering a pattern of behavior?

57:08 See the question? And he's got to learn to make that distinction. And though it is never right to violate your conscience it is your duty many times to walk over the belly of your feelings. And what he needs to do is take that string of beads out to the nearest trash bin and dump them.

57:36 Even though he may feel like it's an act of sacrilege his conscience enlightened by the word of God tells him it is not his duty to say the rosary. See the difference? I can remember being brought up borderline poor. I never felt it was that but it was.

57:57 And I have no regrets for that. I'm grateful for it. Never lacked for food. But what would be called now?

58:04 What's the term they would use? Underprivileged or something. Ah, some silly term. You could never get us to buy it.

58:12 But, uh, the whole idea of going out to eat at a restaurant. I don't think I ever ate in a restaurant until I was well into my probably late teens, early twenties. And then the first time someone took me to a restaurant and this was back in, oh, the early sixties and bought me at that time with something like a $12 steak. That would be like a, you know, $25 steak now.

58:41 I remember sitting there saying, can I eat this? Isn't this waste? I mean, how can I eat this? Can I with people starving around the world?

58:50 And this would buy so many tracks and send the gospel to so many. And I was going through agony over, can I eat this thing? And I was struggling, but I had begun to learn the principle of making a difference between my feelings and my conscience. And as I brought the word of God to bear upon my conscience, eat what is set before you, asking no question for conscience sake.

59:12 Obviously the conscience of the Christian brother who bought me the $12 steak, it didn't bother him to say, oh, I'm hungry. It didn't bother him to say, oh, I'm hungry. But now he's gonna spend his money in the eye of God in that way as an act of expression of love to me. And as I sorted out my duty, he has given us all things richly to enjoy, my conscience was settled that I could eat that steak without violating my Christian duty.

59:36 But I tell you, my feelings winced with every bite until I got halfway through.

59:45 Now, you see the difference between those two things. And you've got to learn that difference. you're going to be hung up again and again and again. You see, some people never come to any constancy in their prayer life because they're regulated not by their conscience but by their feelings.

60:06 When they feel like praying, they say, Oh, good, then it must please the Lord for me to pray because He's giving me the spirit of prayer. When they don't feel like praying, they feel no qualms of conscience about not praying. They haven't distinguished. Conscience ought to feel the pressure of the Word of God.

60:22 Men ought always to pray and not to faint even when they don't feel like it.

60:29 And so this distinction is vital. And I know I've opened up all kinds of questions, but I want to suggest that you better wrestle with that distinction unless you are determined to leave yourself vulnerable to this excessively scrupulous conscience which can only cripple you in your Christian walk. Oh, may the Lord take these thoughts from His Word and touch them. May the Lord touch the very deep springs of our walk as Christians and teach us how to walk before Him in a good conscience.

61:04 And if this morning you're one of those who's afflicted with this disease, go to Christ, the heavenly physician, and take these various ingredients of the prescription of His own Word and apply them in faith and know by the grace of God the liberty which is perfected. Let us pray together.

61:35 Our Father, we confess in Your presence that these matters are such delicate matters and we need so much the light and help of Your Spirit. For we know that You have made conscience to play such a vital part in our walk with You. We do not want knowingly to encourage dullness, and insensitivity of conscience. But, oh God, we long that Your children be delivered from the bondage and the crippling effects of an overly and excessively scrupulous conscience.

62:16 We pray for any who are afflicted with this spiritual disease that You will come this day and bring healing and deliverance that will result in their experience their experiencing a walk of greater joy and liberty in Christ and greater usefulness in His kingdom. For those, our Father, who have no problem in this area, whose consciences are dull and hard and seared, oh, may they be ashamed of their state and may they have no rest until, in Christ Jesus, they know what it is to have a good, healthy,

62:59 sensitive conscience by the workings of Your grace. Seal them the word to our hearts and help us in the outworking of these things as we seek to live to Your praise and press on in the way of faith, holiness, and obedience. Hear us as together we bring our plea before You. In Jesus' name, amen.