Man's Conscience

Well, take your Bibles if you would please and take a look first with me in Acts chapter 23 verse 1, and then if you do not have a handout, look around real quick and grab one. We'll be having a handout. You can raise your hand if you don't, real high, and one of our volunteers will get a handout to you right away. Acts 23 verse 1 is the first verse I'd like to take a look with, and this is my goal for you: to be able to have a clear conscience before God in all that you have said and done and served in His name this side of heaven. Acts 23 verse 1 says Paul looking intently at the council said, "Brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day."

What a wonderful way to be able to say to your friends or your adversaries, "I've lived my life with a perfectly good conscience." We're going to talk about what the conscience is in tonight's teaching. We've been going through a systematic theology series, Unit 4, on anthropology. Tonight's lesson is on man's conscience. The next lesson will be on man's will. The next lesson after that will be on man's original state, and then lesson 8 will be the next one. Tonight is lesson 5 on man's conscience.

If you like to take notes and follow along, point number 1 for the fill in the blank is this: conscience is an accompanying knowledge. The first fill in the blank is knowledge. Conscience is the knowing of our moral acts and states in connection with our holy Creator. This is a very good lesson and I'm thrilled to be able to teach it to you tonight.

A good friend of mine often called me K.C. Conquejo every time we went to Taco Bell because I would just love to get the chips and the queso. Right? Do you like the queso? Yeah, I say. So you follow my train of thought there. Well, that was kind of a funny pun. Con means "with" in the Latin term. So con meaning "with," and then conscience — science meaning "knowledge." And so con and science: conscience, knowledge with. What is this whole thing of conscience? The conscience is the "with knowledge," the accompanying knowledge that we have in regards to our moral makeup, what we know and that is imparted to us. Most importantly, the conscience is connected to our Creator. So our moral likeness is in likeness to our Creator. He created us. That's undeniable.

In lesson 7, we're going to be talking about man's original state in holiness and likeness to God. Adam and Eve's original state was in the state of holiness. Adam was created holy, and God's law is written on his heart at that point, as well as it is on our heart now.

Hold your place and turn to Romans chapter 7. I want you to see that not only is the law written on your heart, but it's holy. Romans chapter 7 in verse 12 — you're going to see that the law is holy. It's important for those of you who like to share the gospel to know that the law is holy. Sometimes we have a misunderstanding about the law of God. How do we use the law today? What good does it do for us? What does the Old Testament law do for us today? We'll look in Romans chapter 7 verse 12. It says, "So then the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good." Since the law is holy and we serve a holy God, it's descriptive of God's moral character and His standards. But now look up at verse 7.

Romans 7:7 says this: "What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be. On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through what? The law." The holy law helped Paul — perhaps before he was Paul, he was Saul — to know what sin was. And so the lost have God's law, His holy law, written on their hearts.

Turn to chapter 2 verse 15 in the book of Romans. This is important as we get this lesson started. Romans chapter 2 verse 15 — I want you to see that God's holy law is written on even the lost person's heart. It's written on their heart and the conscience bears witness to that. So Romans chapter 2 and verse 15: "In that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them." And so the conscience can accuse or defend depending upon how it's been programmed.

How many of you were on the UCF campus evangelizing when we were there? All right, some good hands going up. We had some great conversations. Just one in particular — I saw Caleb having a conversation with a Chinese man, a Buddhist. It was a wonderful conversation. He was so genuine in what he was saying. I wish you could have been there to overhear it. Well, as Caleb was talking with this gentleman for quite a long time, I thought I would go over there and see how the conversation was going. And he said some things that were very, very, very indicative of the fact that the law had violated his conscience. And his specific words to Caleb were, "You torture me on the inside."

And I thought, I've never heard that before. But he really meant it — the fact that what Caleb was saying was torturing him. "You do violence to me on the inside." He said, "My religion — we do not torture people. In my religion, we do not torture people. We don't violate people on the inside." And so as he was articulating what a convicted conscience was, I just couldn't help but sit back and say, "That's exactly what we're trying to do." And I said, "Hey, perhaps maybe you are associating Caleb and I with some aggressive Christians in the past or something like that, and they were a little bit too mean about it." And he said, "That guy right there!" And he pointed at Dr. Anthony. "He tortured me!"

And so when it comes to a guilty conscience, boy, I think that I saw it on display as best it could ever be there at UCF. And the Word will do the work. You need not be offensive in any area. You can relax when you're sharing the gospel. You can be confident in the Word of God, and you can let the Word of God do the work. And it will assault the conscience. It will make them feel guilty because God's law is written on their hearts. And it's amazing. We can do that together.

He has been made in the image of a holy Creator. He has the holy law written on his heart. And when you say things like, "You shall not murder," or "You shall not steal," or "You shall not lie," these types of things — the conscience bears witness to God's moral law. And that is the Word of God working on the inside. That is wonderful.

Ken mentioned to me just a few minutes ago that he saw a sign in front — or a gentleman that puts a sign in front of, or holds a sign in front of, an abortion clinic. And it says, "Babies are murdered here."

So my question to you is, what is that sign doing?

Babies are murdered here. What is it?

It's convicting the conscience. It's convicting the conscience. It's an appeal to God's moral law written on that pregnant lady's heart that murder is wrong. And obviously the goal in publicly preaching the gospel in front of an abortion clinic is that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God — that it would get to the heart and pierce the conscience, and you would get a turn away. It's what they call a turn away, as one is coming to abort their baby or murder their baby. Preaching the moral law creates conviction. And when they just can't stand it anymore and they fall under conviction, they turn away and they don't murder their baby. So that's the aim in publicly preaching or publicly proclaiming the Word of God, the holy moral law of God.

That's the reason why it's so important to include repentance in your gospel presentation. It's not just belief — it's repentance. You've got to repent. You've got to know what sin is. And so we're talking about the conscience tonight. It's a wonderful subject.

And the first Scripture verse on your handout is John chapter 8 verses 7 to 9. And I want you to listen really closely as to where the conscience kicks in for this illustration. "So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and He said to them, 'He who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone at her.' And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest, even to the last, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing in the midst."

Now this is the New King James version. Perhaps your translation doesn't have the phrase "convicted by their conscience," which is the NASB, which I normally have. I looked it up and discussed it with our fellow eldership. It's a variant reading which is trustworthy, to say that they were convicted in their conscience. By Jesus asking a pointed question, it convicted their conscience in the fact that they were not sinless. How could they condemn another? And that caused them to turn away and not do what they had intended to do.

By way of application, the question would be, "Where do we find the standard of morality?" You can answer that for me. The fill in the blank is: standard of morality. Where is the standard found?

The law? Okay, what else? How else could you say that?

The Word of God? Jesus? I love the Sunday school answer. Jesus always works here at Bula Baptist Church.

Yep, the moral law. Great job. Love it. The kids? All right, so point number 2.

Conscience is the moral judiciary of the soul. It is the power within us of judgment and command. In judgment, conscience excuses or accuses. I'll read that again. In judgment, conscience excuses or accuses the soul in relation to evil acts or states. Conscience thus discriminates between right and wrong. In command, conscience declares moral obligation to do what is right. It is an impulse that we ought to do what is right and ought not to do what is wrong. It claims on us a moral duty to be holy.

Did you get those fill in the blanks? Nope? All right, I'll read it again. Point number 2. Conscience is the moral judiciary of the soul. It is the power within us of judgment and command. In judgment — the first fill in the blank — conscience excuses or accuses the soul in relation to evil acts or states. Conscience thus discriminates between right and wrong. And then the next fill in the blank would be: in command, conscience declares moral obligation to do what is right.

Now in this, in Romans chapter 2 verse 15 — you see the reference verse underneath there — you're filling in the blank that the law was written on their heart. It's important for us to know this.

Now when an Israelite broke God's moral law in Old Testament times, before the offender was punished, the witnesses were required to testify. Now let's just say that this offense was a capital offense under death and he had to be stoned. So then according to Deuteronomy chapter 17 verse 6, the witnesses had to be the first to throw the stone.

Follow my train of thought here because this is very important in regards to the conscience. The witnesses had to be the first to throw the stones, and then when they started the stoning — the execution of the one deserving execution — then according to Deuteronomy chapter 17 verse 7, all the people had to join in.

Can you imagine that? All the people had to join in in the execution. This is Old Testament Israelite history, the Deuteronomic law.

Now put yourself in those shoes. If you were to make an accusation against a man, then in this law it could be the fact that you would have to throw the first stone — perhaps the stone that would cause the death of the man. If it was a heavy enough stone and you came down upon his head, you actually killed the man. So if you were going to be required by the Deuteronomic law to accuse — if you made an accusation, then you would be required to cast the first stone. I think we would watch our lips, wouldn't we? And we would verify and we would tremble before we just let words fly out. Words have meaning and you're affecting people's lives here.

But not only that, you see how this is pulling on your conscience here? Like, wow, I had better watch what I say and do because I'm required by the law to follow through with what I say and do. And not only that, all the people would have to participate in that. Do you see how this collectively brings the people together? And it is required of us as parents to teach our children what the law is because there are consequences. We live in a day when our American history and our American culture is removing consequences. Drugs are legal in Oregon.

So there are no consequences for dealing drugs. There are no consequences for doing drugs in Oregon.

When you remove the consequences, it lowers the state of the consciousness and so everything is working in reverse, right? But here it's interesting to see that God's Old Testament law, when followed through, really educated the conscience. It really activated the conscience. It worked for good consciences. It kept things clean and right. I just sit back and I say, "Wow."

Romans 7:7 says, "I would not have come to know sin except through the law," through the moral law. So when it comes to God's moral law — and by the way, I do say thank the Lord that we live now underneath God's grace in the New Testament era, and God and Jesus has fulfilled the law and now we live in New Testament days. Praise God for that. There was a time and a place for all that. All I'm saying is that now you see how that worked together for good even in the Old Testament times.

And when Jesus said this statement, "Let him throw the first stone," in John 8 verse 7, this is what the Israelites would have heard. So when you're filling in the blanks up in point number 1, when He said, "Let him throw the first stone," that's what they heard. And so all of this Old Testament rich heritage and law rose up within themselves because they had had their consciences trained, their minds trained. They knew this. And so Jesus was pulling on their conscience in that particular area.

And so all know that sin is sin because of the witness of their conscience. How foolish then to go against your conscience. And Martin Luther is the one who said that it is neither safe nor right to go against your conscience — when he was face to face with the Diet of Worms and he was being asked to recant all of his writings and to recant all of his missionary work and all of his preaching, or basically abandon Christ and Christ alone. He said, "I can't in good conscience do that." And just like we read in the book of Acts chapter 23, Paul said the same thing. So a good heart and a good conscience — they're sometimes synonymous terms — and they work together for good if it's informed well.

And so by way of application on point number 2, it says, "Do you listen and follow your conscience?" Listen and follow your conscience. This really takes some growing up inside of us as Christians to be able to know that you have rightly taught and informed yourself according to the Word of God and that your conscience is working for you, that you can trust your conscience, your convictions. You can trust those things and you walk. Obviously verify with the Word of God what you're thinking and what you're doing, what you're saying and how you're living. But nevertheless, the conscience on the inside — the more sensitive it is, the more rightly informed it is, the more you can trust it. If it is violated, then you know it on the inside.

It's more than like a — I don't know — I think of those old-fashioned days of the lottery when you would see on the news all those ping-pong balls on the inside going around and around and around, you know, all that chaos on the inside, and one ball would come up and they would get the number. I think of the inside of your heart and soul being like the inside of that machine where all those balls are just going around. And if the inside of you is all chaotic, well, your conscience going absolutely crazy is indicative of something that you are thinking or planning or doing that is against the holy law of God. And that's the indication to stop. That's the indication to halt. That's an indication to pray and wait. That's an indication like, I don't have peace about this.

One of my favorite verses on this matter is in Colossians chapter 3. And if you would turn there for just a quick side note as we go through this subject, Colossians chapter 3 gives us an indication that Jesus makes the decision for us. All we have to do is let the peace of God rule in our hearts.

Colossians chapter 3 verse 15 says, "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts." Let it rule. In other words, let it make the ruling.

So if you have a very hard decision to make, then I've got to say it like this: pray and proceed while you pay attention to your peace.

Pray to God and ask Him to work through your conscience so that you would know what the will of God is. Pray and then proceed slowly and pay attention to the peace, because if it's God's will, then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will rule in your hearts. And that ruling — that ability that God has to give peace upon your heart — will be the ruling. So He made the judgment call. He gave you the decision. He gave you the direction.

And then on the flip side, you can pray, "Lord, rob me of peace in this area. If it's not Your will, please make it loud and clear to me so that when I am entering into this area where I feel like I'm walking by faith and not by sight, help me to understand if it's not Your will. You and You alone can rob my peace." This is so true because even when we are called to do very difficult things, God can give you a peace that surpasses all understanding right here. Even though it's very difficult, you still have a peace about it and a confidence before the Lord. And sometimes even in the smallest of things, God can rob your peace if you're going in the wrong direction. And all of this works for you if you have a well-informed conscience, by the way.

All right. So do you listen and follow your conscience?

Point number 3 says conscience does not furnish the law by which it judges and commands. So the first fill in the blank is furnish. Conscience doesn't reason or produce the standard by which it judges and commands. Conscience simply bears witness to the law set before it.

Now, at this particular point, I'd like to just mention that the conscience does not originate information. Your conscience does not write or produce or speak new information. It is programmed information that you already know. It's what you know. Your conscience works off of what you know.

So then therefore, to continue in this sentence, the next sentence is: consciousness furnishes law; conscience pronounces judgment. This explains how men are bound to follow their conscience, and yet their consciences can differ so greatly.

All men have a duty — as the next fill in the blank is duty — to know God. To suppress this knowledge of God is to darken your conscience.

And so do you see how your conscience provides for you what you have brought into your heart in life? Whatever's been programmed in your life, that's what your conscience regurgitates. A professor in Bible college said it to me this way: "While you're taking the test, you can pray all you want, but God can't bring out what you haven't been faithful to put in."

So the conscience works in a very similar fashion. When you're witnessing, does not God have the ability to bring back to the forefront of your mind memorized Scripture and concepts in regards to furthering the gospel? And you walk away from the conversation saying, "Wow, I was overwhelmed with all of the information that just flooded to my mind, to the forefront of my mind. It came out of my lips. I was able to impart Christ and share all of these wonderful things." It's wonderful. And God has that ability to do that. The conscience simply furnishes what has been programmed.

Let me ask you a question. Do you think that our younger generation playing violent video games has any effect on their conscience?

Yes or no?

I have had some long conversations with folks that say no.

Let me ask you another question. Do you think that you would be better off if the majority of what you take into your ears and your eyes and your mind — what you dwell on — is godly information?

Yes.

Do you see how you are educating and formulating a life? See how important education is — a good Christian education. You see how important it is to educate yourself, to train yourself. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 4:7, "Train yourself for the purpose of godliness." And so this is training, indoctrinating.

We really need to be informing ourselves with the right information over and over and over again. And by the way, the Word of God is so wonderful that as you intake a lot of it, it washes away old nasty stuff. It's like water. It washes. It's wonderful. So the conscience is a really strong part of what God has given you and made for you, if it's informed correctly.

Romans 1:28 at the bottom of your fill in the blank page says this: "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do things which were not fitting." The application is: how do you inform your conscience?

Do you have a regular way of informing your conscience or informing your mind? Tell me. What's your practice?

Anybody got a regular practice? What is it? You read it? Okay. How do you regulate and form? Family devotions in the evening. Yay. All right. Yes, buddy?

Give him a round of applause. Isn't that a good answer? Good job, buddy.

How do you regularly inform your conscience? Anything else? Zeke? You listen to preaching on YouTube at work.

You listen to YouTube all the time at work, man. That is one great way to get — you listen to expositors?

Oh, yeah. Voddie, Steve. Good, faithful expositors. You can address this guy in the front here in a minute.

Listening to preaching is a phenomenal way. It's been said that if you would listen to a lot of even Grace to You — you're talking about MacArthur and stuff like that — you can get the equivalent of an associate's degree in just three or four years just by listening to good expositors exposit the Word of God. You're taking in that much valuable content, and it just builds and builds and builds a life from there. It's good.

All right. So listening to sermons, reading the Bible, family devotions — being connected to a local church. Being connected to a good local church.

Right on.

So you're informing your conscience and you're training your conscience by being connected to a local church. That's so true. It's God's design. Anything else?

Yep. All right. Those are all really good things. The opposite of this in Romans chapter 1 verse 28 is not informing your conscience, not living according to God's holy law, and then being given over to these things. It's amazing how the debased mind really is — they really believe what is wrong is right and what is right is wrong. In Isaiah chapter 5 and verse 20, the Bible says, "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil." And so there's a woe prescribed to those who would call that which is good evil. And there's a woe ascribed to those who call what is evil good. I think of the gender transformation surgeries that are going on today. Woe to those who are calling evil good. That's not a good thing — to violate that and to do that. It's terrible. They've seared their conscience, and you'll see that right here in point number 4.

Conscience can be misinformed, weak, wounded, defiled, and seared. And so the first fill in the blank is weak and then seared.

The callousing of conscience is part of sin's penalty experienced in this life. Now, Titus chapter 1 verses 15 to 16 says, "To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure, but even their mind and conscience are defiled."

So let's just park there for just a moment. So for one who has never been taking in the Word of God, never been doing family devotions, never listening to good, faithful Bible preaching, not a part of a good church — for one who has not been taking in the Word of God and informing their conscience, but yet has been taking in evil content — that's what their conscience knows and that's what is regurgitated. And that is how they would come to describe what is evil as actually good. See, it's a perverted, seared conscience. And they're actually thinking what they are doing is right. With all genuine and sincere motives, they believe — really with all of their heart — that what they are saying is right. A defiled conscience really acts this way. And one who has been perverted in their mind and heart is regurgitating antichrist information and living according to that. And so that is to the point where it's seared. It's so harsh and ugly to see.

1 Timothy chapter 4 verses 1 and 2 says, "Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times, some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron."

On the back — flip over if you would — 1 Corinthians chapter 8 verse 7 says, "However, there is not in everyone that knowledge, for some with conscience of the idol until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol, and their conscience being weak is defiled." And so a weak conscience is such that someone would not be able to eat meat, but yet those of us who are carnivores could say, "I don't care how it was slaughtered or who did the slaughtering — I can pray and eat without any guilty conscience." Others with a weaker conscience then would not be able to eat that meat that perhaps was sacrificed to an idol or by an idol maker or whatever, and their conscience would be feeling guilty about that. Now in good Christian conduct, we wouldn't smear that in their face and say, "Ah, my conscience is stronger than yours, I'm going to pray and eat." But in good Christian conduct, we would yield to the weaker person's conscience and say, "Well, let's pray and we'll just eat vegetables tonight." Ken's doing that a lot here lately, just eating vegetables — and they didn't do the body good, doing that once in a while.

And we do that. But a good conscience works for you, and a bad conscience works against you. With a weaker conscience, sometimes we need to recognize among the body of Christ someone who is weak in this area, and we need to yield to that and be encouraging in that area. So we need to be patiently working with others' weak consciences.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 8 on the back, underneath verses — number 4 — 1 Corinthians 8:9 to 12 says, "But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? But when you thus sin against the brethren and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ." And so it's a sin against the Lord if we do not understand where a person's weaker conscience is and cater towards that. It's a violation there, so we need to be very aware of that.

1 Timothy 1:19 says, "Having faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected concerning the faith, have suffered shipwreck."

So here's where a good conscience can keep you from shipwrecking your life. If you would be faithful to take in the Word of God, then the Holy Spirit can save you from a lot of trouble.

If you pay attention to your conscience and walk through life circumspectly — the King James says, or "carefully" other translations say — if you watch your life carefully, you take it slow and make right choices based upon your conscience and the Holy Spirit and what the Word says, then God can save you from a shipwrecked life. Many who live through the results of their sin only wish that they would have known this type of information earlier on. Many live through the consequences of their sin for the rest of their life. Some sin is stickier than others. Some sin is darker than others, and some sin has more consequences than others.

And today we live in a day when our devices — our cell phones, the internet, iPads, and all that kind of stuff — can take little youngsters off into the cesspools of sin so fast. And those violations of the conscience and those violations of the Holy Spirit — those things sear the conscience. They jump into sin so fast — adults, youth, young adults, even elderly — you can jump into such a deep, dark place so fast with social media, YouTube videos, stuff like that, and TikTok and all these things, that it would violate the conscience, and you could be in such a deep, dark place and do things you never, ever would have thought yourself capable of. And those sin repercussions sometimes last a lifetime.

You know, I think of divorce — how awful that is. God hates divorce. He doesn't hate the divorced. He hates divorce because of the ramifications of it, not only on the couple, but especially if there are kids involved. Isn't that terrible?

And so sin has ramifications, and sometimes you simply have to live through those and learn how to cope. You're not condemned if you've sinned.

But hey, a good conscience can save you from some really awful things in this world. I have been face to face with some things in the past that I really wanted to do, and I didn't — because of the Word of God, right? I knew a chapter and verse that saved me from doing something really stupid. And I look back — wow, 20 years ago I really wanted badly to do that. I'm so glad I didn't. And so those of you who have not done some things because of a good conscience or the Word of God can look back and say, "Thank you, Lord. By Your grace, I was saved from what could have been some terrible repercussions." And then on the flip side, I too, like you and others, can look back and say, "I wish I hadn't done that, because I'm still paying for it today." Right? It's amazing how that works. I wish I would have known then what I know now. And so it's really, really worth us taking our time, getting all of the Bible content that we can, being open, being here when the church doors are open, being in Bible study, studying the Bible yourselves, listening to good preaching, praying, taking it slow and making right choices, being content in Christ. It's really worth it, because the ramifications of sin — you just don't know how Satan can wreck and play havoc in your life, in your mind, in your heart, in your family. There's always others attached to you in your life.

So nevertheless, a good conscience works for you and it can keep you from being shipwrecked. In 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 19, "Having faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected concerning the faith, have suffered shipwreck." That's an important verse. 1 John chapter 3 verse 20 on the back: "For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things."

All right, back on the front. Point number 5.

Let's go to the application on point number 4. Point number 4 application says, "What results from a defiled conscience?"

Give me some specific results from a defiled conscience. What kind of results happen? Sin without guilt.

That's a good answer. You can sin without guilt. That's a really bad place to be — if you've defiled your conscience to the place where you can sin and sin and sin and you don't feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit. So that's a result of a defiled conscience. What other? Yes, Cindy.

A messy life. A messy life. Yes, Hannah? Not going to a church. Not going to a good church. That is a really great answer, Hannah. If your conscience is not fully engaged or you've defiled it, then you could be at a shallow or bad church and not even know it. Yes, Esther?

A messy heart. A messy heart. Oh, we got a really big answer from the smallest person in the house. Great job. Abigail? You're going to know where we're going to get. Okay. All right. Yes, Zeke?

A reprobate mind. A reprobate mind.

Yep, Stephanie. What about damaged relationships? Damaged relationships. Yep. That's a huge factor. That's a huge result.

Elizabeth?

I'm sorry?

Watching something bad. If your conscience is seared or defiled, you can watch something bad all the time and it doesn't bother you a bit.

Let's go with Michael. No, wait — no longer able to discern.

Lack of discernment, period. Yep. That's a result. That's for sure. Complete lack of discernment. If you don't have good discernment, that's a good enough answer for that particular one. Okay. One more. Abigail? Dusty Bibles. Dusty Bibles. I'm glad I took your hand. That's great.

Yeah. Those are all results from a defiled conscience. All right. Point number 5. God's holy Word and the Holy Spirit are the chief agents in rectifying our standards of judgment.

They renew our mind and enable our conscience.

I'll say that again. God's holy Word and the Holy Spirit are the chief agents in rectifying our standards of judgment. They renew our mind and enable our conscience to make absolutely right decisions. As we experience God's sanctifying power, our conscience is enabled to judge rightly and to command us to be conformed to His image.

Hebrews 9:14 says, "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" This is such an encouraging verse. When a person is saved, it's almost like hitting the conscience reset button. And when you are following the Lord in sanctification, you're purifying your conscience. And so your conscience can be revitalized. It can be rebuilt — better than a kidney can. Your conscience can truly be rebuilt and work well for you. And that is Romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2. You can really have a renewal of your mind.

In the application part of this, how can we participate in sanctification?

How can we participate in sanctification?

Now remember that salvation is monergistic. That action is done solely by God. Mono meaning one. But sanctification is synergistic. How can we with God and His means work toward sanctification? Sanctify them by the truth. Your Word is true. John 17:17, "Sanctify them in the truth. Thy word is truth." So sanctify them in the truth. Use the Word of God, the truth of God's Word, to sanctify them. So repetitiously going through God's Word. Yes? And the truth is Jesus. And the truth is Jesus. Amen.

How can you participate synergistically in sanctification with the Lord? Yes? Just exercise your faith. Make more and more choices. Exercise your faith. Yep. That's good.

Find out what the Bible's commands are and force yourself to do them by faith. All right. Very good. All right.

Number 6. A good conscience is to be treasured.

The conscience of a believer may have such right standards, and its decisions may be followed by such right action, that its voice becomes the very echo of God's voice. The renewed conscience thus takes up to itself and expresses the witness of the Holy Spirit.

And so again, those fill in the blanks are a good conscience and then right standards and right action.

That its voice becomes the very echo of God's voice. The renewed conscience thus takes up to itself and expresses the witness of the Holy Spirit.

So conscience — being both con, meaning "with," and science, meaning "knowledge" — the conscience is being with what God's moral precepts are. The conscience doesn't originate or come up with this information. It simply regurgitates. And so conscience is our inner thoughts as to who we are in relation to the world. It is the echo that we hear.

And most fathers, by way of illustration, become frustrated with their young sons because of their actions indicating a lack of consciousness. It's like, "Boy, didn't you have any wherewithal when you did that?" For example, why did you ride that electronic scooter into the pool? Maybe that's happened to you before and you've had to say to your son, "Why did you ride the electric scooter into the pool? Are you not conscious of the fact that water and electricity don't mix?" Right? So fathers are frustrated until their son is able to reflect on things and rightly correct their life. And now fathers can become frustrated in those areas, but a lot of times we are defused by the fact that we would look back on our own lives and see that we have also lived without being aware of our consciousness or having a good, informed, strong conscience.

And so in Psalm 78 verse 3 it says, "Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us — we will not conceal them from our children, but tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and His strength and His wondrous works that He has done."

Fathers — in Psalm 78 verse 5, "For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law" — that's important, so this law was established in Israel — "which He commanded to our fathers that they should teach them to their children."

So fathers often become frustrated when their children have a lack of awareness or consciousness. But here you see through tonight's lesson that the law — the law of God — is what informs the conscience. The Word of God informs the conscience, and it's the father's job to teach the law, to teach the Word of God to their children, so that they can have a strong conscience. And it's his job to work with them and raise them up in the admonition of the Lord. And so therefore, fathers, teach your sons and your daughters God's law, and inform and furnish your children with a strong conscience. This is going to enable them to avoid shipwrecking their life to the best that you possibly can. This is going to equip them to be able to make right decisions at the point to which they need their conscience to be working for them, because we as parents — as much as we want to be there for our children in every situation and scenario — know that we can't. And so the best thing that parents can do for their children is to teach them God's Word and allow them to have a strong conscience. Enable them to do that, inform it, and test it, and work with them in those areas.

So Romans chapter 9 and verse 1 says, "I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit." Here you see a strong conscience is bearing witness.

Application here is, "How are we blessed by a good conscience?"

And so I would ask you, have you been blessed in the past by a good, strong conscience in any areas?

How have you been blessed by a conscience working for you?

Any thoughts that come to mind? Yes, sir? You sleep well at night. Oh, you sleep well. You've lived according to God's law and that gives you a clean conscience and your right to sleep. That's great.

We have joy. You've lived according to the Lord and the conscience is clear and you have joy. That's great. Abigail?

That is a huge blessing — to want to do what your parents have told you to do. That is great.

It is a curse to not want to be obedient to your parents, but it's a blessing. You're so absolutely right.

Any other thoughts on that?

You have another one?

Reading the Bible. Reading the Bible. Amen. Good job, Esther. In the Bible. Another one. Yes? You can show others the goodness of God by being blessed with your conscience. You can show others. Exactly. You're an example.

Your conscience is working for you. It's a blessing and you can show others exactly where that comes from. That is great. You know, Voddie Baucham said at one point — I forget who he was addressing — but obviously lost people are just finding online an echo chamber to regurgitate what they want to hear. And so their bad state gets worse and worse because they're just simply hearing the negative information and it is verifying what they want to hear, living in an echo chamber. And so the good conscience, however, is verifying what is good and what is right and what is holy. That's wonderful.

All right. There at the bottom is 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 2, which says, "But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's Word, but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God." 2 Corinthians 4:2. By way of application, the Bible says, "Addressing men's conscience is witnessing." Addressing men's conscience is witnessing.

What would be the fill in the blank for number 7 of your points?

The blanks for number 7 — "Man's conscience is the best witness" — I skipped that, sorry — "to man of a personal God who made us in His holy image."

So I'll go up one step to the application of point number 6, "How are we blessed by a good conscience?" And then number 7 fill in the blanks: "Man's conscience is the best witness to man of a personal God who made us in His holy image."

When you're witnessing, you're simply aiming at the conscience, aiming at the heart. You want to use God's law to be able to expose that they have sin and they are in need of a Savior. And if you are aiming at their conscience, then their conviction oftentimes will show it when they comprehend it. And that's a good thing. And so let the bad news violate their conscience. That's a good thing, because God's moral law is working for them. And then as soon as you give them bad news, what do you give them?

The good news, which is that Christ died for you. He died for you in your place. The sin that you have committed comes with a consequence, and that consequence is eternal separation in hell forever. But you don't have to endure those consequences. For those who would repent and believe, Christ died on the cross for you. So repent of your sin and believe in the sacrificial death and burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. So after you give them the law and their conscience is internally tormented or violated or agonized — they feel sorrowful — that's what the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 7:10: "Godly sorrow leads unto repentance, unto salvation." That's the process. That's what you want to follow through. And as you give them the bad news first and then the good news, you've shared with them the great gospel.

Let's pray together. Father, thank You for tonight's lesson on the conscience. Help us to continue to learn in life-fashioned ways what it is to be able to build up a really good conscience, to lead our lives, to allow You by the power of Your Holy Spirit to convict us when we go wrong. Lord, I pray that You would help us not only to walk circumspectly and closely to You, but also, dear Jesus, help us to watch what we dwell upon and allow You to dwell in our hearts richly, as the Bible says in Colossians chapter 3. I pray, Father, that You would not only allow us and help us, Lord, to dwell richly upon You in our hearts, but also in our minds — and watch what we say. Help us to watch what we watch and look at. Dear Jesus, I pray that You would help us to develop a good conscience in these areas so that we would truly be able to please You in all respects. Lord, we ask this in Jesus' name, and everyone said, "Amen."