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HAVING A GOOD CONSCIENCE OCT/2021
Good morning saints,
My title for this mornings message is ‘having a good conscience And I get that title from;
1 Peter 3:21-22
21 There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him.
What exactly does it mean when Peter says; the answer of a good conscience toward God..?
Does this statement apply to all of us , are we also to have a good conscience toward God?
Before answering these questions, we should know what a conscience is.
The English word conscience translated in the bible comes from the Greek word, ‘soon I day sis’ which basically means ‘ being conscious or aware of right and wrong.
Modern dictionaries have the meaning as; an inner feeling or voice viewed as acting as a guide to the rightness or wrongness of ones behavior. Are those meanings difficult to understand. Repeat.
I think most of us have a pretty basic understanding of what the conscience is and what the conscience does. But I would like to look at our consciences from Gods point of view, a biblical understanding of the role our conscience plays in our everyday life and our spiritual walk with God.
So in this scripture I just read Peter tells us one of the results of water baptism is the answer of a good conscience toward God.
Have you ever related your water baptism to a good conscience towards God. That’s what Peter is telling us. Water baptism can produce a good conscience.
And I believe its important for all of us to have a good conscience toward God and man
Like paul says in..
Acts 24:16
16 This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men.
Paul strives to have a conscience without offense. He strives..so this is an issue in his life that is very important to him. He makes sure his conscience is clear always before man and God.
What does it mean to have a conscience without offense? And obviously we also Are supposed to have a conscience without offense.
But first of all, do all people have a conscience? ( I hope so )
Lets look at a situation that Jesus found Himself in..Jesus is confronted with a mob of pharisees and scribes who bring a woman to Him who was caught in adultery; so what does Jesus do?
John 8:7-9
7 So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” 8 And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 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, and the woman standing in the midst.
We all know the story, but look what happened to the mob, they were convicted by their consciences. I don’t know what Jesus wrote on the ground but it convicted the bystanders of sin. They were convicted, found guilty of having some sins in their lives. Because Jesus said” you without sin” cast the first stone. Their consciences convicted them of sin in their lives.
In this instance the bible reveals the purpose of the conscience, it is to let us know when we have sin in our life. This verse also lets us know that all people have a conscience, believers and unbelievers. But, is there a difference between the conscience of believers and the conscience of unbelievers?
We now know that the function of the conscience is to convict us of sin in our lives, and its pretty obvious that this knowing right and wrong is a gift from God. And because this gift from God helps us in our walk with God, our enemy the devil would love to silence our consciences so that we would continue in sin. We have the ability to ignore and to silence the voice of our conscience.
Look at;
1 Timothy 4:1-3
4 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron,
These people Paul is talking about have departed from the faith and have believed the lies of the devil. How is that possible? They silenced their consciences, Paul says they seared their consciences with a hot iron. Their consciences are covered by scars and are no longer functioning the way they were meant to.
This is a dangerous position to be in. a seared, silenced conscience leaves us vulnerable to receiving lies from the enemy. And it affects our faith toward God, and isn’t that exactly what the devil wants, he wants to destroy our faith?
He tempts us to ignore our conscience to our own peril.
Lets look at;
1 Corinthians 8 Paul sets the context of this whole chapter in verse 1 where he says;
8 Now concerning things offered to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.
The context of this chapter is food offered to idols, and knowledge.
He continues in verse 4;
4 Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one. 5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.
These idols are nothing to a mature Christian who has that knowledge.. We could eat food offered to an idol and not think twice about it. It means nothing. but Paul then goes on to say:
7 However, there is not in everyone that knowledge; for some, with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.
We see here that a new believer , and maybe some older believers, have a weak conscience because he doesn’t know any better, and if he goes against what his consciences is telling him there is dire consequences.
This is critical to know, if we go against our conscience, we defile our conscience. By ignoring our conscience we defile it, it becomes defiled. And Paul warns us against doing that.
Paul goes on in verse 8;
8 But food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse.
9 But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. 10 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?
But beware..that our actions are not a stumbling block to others who have a weak conscience. We need to set a righteous standard in our behavior for the sake of others.
Now we have a warning from Paul but also he shows us the consequence of our new brothers and sisters going against their cosciences in verse 11;
11 And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?
The weak brother perish? A conscience defiled. This shows how important a healthy conscience is in our spiritual growth. Perish is a strong word that emphasizes the need to pay attention to what he is saying. We could affect other peoples decisions by our actions. We could cause a person to against their own cosciences.
Again in verse 12; Paul goes on;
12 But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.
Wow. Okay, now he says if we cause our brethren to go against their conscience we sin, against Christ. And our behavior can cause a brother or sister to stumble. So I see God making it very clear that we need to heed what our consciences are telling us, and to never silence or ignore the voice of conscience inside of us.
But, also, be aware of our weaker brothers and sisters, so we don’t influence them to over ride their consciences. That’s a sin.
Conscience is a wonderful gift from God. Let us not squelch it.
So what happens if we get a guilty conscience? What does God want us to do? When Cindy gave her last message she brought up the story of David and Bathsheba, and the terrible fall that they had. Adultery and murder from a man after Gods own heart. When David had a chance to repent from the sin of adultery he silenced his conscience and descended into a whole new level. Murder, to cover the original sin. And again he silenced his conscience and went about marrying Bathsheba, as if he had done nothing wrong.
What did it take for God to awaken Davids conscience again, to bring it back to life? To make him aware of the seriousness of his actions.
God brought Nathan the prophet into the kings presence. And Nathan tells David how a rich man with many sheep took a sheep from a poor man who had only one sheep. David was furious.
2 Samuel 12:5-7
5 So David’s anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die! 6 And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity.”
7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man!
Davids conscience was activated and it led him to confess;
He said.
“I have sinned against the Lord.”
He has sinned against Bathsheba and he sinned against her husband, but ultimately, all sin is against God. Its personal.
He confessed his sin, with a broken heart.
God has given us this conscience out of love for us, to protect us from falling. There are serious consequences to committing sins and God wants to prevent us from straying from His holiness. David told Nathan that the rich man deserved to die, which was right, but God in His mercy spared Davids life, but their were still consequences to bear.
2 Samuel 12:10 God tells David..
10 Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’
Violence will now be a permanent part of his life and the life of his family. Serious consequences for serious sins.
There was also serious consequences for Bathsheba.
God said;
“the child who is born to you shall surely die.”
Look…
God has equipped us with many attributes to help us fight the good fight. Wisdom, faith, knowledge, power, Himself, and a conscience, to help us on our spiritual journey. My prayer is that we would listen to the voice of our consciences and repent of every conviction. Repent means to stop committing the offense, I change my mind. I will no longer do that.
Gods will is for us is to have a perfect conscience and the only way we can have that is if its under the control of the Holy Spirit.
2 Corinthians 1:12 Paul says…
12 For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you.
How did Paul know that he was living in simplicity and Godly sincerity by the grace of God? His conscience testified, his conscience confirmed that he was behaving in a godly way. I believe the Holy Spirit testified through his conscience and Paul was sensitive to the voice of his conscience because he knew it was the Holy Spirit talking through it.
And in this scripture Paul confirms the modern day meaning of conscience, an inner feeling or a voice telling us right and wrong. Our consciences testify. Our consciences communicate to us.
So here’s the key for us, we surrender our conscience to God and ask Him to fill our conscience with the Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit includes our consciences. The Holy Spirit makes sure that the function of the conscience is right with God keeping us right with God.
I should make it clear here that I am not talking about unknown sins that may be in our lives. I am talking about those sins that our conscience makes us aware of. Those sins we know of. If God has made us aware of a sin, we should confess and repent. Renounce that sin and stop the behavior, by His power, leaving it behind and move on. We should never go against or ignore the revelations from our consciences. This is a God given ability with a purpose.
1 Timothy 3:8-10
8 Likewise deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, 9 holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience. 10 But let these also first be tested; then let them serve as deacons, being found blameless.
Blameless.
To qualify as a deacon, according to this, one must hold fast the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience..
Which means being blameless..
If our conscience convicts us of sin don’t be like Adam and Eve who hid from God. Take ownership, own it. Confess, repent, and stop doing it. God has given us everything we need to live Godly lives. Where ever there is lack in us, He will supply. He will give us what we need.
To sum up. Our consciences can be weak or strong depending on the maturity of the believer. Conscience is based on knowledge. Our consciences are based on us knowing Jesus Christ. For christians our conscience is always based on the holiness of Jesus Christ. He is the ultimate expression of right and wrong. Jesus is the standard we base everything on.
Most of you know I have life before Christ and after Christ…before Christ my brother in law, Ted and I would go to a biker bar and party there. Then both Ted and I got saved and I quit going to that bar. Ted then became an elder at his church and there was a young man who got saved and Ted was his mentor.
One day Ted went to the biker bar for lunch, a steak sandwich and a beer. They made a really good steak sandwich. Teds conscience was clear.
but then, one day, when Ted was leaving the bar, he exited out the door, guess who was walking by at that exact moment. The young man he was mentoring.
Teds conscience immediately convicted him. He knew that this young man was going to be affected because of this situation.
Ted told me this story and said he learned a valuable lesson that day and I am sure he did the right thing after that.
-the point is our behavior can seriously affect others, it can cause others to stumble and even as Paul says, to perish!
-when our conscience speaks we need to listen..
Its like that still small voice that tells us when we are starting to stray..to the left or to the right. Our conscience is meant to help us stay the course. To keep us on the straight and narrow.
But, we need to recognize the voice of our conscience as distinct from the voice of our sinful nature because there is such a thing as false accusations that come from our own flesh or from the enemy. The false accusations are meant to tear us down. We need to recognize the voice of our own consciences, the voice of the devil the voice of our own flesh and the voice of God.
Its important to receive from God only, what He wants us to deal with. What He wants us to focus on.
2 Corinthians 4:1-2
4 Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
Repeat commending
Do you get that? Another persons conscience can judge us.
-the function of a conscience that is in tune with the Holy Spirit is to keep us from straying into darkness, to keep us right with God, and to help us in our daily walk. Thank you God for this wonderful gift.
AMEN
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