Listening to Your Conscience

Listening to Your Conscience

Romans 14:5-9, 22-23

Introduction

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Catch- "Always let your conscience be your guide." - Jiminy Cricket

Such a powerful phrase from such a tiny creature

One wise old writer said that conscience is either the greatest friend or the greatest enemy in the world.

How would you describe a conscience?

We often think of ’conscientious objectors’ who refused to fight at a time of war. In short, conscience feels like the stuff of exceptional cases

We hear that little voice in our heads that tells us what we should or should not do… and it berates us when we fail, accusing us

IN his children’s book That little voice in your head

Andy Naselli describes it as that little voice in your head that tells you whether something is right or wrong…. the thoughts that say things like “that is Good” and “that is bad”. It seems like something inside your is telling you what is right and wrong.

Or instead a cute little cricket you picture a fight between angel and devil sitting on our shoulders, telling you the good thing to do vs giving into sin

And I’m going to show you that God wants you to largely folly Jiminy’s advice… you need to always listen to your conscience

However, your conscience is not the voice of God

It can sometimes align with it, but often our conscinces disagree

What is wrong with each of these views?

Alisha’s friends from the church twenties’ and thirties’ group were going for supper in the pub one Tuesday night. They invited Alisha, who replied, ‘That’s really kind of you. But I don’t think I should come.’ When asked why, she said, ‘Well, before I was a Christian, I often used to go to the pub and I usually drank too much, and sometimes I did things afterwards that I now bitterly regret. It doesn’t feel right to go. Sorry.’ ‘Oh, come on!’ they said, ‘Don’t be a spoilsport. We’re not going to drink too much. Why don’t you come and join us?’

Michelle was willing to be in an immoral relationship with her boyfriend because she didn’t believe God made her to be alone and she felt ok doing whatever it took to keep him

her conscience was wrong

Or Jimmy, who heard about the financial needs of his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and felt justified disdain because he had worked his way out of financial problems m by himself and so should they!

His conscience was wrong

Or Almanzo, whose mother always told him that waste was sinful and so he felt horribly guilty wasting one drop of egg nog.

Such an overburden on his heart

Many will tell you to just silence your conscience or will tell you that you define your conscience so whatever you feel is what you should do

But God tells there is only one way to have your conscience be right

You must follow Jesus Christ who alone can cleanse your conscience

Review of the book

We are jumping into Romans 14, so we need to know where we are in the book

Romans 1-11 is all about what God has done

It is the gospel, to good news that on our own, humans are condemned before a holy God because Romans 3 says we all sin

but we don’t just sin, we are slaves to sin and get paid in death (rom 6)

but God sent his son to die in sinner’s place

By trusting him, we can be saved

Romans 12 then begins therefore, by the mercies of God

Because of everything God has done for us

Present your bodies as a living sacrifice

And this sacrifice is acceptable to God something also stated in

Romans 14:18 NASB95

18 For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.

So your proper use of your conscience is like a smell of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies to God… it pleases Him

& let me try to give you why the bible says you should listen to that little voice

4 reasons you should listen to YOUR conscience

1) Your conscience is a gift from God, so appreciate it (Rom 1-13)

Explanation

The word conscience is not in ch 14 but it is found throughout the book

Read Romans 2:15

Romans 2:15 NASB95

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,

Paul is trying to show that everyone under God’s judgment in chs 1-2… the Jews know the law written on stone and papyrus

But the gentiles all know God’s law written on their hearts.

Read Romans 2:14

Romans 2:14 NASB95

14 For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves,

How does he say they “do” the law?

Instinct means naturally

This knowledge of right and wrong is a clearly showing they have the law so that

Romans 2:15-16

Romans 2:15–16 NASB95

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, 16 on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.

So their conscience will bear witness to accuse or excuse them

So the conscience is an all seeing eye witness that can give accurate testimony

You put these two together, we understand the conscience is a gift that leads every person to a knowledge of God

It is interesting, isn’t it, that a conscience feels like a separate voice speaking to us

No one knows exactly why and scripture isn’t clear

But it appears from these texts that this sense of right and wrong is part of being made in the image of God we all have a bit of God’s law written on our hearts

we all have a bit of God’s law written on our hearts

But while each human is made in the image of God, our sin has warped us

we are no longer like a bathroom mirror, giving an accurate image so that we know what to touch up

instead, we’ve become fun house mirrors, taking God and His moral standards and warping them… making some parts look bigger and others smaller than they should.

The benefits of conscience (Rom 9:1)

Paul goes on to talk about the benefits of conscience in

Romans 9:1 NASB95

1 I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit,

His conscience backs up that he is not trying to lie

When the accusation was made that Paul did not care about the Jews because he was the apostle to the gentile he could say, my conscience is clean, I really do care about my fellow jews

Someone else said that a good conscience makes everything taste sweeter. With a good conscience we can enjoy not just the stuff we think of as ‘spiritual’, but all sorts of things like sleep, sport, friendship and holidays

Putting this all together we try to define the conscience as

The God designed guide, monitor, witness, and judge of what you believe is right or wrong