Calibrating Your Conscience

How else would a conscience be able to understand that taking files from a bank’s computer is the same as stealing someone’s money in the first century?

So you need God’s word to stabilize your from wrong change.

Review of the series

The past two weeks we’ve looked at Romans 14

2 keys truths

Your conscience is a gift from God that you should listen to. If it tells you no, then don’t do it, because what it tells you is what you believe God wants

our consciences do not always agree

Paul calls us to not despise or judge those who are different from us

& we shouldn’t just ask if my conscience says this is ok… we should also ask what would love do.Because while your conscience may be free to

Because while your conscience may be free to drink alcohol or , but if you know that your actions are going to tempt someone else to be temptedlove would dictate you

love would dictate you give up what is yours for the sake of them

Prop: Show you that you must calibrate your conscience to God’s word or it will be calibrated to others

Body of sermon

Why should you calibrate your conscience according to Paul’s instruction? (Romans 14:5, 17)

Explanation

The mind must be convinced (v5)

In verse 5 Paul made the most fascinating statement to resolve conflict between two groups

Romans 14:5 NASB95

5 One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind.

He doesn’t tell them to relax or stop making a big deal about things that don’t matter

He tells them your minds need to be filled with truth to make your own decisions

We talked about how the conscience is the caboose on the train the gives the warning so the mind is the mind is the train engine pulling the conscience along

so the mind is the mind is the train engine pulling the conscience along

Other passages make this clear

Romans 12:2 - Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Hebrews 5:14- But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

He encourages them to have stronger convictions, not weaker ones

To use their reasoning mind to each come their own convictions and to be sure of it.

The kingdom must be the focus of our mind (v17)

Romans 14:17 NASB95

17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Then in verse 17 he lays out a strong theological case for why we should control our consciences

The kingdom of God, which every Christian is a citizen, is not about foods… it doesn’t matter what you eat or the days your worship

The gospel is the good news that a Christian is set free from the command of sin and Satan

Not by our works done in righteousness but his mercy

You are then free from sins’s control and are now a servant of Jesus Christ

What matters is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Righteousness here is right living commanded to those who have said they follow Christ… obeying the law of Christ which is found throughout the New Testament, not the OT laws

Peace should reign between believers, even when we disagree

And this is for our joy!

God doesn’t want us discouraged and asthetics who say everything earthly is bad like the false teachers who forbid marriage

Instead, he wants believers to enjoy their freedom

“Eat anything that is sold in the meat market, without asking questions for conscience’ sake” (1 Cor. 10:25)

But sacrificing for others will reveal a joy found in Christ that far exceeds getting what anyone wants

Illustration

The command is to calibrate your conscience by your mind

Because have you ever noticed taken a GPS in your car and seen the MPH listed there and then noticed that your car was a few miles slower

I always thought something was wrong with my phone, then I learned that some car manufacturers purposely calibrate your car speedometer a little lower

But you can’t just base on what everyone else is going… the cop will not take everyone else is doing it as an excuse

We have to move our consciences to be better in line with God’s word

Application

This is the challenge to believe… that by giving up what you want and shifting your conscience to follow Christ, you will actually experience greater joy

Instead of the lie that says I will only be happy if I have what I want

Or I was born this way… I’ve lived this way for decades, there is no way to change

We must believe that we can morph our conscious to be more like our Jesus Christ

Trans: Ok, you say… but how do I do that? It is one thing to be told to ride a horse, it is another to have someone stand in front of you and show you how… Acts 10 gives us the example in Peter’s life

How do you calibrate your conscience by Peter’s example? (Acts 10:9-43)

Calibrate your conscience by God’s word (9-15)

Explanation- There is no way I can explain everything in this passage, but I’ll highlight what is happening in his life in regards to conscience (so don’t expect me to explain visions)

Background

This is early in the church’s history as ch 8 begins the spread of Christians beyond Jerusalem and Israel

Ch 9 had the conversion of the Paul, who will be the Apostle to the gentiles

But the church is still very jewish at this point

And in chapter 10 we meet Roman centurion named Cornelius who always worshiped Yahweh, but had not yet heard about Jesus

Trans: And thus begins the difficulty for the Apostle peter as he began to

9-14- Recognize the source of conscience

Peter rests from his ministry journey and as he waits for his meal he falls into a trance

In this trance he sees a sheet with all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds and he the command to satisfy his hunger by eating these animals

His response as a good Jew saying, no way… this must be a test… I’ve will not eat anything unclean

In Lev 11 God gave a long list of clean and unclean animals that they could eat

Turn to Lev 20:25-26 to see why

Leviticus 20:25–26 “‘You are therefore to make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean; and you shall not make yourselves detestable by animal or by bird or by anything that creeps on the ground, which I have separated for you as unclean. ‘Thus you are to be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy; and I have set you apart from the peoples to be Mine.”

To separate you from the peoples

Israel was supposed to be sperate from the gentile nations and restrictions of food would keep certain social interactions to a minimum

Acts 10:28 “And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean.”

Acts 11:2–3 “And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those who were circumcised took issue with him, saying, “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.””

Peter had kept a kosher diet his whole life as he had tried to be obedient to God

Therefore, Peter’s conscience afflicted him at this instruction… how could he change

Trans: and so the voice came again, instructing him to

15- Listen to the voice of God

The second time the voice gave him the reason

God has declared these foods clean

So they cannot be common

The Jews called things common which they considered inappropriate contact with the ordinary, secular, world, were ritually defiled or unclean

According to God, there is no food that is secular or appropriate for worship anymore

Essentially, this is lawing aside of the Old Covenant laws for the New Covenant people

In Matthew 5:17, Jesus said

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

Fulfill here means that the 613 commands of the mosaic law were designed to point to Jesus Christ

Instead, Paul instructs

Romans 6:14- For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Peter was trying to serve God, but God was making clear to him that Jesus has changed everything Grace wins over law

AND THIS FITS with previous revelation

Mark 7:18–19 NASB95

And He *said to them, “Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?” (Thus He declared all foods clean.)

so Peter is not hearing something different than what is lord previously

It was always taught that Jesus’ Grace was the goal of the OT law

Illustration

We need to calibrate our conscience more than we know

Because we influence one another more than we week

I read about Jack has been brought up in a Christian home. He didn’t used to swear, not because he himself was a Christian (he wasn’t, or not yet), but because the air he breathed did not include swearing. But after a few years at school, swear words began to creep into his vocabulary and some of them slipped out at home by mistake. The air he breathed at school was full of swear words; they were as common as oxygen. He breathed them in, and now he began to breathe them out again.

There is a reason that Psalm 1 says blessed The one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers’ (Psalm 1:1)…. Our conscience is influenced by those around us

Application

There are two ways to fill our mind then

By searching the scriptures.

Read the bible generally to know what glorifies GodGet a good topical bible and read everything the bible says on what subject

Get a good topical bible and read everything the bible says on what subject

Notice I didn’t say have a vision… because this wasn’t about a food.

What was God changing in Peter’s conscience?

This was a major change in redemptive history… the gentiles hear the gospel and receive the holy spirit

No where else are we told to pray for a vision to decide because we have the Bible

as is stated in the book God doesn’t whisper

If the Bible provides all I need for life and godliness ( 2 Peter 1 : 3 ) , then there is no need to hear from God outside Scripture , tune into “ God’s frequency , ” or listen for His still small voice

By hearing from others what fits with the Bible

They help us apply it correctly

An example from my life involves stealing… I knew stealing was wrong, but I didn’t think of it as stealing

I was a young man in the hey day of napster

The music sharing site where you could upload your songs and download others

& the best part.. it was all free

Everyone I knew was using it, everyone said it was the best deal you could get, and many people said those rich musicians do not need you to buy their cds

But then I started to hear those musicians say publicly, “Hey, we work really hard to make those songs and CDs, it takes a lot of money, and if you get it for free, then you’re stealing from us.

I realized… wait, this feels ok with me just because everyone else was doing it, which is never a good source

So to honor God, I had to go delete all those songs I had gotten without paying, buying any that I still wanted to listen to.

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