The Power of a Good Conscience
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Intro
Intro
It is neither safe nor prudent to do anything against conscience.
- Martin Luther
Sweet shall be your rest if your heart does not reproach you.
- Thomas a Kempis
We can serve God only with a clear conscience. An opaque one shall surely cause us to shrink back intuitively from God.
- Watchman Nee
Conscience, in the cause of religion and the worship of the Deity, prepares the mind to act and to suffer beyond almost all other causes.
- Daniel Webster
What is conscience?
What is conscience?
The Word conscience comes to 2 words: Con: With and science: Knowledge.
So to a consceince you are “With Knowledge”. What is this knowledge? It is the knowledge of good of good and evil, a knowledge that is God diven to every person.
14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)
So just what is our conscience as christins and why does it matter?
Our conscience is our inner awareness of conforming or not conforming to the will of God.
The everyday role of the conscience
The everyday role of the conscience
If you know the will of God and do it your conscience is clear. If you know the will of God and disobey it, your conscience is defiled and convicts you of sin(disobedeince)
17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
Every single day our conscience is going to do its proper task and bear wittness to our lives.
Paul says:
1 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,
In this case Pauls consceince bear wittness that he is not lying.
This is what the sonsceince does - and thats a wonderful thing and it results in a very God honoring life.
16 And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.
Again Pauls conscience would tell him if his life, words, actions are offensive to God or even towards his fellow man.
And he STRIVED to maintain this. - It means take great pain.
We are commanded:
9 Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.
We must practise and hold our faith with a pure or clean conscience.
and again:
5 Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:
My friends the bottiom line is simple: If you as a christian maintain a good conscience, a clean conscience, a pure conscience towards God and Man you are living and practcing your faith sith true and genuine sincerity.
The result of a good conscience
The result of a good conscience
What is the result? As the old saying goes: There is no softer pillow than a clean conscience.
Your whole relationship with God is affected.
Look at a road block: If you get pulled over in a road block: If you have a license, your car is registered, your tyres are right, everything is in order - your conscience will bear wittness that you are driving obediently and you will have no fear.
However, if you dont have a license and your registration is expired, your tyres are smooth and you whatnot - you will be afraid bewcause your conscience will bear wittness that you are in the wrong.
The same is true with God.
when we because Christins God totally cleansesd our conscience.
14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
But since then the maintaining of our conscience is our work as Paul makes clear. And your conscience is going play a significat part to yoour faith, every time you pray, everytime you read the word, every time you go to church.
Do you know that many people do not go to church simply because they are living in disobedience and their conscience drives them crazy?
The conscience is not perfect
The conscience is not perfect
This then leads to a serious problem. The conscience is not perfect, and it is possible to break it if it gets to anoying.
Imagine a firealarm: It is there to warn you of smoke and danger, just our consciece is there to warn us of sin and disobedience. It is a good thing.
But if you are always playing with bire and burning things, this smoke detector is going to go off all the time, and its constant wining gets on your nerves, so you know what you do? You take the battery out to shut the thing up.
People do the exact sam,e thing to their conscience, the bible calls is searing the conscience or defiling the conscience.
15 Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.
2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
Those who do this simply annot take the consciences warnings and in essence, take the battries out.
Let me make this clear: Christians who steal and lie have seared their conscience.
Christians who are to lazy to work have seared their conscience.
Christians who have sex before marriage or live togther have seared their conscience.
Christians who get drunk have seared their conscience.
Christians who do drugs have seared their conscience.
Christiuans who do not read their bible and pray daily have seared their conscience.
Christians who do not go to church have seared their conscience.
Why? Because if their conscience were alive and kicking their disobedince would be a constant alarm in their heads and they would rectify the situations emmidetly.
It is so dangerious that God says:
19 Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:
On ships there used to be an important post called the crows next. It was located on the top of the mast. From this high vantage point the sailor could see any rocks or dangers in the water. Seeing any danger he would ring his bell and shout evasive actions words to the captan to avoid creashing the vessle.
Your conscience is your faiths, crownest. It sees where you are off course and shouts evasive commands to correct you.
But if you reject those commands, like a ship, your faith will be totally shipwrecked and so will you.
The Word is the Highest authority
The Word is the Highest authority
It is this problem with the conscience that makes it important for us to remeber than though the conscience is important, it is NOT our highest authority on what is good and evil.
The highest authority on Good and Evil is the Word of God.
If our conscience says somthing is good, but the Word says it is wrong, then we do what the Word says NOT what our conscience says.
This explains why you hear so many paradoxical personal stories:
The pro abortion advocate who says they have a lovley relationship with God.
The homosexual who says they have a lovly relationship with God.
The fornicators who say they have a lovley relationship with God
The reality is, their conscience says they behavior is fine and they rely on it alone, But the Word says their actions are sinful. So they do NOT have a lovley relationship with God, they have a lovley relatoinship with the god they created to appease their conscience.
Conclusion
Conclusion
It is time for us to put the barreries back in the smoke dectector. It is time to put the look out back in the crowsnest. It is time to dedicate our lives to the glory of God.
22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
If you have seared your conscience, let the Lord renew it. Let him sprinke his blood on your hearts, let him wash away your defilment with the pure water of His Word.
Let there be nothing that hinders youor prayers, your worship and your fellowship. Live yor life that you do not fear an audit of your faith.
Let your conscience be pure and good, let your faith be huble abnd sincere.
And you will know the peace of mind, that only comes from a conscience at peace with God.