Conscious of your Conscience
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Introduction
Introduction
-hellos
-remember tomorrow is veterans day so be sure to thank a veteran sometime this week
-push up contest
And after five days Ananias the high priest descended with the elders, and with a certain orator named Tertullus, who informed the governor against Paul. And when he was called forth, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying,
Seeing that by thee we enjoy great quietness, and that very worthy deeds are done unto this nation by thy providence, We accept it always, and in all places, most noble Felix, with all thankfulness. Notwithstanding, that I be not further tedious unto thee, I pray thee that thou wouldest hear us of thy clemency a few words. For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes: Who also hath gone about to profane the temple: whom we took, and would have judged according to our law. But the chief captain Lysias came upon us, and with great violence took him away out of our hands, Commanding his accusers to come unto thee: by examining of whom thyself mayest take knowledge of all these things, whereof we accuse him. And the Jews also assented, saying that these things were so.
Then Paul, after that the governor had beckoned unto him to speak, answered, Forasmuch as I know that thou hast been of many years a judge unto this nation, I do the more cheerfully answer for myself: Because that thou mayest understand, that there are yet but twelve days since I went up to Jerusalem for to worship. And they neither found me in the temple disputing with any man, neither raising up the people, neither in the synagogues, nor in the city: Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me. But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets: And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust. And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.
So one time when i was real little, my mom had this like little statue of a horse made out of like concrete or something okay… story of breaking it and feeling guilty
— Explain verses and context of story
And so we are going to talk about how Paul had a good conscience and what a conscience is and all the different kinds of consciences, so we’re gonna hop around a little bit to different Scriptures.
So what is a conscience? There’s a lot of different views and beliefs about what your conscience is but it is an inner feeling or voice that distinguishes between good and bad, prompting you to do good and not bad, commending the good and condemning the bad.
So Paul here in our story says that he has a good conscience, look back at verse 16.
And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.
If you don’t have a life verse yet, this is a good one to have.
So what is a good conscience? Your void of offence.
GOOD CONSCIENCE- Your conscience is clear, your relationship with God is strong, you have no sense of guilt
And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.
Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:
I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day;
There is no softer pillow to sleep on at night than a good conscience. Did you hear that? Do you understand what I mean? I mean you’re at peace. You’re not ever worried or anxious or overthinking because you may get in trouble.
If Mr. McBrayer calls you down to your office, you’re not worried because you know that you didn’t do anything wrong. You’re at peace, you have a clear, a pure, a good conscience.
In that verse, Paul says he exercises to have a good conscience. Anybody in here like to exercise?
My sophomore and junior years I worked out everyday. I was out of shape, knew I needed to change, so I began working out everyday. Once I started to get back into shape i then began running. I would run a mile everyday. Then I was in shape, felt good about it, so i stopped working out. And thats why i look the way i do now. I’m still in shape right, round is a shape. In bible class last week we were going over the notes and i was teaching and i guess i started going a little too fast and someone said hold your roll. So i just grabbed on. Yeah no one really laughed at that joke in class either.
Well anyway, when i got engaged to Abbie, I was like you know what, she is way, way, way out of my league man, I gotta do something. So i’m gonna start working out again. At college we had a little gym on campus, (actually there were two gyms, one for the guys and one for the girls, you know, bible college gotta keep everybody separated so we dont start lusting after eachothers sweat and b.o.)
And so I got my friend and was like man i need a work out buddy cause i know im not gonna do it without someone to push me, and this is how that went.
so if you didnt see that, basically the treadmill is pushing me off and my friend is laughing at me saying bro what are you doing, and i said im trying to run.
Exercise can be hard. It takes work. And it is the same way with having a good conscience. In order to have a good conscience, you have to exercise. You have to have that self discipline to abstain from things that are wrong and to do the things that are right.
Y’all know why you get punished when you mess up right? Why you get disciplined? Its because you dont exercise a good conscience.
You get disciplined so that you will develop self discipline. Not disciplining yourself, you don’t have to give yourself demerits when you mess up, right. Thats not what self discipline is. Self discipline is the ability to control one’s feelings and overcome one’s weakness; the ability to pursue RIGHT despite temptations to pursue WRONG.
Easier said than done, right. I think we all understand that, right. That we need to do good things and stay away from bad things, right? That’s like Christianity 101.
So then why do we keep getting it wrong?
For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward.
so how do we have a good conscience? Not by our own wisdom or own good deeds that we do, it is by the grace of God.
It is developed by the Holy Spirit working inside of us, by God’s grace. The only reason, I ever do anything right or get anything right in this life, is because of God’s grace.
Were gonna learn a bible word real quick. I figure thats okay since were at a Christian school, yall can learn a Bible word. Hopefully the youth group already knows this cause we talk about it a lot.
Sanctification- changed into Christ’s image for His glory
— Explain sanctification as it relates to doing good works by grace and how thats a good conscience
developed by holy spirit working
Keeping a right conscience is not accidental, it is exercise; exercise requires a goal, the goal is jesus christ; christ preeminent in your life;
Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.
are you pleasing God
No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
a list of rules doesn’t please God, but having a good conscience does, but if having rules helps you have a good conscience then theres nothing wrong with the rules. Rules are not the goal, becoming like Christ is
*explain that
So what if you don’t have a good conscience? What if you don’t have that peace and always have that sense of guilt?
Then you may have one of these consciences
defiled conscience- titus 1:15 accepting of evil; accepting of sin
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.
If you are somewhat accepting of sin, you may have a defiled conscience. Maybe you try to fight against the temptation, but you know eventually you’re going to give in, and you do, you do give in. Maybe you try to read your Bible but it doesn’t seem like it does anything, maybe you try to pray but it doesn’t seem like its working, so you revert and go back to sin.
evil conscience- dwelling with evil, not only are you accepting of evil, but now your dwelling with it, it is constantly there, almost as if it is a part of who you are.
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.
Now you are consistently and constantly involved in sin. To the point to where it is basically an addiction. If you have this conscience you think about reading your bible and praying, but it never happens. You know you should repent of your sins, but you don’t do it. You are consistently and constantly sinning.
Finally there is the seared conscience- someone with a seared conscience is not only accepting of evil, but they are propagating evil, they bring others down with them
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
Have yall heard of the term cauterization? to cauterize something? Cauterization is a medical practice or technique of burning a part of the body to remove or close off a part of it. So like if you have an open wound and youre bleeding a lot, before there were stitches, they would just grab a piece of metal, heat it up over a flame and press it against the wound and burn it, to stop the bleeding and help it. It was thought that cauterizing a wound would decrease the chance of infection, but in reality, it actually increased the chance of infection. So what would happen is that they would burn that skin and tissue, and it deaden and desensitize the nerves and you wouldn’t be able to feel anything after it. And so it would allow infections to penetrate that wound and usually you would be able to feel the pain, but since your nerves are all burned and deadened you wouldn’t feel it, and it would cause even more problems. The infection could spread, get into your bloodstream and could cause you to get septic, and you could die.
So when you have a seared conscience, it’s like you took that hot metal and just seared your own heart spiritually. You are deadened and desensitized to the conviction of God. You no longer feel him in your life. And that allows more and more sin, just like the infection, to creep in and destroy you. You may think youre alright, but really you are dying spiritually, and you have no idea because your conscience is so seared.
I want you to really think about what conscience you have today.
Paul, was standing before the court and the judge and he was able to say that he had a good, clear, pure conscience.
And one day we are all going to stand before the Judge. What kind of conscience are you going to have in that moment? Are you going to be able to be like Paul and say that you have a good conscience?
Or will you have a defiled conscience, one where you accept the sin in your life.
will you have a evil conscience, where you dwell with the sin in your life.
or will you have a seared conscience, where you can’t even sense God in your life anymore.
So what do i do if i have one of these other consciences and dont have a good conscience?
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
John here was talking to Christians when he told them to repent, to confess their sins to God and He will cleanse them. Maybe today we need to just be honest with ourselves and with God and say God I have messed up. I haven’t been who I am supposed to be. I don’t have a good conscience, and I need to confess and forsake some sins to you today.
David, a man after God’s own heart understood this. I want you to hear what he says in Psalm 51
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness:
According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
Wash me throughly from mine iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin.
For I acknowledge my transgressions:
And my sin is ever before me.
Against thee, thee only, have I sinned,
And done this evil in thy sight:
That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest,
And be clear when thou judgest.
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity;
And in sin did my mother conceive me.
Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts:
And in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Make me to hear joy and gladness;
That the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
Hide thy face from my sins,
And blot out all mine iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God;
And renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence;
And take not thy holy spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;
And uphold me with thy free spirit.
Maybe we need to pray this same prayer that David prayed.
I just want you to ask yourself this question: Which conscience do I have?
If you don’t have a good clear conscience, then do some business with God and repent of your sins.