Blessings of a Biblical Conscience

Quick Review

Conscience is a gift

it is impacted by the fall

not perfectly reliable because of the fall

it needs to be trained.

we need to develop a Biblical conscience instead of a social conscience

thats another way of saying being afraid of the Lord rather than men

there are those that have a weak/untrained conscience -

don’t let the weaker brothers teach / set the pace / and we don’t pressure them - we train them to align their conscience with God’s laws, not mans.

The benefits of a Biblically formed consicence

#1 - FREEDOM

the truth as it informs and teaches your conscience sets you free.

1 cor 10:29-31 “I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience? If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks? So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

If you eat and drink according to the glory of God - it means that you aren’t eating / drinking to the glory of men.

in other words - don’t be afraid of men - be afraid of God.

in other words - if you forsake your liberty because of the denouncers - you are not glorifying God.

NOTE - Paul is not saying we don’t accomodate weaker brothers.

If we do something because we’re afraid others are going to judge us for it, we aren’t glorifying God.

Why is this important?

because if you violate social norms, you’re gonna get pounced on. you’re going to have that pressure.

Fear of man will mess you up and take your liberty away quickly.

But a conscience defiend by the Bible - you’re free - other people’s judgement won’t stress you out.

if you have this freedom - you’ll be called all kinds of names.

Jesus was called a son of the devil, a glutton, a drunkard… take your pick.

but just make sure you’re right before the Lord.

Don’t just relish that you’re being called a bunch of names. Maybe those folks are right about you?

Paul says we should “strive to have a conscience that gives no offense to God’s law”

#2 A Biblical Conscience also - SPEEDS UP MATURITY

Hebrews 5:11 “About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.”

hebrews 5:12 “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food,”

Hebrews 5:13 “for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.”

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.”

in other words - a mature meat eater is somebody who’s practiced - they’ve trained their discernment.

in other words - what do baby Christians not have? discernment.

if you practice your discernment - train your conscience - it impacts your maturity.

in other words - if you’re not weighed down by extra-biblical made up laws - you can grow up faster.

#3 - A Better Prayer Life

1 John 3:20-22 “for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.”

“heart condemns” - condemned by conscience

if our heart DOESN’T - we have confidence before God.

when we have a clean conscience - and a biblically defined conscience - we have CONFIDENCE before God.

“keep his commandments?”

look - obviously not perfectly - but the idea that the church sins just as much as the world is a lie. If that’s true then it’s a false church or a false convert.

Jesus said, “if you love me you will keep my commandments.”

Christians sin, but we confess and repent.

Remember - nobody likes Paul - he’s always saying stuff, having drama - but man he was confident before the Lord and led a lot of people to jesus.

which brings us to our next point

#4 - Better witness!

If your conscience is aligned with man’s approval - and everybody s is to a degree - then your witness is harmed.

How? - You’re not gonna have the boldness or the courage to say what you need to say.

some folks say theres a fourth aspect of the conscience - the predictive - “If I do this, they’re gonna disapprove… so I better not do it.”

If you’ve got a conscience that’s afraid of men (or women’s) approval. . . . you don’t say the hard things.

you’ve gotta develop a skill of not caring.

“I don’t care what anybody thinks” - nah - if you gotta say it - then you care.

If you’re free, and cheerful, and you really love those around you - then guess what… you’re gonna tell them when they’re headed to destruction WHETHER OR NOT they’re still gonna like you after you do.

Gal 1:10 “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

#5 - a free and clean conscience is STRONG

Nehemiah 8:10 “Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.””

Ever had a moment where you were doing what the Lord called you to do and knew people despised you for it?

but a clean conscience - a free conscience - leads to strength! courage! joy!

so we need a clean conscience.

#6 - another benefit - no secrets - no phony.

in other words - the people at work and the people at church know who you are.

when a church friend walks into the office - uh oh. - that’s a bad reaction.

another way of saying that - we want to have a sincere conscience.

we want to be consistent across all our relationships.

Phil 1:10 “so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,”

2 Cor 1:12 “For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you.”

2 Cor 11:3 “But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”

if you let society rule your conscience - you’ll get swayed - you’ll get blown too and fro by every wind of doctrine.

Acts 23:1 “And looking intently at the council, Paul said, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.””

2 Cor 4:2 “But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.”

Hebrews 9:14 “how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”

We want to train and develop a BIBLICAL conscience.

Next week we’ll talk more about a social conscience.