The Christian Conscience

How many of you—I'm always interested when I ask this, because this tends to cross age barriers—how many of you have seen the Walt Disney movie Pinocchio? A lot of you have. Some of you haven't. Some of you haven't. Pinocchio, of course—I don't know when that came out. I mean, I was a little kid. It was an old movie then, I think. But I do remember seeing it. I remember being very upset over it, because Pinocchio got swallowed by a whale, which was something I did not understand. And I was just crying in the theater. But the famous song that actually went out—it was on the radio, it was a big hit—was Jiminy Cricket, the little cricket, singing to him, let your conscience be your guide. And that became a famous song, a famous part of the movie. People didn't see the movie at that time, knew of that song, let your conscience be your guide. What does that mean? What does it mean to have a conscience? So a conscience, that means there's a little angel in this corner saying, oh, do this. And a little devil on this shoulder saying, oh, do that. And that's your conscience talking to you back and forth. What does the English word conscience mean? I want you to listen to this. This is from Webster's dictionary, because there's something very important about this definition. Because we're going to talk about conscience today. A couple of weeks ago when I was here, we talked about the Christian work ethic, which is a very practical subject. Here's how you work. Here's what the Christian work ethic is, and the obligations we have to work, the obligations we have to take care of the poor, the obligations we have to take care of ourselves. But this one is we're going to talk about a concept that is very, very important, and try to break this down and make it some practical here. But what is a conscience? Here's what Webster's dictionary says. It is the sense of consciousness, okay, conscience, consciousness are related words. It is the sense of consciousness of the moral goodness, of one's own conduct and tensions or character, together with a feeling of obligation to do what is right. Now this is very important when we understand this meaning. It is a conscious thinking about what is good and what is not good. You know, a lot of times when people talk about conscience, they say, well, you go with your feelings. I've been with people who have certain difficulties in life, and after talking with them a while, I'll ask the question, how do you determine whether something is true or not? And so many times I'll get the answer, I feel it. I know something's true because I feel it's true, and that's when I know it's true. That's my conscience. I feel it. But this says a conscious, conscience is a reasoned, thought-out process that you are conscious of.

Now it results in emotion, right? An obligation to do what is right. So we'll talk about that. But we have to understand that conscience is not initially a feeling. Now there are actually emotions involved in having a conscience, but your conscience is a conscious thought of what you're doing and how you make those decisions. Let's look at something the Apostle Paul says here in Acts 24. Acts 24.

Is this mic low enough, by the way? I know I needed to move it, but it seems to be low.

Acts 24 verse 15.

Now I want to read this first sentence because it tells us his motivation, and then we're going to read what it motivates him to do. It says, So what he's saying here is, I have this hope. There's hope in the resurrection. That's what I'm looking for. That's what I believe is at the end of this life.

And then he says, Now the word strive here, the word conscience, is similar to the English words, but when you translate from one language to another, you missettled these sometimes in the words. There's settled differences.

Now strive, and we think about strive, it means to put forth energy into work. Well, that's what it meant in Greek too, but there was a subtlety to the Greek.

And that is, strive comes from the concept of an artist with raw material. Now think of a sculpturer.

And he's got clay. He's an artist. And striving means you have to have the training and the discipline to work the raw materials into the sculpture.

So it's not just lots of effort being put forth. The word strive that he puts here, or he says, and writes, or not says, because he didn't write, but he says it.

The word here is, it's like an artist that's working and just, he's got, this artist has all kinds of training and a discipline to do this, and working, and shaping, and molding a conscience without offense to God.

Even the word conscience there is similar to ours, to be aware, but interesting enough, in the Greek, the word conscience requires knowledge.

You have knowledge that brings you to conclusions. In fact, it took me the longest time. I literally, for years, wondered what does this mean, and I read, and read, and read, and finally was able to put it together.

It literally means co-knowledge, but it doesn't mean knowledge with somebody else. Well, how can you have co-knowledge and not have knowledge with somebody else? I mean, if you translate it, it literally means co-knowledge. I strive like an artist with co-knowledge. What's that mean? Well, what it literally means is, it's knowledge that you have brought in, and now you own it. Co-knowledge is mine. It wasn't mine, and now it's mine. I have brought in knowledge. I train and strive and work to take this knowledge so that I have no offense towards God and man. Boy, the word conscience gets a little complicated now in the way Paul uses it. It's interesting. There is no Hebrew word in the Old Testament for conscience in the way that Paul uses it here.

And most of the places you see the word conscience, not every place, but most of the New Testament are by the Apostle Paul, as he's discussing what happens inside his mind. What's happening inside his mind, his conscience, he is conscious of knowledge that has been brought to him, that has been given to him. And because he is conscious of that, he strives to take the raw material of his mind and shape that into proper action. Try to shape that into proper action. But remember, the knowledge comes from out here. Let your conscience be your guide many times as go with your own feelings. And that's not what this word means. And it's sure enough the way Paul uses it.

Now, this would mean that if we are to understand conscience, we have to understand that we must learn... Now, we're talking about the Christian conscience here. To have a Christian conscience, we must learn God's definitions of right and wrong. Where does the knowledge come from? You see, most people are conscious as developed in us by our families, by other children, when we're little, by school, by church. There are all these different factors that shape our conscience. So the Christian conscience is a conscience that is given to us. It's knowledge given to us by God. That it is shaped in us so that we learn this. So there are steps involved. We start with, okay, we have to learn the knowledge. Then we have to reason because it's a consciousness. There's a consciousness. I'm thinking about this. That's what that means. You have to think through and choose what is right. So I have to receive this knowledge. I have to think through and choose what is right. I must then act on that knowledge. And then what happens if you don't act on it? You experience distress when you don't act on it, or you do the opposite. So if you know, if God shows you, remember back to a time when maybe God showed you you should keep the Sabbath. That knowledge was not there. You didn't have that knowledge. You now have that knowledge. It's brought into you. It's co-knowledge with yourself. You now accept it. I believe that. I've studied the Bible. It's from God. I should do it. Oh, no, I can't do it. Maybe months went by. I can't do that. I'll lose my job. All my friends will think I'm crazy. So you reason through it. You reason through it. All the time drawing close to God because God helps us. By the way, you cannot develop a Christian conscience without God in you. I mean, God helping you. You can't do it. But this is just the process of what is done. Now, you decide I must do something, and you act on it. Once you act on it and you start keeping the Sabbath, what happens if you don't keep the Sabbath?

You feel terrible. You have a problem with your conscience. It bothers you. But it didn't bother you before not to keep the Sabbath. What happened? God helped you develop a conscience about the Sabbath. So our conscience is very important in understanding how we process life.

Our conscience isn't developed by emotions, but he eventually produces emotions. And we'll talk about that a little bit later as we go on this. So we take this raw material and God works it through. Let's go to Hebrews 5. Hebrews 5. And verse 12. Now, we read...this is read quite often. It's a common passage is read in sermons. And it's because Paul is writing to Jewish Christians who should have known deeper what the truth really meant. In the first couple chapters of Hebrews, he's just explaining to them that, no, Jesus wasn't an angel. He's trying to teach to them the greater understanding. They had part of it, but they hadn't grown beyond where they were. And so he says to them in verse 12 of chapter 5, For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God. And you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who pertains only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe, not that he's unskilled. He isn't educated. He doesn't have the skill, the knowledge, the ability, the discipline to do what is right. Conscience has to do with an artist taking raw material and education, knowledge, and turning that into something.

He says, but solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

What this means is that our conscience is developed in us by the decisions we make every day. Your conscience, my conscience, is still being developed. I mean, there's things now that I used to allow in my life 10 or 15 years ago. I don't allow any more. They would bother my conscience.

Because we're constantly growing in this understanding because we must be reasoning the Scriptures, asking from the Scriptures, what is right, what is wrong? Because we don't determine right and wrong. God does. And that's what's so hard about our conscience. We already came into this relationship with God with a messed up conscience.

He said, well, I grew up in the church. Eh, it still got messed up. Everybody has a messed up conscience. So we struggle with sometimes what we think is good. God says it's evil. And what we think is evil, God says it's good. We struggle with that because our consciences have been messed up. They have to be uneducated and re-educated by God.

And there he says, or here he says, those who by reason of use. Once again, there's a thought process. What does the Scripture say about this? Have their senses exercised, they're making decisions to discern both good and evil. So you and I, we're always developing our conscience.

If you start today to make bad decisions about God's way, and you continue with this two years from now, you will be a different person two years from now, and it won't be good. Some part of your life will be all messed up. Now maybe the rest of your life won't, but the area where you're making bad decisions will end up a mess.

This conscience isn't completed in us until the day we're changed, the day that Christ returns.

So this development of our conscience isn't simply knowledge. It takes God's spirit in us.

It is not simply, oh good, let me learn a few things, and now I'll have a right kind of conscience. To have a Christian conscience, we have to have our entire minds renewed, transformed into something else. Conversion isn't God accepting us the way we are and making a few changes. This isn't God remodeling the house. It's tearing it down to the foundation and building it up all over again.

Let's go to Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4.

Verse 17.

Paul is writing to predominantly a Gentile church here.

This I say therefore, in testifying in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk. In other words, don't walk like all the peoples walk. Gentiles just means nations. Just means peoples. So don't live like all the other peoples live. All the other folks around you live.

In the futility of their mind, they lived in a world where there were all kind of systems of right and wrong. Even in paganism, different gods had different teachings of what was right and what was wrong. Plato and Aristotle and Socrates had created an entire philosophical system about what was right and wrong. The Stoics, the Epicureans, were all mentioned in the book of Acts. They had their own ideas of right and wrong.

You know, if you would have asked a Stoic, is it right? Should you murder? No. Should you commit adultery? No. Should you steal? No. They would have actually agreed with that.

But he says it's all futile because it's not connected to God.

Verse 18 says, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. Now, he's talking about this pagan world that they're living in, and he says they're ignorant because the life of God hasn't shown on them. They don't understand who the true God is because they don't understand God. They live in an ignorance.

They don't even have the knowledge of how to live life, of what real good or real evil is.

Who being past feeling, that's an interesting phrase there, being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all in cleanness with greediness.

That is sometimes translated, they are past sensitivity.

They're no longer sensitive to anything that comes from God.

The closer we are to God, the more sensitive we become to His guidance.

The pagans here are past sensitivity. There's no sensitivity to God. God is meaningless.

I mean, it doesn't mean anything. I saw something just yesterday I thought was interesting. It's a piece of graffiti they found on Pompeii.

It's a man standing before what looks like a human being hung up on a cross, except the human being has a donkey head.

I can't remember the Greek name. Underneath of it, written, scrawled, was, Articus believes in Jesus. In other words, they were making fun of him for being a Christian.

In their conscience, understand. And that man's conscience, the other man was silly for believing this. You have to understand, the feelings of conscience are the same no matter what you believe.

If you believe transgenderism is righteousness and goodness, and those who oppose them are hate-mongers, the feeling they have is the same one you and I have with the opposite viewpoint.

The feelings of conscience, because we're designed to have a conscience, are the same.

They think we are evil people, non-Christians, who do not love the way God says to love.

So you say, well, I just, that disgusts me. Those people will look at you and understand. They will have the same experience of disgust.

This is the tricky thing about conscience. How you educate your mind is the reaction, the emotional reaction you will have.

We have to educate our conscience through God.

He goes on, verse 20, but you have not so learned Christ. Once again, there's knowledge that you have learned Christ differently than this.

If indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off concerning your former conduct the old man, which grows corrupt according to deceitful lust, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, that you put on the new man, which was created according to God, into righteousness and holiness.

Our consciousness has to be created.

It is a conscious decision for that to happen. Your conscience has to be created by God, but you and I are given the knowledge. That's the whole thing about conscience. It's related to conscience. You are aware of what's going on. You are aware of what God is giving to you. You are aware of the decisions that you are to be making.

And you are aware of, oh, this is what God says is good, or this is what God says is bad or wrong. Paul told Timothy that he was to hold the mystery of the faith of the pure conscience. So let's look at just a couple of the qualities of a pure conscience. The qualities of a pure conscience. The first one has to do with how do you and I discern between our own conscience, which is faulty. We've developed it through all these other reasons. How do we take that and then understand, okay, no, this is something from God, this is not? How do we know when our conscience is talking to us whether that conscience is true or not? Second Timothy 3.

Verse 16 is often quoted, once again, sort of a memory verse for many people.

Paul says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. And here's why. Here's why we have the scripture. That the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. A pure conscience is highly receptive to the Word of God. A person with a pure conscience is looking into this book all the time and finds correction and reproof and encouragement and all kinds of things.

But a person with a pure conscience is in this book because this is the textbook. This is where the education comes from. And so much of the time what we think is a pure conscience is our own thought process or our own emotions driving us.

And they seem so real, they feel so real. But it doesn't mean it's a Christian conscience. So we have to look in the scripture. So when the scripture says, love your enemies, we say, surely that doesn't mean, you know, Wilma. I hope there's nobody here named Wilma. Surely that doesn't mean her. Surely that doesn't mean my husband. Surely that doesn't mean that. Love your enemies. But my boss, yeah, love your enemies. That doesn't mean you have to be close with them. It means you have to treat him a certain way. Surely God doesn't mean that we, you know, if we tell the truth, our friends aren't going to like us. If we tell the truth, we're going to lose our job.

Surely he doesn't mean that. What does the scripture say? What does the scripture say? Many times I sit down with people and they'll say, what do you think I should do? What do you think the scripture says? And a lot of times they'll tell me exactly what the scripture says. And I'll say, well, that's what God says to you, so you don't need my opinion. And usually it's like, I was hoping you'd give me a different opinion. The second point is that a pure conscience responds to God's law as defining right and wrong. This idea that, well, you know, grace and law are antithesis is not exactly true.

Look what Paul says. I'm going to stick with Paul here, okay? 1 Timothy 1. Because I love this little passage of scripture because it's so Pauline. I mean, Paul here sets up an argument and then slams it shut. And every once in a while he'll do that. He'll set up an argument and then slams it shut on you.

So he takes you sometimes where you don't think he's going to take you. Let's start in verse 5. Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart and a good conscience. And from sincere faith, he says, here's the reason for the law of God. If we only keep the law of God through some superstition, well, if I keep the law, then I will get good gifts. And if I don't keep the law, I'll be punished. The problem is that's a childish viewpoint. The law of God is greater than that. But that is how we look at the law as children.

It's how we teach our children about it. It's how we have to grow, though, to understand the law of God. And it's more deeper meaning. That's what Jesus taught the servant on the Mount. He says, so it's love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and sincere faith. So our interaction with the law is so that we can learn the love of God, have a good conscience, so we're able to discern the difference between right and wrong, and we have good faith from this.

From which some abstain, having turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, and understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm. And now he sets up where he's going to go. But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. Huh? You know, wait a minute.

You're going to set up here and say, oh yeah, these people are trying to keep the law and all this. These, you know, teachers of the law. And no, no, the law has been done away with. That's not what he says. He says the law is good if you do it, use it lawfully. In other words, you can use the law of God in a wrong way.

And there are people that have used the law of God in a wrong way. He says, but you can use the law, but the law of God is good if you use it in the right way. I mean, you look at history. There have been people who have used the Bible as an excuse to kill somebody. There have been people who have used the Bible as an excuse to do almost anything. Read a passage and say, that applies here and do it. So, wait a minute. God wouldn't do that. That's not what God says. But they take it from a passage. He says, so the law is good if you only use it in the right way.

And then he makes this fascinating argument about the law of God. Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous person. Now, he's going to explain what that means. Wait a minute. A law is not made for a righteous person. What do you mean? Well, a righteous person would not steal. A righteous person would not lie. A righteous person would only worship the one true God. He says, so yeah, righteous people don't need the law because they do the law. Because notice what he says next. But, okay, this is why God has to give the law for the lawless people.

The people who don't live by law. Righteous people live by law because it's natural to them. With God's Spirit, the law is to become natural to us. I mean, when was the last time you looked up in the Bible and said, Well, I didn't know it said not to steal. Well, I guess I'm going to have to change my life. You probably don't even think about stealing. Why? Because as a righteous person, you've been trained, your conscience has been trained not to do it. Now, you go steal, guess what happens? The law pops up again and smacks you right in the face. That's what happens. It's not done away with. He says, but you know righteous people, they're just doing it.

But lawless people, well, you've got to make a law for them. The lawless and the insubordinate for the ungodly, for sinners, for the unholy, the profane, the murderers, the fathers and murders of mothers, for manslayers and fornicators, for sonomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers. And if there's any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust, you know what the law tells us? People think gospel and law are against each other, right? Paul says, you know what the law tells us? What's against the gospel? Anything that's against the gospel, there's a law against it. But you know righteous people know that. Righteous people are just doing the gospel. It makes us a very positive thing. Righteous people are all doing it. They're doing the right stuff. Their conscience is right. Unfortunately, other people have to keep going until the law gets pounded because they're not out living the gospel. Their conscience is wrong. Their conscience is wrong. You know, when you're coveting something, there's this feeling inside your chest that this is wrong. Right? Why? Because the law of God is written inside of you. You know that law. And when you're doing it, you know you're doing wrong. Now, you can either stuff that and continue to covet, or you can consciously reason it. Consciousness. Conscience has to do with consciousness. Thinking. I now must think, is this right or wrong? I must consider my feelings or my actions. I must think about them in relationship to this. What's amazing is when you're living a righteous life, what Paul's making here is, well, you know, you're not thinking much about murder. Like, thou shalt not murder pops into your head because you're not going to murder. If suddenly popping into your head is God saying, thou shalt not murder, you've gone way off track already. You're back here being taught something you should already know. I just love that argument. He doesn't do away with the law. He just says, yeah, righteous people are moving forward into the gospel, and what the law tells us is everything that's against the gospel. So, a pure conscience looks at God's law and loves it, because it's the definition of God's definition of right and wrong. And then a third point. A pure conscience motivates us then to choose to do what God wants us to do, even if it cost us something. Even if in doing it, we suffer for doing it. Peter talks about this in 1 Peter. 1 Peter. Chapter 3. And let's go to verse 13. And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? In other words, what he's saying here is, why should he be afraid of anybody if you're following God? I mean, God's bigger than them. But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed. And do not be afraid of their threats nor be troubled, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. He says, don't be afraid. He didn't say go out and try to convict all your neighbors, but he says, anybody ask you a question, you give them the right answer. You give them the right answer. You tell them, this is what I believe in. Here's why. This is what God says. Having, why can you do this? Having a good conscience. In other words, your conscience, here's where the feelings come in. You're doing what's right, so your conscience actually makes you feel good.

If it's been trained right, when we do something right, we actually have a good feeling about it. Even though we didn't like it, even though we had to suffer some, even though it meant that our pride was hurt because we had to let somebody else win or whatever. Having a good conscience that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. He said, someday they'll be ashamed for how they treated you.

For it is better if for the will of God to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. He said, suffer for the good so you'll have a good conscience. So that's why you have a good conscience. What would you say then? And this is an important question here. It's sort of the main component of an impure conscience. We've looked at three of the things here and receptive to God's word, loves God's law, sees God's law as important in their lives, and they're really concerned with God's guidance, even if God's guidance is leading them someplace that may cause them discomfort.

The main component of an impure conscience, and this is where we have to watch ourselves when we sort of slip into an impure conscience, is that we resist God's sovereignty. We resist God's right to rule our lives, and we resist God's right to tell us what is right in Rome. The greatest description in the Bible about an impure conscience is in Romans 1. In Romans 1, Paul describes the Roman world around him. So if you know anything about the Roman world in the first century, and especially the city of Rome, which was the biggest and greatest and most powerful and rich place on the earth, he describes in detail what their society was like.

And he goes after it in some of the most strongest language in the entire New Testament. He says that they worship idols because they have denied God, and they have given up the knowledge of God, and how terrible their idolatry is. He talks about their worship of the creatures, and that's part of the paganism, and the worship of creatures instead of the creation. He talks about because of that, it has led them into an entire world of sexual immorality. And he attacks fornication, adultery, homosexuality.

Romans chapter 1 is really... there's all kinds of strange ways to try to explain that in an increasingly Christian world that accepts homosexuality as okay. One of the ones I find very interesting is that Paul is a homophobic, and we just have to accept. Just like Jesus was a prejudice against non-Jews in his day. And that's how we solve it. These people had problems, and we've grown more than them. Modern Christianity is much more loving and caring and closer to what God wants than Jesus and Paul.

So he goes on and he describes this world they live in. Let's go to Romans 1, because I'm going to read a little part of this. Because this seems so powerful, and to many it can seem harsh. Why is he being so harsh? And the reason why is, his conscience is in tuned with God. He finds the world he lives in to be appalling. Others read this and say, wow, Paul is a monster.

Paul is an evil man. And they feel just as appalled at Paul. There's a pun there, but I'm going to just ignore it. I didn't realize it. They're so appalled at Paul. Just as much as he is appalled at them, emotionally it's the same reaction. One conscience is developed and educated one way, and the other conscience is developed and educated another way. See, that's why you can't always trust your emotions. Do they fit what God says?

Here's what he says in verse 28. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, they can have a conscience, a Christian conscience, because they don't have the knowledge. You have to have knowledge of God, but if you reject God, you will not have a Christian conscience. You will have a different conscience, educated in a different way, by a secular society, or by your own feelings, or by the family you grew up in, or whatever.

But you will have a conscience of what is right and wrong that is not true. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind. They don't have a renewed mind, as we just read where we're being created, or minds are being created into something else. He gives them over to a debased mind. Boy, that sounds harsh. Well, it's what the Bible says. And I tell you what, the society you and I live in today is not a whole lot different than Roman society.

It's not a whole lot different. He gave them over to a debased mind to do the things which are not fitting. And here's the product of that. Being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness, their whispers, back-binders, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful.

It's not like the world we live in. Not everybody is like this. That's why the United States hasn't collapsed yet. But we're headed that way. This is the society we live in. Every human society, by the way, ends up this way. I don't care when you live on the face of the earth. This is the way every society ends up. All through history.

It's the way human beings go with a conscience that's developed just naturally and with Satan's influence. That's a whole other subject. But Satan influences the development of our conscience, too. And then he makes this statement. He ends this with, because of this, they deserve judgment from God. That's what God says about them. They deserve His judgment. Who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, and then the rest of the sentence, and not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them.

We have to be very careful. Yes, we are to treat people a certain way, but we can't approve of certain people's actions. We cannot.

Because if we do, we begin to deteriorate our own conscience. Now, how we treat them, okay, we're to treat them a certain way. You know, it's funny. We're not to go out and stone them, but in ancient Rome, these people stoned Christians, didn't they? But we're not supposed to do that.

We're supposed to be kind if we see them in trouble, but we're not supposed to participate. We're not supposed to tolerate and accept. We are supposed to say, I disagree. But I'm not going to hurt you. But I disagree, because that's God's business. God deals with you.

And understand, to many people in our world, what I just said is hate speech. And I thought that was pretty gentle.

It's hate speech.

That's because their conscience isn't a Christian conscience. I know that's a harsh thing to say, but it's either that or Paul made this up.

Or, you know, we've grown beyond Paul. I haven't grown beyond Paul or Jesus. In fact, I'm not even up, clear. I'm not even remotely up to the standards of Jesus. Okay? So I can't say I'm beyond Him. I'm not even remotely up to those standards yet.

What this does is it creates a conscience. And like I said, we haven't talked about Satan's influence. But a conscience that's influenced by Satan. 1 Timothy 4. 1 Timothy 4.

1 Timothy 4, verse 1. Now the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times, "...Son will depart from the faith, giving heed to the deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons." Well, that's a strong statement that there's going to be. Now, he's not talking about the pagan world. The party pagan world already had doctrines of demons. He's talking about the church, the Christian world. He said the Christian world was going to develop into where people would actually begin to believe doctrines of demons that would come into what would be, quote, unquote, Christianity. "...Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron." What does that mean? I remember as a teenager thinking, that's the strangest thing. I thought of raw meat being seared. I mean, it didn't make any sense to me. How do you... Now, let's put ourselves back in that century. How do you know if an animal or a slave is owned by somebody?

They brand you with a hot iron.

How do you know? It's... Their conscience is branded by demonic influences.

That's a horrifying thought, isn't it? Human beings whose very conscience is branded, how they see right and wrong good and evil, is branded by demonic influences. I mean, think of Adolf Hitler. There you go.

We want to see an extreme case. Branded. His mind perverted to the point that he thinks like Satan.

And he said, it's going to come the time when Christianity is influenced by people like that.

Because of this...

They've given up the knowledge of God, and they become like everything he describes in Romans chapter 1.

That's the way society always ends up. We think this is so new and different. Oh, no, it's not.

It's not new and different.

It always ends up this way.

Many societies start out this way, and then get worse.

Until Satan is removed as the god of this world, the consciousness of the people will be affected by him.

Now, I do want to mention one last thing here. I'm not going to go to the verses. I'm just going to mention them.

What about matters of conscience? We'll talk about that sometimes. Because whatever or not of faith is sin. And in the Bible studies we've been having up in White Bluff, we've been going through 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians.

And in 1 Corinthians, Paul talks about matters of faith.

It's like James said, whatever is not of faith is sin.

And sometimes, remember, if we're all in different stages of development, there's going to be conflict on things that are not directly stated.

It says, don't kill. We all agree with that.

But there's other issues where we don't have the exact explanation.

You know, I was in the Radio Church of God, the Worldwide Church of God, the United Church of God, and there are issues that right now, 10 different churches of God will have 20 different explanations. You say 20? Yeah, I mean, they're arguing themselves. Because there's issues of conscience. And we argue over them. We argue over them.

And the truth is, there's certain issues of conscience you can't force on anybody because there's no direct law.

I'm trying to think of something. Tigh on your increase. What does that mean? I have heard that argued since the 1960s.

Back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth. I tell people, here's what the Scripture says, pray about it, and do what you do before God with a clear conscience.

Sometimes they come back and say, I changed what I was going to do. I didn't tell you what to do.

There are certain things that are matters of conscience. And he was giving an example.

People, they'd all come out of paganism. Remember, the people in Corinth, none of them had been born Christians. In fact, most of them weren't even Jews. There's hardly any Jews there because he doesn't even talk to them.

The word circumcision appears once in 1 and 2 Corinthians.

Most of them are Greeks.

And they come from one of the most degenerate, immoral cities, even in Greece.

As when we went through the Bible study, the Greeks had a pun.

For people who were incredibly sexually immoral, they were Corinthians.

There was a word that was so similar, it didn't sound like Corinthians. Oh, you're just a Corinthian, you know. You'd be like, I say, well, you're just a barbarian, you know. Oh, you're used to Corinthians.

And they come into this. They've all been pagans.

And so where do you buy meat? Well, you've got maybe some Jewish place where they have kosher meat, where they're not going to sell it to you because you're a Gentile. Or you go down to the marketplace, and you go in, and you buy a chunk of meat, and you give them some money, and you take it home.

But the problem is all that meat has been blessed to a pagan god. All of them.

They've been blessed to a pagan god.

So, should you buy it or not?

Now, some of the people are saying, I can't believe those gods. So what? Some priest, some placement, blah, blah, blah. And, okay, I don't care what they said. And they buy the meat, and they take it and eat it. Other people are saying, no, no, no, I used to go participate in those things. To eat that meat makes me feel a certain way.

It makes me feel like Aphrodite is listening to me. I can't do that.

And so there's a controversy. One person's conscience says, I can eat this. I don't believe that they're gods. The other person's saying, I can't because of my past.

I've had people tell me I can't sing onward Christian soldiers.

Because when I was a Protestant, that song meant so much to me. And it's a matter of conscience. How do we deal with that?

Some of you would say, well, that's silly. It doesn't mean that to me.

You know what Paul said? This is what I find interesting. Paul says, you know what? We all know those idols mean nothing. Right? We all know it. Those idols mean nothing. And eating that meat means nothing. Because if a nothing gives a blessing on it, it's nothing. Right? This is a good argument. It means nothing.

But if it causes my brother to suffer, I'll be a vegetarian.

See, what is our normal reaction to this? Well, those people better grow up. Those people better fix their conscience, because I'm not a pagan anymore, and I think I can do it. And it's okay for me to do it. So what's your problem? And Paul said, no, no, no, no, no. If it bothers them that much, don't buy meat. Just go without meat. I'll do that.

Boy, that's different, isn't it? That's the exact opposite of what every person probably, you'll ever talk to, would have thought his ruling would have been.

And it's because he understands conscience.

Remember what he wrote before? It's out of pure love, too. If I love you, I want to lead you to God, so I will not do anything to put a stumbling block in front of you.

You know, at the marriage enrichment weekend, the first presentation that was given was, part of it was, how we are to want to lead our mates to God.

So all of our conduct must be dedicated to helping that mate come to God.

Boy, that's tough, isn't it?

Yeah, but, no, no, we have to approach our mate as someone who needs to be led to God.

And I don't want to put a stumbling block in front of my mate, for any reason at all.

Paul would have said, I agree with that.

Paul was willing to be a vegetarian.

And he had no desire to be a vegetarian, I can tell you that, because that's what it takes.

Now, in chapter 10, he talks about the same thing, but a little different twist.

He says, now let me deal with this other thing. Some of you are going to the pagan temples and participating in the pagan rituals and getting your meat there.

He said, don't you know that that's where demons are? Now think about it.

He said out in the marketplace, it's meaningless. There there's demons involved.

He said, what's the difference?

Boy, he understands this very clearly.

Okay. It's Christmas time.

And you go to Kroger's and they have Christmas turkeys.

And I mean, they're on a Christmas package and they're, you know, I don't know, what's a turkey cost?

They're 15 cents a pound, I know. They're a lot more than that, right?

I mean, they're on sale for Christmas. They're leftovers from Thanksgiving. I mean, there they are.

Christmas, they're called Christmas turkeys and they're all decorated and there's someone out there in an elf suit ringing a bell saying, buy a Christmas turkey.

And you go, oh, that's a good deal. And you take it home.

Now someone may be offended by that, in which case we should be willing not to buy it. Now for most of us, I mean, okay, I'm going to confess.

Occasionally, not every year, my wife loves chocolate.

And those giant chocolate bunnies at Easter?

When they get me like a dollar fifty, I buy one for her. Because I'm cheap.

I mean, I could buy her Hershey bars, but man, it's big for a buck fifty. I'll get a lot of, you know, Easter keep.

No, no, no, this is not very easy. You know, here, I'll break the ears off. No, I like the ears. No, no, it's not showing you the ears.

But if someone, if anyone here is offended by that, I won't buy Easter chocolate Easter bunnies after Easter anymore.

I'll just buy Hershey bars.

I don't want to do anything for you to stumble. It's not worth it. It's just chocolate. I won't eat an Easter, well, they're not Easter bunnies after Easter. I won't eat a chocolate bunny for the rest of my life, and it's okay.

And I know I'm making a joke, but I'm actually very serious about that. It doesn't bother. I won't do it.

So, Paul says in chapter 10, okay, some of you are going to the temple. Now let's put this in perspective.

You've got these Christmas turkeys. You say, I don't care about it. It's got some packaging on it. It's a turkey.

That wasn't sacrificed to it. I don't want anything. It's just Christmas turkey, and you go buy one.

But what if what you did was, you know, St. Mary's down here is having a free turkey dinner for Christmas. All you have to do is go to Mass. You go to Mass, light a candle, sit there while they pray to Mary, and do the whole thing.

And after an hour, you get to go downstairs and eat the turkey there in the basement of the church.

Paul says, that's a totally different thing. You're participating. That's a totally different thing.

And so he said, don't do that, because these people came out of that.

They couldn't help but go to those temples and not have an experience, which means their conscience is being bothered.

Right? Their conscience is going to be bothered. And the more you give in to your conscience when it's being bothered, the easier it is to change your conscience.

Your conscience changes. It changes.

So understand, what Paul says there is very important in the church.

We can't always judge each other on the things that we don't have a direct command to do.

Don't go participate in an Easter celebration.

If you want to eat Easter bunnies after Easter or any time, because they're chocolate and cheap, that's between you and God.

But I understand why some people would be offended.

Like I said, there are certain songs that I've talked to people, I can't sing that song. Then don't sing it.

It's okay. Nobody's going to look at you and say, why aren't you singing? We're all just singing.

You're not judging everybody else. Nobody's judging you because it's your conscience.

Now, over time you might say, I can sing that song. Or you may say, I can never sing that song.

But we're not going to destroy each other over the things that are not exactly laid out.

That's what love is. That's what Paul said.

Paul said it means nothing to go buy all that stuff in the marketplace, and as long as everybody feels the same way, it's fine.

But if we offend somebody, I'll be completely a vegetarian. That's what love is. Love is I understand a person's conscience, and I'm not going to go against it as long as it's, you know, I'm not going against God.

God doesn't say you don't have to buy the Christmas turkey, does He? So it doesn't go against not to buy it. The natural conscience of human beings is capable of accepting evil as good and good as evil, and both at the same time.

A person can have a conscience that is very sensitive in some ways. In some ways it's not. I've used this example before, but I watched a film years ago of Adolf Hitler, just a few days before he died, walking out and patting the head of little ten-year-old boys and touching their faces, and his face was all lit up with admiration towards these little children that he was sending off.

They would trade one for a Russian tank. So they taught him how to fire a weapon that would blow up a tank. That's all they knew. And they were little boys. They would scamper through the rubble of Berlin and they couldn't see them.

And they blew up a Russian tank. Kill all five men inside.

Russian soldiers talked about how they sat and cried. They would have maybe two or three tanks blow up, and all the guys die, and then they shoot two little boys running away and realize those two little ten-year-olds.

And Hitler is...he has this feeling. It's obvious of some kind of weird affection towards these little boys he's sending out to die.

The human conscience is capable of such evil. And yet it feels right. He would say he loved them.

But you and I have been called by God to give not only the knowledge, but the power of God to change our conscience.

That means we have to be in His Word and we have to be submitting to His Spirit.

And the conscience is exercised through daily decision-making. And that's why, on a regular basis, you're going to feel, Oh man, I feel bad. I did something wrong. If you've gone a whole month now and never once felt like, Oh, I did something wrong, you're probably in trouble. Because it means your conscience is insensitive.

Because I guarantee you, well, maybe you're better off than I am. I'm doing something wrong every day. So that conscience is supposed to kick in and give us a feeling.

It also is a good feeling when you know that was the right thing to do. That's supposed to happen, too.

But we have to educate the conscience. And it has to be guided by God's Spirit.

And when our thoughts are exercised by reasoning out the standards and learning them and doing them, then our conscience is developed by God. And it is only when your conscience is developed by God that you can actually say, let your conscience be your guide.