Do You Have a Godly Conscience?

Well, brethren, you no doubt have heard the expression, Let your conscience be your guide. Now, is that always a good policy to let your conscience be your guide? What about the recent bombing in Manchester, England at an Ariana Grande concert, where 22 people, mostly young adults and children, were murdered?

Do you think that those who murdered them had a clear conscience, at least to some degree? They thought they were doing even God a service, perhaps? Did you know that, according to Wikipedia, a very reliable source, there have already been 575 terrorist attacks in 2017? 575. That averages out to 3.5 terrorist attacks every single day. Obviously, some attacks much worse than others. But nevertheless, 575 terrorist attacks since January 1st. There have been 3,932 deaths attributed to these attacks, and I would submit that many of them were okay with their conscience when they did these attacks that killed so many people.

They also no doubt maimed and wounded thousands of other people already this year. So what type of conscience could allow for such mayhem and destruction? And more importantly, what type of conscience do you have? Now, I know you don't have that kind of a conscience, but ask yourself, what type of conscience do you have? The title of this sermon is, Do You Have a Godly Conscience? Brethren, your conscience must be a godly one. It must be yielded to God's Holy Spirit.

If you're going to truly be pleasing to God, then your conscience needs to be a godly conscience, and you need to be yielded to God's Holy Spirit. Your conscience must accept the true God of creation as your primary authority in your life. Your conscience must be convicted of God's laws, of God's commandments, of His statutes. Your conscience must be committed to living by every word of God. Your conscience must be developed and maintained by putting on the mind of Christ, by dwelling on those things that are pure and lovely and virtuous.

Only then may your conscience be your guide. Only then should you allow your conscience to guide you. So we're going to be talking about the developing and maintenance of a godly conscience. Number one, I've got actually four principles that I'd like to discuss in this regard. Number one, and I've mentioned them already, we'll go through them one by one now.

First of all, you must accept the true God as the one primary source of authority in your life. If you haven't done that, then you're going to have problems with your conscience. Your conscience will give you problems. You must accept the true God as the one primary source of authority in your life. And of course, when I say the true God, I'm including those members of the God family. Presently we have God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, who was the Word, the Logos, the spokesman, prior to His human birth. So, that's what I'm talking about. We must accept the true God as the one primary source of authority in our lives. We should all strive to surrender to God.

And that's not an easy thing to do, to truly surrender to God. That's a lifelong process, learning to totally surrender. I suppose if one was totally surrendered, they wouldn't sin. If they were totally surrendered. So I would say that none of us are there. I know I haven't totally surrendered. I hopefully have surrendered a great deal. But I need to continue to work on my surrender to my God.

We should certainly strive to please God, and all that we do, whatever our hand finds to do, we should do it with our might. And we should strive to please God in every way. We should strive to become love as God is love. Now, one of the main problems with terrorists is they don't have a godly conscience. If they did have a godly conscience, they would not have been able to do what they did. They no doubt killed these people, thinking, in some cases at least, that they were doing Allah, or whatever god they worship. They thought they were doing this god a great service.

To kill the infidel, isn't that what Allah wants? Well, at least the Qur'an, I believe, teaches that. Not everyone may be willing to admit that, but there are words in the Qur'an that speak to that. But Allah is not the true God of creation.

Who is behind this god who endorses such terrorist behavior? Well, I believe we all understand that Satan is indeed the god of this world. And Satan takes many forms. There are many gods that people serve. We know there are many, many religions. There are Buddhists, Hindus, Catholics, etc. There are all different types of religions out there. And to one degree or another, they are all under the sway of Satan the devil.

Satan has a huge impact on their life. Clearly, they are deceived, believing many lies regarding religion and God. They place their faith in a false god. The god of this world, the father of lies. The serpent lied to Adam and Eve.

You shall not surely die. They did die. And the serpent continues to lie to people today. They have been defiled by Satan's lies, and they do his bidding. They do not believe in the true God of creation, the omnipotent, the almighty, the perfect God. Their hearts and minds are twisted. They are defiled by lies and by treachery. Also, many professing Christians are also deceived. They profess Christ, but Christ said, How be it in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men?

They are not necessarily following the God of love in all things, are they? They choose to do some things that are good and right, according to the Bible, perhaps, but they also choose to deny the Bible in other ways. And, of course, they walk in the flesh. We all have a problem with that, because we're fleshly. They are allowed to choose who they will obey, and oftentimes they are yielded to Satan the devil and his will, rather than God's.

Someone may choose to tithe. They may be a professing Christian. They may choose to tithe. They may also keep Sunday as a day of worship. Well, they're certainly deceived about Sunday being the day of worship. They trample on the Sabbath day, but the tithing law they have accepted, and they're actually going to be blessed if they tithe. Now, they will be blessed in certain ways if they tithe. And that's true with all of God's laws, I believe. If they yield to God's law, if they don't murder, if they don't steal from one another, if they don't lie, if they don't commit adultery, then there will be certain blessings, because we have a blessings chapter, we have a curses chapter.

If you disobey God, then there will be curses that will come upon you. If you obey God, there are certain blessings. So, people may be obeying God to some degree in certain ways, but not in other ways. I think that's pretty self-evident. We were like that as well before we came into the truth. Some things we understood and we obeyed, perhaps, and other things we didn't. In Titus chapter 1, let's go there for a moment. Titus chapter 1 talks about, to the pure, all things are pure.

You probably quoted that a number of times. You may not have realized it's right here. You probably knew it was in the Bible, but exactly where. I know I've quite quoted it without really knowing specifically where it is, but it is in Titus chapter 1. In Titus chapter 1, verses 15 and 16, let's read it together.

To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. Because they are defiled, nothing is pure because there is a mixture here of good and evil. They're doing good, they're doing evil.

There's a mixture. And unbelieving, nothing is pure, but even their mind and conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work. And people are defiled to various degrees. I think we would agree with that, that there's some that are more defiled than others in their minds.

Both the mind and the conscience can become so defiled that they cease making distinctions, proper distinctions, between what is pure and what is impure, what is right and what is wrong. And when a person is deceived, certainly they're going to have a problem with that. So, just what is conscience? Now, the English word conscience is a combination of the Latin words, sier, s-c-i-r-e, which means to know, and kon, which means together. The Greek word for conscience is found more than 30 times in the New Testament. It's the word, and I don't know how to pronounce it, but it's spelled s-u-n-e-i-d-e-s-i-s, something like sunidasis, which also literally means the self that knows with or observes itself. That really doesn't tell us much about the conscience. It basically means the self that knows with or observes itself. But I think we'll come to a better understanding as we look at some of the Scriptures that talk about the conscience. We're going to look at some different verses in the Bible. We'll go now to Romans 2. Let's go to Romans 2 as we talk about a godly conscience and the importance and the need to develop and to maintain a godly conscience. Romans 2, verse 14. Let's go back to verse 11. For there is no partiality with God. God loves all His children. Correct? God loves everyone. He loves the Jew, the Gentile, the Greek. He loves everybody. He loves men, women, and His creation. For there is no partiality with God, for as many as have sinned without law.

And of course, that's talking about the Gentiles who were not given the law of God. The law was given to those who were descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And of course, even before Abraham, Noah obeyed God and followed Him. For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law. So even if a person doesn't understand the law of God, doesn't know the law of God, and they break it, which they will break, then they come under the death penalty. You don't have to know. Sins of ignorance can still kill you. So those who have sinned without law will also perish without law. But as many as have sinned in the law, they're going to be judged by the law. Those of us who understand the laws of God, God has opened our minds to this truth. We're going to be judged by how well we keep the laws of God and how repentant we are. We need to be truly repentant, which means we will be overcomers, which means we will grow and we will do better as time goes on. And as we learn to put sin out of our lives. For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified. For when Gentiles who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts. I don't know if I understand fully what this is talking about. It seems like it's basically saying that by nature, or one of the translations actually uses the word instinctively. Instinctively they know. I think God has built within us, and perhaps the conscience is the answer here, He has built within us some understanding of some right and wrong. Not all aspects of right and wrong for sure. You have to study the Bible, and you have to know every word of God. But there are certain things. Most people realize it's not a good thing to go around killing people. Most people don't do that. They understand that that's not a good thing. Most people realize that stealing from one another, that's really not something that we ought to do. They know that leads to chaos.

And so people instinctively understand certain aspects of the law, even though they don't have the law.

Verse 15, it says, "...who show the work of the law written in their hearts..." That's interesting to me that it's worded that way. Gentiles who show the work of the law written in their hearts, there are certain things, again, that they understand instinctively, or by nature. "...their conscience also bearing witness between themselves, their thoughts excusing or else excusing them, in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to the gospel." So notice, the conscience bears witness. What is a witness? A witness is one who testifies, one who gives evidence as to the facts or events as in a courtroom. A witness testifies in a courtroom as to what they saw. An eyewitness has seen certain things and they testify to that effect. So the conscience is a witness. It acts as a witness. Your individual conscience witnesses, testifies, bears witness against you or for you.

It witnesses, it testifies in the court of your human mind that you did this or that or thought this or that. So it's a kind of inner voice that witnesses or testifies concerning our actions and our thoughts. Obviously, God built the conscience within us. It's God's creation. By the power of His Spirit, the conscience was developed within a person, within a human being.

Now, I looked up some interesting comments. Some of them are a little funny and humorous. For example, Richard Armour says this about the conscience. He says, the conscience is a built-in feature that haunts the sinner, helps the preacher. I guess it helps the preacher because if someone's haunted by their sins, they may not commit so many.

They may not cause so much havoc. The minister appreciates it when people are law-abiding, godly people. It's a much easier job than when everyone is hurting each other and committing sin left and right. People are calling me, and I've got to go here and I've got to go there because there are problems. I'm really grateful to you people because I typically don't have to do that all that much. To me, that speaks highly of people who are trying to have godly character. Otherwise, I would be hearing a lot more about some bad conduct and evil conduct. I commend you, and I appreciate that very much. Continue to exercise your conscience and allow it to speak to you to some degree. Continuing on, the conscience is a built-in feature that haunts the sinner and helps the preacher. Some sins it makes us turn and run from, but most it simply takes the fun from. A lot of times, people go ahead and do it anyway, don't they? The conscience is saying, don't do this. A person wants to do it, so they do it, but they don't feel as good about doing it because their conscience bothers them. It doesn't stop here. Not only is our conscience a witness, it is also a judge. As Paul said, there are thoughts alternating, accusing or defending them. So, the conscience can accuse us or it can defend us. If we break God's law, if we go against fundamental laws, then our conscience can accuse us. On the other hand, if we obey God, we keep His commandments, we have a clear conscience, we've done something out of a good conscience, then it can defend us.

In other words, your conscience not only testifies as to what you did, but then it also acts as judge. It either accuses or defends what you did and then pronounces you innocent or guilty. According to Romans 2, all men have a law written in their hearts. They have a moral awareness, a personal sense of right and wrong that God obviously has given them.

The conscience is that inner voice that witnesses, judges, and then convicts us. In other words, it approves or condemns our actions and our thoughts. But the problem is, our conscience has to be maintained and exercised properly. Our conscience has to be a godly conscience. If we're going to have good fruit that come from us. So, it's very, very important that we realize that.

In Romans 9, let's go there for a moment. Romans 9, I tell the truth in Christ, Paul says, I am not lying. My conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit. No doubt the Holy Spirit is active in a person's conscience to some degree. Because Paul says, bearing me witness, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit.

That I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were a curse from Christ, for my brethren, my countrymen, according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises. And yet, they did not keep them. Most of them did not accept Christ as their personal Savior. In fact, they crucified Christ. So, that was distressing, of course, to Paul. The Holy Spirit acts upon the Christian conscience. As we are led by the Holy Spirit, our conscience gradually becomes more like the conscience of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

In John 8, let's go there.

John 8, verse 9.

Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience. Now, this is when the adulterous was taken. She was caught in the act of adultery. The problem is, there's no man here.

So, if she was caught in the act, then there had to be a man pretty close by. So, where was he? There's some kind of a double standard going on here. Something not quite right. Something a little fishy. But the woman is there, and the Pharisees are there. The scribes and the Pharisees, they've caught this woman in adultery. And they're trying to trip up Christ. And they're basically asking Him what should be done to her. And then it says in verse 8, that He stooped down and wrote on the ground. In verse 7, He had said, He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first. Okay, if there's anyone here that has never sinned, then you can be the first one to throw the stone. And then He knelt down and He wrote something on the ground. Now, we don't know what He wrote. People have speculated. Perhaps He wrote dates and times and maybe women's names, men's names, and things that He knew had happened. But that's pure speculation. We have no evidence of what He wrote, but whatever He wrote and also what He said prior to that, convicted them. And so it says in verse 9, that those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, they went out one by one, beginning with the oldest. So it would seem like the oldest, a little more wise, had been around a little bit longer, realized that He certainly was a sinner. He wasn't going to cast the first stone. And then it came around to the youngest, and they filed out, again, I'm speculating here, but beginning with the oldest, even to the last. And Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst. And of course, we all know what He told her. He said, I don't condemn you. Your condemners have all left. I don't condemn you, but go and sin no more.

So He was very clear that she should go and stop that type of behavior and obey Him.

So, again, it's very important that all of us listen to our conscience. Thankfully, they listened to their conscience. Their conscience convicted them, and they all left, because they realized they were sinners and Christ had them. Instead of them tripping Him up, He tripped them up. The conscience is capable of convicting a person. You should listen to your conscience as long as you have exercised your conscience in a proper way, and it's a godly conscience. In this case, those who were trying to trip up Christ... I'm not saying that... obviously, their consciences were not completely godly, because they were the scribes and the Pharisees that ended up crucifying Christ and turning against Him. But He had them over a barrel at that particular moment. That's why they slunk away. But it wasn't that their hearts were pure.

It's just that they realized that they weren't going to get anywhere, so they left at that particular time. But again, plotting something else as soon as they left.

No doubt, they were hypocrites, because Christ called them hypocrites a number of times. Maybe they realized their hypocrisy to some degree at that moment, but obviously, they were not truly repentant.

In this case, they acted upon the urging of their conscience. They left the woman alone with Christ.

And again, they went off planning on how they might attack Jesus later. Now, on the other hand, the Apostle Paul, after his conversion, was one who endeavored, who strove... And that is a real word, by the way, I looked that up. It is strove. It's correct. He strove to have a good conscience. He strove to have a godly conscience. No doubt, before his conversion, he also strove to have such a conscience. This was a very learned man. No doubt, he obeyed God in many, many aspects of his life. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He was keeping the letter of the law, but the spirit of the law was another issue.

He wasn't converted, but he was trying to obey God as he understood it. He was deceived. Paul was deceived. So much so that he was willing to kill those who believed in Christ.

And he was ignorant and deceived until he was struck down on the road to Damascus. That's what it took in his case. Right?

Only when his eyes were opened spiritually could he have a pure, godly conscience. In some respects, Paul was a true terrorist. He terrorized the true Christians. He was a terrorist. But, thankfully, he repented of his terror. He repented when God opened his mind, opened his eyes spiritually. He repented, and he became converted.

Only when Paul's eyes were opened to the true God, because he had also been swayed by Satan the Devil, even though he was an Israelite. He was still deceived. Only when he accepted Christ as his Savior did he stop being a terrorist. The true God wants us to treat all men and women with genuine love and respect. Even these terrorists that are killing people today, hopefully many of them will repent. As Paul repented, they will repent.

Adolf Hitler, will he repent? I don't know. Who knows? God is the judge. It'll be very interesting, won't it? To see how all that works out when they're all resurrected. Genghis Khan, Joseph Stalin, who knows?

But the true God wants us to treat all men and women with genuine love and respect. As Mr. Strauss was saying in the sermonette, he even tells us to learn to love our enemies and to pray for our enemies.

Paul came to realize that, and as a result, he became a true vessel of the Almighty God. The Holy Spirit was powerful in Paul. Miracles were performed by Paul. God allowed him to be beaten to death. He may have actually been dead, and God raised him up and gave him life again.

If he wasn't dead, he was pretty close, because they would not have left him. They thought he was dead. So, God can do miraculous things with anybody, and we don't know when God is going to begin to work with someone, either. We really don't. I was driving in Oklahoma, and I normally do not pick up hitchhikers. I've only picked up hitchhikers maybe two or three times in my entire life.

I just typically don't do it. I drove by this guy, and he looked pretty clean-cut. You do look at that outward appearance. I made a quick judgment. I picked him up. He was with me for over an hour. He had a stutter. He was pretty difficult to understand. He was 65 years old. We talked for a while.

Then, it got on religion. I have a way of getting things onto religion. I like to find out what people are thinking. I really do. I'm a curious kind of guy when it comes to religion. Of course, I had to tell him quite a bit about, I'm a Sabbath keeper, and keep the Sabbath and the Holy Days, and shared some things with him. He was quite respectful, and he listened. At one point, I mentioned the Scripture about entertaining angels, and I asked him, You're not an angel, are you?

He said, I don't think so. As far as I know, I don't think he was an angel. But he'd been traveling around for a year. He's from West Virginia. He had been on his own, bumming around for a whole year.

He didn't smell, thankfully. He looked pretty clean-cut. He had a beard, but it was trimmed. He said that people have been helping him for a year. This guy, I don't think he had a lot of money with him. In fact, he had hardly any money. But somehow, people were helping this guy for a whole year.

I gave him 20 bucks. I wasn't planning on it. But after hearing that, I'm thinking, I dropped him off at McDonald's, gave him 20 bucks, wished him well. Who knows where he's at now? The funny thing was, I got my card out, and after dropping him at McDonald's, I gave him my card. He looked at the United Church of God. Oh, are you related to the worldwide Church of God? I said, yeah, kind of.

He said, oh, Herbert Herbert Armstrong. Yeah, that's right. I think he was wondering about that, as I mentioned certain things that I believed. Here's a guy I pick up off the road. He's familiar with Herbert Armstrong, who is the human founder of the modern-day Church of God, United Church of God, worldwide Church of God.

Interesting. So, I don't know what I brought that up for, necessarily, but it's a nice story. It's a good story. I think it had to do, to some degree, with, you know, I mean, he didn't try to kill me. I asked him that, too. I said, you're not going to try to kill me, right? When I let him in, I said, look, don't even get in if you're planning to kill me.

No, I didn't actually say that. I did say, you're not planning to kill me, right? Somewhere in there I said that. So, anyway, I was listening to a book on tape, but I thought, I'll pull over and give this guy a ride. And, again, I don't normally do that. I may not do that for years. I may not do it again for years. I don't know. I mean, I'm not encouraging that, because there's a lot of terrorists out there that, you know, if you pick up a terrorist, then you're in trouble.

All right, so anyway, that's up to you. Thankfully, it worked out for me. I'm still here. All right, the true God does want us to learn to treat all men and women with genuine love and respect. I mean, I think that's part of the point I'm trying to make. You know, that's what I try to do. When we respond to God's calling, our conscience takes on a new orientation. We begin to recognize a new authority. Our conscience undergoes a change of authority focus. Previously, our conscience responded to other authorities, like parental authorities, teachers, various such things, good influences in many ways, especially if they respond to God in their life.

You know, if God is somewhat active in their life, we can have excellent teachers, we can have excellent parents that teach us certain things, that teach us godly things, and we learn from that, and that's good for us. That's a healthy thing, and thankfully that happens, and society is better because of it.

But now we have to go further. Now we have to see that God is our authority, that God is the main authority in our life. Not anyone else but the true God. When we are converted, our conscience begins to witness to the will of Christ and to find its focus there. And we want to be pleasing to God the Father and to Jesus Christ. A change of sensitivity takes place. Our conscience was previously dull and insensitive in many areas. In fact, when I was 18 years old, I was a terrorist to my younger brothers.

I terrorized them. I will admit it. I'm not necessarily proud of it, but I will admit it. I terrorized them to some degree. I mean, I wasn't that awful. But I did not behave as well as I should have to my younger siblings. I had an older brother who was a little bit stronger than I, and older, so I didn't harass him too much. But the younger ones. So I was a bit of a terrorist in my own right, but I began to change.

When God started calling me at age 18, I was still at home. My parents both worked later on. Mom didn't work all the time, but she was working. So I was home alone with my brothers and a younger sister, oftentimes. I was kind of the foreman. They did the work. I supervised. I had to make sure it got done. The dishes had to be done. Other things had to be done. But I was the foreman. I was in charge. Well, they started to be a little shocked when I actually started doing a lot of the work myself.

There was a change in me. I felt badly that I had mistreated my brothers. I felt badly about it. I've talked to them. I've asked them to forgive me for that. And we laugh about it. Now, they weren't great either. So it's kind of funny. I've got seven in my family. I've got three brothers and three sisters. Large family.

But I really did change. There was an obvious change in Mark Welch that was surprising to, especially, my brothers, who knew me pretty well. And I would go up and study the Bible, which they surely never saw that. And I started studying the Bible at 18. That was shocking. This first point, I know I've taken a long time, which I plan to, because it's the most important point.

It's the foundation. The next step... I'm not moving on to step two. Let me just talk a little bit more about God as our authority. So the next step, once we are being called, we have to have our bad consciences cleansed. My conscience wasn't great before. I didn't feel that guilty about terrorizing my brothers. Not until God called me. Then I started feeling badly about it. I was a lot more sensitive about it then. So any of you children that are mean to other children, your brothers and sisters, you really need to stop that.

God doesn't want you to act that way. God doesn't want you to be mean to each other. God doesn't want you to push each other around. God doesn't want you to act that way. So if you can start behaving yourself before I did, that will be a good thing. So I'm encouraging all of you children to be good to each other, to love your brothers and sisters. And I love my brothers and sisters to a point. I was nice to them to a point, but I could have done better.

So I had to start working on my conscience. God was doing that for me. Hebrews 9.14. Hebrews 9.14. Hebrews 9.14. We're breaking into where Christ is our high priest. He sacrificed Himself for us. The greatest sacrifice ever. Jesus Christ shed His blood. He laid down His life for us. He is our Redeemer. We are redeemed by His shed blood. And he says in verse 13, 13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serving the living God?

That's what was happening to me. I was involved in doing things I shouldn't do that lead to death. They were dead works. They were leading to death. Selfish behavior, meanness, that all leads to death. That's something that needs to be repented of. So we do need to cleanse our conscience and begin to act properly toward God and toward man. So the means through which the conscience is cleansed is the blood of Christ.

That's what will cleanse your conscience. So unless someone has really accepted Christ as their Savior, they can have a clean conscience. That's really what cleanses one's conscience in the fullest sense. It's true repentance, accepting Christ as your Savior and then dedicating your life and surrendering your life to God in a lifelong process of obedience and faithfulness to God.

A washed and rejuvenated conscience is one evidence that a transformation through a new birth has taken place. A cleansed and rejuvenated conscience. Do you have a godly conscience? Is your conscience exercised properly so that you will submit to every word of God? So that you will obey God in all instances? Completely? Totally? God can do that through His conscience, that we exercise by obedience and faithfulness and love.

So it is possible to have a godly conscience, and the conscience can be your guide. Can believers persist in sinning and yet enjoy a clear conscience? Let me ask that again. Can believers persist in sinning and yet enjoy a clear conscience? No. Absolutely not. It's impossible. You can't do it. Your conscience should convict you. If you are a believer, a true believer, then your conscience will convict you of truth. The Holy Spirit will convict you of truth. And the Holy Spirit, the conscience, they work together.

In Romans 6, 2, it says, In other words, we died to sin because we accepted Christ as our Savior. We came under the watery grave. Our sins were forgiven. We came out of that watery grave. We were a new person. We were cleansed. We were rejuvenated.

So how shall he who died to sin still live in it?

We're not to still live in our sins. We're to come out of our sins. We are to be overcomers. We are to put sin out of our lives. We keep the days of unleavened bread every year that pictures putting love and putting sin out of our lives. That's what God wants. So, brethren, you must accept the true God as the one primary source of authority in your life. Obey God rather than man or anything else. Obey God rather than man. Let's go on to the second point. Secondly, you must be committed to living by every word of God. We've talked some about that already. By living by His laws, by His commandments, His statutes, love is the fulfilling of the law. Both toward God and man. In Acts 24 verse 16, it says, And herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense. This is Paul. To have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men. That's what we should strive to have. That kind of a conscience that's been exercised so that we truly do love God and man. And we even pray for our enemies and those who despitefully use us. The King James uses the word blameless instead of void of offense. The New King James says, A conscience void of offense toward God and toward men. We're not to offend others. We should be sensitive. Not to offend others. Not to hurt others. The King James uses the word blameless to have always a conscience void of blame or blameless. A conscience blameless toward God and toward men. And the way we know that we are truly Christian is our love for one another. God says, You can't love me unless you love your brother. You've got to learn to love your brother. You've got to learn to forgive your brother. You've got to be willing to suffer long with your brother. Your brother who loves you, who may be wanting to understand things better. You need to learn to suffer long. We all do need to do that. We need to be more patient with one another, more kind, more considerate, more loving. I need to do that. We all do.

So again, what about you? Do you strive to exercise your conscience to develop and maintain your conscience to be blameless before God and man? A few years ago, the Boston Marathon terrorists... Remember that? The Boston Marathon? They set off bombs and killed some people during the Boston Marathon. No doubt, their consciences had been seared badly.

They were scarred. They were seared badly. They thought they were doing Allah a service while they were murdering their fellow man.

In 1 Timothy 4, verse 2, here it talks about speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron.

Having a person's conscience seared with a hot iron.

The more we sin, the more we sear our conscience.

The more we go against God's Spirit in our lives, the more we sear our conscience.

Speaking lies in hypocrisy.

This is a deadly cycle that can be established in one's life.

They start to sin more and more and more. They sear their conscience. Their conscience is guilty at first.

Before long, after they've overridden their conscience and sinned anyway, then their conscience is less strong. It becomes very weak. It becomes powerless.

The unpardonable sin would no doubt involve a conscience that has been seared and obliterated.

Someone who commits the unpardonable sin has allowed his conscience to be seared and basically obliterated.

So what would sear a person's conscience? Sin sears a person's conscience. If you continue sinning, you're searing your conscience.

You need to stop that sinning and give your conscience a break.

So sin will do it. Deception, rebellion. It will all sear a person's conscience.

Going against your conscience will burn a person's conscience.

Sin must be met with true repentance.

Or one's conscience is going to be damaged.

And it will continue to be damaged. The more you sin.

A guilty conscience is a good thing in many ways.

At least it shows that one's conscience is not completely seared.

Even if you override your conscience and you sin anyway, at least you still have a conscience.

But you better stop what you're doing. It's been said that a budget is a little bit like a conscience.

A financial budget doesn't keep you from spending, but it makes you feel guilty about it.

You have a budget, you bust the budget, you should feel a little guilty about that, because that's going to keep you from achieving your financial goals. Perhaps. Perhaps.

It doesn't make you. Your conscience doesn't make you obey.

It doesn't make you do good things. It doesn't make you do it.

God's Spirit working in us, guides us and directs us. It leads us.

It helps us change. It helps us overcome.

You should be able to allow your conscience to be your guide.

That is, if you exercise your conscience properly, then you need to listen to it. And frankly, your conscience will start to convict you before you sin.

If you have a healthy conscience, it's acting before you sin.

See, a person is very capable of pushing God to the side, so they can do what they want to do.

There are evil pleasures, pleasures of sin for a season.

We can push that, we can push God aside, so that we can do what we want to do. A healthy conscience will convict you before you sin.

And that's when you need to listen.

And that's when you need to stop the sin in its tracks and go no further.

And then your conscience will become even stronger.

And you will be stronger. And you will be more pleasing to God. And God's Spirit will be more powerful in you. So a conscience doesn't keep you from sinning, necessarily. It doesn't keep you unless it's exercised properly, unless it's a strong conscience that is led by the Spirit of God.

The world, for the most part, doesn't want to accept guilt. They don't like guilt. People that aren't convicted, that don't have God's Holy Spirit dwelling in them, oftentimes they don't want to accept guilt. Now, some people do more than others, because perhaps they are yielding to God's Spirit in their life, even though God's Spirit isn't dwelling in them. They still have a certain understanding. They still have a certain desire. And so their conscience is stronger. And it allows them to make better decisions. Again, it gets down to choice. We're all free moral agents. Your neighbors are free moral agents. Your neighbors get to choose whether they're going to be unfaithful to their mates.

They don't have to be unfaithful to their mates. They ought to know that's wrong, right? Instinctively. By nature, they should know that's wrong. And yet, some people will do it. But others won't.

It's been said that a conscience is like a baby. It has to go to sleep before you can.

It's like a baby. It has to go to sleep. You have to put it to sleep sometime before you can do what you want to do. A baby that screams really loud? Hard to sleep, isn't it?

It's hard to sleep. If you have a conscience that is screaming loudly, don't do it. Don't go that way. You better listen to that screaming baby.

Don't let it go to sleep. That's what people want to do. They want to rock their conscience to sleep so they can go do whatever they want to do. So we have to deal with our conscience. Again, some people deal with it by searing it so they can sleep. So they can do what they want to do. They've got what they wanted, right?

It's not a very restful sleep, though, for one who knows God's truth. It continues to gnaw away at them. I've had people, after 30 years, come back because their conscience continued to gnaw away at them. They went astray. They went back into the world. They were sinning. They were no longer keeping the Sabbath.

They were breaking many of God's laws. And yet their conscience was nagging at them. God did not take the Spirit completely away. The Holy Spirit was perhaps still there. After all those years, they had certainly grieved God's Spirit and quenched it to a large degree.

But don't play games with God and His Holy Spirit. God can take it away. David was concerned that God would take His Spirit away.

The more we sear our conscience as Christians, the more likely God's going to take that Spirit away from us.

Sin begets sin and one's conscience is defiled as a result.

If you don't repent of your sin, you're going to sin again. And you're going to keep sinning. So repentance is vital. Repent of your sins and spare your conscience.

It's been said, if it weren't for your conscience, you would probably do everything you want to do right away.

If it wasn't for your conscience, you'd probably do everything that you want to do, and you'd do it right away.

See, the conscience can slow you down, but if you sear it, then you're not slowed down any longer, are you? Then you're running rampant into sin.

So people are obviously different in regard to their conscience.

To remove the conscience from some people, it would only take a minor operation.

Because they don't have much of a conscience. It's only going to take a minor operation. With others, it is more like major surgery. To you, it should be major surgery. Satan would have to perform major surgery to mess with your conscience.

Because your conscience is strong, your conscience is vital, your conscience fights back.

So hopefully, it wouldn't take just minor surgery to remove your conscience.

If you eliminate your conscience, you eliminate your possibility of repentance. How can you repent if you don't have a conscience?

Many people train their conscience like they would a dog.

They train their conscience to roll over and play dead.

Thousands of people become hard of hearing when their conscience speaks.

Thousands of people become hard of hearing when their conscience speaks.

Don't be hard of hearing.

2 Corinthians 1, verse 12, 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, our conduct in the world, and more abundantly to you, word. For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience. That's 1 Corinthians 1, verse 12.

Our conscience will testify that in simplicity and godly sincerity, that is how we are to live our lives. Not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, yielding to God's Spirit, realizing that we are saved by grace.

So you must be committed to living by every word of God. You must be committed to living by His laws, by His commandments, and by His statutes. That's the second principle. The third one is, you must put into practice your belief in God and your commitment to His ways.

This means you must exercise your conscience through obedience and faith. You have to have faith. Faith without works is dead. You have to trust in God. You have to have faith. You have to believe in Him.

And again, love conquers all. The true, godly love conquers all. God is love, and that's what we all need. Love is the fulfilling of the law of God.

In 1 Timothy 1, verse 5, it says, Now the end of the commandment... Now this is talking about the purpose of the commandment. Now the end of the commandment, or the purpose of the commandment, would be a better translation.

1 Timothy 1, verse 5, the purpose of the commandment is love out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned.

So you've got love, you've got faith, you've got a godly conscience, all working together. Love, faith, and a godly conscience will keep you in very good stead.

Satan will have a hard time performing any kind of surgery on you.

In 1 Timothy 1, verse 19, it says, Holding faith and a good conscience, a good conscience, which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck.

Having faith and a good conscience, some have put away concerning faith and they've become shipwrecked. That's what can happen to us. That's what Paul is telling Timothy here. We have to exercise our conscience and it has to be a godly conscience, or we could become shipwrecked. Faith and a good conscience.

It's been said that with some people, a clear conscience is nothing more than a poor memory. A clear conscience is nothing more than a poor memory. Think about that. Unfortunately, to many people, conscience is the voice that tells you not to do something until after you've already done it. Let me say that again. I mentioned this before.

To many people, conscience is the voice that tells you not to do something, but it doesn't really speak until after you've done it. That's how a lot of Christians are, frankly. A lot of Christians make excuses. They say they're weak. They say that it's the weakness of the flesh. That's why they continue to sin in the way they do.

But the fact of the matter is, they're not allowing their conscience to speak to them. They're not allowing their conscience to convict them, and they're not getting in line with a godly conscience. Now, after they've sinned, there seem to be certain levels of conversion.

As we mature and as we grow, perhaps when we're younger in the faith, oftentimes we make more excuses for our sins. We make more excuses because of the weakness of the flesh and so forth, and we don't listen to our conscience until after we've sinned. As we grow older, and I think that's what's happening with me now, not that I've obviously exercised my conscience before. I have not sinned in many, many instances because my conscience was speaking to me, or I was headed in the right path anyway, and I wasn't being that tempted. Because when you're going down the right path and you're bringing good things into your heart and your mind, you're not going to be as easily tempted. But as I grow older, I think I'm becoming stronger in the faith.

I don't have to sin. I don't have to sin. I can listen to my conscience before I sin. Now, my conscience would drive me to my knees after I've sinned. After I pushed it to the side and did what I wanted to do, then my conscience would convict me. Now, I want my conscience to convict me before I sin.

So, listen to your conscience early on, before it is compromised by your lusts and your evil desires. You must put into practice your belief in God and your commitment to His ways. You have to be committed. Totally committed. This is a total commitment that we have to make. Exercise your conscience through obedience and faith. Now, let's go on to the last point. And I say I've been a bad boy today. I've gone overtime. I apologize. I started...it was 3 o'clock before I think I got started. So, let me wrap this up quickly. The fourth point is one that I've talked to you many times about, and I just mentioned it. The fourth principle, if you want to have a godly conscience, then dwell on the things that are of good report. Dwell on the things that are virtuous, things that are pure, and that are not of good. Dwell on the things that are virtuous, things that are pure, things that are lovely. Dwell on those things, and don't allow yourself to go down that wide path. Remember we talked about that long black train? Don't get on the long black train. It's heading to nowhere. Its only destination is destruction. It's the lake of fire. Stay off the long black train, and get on the narrow path, and stay on the narrow path. Just tune yourself in to those things that are right, good, pure, and lovely. That's Philippians 4, verse 8. There are other scriptures that talk about the conscience. You can look them up. There are about 30 of them. Brother, realize this. Character, godly character, is never erected on a neglected conscience. You can't have godly character by neglecting your conscience. You've got to stir up the Spirit of God that works in you, and that will help your conscience become stronger and more faithful. So, brethren, dwell on these good things. Think about those things. Make sure you're headed down the right path, and don't get on the long black train. Brethren, until Christ returns, and God's government and kingdom is established, we're going to continue to see and hear about terrorist acts. I gave this sermon three or four years ago, right after the Boston terrorist attacks. That's when I first gave this sermon. I said in there that there would be more terrorist attacks. This wasn't the Boston terrorist attack. It wasn't the last one. We haven't seen the last one yet. It's going to get worse and worse and worse as time goes on. It's because Satan has deceived this world, and he has many instruments doing his bidding that are void of conscience. Thankfully, God has called you and me to have a godly conscience. So let us build godly character by developing and by maintaining a good, a godly conscience.