The Value of Conscience

Two kings out in the rocks, one chasing the other, one holding the throne and the other waiting on the throne. Go with me, please, to 1 Samuel 24. 1 Samuel 24. Verse 1. It came to pass when Saul was returned from following the Philistines, that it was told him saying, hey, listen, David. David is in the wilderness of Engadae. When Saul took 3,000 picked or chosen men, he leased soldiers out of all of Israel, and he went to sneak David and his men upon the rocks of the wild goats. And he came to the sheepcoats, by the way, where was a cave. And Saul went in to cover his feet. He went in to relieve himself. And David and his men remained in the sights of the cave, pretty deep cave, pretty big cave. They were hidden in the back. They stayed quiet. And the men of David said to him, look, the day of which the Lord said to you, behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, that you may do to him as it all seems good to you. Encouraging him to get rid of Saul right then. Then David arose. He didn't get rid of Saul. He knew better than that. And he cut off the skirt of Saul's robe quietly, privately, silently. And Saul didn't even know that David was there. Didn't know that David could have killed him. Certainly didn't know that David even cut off part of the skirt of the robe. And it came to pass afterward that David's heart smote him because he had cut off Saul's skirt. You think about it, his heart smote him. In other words, his conscience got to him. His conscience got to him. His conscience smote him when a bear, when a lion, and when a giant hadn't been able to smite him because David was a conscientious person. That's a very important way to be. Things could get to him. This account here to me, whenever I read this years ago, this account to me illustrates as well as about any, the value of conscience. That's what I'm going to talk about today, the value of conscience. If someone were to refer to you with this statement, you know, he's a very conscientious person, or she's a very conscientious person. That's quite a compliment. Conscience is a major asset, but it's much more than just a compliment. It's a real asset. It's a real asset.

You know, conscience helps to act as a set of breaks upon us. How many times would somebody maybe go ahead and do something, but their conscience gets in the way and acts like a set of breaks in their actions? And many times, you might even start to think down a line of thought that really you shouldn't, and your conscience starts kicking in and kind of checkpoints you. Conscience can be an internal checkpoint, kind of like a sensor. You know, you've got a dashboard, and some sensors will come on, and the sensors are just malfunctioning. You know, there's nothing—check engine light comes on. And you find out sometimes that—I mean, get it checked out, yeah. But you find out you've just got a faulty sensor. But you know, the oil light comes on, and you think, well, I'll ignore that.

In fact, better yet, so I don't have a—I mean, the oil light sensor is to tell you you've got an oil problem. Either your oil's too low, or there's something going on that could endanger your engine. You could lose your engine. But I know the solution to that. I'm just going to disconnect the sensor. So the oil light will go off, and then problem solved.

Anyway, it's like an internal sensor, and it kicks in. It acts as a mirror, a reflector, a reflection of one's thinking and acting into one's step. It's a self-monitoring thing. It's something that is self-monitoring, self-evaluated, and it's the continuous thing that goes on with us, you know. It's kind of like you never get away—if you've got a conscience, you never get away from it.

Now, if you don't have one, I guess you're not ever getting away from it because you never buy it to begin with. And I hate to say it, but believe me, and you know this to be true, there are people in this society who do not have a conscience. They do not have a conscience. That may be hard to grasp, but they do not have a conscience. And that is the depth and level of corruption that is very deep.

It's a built-in monitoring device, and it's a constant and instantaneous automatic readout of you to yourself in that sense. Conscience is a godly asset. You know, David, his heart smote him, his conscience smote him. That's what it's talking about. That's one of the reasons God could work with him so deeply. Conscience is the quick that God gets into.

It's like the nerve of the mind of one's being. We've all had things that got into the quick, you know. It kind of gives me pain chills to think about. I have very clear memories of running something up under my fingernail accidentally, you know, a splinter or whatever, into the quick, and it hurts. It even hurts to think about it.

Or go to the dentist, you know, and he says, it's that quickie. You know, you need a little bit more Novocaine or whatever. And I just always like to tell the dentist, just give me two shots to begin with, you know, and you won't have to give me one later.

But you get into the quick of something. You're talking about getting into the touchy part, the sensitive part. And the conscience is supposed to be touchy in a certain healthy way. The conscience is to be the tender spot of a human being, and David's conscience was tender. It was tender. He was tender toward God and towards brother. And when David looked at Saul's back, when he looked at Saul's back as he was leaving the cave, it bothered David what he did to Saul. He didn't hurt him.

He didn't harm him. But the kingly robe, the robe that Saul had, it still bothered him that he had damaged something that belonged to Saul, who was king. And David knew that he himself was going to be king, but he knew that that was going to be determined at the timing by God.

Conscience is designed to prick. It's designed to hurt us when we move in a wrong direction, to pull us up short. It's designed to compel us to move in a better direction. It's influential. It can help move us in the way we should go and prevent us from going the way we should not go. So if you start thinking about doing the wrong thing, if you start getting twinges of guilt, it's because your conscience is kicking in. One of the often heard statements in our day and time, Don't put me on a guilt trip.

You ever try to put somebody on a guilt trip that doesn't have a conscience? You're not going to put them on a guilt trip. Now, they might use that line to just get you off their back, but they're not going to feel guilty. Conscious conscience is the capacity to be bothered when you have done something wrong. That's a good thing, isn't it? If I could do something wrong and not be bothered by it, that's a bad thing.

Godly growth is not going to take place in me. And what has taken place is going to be rapidly lost. But the capacity to be bothered when you've done something wrong is part of the propelling power to turn your round back in the right direction.

Conscience is the capacity to feel guilty when you've done something you know you shouldn't have. That's part of the power and value of it. Would God ever want any of us ever to be able to do something wrong without feeling bad about it? Without being bothered by it? And I think we all know the answer, right? Absolutely not. In Acts 2, they have Pentecost, the apostles preaching to what turned out to be quite a multitude, didn't it?

And what they were saying was falling on every kind of ear in that multitude. And in that multitude, and especially when Peter spoke, there were a bunch of them that responded. And there was a whole bunch of them that did not, and did not care, and just simply were angry or whatever. But of those who responded, it's always been a significant Scripture to me in verse 37. Acts 2 and verse 37.

Now, when they heard this, those who are of the capacity to respond, they were pricked in their heart. In other words, they were pricked in their conscience. They were pricked in their heart. They were pricked in their conscience. They had conscience. It made them feel bad. The message got into the quick, and they were pricked in their conscience, and they said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles, and they said, Brother and brother, what shall we do? They felt guilty. They were able to be appealed to.

They could be motivated. And of course, that all led to the action that could not have occurred without conscience. How do you get people to repent if they can't be pricked in conscience? How do you get people to have any motivation to change and be different if they have no conscience, or nothing to appeal to? See, one with conscience can be appealed to, and one without conscience cannot be appealed to. This is why we're warned in so many words not to let our conscience be sealed with a hot iron.

I see Scripture reference on that, 1 Timothy 4 and verse 2. 1 Timothy 4 and verse 2. We are warned, you and I, we, God's people, are given a warning, not to ever let our conscience be sealed with a hot iron. I could name names of some well-known political figures who do not have a conscience. They fear their conscience. There are certain situations in this world where people, in order to get what they want, feel that they have got to push all conscience aside and be willing to do whatever it takes to get that which they want.

And once they fall into that way of thinking, conscience is in the way, and they start the process of searing it. And it's a sad situation, but it's just the way it is. This Roe v. Wade, 73, the Supreme Court overturned it. They didn't do a way with abortion. They just put it back to the states and let the states deal with it. And one of the first things that President Biden said in the State of the Union is, if he's elected again, he wants to get a national law for abortion.

Take it away from the states again and make it federal. In spite of the highest law of the land, as far as judgment, judging, Supreme Court ruling, that what was done in 73 should not have been done. It's got to go back to the states. Mothers who abort their babies have to, at least to some degree, affect their conscience. They have to steer it to a certain degree. But frankly, even more so, doctors and nurses that do that have to steer their conscience.

And that's why some doctors, after a while, they said, I can't do this anymore. Price is too high. Certain nurses would no longer assist. And then, how much conscience is there if a young woman goes to a prom and she's ready to deliver? It's just not a made-up case. This actually happened a number of years ago. She went to the bathroom during the prom, had the baby, put it in the trash, and went back out to dance.

Now, it might say, well, she just had a kid. How could she do that? Well, you tell me. But it actually happened. How about the mother, Karen Smith? A number of years ago now, she had a boyfriend. And the boyfriend wanted a girlfriend without kids. She had two kids, two boys. And she wanted him enough that she took and strapped her two little boys in the car and rolled them off into a lake and drowned them to be free of them. And tried to make it look like, you know, a car was hijacked or whatever and taken.

You can't tell me that when things like that are done, it's not putting a hot iron to the conscience. Again, try appealing to someone without a conscience. Hard, difficult. How do you reach someone without a conscience? You can't direct a person who is without a conscience. You can't appeal to him. If there's no conscience, and you can't put one there, you can't work with a person without conscience. There's nothing to prick. Think about that. There's nothing to prick. One reason I repented years ago and continue to repent to the degree that I know that I need to continue to repent is because, you know, my conscience is pricked.

Notice with me, we're here in Acts. Notice Acts 13, verse 22. The people that God has always been able to use or work with have been people of conscience. Moses. When Moses came of age, about age 40 in Egypt, his conscience would not allow him to continue to live and stay in Pharaoh's household and ignore the plight of his native people. His conscience would not allow him to continue as he did, as he had lived. Conscience is one of the things that drove him to side with God, to side with his people. Acts 13, verse 22.

Of course, it's breaking into the context, but it doesn't change any of what I've addressed. And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king, removed Saul, removed him through death at the hand of the Philistines. And, of course, David at that point became literally the king, to whom also he gave testimony and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, which shall fulfill all my will, a man after my own heart. There's a scripture back here I want to check right quick.

Okay. If it could be said of me in any way, or of you in any way, this is the person after God's own heart. That's one of the last compliments you could ever receive. If you could start out on the road to having a heart after God's own heart, where would you start? That's the most basic starting point. What's the truth that God pulls? What's the arena in which He's got to apply pressure to bring us around?

Again, it's the conscience. And again, that's why Acts 2, verse 37, is so significant and crucial in the road of repentance and baptism and receiving God's Spirit. And in all of that, pricked in their conscience, Acts 2, 37, that was God's laying a heavy hand upon their spiritual sensitivity. It bothered many in the crowd. It didn't bother the others. Because again, I want you to think about something.

When a group of people, like the Pharisees and like the Stadchestes, can say like they did in John 11, Guys, we've got to put our heads together. We've got to take care of business. That this man does miracles is obvious. There's Lazarus as evidence. And if we don't get rid of this man, if we don't get rid of him, I mean, even if they didn't want to believe he was the Son of God, they knew he was of God.

They knew he was a good man. Which meant they were in the spirit of murder. And they were going to go ahead and carry out murder. But if we don't, and it was political with him, it was a political statement. We're going to lose our position. We're going to lose our nation. The Romans are going to move in, and better he dies, better he goes, better he's out of the way.

And we keep our nation, we keep our position, and it was very political. How do you knowingly do something that you know is wrong, and not do damage to your conscience? Not all the Pharisees were caught up in that same thing. Nicodemus wasn't caught up in it. But those who were, and then some of those were in that multitude on Acts 2. Some of them were in that crowd. They were some of the ones that were monkeying and making light of.

No, if you're going to do something, or you are doing something that you know you shouldn't, it's going to bother you. You can't keep it from bothering you. And again, some things are just automatic. The nerves, you know, you think about some things how automatic they are. The nerves and the fingertips are very concentrated, very sensitive, very touchy. Look at what we can do with our fingers. And just use the fingers as an example. God put those nerves there for the dexterity of tremendous skill and pleasure, but also to keep you from damaging yourself.

I mean, look what we can do with our fingers. It is just absolutely amazing. But what if you could kind of lean back and put your hand on a hot oven, a hot eye, and you didn't feel any burning sensation until you're talking to somebody, and, hmm, something's burning around here.

What is it? Oh, it's my hand. Think about it. The nerves and the hands and the fingers are for great skill and pleasure, great operation, but they're also to protect you. A good conscience dealt with in a good way is a tremendous blessing, gives you great peace of mind, and a sense of spirit. And if you violate it, it hurts. It's automatic. When you touch something hot, you don't have to. There's not the process of you touch something hot, and you think, oh, I'm touching something hot. It'd probably be a good idea if I moved my finger off of that hot eye there, because the longer I leave it there, the more damage there's going to be, so I think I'll move it.

It's reaction, it's reflex. As soon as you touch it, you don't have to think. You're reacting immediately. The signal of the pain to the brain and the fingers coming off, or the hands coming off. You react very powerfully, and those signals are involuntary. Here's one thing about conscience. Conscience can be tricked if it's not educated properly. It can be tricked. I've heard this saying throughout my lifetime, let conscience be your guide. Well, how good is that?

Well, my conscience will guide me. Well, do you have an educated conscience? Let your conscience be your guide. It's only good to the degree that your conscience is actually educated. That is why it is so important to properly educate the conscience. You know, if you look at this scripture in Romans 1423. This one says, If it douses them to the eat, because the eat is not of faith, or whatsoever is not of faith is thin, I have never asked and will not ask someone to go against their conscience. There are some things that a person will not do, because it violates their conscience.

But I may do that because it doesn't violate my conscience, but then it bothers them that I'm doing that which violates their conscience. And where the issue or the problem is, education or lack of education of the conscience, I would never ask anybody to go against their conscience. But I will ask a person to educate their conscience. Because if you believe something is wrong to do and it's not wrong, obviously if you do it, it's going to hurt your conscience. But if you research and study and come to realize that what you thought was wrong to do is not wrong, then to see someone else doing it or you do it, it's not going to hurt your conscience.

A conscience, a healthy conscience, is one that is truly educated in what is right and wrong and what's proper and proper. And an educated conscience is part of the instrumentality that people can use, that God can use, to guide us by. And what we call conscience can retain or hold God's impact or imprint upon us, and in that sense becomes a type of reservoir of truth.

You study the truth, you know the truth, you know what God says is okay, what He says is not okay, and you educate yourself according to that, and that is imprinted upon you, and it kind of becomes a reservoir of truth in one's sense. 2 Corinthians 3.3 This is why we have to study God's Word, we have to think on the Scripture, we have to put things together, we have to do that which can help us to have an educated conscience.

2 Corinthians 3.3 God can help do that through His Spirit, and in that case conscience is your guide, because you wind up with a developed spiritual conscience that guides and directs you. Now, there are some people that will not eat out on the Sabbath, okay, that's fine, I'm not going to try to persuade them to go with me to eat out on the Sabbath.

I'll under that. But I eat out on the Sabbath because I have studied it all the way through, been part of a committee that studied this a good long time ago, and I know it's not wrong to eat out on the Sabbath. Now, again, I respect the one who won't eat out on the Sabbath. Fine, I under that and won't try to put pressure on them, but I studied it out and know that it is not wrong to do so.

And there's reasons why it's not wrong to do so. So I don't condemn them and I should not. But I'm not bothered in conscience by eating out on the Sabbath. There are people who will not fry an egg on the Sabbath. If that bothers them to cook on the Sabbath, they will just for the meal of that day, whatever, and they don't? Okay, fine, but they need to educate their conscience with knowledge because it's not wrong to cook on the Sabbath. I could show you a scripture in the Bible, and I will at some point in time, where God said, on these holy days, you may prepare that which each person needs to eat. Prepare it on the Sabbath, on the holy day itself. It's there in Scripture. But again, that's why not everybody knows the Scripture and knows what God truly allows. Again, there's various issues, but my point is, the more spiritually educated your conscience is, obviously the greater an asset it is as a guide for you. And it is part of the instrumentality that God can use to guide us by. You know, sometimes you've seen these caricatures or cartoons where this guy's standing here and he's got a decision to make. He can either do this or he can do that. And he's got a little tiny devil sitting on one shoulder that says, do this. And he's got a little tiny angel, which is supposed to be the conscience, sitting on the other shoulder, saying, no, no, you can't do that. Do this. So the guy is trying to figure out which one he wants to listen to. Sometimes we speak of the conscience as a still, small voice. And I think about how with the wind and the fire and all, with the earthquake, with Elijah up at the cave where he went to meet God, and, you know, God was not in the fire and God was not in the wind and he wasn't in the earthquake and all of that. And when that all settled down, just a still, small voice. Just a still, small voice. Children that will lick peanut butter off the toes of classmates. And that will do something else. Also, again, I won't lay out from the pulpit, which is totally gross and stomach-turning. You think they're developing any kind of a true conscience where they can be bothered by about anything? No. Sad, sad. A sense of right and wrong, and a conviction toward right with the corresponding pricking of the emotions when crossed by thoughts or by actions, conscience, the nerve of our being, the nerve of our viber, the quick, the ability, capacity to feel sensitivity toward morals, values, standards, towards right and wrong, proper versus improper, to feel a compunction, to be compelled to move in a proper direction, to indict us when we go against it. God gave us a conscience, the capacity for conscience, so we could feel a compunction to change. And one of the most valuable and far-reaching gifts that any parent having children could ever give their children, one of the greatest gifts is to help instill in them a conscience. I can remember... I have memories back to age 3, and I can remember how... and I could... I could... let me tell you that a little bit more... but I can remember how the issue of conscience was worked upon me when I was 3 years old, maybe earlier, but I just don't remember earlier, I just remember 3, where conscience was seated in me, was being promoted in me by my parents at age 3.

You know, when we talk about, like, Proverbs 22, 6, train up a child in the way he should go, and when he's already going to depart from it, I think that entails conscience as a trainable element that generally has to be developed early in a person, to develop fully and accurately, and to have full potential, potential we have to start early. A couple of script here, and I'm going to wrap it up. Deuteronomy 6, verses 4-7.

Deuteronomy 6, verses 4-7.

Here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I command you, I command you this day, shall be in your heart, and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk to them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. These shall be in your heart. Imprints, imprints on the conscience. God's tracks, God's fingerprints on the conscience.

Find the scripture. Ruth 4. And now In verse 22.

And Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David.

Obed's father was Boaz. David was the great-grandson of Boaz. Boaz, from the account of Ruth, was an extremely conscientious man, and was chosen to be in the lineage, the ancestral lineage, of Jesus Christ.

He was an extremely conscientious man, and so was Ruth. And their great-grandson, David, was an extremely conscientious man. The value of good conscience is to be treasured. It is without measure.