HOW TO KEEP A CLEAN CONSCIENCE

Victor M. Eskew

 

INTRODUCTION

 

A.      One of the unique features of human beings is something that is called a conscience.  No other living creature has a conscience.

 

B.      When I first started preaching, I tried to find someone who would give me a good definition of the word “conscience.” 

1.       No one would give me a definition.

2.       My personal definition:  A feeling that originates in the mind that approves or condemns a person’s words or behaviors and is based upon the education and training the person has received.

a.       It is a feeling. 

1)      It can be a good feeling.

2)      It can be a horrible feeling.

b.       The feeling originates in the mind of the individual.  This is the place from which all feelings originate.

c.        The feeling either approves or condemns.

1)      The feeling affirms that a person has done something right. (Ex., going to a nursing home devotional)

2)      The feeling condemns because the individual has done something wrong. (Ex., selling my Jeep).

d.       The feeling that a person has is based upon the education and training a person has received.

1)      This is what creates the dangerous element of the conscience.

2)      This is why people can engage in the exact same act and one’s conscience approves of his behavior while another person’s conscience condemns his behavior.

 

I.                    THE BIBLE AND THE CONSCIENCE

 

A.      The word “conscience” is only found in the New Testament.  It is found 31 times in 29 verses in the King James Version.

 

B.      The Bible describes the conscience in several ways.

1.       A conscience void of offence toward God (Acts 24:16)

2.       A weak conscience (1 Cor. 8:12)

3.       A good conscience (1 Tim. 1:5, 19; Heb. 13:18; 1 Pet. 3:16, 21)

4.       A pure conscience (1 Tim. 3:9; 2 Tim. 1:3)

5.       A conscience seared with a hot iron (1 Tim. 4:2).

6.       A defiled conscience (Tit. 1:15)

7.       An evil conscience (Heb. 10:22)

 

II.                 THE CONSCIENCE AND TRAINING

 

A.      The conscience responds either positively or negatively based upon the education and training an individual receives.

 

B.      Examples:

1.       The woman taken in adultery (John 8:1-11) 

a.       The account involves the woman taken in adultery by the scribes and Pharisees.

b.       They said to Jesus:  “Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned:  but what sayest thou?” (John 8:5).

c.        Jesus responded with these words:  “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her” (John 8:7)

d.       The reaction is found in John 8:9.

 

And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last:  and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

 

1)      First, notice that their consciences convicted them.

2)      They left from the eldest to the youngest. 

3)      The older had more wisdom and experience from which to draw.  Thus, they left before the younger men did.

2.       The eating of meats offered unto idols (I Cor. 8)

a.       The Gentiles would use meat as part of the worship of idols.

b.       After their services, this meat was often taken to the marketplace and sold.

c.        The question was:  “Should Christians eat this meat since it had been offered to idols?” (1 Cor. 8:4a).

 

As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols…

 

d.       The two reactions of the Christians to this meat:

1)      Some Christians had a deep knowledge that an idol is nothing in the world (1 Cor. 8:4-6).  This individual could eat the meat and his conscience never condemned him for doing so.

2)      “Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge:  for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled” (1 Cor. 8:7).

e.        NOTE:  The reaction depended upon the knowledge of the individual.  Thus, the reaction of the conscience is based upon knowledge.  Knowledge is based upon education and training.

 

III.              THE CONSCIENCE AS OUR GUIDE

 

A.      There is on old saying:  “Let your conscience be your guide.” 

1.       If your conscience approves of your actions, you are fine.

2.       If your conscience convicts you of your actions, then you should not engage in the behavior.

 

B.      Remember:  My conscience responds based on my training.  What if my training is not in harmony with the will of God? 

 

C.      Example:

1.       Saul (Paul)

a.       In Acts 8:1, we read:  “And Saul was consenting unto his death…”  His death was Stephen’s death. 

b.       In Acts 9:1, Saul is seen persecuting the disciples of the Lord.

 

And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciple of the Lord, went unto the high priest.

 

c.        We know Saul was converted and became an apostle of Christ and a missionary especially to the Gentiles and did phenomenal work spreading the gospel.

d.       Now listen to Paul as he spoke before the Jewish council in the city of Jerusalem (Acts 23:1).

 

And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God unto this day.

 

1)      Paul had always lived in all good conscience before God.

2)      Even when Paul was persecuting the church, he had a good conscience.

3)      Saul was a devote Jew.  He saw the church as an enemy of Judaism.  Thus, he attempted to destroy the church prior to seeing Jesus on the road to Damascus.

4)      He was killing Christians, denying the Christ, and refusing to obey the gospel, but his conscience was good.

5)      Why?  His education and training were incomplete.

6)      This proves that the conscience is not a good guide for human beings.

2.       If I were to get up this coming Sunday, forsake the assembly, and head off to the ocean for a day of fun, my conscience would sting me greatly.  Yet, there are thousands at the beach every Sunday who do not worship God that day, and their conscience does not bother them at all.  Why?  They have not been taught the commands of God and the necessity of worshiping the Father in the prescribed way. 

3.       LESSON:  The conscience is not a safe guide when it comes to religious matters.  The only safe guide is the Word of the living God (Ps. 119:105). 

 

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

 

IV.               THE SEARING OF THE CONSCIENCE

 

A.      Another danger of the conscience is that is can be seared (1 Tim. 4:1-2).

 

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron.

 

1.       “Seared with a hot iron” calls to the mind the branding process.  The flesh is burned and the nerves are burned to the point that there is no feeling on the areas that has been brand.

2.       The conscience can also be seared with a hot iron.

a.       We are taught what the will of God is.

b.       When we do something that God forbids, our conscience bothers us. 

When we fail to do something God command us to do, our conscience bothers us.

c.        However, the more we continue to refuse to comply with God’s will, the harder our heart becomes in the process.

d.       Eventually, we will reach a point where our conscience no longer has any feeling.  We will engage in our sin, and we will not be bothered at all.

e.        Warning:  Our conscience can become so hard that we will never return in obedience to God’s will (Heb. 6:4-6).

 

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

 

B.      The religious leaders of Jesus’ day are examples of those whose consciences were hardened.

1.       These were men who were well trained in the Law of Moses.

2.       Two things happened to these men.

a.       They added their traditions to the Law that caused the Law to be void (Matt. 15:1-9).

b.       They made an outward show of their religion (Matt. 23:5-7), but their hearts were corrupt and evil (Matt. 23:27-28).

 

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness.  Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

3.       The consciences of these men were so hard that when the Son of God came on the scene, they refused to accept Him and His words.

a.       They rejected His claims.

b.       They rejected His works.

c.        They became so hardened that they devised a plan whereby an innocent man would be put to death.

4.       These men came to resemble some Paul describes in Titus 1:15b-16.

 

…but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.  They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good works reprobate.

 

V.                 OBTAINING AND MAINTAINING A GOOD CONSCIENCE

 

A.      Sin and rebellion against God will defile the conscience of man.  Therefore, this must be removed in order to a person to have a good conscience toward God.

 

B.      The blood of Christ is essential in the cleansing process (Heb. 9:14).

 

How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

 

C.      Key factors:

1.       An honest and good heart when God’s word is presented to you (Luke 8:15).

 

But that on good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart having heard the word, keep it and bring forth fruit with patience.

 

2.       A willingness to repent when we see we are in error. 

a.       Repentance is a change of mind that leads to a change of behavior that results in a reformation of life.

b.       It is a command (Acts 17:30).

c.        When a person refuses to repent, his heart becomes hardened to the truth.  The more he hears and the more he refuses to change, the harder his heart becomes (Acts 7:51).

 

Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost:  as your fathers did, so do ye.

 

3.       Obey the gospel, including the command to be baptized.

a.       The command to be baptized could not be clearer in the Word of God (Acts 22:16).  When a person obeys it, it is the answer of a good conscience toward God according to the apostle Peter (1 Pet. 3:21).

 

The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us, (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

 

b.       The Hebrew penman realized the necessity of baptism and tied it to the purification of the conscience in Hebrews 10:22.

 

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

 

1)      The only thing the words, “our bodies washed with pure water,” could refer to is baptism.

2)      When a person is baptized, the precious blood of the Lamb is figuratively sprinkled on his conscience and is purified in the process.

4.       After becoming a Christian, we must do two things.

a.       Live a life of obedience to the precious Word of God.

b.       If we sin against God, do not persist therein.  Repent of the sin, confess it, and ask for forgiveness.  Remember, if we persist in sin long enough, our hearts can become hardened against its harmful nature to our lives.

 

CONCLUSION

 

A.      We should rejoice that we live in the Christian dispensation and not under the Law of Moses.

1.       Under the Law of Moses there was no way to purify the conscience (Heb. 10:1-2).

2.       The reason is because the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin (Heb. 10:4).

3.       “But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance against made of sins every years (Heb. 10:3).

4.       Under the New Testament of Jesus Christ, there is complete cleansing of sin. 

a.       Our sins are forgiven and remembered against us no more (Heb. 8:12).

b.       If they are completely removed from us, then we do not need to have a guilty conscience concerning them.

 

B.      If we have trained our conscience well, there are times when we can trust the feelings of our conscience.

1.       It will approve us when we do what is right.

2.       It will convict us when we do what is wrong. 

a.       If it convicts us, we need to take note.  We need to bring our lives back in harmony with God’s will.

b.       Remember, the more we reject doing what God has authorized, the harder our hearts become.  We can reach a point of no return.