How healthy is your conscience
Key Passage: 2 Corinthians 1:12
Date: June 7, 2024
Turn your Bibles, if we would, to Second Corinthians, chapter number one, in God’s Word this morning. Second Corinthians chapter number one. Let me help you out a little bit. It’s right after First Corinthians. How about that? Chapter 1 is right before chapter 2. Man, I’m going. I got it going today. Second Corinthians chapter number 1 and verse number 12. We want to just for a bit—I think God would have us focus on: How healthy is your conscience? How healthy is your conscience?
And just for a bit, we’ll focus on that, our conscience. And 2 Corinthians chapter number 12, chapter number 12, 2 Corinthians chapter number 1, verse number 12. We’re going to get it right here in a minute.
That scratch did it. That’s what got me. That’s what it is. No, I didn’t have anything to drink besides water early. I’m good. Would you please stand just to show the Word of God respect? Second Corinthians 1 and verse number 12 of God’s Word. If you’re there, would you say amen? Good deal. Here we go, verse number 12.
For our rejoicing is this: the testimony of our conscience. By the way, if you’ve got a messed-up conscience, you don’t have a lot of rejoicing. For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom—worldly wisdom, not with that, not with fleshly wisdom—but by the truth, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation, our manner of living in the world, and more abundantly to you.
Now, let me just explain to touch here. He’s saying the testimony of our conscience is that we’ve lived a good testimony in front of you. Our conversation, our manner of living in front of you, was right. We didn’t have a bad reputation. We were good examples to you. And our conscience bears witness of that, all right? And I’m going to take this little phrase out of there, “the testimony of our conscience.” We’re just going to go after this thing of our conscience a bit this morning, all right? So would you pray with me that God would give us wisdom and help us to understand biblically what our conscience is, what it does, and how the state of your conscience is? Would you pray with me that God would use that this morning?
Father, I believe you have led me this way. I don’t know all the reasons, Lord. Father, I do know how our day and time can really contaminate and even defile our conscience. So, Lord, would you clean up our conscience? Lord, teach us this morning how to have and maintain a good conscience in the midst of our society. Father, if there’s one here not saved, Lord, I do pray before they leave, they would be saved. Lord, make it clear in their heart and their mind. Keep the devil away from that. Lord, give them boldness to make a decision for you today, Jesus. And Lord, well, thank you for what you do. Father, we ask for these things in faith because we’re asking in the name of Jesus. Amen.
If you will, he is calling his conscience up to be on the witness stand. And he is telling these Corinthians, the Corinthian church, “I’m letting my testimony”—excuse me, my conscience—testify for me. And the conscience is speaking, saying, “Yeah, these guys have sincerely sought and served the Lord in front of this Corinthian church.”
Now, this word “conscience”—it is not just a modern-day term. It is mentioned in the Bible 31 times. All of those have been in the New Testament. But 31 times the Bible speaks of your conscience. You say, “Well, what exactly is our conscience?” It is not the one that makes the decision for you. No, no. Your will makes the decision for you. But your conscience is the one that tells your will and yourself what is right or wrong. It’s the part of you that says, “That’s not right,” or, “That is right.” You allow that. You shouldn’t allow that. Your conscience might say, “No, no, don’t do that,” but your will says, “I’m going to do that.” Your will makes the decision, and then you bear scars that pay the consequences for that. But there’s a difference. Your conscience is the thing that tells you what is right or what is wrong.
Now, look over in Romans, real quickly, at Romans chapter number nine, Romans chapter number nine in the Bible. And the Bible gives us a little bit more light on the way it works—your conscience and God working in and through your conscience. Romans chapter number nine, I want you just look at verse number one. We’re just catching glimpses of the Bible talking about your conscience. Romans 9 and verse number one, he says, “There, I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness.” Here’s an important part we’re looking at: in the Holy Ghost. So the Holy Ghost will have, if you allow it, will have an influence over your conscience. It’s very important that you let the Holy Spirit guide your conscience. Very, very important. He works in and through people’s conscience, the Holy Spirit of God. He does that.
Now, everyone’s got a conscience. Everyone does. Saved or lost, everyone’s got a conscience. The first time conscience is mentioned in the Bible is over there where Jesus was in the temple court, and they brought the woman that had been taken in adultery. Remember that? And the Pharisees read, “Let’s kill her, let’s stone her.” And Jesus said, “No, no, he that is without sin, let him cast the first stone.” Now, let me see what happens after that. It’s John 8:9. I’ll just read it for you. “And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the elders, even unto the last.” And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. But it was their conscience that convicted them. At least they had a conscience enough to realize, “Hey, I got some sin myself.” It was their conscience. So everybody’s got a conscience. I don’t think all those Pharisees and Sadducees there were saved, but the vast majority, I would think, they were not saved, but still they had a conscience. The Holy Spirit reproves the world of sin working through the conscience.
Now, the Bible—y’all still with me out here this morning? A little informative, stay on board as we’re kind of leading up to wherever we’re going here, just giving you some facts from the Bible about your conscience. The Bible lists six different types of conscience. All right. The first one we’ll mention—it is found twice in the Bible—is a pure conscience. I’ll just read it for you: 2 Timothy 1, verse number 3: “I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience.” That’s a conscience that does not have spots on it. It’s clean, all right? Pure conscience, clean without spot, all right?
Then the Bible mentions this—six times it mentions a good conscience, all right? It’s healthy. It’s in good shape. Someone said, “Well, round is your shape. I’m in good shape, Pastor, you know.” No, it’s healthy. It’s a good conscience. It’s working well. First Peter 3:21 is one of those times. Mentioned six times. This is one of the times. I like figure we’re into even baptism: “Those 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.” If someone gets saved and yet they will not get baptized, they will not have a healthy—they will not have a good conscience—because the Holy Spirit says, “Hey, buddy, hey lady, you need to get baptized,” and it just works on your conscience. And so it’s not good; it’s not in good shape because it hasn’t done what God wants a child of God to do: to get baptized. So when someone gets baptized, they have a good conscience. They just feel good about that thing. Their conscience is relieved because they did what God wanted them to do after they got saved and they got baptized. But the Bible talks about a good conscience six times.
Then the Bible talks about a weak conscience. It’s mentioned three times in the Bible. Y’all still with me out there? Don’t lose me. Don’t lose me. This is a… A conscience, maybe a good way to word it, is it’s just weakened. It can be easily swayed. I think there are many, many weak consciences in the Bible Belt, down South Tennessee, where you and I live. At least they have somewhat of a conscience. They maybe were raised in church years ago. They’re out of church for years, but they have some Bible. They have some conscience. They have some convictions about it. Maybe they were raised in a pretty good home, Bible or not. They’re raised in a pretty good home, and they have somewhat of a conscience, but it can be easily swayed. And they have a weak conscience. Not bad—we’ll mention some other ones worse—but it’s just a weak conscience. Let me say this: there’s hope for that crowd. They could be influenced very easily by good and right, also by bad, but they can be influenced by the right things. It’s someone when you say, “Hey, I know you told me you’re a morning Christian, but can I invite you to church? I know you don’t go that much.” Can I invite you to church? And they don’t say, “Well, you can go to heaven without being in church? You don’t have to go to church.” They don’t do all that. They typically will say, “Well, you know, you’re right. I do need to find a good church.” They just got a weak conscience. They’re not horrible people, not been defiled by the world. They’ve just got a weak conscience. The environment affects them very, very much, those with the weak conscience.
Number four, number four, there are six of them, and we’re on number four. When we get to number six, we will go home after about an hour after that one. Okay, all right, there you are. All right, so don’t put your shoes on quite yet. We’re not ready to go home. But the defiled conscience, mentioned twice in the Bible, okay? It is a conscience that’s been contaminated. It has spots on it. It’s been marked somewhat by the world. 1 Corinthians 8, verse number 7: “Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge.” By the way, he’s speaking here of meats that have been offered to idols. And after they were offered to idols, then they were kind of selling at the flea market for a good price, but that was prime rib. Amen. Come on now. Y’all can say amen about prime rib any day now. Come on now, good old steak, you know. And now some Christians, they had been living for the Lord long enough, and they’ve been away from those false idols long enough. That’s just a piece of rock or a piece of wood. And the conscience was mature enough, if you will, they knew it didn’t matter. That’s just a piece of wood. But then there were some maybe—some might have just got saved, or maybe they got out of that idol worship—and for them, if it’s been offered to idols, you know, you ought not to have anything to do with it. In fact, the chapter goes on and says, if that’s going to defile someone else’s conscience, leave it alone. Don’t touch it because it’ll hurt somebody else, even though you know it’s not wrong. But this is what he says here. He says, “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.” All right? So they got a spot. They’ve got a mark against their conscience. By the way, if you keep going against your weak conscience after a while, it becomes defiled. All right? Y’all with me out there? I know we’re giving a lot of just informational things right now. By the way, can I say this? That’s why sometimes maybe someone is listening to the devil’s music. And I often say this, but Rolling Stone magazine said this one time: the three major topics of rock and roll music are drugs, sex, and rebellion. And maybe they’ve been listening to that long enough that their weak conscience has been defiled. And so you say, “Why do you listen to that?” And they say, “Well, what’s wrong with that? What’s your problem? Everybody listens to that.” And they’re sincerely deceived because their weak conscience has been defiled because they’ve been continually marking on that weak conscience, and it’s become defiled. You understand how important your conscience is?
Then number five, I’ve got a hurdle on number five, is an evil conscience, which I want to mention one time in the Bible—an evil conscience. It’s a conscience that’s so warped that others get hurt in the process of it. 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.” It’s when maybe a spouse has treated the spouse disrespectfully and hatefully and just mean, and always, you know, down-talking or just trying to, you know, browbeat their spouse. They did it so long that their weak conscience has become defiled, and now it’s becoming evil because it’s hurting someone else.
Now, let me get to number six. Number six, there’s a seared conscience. That’s a conscience like a cow or a calf. They take that iron, that brand, in the fire, and then they hold that calf down, and they put it on; it just sears, and it marks them, it stains them. It’s a permanent mark on them. Someone that has a seared conscience—the Bible talks about during the last days before Jesus Christ comes back. First Timothy 4:2: “…speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron.” Someone’s just very bold and spewing out their messed-up philosophies. It’s very much going on in our day and time. It’s where they call evil good and good evil, and their conscience is seared. Their conscience is so messed up, it’s got permanent bad marks on their conscience. They think they are right in doing wicked, sinful things. Their conscience is seared. Can I say this? It takes the power in the hand of God to change a conscience like that.
I think of hearing a lady. She worked in an abortion clinic. Every day, workday, she went in, and she helped the doctors perform murdering little bitty babies. I mean, just that’s what it was. That’s what she did every day. She never really thought that much about it. Her conscience, her weak conscience, had been defiled by the media and everybody else—you know, not everybody, the society around her. And she went there. She really didn’t think anything of it. That was her job. She got paid to do it. She went to college to get her license and all that, and that’s what she did. And God was working in her heart, not necessarily about abortions at the time, but about getting saved—that she was a sinner, headed to hell, and she needed Jesus Christ, her Savior, to pay for her sin debt, and she needed to get saved. And one day, she asked Jesus Christ to be her Savior. Now, before that, the Holy Spirit was working on her conscience, was convicting her. But at that moment when she got saved, boom, the Holy Spirit moved inside of her. Boy, it brought life. She’s a new creature. It began to do just amazing things in her conscience. Now, God Almighty is living inside of her and influencing her conscience in a new way she never dreamed of. And she went to work the next day, not thinking to think about it, but she went to work. Things were different. When they performed an abortion, she would see as they would put that needle in through the mom’s stomach into the womb and into the child. And through the ultrasound and whatnot, they could see that baby squirm. She had seen that thousands of times before, but it never really bothered her. But now the Holy Ghost was bringing life to her conscience, and she thought, “Wow, what are we doing here? I can’t believe it’s never bothered me before.” One of the things about her testimony that I always remember: she said I was shocked that day. I never noticed it before, but she said the abortion clinic had a certain stench or smell of really death about it. She said, “I never thought about it. I never felt that before,” but just things were so different. She said it was all I could do to keep from weeping. She said, “I’ve been involved with this for years and years, and I never thought a thing about it. It’s a fetus. That’s what we were told. That’s what we believe. That’s what we thought.” But something’s different now, and her conscience was bearing witness: “Wow, this is murder.” And it was affecting her so much so because there’s something different inside of her now. Her conscience was alive now. And one of her coworkers pulled her aside, took her to a different room. “Hey, look, you’ve been a proponent of abortion for years. What’s wrong with you today? You just seem different today.” And she said, “Well, I really don’t know, but I view it so differently than I ever have. Have you ever thought about what we’re doing?” And the other lady kind of, “You know, something’s got to you. You’re feeling okay? What’s changed about you?” And somewhere along the line, she realized, “Hey, I got saved last night. Maybe that’s what’s making me different.” And the coworkers said, “Well, just go home, take a break, and get some rest, and you’ll come back tomorrow, and you’ll have your sanity back inside of you.” By the way, she went home and never came back to work there again. Amen? And God is the one that can change a seared conscience. But this whole world, it can influence even a saved person. It can change. It can influence your conscience.
Let me say just a couple things about this. How was your conscience? If we could bring your conscience up here somewhere, or maybe better than that, we could somehow take your conscience out of you, and we’re going to take your conscience up here to Vanderbilt, and let’s say, “Would you give this conscience a checkup? Check out the blood pressure. How’s it doing?” Someone says, “Oh, no.” Let’s put your conscience on the scales. Oh, no, this is not good at all if we’re going to weigh anything. You know, I mean, anybody out there like me, when you go in there for the physical, you’ve got to take your keys out, you know, and pocket knife out. What do you do? I don’t want to weigh too much unless we’re about to get weighed. Anyway, if we could take your conscience out and get a checkup on your conscience, how would it be? How healthy would your conscience be?
And let me give you a couple of things. The only way to have a good conscience—let me just start—the only way to have a good conscience, a conscience that is right with God. By the way, at the end of the day, you’re not going to be judged by CNN or NBC or by the polls in Tennessee or the polls in New Hampshire, wherever it makes. You’re going to be judged by God Almighty at the end. And the thing that God is going to judge you by, according to this book in John chapter 5, he tells us the thing that God is going to use to judge you by is that book right there. So I want to make sure my conscience is in line with God, and the only way to have my conscience in line with God is to have my conscience in line with that book right there. It is so important with everything changing and philosophy changing. What is right and wrong is changing. And how are the polls? Look, by the way, at the end of the day, who cares what the polls say? What ought to matter is what God says. But if I’m going to keep my conscience right before God, I must stay in that book right there. That book is the absolute truth right there, friend. You say, “Well, so-and-so is saying this and so-and-so is saying this.” I always say opinions are like feet: we all have them, and they all stink, amen. What matters is what God says in His Word. And I must be, I must be in God’s Word to keep my conscience healthy. The world is always pumping its philosophy. They’re just trying to force it on you. And if I’m going to keep my conscience right, I must—I must—go back to the never-changing Word of God. I must.
You know the Bible calls Satan the prince of the power of the air? The prince—he’s the leader of the power of the air, the airwaves, the internet waves, and all that. Who’s over that ultimately? The Corinthians call Satan the God, little ‘g,’ the God of this world. And Satan is pumping—he’s just continually pumping his philosophy and his thoughts and his morals—and he’s trying to convince you what is right. And I’ve seen this video, and I’ve seen this on TikTok, and I’ve seen this on Instagram, and he’s pumping all his philosophy. And if you’re not careful, you’ll be swayed because we’ll all get swayed by it, some more than others. But I must, if I’m going to keep my conscience right, my moral balance right, I must be in God’s absolute truth, the Bible. By the way, that’s why I want the old King James Bible. I don’t want this one that’s been tampered with. I just want to know I have the absolute truth.
The Bible is key for him. I was amazing. I went off to Bible College. We were restricted somewhat on what we could watch on TV. Of course, you know how it is. As you get older, you mellow a little bit. When I was maybe just a boy, five, six, seven years old, I remember we didn’t have a TV, and everybody felt sorry for us. “All the Chisgars, those poor people, they only have a TV,” you know. And I’ll never forget someone drove down the driveway. We lived behind the Indian Springs Baptist Church in Chattanooga. And somebody drove down there, and the trunk of their car had a TV. And us kids were like, “Woohoo, TV!” And my mom and dad said, “We don’t want it.” So I said, “Mom and Dad, hush, let me talk to those people right there,” you know. But you know how it is over time, you just kind of mellow. Before my dad passed, we would kind of have a bit of a family joke, you know, if everybody’s over, Dad would be sitting in his easy chair, the big old TV over there, the remote control. The louder we got, the more he turned the remote control up, you know. Things change, you know. I was kind of in the middle of all that when I went off to Bible College. I was restricted somewhat, but still I saw some TV. And at Bible College back in the day, no TV. I mean, nine months, no TV at all. You’re working at night time, going to college during the day. You didn’t have time anyway, you know. Thanksgiving, they’d get it out for a couple of ball games, you know, whatnot. Put it in the lobby, whatnot. That’s it. No TV. And I was shocked when I came home that first summer after nine months of no TV, and I watched the same things I watched before. I never saw it before. The cursing, the drinking, the immorality—I never really noticed it until my conscience got cleaned up. And then when I went back to it, I was like, “Wow.” I say that, and you say, “How sly the devil is to affect our conscience.” Today it’s so much worse. You can get rid of a TV, but you’ve got one in your pocket. I mean, and by the way, Brother Ricky, is this all about fishing and hunting on here again? I don’t know. I’m not going to open it up, Brother Rick. But isn’t it amazing how Facebook and Instagram and TikTok, they know how to pump their little bitty videos in there to slip their philosophy in there? And as they’re continually doing that, I mean, just over and over again all the time, they are affecting their weakening to the point they’re defiling our conscience. And it is vital that I’m always getting the book. I want to see what the Bible says about that. I would be reading the Bible. Here, preaching from the Bible.
Titus 1:3, he says, “…but hath in due time manifested his word through preaching.” Get some old-fashioned preachers, not afraid to step on toes every once in a while, and you hear preaching from the Bible to get your bearing right about you. You might get mad at him a little bit when he talks about your dress or your language or what you’re drinking or smoking. He’ll get mad about all that stuff, but that’s needed to get our conscience cleared up. It’s important. From the Bible, Bible teaching, Bible preaching. Because Satan is using everything he can—the world, his prince of the power of the air. And you know how it is in the lunchroom, and they’re telling a dirty story or whatnot, and you feel the pressure to listen or be the oddball. You know what it’s like at school. They’re talking about a video you never saw or a movie you never saw, and you feel the pressure: “Well, you never saw that? What’s wrong with you?” And there’s always that pressure from the world to make you conform to their image. There’s a pressure, and it’ll affect your conscience. And it must go back to the Bible. Now, what does the Bible say? No, the Bible says, “I set no wicked thing before my eyes.” And you must have the Bible keeping your conscience right. By the way, there’s our flesh, too.
Now, here’s what happens. Here’s what happens. Y’all still out there this morning? Here’s what happens. All right, so our beliefs—our conscience is using our beliefs right here—this is right or wrong. My conscience tells us this is right or wrong. It’s here, but my actions are down here. And so there’s a conflict inside. We’re not having peace. And so here’s two choices. One is I confess my sin, ask the Lord to forgive me, and I try to bring my actions up to my beliefs. You’re never going to fully do that until you get to heaven, by the way. Praise the Lord for the blood of Jesus Christ, amen. That’s why if you get proud, you’ve got no hope, friend. None of us are perfect. But you’re trying, you’re seeking for that. You’re trying to be becoming perfect is what it means over there: “Be therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” That’s what I mean. Be becoming perfect. You’re working toward that thing to continue action. Or, if your beliefs—your conscience is here—and your actions are here, you can try to raise them here, or you can try to bring your beliefs down to where you’re living. “Well, I don’t think that’s wrong. Well, that’s old school. This is 2024. We can do it and say what we want to. This is my body. I can put into it what I want to.” Whatever the saying may be: “This is just the way I am. This is just my attitude. They take it or leave it. If they don’t like it, it’s their fault.” Whatever it may be. And it’s very easy to try to bring your conscience, your beliefs, down to where your actions are. But for a born-again Christian, that’s never fully peaceful because of the Bible and because of the Holy Spirit. That’s why I must be so careful. I don’t want anybody tampering with my Bible. That’s the one thing that’s going to keep my conviction, my conscience right. See?
Praise the Lord for the Bible. Ephesians chapter 5 is talking about the church, marriage, and it’s comparing marriage—the groom, Jesus, and the bride, the church. And here it’s talking about the church here. Let me read what he says: “…that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the word.” And a Christian needs to get washed by the water of the Word daily. You say, “What, are you going to church for? To get a bath?” Well, not quite the same now. But I want to get cleansed. I want to get all the marks, old stinking world-marks put on my mind and my heart and my conscience all week—I want to get it washed off. That’s why every day you get in the Bible and you try to read and get something out of the Word every day: “Lord, speak to me from your Word.” I’ve already mentioned this: we will be judged by the Bible one day. John 12:48: “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.” The Bible. Preaching, I’ve already mentioned it, Titus 1:3. Let me read for you Isaiah 58:1: “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.”
When our children were little, we just had two. And they were just very young. I don’t even know if they were in school yet. We were just starting church, and money was tight. God always provided, though, but you know money’s always tight—that’s just life, you know. And we had a man come to our church. He owned a pretty good-sized construction company. He was looking for a secretary. And I thought, well, you know, they were willing—him and his wife—willing to hire my wife as a secretary there, one of the secretaries, so sure, you know. And so we had two little kids, and my wife was working a job because I was starting a church. And my conscience had been swayed by the old world. And I went to a conference, just a preacher’s meeting. The preacher got up and preached, and he didn’t know what was going on in my life. And I don’t remember all the verses, but he began to preach: “You better take care of your family as a preacher. Take care of your home.” And, boy, the Holy Spirit got all over me in my conscience that morning: “What are you doing, Paul? You got two little kids, and your wife ought to be home raising those kids, and you’re letting her work while you’re starting this church. Have I paid your bills or not, Paul?” “Yes, sir, you have.” What was the preaching of the Word of God that convicted me? I went home and told my wife, “Hey, baby, you got to quit that job.” And, Lord, she did. All these years later, I’m so thankful that the preaching of the Bible got my conscience right. Your conscience is so very, very important if you’re going to have the right kind of conscience. Conscience.
I used to get your listening, Amy, you know. You’ve got to be in the Bible. Then number two, let me say this: Ask the Holy Spirit to help you keep a healthy conscience. That’s vital. Let me read it for these both. God used Paul to pen these. Acts 23:1: “And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, ‘Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.’” Acts 24:16: “And herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men.” You notice how Paul mentions this conscience—I’ve got to keep my conscience right. I’ve got to keep my conscience right. And he keeps talking about that. Very, very important. Just working at it, working at it. Part of this working at it is confessing your sins. All of us, all of us, we’re not perfect, by the way. None of us are. So if I’m going to have a good conscience, I must confess. Go to the Lord: “Lord, I messed up there. I messed up.” 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 having our bodies washed with pure water.” That sprinkling of the evil conscience—that’s the sprinkled blood of Jesus. You get forgiven by the blood of Jesus. You know the verse. Help me out with the verse, John 1:9. Say it with me if you know it: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” And if I’m going to have a good conscience, I’m not having to go to the Lord, “Lord, I’m sorry I messed up there.” Sometimes I’ll have to go to my spouse or to church members and say, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.” If I’m going to have a good conscience, that’s part of it. Do your best to make things right. Part of you having a good conscience. I already mentioned this verse, but Acts 24:16: “And herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward man.”
And I recall a man in our church years ago, a good, good man, but he kind of went through a spell, and he was coming at me. And after that spell, he came and said, “Pastor, I’m sorry.” He said, “The honest truth is I just got a little proud.” My respect for him did not go down; it went up. I said, “Wow, that’s pretty awesome. Man, just awesome.” But if I’m going to have a good conscience, I must—I must—at times do that. Can I say this about child-rearing? Even if you don’t spank them, maybe for a total lie, don’t just let it pass by. They need to know that was wrong. In our house, lying—whether it was spanking, whatever your rules are—and it’s not always the same. Some of these things, and by the way, I’m not saying it’s always a sin for a lie to work. You know, even if you’ve got… I’m not saying that. Everybody’s a little different. But for these things, you know, don’t let your child just get by with it and everything. No, they need to know that was wrong because their conscience gets developed. It’s important. It’s important that you let these things be known. In our school, we sometimes, you know, a kid will do something wrong to other kids, and we’ll say, “All right, all right, go tell that kid you’re sorry for what you did.” Why? We’re trying to develop their conscience right. And, by the way, if you have to go back and say you’re sorry, you have a better chance you won’t do it again, amen? Developing your conscience. All these are very important to have a good conscience. You’re working hard by the Holy Ghost to help you keep a clear conscience. Honesty is a must to have a good conscience. Just a must. Hebrews 13:18: “Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.”
You know, they say narcissistic people, they don’t have much of a conscience, and they’re very rarely honest. Just be honest about it. They’ll accuse others of using them when they’re using everybody. This honesty is so very, very important. Ask the Holy Spirit, “Show me where the wrong marks are on my conscience.” Number three: Number one, we said the Bible. Number two, keep a clear conscience—ask the Holy Spirit to help you keep a clear conscience. Number three, we’ve got to be done. Don’t tire. Don’t tire of shining the light to help people keep the right kind of conscience. Look over in 1 Timothy 3. We’re going to close it out in just a second. Look at 1 Timothy chapter number 3. I’m giving so much—sometimes you give too much information and you just lose everybody. I don’t want to do that. I hope you’re still with us on this thing here. First Timothy 3. And look in verse number 15. 1 Timothy 3, look at verse number 15. 1st Timothy 3, verse number 15. If you’re there, would you say amen? Good deal. Look at verse number 15 if you would. He says, “…but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” So the church, one of the jobs of the church, is to put the truth up on top of these pillars and hold it up for the world, everybody to see what the truth is. Even if they’re not living the truth, they know what the truth is by the church. See? And so here’s a problem: when you hold the truth up and they’re not living or believing the truth, they get convicted. So they don’t like that. So the battle is going on in our day and time—the battle over this thing of your conscience. You know, the world—they’re not always going to like it when you shine brightly because they go by the popularity and the polls of the world. They go by this right here, and everybody else is kind of bowing down to the philosophy of the world. But an old Christian, he sticks out like a sore thumb. He keeps holding the truth up high. The church should. And they get convicted by them. They won’t like that. You won’t be the most liked at work sometimes. You’ll be called “the preacher.” You’ll be called, “Oh no, the preacher’s coming in here.” You don’t have all that. Why? Because you’re bringing light into the room, and the light shows up, “Man, my conscience has warped. It’s defiled. Sometimes it’s seared,” and those are the ones that have come out of your life. The conscience is messed up.
I never get witnessing to a Jehovah’s Witness. One of the first things they like to indoctrinate Jehovah’s Witnesses with is there’s no hell. If there’s no hell, then the gospel’s lost its punch. So I talked to him. He’s a relative, a distant relative, and I’d talked to him before, and I thought, “Well, this time I’m going to talk to him about hell.” Boy, I started talking about hell. My goodness, he got loud. And they said, “Well, would you, would you, just because your daughter didn’t want—didn’t do something you want—would you put her in hell?” Well, he’s like yelling. Because they have been—their conscience has been seared—there’s no hell. And when the truth starts coming out, they get mad. Of course, they say, “Hey, God doesn’t put His children in hell. All of His children go to heaven. But you’re not His child unless you’re saved, born again.” A friend, he got mad, he got loud about it, not because his conscience has been seared, but now someone’s bringing truth into the same. They don’t like that. We’re still friends, and God bless the conversation. But friend, no, no, no, be careful. The world will cause you just to quieten down, and it wants you to go their way where your conscience is weakened, defiled, evil, with other people get hurt, and then seared. I like a good conscience. All right. Get in the Word. You got some spots on there. Do your best to confess it. Make it right. Make that thing pure.
Here’s the thing. Here’s the thing. When God’s people come around and the Holy Spirit’s working, the Bible says in John chapter 16:8, “And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin.” The Holy Spirit convicts everybody: “Hey, you got some sin, you got some sin, you got some sin.” That’s why the world’s always saying, “No, we don’t got sin. It’s all right. Everybody’s doing this,” you know. But when the Holy Spirit and the godly Christian through whom the Holy Spirit is flowing come, [they see] how we got sin. And the next verse says, “Hey, you know why he reproves the world of sin? Because they believe not in Him and Jesus.” And the ultimate goal—God wants them to be convicted so they get saved. But I think, “Well, I’m good enough. I’m pretty good. I don’t do that much wrong. They don’t need salvation.” When truth comes in, I realize, “Hey, we’re sinners. I need a Savior.” Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Our heads are bowed, eyes closed. A couple questions, and we’re going to be done for the day.
You said, “Preacher, I need my conscience clear. I need to confess some things. I need to make some things right. I’m going to go back to the Bible. I just need to get some things right in my conscience. God’s working in my heart about this thing. I need to get my conscience right. I need to get it clear.” Is that you this morning? “Preacher, I need to get some things cleared in my conscience. God’s working my heart about that.” Thank you this morning. I need to get my conscience cleared in some things. God bless you. God bless you. That’s good. All of us need to do that from time to time. God bless you. Maybe you here this morning, you said, “Preacher, I need to go back to the Bible on some things. I need to study the Bible. I need to listen to preaching. I need to be in the Bible daily because the world is just tugging. It’s pushing me into its mold. And I need to be in the Bible. I need to get the washing of the water by the Word daily.” God spoke to my heart: “I need to be in the Bible.” If that’s you this morning, slip up your hand. “Preacher, that’s me. I need to be in the Bible more. I need to get the Bible.” God bless you. God bless you. Me too, friend, me too. Recently, God spoke to my heart: “I will be back in the Bible more and more.” It’s so important every day and time. Maybe you hear this morning, you say, “You know, I feel like the devil in the world has dimmed my light. Their loud voices have kind of intimidated me a little bit, and them coming at me just causes me to tone down things, and I need to shine brightly—not in anger, not in pride, but in just love. I need to shine brightly.” And God spoke to my heart: “I need to be shining brightly for the Lord.” God spoke to my heart about that right there. That’s you? Just let me hear. “I want to shine brightly.” God bless you. God bless you. All is good.
This old world needs light. They need light. They don’t know they need it, but they need it. Their conscience has been defiled. Oh, they need good, godly Christians, Holy Spirit-filled Christians—the Spirit of Truth is called. Maybe you hear this morning, you say, “Preacher, there was never a time when I was convicted of sin, and I just kind of dealt with it. I’m a sinner. I’m going to go to hell.” And I knew I needed Jesus at that time, and I was saved, which I’d never have done that. I’ve never been through that. If I were to die, I don’t know if I go to heaven or hell. I don’t really face that issue. I don’t remember going through this time of conviction and knowing I need to get saved and accepting Jesus as my Savior. I guess the honest truth is I need to get saved. I need to accept Jesus as my only way to heaven, my Savior. I need to trust in Jesus to be my Savior. If that’s you, with our heads bowed and eyes closed: “Preacher, I need to get saved.” If that’s you, just lift your head, and that preacher—“I need to get saved. I need to get saved. I need to get saved. I need to be born again. I know I have sins. I’m not perfect. I need Jesus to pay my sin debt. I need to accept Jesus as my Savior.” He loves you, friend. He paid your debt. He loves to give that to you. Just a moment. We’ll all stand. At that time, there’ll be a man standing down front facing the congregation, a man in the back standing and facing the congregation. If you need to go to that man, say, “I need to get saved.” Would you go to them? If it’s a lady, they’ll get a lady. Go to them, let them help you. We’ll take the Bible—from the Bible—show you how you could know for sure heaven’s your home.
Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar - How Healthy is your Conscience - Sunday AM 02042024