Come to think of it No.1 Conscience

Romans chapter 2, we're going to be darting about the Scriptures a little bit this evening, so do try and follow me and read the words for yourselves. Romans chapter 2 and verse 12. Here Paul is speaking of those who have the law, that is the Jewish people, and those who up to that time did not have the Word of God, the Gentiles.

Romans 2 verse 12. All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.

Indeed, when Gentiles who do not have the law do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them. This will take place on the day when God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares. And then moving on to 1 Timothy, Paul's letter to Timothy, written from a prison cell in Rome, towards the end of his life, written to a man who was very much committed to Christ, very much involved in the work of the gospel in his day.

1 Timothy chapter 1 and at verse 3. As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus, so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God's work, which is by faith. The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and a sincere faith.

And some have wandered away from these and turned into meaningless talk. Then verse 18, Timothy my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, holding on to faith. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith.

Then chapter 4, the same epistle at verse 1. The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. And then skipping over to the book of Titus, just after 2nd Timothy, Titus chapter 1, verses 15 and 16.

To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him.

They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for doing any good thing. Then finally, a few verses from the book of Hebrews, firstly in chapter 9. Here the writer is addressing Jewish people who had become Christians and he's making a comparison between the Old Testament sacrifices of animals and the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 9. This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshipper.

They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings, external regulations applying until the time of the new order. When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect temple that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves, but he entered the most holy place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.

The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean, sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more then will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that led to death so that we may serve the living God. Chapter 10 and verse 2. If it could, would they not have stopped being offered, speaking of the Old Testament sacrifices, for the worshippers would have been cleansed once for all and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.

But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. And then finally on to verse 19 of the same chapter. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, opened for us through the curtain, that is his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience.

And we're praying that God will use the reading of his word to instruct us and help us in our understanding of his law. Now we're going to sing together from Hymns of Faith 275. This hymn, 250 years or so old, but speaking of truths that are relevant to the 1980s.

275, come ye sinners poor and needy. And you'll notice the reference to conscience in verse 3. We're going to be looking this evening at the subject of conscience and this in effect represents the beginning of a new series of addresses on a Sunday night in which I ask you to come and let's think about it. And I want to talk to you about conscience and the, is it the voice of God? I've just been writing an essay on this whole subject of conscience and I thought I'd use some of my material this evening, but as is often the case when I hurriedly leave our house, the opening page of that essay is still on my desk.

So let's try a little bit of recall. Conscience, is it the voice of God? I wonder what you think the word conscience itself actually means. It really derives from two words which have the connotation of to know alongside, to know alongside.

You see conscience is not the same as consciousness. I am conscious at this very moment, conscious of my faux pas in leaving a sheet that I desperately require on my desk. But I'm conscious of more than that.

I'm conscious of the atmosphere of the tab. I'm conscious, believe it or not, because I have an awareness, even though you may not feel it when you're looking at me from the pulpit, of whether you're listening or not listening, whether you're sneaking a whisper or a snore. I have a consciousness of what's going on outside.

I also have a consciousness of what's going on inside my body. If I really stop and think, then I know that my lungs are taking in air and my heart is pumping blood. I'm conscious.

But conscience is not the same as being conscious. Conscience means having a knowledge whereby I can make a judgment on certain actions as to whether they are right or whether they are wrong. And there are some people who go through life and they say that if you live according to your conscience, then one day after 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 years, you'll stand in front of your maker and you'll be quite all right.

You'll listen to your conscience, you obeyed what your conscience had to say and as a result of that, you'll be okay. Now, is that really the case? Is conscience the voice of God? That little noise that I sometimes hear at the back of my mind which seems to indicate in a course of actions that this is the one I ought to take over against another. I want to come back and try and answer that question in a moment or two.

There's one thing that I do recall that I ought to have said to you a little while ago this evening and that is that there was a man who lived some years ago by the name of Immanuel Kant. Very interesting man. He had the idea that you could prove the existence of God by the fact that in your vocabulary, you have a little word called ought.

In any situation, people around the world know what they ought to do. For example, a blind man is trying to cross the road. He doesn't have a dog to help him.

There's no one around but you. Now, whether you come from China, America or the UK, you know that to pass that blind man who's in great difficulty would be wrong. There is an ought that compels you to give him assistance.

Or let's put it another way. Here's a little boy and he's lost. He's crying.

It's obvious that he's estranged from his mum and dad. You see the panic on his face. And you know full well that he requires your assistance and that is something that you ought to engage in.

There was a Russian politician some years ago by the name of Nikita Khrushchev. He's written himself into the annals of the history of the United Nations on the basis that once he got so incensed with the American president that he took off his shoe as he was listening to the president speaking and he started to bang on his desk the United Nations. It's never been done before and it has never been done since.

And he was saying at the top of his voice in Russian, it ought not to be, it ought not to be. He was registering his disapproval about certain things that he thought were very, very wrong that were happening at that particular point. Whether he's writing in his assessment is beyond my brief to say.

But he was indicating that there was something that was upsetting him. It ought not to be. Now, Mr. Kant says, if you have in your mind the idea of ought, the knowledge of what is right or wrong, then somebody must have put it there.

Therefore, from the idea that you have of what distinguishes what is acceptable and what is unacceptable behavior, he suggests that there must be a God who's behind everything, who speaks to you through your conscience. Now, that's very interesting reasoning. Whether you accept it or not, it's certainly worth consideration.

If there is an ought, if there are certain things that you ought to do that are right and certain things that you ought not to do because they are wrong, then it does seem to suggest that you have got some barometer, some pointer that should show yourself the way through life. And in one sense, that distinguishes you from any other creature on God's earth. I've got a cat at home by the name of Joshua.

It's well-named. It knocks everything down in sight. Now, my cat doesn't know the word ought.

What he does appreciate is that anything that is within his view is his. Now, he doesn't have the smallest head in the cat world. And assuming that it will actually get within the confines of the space of a jar containing milk, then you can bet your life that Joshua will have his head there.

If it's meat, cooked or raw, it belongs to him. And if those wretched things that flap something from their body and make little screeching noises on the lawn, he thinks they're called birds. If they happen to be there and they're gobbling up the crumbs, then Joshua will be straight out of the cat flap in the door onto the garden.

He'll try and get the birds. Mercifully, he usually is not quick enough. And then he will gobble up the breadcrumbs.

Now, in the kitchen, he would never dream of having bread, but out there he will. And he doesn't feel guilty when he comes back because he registers nothing in the category of conscience. If you felt that pun was unintentional, you're quite right.

What my cat does have, and what every animal has, is instinct. And do you know something, my friends? As I've been thinking through the subject of conscience, I've almost come to the conclusion that instinct at times, as exercised by animals, has a greater inbuilt morality than a conscience exercised by human beings. I'll qualify that in a moment.

Do you remember the little lad who went to the zoo a few weeks ago? And he toppled over into the compound where the gorillas were. I happen to have the Daily Telegraph's account of this. And there's a picture, it's not a very good one, but you can work out the gorilla, the senior gorilla, so to speak, who moves over to this little boy, and because of his instinct, he tries to comfort him.

And when the other gorillas get too close, the senior one just sends them off. His instinct is very, very kind. Alas, my secretary, who is as dotty on animals as I am, when she gave me this copy from the Telegraph, she doubtless had not read the other side of the page, in which there's an article with the title, Ritual Slaughter Denounced.

And it talks about the fact that in our country, some four million plus animals are ritually slaughtered every year. Their throats cut without them even being stunned. And of the millions of other animals that are killed, on top of these, 25% probably have a painful death because they are not stunned correctly.

You see what I mean when I say that animal instinct can sometimes be at a higher level than the bad conscience of ordinary men and women. So I want to go on and to try to argue with you this evening that conscience can be influenced, can be a very, very good thing when at the beginning of life it's completely fresh and it's unpolluted by any external influence at all. But conscience, alas, can be influenced by outside pressures.

That's why the Bible speaks about a good conscience, or an evil conscience, a defiled conscience, a weak conscience. In other words, your conscience can deteriorate. Conscience is a very good thing, inasmuch as it can be the vehicle through which God speaks to you.

But it can also be something which, if it is exposed to unhelpful influences, it will, as I say, deteriorate. There's an example, I think, in the Bible. There's a man by the name of Pharaoh.

Pharaoh's heart was hardened, we read in the Old Testament. That might puzzle you. What really, in effect, we're told about Pharaoh is this, that there were many times when he had a moral decision to make and he went against the law of his conscience until the time came when his conscience was not functioning properly at all.

Do you remember John the Baptist? Sometimes he used to preach to a man who was perpetually in his congregation by the name of Herod. He'd tell Herod a thing or two, and Herod, who was a king, he'd listen to what John had to say. He heard him gladly.

But, you see, he kept putting off what John challenged him about, the sinfulness of his life. He put it off one week to the next week to the next week. And then his conscience started to be eroded somewhat.

And on one occasion, he's watching the daughter of his mistress perform a sensuous dance. And he's so inflamed with lust that he says to this damsel, ask whatever you want, up to half the kingdom, and it's yours. And she says, prompted by her mum, I want the head of the Baptist.

And Herod agrees to the butchering of one of the greatest men that the Jewish nation ever produced. Aye, but when you turn the clock on, a few months, no, more than that, probably 18 months, Herod is before Jesus. Or rather, Jesus is brought before Herod.

And you'll read in the Gospel of Luke that when Herod is in, when Jesus is in front of Herod, He has many questions to ply him with, but Jesus never answers a word. He's got nothing to say to Herod. Why is this? Well, you see, Herod's conscience has become so defiled that the Lord Jesus has got nothing that He can offer Herod in terms of any hope for him whatsoever.

Nothing to offer him at all. So, Herod's conscience is dead. Now, that's possible.

It's possible, and I say this in the name of God, for anyone in this congregation to so misuse and abuse their conscience that it fails to achieve the function that it was originally intended for, not to be the voice of God, but to be the funnel through which the voice of God could percolate to you. Some years ago, I was driving in Germany on my way to Eastern Europe, and I stopped off at a place called Dachau. It won't mean much to you unless you're under about, unless you're over 30, 35 years of age.

Dachau was one of the infamous concentration camps that the Nazis had in the war. I stopped off because even to this day, I never go back to my home city of Sheffield without remembering the sights that I used to see as a little boy. The heart of the city bombed out.

And I thought of the misery and the suffering and the loss of life in my native city, and even more, the loss of life as far as the Jewish community was concerned in Europe. And there in Dachau, to this day actually, if you still go, because it's like a shrine, a mausoleum, you can see the ovens where they used to put the Jews and burn them after they'd been gassed. When I was there, as I say, two decades ago, at that point, no birds were ever to be found singing in the environment.

No birds would even land because the smell of death was about the place. And I can still remember as vividly as though it were yesterday, wandering away from the gas ovens some hundreds of yards to the very perimeter of the camp. And there I saw the houses in which ordinary German soldiers used to live.

And I thought how at one time in their lives, during the war, they'd leave home for duty, you know? They'd kiss the wife. They'd say goodbye to the kids. They'd pat the dog on its head.

And they'd make their way up the road to the camp where was continuing this mass extermination, this greatest obscenity of the 20th century. Don't tell me, my young friend, my older friend, that what I'm trying to teach this evening has no bearing on the 1980s. Your conscience is not the voice of God per se in itself, but your conscience is the vehicle, I would go so far as to say, the only vehicle that God can take and speak His Word into you.

In Red Indian mythology, there's a story of a man who was asked what a conscience was. And he said, the conscience is like a triangle, therefore with three sharp points that lives within my head. And when the triangle goes round, each point will hit a part of my feeling and will indicate when I am doing things that are wrong.

But if I continue to do them, then the point hits the top of my feelings until it becomes blunt. And ere long, after the months or years have gone, it goes round and round, but it has no effect upon me whatsoever. The conscience wears.

The conscience becomes influenced by environment. I've got a watch here. It's a good watch actually.

It's a quartz watch. And I bought it actually in one of the free tax areas in some stop off that I had when I was traveling abroad. It's a citizen.

Good watch. Always keeps good time. Goes a bit faster between 7 o'clock and 7.30 on a Sunday night or 7.45. If I leave it a month, then it may advance one or two minutes faster than it really should.

Now that's not bad, is it? Two minutes within about 30 odd days. So what do I do? Each month, I check it over against Greenwich or over against the chimes of Big Ben as they come through on the BBC. And I correct my watch.

I adjust it. It's necessary. I have to correct this watch against an absolute.

Okay? If any of you has ever used a gun or a rifle, you will know that that rifle has a couple of sights on the barrel. Now your barrel can be straight. Your charge, your bullets can be in first rate condition.

But unless your sights are accurate, when you fire, your bullet will always go off the target. Your sights have to be checked. Your watch has to be checked.

Your conscience has to be checked over against an absolute. There's a story told in India during the British Raj, that's when the British used to rule in India, of a man who was brought before the British officer in charge in this particular area. And the Indian was defending the fact that he saw no wrong when a man died in taking the wife and putting her, though she's still alive, on the funeral pyre.

That means on the funeral fire. The Indian said, my conscience is perfectly clear. And the British captain said to the man, but when you do it, my conscience tells me that you must be punished.

For so doing. You see, the conscience needs to be corrected over against an absolute. The Bible says this, the lamp of the Lord searches the spirit of man.

The lamp of the Lord searches the spirit of man. How do I test my conscience? What I allow myself to do? Well, I must test it by an absolute. This is an absolute.

It tells me clear as daylight that there are certain actions in which I must not engage and there are certain actions which are legitimate and certain lifestyles that I am to practice. Now I want to ask everyone here, look back upon this past week, upon this past month, and if there is anyone, and here I am being deadly serious, if there is anyone here who does not regret anything that they did or any thought that they accepted in this past month, would you raise your hand? Anyone who does not regret a certain thing that they did or a certain thought that they sustained? Now, you've all kept your hands down. And some of you at this point might be thinking or might be feeling exceedingly uncomfortable.

Because what I have brought into your mind, what I have stimulated is you to reflect upon something that you did that you're totally ashamed of within the last week, within the last month, I care not, within the last year. And you say, well Mr. Preacher, what's your reaction to that? And my reaction is that it's both unfortunate that you have to make this confession and it's also fortunate that you're prepared to do so. You say I don't understand you.

Alright, think it through. You're an intelligent person. You're an intelligent young person.

It's fortunate that you're still registering what is right and what is wrong. In other words, your conscience still functions. Your conscience still functions.

And if your conscience is still functioning, I can help you. In that sense, you're fortunate. It's unfortunate in as much as, well, every sin is sad.

Anything that you do that is contrary to the law of God, the word of God, is a very, very sad thing. But don't you appreciate this, my friend? The reason why the gospel has been given, why there is the New Testament faith available, is for folk who've got a bad conscience. You see, here's a man and he's writing in the first century.

His name is Paul. You'll find what he has to say in Romans chapter 7. The good that I would, I do not, and the evil that I would not, that I do. Now, he's a man who is both fortunate and unfortunate.

He acknowledges that there are things that he has done which are wrong. And in the sense that he can pick that up, it's very fortunate. It's unfortunate that he is still a sinner.

But the most wonderful thing is this, that the gospel can affect his heart and life. And he can know what it is to have his sins forgiven and his conscience set at peace. Do you know what it is to be conscience stricken? Adam and Eve, here they were in the garden.

God had said, there are certain things that you can't do. Or rather, there's one thing in particular that you can't do. And they sinned.

They took what was forbidden. And eventually, when God drew near to them, they felt terribly uncomfortable and they tried to hide. Do you remember? They were conscience smitten.

Now, there's some people in the tub who are like this at this very moment. If you were introduced to God, if God was incarnate in Christ right now, you wouldn't be happy. You'd run away.

You'd be terribly, totally embarrassed. You'd be like those men who were in the company of Jesus when they brought to Him a woman who was taken in the act of adultery. You remember that story? And the men spun around and they said to Jesus, now let's take up stones and stone her because she has done what is wrong.

And Jesus, He ignores her and He starts to write in the ground. And as He writes, something that is not revealed to us, the exact lettering, they all leave one by one from the oldest to the youngest. Why? Because they're conscience smitten.

The forefront of their mind has come back what they have done. And when Jesus looks up, He asks the woman, where are your accusers? They melted away just like the snow in the heat. And then Jesus dealt with this woman's conscience and her guilt.

Now, it's at that point we're going to leave things this evening. The reason why Jesus came into the world was to deal with your conscience. Your conscience that's registered that you have done things that are wrong.

The reason why Jesus died on the cross of Calvary was so that His death might purge you, cleanse you from every sin. If you confess your sin, He's faithful and just to forgive you your sin and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Is that what you want? The restoration of your dignity so that when you put your head on the pillow at night, you might sleep.

That's the reason why our Lord Jesus has come into this world. He deals with the man, with the woman who's got a troubled conscience. If your conscience isn't troubled, He can't help you.

If it is, He's got something that's tailor-made for you. Forgiveness. You say, but I can't be introduced to Him.

I've done so many things that are wrong. I've watched so many X movies that my mind is just so sudden. Do you ever get like that? Is there somebody here? I believe I'm speaking to people here who've got this problem that their mind is sudden with the muck that they read and they watch and you will be horrified for anyone else to know and it's crippling you spiritually and you wish to God you could just break the whole thing.

Now I'm telling you, in the name of Jesus, you can, but you've got to confess your need. Let not conscience make you linger, nor of fitness fondly boast. All the fitness He requireth is to feel your need of Him.

You feel your need? You know your guilt? Maybe it was last year or another year. Whatever you were doing that plagues you at night, that you want to get absolution from, that's why Jesus came into the world to cleanse you from your sin. To deal with you right at the depth of your personality so you might be clean, so that you might be dignified, so that you might walk through this world with your head held high.

That's the most precious knock-on effect of the gospel of Christ. To sprinkle your conscience and make it clean so you can stand before your God and before your fellow men and women as a person who is pure and holy so that you can look in a mirror and see the reflection of yourself in the morning and not despise certain of the things that you see. Wouldn't you like that? That's what He's offering you.

A freed conscience. Let's pray and ask His blessing upon us right now. Just a moment of quietness.

Father, whoever it is, whatever group of people, this night, need the healing of the Lord Jesus in their mind, in their thought habits, in their lifestyle. We just pray that that forgiveness and healing might be applied. Deliver us from seared consciences.

Deliver us from infected consciences. And we ask that our very conscience may become a vehicle through which we hear more and more the voice of the living God speaking to us. Grant us the redemption and the healing that it brings that many here require.

For Jesus' sake. Amen.