Serving God with a Good Conscience

UPGA SERMON FOR SUNDAY SERVICE:

SERVING GOD WITH A GOOD CONSCIENCE.

Study Text: 1 Timothy 1:18 - 20; Acts 23: 1

Introduction:

-   Conscience is the power of the mind, by which we distinguish between what is right and what is wrong.

-    It is the faculty within us that testifies to us concerning the standards of God, and the things that are acceptable to Him.

-    Conscience is an independent witness within us. It is a gift of God and it is indestructible. Conscience functions like a judge within us.   

-   It activates guilt internally when the behaviour is evil, and likewise peace when there is a good act. Romans 2: 14 - 15. 

-. We shall discuss the topic under three sub-headings:

1. The Purpose of a Good Conscience.

2.  The Pathway to a Good Conscience.

3.  The Products of a Good Conscience.

1.  The Purpose of a Good Conscience:

 -   Conscience has many fold functions in our lives. 

1.   It points us to what we ought to do. 

-    It is an interior sense, which points us to our obligations, urges us to do what is right and tries to restrain us from doing what is wrong. 

2.    It passes judgment on our thoughts, plans, actions, conduct, and attitudes. 

-   It is the indicator that measures the degree of agreement between our conduct and God’s standard. 

-    Although it is blurred and imperfect due to man’s fall, when conscience speaks to us in this way, it is as though a person detached from us is speaking, accusing us when we do something wrong.

3.   It inflicts punishment on us for our wrong acts.

-    When we violate the dictates of our conscience, we experience certain punishment automatically: anxiety, fear, guilt, estrangement, internal conflict, shame, inward disquietude, lack of joy, feeling that we are being torn apart within, depression, and so on.  

4.  It always bear witness for or against us. 

-. Every  child of God must retain that clean and sensitive conscience  at all times and in all manners of conversations.

 -    If  it is gone, we are left unguarded and prone to do wickedness at wills.

 

5.  God through the conscience reminds  us of things that are not right.

-   He makes our conscience to prick our minds and troubles us when we do wrong,  and gladdens us when we do right. It will either justify us or condemn us.

6.    A good conscience is to the soul what pain is to the body. 

-   It will arrests our attention and drives us to seek redemption and remedy. Acts 2: 36 - 37. 

-   There are those who silence and stifle and sear their conscience 1Timothy 4: 1 - 2;  2 Thessalonians  2: 10-12; Ephesians 4:19 - 20.

 

2. The Pathway to a Good Conscience:

-   According to the Bible, there is only one way to have a good conscience, a clean conscience, a pure conscience.

-   The first step in having a good conscience is regeneration. God must effectually call us and regenerate us, making us alive toward him. 

-   When that happens, we will be given an enlightened conscience which will begin to plague us, convict us, and drive us to repentance.

-   We need spiritual cleansing through the word of God for our conscience to be restored to its original state in the will of God.

-   As we grow up in life, our conscience gradually grows up in the wrong direction. If you are not educated, enlightened and edified with the word of God in your mind, you will fall back to sin. Hebrews 9:14; 10:19, 22.

-   It is the eye of the soul; if the eye is dim or darkened or closed or blindfolded or destroyed or affected through old age, it affects the body. So also is the conscience. 

-.   A purged conscience gives us a great spiritual eyesight.

-.  To achieve this, we need to delight in the word of God and meditate on it day and night. Psalms 1: 2.

-.  We need to fill our hearts with the word of God daily so that our minds will be renewed to do what is right at all times. Romans 12: 2.

-    If a person persists in violating the dictates of his conscience again and again, making such violations part of his lifestyle, his conscience will become seared, or cauterized, as with a hot iron, as we read in 1 Timothy 4:2. 

-   When this happens, his conscience will quickly lose its signaling capacity and will fail to function as a warning system.

-   Nothing bothers people whose consciences have been seared. 

-    If you look at them, you see that they are unaffected by anything and everything. Despite their obvious moral shortcomings, they continue to function in their jobs and society with great confidence. 

-   Such people appear to have no problems at all. But unknown to them that what they really have is a false peace.

3. The Products of a Good Conscience:

-    Certain things will be evident when we maintain a good conscience:

1.   We will hold fast the faith once delivered to the saints, and not making a shipwreck of it. Acts 23:1-5.

2.    We will correct every wrongdoing when we have a good conscience Acts 24:16; 2 Corinthians 1:12; 2 Corinthians 4:2. 

3.   We will not do things that are crafty and deceitful when we have a good conscience. 1Timothy 3: 7 - 9.

-.   We should have our hearts pure and purified, then our conscience will be purged too. Mathew 5:  8.

Conclusion:

-   We must be willing to serve God with a good conscience that is void of offence before God and man.

-.  Our conscience must be nurtured in the word of God and be guided by the Holy Spirit in order to help us in doing what is acceptable unto God.

-.  Is your conscience defiled or corrupted, you can purge it now by coming to the Lord Jesus Christ and accepting Him as your Lord and Saviour.

-. If you knew Him before, but you have sins you are covering up, you need to open up the sins, and do everything necessary for your restoration.