These are Paul's words before
Festus when he says in verse 16, herein do I exercise myself,
I give great pains to have always a conscience void
of offense toward God and toward I've entitled this message, A
Conscience Void of Offense. Now, I don't know how many times
I've read that passage of scripture and I just thought, that's just
unattainable. But it's in the Word of God for a purpose, and
I pray that God will be pleased to help us to understand what
is being said, a conscience void of offense toward God and men. Now, I've heard preachers use
this. And I even heard them say, I
exercise myself to have a conscience void of offense toward God and
men. And I think, well, you're offending
me. you know, with what you're saying, the way you're saying
it, because I knew that that's really not what Paul meant, what
they were saying. Now, I certainly would not be wrong
in saying you and I should exercise ourselves to have a conscience
void of offense, toward God and men. I listened to a sermon by
a man on this passage of scripture. I was looking for something.
And after I listened to this one, I thought there's no point
in this. But the man was saying, the way to achieve this is to
get you out of yellow legal pad and write down every offense
that you can think of. toward God and toward men and
confess them and clear yourself. I suppose that would be a good
idea. There's only one problem. There's not enough yellow pads
in the world for you to get it all written down. Number two,
There are not enough hours in the day for you to spend confessing
all your sin. It's a thing impossible. And
number three, most of the sins you've committed, you don't even
know you've committed them. That, from that point of view,
well, if you can do that, go for it, more power to you. But
that is not what that passage of scripture is teaching. Paul did say he gave diligence
to have a conscience void of offense toward God and toward
men. Now, what is the conscience? Consciousness is a state of awareness. The conscious, the consciousness,
it's a state of awareness. The conscience is that which
tells us the difference between right and wrong. And we all know
what a guilty conscience is. Conscience, it's the accusation
of your conscience. Adam and Eve experienced it as
soon as they ate of the fruit. They knew it was wrong, didn't
they? And they went and hid themselves from the presence of God. Their
conscience all obviously at that time became fallen because they
didn't do what they should have done. If they would have followed
a perfect conscience, he wouldn't have done it. He would draw them
to the Lord to ask for mercy, but it made them leave him. That's
exactly what they did. They left him. They didn't want
to be in his presence. Now, every man born into this
world is born with a conscience. There's a right and there is
a wrong, and that is because God is. That's the reason. Because God is. There is a right. There is a wrong, and men were
made in the image of God. That's what the scripture says,
and that's where this conscience comes from. Turn with me to Romans
chapter two for a moment. Verse 14 for when the Gentiles,
which have not the law do by nature, the things contained
in the law, these having not the law, they don't have a written
copy of the law or a law unto themselves would show the work
of the law written in their hearts. Their conscience also bearing
witness. And their thoughts, the meanwhile,
accusing or else excusing one another. Now everybody's got
a conscience that is written in the heart of every man. That's
why every man knows it's wrong to kill. It's wrong to lie. It's wrong to steal the 10 commandments
that's written in everybody's heart. And here is what the natural
man's conscience does with that. Either accuses and feels guilty
or makes excuses. I was justified in doing that.
I had a reason for being that way. And we see from that, that
the conscience is fallen. Somebody says, trust your conscience.
I wouldn't. I wouldn't, no more than I would
trust my heart. Somebody says, trust your heart.
Scripture says, he that trusteth in his heart's a fool. Now, when
we speak of total depravity, that really doesn't mean that
everybody's an ax murderer, although we really believe we would be,
apart from the grace of God, and that's the direction we'd
go. But what that means is every faculty of the soul is under
the dominion of sin, including conscience. including conscience. Somebody says, trust your conscience.
Well, I'm thankful for a conscience in the sense that if we didn't
have a conscience, we could not exist as a society. If everybody
just had no remorse, no guilt, I can do whatever I want to without
feeling any conscience about it, there would be, you couldn't
get out the door. Uh, there would be crime. There would be, you'd
get murdered. People take everything you have
and you'd be doing it too. You'd be right out there with
him. There would be utter anarchy. So in that sense, we're thankful
that the Lord has given a conscience, but man's conscience is not good
in there. What's the first thing Adam did?
He blamed God. That's what his conscience did
when he was brought to Acknowledge your sin. What did he do? The woman that you gave me. He started the blame game even
then. The woman that you gave me. She gave me of the fruit
and I did eat. Therefore, in reality, this is
all your fault, not mine. So we see that the conscience
has fallen, isn't it? But I'm still thankful the Lord
has given us a moral consciousness, consciences. I've, I've always
go from saying conscious to conscience. It's, it's kind of hard to get
the two separate for me at any rate, but, um, I'm talking about
the conscience. Um, it may be that a man may
reform his life because of his conscience. It may be, and often
is true that men become religious. because of their conscience,
but the conviction of conscience never brought anybody to Christ.
As a matter of fact, it's not truly the conviction of sin when
we talk about this moral conscience. Turn with me for a moment to
John chapter 16. Here's what conviction of sin
is. Verse eight. And when he has come, he will
reprove, he will convict, he will convince the world of sin
and of righteousness and of judgment, of sin, because they believe
not on me. of righteousness, because I go
to my Father, and you shall see me no more, of judgment, because
the prince of this world is judged." Now, when I'm truly convicted
of sin, when God the Holy Spirit has convicted me of sin, the
first thing I find out is that faith is beyond my grasp. because they believe not on me."
Now, as long as you can believe whenever you decide you want
to believe, you've never been convicted of sin. You don't have
any idea of what sin is, as long as you think faith is within
your grasp. You've never been convicted by God, the Holy Spirit.
You haven't learned the sinfulness of your nature and that there
is no way you can't even can believe unless God gives you
the grace to believe. You find out you can't believe. Now that's where conviction of
sin begins. As long as there's anything you can do, well, I
can believe when I want to. You've never been convicted of
sin. You're convicted of sin when you're convicted of this
thing of unbelief, of sin because they believe not on me. And the next thing he says of
righteousness, because I go to my father and you see me no more.
When you're convicted of sin, you're convicted that the only
righteousness there is, is the righteousness that Jesus Christ
brings to his father. Are you convicted of that? You
know you don't have any. And you're convicted that the
only righteousness there is, is the righteousness of Christ
that he brings to his father. And next he says in verse 11,
of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged, has
already been judged. Now when you're convicted of
sin, you know that all judgment took place on the cross. Now,
until you've seen that, you haven't really been convicted of sin.
You're convicted of sin when you see you can't believe the
only righteousness there is is the righteousness of Christ,
and you're convicted that all judgment took place on the cross,
and that's the only way you can be brought into God's presence.
Now, that conviction does not come through an accusing conscience. It just doesn't come. That is
Holy Spirit conviction. Now we read in Titus 1.15 of
a defiled conscience, a defiled conscience. And we read in 1
Timothy 4.2 of a seared conscience, seared with a hot iron. And I
think what's interesting about that conscience, that's a religious
man's conscience. He says, here's what you need
to do. You need to not get married. You need to live the life of
the celibate and you need to abstain from meats. If you live
the life of the ascetic, you'll be in good shape. And Paul calls
that a conscience seared with a hot iron. If you can look at
your works and thinks somehow you can make it better for yourself,
all you prove by that is you've got a seared conscience. And
we read of that evil conscience that can only be sprinkled with
the blood of Christ. And you know, we've all experienced
these kinds of consciences, haven't we? Feeling like it's seared,
hardened, evil. But there is a conscience that
an unbeliever can know nothing about. It's called a good conscience. And it's called a pure conscience. And it's called a purged conscience. And this conscience testifies
to us in several ways. And this is something that only
a believer has. An unbeliever will know nothing
about this kind of conscience. Now turn with me to first Timothy. First Timothy chapter one. Verse five, now the end of the
commandment. And that is not the commandment,
it's not the word that's used for the 10 commandments in the
Greek. It's a different word. It's the
end of the declaration. The end of the commandment of
the gospel. Aren't you thankful the gospel's
a command? I really am. I don't have to get confused
as to, when I'm commanded to believe on Christ, that's helpful. Well, should you? Does he command
it? Yes, you should. Yes, you should. You should believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Well, what if I'm not a believer?
Believe anyway. It's a commandment. This is the
commandment of God. Now, the end of the commandment,
he says, the purpose of the commandment, first of all, is charity out
of a pure heart. Do you know the law cannot possibly
produce charity? All it produces is resentment.
All it produces is, I can't quite measure up, and he's being too
strict on me, he's being too hard on me. The law never produced
any love to God, only hatred and resentment. But the gospel
produces charity. Love to God. You can only love
God when you see your sin payment has already been made, and that
you stand before God without guilt. That's when you will love
Him in return, and not before then. As long as you're thinking
there's something you need to do in order to measure up to
have this love, as long as you're thinking about how strong your
luck, it's not gonna work. The only thing that produces
true love is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. But look what
he says next. The end of the commandment, the
end of the gospel message, the end of the declaration is charity
out of a pure heart and of a good conscience. A good conscience. Does that mean a conscience that
feels no guilt? No, that's the conscience of
a sociopath. if it doesn't feel guilt. You know, as far as that
goes, I feel guilty 100% of the time. Somebody says, you ought
not be that way. Well, maybe not, but I feel guilty
100% of the time. There's always some kind of cloud
over my head about something. You ought to believe the gospel.
I do believe the gospel. I do. I believe. Help out my
unbelief. But I've always got something
I feel a cloud over me about that I know. You know, like that
guy talking about, well, you need to write down. It was funny
in this sermon. The guy first said, he said,
I got to trying to think that there's got to be something.
And I'm thinking, duh. And he said, I wrote one down,
and then another one came, and another one came, and oh. I've never experienced anything
like that. And the thing that is, that's scriptural. That's
not me saying that. Didn't John say, if we say we're
with that, we'll turn to, hold your finger there in first Timothy.
Let me show you this from the scripture. First John 1.8, if we say we
have no sin, and there the word, I've said this often, there the
word is a noun, and it's talking about a sinful nature. If we
say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. It's easy to do, isn't it? Deceive
yourself, lie to yourself. And if you say at any time, I
have no sin, you're deceiving yourself. And the truth is not
in us. We've lost all credibility. Somebody
comes up and says, I've got no sin. Watch out. You're in trouble
if you have any dealings with them. They don't have any credibility.
And look what he says in verse 10. If we say we've not sinned
and there the word is a verb and it's in the present tense
with regard to anything I do, including this preaching, my
prayer, anything that has anything to do with me. If we say we've
not sinned, we make him a liar because he says we have. and
his word is not in us. So in that sense, we always have
a consciousness of sin, don't we? And that won't be taken away
until I'm brought into glory and I no longer have a sinful
nature. So this good conscience is not, well, my conscience is
clear here. I've really done well. I mean,
I'm not sinning. No, no. A good conscience is
a conscience that has absolutely nothing to feel guilty about. That is a good conscience. You
have absolutely positively nothing to feel guilty about. Now you can feel guilty, but not
have anything to feel guilty about. It's what Peter called the answer
of a good conscience to God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead. Now here is a good conscience. Jesus Christ was raised from
the dead for my justification. And I do not have any sin before
God. I am perfectly righteous before
God. The law looks me over and says,
I'm pleased with him. There's nothing to condemn him
for. That's a good conscience. It
has nothing to feel guilty about. If I'm justified, that means
I have never sinned. I have no record against me.
There's a record up in heaven somewhere that says he never
sinned. And you know, I'm satisfied with
that. My conscience is satisfied. that what Jesus Christ did is
all that's needed to make me not guilty, justified in God's
sight. Paul said, reckon yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, that's sufficient. That's sufficient. I'm satisfied
with that. And I'm not looking anywhere
else. I love what Paul said in Romans chapter four, verse five,
to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth
the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. I'm not looking
anywhere else. The righteousness of Jesus Christ
is my righteousness before God. And I have nothing to feel guilty
about because I'm perfectly righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
I'll have no consciousness of sin when I'm in heaven and don't
have this body of death that I'm carried with me anymore.
But my conscience is satisfied. that Christ is all in my salvation. We also read in the scripture
of a pure conscience, a pure conscience. Well, that goes along
with a pure heart. Blessed are the pure in heart. And what is a pure heart? It's
the new heart that God gives in the new birth. Somebody says,
my heart feels really pure. You're blind if that's what you
think about your own heart. But every believer has a pure
heart, a new heart. That's the heart that sees the
sin. Without that pure heart, you'd never have any understanding
of sin at all. And this pure heart has a pure
conscience. And this is what holds the mystery
of the faith, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. Now that goes along with the
new heart that every believer possesses. Paul said, I serve
God with a pure conscience. The product of the new heart. And this is not found in any
natural man. A pure conscience. And a purged
conscience. Let me show you some scriptures
on this. Turn to Hebrews chapter nine. This is talking about the Old Testament economy. and the
Levitical priesthood and the sacrifices under the Old Testament
economy. Verse nine, which was a figure
for the time then present in which were offered both gifts
and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service
perfect as pertaining to the conscience. Well, here's a lamb sacrificed for me. And you see
that? woolly creature, and it doesn't
satisfy your conscience. It's not enough. Look in chapter
10, verse one, for the law, having a shadow of good things to come
and not the very image of the things can never with those sacrifices,
which they offered year by year, continually make the comers there
into perfect for then they would For then would they not have
ceased to be offered? If they made you perfect, they
wouldn't have to be offered over and over again, because that
the worshipers once purged should have no more conscience of sins. You see these animal sacrifices,
without an understanding of the gospel, they didn't do anything
for anybody's conscience. But look in chapter nine, verse
14. Well, let's start in verse 11. But Christ, Being coming high
priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say not of this building,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood,
he entered in once into the holy place having obtained. Eternal redemption for us for
the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling
the unclean sanctified to the purifying of the flesh. 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. Now what are dead works? Anything that has anything to
do with your natural man. It's a dead work. I don't care
how religious it was, all it's gonna do is confuse you. and
the only thing to do is to purge your conscience from dead works. Anything that comes from my flesh,
anything that I did is a dead work. Purge your conscience from
dead works to serve the living and the true God. Now this conscience that is good,
doesn't have anything to be guilty about, it's pure, the product
of a pure heart, And it purges the conscience from dead works.
This conscience speaks to us. It speaks to us. Let me show
you a couple of scriptures on this. Turn to Romans 9. This
is where the conscience works. Romans 9. Verse 1, I say the truth in Christ,
I lie not my conscience. bearing me witness in the Holy
Ghost. Now that's talking about this
good conscience, this pure conscience, the conscience that is the product
of the new heart. My conscience also bearing me
witness in the Holy Ghost that I have great heaviness and continual
sorrow in my heart, for I could wish that myself were a curse
from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.
Now, could I say my conscience bears witness that I feel that? No, I couldn't. Paul did. And you gotta remember he's not,
he's knowing he won't be a curse from Christ. He knows that. And I think that this is more
of a type of Christ anyway, in the sense that he was accursed
for his brethren, his kinsmen according to the flesh. He went
all the way through it. But Paul is saying, my conscience bear
witness that I really feel this way. Turn to 2 Corinthians 1. For I rejoicing, verse 12, for
I rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience. Our conscience
testifies that this is so with regard to us, that in simplicity
and godly sincerity, Not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace
of God, we've had our conversation in the world and more abundantly
to you. Now I rejoicing is this, and this is what our conscience
testifies. Number one, simplicity. You know what that means? The only hope I have is Jesus
Christ alone. Not two hopes, a simple hope.
The simplicity that's in Christ Jesus. And you know, my conscience
bears witness. That really is the only hope
I have. The simplicity that's in Christ. I'm not just saying
what I know how to say. My conscience bears witness to
this. My only hope is found Christ
only. Christ only. The simplicity that's
in Christ. I don't have anything else. What's
next? In godly sincerity. You know,
when I say that, it's not an act. I really believe, sincerely,
with godly sincerity, that Jesus Christ is all I have. I can say
that with conviction. Jesus Christ is all I have. If anything else is needed, there's
no hope for me. All I have is Jesus Christ. That's it. And what's he say
next? In verse 12, not with fleshly
wisdom. This is not according to the
wisdom of the flesh. It goes against the wisdom of
the flesh. This is not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God. Dependence on the grace of God
only. And my conscience bears witness
to me. All I have is Christ, really,
sincerely. And this doesn't have anything
to do with fleshly wisdom. It's contrary to the wisdom of
the flesh. It's by the grace of God. And the conscience bears
witness to the truthfulness of that. There's other things I was wanting
to say about being conscious of the weak brothers,
weak conscience, and you can read about that in 1 Corinthians
8 and 1 Corinthians 10. But I wanna go back to what Paul
said now, back to our text in Acts 24. I'll deal with these other things
some other time. But look in Acts 24, verse 16,
and herein, Do I exercise myself, I take
pains in this, to have a conscience void of offense toward God and
toward men. Now how in the world am I supposed
to do that? You know, it really is simple. The only way you can
keep from offending God is to look to Christ only. Anything
else is offensive. You're bringing God down to your
level if you come any other way. You're thinking you're bringing
yourself up way too high. Well, I've got to the place where
I'm not offending God. The only way you can keep from
offending God is by looking to Christ only. What I thought of was Abel and
Cain. Cain brings an offering to God. You know what the Scripture
says? God had no respect. He had no respect. Cain had no
respect for God, and God had no respect for him. Abel brings
that blood offering that pointed to the coming Lamb of God, and
the scripture says, God had respect to Abel and his offering. He wasn't offended by it. The only way a sinner is not
offensive to God is looking to Christ only. What about men? How can I be
void of offense toward men? I've offended so many men. I've
probably offended everybody in here if you've been around me
long enough at some point or the other. And I'm not saying that that's
okay in any way. But what is the key to not offending
men? May the Lord give me grace to
do this, the Lord put it this way, as you would have others
do to you, do ye unto them. That's the only way to not offend
men, to treat them the way you want to be treated. And I have
no doubt that when men, if men get offended by our gospel, so
be it. You know, I don't care. I really, no skin off my back
as far as men being offended by the gospel, I don't care.
But I don't want them to be offended by me. I would love for someone
who is in some kind of dealings with me to think, boy, he's a
merciful, nonjudgmental, giving person. And that is what every
believer is to Strive, Paul said, I exercise myself, I give pains
to this. And I, oh, would to God that
I wouldn't treat anybody by way of getting them back or paying
them back, or you treated me this way, I'm gonna treat you
that way, or just being oblivious to what, no, I want by the grace
of God to treat you and every man, regardless of how they are,
the way I want to be treated. And that's the way to do it all
the time. And that's how I am to exercise
myself to be void of offense, my conscience void of offense
toward God, looking to Christ only, and toward man. treating
them as I want to be treated. May God give us grace to have
this conscience void of offense toward God and toward men. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for the
gospel that gives us this good conscience, this pure conscience, Lord, we ask that you would give
us the grace to continually look only to thy Son, and that you
would give us the grace to have a conscience void of offense
toward thee through thy Son, and a conscience void of offense
toward men by treating them in such a way as we would want and
desire to be treated ourselves. Lord, give us the grace to do
that. Forgive us of our many failings, and as we Prepare to
observe thy table. Enable us to do this in remembrance
of you. And Lord, truly, we rejoice to
know that the shed blood and broken body of thy son makes
us holy and unblameable and unreprovable in your sight. Lord, teach us
to profit to do this in remembrance of Him. Bless us for Christ's
sake, in His name we pray, amen.