If you will, take your Bibles
and turn with me to Acts chapter 23. Acts 23. Acts chapter 23. This morning we'll be looking
at, Lord willing, sections of this entire chapter, verses 1
through verse 35. The title of the message this
morning is, A Good Conscience, Evil Outrage, and Christ's Comfort. a good conscience, evil outrage,
and Christ's comfort. And those will be my three points
this morning. Now, if you look, let's look
at this and break this chapter down into its several parts. We've now come to the point where
Paul has declared himself to be a Roman citizen. He declared
Himself, and last week we saw that He was born free. He was
born a Roman citizen. And they had no right to whip
Him or scourge Him without conviction. So now then, the Roman magistrate,
Lysias, has brought Paul before the Jewish Sanhedrin. Now this
man, he is confused. This man, Lysias, is confused. He doesn't understand why it
is that these Jews want to kill the Apostle Paul. He can't figure
this out. So he tries to let Paul speak
to him and maybe that would work. Maybe if he would scourge him,
maybe he'd find out. But now that he's come to the
end of his rope, he says, hey look, I've got to find out what's
going on so I'm going to let the Jews judge him according
to their law, so that I might understand and make a better
judgment." And so he puts him before the Sanhedrin. And in
this chapter, Paul begins to give a defense. In verse 1, he
gives a defense and then that's all he gets. He only gets one
sentence in before this man Ananias sends a person to come and slap
him on the face. He said in verse 1, Paul earnestly
beholding the council said, Men and brethren, I have lived in
all good conscience before God until this day. And the high
priest said, You, go slap him. And sure enough, a man came down
and hit him in the face. Now we see this in verses 1 through
5 that Paul is before the Sanhedrin and he is smitten by the servant. And Paul, in anger, turns to
this high priest and said, God smites you. He said, you're hitting
me against the law which you claim to uphold. It's against
the law for you to smite me without being accused, without being
guilty. And he said, God will smite you.
And I'll let you all know this, that five years after this, this
was a prophecy given by the Spirit of God to Paul, because five
years after this, this man Ananias, who was the supposed high priest,
was stabbed to death outside the temple. He was stabbed to
death by the Roman soldiers. God did smite him. And so in
verses 1 through 5, we see this scene. And then in verses 6 through
10, Paul, he perceives something here. He says, I'm not getting
anywhere. This is not going to work. They're not going to hear
me. So he outwits them. He outwits his accusers. There
were two people, two sets of Jews in this Sanhedrin, the Sadducees
and the Pharisees. And they always were against
each other unless it came to judging one of Christ's elect,
one of God's people. It's then they came together.
But Paul saw that they were together and he made division among them.
He said, I'm a Pharisee, I believe in the resurrection. And when
he said that, they began to bicker among themselves so that he might
escape. And he did. And this Roman magistrate takes
him to the castle of safety. And then in verses 6-10 and verses
11-35, we read of a conspiracy of the Jews. These Jews, they
determined to kill Paul, but the Lord Jesus Christ gives him
great comfort and He says that they won't touch you. I have
to have you to testify of Me in Rome. And so God uses these
wicked men in order to move Paul from this place toward his destination,
which was Rome. And so these men did not kill
him, but rather he was delivered to Felix the governor. Now, that's
a historic breakdown of this chapter. But this morning I want
us to see three things from this chapter that are clearly stated.
Three things that are clearly stated from this chapter that
we might see and take comfort and encouragement and be exhorted
in. One, the importance of a good
conscience. Friends, it is important that
we as believers have a good conscience. Number two, evil outrage of the
wicked. And number three, the comfort
of Christ. First of all, the importance of a good conscience.
Look at that in verse 1. Paul says, I have lived in all
good conscience before God unto this day. Now Paul was a very
zealous man. All of his life he was a very
zealous man and lived according to his convictions. Even when
he was lost, lived according to what he thought was the will
of God, even though it was ignorance. Paul says in Philippians 3 and
verse 6, he says, that I was blameless, I was zealous and
blameless before the eyes of men. He said, you couldn't find
fault in me outwardly. The problem was the inward part.
He didn't recognize that he was inwardly corrupt then. But Paul
is not speaking about his conduct or his conversation before he
was a believer. He is speaking after he had been
converted. Because we know that Paul's conscience
convicted him of holding the coats as they stoned Stephen. We know that Paul's conscience
was felt the guilt and weight of that many times. A lot of
people believe that the apostle Paul's physical afflictions were
caused because of his feelings of shame that he had persecuted
the church. But Paul, since his conversion,
he says, I know this, that I have lived according to the Word of
God. Before God and before men, I
have a good conscience. I have a good conscience. We
know that all men by nature have a conscience, don't we? We know
that all men by nature know what is good and what is evil in themselves. They don't know it fully, but
they know right and wrong. My children, they can understand
that a lie is wrong. They understand that. And their
conscience at times, though evil and defiled, still convicts them. Our consciences maybe feel the
weight of our sins and our guilt, but yet our conscience gives
us no indication as to why we feel guilt. You ask a lost man
why he feels guilty about things. If he don't believe in God, why
does he feel guilty? He can't tell you why he feels
guilty. He just does. Because that's his conscience.
That's the law of God written on their hearts of every man. And we know this, that the natural
man, though he feels conscience, though he feels that he has sinned
or committed wrong actions, we know this, that many times he
sears that conscience. You take a man who has committed
adultery, and at first he may feel guilty, but the more that
he commits the adultery, the less he feels guilty. What is
he doing? He's searing that conscience.
And what is searing? It's burning the flesh so you
don't feel. You don't feel in that part of
your flesh. Well, that's what people do to their conscience. But when a man is given life
of the Holy Spirit, When we have been regenerated by the Holy
Spirit, God gives us a new heart, a new nature that is created
after God in true holiness. And now then this nature, this
nature becomes our conscience so that we may serve God and
conduct ourselves well before all men. Now Paul says, I've
lived in all good conscience, so why are you accusing me of
blasphemy? You accuse me of that? I live in good conscience. I
know what I believe is right. And because of this good conscience,
because of his conduct, according to the Word of God, Paul could
boldly stand before his accusers. Look at that in verse 1 again.
He earnestly beholding the counsel. Now friends, he was not afraid
to be in that council. Why? He'd done nothing wrong.
An innocent man is not afraid. He is not afraid of what men
say about him. He's not afraid about what men
accuse him of. Why? I'm innocent. I'm innocent. There's no way you can accuse
me. I have a good conscience and I'm not afraid of you. I'm
not afraid of you. Friends, if we have a good conscience,
a good conscience will give us boldness. Who here desires boldness
to witness of Jesus Christ? If you desire boldness, then
friends, we must have a good conscience before men. We must
have a good conscience before men. Go to 1 Thessalonians chapter
1. 1 Thessalonians 1 and verse 5. The Apostle Paul here, when he
had entered into this church of Thessalonica, he was very
careful as to how he conducted himself. He was a preacher of
the gospel and he would not be accused of any man regarding
misconduct. And so Paul says this to the
church in Thessalonica, he said, for our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost,
and in much assurance. as ye know what manner of men
we were among you for your sakes. And ye became followers of us
and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction and
with joy of the Holy Ghost." Paul entered into this church
of Thessalonica. If you remember, in Acts chapter 17, the apostle
Paul had come from Philippi, where he was persecuted, and
he went to Thessalonica. And the Scripture says there
that he opened and alleged to them for three Sabbaths in the
Scripture. And the Jews opposed themselves.
And he went out to the Gentiles and he began to preach. And the
Word of God moved mightily in that place. And he said, when
I entered into you, you remember what kind of man I was. What
kind of man was I? Did I come in lying to you? Did
I come in trying to steal your money or try to gain wealth for
myself? No. He said, I, as an apostle,
have a right to demand of men payment, but I said, I won't
do that. I won't do that so that I might not offend the church,
that I might not offend God's people. He said, I came in in
much affliction, but without deceit. Flip over to chapter
2 in that same place. He says, verse 3, for our exhortation
was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor guile. He came in very careful
how he was to conduct himself. And he did that not for himself,
but for the gospel's sake. Friends, there are many things
that we as believers are at liberty to do. But there are not many
things that are convenient for us to do. If we are doing anything, if
we are doing anything that might cause a shadow of guilt, may
cause an appearance of guilt on us, we should leave it alone.
It's not that we're under law or obligation to not do it, but
we should do it for the gospel sake so that men might not have
anything to accuse us of. Anything. Our conduct should
be a good conduct. We're not here seeking the things
of this world or the applause of men. But believer in Christ,
we should be people of good conscience before God and men. We are called
to be His witnesses and spread His gospel to every creature.
And if we are to be accepted of men, we should enter into them not
seeking the things of this life, but seeking their good and their
salvation by the gospel we preach. I'll tell you this, if a man
has an ill conduct, if he has a reputation, of anger, a reputation
of hatred, a reputation of malice, do you think that people are
going to hear him concerning love, joy, and peace? No, they're
not. If he's a man that seems to be
greedy, that seems to be after the things of this world, is
anyone going to listen to him concerning the life to come? We shouldn't have any cause to
believe that they would. Can anyone witness of the importance
of worship and yet neglect it? How can you witness to someone
else and say, hey, come and worship with me? And you yourself don't
worship. That don't make any sense. You're not going to be able to
appeal to anyone that way. 1 Peter 3.15 says, "...sanctify
the Lord God in your hearts. Be ready always to give an answer
to every man that asketh you the reason of hope that is in
you with meekness and fear." How? Having a good conscience.
That's how. That's how. Do you think men
are going to ask you of the hope that is in you if you are living
not in good conscience before other men? No. No. Friends, we are to be blameless
in our conduct before men. Not for our salvation, but so
that the gospel might not be blasphemed by this evil and self-righteous
world. Let us walk in the fruits of
the Spirit, love, joy, peace, meekness, gentleness, goodness,
faith, temperance, against which there's no law." There's no law
against these things. Nobody is against love. I mean,
there's no law against love, is there? There's no law against
faith in God. And we should have a good conscience
to these things. I'm going to give you one more
reference. Go to Titus. Chapter 2. Titus chapter 2. And look at verse 10. Now, verses 1 down through the
first part of verse 10, Paul gives conducts in this. He talks to old men, he said,
be sober. He talks to women, he said, likewise, be sober.
He talks to young men and to young women and what we're to
do and how we're to behave ourselves. And in verse 10, He gives us
the reason. Not purloining, but showing all good fidelity. Here it is, that they may adorn
the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. Friends, we should
adorn the doctrine of Jesus Christ with good conduct. Does it not
become us to have a good conversation, a good lifestyle in the eyes
of this world? Of course it does. Of course
it does. Believer wish to have a good
conscience before God and men so that we may have boldness
to speak of the hope of Christ. Number two, an evil outrage.
We see that in our text. Go back to your text. Look at
that in verse 2. And the high priest Ananias commanded
them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth. Now Paul, he
just said, I have a good conscience. He said, I'm not guilty. That's
what he said. I'm not guilty and I know I'm
not. And what made these men so angry
and frustrated was that he was right. This man, and not only that,
this man didn't cower down before them like they thought he would.
There they are in all their pomp and circumstance, they have all
their robes on, and they look really beautiful. And there's
Paul, he's down there in the middle of them like some arena.
And he's a spectacle before them and they just think that he'll
cower down to them. And he looks him right in the
eye and he says, I've got a good conscience and you can't accuse
me of anything. And that made him mad. And he
hit him. He smote him against the law.
He was frustrated. Friends, if we live in good conscience,
I'll tell you this, the evil workers of iniquity, they will
be frustrated with you. They were frustrated. I told
you this before, that Christians in the early church, that the
Roman government required them to burn one incense to Caesar. That's it. You worship any God
you want to. You can bow down to any God you
want to. Just all you have to do is light
a little match and burn an incense to Caesar. And the Christian
says, I will not. I will not burn anything to Caesar."
And the Roman government didn't know what to do. They were frustrated
with them. They said, why won't you just
light this one thing? You don't even have to believe
it. We don't care if you believe in Caesar or not, but the law
says you should burn this one thing. And they said, no. and
it frustrated them. They would have a good conscience
before God and they would not bow down to the least compromise. And that frustrates men. When
you will not compromise with them, you will not compromise
with the evil religious world. They will be frustrated with
you and they will hate you for it. They threw the Christians
to the lions because of it. They didn't know what else to
do. They're not even afraid of death. What else can we do with
these Christians? These Christians had boldness.
Why? Because they lived in good conscience
with God, and because so, evil workers will hate you for believing
the gospel. Friend, the gospel of Christ,
if it is not offensive to the natural man, it is not the gospel. If the gospel of the cross of
Christ is not offensive to the natural man, it is not the gospel. In the book of Galatians, the
apostle Paul said this. He says, if I have yet preached
circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense
of the cross ceased. Paul said, if I add one ounce
of law into the gospel, the cross of Christ loses its offense. The natural man is always looking
for something he can do. And when you preach the gospel,
you take that away from them and they will hate you for it.
You will suffer persecution for preaching the gospel of Jesus
Christ. Why? It's offensive to them. It's
offensive. You tell that salvation is absolutely,
completely, utterly of God Himself and has nothing to do with the
will or works of man. and they will hate you for it.
You tell them that salvation, redemption, being born again
is not, and being preserved unto glory is not of free will, it
is not of works or religion, and this world will hate that
message. It's an offense to them. Paul in 1 Corinthians says, For
after that the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not
God. That's offensive. If they understand what you're
saying, that's offensive. In other words, you can't learn
salvation by education. You can't have God's eternal
life by your academic study. You'll never find it. And if
God does not give it to you, you'll never have it. And there's
nothing you can do to bargain with God. Nothing. You have nothing
He wants. All you have is sin. And tell them that the gospel
comes, this salvation only comes by the hearing of the gospel.
They don't like that either. They don't like that either.
Preaching to them is outdated. Preaching the gospel of Jesus
Christ is foolishness. What we do here is foolishness. to the natural man. And I tell you, if a man is not
standing in the pulpit preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and
Him crucified, his message will save absolutely no one. No one. It is by the foolishness
of preaching that God has chosen to save His people and there
is no other way. There is no other way. Tell them that man is absolutely
depraved, full of sin, and no goodness is in him at all. Tell
them that man cannot ever by their doing please God. Tell
them that God will never accept their best works or their most
sincere efforts. In Amos 5, verse 21, God says,
I hate, I despise your feasts. and I will not smell your solemn
assemblies. Though you offer to me burnt
offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them, neither
will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou
away from me the noise of your songs." I'll tell you what, churches
today have a lot of beautiful music, don't they? To God it
is nothing more than noise and He says, take it away. I don't
want it. God hates the offering of self-righteous
religious men. You see those coming in their
fine robes and all of that pomp They come down the aisle with
smoking incense and beautiful windows and pictures and all
of these things that attract the physical eyes of men, and
God says, I hate that! I despise it! And it's not acceptable
before Me. Try telling that to a Roman Catholic. Friends, we are in a struggle. We are in a warfare. And if we're
ever to be bold witnesses of Christ, we must boldly witness
before them and tell them what God says. God says that Jesus Christ is
the only hope for sinners. That unless the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself sends His Spirit to open our hearts and reveal God the
Father, you cannot know Him. And He does this according to
His own sovereign will. He does it to whomsoever He wills. This is the message of the gospel.
Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ
alone. And all who believe on Him, may
be hated of this world, but they are loved of God." Friends, we
are loved of God, those who have been saved by His grace and mercy.
God loves and cares for us, and that's the only thing that should
really matter. We should not seek the approval of men, but
we should live in good conscience before them, and they'll hate
us for it. Now, number three, the comfort
of Jesus Christ. Look at that in verse 11. And
the night following, the Lord stood by Paul and said, Be of
good cheer, Paul, for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem,
so must thou bear witness also at Rome. I thought about Paul's
declaration and testimony. Do you realize that he only made
that one statement? And he made the statement about
believing the resurrection. I'll tell you, many times I preach
the gospel, I wonder if it has any effect at all sometimes. But I know this for a fact, that
God's gospel never goes out void, but always accomplishes what
He sends it to do. Always. Always. He says, Paul,
be of good cheer. You testified of Me. You testified
of Me to these people. And I like this, it said, He
stood by Him. Friends, we should have the comfort
of this, that Jesus Christ always stands by us. He says, I will never leave thee
nor forsake thee. When we witness, we should be
bold, we should have a good conscience. But I know that this comforts
our hearts more than anything else, is that Jesus Christ is
always with us and He will always help us in times of our trouble. Always. And we should be good
witnesses of Christ. And I know this, that when we
are bold witnesses before others of Christ, I know this, it brings
my heart good cheer. I feel the cheer of the Lord
Jesus Christ when I witness to others of His mercy and His love. When I witness to others of His
justice, of His holiness, of His righteousness, and how that
Christ came to save sinners, that makes my heart leap. It should make your heart leap. Our Lord is near us and He'll
never leave us nor forsake us no matter what evil men do. I
pray this is a blessing to you. Dismissed.