I want, by the grace of God, to talk to you this morning about your conscience. There's a lot of talk about conscience these days. Is it right to follow your conscience? Should your conscience be your guide as you make your pilgrimage through this world? What is the conscience? What does it do? Should I trust my conscience?

In these days in which we live, anytime men want to rally other men and women around a particular cause, they frequently appeal to conscience. And they want you to, by following your conscience, do what they ask you to do. When our president recently wanted to persuade public opinion to give support to beginning the bombing campaign in Czechoslovakia because of the terrible atrocities that had been committed against the people of Kosovo. He said the atrocities have awakened the American conscience.

I have a book in my library by the late Barry Goldwater called The Conscience of a Conservative. Larry Flint, a few weeks ago, you'll remember, was on trial in Cincinnati, Ohio again, publisher of Hustler Magazine, and he had the audacity to justify and defend his arguing in court for his right to peddle smut to everybody on the basis of conscience. Conscience.

Yesterday, I read a brief portion of an article written by some woman somewhere, I forgot her name, wasn't important. She was less important than the article, but she said, She was defending and calling for men and women to recognize and to accept properly feminism, abortion, and homosexuality, and she appealed to the reader's consciences, insisting that conscience demands that we support such things.

In the religious world, multitudes, multitudes, base their hope with regard to eternity. Multitudes base their hope of acceptance before God on the day of judgment. Some of you sitting here, I have no doubt. Base your hope before God upon your conscience. You think you have a good conscience and therefore you will be accepted of God. Do you after all have a good conscience? Do I?

Does the Word of God have anything at all to say about this matter of the conscience? Indeed it does. As a matter of fact, the Word of God makes numerous, numerous references to the conscience, just in the New Testament. We have the scripture speaking of a good conscience, a conscience void of offense, an accusing conscience, an excusing conscience, a conscience that's weak, a conscience that's pure, a defiled conscience, a seared conscience, an evil conscience, a purged conscience, and even a perfect conscience.

What kind of conscience do you have? What kind of conscience do I have? What do our consciences really tell us about ourselves? Those questions I want to answer this morning from the word of God. A good conscience is something that everyone wants, but few possess. Do you have a good conscience? Do I?

Look at Paul's statement in Hebrews 13 verse 8. I realize there's some debate about whether Paul wrote the book of Hebrews or not. And I really don't know, but I figure it's a whole lot easier to say Paul said, and when I refer to Hebrews, and to say the writer of the book of Hebrews. So Paul will forgive me if he didn't write it, and the fellow who wrote it will forgive me if Paul didn't write it. But this is what the scripture says here. Hebrews 13, verse 18. Pray for us. For we trust, we have a good conscience in all things willing to live honestly. We trust we have a good conscience. The fact is, and this is the first thing I'll deal with, it's important, so I'll spend a little time here. We all do have consciences. Someone said the conscience is the voice of God in a man's soul. I don't know about that, but I do know this. God has put a conscience in every human being. which will either accuse us continually or excuse us continually on the basis of our actions.

Conscience is that voice that's inside you and inside me, that voice which we simply cannot silence. Now, it is true you can muffle the voice, you can sear your conscience, but you can't silence it. Conscience is that faculty of mind which God has put in every man by which we judge the moral character of human conduct, both the character of other people's behavior and the character of our behavior. It is an inborn sense of right and wrong.

Turn to Romans chapter 1, let me show you. The conscience is the law of God inscribed upon man's heart by creation. And though it is defiled and corrupt, yet it is still the law of God inscribed upon even the fallen man's heart by creation. The scriptures in Romans chapter 1 are declaring to us the universal guilt of mankind. The apostle tells us in Romans 1 how that God, by the very creation, has revealed his power and his Godhead.

Now, nobody will ever come to know God by looking at the stars and looking at the sun. Nobody will ever come to know God by natural revelation. But God has established a witness in the heavens so that nobody can honestly look into the heavens and not see God's power and his wisdom. Nobody. Nobody likewise will ever be justified before God because of his conscience. His conscience, as I said, is corrupt. But every human being has a God consciousness.

Lindsay expressed it well one time just recently dealing with the fall of Adam. He said that men hold the truth in unrighteousness. The word hold in Romans 1 where it says they hold the truth in unrighteousness means to suppress, to hold down the truth. Every man says In his heart, God is. He knows it. I don't care how big an atheist he is. I don't care how much of an infidel he is. I'm here to tell you, I'll say it publicly. I'll say it without fear of contradiction. I'll say it to their face. Any man who says he doesn't believe God is, is a liar and he knows it. He's a liar and he knows it. Because God says, in the heart, is the conscience of man that declares he is.

And therefore, in chapter 2 here of Romans, in verse 1, he says, Thou art inexcusable, O man. You're inexcusable. The revelation of God then by creation is such as is proper to condemn a man because men have the light of revelation by creation which they will not submit to. And because they will not submit to the light of divine revelation, they are justly condemned.

And then in chapter 2 of verse 14, the apostle is bringing this matter of condemnation against the Jews because the Jews had the law and they refused to obey the law. And it says the same thing is true of the Gentiles who didn't have the law. Look at it, verse 14. When the Gentiles which have not the law, that is, they never received the written law of God, they never received the tables of stone, the law of God was never given to the Gentiles, But they do by nature the things contained in the law. These, having not the law, are a law unto themselves, which show the work of the law written in their hearts." There it is. Written in your heart by the finger of God. written in their hearts, their conscience, also bearing witness in their thoughts, the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another.

Now this is what Paul's telling us. All men and women have a sense of right and wrong. which to a greater or lesser degree reflects the law of God that is inscribed upon their hearts, so that their consciences will either accuse them of doing wrong or excuse them in doing wrong by justifying them in it.

But the conscience reflects the holy law of God and the requirements of God so that every man knows by nature, not only God is, God is omnipotent, God is powerful and righteous and wise. This God is holy. He wrote it on your heart. He wrote it on your heart.

Now then, the conscience of man often produces a sense of guilt, a legal fear. A legal fear and guilt which many mistake for and take to be Holy Spirit conviction.

Turn to John chapter 8. I'll show you an example. John chapter 8, verse 9. You remember the story. Our Lord has got this adulterous woman standing in front of Him. These self-righteous Pharisees have taken her in adultery in the very act. Every time I read it and almost every time I comment on it, I always raise the question and wonder how they manage that. Caught her in the very act. Looks to me like they were planning the whole thing. Looks to me like they were involved in it somehow or another. But they caught her in the very act, and they brought her now before the Lord Jesus. Moses said, Killer, what do you say? And the Lord Jesus said, Whichever one of you is without sin, go ahead, pick up a rock, start throwing them at her. And he spoke plainly as only God can to their hearts. Look at what it says in verse 9.

And they which heard it being convicted by their own conscience, not convicted by God's Spirit, not convicted of sin, righteousness, and judgment, convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even to the last, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing in the midst.

You see, the conviction of sin is much more than a sense of guilt. It is much more than a sense of your just condemnation. The conviction of sin is much more than just the idea that somehow you know God's holy and you're going to hell if you don't do something or he doesn't do something.

The conviction of sin has this revelation of God the Holy Spirit in your heart making you to understand your sin. your sin because of your unbelief, making you to understand the accomplishment of righteousness by Jesus Christ's obedience, making you to understand that judgment has been accomplished and finished by the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But this conviction that's just, you know, I can't tell you how many times over the years I've had people, I've had young people, I've had children, I've had mamas and daddies because their children, you know, they start having nightmares and they're scared to death they're going to hell, they want to make a religious profession. That's not conviction. That's just not it. That's not it.

Holy Spirit conviction is something more than a dread of wrath. Every man passes through that many times during his life. Every man. And honest folks don't deceive men because of it. Only dishonest religious hucksters seize those opportunities and take advantage of a man's soul to deceive him.

But what is Holy Spirit conviction? It is a conviction of your sin. because you haven't believed the Son of God. It is a conviction that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has obeyed God's law perfectly and brought in an everlasting righteousness such as God demands of you, and you can't produce a conviction that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, by his shed blood, has accomplished redemption.

I think I told you recently, it was Adam and Eve's conscience which caused them after the fall to hide from God in the garden. There's a conscience, a guilty conscience. Adam and Eve were naked before they fell, weren't they? Walked around naked, wasn't ashamed of anything. Wasn't ashamed of anything. Had nothing to be ashamed of. But when they were naked before God after the sin, they understood they were naked more than just in the sense of their bodies not having any clothing on them. They realized that their hearts were naked before God.

Oh, now I got hope for you when you understand your heart is naked before God. All things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. And they've started sewing together fig leaves. And you can understand something about the depravity of their conscience after the fall. They really thought they could hide from God behind fig leaves they stitched together. And that's what all men in religion do. They're working around making fig leaves for themselves and presume that they can hide from God by the works of their own hand.

And when God has mercy on a sinner, this is what he does. He takes the omnipotent finger of sovereign grace and he strips off the fig leaves. He just strips them off. And now you're sure enough ashamed. and he puts on you the righteous garments of his slain sacrifice, Jesus Christ the Lord, and you're no longer ashamed. Conscious, no longer ashamed. That's it. That's it. He that believeth, he that builds on this rock shall not be ashamed. No longer ashamed.

Now then, this is what I'm saying. We must not trust our consciences. The conscience cannot be trusted any more than the thoughts of the depraved mind or the emotions of the depraved heart can be trusted, because our depravity has made us perverse in all our faculties. The Scriptures tell us plainly in Hebrews 10.22 that the conscience of the fallen man is an evil conscience from which we must be cleansed by the blood of Christ. The scriptures tell us in Titus 115 that the conscience of the lost religious man is defiled. So defiled, in fact, that he can have, in a sense, a good conscience while he walks about with an evil conscience.

Well, preacher, what are you talking about? What are you talking about? You can manage. You can manage to fix it up so that you can lean on your own righteousness and your own works, and you can ignore the Word of God and the revelation of God and walk before God and men with a good conscience suitable to you without faith. Let's see if I can be good on that. Turn to Acts chapter 23.

Do you remember what our Lord told his disciples? He said, they shall put you out of the synagogues. Yea, the time cometh when whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God's service. Wow. You mean You mean folks in the name of Jesus? In the name of God? In the name of the Lord? Will persecute other men and think they're doing God's service? Every day. Every day. Hardly a day goes by I don't get some kind of letter from a fella who'd kill me if he had the opportunity and could do it without any repercussions. Look at verse 1 of chapter 23. Here's the Apostle Paul writing about or telling about himself when he was a persecutor. He said, now the scripture says, Paul earnestly beholding counsel said, men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.

In chapter 26 verses 9 and 10, he says, I verily thought with myself. That's when you get in trouble. I verily thought with myself. that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I thought I was doing God's service when I consented to the death of God's servant Stephen.

In chapter 9 of Romans verse 1, the apostle appeals to his conscience. and appeals to God as his witness. He says, my conscience bears me witness. And my conscience was bearing me witness when I was wishing myself a curse from Christ. When I was persecuted in the church of God and wishing that I knew nothing about it, this man, Jesus Christ, did not exist. My conscience bore me witness.

The Apostle Paul, writing by divine inspiration, tells us that when he was persecuting the church, wishing himself a curse from Christ, his conscience bore him witness, and he was fully convinced he was doing the right thing. Fully convinced.

Look in 1 Timothy chapter 4. Some men and women are so heartened by freewill works religion or by their ungodly behavior. Either way, same thing. often by both their free will, works, religion, and their ungodly behavior, that they live with a seared conscience.

The word seared, it's not a word we use much these days, but if you were a cattleman and you use a branding iron, that's the word. It means to cauterize. You've seen the old Western, somebody'd have to perform some kind of surgery, take a bullet out of a fella, and take that bullet out and get an iron red heart and lay it on him, and they'd cauterize it to keep it from bleeding anymore. Stop the bleeding right now, just cauterize it. This is what he's saying.

1 Timothy chapter 1, or chapter 4 rather, verse 1. Now the Spirit speaks expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. Religious folks, religious folks. And doctrines of devils is not necessarily demon worship. Doctrines of devils is not necessarily some kid sitting around a campfire deciding they want to become vampires because they've been smoking the wrong stuff, right? That's not it.

The doctrines of devils, any doctrine takes you away from Christ. the doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron, the hot iron of works religion. Now, how do you know that's what it's talking about? Because they forbid to marry. Say, if you want to be holy now, you can't marry. It's going to be really holy. You've got to separate yourself from worldly things, cardinal things. You've got to, you know, the wickedness is out yonder. The problem with you is not what's in you, but what you do. That's the problem. And that's not just Catholicism, Gary, that's a whole blooming religious world. The whole world. The problem is, if you could just not do this, not do that, everything would be all right.

This is what it says. Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them that believe and know the truth. The apostle is here telling us about men and women, even children. who have consciences which are so cauterized, so hardened, that they are past feeling. They have no regard for the rightness or wrongness of what they do. They have no conscience for anything. Talk to them all you want to. It's like pouring water off a duck's back. They don't pay any attention. They don't care. They don't give a hoot. They've hardened their hearts. Their consciences are cauterized, past feeling.

John Gill wrote under a cloak of sanctity, They commit the most shocking impieties. If you work at it, you can hold down the truth of God long enough and persistently enough that you can cauterize your conscience. You can so sear your conscience, so harden yourself that your conscience will excuse your wickedness and justify you in it. Either accusing or excusing themselves. That's the way man's conscience is. It's depraved.

So we must never trust our consciences. Let us ever be careful not to violate our consciences. Not to violate our consciences for anyone. But do not trust your conscience. He who trusts his conscience, like he who trusts his heart, trusts the fool and the devil. Our guide in all things must be the word of God.

Merle, it doesn't matter one flip what you think about it. What does this book say? It doesn't matter one flip what my wife thinks about it. What does this book say? It doesn't matter one flip how it affects me. What does this book say? It doesn't matter one flip what the world thinks about it. What does this book say? Nothing else matters. Nothing else matters. It doesn't matter how you feel. It doesn't matter what you think. It doesn't matter what you want. Our basis of rule and right and wrong is not the world nor ourselves. It is God's word and God's word alone. Otherwise, you just walk about with a seared, cauterized conscience, justifying yourself and whatever you want to do.

What we all want is a good conscience. Everybody does. What would you give? What wouldn't you give to have a conscience that lets you lay down at night and go to sleep? In the immediate prospect of judgment, I'll tell you what you do. I'll tell you what you do. I dare you to. I dare you to. You go home and lay down at night and you try to think to yourself before you go to sleep about leaving this world before you wake up in the morning. standing before God in judgment. You just try to think about it. And then go to sleep. Go ahead. Go ahead. What would you give to have a conscience? What would you have had a conscience that didn't accuse you that they would allow you to anticipate drawing near to God Almighty in his holiness, who is a consuming fire with no dread? Oh, what kind of conscience is that? It's a good conscience.

Our consciences, you see, demand what we can't give. Our consciences demand of us satisfaction and perfection. As I said at the beginning of the message, they echo the law of God written on our hearts. Our conscience demands that we can only have acceptance with God if we have perfect atonement. We can have acceptance with God only if we have perfect righteousness. And this perfect righteousness and perfect atonement is found in the obedience and death of Jesus Christ as our substitute.

Look in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 22. Let us draw near with a true heart Oh, my soul, God, give me a true heart. Everything will fall in place. Let us draw near with a true heart, true heart, a true heart. In full assurance, full assurance of faith. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. What on earth is he talking about? Well, he's alluding to the Old Testament ceremonies. The sprinkling of the blood, the washing of water. We're talking about the redemption applied to the heart and the man being sanctified by the regenerating work of God the Holy Spirit. And both come together in the person of Christ in His work of grace.

When God the Holy Spirit gives you life, He has washed you. When God the Holy Spirit applies the blood of Christ to you, He sprinkled your conscience and now, now you draw near to God. with full assurance.

Full assurance? How can that be? How can a sinner on this earth have full assurance? I'll tell you how you don't. I'll tell you how you don't. It's when you keep looking in here for it. Keep looking in here. You know, you have a little trouble, Think, well, I'm not saved. I don't know whether I'm saved or not. Don't know whether I really trust the Lord or not. Don't know whether I've really been born of God's Spirit or not. So you start reading your Bible, and after you've read 20 chapters, boy, I feel better now. Well, I hadn't been praying enough. You start praying a little more, you set your clock, get up early in the morning, pray an hour before you go to work. Boy, now I feel better. Now I feel better. That's works. That's works. That's all on earth it is. It just works. Now pray, by all means do. Read your Bible, by all means do. But when you look to that for your assurance, you haven't got any. You haven't got any.

Well, let's see. I have some assurance because I love Bob. My love for you, Bob. I do love you. My love for you is so shot full of sin. My love for Christ, I do love it. But my love for Christ is just sin. It'd take me to hell in a heartbeat. But where do you have assurance? Just him. Just him. That's all. Just him.

If you was out on a stormy sea and you had a little old boat. I know sailors call them ship, but I've never been on one of those. You had a little old boat. And the sea's tossing that boat here and there and everywhere. And you've got an anchor in the boat just about as big as the boat itself. And you just toss to and fro, and you hold on to that anchor. You just keep holding on to that anchor. Hold on to that anchor. It's not going to do you one speck of good. Where do you get any peace? Where do you get any security? You throw the anchor out of the boat and it lays hold of a rock. And there you find stability and peace and security. And Christ is the anchor of our souls. Not Christ in here, but Christ on the throne is the anchor of our soul, both sure and fast.

Christ in you, the hope of glory, but Christ in you. teaches you to cast your hope on Christ, sitting on the throne, whose work is finished, whose redemption is accomplished. And the Lord Jesus Christ, his blood, continually sprinkles our hearts from an evil conscience, so we stand before God. Our conscience is purged from our sins and purged from our dead works of religion. So we trust Christ alone. That's it, Rob.

Now these things I write unto you, John said, little children, that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is, what we read earlier, the mercy sin, the propitiation for our sin. For what happens when a believer sins? Tell me something. When don't you sin? Go ahead and name it. Go ahead, name it. Please don't name it out loud because I'll have to say you're a liar. That's what the book says. Man says I haven't sinned. He's a liar. He doesn't know the truth. The truth's not in him.

You mean preacher right now we're sinning? Every one of us. In our best days, shoot, in our best thoughts.

But what happens when a believer sins? Will you listen carefully? Listen now. Listen. All that happens in here. A lot happens in here. But before God Almighty, Oscar, nothing happens.

Our acceptance is not in us. And that's a good conscience. It'll cause you to walk before God with peace. It'll cause you to seek in all things to be void of offense before God and men. It'll cause you to walk before God with faith unfeigned, out of a pure heart with brotherly love. It'll cause you to seek the honor of God in everything. Because Christ has given you righteousness, redemption, acceptance with God.

My conscience, it echoes the voice of God, written in his law, written on my heart. Looking on Christ crucified, looking on Christ crucified, my conscience says the same thing the law of God says. That's enough. That's enough.

Oh, may God give you a good conscience by faith in Christ. Amen.