Acts 23 Part 1 A Good Conscience

Joke—little boy said, “your conscience is what makes you tell your mom what happened before your sister does.”

 

The IRS has what is called a ‘conscience fund’, started way back in 1811 when someone in NYC sent in $6 because they had cheated on their taxes.

 

In 1950, $370,000 was brought in. $14,000 was sent by one person.

 

They have received notes that say such things as: “I’ll sleep better now,”

 

“I’d hate to burn in hell over a couple of bucks,”

 

 and my favorite, “I’m sending you this $175 because my conscience has been bothering me…if it continues to bother me I’ll send the rest!”

 

A Conscience is something that we have in our human condition.

 

We all have a conscience that gives us a sense of guilt when we have done something wrong.

 

In 1984 an Avianca Airlines jet crashed in Spain. Investigators studying the accident made an eerie discovery.

 

The "black box" cockpit recorders revealed that several minutes before impact a shrill,

 

computer-synthesized voice from the plane's automatic warning system told the crew repeatedly in English, "Pull up! Pull up!"

 

The pilot, evidently thinking the system was malfunctioning, snapped, "Shut up, Gringo!" and switched the system off.

 

 Minutes later the plane plowed into the side of a mountain. Everyone on board died.

 

When I saw that tragic story on the news shortly after it happened, it struck me as a perfect parable of the way modern people treat guilt—

 

the warning messages of their consciences.

 

Today we are going to look at Paul in Jerusalem in acts 23.  In this passage today we will see Paul talk about his conscience.

 

Before we get into Acts 23 we need to do some background work. 

 

Last time we looked at the book of Acts Paul had made his defense before the mob scene in the Temple.

 

He had gone through his conversion story and he explained to the crowd how God had sent him to the Gentiles.

 

With that said the crowd went nuts and decided that he wasn’t even fit to let live.

 

The Roman soldiers took him inside the barracks and were going to question him.

 

They were going to have him scourged which was a very terrible thing to go through.

 

Paul explained to the Centurion that he was a Roman citizen.

A Roman citizen could not be scourged and a Roman citizen had to have a trial to be proven guilty.

 

When the soldiers found that Paul was a Roman citizen things completely changed. 

 

They wanted to get to the bottom of the accusations against Paul so they called together the Jewish High Council or the Sanhedrin.

 

It is at this point in our passage today that Paul is before the Jewish Sandhedrin.

 

Lets turn to Acts 23 and see Paul’s opening sentence which will form the basis of our sermon this morning. 

 

Acts 23: 1

 

1 Paul, looking intently at the Council, said, "Brethren , I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day." 

 

When Paul makes his defense before the Jewish High Council he makes this point.

 

Paul had always made it his point to live with a good conscience with God up to this point in his life.

 

He had strived to do the right thing so that he could pillow his head at night and know that he was doing God’s will.

 

So Biblically What is one’s Conscience?

 

The word conscience is a combination of the Latin words scire ("to know") and con ("together").

 

 The Greek word for "conscience" is found more than thirty times in the New Testament--suneidesis, which also literally means "co-knowledge."

 

Conscience is knowledge together with oneself.

 

 That is to say, your conscience knows your inner motives and true thoughts.

 

 It is above reason and beyond intellect. You can rationalize, trying to justify yourself in your own mind, but a violated conscience will not be easily convinced.

 

The Hebrew word for conscience is leb, usually translated "heart" in the Old Testament.

 

The conscience is so much at the core of the human soul that the Hebrew mind did not draw a distinction between conscience and the rest of the inner person.

 

 Thus when Moses recorded that Pharaoh "hardened his heart" (Exodus 8:15), he was saying that Pharaoh had steeled his conscience against God's will.

 

Throughout his administration, Abraham Lincoln was a president under fire, especially during the scarring years of the Civil War.

 

And though he knew he would make errors of office, he resolved never to compromise his integrity.

 

So strong was this resolve that he once said,

 

"I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end, when I come to lay down the reins of power, I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me."

 

Now I understand what Lincoln was saying that he wanted to live by his conscience but as Christians there is more to it than that.

 

In some sense all people even the heathen have some sense of a conscience.

 

Paul says in Romans 2:14-15

When Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their consciences bearing witness, and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them."

 

Even these Gentiles had a sense of right and wrong from their conscience.

 

Our conscience tells us that we ought to do right but it is God’s word that tells us what is right and wrong.

 

We should have even a greater desire than Lincoln – if every man didn’t like us for the stand we take it should not matter –

 

all that should matter is that God is our friend.

 

This is where Paul was with his conscience. 

 

 He not only was able to live in his own skin and know he did his best but he was able to say before God that he had a good conscience.

 

All that should matter is that you are in God’s family. 

 

The world says, “let your conscience be your guide.”

 

But that’s not always a good idea.

 

You can’t always do that…because conscience doesn’t set the standard of right and wrong, it only applies the standards that you’ve been taught.

 

Conscience is like a thermostat…it can be set to operate at many different levels.

 

The Word of God MUST inform our conscience

 

Today I want to look at words found in the bible that describe one’s conscience. 

 

1) A conscience can be defiled

 

One reason that we can’t trust in ourselves or in our own conscience is the fact that the conscience can be defiled.

 

Titus 1: 15

15 To the pure, all things are pure ; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. 

 

Conscience is like a sundial…you can shine a flashlight on a sundial and make it say anything you want, if you hold it from the right angle.

 

I’ve actually confronted Christians with sin issues--only to hear back from them that they don’t feel it’s wrong.

 

 “I’m ok with it…I don’t believe it’s sin,” they are saying.

 

 Well, truth isn’t based on feeling it’s based on fact. Their conscience is still there, it’s just been defiled!

Conscience is like a window, and the light coming thru the window is the Word of God.

 

The dirtier the window, the less light gets thru…it isn’t as pure…it browns the light.

Some Christians so repeatedly sin that they defile their conscience.

 

The first time they “did that” it really bothered them…they confessed it, and tried to do better, but fell again, and felt guilty,

 

and eventually didn’t want to confess anymore [negative feeling] so they just went on and swept it under the rug,

 

and the glass darkened, and now they can do it freely anytime…

 

they’ve come to accept something they shouldn’t! The conscience…it can be defiled…

 

In other words, the conscience functions like a skylight, not a light bulb.

 

 It lets light into the soul; it does not produce its own.

 

Its effectiveness is determined by the amount of pure light you expose it to, and by how clean you keep it.

 

Cover it or put it in total darkness and it ceases to function.

 

A Guilty Conscience is much like rust that gets into Iron.

 

Guilt can eat away at our conscience until it eats right into our soul. 

 

Rust can eat away at Iron until it changes it chemically – it is brittle it is no longer just pure iron but something corroded and weak.

 

Guilt in our conscience from sin can do the same thing –it can eat away and corrode who we are.

2. It can be seared

 

1 Timothy 4: 1-2

 

But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron,

 

The people that Paul is warning Timothy about are people that have bought into so much false doctrine and hypocrisy that they have become calloused.

 

Your conscience is like the nerve endings in your fingertips.

 

Its sensitivity to external stimuli can be damaged by the buildup of calluses or even wounded so badly as to be virtually impervious to any feeling.

 

Paul also wrote of the dangers of a calloused conscience

 

Have you ever met people that are so full of hypocrisy that they cannot see their own sin anymore.

 

They are above the Law of God in their own minds. 

 

They spend so much time looking at others and their sin that they cant see their own sin. 

 

Their conscience has become seared by their own hypocrisy. 

 

When they are confronted by their sin they react violently to it or they just ignore it and think that this Bible passage doesn’t apply to them.

 

Ill.—old prospector sleeping in his tent, w/ dog tied up outside.

 

The dog started barking so he hollered at him to be quiet.

 

Again, and he cussed the dog. Again, and he kicked the dog.

 

Again and again, and he kicked it to death!

 

Went back to sleep, only to be murdered by the very intruders the dog was trying to warn him were coming!

Many Christians have kicked their conscience to death and now they’re headed headlong for disaster and don’t even know it…

 

because they’ve disconnected the alarm.

The conscience…it can be defiled, seared…

 

3. It can be evil

 

Hebrews 10: 22

22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

 

A conscience can become so twisted that one doesn’t even think what they are doing is evil

 

A minister in Texas was caught with pornographic material on his church computer.

 

How does it get to that point?

 

How does one get so deprived that they can justify doing something like that in their church office?

 

It is an evil conscience – twisted by so much sin that it leads to the unimaginable.

 

I knew a young man in high school that lied so much that we believe that he started to believe the lies he told.

 

He rarely told the truth and sin became so commonplace that you could not trust a word he said.

 

So far I have mentioned some negatives about the conscience – a defiled conscience, a seared conscience, and even an evil conscience.

 

What do we do as Christians to have a clear conscience.

 

Later in Acts 24:16 Paul will once again claim to have a clear conscience.   How can we stand today and have a clear conscience.

 

1)    Have Humility and realize your place in the Universe.

 

Former heavyweight boxer James (Quick) Tillis was a cowboy from Oklahoma who fought out of Chicago in the early 1980’s.

 

Years later, he still remembers his first day in the Windy City after his arrival from Tulsa.

 

"I got off the bus with two cardboard suitcases under my arms in downtown Chicago and stopped in front of the Sears Tower.

 

I put my suitcases down and I looked up at the Sears Tower and I said to myself, ’I’m going to conquer Chicago.’"

 

 "When I looked down, my suitcases were gone."

 

Tillis was humbled by this – in one second he is going to conquer the world and in the next his stuff is gone.

 

We must realize that our prideful spirits can lead to a great fall.

 

We must take guard to stay humble before the Lord.

 

2)   Confession

 

Confess and forsake known sin . Examine your guilt feelings in light of Scripture.

 

Deal with the sin God's Word reveals.

 

Proverbs 28:13 says, " He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion."

 

First John 1 speaks of confession of sin as an ongoing characteristic of the Christian life:

 

 "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (v. 9).

 

We should certainly confess to those we have wronged:

 

"Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed" (James 5:16).

 

 But above all, you should confess to the One whom sin offends most.

 

 As David wrote,

"I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the LORD'; and You forgave the guilt of my sin" (Psalm 32:5).

 

3)    Forgiveness

 

Ask forgiveness and be reconciled to anyone you have wronged .

 

Jesus instructed us,

 

Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. (Matthew 5:23-24)

 

Before a Christian is to enter into a time of Worship they should be reconciled to their brethren if they have a conflict between them.

 

If we ignore this type of teaching eventually we can just ignore our own brother in Christ and our conscience will allow us to harbor hatred and believe the unthinkable.

 

Jesus also said,

 

For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions. (Matthew 6:14-15)

 

We forgive because we are forgiven. 

 

4)    Procrastination

 

Don't procrastinate in clearing your wounded conscience .

 

Paul said he did his best "to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men" (Acts 24:16).

 

Some people put off dealing with their guilt, thinking their conscience will clear itself in time. It won't. Procrastination allows the guilt feelings to fester.

 

 That in turn generates depression, anxiety, and other emotional problems.

 

5)    Education

 

Educate your conscience .

 

 A weak, easily grieved conscience results from a lack of spiritual knowledge

 

 If your conscience is too easily wounded, don't violate it.

 

To violate even a weak conscience is to train yourself to override conviction, and that will lead to overriding true conviction about real sin.

 

Moreover, violating the conscience is a sin in itself (v. 12; cf. Romans 14:23), bringing legitimate guilt for a real offense against God.

 

 So, respond to your conscience, even if it's weak, and then continue to inform your conscience with God's Word so it can begin to function with reliable data.

 

An important aspect of educating the conscience is teaching it to focus on the right object--divinely revealed truth.

 

 If your conscience looks only to personal feelings, it can accuse you wrongfully.

 

You are certainly not to order your life according to your feelings.

 

 A conscience fixed on feelings becomes unreliable.

 

 If you are subject to depression and melancholy, you of all people should not allow your conscience to be informed by your feelings.

 

 Despondent feelings will provoke unnecessary doubts and fears in the soul when not kept in check by a well-advised conscience.

 

The conscience must be persuaded by God's Word, not by your feelings.

 

Furthermore, the conscience errs when the mind focuses wholly on your faltering in sin and ignores the triumphs of God's grace in you.

 

 True Christians experience both realities.

 

Conscience must be allowed to weigh the fruit of the Spirit in your life as well as the remnants or your sinful flesh.

 

 It must see your faith as well as your failings.

 

 Otherwise the conscience will become overly accusing, prone to unwholesome doubts about your standing before God.

 

 Learn to subject your conscience to the truth of God and the teaching of Scripture.

 

As you do that, your conscience will be more clearly focused and better able to give you reliable feedback.

 

With a trustworthy conscience, you have a powerful aid to spiritual growth and stability.

 

With a clear conscience, you live in an abundance of freedom and joy.

 

Today you can have joy and freedom in Christ and you can have a clear conscience.

 

Some people are looking for security in the wrong places and they wonder why their conscience never feels right.

 

Some run to secrecy – Secret sin in their life that they harbor

 

Things they don’t want others to know about them – God can forgive and give you a clear slate.

 

Others may deal with unhealthy guilt that it is just man made.

 

God wants us all to have freedom from this guilt by living in His will for our lives.