Sunday 10/22/17
Series: Doers of the Word
Message – Koinonia VII: The Conscience of Man Pt. 2
Conscience of Man
Last week we opened with 1 John 2:1-6
I explained how in these verses John was arguing for “walking in the Light” out of loyalty of heart…and that our loyalty comes from our gratitude to Jesus for being our Priest, Advocate and Sacrificial Lamb – our “Propitiation”.
In other words, John expects us “walk in the light” BECAUSE our hearts are conditioned by gratitude towards Christ.
Remember, walking in the light is a requirement for Koinonia.
“The one who walks in darkness and thinks he is walking in fellowship with God is mistaken.”
John was SO sure of this that he said, “This is how we know that we are intimate with Him” …when we live lives of loyalty to Him.
SO intimacy and koinonia are connected in THIS way….
Koinonia is intimacy lived out.
A heart that is sensitive to God, out of love and loyalty to Him is EASILY influenced by the inner witness of the Holy Spirit within – which is what we call the conscience.
The conscience of man is man’s own inner witness regarding His loyalty to God.
It is that faculty of the immortal soul which distinguishes between right and wrong or between loyalty to God or loyalty to our flesh and it prompts us to choose the loyalty to God.
This inner witness is aided by the Holy Spirit as we saw in Rom. 9:1 last week…
“I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,”
We read a verse that helps to visualize this last week found in Proverbs 20:27…
“The spirit of a man is the candle of the LORD, Searching all the inner depths of his heart.”
Last week we learned that,
- The conscience is our inner testimony1 Cor. 1:12,
“(12) For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you.”
- It will steer your heart towards loyalty1Tim. 1:18-20,
“(18)This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, (19) having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck, (20) of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.”
- It is the basis for our intimacyHeb 10:22,
“(22) let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”
This week we are picking up where we left off last week…
- Our conscience can become callous or corrupted 1Tim. 4:1-2,
“(1) Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, (2) speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron,”
This is where what we learned about Koinonia and the world’s influence becomes pertinent.
- Why did God tell Israel to come out from among non-believers and especially not to ever marry them?
- Lest you’re hearts be carried away to serve other gods.
Let’s read it in Deut. 7:1-11,
“(1) When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, (2) and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. (3) Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. (4) For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the LORD will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. (5) But thus you shall deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire. (6) “For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. (7) The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; (8) but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (9) “Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; (10) and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face. (11) Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today, to observe them.”
This is why God tells us to come out from among them and be separate. The state of those who do not know God is self-focus. Their desires run contrary to God and they want nothing to do with His ways.
John 3:19-20 tells us,
“(19) And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (20) For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.”
Titus 1:15,
“(15) To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled.”
Our conscience can be purified
SLIDE010
The NEXT thought we will introduce is that the conscience has a reset button.
- It is NOT in our control
- It is the sovereign work of God in the heart.
Heb 9:8-14,
“(8) the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. (9) It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience— (10) concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation. (11) But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. (12) Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. (13) For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, SLIDE012 “(14) how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead worksto serve the living God?”
2Tim. 2:24-26,
“(24) And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, (25) in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, (26) and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”
We will end here with a verse taken from Isa. 55:6 &7,
“Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.”
I encourage you ALL this week to spend a fair amount of time with these verses. Diagram them, analyze them understand what they say and what they imply before we come together next week. I will very likely ask each of you to share.
PLEASE respect God enough to live as John suggested…
DO NOT treat this as something you cram for the night before or the morning of, begin to be doers and spend some times with it EVERY DAY between now and next Sunday.
We will pick up here next week…Blessings!
I hope this teaching will challenge you and encourage you to place your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
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Blessings!