Koinonia VII: The Conscience of Man Part 2

Conscience - Koinonia

 

 

Sunday 10/22/17 

Series: Doers of the Word

Message – Koinonia VII: The Conscience of Man Pt. 2

 

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Conscience of Man

Conscience

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….

Conscience - Koinonia

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.

  1. Why did God tell Israel to come out from among non-believers and especially not to ever marry them?
  2. 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 weekBlessings! 

 

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!

 

Hi my name is Mark and though I am opposed to titles, I am currently the only Pastor (shepherd/elder) serving our assembly right now.

I have been Pastoring in one capacity or another for nearly 30 years now, though never quite like I am today.

Early in 2009 the Lord revealed to me that the way we had structured our assembly (church) was not scriptural in that it was out of sync with what Paul modeled for us in the New Testament. In truth, I (like many pastors I am sure) never even gave this fundamental issue of church structure the first thought. I had always assumed that church structure was largely the same everywhere and had been so from the beginning. While I knew Paul had some very stringent things to say about the local assembly of believers, the point of our gatherings together and who may or may not lead, I never even considered studying these issues but assumed we were all pretty much doing it right...safety in numbers right?! Boy, I couldn't have been more wrong!

So needless to say, my discovery that we had been doing it wrong for nearly two decades was a bit of a shock to me! Now, this "revelation" did not come about all at once but over the course of a few weeks. We were a traditional single pastor led congregation. It was a top-bottom model of ministry which is in part biblical, but not in the form of a monarchy.

The needed change did not come into focus until following 9 very intense months of study and discussions with those who were leaders in our church at the time.

We now understand and believe that the Bible teaches co-leadership with equal authority in each local assembly. Having multiple shepherds with God's heart and equal authority protects both Shepherds and sheep. Equal accountability keeps authority and doctrine in check. Multiple shepherds also provide teaching with various styles and giftings with leadership skills which are both different and complementary.

For a while we had two co-pastors (elders) (myself and one other man) who led the church with equal authority, but different giftings. We both taught in our own ways and styles, and our leadership skills were quite different, but complimentary. We were in complete submission to each other and worked side-by-side in the labor of shepherding the flock.

Our other Pastor has since moved on to other ministry which has left us with just myself. While we currently only have one Pastor/Elder, it is our desire that God, in His faithfulness and timing, may bring us more as we grow in maturity and even in numbers.

As to my home, I have been married since 1995 to my wonderful wife Terissa Woodson who is my closest friend and most trusted ally.

As far as my education goes, I grew up in a Christian home, but questioned everything I was ever taught.

I graduated from Bible college in 1990 and continued to question everything I was ever taught (I do not mention my college in order to avoid being labeled).

Perhaps my greatest preparation for ministry has been life and ministry itself. To quote an author I have come to enjoy namely Fredrick Buechner in his writing entitled, Now and Then, "If God speaks to us at all other than through such official channels as the Bible and the church, then I think that He speaks to us largely through what happens to us...if we keep our hearts open as well as our ears, if we listen with patience and hope, if we remember at all deeply and honestly, then I think we come to recognize beyond all doubt, that, however faintly we may hear Him, He is indeed speaking to us, and that, however little we may understand of it, His word to each of us is both recoverable and precious beyond telling." ~ Fredrick Buechner

Well that is about all there is of interest to tell you about me.

I hope our ministry here is a blessing to you and your family. I also hope that it is only a supplement to a local church where you are committed to other believers in a community of grace.

~God Bless!