Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide Five Questions

“Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide. ”

Five Questions: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. What is my conscience? What does conscience do? Should I obey my conscience? Does following my conscience assure that I am right with God? Why does conscience seem to be irrelevant in our time?

What is My Conscience? � “the part of the mind that makes you aware of your actions as being either morally right or wrong” – Merriam Webster Dictionary � SUNEIDESIS � It – “A knowing with oneself. ” is the sense of “ought” or “ought not” with which everyone is born. � It is that distinguishes humans from animals.

2. What does Conscience do? � It serves as a judge of our actions. “…their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them. ” (Rom. 2: 15 NASB) � Examples: - Guilty: Gen. 42: 21; Dan. 5: 6; Ps. 32: 3 -5 - Clear: Job 27: 5 -6; 2 Cor. 1: 12 � It may also encourage us to do what we believe to be right (spirit vs. flesh). Man vs. Animal (Rom. 13: 5)

3. Should I Obey My conscience? � YES! � “I always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men” (Acts 24: 16). � It is SIN to fail to do what conscience requires (James 4: 17). � It is SIN to do what conscience forbids even if the thing is not sin in itself (Rom. 14: 14, 23). � “Let your conscience be your guide” is not bad advice. BUT IT MUST BE “SET” RIGHT!

4. Does Following my Conscience Prove that I am Right with God? � NO! Conscience acts on what we think is right. � Paul is the Classic Example. - “I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. ” (Acts 23: 1) - “…Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. ” chief (1 Tim. 1: 15). - “I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus…” (Acts 26: 9) � Our conscience can lead us to be wrong (Jeremiah 10: 23; by Proverbs It must be “set” God’s 14: 12) Truth.

Why has Conscience become Irrelevant? �False Teaching – “Defiled” (Titus 1: 15) - Isaiah 5: 20; Jeremiah 6: 13 -15 (Isis) �No Teaching – “Weak” (1 Cor. 8: 7) - In the home (Proverbs 29: 15) - In the Nation (Judg. 21: 25; Eccl. 8: 11) - Post Modern Philosophy (Eph. 4: 17 -19) �Ignored Teaching –“Seared” (1 Tim. 4: 2) - “Harden not your hearts” (Heb. 3: 15)

1 Peter 3: 21 “…a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. 21 There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,