A Godly Conscience
We should make sure we have
developed a conscience that is in harmony
with God's will for our lives.
Here's Gene:
The key word in this Principle is conscience.
And as we look at the story of Job,
I think it's very clear that
Job's conscience was a reliable guide
because of his view of God.
Because of his life before all of this
tragedy hit him.
We go back again to how God described him
as being a man that was faithful.
A man who fared God.
A man who was righteous
and reflected God's holiness
in the way he lived among men.
Even though he wasn't perfect,
he was a man who had faith in God and
I believe was saved by grace through faith.
And who was living according to
the laws of God.
And when he began to be
criticized by his friends,
his conscience still was intact
in relationship to what he believed.
And how he had lived his life
before this horrible thing happened:
That God allowed to come into his life
to prove to Satan that he was a man of God.
And this man Job will not turn against Me
no matter what you do to him.
And of course, Job passed
that test ultimately.
Look at Job chapter 27, verse 2:
As God lives, who has deprived me
of justice, and the Almighty
who has made me bitter...
And here again we see Job being
honest with God.
And we have a Principle earlier on
that Job shared his feelings.
And God understands that. And he says:
I've become bitter.
And certainly, we can understand that.
...As God lives, who has deprived me of justice,
and the Almighty who has made me bitter,
as long as my breath is still in me
and the breath from God remains in my nostrils,
my lips will not speak unjustly,
and my tongue will not utter deceit. ...
In other words, he's saying:
Even though I'm complaining, I'm hurting,
I'm sharing my feelings even of bitterness,
that does not describe who I really am.
...I will never affirm that you are right. ...
He's saying to his friends.
You've accused me of all these things.
And my conscience tells me that that
is not who I am and the way I've lived my life.
...I will maintain my integrity until I die. ...
And by the way, there he's using the
very words that God used to Satan.
Have you considered my servant Job,
a man of integrity.
Now remember, Job didn't know
that God had said that to Satan.
In fact, I'm not sure Job even knew
that Satan was at the root of all this.
He didn't understand all that.
But he says:
...I will cling to my righteousness
and never let it go.
My conscience will not accuse me
as long as I live!
Now what was Job's perspective?
Well here it is:
Here Job was affirming what
God actually said about him to Satan.
Though he knew he was not perfect,
he also knew that he was
a man of integrity.
His conscience bore witness to that.
And also in essence he was saying,
I know that I am not a maggot or a worm.
That does not describe who I am.
And of course, one of his friends
had accused him and said:
You're a maggot. You're a worm.
That's why you're in this state.
And so he's responding to this.
Now we need to look at what it doesn't mean.
It doesn't mean that his perceptions
and his understanding did not become
distorted and confused.
I mean, whose perceptions
wouldn't become distorted
and confused in the midst of
his horrible situation?
Yes they were. And we know that.
However you see, what we do know
is that at the core of his being,
Job trusted in God's character.
And he stated this in spite of
all of his suffering.
And for this reason, he had earlier
responded to Zofar. He said:
Even if He kills me, I will hope in Him.
Ultimately, you see Job's character
coming out in the midst of all
of this--this horrible pain.
Now at this point, I think
when we talk about conscience,
we've got to be very, very careful
because Job's experience here
does not mean that every human being
can trust his or her conscience.
Let me say that again.
Job doesn't mean that every human being
can trust his conscience.
Why?
Well we can feel guilty about things
we should not feel guilty about.
If our conscience is tuned to the wrong thing,
we can actually feel guilty about things
we should not feel guilty about.
Because our conscience has been
tuned to a wrong code.
Furthermore, we can feel we're doing right
[when] we're engaged in evil deeds.
Think of Nazi Germany.
The Nazis concluded that their personal
and national conscience was Adolph Hitler.
You can read that: Adolph Hitler is our conscience.
But there was a Lutheran minister
by the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
who in the midst of this Nazism,
took a stand and lost his life
because of it.
He resisted this evil and you know what he said?
Boldly. Jesus Christ has become my conscience.
Not Hitler.
Not any man. Not any group of people.
Jesus Christ has become my conscience.
And what that simply means
in practicality is that we must align
our conscience with the Word of God
and help others to do the same.
You see, in the beginning of our own culture--
think about it for a moment.
What was our national conscience
built on as a nation?
Well you can see it above the Supreme Court
of the United States to this day.
It was the Ten Commandments. That was
a reflection of our national conscience.
And what a standard that is.
You can't improve on it.
Read many of the founding fathers
and what they said about Jesus Christ.
And you will see that their national conscience--
personal and national conscience--
was based on Jesus Christ.
Many of the founding fathers believed that.
And even those who were "deists,"
believed in the Ten Commandments
and even Jesus Christ as being a good man.
Even though they didn't understand
or admit that He was the Son of God.
But notice what has happened
in our own culture. That has changed
in many respects. And a lot has
happened within the last 50-60 years.
Our views of morality,
our views of ethics, our views of sexuality,
our views of life and when it begins.
Our views of integrity, honesty
are no longer in harmony with what
once was our national conscience.
And what is happening to people
who grow up in our culture today
who are exposed to the
new national conscience?
They have no conscience in relationship
to violating the will of God in these areas.
Their conscience is tuned to a wrong standard--
the standard of this world.
And so we have to be aware of that.
And that's why the apostle Paul had this
as his goal when he wrote to Timothy:
Now the goal of our instruction is love
[love that comes] from a pure heart,
a good conscience, and a sincere faith.
And when you look at love
broadly defined in the Scriptures,
you will see it is the foundation
of a good conscience.
Love broadly defined as God defines it--
for example, in 1st Corinthians 13--
is the foundation of a good conscience.
A conscience that is in harmony
with God's standard,
not the standard of the world.
And in the same letter, Paul warned
about the fact that we can have
a seared conscience. He said:
Now the Spirit explicitly says
that in later times
some will depart from the faith,
paying attention to deceitful spirits
and the teachings of demons,
through the hypocrisy of liars
whose consciences are seared.
In other words, we can have
a seared conscience.
We can have a conscience
that is not tuned to the Word of God.
Now here's the question to think about
for Reflection and Response:
Why is it so difficult to renew
and retain a conscience?
You see, what we develop
in our conscience from our culture,
from our society, from what we're taught
from the exposure that we have,
is deeply rooted in the fabric
of our personality.
It becomes a part of who we are.
It becomes a part of our inner being,
of our heart, as it were.
And I can certainly identify with that.
Because when I became a Christian,
I felt guilty about doing things
that were right. Because I had been taught--
even in my religious environment--
that what was right in God's sight,
I was taught that it was wrong.
Such as let's say worshiping
with other believers who weren't a part
of our religious community.
And after I became a believer,
even though I knew in my head
that it was right to worship with them
according to what God says,
I still felt guilty going and being
with other Christians.
And it took me quite a while to
overcome that guilty conscience
and tune my heart to what was right
according to God's Word.
And you see, that's why we needed to
define this process as Paul does,
as a process, when he said:
I urge you, present your bodies
to the Lord a living sacrifice,
holy acceptable to God,
which is your reasonable service.
Don't be conformed to this world.
Be transformed how?
By the renewing of your mind.
And for some of us it takes a while
to overcome a conscience
that has been tuned to the wrong thing.
And even as believers we can feel
a guilty conscience when we're
doing what is right because of the way
in which our conscience has been defiled
and been seared through our upbringing.
Even if it's in tune with things
that seem to be good, but they're out of harmony
with the will of God.
And that was certainly true
in my own life.
So here's the Principle to Live By:
We should make sure we have
developed a conscience that is
in harmony with God's will for our lives.