A Clean Conscience

This message is one of the Times Square Pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing to None of these messages are copyrighted, and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to your friends.

I want to tell you that the message that I'm going to share with you tonight, I had planned to share this message even before I came here Sunday and heard the messages then. And if you were here Sunday morning or Sunday night and heard one or both of those messages, and if the Holy Spirit, as a result of that, brought conviction to your heart and necessitated some changes in your life or in some areas, the end result of that will be in the title of my message tonight. I want to talk to you about a clean conscience.

A clean conscience. And turn with me to Romans chapter 2, and just leave it open there. I'll get to it in a bit.

And as you're turning to that, and just leave it open, let me read to you 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 5. Paul said, Now, by the way, you know, today in our ministers' meeting, Bob mentioned something that somebody asked him, do we have discipleship classes? And I've been asked that question a number of times since we started the church. And the answer to that is yes, we do have discipleship classes. They take place Sunday morning and Sunday night and tonight and Thursday night and Friday night.

We are endeavoring to disciple a congregation. You know, in a lot of churches, you have people who attend church on Sunday, and then you have this small group that gets serious and go into discipleship class. Well, we want to disciple an entire congregation.

And that's what the Times Square Church is all about. And one of the goals at 1 Timothy 1, 5 says, In a little bit, we're going to partake of communion. And communion is a wonderful reminder that the power of the cross is a power to forgive sin and to create in us a good conscience, a clean conscience.

Nothing in this lost world bears more imprint of the Son of God than the forgiveness of our sins. If you study the religions of the world, only in Christianity and in the sacrifice of the cross is there full assurance of salvation, including a clear conscience before God and man. Hebrews 10, you don't need to turn to it, but let me read to you Hebrews 10, verses 19 and 22.

It says, For many years, my office was in Brooklyn. And when I would drive to and from the office and go across the Brooklyn Bridge, I would always pass those massive, big, yellow buildings trimmed in green that says on the top of it, read the Bible every day, the Watchtower Society. And when I would go into Brooklyn, my route would take me down around the bridge and down right on the street level.

And very often I would see hundreds of the workers, young people coming in and out of that building. They're clean cut, very dedicated looking, very serious, very sober minded, coming from all over the world to give a year or two years of their service. In fact, I had a tour during that one time and saw those young people.

And one day I had in the car, a young worker with me. We saw those workers and he asked me a question. He said, why is it that these Jehovah witnesses are so dedicated in their witness and their evangelism that they put evangelical Christians to shame? And it's true.

They're faithful. And I remember one, it was Christmas day or Christmas Eve. They came knocking at my door and I said, my goodness, Christmas day, they're out knocking on doors.

And so this gentleman, he said, I don't understand it. Why is this so? And I gave him this answer. I said, listen, if you thought that your salvation depended upon knocking on doors and distributing literature and bringing converts to your religion, listen, you'd track up 10 floors in the tenement house somewhere and you'd knock on doors or you'd do anything possible.

If you thought that that was going to cleanse your heart and cleanse your... I said, they're not just working for the Jehovah witnesses. They're working to get to heaven. And when salvation is in your own hands, you will do anything.

But they're trying to cleanse their conscience and work their way into the kingdom of heaven. But Hebrews 10 verses 1 and 2 says, for the law or for the keeping of the law can never perfect those who draw near to God. Nor, my friend, can it remove or take away the consciousness of sin and a guilty conscience.

The world is full of guilt ridden souls with a guilt ridden conscience. And if you're one of those persons here tonight, you will listen to me. You will never, never achieve true happiness or peace of mind until you possess a good, clean, clear conscience.

There are multi-million dollar growth industries today growing out of man's inability to cleanse his soul of guilt. The mental health field is overwhelmed with illnesses. Emotional illnesses, psychological illnesses, physical, because of an unclean conscience.

In fact, the pharmaceutical industry makes billions of dollars every year from pill popping patients seeking relief from a conscience that they cannot get cleansed. And by the way, beware of counselors, whether in the church or outside of the church, who will relieve you from feeling guilty about things for which you are not guilty, but leave you with a sense of guilt over those things for which you really are guilty. Psalms 38, 2 and 4, listen to this cry for relief from sin's guilt.

It says, for thine arrows have sunk deep into me. There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine indignation. There is no health in my bones because of sin.

My guilt has overwhelmed me as a burden that weighs too much for me. And oh, I see people that are just burdened over, burdened over, physically sick in their bodies because they can't cleanse their soul of guilt. But oh, how different for a blood-bought believer, hallelujah.

How different for a blood-bought believer. Romans 8 and 1 says, there is now therefore no condemnation. To them that are in Christ Jesus.

For the law of the spirit of Christ has set you free from the law of sin and death. And it's that law that produces the guilty conscience. There is never any peace for those who resist God.

There is never any clean conscience except that the blood of Christ cleanses your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. If there's any happiness in the world, it belongs to those whose conscience is pure. The whole earth is but pain and anguish to those who have an evil conscience.

And dead religion cannot purify a defiled conscience. But thank God that there is no sin, there is no evil, there is no guilt, there is no evil conscience that the blood of Jesus Christ cannot purify and make holy and thus turn your mourning into dancing, hallelujah. At the root of all true joy is a clean conscience.

Now just what is the conscience? What is its function in the believer and the unbeliever? What does the Bible say about it? Well the Greek word translated conscience is a combination of two words. One meaning with and the other means to know. It literally means to know with.

Now conscience is that which makes a boy tell his mother before his sister does. How many times as a little boy I used to say whenever anybody did anything wrong in the house I'd always say I didn't do it, I didn't do it and nobody had said I did. But it was my conscience trying to excuse itself before someone accused it.

The USA Today newspaper had a survey in it I think last Friday and it asked this question, it says if you discovered on your bank balance that there was an extra thousand dollars in it that didn't belong to you and there was a mistake by the bank which they could never discover, there was no way that they could discover it, what would you do with a thousand dollars? Well 52% of the people said that they would go tell the bank. Another 26% said they would think about it for a while, think about keeping it but then eventually they'd go and turn it in. And 20% said I would consider it my lucky day and keep it.

Well there was quite a percentage of them that would turn it in. Why? Because their conscience would bother them. Conscience is not only what I know but it's what I know with some other.

And that other knower whom the word implies is God. Conscience is that faculty of our moral nature which perceives the right and the wrong of an action, it accuses or excuses the action and then anticipates the consequences under the righteous government of God. Do you remember that when Adam sinned that God said to him, who told you that you were naked? Who told you that you were naked? Well I'll tell you who told him, it was Adam's conscience.

It was his guilt revealing to him his sin so he hid himself. An old English proverb says a guilty conscience needs no accuser. Do you remember when the angry mob of men brought to Jesus was the woman taken in adultery? And they said the law requires that she be stoned.

And Jesus said this, he said he who is without sin among you let him cast the first stone at her and then he began again, he stooped down and he wrote on the ground, he was completely silent. He said these words, he was without sin, let him cast the first stone and then he wrote on the ground and he was very quiet. Do you know why, what he was doing? He was waiting for conscience to have its way.

Because during that period of silence as Jesus wrote on the ground, their conscience working like an IBM computer began to scan their whole past and their whole being and it began to put a finger on their own sin and the Bible says that they began to go out one by one. And according to Titus 1.15 both their mind and consciences were defiled and they knew it. It is by the conscience that conviction of sin is produced.

Now you see the Christian conscience compares our behavior with the standard of the scripture. And therefore our conscience is clean only when it concurs with the word of God. Martin Luther when he was standing on trial before the emperor in the city of Worms, it was in the year 1521 and a part of his testimony he said this, my conscience is captive to the word of God.

He said I am more afraid of my own heart than of the Pope and the Cardinals. He said I have written, I have within me the great Pope which is self and the word of God. And so the New Testament teaches that conscience is an awareness of sin, it's an awareness of self and the Bible is the standard and the Holy Spirit is the source of our conscience.

Now with that as a background I want to talk to you about three things. I want to talk to you about first of all the fact that every one of us has an accusing conscience. And secondly if we do not obey that conscience we can have a seared conscience and that's a very, very dangerous place to be in.

And thirdly God wants to give us a clean conscience. First of all let me talk about an accusing conscience. You know it's possible to avoid having a defiled conscience and I pray that your conscience is never, never seared.

But no one can ever avoid having an accusing conscience. The sinner can shut the preacher off. You can close your ears to the word of God.

You can stay away from the church. You that witness to people on the job, they can avoid you. But no one, but no one can silence the inner trumpet of the conscience.

Every man and woman alive on the face of the earth regardless of their exposure to religion or whether they live the farthest from the preaching of the gospel or missionaries everybody has an accusing conscience. From the Nobel Peace Prize winner in science or literature to the heathen tribesmen in New Guinea all men everywhere have a God consciousness and that man can ignore God or you can deny him or he or she, a she like Madeline Murray O'Hara you can take the Bible out of our schools. They're now trying to take it off the name in God we trust off of our court system or on our coins and you can keep it out of the schools.

You can keep the religious symbols away but I want to tell you there's one thing you can't do. You can't get rid of the God implanted conscience accusing conscience that is in a man's heart and a man's soul. A great theologian once said there are two things of which I stand in awe.

One is the stars in the skies above and the moral law within. I remember on my first trip to Africa in a little country in West Africa called Togo I went with a missionary back into the bush. He wanted us to meet some of his witch doctor friends and he assured us that they were friendly witch doctors and we drove out into the bush and as we went out we asked him he said what do you do when you go where the gospel has never ever been preached before.

We said how do you introduce Jesus to them. He said I'll show you I'll tell you. We went into the village.

We met the men of the house. They all came out and we met them. Missionary had already been there before and they all greeted us and they all wanted us to see their altars.

They all had an altar outside their house and they all had their gods there. Their wooden gods and their shrunken heads and then the missionary took us out into an open field and we walked across the field and at the one end of the field was a massive tree and under the tree was some large rocks and he had us stand there and he said do you see do you see that and he pointed to the rocks and you see what's there and we said no what is it. He said look at those stains.

He said those are bloodstains. This is where they come to offer up their sacrifices and I don't know I don't remember if they offered up human sacrifices but I do know that they offered up animal sacrifices and then he said you asked me the question how do we introduce the gospel. He said oh it's very easy.

He said I start with the blood. I start with the blood. He said I tell them about God who had only one son and who came to this earth and he offered him he offered his son as a sacrifice and shed his blood but as he began to share that with me as I thought about that I thought about the question that God put to Adam who told thee that thou was naked.

Who told thee that you had to shed blood to appease a God somewhere. I'll tell you what it is. It's an accusing conscience.

If you have your Bibles open to Romans chapter 2 verses 14 and 15. This is what it says. It says for the Gentiles who do not have the law do instinctively the things of the law.

These not having the law are a law to themselves. That's Romans 2 14 and 15. Are a law to them.

They show the law written in their heart. Their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them. You see an accusing conscience tells a man tells us for what we were designed and that we were made morally in the image of God and that we have fallen and it tells us to the depths to which we've fallen if we will but listen and obey our conscience.

It was that accusing conscience that caused Cain to run away when he had murdered his brother and he heard his brother's blood and God said your brother's blood screams from the ground and it was an accusing conscience that caused him to go out and seek comfort and he built there a city to surround himself with other people just like himself to soothe himself and to resist an accusing conscience. It was an accusing conscience that caused Judas to go out and to hang himself. It was an accusing conscience that caused Pydon and his wife to wash their hands and said no we want no responsibility in this trial.

You see the inward witness of the conscience means that every soul has an inward awareness of sin and inescapable knowledge of God and that we have an obligation to our creator. Now your conscience can't save you but if you listen to it it will lead you in a direction it will lead you to a place where you'll find relief from that conscience. I read a testimony a week or so ago that I want to share with you tonight.

I read it in the Christianity Today and it caused chills to go up my spine and I prayed about whether I should share it or not because I don't know what eventually will come of this individual. Charles Colson shared the testimony of this person and I'll tell you what he said in the close. He said I pray and I'll give you his name in a minute I pray for him as a brother I pray that the fruits of repentance will spill out in his life.

Over the years few Watergate characters have inspired more fascination than a man by the name of G. Gordon Liddy. How many of you remember the name from Watergate? A fascinating character an ex-FBI agent Nixon White House aide Charles Colson says that he's such a colorful character that any Hollywood director would order up from central casting. And as a youth Liddy was a sickly child and so he resolved to conquer his fears by facing them straight on.

Because he feared heights and electricity for example he would climb to the tops of electrical towers. Because he was afraid of rodents he roasted and ate parts of the rat. He exercised his will to the point where he was it was stronger than any than anything that he confronted.

He went on to become a pilot an FBI agent an attorney a White House aide in just a few years. He became a student of a German philosopher Nietzsche whose belief was that if you had enough willpower if you had a strong will that you could conquer anything. And even as the Nixon White House began to unfold and shattered Liddy would not be broken and he was eventually sentenced to 21 years in prison for his role in Watergate.

When he was there he met Charles Colson who as many of you may know became a born again Christian and was an aide to Nixon. And Colson witnessed to him in prison. And Gordon Liddy wrote in his in a book that he wrote interesting the name of the book is called Will.

And in the book he shares this that Colson asked me if I had seen the light. And I answered I said no I'm not even looking for the switch. He served four years and was released and when he came out of prison the reporters were there and asked him for a few words and he started to talk in German and they all looked at each other they couldn't understand it and they didn't know he was quoting his philosopher friend Nietzsche and was quoting him.

One evening Gordon Liddy appeared on David Letterman's show. And David Letterman asked him this question he said what happens to us and Gordon Liddy said we're food for the worms. And David Letterman said that's all.

He said that's all. And when he left that show and he began to think about that question and the answer that he gave and knowing emptiness and question began to come into his mind and Gordon Liddy's conscience began to bother him and he could not escape it. About the same time he moved to another area and he ran into some old ex-FBI agents who happened to be born again Christians.

They invited him to a Bible study. He said no I won't come. They persisted and because he respected them and he saw something in their lives he said all right I'll come under one condition you do not convert me and we study the Bible only as a historical book.

And they agreed. Now Liddy you see felt no compelling need for God in his life. He was interested in the Bible purely from history.

And so he began to go and as he went he began to think about God and his accusing conscience began to again work upon him. And he started thinking about God and this is what he said. He said by definition God is infinite and I am by definition I am finite.

He said it's contrary to the rules of logic for a finite being to be able to apprehend the infinite. So there has to be some communication that infinite being is going to have to tell me. He's going to have to talk to me.

I am never going to be able to apprehend that myself. And then the next step in the process for Liddy was to wonder if there was any communication. And then he says one night the light came on in my head.

A light went on inside my head and said well that's what the Bible is. That's what the Bible is all about. The Bible is not merely historical record but it is God's means of communicating to the finite man.

But he thought it would be impossible for a finite being to be worthy of the infinite. So there must not only be communication. There has to be something more.

And Liddy said to have God sending down his son to do two things. To win for you all that which we cannot win for ourselves and to continue the communication. And he said you know some people when finally the light of salvation dawns on them he said they have a rush of emotion.

But he said I had a rush of reason. And he realized that Christ was who he claimed to be. And Charles Colson became a born again Christian.

Excuse me E. Gordon Liddy became a born again Christian. Again I say I don't know about his growth and I agree with Charles Colson. He says I pray for him.

I pray that the fruits of repentance will spill over into his life. But here is a man he said that I have now in my life. He said for his every morning to get up and to say God what do you want me to do because for 57 years I live my own life.

But I want to tell you there's one thing that that hard man could not escape and that was an accusing conscience a God awareness that's within his soul. There is probably no better illustration of an accusing conscience than when we consider what is taking place in our school classrooms and in the court system over the controversy between the creationist and the evolutionist. Do you know why.

Listen to me carefully. Do you know why there is such a fight such an antagonism a prejudice against the teaching the Bible teaching of creation in our schools. There is such a hardcore group of educators of scientists of humanists of legislators who will fight they will fight they will spend millions of dollars to go up against any challenge to be able to keep creationism out of our school curriculum.

Do you know why. The fight is not about education. It is not about science.

It's not about freedom of speech. It's not even about evolution. I'll tell you what it's all about.

It's all about an accusing conscience. And let me explain what I'm talking about. Why is evolution so important.

After all it's an unproven science. To believe in a theory of evolution you have to take a giant leap of faith or belief. For example you have to believe that millions of years ago there was a swirling mass of energy where it came from they don't know but there was a swirling mass of energy and over billions of years it cooled off and it became this earth.

And before it cooled off a little piece of that energy came off of it and it became a fish floating in the sea. And one day the fish was washed up onto the beach and a few years later it developed some arms and then later it developed some legs and began to walk. Later it became a monkey up in a tree and one day it fell down and was your uncle or became your grandfather.

And if you believe that I'll tell you another one. It's about what happens when we die. Now I purposely made evolution sound ridiculous because it is.

It's like turning faith into scientific mumbo jumbo nonsense. It's like committing intellectual suicide to believe such an unproven theory. And if you don't believe me listen to this.

Recently some renowned scientists have begun to rethink the theory of evolution. Listen to what Colin Patterson of the British Museum of National Science stated recently. He said for the last 18 months or so I've been kicking around non-evolutionary and even anti-evolutionary ideas.

For over 20 years I had thought I was working on evolution in some way. One morning I woke up and something happened in the night and it struck me that I had been working on this stuff for more than 20 years and there was not one thing that I know about it. There's not one thing that I'm sure about it.

He said it's quite a shock to learn that one can be misled for so long. He said for the last few months I've been traveling to seminars with other scientists and I've been all asking them the same question. Can anyone can anyone tell me anything you know about evolution any one thing that is true? He said every time I didn't get an answer and he said it's beyond me.

And other evolutionists again non-Christians now agree with him. You see the probability of life originating from accident is comparable to the probability of the unabridged dictionary resulting from an explosion in a print shop. But I didn't get to my point yet.

Why? Why will the evolutionists fight all the way to the Supreme Court and fight against one simple single little truth that says in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth? Why will they fight it all the way to the Supreme Court? I'll tell you why. It's not a fight on evolution. It's all about an accusing conscience.

Because if God created the heavens and the earth if he is that all intelligent omniscient sovereign power and creator of the universe then man is morally obligated to that creator. Isaiah 40, 28 says Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God the creator of the ends of the earth. And if he is the creator then I'm one of the tenants.

I gotta pay rent. I have an obligation to that God. I have a moral obligation and therefore you see they gotta keep they gotta keep Genesis 1, 1 out of the classroom because if that sneaks in the rest of it will sneak in and that's what man is afraid of because he doesn't want to be obligated morally to God and so he starts with Romans.

Romans 1, 20 says For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood by what we have by what has been made so that they are without excuse. You see an accusing conscience that refuses to acknowledge God must work out its own theories must work out its own plan of salvation must go its own way to relieve itself of guilt. But you say well what does that all have to do with me? I believe it.

I believe it. I like what you're saying but what does that have to do with me? Well in Romans chapter 2 look at it again. In Romans 2 Paul compares the Jews with the Gentiles which is the same as comparing an overcoming Christian with a sinner.

And Paul says look at the Gentiles who never had the privilege of the Old Testament law and yet they have a law written in their hearts which accuses them. He says how much more then? Look at Romans 2, 17 but if you bear the name Jew and you can substitute for a Christian there if you bear the name Christian and rely upon the law and boast in God and know his will and approve the things that are essential being instructed of the law verse 21 you therefore who teach another do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one should steal do you steal? You who say that one should not commit adultery do you commit adultery? You who preach the Gentiles do you rob temples? You see we who hear the law and the prophets and the teaching of scripture how much more is God going to hold us accountable for the light that we have received? Paul says here in Romans if you boast of the law then show it by approving things that are excellent. Luke 12, 48 says for everyone who has been given much much will be demanded and from the one who has been entrusted with much much more will be asked and Romans 14, 12 says so then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

Now I dare say that there are some Sunday we had two convicting two convicting messages Sunday that ought to be convicting to the conscience and yet I dare say that some some people would sit here and fight against it just as those who fight to promote evolution because they do not want to obey the word they do not want to have Christ rule over them. I don't know about you but I'm thankful for an accusing conscience. I thank God for a word that comes and convicts me and accusing conscience is the searchlight of the soul.

The prickings of the conscience are painful but they testify to a heart that hungers after righteousness and when God deals with us we learn that all things are open unto the eyes of whom we have to deal. My friend it's a dangerous thing to ignore an accusing conscience and the convicting power of the word through the Holy Spirit. Hebrews 12 5 says faint not when thou art reproved or convicted.

Now if you resist the Bible says that if you resist the promptings of an accusing conscience it can lead to the next thing in your life and Paul talks about another kind of conscience a seared conscience. Listen to what 1 Timothy 4 1 and 2 says but the Spirit explicitly says that in the latter times some will fall away from the faith paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. By means of the hypocrisy of liars they are seared in their own consciences as with a branding iron.

Now you see just as the body or the flesh I'm talking about the natural flesh just as the body can become insensitive to pain so the conscience if it habitually sins can become so familiar with evil that it no longer hears its own accusing conscience. It no longer hears the promptings of the Holy Spirit from the word through the conscience and the conscience is seared. Let me tell you my friend the worst thing that can happen to you is not to contract cancer or not to find out that you have AIDS it is to have your conscience seared as with a hot iron.

Look with me at Ephesians chapter 4 I want to read a few verses Ephesians chapter 4 beginning at verse 17 it says this I say therefore and affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk in the futility of their mind being darkened in their understanding excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them because of the hardness the hardness of their heart they having become calloused and the result of being calloused is having given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness but Paul says you did not learn Christ in this way if indeed you have heard him and have been taught in him just as truth is in Jesus you notice it talks there about the callousness the hardness of the heart or having become calloused I think doesn't the King James use the word does anyone have King James I think it says being past feeling being past feeling oh my friend the danger of not responding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and to an accusing conscience you develop a thickness of skin around your heart it's called being calloused nothing moves you anymore you can even appear to other people to be alright you may have a smile on your face but there is a callousness around your heart now we have some people that come to this altar again and again and sometimes the reason for that is that that you're not trusting the Lord if you've asked him to cleanse you if you've asked him to do something some of you have difficulty believing that he's doing that and every time we have you come forward we say now reach out in faith and so some of you because you're not doing that you're coming back to this altar again and again others of you are coming because the Holy Spirit is doing a work in your heart some of you have been eating leeks and garlics and onions for so long and you're like that onion the Lord has to peel one layer after another and he deals with you in one area and you come and you lay it down and you go back in the next service and you say oh no here it comes again here's another layer so you gotta come to the altar again and that's alright I'm not bothered so much by the number of people who come to the altar again and again although I'm a little bothered but I'm more bothered by the fact that there are some who ought to be at the altar who don't come they have no brokenness because a callousness has set in there is a hardness of the heart and let me tell you something if you sit under a hard message and resist it the callousness or hardness of heart that results is much greater than if the message was nice and soft and smooth and easy to digest the more you resist a strong message the harder your heart gets the Bible says that a person with a seared conscience is like a drunk man listen to Proverbs 23 35 you don't need to turn to there it says about the drunkards they say they hit me but I'm not hurt they beat me but I don't feel it when will I wake up so that I can find another drink in other words it's talking about the preacher can get up here and bark the preacher can get up here and preach a hard message and can beat you as it were but you say that's not for me I don't feel anything that my friend is a dangerous place and it can take you to what it says here in Ephesians it can be a sign of a calloused heart or past feeling Acts 28 and 27 says here's a dangerous position to be in it says for this people has become dull and with their ears they scarcely hear and they've closed their eyes lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their heart and return Isaiah 42 and 25 likens another condition it likens it to being in a burning building and being warned but refusing to flee do you know that when the hurricane was going to hit Corpus Christi they thought that the eye of the hurricane was going to literally hit that city of 70,000 people and 50,000 people evacuated the city and I heard the police chief interviewed on the radio and he said we got 20,000 hardcore ones they won't leave they won't leave in spite of the warnings Isaiah 42 and 25 says so he poured out on him the heat of his anger and the fierceness of battle and it set him aflame all around yet he did not recognize it and it burned him but he paid no attention now here is the result of a seared conscience it's a heart that is hardened and unresponsive to the wooings of the Holy Spirit and Proverbs 29 and 1 says a man who hardens his heart after much reproof will suddenly be broken beyond remedy or I like what another the same translation the same verse Moffat says he who is obstinate in spite of many a warning will suddenly be done for and you see Paul likened he talked about a seared conscience and when he used that word he had in his mind the image of slaves when they were branded they were branded with a hot iron and they were seared they had a mark put on them that identified them as being under the ownership of that particular owner and this is what he was saying be careful don't resist the wooings of the Holy Spirit because you will get so calloused you will get beyond past feeling and you will get to the place that you will be branded under the ownership of Satan himself and that's where it leads when you resist his promptings in your life and as I speak some of you are thinking about a person that you know and you realize that has a seared conscience now I'm not saying they're beyond mercy they're not beyond mercy but they're going to have to ask for an accusing conscience before they're going to be able to get to God and that's a conviction back into my heart but tonight I want you to know that if you have an accusing conscience and if your conscience hasn't been seared yet and you haven't been resisting it was Paul in his writings that gave us the most references to the conscience he knew what it was like to fight so hard against an accusing conscience and it was on the road to Damascus that a light shined upon him and this is what he said who art thou Lord and the answer was that Jesus was the very one the very one that was accusing his conscience that was who Paul had been resisting and the Lord said I am Jesus whom thou persecutest who you resist he said is it hard for thee to resist the Holy Spirit Paul knew what it was like to have a defiled conscience and a calloused heart that offered vain and persistent resistance to the truth but after his conversion Paul then begins to speak about having a clean clear conscience 1st Timothy 1.9 he says keeping faith in a good conscience which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck Paul goes on and he says a qualification of a minister among other things is one that must have a clear conscience he says in Acts 24.16 he said in view of this referring to his past resistance to the gospel and his subsequent conversion he says in view of this I do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and man and I want to tell you I can testify tonight that among other reasons why I endeavor to walk a morally upright life including areas of sexual morality or even other areas is that I always want to have a clear conscience before God I've counseled enough people in counseling sessions and I've seen them overburdened with guilt and condemnation I've seen the mental torment and anguish I've seen the physical ailments that people suffer as a result of it I want to tell you I want to be able to look my wife in the face and know that I've got a clear conscience look the church in the face and know that there is nothing between my soul and my Savior Hallelujah I was praying yesterday about this and all of a sudden I began to sing an old, old hymn that was resurrected Brother Day said before that we'll learn hundreds of courses I don't know how many thousands I got in my file and my files aren't working too good sometimes and all I could remember was one little line and I began to sing it in my prayer and then I wanted to sing the whole thing to the Lord I finally found it and I was singing around the house and my kids said to me Dad, you're not going to sing that tonight and I said no way of course not but I finally found it and all I knew at first was one little line and you may have never even heard it before all I knew was one little line and I start singing it to the Lord and it's called Nothing Between Nothing Between My Soul and the Savior and I started to sing it and pray and I said Oh Lord that's my prayer before you and then I wanted to sing more of it and I went running around the house looking for a hymn book and I couldn't find it because I wanted to lay it on my bed and pray it unto the Lord and I couldn't find it I found it today I finally found a hymn book and so in my prayer today I prayed it to the Lord Nothing Between My Soul and the Savior Not of this world's delusive dream I have renounced all sinful pleasure Jesus is mine There's nothing between Nothing Between My Soul and the Savior So that his blessed face may be seen Nothing preventing the least of his favor Keep the way clear Let nothing between and I said Oh God I want to keep everything clear Hallelujah Hallelujah They asked some Indian chief one time He said How do you maintain your victory? He said Well He said I got two dogs in me I got a bad dog and I said How can I get a good dog? And he said I learned just to feed the good dog I just feed the good dog And oh yes I want to feed the good dog in order to have a clean conscience Let me tell you one more story and I'm going to close I think I may have shared this before When I was I learned something about a clean conscience when I was about 12, 13 years old It was a Thursday night Church night Earlier in the evening or late in the afternoon or after supper it was I was out playing touch football in front of our house in western Pennsylvania and my mother came out the door and she hollered She said Don, it's time to go to church And for the first time in my life I did this Never did this before I turned around and I said to her I'm not going She looked at me and all she said was You know where you belong And she went inside And the reason that I didn't want to go to church is that night I wanted to go to our high school basketball game or junior varsity game and my parents allowed me to participate in sports but there was a priority and church was a priority And so when she said You know where you belong She said You know the rules And she went in I don't know what she did but she sure did something She did some praying I finished that game that football game and then I went with my friends to the basketball game and I was sitting there watching it and all during the first half every time the ball would go through the basket You know My mother up in the stand somewhere You know where you belong And I want to tell you something By halftime I had to leave It got strong It was like a siren You know It was a red light going on inside me You know where you belong I was so miserable My mother She knew what it was all about She had enough confidence in the power of the Holy Spirit to bring conviction on my heart She just said You know where you belong And I knew where I belonged And my accusing conscience wouldn't keep quiet no matter what I could do It was louder than the crowd at the basketball game And finally I left And I remember half walking half running a half an hour or so back to the church My father just started to preach And I slid into the last seat and sat down And I'll never forget I sat down And as soon as I did I went And the light turned green Hallelujah The light of conviction and conscience turned around Hallelujah Acts 24-16 The Amplified Bible Says Therefore I always exercise and discipline myself mortifying my body deadening my carnal affections and my bodily appetites and my worldly desires endeavoring in all respects to have a clear unshaken blameless conscience void of offense towards God and towards man And I want to tell you The source of joy We talk about joy around here The source of joy is having your conscience clean from dead works Hallelujah Because you've laid everything down I gotta tell you one more story I always have three closings This is the last one It just came to my mind Young convert He's a preacher today He's a pastor of a church He's a fine leader today An ex-drug addict ex-criminal came into Teen Challenge and one day he heard a message in the chapel about obedience to God and to man and that along the lines of having a clean conscience and it so happened that he had up in his room some cookies that his mother had brought him and the rule was no food kept in your room if your parents bring food you share it with everybody else but he stashed it down underneath and when he heard that message his you know the cookies got as large as life and he had to leave the chapel and he went up and he started he pulls the cookies out and here he is he's a great big tall fella and he's going down the stairs carrying these cookies when the enemy began to speak to him in Latin and said look at you look at you you've been out on the street you've been done crimes and everything and here you are carrying a little bunch of cookies down to the chapel you look silly and he hesitated for a moment and then he took the next step and he said the Holy Spirit spoke to me and he said cookies today and bigger things tomorrow and he returned his cookies hallelujah hallelujah I'm going to give an altar call in a few minutes some of you may have some cookies stashed away but you've got to come leave at this altar and you know and here's my third closing I forgot about this the Lord and we're going to open the altars those of you that came to the altar before we're going to open the altars for you and for others of you and you want to clear your conscience Holy Spirit's been working in your heart maybe maybe even since Sunday the Holy Spirit has convicted you maybe you didn't obey and you need to get to this altar tonight but I just feel that there's some others of you you're under condemnation you have been to this altar and you've laid things down you've confessed them and you're not trusting that the blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed you and have taken care of it and you're continuing to carry it listen the Bible says there is no condemnation and some of you need to get free tonight of condemnation and the Lord led me to a few verses and I'm going to give you to these in closing Isaiah 43 25 it says I even I am the one who wipes out our transgressions who wipes our transgressions for my own sake and I will not remember your sins and listen my friend if he doesn't remember them why should you remember them we sing thanks for the blood do you know what that's all about that means that the blood has the power to cleanse you and if he has accepted it and he says I will not remember your sins then why are you remembering it why are you still doubting Isaiah 44 22 I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud and your sins like a heavy mist return to me and I will redeem you Isaiah 55 7 let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous men his thoughts and let him return to the Lord and he will have compassion on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon and Micah 7 18 says who is a God like you who pardons sin and forgives the transgressions of the remnant of his inheritance you do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy hallelujah and 1st John 1 9 if we confess our sins he is faithful and righteous and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and some of you have been forgiven you have been cleansed but the enemy has brought condemnation back upon you so that you can't enjoy your joy you can't enjoy what God has done for you and some of you need to come down here tonight and say oh God forgive me of my unbelief forgive me of my unbelief I want to be lifted out lifted out of this condemnation will you stand with me will you stand with me Kevin do you have a course and you're not healed from it that in your feeling of rejection you turn and reject God David Pastor David spoke last was last Sunday night about Cain Cain's offering that was rejected and when he was rejected he got angry and he rejected