The nature and progression of conscience, beginning with the natural conscience described in Romans 2, which all humans possess. It details how conscience can deteriorate from a pure state to a defiled and evil conscience, as illustrated by John Bunyan's allegory in "The Holy War" and passages in Titus 1. The message then moves to the convicting conscience, exemplified by the woman caught in adultery in John 8, emphasizing that conviction is the crucial first step toward repentance and conversion, though not conversion itself. The sermon concludes by highlighting God's long-suffering patience with humanity, even those with evil consciences, and the ultimate need for a conscience sprinkled by the blood of Jesus to truly worship God.
Restored with Diffio
Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 2.26 → restored 4.31
We want to continue tonight with our studies on the subject of conscience that we began this morning, and we're going to continue to examine our chart. But before we move on, let's just look to the Lord in prayer. Our Father, we thank you for these great hymns that we've been singing concerning who thou art. the fact that thou art almighty victorious and thy name describes thy being and thy name is to be praised in all the earth and we can say with a psalmist o lord our lord how excellent is thy name in all the earth for thy name declares thy person and father we would learn of him our blessed lord And we thank you for your goodness and mercy.
For your goodness and mercy we can say with a psalmist, have followed us all the days of our life. And we have a glorious prospect dwelling in the house of the Lord forever. Therefore we ask that tonight that we may learn of him who is meek and lowly in heart and that you will by your grace cause us to be convicted in conscience in order that we may move along until we're where Paul desired to be with a conscience void of offense. We ask this in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen. If you're here tonight and you missed the page with a chart that I used this morning. Forgive me, I forgot to bring the pages along with some extras. I'm sorry, but my forgetter works better than my rememberer at times. But tonight we continue on our chart. This morning we examined what we called the natural conscience, which is right here from Romans chapter two, where it speaks of the Gentiles who have not the law. but if they while they don't have the law yet by nature they do the things that are in the law they being without law are a law unto themselves God having written in their hearts his holy eternal program his holy eternal demands and we find that this is true of all men all men have a natural conscience but what I want to do tonight by the grace of God you'll notice that this line which speaks of the natural conscience of man there are
things above the line when we start over here pure and good that is what Adam and Eve had before the fall they had a good conscience they had a pure conscience and the reason they had it they were fresh from the hand of the Creator And when God created man, he said, it is good. And therefore, they had a pure conscience and they had a good conscience. And when they believed the lie of Satan and they rebelled against God, they received a natural conscience which every man today has.
They now knew exactly what Satan said they would. They would know good and evil. But now they have no power to do good, and they have no power to resist evil. And therefore, below this line, we have a defiled conscience. And we have an evil conscience. And as we go up this line, we find a convicting conscience. And that's where God begins with a sinner. He begins with convictions. I would feel very uneasy if I claimed to be saved and never had a real convicted conscience of sin.
People get saved today so easily, and their lives are never changed. They live the same as they always did. It is because of the easy-believerism of our day. And there has never been a genuine convicting conscience. And that's where God begins with every sinner. The sinner learns that he's lost with a convicting conscience. And then we move all the way up the line to a conscience void of offense. But then you see for a child of God, you can come down this other side over here.
And you can get all the way down to a weak conscience. But you're still above the line. You're still saved. It's possible to be saved and have a weak conscience. And you can quibble about a lot of things like you have the weak brother of Romans fourteen and fifteen, rather than the strong brother. And the weak brother... acts like a strong brother in Romans fifteen he's the one who questions everything you know and the strong brother knows the liberty that God has brought him into in the family of God and Paul and joins us in Romans fifteen ye that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and you see as you go through Christianity you will find that there are many who delight in being a weak brother.
They delight in that in order that they can get the attention of others and that sets themselves up and that helps them over their insecurities. What's wrong? Well, they have a paper to most everybody. No, I mean, do you think that we can, do we just go up to the top and then come down? Yes, I believe we can. I believe we can, because we don't all grow in grace at the same time. And you know, and you have seen people with a genuine conviction of sin and a genuine conversion, and they go on for a while, and something happens.
Sin enters into the life. And their conscience thinks that once they would have never thought of. They now, you see, it's like Romans chapter two. Their conscience either accuses them or it excuses them, depending on the person. And a person can get into that condition. In fact, we all might be there. Let me explain it. Do you remember when TV first came out? You watch things today that when TV first came out, that you turned your head away from, what makes a difference?
You see what I mean? We can excuse today what we accused before, and therefore we need to examine this. But what we want to begin with tonight, is the defiled conscience. And the defiled conscience is over here. It is here in the chart. And you'll notice it is below the line. And once a person has sinned, and we want to deal with the defiled conscience, and I ask you to turn to the book of Titus, chapter one. Titus, chapter one tonight, is where we want to begin. in Titus chapter one and we're going to read a few verses before we get to verse fifteen in Titus chapter one you have the necessity for and the qualifications of elders in a local church why does God desire a local church to be under the rule of elders And we find that one of the reasons for it is beginning in verse ten, where it says,
For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision, whose mobs must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake. Filthy lucre is they do it for mercenary reasons. They're in it for the money. It's an easy life to many. They do it for filthy lookers' sake. One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Christians are always liars, evil beasts, gluttonous. This witness is true.
Wherefore, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth. Unto the pure, all things... Pure. You'll notice the little word are. It is not in the original. It's in italics. Unto the pure, all things pure. But unto them that are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. Even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him. being abominable and disobedient, and unto every good work, reprobate.
And a reprobate we read in the closing this morning is described in Romans chapter one. Who, knowing the judgment of God, that they who commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but take pleasure in them that do them? In other words, that is one of the best definitions of a reprobate that you can find anywhere. That is a reprobate. Now you'll notice, conscience deteriorates the moment a person sins against the light. When a person sins against the light, the conscience begins to deteriorate.
Satan's purpose in this world. is to debauch the conscience and to make it unfit for the purpose for which it was designed. Its design is of God in order that a sinner will be convicted of a sin. I don't think anyone ever described conscience and the workings of conscience and the workings of the defiling acts of Satan better than John Bunyan. Whoever has never read John Bunyan, you don't know what you're missing.
Everybody should read John Bunyan, especially Pilgrim's Progress, but in his holy war. John Bunyan's holy war, he masterfully portrays the workings of conscience. In his holy war, man, the soul of man, he calls a corporate town. He sees it as a town incorporated under the name man's soul. The very words that Bunyan uses, these very words are so descriptive. There's a book written. Well, it's a series of books written by Alexander White on Bunyan's characters.
the names of the men that Bunyan writes about. You see, the devil thought that he was going to silence John Bunyan and his ministry by having him thrown in the bed for jail. But the whole thing is, while he was there, he just wrote. And he wrote the great works, Pilgrim's Progress, and others while he was there. And one of his greater works is Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. I visited a man this week in the penitentiary. And this man said to me, there is nothing has helped me more than the work of John Bunyan's grace abounding to the chief of sinners.
And what a delight to hear someone say that and to see the reality of the Word of God working in the life. So get the picture here. The soul of man is described by Bunyan as a corporate town under the name a man's soul. But then there's another character, Diabolus. And we know we get the word diabolical from that. And he has referenced to Satan. Diabolus. He had just been deposed of his exalted position before God. And now he's going through space and he's searching for an opportunity to be avenged upon God because of his present punishment.
And of course, with others, what does he do? He plans an attack on the city of Man's Soul. How Bunyan describes what took place in the Garden of Eden. So now we see Satan about to attack the city of Man's Soul, as outlined by Bunyan. Well, There are five men. Well, let's say that Satan and his helpers, he has quite a few demons with him. They plan this attack on the city of Mansour. They approach the town and they demand an audience.
Boy, isn't that a lot like we see in our day? Certain groups just simply today demand to be heard. This is exactly what Satan did. He entered the Garden of Eden. And you see, Bunyan says he demanded an audience. Well, the inhabitants of the town had five responsible elders. And, of course, they went to interview the besiegers. And, of course, listen to the names that Bunyan gives to the elders of the city of Mansole. There is, first of all, captain resistance. Then second, Lord innocence.
Third, Lord will be will. Boy, what a name he gives them. I tell you, this fellow Bunyan, I just sit back and marvel at these words. Lord will be will. And then finally, there's Lord understanding. And number five is Mr. Recorder. And Mr. Recorder... is the word that Bunyan uses for the conscience. It's a word that Bunyan uses for the conscience in man. That's what he uses. Well, while they parley with the enemy, a wicked spirit sends an arrow right to the heart of Captain Resistance, and he falls over dead.
He falls over dead. The Lord Innocence, he runs over to investigate what happened to Mr. Resistance. And when he runs over to find out what happens, one of the foul fiends of Satan sends us a foul breath, a poison, that Mr. Innocence breathes, and when he does, he also perishes. Well, at this time, Lord will be will comes into the picture. And he shifts his allegiance from El Shaddai, a name for God in the book of Genesis chapter seventeen.
He shifts his allegiance over to Diabalus. Well, the town now capitulates and Diabalus and his hordes march in boldly and they take possession. Well, what does the word understanding do? According to Bunyan, he retreats to his own apartment and he bolts the door. Oh, what a picture of the understanding of man. For we read the natural man in Ephesians chapter four, verse eighteen, whose understanding is darkened.
Lord understanding, he goes into his apartment and he closes the door. Okay. Well, what happens? Well, there's only one left. So what does Diabolus do? He vents his fury on Mr. Recorder, the conscience. And he realizes that the conscience can't be thoroughly subdued by him. So he decides he'll debauch the conscience. He'll debauch the conscience. And my, Haban understood conscience. And slowly, one stage at a time, Satan debauches the conscience, and he begins to demoralize conscience until we find conscience lying flat on the floor.
of his own house, and he's there in a state of animation. That's how he is. So what does diabolus do? He now invites the inhabitants of the town to view the undignified condition of conscience. You see what a defiled conscience is before God. No resistance resistance is gone. So he mocks, you see. Diabolus is mocking, and he reminds them that conscience is not a dependable quality.
Now, and that is right. It's an excellent quality, but it's not a dependable quality. Did you notice this? The chart? Each one of these positions is like a number on a thermometer. A thermometer can tell you a lot, but it can't make any changes. That thermometer could read ninety-five over here, but it could do nothing to cool us off. It takes a thermostat to do that. There is a difference between a thermometer and a thermostat.
And a lot of Christians are thermometer Christians. All they can show is what the conditions are. God wants us to be terrorist that Christians. Do something about it. You see. And here, Bunyan describes, or Diabolus is described by Bunyan as mocking conscience and reminding him that he's not really a dependable quality. And he says, you see, one day you'll reprove a man for sinning. Then the next day you'll excuse a man for sinning. And that's exactly what Romans chapter two says.
And of course we see that condition in Romans chapter one, that last verse that I quoted telling us and giving us a definition of a reprobate. Now when we put all that into the context where we find this word defiled, even the conscience is defiled, You see, this is what Paul refers to in Titus chapter one. How necessary it is to have men who are godly, who know the word of God, to lead the people of God in order that they know the difference between that which is pure and that which is not pure.
That's exactly what it says. Unto the pure, things that are pure, but to them that are defiled. is nothing pure even the conscience is defiled and therefore we read in verse sixteen they profess that they know God but in works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work reprobate it's possible for a person to sit in church to sing the hymns and have a defiled conscience Remember that the defiled conscience is down here.
It's underneath the line. We haven't started going up yet. We're still going down. Let's go a step further. Turn to Hebrews chapter ten. Let's look at the evil conscience from Hebrews chapter ten. And we begin our reading at verse nineteen. Hebrews chapter ten and verse nineteen and we're going to read through verse twenty two having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he have consecrated for us through the veil that is to say his flesh and having an high priest over the house of God 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.
The context of Hebrews chapter ten is that of worship. The Christian's highest occupation and his greatest condemnation before God has to do with worship. An evil conscience cannot worship. But an evil conscience can go through the motions of worship. But it cannot worship. To draw near to God, and that's what worship is. Worship is the child of God's highest occupation.
There's nothing more important than worship. God's indictment of the human family is that when they knew God, Romans chapter one, they glorified him not as God, but became vain in their imagination, and their foolish heart was darkened, professing themselves to be wise. They became fools, and they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like unto... man and to beasts and four-footed and creeping things, and they worshipped themselves. They glorified him not. They worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator.
That's God's indictment. Worship that does not glorify God cannot be brought into the presence of God. See, we're talking in Hebrews ten of entering the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Sin that is permitted in the life and unconfessed to God cannot have any place in worship. This is why in first Corinthians eleven, where we read concerning the Lord's supper, it says, Let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink.
of that cup. Worship is drawing near to God. Our Lord told the woman of Samaria in John chapter four, the Father seeketh worshipers. And the evidence that we are saved by divine grace is that we have a desire to draw near to God and to worship him for who he is and for what he is revealed to us. An evil conscience, on the other hand, prefers evil. An evil can be a lot of things.
Good can be evil, by the way. When good becomes the enemy of the best to the child of God, it becomes evil. When you desire the bed on a Sunday morning to the worship of God, it's evil. It's evil. The worship of God is most important, thing that a child of God can ever do. And we have a way, we have a way in our day of just being easy with each other instead of telling it as it is.
Someone said to me, the thing that's really needed by all of us is tolerance. Well, I thought about that a little bit. I said, but the whole problem is we need balance. You see, the more you believe something, the more intolerant you become. The more convinced you are that Jesus Christ is holy and he's the only way of salvation you cannot tolerate works. The Word of God says, woe unto them that call light darkness and darkness light. Our Lord Jesus was the most intolerant person you'll ever find. He said, except you repent, you will all likewise perish.
I don't know how more intolerant you can be than that. And to talk about tolerance is a trick of the devil to get us and to silence the conscience of God's people. Our Lord said, He that heareth these things of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man. On the other hand, you have the foolish man. You're either wise or you're foolish. And that's being very intolerant. on the scale that man talks about tolerance. Wrong to them, the Word of God says, that call darkness light and light darkness.
In our day, we can say wrong to the churches that are afraid to face the issues of homosexuality and call it sin. Wrong to them, we read in the Word of God, that call light darkness and darkness light. But you see, God says when you approach me, that heart has to be sprinkled from an evil conscience. You see, an evil conscience prefers evil. And we can call good evil. And good is evil if it's the enemy of the best. It is.
Now, so were men before the flood. What the scripture says, every imagination of the heart of man was only evil continually. Now there are four steps downward that lead to an evil conscience. There are four steps. One of them is self-assertion. That's the first one. And you and I are living in days of self-assertion. You see, Hollywood dictates what a lot of people believe. I'm worth it. Self-server. Self-assertion. Then step number two is self-inflation.
All we can build ourselves up and inflate ourselves to the area that we think we have really arrived. But the person who arrives apart from the word of God has not arrived. But then there's self-direction. I'm a self-made man. How often did you hear that in your lifetime? I'm a self-made man. It's like the man who said to the preacher, Oh, pray for me that I'll be nothing. He said, Oh, the preacher said, Oh, just take that by faith.
You see. But then that leads to self-destruction. Self-destruction. And an evil conscience is self-destroying. Now we have to take a good look at this in regards to worship. We see the long suffering of God here. The long suffering of God. God said of Ephraim. Ephraim in the book of Hosea has reference to the ten tribes that made up the kingdom of Israel to the north. when the kingdom of David was divided during the days of Jeroboam and Rehoboam.
And through the prophet Hosea, Hosea who speaks of the love of Christ in a unique way, God says in Hosea chapter eleven and verse eight, O Ephraim, how can I give you up? How can I give you up? This world can go to the lake of fire without a lot of things. And we talk about this world. We're talking about those who make up the world of the ungodly. They can go without wealth. They can go without health. They can go without a lot of things that we think are so important.
But they'll never go without love. Because there is a love. a universal love that God has for the whole world. A general love of God, and God has done nothing for man but love him. Never forget that. God has done nothing for man but good. He has certainly been good to man, but what has man done? Man has rebelled against the goodness of God, and it is the goodness of God that leads to repentance. So we read in the second chapter of the Romans. Now, just as God said of Ephraim, the kingdom of Israel to the north and to the prophet Hosea, O Ephraim, how can I give you up?
Our Lord Jesus said the same thing of Jerusalem. He said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that ascend unto thee. How often would I have gathered thee? How often would I have gathered thy children together as a handgather with their chicks under their wings, but you would not. Our Lord wept over the city of Jerusalem, and God still patiently lingers over stubborn humanity. With much long suffering, he deals with vessels of wrath fitted for destruction. Our God is long suffering.
and evil conscience. And this teaches us that if we're going to worship God, I have to have, first of all, a convicting conscience. And we want to deal with a convicting conscience next. And you'll notice we now begin to go up. And for a convicting conscience, we want to turn to the eighth chapter of the Gospel of John. John chapter eight. And you know John chapter eight is the woman taken in adultery. And the woman taken in adultery is brought by the Pharisees to the Lord.
And they say to him, now Moses and the law said she should be stoned. Now what do you say? And you know our Lord's answer, I'm pretty sure. Our Lord simply wrote on the ground with his finger. That's how he gave the law to Israel. The law was written by the finger of God. And then he wrote on the ground the second time at his finger. And finally in verse nine, And they which heard it, he also said, He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone. And that was always the order. In the Old Testament when one was stoned, they who brought the person to judgment had a cast of first stones.
And he said, he that's without sin among you, let him cast the first stone. And you see, this was a vicious thing that they did to this woman and also to the Lord. For they said, we caught her in the very act. But where was the man? The Word of God says in the Old Testament, Moses said they both have to be put to death. Not just one, they both. And our Lord, with penetrating keenness, he said, He that is without sin among you, you cast the first stone.
He didn't deny the law, Moses. He didn't say she shouldn't be stoned. He said, you cast the first stone. But now conscience begins to work. And when we talk about a convicting conscience, we're now beginning to the upward climb on the chart. We see now the conscience being awakened. But notice, we're still below the natural line. We're still on this side, a convicting conscience. We should be thankful to God for a convicting conscience in any man.
For when God begins to convict the conscience, the stirrings of what we call conviction begin to take hold. And these are the first stirrings in the heart of the prodigal in the far country. And the story of the prodigal son as he's in the pig pen. And the conscience begins to stir as he remembers. what it was like at home. He remembers. Memory now becomes active. And he said, how many of the servants of my father have bred enough in despair and I perish with hunger. I will arise and I'll go to my father and I'll go say to him.
You see, that's a convicting conscience. Now, these were the first stirrings. But the Pharisees who brought the woman taken in adultery They were convicted, but they were not converted. And we need to keep that in mind. Remember, it's still below this natural line, still below, on the same side as the evil and the defiled conscience. They're still there. You see, conviction, friends, is not conversion.
Now a person can't be converted unless they're first convicted. But not everyone that is convicted is converted. And that's something we have to keep before us. It is quite evident here in this passage that the Pharisees were not converted for they went out from the only person who had the ability to give them a pardon for their sins. the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. They're like the people of John eight who would make Christ a king in order to get out from under the bondage of Rome but would go away from him when he tells them they cannot come unto him except the father draws them in genuine conviction.
It becomes a hard statement to them and therefore they turn away. That's a person who's convicted but not converted. They know He has the words of eternal life, but they want, they prefer their own way to the ways of God. A convicted conscience, friends, is the first rung in the ladder of conversion. And that ladder, friends, leads from the depths of despair to the very presence of God. Burgeon used to say to his audience. If you cannot come to Christ with repentance, come for it.
If you can't come with it, that you have a repentant heart now. Come to Christ just to get it. And then he used the verses. There in Acts chapter five, he'd say God has exalted Christ to his own right hand. Why? Why? that he might give repentance. Come for it because God will give it to you. Come for it. And you know we read in Romans two that goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. When you study this matter of the convicting conscience, I've seen men under conviction.
I know the man who led my father to the Lord. He led a number of men at that same time, and he went to see a man by the name of Ara Bowman. And I knew Ara. We used to go to jail together and preach. He was an old man, and I was just a teenager. But as Ara said, he was sitting there with a cup of bone-set tea. Anyone who knows what bone-set tea is, I believe there's only one person here who would. And that's a person who was reared in Pennsylvania. Bone set tea. You know what it is, don't you? You don't know.
Mr. Petrie does. He's the one I had reference to. I knew he'd know what bone set tea is. I want to tell you when you drink that stuff, you know you're drinking medicine. And it will make you sweat. It will get rid of a cold. I don't know, to pick weeds well enough to know what bone set tea is. My dad did, but I don't. But anyway, I'll never forget one time, we took him out to a place swimming where it was a quarry. And while we were swimming, he went around and he picked tea. And he had a big bundle of tea in the car. He said, what are you going to do with that? Oh, he said, this is the best tea you can get. It's bone-set tea.
Well, anyway, Arab Bowman, under deep conviction of sin, this is what he said. When my friend Joe went into his house, he said, I'm going to die. Oh, he said, I'm going to die. I'm under such conviction of sin. You know, we don't see that today. And you wonder, where is this convicting conscience that makes a person and lets them know that God is holy and that they are sinners. Oh, come to him for repentance. In Scripture, we see men with tears. but they're not genuine.
Esau sought the blessing with tears. But we read in the epistle to the Hebrews that no place of repentance was found. Oh, this is more important than it may appear. Do you remember old Ahab when it was announced that we took the vineyard of Naboth and Elijah the prophet pronounced judgment upon him? The word of God says he repented. And he walked softly. But oh, they have never trusted the Lord. He died in opposition to the Lord. As you read in two Chronicles, no, one. Two.
Second Chronicles, verse thirty-three. You see, he died in opposition to the Lord. But then when you come to the New Testament, Judas repented. but he went out and hanged himself. He repented. He had the pains of a convicted conscience, but he didn't repent and come to the Lord. His repentance was the sorrow he got caught. It was the sorrow of the world, not repentance that leads to life.