The Christian Conscience

Acts 23:1-5,    Rom. 7:7, and 10:1-3
Paul was arrested by Romans at the Temple and had to state his birth to avoid severe punishment.

I: Paul before the Supreme Court:
1. “I have lived in all good conscience.”
2. The high Priests brutality.
3. Paul’s reply.
4. The Court divided.

II: The Conscience Not Enough:
1. Paul’s Jewish Conscience let him persecute the Church.
2. “My conscience is clear.”
b. “My conscience is as good as new.”
c. “Let you conscience be your guide.”
3. “The approval or disapproval of other people is merely the stuff out of which conscience is made.” Hudson
4. Like Boston Christians when they handed the Quakers. 10/27/1659: Like Tobacco and Whiskey among Baptists 100 yrs. ago.
5. Conscience is not an information booth on right or wrong.
6. Some consciences get disturbed about trifles and remain unmoved about weight or matters.
7. 2 great men followed their conscience in the 18th Century: John Woolman the Quaker, and John Newton the Song Writer.

III: There are 4 Kinds of Conscience.
1. “There is nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so.” Shakespeare.
Public opinion (Whiskey, Divorce, and Dancing).
2. The Childish Conscience: Things are right or wrong because Father or Mother taught me so.
3. The Superstitious Conscience: God is a cruel ruler and He will make me pay.
4. The Christian Conscience: He doesn’t trust his feelings but searches Gods word for truth.

IV: Developing A Christian Conscience:
1. “The disease of an evil conscience is beyond the practice of all the Physicians of all the Countries in the World.” Gladstone
2. Check standards by God’s word.
Work at the Business of keeping a clear conscience.
3. Cleansed by Confession, Repentance, and Restitution.
4. Be thoroughly honest and sincere.

“Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.” Rom. 15:5