A Good Conscience

God gave us a conscience for a specific reason.

1 Timothy 1:18--Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.

Paul prayed that God would discipline these people so they would repent. When you preach false doctrine, that means you're not listening to your conscience. We make decisions that involve our conscience. The

Your conscience is a gift of God. We are uniquely made. Believers and non believers have them.

Genesis 3:7--Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

Adam and Eve ignored their conscience, they disobeyed God.

1Samuel 24:5

David's conscience bothered him after he cut off a piece of Solomon's garment in the cave.

Everyone has a conscience.

Romans 1:18--The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen.

Even lost people know the truth because God made it evident inside them. For instance, every believes assault/murder is wrong. The only explanation is that God put these morals inside of us. We understand that there is a penalty for our wrongdoings. Man's conscience lets us know that these things are wrong.

Once you begin to violate your conscience it, something begins to erode inside of you, your heart is darkened, your conscience is dulled. God gave the rebellious people over to their sins.

Romans 2:14-(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.) This will take place on the day when God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

God has written in unbelievers what is right or wrong. Their conscience bears witness to this. There is no escape from obedience to God. Every person has one and we all have to deal with it. It's a monitor. It monitors what we think, everything we do. It's a gift from God. The word of God sharpens your conscience. It's our moral capacity placed within us to distinguish between right and wrong. It's not there to guide us. People have an advantage to have a conscience.

HS is our helper. HS is equipped to do things for us that we are unable to do for ourselves.

You cannot violate your conscience without consequences.