Dr. Mike Jones

The Battle For Your Conscience!

In modern day, we rarely hear a teaching on the Conscience, and yet, the father of the Reformation, Martin Luther, was excommunicated by the Pope because his conscience wouldn’t permit him to go along with the corrupt practice of selling indulgences (which means: the forgiveness of sins).
He wrote his 95 theses, condemning the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, and nailed them to the door of the Wittenburg Church there in Germany. He was later declared an outlaw and a heretic.

Here’s his defense at the Assembly of Worms Germany before the Roman Emperor Charles V and church officials:
“Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain – I do not accept the authority of the popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other – my conscience is held captive by the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything; and to act against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me.”
Your conscience can best be described as God-given knowledge that knows your inner motives and thoughts. It’s that inner-voice that lets you know when you’re doing something wrong.

Saints, as we mature into adulthood, most people turn the volume of their conscience downward so that it does not interfere with decisions they want to make, that clash with what God’s Word says they should do.

Author and lecturer, David Callanhan wrote a book entitled “Cheating Culture.” The premises of the book is to determine why more and more Americans are doing wrong to get ahead. In the book, he mentions Bernard Ebbers, head of World Com. Ebbers was known as one of the most religious CEOs in the high-tech sector. He invoked God regularly in speeches and press interviews and started each board meeting with a prayer. He was a deacon at his Baptist church where he also led a weekly Bible study class. According to those who took his class, he was remarkably fluent in scripture. If students missed class, he would be on the phone to see if they were okay. Believe it or not, Ebbers presided over the largest fraud in U.S. history, one that brought massive financial pain to present day and future retirees across America. When this broke via national headline news, Bernard Ebbers (in tears) told his congregation, “More than anything else, I hope this doesn’t jeopardize my witness for Jesus Christ.”

Another person I want to mention is a gentleman by the name of Philip Anachutz. He publicly embraced religion and “family values” – while indulging in greed and financial gain. He’s a billionaire who’s the largest owner of movie screens in America. Mr. Anachutz was known as a religious man who has crusaded against homosexual rights and the Christian organizations, and invested heavily into prayer radio. Yet, as the founder and chairman of Quest Communications firm, Mr. Anachutz ranked among the most corrupt insiders of the 1990s scandals. He sold nearly $2 billion of Quest stock as the value began to drop quickly, which he encouraged the stockholders to hold onto their shares to build their retirement plans. Caught red-handedly, he agreed to return up to $4 million in illegal gains from his shady dealings without admitting any wrong doings.

You want to know what is the tragedy of it all? The more we continue to sin, the greater the guilt feels unpleasant because of our actions, but the less sensitive we become to the painful emotion of guilt in our conscience. That’s why Apostle Paul could say in Hebrews 13:18, “Pray for us, for our conscience is clear and we want to live honorably in everything we do.” And in Romans 9:1, “With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it.”

In America, majority rules. For example, we now boast about same-sex marriages, without shame. Why? USA Today Poll (May 2018) revealed that 67% of Americans approve of same-sex marriages … this behavior use to be frowned upon. Saints, after people destroy their own conscience, they turn their attention towards their neighbors to destroy their consciences as well.

Statistical studies have shown that millions of Americans have received mental health treatments, and those seeing secular psychotherapists rarely address moral issues and have been known to completely go against what the Word of God teaches about the depravity of mankind. Example: a client comes into the session to discuss his feeling guilty about stealing time from doing work on a major government project and wants to end it and confess the slothfulness to his superiors. The psychotherapist is apt to tell the client to keep the slothfulness a ‘secret’ from his bosses on the notion that “what they don’t know won’t hurt them.” Doing this does not help the client with their guilt feelings, nor does it help him with facing the consequences that are sure to follow once his slothfulness is discovered/reported.

Saints, if we’re to visit therapists, they should be Christian natured men and women whose consciences have been captured by the Word of God because throughout scripture, it can clearly be seen that sin has affected every aspect of man’s being: his character, speech, and behavior as well as his emotions, desires, conscience and will. Some Bible scholars/theologians add to the list: man’s intellect, thought process, goals and motives in life.

In 1984, a Columbian jet liner crashed near Madrid, Spain, killing all 19 crew members and 162 passengers. When they found the ‘black box’ recorder, it was determined that the tragic incident occurred when the pilot unwittingly made a wrong turn on his approach, being completely unaware of his position – well below the minimum descent altitude for his flight path. The plane disintegrated into the least five pieces upside down. The ‘black box’ recorder indicated that the GPWS (Ground Proximity Warning System) repeatedly said in English “Pull up! Pull up!” One investigation report stated the pilot was heard saying, “Shut up gringo!” Another report stated the pilot was heard shouting, “Ok…Ok!” He possibly turned the system off and tried to land the 747 manually, when it plowed into the side of a mountain. The reason that I’m sharing this tragic incident is because in many ways, this is how many people treat GUILT, which is called the warning, not the CONSCIENCE.

As I stated earlier, secular counselors tell hurting clients that guilty feelings are harmful and whenever possible, we should switch them off and be guilt free. When one does this, the Bible speaks of the person as having a ‘seared’ conscience, as expressed in 1 Timothy 4:1-2, “Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith; they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons. These people are hypocrites and liars, and their consciences are dead.” Apostle Paul is simply saying when a person reaches this state, their conscience or convictions have been desensitized – their sense of right and wrong has become ‘numbed’ to the point they can no longer easily distinguish between what the Bible has revealed as good and evil.

Today in our modern-day culture, we see so many young people living together before marriage because the culture says to experience the concept of marriage before you totally commit to it. Cohabitation has become the new norm. The Barna Group, a statistical Christian think-tank, reported, “The delay of marriage and other secular culture norms are leading more American adults to believe that moving in together before tying the knot is a good idea.” An overwhelming majority of young American couples (76%) believe that it’s not morally wrong to live together before tying the knot.

Another study that came out a few years ago, was entitled, “Christians are following secular trends in pre-marital sex and cohabitation outside of marriage.” It stated that 76% of young Christians between the ages of 18-32 revealed a broad acceptance of cohabitation, pre-marital sex and a rejection of traditional gender roles. Experts who reviewed the statistics believe that many Christians are following culture trends over Scripture because they were heard saying phrases such as, “We aren’t sexually involved.” “We’re going to get married eventually.” “Have peace that God understands our unique situation.”

All this had been prophesied in the Old Testament: Isaiah 5:20, “What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter.” And Amos 5:14-15, “Do what is good and run from evil so that you may live! Then the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will be your helper, just as you have claimed. Hate evil and love what is good; turn your courts into true halls of justice. Perhaps even yet the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will have mercy on the remnant of His people.” In the New Testament, CONSCIENCE is mentioned 31 times.

Saints, the conscience pushes us to do what we know is right and restrains us from doing what we believe is wrong. Let me be perfectly clear – the conscience is NOT the voice of God; it’s a built-in human alarm system that helps us judge our actions and thoughts. When we violate our conscience, its main objective is to condemn us by triggering emotional feelings of shame and guilt, as well as regret. However, when we obey our conscience, its objective is to commend us by triggering emotional feelings of joy, honor and self-respect. Listen to Apostle Paul’s explanation of the work of the conscience in Romans 2:14-15, “Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know His law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right.” What the Apostle Paul is saying here in this verse certainly applies to our modern-day society. For example, a number of Americans blame their bad decision-making on where they live, their alcoholism and/or drug addiction when in reality, their problem is that they have a ‘SIN CONSCIENCE’ that has been suppressed over the years.

Saints, in my conclusion, our conscience reacts to the conviction of our minds. In other words, our conscience is only effective as to the amount of pure light you permit to pass through into your soul. If you continue to defile your conscience, at some point, it will go dark and silent. Know that one day, you will stand before the Judgment Seat of a Holy and Righteous God, and your conscience will side with God – the Righteous Judge. Not only us as believers but the harden sinner will too stand before Holy God and his conscience will also testify against him.

I leave you with this thought: in Romans 1, the Apostle Paul indictment to America is this – as of 2017, we’ve aborted an estimated 60 million babies, as well as perverted our culture by practicing things deserving of death and yet, knowing God’s righteousness judgment. Not only are we doing bad things, but giving approval to others who are practicing immortality.