Category: Conscience
Subject: Conscience
Sermon: Fall Meeting 2020, Jeremiah Cox
The following lessons were preached from November 1-6, 2020 during the West Side Fall Meeting.
Brother Jeremiah Cox is the evangelist for the Elm Street church of Christ in El Reno, Oklahoma. He and his wife Zoe and little girl Collins live in Yukon, OK.
Sunday Sermon in two parts
Boldness to Enter the Holiest (Hebrews 10)
Sunday Class
Asking for Wisdom in Faith (James 1)
Monday
The Defense for My Hope
Tuesday
Walking in the Light (1 John 1)
Wednesday
Memories from Home
Thursday
The Generic Jesus
Friday
If They Were Here, What Would They Say?
Sermon: For Conscience’ Sake
Paul expresses the type of attitude we should have toward Jews, Gentiles and God’s people, always expressing and showing concern for how our actions may impact our reputation, and the spiritual welfare of others.
Mining the Scriptures: 2 Corinthians 1:12-14
Paul’s words in this text consist of a defense of himself to the church at Corinth. He protests his honesty, that “we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity.” The word “simplicity” indicates purity and integrity. Paul was not attempting to manipulate or “double deal” the Corinthians. In his dealings with that church, he always conducted himself with proper actions and motives.
Paul’s teaching was not by “fleshly wisdom”, but by the “grace of God.” As such, he treated the Corinthians justly, and could with confidence and a clean conscience proclaim that he had done what was right. A truly honest person can legitimately claim to be a friend because of the way he treats others. Motivated by love, he will always seek what is best for them. It is upon this basis that the apostle made his “boast” with regard to his relationship with the Christians in Corinth.
Sermon: Purity in Conscience
The conscience can be described as a moral computer. Scriptures clearly teach that we are to educate our consciences, and then always live in accord with what we believe to be right. To do this is to have a Pure Conscience.
Sermon: Desensitized!
Inspiring Prose
A couple of Wednesday nights ago, in our lesson discussing the discipline of meditation, I admitted to the fact that poetry holds little appeal to me. My tastes run to the prosaic, (some may say uncouth).
However, I did note that a well formed paragraph can inspire me, and I thought I would share a few with you. For example, the wonderful expression of our victory in Christ, from the pen of the apostle Paul:
“Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created things, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:37-39).
Sermon: Keeping the Heart
The Bible uses the term heart metaphorically, to refer variously to: the seat of our understanding, will, devotion and conscience. It is a beautiful figure of speech, that contains many lessons for the Christian.
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Sermon Audio: Click Here .
Sermon: What Saul Saw When Blind
Though physically blinded on the road to Damascus, Saul of Tarsus, for the first time in his life, saw some very important truths.
Sermon PowerPoint: Click Here .
Sermon Audio: Click Here .
AOTS: What Is The Conscience?
AOTS Number 3
A discussion of the Bible definition of the conscience.
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Sermon: The Conscience of Man
In this sermon the conscience is defined, and the four types of conscience identified in the scriptures are discussed.
Sermon PowerPoint: Click Here .
Sermon Audio: Click Here .
Listen to Your Conscience
There is much to say on the subject of the conscience. I would like to share with you a quote from Robertson L. Whiteside’s commentary on Romans. The quote contains the best explanation I have read as to what the conscience is. I will follow the quote with a few comments of my own. Note: The comments are in the context of an explanation of Romans 2:15, which reads, “who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves {their} thoughts accusing or else excusing {them}).”
Following is Whiteside’s entire comment on Romans 2:15.
The construction of the Greek shows plainly that it was the work of the law, and not the law itself, that was written on the hearts of the Gentiles. This, of course, referred to the moral requirements of the law. The moral requirements of the law are just such things as any decent set of people would recognize as proper and right, even if they never had a revelation. Their conscience, like the conscience of those who had a revealed law, would accuse them when they failed to live up to their standard of right, and approve them when they did right as they saw it. That is the office of conscience.
But what is conscience? It is frequently referred to as a guide. But conscience is not a guide at all; that is not its office. Also, it is said that conscience is a creature of education; but I see not how any one would go about educating his conscience. It is also defined as the moral judgment, but that definition does not fit. Your moral judgment may tell you that a certain person did very wrong, but his act does not affect your conscience in any way, unless you feel responsible for his action. Liddell and Scott define the Greek word that is translated “conscience” thus: “(1) A knowing with one’s self, consciousness; (2) conscience.” Where we have two words – “consciousness” and “conscience” – the Greeks had one word, and the connection determined its meaning, or, perhaps speaking more accurately, the connection determined its application. “Consciousness” has a broader application than “conscience.” A person is conscious of his own bodily sensations, whether pleasurable or painful; he is also conscious of his own thoughts and emotions. We are getting at conscience when we think of it as that feeling of pleasure when we do what we think is right, and of pain when we do what we think is wrong. It is that which backs up our moral judgment. Saul of Tarsus always did what he thought was right, and therefore always had a good conscience. But his information was wrong, and therefore his moral judgment was wrong. Our judgment may be wrong because the ideas upon which we base our judgment may be wrong. But no matter how we have been taught, we can expect our conscience to urge us to do what we have judged to be right, unless it has been deadened by long indulgence in things we know to be wrong. It seems to me that a live, tender conscience is infallible. But as to moral judgment, no man can safely say that he is right on everything. Gain all the information you can so that you can form correct judgments, and give heed to the urge of conscience.
Robertson L. Whiteside A New Commentary On Paul’s Letter To The Saints At Rome, pages 58-59
Two thoughts to consider, with Whiteside’s excellent explanation in mind. In order to obtain “purity in conscience” it is necessary to:
- Make sure your moral judgment is well informed. In effect, study diligently to determine what God accepts and what God condemns. That way, you can heed your conscience with confidence.
- Make sure you heed your conscience at all times. Do not allow your heart to be hardened. If you get a feeling that you have done wrong, don’t ignore it, but rather give it place. We should never sublimate the shame we feel when we do wrong, rather we should confess our sin, and ask God’s forgiveness. Continually ignoring our feelings of shame eventually will lead to the point where we feel no shame at all. Our heart will be hardened, and the voice of conscience will cease.
