A Conscience Void of Offense

A Conscience Void of Offence

If you will turn with me to Acts 24, this morning. I'd like to begin the reading there in verse number 1. It says here in Acts 24, and after five days, Ananias, the High Priest, descended with the elders, and with a certain orator named Tertullus, who informed the governor against Paul. And when he was called forth, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying, seeing that by thee we enjoy great quietness, and that very worthy deeds are done unto this nation by thy providence. We accept it always, and in all places, most noble Felix, with all thankfulness. That was standing, that I be not further tedious unto thee. I pray thee that thou wouldest hear us, of thy clemency, a few words. For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world. And a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes, who also hath gone about to profane the temple. Whom we took, and would have judged according to our law, but the chief captain, Lysias, came upon us, and with great violence took him away out of our hands. Commanding his accusers to come unto thee, by examining of whom thyself may have taken knowledge of all these things, whereof we accuse him? And the Jews also assented saying that these things were so.

Then Paul, after that the governor had beckoned unto him to speak, answered for as much as I know that thou hast been of many years a judge unto this nation, I do the more cheerfully answer for myself. Because thou mayest understand that there are yet but twelve days since I went up to Jerusalem for to worship. And they neither found me in the temple, disputing with any man, neither raising up the people, neither in the synagogues nor in the city. Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me. But this I confess unto thee that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets. And have hope toward God which they themselves also allow that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust. And herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men.

I want to conclude the reading there. I know this is not the totality of his testimony, but let's stop there in verse 16 because I want to draw attention to particularly verse 16, but give the background of it this morning and when we get into the message. So let's mark our Bibles here to Acts 24, please. And let's acknowledge the Lord in prayer asking his blessing upon the reading of his word.

Father, we have read this passage now. We're reminded this morning that the quote, the saying comes back to my mind as I think of what D.L. Moody said that to understand the Bible, or to understand the Bible—and I'm paraphrasing, Lord—but to understand it without the aid of the Holy Spirit is like reading a sundial by moonlight. And Lord, we know that we need your enabling to apply the word to our hearts, not just to grasp the historical narrative, which is important that we are true to the historical narrative. We believe that this was everything that happened as it was said in this passage, but also we understand that all scripture is profitable for teaching. It's profitable for reproof, for rebuke, for instruction, and for correction and instruction and righteousness in our lives to help us, not only to gain a heavy brain full of details, but to have a heart full of your love, filled with your love and filled with a desire, an earnest desire to live for you and others. Lord, help us to gain today from this passage of scripture and the other passages we will look at, help us to be instructed, Lord. Help us to be corrected wherever we need to be corrected. Help us to be taught and to know more of what you want for our lives, not just, not that we're just kind of guiding ourselves along because if we try to lean to our own understanding, it will fail us, but help us to use the understanding and the conscience that you gave us to be guided by your truth, to may our conscience be captive to your word that we might understand the way that we should go with our lives. May it be the light to our feet, the lamp to our path as we go. We pray these things and ask them in Jesus' name, Amen.

In this text today, the Apostle Paul has just been delivered from at least 40 men who had a vow not to eat anything until they had killed him. They were lying in wait for him to return to Jerusalem to appear before the Sanhedrin again to further question him, supposedly about his ministry and all of that. And they were trying to find some way to get him. They were upset. They had been upset ever since he defected from Judaism to Christianity. When he met the Lord on the road that day on the road to Damascus, he saw that bright shining light and was humbled to the dust of that road and turned and placed his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that day. They had really been doing about the same thing he had been doing to Christians himself as an ambassador of that, as being used by that council to drag people and ultimately to have them killed or at least persecuted Christians.

But now five days have passed since he's made it to Caesarea with the Roman soldiers that God providentially used to escort him safely away. Remember, it was his nephew, I believe it was, that had given the word and had sent. He had overheard that there were these men that were plotting to kill him and he ended up going to appear now before the governor of Judea or the procurator, the governor of Judea, Marcus Antonius Felix. We usually refer to him as Felix, right? He was the governor of Judea at this time under, I believe it was the reign of Nero at this time. But he would appear before him and yet the Jews would send their best orator, their best lawyer to accuse him before Felix and bring up the best false accusations they could come up with to accuse this man, the Apostle Paul, things that they were hoping would stick like arrows in the heart and mind of Felix and say, well yeah, he should be tried for those things. He should be served time or have consequences for these actions.

And Tertullus would summarize what he had to say. He would accuse Paul of three things. He would accuse him of being a known agitator. He's an agitator. He's stirring everything up. Remember we mentioned this morning how Ahab accused Elijah of being the one that troubled Israel, right? And actually Elijah said, no, you're the one and your household are the ones that are troubling Israel. Well, he's disturbing the peace. We'll just put it that way. He's disturbing the peace. He's causing a scene. But this past, we want to get rid of him. Then we also noticed that he was saying that he was the head of a revolutionary movement. He is one, literally, look back here at the words of Tertullus. He says in verse number five, a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world and a ringleader. A ringleader. He's saying literally the word for ringleader is one who stands before. He's at the head of the line. He is, basically they were targeting him because he is a leader, a leading figure now in this sect of the Nazarenes.

They tried to think of ways they could speak of Christianity in a derogatory sense. Yeah, nobody wants to follow somebody who's from Nazareth. Can any good thing come out of Nazareth, right? But Jesus, of course, we know is the one who they were referring to that started this sect of the Nazarenes. And they said, he's a ringleader of it. He's just causing trouble everywhere he goes. Teaching heresy, trying to lead people away from just being reasonable good citizens. And he is a profaner of the temple. He says here, what does he say? Who has also gone about to profane the temple? Well, they didn't give any evidence of that and Paul points that out. They didn't give any evidence to you, Felix. They're just making these claims and what they got the most well-spoken lawyer that they could find to make this case. The theatrics, hopefully, are going to make up for the lack of actual proof.

But all these accusations, they're throwing at him. Have you ever been accused of something falsely? Have you ever been accused of saying something you didn't say? I've been accused of saying things I didn't say. Have you ever been accused of doing things that you didn't do? Or your motives were misjudged in what you did? Well, Paul certainly was. Jesus certainly was. Jesus was certainly falsely accused. They raised up false witnesses against him. Think about Naboth. They raised up false witnesses against Naboth. They have, well, Jezebel did to get what they wanted. Well, the truth matters, doesn't it? The truth matters. It would be better to have a clean conscience than to be rich. It would be better to have a clean conscience, a good name. Well, that name could be slandered, yes, but to have character and a clear conscience than to hobnob with the devil and those who operate on a level of deception. They operate deceptively in their dealings.

Well, it's here that we see that Paul in this context of being accused of something that is not actually true about him. Yes, oh yes, I'm sure that they don't like what I'm doing, but I am a law-abiding citizen. I am not a troublemaker. In fact, I'm just telling people about the hope of the resurrection that I have because I'm a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he saved me and I just want other people to be helped by that. That's why I'm doing what I'm doing. I want people to know about the hope that I have and for the hope of the resurrection. I've been called into question here because the hope that I'm telling people about when people don't like it or people reject it, the Jews that have rejected it, they're causing trouble for me and Paul of all people would understand their motivations. And he told them that to their face when he was preaching to them. He said, I was just like you are. I understand. I understand the hate. I understand that you don't like this message, but it is only the Lord Jesus Christ who can give you hope. He's the only one that can change your life.

Well, he says in the midst of all of this, as we read this morning, he says I have hope toward God in verse 15, which they themselves also allow and that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. And herein, as I share this hope that I have with people, as I minister for the Lord Jesus Christ, I exercise. Herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men. I exercise myself to have this conscience void of offense toward God and toward men.

Sometimes ago we had a series that we did and we talked about the various aspects of the soul that God has given us. What makes us distinct even from animals in our personhood, I guess we can say, we have will. We have an intellect that we can rationally think through things and we can reason through and up to a conclusion through our logical process. That's how we think through. We have affections or heart that out of which we have these affections and even emotions that arise as a human being. And we have a conscience. We have a conscience. In fact, I don't want to say that they're all just separate them all up and they're separate islands, but they kind of work together, I guess we can say. We have like when we hear a piece of information, well, first of all, we've got to process that information through our minds, right? We've got to begin to break down and think about this thing. Sometimes you look at someone and get a blank stare on their face and say, everything okay, yeah, I'm just thinking. I'm just processing. I'm thinking through this. We make judgments every day about very simple things all the way up to complex things.

And when we think through it then once we process that information to a certain degree, the conscience is presented with that information: is this good? Is this bad? Is this something I should do? I shouldn't do. Is this something I shouldn't say? Something I should say? I tell other people, you ought not to do that. How about me? Am I going to do that? Right? The conscience weighs those things out in the balance. Is this something, you know, whatever my moral values are? I'm going to say, yes, I should. My conscience is going to say. Kind of like a witness standing up on the stand while you tell other people, don't do that, but you're going to say it? You tell other people don't do that. You're going to do it? That's what the conscience does. It's just kind of screaming back there. It's talking. It's talking. Well, we also have, once that conscience begins to speak, then we have a will, right? But I want to do that. But it's going to feel good if I do that. It's going to make me look good if I do that. It's going to make me sound good. But no, it's not right to do that. But it would be fun. It would be enjoyable. It would make me feel good if I got to do this or say this thing. Sometimes we have that inner conflict, you know? Because the conscience is saying this over here, and it just won't shut up. It will keep saying this. But the will is saying, you know, I want to do that. I really like to do that.

Well, we have all these different components. And this is why, you know, when the Bible says, what does God want? He wants us to love him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. He doesn't say, you know, you ought to know what's right. You ought to do what's right. Not to want to do what's right. With all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. That's the only, the only the Lord can put that desire in us to do that with all of our heart. But we're talking about the conscience this morning, the conscience, you know, whether we're talking about the word in the Greek, where we get, or in the, where we get our word in the English conscience, coming from the Latin, con with science knowledge, right? With knowledge. Sometimes the conscience may not always be right, but it's consistent as far as the conscience says, well, if this is true, then you're wrong, if you do it kind of thing. If this is what ought to be done and you're not doing it, then you should be doing it. It's just standing there and telling us kind of like an unbiased observer.

Well, I didn't see everything that happened in this car wreck. You know, we might walk out the door here today and hopefully don't, but I'm just saying you might witness a wreck or something. And you saw it, but you might not have seen everything about it. You just saw certain things about it. And when they come and they, you know, are taking the police report down and, you know, the traffic accident report and they're writing it down, they're going to ask you, well, what did you see? Well, I don't know if there was road rage before all of this, but all I saw was there was this collision that happened and I could say this happened, that happened, the other happened. That's kind of like what the conscience does. It may not have all the information, but it's going to tell you what it's all and what it knows, right? That's what the conscience does. And so this is why as Christians, we want to be very careful with our conscience that we handle the conscience.

Well, we don't, you know, what do we want to do with our bodies? We want to, we want to take care of our bodies, don't we? You know, if your skin is dry, you put lotion on it. If you're not sleeping well at night, it takes a melatonin. If your muscles are aching, you might need some kind of supplementary, you might need Ben Gay or you might, you might need something of a muscle rub that we take care of this vessel, don't we? So it will serve us well. We need to take care of our conscience. We need to take care of the conscience that the Lord has given us. We need like Paul says here this morning because there's going to be a lot of storms to come up and test that conscience, right? There's going to be a lot of things that are going to come along and test how, what kind of conscience do you have?

Well, looking at Romans 2 with me for a moment. Romans 2, verse 14. In Romans 2:14 we read over there that Paul says that for when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law are a law unto themselves. Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts. The meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another. And that what we just talked about that says yes, you can do this, no, you can't do that. No, you shouldn't do that. You know, accusing you or excusing you. Yeah, that's fine. Green light. No, red light. In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. Well, this is God has given every man, every individual, a conscience. Think about what this passage is implying is that everybody has a basic moral compass.

They know basic right from wrong, like you shouldn't kill somebody, okay? You shouldn't go out and murder—bad. You know, helping others—good. Those are basic fundamental things. You should not violate other people's rights. You should not. I mean, yes, we come into sticky territory where what like today. Paul is telling people about the hope he has. He's not going and raiding their homes, but he's saying something that makes them uncomfortable. And there's, he has a right to say those things. And yet, yes, that makes some people uncomfortable. Well, they didn't have to listen to it. They could just leave, right? But there's, there's this matter of, well, the conscience.

If we look back to the Old Testament, there's Abimelech that came tonight king that knew. Even when Isaac lied to him, he found out this was Isaac's wife. He said, he knew it was wrong to take somebody else's wife, right? He knew it. He hadn't read the gospel, but he knew. He knew. Well, you have those people on the island of Malta or Melita. Where Paul was shipwrecked. Remember, there was a, wasn't it a viper that bit him on the hand? And they knew. This man must be a murderer or somebody. He must have done something. And he's getting the justice he deserves now for this. And then when they looked longer and he didn't pass out because they knew he should have died from that bite, then they, they might have elevated him more than they should have been, but they understood. If you do wrong, it's coming back to you. You're not going to get away with it kind of thing. Ultimately, it's going to come back to, in this case, literally bite you. And so there is a basic conscience in man that knows generally right from wrong. Just watch children's reactions to things. Watch how they react to things that are done and said.

But Paul says, I exercise. Let's, I want to break down this verse a little bit here. He said that he, in verse number 16, let's get back there and read the word. I don't want to just say it from memory in verse number 16. He had said, And herein, do I exercise, what does that mean? I exercise. Well, think about physical exercise, but it's kind of the same idea. I mean, it just spiritually speaking, spiritual exercise. I, I, I take pains, I labor, I strive with intensity for something. This is the kind of exercise where you're sweating, right? You're not just sort of taking a stroll through the neighborhood. This is with, this is actually really working out. This is exercising with intensity. He, he says always. The word that this, two parts of this word in the Greek it literally means it's just, if you say, if you say it literally through all through all. I exercise. I labor through all through all what? Sometimes we say about God, don't we? He's been with us through it all, hasn't He? We say about our spouse, she, he has stuck with me through it all through thick and thin, through all seasons, through ups and downs, through the back and forth of life. I, Paul says through all seasons and circumstances, I labor. I exercise myself. Doesn't he say that here? I exercise myself to have always a conscience, a conscience void of offense.

This void of offense is basically the idea of a blamelessness, blameless, not having anything to strike against, not causing the stumble. I want to, I exercise to have a good conscience, not to, not to, not to abuse the conscience that I have, not to misuse it. And so to displease God or cause other people to stumble because I am misusing my conscience. I, I exercise myself always to have a good conscience, to have a conscience void of offense. In fact, he would say in 2 Corinthians, if you look over there with me, 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 12. For our rejoicing is this, he says, the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world and more abundantly to you. In other words, Paul says, when we minister to you, we just, we did it at face value. We were not trying to put on and pretend to be something that we weren't trying to put on airs or whatever. We just, don't you enjoy being around people that what you see is what you get. That's just who they are. I mean, they're not something over here and there's something over there and then they've got to kind of work with a guilty conscience because they're, they're trying to be, I'm not trying, I'm not saying don't, don't relate to people. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying don't, don't be two-faced. Just, you know, your conscience will tell you if you're being two-faced. Your conscience will tell you, you're being a hypocrite. Oh, as long as you don't damage that conscience, it will keep talking to you. I want a healthy conscience is what Paul is saying. I want to keep my, I want to keep my conscience well fed. I want to keep it healthy. I want to make sure that it does what God intended it to do. Because he gave it to me.

Sometimes, sometimes that conscience will get a little bit annoying. You know, I wish, I wish conscience wouldn't speak up today, but thank God for conscience. That it does. We want, we want it to be healthy. We want that conscience to speak well. When we were in sin, when we were without Christ, we had a defiled conscience. In fact, Titus will talk, Paul will talk about that when he writes to Titus. He says in chapter one, verse 15, unto the pure all things are pure, but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure. But even their mind and conscience is defiled. What is that? The word defiled, the idea of the defiled conscience here has the idea, is associated with the idea of a dyeing or a staining. It's a stain, the defiled conscience is polluted. It's not pure like it should be. You know, a clean conscience, a pure conscience is defiled. And therefore it's not working properly. We know about that in our body, our organs, when they're not working, maybe some member, some bodily member that we use. Well, it's not right. I mean, yesterday I told David that I did not, I was not very wise, and I had some thinner shoes on, and I was out there sawing up some, I had my jacket on, but it didn't have boots on like I should have had on it. And I went and kicked a small limb to break it off of the main trunk. And my foot talked to me. My foot says, I'm not doing as well as I was before you kicked that. And so I had to take care of that. And you know, thankfully it's doing better today.

We got to take care of that conscience. We do not want a defiled conscience. The Lord saved us, in fact, from a defiled conscience. And when we trusted the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, He cleansed our conscience by His precious blood, didn't He? Oh, what a freedom. And it feels almost like you have wings when you have a clean conscience, right? It's the guilt's gone. I don't have a guilty conscience anymore. The Lord saved me from that. It's clean. It's under the blood. And I bear that. I don't have to carry that sin around anymore on my conscience. The Lord took it all. When a person goes on into a defiled conscience, they can come to a seared conscience. I don't want to take the time to go to all these passages this morning. A seared conscience is one that is like burning your hand, you know, or something. And then you can't really feel things as well as you feel the heat. Of course, when you burn it, but it's like cauterizing something. It takes away the sensitivity of being able to feel. Is it ever bother you that things don't bother you as much as they used to? I mean, we're living in a world where we tend to be desensitized to things. But may we not be desensitized to sin in our own lives. May it bother us when the Holy Spirit working in concert with conscience comes and says, Daniel, you sinned. There the man. You disobeyed the word as well. May we not say, shut up, conscience. May we say, oh Lord, forgive me, cleanse me. Help me to make that matter right.

There's a hymn that we sing. It goes like this. I want a principle within a watch for godly fear, a sensibility of sin, a pain to feel it near. May we not only be conscious of sin in other people's lives, may we be more? Paul is basically saying, I want to be aware of something in me. I always exercise myself to be sure that I have a good conscience in what I'm doing. These men over here, they're falsely accusing me of something that is not true because I would be the first to acknowledge if I had done something. I want to live in such a way that God will be pleased with me and that I would not cause someone to stumble in a way they should not. I don't want to hurt anyone else.

Well, our conscience can lie to us. If we sear it, it can lie to us and say, we could, people come to the point where they call good evil and evil good. Well, I don't feel anything bad about it. The adulterous woman commits adultery and wipes her mouth and says, I've done nothing. We come to the point where we can declare our sin like Sodom and say, well, big deal, big deal. That's the world we're living in. People don't even think twice. They can't even blush over sin. May we not be, may we not think like that. May we not let it rub off on us that we would have a seared conscience in our lives. May we exercise ourselves, and always have a conscience void of offense.

The Bible talks about it. Evil conscience. It talks about a good conscience. It talks about a pure conscience. There's a lot of things the Bible says about our conscience. It talks about a weak conscience. But in all of these things, I think about what First Peter says in First Peter chapter 2, if you'll turn over there with me, First Peter chapter 2 verse 19. In First Peter 2:19 Peter says, for this is thankworthy. If a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. We talked about a conscience void of offense toward God. This is a good thing. If you, if you in some form or fashion verbally, or maybe at some point you might suffer physical persecution, but if you suffer some form of persecution for doing the right thing, like Paul was suffering, it's okay. It's all right. You better keep your conscience right more than you're concerned about this body.

They even became to the point like it is in Nigeria right now, where they're literally just murdering, mass murdering Christians for being Christian, just for being a Christian. I mean, the pastor, I saw that they was standing in the open grave with people from his church lying all around in the grave. And he's calling out for the United States to help them in different. Somebody help us. Our government hates us. Our government's allowing this just to go on. If that comes to the point, don't surrender. Don't give up a good conscience to save your body. Maintain a good conscience before God, as it says here. Suffering wrongfully. It's okay. God will right all the wrongs. You do right. What does it, so I always say, do right till the stars fall, do right till the last call, do right when there's no one else to stand by you. Do right when you're all alone. Do right, though it's never known, do right since you love the Lord. Do you right?

No, there's plenty of opportunities in business to do the wrong thing and get away with that. I can cheat on this. I can cut corners here. Do right. The Lord's watching. He sees plenty of opportunities. Look at AI now. AI can be a tool that can be used in a limited fashion to help, but it can also be the master. You can cheat on everything now with AI. You can if you want to. I could just stop writing sermons and I could just, I guess AI write me a sermon and I'll go over there and preach it. But that's not right. In my conscience, well, I would kill my conscience if I did that. Yes, we use tools. We use commentaries. But it's got to be what the Lord gives you as a preacher. I got this all the sermons, 1, 2, 3. A conscience, it says here toward God, even suffering wrongfully.

But also, we need to have a good conscience toward others. A conscience void of offense. We, one of our verses this morning, 1 John 5:2, what does it say? By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments. May we, may we love one another? The Bible says, not only says, love one another, but it says love your enemies. Do right to others, even if it costs you something to do the right thing. Do what's right before God and by others. Do what's right because you're going to have, you know, if you have a clear conscience before men, you can sleep at night. If you have a clear conscience before men, you can put your head on that pillow. And you might, you might not have much, but you can know that you did what you ought to do. Don't just do, don't just go with the flow. Don't just, don't just go, don't be a pragmatist. Don't just do whatever's the most convenient thing. Sometimes doing the right thing means being a stick in the mud, but out of love for your brothers, out of love for others, not out of hatred, not out of look at me. I love the Lord. You know, those Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, or sticks in the mud because they love the Lord. They weren't trying to be disruptors, like Daniel. They tried to obey every law of the land that he could. But it came a time where for conscience sake, he had to keep on praying to his God. He was not going to stop praying to God. He was going to do what was right because he loved the Lord and ultimately loved the souls of men. He loved those around him.

May we like Paul, because I want to leave you with this thought. We take care of our body. Let's take care of our conscience. Let's handle that conscience. Well, we want that conscience to keep on speaking. We do not want to go away conscience. We don't want to get rid of the conscience. We don't want to diminish the conscience. Well, I just wish it wasn't so loud. Let's turn the volume down on it. Oh, certainly. Certainly we don't want to have a weak conscience that's misinformed. We don't want a conscience that screams at us. You know, we have a driveway doorbell. I don't want that driveway doorbell going off every time somebody drives by on the road. I've got to make sure that that sensor is pointed in a proper direction. I want my conscience to be captive to the Word of God. I don't want it screaming at me. When God's Word doesn't say something, I just made up some rules, okay? That are not in God's Word. I don't want my conscience to, you know, because I could actually, you know, offend someone unnecessarily in that way. Be careful about that. Don't follow simply man-made traditions. But if you want to do something, no, know why are you doing it? What does God's Word say about it? I'm doing this because I'm pleasing the Lord. I want to please the Lord. And I love my brethren. I love the neighbors. I love my neighbors. I love my enemies. And you know, and there's going to come times where you realize maybe I'm not doing something the right way. Maybe God's Word shows me something different. Well, I need to adjust that so that I'll have a good conscience. Because if I keep doing, because I'm stubborn doing something a certain way and not let God show me the better way to do it, then I will have a bad conscience. So may God help me in that as well.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this opportunity we've had to look into your Word. Thank you for the Apostle Paul who teaches us by his example this morning that even when falsely accused, a good conscience was always his desire. His earnest desire, his longing to have this conscience clean and pure before you, Lord, and we cannot have a clean conscience until we meet the Savior. We will have a guilty conscience. A guilty conscience is a good thing because it shows us that it tells us the truth about ourselves. And we believe that the Holy Spirit activates and works in concert with that conscience to draw us to Christ. We pray, Lord, that even today, that if there's anyone that's not a Christian, that they would put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and know that freedom, that cleansing, that forgiveness. We pray that there are those here today that are Christians, Lord, that each one of us would have this same desire Paul had. And that we would know that through it all, you will guide us if we will keep our conscience right toward you. We pray these things and we ask them in Jesus' name. Amen.