A Conscience Void of Offense

A Conscience Void of Offence

If you will turn with me to Acts 24, Acts chapter 24 this morning, and I'd like to begin the reading there in verse number 1.

It says here in Acts 24, 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. Notwithstanding that I be not further tedious unto thee, I pray thee that thou wouldst 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 mayest take knowledge of all these things, where have we accused 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. Thus that 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 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.

Heavenly 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 and apply 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 things, 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. Lord, help us to use the understanding and the conscience that you gave us to be guided by your truth, 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 this, you know, his ministry and all 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 his, 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 wasn't his nephew, I believe it was, that had given the word and 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 serve time or have consequences for these actions.

And Tertullus would, to summarize what he had to say, he would accuse Paul of three things. He would accuse him of being a known agitator. Everybody knows 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 is 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 pest, we want to get rid of him. But 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 Felix. 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 lion. 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 that's from Nazareth. Can any good thing come out of Nazareth, but Jesus of course we know is the one who they were referring to that started this sect of the Nazarenes. 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. 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. He didn't give any evidence to you Felix. They're just making these claims and 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, you know, but all these accusations, 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. I mean, well, that name could be slandered, yes, but to have character and a clear conscience than to hobnob with the devil. I mean, I'm not saying that people, 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'm 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, 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 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.

Some time 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 a will. We have an intellect that we can rationally think through things and we can reason through and up to a conclusion through a logical process. That's how we think through. We have affections or, you know, a heart 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, we 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 got to process that information through our minds, right? But we got to, through the intellect, we've got to begin to break down and think about this thing. We got to, you know, sometimes you look at someone, they got a blank stare on their face, you say, everything okay? Yeah, I'm just thinking. I'm just processing. I'm thinking through this. You know, 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 should say, something I shouldn't say? You know, I tell other people, you ought not to do that. Well, 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. Well, 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, 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 I mean, 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 of the conscience is saying this over here and it just won't shut up. You know, 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, strength. He doesn't say, you know, you ought to know what's right. No, He says, you ought to do what's right and ought to want to do what's right. With all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. That's the only, the only the Lord can 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, the whether we're talking about the word in the Greek where we get or in the in where we get our word in the English conscience coming from the Latin con with science knowledge, right? It's 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 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 saw 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.

You know, what do we want to do with our bodies? 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 some melatonin. If your muscles are aching, you might need some kind of supplement or you might need Ben Gay or you might need something of a muscle rub. 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 to test what kind of conscience do you have.

Well, look in 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, in verse 14, Romans 2.14, 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. Isn't that what we just talked about? It says, yes, you can do this. No, you can't do that. No, you shouldn't do that. Accusing you or excusing you. Yeah, that's fine. 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, 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, murder, bad. You know, helping others, good. Those are basic fundamental things. You should not violate other people's rights. You should not, 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, he's not going and raiding their homes, but he's saying something that makes him uncomfortable, and there's, he had, 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 Canaanite 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 Mileta, 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 have murdered somebody. He must have done something, and he's getting the justice he deserves now for this. And then when they look longer, and he didn't pass out because they knew he should have died from that bite, then 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. 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 again. I don't want to just say it from memory. And 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's just spiritually speaking, spiritual exercise. 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 really working out. This is exercising with intensity. He says, always. There's two parts of this word in the Greek. It literally means, 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 the 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 to stumble. I want to exercise to have a good conscience. 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'm misusing my conscience. I exercise myself always to have a good conscience, to have a conscience void of offense.

In fact, he would say in 2nd Corinthians, if you look over there with me, 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 verse 12, 2nd Corinthians 1 verse number 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-ward. 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 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 trying to be, I'm not trying, I'm not saying don't relate to people. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying don't be two-faced. 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. As long as you don't damage that conscience, it will keep talking to you. It will keep talking to you. I want a healthy conscience is what Paul is saying. 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 that conscience would get a little bit annoying, you know. I wish conscience wouldn't speak up today but thank God for conscience that it does. 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. We had a defiled conscience. In fact, Titus will talk, Paul will talk about that when he writes to Titus. He says in chapter 1 verse 15, Titus 1 15, he says there that 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 a defiled conscience here has the idea is associated with the idea of a dying or a staining. It's a stained, a defiled conscience. It's polluted. It's not pure like it should be, you know, a clean conscience, a pure conscience. It's 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, it's not right. I mean yesterday I told David that I was not very wise and I had some thinner shoes on and I was out there and sawing up some, I had my chaps on but I didn't have boots on like I should have had on and I went and kicked a smaller 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 kick 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 when we trust it in the Lord Jesus Christ, by faith he cleansed our conscience by his precious blood didn't he? Oh what a freedom and I feel almost like you have wings when you when you have a clean conscience right? 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 don't have to carry that sin around anymore on my conscience. The Lord took it all.

We can have a person goes on 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 it's like burning your hand you know or something and then you can't really feel things as well as you know you feel the heat of course when you burn it but it's like cauterizing something it's just uh it takes away the sensitivity of being able to feel. Does 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 we not be, may it bother us when the Holy Spirit working in concert with conscience comes and says Daniel you sinned. Thou are the man. You disobeyed the Lord in this. Well may we not say shut up conscience. May we say oh Lord forgive me, cleanse me, help me, help me to make that matter right.

There's a hymn that we sing it goes like this I want a principle within of watchful 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 a I want to be aware if there is something in me I always exercise myself to be sure that I have a good conscious of 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 if I had done something I want 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 we our conscience can lie to us if we see it it can it can lie to us and say you know we could we could people come to the point where they call good evil and evil good well I don't feel anything bad about it they you know the the adulterous woman commits adultery and wipes her mouth and says I've done nothing I've done nothing we come to the point where where where we we can declare our sin like Sodom and say well big deal you know big deal that's 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 we would have a seared conscience in our lives may we may we exercise ourselves always to have a conscience void of offense the Bible talks about an 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 think worthy if a man for conscience toward God endured grief suffering wrongfully we talked about a conscience void of offense toward God this is a good thing if if you if you in some form or fashion verbally or maybe at some point that 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 alright you better have keep your conscience right more than you're concerned about this body they even even if it came to the point like it is in Nigeria right now where they're literally just murdering mass murdering Christians for for being Christian just for being a Christian I mean a pastor I saw the other day was standing in the open grave with with people from his church lying all around him in the grave and he's calling out for 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 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 is the song we sing do right till the stars fall do right to 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 write do right oh there's plenty of opportunities in business to do the wrong thing and get away with that you know I can cheat on this I can cut corners here no do right the Lord's watching he sees there's plenty of opportunities on you know look at 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 I could just stop writing sermons and I could just I guess the 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 it can't be you know I got this off the sermons one two three you know a conscience it says here toward God even suffering wrongfully

but also we need to have a good conscience toward others the conscious void of offense we read we one of our verses this morning first John 5 to 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 well 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 gonna 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 it'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 no I love the Lord you know those Shadrach Meshach and Abednego are sticks in the mud because they love the Lord they weren't trying to be disruptors that Daniel 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 gonna do what was right because he loved the Lord and and ultimately loved the souls of men he loved with those around him

may we like Paul we I want to leave you with this thought we take care of our body let's take care of our conscience let's let's handle that conscience well we want that conscience to keep on speaking we do not want go away conscious we don't want to get rid of the conscious we don't want to diminish the conscious well I just wish it wasn't so loud let's turn the volume down on it no oh sure 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 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 to 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 don't follow simply man-made traditions but but if you want to do something know know why why you're doing it why what does God's Word say about it I'm 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 gonna 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 and I can't because if I 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 who teaches us by his example this morning that even when accused falsely accused it was always his desire his earnest desire his his longing to 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 to 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 be put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and and know that freedom that cleansing that forgiveness we pray that there are those here today that are Christians Lord that we would each one of us would would have this same desire Paul had and that we would know that through it all you will guide us if we will if we will keep our conscience right towards you we pray these things and we ask them in Jesus name amen.