Conscience

It's called the conscience, right? This is a term we use. It's called the conscience in verse 15. Paul talks about it. And we said it's the second way that every person knows that there is a God. Everybody knows there is because of two things, right? The first one is creation. We all live in creation. We all know we didn't make it. We all know somebody above us had to. We are all answerable to him. That is what the Bible says.

They show that the work of the law is written in their hearts while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them. Okay? So Paul's saying that the Gentiles, in this passage, what he means by all of this is that all of us were created in the image of God and God instilled it in us to know the difference between what's right and what's wrong. That word, actually the word conscience actually means knowing the difference between what's right and wrong.

Fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. There's the definition of faith. Faith is being fully convinced that God is able to do what God says he will do. Another definition you could say, faith is a believing obedience in what God has said. There's a lot of people say they have faith, but it's just a belief without any sort of obedience. Or belief without any sort of behavioral change. Faith is a combination of saying I believe this and because I say I believe this, I behave this way.

We allow our faith and trust in God to dictate what we see. See, Abraham was fully persuaded or fully convinced that the power of God would match his promise. I'm going to read that again because it is so powerful. We begin to see and understand. He was fully convinced that God's power would match his promise. And so we begin to. We live that out in our lives. It doesn't mean that you won't go through difficulties or struggles, but knowing that the God of the universe will never leave you nor forsake you.

called. It is a miracle, but it is also a testament to their faith, specifically that they would back up their faith with action. They live fully convinced, fully convinced that God would show up. I'm not going to have you jump back to that, that James passage. But in that James passage, he actually, James refers to Abraham and Isaac. He says, the reality of living fully convinced or with full faith is he took Isaac up onto the mountain and was willing to sacrifice him, had the blade in his hand, right? His actions backed up his faith.

Continues in verse 21, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. Do we live that way? Do we live fully convinced that God is able to do what he says? I can say this unequivocally. I don't. I wish I did. I'm not even speaking for anyone else in this place. I can say this unequivocally. There are times I do, but there are many times I like Caleb's control. Caleb to call. Caleb to figure it out because I can figure it out.

Promises like hope. Promises like joy. Care. Promises like the presence of God. Promises like forgiveness. A continued forgiveness for sins, even after we've been justified. Promises like wisdom. That's what I need. Wisdom. I need it a lot. But there's more and more and more, all these different promises. That's why we went through that promises series. But the reality is that faith, it has to be so deeply rooted in the gospel. And so Paul paints this beautiful picture of Abraham. This beautiful understanding of how faith should look. And this idea of being fully convinced. We have to be fully convinced. Fully convinced that God has done and will continue to do immeasurably more in our lives.

Why what he's saying is so important? Because what he's going to say seems so outlandish. It seems so out of place. And so here we're going to see very clearly Paul say, I am speaking the truth in Christ. I'm telling you the truth. I'm not lying. In fact, he goes on and he says, My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit. That his very conscience is being checked, if you will. Like if he's about to say something that is false, that the Holy Spirit would convict him about what he's about to say.

And in their conscience, they're trying to honor the Lord. And the Lord says, follow your conscience here. Do it to honor the Lord. Because if you don't do it, then it is sin. So in 14, it says you have to give up some things. It says you may have to give up food.

But also your conscience. Many of us have grown so angry at the government. And there's certainly things to be irritated about. Or upset about. As we see justice not happen. Or something wrong. Or something immoral. But we can trust that they will answer to God. Every government official. But our own conscience. Some of us rage against the government. Day in and day out. And look for ways to quietly. Silently. Secretly rebel against God's authority.

And it is searing our conscience. I need you to understand. You only get one conscience. And when we sear it this way. And then go to God and say. God I want to hear from you. Our conscience has been seared. There's a lack of sensitivity to the voice of God. What does it mean to be in subjection? Again the Bible says it here in verse 5. It means to obey the law.

Do it so that you don't sin against God because that's what we're doing. The idea of, but also for conscience sake, Paul says, it means it is sinful to go against this and do whatever we want to do. You realize sin affects your conscience. The Bible warns against this. When you sin, it's like a layer comes over your heart in order to feel wrong. And the more you do, and maybe you're in this spot where you don't even feel bad anymore for any wrong that you do.

Some of us are not going to be able to do that. We're not going to be able to do that. in this room are way too loud. I'm preaching the word. Come on, guys. Godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved. Let me say that again. Who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. How we show Jesus will help people come to know, and if we rant and rail about all this stuff that doesn't point to him, they're going to miss him and see you. Avoid being the kind of Christian who spends more time criticizing than praying. Be a good citizen. Pay taxes. Obey the law. Be respectful. Pour yourself out for the needy. Live with a clear conscience before God. Serve your city and your country for the common good. Engage in the political process with truth and justice and the common good in m

I was not very welcoming. I was not very welcoming. I tolerated. I endured it. She complained, and she threw a fit. My mom made me. I did not want to welcome her. Now, the weak here, Paul's not trying to put people down. He's not trying to say, ah, you're weak if you don't eat meat. You're, you're, you're clueless. You don't have any idea what's going on. He's not trying to put anyone down. He's saying, hey, there are people out there. He uses the word weak to talk about people who have sensitive consciences and convictions. Often, these are former Jews who've been raised their whole lives with a set of, of strict rules to follow. So they would avoid these, these certain foods. They would observe, the Sabbath. Their convictions were sincere. Their love for God is real, but their conscience is fragile. And Paul says, we need to welcome these people, not to fight about differing opinions,

Then there was the Gentiles who had came in and they were part of pagan worship. And man, anytime anything involving pagan worship that looked like pagan worship, they were like, no, no, no. Get me away from that. I want nothing to do with that anymore. They had sensitive conscience. They had a sensitive conscience. Conscience, man, I've got to learn how to say that. I probably should have wrote that better.

Romans 14 is talking about what we'll call an issue of conscience, a personal conviction, meaning it's to you. This is something that you have a conviction about. You have a principle about. You have an issue of conscience of. And it might have to do with the day of the week. It might have to do with drinking alcohol. It might have to do with eating meat or not. Not eating meat. Maybe you grew up Catholic and you're like, hey, on Fridays I eat fish.

You're the Holy Spirit for somebody. Do it because it's your conviction. That God has given you. God has given you a conscience. And you know what? My conscience. May differ from your conscience. You're going to learn in verse 23 as we're going down. That if you don't hold to those convictions that the Lord has given you. That it's a sin.

Here's verse 6. The one who observes the day observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord. Since he gives thanks to God. While the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord. And give thanks to God. Both have convictions that they believe are important. And in this room, I'm sure. There's differing of opinions and convictions. All across every aisle. I don't know about you. But I live with a woman.

Our conscience should be informed by what Tim Keller says it this way to be convinced. First means we see whether the Bible. Really commands or forbids some practice or whether it leaves us to have a conscience that's free. We first go to the word. We just don't say, well, whatever my conscience feels is right. No, your conscience could be wrong. But what we do, we must educate our conscience. So the first thing we study God's word in determining what to do and how to live.

Some of you were raised and grew up like that. Some of you may even have that conviction today. There are others that go, Jesus turned water into wine. What's the problem? So there are these two different opinions, these two different convictions. I look at my family background and I, I know there are many people in my family, some of my friends who have a conviction, an issue of conscience against alcohol because of alcoholism in our family, in our past.

So it would be rude for another Christian to show up to Thanksgiving with alcohol, right? Is it sinful to drink? No. Is it unloving? Is it going to potentially put a stumbling block, verse 13, or a hindrance in the way of a brother? Absolutely. So there is a freedom that we have as believers, but there is an awareness of fellow Christians, of brothers and sisters, of struggles, or of convictions, or of matters of conscience that they may have.

Verse five says, hey, okay, fine. One person esteems one day above another. Another person esteems every day alike. Great. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. So one person says, hey, you have to worship on Sunday. That's the only day you can worship. Another person says, no, we can worship on Saturday. In fact, I prefer to worship on Saturday. Another person says, well, I don't know what my work schedule is. So if I, if I'm off on Saturday, I'll worship on Saturday. If I'm off on Sunday, I'll worship on Sunday. Somebody else says, worship God every single day. We say, great. All of it. Fantastic. Sounds good. Here's the key. End of verse five, such an important lesson. Let each person be convinced, be fully convinced in their own mind of what they're supposed to be doing. Listen, act in accordance with what you know God wants you to do. That's the idea. In other words, only do

Eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. Don't be like, excuse me, this right here. Was this sacrifice to idols? I'm sorry. I can't partake of that. Paul's saying, you don't need to do that. However, if that unbeliever, verse 28, says to you, this has been offered in sacrifice, then do not eat it for the sake of the one who informed you and for the sake of conscience. Paul says, I do not mean your conscience, but his.

Again. Personal convictions are good. Everybody got that? I'm not arguing about it. Personal convictions are good. I have my own personal convictions. And I believe my wife and I are going to stand on those things. I believe that my kids should be homeschooled. We have eight of them. I'm not sure what my wife is thinking.

I'm like, why are you calling me if you're going to cause him to stumble? You can't do that, right? And that's what this is saying. It's also saying if someone, if I go out to dinner with somebody today and they think vegetables or eating meat is a sin and I eat meat in front of them, I might be causing them to stumble in their conviction as well. We need to think about the other person because guess what? It's not about you or me. It's about the other person and about the Lord. When it comes to gray areas, Paul says some of us have convictions. I'm going to tell you when it comes to our convictions, alcohol has destroyed my family. And I've came from that life. And I know that I can't drink because I'm convicted to even think about it. But I can't push my conviction off on you about having a social drink. I can't drink at all. I have to listen to my conviction and I have to follow my co

it is sin for me. Someone else could have the green light to have a social drink and they believe that's okay. It is not sin for them. That's hard to understand, but we have to listen to the convictions of the Spirit of God. And we must follow the convictions of the Holy Spirit. The church is a diverse group of people. I would love to say we're all the same, but guess what? It would be a boring place to come. I like the diversity. I like the difference most of the time. But if we're going to survive and we're going to serve the Lord in unity, we have to overlook these gray areas. We can't judge. We can't despise. We got to accept.

Stand on those convictions because the Lord gave you those convictions. But don't hold other people to those. Maybe you're in here and you see yourself as a strong believer. And when Paul said we, you're like, yeah, that's us. We can do this together. That's incredible. You have been given. You have been given a higher responsibility by the Lord. You have.

And so we believe that and we celebrate that, but then we are not just staying in that. As we've talked about over the last few weeks, this process of sanctification or living out the righteousness of God, living that out in a true and honest way. I preached last week this idea of living out our convictions and understanding that while I feel convicted to live this out and not judging people from their convictions, but I wanted to add, I did not say this as clear as I wish I would have.

Then goes on to say, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Again, at the end of this verse, it gives us this imagery of what the old Testament to see that because of Jesus, we no longer have right. Our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience. Our bodies washed in pure water, pointing back to Levitical law, what they did.