Tonight I'm going to do a little bit
of teaching rather than preaching, but I'm going
to take it easy.
This is my first time speaking since coming
out of hospital in February.
I had a problem with my heart.
Of course, I'm seventy-four now, so I'm
thankful to the Lord that he's given me
the extra years and I just hope that
he'll give me more to do some more
work for him.
The other day, I'm living out in Ventura
County now, the other day a rocket blew
up at Vandenberg.
I understand it was supposed to put a
satellite into orbit.
This is such a young congregation here.
I'm sure you don't remember the first satellite
that was put up.
You'd have to be maybe over forty years
of age.
It was about thirty years ago, the Russians
put up a satellite called Sputnik.
The word Sputnik means accompanying one, one that
goes along.
I was in Australia at the time, and
I saw that satellite.
Some people look at me blankly, you've seen
a satellite?
Oh yes, I've seen a satellite.
You've seen those big dishes, you know, that
pick up the broadcast television from a satellite.
But when the first Sputnik was put up,
we were all watching the sky, and we
could see that little dot of light going
across the sky.
I was in a bus in Adelaide, Australia,
and an Australian lady said, oh by the
way, I forgot to say, the first satellite
that we saw was one that carried a
dog called Laika.
Let's see, is there anyone old enough to
remember that here?
You remember the dog called Laika that was
in the sky?
All the Australians were talking about that little
satellite with the dog up there.
One lady said to me in the bus,
you wouldn't catch me riding in a Sputnik,
I'm just terrified of dogs.
Well, we've got so many satellites today, the
sky is full of them, that we forget
the very original one, the moon.
The moon is the satellite of the earth.
The moon is the earth's Sputnik, the accompanying
one.
Now, it comes as a great surprise to
all my audience when I tell them that
every human being has his own satellite.
A student at UCLA said to me, we
have two cars in the garage, we've got
television in the front room and in the
den, but we don't have a helicopter on
the roof yet, and I doubt if we'll
ever have our own satellite.
But I insist, every human being has his
own satellite.
Now, of course, you want me to explain
that.
In the New Testament, there is the word
sunaidesis.
Now, I don't expect you working people to
have learned New Testament Greek.
It's a New Testament Greek word, sunaidesis, accompanying
knowledge.
The Latin is more familiar, and those of
you who speak Spanish will jump to it
right away.
The Latin word for sunaidesis is consciencia.
So now I think you've got it.
It's the word conscience, con, accompanying, science, knowledge,
conscience.
Maybe you never thought of that.
Every human being has a conscience.
Well, let's see, is there anyone here who
doesn't have a conscience?
Even the Mafia have a conscience.
There are certain things they will not do
because their conscience won't let them do it.
They don't mind shooting somebody in the back
and wrapping them up in concrete and dropping
them in a river.
Their conscience doesn't bother them about that, but
they must not make a pass at the
boss's wife.
No, no, they mustn't do that.
Now I think you'll agree with me, every
human being has a conscience.
The word conscience occurs many times in the
New Testament.
This is good Bible teaching.
I asked a Jewish rabbi, what's the Hebrew
word for conscience?
He said, we don't have one.
I said, you don't mean that Jews don't
have a conscience?
Oh, he said, we use a different word.
We use a word, sometimes it's translated heart,
and sometimes it's translated mind.
But he said the Greeks had a special
word for it, and they used that word,
sunaidesis, accompanying knowledge.
Now, while you're thinking about this, I'm going
to ask some questions.
A man puts his shoes on his feet,
he puts his watch on his wrist, where
do you keep your conscience?
You say you've got a conscience, where do
you keep it?
Now, somebody said to me, well, it's part
of my mind.
Would you say it's part of intellect?
Would you say that a professor at a
university has a better conscience than the janitor
of the classroom?
No.
It's not part of intellect.
Then is it part of the will?
Would you say that a man with a
strong will has a better conscience than a
man with a weak will?
The answer is no.
Hitler had a strong will, but a miserable
conscience.
Churchill had a strong will, but a pretty
good conscience.
Well, it's not part of your will, then,
then is it part of your emotion, your
feelings?
Would you say that a person with a
warm heart has a better conscience than a
person with a cool head?
Now the warmest hearted people in the world
are the Brazilians.
Does anyone here from Brazil?
Ah, como vai?
They're the warmest hearted people.
After a meeting in Brazil, they not only
shake hands with you, but they give you
a big hug.
They call it the abraço.
If they like what you said very much,
they kiss you on both cheeks.
If they're very pleased, they lift you off
your feet, set you down again.
Now it's not like that in Scotland.
A professor at the University of Edinburgh said
to me, well, Mr. Orr, we're not averse
to having you in Scotland.
That was as much as he could say
without blowing a fuse.
The Scotch people don't show their feelings.
But now on the other hand, I'd rather
leave my suitcase in a bus station in
Scotland than in Brazil.
Because there's some down there, they might kiss
you on both cheeks while they're taking your
suitcase.
So you see, conscience is not part of
the intellect, not part of the will, not
part of the emotion.
Do you think that a student who gets
straight A in every subject has a better
conscience than a poor guy who has to
work hard to get a C average?
The answer is no.
As far as will is concerned, I read
a little item in the papers, I wonder
if you've ever done it, called Peanuts.
Little Lucy Van Pelt held up her fingers
to Charlie Brown, she said, Charlie Brown, these
five fingers don't mean very much by themselves,
but combined into a fist they're going to
make you do what I want you to
do.
Now which would you say had the stronger
will?
Lucy.
Charlie.
Which do you think has the better conscience?
Charlie.
So you see, conscience is not part of
your will, nor is it part of your
emotion.
You may be a very warm-hearted person,
but that doesn't mean you've got a good
conscience.
You can be warm-hearted and have a
good conscience, you can be cool-headed and
have a good conscience too.
So you see, conscience is not part of
the intellect, not part of the will, not
part of the emotion, yet it's yours.
We lived about a mile from UCLA, we've
moved since, and the university notified the neighbours
that they'd very much appreciate if we would
invite foreign students to Thanksgiving dinner.
Now the American Thanksgiving is one of the
most wholesome festivals in the world, it's a
great family occasion, but the trouble is all
the American students take off for home and
leave the foreign students there.
So the university thought it'd be nice if
the neighbours in Westwood would invite them.
We invited six.
They all came except the Hindu from India.
After all the preparation my wife went through,
she was a little peeved, well he might
have telephoned that he wasn't coming, as he
was too embarrassed.
Well what is there to be embarrassed about
Thanksgiving dinner?
As if he were a conscientious Hindu, he
would not come to Thanksgiving.
You see, Hindus have been taught a doctrine
called the transmigration of souls.
Not merely reincarnation, which is such a fad
nowadays, but reincarnation into lower animal forms.
In other words, if you behave yourself, maybe
next time around you'll be born a princess
or a millionaire.
But if you don't behave yourself, maybe you'll
come back next time as a cockroach, and
somebody will tramp on you.
So you better behave yourself, that's their religion.
No Hindu would come to Thanksgiving dinner if
he believed that doctrine, why if he were
to eat turkey, that might be his grandmother.
He would never do a thing like that.
So what you think will affect your conscience.
In other words, conscience is not part of
your thinking, but what you think will affect
your conscience.
What you will will affect your conscience.
A man may say, I'm going to make
a million dollars and I don't care how
I do it, he becomes a rogue.
What you will will affect your conscience.
Some student may say, I'm going to get
through this course, don't care how I do
it, he becomes a cheat.
And even emotion will affect conscience.
When I was a chaplain in the Air
Force, World War II, a girl came to
me and said, I can't help my feelings,
I love the guy.
I said to her, you have no business
loving the guy.
When you first dated him, you knew full
well that he had a wife and four
children at home.
Now you want me to persuade her to
give him a divorce so that you can
go through a form of marriage.
I don't know what will happen a year
from now.
Maybe you'll find somebody else when you go
overseas.
But her feelings twisted her conscience.
So there's an interesting thing.
Conscience is not part of the intellect, not
part of the will, not part of the
emotion.
Yet it's affected by intellect and will and
emotion.
Just as the moon is not part of
the earth.
Yet the moon belongs to the earth.
It doesn't belong to Jupiter or Mars.
It's the earth's satellite.
So that's what I'm saying.
The best way I can describe it is
that you have a conscience that acts like
a satellite.
And as I said, the New Testament words
are words to my thesis.
Now I hope I'm not going too fast
for you.
I want you to follow up what I'm
saying, because I'm going to ask some other
questions.
I've asked you where do you keep your
conscience.
Well, it's not in your mind, it's not
in your will, it's not in your emotion,
but it's yours.
Your conscience doesn't tell your neighbor what to
do.
You couldn't go along to someone and say,
my conscience won't let you do that.
No, your conscience won't let you do that,
but your conscience won't affect somebody else.
Now, the next question I'm going to ask
is this.
Is your conscience your friend or your enemy?
I'm going to give you a verse of
scripture, Romans 2.15, I'll quote it anyway.
Their conscience will either accuse or excuse them.
It either accuses or defends one or the
other.
In other words, your conscience can be your
friend, but it can also be your enemy.
Now, is conscience your friend?
I was having breakfast one morning in a
pancake house in Tempe, Arizona.
I noticed when I stepped out onto the
sidewalk, the first thing I noticed was it
was about 118.
Arizona is hot in the summer.
But the second thing I noticed was the
girl had given me too much money in
my change.
In fact, 50 cents too much.
Now my first inclination was, well, not often
that happens.
That will make up for other times that
I get it the other way.
But then my conscience said, no, no.
So I went back into the pancake house.
I looked the girl straight in the eye,
and I said, you gave me the wrong
change.
The temperature dropped a couple of degrees.
She said, did I?
I said, yes, you did.
She said, can you prove that?
I said, yes.
You gave me 50 cents too much, and
I handed her two quarters.
The temperature went up again.
She said, oh, thank you, sir.
Thank you very much, sir.
And as I went, I said, God bless
you, she shouted.
I had made her day.
But when I got out again, my conscience
said, good for you.
My conscience was my friend.
And when you do what you know to
be right, especially when it's at some cost
to yourself, your conscience will pat you on
the back.
Your conscience will say, good for you.
But can your conscience be your enemy?
Let me give you this verse of scripture,
2 Corinthians 1.12. If you want to
jot it down, do so.
Our boast is this.
The testimony of our conscience that we have
behaved in this world with godly sincerity.
In other words, if you behave with godly
sincerity, your conscience is your friend.
But can your conscience ever be your enemy?
Surely you know the story from the New
Testament of the woman who was taken and
sinned.
The Pharisees dragged her before the Lord.
They said she was caught in the act.
There's no question about it.
Now the law says she should be stoned
to death.
What do you say?
I'll say quite frankly, I don't like that
double standard.
In other words, if somebody's going to penalize
a prostitute, they ought to penalize her customers
as well.
That's the way I feel about it.
I don't think the Lord liked this either.
He didn't answer then.
He stooped and wrote on the ground.
Has it ever occurred to you, do you
ever wonder what he wrote?
I always thought he sort of, you know,
doodled with his finger in the dust.
Then one day it struck me, when the
devil tempted the Lord, the Lord replied, it
is written.
And he quoted scripture.
And the thought struck me, maybe the Lord
wrote scripture on the ground.
That left me with the big question, what
scripture?
I think I found it.
It's Hosea 4.14. I will not punish
your daughters when they play the prostitute, nor
your wives when they commit adultery, for you
men are doing the same thing.
Now it says that, you may find different
in different versions, but that's the gist of
it here.
When your daughters play the harlot, your brides
commit adultery, for the men go aside with
harlots, and they sacrifice with cult prostitutes.
Now what happened?
Could you imagine those Pharisees looking over his
shoulder to see what he was writing on
the ground?
Then he stood up and said, whoever is
without sin among you, let him cast the
first stone.
What does the scripture say?
It was just as if the Lord had
summoned a hundred hornets and had said, sting
these men.
They were so busy beating off the stings
of their own conscience, they had no time
to bother the woman anymore, and it says,
being convicted of their own conscience, they went
out one by one.
Conscience had become their enemy.
And when you do what you know to
be wrong, your conscience takes sides against you.
Now how do you account for the independence
of your conscience?
I knew a fellow in California who was
a determined Democrat, but his wife was a
registered Republican, and this bothered him.
Every time we go to the polls, we
cancel each other out.
I said to him, you can't help it,
she's yours, but she's not you.
And this never struck you before, your conscience
is yours, but it's not you.
It takes sides against you.
On the other hand, when you do right,
it pats you on the back.
How do you account for the independence of
your conscience?
That's why I say, and don't you think
maybe it's the best illustration, your conscience is
like a kind of satellite.
Now don't take me too literally, I don't
mean that it's running around your head, or
anything like that.
But it's like a Sputnik, an accompanying one.
That's what the Greek says, sunitis, an accompanying
knowledge.
God gives every human being an accompanying knowledge.
Could I ask you some more questions?
What do you think is the business of
conscience?
In a meeting not too long ago, I
asked the question, does anyone know a verse
of scripture about conscience?
A man shot up his head and hand,
I said yes, he said, let your conscience
be your guide.
That's not in the scripture.
But somebody else said to me, well, your
conscience tells you right from wrong.
Does it?
Always?
The scripture doesn't teach that.
The scripture speaks of a pure conscience, it
also speaks of a rotten conscience.
You see, if conscience is your guide, if
it's fixed, why don't the people next door
to you have the same kind of conscience
that you have?
You know, sometimes people say, those people next
door, they would do anything, you know, somebody
across the street or something like that, they
don't seem to have any conscience about that.
Why don't you have an identical conscience with
the non-Christians across the street?
Well, you can't say, let your conscience be
your guide, because conscience can be changed.
But what's the business of conscience?
What does conscience do?
Now, if you're looking for a street address,
and you turn right instead of left, will
your conscience tell you?
No.
Conscience doesn't mind if you wander all over
Covina.
If you turn south off the freeway instead
of turning north, conscience never says a word.
Well now, if you're learning French, and you
have difficulty with the irregular verbs, will your
conscience help you?
No.
If you're playing chess, and you make a
wrong move, will your conscience tell you?
No.
Will your conscience help you with a mathematical
problem?
Yes.
But only if it's your income tax return.
You can add up your check stubs all
wrong, your conscience won't bother you, you can
look at it, how does the bank get
this and how do I get that?
Your conscience doesn't help you.
But make a mistake in your own favor
on your income tax return.
Only two parties will criticize you, one's your
conscience, the other's the IRS.
Now why doesn't conscience help people find street
addresses, or learn French, or play chess, or
add up their check stubs?
It's not the business of conscience.
Supposing some young fellow here takes his girl
out on a date, and she refuses to
kiss him goodnight.
Not much good calling the police.
In fact, you try it, and the police
will get very annoyed with you.
They say, attend to your own business.
Waste my time.
The police have got enough of a job
to prevent crime without trying to help young
fellows persuade their girlfriends to kiss them goodnight.
You see, conscience is not concerned with these
things.
Conscience is concerned only with the moral law.
You say, now what do you mean the
moral law?
Well, take the social commandments in the Ten
Commandments.
Thou shalt not commit murder, thou shalt not
steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou
shalt not commit adultery.
Conscience goes to work on those only.
There was a very famous German philosopher, Immanuel
Kant, he was not a Christian, but he
made a very wise statement, he said, the
test of morality is its universal application.
In other words, it should apply everywhere.
When you go to university here, or even
in high school, they teach you a kind
of relativity.
They say, it may be wrong for us,
but it's okay for them.
Like, for example, cannibalism is wrong in Canada.
It's still practiced in some obscure parts of
the world.
You can't say it's wrong in Canada, but
it's okay for them.
I don't know if anyone here has ever
met a cannibal.
I was on patrol in New Guinea, in
a jungle so dense I didn't see the
sky for about three days, just like walking
under the roof of a cathedral, big trees
interlaced.
You can imagine, you've seen pictures sometimes of
things like that.
It was so dense that I couldn't see
the man in front of the man in
front of me.
I just had to follow the man in
front of me, who was a Dutchman, and
in front of him was an Indonesian, and
in front of him was a Papuan.
We had five savage Papuan bearers, wild men,
that we picked up as guides.
So I asked the Dutchman in English, ask
the chief why are they called cannibals.
This was translated by the Dutchman from English
into Dutch, from Dutch into Indonesian, from Indonesian
to Papuan, and traveled all the way up
the line.
It took some time coming back.
Finally the Dutchman said to me, the chief
says, call cannibals because we eat people.
I said, but not now, I mean, he
means his grandparents ate people.
That went all up the line, down again.
He said, the chief said he ate a
Japanese officer five weeks ago.
I meditated for a while, then I said,
ask him, do they ever eat any Americans
or Australians?
The answer came back, never eat any Americans,
we'd rather have Spam.
That night I took inventory, and with enough
Spam to last about 15 days, so I
slept that night.
Yes, but you can't say that's okay for
them.
You see, what about the poor guy who
is being eaten, does he have any say
in the matter?
It must be wrong everywhere.
Sometimes it's called situation ethics, as if it
changes according to your situation.
There are certain absolutes.
That's one of the biggest fights we have
as Christians against the rest of the world.
We believe there are certain absolutes.
The scripture says, thou shalt not commit murder,
thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear
false witness, thou shalt not commit adultery.
You see, as far as murder is concerned,
I remember when I was in the Philippines,
I found there were four times as many
murders per head of population as in the
United States.
But before we congratulate ourselves, I should point
out there are twice as many murders in
Houston, Texas, as in England, Scotland and Wales,
put together, with 50 million populations.
So although there are different attitudes in different
countries, murder is always wrong.
You check up for it yourself.
Is there anyone here who would like to
be murdered?
No.
That's basic morality.
It's wrong to murder.
It's wrong to steal.
I was traveling in India when some train
robbers from Bengal robbed the passengers.
But there was another gang of train robbers,
Gujaratis, and they were furious with these other
men.
They said it was their train, and they
robbed the Bengalis of the loot, and they
were angry in the big fight.
A lot of people don't mind stealing, but
they hate to be stolen from.
Have you ever met the sort of person
who will tell you a lie without blinking?
I've met that sort of person, but they
hate to be deceived themselves.
Now most kids in college and high school
say, that makes sense.
But they want to argue about thou shalt
not commit adultery.
They say, with the modern knowledge of sex,
it's a new ball game today, and the
rules have changed.
No, no.
The rules haven't changed.
Now how could I deal with this subject
tastefully in a Sunday evening service?
Well a man said to me in university,
we're talking about polygamy, and he said, it's
OK for them, meaning some other people, but
it's wrong for us.
I said, but how could you say it's
OK for them and wrong for us?
Now I've travelled in Afghanistan.
Not many people have travelled there, but I've
travelled in Afghanistan, and in Afghanistan the law
says a man may have four wives, but
the Prophet Muhammad also said, he must love
them equally, and he must be able to
afford it.
That would disqualify me in both counts.
But supposing 25% of the men in
Afghanistan had four wives each.
That would use up 100% of the
eligible females in Afghanistan.
What would the other 75% do?
Would they apply to United Nations for aid?
No, it doesn't make sense.
Mathematics disapproves of polygamy.
Just pure mathematics.
You might say, well now couldn't there be
times, oh yes, in Germany, after the Thirty
Years War, there was a Thirty Years War
in Germany in which nine out of every
ten men were killed.
So some of the German states allowed polygamy,
but only for one generation.
Why?
Because even in polygamous families, there's an equal
number of boy babies and girl babies.
And you're back to the old proposition again.
There are 101 boys born for every 99
girls in every civilization.
101, a little more for boys, but more
boy babies die in the first two years.
And more old men die than old ladies.
Go to any old people's home and you
see more old ladies than old men.
After all, face it men, we are the
weaker sex.
But because God made us that way, with
equal numbers of boy babies and girl babies,
monogamy is the answer.
One man for one woman.
And adultery is wrong.
So conscience goes to work on these things.
Now, I did give you some verses of
scripture, but I want to give you some
more.
I said to you that conscience is not
fixed.
A lot of people seem to think that
conscience is something that you can't change.
Conscience is not fixed.
The Bible speaks of a clear conscience, an
obedient conscience, a mistaken conscience, a fussy conscience,
a weak conscience, a seared conscience, a corrupt
conscience.
All the way from pure to rotten.
So how could you let your conscience be
your guide?
What kind of a conscience do you think
this fellow Ramirez has?
Well, he's got a conscience, but it's not
like Jim Sheets' conscience, is it?
How can you say that conscience is fixed?
The Apostle Paul said, I've tried to behave
with a clear conscience towards God and man.
Your conscience can be clear.
In fact, you are born with a clear
conscience.
That's Acts 24.16. If you want to
jot down the verse, look them up afterwards,
it's Acts 24.16, if you want to
jot it down.
But in Romans 13, it speaks about an
obedient conscience.
It says, not for the sake of avoiding
punishment only, but also for conscience' sake.
Supposing you go to pick up some dry
cleaning, and you can't find parking, so you
drive around the block.
You hope somebody will have moved by the
time you get around again, but nobody has
moved, so you go around the block again.
Nobody has moved.
You go around the block the third time.
Then you think, well, I've only got to
pick it up and run away with it.
Maybe I could get away with double parking.
Before you double park, what do you do?
You look this way, and you look that
way.
Why?
If there's a cop or a meter maid
coming by, you decide to drive around the
block again.
Why?
Because you're afraid of being punished.
This verse says, don't do it only for
the sake of avoiding punishment, but do it
because it's right.
I can't help but say this, but I
have seen a man parked on the Anya
Gabao in Sao Paulo, with four lines of
cars parked outside him, blowing his horn for
an hour and a half, trying to get
out.
It's a dangerous thing.
It could cause bad accidents.
So don't double park for conscience sake.
In other words, be obedient to your conscience.
You can have a mistaken conscience.
The Apostle Paul says, this is Acts 23
.1, I have lived in all good conscience
to this day.
You say, that's since his conversion.
Oh no, before he became a conscientious Christian,
he was a conscientious Jew.
Yet he was responsible for the murder of
Stephen.
He said, I'll take responsibility.
He held her close while they stoned him
to death.
But he was conscientious.
He thought that the man had committed blasphemy.
So the Apostle Paul made a mistake.
I was speaking to a girl who told
me, my teacher in high school is a
committed Christian.
But she said, she accused me of smoking
between classes.
She said, I don't smoke.
She said, some of the other girls in
the girls room were smoking.
But when I tried to explain, she said,
don't say another word, I can smell it
on your clothes.
Now that teacher was conscientious, but quite mistaken.
Therefore, it behooves you always to ask questions
before you pass a judgment.
Have you ever talked to the sort of
person that says, I don't want to hear
another word?
Not another word!
Well, when they say that, you don't get
a chance to explain.
And you can make a mistake, even conscientiously.
You can have a fussy conscience, if eating
meat causes my brother to offend, I will
not eat meat.
Well, that's not our problem today.
Our problem today is the cost of the
thing.
But in those days it was a problem.
Well, what's the problem today?
If drinking a cocktail may set some boy
off on the road to alcoholism, then I
won't touch the stuff.
I'm happy to say that I've been a
total abstainer all my life.
Therefore, I'm glad to do that.
But some people can be too fussy.
I was speaking at a conference overseas.
I spoke on the movement of revival in
Brazil.
I spoke on the Billy Graham crusades.
I spoke on encouraging things.
Then I said, any questions?
A fellow raised his hand, he said, is
it true that Mrs. Billy Graham uses lipstick?
So I said, yes, it's true.
Is she a Christian?
I said, a very good Christian.
But you just said she uses lipstick.
I said, so I did.
Then how could she be a Christian?
She became a Christian by putting her trust
in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was getting angry.
He said, what's your attitude to cosmetics?
I said, I never use them.
But he kept on after me.
Finally another man hit him with his elbow
and said, would you leave Billy Graham alone?
Don't you remember that John Wesley had a
bad wife, too?
I told Billy and Ruth this up in
their home in Montreat.
I often visited them there.
And they laughed heartily.
Well, it's not a fussy conscience, somebody fussing,
well, you might say, what is your attitude?
Well, I have a wife, a daughter, a
granddaughter, and my attitude would be if they
want to use beauty aids to make them
look what they should look like.
I don't mind.
But I don't like to see a woman
paint her face like the back of a
bus.
But it's not a matter of conscience with
me, you understand?
It'd be too fussy.
You might find it rather hard to believe
that maybe thirty years ago you ladies wouldn't
have dared come to church without a hat,
but very seldom do you see a lady
without a hat in church.
Generally when you do, she'd come from the
East somewhere.
Things do change, but those are not matters
of conscience.
At least you'd be too fussy about them.
You can have a weak conscience, I've mentioned
that already.
But it says you can have a seared
conscience, that's an old Anglo-Saxon word for
burned, a burned conscience.
It says there are consciences, 1 Timothy 4
.2, there are consciences that are seared.
Supposing one of you ladies puts on the
iron to do a little bit of ironing,
then the phone rings.
And after a short feminine conversation of fifty
-five minutes, you come back to the iron
and you've forgotten whether it's on or off,
the little red light's not working, so you
take your finger and you wet it and
you put it on the iron.
Was it hot?
It was hot.
You feel it.
But the funny thing is, next day you
can't feel anything with that finger.
You can put that finger on the point
of a pin, you don't feel it.
It's seared, the nerve endings are burned.
Sometimes they renew themselves, but in a bad
burn, they're never renewed.
Well this verse really means this, if you
keep doing what you know you shouldn't do,
you lose all feeling in your conscience.
You can do, now just think for a
moment, is there anything I do now that
I didn't used to do?
Now, it may be you're better educated today,
for instance at one time I didn't believe
in tithing until I found scripture for it.
You see what I mean?
But on the other hand, sometimes people compromise,
and if they keep on doing it, they
lose all feeling.
But surely the worst warning of all is
in Paul's word to Titus, Titus 115, unto
the pure all things are pure, but to
the impure and unbelieving nothing is pure.
Their very minds and consciences are defiled.
Sometimes it says corrupt.
Their very minds, they can't think straight anymore,
and their consciences are corrupt.
Their conscience lets them do terrible things.
That's the only way I can account for
the wickedness that we have to put up
with today.
These people don't want to listen to the
voice of God.
They keep on doing what they know they
shouldn't do, and finally they make excuses for
it.
Imagine for instance, there's a magazine circulating in
the United States, to teach people how to
seduce little children.
Do those people have a conscience?
Well, they've kept on doing wicked things for
so long, they can't think straight anymore.
Their minds and their consciences are corrupt.
Now if you can have a clear conscience,
and if you can have a corrupt conscience,
how can you say, let conscience be your
guide?
You have to check your conscience.
I find in Hebrews chapter 9, verse 9,
it says, gifts and sacrifices repeatedly offered cannot
cleanse the conscience of the worshipper.
Sometimes it says, cannot perfect the conscience of
the worshipper.
What does that mean?
You can join the Boy Scouts and do
a good turn every day, but it won't
clean your conscience.
You can support the Red Cross and build
a hospital in Bangladesh, but it won't clean
your conscience.
You can join a church and give admissions,
but it won't clean your conscience.
Why?
Because doing right doesn't make up for doing
wrong.
If you want to put that to the
test, go to the chief of police and
say, I'd like to murder my wife.
Would it be all right if I built
a hospital in Bangladesh first?
He would say, certainly not.
And if after you murder your wife, if
you went down to Bolivia and built a
clinic, you still have to stand charges of
murder.
A lot of people seem to think, as
long as I do a few good things,
that will make up for the other things.
No, no.
It also says in chapter 9, verse 14,
how much more shall the blood of Christ
purify your conscience from dead works?
You might say, how can the blood of
Christ, shed nearly 2000 years ago, clean my
conscience?
That's part of the mystery of the atonement.
Christ died for us, and through his atoning
death we may be forgiven.
I bought a watch that had a seconds
hand, a minute hand, an hour hand, and
an alarm.
It got very dirty in India, there was
a lot of dust in the air at
certain seasons, and the watch stopped.
So I didn't want to give it to
any watchmaker.
He might have taken the good works out
and put some poor ones in instead.
So I enquired very carefully, who was the
manufacturer.
They said, well, it's Omega, and they've got
an agency in Calcutta.
So I took my watch there.
And when I got my watch back, I
said, is it running okay now?
The man said, better than new.
I said, how could it be better than
new?
Well, he said, we've cleaned it, and we've
checked it, and it is better than new.
In other words, they had it all checked
up.
If we confess our sins, he's faithful and
just to forgive us our sins, that's not
the end of the promise, and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness.
If you'll just humble yourself to confess your
sins, God will give you a spring cleaning
as well.
Now, I have one other question to ask,
and that is, is conscience the Holy Spirit?
The answer is no.
Conscience can make mistakes.
The Holy Spirit never makes a mistake.
Conscience can be corrupted.
The Holy Spirit can never be corrupted.
Conscience can be fussy.
He's not fussy.
But the Holy Spirit uses conscience.
In fact, when people get so wicked that
they burn their conscience and can't feel anymore,
he breaks right through and convicts them of
sin.
It says, when he is come, who said
this?
The Lord Jesus himself.
When he is come, he will convince the
world of sin.
Have you ever tried to convince anyone of
sin?
You stop some man in the street and
try to convince him of sin, he'll tell
you where to go.
It's hard to convince people of sin.
He'll turn around and say, I'm not a
hypocrite like a bunch of hypocrites in your
church wherever you go.
No, it's hard to convince people of sin,
but the Holy Spirit knows everything.
Like, for instance, you might say something to
a man like that, are you sure things
are all right in your life, and he
might swear at you, but the Holy Spirit
would shut him up by saying, what about
the money you embezzled last year?
What about the time you cheated?
The Holy Spirit knows everything.
It's the Holy Spirit who convinces of sin.
He will convince the world of sin.
He will lead you into all truth, as
believers.
He will glorify me.
He glorifies Jesus Christ.
So all we need to do is to
turn to God, and ask the Holy Spirit,
search me, O God, and know my heart,
try me and know my thoughts, see if
there will be any wicked way in me,
then lead me in the way everlasting.
He'll do it.
And he'll straighten your conscience out fast.
Let's see, do any of you know that
hymn, Search me, O God, and know my
heart today?
Some of you do.
I don't know whether to ask our guitarist
to play it for you.
You don't have a hymn book there, so
I wrote that hymn in 1936 in New
Zealand, 50 years ago this month.
And it's in most of the hymn books
now.
But I'm not a singer, but I don't
know if we could manage to sing it.
I think we could start.
Let's try it, those of us who know
it.
Search me, O God, and know my heart
today.
Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts, I
pray.
See if there be some wicked
way in me.
Cleanse me from every sin and set me
free.
That's in quite a number of languages.