October 1st, 2000, Sunday Evening

"Conscience and Convictions of a Christian III"
A continuation of Conscience and Convictions - True examples of

OPENING: Acts 24:16, KJV

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• It is to our shame when one without the truth (a book or some evidence) is more motivated and sure of their beliefs to go out and preach them and church members, who have the truth, cannot or will not (i.e. Jehovah's witness door-knocking).
  
  
• Is it to our shame when the church has to ask and recruit members to perform basic services because church members do not volunteer (i.e. monthly church cleaning).
  
  
• Convictions set our conscience to separate ourselves from certain people and things of this world
  
  
• As mentioned before, it bears repeating that there are things worth dying for and killing for in this world.\
  
  
• What will give us a Godly conscience?
  
  
  • 1 Timothy 1:5
  • Revelation 2:10
  • Jude 3 - faith
  
  
• HOW to acquire a Godly conscience
  
  
  • To have a good conscience toward God is to not do things that go against God's word.
    
    
  • Exodus 14:27-30: While we were not actually in Egypt when God delivered the Israelites, we are symbolically there--in sin's bondage waiting and praying for God's deliverance.
    
    
  • Daniel 3:15-26: TRUE STORY: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednigo would not worship the idol created by the king; Even upon being threatened with being thrown in a fiery furnace, the three said even if God would or would not deliver them, they would not bow. This shows true faith and trust--a Godly conscience.
    
    
  • While God's name is taken so lightly today, people don't realize how sacred and important the name of the Lord is. Be very careful when uttering the name of the Lord.
    
    
  • Acts 24:16: A Godly conscience is one that is void in offense toward God (and man).
    
    
  • Two items to note in worship to God:
    
    
    • Faith
    • Behavior
    
    
  • Romans 14:22: The worship singing (church music) should come from the heart--not empty or just from the mouth. And when you really mean something, you will "sing from the heart."
    
    
  • You can worship and sing and pray and home ... but in order to perform public worship (which is demanded), you must come to church.
    
    
    • Hebrews 10:25: This verse orders us to gather together at church--"the assembling of ourselves together..."
      
      
    • The First Commandment, thou shalt have no other Gods before me, shouldn't be taken literally. "Gods", in this context, can mean Sunday morning family picnics, hunting, fishing, football, etc.
  
  
• Precepts and principals of God--some of the Ten Commandments
  
  
  • Newly saved but weak in the faith, many don't or for months/years after being saved. If you're saved, you should want others to be saved, too!
    
    
  • Exodus 20:12 and Ephesians 6:1: Honor your father and mother even when they are wrong. To love and honor your parents is a conviction. (This includes respecting your elders.) How dare anyone scoff their mother--a woman who risked death and pain to bring life into the world
    
    
  • Exodus 20:13: Anti-capital punishment activists say we cannot use capital punishment because "thou shalt not kill." However, when you expand this directive, it means you should not kill without reason. Why would God say thou shalt not kill when He also said "for the wages of sin is death"? Sin is the cause--therefore death is justified.
    
    
  • Exodus 20:14 and 1 Corinthians 6:9: This is a conviction--to stick to the wife that is yours and no other for your wife.
    
    
    • TRUE STORY: In Genesis 39:7-20, Joseph is the servant of a master whose wife wants to "lie" with Joseph. Joseph refused, so she yelled RAPE and Joseph was thrown in prison. We learn from this that Joseph had conviction and incidentally, further into the story, the Lord was with Joseph and this had to come to pass in order for Joseph to become Pharaoh's appointed second-in-command
    
    
  • Exodus 20:15 and Ephesians 4:28: Put away stealing. There's no such thing as "no one's looking" because God is always looking. For the private life of a Christian defines his/her character.
    
    
  • Galatians 5:19-21: Outlines every "works of the flesh". Note that adultery and fornication are at the top of the list, by the way.
    
    
    • People think playing with zodiacs, psychics, dabbling in witchcraft, Ouija boards, necromancers, etc. is harmless. But the devil waits for people to knock on his door in this manner and you will be found and caught into it--searing your conscience.
      
      
    • Leviticus 18:22: A man is to be with a woman and a woman to a man, not man to man or woman to woman.
  
  CLOSER

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• Your convictions should be biblical; above your country and your heritage.
  
  
• In order to betray Jesus Christ to the cross, man got together to look for someone on the inside. Judas, one of the disciples, was a known thief, and he betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver which later he did not want. Some things are worth dying for, while other things to die for are not worth a dime.