Alba 8-18-2024
HOW TO HAVE A CLEAR CONSCIENCE
I John 3:19-24
In 1960 there was a comic strip called Willie Lumpkin. He was a mailman in the made up small town of Glenville. In one strip, he’s slumped in front of the television set with a coffee cup resting on his pot belly. As he flicks his cigar ashes into his cup, he says to his wife, “You’re awful quiet this morning, Mamie.” And she says in return, “Willie, I’ve decided to let your conscience be your guide on your day off.”
In the next scene, Willie is surrounded by a lawnmower, and an edger, and a hoe, and a shovel. And he’s frantically washing the windows and muttering, “Every time I listen to that dumb thing I end up ruinin’ my relaxin’.”
Conscience. We can all relate. I am sure that each of us have experienced struggles with our conscience. Now conscience can be both good or bad.
Look how the conscience works. There was the time that men brought a woman caught in adultery to Jesus to see what He would do with her. The penalty should be death, so Jesus said that the one who is without sin could cast the first stone. As a result, it says in John 8:9 “Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last.”
It doesn't always work that way because a conscience can be hardened. Paul told Timothy in I Timothy 4:2 that there are some people “having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.” In other words, they have become so polluted in their thinking and actions that their conscience is not bothered by evil anymore. Titus 1:15 says, “To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled.”
On the other side of things, when Paul was taken before the Jewish counsel after being falsely accused and attacked by his enemies, he was able to say in Acts 23:1, “I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.’’ As people in Christ, what we want is to be able to stand before the Lord with a clear conscience. But there are times when we are aware of who we are and what we have done. And it does trouble us, and our conscience bothers us. So the question is: How can we keep a clear conscience?
The apostle John deals with this question in our text for today in I John 3:19-24. The first thing that John tells us is that we can have a clear conscience:
1. When We Are of the Truth
Look at I John 3:18-19 which says, “My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.”
When we are of the truth, that “assures our hearts before Him”. Our conscience is clear. But there is a problem here. It's that most people think that they are in the truth, and that what they believe is the truth. And if anyone disagrees, they are liars. That is certainly true in politics, but it is also true in spiritual matters.
So what does scripture have to say about truth? There are two very specific things it says. First, God's Word is truth. And it says is that Jesus is Truth. Both are important. Because we can believe what scripture says ABOUT Jesus, and that we can, and need, to believe IN Him. That's where we find truth.
But in the context of these verses, there is something else. Verse 19 refers back to verse 18 which says that we are not to “love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” There it is again. John's theme is love. It is when we love the brethren, love one another, which is the evidence that we are in the truth. Because real love comes from God. To be of the truth, we need to be people who know what the love of God is, and show God's love to others in deed and in truth.
A relationship with Jesus, when He is our Lord as well as our Savior, should be seen in the way we treat others. We should not be like a woman who testified to the change in her life that had resulted through her experience in conversion. She declared, “I'm so glad I got religion. I have an uncle I used to hate so much, I vowed I'd never go to his funeral. But now, why, I'd be happy to go to it any time.”
Boy, that's loving – Not! Our love will have integrity only as it is confirmed by the deeds of a true heart. Then we can come before God and receive the assurance that we are of the truth. And we will have a clear conscience when God's love is in us and goes out from us.
But what if we are not sure about our motives? What if we have not always acted in loving ways? What if God knows our failings in so many areas? (By the way, He does.) It is in times like that, as verse 20 says, “our hearts condemn us”. The devil will use that feeling to do his best to bring doubt and confusion into our lives.
What then? What is it, as verse 19 says, will “assure our hearts before Him”? First it will be by the love that we have shown to others. But that is not enough. To have a clear conscience, we need to rely on what God can do and has done. It comes from trusting the Lord for His love and grace. It is then that we can have a clear conscience...
2. When we have confidence toward God
Our confidence comes from knowing that in Christ, our sins are forgiven. Our confidence is not in ourselves, but in the Lord Jesus Christ who took the punishment for our sins on Himself when He went to the cross And in those times when we look at ourselves and our hearts condemn us, remember, God is greater than our hearts.
Verses 20 and 21 says this. “For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.” Ultimately, God knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows all things.
There are times when we really are guilty and our hearts should condemn us. But even then, because of God's great love, we can have hope. The apostle Peter's heart undoubtedly condemned him. He knew he had denied the Lord three times. But God was greater than his heart. Jesus, knowing all things, after His resurrection gave Peter the assurance that was needed.
You see, not only does God know our shortcomings and sins, He also knows our love and our longings. He knows our struggle and our sorrow as we try to live in obedience to Him. God knows how we are made and that gives Him the understanding that leads to His mercy and grace.
A Christian who walks in love with a heart open to God should go into God's presence and ask Him to take away the real guilt, or the false opinion, or the devil's condemnation and clear our conscience so we can serve Him. When we receive forgiveness in Jesus, when God’s opinion of us is foremost in our minds, then we can enjoy a newfound boldness and security in our relationship with God. That's when a Christian can grow in confidence before God.
And look at the promise given in verses 21 and 22. “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.”
This implies that confidence before God means that we receive from God anything we ask. Have you received everything you’ve asked of God? Probably not everything. So what’s the deal? Why don’t we get everything that we ask from God? The reason is because God rules and He has certain criteria for our asking. This verse says that we receive answers to our prayers “because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.”
That shows us another way that we can keep a clear conscience. It is...
3. When we keep His Commandments
Why would we expect God to favor us with answers to our prayers if we disregard, and are continuing to disobey, the things that He has commanded? How was it with you and your parents when you were growing up? How likely were you to get your way if you were being disobedient? I would think that would happen only if you were a very spoiled child. Because that is not the way it usually happens. And that is not the way it happens with God either.
There is no reason why God should do anything good for us. We don't deserve it. Anything we receive from Him is because of His grace. That certainly includes our salvation. But here we see that it also includes our prayers.
There are many promises in scripture that our prayers will be answered. But we are warned against selfish prayers. That is not pleasing in God's sight. In James 4:3 it says, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.”
And you can't fool God by using word games in your prayers. Like a girl who prayed, “Lord, I’m not asking for me, but could you send my mother a son-in-law?” It doesn’t work that way. Or “Lord, I don’t need a new car, but my wife could use one.” It doesn't work that way either.
Sin, selfishness and greed will hinder our prayers because they do not follow the commands of God, and they do not please Him. If you want to know what does please God and will keep your conscience clear, verse 23 gives two very specific commands. It says, “And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.”
There are many people who have a vague belief in a god that is out there somewhere. The culture in our country has long been drifting away from a solid belief in a God who created us, and who sent His Son into this world for our salvation. In fact, a minor reference to God can be acceptable in society. But a direct reference to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord is often seen as divisive. But do you remember that back in chapter two of this letter in verse 23 it says, “Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.”
If love and marriage, and a horse and carriage, go together, it is absolutely, definitely for sure that if you want a relationship with God, you must have faith in Jesus.
What does it mean to believe in Jesus? It is a deep in the heart faith that Jesus is the very Son of God. That He was born of a virgin. That He lived a perfect, sinless life. That He died on the cross because we needed for Him to do it for us.
That He was buried in that grave. That He came out of that grave alive, victorious over death. That He ascended into heaven. And that, according to His promise, He is coming again!
Why should we believe all of that about Jesus? It is because that is the historical record of His life on this earth. It is because God's Word testifies to those facts.
Our faith is not in some nebulous “something” out there, or a step into the unknown. Our faith is in the person of Jesus who came to this world because we are sinners in need of a Savior.
When you know that you have committed yourself to Jesus and received the forgiveness He purchased on Calvary, you will have a conscience that has been cleaned of all the sins in your life. The Lord is able to forgive you and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
Peter, after referring to how Noah and his family, in spite of the flood, were saved by water said in I Peter 3:21, “The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” (KJV)
When we come to Jesus in faith and are baptized into Christ, we come into contact with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So it is, as Hebrews 9:14 says, “the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, (will) cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”
As a result, verse 24 tells us, “Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.”
That means that when we are in Christ, we have the indwelling of His Spirit who helps us to keep a clear conscience as we keep His commandments of faith and love. That's how it works.
CLOSE:
Sherman Nichols, who was the minister at Villa Heights Christian Church in Joplin, told about an experience he had when he was young. He said:
“My dad had a ‘76 Honda Accord. One day, the "service engine" light came on. He said, "Here, I’ll show you how we fix that." And he pushed the key into a slot right below it that reset it.
Sherm said, “The light went off, but I'm not sure that was the point of it being there in the first place!”
We have a conscience that can be like a light going off that says something is wrong. Don't turn it off. Allow it to bring you closer to the Lord.
Like a mechanic who fixes the problem with your car, the Lord is the one who can clear your conscience and take care of the problem of sin in your life.
