Hebrews 13:18, contains a thought that is very basic, but it is so needful: Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.

Much is said in the Word of God about you and me, as individuals, having and preserving a good conscience. Therefore, it behooves us to give much attention to this subject, especially in view of the day in which we are living. I do not say how else to express it but to say it is a conscienceless day. You hear over and over, "How could they do what they do and not feel anything?" We are living in a day and time when the devil has done a great work on the conscience of men and women.

What is the conscience? Conscience is that faculty of the soul (the inner being), that enables us to perceive our conduct in reference to right or wrong. It is something that God has placed in every individual.

Conscience, Biblically-speaking, is a moral sense corresponding to and going far beyond the physical faculties whereby we commune with the outer world. We have five senses with which we commune with the outer world: sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. Conscience corresponds to this, only it goes far beyond it. It is higher in its perception than any bodily sense. Conscience bears witness with our thoughts, our affections, our actions and weighs each one of them.

Conscience bears witness of our emotions. I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. Romans 9:1,2. Paul lets us know there that his conscience bore witness right along with all the other feelings that he had.

In Ecclesiastes 7:21,22, the wise man tells us how conscience will revert down inside of us: Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken; lest thou hear thy servant curse thee: For oftentimes also thine own heart knoweth that thou thyself likewise hast cursed others. People get excited today about that which is done outwardly. They think it is a terrible thing for people to take God's name in vain. The wise man said that if you would be true to your own conscience, you know that down inside you have cursed people. It may never have come out of your mouth, but right down inside, the words were fabricated.

Conscience is the voice that is heard secretly, acquainting us with the right or wrong of things. Conscience exists in all men, including the unregenerated. Every man and every woman has a conscience, unless he or she was born with severe mental deficiencies. God has been fair. He fashioned the hearts of mankind all alike. When you get into the depths of it, you cannot find much difference in the Word of God between the "heart" and the "conscience".

In speaking of the brethren, Paul wrote, 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--(these were not under the law of Moses)--Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another. Romans 2:14,15. The law was written in the heart and the conscience bore witness to the fact that it was written in the heart. God has written the law of what is right or wrong even in the heart of the heathen that does not know anything about Him, Paul said.

Wicked men try to stifle the inward chidings of conscience, but it is very rare if one is ever fully successful in shutting off the voice of conscience. Even though unregenerate men are without faith, they are not without fear. Much that medical science calls "shock" when someone has been in a bad accident is actually fear of what he is facing. It makes no difference how freely you live; sooner or later, God will call your hand. And when He calls your hand, you are just as scared as anybody else. I have seen men, who were mighty bold at times, shake and cry like babies when they were hurt in an accident. That terrible shock that comes on a person when he is brought face to face with death is the fact that he has drowned his conscience. Now God has awakened it to the surety that he is dying without God, and he trembles and shakes.

Fear For No Reason

The wicked flee when no man pursueth... Proverbs 28:1. Just sitting around has so frightened people, they bolted the doors. What was the trouble with them? Conscience just raised up inside and was whipping them!

There is that within man that appalls the stoutest sinner. I have seen big, stout men make fun of religion and say it was for the old ladies and the children. But when God began to deal with them, they shook and trumbled and were bigger babies than a lot of the "old ladies" when conscience really got to working on them. It does not make any difference how big you are or how strong you are or how "bad" you are: when God gets ready to whip you down, you will shake and tremble.

This very presence of a conscience within provides to every one of us a clear demonstration of the existence of God. There IS a God in Heaven. There IS a Creator Who made us. There IS a God before Whom we must stand in judgement one of these days!

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good. God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread: they have not called upon God. There were they in great fear, where no fear was: for God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee: thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised them. Psalm 53:1-5.

Sinners can carry on, they can "eat up" God's people, they can say, "There is none good, no not one," but the fifth verse says they come into a place where great fear comes on them--yet there is no reason to be fearful: There were they in great fear, where no fear was.

One thing you cannot get away from is the fact that God is going to deal with you. The wheels of God's justice grind slowly, sometimes mighty slowly, but they keep grinding. Sooner or later, it will be your time to be confronted with that which you have or have not done. God is going to "catch up" with you.

The Psalmist tells you the fool's testimony: he cries out and says there is no God, that there is nobody good on the earth and everybody is evil. When you try to do right and lift up a standard for good, these fellows will eat you up. However, that fifth verse says that finally, fear comes upon them where there is no reason for fear. Where does that fear come from?

Although a man can hide himself from the world, he cannot get away from himself. That's why so many many many try to hide themselves in alcohol or other drugs: they refuse to deal with the reality of their actions and seek to escape from setting the wrongs right by addling their minds! Yet, there is no escape! You will NEVER get away from that inner voice of conscience that is going to reprove you.

I think a good illustration of that can be found in Genesis 42:21. And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us. These were Joseph's brothers talking amongst themselves: no one else but they knew anything about their evil deed toward him, but distress had come upon them, and they became terribly troubled. They were currently dealing with the ruler of Egypt, totally unaware that he was, in fact, that brother who they had so greatly wronged.

"I tell you why this distress is come upon us. Look what we did back there. That boy cried for us to let him out of the pit. He cried when we sold him and strangers took him. And we would not hear the cry. That is why we are in trouble today." No man taught them that. It came from right inside. Their conscience could not get the message through before: but there came a time when they were in despair and in a "listening mode"--their conscience then bore the message to them that they had done wrong and could not get by.

Conscience Pursues and Condemns

The wicked flee when no man pursueth... Proverbs 28:1. Just sitting around has so frightened people, they bolted the doors. What was the trouble with them? Conscience just raised up inside and was whipping them!

There is that within man that appalls the stoutest sinner. I have seen big, stout men make fun of religion and say it was for the old ladies and the children. But when God began to deal with them, they shook and trumbled and were bigger babies than a lot of the "old ladies" when conscience really got to working on them. It does not make any difference how big you are or how strong you are or how "bad" you are: when God gets ready to whip you down, you will shake and tremble.

This very presence of a conscience within provides to every one of us a clear demonstration of the existence of God. There IS a God in Heaven. There IS a Creator Who made us. There IS a God before Whom we must stand in judgement one of these days!

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good. God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread: they have not called upon God. There were they in great fear, where no fear was: for God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee: thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised them. Psalm 53:1-5.

Sinners can carry on, they can "eat up" God's people, they can say, "There is none good, no not one," but the fifth verse says they come into a place where great fear comes on them--yet there is no reason to be fearful: There were they in great fear, where no fear was.

One thing you cannot get away from is the fact that God is going to deal with you. The wheels of God's justice grind slowly, sometimes mighty slowly, but they keep grinding. Sooner or later, it will be your time to be confronted with that which you have or have not done. God is going to "catch up" with you.

The Psalmist tells you the fool's testimony: he cries out and says there is no God, that there is nobody good on the earth and everybody is evil. When you try to do right and lift up a standard for good, these fellows will eat you up. However, that fifth verse says that finally, fear comes upon them where there is no reason for fear. Where does that fear come from?

Although a man can hide himself from the world, he cannot get away from himself. That's why so many many many try to hide themselves in alcohol or other drugs: they refuse to deal with the reality of their actions and seek to escape from setting the wrongs right by addling their minds! Yet, there is no escape! You will NEVER get away from that inner voice of conscience that is going to reprove you.

I think a good illustration of that can be found in Genesis 42:21. And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us. These were Joseph's brothers talking amongst themselves: no one else but they knew anything about their evil deed toward him, but distress had come upon them, and they became terribly troubled. They were currently dealing with the ruler of Egypt, totally unaware that he was, in fact, that brother who they had so greatly wronged.

"I tell you why this distress is come upon us. Look what we did back there. That boy cried for us to let him out of the pit. He cried when we sold him and strangers took him. And we would not hear the cry. That is why we are in trouble today." No man taught them that. It came from right inside. Their conscience could not get the message through before: but there came a time when they were in despair and in a "listening mode"--their conscience then bore the message to them that they had done wrong and could not get by.

The Handwriting of God Condemns The Conscience

Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein. Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them. They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone. In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Daniel 5:1-5. There sat old Belshazzar. During that big beer party, he had the golden vessels that had been brought from Jerusalem, brought in to drink out of. He just got going good when the handwriting of God appeared on the wall.

The handwriting on the wall is the reason church buildings are not full! It is the reason undertakers want ten minute services at funerals. Why? The handwriting of God will stir a conscience, whether it is at a funeral, a church service, by the bed of someone dying lost and undone without God--wherever it is.

I do not know what these jelly-backboned preachers who do not have enough intestinal fortitude to raise up against the spirit of this age are going to do at the Judgement! They are responsible for every audience that needed to be troubled, but they bent to the spirit of the age and would not trouble them.

You just might as well mark it down that the farther we go in this world, the more we are going to see a revolution and a rising up against the handwriting of God. People do not want it straight. It bothers them.

People will pat you on the back if you are the biggest crook there is, but in the face of all that man would applaud you, if God has a handwriting against you and you get around where the truth is poured out, you will do just what countless others have done: you will become angry. On the way home, you will tell your wife that she must have called the preacher and told him everything you had done. No, she did not call the preacher. God has YOUR number! He has the handwriting against you. That's [supposed to be] one of the reasons we gather together in church services: to hear what God has to say about us.

If you had been in Babylon that night, the people would have said, "This is great! This is wonderful! We have unity." The king was pleased. The queen was pleased. All the officers and those in attendance were pleased--except for one: God. God was NOT pleased. That king had a conscience and all his reputation and all his power did not shield him. He had drowned his conscience, pushed it under and held it down, but when God gets ready to speak, there are not enough devils in hell and out of hell to shield one from hearing the voice of God through his or her conscience. Yes, just about the time old Belshazzar was at the height of his glory and prestige, he looked up on that wall and saw, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.

Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another. The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers... Daniel 5:6,7. The Bible says the king's countenance changed--he grew pale with fear. Up until then, he'd laughed and been having a big time, but then his knees knocked together and his legs gave 'way beneath him. As soon as he could find his voice, he cried out, "Bring in the fortune-tellers, bring in the soothsayers--bring me SOMEBODY who can tell me what this means!" This is the power of conscience. This is why people's countenances change under the preaching of God's Word.

They blame it on the preacher and the way he says it, but it is NOT the way the preacher is working on them. It is the way their conscience is working on them that changes their countenance. Belshazzar went from the gallery of glee to the depths of despair in a mere few seconds of time. Conscience is powerful when it can change your whole being and quickly take you from a place of great rejoicing to a place of great fear.

Belshazzar was the ruling king and he was not afraid of any man, but when the handwriting came, his knees smote together and he lost control of his body. The queen tried to quiet his fears and reassure him, but it was too serious a matter for him to be easily calmed. When God gets around to dealing with the conscience, the rest of the people can say, "Let's start the party right back up where we were interrupted," but there will be no party left in you. God will put an end to the party. Oh yes, the king commanded that the astrologers be brought in--he wanted someone to tell him what it meant.

Then the queen reminded him, "There is a man with an excellent spirit; he is a doubt-dissolver." The king had Daniel brought in.

Daniel was very different than the preachers of today: he was no jelly-backboned preacher! He told the king what the handwriting said: "You are weighed in God's balances and found wanting. The kingdom is taken away from you." Old King Belshazzar had played TOO long!

Conscience is a court that is always in session and there is a judge sitting on that court that cannot be bribed. The nearest thing in the world to the Judgement Bar of God is the court of conscience. The court of conscience in your heart coincides one hundred percent with the same judgement you will meet at the Judgement Bar of God.

Though conscience be drugged in partial apathy or intoxicated with worldly pleasure, the time comes when this court calls you to its bar. Every transgressor is called in, sooner or later. It is God's ordained plan, for without it you would never find salvation, and without it you will never make Heaven your home. You must be called "before the Bar" where your conscience is awakened and the handwriting of God is made plain against your soul.

Conscience Can Become Unbearable

Wherever we go, conscience accompanies us.It can be the best friend we have or it can be the worst enemy. The real problems of many where there is sadness in homes is just somebody that is being stirred down inside by a conscience and cannot please himself or anyone else, and nobody pleases him. Much of the peace of mind and the liberty of the spirit rests on the favorable witness of the conscience. You have to have a clear message from conscience to be really free in spirit.

When the gnawings of conscience are intensified, they become unendurable, and man cannot stand them. ...Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. (Genesis 4:13). What was his punishment? God had not done a thing to him yet. No one had bothered him, but his punishment was greater than he could bear. The punishment was that which was sounding off inside: "You have killed your brother! You have killed your brother!"

A guilty conscience becomes unendurable. Consider Judas, who sold the Master. Jesus did not do anything but tenderly look at him and tell him to go ahead and do quickly what he was going to do. No one misused Judas. No one laid a finger on him or threw a stone at him. But his punishment was unbearable. He could not stand it, so he hanged himself.

Doctors say that a great percentage of nervous breakdowns and even some illnesses are nothing other than people having trouble on their minds--things they need to straighten out. One doctor I know would scare people nearly to death. They would come to him with a nervous breakdown, and all at once he would jump at them and say, "What you got covered? Now you have something covered in your life. I have checked you from head to foot. There is nothing organically wrong with you. You have something troubling you!" You can go through the worst sick spell you ever had trying to hold down a conscience that is sounding off against you.

The gnawing conscience will become so unbearable that you will get a real foretaste of the eternal torment of hell right here on Earth. David said, The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Psalm 116:3. In Psalm 32, he said he sweat till he had no more sweat. No one bothered him! He was king! No one could put him in jail. Why was he troubled so? Why did the torments of hell take hold of him? Because his conscience was speaking: "You took a man's wife. You killed the man. You took a man's wife. You killed the man."

Conscience is something every one of us has. What is the use of being deceptive about it? You are deceptive when you say that sinful things do not bother you. Quit your lying! No one EVER did wrong and got by with it! You are troubled like any other person. God fashioned our hearts all alike and gave us all the same kind of conscience in that sense.

The Defiled Conscience

Titus 1:15 reads, 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. You've met folks like that: seems they value nothing good that is in their lives--they insist on seeing the negative of everything. This is the state of an unbeliever. If you are in an unregenerate condition, you need to realize that you are in no state to pass judgment on anything as to what is right and what is wrong. If you are not a Christian, your conscience is defiled and you cannot give sound judgment.

Just because something does not bother you right now does not mean it is right. Church, all around you, people are rising up against the standard of the Gospel, and the worldly people are going to try to tell you what is necessary and what is not necessary. You need to stake your claim on God's eternal Word that when a person is not a Christian, he or she has a defiled conscience and he or she can do lots of things that are not right. The Bible lets us know that when we commit sin, the conscience is perverted. It gets out of order and it picks and chooses as it desires, no matter what the Word of God says. The Bible calls it going after the flesh.

An Evil Conscience
The Bible speaks of several different kinds of evil consciences. Every ungenerate man or woman has an evil conscience that is either darkened, brazen (defiant), bribed, seared (insensible), weak or any combination of those.

A darkened conscience cannot see the light.
This is why you are not going to get the world saved by singing them a song. Thank God for all the good songs, but you mark it down that when anyone is converted because he got under conviction when someone was singing a song, that individual sometime, somewhere, had Gospel light preached (taught) to him. One of the first things necessary to salvation is for the light of the Gospel to shine on the darkened conscience of a sinner so he can truly see what is right and what is wrong. Oh yes, many a person has been persuaded through a beautiful Gospel melody to open their heart's door to the Lord, but it was because at some time in their life, the truth of the Gospel had been planted in their heart.

This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart [conscience]. Ephesians 4:17,18.

In other words, a blind man could just as safely give sound judgment to something in the natural realm as people with blinded hearts (consciences) could give sound judgment in the spiritual realm. I let it go in one ear and out the other when someone who is not living for the Lord tries to tell me what kind of standard I need to hold, because they have a defiled conscience and they do not know anything about what the Church is supposed to live by.

The youth of our society out on the streets carrying on have ignorant and darkened consciences because they were raised in homes where God was utterly ignored. He was never mentioned, except in profanity. God's Word was never taught, and where no Gospel light was shown upon them at all, they grew up in darkened consciences. Therefore, they go out and do most anything that comes to their minds, without thought to the consequences of their actions. God help us, Saints, to not raise children with darkened consciences because Mommy and Daddy will not spend a few precious moments each day to talk to their children, to tell the children about God and what he requires.

A brazen and defiant conscience.
This one raises up and rebelliously refuses to be in subjection to God's known will. There is a picture of this in the Bible: And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that I should obey...I know not the Lord... Exodus 5:2. When Moses went to Pharaoh and told him God said to let His people go so they could go into the wilderness and worship Him, Pharaoh said, "Who is the Lord that I should obey...?" Did you ever meet people like that? I have. You preach God's eternal Word just as it is and they will tell you, "Who do you think you are, Preacher? If you think I am going to do that, you got another thing coming! What makes you think I have to do that?" They have a brazen and defiant conscience.

A bribed conscience.
We can see a "bribed" conscience in the case of Herod (Mark 6:16-28). You know the story: the young female danced so beguilingly in front of Herod that he promised (made a oath in front of witnesses) he would give her anything short of half of his kingdom. Her mother did not like John the Baptist because Ole' John had read the handwriting on the wall to her, so she sent her daughter back to Herod to ask for the head of John the Baptist to be brought to her on a platter. That is a bribed conscience: Herod said, "I cannot back off of my oath. I would be a liar if I did." Herod had John the Baptist beheaded rather than break his word to the girl.

A seared (insensible) conscience.
Let us consider the seared, or insensible conscience. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron. I Timothy 4:1,2. A seared and insensible conscience is of someone who has long resisted the Gospel Light.

You sit in the congregation of your church and Sunday after Sunday, God urges you, "You need to go make this right. You need to back up and humble yourself. You know you talked wrong. You need to repent of this." Yet Sunday after Sunday you sit still, refusing to give in to those beckonings, and the hot iron of the Gospel is little by little searing and cauterizing, just like the doctor takes a hot iron and sears a wound to heal it. You are searing your conscience. You can speak lies in hypocrisy by telling people you are clear with God when you know there are things in your life that need to be straightened out. All you need to do is keep that up awhile and your conscience will get seared over until old "self" will have you believing you do not need to straighten out because you are "just as good as the next person".

A weak conscience.
A tender (or weak) conscience is NOT always an evil conscience, but if left in a weak or unlearned condition, it can easily be steered in a wrong direction. The only legitimate reason for a weak conscience is because a person is a "babe in Christ"; they've not been saved long. Thus, their weak conscience is liable to err because of its lack of understanding a part of God's Word. Since the person has a really tender conscience, the devil is ready to move in and take advantage of that tenderness. Because that person does not have light and understanding to know how the devil works, he or she can be troubled in his or her conscience, although it is pure and good.

This is one reason why we do not need to neglect the assembling of ourselves together, for it is in the strength of unity in witness, reading and studying the Bible and prayer, that we gain a more firm foundation. These things teach us how to fortify ourselves against the enemy of our soul.

When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Luke 11:24-26. When we come to the Lord in repentance, and our vessels are swept clean through Salvation, they are empty. They must be filled with something: either the good of study, prayer, praise and witness, or they are in danger of being refilled with corruption. We cannot function as empty vessels, Saints; there must be substance within. And the resources we utilize to fill our vessel determine its strength or weakness.

This is what Paul addresses in I Corinthians, Chapter 10, where he mentioned how we should treat a brother (or sister) with a weak conscience. They have a pure conscience, but it is weak because he or she has not been saved very long and does not have a lot of understanding. You need to get rid of that attitude of, "I do not care about him (her). It does not bother me." Stop and consider a person with a weak conscience! As long as people are being converted to Christ, there are going to be those who have a good, but weak, conscience, until they gain more understanding. The enemy will take advantage of that weakness unless the people of God WORK TOGETHER for their salvation!

A Good Conscience

When you come into old-time repentance, confessing your sins and are truly born again of God's Spirit, the conscience is renewed right along with the heart. Thank God! When He takes that old heart out, with it goes all the sinful attributes of the heart that held the handwriting of God when you got alone and which brought up those things: "What are you going to do about this? What are you going to do about that?" When God forgives you of your sins, every one of them are removed as far as the east is from the west and you get a conscience that is just as clean and pure as that of a little baby who is innocent of all wrong!

A good conscience may be defined as one that is set to please God in all things. It hates sin and it loves holiness. It is one that is governed by the Word of God and is fully in subjection to its Author. Let's examine several qualities of a "good conscience":

Sincerity
How little of this virtue is left in our world today! We see shams and hypocrisy working on every level and every arena: political, commercial, social and religious. The government is taking apart the businesses of nationally-known religious men and foaming out their shame before the whole world--about how crooked they have been and how they have misused people's money. All of that is definitely having its effect. It is building up a coldness against true salvation. It is giving people another reason to stay out of church services and have nothing to do with the church. However, in the face of all this, God's cry to His people is to live closer, work harder, and lift the standard higher against these devilish things.

The lives of many people are regulated by temporary expediency (that which is best for the moment), rather than principle. Now that can be dangerous because some things that look best for the moment might not be best in the long run. On the other hand, the opposite can also be true. However, with the redeemed of the Lord, men and women definitely born again and walking in the light, the fear of the Lord has been planted in their hearts and they can say with the Apostle in verse 18 of our original text, "Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly."

Tenderness
This tenderness is not a 'sissified tenderness,' but a wakefulness of heart to the least move of Satan that would try to bring sin into your life. Even what many call "trifling matters" do matter. A tender conscience will chide and condemn you. We are living in a day when people ride over things, and they tell you, "It does not bother me," but if the conscience is tender, it will bother you, from a mere word spoken wrong to a deed done in a wrong light. Oh, no one is going to come around and put you in jail, for you did not do anything crooked. You were just UNchristian in the way you spoke and the deed you did.

My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live. Job 27:6. We can understand the character of a tender conscience by looking at its opposite: a seared conscience. Every one is working toward one or the other. By the practice of your life, you are working towards a tender conscience, or by the practice of your life, you are working towards a seared conscience.

Fidelity

When conscience faithfully discharges its office, there is a constant judging of our state before God, according to His Word. And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. And the high priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth. Acts 23:1,2. And we get excited because somebody raises his eyebrows or gets a little peeved? Paul got socked in the mouth for saying that he lived with a good conscience!

Favorable judgment that others may have on you or towards you brings no real satisfaction if you are not upright before God. No matter what may be the fashion or the custom of the hour, one whose heart beats true to God will not knowingly do anything against conscience.

Tranquility (Quietness, Peace, Satisfaction)
Tranquility is another attribute of a good conscience and is a sure reward for sincerity and fidelity. Her [Wisdom] ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. Proverbs 3:17. ...but a wounded spirit who can bear? Proverbs 18:14. You might as well expect to pick up a hot coal out of the fire and hold it in your hand without suffering any pain as to expect to sin without getting a troubled conscience. One operates on the senses of the body, while the other operates on the senses of the soul. Just as surely as fire will burn you, conscience will trouble you. The tranquility of a good conscience is earnest (down payment) of the undisturbed calm that awaits us in Heaven.

True tranquility is determined from the other properties of conscience that have been mentioned. It must issue from sincerity, tenderness, and fidelity. Otherwise, it is an evil conscience. And allow me to clarify a point here: every peaceful conscience is not a good one, nor is every uneasy conscience an evil one. (Remember the "Seared" [insensible] conscience?)

False Peace

When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace. Luke 11:21. What kind of peace is that? It is a false sense of peace that the enemy of your soul, when he has control of your life, will bring over your being. It is a conscience that has been put to sleep by the opiates of Satan. Nevertheless, there will be an awakening.

You might say that your conscience is at ease. However, are you really sincere about obeying God? Do you have tenderness towards the least thing that would come into your life that is wrong? Do you have fidelity? If not, then you are operating under false peace. We must just not look at how much peace we have, but how real is the peace, is the cause or source of our peace!

For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. 1 Thessalonians 5:3. Hell's flames are leaping around their feet, but they are crying peace! What kind of peace is it? It is the kind of peace a person has when the devil has hold of him and his goods are at peace. The only hope of ever breaking that up is some of us reaching that individual with the Gospel and under the anointing of God's Holy Spirit reading the handwriting of God to that soul. There is such a battle on because the devil has people under this false peace and he does NOT want you and me disturbing anyone!

Exercises For A Good Conscience

Take Time To Be Holy
This is what Paul was talking about when he said, "I exercise myself." We take time out of our schedules to exercise everything but our consciences. It takes time and effort to have a conscience void of offense towards God and man. We need to frequently challenge and call ourselves to account how matters stand between God and us and between our fellow men and us. I have learned from experience that oft reckonings PREVENT mistakes.

We need a uniform course of obedience. My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. I John 3:18. Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Matthew 26:41.

Seriously Resist and Mortify Sin
We exercise ourselves by a serious resistance and mortification of sin. In Mark 9:43-47, we read where Jesus said it was better to cut off a hand or a foot or pluck out one of our eyes, than to allow them to cause us to do wrong. He wasn't saying that we were supposed to hack up our bodies--He was saying that's how important it should be to us that we lay aside those things that are wrong! That involves some suffering, too; however, we'd better be willing to suffer greatly to lay any and all of it aside and make our home in Heaven than to hold onto the things of this world and end up in eternal torment with that thing to which we were bound, forever and ever.

Sincere Repentance and Confession
We exercise ourselves by sincere repentance and confession when there has been a failure. How many miss it on this point! We will make mistakes--there will be failures. However, it is not that the Grace of God cannot keep us: it is the fact that we do not pray sometimes as we ought and our flesh will lead us in the wrong way--thus we fail (fall short). It could be through something we said or some deed we did or even an attitude we should not take.

How are we going to exercise ourselves to hold a conscience void of offense? We do that by squarely clearing up a mistake or a failure, and in a timely manner. Not putting off that which we know we should do! One of the greatest weaknesses of today is putting an "if" on what we say or do. (This is justifying our wrongdoings.) When you feel compelled to put an "if" on the reason you said or did something, you are being a hypocrite. You have too much pride to admit you were wrong. "If" may take the pressure off a little, but you won't find any lasting satisfaction in it, and there is NO forgiveness in it at all. Many people lose a good conscience because they will not really repent and confess the truth of the matter. [ The End ]