Is America's Conscience Vanishing? # 2

 Is America's Conscience Vanishing? # 2

Multitudes today respond to their conscience by attempting to suppress it, overrule it, or silence it. They conclude that the real blame for their wrong behavior lies in some childhood trauma, the way their parents raised them, societal pressures, or other causes beyond their control.

Sometimes people convince themselves that their sin is a clinical problem, not a moral one - and therefore define their drunkenness, sexual perversion, immorality, or other vices as "diseases" or "conditions." To respond to the conscience with such self-excusing arguments is tantamount to telling the conscience "Shut up, Gringo!"

It is possible virtually to nullify the conscience through repeated abuse. Paul spoke of people whose consciences were so convoluted that their "glory is in their shame" (Phil. 3:19). Both the mind and the conscience can become so defiled that they cease making distinctions between what is pure and what is impure. (Titus 1:15).

After so much violation, the conscience finally falls silent. Morally, those with defiled consciences are left flying blind. The annoying warning signals may be gone, but the danger certainly is not; in fact, the danger is greater than ever.

Furthermore, even the most defiled conscience will not remain silent forever. When standing at the Judgment, every person's conscience will side with God, the righteous Judge. The worst sin-hardened evildoer will discover before the throne of God that he has a conscience that testifies against him.

The conscience, however, is not infallible. Nor is it a source of revelation about right and wrong. Its role is not to teach you moral and ethical ideals, but to hold you accountable to the highest standards of right and wrong you know.

Both tradition and truth inform the conscience, so the standards it holds you to are not necessarily biblical ones (1 Cor. 8:6-9). The conscience can be needlessly condemning in areas where there is no biblical issue, like many of today's responses to social justice and corporate guilt. In fact, it can try to hold you to the very thing the Lord is trying to release you from (Romans 14:14, 20-23).

The conscience, to operate fully and in accord with true holiness, must be informed by the Word of God. So even when guilt feelings don't have a biblical basis, they are an important spiritual distress sign. If your conscience is misfiring -sending out signals from a weak conscience - that should spur you to seek the spiritual growth that would bring your conscience more in harmony with God's Word.

The conscience functions like a skylight, not a light bulb. It lets light into the soul; it does not produce its own. Its effectiveness is determined by the amount of pure light you expose it to, and by how clean you keep it. That's why the apostle Paul spoke of the importance of a clear conscience and warned against anything that would defile or muddy the conscience (1 Cor. 8:7; Titus 1:15).

The conscience is an inextricable part of the human soul. Though it may be hardened, cauterized, or numbed into apparent dormancy, the conscience continues to store up evidence that will one day be used as a testimony to condemn the guilty soul. But for the Christian, the conscience is a tremendous asset of spiritual growth.

Take time each day to inform your conscience by reading God's Word. Never train yourself to ignore your conscience, but respond quickly to its warnings. And then cleanse your conscience through consistent confession as you seek forgiveness from those you've sinned against - whether God or others. Those things will strengthen your conscience so that you can enjoy the freedom and blessings of a clear conscience to the world.

~John MacArthur~

(The End)

The Faithfulness Of God # 1

 The Faithfulness Of God # 1

Unfaithfulness is one of the most outstanding sins of these evil days. In the business world, a man's word is, with exceedingly rare exceptions, no longer his bond. In the social world, marital infidelity abounds on every hand, the sacred bonds of wedlock being broken with as little regard as the discarding of an old garment. In the ecclesiastical realm thousands who have solemnly covenanted to preach the truth make no scruple to attack and deny it.

Nor can reader or writer claim complete immunity from this fearful sin. In how many ways have we been unfaithful to Christ, and to the light and privileges which God has entrusted to us! How refreshing, then, how unspeakably blessed, to lift our eyes above this sense of ruin, and behold One who is faithful - faithful in all things, faithful at all times.

"Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God" (Deut. 7:9). This quality is essential to His being; without it He would not be God. For God to be unfaithful would be to act contrary to His nature, which is impossible; "If we believe not, yet He abides faithful; He cannot deny Himself" (2 Tim. 2:13). Faithfulness is one of the glorious perfections of His being. He is as it were clothed with it: "O Lord God Almighty! Where is there anyone as mighty as You, Lord? Faithfulness is Your very character" (Psalm 89;8). So too when God became incarnate it was said, "Righteousness will be His belt and faithfulness the sash around His waist" (Isaiah 11:5).

What a word is that in Psalm 36:5, "Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens, and Your faithfulness reaches into the clouds." Far above all finite comprehension, is the unchanging faithfulness of God. Everything about God is great, vast, incomparable. He never forgets, never fails, never falters, never forfeits His word.

To every declaration of promise or prophecy the Lord has exactly adhered; every engagement of covenant or threatening He will make good, for "God is not man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak, and then not act? Does He promise, and not fulfill?" (Numbers 23:19). Therefore does the believer exclaim, "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness." (Lam. 3:22-23).

Scripture abounds in illustrations of God's faithfulness. More than four thousand years ago He said, "While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." (Genesis 8:22). Every year that comes furnishes a fresh witness to God's fulfillment of this promise. In Genesis 15 we find that Jehovah declared unto Abraham, "Your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them ... But in the fourth generation they shall come here again" (verses 13-16). Centuries ran their weary course. Abraham's descendants groaned amid the brick kilns of Egypt. Had God forgotten His promise? No, indeed. Read Exodus 12:41, "At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord's divisions left Egypt."

Through Isaiah the Lord declared, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. Again centuries passed, but "When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman." (Gal. 4:4).

God is true. His Word of promise is sure. In all His relations with His people, God is faithful. He may be safely relied upon. No one ever yet really trusted Him in vain. We find this precious truth expressed almost everywhere in the Scriptures, for His people need to know that faithfulness is an essential part of the divine character. This is the basis of our confidence in Him. But it is one thing to accept the faithfulness of God as a divine truth, it is quite another to act upon it. God has given us many "exceeding great and precious promises," but are we really counting on His fulfillment of them? Are we actually expecting Him to do for us all that He has said? Are we resting with implicit assurance on these words, "He is faithful who promised" (Hebrews 10:23)?

~A. W. Pink~

(continued with # 2)

Is America's Conscience Vanishing?

 Is America's Conscience Vanishing?

How can we begin to explain the terrible, outrageous, unrelenting violence we have witnessed over the past months? It seems the more shocking and horrific this behavior becomes, the more passive and indifferent the "social justice" response. At best, the social justice solution seems to want more "dialogue" without any real answers, and doesn't ascribe feelings of guilt to genuine causes, just seeks to either assuage or indulge the feelings.

This kind of response misses the most fundamental question: What kind of person is actually capable of this level of indeterminate, ongoing death and destruction? Where is the conscience of those so disinterested in truth and order that their impulses toward violence are so entirely unrestrained? What is missing in this generation that seems to have been built-in and sufficiently present in prior generations?

Our society has intentionally, systematically deconstructed and removed all restraints to violence and destruction. And not just of cities and statues, but of ourselves. Where is our conscience? Losing our conscience was not a side-effect of the present chaos. We have intentionally repressed and denied our conscience, because we only want to have good feelings. Drugs, therapy, entertainment - they've all been used to silence our guilty conscience.

But the conscience is the key to true freedom.

In 1984 an Avianca Airlines jet crashed in Spain. Investigators studying the accident made an eerie discovery. The "black box" cockpit recorders revealed that several minutes before impact, a shrill, computer-synthesized voice from the plane's automatic warning  system told the crew repeatedly in English, "Pull up! Pull up!"

The pilot, evidently thinking the system was malfunctioning, snapped, "Shut up, Gringo!" and switched the system off. Minutes later the plane plowed into the side of a mountain. Everyone on board died.

When I saw that tragic story on the news shortly after it happened, it struck me as a perfect parable of the way modern people treat guilt - the warning messages of their conscience.

The wisdom of our age says guilt feelings are nearly always erroneous or hurtful; therefore we should switch them off. But is that good advice? What, after all, is the conscience - this sense of guilt we all seem to feel?

The conscience is generally seen by the modern world as a defect that robs people of their self-esteem. Far from being a defect or a disorder, however, your ability to sense your own guilt is a tremendous gift from God. He designed the conscience into the very framework of the human soul. It is the automatic warning system that cries, "Pull up! Pull up!" before you crash and burn!

The conscience, Puritan Richard Sibbes wrote in the seventeenth century, is the soul reflecting upon itself. Conscience is at the heart of what distinguishes the human creature. People, unlike animals, can contemplate their own actions and make moral self-evaluations. That is the very function of conscience.

The conscience has an innate ability to sense right and wrong. Everyone even the most unspiritual heathen, has a conscience.

The conscience entreats you to do what you believe is right and restrains you from doing what you believe is wrong. But don't equate the conscience with the voice of God or the law of God. It is a human faculty that judges your actions and thoughts by the light of the highest standard you perceive. When you violate your conscience, it condemns you, triggering feelings of shame, anguish, regret, consternation, anxiety, disgrace, and even fear.

Conversely, when you follow your conscience, it commends you, bringing joy, serenity, self-respect, well-being, and gladness.

The word conscience is a combination of the Latin words scire ("to know") and con ("together"). The Greek word for "conscience" is found more than thirty times in the New Testament - suneidesis, which also literally means "co-knowledge."

Conscience is knowledge together with oneself. That is to say, your conscience knows your inner motives and true thoughts. It is above reason and beyond intellect. You can rationalize, trying to justify yourself in your own mind, but a violated conscience will not be easily convinced.

The Hebrew word for conscience is "leb," usually translated "heart" in the Old Testament. The conscience is so much at the core of the human soul that the Hebrew mind did not draw a distinction between conscience and the rest of the inner person.

When Scripture speaks of a tender heart (2 Chron. 34:27), it refers to a sensitive conscience. The "upright in heart" (Psalm 7:10) are those with pure consciences. And when David prayed, "Create in me a clean heart, O God" (Psalm 51:10), he was seeking to have his life and his conscience cleansed.

~John MacArthur~

(continued with # 2)

The Contemplation Of God # 3 (and others)

 The Contemplation Of God # 3 (and others)

"At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward Heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified Him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion; His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as He pleases with the powers of Heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back His hand or say to Him - "What have You done?" (Daniel 4:34-35).

A creature, considered as such, has no rights. He can demand nothing from his Maker; and in whatever manner he may be treated, has no right to complain. Yet, when thinking of the absolute dominion of God over all, we ought never to lose sight of His moral perfections. God is just and good, and ever does that which is right. Nevertheless, He exercises His sovereignty according to His own imperial and righteous pleasure. He assigns each creature his place as seems good in His own sight. He orders the varied circumstances of each according to His own counsels. He molds each vessel according to His own uninfluenced determination. He has mercy on whom He will, and He hardens whom He will. Wherever we are, His eye is upon us. Whoever we are, our life and everything is held at His disposal. To the Christian, He is a tender Father; to the rebellious sinner He will yet be a consuming fire. "Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen." (1 Timothy 1:17).

~A. W. Pink~

(The End)

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Are You As A Bruised Flower?

It is in times of soul abasement that the love, the tenderness, and the grace of the Holy Spirit are better known.

As a Comforter, as a Revealer of Jesus, we are, perhaps, more fully led into an acquaintance with the work of the Spirit in seasons of soul abasement than at any other time. The mode and time of His divine manifestation are thus beautifully predicted. "He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass - as showers that water the earth." (Psalm 72:6).

Observe the gentleness, the silence, and the sovereignty of His operation. "He shall come down as rain." How characteristic of the blessed Spirit's grace!

Then mark the occasion on which He descends. It is at the time of the soul's deep prostration the waving grace is mowed, the lovely flower is laid low, the fruitful stem is broken, that which was beautiful, fragrant, and precious is cut down ... the fairest first to fade, the loveliest first to die, the fondest first to depart.

Then, when the blessing is gone, and the spirit is bowed, when the heart is broken, the mind is dejected, and the world seems clad in wintry desolation and gloom, the Holy Spirit, in all the softening, reviving, comforting, and refreshing influence of His grace, descends, speaks of the beauty of Jesus, leads to the grace of Jesus, lifts the bowed soul, and reposes it on the bosom of Jesus!

Precious and priceless, then, beloved, are the seasons of a believer's humiliation. They tell of the soul's emptiness, of Christ's fullness; of the creatures insufficiency, of Christ's sufficiency; of the world's poverty; of Christ's affluence.

They create a necessity which Jesus supplies, a void which Jesus fills, a sorrow which Jesus soothes, a desire which Jesus satisfies.

They endure the cross of the incarnate God, they reveal the hidden glory of Christ's humiliation, they sweeten prayer, they lift the soul to God.

Are you as a bruised flower? Are you as a broken stem? Does some heavy trial now bow you in the dust? Oh, never, perhaps, were you so truly beautiful; never did your grace send forth such fragrance, or your prayers ascend with so sweet an odor, never did faith and hope and love develop their hidden glories so richly, so fully as now!

In the eyes of a wounded, a bruised, and a humbled Christ, you were never more lovely, and never more precious to His heart than now... pierced by His hand, smitten by His rod, humbled by His chastisement, laid low at His feet, condemning yourself, justifying Him, taking to yourself all the shame, and ascribing to Him all the glory!

~Octavius Winslow~

(The End)