I would like to say a few things today about the conscience of every human being

I would like to say a few things today about the conscience of every human being. First of all, EVERYONE'S conscience is PERFECT! That's right, they're all totally right. God made our conscience to be right, and if we live in agreement with our conscience we will have peace and harmony with our creator. The religious leaders of Jesus' day have to be compared with the most wicked people who have ever lived because they judged God's only begotten Son to be possessed by a devil, and to be a blasphemer against God; for which they had him put to death (Jn. 8:48,52; Mat. 26:65,66). Yet even their consciences were perfect, and they demonstrated that after bringing to Jesus the woman that they caught in adultery: "They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned : but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him" (Jn. 8:4-6). But Jesus went straight to their conscience with his answer, and it got there: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst" (Jn. 8:7,9). Their consciences were perfect, and in this instance they had no choice but to agree with their conscience because Jesus exposed them for what they were. Their problem was that they did not practice agreeing with their consciences in their lives, otherwise they would have loved Jesus, who exemplified everything their consciences had ever told them. Jesus was the walking, talking fulfillment of the law of God, and the law of God is what our consciences are patterned after. The apostle Paul explained this spiritual reality to the believers in Rome: "For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. 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: 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" (Rom. 2:13-15).

The old covenant law was not a completed work in and of itself because it could not get the condition of men's hearts lined up with their conscience, and therefore they still could not have the perfect peace and harmony with God that he has always desired for us to have. Again the apostle Paul explains: "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins" (Heb. 10:1-4). Sin was in the hearts of men, and there was no offering under the law that could get it OUT OF the hearts of men (Mk. 7:20-23). This is exactly what Jesus came for, to make the way for sin to be literally washed OUT OF the very hearts of men, thus bringing the heart and the conscience into agreement and imparting the divine "peace of God which passes all understanding" (Philip. 4:7). That is the state of "newness of life" which Paul spoke of in Romans 6:3,4, saying that it is the baptism that literally puts us INTO Christ that brings us to that newness of life. That would be the holy Ghost baptism, because Galatians 3:27 says that through baptism we "put on Christ;" and II Corinthians 3:17 tells us that "the Lord IS that SPIRIT." Not to mention that 1 Corinthians 12:13 definitively says that the Spirit baptism is what puts us into Christ. Make no mistake my friend, the holy Ghost baptism is the same one that first came on the day of Pentecost, and it still carries the same sign with it, which is "speaking with other tongues as the Spirit gives the utterance" (Acts 2:4). As Jesus said, the Spirit baptism gives us power, and that power is to turn the tables on sin; putting it under our power rather than us being under its power as the case has always been (Acts 1:8; Rom. 6:6,12-18). That is the true state of being 'under grace,' of which grace the scripture says the following: "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world" (Tit. 2:11,12). It is of perfect sense and reason that if we "live soberly, righteously, and godly," we will have perfect peace, our hearts and consciences being in perfect agreement.

Paul made the point very clear about the peace that results from our hearts and consciences being in agreement: "There is therefore now NO CONDEMNATION to them which are IN Christ Jesus, WHO walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Rom. 8:1). Our conscience will not condemn us if we "walk after the Spirit" simply because we will NOT HAVE SIN if we walk in the Spirit, as the scripture also agrees to: "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall NOT fulfil the lust of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16). There is another simplistic reason that our hearts and consciences are brought into perfect agreement upon being baptized with the holy Ghost, and walking in the power of the Spirit. That reason is that the holy Ghost IS the very law of God written into our hearts by and through the Spirit baptism, as Paul once again explains, while conveying the infinite greatness of the ONE sacrifice of Jesus Christ in comparison to the endless sacrifices that were offered under the old covenant: "And every [old covenant] priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can NEVER take away sins: But this man, after he had offered ONE sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by ONE offering he hath PERFECTED [truly cleansed] for ever them that are [presently] sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more" (Heb. 10:11-17). As I stated earlier, and showed from the scriptures, our conscience is made after the law of God; and the holy Ghost perfectly connects our heart with our conscience if we have it and follow after it without sin, because the Spirit of God IS the reality of the law of God. Seeing also that it is the baptism of the Spirit that imparts the love of God into our hearts, we can readily see the all encompassing significance of the following statement by the apostle Paul: "Now the end [totality] of the commandment is [love] out of a pure heart, and of a GOOD CONSCIENCE, and of faith unfeigned" (I Tim. 1:6; Rom. 5:5). That is what God wants to see in us because that is exactly what Jesus died and rose again for. Period. In conclusion I will just say that if we are faithful in our walk with Jesus, we will have the same testimony that Paul had: "And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day... And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men" (Acts 23:1; Acts 24:16). Amen.