Lesson 15: Our Ally, The Conscience

QUESTIONS
1. What does the word “conscience” mean?
The dictionary defines the conscience as “the human faculty that enables one to decide between right and wrong acts or behavior, especially in regard to one’s own conduct.” This is what the Bible is speaking of when it says that God has given “light” to every man. The word “conscience” (con + science) means “with knowledge.” Whenever we sin, we do so “with knowledge” that what we’re doing is wrong.

2. What is the function of the conscience?
Charles Spurgeon said, “The conscience of a man, when he is really quickened and awakened by the Holy Spirit, speaks the truth. It rings the great alarm bell. And if he turns over in his bed, that great alarm bell rings out again and again, ‘The wrath to come! The wrath to come! The wrath to come.’”

3. How do sinners dull the voice of their conscience?
The problem is that sin is so enticing to the lost that they prefer to live in darkness rather than remain in the light of the conscience. To the lost, the conscience is a “party pooper.” Many people snuff out the light and abandon themselves to the dark world of sin, not realizing the terrible consequences of their actions. As A. W. Tozer wrote, idolatry (making a god to suit ourselves) leads to a dulled conscience:

God’s justice stands forever against the sinner in utter severity. The vague and tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the ungodly has become a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions. It hushes their fears and allows them to practice all pleasant forms of iniquity while death draws every day nearer and the command to repent goes unregarded. As responsible moral beings, we dare not so trifle with our eternal future. (The Knowledge of the Holy)

4. How can you (with God’s help) awaken a conscience?
Thank God that He has given us something to do the job—it is the rousing sound of the ten cannons of His Law that stirs the sleeping conscience. Charles Spurgeon said, “The conscience of a man, when he is really quickened and awakened by the Holy Spirit, speaks the truth. It rings the great alarm bell. And if he turns over in his bed, that great alarm bell rings out again and again, ‘The wrath to come! The wrath to come! The wrath to come.’”

Walter Chantry wrote, “The absence of God’s holy Law from modern preaching is perhaps as responsible as any other factor for the evangelistic impotence of our churches and missions. Only by the light of the Law can the vermin of sin in the heart be exposed. Satan has effectively used a very clever device to silence the Law, which is needed as an instrument to bring perishing men to Christ. It is imperative that preachers of today learn how to declare the spiritual Law of God; for, until we learn how to wound consciences, we shall have no wounds to bind with gospel bandages” (Today’s Gospel: Authentic or Synthetic?).

It’s been said that the conscience is the headline warning of sin, while the Law is the fine print. The spiritual nature of the Law gives the details to what the conscience already knows. When the Law is preached, the conscience affirms its truth. You can see this verified when using the Law, as the sinner’s head nods in affirmation of each Commandment.

Unfortunately, in modern evangelism, few believers address the sin-ner’s conscience as we should. Spurgeon said, “In many ministries, there is not enough of probing the heart and arousing the conscience by the revelation of man’s alienation from God, and by the declaration of the selfishness and the wickedness of such a state.”

It was the use of God’s Law, when applied to the conscience, that was the key to great revivals of the past. Martyn Lloyd-Jones noted this fact:

The trouble with people who are not seeking for a Savior, and for salvation, is that they do not understand the nature of sin. It is the peculiar function of the Law to bring such an understanding to a man’s mind and conscience. That is why great evangelical preachers 300 years ago in the time of the Puritans, and 200 years ago in the time of Whitefield and others, always engaged in what they called a preliminary “Law work.”

5. According to John Wesley, what is “the ordinary method of the Spirit”?
He said,
It is the ordinary method of the Spirit of God to convict sinners by the Law. It is this which, being set home on the conscience, generally breaks the rocks in pieces. It is more especially this part of the Word of God which is quick and powerful, full of life and energy and sharper than any two-edged sword.

6. What are some phrases you can use in addressing the conscience?
Ask if they have kept 3 or 4 of the Ten Commandments. Its from God, for us.

Memory Verse
“Which show 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 2:15