We're going to turn this morning God's word to John chapter 8.
John chapter 8. We're going to read verses one
through to 11. Let's hear God's word.
John chapter 8, verse one. Jesus went unto the Mount of
Olives, and early in the morning he came again into the temple.
And all the people came unto him, and he sat down and taught
them. And the scribes and Pharisees
brought unto him a woman taken in adultery.
And when they had set her in the midst, they say unto him,
Master, this woman was taken in adultery in the very act.
Now Moses and the Law commanded us that such should be stoned.
But what sayest thy This they said, tempting him, that they
might have to accuse him. But Jesus stepped down, and with
his finger wrote in the ground, as though we heard them not.
So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and
said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him
first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and
wrote in the grind. And they which heard it, being
convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one,
beginning at the Elvis even unto the last.
Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
When Jesus had lifted up himself and saw none but the woman, he
said unto her, Woman, where are thine accusers?
Hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord, And
Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee.
Go, and sin no more, Amen. We know the Lord will stamp with
his own approval and blessing, this reading of His own precious
and infallible word. Now my text this morning is
taken from John chapter 8 and verse 9.
And it reads. 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.
I've entitled this message the Christian, and understanding
one's conscience. Now it is my intention to preach
2 more subjects from the Christian, And one has to do
with the worship of God, and the other with baptism.
And at that then we leave off that particular study.
But during the past week there was one word that came into my
mind that pressed itself upon me, and it was the word
conscience. And you'll notice that word
conscience in the text. The contextual setting here is a
very solemn 1. Early one morning the Lord Jesus
came into the temple. Many people came unto him, and
he sat down to teach them, And suddenly the sermon or the
lecture was interrupted by a group of religious men, scribes
and Pharisees, who brought before Christ a poor woman, they
alleged, taken in the act of adultery.
Now think of this woman standing in the midst of her accusers
before Christ to trap the Saviour.
They remind him what Moses had commanded in the law, that such
an one should be stoned to death, that they asked him, But
what sayest thy verse 5. Now if Christ had said no to
stoning her, they would have accused him of overlooking sin,
setting aside the law. And if he had said, well that's
a great idea, go ahead. They would have accused him of
usurping the power of the Roman authorities.
You see this was a catch 22 situation for Christ.
It was as if the Saviour was between a rock and a hard place.
Look at John chapter 8 verse 6. But this they said, tempting
him, that they might have to accuse him.
Now what did the Lord Jesus do? Look again at verse 6.
It tells us here that He scooped down, and with His finger root
in the ground, as if He had not heard them.
And in their rage and malice they pressed them for an answer.
So Christ then straightened up Himself, and said a very heart
searching thing to them, He that is without sin among you, let
him first cast a stone at her. John 8 and 7B.
Then for a second time he wrote in the ground.
Now what did He write? We don't know.
The scripture said it is possible that he wrote out the
7th commandment. Thy shall not commit adultery.
Now look with me at verse 9. And they which heard it, being
convicted by their own conscience, went out of the
temple. 1 by 1 you can see them going, beginning at the eldest,
even until the last. The Bible tells us that Jesus
was left alone with the woman, the woman standing in the midst.
Now what triggered their departure from the temple?
Remember these were religious men, self important men.
Why did they leave the Saviour's presence?
Why did not one of them first cast a stone at the woman?
And the text give the answer verse 9.
And they which heard it being convicted by their own
conscience. Now the word conscience is the
word that I want to deal with today.
I've called the message the Christian and understanding
one's conscience. Did you know there's 30
references to the word conscience?
They're all in the New Testament.
The first reference is John chapter 8 verse 9.
Here's the law of first mention. And the last reference is first
Peter chapter 3 verse 21. And the like figure were unto
even baptism doth also Now you save us not the putting away of
the filth of the flesh, but the answer for good conscience by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And in between there are 28 other references to the word
conscience. Now the word conscience in the
English and in the Greek simply means this, a shared knowledge.
And as I thought of the word conscience, I wrote down in a
piece of paper 4 things during the week.
Here's the first one, the acknowledgement of 1's
conscience. Notice the word being convicted
by their own conscience. You see, every one of us made in
the image of God, created by him, is made with a faculty
called conscience, that the conscience has been called the
monitor of God in the soul of manner, or God's internal
monitor, or God's arbiter. Each one of us today has a moral
conscience, and when the Bible speaks of conscience, it speaks
of being with a knowledge or having a shared knowledge, and
that is Speaking of a faculty that is a big part of who we
really are. It is God's given guide to teach
and to tell us what is right and wrong, what is good and bad.
If I give you a dictionary definition, it's a part of you
that judges how moral your actions are, either good or bad.
But according to the Bible, conscience is that inward
monitor that alerts us when we attempt or aim to do something
that's contrary to God's law. You see, our conscience lays
bare our guilt because of sin and law.
Breaking our conscience awakens us to the need and reality of
accountability. Our conscience brings to the
fore that thought that we have a moral obligation to the moral
governor of the universe or to the lawgiver.
In other words, it's a part of human DNA.
Conscience was gifted and bestowed upon us at creation,
and it acts like God's policeman or God's judge.
Think with me of a heart monitor in the hospital ward.
You're geared up to the heart monitor.
And what's the heart monitor doing?
Well, it's measuring the heart. It's seeing if it's beating too
slow or beating too fast, or whether it's got an irregular
heartbeat or, or possibly there's even a blockage there or
some sort of damage to the heart.
And it it provides the information about the state and
condition of the heart to the doctors and the nurses who are
looking after you. Well, you see, the conscience is
like the heart monitor of the soul.
It's the monitor of God in the human soul.
It monitors what's taking place in your life and in your heart
and in your mind and in your soul.
And let me state this morning, your conscience will either
accuse you because it disapproves of many things,
things that are violations of God's law.
You'll be left with the feeling of guilt, knowledgement of sin
or your conscience can acquit you and you can delight in
really having a good and clear conscience before God.
Remember what Peter says again in first Peter chapter 3 verse
16. It says having a good conscience
that whereas they speak evil of you as of evildoers, they may be
a shame that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.
Now your conscience of course, is that part of you that's
unseen, but it is there in reality the acknowledgement of
1's conscience. Now you've heard the saying and
this was talked about in society, let conscience be your
guide. Now that's not bad advice.
We we'd even go as far as saying that's good advice.
Let conscience be your guide, to guide you what is bad and good,
to guide you what is true and false.
But it's only partly right. You see, I agree that none of us
should violate one's conscience. It's a real guide.
It's a reliable guide. But living by your conscience is
not enough. Why?
Because it's not a an absolute guide, it's not an infallible
guide. Our conscience, my conscience,
your conscience must be shaped, nurtured, guided and checked by
the Word of God. Because only the Holy Scriptures
reveals the true and holy standards of what is right and
wrong, good and bad. And I fear this morning the
United Kingdom and this province of Ulster is culturally adrift
when it comes to the absolute code of what is right and wrong.
The majority today refused to live by the Holy Scriptures,
even though we're told in Matthew chapter 4, verse four,
man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word but
proceedeth from the word of God. And sadly, we're in a day when
people call good bad and bad good.
We live in a day whenever we reward the rule breaker, the
thief, the rapist, the murderer. We reject the rule maker,
ultimately God, as the governor of the universe, and we ridicule
and laugh to scorn the rule keeper.
Let me give an illustration. I want you to think of a crash.
I want you to think of a Nate Lane Highway in Miami.
I want you to think of a a Brinks Bank armoured truck
that's carrying loads of paper dollars and loads of coins 10s
of thousands of pounds worth. The crashes left the driver and
the Brinks officer on board lying dying at the side of the
road. They're bleeding and they're
bruised. It's rush hour traffic, and all
of a sudden this traffic stops. People get out of their cars.
Not to go over to where the two men are dying, bleeding and
bruised, but they're thinking about the bills and the coins
that are flying in the air and thousands stopped to scoop up
the cash. Here was the attitude.
Rationalisation took hold. My children are poor.
They're they're not going to starve.
Other people said well, well, the Lord let it happen.
It's a treat from heaven. There's lots of poverty in this
area. It's a miracle.
But it wasn't a treat. It was a test, a test of
character. And a firefighter who collected
something like $330,000 that day in a bag said this, that the
rich, the poor, the middle class, everyone has a
conscience. There was only a few that day
that came to return the money to the police station.
A fame McFadden, a woman who worked in a department store for
$5.00 an hour, she would did return some money.
A little boy returned $0.90 that he had collected, but there were
so very few returned that money. You see, each of us has a
conscience. Each of us have felt that
conscience working. Especially this is true when we
do say and things that are contrary to the law of God.
Remember God's law is written in our heart.
It was not the teaching of the apostle Paul in Romans chapter
2. He says this in verse 14.
For when the Gentiles which have not the law, do by nature the
things contained in the law, these having not the law or a
law unto themselves, which show the work of the law written in
their hearts, listen to this, their conscience also bearing
witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else
excusing one another. That's true of us all, rich,
poor, young or old, irrespective of culture, plea country that
you're from colour of her skin. See, the law of God is written
in our hearts and our conscience knows full well the high and
holy standard that God's holy law demands.
We know in our conscience what is right and wrong, but so often
we're like the people in the midst of that Christ.
We rationalise this is a treat from heaven.
No, it wasn't. It was a test, a test of their
character, a test would they bow the need a holy Scripture that
said thou shall not steal a, a, a, a test to to go to the dying
man and, and to see to them before they would think about
the dollar bill floating in the air or the coins sprinkling on
the ground. That's the acknowledgement of
1's conscience. I want you to think secondly, to
go back to our text, the awakening of their conscience.
You see, according to this text, we have some men, scribes and
Pharisees. They're called, it says, and
they which heard it, being convicted by their own
conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest even
unto the last. You see, John Bunyan called
conscience, Mr Recorder. In other words, conscience
stores a record of our sins against God, and every time we
have broken God's law and thought, word and deed, every
time we have dishonoured and profaned His holy name, every
time we have violated His divine justice and holiness, conscience
has a record of that. Conscience has a record of every
one of your sins, and mine and thought, word and deed, and not
one has been forgotten. Things done years ago, things
done and said in secret, things done and said in the darkness,
things done and said in the open, things that we no longer
are ashamed of or blush over. All will awaken, all will rise
up, and all will bear witness to accuse us or acquit us on that
last day. Things that long forgotten.
Let me illustrate again. Think of our computers that we
use now. Oftentimes when we use the
computer, we can erase or delete some part of our history and we
think it's gone. I I do that regularly, probably
about once a week. But I'm well aware that even
when I click the little button and it says that they, they, the
history has been cleared, that some tech guy that they like a
mark down there, he could take the computer and he using his
technological skills would be able to inform me that that
history and that memory is still there.
You see, if you have the skill and know how to retain and
recover data, you can bring it to the fore.
The police are able to do that. And these men, these men were
convicted by their conscience. What have they heard the Lord
Jesus say? He that is without sin among
you, let him first cast a stone at her.
Why did they depart? Why did none of them stand their
ground, having accused her of being taken in the act of
adultery? Why did they not stone her?
Here's the answer. They were convicted of a great
sin. And it's possible that even some
of these men who were there were guilty of adultery themselves.
And it's possible, and that's the view of the commentators, JC
Ryle, John Gill, and a whole host of others, that what the
Lord Jesus did when he wrote in the ground was right out in
Hebrew, the 7th commandment. And these were religious men,
respectable men, but they were guilty of a great sin.
And one of those sins may have been the sin of adultery.
And in their heart and mind, there was a, a feeling of guilt
and shame come to the fore. It'd been, it'd been awakened in
the end for, for a long time, their conscience was silenced.
And you know, for a long time, conscience can be largely
silenced. Conscience can be suppressed.
Let me suggest this morning Genesis chapter 42.
Here's Joseph's brothers arrive in Egypt, and God uses a series
of events to awaken the silent, sleepy, suppressed conscience of
Joseph's brothers. For 22 years they had papered
over a guilty conscience, their brother Joseph, out of sight,
out of mind. They they told themselves, they
assured others he was dead. They promoted the lie.
They'd said it often enough, it just ruled off their lips.
But for all that time they had papered over a guilty
conscience, life was comfortable.
And then God started the work. What happened?
Well, there was a bit of raw treatment.
The presence of a severe famine in the land of Canaan, Jacob
said to his sons go to Egypt. And the very mention of the name
Egypt awoke their conscience because they remembered they
sold their brother to the Midianites who were heading to
Egypt. And their face was a look of
fear and dread. And you can see that there from
Genesis chapter 42 and in the verse one, not only was there
raw treatment, but I believe, as I said on Wednesday night, there
was reciprocal treatment. When they arrived in Egypt to
see their brother Joseph. He knew them.
They didn't know him. What's the first thing he did?
He accused him of being spies. He spoke roughly to them.
Why did he accuse him of being spies?
Because he remembered the last time when he saw his brothers
face to face when he come to them bringing food to see how
they were doing in the land of Dauphin.
Remember, they said, here's the dreamer cometh.
He's come to spy on us. He's come to tell Daddy about
all our bad things that we're doing and all the evil words
that we have been speaking. He accused him of being spies.
You see, this is reciprocal treatment.
And not only that, they put Joseph into a pit, remember?
And what did Joseph do? He put all ten of them in prison
for three days, and then when all 10 got out of the prison,
Joseph said this nine of you can go home, but one of you will
stay. And the next time you see my
face, you bring your wee brother Benjamin to prove that you're
not spies and to prove you're not lying.
Can you get the picture for 22 years of silence, 22 years of
covering up their sin? You see, when that prison door
opened, this is what they said. Listen to these words, and they
said one to another. They remember 22 years of
silence, suppressing their conscience.
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. And Reuben answered them,
saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the
child, and ye would not hear. Therefore behold also his blood
is required. And the Bible tells us.
And they they knew not that Joseph understood them, for he
speak unto them by an interpreter.
They spoke in the Hebrew tongue. Joseph understood what they were
saying. God gave them time, time to
think, and for three days they obtained to think about their
sin. And at the end of the three days
they confessed that they were guilty, that they obtained to
learn that sinners consequences, time to remember God and their
accountability. To them 22 years had passed no
conscience. They had a a desire to kill
Joseph that they had no conscience in proposing to sell
them to the Midianites. They had no conscience in
keeping up the lie for 22 years, largely silent and stifled.
Let me say this. I know there's a difference in a
largely silent conference conscience and a totally seared
conscience. A totally seared conscience, as
the Bible talks about as one that's dead.
It has no feeling. It is never troubled, it is
never uneasy. So I want to ask this have you
stifled and silenced your conscience for years?
But you feel ashamed of some sin and guilt?
Maybe it's a lust, something on the Internet, maybe you have
denied God's existence or denied some cardinal doctrine, or
you've been disobedient to God's word in some particular area.
And you see many live like that, an open sin and defiance of God.
And that couldn't go on for twenty, 30-40 years.
And, and they won't talk about it.
And it's as if they've been drugged and, and, and, and and
duped as far as their conscience is concerned, Largely silent,
largely suppressed, but not completely.
And then all of a sudden, this largely silenced and stifled
conscience, this comes to the fore, and there's an awakening
of the conscience. Is your conscience awakened this
morning like Joseph's brothers? Are you convinced and convicted
of your own sin? Are you aware that your
conscience has come to life? See, many don't want to face up
to it. Belshazzar, didn't he?
There was no cry for mercy whenever the hand wrote on the
plister of the wall there, there was no thought.
Pray for me. No, no, He went on with the
party. Remember Pilot.
Pilot. He called for a basin of water,
tried to silence his conscience. Some have a seared conscience.
It's difference. Silencing your conscience,
stifling your conscience. I want you to say thirdly and
quickly here, the accusation of 1's conscience.
We could ask the question here, what was the chief cause of
these men's conscience to stir and awaken at this time?
What caused it to come to life? What caused it to begin to
accuse them? Where they felt guilty in their
heart when they felt a sense of shame, but when they sense a
felt of fear, and not one of them could throw a stone at the
woman, what caused their conscience to awaken?
Let me suggest to you very quickly here, it was the
presence of Christ, it says, and Jesus was left alone.
You want to think of Christ in the midst They were face to face
with Christ. He hears the one who searches
the heart. Jeremiah said the heart is
deceitful and above all things desperately wicked.
Who can know it? Who can look into the human
heart like the Lord Jesus? Who can read the thoughts in
your mind? Who can look you in the eye?
You see the Lord Jesus is present now.
He's meeting with us here. He's looking at you.
The Lord Jesus will be present when you die and stand at the
judgement. The Lord Jesus will be present
whenever you meet him face to face in the judgement.
And he can say, I know all about you because he knows now.
And if you feel that sense of shame and sense of wrongdoing
that fills your heart and mind and you're, you're saddened now
and your conscience is awake, then you need to repent and
believe in Christ. You, you need to turn to him.
Think not only of the presence of Christ, but think of the
preaching of Christ. What did he say?
He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone
at her. God has spoken.
It was the word of God, the Bible says, and they which heard
it, you see, there was the preaching of Christ here.
The Word of God was used to quicken their conscience.
And remember what we read in the book of Hebrews, in Hebrews
chapter 4 and verse 12, Speaking of the Word of God.
For the Word of God is quick. That means it's alive and
powerful and sharper than 92 edged sword, piercing even into
dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and
marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the
heart. Remember Peter preached in the
day of Pentecost, Acts chapter 2 verse 37, Peter full of the Holy
Ghost, preaching Christ, his death on the cross, preaching
his resurrection. And he said this to those that
were listening, him whom ye crucified.
And the word of God came with great power and, and they felt
deep conviction and they cried out, what must we do?
And he urged them to repent because they were pricked in
their heart, and to put their faith and trust in Christ as
Lord and Redeemer. In Acts chapter 2 and verse 37,
it says, Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their
heart and said unto Peter, and to the rest of the apostles, men
and brethren, what shall we do? And Peter said unto them,
repent, be baptised everyone of you, in the name of the Lord
Jesus. For the remission of sins, you
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
But think also of this this morning, the power of Christ.
Here you see, I believe the power of the Holy Spirit was at
work. This was a Spirit anointed
sermon over there in John's gospel, in John chapter 16, and
we read in verse 8. And when he has come, that's the
Holy Spirit. He will reprove the world of sin
and of righteousness and of judgement.
Reprove the word of three things, sin, righteousness, and
judgement of sin because they believe not in me, Of
righteousness because I go to my Father and you see me no more.
Of judgement because the Prince of this world is judged.
Their conscience accused them about their sin, this great sin
that they'd committed, because the power of the Spirit was at
work, as well as the presence of Christ and the preaching of
Christ. But it was the power of Christ
in the Spirit in the Shakespeare play, Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare
plays called Macbeth. Whenever there was the murder of
King Duncan, she couldn't sleep and she rose in the night to
wash her hands, and she would dip her hands in a basin of
water for 15 minutes and sometimes for 30 minutes.
And she kept looking at her hands and she could see the
stain of the blood that was there.
Her doctor tried to help her. Her lady in waiting tried to
help her, but her mind was impacted with a terrible sense
of guilt. She was guilty and it was
terrifying to watch. In 1859, many boys and girls at
school, many men in working in fields, some in carried off here
in the cobbled courtyard outside the Orthodox Presbyterian
Church, people in their homes and their factories.
The fear of God came upon them and the first thing they became
aware of was their sin. And even the children at Irish
Society School behind the wall were crying.
Oh, my sin, my sin. What had happened?
There was an accusation of 1's conscience.
Something of the presence of Christ, the preaching and the
power of Christ and the Spirit caused them to feel a need, an
impulse, a desire. I must get right with God.
I need the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, one final thing.
This morning you've been very patient.
Think of the acquittal of 1's conscience.
See, let me ask this question and it's this.
If these men have asked where can a guilty conscience find
peace, we would have to say to them peace through the preaching
of the cross. Remember what we read there in
the book of Corinthians, in First Corinthians chapter 1 and
in the verse 21. The apostle Paul says this.
For after that and the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom, you
not go to please God by the felices of preaching to see of
them that believe. William Gladstone, a great
statesman of a former era and Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom, said this. This thing I have against the
clergy in the city and the clergy in the country is this,
that they're not severe enough in their congregation, they're
not sufficiently laying upon their souls and conscience of
their hearts, their moral obligation and the probing of
their heart that brings up their whole life, their whole actions
to the bar of conscience. Now that's what Gladstone said.
He had somewhat against the clergy in the country and in the
city that they weren't preaching and applying the word and a
scrutinising effect to bring about real repentance in the
putting away of sin. And that statement come about
actually because of a man called Lord Melbourne.
I don't know if he was a minister of Parliament or not,
but he went out of church one Sunday morning, region near,
took the door from him and he was protesting himself,
supported that church all along. I'll never be going back into
that church. I'll never set foot through it,
not even from a funeral. What?
What on earth happened? The man applied religion to my
life. Well, it's not the job of the
preacher. When we preach the cross, we're
calling for repentance and recognition of sin.
We're calling to kneel at the feet of Christ and receive Him
as Lord and Saviour. I want you to think not only of
the preaching of the cross, but the pardon of the cross.
And with us we finish. Let me give you this text of
Scripture and this illustration over there in the book of
Colossians. In Colossians chapter 1 and in
the verse 20, we read this tremendous statement.
Think of these words. And having made peace through
the blood of his cross, by him, to reconcile all things unto
himself, by him, I say, whether there be things in earth or
things in heaven. I want you to think of a young
student. She's a young girl, 1960s in
America. Her name's Anne Parr.
Her student protest was probably about the Vietnam War at that
time. Her involvement deepened in the
student protest and sadly it went into an act of terrorism.
I think it was in Brighton and Massachusetts.
There was a bank robbery. A police officer was shot dead.
Most of the gang was caught and charged with first degree
murder. But there was one lady in the
gang who was never caught. Her name was Anne Parr.
With the help of others, she changed her name, changed her
identity, lived in different parts of the United States of
America. And after, I think it was the
best part of 23 years, the FBI gave up and they closed the
case. They were never going to define
this woman called Anne Park. Nobody knew anything about her
or where she had gone to. They just assumed that she had
left the United States of America altogether when that
woman was middle-aged, 23 years after the event.
She's older now, middle years, maybe wiser.
Listen to me as I finish, because I want you to think of
the power of the cross here. I want you to think of the
pardon of the cross. Her conscience stirred.
She couldn't live with herself. She was depressed.
She was on medication. She was deeply troubled.
She couldn't sleep. She went to classes.
She went to counsellors. Nobody could help her.
And she said, I'm going crazy here because all she could
remember was the bank robbery that had gone wrong and the
murder of a policeman. And she felt and believed she
had blood in her hands. And you know what she did?
She walked into the police station.
She confessed all to the astonished Sergeant.
At the police station. She told them, I'll accept
imprisonment, I'll accept the death penalty if I can find
relief for my conscience. On September 1993 and the 15th
of September, she was convicted of an armed robbery and for
involvement in the killing of a police officer.
The trial was shocking, but this is what she said at her trial.
The death, the murder of the policeman was so shocking that I
cannot any longer excuse my conscience and I'm willing now
to accept my responsibility. She was a guilty striven woman
and did she find relief? Did she find help and peace?
She did and there was only one place through the preaching of
the cross. She found peace at the cross
through the power of the blood, and the Bible tells us this as I
finish. The blood of Jesus Christ His
Son cleanseth us from all sin and no matter what your sin is,
no matter what you've done, even it's the deepest crime, the
vilest offender who truly believes that woman from Jesus a
pardon receives if you come with your guilt, own up to your
responsibility and say Lord have sinned.
I've broken your law. I've done this, I've done that
and kneel at the cross. Don't hide your sin.
Don't cover it up because your conscience will come to the
fore. Discover this morning the
acquittal of your conscience is connected to Christ and His
cross and his blood shedding by the knee to Christ.
Amen. The Lord bless you this morning.
Thank you for.