Join us with Jeff Pollard to discuss how to understand the power and the constraints on the conscience. We discuss fundamental principles to handle our conscience and the different conscience controversies. Do you trample the consciences of others? Is your conscience your God?

� to the Church and Family Life podcast. The Church and Family Life exists to proclaim the sufficiency of scripture. Hey, before we get into it, we would really like to invite you to our national conference called the Chief End of Man. What is man's chief end? Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

And then right before that, it's a conference for the whole family or any single people who wants to come. But we also have a singles conference as a pre-conference on May 3rd. We'll have Paul Washer and others speaking there. Hope you can make it. And we're here to talk about a difficult subject on the conscience and what does a sufficient scripture say about this thing that God has put in every human being to guide them in their way through life.

Now I encountered a conversation with Jeff Pollard recently where he told me he had preached over 30 messages on the on the conscience and I thought I don't I don't think I know too much about this. And so we started talking � and Jason it's been a long time so it's good to see you yeah so you know Jeff is a pastor at Mount Zion Bible Church in Pensacola Florida and he operates a wonderful ministry called Chapel Library. And Jeff, one of the ministries of Chapel Library is the Free Grace Broadcaster. This is published on a regular basis on really remarkable subjects. He just did one on the conscience and you know he collects up writers like A.W.

Pink, Richard Sibbs, John Flavel, J.C. Ryle and Spurgeon on the conscience. I think it's a subject that most people are confused about. I think I had some confusion about it and I probably still do because it's a very, very deep and difficult matter. But we've got Jeff on the line here and you know the problem is is that people have matters of conscience On controversial matters.

Of music, of styles of worship, of games, of alcohol, of modesty. Details of the Lord's observance. I mean it's difficulties. And we are not really here just to try to unpack those. What we really want to do is just give some of the general principles and cover some of the passages of scripture that that deal with it and the problem is we we have seared consciences we have defiled consciences We have unformed consciences by the Word of God.

Our consciences were formed by all kinds of stuff. All of us are subject to that. So it really does make it complex. So but we're really, really thankful that you're here, Jeff. So let's start with this question.

What is the conscience? Well, there is a bewildering array of definitions from a variety of sources. To define conscience, I began in my studies with Acts chapter 23 verse 1, Paul said to the Sanhedrin, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. Paul chose a Greek word which standard Greek lexicons define as the inward faculty of distinguishing right and wrong. The inner faculty of distinguishing right and wrong.

So a faculty in that sense is an inward power that is part of our created nature. We are created by the Almighty and we are created in his image. This is part of our humanity. When we consider how the Old Testament and the New Testament scriptures use the concept of conscience, we may define it as the ability of our understanding, the Ability of our understanding by which we are internally aware of what we believe to be Right and wrong Now the words what we believe is right and wrong are crucial. That's the matter always.

So our conscience is like everything else about our humanity. It is fallen, it is deeply infected and affected by our sin now because of that we might believe that things that are wrong are right and things that are right are wrong god warned powerfully by the prophet isaiah woe unto them that call evil good, and that call good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness. One of the great struggles even for believers is that we can do that as well. If our mind, our conscience is misinformed, If we misunderstand the scripture on a particular subject, we can call something evil good, or we can call something good evil. I would say, generally speaking, in America today, the church is calling evil good.

And I would just like to submit that one of the reasons is that the scripture is not regarded as sufficient. Now the conscious, the conscience is insufficient. It's helpful. It can be blessed by God, informed by God, but the conscience is not sufficient, God and His word is sufficient. Okay, so what reprompted you to go to such a great lengths to dive in for so long in over 30 sermons.

You can get them on sermon audio. Go to sermon audio. You can listen to Jeff sermons on the conscience and then write a, you know, write a free grace broadcaster on it. What was it that prompted you to do such a thing? I've never known anybody to do it.

Well, revelation chapter 19 at verse six proclaims, to the Lord God omnipotent reigneth and in our sovereign Lord's wise and loving rule he sent a great disruption to our congregation in 2021. A member of our congregation pursued a personal desire, fully aware that such a pursuit and the doctrine used to justify that pursuit was controversial and would go against the consciences of some of our members. Now the person was theologically competent, had a mind full of scripture, but the stumbling block which that individual set before the blood-bought people of God spiritually stumbled and wounded many in Christ's congregation here, though when the pursuit and the desire were accomplished, the individual left the congregation. Many adults but especially young people and children were brokenhearted, they were confused, angry, downcast and discouraged. Worst of all, the piece of Christ's Church was shattered.

So � ً and our sad disruption. ً ً There was little to no love nor concern ً ً for the consciences of God's people ً ً the God in His mercy works all things together for good. So I'll tell you four quick things that were good that have arisen from it so far. There were many more, but it exposed several of my weaknesses as a pastor. �s as a pastor, especially my understanding of the Bible's take on conscience, AND IT BROUGHT ME TO REPENT OF MY SINFUL FAILINGS.

SECONDLY IT CORRECTED AND INFORMED MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHURCH'S SPIRITUAL CONDITION AND THE STATE OF THEIR OWN CONSCIENCES. THIRDLY it made me extremely aware of how subtle Satan's warfare can be against a congregation, especially impitting consciences against one another. And finally, it moved me to study the subject of conscience. I'd never heard anybody preach on it, except years ago I heard someone do a few messages on Romans 14. But it was more about can I go to the movies?

Can I celebrate Christmas? And it didn't get down to some of the really vital things that are included in that subject. Jeff, what was modified in your thinking as you engaged this subject? You said that it revealed some weakness in your own understanding. That's what I felt when we had our conversation.

I felt like I have a really weak understanding of this subject. What particularly � in your thinking. Well, with the individual in question here, there was a regular appeal to that person's conscience. And there were moments when I found that clearly in conflict with what the church believed. Now this is not unusual, everybody doesn't always believe the same things in a congregation, but the constant appeal to my conscience, my conscience, my conscience, It almost came to the point that the conscience of that person was God.

And so this was really troubling to me at the same time there were other people in the congregation that were they were upset exactly like we knew from the beginning, when it began to spread through the congregation. There were going to be people that would be very deeply troubled, by the issue at hand. So all of that just, it disturbed me greatly because for years I have tried to oversee the sheep. I've tried to watch for cracks in the foundation of our fellowship and all of that. But when this hit, this was just entirely off my radar screen.

So I really had to start thinking, praying and repenting. You know, this matter of the conscience becoming God, I have seen this before, and I've heard about it. � I've seen this before. But on the one hand, we've encouraged husbands not to force the conscience of their wife to be tender with their, maybe tender conscience. So we don't, we don't want to force people against their conscience, but at the same time, their conscience isn't God.

So how are we supposed to work with those two difficult, almost competing sides to the problem of conscience? Well, that's a great question. And as I have wrestled through this, I would say first and foremost, something that everybody would probably just say, we all could have guessed that. But the fact of the matter, I think that American Christians are utterly ignorant of the word of God and the implications of what it means. Unfortunately, � a proof text here and there for everything they don't understand often the idea that the whole scriptures have to be considered and we take these issues to the the principles that arise because so many of the conscience controversies you know arise from well I think this and I think that and the Bible doesn't have a verse about this you know that kind of thing so let me let then let me put this to you This is something I was going to address that in another session.

But the first thing that we really have to grasp is that there are three things we have to consider. Number one, are we dealing with primary doctrine, doctrine that is in arguable that incarnate incarnation, the blood sacrifice cries is Secondary doctrine would be the issue of things like a credo baptism and a pedo baptism, when the Lord's going to return, pre, post, middle, those kinds of things. They're important because they're secondary doesn't mean they're not important. But they're not directly plugged into the issue of the gospel and our salvation. And finally, it's conscience controversy.

Conscience controversies generally � Arise from things that are not specifically commanded or prohibited in scripture and things get very confusing and very muddled in a hurry if people take a conscience controversy and treat it like primary doctrine. Sometimes even like secondary doctrine with every group with their their doctrinal understanding there's going to be some overlap. There's going to be things that we're now all going to agree go into a certain category. Generally speaking, that conscience controversy is not commanded or not prohibited specifically. So when you launched out on this journey, where did you start in the Bible?

Okay. Well, I began with the book of Acts and for the following reasons. The word conscience does not appear in the Old Testament, though the concept is there. It's often expressed by the word heart. And I mentioned the Old Testament passages later in that series of sermons, but I did not begin with the Old Testament.

Furthermore, the first appearance of conscience is in the New Testament in the Gospel of John chapter 7 verse 53 through chapter 8 verse 11. And that's a paragraph about the woman caught in adultery. Most modern translators don't believe that passage is the Word of God. I do, But I thought it would be wise to begin with the first indisputable passages. And that was two passages in the Book of Acts.

Why didn't you start with Romans 14? That's sort of the escape clause for every controversy? Well it is and I personally believe that it's one of the most abused chapters in the Bible. And I would say to a great degree It's because many don't really understand what it's there for. If I can say this before I answer your question, Romans 14 is often viewed, and I know some of the very few messages I ever heard about it, it's kind of like an addenda to the book of Romans.

Romans is all about justification by faith alone. And then, well, there seem to be some problems between the Jews and Gentiles. So, but I now utterly reject that thinking. Paul does what he does by establishing the gospel as the basis that both the Jews and the Gentiles need. And when he gets to chapters 14 and 15, this is a crescendo.

This is what he's been aiming at. Their unity is to be in Christ and they are to love as Christ loves the church. So it's one of the most important chapters in Romans and I think it's neglected and very much misunderstood. It generally just dwindles down into something like, may I watch television? And while that's an important discussion, Paul is talking about far greater things.

He's talking about the unity of the church of Jesus Christ. And he proves, you know, that the whole idea of the Gentiles being brought together with the Jews was God's eternal purpose. So you have these diverse cultures brought together under one body. So how do you describe your understanding of Romans 14 based on your study? Let me see.

Let me get just a little bit further along. Let me give a few basic comments on it and then if we end up with another session, I will give you more deeper thought about the structure of the chapter and what's there. Yeah, let's, I think that would be really good give us a give us a Forte's and then we'll jump into it in another podcast more deeply. It is absolutely one of Paul's most beautiful, stunning and profound moments of pastoral thinking. And if you read that chapter very carefully, he does speak of these stronger or weaker brethren.

� in that particular chapter is that Paul does not take sides. It's clear in chapter 15 that he says, we that are strong. So it's clear that he sides with those who are considered to be the strong ones. But the issue is most people, most commentators understand the weak to be the Jews because their minds are still tied to the Mosaic law and the strong are the Gentiles who were never under that law. And so their consciences are not bothered by what they eat.

So when you look at the theological background of both groups and see how Paul comes in, he never rebukes the weak ones for being weak, never does. He could say look Jews, I'm a Jew, straighten up, grow up, get out of that old test, that thing. He doesn't do that. He respects and loves their conscience and he tells the strong ones to love them. And then he does turn around and tell the weak now you stop judging you stop judging the ones that can eat those of you that are eating stop looking down on those who do eat and he refuses to take sides it's the same thing in first Corinthians so it's an astonishing astonishing piece of pastoral counsel And he ends by saying that which is not a faith is sin.

If you can't do it in faith, don't do it. And that's, I think that's absolutely crucial. And it's helpful. Also it says if you want to judge something, judge this. Don't put a stumbling block in the way of your brother.

Let's talk about that. Because I think that connects with the experience that you had. There was some level of causing stumbling. Yeah, I mean, a stumbling block could be something that isn't really so what what is a stumbling block the stumbling block is there are two kinds of stumbling blocks in the scriptures as far as distinct category there is the stumbling block which causes someone to sin and then there is the good stumbling block Jesus Christ God puts the stumbling block of Jesus Christ in the way of the sinner If they don't repent of their sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, they stumble over him into hell. So I focused primarily on sinful stumbling blocks, and the reason is because it is so apparent throughout the New Testament and again rarely mentioned.

Jesus says very very plainly that anyone that causes one of the little ones that believes on him that they should have a rope tied to a gigantic grinding stone and thrown into the midst of the sea. Now I don't know how many people actually sit and think about if I caused my brother or sister to to stumble. The Lord Jesus says I ought to be drowned. I have a millstone I have a millstone in the entry of my property just to remind all of us of that. I'll send you the picture of it.

Thank you. Let me throw in while you were very gracious to mention the, the free grace broadcaster on conscience, the one on stumbling blocks goes right along. So, oh yes, that is good. Yeah. I read that one too.

Thanks. Yeah. So, so let me just say when it comes to the issue of stumbling blocks, I was astounded at how many opportunities the stumbling block was set by the individual who set a huge one before us. And it took me studying, praying to actually begin to see it with clear eyes. We can look at things and not realize exactly the profound effect of what we've put in front of people actually produces.

If I can put it to you this way, a stumbling block is anything. It can be a good thing, but a good thing handled the wrong way. Anything that we put before someone else we can stumble lost people but the worst is to stumble Christ people. If we set a stumbling block before them what it is at is something that causes us to stumble and it can cause us to stumble. � them to sin or even just the occasion to sin.

So that's what it is. You see it all through chapters eight, nine, and ten in first Corinthians and then again in Romans chapter 14 and Paul uses the strongest language he says don't destroy your brother over what you eat that would sound crazy if you sit and think about it for very long but that's we can put stumbling blocks in front of people without any desire whatsoever to hurt them amen okay so we're going to we're going to conclude this session and we're going to do another one � you so much and we'll see you on the next podcast. Wonderful, thank you. Thanks and thank you for joining us on the Church and Family Life podcast.