How to Keep the Gospel on the Throne of Conscience

Test, test, test, test. I'm always recommending books in our class here on essential truths of the Christians' Walk, and I have to recommend this one again, Luther's Commentary on Galatians. And there's a lot of wonderful endorsements of this book. One of my favorite endorsements is by the author of Pilgrim's Progress. This is what John Bunyan said about.

this little green book in my hand here. John Bunyan said, I do prefer this book accepting the whole Bible before all other books I've ever seen. That's a pretty high endorsement, isn't it? It's about as high as you can get. So just a couple observations.

I mean, the preface is worth the price of the book, and it's only a nine-page preface. So let me read a couple of things to you from the preface here. The history of the Catholic churches shows that the constant trend toward the enforcement of law, the binding of consciences, and the introduction of rights. In other words, this is why we need to keep reviewing that righteousness comes by faith. Because built into our very natures, our lower natures, is the Galatian heresy that righteousness can come by our works.

And there is a righteousness which justifies, and that is Christ's righteousness, and there's a righteousness which sanctifies, and that's us obeying Christ as those already justified. And so Luther's whole book here is to distinguish between the righteousness that justifies and the righteousness that sanctifies. Very important. He goes on to say here, for in the righteousness of faith, we work nothing. We render nothing unto God, but we only receive and allow another to work in us.

That is to say, God and Christ. Therefore, it seemed good unto us to call this righteousness of faith the passive righteousness. Here's a man whose life is threatened. Catholicism has a stranglehold on all of Europe, and God is going to use this one little grubby German guy to turn things around. And again, he says, there's no comfort of the conscience so firm and so sure as this passive righteousness that's found in Christ.

For the troubled conscience in view of God's judgment has no remedy against desperation unless it takes hold of forgiveness of sins by grace freely offered in Christ. This is the passive faith or Christian righteousness. He says he abandons himself from all active righteousness which the law bids him to perform. He abandons himself from that both of my own and God's law and embrace only that passive righteousness which is the righteousness of grace, mercy, and forgiveness of sins in Christ. So I just highly recommend that.

I just highly recommend this to you. So this book is all about distinguishing between the righteousness of law and the righteousness of faith. The righteousness of law can't justify you, can't give you a position before God. There's so many good quotes in here. Oh, I like this.

There's no middle ground, there's nothing in between the righteousness of law and Christian righteousness. There's no middle ground. There's no mean that is in between. And so he's always exhorting us, don't stray away from Christian righteousness. Now, that said, we're not making an enemy out of the law.

I mean, what does Paul say about the law? In the very books he's writing on grace, what does Paul say about the law? Let me give you some summary things. You don't have to turn there, but this is what Paul says about the law. the law, the law is the established standard of God.

We establish the law, he says, in Romans 3.31. So after all that about righteousness in Christ, he says, we establish the law. In other words, as the standard of righteousness. He says the law is spiritual and the law is holy, he says, in Romans 7, 12, and 14. And the law is the very shape of love and holiness, Romans 138.

so we do not dare attack the law. All we're saying is what Paul is saying in Romans 8.3, the law cannot give me a right standing with God. It cannot sanctify me because it is weak through the flesh. Law is wonderful, it's powerful, it's the revelation of God's righteousness, but it's weak through the flesh, and therefore it can't give us a standing, it can't produce works that God accepts as meritorious, and it cannot sanctifies. and so we exalt the law as holy as the very shape of holiness and love, but it cannot commend us to God.

Well, how difficult is it to keep the gospel on the throne of your conscience? It's difficult. Otherwise, the author of Hebrew would not have said, Hebrews would not have said in Hebrews 4-11. If you'll turn there with me, Hebrews 4-11, Hebrews chapter 4 verse 11, the author says, and this whole context has been, hold fast your confession, don't harden your hearts, keep submitting to God. Verse 11, let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience.

and it's interesting in Hebrews chapter 3 disobedience and unbelief are used as synonyms disobedience and unbelief are used synonymously in Hebrews chapter 3 and so that heart-hardening activity of the Jews while they were in the wilderness is what the author is alluding to here but he's applying this to new covenant Christians that's us he's saying look you new covenant Christians you must be diligent to enter that rest because there is a Sabbath rest for the people of God. Verse 9. There's a Sabbath rest for the people of God. And the whole point of the book of Hebrews is this. Christ Jesus himself fulfills all the Old Testament types, shadows, and symbols.

He is the fulfillment. Therefore, Christ is your Sabbath. He is your place of rest. And so the whole thrust of Hebrews chapter 4 is, you must labor to enter gospel rest. That's not contrary to grace.

all he's saying is that keeping the gospel central in your thinking is a spiritual discipline you have to cultivate. Labor, my friends, this is paradoxical, that rest comes from labor. Labor to enter that rest. Labor to enter gospel rest. And that's our theme this morning.

I'm just going to drive home this premise that this is a spiritual discipline. To keep the gospel enthroned upon your conscience is a way of educating your conscience, and it's a spiritual discipline to keep resting in Christ. It's so amazing, and it's this really connects well with Pastor Scott's sermon this morning, that as you reckon those mercies, as you keep laboring to enter Christ's rest, he is your Sabbath. Out of that come works of gratitude. Well, everything seems to be working against keeping the gospel on the throne of your conscience.

The world, the flesh, the devil, the pains and trials of life, your emotional ups and downs, the fact that people flatter you for your achievements, people criticize you for your failures, all these things seem to be pushing you in the direction of some sort of bookkeeping of conscience that's based upon your achievements. I mean, that's how life is structured down here. we have promotions based upon achievement. In fact, a promotion that's not based upon achievement is accused of being favoritism, nepotism, or something else. All our promotions are based upon achievement.

But suddenly, our standing with God is based upon Christ's achievement, not our own. And that's why it's so counterintuitive. That's why it's so difficult to keep the gospel on the throne of conscience, because all of our experience down here is based on performance. Now, I had an experience yesterday to escape the heat. We had some birthdays in our family, so I took my wife and daughter to Malibu.

And I talked to the lifeguard. He said, this entire beach is board surfing only, and I see you have a boogie board. But I'll let you go in this little tiny area right here. You can boogie board in the shallows right here. I did this.

I did not to do that. But I saw this one board surfer guy. He's reading a book. He's got his wetsuit on. He's got his long board next to him.

That guy about 30. So I walked up to him and I said, do you think that lifeguard's correct? Are these board surfers going to be hostile toward a lowly sponge rider like me? And he goes, no, no, they'll be friendly. They're cool.

The surf's terrible today, so they don't mind if you go out there. Well, as I got talking to this guy, I saw that he was maybe warming up to the idea of conversation. And so I got talking to him and found out he was an attorney to work some Beverly Hills. We got talking about, and you'd be surprised who goes to the beach in Malibu. I got talking to him, and I found out he was with the largest talent law firm in the world, and he represents Conan O'Brien.

So I continued to witness to this guy. We talked about philosophy, and I talked to him for an hour. And every time I'd say something, your presupposition is about worldview is your criteria for judging whether something's accurate or not. Good point. but he had about eight of those good point things back at me and finally at the end of the conversation he just goes well bottom line j i'm not interested in truth and he said that not even in a religious context he says bottom line jay i'm not even interested in truth well i never got to the part of the discussion where i said my friend truth with a capital t is a person it's jesus christ that's the real issue as soon as you say i'm not interested in truth you're basically saying, I am God and I reject God's son who is the truth incarnate.

That's basically what you're saying. And this guy, he flatters his conscience in a particular way. And he gave me his conscience balancing method. Listen to this. This is what he said to me.

At the end of the day, I take great satisfaction in knowing I've done more good than harm. Okay, now that's how he balances his conscience. That's his bookkeeping of conscience. out the ledger of his conscience, looks at that spreadsheet and concludes that, and that's how he bribes his conscience. Will that stand on Judgment Day?

No, he's openly rejecting that only hiding place and refuge in Christ. I thought that bring up in class today because I want you to know that how people handle their conscience is a revelation of whether or not Christ is on the throne and whether the gospel's enthroned there. This is a really keen insight when you're witnessing. I go for the conscience as soon as possible because I want to know how that person is dealing with their conscience. Everybody has a defiled conscience.

It's a place of turmoil, and the issue is, what's your method for bringing peace to your conscience? Well, if he's not interested in truth, then the guy is engaged in open bribery. He's not really balancing his conscience by the only place conscience balance can come from, the finished work of Christ. well Jesus accused the Pharisees of being self-justifiers that's a form of bribing the conscience he says this in Luke 1029 and 1615 that these are people who justify themselves they engage in an activity where they bribe their conscience I think of an example that I read the other day be patient with me if I've told you this several times I tend to repeat repeat myself a lot. But a farmer walked around the backside of his barn and there was a boy with a bow and arrow and there's like 20 arrows in the side of the barn.

And every single one of them was in the bullseye of a chalk target. And so the farmer asked the young boy, how in the world did you hit the bull's eye on all 20 those arrows? And the boy goes, it was easy. I shot the arrow. Then I drew the target around where it hit.

Point being, that's almost a perfect illustration of trying to manage your conscience by law. You pick something that you're naturally good at. I don't care if it's research, reading, charity, having people like you, being funny, you pick something that you're naturally good at, and then you draw a chalk target around it and say, see, I'm achieving my own standards. When I go witnessing to people at CalArts, they always say that. I am achieving or trying to achieve my own standards.

I've set up my own ethics. I've set up my own ethics. That's like drawing a chalk target around the arrow you just shot. See, Jesus nailed the Pharisees for this. Listen to what he says in Matthew 23, 23 and 24.

Woe do you scribes and Pharisees and hypocrites. You tithe mint and dill and cumin, but you've neglected the weightier provisions of the law, justice, mercy, and faithfulness. So when we try to quiet our conscience because if something we accomplish, that's like tithing mint when we're neglecting. What? Justice, mercy, and faithfulness.

That's the very heart of the law, and that's what they were neglecting. So Jesus likens their selective obedience to straining in a gnat and swallowing a camel. In other words, you overlook the great weightier commands of the law, and then the way you're balancing your conscience is by saying, well, I tithe my mint today. See, this is where every unsaved person is at. They bribe their conscience with selective obedience.

But God commands universal obedience. So attempting to manage your conscience by means of law always involves a radical departure from universal obedience. That's a term that was used by the great divines that preceded us. Universal obedience means all the things that God commands and your relationship with him and others and your community, your whole life. is universal obedience.

But to choose selective obedience as a way of trying to quiet the conscience is lowering the market. It's dumbing down God's requirements so your conscience can have this pseudo-piece is really what it is. Now, all false religion, I'm at the bottom of page three here if you're looking at your notes. All false religion, letter D, all false religion incorporates the management of conscience by law. Of course, that's a futile exercise.

You can't really manage the conscience by law, but all false religion attempts to do that. So we could say that if you're trying to manage your conscience by the works of the law, you think you can protect yourself from God by certain moral things you do. You think you can represent yourself before God because, like my friend on the beach, Mike the attorney, he's doing more good than harm at the end of the day. Represent yourself before God, protect yourself from God, obligate God with your moral and religious efforts. And finally, number four, you think, this isn't in your notes, this is my side notes, you think that by the works of the law, you can service some of your debt to God and let Christ make up for the rest.

Now, dear people, I'll repeat those. Protect yourself from God, represent yourself before God, obligate God, remove some of your debt to God, beloved, the gospel kills all four of those instincts. If you're a saved man or woman, then you want those instincts slain by the gospel. The cross of Jesus Christ kills all four of those and you want the gospel enthroned in your conscience. You don't want to do the bookkeeping of your conscience by your works.

It's so critical we understand this. The law is there to close every mouth, to remove every rationalization, every alibi, and to make the whole world red-handed guilty before God. So the law is God's great instrument of cross-examining us to show us that our works do not count toward standing with God. I think I mentioned the last couple of weeks that when I share my faith with my Roman Catholic friends, often they will say something like this. Well, praying to Mary can't hurt.

It can only help. Or going to Mass can't hurt, it can only help. Or praying the rosary can't hurt, it can only help. That's because they're trying to achieve a righteousness based upon adding all their efforts together with Christ's efforts. And they're hoping that the product of the two coming together will give them acceptance with God.

But see, if you're truly a Christian, not only are you esteeming the righteousness that comes from Christ, you are repudiating all false sources of righteousness. Turn in your Bibles with me to Philippians chapter 3. This is vital in keeping the conscience, keeping the gospel enthroned in your conscience. It's critical that we see this. verse 8 Philippians chapter 3 Philippians 3 8 more than that I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ so you can't have the mercies of God unless you know Christ Christ does not give the benefits of his work apart from his person all those mercies heaped upon the saved person are not commodities that exist separate from Christ.

He, as your high priest, is distributing the merits of what he's purchased. You can't have those merits without knowing him, bowing the need of him, and wanting his love. Those merits do not exist separate from him. So that's why he says, the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I might gain Christ. Now we're going to home in on a theme here in verse 9, that to have the righteousness that comes from Christ is to reject and to repudiate all other proposed places of merit or righteousness or safety.

And may be found in him not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. So, keeping the gospel enthroned on your conscience means you must keep repudiating all other proposed forms of righteousness or sources of righteousness to give you right standing. It's Christ alone. And see, my dear Catholic friends won't do that. Yes, Coral.

good absolutely. In fact, this Coral just shared here, for the sake of the recording, Coral just shared here that this strikes at the issue because the universalist suggests that there's righteousness for many places, your altruism, your charity, perhaps being a peace core worker, that the righteousness can come from many sources. But our text says, from Christ alone, and therefore we must repudiate all of that. proposed sources of righteousness, they must come from Christ alone. That means you can't have that righteousness without bending the knee to him who loves sinners dearly.

We must bow the knee to him. That righteousness is distributed by him. He's the mediator of the new covenant. That means he distributes the benefits of what he purchased. Now I like what Luther said about Romans 724, wretched man that I am.

Well, Luther's paraphrase describing his own tendency was this, O wretched merit-monger that I am. Who will deliver me from my lust for law? I'll repeat that. Oh, wretched merit-monger that I am, who will deliver me from my lust for law? So here's Luther, the champion of grace, the champion of justification by faith, and yet he saw that tendency in his flesh to be a merit-monger, to always be collecting merit and taking credit for it.

so beloved it's difficult this is a spiritual discipline to keep the gospel enthroned on your conscience it is a labor all right i'm going to take you through quite a few verses today if you go to uh romans 11 you see only when you've tasted the mercy of god through the gospel can you affirm what Paul is saying in verse 35, Romans 11 35 and 36. Only when you've tasted infinite grace can you agree with verses 35 and 36. Oh, or who has first given to him that it might be paid back to him again. For from him and through him and to him are all things to him be the glory forever, amen. In other words, it's impossible to obligate God.

There's nothing you can do. Now, we had a dear Catholic friend coming to a Bible study we had in San Diego for a year, and at the end of the year, I hope he's saved today, but at the end of the year, he still was not a regenerate man, and he said this, it is my dearest hope to someday die for Christ. This is a guy who's trusting in his commitment to Catholicism, and yet he wants to be a martyr. I go, why is that so? Why is that the case?

He goes, because I think that God would look on my willingness to die for him as a source of measuring my commitment and my love and my righteousness. He's even willing to shed his own blood, but he won't take solace in Christ's blood. Isn't that amazing? This is how deep it goes into our nature. but when you have when you've tasted grace through the gospel you can say along with paul here everything is from him through him and to him it's impossible to obligate god absolutely impossible well does that mean that god is simply tolerating us down here i mean sometimes when the gospel's not on the throne of conscience we imagine that that's the way it is god is just tolerating me it's just one week of failure to the next that's not the case.

He's poured out grace like a Niagara Falls. He's used grace to showcase his righteousness. He's made his righteousness the cause of giving you righteousness as a gift. You see, the more you study Romans, the more exciting that becomes that God has made his own righteousness the cause of giving you righteousness for free. His own righteousness is in action in giving you righteousness as a status.

That means, in order to keep the gospel on the throne of conscience, you must keep consenting that Christ is your representative. You must stop trying to represent yourself, stop trying to obligate God, stop trying to protect yourself from God by your works and service. You must keep consenting to have Christ represent you. It's all about consenting to have Christ as your representative. This lets God be God.

Because not only is Christ upholding God's reputation, he's also upholding you by giving you righteousness that he purchased. This is an amazing equation. Christ upholds God's reputation by giving you the righteousness he purchased under the government of God. So we must learn to speak these things to ourselves, preach these things to ourselves, because the gospel enthroned on your conscience does more than just give you the gift of peace. It also lets you enjoy fellowship with Christ.

See, the Christian who keeps the gospel and throne on the conscience is always thinking about the fact Christ traded places with me. Not just to get me out of hell, but Christ traded places with me so that I could have unbroken communion with my God who loves me. See, that has to be the bottom line. It's not just, okay, debtor's ethic. He did all this for you.

The least you can do is this for him. He did all this for you. The least you can do is take something out of your wallet, put it in the tray. No, it's grace bringing you into a love relationship. It's grace clearing all the obstacles away for a love relationship with God.

And your spiritual worship of service is to pursue fellowship and communion with him. That's our response in the new covenant. Keep seeking him. because the gospel gives you every speck of permission you need to keep going to God for love, to keep going to him for grace, to keep going to him for fellowship and intimacy and satisfaction. See, if I look at myself, I don't see any reasons to go to God for love and satisfaction.

I look at the gospel, all the reasons are there to go to God for love, fellowship, grace, satisfaction, restorations, renewals, refreshments, revivals. the gospel gives me all those reasons. I better keep it on the throne of my conscience. Otherwise, my conscience will argue for the disqualification of me receiving, renewals, revivals, love, grace, and intimacy. All right, another text, turn in your Bibles with me to Colossians 315.

Colossians 315. I'm going to argue from this text that keeping the gospel on the throne of your conscience is a spiritual discipline commanded of you. It's almost like God is saying, I'm commanding you, be happy in me, commanding you. All right, Colossians 3, 15. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful.

Well, that Greek word there, rule, is the word for arbitrate. It's the word. for an umpire making a call. So here's our paraphrase. Let the peace of Christ make the call next time your peace is under attack.

Let the peace of Christ make the call next time your peace is having its door kicked down by your circumstances or your failures. Let the peace of Christ be the umpire and make the call next time you're getting beat up by temptation and failure. Brethren, I see this as a commandment. You've got to let the gospel be on the throne of your conscience if the peace of Christ is going to make the call. If the peace of Christ is going to function as this authoritative umpire, then you've got to make a decision.

I will enthrone the gospel in my conscience. I'll let the gospel make the call. I'll let the peace Christ purchased make the call. even though life just throws at you, constant ups and downs. There's always somebody who's disappointing you.

There's always somebody who doesn't appreciate you. There's always somebody whose criticism of you is making you depressed this week. Let the peace of Christ make the call. See, this is really disciplining your conscience. Jake Ebenner and I were talking about the challenge of disciplining.

people between the ages of 18 and 22. And because they're living by screen culture, they have a screen on our phone, our iPod, our computer, everywhere there's screens. And so we're just assaulted with images. And because we're just assaulted with images, this lost art of meditating on Scripture is slipping away from us. And you see, you have to be able to be willing to meditate on Scripture and not look at an image.

Is that possible? for those of you out there today, between the ages of 18 and 22, have you ever gone two hours without looking at an image? It's kind of hard, isn't it, in this culture? But that's essential if you're going to meditate on Scripture, because God wants command of the screen up here and not just the ones in front of you. And so when you meditate on Scripture, God gets to have command of the screen up here.

Your mind's eye must envision the gospel on the throne of conscience. That's where your focus has to be. This is a spiritual discipline. You see, if you've got an uneducated conscience, I don't care if you have an MA degree or you're a graduate of some graduate school, your conscience needs education. You've got to educate your conscience by the gospel.

Your conscience is that great faculty that generates accusations. It constantly wants to disqualify you for love and favor and blessing. And you have to learn to educate your conscience by the gospel. and that means you'll have to preach to yourself. The gospel gives us all the reasons why Christ is our eligibility for everything we need.

And you have to keep educating your conscience by the gospel, telling yourself real objective justice has been done at the cross in the case of my failures this week. Real objective justice was done at the cross 2,000 years ago in the case of my failures today. my failures to love God and neighbor have been addressed decisively at the cross. You've got to speak that way to your conscience, educating your conscience. See, this is more than just personal private piety.

When the gospel's on the throne of conscience, Christ becomes your source person. He is exhibited to the eye of faith as everything you need for life and godliness. He's exhibited to the eye of faith as all you need in your standing before God. And see, that gives you permission to receive his love. Life is all about, am I lovable or not?

And the gospel keeps saying the qualification for God to love you ferociously has been accomplished by Christ. See, when you put the gospel on the throne of conscience, you're continually stunned how selflessly Christ loves the sin-sense. you and me. When the Gospels on the throne of conscience were continually blown away by that. I'm just amazed at how much Christ loves the sin sick.

All right, I've diverted here for my notes. I'm back on the top of page six. If you want to try to follow along here, I know it's been tough today. But at the moment of salvation, the Holy Spirit puts you into union with Christ. That means all the benefits of His purpose.

person, his incarnation, his perfect life, his substitutionary death, his resurrection, his ongoing priesthood, all those benefits are now your possession, they're your property. If you're united to Christ, everything Christ is and all he's done and all he's doing are yours. And we've got to preach that to ourselves. We have to say, conscience, get an education. Christ is my eligibility.

Conscience, get an education. Christ is my qualification. All I need is provided by him. He exchanged places with me so that the issue of status and standing and acceptance could be done with. My relationship with God is settled in Christ once for all.

I've got to preach that to myself. That's the gospel ruling and reigning in the conscience. It's living out the fact Christ traded places with me so that my relationship could be settled. 2 Corinthians 521 but brethren we are tempted in another direction as was Luther 500 years ago here's his quote about the law crawling back up on the throne and evicting the gospel please listen to this let us diligently learn to judge between these two kinds of righteousness the righteousness by law which can't commend us to God and the righteousness by faith, trusting in the righteousness that Christ is accomplished. We've said before that the law and a Christian ought not pass its bounds, but ought to have dominion over the flesh.