Well, Greetings, everyone. It's a joy to be with you on this Lord's day morning. This is a very strange Lord's day morning because I'm looking out at only a handful of people. We've asked that people not come today because of the Coronavirus. And so this is going to be a little bit different, knowing that you're scattered all over, looking at the sermon this morning through the electronic media, just a word about the Coronavirus. We want to be cautious. We may do this again next Sunday. We're not real sure. But we will let you know. But I was thinking about the difficult times in which we live and especially in light of this virus that's going around and my mind went to Psalm 56, beginning in verse three, There we read, "When I am afraid I will put my trust in You. In God whose word I praise, in God, I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me?" And I hope that is the testimony of your heart. And likewise, in Isaiah 26, beginning in verse three, we read, "The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace." And I hope you have that steadfastness in mind. He went on to say, "because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for in God the Lord, we have an everlasting Rock." And so with those words of confidence and trust, knowing that God is in control of all things, let's just bow our heads in a word of prayer, as we prepare our hearts for his word this morning.

Father, it is a joy to be in your presence. And to be a part of this service that is being broadcasted to our dear saints scattered around. I pray that by the power of your Spirit, you will speak to each of our hearts I pray that your word will go forth with with clarity, and conviction and bring comfort and encouragement. And I pray above all that Christ will be honored and all that is said and done. So we commit ourselves to you this morning in Jesus name. Amen.

I've entitled my discourse to you this morning "The Testimony of our Conscience." And I would invite you to take your Bibles and turn to Second Corinthians chapter one. And we will be looking at verses 12 through 14. As we continue to make our way through this amazing epistle verse by verse. Let me read the passage to you. "For our proud confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom, but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you. For we write nothing else to you than what you read and understand. And I hope you will understand until the end; just as you also partially did understand us, that we are your reason to be proud as you also are ours in the day of our Lord Jesus."

So here, the apostle Paul speaks of this concept of the conscience. The term "conscience" in the original language describes that faculty within us that distinguishes between right and wrong, between good and evil. And the conscience will either exonerate or accuse a person depending upon what they have done. You might think of the conscience as the little what we call idiot lights in a car. When a little light comes on your dashboard, you know that something's awry, something needs to be examined, something is wrong. That's what our conscience does. And of course, we all know what it is to have a guilty conscience. When we violate some moral or ethical standard in our life, something that we believe to be right, our conscience bothers us. Maybe no one else knows. Maybe we've done something that we know is wrong. We wish we hadn't done it. But we did it and we feel guilty about it. And maybe your conscience is alarmed right now. Perhaps you're involved in something that is sinful, something that you're ashamed of and you would be horribly embarrassed if anybody found out about it. That is your conscience speaking to you. But what's really fascinating is that when we violate our conscience long enough, the guilt tends to go away. It reminds me of a time when I was with a friend, and he asked me to drive his old Chevy pickup truck. And I got in, he got in on the other side and as I turned on the engine and started down the road, I noticed that there was a little light that came on the dashboard, something like, check engine soon or whatever. And I said, "Oh my did you know that your engine light is on?" And his response was, "oh, yeah, I know, that thing's been on for years. I don't pay any attention to it, I just ignore it." So I said, Okay. So sometimes people do that in their conscience. And eventually, they pay no attention to the light whatsoever. You see, your conscience will only hold you to the highest moral and ethical standards that are in your mind; that are in your heart. But if you ignore it long enough, those standards no longer have any authority in your life. And we all know people that can do things, and we would say seemingly, they have no conscience. I'm reminded of a Indian friend of mine, a Canadian, first; First Nations Indian, as they call them, up in Canada, a man that was an ex-con, he came to saving faith in Christ while he was in prison. And I remember talking to him about his background, he said that when he was a little boy, he watched his father and watched his mother shoplift and steal things here and there. And his father said to said to him, "Look, we have suffered at the hand of the white man for so long, it's not wrong to steal from them." And unfortunately, this was bothering the little boy's conscience. But when he heard that, he began to change his mind a little bit. And he said that his father also told him that, that after all, people get money from insurance companies. And so it's not like they're losing out on anything. And so with that example, and with that explanation, his moral, his ethical standards, were gradually lowered sufficiently to silence his accusing conscience. And so he would do the same things. His stealing gradually went from shoplifting to more expensive items, he began stealing things like chainsaws and trucks and cars, from ranchers, even horses and cows. And eventually he got caught and had to go to prison. But I remember one thing that he said, and I'm paraphrasing this, he said, you know, Dave, when I was doing all of those things, it really didn't bother me all that much until I heard the gospel. And once I heard the gospel, once I saw God's law, I was consumed with guilt, which God used to bring me to repentance and to faith in Christ.

So that's the purpose of the law, isn't it? The purpose of God's law is to show us God's holy standard. And it drives us to the gospel that saves us from the curse of the law that we have violated. And then suddenly, when we see how the law of God reveals His character, we see our sinfulness all the more vividly. When we see his law, it teaches us what is pleasing to him, which in turn causes us to literally pant after his law after his word to delight in it. For example, in Psalm 119:131, the Psalmist says, "I opened my mouth and panted, for I longed for your commandments." He went on to say in verse 143, "Trouble and anguish have overtaken me, yet your commandments are my delights." And when this happens, we can say with the apostle Paul, in Romans 7:12, "The law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good." And in verse 22, he says, "For I delight in the law of God, according to the inward man."

But there's something else that God has revealed to us about our conscience that is really fascinating. And that is, when we are born again when we come to true saving faith in Christ, God cleanses the very conscience that he has revived. It's a fascinating concept. That same conscience that didn't feel anything suddenly screams of our guilt and our bondage to sin. And yet when we come to faith in Christ, he cleanses that conscience. We read about this in Hebrews nine and verse 14, where the writer says, "The blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God." It's an amazing thing, isn't it? At the point of original regeneration, the accumulated guilt and shame that we experience deep within our conscience is suddenly cleansed. And according to Hebrews 10:22, our hearts have been "sprinkled clean from an evil conscience." And when this happens, we can say, with David, "I acknowledged my sin to You and my iniquity, I did not hide, I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the guilt of my sin."

But there's something else that is fascinating, when we consider the conscience, a well-informed conscience, a conscience that is anchored in God's standard of righteousness. And that is, when we are falsely accused our conscience will exonerate us, even if the evidence appears to say otherwise, even if our friends believe a lie, a fully informed conscience will overturn the false verdicts of a slanderer. And that is at the heart of this passage that we're looking at here this morning. Remember the context, Satan had commissioned and empowered some false apostles to really hunt down the Apostle Paul. They were vicious wolves in sheep's clothing. In other words, they looked like real apostles, real pastors. They looked like that, they talked like that. They acted like that as though they were true messengers of God. But in reality, they were vicious predators. But the people in the church couldn't see it. They were sheep, and they began to follow these men. And we know that they came from within the early church, and this happened a great deal back then, as it continues to happen today. They were phony believers who had superficially attached themselves to the church; they saw how they could make money and gain recognition and power from naive and ignorant Christians. They were, you might say, the original televangelists, the original charismatic prosperity teachers, the original mega church charlatans and so forth. But their most delicious prey happened to be the Apostle Paul, and all who believed his apostolic message. You will recall, Paul described them, probably one man in particular, as "a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to buffet me," Second Corinthians 12 seven. And also in Second Corinthians 11 in verse 13. He describes him he says, "Such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore, it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds."

And of course, we know that the same kind of predators fill pulpits to this very day. In fact, the greatest enemies of authentic Biblical Christianity has been and will always be, religious people, especially those who claim to be Christian. You will recall in Matthew seven that Jesus warned that hell will be the abode of many who called him Lord, Lord. He described them as those who said, they prophesied in his name and we, in your name, we cast out demons and in your name, we perform many miracles. But we know according to Jesus words that these people will never enter the kingdom. He says only those who have entered in through "the narrow gate" the narrow gate of genuine repentance, brokenness of heart over sin; crying out to God for saving grace. And they will be the ones, who by God's grace and power, will do the will of the Father. But in Matthew seven, Jesus described the leaders of this pack of wolves as, quote "false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves." Verse 15.

So back to the context, these ravenous wolves infiltrated the ranks of the Corinthian church and began spreading lies about the Apostle Paul. They accused him that he was secretly immoral, which was the reason why he was constantly suffering and being persecuted. They thought that that was a sign of God's judgment upon him. They said that he was deceitfully manipulative, that he was just using people for his own gain; that he was nothing more than a con man trying to line his own pockets. They also accused him of being a self-appointed false teacher, who merely fabricated the message that he gave and distorted the true word of God. Bottom line, they said that he was a phony that couldn't be trusted. So they sought to ruin his credibility. They sought to undermine his authority. They sought to discredit his teaching so that they could replace it with their own. And they were obviously very convincing in their slanderous attacks, because unfortunately, many people at the church in Corinth believed them. And that's when it's really heartbreaking. To hear slanderous lies about you is bad enough, but when friends believe them, that is especially difficult.

So you may recall Paul left emphasis, and went to Corinth to confront these men. It was called the sorrowful visit, as we read in chapter two and verse one. It didn't go well, evidently, one of these guys publicly insulted the apostle Paul, there was some kind of altercation. And yet shockingly, most of the church did not come to his aid; did not defend him. So Paul is heartbroken. So he goes back to Ephesus, he writes what is called the severe letter, as we read in verse four of chapter two, he had Titus deliver it to them. And later we learn from Titus that, or he learned from Titus that they had repented of their rebellion against Paul. So in Second Corinthians now, his current concern is not only to express his joy and his relief, but also to defend his apostleship and to confront the false teachers. And here in Second Corinthians, one, verses 12 through 14, Paul expresses his proud confidence in how God manifested his grace, and manifested his power in his life and ministry, and glories in what God has done in and through him.

And so verse 12, he says, "For our proud confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience." In other words, he knew for certain that he had dealt with the people there in godly sincerity and faithfulness, virtues that he rightly attributes to the grace of God in his life and not to himself. He knew for certain that God had called him and empowered him to be an apostle, despite his weaknesses. And he knew for certain that he had faithfully and accurately proclaimed the Word of God, the Gospel, that's why so many of them had been saved. So in verse two, or I should say in these two verses, he gives testimony to how his well-informed, and you might say his truth saturated conscience, really affirmed three things. His conscience affirmed number one: his moral integrity. Number two: his relational integrity, and finally, his doctrinal integrity.

So again, notice verse 12. "For our proud confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly, wisdom, but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you." So first, we see how his conscience affirmed his moral integrity. Notice what he says. He knew that he had conducted himself first of all, "in holiness." Holiness means to be set apart from sin and set apart unto God; to be morally pure. Now, I don't want you to get the wrong idea about holiness because sometimes, we tend to do this. Yes, to be holy means to be set apart from sin. Actually the term means other, totally other, utterly transcendent set; apart from any kind of corruption, unapproachably and unimaginably pure in morality. And therefore we know that no sinner can ever enter into the presence of a holy God, apart from the imputed righteousness of Christ, the Son of God, who was infinitely holy. He was the Holy One of Israel.

Now, understand this, while Jesus should never be considered some kind of smiley face God that winks at sin, he is also not to be thought of as some kind of a bad tempered school principal with a perpetual scowl on his face. And sometimes people in our circles can mistakenly see Christ as stern and unapproachable, as austere and demanding as if he's always kind of standing there, shaking his head with his arms folded, kind of in disgust, disappointed in us pointing his finger at us and anger and sometimes shouting at us. And others see him as one who is kind of put off by us that he kind of holds his nose when he gets close to us. Because we're so filthy and so on, kind of like the first time a child is asked to bait his own hook. Perhaps you've seen this, I've seen this before, and my children and my grandchildren, they have that grimace on their face, and they kind of turned their head away and they slowly reached to grab a nightcrawler but when they feel that revolting slime, they drop back and disgust. Some people may not admit it, but that's how they see Jesus. That's how they see God. But Jesus said, in Matthew 11:29, "'I am gentle, and lowly," or "humble in heart." If you want to know who Jesus is, that's who he is. Gentle means meek and mild. In other words, he's not harsh, he's not easily angered. His arms are never folded in frustration, but they're always open in affection welcoming us to him, and he's also humble or lowly, which means he is meek and he is accessible and approachable.

Reflecting on this passage, the Old English Puritan, Pastor Thomas Goodwin, made a very astute observation. Here's what he said, "Men are apt to have contrary conceits of Christ. But he tells them His disposition there," in other words, in this text, "By preventing such hard thoughts of him, to allure them unto Him the more. We are apt to think that He, being so holy, is therefore of a severe and sour disposition against sinners, and not able to bear them. But no, says He, I am meek, and gentleness is my nature and temper." Now, some will say, well, yes, but according to Revelation one, in verse 14, we read that that "His eyes are like a flame of fire." We read that "His feet are like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace and His voice was like the sound of many waters." It goes on to say that "Out of His mouth comes a sharp two-edged sword; His face is like the sun shining in its strength." Well, yes, that is true, but that's how he must be perceived by the impenitent, not the penitent. By the unredeemed, not the redeemed. That is how he must appear to those who reject him, not to those who receive him, in humble repented faith, to those who are broken over their sin and weary of their suffering; for those who are desperate for forgiveness and mercy and grace; for those who are humble and contrite of spirit and who tremble at his word. His arms are always outstretched. He is always welcoming us, because he is gentle and humble in heart. Remember that he delights in mercy. He is a high priest; a faithful high priest that sympathizes with our weaknesses. He is the one who ever makes intercession for us. He is the one who was our advocate before the Father's bar of justice. In fact, in Hebrews chapter five and verse two, we read how he "deals gently with the ignorant and the wayward." And that's why we read, again, in Matthew 11:29, Jesus says, "'Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle, and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.'"

Now, my point with all of this is when Paul said that he conducted himself "in holiness," this is what he meant. Yes, he was morally pure, but he was also gentle and humble in heart like Jesus. And frankly, this should be the defining virtues of every Christian, of every believer; all of us who were debtors to his grace. So the great Apostle Paul would have been meek and mild and humble and approachable; an accessible man with his arms always open to those in need of the Savior. So yes, we see here that as he says, he knew that he had conducted himself in holiness, but also, he knew that he had conducted himself in "godly sincerity."

This is an interesting concept. This is the quality of being honest, of being straightforward in attitude, and in speech. This carries the idea of having no pretense, no duplicity. No devious motives, no saying one thing but meaning something else. We might say that he was the real deal. Now, the term "sincerity" in the original language, literally means "tested by the light of the sun," which is a fascinating concept. In fact, it comes from a compound word in Greek, "eili". Which means "the sun's heat," and "krino," which means "I judge." And together they denote the purity of something that has survived the testing, and the searching of the blazing light of the sun. In fact, the term sincerity is well illustrated by a first century testing procedure that people would use to determine the genuineness, you might say the structural integrity of a piece of pottery. You see dishonest potter's would use wax to cover up cracks in a pot that they were trying to sell. And when they would put the wax on it, it would make a crack virtually invisible to an undiscerning eye. So a wise consumer would take the piece of pottery, and they would hold it up to the sun, then oh, I'm beginning to see some cracks there. And if you held it there long enough, guess what would happen to the wax, it would begin to melt. So the sun's rays would expose the pretense. So the point here with the Apostle Paul, with the idea of godly sincerity, is simply this; when examined and tested by the searching in the searing light of divine holiness, Paul's life would certainly reveal cracks. Every sinners got a crack or two or many cracks in their pottery, you might say. But none of those cracks were concealed with the wax of religious hypocrisy. Paul's conscience confirmed this to be true.

Now it's also important to note that grammatically, both his holiness and his godly sincerity are qualified by of God. In other words, both virtues are godlike. God is the object and he is the source of all holiness and sincerity. And remember this folks when you experience a person who is holy, who is gentle and humble in spirit who is set apart, who is morally pure, so to speak, and a person that's filled with godly sincerity. What a joy they are to be around. For in their Christlike example, we get a little glimpse of God. He is the object, he is the source of every righteous virtue. In fact, Paul says in First Corinthians 15, verse 10, "By the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me." And to the Ephesians, he described, what is "the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe these are in accordance with the working of the strength of his mind, which he brought about in Christ." And so it's always God who animates and empowers us to be holy and sincere. And to the Colossians. Paul wrote, "For this purpose, also I labor, striving according to His power," not my power, but his power, "which mightily works within me." And what a powerful reality that is. What a powerful testimony, and what a motivating truth to know that we can live a life, a holy life, a life of godly sincerity, by the power of the Spirit of God, come what may.

Now the point is, this was Paul's conscience. He knew all of this to be true, no matter what anybody else said. He knew that these allegations were without merit. And he knew that God knew that he lived his life in such a way. Now, we must understand that Paul also knew that he wasn't without sin. He wasn't in a state of sinless perfection, that won't happen until we get to heaven. If I could put it this way, he knew that there were cracks in his pot. We all have them. Some are quite obvious. Some have been covered over with the wax of our hypotheses, and some are hidden in the inner part of the pot. Paul knew that he wasn't sinless. In fact, in First Corinthians four beginning in verse three, he says, "But to me, it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I don't even examine myself." There, he's speaking of the great danger of being far too influenced by man's opinions, whether they're good or bad; criticism can cause you to either become weak and just kind of wither away, or praise can fuel your pride and make you desire more of it. So Paul was not saying he was close to all criticism, you know, beyond just wise, loving feedback; nor was he saying he was closed to all praise. To be sure, we all need some of that. But what he's saying is, look, I know I've got holes in my pot, but my only concern is the approval of the Lord. You know, not so much what you say or what I even think of myself, I care supremely for the approbation of my master. And when I know in my heart that I am serving him in humility, and in faithfulness to his commands, than the judgments of man, whether they are pro or whether they are con, mean little in comparison. He went on to say in verse four, "I am conscious of nothing against myself. Yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord." Of course, self-examination can sometimes produce the wrong verdict, can it? Whether guilt or innocent. But he didn't worry about that, he didn't seem to care much about the opinion of other people about himself. But certainly he had to care at some level when his apostolic authority and his apostolic message was being threatened in the church, he had to protect them from the wolves.

If we go back to the passage in First Corinthians four that I was mentioning, Paul went on to say, "Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time." In other words, avoid premature, uninformed, definitive verdicts. You Corinthians, be careful with that and all believers, you can't judge the motives of a man's heart, whether they're good or bad, you only see the outside, God sees the inside. Plus, we're all prone to see the speck in our brother's eye and not see the log in our own. It's interesting how self-interest is the secret bribe of judgment in our own heart. Paul went on to say, "But wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the hidden things in the darkness." In other words, those things that are unknown even to us, those things concealed and protected from scrutiny by the darkness of our own judgment. He says that he is going to "disclose the motives of men's hearts." In other words, he is going to make plain, or transparent, those secret thoughts. "And then each man's praise,"" he says will come to him from God." So again, while Paul's conscience was clear, he knew that he was not without sin. In fact, John tells us in First John one eight, "If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us."

But I also want to make another point about this, it's very important for us to bear in mind, allow me to make a very important distinction based on what the Apostle Paul has said, as well as many other passages of Scripture, there's a difference between remaining sin and reigning sin. In Romans six beginning of verse 12, Paul said, "Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness." In other words, how foolish is it to obey the lusts of your mortal body that is temporal and die. Even though the sin principle, that law of sin, remains in our body, remember this dear friends, we are not subject to it. It no longer reigns over us, we do not have to obey its lusts. Romans 8:13, Paul says that we are to "put to death the deeds of the body." We must remember folks that sin cannot be domesticated, it must be eradicated. To say it very practically, you don't sleep with your pet cobra. I must add something else that can be very practical in our own personal pursuit of holiness. And our own personal pursuit of godly sincerity. And that is to remember that this world is not our home. Aren't you glad that it's not our home? Paul knew this. The apostles knew this. I love how Peter puts it in first Peter two nine. He says "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation of people for God's own possession." In other words, he's reminding them and reminding us, that you are no longer part of this sphere of influence. And he went on to say in verse 11, "I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul." And to be sure we're all strangers. We are all aliens in this world, this god hating system ruled by Satan; this kingdom of darkness filled with sin and sickness and death. This realm filled with tornadoes like we just experienced a week or so ago; these viruses; the people that think it's okay to kill babies; this place filled with lying, greedy politicians and so forth. We're aliens, we are strangers to this, to this world. We are united to Christ in glory. And, you know, folks, the older you get, and I'm seeing this more and more in my life, the older you get and the more you walk with Christ, the more you see the glory of his grace in your life, the more you see him work in the lives of other people and the more you experience the wickedness and the misery of this world, the less you want to be a part of it. All of that loosens your grip upon this world and causes you to want to separate yourself from it more and more. And even as Paul had to modify his flesh, that is to starve it from finding satisfaction, we must all do the same. And when we do that, we can say with Paul, back to verse 12 of our text here this morning, "our proud confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity." And then he says, "not in fleshly wisdom." The idea that we have not conducted ourselves in these ways, that phrase "not in fleshly wisdom." Another way of thinking about this is not in the foolish philosophies of fallen man that will inevitably exalt man and diminish God, not in the idiotic psychological theories and therapies of of spiritual cadavers that can no more bring genuine help and hope to fallen man, or even to believers, than a dung beetle can build a space shuttle. He said, I didn't come to you that way. But I came in, he says, "but in the grace of God." In other words, only through the power of God's grace revealed to us in the person and work of Christ and in his Word; only through that power, can we be reconciled to God, can we live in joyful obedience to him. That's how I came. And he says, "We have conducted ourselves in the world," but in the grace of God, "we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you." And I think that last phrase, he's basically appealing to their conscience. It's like, "people, you know this to be true."

So his conscience, first of all affirmed his moral integrity. And secondly, his conscience affirmed his relational integrity. You will recall how Paul was falsely accused, for example in Second Corinthians 10, beginning in verse 10 we read, "For they say, 'His letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive and his speech contemptible.'" In other words, oh, he writes real tough, real mean when he writes, but when he comes in your presence, not that way at all. He's just phony. You know, it's kind of like people that post things on Facebook, you know, they're big talk, or they're mean, they say these horrible things. But all of a sudden, if they see you face to face, they cower in fear, especially when they know that what they said is untrue. That's what they were saying of him.

Verse 11, of that text, Paul says, "Let such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters when absent, such persons we are also in deed when present." So don't accuse me of writing something and then when I get in your presence, I'm something altogether different. So in an effort to deny those false charges, and defend his relational integrity, go back to our text in verse 13. He says, "For we write nothing else to you than what you read and understand. And I hope you will understand until the end, just as you also partially did understand us." In other words, there was nothing obscure about my correspondence with you, you know that none of it disguised my motives. There was no hidden meaning in any of this. There's nothing deceptive, nothing manipulative. Everything that I wrote was clear and compelling and consistent, and straightforward. No different than the way I conduct myself when I'm in your presence face to face. And it was obvious from what he wrote it, that there was no merit to this accusation. He was not in any way trying to defraud them. He simply wrote the inspired Word of God, that they could read and understand, as he says in his text, so that they could gain a greater apprehension of divine truth.

Now, what's interesting, by using the words "read" and "understand," Paul employed a very interesting play on words in Greek that emphasize that what he wrote and who he was, we're in complete harmony with one another. You can even hear it in the Greek the word. "Read" is "anaginosko" And the word "understand" is "epiginosko." So they sound alike. The similarity in sound therefore, and in other words, the way they rhyme, illustrate that his message and his character conformed to one another. There is no dissonance. There was no discord. There was no disconnect. Now, to be sure, each of us must make sure that what we say, is always consistent with who we are. We often put it this way, we need to practice what we preach. I fear that is missing in the church today. You remember what Jesus said in Luke 6:46 says, "'Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?'" Why do you merely give lip service to my lordship in your life and then live in disobedience?

You see, the point that he's trying to make is: genuine faith produces obedience. Spurious faith produces disobedience. Jesus says you will know them by their fruit a tree will be known by its fruits. Just prior to that, verse 44, Jesus said, "'For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush. The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.'" And if I can put this very practically a husband who says he loves his wife, as Christ loves the church, but fails to manifest a gentle and humble heart, like Christ, is duplicitous. A woman who says she submits to Christ as her loving head but refuses to subject herself to the loving headship and servant leadership of her husband and tries to rule him instead, is duplicitous. Young men and young women who profess Jesus as their Savior, and claim that he is the Lord of their life, and yet they have no desire to present their bodies as a living in a holy sacrifice acceptable to Him; those type of people are duplicitous. And God does not bless a hypocrite. He chastens them. And what a wonderful thing to know in your heart, that who you are on the inside is exactly who you claim to be on the outside. And that was Paul's conscience here before the Lord. You see, Paul was not a hypocrite. Even in what he wrote in First Timothy one, five, he said, "But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith." And he went on to describe the importance of keeping faith and a good conscience in verse 19, which he warned, "some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith." And then Peter says in First Peter three and verse 16, "keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame."

I'm constantly dealing with pastors and church leaders from all over. And one of them in particular that I've been dealing with of late had been slandered by, and actually he's continued to be slandered by some very vicious wolves that infiltrated his church, brought destruction to a small startup church, destroyed his health, his family's health, almost caused him to give up. And one of the things that he said, and that not everyone will say, certainly been my testimony as well. One of the things that really keeps you going in those dark and difficult times is not only, not only the fellowship with your friends, and especially your wife, as he said, and certainly the Word of God, but beyond all of that, the great comfort, perhaps the greatest comfort, is a clear conscience. A clear conscience, knowing that whatever is being said, is not true. And knowing that the Lord knows it.

So knowing his conscience was clear, Paul says in verse 13, "For we write nothing else to you than what you read and understand, and I hope you will understand until the end, just as you also partially did understand us." And what he's saying here is, I want you to understand this totally, I want you to understand this completely, that what I wrote and who I am, are in perfect harmony with one another. I know you know this to some degree now, but I want you to know, the fullness of this reality. Understand this "until the end." "End" literally means completely, totally, entirely.

And so in closing, not only did his conscience affirm his moral integrity and relational integrity, but also finally, his doctrinal integrity. And we see this at the end of verse 14. He says that, "we are your reason to be proud as you also are ours in the day of our Lord Jesus." And what he's saying here is this: you ought to have proud confidence in me, as I do in you, because it was through my ministry and the gospel message; along with Timothy who was with me, it was through all of this, that God saved you by His grace. And as a result together, we eagerly anticipate the day of our Lord Jesus. That day when we will stand in the presence of his glory, blameless with great joy. He described a similar thing to the saints in Thessalonica. In First Thessalonians two, beginning in verse 19, he said, "For who is our hope, or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? For you are our glory and joy." So where he's going with this is simply to say, look, had I been a con-man trying to use you, trying to distort the Word of God as a false apostle; had I come to you in deception, just to deceive you for my own benefit, then how can you explain your salvation? That we have "reason to be proud in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ."

Beloved, false teachers can distort the Word of God and they do it all the time, and 1000s of people will follow them. They will follow their phony lifestyles, their superficial teachings. The world is filled with religious charlatans; entrepreneurs that can fill buildings, with people with all kinds of activity. They can pack auditoriums; they can fill stadiums, but their message will never save sinners and sanctify saints it will not happen. That's, in essence, what Paul is referring to here. I mean, just look, you people came to saving faith in Christ. And now we're looking forward to the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Again, let's remember there's a big difference between a crowd and a church. And much of what passes today is nothing more than country club, cultural Christianity. But Paul's message was truly God's message, the gospel message that is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. In other words, the proof was in the pudding. And he's reminding them of this. In fact, in chapter two and verse 17, he said, "For we are not like many, peddling the Word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God." And in chapter four, verse two, he went on to say "we have renounced the things hidden, because of shame, not walking in craftiness, or adulterating the Word of God, but by the manifestation of truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." And that's what he is doing here in this passage.

Well, dear friend, may I ask you, do you have a clear or an accusing conscience? If it's an accusing conscience, I would plead with you, as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, to come to Jesus. His arms are outstretched. He is gentle, and he is humble in heart, and he will save you and his blood will cleanse your conscience. In fact, the writer of Hebrews tells us, "that for the joy set before him he endured the cross." What joy was that? What's he referring to? Well, it's the joy to see sinners come to him. That's what brings great joy to the heart of our blessed Savior. If I could leave you with an analogy, imagine if your family was sick and dying of some dreadful disease and you secured an antibiotic that would cure them. Then you come to your family that you love so much and you say, "I have the cure here," but they say no, no, we don't want that. We will use our home remedies and we will try to survive on our own. And as they get sicker and sicker and they begin to die, you plead with them. And then finally, you have a son, then a daughter that comes and says, Dad, let me let me try your medicine. What do you think the dad feels when that child comes to them? He feels inexpressible joy. And that's what Jesus feels when we come to him, because this is his heart: come to him and he will forgive your sin. He will cleanse your conscience. He'll not only cleanse it, he will inform it with truth. And when you come to saving faith in Christ, you will find that everything changes. And as we walk in fellowship with him, by the power of his Spirit, we will be more conformed into his likeness, so that our life like Paul's life, can manifest holiness and godly sincerity. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word that speaks so directly to each of our hearts. I pray for that person that may be within the sound of my voice that knows nothing of the gentle and the humble in heart Savior, the Lord Jesus. I pray that the beauty of his holiness and his love for them will draw them unto him that today they might be saved. And Father, for those of us who know and who love you, I pray that we will once again recommit ourselves to living lives for your glory, in loving and joyful obedience to the lover of our souls. That in all things Christ might have the preeminence for it's in his name that I pray. Amen.