1. Acts 22:22 – 23:5

2. Teaching The Difference Between Right and Wrong
Young children have no knowledge of good and evil – Deuteronomy 1:39
Not very concerned with matters of right and wrong
Mom and Dad handle those issues and let them know
Somewhere along the line it does become an issue.
Not enough to know this is right or wrong, need to know why

3. Teaching The Difference Between Right and Wrong
Gives Adults Trouble as Well
People are growing up without basic moral training
Is it any wonder most people think lying is fine if you have an excuse?
That people don’t understand sex before marriage is wrong?
Half the country thinks nothing wrong with homosexuality?

4. “Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide”
The Conscience Can Be Wrong
Acts 23:1 “I have lived in all good conscience”
Acts 24:16 “always strive to have as conscience without offense toward God and men”
1 Timothy 1:12,13 “ignorantly in unbelief”
1 Timothy 4:2 “conscience seared with a hot iron”
Titus 1:15 “mind and conscience are defiled”
Hebrews 10:22 “evil conscience”

5. We Need A Good Conscience
1 Timothy 1:5 “a good conscience”
Hebrews 13:18 “confident that we have a good conscience”
1 Peter 3:15,16 “having a good conscience”
Our Conscience Reflects Our Own Thoughts
Proverbs 3:7 “wise in your own eyes”
Jeremiah 10:23 “not in man who walks to direct his own steps”

6. We Need A Good Conscience
Ephesians 4:5 “one Lord, one faith, one baptism
One may decide to avoid meat & another to eat meat – Romans 14:2
Confidence makes them right – Romans 14:3,4
For either to teach their way must be followed would be wrong – Romans 14:10
Only judgement is God’s – Romans 14:11,12

7. We Need A Good Conscience
This is an important point often missed:
It doesn’t matter if you FEEL you are right
It doesn’t matter if you THINK you are right
It doesn’t matter if you are CONFIDENT you are right
The only thing that matters is WHAT GOD HAS DECIDED

8. The Conscience Does Serve A Purpose
The Conscience should not be ignored
Hopefully our conscience does not permit more than what is allowed – Romans 14:20-23
A weak conscience can be defiled – 1 Corinthians 8:7-13; 10:25-33
The Conscience may be a guide, but it cannot be a standard
When well trained, it serves as an early warning system – Psalm 119:11

9. The Conscience Does Serve A Purpose
The existence of the conscience shows that man understands moral decisions – Romans 2:14-16
No one can ever go before God and say they didn’t know there was a RIGHT and WRONG!
Each person carries judgement of himself within him, however imperfectly trained it may be
But there is no excuse to leave the conscience untrained or poorly trained
God has given His will- Ephesians 3:1-8