I do not know what y'all have done with my wife. The last two weeks, except last half a Sunday, we did pretty good. The last two weeks have just not been good at all. We've been getting maybe sometimes a couple hours during the day, and sometimes as much as four. And today, the Energizer bunny was resurrected. And I can only attribute it to being around you folks and the prayers and stuff. And I told her, I said, man, this is better than the hospital. I've asked her a half a dozen times about, you know, you think you need to go on home. I had a little tiny episode this morning, and it went away. And I just figure it's just the prayers, and I appreciate it. So I like it. She looks bright as a light to me back there, so. And I get to tell you in front of everybody, I love you, I'm proud of you. I don't know why, if you had a chance to go home, instead of hearing me, you had a good excuse. Are you in 1 Peter 2? I need to get there. Somebody, if you would please. Brother Sam, you got 1 Peter 2 there? How about reading real loud for me, how about reading 1 Peter 2, verses 19 and 20. I just found it, but anyway, go ahead and read that for me, will you please? That's it? All right, Brother Ernie, you pray. Would you please and ask the Lord to bless the service this evening? Father, we want to thank you, Father, for us. Lord, one day we are going home. Amen. Lord, you've done well for us. We thank you for that now. Lord, we ask you tonight, Father, that you would see that I'm speechless. Lord, I pray this to you now and again. Father, I pray you'd fill him up. Lord, may you anoint him, Lord Jesus. May you blow over him and breathe on him. Holy man, as you put your word, Father, we want to say that we appreciate you. Amen. Amen, amen. Thank you, you can have a seat. Look in Romans chapter 13. We started talking this morning a little bit about conscience and let your quote conscience be your guide and that's an important thing and I'm gonna talk to you about some things. Your conscience can actually be taught But before we even get into that thing, if you start running with the wrong crowd and doing the wrong things, your conscience can learn to steer you in the wrong direction. Consciences are given to you by God. As long as they're directed by God, they're a good thing. But you've often heard individuals that'll tell you, and they'll say, I don't know why you're bothered about it. It doesn't convict me at all. Well, if you read the Bible, and the Bible says it's wrong, and your conscience doesn't convict you, it means your conscience is seared. And so a seared conscience is not a good thing. We'll talk about that. You don't want to get your conscience seared. You want your conscience to be soft. You want it to be tender. You want it to be listening to what the Lord would have you to say, have you to do, and have you to learn from, because God uses that. That's kind of an inner voice. And then when you get saved, you get a sixth sense that goes along with that, and I'll show you that here in a minute. And those two things together, if you'll listen to it, and it's steered according to the Bible, it'll keep you out of a lot of trouble. and keep you from doing things that are wrong to do, but it also guide and direct your pathway. It's like my dad used to say about walking in the light as he is in the light, he used an illustration as a lantern. And he said, it's not a long light where you're looking way down the road down there, You're looking at one step at a time with a lantern like this. Back in those days when you went out to go to the bathroom, the outhouse and that kind of a deal, you had a lantern. You didn't have those big flashlights and all that. And so when you would step, each step you took, the light lit the next step, but it wouldn't go any further than that. If you held it up like this, it would blind you. You couldn't see any further. You hold it down like this, all it does is illuminate the area here. So he said, you learn to hold it down just below where your eyes are, and all it does is light the next step. And he said, if you had a trip like I did back at his grandma's, he said, you always wanted to keep that thing close enough to the ground so you didn't step on a snake. I mean, that might mean if you stepped on a snake on the way to the outhouse, you might not need the outhouse. Well, for all of you except Rambo. Rambo out here is kind of like, if I step on a snake, I'm gonna eat it. Okay, I'd probably be like, well, I don't need to go over there anymore. I'm good to go. But the point of this is this, is you walk in the light as he's in the light, but it's not like walking in eternity where he's the light of the whole place. Your fellowship with Jesus Christ is dependent upon you doing what the Lord tells you to do, but it's not always a matter of action. It's a matter of fellowship. It's a matter of you just staying in there. If your conscience doesn't bother you about certain things that you know are clearly, according to the Bible, that are wrong, there's something wrong about your fellowship with the Lord. Look in Romans chapter number 13 here. The Bible says this, pick it up in verse four. For he is the minister of God to thee for good, but if thou do that which is evil, be afraid. That's why you take your foot off the gas when you see a policeman. Well, you shouldn't worry about it if you're not speeding. Why'd you take your foot off the gas? Guilty conscience. You're afraid you might get caught for the times you did speed and didn't get caught. Y'all are so funny. It's kind of like, me speed, not me preacher. Okay. Most of you people have had the California roll for breakfast, lunch, and dinner more times than you can imagine. I'm not talking about sushi. I mean, you pull up to a stop sign and you just kind of roll right on through that thing. We call that a California roll. Or they used to, I don't do it anymore. I'm those mean old guys that do stuff like that. How dare them do something along those lines. But you know what you do, you wind up, and then the next thing you know, that thing bothers you. And when you see a policeman, it's like. Yeah, all those things I did I deserve to get pounded for, now I'm fixing to get hit for something. And then, you know, you realize you're only going a couple miles an hour over, and that'll be the time you wind up getting pulled over. He said, yeah, but if thou that which is evil be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain, for he is a minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon them that doeth evil. That'd be a great statement to have when you walk up to the car instead of driver's license registration and insurance card. I just want you to know I'm a minister of God, a revenger to execute. upon them that do evil." Give me your driver's license. No, I'm just kidding. I think that's funny. Wherefore, you must need to be subject, not only for wrath's sake, but watch, but also for conscience's sake. Your conscience is used as a steering device. Come to 1 Peter chapter number 3, and I know that most of you know all these things, and the majority of you are Bible believers, and I doubt seriously I come up with something you haven't heard a dozen times over. Most of you listen to the Bible, and you listen to preachers, and things like that. So all I do is just kind of go back over what you already know. But isn't it good sometimes to be reminded? Isn't it good sometimes to have something redundantly put over and over and over to you until it becomes a matter? I like to be reminded of things. Sometimes I think I know something, and then all of a sudden I've forgotten all the things I thought I knew, and then somebody says something, and I'm like, I did know that, but how did I forget that? I like being reminded. First Peter chapter three, talking about a good conscience, look in verse 16. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh for the reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear, having a good conscience, that, whereas they speak evil of you as evildoers, that they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. So in other words, you're blameless, and when somebody asks a question of you, you have a good conscience, you're able to answer that. And even though they speak evil of you, after they hear you speak, they feel guilty about it because they're trying to falsely accuse you. Look in verse 21, the like figure where unto even baptism doth now save us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but an answer of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We're going to be baptizing Andrew here in a couple of weeks whenever we get everything set up to do that, and whoever else wants to be baptized. That's the first step of a good conscience toward God. I remember when I first got saved, and I, right off the bat, my dad said nothing at all about baptism, and I waited for a while, and I thought, you know, well, you join the church, or you do something after that. He just sort of let it lay there. He didn't say much of anything, which I didn't understand until later on. And then finally, it was about two years later, we were moved from Miami up there in the mountains there in Tennessee. And I went up to my dad and I said, I don't know why you haven't baptized me. I want to be baptized. And he said, why? Well, the first thing I thought of was, well, Jesus was baptized. And he said, well, that's a good reason, but why do you want to be baptized? And I said, I don't know, I just think I should be baptized. And he said, okay, but what does it mean? Are you saved? And I said, yes, sir. You were there when I got saved. He said, well, when did you get saved? I said, I was seven years old. I was in Miami, Florida. I was there at the corner of the table. You were right there. He said, okay, well, I was just checking. He said, well, so if you were to die right now, this is my dad, I'm about nine years of age. He said, if you were to die right now, where would you go? And I said, well, I'd go to heaven. He said, well, why? And I said, because I trusted the Lord as my Savior. And he said, so what difference does baptism make? And I said, Well, I don't know, but I think I should be baptized. And he said, okay, let me show you what it is, son. He said, that's a testimony of a good conscience. It's a first act of obedience. It's for you to be able to say, listen, I want publicly for people to know, 1 Corinthians 15, what I've already done privately. And the reason I didn't just do it is, it's an indicator to me, meaning my dad, to say, what you got when you got saved at seven, all of a sudden you come around a couple of years later and say, hey, I want to be, Who put that on your heart? I didn't read the verses. I didn't hardly even read my Bible. Seven years, eight years, nine years, I didn't hardly read my Bible. I just did the mandatory stuff for Sunday school, most of which was repetitive. It required the memorization of verses of scripture. Mine, which was John 11, 35, Jesus wept. And so, I mean, it gets you a Bowie knife if you do that. But the bottom line is, I didn't know that. What did that? It wasn't the Holy Spirit of God bothering me and all that, it was my conscience. And so when my dad explained to me, he said, what that is, is you're being baptized for the dead, not Mormon theology. People that are out there that are dead and trespasses and sin, they see you get baptized and what they're thinking is, what is that? He said, it's a picture, a like figure as to what happened. You were buried with Christ, raised again, a newness of life. You went down an old man, you're buried with him, you come up a new man. And he said, that's what baptism is, son. He said, it's not the back of your head hitting the water and then you coming back up and that robe sucking off of you and saying, tism. He said, that's not baptism. He said, baptism is a testimony. Some of you get that in a minute. Back then they gave you robes that were about 40 sizes too big. I mean, you know, typical church that was cheap and didn't have, you know, it was kind of like one size fits all. So the one that I wore looked like Omar the tent maker. I looked like Casper the ghost man. And I walked out there, I could have floated in that big thing. That robe was floating all up around me and stuff like that. And I'm trying to get it to lay down and that kind of a deal. But what was that? That's a testimony of a good conscience. Sometimes your conscience will say to you, it's not always inopportune times, it'll say to you, you ought to read your Bible. You need to get up and read your Bible. I had some stuff going on one time and I sat down and I didn't intend to do it, and I'm not saying this to be spiritual, but there was just something that was saying to me, look in Acts chapter 23, there was something saying to me, you need to read your Bible. And I'm like, well, I already read my Bible. And he said, you need to read your Bible. And I sat there and I read for several hours. I just read for several, I don't know how long it's been since I've done that. I just read for several hours. You say, what was it? There was something that was there that the Lord has just said to me, you need to read your Bible. Why did I read my Bible? I don't know. I didn't get any profound things out of it, but I guess the spirit was starving and needed something to eat, and so the Lord had me do it. Maybe He's checking my obedience. But ladies and gentlemen, there doesn't always have to be something beneficial out of it for you. It's a matter of if your conscience says to you you ought to do it, sometimes it's right to act on it. By the way, I don't know if that's a wedding ring, and if it is, you're fixing to get divorced if she sees you without your ring. That's a piece of rubber. washer for something? That came out of Cracker Jacks or something. Acts chapter 23, sorry for the side note there, no extra charge. Notice what he says talking about a good conscience. This is the Apostle Paul. Paul earnestly beholding the counsel said, men and brethren I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. Now he's not saying now I'm fixing to violate my conscience. He's saying I've lived before God in good conscience. Now the Apostle Paul is letting you know that even the things I did before now, I did in good conscience, but now I know better. So now all of a sudden I've had to change. I met the Lord on the road to Damascus and things changed. Can I just tell you this? Some things that may not have bothered you before you were saved, once you get saved, all of a sudden you get a different value system. And something that you never considered wrong at all, whatever it may be, you make the list of however you want to make it, all of a sudden it kind of bothers you to do that. There's something in you that goes, this just doesn't, this doesn't feel right. And certain things you hear and certain things you say and certain things you taste and places that you go, all of a sudden it just, it kind of gives you the heebie-jeebies, you don't feel right. And so you get a different value system and God uses your conscience to give you direction. People say to me all the time, I sure do wish God would talk to me. Okay, I can get a good way for God to talk to you. Is there something right now in your mind that you know is absolutely wrong? Okay, now go do it and tell me God doesn't talk to you. He doesn't have to use a Bible. He'll tell you, hey, you better stop that. You better quit it. Don't tell me God doesn't talk to you. You may not hear a voice like Moses heard coming out of the bush up there, come to First Timothy chapter number one, First Timothy chapter number one, but sure as I'm standing here, if you're saved, God will talk to you unless he's grieved, unless he's quenched, unless he's vexed. But you know what's interesting about the Holy Spirit is, is even if he is grieved or vexed, you know what's interesting, or quenched, you know what he's interested in doing? He's still interested in drawing you back to him. That's an amazing friend if you think about it. The Holy Spirit's just an amazing thing that instead of empowering you to go reach others and to do whatever it is, whatever gifts God's given you to do whatever it be, whether it's fix a meal or make cookies or sing a song or to do whatever, I wish I could do up here. That boy, when he gets up here and sings this song, Welcome Home, and he's plucking on that guitar and singing that kind of stuff, man, I'm back there in the mountains up there in Valdez, North Carolina. and Jim's up there on the mandolin, Brother Lentz is up on the mandolin, and Beaver's over there on his Gibson guitar, and they're singing out there after a meeting, and we're just sitting up on that front porch and looking out over the mountains and the top thing up there, and I'm thinking, man, you gotta be kidding, and both of those guys are on the other side of glory now. And he gets to singing like that, I get to longing for that stuff. That's where they have them Carolina Beavers up there. But I remember those things. I remember when I hear that thing I'm thinking, man, how many times have I had those kind of places where I just long for that again, that spiritual stuff to come in and sort of comfort you. And what is that? That's God talking to you. What brings that to mind? Those are some of the sweetest times I could possibly imagine, me and her going up in the fall of the year every year for years. We go up to Preacher Lackey's. I remember the first time we went up there and we saw a flyer out and said, hey, you want to go see this guy draw? Yeah, I heard about him. I want to go up there and see him. And go up there on those fall evenings, they open up those back doors and those leaves come blowing in through that parking lot and come dancing across there. You can hear them skating and skidding across there. They packed that gymnatorium out with people and that cool breeze blowing in through that back door and going out the side door over there on those old benches covered with a piece of carpet and foam rubber. And the preachers get up there and get ready to preach after the special singing like that right there. Man, you think you've died and gone to heaven. And you just sit there, you're almost like in eternity for a while. No problems, no nothing going on, just sitting there enamored. And then if God came in and spoke to you at dinner, sir, man, you thought, boy, you gotta be kidding me, man, I just had lobster and steak all in one bite. You say, what is that? Well, that's when your conscience is good and it's clear and you're repented up and cleaned up and you're just sitting there enjoying the goodness of God. You ever had that? God's not a bad God. God's a good God. I just got a letter from a friend of ours up in Tennessee now. They've been gone here for years. They were here when we first started this church, Hugh and Annette Godwin, and just sent a letter. And he said in the letter to me about some things, personal stuff going on, he said, just remember this, God's a good God. And we're praying this and that and the other and so on and so forth. But I look back and at the bottom of the letter right there, he said, since 1970, you're in every thought of my past and since then. You say, why? Remember the good times. Going to their house for Friday night Bible study. Pulling over, checking off duty, go inside, teach, check back on duty and go. And starting a church and boy, talk about some fond memories, boy. You say, been some mess-ups along the way? Yeah, absolutely been some mess-ups along the way, but you can't erase those things. Those feelings you have, you remember that stuff? You remember how that made you feel? It's funny how it is that we can remember the bad everybody's done, but you don't remember how many good times you had with them. I remember the time with these boys, and I mean that sincerely. I mean it in a sense of not just sincerity, but in a sense of affection. And those boys would sit around after we'd be done preaching at a youth camp. We sit around at two or three o'clock in the morning and just talk about preaching. Not talk about preachers. Just talk about preaching. Hungry as little guppies, man. Just sit around and just talk about, just shoot the bull about preaching. Not about the world events and the world this and that. I mean, it's like all of a sudden we're in this one little place down there and we're just talking about preaching. Just tired, wore out, exhausted, and then pray together. and encourage each other the next day to come time to preach and stuff like that. Boy, I would give anything in the world for that. Get so busy and all of a sudden we don't pull over enough times to just pull over and park and just enjoy how good God's been. Gotten sophisticated now, gotten busy now. Ain't got time to sit down and listen to Beaver and Jim strum the mandolin and the guitar on the porch no more because we gotta go, man. Got things to do, places to go, people to see. Boy, I long for those things. I like when the old beatings used to go into overtime. You say, why? They ministered to me, fed my soul. Look, if you will with me in 1 Timothy chapter number five, talking about a good conscience. Look in chapter, I'm sorry, one, chapter number one, verse number five. 1 Timothy chapter number one, verse number five. Now, the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned. You see that? You know what it'll keep you from? Look in verses 6 and 7 right there. It'll keep you from having swerved, turning aside to vain, jangling desire to be teachers of the law and understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm. You say, what the Lord, that good conscience will keep you from getting in the wrong path. It'll give you the right direction and it'll give you light on the subject. I'm not talking about Bible roulette, ladies and gentlemen, where you take the Bible and you, you know, open it up and put your finger down and read a verse, that kind of stuff. That's stupidity. I mean, I wouldn't recommend you do that at all. Look, if you will, in verse 19 of the same thing. What I'm talking about, though, is God giving you light. You ever been in a dark place? You ever needed God to talk to you? You ever feel like God's abandoned you? Somebody lied to you. You know what he promised you? He promised you he'd never leave you and never forsake you. He said, but preacher, I've done some terrible things and the Holy Spirit, he may be grieved, but he sealed himself in there. He is the genie in the bottle, man, but he can't never come out of the bottle until the day that you get hauled out of here, either by death or rapture. He's the strangest thing in the world, the Lord through the Holy Spirit. He's a part of the Trinity there and just as much God as Jesus is. And Jesus is just as much God as God is and those things. But it's a strange thing because that Holy Spirit comes in and it bothers him, it grieves him that you are grieved and now he has to come and try to convince you you need to come back. Why would we have ever left in the first place? Do you ever think of that? Historically I can go back and say, man, I'd never get away from this. I'd never get away from that. Man, you've got to be kidding me. Hours and hours and hours spent running those prisons and things and watching God use an old man and see the Holy Spirit of God move in those God forsaken places among the most unbelievable bunch of animals you've ever seen in your life and watch the Holy Spirit of God come in there like a shepherd trying to call sheep down and that place be just as calm and cool as a cucumber. Watch those grown men and women hit that floor and ask the Lord to save them, and watch the Holy Spirit blow through there. If you could see it operate, man, that place would be so thick in there, you'd have to have a seeing eye dog to get out. And watch God allow you to be a part of that. And you walk out of there, and all you've been in is a birthing room all night, and you walk in there, and how many babies got born tonight, preacher? I said, well, hang on a minute, and I'm counting them right here. We had 16, he goes, 16 newborns, ain't that something? 16 babies born today, ain't that something? Man, can you imagine how much crying was going on? How much hollering was going on? Ever think about how many shouting, how much shouting was going on up there in the presence of angels rejoicing over the one sinner that repented? He said, reckon how much shouting went on when 16 of them got right. He said, I bet there's a bunch of shouting going on up there. I think, man, you gotta be kidding me, looking out there at that sun, daylight savings time, and watching it dip over the horizon and going down there, and thinking, boy, you just saw some people saved for all eternity. And you get to thinking about that stuff, you feel like a crackhead or something. You're thinking, people must think I'm crazy. It's like being in another world. We're at a meeting up there in Madison one time. I've told you about it before. And that thing got in there and got just unbelievable. And I'm sitting right down here just to the side of where Chief McCall is sitting there. And I'm sitting there looking at the thing. And I know I'm there, but I don't think I'm there. I know you think I'm weird, but you get done with this story, you'll really think I'm weird. And I'm thinking I'm weird. And these guys are standing up, they got their jackets off, and they're hollering and wailing and all this other kind of stuff, and they're locking the doors down, thinking something unusual's going on. And it got so good, the preacher just got quiet. He just let them holler for a while. We got done with that thing, and I'm sitting in the parking lot, and I cranked up the van, and I'm looking, and he's got his feet on the dash, and we're both just, I said, well, I guess we ought to go. He said, yeah, I guess we ought to go. So I'm going to leave now. He said, yeah, I guess we should. I said, preacher, what in the cat hair was that? And he said, did you feel like you were sitting there watching yourself? I said, he's going to think I'm smoking dope or something, man. I said, how'd you know that? He said, it felt that way. He said, it's like you're there, but you're not there. And I said, well. I don't want you to think I'm crazy, but yes, sir, that's exactly what it felt like. I said, I felt like I was looking at myself sitting there. And he said, the best I can determine is, is the Lord gave you the equivalent of about a half thimble. He said, you know what a thimble is, how they wear a thimble to keep from sticking theirself with a needle when they're sewing? And I said, yeah, I know what a thimble is. And he said, he gave you about a half a thimble of what eternity would be like. And he said, you couldn't have took any more or you'd have been chewing on your tongue, you'd have gone crazy. He said, that's the Holy Spirit ministering to you. He said, isn't it a blessing that he ministered to you that way instead of having to get on to you or beg you to come back? He said, imagine missing a meeting like that if you're out of fellowship with the Lord and have a meeting come by that way and the Lord wants to manifest himself that way to you but he can't because you got him backwards, got things messed up. I wouldn't have missed that for the world, but I didn't know what I was in for. We didn't go in there thinking that. It was raining, pouring down, cats and dogs outside, man, thunder and lightning. They're sopping wet when they come in the door, just dripping wet. They don't even have a towel to give them. They're going to the bathroom getting paper towels and drying themselves off and going up to the altar and praying before we started. And I'm thinking, well, this thing's gonna be a bust, man. Then all of a sudden, they put them in there and then they lock everything down because of the thunderstorm and that kind of a deal. And I thought, boy, I mean, Everything that could go wrong was going wrong. The paper's all bunched up because of the rain and the wet and that kind of a thing. And I'm trying to get it dried out best I can and stretch it out with a stapler and running it up like a, you know, when you say it's like drawing on a bed sheet, brother, you know, and I'm working on it, sir. Just try to smooth it out and hold it and put staples in it and that kind of a thing. And we get, I think everything went wrong. It's the greatest meeting I've ever been in my life. because the Holy Spirit decided in an inopportune time to drop by and just say, just want y'all to know I'm here and walked through and just like that and walked out. I've never been in a meeting like that. I've been in some great meetings. I've never been in nothing like that. You say, what is that? That's a good conscience, clear, ready for God to manifest himself if he wants to. You ever been in a meeting like that? You ever been in a real good prayer meeting? I'm talking about you and the Lord. and you get hooked up and you get done talking, the first thing you do is not, wow, I prayed seven and a half minutes. It's like, wow, I got through. Man, I was talking to the Lord. You come out with chicken skin on you? Would you rather the Holy Spirit manifest himself to you that way instead of constantly getting on your dingbat about something? You ever notice sometimes people, I think probably Sunday morning more than Sunday night and Wednesday night, do you ever notice how sometimes people when they come to church, they just come to church looking for a beating? You must have a bad conscience. You must figure you deserve a beating. Wouldn't it be great to have a good conscience like I'm trying to show you here now? Wouldn't it be great for you to have that good conscience so that the Lord chose to come by, man, and all of a sudden he just walked by and just blow on you like that. All of a sudden you're like, man, wasn't that a blessing? I don't know about you, I can use that every now and then. Did I give you verse 19? I haven't given you that. Look in verse 19. Holding faith and a good conscience, which some having put away concerning faith have made a shipwreck. I gave you that one this morning. Look in Hebrews chapter number 13. A good conscience, that'll be one that's void of offense. I'll show it to you in a minute. Preacher, why don't you tell those stories? Well, there's no way for me to tell you what can happen to you unless I tell you what I've experienced. There's no promise of it. I mean, we've been all over. I was thinking about it the other day. We all took a big trip to Switzerland and went through Germany and that kind of stuff. Went to dock out of that place on a cold, drizzly day there and went through that prison camp and saw that stuff. Boy, sure as I'm standing here, there is another spirit in that place. And boy, the death in that place. My goodness, man. That thing was back and the Holy Spirit right there manifesting is what happens when people turn their back on God and this is what could happen to you and this is Holy Spirit preaching to you. Wouldn't it be a blessing if you could just clear that thing out where God could talk to you that way instead of having to say, come back home, come back home. Please don't do that. Please don't do that. Please don't say that. Please don't think that. What is being grieved? You ever lose a loved one? You ever lose somebody you really love? I'm not talking about a distant loved one. I mean, maybe you lost Nana and Pawpaw, Grandma, but they're older. but I mean at an inopportune time. Somebody you really loved and taken at an unusual time and all of a sudden, man, you feel a grief. It hurts. As the old people used to say, it hurts me to my heart. It stabs you deep. The Holy Spirit's saying that's what it's like when you don't do right. It hurts. Bothers me. Why? I have so much I'd rather give you. Don't tell me that you'd rather beat your kids than love on your kids. Don't tell me you'd rather be getting on to them and locking them away. You know you have to. They're not doing their schoolwork, or they're not doing their homework, or they're not doing their chores, or whatever it is, or being a smart aleck, or whatever. Don't tell me that you just can't wait for them to mess up so you can get on to them. Don't tell me you wouldn't rather be able to sit up with them on a Friday night and enjoy being together and playing a game together and eating some popcorn and watching something decent. Don't tell me you enjoy it where they're cattywampus with you and the rest of your family. I'll call you a liar to your face. Do you think the Holy Spirit enjoys it when you're out of fellowship with Him? It bothers Him. As that old black preacher said one time, the thing that bother me is it don't bother you. Man, that's well said. Does it bother you at all? The Bible says you can grieve the Holy Spirit of God. My goodness, you've got to be kidding. I have that much power over the triune God? Hebrews chapter number 13, I'm talking about a good conscience. Look in verse number 18. Making sense to you at all? Verse number 17 tells you to obey them. They have the rule over you and submit yourselves. They watch for your souls and give an account and so on and so forth. And not with grief that they may do so. Not with grief, why? Because they're watching for you. And verse number 18, he says, pray for us. For we trust we have a good conscience in all things, willing to live honestly. You know what he's trying to tell you? Part of having a good conscience is, is not doing anything, 2 Corinthians chapter number 1, not doing anything that's dishonest. You say, why? You can't have a clear conscience and be doing something dishonest. I don't know, you probably never would have experienced this and stuff, but I can imagine. I wouldn't even go through and take a grape or something, going through the grocery store. I wouldn't go through and take a grape or something off the thing. I'd be afraid I'd get in trouble, that's stealing. Right, that's how I was taught. You go over there and take a grape, my mama would say, you gotta go tell the store manager you took a grape or a cherry. You say, well, that's just ridiculous. People say, well, it's produce. No, no, it ain't yours. You buy it if you want to eat it. I mean, I'm so bad about that kind of thing. You know, you go through the grocery store and you get kind of hungry and you bust open a bag and you start eating. I'm thinking to myself, I don't know how many people I put in for shoplift and they go in and eat a whole box or a whole bag of things like that. And you think, well, they're going to pay on their way out. I'm like, we're going to go. If you want it, we'll go buy it. And then you can come back and shop. But you go ahead and buy it. Here's the receipt. I bought it. We're eating it while we're doing that. You say, what is that? That's a conscience. You say, that's just a little bit ridiculous. That bothers me. Well, if I've got that kind of a conscience, reckon what the Holy Spirit's got. You think He might have one that's jacked up just a little bit? I bet you'd never find him doing anything questionable at all. Sometimes our dishonesty has to do with just our reputation. Sometimes we put off that we're something that we're not. I think it's good every now and then just to admit you ain't all that in a bag of chips. I think sometimes it's good to say, hey, listen, I'm not gonna deceive myself because when somebody thinks they're something, when they ain't nothing, they deceive themselves. There's one deception I don't wanna do because I know I'm not nothing. Oh, but preacher, you shouldn't be putting yourself down. I think you're better off to put yourself down than to lift yourself up. If you are constantly going around telling everybody everything you did and how much recognition you deserve, that is not God. The Holy Spirit does not brag on Himself. He's always bragging on the one that sent Him. And if you're constantly doing that, I can tell you the Holy Spirit's grieved in your life. It doesn't bother you at all to take credit for something He did. Amen. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. If you've done anything, it was God that did it. You did not do it. 1 Corinthians chapter number 1, look in verse number 12. For our rejoicing is this, that the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God we have our conversation in the world and more abundantly to you, Word. Paul said, I'm void of offense. 2 Timothy chapter number 1. Just a little bit of a Bible study tonight. You didn't know there was this much in here. By the time I'm done, you will have run 38 verses. 38 verses in the Pauline epistles at all. If God says something one time, I think it's probably important. Would you agree? If he says something 38 times, would you agree that that might be something we should pay attention to? Why would God think or say so much about the conscience if God doesn't use that conscience to get our attention? Is that right? Look in 2 Timothy chapter number one, come down if you will please to verse number three. I thank God whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day. He's saying, my conscience is clear, I've been praying for you. I told you I was praying for you. You ever have somebody walk up to you and say, pray for me? You say, sure, I'll pray for you. And then you see them the next week and they say, you've been praying for me? And now do I lie or do I tell the truth? I'll talk to this side over here. They got locked all of a sudden. You ever have that happen to you? You tell somebody you'll pray for them, and you forgot all about praying for them. You're shaking their hand, but you're looking at whoever else you can talk to. Pray for them. Yeah, I'll pray for you. No problem at all, so on and so forth. And then they're counting on you praying. And then they walk up to you and say, man, I sure appreciate it, boy. The Lord really helped me out. I sure do appreciate the prayers. Yeah, no problem at all, the Holy Spirit said. Oh, yeah? Would you like for me to tell them what I know? I got real convicted about that one time, and I'd go to a meeting or something, and when I'd come to the meeting, somebody'd say, Preacher, would you pray for me? And I'd say, let's do it right now. Come to Romans chapter number nine. You say, why'd you do that? Because I knew I'd forget. Or I'd write it down somewhere so I didn't forget. Because if I don't write it down, I won't remember. One of these little kids came up a minute ago and said to Brother Sam, ask him to do something. And he said, we've already got plans for that. And he said, how about if you would, if you'll tell me we'll do it next week. And she got ready to walk off and I said, you better remind us, we'll forget. Could you have with a clear conscience, we cease not to pray for you night and day? Folks, I'm telling you, when you become the recipient of people praying night and day, and when there's things that are happening in your life that are nothing short of supernatural, you'll realize the power in prayer. I'm telling you, it's prayer. I'm telling you now, it's prayer. I don't believe that stuff. It ain't a fairy tale. It's the real deal. I'm telling you right now it's the real deal. I hope you don't get in a position where you have to experience that. But when they're telling you one thing and something else is going on, you don't have any other explanation for it. You say, what is it? It has to be God. Why? God's listening to people praying. Romans 9, verse 1, I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were a curse for Christ, my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. Paul said, my conscience is bearing me witness, and the Holy Spirit is the second witness there, and I'm telling you now with a clear conscience, I wish I was cursed at my brethren to get in. Boy, that's love for your people, I'm telling you now. Wish yourself a curse, that means you wish yourself in hell. My goodness, man, that's a big thing. Look, if you will, please, in 1 John chapter, well, let's stop off in 2 Corinthians 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. The thing that's strange about the Holy Spirit is, is that he'd always make country sense. Brother Lentz used to say, you know, now Brother Lentz was from up in Detroit, Michigan. You'd never know that boy the way he's singing up here tonight. You'd think he's from down here, down in the south. He's got that twang about him, you know, he can go up to Nashville and make a million dollars with that town or up around Memphis and all that with that little sound there, tune it up just a tad and put a little slip slide on it and he can make a ton of money off of that stuff. That boy's from up in the middle of the Midwest. He didn't learn to talk like that up there. And he gets up there, Brother Lentz, and say, he'd say from Detroit, that's where he was from, Detroit is how they say it, his daddy was a big car executive with the Ford Motor Company. Used to drive a Mercury Marquis, that was his deal, always put Michelins on it. It didn't matter what they came with, he's gonna switch them out till they got the Michelins on there, the best riding tire that there is. But at any rate, he'd always say, if it don't make down home country with a K sense, then it don't make sense to God. down home country. You say, what is that? I'm not talking about bailing wire coming out here and shocking you. I'm not talking about getting the bees and acting some kind of foolish way, or jumping up and getting stuck on the floor, or being covered up because you fell over backwards or something like that, and jumping around and barking like a dog, or growling like a tiger or whatever. I mean I do know some Christians that act like a a donkey, but at any rate, that's not what I'm talking about. The Holy Spirit makes common sense. It's not all this emotional upheaval all the time, but sometimes it'll give you a feeling. You know, the bad thing about Christians nowadays, especially some of us as Bible believers, we downplay too much the feeling. Feeling is a part of who you are. Try to tell your wife that, you know, hello, honey. I love you. I'm glad you're here today. The meal was certainly very good. Good night. Good morning, honey. How are you today? You better put a little loon paw there. I'm just suggesting to you. Right, ladies? Better put a little something something in it. Hey, honey, I love you. You just want to be talking to a stuffed animal. You keep talking like that, you're going to be stuffed. He told me he loved me once, but I didn't like the tone of his voice. 2 Corinthians chapter number 4, look if you will please in verse number, oh pick it up in 2. But I have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to, look it there, every man's conscience in the sight of God. Isn't that something? You say what? It's not just confirmation from the Lord, it's confirmation to every man's conscience. They're like, hey, he's spot on. He's saying what's going on, why? The Holy Spirit's telling him it's okay. Things are the way that they're supposed to be. Things are laid out the way that they're supposed to be. Look in Acts chapter 24. I missed this one a second ago. Acts chapter 24. That's how you take care of a Campbellite, right? With an ax and two 38s. Acts chapter 2, 30, never mind. Y'all aren't even familiar with that. That's baptism for salvation. I can hear my wife's voice in the back of my brain right now saying, honey, if you have to explain it, it ain't funny. Acts 24, 16, here and I do exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense. Watch it toward God and what? Two parts of it. That means I have to live with my brother and sister in mind. Now come to 1 John, void of offense, 1 John. 1 John chapter number three. Can you bear with me for three shakes of a sheep's tail? See, what are you doing? I'm just giving you some Bible verses. Let you know God uses your conscience. They used to make this statement years ago. They'd say, let your conscience be your guide. You better not let your conscience be your guide until you find out whether or not your conscience is defiled. Ted Bundy let his conscience be his guide. Ted Bundy didn't think anything of killing our many mass number of people that he killed, probably over 300 people. If you study that whole thing out, it didn't bother him at all. The more people screamed, the more he liked it. John Wayne Gacy, didn't bother him at all to kill all them kids. Down there underneath the floorboards of his mama's house there, up between the floorboards and covered up with lye and so on and so forth. Mama saying, something smells in here. And those boys stacked in there like cordwood. He'd been torching them until he finally wound up killing them. Dahmer didn't have any problem with confidence. Don't tell me let your conscience be your God. Many people going out committing crimes, horrible crime, terrible crime, they have no conscience at all. You just had an individual not too long ago that was arrested for doing some ungodly, unspeakable things to little children, and he's blaming the little children. What kind of conscience you have to have on that for a child under five years of age to be blamed for what you did to that child? That's a bad conscience. Don't tell me, let your conscience be your guide. Your conscience can be seared, it can be twisted, it can be vexed, it can be taught to be able to let that thing lay down and not bother you at all. Your conscience can get so cold, it won't keep you up at night. I think a good conscience is one of the greatest attributes that a good man or a good woman has because it bothers you when you do something you shouldn't do. Convicts you, sticks you. You know that ain't right. You know you need to fix that. I hope you lose sleep over it. You deserve to lose sleep over it. 1 John chapter number three, look in verse number 21. All 20, for if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then we have confidence toward who? How about that? All right, look in Titus chapter number one. I'll give you just a couple of these here and we'll go to the barn. Titus chapter number one. Isn't it good to come in and hear the pages turn? Faster than a speeding AI. More accurate, anyway. I still believe in the authority of the Bible, in case you were wondering. Somebody asked me about it the other day, and I said, well, I don't know, I guess I'm just too ignorant to believe any other thing. You must be ignorant, you believe in one authority. Yeah, I believe in one authority. Too ignorant to change. Well, preacher, I guarantee you, everybody who doubts what the Bible says has one problem, and it has nothing to do with intellect. It has to do with authority. If they accept that that Bible is the authority in all matters of faith and practice, then they're no longer the authority and they have to admit that they were, hardest word to say in the English language. I was wrong. If you will please Titus chapter number one and look at verse number 15. under the pure all things are pure, but under them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure. But even their mind and conscience is defiled." So you thought I was making it up. You start letting that impurity come in, and before long, your conscience gets defiled, and before long, it doesn't make a difference to you anymore. Verse number 16, same passage. They profess they know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, to every good work, reprobate. What happened? Their mind and conscience is defiled. It's messed up. And so therefore, I'm not saying that you'll become a serial killer. I am saying to you that it'll all of a sudden change your level of convictions about things. Better for you to have too many convictions than not enough. 1 Corinthians chapter number eight. If your conscience gets weak, it's easily defiled. You should hang around people that have a greater conscience about things. You say, why? Keep yours from getting dirty. I don't know if this is true 100% of the time, but I do know this. I do know that generally speaking, people, men and women both, don't sin alone. And generally speaking, when you first started sinning in the sense of bad, bad things to do, not just things you do as a little kid, generally somebody taught it to you or attempted you to do it. You say, Preacher, that doesn't happen. I mean, I'm by myself with the internet. Somebody's on it. You're not doing it by yourself. Well, preacher, I don't fool with all that kind of stuff. You have images in your head. If you don't have images, you have thoughts in your head. You're not doing it alone. Well, if that's the case, you know what I need to do? I need to hang out with people that have a higher moral standard than I do. Christians have a tendency to try to think, how close to the edge can I get without going over? It's like you walking tightrope over Niagara Falls. Why do we do that? Listen, when it comes to athletics, the best thing, if you wanna be a great athlete, my dad always taught me, he said, boy, if you ever wanna amount to anything, he said, you gotta play with people that are better than you. And that goes for football, that goes for golf, that goes for basketball, that goes for whatever sport. If you wanna get better, don't be playing against people you can beat all the time. Play against people that you know you have to up your game to get better. You'll never get better playing against people you can, you'll be lazy, you'll loaf. Well, how come it is as a Christian? Do you ever pause to think about that? Why is it Christians have to be preached about not running down in the alley and eating tin cans with the devil's goats? Why do you have to always be telling your kids you shouldn't be running with that crowd? You shouldn't be hanging out with the people? I ain't talking about on the wrong side of the tracks. I'm talking about people that ain't doing right. Why do you have to be told that? I was just always taught if I wanted to be better, I needed to hang around people. Like I told you this morning, Jeremiah 16, I got a desire of the old past. I hang around with old people. You say, why? I'm less likely to get in trouble. They probably have already experienced the trouble I'm fixing to get into. I might learn from their trouble that they've been in. I don't know why it is about Christians that you don't run around with people that have better standards than you. You get the morals of an alley cat, you say, why? The old preacher used to say this, this is not me, I coined it from him, and yes, I do listen to him a lot, but you know what he said? He said, if you keep on hanging around with other dogs, you know what's gonna happen? Eventually, you're gonna pick up the fleas they got. And before long, you're gonna be scratching all the time. Isn't that true? You ever think about it? You ponder and think about that between now and Wednesday night. I'm gonna give you this other passage here. But you ever think about that? Why is it that when it comes to being a good Christian, we don't run with good Christians, we run with people that we think we're better than they are? No pressure to improve. I mean, I think it'd be great to run with somebody who prays. I get under conviction being around Miss Brenda and Brother Ernie. You say, why? Because they're prayer warriors. And every time I get around them, they don't say anything like, well, yeah, preacher, I've been praying. But I get texts from them and stuff, prayed for you today, preacher. And that's like, yeah, I know you have. And then I'm like, you know, I ought to be praying. Well, I'm not praying. I should be sending you. I'm praying for you. And you're praying for me all the time. You say, what is that? That's hanging around with somebody who's got a better prayer life than I do. What does it make me do? Up my game. I want to hang around preachers that are better than me. Why? Up my game. I want to hang around Christians that are better than me. Why? I want to be better. But we pride ourself like the Corinthian church in saying, oh, well, you know, we're so tolerant of these things and everybody, thank God for the great, this ultra great stuff going on and all that. No, why? I want to run with people that are better. So I get pulled up instead of pulling down. I'm not sure why that is. And we even do it. Why don't you run with people that know more Bible than you? Don't you think that'd be good? It's a great way to learn. You go to Bible school and you realize, you know, the teachers actually do know more than you. With one exception, I have had a guy that called me one time and he went through all the stuff and he called me and he said, Preacher, I just need to talk to you for a minute. And I said, yes, sir. He said, I'm just wondering if y'all go ahead and let me go ahead and take all the tests and everything and get a degree. And I said, well, why is it that you're wanting to do that? And he said, well, I'm probably no more than all the people that in your classes that teach. And I've read all of Dr. Ruckman's material. And I said, yeah, but those guys got something you don't have. And he said, what is that? I said, Tom, we're their hind end in a seat. They paid the price and you didn't. So the answer to that's no. You think you know more than the teacher? Well, you don't have the discipline to demonstrate it. I don't care who you are and how much activity you think you know, you've got to go through the process. It's not like, oh, we'll wave the wand and now you get this. I said, why don't you want a piece of paper anyway, if that's all it means? I said, can you imagine the lack of credibility it'll lend to the school if I wind up doing that for everybody who just says they know more than the other teachers and this and that and the other and not make them go through the discipline it takes to take class? No, you're just handing them a piece of paper for graduation. That cost them something. That cost their families something. They had to work hard, make sacrifices for that. And I'm just going to give you that? Well, it ain't worth the paper it's written on. You say, why? Sometimes even if you've had the class, you still have to spend the time in the class. That's missing nowadays. You want a quick promotion. Let's hurry up and get somewhere. It takes time. All right, last one I'm gonna give you here for this evening now. Look in 1 Corinthians chapter number eight. This is a weak conscience, and if your conscience is weak, it's easily offended. Verse number seven, 1 Corinthians 8, seven. Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge, for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto idol, and their conscience being weak is defiled. And preacher, what are you talking about? We need to strengthen our conscience. You say, why? So it doesn't get defiled. If your conscience is already weak, it's more easily defiled. Do you struggle with certain things? Things maybe you shouldn't struggle with? Things that you should have gotten right a long time ago? Is that possible? You say, why is it? Well, maybe your conscience is weak. Maybe you need to strengthen your conscience. One of the things that I'll show you on Wednesday night, we have a little bit of time there. I'll pull over and park a little bit. You can actually train your conscience. Did you know when He says, let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus there, that you can allow, that word let means to allow, that you can allow that in you. You say, where is it? It's sitting right in your lap. You can train your conscience to think the way God thinks if you want to. That's pretty amazing, isn't it? You want the wisdom of God? Wisdom, ladies and gentlemen, is the application of truth. Wisdom is knowing what to do, when to do, how to do it, the timing, the whole nine yards. You want the wisdom of Solomon? It's right there between the pages of that book, the covers of that book. So what does it require? You gotta train your conscience. If you got saved late in life, and I'm done, if you got saved late in life, your conscience has been so battered and beat up by so much trash and garbage and stuff out there, you don't really know what's right. You say, what do you need? It's like I told a young man not long ago in a conversation, you need a sea anchor in your life. Now those of you that were in the Navy, you know what a sea anchor is, but a sea anchor has nothing to do with stopping your progress. A sea anchor does one thing, and it's predominantly used for one thing, and it is not to slow you down, it is to keep you upright. That sea anchor, you drop it off the back end of the stern of that boat, it's tied off to a cleat, and when you're going through heavy seas, even if they're coming at you on the sides or whatever it might be, that boat may tip this way, but the tug on that sea anchor will cause that boat to stand right back up again. and then it tips over this way, and then that tug on that thing comes up and it pulls it this way. You say, what? It definitely slows your forward progress, but it doesn't stop your progress because if you capsize, you're done. And what you need to do is just have that tug back there holding you upright. I just wanna be upright. I just wanna be upright. I'm not interested in speed. I'm interested in staying upright. What do I have to do? Kind of messed that up. 1 John 1, 9, let's get straightened out. I should have done this different. Okay, let's get straightened out. What do you need? You need to tug. You don't need something pushing you. That's a dangerous thing. In most cases, whenever there is speed involved, there's gonna be a wreck involved. And speed equals property damage and death. That is a statistical fact. The more speed that is involved, the more damage that is done, and the more death, or dismembered, or disfigurement occurs. Everybody knows that when it comes to automobiles, or comes to horse racing, or when it comes to four by fours, or four wheelers, or when it comes to see-do's, or any of that other kind of stuff, or skiing down for a race. The faster you go, when you wreck, you have more damage. Is that right? It is not about speed in the Christian life. It is not as much about accuracy as you might think. It's about staying upright. Where am I going? I don't know. Right now, I'm just trying to stay upright. I'm going where the currents take me. What am I gonna do? Whatever the Lord sees fit to do, but what am I gonna do? I'm gonna feel that tug hold me. But boy, the second you cut that string and you start moving fast, you know what's gonna happen? You get wound up doing what they call over driving it, before long, like I was talking to Nanny T earlier there, and Brother Larry, and talking about straightening out a hairpin curve. You ever done that before? You know, the curve is supposed to go this way, and you just kind of find the shortest distance between two points, and you sort of cut through the woods that way. The Christian life's not about doing that. It's about slowing down and taking the curve. So what do we need? We need a little C anchor. Hold us back, keep us upright. All right, let's stand together and be.