In Genesis 1, we read that man was created in the image of God. And some people have mistakenly tried to understand this as man being made in the physical image of God, as if man has a body that looks like God's body. But that's not what it means, because God doesn't have a physical body. God is spirit. And therefore, whatever likeness man possesses of God must be connected with our spiritual nature, not our physical nature, but our spiritual nature. Ephesians 4.24 and Colossians 3.10 shed some light on what it means to be made in the image of God. These verses teach us that we are created with the innate capacity to know what righteousness and holiness are. which is to say a large part of what it means to be made in the image of God is to know what right and wrong is, to understand morality. Take the concept of justice as an example. Suppose you have two children sitting at the table and you place 10 cookies on the table and you give one cookie to one child and you give the other nine cookies to the other child. that child that got the one cookie is gonna be thinking to himself, this is not fair. This is just not a fair distribution of cookies. In fact, both children are going to be thinking that this is not a fair distribution of cookies. It's just that the child who received the nine cookies might not be so inclined to make an issue out of it. And the reason these children have a concept of fairness is because they've been made in the image of God. They possess a spiritual quality that enables them to know what justice is. God didn't create all creatures with the ability to understand moral and ethical concepts like this. If I had two dogs sitting in front of me, and I gave one cookie to one dog and nine cookies to the other dog, neither one of those dogs is going to object to how I distributed the cookies based upon the concept of fairness. It's not as if the dogs are gonna say, Look, George, you have 10 cookies, right? The most fair and equitable way to distribute those cookies is to give five to me and five to the other dog. No, the dogs don't have the capacity to reason that way because they don't share this attribute of God. They're not made in the image of God. All the dogs are gonna do is follow their selfish and competitive appetite. So if they do disagree with my distribution of the cookies, their objection is gonna be that they didn't receive all 10 of the cookies. Each dog will be thinking, don't give any of the cookies to the other dog, I want all of them. Humans and humans alone bear the image of God. We are, to use a different term, moral agents, because God has created us with an understanding of righteousness, holiness, justice, and other aspects of morality and ethics. Our sermon text this morning describes how we, as moral agents, are made aware of our moral condition. It's a function of our spirit. Solomon metaphorically describes it as the lamp of the Lord. The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, he writes in the first line of our sermon text. And we should understand this to be a reference to our moral conscience. Solomon is describing that part of our spiritual being that reveals our guilt to us. He's saying that the Lord uses our conscience to illuminate the most secretive and private areas of our lives. Just like an explorer would use a lamp to illuminate the dark corners of a cave. So it's our conscience that's in view here. Our sermon text is telling us that our conscience is the instrument God uses to expose our moral condition. But don't think that God shines his lamp into the deep and dark places of your heart so that he can see and know your moral condition. The light he shines into your heart is so that you can know your moral condition. God already knows what's inside your heart. There's no darkness that's too concealing for his scrutinizing eyes to see through. So there's nothing hidden from the knowledge of God. The illumination provided by the lamp of the Lord is for your benefit. It's so that you can see the sin that resides within your being. Consider the story that we read in John eight about the woman caught in adultery. The scribes and Pharisees brought this woman to Jesus and asked him, teacher, this woman was caught in adultery in the very act. Now Moses and the law commanded us that such should be sown. But what do you say? What do you say, Jesus? The next verse tells us that the scribes and Pharisees asked this question because they were testing Jesus. They were trying to trap him so that they could have something to accuse him of. But Jesus knew what they were doing, so he didn't answer them, at least not verbally. Instead, he stooped down to the ground and began writing on the ground with his finger. And as he's riding on the ground with his finger, the scribes and Pharisees are continuing to question him. So what do you say, Jesus? This is what Moses says, what do you say? And Jesus, again, wasn't answering. He stood up and he said, he who is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone. And then once again, Jesus crouched down, knelt down, and began riding on the ground with his finger. And the Bible doesn't tell us what Jesus was writing, but it does tell us how the scribes and Pharisees responded when they saw what Jesus was writing. John 8 verse nine says that they became, and I quote, convicted by their conscience, end quote. Convicted by their conscience. Now there's that word, conscience. The scribes and Pharisees were convicted by their conscience. Whatever Jesus was writing on the ground, it served the purpose of convicting the scribes and Pharisees of their very own sins, the sins that were lurking within the dark crevices of their own sinful hearts. And what's fascinating about this story is that once the scribes and Pharisees began to be convicted of their own personal sin, John writes that they began to leave, beginning with the oldest and then all the way down to the youngest. Many biblical scholars have speculated that Jesus was probably writing the private sins of each of the scribes and Pharisees as he's writing on the ground. Jesus was kneeling down on the ground. He looked up at the oldest man, and then he wrote something on the ground. And when that oldest man read what Jesus just wrote on the ground, he was convicted in his heart, and he left. I'm getting out of here. And Jesus looked at the next oldest man, and he did the same thing, and the next oldest man, and he did the same thing, until all the scribes and the Pharisees had left because their own consciences had convicted them of their own personal sins. This is an example of how God shines his lamp into people's hearts, illuminating their sins so that they are aware of them. And along with this awareness comes the inevitable shame and guilt that's associated with sin. That's what the lamp does. The lamp exposes sin to us, and the ensuing shame and guilt comes upon us, it's felt within us. Do you know what I'm talking about? Have you ever experienced this process of having your sins exposed to you? Have you ever felt the conviction of your own sin? Have you ever experienced the guilt and shame that comes with knowing that you have done something that you should not have done? Or that you have not done something that you should have done? That is the lamp of God searching the inner depths of your heart. That's your conscience bearing witness against you, judging the thoughts and intentions of your heart. If you look at the margin notes in our sermon text, in your Bible, related to Proverbs 20, verse 27, you'll see that a more literal translation of the second line is searching all the rooms of the belly. Or some translations say the chambers, right? Searching the chambers of the belly or searching the chambers of the inner man. Searching all the rooms of the belly. We can read this. It would be totally appropriate to read this verse. The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the rooms of the belly. Searching all the rooms of the belly. Now this adds a little more dimension to Solomon's metaphor. He's saying that we have these rooms inside of our bellies, inside of our internal most being. No other human is able to see into these rooms. So they're a convenient place for you to conceal your secrets. You can hide your skeletons in these rooms. You can hide the things that you don't want anybody to know about, the things that you are ashamed of. the things that you would like to tuck away and pretend never happened. But what Solomon is telling us is that the lamp of the Lord searches each of these rooms. The lamp of the Lord opens the door wide open to each of these rooms, shines the light into the room, illuminating everything that is in the room. You're not able to ignore the things that are hidden away in these rooms because the light is exposing everything. The skeletons, the dirty laundry, the shameful secrets, the lamp of the Lord makes all of these things known and known to you. Imagine Jesus crouching down before you, writing the details of your private sins in the sand and then looking up at you. You'd be convicted in your heart, right? like the Scribes and Pharisees and John 8. An intense sense of guilt would arise within your soul. That's your conscience revealing your sin to you. That's the work of the lamp of the Lord. I don't think any of us enjoy having our sins exposed to us. When the lamp of the Lord shines its light upon our shameful deeds, it's definitely an uncomfortable experience. But because of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, having your sins exposed can be one of the best things that has ever happened to you. Remember, the lamp of the Lord doesn't illuminate your moral condition for God's benefit, it's for your benefit. God already knows you're guilty. He doesn't need to shine a light into the rooms of your belly to know that you are guilty. The conviction of your conscience is for your benefit because if you never experience the burden of your guilt, then you will die without understanding your desperate need of a savior. That's the reality of your condition, right? If you don't know your sinfulness, if you don't experience the guilt and the shame, understanding the burden of your sin, you will pass from this world without ever understanding your desperate need for a Savior. But when the lamp of the Lord exposes your sins to you, then the ensuing feelings of guilt and shame are to be understood as God's grace to you. How so? Well, because those feelings of guilt and shame are designed to move you to repent. They're designed to drive you to the cross of Jesus Christ, where you will receive mercy from God, where you'll experience a comprehensive forgiveness of God, and where you'll be reconciled to a proper relationship with God. Sadly, there are many, many people who will never experience the benefits of having their sins exposed to them. The lamp of the Lord shines into the rooms of their belly, but they refuse to acknowledge the skeletons that are exposed. Some people will try to deny that there's anything shameful in the rooms of their belly. I didn't do anything wrong. Everybody has little peculiarities and idiosyncrasies. There's nothing wrong with that. It's who I am. God made me this way. when they try to shift the blame onto others for what's in those rooms. They make excuses for why somebody else is responsible for those skeletons and dirty laundry. It's the devil's fault. It's my parents' fault. It's my spouse's fault. The woman whom you gave to be with me, Lord, she made me do it. Or they minimize their sin, trying to make the consequences less than what God says they are. And besides, God is love, right? He would never send somebody like me to hell. I've done a lot of good in my life. I'm pretty sure that all the good I've done outweighs anything bad that I might have done. God takes that into consideration. He doesn't damn people to everlasting punishment just because they made a few mistakes in their life. Dear friends, it's of the utmost importance to your spiritual well-being that you understand the insufficiency of these sinful responses to having your sin exposed. The only appropriate response is humble repentance. Humble yourself in repentance. The only response that's consistent with the good news of the gospel is to confess and forsake your sin. The person who tries to deny their sin, or shift the blame of their sin onto somebody else, or minimize the consequences of their sin, is a person who has a stubborn and rebellious heart. He's a person who is always right in his own eyes. He's a person who will obstinately argue his innocence with anyone who challenges him, even if that means that the dispute, he has to dispute with his own conscience. because that's what he inevitably has to do. If I'm a rebellious and stubborn sinner, I can dispute with each one of you, probably quite effectively, at least from my own estimation, but how am I gonna dispute with my own conscience? Stop and think about that for a moment. Have you ever considered the futility of disputing with your own conscience? It's like trying to play a chess game with yourself. You make a move for white, you turn the board around, you make a move for black, you turn the board around, you make another move for white, you turn the board around, and you keep playing the game, making moves for both sides, trying to establish a competitive game. The problem with playing chess this way is that you always know what the other side is doing. You know why the black rook got moved onto that certain square, and you know why the white bishop is challenging the black knight. The only way you can make it appear as if this is a real chess game, an actual competitive chess game, is to pretend like you don't know what the other side is doing. But that's pretty difficult to do, right? You'd have to take what you know to be true about what the other side of the board is doing and just put that out of your mind, pretend like it doesn't, that it's not there. And that would take some very serious, very serious selective memory and self-delusion to accomplish. Yet, that's precisely what millions of stubborn and rebellion sinners are doing every day when they dispute with their own conscience regarding the exposure of their sin. Romans 118 describes this as suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. The sinner's conscience convicts him of his sin, but he suppresses that conviction in unrighteousness. He convinces himself that his conscience is wrong, or that his conscience can be ignored, or that his conscience can be minimized, disregarded. Brothers and sisters, we are more than capable of self-delusion and self-deception. We are more than capable of doing precisely this. Jeremiah 17 verse nine states it well. It says that the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. A sinner who has not received saving grace from God can deceive himself into believing that the testimony of his conscience can be ignored. And one of the ways he does this is to insist upon using a different standard of morality than what his conscience is using. What's the standard of morality that the man's conscience is using to judge the thoughts and intentions of his heart? It's God's moral law. Right, it's the lamp of the Lord. The lamp of the Lord uses God's moral law to illuminate the darkness of the rooms of that man's belly. The apostle Paul spends the first 12 verses of Romans two, making the point that God's moral law is the only standard by which the people of this world are judged. Every thought, every word, every deed of every man, woman, and child are judged according to God's law. And after making this point, Paul anticipates an objection that he knows his readers are going to raise. And the objection is this, the law was given to the Jews. Since the law was given to the Jews, then how can God judge the Gentiles according to the law that they never received? Wouldn't it be unfair for God to judge the Gentiles by a moral standard that they are not even aware of? Well, Paul answers, first he raises this objection, anticipating it, and then he answers the objection in verses 14 and 15 of Romans 2. He concedes the point that the Gentiles were not given the law in the same manner that the Jews were, but then he goes on to say something profound. He says in verse 14, for when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves who show the work of the law written in their hearts. And what does the apostle mean when he says that the Gentiles have the law written in their hearts? We don't have to guess what he means by this because he continues in verse 15 to explain what he means. He said that the Gentiles' conscience bears witness to them, either accusing them or excusing them, even in the secret thoughts of their heart. So the Gentiles may not have been given the moral law on tablets of stone, but they have the same moral law written on the tablets of their heart. They know, therefore, what is right and wrong because their conscience bears witness to them of what is right and wrong according to God's holy law. So when an unrepentant sinner has his conscience bearing witness to him of what he's doing wrong, he might try to deceive himself by disconnecting God's moral law from his own life. He'll say to himself, I don't accept God's standard. I don't accept that God has authority over me. I don't accept what my conscience is telling me. I don't accept the guilt and shame that I'm experiencing. So I'm suppressing all of this. I'm suppressing it. It's not relevant to my life. I'm suppressing it. Whether knowingly or unknowingly, the stubbornly rebellious person who suppresses his conscience is actually suppressing the image of God that's intrinsic to his humanity. Or to put it in different words, he's rejecting that part of himself that distinguishes him from all the other creatures of the world. He's making himself like a brute animal who is ignorant of right and wrong. And this is an exceedingly dangerous condition for a sinner to be in because the Lord will not endure this type of rebellion forever. The person who persists in trying to suppress the truth of God and unrighteousness will eventually succeed. He will eventually succeed. He'll succeed because God will give him over to a debased mind. Romans 1 verse 28 states this very clearly. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do the things which are not fitting. God gave them over to a debased mind to do the very things that are not fitting. Consider those words. Even though they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, Paul writes, even as they did not like to retain God's justice, righteousness, and holiness in their knowledge. Even as they did not like to retain the lamp of the Lord that illuminates the inner rooms of their bellies. So, because of this, God gave them over to a debased mind. He removed his lamp from them. He allowed their consciences to become seared so seared that they no longer experience a conviction of their sin, which means they no longer experience any guilt or shame for their sin. And this is a terrible situation to be in because the guilt and shame are supposed to show the sinner his desperate need for a Savior and drive him to the cross of Jesus Christ where he finds salvation, where he discovers forgiveness. But if the lamp of the Lord is no longer exposing the sinner's sin to him, then that sinner is left to enjoy the short-term pleasures of his sin without having to deal with any guilt or shame, without having to deal with a convicting conscience. But all he's really doing, all that sinner is really doing is storing up wrath for the day of wrath. Proverbs 14, verse 12 warns, there's a way that seems right to a man, but its end is a way of death. Brothers and sisters, this is a very serious matter. It's a very serious matter. When your conscience convicts you of sin, that is a good thing insofar as it demonstrates an opportunity for you to humble yourself in repentance to God. And the gospel promises that whoever humbles himself in repentance, God will graciously raise up and justify according to the atoning work of Jesus Christ. So the question before you this morning is not whether you are a sinner deserving of God's wrath. That question has already been answered. Romans 3.23 says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So yes, you are guilty of sin. And your conscience has already made that perfectly clear to you. The question before you this morning is whether you have humbled yourself in repentance for your sins. And before you answer that question, before you quickly say, yes, I've done that, let us make sure that we are understanding of what biblical repentance is. Proverbs 28 verse 13 describes repentance as confession and forsaking. He who covers his sin will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. Some people think that repentance is merely saying the words, I'm sorry. They think that by virtue of saying these two magical words, they somehow should no longer be held accountable or responsible for the sin that they've committed. But stop and think about that for a second. What is the person really saying? What is he really communicating when he says, I'm sorry? with the expectation that that should settle the matter. He's indicating his emotional response to a sinful situation, right? That's what those words mean. He's saying that something about the situation has caused him to be sorry, to experience an emotion that we label sorrow. But there's a big difference between feeling sorry and walking through the process of repentance. If all a person does is feel sorry, then he's basically saying, look, I know I've sinned against you and harmed you in some way, but you just need to get over that because I'm feeling sorrow in my heart. Everything should be fine now with you because I'm feeling sorrow. This is not to say that feelings of sorrow are bad. You should feel sorrow when you sin, but if sorrow is the full extent of your response to your sin, then that is woefully insufficient. If sorrow is merely an emotion that you share with somebody else, thinking that that's gonna put a Band-Aid on the situation, that's not repentance. Sorrow is a precondition to repentance, but sorrow itself, it shouldn't be confused with repentance. If sorrow being the precondition still requires repentance, you to move forward in repentance. Repentance does not happen just by merely feeling sorrow. Judas Iscariot was sorrowful that he betrayed Jesus. In fact, he had so much sorrow in his heart that he went out and hung himself. But Judas was never moved beyond sorrow to actual repentance. For you to be able to confidently say that you have repented of your sins, your sorrow needs to compel you to confess your sins and to forsake them. Confession is the activity of acknowledging your sins to God as well as to whoever else you've sinned against. And then after having confessed your sins, repentance moves you to forsake your sins, which means you turn away from your sins. You declare war against your sins, fighting to put those sins to death, to no longer walk in those sins, to no longer let them characterize who you are as a person. In Matthew three, verse eight, John the Baptist told the Pharisees and Sadducees to bear fruits worthy of repentance. And what do you think John was describing when he said, bear fruits worthy of repentance? What is the fruit that he is talking about? What does that fruit look like in a repentant person? How would you know it if you saw it? In short, it means change. A change in a person's character and behavior. For example, Zacchaeus bore fruit worthy of repentance. He was a man, prior to his encounter with Jesus Christ, he was a man who had an established pattern of cheating and stealing from people. He was a tax collector. He used his position to manipulate people out of their money so he could enrich himself. But then he met Jesus. And at that point, Zacchaeus repented and there was a radical change in his character and his behavior. He said in Luke 19 verse eight, look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor, and if I've taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold. Jesus happily proclaimed that salvation had come to Zacchaeus' house, that even this tax collector is now a son of Abraham, Jesus said. Zacchaeus voluntarily agreed to make restitution for his thievery, and he displayed grand generosity to the poor. That's confessing and forsaking sin. That's an example of bearing fruits worthy of repentance. There is a discernible change in the person's character and behavior. The fruits of your repentance might look different than Zacchaeus's because your sin is probably different than Zacchaeus's. But the part that is consistent with everybody who truly repents is that they turn away from their sin. they actively begin forsaking their sin, putting it to death while pursuing obedience to God. And this is, not to say we do this perfectly, it's a process. We may stumble back into that sin, but if we stumble back into that sin, we will once again confess and begin forsaking again that sin. It will be a struggle, but there will be noticeable progress because of the grace of God upon the sanctified sinner. This is a difficult battle to be sure. Many of you already know how difficult this is because you've been fighting this battle for a long time now. The sins of our flesh do not surrender easily. They don't die without putting up a fight of their own. Yet we persevere by faith in the strength of Jesus Christ who gives us the victory. 1 Corinthians 15 57 says, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the banner under which every soldier of Christ marches as he battles his sin. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And understand, this whole process of putting off sin and putting on righteousness begins with the lamp of the Lord. It all begins with our conscience bearing witness to us, convicting us of our sin. And some people will respond by trying to extinguish the lamp of the Lord. And as we've already seen, this is going to result in a seared conscience, a seared conscience that leads to death. Broad is the way that leads to destruction and many go in by it. Others will respond to the conviction of their sin with repentance. They'll confess their sin, they'll forsake their sin. And this is never easy, it's never pleasant, it requires us to humble ourselves, yet Jesus tells us that this is the only path that leads to life. It's the only path that leads to life. Brothers and sisters, It is my sincere desire and prayer that each and every one of you experience victory over your sins through our Lord Jesus Christ. That's not a proposition that has a questionable outcome. That is the very sure promise of the gospel. that if you respond in repentance, which is to say confession and forsaking your sin, that you will experience victory, not because of how good and strong and intelligent and powerful you are, but you will experience the victory over your sin through our Lord Jesus Christ. So it's my sincere desire that each of you would say that your guilty conscience is the best thing that has ever happened to you. the voice and testimony of your conscience, which is the lamp of the Lord shining into those rooms of your belly, that that is the best thing that has ever happened to you, because that is what drove you to the cross of Jesus Christ, where true and everlasting victory has been experienced. Amen, let's pray.