Ever known someone with a obviously guilty conscience? They know they did wrong, you know they did wrong, everybody knows they did wrong? Usually a kid, but not always…

A guilty conscience affects you.

This is how we will know that we belong to the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows all things.

1 John 3:19–20

RECAP

John’s not pulling any punches. But remember his first reason for writing, all the way back at the beginning: “so that your joy may be complete.” He’s not doing this just to be mean.

And every time, bookends with assurance, especially for those who may be more sensitive.

Two things that every believer has within them (to one degree or another)

1. An Ambiguous Conscience

Sometimes our conscience rightfully tells us that we’re wrong. And… sometimes not.

Definition: “our innate sense of right & wrong”

Our conscience is fallible, affected by the fall.

Now this is his command: that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he commanded us.

1 John 3:23

To trust or not to trust? Trust but verify?

Suppose that your conscience condemns you for eating bacon. You think that Christians today still must follow what the Mosaic law commands about food. The theologically correct view is that bacon is victory food that Christians under the new covenant can enjoy to the glory of God. But if you think that it’s wrong to eat bacon, then you are sinning if you eat bacon.

Andy Naselli

Christians & Low-Level Guilt (DeYoung)

• We could pray more.
• We aren’t bold enough in evangelism.
• We watch movies and television too often.
• We like sports too much.
• Our quiet times are too short or too sporadic.
• We could live some place harder or in something smaller.
• We don’t give enough.
• We bought a new couch.
• We don’t recycle enough.
• We could use our time better.
• We don’t read to our kids enough.
• Our kids eat Cheetos and french fries.
• We need to lose 20 pounds.

We don’t feel stop-you-dead-in-our-tracks kind of remorse for these things. But these shortcomings can have a cumulative effect whereby even the mature Christian can feel like he’s rather disappointing to God, maybe just barely Christian.

I don’t believe God redeemed us through the blood of his Son that we might feel like constant failures.

Kevin Deyoung

• Do Peter and John post-Pentecost seem racked with self-loathing and introspective fear?
• Does Paul seem constantly concerned that he could be doing more?

1. Christians tend to motivate each other by guilt rather than grace.
2. Most of our low-level guilt falls under the vague category of “not doing enough.”
   • Think about that list of things. None one of the items is necessarily sinful. They all deal with possible infractions, perceptions, and ways in which we’d like to do more.
   • These are the hardest areas to deal with because no Christian, for example, will ever confess to praying enough. So it is easy to always feel terrible about prayer (or any number of disciplines).

We aren’t meant to feel borderline miserable all the time. We are meant to live in the joy of our salvation. - If the joy of the Lord is supposed to be your strength, rogue guilt is sapping you of your strength in two ways/both directions.

This underlines one of the great dangers with constant guilt: we learn to ignore our consciences.

It is easy to become so tense about our failures, to be so hard on ourselves for not doing better, and so miserable about our state, that we lose the sunshine of God’s love. David Jackman

2. An Audacious Confidence

Audacious = daring, unconvential

Dear friends, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive whatever we ask from him because we keep his commands and do what is pleasing in his sight. Now this is his command: that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he commanded us. The one who keeps his commands remains in him, and he in him. And the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit he has given us.

1 John 3:21–24

We’re always “before him”, but this is talking more specifically about prayer.

A constant morbid introspection leads to a defeated Christian life.

David Allen

”I know God forgives me, but I just can’t forgive myself.”

I say this because I love you; the Scripture says it because he loves you:
Who do you think you are?

Your own moral code, your personal standard of righteousness,—that’s what matters more to you in that moment that God’s does. It’s counter-intuitive, I know, but when the bad fruit of your life is not being able to forgive yourself, the root issue is actually pride.

The tribunal of conscience, though a very
important one, is not the supreme court.

Charles Spurgeon

1. Because of the Father’s love.

See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children — and we are!

1 John 3:1

God can often see in his people the good which they cannot see in themselves.

Charles Spurgeon

The only person who dares wake up a king at 3:00 a.m. for a glass of water is a child. We have that kind of access.

Tim Keller

2. Because of the Son’s sacrifice.

Author of Hebrews comparing the sacrificial system of the old covenant to what we have now…

Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.

Hebrews 9:14, NLT

Now this is his command: that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he commanded us.

1 John 3:23

3. Because of the Spirit’s presence.

Now this is his command: that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he commanded us.

1 John 3:24

Calibrate your conscience.

Andy Naselli

whenever our hearts condemn us, God is greater
than our hearts, and he knows all things.

1 John 3:20

This is the difference between
conscience and omniscience!

Danny Akin

He knows it all; and he loves you anyway.