First Timothy (Chapter
One) Part # 2
The
Conscience
I Tim 1:5 ¶ Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:
· Secondly is our conscience. Watchman Nee tells us that the conscience is a component of or a barometer of the voice of the Holy Spirit. Let us look at what the apostle Paul has to tell us about the conscience.
Romans
2:15 Which shew the work of the law
written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their
thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;
· Greek: Their consciences also bearing witness with their hearts, and between one another (in their conscience) their collective thoughts constantly accusing or defending. (Seems like the operation of the voice of the Holy Spirit!)
·
Romans 9:1 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,
· My conscience bears witness to me in the realm or world that belongs to the Holy Spirit. (My conscience operates within the world that belongs to the Holy Spirit.)
2 Corinthians 1:12 For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward.
·
We use
the testimony (of accusing
or defending) that our
conscience gives to conduct ourselves in this world.
2
Timothy 1:3 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;
·
I thank God whom I
render religious service to…in a world that belongs to a pure conscience.
I Tim 1:5 ¶ Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:
· Third and finally, “faith unfeigned” has to do with having an authentic walk with the Lord. In other words is it mean to “walk the talk.”
1 Tim 1:6 From which some having swerved (have deviated from to miss the bull’s eye) have turned aside unto (into) vain jangling(fruitless talk)
· The result of turning away from a genuine Spirit led walk of absolute purity.
7 Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.
·
They not
know what they say, or what is the reality concerning the things that they
speak with so much confidence about.
They are confident in their errors.
My friends, this is the definition of being deceived!
·
10 According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.
Greek: According to the gospel of the glory
of the happy God…
·
As I always
teach, the glory of God is to make the invisible God, visible, to a lost and
dying world. Church and ministry can never be about agendas, programs or the
likes, but must always aim to make the invisible God visible through them.
11 ¶ And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;
Greek: I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who endued me with His power (only as He found me dependable.) The gift of His power was given to me as He found me
worthy of trust. Once that the trust and power were there God placed me into my
ministry.
·
We
must never seek ministry on our own. We
must never seek to raise ourselves up. We only need to seek to be faithful and
obedient to the Lord.
·
Our
obedience develops the character of the Lord and allows us to become partakers
of His liberty. The Lord entrusts us with His power as He sees that our godly
character is being developed to the point that we will not abuse it or be
puffed up by it. There comes a day when the Lord sees that we have enough of
His character, liberty, and power to be placed into His calling for us. He then
raises us up.
·
God’s
ministry must always be executed in His power. If we know little about God’s power we have no business being in
ministry until His power is developed in us.
14 and the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
Greek: And the grace of our Lord super abounded along with the faith and love, which reside inside Christ Jesus.
·
Verse fourteen is the
result of Paul being placed into the ministry which he spoke about in verse
twelve. As we have discussed before, the grace of God is the Person of the Lord
Jesus Christ laboring within us, and accomplishing all in us. Christianity can
be defined wonderfully in one single verse, as first taught to me by Watchman
Nee.
Philippians 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
·
The Lord “works
in” you by His grace. Every work of grace is translated into a rhema
word. Every time we obey His rhema word
we have “worked out.” That
is Christianity!
·
Every time
the Lord works in His rhema word, it carries His measure of faith
and power for us to work it out. This is grace.
·
When we work
out without receiving the rhema word we fall away from grace. This is the law.
Galatians
5:4 Christ is become of no effect (useless, broken down and non operational)
unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
·
Another way
of seeing the grace of God can be found in the following verse.
Colossians 2:6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ( conduct your lives) ye in him:
·
The areas of
our lives in which Christ has been revealed in us, to labor on our behalf and give
us freedom, is the same areas that we are responsible to walk in
and maintain our freedom and victory. A believer cannot quit smoking unless
Christ has spotted that area, then revealed Himself to the believer in order to
labor and set him or her free by His grace. Once the freedom has come through
the superhuman labor of the Lord then the Christian has the responsibility not
to fall back into the bondage of smoking but to conduct his or her life in the
freedom of Christ
I tim 1:18 ¶ This charge (as military orders) I commit (I entrust to you as a valuable deposit) unto
thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that
thou by them mightest war a good warfare;
·
In
accordance with the words of prophecy or in the sphere of God’s power found
within them, you are to war to ultimate success (God’s) military
campaigns and expeditions.
·
This is
Paul’s definition of “faith unfeigned”.
·
It makes us
wonder how the Lord’s battles can be successfully carried out if the prophet
and prophecies are not welcomed with open arms in our churches and ministries
today?
19
Holding
faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away(repudiate and reject)concerning
faith have made shipwreck:
·
Verse
nineteen are the requirements for the soldier of the Lord as depicted in verse
eighteen, if he or she are to carry out successfully the Lord’s military
campaigns to utter completion.
·
Everything
must be done by the faith of God, which is always resident within the voice of
His Holy Spirit.
·
A good
conscience is a barometer of the voice of the Holy Spirit. It is good because the voice of the Holy
Spirit within it bears constant witness that the believer is restricting his or
her life to the voice of God within the conscience.
·
Those
believers that thrust away, repudiate and reject the walk of faith , which
administers God’s affairs, as well as the voice of the Holy Spirit within the
conscience become like a ship that wrecks and destroys itself.
·
Finally the
person that rejects God and considers Him as worthless becomes Romans one and
twenty eight.
Romans
1:28 And even as they did not like to
retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do
those things which are not convenient;
1 Tim 4:2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a
hot iron;
·
There comes
a point when the person reject God long enough to have their conscience becomes
cauterized, numbing its spiritual senses, removing the discernment of God’s voice,
and losing the personal consciousness of what is right and what is wrong. Hence all the aberrant form of human behaviors
found today.
2 Thess 2:11
And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should
believe a lie:
·
Go will send
them an energizing work of error so that they believe what is false.
God Bless You,
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