Text: 2 Cor 5:11-17
Transcribed by Beluga AI.
Well, good morning, everybody. It is good to see some friends visiting with us. They heard that I was preaching here, so it’s good to see some of my friends here.
It’s good to see some new faces and some old faces from First Baptist, which I say is the first and the best Baptist church in Culver City. So Pastor Max asked me to come and, of course, after some prayer, God gave a green light, and I hope him and his wife are enjoying some time away.
Please turn with me to 2 Corinthians 5.
And that was beautiful worship, by the way, Knox. It wasn’t like that the last time I was here. So thankful that the Lord brought you here.
2 Corinthians 5:11.
11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. 12 We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. 13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. 16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:11-17, ESV)
Okay, let’s pray. Father, we surrender this time to you. I give you my mouth. I pray that you would speak. I pray that there would be fertile ground to receive the Word of God and it would bear much fruit. To the glory of God, we thank you. We praise you for who you are. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
Some people ask me to record this. Yes, I am recording.
Has anybody ever heard a sermon about conscience? Okay, one in the back. Anybody else ever hear a sermon about the conscience? I think. I think. Okay, Jackie. Because I think I’ve done it. Maybe once.
I should define what conscience is so that we’re all under the same. We have the same understanding. It is innate discernment, and it is self-judging consciousness. And it has to do with morality, right and wrong. And I think it also has to do with truth. Truth and falsehood.
And the best definition of conscience for a believer is because we have the Holy Spirit in us and we also have our own spirit. It is co-perception.
So our Spirit, in line with the Holy Spirit, perceives the right thing. This is true, this is false, this is right. This is wrong.
And sometimes we don’t act according to the way we should. And the Spirit will nudge us and convict us and say, that’s wrong.
And hopefully, if you have a good conscience, you agree with the Holy Spirit, you repent and say, okay, I will stop doing that.
So that is a conscience, and there is an evil conscience, there is a good conscience, there is a weak conscience, there is a defiled conscience, and there is a seared conscience.
All of us, before we knew Jesus, we had an evil conscience. You don’t have to look very far. You see a little child who is doing something they shouldn’t do. And you ask them, why? Why did you do that?
And say, I didn’t do that. And without being told, they just lie. We see this in the very early chapters of Scripture where Adam and Eve are caught in the act. And God comes to Adam and says, what did you do? And he says, she made me do it.
We already see right away there’s a conscience that was once good, once perceiving, co-perceiving with the Holy Spirit suddenly shattered, and now people acting contrary to the way they should. The reason why I’m bringing this up is because conscience is actually a big theme in the.
In the first and second Corinthian letters, because Paul founded this church and then after he left, these super apostles came in. If you read these two letters, it is a super Charismatic church that had gone off the rails. They were doing things and saying things they should not be doing. They are splintering because some people in the church say, I follow this leader or I follow that leader because they are more gifted. So that’s the context in which Paul is bringing up conscience.
And let me just get to his main point of why he writes in 2 Corinthians 5, the way that he wrote. He’s saying, you know me, Corinthians, you know my life, you know the way that I lived.
And these people that you call your leaders are lying to you. And you’ve rejected the true gospel which I gave to you. you’ve swerved into a different gospel, a different spirit. It is not what I taught you. It is not what you learned from me. And there is a battle.
And Paul is writing to reclaim these brothers and sisters, not for himself. It sounds like he is self-aggrandizing or he’s really boasting about himself, but he’s using a lot of sarcasm. He’s trying to bring the brothers and sisters at Corinth back to the Lord and back to salvation. So that’s the context.
And let me, before we get into defining a little bit more of the conscience and what it is, let me just share some verses. 2 Corinthians 11:1.
1 I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me! 2 For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. 3 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. 5 Indeed, I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles. 6 Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not so in knowledge; indeed, in every way we have made this plain to you in all things. (2 Corinthians 11:1-6, ESV)
And the whole point of talking about a conscience is the purpose of a good conscience is so that we can all have sincerity of heart, be sincere in our hearts.
It’s actually difficult to know what’s in your heart. It takes time, it takes circumstances. It takes seeing your response to those circumstances to see what is really driving you. What are the thoughts, the intentions of the heart, the motives, the secret place.
It’s really difficult to know for parents. They say they love you and to the best of their ability.
Probably most parents are loving you in their own way, but they give off certain clues that their love is tainted.
For example, I grew up in an Asian family, so what I’m saying is maybe understandable for Asians who grew up where academics is so high and how you look in society and the kind of person you become.
And so you hear some words that the parents say over the years or especially at the end of their life when they’re kind of judging and assessing what is a good life.
And they say things like, I achieved something and I had so much more than you. And so there’s this pressure you also should achieve.
And it’s almost as a listener, you almost feel like, well, do you love me for who I am, or do you only love me conditionally when I produce something that is worthy of respect?
And it’s almost like I am a trophy that you put up on your bookshelf and you brag to your friends, look at my son. This is what he’s achieved.
This is how you get to see through the words, through how they treat you. It’s not direct, but if you read between the lines, you can see if somebody loves you.
And maybe not at this church, but at many churches. Church leaders act like they love you, but you’re just a number. you’re just a number. They don’t actually, they don’t know most of the congregation, if it’s a large church, and if you’re there or not, they don’t know. And when you.
If you do know the pastor and you leave that church for whatever reason, because the good Lord leads you or whatever, it wasn’t a right fit. By how they respond to you, you know, whether they loved you before, by their comments, by their lack of blessing as you leave, these are clues this person actually didn’t love me. It was conditional. It was only while I was loyal. It was only while I was there. He treated me a certain way, but as soon as I say I’m leaving, the blessing stops, the relationship’s over.
And so these are clues that there are things in our heart that it’s hard to know. You have to pay attention to your response to things as you live your life.
Early as a Christian leader, I said, Lord, I want to make a big impact. What young pastor doesn’t want to have that on their resume? But the Lord, He did not lead me that way. Instead, He just revealed, Ray, you have a lot of selfish ambition. Ray, you have a lot of pride because did I say to do this?
Did I say you’re going to do this? And I’m just projecting what I want. I’m saying, five years from now, we’re going to do this. Ten years from now, here’s my vision. And the Lord said, did I tell you that you don’t know, even know tomorrow?
So all of this planning, all of this vision, isn’t it just vanity? So the conscience is very important. It leads to a sincere heart if you have a good conscience. Sincere heart. If you have an evil conscience, then. Then you’re in trouble.
So Paul is saying, I am not inferior to these super apostles. He’s using sarcasm. He doesn’t actually believe they’re apostles, but these people who’ve elevated themselves.
He’s saying, why are they talking down to me? Is it because I don’t have anything to show? Because these Corinthians, I guess the Corinthian church was a large church, so outwardly they have a lot to show. And then they are looking down on Paul.
What does he have? He’s not married. He doesn’t have a house. He’s just an itinerant preacher going from place to place. He is suffering.
He doesn’t seem to speak that well. And these Corinthian leaders are eloquent. They’re so. They must be so Charismatic in their personality and their speech.
And so he’s contrasting the sincerity of himself. Paul, who’s not doing it for any ulterior motive. He’s doing it because he loves the Lord, he obeys the Lord, he loves the people, and it’s not a show.
And he says, in contrast, your leadership, they are putting on a show. They’re elevating themselves. you’re falling into their trap. They’re looking down on me because I don’t have something to show.
But God doesn’t look at outward appearances. He looks at the heart. And then he goes on. He hammers his point all over this letter.
2 Corinthians 12:7.
7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10, ESV)
Do you see what Paul is saying here? To the eyes of the world and to the super apostles, Paul is a nobody. He has no church. He just has places where he did a few years of ministry; he moved on. And he is weak. He has this thorn.
We don’t know what it is. This man who could preach and declare healing upon the crowds, he can’t even heal himself. And it was by God’s design to keep this man who had all of these revelations from the Lord. He went to the third heaven to keep this supernaturally gifted man humble. There was a thorn that just would not remove. And it was by God’s design to keep him grounded, to keep him down to earth, to keep him humble. And all the while he is suffering.
And in contrast, I think he’s saying these Corinthian leaders live in comfort. Everything is going well. They’re prospering in every way, but their heart is not for you. That’s what he’s saying to the Corinthians.
And then he says in 2 Corinthians 4:5,
5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you. (2 Corinthians 4:5-12, ESV)
And as you listen to this, it almost sounds like Paul is so arrogant. He says, I’m not talking. I’m not proclaiming myself. But in some ways he is. But then he says, I’m not doing it for me. I’m a representative of Jesus Christ and I have a sincere heart for you.
And I pray that your conscience will be able to discern it. And he’s saying, if you look on the outer circumstances, it doesn’t look like God is with me. Why is it so difficult?
Why am I insulted? Why do I have such hardship? Because he’s carrying in his body the death of Jesus, which leads to life and the people he’s ministering to.
And he says, I am just a jar of clay. Don’t look at Paul the person, but what I possess is a treasure. Look to Jesus, that treasure.
This gospel which I’m preaching to you. I have no ulterior motives. I’m not trying to get financially wealthy or to have my ego boosted by a following. He says, I’m pure in heart. I’m sincere.
And then he says in chapter four, verse 16,
16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18, ESV)
So church ministry, visible. It’s transient. God may bless you with a lot of impact in this world.
Transient. What matters is the unseen. God sees the heart. God sees the sincerity or the lack thereof.
And Paul says, okay, outwardly wasting away, inwardly I’m being renewed day by day. And so Paul makes appeal. He appeals to the Corinthians in their conscience. He says in 2 Corinthians 4:1,
1 Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. (2 Corinthians 4:1, ESV)
And what kind of ministry is this? This is a ministry of suffering, of traveling wherever Jesus sends them, not planting a flag in the ground saying, I’m staying here.
I’m going where there is need. And he is a missionary pastor, a church planter, an apostolic minister, and a pastor and a herald of the Gospel. And he does this without losing heart.
And he renounced the disgraceful, underhanded ways. And by implication, he’s saying, your leadership. There’s something underhanded in what they’re doing, and you can’t perceive it because you’re under their spell. He’s trying to wake them up. He’s trying to get their conscience to see, remember my sincerity. Why are they attacking me now? Why are they elevating themselves above me?
Why are they preaching things that I did not preach? He’s appealing to their conscience in the sight of God. And there is a good conscience.
And did you know in 1 Peter 3 that at baptism, one of the things we’re supposed to do in our baptism is we’re appealing to God for a good conscience? That’s in 1 Peter 3:21.
21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, (1 Peter 3:21, ESV)
And so when we died to our evil conscience and our old way of life, that old you, the old creation, and you came out of that water, your prayer, I hopefully should have been, if it was based on God’s word, is, Lord, I want a good conscience because this is what will keep me saved.
Because if the conscience goes wrong, the person who is saved is going in the wrong direction. But a conscience that is renewed, that is restored, that is a good conscience, will keep you on the path that leads to eternal life.
1 Timothy 1:18.
18 This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, 19 holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, 20 among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. (1 Timothy 1:18-20, ESV)
So two very important pieces of advice that Paul gives to a young pastor: Hold fast to two things, your faith and a good conscience.
You let go of the conscience, you let it become defiled, it will lead to a shipwrecking of your faith. That’s why conscience is so important.
There is an evil conscience that is mentioned in Hebrews 10. And we all had it. We didn’t. No one had to teach you how to sin. You just knew sin from the earliest memory. You knew how to lie, you knew how to cheat, you knew how to steal, you knew how to maybe not completely lie, but a mixing of white lies mixed in with truth.
And we just are trying to get our way, navigate through uncomfortable situations, and we don’t want to get in trouble. We don’t want people to look down on us or think badly of us. And so from a young age, we’ve had. We know what this evil conscience that Hebrews speaks of is talking about.
And there’s also a weak conscience. You can read about that in 1 Corinthians 8. That is talking about food sacrificed to idols.
And the point of 1 Corinthians 8 is, food is, as long as you give thanksgiving to God, you’re free to eat anything. That is the true revelation. But when it comes to a weaker brother with a weaker conscience who stumbles because you’re eating that food, and he now is going along with you because he thinks, okay, you’re doing it. So I think I’m doing it. But he is going against his weak conscience. The Scripture says, you’ve sinned against that brother. The same thing with drinking.
You may say, well, the Bible doesn’t say I can’t drink, but do you know there’s a lot of alcoholics in the world? And so for the sake of the freedom that you have in Christ, are you going to be known as somebody who drinks?
Especially as a leader, are you going to be known as a leader who’s okay with drinking? And then somebody in the congregation hears that and says, okay, my pastor drinks, therefore it’s okay if I drink, and that person becomes an alcoholic and shipwrecks their faith. Whose fault is it?
God holds the person with a stronger conscience responsible for destroying the brother with a weaker conscience. And then there’s a defiled conscience. It talks about that in Titus 1:10.
10 For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. 11 They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. 12 One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” 13 This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, 14 not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. 15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. 16 They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work. (Titus 1:10-16, ESV)
So how does our good conscience that we received at conversion, how does it become defiled?
It’s when you deliberately sin and the Holy Spirit says, stop, don’t go that way, and you shut down that voice. What happens to your spirit is it becomes defiled.
And if you do this repeatedly, habitually, this defiled conscience becomes a seared conscience that’s mentioned in 1 Timothy. For a seared conscience is one that a hot iron has burned, so now there’s no nerve endings anymore.
And so the conscience, which is supposed to warn you, stay away from that. Don’t be, don’t sin, don’t lie, don’t do this.
The conscience, once it’s seared, it’s a point of no return, it seems like, because now this conscience no longer is functioning and this pattern of sin is established. And in some cases, you have leaders in this state, and they’re preaching and they’re not living it out. They’re hypocritical.
And that is the kind of situation that Paul is dealing with in the Corinthian letter. So let me get back to our main text. And now I think it will. You will understand it better. He starts off this chapter talking about the heavenly dwelling.
And his point is, don’t focus on this earthly shell. Yet I’m wasting away. I have a thorn in my flesh. I don’t look impressive, I don’t have a lot to show, but I have a heavenly dwelling that is waiting for me.
That’s how he starts this chapter. And then he goes to 2 Corinthians 5:11.
11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. 12 We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. 13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. (2 Corinthians 5:11-15, ESV)
And then he goes on in verse 16, from then, from now on, therefore we regard no one according to the flesh. And even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.
16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. (2 Corinthians 5:16, ESV)
And he’s trying to lift the veil from the eyes of these Corinthians who are so enamored by these Corinthian leadership, this super apostle who has no suffering, who has all the money, who speaks so well, and on top of that, has these spiritual gifts. And who are saying, Paul, he’s a loser. Don’t listen to him. I have a different revelation. It’s different than Paul, but it’s a better revelation.
And into this context, he speaks. And what Paul reminds them is, remember how we used to look at Jesus? He’s just a Rabbi.
The whole religious establishment rejected him. What does he know then? He chooses disciples, like fishermen. What do they know? And then he dies in weakness to the world. A shameful death on a cross, brutalized, naked, and says, remember we used to look at Jesus from a physical standpoint, but when he resurrected, our eyes are open.
We don’t look at the outward appearance. We see the heart. We see he really loved us. He laid down his life for us because he loved us. We were his friends. As friends, he laid down his life for me.
I want to now live for Jesus. And he’s reminding them of the Gospel. And he says, we looked at Jesus that way, and you might be tempted to look at me that way because I look weak. I have a thorn. I don’t speak that well. I don’t have any money, but I love God. I’m obedient to the Lord, and I love you.
He’s appealing to their conscience. So there’s an evil conscience that we had before we knew Christ. But by the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus at baptism, our conscience was made good.
And depending on how you lived out your life since that point, maybe your conscience is still weak. It needs to be stronger so that you don’t get stumbled so easily by other people. Maybe because of habitual sin, your conscience has become defiled. You need to repent of that before it gets to a seared conscience state.
So, practically, what can we do with this message? First is you just need to be honest with yourself. Just need to be honest with yourself. On Sunday, we all sing hymns. We say we love Jesus.
Nobody sees you Monday through Saturday, but you know yourself. You just got to be honest. Do I love the Lord Jesus the same on Monday morning as I do on Sunday morning? Just have to be honest. Do you have idols in your heart? You say, Jesus, you’re my Lord, I love you more than anything, anyone. And yet most of your life you’re chasing after money, career, idols, and you just have to be honest.
Because this discrepancy between what you say with your mouth and how you live, this leads to a defiling of the conscience.
And the Holy Spirit wants to show you various things in your heart. Are you sincere? Are you insincere? Are you? Are you? Is there integrity or is there hypocrisy? The Lord wants to show you. So you have to start by being honest with yourself. Next is now that the Lord invites you to be honest with yourself. Next is be honest with the Lord. Tell him this is where I struggle. Nobody knows it, but you see it. Please help me with this idolatry. Please help me with this habitual sin. Please help me.
I don’t want to say one thing, and I know I’m lying deep down. I want my words to match my heart. I want to be sincere the way Paul was sincere, the way Jesus was sincere, the way many leaders in Paul’s day were insincere. I don’t want to be like them. I want to be sincere.
Be honest with the Lord. And if you’re struggling this morning, maybe it’s hard to be honest with yourself. And when you pray to God, it’s hard to feel like he’s responding to you. Be honest with somebody.
That’s what the body of Christ is here for. We’re here to pray for each other. We’re not judging anybody. We’re not looking down on anyone. We all are. We are all struggling with various things. And the Holy Spirit is going to bring things all the time.
I just invite you at the end of each day, invite the Holy Spirit to do an inventory. How did I do today in my actions, in my speech, in my thoughts?
Just be honest with the Lord, and whatever He convicts you, just repent right away. Say, Lord, I don’t want to. I don’t want to live that way tomorrow.
And if you’re having a hard time, then confess to somebody. Just even in this service, while we sing, while we pray, you can come and receive prayer at the front or just tap a shoulder of somebody next to you and say, I could use some prayer. I’m struggling with this.
That’s what the body of Christ is for.
We’re here to love each other and pray for each other so we can all have good consciences, holding onto a good faith, a good conscience. The goal is a sincere heart that will make it to the end.
Okay, let’s pray. Father, we’re so thankful that you taught us about something that is hard to understand. But Lord, you’re beginning to bring revelation about the importance of our conscience, our inner thoughts, our motives, and even the visible acts and the works. We pray that you would bring wholeness to everything.
That with the Holy Spirit’s help, in partnership with our own Spirit, there would be a co-perception of what is right and noble and loving and godly.
We pray that we would honor you not just through our words, but by how we live, by how we love, with total sincerity, not for any other agenda. We want to love people with no strings attached, because that’s how you love us unconditionally.
Thank you, Lord. We love you. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.