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     1. Worship and Praise   (3:08)
     2. A Conscience Void of Offence   (25:04)
     3. Just a Closer Walk with Thee, verse 1   (1:25)

Acts 24:14-16.  But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets: ¹⁵And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.  ¹⁶And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.

I Timothy 4:2.  Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;

Psalm 51:6.  Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

Now, I’d like to take three minutes to remind you of something that’s in the Bible—show you a mirror, let you look into this looking glass.  Here’s a testimony of the Apostle Paul: “But this I confess unto thee…”  Now, this is Acts 24:14.  It’s in the New Testament.  Acts 24:14.  “But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy…”  I’ve been called a heretic ever since I was a little boy.  And I’m mighty glad to be in this company of those that are called “heretics.”  If you follow Jesus Christ with all your heart, you’ll soon be a “heretic.”  Your best friends won’t like you anymore.  They’ll say, “I can’t do anything with him, he’s too holy.”  Or, “She’s too holy.  You can’t enter into a decent conversation with them.” 

Some saintly woman said to me, “Whenever I say something, you always take the opposite view—always talk against it.”  Well, there’s a reason for that: “the way which they call heresy.”

“…so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets: And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow…”  Now let me see, what is that hope?  “…that there shall be a resurrection of the dead…”  Uh-oh.  “…both of the just and unjust.”  Strange.  Does anybody believe that?

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“Exercising thyself unto godliness,” because “we must all appear before a judgment seat of Christ to give an account for the things we have done in our bodies whether good or bad.”  And that great Judge has a record of every word we have spoken.  Think of it!  We don’t keep a record of that, do we?  Oh, no.  We’re very careful to forget.  Lot’s of people have a good conscience, they say, because they have a poor memory.

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What a wonderful blessing [conscience] was to the Apostle Paul who said, “I exercise myself all the time.”  Every Christian—every honest Christian—does that.  He doesn’t only live before men, but before God Almighty: “How shall I do this great evil and sin against God.”  And that conscience is in the depth of your heart.  And it’s quickened and enlightened by the Word of God.  Oh, this “two-edged sword that pierces to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and of the—” 

Can you think what you please?  Tell me, can you read what you please?  Can you look at pictures as you please?  Can you do as you please?  Is that “conscience seared with a hot iron”?  Woe unto you!  There will come “a day that’ll burn like an oven.”  Jesus talks about it when He says, “Agree with thine adversary quickly, while you’re in the way with him.”  What is that adversary?  Why, that’s your conscience, awakened by the Spirit of God.  He’s your adversary.  He says, “You’re in danger!  You’re going to have a crack-up if you don’t get right!”

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Beloved, God said, “I am the Almighty God: walk before Me and be thou perfect.”  But the New Testament goes a step farther and says, “We walk in the light as He is in the light, and we have fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.  And that blood of Jesus Christ keeps cleansing us.”  It means it keeps us clean!  Oh, that’s what the blood of Jesus Christ does: it keeps you clean!  David doesn’t only pray, “Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow”: “Create in me, a clean heart, O God.” “In sin did my mother conceive me, and I was born in iniquity.”  O God, what I need is a new heart.  I need a heart that’s created by God Almighty, that is clean, and whiter than the snow, O my God!

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Oh, how many times I’ve seen men and women tremble at the word of God.  A few years later, they don’t tremble anymore.  They don’t.  Their hearts have been “hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”  Are they going to escape judgment?  Tell me.

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And what a marvelous blessing we have: not only a conscience that can be kept “void of offense,” but a great God that guards me against evil.  And David, when he had discovered this poison in his soul, then he got right with God—then he became “a man after God’s own heart,” because he repented so deeply.  He recognized—he said, “My God, You desire truth in the inward part; in the hidden part, shalt Thou make me to know wisdom.”  Do you know that’s where sin is committed?  It’s in the depths of the soul where nobody can see it.

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Can you picture that blood that sprinkles you, that flows from the bleeding side of Jesus Christ, covering you from head to foot?  Oh, that precious blood: “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than the snow,” and he said, “I confess my sin unto Thee, and then You forgave my sin, and You washed me clean.”  But then, he’s not satisfied.  Then he says, “Keep me as the apple of Thine eye.”  Oh, here is the keeping power that the apostle is talking about here.

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The devil says, “Look what I done with man.  Man!  Is that man?”  …Listen, God Almighty says, “Look what I did with man: look at Jesus, Mine only begotten Son, in whom I am well pleased: they’re going to be like Him.”  You’re going to be like Him.  That’s the purpose that God had in coming down from heaven and clothing Himself with human flesh, that He might “condemn sin in the flesh, that the righteousness demanded of the law might be fulfilled in us.”  It took Almighty God to come and to purchase for me that fire of eternity, and to set me aflame with the fire of His holiness.  Praise God! 

And to be “holy, as He is holy” is the greatest call that can come to a human being.  If you were called to be a kaiser, or a king, or a president of the United States, or a millionaire someplace, or to own all the diamonds, all the wealth in this world, it would be a curse to you in comparison to this call to be like Jesus—not on the outside, now, but on the inside: pure as the driven snow, pure as God Himself: “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,” made like unto Jesus Christ into all eternity.  Oh, thank God!

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How beautiful are people that live a Christian life like Paul, how beautiful!  They may not be beautiful on the outside at all, but oh, how beautiful is a life that’s clean—a young man that’s pure, that has backbone enough to say, ‘NO!’ to the devil!

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God says, “Look what I did with man.”  God is going to show to this world what He did with man.  This victory has to be won here on earth—in Brooklyn, if you like.  Men and women will walk in the streets of Brooklyn in the purity and power and might of Son of God.  The Bible says that “the salvation shall be revealed in the last time.”  It’s “ready to be revealed.”

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Oh, get that thing under the precious blood, and don’t let it go at that.  People think they can just keep confessing their sins, and “OK.”  Listen, that’s the surest way to hell.  “If we confess our sins, He cleanseth us from all unrighteousness.”  He makes us “pure even as He is pure.”

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Living a life of purity is “asking too much.”  “She was blessed, she was saved, she was baptized with the Holy Ghost…  She’ll have her way.  Yes, she’s ‘having her way.’  No!  She is not having her way, she’s having the devil’s way.”    (from 22:47)

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