Young People’s Blog

“And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men” (Acts 24:16).

This is something that is very important for each of us as Christians. When we know we have done wrong, our conscience bothers us, and our souls are not free to enjoy the Lord. Also, we will lack that freedom and boldness that we should have before the world. The Apostle Paul had a tender conscience, and was bold before men like Felix, the Roman governor, and before the Jews too. He lived and acted before God, and because his conscience was clear before God, he was bold to speak and to preach the gospel.

Those around him—the Jews, Felix, and the other Roman authorities, did not have a clear conscience. They were corrupt, they told lies, they acted in their own interests, and did wrong things just to preserve the peace and protect themselves. Because of this, we read that “Felix trembled” when he heard Paul speak (Acts 24:25). On Monday we will see what happens when we are not careful to have a good conscience.

“Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil” (Proverbs 3:7).

It is easy to be wise in our own eyes, and there is quite a bit of this attitude out in the world today. Sometimes people who do not know very much are very quick to express their views on certain subjects, and it only displays their ignorance to those who really do understand that particular topic. This has been described as the Dunning-Kruger effect, where people with low ability overestimate their skills and ability in a particular area. In simple terms, they are ignorant of their own ignorance. It is easy for any of us to act like this, for we all like to appear intelligent, educated, and well-informed.

However, Solomon, who wrote the book of Proverbs, was one of the wisest men who ever lived. He recognized that we need the wisdom that only the Lord can give us, and that we need this wisdom in order to “depart from evil” that is in this world. It is important to be humble before the Lord, and to realize that usually we do not know as much as we think we do.

“When the Lord thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee…take heed…that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? Even so will I do likewise” (Deuteronomy 12:29-30).

This verse from the Old Testament contains a good lesson for us at any time. When the Israelites conquered the land of Canaan, they were not to inquire about the way the Canaanites served their gods. The Canaanites worshiped idols, and had all kinds of evil and disgusting practices. The Lord did not only want His people not to do those things; He did not want them even to know about them. He knew that if they knew about those evil things, they would soon want to do them.

Today you and I, as Christians, may be tempted to learn all about the evil in this world, and perhaps we think that knowing all about it will help us to avoid it. But often this is not what happens. Because we still have an old sinful nature, knowing about all those evil things only excites our sinful nature, and then we may think, “I would like to try that!” It is far better to learn only about the good things we should be doing, and then there will be no room for evil things. We can avoid the evil in this world by walking with the Lord; we do not need to know the details about the evil.

“And Felix, knowing accurately the things concerning the way, adjourned them” (Acts 24:22 JND).

Here we see more “gamesmanship” taking place, this time by the Roman governor Felix. First of all, the chief captain in Jerusalem sent Paul to Caesarea, because he did not know what to do with him. Now the Roman governor there does not know what to do with him either. He knew that Paul was not guilty of any crime, yet he wanted to please the Jews. He was also very familiar with Christianity, which at that time was simply called “the way.” He ought to have released Paul, but he knew that the Jews were famous for starting riots, and he did not want another one on his hands. To avoid this, he kept on adjourning, deferring, delaying, and hoping that the problem would go away.

This has often been the world’s way, but it should not be the Christian’s way. We should always do what is right, and trust the Lord for the consequences. To delay doing what is right because of possible unpleasant consequences for ourselves is to dishonor the Lord. As we remarked yesterday, the Lord is in full control of our circumstances, and will take care of us if we follow Him.

“But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question” (Acts 23:6).

 If we go back to the history of the Apostle Paul’s arrest in Jerusalem, we now find him brought before the Jewish council. In human terms, what Paul said in our verse for today would be considered a “master stroke of gamesmanship.” When the council was attacking him, Paul introduced the one subject on which they disagreed with one another—the resurrection of the dead (notice verse 8). This threw the council into confusion and resulted in an uproar. They forgot about accusing Paul and instead fought with each other.

But was this the right thing to do? No, for we never need to resort to human means to achieve something, if we belong to the Lord. Paul admitted this himself, when later he was speaking before the Roman governor Felix in Caesarea (see Acts 24:20-21). Paul walked with the Lord, and quickly realized that the way he had acted before the council was not faith in the Lord. He was willing to admit publicly that what he had said was not right for a Christian. The Lord is over all, and can look after us; we do not need to resort to the world’s means to make things right.

“And the Lord said unto Moses…thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves” (Exodus 32:7).

“Now therefore, I [Moses] pray Thee…that I may find grace in Thy sight: and consider that this nation is Thy people” (Exodus 33:13).

When the people of Israel had made a golden calf to worship, the Lord was very angry with them. He then tested Moses by referring to them as “thy people,” and told Moses to let Him destroy them all. To replace them, the Lord said that He would make of Moses a great nation (see Exodus 32:10). It was a tempting offer, for what the people had done was very serious.

But Moses had spent time in the Lord’s presence, and he had the heart of the Lord towards the people. Also, he had the Lord’s honor and glory before him, and not the pride that would have wanted himself to be made a great nation. He continually reminded the Lord that they were His people, and that it was His power that had brought them out of Egypt. The Lord knew that Moses would react like this, and it was what His own heart wanted too. Then the Lord did not destroy the people, but forgave them, and told Moses to go ahead and lead them into the land of Canaan.

“I became in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet” (Revelation 1:10 JND).

It is interesting to notice that this verse contains the only reference to the first day of the week as “the Lord’s day.” Also, the words were uttered by a man (the Apostle John) who had been banished to the island of Patmos, and probably had no Christian fellowship there. Yet he recognized the importance of the first day of the week, calling it the Lord’s day, even though he likely could not remember the Lord in the normal way. Notice too that he says that he “became in the Spirit.” Likely there were worldly influences around him, and in order to be in the Spirit, he had made an effort to put those things out of his mind. But it was on that day that the Lord spoke to him, with a voice like a trumpet.

All this is good for us to remember. Most of us are not banished from our brethren, as John was, but do we devote the Lord’s day to Him? Do we recognize His lordship over us, and use the day for Him? Yes, some of us may be compelled to work occasionally on a Lord’s day, but do we treat the day as His, as much as possible? It is a day when we can honor the Lord Jesus, first of all by remembering Him in death, and then by using our time and energy for Him.

“And He [the Lord] said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles. And they gave him audience unto this word, and then lifted up their voices, and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live” (Acts 22:21-22).

Here we see Paul trying to explain the gospel to that Jewish mob, and trying to show them why he preached the way he did. They listened to him until he spoke about going out to preach to the Gentiles, and then they started a riot. They could not bear to think that God was going to bless the Gentiles, who were outside the nation of Israel. But even back in the Old Testament, God had spoken quite a few times about bringing the Gentiles into blessing too, and the Jews should have realized this. However, they did not want to believe it, and sadly, it is easy to refuse something when we do not want to believe it.

Most of you who read this calendar are Gentiles, and we should all be very thankful that God chose to bring us into blessing in Christ. Yes, the nation of Israel is God’s chosen people, and He has not forgotten about them. But for now, God is forming His church from every race and nation, and both Jews and Gentiles may come and be saved on the same basis.

“And when he [the Apostle Paul] came upon the stairs, so it was, that he was borne of the soldiers for the violence of the people. For the multitude of the people followed after, crying, Away with him” (Acts 21:35-36).

“But they cried out, Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him” (John 19:15).

When the Lord Jesus was on earth, the Jewish mob cried out to the Roman governor Pilate, “Away with Him,” for they wanted to get rid of the Lord Jesus. It was probably about thirty years later that the Apostle Paul was in Jerusalem, and we find a large mob of Jews crying out the same words. The crowd was all worked up into religious fanaticism, and they wanted to get rid of Paul too. Why was this?

It was because Paul was teaching that the Lord Jesus was the Messiah, and that He had died on the cross to save those same people who were so upset. More than this, Paul was teaching those Jews who got saved that they did not need to carry on with Jewish laws and rules, or Jewish sacrifices, and other things that were only pictures of what the Lord Jesus had done. All this roused the hatred of the Jews, and they wanted to kill Paul too. But there was another reason why they hated Paul; we will see that tomorrow.

We need to remember this too. If this world did not want the Lord Jesus, it will not want us either. We may not always be harmed or killed, but we will not be popular in this world if we are faithful.

“There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord” (Proverbs 21:30).

During World War II, nations on both sides of the conflict tried many different plans and tricks to try and fool the other side, and to get an advantage over them. Sometimes they were very successful, as when the British pretended to be gathering a large army in Scotland in 1944, leading Germany to think that they were about to begin an invasion of Europe in Norway and the French city of Calais. But the real plan was to invade France in the region of Normandy, and this occurred on D-day—June 6, 1944.

However, our verse today reminds us that we cannot plan anything against the Lord, for He knows it all beforehand, and His power will overcome any of man’s designs. Man forgets about that, and thinks that he can make anything happen, if only he is smart enough, and plans well enough. But the Lord always has the last word; we cannot plan against Him.

It is so important to remember this in our personal lives, and to pray about everything we do. If we have the mind of the Lord in our plans, they will not fail.