Studies On The Conscience #5

Q: What does the Bible say about the conscience?

The Bible teaches that the conscience is a moral compass affected by sin and depravity, which can become seared and insensible to wrongdoing (1 Timothy 4:2). The Bible presents the conscience as an essential part of human nature that functions as a moral compass, guiding individuals toward right and wrong. However, due to the Fall, every person's conscience is impacted by depravity, making it vulnerable to false perceptions and misleading comforts. In particular, 1 Timothy 4:2 warns of individuals whose consciences are seared, rendering them unresponsive to moral and spiritual truths. This state of a hardened conscience can lead to grave departure from faith and an inability to discern right from wrong.

Q: How do we know true peace of conscience is legitimate?

True peace of conscience is only established through the atonement of Jesus Christ, lifting the guilt of sin from the believer (Romans 5:1). The legitimacy of peace of conscience hinges on whether it is founded on Christ's atonement or a false sense of security. While many seek peace through their works or rituals, true peace is achieved by faith in Jesus' sacrificial death, which cleanses guilt and restores a right relationship with God. As Romans 5:1 indicates, peace with God is secured through justification, meaning that a genuine peace of conscience must be anchored in the redemptive work of Christ rather than personal effort or false religious practices.

Q: Why is understanding the conscience important for Christians?

Understanding the conscience is vital for Christians as it reveals their moral state and guides them in righteous living before God (Proverbs 20:27). The conscience serves as an indicator of an individual's moral condition and awareness of sin. For Christians, understanding their conscience is crucial as it allows them to perceive how sin affects their relationship with God and leads to true repentance. Proverbs 20:27 highlights that the spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, searching the inner parts, which implies that a well-functioning conscience helps believers navigate ethical dilemmas and spiritual truths. Therefore, nurturing the conscience through Scripture and prayer is essential for healthy spiritual growth and living in accordance with God's will.

Q: What is a seared conscience?

A seared conscience is one that has lost sensitivity to sin due to repeated exposure to wrongdoing and depravity (1 Timothy 4:2). A seared conscience refers to a state wherein an individual becomes impervious to moral conviction and guilt, often resulting from prolonged engagement with sin, false teachings, and unrepentant living. As discussed in 1 Timothy 4:2, this state occurs when a person has repeatedly ignored their conscience, ultimately leading to a hardened heart that cannot discern the seriousness of sin. This condition is dangerous as it can lead to complete moral insensitivity and a lifestyle that opposes God's truth, potentially signifying that the individual is given over to reprobation, lacking the ability or desire to seek repentance or embrace truth.

Q: How does the depravity of man affect the conscience?

Depravity corrupts the conscience, resulting in false hopes for peace and moral confusion (Romans 3:23). The doctrine of total depravity teaches that all aspects of human nature, including the conscience, are affected by sin, impairing their function. Consequently, individuals often pursue peace and validation through external means, such as religious practices or moral achievements, rather than through an authentic relationship with Christ. Romans 3:23 articulates that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, highlighting the universal condition of humanity. Such depravity can render the conscience ineffective, leading people to accept falsehoods, engage in sinful behavior without remorse, and evade the true peace found only in the Gospel. Therefore, understanding this impact is crucial for believers as they seek to align their lives with God's will.

1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 1 through
5, Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some
shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits,
and doctrines of devils. Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having
their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry,
and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created
to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know
the truth. For every creature of God is
good, nothing to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving,
for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer." Now look
again, if you would, at the second verse. Speaking lies in hypocrisy,
and watch this, having their conscience seared with a hot
iron. Having their conscience seared
with a hot iron. Notice I said this is study number
five, as we have moved along in our consideration of the nature
and the work of conscience in individuals. It is a very vital
thing to understand, for when you understand the conscience,
you understand human behavior. And if you do not understand
the work and nature of conscience, it will be difficult to understand
human nature and how they act as they do. and respond as they
do in certain ways. But let us not forget that conscience
is a victim of the depravity of man, that it too is a partaker
of the fall in Adam. The one instrument most needful
to maintain a right course of life is now faulty because it
lies under the power of depravity. Let me illustrate it, if I might,
by this example or illustration. Let's imagine a mighty ship out
upon the ocean, out of sight of land or island or civilization
or whatever, and that mighty ship has lost all instrumentation
upon its bow. Its radar is out. It has no way
to detect any enemy that might be approaching that might do
it some harm. Its radio is out so that it has
no way to contact the home port and thus to call out for help.
Its instrument that measures the wind is broken. Its weather
vane is inoperative, so it knows not what lies just beyond. Its
intercom radio is out of commission, so that the captain has no way
to communicate under the crew. And yet, with all of that at
fault, upon the great ship out upon the ocean, if the compass
be out If the compass be out of operation, it perhaps would
be the greatest loss of all, among all of the other things
that we have named. The greatest loss and the greatest
threat probably would be the loss of a compass if it should
fail, and the ship would be hopelessly adrift upon the ocean and lost,
and eventually it might perish. To bring that illustration home,
we say that the conscience is the moral equivalent of the compass
in a man. It is responsible for the provision
of moral guidance unto the individual. It is the last hope of finding
the port and being delivered from the wrath of God. All other
faculties are under the power of sin, the heart, the will,
the mind, the affection, the understanding and such like.
So that if conscience remains in a purely natural state, the
person is sure to be lost and to drift upon the great ocean
of sin and eventually will perish under the power and the weight
of their sin. There are several ravages that
depravity has given under the conscience of every man and every
woman, such as the accusations of guilt. Because we are sinners,
Conscience accuses us of being sinners and of falling short
and imposes upon us the guilt of our sin. We saw this begin
as soon as Adam and Eve sinned. The conscience began to convict
them. They began to feel guilty. Conscience
began to accuse them. And instead of seeking the Lord,
they ran to hide from him among the trees of the garden. And
this is still true with men today. It has made moral cowards where
it comes to the things of God. But that's not all. The conscience
is under an evil persuasion. because of the ravages of depravity,
and there is the lack of comfort and of peace because of our depravity
and the accusing conscience, there is in the conscience a
sense of being a sinner before God Almighty, and thereby guilty
and fearful of death and judgment that is to follow. Now not only
that, but conscience is ravaged in another way by depravity,
and that is that it comes to a crossroad at some time or another
in its life. Seldom does the conscience remain
the same all the days of a person's life. It goes one way or it goes
the other, and may flip-flop from time to time. It may learn
to tolerate new sins as they permeate society. As everybody
else begins to commit sin, conscience may then begin to tolerate them. Or religious persuasion, even
if it is a false religion, may persuade the conscience to turn
and rend a long-time sin that has been one of its darlings
or favorite. And over a period of time, it
may either gain or lose peace, depending on circumstances and
the circumstances of life. And then we think that the conscience
is usually more virtuous in the old folks than it is in the young. And I think that you'll find
this true wherever you might examine the matter, that the
older one is, the more virtuous conscience becomes and the more
it opposes the sin of society and of their generation. But
now let's come to our study today. We want to see a truth about
the natural consciences of people, that being that conscience itself
lies under two potential great dangers that might come upon
him. Because it is depraved, there
are two possible deadly states into which the conscience of
a person might fall. Because depravity has so engulfed
us, there are two things that pose a danger to the conscience
and thus to the person. Both, or either, could or would
result in the person perishing in their sins, being lost forever
and forever. Now here are those two real dangers
into which the conscience may fall. Number one, that conscience
being mesmerized by a false peace of some kind, that it fall into
a counterfeit peace and give off a false sense of security. This is a great danger to the
conscience. And the danger increases as one
enters into religion without Christ and into religion without
being saved. that the conscience may be mesmerized
by some manipulatively false peace in one way or another and
the person come to a false peace and rest in that false peace
as long as God allows it and great harm come unto them. The person will perish in their
sin if a false peace is established in the conscience. The second
danger is even worse and that is that conscience may come to
a state where, according to our text today, it is seared over. And when it is seared over, as
Paul writes in 1 Timothy 4 and verse 2, it becomes then insensible
to sins committed by the other members of that person. So that
sin reigns, therefore, in the body, in the members, and in
the life. And it has little or no check
or restraint upon it because the conscience is seared over
in that individual. Now this is no doubt the very
worst state into which the conscience of an individual conscience could
ever fall during the time of their life. And we're going to
examine this later on in our study today. First, the possibility
of the conscience being falsely put at peace or at ease. Let's consider that if we might.
Next, to a seared conscience, a conscience that is under a
false peace or false sense of security, is the next most dangerous
or deadly condition for the conscience to ever enter in. For a peace
of conscience, rather than true conscience, or true peace of
conscience, lifts the guilt of sin off of the conscience. When
it is brought to peace, the guilt of sin is lifted. And if this
be done in a false way, it leaves that person vulnerable to ruin. If it be done by the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ, it is a true and legitimate peace that
has been imposed upon the conscience. Now right now it's time and place
to make this point as we move along in our study. That is,
there are two states of the conscience that are possible, the natural
and the spiritual. Even so, there are two possible
states of peace possible under the conscience of an individual.
And that is true peace and false peace and we see both of them
in the scripture and we see both of them in the lives of individuals. for the peace of each case, whether
false or whether true, is suited to the state of the conscience
at that particular time, such as a natural conscience, as we
have mentioned earlier in our study. By natural we mean the
conscience of an unregenerate person or individual. The natural
conscience is that one unregenerate, unrenewed by the quickening mercy,
grace, and power of God and all it has to operate, the only light
that it has to walk by is that natural light that we read about
in the scripture and perhaps moral added instruction may help
the natural conscious a little bit to be a light unto it to
walk, but not grace. It does not have grace, it only
has the light of nature or some moral instruction and can rise
no higher therefore in its experience. Now such a conscience, a natural
conscience, unrenewed, unregenerate, a conscience of a natural or
unregenerate man always looks for peace in the natural realm. It always seeks its peace in
some natural way. It seeks its peace in works.
It seeks its peace in doing or not doing. It seeks its peace
in what it does. or what it refrains from doing
in performing what it considers to be good works in the sight
of men and in the sight of conscience. And by abstaining from what the
conscience considers to be wrong, it seeks its peace. But it is
too addled by depravity, if I may use that expression, it is too
addled by depravity to seek that only and true peace that comes
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It lacks the knowledge,
and it lacks the insight, and it lacks the light to trust in
the atonement of Jesus Christ for its peace, its purging, and
its cleansing. This is why lost people are content
with a false way of worship, as long as they're sincere, and
as long as it meets the need to bring them some kind of peace.
You see, the thing for them is not to worship in spirit and
in truth, but to worship in a way that, quote, feels comfortable,
unquote. And here's where most people
are today. They shop for religion like they shop for a suit. This
one's too big. This one's too small. This one's
not comfortable. Ah, here's one that feels exactly
right unto me. And this is the way the people
shop for their religion today. If it makes them feel comfortable. Thus a natural conscience is
very seldom ever lifted above the natural realm of revelation. What it knows by nature. What
it knows innately. And a little moral instruction.
On the other hand, there is the enlightened or the regenerate
conscience, that of a regenerate man. It is given faith in the
supernatural quickening of the work, the sovereign work of the
Spirit of God. When conscience is so quickened
and enlightened, what will it do? It will spy out Christ. In a room full of impostors,
the enlightened conscience, guided by faith rather than natural
light, will spy out Christ. in a room full of impostor. And when it is enlightened by
the power of God, it requires a much surer peace than that
founded upon dead works. Because when it is enlightened,
it is drawn then to the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. like metal
is drawn onto a magnet, it is then drawn to the Lord Jesus
Christ. It spies out Christ and it flees
unto Him, being guided by the revelation that is made in the
Christian gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Conscience operates. or it functions by or out of
the light or the knowledge which it possesses. This is the only
way that it can function. This is the only way that it
operates, off of the light or the knowledge that it possesses.
And this is why the state of the conscience is a true state
reflection of the state and condition of the individual. Now that brings
us to another observation about conscience, a couple of them.
Number one, that the greatest torment of conscience, what is
it? It is the guilt of sin. The greatest
torment of conscience is the guilt of sin. That it impresses
upon us that we're sinners, that we have fallen short and that
we stand guilty in the sight of God. So secondly, the greatest
need of conscience is a comfortable peace provided by God and applied
by the Spirit of the Lord. And this comes by taking away
the guilt of sin. There can only be a comfortable
peace when the guilt of sin is taken away or off of the evil
conscience. Now almost every form of religion,
name anyone that you will, almost every form of religion today
is nothing more than a narcotic or an opium for a guilty conscience. Examine them all and I think
you'll find that this is true. Arminianism, for example, is
such a narcotic. To settle the bad humor of an
upset conscience, religion plies its trade today. To help them
find a false peace in one way or another, mattering not that
it's false and will lead to ruin. But it is a temporary relief
in this life, and so men are content with it. John Owens,
the Puritan preacher, said this in Volume 6, page 37, and I quote, of designs and contrivances to
pacify the conscience without Christ." And you look out upon
religion today, much of that that marches under the banner
or the name of Christianity, and you'll find this to be true,
that its main aim or goal is to settle the bad humor of the
conscience and bring it to peace. whether rightly or falsely, is
not of a concern unto them. Now, let's get this point as
we move along in our study. That is, the most desirable thing
on the part of wicked sinners would be the abolishment of the
conscience. which is almost next to impossible. If a man lay down at night, troubled
by his life and the things he's done, if he could get rid of
one thing, it would be the conscience, and he would sleep upon his bed
in peace. Now the next best thing to eradicating
the conscience altogether is to bribe it into a false peace
by some means of contrivance. If we cannot be rid of it, let's
bribe it into a false peace. And so we see, these two dangers
of the conscience are handled in two different ways all together. At least God often awakens a
conscience under a false peace. This is the hope of such a person,
that they sleep soundly with their conscience under a false
peace. But God is able, if He chooses,
to take away that peace and to awaken it, affright it, and alarm
it. and put it upon a search for
the Lord Jesus Christ and His blessed blood. But the most dangerous
and deadly state of the conscience is that one in 1 Timothy chapter
4 and verse 2, a seared conscience. Now before we consider it, let
us take notice of a few Scriptures which seem to describe conscience
in the Scripture that I don't believe we mentioned earlier
in our study. John chapter 1 and verse 9 says,
"...who lights every man that cometh into the world." Calvin
called this the common light of nature. Proverbs 20 and verse
27, "...the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord searching
out all the inward parts of the belly. Proverbs 20 and verse
27. So, maybe those verses speak
of conscience, of its reflection, and of its operation. But now
let us come to consider the second and the gravest danger there
is under the conscience, and that is it being seared over
so that it no longer is sensible of wrongdoing and no longer convicts
and smites and accuses and charges guilt upon the individual. Now,
as well as the consequences that might accompany it, what if conscience
comes to be seared over? What will be the consequences
in the life of an individual? Paul speaks here in our text
of such individuals as have their conscience seared over with a
hot iron. The word might be branded or
cauterized as we think about it in our English language. It
is a picture of one who has repeatedly burned in place a hot iron. constantly, again and again,
the hot iron has been put to that particular flesh or faculty
until at last it is seared over, losing sensitivity, killing the
nerve endings so that it no longer is sensible under the heat of
the iron. Patrick Fairbain says, it has
a hardening effect and it renders that part of the body insensitive
to the touch." Seared As with a hot iron, with its repetition
again and again, it kills the nerves, it kills the ability
of them to be able to sense the fire. In time it becomes like
a hard, leathery-like covering over that part or surface of
the body. This part becomes more and more
insensitive, more and more deadened it becomes. by the constant application
of the hot iron, and finally, loses its sensitivity almost
altogether. Now, will you allow me an illustration? I've used it before because it
made such an impression upon me. I remember when I was a young
kid going to the circus, and I remember those days. They used
to have a side show, and before it was politically incorrect
to say so, I think it was called a freak show, in those days. Now, in this side show, or tent
show, there was the usual things that we would see when we attended
such a circus in that day. There was the bearded lady. There
was a 900 pound man. sitting on four chairs to hold
him up. There was the midget, there was the fire eater, there
was the sword swallower, and each of them would ply their
act as the crowd came by. There was the fellow who could
lean over backwards and come up between his own two legs,
he was so limber. and Nimba. There was the guy
that made the lasting impression upon me, however, was the guy
that had a piece of flat iron and a blowtorch blowing upon
it till it was red hot. And as the crowd came by this
man, and it was time for him to perform, he took that piece
of hot iron, he leaned it up, he took his foot and he rubbed
his foot across that red hot piece of iron, and you could
smell the old stinky leathery smell, and it looked like leather. And the crowd would ooh and ah,
because this man had lost sensitivity to this great heat, and could
run his foot over this piece of hot iron without feeling the
pain or crying out in anguish. Sometime I think back on that
and I wish I'd have hollered out, try the other foot, but
I didn't think about it at that time. But this person made an
impression upon me. He made a remark that I'll never
forget. He said, the devil don't want me. because he had learned
to stand the heat. But you see, here's an illustration
of the conscience being seared over with a hot iron. And Paul
speaks about it here, a part of the body, no, but the conscience
itself. It is not the foot, it is not
the hand, but it is the very conscience itself. having the
conscience seared over as with a hot iron. And I think as we
remember that, it is time now for us to make another distinction
that we want to hold in our mind, and that is that the conscience
may be seared over in two realms or in two areas, and we need
to keep this in mind. Number one, the conscience may
be seared over in religion, and these are the people that Paul
is talking about here in 1 Timothy chapter 4. that religious hypocrites
can become so seared in conscience that they ply their heresies,
their lies, and their deception without the slightest twinge
of conscience. But then secondly, it also may
be seared over among the sinners, such as Paul describes in Ephesians
4 and verse 19, and we'll come to that later. But here in 1
Timothy chapter 4, these people are religious hypocrites. their conscience is seared over
in religion. Paul says that they are under
the seduction of evil spirits and doctrines of devils. They are not irreligious, they're
not unreligious, but they are religious and that under the
hill. Verse 3, he said, they forbid
to marry, they teach to abstain from eating, a stringent asceticism,
a false piety, is what Paul is contending against here. Now
to understand their hypocrisy, Paul shows us how far or how
low they have sunken. Linsky says that Paul uses, listen
now, the predictive perfect passive participle, what a tongue twister,
and this means that the tense is this, quote, such as have
been seared as to their own conscience, such as have been seared as to
their own conscience, so that their conscience is seared to
their conduct and does not bring them accusation and guilt because
of their depravity. Now as a result of their seared
conscience, Paul says that they are speaking lies in hypocrisy. In other words, here's what they
do. They play the religious hypocrite and they speak and teach their
lies, knowing them to be lies, without any feeling in the conscience
of wrongdoing. They don't care if they're lying.
They don't care if they deceive. They have no conscience about
it whatsoever. They feed themselves. They fatten
themselves. They make merchandise of the
people. This is their aim. Now these
are false teachers who spread demonic lies under the cover
of a seared conscience, unable to rise up in protest because
it has been seared over. And they have no feeling of guilt.
They play the hypocrite and that without the slightest feeling
of remorse for the wrong that they have done whatsoever. Without
any shame, without any guilt, Paul says, speaking lies in hypocrisy. So that they speak religious
lies, they're sacrilegious. They prostitute the things of
God, they deceive others, they teach heresy, they cause dissension,
they rend the body of the Lord Jesus Christ without any conviction
in their conscience. You see, conscience has come
to the point in them that it tolerates their lies and deception
without any feeling of guilt. You know, a person can lie so
long, a person can become a pathological liar until they lie without the
slightest twinge of guilt, not only in the religious realm,
but also in the secular. I've condensed the words of John
Gill on 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 2, that we might boil them
down and get the most profit. They have no regard, he said,
for what they say or what they do. They make no conscience of
anything that they do to people. These are persons of scandalous
lives and teachings. And Gill said, under the cloak
of sanctity, they commit the most shocking impiety and are
men of most infamous characters, unquote, the words of John Gill. They're not sincere but misguided
teachers. They're not serious or devout
persons looking in knowledge for the things of God, no. They're
lying hypocrites who ply their trade without the slightest twinge
of guilt. speaking lies in hypocrisy, having
their consciences seared with a hot iron, to whom lying with
hypocrisy has become literally a second nature unto them, so
that they do it without any conviction." Notice, having departed from
the faith in verse 1, not even remaining in the semblance of
Christianity as to their teaching. They have completely departed
from the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we wonder to ourselves,
are there such people today? Did all these people vanish in
olden times? in the early centuries of the
church? Are there people today who speak their lies with or
in hypocrisy and have no feeling of conviction or guilt whatsoever? We wonder as we look and listen
to the religious world today what has become of their conscience. We wonder, perhaps some of us
do in our mind, whether people really believe that the Pope
is holy and can forgive sin. We wonder, do the priests really
believe that they're giving out a piece of Jesus when they pass
out the wafer in the services, and when they're praying the
dead out of purgatory. We wonder if they really believe
that, or if it is a means to make money. Do people really
believe in people like Bishop Spong? They have no conscience
whatsoever, who openly dispute the inspiration of the Scripture. They call the resurrection a
lie, and say that Paul was a homosexual and homophobic. Do people like
that really believe what they're saying, or is their conscience
so seared over until they have given themselves to this sort
of life. What about those today who claim
to be homosexual ministers and have what they call gay churches
openly rebelling against the authority of the Word of God? We wonder about the conscience
of a man who'd go on national TV and say he saw a 900-foot
Jesus who told him to raise so many millions of dollars. We
wonder about those who tell of dying and going down into hell
and coming back again to live and to preach again. We wonder
about those who tell their tall tales about the dreaded diseases
that they were healed of. about those who rob widows' houses
without a slight twinge in the conscience. We wonder about those
who live filthy lives and then get up to preach unto others
on the way that they ought to live. Yes, these people are religious
hypocrites and their conscience is seared over in religion so
that they ply their iniquity. Now, let's look at another passage,
going this time to Ephesians 4 and verse 19. the deadness
of the conscience in the pagans, as Paul described it, and we'll
look at it in greater detail. That's Ephesians 4, and the passage,
verse 17 through verse 19. Now, those to whom Paul writes
were Gentiles in the flesh, Ephesians 2 and verse 11. And Paul exhorts
them to flee the kind of excesses found among the Gentiles or among
the pagans. Notice, he describes them, Ephesians
4, 17-19, they walk in the vanity of their mind, Their understanding is darkened,
they have a blindness of their heart, thus they are called alienated,
ignorant, blind, lascivious, and greedy. And Paul calls them
all of these things here in this passage of the Scripture. But
now look at verse 19, and particularly that statement or phrase that
says, who being past feeling. Now the Gentiles walking in the
vanity of their mind, their understanding darkened, alienated from God
by the ignorance that is in them, who being past feeling. Now notice something else. Who
being past feeling have given themselves over to every manner
of sin. As a result of having no feeling
about these things, they have given themselves to lasciviousness,
that is, they have given their lives over to an excessive uncleanliness
and indecency, to shameless conduct, the abandonment of all restraint
and self-control. Now the less feeling a person
has in their conscience, the more they will sin and the more
rebellious they will be against God. For conscience is that bridle
that checks those things in and reins them in. Now these two
things ever go together, a deadened conscience and an immoral life.
For an active conscience, alive, charging, accusing, and convicting,
is the best defense against total abandonment to sin that you can
have. It's not mother's apron string
and it's not to put a leash on you. The best defense against
total abandonment to sin is for the conscience to work to its
potential and to accuse and convict and upbraid with the guilt of
one's action and of one's sin. Notice again, Being, past, feeling. What an awful state to be in.
And Paul said many of the pagans were like that. Their spiritual
estate is described or set forth in verse 17 through verse 19. Their natural sins and their
state is put forth for us here. But a further degradation is
mentioned when we get to verse 19. When guilt and conviction
are erased out of the conscience, of these individuals, when conscience
becomes, as it were, comatose, if I may use that expression,
when the conscience of an individual becomes comatose, when conscience
ceases its accusings and the charging of guilt, when it gives
up the fight, when it abandons the post of duty altogether,
when conscience ends its work, of restraint. In short, when
it is seared over, as with a hot iron, so that it no longer is
sensitive to sin and to guilt and to wrongdoing. And if I may
read it again, Paul uses the expression, being past feeling. I think, if I'm not mistaken,
that this is the only place in the New Testament where this
word appears for our admonition. Being an old word, that is an
ancient word, that means literally to cease feeling pain. Being
past feeling. no longer feeling pain by becoming
callous, by having lost all sensitivity, as the New International Version
said, it is past compunction, that is, it no longer rises up
and charges them for their sin and for their guilt. Now this
speaks not of a physical but of a moral state of the individual,
a loss of moral consciousness that precludes the feelings,
the sensation of shame and regret for immoral actions that have
been committed by the individual. The words therefore express a
moral conscience that is no longer susceptible to convincing or
convicting of guilt, where all sorrow and all remorse is extinguished
for things that they do, where all sorrow or remorse is no longer
to be found even though their life is a vile one, and the sense
of wrong is gone, and now they call evil good, and good evil,
and reverse the matter as it is before God. Not only do they
not fear sin, nor do they not fear the coming consequences
of their sin, but they delight in sin, and commit it with pleasure,
and chase it anew every day of their life. They blaspheme the
name of God, and they ridicule those who are followers of the
Lord. They ridicule His Word and His
Law, and they build up an immunity to the conviction of sin as the
conscience comes past feeling. Now, let's make a very solemn
thought as we move along in our study, that the seared conscience
is a sure evidence of reprobation." Oh my, think about that. If the
conscience comes to being seared over, completely eradicated of
all sense of right and of wrong, is it not a sure sign of reprobation? What do you mean, reprobation?
I mean that God has given such a person over to their own lustful
and wicked hearts and desires. He said, I don't feel anything.
I'm not ashamed of my sin. I never feel guilty for the way
that I live. Oh, if God, peradventure, would
glide and kindle the fires of conscience again. Because you
see, when there is no such, it may be an evidence of reprobation. You see, why is that? Because
you see, to convert the elect, God purges, and He enlightens
the conscience, and He stirs the fire and heats the conviction
that it might drive one to the Lord Jesus Christ. But in reprobation,
the conscience remains natural. In the case of some, conscience
even ceases its convictions and its restraint. Reprobation also
occurs in the conscience as much as in any other faculty of that
particular individual. If conscience is dead, The person
will not be stirred to flee to Christ. or to flee the wrath
that is to come, the law will make no impression upon them
whatsoever. They will sit in their sins until
the wrath of God overtakes them. The result, however, is something
else, and that is that the conscious beings seared over, they plunge
into deep and vile sins. Have you read Romans chapter
1? Have you read what happens when God gives people over to
their selves? When God gives them over to their
lust? when He gives them over to a
reprobate mind, when He no longer restrains them. Have you read
what they do when God does that? I think we see some today, flaunting
public decency or their indecency publicly. We see them today flaunting
their lesbianism and their homosexuality in public. We see the lewd sensual
behavior of the Hollywood left. who dares anyone to do anything
about it or to call their hand. Now Paul says in Ephesians 4.19
that they gave themselves up, yet I certainly agree with those
who say that it is a judicial sentence from God that is imposed
upon them. God lays the reins upon the neck. God does not restrain. God does
not pull back on the rain. He lays the rains upon the neck,
and like a wild and crazy mustang, they run then unto their own
destruction. For when God lays the rains upon
the neck, when conscience is past feeling, when conscience
is dead, they give themselves to every form and every degree
of sin, and can find no way to change their behavior or to turn
their life around. Now I'm not saying that all non-elect
will fall into such sin as that else society would be destroyed.
If every non-elect fell to this degree of sin, society could
not maintain itself, it would be utterly destroyed. But those
so abandoned or like Sodom and Gomorrah, examples unto others,
a fearful sight to behold. And it seems to me today that
we have people in our society who fit Paul's description, past
feeling. Look at our society. We hear
all the time of people who murder for fun. We read things all the
time, such as the young hoodlum who just recently was sentenced
to death for the murders of two teenage girls, and they testified
at his trial he wanted to kill somebody to see what it felt
like. The police officers who dealt
with him said he showed absolutely no remorse or conscience whatsoever. You see, there are people like
that today in our society that are past feeling. And you say,
well, I never have been a mass murderer, I never have done that.
Well, that doesn't mean that conscience can't be seared. It
can be seared unless sins be engaged in, but the sky is the
limit once the conscience is seared. Now, let us make some
applications in the close of our study today. I want to say,
in view of all we have said today and learned and backed up by
the Scripture, that the most dangerous person in society is
that one with a seared conscience. You could not meet a more dangerous
individual than that one with a seared conscience who are too
stupefied to fear God or men or law or punishment. The most
dangerous person around is that one with a seared conscience
who does not feel any pain or guilt for their sin or way of
life. Let me say this in closing, that
the greatest loss next to the soul itself is the loss of conscience. Because you see, if conscience
die, the soul is likely to follow and to die the second death.
In fact, loss of conscience is probably the forerunner of the
loss of soul. Not that God is unable to renew
such a one, but that it is a way that he deals with the reprobate,
to give them over to themselves and to a reprobate mind. Now
I ask you this morning, do you wish conscience would fall asleep
in you and leave you alone? Do you wish conscience wouldn't
bother you when you lay down at night and think about your
evil deeds? Do you wish conscience would
leave you alone, and that it wouldn't convict you, and that
it'd just go away and be quiet and let you be in peace? Well,
my friend, if that were the case, number one, you'd be consumed
with sin, and number two, you'd probably perish under the weight
of your sin. Pity, if you will, but fear those
poor wretches with a conscience past feeling. Pity those poor
wretches with a conscience past feeling, who could hear of God
and no impression is made, who hear God's law and blaspheme
and curse, when told of Christ and the need of salvation, launch
into a blasphemous tirade against such things. Pity the poor person
whose conscience is seared over and fear that person, because
as I said, they are the most dangerous person in society,
is the person whose conscience is seared over who fear not God
or man as we read of one in the scripture. May God take these
things and drive them home to our heart that we might consider
them today and might see examples in people that are in the news
and even people that we know that this is indeed the state
of some conscience seared with a hot iron past feeling. Let's stand please to our feet
for a final word of prayer.

Studies On The Conscience #5

What does the Bible say about the conscience?

How do we know true peace of conscience is legitimate?

Why is understanding the conscience important for Christians?

What is a seared conscience?

How does the depravity of man affect the conscience?

Sermon Transcript

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Studies On The Conscience #5

What does the Bible say about the conscience?

How do we know true peace of conscience is legitimate?

Why is understanding the conscience important for Christians?

What is a seared conscience?

How does the depravity of man affect the conscience?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

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