”Our Conscience” (Part 1) | 6th September 2026

Well, good morning. Please take your

Bibles and open them up to Romans

uh chapter 1. Please take your Bibles,

open them up to Romans chapter 1.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

This morning, we'll be looking at many

different verses. So, you'll be flipping

your Bible a little bit, but that's

okay. I'll tell you where to go. But

we'll start in Romans

Romans 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1.

Let's pray and ask the Lord to bless his

word to us.

Lord, you are our stronghold.

You are our refuge.

You give us peace in times of trouble.

And Lord, however we come this morning,

some of us, I'm sure, flustered,

others of us may be sad,

others may be angry or excited.

However, we're coming this morning,

Lord, we come to you,

our refuge,

our strength.

You are a strong tower.

In you we find rest.

And I pray by the power of your Holy

Spirit as we sit this morning, help us

know that we're sitting in the presence

of our almighty king.

Help us know

that you are pleased to meet with us

this morning. Help us know and

understand

that we are in your perfect will

because you have called us together

and that is what we do.

You've called me to preach, Lord, in

season and out of season.

Lord, that is a wonderful thing to be in

your will. And you've called your people

to listen to the preaching of your word.

So as they listen, they're doing your

will. And how good it is this morning to

be doing what our father wants us to do.

We thank you, Lord.

Your word is precious.

Speak, we pray.

Amen.

As we consider

God's word this morning, I want us to

think about the feeling of guilt.

Have any of you ever felt guilty?

I have. In fact, I feel guilty almost

every single day. I don't know about

you.

And we should feel guilty in many ways.

There are things that we feel guilty

about. There are the serious things and

the not so serious things.

We can feel guilty about the serious

things that we should feel guilty about.

For example, if you kill someone, you

should feel guilty about that.

If you're violent towards someone, you

probably should feel guilty about that.

If you steal from someone, you probably

should feel guilty about that and you

probably will.

But what is that?

When you feel guilty about something,

what is that? Where does that come from?

That sense of guilt that you have about

the serious things? What about the sense

of guilt that you feel for the not so

serious things? And and you don't know

where it comes from, but you still feel

guilty about it.

So let's say you're watching a film and

the film is really extremely violent and

as you're watching for some reason some

of you won't feel guilty but some of you

do feel guilty about it. It's a not so

serious thing but you still have this

sense of guilt. What is that sense of

guilt?

Or you eat that extra bit of cake.

You're full but you still eat anyway.

You feel that sense of guilt. And it's

not just because of the diet you're on.

You still have a feeling of a sense of

guilt.

Or you're buying clothes from the shop

and you see where the clothes were made

and sometimes you can feel guilty about

that.

What is that sense of guilt that all of

us feel? Do you know what it is?

That is your conscience

speaking to you.

It's your conscience. It's that sense

within you that tells you this thing's

right and this thing's wrong. It's that

kind of unexplainable feeling that you

have where you kind of say to yourself,

I should do this or I shouldn't do that.

That is your conscience.

And that's what we are going to talk

about for the next two Sundays.

the conscience.

Now, why are we going to talk about the

conscience? Here's why. This summer, I

was picking books to read. And I picked

a book and it was called Conscience.

I had a wild summer,

Conscience. And as I read the book

called Conscience by Andrew Nelli,

there's another uh writer with him.

I was made more aware of this theme of

conscience in the Bible. Over 30 times

in the New Testament, you have the word

conscience come up. And conscience as a

theme, it not only pervades the Bible.

Not just the word, but the theme

pervades the Bible, but it also pervades

our daily life. Constantly in your day,

you are making decisions.

And as you make the decisions, your

conscience is telling you, "No, don't do

that. Yes, do that. Your conscience is

always speaking to you. So, we need to

understand how are we going to live in

light of our conscience, in light of

that thing inside us that tells us you

should do this or you shouldn't do that.

And so, how I want to begin is this. As

we look at the conscience, there are a

number of things we're going to learn

about the conscience. But this morning,

just to build a foundation for the next

two Sundays, here's what I want us to

learn.

Firstly,

your conscience

is given to you by God.

You have a conscience that is God given.

And we know that we have a conscience

that is God-given for two reasons. You

have a conscience that is given by God

because number one you are conscious of

God and number two you are conscious of

sin.

You know no matter who you are, no

matter where you come from, no matter

whether you're a Christian or you're not

a Christian this morning, you are

conscious of God and you are conscious

of your sin.

Here's how I know that.

First, you are conscious of God. Look at

Romans

Romans 1:19

1 verse 19. Romans 1 verse 19. And in

Romans 1:19

Romans, Paul is going to begin by making

this argument in in chapter 1 verse 17,

he talks about this phrase, the

righteousness of God. And in chapter 3,

in verse around about verse 20, he uses

the phrase the righteousness of God. So

in chapter one, righteousness of God,

chapter three, righteousness of God. And

in between that sandwich is what? The

sinfulness of humanity.

You have the righteousness of God. You

have the righteousness of God and the

sinfulness of humanity. And what Paul's

going to be saying in this context of

Romans 1 is all have sinned and fall

short of the glory of God. He's going to

make sure that everybody is on the same

level playing field. And here's one of

the ways that we're on the same level

playing field. Everybody, whether you

are Christian or not a Christian,

everybody is conscious of God.

Romans 1 19.

For what can be known about God is plain

to them because God has shown it to

them. For his invisible attributes,

namely his eternal power and divine

nature, have been clearly perceived ever

since the creation of the world in the

things that have been made so that they

are without excuse.

Everyone is conscious of God. Whether

you're a Jew or a Gentile, you are

conscious of God. Whether you're a

Christian or you're not a Christian, you

are conscious of God. So then the

question is always asked, what happens

to the guy who's out in the tribe in the

middle of nowhere who knows nothing, who

didn't grow up in your little Christian

context, who can know nothing about God.

What happens to that guy in that tribe

in the middle of nowhere?

Does he get a pass?

Does he have an excuse? Because he

didn't have a church near him or

anything else.

What does this passage say? He has no

excuse.

Why? Because what do the verses say?

Look at all of what it says in verse 19.

Everything that can be made known about

God is plain to them

because God has shown it to them. Verse

19. And then verse 20, his eternal power

and divine nature have been clearly

perceived, clearly seen. Which means

this, every time you look at a tree,

that tree is speaking to you. And I

don't say that in a crazy way, but it

is. And what is it speaking to you? I

have a creator.

Every time you see stars in the sky, you

say, "Oh, they're so beautiful. What are

those stars doing? They are singing and

they are saying to you, I have a

creator.

Everything in all of creation is

constantly speaking of God and that God

exists.

Meaning everybody in some deep down

sense knows that he exists, leaving

everybody without excuse.

But what happens is people suppress it.

So everybody has this conscience, this

sense of right and wrong because number

one they're conscious of God and number

two they're conscious of sin. Everybody

is conscious of sin. Turn to chapter 2.

Romans chapter 2 verse 14.

Romans 2:14

Romans chapter 2 verse1 14. And again,

Romans 2 · chapter mention

what Paul is doing in the middle of this

righteousness of God kind of sandwich is

he's showing the sinfulness of humanity

and showing that everybody is on the

same level playing field.

Everyone is conscious of sin. Romans

chapter 2:14.

For when Gentiles who do not have the

law by nature do what the law requires,

they are a law to themselves.

Even though they do not have the law,

they show that the work of the law is

written on their hearts.

While their conscience

also bears witness

and their conflicting thoughts accuse

and excuse

them.

Everybody is conscious of their sin.

You see, the question could be asked,

well, what about the guy who has no

access to any Bible? How can he possibly

know what is right and what is wrong? He

doesn't have your ten commandments. He

doesn't have the law of God. How can he

possibly know? He doesn't have a Bible.

He's in the middle of nowhere. How can

he know? This verse tells us verse 15,

they show that the work of law is

written on their hearts.

The law of God is written on our hearts.

So that you don't just need to know the

ten commandments to know the ten

commandments.

There is a a consciousness of of sin

that humanity has.

So that all of us know in some sense

you should not murder.

Where does that come from? That idea

our hearts.

It's generally accepted throughout of

all of creation

that children should obey their parents.

It's written on our hearts

who made up that law. And so we we have

this sense of the law written on our

hearts.

And CS Lewis made the argument,

well, if you have a sense of a moral law

of right or wrong, does that not point

to you that there must be a moral

lawgiver?

Yes.

So everyone has a conscience because

everybody is conscious of God and

everybody is conscious of sin. And your

conscience, the work of your conscience,

what it does in verse in verse 15, it

says this, it either accuses or excuses.

Your conscience that is God-given says

to you, "That is right, do it. That is

wrong, don't do it." It accuses or

excuses.

So here is what I would encourage you to

do in your life and this morning and

this week.

I would encourage you all to listen to

your Godgiven

conscience.

And I want us to spend a bit of time

here so that we build a foundation for

the next two Sundays. Listen to your

God-given conscience.

Are you listening to your God-given

conscience?

Maybe you're ignoring God and

suppressing the truth of God, trying to

live your life all on your own.

The trees are telling you he exists.

His word says that. The skies are

telling you he's he exists. His word

says that.

Every grain of sand is telling you he

exists.

Every blade of grass is telling you he

exists.

These are created things that have a

creator. Your conscience is is telling

you that. Listen to it.

Your conscience is telling you that that

certain things you're doing in your life

are are wrong.

That you are a sinner before a holy God.

Listen to your conscience.

Repent of your sin today.

Trust in Christ for the forgiveness of

your sins.

Listen to your conscience, your Godgiven

conscience.

That's also true for Christians.

Maybe there's an area in your life this

morning

where you've given up listening to your

conscience.

You perform well in certain areas in

Christianity and you're following

Christ.

But maybe there's one area of sin

that you're committing that you are

walking in right now and you are not

listening to your conscience, your

God-given conscience.

and it is saying no, but you keep saying

yes.

I would encourage you to listen to your

conscience.

Repent of your sin. Go to Christ for

forgiveness.

And the wonderful thing about this

reality that everybody has a conscience

that that puts us all on a level playing

field is this. For those who are

Christians who are trying to share their

faith, it's this in in um in one

Corinthians, I can't remember the

chapter now.

Maybe it's chapter 2 verse4, chapter

4:2, something like that. Chapter 2

Corinthians chapter 4:2. I'll check it

up later. But basically what Paul does

is he appeals to everyone's conscience

so that whenever you're sharing Christ

with someone or talking to someone about

the Lord, you can know two things.

They are in some deep sense conscious of

God and they are in some deep sense

conscious of their sin. And I'm going to

start appealing to that.

We can do that in our outreach and

evangelism.

We should listen to our conscience and

we should encourage others to listen to

their conscience.

But as we seek to listen to our

conscience,

as we develop this foundation, and

there's a few things you need to

remember about your conscience. It's

really important.

Should you always listen to your

conscience? Here's what I'd say. almost

always.

Here's why. Three things we need to

remember about our conscience.

Number one, your conscience,

it is corrupt.

Your conscience is not a perfect

conscience. You don't have a perfect

sense of what is right and what is wrong

in life. You can't always judge

correctly and perfectly. Yes, God has

given you a general sense of what is

right and what is wrong. But ever since

Adam and Eve fell, what happened? All of

us was corrupted, including our

conscience. And that is the point that

Paul is making in Romans chapter 3. For

Romans 3 · chapter mention

all have sinned and fall short of the

glory of God. Meaning this, your

conscience isn't always right.

So you can be doing something and say,

well, I actually feel you can you can

weaponize this language. My conscience

is telling me I'm good.

It might be telling you you're good, but

if your conscience is going against God,

then it's not good.

So, here's what we need to realize about

our conscience. It is corrupt, and it is

always underneath the will of God. So,

your sense of what is right and what is

wrong should always be measured up

against the word of God.

So listen to your conscience. But

remember number one, your conscience is

corrupt. So if it comes between choosing

between my conscience and and what God

is telling me in his word, God's word

wins. My conscience loses. That's the

idea. So listen to your conscience, but

remember it's corrupt. Listen to your

conscience, but number two, remember it

is inconsistent.

Your feeling of what is right or wrong

is inconsistent always. Let me give you

an example. You're standing in a line in

a shop. Okay, we all stand in lines in

in shops, right? You're standing in a

line in a shop and the person who's at

the till is taking absolutely ages and

the line is getting bigger and bigger

and bigger and you're standing near the

back of the line and the thought comes

into your head,

everybody's on their phone.

I could just skip the line,

you know. I could just skip the line.

I think my conscience is okay with that.

And certainly if they open up the

another till I'm running, but maybe I

could skip if everybody's but then your

conscience says no, no, no, no. We

Shane, you know, things on the side of

your shoulder or whatever they're

speaking and say, "No, no, yes, no, yes,

yes, no." And then you say, "No, I

won't. I I don't do that. I don't skip

lines.

But then

you're rushing to work in the morning

and you're stuck in another line. It's

the traffic line

and you're late for work and you know

I'm more late for work than anybody else

is. You're in this massive line

and suddenly you feel yourself.

You switch over to the space that's

empty and you start driving down.

You wait. You wait. You wait. You wait

for the poor old person that didn't move

fast enough. You find the gap and you go

in. You skip the line. But wait a

second. In the shop, it was wrong. But

on the road, it's okay. I mean, my

conscience was fine in the car. My

conscience wasn't okay in the shop.

Your conscience is inconsistent

because your conscience is corrupt.

So, we're always measuring. We're we're

always to listen to our conscience most

of the time, but we're always putting

our conscience under the will of God.

Our conscience is corrupt. Our

conscience is not consistent. And also,

our conscience, it is complicated.

It is complicated. So, you're to listen

to your conscience, but you're always to

remember it's corrupt. You're always to

remember it's inconsistent. But you're

always to remember that your conscience

is complicated.

Each and every person here, we all have

personal consciences.

Yes, we have maybe as Christians, we

have a general sense of what God is

telling us in the word, but we always

have personal consciences. So, let's

take the line in the shop for example,

those two lines. Let's take that as an

example.

Some of us will say,

"We're okay.

I'm just not going to skip the line in

the shop, but it's okay to skip the line

in traffic."

Okay, that's my view. Line in the shop,

no line in traffic, yes. Some of us,

this is where it gets complicated. Some

of us say, "No skipping lines ever."

Never. No.

And if you do, you're the greatest

sinner in the world.

Some of us, this is Christians now, some

of us say, "Well, I'm free in Christ. I

can skip every line there is. There's no

condemnation for me. I can skip all the

lines I want."

And then there is that other strange

person who says, "I can skip every line

that's in a shop, but I'll I'll never

skip a line in traffic."

And what makes that really complicated

about all these other secondary issues

is when all those people are in the same

church and how are you supposed to get

along then? That's what we're going to

talk more about next week. The

conscience is complicated.

So we have a God-given conscience which

makes us conscious of God, conscious of

our sin. We should almost always listen

to that conscience.

But we should always remember that it is

corrupt. It is not consistent and it is

complicated.

So where do we go from there? Well, from

there we understand everybody has a

conscience. But then what you need to

realize is your conscience has a certain

condition or a state.

Your conscience

is either

guilty or innocent.

Your conscience is either guilty or it's

clean.

This morning that is the state of our

conscience. You either have a guilty

conscience before God or you have a

clean conscience before God.

Turn to Romans or sorry, Hebrews

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

chapter 10. Turn to Hebrews

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

chapter 10. So, first we saw that

everyone has a God-given conscience. And

now we see that everyone either has a

guilty conscience or a clean conscience.

Everyone either has a guilty conscience

or a clean conscience. And we see that

in Hebrews chapter 10. Now, in the book

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

of Hebrews,

here's what's happening in the book of

Hebrews. The writer is writing to people

who are suffering.

And those people who are suffering,

they're tempted to go back to their old

ways.

They're Jewish Christians who are

tempted to go back to the old system of

Jewish worship and practice. And this

happens to us as Christians. Maybe

you're following Christ. You get into

suffering and whatever. And you get this

feeling, I just want to give up and I

want to go back to my old way of life.

Have you ever felt that? If you feel

that, you're human.

Things aren't going well for me in

Christianity, so I want to give up on

that and go back to my old way of life.

This is what the readers were feeling.

things didn't seem to be working well

for them in their suffering. So, they

were tempted to go back to their old

Jewish systems of practices, go back to

the system of sacrifice, go back to the

system of of priesthood. And what the

writer in Hebrews is trying to say to

them is this. Jesus is better than all

of that.

Jesus, he is the better sacrifice.

Jesus, he is the better high priest. And

so it's in that context that he writes

to them and points out to them that you

either have a a guilty conscience

or a clean conscience.

Hebrews 10 19 says this.

Therefore, brothers,

since we have confidence to enter the

holy places by the blood of Jesus, by

the new and living way that opened for

us through the curtain that is through

his flesh, and since we have a great

high priest over the house of God,

listen to this, let us draw near with a

true heart in full assurance of faith,

with our hearts sprinkled clean from an

evil conscience or a guilty conscience

and our bodies washed with pure water.

What is he saying in those verses? He's

saying to the people, "Here is what you

have and here is what you do." In verse

19, he's saying, "Here is what you

have." Verse 19, we have confidence.

We now have confidence to enter into the

most holy of holies. In the Old

Testament system, there was no

confidence.

But now we have confidence because of

the blood of Christ to come into the

presence of God. We have confidence.

And verse 21, what else do we have? We

have a great high priest.

We have confidence to enter into the

Holy of Holies. And we have a great high

priest. And this great high priest, he's

better than all of the other priests in

the past because all of the other

priests in the past, what did those

priests have to do? Those priests had to

offer up a sacrifice for their own sins.

But Jesus, he is both the perfect priest

and the perfect sacrifice who offers a

sacrifice not for his own sins, but the

sins of the many.

That's what we have. And what do we do

then in response? Verse 22, let us draw

near with full assurance, with our

hearts sprinkled clean from an evil

conscience

or a guilty conscience.

If you are in Christ this morning,

you have no guilty conscience.

You're washed clean by the blood of the

lamb.

And that is good news.

That means you can approach the two

words he uses with confidence

and you can approach God with assurance

because the state of your conscience,

the condition of it is

not guilty.

So here's my question for the Christians

in the room.

Do you actually believe that

when you sit here this morning?

Do you actually believe

I'm not guilty?

Do you believe that?

Sometimes I wonder,

is that what stops us from singing?

Sometimes we come in in the morning

and we stop from singing. Why?

I'm guilty.

Sometimes we come in to pray with God's

people.

Maybe it's personality. I don't know.

That might be some of it. But I suspect

that some of us do not pray

because we feel guilty.

Some of us do not approach God and draw

near to God. We draw away from God

because we feel guilty.

But if you've trusted in Christ,

your conscience has been cleansed.

You've been purified. You are no longer

guilty.

And if you're not a Christian this

morning and you have this sense of sin

within you,

here's what I want to say to you. If you

trust in Jesus this morning, your guilty

conscience can be cleansed right now by

the blood of the lamb.

And that's really good news.

I'll never forget the day I was

cleansed.

And not perfect. Clean consciences

aren't perfect.

But oh, the weight of guilt to have it

removed.

It's a wonderful thing.

And I'd call on you to trust in Christ.

Have that guilt removed and your

conscience clean.

You can have a clean conscience.

But the problem can be for Christians is

this. I trust in Christ. I believe in

Christ.

He cleans up my conscience.

But then along life's journey, what

happens to your conscience? Well, it

goes from a clean conscience

to a really, really, really annoying,

sensitive conscience.

Here's what happens. Have you ever got

like a a bright white clean shirt or

maybe bright white clean shoes

and it's clean and it's new and you wear

it and you just feel like, "Oh, nothing

could be better.

Okay, maybe I'm just sad. I don't know.

But it's nice.

Something nice, clean, white, whatever.

But when one little mark gets on it,

what happens? You notice, don't you?

One little scuff, one little mark, and

then another one gets on it, and you

notice, and you're very, very sensitive

to all the marks. That's what happens to

the Christian conscience. We're we're

cleansed by the blood of the lamb. We're

washed clean and white. But then we're

awake to all our sin.

And you start going, "Oh my goodness, m

maybe I was worse than I ever was

before." And it draws you to pray. You

see, because before I was a Christian, I

was able to say whatever I wanted to

say. I didn't care about my words before

I was Christian.

But then when I became a Christian,

suddenly every word mattered.

Suddenly I wasn't able to swear like I

was in sport. And I felt way more guilty

about it than before.

My conscience became more sensitive.

Uh before I was a Christian, I was able

to watch whatever I wanted to watch. Now

I feel guilty.

Like I don't know if you noticed, but

I'm over 18.

But there's still over 18 movies that I

feel guilty about watching.

I'm over 15, but there's still over 15

movies that I feel guilty about

watching.

Before, as a Christian, I didn't care

about this stuff.

But now that my conscience has been

cleansed and washed by the blood of the

lamb, I'm more sensitive to my sin.

And that's a good thing because what has

happened is the Holy Spirit has come and

renewed your conscience

and points out your sin, convicts you of

your sin and says you got to start

dealing with that.

So I just want to read one verse from if

you flip back to Romans 8

about this idea of

dealing with that sin. Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

It says this in Romans chapter 8 verse

Romans 8:13

13.

For if you live according to the flesh,

you will die. But if by the spirit you

put to death the deeds of the body, you

will live.

What happened the moment you became a

Christian? And the Holy Spirit came

within you. And what did he, the Holy

Spirit do? He, the Holy Spirit,

began to convict you of your sin, point

out your sin,

and calls you now to put the deeds of

the body to death, to fight your sin.

Your conscience, if you're a Christian,

your conscience is clean. But you will

notice now your conscience is more

sensitive than it ever was before.

Listen to that conscience.

Listen to the spirit and put to death

the deeds of the body. It is interesting

Paul after he became a Christian was new

in Christ. He called himself the least

of apostles

in 1 Corinthians 15 19. Paul after he

became a Christian, he called himself

the least of the saints in Ephesians

chapter 3:8.

Paul was constantly referring back to

his old life and how he was a sinner and

in fact called himself the worst of

sinners

in one Timothy 1 verse 15.

Paul after he was saved, he had his

conscience cleaned, but he became more

aware and sensitive of his sin.

As you become more aware and sensitive

of your sin, here's what you do by the

power of the Holy Spirit. Do not ignore

your sin. When the Holy Spirit points

out your sin to you by your God-given

conscience, listen to that and put it to

death.

Don't let it live. You have a clean

conscience now. But whenever there is a

sense this is wrong, by the spirit, seek

to put it to death. Your conscience

it is now sensitive. Your conscience has

been cleaned. Your conscience is now

sensitive.

But there is a warning.

The next thing about your conscience

that we learn is this. Your conscience

can be seared.

Your conscience can be seared.

What do I mean by your conscience can be

seared? It's basically the opposite of

your conscience being sensitive.

So you're renewed by the blood of the

lamb. Your conscience is clean and then

your conscience is sensitive to all

these areas in your life.

But what can happen is in certain areas

your conscience can be seared or put it

another way, it can be numbed.

Seared has this sense of burning.

So

I don't do a lot of cooking in our

house.

I will admit this publicly.

You will know this practically if you

know us for any length of time.

But there is this pot in our house

and I always forget it's a big pot.

You know, you you put the boiling water

in, you put the potatoes in. I know

about that much. You can peel the

potatoes, put it in boiling water, all

that. So I put the top on. When I put

the top on, it's all grand. But then I'm

like, you know, I'm trying to multitask,

but I can't. And so I'm texting people

or whatever or voice noting or whatever.

And then I come back to the pot. And

almost every time, without doubt, this

one specific pot in our house, I'm

picturing it now. I come back to the pot

and with my full hand, I put my full

hand like it's almost every single time.

You would think that I didn't study a

day in my life. You think that I didn't

have a brain? I put my full hand on the

top of that pot and what happens?

Burn.

I I I sear it. Now, I pull it off

straight away. So, it's not that bad.

But what happens if I left my hand on

and keep burning and burning and burning

and burning and then what happens to

that hand? You run it under cold water

as people say, but then what happens? It

becomes numb to the touch. That's

searing. It's numb. You don't feel it

anymore. You used to be sensitive to the

touch, but now you are numb to the

touch. That's what it means to sear your

conscience.

And Paul, he uses this word of searing

conscience in First Timothy.

Turn to First Timothy uh with me,

please. It's the last passage I'll have

you turn to. 1 Timothy chapter 4. And

1 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

first Timothy after these two sermons on

the conscience, 1 Timothy is actually

going to be the next book we're going to

walk through.

And in first Timothy, the conscience is

mentioned three times.

And Paul here in 1 Timothy chapter 4, he

1 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

talks about this reality of the seared

conscience.

So you can have a clean conscience, you

can have a sensitive conscience, but you

can also have a seared conscience.

Paul is writing to Timothy and he's

warning him about false teachers. And in

chapter 4:1, he says this.

Now the Holy Spirit

expressly says that in the later times

some will depart from the faith by

devoting themselves to deceitful spirits

and teachings of demons through the

insincerity

of liars

whose consciences

are seared.

People who seem like they're in the

faith. Paul is saying will be drawn away

from that faith because of false

teachers or liars who are teaching with

seared consciences. They're teaching

with numb consciences. In other words,

they've been teaching false truths.

They've been teaching falsehood for so

long they've forgotten that it is even

false and they've numbed their

conscience.

One translation puts it this way. It

says, "Who have seared their own

consciences."

How does your conscience get seared or

how does it get numbed?

You do it all by yourself.

This is one of the reasons we stop

listening to our conscience

because we sear it.

We numb it.

The first time.

Let's talk about lying for a second.

The first time, say you become a

Christian, you've trusted in Christ. You

have a clean conscience.

The first time you lie feels like a

dagger in the heart.

Can't believe I just did that. It's like

that one spot on the shirt. You see it,

but then you keep going

and you lie and you lie and you lie and

you lie. You lie. What happens to your

conscience? You sear it. It gets numb.

And lying doesn't become that big of a

deal anymore.

You stop listening to your conscience.

What sin is that for you?

It's a sin that you keep coming back to

again and again and again,

but you've just given up.

You've stopped listening.

Anytime it comes up, you just ignore it.

Be careful of searing your conscience.

Do not numb your conscience.

Listen to it.

And is there hope for those who have

seared their conscience? Yes, of course

there is. What should you do if you've

numbed your conscience to certain sins

in your life?

Confess it to God

and confess it to one another.

Bring it into the light. Here's kind of

what happens when we numb our

conscience. Say you've numbed your

conscience in anger. Here's what

happens. You know the way you walk into

a dark room and it's dark and you can

see nothing. But if you stay in the dark

room long enough, what happens? You can

start to see things. And in fact, you

might actually think, hey, this is kind

of normal.

That's what can happen when we numb our

conscience. If you're angry, what you

can do is you can walk into that room of

anger and suddenly it becomes normal and

you think, "Oh, this is okay." And you

numb yourself.

No. See your sin,

confess your sin to God, bring it into

the light. Don't stay in that dark room.

bring it into the light and confess your

sins to one another as we heard last

week in the sermon.

And to confess our sins to one another,

that's going to take you one being brave

to do that.

But also, it's going to take us as a

church to be okay with hearing someone

else's sin.

If someone comes to you to reveal a sin,

here's what your response should be.

Open your arms as wide as you can and

say, "Come here.

I don't care what it is. I'm with you.

I'm going to pray with you. I'm going to

stand with you. We're going to run this

race together to the end.

However bad it is, however bad your sin

is,

it can be nailed to the cross.

His blood is sufficient for all of our

sins.

No one can condemn you.

So when someone comes, open your arms

out wide and say, "Come."

and then point them to Christ who has

his arms open wide on the cross for them

and remind them of the forgiveness that

they have in Jesus.

There is hope for the one who has the

seared conscience.

There's one line

that Paul says, just one sentence

that Paul says, and it's in the book of

Acts. It's just one line. You don't have

to turn there.

He's talking about the conscience

and Paul's conscience has been cleansed

clean. He's a believer. He's a

Christian.

But then he says in Acts 24:E 16, he

says this. Listen.

So I always

take pains

to have a clear conscience

toward God and man.

Paul who has a clean conscience is

saying this. I always take pains.

I always make great effort. I always

work really hard to have a clean

conscience toward God and man.

What is it that you work hard for?

We all work hard for something.

Do you work hard for money?

Do you work hard to get a better house

or a better car? Do you work hard to get

the better promotion? Do you work hard

to get more recognition? You are hard

workers at something.

But here's what I'd encourage you to

work really hard towards.

A clear conscience

before God and man.

And that's not against grace. That's

actually in response to grace.

He saved me. I'm cleansed by the blood

of the lamb. And I am going to work

really hard on repentance

so that I have a clean conscience before

God and man. Repentance is one of the

hardest things you will do.

Parents, when was the last time you

repented to your children?

It's hard, isn't it?

Oh, I'll tell them to say sorry.

What about you?

You don't. Cuz repentance is hard.

And they struggle to say sorry. You know

the way when you get them both together

and you're like, "Say sorry. Say sorry."

And it's someone else's child and you're

waiting there and you're like, "Say

sorry. Say sorry." It's hard to repent,

isn't it?

By the power of the Holy Spirit,

take pains,

work hard toward repentance,

to have a clean conscience

with God, and to have a clean conscience

with people because your conscience has

been cleansed by the blood of the lamb.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, we thank you

for the clean conscience that we can

have before you.

I pray Lord that we would work hard,

we would make pains to have a clean

conscience before God and people

in your name Jesus.

Amen. Let us stand and sing to the Lord

in response and as we prepare our heart

for the Lord's supper.