Well, good morning. Good to see you. If you have a Bible, go ahead and get it out. We’re gonna keep going through Romans. I’m gonna have you go to two places in scripture, if you want to check and make sure I’m not making this stuff up as I go along, you can read it in your very own Bible. I recommend you do. Go to Romans chapter one and hold your place from Romans chapter one, and then go over to 1 Samuel. And we’re going to be in 1 Samuel verse, or rather, chapter 24, here in a moment, and you’ll see what’s going to happen when we get there. So, what I’m doing is I’m doing one message in two parts. There was no way to get through this in one single message. And so, this morning is going to be part one. Next week will be part two. And the title of this message is “The Conditions of the Conscience”. I think that’s what I named it. Yes, “The Conditions of the Conscience”. and you’re gonna see the different conditions of what a conscience looks like according to scripture. We’re going to cover three of them here this morning. And then we’re gonna cover four more next weekend. And you’ll see that the seven combined are the sum total of the way the Bible describes the conscience of someone. This morning is going to be toward unbelievers. Next week will be geared toward believers. There’s no way to fit all this content into one. That’s why we’re dividing it up. And so, this message will end abruptly. There’s no way around it. It does not really have a full conclusion because I wanted to do it justice. That’s going to be the next two weeks, we’re still going to be in chapter one. Now, in case you’re wondering, when are we ever getting out of chapter one? Never! Not really. We will have one more message. Two weeks from today, I’m going to do a message dedicated to the sin issue of homosexuality. The text of Romans one demands it. And I want you to see it from a biblical perspective so that you can interact with that issue in the world or maybe in your own heart or family with biblical precision. I promise you; you don’t want to miss that one. Very important component. And then when we will be blowing through Romans all the way to chapter two. You’re welcome.
All right. When we talk about conscience, and we say the conditions of the conscience, it’s helpful if we would give some bit of a definition of what the conscience is. Let me say it this way, a couple of definitions here. Number one, the conscience is a faculty of the heart. It is the faculty of the heart. And when you see the word “conscience”, particularly in the Old Testament, it is interchangeable with the word “heart”. Sometimes it’s translated as “heart”. Sometimes it’s translated as “conscience.” It’s the same Hebrew word. And when you see it well, you’ll see it in the text here in a moment, you need to understand that it is an issue of heart. And that it is innate, in other words, you were given that at birth, and it is internal. It is something that is very important that we get that. That is given by God at birth. Every single person has a conscience. But different people have different conditions of their conscience. It’s been well said before. And I’ll say it to you this way the conscience best described it is the smoke detector of the heart. The smoke detector of the heart. Now, some of you maybe don’t remember what a smoke detector sounds like when it screams but I was gonna bring one and then do it and I thought, “No, I want them to like me at least a little bit.” You know, if you have a big house and your smoke detector goes off, it may not be that big a deal. But if you’re in a little confined space and one goes off. Like if you own like a little 20-foot travel trailer, like Kelly and I do, and we go camping in our little 20-foot little toaster. It looks like a toaster. Very small but it’s enough. It’s enough for a king-sized bed and a sink. And that’s all I need to go camping. At 57 I’m not sleeping in a tent, get over it. Don’t send me emails on glamping, I get it, I know it, and I lean into it. But when she makes toast, this is not her problem, okay? She bought a $3 toaster at the dollar store. When she makes toast this thing burns the toast and so we know it’s gonna burn the toast we know it’s gonna smoke, and we know the smoke detector is gonna go off so what do we do? We take it off the wall and bury it in a drawer. That’s the picture of suppressing the truth of who God is and what He says. It’s taking the smoke detector off. Now that’s okay when you’re just making toast, you better be able to put that thing back up there though to protect you from what is very dangerous. This is what the conscience actually is. It alarms you when something is wrong or affirms you when something is right. And in fact, let me say it this way, outside of salvation itself, the conscience is the most valuable thing any man will ever have. Not money, not fame, not popularity. No, it’s your conscience because if you lose the conscience we’ll look at the progression of how one loses their conscience here this morning. If you lose your conscience, you’ve lost eternal life. You really have. You never had it. And in fact, we’ll look at it related to a believer next week. But that is what it is. It is the alarm of the heart.
I want to give you a couple of positive illustrations in scripture. Two in particular from the life of David. And we’re going to pick these up kind of media res. The first of which is going to be in 1 Samuel chapter 24. I think I told you 24. And this story is very important that you understand the context. King Saul is the wicked king of Israel. And he’s aware that David is one day going to be the king. God has rejected Saul but He hasn’t killed him yet. And David is going to be king, but he’s not King yet. And so, Saul is jealous of David. So, he’s chasing him with his army, following David and David’s mighty men trying to kill David so that he can keep the throne. We’re gonna pick that up and in the middle of the story, right when Saul comes to the same cave that David is in while he’s hiding. 1 Samuel 24:3-6 says, “And he came (that’s Saul, Saul is pursuing David), and he came to the sheepfolds, by the way, and there was a cave, and Saul went in to relieve himself.” I guess if you’re king, you get to go to the cave, right? Makes sense. “Saul, we got to cave for us to go the restroom.” Sounds very common but it’s under the providence of God. Saul goes to relieve himself. It says, “Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave…” Awkward. Very awkward. Here comes the king, “What’s he doing?” “He’s taking off his robe.” “What’s he doing now?” “He’s pulling down the skirt.” “Oh, no, you’re kidding.” That’s what’s happening. Okay, that’s actually what’s going on. The men are in here, Saul doesn’t know that, he’s going to use the bathroom. It’s in the Bible, okay? If that makes you blush, I’m sorry. Watch what happens when Saul’s doing this, verse four says, “And the men of David said to him…” They’re gonna quote from God but they’re gonna put it in the wrong context of David doing something in his own strength. “‘Here is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.’’ (Watch what happens). Then David arose and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.” Now why is this bad? You say, “Why didn’t he cut his throat?” Here’s why. Because David was not to establish his own kingdom but God was going to do it. And if you touch the king over Israel, you were touching the Lord’s anointed. He was anointed to be king. Now that does not apply to America. So don’t get all weird on me. This was the theocracy that God had chosen. America plainly is not. Fair? So, what did he do? He goes, and he gets close enough to wherever the robe was laid, he cuts a corner off so later he can demonstrate, “Look, I could have killed you.” But there’s a problem with that. That was a sin. That was a transgression. And verse five says this after he did it. Verse five, “And afterward David’s heart struck him because he had cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.” This word in Hebrew is translated as “conscience” in the NAS. They are actually interchangeable. NASB. ESV. LSB. New King James. King James. You can find it might say “conscience”, it might say “heart”. His heart struck him. His conscience struck him. It’s a synonymous term. The conscience is a faculty of the heart. And what did it do? It struck him. In other words in our illustration, BBB BBB, BBB, BBB BBB, right? The smoke detector’s going off.
Now, see if you can finish the sentence with me. David was a man after God’s own? Heart. Let me tell you, how do you know a man who’s after God’s own heart? It’s not sinless perfection. It’s not that they never blow it. It’s not that they don’t transgress. If that were the case, no one would be a man after God’s own heart. But a man after God’s own heart is when the conscience is made aware of transgression, what do they do? They want to get forgiven. They want their conscience cleansed. They want to run to the Lord. They want to admit it. That’s a man after God’s own heart. And the closer you get to God’s own heart, the faster you’re going to respond to the conscience. The further your heart gets away from God’s own heart, the slower if at all. Your heart will respond to God’s pushing of His Holy Spirit when He afflicts your conscience. So, his conscience struck him. That’s what the conscience does. Verse six says, “He said to his men, ‘The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord’s anointed, to put my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord’s anointed.’” So, it was a sin and it was wrong. See? That’s what the conscience does. And that’s a positive response to it. We’re gonna get to the negative in Romans one here but I need you to see what the conscience does. Because if you don’t like that beeping, you’re gonna have to quiet it.
Let me show you a second story and this is actually going to be in the next chapter. This is in 1 Samuel 25. This is the story still of David. David and his men are going out to the countryside. And David sends some of his servants to a very rich man. His name is Nabal. And they send to this rich man, Nabal, and they say, “Hey, give us some supplies. We need to feed our troops. Help us out and I’m going to remember you later on and reward you.” So, he sends these men to Nabal, which by the way, Nabal in Hebrew means “fool”. He lives up to his name. The men of David go to Nabal and they say, “Give us some food, David’s asking for some provisions.” And Nabal being a wicked fool says “I’m not helping David out. I’m not gonna wait to get paid back. What do I have to do with him?” And he embarrasses them, he humiliates them and he sends them back to David empty handed. Well, David is a man with a pretty flash temper if you don’t watch it. He’s a bad dude. These guys running with him make the SEAL teams look a little weak. They kill 1000 with the jawbone of a donkey. Right? No rocket-propelled grenades here. So, they give that report to David. David goes, “Let’s go, we’re gonna go kill him.” And they’re going to kill him as we pick up this story. And the only thing that spares Nabal’s life is his beautiful wife. By the way, the Bible says she was wise and beautiful. And if the Bible says a woman’s beautiful, she probably was easy on the eyes. Here comes David on his high horse literally. And Abigail stands in the road, comes out from her house and blocks him, and stops him from committing murder in his anger. Now, listen here, if you’re a man of a quick temper, take heart. God still wants to use you. He just wants it under control. Moses was a man of a quick temper. David was certainly. Peter, forget about it. God wants that under control. Just don’t become lukewarm. You can still keep your temper. You just got to have control of it. And so here comes this woman to stop the king. 1 Samuel 25:28-33. This is Abigail speaking. And she says this to the king. “‘Please forgive the trespass of your servant. (Talking about Nabal, her husband). For the Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house (God’s gonna do it, David), because my lord is fighting the battles of the Lord, and evil shall not be found in use as long as you live.’” She’s laying it on thick. But she’s gonna appeal to his conscience. Verse 29, she says, “‘If men rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living in the care of the Lord your God. And the lives of your enemies he shall sling out as from the hollow of a sling (wow, she’s good). And when the Lord has done to my lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you and has appointed you prince over Israel,…’” In other words, when you’re finally on the throne, David, you don’t want to do this. And here’s why. Look at the next verse. When you get there, “‘…My lord shall have no cause of grief or pangs of conscience for having shed blood without cause or for my lord working salvation for himself…’” In other words, doing it by his own hand, instead of letting God’s hand do it would have been transgression and a sin. And she says if you will not do this, then when God does establish you, you won’t have “griefs or pangs of conscience”. And this word, by the way, in the NAS is “heart”. They’re interchangeable. So, if you have the NAS now, you’re looking at it. It’s interchangeable. And what is she telling him? Don’t do this. You can avoid the grief and the pangs of heart. Your conscience will even let you know don’t do that before you do something. I heard a preacher say at one time he says “I think one of God’s names is “Jehovah Something.” “Jehovah Something”. Why? Because you ever heard somebody say this, “Man, something just told me I shouldn’t have done that.” That’s “Jehovah Something”. I’m making that up. That’s tongue-in-cheek, right? 1st service didn’t even get this humor. It’ll stop you. You ever know you were not supposed to do something and you went ahead and did it? Well, he listens to his conscience.
Watch his response. Look at verse 32, “And David said to Abigail, ‘Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me!’” That’s how a godly man after God’s own heart will respond to those who show up, get in his grill, and tell him, “You can’t do that”. He’ll say this, “Thank you. Thank you. You’re right. My conscience is convicted. Thank you for telling you that.” They don’t puff up. “How dare you talk to me? I’m a grown man.” And they always have to pull their buckle up. “I’m a big deal.” He said, “Thank you.” And he goes on in verse 33 finally it says, “Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodguilt and from working salvation with my own hand!’” The smoke alarm went off as it were and what did David do? He said, “Oh, no, I’m not going to do it.” He was sorry for what he had done in conscience, and he was prevented from doing something again, probably even worse, putting a man to death. That’s what the conscience does. It is innate and it is internal.
In fact, let’s borrow the language from Romans chapter two, we’ll get out of chapter one for just a moment. I’m not gonna give you the context in the teaching here but I’m going to at least use it see this description. This is Romans 2:14-15. Look there with me. Paul writes, “For when the Gentiles…” Now that he’s referring to anyone who’s a non-Jew but really those who are walking without the law of God. “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law (in other words, they don’t know what the Old Testament says), by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.” How would that possibly work? How would someone know right from wrong until he’s read that Old Testament? Well, because the conscience. It’s the faculty of the heart that God deals with. Look at this, verse 15, it says it. “They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts (how? It’s in the conscience. In fact he describes it), while their conscience (there it is) also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts (look) accuse or even excuse them.” That’s what the conscience does. It says, no beep, no problem, you’re good. Or it says to beep, there’s a problem. There’s a huge problem. Look, this is a problem. And because the conscience does that. That’s the reason why people who don’t want to acknowledge who God is, give their lives to who He is, and submit to who He says He is and what He says He’s done. That’s why they want to silence it. They want to suppress the truth in unrighteousness. How do they do it? It’s an issue of conscience. You’ve got to shut that alarm up because it’s really bothering you. It’s interfering with your sin.
And so, we say the conditions of the conscience. And this is what it looks like. Romans 1:18. I know we’ve covered this verse but I want you to see it in the light of this context. “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness, they suppress the truth.” Now, this is the truth about God but the truth about God coming through what? Conscience. Looking at the natural creation, knowing there’s a God, knowing that what they’re doing is wrong, knowing how they’re sinning, there’s an awareness of whether you’ve had the law or not.
And so now the suppression begins and the conscience becomes suppressed. So, we talked about the conditions of the conscience. We’re going to look at the negative today. There are three negative conditions biblically. Three and they get progressively worse. And I’m going to show you these. I’m going to show you these in Romans one in the body of Romans one, and then I’m going to prove them to you in other texts in the New Testament that are analogous. In other words, they teach the Bible. The Bible teaches the Bible that way, you’ll see how we do that. If you’re new, this is how we understand the text. Okay? So here are the three conditions that we’re going to cover today. I’m just going to lay them out here:
1. Defiled
2. Callous
3. Seared
Number one is defiled. Number two is calloused. Number three is seared. Defiled, that’s bad. Callous, that’s worse. Seared, that’s the worst there is. Those are the bad conditions of the human heart. And you see God responding to those conditions of conscience within the body of Romans one. Let’s take a look at Romans 1:21-28. You’ll see these right here and in fact, when men choose to do that, God lets them. He turns them over to what they’ve demanded in their consciences. Start verse 21. Remember, they’re suppressing the truth about God. They will not call Him God or give Him glory. It says this, “For all though they knew God. They did not honor Him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking…” Right? Now this is your “mind” “…And their foolish hearts were darkened.” It’s both. It’s not just the mind, it’s the heart. Now what did we learn this is synonymous with? Conscience. This is synonymous with the conscience. The conscience becomes darkened. In other words, the light’s not there, the bell’s not ringing, the alarm’s not going off. So, verse 22 says “Claiming to be wise, they became (what?) fools.” The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God”. Right? This is the conscience being suppressed. And it goes on to say, “And exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” It’s not an exhaustive list. It’s just saying they traded God out for any idol other than Him. And when that happens, the conscience is being suppressed. While creation is even testifying and the conscience is shouting, God is real, someone made this, what you’re doing is wrong, you deserve judgment for this, there’s going to be a consequence for this, the truth is pushed down.
And they end up with the first: a defiled conscience. Here it is verse 24, you’ll see this statement throughout three times. “Therefore, God gave them up…” Now, when it says, “therefore”, what’s the “therefore” there for? Because they’re choosing to suppress the conscience. They’re choosing to ignore the truth about God. Their conscience is being stifled and stuffed and suppressed. They push it down and therefore what does God do? He says, “Okay”. “Therefore, God gave them up…” What does that mean? They have a defiled conscience. That’s what this is. Their consciences become stained. That’s the term and you’ll see this in other texts, we’ll get to that. I just want to point it out in Romans 1 and why it’s vital we understand this. Okay? So, it says “Therefore God gave them up to (what?) in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.” In other words, they’re going to do things that normally they wouldn’t do. If they were listening to their conscience, the alarm would go off, and they’d say, “No, I can’t do that”. But they’re actually going to do things that will dishonor themselves. Now, these are a whole litany of sins. But it goes from bad to worse. It says, “…Dishonoring among themselves”, why?
Verse 25, “Because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” So, they walk that way and they’re pushing it off. They choose the idols. “I’m going to do what I want.” They’re dishonoring themselves. The conscience then progresses and becomes worse. Look at verse 26, “For this reason (here it is again), God gave them up to (what?) to dishonorable passions…” This means they’re going to do things now that require the conscience to be callous. This is a callous conscience. Y’all know what a callus is? Right? You know what defiled is. That Greek word simply means to be soiled or to be tainted, polluted. But a callus is different. A callus in Greek, this word callus in Greek, when you look when we see it in the other place in the New Testament, it literally means no longer feeling pain. The absence of pain. Like the reason why I’m doing this (hand gesture) if you ever tried to play guitar, when you first started out playing guitar, you realize “Oh my gosh, this is really going to hurt.” And the skin has to become deadened to its sensitivity. If you’ve played guitar, you’ve had the callus. You remember in school when people used to write with pen and pencil. Remember that? I don’t write anymore. My son’s now in the Marine Corp. Well, he’s in the Marine boot camp now. So, he’s in San Diego going through boot camp. And he can’t do any of the electronic stuff. So, I’m writing him letters. I’m like, “What am I ten?” And I forget how to do like cursive. Have you tried to do it? And now my callus is coming back. I’d show you except I’d have to hold up that finger. That finger! You get that callus right there. You know what that means? It means you don’t feel anymore. “God gave them up.” “God gave them up.” They’re calloused to “dishonorable passions”. Now because they don’t feel any more watch what they’re capable of. “…For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.” You’ll understand that. We’ll talk about that in two weeks. But you got to see, you’re not going to do that if your conscience is still active, it has to become callous. That’s the second.
And here’s the third, verse 28. “And since they did not see fit to (even) acknowledge God…” The word “even” inserted by me that’s not authoritative. But that’s what it comes down to. “I’m not going to even acknowledge You. You don’t exist. You’ve got no part. I have no use for You. I don’t want You around.” “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God (here it is again), God gave them up to (what?) to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.” This is the conscience that is seared. It is seared. “A debased mind.” This actually is “reprobate”. I won’t write that word out but it’s “reprobate” in the King James. It means rejected or disapproved. It means gone. It means it’s over. It means when the conscience is seared, there is no more reaching that person. I don’t know how many of you know how to cook steaks but you don’t boil it in water first. This is non-authoritative. You sear the steak first. Right? You sear it as hot as you can get it. Why? And so, it takes away all of that meat right there and turns it into kind of a caramel glaze. And makes it if you’ve done it right, it’s just really succulent and crispy leaving the rest of the steak medium rare. Oh, man, this is a good sermon. And then you turn it over and you sear the other side and what do they say it locks in the juices? It does. And then you can put it on the cooler side. And you can bake it until you bring it up to you know 125 degrees for your good medium rare. You’re welcome. Why is everybody checking their watches? Seared is synonymous with gone. It’s seared. It’s not just calloused, it’s dead. The conscience is gone. And that is how the end of Romans one is written that the conscience is basically just dead and He gives them up. He turns them over.
So, let’s look at these outside of Romans one. Let’s see these three things and see if are they analogous to what we just studied. Okay? And again, this is going to end abruptly. I promise you; we’ll pick it up faithfully next week when we finish it. But I want to look at these three from three different vantage points still within the New Testament.
So, here’s number one, remember what? Defiled. That means it’s become polluted, it’s become soiled, it’s become- you’ve grieved the conscience, you’ve shut off the Holy Spirit. You’ve refused Him. And this is Titus 1:15-16. We’ll get a good definition here. It says this, “To the pure, all things are pure…” That means to the innocent things look innocent. Okay? That means someone with a clear conscience. “To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled (there’s the word right there) and the unbelieving (that’s someone whose conscience is defiled just see this), to the defiled and the unbelieving, nothing is pure…” In other words, once the conscience is defiled, everything starts looking dirty. Gentlemen, if you’ve worked on some of the job sites I’ve been on, you’ll recognize there are men who cannot have a pure thought. You can say the purest thing about the spouse that you love and they will find a way to exploit that into something perverted. That is what? It’s this. It’s a defiled conscience. Everything has the motive dirt on it, it’s defiled. “Defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but (watch this) both their minds (that’s the thought) and their consciences (that’s their heart) are defiled.” “Defiled”. And they’re walking in a way where they allow constant pollution into their heart. They just want that. They want it. And they have to push that down because now they don’t realize it’s that bad anymore. Now, they’re not callous yet. It’s just someone who’s walking in defilement. They can still feel it. They still know when they say those terms or when they make those jokes, they’re aware there’s something wrong. In fact, you’ll see how even a Christian can stumble into this next week. But the Holy Spirit has a ministry related to that and we’ll look at that next week. But this is the conscience that’s been defiled. Now the interesting finish to the thought is, look at the next verse. So, talking about those who their conscience is defiled. It says, “They profess to know God…” “I know God”. In fact, these people can be very comfortable in fake churches as long as the word of God is not rightly divided, or rightly applied, and as long as Jesus is not the One being exalted and maybe they are, they can sit in a church. They can look moral but their conscience is filthy and they welcome it. This is part of the downward trend in Romans one. This is where it all starts. “They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work.” Okay? That describes someone who has a defiled conscience.
Here’s number two, calloused. Because it gets worse. You defile it long enough. It’s going to become callous. It’s going to become desensitized to pain. Ephesians 4:17-19. Paul writes, he says, “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you (speaking to believers), you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds.” Now, a Gentile obviously is somebody who is a non-Jew, but in this sense, it’s talking about those who are pagans, those who are heathens. In other words, come out from among them and walk according to what Christ has called you to. Okay? “The futility of their minds.” That sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Romans 1:21. Yep, right there become futile in their thinking. He’s saying, “You don’t walk this way, Christian. You don’t walk this way.” And then he gives a description of how they walk that way, and you can tie it right back to where I circled that in verse 21. If you want to go back and look at that. Look at the description of verse 18 and 18, “They are darkened (you see the darkness coming) they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their (what?) hardness of heart.” Which is synonymous with what? Conscience. When you get a callus, the skin gets hard, it gets tough. That’s the same thing that’s talking about right here. This is a callousness. In fact, look at the next verse, case you’re guessing, “They have become callous (callous) and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.” Fact-check it, go home, and be a noble Berean. Read it for yourself. And you will see that what I’m showing you is analogous to Romans one, it fits perfectly. That’s what I’m talking about. When homosexuality starts becoming a trend, and that’s not the only one, you’ll see why it’s brought to the forefront in two weeks. We’ll cover it. I guarantee you’ll see it. But you need to get this there are things that a man will do that he never ever, ever could do until the conscience has become calloused. He has to stop feeling or his conscience will drive them crazy. “They have become callous” that is “papageo” is the Greek word. Papageo means to cease to feel pain. There’s the cessation of pain. You don’t feel the pain anymore in the conscience. They become callous and have given themselves up and want you to notice this. Look at this. “They gave themselves up.” So, wait a minute, in Romans 1 it says that God gave them up. Yeah, He did. After they gave themselves up. Let me ask you this question, who hardened Pharaoh’s heart? Pharaoh or God? What’d you say? Both. It’s both. Who hardened his heart first? Pharaoh did. Pharaoh did. And God says this, you will not therefore you cannot. That’s how it works. You give yourself up to something before God will give you up. If you say “Well, I’m nervous that maybe God will give me up.” Don’t give yourself up to it then, call up for mercy. This is an unbeliever by the way. It has to be because I’ll show you next week, the Holy Spirit does a different intervention here. Thank the Lord. “…given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.” Think about this. This is someone who can put their hand on the stove and it takes a really long time if they’ll ever feel anything and they probably don’t at first because they’ve been desensitized. That’s number two.
Here’s number three finally seared. Once you get the cross reference on this, I’ve got a couple for you. Again, this is foundational and we’ll lead it into next week. This is 1 Timothy 4:1-2, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith…” And when we see “depart from the faith”, we know that these weren’t real Christians. 1 John 2:19. It’s very clear. “They went out from among us because they were not of us. If they had been of us, they would have remained with us. But they went out from among us that it might become evident that they were not all of us.” That’s what that verse says. So, when someone says, “Well, I used to be a Christian but now…” No, they never were because God’s really good at keeping those who are His. And if you’re here and you think, “Oh, I’m holding on to Jesus.” Well maybe but thank God He’s holding on to you. So, “…Some will depart from the faith (that supposed faith, how do they do it?) by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teaching of demons.” And that happens through false teachers. Here’s the description of the false teacher, “Through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are (what?) seared.” You say, “Are you saying these men have no hope?” I’m saying these men have absolutely no hope. Their consciences are seared. They will never repent. They are in fact damned. Now how do you know who they are? You don’t. You don’t. You say, “Well, you can judge the tree by its fruit.” You sure can. But you don’t know if that’s a calloused heart or a seared conscience. You don’t know. We don’t really know. And so, we preach the gospel, even to false teachers, we pray that they would repent. It has happened. Maybe not some of the rankest that we see now but nonetheless, where there’s life, there’s hope. God has not shown us who He’s gonna save and who He isn’t. We don’t know that. So, we can’t get on a high horse and start judging people. What we can say is, “It’s obvious you’re deceived and you need to repent.” But the word seared means it’s over.
In fact, that’s how Romans chapter one ends. It’s talking about the seared conscience. Look with me at Romans one. Look at Romans 1:32. It says, “Though they know…” Look at that, they still know. You know what? You can suppress it. You just can’t make that beeping stop. They don’t feel it anymore but it’s still there. This is the seared conscience. “Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things do (what?) deserve to die, they not only do they do them but they give have approval to those who practice them.” These are those who are the purveyors. These are the ones that would be at the front of the line encouraging perversion, encouraging a nation’s destruction, encouraging things like the false prophet she is too, and now the cult leaders around the world do and those in America encouraging the stumbling of even children. There are millstones for that kind of stuff. That’s a seared conscience is what that takes. They don’t just do them but they “give approval to those who practice them.”
You say “Well, that’s just that one instance.” No, no, this is the Old and New Testament. Okay? I’ll give you two instances, one old and one new. Okay? Psalm 81:11-12. And by the way, I could have 60 of them up here it would not be hard. This is God speaking of Israel, northern kingdom that He would reject, they became apostate. Verse 11, “But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me. So I (what?) gave them over (sound familiar?) to their (what?) stubborn hearts (to their seared conscience), to follow their own counsels.” “Go ahead”. That’s the worst judgment any man will ever have of God is when God just says this, okay? Okay. I’ll stop. I’ll stop drawing. I’ll stop calling. I’ll let you go. You find that you no longer get caught. You no longer feel guilty. You no longer feel chastened. That’s a dangerous thing. Unbelievers never reach that. But this is not speaking of a believer. Now share this with a man one time and he said, “Yeah but that’s the Old Testament God.” Think about that. Like there are two gods like there’s an Old Testament God, “Hi, I’m Old Testament God.” Then there’s New Testament God, “Hey, I’m New Testament God.” “Well, I’ll turn them over to themselves.” “Well, I never would.” Then God’s a bipolar freak. God’s not a bipolar freak. He’s totally consistent.
In fact, the Son of God, God the Son said it this way, after He dealt with the Pharisees for almost a full three years, calling to them in Matthew chapter 11. Remember what He says at the bottom of Matthew chapter 11? “Come unto me, all you who are heavy laden and you’re burdened, come to me, take my yoke upon you, and learn of me from meek and lowly in heart, you’ll find rest for your soul.” But they would not. So, look at Matthew 15:14, He says this to His disciples of the Pharisees, look at this, “Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” In other words, their consciences were seared. He told them “You will die in your sin”. He didn’t say “You might die in your sin.” He said, “You will die in your sin because you will not believe that I am He.” That’s a seared your conscience. And I’ll tell you what if your conscience was able to push off the Lord Jesus Himself, that’s a seared conscience, family. That’s really what that is. That’s what they were. And so, it’s both. It’s both Old and New. So, we have defiled. Right? We have calloused and we have seared. Now, that’s the incredibly bad news.
Now the message needs to end here. I know it’s clunky because we need to go to the next point and we can’t because you want to go eat steak. “Seared steak.” Praise God, brother, y’all are the men of God in this house. But I want to read you one more verse. This is 2 Corinthians 5:21. Because we have to understand the proclamation of the gospel. How can any of this change? Maybe you’re here this weekend, and you’re going, “What if it’s me?” This. It says this, “For our sake (that’s us. That’s human beings) he (that’s God the Father) made him (that’s God the Son, Jesus Christ) to be sin (that’s on the cross) him who knew no sin…” He had never violated His conscience one time, not one time, not one sin, perfect life, not no sin of commission, no sin of omission, absolutely spotless, sinless. But He took our sin on His body on the cross and God made Him sin. When God saw Jesus hanging on the cross, He saw sin and poured His wrath out upon Him. He made Him to be that “…So that in him we might be (what?) become the righteousness of God (in Christ Jesus).” Let me end with this good news, if your conscience is still available, He can rescue it. He can rescue it. If you have any sense in here and you are concerned about, “What if it’s me? What if my conscience is seared?” People with a seared conscience don’t think that thought. But if the Holy Spirit’s knocking down your door next week, we’ll cover how we’re to walk that out but you need not wait till next week to repent of your sin and fall in love and cling in faith to your Savior.
SPEAKER
Steve LeBlanc
KEYWORDS
God, Jesus, Conscience, Defiled, Callous, Seared, Romans, Heart, Sin, Reprobate, Papageo, Audio Sermon, Bible Sermon, Grayson County