Join Charles Stanley on a deep dive into the layers of moral awareness that our conscience provides in our everyday lives. This gripping episode peels back the complexities of the conscience, categorizing them into four distinct states that affect our life choices and spiritual well-being. With a careful analysis of sacred, struggling, soiled, and seared consciences, listeners are equipped with knowledge to identify and rectify their moral direction. The teachings encourage a proactive approach to spiritual health, outlining steps like embracing scriptural tenets, fervent prayer, and active repentance to nurture an accountable conscience. Feel empowered to take charge of
Welcome to the InTouch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, July 3rd. Every person has an internal system to warn of moral danger. Today, you’ll hear some practical ways to sharpen your conscience and keep it in tune with God.
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You’ve heard people say probably for a long time, just let your conscience be your guide. Is that a safe way to make decisions? Is it a safe way to make moral decisions about anything? Just let your conscience be your guide. Because the question is, can you really and truly trust your conscience? How much does your conscience play in your decision-making? Do you say, well, how do I feel about this? What do I think about this? Will this bother me? And so oftentimes people say, well, you know, I thought about it, but I knew that if I did, my conscience was going to bother me. Somebody says, well, you know, nothing bothers my conscience. Then friend, you need to listen very carefully because you are already deeply in trouble in your relationship to God. If you never sense anything about your conscience and your conscience never sends you any alarm, then you’re already deeply in trouble. It is the universal gift that God has given to every single one of us. And so the proof of it is, he says, written in the heart, written on the hearts of people. That is, God has given you a conscience for some very specific reasons. Now, when you think about that, You think about the whole issue of why did he give it? It’s very simple. For our protection. God has given us a conscience for our protection. Think about children, for example. Children grow up in your home and you teach them certain things. And so they grow up believing and knowing that certain things are right and certain things are wrong. And so it is given for our protection. That is, our conscience is like a judge to say, this is right, this is wrong. It is also, for example, like a spiritual, shall we say, a spiritual radar. That is, when things that are wrong are outside of our life, our conscience is very quiet and But when things that would be an act of disobedience or wrong thinking get into our radar screen because they’re into our thinking and we’ve tolerated them, we begin to get a signal. We know that certain thoughts are not right. We know that certain actions are absolutely not right. We know that’s true. And so the radar sends a message to us. It’s like a monitor that God has given to us. And that monitor says to us, That doesn’t fit who you are. That is a sin. That’s disobedience. That’s rebellion against me. That’s not walking in my way. We know those things. Now, I want us to think about the various kinds of the conditions of a conscience. There are about four different kinds or four different conditions of a conscience. And one of them is this. One conscience is a sacred conscience. And this is what Timothy and Paul are talking about here when he says in verse 19, keeping faith and a good conscience. A sacred conscience is one that is clean, without guilt. A sacred conscience is one that is open and transparent. And a person who has a clean conscience, a clear conscience, is very transparent and very open. You know what? If you don’t have a clean conscience, you can’t be open. You’re dealing with guilt, dealing with something that you know is not right. And so when you think about that, a person has a clean conscience, wants to know the will of God, wants to walk in the will of God. I’m not saying that person’s sinless. I’m not saying they don’t have to deal with things, but they do their best to keep their conscience clean and pure before God. So there’s the sacred conscience. The second conscience is the struggling conscience. Well, what is that? There’s a sense of legalism. Now, a legalistic person has certain rules and regulations they want to live up to. And what you find in that person is oftentimes they are very critical, oftentimes they’re perfectionist, and oftentimes they take on more than they can handle. And so, a person who’s struggling with their conscience all the time is not a free person. In fact, it’s very difficult for a person who has a struggling conscience to really believe that God loves them. And if you don’t believe and accept as true that God absolutely loves you unconditionally, you’re going to struggle. So there is, first of all, That conscience that is clean, sacred, I call it, sacred. Then there’s the struggling conscience, and then there is the soiled conscience. And you say, what do you mean by soil? I mean one of those that’s harboring sin. And if you look over to 2 Timothy and then Titus, and if you look in Titus, the first chapter, I’ll look at that for a moment in verse 15 to be, he says to the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. Now, here’s what I want you to see. A conscience that is soiled. It’s a conscience that’s harboring sin. Know that they’re sinning against God, deliberately, willfully sinning against God. Rationalize it, excuse it, defend it, you name it. They’re on their way in the wrong direction. So all of us have to deal with our conscience when we allow it to be soiled. Some thought come in our mind that we harbor. Some unforgiving spirit is some lustful thought or some action. You gossiped about somebody. You have an unforgiving spirit told them. Whatever it may be, God intends for us to deal with what? Every single thing that comes on the radar screen that speaks of disobedience to God. Less than his will for our life, we have to deal with it. And so a person who has a soiled conscience is very insecure. You see, for example, a person who knows that living in willful, deliberate sin cannot be secure in their relationship to God. In fact, they can’t be secure in anything. This is why oftentimes you’ll find people who are haughty, prideful, egotistical, arrogant, loudmouthed, you name it. You know what they’re doing? They’re very insecure and they’re trying to cover up. That’s what they’re doing. They’re covering up. And so a soiled conscience is one that has refused to deal with known sin in their life. So oftentimes, watch this, a person with a soiled conscience living with sin, deep down inside, they expect to be punished. They anticipate at some point God’s going to catch up with them. I know that sooner or later, you know, I’m going to have to pay the price. They’re not happy. They have no peace in their heart. So, that’s three of them. And the fourth one is a seared conscience. What is a seared conscience? Well, it’s very interesting in this passage because in 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 1 and 2, listen. But the Spirit, that is the Holy Spirit, explicitly says that in latter times some will fall away from the faith. paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron. Men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in and by those who believe and know the truth. You know what he’s saying when he talks about a seared conscience? He’s talking about a conscience that is no longer sensitive. That conscience has said no, resisted, ignored, shut its ears, closed its eyes, rationalized, refused to listen over such a long period of time that after a while, the alarm can go off. And you know what happens? They don’t even hear it. And when your conscience sounds the alarm, Sounds the alarm. Sounds the alarm. This is wrong. This is not right. This is disobeying God. Don’t do this. You’re going to pay the consequences. Whatever a person sows, they’re going to reap. Don’t do this. You must not. This is going to violate my will. This is going to violate somebody else’s life. You put it off, put it off, put it off. Ignore it, ignore it, ignore it. You look to see what other people are doing. Make a decision. What other people are clamoring for is what you want to do. And so you rationalize it because this is what who and so forth is doing. And after a while, you know what? You can do the same thing and your conscience doesn’t, you hear nothing. So listen carefully. If you’re one of those persons who used to believe the truth and gradually you have ignored it, and you have shunned, and you’ve rejected, you’ve closed your ears to it, and your conscience doesn’t bother you no more, and you’re doing things that you would have sworn to Almighty God years ago, you’d never do such a thing, then my friend, you’re in serious trouble. Because you have deadened God’s awesome gift to you, your conscience. A seared conscience. This is why people can parade it up and down the streets and show off their bodies and have no sense of conscience whatsoever. They can steal, lie, cheat, and kill and have no conscience whatsoever. They’ve rejected it so long. Look around you. All you have to do is listen and watch what’s happening. Well, somebody says, if this is true and it is true, I’m only telling you the truth, then the question is this. What can make my conscience trustworthy? How can my conscience be trustworthy? Well, let’s ask the question first of all. Let’s say, what about a person who’s not a Christian? Can a person who is not a Christian trust their conscience? Ephesians chapter 2, listen to what Paul said. Before we were saved, he says, and you were dead spiritually in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them, we too all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” Let me ask you a question. Can a person who is spiritually dead follow the leadership of their conscience? Absolutely not. For the simple reason, you may be a moral person, generally speaking, and have some basic morals. But apart from the Holy Spirit interpreting the truth of God, the mind of God in your life, you will allow things in your life that are absolutely not the will of God. You will rationalize and you’ll have obedience by degrees. You’ll interpret the laws of God by degrees. You cannot trust your conscience if you have rejected the Son of God, rejected the Holy Spirit, who is there to interpret your conscience and to bring to your mind the laws of God, the will of God, the plan of God for your life, when you totally ignore it. Now, somebody says, all right, now, but what about the saved person? If I’m saved, can I not trust my conscience? Not necessarily. How are you programmed? How has your conscience been programmed to ask yourself this question? What are some basic principles of Scripture that I know that I am violating? And I rationalize them. And I’ve excused them. And they’ve become a part of my life. Yes, I’m a Christian. I know that I’m saved. But Yeah, I have begun to accept some ideas that I know that, you know, if you’re just one of those straight-laced Christians, no, you don’t listen. There’s no such thing as a straight-laced or crooked-laced Christian. The truth is there is the law of God and people don’t want to hear it. And my friends, you may not want to hear it. But remember this, you may not want to hear it, you may not desire to hear it, and when this program is over, you may cut it off and say, I want everyone to listen to that again. You’ll make the biggest mistake of your life. Because one of these days, you’re going to stand before Almighty God like all of us are going to, and we’re going to be judged not by what the common attitude and idea was, we’re going to be judged by the law of God. I simply want you to know the truth. Then, you know what, you have to make a decision. So just being a Christian doesn’t mean that you can trust your conscience. You say, all right, how can I trust my conscience? That’s exactly what I’m getting to tell you. So you need to write them down. Let me give you some things that need to be true in your life before you can trust your conscience, no matter who you are. Number one. When you have accepted the word of God, when you’ve accepted the scripture as the basis for your conduct, when you trust the word of God and you say, this is going to be the basis of my conduct, you’re on the right track to build, listen, the kind of conscience that you can trust. That’s number one. That is, you’ve accepted the word of God, not questioning anymore. I’m accepting the word of God’s basis for my conduct. The second one is this. When you are programming your conscience with the teachings of Scripture. Not only that you accept it, but that you’re programming your conscience with the teachings of Scripture. Now watch this. when you are programming your mind with the Word of God. That’s why, listen, I can’t imagine, I cannot imagine going to church and sitting listening to somebody for 30 minutes or 20 minutes or 45, whatever it might be, and walking away, no notes, you just fold your arms and listen and walk away and forget all about it for the next week. God’s Word is to be listened to, to be read, to be believed, and to be applied in our life in order to make a difference by the way we live. If you want to trust your conscience, build into it the teachings of Scripture. Number three, when you have a strong desire to obey God, when you have a strong desire to obey God, that is when something, issue comes up, you ask the question, what’s the will of God? What would God have me to do? I want to do what God wants me to do. When you have a strong desire to obey God, here’s what happens. You’re building the kind of conscience that you can trust, that the Spirit of God can use and lead you to make right decisions in your life. The next is this. When you prayerfully consider the decisions you make, and not saying, well, this sounds good. This feels good. This looks good. That’s the way he did it. That’s the way she did it. That’s what they would do. That’s not the issue. You know that you’re building a strong conscience when you prayerfully bring every issue, every decision before the Lord in prayer. Lord, what would you have me do? How am I to think about this? When you do that, the spirit of God brings back to your mind scriptures, those principles, those teachings of the word of God that with which he has equipped you to make it possible for you to make wise, godly decisions. Then you can begin to trust your conscience. And then when your conscience sounds the alarm, listen, when your conscience sounds the alarm immediately, when you even consider doing the wrong thing, When it’s coming down the track and it’s on your radar screen, when it’s even on the screen, immediately the alarm goes off in your conscience. Let it go by. Don’t accept it. Shut it out. Don’t think about that. Don’t look at that. Don’t go there. Don’t get in that conversation. When that’s happening in your life, you know that you can begin to trust your conscience. I’d say one other thing. When you feel guilty immediately upon disobedience, when you feel guilty immediately upon disobedience, if you can sin against God and sin against God and sin against God, and then somewhere out there you begin to feel slightly guilty, you know what? Don’t trust your conscience because if you could have, if you could have trusted your conscience as soon as you disobeyed God, you would have been immediately smitten. You would have known that doesn’t fit who I am because the Holy Spirit, using your conscience, you aren’t working through your conscience, would have sent you a big alarm. And so we use the term the conviction of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus said he sent the Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin. So how does he do that? He does that through our conscience. He convicts us of our sinfulness, but you shut it out. You quieten it. You deafen your ear to it. You turn your eyes away from it. You don’t want to hear it. You don’t want to see it. You don’t want to feel it. You want nothing to do with it. And what you’re doing is you’re heading toward a seared conscience, which means you’re going to make shipwreck of your life. And one of these days you’re going to look back and thank God if I had only listened to the warning. And it is my prayer that you’ll be wise enough today to ask the Lord to forgive you. You ask God to show you the things in your life that do not fit who you are. Everything on your radar screen that says blip, blip, blip, blip, blip. None of this belongs in your life. Confess each one of them one at a time. Ask God to help you to repent, to turn away from it. You don’t want it in your life. You’re saying no to that from this point on. And the moment you confess it with genuineness in your heart, God’s going to forgive you. The Holy Spirit who lives inside of you is going to equip you to live a godly life. If you’ve never been saved, you’ve never trusted Jesus as your Savior, let me ask you a question. How can you expect to live a joyful, happy, contented, successful life when you reject the very one who made it possible for you and me to be accepted in the eyes of the living God? You cannot. It’s my prayer that you’ll ask him to forgive you of your sin. Trust him as your personal savior. Tell him, I’m receiving your forgiveness on the basis of what Jesus Christ did at the cross. I’m accepting him as my savior. My life cleaned up. Listen, watch this. You don’t clean up your life to get saved. You receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior. Then here’s what happens. He begins to point out those things in your life that need to go. If you’ve never done that, In order to avoid inevitable, unavoidable shipwreck, ask the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the great captain of your soul, to guide you correctly. And he will. And Father, how grateful we are that you take us just the way we are. Forgive us of our sin. Clean up our life. Set us on a new path. And then as we look back, we realize if we had just kept sailing in the same direction, we’re heading for the rocks. But by your grace, everlasting, unconditional love for us, you saved us just in the nick of time. We thank you for it and pray that every person who hears this message might wisely consider Christ. He’s the Savior, Lord, Master, Captain of their soul. In His name we pray. Amen.
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Thank you for listening to Part 2 of Can You Trust Your Conscience? If you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
