The conscience is our internal traffic light, given to us by God for our own good. Learn how this personal moral compass keeps us safe—and how ignoring it can lead us down dangerous paths. Don’t sear your conscience by repeatedly disobeying its leading. Instead, keep it clear and sensitive so you won’t be led astray. For more messages from Charles Stanley, including this week’s broadcast, go to www.intouch.org/watch
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but you have a conscience
it is consistent with God’s Word will
and wait for your life it doesn’t take
you all day to get a signal because that
grid is up and as soon as the wrong
thing hits that grid it sends off a
message this is not right
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four decades ago we started in touch
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a growing relationship with Jesus Christ
throughout the years we’ve seen God’s
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next on InTouch is your conscience your
protector can you trust your conscience
think about it for a moment can you
trust your conscience when you are
confronted with situations of
circumstances or opportunities that
appear to be questionable either morally
ethically socially can you trust your
conscience to guide you to make the
right decision you hear people say well
that your conscience be you God well it
depends upon what kind of shape your
conscience is in because there many
people whose conscience to some degree
that and others more degree dead
you can sin against God to the point
that your conscience doesn’t say
anything else to you it doesn’t mean you
to have no conscience but it means that
you have rejected the voice of your
conscience so long you can’t hear it
anymore
and somebody’s sort of defined the
conscience like this the inner voice
which warns us that someone may be
looking God gave us all a conscience and
he gave us a conscience which is
different from the Holy Spirit who’s the
third person of the Trinity who lives
within every single believer but people
who not believe us have a conscience so
we all have a conscience
and the question is cannot trust it if I
abide by what I since my conscience is
saying all feeling is that a wise
response or is it not so I want you to
turn the first Timothy and Paul is
writing to young Timothy who is the
pastor of the church now and Ephesus and
they going through some difficult times
and so he says to him beginning in the
18th verse of this first chapter I give
you a time to find that first chapter
first Timothy
beginning in verse 18 he says this
command I entrust the you Timothy my son
in accordance with the prophecies
previously made concerning you that by
them you fight the good fight keeping
faith and the good conscience which some
have rejected and suffered shipwreck in
regard to their faith and then he
mentions to the people who had given him
a hard time and he says about them among
these are Jimenez and Alexander whom I
have handed over to Satan so that they
will be taught not to blaspheme and so
when I think about what he says their
life ended in shipwreck the truth is all
of us if we’re honest we know some
people whose life has ended in shipwreck
they wrecked their lives they may still
be afloat but they’re a wreck and you
and I know people like that who’ve
decided that God has no place in their
life they have enough money enough
acceptance enough of everything they
won’t they don’t need God and so they
think somehow they’ll make it they’ll
make it for a season but there will be a
shipwreck sooner or later in their life
and this is what he’s wanting him of
here so I want us to think about that
with that in mind and then ask yourself
the question and wherever you are in
your Christian life can you say yes I
can trust my conscience when I come to
something that’s questionable I can
trust my conscience that send me a
message and what is that message that
message is a feeling of conflict and not
peace but conflict uncertainty I
questions doubt or maybe even fear but
God gave us a conscience for our
protection now whether we use it or
respond to it as a protect or not as
something we have to decide it’s not the
same as the Holy Spirit though the Holy
Spirit is a part of every believer
Laith and so what you have to ask
yourself the question is this do I
really trust my conscience do I respond
to my conscience do I lean upon to my
conscience now the Holy Spirit works
through our conscience and if you see
something here’s something tempted to do
something or go in a certain direction
that’s not of God and you’re a follow of
Jesus Christ
you can’t just plow through with no
feeling the Spirit of God is going to
convict you and he’s going to use your
conscience to remind you that doesn’t
fit who you are it doesn’t fit what you
believe and it doesn’t fit your
relationship of Almighty God there’s a
whole host of people who have no
conscience the reason they don’t they
have one put it this way it’s dead
you can disobey God rebel against God
over and over and over again to the loud
voice watch this the loud voice of the
conscience says no no no no no no that’s
the most dangerous place you can be when
you can’t hear it when it stops sounding
the alarm because you have did that with
disobedience and rebellion toward God so
Paul is reminding Timothy of how
important that is now we say that and we
all agree that the conscience is a
universal gift of God let’s define
conscience in this way conscience is our
human faculty by which a person does the
following things number one it
distinguishes between the morally right
and wrong that’s what the conscience
does it distinguishes between the
morally right and wrong secondly it
urges us to do that which we recognize
to be right that’s what the conscience
does that only shows us what’s wrong
but urges us to do the right thing you
can think about times in your life or
something you’ve seen
her done or whatever and when your
conscience was really bothering you
that’s what you’d say my conscience so
bothered me that it spoke loudly I could
not do it a third thing it does it
restrains us from doing what we
recognize to be wrong and so there’s
this restraint we feel that that’s not
the place you need to go that that’s not
the right direction the conscience
cannot only speak it can scream and the
more committed you are to Jesus Christ
the louder your conscience is going to
be when somebody says well I did this so
I didn’t feel a thing
and they may be bragging about their
capacity when they ought to be scared to
death if your conscience is so numbed if
your conscience is so dead that it does
not shout to you when you’re heading in
the wrong direction to make a wrong
decision then you’re in trouble it’s
like driving down the streets of a busy
city and ignoring the red light oh I
like the green light yellow light but
the red light I just ignore you know
that you’re bound for disaster sooner or
later and then of course our conscience
passes judgment on Acts and executes
that judgment within the soul that is it
says to us that it’s wrong it doesn’t
fit who you are it doesn’t fit who you
say you are it doesn’t fit the Word of
God that is the conscience is a powerful
part of the human life and everyone has
one it doesn’t make a difference what
language you have what your background
is you have a conscience and what you do
with it will either sharpen it to make
it more and more sensitive that you can
live a godly life where you can begin to
ignore it very early so only you know
where your conscience is but it was
given to us for our protection and so
how does it work and I’ll give you
several words up here that you can just
jot down first of all it judges a man’s
soul always passing judgment and
conduct and behavior in other words
three things are affected attitude
conduct and behavior second it’s like a
spiritual radar watch this
it sends out signals to us that
something close by is not right and
there been times when I think all of us
could say we had feelings we didn’t know
why but but a sensitivity that that be
careful today watch out today watch out
of what do you well you didn’t know what
it was it was your conscience through
the work of the Holy Spirit sending you
a signal ahead of time and I can think
of a few times there were dramatic in my
own life when I would pray in the
morning and I’d feel this uncertainty
about something do you know what it was
it’s like the Lord said be careful today
and sure enough something would come
along and it would be like the Lord said
see I told you watch this and so you
have a conscience for your protection
if you listen to it it acts like it
looks like a grid system God has and so
when it’s something hits that system and
stops there it means that your
conscience is saying don’t go there
that’s not what you need to get that’s
not a part that’s not who you are and it
doesn’t fit who you are as a follower of
Jesus it convicts protest accuses when
wrong is done when you violate your
conscience for example if you if you
were tempted to really let somebody
heaven just use profanity you would know
that’s not right
somebody offers you a drink of something
you know does not fit who you are as a
follower of Jesus or somebody invites
you to go somewhere that you know is not
right or to look at something you know
it’s not right I’ll listen to something
that’s not right your conscience is
going to send you a signal watch this
for your protection now watch this when
Satan tempts you to move in a certain
direction
are you listening say men don’t take the
first step if you
take the first step in violation of your
conscience what you’re doing is you’re
ignoring the grid he’s he’s the grids
there and and and when what’s wrong hits
the grid it sends a signal
you either abide by the signal or you
don’t you cannot violate your conscience
and walk in the will of God or even
enjoy the blessings of God because it’s
an act of pure defiance of what God
wants for your life and what it does it
convict’s us and it protests its shouts
this is not right this doesn’t fit who
you are and I don’t know how God could
have made it plainer he gives us the
Holy Spirit and seals us as a child of
God and he’s the one living within us
who speaks through our heart he’s also
given us a conscience we got watch this
we got the conscience before we got the
Holy Spirit you just think before you
got saved you had a conscience you knew
that certain things were not right and
then you have the Holy Spirit living
within you and shouting to you put
through your conscience don’t do that
don’t go that don’t say that don’t think
that it isn’t that God is keeping you
from having a good time in life it’s
protecting you from disaster and
protecting you from from going where I
god knows you should not go the
conscience is an awesome thing and when
I think about how God has made us and
he’s made us that live our life holy and
righteous before God and yet we choose
not to do so but it’s because we ignore
this inner conscience given to us
enabled by the Holy Spirit to identify
anything and everything that’s wrong now
watch this sometimes you have a feeling
about something and you don’t know why
well why well why should I hesitate
about that you can’t identify God
doesn’t promise that you and I will
always understand why he’s giving us a
signal but
remember this God is omniscient
omnipotent and he’s what I’m the present
he’s there
and so when he sends you a signal about
something and you ignore it
then what you are saying the holy God
who is always working in their behalf
he always has your best interest at
heart God is not going to tell you not
to do something because he doesn’t want
you to enjoy life he’s going to send a
signal to us to avoid something because
He loves us because he cares and you
know what I I can remember parents and
maybe my mother probably said this to me
now you should know you can’t do that
why because I said so
and I knew better than not to do it did
I always do what she said no did I get
punished when i disobeyed yes I did but
I learned early in life there’s some
things I may not understand why my
mother said no but later I realized she
was right now watch this sooner or later
you will find out why God didn’t want
you to do or say ago where he forbid you
to do there go man I know it’s the time
but it’s protection for us it’s God
loving us now think about this today we
live in a world that’s becoming more and
more and more ungodly and so it is more
and more and more important that we
teach our children our grandchildren I’m
not the final authority you not the
final authority God is the final
authority and that final Authority is to
be found very clearly in the Word of God
and that’s why you should train them
early in life that the Bible is the
final authority and the Bible is always
right always correct about every single
circumstance of life a conscience is the
signal to watch out whatever may be
going on
so the Bible mentions the different
types of conscience for example I’ll
just mention these to you if when the
Bible talks about a good conscience
and for example in this 19th verse
keeping faith and a good conscience so
there’s a good conscience and then the
scripture talks about in first renting
chef’s date of struggling conscience and
probably all of us have struggled at
some time the other about our conscience
of what we were feeling or real facing
of what we were tempted with struggling
conscience and in Titus the first Shep’s
and the 15th verse he talks about a soil
the conscience you do something that you
know is not right and when you do that
you soil your conscience it’s like
getting it dirty does that mean God
won’t forgive you know he will forgive
you but I can tell you this as long as
that soil is there you’re not going to
have in the peace so there’s the soil of
conscience and then worst of all and
first Timothy chapter 4 in verse 2 he
speaks of of a seared conscience the
best way to describe let’s take a piece
of wax paper and take a hot iron and
just set it on the wax paper and it
disappears when a conscience becomes
seared it doesn’t speak any longer it’s
dead you can do anything you want to get
by with it no this is why we see people
who are living such an immoral life and
they say well what’s wrong with that let
me tell you something they have seared
their conscience by disobeying God over
and over and over and over and over
again till there’s no voice conscience
is seared it’s dead now to go back to
the first chapter of Romans for example
and that’s where Paul gets this is where
he deals with it right up front with the
Romans and in this first chapter he says
for even though they knew God they did
not honor him as God or give thanks but
they became futile in their speculations
and their foolish heart was darkened the
this professing to be wise they became
fools exchanged the glory of the
incorruptible God for the image the form
of corruptible man and the birds for for
the beasts crawling things therefore God
gave them over in the lusts of their
hearts to dishonour and to impurity so
that their bodies would be dishonored
and owned and owned and he only goes and
he says again and again but God gave
them over to it what does it mean he
says there comes a time if you insist on
disobeying God ignoring your conscience
doing what you want to do and just
shutting God out God will turn you over
to it and this is why people can live
the life that they live and seemingly
from our point of view it looks like
they’re having again people have said
this to me we’ll look at so-and-so they
seem to be getting along fine mmm-hmm
seemed to be you haven’t looked inside
their heart you don’t know what they do
when they delight in that night you
don’t have miserable they are deep down
inside and oh this is a big faking front
they have out there well everything is
fine and I don’t need that this God and
Jesus and Bible and we don’t need any of
that
totally consumed by disobedience and a
conscience that’s been seared tragic
well let’s think about it
so when can you trust your conscience so
I’m going to give you several statements
you can trust your conscience when you
have accepted the Word of God as the
basis for your conduct that’s the basis
of my kind that means I’m gonna live by
the Ten Commandments and I’m gonna live
by the New Testament also you can trust
your conscience when you have made a
decision
secondly you have our our programming
your conscience with the teaching of
Scripture when you come week after week
after week what’s happening you being
programmed by the Word of God you say
you programming me know the Spirit of
God taking the Word of God into your
heart and programming you to understand
how
Thanks now hey orcs and how he moves in
a person’s life thirdly you can trust
your conscience when you have a strong
desire to obey God lord I want to trust
you no matter what gallon gun trust you
and number four when you prayerfully
consider the decisions you make you can
trust your conscience when something
comes up and you’re not too sure what
you should do you prayerfully ask the
Lord to give you direction then you have
a good conscience you have a sense of
their conscience a conscience you can
trust and then when your conscience
sounds the alarm immediately when you’re
consuming a wrong direction in your
thoughts or actions when you have a
conscience that is consistent with God’s
Word will and way for your life it
doesn’t take you all day to get a signal
because that grid is up and as soon as
the wrong thing hits that grid it sends
off a message this is not right for
example you go to work tomorrow morning
and somebody says I got tell you this
joke it’s a little dirty but you’ll
understand don’t let it get you it down
anything like that and so what do you do
well let me ask you a question what
would your conscience tell you to do
when somebody tells you they’re getting
ready to tell the group whether it’s you
of three or four or five people I’m
going to tell you a joke it’s a little
dirty little mm-hmm what do you do when
your conscience is right immediately you
don’t have to question what to do say
well you know what if it’s God’s kind of
joke it doesn’t fit Who I am
thank you very much or you could say to
them if you’re brave enough you ought to
be ashamed of yourself
talking like that
that’s what she oughta say you ought to
be ashamed you want to tell me what you
what you’re getting into tell me and
telling me ahead of time that it’s dirty
and I’ll tell you if you get strong
about people who want to do that here’s
what’ll happen next time they got a
dirty joke they go into somebody else
they’re not going to you because you
know why because you’ve sent them a
message and I’ll tell you something else
before they go to sleep at night they’ll
wrestle what you said the fact that you
turned and walked away they won’t forget
it now there may be a wicked as a devil
but they won’t forget it because all of
a sudden there was conflict and them and
their conscience said something to them
because your life as a righteous godly
life and you seek to walk in his way in
his will and so all of a sudden they’ve
hit the blank wall and their conscience
and your conscience was in conflict
immediately we need to be strong and
stop apologizing and stop just bending
our convictions to meet somebody else’s
we should
[Applause]
and then of course one way you can trust
your conscience when you feel guilty
immediately upon disobedience
immediately in fact I can’t even think
about I can’t even think about y’all
creating a conscience that takes time in
other words our conscience is is
spiritually sensitive to everything
going on around you
and so there’s no no time lapse you may
ignore it at first but your conscience
is there to protect you protect you from
things that will destroy you or hinder
you in some fashion or your loved ones
whoever it might be if you’ve never
trusted Jesus as your Savior your
country and it’s bothering you your
conscience is still alive and the Spirit
of God will convict you now don’t have
your sin but of the fact that God loves
you and is willing to forgive you and
cleanse you and give you a whole new
life which the Bible calls being born
again and so I would say to you this
morning don’t even think about walking
away without dealing with your
relationship to God this morning and I
trust you’ll be wise enough to do that
amen and father we thank you for the
clarity of your precious word we ask you
this morning there so sanctify us that
is let your holiness
so rule and reign in our life that
there’s no question in our mind whether
something is right or wrong but whether
it fits us or does not know whether it’s
the right timing for something or not
followers of the Holy Spirit who lives
within us who always makes everything
clear for us and I pray for that
somebody here this morning who’s never
trusted Jesus as their Savior and they
wonder sometimes while they feel so bad
they had probably thought about their
conscience being from God I pray that
you’ll speak to their heart in these few
moments in Jesus name Amen
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