The Insensitive Conscience

Now, David said we are fearfully and wonderfully made.! And that is not only true of our physical bodies,! But it's true of our entire being.

! We're more than physical body, aren't we? We have a soul. We have a heart, a control center. And part of that is the conscience. And so, God has made us uniquely and amazingly in the conscience that he's given us.

And so we're studying in our Sunday school hour the conscience that he's put in every man. A conscience that has law books that tell us what's right and wrong.

A conscience that has a witness stand and declares to us what we did. And what the law says. And a conscience that judges and tells us what you did was wrong or what you did was right.

What you're thinking about doing is wrong. Don't do it. What you're thinking about doing is right. You are free to do it. The conscience. Every one of us given a conscience.

And we're to worship God who's made us with a conscience, a blessing to us. But we saw that that conscience has fallen, just as all our other faculties of mind and will and affections.

The conscience is not always a safe guide. And so we've been noting the different conditions that conscience can be in.

Last week we saw the oversensitive conscience. That there are times when conscience says it's wrong when it has no reason to say that.

It says you did what was wrong when we didn't do what was wrong. So an oversensitive conscience accuses when there are no biblical grounds for doing so.

The law books on the shelves of conscience are filled not so much with the laws of God as what? What is it that's on the law books of the oversensitive conscience? Traditions and rules of men.

And Jesus said that was true of the whole religious scene in his day. That their worship of me is made up of rules taught by men. They're not the rules, the laws of God in heaven.

They're the rules and traditions of men. And so when the average Jew went to his law books to see if something was okay to do, what he was checking with was the traditions and rules of men rather than the rules of God.

And very often those traditions forbid him from doing things that God said are okay to do. But in that way, men take the place of God in the consciences of other men.

The Bible warns us about men who are spying out our freedom in Christ to steal it from us by lording it over us and putting us under false guilt trips. And Satan, the accuser of the brethren, loves this as well.

So God alone is Lord of conscience. That should be a freeing truth of the scriptures. My conscience is bound to the word of God alone. If it's in the Bible, if it's what God requires, my conscience ought to be tied to that and not budge.

But if it's something extraneous to the Bible, some idea of man, I am free. I don't have to kowtow to the rules of men.

Now, the Lord has died to set us free. And so the word in Galatians 5 is stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Don't let yourself. Don't give up freedom that's so dearly bought with the blood of Jesus. That's the cure of this oversensitive conscience. Don't let your freedom be stolen and instead reeducate your conscience.

See what is on your law books and how much of it's the rules of men and replace that with the rules of God, the righteous commandments of God. There's one lawgiver who's able to save and to destroy.

And it's the Lord Jesus Christ. So we want his laws on our law books. So that's the oversensitive conscience. Our time ran out last week. Are there any questions or comments about the oversensitive conscience that's accusing or warning when it has no grounds to do so?

Or I might even ask for testimonials of some of you who are under traditions of men and you were bound by those traditions and your conscience told you this and this and this is wrong.

When in reality, the word of God said nothing of a sort. And maybe you have a word of testimony of how you came out of that bondage to man and into the freedom that is found in Christ.

Any comments, questions, testimonies this morning? All right. You sure? Well, we come to the next state of conscience.

It's the very opposite of last week. It's the insensitive conscience. Whereas the oversensitive conscience condemned when there was no biblical grounds for doing so, the insensitive conscience does not accuse when it ought to.

It doesn't condemn when the Bible says it should. So this is the sprinkler system in the office or the smoke detector that doesn't even sound.

Even when a real fire is burning the building down over your head. Conscience is silent. This is the watchdog that doesn't bark but sleeps even as the burglars file past with all your beloved belongings.

Doesn't warn you. Doesn't alarm you. Conscience sleeps on even though sin is damning you. This is the under-sensitive, the insensitive conscience.

Conscience. It can be in a state of being drowsy, of being sleepy, dull, hard, calloused, seared, silence.

And that is a most serious and dangerous condition to have our consciences in. It's the cause of many who have shipwrecked the faith. Because they let their consciences become seared and dull.

Now turn to 1 Timothy 4. It's perhaps the clearest statement of the most insensitive conscience. 1 Timothy chapter 4.

And again we're seeing that conscience is not the way it was in Adam. In Adam it was working properly before sin. But once sin entered the world, conscience fell. And it no longer does what it was supposed to do perfectly.

And here we find it so out of sorts that it is completely seared. 1 Timothy 4. And I'll read the first three verses. The Spirit, that is the Holy Spirit, clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith.

Now the later times are the times from Jesus coming all the way to his second coming. We live in these later times. So don't think this is something at the very, very end. This is right now.

The Spirit clearly says that in latter times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.

They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

So God says this food is fine. But these hypocritical liars say, no, it isn't. It's sin to eat that food.

God says marriage is my ordinance. It is to be enjoyed. And these hypocritical liars say, no, it's wrong to get married. You've got to be more spiritual than that.

And so they put these ascetic rules upon the body. No pleasures for the body in marriage. No pleasures for the body at the dinner table.

Hard, hard, hard rules about the body. Now, these these fellows have abandoned the faith. That means they've turned their back on the true religion and they've gone after doctrines of demons.

They're hypocritical liars. The word for hypocrite is a mask. It's it's original. And so the old play stage actors would would put a mask over their face and they would pretend to play a part that wasn't really them.

That's the idea behind the hypocrite. He pretends to be something that he really isn't. And these fellows pretended to be super spiritual. Oh, I am so spiritual.

I don't even let my body enjoy this, this and this food, this marriage, these pleasures. But in reality, they were sold out to their own physical appetites.

Their God was their belly. Their God was their appetite. But they were hypocritical and they put on this front of super spirituality. They're lying through their teeth.

Now, what's going on at the level of their conscience? What's going on inside? Would you like to to open them up and see them as God sees them? What's going on in their conscience as they're telling everyone and forbidding everyone from food and marriage while they themselves are sold out to their lusts?

Well, it tells us whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. Verse two. Now, this was a medical procedure of cauterizing a wound.

It had many different uses, usages, but it was applying a red hot instrument to destroy some unwanted tissue or to stop bleeding, thought to prevent infection.

But the once delicate nerve endings in that skin were thereby destroyed by that hot iron. You can just hear it as it touches that flesh.

And that flesh that was used to be so sensitive to the nerve has the nerve endings damaged. And so cauterized flesh is without feeling.

Its sensitivity is all lost. It fails to respond. You could pinch it. You could stick it with a pin. You would feel nothing. It was seared as with a hot iron. And Paul says that is what has happened in the consciences of these false teachers.

Their consciences are as insensitive to sin as cauterized flesh is to pain. They don't feel it. Conscience is made callous, deadened, no longer capable of feeling.

Hendrickson, the commenter, says, by constantly arguing with conscience, stifling its warnings, muffling its bell, they have at last reached the point where conscience no longer bothers them.

Or another author says a seared conscience can swallow down sin like drink without any remorse. So here are these false teachers. So here are these false teachers.

And they're telling their hypocritical lies one after another without any twinge of conscience. Their conscience has been seared, deadened, desensitized beyond feeling.

If you can lie without feeling guilt, you are in a very dangerous condition. That was these false teachers. Now turn over to Ephesians 4.

We see a similar passage of scripture. This time it's not just talking about the false teachers that were leading people away from the true faith in Christ.

But now it's talking about the Gentiles. Those were the pagans who didn't have the light of the gospel. And Ephesians 4.17 through 19.

Ephesians 4.17 through 19. Paul says, so I tell you and insist on it in the Lord that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, the pagans do.

In the futility of their thinking. Remember I said we've got, Isaiah says we've got to forsake our thoughts. Here we see why. Their thoughts are futile. Verse 18.

They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them. Due to the hardening of their hearts.

Having lost all sensitivity. They have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity with a continual lust for more.

So how can people be so forward in sin? How can people give themselves over to such sensuality? Such a lifestyle of just indulging the sinful nature.

Impurities of every kind. Well, Paul tells us they have lost all sensitivity due to the hardening of their hearts. We're talking about an insensitive conscience.

These people have lost all sensitivity. The hardening of their heart. Remember the conscience is one of the faculties of the heart. That conscience is grown hardened to where it's no longer sensitive.

Where they no longer have a sense of the wrongness of their actions. And they can do every kind of impurity without a sense of remorse. No small part of our being the salt of the earth as Christians.

What does salt do to meat? Why is meat salted? To preserve it from what? From decay. And no small part of the Christians call as salt of the earth is to preserve our culture, our world from this decay.

This vanishing conscience that no longer sees this and that that God says as being wrong. It wasn't that long ago that marriage was for life.

That's not the way the culture views it. It wasn't that long ago that marriage was for one man and one woman for life. And that aspect of culture and that sense of truth and sensitivity of conscience is vanishing.

And what happens to a culture happens to the individuals within that culture. We grow insensitive to the laws of God so that we go about and do anything we please without a twinge of conscience.

This is the seared conscience. Now what do you think are the causes of an insensitive conscience? How does a conscience come to that condition and state?

Darren? Godliness, pride, arrogance. Godliness? Ungodliness. Okay, yeah. Okay, ungodliness, pride, arrogance. How does it work? How does a conscience come to be totally insensitive?

No knowledge of the word. Okay, no knowledge of the word. Well, Jesus said it's the same as the pastor said. Because the increase of wickedness, the love of wolves will grow cold. Okay, so you've got wickedness abounding on all hands.

And everybody's doing it. And we soon start to think it must be okay. There's a way that our own conscience is eroded by what is surrounding us.

So we're forever told over and over again, don't let the world squeeze you into its mold. Renew your mind. Keep it renewed with the thoughts of God. Good. So there's more than one way.

What else? How does conscience grow insensitive? I think one of the biggest ways for me as a Christian is watching other Christians and saying, I can do it because they're doing it, whether or not it's done or not.

Okay. Again, maybe not just taking our cue from the world, but finding other Christians that do this or that. Rather than saying, what does God say? What does my Lord and Savior want me to do?

We find this Christian and that one doing it. So we jump in too. How else is conscience affected? What Jack said. When we see things going wrong and nobody says anything, then it's assumed that it's not wrong.

Okay? So silence. The silence of Christians not bearing witness to the truth can seemingly deaden conscience.

Yes, Ed and then Jason. Another aspect. When you've been brought up in churches with very strong legalism and you start to come out of that, sometimes you can come too far out of it and go into antinomianism.

Okay? So for so long you've been staying away from all these things that were rules taught by men. And then you came to see, well, wait a minute. I don't have to obey that.

I'm a free man in Christ. And you make your freedom a cloak for sin. And now you plunge into sin and you're talking up how free you are in Jesus.

So there can be that pendulum swing from the traditions of men to where we don't even obey the commands of God anymore. We just swung right over into this so-called freedom that is really bondage.

Jason and then Diane. I think it was interesting that you just quoted it saying you fight against the conscience for so long that finally it stops fighting you.

So you run it over the truck again and again and again until it finally stops getting up, stops trying to tell you to stop. And it becomes more or less as hard as the road that you're right.

Good. Good illustration. Diane. I was thinking of what the laws are made, what the new people, the young people are coming up. The laws are made for the same-sex marriage.

I mean, what does this show them? So the culture's laws are replacing God's laws in their law books. And so when they think of what is right and wrong, they may look to what culture says is right and wrong.

Yes. Just one more thing related to what Ed said. It's not exactly the same thing. But when we are still living in, I guess, a legal spirit where we feel like we're bound to the rules.

And instead of coming to a place of grace, we despair of being able ever to keep those rules. And so out of that sense of despair, we push up our conscience and make it easier and easier for ourselves to make those rules.

So we make the rules easier. And in doing so, we silence God's laws. Hmm. We saw that with the Pharisees, didn't we, when we studied the oversensitive conscience.

They were oversensitive about their own rules. But very often, that made them insensitive to the very laws of God. And their conscience was not bothering them about murdering the Messiah, though it was bothering them about going into the house of a Gentile and becoming ceremonially unclean during Passover and so on.

All right. Conscience does not become desensitized overnight. It becomes insensitive by sinning over and over against conscience.

So conscience warns and says, don't do it. It's wrong. You know it's wrong. And as Jason said, you just drive right over conscience. I'm going. I'm going through. For whatever reason.

Because culture says it's right. This Christian does it. I want to do it. One reason or another, we go right through conscience. And every time you do that, every time you sin against conscience, you make it easier to do it the next time.

And the next time. And the next time. You can never sin against conscience without hardening it. Whereas every time you obey it, you're keeping it sensitive and soft.

But conscience often slighted, soon grows weary of chiding. And that's why it's such a serious thing even to cause your brother to violate his conscience, even though his conscience is wrong.

So he's not eating food sacrificed to idols because he thinks it's wrong when there isn't anything wrong with it. And if you encourage him to eat, you encourage him to sin against conscience.

And the reason that's such a serious sin is that's the road to a hardened conscience that could end up destroying him. So it's by constantly disregarding, stifling, stuffing its warnings, arguing with conscience, muffling its voice and violating it, that people eventually get to a frightful point where conscience no longer bothers them about certain sins.

Now, the Bible turns to Psalm 119, that biggest chapter of the Bible. And it's all about the word of God, isn't it?

This wonderful chapter about God's word. 119. And look at verse 70, because here we read of a calloused conscience, a calloused conscience.

Psalm 119 and verse 70. David is speaking about the arrogant, as you see in verse 30, 69. The arrogant have smeared me with lies and so on.

Verse 70. Their hearts are callous and unfeeling. But I delight in your law. Now, we know what a callous is, don't we?

The first time you go out to rake leaves in the fall, you come in with your hand red and raw and your hand screaming. It's very sensitive.

You're in pain. But the next night, you go out and rake some more leaves. And the next night and the next night. And pretty soon, what happens? That skin toughens up and dies.

And layer upon layer of dead skin grows so that you've got a kind of an orange looking thing there in your hands. And you can pinch it.

And you don't feel it. You can poke it. You don't feel it. It's insensitive. It's callous. Dead skin. Sin. And David says that's the way the heart, the conscience can become.

Probably not just by sinning once. But doing it again and again and again, you start piling up dead layers and hardening the heart, hardening the conscience to where it finally is so hardened that it's not bothered by sin.

Insensitive to the violation of God's laws. Samuel Annesley was a Puritan who wrote much about the conscience.

And he says this. The custom of sinning takes away the conscience of sinning. The custom of sinning, the habit of sinning, takes away the conscience of sinning.

Remember I asked you early on in this study, what does a guilty conscience feel like? And we all agreed it's nothing good.

An Indian once said, conscience is like a three-cornered thing that hurts me inside when I do wrong because it turns round.

But if I keep on doing wrong, the corners get rubbed off and I don't feel hurt any longer. That's that's an Indian's way of saying what the Puritan Annesley said, that the custom of sinning.

Sinning wears off the edges, rubs off the sharp edges of conscience so that we no longer hurt inside.

The custom of sinning takes away the conscience of sinning. So beware of all rationalizing and arguing with your conscience. It's just a little thing. Stop bothering me.

Just one more time. Just this once more. And every time you violate conscience in that way, you add another callous to conscience and you make it harder to hear its voice the next time.

Turn to Romans chapter one, because I believe what we have here in this whole statement of how sin hardens us and can so harden us to the place where God gives people over to.

Themselves. And I believe the conscience is very much involved in this. Hardening process. Romans one in verse 18.

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godliness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

So the wrath of God is being revealed against men who suppress the truth. By their wickedness. The truth comes up in these men's hearts.

And much of that truth is from conscience. Even if as you read on in the opening chapter of Romans in chapter two, even the man who's never laid eyes on a Bible still has truth that keeps surfacing, saying this is right.

This is wrong. But men stuff it. They suppress it. They push it down. They they silence conscience. And God's wrath is poured out upon truth suppressors.

How? He gives them over. OK. You keep saying I'm going to do it anyway. Shut up, conscience. Don't bother me, conscience. God gives these people over to do whatever their wicked heart wants to do.

Given over to a seared conscience that no longer bothers them, even by the most unnatural sins as the perversion of homosexuality, as is spelled out in the rest of this chapter.

So. How does conscience get hard? By suppressing it, shoving it down, telling it to be quiet, sinning right over the top of it. It's a process.

Two different responses to a condemning conscience. We find them in the in the scriptures. So conscience condemns. And it's a it's a moment of truth in a person's life when conscience says you have sinned.

What happens then? Well, the Bible shows us there's two different ways men respond to that. Basic ways. There may be thousands of ways, but two basic ways. The first was in Acts chapter two, when Peter was preaching to Jerusalem sinners who had just crucified their Messiah, Jesus.

He says, you're guilty. Of killing the Messiah. Of killing the Messiah. But God raised him up and made him Lord and King. And they said, oh, no, we're in trouble.

And their consciences smoke them. You say, how do you know that? When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart.

That's that's conscience doing its work. You say, I thought that was the Holy Spirit's conviction. Yes. And the Holy Spirit uses the mind. It uses conscience. We shouldn't think conscience or the Holy Spirit.

How does the Holy Spirit work? Conviction of sin. He wakens conscience. He says, OK, conscience, do your work. And the man feels guilty. His conscience condemns him as he sits there and realize I have the blood of the Son of God on my hands.

They were cut to the heart. And they said, brothers, what shall we do? They were beside themselves. They would find no rest until they could be rid of this guilt.

What shall we do? We see we're guilty. And Peter says, repent and believe every one of you. And be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins in Jesus name.

And that's exactly what they did. So there's one response to when conscience comes calling and condemning. It's a moment of truth. Those 3,000 in Acts 2 took their guilt and went to Christ and repented and believed on him for the forgiveness of sins.

Now, the same language is found in Acts chapter 7. Now, it's not Peter preaching. It's Stephen preaching to the high religious court of the Sanhedrin. And he charges them with the same sin of betraying and murdering the righteous one.

Acts 7, 51 through 53. And he doesn't get to finish his sermon. He's interrupted. Verse 54 of Acts 7. When they heard this, our NIV says they were furious.

A better translation and more literal is they were cut to the heart. The same kind of language that we found in Acts 2. That when they heard that message, they were pricked.

They were pierced in their heart. The same work of conscience took place here as Stephen preached and set the facts before them.

And charged them with being guilty of betraying and murdering the righteous one. They were cut to the heart. But Robertson comments, here Stephen had sent a saw through the hearts of the Pharisees that rasped them to the bone.

Now, it's the moment of truth. What will you do when conscience condemns? We saw what they did in Acts 2. What did they do here? Well, they gnashed their teeth at him like a pack of snarling wolves and proceeded to stone him to death.

So there was a similar working of conscience, condemning them for the same sin of murdering the Messiah. But two vastly different responses to conscience.

Instead of repenting and seeking mercy, as in Acts 2, these men stuffed their consciences and acted with murderous hatred. Even putting their fingers in their ears as they rushed upon him and stoned him to death.

Turn to Acts chapter 24. We see a similar response. What do men do when conscience comes calling?

Accusing of guilt. In Acts 24, Paul is appearing before the governor Felix, this very important man. And he's giving his testimony. And then he's preaching to him.

Because Felix sent for Paul. And he listened to him as he spoke about faith in Christ Jesus. And in Acts 24 and verse 25. As Paul discoursed on righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come.

Felix was afraid. Now that's conscience doing its work. You're guilty, man. That's what conscience said as Paul was preaching to Felix.

And Felix got the message and he's trembling. He's scared. Now what's he going to do when he feels his guilt as conscience condemns him? It's a moment of truth in Felix's life.

What should he do? Repent. Go to Christ. Get the guilt washed away. Blot it out forever. Instead, what did he do?

He said, that's enough for now. You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you. I suggest that that's more common than we realize today.

That one of the ways men are hardening their conscience is avoiding confrontational preaching that brings the law of God right up close to conscience.

And says, you are guilty of sinning against your maker and judge. And at that point, the moment of truth comes.

What will they do? They switch the channel. They push the remote if they're watching it on TV. They get up out of their seat at the end of the service and you see them no more.

Where did they go? It doesn't mean they stopped going to church. No, they sought out teachers who would give them whatever their itching ears wanted to hear. And that's the same thing that Felix did.

When I find it convenient, I'll call for you. But I'm a bit out of sorts right now. And so you can leave. The avoidance of confrontational preaching on sin is a modern tactic as it was 2,000 years ago to desensitize the conscience.

Conscience is called then seared. It's called calloused. It's called hardened. And it's also called drowsy and sleepy.

And that's the condition of every unconverted sinner who can sleep at night. That's right. Every lost sinner who gets any sleep at night has a sleeping conscience.

Because if conscience was doing its work, they would not be able to get a wink of sleep. I am a breath away from standing before my maker who will damn me to eternal torments.

The most important thing in life is not sleep. It's getting right with God. And conscience would not let them sleep. But have you noticed men are sleeping?

Young people are sleeping. And it's not just physical sleep. Their conscience is sleeping. And it's when their conscience is sleeping that they're unable to sleep. Romans 11 and verse 8.

Paul speaks of the greater part of Israel as having a spirit of stupor, of slumber. Eyes so that they could not see. Ears so that they could not hear. Drowsy conscience, Fenner said, is like a sleepy, careless coachman.

Who giveth the horses the reins and letteth them run whither they will. He's drowsy. The old coachman, he's tired. He's sleepy. And so he just gives the reins to the horses and they run wherever they want.

That's a sleepy conscience. It's no longer giving orders and commands. It's not heard. It's just letting the sinner run wild. And so men are asleep in the very midst of the greatest dangers.

Like one who is sleeping on the high seas lying on top of the rigging way up high above the deck of the ship. And just one wave could just toss them over to the bottom of the sea and into endless torments.

And there's sleep up there. It's a picture of the sleepy conscience. Every sinner has a sleepy conscience until God awakens it with conviction of sin.

And an insensitive conscience that we're looking at, though, is not just something that lost people find. It's something that even saved people can find operating in their own conscience.

They get sleepy. They get dull. They get insensitive. Think of the varying degrees of sensitivity on the part of David's conscience. Remember early in our study we saw when Saul came into the cave and David was further back and he came up and snuck in behind him and cut off what?

Just the corner of his robe. And immediately the scripture says he was conscience stricken for having cut off the corner of the Lord's anointed.

Just a little piece of cloth. Conscience stricken. I'd say his conscience was sensitive, wasn't it? It's the very next chapter in 1 Samuel 25 that David sends his men down to Nabal to say, get some food for us.

We need some food. We've got about 400 men here, 600 men. We've got to feed. And Nabal didn't give them anything. And in the heat of the moment, David's passion arose and he says, strap on your swords.

He says, may God treat me ever so seriously if by morning one man in his household is left alive.

He swore an oath of malediction that evil would fall upon his head if he didn't slaughter every male in Nabal's household.

Remember, Abigail comes out and says, oh, my master Nabal, he's a fool. And she pleads with David to show mercy so that and she knows that David's going to come to the throne one day so that when you come to the throne, she says, you will not have.

On your conscience, the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or of having avenged yourself. The point is, is the conscience was so ignored and so he was so insensitive to it that he was more than ready not just to cut the corner of these guys roves, but to cut their very heads off.

At one point, at one point, sensitive, the very next chapter, so hard that he's ready to spill blood, unwarranted blood.

We can think of his conscience in the matter of Bathsheba. David knew it was wrong to have sex with Bathsheba. You know the cue that tells us that? He sent for her in secret.

When men do things in secret, it's a sign that their conscience is telling them it's wrong and they know it's wrong. That's why they go undercover. That's why they don't come out into the light. And so David's conscience was sinned against and he kept sinning against it because when he found out that she was pregnant, again, it's a moment of truth and his conscience says, oh, David, you've been found out.

What will he do? He tries to cover it up. He lies. He schemes. And every time he's laying down another layer on conscience. Until finally God sends his prophet Nathan to him and preaches, thou art the man.

But you know, David's conscience was so hard that he slept through, his conscience slept through the whole sermon. He could hear this whole sermon and not feel a twinge about his own sin until Nathan pointed the finger and says, you're the man, David.

And then he's awakened. His conscience rings such a bell that awakens him out of his slumber. He runs to God and pleads for mercy and finds grace for all of his sin.

And the point we're making is that even Christians, even believers. Can find our conscience is growing hard.

We need to be careful of doing anything that dulls a sensitive conscience. Full confession. Turning from our sin is always. The way back to a sensitive conscience.

We'll look more at that next time. I'll close with a quote from Isaac Watts. Preserve your conscience always soft and sensitive. If but one sin forces its way into that tender part of your soul and is allowed to dwell there.

The road is paved for a thousand iniquities. Keep your conscience tender. We'll see. How do we do that? What role does Jesus Christ and his blood have to play in that?

May the Lord help us then to rejoice in the Savior. We're dismissed.