What does it mean to have a seared conscience?

In the thirty-second chapter of Genesis we reach the moment in his history when this planning and scheming man Jacob is on his way back to his father's house. As he goes back, with his wives, and all that he has gathered in the land of Padan-aram, the angels of God meet him. That was a good thing. They meet him, but carry him no message. — He is, I think, uneasy, although he says, "This is God's host." The Lord's eyes are upon him evidently, and he knows it. Whether God will support and sustain him is the question in his mind, for he has to meet Esau. He sends messengers to Esau, who are to say, "My lord Esau; thy servant Jacob says," etc. (vers. 4, 5). What a message to his brother! Esau, "my lord"; and Jacob "thy servant." Sin always brings its fruit, and wrong its recompense. The man is perfectly conscious of what ill he has done to Esau. He knows that full well, and now his conscience begins to work. It is a fine thing when the conscience begins to work. Friend, has your conscience begun to work before God about the evil of your life? Has your conscience yet got uneasy about your own conduct in the presence of God? Jacob's was evidently very uneasy, for the messengers are told to go to Esau, and say, "Thy servant Jacob says" to "my lord Esau." Fancy this to his own brother. But what the English bard says, "Conscience doth make cowards of us all," is perfectly true. Thank God for it. Do not stifle it! Take care that the devil does not scar yours with a hot iron, for we read of some "having a conscience seared with a hot iron" (1 Tim. 4:2). What does that mean? That you have resisted the pricks of conscience till it has ceased altogether to act. It is numb — lifeless. You have had a bad history. At first you were perfectly ashamed of it in the presence of God, and in the presence of man; but you got so "hardened through the deceitfulness of sin" (Heb. 3:13), and continuance in it, spite of the pricks of conscience that by-and-by — will, lust, and sin having got the upper hand entirely — conscience altogether ceased to act, being by the devil "seared with a hot iron." Awful state! I pity the man that has got his conscience seared with a hot iron.

a 'weak conscience,' as on the subject of meats, days, etc. 1 Cor. 8:7.

a 'purged conscience.' Through faith in the infinite efficacy of the blood of Christ the believer has no more conscience of sins. This does not mean no consciousness of ever sinning, but that as regards imputation of sins before God, the conscience is purged. Paul speaks of some who have a 'defiled mind and conscience,' Titus 1:15; and of others who in departing from the faith have their 'conscience seared with a hot iron,' 1 Tim. 4:2, that is, a hardened conscience, insensible to that which should touch them to the quick.

Now the Spirit is warning us, and we must not fall into the snare of judging things by the standard that is prevalent in the world, we have to come to the divine standard of judgment, that is the word of God. What we see around us must not be allowed to enter into our minds and reduce the greatness of the truth that has been revealed, when we see evil things around they must be declared to be evil, there must not be any lessening of them in our minds, our consciences must not be seared. A conscience that is seared is a conscience that no longer operates. A tender conscience that is enlightened and governed by the truth is able to form a proper judgment in relation to what is opposed to the Son of God and to the work of the Holy Spirit. I felt it right that we should read this chapter, because it shows there is a continual speaking of the Spirit, reminding us of evil and how to combat it and how to avoid it, so that what is proper to the Son of God should be maintained.

hypocrisy of it snares unwary souls who have not learned that "the flesh profiteth nothing. But those who propagate such things ignore their own consciences to such a degree that they become seared as with a hot iron, and of course eventually become without proper feeling. We must not dare to treat conscience in this way, but allow it always its true, sensitive activity. Sensitive members of our body are vitally important to warn us against dangers that threaten health and even life. To be deprived of their ability to function may come without warning. If the lens of a lighthouse lamp is covered with grime, the warning light will not be seen.

It is remarkable that we find the same thing today; those who are law teachers, whether they teach the law of Moses, or whether they are seeking to make the Lord's people subject to rules and regulations and traditions of men; such teachers are nearly always dishonest and untruthful. If you look at 1 Timothy 4:1-6, you will see that there we read of deceiving spirits and teachings of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, cauterized as to their own conscience, forbidding to marry, (bidding) to abstain from meats. These law teachers in Galatia were very much like this; indeed the Spirit of God may have had just such men before Him, as He wrote these words. Those who teach the law today, do not keep the law, any more than the law teachers in Galatia kept it. This professing what they do not carry out, makes a man dishonest, makes him a hypocrite; he pretends to be what he is not. He is deceiving himself as we read in Galatians 6:7, and as he continues to deceive himself, his conscience gradually becomes dead, cauterized, as with a hot iron, so that it no longer has any feeling; and without shame they can stand up and teach what they know is not the truth. This was true in Galatia and it is equally true today. In Ephesians 4:18-19 we read of men's hearts becoming callous, so they no longer feel pain when they commit sin. Notice that "law" is without the article. It does not refer only to the law of Moses, but also to the principle of law in general. They were careless even with regard to matters they should have observed.

(V. 3). Behind this apostasy there is the direct influence of seducing spirits leading to the doctrines of demons in contrast with the truth. The apostate is not simply one who neglects the truth, nor rejects the truth. He is one who, having made a profession of the faith, deliberately gives up the truth and takes up some other religious creed as being superior to Christianity. The demons speak lies while professing to maintain the truth. The devil we know “is a liar” (John 8:44) and beguiled our first parents by speaking lies in hypocrisy. The fact that the truth has no power over their souls and that they give heed to doctrines of demons clearly proves that their consciences are so seared that they are no longer able to distinguish between good and evil. Apostasy, then, involves not only the giving up the truth but also the adoption of error — the doctrine of demons.

Now, there is not an attempt to say that the church is holy; in fact, I do not admit the doctrines of Rome to be holy. It is not holy to confound sanctity and justification; it is not holy to make sacraments the principal means, leaving out the word and Spirit of God, to which Christ and His apostles directly ascribe sanctification. It is not holy, it is Manicheism, to make holiness, and a holiness necessary to the clergy, by a prohibition to marry. It was the most unholy and wicked doctrine, against which the apostle warns us as a doctrine of devils, the fruit of a conscience seared with a hot iron. The fruits of it have been produced. They characterized the church. If a man can devote himself to the Lord, body, soul, and spirit, without a snare to himself, be it so. It is a grace and gift from God. But the moment you forbid to marry, you are on Manichean and Gnostic ground. It is urged, in order to defend Rome, that the passages in Paul's Epistle to Timothy apply to Gnostics. I admit it. They held that matter was a bad thing, hence that Christ had no material body, and other extravagances of every kind; but as a way or means of holiness, they taught abstinence from women. This was the doctrine of the Alexandrian school Dr. N. admires. They were infected with it. The Albigenses, the medieval fruit of Gnosticism in Christendom, constantly practised it; their perfect, or bonshommes, did not eat meat, nor have to say to women.

We do not deny that man may harden himself, till, despite his conscience, he becomes like the beasts, and shuns evil only because of its consequences, or, worse, till his conscience, seared as with a hot iron, is so dulled to every righteous influence, that his fellow-men drive him from their midst as too brutish for their society. In such case we may, perhaps, allow the claims of modern infidelity, by accepting the affinity between the savage element in dog and man, and own that there is a doctrine of evolution — that out of evil evil is evolved.

Four men set forth on the voyage of life. The first possessed neither the compass of faith nor the chart of Divine truth in his soul. Still, in a world which does not possess truth for one of its elements, and which does not therefore call for the need, or exercise of faith, these qualities may be dispensed with easily. But the helm of conscience, natural conscience, is the heirloom of all Adam’s posterity, and this may, so far, guide the soul. It may “excuse or accuse,” and supply the knowledge of good and evil. It is, however, subject to will. Its voice may be disregarded and itself be seared. Its admonitions therefore may be trodden under foot. The will of man is vitiated by sin—it is opposed to God, and “they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” The will of man is therefore one of sin, of opposition to God, and such being the case, the conscience is made subservient, and the man is ruled by a sinful will.

There is only one thing more upon this, and then we will pass on to the last subject. I want you to notice, and I think it is most solemn, even though a real awakening comes into a person's conscience under divinely-sent ministry and power, yet how gradually it can cease, as it were, to take account of the first springs and movements that touched it. There may be the deadening and stupefying of conscience, the drugging of it by the devil's drams. That is what we see in Herod, a hardening process goes on; at last it ceases to sting altogether. I do not know how to speak of Herod of Galilee; I have the most supreme contempt for such a character; an unmixedly wicked wretch was Herod. You see in him the first movements of terror and fear and of slavish horror when his sins have found him out; but mark what happens afterwards; how that is all lulled into quiet and into rest; and then what takes its place? Curiosity! First fear, and when fear is drugged or rocked to sleep in the devil's cradle, then curiosity. O what an amount of curiosity there is at the present time! Men that were once afraid are now curious. That is what marked Herod, a wretched, prurient curiosity. What he wanted was to see Jesus; he had heard often of Him and would patronise Him, he thought he would see some work of wonder, some miracle done by Him; and therefore he sent for Him to commune with Him. Now I want you to observe this. You may be deceived sometimes, perhaps, by mistaking mere curiosity for some divine interest; I am sure I have often seen it; people may mistake mere curiosity for some spiritual awakening, whereas it is only mere empty curiosity that has seized the person's mind, just as it is in this world. Now mark what succeeds that — you will be struck with it if you take the gospel history of our Lord Jesus Christ, especially on the very eve of His passion — namely, mocking. Terror being quieted down, curiosity succeeds; that in turn changes into mocking. "Herod with his men of war set him at nought, and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again to Pilate." Just think of these two men passing the Lord of life and glory backwards and forwards one to another! What a history it is! My brother or sister here to-night, let me entreat of you not to trifle with conscience; cultivate it; thank God you have it; do not drug it; one of the most solemn things is not to have a good conscience. Every man and every woman in this world has acquired it by the fall. God in His infinite grace and mercy help us to be sensitive about it, tender about it. It can be lulled, it can be stupefied, until it ceases to act altogether, as in this sadly solemn case.