The human conscience is a strange thing. Considering how evil men and women are, it’s surprising that we have a conscience at all…but we do. Here’s the problem. While it’s true we have something called a conscience, which sometimes makes us feel guilty for past wrongdoing, the conscience is far from overwhelming in its effects. It’s sadly possible for us to neutralize it, or kill it.
So, what is a "conscience?" Think of the conscience like a sundial. It’s able to give fairly accurate time when the sun is shining on it, but is totally unable to give any kind of time at night. We also know that our consciences can be seared. There’s only one way that our conscience can be a sure guide to right behavior. That’s when the light of God’s Word is shining on it.
When the light of God shines on the sundial of your conscience, you get the right time every time. But, apart from that, the conscience is a bit like a trained circus dog. You whistle once, and it will stand up. You whistle twice, and it will roll over. The third time you whistle, it will play dead.
Listen, we all want to be happy, right? However, not everyone looks for happiness in the same place. Many try to find happiness in sinful pleasures, such as sexual relationships. Sin, however, never leads to happiness. Sin ends in messed up lives, with the sinner feeling guilty, depressed, restless, and irritable--anything but happy. Maybe you're burdened with a "guilty" conscience, which is why you are reading this message today.
If so, you undoubtedly are not happy, but wish that you were. Your guilty conscience, however, makes happiness impossible. No person with a guilty conscience feels happy. To find happiness, a cure must first be found for the guilty conscience. As far as I know, secular doctors, medicine, counselors, etc., have no cure for a guilty conscience.
We need look no further than Psalm 32:1-6 to see an example of someone who was burdened with a "guilty" conscience. This particular piece of scripture teaches us about a guilty conscience, repentance, confession of sin, and the blessedness of forgiveness. In fact, the blessedness of forgiveness is its theme.
David wrote Psalm 32. Its contents lead us to believe it is a parallel psalm to Psalm 51, which David wrote after his sins of adultery, murder, and impenitence. He had brought Bathsheba, the wife of a soldier named Uriah, to his palace, where he had made love to her. He impregnated her. To cover up his adultery before it became known, he brought Uriah home from the front lines. He intended Uriah to go home and make love to his wife, Bathsheba. Everyone would then think the baby was Uriah’s.
Uriah, however, being a noble soldier, refused to go home while his comrades were on the front lines fighting and could not be home with their wives. David even got him drunk to entice him to go home to Bathsheba. When that scheme failed to work also, David sent him back to the front lines with sealed orders for Joab, the general. Uriah was to be put in the midst of the heaviest fighting. The rest of the army was to retreat, leaving Uriah where the enemy would surely kill him. Joab did this. After Uriah was killed, David married Bathsheba to cover up his sin. She then bore him his son nine months after their adultery.
For about a year David remained impenitent, deceitfully hiding his sins of adultery and murder. Then the Lord sent his prophet Nathan to convict David of his sins. It was only then that David finally confessed: “I have sinned against the Lord.”
Throughout the year of his impenitence David was anything but happy. He was miserable. He described his physical and emotional state: “When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away with my roaring all the daylong. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality ebbed away as in the heat of summer.”
While David had been covering up his sin, his conscience was eating him alive. His guilty conscience was damaging his health. He felt himself wasting away. Down to his very bones he felt tired, exhausted, worn out. His life juices evaporated like moisture in a summer’s dry heat. His life’s vitality and his vitality for life had ebbed away. Emotionally he was irritable, literally going about roaring like a lion. We would say he was biting people’s heads off and snapping at them. He no doubt was groaning within himself at the same time. The reason being, the Lord’s hand was heavy upon him day and night.
His conscience knew that the Lord was very displeased with his adultery and murder. The commands of God, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” plagued him. The synonyms David used for his sin in this psalm reveal that his conscience saw what he had done as a rebellion against the Lord, a terrible missing of the mark of the Lord’s commandments, and depraved acts of iniquity that were all twisted and wrong. Being guilty, the Lord’s threat of punishment that hung over him burdened and tormented him continually. He had no peace of mind or rest for his soul.
Only after Nathan confronted him with his sins did David repent and confess them. After such a long time of being miserable and unhappy, he finally broke down to admit his wrongdoing. He wrote, “I acknowledged my sin to you, and the guilt of my sin I did not cover up; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.’ ”
Being brought to the point of finally confessing our sin is the first step toward curing the guilty conscience. Whatever our sins have been, guilt can weigh heavily on our conscience, tormenting us day after day, making us miserable, restless, and unhappy.
Friends, there's only one cure for our guilty conscience. It 's not trying to convince ourselves that our sin is acceptable, and we should stop feeling guilty about it. The cure is to repent of our sin and confess it. David learned this lesson. He wrote this psalm to teach us the same lesson. He wrote, “Therefore, let everyone who is pious pray to you at this time when you may be found; surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him.”
The time to repent of the sin that is plaguing our conscience and confess it in prayer to the Lord is now. David said the pious, godly persons will confess their sins while they still have the time to do so, before the mighty waters of the Lord’s judgment begin to roll over them when it is then too late. Whatever our sins, now is the time for us to repent and confess them to the Lord. We can't hide our sins from the Lord any more than David, or Adam and Eve could. He knows all about our sins. He knows everything about us... and everything we have ever done.
When the sinner’s conscience has been tormented by guilt so that he grieves over what he has done and fears the wrath of God, he is close to being saved and finding the only cure for his guilty conscience. For as soon as he repents and confesses his sin, he receives the Lord’s forgiveness of his sin. David is an outstanding example of this.
The Lord is willing to forgive our sins because of the perfect life and innocent death of Jesus Christ. The Lord has literally lifted our sins from us and laid them on the innocent Jesus. The Lord has covered our sins with the blood of Jesus, so they are removed from his sight. Because Jesus paid for our sins with his death on the cross, the Lord does not count our sins against us. Because of Jesus, we are fully pardoned.
This forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ is the only cure for our guilty conscience. The Lord’s forgiveness makes us blessed and happy, for we know we are reconciled to God. The threat of his eternal punishment is lifted from us. We enjoy the comfort of his peace. We have his promise and the hope of everlasting salvation and life.
Scripture: 1 John 1:9; Romans 5:1; Romans 10:13; James 1:14; Romans 6:23; 1 Timothy 2:4; Acts 10:34
Prayer: Dear Father, thank you for all you have done for me. Please help me be strong as I face a day full of uncertainty and worry. Help me accept things as they are and understand there is a reason for everything. Amen
God loves you!
Holly
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