"Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the
faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons speaking lies in
hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to
marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God has created to be
received with Thanksgiving by those who believe and know the Truth. For every
creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with
Thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer. 1 Timothy 4:1-5
Hey it's Rachel! Today on Crack Your Bible, I wanted to
talk to you about a Bible metaphor and today I wanted to talk about a seared
conscience, because I was inspired by a question that I saw online - not written
to me - but they said "I feel like I've committed to apostasy and I'm afraid
that I have a seared conscience. What do I do?" Now let me just show you what a
"seared conscience" would look like because I feel like a lot of Christians
may worry about this. And if you're worried about having a seared conscience,
you don't have a seared conscience. So let's just take a sausage for example.
Now one... well actually, ignore this gross knife because I don't use this butter
for anything else; don't worry about it. But we're going to have two pieces of
sausage; one we are going to sear or burn with a hot iron, and the other one we are
going to leave left untouched. Now when somebody has a seared conscience, what
that means is their conscience, their mind, has completely hardened. When you
sear something, you are cooking the proteins so they tighten up. The protein
bundles will tighten up and it forms a tough exterior, so as it hardens
over time, it will just become tougher, and tougher, and tougher. I'm sure all of
you have had a piece of steak or a piece of meat, and if it's overcooked, there's not
a sauce that you can put on it - it is going to be dry, and gross, and hard. and
there's nothing that you can do to fix this piece of meat. So that is what a
seared conscience is like - it's completely burnt.
It has nothing... nothing can fix it. It has decided "nope! I am rejecting God. I
don't care if God in the flesh comes down, I am NOT going to believe it1
I refuse!" That's like the Pharisees - they saw Jesus doing miracles and what did
they say? "Oh this man is full of demons" instead of
recognizing who Jesus was or that the Holy Spirit was working through Him.
So they've hardened their own hearts, their conscience is seared, it is
completely not open to the things of God. They will make up their own rules
because they are listening to demons. They have completely seared off their
conscience and you can see side-by-side a seared piece of meat and a non-seared
piece of meat. Which one will absorb the Word of God? For example, if you were
going to marinate a piece of meat, which one is going to absorb the marinade? Is
it going to be the one that's uncooked, or is it going to be the piece of meat
that is seared? Obviously it's going to be the uncooked piece of meat, and that
is representative of somebody who is open to the Word of God, somebody who is
ruminating or meditating on the Word of God. A seared conscience is one where
somebody says, "nope! I don't care. No matter what, I'm not going to follow
Jesus. I'm completely opposed to God and it doesn't
matter what you show me, I don't believe it!" I'm sure you guys all know people out
there like that. But not only that, if you are worried about having a seared
conscience, you don't have a seared conscience. Because everybody sins, that's
just part of living in a fallen world and being a human. But if you are open to
the things of God, if you're opening yourself up to the Holy Spirit - even if
you're not necessarily a believer, you will feel remorseful because
inherently you know what you're doing is wrong. If you're a Christian, the Holy
Spirit will convict you of your sin and you will feel bad about it.
A person with the seared conscience - they don't care. They don't listen to the Holy
Spirit. They're not open to the Holy Spirit and they will habitually sin and
it will not bother them at all. They're not sitting around worried about "do I
have a seared conscience" because they have a seared conscience. If you worry
about having a seared conscience, you don't! You clearly feel convicted of sin
that you can repent of; you're open to the things of God. I would encourage you
to listen to those feelings - if you feel bad about something, repent of it!
It's okay, but if you have a seared conscience, there's nothing that will
change your mind. There are people - it does not matter if God comes to them in
the flesh - they will reject God and that's what a seared conscience is. I
hope that explains it for you. I hope you will like, subscribe & share, and I will
talk to you later. Bye!
(Music plays)