“The Value Of A Guilty Conscience”
Text: 1 Timothy 1:12-17
9-14-2025
In the name of Him who removes the guilt of our sins, dear friends in Christ. Can you tell when a person has a guilty conscience? I don’t have special powers to look into people’s hearts and minds, but there are times when I can tell, especially when it’s someone I know really well. How? Well, I’ll use my children as an example. There were times when my kids did something naughty which I wasn’t aware of. They knew they were in trouble but they didn’t want to get punished for it. So, they covered up their misdeed with a lie to keep the truth from coming out.
Now as long as they didn’t let it show, nobody would ever discover their dirty little secret. But that’s not the way it works. No matter how good at telling the lie with their mouth, their eyes and actions always gave it away. When my children had a guilty conscience, they act unsettled and nervous. They couldn’t look me in the eye, especially if I was getting close to the truth. Sometimes they would get angry for no reason. Maybe they’d lose their appetite or have trouble sleeping. As a father, I knew something was up. But I couldn’t force them to tell me what’s wrong. All I could do is encourage them to be honest and get it off their chest. Sometimes they got sick and tired of holding it in and they just blurted it out. And other times, it ate away at them until eventually they confessed it.
I can tell you; it was no fun to watch my kids hurting inside. And yet, I was comforted in knowing that it was a sign of a very healthy process in them. Because it means their God-given conscience was still intact and working. They had a guilty conscience which was hounding them to do the right thing. As painful as it may seem, it’s a good thing to have a guilty conscience.
This same principle holds true for us adults. If you know someone well, you’ll be able to tell when something is eating at them. It’s especially true with your spouse and closest friends. But the problem is that adults have become masters at hiding the outward signs that something is wrong. Even so, when someone is plagued with a guilty conscience, it’s going to exhibit itself one way or another, whether that be an ulcer, insomnia, or some psychological problem.
God gave us our conscience for a reason. Think of it as a special warning system in every human. It warns us of the danger in violating the morals and commandments we’ve been taught. The problem, though, is when we disconnect our guilty conscience. Some try to unplug or silence it with alcohol or drugs. And our society encourages us to shut off our conscience alarms by declaring that certain sins are okay. For instance, in recent decades the culture has pivoted 180 degrees and now tries to convince us that all this LGBTQ stuff is normal. If they can get other people to agree, then they believe their guilty conscience will go away. But it won’t. The same holds true with the way we view adultery or swearing. Everybody seems to be doing it and telling us it’s okay. All in an effort to disconnect a guilty conscience. St. Paul describes in 1 Timothy 4:1-2 precisely what we’re seeing today. He writes: “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared…”
But when it’s an action that everyone recognizes as wrong, then like a child, lying is used to hide their guilty conscience. And when the person’s lie is exposed, our secular world tells us that’s okay too. It wasn’t all that long ago when a prominent politician lied about committing adultery. When the truth came out, we were told that everyone lies about sex, therefore, it was okay. All this was an elaborate effort to soothe a guilty conscience. But none of this will ever really take away our guilt. The only thing that will is sincerely confessing to God our sinfulness and asking Him to heal us. Because, you see, sin is not just a violation of a moral code or a betrayal of personal integrity. No, it is a rebellion against God.
Okay, that’s looking outside ourselves at the world around us. But what about you and me? Have we have begun to overlook our own sinfulness? You know, it’s easy for us to look at the blatant public sins of someone else and forget all about our own sin-filled hearts. Oh yeah, we have a guilty conscience but we try to soothe it or downplay it by focusing on the sins of others which are splashed across the TV, internet, and newspaper headlines. In verse 15 of our text for today, St. Paul acknowledges his own sinfulness. He says that he was the “foremost” of all sinners. In the old King James Version, it's translated “chief” of sinners. Our sermon hymn is based on this honest confession. In utter humility, Paul confessed his sin and unburdened his conscience of all past guilt. But all too often, rather than admitting our guilt, we change those lyrics to say: “Chief of sinners though I be, so-and-so is worse than me.” Folks, that’s no good. And it’s not spiritually healthy for us. It leaves our sins unforgiven and intact which is the cause of a guilty conscience and threatens us with eternal damnation.
St. Paul publicly confessed that he was a blasphemer and persecutor of Christ’s church. He actively participated in the arrests and executions of Christians prior to his conversion. But he didn’t make excuses or try to shift the blame. He didn’t point to the sins of others and try to make himself feel better or to silence his guilty conscience. No. He knew the only way to be free of his guilt was by making a full confession of his sinfulness. Notice I said his “sinfulness.” Paul understood what King David wrote about confessing our sins. In Psalm 51 he says, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” You see, both Paul and David recognized they were rotten to the core with sin. Their human nature was infected with it. And their old sinful nature was the root cause of all the sinful acts they had done. They knew that they needed forgiveness for more than just one or two sins. That would only be a partial healing which would still leave them in despair. Therefore, the only way to have their conscience relieved of all guilt was through recognizing their total depravity and going to God for complete forgiveness.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, that same forgiveness is available to each and every one of us. The same healing for our guilty conscience is available to all who believe in the atoning death of Jesus Christ. That’s why we begin our services with the confession of sins. Today, we said it this way: “O almighty God, merciful Father, I, a poor, miserable sinner confess unto You all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended You...” I pray that as we speak that confession each week you are sincerely opening your hearts for God to pour out His mercy and heal your soul. I know it’s not comfortable to admit your guilt like this but it’s the only way to have a totally clear conscience.
It truly alarms me when people are upset when I or we encourage people to confess their sins like this. Years ago in my previous congregations, I had a member who wrote me an email saying that I made her “feel dirty” because I had called her to repentance. Sad to say, she’s not alone. There have been members here at Zion who have left our fellowship saying that our services make them “feel guilty.” As strange as it may sound, I’m glad they had a guilty conscience because it’s a good thing. Look, folks. I can’t make you feel anything. It’s God’s Law which convicts you of your sins and exposes your guilty conscience. Oh, sure. You can go somewhere that the Pastor only preaches God’s grace. But that’s only half of the equation. Let me ask you: What do you need God’s grace for? Your sins, of course! That’s why we need to regularly confess them before the Lord. It’s the only way to relieve our guilty conscience. He offers complete forgiveness and healing for our souls. That healing was bought with an awesome price: the death of God’s only Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross.
As we heard in the Gospel lesson, whenever a sinner repents of their sins, God and all of heaven rejoices. We too can and should rejoice whenever sins are confessed before the Lord. We can thank God for our guilty consciences because that drives us to the cross for forgiveness. And as forgiven children of God we can now confidently sing the words of King David, “Create in me a clean heart, O God and renew a right spirit within me.” Our guilty conscience is gone because we have laid our sins before Jesus and we’ve been shown mercy from God our loving Father. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!