With an abundance of forested land in the northern part of Minnesota, burning firewood is a common method of heating one’s home. There are always plenty of trees that can be used for fuel for a woodstove. We have a wood-burning stove in our house, and one thing we have learned is that when one burns firewood, there is a very important safety precaution that one needs to take, and that is buying a smoke alarm.
A smoke alarm is a device which will emit a loud, piercing sound when it detects smoke in a house. There are some alarms which are wired directly into a house’s wiring, but most smoke alarms are powered by a disposable battery. Eventually these batteries can become old, and worn out. If they are not replaced, the smoke alarm will not work. It will not do it’s job of alerting a home’s residents to the danger that is happening.
A person’s conscience is like their own personal smoke alarm. The conscience is like an inner voice inside a person that tells them the difference between right and wrong, and Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 4 that in the latter times the conscience of some people will have become “seared.” Meaning, when they sin or do evil they will not care. They will feel no remorse or sorrow towards God, and they will not seek to change from their wicked ways. Their “warning bells” will not go off.
“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;” 1 Timothy 4:1,2
Like a dead battery in smoke alarm, these “warning system” inside of some of these people will not go off when they sin against God.
If we sin, we need to listen to that feeling inside that causes us to immediately be filled with the desire to beg for forgiveness to our God. We need to be filled with a Godly sorrow that leads us to repentance. Just like Peter. When the cock crew, and Peter realized that he had just denied the Lord, he wept bitterly. He felt sorrow for his sin, and he was later forgiven by Christ because he repented.
In the book of 1 Corinthians Paul had written to correct some of those in the church because there was some sinful things that were going on, and instead of being filled with sorrow because of the sin, they were proud of it and unashamed. Paul firmly rebuked them, and told them to remove those individuals from the church so that they would realize the error of their actions.
Later, in 2 Corinthians, from what we read it sounds like the person who was the cause of this sin had been filled with sorrow, and had repented.
“For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent: for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season.
Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing.
For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” 2 Corinthians 7:8-10
Gody sorrow worketh repentance. They needed to have the “batteries” of their conscience changed out, and that is what Paul did through his letters to them.
Listen to that warning bell inside, that voice that tells you what is right and what is wrong. When faced between two decisions, make sure you pick the right one. Keep those “batteries” charged!
In Christ,
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 