Impurity Is Nothing New It’s no surprise the world thinks the biblical view of sexuality is outdated. Society tells you that you need to advance your thinking beyond the Dark Ages, open your mind to new perspectives, and get with the times. In a word, the world says you need to be more modern…
Guard Your Purity, Part 1 You probably hear a lot about how much our society has progressed. Whether it’s technological or scientific advancement, breakthroughs in medicine or manufacturing, or any other area where progress can be measured, we’re eager to see how far we’ve come. At the same time, the culture is willfully blind to how it’s regressing…
Guard Your Purity, Part 2 A key and often overlooked aspect of God’s goodness is that He doesn’t give us commands we cannot fulfill. He doesn’t taunt us with impossible directions or challenge us with tasks beyond our ability. Part of the assumption in each of God’s commands to us is that, through the assistance of His Spirit, we’re able to do what He has commanded us to do…
Guard Your Purity, Part 3 If you’ve spent any time around a toddler, you know that even the simplest, most basic instruction is followed by an unending string of whys. The attitude behind his questions range from inquisitiveness to rebellion, but the inclination to question authority is hardwired into us all…
God’s Emergency Warning System I’m thankful for warning systems. The dashboard lights in my car, smoke detectors in my home, even the little bumps in the road that let me know when I’m crossing over into another lane. If there’s any device or object that’s able to warn me of danger or impending catastrophe, I want it working for me. In the Lord’s perfect design, each of us has two built-in warning systems working to keep us from danger and harm…
Train Your Conscience In 1984, an Avianca Airlines jet crashed in Spain. Investigators studying the accident made an eerie discovery. The “black box” cockpit recorders revealed that several minutes before impact a shrill, computer synthesized voice from the plane’s automatic warning system told the crew repeatedly in English, “Pull up! Pull up!” The pilot, evidently thinking the system was malfunctioning, snapped, “Shut up, Gringo!” and switched the system off. Minutes later the plane plowed into the side of a mountain. Everyone on board died…
Soften Your Conscience Your conscience is like the nerve endings in your fingertips. Its sensitivity to external stimuli can be damaged by the buildup of callouses or even wounded so badly that it loses feeling altogether. Paul wrote repeatedly about the grave dangers of a calloused conscience (1 Corinthians 8:10), a wounded conscience (v. 12), and a seared conscience (1 Timothy 4:2)…
Sharpen Your Conscience Just like any other emergency warning system, your conscience needs to be properly programmed and calibrated in order to function correctly. An uninformed, untrained conscience will be unstable and unreliable, consistently misfiring and misleading, or even altogether useless…
Strengthen Your Conscience The smoke detectors in your home or office are there to make you aware of a specific, imminent threat to your safety. But what good is a fire alarm that constantly misfires, sending you false warnings of non-existent danger? A malfunctioning warning system can be as bad as having no alarms at all—worse if you get in the habit of ignoring it altogether. In the same way, a weak conscience can do more harm than good…
Clear Your Conscience, Part 1 It can be easy to forget how destructive sin is—not just in terms of eternity, but in our everyday lives. We’ve seen plenty of examples of how unaddressed sin routinely destroys families, friendships, and careers. But it also has devastating internal results, like robbing you of your joy and assurance, stifling your spiritual growth, and distancing you from the fellowship of God’s people. It also pollutes and ruins your conscience…
Clear Your Conscience, Part 2 A working conscience is one that’s free from the burden of unchecked sin and unaddressed guilt. It’s not weighed down by impurity or dulled by neglect. In a word, it’s clear… But how can we keep our consciences clear? How do we properly respond to guilt feelings in a way that keeps our consciences soft, sharp, and strong?
Taking Sin Seriously Unchecked sin is cancer to your spiritual growth. That theme has echoed throughout John MacArthur’s ongoing series Purity and Conscience. Over and over, he’s exhorted readers to listen to their consciences—calling them “the soul’s emergency warning system.”…
Warning: Danger Ahead! What good would it do you to have a state-of-the-art alarm system, complete with highly sensitive detectors and the finest technical support, if you never paid attention to the alarm?
Killing Sin, Part 1 It’s not enough to merely receive the warnings of your conscience. You’ve got to act on those warnings and deal decisively and thoroughly with the sin your conscience uncovers…
Killing Sin, Part 2 Killing sin is a constant discipline in the believer’s life. Destroying and mortifying sinful habits and patterns is a lifelong battle we must wage for the sake of our spiritual growth…
A Note to Our Commenters Throughout John MacArthur’s ongoing blog series Purity and Conscience, we’ve heard from several commenters who are weighed down by guilt over their sin. They’re burdened by wicked behavior in their past or impure habits they still can’t seem to break…
The Danger of a Sinful Mind No sin is more destructive to the conscience than the sin that takes place in the arena of the mind. After all, who but God and the sinner ever knows about them? “Who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man, which is in him?” (1 Corinthians 2:11)…
Where Sin Is Hatched No one ever “falls” into adultery. The adulterer’s heart is always shaped and prepared by lustful thoughts before the actual deed occurs. Likewise, the heart of the thief is bent by covetousness. And murder is the product of anger and hatred. All sin is first incubated in the mind.
Watch over Your Heart A good cleaning, a fresh paint job, and some gardening can make a great difference to the outward appearance of your home. But if the house is rotting from the inside—if it’s infested with vermin and filled with garbage and filth—all that work on the exterior is wasted effort…
Discipline Yourself Do you realize that the difference between a sincere, Spirit controlled, devoted, godly, obedient Christian and a defeated, weak, struggling Christian is what takes place in the mind? They may be attending the same church, active in the same ministries, and externally doing the same things, but one is defeated and the other lives a spiritually fruitful life. The difference is the thought life…
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