“Ray, what if I don't feel guilty?”

Guilt is the feeling produced by a violated conscience. The Bible speaks of a "good" conscience, and among other things, a "seared" conscience. A seared conscience is one that has lost its life on the outside, like a seared steak. The conscience has become callous so that it loses its ability to feel guilt.

An old drunk staggered into his home and collapsed on his floor. His faithful old dog snuggled up to him and waited for him to wake up.

Suddenly, around midnight, the dog began to bark. It barked and barked. It was the last thing that old drunk wanted to hear. He stumbled to his feet, grabbed a wooden chair and threw it at the dog.

In the morning, the drunk awoke and was horrified to find that everything of value in his home had been stolen. The only things left were a broken chair and a dead dog. Thieves had broken in and stolen everything he had, and the dog was trying to warn him. He had killed the best friend he ever had.

Your conscience is like that dog. Don’t kill your best friend. It's there to warn you.

To put it another way, if you dull your conscience so that you don’t feel guilt, you are like a man who removes the batteries from his smoke detector, because he doesn’t want to be disturbed by its alarming sound.

The conscience is there to warn you, and it should drive you to the mercy of God in Christ. That may not seem like a big deal now, but it will on Judgment Day.

Again, it doesn't matter whether you feel guilty. Even if you've hardened your conscience so you no longer hear it, you still are guilty before a righteous God. The God-given sense of guilt is there to warn you of your condition of guilt so you'll do something about it.