The Conscience and the Battle Within
I don’t know that it’s reality, but it feels like a great weight is resting on me tonight. We have learned so much about the priority of holiness these days, and now the spotlight must turn inward. Not to culture. Not to society. Not to those whose failures fill our headlines. Tonight God calls us to holiness.
And everyone in this room knows the New Testament doesn’t whisper this theme. It shouts it.
Abstain from fleshly lusts.
Mortify the deeds of the body.
Make no provision for the flesh.
Love not the world.
Flee immorality.
Put off the old, put on the new.
Think on things pure and right.
Let the Word of Christ dwell richly.
Wear righteousness like armor.
Bring the body into subjection.
Present your bodies a living sacrifice.
Cleanse yourselves from all filthiness.
Walk in the Spirit.
Lay aside all evil.
Desire the pure Word that you may grow.
And then the greatest call of all:
> “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
We believe this. We preach this. Yet so many are losing the battle. Good people who love Jesus fall. Leaders collapse. Marriages crumble. I’m often asked, “Pastor, how do you stay accountable? Who keeps you from falling?”
I have elders around me who watch closely.
I have godly children who expect integrity.
I have little grandchildren who look at me with trust that could break my heart.
And I have my precious wife—my truest human accountability—who expects me to live everything I preach.
But even they cannot see my inner life. They do not hear every thought. They cannot police my motives.
If holiness doesn’t win in here, it will lose out there.
That is why we must talk about conscience.
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The Text That Opens This Door
2 Corinthians 1:12
> “Our proud confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience…in holiness and godly sincerity…in the grace of God we have conducted ourselves.”
Paul starts with conscience. Not conduct. Because conduct follows conscience like a shadow follows a body.
If you don’t win internally…you will crash externally.
John Owen said:
> “Let not that man think he makes any progress in holiness while he walks not over the bellies of his lusts.”
And again:
> “If you want to kill sin, load your conscience with the guilt of it.”
Holiness collapses wherever conscience sleeps.
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Conscience: The Warning System of the Soul
Think of 1984. A Boeing 707 approached a mountain in Spain. The mechanical voice sounded:
Pull up… pull up… pull up…
A few seconds before impact, the pilot switched it off and said, “Shut up, gringo.”
And the plane disintegrated into the mountainside.
That is how many treat conscience.
Turn it off.
Drown it out.
Laugh it away.
Then crash.
Paul says those who reject their conscience shipwreck their faith.
Conscience is God’s gift to keep you from spiritual destruction. Pain protects the body. Conscience protects the soul.
When conscience is functioning rightly, it either: • accuses (Romans 2:15) or
• excuses
It warns or it comforts. It disturbs or it delights.
Holiness begins right there.
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Everybody Has One
The conscience exists in every image-bearer: • Hindus have one
• Muslims have one
• Secular atheists have one
It is part of being human.
Yet conscience is not infallible—because we are fallen. It can be: • weak
• defiled
• seared
• misinformed
A conscience without God’s Truth is like radar without mountains on the screen.
Which brings us to the critical understanding:
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Conscience Is a Skylight… Not a Lamp
It lets light in.
It does not create light.
If your mind is not full of Scripture, then your conscience is not full of truth.
You cannot live holy on spiritual darkness.
You cannot obey truth you do not know.
You take away preaching that cuts deep.
Trade expository Scripture for shallow therapy talks.
Replace sermons with stand-up comedy.
Then try to solve the aftermath with self-help programs.
Band-aids on cancer.
The church becomes unholy when the Bible becomes unfamiliar.
That is why David said:
> “Your Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against You.”
Right information restores right conviction.
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Nemesis and the Chase
The ancient Greeks personified conscience as a goddess: Nemesis.
She chased the sinner down with a sword.
Byron wrote of her as the one who never leaves wrong unpunished. The soul, terrified, running from its own guilt.
The conscience is either your most relentless enemy
or your nearest ally.
Holiness depends on making it your friend.
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The Fall of Great Men
Nobody falls at the height of applause.
David fell alone on a rooftop.
Samson fell with his head in Delilah’s lap.
Peter fell by a warm fire among servants.
The unseen battle always decides the visible result.
You lose privately…
before you ever fall publicly.
Conscience is where holiness either lives or dies.
>>The Conscience, the Cross, and the Conduct of the Saints
Some of you are thinking: “My conscience is too damaged. I’ve muted it too long. It’s broken.”
Then I have good news.
Holiness doesn’t start with you rising up.
Holiness starts with Jesus reaching down.
> His blood does not merely cleanse your record.
His blood cleanses your conscience (Hebrews 9:14).
Jesus heals what sin has silenced.
Grace restores what shame destroyed.
Grace does not lower the standard.
Grace lifts the sinner.
Grace does not wink at sin.
Grace wages war against it.
Grace makes holiness possible.
Holiness is not a performance.
Holiness is surrender.
Not self-confidence.
Christ-confidence.
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Returning to 2 Corinthians 1:12
Paul says:
1. Holiness — Set apart for God
2. Godly sincerity — Nothing hidden in the shadows
3. Grace of God — The power behind purity
The order matters: Inside ? outside
Light within ? life without
Conscience renewed ? conduct transformed
No hypocrisy.
No wax in the cracks.
No statue held together by deception.
Take your heart out into the sunlight and say: “Search me, O God.”
Holiness welcomes inspection.
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Three Essentials for a Holy Conscience
** Quick confession
When sin knocks, slam the door fast. Delayed obedience is assisted suicide.
** Deep Scripture intake
Keep fresh truth pouring into the skylight. A neglected Bible always leads to a neglected conscience.
** Godly fellowship
Walk with those who refuse to silence conviction. Friends who help you disregard holiness are enemies of your future.
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The Freedom Holiness Gives
A clean conscience sleeps without medication.
A clean conscience worships without restraint.
A clean conscience shares Christ without shame.
A clean conscience doesn’t dread the quiet.
Holiness is not a prison.
Holiness is deliverance from trying to hide.
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The Invitation of Jesus Tonight
Will you let God scrape the skylight clean?
No more: • “It’s small.”
• “It’s just once.”
• “Nobody knows.”
• “Shut up, conscience.”
Sin’s deepest lie is:
“You can manage me.”
Sin doesn’t get managed.
Sin gets mastered or it masters.
Tonight the Savior stands in your soul saying:
> “Pull up. Live. Come home. Walk clean.”
Holiness is Christ guarding you.
Holiness is the Spirit steering you.
Holiness is conscience revived by grace, rejoicing in truth.
You don’t leave here trying harder.
You leave here trusting closer.
Let this be the prayer rising from your heart:
“Lord, restore my conscience. Rule my inner life. Shape me holy from the inside out.”
Not fear-driven perfectionism.
Not religious performance.
Deep, glad surrender.
Because He who began a good work in you
will finish what He started.
