This is from my sermon collection. I sometimes fill in at my church and am able to teach  our congregation. In this category of Sermon Collection, I share my sermon outline with you and possibly a video version as well. 

What is your Conscience and what role does it play?

I’m sure y’all have heard the famous Jiminy Cricket song, “always let your conscience be your guide”. There have been a lot of people that have lived their life by that saying.

But what is wrong with that? Isn’t it good to follow your conscience? 

The short answer is, “Well it depends”.

The problem is, everyone’s conscience is different. And it is 100% dependent on your walk with Christ. Depending on how your relationship with Christ is, will let you know if you can trust your conscience. And we will talk about that in this article.

I want to cover the difference between your conscience and the Holy Spirit. This is a pretty easy study since the bible mentions conscience quite a bit in the New Testament.

                         The Greek word for conscience is suneidēsis (soon-i-day-sis)

-and I only bring up the Greek because I want to bring to your attention that there is no equivalent word to suneidēsis in the Old testament. 

-It is believed the Hebrew didn’t have a word for your conscience because their mindset was more corporate or collective. Suneidēsis is an individualistic word.

-The Hebrew considered himself as a member of a covenant community that related corporately to God and His laws, rather than as an individual. In other words, the Hebrew was confident in his own position before God if the Hebrew nation as a whole was in good fellowship with Him.

-Their conscience was guided by the Hebrew nation as a whole.

-Do with that what you will, but It sounds like a good study. 

(Maybe to better understand why they acted the way they did as a nation…)

Conscience is mentioned 29 times in the bible. (in the new testament only)

We see it in the book of John when the woman was about to be stoned. 

John 8:9 says “And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.”

The men were convicted by their conscience. It is the very reason they left.

We also see it in 1 Corinthians 8 when Paul is explaining to the believers to not let their conscience get the best of them when they eat meat they aren’t sure was sacrificed to idols or not.

So what is your Conscience exactly?

The world simply defines it as a part of the human psyche. It hurts when you do wrong, it feels good when you do right.

But, there is a bit more to it than that….

Romans 2:12-15

¹² For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;

¹³ (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.

¹⁴ For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:

¹⁵ Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)

–We are being told here, that knowing the law or just hearing the law is enough to justify you.

-Even the gentiles can distinguish right from wrong because verse 15 says the work of the law was written on their hearts. 

Even the gentiles can do right, without the law, because it is in their very nature.

You see, God’s law is written in the heart of every human.

I believe from creation, that was the plan.

Think about it, Adam and Eve did not need the Holy Spirit within them in order to have a relationship with God.

They walk in with him personally. 

So it makes sense to me that God created man with his law within his heart, not only because man was created in the image of God, but because that was what Adam and Eve used to distinguish right and wrong in the moment. 

Adam and Eve were still free-will beings. They faced decisions daily I am sure.

So God placed a conscience within them instead of the Holy Spirit. 

That was their guide while God was “away”.

So this is the best definition conscience that I found:

The Blue Letter Bible says it is when “the soul is distinguishing between what is morally good and bad.” 

I like that because it actually tells me what is making the decision.

Everything I seemed to read made the conscience this mysterious thing.

It’s like those writers didn’t really know what it was.

So is it a good idea to always let your conscience be your guide, like Jiminy Cricket says?

Well the short answer is No……. Here’s why. 

The conscience was corrupted when sin entered into the world.

-Even though it was part of God’s creation, and it’s intent was to protect us from wrong, it too became corrupt. 

-That is why we can not always trust it. 

Titus 1:15

¹⁵ Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.

So, by default, because of unbelief, your mind and conscience is defiled.

How can we trust something that has been defiled?

Your conscience is a responder.

-It responds to it’s input.

In other words, if you allow your eyes and ears to see and hear the evils of this world, your conscience will eventually see that as normal. Therefore, not bad anymore.

When you are of the world, so is your conscience. 

And if you continue to give in to the temptations of the world and live in sin, eventually your conscience will be seared. 1 Timothy 4

Hebrews 9:14

¹⁴ How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

The Blood of Christ purges the conscience of dead works

1 Corinthians 2:10-13

¹⁰ But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

¹¹ For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

¹² Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

¹³ Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

Before salvation, you have a general sense of right and wrong. Mainly dependent on your environment.

 After salvation, the Holy Spirit renews your mind to more specific and complete truths. 

–Back to the concept, the conscience is a responder.

I’m going to compare it to an algorithm. Like one, you would find for Facebook. 

All an algorithm does is take your interactions and your behavior’s and translate them into what it thinks you are interested in. 

Every time you read your bible or go to church or pray, you are participating in this renewal of the mind.

Your programming starts to change. You are more attracted to and are going to engage more with righteous things. 

If you continue to engage in sin or your behavior continues to look like the world, guess what? 

-Your conscience’s algorithm will continue to feed you world views.

I hope that makes sense.

As we wrap up here, When can you trust your conscience?

-You can trust it when you have accepted God’s word as the basis of your behavior. 

A maturing faith will strengthen your conscience. 

An immature or weak value system will produce a weak conscience.

We must continue to program our mind with God’s word and have a strong desire to obey God.

We must also pray continually for God’s guidance and wisdom. 

When we do all these things, That is when we know we can trust our conscience.

Romans 13:5

⁵ Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.

Be subject to higher powers (God) not only because you fear wrath, but your conscience

One of the worst feelings in the world is a guilty conscience. It will keep you up at night, cause anxiety and so many other negative feelings in your life.

So, we see here in Romans, we should be subject to God so we have a clear conscience.

1 Timothy 1:5 

⁵ Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:

-we are commanded to teach no other doctrine

The purpose of the commandment is so we teach this doctrine out of Love, and a pure heart, and a good conscience.

I know all of us that come up here to teach, do their absolute best to get what they are teaching correct.

I know if I steered y’all wrong because I taught something other than the gospel of Christ, I couldn’t live with myself. 

My conscience would get the best of me.

The difference between the Holy Spirit and your Conscience

We mostly covered what the conscience was. And asked the question, was it a good idea to let your conscience be your guide. 

If you remember, The answer to that was, It depends. 

Tonight I want to focus on the Holy Spirit and how to tell the difference between the two. 

But First , a quick recap of what we covered. 

We learned that the conscience is the soul distinguishing between what is morally good and bad.

We learned that the conscience is something God created within us.

Romans 2:15 tells us that even the gentiles have the word of God written on their heart and can distinguish right from wrong. 

During the creation of man, God placed his word in our heart so that it may protect us and help us to make the right decision. 

THAT is our Conscience!

But why can’t we trust our conscience today? 

-Because it became corrupt and defiled along with the rest of creation the day Adam and Eve disobeyed God.

And we can’t trust something that is now corrupt. 

Being in IT, when I think of anything corrupt, it is a hard drive or a peice of software.

And i thought that was a perfect illustration. 

If I were to go to a website and download a program for my computer, I would expect to get the software as it were intended by the developer. 

When the program was created, it was intended to do certain functions and tasks. 

But what if the software were to become corrupt?

We would no longer trust it. 

We would need to depend on the developer or the creator to fix it, or give us something we can trust.

And that brings us to the Holy Spirit. The FIX we need from the creator. 

What is the Holy Spirit and what is his duty?

I don’t want to spend too much time on who he is because I know my audience.

John 16:7-8 

⁷ Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

⁸ And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:

Jesus makes it a point to say that the Holy Spirit is a He. Emphasizing it is a person.

In Greek, when speaking about a spirit, the spirit was always neutral. Not masculine or femanine, but neutral. 

But when Jesus spoke of the “comforter”, he made it a point to use the masculine word and address the spirit as a He or Him.

The Holy Spirit is not just a feeling, or a wind. He’s not just a power or an influence. 

The Holy Spirit is a person, a literal being, a part of the God head. 

He is called God and has the attributes of God. He is the spirit God.

Now, what are the Duties of the Holy Spirit?

He has many duties. He intercedes, gives spiritual gifts, teaches and  advocates.

But one that fits along the lines of what we are talking about tonight is found here in John 16 and verse 8. And that is to REPROVE

First, He will reprove the world of sin.

-That means to rebuke or correct because of a fault. 

-He is here because the world is fallen into sin and is in need of a Savior.

It might surprise some of you that the Holy Spirit doesn’t have the responsibility to convict every sin of the unbeliever. 

If you are an unbeliever and you drink, smoke, fornicate, murder or steal, It is not the job of the Holy Spirit to convict you of that. 

That is what your conscience controls at this point. 

-your conscience will tell you if murdering and stealing is wrong, based on how you were brought up in this world. 

Verse 9 proves this point.

⁹ Of sin, because they believe not on me;

Let me explain. If you are an unbeliever, the Holy Spirit is only concerned with the fact that you don’t believe in Jesus Christ as Lord, Saviour and God.

If you are sinning as and unbeliever, that UNBELIEF is the root cause of your behaviour.

You can blame your behaviour on 100 different things. But unbelief is the root of the problem.

The Holy Spirit is here to reprove unbelievers so that they may be saved. 

That is why we are supposed to go into the world and tell others about Jesus. 

Because the Holy Spirit is constantly working to reprove, we should be constantly working to solidify whatever it is the world is feeling. 

Second, He is here to reprove of righteousness.

This is more where the Holy spirit is dealing with us as beleivers.

Once we are saved, we still sin. Correct?

Once saved, we still need guidance and correction. Correct?

That is what the Holy Spirit is doing here.

Verse 10

¹⁰ Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more;

Now, imagine you saw Jesus on a daily basis. Imagine he sat with you as you watched TV.

Would you be more mindful of what you were doing or watching?

Of course you would. It is only natural. 

If you are driving, you slow down when you see a cop, don’t you?

-same idea

Jesus has gone to be with the Father and prepare a place for his bride. 

But since we are still here in this sinful world, someone needs to keep an eye on us and make sure we are doing the right things according to Gods will. 

As a saved person, that is the conviction you feel when doing something that goes against the word of God.

It is the Holy Spirit reproving you of righteousness. 

-He is correcting you and reminding you of what you should do.

You see, the difference between the conscience and the Holy Spirit is that 

the conscience is based of the worlds moral standards, 

And the conviction of the Holy Spirit is based on Gods moral standards. 

Third and final thing we will cover tonight is the reproof of Judgment.

Whether you are saved or not, you will face judgment. 

The world is facing judgment. And depending on the status of your salvation, will determine which judgment you are a part of. 

The judgment seat of Christ – for believers

Or

The great white throne judgment. – for unbelievers. 

If you are an unbeliever, you’re hearing warnings from the Holy Spirit that tell you there is an end.

There is a Judgment coming. And you are condemned with Satan. 

Verse 11 said, “because the prince of this world is judged” 

If you are a believer, you will also be judged. 

Thank God not by our works. But we will be giving an account for our life as a believer.

That should still scare us, or at least motivate us. 

What will we have to show during that time. We don’t want to show up empty handed.

And the Holy Spirit reminds us of that truth.

Conclusion

To close up here, let’s read verses 7 through 14

⁷ Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

⁸ And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:

⁹ Of sin, because they believe not on me;

¹⁰ Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more;

¹¹ Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.

¹² I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.

¹³ Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

¹⁴ He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

Verse 13 says he will guide you into all truth.

The influence of the Holy Spirit in this world will point an unsaved soul to Christ, a saved soul to righteousness and all souls to the realization of a righteous judgment.

So to circle back to the original intent of this message, What is the difference between the Conscience and the Holy Spirit?

The conscience is our souls way of convicting us when we do something wrong. The problem is, the conscience became corrupt along with the fall of man which corrupted the soul. So we can no longer trust it as a source of absolute truth. It’s moral laws it convicts you by are based on your surrounding environment and the world you were brought up in. 

The Holy Spirit is the Fix to our corrupt conscience. He will always guide us to the truth, as John 16:13 says. It is our absolute source for truth.  And he will convict you based on the moral laws outline in the word of God. Which is everlasting. 

Travis Haines

Husband | Father | IT Guy | Blogger | Author and Creator of ChristianIntrovert.com wanting to encourage those who question their abilities in Christ. Don't let your Introversion define who you are and don't use it as an excuse to shut yourself out from the world.