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  GOD'S SPY IN THE HEART
  by Thomas Brooks
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Summary: Conscience is a powerful force that serves as God's spy in the
heart, recording our secret sins and condemning sinful behavior.

Topics: "Accountability", "Conscience"
Scripture References: Psalm 139:1-2, Proverbs 20:27, Ecclesiastes 12:14, Matthew 12:36-37, John 8:9, Romans 2:15, 2 Corinthians 5:10, Galatians 6:7, Hebrews 4:13, 1 John 3:20

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DESCRIPTION
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Thomas Brooks emphasizes that conscience acts as God's spy within our
hearts, serving as a personal tribunal that records our actions and
thoughts. He illustrates how conscience functions as a witness,
documenting every secret sin and wrongdoing, regardless of how well we
try to conceal them. Brooks points out that even in the most hidden
circumstances, conscience will ultimately reveal the truth and hold us
accountable before God. The sermon highlights the inescapable nature of
conscience, which serves as both a guide and a judge in our moral lives.

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CONTENT
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Conscience is God's spy in the heart.

'Conscience,' says Philo, 'is the little tribunal of the soul.

Conscience is a thousand witnesses, for or against a man.

Conscience is a court of record, and whatever it sees it

writes down; and conscience is always as quick in writing

as the sinner can be in sinning.' The very heathen could

say that conscience was a god to every man.

Conscience, as a scribe, a register--sits in the closet of

your hearts, with pen in hand, and makes a journal of

all your secret ways and secret crimes, which are above

the cognizance of others. Conscience sets down the time

when, the place where, the manner how, and the people

with whom--such and such secret wickednesses have been

committed; and that so clear and evident, that, go where

you will, and do what you can, the characters of them shall

never be cancelled or erased out, until God appears in

judgment. Let a man sin in the most hidden seclusion

which human policy can contrive, let him take all the

ways he can to hide his sins, to cloak and cover his sin,

as Adam did--yet conscience will so play the judge, that

it will bring in the evidence, produce the law, urge the

penalty, and pass the sentence of condemnation upon him.

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Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/thomas-brooks/gods-spy-in-the-heart/
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