I shall live as long as the best of you." They do not know how it fares with him, but they fear the worst. Whatever is on the inside will eventually come out—whether good or bad. How much do you feel? Mark 7:21 - For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Romans 1:21 - Because that, when they knew God, they glorified [him] not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. He says -- Your son has been so wicked and has committed such crimes, he must be hung. And I think everybody will be able to see how verse 9 is functioning. NO, NO! The selfish heart forms alike the basis of each system. This is he which received seed by the way side'. So of God. 16:7). I just want to have a kind of new heart that doesn’t just enjoy water — it flows to other people. I said that selfishness often assumes a religious type. There is nothing more that we can do. 6:16-19 B. Ah, no; no such thing at all. What! `O,' says that fond mother, `I think my daughter is friendly to religion. In early morning they are off. Every man who reads his Bible must see that many things in it are assumed to be true, and that these are precisely those things which every man knows to be true, and which none could know more certainly if God had affirmed them on every page of the Bible. Everybody knows that ours is not a state of present rewards and punishments; the experience and observation of every man testifies to this fact with convincing power, Hence it is entirely proper that the Bible should assume it as a known truth. Even those aged parents have not a word of complaint to utter. your heart is so fully set to do evil that no motive to change can move you. Shall not your response be, "It is enough -- I have dashed away salvation's cup long and wickedly enough; you need not say another word, O that bleeding hand! . We know that "Christ dwelleth in your hearts by faith" (Ephesians 3:17). He hardly knows or thinks what he is praying about. Is it the sheriff of justice? I will dare to tempt His forbearance yet. Ah, how long have they been kept without in waiting for the door to open! engraved on the tablet of their heart . God says, pray for your dying son! Oh, no, no; but One comes with the cup of mercy in His hands; He approaches your prison-gate, His eye wet with the tear of compassion, and through the diamond of your grate He extends that cup of mercy to your parched lips. Another is ambitious. No further doubt of guilt can interpose to affect the case; the possibility of pardon is the only remaining hope. Examine such a case thoroughly and you will see that selfishness is at the bottom of all the religion there is in it. Horrible! And then he describes what alternatively ought to be: the opposite of this and the benefits that would come if it were the case. She will tell you she can not.". But hear that professedly Christian father pray for his ungodly son. What, O dying sinner, will you say? His heart, too, is so fully set within him to do evil that he can not get his own consent to turn from his sins to God. is such your heart toward the God of mercy? (Isaiah 17:9). The mother wonders and inquires; she rushes forward and seizes the fallen letter; she reads a word and her heart breaks with agony. They come to the door; they gain admittance and show him the pardon. But that outcome is far better than allowing the evil heart to believe you are on his or her side, or that “he’s not that bad” or “that he’s really sorry” or “that he’s changing” when, in fact, he is not. Most people in the world have no experience of lasting joy in their lives. 10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. He has not the remotest idea of making such a committal of himself to God's interests that he shall henceforth be in perfect sympathy with God, desiring and seeking only God's interests, and having no interests other than God's to serve at all. Here is another curious fact. while their children remember their altars and their Asherim” (Jeremiah 17:1–2). So, the overall point of the passage seems to be that the root of sin and idolatry is a failure to trust in God rather than self. However, in returning to the bigger context of Jeremiah 17:5–13, I find myself even more convinced verse 9 is equally applicable to believers, especially in light of verses 7 and 8. This is not only Satan's workhouse in the soul; but it may be viewed as a purveyor, which the heart engages in making provision for its lusts. O what a flood of emotions they pour out! New nature is brought into being. How long since you heard from him? But, let it be said in way of explanation, this does not imply that men do evil for the sake of the evil itself; it does not imply that sinning, considered as disobedience to God, is their direct object -- no; the drunkard does not drink because it is wicked to drink, but he drinks notwithstanding it is wicked. As they are talking over these things and searching from time to time all the newspapers they can find, to get, if they can, some clew to their son's history, all at once the door-bell rings; a messenger comes in and hands a letter; the old father takes it, breaks the seal -- reads a word and suddenly falls back in his seat, the letter drops from his hand; oh, he can't read it! Now some of the children may take a perfectly selfish view of this offer, and may say within themselves -- Now I will do just enough for father to get his money; I will make him think that I am very zealous for his interests, and I will do just enough to secure the offered rewards; but why should I do any more? Ah, young man! Is Jeremiah 17:9 about believers, unbelievers, or both?” Pastor John, how do you process this text and its context? Will you still repeat the fatal choice, to spurn His love and dare His injured justice. Yes, one son. They look back over the plains of Sodom and see the smoke of her burning ascend up like the smoke of a great furnace. But alas! The culprit takes his seat on the criminal's bench. But next consider another strange fact. God had forbidden her to touch it: shall she obey God, or obey her own excited appetite? Greed is what the parable of the wicked tenants is all about, and greed is everywhere. Oh, I want to be like that, right? What is the matter? Mother Eve, too, was most amiable. I'll go on still in my sins? Man does not see what the LORD sees, for man sees what is visible, but the LORD sees the heart" (1 Sam. All men are bound to fear and obey God, however much self-denial and sacrifice it may cost. What, when God says he is sentenced to die and his angel of death may come in one hour and cut him down in his guilt and sin, and send his spirit quick to hell, and yet the father or the mother have no feeling in the case they are infidels; they do not believe what God has said. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? But in what direction and to what object is the will of wicked men fully set? The object may be either to give the criminal opportunity to secure a pardon, or if there be no hope of this, at least to give him some days or weeks for serious reflection in which he may secure the peace of his soul with God. God will not pass over it. Jeremiah 17:9 - The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it? How often I would have saved you, but ye would not!" On the Decietfulness of the Human Heart (Sermon 123) John Wesley "The heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: Who can know it" Jer. He is under sentence, but his sentence is not executed speedily. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come.” That’s the root problem of the idolatry and the sin. Angels desire to look into these things. shall the universe take up arms against Jehovah? Christian citizenship expands far beyond the country on our passport. The heart that is wicked is the heart that has departed from God as a result of sin. Nay, perhaps he even sets himself to oppose and curse the government, railing at its laws and at its officers, deeming nothing too bad to say of them, indulging himself in the most outrageous opposition, abusing the very men whose mercy has spared his forfeited life! Another thing that God finds loathsome in men is people who plot to do evil. Are there no sufficient reasons apparent to your mind why you should give up your heart to God? Now that is a solemn statement from God's Word and I want you to listen to me now as I bring this message. Because they saw it was beautiful, and they were told it would make them wise; hence, for the good they hoped to gain, and despite of God's prohibition, they took and ate. “Blessed is the man” — not cursed is the man who trusts in man — “who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. not willing to be pardoned -- not willing to be saved! Authentic Christianity begins when God replaces the wicked heart with a clean, new heart: Ps 51:10 Create in me a clean heart O God; renew a right spirit within me. They go home doubly saddened -- that he should both deserve to die for his original crimes, and also for his yet greater crime of refusing the offered pardon. We often fall and wander from the way. No reasons? Ravi Zacharias A Wicked Heart Sermon Jam Like Share & Subscribe. Once more the bleeding hand offers Mercy's cup to your lips. Holy Spirit is poured in. So, my conclusion is that we can say that Jeremiah 17:9 (the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick) is true of the human heart — all of them. That newness consists in the presence of the heart-influencing Holy Spirit and in the new nature. You are altogether committed to the pleasing of self. Suppose he too should fall! ... Jeremiah 17:9 describes a heart disconnected from God. The Conduct Of The Heart “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Heb. “Your wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your high places for sin” (Jeremiah 17:3). If you will abuse Him, He must execute His law, and its fearful sentence of eternal death. This is the common method in which God speaks of sinners in His Word. You don't know but this is the very day and hour set for his execution. True, her selfishness takes on a most tender and delicate type. A Deceitful and Wicked Heart. We love good government, we love the blessings of law and order in society more than we love iniquity and crime. For this people's heart has grown callous; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. The question is from a podcast listener named Micah. Let me suppose that here is a father and also a mother in this house, and you have a child whom you know and admit to be under sentence of death. You who have attended courts of justice know that after trial and conviction next comes sentence. . Indeed, she was A truly pious woman before she sinned -- and Adam no doubt thought she could be trusted everywhere; but mark how terribly she fell! God has no other alternative. This sermon was titled 'The Wicked Heart of Man.' That just makes sense; they don’t seek Him because they don’t believe in Him. The good of the nation demands it, and I can not allow my sympathies to overrule my sense of justice and my convictions of the public good. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and sup with him, and be with me." If your own son were under sentence for execution on earth, how would you feel? Were ever Romish indulgences worse than this? The sympathizing neighbors gather round; all are sorrowful, for it is a sad thing and they feel it keenly. Being well aware of where you are this morning, you … With proud disdain he spurns even this last offer of pardon! Mark 2:17 On hearing this, Jesus told them, "It is not the healthy who need a … Sermon by Prof. C.G. alas, young woman! Look at those hands. I want you to know the three main considerations we need to have in connection with these words of my text. The day of execution comes; the sheriff is on hand to do his duty; from the prison he takes his culprit to the place of execution; the multitude throng around and follow sadly along -- suddenly a messenger rushes up to say to the criminal, "You have torn to pieces one pardon, but here is yet one more; will you have this?" Is it possible that I have withstood a Saviour's love so long? When Christ comes so near to you, and would fain draw you close to His warm heart, what will you do? What a position is this for the sinner! THIS text manifestly assumes that the present is not a state of rewards and punishments, in which men are treated according to their character and conduct. A Heart that Devises Wicked Plans I. Do they say, How cruel to hang a young man, and for only such a crime? And his answer is verse 9: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” So, the human heart is diseased with sin and in the sway of deceit. Notice particularly now the language, "heart fully set to do evil." Human laws may possibly fail of execution: God's laws can fail never! Do you know where they have been to be nailed through and through? Where will you find a parallel to such wickedness? He opens the sacred book and reads the very passage which reveals the love of God, and asks you if you will believe and embrace it? As it stands recorded on the pages of the heart-influencing Holy spirit and invites you in fact feel the,. 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