A Deceitful and Wicked Heart

O. T. #1765  "A Deceitful and Wicked Heart"
August 27, 2020
Jeremiah 17-Part 2
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
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. (verses 9-10)

LET IT GLOW

Jeremiah is speaking in verses 11-18. Our focus is on verses 12-13-A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.

The Temple in Jerusalem was where God manifested His presence, as well as a place where the people came to worship, and flee for refuge in time of distress. It was their sanctuary. It was a throne of holiness, truly glorious, God's throne, which made it truly high. Judah was sinning in idolatry as they forsook god on His throne that was among them in His sanctuary. (Matthew Henry)

NLT says, But we worship at Your throne-eternal, high, and glorious.

Now, there is a glorious high throne of Jesus in heaven, where our Savior intercedes to the Father for us, the children of God who are saved.
One day we will kneel before this high and glorious throne before our God. Do we dread that day or are we looking forward to going to heaven?

LET IT GROW


Now read our key verses again. Here is one of the most famous verses in Jeremiah.
What do we learn about the heart of people? It is:

• deceitful (fraudulent; crooked; polluted). The heart, the conscience of man, in his corrupt and fallen state is deceitful; it is subtle and false, supplant.
• desperately wicked (incurable; sick; woeful) Without Jesus, we can be a horrible person doing sickening things.

Do we have a tendency to point a finger at someone we would describe as deceitful and wicked? That is when we should realize that 3 other fingers are pointing back at us.
From our birth, we have a sin nature. Our heart calls good evil and evil good. The fool says in his heart that there is no God, He does not see all, nor will He require truth and righteousness. It is a self-deceiver and a self-destroyer.
We cannot know our own heart as well as we think we do. When we face temptations to sin against God, how will we react? We may think we will never do such and such, but in reality, we don't know what we would do. (King Hezekiah and Peter are examples.)
Jesus is the One and Only who can change this wicked heart of ours. When He cleanses it, He replaces it with love for God and others. We desire to please Him and help others.

God said that He will search our heart to see our ways and inspect our fruit.
We may finagle, scheme, or plot wrong or evil actions. We may be self-absorbed, self-indulgent, self-pity.

Matthew 5:8 says, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Is our heart pure today? Have we felt a twinge of sin that is lingering there? Be sure, our sins will find us out, friend. May we not deceive our own self into thinking we are fine, when reality, we are all sinners in need of a Savior, today.

LET IT GO
Open our eyes, Lord Jesus, so we see our heart as You see it.
A broken heart You will not despise; a contrite heart You will not turn away from.
Break our hearts with the things that hurt You.
Make us pure in heart.