Podcast: Gospel: The Deceitful Heart

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The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”
-Jeremiah 17:9-10

As I sat down to write this, I was just overwhelmed by this sadness. I had just finished a conversation with a friend about Scripture. I won’t go into details, but basically she wanted to arrange things in her home a certain way for the sake of money. I pointed out some passages that suggested that her idea wasn’t the best one, and she tried to wiggle out of it by saying, “Well, it’s up to interpretation.” I reminded her that the Word does not come from someone’s interpretation, but from the Spirit, as 2 Peter 1:20 tells us.

She couldn’t get out of it, so she merely replied, “Yeah, but I’m not going to change my life just because the Bible says something.”

And that just made me sad. You know, a lot of people reject God outright, but there are so many who claim to love God, claim to be Christians, but will not allow one of His perfect Words to influence them.

And I am right there sometimes too.

We claim to love God, but we don’t treat Him like anyone else we claim to love. We love our wives, so we spend time with her, talk to her, listen to what she has to say. We love our grandmothers, so we go to visit them, help them out when they need it. We love our kids, so we do our best to provide for them, to give them what we need. Then we say we love God, and . . . And what? Nothing. Not a thing. We don’t pray, we don’t read His Word, we don’t consider what He says, we don’t seek Him, we don’t give to His Church. We just say, “Oh, yeah, I love Him, and that’s it.”

And we actually believe it. That’s what is so sad. We believe that we can act this way and still love Him. You know what? We can’t. That is not love, to ignore someone, never speak to Him, scorn His Commandments, and ignore His Bride. That’s not love.

Jeremiah tells us that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick.” Yeah, that’s about right. We do all sorts of terrible things, and our hearts lie to us and tell us we’re okay. We lie, cheat, steal. We follow our lusts, ambitions, pride, and arrogance. And our heart tells us we’re doing just fine. Enough! Enough of the lies!

God has laid out exactly what He expects of us in the Bible. He tells us not to lie, and we do. He tells us not to put anything before Him, and we put darn near EVERYTHING before Him, including money, baseball, work, sex, and power. He tells us that He counts even undue anger as murder, and we get that angry every day. He tells us that lust is like adultery, and we lust constantly.

Your heart is telling you that these things aren’t that bad. Your heart is telling you that you’re okay. Your heart is telling you that God doesn’t really expect you to live up to those commands. Your heart is telling you that you’ll be fine with Him at the end. Well, He is telling you through this verse that your “heart is deceitful . . . and desperately sick.”

The Bible tells us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). All of us, every one. Not one of us lives up to His holy standard. This is not something you can blow off and be okay in the end. The second part of this passage terrifies me. “I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”

You think your actions are okay? They aren’t, but take a look at this verse. God’s going to judge your heart. Those thoughts you have that you thought no one would discover – they are plain to the Lord. And He’s going to give to everyone according to what He finds there.

Your heart is telling you not to worry. Your heart is lying to you.

We have one shot at this, and only one. See, we can’t make up for the sins we’ve committed. We can’t make it all better with God. We deserve death for what we’ve thought and done. But there is one who has already paid our price, though He did not deserve it. God came to earth and lived a life as a man. Though He was without sin, He died anyway. He didn’t deserve it, but He died. Then He rose again on the third day.

He is our one shot. He is our chance for life. And you know what? His gift is a free one. See, there is nothing we can do to please God, but He loved us so much that He gave us a way back to life. If we repent of our sins and believe, we will find eternal life, not by our own efforts, which fail every time, but by His effort.

If you are relying on your own goodness to get to Heaven, I ask you to look at your heart. If you are honest with yourself, you will find it deceitful and sick. If your thoughts were presented as evidence against you, as they will be, what fate would you deserve? Turn instead to Jesus, for in Him we can have life, and only in Him. There is no way to earn this, but He’s not asking us to earn it. He already earned it for us.

If you are struggling in your Christian walk, and keep getting frustrated with the ways you fail, turn away from your heart and look to Him. Keep your eyes on Him, for it is still in Him that we have life. Those mistakes are forgiven by His marvelous Grace.