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I. THE UNPARALLELED DECEITFULNESS OF THE HEART.

1. The false views which it leads men very generally to adopt respecting the safety of their state.

(1) It leads some to conclude that they are in a safe state, merely because they are free from the commission of gross sins, and not inattentive to the performance of many moral and social duties.

(2) If, in addition to the external decorum just mentioned, and which, as far as it goes, is certainly commendable, there be found also a merely formal attention to some religious duties: then, in too many cases, the deceitful heart prompts the idea that there can be no doubt of the safety of the person in question; nay, that assurance is thus rendered doubly sure.

(3) The deceitful heart of others will lead them to rest satisfied with a general reliance on the mercy of God; a reliance this, which may be found even in those whose lives are stained with the grossest immoralities.

(4) A fourth class is led by the deceitfulness of the heart to rely for safety on the adoption of a new set of religious opinions, and on a bare and empty profession of the real truths of the Gospel.

2. The delusions which it practises upon us in reference to those sins to which we are most prone.

(1) If it fail to persuade us that they are no sins at all, though this is an energy of delusion which it is mighty to practise, it will at least represent them to us as sins of a very venial nature.

(2) It would represent to us that one single repetition of the indulgence may not be attended with any such dreadful consequences.

(3) Notwithstanding the promise of effectual aid to all who sincerely ask for it, and the assurance that the Christian shall be enabled to do all things connected with his duty through Christ strengthening him, it would suggest the idea that resistance to the commission of the beloved sin is utterly vain (Jeremiah 18:12).

(4) Before the commission of our favourite sin, it would dreadfully abuse the mercy of God, and lead us to expect that He will never condemn us to all eternity for a little irregular pleasure or gain; but, on the contrary, be ever ready to pardon us: while, after the commission of the sin in question, it would endeavour to secure our destruction by driving us to despair and by representing to us that our opportunity is gone forever, and our day of grace closed.

II. ITS DESPERATE WICKEDNESS.

1. Every part of it, every one of its faculties, partakes of this depravity.

(1) Even the understanding itself, however equal its powers may be to make progress in every department of literature and science, is yet on the most important of all subjects utterly blinded (Ephesians 4:18).

(2) The judgment, however accurate in forming its estimate of matters relating to the present life, is yet so completely perverted in reference to the grand concerns of religion, that even the wisdom of God is unhesitatingly deemed by it to be nothing better than absolute foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:18, 21, 23; 1 Corinthians 2:14).

(3) The will, the faculty by which we make our selection out of the various objects presented to our choice, is altogether averse to what is really good; holiness being the object of its unmitigated aversion: while there is in it a perpetual and violent inclination to what is evil.

(4) The affections are set either on unlawful objects; or, if on lawful ones, yet in an unlawful and sinful degree.

(5) The conscience is either mistaken in its decisions, or weak in its influence.

2. The seeds at least of every evil are invariably found there.

(1) There dwells pride, swelling at the thought of every circumstance which serves in any way to elevate man above his fellow.

(2) There is found that impatience which rises against God and man, when our will is crossed by them, or our expectations disappointed that anger, which is ready to break out on the slightest provocation, or even on no provocation at all; that envy, which is ever ready to repine at the superior prosperity or excellence of another; and that hatred, which often conceals its hostile projects under the mask of apparent reconciliation. There are the seeds of that malice which delights in the misfortunes of the objects of its dislike; and of that revenge which, arrogantly assuming the prerogative of God (Romans 12:19), takes the work into its own hands.

(3) It is the heart, too, in which among a host of other evils every sin of impurity is conceived and cherished (Mark 7:21, 22); and which is the seat also of that unbelief which, disregarding alike the Divine promises and threatenings, is the root of every sin, of every imaginable departure from the living God (Hebrews 3:12).

3. Its wickedness will further appear, if we reflect on the aggravating circumstances under which it will prompt to the commission of our darling sin.

(1) A man shall be thoroughly convinced of the sinfulness of the action on the commission of which he is bent; shall be thoroughly convinced that those who do such things are worthy of the Divine condemnation: and yet his heart shall urge him to commit it in defiance of such conviction.

(2) It would urge a man to sin, notwithstanding the most solemn vows and resolutions: notwithstanding, as in the case of the profane swearer, his sin be attended with neither profit nor pleasure: in defiance, too, of every means which God in mercy makes use of to restrain him from the commission of it.

III. INSCRUTABLE. "Who can know it?"

1. But when we speak of the impossibility of thoroughly penetrating the inmost recesses of the heart, we speak in reference to created beings only. With regard to the omniscient God, He is one who "searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts" (1 Chronicles 28:9): nay, He understandeth our thoughts "afar off" (Psalm 139:2), knows them before they are conceived.

2. Neither, when we say that the heart is inscrutable, do we mean to deny that a very considerable knowledge of it, a knowledge which is sufficient for all practical purposes, is attainable by man. With regard to merely worldly characters, indeed, however they may boast of their penetration into the schemes and designs of others, they commonly have scarcely taken the first step in the knowledge of the unparalleled deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of their own hearts: on this subject they know next to nothing.

3. It is the real Christian alone who attains any adequate and useful knowledge of this kind: and who makes this attainment by means of the influences of that Spirit, who was promised by our Lord for the purpose of convincing the world of sin; by means too of the diligent and humble study of that Worn of God which, when accompanied by that Spirit, proves itself to be "quick and powerful," etc.

4. Yet even the measure of knowledge which he is thus enabled to attain, is not acquired without the greatest difficulty: a difficulty which arises from the nature of that deceitfulness which he is endeavouring to detect; and from the power of that self-love which would still lead him to view his own heart with a partial eye.

IV. INFERENCES.

1. How great the folly of trusting to our own hearts!

2. How important the duty of watchfulness!

3. The necessity of earnest prayer.

4. In what urgent need we stand of God's mercy in Christ.

5. The indispensable necessity of that great change of heart, which, under a variety of appropriate images, is so repeatedly insisted on in the Bible: which is represented at one time as a being born again; at another as a new creation; at a third, as a spiritual resurrection to a life of holiness.

(John Natt, B. D.)

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KJV: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

WEB: The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?