A Sermon by David Black
Jeremiah 17:9. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
God’s testimony is true and faithful. Men may amuse themselves and their fellow creatures with empty, high-sounding descriptions of the dignity of human nature and the all-sufficient powers of man; but every humble, every truly-enlightened mind, will see and acknowledge the accuracy of the declaration in the text, that the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.
1Taken, with editing, from Black’s Sermons on Important Subjects. Born in 1762, he became minister first of St Madoes, near Perth, and later of Lady Yester’s Chapel in Edinburgh; he died in 1806.
This is a truth which, like many others in the Word of God, can only be learned from experience. As long as we assent to it, merely because it is contained in the Scriptures, we are strangers to its nature, and cannot understand what it means. But, as in water face answers to face, so does the heart of man to man; in different ages and in different circumstances, human nature is still the same. And when, by means of the Word, the secrets of our own hearts are made manifest, when we come to perceive the exact correspondence between the declarations of Scripture and what is happening within us, we are obliged to confess that God is in it of a truth, since none but He who searches the hearts and tries the reins of the children of men could know so perfectly the inward workings of our minds and those numberless evils which are hidden from the view of all our fellow creatures.
I propose at present to speak only of the deceitfulness of the heart, a subject sufficiently extensive, not merely for one discourse, but for many. And after all that can be said on the subject, it must remain in great measure unexhausted, for who can know it? The deceit that lodges in the heart is so complicated and so various that it is impossible to trace all its windings. It is only a comparatively small part of it that any created mind can discover and therefore, in the verse after the text, God claims this knowledge as His special prerogative: “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”. It may be useful to turn our attention to this very important subject and point out some of the plainest and most decisive evidences of the deceitfulness of the human heart provided by Scripture, observation and experience.
1. Man’s general ignorance of his own character. There is nothing in the history of mankind more surprising or, at first view, more unaccountable than the bias in favour of oneself which prevails in the world. One would be apt to imagine that it should not be so difficult to arrive at a knowledge of our real character, as we possess every possible advantage for attaining it. We have constant access to our own hearts, and it is more important to learn this than to acquire any other knowledge. But we see, in fact, that this is the most uncommon of all knowledge. Nor is it difficult to account for this fact, since the heart is deceitful above all things.
Self-love casts a veil over the understanding, the judgement is warped by various circumstances, and hence many seem to be almost entire strangers to their own character. They think, reason and judge quite differently in anything that relates to themselves from what they do in cases in which they have no personal interest. Accordingly we often hear people exposing follies for which they themselves are remarkable, and talking with great severity against particular vices of which, if all the world is not mistaken, they themselves are notoriously guilty. It is astonishing how far this may be carried! How often we see men, not only altogether blind to their own character, but unresponsive to everything that can be said to convince them of their mistake. In vain do you instruct or reprove them, for they turn away everything from themselves and never once imagine that these counsels and admonitions are chiefly intended for their benefit.
Every day brings frequent instances of this in common life. The Bible gives us a remarkable example in the case of David, on one particular occasion. I say on one particular occasion, for the description we have been giving does not apply to David’s general character. Few people were, in general, more accustomed to self-inquiry. But when Nathan the prophet was sent to him in consequence of his grievous fall in the matter of Uriah, such was the unresponsiveness and self-ignorance which sin had produced that he did not perceive the application of the parable to himself till the prophet declared, “Thou art the man”.
Thus, if we trace this self-ignorance to its source, we shall find that it is in general due, not only to that partiality and fondness which we all have for ourselves, but to the prevalence of some particular passion or interest which perverts the judgement, in every case which involves that passion or interest. Hence some men can reason and judge fairly enough, even in cases in which they themselves are interested, provided it does not strike against their favourite passion or pursuit. Thus the covetous man will easily enough perceive the evil of drunkenness, and perhaps condemn himself if he has been guilty of this sin in a particular instance. But he is altogether unconscious of the dominion of the love of money, his predominant passion. It has become habitual to him. His mind is accustomed to it, so that his judgement is warped in every case where his interest is concerned, and in those instances he plainly shows that he is totally unacquainted with his own character. The same observation applies to other particular vices.
Here then is one striking evidence of the deceitfulness of the heart. It produces ignorance of ourselves; it keeps men strangers to their own character and makes them presume fatally that they are in a state of friendship with God while they are enemies to Him in their minds by wicked works.
2. Man’s general disposition always to justify his own conduct. Our first parents showed this disposition immediately after they ate the fruit of the forbidden tree. When the Lord appeared to Adam and charged him with his guilt, he attempted to justify himself by saying, “The woman whom Thou gavest me to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat”. And similarly the woman replied, “The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat”. Something also of this disposition is common to all their sinful posterity. We are all extremely biased towards ourselves and apt to view our own conduct in a different light from that in which we regard the conduct of our fellow creatures. When we observe improper conduct in others, the impropriety strikes us at once. Sin appears to us in its true colours, and we are ready to judge and condemn, perhaps with too much severity. But in our own case, the action is seen through a deceitful medium. The judgement is perverted by self-love, and a thousand expedients are employed, if not to vindicate our conduct, at least to apologise for it.
If we cannot justify the action itself, we attempt to use the peculiar circumstances of the case to extenuate its guilt: we were placed in such and such a particular situation, which we could not avoid; our temptations were strong; we did not go the lengths that many others would have gone in similar circumstances; the general propriety of our conduct is more than sufficient to overbalance the little irregularities with which we may sometimes be chargeable. Thus men endeavour to justify their own conduct on all occasions. They even learn to call their favourite vices by softer names. With them overindulgence in alcohol is only the desire for good fellowship; lewdness is gallantry or the love of pleasure; pride is a just sense of our own dignity; and covetousness, or the love of money, is a prudent regard to our own interest. Strange infatuation! To think that it is possible to change the nature of vices by changing their names, and that what is base and detestable in others should be pardonable in ourselves!
It may be further observed that, besides these single deliberate acts of wickedness, there are numberless cases in which the wickedness cannot be exactly defined but consists in a certain general attitude and course of action, or in the habitual neglect of some duty whose bounds are not precisely fixed. This is the special province of self-deceit and here, most of all, men are apt to justify their conduct, however plainly and palpably wrong. Whoever considers human life will see that a great part, perhaps the greatest part, of the contact between mankind cannot be reduced to fixed rules, yet in these cases there is a right and a wrong; there is conduct that is sinful and immoral and there is conduct, on the other hand, that is virtuous and praiseworthy, though it may be difficult – perhaps impossible – to ascertain the precise limits of each.
To give an example: there is no word in our language that expresses more detestable wickedness than oppression. Yet the nature of this vice cannot be so exactly stated, or its bounds so clearly marked, that we may be able to say where, in all instances, right and justice end and oppression begins. It is likewise impossible to determine how much of everyone’s income ought to be devoted to pious and charitable purposes; the boundaries cannot be exactly marked. Yet, in the case of other people, we can perceive the difference between a generous man and one with a hard-hearted disposition.
In these cases, there is great latitude for everyone to decide in his own favour, and so to deceive himself; and it is chiefly in such instances that men are ready to justify their conduct, however criminal it may be. Because they are not chargeable with single deliberate acts of wickedness and you cannot precisely point out to them, in so many words, what they have done wrong, they falsely conclude that their general attitude and behaviour are unexceptionable. Yet their general attitude and behaviour may in fact be uniformly wrong, inconsistent with the spirit of the gospel, and contrary to the plainest commands of morality.
3. Man’s difficulty in acknowledging his faults, even when conscious that he has done wrong. This necessarily follows from the disposition in human nature, to which I have already referred, to justify our own conduct on all occasions. Hence men in general are so backward to acknowledge their faults and so displeased with those who are faithful and friendly enough to point them out.
How few can bear to be told their faults! This is the sure and ready way to make most men your enemies, even though you administer the reproof in the gentlest and most prudent manner. Instead of reflecting on their own conduct, which might convince them of the justice of what is laid to their charge, many set themselves immediately to discover faults in those who reprove them faithfully, or those who, they suspect, may have been the source of the information. Turning away their attention entirely from themselves, they are only concerned to find equal, if not greater, blemishes in others. Thus deceitful is the heart of man. We wish always to entertain a favourable opinion of ourselves and of our own conduct, and are displeased with those who try in any instance to change this opinion even if it is done with the best and friendliest intention.
But how unreasonable and preposterous is this degree of self-love! If we were alive to our true interests, we would wish to become better acquainted with our follies and our faults, and would esteem those who reproved us faithfully as our best friends. Instead of feeling any resentment against them, we would turn our resentment against ourselves and try, in the strength of divine grace, to correct those evils which we might easily discover, if we were not blinded by self-love. But through the deceitfulness of the heart, men are generally disposed to justify their own conduct and are ready to throw the blame of what is amiss on anything sooner than on themselves.
4. Man’s disposition to rest in ideas and forms of religion, while he is destitute of its power. In the purest ages of the Church, there have been people of this character. From selfish or worldly motives they have made a profession of religion, without understanding its nature or feeling its power; having a name to live, they are spiritually dead. It is not easy for people whose minds are in any degree informed, to divest themselves entirely of religious impressions. The fears that naturally accompany guilt will at times thrust themselves on the most frivolous and thoughtless. But the natural mind by no means finds the pure, the spiritual, the humbling doctrines and precepts of the gospel agreeable; and it is therefore not surprising that people who have some apprehension of the truth of religion, but no acquaintance with its power, should eagerly grasp at something which may give them hope beyond the grave while, at the same time, it leaves them in the quiet possession of their beloved lusts.
Hence so many are hearers of the Word only and not doers also, deceiving their own selves; so many show great zeal about the less important matters in religion, but are shamefully deficient in some of its plainest and most essential duties; so many are punctual in religious observance, but are unjust and uncharitable in their conduct towards their fellow creatures; so many can talk fluently and correctly on religious subjects, but are visibly under the dominion of evil attitudes and habits; so many are scrupulously exact in the externals of religion, but make no effort to cultivate its genuine spirit or to perform its most significant duties. Like the Pharisees of old, who paid tithes of anise, mint and cummin, they neglect the weightier matters of the law: judgement, mercy and faith.
Hypocrisy in all its forms and appearances flows from the deceitfulness of the heart; for in general men deceive themselves before they attempt to deceive others. Few are so bold as to lay down a plan of imposing on the world, without attempting, in the first instance at least, to impose on their own minds. Nor is it difficult, when the mind is strongly biased by the love of any particular sin or the pursuit of any particular interest, to persuade ourselves that our conduct is, at least, excusable, if not innocent. A dishonest mind is satisfied with the meanest evasions, and those who wish to be deceived into a good opinion of their conduct are seldom at a loss for means to accomplish their purpose.
Balaam was a remarkable instance of this. He was a man of extensive knowledge and superior gifts. He was not a stranger to religious impressions, for in his calm reflecting moments, he desired to die the death of the righteous; nor could any consideration prevail with him to oppose the divine commandment, by cursing those whom God had blessed. But he loved the wages of unrighteousness. Covetousness was his ruling passion and it led him, by the advice he gave to Balak, to contradict the whole spirit and design of the very prohibition, although he professed so sacred a regard for the letter of it.
- It would be easy to multiply particulars on this subject, but I only add, finally, that the deceitfulness of the heart is seen in the highest degree from man overlooking the real motives of his conduct and mistaking the workings of his own corruptions for fruits of the Spirit. No one can doubt that there is such deceitfulness in the world who considers the dreadful enormities that have been committed in the name of religion. In many cases it must be acknowledged that these enormities have been committed by people who were conscious of the motives from which they acted and who used religion merely as a means to attain the objects of their ambition. But in other cases it is no less certain that men have concealed from themselves the motives of their conduct, and have even mistaken the workings of their corruptions for the fruits of the Spirit of God.
We have several examples of this in Scripture. A striking instance of it occurs in the conduct of Jehu when he was shedding the blood of Jezreel to serve his own ambition. He said exultingly to Jehonadab, “Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord”. It is probable that at the time he imagined himself to be influenced by zeal for God, though there can be no doubt that, in what he did, he was actuated chiefly by the love of power. Our blessed Lord forewarns His disciples that the time should come when whosoever killed them would think that he did God service. Similarly the prophet Isaiah had declared concerning the persecuted people of God in his time, “Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at His word: Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for My name’s sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified”.
We are greatly shocked when we read of the dreadful persecutions which have been carried on in different ages by the bloodthirsty followers of Rome against the faithful servants of Christ; yet these men pretended to have zeal for the glory of God. It is probable that many of them might go so far as to imagine that they were doing God’s service while shedding the blood of His saints. This is indeed the highest instance of the desperate wickedness of the human heart, and the most awful proof of being given up by God to a reprobate mind. But, in a lesser degree, men often practise this kind of deceit when they ascribe to the Spirit of God what is evidently the effect of their own ignorance, wickedness and depravity.
On the whole, since the ways in which men deceive themselves are so various, can we be too jealous over our own hearts? “He that trusteth in his own heart”, says the wise man, “is a fool.” And the reason is obvious: because “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked”. Let us therefore accustom ourselves to self-examination. Instead of indulging a censorious disposition and looking around to find out the faults of our neighbours, let us examine ourselves and observe the plagues of our own hearts. Let us attend, not merely to our outward actions, but to the principles and motives from which these actions proceed. Let us consider our conduct, not in the light in which self-love and bias would present it to our minds, but in the light in which any impartial spectator would view it, in the light in which God’s Word teaches us to consider it, and in the light in which it will be judged at last, when God shall bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of all hearts.
We are all more or less liable to deceive ourselves, and they who think they have the least of it are, in general, most of all under its dominion. Let us therefore distrust our own judgement and, conscious of how ignorant we are, let us pray to God for His teaching, saying with Elihu in the Book of Job, “That which I see not, teach Thou me”, and with the Psalmist, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting”.
Blessed thought, gentlemen! My sin and I can be separated. John Duncan
We believe, on the authority of Scripture, that God has decreed to give salvation to some and to withhold it from others. We know, at the same time, that He offers salvation to all in the gospel; and to suppose that He is not sincere would be to deny Him to be God. It may be right to endeavour to reconcile these things, because knowledge is always desirable and it is our duty to seek it as far as it can be attained. But if we find that beyond a certain limit we cannot go, let us be content to remain in ignorance. Let us reflect, however, that we are ignorant in the present case only of the connection between two truths, and not of the truths themselves, for these are clearly stated in the Scriptures. We ought therefore to believe both, although we cannot reconcile them. John Dick