Sunday School - Jeremiah 17:9 What does this verse teach?

Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church

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always helping out there well we've got a long ways to go and we're starting late so we're gonna jump right in and get rolling

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I was gonna kind of wait for more people who are milling about outside to come in but let's get rolling you can see what the subjects going to be one verse in Jeremiah Jeremiah 17 9 but we will open with prayer and then we're gonna jump in and fly through these slides our grace is only father we thank you for bringing us together once again for the year that has passed for the year that is to come we pray father your blessing will remain upon us as it has been in the past father be with us even this morning in our

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Sunday school be with us as we adjourn this in an hour or so and go to worship Lord in all things we count upon you rely upon you and ask that you would help us to glorify your name and your son

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Jesus Christ in whose name we pray amen so let me ask you before we jump in here what would you call the condition of the human heart there's gonna be some words to come to mind what's the condition of the human heart nice and loud deceitful okay she knows where we're going what wicked okay and one of the places we go to get those apt descriptions is right here where I want to be this morning one verse

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Jeremiah 17 9 now very often when we talk and especially in a reformed camp like ours we speak of the human heart as something that is bad it's deceitful it's to go with our tulip to UL IP totally depraved the inner man is wicked the inner man is depraved in this verse

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Jeremiah 17 9 is one of the place we go to now how many would go there in order to prove what we just said about the condition of the human heart how many would use that as the or one of your proof texts for that anybody can kind of raise anybody

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Wow you guys graduated before we even started that's good now this is a common place to go okay and I want to talk to you about what this verse teaches now

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I want to upfront we're gonna repeat this at the end so that you're sure I'm not going to teach that there's anything good within us that can bring ourselves to God I am not going to teach that I do want us to understand what

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Jeremiah 17 9 is and see at the end of this if it really is a proof text that proves the ubiquitous the constant and the universal badness of the human heart does this verse teach that so let's um let's jump in and just move through again my caveat

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I'm not teaching the goodness of us I want to teach what this verse actually conveys to us what it actually says who's here when

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I taught in Romans 7 14 to 25 who heard that teaching this soon okay that's another one of those um easy to push buttons there is who is

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Paul well okay if only one person here we're not gonna we'll just jump past that okay for starters when you think biblical biblical about the human heart what do you think we just have that question we think wicked we think deceitful we just think it's bad okay so yeah we already did this when you think biblical about the human heart what do you think and what is a go -to verse that you would support that assessment now then they

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Jeremiah 17 9 with nobody raised their hands for where would you go to prove that here we are just off the top of your head tell me you're the words that you gave deceitful bad and wicked where would you go to prove that not this one anyone we just don't like the heart that's a good one for all the sin to fall short of the glory of God so my question that we're going to try and answer is so I'm trying to read my notes here they got small the

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ESV in Jeremiah 17 9 says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick who can understand it and as we're going to see sick is a better translation than the more you were used to from the

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King James of the New King James which we used to use in this church which says desperately wicked or the

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NET the New English translation which says more deceitful than anything else but we'll come to that a bit later so does

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Jeremiah 17 9 teach what we often attribute to it we often go and say the ubiquitous condition of the human heart is this so everybody's got this and oftentimes it is attributed to the heart of the

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Christian and non -christian alike that the inner man is is deceitful above all things okay okay let's analyze

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Jeremiah 17 9 I want to take that apart now as with Romans 7 14 to 25 when

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I started that and people saw where I was going I saw a nervous people out here in our reformed circle when he's gonna say that the law is not abiding upon us wrong there's plenty of places we can go to discuss the law in Scripture other than Romans 7 14 25 my point was that's not what that's about Romans 7 14 25 was about the nature of the law versus the nature of those in Israel trying to keep the law and the reason they couldn't is because they're two different natures and that was kind of the prelude and a setup for Romans 9 through 11 that was my point not taking the law way but to properly understand what

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Romans 7 14 to 25 actually teaches okay same thing here we're not gonna say that the human hearts any good let's see what's

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Jeremiah 17 9 is it really a proof text for that okay what's the first rule of biblical interpretation before we jump in here call it out to me what's the first rule of biblical interpretation context thank you okay context is the king and queen and the prince and the royalty of interpretation what is framing this verse we're on or this word we're on if it's a word it's within a clause within a sentence within a paragraph within a chapter within a book okay what's the book about what's that chapter about and how does it tie to what the books about and so forth as you dig down context is everything okay so Jeremiah's preaching was largely aimed at getting

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Judah to believe God's word through him and what was he teaching that Babylon was coming to affect

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God's judgment much of Jeremiah and this isn't the one overall theme this is one of his most strong emphases believe this word of God coming to you through me

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Babylon's coming Babylon's gonna destroy submit to Babylon now and you'll live resist

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Babylon which is to disbelieve God and you're gonna die it's gonna be horrible okay that's one of the emphases that Jeremiah has so that's the context okay the leaders false prophets and priests all were denying that to be the case and we're not gonna go through Jeremiah in much detail but they were calling out peace when there is no peace they're hearing the

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Word of God through Jeremiah who said no peace surrender now get out and they're saying no no no we're gonna win this is gonna be good we've got it together that's

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Jeremiah 614 and 811 which you can look at you can get these notes from me later if you want to but that's when those false prophets try to appease the people and say now

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Jeremiah is wrong there's going to be peace who knows about Neville Chamberlain in 19 about 35 or so what did

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Neville Chamberlain do what's he famous for yeah yeah

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Neville Chamberlain as Hitler was building up the German armed forces and was making noise about all these nations that were in his way and they need more elbow room and all this and people are getting worried well never to Neville Chamberlain Prime Minister of England went and visited with him had some agreements with him we're not gonna go into a bunch of detail he came back and he famously declared before the um what's the name for the

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English Congress the Parliament yeah that's what it was a he declared before the

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Parliament you know I've talked to Adolf Hitler he wants to get along with us everything's good don't worry about there's going to be peace in our time and what happened

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Poland France Belgium World War two okay this is what those false prophets were like this is one of the main emphases of Jeremiah is against the

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Neville Chamberlain's of his day who are disbelieving God telling the people that there's going to be peace when

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Jeremiah who was certified as a prophet of God was saying otherwise context

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Jeremiah 17 9 as we understand it has to fit that context okay so analyzing

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Jeremiah 17 9 chapter 17 you have a

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Bible open up to Jeremiah 17 so we can follow along here okay 17 is about making sure that the people understand that Judah has certainly sinned and the

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Lord is indeed going to punish Judah okay that's part of this whole flow this beginning of this prophecy is how many chapters 50 chapters it's a long prophecy so really kind of the beginning

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Judah has sinned and the Lord is going to punish it look at verse 1 the sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron with a point of a diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart okay it's there what is a pen of iron what is the point of a diamond that's going to do something permanent okay it's not like using a pencil

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I don't know if anybody uses a pencil same work it's not like using a pencil you can erase it it's a pen okay and then you have you can't erase it once you do it but you can tear it out you can throw it away this is deeper than that a pen of iron and and and the point of a diamond verse 3 your wealth and all your treasures

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I will give for spoil I will give us the price of your high places for sin throughout all your territory verse 4 and I'll make you serve your enemies in a land you do not know so again coming punishment believe

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God don't believe these ones who are calling out peace in our time there's really important anytime you have a question or anything like that comment if you twitch

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I'll call on you so what's the context it's the certainty of the coming disaster and the need to believe the prophetic word the verses 5 through 6 are going to tell us something about trusting in man what man are they talking about trusting in as I've been talking about and what you know about Jeremiah what do you think versus I didn't read them excuse me versus 5 and 6 thus says the

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Lord curses it cursed it is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength and whose heart turns away from the

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Lord he is like a shrub in the desert and shall not see any good come he shall dwell in the parched places of wilderness in an unhabited salt land so curse it is the man who trusts in man what man is being trusted in what man is he calling out government but more in the context the false priests the false prophets okay you got it right but it's the false prophets in his day if we jump forward 24 or so centuries yeah the government we could go with that but you know he's right

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Jeremiah's day it's the false prophets calling out peace no

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I was saying if we were if we're gonna preach if we're gonna apply if we moved it for we could maybe make that kind of a connection to not believe them calling out peace when there is no peace mm -hmm right so what

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I would say about that verse though is that cursed is the man the individual the

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Judahite who's hearing the two messages one from Jeremiah get out believe

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God submit now one from the false prophets cursed it is that man who believes the false message okay from the false priests the ones that Jeremiah has been crying out and saying they're false they're not speaking for God okay

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I got verse 6 for 7 and 8 then give this promise now one of my objections to a we often understand

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Jeremiah 17 9 as this ubiquitous condemnation of the human heart whether it's the believer in Christ or not it's ubiquitous it's everybody

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Jeremiah 17 9 describes it is well what about these other verses after curse it is he he's gonna be like a shrub blessed is the man who trusts in the

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Lord whose trust is in the Lord now how did they trust in the Lord in that day would be to believe the

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Word of the Lord through the Prophet Jeremiah okay blesses the man who trusts in the Lord who's trusting the

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Lord he shall be like a tree plant by water what does that remind you of that sends out its roots by the stream and does not fear when heat comes for its leaves remain green it is not anxious in the year of drought for it does not cease to bear fruit what do we what does that remind you of Psalm 1 very good that's

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Psalm 1 blessed is that man who trusts the Lord now in this context remember we talk about context the curse is for believing in man for trusting man false man in the context of Jeremiah the false prophets but blessed is the man who trusts the

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Lord blessed as a man who hears the Word of the Lord and believes it through Jeremiah the Prophet he's gonna be the

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Psalm 1 man okay beginning of the Psalter what

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I object to often and I've not gotten a good answer for this from my Reformed friends who believe Jeremiah 79 is the ubiquitous description of all mankind saved or not is well okay you want to be deceitful above all things you want that to be your heart okay you've got

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I'll give it to you though I don't agree but I give it to you I want to be the one who came just before why do we not hold on to those two verses

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I've never really gotten a good answer because they are just as strong as as the one that many tend to walk on to okay erring on the side of caution

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I think I think that's good we should err on the side of caution we should lean on the Lord and not trust ourselves in that way

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I agree with what Jesus said I don't think

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I don't think that's what's being taught I don't think that's what Jeremiah is about I agree and we can find a lot of verses and a lot of very strong passage to support what

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Jesus said my passion is that we take the Bible on its own terms that we exegete that we understand what we're reading in the terms of the context where we find it so Jesus is right it's just like at the very beginning or when

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I've talked about Romans 7 14 and 25 and I said it's not about the law it's not about whether the law abides on the

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Christian we can find that all over the Bible it's just not in Romans 17 you understand what

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I'm trying to say yeah okay so it's

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Jeremiah's word as opposed to the prophet cursed it is the one and blessed is the one okay blessing is just as prominent as the curse

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I remember the context it's a certainty the context is certainty of coming disaster the need to believe the word through Jeremiah always say oh okay so what then is the warning of verse 9 just for the sake of class if I'm correct and what

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I'm trying to bring forth what is verse 9 warning about that what do you think in the context go ahead nice and loud good don't be see what were you gonna say soon mm -hmm yeah so can we put it this way if we take the context the flow of thought

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Jeremiah 17 I know we didn't do 16 chapters we're jumping right into 17 then yeah it's exactly that it's here's the false message here's the true message here's cursing here's blessing that should remind us of Deuteronomy but the cursing of blessing called off from the two mountain sides to Israel and you can be blessed even though it's gonna be hard I mean the temple is gonna be sacked but you can live you'd be blessed if you believe and you're gonna be cursed if you don't and here is one re here's here's the reason really to not believe the false priests the false prophets

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I should say because the heart is deceitful above all things because they're coming to you with a heart that is human and human centered and looking to their own needs and not paying attention to God's Word okay that's what he's saying here he's describing not here's my argument he's not describing everybody in the world though it could we have other verses for that okay

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I'm not saying we're good I'm not saying we're great okay I'm not saying that okay

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I say that's not this is being taught here it's not saying that if you go to Polynesia you're gonna find deceitful wicked hearts we have other verses that would say that but that's not what he's saying he's talking about the false prophets am

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I is everybody with me on this we good yes Charles yeah

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I've got the air conditioner now that you're making a good point there

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Charles what Charles is saying if I understood you is the deceitful heart is warning

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I say primarily about the false prophets but what Charles is saying is your own heart could be deceiving you into hearing the phone

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I would say that yours is correct but it's a sub point

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I still in context want this to be Jeremiah warning them of the consequences of listening to the false prophets their heart is deceitful as a sub point

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I like what you're saying but I'm still primarily focused on the false prophets yeah yes right it's very much like Joshua or excuse me like Moses I think

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Joshua said much thing see I've set before you life and death I've said before you the Word of God and I'm paraphrasing a bit and your own hurt

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I said before you how to follow the Lord and you can choose this day whom you will serve and that sort of thing

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Jeremiah is doing that here's the Word of God here's the Word of false prophets the heart is deceitful they're coming from a deceitful point but I like what

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Charles said to watch your own heart so you're saying that the media context of Jeremiah 17 is making a contrast between trusting in the

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Lord and trusting the false prophets trusting in the Lord as he's speaking through Jeremiah yes yes and like I said

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Jeremiah 17 9 is not talking about the whole world we have other verses that will do that it's describing those false prophets but I like what

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Charles suggested there you have to watch your own heart too but I would still argue that that's kind of a sub point yeah again that's not what

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Jeremiah's emphasis is see now I have one of those guys who's so afraid

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I'm gonna take it away and say okay we're all good God likes us as we are I'm not saying that okay the warning in Jeremiah 17 9 is the false prophets and again

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I do like what was brought up here watch your own heart because if you go the wrong way you're leaving you're following your own you can become like them the universal statement of the heart we've already discussed that or is it a warning to see to discern between human platitude versus prophetic revelation we've kind of already discussed that everybody with me you don't have to agree a hundred percent but they just want you to follow my reasoning here any comments between human platitude and prophetic revelation again it's

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Jeremiah through the signs and everything we keep we don't have time to go through Jeremiah in a detail he was proven to be a prophet of God okay and he's his word has that certification if you will and the false prophets speaking in platitudes speaking devil chamber and all feel good it's all okay it's gonna be fine

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God's gonna save us ah we have the the faithfulness for all delivered to the

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Saints we have the scripture we have the Holy Spirit we have the ability to discern we have each other to bounce things off of safety and many counselors never

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I can't hear you yeah oh yeah that could be yeah yeah yeah

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I love that even the new one usually remakes are terrible this one's good but there's a scene there where they listen to the radio and the lady who takes care of the house

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I don't remember her name but it's Neville Chamberlain they're playing the old broadcast where he says and there will be peace in our time and the guys in the house go oh

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I don't have to go get shot by the Germans and the lady the house looks at she goes he's not quite believing it she was okay we're still on context the

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Lord searches the heart verse 10 I the Lord searched the heart and test the mind to give every man according to his ways according to the fruit of his deeds again his ways the fruit of his deeds are you gonna believe the false prophet or the certified prophet the

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Word of Man with a deceitful heart or the Word of God through the certified Jeremiah it's a contextual question if the heart parade of everyone is desperately wicked that's that the

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King James has as most of us learned it why would the Lord search it out you know there's this whole barrel of hearts is spoiled that's why

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I put them in this barrel now I have to look and see if they're spoiled it doesn't make sense in the context okay

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I the Lord searched the heart if all the hearts are desperately wicked if there's no chance that any of those hearts are trusting in the

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Lord versus seven and eight why would he search them out he knows all things but even in symbolic language of God's searching for something can searching something out make sense when the thing being searched out is universally described and condemned already that's how

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I'm approaching this the Hebrew of 17 nine is nine words something like this deceitful and stay tuned that word will be analyzed later poor guy touched his ear and I'm not what do you want deceitful deceitful at the heart above all incurable who knows what does that mean hmm looks like a keyboard error there in the in those brackets anyway deceitful the heart above all incurable who knows is the

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Hebrew the main words are deceitful and incurable we're gonna look at those really pretty quickly okay the formula we have here is

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X the heart above all why it is now I have to stop here for a moment and tell you that at this point this formula is from another author that's not my work but I misplaced his name so I can't tell you who he is but I just want you to know that this didn't come from me

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I studied it and I want to use it because it really helps us but I don't know the name of the guy to attribute it to yeah but I don't want to be a plagiarist here but it's it works really well

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X the heart above all why it is X is deceitful from the

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Hebrew word a cove and a cove means heel or heel tracks like when you're walking it in in something that will take an impression from your foot heel track maybe if you're a hunter you're trying to catch to get a doe or a deer you look for the a cove you look for the tracks and then track it down trace it down a cove is where we get the name

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Jacob and that's from hanging on to the heel of Esau and that's a really interesting wordplay when the two twins the twins are being born and he's holding on to the a cove of Esau like trying to pull him back now

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I'm gonna go first I'm gonna supplant you and he comes he comes second but because he was holding on to the a cove he's named

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Yaakov it's a really interesting wordplay in the Hebrew but the one hanging on to the heel was named heel or supplanter and most of you know that story and how that actually played out

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Esau used this word when he complained is he not rightly named Jacob for he has cheated me these two times he took away my birthright and behold now he has taken away my blessing so that's a cove that's a cove the heart above all why it is heel or supplanting is the heart above all things why it is we'll come to why in a moment there certainly was deception when

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Jacob supplanted Esau for the blessing due to that was due the eldest son but not when he took

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Esau's birthright do you remember when he took Esau's birthright who remembers that how was that done what was the arrangement for the birthright mm -hmm right and he said these lentils right so yeah it wasn't a good deal but it was up front

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I'm starving I'm gonna die give me some of those lentils no they're mine you have to give me something in return what do you want return

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I'm gonna die here I'll give you anything give me the birthright okay here it is now it's a lousy deal and he took advantage of Esau's weak condition but it was up front it wasn't not deception wasn't nice thing but it wasn't deception the word a cove means to be deceptive second

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Kings 1019 let me just read that to you real quick now remember to that I'm not just trying to take apart

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Jeremiah 17 9 we're talking about biblical interpretations here my passion is that when we look at this we go away with our preconceived notions and we learn to open our

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Bibles and read them correctly really read the context okay what

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I say 1019 now therefore a call to me all the prophets bail and his worshippers and all his priests let none be missing for I have a great sacrifice offer to bail whoever is missing shall not live but yea who did it with cunning in order to destroy the worships of bail he did with a cove he was being deceptive okay you could say that was deceitful but really he was being deceptive okay

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X the heart above all why it is now why is our ESV desperately sick and that's where our

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King James our new King James where most of us learn this verse says desperately wicked the NIV has beyond cure the

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Hebrew word is Anush Anush and that means incurable it's found ten times in the

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Old Testament only ten times now here's a sampling of Anush remember deceitful the heart above all desperately wicked how we learn this that's really wicked it is 2nd

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Samuel 12 15 David's son remember the one he had with Bathsheba David's son was Anush he became sick he behind that's

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Anush Job 34 6 Job said his wound is incurable it's

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Anush Micah 1 9 Israel or could be Judah Israel's wound is incurable and then the best for last will be

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Psalm 69 20 so desperately wicked it's not a really good translation there and our

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ESV kind of corrects it okay our ESV corrects it and says

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I'm desperately sick but desperately wicked how Moses it most of us learn this is not so good

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I want to show though this is really a powerful thing in Psalm 69 20 reproaches what is 69 20 about is anyone off the top of their head prophetically in redemptive history

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Psalm 69 20 is about who say Jesus 69 20 is about who

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Jesus yeah it's prophetic of Jesus reproaches have broken my heart so that I am in despair that's our word

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Anush I looked for pity but there was none and for comfort is but I found none they gave me poison or gall that's

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Jesus on the cross for food and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink I'm sorry the sour wine is the gall if Anush means desperately wicked as the

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King James has it as many of us learned this verse in Jeremiah 17 9 then we have a problem with what it says here about Jesus whose heart was not wicked at all much less desperately wicked the word means despair the word means incurable okay not desperately wicked yeah there are word

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Anush simply cannot be freighted with that much moral connotation as we've learned

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Jeremiah 17 9 it can't mean desperately wicked we still okay anybody ready to faint okay brief history the translation here oh we're actually gonna make it this is good the first morally negative flavor was done in the third century when the passage was translated into Aramaic the common spoken language in Israel then and in Jesus's day the

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Targum the rabbinic commentary translated this way deceitful is a heart above all things and it is strong strong is not such a good word there's no real explanation for why that was chosen by men who were obviously expert in Hebrew and Aramaic but that's what they said centuries ago now that the

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Targum that the heart is strong in other words strong -willed will go its own way I think is the idea they had there that influenced

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Jerome who wrote the Latin Vulgate which became the Catholic Bible very influential the heart is perversive of all things and unsearchable who can know it centuries after that the

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Bishops Bible among all things man has a most deceitful and stubborn heart who can know it and the searchable from our word

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Anush Irenaeus who learned from Polycarp who learned from the

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Apostle John who obviously learned from Jesus Christ he had it this way he and he meant

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Jesus he saw it as pointing to him he is a man and who shall recognize him

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Anush is interesting too it's it's in another form

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Anush means man Enoch's name comes from that as a representative of mankind the modern

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Brown -Drivers -Briggs a standard Hebrew lexicon only loads Anush with this moral meaning for Jeremiah 179 that's really interesting

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I didn't make a picture of it for you but if you look at the BDB the

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Brown -Drivers -Briggs this one I used in seminary it's still a standard go -to lexicon for Hebrew only once does this word

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Anush incurable strong these other translations we've seen only once does it say wicked and that's for this verse that we're working on and there's real no there's no real explanation for why it's just interesting that it got loaded up like that have we said that the human heart is good are we concluding here that if it isn't that if it isn't good it's not quite so bad as people think have we said that the human heart is fixable by human means no

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I'm not saying that at all I'm saying let's look at the Bible and take the Bible on its own terms let's understand the context of things

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Jesus wanted to go forward and apply it and does that you know when

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I made the statement about the false prophecies does that relate to the government is a correlation well let's make the correlations let's make the applications after we understand the context because these words do mean something for us today they do have application for us as Jesus was saying towards the government towards the way we're living now towards whom we believe

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Deborah was talking about well how do we discern what was the word you use

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Deborah it doesn't matter yeah I can't yeah

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I don't want to hang up on it just we can discern between the two and the spirit will lead us to be the one who trusts in the

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Lord vis -a -vis the one who's cursed because he trusted man and doesn't take the warnings so have

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I said that we can fix our own hearts or anything like that no absolutely not my point has been that's not what

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Jeremiah is talking about Jeremiah is not teaching a universal constant wickedness of all human heart and my great objection there would be in the believer believe if you take

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Titus 2 we says that we're saved not by works of righteousness which we have done according to his mercy he has saved us by the washing and regeneration of the

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Holy Spirit we take that in context with Ezekiel 36 26 I think it is where I will take out your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh and we look at that heart of flesh and we look at Titus 2 11 where we've been washed and regenerated by the

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Holy Spirit which I think is giving us that new heart to believe the gospel in Jesus Christ and then we say well

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Jeremiah 17 9 says that that heart is deceitful above all things it's wicked it's incurably bad so we say

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God gave us that heart to believe the gospel that doesn't mean that the flesh does not lead us astray it does it does we can go all kinds of places to warn ourselves about our own inclinations it's all over the

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Bible it's not here is my yeah absolutely not okay here's some verses to support and make sure that as Charles was saying let's be cautious we know that we can be led astray desperately wicked it's them but is that not us when we believe them yes absolutely

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Genesis 6 5 every intention and thoughts of his heart was only evil continually

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Deuteronomy 36 the Lord will circumcise your heart meaning you can't fix your heart only

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God can do it through faith in Jesus Christ by the washing and regeneration of the Holy Spirit I'm always saying these

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I'm still reformed I still believe that we stink I still believe that only

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God can fix us okay Jeremiah 31 33 and I the

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Lord will write my law in their hearts we can't do it we can't follow it God and God alone through Christ does it

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Ezekiel 36 26 the one I was quoting a second ago I'll give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you we cannot do it am

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I safe can I still be your pastor Jeremiah 17 9 does not teach these things but it's all over the

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Bible we don't have to abandon that teaching and that truth conclusion no no no

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I've already said that okay back to similarity which was

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I was teaching in Romans 7 14 to 25 who's that man teach speaking to us is that Saul the

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Pharisee struggling against the law is that Paul putting his history as Saul the

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Pharisee as a symbolic of all Israel or is that Paul the Apostle with that struggle against the law

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I said yeah we can prove all those things and how do we struggle and all that from elsewhere it's not what

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Romans 7 14 20 14 25 was about like that our concern is that we take the

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Bible on its own terms we don't have to fit depravity into every possible verse there's enough proof all over the

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Bible for it in the Romans lesson we taught that Paul was reasoning about why the

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Jews could not attain the righteousness of the law why because the law is spiritual but I Israel the rest of us who strive for righteousness on our own

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I am of the flesh we didn't then take away the law that argument is well supported in many places about the law we said that the current abiding nature of the law in the life of the believer was not

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Paul's argument in Romans 7 and in the same way we're saying that the ubiquitous depravity of all human hearts is not the context of Jeremiah 17 9 it's a warning to believe the

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Word of God and not to follow the word of man who leads you astray in the same way we hold to our tea total depravity in our tulip that man of his own volition his own temper his own desire his depraved and all that he does and cannot even infinitesimally bringing himself to God only

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Christ can do that so that said the writer whose name I misplaced that I was referring to earlier he has a good translation which is true to the truer to the

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Hebrew in in Jeremiah 17 9 the heart is complex and fragile who can know it

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Jews in the 6th century BC they didn't listen to them their hearts are a mess so are yours we need to listen to Jeremiah and be the tree planted by the waters of by the living waters that only

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God provides only God can plant us next to so again what is the point here take our

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Bibles on its own terms Jeremiah 17 9 is one of those go -to verses that's taken out of context to prove something and sometimes my fellow reform pastors they get so scared if you start working on Jeremiah 17 9 because you're gonna take away the depravity and we're gonna become

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Pelagian and we're all good no not at all I just want to say it's about that and this is more about how we take our

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Bibles and take them on their own terms what it's saying and get the context before we proceed after that any questions any last comments good how many agree with what

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I was saying be honest how many disagree you disagree okay

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I did I'm just curious like I don't take offense but okay that's what we have for Sunday school today just so you know a few extra minutes

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I'll pray us to a close and ask God to be with us as we join together in worship but just so you know

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Connelly's in South Carolina we knew he was going to be Brian took off with his family for a week off and he got stuck in Reno with the icy roads and everything instead of being here

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Saturday evening as he intended to be so he'd be here this morning pardon me he's stuck in Reno because the roads are not drivable to get home so he won't be here today so we need to pray for him to have

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God speed and safety as well so let's pray heavily father we do thank you for this day thank you father for attendance here and I pray that what

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I've taught as far as this true would help us to know our Bibles better and to see Jesus Christ in them all the more clearly so we'd be more and more like him we do pray your blessing upon us as we proceed and go into worship we pray

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Godspeed for our friend our brothers pastors Connelly and Brian especially pastor