I want to preach in the gospel this evening upon a subject I have entitled, The Deceiver Discovered and Denounced. I have for my text the ninth verse of the seventeenth chapter of Jeremiah's prophecy. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Three things are written on the surface of this text of Holy Writ. Number one, we have a desperation that cannot be exhaled. The heart is described as desperately wicked, a desperation that cannot be exiled. Secondly, we have a deception that cannot be exceeded. The heart is deceitful above all things. There is a deception that cannot be exceeded. And lastly, We have a definition that cannot be expounded. Who can know it? Who can know it is the question that the text asks. I want to link that text with another that you will find over in Mark's Gospel, at chapter 7 and verse 21. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself is the speaker, and He says in verse 21 of Mark's Gospel, chapter 7, Out of the heart of man proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. I said that my text underscores a desperation that cannot be excelled. And here we have this desperate wickedness that comes out of the heart of man. Thirteen things are catalogued. in this system of sin and in this system of crime. Thirteen in Scripture is the number of apostasy, and the heart of man is apostate against God. There is nothing, you know, friend, nice about your heart. I heard Mr. Nicholson preach once, and he was addressing a great concourse of farmers And he said this, he said, you men's hearts are so black before God, they would put a spot in a bucket of tar. And they got it all right. They got it. I want to tell you, friend, tonight the human heart is desperately wiggered. God starts off the catalog with evil thoughts. to the sinner, his thoughts are not so important. It's the acts that he thinks that he'll be held responsible for. But let me tell you, as a man, thinketh in his heart, so is he. Perhaps you never put your hand to the other crimes that's listed in this portion of Scripture, but you have fought and dwelt upon committing every one of them. Well, if you thought them out in your heart and dwelt upon them, then you are guilty before God of every one of them. We are dealing all with a question of sin tonight. Sin is an unpleasant thing. And the heart of man is the cesspool of sin. You know, this catalogue starts off with evil thinking and it ends in foolishness. And the end of sin is folly! And the end of the sinner is the utter folly of the damnation of his precious immortal soul. What a catalogue! From evil thoughts to folly, and we can see these sins practiced today before our eyes. My, we need preaching, don't we, in this day where sin will be denounced for what it is. There's nothing pleasant about sin. Oh, you say, preacher, I get pleasure out of these sins. I get satisfaction out of these sins. I get some sort of a thrill out of these sins. Let me tell you, friend, that one day sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. In the beginning it may be sweetness. In the end it will be the bitter sour. of a lost, undone eternity. Don't let the tinsel of the world deceive you that it's gold. Don't let the siren sounds of the music of this world, young person, deceive you into thinking that the way of the world is a way of happiness, and a way of tranquility, and a way of pleasure, and a way of blessing. Because the sins that today satisfy you will be like burning scorpions. in your bosom when your sins come home to roost, and when evil habits become as great gems binding you into darkness, into doom, and into eternal damnation itself. Oh, that I could warn every man and every woman of the result of the production of these sins in the heart. Your heart, my friend, is an evil thing, and desperate wickedness proceeds from the hearts of man. There is nothing good, nothing lovely, nothing pure, nothing honorable, nothing decent about the sinful heart of an unregenerate man. May God help you to see that this evening. May God bring it home to you tonight. May you see that these things that you think are pleasant are in fact the seed of hell's eternal doom and everlasting woe. Out of our heart proceedeth evil thoughts, adulteries. This is an adulterous age. Fornication, this is an unclean age. Murders, this is an age of violence. Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. God sees every one of them in your heart. And it's only the restraining grace of God that keeps them in restraint and keeps them from bursting forth in your heart to lead you down the road to the nethermost of the pit of hell itself. Do you remember the preacher that saw the murderer go to the gallows and he says, there goes I but for the grace of God. It's only the grace of God restrains them in your heart. So we have a desperation that cannot be examined. But we have something else. We have a deception that cannot be exceeded. The heart of man is deceitful above all things. You know, this does away with the common theology of our day that sin is just like a splash of mud. on a man's exterior, and if we can get that off at the heart, man is alright. Don't you believe it? I have heard men say over a corpse, he wasn't a very good man in his life, he drunk, he was bad to his wife, he did evil things, but at the heart he was a sound person. Don't you believe it? I want to tell you, friend, outside of Christ, Every man's heart is a cesspool of deception. And there are people in this meeting, and they're deceived tonight. And their heart has deceived them. And while I'm preaching, they're saying, I'm not really too bad. I haven't a heart like that. My friend, I want to tell you, the heart is deceitful above all things. Above them all. And you're sitting in the pew and you're saying, God Almighty, my heart's not like that. And God's saying, your heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And out of your heart proceed evil thoughts. And if I could put in a film behind me tonight the thoughts that have entered your heart during this week and portrayed them to this congregation, you would cover your head with shame and confusion and you would quit the building as quickly as you possibly could. And yet you are prepared to listen to the voice of the deceiver within your breath. How many people in this congregation tonight are saying, I have plenty of time to prepare for eternity. That's a deception of the heart, plenty of time. Friend, you don't know what a day will bring forth. We have had people during the past four weeks sat in the very seats where you're sitting, and tonight they're in eternity. You might never reach home. You might never stretch yourself upon your bed this evening. And yet you're prepared to sit in the seat and to say, I'm all right. I have plenty of time to prepare for eternity. I want to tell you, friend, you have no time whatsoever. You can't guarantee me one more five minutes of time. And yet you allow the heart to deceive you. Oh, and how many people have we in this house tonight? I'm there saying, my religion will get me through. After all, I've been a church member from my earliest years. After all, I was baptized into the church. After all, I always lived a good, clean, moral life. After all, I never indulged in the coarser sin. After all, I always walked a clean path. After all, I always had a respectable character. Many people are trusting in their religion and their heart is deceiving them. My friend, the greatest sin in the human heart is that sin of pride. That's what dug hell and damned the devil and its damned millions of the human race ever since. The devil said, I'll lift myself up above the throne of the Most High God. That's pride. And many people are kept from coming to Jesus just because of pride. And how many people are listening to their heart tonight and the temperature within their breasts saying, if I came to Christ, I could never live the Christian life. I would feel. I would go back to my old sin. Let me tell you, you'll never live the Christian life, my friend, until Christ is in your heart. And then when Christ comes into your heart, All things pass away, and behold, all things become new. And your heart saying to you tonight, I have to think this thing out and see it for myself, and someday it will hit me and I'll be all right then. I wonder how many people are suffering under that delusion of the devil. And that day will never come, because the Word is nigh thee in thy heart and in thy mouth, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thy heart that God has raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. The Word of God is right before you, but the heart is deceitful above all things. Oh, that deceitful heart! that deceitful heart that's taking man farther down the broad road. Let's come to this definition that cannot be expounded. Who can know it? Who can know his heart? I want to say tonight that the natural man can never know the depths of his own sin, because his eye is already blinded by sin. His heart is already crusted up with sin. His mind is already doped and drunk by sin. So he can't have a clear perception of his own sin. I was preaching some time ago in a tent in the county Tyrone. And after I had finished preaching, and led some souls to the Lord, I saw a woman come through the door of the tent. And I have enough experience to know when a woman's mad, and she was really mad. Her eyes were flaming. And I said to myself, Ian, you're for it now. You're really going to get it. So I waited, and she came right up to me. She was almost as tall as myself and with blazing eyes, she looked into my eyes and just said, I don't like your preaching. I said, Madam, thousands of people don't like it. So one more will not make any difference to me. And by that made her ten times worse. She said, I haven't come here to joke. I said, I'm not joking. I'm just telling you the truth. She said, you said tonight I could be baptized, I could sing in the choir, I could teach in Sunday school, and I could take communion, and I could go to hell. How dare you say that to me? I am an Irish Presbyterian. I am baptized. I sing in the choir. I teach in Sunday school. I take communion. My name is respected in this district, and I would have you to know And I don't like that sort of preaching. I said, woman, I've got a mirror in my pocket, and I'd like you to see yourself in it. And I pulled out a little Bible at Icarus, and I turned it up at Isaiah, chapter 1, from the soul of the foot. to the crown of the head. There is no soundness in you, but wounds and bruises and putrefying souls, and they haven't been bound up, neither mollified with ointment." I said, Madam, that's you. You're a nice-looking character before God, aren't you? And she started to weep. And she said, you know, I need to get saved. I said, that's right. And she said, that's what bothered me in the meeting, for I knew I needed to be saved. And I knew with all my religion and Irish Presbyterianism, I was a lost sinner and I didn't like it. But she said, I know I must come to Christ. And we knelt down in the old sawdust that was strewn on the floor of the tent, and I pointed her to Jesus Christ, who alone can save. and pardon and redeem. The natural man can't see his sin. You think you're not too bad. You're pretty respectable. You'll pass the grade. No, you'll not. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The only person that knows the depths of the sin of your heart is God Himself. God knows the depths of your sin. He has it in the record book, friend, in the great portfolios of heaven. All your record is written up. Secret thoughts, He knows them all. Secret lusts, He knows them all. Secret habits, He knows them all. secrets, sinnings, and pleasurings, and wonderness, and lasciviousness, and uncleanness, God knows them all. Every one of them. God knows your heart. Thou, Lord, seeth me. He sees you tonight. There is not a man or woman in this meeting can lift a head to God and say I'm guiltless of these things, we're all guilty. From preacher to pew, from pulpit to every occupant in the building, we're all guilty. The heart is deceitful above all things. I'm desperately wicked. Who can know? Only God can reveal its depths to you. And that's what the Spirit of God is sent for. He's sent to convict The world of sin! May God send conviction of sin upon you tonight. Yes. May you feel the burden of your sin. My, when God reveals your sin this evening, you'll know how sinful your heart is. Has God shown it to you as we have preached the Word? That there is nothing good about you. Nothing pleasant. Yes, preacher, I know it. I wouldn't like you to know my thoughts. I wouldn't like my wife or my husband or my friends or my family to know the secrets within the breast. Oh, yes, I know I'm a sinner. My friend, if you know you're a sinner, it's God taught you it. Only God can teach man that they're sinners. I preached at a campaign in a certain place in the county Tyrone. And there was a man, a prominent man in the district. He'd committed a great sin, but he had money and he had influence. And there's man can cover their sins because of money and because of influence. So he covered it up. And they thought no one knew. And he was able to blame another man for his sin. And the other man was brought to court and he was found guilty. And he did time on the crumbling road for the sin that this man committed. And that man came to my meetings. I didn't know he was there. And I was preaching. And God smote that man with conviction of sin and God showed him his heart. And God showed him the evil thing that he had done. And God showed him that one day, not only before his wife and before his family, but before heaven, earth and hell, that that sin would be dragged into the open and exposed to the tears of the generations of humanity's millions. And he went home, but not to sleep. And he rose in the night and wandered round the ditches of his fields and threw himself in agony upon the ground and wept and sobbed. And the people in the neighborhood thought he was going mad. He was under conviction of sin. And after a week he came back to the meetings. And as I preached I heard the loud sobbings of this man in the back seat of the tent. My sermon that night was punctuated with the sobs of that sinner. And when I made the appeal, he was first down the aisle, and he said to me, Can God pardon a great sinner? I said, Praise God, He can. And he said, I must tell you. I said, I don't need to know your sin. I'm not a father confessor. He says, Mr. Paisley, I must tell you my sin. It's terrible. And he told me the sad, miserable story of how he had sinned grievously and how he had blamed another man for his sin. And by influence and money, he had covered it up. Maybe there's some man in this church tonight and you're covering your sin. Maybe there's someone here and you've hidden your sin and you think that no one will find it. Let me tell you, God sees it tonight. Better get it dragged out into the open now than have it dragging you through the nethermost of hell as your tormentor in the dark caverns of the dam. He said, will God pardon me? I said, He will. But I said, friend, you've made a public sin. You've got to confess it. You've got to go to that man and put it right. Say you'll have a hard job. You can't do the time for him. He did the time. He says, well, if money can help him, I'll make it right. And he made a public declaration that he did it. And he was the sinner. And praise God, God pardoned him. And God brought peace to his troubled breast. Wiped away the sobs. and give them joy and peace and believing. Friend, He can do it for you tonight. You think you have it hidden, do you, friend? Think you have it all covered up, do you? Think no one will find it? Be sure your sin will find you out! Oh, I'm glad I don't need to stop there. Let me tell you, the book says I will give them a new heart. Thank God for the grace of God tonight. You know what can happen? Your heart can be cleansed. Your mind can be renewed. You can close the old book tonight and open a new book with God. You can start a new life with a capital L in this service. Jesus came from heaven. He dealt with the sins of my heart upon the cross. He bore the burden. God smoked him with his wrath. He poured out his life's blood for my cleansing. And he's standing here with outstretched hand and he's saying, come unto me. All ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Thank God there's rest for sin-stricken souls tonight. Thank God there's rest for burdened hearts tonight. Thank God there's rest for laboring spirits tonight. Sweet rest, sweet peace in the blood of the Lamb. God grant you'll close with Him now, for Jesus' sake. Let's bow our hands. Father in Heaven, we thank Thee for Thy presence. We thank Thee for Thy Word. We thank Thee that God has spoken to hearts. O God, continue to expose sins. Continue to expose the heart to the Word of God and grant that there will be a great coming and a great trusting in the Savior.