The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick who can understand it? Let that sink in, let it marinate. If you've come here thinking you've got the power in your own hands to choose Christ. To pull yourself up by your spiritual bootstraps and march into salvation. This text is about to undo you, and it ought to because the truth is apart from the sovereign grace of God, you and I are dead in our trespasses, deceived by our own hearts and utterly incapable of choosing Christ.

Now, before we unpack this, let's pray. Father, open our eyes to see the truth of your word. Break through the hardness of our hearts, the deceitfulness of our minds, and show us our desperate need for you. Jesus' name, amen. Let us start with the first truth in this verse. The heart is deceitful. Above all things.

Above all things. That's not a suggestion. That's not an opinion. That's the declaration of Almighty God through his prophet Jeremiah. Your heart. My heart is a liar. It's a con artist. It's a master manipulator, and it's not just deceitful. Sometimes it's deceitful above all things. There's nothing in this created order, more prone to deception than the human heart.

You think you know yourself, you think you've got your motives figured out. God says, no, you don't. Your heart is a dark alley and you're walking through it blindfolded. Now, I know it's some of your thinking, preacher. I'm not that I've got good intentions I wanna do right, but listen to me. Your good intentions don't mean a thing when your heart is lying to you every step of the way.