sf860 - The Danger of a Double Heart - 12 of 21 THE LYRICS OF LIFE (Psalm 12)
Psalm 12 (key 12:2)
Introduction
In this psalm, David depicts the day of decline. He sees righteousness vanishing from the earth and society falling apart. While lamenting a situation in which wickedness prevails, the psalmist also expresses his confidence in a God who never fails.
David understands that the source of this decline is not external but internal. Man’s problem is not his environment or his economy. Man’s problem is his heart.
David sets forth five dangers of a double heart, (1) It is deceitful, (2) It will flatter us, (3) It is unstable, (4) arrogance, (5) legacy
1A. The Deceitfulness of the Double Heart (12:2a)
Jeremiah 17:9 (NKJV) 9“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?
Not Clocks Only
A good story is told of old Thomas K. Beecher, who could not bear deceit in any form. Finding that a clock in his church was habitually too fast or too slow, he hung a placard on the wall above it which read, "Don't blame my hands. The trouble lies deeper."
That is where the trouble lies with us when our hands do wrong, or our feet, or our lips, or even our thoughts. The trouble lies so deep that only God's miracle power can deal with it. Sin indeed goes deep, but Christ goes deeper.
Jeremiah 17:10 (NKJV) 10I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.
2A. The Flattery of the Double Heart (12:2b)
Proverbs 26:28 (NKJV) 28A lying tongue hates those who are crushed by it, And a flattering mouth works ruin.
Romans 16:17-18 (NKJV) 17Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. 18For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.
Jude 1:16 (NKJV) 16These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.
Sir Walter Raleigh once said: “A flatterer is said to be a beast that biteth smiling. But it is hard to know them from friends… for as a wolf resembles a dog, so does a flatterer a friend”;
3A. The Instability of the Double Heart (12:2c)
This word “double heart” literally means “double talk.”
James 1:5-8 (NKJV) 5If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Thomas Adams said: “A man with a heart is a wonder, but a man with two hearts is a monster.”
Ezekiel 11:19-20 (NKJV) 19Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, 20that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God.
4A. The Arrogance of the Double Heart (12:3-4)
The very essence of sin is a proud heart.
Proverbs 6:16-19 (NKJV) 16These six things the LORD hates, Yes, seven are an abomination to Him: 17A proud look, A lying tongue, Hands that shed innocent blood, 18A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that are swift in running to evil, 19A false witness who speaks lies, And one who sows discord among brethren.
James 4:6 (NKJV) 6But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”
Proverbs 15:25 (NKJV) 25The LORD will destroy the house of the proud, But He will establish the boundary of the widow.
5A. The Legacy of the Double Heart (12:8)
2 Timothy 3:1-15 (NKJV) 1But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! 6For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, 7always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 8Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; 9but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.
10But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, 11persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra—what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me. 12Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. 13But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, 15and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
The Danger of a Double Heart
The Lyrics of Life – Part 12 of 21
Sunday, October 17, 1999 - Psalm 12
1A. The Deceitfulness of the _________________ Heart (12:2a)
Jeremiah 17:9 (NKJV) 9“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?
Jeremiah 17:10 (NKJV) 10I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.
2A. The ___________________________ of the Double Heart (12:2b)
Proverbs 26:28 (NKJV) 28A lying tongue hates those who are crushed by it, And a flattering mouth works ruin.
Romans 16:17-18 (NKJV) 17Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. 18For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.
Jude 1:16 (NKJV) 16These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.
3A. The ___________________________ of the Double Heart (12:2c)
James 1:5-8 (NKJV) 5If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Ezekiel 11:19-20 (NKJV) 19Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, 20that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God.
4A. The ___________________________ of the Double Heart (12:3-4)
Proverbs 6:16 through Proverbs 6:19 (NKJV) 16These six things the LORD hates, Yes, seven are an abomination to Him: 17A proud look, A lying tongue, Hands that shed innocent blood, 18A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that are swift in running to evil, 19A false witness who speaks lies, And one who sows discord among brethren.
James 4:6 (NKJV) 6But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”
Proverbs 15:25 (NKJV) 25The LORD will destroy the house of the proud, But He will establish the boundary of the widow.
5A. The _____________________ of the Double Heart (12:8; 2 Timothy 3:1-15)