Psalms 78:56-57

And kept not His testimonies: but turned back, and dealt unfaithfully their fathers.

The deceitfulness of the heart as to duty

I. As to the performance of duty, the heart discovers its power of deceit.

1. By diverting a person from those duties that are most spiritual in their nature. It will plead as to self-examination and meditation on the Word, that these duties are of too difficult a nature; that they require too close an attention; that it is very provoking to God to perform them carelessly; and therefore insist for the neglect of them, and for giving a preference to those of a more general nature.

2. By endeavouring to prevent any real communion with God, and to distract the mind by wandering in duty.

3. By inciting to hypocrisy. The people of God are sometimes disposed to appear to Him more fervent in duty than they really are, to make professions of love to Him which they do not presently feel, to express a hatred of sin and desire of His favour, without the immediate sense of either in their hearts.

4. By prompting the possessor to retain sin in his heart, even when he draws near to God.

5. By exciting a person to rely on his own strength.

6. By pleading uprightness of intention as an apology for a multitude of defects.

7. There are many, on the other hand, who please themselves with the form of duty, without any regard to the intention.

8. By stirring up the believer to spiritual pride after enjoying the Divine presence in duty.

9. By dissuading the Christian from duty, when the observation of it is attended with no comfort.

10. By making the person seek comfort from the mere performance of duty.

11. By inspiring one with greater boldness in duty, because of former comfort in the observation of it.

II. With respect to omission.

1. The heart urges the delay of duty, and thus discovers its deceitfulness, by promising a future opportunity.

2. It persuades us to omit duty by calling in the world to its aid. This is a faithful ally to the corrupt heart, always willing to lend its aid in turning us away from God.

3. It presents evil in opposition to present duty. When God presents an opportunity of serving Him, to which the renewed will consents, the deceitfulness of the heart offers a temptation to evil; and by the artfulness or force of the temptation endeavours to divert the believer from the good that he designs.

4. It dissuades from duty, because of insufficiency for performing it aright. The deceitful heart will often contradict itself, rather than fail of its intention, to baffle all the attempts of the believer in the service of his God. If engaged in duty, it persuades him to depend on his own strength. If he be convinced of the folly of this proposal, it will try to hinder him from duty, because of felt inability.

5. It prompts the Christian to resist the present call to duty, for want of a proper temper. By this is meant a right disposition of heart, liveliness of affections, a present feeling of the comforts of religion. A comfortable warmth of affections is most desirable, indeed, in the service of the Lord. But it is not essential to acceptable worship. A duty may be performed in the exercise of faith, while no sensible comfort is attained. But wilfully to omit any one for want of this is to renounce the true foundation of our access to God, which is only through Christ.

6. It dissuades from duty, by representing that an eminent measure of holiness is not necessary to salvation.

7. It inclines to the neglect of duty, lest others should construe it as presumption or hypocrisy. This is a modesty, for which God may be provoked so to chasten His people as to give them just cause of shame, and to cover their faces with deserved confusion.

We shall conclude with the following directions:--

1. Beware of neglecting the season of duty. God’s time is always the fittest for His own service.

2. Do not plead the world as an excuse for the omission of duty. God hath given you abundance of time to yourselves. “To everything there is a season,” etc. You may easily accomplish all your worldly business, and yet devote that time to God which He requires.

3. Be extremely suspicious of every excuse that your heart offers for the neglect of duty.

4. Quench not the Spirit, when exciting you to duty. This is grieving to the Holy Ghost, by whom you are sealed to the day of redemption.

5. Carry on, in the strength of promised grace, a constant war against the carnality of your hearts, against that opposition which is in them to duty. (J. Jamieson, M. A.)

The unfaithfulness of God’s people

When the bow is unbent, the rift it has may be undiscerned, but go to use it by drawing the arrow to the head and it flies in pieces; thus doth a false heart when put to the trial. As the ape in the fable, dressed like a man, when nuts are thrown before her, cannot then dissemble her nature any longer, but shows herself an ape indeed; a false heart betrays itself before it is aware, when a fair occasion is presented for its lust; whereas sincerity keeps the soul pure in the face of temptation. (W. Gurnall.)

Disobeying the King

To break the king’s laws is punishable, but to pull him out of his throne, and set up a scullion in it and give him the honour and obedience of a king, this is another kind of matter, and much more intolerable. The first commandment is not like the rest, which require only obedience to particular laws in a particular action, but it establisheth the very relations of sovereign and subject, and requires a constant acknowledgment of these relations, and make it high treason against the God of heaven in any that should violate that command. Now, this is the sin of every worldling: he hath taken down God from the throne in his soul and set up the flesh and the world in His stead; these he valueth and delighteth in; these have his very heart, while God that made it and redeemed it is set lightly by. (Richard Baxter.)