More Than Medicine
More Than Medicine
DWDP: The Heart is Deceitful
What would you do if you discovered someone you trusted had lied to you? Join us on this gripping episode of "More Than Medicine," where Dr. Robert Jackson recounts a shocking experience with a patient who spun an elaborate web of deceit to obtain pain medication. Through this personal story, we explore the sobering reality of the human heart's deceitfulness as described in Jeremiah 17:9, and the critical need for vigilance and discernment in medical practice.
As we navigate the broader implications of deception, fraud, and lying in our daily lives, Dr. Jackson provides insights drawn from personal anecdotes and biblical scripture. Understand the profound impact of sin on both the deceiver and the deceived, and discover how hope and redemption through Jesus Christ can transform lives. This episode is a powerful reminder that despite our inherent sinful nature, God's grace offers us the opportunity to turn away from deception and embrace a life of righteousness through faith and repentance. Listen in for an inspiring discussion on the transformative power of God's grace and the free gift of salvation available to all.
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Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country. Hosted by author and physician, Dr Robert Jackson.
Speaker 2:Papa, can you tell me a story? Do you really want me to tell you a story? Well, you go, get your brother and your sisters and I will tell you a story. Well, you go, get your brother and your sisters and I will tell you a story. Welcome to Devotions with Dr Papa. Gather around, grab your Bibles and let's look into the written word, which reveals to us the living word, which is our Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2:I'm going to continue in a series that I started several weeks back, discussing lessons in life that I have gathered and learned from my patients. I'm going to start today with a verse of scripture Jeremiah 17 and verse 9, and that scripture says the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. Who can understand it? Well, let me start with a story about one of my patients who came to see me many years ago. She complained of chronic back pain. She was a new patient to me and she told me she'd been healthy all of her life. And when I requested old medical records, she said she really didn't have any because she had been healthy until recently and she hadn't been seeing a doctor. I started her off on a non-controlled drug we call NSAIDs, like ibuprofen and things like that, and in a month she came back to see me and declared that this was not really helping her back pain. I advanced her to a medicine called tramadol, which is sort of in the gray zone between non-controlled drugs and more potent medications like opiates. A month later, she came back and declared that this was not really helpful either. I then gave her a cortisone injection in her lower back. She came back a month later and also stated that this was only minimally beneficial. I then advanced her to a low-dose hydrocodone, at which time she said this was helpful, and so I gave her a prescription for the hydrocodone and asked her to come back to see me every month.
Speaker 2:Well, after several months of this, she came in in tears, telling me that her son was in a hospital, a military hospital in Germany, that he'd been injured in the war in the Middle East and that she was going to have to leave urgently to go there. She requested two months worth of her pain medication. Well, I was moved by her plight and I complied. I gave her a two-month supply of her pain medication and then she left. Well, it just so happened that her ex-husband came to see me a couple of weeks later I asked about his son her son that was in the military hospital in Germany. Well, he was perplexed, saying we don't have a son in the military. And I explained to him what she had told me and he began to laugh out loud and he said, doc, she does that all the time, telling that same story to other physicians. Well, I realized that I had been deceived, and it was not the first time that a patient has pulled the wool over my eyes, and it's not the only time that a patient has pulled the wool over my eyes, and it's not the only time that that's happened to me or to other physicians.
Speaker 2:So let me ask you a question have you ever been deceived? Have you ever been defrauded? Have you ever deceived someone else or defrauded someone else? Have you ever been lied to or have you lied to someone else? Has somebody stolen from you or have you stolen something from someone else? You see, the scripture verse that we read says that the heart is more deceitful than all else, than anything else, and it is desperately sick. And who can understand it? Who can plumb the depths of the deceitfulness of the human heart? Now here's the better question have you ever deceived someone else? Have you ever defrauded someone else? Have you ever lied or stolen? You see, fraud is common in my medical practice. It's mostly something perpetrated by men against my female patients. Fraud is when you promise something that you cannot or will not deliver. In my male-female relationships between my patients, it's usually men implying long-term commitment and security, when all they intend is short-term sex, leaving behind a broken heart when my female patients have offered the best fruit out of the garden of their lives to a renegade and fraudulent male who promised what he never intended to render. But you see, the converse can also be true. For example, just two weeks ago one of my male patients was in my office. He was confused and he was depressed. He thought he had found the love of his life. He took her into his home, he gave her a place to live and he thought that they were planning to be married. He was as happy as a clam that they were planning to be married. He was as happy as a clam. And then he came home from work one day and all of her stuff was gone from his home and she had changed her phone number. After two weeks of searching he found her living with another younger and more affluent man. You see, he was just a stepping stone on the way to what she was really looking for. He was deceived and brokenhearted. You see, the Bible tells us that the heart is deceptive. It is deceitful above all things, and it is desperately sick. And who can understand it? Now go back to the original question. Have you ever deceived someone else? Have you ever defrauded someone else? Have you ever lied or stolen? What about this? Have you ever coveted? Now, I'm not talking about stealing something big like an automobile. I'm talking about just stealing anything, something small, no matter how small.
Speaker 2:I have a friend. He was in prison for 46 years for murder. He became a believer after about 20 years and God used him as a missionary within the prison system in South Carolina, and he has a little message that he shares with young people in churches, and he calls it Candy Bar Dumb. And you know why? Because many of the men that he met in prison started a lifetime of stealing, a lifetime of thievery, by stealing something small. And you know what it was? It was a candy bar. They started a lifetime career as a criminal by stealing candy bars, and that's why he calls his message candy bar dumb.
Speaker 2:So let me ask you have you ever stolen something small, something insignificant? Well, you see how much, how small of an item do you have to steal before you become a thief? How much stealing makes you a thief? How much lying makes you a liar? How much coveting makes you covetous? How many of the Ten Commandments do you have to break before you are considered a serious lawbreaker in the eyes of God?
Speaker 2:You see, the scripture says this in Romans, chapter 3. Now, this is hard to listen to. I'm going to promise you, this is a hard scripture to listen to. There is none righteous, not even one. There's none who understands. There's that word again.
Speaker 2:With their tongue, they keep deceiving. The poison of asp is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now, why does the last verse say the fear of God is not before their eyes? Because, you see, when you and I have no fear of God, then we choose our own way. We choose the way of wickedness. When there's no fear of God in our hearts, then we choose our own way and there's no righteousness in our hearts and there's nothing about us that understands the way of God, and we turn all together to the side and we become useless. There's none who does good, not even one.
Speaker 2:And you see, romans 3.23 tells us that the penalty for sin is death, not just physical death but spiritual death. And all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Every last one of us has sin in our hearts, because the heart is deceitful and desperately sick. We've all been deceived at one time or another and we have all been deceivers. We've all been liars, thieves, covetous, and because of this we are all dead in our trespasses. Of this we are all dead in our trespasses and our sin. But listen to me, be of good cheer, because in that very same chapter in the book of Romans, the Bible says, in verse 24, being justified as a gift by his grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. You see, friends, because of God's great love, you and I can be justified, even though all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We can be justified as a gift, as a free gift, by His grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.
Speaker 2:Now, there's multiple theological terms in that verse that we need to break out. First of all, that word justified. That's a legal term. It means that we are declared legally righteous. God declares you and me legally righteous when we turn away from our sin in repentance and we turn towards God and receive the free gift of salvation that's made available by our Lord Jesus Christ. By His grace. That means unmerited favor. By His grace, god offers to us redemption. Now that theological word means to be bought back. Bought back from the slave market of sin. And what's the purchase price? The purchase price is the blood of Jesus.
Speaker 2:And 1 Peter, chapter 1, tells us that we were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb, unblemished and spotless. Whose blood? Oh, you know, it's the blood of Christ. You were redeemed with precious blood, the blood of a lamb, unblemished and spotless, the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now listen, why am I telling you all of these things?
Speaker 2:You see, the heart is deceitful and desperately sick, and none of us can understand it. None of us can plumb the depths of the deceitfulness and wickedness of the human heart and I deal with that almost every day in my medical practice. People who are deceivers, deceivers, liars, cheaters, covetous, and, yes, you and me, all of us have hearts that are filled with deception. We have been deceived and we are deceivers and because of that we are spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins, spiritually blind and spiritually bound. But here's the good news, friend.
Speaker 2:The good news is that God has justified us and he has purchased us out of a slave market of sin, and the redemption price is the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. And by His grace and His great love, god has made it possible for you and me to be born again into the kingdom of God and delivered, rescued from the slave market of sin. All you and I have to do is to turn away, repent, turn away from that lifestyle of deceiving and defrauding and deception and receive the free gift of salvation made freely available by our Lord Jesus Christ. And if you're listening to me today and you've never done that, recognize your sin, confess and repent of your sin and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your only Savior, receive Him as the true King of your life, and God will make available to you the free gift of salvation and eternal life. You're listening to Devotions with Dr Papa. If you like what you hear, follow, like and share. Download it, make it a part of your own possession, and then I'll be back again with you next week.
Speaker 1:And until then, may the Lord bless Ministry Dr Jackson's books or to schedule a speaking engagement, go to their Facebook page, instagram or their webpage at jacksonfamilyministrycom. This podcast is produced by Bob Sloan Audio Production at bobsloancom.
