The womb from whence every sin
proceeds. By Charles Simeon. The human
heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?
Jeremiah chapter 17, verse 9. The evil of the human heart is
far greater than can be fully conceived either by men or angels. None but God Himself can explore
the depths of iniquity that are within it, and He continually
marks the thoughts, desires, motives, and ways of all men. Nothing can escape His observation.
The human heart is universally wicked, both in all its faculties
and in every exercise of each faculty. Job says, who can bring
purity out of an impure person? No one. How then can a man be
righteous before God? How can one born of woman be
pure? Our Lord Himself says, no one is good except God alone. The understanding of man is darkened
by sin. The will is rendered perverse
and obstinate. The affections are sensualized.
The conscience is made partial and insensible. The whole man
is altogether become abominable. His heart is the origination
of every lust. The womb from whence every sin
proceeds. Mark chapter 7, verses 21-23 We must all adopt for ourselves
the confession of Paul, in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells
no good thing. The Lord saw how great man's
wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. Genesis
6.5 Yes, and every imagination of
their thoughts was evil and only evil and only evil continually. This was the testimony of Him
who searches every heart and understands every motive behind
the thoughts. 1 Chronicles 28 verse 9 A human heart is also unsearchably
wicked. Not only are we unable to discover
all the evil that is in the hearts of others, we cannot even know
the evil in our own heart. Suppose a man to have discovered
ever so much of his own depravity. There will yet be unfathomable
and unexplored depths of sin within him. The truth is, a man
could not bear a full sight of his own heart all at once, as
it would drive him to utter despair. Nor is any man capable of seeing
it all at once. Its deceits are so subtle, its
corruptions are so various, and its abominations are so inconceivably
great, that none but an infinite capacity can grasp such immeasurable
heights and depths of evil. Well therefore has God said,
who really knows how bad it is, only the heart-searching God
The human heart is incurably evil. Truly our case, as to any
human remedies at least, is desperate. We do not call any case desperate
in relation to the gospel, because there is no sin from which the
blood of Christ cannot cleanse us, nor any corruption which
the Spirit of Christ is not able to subdue. But as to human means,
the wickedness of our hearts bids defiance to all. No resolutions
of ours, no exertions, can banish evil from the soul. We may on
many occasions restrain its actings, for even the presence of a fellow
creature will often impose a more effectual restraint than the
presence of our God. But we cannot subdue the wickedness
of our hearts, we cannot mortify it, we cannot purge it away. It is like the leprosy in the
house that could not be removed in any way, but by pulling down
the house altogether. This, it must be confessed, is
a melancholy picture, but it is the very truth of God and
is known, and felt to be so, by all who are taught of God.
Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course
of your life. Proverbs 4.23