The womb from whence every sin proceeds!

(Charles Simeon)  LISTEN to Audio!  Download Audio

"The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked!
 Who really knows how bad it is?" Jeremiah 17:9

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 has altogether become abominable!

His heart is the origination of every lust—the womb from whence every sin proceeds! Mark 7:21-23

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 28:9

The 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