A fter the fall of man to sin, every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually [Genesis 6:5]. That was what God saw in the hearts of sinful man. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” [Jeremiah 17:9]. Is it not true that out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies [Matthew 15:19]? This filthiness of flesh and spirit are loathsome in the sight of God. If not for His restraining grace, wickedness in this world will go from strength to strength [Genesis 20:6]. The total depravity of man is explicitly and figuratively described in Isaiah 1:6: “From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.” Only in the mirror of God’s word can we see our true sinful self. Note, Manasseh was a bad king of Judah. He practised what the heathen did – child sacrifices, observed times, used enchantments, witchcraft, the occult [2 Chronicles 33:6], yet Scripture says he did worse than the heathen [2 Chronicles 33:9]. Why so? Because he had the written word of God and the prophets to enlighten and warn him. Thus, the light he had was far clearer and his obligations to God far greater. Consequently, his sins though same in nature were unspeakably worse in light of these dreadful aggravations. Christian, be admonished! Amazingly, wicked as Manasseh was, he found forgiveness when he humbled himself, repented and turned to God. Plentiful grace with the Lord Jesus Christ is always found, grace to cover all our sins. We have three facets of personality – what others think of me, what I think of myself, and what God sees in me.
LESSON
They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
THOUGHT
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