The Bible is quite thorough in its speaking related to man’s sins. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, / And it is incurable; / Who can know it?” Romans 3:10-18 says, “There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks out God. All have turned aside; together they have become useless; there is none who does good; there is not so much as one. Their throat is an opened grave; with their tongues they practiced deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Swift are their feet to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
The content of the gospel that is revealed in the Bible includes many items. We have covered the existence of God and the vanity of man’s existence without God. In this message we will speak about sins. The matter of sins raises the question of whether man is good or evil. When someone calls us an evil person, we are not happy, but our unhappiness only proves that we do not believe that we are evil. No one is happy with criticism, but our unhappiness is an indication that we do not believe that we are evil. If we truly knew that we were evil, we would never become angry when people call us evil.
When we consider and compare the behavior of people, it is possible to say that some are good in relation to others, but I am not speaking about good and evil in a relative sense. For example, an older brother may provoke his parents to anger once a month, but a younger brother may provoke his parents only once a year. In a relative sense, the younger brother is a little better than the older brother. However, we need to consider good and evil in an absolute sense, not in a relative and comparative sense. Who is absolutely good in this universe? Who has never hated a person, never reviled a person, never told a lie, never coveted, never had a malicious intention, or never done anything wrong? No one can raise his hand to say that he is such a person. Even if someone raised his hand, he would be lying, and this would only prove that he is sinful.
Stealing involves theft no matter if something large or something small is stolen. Stealing is stealing, regardless of the scale of the theft. Likewise, a light bulb is damaged no matter if it is broken into many pieces or it has only a small crack. Many people who are morally bankrupt are like a light bulb that is broken into many pieces, but many, who are not completely immoral, are like a light bulb with a small crack.
There was once a Western missionary who employed a Chinese cook. He preached the gospel to the cook, saying, “All men are sinful; there is no one who is good.” The cook was unconvinced because he acted according to his conscience and, therefore, did not regard himself as being sinful. When the Western missionary asked, “Can you keep yourself from sinning?” he answered, “Yes.” Then the missionary agreed to give the cook a horse if the cook did not sin for an hour. After making this agreement, he left the cook for an hour. After an hour, he returned and asked the cook whether or not he had sinned in the past hour. The cook answered, “No.” The missionary then asked the cook what he had been thinking about during that past hour. He answered, “I thought about getting a horse, but it was not easy because I also realized that I needed a saddle. Since I knew that you had not promised to give me a saddle, I spent much of the time trying to think of ways to ask you for a saddle.” Then the missionary asked, “Is covetousness a sin?” The cook said, “Yes.” The Western missionary responded by saying, “So with the promise of a horse you began to covet a saddle?” When he heard this, the cook could not say a word.
A man does despicable things with his hands, walks on crooked and evil ways with his feet, looks at corrupt things with his eyes, speaks filthy and malicious words with his tongue, and thinks dirty and depraved thoughts with his mind. Man needs no instruction in order to commit these sins. A human being will spontaneously sin by hating, lying, stealing, and thinking filthy thoughts.
If we examine ourselves, we will see that we are full of hatred. Students hate their principals, teachers, and schoolmates. Family members also hate one another. For example, wives hate their husbands, husbands hate their wives, and children hate their parents. We all have some experience of hating others. None of us has a perfect heart.