Although man would want to be God’s vessel, it is such a pity that in this universe there is an evil power, symbolized by the other tree in the garden. In our surrounding environment, whether in our school, our office, or our society, there is an evil power enticing us not to do good but to do evil. Therefore, although you have made up your mind to do good, it is not up to you when you are surrounded by the power of evil. This is not a matter of redemption but a matter of salvation. In this full salvation God has prepared for us fallen sinners, one of its elements is to redeem us, and the other element is to save us. God’s salvation is to save us from the evil power that is within us, around us, and above us. Hence, God’s salvation, with the life of Christ (the divine life) as the focus, is to meet the need for authority, for power (Rom. 5:10).
Because of the fall, man now has a sinful nature within him. I have been saved for seventy years, and I have been studying the Bible also for seventy years. In these seventy years I have contacted all kinds of people and have discovered that in man’s sinful nature there are four “monsters.” Every one of us, whether young or old, noble or base, has these four monsters. The first monster is covetousness. When you see someone who has a nice pen on his desk, you begin to think, “How good it would be if he gave me the pen.” This is covetousness, out of which comes stealing. The second monster is lust. Look at society today. Children who are still in elementary school begin to be attracted to the opposite sex, and old men with white hair still go to dancing parties; this is lust. The third monster is pride. Everyone seeks vainglory and craves high positions. In a certain university in America, among the top students there was a student in second place who tried to kill the best student. It is a wonder that someone would even try to commit murder in order to become number one. Pride and vainglory are in all of us. In politics, the one who is a bureau director desires to be a department head. After becoming a department head, he wants to be the vice president, and after becoming the vice president, he hopes to be the president. After that I do not know what else he would want to be. Maybe he would like to go to heaven and make himself like God just as the devil desired. Many important persons in the government fight with one another because of their love for vainglory and their struggle for power and position. This is pride.
Finally, there is the top monster, and the name of this monster is anger. Do not consider anger to be a small thing. When a person is angry, he easily becomes enraged and gets furious. Then in his fury he will quarrel and fight. I know these things because while preaching the gospel and teaching the truth, I mainly contact and serve people. For example, there was a very good couple both about thirty years old. One day the husband was offended in the office and was still full of anger after he left the office and got into his car. He wanted to find a place to vent his anger and thought that he could do it at home with his wife. By coincidence, on that day the wife was also full of anger at home because the children had been unruly, a neighbor had come to quarrel with her, and a relative had scolded her over the telephone. Thus, when the husband got home, it was a situation of anger versus anger. When these two came face to face, both became inflamed with anger. When anger comes, who can overcome it? When the husband and wife are angry, they become enraged and get into a fury; then they quarrel and fight. Eventually, they either are separated or get a divorce. Therefore, covetousness, lust, pride, and anger are the four monsters within us that cause us to not behave properly as human beings.
Every day we are under the manipulation of these four monsters: covetousness, lust, pride, and anger. Every one of us fallen sinners has become unseemly because of these four monsters. There are many things you do in secret that you dare not tell anyone. There are some things you do in secret that you would not tell your parents. There are other things that you would not reveal to your wife or that you would not let your husband know. God created us in His image and according to His likeness, yet we are not like Him. We have become unruly and have gone astray because of the sinful nature that is within us.
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