[10] The heart of man

Verses
Genesis 6:5
5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.


Jeremiah 17:9
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?


Mark 7:21-23
21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: 23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.




Message
What goes on through your mind when you: watch TV (the news and others), read the papers, surf some sites or listen to some radio stations? Do you panic because you think the world is totally messed up? Has the world made you paranoid: do you think everybody is wicked, evil and out to get you?  Have you lost trust in humanbeings? 


When many people see all the things happening in the world today (the wars, the immorality, the chaos and so on); or when they are duped or cheated by a person they once trusted, they get their guards up and begin to quote the above verses. 


Okay, so we are told and we know that the heart of man is wicked, but does it end there? Did God leave that statement hanging? No, He didn't. 


In Ezekiel 36:26-27, God said, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them."


The new heart God was talking about, is formed or received when a person is born again; when a person is born with the incorruptible seed which is the word of God, and as we are told in 1 John 3:9, with this new seed we cannot sin against God because we are born of Him. We can't be evil or wicked after we are saved because we will no longer be children of the devil but children of God. The spirit He said He will put within us, is His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit causes us to walk in God's steps by guiding us, comforting us, empowering us;  the fruit of the Spirit stated in Galations 5:22-23 produced within us, come as a result of His hard work.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law .(Galatians 5:22-23)

The hearts of some men are wicked because they haven't been saved from the power of sin: the flesh hasn't been crucified. As long as a person is being controlled by the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2), he or she would be wicked.

2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: (Ephesians 2:2)

The only solution to human wickedness is salvation and that is what God was trying to let them know. He was telling them that when the Messiah or the Christ comes—thank God, Jesus came— He would save them (or us all) from their (or our) wickedness. This was the point Jesus was trying to get across: that He is everlasting life and the saviour, and  whoever believes in Him will not perish or die in his or her sins.


Conclusion
If you are tired of the wickedness going on in this world, start praying for God to send more laborers into the harvest—starting with you—to get people saved.


Amen