In a certain village in the African jungle, a chief was passing by when he saw children playing with a baby leopard. The chief was stunned. “Isn’t this a baby leopard?” “Yes, Chief, it is.”
“It must be put to death!”
The chief picked up a spear to kill it, but immediately the children stepped in his way. “Chief, don’t kill him! This leopard has never even tasted meat. It has only had porridge. He’s really gentle.”
The baby leopard was indeed gentle. The chief then simply stared at the leopard then walked away. Afterwards, the children fed only porridge to the leopard, and the leopard was still very gentle even though it had grown into an adult. It was wonderful because all other animals would run away from the children when they would enter the jungle with the leopard.
One day, one of the children was running in the jungle when he fell, cut his knee open, and started to bleed. The leopard quickly ran to wipe the blood away and began to lick the blood. But as he tasted the blood, he began to suck the blood. Then the look in its eyes changed, and with its paws it tore open the child’s chest.
The children did not know why the leopard did so, and it leaped onto and killed the other two children who were following behind.
“Leopard, what’s wrong? Leopard, what’s wrong?” The frightened cries of the children echoed out, but it inevitably became silent.
The leopard seemed to be gentle when it was fed porridge, but it’s true, the violent nature within was never gotten rid of. It was an illusion to think that the leopard was gentle. This is how it is with man. It seems that we have become good when we keep the law and do good things. On the other hand, the nature of sin that’s inside of us has not been eliminated. That is why filthy, evil, and lustful thoughts still come from us.
The reason God wanted to judge man with water at the time of Noah’s flood was that there was no good inside of man. If there was a way man could have become good, God would not have punished man. This is what Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 7. “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good
thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not” (Romans 7:18).
Because man commits evil things, he has the heart to long for goodness. All people have the heart to like good and do what is good. In addition, it seems at first that people are able to accomplish that which is good; however, at the core of their heart, they have no good inside and ultimately everything falls apart. You must know that if there are those around you who appear to be good, they are hypocrites. It is because the Word of God has said that there is no good inside of man.
–“And Noah Found Grace in the Eyes of the Lord,” a sermon by Pastor Ock Soo Park, Senior Pastor of Good News Gangnam Church, and Chief Advisor of International Youth Fellowship (IYF). You can read this entire sermon at http://www.goodnews.or.kr/en/goodnews/0807/_0807.sermon.pdf