Hardening of the Heart, Part 1

We've come to a part in our study of the book of Exodus that I think we need to spend a little bit of time on.

And I think that as we look into the word of the Lord, we're able to understand more about the condition of one's heart.

We're at the point in our study of the book of Exodus where we're told that Pharaoh hardens his heart to the things And somewhere around 20 different times between chapter 7 and chapter 14 it talks about Pharaoh's hard he.

And as I was reading through the book of Exodus and preparation for this day, realizing that there's a lot to say about the heart of an individual.

The Bible has a lot to say about your heart.

And one of the first things the Bible says is that there's no way possible for you to ever know your heart.

You see, we tend to think that we do know our heart.

But the Bible says in Jeremiah 17, verse number 9, that no one knows the heart.

It's deceitful and it's desperately wicked.

So, nobody can really truly know their heart, although we think we can know someone's heart.

The Bible says you can't.

And you can't even know your own heart.

And yet, God knows your heart, and God wants to show you how He views your heart.

And so today and next week and probably the week after, I want to talk to you about your heart.

Because there's a grave concern of mine that should be of yours.

And that is that we do not harden our heart to God.

I'm afraid that there are many people in churches across America whose hearts are hardened to the things of God.

We don't want to become like.

Pharaoh became so much so that he became rebellious and cruel and fierce against the people of God and, of course, against God Himself.

And how do we make sure that we don't fall into that category?

You need to ask the question: we know that the unbeliever can develop a hard heart, but how about the believer?

Can he have a hard heart too?

And if so, how does a believer manifest that?

And how do we get to the point where we learn to remedy all of that?

What does the Bible say?

So, I want to begin by letting you know that God wants your heart.

Did you know that?

He does.

Proverbs chapter 23, verse number 26 says, Give me your heart.

You know, I find it interesting that God doesn't say, Give me your head, give me your arms, give me your feet, give me your money.

God doesn't ask for those things.

Because, you know, If he has the heart, he has your money.

If he has your heart, he has your hands.

If he has your heart, he has your legs.

He has your eyes.

He has all that.

You know, there are a lot of people who know in their head about the truth of Jesus Christ.

There are a lot of people who, by outward actions, might even demonstrate.

Some semblance of commitment to Christ.

Proverbs chapter 4 says this, verse number 2.

Guard your heart or watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.

You buy a new car.

You can get a security system with your new car.

In fact, insurance companies will even help you with that by giving you a reduced rate if you have a security system on your car.

And for the most part, we get a new car, we want to protect it.

So we put a security system on it.

We get a new house, we want to protect it.

So we put a security system in there.

We don Want people breaking into our house and stealing things.

We want to keep our house.

We want to keep our car.

So we protect them.

And yet we spend very little time protecting our hearts.

And God says, guard your heart.

Why?

Because from your heart flow all the issues of life.

Everything that you do, everything that you think about, everything that you say all comes from your heart.

So it needs to be protected.

Christ said in Matthew 15, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

You see, Christ addressed the condition of the heart.

That's the bottom line.

And we look at things outwardly, but God looks at things inwardly.

1 Samuel 16, verse number 7.

Man looks on the outer appearance, but God looks where?

Upon the heart.

We all look on the outside.

We're all looking to judge people based on how we perceive them outwardly.

But God looks on the heart, on what's going on on the inside of a man.

So God says, guard your heart, watch your heart, keep it with all keeping, and do it with diligence.

Because from your heart.

Flow every issue in life.

You see, everything about a man that's wrong comes from the inside of a man, his heart.

The way he thinks comes from with his heart.

That 's what distinguishes Christ from everyone else in his humanity.

We have an evil heart of unbelief.

Jesus never had an evil heart of unbelief.

Jesus was completely pure in his heart.

He was completely true and holy through and through.

We are not.

Because what comes from our mouth and what we do stems from what's inside of us, our heart's condition.

And therefore, God says, Give me your heart.

That's what I want.

If I can get a hold of your heart, I can change everything else in your life.

But if you won't give me your heart, That everything you do and say, the places you look, the things you look upon, will all be wrong.

I need to have your heart.

That's what God wants.

He wants the heart of a man.

He wants the heart of a woman.

It's the Word of God that is our protection.

It's the Word of God we are to treasure in our hearts.

It's God's Word that watches over our lives.

And so, if we're going to be the kind of people who give our hearts to God and then guard our hearts on a continuous basis, then we need to be the kind of people that are committed to the Word of God.

I mean that is so basic and yet it's something we neglect.

We're not very diligent in the word of the Lord.

And therefore, we're not very diligent at guarding and keeping and protecting and watching over our hearts.

Our heart is so important.

And you know, God wants all your heart.

You know, we tend to give him parts of our heart.

Remember King Jeh?

King Jehu was a zealous king.

He would rid Israel of idolatry.

I mean, he fought against idolatry.

And God anointed Jehu as king.

He reigned for 28 years.

He was a vicious king.

He would murder the idolatrous people.

He would wipe them out.

But the Bible has one statement about him that is completely indicting to the man.

It says this.

Over in 2 Kings 10, verse number 31.

But Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the Lord the God of Israel with all his heart.

You see, Jehu's heart was not completely committed to the great Jehovah God.

And therefore, he didn't walk in the law of the Lord completely because his heart wasn't completely sold out.

To God.

You see, God wants everything.

That's why the Lord said, Here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one.

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart.

God wants that heart so bad.

And I ask you today: have you given your heart to Jesus Christ?

Does he rule and reign within you?

Is he supreme?

Is he the priority?

Is he the one that rules your heart?

As I was thinking about your heart, my mind was drawn to several things.

One is that, you know, there are people.

And maybe you know them.

Maybe they're even here today.

They have this mental ass about God.

There are times they have an emotional arousal about God.

That is, that they have these experiential feelings that are warm and fuzzy toward God.

They would even be ones who.

Who have come to church and they even at times have their conscience pricked by God.

Maybe you know those kind of people.

Their reason is convinced that there is a God.

And yet they never seem to move from square one.

They remain in their sinful st.

If you talk to them about God, they can carry on a pretty good conversation with you about God.

I mean, they know the word.

They've been to church.

They at times have even prayed to God and prayed with you to God.

And yet, sin begins to reign supreme in their lives.

Not God.

What happens to those people?

Why are they that way?

Ezekiel tells us.

Ezekiel chapter 33.

God tells Ezekiel in verse number 30 of chapter 33, but as for you, son of man, Your fellow citizens who talk about you by the walls and in the doorways of the houses speak to one another, each to his brother, saying, Come now and hear What the message is which comes forth from the Lord.

And they came to you as people come and sit before you as people and hear your words, but they do not do them.

For they do the lustful desires expressed by their mouth, and their heart goes after their gain.

And behold, you are to them like a sensual song by one who has a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument.

For they hear your words, but they do not practice them.

You know people like that?

They say, Come to my church.

Come here, my preacher.

He's good.

He sounds good.

He says it good.

I mean, he's almost like a beautiful song in your ears.

And they invite their friends and they come and they hear the words and they sit and they're here every week, week after week after week.

They sit in the same pew every week.

And yet they do not practice the word of God.

Why?

Because their heart.

Desires gain.

It desires covetousness.

Their heart has another object in which it worships.

It doesn't want to worship the true God of the universe.

It wants to worship the God of self.

It wants to worship the God of desire, the God of gain.

There's something more important to them than God, and their heart is not in it.

Oh, they can reason with you about the truth.

They can talk to you about everything from Genesis to Revelation.

They know the Bible, and yet.

They don't know the God of the Bible.

They'd be like those in Matthew 7 who say, Well, Lord, we prophesied in your name and we cast out demons in your name and we did many marvelous deeds in your name.

And He says, I never knew you.

You say, Well, how did you not know what we knew you?

See, the part is, it's not that you know God, it's that God knows you, right?

And God says.

I never knew you.

You who practice lawlessness.

You whose heart was not sold out to me.

You whose heart is committed to covetousness.

It's committed to gain, as Ezekiel would say.

See?

And yet, God wants your heart.

He wants all of it.

Give me your heart.

In fact, he wants it so much that the Bible says several things about what God does.

And oh, by the way, this is all introduction.

I haven't got to point one yet.

We're going to get there, Lord willing, this morning.

Because I've got to get you back to Exodus chapter 7.

But you need to know what God's doing.

You know, God's at work.

And listen to what the Bible says about what God does.

You know, God, God.

Examines the heart.

It says over in the book of Jeremiah, the twelfth chapter, third verse.

But thou knowest me, O Lord.

Thou seest me, and thou dost examine my heart's attitude toward thee.

See, God examines our attitude, too.

See, you know, some of you come here today, and your attitude's not here.

I mean, you're here because your spouse drags you to church, but your attitude is at the 4th of July rally or part or picnic that's going to be happening this afternoon, or the one you missed this morning, maybe.

You know, and that's and your attitude's not right.

But God examines your attitude so He knows whether or not you've got a good attitude or a bad attitude because God knows those things.

That's why the psalmist says in Psalm 139: Search me, O Lord, and try me.

Try me.

Why?

See if there be any anxious thought in my life.

Jeremiah chapter 20, verse number 12, reads as follows.

O Lord of hosts, thou who dost test the righteous, who sees the mind and the heart.

God looks at your heart, He sees it, He understands it, He knows it.

He knows about your attitude toward him.

And God says, Give me your heart.

Give it to me.

I want your heart.

1 Chronicles chapter 28.

Verse number 9, As for you, David says, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve him with a whole heart and a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understand every int.

Of the thoughts.

God knows all hearts, and God knows whether or not you are wholly ser H.

Remember Caleb way back in the book of Joshua when he talks about the land that he wanted?

He talks about the fact as he goes to Joshua, he says, you know, I want the Lord the land the Lord gave me because I wholly followed the Lord with my whole heart.

Now that wasn't some self-serving statement that Caleb would make because God said of Caleb way back in Numbers chapter 14 that Caleb wholly followed him.

And Joshua would say of Caleb that he wholly followed the Lord his God.

And so Caleb was echoing what God had already said about him, and what Joshua, the leader of Israel, had already said about him.

And Caleb was a mighty man.

Man of God.

Remember, his name means dog, right?

Caleb's name means dog.

Name your kids Caleb.

Why?

Because dogs are wholeheartedly sold out to their master.

You know, I don't love my dog.

I got a dog.

I don't love my dog.

He's a good dog.

He's a golden retriever named Jack.

Named after the chairman of our board of elders.

That's not true.

And Jack's a good dog.

But you know, I have no time for Jack.

None.

If he gets fed, he gets fed.

If he gets sleep, he gets sleep.

If he gets to go to the pet co every once in a while to get a good bubby bath and everything, fine.

If he gets brushed, good.

If it gets fleas, too bad.

You know, I'm just not a good caretaker of the dog.

The kids got to take care of the dog.

But Jack is sold out.

To me.

He is.

He sees me, man.

He wants to be with me.

He loves me.

He licks me.

He does all he can to be with me.

He's crazy about me.

And that's the way God wants us with Him.

See, God cares whether you have fleas or you go to Petco or whatever, because God is not like me.

See?

God cares about you.

But you see, He wants us to be like Caleb.

Holy following the Lord sold out.

And so David says to Solomon, Follow the Lord with your whole heart, Solomon, for the Lord searches all your hearts.

He searches it.

He knows it.

He examines it.

He tries it.

He seeks it.

He knows the attitude of your hearts.

He knows.

And some of you who are here today, you have fooled some of us.

Maybe you've fooled all of us.

And maybe you're in the process of fooling your wife or your husband or your children, but you can't fool God.

He can't.

He knows the secrets of your heart.

Still, give him your heart.

He knows the evilness of your heart.

He says, you know what?

I'll die for your sins.

He knows every bad thing there is to know about you and loves you just the same.

That's amazing.

And that should motivate us to give our heart to God.

Yes, Lord.

And to serve God with our whole heart.

We also realize that God weighs the motives.

Look at Proverbs 21, verse number 2.

Every man's way is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts.

Well, that verse is convicting.

Because you know, we do some things that in our own eyes, they look pretty good.

You know, we've done some good things.

He knows what you really want on the inside, seeks and searches.

It says in verse number one of Proverbs 21, the king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord.

He turns it wherever he wishes.

God influences the heart.

Did you know that?

You know, I don't.

It doesn't make a difference who the king is.

It doesn't make a difference who's going to be elected president in November.

God influences the heart of the king, no matter who's on the throne.

God's in charge.

You know, I'll do my responsibility.

I'll go out and vote for who I want to be the president.

But if he doesn't get it, it's okay.

Because God's in charge.

He influences the king's heart way back in the book of Ezra.

Ezra the sixth chapter.

You can read about it there as God would move in the king of Assyria.

Ezra chapter 7, verse number, I'm sorry, Ezra chapter 6.

Verse number 22, and they observed the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy, for the Lord had caused them to rejoice, and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them. to encourage them in the work of the house of God and the God of Israel.

Ezra was committed to committing everything to his God and even the heart of the king of Assyria into the hand of God.

And God influenced the king and moved.

In the heart of the king, because that's what God does.

God's in charge.

So he can influence the heart of an evil king, like he influences the heart of the righteous king and the good king.

The Bible also says that God enlightens the hearts.

You can read about it in 2 Corinthians 4:6, Ephesians 1, verse number 18, where Paul would pray that the eyes of their hearts would be enlightened.

God does that.

God turns the light on the hearts because God's in charge.

Also, God strengthens the heart.

2 Chronicles 16, verse number 9: For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth, that he may strongly support those whose heart is completely his.

God strengthens the heart.

He supports the heart.

And yet, as much as He tries the heart, examines the heart, weighs the motives of the heart, as much as He opens the heart, influences the heart, creates a new heart, strengthens the heart, establishes the heart, As much as all that, you need to know.

God also hardens the heart.

Now that's just not one of the greatest things that we want to hear today, but that's the truth.

God also hardens the heart.

And that's what he did to Pharaoh in the book of Exodus, to bring about his great and glorious purposes.

And yet, and yet, you must understand something.

Every person who is born is born with a hard heart.

Did you know that?

The Bible tells us in the book of Ezekiel, Ezekiel the 11th chapter.

Verse number 19, it says this, and I shall give them one heart, and shall put a new spirit within them.

And I shall take the heart of stone out of their flesh, and give them a heart.

Flesh.

Also, over in the book of Ezekiel, the 36 chapter, the 26 verse, it says this.

Speaking of the new covenant.

Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh. and give you a heart of flesh.

And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will be careful to observe my ordinances.

Everyone is born with a stony heart, a hard-as-rock heart.

Everyone is.

And yet Jeremiah 23, 29, God says, Is not my wor like a hammer?

That shatters the rock.

It's God's word that shatters the hard hearts.

That's why we keep preaching the Word of God to people.

Because God's Word works on the hard, stony, cold. un, unbending, unresponsive, unregenerate, un heart.

God works on it.

Through his word.

And that's what breaks a man's heart.

And what I want to do over the next couple of weeks is talk to you about the context of the hard heart in Exodus chapter 7 through chapter 14.

And that from that context, I want you to be able to see a great concern for the believer as well as the unbeliever that all of us should have.

And from that concern, look at the cause of the hard heart.

What causes a man to develop a hard heart and grow harder and harder and harder over time?

And then look at the consequences to that hard heart.

The consequences.

And then examine our commitment so that we can abstain from having hard hearts.

And then look at a conclusion with you that will examine what a tender heart looks like.

So, you will know for certain that your heart is not cold toward the things of God.

It's not being hardened toward the things of God.

Because some people might say, Well, is God going to harden my heart like He did Pharaoh's heart?

How will I know that I have a hard heart?

What are the characteristics of a hard heart?

What are the characteristics of a tender heart?

How will I know them?

I think you need to know.

So we're going to tell you.

Because God wants you to know.

But one thing you need to know before you leave today.

I said, God wants your heart.

He wants it.

He wants it more than you want to give it, but he does want it.

And you've got to ask yourself today: have I given my heart to Jesus Christ?

Does he have it?

Do I love the Lord my God with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, with all my strength?

Or am I like Jehu?

I didn't follow the law of the Lord with my whole heart.

Let's pray.