Hardening of the Heart, Part 3

We have taken just a few weeks to look at what the Bible says about the hard heart. You know, it's not easy to find people who write about the hard heart and to study it. And so you have to spend a lot of time searching through the scriptures to see what the Bible says.

About the condition of the heart and what God wants to do in the life of each and every individual. And so that's what we've purposed to do over these last few weeks as we have taken a break from our study of Exodus. Because in there, we saw where Pharaoh's heart was hardened toward the things of God. What does that mean? How does that apply to us? How does one harden his heart today? I think it's imperative that we understand that. And so we began by looking at the context in Exodus chapter 7, by looking at the fact that God predicted that Pharaoh would harden his heart to the things of God and would not listen to what Moses would say.

Over and over again, Pharaoh would harden his heart to the things of God, so much so that God would finally harden Pharaoh's heart completely, and he would no longer have the opportunity to repent and to turn from his sin.

And so, what does that mean for us? That's the context. So, we began to look at point number two: the concern, because the believer can harden his heart.

To the things of God. We know that the unbeliever's heart is hardened. Ezekiel 36: tells us that the heart of the unbeliever is a stony heart, it's a hard heart. And so man is born with a hardened heart against God. And we tried to contrast the two for you last week to help you understand that the unbeliever's heart, because of its iniquity, turns away from God. But the believer, not because of iniquity, but because of familiarity to the Word of God, it begins to tune out God as the disciples did in Mark chapter 6 and in Mark chapter 8.

And so we wanted to help you understand that there is a concern that we as believers will tune out God and begin to become cold to the things of God. Like the disciples did, insensitive to the things of God, dull of hearing to the things of God. That's a great concern of people in the church. At the same time, we realize that there are many people in the church who think they are believers, but in reality, they are unbelievers. And their hearts are growing colder and colder to the things of God. And therefore, there comes a time where God says, don't harden your hearts any longer.

There comes a time where God hardens our hearts so much so that we can never repent and never come to saving faith in Christ. So, what is the cause of all that? What causes a man to harden his heart to the things of God? As I was. Reading through the scriptures over the last couple of weeks, I began to see a pattern flowing throughout the scriptures, and I want to kind of detail that for you this morning as we understand the cause. What causes the unbeliever? To remain cold to the things of God, people hear a message, and you hear one guy saying, Man, that message was great.

That's exactly what I needed, and I can't wait to go home and put it into practice. And the other guy says, Well, That didn't mean anything to me. That was kind of a boring message to me. What's the difference? And there are times when we go to church and we hear the word of God, or we open our Bible, we read the Word, and it just kind of just kind of bounces off, you know, like. Hard ground, like a hard heart. It makes no impact. It doesn't sink deep into the soul of a man. Well, what causes somebody to be that way?

Hopefully, this morning I can help you understand that so we can begin to understand what we need to do to make sure it doesn't happen. Okay? So, turn me in your Bible to Jeremiah chapter 19. We'll begin here. Listen to what he says: Jeremiah chapter 19, verse number 14. Then Jeremiah came from Topheth. Toph is the fire pit, is the valley of Hinnom. It was a place where the idol worshippers would burn their children. It was a A debauch place. Jeremiah came from Toph, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy.

And he stood in the court of the Lord's house and said to all the people, Thus says the Lord of hosts. the God of Israel. Behold, I am about to bring on this city and all its towns the entire calamity that I have declared against it, because they have stiffened their necks. so as not to heed my words. They've stiffened their necks. It's another phrase for the hardening of the hearts. Now you think about this. The Bible is replete with commands. To listen, to hear. If you read the book of Revelation, the last words of God are not to preachers.

The last words of God are not even to the churches. The last words of God are written to those who will hear. God says this, I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book.

In other words, are you listening? You see, God expects us to listen. You see, that was Pharaoh's problem. We point out to you last week as we read Exodus chapter 7, Exodus 8, Exodus 9, 10. 11 and 14. That Moses, excuse me, that when yeah, when Moses came to Pharaoh and performed the plagues, it says over and over again that Pharaoh would not listen, would not listen to what Moses said. We call this the audacity of man, the defiance of man. And whenever God speaks and you say in your heart, I'm not going to listen to that.

I don't want to hear that. That allows you to develop a callousness in your heart, a layer over your heart that causes it not to be softened. But to become more and more hardened to the things of God. Now you've got to ask yourself the question: how many times has that happened in your life? You've heard the word of the Lord, you've read the word of the Lord, you say, I not going to listen to that. I don't want to hear it. I come across people all the time who refuse to listen to the simple words of God.

They don't want to listen. And that's a stiffening of the neck, that's a stubbornness of the heart. And the audacity of man causes him to harden his heart to the things of God. And so we have to ask ourselves: what is our attitude toward listening to the Word of God? The reason or the first cause is because of the audacity of man that he would defy the word of the living God.

The second reason as to why the heart of man is hardened to the things of God. Is because, listen, of the temerity of man. He said, What's that? The temerity of man is the foolheartedness of man. The temerity of man, listen, is a failure to weigh the consequences, is to evaluate something. and real that the results in your mind are not true, when in reality they are. It 's a failure to consider the truth and apply it to your life. That 's the temerity of man. Turn with me to the book of Nehemiah, the ninth chapter.

In Nehemiah chapter 9, the sons of Israel are confessing their sins. And they're realizing what their fathers did when they came out of Egypt. And they are confessing their sins as it relates to their father's sins. Listen to what it says in verse number 16 of Nehemiah chapter 9. But they, our fathers, acted arrogantly. They became stubborn and would not listen to thy commandments. And they refused to listen, and did not remember thy wondrous deeds which thou hast performed among them. So they became stubborn and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt.

But thou art a God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving kind, and thou didst not forsake them. But looking down at verse number 29. And God admonished them in order to turn them back to thy law, yet they acted arrogantly and did not listen to thy commandments, but sinned against thine ordinances. by which if a man observes them he shall live. And they turned a stubborn shoulder, and stiffened their neck, and would not listen, how thou didst bear with Them for many years and admonished them by thy spirit through thy prophets, yet they would not give ear, therefore thou didst give them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.

Do you see the wonderful grace of God amidst the stiffening of the neck, amidst the stubbornness of the heart? God in His graciousness and God in His forgiveness would continually woo the people and draw the people to Himself just to prove to point that no matter what He did to them, they would stiffen their necks against Him. They would rebel against him. The audacity of man, the temerity of man. And thirdly, the vanity of man.

The vanity. Man. Turn to 2 Chronicles chapter 36. Man is so vain, thinking that he is so great and so wonderful. That he doesn't have to submit to anybody, that he can do whatever he wants. The core of each and every one of us has that prideful nature. That we don't want to be dependent, that we want to be autonomous, that we want to live our own way. And it's the vanity of man that causes him to harden his heart. King Zedekiah. It says in verse number 11 of 2 Chronicles 36: Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king.

This is, by the way the third son of Josiah. And he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord his God. He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke for the Lord. And he also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear allegiance by God. But he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the Lord God. of Israel. He would not humble himself because he wanted to be his own man. And the vanity of man would lead to the destruction of Jerusalem.

Remember, 2 Chronicles 36 is the last chapter of the Hebrew Bible. It's not the book of Malachi, it's 2 Chronicles 36. And the Hebrew Bible ends with the destruction of the temple on the Temple Mount. And that's why, when you read the Book of Lamentations, what are they lamenting? They are lamenting the destruction of the Temple on the Temple Mount. And when you go to Jerusalem and you see those people at the wailing wall, bounc back and forth over and over again, lamentations. They are lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem.

Why? Because of the pollution of the sins of the people of God. Because of their arrogance and because of their pride. See that? The vanity of man, the temerity of man, the audacity of man leads to a callous heart that keeps the word of God from penetrating it. But there's more. There's more. There is what we're going to call the depravity of man. The depravity of man. If you got your Bible, turn to Matthew chapter 19. At the core of man's being is the natural tendency to disobey God. And in Matthew chapter 19.

It says this in verse number 3, and some Pharisees came to him, testing him and saying, Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause at all? And he answered and said, Have you not read? That he created them from the beginning, made them male and female, and said, For this cause, a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. Consequently, they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.

Then said to him, or they said to him, Why then did Moses come in to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away? Stop right there. The religious leaders would refer to a passage in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 24, verses 1 to 4, which is the only passage in the Old Testament dealing with divorce. The only one. And the problem with the Pharisees is they misinterpreted it. First of all, they said: is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause at all?

Because you see, they believed that they could do that. They could divorce their wives for any reason. And they would be right in doing so. And the consequences for adultery under the law were what? Stoning, death. And so we know that Deuteronomy 24 wasn't dealing with adultery. It was dealing with some kind of indecency. And the rabbis would translate that as obnoxiousness. Anything that your wife does that's obnoxious, dump her. You can divorce her. And what does Christ do? He takes them back to the standard of the scriptures, all the way back to Genesis chapter 2.

The beginning, right? And the only command in Deuteronomy 24 is that you cannot remarry the woman you divorced for obnoxiousness. That's the only command given. So Christ says this, listen, because of your hardness of heart, Moses permitted you to divorce your wives.

But from the beginning it has not been this way. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife except for immorality and marries another woman commits adultery. What did he do? He emphasized what Moses emphasized. The only way you can divorce your wife, the only biblical, legitimate way to divorce your wife, is because of immorality. That's it. There is no other way. And it was because of their disobedience. It was because of their hard heart. Because at the very base nature of man is depravity. He doesn't want to obey God.

He wants to reinterpret the law of God. Is that not what man does today? He reinterprets the law of God so that he can come up with his own ideas. And that's the base nature of man, the depravity of man, who wants to do things his own way. He lives in disobedience to the law of God because God's standards are not what he wants to obey. He doesn't want to obey God's standards. He wants to make up his own standards. And yet, the depravity of man leads the calloused, cold, hard heart. There's another reason.

Not only because of the audacity of man, the temerity of man, the vanity of man, the depravity of man, but because of the adversary of man. The adversary of man. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse number 3. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. in whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the gloria of Christ, who is the image of God. You see, we forget that Satan is against the unbeliever.

He wants the unbeliever on his side. And he does all he can to keep him on his side. And so Satan blinds his mind. How about this? The iniquity of man. The iniquity of man. Over in Ephesians chapter 4, verse number 17, this is what it says: This I say, therefore, and affirm together with the Lord. That you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart.

And they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. The iniquity of man. Do you know the more you engage in sin, The harder your heart becomes. And the harder your heart becomes, the more you engage in sin. The iniquity of man is the cause of a calloused, cold, hard, stubborn heart. But there's more. There's a lot more. There is what we will call the inc of man. There are all kinds of words. The incredulity of man. That is the unwillingness to believe.

The inc of man. Mark chapter 3. Mark chapter 3. And he entered again into the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand, and they were watching him to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath in order that they might accuse him. And he said to the To the man with the withered hand, Rise and come forward. And he said to them, Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save a life or kill? But they kept silent, and after looking around at them with anger, grieve at their hardness of heart.

he said to the man, Stretch out your hand. And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. And the Pharisees went out and immediately began taking counsel with the Herod against him, as to how they might destroy him. That is, the incredulity of man and unwillingness to believe in spite of overwhelming evidence of the truth. And that was the Pharisees. You've talked to people about the gospel, right? Maybe they're in your family. You've explained the gospel to them. You've demonstrated the truth to them.

And in spite of the Word of God being given to them, they refuse to believe. And unwillingness to believe. That is a dangerous place to be. A dangerous place to be. Why? Because it hardens the heart against the things of God. Next is the ins of man. The ins of man. That is, he refuses to respond to the grace of God. Romans chapter 2. Verse number 3. And do you suppose this is some man, when you pass judgment upon those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?

Or do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness. An un heart, you are storing up wrath for yourselves in the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deed. Remember, it's the kindness of God that leads a man to repentance, right? And they become insensitive to that. There's one more: the sovereignty of the master.

The sovereignty of the master. If you continue. In the hardening of your heart because of your refusal to listen to the Word of God. If you continue in sin so that your heart becomes more and more cold and callous, to God. There's the sovereignty of the Master, where God Himself hardens the heart. Remember it says over and over again in the book of Exodus that Pharaoh would not listen and he hardened his heart. Until you get to the point where it says, and God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Listen, it's one thing for you to harden your heart, it's another thing for God to harden your heart.

If God hardens it, there is no possibility of repentance. None. And if you continue in your sinful ways, that's what happens. The sovereignty of the Master. God hardens the heart. Those are the causes. That's what happens. You say, well, what about me? What do I do? How do I know whether or not I have a tender heart or a soft heart or my heart is truly hard? How do I know that? We're going to talk about that. I can't leave you at the cause of the hard heart with not telling you what the cure is, what you need to do.

I might die for you now next Sunday. You know what I saying? Then where are you going to be, right? The bottom line is this: three things. Number one, adhere to the warning.

Adhere to the warning. What's the warning? Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden. Your hearts. In other words, if you hear his voice today, respond. Hebrews 12, verse number 25, says it this way. See to it that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if those who did not escape, when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less shall we escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven. Proverbs 29, verse number 1. A man who hardens his neck after much reproof will suddenly be broken beyond remedy.

See that? He who stiffens his neck, who hardens his heart, who will not respond to reproof, will come to a point where he'll be broken beyond remedy. There'll be no opportunity for repair, none. And so we need to adhere to the warning. Believe what God says.

Follow his word and say, yes, Lord, I don't want to have a hard heart. I want to follow your word. I want to serve you. I want to honor you. Number two, believe the word of God.

Believe the word. Adhear the warning and believe the word. The Bible says in James chapter 1, verse number 19, let every man Be swift to hear the Word of God, slow to speak the Word of God, and even slower at becoming angry at what they hear God's Word say.

And it goes on to talk about how we need to be an effectual doer of the word, not just a hearer. Once we hear it, we need to apply it. We talk about believing the word. We're not talking about giving a mental assent to what we have heard. We're talking about acting upon what we have heard, right? There needs to be an action. There needs to be something that we do. And that's number three.

Confess. Confess to your wanderings. Confess to your wanderings. Adhere the warning. Believe the word and confess your wandering. Isaiah 53, verse number 6: All we like sheep. Have gone astray. Each has t to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity. Of us all. Every man that's ever lived has gone his own way, done his own thing, lived his own life. And yet what did God do? He laid on his son the sin of every man who goes astray. Everyone. And what do we need to do? We need to confess the fact that we've turned from our God.

We need to confess the fact that we've wandered away from our God. Fall down on our hands before Him, repent of our sins, give our life to Him and say, Lord, be merciful unto me, a sinner. As David said, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. That's the kind of attitude we need to have. That's how you know that your heart is beginning to soften to the things of God. You want a new heart. You want to renew spirit. You want to confess your wonderings. You want to believe what God's word says.

You understand the warning. You say, Yes, Lord, I want to follow you. Yes, Lord, I want to serve you. Yes, Lord. I want to be what you want me to be, God, that's where you need to go. That's what you need to do. Let's pray.