How is Your Heart?, Part 2

Last week we asked the question, how is your heart? We're going to continue to ask that question today because the condition of your heart is the most important element of your life That's why the Bible says in the book of Proverbs, the 2 chapter: My son, give me your heart God wants your heart And then he says, We are to guard our hearts But you give it to him, you're to guard it Because from your heart flow all the issues in life Your heart is the seat of your intellect It's the seat of your emotions It's the seed of all that you do and say It's the center of your being

And so, you need to protect and guard your heart, but God wants your heart In fact, God wants your heart more than you necessarily want to give your heart to Him God wants the heart and soul of a man God spoke to the religious people, the Pharisees, and told them that they are the ones who honor God with their lips, but their heart are far from Him Think about that If I'm a Jew and I lived during the days of Jesus, I really do believe that the most Religious and most prestigious and most spiritual people in all the world are the Pharisees and the Sadducees That they are the key people

And yet, for Jesus to say that these are people who love to say things about me, but yet their heart's far from me Had to be a shock to the Jewish nation In fact, Jesus said in the very first sermon that he preached, he said these words, He said, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall never enter the kingdom of heaven And again, if I'm a Jew and I hear that, I'm thinking, how is it my righteousness can exceed theirs? They are the most holy people, the most righteous people, the most God-fearing people that we've ever met

But yet Jesus said that they're the ones who will say things about me and even say good things about me They'll even sing songs about me They'll even do things in my name for others But yet their hearts are far from me And that pretty much describes the American church today There are many people Who can sing songs about the Lord? There's many people that can even sit by you and pray to the same God you pray to There'll be people in the church who will even do things for God the same way you do things for God But their hearts are far from the Lord How do you know? That's you

Can you know that that is you? My job as your pastor is to help you understand what the Bible says concerning that So that you don't find yourself in the realm of the Pharisees or the scribes or the Sadducees who talk a lot about God, who look like they love God on the outside But as Jesus said on the inside, they're like dead men's bones In the inside, they're dark and defiled Even though on the outside, they look like they're all together So the question comes: how is the heart of a man? The Lord says to the prophet Ezekiel that he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked None

No pleasure And so the cry is, give me your heart And last week we talked to you about what God does to the heart of a man We told you last week that he examines the heart He tests the heart He searches the heart He knows every intention of the heart He weighs the motives of the heart He creates a clean heart He even gives you a new heart The Bible says that He prepares the heart He opens the heart He enlightens the heart He strengthens the heart He establishes the heart He even satisfies the heart And that's just a tip of the iceberg in terms of what God does to the heart

But we also told you that's God who hardens the he God hardens the heart And yet God never hardens the heart that is not already harden toward him That's very important to understand that So, how do you know if you are hardening your heart toward the things of God? And if that's the case, what is the remedy for that? Or is there a remedy for that? Because we know the Bible teaches that the unbeliever hardens his heart towards God, but we also know that even the disciples had a hard heart at times Toward the Lord

So the question comes: what's the difference? And how do you know the difference? Can you tell the difference? And the answer is: of course, you can Because the Lord doesn't want you in the dark He doesn't want you unaware of these things And so he gives warnings and explains things to us in the scriptures So we need to come to grips with that And so in our study of the book of Hebrews, in Hebrews chapter 3, verses 7 and 19, there was a warning given The second warning the writer gives, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts As your fathers did

In the day of provocation, in the wilderness Don't go that direction Don't be like they were Where they died in the wilderness in un So he gives a warning And the warning he gives are to those who would say they believe in God The warning he gives to Jewish people who would say they were the chosen people of God and believed in God, but yet had not committed themselves to the Christ Who had not embraced the Christ as their Lord and Savior And so he gives the warning To them

And isn't it interesting that the warning he gives to the chosen people of God? The Jewish nation, a people who say they believed in God, the warning was from a thousand years earlier, the same warning that David gave to his people Because he didn't want them to harden their hearts as those children in the wilderness did against the Lord God of Israel So it's taken from the book of Exodus and the nation of Israel when they would harden their hearts and therefore they would end up dying in unbelief in the wilderness That's the warning

That same warning needs to be given to the church today so that people understand where they are in rel to the living God And isn't it interesting that the Rite of Hebrews and David and Psalm 95 takes the people of Israel back? To the pagan leader of Egypt to show them that they are in danger of doing the same thing that the pagan Pharaoh did in Egypt Isn't that amazing? So if I'm a Jew and I hear this, I'm thinking, well, wait a minute, how can I be like Pharaoh? Who hardened his heart In fact, if you got your Bible, turn back with me if you would, to the book of Exodus for a moment

The book of Exodus chapter 7 And I think it's so interesting to see the progression, or should I say, the digression in Pharaoh's heart from the true and living God God says to Moses in Exodus chapter 7, these words in verse number 1: Then the Lord said to Moses, See, I make you as God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet In other words, you're going to speak, and when you speak, you're going to speak with all the authority of the leaders Living God. I'm going to grant you all of that, Moses

And you shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh that he let the sons of Israel go out of this land But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that I may multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt When Pharaoh does not listen to you, Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring out my hosts, my people, the sons of Israel, from the land of Egypt by great judgments The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord So God tells Moses that he's going to harden Pharaoh's heart It's a prophecy It's going to happen

Okay? But you have to realize that Pharaoh, in the process, hardens his heart to the voice of God In fact, if you go back to Proverbs chapter 4 in verse number 21, God says to Moses, When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power, but I will harden his heart so that he He will not let the people go So God is going to harden his heart He tells Moses that Then you say to Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord, Israel is my son, my firstborn So I said to you, Let my son go, that he may serve me, but you Have refused to let him go

Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn So, in other words, God's going to harden his heart, is going to harden his heart Through a process of miracles, and he gives Moses the last of the ten plagues The last one, the death of the firstborn But before he does that, he's going to give Pharaoh many opportunities to listen to his voice and respond But Pharaoh, instead of listening to the voice of God and not obey his voice, he is going to become hardened to the voice of God So much so that God then will abandon him and harden his heart

But the whole process is this: God says there's going to be something great that's going to happen Israel has to know, I mean, Egypt has to know that I am the Lord God And so through a process of events, of miracles and wonders and signs, I am going to harden Pharaoh's heart so that all of Egypt will know that I am the Lord God of Israel God has planned Everybody must know who I am. I'm going to make sure that happens So Pharaoh will hear the message, see the miracles, and harden his heart

So it says in chapter 5, Moses and Aaron came and said to Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, let my people go, that they may celebrate a feast to me in the wilderness But Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice? To let Israel go. I do not know the Lord, and besides, I will not let Israel go Who are you talking about? I don't know your God There are many gods that I know, but I don't know your God So why should I obey his voice? Why should I listen to his message? And Pharaoh refuses to let Israel go

So, you know, the Time in verse number 8 of chapter 7, the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, Work a miracle, then you will say to Aaron, take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent So Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and thus they did just as the LORD had commanded And Aaron threw his staff down before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers, and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same with their secret arts

For each one threw down his staff and they turned into serpents But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs Yet Pharaoh, Pharaoh's heart, was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had said Pharaoh's heart became hardened And there are different Hebrew words to explain what was going on here, because in this instance, Pharaoh is Becoming insensitive and dull to the working of God, to the message and miracles of God

And so he will become more and more insensitive to those things and hardened toward those things, so that God then will use a different Hebrew word when it comes to speaking of how he hardens Pharaoh's heart, because then he is going to make it so cold Pharaoh will become insensitive, and God will make it so now it becomes un And if you go on, and we won't do all this for you, but you can go back and read it As it goes through each of the miracles, it says in verse number 15 of chapter 8: when Pharaoh saw that there was

Relief, he hardened his heart and did not listen to them as the Lord had said In other words, there was relief from the miracle of the frogs in the land when there were so many frogs, and yet when there was relief, did he repent? No He hardened his heart, would not listen to the message Verse 19 of chapter 8: the magician said to Pharaoh, This is the finger of God But Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had said God wants Moses to know that he's in charge And Pharaoh will continue to harden his heart to the things of God

Verse 32 of chapter 8, but Pharaoh hardened his heart This time also, he did not let the people go Chapter 9, verse number 7 But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go Verse 12 And the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord had spoken to Moses So now God is going to harden Pharaoh's heart And as you go through the story, as you go through the life of Moses and understand the situation with all these plagues, God gave him an opportunity to repent, but he did not

He would not listen to the message, nor would he heed the miracles of the God of Israel And so God abandoned him, and God hardened his heart And so the write of Hebrews uses an illustration Taken from the time of David in Psalm 9, that goes back to the time of Is and their wanderings Because this people would leave Egypt, they would be released from bondage And yet the chosen people of God would find themselves living in the state of unbelief and hardening their hearts As a pagan Pharaoh hardened his heart, and they would die in the wilderness in unbelief, as the writer of Hebrew says

What a tragedy How do people get there? What happens in people's lives that cause them to turn away from the living God? But we must look at the life of the disciples So turn me in your Bible to Mark chapter 6 Mark chapter 6 Let me show you something Because you need to understand this In Mark chapter 6, there's a miracle It's called the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000, which is 5,000 men, because he only counted the men, didn't count the women and children So you're talk about 20,000 plus People that were fed with just a few fishes and loaves of bread

Bible and John's Gospel tells us that he did this to test the disciples Because he knew what he was going to do Now, remember, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John record this miracle It's the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels So, if it's the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels, it's pretty important to understand, right? Sure, it is So, if you miss the message of the feed of the 5,000, you miss the message of what God is trying to teach us, like He was trying to teach His men And so he does a great miracle He feeds the 5,000, and there were 12 basket left over

And the baskets are kofin in the Greek, which little coffin-like baskets that they carried with them. for provisions They were personal baskets that people carried, not the huge baskets like it was defeating the 4,000 Those were large hamper baskets, and there were seven of those left over, and then there were 12 left over, the little co The little baskets they would carry when they went on a trip someplace So God had filled their baskets And so then it says in verse number 45, immediately Jesus meeting his disciples get into the boat

Go ahead of him to the other side to Bethsaida while he himself was sending the crowd away And bidding them farewell, he left for the mountain to pray And when it was evening, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and he was alone on the land Seeing them straining at the oars, for the wind was against them, and About the fourth watch of the night, he came to them walking on the sea And he intended to pass them by But when they saw him walking on the sea, They supposed that it was a ghost and cried out For they all saw him and were terrified

But immediately he spoke to them and said to them, Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid Then he got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped And they were utterly astonished For they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart Was hardened Wow So, how is it these followers of Jesus had hardened their hearts? To the things of God

Are they in danger of what Pharaoh did? Are they in danger of what the children of Israel did? Is there a difference between the hard heart of Pharaoh, the hard heart of Israel, when they left Egyptian bondage and hardened their heart to the things of God and died in the wilderness of unbelief? Is there a difference? There is a difference And as your pastor, it's my responsibility and privilege to be able to explain to you how this is Different See, when hardened, when Pharaoh hardened his heart, when Israel, who left Egyptian bondage, hardened their heart

They hardened their heart because of the iniquity that was in their heart But when the disciples hardened their heart, it was because of familiarity There's a difference You see, the disciples had become so familiar with what God was doing They had seen a miracle every day They heard the message every day They walked and talked with Jesus They saw him do what he did every single day And they became so familiar with what he was doing, they then did not reflect on what had taken place And rem what had taken place with the feeding of the 5,000

Because in the feeding of the 5,000, It was a lesson in learning to trust God for your daily provisions And the point is this: if you don't trust God for your daily provision, You will not trust him in your difficult situation And the C episode was a difficult situation The feeding of the 5,000 was a daily provision that God would take care of them and supply their needs But if you don't remember how God takes care of you daily, Then you're going to forget about him in the difficulty That's exactly what happened with the disciples

You see, with people like Pharaoh, the unbeliever who hardens his heart, he does so because of iniquity And because of that iniquity, listen carefully, he turns away from God But the believer, because of his familiarity, He tun out God See the difference? Pharaoh would turn further and further away from God, but the disciples in the realm of their familiarity would begin to Tune out God They had seen so many miracles, heard so many sermons Heard so many testimonies, it became so familiar to them that they just tuned out God You know, it happens in the church today

The lessons become so familiar We've heard the story Take Wednesday nights, for example We talked about forgiveness Oh, yeah, we've heard sermons about forgiveness And you begin to, because of familiarity, Tune out the message on forgiveness Next week was about prayer, but who likes to pray, right? Nobody likes to pray That's just too much work Okay? It's too boring for most people And so we just tune that one out too because that becomes so familiar We've heard so many sermons on prayer that it becomes so familiar, we tune that one out as well Last week it was about an understanding mind

Maybe we didn't know all about that, but because of familiarity to the scriptures, we began just to tune out what God has to say And therefore, when we tune him out, we can't remember what he said And so, when the difficulties come, we panic We struggle In fact, in fact, the disciples who are followers of God Became so familiar and tuned him out so much, they didn't even expect him to show up And you know what? For most of us, when we go through difficult situations, we're not expecting God to show up You know why that happens? Because our hearts become hardened

Not because of our iniquity, but because of familiarity And with that familiarity, we begin to tune out God Because you see, in the unbeliever's heart, there is hostility, there's animosity In the unbeliever's heart, they are enmity with God But in the believer's heart, there's not animosity and hostility because there has been a Tranquility that's taken place because we are at peace with God And while there might be some instability because of our unwillingness to remember what He had just done, like the disciples did Because we become so familiar with his working, we tune him out

And that's exactly what took place in the lives of the disciples So and so that They never expected him to show up And this is the same story in Matthew's Gospel where Peter says, Lord, that's you bid me to come to you And so Jesus says, Peter, come And so Peter stepped out of the boat and begins to walk And someone says, Watch out for the wave, Peter! And he looks at the wave And he begins to sing, Lord, save me! And the Lord saves him and puts him in a boat, and the winds and the waves cease And they realize the hearts were hardened

You know, when you never expect God to show up in your situation, you have a hard heart You might not want to admit that, but your heart's becoming cold, insensitive, and callous To the Lord It doesn't mean that God is going to abandon you because with the unbeliever, He abandons that heart, but with the believer, He admonishes that heart With the unbeliever, he confirms him in his unbelief, but with the believer, he corrects your unbelief because that's the way God works See? And that's what he does with Disciples

You see, simply put, when we as the people of God forget About God's sufficiency, we will fear our surroundings That's exactly what happened to the disciples They had forgotten his sufficiency He had taken care of them in their d provision of food The people were hungry Where will we get food to eat? And of course in John's Gospel he asks Philip because the fe of the 5,000 is in the Beths area, and Philip's from Bethsaida He does it to test them because the test would continue on, not just with the feeding, but with what was going to happen on the sea

That's why he immediately puts them in the boat He wants to know how well they will remember what just took place How well they will trust him now when difficulty comes When they had a hard time trusting him in the midst of a daily provision, he's testing them And because he knew, because he knows what's in the heart of man, he knows everybody's heart, he has to Break up that crustiness, that callousness that we have that comes from familiarity And our forgetfulness Because the unbeliever, in all reality, is furious with God on the inside

We become forgetful of God on the inside because we become so familiar With what he's doing, that we tune him out Whereas Pharaoh and Israel became hostile towards God, angry towards God In fact, The unbeliever in his heart test God He tests him And that's what Israel did God says, You tested me these ten times in the wilderness Really? Because Pharaoh tested God ten times in Egypt There's a lot of comparison with the nation of Israel with a pagan Pharaoh to help them understand that they are acting in unbelief And so God has to work in their hearts as He does ours That's why in Hebrews

Hebrews chapter 3, the Lord God says these words: I was angry with this generation and said they always go astray in their heart And they did not know my ways Why? Because as your fathers, verse 9, you're testing me The unbeliever tests God He puts God to the test God says, you should not put the Lord God to the test That's what Satan did So when you put God to the test, you align yourself with the character of Satan, not the character of the living God But believers, they don't test God They don't try God They don't put God to the test They tr God They believe in God They want to follow God

So let me explain it to you this way From Mark 6, go to Mark chapter 8 And let me show you the unbeliever and the believer in the same story and decipher the difference between the heart of the Pharisees and the heart of the disciples Okay? It says, This is at the defeating of the 4,000 Okay? So again, at the feed of the 5,000, and the disciples' hearts have become hardened Now you have the feeding the 4,000, which again is 4,000 men, not counting children and women, so you must multiply that So you probably have anywhere between 12,000, 15,000, maybe 16,000 people

Okay, so it's in verse 11 of Mark chapter 8 The Pharisees came out and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him Because that's what the unbeliever does He tests God Sighing deeply in his spirit He said, Why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this gener The Pharisees come because they are unbelievers and they have come to test him to put him to the test to put him on trial They came seeking a sign What does Jesus do? He sighs deeply Why? Because he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked

Never has and never will And he knows that their hearts are hard And he now is going to abandon them He's going to leave them Okay? We'll see that in verse number 13 And leaving them, symbolic of his abandonment Oh, by the way, that is the worst of God's wrath The wrath of abandonment When God abandons the soul To its own devices Romans chapter 1 God gives them over God gives them over God gives them over to what? To their own sinful desires, to their own iniquity, to their own aspirations that are moving them further and further from God

Because in the heart, Of the unbeliever, there is hostility There's hostility there because of iniquity, and that iniquity causes them to turn away from God But the believer in his heart does not turn away from God At times, tunes God out but does not turn away from him That's why God never abandons him God admonishes him, but does not abandon him And so it says, sign deeply in spirit He said, why does this generation seek for a sign? They were always looking for a sign And they always wanted a sign from heaven because a prophet of God gave a sign From heaven

Elijah called fire down from heaven Joshua caused the sun to stand still So if you are in the line of the great prophets, We want to see a sign, and that sign will be demonstrated from what comes down out of heaven, forgetting that God has come down to them And that Simeon said, when he held the Christ child in his hand, that he would be the sign He is the sign They're looking for a sign He is the sign He is a sign, as Simeon says, to be opposed So Simeon holds in his hand the sign They say, Show us a sign Jesus sighs deeply because He is the sign that's come down out of heaven

He is God in the flesh In this generation, he says, is always looking for a sign But for those who look for a sign, there is never a sign to convince them Right? They will not believe though one be raised from the dead, Jesus said When the rich man said, just send someone back from the dead to convince my family that there is a hell No Someone coming back from the dead is not going to convince your family there is a hell or a heaven Because they have Moses and the prophets If they don't believe them, Jesus says, they won't believe though one be raised from the dead

This generation always seeks a sign They came to test him because they were unbelievers Leaving them, he again embarked and went away to the other side And they had forgotten to take bread and did not have more than one loaf in the boat with them And he was giving orders to them, saying, Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod And they began to discuss with one another the fact that they had no bread

And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened Heart? What do you mean you have no bread? Why is it you are so concerned about the temporal? Why are you so concerned about the physical? Why are you so concerned about eating? He's talking to them about the leaven of the Pharisees, which, by the way, is legalism The leaven of the Sadducees Would be liberalism The leaven, the leaven of Herod is materialism Jesus is speaking to them about influence Levin represents influence in the scriptures

And for most part, it represents evil influence And Christ is talking to his men about the evil influence of the Pharisees, of Herod Matthew's account says the Sadducees He's concerned about the evil influence of materialism, legalism, and liberalism And they're worried about what? Bread Food What are we going to eat? Maybe that's you today Say, Pastor, be quiet. I got to go get a bagel. I'm hungry And I'm saying a bagel What about the Bible? Where's your priority, right? And so there were enough food

Jesus, what do you guys understand? Are you so familiar? With what I do, that you have completely tuned me out when it comes to spiritual things, the things that matter most And you being taken away and influenced by that which is evil instead of understanding that which is good, which is wrapped up in me What is wrong with you guys? Have you hardened your heart? So you have in the same context, the Pharisees Who come to test God because their hearts are hardened toward Him So now He abandons them, He leaves them to their own devices And you have in the same context the disciples

And Christ, within his two chapters, is coming to them saying, Are your hearts hardened? Do you not understand? Are you so familiar with what I'm doing that you've tuned me out? I know you're not turning away from me, but you're tuning me out And you can't afford to do that Verse 18, having eyes do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember? Remember See, here he goes Okay, when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces? You picked up? They said to him, Twelve

Ah, when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up? And they said, Seven What's he doing? He's taking them back to help them understand his daily provision So that they'll trust him in the difficult situation with the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees and Herod, materialism, legal, and liberalism You need to be aware of these things Watch out, be careful You need to understand this You need to grab this

Do you have eyes and you do not see? Do you have ears and you do not hear? What can possibly be wrong with you? Don't you remember that when I fed you, I fed the 5,000, you got 12 baskets full When I fed the 4,000, Seven baskets How can you forget? You see, in the heart of the believer, there is a danger of forgetting what God has done And how is it we forget what God has done when we don't remember and reflect on what is happening in our lives? When we hear a sermon like today, And we take notes and we leave, but never go back and reflect and apply what we've just learned

When you don't apply what you learn, you're in danger of forgetting And when you forget, you will fall in the realm of hard Heartedness, a callousness You'll begin to tune out God because of familiarity and not listen to what He's saying But the story gets better We must hurry My time is fleeing And he said to them, Do you not understand? Stops right there Then it says, and they came to Meset And they brought a blind man to Jesus and implored him to touch him Now, listen, Mark is the only one who records this particular miracle Because it's the only miracle that doesn't happen inst

Okay? Remember every time Jesus healed someone? Boom, they were healed Couldn't see, now they see Couldn hear, now they hear Couldn walk, now they walk Once dead, now raised Right? Everything was boom, instantaneous, and no therapy Okay? No therapy They were boom instantaneously healed Every miracle that Jesus ever did was that way, except this one Why? Because there's a purpose behind it God has a teaching opportunity He's going to take it because it's rich So taking the blind man by the hand, he brought him out of the village

Ooh, why would he do that? Why would he take the blind man out of the village of Bes? It's a good question, right? I'm going to answer that for you here in a second And after spitting on his eyes and laying his hands on him, he asked him, Do you see anything? He looked up and said, I see men, for I see them like trees walking around In other words, he had a little bit of vision, but not clear vision He had a blurry vision So it wasn an instantaneous healing Then again he laid his hands on his eyes and he looked intently and was rest And began to see everything clearly

Remember, every miracle that Jesus performs in the physical realm Is symbolic of what he does in the spiritual realm, right? And so the context of the story is the disciples who do not clearly see, having eyes, do you not see? Having ears, do you not hear? He needs them to see, hear, and understand And he knows that they're going to need. A second touch He know not to abandon them because they're believers And he won't But he knows he needs to admonish them, come alongside them, and continue to teach them that they would very vividly see and understand what God is doing

In cont to those in Bes as to why he took him out of the village Listen to what he says next And he sent him to his home, saying, Do not even enter The village What? He heals a man He says to them, Don't go back to Bes Why would he do that? Because God abandoned Bethsa Remember Matthew 11? Woe to you, Chor! Woe to you, Bethsaida For if what took place in your village took place in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented ag ago

But because of what you saw and what you heard, and you did not repent, it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for them. those pagan nations, that it will be for you, Beth Saida, even though you never publicly rebuked or hated me in your hearts You were far from me There, no more testimony, no more witness, no more opportunity You 're done That's why the blind man could not go back to Bes The light was off They could no longer respond to the power and miracle of God That's the difference between the hard heart of the unbeliever and the hard heart of the believer

God never turned out the light in the disciples, never abandoned the disciples No, he would give them a second opportunity and a third and a fourth and continue to touch them and show them and demonstrate to them and teach them that they might walk with him, love him and serve him Why? Because they, in the core of their being, lo the Lord So the question comes: How is it I would know that my heart Is hard if it is like that of the believer or like that of the unbeliever That's next week Let's pray Father, we thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to once again examine the scriptures

So much is there, so much to be said Only you know our hearts Only you know And through the revelation of God's word, we can begin to see even more clearly what it is you know about us Our prayer today, Lord, is that you'd work in all of our hearts For the hard heart, you'd soften it For that unbeliever, you'd crush it That Lord, they would not turn away from you anymore And for the believer, Those among us who might have become so familiar with what you've done that they've begun to tune you out So when they hear the word, they've become insensitive and callous and cold

We pray, Lord, that they would receive As your disciples did, another touch from the living God to be able to see you in your splendor and your beauty and follow you in obedience We pray in Jesus' name Amen.