Welcome to the InTouch podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, July 9th. What causes a Christian's heart to grow dull towards the things of God? Let's recognize the warning signs in part one of The Danger of a Hardening Heart. How do you explain the fact that A person will hear the gospel over and over and over again. Understand it to some degree.
Be able even to tell you what they heard. and yet say no to the gospel. How do you explain that? Then what about those Christians, for example, who have trusted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. And then After a while you see them sort of drifting away and Not just drifting away, but Defending their lifestyle of sin.
Rationalizing it away, explaining it away. Don't go to church anymore. Laid their Bible aside, it's more dust cover than anything else. And yet, these people once trusted Jesus as their Savior. How do you explain those kinds of reactions?
Well, that's what I'm going to talk about in this message entitled The Danger of the hardening heart. And I want you to turn, if you will, to Hebrews chapter 3. And beginning in this seventh verse, I want us to read through verse 19.
So let me give you a little idea of what the Rite of Hebrews is referring to here. You'll recall that when God delivered the Hebrews out of Egyptian bondage that crossed the Red Sea and out into the wilderness. And you'll remember that it wasn't very long after that, and they began to moan and grumble and complain about bread and about water and everything else. Their hearts became hardened, even though they had just experienced personally a tremendous miracle of God. Then if you recall When they got to the promised land, and Moses sent out 12 spies to view the land to be sure.
They understood what was there and what was needed to be dealt with. You recall that they came back, and 10 of them talked about giants and walled cities and all the rest. Two of them, Joshua and Caleb, talked about The fact that God had given them the land, and therefore let's take it. And you'll recall that they listened to the negative report. And as a result, For forty long years they wandered in the wilderness, and every adult male who had grumbled against God.
From the age of twenty and above, died in those forty years. Here is a passage of scripture that relates to these events, and the warning again and again is: do not let your heart become hardened.
So, beginning in verse 7, look at it, if you will. And notice how he says this: therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, Just as the Holy Spirit says, today, If you hear his voice, Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me, speaking of those things we just discussed. As in the day of trial in the wilderness. where your fathers tried me by testing me. and saw my works for forty years.
Therefore I was angry with this generation, and said, They always go astray in their heart. And they did not know my ways. As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. Take care, brethren. Lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart.
In falling away from the living God. But encourage one another Day after day, as long as it is still called today, lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast, the beginning of our assurance from. firm until the end. While it is said Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked me.
For who provoked him? When they had heard, indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear?
That they should not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient. And so we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.
Now here is a solemn warning. And this warning is not only to those who have never trusted Jesus Christ as their Savior, but it is also a warning to those who are believers. And what I want us to look at first of all here is what does he mean when he talks about harden not your heart? What is a hard heart?
Well, if you look it up in the Hebrew and the Greek, you'll find terms like firm and strong. It means a heart that has become Unimpressed by the Word of God. It means a heart. that is unyielding. unbending, unwilling.
It speaks of a heart that has steeled itself against the truth of God's Word. A heart that has become calloused and resistant to the Word of God. And he says we are to be careful. Lest this happen.
Well, you say, well, is it not true that if a person hears the gospel, only a lost person's heart could be hardened?
Well, let's look and see if that's true. And I want you to turn to a couple of passages in Mark. A couple of passages you probably have read but never thought about it in this light. In the sixth chapter of Mark, And the 52nd verse, listen to what's happening here. Jesus is walking on the water.
To his disciples, and they think it's a ghost, and they cry out to him. And notice, if you will. It says in verse 51, and he got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped. And they were greatly astonished.
Now listen. For they had not gained any insight. From the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened.
Now, that's interesting to say about these apostles of Jesus. Then, if you go over, if you will, to the eighth chapter. There's two things I want you to notice here. One, just for our side benefit of this passage. Because you will probably find yourself at some point in this passage because their response, listen.
Verse 14, 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.
Now, here he is in the process of teaching them a very important principle. And they began to discuss with one another the fact that they had no bread.
Now, all of a sudden, here's Jesus trying to warn them about the Pharisees. And the first thing that comes to their mind is all of a sudden they realize we don't have any bread. Instead of learning the principle, what they're concerned about is the fact that they don't have any bread. But listen. 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? A person who is a believer can begin to experience a hardening of their heart. And so I want us to say that right up front and give you some examples. Let's say that you have been coming to church for a number of weeks, or maybe months.
Each time that uh You do at the end of this service, there's an invitation. That invitation is an appeal to people to give their life to Christ. It is an appeal to people to receive Jesus Christ as their Savior. And maybe you've never done that. And so you hear that appeal.
And you hear it, and you hear it. And somehow, you, after a while, you think, well, you know, I've heard that before, and then before long, you don't even hear it. Or we've made appeal after appeal to people to serve the Lord. And maybe God has called you, maybe He's spoken to you, maybe He's given some call in your life. You listen to the appeal, and after a while, it doesn't even faze you any longer.
You just sort of decided, you know, well, I don't need to listen to that any longer. You know what's happening? What's happening is your heart's gelling. Instead of being this soft, open, sensitive heart of yours, what's happening is you're beginning to resist, and that resistance can become steeled toward the things of God and calloused toward the message of God to you personally. It is very dangerous to resist God's continuing appeal to your heart.
And so when you look at this passage, he says again and again: today he says, the Holy Spirit says, do not harm. harden your hearts as when they provoked me. And what he's saying here is this. If they hardened their hearts in the Old Testament days and they provoked God by their rebellion toward Him, the same is true today. God certainly isn't pleased when He makes His appeal to our heart and we provoke Him by stealing our heart against Him.
Now The question is If this can happen, How does it happen? How does this take place in a person's life? How is it that a person can go to church or watch the television or listen to tapes that someone gives them week after week after week, hearing the gospel, knowing it's the truth, and yet say, you know, no, I don't want any of that?
So how does this take place?
Well, it is not something that happens instantaneous. It is something that happens over a period of time. And as time passes by, and the same decision is made each time, no to God, no to God, no to God. What happens is something begins to happen to the human heart. It begins to harden toward the things of God.
Even a person who is saved can develop that. You heard what Jesus said to His disciples? If you notice in the 12th verse what he says, take care, brethren, not aliens, not unbelievers, take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart. And he says, an unbelieving heart is an evil heart. And so this is the result.
It is the repeated decision to say no to God. When it is repeated over and over and over again, what happens is something does happen to the human heart. And that is its capacity, its ability to hear and to be sensitive.
Somehow it decreases. And so, when you and I begin to think about how these things take place. We think, for example, here's the person who has an unforgiving spirit, and God says, You must be willing to be forgiving no matter what goes on in a person's life. All of us have to be forgiven by God, and we should be forgiven toward one another. And after a while, that is so justified and so rationalized that after a while, a person doesn't even hear God anymore.
What happens is, they steal themselves toward the voice of God. It can happen to a lost person who's hearing the gospel. It can happen to a believer. It is a dangerous sign to harden your heart toward Almighty God and toward the message of God. But it is exactly what happens.
Now, how does all this take place? The first step in all hardness of heart is unbelief. This is always the beginning in the hardening of the heart. God says. Come unto me, all you that labor, and heavily, and I'll give you rest.
God says that Sin has separated you from your God. And God says, you need to be forgiven of your sin, you need to be saved. And the person says, well, you know, I know that's what he's saying. I know that's what it says, but. But what?
And then the rationalization begins, and so what happens is, instead of saying yes to God because of unbelief, unbelief says, I will somehow get to heaven without turning to Jesus. I don't need the Word of God, I don't need the church. It all begins with a sense of unbelief. No matter what our rebellion toward God is about, it begins with unbelief, which brings me to the second word, and that is rebellion. Because rebellion against what God is saying to us Is the result of our unbelief.
Somehow we think we're going to be able to manage it without God. We have a better way than God's way. And so unbelief sets in. The third word. Is or phrase is entertaining thoughts that are displeasing to God.
And what happens is the person who chooses not to believe what God says, chooses not to believe in His message, they begin to entertain thoughts, focus on thoughts, dwell on thoughts that are other than those things that are pleasing to God until those things become paramount in their thinking and on their focus of attention. And as a result, what happens? Sin, not just one time, but sin becomes a repeated act in their behalf, in their life. In their lifestyle.
Now, this brings me to say and to ask the question. What about those people whom you and I know have been saved? And yet they develop a lifestyle that is absolutely ungodly. He said, Were those people saved or were they not? It is possible.
For a believer. To become involved in an ungodly lifestyle. Why? As a result of the continuing repeated decisions and sin that brings them to a lifestyle that is absolutely ungodly, and what has happened is. They Begin to make the same decision over and over again until they no longer hear.
Which brings me to the next phrase, and that is to ignore their conscience. They ignored their conscience. At a time when the Spirit of God was speaking to their life, they could hear and they were pricked in their conscience. After a while, their unbelief has moved to the point of such pride and arrogance, they don't hear God anymore. They don't hear him speaking anymore.
And so, with their conscience, what happens is they get busy when the Spirit of God speaks and they rationalize, justify, or get busy doing something else over here instead of acknowledging the fact that God may be trying to say something to them. Which brings us to that next phrase, and that is justifying their sin. And you and I have seen people who are living disobediently before God, and they can justify it, they can rationalize. They'll also sometimes point to other people and say, Well, look at so-and-so, and look at him, and look at her, and look how well they're doing in life. And so, what they're doing is they're justifying these repeated actions in their life, which brings us to the next word, and that is the idea of resisting reproof.
And that is when the Spirit of God begins to work in their heart, they resist that. and the habit sets in. And as a result, they're very difficult to deal with. Why? Because Time.
does make a difference in resisting the will of God. And this is why so often, when young people come forward and God's calling them in the mission field, calling them to preach the gospel. How so very important it is that we disciple them early in life. And you just think God has gotten a hold of their heart so early in life so that there is no hardness there, and they're open and pliable and it's like soft, putty to the Spirit of God. But here's a person who's in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s.
Why is it so difficult for a person who is 70 years of age and above to ever trust Christ? Because of those continuous years and years and years of repeated decision. No, no, no, no. Justifying, rationalizing? No, no, no, no.
Until the next phrase, they become insensitive. When you resist God year after year after year after year, thinking that one of these days, When I get ready, I'm just going to trust the Lord Jesus as my Savior, my friend. You cannot trust Jesus Christ as your Savior unless the Spirit of God appeals to your heart and brings about conviction and shows you the truth. You say, well, can I do that anytime I want to? No, you cannot.
Salvation isn't just open to anybody anytime. Is it open to all? Yes, it is. But until the Spirit of God woos you, until the Spirit of God draws you, until the Spirit of God makes you aware of your desperate need of Christ, until He helps you understand what it's all about. No, you won't be saved.
And here's the awesome danger. that when you resist and resist and resist, And this unyielding Unbending attitude toward the things of the Spirit of God. When it becomes concrete hard, you listen, you won't want to know, you won't want God, you won't want anything because your heart has become so calloused. You say, Well, do you mean to tell me that if I get to the age of 70, I can't be saved? No, I'm not saying that.
If somehow you sense in your own spirit that God is sending you a warning, I want to plead with you in Jesus' name. Do not wait another moment, but ask God to forgive you of your sin and save you. He says, Today, behold, today is the salvation. Never does he say, tomorrow gets saved, next month gets saved, next year gets saved. He says, The Spirit of God is saying, Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart.
What am I saying? I'm simply saying this. That if God is speaking to your heart, do not harden your heart. It is dangerous to say no, no, no, no to the appeal of the Spirit of God in your heart. Whether it is to be saved, to join the church, whether it is to tithe your income, whether it is to serve God.
And so often I meet people in life who said, Well, back yonder, so-and-so, when I was 16, 18, 21, 25, God called me to serve Him, and I did this, and I decided I went to school, went to college, or even maybe went to seminary. And somehow I just decided that wasn't what I wanted to do in life, and so I've decided to do something. I'm here to tell you, my friend, when that happens, what you have done is you have taken a dangerous course in life. And usually, what those people do is they'll get busy doing something that is a substitute for what God originally called them to do. And they'll get busy in that.
And they'll do their best. They work extra hard to be successful at something God never called them to do. Listen, whatever God calls you to do, if He calls you to preach the gospel, go to the mission field, or whatever He may call you to do, once He sends you that call, God doesn't say, Oops, I made a mistake. He doesn't change his mind. That call is still in there, and you can do anything and everything imaginable to somehow substitute.
There is no substitute for being obedient to God. You can't live with disobedience.
Well, some people seem to, but what they do, they have to callus their heart. And that is, they just say, no, no, no, no, no, until what happens. And this is the deceitful thing. It is something that happens over a period of time, and it happens so gradually, a person doesn't even realize what's happened until finally they say, well, you know, oh, yeah, I know, God spoke to me back yonder, and then here's what happens. Then they began to redefine what God said.
Then they begin, in fact, they restructure the whole story. Their testimony now is not what it was back yonder when it happened because it makes them feel better and that it sounds better if they think, well, I probably made a mistake back yonder.
Somewhere God spoke to me, but I thought he was saying preach the gospel. I thought he was saying going to the mission field. Or I thought he was saying going into some kind of education or work. Or I thought he was saying this, but I probably was mistaken. No.
What happens is that hardness sets in, and when it does, that callousness becomes so thick. That even the Spirit of God does not penetrate to the depth of absolutely breaking that person up and causing them to fall upon their face before God to say, Lord, I want your will no matter what. It is a dangerous thing to resist the Spirit of God. And that's why you and I must walk in. In the Spirit, moment by moment, day by day.
That's why he says we are to encourage one another. We are to encourage one another not to harden their heart. And when I see a young person, or someone even a little older than in their teens or early 20s. And they're saying, Well, I believe this is what God is saying to me. My friend, if you believe it is.
Do not pursue anything else until you know for certain what God has called you to do. There is no substitute for the will of God. Thank you for listening to The Danger of a Hardening Heart. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
