There is nothing as serious for a Christian as hardness of heart. It is serious because hardness of heart kills every good thing a Christian received from God.
Matthew accounts one of Jesus’ conversations with the Pharisees like this:
“And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”” Matthew 19:3-9 ESV
Moses is the one who wrote the five Books of Law (the first five books of the Bible). Moses knows the law of God in and out. He has no problem of interpreting each Law according to the will of God. Moses also knows very well what the heart of God is in the message of a marriage between one man and one woman. He knows that it is a one-flesh relationship for life, the two become one, never to be two again.
But through governing the people of God, Moses had to face some men who had hardened their hearts towards the law and principles of God. When the law commands husbands not to divorce their wives except in the case of adultery, some men insisted that they wanted to divorce their wives no matter what. In that case, Moses allowed those men to divorce their wives but to give to the woman a certificate of divorce. And these Pharisees, in times of Jesus, wanted to keep this as a law of God, to give a certificate of divorce to their wives whenever they want to. Why? Their heart was totally hard for the will and word of God.
What makes a human heart hard towards God and His word?
Nothing but sin!
The writer of Hebrews writes:
“Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
on the day of testing in the wilderness,
where your fathers put me to the test
and saw my works for forty years.
Therefore I was provoked with that generation,
and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;
they have not known my ways.’
As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest.’”
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” Hebrews 3:7-13 ESV
It says, “none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin”
Did you see that?
Sin is the cause for all hardened hearts! Notice the writer of Hebrews is not considering here the people of this world but believers! Believers in Jesus Christ!
Sin deceives us, believers in Christ Jesus; then it takes away our devotion, trust and faith in the word and spirit of God. Then while we are in the house of God, we fall away from the life of God. Then our hearts slowly harden to the things of God.
If someone wants to confront us of our sinful lifestyle with the word of God, we scorn them.
Oh, God forbids that none of us will be found in this!
If you, who are reading this (or, listening to the above video message), have this hard heart towards God and His word, repent of your sin and come back to God today! Now!
The Bible says,
“I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” 2 Corinthians 6:2b NIV
The word of God says,
“Therefore tell the people: This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Return to me,’ declares the LORD Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the LORD Almighty.” Zechariah 1:3 NIV
Amen!
Let’s return to the Shepherd of our souls. He is the only One who leads us into life. Let’s abandon our sinful ways and run to God today. God has promised to give us the heart of flesh, a heart that is sensitive to the nudges of the Holy Spirit:
“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:25-26 ESV
Amen!
God is the only One who can take out the stony heart and give us a new heart, a heart of flesh.
David after he sinned against God by taking a wife of another man, he said this as he repented of his sin,
“Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10 ESV
Amen!
May God take away any hardness from our heart! ///