Harden not your heart
A Sin That Lurks Behind All Manner of Bondage
(All Scriptures are NIV, 84 except when otherwise noted.)
Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.
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(Hebrews 4:7c; see also Psalm 95:7c-8a)
Homosexual attractions, transgender confusion, a bondage to pornography or other intractable sins are some of the most difficult things from which to find freedom. They are a torment and a plague to those who seek to follow God. They consume people’s lives and drive them in ways they know are against God’s will.
Giving Them Over to Sin
As many are aware, the Bible teaches that those who yield to such temptations are engaged in the worship of the creature rather than the Creator……..
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is forever praised.
(Romans 1:18-25)
The Apostle Paul then describes homosexual acts of both males and females as examples of what he has just described, although the principle applies to any form of idolatry (Ephesians 5:5-7; Colossians 3:5; Ezekiel 23:48-49).
Giving Them Over to the Punishment of Idols
The idea of a person being given over to the idol that they choose can be seen in the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. God did not harden his heart the first time he sinned, but only after he repeatedly hardened his own heart and refused to do God’s will (Exodus 4:21; 7:3; 10:20; 14:4).
In Ezekiel, God describes the giving over of sexual sinners to the idols that they have chosen. In so doing, the demonic powers that lurk behind those idols are allowed to exact their own punishment.
I will hand you over to your lovers, and they will tear down your mounds and destroy your lofty shrines.
(Ezekiel 16:39a)
I handed her over to her lovers…..
(Ezekiel 23:9a)
I will turn you over to them for punishment, and they will punish you…..Since you have forgotten Me and thrust me behind your back, you must bear the consequences of your
lewdness and prostitution.
(Ezekiel 23:24c; 35b)
‘Your wickedness will punish you; your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the Lord your God and have no awe of Me,’
declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.
(Jeremiah 2:19)
There is no one who calls on Your name, who arouses himself to take hold of You; for You have hidden Your face from us and have delivered us into the power of our iniquities.
(Isaiah 64:7, NASB)
Why God Hardens the Heart
To the crowds, after doing many miracles in their presence, Jesus pointed to the principle of the “hardening of the heart” for those who obstinately refuse to believe in Him…….
This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: ‘Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’
For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again,
‘He has blinded their eyes and He hardened their heart,
so that they would not see with their eyes and perceive
with their heart, and be converted and I heal them.’
(John 12:38-40, NASB; Isaiah 53:1; Matthew 13:11-15)
When God Permanently Hardens the Heart
It is important to note that there seem to be two kinds of circumstances where God “hardens” or “gives someone over” to blindness.
We see the first kind in the story of Pharaoh. God hardened his heart only after Pharaoh repeatedly hardened his own heart against God. In that case, the permanent hardening by God appears to be a judgment from which Pharaoh could no longer repent.
The same was true of the Pharisees who repeatedly refused to believe in Him despite His performing miracles that could only have been carried out by the Messiah.
When God Temporarily Hardens the Heart
The second kind of hardening is redemptive in its intent. This could be what we see in Romans 1. It is a temporary hardening that forces the sinner to experience the temporal consequences of their sin so that they will come to their senses and repent before the Lord. It appears to be similar to the “giving over” of the Israelites to the idols that they had chosen instead of God (see Ezekiel 23:24c above).
However, even with a temporary hardening of the heart, there may come a time when that hardening becomes permanent. This is a sovereign decision by God based on His ability to read what is in the heart (Acts 1:24; Hebrews 4:12-13). He knows when a person has finally and permanently hardened their heart against Him (Zechariah 7:11-14). Though longsuffering, He can tell what is in a person’s heart, (Mark 2:8a; Luke 11:17a; 16:15b; John 2:25; Acts 15:8a), and will not allow the sacrifice of His Son to be trampled underfoot in such a way (Hebrews 10:26-31).
Hardening the Idolatrous Heart Reveals God’s Justice
When God causes a final hardening of someone’s heart, the righteousness of His judgment is made clear in the ample time that was given for him/her to repent. The impenitent sinner is without excuse (John 15:22; Romans 1:20).
In a blog on pornography, Tim Challies writes……,.
All sin is idolatry, an attempt to find joy and satisfaction not in God Himself but in what God forbids (Exodus 20:3-6). Matt Papa says it well: “An idol, simply put, is anything that is more important to you than God. It is anything that has outweighed God in your life—anything that you love, trust, or obey more than God—anything that has replaced God as essential to your happiness.”
In the moment you begin to look at porn, you have allowed it to replace God as essential to your happiness.
You’ve committed the sin of idolatry.
https://www.challies.com/articles/8-sins-you-commit-whenever-you-look-at-porn/
It is a sobering thought to realize that our sins put Jesus on the Cross and that when we ignore His sacrifice in this way, we are crucifying the Son of God all over again (Hebrews 6:4-8). That is why there is a day when the heart of someone who keeps rejecting Christ and His commands must be hardened.
Every Life on Earth Has an Expiration Date
It is important to note that our life in this world is but a vapor – here today and gone tomorrow (James 4:13-14). In fact, God has already determined the places we should live and the number of our days (Acts 17:26-28; Job 14:5; Psalm 139:16b). Our earthly “expiration date” may be early in life, late in life or somewhere in between. No one knows the day or the hour.
It is true that King Hezekiah begged the Lord to extend his life. In response, God gave him 15 more years. But those years were not good ones for Hezekiah or the nation of Judah (2 Kings 20:6; Isaiah 38:5). During the extra 15 years, a son named Manasseh was born, who turned out to be one of the wickedest kings in the history of Israel. His evil deeds included idolatry, human sacrifices and the pursuit of demonic powers. If Hezekiah hadn’t lived those additional 15 years, none of that would have happened.
Jesus told a parable to a large crowd one day about a man who was obsessed with trying store up treasure on earth…….
God said to him, ‘You fool!
This very night your soul is required of you’…
(Luke 12:20a, NASB)
No Man Knows the Day or the Hour
The good news is that we still have time to repent and turn to the Lord for both salvation and sanctification. But we must be sober and alert, for we do not know the time of the Lord’s return, or of our death (Mark 13:32-37). Let us no longer live as the Gentiles (-i.e., those who do not know God) do (Ephesians 4:17-24).
If you are a believer and have fallen, return to Him, confess your sins and be cleansed (1 John 1:9). Such a response softens the heart.
Tim Challies concludes…..
Those who have trusted Jesus Christ can have confidence that Christ has satisfied our account, that He has satisfied God’s wrath against our sin, that He has provided us with His own righteousness. Yet we must also know that He has done this not so we can remain in our sin, but that we can “put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24).
No one knows the day or the hour when Jesus will return – a time when the hearts of everyone who have rejected Him will be permanently hardened. That is why the Scriptures say….
How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?
This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard Him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit
distributed according to His will.
(Hebrews 2:3-4)
As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For He says, ‘In the time of My favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.’ I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.
(2 Corinthians 6:1-2)
God Has Set Eternity in our Hearts
We don‘t even know our own hearts (Jeremiah 17:9-10), which makes any delay in giving ourselves into His hands a precarious matter indeed (Luke 8:15; 12:20a; 12:34).
The Bible says that God has set eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11). We know that He exists (Romans 1:18-20), and so we are without excuse if we ignore so great a salvation (Hebrews 2:1-3).
Jesus is worth it! He is not asking for sinless perfection. He is asking us to value His sacrifice for our sins – to value it so much that we soften our hearts toward Him and allow Him to truly be the Lord of our lives (Ephesians 4:1; Philippians 1:27a; Colossians 1:10; Hebrews 3:1-3; 7-15). You have everything to gain or everything to lose. Do it today!
Dr. David Kyle Foster is the author of Transformed Into His Image and Love Hunger and is the founder/director of Pure Passion Media (www.PurePassion.us). Read more of his take on sexual sin and brokenness in his newest book, The Sexual Healing Reference Edition. You can also listen to his twice-weekly podcast by going to: www.charismapodcastnetwork.com/show/purepassion.
