Hardening of the Heart
Christian congregations, the way they exist today, are largely transitory. As people from the outside are drawn in by the Holy Spirit they experience things they’ve never encountered before. Spiritual things begin to make sense and begin to take hold of their heart. They are drawn unto our Lord (Jn 6:44), and the seed of the kingdom is planted in their hearts (Matt 13:18-23).
But Jesus said in the parable of the sower that there would be those who “believe for a while” but when difficulty comes they fall away (Lk 8:13). This isn’t implying we can lose our salvation. It is demonstrating that there is a difference between being drawn and being born again. Between being called and being chosen (Matt 22:1-14). It is demonstrating that mere intellectual belief is not equivalent to saving faith (James 2).
Faith is a fruit of the Spirit given after the new birth (Gal 5:22). But belief is a response to the Holy Spirit drawing us through conviction (Jn 16:8). As the Holy Spirit draws us we respond to conviction in repentance. Just as Jesus showed the rich man his love for money, so the Holy Spirit shows those He is drawing their own idols. These things test our hearts, just as Jesus said in the parable of the sower, revealing what is merely intellectual belief and what is saving faith.
Those without a true commitment to Christ will not suffer biblical teaching forever. They will either repent and be changed or their heart will harden from lack of response and fall away. Eventually those who were once being drawn will find that the same biblical teaching that they once rejoiced in will become an offense as their hearts harden. The falling away that occurs isn’t always a complete departure from religion. Oftentimes these individuals will seek after false teachers to tell them what they want to hear.
They are not the victims of false teaching. They are the consumers of it. False teachers exist because people prefer it but still need an antidote to the consequence of sin. Thus we have the modern church, which gives their unconverted hearts all the things they desire, all the things the unbelieving world longs for, but includes a free pass on their sin without actual surrender to Christ.
Preachers and teachers must stand firm and resolute in absolute faith in Gods word. They must avoid the danger of looking at numbers as the metric for their ministry and instead look at fruit. The temptation of seeing those depart and refocusing the message to accommodate is great. But accommodation always leads to compromise. Compromise of the Word. Compromise of the truth. It’s why verse by verse is so important and why we must stick to scripture in its entirety.
Paul said: Acts 20:26-27 (NKJV) 26 “Therefore I testify to you this day that I [am] innocent of the blood of all [men.] 27 “For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.
He was innocent of the blood of all men BECAUSE he taught the whole counsel of God’s word. Not a highlight reel of Jesus’s greatest hits. He preached with faith that a sovereign God would move upon men’s hearts, and with boldness that despite the fact that vast majority would not respond, he would remain faithful, regardless of the outcome.
Amos 8:11 (NKJV) “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord GOD, “That I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine of bread, Nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the words of the LORD.
The state we are in, in the church today, was prophesied about in the Old Testament and again in the New Testament. Paul makes it clear in his letter to Timothy that regardless of the outcome he was to preach the word.
2 Timothy 4:2-4 (NKJV) 2 Preach the word! Be ready in season [and] out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, [because] they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn [their] ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
He says, convince, rebuke, exhort. Convince means to argue or debate with the intent changing one's mind.
Rebuke means to correct an error including with discipline.
Exhort means to proclaim with the intent to encourage toward right action.
All these are viewed with disdain by the modern church but Paul tells Timothy that that is exactly what he’s to do. And he tells him that he’s to do it with all long suffering or perseverance, knowing that the message will not be received well.
And this brings us back to the transitory nature of the modern church. Because men who have hardened their hearts to the truth will ultimately leave our fellowship in favor of someone teaching something more to their liking. As discouraging as this is, every prophet, apostle and writer in scripture at one point experienced this.
We have only to look at those like Saul (Israel’s first king), who was obedient in his leadership only as long as it pleased the people and kept him in favorable standing with them… or the false prophets of Jeremiah’s day who taught positive thinking, masquerading as faith, which allowed Israel to go on in disobedience without fear of consequences… to see where compromise ultimately leads.
The tension between truth and error has always existed. It’s not error that leads one astray but rather the PREFERENCE of error over truth that causes one to depart. Whether through a seared conscience, a reprobate mind, or the hardening of one’s heart, the Bible has several different descriptions for it. But the result is the same. A mind once drawn by the Holy Spirit, having tasted of the heavenly gifts, the good Word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, it is impossible to renew them to repentance again (Heb 6:4-6).
The hardening of the heart is the final judgement of God giving them over to what their hearts want most… a form of godliness with no power. No power to convict, to prune, to discipline, to shape… and thus no power to save. God gave them exactly what they asked for… a religion without Christ, without the Holy Spirit and without the Father. A religion after their own hearts.
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