Title Avoid being hardened (Psalm 81:11-16)
Contents
Lao-tzu always had a man who was very respectful and followed. However, when he realized that his life was on the brink of death due to his old age, he sought out the last instruction from Sang Sang. "Teacher, please give me the lessons I need," he asked. Sang Sang, who was invited to teach, suddenly opened his mouth wide and then closed it. And I asked the old man. "Are my teeth still there?" Lao-tzu answered, "No."
Sang-soo opened his mouth wide and then closed it again. "Is my tongue still there?" “Yes,” I replied.
Zhang Zhang then asked Lao Tzu again. "Will you understand my teaching?" Lao-tzu said what he had realized. "Isn't this the saying that hard things disappear first, and soft things remain?" Sang Sang nodded his head and smiled. He said, "Yes, all the laws of the world are within it."
That's right. The reason of heaven is here.
Hard, hardened. This doesn't last long.
It is the soft water that cuts the rocks and chisels them to create canyons.
What happens when the liver hardens? What if the blood hardens? When it hardens like flesh, the blood vessels harden, and the brain hardens.......
In today's text verse 12, it is written, "I leave you as you are hardened". In the King James Version, it is translated as "I leave you as you are hard." This means 'let it go' in humans. It is said to be left as it is hardened. I can't even eat food when it hardens. When the paint hardens, it becomes unusable. When your body hardens, you lose your freedom. When your heart is hardened, your relationship with other people is broken. I can't accept others. If our spirit is hardened, our relationship with God will go wrong and we will miss the opportunity to repent.
Letting go of the hardened means that the stage for surgery is now over. It means you can't fix it.
There is a man named Hanbong Cheon, a famous pottery master who bakes pottery such as tea bowls. I've heard him say, "When mud goes into a fire and hardens, there are only two things. One is a work of art, and the other is a useless thing that must be broken because it can't be regenerated and can't be rewritten." A bowl that has been hardened after being roasted is a work of art, but a bad bowl is not even garbage. Garbage is recycled and used as a resource, but the hardened and broken pieces of earthenware will only damage your hands, hurt your feet, and only throw away the ground.
You can see that the Bible says the same thing about the influence of the Holy Spirit. For those who continue to resist or rebel against the influence of the Holy Spirit and die out, the Holy Spirit also groans. The Bible even uses the expression 'forsaken' in a more extreme way. In Romans 1, in verses 24, 26, and 28, “leave me,” “leave me,” “leave me” are repeated. The culmination of God's wrath is to leave sinful humans as they are. Those who kept turning away from God and disobeying His Word eventually "give up" or "forsaken". If you let it go, you will end up committing more sins and fall beyond recovery.
To leave the Jewish people in this harsh way would make them a more dangerous adversary and more harmful oppressor than the armies of any neighboring nations crossing the border. God withdrew his spirit from hardened and stubborn people. He removed the bondage of grace that restrained, stopped, and restrained us. They liked to do what they wanted, so God left them to do what they wanted. "Ephraim is united to idols, leave him alone." It is the toughest decision for a good God to leave such people in the lusts of their hearts, and to let them rule over them.
This text is a reflection of the time of the Exodus. The people of Israel live in the many miracles Moses performed. The plagues of the ten miracles performed to King Pharaoh to free all the people of Israel from the life of slavery, as well as the breaking of the Red Sea, springs of water gushing out of the rock, and the gathering of manna and quail, many uncountable events occurred around them. was happening for Still, they always blamed God. complained to God. Hearing, encountering, and experiencing God's specific words, he did not obey God.
Romans 2:5 says, “But according to your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for thee in the day of wrath, when righteous judgment is revealed.” Except for that, no one entered the land of Canaan. God wants His people to be renewed every day. He wants to become new people born in the wilderness every day. He wants you to gain new salvation every day with fear and trembling in your heart.
Change is important for people. But who are the most difficult to change in the church by the power of the gospel? People who believe in themselves well. There is a dreadful pitfall into which self-proclaimed believers can fall. Everything that other people do is wrong, and everything I do is based on faith, and I put a hard heart and stubbornness in front of it.
Stubbornness and unrepentant heart, hardened heart, hardened spirit, hardened soul, these are the problems. This was a problem for the Israelites who were destroyed in the wilderness, and it was a problem for the Pharisees and scribes who were rebuked by Jesus for being the offspring of vipers and whitewashed tombs. It was the problem of a rich young man who returned home in sorrow while trying to receive eternal life from Jesus. These problems continue to this day.
Being hardened is the cause of all unhappiness. Hardening and hardening is the problem.
There is an old saying, "A man who boasts of his strength will never die in disfellowship."
How, then, can we avoid this “hardening”? If we look at Hebrews 3, we find the phrase “while it is called today (Hebrews 3:13)”. The past doesn't matter. The future doesn't matter. The most important thing is the present, the time of today.
Even if you were tough before, you don't have to be tough now. It is pride that makes us hard. Because of greed, because of ignorance.
Let go of stubbornness and become soft. You have to soften your heart to live a long life. When the body is soft, it is healthy and not injured.
God does not want us to be abandoned because we are hardened and hardened.
Please see the last verse of today's text. “I want my people to obey me, and to walk in my ways, and I will quickly put control of their enemies, and turn my hand against their foes, and their days will go on forever, though those who oppose the Lord pretend to obey him. And I will feed them with the good of wheat, and I will satisfy you with honey from the rock.”
If we obey Jehovah's ways today and do them, we will be blessed. All we need to do today is to tear down Kang-Pak's house, break the vessel of stubbornness, and tear the sack of the unrepentant heart.
Dear saints,
A life that is not obstinate before God is a blessed life. I believe that a life that is not harsh before God is a gracious life.
Hope you don't get tough. If we do not cast away our hardened heart before God, God may give up or forsake us. In the name of the Lord, I pray that you will become saints who do not become hardened under any circumstances.