Title Avoid being hardened/Hebrews 3:7-14
Content [sermon]
Trying to enumerate and classify the causes that make people unhappy would not be so simple. This is because there are many types and understandings may differ depending on each person's situation and point of view. But we need to discern and figure out what is unhappiness and what is the cause of unhappiness. This will allow you to take appropriate action to overcome it, prevent it, and cure it. The Bible teaches a principled and fundamental answer to these things. The Bible not only points out problems, but also offers clear solutions.
Today, we will share grace by pondering focusing on the lessons recorded in the text.
If we look at the text, we can see that "to be hardened" is what makes people unhappy. In other words, failing to receive the blessings and graces that God has given you, or losing the blessings and graces you have already received, all have a hardened heart.
First, let's figure out what toughness is.
It has been interpreted in the dictionary to say that Gangpyi has a difficult temper and is stubborn. In the Bible, the word translated as hardy means to rebel, to harden. Rigidity is an attitude that consciously and voluntarily establishes one's position and opinion, and is also an active and subjective attitude.
The word "harden" is expressed as "to harden the heart" or "to straighten the neck". In the Bible, the word gangpi is mainly used for the rebellious attitude of man before God. Even in relationships, a hard-hearted person makes the society he belongs to uncomfortable and painful. As a result, it becomes an object of scorn for people. However, those who have a hard heart toward God cause even greater misfortunes themselves. There are many people in the world who are meek in human relationships but are very hard on God. This may seem surprising and bizarre, but it is the truth.
Second, let's find out what is the reason for man's hard work toward God.
First, pride hardens the heart.
A prime example of this is Pharaoh, king of Egypt. In the Bible book of Exodus, God sent Moses to Pharaoh to set the Israelites free from Egypt. And when Pharaoh asked to show a miracle, he told him to throw his staff and show it to him. Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “…Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me” (Exodus 9:13). But Pharaoh's heart was hardened and he did not listen to Moses and Aaron. From then on, God's punishment began to fall on Egypt through Moses. The plague of blood, the plague of frogs, this plague, the plague of flies, the plague of bad livestock and death, the plague of poisoning humans and animals, the hail plague, the locust plague, and the plague where day becomes like night
Pharaoh pretended to give in during the calamity, but as it passed, he became hard again. Then, as the tenth plague, every household in Egypt suffered the death of the firstborn, both man and beast, and Pharaoh's son also died. Then Pharaoh let the Israelites go. Pharaoh's hard heart stemmed from his pride. The word Pharaoh in Hebrew means "unbound, looking down upon all things, repelling, rejecting," etc. If we apply the meaning of these words, it tells us that the king of Egypt was not bound by anyone, he was an ignorant, and he acted as an absolute authority who rejected and rejected anything he did not want. The Bible says, “Pride is the beginning of destruction, and a haughty heart before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18), and “…God opposes the proud…” (1 Peter 5:5). Pride hardens your heart.
Second, covetousness hardens a person's heart.
If you are greedy, you will interpret God's Word in a self-centered way. He is trying to justify what he has done. And as time goes by, doing against the will of God becomes chronic, dulls the mind, and dulls the spiritual sense.
Third, ignorance hardens the heart. Before the apostle Paul became an apostle, he persecuted Christians and persecuted the church. Later, in his letter to Timothy, the apostle Paul wrote, "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he has regarded me as faithful and has entrusted me with the ministry. have done” (1 Timothy 1:12,13). He confessed that it was his ignorance that had previously made him so tough. Spiritual ignorance leads to a hardened heart and disobedience before God. Pride, greed, and spiritual ignorance harden them before God.
Third, let's see what we can do to avoid hardening.
This is what is written in today's text. “But admonish one another daily while it is called today, that any of you do not be hardened by the temptations of sin. If we hold fast to the beginning of what is certain to the end, we may become partakers of Christ” (Hebrews 3:13,14). You should advise each other. As we have already seen, pride, covetousness, and ignorance are hotbeds of sin and hardening of our hearts.
It is the most appropriate measure against these things for the saints to meet each other, to gather and to exhort. This is the reason why the saints should strive to gather together. It is written in the Bible, "Let us not forsake meeting together, as is the habit of some, but exhort us, and all the more as we see the day drawing near" (Hebrews 10:25). We must gather to hear and learn the word of God. We must visit each other and meet each other in order to exhort us with the Word of God. You should try to maintain and restore your first faith, your first love. When we realize the way of salvation for the first time and experience the grace of being saved through faith in Jesus Christ, we can rejoice and be thankful for even the smallest things. You will be able to see and feel the extraordinary from the ordinary. If these joys and gratitude are dry, it is a sign that your heart is being hardened. In this case, we must repent so that we can restore our first faith and our first love.
Meanwhile, we must ask the Lord to spare us from hardening. In Exodus 7-14, it is recorded several times that God hardened Pharaoh's heart. This does not mean that God worked to harden the meek Pharaoh's heart, but it means that God left Pharaoh's hardened heart as it was. Psalm 81:12 says, "Therefore, I have left him to the hardened of his heart, to do as he pleases. Indeed, if God leaves us alone, we will be hardened by our innate nature and the temptations of sin. Without God's grace, we cannot escape being hardened. Therefore, we must not forget to humbly cry out and ask God for relief from hardening.
Hardening of the heart is itself a punishment and the beginning of judgment. If your heart is hardened, you will not be able to receive the blessings and graces that God gives you, but you will also lose the blessings and graces you have received. This was the case with the Israelites who left Egypt and went to Canaan. It is written in today's text, "Therefore, when you hear his voice today, as the Holy Spirit has said, do not harden your hearts, as when you were tempted in the wilderness, stirred up in wrath, there, forty years, when your fathers tried and tested me. I have seen my deeds. Therefore, in my wrath I was angry with this generation, saying, "They have always been deceived in their hearts, and they do not know my ways." As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest" (Hebrews 3:7-11). I did.
Pride and greed entered their hearts, and all the joy and excitement of being freed from Egypt and heading to Canaan, flowing with milk and honey, disappeared. Their hearts were deceived, and they poured out their murmurings and complaints, not knowing that God was leading them with wisdom and power. As a result, their hearts were hardened, and they could not enter Canaan, the land of inheritance flowing with milk and honey, and died in the wilderness.
Dear brothers and sisters, I hope that you will avoid being hardened and lead a life of faith with a consistent attitude. So, I bless you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that you may participate in the inheritance and glory that Christ has prepared and given.