The Stony Heart
Proverbs 28:14 ? Happy is the man that feareth alway: but he that
hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.
I love to preach to people whose hearts are pliable and soft.
Visiting preachers who preach here usually tell me afterwards,
"Your people are very easy to preach to." When I hear
comments like that, I whisper a silent prayer to the Lord thanking
Him for a congregation with tender hearts!
It is very difficult to preach to an audience of people with hardened
hearts—Hearts of stone.
The danger in a church such as ours is to take the preaching for
granted. When that happens, the heart begins to harden.
I. The CAUTION concerning a stony heart.
A. The man who fears God and regards God’s warnings against
sin will be a happy man—On the other hand, the man who hardens
his heart against the Lord admonitions will end up in big trouble
(29:1).
B. There are repeated admonitions in the Bible to "harden
not your hearts" (Dt. 15:7; 1 Sam. 6:6; Ps. 95:8; Heb. 3:8,
15; 4:7).
C. God doesn’t bless hard hearted people. God uses one with
a soft heart… a pliable heart… a tender heart. David
said, "my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of
my bowels" (Ps. 22:14). "…a broken and a contrite
heart, O God, thou wilt not despise" (Ps. 51:17).
II. The CHARACTERISTICS of a stony heart.
A. A stony heart is a COLD heart.
1. Have you ever heard the statement, "Stone cold dead in
the market?"
2. It is a challenge to keep your heart warm.
3. Hearts get cold through the rigors of routine: Routine attendance;
service; prayers; routine Bible reading.
4. Meditating on the cross will help keep your heart soft and
warm.
B. A stony heart is a HARD heart.
1. I want to have a soft heart. I want a tender heart. "Be
ye kind one to another, TENDERHEARTED, forgiving one another,
even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you" (Eph.
4:32).
2. I want a compassionate heart for those who are needy, hurting,
and lonely. I want my heart to be responsive and moved by those
who are suffering. I want to feel what others are going through.
3. I don’t ever want my heart to become so calloused that
I can’t feel God’s loving conviction.
C. A stony heart is a DEAD heart. Rigor mortis has set in despite
it is still alive.
I’ll never forget the first funeral I ever went to—My
Dad’s. I was 15 years old. I went to the casket where the
body of my Dad was laid. He almost looked like he was sleeping.
I reached out my hand to touch his hand. It was cold and hard.
That was the ONLY time I’ve ever touch a dead body.
1. Unresponsive, insensitive – LIKE A ROCK!
2. Fruitless. Jesus spoke of seed that fell upon "stony places"
(Mt. 13:5). Stony ground bears no fruit. And a stony heart will
never bear fruit.
III. The CAUSES of a stony heart. Hardness of heart comes from…
A. Failing to consider what God has done (Mk. 6:52). The word
"consider" means "to study, ponder, deliberate,
examine, or meditate upon."
ÆIf the disciples had been thinking spiritually instead
of naturally, they would have known that Jesus would take care
of them.
B. UNBELIEF (Mk. 16:14).
C. Through SIN / rebellion (Heb. 3:13).
PETRIFIED FOREST (Northern Arizona): Wood became stone as it lay
in the mud and the water carried it's mineral properties into
the fibers of the tree. The once growing wood cells were gradually
replaced by the elements of the surrounding earth.
Hearts become hardened as they take on more and more of the elements
of the world and sin.
D. Through RESISTING God (unyielding) – Pharaoh
1. Some would try to blame God for their "hard heart,"
excusing themselves because God hardened Pharaoh’s heart.
Pharaoh’s heart was hardened because he refusal to heed the
admonition of God to let Israel go.
2. There are 20 references to the hardening of Pharaoh’s
heart—10 are attributed to God; 10 are attributed to Pharaoh
hardening his heart. During the first five plagues Pharaoh hardened
his own heart. It is only after the sixth plague that it says
God hardened his heart. Then after the seventh plague God gave
Pharaoh another chance, but Pharaoh hardened his heart again.
From the eighth plague on, it was God who hardened Pharaoh’s
heart. God already knew what was in Pharaoh’s heart. It was
the stubborn pride that caused it to become hardened.
3. Do you want to keep your heart from becoming hardened? Don’t
resist God. When he deals with you, YIELD TO HIM.
IV. The CURE of a stony heart.
A. Preventive medicine: Keep responding to the Truth and the Spirit’s
conviction. When the Holy Spirit pricks your heart about something
the preacher says, don’t bristle or resist, but surrender
and get it right.
B. Trouble can soften your heart – Softening of Job’s
heart (Job 23:16).
ÆHow do you tenderize a piece of meat? By pounding on it.
Trouble, adversity, trials, suffering will make your heart soft
if you don’t turn away from God during those times.
A wife may have a husband with a hard heart. She prays her husband’s
heart would be soften. Don’t be surprised if God doesn’t
answer your prayers by sending great trouble into your husband’s
life to make his heart soft.
It isn’t because God doesn’t love you that He allows
trouble in your life. On the contrary, He loves you enough to
make your heart soft. He’s not trying to hurt you¾He’s
trying to soften you so you can help others.
ÆSometimes God may need to "break our heart" to
soften it.
What did God use to soften Job’s heart?
1. Depletion of finances (1:3). Job was on easy street financially.
In one day he lost it all.
ÆThis gave Job a soft heart towards others who had nothing.
When you experience poverty, you are more sympathic towards others
in poverty. You’ll never feel the littleness of someone else’s
poverty if you have always been full.
LEAN TIMES IN VERMONT¾ There were times while pastoring
in Vermont when when our family had very little. One time we were
without a car and a family in our church gave us one of their
cars. We were without food, and a church in Williston, 90 miles
away, brought us a van filled with groceries one Christmas. We
had no oil for our furnace and a logger in our church brought
us 5 cords of firewood. All these experiences have softened my
heart towards others who have little.
2. Death in the family (1:18-22).
3. Disease in the flesh (2:4-10). ILLUS: David Ring; Ken Blue
4. Desertion of friends (19:14-19).
SUMMATION: Ezekiel 36:26—Ezekiel was a prophet in exile.
He prophesized to the Jews in bondage in Babylon. He told them
why they were carried away in captivity (36:16-20).
Israel’s heart had become like a stone. Ezekiel pointed toward
to the Kingdom Age when Christ would reign. He would take away
Israel’s heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh…
A heart that is responsive… warm… soft. That’s
what I want! That’s the kind of heart I want for Bible Baptist
Church – A church with A Y
ILLUS: ROCK vs. SOFT HEART