The Hardened Heart
Moses The Evangelist • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 5 views"The Hardened Heart" delves into different beliefs on salvation using the story of Pharaoh in Exodus. He highlights God's sovereignty, justice, and love, emphasizing the importance of belief for salvation. Pharaoh's hardened heart resulted from disbelief and rejection, leading to God's wrath. The sermon calls for reflection on embracing God's mercy and the life-giving power of belief for salvation.
Notes
Transcript
Opening Thoughts
Bible Student Note:
1 And the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. 2 You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land.
The plagues of Egypt are a picture of the end time judgements of God on the World.
The Picture of the Trinity:
The Father in Heaven
Moses is a type of Christ
Arron is the prophet
The False Trinity: Revelation 13
Satan: The Red Dragon
4 And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”
The First Beast: Antichrist
The Second Beast: The False Prophet
11 Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. 12 It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed.
Introduction
The conversation we have this morning will determine what you believe and understand about relational evangelism.
There are many camps of salvation:
Calvinism: God and God alone chooses who will and will not be saved.
Arminian: Man chooses if he will receive or reject salvation proven by his actions.
Sinners Prayer or Easy Believeism: Evangelism and discipleship are compartmentalized.
Universalism: The love of God will prevail for all mankind and all will be saved.
Molinism: In God’s Sovereignty and omniscients he knows what you will choose and responds accordingly to produce his will.
Exposition
Understanding the Nature of God
Understanding the Nature of God
24 The Lord of hosts has sworn: “As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand,
God is Sovereign
God is Sovereign
Omniscient: All knowing
Omniscient: All knowing
Omnipresent: Everywhere all the time and in all time.
Omnipresent: Everywhere all the time and in all time.
Omnipotent: All Powerful
Omnipotent: All Powerful
Just
Just
He is the Alpha and Omega The beginning and the end.
He is the Alpha and Omega The beginning and the end.
God is Love
God is Love
22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Merciful
Merciful
Compassionate
Compassionate
Gracious
Gracious
Faithful
Faithful
What makes a Hardened Heart
What makes a Hardened Heart
3 But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, 4 Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment.
Hardening is a result of disobedience.
Hardening is a result of disobedience.
Pharaoh had the opportunity to believe and obey.
Pharaoh had the opportunity to believe and obey.
All of this takes place after the initial rejection of Pharaoh in Exodus 5.
1 Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’ ” 2 But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.”
God is not required to give mercy
God is not required to give mercy
13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” 14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Hardening is a result of disbelief
Hardening is a result of disbelief
8 Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 9 “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Prove yourselves by working a miracle,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.’ ”
The Sign of the Serpents
The Sign of the Serpents
10 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. 11 Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts. 12 For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. 13 Still Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.
The Sign of the Savior
The Sign of the Savior
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Pharaoh’s heart was hardened for destruction.
Pharaoh’s heart was hardened for destruction.
17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
A hardened heart invokes the wrath of God.
A hardened heart invokes the wrath of God.
14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go.
Salvation is for everyone who believes
Salvation is for everyone who believes
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Wrath is revealed to those that reject the truth
Wrath is revealed to those that reject the truth
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
The first plague is that water to blood.
The first plague is that water to blood.
20 Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded. In the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants he lifted up the staff and struck the water in the Nile, and all the water in the Nile turned into blood. 21 And the fish in the Nile died, and the Nile stank, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.
The Nile was considered the source of life.
The Nile was considered the source of life.
The best of the world can only produce death not life.
The best of the world can only produce death not life.
22 But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts. So Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.
God’s wrath on Egypt is a foreshadowing of what is to come.
God’s wrath on Egypt is a foreshadowing of what is to come.
8 The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. 9 A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
Conclusion:
Like Moses our call is to go into all the world and deliver the message of God. Some will be open to the gospel and some will have hard hearts toward God. The condition of their heart doesn’t determine our responsibility or success in the mission. God knows who will receive and who will reject Him. Our responsibility is to be faithful to share the good news of Jesus.
Next Steps
Find your confidence in the word and work of the Lord.
Get prepared to share the message of salvation through personal discipleship. Are you ready to share the hope of Jesus with the world.
Resign to the fact that you are not in control. There is only one sovereign being and that is God.
Call to Prayer
If you are open to the love of God and would like to receive him as Lord come and have a conversation with me on the deck.
Pray for courage and confidence to share the message of Jesus in your sphere of influence.
RGroup Questions
How do you handle rejection from someone not open to the gospel?
What do you do with some that is open to the gospel?
What is your current understand of how God saves a soul?