Hard Head And Stubborn Heart
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
When a person decides to become a disciple of Christ there expectations Jesus has of his disciples.
In one instance Jesus points out this expectation in Luke 14:33…
33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
Before that Jesus would tell his apostles something very similar in Luke 10:27.
27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
I point this reality out because the second most important thing a disciple or follower of Christ can do (other than get themselves to heaven) is help others get to heaven.
After all Jesus declared this was the reason he came to this earth.
10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
This is why Jesus told his disciples…
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
By the way this isn’t anything new, God has always asked his faithful to go and strive to help others become faithful as well.
One of the great illustrations of this is demonstrated in the book of Jonah!!!
However, everyone here knows that teaching the lost is not always because not everyone is receptive to hearing the gospel.
That brings me to our lesson for this evening that is going to be taken from Ezekiel 3:7.
In Ezekiel 2-3 we have God calling his servant Ezekiel to be his teacher to the lost house of Israel.
God stands Ezekiel up to give him his charge to be his preacher to the house of Israel that were already in captivity.
1 And he said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.” 2 And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.”
God demands Ezekiel preach “his word” i.e., “the truth” and lie to the people.
4 The descendants also are impudent and stubborn: I send you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’
God also warns Ezekiel of who he will be preaching to.
7 But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me: because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart.
It is this reality that I want us to focus on this evening.
Each Christian here this evening has been charged, as disciples of Christ, to go out seeking to save the lost by teaching them the wonderful gospel message.
BUT, that doesn’t mean it will be easy.
So how do we, Christ’s disciples, deal with this reality.
First, we must…
Accept This Fact
Accept This Fact
Go Into It With Eyes Wide Open
Go Into It With Eyes Wide Open
There is a zeal that new Christians have when they come out of that watery grave that wants to scream from the mountain tops who this Jesus is that took on their sins and adopted them to his family.
The Ethiopian eunuch, after obeying the gospel through baptism, notice…
38 And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. 39 And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.
The Philippian jailor and his household had the same reaction.
33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. 34 Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.
However, that zeal can find itself struggling when the harsh reality of the hearts and minds of the majority of humanity ends up.
Young and old Christians alike can struggle with the very powerful reality that “most people” have no desire to know God’s word and obey the truth.
13 Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Now this is truly sad and breaks the faithful child of God’s heart that it is the case.
But Christians must accept this as fact, after all God’s own chosen people executed his son, and the sooner Christians accept this fact of human life the sooner we can reach more people.
Why is it that accepting this allows us to reach more people?
Because it allows us to not fixate on those that refuse and reject the truth and ignore those that are actually seeking and trying to find their way to God.
This the principle point Jesus was teaching his disciple here on earth during what we call the “limited commission.”
11 And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.
Summary
Summary
The apostle Paul wished with all his heart his fellow Hebrew brethren would be saved.
1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.
He was even willing to be accursed and cut off from Christ if it could guarantee they would all be saved.
3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.
But that isn’t the case and as such we must accept that not everyone will want to obey if we are going to be able to reach those that are seeking and looking for God.
So, if we accept that this is a reality what do we need to then look for that will allow us to move on to the next.
We need to pay attention…
What They Are Telling Us
What They Are Telling Us
Are They Stubborn Hearted?
Are They Stubborn Hearted?
We have one of the great examples of how people’s hearts get hardened in the book of Exodus.
Moses is sent by God to tell Pharaoh to let God’s people go, but remember what God tells Moses will happen to Pharaoh’s heart.
21 And the Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.
Now how did God “harden the heart of Pharoah,” by not giving Pharoah what he wanted and demanding Pharaoh obey the voice of God over his own wants and desires.
Jesus would declare this stubborn heart concept to Nicodemus when Jesus told him…
19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.
Paul would write the same thing but put it in slightly a different way to the Thessalonian church.
11 Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, 12 in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
When we are teaching our family, friends, coworkers, fellow students and the like we must be aware when their hearts are stubborn.
If they reject the truth because they have pleasure in their unrighteousness their stubborn heart is not ready to accept the truth and we need to move on to one that is ready.
What else should we be aware of?
Are They Hard Headed?
Are They Hard Headed?
There is a difference in someone that rejects the saving message of Jesus the Christ because their heart loves this world and the one whose “hard headed” against the truth.
Again, some people will reject the truth of God’s word because they think they are wiser than God or his word.
Paul perfectly described the difference between a stubborn heart and a hard head in 1 Corinthians 1:21-23.
21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles
Notice the Jews had the stubborn heart and the Gentiles a hard head.
How does a hard head manifest itself?
These are the ones that mock the word of God.
Some mock God’s word by denying it.
32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.”
41 Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish; for I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.
3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”
Some mock God’s word by denying the messengers of the word.
15 The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. 16 But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, until there was no remedy.
13 But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”
35 And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” 36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine 37 and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!”
Summary
Summary
Being effective at reaching and teaching as many people the gospel as we can takes us being willing to look for and admit when we find a stubborn heart or a hard head.
Conclusion
Conclusion
I’m not going to stand up here and suggest this is easy to do, to move on to the next person.
But it is what God wants us to do so that on that great day when Christ returns and we stand before the judgment seat of Christ we won’t have a large number of people who will say of us “You Never Mentioned Him To Me.”
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent
33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
32 Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
