Consider Jesus Week 3

The Danger of a Hardened Heart

Text: Hebrews 3:7–19

Big Idea

A hardened heart is not the result of one bad decision, but the cumulative result of repeatedly resisting God’s voice. The antidote is to continually consider Jesus.

Introduction

The author of Hebrews has just shown us that Christ is greater.

Greater than angels.

Greater than Moses.

Greater than Joshua.

Then suddenly, in Chapter 3 the tone changes. Our Author issues one of the strongest warnings in the New Testament.

Hebrews 3:7–8 NASB95

7 Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you hear His voice, 8 Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, As in the day of trial in the wilderness,

Story - (WILL FILL THIS IN LATER)

The greatest danger facing these believers was not Roman persecution.

It was not Jewish opposition.

It was not losing their possessions.

And the greatest danger to modern believers is not progressive ideology, it’s evolutionary theory, or liberalism. The greatest danger was that of a hardened heart.

I. How a Heart Becomes Hardened

Hebrews 3:13 NASB95

13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

“…so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”

Notice how the author words this. It’s precise. The author doesn’t say the power of sin, instead he says:

the deceitfulness of sin.

Sin hardens our heart by lying. Adam and Eve were hardened to conviction by listening to the lie of the serpent.

It promises life.

It produces death.

It promises freedom.

It produces slavery.

It promises relief.

It produces hardness.

The Progression of a Hardened Heart

Stage One: Spiritual Dullness

Greek: νωθρός (nōthros)

In Hebrews chapter 5 our author attempts to speak of Melchesedick, an old testament foreshaddow of Christ. But look at what the author says in verse 11.

Hebrews 5:11 NASB95

11 Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.

Dullness comes when the person stops listening. God speaks, and conviction comes. But instead of responding to God, they delay, they ignore, they make excuses. Every hardened heart begins with ignored conviction.

I’m just going to look - I won’t lust - 90 days later you are addicted to porn

I’m just going to have one drink - pretty soon you are you coming home drunk

I’m just going to skip church, life group, my purple book meeting. Pretty soon your faith is cold, your walk is disobedient, and you are wondering why things are not the way they used to be.

You have hardened your heart to God.

Stage Two: A Calloused Heart

Greek: πωρόω (pōroō) A callus forms through repeated friction.

As a guitar player, this is a necessary condition. You cannot play a 2 hour long concert without callouses on your fingers. But to the believer, it is spiritual blindness.

The Greek word Poroo depicts as hardened surface forming over tissue. But, spiritually this means repeated exposure to truth without responding resulting in a spiritual callus. Truth no longer pierces the heart.

We find an example of this in the disciples after the feeding of the 5000. They are on a boat, a storm is raging, Jesus, the passage says, get’s into the boat, calms the storm. Now look at what Mark says:

Mark 6:52

Mark 6:51–52 NASB95

51 Then He got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped; and they were utterly astonished, 52 for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened.

A hardened heart is a heart that can experience the move of God, be in the presence of the Holy Spirit, all the while remain unmoved. Have you ever met someone who

Knows Scripture

Can explain Scripture

Yet remains without conviction?

This is the result of callousing. They are without conviction because they cannot feel!

Two chapters later Jesus feeds 4000. The Pharisees show up and begin to argue with Jesus. He turns to His disciples and warns them of the “leaven of the Pharisees”. Instead of catching the metaphor that Jesus used, the disciples begin discussing that they have no bread.

Mark 8:17–19 NASB95

17 And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart? 18 “Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember, 19 when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up?” They said to Him, “Twelve.”

Ironic it is that just a few verses later the disciples bring to Jesus a man who is blind and Jesus heals the blindness. Could it be that Jesus wants us to understand that it is easier to heal physical blindness that spiritual blindness? That it is easier to cure physical callous than a spiritual callous?

Stage Three

A Hardened Heart

Greek: σκληρύνω (sklērynō)

Hebrews 3:8 NASB95

8 Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, As in the day of trial in the wilderness,

This is the word from our passage. A Greek word from which we get the word sklerosis.

The picture is hardness, brittle, fragile to the touch. If you’ve ever heard of arteriosclerosis, you know it describes arteries that have become hardened. Healthy arteries are soft, flexible, and responsive. With every heartbeat they expand and contract, responding exactly as they were designed.

But over time, through disease and chronic stress, those arteries can become stiff and inflexible. Blood may still flow, but the artery no longer responds as it once did.

That is the picture the writer of Hebrews gives us. A healthy heart responds when God speaks.

It bends.

It yields.

It obeys.

A hardened heart is different. It has become spiritually rigid. It no longer yields when the Holy Spirit convicts. It resists correction. It refuses to bend beneath the authority of God’s Word. Notice what Hebrews does not say. It does not say that God stopped speaking. It says,

Hebrews 3:15 NASB95

15 while it is said, “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me.”

Think for a moment of Pharaoh, even after plague after plague, the destruction of Egypt, the death of his own son, His heart remained hardened. The issue was an unwillingness to surrender. Scripture defines this as the final stage of a hardened heart. Look at the warning our author gives us.

II. The Danger of a Hardened Heart

Hebrews picks up in chapter for with another “therefore”, meaning, everything that the author brings in this paragraph is connected to everything in chapter three.

Hebrews 4:1 NASB95

1 Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.

When we read this chapter in full we find that the “Lords Rest” was foreshadowed by the promise land, but ultimately fulfilled in Heaven. I want you to understand this: Even though Joshua led Israel into the physical Promised Land, God still promised a future rest, not the Sabbath day, not Canaan itself, but Christ’s rest. Believers enter that rest now through faith.

Hebrews 4:2 NASB95

2 For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.

But, because it is God’s own rest that we are entering in to, its complete fulfillment lies ahead, ultimately in Heaven. The tragedy is this: A hardened heart always costs more than it promises. It’s not just los of peace, intimacy, joy — ultimately, it is the loss of all faith and our eternal home in heaven.

III. How Do We Guard Our Hearts?

Hebrews 3:13 NASB95

13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

“Encourage one another day after day…”

Isn’t that amazing?

The answer isn’t merely:

Read your Bible more.

Pray harder.

Those matter.

But the author specifically points to the ministry of the church.

We need one another.

Isolation accelerates hardening.

Community exposes deception.

God often speaks through faithful brothers and sisters.

Conclusion

Three times in the book of Hebrews the author says: “Today if you hear His voice”

But he also warns us that today will not last forever Hebrews 3:15

Hebrews 3:13 NASB95

13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

My challenge for each of you is simple: “While it is still called today” respond to God.

Don’t let today’s ignored conviction become tomorrow’s callus.

Don’t let tomorrow’s callus become next year’s hardened heart.

Because the same Jesus who is worthy to be considered is also faithful to soften every heart that humbly turns toward Him.