(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Amen, you guys are stuck with me tonight again, but it is a blessing to be here and I'm thankful again once again for the opportunity. As soon as I'm done preaching, I'm going to pray and then I have to head out because I got to catch my flight, but I just want to thank you all for coming tonight and for allowing me to be here. I want to thank your pastor and Faith Forward Baptist Church for the great influence it's been on my church and churches all across the country and so thank you. And an early Merry Christmas to you all, Amen. Look at Hebrews chapter 3 and verse number 7, it says, Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, today if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation, in the day of temptation, in the wilderness, when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. And the title of my sermon this evening is a hardened heart, a hardened heart. I want to talk about the subject of a hard heart in the Bible. And of course here in the book of Hebrews, we know that the Apostle Paul is writing to specific Hebrews. In what particular setting, we don't know whether it's he's just sending these letters to churches or he's sending them to individual Hebrews, but obviously a lot of the doctrines that are being covered in the book of Hebrews are pretty controversial doctrines to Hebrews themselves. Why is that? Well, because of the fact that when you read the book of Hebrews, you see that the main emphasis of the book is the fact that Jesus Christ is better, right? In fact, from chapters 1 all the way to the end of the book in chapter 13, we see that there's a heavy emphasis on Jesus Christ. We see that even in the very first chapter of the book of Hebrews, it talks about how God in sundry times and diverse manners, spake in times passed unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son. So automatically emphasizing the fact that the most authoritative person is the Lord Jesus Christ. He talks about how he's better than Moses, how he's better than the angels, and the fact that he is the better mediator of a better testament established upon better promises. Over and over again, we see there's a heavy emphasis on Jesus Christ. The fact that he is essentially, that Melchizedek was a picture of Jesus, he was Jesus Christ. The fact that the sacrifices that were offered in the Old Testament all pointed to Jesus Christ who is the lamb of God who should take away the sins of the world. And he's given them all these doctrines and you can see how a Jew during this time might flinch a little bit at what he's listening to, right? Because of the fact that by and large the Jews rejected Jesus Christ, he came into his own and his own received him not. They essentially rejected him as a nation. And so when Hebrews are reading this particular letter here, you might have some people who are having a knee-jerk reaction to the information given. Which is why I believe here in Hebrews chapter three, he tells them in verse number seven, as the Holy Ghost sayeth, today if you would hear his voice, harden not your hearts. You know, he's basically saying don't resist what's being stated here. Don't resist the information, don't harden your heart against the information that's being given. And obviously, he's not scaling back the message. I mean, every single chapter is basically going against Judaism, right? It's explaining very thoroughly what the word of God says regarding a multitude of different doctrines regarding Jesus Christ and the sacrifice, Melchizedek. And he tells them don't harden your hearts. Don't be like your fathers who were in the wilderness, who when they saw the works of God for 40 years were stubborn. They hardened their hearts, they tempted the Lord God, and many of them were not able to enter into the promised land because of their unbelief. And so this is why he's telling them this here in the book of Hebrews. Now go with me if you would to Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter two, hold your place there in Hebrews. Go to Deuteronomy chapter two if you would. Most of us are familiar with the concept of a hardened heart because it's a concept that we see throughout the Bible. But I want to go over what is a hardened heart based upon a lot of the scriptures we're going to look at tonight. What exactly does it mean? How does it look like? Let me finish reading from Hebrews chapter three in verse 15. It says, while it is said, today if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation. For some when they had heard did provoke, how be it not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. And one thing I want to point out that's not really a part of the sermon, but it's worth mentioning is the fact that in verse seven when he says when the Holy Ghost sayeth today if you will hear his voice, he's not referring to an audible voice. And that's an important statement to make because of the fact that today you have people who will make this statement, God told me, right? And they can basically make up anything they want because it's a private interpretation. But we know that when the Apostle Paul is writing this and when he says as the Holy Ghost said today if you will hear his voice, he's referring to the very letter that he's writing to the Hebrews. Because at the end of the day, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for proof of correction, instruction, and righteousness. The Bible says that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation, but a holy man of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. That's what the word of God is saying. So when the Bible talks about the Holy Ghost speaking to us, it's not referring to an audible voice unless of course you're listening to the Bible out loud. Unless you're listening to Alexander Scorby. Unless you're reading the Bible out loud, that's the only way God will speak to you out loud, right? An audible voice. And that's important to know because again, you have a lot of these non-denom churches out there and they're really big on social media and they love making that statement, God told me to make a Christian nightclub. And you think that, you laugh and it is funny for sure. But someone actually said that though. And they made multiple videos and unfortunately it's in Los Angeles, it's in California, you know, but it's like God told us to make a nightclub, right? And you know, then they get a lot of backlash from Christians who are just like, what? You're going to make a nightclub for Christians? Like what kind of corny stuff is this? You know, this is worldly. And they said, well, this is what they said. They said, well, we just want a place where we can worship together and fellowship and sing songs. That's called church. God already came up with that, you know, and this is the nightclub right here. Amen. You know, on a Sunday night service, Thursday night service, this is the Christian nightclub where we come to worship the Lord Jesus Christ. We come to sing Christmas songs. We come to pray unto the Lord and hear the preaching of God's word. But what they want is they want a worldly version of whatever nightclubs there are and they want to boogie and all that stuff to corny Christian music. It's nonsense. But it's all under the basis of, well, God told me, well, no, God doesn't speak out of the parameters of his word. Okay. He's not going to contradict himself and come up with some nonsense like that. And so it's important for us to constantly elevate the voice of God through the Bible and help people to realize this is the most authoritative document that a Christian can possess is the word of God. And we don't need dreams or visions or voices speaking to us or whatever to tell us what God wants us to know. You know, God's worked really hard to get us 66 books canonized right here in the King James Bible. Why would he speak outside of that when he spent so much time giving us the precious word of God? And so that's not the sermon, but it's important to note that when the Holy Ghost speaks, he does it through the Bible. Okay. He doesn't do it through an audible voice, but let's get back to the sermon at hand regarding a hardened heart. Look at Deuteronomy chapter two. Let's look at a couple of examples of what a hardened heart is exactly. Deuteronomy chapter two, verse number 30 says, but Sion, King of Heshbon, would not let us pass by him for the Lord thy God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate that he might deliver him into thy hand as appeareth this day. So here we see an example of a king whom the Lord hardened his spirit and the Bible says that he made his heart obstinate. And what that's referring to is a hardened heart. What does obstinate mean? It means firmly stubborn, right? And so this is an example of an individual who God is hardening. He's causing to be stubborn. And the Bible talks about how he's firmly obstinate. He is resisting the correction that's coming from God and from others. But the reason God is doing that is because God wants to judge him. So when someone corrects Sion and tell him that he's not in the right, that he's not right with God, God wants him to disobey because he wants to destroy him. That's what that's referring to here. But I want you to notice the fact that it talks about a hardened spirit and an obstinate heart. Look at 2 Kings chapter 17, if you would, 2 Kings chapter 17. So a hardened heart can be likened unto a hardened spirit and also a heart that has become obstinate, firmly stubborn, not willing to listen, hardened. Look at 2 Kings chapter 17 in verse 13. It says, Yet the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah, by all the prophets and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers and which I sent to you by the servants, the prophets, notwithstanding, listen to this, they would not hear but harden their necks, like the necks of their fathers that they did not believe in the Lord their God. So here we see that unlike Deuteronomy 2 where it talks about that hardened spirit, that obstinate heart, it likens it unto a hardened neck. Now why is that? Well, think about this, you know, how many of you have ever gone to sleep and you woke up with a stiff neck? That's like the worst. It just ruins the day. You know, you wake up and you're just like your stiff neck and then, you know, someone's calling you from the left or something and you're just kind of like, you like move like Batman. You know what I mean? You're just like, you're just kind of, you can't really turn just your neck to look at the person. You have to turn your entire body and that's how you're operating for the next couple days, right? Because you have a stiff neck. Well, I think what this is referring to, the reason God likens a hardened heart or stubborn person to a person with a hardened neck is because of the fact that if you think about, let's think about the ways of the Lord. The ways of the Lord are straight before us. If you were to think the path of God is the right way and God doesn't want us to deviate to the left hand nor to the right, right? He doesn't want us to deviate into sin and things that are not pleasing unto the Lord. Well, here we see an example of the children of Israel who are turning, excuse me, they're doing evil in the sight of the Lord and they're not turning to correct their ways. And the Bible likens it unto them having a hardened neck. So if they're doing evil and wickedness, they're committing sin and this is the right way, they're refusing to turn from their evil ways to listen and hearken unto the voice of God. And this is very much something that as pastors, I know for sure, because as I'm preaching the word of God to help people to turn from their wicked ways, there's individuals that are just hardened to the preaching. They're stiff necked, they're not willing to change and they think, well, he's just doing that because he's just trying to get on me or what's his deal? Why is he saying that? But at the end of the day, the pastor loves you. The pastor wants to help you. The pastor is trying to get you to go in the right way and to avoid punishment from God. Turn from your wicked ways. Stop having a stiff neck when the preacher is preaching at you to try to get you to go on the right path. Amen? You say, what should I do? Massage that kink out of your neck through the preaching of God's word. You know, get that elbow in there and it hurts because that preaching is hard and it's painful, but it'll get it out. Get the Bengay or whatever it is you need, the tiger balm, to loosen up those muscles on that neck to get you back on the right path. But we see here that he likens a hardened heart, a stubborn person, to an individual who has a stiff neck, unwilling to turn from their evil ways to get on the right path. In fact, it says in verse 15, and they rejected his statutes. So this isn't ignorance, right? It's not like they didn't know the right way. It's not like they didn't know the right path. It's not like they didn't know the right answers. They know the right path, but they're refusing to turn and change their life around and please the Lord and do that which is right in his sight. They are choosing to reject his statutes, and it says in his covenant that he made with their fathers. Now, obviously, in context, it's referring to Israel, and the testimony of Israel throughout the Old Testament is that they're a stiff neck people. And to this day, they're stiff necked, right? Many of them, even if you bring up Jesus Christ and you try to preach to them, very rarely will they get saved. I'm sure some do. I've witnessed to many Jews since I've been a Christian, since I first got saved, and I've only gotten one saved, and thank God for that. But the vast majority of them are very stiff necked. They have a hardened heart towards the gospel. Go to Nehemiah chapter 9, if you would, Nehemiah chapter 9. So he says that a hardened heart, based upon Deuteronomy 2, is an obstinate heart. It's a hardened spirit, but it's also a hardened neck because they're unwilling to turn from their evil ways and turn to listen to the right instructions, turn to listen to the ways of the Lord and the statutes of God. I mean, you think of a person who maybe, you know, they're saved, but they're going to like a liberal church, right? And they know they shouldn't be at that liberal church. They know they're under some really weak preaching, but they're unwilling to turn their neck. To turn from the weak preaching unto righteous preaching, you know, because they enjoy their Sunday school or they built a community or something like that of people, you know. At the end of the day, folks, we need to make sure that we are able at any given time, especially in the church service, to turn our necks to hear the word of God. You know, if you brought yourself here on a Sunday night, I'm assuming you got a loose neck, amen? That you're trying to listen to the instructions that are being given unto you and not be a stubborn individual to say, you know, bless me, I dare you or something, you know. You're in Nehemiah chapter 9. Let me read to you from 2 Chronicles 36 and verse 13, he says, and he also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear by God, but he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart from turning unto the Lord God of Israel. Jeremiah chapter 17 and verse 23 says, but they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff that they might not hear, neither receive instructions. Acts chapter 7 and verse 51 says, ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, listen to this, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did, so do ye. So the Bible likens a hardened heart to a heart that's obstinate, a spirit that is hardened, a stiff neck, and he also says there that it's a matter of just resisting the Holy Ghost. You're just stiffening yourself so that you don't move when the Holy Ghost is showing you the Word of God through preaching or through your own Bible reading. But the next example that I'm going to give I think is a really good example. Look at Nehemiah chapter 9 verse 16, it says in verse 16, but they and our fathers dealt proudly and hardened their necks and hearkened not to thy commandments. Look at verse 20 and skip down to verse 29, and testify against them that thou mightest bring them again unto thy law, yet they dealt proudly and hearkened not unto thy commandments, but sinned against thy judgments, which if a man do he shall live in them, listen to this, and withdrew the shoulder and hardened their neck and would not hear. Now this particular verse I know personally because I'm a father, and I'm going to explain to you why. Now I need a young guy, come on up here, somebody, right, come on, stand up here. So let's just say this is God, okay? Or should we say this is the preacher that God is using to get the message out. Let's just say he's Pastor Anderson, okay? And let's say I'm the recipient of the message. Now what I want you to do is I just kind of want you to grab him by my shoulder, and that's pulling away the shoulder, right? So Pastor Anderson or someone is trying to preach you the word of God, and you're just pulling away your shoulder. Don't grab too hard, man. I'm stronger than you. Did you hear it through this morning sermon? How much do you weigh? I can deadlift you, okay? I can't do 500, but I can do you, no, I'm just kidding. He's preaching the word of God, and he just pulls away. You say, well, how is that something that you know? You know because kids do that, and that is a call for spanking, amen? Sometimes you give them instructions to do something, and they're just kind of like, eh. And they'll literally actually make their shoulders like that. Maybe some adults still do that, I don't know. But I know kids do that, and they're just kind of like, they make their shoulder like, what do they do? They're withdrawing the shoulder, and it's a physical sign that they're resisting. Hold on a second. Don't touch me until I tell you, no, I'm just kidding. They're resisting, and they're withdrawing the shoulder, and what is that? Because they don't want to listen. So Pastor Anderson comes with a Sunday morning message, and I don't need to go soul winning. He comes and he's preaching, go preach the gospel, go soul win, use your time to be a soul winner and preach the word of God, open your mouth boldly, and he's just like, eh, I'm not going to do that. What are you doing? You're withdrawing the shoulder. You're resisting the Holy Ghost through the preacher, right? You know, Pastor Anderson comes and he preaches to not fornicate, to not get involved in alcohol and things that will destroy your life, and it's just like, well, I can handle it though. You know, Pastor Anderson gets up and preaches against divorce, right? He's preaching against divorce, and he's hitting on all the verses, and boom, he grabs, and he's just, I know better though. You know, who's this guy? He's younger than me. Yeah, I've been around the block longer than him. Yeah, but the Holy Ghost is older than you though, and so that is what the withdrawing of the shoulder looks like. You know, you can have a seat now. Thank you. What is that? That's called a hardened heart. That's a person who just doesn't want to listen to the truth, and the job of the pastor is to constantly grab someone's shoulder, to turn them, to listen, to get them on the right path, but sometimes you run into individuals who withdraw the shoulder, and they don't want to listen. They don't want to hear. They don't want, they want to be obstinate is what they want to do, and they become hardened towards correction. Never be a Christian who is hardened towards instruction. The instruction from your pastor, from the word of God, from the Holy Ghost, from others who are just older than you in the Lord, those instructions are important. Never be a person who's withdrawing the shoulder and think to yourself, well, you know, I know better or, you know, I don't really agree with him in that area. You know, if it's something that's actually going to exhort you and benefit you and it's from God's word, don't withdraw the shoulder. Allow him to pull you into his bosom and give you that instruction, amen. It says there, he withdrew the shoulder, hardened the neck and would not hear. Go to Proverbs chapter 29, if you would, Proverbs chapter 29, talking about a hardened heart this evening, the dangers of a hardened heart, referring to a person who has a heart that is stubborn, it's not willing to change, it's not willing to move, referring to an individual who is likened unto having a stiff neck, not willing to turn from their evil ways into the right path. We're talking about a person who withdraws the shoulder when correction is given to them because they're not willing to listen to the truth. What happens? Look at Proverbs 29 and verse number 1, it says, he that being often reproved hardeneth his neck and shall live happily ever after. Now shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy, the Bible says. No solution to a person who hardens their neck and it is destroyed. And so the repercussion to being a stubborn person, an obstinate individual with a stiffened neck who withdraws the shoulder over and over again, destruction, and there's no remedy for that after that. And so where's the remedy? The remedy was the pulling the shoulder. The remedy was the message. The remedy was the preaching. The remedy was the word of God, that was the remedy. But because you withdrew the shoulder, you stiffened the neck, you hardened your heart, you will be destroyed without any remedy to fix it. Go with me if you would to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. And you know obviously when we look at the subject of hardening the heart in the Bible, it could be applicable to saved and unsaved people, right? Saved and unsaved people can harden their hearts and there's obviously some severe repercussions to it, but let's talk about for just a minute, let's talk about unsaved people hardening their hearts. Now let me just make this disclaimer that I don't think all unsaved people have hardened hearts. Even people who reject you at the door, or even some of your family members who have rejected you when you preach the gospel, sometimes they just don't like you. You know what I mean? I don't even think it's just like a hardened heart towards the word of God. Maybe they just think you're a jerk or something. That's just the truth. And that's just human nature sometimes. And you know sometimes we have a tendency to worry or to wonder, man, is my brother or my sister, are they hardened to the gospel? Is my mom hardened to the gospel? Well really, at the end of the day, they're probably just hardened towards you. And it could be for a variety of reasons. Maybe you're a bad testimony, maybe you might have done something to offend them. And one of the best things that you can do in my opinion, my experience, is bring them to church so someone else can witness to them. Or bring someone from church to witness to them. And sometimes they will readily hear the message of the gospel from a different person who's not you because they wiped your bottom when you were a kid or something like that and they always bring that up. But I don't think every person out there has a hardened heart. I think people will even die and go to hell, not necessarily having a hardened heart, just because either they didn't understand the gospel or they just had one too many chances and they didn't seek out the light that God gave them and they went to hell. And I think that's definitely the case. And in fact, some of these people are just deceived, right? Some people are just deceived. And I remember being an unsaved person and if I think hard enough, I could literally remember instances where maybe the gospel was given to me, just as a teenager. And I kind of tried to put myself in the state of mind I was in, like how did I even react to that? Because I give the gospel so many times throughout the week and throughout the year and I kind of wonder what people are thinking when they reject the gospel. But I was thinking to myself, what kind of mentality did I have when someone gave me the gospel and I didn't get it or I didn't receive it? But the only thing I can remember is just not understanding. And you think to yourself, well the gospel is so easy. Yeah, but if your mind is blinded and you just don't understand the concept, you just don't get it. And so I literally remember there was instances in my life as a teenager where someone gave me the gospel or they gave me just a shallow version of the gospel and just kind of taking in the information but not really understanding it and just going about the rest of my life thereafter, just not even thinking about it. And obviously it was the Lord's way of getting my attention and sowing that seed. And the reason I'm bringing that up is because you're going to have instances where you give the gospel to someone. You know, don't just write them off and think to yourself, well this person's done. My family member, they're done. My dad's done, you know, they're beyond the hope of salvation or something like that. You know, sometimes it's just a matter of them being deceived and not understanding it. And in fact, you know, the Bible tells us in Titus that we ourselves were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice, hateful and hating one another. And so obviously there are individuals out there who when they get the gospel, the bird comes and snatches the seed out of their heart, lest they should believe and be saved, right? And maybe they're caught up with the cares of this life. They're thinking about other things and they're not necessarily thinking about salvation. Now they should think about salvation and it kind of shocks us sometimes when we go to a door and it's just like, are you 100% sure if you die today, you go to heaven? They're like, no. Well, can I take a couple of minutes to show you? They're like, oh, I'm cooking right now. And it's just like, you don't have time for this? It's like, man, this is like the most important thing you're ever going to hear. When you're thinking about food, but you know, it might be that they're just thinking about food. I don't know. Unsaved people are just, they're different. We were all unsaved at one point and we were different. Now maybe some of you have got saved like right away after giving the gospel and thank God, but I'm sure there's many people in this room that it took a couple of times until the light bulb went on and you understood it and you got saved. And so, you know, don't write off every single individual in your family as just being hardened. Of course, unless you know beyond a shadow of a doubt. But what are some of the repercussions of an unsaved person becoming hardened? Because that is definitely a possibility and it's definitely something that does happen to the unsaved. Now, what does it mean when an unsaved person becomes hardened to the gospel or hardened in their heart towards God? Well, it typically means that either they're receiving the gospel quite a bit, they're getting the truth of God's word quite a bit, and they're just constantly resisting it. Now in my personal experience, that isn't necessarily something that happens outside of the walls of a church. Sometimes it's something when a person comes to church, and this does happen, you have a person that comes to church, they're not saved, and they're getting an incredible amount of Bible teaching over and over again, and they're just resisting it. They're not accepting, they're not getting saved. And this is something that's happened, I'm sure it's happened here, it's happened at our church, and you just kind of wonder like, why do people come to church if they're not gonna get saved? But you'd be surprised, you know, unsaved people are just different sometimes. And they'll come to a church and they'll hear the preaching of God's word. I mean, they're getting an incredible amount of Bible doctrine preached to them three times a week if they're coming three times a week. But even an hour of preaching a week at least. And what happens if they don't get saved? They become hardened towards the word of God. Now obviously the extreme example of that would be that someone becomes a reprobate. But there's other instances where maybe they just leave and one of the dangers is they become very susceptible to false religion. So when a person becomes hardened towards the word of God and they reject the truth, part of their punishment is they're actually giving it like a false religion to follow. And I'm thinking of a personal experience that I had with a friend of mine, and I wasn't saved at that time, I was probably like 19 or 20, and I had a friend who was seeking the truth and he actually bought, I think he had like a New King James Bible or something, and he was reading it every single day. And he would try to talk to me about God and I just really wasn't interested. I was just like, that's cool bro, do your thing man. I believe in God too, just try not to offend him. And he's like, I'm reading it, I'm reading it. And he was a Catholic, he was a staunch Catholic. So he started going to mass and everything. And so he was reading the Bible and reading the Bible, and obviously we don't believe that the New King James Bible is the word of God, but there's some truth in there obviously that he's getting. And so he's reading it, and then he tells me the story that, he came to pick me up one time, he tells me the story and he says, I don't think I believe the Bible anymore. I'm like, why? Because in my mind I'm like, I've never even read and I believe the Bible. That's just what you do, you just believe it's the Bible. And then he's just like, there's a mistake in the Bible, where? And he's like, I was reading in the Old Testament, and mind you, obviously the guy's not even saved, right? He's like, I was reading in the Old Testament, and I came across this name, and it's supposed to say God, but it doesn't say God. I'm like, what does it say? And he's like, it says Gad. And he like bookmarked it and he showed it to me, and obviously I've never read the Bible before, and I looked at it and I was like, that's weird, it says Gad. And this is literally the first thought that came into my mind, it's a typo, because I at least had enough faith that there's not a mistake in the Bible, because it's just the Bible. And I think it's, I was like, don't you think it's like a typo? And I think he responded with like, no, it's over here too. And his name was Ozzie, and I said, I don't know, Ozzie. I mean, maybe that's just what they call God too, or something, I don't know, maybe it's from like Australia or something, Gad. You know, I don't know. I was just trying to make excuses as to why it wasn't a mistake, and I remember just that season when he was seeking God, and he was looking for the truth, and he was reading the Bible, and he was trying to look for the light, but then he came across that and he just completely wrote off the Bible off of that. And obviously it's not a mistake, it's a name in the Bible, it's not of God, to try. And shortly thereafter, he ended up going and becoming a part of La Luz del Mundo. Now how many of you know La Luz del Mundo? It's a major cult, there's one even here, I'm pretty sure. It's a huge cult where they have this modern day apostle, just a lineage of pedophiles there, and just a super false religion, very wicked, very big cult in Mexico that's made its way here to the States, and now he's just all into that. And it made me think, you know, this guy hardened his heart towards the word of God to the point where he began to question the Bible, he began to think that there's mistakes in it, and he rejected the light that God gave him, and you know what his punishment was? A false religion. A false religion, and one of the worst false religions. I mean there's not better or worse obviously, but it's just like the bottom of the barrel type thing. So people who are unsafe, who harden their hearts towards the truth of God's word, they're more susceptible to buying into some false religion because of the fact that they're rejecting the truth of God's word. And the more they reject it, the more they resist it, the more they become stiff-necked towards the word of God, the more they withdraw the shoulder, okay, God just gives them some false religion to believe in. That's what happened to Prince. I mean Prince, you know, he exposed the Illuminati or whatever, but you know, he became a Jehovah's Witness. And the Jehovah's Witnesses are all happy about it, but at the end of the day, you know, they were his punishment. So as he sought the truth, he came to the truth, I'm sure he came to the truth. But then obviously he hardened his heart towards the truth of the Bible, and so therefore he gets a false religion in return, okay. And so it's important, look at 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 10, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. And obviously this is the most extreme case here, where when the Antichrist proclaims himself to be God, he comes back from the dead, he goes into the temple of God, proclaims himself to be God, it's when the one-world religion is set up, the world will wonder after the beast and say who is able to make war with the beast, and everyone will worship the Antichrist, this is what's known as the falling away, right. When all of the world has apostatized and essentially worshiped this man as being God. So you know what God does in return, he sends him that strong delusion to think, yeah, that's true. In your mind it'll be true then. If you think that that's God, and you're willing to reject the love of the gospel, the love of God's word, Jesus Christ, and so be it, you get the worst religion known to mankind, which is the one-world religion under the Antichrist. It's a terrible thing. And obviously that's the worst example you have, but you know you have examples of that even today. In fact, I'm thinking of a time in our church where a person came to our church, they professed to believe in the gospel, they even got baptized, and they sat under my preaching for months. I mean they were front and center, listening to the preaching, all of a sudden a couple months later, they come to me and they say, hey, I want to switch memberships to the Catholic church. I'm like, you want to leave our church to go to a Catholic church? And they said yes, and I said, why? Is it because, well, my beliefs line up with more what they believe. And I said, oh, you've apostatized, gotcha, you know, and she wanted me to write a letter to the Catholic church and transfer membership or something like that. You say, why would this person just all of a sudden join a Roman Catholic church? Because they were in a new, independent, fundamental Baptist church for months on end, listening to biblical preaching, sunny morning, sunny night, Thursday night, and just resisted the truth. Just stiffened their neck, just hardened their heart. And what happened? The Baptist is like, okay, you get the Roman Catholic church. I mean, what a sucky religion to be a part of. Just following a bunch of dudes in dresses, a bunch of perverts who want to stick a Eucharist in your mouth, you know, a bunch of weirdos with their liturgy. And look, Roman Catholicism is becoming really popular today. A lot of young people are being deceived by Roman Catholicism. They're getting involved with orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism. I mean, that's a big thing right now. And in fact, you know, I made a couple of videos about Catholics recently, and it's like nothing but young people in the comment section condemning me for it. You say, why are these people, and some of them are just like, yeah, I used to be a Christian, but now I am a Roman Catholic, or I used to go to a non-denom church, now I'm a Roman Catholic. What happened to them? They hardened their heart when they got the truth, and in return, they received a false religion. They got the Catholic whore as a religion for their resistance of the Holy Ghost. Oh, man, you know, it's because of the family, it's because they're so family-oriented, they're not family-oriented, the priest can't even marry, what do you mean? How are they family-oriented when the priest can't marry and they molest children? That's not family-oriented. They're pedophile-oriented. It's a punishment, my friends, and so, you know, when someone begins to harden their heart towards the Word of God, and they listen to the Word of God, and I think to myself, you know, because on Instagram, because this is happening on Instagram, I have a lot of Catholics that follow me, and they'll actually message me, like, on a weekly basis. Like I have, like, these categories on Instagram, Instagram gives you the opportunity, you have like primary, general, and request, and I call the general category the phantom zone. So when someone really makes me mad, I just send them to the phantom zone, therefore I don't see their messages, and I'll check like every couple of weeks to see who's in there, and then, you know, you'll just see, like, new message, new message, new message, by these Catholics, and, you know, they tell me, hey, you're wrong, but I still like you though, I like how you say these things, but you're just wrong about the Roman Catholic church, and I always tell them, if I'm so wrong, why are you following me? If I'm so inferior to your beliefs, why do you keep coming to me, and why do you keep listening to what I'm saying? You know what they're doing is they're hardening their hearts. They're resisting the Holy Ghost. Because every time, yeah, you know, the video's only a minute and 30 seconds long, but that minute and 30 seconds is just putting a new layer of callousness over their heart, because they're watching, and they're just like, you know, and then they comment, or then just, you know, they discard it or whatever, but they're there every single week, watching the videos, hardening their hearts towards the word of God. That's why they're duped by a false religion. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 4, you don't have to turn to verse 1, now the Spirit speaketh expressly, then in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with the hot iron, forbidding to marry. That sounds like the Catholic church. And commanding to abstain from meats. You say, well how's that Catholic? Well have you heard of Good Friday? Bad Friday, any Friday you can't have meat is a bad Friday. Which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. And so it's telling us that in the latter times, people are going to depart from the faith, they're going to depart from the voice of the Holy Ghost, from the word of God, they're being seduced by doctrines of devils, why? Because of the fact that that's part of their punishment, is to be deceived and believe a delusion and so forth. Go to 1 Samuel chapter 6, 1 Samuel chapter 6. So a danger of an unsaved person hardening their heart is the fact that they might be punished with a false religion. And I'm not saying that every person that's involved in those false religions, once they make that switch that they automatically are a reprobate, they might just die in that state for sure. They may not be a reprobate. And it's possible that they can be recovered. Maybe they see the error of their false religion and then get saved. I don't know. That would be my prayer for sure. But I'm not sure how many times it happens. But here's another danger of having a calloused heart or a hardened heart for an unsaved person is that they can become permanently calloused. And that is reprobation. Now here's the thing is that we live in a country where this nation is not void of the truth at all. And I'm talking about the worst possible person that you can think of in this country knows the Bible. They know some form of the truth. They know some biblical examples. They know something. I mean, the internet has made that possible, right? And I was thinking about this particular story because you would think, man, with so much truth out there, why isn't everyone just coming to the knowledge of Christ? We have the internet. We have churches, I mean, Bibles. There's so many resources to get the truth. There's YouTube channels, Rumble, Instagram, social media, so many different avenues. Why isn't the people are just flocking to churches for the truth? I'll tell you why. Because they're resisting the truth still. But I thought about this particular story here. Look at verse number one. Actually, we'll skip down to, let's skip down to verse number four. The Philistines at this point have the Ark of God, and the Ark of God is just making their life a living hell. It's giving them emerods, also known as hemorrhoids, and he's plaguing them with mice, which is disgusting, right? I mean, that's very unpleasant. And so they go to the diviners and the priests, and they're just like, what should we do? The diviners and priests, these aren't... And it's not referring to like biblical priests. These are pagans. These are people who are part of a false religion. And they said, in verse four, they said, what shall be the trespass offering which we shall return to him? They answered, five golden emerods and five golden mice. Such a random gift to give. And this is not the sermon, but you know what? This is pretty much every unsafe person. This is the best that they can do when it comes to salvation. It's like a golden emerald. That's how God sees their effort that they put into salvation. You might as well just give a golden emerald or a golden mice. He says, in five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines, for one plague was on you all and on your lords. Wherefore you shall make images of your emeralds and images of your mice that mar the land, and ye shall give glory unto the God of Israel. Perdventure, he would lighten his hand from off you and from off your gods and from off your land. Now, listen to this in verse six, wherefore then you harden your hearts. So this is the priest and the diviner saying this. Like why are you guys being so stubborn? Why are you hardening your hearts? As the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts, when he had wrought wonderfully among them, did they not let the people go and they departed? So these are some false prophets telling the Philistines, why are you guys being so stubborn and stiff neck and hard-hearted? Don't you remember what God did before and how Pharaoh let them go? So obviously they have knowledge of the history of Israel. If I was a Philistine, I would be like, well, what about you, you idiot? You're like the worst. You're a diviner. According to their laws, you should be put to death. Here he is giving them Bible knowledge and saying, you know, we should make these offerings because of the fact that if you remember the Egyptians and Pharaoh, how they harden their hearts, you know, like the way we're hardened. Because if they have the knowledge of the Bible in their presence at that time enough to know this story, that means they become hardened. Say, well, how do you know they're hardened? Because they're still Philistines under a false religion. Not changing. I mean, that story should be enough for these diviners and priests to say, you know what, let's just switch to the Hebrew religion. Let's worship the God of the Bible. But obviously it's not, see, this kind of flies in the face of what about the guy in the jungle who's never heard the name of Christ or whatever. It doesn't exist. It doesn't exist. Everyone has some level of information given to them. Everyone has a measure of light distributed to them at one point. And in fact, these diviners and priests knew the story of Egypt and how Pharaoh's heart was hardened just like their heart is hardened. I mean, talk about irony here. You say, what happened? They're probably permanently callous. These priests and diviners are probably permanently callous, close to the word of God, even though they know the word of God. I mean, you have reprobates with channels who can quote scripture. There's people who hate the Lord, they hate the Bible, but they can quote it. They know the stories. They'll quote Leviticus 20, 13. They know what the word of God says. You say, what's the problem? They become callous permanently. Go to Hebrews chapter six, if you would, Hebrews chapter six. What time did I start? What time do you typically finish here? Where's brother Segura? He's gone. Ten minutes ago? I started ten minutes ago. Wow. I don't got that much else to say here. No, I'm just kidding. I don't know. No, seriously though, what time do you guys typically finish on a Sunday night? 715, 720? Okay. All right. I got time. Look at Hebrews chapter six and verse number one. And again, speaking to the Hebrews, this is an important thing for the Hebrews because the Hebrews come, unto them were committed to the oracles of God. You know, salvation essentially came from that nation. They have a rich history of Bible and the word of God. And he says in verse number one, therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on into perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and faith toward God and of the doctrine of baptisms and of laying on of hands and of the resurrection dead and of eternal judgment. So he's saying, you know, we need to move on to perfection. And he talks about the basics of doctrine. He talks about salvation, eternal judgment. And he says that we need to move on from that, meaning we need to mature and learn more about the Bible. We need to become perfected in our faith and just kind of add more knowledge other than just the basics of the word of God. But I want you to notice what it says in verse number three, and this we will do. What is it that they will do? They will move on to perfection, hold on a second, if God permit. If God permit. Now why would he say if God permit? Well because of the fact that if they're not saved, God will now allow them to proceed any further. Because they've been giving a level of truth and you can't move on to perfection if you rejected the basics of those truths of salvation. He says this we will do if God will permit. So I think he's kind of casting a little bit of doubt in their minds like, hey, you better make sure that you believe this stuff. Do you believe salvation? You believe in eternal judgment? Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Because we need to move on to perfection, which is one of the reasons why he tells them in chapter five, he wants to talk to him about Melchizedek, which is essentially the meat of the word, but he's just like, I need to teach you again, which be the first principles of the doctrines of Christ. He says for verse number four, for it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come if they shall fall away to renew them again into repentance, seeing they crucified to themselves the son of God afresh and put him to an open shame. What is he saying there? He's saying, it would be impossible for someone like you, a Hebrew, who has known the word of God, you know the gospel, the gospel came to the Jew first and then the Greek, you were enlightened, you were in close proximity to the truth, you know what the word of God says and then you just reject it, can't renew you again into repentance. Why? Because of the fact that at this point you're putting Jesus Christ to an open shame, making a mockery of Jesus Christ by rejecting the truth. And then he says in verse seven, for the earth which drinketh the rain that cometh off upon it, bringeth forth herbs, meat for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessings from God, but that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned. What does that mean in verse seven and eight? Well, think about this, you know, think about the earth, rain comes down upon the earth and it just rains on everything. It'll rain upon the herbs, but it'll also rain upon the briars and thorns. Now to one, it will benefit the one, right? It'll benefit the herbs, why? Because it'll nourish it, it'll grow because of it, but what will it do to the thorns and briars? It doesn't do anything to them, because they're thorns and briars, it'll just grow more thorns and briars which are meant to be burned. And this is exactly what the word of God does to people. To a saved person, it can nourish you, help you to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It can perfect you into every good work, but you know what, when the word of God goes into the heart of an unsaved person who has hardened their heart and has rejected the first principles of the doctrines of Christ, it can produce thorns and briars. Word of God is lethal, it can be lethal, my friends, but not to us, obviously. We need it to live, man should not live by bread alone but by every word that proceed out of the mouth of God, but it's definitely lethal to a person who keeps rejecting it, who's hardening their hearts, they're stiffening their neck, they are becoming obstinate in their attitude towards God, it becomes lethal. You know light can enlighten you, but it can also blind you, and that is the danger of a person who continues to harden their heart and reject the truth. Let me read to you one last verse regarding this point here, I like this verse in Job chapter 9 and verse 1, because you think of a person who hardens their heart, it's like they're getting back at God. I'm not going to believe in your sky daddy, you know, then why do you talk about them so much? They're like, I'm an atheist, so your belief is centered around talking about a person that doesn't exist. You know, they're just constantly attacking Christians, and it's not like they go for Muslims or anything like that, it's always Christians that they're going after. But they think that if they harden their hearts and constantly harden their hearts, that somehow, because obviously atheists are full of it, they know God is real, but they think that if they harden their hearts against the Lord, that somehow that's going to affect God in any way. Like he's just devastated about that if they're just hardening their hearts. Let me read to you from Job 9 verse 1, then Job answered and said, I know it is of a truth, but how should man be just with God? If you will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand. He is wise in heart and mighty in strength, who hath hardened himself against him and hath prospered? That's a good question. Which one of these atheists who have hardened their hearts and stiffened their neck against God, which one of them has succeeded in doing so? Not a single one. I guarantee you there's someone in hell right now who's just regretting, rejecting the truth. There's no one in hell that's just like, I really got God. Joke's on him. No, the joke's on you. You hardened your heart and now you're burning in hell. No one's in hell like, I'm still not going to believe in him. He said, what are they doing? They're just screaming their heads off because they're weeping and wailing and gnashing their teeth. They're burning forever because they chose to harden their hearts against the word of God. They didn't prosper. Yeah, they wrote all these books against God. You know, they published all this material against them, but who really prospered? Not a single one. Let's talk about for a couple of minutes before I finish up here, the dangers of having a hardened heart as a Christian. Go to Matthew chapter 13 because obviously we know that an unsaved person can become hardened and they can receive the truth. Maybe they come to a church and they essentially become adversarial towards God and then they start caking on the layers of callousness on their heart to the point that, you know, they can become a reprobate, a person who's beyond the hope of salvation. That is definitely a possibility and I would hope there would be no one in here that's like that. You know, if you're here, you're like, man, but I've been coming to this church for months. I'm just afraid to say anything. You know, hey, you'd be a lot more afraid once you die because hell awaits you. Okay. And so it's better to just get saved today and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and accept the truth and not reject it. But let's talk about this. You know, a Christian who hardens their heart is essentially a person who could become callous towards just Bible content. You know, the basics of the Bible no longer interest you. And in fact, Matthew 13 verse 14 says, and in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith by hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand and seeing you shall see and shall not perceive for this people's heart is waxed gross. Listen to this. And their ears are dull of hearing. Now in this immediate context is obviously referring to people who become reprobate. But when you compare it to, for example, Hebrews chapter five, it could be addressing people who are saved because Christians can become dull of hearing where they become bored or disinterested with just the basics of Bible teaching. You come to church, you hear the preaching of God's word and you're like, amen, that's good. Six months down the road, it's just like, oh, this again? I've already heard this sermon. Oh, why is he talking about that again? Oh, the Trinity again? Oh, salvation again? Or the doctrines of this again? Yeah, again. For him, it's not grievous. For you, it is necessary, amen? And don't be the kind of Christian that because you know the doctrine, you can wax eloquent in your explanation of that doctrine. You allow yourself to become callous towards preaching, okay? Keep a tender heart towards preaching. You say, but yeah, I already know this, then know it again. And rejoice in the fact that you know it, amen? Because when it says wax gross, it's referring to callousness, that's what it's talking about. And often, this is often paired up with worldliness because what happens is a Christian can often become callous towards the things of God because their attention is somewhere else. They've set their affections on the things of this earth. Their attention is on the things of this earth. They might be in church listening to preaching, but their heart, it's somewhere else. Thinking about other endeavors, the deceitfulness of riches and the lust of other things entering in, choke the word and they become unfruitful. And so it's important for us as Christians, I mean myself, I've been saved for over 16 years, I got to keep working at making sure my heart does not become hardened towards the Bible. No matter how many times I've read the word of God, when I read the same story over and over again, I need to make sure that I remain tender, hardened towards the Bible. Not have this attitude of, oh, Genesis again in January, oh, the creation story. Folks, we need to make sure we pray and say, Lord, opened out my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. And one thing that I've learned as a Christian is that even the things that I thought I knew a lot about in the Bible, there's layers upon layers in those subjects. And God often blesses people who keep a tender heart towards the Bible with more knowledge, more treasure, more gold, more silver, spiritually speaking. And so be the Christian who rejoices in the first principles of the doctrines of Christ, but also in the doctrine of Melchizedek, amen? Don't allow your ears to become dull of hearing, oh, didn't you preach this like three months ago? Yes, and I'm going to preach it again. You're going to hear the same. I mean, there's not 67 books of the Bible, there's only 66. So you're going to hear the same things out of those 66 for the rest of your life. You're going to hear the same things over for the rest of your life. The same doctrines over and over again. And it's your job to keep a softened heart towards that and not allow it to get dull, dull of hearing, bored, oh man, I already know what verse he's going to. Well then just act like you don't know. That's interesting. I wonder what passage he's going to next. Allow your Bible reading to continue to remain exciting to you. Look at Mark chapter eight, if you would, Mark chapter eight. But not only that, you know, Christians can often become callous even towards the work of God, where the work that's being accomplished here at Faithful Word Baptist Church can become boring to you, or you can just get used to it. You know, you guys got a lot of salvations this week. That's a lot. Someone said like 28 or something like that, like what? Who said that? Like how? Where? Where? Was that you? I mean, still, that's a lot. You know, I heard 28, I heard some other crazy number and I'm just like, whoa. You know, and you know what? We should be like, whoa. Right? And not become callous like, yeah, just another day in the office as another salvation. Let me give you an example of what I'm referring to. You look at Mark chapter eight, verse 15, he charged them saying, take heed, beware of the loving of the Pharisees and of the loving of Herod. And they reasoned among themselves saying, is it because we have no bread? And when Jesus knew it, he saved them to him. Why reason you? Because you have no bread. See ye not yet, neither understand, have ye your heart yet hardened? Having eyes, see ye not, having ears, hear ye not, and do ye not remember? Go to Mark chapter six, back to Mark chapter six, it says in verse 49 of Mark chapter six, but when they saw him walking upon the sea that supposed it had been a spirit and cried out for they all saw him and were troubled, then immediately he talked with them and saith unto them, be of good cheer at his eye, be not afraid. And he went up unto them into the ship and the wind ceased and they were so amazed in themselves beyond measure and wondered for they considered not the miracle of the loaves for their heart was hardened, the Bible says. Now I don't think their heart is hardened, it's like it didn't happen. I think what it's referring to is the fact that they've got used to it. Because you know, really the reaction they should have is like, do you remember just last week how many fish and loaves he multiplied? Like he did, that was incredible. But it's just like that event came and went and they just forgot all about it. And Jesus said, is your heart hardened, like you're not thinking about those things? And I'm not saying that we have to live on this emotional roller coaster all the time as a Christian and just constantly like be jumping up and down or whatever, but you know every once in a while you shouldn't get over the fact that you're saved. I got saved 16, approximately 16 years ago and I'm thankful. And every once in a while I just think upon the fact that I'm really thankful for the people who were involved in getting me saved. Don't allow your heart to become callous towards your marriage. You have that honeymoon stage but then you have everything else after that. If you're not careful, you can become dull in your marriage. You can become hardened towards your marriage. Allow yourself to become tenderhearted towards your spouse and be thankful that you have, be thankful that you tricked someone into marrying you, amen? Got her. She can't do anything about it. You know, be thankful for that. And so I think this is important, especially in churches, because we can often become accustomed to the works that are being done even to the point where it's just another day in the office. But no, you know what? You should be thankful and allow it to amaze you still. I mean, I don't know, how many missions trips have you guys taken this year? Like a lot, I think, right? Am I right? Yes, quite a bit. If you just take in all the missions trips to the, I'm sure to the reservations and outside the country, I mean, that's a lot. Don't get over that. You know, God has enabled this church to accomplish such a great task and to be able to do so, you know, allow your heart to be tenderhearted towards that and not hardened. Don't become callous and think, yeah, you know, that's what we do. No, it's just, you know, God's allowed us to do that. And thank God that I can go to a church where they're constantly hosting, I mean, how many sowing times do you guys have? It's like Monday through Sunday and Saturday, I mean, the whole bulletin is just filled with sowing times. You're like, yeah, but don't be callous towards that. Look at that bulletin and be like, man, God has allowed us to do a lot here. God has enabled us to do a lot, you know, and I don't think there's anything wrong with having an attitude of amazement when you think about those things, when you think about the salvation. Hey, if you got your family in church, amen. Praise God for that. If your family's in church, your wife's in church, your husband's in church, your kids are in church, you know, be amazed at that. Be amazed at everything in the Christian life. Allow it to amaze you every once in a while and don't become callous. And so every once in a while, as Christians, when we start getting used to these things, we just need to kind of sit back a little bit and think to ourselves, you know what, I need to be grateful for the fact that I'm saved, that a sowing came to me, and that I'm not in some liberal, non-denom, fund-centered church. I mean, how about that? I mean, you could be a saved person at some garbage church with some limp-wristed pastor. As a saved person, there's people out there like that. But you are in a fundamental Baptist church with the King James Bible, you know, I mean, this is incredible. Like, eh, you know, it is what it is, you know, it's all right, you know. No, you become callous if that's your attitude. You know, every once in a while, we just need to make sure we're grateful for what we have and allow ourselves to become tender-hearted. There's dangers in becoming, or having a hardened heart towards the things of God as Christians. And the danger in becoming hardened towards the work of God is the fact that we no longer have gratitude. We no longer have gratitude, we take things for granted, and you don't really know how much you have until it's just gone. Okay. You know, God forbid that something should ever happen to your pastor, but it could happen, right? Where some evil can befall him, you know, I hope you told him thank you. I hope you let him know how much you appreciate his leadership and him as a pastor and his sermons. Yeah, he gets it all the time, though. Don't become callous towards that, though. Every pastor needs to hear that from his congregation that they appreciate him, okay? Don't become callous towards your pastor. And so the message this evening is a hardened heart, keep a soft heart, keep a tender heart through God's Word, through the discipline of gratitude, and that's it. Let's pray. And help it to continue to tenderize us, Lord, as Christians, that we may not be callous towards the things of God. And Lord, when we become hardened or maybe we get used to the blessings, help us to remember where we came from, where you brought us out of, Lord, and to meditate upon those things. And it would cultivate within us a heart of gratitude, and thereby tenderizing it, Lord. And we love you, we thank you, bless our night in Jesus' name, amen.