Glen Bond 3-27-05 Subject: The hard heart The sinner has made his heart hard. The hard heart will not hear the words of the Lord. Lets read the 7th chapter of Zechariah: Zechariah is just 1 book before Matthew. (Zech. Malachi, Matt) {(PRAY)} Zechariah 7 1 And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius, that the word of the LORD came unto Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, even in Chisleu; 2 When they had sent unto the house of God Sherezer and Regemmelech, and their men, to pray before the LORD, 3 And to speak unto the priests which were in the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years? 4 Then came the word of the LORD of hosts unto me, saying, 5 Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me? 6 And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves? 7 Should ye not hear the words which the LORD hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and the plain? 8 And the word of the LORD came unto Zechariah, saying, 9 Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother: 10 And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart. 11 But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. 12 Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts. 13 Therefore it is come to pass, that as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the LORD of hosts: 14 But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant land desolate. Our text is: Zechariah 7:12 Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts. To make the heart hard is to reject the word of the Lord. It is to refuse to do good. It is to follow after the lusts of the flesh, and things of the world. Look at verse 10: they are told what to do, and they refused. Refusing to do good makes the heart hard. The lost sinner has a hard heart. it is manifest in all that he does. Because the lost sinner cares not for the things of God. He won't obey the law of God, and any time that he does follow the law, it is not because God has commanded it. It is because the sinner is following after his own lust, and that is the easiest way for him. When you tell the truth to someone, it is easy to tell the truth when it only affects someone else. It's easy when it doesn't cause me any problems. But when you are in a difficult situation, will you tell the truth even when it will cause you many problems and hardships?? This is just an example of doing the will of God. He wants us to be honest to HIS honor and glory. Not for our honor,... not to keep us out of hardship. God doesn't make any exceptions to the law. Look what he says in Rev. 21:8... He says that ALL liars will have their part in hell. Rev 21:8 But why do so many people tell lies?? The average person is not concerned with the law of God. The law of God has no influence on the lost sinner, to do good, or to do bad. They say,"It's an old law for old people, and it doesn't apply to us these days". No! God never changes. His law never changes. If you see that you are doing wrong, and are concerned about it, then thank the Lord for it. This is the Holy Spirit working in your heart. Submit yourself to the Lord. Hearken to his word. Now what is his word? What does he want us to do. Look at Mark chap. 12 vs. 29-31 Mark 12:29 29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. 31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. When you love God, you will want to please him. You will want to do his commandments. I ask you, Do you love God? The lost sinner does NOT love God, and is not concerned with pleasing God. He gives no thought to the commandments of God, and will not hesitate to break them. The average person obeys mans law because he doesn't want to be punished by man. The average person doesn't believe that there is a God. (Psalm 14:1) This is Gods word. Now I want you to get this. All of these things...Make your heart hard. Look... unbelief - (saying there is no God) Selfishness - I want what I want - me, my, mine pride - look at me I'm something. smart, athletic, I'm a good person. anything that you hold up to be something, is pride. All of this is what makes the sinners heart hard. And now get this, The sinner has MADE his heart hard. You have made your own heart hard. You have done it, and no one else. Did you get that, you have made your heart hard! You have done it by ignoring the law of God. You have done it by refusing to hearken to the words of God. You have done it by continuing on in your sin. You can not blame God for your hard heart. You can't. Now I want you to look at the text again: Zechariah 7:12 Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, Lets stop right there. an adamant stone... Do you know what an adamant stone is?? I looked it up. It means hard. It means extremely hard. It is used here to signify the utmost hardness. There is nothing that could be named that is harder than an adamant stone. This was the best word that Zech. could use. Now The hard heart of a sinner cannot be impressed with the word of God. The heart is too hard. A hammer and a chisel would not chip it. You can't write the word of God into such a heart. Every sinner has went astray as soon as they were born speaking lies. This means that every sinner has been hardening his heart all of his life, and that heart is VERY hard. an adamant stone This hard heart cannot receive the word of God. God does not use a jack hammer to write his word in our hearts. Out heart has to be made receptive to Gods word. Why do we need the word of God written in our heart?? That we might not sin against God! Psalms 119:11 11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. If we don't have his word written in our heart, we soon forget HIM. and to forget him is to forget his commandments and to forget his commandments is to sin against God. This is probably how the world views that verse. But look at how the redeemed person views that verse. Listen... Gods WORD is Jesus Christ, (John 1:14) and to have Gods word in our heart is to have Christ in our heart. Salvation is having the WORD written in your heart. and nothing can be written on an old hard heart. Sinner!!... if you are lost... if you are not saved... YOU have a hard heart. You have a heart that does not love God. and you are breaking Gods commandment that says to love the Lord thy God. And that means, YOU are headed for Hell. Now I want you to look at this..... This does away with every persons good works. It doesn't matter how good you have been, how much you have went to church,or how many times you have accepted Jesus, Nobody loves God apart from salvation. Apart from salvation, man is it enmity with God, or man hates God. (Romans 8:7, Ephesians 2:16) and that leaves every person as a sinner. 1 John 4:19 We love him, because he first loved us. He loved us before the world was. and He devised a plan whereby we might love him. How?... What was his plan? He sent his only son to pay for our sin. He sent his Holy Spirit to convict and convince of sin. When a sinner is convicted by the Holy Spirit, he sees himself a sinner. He sees that he hates God, and he sees that he is headed for an eternal Hell. When the Lord has worked this work in your heart, then He reveals Christ as your savior. He gives you faith to grasp hold of Christ. You will then lay hold of Christ, not because you have been good, or because you have done any thing... not because you are entitled to it. but because you are a sinner, and Christ can deliver you from the penalty of sin. The Lord will take an old hard hearted sinner, one who's heart is as hard as an adamant stone, a sinner who hates the very God who is being merciful to him, and gives that sinner a new heart. Ezekiel 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. This new heart loves God. This new heart is soft, so that God may write his WORD in it. This new heart no longer loves the world and the things of it. This new heart loves God because God has delivered him from all of his sin, delivered him from an eternal Hell. And this new heart will praise the Lord for what HE has done. Bro. Freddy said in a previous Sunday school message, that " a person can't praise the Lord until he is saved." And this is why he can't, he has no reason to. But when a sinner is saved, that sinner has much to praise the Lord for. Luke 7:47 Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. Every redeemed sinner Loves much, because every redeemed sinner comes to see that he has sinned much, and Christ has forgiven all. This leaves every redeemed sinner with much to praise the Lord for. Ye will not come to me that you might have life. Ye have willed not to come. ...the lust of your father ye WILL do. You have willed to do them.