Marbaniang, Domenic

But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Whenever God speaks, it is Today, and He demands that we respond positively to His voice as soon as we hear His word. Those who neglect to receive the word immediately or procrastinate to obey, harden their hearts. When a person listens to the voice of God and hardens his heart  from obeying God, he puts himself in the path of hardening, and the more a person gets hardened the more difficult it is for the word of God to find a place in his heart. Such a heart becomes like a stone that will take lot of hammering to break. 1. The Rebellious Heart Hardens Itself Against the Voice of God Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, They a...

Hardening brings calamity (Pro 28:14; Pro 29:1) Hardening is rebellion (Heb.3:7,8) Causes of Hardening 1. Loftiness, Pride (Dan 5:20) 2. Licentiousness; or taking God's grace and mercy for granted (Ex 8:15; Rom.2:1-4) 3. Lawlessness (Mat 24:12) 4. Lusts (2Pet 2:18) 5. Lies (1Tim.4:1-3), Demonic deception. 6. Last days (2Tim.3, 2Pet 3:3, Jude 18) 7. Lord hardens those who love lies (2Thess 2:11,12; Exo 4:21) Heb 3:7,8  Harden not your hearts What kind of heart needed: 1. A heart broken over sins in repentance (Psa 51:17). Depth of sorrow over sin reflects depth of repentance (Matt.26:75). 2. A heart broken for people, in intercession (Ezra 10:1; Jer 9:1; Lk.19:41) God will turn our mourning into dancing (Psa 30:11)