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Book: John
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John 12: 39 The Hardened Heart
I. The irrationality of unbelief.
A. John tells us that Jesus had done many miracles before them,
yet they did not believe.
1. Why is it that some people refuse to believe in Jesus
Christ?
a. Jesus tells us that they love darkness rather
than light because their deeds are evil.
b. Some are afraid of the cost. What they might
be called upon to give up of their worldly
ways. Jesus said if any man will come after
Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross
and follow Me.
2. John tells us something rather frightening in verse
39 he tells us that they could not believe.
3. He declares that God has blinded their eyes and
hardened their hearts.
B. God had revealed His power to them. Jesus had done many
miracles before them.
1. Sometimes we mistakenly think that if a person could
just see a miracle, then surely they would believe.
Not so.
2. Many times miracles only lead to a hardened heart.
C. I think of the Pharaoh of Egypt when Moses came with the demand
for the release of God's people.
1. He began to work miracles before the Pharaoh.
2. We read that the Pharaoh hardened his heart,
3. Again we read that he hardened his heart.
4. Finally we read that God hardened the heart of the
Pharaoh.
a. The Hebrew word used for hardened when it
declared that God hardened the heart of the
Pharaoh, is different than when Pharaoh
hardened his heart.
b. When God hardened his heart the word literally
means made stiff the heart of Pharaoh.
5. You can over and over again harden your heart to the
things of God but there finally comes the day when God
will step in and make stiff your resolve against Him.
6. It is possible for you to come to a place where you
cannot believe.
7. That means that you will be hopelessly and
irretrievably lost.
8. There is a time we know not when, a line we know not
where, that marks the destiny of men, twixt sorrow and
despair. There is a line though by us unseen, once it
has been crossed even God Himself, in all His love has
sworn that all is lost.
D. The first time that Jesus came on the scene and worked a
miracle, they were faced with the question, could this be the
Messiah.
1. After much heart searching and discussion, they came
to the opinion, no, He is not the Messiah.
2. The next time He performed a miracle, again the issue
arose, could this be the Messiah? This time it was a
little easier to reject, because they had already
rejected Him once.
3. With each succeeding miracle the issue arose once
again, and again their answer was no. Each time they
said no, it was a little easier to do so.
4. Now they are faced with indisputable evidence by the
raising of Lazarus from the dead. However by this time
they had said no so often, it was impossible for them
to say yes.
5. Their unbelief had become irrational unbelief.
E. I am convinced that most unbelief is irrational.
1. God called man to reason, but for some, that has become
impossible.
a. "Come now let us reason together saith the
Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, you may
be as white as snow." Isa. 1:18
b. Paul tells us to present our bodies to Him as
living sacrifices, for this is our reasonable
service. It makes sense.
2. The psalmist David said, "The fool hath said in his
heart There is no God."
a. It is as instinctive for man to believe in God
as it is for a bird to fly.
b. One of the arguments for the existence of God
is the Universality of the belief in God. Every
culture no matter how primitive has some belief
system in a higher power.
c. It is as though God has programmed it into the
D.N.A. Which some brain scientists have begun
to suggest.
3. Paul tells us in Romans 1 that when they knew God, they
glorified Him not as God but became vain in their
imaginations their foolish hearts were darkened, and
professing themselves to be wise, they became fools as
they worshipped and served the creature, more than the
Creator who is blessed forevermore.
a. It never ceases to amaze me the foolish lies
that man will believe once he has rejected the
truth of God.
b. A classic example is the absurdities of the
theory of evolution. "Matter acting upon matter
can produce anything, given sufficient time."
c. Logic tells me that chaos cannot organize
itself into order.
d. Logic tells me you cannot have design without
a designer.
e. There must be thought behind order, and that
Thinker is God. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God, all
things were made by Him and without Him was not
anything made that was made.
4. Solomon speaks of this Word or Thought that brought
order out of chaos, and he calls it Wisdom. Concerning
it he said,
PRO 8:17 I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall
find me.
PRO 8:18 Riches and honour [are] with me; [yea], durable riches and
righteousness.
PRO 8:19 My fruit [is] better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my
revenue than choice silver.
PRO 8:20 I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths
of judgment:
PRO 8:21 That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and
I will fill their treasures.
PRO 8:22 The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his
works of old.
PRO 8:23 I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the
earth was.
PRO 8:24 When [there were] no depths, I was brought forth; when [there
were] no fountains abounding with water.
PRO 8:25 Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I
brought forth:
PRO 8:26 While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor
the highest part of the dust of the world.
PRO 8:27 When he prepared the heavens, I [was] there: when he set a
compass upon the face of the depth:
PRO 8:29 When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not
pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the
earth:
PRO 8:30 Then I was by him, [as] one brought up [with him]: and I was
daily [his] delight, rejoicing always before him;
PRO 8:31 Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights
[were] with the sons of men.
PRO 8:32 Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed [are
they that] keep my ways.
PRO 8:33 Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not.
PRO 8:34 Blessed [is] the man that heareth me, watching daily at my
gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.
PRO 8:35 For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of
the LORD.
PRO 8:36 But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they
that hate me love death.
a. Basically Solomon is just confirming the
rational logic that order does not just
accidently rise from chaos.
b. The D.N.A. code in every living cell is an
information system.
c. To believe that the information in the D.N.A.
in the cell of your body was formed by random
chance is as ridiculous as believing that the
Encyclopedia Britannica was formed by an
explosion in a print shop.
5. The scribes and Pharisee's had come to a place where
they could no longer be rational concerning Jesus
Christ. In spite of the indisputable evidence, they
could not believe.
F. One of the weapons that Satan often uses against an
unsuspecting soul is the accusation that they have committed
the unpardonable sin. He loves to put people under this mental
torture.
1. As long as you have any desire or inclination toward
Jesus, you have not committed the sin for which there
is no forgiveness.
2. That drawing toward Him though it may be very faint at
this point means that the Spirit of God is still
striving with you.
3. It is possible that you are on the path to committing
the unpardonable sin. God warned before sending the
flood that destroyed the earth that His Spirit will not
always strive with man.
4. In the days of Noah, man had gone too far in His
blasphemies against God, our society is approaching
that place once again.
5. Once a man has committed the unpardonable sin I believe
that God takes his life from him, there is no purpose
in his continued existence. We live only to fellowship
with God, when we have crossed over that line where we
can no longer believe and be saved, there is absolutely
no reason for our continued existence. As Jesus said
concerning the fruitless tree, cut it down, why
incumbereth it the ground?
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