Harden Not Your Heart

February 26, 2018

It’s an altruism—anything you do long enough, you’re going to become proficient at. The same is true of your attitude toward God. If you reject the Gospel long enough, you become a professional Gospel-rejecter. Let me illustrate.

Have you ever seen the charred stump of a pine tree? What do you think happened? Probably someone cut down the pine tree. Then a fire burned the area and caught the stump aflame. After a while it burned itself out. In a year or so the underbrush grew up again. Then there was another fire. And this time, that stump did not burn as bright or as long. One day, there came a time when no matter how hot the fire was, it simply jumped over the stump.

First Timothy 4:2 speaks of those whose conscience is seared with a hot iron. Their hearts are charred and hardened against the Gospel. “Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts” (Hebrews 3:15).