This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Cal Vary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

I want to talk to you about a little subject called, harden not your heart. Harden not your heart. You ever heard of people who are tender harden, those who are hard harden? You know, that’s a choice that you can make. You can be either one. But I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of Proverbs, the book of Proverbs, and chapter 29.

Proverbs, chapter 29. And I want you to look there in verse one. If you don’t have verse one underlying in your Bible, it’s a very good verse. And it says here in Proverbs chapter 29, he that, being often reproved, hardened his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy. God is a patient God. He’s a loving God, a kind, wonderful, loving Father. God would only put up with so much. God will give you time to correct a problem.

If you choose to after being reproved over and over again, of people saying things and trying to help you and to preach your warning, you are teaching you from the Bible in all kinds of ways that God may speak to you and warn you about the wickedness of your ways, things that you’re doing that you tolerate, but God does not tolerate. And if you don’t correct the problem, then God says that He will step in. This is also found in 1 Corinthians in chapter 11 when He’s talking about summer 6, summer week, and summer dead, but God doesn’t want you to be condemned with the world, so He judges His people so that you know and understand that God isn’t a patient, God, and He will tell you and tell you.

And if you cease to heed and will not listen. As he says right here, hardeneth his name. That’s a choice that people have. Suddenly be destroyed without remedy. In other words, there’s like getting a disease and there’s no remedy for it. There’s no cure for it. Now, even though we have an old sinful nature, there is a remedy for it. But to those who know Christ is Savior, you can harden your heart against the things of God, the spiritual truths, to the will of God.

Also while you’re right there looking Proverbs 28, which is right there to your left. And notice verse 14. Happy is the man that feareth always. In the words have a high, holy, reverential respect for God. But he that hardeneth his heart shall fall in the mischief. In other words, when you harden yourself against God and against his word and you will not listen and you will not heed the reproof then God says it leads you into sin. You will rebel against the Lord and you will be hardened or calisthen or you have no sensitivity, no feeling against offending a holy Father and God’s gonna have to chase him because of that.

Now look there in your notes I wrote a couple things down here, attenderhard. Now this is what we would prefer, but attenderhard doesn’t mean a weak heart. It doesn’t mean one that’s you’re a cowardly type of an individual. Attenderhard is delicate and is easily broken. It means that you’re very sensitive to what God wants, you’re sensitive to other people. Now my wife and I are a little different in the sense that I am more hard and firm and she is most sensitive and teachable and pliable and she’s always trying to help me to become more sensitive to people’s feelings and so forth.

I’m like a bull in a china shop. I just boom, you know, and I just blade it right out and that’s what I do. She is. Soft and more tender. And that’s why you both need each other and they can really help you sometimes. But now look at the next statement here. It is when the will of man is sensitive to the will of God. Therefore we understand that a tender heart can be easily moved and broken by the Lord.

As believers we should long for a tender heart before the Lord, one that he can easily move to accomplish his will. Whenever you hear a truth in the word of God, or you see something in your life that’s not right, do you have a willingness to want to correct it or just overlook it and it doesn’t matter and you’re just hard-hearted and go ahead? Now remember, there are times that a person may be hard, a parent can be hard with the kids and discipline and so forth like that.

And so there’s a time you might need to be firm and unbending. But that doesn’t mean a hard heart just because sometimes you have to to be hard. Whenever you have a tender heart, I want you to look at the next verse. He says here in Ephesians 4 and 32, and be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ they have forgiven you. Between husband and wife, hmm, are you tenderhearted or mean spirited? Do you know there’s a lot of problems that come because if one of them gets hard-hearted and they refuse to listen no correction and you can’t reason together so much damages them because of a lack of communication.

So you want to be tender-hearted. As you read the Scriptures and you see that God wants you to correct something, do you rebel or let’s just move it a little bit closer. Here you are in church. You came to be, you know, you want it nice and quiet, peaceful, because you know you can get about a good 45 minutes to sleep time. And the preacher says something that really gets under your skin. Now you can’t prove that he’s wrong, it’s just that you don’t like what he said, or he didn’t have to say why you were there, or you knew he only said it because you showed up, and probably some of you all are thinking that right now.

But I don’t have to aim at anybody. In other words, a rifle shot, you’ve got to hone in on one particular person. You only got one shot. So I use a shotgun blast. You don’t know who it’s going to get. But you just shoot it and then you don’t know who’s going to get hit. But there’s things that people need to hear. How do you respond and feel when the preacher says something that really hits you the wrong way?

Does it get under your skin? Do you set there and rage a little bit inside? Do you ever wish you could just get your hands on them? Or when you go out the door and you know I’m standing back there, you go out this door? This is not the day to look at the preacher, says really enjoy just sermon today. Are you tenderhearted. Look at the next scripture. Isaiah 53 2, talking about Jesus Christ himself, for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant.

And as a root out of a dry ground, he have no form of comeliness. And when we see him, there’s no beauty that we should desire him. But he will grow as a tender plant. All of our children are little tender plants. But these little tender plants came with a rebellious nature. And at times you’ll find out they’re not tender anymore. When they get to be teenager they will express to you there, I will not. I will not. And they can defy authority.

Have you found that yet? If they didn’t do that, you must be a really good parent. Have you gotten married and found out that lo and behold that sweet little darling, that little angel? And here you are trying to figure out how to deal with a situation and they’re hard-hearted after a while. They become calloused and they have no feelings. Then he says here, because thine heart was tender and thou have humble thyself before the Lord. When your heart is tender, it’s easy to humble and submit yourself to the Lord.

But remember, he says, there’s those who harden themselves and they shall be cut off and without remedy. Now look at the next statement. What is a hardened heart? How does this happen? It means to cover with a thick skin, to be calloused without sensitivity. The Bible says a hardened heart is obstinate. The word obstinate means that something is inflexible or stubborn. Now remember Florida Bible College, one of the verses we had to learn from Ray Stanford, he kept going over that verse and it it seems like he hit that verse every week.

Why? Because I was a little… And you know, whenever you’re guilty of something and a verse comes out, it just seems like they don’t never stop. Let up. Let it go. And they’re always hitting on it. Or I just really heard the verse that was really pricking my heart. Because even though I was in Bible school, I still wanted to solve things, do things my own way. And I found out there’s a lot of things I could not handle and I could not do and I could not change.

I could not make happen. And I had to just Lord what ever. you let it happen, let it happen. Whatever you’re gonna do, just do it. Just teach me just to walk with you and trust you because I did not trust God totally. Oh, I had trust him as my savior. I knew I had eternal life. I’m know I’m going to heaven when I die, but to trust the Lord to take care of things on a day by day basis, I had not learned that yet.

And I knew that if I needed anything, it depended on me, my power and my wisdom and my judgment and my mind, me, me, me. And the Lord, why how to teach me your heart hearted, your stiff neck. And as he says, your neck is like an iron senior. He says, and you will not turn, you will not yield, you will not bend. And God is looking for us to do just that. Now take your Bible and turn to Hebrews chapter three.

Hebrews in chapter three. Now these are verses that you need to know, you need to understand. Because there’s a God in heaven that looks down and he knows every one of us, he knows what kind of a heart we have. Whether we come because we’re really sensitive and we want Lord teach me Lord, guide me Lord, use me Lord. And God wants you to have a tender heart, but you can come here today and you can have your Bible in front of you and be as obstinate as a mule.

You’re not gonna yield to one thing. No preacher’s gonna tell me how to live. Well, understand this. If I tell you what God says, it’s not me telling you that. That’s why you wanna have a Bible and check and see, is that really what the Bible says? And then you’ll realize, the preacher has nothing to do with this. It’s the Word of God. And that’s why I wanna always try to stick with what the Word of God says. But here in the book of Hebrews in chapter three, Look there in verse eight.

Now he’s talking about as far as the Holy Spirit goes in verse seven, harden not your hearts as in the provocation. That means when they provoke God in the wilderness, the children of Israel did. They provoke the Lord to anger because of their rebellion, their heart, heart. He says, harden not your heart as in the provocation in the day of temptation of the wilderness when your fathers tempted me, proved me, saw my works for 40 years. Wherefore I was greed with this generation or that generation and said, they do always err in their heart and they have not known my ways.

So I swear in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest. Take heed, brethren, lest there be any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily. While it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. 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. But with whom was he grieved for 40 years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness, and to whom swear he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not. So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief, how might I enter into the promised land. So God allowed them to die in the wilderness.

Now go back there to your notes. And there’s a little comments that I have made in bold just to highlight parts of these verses because it says an awful lot. Even though this was written to Hebrew Christians, all of the word of God is for us to listen and to learn. So he says here in verse eight in your notes there, warnings against a hard heart. He says, harden not your heart as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness because they complained about everything.

They wanted to go back into Egypt where they could have some onions and leeks and garlic. Don’t that just sound wonderful? Now if it had Pete’s and Hamburgers, I could have understood. But they were already there moaning and groaning, crying out to God for deliverance, and so God delivered them. Oh, I wish we were back. negotiator, sometimes God will let you suffer consequences and sometimes he’ll give you exactly what you want. So he says here in the next verse, wherefore I was grieved with that generation.

This is God. You know the Bible says they grieve God. It also tells us in the word of God, grieve not the Holy Spirit whereby you’re sealed until the day of redemption. Can you grieve God? Cause God grief. What the Bible says. And then wouldn’t that be a shame to upset the very one who controls the Bible? who controls whether you live or die? Why would you want to make God angry or mad or upset? But he says, in the next part that I put it in bold, they do always err in their heart.

It means that little thinking part of you that does the considering and the rendering and the judgments, that little mind of yours up there, your mind, your will and your intellect, that that you think with, you harden your heart. And he says, they do always err in their heart and they have not known my ways. See, you don’t know the ways of God until you have lived the ways of God. That’s why I tell the college kids, you don’t know the Bible until the Bible controls your life.

Memorizing scripture doesn’t mean you know the Bible. You can memorize the whole Bible, not know the Bible. It’s just like you know all the salvation verses, but if you never trust Christ and Savior, you don’t know the Lord, you don’t know Him. But now, what about all the other things? Do you know God as a God of provision? And you can’t know God as a God of provision until you become a child of need. So God will let you need in order that he might provide and he wants you to learn sometimes by suffering consequences of your own decisions, the consequences of people wrong in you.

And this life can be a rough life, but God has called us to suffer for him. Look at the next verse. take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you. Are these warnings? These are warnings against a person thinking the wrong way. Each one of you in this room, are you capable of thinking the wrong way? Is it possible and deceive yourself into thinking you’re right when you could be totally wrong? Think you’re right, but you’re not right.

And if you have a hard heart, you will try to justify everything you do in your life, even though it’s contrary to the word of God, but you can justify it. Be careful, God will put it with only so much, and then he’s gonna slap you silly. Maybe even take you out of here ahead of time. Did you know he can do all kinds of things and the problem is that you don’t know what he’ll do? Or when he will do it.

But can you live as you please? You most certainly can, everybody does. You ever have kids that live like they please? But now there’s consequences. There’s consequences even when you become adults. I just chose to serve the Lord. That what pleases me on, pleases the Lord. But look at the next statement. When he makes the statement there, an evil heart of unbelief. Did you note not believing what God says is having an evil heart? Unbelief. God says do this, I will not.

That’s a hard heart. Not sensitive, not teachable. Does God’s Word tell us that we should tell people how to go to heaven? What do you think? All right, if you don’t do it, what are you? Got a hard heart. You’re supposed to support God’s Word. It gets easier to stay home on a Sunday, but when you come back to following Sunday, do you make up for the offering that you didn’t put in? Why? Do you justify not doing it?

Well, I wasn’t there. I didn’t get anything so hard, so I don’t have to do it. Do you support the Lord’s work regardless because God says to do it? For saking not the assembling of yourselves together, even as much as you see the day approaching, more and more we should be found faithful to the Lord, or you justify whatever you wanna do. Do whatever you want and then justify it.,- but if it’s contrary to the word of God, it’s still contrary to the word of God, it still grieves God and it’s still getting you a harder, you’re becoming calloused.

The will of God is only the will of God if it’s the will of you. You think God is some missive to our wills and you can do whatever you wanna do with your life and it doesn’t matter. Yes, it doesn’t, everything matters. we could turn the world upside down if God’s children had tender hearts to the will of God. Look at the next statement, but exhort one another on a monthly basis. One thing that will help you stay tenderhearted is exhorting others daily.

Every day trying to encourage people, provoking them under love, not under anger and bitterness and hatred and all those things, but under love. Notice what he says here. While it is called today, less any of you be and y’all to underline this, be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Sin is deceptive. That’s why people are deceived. And then later on, you’ll find out, man, your life has been spent. And what have you done for the Lord? And one day you’ll find out, man, I have really blown it.

I got a little note that came on our YouTube. I put up a video that I did last Wednesday night on Ray Stanford. And it was just about a 26-minute-long little video clip. It wasn’t a video. It was just some pictures and Ray talking underneath it. And a person wrote and says, you’ve put that up there just for me. He says, I have been in rebellion to God for 30 years, 30 years. And he says, this broke their heart, that I’ve been so rebellious for 30 years.

And now you even thought about it. Because you see, that’s what truth can do if you just listen to what God has to say. You see, there’s a value in just sitting down and you and your Bible Bible and just talking to the Lord. It’ll keep your heart tender. It keeps you with having a compassion. Otherwise you can get hard, hard, and you don’t see opportunities that God may have for you. And they come sometimes as people that need help.

And that’s why some people cannot take advantage of something because it comes to skies that’s worked. We just don’t want to do it. Look at the next statement, while it is said today and on the line, if you will hear his voice. If you don’t listen to what God’s Word has to say, you harden in yourself. You become dull of hearing. You don’t understand. You’re not sensitive. You don’t feel the way God wants you to. This same thing can happen in a marriage.

It can happen between you and your kids. You can become so callous and so co-hearted, so mean and so ugly. Listen, we don’t live here very long, but I’ve said this before, the last thing you want to do is grow up to be a mean old man or a mean old woman. Wouldn’t that be terrible? Live in 60, 70, 80 years and you’re becoming mean and mean and mean. Betty, when she was a little girl, somebody would comment, oh, isn’t she pretty?

And she was. And her mother would always say, pretty is as pretty does. In other words, if you don’t do purty, you ain’t purty. You’re not purty because you look purty. You look purty when you are purty, when you are doing what God says to do. When you are a blessing. Look at the last thing down here. But with many, he agreed 40 years. Was it not with them that it sinned? Do you think you can sin against God and be in rebellion and then ask God to bless you?

He doesn’t bless disobedience. There’s people who will not believe, look on the back page as Paul Harvey would say, page two. And look at this scripture that we have here. What causes a heart to become hard? Well, remember, there’s things that you need to be aware of and how to guard yourself. Number one, closing one’s eyes and ears to God, closing your ears. I don’t wanna hear it. What’s one of the ways to keep from hearing the Word of God?

Don’t go to church. Don’t read the Bible. This is the Word of God. And there’s one thing that we do here at Calvary is we believe the Bible, and we try to teach the Bible. That’s why in front of your peers there’s a Bible for anybody who doesn’t have one that can get one and read it. Now if you try to steal it, we’re going to shoot you. No, just joking. Have you ever said something in you wish you hadn’t said it?

If I ever do that, I’m going to wish I hadn’t have said it. But closing one’s eyes and ears to God. Look what he says in Mark chapters eight here. Right here on your note. Perceive ye not yet. Neither understand. This is Jesus talking to him. He said, have ye your heart yet hardened? Having eyes, you see not? Having ears? You don’t hear? Did you know you can come to church and sit and listen to everything? Twirla da, twirla da, do do do do do, do do do.

And never hear anything. And walk out the door like you never heard a thing. I had one person tell me, he says, boy, I really enjoyed my nap here this morning. One guy got up and started walking out, and I said, where are you going? He said, I’m going home to shave. I said, why didn’t you shave before you came? And he says, I did. You know, sometimes, you know, you think you’re doing a good job and everybody’s doing them.

If you ever notice that some people look at their watch in a very spiritual way, and they think the preacher can’t see. Have you ever noticed they’re trying to look around and see if there’s somebody in the church, and they’re looking to take clock up there? I’m gonna burn that clock. You’re not getting hard-hearted, are you? That’s why you need to be sensitive to what God has. Look at, uh, let her be there. A refusal to listen if ye will hear his voice.

Did you know this is why we try to get teenagers to go to camp? And we take away the cell phones, take away the iPad, we take away, you know, the computer, we take away the radio. I don’t think he’d bring TVs anymore. But anyway, you take away all those things and try to get them under the sounds of the gospel and we keep talking about the Lord, oh the Lord, all the time, morning, noon and night. In the morning about three hours, sports in the afternoon, the Word of God again at night, they go to bed with a devotion, they get up with a devotion and trying to get them to learn the Bible, trying to get them done.

Listen, listen to what God has to say and some people will not listen Because you get kids to go to camp. Now here’s the word of God. They dedicate their life to the Lord. I’m gonna serve the Lord to the day. I can’t wait to get back to school and tell all my friends. Well, they get back from camp and they got two weeks before they go back and they have already done this. There’s a lot of why, because they’re not keep doing what got them to think that way.

That’s why we gotta get them back to camp again. We need to have camp every little week. You ever seen a, my mama used to hang clothes out on the line. They didn’t have dryers in her day. And so she’d have a pole and a pole, and she’d put all these things on her. And by the time he got to the middle, the things were sagging down and almost right on the ground. So guess what she did to solve the problem?

She put a pole in the middle and lifted it up. Now this is Sunday and this is Sunday, and in the middle of the week, your life begins to drag. And so that’s why we have Wednesday night to pick you up. Because if we don’t, you’re going to drag. I expect to see every one of you Wednesday night. And if you don’t show up, is it because you’re hard-hearted? Why is I want you to do me a favor? When your husband’s sitting there watching TV when he could be in church, very nice and very kindly, very sweetly, compassionately, you hard-hearted man.

then he’ll come and say, man, shoot me. I don’t know. Look at the next statement. Notwithstanding, 2 Kings 17, 14, they would not hear, but hardened their necks. Like to the neck of their fathers, they did not believe in the Lord, their God. They hardened their neck. You see, you do it to yourself, but understanding there’s consequences to those who harden their heart against God. You should stay sensitive. If God walked in here right now, and he says, I’m going down here to VI, and I want you to follow me.

What should you do? Get up and go to VI. That’s where I’m going tonight. No, no. But learn to follow the Lord. If he says, I’m gonna go over here, you know, there’s a 7-11 sword to hand. I’m going to 7-11, and I want you to follow me. Follow me. You just get up and follow. Whatever God wants you to do, just do it. Don’t argue and fight against God, and then justify why you don’t do what you should do.

This is your invitation to join us for our third Sunday dinner held in the Florida Bible College of Tampa building on the Calvary Community Church Campus. The dinner is a family-style, covered dish dinner, and a great way to showcase your favorite dish and pick up new recipes. Each month, you have the opportunity to invite your family and friends to join us for our Sunday morning service 1030 and then stay for our third Sunday dinner immediately following noon. Third Sundays at Calvary Community Church where you’ll be fed spiritually and physically.

Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound, and we will be changed. Caught up can meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.