John 2:23-25 - Do Not Harden Your Hearts
“Do Not Harden Your Hearts!”
I. False Professions of Belief—(v.23)
A. Many Believed in His Name
At the Passover, Jesus performed miracles that are not given in detail in any of the gospels.
Because of these signs, many believed in Him.
1. Believe in 2:23 & commit in 2:24, are the same Greek words.
a. They believed in Him but He did not believe in them, they were “unsaved believers”
b. John 8:30-31—It is one thing to believe in His miracles but something else to commit oneself to Jesus Christ and continue in His Word.
2. They believed because they saw the signs, which He did.
a. Miracles & signs that Jesus did were important & John says that he even wrote his book to record these signs and to encourage his readers to trust Jesus Christ and receive eternal life (Jn 20:30-31).
b. It takes more than believing in miracles to be saved!
c. Seeing the sign and believing is a great beginning, even the disciples started that way (compare John 2:11 and v.22).
Is “seeing believing”?
· “Seeing is believing” is not the Christian approach (John 11:40; 20:29)
· First we believe then we see.
· Miracles can only lead us to the Word (John 5:36-38) and the Word generates saving faith (Romans 10:17)
3. Some were divided over the meaning of the miracles (John 9:16; 11:45-46)
a. The same miracles that attracted Nicodemus caused some other religious leaders to want to kill Him (John 11:45-53).
1) They even said that His miracles were done in the power of Satan
2) The miracles were testimonies (John 5:36) giving evidence of His divine Sonship
B. “He knew all men”—(v.24-25)
1. God’s knowledge of man’s heart
a. God “searches our hearts” (Romans 8:27) & “knows the heart” (Acts 15:8)
b. Everything covered shall be revealed one day (Luke 12:2)
c. We should judge nothing before its time (1Cor. 4:5)
2. What does God see when He looks into the heart of man?
a. The Bible tells us that according to God the heart is filled with madness, mischief, and evil.
b. It is impenitent, darkened, gross, hard, proud, blind, filled with lust, being far from God.
c. God says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer.17:9).
d. When we begin to see the heart as God sees it, then we begin to appreciate the greatness of God’s love!
1) God loves you & me in spite of our sin and has proved His love by letting Christ die for us!
2) Romans 5:6-8; 2Cor,5:21
3. The Deity of Jesus Christ — He knew what was in each person’s heart & mind.
The Healing of the Paralytic (Matthew 9:1-4)
a. Jesus knew the character of Simon (John 1:42)
b. He knew what Nathanael was like (John 1:46ff)
c. He told the Samaritan woman “all things” that she had ever done (John 4:29)
d. He knew that the Jewish leaders did not have God’s love in their hearts (John 5:42), and that one of His disciples was not truly a believer (John 6:64)
e. He saw the repentance in the heart of the adulteress (John 8:10-11) and the murder in the heats of His enemies (John 8:40ff).
f. Several times in the upper room message, He revealed to His disciples their own inner feelings & questions.
Verse 24 indicates that Jesus was looking for a genuine conversion rather than enthusiasm for the spectacular
II. The Hardened Heart – (John 12:37-50)
A. Some refuse to believe
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.
c. John tells us something rather frightening in verse 39 he tells us that “they could not believe”.
d. He declares that God has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts.
2. God had revealed His power to them. Jesus had done many miracles.
a. Sometimes we mistakenly think that if a person could just see a miracle, then surely they would believe. Not so.
1) The Rich Man & Lazarus—“if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent” (Lk16:19-31)
b. Many times miracles only lead to a hardened heart.
B. The Hardening of Pharaoh’s Heart (Ex. 8:32 ff.)
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 (Ex.9:12)
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”.
“Many” – “Pharaoh” himself “Could Not Believe” John 12:39
1. 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.
2. It is possible for you to come to a place where you “cannot believe”.
3. That means that you will be hopelessly and irretrievably lost.
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.
C. The Unpardonable Sin (Luke 12:1-10)
1. Satan’s Weapon
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.
How do I know if I have committed the unpardonable sin?
2. Genesis 6:1-8 (cf. v.3)—God’s Spirit will not always strive with man
As long as you have any desire or inclination toward Jesus, you have not committed the sin for which there is no forgiveness.
That drawing toward Him though it may be very faint at this point means that the Spirit of God is still striving with you.
Resisting the Spirit of God (Acts 7:51)
Illustration of the Holy Spirit’s voice getting softer & softer
The Danger of Hardening the Heart (Hebrews 3:7-19)
1. Do not harden your hearts (v.7-11)
· They provoked God by murmuring against God & Moses
· They tested God for forty years
· They always went astray
· They did not know God’s ways: “faith & trust” without faith it is impossible to please God
2. Beware—watch unbelief (v.12)
3. Exhort one another daily (v.13-19)
· Today is the day of salvation—tomorrow may be to late!
· The deceitfulness of sin—One sin prepares the heart for the next
· We must hold steadfast until the end.
a. 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.
b. In the days of Noah, man had gone too far in His blasphemies against God.
Our society is approaching that place once again.
c. Once a man has committed the unpardonable sin I believe that God takes his life from him.
Why? Because there is no purpose in his continued existence.
d. 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 (Luke 13:1-9)
4. Fear the unpardonable sin. Note two crucial points.
a. Blasphemy against Christ, the Son of Man, can be forgiven.
If a person is guilty of cursing Christ and he really wants forgiveness, he can ask for forgiveness and God will forgive him if he repents.
b. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is not forgiven.
This sin is not referring to just speaking words against the Spirit. It means setting one’s mind and heart and life against the Spirit.
It means that the words spoken against the Spirit come from a heart set against the Spirit and the work of the Spirit (see note— Matthew 12:31-32 for more discussion).
John 16:8-11—The Holy Spirit is the One who works in the heart of man, convicting him of sin, righteousness, and judgement
3. Where is your heart?
a. The same events that opened some eyes only made other eyes that much more blind (John 9:39-41)
b. The same message can harden a heart or soften a heart (the thieves on the cross—one saved the other damned)
c. The sun can either soften wax or harden clay
d. After the feeding of the 5,000, they wanted to make Him King—until He preached on the Bread of Life, and they all left Him.
1) They wanted an outward king not an inward king of their heart
2) People wanted physical food but not the spiritual truth.
4. To “believe in His name” involves much more than intellectual assent
a. Felt need—a person must realize his or her need for salvation.
b. Content—a person must hear the gospel truth (1Cor.15:1-5), that he is lost in sin and needs the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord & Savior.
c. Wholehearted Commitment—professing Christ, without commitment to Christ, is not saving faith
Joshua 14:6-15 & 1Cor.9:24-27 & Hebrews 12:1-2