Exodus chapter 7. Verse 13. And he. The Lord. Hardened Pharaoh's heart. that he hearkened not unto them,
as the Lord had said. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Pharaoh's heart is hardened. He refuseth to let the people
go." I've entitled this message, A
Hardened Heart. I don't know of a more sobering
and, in some respects, scary story in all the Bible than that
of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and God hardening his heart. Pharaoh was a remarkably wicked
man, a remarkably hardened man, and God raised him up for a specific
purpose. Hold your finger there in Exodus
and turn over to Romans 9. This is a familiar passage of
Scripture, but it would be good for us to look at it. It's a
sobering passage of Scripture, to say the least. Verse 17, For the Scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I
might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth. Therefore, hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will, he pardons." Now, in
the account of the Exodus, there are 22 references to Pharaoh's
heart being hardened. Sixteen of which say that God
hardened his heart. And six speak of him hardening
his own heart. They're both true, aren't they?
God hardened his heart and he hardened his own heart. Now,
before I go on, what is meant by the heart? I mean, that is
throughout the scriptures. You read so many references regarding
the heart. What's meant by the heart? Well,
you know it's not talking about the muscle that's used to pump
blood. The heart is what I really am. My heart is the whole man. The heart has to do with the
understanding, the mind. The heart has to do with the
affections, what I love, what I hate, what I desire, what I'm
repulsed by. That has to do with the heart,
the affections. It has to do with the will, the understanding,
the affections and the will. That's the whole man. And this
is what God looks at. Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 16.
Now, this is a sobering thought, but right now, while I'm preaching
to you, the Lord is looking at my heart. The Lord is looking
at your heart. That's what he beholds. Look
here in First Samuel, Chapter 16. Verse six, And it came to pass
when they were come that he looked on alive and said, Surely the
Lord's anointed is before him. But the Lord said unto Samuel,
Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature,
because I have refused him. For the Lord seeth not as man
seeth. For man looketh on the outward
appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." He's looking at my heart right
now. He's looking at your heart right now. I've already read that passage
of scripture from Proverbs, chapter four, verse twenty three. Keep
thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues
of life. Now, God said at the outset regarding
Pharaoh, turn to Exodus, chapter four. Verse twenty one. And the Lord
said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that
thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in
thine hand. But I will harden his heart, that he shall not
let the people go. And that is precisely what happened. Now, we read that passage of
Scripture just a moment ago out of Exodus chapter 7, verses 13
and 14, where Pharaoh was watching as The rod of Aaron swallowed
up the rods of the magicians. And you know what the scripture
says he did? He hardened his heart. God hardened his heart,
so he refused, in light of that, to let the people go. Look in
Exodus chapter 7, verse 22. Now God has turned all the water
into blood. And then they went seven days
with all the rivers, all the ponds, even the water that was
in vessels. It was all turned to blood. And
we read with the children, or the Egyptians, they had to dig
up along the side of the river just to get water. I mean, can
you imagine what a horrible thing that would be to have blood in
every, every, you couldn't drink. This happened seven days. And
you think that that would humble him, but we read in verse 22,
and the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments, and
Pharaoh's heart was hardened. Neither did he hearken unto them
as the Lord had said. Now, after that, the Lord brings
the second plague. The land is covered with frogs.
Now, this is gross, if you think about it. I mean, it says they
were in their bedchambers, they were in their Doe, where if you
wanted to open up a drawer to get something out to cook with,
there were the frogs. When you went to bed, the frogs. Can you imagine
how horrible that would be? Just the land covered with frogs. Everywhere you looked, there
were frogs. Finally, the Lord had him leave. And we read in
chapter 8, verse 15. But when Pharaoh saw that there
was respite, the frogs had left. He hardened his heart. and hearken
not unto them as the Lord had said. So God brings the third
plague. He smites the land with lice. All the dust of Egypt actually
turned to lice and lice. Can you imagine how miserable
that would be covering everybody? Man and beast. You go to bed
and you feel the things. I can't even imagine how horrible
that must have been. This plague that's God sent lies. Well, how did Pharaoh respond
to this? Verse 19. Then the magician said
unto Pharaoh, they tried to duplicate this and they couldn't do it.
You see, this was a real supernatural miracle. Life was brought from
dust. I mean, life was created this time and they couldn't duplicate
this. The magician said unto Pharaoh,
this is the finger of God. And Pharaoh's heart was hardened
and he hearkened not unto them as the Lord had said. Then God
sent swarms of flies. Look in verse 24. And the Lord
did so. Chapter 8, verse 24. And there
came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh and
into his servant's house and into all the land of Egypt. The
land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies. Now you
know how one fly drives you crazy. Can you imagine how swarms of
flies covered everything? They were covering your room.
You could hear them buzzing continually. How miserable that must have
been. Verse 30 of chapter 8. And Moses
went out from Pharaoh and treated the Lord, and the Lord did according
to the word of Moses. And he removed the swarm of flies
from Pharaoh, from his servants, from his people. There remained
not one. And Pharaoh hardened his heart
at this time also. Neither would he let the people
go. Now, the fifth plague was the
livestock. God sent a disease on the livestock
and all their livestock died. Look in chapter nine, verse six.
And the Lord did the thing on the morrow and the cattle of
Egypt died. But if the cattle of the children
of Israel died, not one. And Pharaoh sent and behold,
there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead. And the
heart of Pharaoh was hardened and he did not let the people
go. And then we read of the Plague
of the boils. And this is a scary one. Can
you imagine boils just popping up on man and beast? God sent
this horrible plague. But his heart was still hardened
regarding that. Look in verse 11. And the magicians
could not stand before Moses because of the boils. For the
boil was upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians. Pharaoh
had these boils too. And the Lord hardened the heart
of Pharaoh. And he hearkened not unto them,
as the Lord had spoken unto Moses. And then there was the plague
of hail. Look in verse seventeen of chapter nine. As yet, exaltest
thou thyself against my people, thou wilt not let them go. Behold,
tomorrow, about this time, I will cause it to rain a very grievous
hail. Such hath not been in Egypt since
the foundation thereof, even until now. Send therefore now,
and gather thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field.
For upon every man and beast which shall be found in the field,
and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon
them, and they shall die. Now he that feared the word of
the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and
his cattle flee into the houses and he that regarded not the
word of the Lord left his servants and his cattle out where they
could be destroyed. Look in verse 21 or verse 22.
And the Lord said unto Moses, stretch forth thine hand toward
heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon
man, upon beast, upon every herb of the field, throughout the
land of Egypt. And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven,
and the Lord said, Thunder and hail, and the fire ran along
the ground. And the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt.
So there was hail and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous,
such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt, since
it became a nation. And the hail smote throughout
all the land of Egypt, all that was in the field, both man and
beast. And the hail smote every herb of the field and break every
tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where
the children of Israel were, was there no hail. And Pharaoh
sinned and called for Moses and Aaron and said unto them, I have
sinned this time. The Lord is righteous, and I and my people
are wicked. Now, that's quite a confession,
isn't it? He meant it. He meant it. The Lord is righteous,
and I and my people are wicked. He was so overtaken by this.
He says, Entreat the Lord, for it is enough that there be no
more mighty thunderings in hell. And my margin says regarding
those mighty thunderings, the voice of God. He was scared to
death. He heard the thunder. He saw
the hail come down. He saw the fire. He was scared
to death. But what happened? Look in verse
34. And when Pharaoh saw that the
rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more
and hardened his heart. He and his servants and the heart
of Pharaoh was hardened. Neither would he let the children
of Israel go as the Lord had spoken by Moses. And then there
was the plague of locusts. Look in verse 12 of chapter 10.
And the Lord said unto Moses, stretch out thine hand over the
land of Egypt for the locusts that they may come up upon the
land of Egypt and eat every herb of the land, even all that the
hell had left. And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of
Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that
day and all that night. And when it was morning, the
east wind brought in the locusts. And the locusts went up over
all the land of Egypt and rested in all the coasts of Egypt. Very
grievous were they before them. There was no such locusts as
they, neither after them shall be such, for they covered the
face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened. And they
did eat every herb of the land and all the fruit of the trees
which the hail had left. And there remained not any green
thing in the trees or in the herbs of the field through all
the land of Egypt. Now this scared him to death
once again. called for Moses. But what happened? Look in verse
16. Then Pharaoh called for Moses
and Aaron in haste, and he said, I sinned against the Lord your
God and against you. Now, therefore, forgive, I pray
thee, my sin, only this once. And entreat the Lord your God
that he may take away from me this death. Oh, he was scared
to death. And he went out from Pharaoh and entreated the Lord.
The Lord turned a mighty strong west wind, which took away the
locusts and cast them into the Red Sea. There remained not one
locust in all the coasts of Egypt, but the Lord. Harden Pharaoh's
heart so that he would not let the children of Israel go. Verse
21. And the Lord said unto Moses,
stretch out thy hand toward the heaven, that there may be darkness
over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And
Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven, and there was
a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt. Three days they saw
not one another. Neither rose any from his place
for three days. But all the children of Israel had light. in their dwellings. And Pharaoh
called unto Moses and said, Go ye, serve the Lord. Only let
your flocks and your herds be stayed. Let your little ones
also go with you. And Moses said, Thou must give
us also sacrifice and burnt offerings that we may sacrifice unto the
Lord our God. Our cattle also shall go with us. There shall
not be a hoof left behind. For thereof must we take to serve
the Lord our God. We know not what we must serve
the Lord when we came hither. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's
heart that he would not let the children of Israel go. And then
you know what happened next, the death of the firstborn. Look
in chapter 11. And the Lord said unto Moses, Yet will I bring
one more plague upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt, and afterwards
he'll let you go. When he shall let you go, he
shall surely thrust you out. Hence, altogether, he'll be glad
to get rid of you. Look in verse 9. And the Lord
said unto Moses, Pharaoh, I shall not hearken unto you, that my
wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt. And Moses
and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh. And the Lord
hardened Pharaoh's heart that he would not let the children
of Israel go. The death of the firstborn took
place. Now, you know the rest of the
story. He finally lets them go after the death of the firstborn.
And here they are before the Red Sea. Pharaoh and his army
see the Red Sea part, and the children of Israel go after them.
But look what happened in chapter 14, verses 4 and 5. God says, And I will harden Pharaoh's
heart, that he shall follow after them. And I'll be honored upon
Pharaoh and upon all his hosts, that the Egyptians may know that
I'm the Lord. And they did so. And it was told the king of Egypt
that the people fled, and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants
was turned against the people. And they said, Why have we done
this, that we have let Israel go from serving us? Then in verse
8. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt,
and he pursued after the children of Israel. And the children of
Israel went out with a high hand. Now here he goes to the Red Sea.
And you know what happens? God drowns every one of them. Pharaoh and his people. God hardened
his heart. What an amazingly, desperately
wicked, amazingly hard heart. God hardened his heart. God is
God, and whatever he does is right, and it's right because
he does it. He hardened Pharaoh's heart. I like the language there.
He's the one who did it. God hardened his heart. And it
also says that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. That's equally
true. Pharaoh hardened his own heart through amazing pride and
desperate wickedness, and he is responsible for his own actions.
Look in chapter 10, verse 3. And Moses and Aaron came in unto
Pharaoh and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews,
How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? You see,
in his hard heart, he refused to bow before God. Who is the
Lord that I should obey him? Now, what was that heart of Pharaoh's
by nature that God hardened? Well, that hard heart of Pharaoh's
is this precise same heart that you and I have by nature. And
that's a solemn thing to think about, but you see how bad. Pharaoh's
heart is how he will not respond to the truth. He refuses in the
light of all these things that took place. He refuses to let
the people of Israel go. He's responsible for that. It's
not like he's saying, well, I wanted to let him go, but you kept hardening
my heart so I couldn't do it. I wanted to do it and I would
let him go if you didn't. No, he's responsible for what
he did through wickedness. He hardened his heart. God hardened
his heart. He hardened his own heart. And
that same heart that he has is the heart that you and I have
by nature. I will read you a couple of scriptures. Genesis chapter
six, verse five, and God saw the wickedness of man was great
in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart.
Was only evil. Continually. Jeremiah 17, nine
says the heart. Talk about my heart. Talking
about your heart. The heart is deceitful above
all things. Desperately wicked. Who can know it? Now, the biggest problem that
you and I have are these sinful hearts of ours. It's not circumstances. It's
not bad influences. It's not being around the wrong
crowd. The biggest problem that you and I have are these hearts
that we have by nature. Now, remember this. Sin comes
from the heart. Our Lord said out of the heart
proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, blasphemy, pride. Sin comes from the heart. Our Lord said in Matthew 5, verse
28, Whoso looketh after a woman to lust after her hath committed
adultery with her already in his heart. The heart is the seat
of sin, and a hardened heart is a heart that just will not
obey. There's no understanding in a
hardened heart. He's blind. He can't understand. There's
no If love for God, the affections are defiled, there's no will.
Our Lord said, you will not come to me that you might have life.
The hardened heart cannot make itself soft. It's desperately
wicked and it's unable to change. Now, here is one of the most
sobering, this might be the most sobering thought to me that I've
ever really thought about, about myself. And I hope you'll be
enabled by the spirit of God to understand this about yourself,
too. All God has to do is leave me
alone. He doesn't have to do anything
but that. All He has to do is leave me alone and my heart will
be as hard and stubborn and prideful as Pharaoh's. That's a sobering thought, isn't
it? This tells how bad our heart is. Nothing. No influences needed. You don't
have to put it around bad influences. Just leave it alone and it will
utterly corrupt. My heart is the problem. The
human heart cannot be reformed. It cannot be improved. It cannot
be changed. It is incapable of understanding.
It's incapable of loving God. The will is under the dominion
of an evil nature. I repeat, as Jeremiah said in
Jeremiah 17, 9, the heart is deceitful above all things. You can't trust your heart. You
can't trust the things that pass through your heart. It's desperately
wicked. Who can know it? Now, I've heard preachers say,
give Jesus your heart. What would he want with it? I think we would be far more
wise to ask him to give us a new heart. Now what this shows us as we
look at this Pharaoh and his hardened heart,
it shows us the need of a new heart. And not only do I need my sins
to be forgiven, not only do I need to be justified before God so
that I have a perfect standing before his law, I also need to
be given a new heart. I need that just as much as I
need my sins forgiven. I need that just as much as any
other aspect of his salvation. I need a new heart. Now, the new heart, the scripture
speaks of where God says in Ezekiel 36, a new heart. Also, will I
give thee what is given in giving the new heart is the new birth.
What that's a reference to is the new birth. And what is the
new birth? Listen real carefully. What is
being born again? What is being given a new heart?
It's not the removal of anything from the center. nor the changing of anything
in the center. It is the communication of something
new to the center that was not there before. It's not your old
heart being changed. It's not your old heart being
improved. It's not your old heart being enabled to do anything.
It's being given a brand new heart that was not there before. It's the impartation of a new
nature. 2 Peter 1 verse 4 says we're
partakers of the divine nature. Strong language, isn't it? That's
what God does in a sinner when He saves them. He gives them
a new heart. Being born of the spirit. It's new because it was not there
before. I repeat, it's not the improving
of the old, but it's the creation of the new. David said, create
in me. Do you hear that language? Create
in me a clean heart. Oh, God, mine's filthy and there's
nothing I can do about it. creating me a clean heart of
God and renew a right spirit within me. This is a creative
act of God, the beginning of life, which only God can do.
Now, this is also called the pure heart. Remember the words
of our Lord. Blessed are the what? Pure in
heart. For they and only they, may I
add, shall see God. of pure heart. Well, what is
that? Well, turn with me to 1 Peter chapter 3. 1 Peter chapter 3. Verse 3, who's adorning? Let
it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair and of wearing
of gold or putting on of apparel, but let it be The hidden man
of the heart. Now that's that new heart he's
speaking of. In that which is not corruptible, even the ornament
of a meek and a quiet spirit which is in the sight of God
of great price is not corruptible. This new heart. Look over in
1 John chapter 3. Verse 9. Whosoever is born of
God, birth of God, being given a new heart, doth not commit
sin. For his seed remaineth in him,
and he cannot sin. He lacks the ability to sin because
he's born of God. Can that which is born of God
sin? Absolutely not. This is the new birth. This is
the new heart. This is the work of God in a
man. You see, this is the heart that
believes. This is the heart that loves. This is the heart that sees the
beauty and the glory of Jesus Christ. This is the heart that
actually desires the glory of God above all things. And if
God's glory is promoted and it costs me everything, that's fine. Now, that's a work of grace.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. But somebody's
thinking, well, I sure don't feel like I've got a very pure
heart. I'm sure you don't. I'm sure you don't as far as
the way you feel. But beloved, if you believe the gospel, it's
because, in fact, you have a pure heart. You've been begotten of
God and you still have the old heart. There's no question about
that. You still have that old evil
heart that you've always had. And it's right there with the
new heart. And that makes you see that it makes it seem that
everything you do, everything you think, everything you feel
is sin and nothing more. We believe we have this new heart
by faith. God says it. That's how we know
we have it. Now, this goes under several
other names in the scripture. It's called A broken heart in
Psalm 51. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit. A broken and a contrite heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise. Now, what is this broken heart?
It's what only a believer has. It's the product of the new birth.
It's broken from all hopes of self-salvation. It's broken.
It doesn't work. What's something that's broken?
What do you got to say about it? It doesn't work. It's good
for nothing. Throw it away as far as what
it's worth. It's broken before God. It can't save itself. But
the Scripture says a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou
wilt not despise. You see, it's the work of His
grace. It's called in the Scriptures an opened heart. In Acts chapter
16, verse 14, we read concerning Lydia, she was a woman whose
heart the Lord opened. It was closed, and she couldn't
open it. The only one who opened her heart
is the Lord Himself, so that she attended to the things which
were spoken of Paul. You see, when your heart is opened,
that means God's given you the grace to hear the Gospel. You
attend to the things that are spoken. You listen. You know
it's a message from God, and you rejoice in it. You believe.
An opened heart. It's called in Hebrews chapter
10, verse 22, a true heart. I like that, a true heart. Let
us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having
our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. And our conscience,
you know, the only thing that satisfies it is that, well, I've
done better. I quit doing that. All my conscience does is scream
out hypocrite when I start thinking that way. The only thing that satisfies
the conscience is the blood of Jesus Christ. It cleanses us
from all sin. And that's the true heart. Anything
else is a false heart. It's a phony heart. It's a fake
heart. The true heart looks to the blood of the sprinkling as
the only thing that will satisfy its conscience. And its assurance
comes from Christ Jesus. This heart is called By the Lord
in the parable of the sower, in Luke chapter 18 verse 15,
an honest and a good heart. Now you know that's not your
natural heart he's talking about, don't you? When he calls it honest
and good, that's that new heart that he gives as the gift of
his grace. It's honest. It's honest before God. It's
honest with the Word of God. It bows to what God says. That's
its goodness. It bows to the Word of God. It's
the new nature. It's honest about what it is.
It confesses its sin before God. It looks to Christ only. It's an honest and a good heart.
And this is the heart that receives the good seed. It's called in
Romans chapter 10, verse 10, a believing heart. Romans chapter
10, verse 10 says with the heart. With the heart. Man believeth
unto righteousness. With the heart man believeth.
Now, we've already gone over this. That means with my understanding,
with my affections and with my will. That's the new heart. I
understand. I really do. I understand that
Jesus Christ is my righteousness before God. You understand that? His obedience is my standing
before God. His righteousness is mine. Understand
that. Not only do I understand this,
I love it. I really do. I love being saved
by His righteousness. I love having salvation having
nothing to do with my righteousness, but wholly to do with His. I
love it. Not only do I love it, My will's
involved in this way, in this sense. If you gave me the choice,
would you rather be saved by Christ's righteousness or your
own righteousness? You know which way I'd choose? Christ's righteousness
right now. With the heart, man believeth
unto righteousness. And with the mouth, confession
is made unto salvation. It's called in Romans 6, 17,
an obedience. You have obeyed from the heart
that form of doctrine which was delivered to you. You see, faith
is simply a matter of obedience. To not believe the gospel is
to disobey God. But every one of God's people
from their heart, not just forced, from their heart, truly willingly,
they've obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine, the doctrine
of Christ, the doctrine of God, the doctrine of grace. They've
obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered
them. You see, it's out of the heart
that flows the issues of life. Pharaoh, you know, when I see
Pharaoh, I see a desperately wicked man. I see a hardened
heart, and I really believe that my natural heart is no different
from his. I really believe that. And in
light of Pharaoh, I see the absolute necessity of God giving me a
new heart. That heart of mine, it's worthless.
It can't be changed. It can't be reformed. It can't
be improved. It can't understand. It can't believe. It's a heart
of stone. That's what the Scripture calls
it, a heart of stone. You can take a stone, put it
in an oven, heat it up. Boy, it can get warm. Put it
in the atmosphere of some kind of religious excitement. You
can get it going. You might get it crying and everything. Pull
it out of that oven and leave it by itself. It'll get cold
and hard again. I need a heart of flesh. the
gift of God's grace. Now, this is the heart that rejoices in Christ Jesus. I've got a heart that glories in the cross of
the Lord Jesus Christ. I've got a heart that loves and
adores and bows before Jesus Christ. And as we just heard
in that song, he really is the lily of the valley. He's altogether lovely to me
now. Now, that's how every believer,
the new heart that God gives him. That's how they view the
Lord Jesus Christ. And out of the heart are the
issues of life. I repeat, don't offer your heart
to God. What would He want with it? Ask Him for a new heart. Cry with David of old, create
in me. a clean heart, O God, and renew
a right spirit within me. Let's pray.