 |
|
|
|
Home |
Wingspread |
Archives |
Us |
|
|
|
|
Home |
Wingspread |
Archives |
Us |
|
|
 |
 |
|
 A WARNING TO HARDENING HEARTS
Preached by Dr. Gene Scott on April 30, 1989 Today if we will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. Hebrews 3:15 THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL HAD BEEN FOLLOWING God in the wilderness for about two years, when there came a day like no other. It was the day when God got fed up with them. They did something that was not very different from the kinds of things they had been doing: every time they came to a problem or a blockade, instead of going forward and taking a leap of faith, they would back off, murmur, and complain. But this time, they discovered they had irretrievably crossed a line. God got so angry with those faithless ones that He made them wander in the wilderness for forty years, until all of those who had murmured, twenty years old and older, died there. He strewed their bones in the wilderness. That suggests there is a great risk in our daily journey of faith. I love to complain, and so do you. I complain every time God gets me into a mess. But this message is a warning to all of us: today might be the day that our all-patient, loving Father says “I have had enough!” God gets angry. We delude ourselves when we think, “I’m the only one in this relationship who has the right to get angry. I can always count on God’s long-suffering. I can count on Him to put up with my Christian temper tantrums and my Christian blues. I can always expect God to say, ‘I understand, little one.’” I preach the grace of God. Any measure of grace that we receive from Him is more than we deserve. But I want us to see that we recipients of grace, who have been called into a life of faith, can walk into a danger zone. Like the children of Israel, we can presumptuously start to think that while we can always count of God, it does not matter whether He can count on us. After all, we think, God is so big and powerful, why should He let such a little thing as our faithlessness upset Him? Understand that I am not primarily addressing this message to the faithful saints. God knows those who labor to do their part and who carry the burden in the heat of the day. I am primarily addressing the faithless ones. I have noticed something about faithless Christians: they are the quickest to tune in on a message of grace. They love to hear about God’s forgiveness. Although I cannot stand fundamentalists who offer their own works in the place of Christ’s finished work, I equally disdain those who exploit God’s grace and treat it as an abstract theory of forgiveness. They never let the preaching of the gospel penetrate their hearts until faith springs forth. Faith inevitably brings an implant of God’s Spirit, which begins to change people into faithful followers of God. The world is full of people who go their own way and want God to approve of it. That is the essence of sin. I do not preach an easy way of salvation. Salvation by works is impossible. The way of faith is possible, but it is not easy. Faith is an action. You must get up every day and confront circumstances that challenge God's promises. Faith means taking hold of God’s promises and not letting go. By faith, you accept God’s calling as the most precious thing that could ever happen to you in this life. You ought to live with a sense of wonder that God in His grace would select you, and you ought to feel a sense of responsibility to be faithful to that calling. The right response is to throw yourself into that calling and make it your primary reason for being. Like the father of missions, William Carey, who saw his vocation of making shoes as secondary to his calling, you recognize that your personal career objectives are to be pursued only with God’s permission and must be supportive of His primary calling. The apostle Paul said in 1st Corinthians 11:1, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.” There are two general categories of people within the church: those whom God calls to deliver the gospel message, and those who find such a messenger and support him. There is no middle ground between those two callings. It is time we dispense with the foolish idea that someone is singularly called to be a carpenter, a farmer, a businessman, a lawyer, or a doctor. Although you might be called by God to some particular vocation or profession, your career is still a secondary calling. With that secondary calling comes your primary responsibility to follow a God-ordained minister. When you are being taught the word of God, you are being fed spiritual food and have a responsibility to pay where you eat. The place where you receive that spiritual food is God’s “storehouse.” Your calling includes the responsibility to act in faith and deliver your tithes and offerings to the storehouse where you receive the word of God. You should have enough spiritual discernment to find a God-called ministry and support it. According to the world’s demonically-inspired frame of reference, every other kind of work is more important than the position of pastor and teacher; but I am telling you that there is no higher calling in this world. Paul said in Ephesians 4 that God “gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints . . .” These ministers are God’s gift to the church. Everyone, regardless of their station in life, must submit to these ministries in spiritual matters. The world does not like that idea. Indeed, in the last days, Antichrist will destroy God-ordained leadership and leave only the false prophet, whose primary function will be to cause people to bow down to Antichrist. Antichrist will use earthly government to enslave people. Contrary to the popular notion, Antichrist will not make people take the “mark of the beast.” It is the false prophet who will make people take the mark. We read in Revelation 13:16-17, “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark . . .” The spirit of Antichrist is already at work and seeks to destroy respect for God-ordained leadership. The true God-ordained minister, who bows to no one but the Lord, is becoming increasingly rare in this world. There are some people who want to be pastors for the wrong reasons: they want to satisfy their own ambition and ego. If you desire the calling, you should ask God to call you, and then you should prove your ministry. More than one church has grown from a storefront. Why don’t you rent one and start preaching tomorrow? The Scripture says “A man’s gift maketh room for him . . .” It is an axiomatic truth that whom the Lord calls, He enables. But there are too many self-anointed teachers who were never called by God. When they finish preaching their sermons, you are left wondering what they said. Another problem with the church is that people try to apply their modern democratic notions to the court of heaven. They think the things of God should be subject to a popular vote. God does what He wants, and He will have the final word. Many people want to pass judgment on a preacher and decide whether or not he “deserves” their money. Whether they know it or not, such people are brainwashed victims of the news media. A preacher’s only necessary credential is their God-given ability to open up the Bible and make its meaning clear. That is where the preacher’s qualifications begin and end. When Paul said that God gave gift ministries for the perfecting of the saints, the implication is that saints are not perfect. It also means, by God’s authority, that the preacher has been assigned to perfect you, not the other way around. The church at large has lost that message, which is why so few people entertain the thought of going into the ministry. Who would want to be a preacher in today’s world? Preachers are looked down upon. They are often ridiculed and shunned; they are the lepers of the community. That is Satan’s doing. God will judge those who have contributed to this view; but for the most part, the church world has brought it upon themselves. We have allowed the corrupt mouthpieces for hire, the news media, to control our view of reality. And we have been overcome by pride and the perks that go along with our professions until our blessings fail to keep us humble before God. People who make a lot of money and attain positions of power often try to find a preacher they can manipulate. They are so used to bossing their hirelings that that they want to boss a hired preacher too. If God has not called you to be a gift minister to the church with the job of perfecting saints, then He has called you to be one of the saints who need to be perfected. Paul said in Ephesians 4 that these ministers are given for the perfecting of the saints, “for the work of the ministry,” or more literally, “to the work of the ministry.” They are given “for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ . . .” There is nothing in your life as important as this – not making money, achieving your career goals, raising a family, or even receiving a general education. Another problem in the church occurs when people begin to gain some knowledge of God’s word and then decide they have “arrived” and no longer need perfecting. The Greek word translated “perfecting” means “fully equipping.” It does not mean “perfection” in the sense of moral perfection, like the ability to keep a checklist of rules and behavior. But it has everything to do with completing what God has called you to be in the work of the ministry. Many people come to church with the wrong motives. Some people come to receive a blessing. If you come seeking a blessing from a minister, take note: Hebrews 7:7 makes the axiomatic statement that the one who blesses is superior to the one who is being blessed. I have encountered many people in the church who come to God to be blessed, but they put themselves first and view everyone else as being under them. Those blessing-hunters are too ignorant to recognize that the very fact that they seek a blessing proves their inferior position. You had better recognize what God has already decided for you. If God calls you to be one of His gift ministers, He will do so only after you have proven yourself to be faithful as a saint, since He called you to sainthood first. And if you have not been called to a gift ministry, then you are called to support one and to be perfected under it. This message is a warning to those who harden their hearts. It is a warning to those who so easily succumb to their weaknesses and stop supporting a ministry that brought them life. That includes people who stop attending church regularly simply because it is too inconvenient for them. Part of perfecting the saints to the work of the ministry involves correcting them when they are in danger of provoking God. God got angry at the children of Israel when He had to deal with the same problem every day. The way you harden your heart is by continuing to say “no” to the same message from God. I am warning you not to engage in the kind of blatant rebelliousness that brought the wrath of God on His people in the wilderness. There are many reasons for being in church every Sunday. Being in church will not save you, but when we jointly act in faith, we are literally invading the territory of the prince of the power of the air. What do you think would happen to the devil’s territory if everyone in the church were regularly participating, in their attendance, in prayer, and in their giving? Some people find the idea of regular giving too painful; it runs counter to their self-seeking ways. They prefer to occasionally give money to a ministry that they think “helps” them. Friend, you had better be giving to a ministry that is perfecting you. Just as God got angry at the Israelites in the Old Testament, Jesus got angry at people in His day for their hardness of heart. The Pharisees closely watched Jesus to see if He would heal a man on the Sabbath day, so they might accuse Him. Mark 3:5 says that He “looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts . . .” There is also a warning in the book of Hebrews against hardening your heart by not responding when the word of God is spoken. Hebrews 5:11-12 says, “Ye are dull of hearing. For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.” Hebrew 6 opens, “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection . . .” You need the help of a gift ministry to reach that goal. Then, beginning in Hebrews 6:4, there is a warning that many preaches avoid. Perhaps they feel it puts too much power in God’s hands. It says, “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance . . .” Too many people in the church think they can put off what God has clearly told them to do. I can easily apply this to a message on tithing. If you have been taught the principle of tithing, you no longer have time to play around with the idea. The tithe is the Lord’s, and every day you wait to deliver it to Him brings you closer to the border of God’s anger. You do not have the right to wait until you can “afford” to tithe. There just might come a moment when God will decide He has had enough of your presumption. Who appointed you to be a judge over the things of God? Although I preach the grace of God, do not twist my teaching by thinking that you can continually rebel against God’s claims and still receive unlimited grace. Luke 12:48 says, “Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required . . .” If you have been taught in the word, God requires something from you. The better you have been taught, the more serious the consequences of hardening your heart. Again, Hebrews says, “It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.” Some people might think, “I didn’t know that my rebelliousness, self-serving, and lack of care crucifies the Son of God afresh!” To such a person, I would say that if your heart is too hardened to see it, you just proved the point. Let me tell you something that might shock you: it does not matter what you think about your own deeds; what matters is what God thinks of your deeds. Someone might ask, “Do you mean that if I put off tithing until tomorrow, I am crucifying the Son of God afresh?” There might be hope for you if you are asking that question, because the answer in “Yes.” Someone will say, “But you don’t know how hard it is for me to tithe!” I do know: it is just as hard as it has always been for people who refuse to accept God’s ownership over their lives. Have you ever started paying tithes and then stopped? If you started, then you must have tasted the good word of God and seen the heavenly vision. There must have been a moment when the Holy Spirit in you received the message from the transmitter of God’s word. That made you one of the fortunate few in this world: you were capable of receiving God’s word and responding to it. But “It is impossible . . . if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.” Does that mean you are lost? Not necessarily. We must balance this verse with Jesus’ word in John 6:44, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him . . .” The desire to come to God proves that the Holy Spirit is still dealing with you. Thus, if you have fallen away but you still have the desire to return to God, you are one of the lucky ones. The desire to repent means that you have not yet fallen so far that the Holy Spirit has utterly given up on you. Hebrews 4:1 says, “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.” In other words, let us fear lest we wait one day too long. If we wait too long, the hardening of our hearts can cause God to turn from us. Again, I refer you to Mark 3:5. Jesus “looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts . . .” People like to think of Jesus as being sweet and gentle. But here, Jesus “looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts…” The American Standard Version has a more accurate translation of this verse. Instead of “hardness,” it says “hardening.” It describes a process. The book of Hebrews makes it very clear that this process of hardening occurs every time you wait, every time you delay a response to the Holy Spirit’s message when it comes. That is why the author of Hebrews repeats in chapters 3 and 4, “To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts . . .” Notice that he says “today,” not “tomorrow.” It is in this context that we are warned, “Let us therefore fear . . .” Christians often say, “God is not the author of fear.” That is true, but He is the author of this kind of fear. Indeed, His word admonishes us to have this kind of fear, because it is a good thing. Let us therefore fear, lest we wait one day too long. The Bible says that all these things were written for our example. The children of Israel had come to the very border of the Promised Land, yet they refused to go in. They waited one day too long at Kadesh-barnea, and it was a day like no other day of their entire wilderness journey. Think on these things as you renew your commitment to God’s work. Reprinted with permission from Pastor Melissa Scott | June, 2023 Wingspread | May, 2023 Wingspread | April, 2023 Wingspread | March, 2023 Wingspread | February, 2023 Wingspread | January, 2023 Wingspread | | Year 2019 Wingspreads | August, 2016 Wingspread | 2016 Wingspreads | 2014 Wingspreads | 2013 Wingspreads | 2012 Wingspreads | 2011 Wingspreads | 2010 Wingspreads | 2009 Wingspreads | 2008 Wingspreads | 2007 Wingspreads | 2006 Wingspreads | 2005 Wingspreads | 2004 Wingspreads | 2003 Wingspreads | 2002 Wingspreads | 2001 Wingspreads | August, 2001 Wingspread | November, 2001 Wingspread | December, 2001 Wingspread | 2000 Wingspreads | 1999 Wingspreads | 2015 Wingspreads | Year 2017 Wingspreads | 2018 Wingspreads | Year 2020 Wingspreads | Year 2021 Wingspreads | Year 2022 Wingspreads | Year 2023 Wingspreads | | Return Home | Current Wingspread | Wingspread Archives | Contact Us | |
||
 |
 |
