Rom. 9:18 “Lord, I Bring My Hardened Heart To You”

SPEAKER 01 : 0:05

So let’s talk about this hardening issue from a psychological point of view. Just to recap, though, Paul says that, therefore… He has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens. And that may scare a number of you, that may disturb your heart and cause you to worry, because you may say, well, what if I’m hardened, or I am hardened, and I don’t know how to solve this, or there’s no hope for me because I’m a hardened sinner. Well, first remember that this is the same idea, the same dynamic as in Romans 1, that the whole of mankind has suppressed God. That’s 1 verse 18, which is a state of hardening, of course. So what does God do about that? Well, he hands them over. That is, he gives them over to their idols. That’s verses 24, 26, and 28. Well, that’s God doing the hardening then. So when we harden… ourselves, then God hardens us all the more. Why? Because he’s sending us to hell, because he’s condemning us. No, because he’s preparing us for our crisis, the crisis of bringing, of coming to the end of ourselves. Because when we suppress God, who is the author of life and the source of all joy and comfort, when we suppress him, Ultimately, there is nothing left but darkness, a sort of deadness of the soul, a desert, no fun, no joy, no pleasure in anything, even though we attempt, by the absence of God, to pleasure ourselves. But the fact is that without God there is no joy, there is no beauty. And so God brings us to this crisis that I talk about. All right. Well, now, let’s think about that in relation to you listening today. Let me just quote the verse again. It’s verse 18 of chapter 9 of Romans. Therefore he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens. Those others who’ve received mercy are not loved any more than you are, but they are prepared, they have been prepared by their obstacles, by their trials, by their troubles, by the end of themselves, the coming to the end of their resources. They have been prepared to be willing to receive mercy. And maybe you’re not prepared yet. But what we need to think about is this. The person listening to this broadcast, many of them, many of you, may not be churchgoers. You’ve sort of given up on church, or church you thought has given up on you. And perhaps you have been hurt and wounded by churchgoers or by preachers or some other situation. You have not felt that you were attended to or noticed in church. Maybe it was a big mega church and you just got lost in the crowd. And all the trials and troubles of life began to make you question whether God existed or not, whether he cared about you. And then, of course, for your comfort, you got into addictions, perhaps, like drugs or alcohol or pornography or food issues. And so you simply escaped from your pain by your addictions. And now you don’t feel any more pain. At least you think you don’t, but there is that emptiness in there. And you’re listening to this program because it’s kind of nostalgic. It takes you back to church without going to church. It reminds you of your childhood belief. But you are pretty wistful about it because you don’t sense that there’s much hope and joy for you. Look, I want to tell you this. God works with hardened people. God has not given up on hardened people. I told you yesterday that years ago, before I believed that God was going to save all humanity, I dismissed the hardened Pharisees and Sadducees. I just thought they were a bother and a hindrance to Jesus, and it would have been better if they’d not been around in the New Testament. But that is such a false idea. Because Jesus loves the Pharisees too, and he loves the Sadducees, and he loves those who have given up on God. And you say, well, then why does he harden? Well, as I’ve tried to explain before, but I’ll repeat it, sinners tend not to bother with God unless they’re in trouble. That’s how we all are. We’ve become independent. We’ve become satisfied. We can do without you, Lord. Thank you very much. It’s as if we had created ourselves and we came into this world by our own choice. It’s as if we’re going to leave it by our own choice. Well, of course, that’s nonsense. We didn’t come by our own choice. We didn’t we won’t leave by our own choice either. So, you see, we don’t have control over our lives. But we have acted as if we did. And so God has to bring us to our mini or major crises. To some it’s a series of mini crises, to others it’s a major crisis. Now that bringing us to a crisis is handing us over and hardening us. Because we chose to resist God, and God says, well, I’ve got to get to you somehow, and I’m going to get to you by giving you over to the ways you resist me. Now, remember, that’s the same as in Romans 1, where people suppress God, and so God gives them over to idols. Now, why would he give us over to idols? Well, because idols are supposedly a mirror image of God. We were born to worship. We are natural worshippers. We were born to look to someone higher because we are dependents as human beings. We’re not totally independent. We rely upon the source of all life. We did not create ourselves, as I said earlier. So when we act as if we were independent, well, God says, all right, I’ll give you what you want. But what we want is another state of submission to someone. And that’s where our idols come in. You know, when you think of your drugs or your alcohol or your pornography or your food, you’re submissive to it, aren’t you? We sort of surrender ourselves to addiction. Because what we’re doing is we’re attempting to satisfy the soul. We’re attempting to gratify the soul through those addictions. Addiction is a form of worship. because it is seeking to find in the drug of choice the ecstasy and joy that only God can give. And so, ultimately, our addiction, our drug of choice, becomes kind of ineffective, doesn’t produce what it did before. The psychologists call it, what is it now, a increased tolerance for it. So we have this increased tolerance, and so we need more of the same thing, until finally the same thing gives us nothing. So you may be at that place, and you may say, I’ve gone too far. I’m a hardened sinner. I left church long ago. I knew I was doing it. I divorced my wife, or whatever circumstances followed that. I played around in the world, and now it’s just too late. But I’ll tell you this, for God, it is never too late. Even though God will allow judgments to come upon you or bring them upon you, He loves you still. Even though He allows the consequences of your addictions to dry you out, to make you feel just miserable, He still loves you. And He is calling you in that misery, through that misery. Now look, remember Romans chapter 4, verse 5, God justifies the ungodly. God justifies, which is to pronounce innocent, the ungodly? That’s a shocker, isn’t it? That’s what you feel. That’s what you are. You are ungodly. We are all ungodly. But God is going to justify or declare innocent the ungodly who trust in him? That’s 4 verse 5. And furthermore, it says in Romans 5 verse 10 that God justifies, reconciles rather, the enemies, reconciles enemies to him. You may feel you have an enemy heart. You have no desire or interest in God. You have more pleasure watching television than you have watching or hearing the heart of God towards you. And so, this is what the reality is, and this is what you have to admit to God. Father, I have no desire for you. I am an ungodly man. I feel that I have sinned away my day of grace. I have become hardened, and my heart is seared. Lord God, I’m terrified when I say these things to you, but I want to admit them. Can you still receive me, dear Lord? And then you believe, because it is God who is bringing to you through the Holy Spirit that belief. And you say, Father, I’m going to believe that you declare innocent this ungodly man talking to you, this ungodly woman talking to you. I am going to believe, dear God, that you are having mercy upon a sinner that does not deserve it, that is hardened. And I am going to thank you, dear God, that you brought me to my hardened state. I can’t really believe what this fellow Colin Cook is saying altogether, but I’m going to take a risk. Lord God, I hardened myself and you hardened me all the more, but you hardened me so that I could be brought to the end of myself, so that I could be brought to a crisis. Well, dear God, I’m in a crisis. And I want to thank you for this crisis, because my heart is now calling up to you, and I believe that you sent your Son to forgive me to take the burden and judgment of all my sins, and to forgive me of all my sin. Lord God, I thank you for the hardened heart, because without that hardened heart, I wouldn’t have come to the end of myself. And here I am, the end of myself before you, dear God, ungodly, an enemy. But you tell me that you justify the enemy who trusts in your Savior Jesus, my Savior Jesus. You tell me that you justify an ungodly man. Well, that’s what I am, dear Father, I admit it. I don’t know how I’ll ever overcome my sins. I don’t even have the desire to. But I’m not going to let that absence of desire or that defeat to separate me from you anymore. I’m going to believe in you, dear God. I’m going to say good morning to you every day. I’m going to welcome you into my heart. I am going to open your word and let you speak to me. I’ll start with Psalm 23, Lord. I’ll start with Psalm 63. And you can just speak to me, Lord, so that my soul comes alive. Because I can’t make my soul alive, dear God. Thou restorest my soul. Oh yes, I remember that psalm now. You restore my soul. I can’t restore it, but you can. So I thank you for my hardness, for through it you have brought me to the end of myself and to the beginning of your life for me in Jesus. Thank you for listening to this broadcast today, How It Happens. This is Colin Cook, and you are welcome to consider a donation to this broadcast. I need your donations. It’s listener-supported radio. It’s now in its 27th year. It costs $39 per 15 minutes and $200 for a week’s programs. and $850 to $900 for a month’s programs. That gives you some sort of guide, and so if you would like to make a donation, thank you very much, and thank you for all those who’ve already done so and do so regularly. Send your donation to FaithQuest, P.O. Box 366, Littleton, Colorado, 80160, or you can make your donation online at faithquestradio.com. Thanks so much for all your support. I’ll see you next time. Cheerio and God bless.