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The Soil of the Heart
Written by Dr.
Lester Hutson
Copyright
- Lester Hutson - 1986
This material is copyrighted and may not be copied or reproduced
without the express written permission of Dr. Lester Hutson.
"Keeping Your Clods Cultivated"
Jeremiah 4:3-4
In this series of lessons, I've talked to you about how easy it is for the heart to grow hard, cold and calloused, and about what an ugly, barren and repulsive condition that is, for you and for everybody around you. God wants broken and contrite hearts. Not just periodically, but routinely. God wants the soil of our hearts to remain soft, supple and well-cultivated. That is where sweet communion is. That is where you'll find real joy and fruitfulness.
The storms, heavy rains and heat waves of life cause clods to form. "Into every life, a little rain must fall." "Man that is born of woman is of few days, and full of trouble," Job says in Job 14:1.
Life's hurts, disappointments and droughts all have a tendency to harden our hearts. And, Satan is ever doing all he can to turn us into a spiritual wasteland.
The question is, "How do we keep the soil of our hearts soft, supple and easy to manage?" What do we do to keep the clods from forming? How do we keep from becoming cold, hard and backslidden? In this message, I would like to share with you the first of a twofold answer to these questions. I want to explain to you how to break up the hard clods once they begin to form in your heart. Later, I will point out some things you can do to keep the clods from forming the first place.
V. Now I Would Like To Share With You Five Ways To Break Up the Clod and Hard Soil Which Naturally Forms In Our Hearts, Plus Issue a Sobering Warning.
A. To break up a hard area in your heart once it forms, first face the fact that it is there.
1. One of the surest ways to keep a stony, hard heart is to deny that you have one. Problems are resolved when we face up to their reality and begin to address them.
Sir, when your heart begins to harden, don't wait until it turns to stone before seeing it. No. Face up. Be honest with yourself and God. It's the truth which liberates the soul. "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free," in John 8:32. The truth about your hard heart can smite you and in so doing break your hardness. I've stood right in this pulpit and watched many who had previously been so hard, but wouldn't admit it. But, they finally faced up to it, and when they saw it, they sobbed and wept like a baby. The clods were finally broken, and a new era of tenderness gushed in like the fragrance of a sweet perfume.
2. It is I John 1:9 which promises, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
Proverbs 28:13 promises, "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy."
King David thus cried out in Psalm 32:5, "I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin."
3. I'm talking about reality, folks. I'm talking about admitting to yourself and God where you are, about facing the facts. I'm talking about getting off your "high horse", and humbling yourself. I'm talking about getting rid of the starch and pretense of life and laying it on the line with yourself and God that your heart has gotten hard. Once you do that, you have the promise in II Chronicles 7:14, "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
Yes, facing the fact of hardness of heart with a true desire to see it crushed is within itself, a heartbreaking experience, and that is good!
B. Number two, is to go to God's Word.
1. God said in Jeremiah 23:29, "Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?"
Brother, sister, there is nothing more potent than the truth of God's Word on the heart. It will pierce and cut, and pound and crush stony hearts. A man may stare you in the face like a character in a wax museum, and even curse or smite you as you share the truth in love, but don't let the exterior and initial response fool you. "The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than a two-edged sword," Hebrews 4:12 tells us.
We have God's promise in Isaiah 55:10-11,
"For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."
Oh, the response to God's Word is not always immediate, and some rebel against it forever as did Esau and Judas Iscariot, and a few others, but pro or con, the Word of God is a battering ram against hard hearts.
2. Brother or sister, don't think the Word won't have an effect on you. If you'll go to it with an open mind, it will deal with your heart. It has an uncanny way of breaking hearts and keeping them soft and supple.
Nick Michalinos was a hot-headed Greek boy in the Heights. He was handsome, tough and muscular. He'd run by the open windows of Berean on Eleventh Street and mock Bro. Fort calling him a "cry baby," and the Bereans "braying Baptists". He wanted to punch John Patella in the nose for "setting him up" in church.
But, Nick heard the Word. As macho as he was that first Sunday in church, he waited until the invitation to storm out. And while he sat there and fumed and cursed in his heart, the Word of God battered his stony heart, and it began to crack. The hard clods began to break. It took several more times, but before long, hard-hearted Nick's heart was broken, and he became a child of God.
Brothers and sisters, stay in the Word. Get as much of it into your system as you can. It will really do wonders on the clods in your heart. David said, "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee," in Psalms 119:11.
C. The third way to break up the clods in your heart is to fear God.
1. The Bible says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge," in Proverbs 1:7. The better perception you get of who God is, the less likely you'll be to harbor hardness in your heart. A real root cause of all evil within us is failure to fear the Lord like we should.
2. The fear of the Lord is a better understanding and appreciation for how great He really is. None of us really fully comprehend that. He's too great and awesome for finite minds to fully comprehend, but many times we do not come even close to comprehending what we could easily comprehend about Him. In fact, we forget even what we do know about Him. Things come along in life, old self gets so big, and we become so enamored with who we are and the projects of our lives that we really sort of lose our appreciation and respect for how great God is.
I know the Rocky Mountains of Colorado are a majestic, awesome place of enormous beauty and grandeur. I've been there many times and have seen them first hand. Every time I go, I am sensationally impressed. Yet, I come home and get busy. I become so occupied with my life, the people in my life and the other impressive things I face that I tend every year to sort of forget how really awesome the Rocky Mountains really are. I go back and just gape at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Uncompagre Peak and Slumgullion Pass.
Some years ago my dad would really "tan my hide" for doing wrong. For awhile, my awe of him and his correction would make me "walk the chalk line." Then I'd tend to forget. He was so kind and loving that I'd forget about his wrath. As my fear of my dad went down, the bolder I was prone to be in doing evil. Then one day he'd remind me of just how awesome he really was.
3. Do you know what will happen to you? The less you fear God, the harder your heart will become, the more you will sin and cheat on God and the less ashamed and more defensive and arrogant you'll feel about it.
The bigger and more awesome God becomes to you, the less and less you'll want to cross Him and do the things or have the kind of heart He's against. For example, your lack of compassion for souls when viewed in light of the agonies and sufferings by Christ on the cross on their behalf can break your heart. Your unwillingness to forgive your mate or parents when Jesus gave His blood for you is enough to break your heart. When you see how much you and lots of other people in your life have suffered because of sins which you committed even years ago, then realize that it is God who has meted out your punishment down through the years, it ought to take a lot of the starch and callousness out of your heart toward sin.
4. I'm talking about the God of the universe, the Creator of the ends of the earth. I'm speaking of the name that is above every name and of the One who holds your very existence in His hand. When Job got an awesome look at Him in Job 38:41, it crushed his stony old heart and Job confesses,
"I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not..."
"I heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes," Job confesses in Job 42:3, 5-6.
Isaiah saw Him and said, "Woe is me! for I am undone," in Isaiah 6:5. Yes sir, the fear of God will take the starch out of you and break up the clods of your heart.
D. A fourth way to break clods in your heart is to forgive.
1. Some of the clods in our hearts are the result of unresolved offenses. We've grown hard, calloused and cynical over some hurt or disappointment in life.
2. My, what a sensational release forgiveness can be. It is amazing how much different and softer the heart can feel just by forgiving. It's like that rotten old core just squirted out of the boil. Yes, there may still be some hurt, but the hardness is suddenly gone. A new and wonderful softness now prevails. You don't want to be hard toward your offender anymore.
3. No wonder Jesus said if your brother sins against you, forgive him even seventy times seven in Matthew 18:21-22. Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:32, "And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." Forgiveness! It's a great clod breaker.
E. Fifth, pray for the providential intervention of God against your stony heart.
1. Sometimes we do not do the things we should. We ought not to have stony, hard soil in our hearts, but we do. We ought to humble ourselves and confess it when we do, but we don't. We know we ought to let the Word break us, and we ought to fear God, yet old self sits there with a heart like a brick. Hard or not, the bottom line is that we're not going to do anything about it. We'd rather let it stay hard than to do the things that soften the heart.
2. Well, if it must so be, let us at least pray that God will trump us and do for us what we do not have the courage to do for ourselves. I doubt that many ever do this, and thank God, His direct intervention does not depend entirely upon whether or not we ask Him to intervene. Most of the time He does it unilaterally, but it is so much better if we'd ask Him to intervene willingly, not against our wills.
3. As painful as it is when God providentially intervenes, it is so refreshing and ultimately satisfying to have the soil of your heart broken. Hebrews 12:11 says, "Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby."
Job said, "When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold," in Job 23:10/
Breaking removes the hardness and makes the soil of the heart soft, supple and productive. No wonder Paul wrote in Hebrews 12:5, "My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou are rebuked of him."
4. God has lots of ways to break stony, hard hearts.
a. Financially
b. Health
c. By touching, perhaps tragically, those you love
d. An adversary against you, perhaps even a loved one
5. God is a great farmer. He knows how to break up hard ground. For our own good, let Him keep His plow buried deep in the soil of our souls.
F. I will close with a strong Bible warning.
1. Sometimes God removes those who refuse to break. That's right! God actually takes their lives early. Ecclesiastes 7:17 asks, "Why shouldest thou die before thy time?" One reason is hardening your heart and refusing to let God break it.
2. Solomon states it this way in Proverbs 29:1, "He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy."
"It Does Make a Difference What You Believe"