Select Page
Read Introduction to Hebrews

 

13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.


lest any of you [emphatic] be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

The word “you” is set in emphatic contrast to Israel in the wilderness, who carried hard hearts toward God. The word “any” relates to the individual; it makes this hardening personal. A hard heart can blind the mind to God’s sure discipline.

Believers can be misled by the sin of unbelief through its “deceitfulness.” Sin can subvert them into false beliefs. Sin will blind people to the genuine blessings of trusting God. Sin seduces the soul away from God.

Deception is characteristic of all sin. When we yield to sin, there is an inherent proclivity to harden our hearts away from God. A hardened heart believes what is false to be true. What it presumes to be a benefit is a wrong. Satan comes as an angel of light, not of darkness. He is the “father of lies.”

PRINCIPLE:

There is a tendency to allow sin to harden our souls toward God.

APPLICATION:

Sin is deceitful. It can fool us into believing something we shouldn’t. Believers need to guard themselves against a complaining spirit. This sin is particularly deceptive. It creeps into the life almost imperceptibly. When it does, it gradually hardens the heart toward God.

If we practice sin long enough, something happens to our soul over time—it becomes hardened toward God. Unbelief is due to the hardening of the heart; hardening of the heart is produced by sin. The result is to fall away from God.

Israel experienced miracle after miracle and provision upon provision from God, yet they refused to believe. Christians today hear God’s Word over and over and yet refuse to take God at His Word. This kind of action provokes God.

Share