The heart is the chief organ of our physical bodies. It is vitally important for good physical health. Take care of the temple! Therefore it is important to keep it in the very best condition you possible can. The heart is an amazing organ. It is a muscle that never rest. It is pumping during your waking hours and continues while you sleep. Our heart circulates blood approximately through 12,000 miles of arteries and veins. That is about the distance from New York to Hong Kong. The physical condition of the human heart is paramount for one to enjoy a wholesome and healthy life. I found that out …

The Kardia-Mobile people have devolved a small unit you can carry with you and is small enough to fit in your pocket, so you can take it with you anywhere. It can capture unlimited medical-grade EKGs in 30 seconds and get an instant analysis right on your smartphone. That is very important to counter against heart attacks. Did you know heart disease is still the leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for 21.4% of deaths? The hardening of arties within the heart can kill you. My cousin died last week unexpectedly with this same issue that I had at almost the same age. It is important to keep watch over this vital organ.

Folks, may I suggest spiritual heart disease is a killer of our spiritual lives and of our civil welfare. Harden hearts are killing us too. Preventing this deadly spiritual disease requires hearing God, obeying and ridding ourselves of hate. Jesus said, “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murder and more.

John Butmyan: once said,” No environment is more vicious, none more dangerous, than the dark side of the human heart and its capacity to promote evil.
Hatred is a matter of the heart. I think we can all agree that we are experiencing too much hatred, visceral and division in our country. In today’s’ text we witness Jesus teaching this profound truth. The spiritual conditions of one’s heart are paramount for a wholesome Christian life.

If we are honest we can see hatred proliferating every day… Lorna Simcox wrote in the last issue of Israel My Glory about the hatred of the Jewish people. This issue reviewed the rise of antisemitism and the hatred that spawned it. She accounts the following: A few years ago, I read an article that involved the account of a prominent woman, Margit, “the daughter and heiress of European baron and tycoon Heinrich Thyssen,” who held a large dinner party in Rechnitz on the Austrian—Hungarian border in March 1945. At the height of the evening, just for fun, 12 of the guests boarded trucks, some walked to a nearby field, where 180 Jewish slave laborers were assembled. They had already been forced to dig a large pit, then strip, and get down on their knees. The guests took turns shooting them to death before returning to the party. You can read the article online: “My Aunt Had a Dinner Party to Kill 180 Jews.”

Is this where we are headed, history repeating itself because of unbridled hatred for Jews and Christians and I have to say even for white privileged people.
Lorna mentioned, “The University of California, Berkeley Law School’s branch of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) . . . convinced nine law school organizations to adopt a bylaw refusing to invite or sponsor any speaker who supports ‘Zionism, the apartheid state of Israel and the occupation of Palestine,”’ Sinkinson reported. SJP has been linked to Hamas. Many say the action establishes “Jew-free zones,” which it does. Across America, Jewish professors now complain of open antisemitism; and Jewish students and professors are intimidated and harassed simply for being Jewish. How far will things go? We see the hatred toward a former president and happy that an Judge corrupted justice. Folks,

God does not like ugly…case in point: Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker: and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished. Proverbs: 17:5

God response to the evil heart and taking joy in the troubles of others is very clear. I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; Proverbs: 1:26

I. Beware of a Hardened Heart Ps. 95:7-11

1. The writer of Psalm 95:7-11 tells us to heed God’s voice and not to harden our hearts and rebel as the Israelites did when they were tested in the wilderness. Every Jewish reader knew this passage from Psalms because it was the opening lines at the synagogue every Sabbath. What the Holy Spirit said to the Israelites 3,000 years ago, as they were wandering in the desert under the leadership of Moses, is still valid for us today.

2. In Mark 7:20 Jesus said, “that which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man”. Jesus made it clear that it is vv. 21- from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, [22] Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: [23] All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

The word for heart in the Greek is “Kardia” where we get our English word for Cardiac, This word is used primary in the “NT and conveys the idea of the inner self that thinks feel and decides. It refers to aspect of human personality. As well as the thoughts, will and seat of emotions of an individual. Scripture warns about becoming hard heartened.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. (Jer. 17:9, 10) So we must….

Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. —Proverbs 4:23

II. Two Reason for a Hardened Heart (Hbrs.3:13-19)

1. A true believer cannot have an evil heart of hate and unbelief. 1 John 4;20
If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?

In God’s sight, an evil heart is a heart of unbelief. The greatest of all sins is unbelief. It is the ultimate offense against God. In Revelation 21:8, there is a list of horrible sinners who will be cast into the lake of fire, or hell. Two kinds of sinners head that list: the fearful, and unbelieving. This is God’s warning to those who have not trusted Christ: “Accept Jesus while your heart is still soft. Don’t let your heart become hardened and insensitive to God’s voice.”

2. Second cause of a hardened heart applies to those who are already believers. For believers to avoid a hardened heart, we must exhort, or encourage, one another daily, so none of us will be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin (HBR. 3:13). The word translated deceitfulness (APATE, a -pot’-tay) means “delusion.” When we come under the influence of sin, we become delusional. “Delusional” means “false, persistent belief that is resistant to evidence to the contrary.”

3. Jesus talks about this kind of heart in His parable of the soils. He says some seed, which represents the Word of God, falls on soil with thorns, or weeds. What happens to the seed sown among the thorns in Matthew 13:22; it is choked. The cares and worries of this world cause some believers to become delusional, thinking the cure for worry is to make more money. So, instead of trusting in the Lord, in their delusion they begin to trust in money for security and when that leads to anger and anger leads to hate because you cannot success this way. James warns,

III. The Consequence of a Hardened Heart (3:16-19)

1. A hardened heart results in a life without purpose and peace. To reveal this truth, the writer asks and answers a series of questions about the Israelites who rebelled in the wilderness (3:16-18). For who, having heard, rebelled?
As a nation, Israel had a good beginning; it took a lot of faith to cross the Red Sea. Yet all of that first generation perished in the wilderness, except for the two men of faith – Joshua and Caleb. His final question is to whom was God speaking when He swore they should not enter into his rest (3:18a)? He answers: them that believed not (3:18b).

2. Hardened hearts are not able to enter God’s rest. The writer repeats this truth three other times in this passage (3:1lb, 4:3 & 5). The word translated rest means “to relax” or “to settle down.” People with hardened hearts will never find God’s rest until they come to Christ. We have looked at the causes of a hardened heart and the consequence of a hardened heart. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28
IV. Victory comes from a pure heart
1. Spiritual warfare is where the real battle wages. It wages on many fronts… Let the government and our soldiers fight the earthly battle and let us get involve in the spiritual warfare. There is an old European proverb worth heeding that says, “Age and treachery will always defeat youth and zeal.” Before we engage in spiritual warfare, we should know this about Satan: He is an ancient and extremely treacherous foe. He has not stopped to wipe out the Jew and now the Christians. What is he afraid of?

2. Jesus prepared His disciples for everything, including war. They saw Him casting out demons. In fact, He sent them out doing the same. But before He sent them out, He charged them to be wise as a serpents and gentle as a doves (Matt. 10:16).

3. This combination of divine wisdom and Christ-like innocence is the source of all spiritual victory. We can defeat the enemy. But we must learn the ways of God, which means we must think with divine wisdom. And we must be pure of heart, and gain God’s discernment.

We are using God’s mighty weapons, not mere worldly weapons. (II Corinthians 10:4-5) They have divine power to demolish Satan’s strongholds. With these weapons we break down every proud argument that keeps people from knowing God. With these weapons we conquer their rebellious ideas, and we teach them to obey Christ.

Conclusion:
When we are disobedient, we cannot have God’s hand of blessing on our lives. How merciful is God! Given His desire for a humble heart and the breathtaking beauty of His kindness, may another scriptural prayer be ours today: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Ps. 139:23–24).