To silence the Gospel and have your heart hardened.
The Gospel will never ultimately be silenced but in a world that the enemy-"satan" has dominion there will be ways and attempts to do so. The world attempts to silence believers every day and continues to push God away. As we turn to our own ways and refuse to consider God, God comes to a point where He loves you so much that He will give you what you want. He basically says, "If you don't want me, I will harden your heart myself." This sounds kind of harsh and many will ask the question, "Why would God do that?" But if we look at John 12:40, we can begin to understand.
John 12:40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts,
Lest they should see with their eyes,
Lest they should understand with their hearts"
Now this verse is leading up to just before Jesus is crucified. The ones whom He is talking about (Pharisees) have seen Him and witnessed Him doing miracles and have seen with their own eyes God working before them and they STILL do not believe. John 12:37 confirms this-
"But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him"(John12:37)
So you see, once you come to a certain point in your life that you just refuse to believe and want nothing to do with God, He will give you what you want. To be at this point in your life is to be already condemned before you die.
We see this not only in John but also in the Old Testament, in Exodus God sent Moses to the Pharaoh several times in order for Pharaoh to release the Jews. After several attempts to plead with Pharaoh, Pharaoh still refused to believe in God and we see God hardened Pharaoh's heart as well.
Exodus 9:12-But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said to Moses
We also see this take place with Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus. Despite Judas's behavior, the Lord Jesus loved Him dearly. Judas was a known thief and he even stole from Jesus and the money that people would tithe to the Lord BUT Jesus still allowed Judas to be the one disciple that kept track of all the tithe money. ??? Now you may ask, "why would Jesus allow a thief to keep charge over His money? Jesus did this to give Judas every opportunity to repent and change his ways, the Lord didn't care about money, He doesn't need money, He cared about Judas and wanted Judas to make the right choice for himself. The bible says Jesus was troubled in spirit over Judas, the word in the original language for "troubled" translates, (an extremely strong feeling and signifies horror, anxiety and agitation) So you see the Lord was heart-broken over Judas. We see Jesus feels this same way in John 12:27-
“Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour."(John12:27) Here the Lord is in contemplation of taking on the wrath of God for the sins of the world, it caused revulsion in our sinless Savior. Jesus even made one last attempt to reach Judas at the last supper when He offered Judas His own piece of bread-
John 12:21-
"When Jesus had said these things, He was troubled in spirit, and testified and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.” Then the disciples looked at one another, perplexed about whom He spoke. Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask who it was of whom He spoke.
Then, leaning back on Jesus’ breast, he said to Him, “Lord, who is it?”
Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have dipped it.” And having dipped the bread, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. Now after the piece of bread, Satan entered him. Then Jesus said to him, “What you do, do quickly.” But no one at the table knew for what reason He said this to him. For some thought, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus had said to him, “Buy those things we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor.
Having received the piece of bread, he then went out immediately. And it was night."
(Notice the last sentence, "And it was night", darkness and evil come to mind)
You may look at the whole bread thing as not such a big deal, but in that culture, if you offered someone your own bread, it meant symbolically that you and that person became ONE and it was a very intimate sign of affection.
David even spoke of Judas in Psalms 41:8-10, long before this things happened-
“A vile disease has afflicted him; he will never get up from the place where he lies.” Even my close friend,
someone I trusted, one who shared my bread, has turned against me. But may you have mercy on me, Lord; raise me up, that I may repay them."
someone I trusted, one who shared my bread, has turned against me. But may you have mercy on me, Lord; raise me up, that I may repay them."
Jesus confirmed this prophesy in John 17:12-
" While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled."
Judas even had another chance to possibly change when he returned the bribe money back to the Pharisees but he still would not do the right thing. He could have ran to the disciples for help and repented but he did not. I hate to keep picking on Judas but he is the ultimate example of what we should never be.
To read more in depth about Judas, check out my blog below
http://salvationindepth.blogspot.com/
God still does this today, its not because He is being cruel or mean, it is because He is giving you what you ultimately want. Now this doesn't happen until many, many efforts have been made to make you look His way, but people do come to a point where they just refuse to believe. The people that lived while Jesus walked the earth actually saw Him and witnessed what He did and they STILL didn't believe. God will never force Himself on you, He will go to great lengths to reach you but if you come to this place of refusing to ever believe, He will grant you the wish you want. He loves you enough to allow you to make your own choices. I urge you to encourage and comfort each other and love one another, pray and stay in the Word, learn all you can. Allow God to speak to you, soften your heart and be slow to anger. Love is God's heart and it should be ours also.
Where is your heart today?
(DD)
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