Tag: ears heavy

20.p. “Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false”

 

Romans 11:7  What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.” And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever.”

 Isaiah 6:10     Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

 Matthew 13:14-15   Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: “‘“You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.”  For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’

 2 Corinthians 4:4    In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12   and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.  Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false,  in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

How utterly bad is it to have rejected God and His love through Jesus Christ and then believe that which is nothing more than a delusion, lies, and unsatisfying to the soul?  God reaches out in love to mankind with a gracious and merciful gift, Jesus Christ, and people have and continue to reject this offer.  This offer has been flat out denied, neglected, diluted, or rejected, and it is in this state of mind they easily believe dilutions and lies.  The saving grace knowledge of Jesus Christ is not so much withheld from them but rather they have blinded their eyes and deafened their ears with wanting to believe anything other than the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  This is a personal intentional choice of rejection.  With hardened hearts, they hear of God’s love through Jesus Christ but it has no effect.  Though the Word of God shouts “Come to Me”, “Believe in Me”, “Trust Me”, “Rely on Me”, “Yield and surrender to Me”, “I love you so much I sent My Son to bear the burden of your sins”, “I will give you rest”, “I will give you joy, peace, power, courage, hope”, and “I will give you eternal life”, they choose to reject, deny, and neglect it.  They choose to believe in the wisdom of man or self rather than the Creator.  They choose to deny and reject God’s Word when it says; “I will judge you”, “I will pour out My wrath on you”, “I will not withhold my anger against you forever”, “I will cast you into eternal hell for eternity”, “I will reject all who have rejected Me”, “I am coming again to judge both the living and dead”, and “it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God and all of His fury”.  

Rejection, denial, neglect, and complacency, take on many forms, at different times, but always display the intent of the heart, mind, and soul of people.  All is exposed and open to God.  He knows the intent of your heart and mind.  He knows if you have surrendered all your hope of forgiveness for sin by faith, trust, and reliance in/on Jesus Christ alone.  He knows if you keep some of this surrender back and by some means rely on some form of your good works or Christian service to help you become good in His eyes.  This will never produce anything God-honoring because you are trying to keep some of this honor for yourself to somehow make you right in God’s eyes.  It is just another delusion and lie.  There is nothing you can do other than complete humble surrender, reliance, and trust in Jesus Christ.  It is then and only then you will realize the good things you do are for the single purpose of honoring and glorifying Jesus Christ.

5.k. “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’

Job 12:23  He makes nations great, and he destroys them; he enlarges nations, and leads them away. He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth and makes them wander in a trackless waste. They grope in the dark without light, and he makes them stagger like a drunken man.

Isaiah 6:9-10    And he said, “Go, and say to this people: “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’  Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

Psalms 107:40     he pours contempt on princes and makes them wander in trackless wastes;

Isaiah 59:10    We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men.

1 John 2:11   But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Isaiah 19:14   The LORD has mingled within her a spirit of confusion, and they will make Egypt stagger in all its deeds, as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.

These words of God were written thousands of years ago they still seem to ring true today.  When I look at our leaders and hear their speeches and read the news it is as if eyes are blind and any brain activity has ceased to function.  Boastfully they speak of things that are meaningless in the scope of eternity.  They speak of things temporal as if the course of these things alone will change the world forever.  God is not even a thought in their brains.  Self-serving, self-pride, self-worship, self-reliance, self-grandeur, and self-important all find there way to the surface of what comes out of their mouths.  It is these very people that lead capture the foolish weak-minded people and convince them with worldly speech on things they have no control over.  They speak of changes and future events as if they alone will accomplish that which only God is able to do.  God will confound and confuse these leaders and foolish followers to believe in this worldly wisdom as truth because they have denied God and that He exists.  We need to be mindful of this worldly wisdom and flowery speech and worrisome news reporting.  It can affect the hearts and minds of those who neglect and are complacent with God’s Word.  The reverence of God is the beginning of wisdom.  Without this ever-present reverence, we are never going to grow and mature in the wisdom of things of God.  If we would spend as much time in His Word as we do watching or reading news, or watching or reading about sports there would be such a change in the people of God that the whole world would see and know the difference God’s Word makes in the lives of those who intentionally choose to humbly serve, honor, glorify, follow, and obey Him.

14.  “Hear this, O foolish and senseless people”

Exodus 33:5  For the LORD had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people;

Deuteronomy 29:4     But to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.

Isaiah 6:9-10     And he said, “Go, and say to this people: “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’  Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

Jeremiah 5:21    “Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but see not, who have ears, but hear not.

John 12:37-41    Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him,  so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”  Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said,  “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.”

Acts 28:25-27    And disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul had made one statement: “The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet:  “‘Go to this people, and say, “You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.”  For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed; lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’

Romans 11:8-10     as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.”  And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them;  let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever.”

Disbelief seems to have many forms.  It can come in the form of hearing truth but denying it.  It can come in the form of seeing great wonders but discounting them.  It can come in hearing truth but denying it applies to them.  It can come in the form of seeing creation but denying God as the creator.  It can come in the form of hearing promises of God but denying them in their life.  It can come in seeing a transformed life but denying God’s hand in it.  It can come in the form of hearing God’s commands but denying they apply to them.  It can come in seeing the work of the Holy Spirit in a life and denying the ability of the Holy Spirit’s existence.  It can come in hearing the conviction of God’s word but denying it.  It can come in seeing love and compassion but denying serving God is the reason.  It can come in hearing place your trust in God but only trusting self or others.  It can come in seeing the needy but denying to help.  It can come in hearing the need to be born again but denying the need.  It can come in seeing the lost but deny telling the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It can come in hearing of sin but deny it in their lives.  It can come in seeing God’s word but denying it has value.  It comes in hearing of God’s wrath but denying it will affect them.  It comes in seeing wrong but denying it is wrong.  It comes in hearing God’s call for repentance but denying the need.  It comes in seeing complacent service to God but denying it.  It comes in  “You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.”  For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed; lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’

Turned their back to Me, not their face

Zechariah 11:15  Then the LORD said to me, “Take once more the equipment of a foolish shepherd.   For behold, I am raising up in the land a shepherd who does not care for those being destroyed, or seek the young or heal the maimed or nourish the healthy, but devours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs.  “Woe to my worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May the sword strike his arm and his right eye! Let his arm be wholly withered, his right eye utterly blinded!”

Lamentations 2:14  Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions; they have not exposed your iniquity to restore your fortunes, but have seen for you oracles that are false and misleading.

Ezekiel 13:3    Thus says the Lord GOD, Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!

Isaiah 6:10   Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

Jeremiah 2:26   “As a thief is shamed when caught, so the house of Israel shall be shamed: they, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets,  who say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their back to me, and not their face. But in the time of their trouble they say, ‘Arise and save us!’

Matthew 15:14    Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

We are given so many examples of the sinful nature we are born with and the consequences of it.  I can’t recall the last time I have heard preaching/teaching warning us of the consequences of a life that is not fully committed to God.  It seems as though all we hear is about God’s grace, mercy, love, and our place in heaven.  These are all true and foundational in our reason for repenting and turning away from sin to God’s redemption.  It seems as though through His great and steadfast love we come to Him for a moment in time and then live as though we are one and done on the decision to follow Him with our whole heart.  We give no thought to what it means to commit with our whole mind, soul and heart and live each day to humbly serve, honor, follow and obey.  Note the scriptures this morning -“As a thief is shamed when caught”….They know they have done wrong in their commitment to God.  Note the choice made – “they have turned their backs to me not their faces but in time of trouble they say save us”.   We are not to take our walk with God lightly.  This walk requires constant time in His word, courage, patience, faith, hope, commitment, heart deep desire to hear and be led by God.  Make God the first thing you commit to each day.