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I. WHAT IT IS.

1. Not mere callousness or insensibility of feeling.

2. But entire obduracy of soul — not of one faculty, but of all. The same word is sometimes translated blindness and sometimes hardness. There are two words, πῶρος a stone, and πώρωσις, blindness or hardness (Mark 3:5; Romans 11:25). This hardness, therefore —

(1)  Is blindness of the mind.

(2)  Is fixedness of the will in opposition to God and His truth.

(3)  Admits of degrees.

(a)  Disobedience and secret opposition to truth.

(b)  Zealous opposition and hatred of it, manifesting itself at length in blasphemy and persecution.

II. THIS HARDNESS IS A SINFUL STATE.

1. From its very nature.

2. In its higher form it is the state or character of the lost and of Satan.

3. It is self induced.

(1)  As it is the natural effect of our depravity.

(2)  As it is the natural consequence of the indulgence of sin.As the natural consequence of the cultivation of virtue is virtue; of kindness is kindness, and so the natural consequence of the indulgence of sin is sin — a sinful hardening of the heart.

III. IT IS NONE THE LESS A DIVINE JUDGMENT AND A PREMONITION OF REPROBATION. Any degree of it is reason to fear such reprobation. The higher forms of it are direct evidence of it.

1. God exerts no efficiency in hardening the heart of sinners, as He does in working grace.

2. But it is the punitive withdrawing of the Spirit; the inevitable result of which is obduracy. God let Pharaoh alone and the result was what it was.

3. In its last stage it is beyond the reach of argument, motive, discipline, or culture; and beyond our own power to cure or remove.Conclusion:

1. Dread it.

2. Withstand it.

3. Pray against it.

4. Avoid it by not grieving and quenching the Holy Spirit.

(C. Hodge, D. D.)

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KJV: But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;

WEB: But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of God;