Only the blood of Christ can soften it!

--Thomas Watson, "The Beatitudes" 1660

"I will take away their hearts of stone and
give them tender hearts!" Ezekiel 11:19

Oh the misery of a hard heart!

A heart of stone is insensible. A stone is not
sensible of anything. Lay a heavy weight upon
it; or grind it to powder—it does not feel. So it
is with a hard heart—it is insensible to both its
own sin and God's wrath. The stone in the
kidneys is felt—but not the stone in the heart.
"Having lost all sensitivity" (Ephesians 4:19).

A heart of stone is inflexible. A stone will not
bend. Just so, the hard heart will not comply with
God's command. It will not stoop to Christ's scepter.
A heart of stone will sooner break, than bend by
repentance. It is so far from yielding to God, that
like the anvil—it beats back the hammer. A heart
of stone will "always resist the Holy Spirit." (Acts 7:51)

A hard heart is void of all grace. While the wax is
hard—it will not take the impression of the seal.
Just so, the heart, while it is hard—will not take the
stamp of grace. It must first be made tender and
melting. The plough of the Word will not penetrate
a hard heart!

A hard heart is good for nothing—but to make
fuel for hellfire. "Because of your hardness and
unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for
yourself in the day of wrath!" (Romans 2:5).

Hell is full of hard hearts—there is not one soft heart
there! There is much weeping there—but no softness.
We read of "vessels of wrath—prepared for destruction"
(Romans 9:22). Hardness of heart, fits these vessels
for hell, and makes them like withered wood, which
is fit only to burn!

Hardness of heart makes a man's condition worse
than all his other sins besides. If one is guilty of
great sins—yet if he can mourn, there is hope. But
hardness of heart binds guilt fast upon the soul. It
seals a man under wrath. It is not heinousness of
sin—but hardness of heart—which damns!

Oh the misery of a hard heart!

A stony heart is the worst heart. If it were bronze,
it might be melted in the furnace; or it might be
bent with the hammer. But a stony heart is such,
that only the arm of God can break it—and only
the blood of Christ can soften it!

"I will take out your stony heart of sin and give
you a new, obedient heart." Ezekiel 36:26