I'm sure most of you have heard of illnesses such as multiple sclerosis and arteriosclerosis. What these illnesses have in common is the word sclerosis. Sclerosis is a word that comes from a word meaning hard. In other words, sclerosis is the hardening of something. In this particular case, the hardening of certain tissue.

In the case of multiple sclerosis, there is a hardening or scarring of the nerve fibres. Normally, the nerve fibres in your central nervous system are protected by an insulating sheath. When multiple sclerosis occurs, the sheath is damaged, leaving multiple areas of hardening or scarring of the nerve fibres.

In the case of arteriosclerosis, there is a hardening of the arteries. As the disease develops, yellowish, fatty material composed largely of cholesterol is deposited as plaques along the walls of the arteries, causing them to become fibrotic, thick, and calcified.

Sclerosis of parts of your body is not a pleasant illness to have. For these parts of your body were not meant to harden, but remain the way they normally are. In other words, when they do harden, that will affect the functioning of your body in one way or another. Those of you who suffer from some form of sclerosis will know all about that. And those of you who have loved ones who suffer from an illness ending in the word sclerosis will know about this, too.

An Incomprehensible Illness⤒🔗

But while most of you probably know about multiple sclerosis and arteriosclerosis, how many of you know about cardiac sclerosis? "Cardiac sclerosis?" you ask. "What is that?"

This question does not surprise me. For you will not find the term in a dictionary nor will you find the expression in a medical encyclopaedia. But you will find it in the Bible! Romans 2:5, for instance, speaks about people who by their hard and unrepentant hearts are storing up wrath for themselves. Romans 9:18 speaks about God hardening Pharaoh's heart (after Pharaoh had first hardened his heart against God). And Hebrews 3 warns us not to harden our hearts as the Israelites did in the desert (verse 8). It exhorts us to encourage one another daily so that we may not be hardened by sin's deceitfulness (verse 13). And it warns us for a second time not to harden our hearts as the Israelites did when they provoked God to anger (verse 15).

Cardiac sclerosis. It is such a serious illness! But also such an incomprehensible illness! For just look at the people of Israel about whom the writer to the Hebrews is talking! For years, they had been oppressed by the Egyptians in the land of Egypt! For years, they had cried out to God! For years, God had not intervened in their miserable situation! But then, God sent Moses his servant to them who told them who their God was: the LORD, Yahweh, I am who I am, the God who is actively involved in their lives and who can be counted on to do what He has promised.

How the LORD had lived up to the meaning of his name: I am who I am! How He had shown his power and almight in humiliating the Egyptians during no less than ten plagues! How He had shown his majesty and splendour in leading his people Israel through the waters of the Red Sea! How He had demonstrated his goodness and mercy in feeding and sustaining them in the hot and barren desert!

Yet, in and through all of this and more, the people of Israel were blind to the almight and power of the LORD, were deaf to the voice of the majesty and splendour of the LORD, were unresponsive to the goodness and mercy of the LORD! They always grumbled. Always complained. Always murmured. Always rebelled. Always refused to believe.

That is incomprehensible, something you just cannot understand! Yet, something that is and remains true. And something that is caused by cardiac sclerosis, the hardening of the heart.

The Development of the Illness←⤒🔗

As multiple sclerosis and arteriosclerosis usually begin very slowly, so cardiac sclerosis usually begins very slowly, too. Slowly but surely you begin to desensitize yourself to the presence of God. You close your eyes to his almight and power. You plug your ears to his majesty and splendour. You respond with unthankfulness to his goodness and mercy. You stop reading your Bible, you stop praying, and you stop going to church. Instead of taking in wholesome and nutritious spiritual food that is meant to keep your arteries open and clean, you take in all sorts of spiritual junk food that begins to leave plaques of yellowish, fatty material composed largely of cholesterol along the walls of your spiritual arteries causing them to become fibrotic, thick and calcified.

And then, what begins very slowly and occasionally, ends up being a full-blown disease. Your occasional insensitivity to the almight and power, the majesty and splendour, the goodness and mercy of God, becomes a habitual insensitivity. And whereas before you could still see the almight and power of God, hear the majesty and splendour of God, receive the goodness and mercy of God, now, with full-blown cardiac sclerosis, you can no longer. God is totally absent in your life. And you live your life as if He does not exist.

You have become a sick man or woman. A very spiritually sick man or woman. So sick, you may even think you are completely healthy. In actual fact, you are a spiritual wreck. Spiritually completely dysfunctional.

Those of you who suffer from some type of physical sclerosis will know that that is all about. Perhaps, you want to walk normally, but you just cannot do so. Perhaps, you want to see normally, but you just cannot do so. Perhaps, you want to think clearly, but you just cannot do so. For the sclerosis, the hardening that has taken place either on your nerve fibres or in your arteries or somewhere else simply prevents you from doing so.

So, too, it is with cardiac sclerosis, with hardening of the heart. You may want to think and act very properly and correctly. You may even imagine yourself to be thinking and acting the way you ought. In actual fact, you are not. And you just cannot. For the hardening of your heart simply prevents you from doing so. That is how sick, how very sick you really are.

The Cure for the Illness←⤒🔗

At the moment, there is no known cure for multiple sclerosis. However, for some forms of arteriosclerosis, there is. Many people whose arteries are plugged, especially those going to their hearts, are able to solve this problem by undergoing a bypass. Sometimes, a single bypass. Sometimes, a double. Sometimes, even a triple or quadruple bypass. Veins are taken from elsewhere in their bodies and inserted somewhere around the blocked arteries, allowing the blood to bypass these blocked arteries.

Once, these people have received their bypass, they begin to function better again. They breathe easier. They can walk further. They can think better. In short, they begin to function again as they were meant to function.

The good news is that with cardiac sclerosis there is also a cure. Not a cure involving a bypass operation, but a cure involving a heart transplant operation. Because of the Lord Jesus Christ, who allowed his arteries to bleed for the sins of his people and who laid down his life for the sins of his people, a new heart is available to all those who believe in Him. Through faith, their old calcified and petrified hearts are taken out and replaced with new hearts that are beating and throbbing with love and concern for God and one another.

This means that once you receive your new heart, you begin to function as you ought. You are no longer desensitized to the almight and power, the majesty and splendour, the goodness and mercy of the Creator of this world and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. But you begin to see Him in this world in which you live and in your own personal life. And you begin to worship and serve and love this God the way He wants to be loved and served and worshipped.

Preventing the Illness←⤒🔗

However, you do have to watch your intake. And you do have to watch your lifestyle. For there is an intrinsic connection between cardiac sclerosis and arteriosclerosis. People who suffer from cardiac sclerosis do so because they also suffer from arteriosclerosis. Their hearts become hardened because the spiritual arteries leading to their hearts have become calcified, fibrotic and thick. They have replaced the wholesome food of the Word of God, the use of prayer, and the worship together with God's people with the fatty substances of their own opinions, their own dependence and their own importance. And because of that they have deprived their hearts of the life-giving and life-renewing power that only God can give.

If you do not want to suffer from cardiac sclerosis, then watch your spiritual intake and your spiritual lifestyle. Make it your habit to read the Word of God and to go to the Lord in prayer much like you make it your habit to eat wholesome and nutritious food. Also make it your habit to work out spiritually by studying the Word of God and worshipping together with God's people much like you make it your habit to go to the gym or for a jog or a power walk. There is no need to suffer from cardiac sclerosis. Just use the means God has given to prevent it. Certainly, in this case, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!