The expression, “stony heart,” is found only in the book of Ezekiel, in 11:19 and 36:26, the latter reading, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.”
A “stony heart” is a vivid description of unsaved man’s sinful condition, as we learn in Ephesians 2:1, where we read, “And you hath he quickened [or made alive] who were dead in trespasses and sins…”
Romans 2:5 goes on to pinpoint man’s innate rebelliousness: “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…”
John the Baptist, under God’s direction, confronted the Pharisees with these words in Matthew 3:9: “And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.”
God is emphasizing the point that one is not to trust in anything external, but only in the Bible as the means of salvation. As Romans 10:17 insists, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”