Indelibly etched on my mind is the photograph of one of our
members, now deceased. If you go to Frances Flippen’s
apartment, you can see a picture of her late husband, John,
a military man, in full battle dress, helmet and all, standing
with his legs spread apart and his arms folded, and with a
most determined look on his face. The message it gives out
is clear and unequivocal. “I shall not be moved.” “You are
not going to get past me.”
Strong, decisive, firm. Some might look at him and say,
“stubborn”. Well, of course he was stubborn. He was
charged with the defense of this country. And when that is
your charge, there is no room for anything else but stubborn.
What was our opening Scripture? “If the trumpet gives an
uncertain sound, who will follow?” Military men know that
orders must be decisive, commands must be clear, security
must be vigorous. You take a stand. Just so, Proverbs
speaks about the righteous not giving way to the wicked.
There are times to stand firm, times to hold the line, times to
be stubborn.
And there are times when stubbornness is just that and
nothing more. Some of us decide to hold the line on things
that do not matter. We are like the three-year-old child who
came to see his grandmother one day, and before she could
even say hello or offer him something to do, he just declared,
“Grandma, I won’t!” Whatever you are going to ask, I won’t.
We are like that. Just plain stubborn. It has nothing to do
with the righteous giving way to the wicked. We can simply
be stubborn.
There are times to be stubborn and there are times not to be
stubborn. How do you know the difference? The central
truth lifted up in this passage of Scripture is that we are to be
stubborn, as God’s people, in not giving way to wickedness.
We are to stand up for what is right and we are to hold to it,
solidly, definitely. But, having said that, there is much more
that will help us look at what that means.
I
First, this passage urges us to be stubborn when we know
something. Not when we feel something or guess
something. When we know something. Be stubborn, give
no room for mistakes if you are very sure that you know the
truth. Proverbs says, “Like a muddied spring ... are the
righteous who give way before the wicked”. “Like a muddied
spring .. “ Be stubborn if you know the truth.
Knowledge is a very powerful thing. But when it is muddied,
it does more harm than good. When we do not really know
the truth, we will do some very messy things. If we do not
know what the facts are, we will fall back on our feelings and
will take some very wrong directions.
If you are trying to make a moral decision, there are plenty of
people out there with so-called information that is not true. If
you are trying to determine whether sexual activity is right for
you, they will tell you that holding back your feelings is
harmful and that you won’t suffer any problems by sleeping
around. Before you jump into that muddied spring, get the
facts about AIDS and about emotional damage! They will tell
you that a little alcohol is good for the tummy and that binge
drinking is just harmless fun. Before you plunge into that
muddied spring, get the facts about alcohol-induced deaths
and about drunk driving accidents! They will tell you that
fudging on your tax returns is not cheating, just good
business. Before you drown in that muddied spring, get the
facts from the IRS code! Go with the facts, not the feelings.
When I was a college student, my pastor got caught up in a
big church fight. There were many accusations about what
he was supposed to have done. One of the deacons who
was on his case reported that the pastor had said nasty and
inappropriate things about sex to one of the young women in
the church just before her wedding. And, as it happened,
since that young woman had suffered an accident as a child
and had lost an arm, there was a special climate of sympathy
around her. People “felt” for this young woman, and were
out to hang the pastor! Well, when all the facts came out,
the young woman herself testified that the pastor had simply
given her a little booklet about the place of sexuality in
marriage; her parents had seen the booklet and had jumped
to a conclusion; and the deacon to whom they told their story
never even bothered to ask the bride what had happened.
They drank out of muddied springs! They did not actually
know what they were talking about.
Be stubborn, yes. Be sure. Be clear. But be stubborn on
the basis of what you know, not just what you feel or what
you want to believe. Be stubborn on the basis of what the
Bible really teaches, not just folk theology. Get the facts. I
once enlisted someone to lead Wednesday night Bible study.
He said to me, “I don’t know why you work so hard at
teaching the Bible. My thing is just to go into prayer meeting
and give them a passage and ask them how they feel about
it.” I say no; how you feel about the Bible doesn’t amount to
a hill of beans until you find out what the Bible actually says.
Be stubborn when you know the truth. And recognize that
knowing the truth is the only basis for a stubborn stance.
“Like a muddied spring ... are the righteous who give way
before the wicked.”
ILLUSTRATIONS FROM TESTIMONY GIVEN ABOUT THE
BELT OF TRUTH AND THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT/THE
WORD OF GOD
“Like a muddied spring ... are the righteous who give way
before the wicked.”
II
It is good to be stubborn when you know the truth. It is right
not to be a muddied spring if you are trying to hold back
wickedness. But we need to look a bit deeper. We need to
dig out something else about ourselves. We need to look at
our motives for being stubborn. We need to know our own
hearts and see whether we are being stubborn because we
want to stand up for the truth, or whether there is some self-
serving reason in it. After all, there can be a lot of reasons
why people take stands. The story has it that one Sunday in
another church the preacher had left his sermon notes on the
pulpit; somebody went to retrieve them. What a surprise the
reader got when in the margin of the sermon notes, in the
preacher’s handwriting, was this instruction to himself: “This
is a weak point; pound the pulpit and yell like crazy.”
We can get very definite when we are trying to protect
ourselves and cover our own inadequacies. Motivation is the
key issue. Understand what Proverbs means when it says,
“Like a polluted fountain ... are the righteous who give way
before the wicked.” When we do not understand our own
hearts, we pollute everything we try to do.
I’ll be candid with you. I feel very wary when someone says,
“I just felt led of the Lord to do it.” “The Lord said to me, do
this.” I feel wary of that, not because I don’t think the Lord
leads people. I can still remember the day in 1958 when I
felt the Lord’s call to ministry, and nothing has changed that
feeling. But then we have to go to the next step and discern
our own hearts and find out what is really involved in “feeling
led of the Lord.” Motivation is the key issue.
You see, the Bible is quite realistic, and in Jeremiah it
teaches us that the heart of man is deceitful above all things.
Deceitful. That means that there is in us that constant desire
to make ourselves look good, justify ourselves, cover our
mistakes, polish our images. So many times when I hear
people talking about being led of the Lord, whatever they
want to do is designed to bring them power, prestige, profit,
or something self-serving. When we announce that the Lord
has called us to do something, we need to figure out whether
we want to do it for us or for the Kingdom. We need to
examine whether it fits into the spirit of the one who made
Himself of no reputation, but took upon Himself the form of a
servant. Selfish motives are like polluted fountains; out of
them flows a hostile, defensive, destructive stubbornness.
Selfish motives are like the Frankenfish out there in that
pond in Crofton; stubborn, persistent, voracious, destructive,
demonic. The whole pond is being poisoned because of a
few stubborn fish that want to consume everything in sight!
Be stubborn, certainly -- if you are confident that what you
are doing is not for yourself, but for others. If your brothers
and sisters in Christ discern that what you are after is
servanthood and not selfhood. Be stubborn if there is in your
motivation a purity of heart that wants not recognition, not
power, not position, but only the best for others. Be stubborn
if your motives are Christlike. Otherwise, “like a polluted
fountain ... are the righteous who give way before the
wicked.”
ILLUSTRATIONS FROM TESTIMONIES GIVEN ABOUT
THE “BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS” AND THE
SHIELD OF FAITH
“Like a polluted fountain ... are the righteous who give way
before the wicked.”
III
When to be stubborn? Be stubborn and clear, not a
muddied spring, when you know the truth, and stand by that
truth. When to be stubborn? Be stubborn and pure, not a
polluted fountain, discerning your own heart and knowing
your own motives. But one more thing: be stubborn, be
definite in proclaiming the good news. Be consistent in
speaking the truth in love. Be stubbornly committed to
building up others and to sharing the good news of the
gospel.
What a wonderfully refreshing word comes from Proverbs!
Alongside speaking of muddied springs and polluted
fountains, he speaks of refreshment: “Like cold water to a
thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.” “Cold water
to a thirsty soul .. “
Oh, brothers and sisters, if you ignore or forget all else from
today, at least remember this: that our calling is to be the
bearers of good news. Our calling is to share a cup of cold
water with a thirsty soul. Our calling is not just to be correct.
Our calling is not just to be pure in heart. Our calling is to be
the bearers of good news and to share cold water with a
thirsty soul. And so in this, above all, be stubborn.
Be stubbornly committed to building up one another, not
tearing down. Be stubbornly convinced that in every other
person there is the potential for Kingdom greatness, so that
your task is to help find it and encourage it, not to attack or
to demonize. Be stubborn about that.
Be stubborn about proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord. In Him
as in no other is there hope for a life that means something.
Political correctness these days seems to water down the
uniqueness of Jesus. But I tell you, He is the only one in
whom there is truly good news. He is not just another good
man; He is the only savior. He is not just another sad story
of man’s inhumanity to man; He suffered death for us and
rose to life for us and is able to change us. And a watered
down Jesus is not cold water for a thirsty soul. Be stubborn
not just in your belief about Jesus but in your sharing Him
with others. Be stubborn, in season and out of season, with
the good news.
Be stubborn too about telling what Christ has done in you.
You and I have been to the far country, just like the young
man in the parable of the Prodigal Son. We have wandered
and wasted so much, but we have come home, and we have
a story to tell. “Like cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good
news from a far country.” We have been to that far country,
and we have good news. Never let anyone stop you from
telling your story. The Asian evangelist D. T. Niles spoke of
one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread. I’ll
take it a step further. Christian witness is one once thirsty
soul telling another thirsty soul where to drink the cooling
waters of forgiveness. Be stubborn about telling what Christ
has done in you.
ILLUSTRATIONS FROM TESTIMONIES ABOUT THE
SHOES OF THE PREPARATION FOR THE
PROCLAMATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE, AND THE
HELMET OF SALVATION.
Indelibly etched on my mind is that photograph of one of our
members, now deceased. John Flippen, a military man, in
full battle dress, helmet and all, standing with his legs spread
apart and his arms folded, with a most determined look on
his face. Stubborn? Yes, of course. Stubbornness is built
into those who must lead in battle. But for them to be
effective, they must know what they are doing – no muddied
springs; and they must know why they are doing it – no
polluted fountains. But most of all, they can be stubborn
because they know that at the end of the battle, when the
heat of the day is spent and the struggle is over, there will
be good news, there will be cool waters for a thirsty soul,
there will be victory in Jesus.
About that, be stubborn!
