Are We Faithful or Stubborn?

Have you met a stubborn man? Don't all point at me at the same time. Do you know anybody who's stubborn? You can't tell them anything. They never change. They never take advice. You tell them to do one thing, and they do another. Welcome to human nature. You know, I've said this many times, but you give a baby food that's nutritious, going to help them grow and be smart and have a good life, and you put that little spoonful of food up to their mouth, and what do they do? They close those lips. I'm not going to eat that. It's just human nature. We are stubborn by nature, some of us more so than others. It's the story of a very stubborn man in the book of Exodus. Now, I don't know this king's name. We just know him by Pharaoh. Many speculate on which Pharaoh this was, the Pharaoh of the Exodus, but he was an incredibly stubborn man. And in Exodus 1, we're introduced to him in Exodus 1, verse 8. Now there arose a king over Egypt who did not know Joseph, and he said to his people, Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply. And it happened in an event of war that they also join our enemies and fight against us. And so go out of this land. You know what? These Israelites are going to become more powerful than us, and we're going to lose all that labor. So what did he do? He enslaved them. And he killed their male children. He threw them into a river and drowned them when they were born. And he made them work very, very hard. A lot of people blame God for Pharaoh's stubbornness because it says in Exodus 9, verse 12, But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh. So it was God that made Pharaoh stubborn. And he did not heed them just as the Lord had spoken to Moses. So was it God's fault that Pharaoh was stubborn? God did indeed harden Pharaoh's heart. But you know, we can fall victim to society, especially our young adults. Our young adults tend to not want to blame anybody for anything, and they end up accidentally blaming God for everything that goes wrong. By default, if it's nobody else's fault, then it's God's fault. And we'll read something like, The Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and we immediately think, Well, God was harsh. That wasn't fair. Poor Pharaoh. And we sympathize with Pharaoh. Pharaoh was not the victim here. Pharaoh was not the victim. He enslaved the Israelites before God hardened his heart. He threw babies, possibly in the numbers of the hundreds of thousands, into a river and drowned them alive.

He beat the backs of the men who worked. He is not the victim here. He was a very, as we will see by the definition of the word stubborn, a very stubborn man from the get-go. No, God was only making an example out of this stubborn man for a very good reason, for your sake. You know, Pharaoh was not converted. Pharaoh didn't have God's Holy Spirit. And therefore, Pharaoh will be resurrected in the future and be given the opportunity to repent. Right alongside ancient Israel that is prophesied to be resurrected and sinew put on their dry bones, Pharaoh will be there too, and he will have his chance too. But was Pharaoh the victim? No way! Pharaoh was, by nature, a very stubborn man. And God punished him by enforcing his stubbornness. And that stubbornness that Pharaoh had is a very powerful lesson for you and me today. Are you stubborn? Do you think it's a good thing that you're stubborn? Are you proud of the fact that you're stubborn? Some of us are. Some of us are stubborn, and we're proud of it. And I just want to give you encouragement today to think a different way about your stubborn nature. It's not an attribute of God's Holy Spirit, I assure you. It will land you in the lake of fire. Exodus 13, verse 15, we see that Pharaoh himself is blamed for being stubborn. Yes, God hardened his heart. His heart was already stubborn. Exodus 13, verse 15, it came to pass when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the Lord God killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. Pharaoh was a stubborn man. That word, stubborn, in the Hebrew, I won't even try to pronounce it, it means to be hard or to be severe. You know, stubborn people can be very severe. Don't get along with people very well. If you find people that are in conflict, constant conflict with other people, it is very possible, in fact, very likely that they have a stubborn nature about them. So let me give you a clue as we're going into this sermon today. If you find that you argue with people all the time, you might want to take a look in the mirror at yourself. Now, if you just argue with one person all the time, and you get along with everybody else, maybe not. But if you find conflict constantly, so much so that you're used to it, so much so that you don't even think about it anymore, that you expect if you're going to go have an interaction with somebody else, it will more than likely involve a debate.

You might want to look at yourself. You might have this stubborn heart. It means to be hard or severe or fierce or harsh, to deal with people harshly, to be ill-treated, according to Brown Driver Briggs' definition, to be obstinate or to show stubbornness. In 2 Kings 17, verse 14, we see a definition of stubbornness. What does it mean to be stubborn? Let's get down to the nitty-gritty. 2 Kings 17, verse 14, it says, However, they did not listen.

Oh, stubborn people don't listen. They wait for you to shut up so that they can talk. It doesn't matter what you say. Reverse that. Do you listen, or do you just wait for people to shut up so that you can talk? Let's continue on. However, they did not listen. They stiffened their neck like their fathers who did not believe in the Lord their God. If they don't believe God, who do they believe? Themselves. The stubborn heart doesn't listen because it believes it's right. In everything, the stubborn heart is an authority to itself.

That's right out of the Bible. Let's also see Jeremiah 17, verse 23. Jeremiah set in the time when ancient Israel, the northern tribes, were already taken into slavery. And they had gone on as the country or the nation of Judea. And Judea, which capital was Jerusalem, was falling into paganism now also. And God was getting ready to punish them and take them into captivity as well. And in Jeremiah 17, verse 23, we again get the definition of stubbornness.

But they did not obey nor incline their ear. Not only do they not listen, they don't obey. Brethren, this is just human nature. We have this in our very own selves. We have this in our congregation, some more than others. But we'll make an announcement. Please don't do this. Please don't park here. What do we do? We park there.

We just move a little farther away. We stick our toes on the line, maybe just a little over the line. Don't tell me what to do. It's the definition of a stubborn heart. Right? If I'm verse 23 again, But they did not obey nor incline their ear. They don't do what they're told, and they don't listen to the orders to begin with. But made their neck stiff, that they might not hear or receive instruction. The problem with the stubborn heart is we don't hear the word of God.

We don't receive it. And we'll see in just a moment that we can seem like we hear the word of God, and we still don't. This is a spiritual problem that God clearly defines from the beginning to the end of the Bible, and it's something He doesn't want in you. As Mr. Lockhart said, who He placed His name on, who knows your name and loves you, and wants a relationship with you, and does not want you or I to be stubborn.

To be that disobedient, obstinate child that doesn't do what they're told, doesn't even listen to the instruction to begin with. They did not obey or incline their ear, but they made their neck stiff. The word stiff is the same word as Pharaoh's heart being stubborn. It's that harshness, that hardness, that stiffness that that little baby does when you give him that first spoon of peas. Mmm! Musht up peas. Yum, yum, yum. I mean, you can't really blame the baby. He's got human nature, and you're trying to feed him peas, of all things.

We don't even like to eat peas. Well, I do with mashed potatoes and gravy, but by themselves, maybe not so much. That word stiff is severe stubbornness, something that will keep us away from the salvation of God. In Deuteronomy 21, verse 18, God through Moses combines stubbornness with rebellion. I'm not going to talk about rebellion too much today, but just know, whenever there's rebellion, it's not a godly principle. It's not a time to go, well, maybe they're right.

Those who rebel are right. Rebellion comes from stubbornness. Stubbornness does not come from God's Holy Spirit. Therefore, using simple logic, if A equals B and B equals C, then A equals C. If stubbornness is not of God, rebellion is not of God, ever. Okay, Deuteronomy 21, verse 18. And you will find this constantly. This is one of many examples where in the Hebrew language, they draw an equal sign with the word and.

Right? It's called parallelism, and it's replete throughout Hebrew. The Hebrew language. One thing equals another when you combine it with the word and. If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son, where stubborn and rebellion are essentially the same thing, the two words mean something different, but they only enhance each other.

They go together. Who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, or who, when they chase in him, will not heed them. The word stubborn and the word rebellion are synonymous with each other. They mean essentially the same thing. So when we're being stubborn, we're rebelling against God.

And any time someone rebels, it's not coming from the Holy Spirit. It's coming from stubbornness. We have to watch stubbornness in our heart. There's a kind of stubbornness that comes along accidentally. And I want to touch on that just briefly. It's called getting in a rut. And you know the Bible actually, there's actually a word in Hebrew about that kind of stubbornness. It's a stubbornness that we just accidentally fall into.

We don't mean to rebel against God. We just get in the habit of doing things the wrong way. And we're in rebellion against God by default. Stubbornness in a rut. Judges 2, verse 19, where stubbornness just becomes a habit.

Ancient Israel did this all the time. They fell into rebellion out of habit. Judges 2, verse 19, when it came to pass, when the judge was dead, they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers. They revert. They go back to old habits. When someone's not constantly preaching at them and telling them to go a certain way, they're not like the ant that we're told to be in Proverbs, that can follow God on their own.

They have to constantly be told. Do you have to constantly be told? Do you make the same if you do, hey, join the club, we've got jackets. But that is a stubborn heart. That's what you and I have when we fall into a rut. When we constantly have to be preached at. Okay. It came to pass when the judge was dead. They reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers by following other gods to serve them and bow down to them.

They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way. That word, stubborn, is different than the word that they used for Pharaoh. That word is just falling back into the old habit. And it's still stubborn. Both are stubborn. Both are rebellion. Sometimes, brethren, we fall into stubbornness by accident because we're not paying attention to our life, to our actions, to our morality.

We don't take the sermons and the Bible study that we do on our own and actually do something with it so that we, like the ant, prepare for wintertime, the spiritual wintertime. Right? When we don't necessarily have, you know, a teacher right there by our side.

But we have to make a decision right now. What are you going to do when you're going to follow the training that you've remembered because you're not this kind of stubborn, the kind of stubborn that just hears and it goes through one ear and out the other, and then we just revert back to the old ways. That's not what God's looking for, either. That's just as rebellious as Pharaoh's severe, harsh, stubbornness. Well, it's a key scripture in Psalm 78 and verse 8.

We're going to touch on the solution because I don't like those big surprise sermons where you give the solution at the end and have an aha moment. I want this to be very clear what the solution is. We're going to touch on it at the end, but we need to have a little hope in the middle as well. Psalm 78 and verse 8. And may not be like their fathers a stubborn and rebellious generation. There's that combination again where stubborn equals rebellious. They may not be like their fathers a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set their heart aright. How do you set your heart aright and whose spirit was not faithful to God?

The exact opposite of stubborn is faithful. Neither one of them will move. A stubborn person will not move. A faithful person will not leave. A stubborn person will not change. A faithful person refuses to not change, but grows until the day he breathes his last breath. They look very similar. They are exactly opposite of each other. You could not get more opposite. Stubborn versus faithful. Trustworthy. The guy or gal that sticks with it no matter what. Oh, they look the same. That's why stubborn people can actually make it for years, decades in the Church of God. Because they can stubbornly look like they behave like a Christian. What a waste of time. Be a Christian. Be that person. Don't just pretend it. It's easy, if you're stubborn, to pretend to be a Christian. It's easy. It's a piece of cake. Keep the Sabbath, wear a suit, shake hands. Happy Sabbath. How was your week? Mine was fine. Thanks for asking.

It's easy. The fundamental problem with a stubborn heart is a lack of faith in God. The fundamental problem with a stubborn heart is a lack of faith in God. So where does that leave your faith? In your opinion. That's the problem with a stubborn person. They're a law unto themselves. That's why you can't tell them what to do. Please cooperate. And don't do this. What do they do? Whatever it was you told them not to do. They're a law unto themselves. If God's opinion doesn't count, surely human leadership's opinion doesn't count?

Stubbornness is not a fruit of God's Holy Spirit and, in fact, is an enemy of God's Spirit. But you know what? Stubbornness is not always obvious. Oh, there are the obvious ones, right? We've already described them. They're always in conflict with other people. You tell them to do one thing, they do another. Those are the obvious ones. That's not the most dangerous form of stubbornness. Remember Jeremiah 17, verse 9, says, the heart is a very deceitful thing. Nothing else is more deceitful than our own heart. And who does my heart deceive more than anybody? Myself. I deceive myself and you deceive yourself. We trick ourselves because, I don't know, we're corrupt. We want to make ourselves look like we're awesome. We look in the mirror. I don't know, women look in the mirror and they doubt. Men look in the mirror and they can just bring out Arnold Schwarzenegger anytime.

Right? We love ourselves! I don't actually like looking in the mirror, don't get me wrong. But we love ourselves, that's the point. And the obvious stubborn ones are not the most dangerous ones. It's the ones that don't know they're stubborn, don't know that they have to fix anything. And I want to address that. Are you the quiet, stubborn one? You know, if you're obviously stubborn and you're converted and you have God's Spirit and you've heard the first part of the sermon, you're probably good to go. You've now had a reminder to not be stubborn and you're probably thinking in your head, I need to work on that. You know what? Sermon accomplished. We're done here. It's the rest of us. Well, I'm actually in the first category, so... But I'm relating to the rest of you. It's the rest of you that don't know you're stubborn. And you need to look in the mirror and find out, do you have that quiet stubbornness? It's just as stubborn, it's just as rebellious, it will not land you in the lake of fire just as quickly. But you get along with people. You don't argue with people. And you're just as stubborn. It's the passive-aggressive, the quiet one. It conceals itself in many personalities. Psalm 81, Psalm 81, verses 12 through 16.

Listen to what it says here. This is the quiet stubborn. And this is a lot of us. Maybe even the majority of us. Psalm 81, verse 12. So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart. So we're talking to stubborn people here. Who are we talking to? The entire crowd. Listen to this. To walk in their own counsel. Okay, it's the same problem. They take their own advice, they're a law unto themselves, they don't listen to people. Right? So far, it's the same thing we've already read. Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways. There it is again. They don't listen, they don't obey. Same thing. Same stubbornness. I would subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their adversaries. Oh, would we have a blessing if we weren't stubborn. But listen to these folks. Next verse. The haters of the Lord would pretend submission to Him.

On the outside, we look like we're Christian. We get along with other people. We pretend to submit to God. But we're just as stubborn. We don't listen and we don't obey. We're not faithful. Our faith is in our own opinion. But we pretend to be submissive to God. And what does it say about us if we're that way? We're haters of the Lord. Wow. An enemy of God. An enemy of God. That passive-aggressive. They pretend to comply. But they rebel when nobody else is looking. Oh, thank you. Oh, yes, sir. Oh, yes, ma'am. And then you walk away. Foul, foul, filth, foul. And you're a filth and foul. That's just as stubborn as the person who's obstinate and doesn't get along with anybody.

It's a form of godliness. And what do these people do? What does this look like? How does it look within the Christian community when you have this passive-aggressive stubbornness? Well, 2 Timothy 4. Here's one of the ways it manifests itself. 2 Timothy 4.

Verse 2. Preach the word and be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and teaching. So Paul is telling the evangelist Timothy, go preach the word. Go teach the brethren. And then, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. Ah, stubborn people, they don't listen. And how does that manifest itself in the church? But according to their own desires, yep, that's stubborn, they're a law unto themselves because they have itching ears. They will heap up for themselves teachers. And they will have their own private little doctrines, and that's happening so much now. You know, in the church, we debate doctrine constantly, right? We're constantly learning and growing. But that's not these people. These people are a law unto themselves, and they use doctrine to build themselves up. Right? And so, they have this favorite teacher and that favorite teacher. And they're really not promoting this teacher or that teacher, not if they have that subtle stubbornness. They're promoting themselves. Look at how righteous I am. Look at me. Okay?

And they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. The problem with the stubborn heart is we become easily tricked. The faithful heart that listens to God, that prays to God every day, teach me that I may know, is not easily tricked.

The stubborn heart, the know-it-all, is actually the easiest to manipulate. And they turn aside to fables. I have seen that happen, where they actually, as it says in Isaiah, call dark, light. They call bitter, sweet. And that comes from a stubborn heart. Do you commit rebellion after you get bad news? This is one of the most common times when our stubbornness comes out.

All right? Whether we're obviously stubborn, or we're passive-aggressively stubborn, we're the quiet, stubborn kind. When does our stubbornness really come out a-roaring? When we get into trouble. We have a good example of this, and I've given this before, but it's good. I'll give it again. Stubborn Israel did not heed advice. Almost never did they take advice. One of the most poignant examples of how stubbornness ends up was when they were told that they will now wander in the desert for 40 years.

Right? Okay, they send spies into the land. The spies are gone for 40 days. They come back, and only two of the spies brought back a good report. The rest of them, oh, there'll be giants in the land, and, you know, they're gonna eat our children for breakfast.

So nobody went, they rebelled against God, and God said, that's it! I have had enough of you. You are gonna die in the desert, and your children are gonna go into the Promised Land. And that was some pretty bad news. So what did the stubborn heart do? Numbers 14, verse 40. The very next morning. Numbers 14, verse 40. And so they rose early in the morning, and they went up to the top of the mountain, saying, Here we are, and we will go up to this place which the Lord has promised, for we have sinned.

Again, it looks like submission to God. It's a form of godliness. Oh, we admit we've sinned. But we're not gonna take God's punishment. We're gonna take His will. We're gonna do it ourselves. We're gonna fix this sin. This was not repentance. This was pretending to submit to God. Like it said back in the Psalms. These are haters of God. Verse 41. And Moses said, Now why do you transgress the command of the Lord? For this will not succeed. You're gonna go up and you're gonna take this mountain where people live.

But this mountain was given to those people by God. You are not gonna take this mountain. If you try to take this mountain, you're gonna have your rear in-handed to you. Do they listen? No. They're stubborn. Do not go up lest you be defeated, verse 42, by your enemies. For the Lord is not among you. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are before you, and you shall fall by the sword. Because you have turned away from the Lord, and the Lord will not be with you.

For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you shall... Oh, I read that already. I liked it so much, I read it again. Verse 44. But they presume to go up to the mountaintop.

Stubborn. Are you this way? When you get bad news, do you go fix it yourself? Or do you drop to your knees and submit to God and ask Him to fix it for you? I have a hunch. Now, this is just Rod's hunch. Not the Bible. I have a hunch that they all fallen down and wept and repented. Even though God was sick and tired of them, I have a hunch He would have let them go in.

He would have relented and let them go in. Because that's the kind of God He is. He's so merciful, we should all be dead with as many sins as we commit.

And God doesn't just wipe us out. Oh, He punishes us. He gives us trials. Oh, and they hurt. It stings. But we live through it, don't we? We end up crying on the other side. But then we have a better day. And we go out and play.

Just like a little kid when he gets punished. We forget all about it. Why is that? How does that happen? Because God is so merciful. So it's just my hunch. Had they not been the stubborn, rebellious people, and had they actually repented, God would have probably let them go in anyway.

But God knew they weren't going to do that. He had dealt with them long enough. He knew what their heart was, and He knew what their response would be. Because they were stubborn. They weren't going to listen. They weren't going to change. They weren't going to move. Like you could move God. I sat in a lawn chair at a soccer match for a few hours, doing nothing, and got burnt to a crisp from a sun that God created that's not even the biggest one in the universe. We can't move God.

So why do we get so stubborn and act like we can? Ancient Israel did. Verse 44, but they presumed to go up to the mountaintop. Nevertheless, neither the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp. The Amalekites and the Canaanites who dwelt in that mountain came down and attacked them and drove them back as far as Horma. Ancient Israel was a stubborn people for their entire existence, with only brief periods of repentance and revival. But they would quickly forget and slide right back into that stubborn heart. And God called it from the very beginning. In Exodus 32, verse 9, God said this about Israel.

Exodus 32, verse 9, The Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people. But that's not supposed to be you and me. We're supposed to overcome that natural tendency that human nature has to be stubborn. At the end of Israel's existence as a nation, God sent the prophet Isaiah. And in Isaiah 1, verses 1-4, the same thing essentially that God said way back in Exodus.

Hundreds of years later, God says through the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah 1, verse 1, The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amaz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, the kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth. For the Lord has spoken.

I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the master's crib. But Israel does not know my own people do not consider. Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel, and they have turned away backward.

It was the same from the beginning to the end of their existence. They were a stubborn people, constantly falling back into old, stubborn habits and old, stubborn ways. Brethren, we can't be that way, or we will not be in the kingdom of God. In moving down to chapter 48 in the same book of Isaiah, Isaiah 48 verse 4, Because I knew that you were obstinate, and your neck was as iron sinew and your brow bronze. Today we call it, you set your jaw, back then you stiffen your neck, and you won't change the expression on your face. In other words, you won't repent, you won't turn, you won't change.

Like Mr. Dove was talking about in the last three sermons that he's given. Even from the beginning, verse 5, I have declared it to you. Before it came to pass, I proclaimed it to you. Lest you should say, my idols have done them, and my carved image and my molded image have commanded them. The importance of prophecy gives credibility to God. He calls it from the very beginning, and he did. You have heard, see all this, and will not declare it.

I have made you hear the things from this time, even the hidden things, and you did not know them. They are created now and not from the beginning, and before this day you have heard them, lest you should say, of course I knew them. And that's the stubborn heart. Of course I know everything it is I need to know about everything in the universe, because, hey, it's me.

Surely you did not hear. Surely you did not know. From long ago, your ear was not opened. How did God form the sun? Answer me that.

Scientists don't even know. They theorize what's on the inside of it, but nobody's ever stuck a spoon in there and scooped it out. We can't. We don't know the secret things of God.

Surely you did not hear. Surely you did not know. Surely from long ago, your ear was not opened. For I knew that you would deal treacherously and recall transgressors from the womb. It is in our nature. That's the way we are. We're stubborn, and we need to overcome it. They were all carried off and destroyed. The survivors of ancient Israel, the northern ten tribes, after Isaiah was written, were led away. Those who survived, and not everybody, I mean a lot of them were killed, granted, but the Assyrians saved a few of them to become slaves in Assyria. They would march them off, and they would put another people in the land and manage the land for them. Those people that they put in the land would then pay taxes back to the Assyrians. It was a pretty good gig for the Assyrians. They made money all around. They got free labor out of the Israelites. Plus, they made money off of whatever the people that they transplanted into Israel would produce. And you know, they let them off with hooks in their mouths. They put a hook through the lip and a hook through somebody else's lip. So if you try to run away, you're going to rip your lip and your partner's lip open. So, it kind of deters people from running away.

The end result of a stubborn heart is destruction. And that's the lesson in ancient Israel. That's the lesson. They came out of the Exodus, overcoming a very stubborn king. And what did they do when they were saved by God? They remained stubborn themselves. It's a huge lesson here for us today. God told ancient Israel that he would punish them. And in Leviticus chapter 26 and verse 18, I want to read this. It's pretty descriptive. It's a pretty descriptive punishment that God has in store for those who are stubborn. But I'm going to read it anyway. We need to hear it. Leviticus chapter 26 and verse 18. This was written a long time ago, but it hasn't changed. Leviticus 26, 18. After this, if you do not obey me, then I will punish you. Seven times more for your sins. I will break the pride of your power. I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. No rain, in other words. And your strength shall be spent in vain, and your land will not yield its produce, nor the trees of the land yield its fruit. It's going to be hard to buy food. And this is only the physical, brethren. Think about this from a spiritual point of view. And your strength, I'm sorry, verse 21. And then if you walk contrary to me, and are not willing to obey me, that stubborn heart, I will bring on you seven times more plagues according to your sins. I will also send wild beasts among you, which will rob you of your children, destroy you of your livestock, and make you few in number, and your highways shall be desolate. I mean, this is pretty low that God will bring you down, but He still offers a chance to repent. Read the next verse. And if these things you are not reformed by me, He still offers reformation. He still asks you to repent. His arm is still stretched out.

But walk contrary to me, the stubborn heart, then I will also walk contrary to you, and I will punish you yet seven times for your sins. It keeps getting worse! The stubborn heart doesn't yield. The faithful heart does. There's a difference. And I will bring a sword against you that will execute vengeance of the covenant. And when you are gathered together within your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. When I have cut off the supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will bring back your bread by weight, and you shall not be satisfied. And after this, another opportunity to repent, if you do not obey me, but walk contrary to me, which the stubborn heart does not do, then I also will walk contrary to you in fury, and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. It keeps getting worse! And the stubborn heart doesn't yield. You will eat the flesh of your sons, and you will eat the flesh of your daughters. People will die, and there will be not enough food, so they will start cannibalism. I will destroy your high places. Those are false religious centers. The false churches will crumble. At this point, God has had enough with that stubborn heart.

We'll cut down the incense of your altars and cast your carcasses on the lifeless forms of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. What a horrible statement. What a horrible statement. And my soul will abhor you.

Who among us wants God to say, I can't stand you? I just can't stand you anymore. He did not create us to be stubborn, but to be tender and moldable and loving, like he is. But he's not going to allow stubborn, severe, harsh, wicked temperament to live forever. He's too kind and merciful for that. He'll have mercy on you, and he'll have mercy on everybody else that you might interact with by cutting you off. Well, that's not very cheery. There is hope. There is hope. We'll skip down, verse 33. I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you, and the land will be desolate and your cities waste. And then the land will enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, and you are in your enemy's land. Then the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths. As long as it lies desolate, it will rest for the time it did not rest on your Sabbaths when you dwelt in it. That's how much God abhors the stubborn heart. God will find more pleasure in an empty land where grass and wildflowers grow than a land filled with stubborn people. Wow, that cannot be you and me. Let God mold you. Let God make you into what He wants you to be. Let go of your stubborn ways. Isaiah 29, verse 15.

Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the Lord, and their works are in the dark. And they say, Who sees us? What an idiot! What an idiot that thinks that they can hide from God!

And I speak of myself, and I speak of you whenever we're stubborn. No offense. I still love you. What an idiotic thing to do! Come on!

God knows every thought we think.

The smart play here is to yield to Him, to love Him, to ask Him to mold and shape you. Let go of that self-will that you have that clinches its fist and says, No one's going to tell me what to do.

You and I aren't that important. We're important to God, but that's the only thing that makes us important. Otherwise, we're just a bag of water that lasts about 70 years and turns into dirt.

The only thing that gives us worth or value is the God who created us in His image. That's what makes us important, and yet we sneak and we hide from God. How idiotic! Woe to those who seek the deep to hide their counsel far from the Lord and the works in the dark. They say, Who sees us? Who knows us? Surely you have things turned around. Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay? Are you on level with God? Isaiah asks. For shall the thing that's made say to He who made it? He did not make me.

Isn't that funny? Or shall the thing formed say to Him who formed it? He has no understanding. What does God know? What does God know? He knew enough to make a son so powerful that if I sit in a lawn chair for too long, it fries me. He knows a lot, doesn't he? He does. And yet, you know, not one of us in the room probably can identify with that. We probably agree right now. We're rereading that going, Yeah, that's right. Who would ever say that? Well, guess what? We would every time we're stubborn. We're like the clay telling the potter what to do. Jeremiah chapter 18. Continue on this potter theme. It goes throughout the Bible. This potter theme does. Jeremiah chapter 18 verse 1. The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Arise and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you to hear my words. And then I went down to the potter's house, and there he was, making something on a wheel. Okay, no surprise there. Go to a potter's house. He's making a pot. Verse 4. And the vessel that he made was of clay. It was marred in the hands of the potter. And so he made it again into another vessel. So he's making a vessel, and a mistake is made. A sin is committed. The clay is not right. So what does the potter do when the clay is misformed? He smooshes it down and bolts it up again. Because that's what a potter does. And that's what God is doing with you and me. And every time we make a mistake, don't worry about being knocked down. It's okay, because he's just reforming you in the image to your full potential, what he wants you to be.

So the clay was marred in his hands, and so he made it again into another vessel, and it seemed good to the potter to make. Then the Word of the Lord came to me saying, O house of Israel, O church of God, let's apply this to us. Can I not do with you as this potter, says the Lord? Look as the clay in the potter's hands. So are you in my hand, O house of Israel. He's got you! He's taking care of you! He's molding you! He's shaping you! Let him do it! If you get dry and rigid and stubborn, you don't get formed. Then you know what happens? He doesn't throw you away. Not yet. He doesn't let you dry out. Puts a little more water on you. Boom! Smooshes you down and forms you up again. And we get that sometimes. Why is God doing this to me? He keeps knocking me down! Try not being so stubborn this time. Go with him. Work with him. Let him mold you. What does that mean? Remember the definitions of stubbornness and what they were and what we need to avoid. They didn't listen and they didn't obey. It's pretty simple. You've got to listen and obey. And if you don't listen and you don't obey, you're stubborn. It's like getting dried out clay that doesn't bend. And then God's got to smoosh you down again. Right? The Apostle Paul picked up on Isaiah and Jeremiah. And in Romans 9, the Apostle Paul asks us why we question God. He's the master potter. He's got you in his hands. This time around, let him mold you. Let him shape you. Romans 9, verse 21. Does not the potter have power over the clay? From the same lump, he makes one vessel for honor and the other for dishonor. That's sort of a rough translation. One becomes fine china. One becomes a cooking pot. One becomes a cooking pot. One becomes the potchapien. They all serve a function in the house. They're all good pottery. You have a very specific potential, gifts given to you by God. He's shaping you in a very specific way. And then we get stubborn. I don't want to be this way. I want to be like him or her. Hey, slap yourself on the back of the head. You're clay. You're not the potter. Let God shape you this time around.

Flex, give in to him, yield to him, cooperate with him, listen to him, obey him. Simple. Easy to say.

Does the potter not have power over the clay from the same lump, one vessel for honor, the other for dishonor? To be stubborn is to put your opinion over God's. And we do that over and over and over again. And he keeps having to smush us down and make us back up again. You can stop that weird, wild roller coaster ride by letting him shape you.

There are some Christians who go through far fewer trials than others. I'm just saying. You do have some responsibility in your own walk of salvation. You own part of it. God's going to get you through. He's very good at what he does and he's very persistent and he's very faithful. But you have a part to play and I have a part to play. And we have a stubborn enemy. And this is where Pharaoh comes back in. We have a stubborn enemy and he wants to make us a slave, just like Pharaoh did. But that enemy is inside us. That enemy is no less harsh or severe or hard than Pharaoh was on ancient Israel. It is a taskmaster and it is stubborn and it will not let you go. Romans 7, verse 18.

You are not the only thing that is stubborn. Romans 7, verse 18. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, nothing good dwells. For to will is present in me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. This is the Apostle Paul talking. He's converted. He's a Christian.

And he's not making this up. This is not some platitude that he's just saying for no reason. He means this. Let's get the point because this is you and me. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, nothing good dwells. For to will is present in me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I do, I do not do. But the evil, that's an interesting statement. The good that I do, I do not do. Paul is drawing strength from the potter. And he gives the potter analogy two chapters later. This is what's building up to that potter statement. The good that I do, I actually don't do. He cooperates with it. You have a part to play, but you also have help. And that's what Paul is saying here. There's help in our stubbornness. There's help to make it.

For the good that I do, I do not do. And I do not do. But the evil, I will not to do. That I practice. If I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who does it, but sin dwells in me. And that is the Pharaoh of your and my day. That is our taskmaster, an evil, sinful nature. I find in a law that evil is present within me, the one who wills to do good. You know, I want to follow God. I want to do good. And I keep getting sucked back in. And this is Paul talking here. Can anybody relate? Okay. I find verse 22. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. I assume that that's true of all of us. Why else would you be here on a Saturday? When everybody else in the Christian world keeps Sunday, why don't you keep Christmas when everybody else in the Christian world does? I believe that you and I delight in the law of God. But we don't find a way to do it, do we? Because we have this stubborn something in us.

But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind. Ah-ha! But there's help! And bringing into captivity the law of sin, which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! What is your and my part to play? Yield to God. Realize who we are. Do not be a law unto yourself. Don't think your opinion is all that. It's not. Can you say honestly and privately, O wretched human that I am?

Who will deliver me from the body of death? So Paul is looking for rescue here, and he's explaining it to us so that we will look for rescue. I thank God. So Paul's not depressed here. He's just explaining reality. But he's actually very upbeat. He's going through this whole thing saying, O wretched man that I am! But he's actually in a positive frame of mind. Hey, that's pretty encouraging. When you can come out of a statement like that and say, I thank God. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. There's our captain. So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. Jesus Christ died to redeem us, and he lives to save us. We have to rely on him. We have a part to play, and that's our part. Yielding, submitting, being that moldable clay, and letting God and Jesus Christ shape us into the child that they absolutely love.

Do your part. Do you have a moldable heart? Are you willing to comply? Or are you stubborn and stiff-necked? Are you thankful for the life that God gave you? And do you let him mold and shape you? Or do you know better than he does? And do you deserve more than you have? It's one or the other. You can't have it both ways. Let's end with Colossians 3, verse 17. Colossians 3, verse 17. This is what faithful looks like. This is the opposite of stubborn. Colossians 3, verse 17. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God our Father through him. In other words, don't walk around all cocky thinking you do it. Everything you do is because of him. Your starting point is to acknowledge that. Is to give up the ego. And let it be Jesus Christ, who is your captain.

What does that look like? Verse 18. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, as is fitting to the Lord. That word submit in practical, everyday terms means cooperate. Your mind works faster than his because he plods. And you quickly draw conclusions. And it's easy for you to get ahead of him. Easy! And it's easy for you to frustrate every single thing he does. Or you could cooperate with him. You could say, I see where he's going, and I'm going to help him get there. And you're going to tell him, watch that. Look out here, because he's not going to notice everything. He's going to have a single vision, a single focus, most of the time. Most guys are that way. And he's just going to go. And he needs you, by his side, to notice things and cooperate with him. But if you're against him, what does that look like? You'll frustrate everything he tries to do. And bicker, he'll call it nagging. That's what submission looks like. That's what it feels like. This is where he's going, and I'm going to help him get there. A lot of people think of submission as only a military term. And technically the word comes from that, but that's not what it means in practical application. That's not the intent. That's not where it ends up. If the only thing you do is be an obedient wife, but you don't love him and you're not on his side, and you don't help him get to where he needs to be, that's not submission. That's outward. You're technically fulfilling, verse 18, but you're really not on his side. And that's where that word is going. It's not talking about being a doormat. That word does not mean you be a doormat to your husband, and you take every abuse he gives. That's not what he means at all. He doesn't mean that.

He means beyond his side. And then husbands. Oh, you are not exempt from this. Husbands, love your wives. And guys, get this. Do not be bitter towards them.

What are some of the terms that men have used for their wives? Ball and chain, the old battle axe, the old nag, the old hag. And it goes on and on and on. And those are terms of bitterness. Those are not terms of love. And that's what she needs.

She needs love. When she's getting upset with you, and she's using that disrespectful tone, do you just shut down and shut up and move on? Well, that's what we do by nature. That's the guy thing to do, isn't it? We'll talk about this later. Ever heard that? That's the guy thing to do, isn't it? To a woman that is so unloving, that is so unloving. She wants to talk now. See past the disrespect, and try to see the hurt. And try to solve the hurt. And then gain the reward, because as soon as she feels loved and unhurt, the love flows. Guys, it comes right back. Being bitter doesn't pay dividends. It only ends with more bitterness. Showing love pays big time. Big, big time. So wives, cooperate, be on his side. Help him go where he's going. If he's going the wrong direction, help him turn the other direction. It's my favorite movie line. I know I've said it before. It's from My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

But momma, dad's the head of the house. Yes, dear, daddy's the head of the house. But mommy's the neck. And mommy can turn the head any direction she wants.

And you know what? If she's a cooperating on his side kind of gal, that's awesome. She helps him so much because we guys are very single-minded. And ladies in general, I know that's a huge generalization, but in general, you notice everything. I can be sitting on my laptop, working, babies around my feet, oblivious to what they're about to put in their mouth. Tammy can be sitting right next to me, researching something, and go, don't eat that! What are you thinking? Don't stick your finger in that plug. My kid would already have curly hair if it was up to me. But the women notice, and that's a beautiful thing, that yeah, the man is the head, but the woman is the neck. And if she's on his side, she will help him notice and avoid all kinds of trouble and actually make him a great man.

It's great teamwork. So, the Apostle Paul, when he's talking about what it looks like to be faithful and what it looks like to not be stubborn, starts with husbands and wives. Interesting. And then he goes, verse 20, Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord. Stubbornness starts early. Start early, learning to be faithful. The more faithful you learn to become as a child, the easier it will be as an adult. Bond servants, in other words, employees. People who work for other people. Obey in all things your masters, your employers, in other words, according to the flesh. Not with eye service as men pleasers, but of sincerity of heart, fearing God. You even give it your all on the job, even when your boss doesn't deserve it, because the name of God is on you. And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, not to men, knowing that from the Lord you receive the reward of inheritance.

For you serve the Lord Jesus Christ. You and I serve Jesus Christ. The name of God the Father and Jesus Christ are on us. Do you know anybody who's stubborn? Do you know anybody who doesn't get along with anybody else? I hope after this sermon you're not looking outside your own head. Because I'm not. That's where it starts. You know, if we're stubborn, we will not be in the kingdom of God. Because we won't listen to God and we won't obey God. The opposite of being stubborn is faithful. And what does that look like? It means moldable and yieldable. And you know what? We make a few mistakes and God knocks us down and he molds us back up again. And that's happened to you probably several times if you're a baptized member. And so I encourage you this time around, don't wait for the next sermon to come along. Because this will be said again, a year from now, two years, five years, whatever. It'll come around again. Don't wait for that sermon. Take the time now to let go of your stubborn nature. Become moldable clay. Let God shape you. Do it today. Don't do it this week. Do it now.