A Word in Season: The Hard-necked Man (Proverbs 29:1)

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Most of us don't enjoy being rebuked or reproved. We may appreciate it, but it's not particularly pleasant to us.

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I'm not talking about somebody who perhaps might even unfairly pick us up on some of our little personality quirks, our idiosyncrasies.

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That may be neither here nor there. I'm not even talking about somebody who suggests that some of our little flaws and foibles might need some attention.

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I'm talking about somebody who puts their finger on particular sins and tells us that it is not right for us to think like this or speak like this or act like this, that it is not acceptable or inappropriate and that we need to mend our ways.

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You may well recall having undergone that kind of rebuke or reproof, and it may have happened more often than once.

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Most of us to our shame would say that perhaps especially as we were growing up or in our early days as believers, we did need to be rebuked and reproved.

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We would often kick back against that kind of input and that kind of righteous instruction.

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But what about the one who keeps being reproved for the same patterns of wickedness and hardens his neck?

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It's a very expressive phrase. It's there in Proverbs chapter 29 and verse one.

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He is often rebuked and he hardens his neck. This is a phrase that often goes along with the knee that will not bend.

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It's an image of proud resistance. It's the one who stiffens his neck and rather than bowing, submitting, receiving and accepting, is refusing and aggressively resenting and resisting whatever has been said to them.

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They will not accept what has been said. And this now with regard to their rebuke.

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Somebody is dealing with their sin and yet they keep pushing back. They will not hear it, they will not have it and they will not respond to it.

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What is the outcome? The one who is often rebuked and hardens his neck will suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy.

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Here is somebody who is obstinate, who is stubborn, who despises, hates and rejects reproof and rebuke of sin properly understood and properly delivered.

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And they go on in that wicked way. They will not respond to these righteous investments in them and the tragedy will be that they will eventually be destroyed in a moment and that without remedy.

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Yes, for a while they may go on in their wicked course. For some time they might keep pressing forwards and seem to be getting away with things.

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But where they are pursuing this unrighteousness, there will come a point at which they will suddenly be brought down and there will be no remedy.

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And that's a fearful thing if it happens in this life considered quite apart from eternity.

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For somebody who just goes on without any turning aside from the way of sin and is then exposed, is then their reputation is damaged or destroyed and there's no way back.

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But how much more fearful when the rebukes are intended to turn you from the way of death and bring you into the way of life.

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When they're intended to turn you away from the path of sin and bring you to Jesus Christ as saviour.

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And yet you go on refusing to leave those sins to one side, to turn away from them and have nothing more to do with them.

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To leave behind that pattern of sinful thought or word or deed and to walk in a path of righteousness.

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That will bring you to destruction without remedy. There's probably at the very least a hint of hell in that language.

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That for some, despite whatever warnings, entreaties, rebukes are offered to them, they keep pressing on.

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It is the great grief of many Christian parents to see their children growing up and pursuing paths of wickedness, despite the rebukes and entreaties of their parents delivered in love.

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It's the sorrow of many, many pastors to see reproofs offered graciously, but firmly, lovingly and tenderly.

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And to see men and women just running on in their wickedness, perhaps people who are not believers or sometimes even those who profess the name of Christ.

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So my friends, if God has put a righteous rebuker in our way to point out our sin, perhaps more than once, let us not harden our necks lest we come to destruction, but bow to God and confess our sin.