Muddied Waters, Broken Walls
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Christianity is so much more than just saying a prayer and asking Jesus into your heart. In reality, those things are not what saves you. In fact it’s no where in the Bible. At the heart of Christianity is the truth that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone in Jesus Christ. But what does life look like after that? Once we get saved, the righteousness of Christ is imputed or credited to us. We are now the righteousness of God in Christ according to 2 Corinthians 5:21. So how do we live each day in this freely given righteousness? We know we are not to continue in sin, Romans 6 and 1 John chapter 2 makes that clear.
So what are we to do? We need wisdom on how to live our life. Wisdom comes from the Word of God, and from God alone. And as we dive into the Word, a great place to find wisdom is in the book of Proverbs. The interesting thing about proverbs is that at times it may seem like just a bunch of random thoughts, but there are several places in proverbs where there seems to be a running theme in context. And tonight we come to one of those passages, and it brings great wisdom about how we are to live our lives, and warnings of how we ought not.
The title of tonight’s message is Muddied Waters, Broken Walls.
Like a muddied spring or a polluted fountain is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked.
It is not good to eat much honey, nor is it glorious to seek one’s own glory.
A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.
The first thing we see in V26 is this picture of what it looks like to watch a righteous man give way before the wicked. But what does that mean? To give way? When we look up the phrase “to give way” in a Hebrew and English Lexicon it means “To totter, shake, slip, to deviate from the right course”.
So now we understand that King Solomon is writing about the travesty of the righteous man falling before the wicked. When the righteous man decides to compromise, when he conforms to worldly standards or gives himself over to temptation, it causes others to see him in a different light.
Solomon says It’s like a muddied spring, or a polluted fountain. Have you ever driven by a small body of water, like a creek or pond and it’s just dirty? Green and nasty? Like you can’t even imagine getting into it? (Tell the story about jumping into the creek)
The picture that is painted for us in verse 26 is actually far worse than that. Because when you look at a creek or a pond that’s clearly disgusting and polluted, you expect for it to stink. You expect dirty water. But notice that verse 26 talks about a SPRING and a FOUNTAIN. What do you think of when you hear of a spring or fountain? Running water, clear water. Water than can be purified and used for drinking.
The Christian who gives way before the wicked is like that fresh spring or fountain being muddied and polluted by filthy creek water. Imagine clean and pristine running waters, and backing up a dump truck of pond water and pouring it in. That’s what it’s like when we slip and give way before the wicked. The look of the water is now tainted and polluted.
We are meant to reflect the image of Christ, the love of God in us. I think that far too often we fail to stop and think about how our actions will represent, or misrepresent our faith. Our sin doesn’t just affect us, it affects the body of Christ, and the way others will perceive Christianity.
I really like the analogy of the spring or fountain being used for the righteous man, because look at what Jesus said.
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ”
Jesus said that anyone who thirsts should come to Him and drink. If you’re thirsting for salvation, for righteousness, for freedom, for the Kingdom of God, we must come to Him and drink. And when we put our faith in Him, what happens? OUT OF OUR HEART FLOWS RIVERS OF LIVING WATERS! We will have a supernatural SPRING or FOUNTAIN flowing from inside of us! I love how this ties in to Proverbs 25:26.
Solomon is writing about a righteous man, and compares a righteous man to a fountain or a spring. A source a running water! Which Jesus says He will give to us. Because when we come to Jesus and place our faith in Him, we BECOME RIGHTEOUS!
And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
Jesus IS my righteousness. He has made me holy. He has made me right with God. And when He makes me right with God, what do I receive? The Spirit of God!
Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ”
Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
So, Jesus makes me a righteous man, with rivers of living water (The Holy Spirit) flowing from within me.
Proverbs 25:26 tells me that when a righteous man, (which i now am in Christ) gives way before the wicked, (when he chooses to compromise, to conform to the ways of the wicked) then he is like a muddied spring or a polluted fountain, (when in actuality i have rivers of LIVING WATER flowing from within me).
So here’s the question. Can the Holy Spirit within me be contaminated? Was Jesus infected with leprosy when He touched the leper to heal him? Certainly not. So my sin does not make the Holy Spirit within me less holy. So what happens then? Why does Proverbs tell us that when a righteous man gives way before the wicked he is like a muddied spring or a polluted fountain?
The man who is supposed to be a container of rivers of living waters, has now tainted his testimony.
When a Christian gives way before the wicked, the very people that should be seeing life flow from us, the very people that should see these rivers of living water flow from us, when they see us bend and conform to the world, it taints their view of what we profess to have.
We can talk about the perils of sin in the life of the believer. How sin creeps in, and brings death to things in our life. How we are slaves to whatever we give ourselves over to; and we will get to that tonight as well. But what we should really see is what it looks like to others when people who profess Christ live like the world.
“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.
In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
This is the epitome of what the Christian life should look like. Jesus said we are the salt of the earth. What does that mean? Well, in ancient Israel, salt was a preservative. It kept meat fresh and it obviously flavored food. Therefore, it is said that salt here means that Christians are to be of benefit to the world.
We are to preserve purity in the world. We are to be the seasoning of life to everyone around us.
So, what happens when the righteous Christian gives way? It muddies the waters, or in this context, “Salt has lost it’s taste.” What is salt good for if it’s not salty? If it’s no longer fit to preserve or to flavor? It’s thrown out on the road and sidewalks to be trampled under peoples feet. Think about it. If salt has lost its flavor, with what can salt be salted? In other words, if the Christian is no longer bringing benefit to the world, who else is left to do so? If we’re not the examples of love and light in this dark world, who possibly can be? We’ve got the Spirit of the living God indwelling us; if we as the church are not preserving morality and purity and loving kindness, there is no one left to do so.
The interesting thing about salt is it also plays part in sacrifices in ancient Israel.
You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.
The salt of the covenant is mentioned several times throughout scripture. They offered these offerings with salt every day, over and over again. So how does this apply to followers of Christ today?
We are to live our life a living sacrifice for His Glory!
The salt offered with sacrifice. This is what our life should look like. Jesus tells us to shine our light among men, that they may GLORIFY THE FATHER WHO IS IN HEAVEN! Just living in the freedom that Christ died to gives us brings glory to God! Think about that, for everyone who wonders if they have a purpose and they don’t know what their specific calling is, here is a calling for everyone in the body of Christ. When you live your life walking in love, in forgiveness, in kindness, and in obedience, you are being the salt of the world, you are shining your light among men. And just living your ever day ordinary life in this way brings GLORY TO GOD!
But when we choose compromise, when we choose sin. We are no longer seeking His glory, but we are glorying in our selfish desires. Which brings us to our second verse in Proverbs.
It is not good to eat much honey, nor is it glorious to seek one’s own glory.
Wisdom for the life of a Christian;
BEWARE OF OVERINDULGENCE
In the last verse we talked about the pitfalls of indulging in sin as a Christian, it hurts the believer in their walk, but also hurts our testimony and our ministry to others. But here we see a different kind of indulgence.
Eating honey is obviously not inherently wicked. Honey is good, it’s delicious. In prison, honey was like a luxury. It was the most expensive condiment on canteen. We would put honey on things you would never think of on the streets. Nachos, burritos, prison pizza, honeybuns warmed up with peanut butter. So good!
But the lesson here is that too much of anything can be a bad thing.
I meal prep, I eat very clean, and once a week I will have a cheat day and eat whatever i want. But there are times, on average I would say 3 or 4 times a year, where shamefully, 1 day turns into 2, or maybe even 3. And i’ll eat till I’m sick. And i always waking up feeling so guilty. So ashamed. And the last time it happened, I woke up with this verse in mind.
“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.
As Paul writes his first lengthy letter to the Corinthians, we see him here quoting the Corinthians in what was a saying in their day. Sort of like their hashtag. “All things are lawful for me”. It’s in quotations in the the most literal and accurate translations. And we know this was a frequent saying of theirs because Paul uses it twice in this verse, and again later in 1 Corinthians 10, and every time he uses it, it’s in quotations and he refutes this saying immediately.
The line of thinking among bible scholars is that the Corinthians took Paul’s teachings on grace and the liberty we have in Christ and our freedom from the law and they began to use it as a cloak for evil. Saying, “All things are lawful for me, i am freely forgiven, therefore i may indulge.”
Paul said all things may be lawful, but not all things are helpful; meaning not all things are beneficial or good for me. But this is the part of the verse that gets me..
I WILL NOT BE DOMINATED BY ANYTHING
If you read this in the Old King James it says I will not be brought under the power of anything!
The point is, something may not be directly forbidden in scripture, it may not be immediately sinful within itself. But i will not give myself to anything and allow it to dominate my life in any way.
It sounds funny, but when I allow myself to overindulge in eating, I literally do it to my detriment. I don’t feel good the next day. I feel lazy. That 3:00am alarm seems to come much earlier, and my motivation to study and hit the gym is lacking. It is not good to eat much honey!
This is a principle that should be used in our daily walk. Name an activity and this applies. Having a phone isn’t a sin. But when we allow our eyes and our thoughts to be dominated by social media and negative news, it’s bad for us. Sports are not sinful, but when we get so engaged into our television and fantasy football that it’s on our minds more than Christ, it has become a stumbling block. Enjoying food is not evil, but when we allow our appetites to control us, it has become sinful. Money is not evil, but when you spend every spare moment working, and thinking about how you can obtain more money, and you allow your job to take you away from church and serving in the church, the love of money proves to be the root of many evils in your life.
What are we allowing to have power over us? TikTok? A relationship? Money? Sports? Food? It’s okay to engage in hobbies and activities, but nothing should dominate us, but Christ. The Holy Spirit is the only thing I want to be under the power of.
Whatever you feed on is what you will be hungry for. It will dominate your appetite. If you’re constantly hungry for things of the flesh, or things of the world, then it’s obvious what you feed on the most. Temptations will come, distractions happen, but when you put yourself in a position to constantly feed on the word of God, you will be dominated more and more by Godly things, instead of worldly things.
Going back to verse 27 -
It is not good to eat much honey, nor is it glorious to seek one’s own glory.
Our lives should not be lived in indulgence. Our lives should also not be lived for our own glory. King Solomon, the wisest king who ever lived elaborated on how futile it is to seek your own glory in the almost depressing book of Ecclesiastes. This truly gains us nothing. In the end, the man who sought his own glory dies, and he can’t take any of his possessions with him, and his glory dies with him.
Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge.
Jesus didn’t seek His own glory. The Father sought to glorify the Son, but Jesus never glorified Himself. He was always pointing us to God.
We need to ask ourselves -
Does our life point others toward Jesus?
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God,
just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.
This is a call to live a selfless life. To see every day, every activity and every person as an opportunity to minister, to witness, and to glorify God.
In all honesty, I can say that I have fallen well short of this standard. It’s so easy to overlook opportunities to glorify God in our every day life, lost in our own busyness. Lost in our routine and our readiness to make it home after a long days work. But scripture challenges this way of thinking. Scripture challenges us to seek God’s glory and be more concerned about Him and the people around us, than we are about ourselves.
How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
Jesus said that the Pharisees didn’t care about the glory of God, they cared more about status. About clout. About the glory of man! Seeking the glory of man is always selfish. It’s always about “what’s in it for me?”. It’s the boastful pride of life. The love for recognition, for attention, for a platform. The problem in our society today is that so many people seek to be heard.
A desire to have a voice in this world is only a righteous desire if it’s used to call other to repentance and salvation.
I look back at some of the songs I’ve released since getting saved, and there’s lines where I can see self in it. Where I allowed the flesh to creep in. I’m ashamed at parts of certain songs where it feels as if I took a break from glorifying God, to glorify myself for a few moments. To brag about my abilities, or what I got. It is not glorious to seek one’s own glory.. it is shameful. We must remember that Satan’s greatest sin was his pride. His desire to be exalted. We must remember that it is God who lifts up one, and puts down another. Seeking out glory for ourselves always ends without glory.
Sin is selfish. It can deceive us into living life in a way where we are always seeking our own glory. We seek to elevate ourselves, we seek the betterment of ourselves, we lift ourselves up. I want to do things this way, because it gets me what i want, and i like the way this makes me feel, so i’m going to do it how i want to.
A life lived for the Glory of God will always leave us satisfied. Think about all of the years we spent living for us; it never left us fulfilled. In fact, it left us emptier by the day. We must be sure that we aren’t walking this walk with an attitude of what can Jesus do for me? What can i get? Jesus gave us everything, today our mindset should be, what can i do for Jesus? What can i do for the kingdom of God?
A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.
What does a man without self-control look like? A man with no defense. In ancient Israel, walls were a very important part of the city. A city with good walls could wait out enemy attacks and attempted sieges. A fortified city was a strong city. The stronger the walls, the more impenetrable it became.
The book of Nehemiah is an entire book about the rebuilding of Jerusalems walls. It was that crucial to the protection of the city and it’s inhabitants.
Like wise, self-control is that crucial to the life of the believer.
If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
Sin desires you. It is contrary to you. It is crouching at the door.
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
The enemy is not standing still. He is prowling, he is on the move, seeking someone he may devour. If you have no self-control, you have no chance. We are to resist the devil, to stand firm. But when we continually give ourselves to temptation and sin, we will continually weaken our ability to say no when we are tempted to sin. And therefore, you are left without walls. Without something to guard yourself.
But notice that lack of self-control not only leaves you without walls, it says that you are like a city that has been BROKEN INTO and left without walls.
What happens when cities are broken into?
So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they captured the city.
Then they devoted all in the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys, with the edge of the sword.
When a city was broken into, it was captured, possessions were taken, and lives were destroyed.
The enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy. And that’s exactly what he does to the person who lacks self-control. When we prove to be weak in the day of temptation. We are captured by sin, we lose things like families, marriages, ministries, money and possessions; and if we don’t repent and return to the Lord, we will see our lives destroyed.
So how do we gain self-control?
for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
It’s a given to us by God. Galatians 6 tells us that it is a fruit of the Spirit. But this isn’t automatic. Galatians 5 tells us we must WALK IN THE SPIRIT if we are to deny the flesh. So the key to building strength in the area of self-control is to spend time in the presence of God. To renew our mind in the word of God, to spend time at His feet in prayer.
But a big aspect of growing in self-control takes place as we simply say no. The more we deny ourselves, the more i say no to a particular temptation, the stronger i become. The easier it is to say no. The more time i put between me and the last time i committed a particular sin, the more i grow in self-control in that area.
But if we are not grounded in the word, if we are not building up our most holy faith, we will never be strong enough to say no to sin. Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit that we must continually cultivate in the garden of our hearts. We do this by guarding our hearts, our minds, and our eyes with great diligence.
If we neglect to build walls in our life, if we neglect to take up the shield of faith daily, our negligence could prove deadly.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
This is the answer. If we want to keep ourselves from muddied waters and broken walls, it ends and begins with the word of God.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
The fruit of self-control is produced when we begin to put the word into practice in our lives. We recognize it as a gift of the Spirit, it’s not earned, it is a gift from God. And when we respond to this gift in faith by putting it into practice in our life, there is a great harvest of it in our lives. Meaning we grow in grace, we grow in faith, and we grow in obedience.
So today, let us act upon the wisdom of scripture. Let’s keep ourselves from overindulgence, and pridefully seeking our own glory. Let’s do all things as unto Him, and walk in the freedom Christ died to give us.