Proverbs - Wisdom For Troubled Times

Okay. We are going to open up God's word now. So if you wanna turn in your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 6. We're gonna be reading Probles chapter 6 verses 1 to 11. My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, If you have shaken hands and pledge for a stranger, you have been trapped by what you said, ensnared by the words of your mouth.

So do this my son to free yourself since you have fallen into your neighbor's hands. Go to the point of the exhaust and give your neighbor no rest. Allow no sleep to your eyes. No slumber to your eyelids. Free yourself like a gazelle from the hands of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.

Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider its ways and be wise. It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer. And gathers its food at harvest. How long will you lie there?

You sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? Little sleep Little slumber, little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man. So but for reading that for us, Ben. And if you could if you've got your bible with you, Keep Proverbs, chapter 6, open in front of you.

We've been working our way through this book of Proverbs. And we've arrived here at these famous words in in chapter 6. He Proverbs 6 1 to 12. Let's bow our heads and let's pray. Let's seek the lord's help we come to his word together.

Here's the verse we looked at on Wednesday evening at the Summer Home Group. For the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges, the thoughts, and the attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight.

Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him. To whom we must give account. Father we come to you and we know that our hearts are laid bare before you. That you see through the disguises that we sometimes put on. You know us for what we are.

You know the thoughts of our minds and the attitudes of our hearts, and we thank you that you're living active sharp word both exposes us and reveals where we are either thinking wrongly about things or our motivations are wrong in some areas Your word leads us in in a repentant life. Your word points us to the remedy of our sin, the Lord Jesus Christ. And your word makes us whole and heals us and gives us hope. And lord we pray, please, that your living active word would do all of those things for us this morning. Perhaps those words from Hebrews are well known to us.

We know the theology of the bible. We can tell other people what it is what it does, what it means. And yet very often we can seal up our own hearts and we can shield ourselves off from your truth. We pray that you would put aside all distractions, the things which hinder us from listening and give us good ears this morning we pray in Jesus' name. Well, I'm sure you're familiar with the with the mister Men, series of books, the mister Men Stories, and we've got the whole box at home and love working our way through them.

And the other week, we were reading this 1 about mister mister Lazy. And I think this is number 17 in the series. This is mister Lazy, and he lives in a place called sleepyland. And their sleepy land is a very slow moving place, so it's the perfect home for mister Lazy. In fact, there are only 4 hours in the day.

A normal 24 hour day is condensed down to 4, just 4 hours, and everything moves very slowly in sleepy land. So the birds move so slowly that from time to time, they fall asleep and drop out of the sky in mid flight. And the kettle takes 2 hours to boil, in sleepy land, which is just enough time for mister Lazy to have a nap, so he puts the kettle on. And 2 hours later, he hears it, and it's time to have cup of tea. And 1 of these days, mister Lazy, sitting out in his garden in his deck chair, and all of a sudden 2 gentlemen come up to him and their names are mister Busy and mister Busle.

And mister Busy and mister Busle have decided that mister Lazy needs to change his ways, and so they've got a whole host of jobs for him to do. He's gonna have to polish the floor and he's gonna have to paint the house and mow the lawn His day is no longer going to be relaxing and lazy. He's gonna have to work, and so he gets on with all these jobs. And then after he's finished his jobs, they just that he goes on a very, very long walk. And so he has to walk for miles and miles and miles so much so that his legs are completely worn down, and it's just his tummy left on the floor.

And then after all that walking, he gets home and mister Busy and mister Busle suggests that he goes for a run. And he's completely overwhelmed and undone even by the thought of this. But there they are, mister Busy blows his whistle and says, up you get time for your run, and at the moment he hears the whistle, he wakes up. And he realizes that it was all a terrible dream. There is no mister bustle and there is no mister busy, and he can go back to his lazy life.

In fact, the sound of the whistle was actually the sound of the kettle boiling, and he's ready for his cup of tea. So that's mister Lazy's life. That was his nightmare and and that's that's the book. And it is a great book and lots of fun to read. And yet there are at least 2 things that are wrong with that book's depiction of laziness.

Firstly, it implies that laziness is sleeping all of the time, which it might not be. As we're going to see this morning, slugard or the spiritually lazy person might sleep very little. He might be a very active sort of person. He might work hard and yet he works in all the wrong areas. And secondly, the book sort of implies that laziness is quite a rewarding way of life.

But it's actually quite entertaining and enjoyable. Whereas Proverbs would tell us that the sluggard or the spiritually lazy person is ruined by his laziness. And that in reality, there is nothing that is attractive about it at all. Laziness like all sin, ruins people. And actually, that has been quite a big theme in the last couple of weeks.

That we've been in proverbs. So last week, Ben took us through chapter 5, and we were told that the wise person should keep away from the adulterous woman, should stay away from adultery. And why should he do that when it's just so exciting? Because it will ruin them. Sin ruins everything.

And here in chapter 6, in those first verses we had read, The father or the wise man talking to his son is not talking here about the manageable debts or the generous support that we offer people, but the problems that we can get into because we've started to live above our means. We've promised things that we can't afford. We've signed up for another card that we've got no hope of paying off. Sun, if you find yourself in that situation, do all that you can to get free. It might be exciting to have money that doesn't belong to you, It might open doors of opportunity and bring power, but it will ruin you because sin ruins every And the same is true here of the sluggard.

Just have a look with me again at verses 9 to 11. How long will you lie there you sluggart? When will you get free from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man. The sluggard is lazy with the truth, he is lazy with his soul, and therefore he is vulnerable to everything that ruins him.

And so as funny as these Mister Men books are and we do love them certainly in our house. The reality is that there is nothing attractive about mister Lazy. Nothing at all. And why does proverbs tell us this? Well, it's so that we might not be ruined, isn't it?

Remember that these are not just proverbs from on high. These are the words of a father who is deeply invested in his children and he loves them and he wants the best for them and he doesn't want them to be ruined, he wants them to flourish in the lives that he has called them to lead. And his advice here is really simple. Chapter 6 verse 6, go to the ant, You slug art. Go to the ant, you slug art.

Or as the King James version puts it, go thou to the ant. Go there to the ant, which I love because it's not just, you know, let's all go to the antle. You over there go to the antle. Why don't we go to the antle? It's go there.

Thou, you go to the ant. You and me. Go to the ant. And we're going to build this morning's talk just around that 1 command in verse 6. How do we avoid the ruin of the sluggard?

Go loud to the ant. 6 points this morning. They won't all be long. And the first is this, go thou to the ant. Just go thou to the ant.

Have a look at verse 6. Go thou to the ant, you slug our, so address to the sluggard, but the wise person is supposed to be listening. Consider its ways and be wise. In our evening service, we've been working through the sermon on the Mount, and we've seen there how the Lord Jesus Christ says to his disciples something similar. Behold the birds of the air, my children.

Are you not much more valuable than they? Consider the lilies of feel my children. If God clothes them, those things which are here today and gone tomorrow, will he not much more take care of you? Close you. Love you.

Look after you. Go to the ant. And so we're reminded here that the Lord God has not only made this world He has ordered it. And not only has he ordered it, he has set lessons within it. He has filled it with tea and preachers that can speak to us and let us know truth about God and what it means to follow Him.

And the wise people look out for those lessons. The wise people understand that even the smallest most fragile of God's creatures can bring them to their knees in humility. They really do believe they have stuff to learn from the meanest of the creatures, from spiders, and ants, and these little things, and they look for those lessons. They go out into their gardens and their parks. And they try to see truth all around them.

The slugard has got no time for that. He's too busy under his blankets. In fact, he despises the very idea of it. He doesn't think that the ant or the lily or the raven has anything to teach him. He won't hear it.

He won't even go look for it. And so verse 6, Sounds easy enough, doesn't it? Go to the ant you sluggart. Consider its ways. But that command is the first hurdle for the God.

He doesn't consider anything. He doesn't look for lessons anywhere. He doesn't think in terms of action and consequence or cause and effect or if I do this, then that's gonna happen. If I look at that long enough, I'll learn this about this thing. He doesn't do that.

He just does things or doesn't do them on impulse. But Proverbs says no, he and we must go to and consider the ant. If we want to avoid ruin. Safran was telling me this week that when she was growing up, she had an ant farm. Than if you've ever seen an ant farm, looked at an ant farm.

I reckon that's probably 1 of it but the main reason she's so wise. Right. It would be a good idea to either go into the garden or buy an ant farm so that you can consider it and learn from it and watch it. Firstly, go down to the ant. Secondly, go how to the ant and see how it see how it works.

See how it works. 1 of the old famous emperors of Rome said this in his own personal diary about his life. He's talking to himself here. He says, at dawn when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself I have to go to work as a human being. What do I have to complain of?

If I am going to do what I was born for. The things I was brought into the world to do, Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm. So you were born to feel nice instead of doing things and experiencing them. Don't you see that the plants, the birds, the ant and spiders and bees are up and they are going about their individual tasks, putting the world in order.

As best they can and you are not willing to do your job as a human being. Why aren't you running to do what your nature demands? In other words, the ant loves its nature. It's in its nature to work. You don't have to ring up the ant every morning and say, hello, you know, are you coming to the colony day.

You know, we didn't see it yesterday. Just to remind you, there's quite a lot of work to do. You're still in bed. Okay. Well, it's past 9 o'clock and so you really ought to be in Okay.

We'll give you another half an hour today, but I'm afraid we're gonna have to review your contract eventually. You don't have to ring it up. It doesn't need this constant encouragement to do what it is made to do. It doesn't require that. You don't have to bring up the ant and supply it with reasons to come to work.

It already has the reasons in its nature. It goes to work. Another proverb says, as vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so are sluggards to those who send them. You think about being around an open fire and having smoke in your eye. It is a massive irritation, isn't it?

You're having to rub your eyes and can't focus on what you're doing and get yourself away from the smoke. Now what is it that make the sluggards so irritating because they need this constant follow-up. They need constant reminders. You give them a job, they have to be chased over and over and over again. But not the ant.

And I think that can be applied in a few areas. The emperor in that quote applies it to his work Is this what I was created for to huddle under the blankets and stay warm? Now it's not that rest is bad, and we need rhythms in life of work and rest. Jesus himself took rest when he needed it, but we are not created to live under the blankets. And so whatever God has called to do wherever we are in life, consider the ant.

It needs no boss to get it out of bed in the morning. It is there, with energy, with diligence, with creativity, doing what its nature demands, and blessing that home, or that office, or that school with its word. Or for another angle, we could change the quote slightly. Are you not willing to do your job as a Christian? Why aren't you running to do what your new nature demands?

I don't think any of us when we hear this want to be those Christians who need chasing all the time. Where were you on Sunday? It's a shame not to see you again. We really missed you at home group. We genuinely did.

It'd be lovely to see you there again. It'd be great if you could submit some prayer requests so we can pray for you. And over and over and over, it goes. I guess none of us want to be the Christian who needs a boss in that sense, 1 to provide constant gimmeing. To get them to do what their new nature has within them.

But we want to be ant like, don't we? Energetic diligent creative in the Lord's work. Secondly, go down to the ant, Consider its way, see how it works, thirdly. Go out to the ant and see see how it see how it prepares. See how it prepares.

Here's an ancient fable to to rub in this to rub in this story a bit. It goes it goes like this. In a field 1 summer's day, a grasshopper was hopping about chirping and singing to its heart's content, An ant passed by, bearing along with great toil and ear of corn he was taking to the nest. Why not come and chat with me? Said the grasshopper.

Instead of toiling and moiling in that way, I'm helping to lay up food for the winter said the ant and I recommend you do the same. Why bother with winter? Said the grass we have plenty of food at present. But the ant went on its way and continued its toil. When the winter came, the grasshopper had no food and found itself dying of hunger while it saw the ants distributing every day corn and grain from the stores that they had collected in the summer.

And then the grasshopper knew it is better to prepare for the days of need. Or in God's words, Go to the ant you sluggard. Consider its ways and be wise. It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. In other words, the ant does the right things at the right time.

There will be a time for rest but not during harvest. Proverbs 10 verse 5 says, he who gathers crops is a in summer is a prudent son, right thing, right time, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son. And as we said at the beginning, when you compare that with mister lazy, mister lazy is someone who sleeps all the time. But the sluggard in reality may not be much of a sleeper. He might be very busy, very alert, very active, but gathering storing up in all the wrong areas.

Proverbs 12 verse 11 puts it like this. Those who work their land will have abundant food. But those who chase fantasies have no sense. And that is how the sluggard spends his day. Not working for something real, not storing up for a future, not investing in other people, not part of a bigger story.

He chases fantasies about himself. He is like the grasshopper who works really hard on chirping and singing and chatting. He works hard on himself. His energy goes into himself. He fantasizes about himself.

He works only for himself. His own projects, his own name, his own identity, his own life. Like the rich fool, Jesus talks about. He works hard on a fantasy, bigger barns, bigger crops, all goes to seed. All comes to ruin.

And in this point, there are 2 applications I think we can make. Firstly, let's gather during harvest. In Matthew 9, Jesus says the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. He tells his people that now he's the age of opportunity. That the age that we are in is harvest.

It's gathering time. This is the time that the lost are coming into Jesus. This is the time that the Church of Jesus Christ can be built, the time when we can serve 1 another. Why waste our time chasing fantasies? When like the ant we can use our tiny hands.

And by God's grace, put them to use and be part of something real and something massive. Secondly, Let's be people who prepare for the future. In his in his book on suffering, a a chap called Don Carson writes a book called How Long Oh, about suffering and how to deal with suffering in the Christian life. And early on in the book, he says that it's both for believers who are going through suffering, and it's those who need to prepare for it. And he has this title about the book where he calls it preventative medicine.

It's preventative medicine. In other words, it's the sort of medicine that's designed to take now so that you can prepare for then. It's about laying a foundation of truth in harvest time so that when winter comes, you've got what you need to keep going. The slug art doesn't think like that. He doesn't prepare and yet the wise person knows that in the Christian life we are going to walk through many different seasons.

We are going to live sometimes under the sunshine of comfort and ease and things relatively speaking going well, and at other times we are going to go through the winter of hardship and the winter of testing. And therefore we must go to the ant. Do you ever wonder where the ants go in winter, why you don't see them? Is because they've put on weight in the summer and then they dig down and they buckle down and they get their young and they pull them down and they pair for those harder times so that they don't freeze up. In other words, the ant has learnt to thrive in every season, but the sluggars thrives in no seasons.

When the climber is warm with opportunity, He withers. And when it is cold with suffering, he freezes. In chapter 19 verse 24 as this rather amusing proverb about the slagard. A slagard buries his hand in the dish. He will not even bring it back to his mouth.

And I think the point of that is to say that even in times of plenty, he can't be bothered. Even when the going is good and the dish is full and the harvest is out, he can't be bothered. And if he withers in harvest time, then he will certainly freeze in winter time. If only the sluggard would go to the ant, It would learn how to thrive in every situation. It would learn how to prepare, how to store up.

Psalm hundred 19 verse 11 says I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. I have hidden your word in my heart now, gathered now, stored up now, got ready now. So that then In the time of difficulty, in the time of testing, in the time of temptation, I will not freeze. And so the question is, are we are we gathering up and storing now and collecting in in these days of opportunity. Brothers and sisters, we have so many resources, don't we?

Church family, books, podcasts. It's like the harvest is just brimming with grain. Time now to gather in to store up to feed on the truth so that we are prepared in all circumstances like ant. Go down to the ant, see how it prepares. Go down to the ant and see how it depends.

See how it depends. Verse 6 again, go thou to the anti slagard, consider its ways and be wise. Now as we saw in our second point, the ant needs no boss. It needs no ruler. It needs no jimmying along to do what it ought to do.

But does that mean that the ant is an individual? Does it mean he can live without community? Go to the Antverse 6. Is it ever alone? Now normally apparently I was reading that in a colony of ants You have 1 or more egg laying queens and just thousands of female worker ants who do everything.

I mean, the blokes it from what I can tell, the blokes just stay underground, keep warm and wait for mating time. That's pretty much it. Whereas the women are out collecting, gathering, fighting, defending, looking for food. They do everything. And that's why actually in the original language, the the ant is a female noun.

Go now to her, go now to her, and consider her ways. And they are just amazing, their community life. All the time, They are releasing these chemicals to talk to each other. And so if 1 of them stumbles across some jam that has fallen from a picnic, They let they can send chemical signals to 1 another like, hey, look, you know, jam in the grass, jam by the old apple tree. Quick.

And they can work out how to find a route to the jam. If they're gonna be, you know, attacked by something, it's like, you know, will. Watch out. You know, something's coming from above or, you know, alert intruder. They've got this complicated system of chemicals where they communicate with 1 another.

They let each other know when the going is good and when the going is bad. They spur 1 another on. The scariest thing about the sluggard is he thinks he can do it by himself. A sluggard is wiser, in his own eyes. That's 7 people who answered discreetly.

It's 1 of I think the most frightening verses about Does he need anybody else? No. He thinks he can do it alone. He thinks he's wiser than the ant, wiser than other people, above their council, in no threat of danger, he can do it, without them. And for that reason, he is a fool and a ruin, and he comes to nothing.

Friends, we we really need each other, don't we? We do really need each other in this Christian life. We need people to send us the signal and say brother or sister come over here, there's gospel food here. There's sweetness here. Come to the place of feeding with me.

I'll help you. We need people to say to us, my friend. You are in danger there. Come on now. You are in danger.

We need signals from 1 to another. Because the ant, although it needs no boss and can get itself out of bed, it depends on other people. So go down to the ant. Consider its way. See how it works, see how it prepares, see how it thrives, see how it depends, Because if we won't do that, then we will come to ruin.

And so second to last point, Go vow to the slug art and see how he falls. Verse 9 to 11, how long will you lie there you slug art? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. And poverty would come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.

In his commentary, Matthew Henry describes him this way. The more of a slothful temper is indulged, the more it prevails. Let him sleep a while and slumber a while. And still, he is in that same tune. Still, he asks for a little more sleep, yet a little more.

He never thinks he has enough. And yet when he is called, he pretends, he will come presently. Thus, men's great work is left undone by being put off. Yet a little longer. At times, spiritual poverty can camp can come upon us very quickly with foolish choices or rash decisions.

It's quite interesting that this teaching on the sluggars comes between 2 sections on adultery in Proverbs. Now why do you think that is? Well when did King David form? When did he commit adultery? When he was lazing around on the rooftops, when he had nothing for his hands to do.

When he didn't put himself to work, he was vulnerable in every other area, rash choice, rash decision. But perhaps more often, This kind of ruin comes on us very slowly. Not with 1 bad choice, not 1 big bad 1. But with a thousand little ones. It's so easy, isn't it, to justify just a little?

Just a little bit more. A little more stream. A little folding of the hands. A little neglect of the soul. A little turning from the word, a little refusal to act.

It's just a little. Just today, just now, not forever, not tomorrow, just a little. And that's how he falls. The opportunities of our life can slip through our fingers just 1 at a time little by little. But the accumulated losses are huge.

The slug art sleeps his way into hell just 1 nap at a time. Little by literal, not today, not now. And so the Bible would say to us today, If you hear God's voice, don't harden your hearts. Today, if you hear God's voice, don't harden your hearts. If the sluggard has shaken us up and if the ant has inspired us, Don't put it off, not even for a little, not even for a day.

Instead, while we can, we must go to Jesus. And that is the last point. Go to the ant, go to the ant, go to the ant, go to the sluggard, go thou to Jesus. Go thou to Jesus, and see how he saves. Jesus Christ was talking about his work all the time.

He said as long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. He said my father is always at his work to this very day. And I too am working. Just think of how he worked in his traveling and his teach and his healing and his miracles. Think of how he worked.

Yes, he rested, he needed to rest. But as long as it was time to work, he worked. Until finally in John 17, he said to I have brought you glory honor by finishing the work that you gave me to do. And what was that great work? It was the work of the cross.

Unlike the disciples, the Lordese Christ didn't go to sleep and get sent to me. He didn't fall asleep, not even for a little. No folding of the hands. No napping, but up working, preparing, praying for this work of the cross, getting ready to take our sins in that place. And in light of this morning, just think how good news that is.

Every selfish fantasy that we've chased. Every good deed that we've ignored, every word that we've neglected, every repentance that we've put off, every doze into unbelief. The Lord Jesus, in his great work on the cross, has paid for them all with his precious blood, so that we might be changed and saved. Thank God, the Lord Jesus wasn't a sluttgart. Hey?

Really? Thank God, he was not a slagard, but went through with his crossword so that we might be saved and changed. And so really at the end of all this, we're left with a we're left with a choice, as we always are with God's word as to how to respond Proverbs 21 25 says the craving of a sluggard will be the death of him. Because his hands refused to work. And although he does chase fantasies, it's almost as if sometimes with the slug art, He does actually desire the right things, but he can't be bothered to make a change.

He can't roll up his sleeves and do anything about it. He craves the assurance of the Christian, but he won't go to Jesus. He craves a clean conscience and a fresh start, but he won't go to Jesus. And so week by week, an hour by hour, he finds reasons not to go to Jesus. And therefore his desires are the death of him.

That's 1 choice. Or we go to Jesus, and we see how he saves, and we see how he works, and we see how he loves us. And we see how we can change us from sluggards in our bed to workers in his field. And we say to him, Lord, save me by your grace. And then lead me in those good works that you have prepared for me.

Lead me in a life of works for your glory. Paul says this last verse in 1 Corinthians 15. The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God. He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And therefore, my dear brothers and sisters stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the Work of the lord because you know that your labor in the lord is not in vain. Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we have victory over our sin and victory over death. And therefore no matter how weak we are or how our labors for the Lord, however small that they are.

They are not done in vain because every Christian and every true church is full of this resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has prepared good works for us to do. We have won the victory in him, Therefore it's put to death all sluggardness and walk in the good works that he has prepared for us. Let's bow our heads and let's pray and ask that God would help us in all of these areas. First, I'll just give you a couple of minutes to pray and you can talk to the Lord about anything that's encouraged you, anything that's convicted you, any sin you feel you want to bring before him, any help that you want to ask for.

A moment to pray and then I'll lead us in the final prayer. Heavenly father. We thank you for the lord Jesus, and we thank you for what an amazing worker he was and is. We thank you that during his time on earth, he was always working, that he was doing the will of you who had sent him in the power of the spirit. That he went around from place to place teaching and loving and healing and changing and bringing judgment with his words.

He was working, working. Until those final moments when he approached his great work, the hour that he had come for, the work of the cross, where he would die for people like us. And lord we confess that very often we have lived more like the sluggard than the that we have not made the most of our opportunities, that we have stayed in bed when we could have been working, that we have left good things undone. That we have needed this constant bossing and managing, that we have not prepared for difficult times, that we have not made the most of the blessings that you've given that we have not invested in other people, but that we have spent most of our time chasing fantasies about ourselves, listening to ourselves, thinking of ourselves, wondering how we might get on better in the world instead of forgetting ourselves in Jesus and belonging to his story. And lord we thank you that the very reason these words are here is to convict us but also to lead us to the place of healing and forgiveness.

In Jesus. We thank you that because of his resurrection, we can give ourselves fully to the work of the laws. With full assurance that not even the smallest deed that is done in his name will be wasted. And so, lord help us to walk in these good works which you prepared for us. Help us to throw away all that is left of the old nature, the old slug art.

Help us to leave him in his bed to crucify him there, to leave him behind and to get up and to walk in wisdom and faith and holiness and to make the most of this gospel age in which we live. And we thank you for all of these things in the name of the lord Jesus. Amen.