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Proverbs 20:4
Good evening, it's a joy to be with you guys this evening. If you have your Bible, please open it with me to the book of Proverbs, Proverbs chapter 20 and verse four. And as you're finding your way there, I just want to read again a line from the psalm that we just sang.
Psalm 126, what a fitting psalm to open us up this evening. Those that sow in tears today at harvest time shall sing. Amen. What a beautiful God inspired song for the saints to sing as our sacrifice of praise.
What we have in Proverbs 20 verse four. In fact, let's just begin this evening with the reading of God's word. And then I want to show you from this text. This is a passage of warning, a passage of awakening for believers, but there is so much to delight in in this passage because as is true for the sluggard here, so we can likewise conclude how much the opposite is true in this passage.
And it's the glorious declaration of Psalm 126, that those who sow in tears today at harvest time shall sing. And may this evening be a time of feasting and delighting in how true and secure that reality is for the one who trusts in Christ.
Proverbs 20 verse four, open in your lap, put your eyes in your Bible and read along with me. This is the very word of God. The sluggard does not plow in the autumn. He will seek at harvest and have nothing.
This is the word of God. This is a passage, a proverb. Proverbs is filled with wisdom. The book of Proverbs is this letter, this instruction from a father to a son, specifically from a king to his son, the heir apparent.
And the entire thing is preparing him, equipping him, and consequently you and I who are believers for his calling. It is filled with exhortations to be wise, to be prudent, to act with diligence. It's filled with warnings not to act like a fool, to observe the ways of the slugger, the slothful, those who are not diligent and to avoid them, to learn from them and to put into practice the opposite.
It's filled with warnings against the woman folly and instructions in how to find an excellent wife. The book of Proverbs is filled with treasures of wisdom and Proverbs chapter 20, verse four is no exception.
Now I confess I did not talk to Nate until this Wednesday. I asked him this Wednesday what passage he came and preached to you guys last week. And when he read me the text, I just hung my head for a moment realizing you guys are gonna think that down in Ecclesia we think you're all sluggards, which is not true.
But this is a passage that is worthy to be taken up and understood and put into practice this evening. This is an exhortation much of this evening will be continuing in what Pastor Nate opened with you last week.
Exhortations unto diligence and warnings against what we have in this passage, the warnings against the hazards and the fruit of sluggardliness. This is a passage that needs to be meditated upon by the saints because of the great dangers in which the church is in today on account of failure here.
This passage, the singular verse that we're looking at is showing us that humility comes before honor. It shows us that the autumn comes before the harvest, that work comes before reward. The Proverbs are beautiful.
The Proverbs are simple. God knows how to illustrate truths in a way that the oldest person in this room down to the youngest person in this room can grasp in a word picture like this so much meaning.
I'm not gonna belabor this evening. We'll look at the text. I wanna make sure that we understand the text, but to spend 40 minutes explaining a passage that is clear would serve against the point. The point of the Proverbs is that these things are sufficiently clear.
Everyone in this room understands what this is saying, what this means, and I wanna spend the bulk of our time asking, well, how do we put this into practice? How do we use a passage like this? How do we properly delight in what a passage like this means in light of the gospel?
And how should you and I who trust in Christ Jesus, what direction should we consequently take? This passage is a defibrillator for sleepy Christians. God sounding the trumpet alarm to wake you up. It's a warning against laziness and consequently an exhortation unto diligent employment in this life.
It is a reminder that work comes before reward. Listen to Wilhelmus A. Brockle, his exhortation from a passage like this. He says, diligence is an ornament to the Christian, and it removes the slanderous accusation which worldly citizens make concerning the godly, that they frequent all church services, catechism lessons, lectures, and meetings, going from one to the other while neglecting their calling, not giving attention to their families and being lazy.
Love, this is an exhortation that you and I need to heed today. Brockle's saying this is a slanderous charge that those outside the church bring upon those who are in the church community, and in our day I fear it's become less and less and less slanderous of a charge.
He's describing professed believers who are so diligent to consume all the things the church has to offer, and yet who are so passive and inactive producers in their vocations the other six days of the week.
What a reproach is brought upon the name of Christ when professed believers are such diligent consumers on Sunday and on Wednesday nights and on Sunday evenings, consumers of all the teaching the church has to offer, and then like the man who looks at himself in the mirror and immediately goes away and forgets, they go back into their six day a week vocations and do not put these things into practice.
The words of Christ Jesus are fitting. Their end will correspond with their deeds. And Proverbs 20 verse four is reminding us to examine ourselves, to look at a passage like this and ask, am I the man?
So look with me, if you have your Bible open, and I wanna firstly just walk through an understanding of this text. What do we have in Proverbs 20 verse four? Look in your own Bible, and I just wanna go bit by bit through this passage.
It opens up with the identification of the man. God calls him the sluggard, with which we have God's verdict before he ever describes what this man does. God's not as polite as you and I often are. He has a tendency to call things like they are, especially when you and I need to be awakened by applications like this.
God calls the man the sluggard. Sluggard, or it could be translated the lazy man, the slothful man. This is the identification of the man. But then Proverbs 20 verse four goes on to show us the inaction of this man.
The sluggard does not plow, which is to say it's the job of the farmer to put his hand to the plow and to go out into the field and plow the ground. This man does not take the work that has been assigned to him.
He doesn't put his hand to the plow. Nextly, Proverbs 20, chapter 20, verse four shows us the time of his inaction. It's in the autumn, or your translation may have in the winter. The point is it's in the time when plowing should be happening.
For whatever reason, it doesn't tell us why he's not out there plowing in the season to be plowing. Maybe it's because he reasons that it's cold outside and it would be more convenient to plow in the spring when things warm up.
But we're shown the time of his inaction. He is not doing the work he should be doing in the time that he should be doing it. But it continues to show us what the expectation of this man is. Proverbs 20, verse four tells us he will seek.
He will inquire, he will beg, which is to say that when everyone else is receiving the reward for their work, the man is looking for his reward. He has an expectation that he will receive right alongside what everyone else receives, even though he's been inactive.
This verse shows us the time of his expectation. It's at the harvest, the season for reaping the fruit of labor, the season for plants to grow after the ground has been plowed and they've been planted in the ground.
He looks right along with everyone else. And then Proverbs 20, verse four concludes with this man's reward. He will seek at harvest and have nothing. Beloved, this is a warning. A passage like this to be opened up and read by the saints on the Lord's day, this is a passage to wake us up, to remember that there is a harvest coming.
There is a day where rewards will be dispensed out and the end will correspond with the deeds. This is a reminder that humility comes before honor. Before the honor, before the enjoying of fruits, there is a humility, a humbling yourself and doing the work that is assigned to you that comes first.
Autumn comes before harvest and work comes before reward. This is the doctrine I wanna spend the rest of our time looking at and opening with you this evening, that work comes before reward. And this is true in two senses.
Work comes before reward in the sense of causation, which is to say most particularly of the Lord Jesus, that Christ Jesus had work to perform in order to merit a reward. And I wanna spend half our time this evening just examining the work that was apportioned out to the hand of the Lord Jesus and why it is in Psalm 26, that those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy.
Why is that reward so secure for believers like you and I who have so much reason to take conviction from a proverb like this? But it is secondly true by way of correlation and that believers, those who trust in Christ Jesus alone for their reward.
Believers likewise have work to do now before they enjoy their reward. In both senses, the proverb is true. Work comes before reward. But firstly, I want to open with you how true this is for the Lord Jesus.
Jesus had work to perform before enjoying his reward. This is not what the scriptures open to us everywhere. And the promises in the Old Testament, the prophets and all the things they declared about him, the testimony of the apostles and how significant it was what Christ had done.
Christ had a work apportioned out to him by his father and he was faithful in it. And because he was faithful and obedient in every minute respect, in this lies the hope and confidence of a believer's reward.
Jesus had work to perform before enjoying his reward. And I wanna open this to you in six points of instruction for the delight and comfort of believers, which is to say just examining how Christ put his hand to the plow with diligence and what reward was promised to him.
Points of instruction, this is true, but truths that are for your great delight and comfort. Firstly, Jesus humbled himself before his exaltation. As the sluggard fails to humble himself, he wants his comforts now, he wants his rewards now.
So on account of the cold, he does not go out and plow and yet he still expects his reward. Christ Jesus is not like the sluggard. Christ humbles himself before his exaltation. This is the testimony of Philippians chapter two, verses five through 11.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. Saying he's not clinging on to his fellowship with the Godhead in glory, but he is willing to release that.
He's not ceasing to become God, but he is willing to depart from that exaltation that he had in glory in order to humble himself. But emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Jesus humbled himself. Jesus humbled himself beneath the mighty hand of God, trusting the Father to be faithful in that covenant of redemption to give him everything that he promised. But the promise of an offspring, the promise of a nation and a kingdom that would expand and fill this whole world was conditioned upon work.
Not work for you to perform or for me to perform, but work for your representative, the covenant head in the new covenant to perform. And what Philippians chapter two is showing us is that Christ as a covenant head did what Adam did not.
Christ as a covenant head did what you and I never would have done. He was obedient in every single respect perfectly, even to the point of death on the cross. And for this reason, he has been highly exalted.
He has received his reward and all who trust in him have this man to represent them. His righteousness for theirs, his reward for them. Our guilt laid upon him and his punishment received in his body in our place.
Jesus humbled himself before his exaltation. But see in delight secondly, that Jesus, even as a boy, the God man was born and went through every stage of life. And in his boyhood, in the autumn of his life, Jesus grew in wisdom and stature.
Jesus, just like you children in the room tonight, at one point in time, Jesus was your age. With a body your size, with strength of your capacity, with a mind to grasp the limitations of what your mind can grasp.
This is the hypostatic union that's beyond our fathoming, but in Christ's humanity, he truly was man. And as man, he did what God intrinsically does not do. He grew, he grew in his understanding. He applied himself to the reading of the word, the searching out of these truths in order to prepare himself for his vocation.
Jesus learned in the scriptures. This is what we have in Luke chapter two, verse 52. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature in favor with God and man. If the scriptures didn't declare this, this would be borderline blasphemous.
God is infinite, eternal and unchangeable in his being. God does not learn, God does not change, God does not increase in any respect. And yet when God truly became man in the person of Christ Jesus, he grew.
In his being, his body, he is no longer in bound or unlimited by time and by space. But in his body, he is somewhere. Right now in his glory, he is somewhere. Bodily, reigning upon his throne. And so it was in his childhood.
And as a child, he redeemed the autumn of his life, preparing for his vocation. This is why I believe we have such beautiful evidences of the knowledge that Jesus Christ had of the scriptures. Not simply because he's the son of God who knows and inspired this entire book, but because he spent the autumn of his life studying the scriptures.
And he might know what his calling was, why he was here on this earth and what he was to do. It was sufficiently revealed in the Bible. And as a boy, Jesus dedicated himself to grow, to grow in wisdom, to grow in stature.
He was filling his mind with Bible and he was practicing his vocation so that he could go out and serve in his ministry as a grown man. This is why we have so little recorded in the scriptures of his childhood.
Because Christ Jesus was preparing for his ministry. And when he went forth, he was well-equipped. Children, you children that are in the room, delight in that reality. Did you know that at one time, Jesus was your age?
That Jesus knows what it's like to be tempted, to throw a temper tantrum, and he never did it. Jesus knows what it's like to have a brain that cannot grasp everything that your parents can grasp. The temptation to be distracted and to struggle to pay attention, Jesus knows what that's like.
And yet he spent his younger years studying the scripture, growing in wisdom, growing in stature, growing stronger and physically growing his skills so that he could perform the work the Lord had assigned to him.
And this is an excellent example of how you should be redeeming these younger years. Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature. But thirdly, we see in his riper years that Jesus worked diligently. Jesus prepared for his vocation and his youth.
And when Jesus became a fully grown man, he put his hand to the plow. The time for preparation had ended and the time for work had begun. And Christ Jesus worked diligently. This is what we have in John chapter nine, verse four.
We must work the word. We must work the works of him who sent me. This is Christ Jesus speaking. While it is day, night is coming when no one can work. Listen to John Flavel commenting upon a passage like this, just detailing how diligently Christ is shown to us as a worker in the scriptures.
He says, Christ carried on his work for God resolvedly. No discouragements would beat him off, though never any work met with more from first to last. How did scribes and Pharisees, Jews, Gentiles, yea, devils set upon him by persecutions and reproaches, violent oppositions and subtle temptations.
But yet he goes on with his father's work for all that. He is deaf to all discouragements. So it was foretold of him, Isaiah 42, verse four. He shall not fail nor be discouraged. Oh, that more of this spirit of Christ were in his people.
Oh, that in the strength of love to Christ and zeal for the glory of God, you will pour out your hearts in service and like a river sweep down all discouragements before you. Look at what a worker Christ was.
How many times is it pictured to us in the gospels that Christ rose early to pray? Because his day was so filled with the teaching of the multitudes that would come to him. And thereafter he's having to explain his teaching to his disciples in private.
Christ rose early in the morning so that he could fulfill his priestly office and offer up prayers for the people because he had no other time in the day. Christ was early to rise. Christ was late to bed.
Christ was met by every discouragement in between and how he presses on in the work that was assigned to him. Christ is working so diligently that we have pictured Christ fast asleep on a boat out at sea in the middle of a storm.
Christ is so exhausted by his employment in his body that he's passed out while a storm is raging at sea. Christ was a diligent laborer. And beloved for your delight, I say just remember what work was apportioned out to him.
What is he diligently laboring in? He's laboring not simply to teach the people they had the scriptures, but he's laboring to fulfill all righteousness. This is why Christ does not grow discouraged because he knows as a covenant head and representative for sinners like you and me, it was necessary for him to press on, to announce the kingdom of God and to teach and equip his disciples to continue to carry that message out.
That it was necessary for him to fulfill all righteousness in every respect so that through faith that might be accounted to you and accounted to me. So that Christ could stand as a man, not guilty and yet condemned.
And no one mistake that he stood condemned in my place and in your place, believer. This is the work that was apportioned out to Christ Jesus and he labored diligently in it. But fourthly, Jesus not only prepared in his youth and worked diligently throughout his ministry, but when he knew his time was drawing short, Jesus prepared his disciples for his death.
Which is to say Christ had his eyes fixed upon that harvest that was promised to him. A harvest that would not be reaped in the 33 years that he walked on this earth in his humility. Christ had his eyes fixed on a harvest that would transcend his 33 years of life on earth.
And he prepared his disciples for his death. For this reason, because more was promised and would be accomplished in the 33 years of his life. Jesus prepared his disciples diligently for his death. This is about a third of the book of John.
It's Jesus's final hours on earth preparing his disciples that his time is short and what they are to expect and what they are to do thereafter. We have a glimpse in John chapter 16, verses four through seven, Jesus speaking, but I've said these things to you that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told them to you.
I did not say these things to you from the beginning because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me. And none of you ask, where are you going? But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. Christ is saying God through you is going to do things far greater than what is being accomplished through the preaching ministry of Christ Jesus in the 33 years he walks on the earth.
And we have such an abundant display of that on Pentecost. When this man, Peter, who is depicted as a coward towards the ends of the gospels, stands up, proclaims the word of God and 3000 are pierced to the heart in a single day.
Christ had his eyes fixed upon a harvest, a harvest that required delayed gratification, a harvest that required him to humble himself, a harvest that required diligent labors, even though the external condition was hard and Christ pressed on in it.
Christ had his eyes fixed upon a harvest that would not be reaped and enjoyed until after his death. And so he prepared those men who would live after his crucifixion to continue to labor for that harvest.
Jesus, fifthly, doesn't stop his diligent labors at the cross, but Jesus continues to work even now in his exalted glory. A slugger does not plow in the autumn. He will seek at harvest and have nothing.
Christ Jesus, by contrast, even after his exaltation is still diligent and work. First Corinthians 15, verses 24 through 25. Then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God the father after destroying every rule and every authority and power, for he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
This is what Christ Jesus is doing right now, even in his glory. Christ had a body prepared for him by his father, a body that was capable of doing something he was not capable of doing before he became man.
A body that was capable of suffering, a body that was capable of shedding blood and Christ Jesus in that body is obedient in his work to the point of death on a cross. And what does he cry out on the cross?
When the work is finished, he says, father into your hands, I commit my spirit. A body you have prepared for me and a body I have used unto the end you appointed for me and father, I commit my finished work into your hands.
And what first Corinthians 15, verse 24 and 25 is saying is that God the father has done it again. All authority in heaven and on earth has been entrusted to Christ Jesus. And it's been entrusted to him just as his body was for an appointed end, not so that he may suffer, not so that he may die on a cross again.
He died once for all for the salvation and forgiveness of his people, but all rule and authority has been entrusted to him so that he might reign, so that he might reign not in the future, but so that he might reign from the moment of his ascension, from the moment of being established at the right hand of God in heaven, he might reign until all of his enemies are placed beneath his feet.
The sword from his mouth conquering the nations, the sword from his mouth piercing the hearts of those in this room, taking you and making the enemies of God, his loyal and faithful worshipers. And Christ says, when he finishes that work, he will entrust it back to God, his father.
As Christ was faithful in his humiliation, so does Christ continue to labor and so will Christ be faithful in his exaltation. As Christ was faithful in every respect, even obedience to the point of death on a cross, Christ must reign and he will not cease the activity of reigning and conquering until he delivers the completed kingdom back to God, his father.
Why have so many years passed since the resurrection of Christ? Peter tells us it is because he desires all to come to repentance. He delays, time passes on, it seems like the promise is long in coming, but Christ says he is not done saving people yet.
That's why there's power in the ministry of the gospel. This is why there's power in the simple, plain proclamation of God's word from inefficient vessels like me, because Jesus isn't done conquering his enemies.
He's not done leading those who once had the father, their devil, he's not done leading them in triumphant procession before this world to show those who were once my enemies now love my commands and follow me.
Christ had work to do in his humiliation, Christ has work to do in his glory, and Jesus still puts his hand to the plow. But sixthly, see that Jesus will enjoy his reward. The sluggard looks and he finds nothing, but Christ Jesus will look and see and have every last detail of what was promised to him.
Isaiah 53, verses 10 through 11. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days.
The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
Oh, beloved, behold your representative. Christ Jesus has been given as head to the church. Just as Adam was once your representative who failed and his guilt imputed to you, so the scriptures say that in exactly the same way, Christ, over his posterity, all who were born again, Christ stands as a covenant head over the church.
His righteousness stands for yours, beloved, that your guilt was laid upon him and he was crushed for it. And Isaiah 53 is declaring long before Christ ever walked to the earth, that if Jesus is obedient in every respect, then he shall see his offspring.
He shall see and be satisfied. He shall make by this means many to be accounted righteous. And this is your and my only hope. It's not in your works or what you can merit by your good deeds, but it is grounded in works, the work of Christ Jesus.
This is how secure a believer's inheritance is. Your inheritance depends upon the perfect obedience of a man who cannot disobey. Your inheritance depends upon the diligent labors of a man who is depicted everywhere.
He puts his hand to the plow and he never looks back. His reward is to have sinners like you and me brought to him as his possession for all eternity. And for what seems to you and to me, like such a small reward, Christ takes it joyfully.
Christ labors faithfully, and a believer will not be separated from their reward because a believer is the reward and inheritance given to Christ Jesus. For a believer to be separated from Christ Jesus and to lose their inheritance would be for the father to be unfaithful in his promise to the son.
For Christ Jesus to labor and to do everything held out to him in the covenant of redemption and for the father to fail to reward him accordingly. Christ Jesus shall see his offspring. His days shall be prolonged.
His hand shall prosper. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. Which is to say when Christ looks upon his inheritance, he doesn't look upon you and I and grumble at how much we continue to stumble and sin, at how weak we are, at how cowardly we often are, at how sluggardly you and I too often are.
But the delight of this passage is that Christ sees and he's satisfied. Christ says it is worth it. That should be a mystery beyond all other mysteries that Christ could look upon a people like you and I and be satisfied with what his blood acquired.
But Christ is. And if Christ has been faithful in every respect, he will have his reward. This is the first for instruction, for comfort, for delight. Jesus had work to perform before enjoying his reward and Jesus performed his work and he will enjoy his reward.
But what we must likewise take from a passage like this is instruction, directions and exhortation for how you and I live and offer our reasonable service and response. But firstly, we looked at Jesus and the work he had to perform.
And now secondly, I want to look with you at the reality that believers likewise must work before they're receiving their award. Christ had his work to perform to merit the reward. You and I do not merit any reward by our works.
Christ secured that. But I have exhortations here to those for whom Christ has secured a reward because Christ has apportioned out to the same work for you and I to do before we enter into the full possession of it.
Believers likewise must work temporally before, in time before, receiving their reward. What follows are seven exhortations for those whom Christ has secured a reward. And the first exhortation is to humble yourself now and wait patiently for your exaltation.
Humble yourself now and wait patiently for God to exalt you. Question, did Jesus humble himself? Did Jesus humble himself to the dirt? Not just humbled himself to take upon himself our nature. That would be low enough for him to come down and to be the most exalted king and prince upon this earth.
That would have been a great humiliation for the eternal son of God to do. But he went further. He humbled himself, taking the form of a servant, a man who wandered around with no place to lay his head.
Did Christ humble himself? Then arm yourself with the same way of thinking. May you and I never, ever look upon a task as beneath us. May you and I never look upon something as too lowly an assignment for us to perform.
If Christ humbles himself as low as he humbled himself, may his followers likewise rejoice to have any assignment in God's kingdom at all. This is the exhortation of 1 Peter 5, verse six. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time, he may exalt you.
This is what the Christian life requires. Humbling yourself. It's not your job or my job to secure the reward. It is not your job or my job to use wisdom or to navigate what way you think is best to exalt yourself.
The exhortation is leave that to God. God is the one who exalts, and God will exalt his beloved ones at the appointed time. What is left for you and I to do is to humble yourself beneath the mighty hand of God.
An acknowledgement that by his mighty hand, he governs everything. And in his word, he has sufficiently revealed what marching orders you and I have to do what God commands, even when it seems like it will cost you, even when it seems like there would be a better time later to be obedient in these things.
That's how the sluggard reasons. Wouldn't it be better? Wouldn't it be more convenient and comfortable for me to plow in the spring when it's not so cold outside? But the command is to take up the work that is assigned to you and to perform it in the time that God grants to you beneath his mighty hand.
Brockel likewise exhorts us, asking, who is lazy, he who is without work. For a diligent person will always find work. A lazy person complains that there is no work, for he cannot tolerate work. He has conducted himself in such a manner that no one wishes to have him in his employ, nor give him any work.
He has conducted himself in such a manner that no one wishes to have him in his employ, nor give him any work. He avoids opportunities to work. And if a position opens up, he excuses his idleness by saying, I can't work there.
However, a diligent person seeks and finds work. If the one thing does not work out, he tries something else. Here's a practical direction for you. You have one life to live. So much time has been wasted already, so little time yet remains.
And what remains, redeem it for the glory of God. Your work may not be very exalted. You may have a very lowly assignment, an assignment scoffed at and looked down on upon others. But if this is the work the Lord has assigned to you, then do it with cheerfulness.
Yes, labor diligently for his glory. I think believers who have the lowest assignment in this world have the greatest opportunity to glorify God. Because nothing manifests how excellent of a sovereign and a king the Lord Jesus is, like his most menial servants carrying out their task with great joy.
The Queen of Sheba, when she came, she marveled at Solomon's household. That even the cupbearer, someone whose assignment was to carry Solomon's cup to him, even he stood in his place with his neck held high.
And the Queen of Sheba marveled, what a king must this man be for his servants to serve him and to sit at his feet so cheerfully. And likewise, what glory is ascribed to the king of kings when even the lowest of his servants serve in such a manner.
Let no assignment be beneath you. If you are without work in the providence of the Lord, don't sit idly by refusing everything that comes before you, waiting for a more exalted condition and station and job that is worthy of your excellencies.
But humble yourself. In all toil, there's profit. But the sluggard will be put to forced labor. Just to say the man who sits idly by will eventually be forced to work and job that he does not like. But the cheerful and the joyful Christian says, whatever work my Lord has provided, I will take it up.
With cheerfulness, I will labor in it and ascribe him glory. Work profitably unto his glory. Did Christ Jesus humble himself? He did. My exhortation to you is then likewise, humble yourself now and be patient and wait for the Lord to exalt you.
Secondly, to those, especially in the autumn of life, you who are younger in this room, possibly still under your parents' household, under your parents' roof, you who have, if the Lord wills, another 60, 70, 80, 90 years to live.
I say to you, redeem this time, preparing for your vocation. As the Lord Jesus redeemed his early years, preparing for his vocation. Likewise, to every one of you, but to you especially who are in the autumn of life, spend this time preparing for your vocation.
By that, I don't mean dreaming about what you wanna be when you grow up. Dreaming's okay. Thinking about what you wanna be when you grow up is okay, but preparation requires practice. It means right now, you who are in the early, the autumn years of your life, redeem this time reading your Bibles diligently.
That you would be filled with God's wisdom. That you would know and understand your own assignment. Jesus had his assignment from the Lord, and so likewise, will you have yours. And study diligently to understand what it is the Lord Jesus has put you on this earth to do.
Study and ask, seek the help of your parents to discern what God has made you good at. And use these early years to practice it, to work and to work diligently, to grow your strength, to grow your stature, to grow your ability to offer a contribution that is a blessing to others.
Use these early years. Children, you can ask so many of us in this room, it is so easy to squander these early years and to think of them as insignificant. But I cannot press upon you enough, children, how important this time is right now.
If you will redeem this time now to grow in wisdom, to grow in your understanding of the wondrous things the Lord has done, and to practice and grow your skills now, it will be a blessing unto you for the rest of your lives.
And may we as church communities like this help these little ones to that end. To you who are not, maybe you don't feel like you're in the autumn of life, but I would just ask you to consider if the Lord should grant you the length of life that he grants to so many others, consider not simply the time that you have wasted, but potentially how much time yet remains for you.
It's easy to look and to regret things you did not take advantage of in your early years. But just imagine what fruits could still come out in your life if you set about with resolve now to apply yourself to such disciplines.
Those in the autumn of life, I say to you, as the Lord Jesus prepared, prepare for your vocation. This is 1 Corinthians 7, 17. Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him and to which God has called him.
This is my rule in all the churches. An exhortation again from Wilhelmus A. Brockle. Brockle's hard on the lazy man. A lazy person is afraid of work. He fiddles around, walks to and fro, surveys his tasks before he begins, and if neither necessity would compel him nor shame would pressure him, he would refrain from working.
At one time there is this obstacle and again another. Then it is either too hot or too cold. The tools are not adequate or the supplies are deficient. He believes that there will not be time to do the task and he will do it at a later time.
When he lies upon his bed or walks about idly, he will form a conception of his work and contemplate how it ought to be done. Then he will contemplate how desirable the advantages are which proceed from diligence.
He resolves to engage himself as such to be courageously undertake the task. It is as if he already did the work. However, when the time is there, he cannot get himself to do it. When the sluggard actually does work, it is impossible to observe him without abhorrence.
It is as if his legs drag behind him, as if his legs sank into the earth up to his knees and as if all he touched was tar and thus cleaved to his hands. He will carefully examine what he is working on, change his position in various ways, will fit it, measure it again and will stroke it once more and thus time passes on.
In the meantime, he will even insist upon double wages. Beloved, may it not be so with you and I. Preparation doesn't mean thinking about the work while your hands lay idly by, but put your hand to the plow and work with diligence.
If you're underpaid, be underpaid. And for the glory of God, redeem the time serving unto him and acquiring all the skills that you can. Especially you or who are younger, learn that. Your first job doesn't need to pay career wages, but in your early employments, whether practicing chores in the home or going outside of the home, take jobs where you can acquire skills and grow in stature and may, and remember that the autumn comes before the harvest.
Thirdly, my third exhortation to you is put your hand to the plow. Redeem the early years as the Lord Jesus did, but likewise look at how diligently he worked throughout his entire ministry and likewise put your hand to the plow, whatever work the Lord has assigned to you.
Luke chapter nine, verse 62. Jesus said to him, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back. This is saying those who come to Christ Jesus for their forgiveness, those who come to him and want him as a priest must likewise take him as their king.
And when Christ assigns work, when Christ puts a plow in your hand, the man who takes it up and looks at it and considers, will Christ Jesus really be faithful to reward this? He looks back to consider, is this work going to be rewarded?
He looks back and says, is this work really worth it? Christ says, the man who looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God. A Christian is a diligent and cheerful laborer. Someone who fixes their eyes on Christ Jesus and knows he is faithful.
No matter how everyone else in this world may fail you, my master in heaven is faithful and he will reward. No matter how difficult my assignment is, no matter how hard the conditions are in which I have to perform my assignment, it's worth it.
The work portioned out to me does not compare with the reward and the inheritance that is kept secure for me in heaven. Beloved, the sluggard looks. At the winter, he looks at the cold and says, now is not the time.
And at the harvest, he will look and have nothing. For those who are born again of the spirit have the plow put into their hands and they press on, looking to Christ Jesus, finding strength in hard conditions and in hard labors to press on by looking to Christ Jesus and remembering he is faithful.
He is faithful and he will reward. John Flavel, you must work as well as Christ, though not for the same ends Christ did. He worked hard to satisfy the law by fulfilling all righteousness. He worked all his life long to work out a righteousness to justify you before God.
This work falls to no hand but Christ's, but you must work to obey the commands of Christ and whose right you come by redemption. You must work to testify your thankfulness to Christ for the work finished for you.
You must work to glorify God by your obedience. Let your light so shine before men for these and diverse other such ends and reasons, your life must be a working life. Don't confuse the work that has been apportioned out to Christ and to Christ alone.
But likewise, don't confuse that work is apportioned out to every believer. I say to you, put your hand to the plow with joy and do not look back. A fourth exhortation, prepare your children for your death.
Prepare your children for your death. Did Christ Jesus prepare his disciples for his death? Was Christ Jesus looking to a harvest that would not be reaped until after his 33 years of ministry on this earth?
And I say, likewise, lift your eyes higher than simply what's going to happen in your lifetime. Equip your children to glorify the Lord long after you are gone. This is the exhortation from Deuteronomy four, verse nine.
Only take care and keep your soul diligently as you forget the things that your eyes have seen unless they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children.
This is part of the work that has been assigned to you and I is not simply to perform our work in our lifetime, but to prepare the generation that will live after us to continue to labor diligently for the Lord, to continue to ascribe glory to the Lord.
It's your job and my job to labor so that the Lord still receives the worship that is due his name after everyone in this room is dead and gone. As Christ prepared his disciples for what would come after his death, likewise, I say to everyone in this room, prepare the coming generation for the harvest that will not be reaped in your lifetime.
Fifth exhortation, proclaim the gospel.
Proclaim the gospel.
Proclaim the gospel. Does Christ Jesus work in his glory? Is Christ still saving people? Is Christ still seeing and being satisfied as sinners are granted repentance and brought to him willingly? Then go out in this confidence, proclaiming the gospel in whatever sphere God has put you in.
In your workplace, in your home with your children, here in this body, continually proclaim the excellencies of what Christ has done. Call people to repentance. Call them to receive and to rest upon the Lord Jesus because Christ Jesus sits upon his throne and he's still working.
The sword which proceeds from his mouth is still every single day piercing new hearts and growing his kingdom. The kingdom is not yet completed or else he would have delivered it up to God his father.
Christ is still building and in this confidence we go. Proclaim the gospel because Christ works diligently in his glory. Sixthly, sixth exhortation, trust in the Lord of the harvest and labor for his reward.
Trust in the Lord of the harvest and labor for that reward which was promised to him. Matthew 9, 36 through 38, when he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.
Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Beloved, will Christ Jesus enjoy his reward for all eternity?
Then in this confidence, trust him. Believers will seek and be satisfied because of what Christ has done. Believers will sow in tears, but they will reap with shouts of joy because of what Christ has done.
And Christ says to you and to I to go out into the harvest, proclaiming his gospel. Christ says to you and I to trust him, to pray to the Lord of the harvest that more laborers would be raised up and sent out because Christ has not yet looked upon the fullness of his offspring.
He has more to bring into his household, more to bring into his kingdom. So trust him and go forth in that confidence that no matter how hard the hearts are before you, how impossible it is to convert men in your own strength, Christ by the simple proclamation of his word is not done doing it.
Trust in the Lord of the harvest and labor for his reward. And seventh and finally, rejoice. Rejoice because believers will seek at harvest and be filled with endless joy. The slugger does not plow in the autumn.
He will seek at harvest and have nothing. But Christ says that his people will labor. Christ says that he in their place has labored and they will seek at harvest and be filled with endless joy. First Corinthians 15 verses 20 and 21.
But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. Paul is teaching something here that requires you and I to know our Bibles.
Christ is saying, Paul is saying that Christ's resurrection, it's the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. When Christ came, he didn't come and abolish the law, but he did abolish the law as it was expressed in ordinances.
Which means when you and I read through the book of Leviticus and we see all of these feast days, these holidays that were prescribed, that you and I don't observe anymore, there's something instructive in them for us.
Because all of these things were shadows which point to the substance that Christ has now fulfilled. One in particular, we have in Leviticus chapter 23 verses nine through 11. And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the people of Israel and say to them, when you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord so that you may be accepted.
On the day after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it. Here is a holiday abolished by Christ Jesus because he has fulfilled it. This was a holiday in which the first gleanings of the harvest were to be brought and waved by the priest in the sight of all the people.
At the time of harvest, the first fruits would be offered to the Lord and the priest would wave it before the people. All the people looking and saying, just as surely as that sheaf has been harvested, so will we all soon enjoy the fruits of the harvest.
And God appointed this holiday to be observed on the Sunday, the first day of the week, after the Sabbath of Passover week, the day our Lord raised from the grave. And Paul says, Christ's resurrection, it is the first fruits of a harvest believer.
When you look at the resurrection of Christ, it's like that priest waving the sheaf in the air, like the people looking upon that sheaf and saying, just as that priest holds that, so will we all likewise enjoy of the same in such a short time.
And Paul says, look at the resurrected body of Christ Jesus, because all who come to him in faith will likewise with certainty enjoy of the same. As Christ, his sacrifice was accepted by the father and the father raised him from the ground, so does Christ promise to all believers that he will likewise command their bodies and raise them up on the last day.
This is why believers can sow in tears and yet press on, because Christ has already been resurrected. And as the first fruits have already been announced and declared, so likewise is the harvest, the reward and the fruits secured for all who believe.
To that end, let us pray and thank the Lord.
