Note That Well

27 Saturday Oct 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in Charles Spurgeon, Matthew, Preaching, Service

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Charles Spurgeon, Charles Spurgeon, courage, Laziness, Matthew, Matthew 11:28, Preaching, rest, Self-denial, Service, Sluggard

Spurgeon on January 8, 1871 (collected sermons, volume 17), preached the sermon, “Rest, Rest” on Matthew 11:28, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavily laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

In that sermon, he explains that the rest promised by Christ is not the rest of laziness, of being a sluggard. In some very important ways, the life of the Christian is supernaturally difficult. It is a rest from one’s sin and shame, but it is a bearing of the cross:

Further observe that the rest in this second part of our text is a rest in service. It is coupled with a yoke, for activity — ”Take my yoke;” it is connected with a burden, for endurance — ”My burden is light.” He who is a Christian will not find rest in being idle. There is no unrest greater than that of the sluggard. If you would rest take Christ’s yoke, be actively engaged in his service. As the bullock has the yoke put upon its neck and then begins to draw, so have the yoke of Christ put on your neck and commence to obey him. The rest of heaven is not the rest of sleep; they serve him day and night in his temple. They are always resting, and yet, in another sense, they rest not day nor night. Holy activity in heaven is perfect rest. True rest to the mind of the child of God is rest on the wing, rest in motion, rest in service, not rest with the yoke off, but, with the yoke on. We are to enter upon this service voluntarily; we are to take his yoke upon us voluntarily. You observe, it does not say, “Bear my yoke when it is laid upon you, but take it.” Do not need to be told by the minister, “My dear brother, such-and-such a work you are bound to do,” but take up the yoke of your own accord. Do not merely submit to be the Lord’s servant, but seek his service. Ask, “What can I do?” Be desirous to do it; voluntarily, cheerfully, do all that lieth in you for the extension of his kingdom who has given you rest, and you shall find that the rest of your soul shall lie in your doing all you can for Jesus. Every active Christian will tell you he is never happier than when he has much to do; and, on the whole, if he communes with Jesus, never more at rest than when he has least leisure. Look not for your rest in the mere enjoyments and excitements of religion, but find your rest in wearing a yoke which you love, and which, for that reason, is easy to your neck.

But, my dear brother, you must also be willing to bear Christ’s burden. Now the burden of Christ is his cross, which every Christian must take up. Expect to be reproached, expect to meet with some degree of the scandal of the cross, for the offense of it never ceases. Persecution and reproach are a blessed burden; when your soul loves Jesus it is a light thing to suffer for him, and, therefore, never by any cowardly retirement or refusal to profess your faith, evade your share of this honorable load. Woe unto those who say, “I will never be a martyr.” No rest is sweeter than the martyr’s rest. Woe unto those who say, “We will go to heaven by night along a secret road, and so avoid the shame of the cross.” The rest of the Christian is found not in cowardice but in courage; it lies not in providing for ease but in the brave endurance of suffering for the truth. The restful spirit counts the reproach of Christ to be greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt; he falls in love with the cross, and counts the burden light, and so finds rest in service, and rest in suffering. Note that well.

Arrant Sluggards

21 Sunday Oct 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in Biblical Counseling, Charles Spurgeon, Discipleship, Numbers, Service

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Biblical Counseling, Charles Spurgeon, Charles Spurgeon, Discipleship, evangelism, Numbers, Numbers 32:23, Preaching, Service, Sluggard

On August 5, 1886, Charles Spurgeon preached the sermon, “The Great Sin of Doing Nothing” (it is in volume 32, sermon no. 1916). In that sermon he speaks of the one attends service on Sunday, who drinks up the good of the Church and yet gives no service in return. However, in considering his rebuke, pay attention to the manner in which he defines the work to be done:

“But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the Lord: and be sure your sin will find you out.” — Numbers 32:23.

Alas, the tribe of Reuben is not dead, and the tribe of Gad has not passed away! Many who are of the household of faith are equally indisposed to exertion, equally fond of ease. Hear them say, “Thank God we are safe! We have passed from death unto life. We have named the name of Christ; we are washed in his precious blood, and therefore we are secure.” Then, with a strange inconsistency, they permit the evil of the flesh to crave carnal ease, and they cry, “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” Spiritual self-indulgence is a monstrous evil; yet we see it all around. On Sunday these loafers must be well fed. They look out for such sermons as will feed their souls. The thought does not occur to these people that there is something else to be done besides feeding. Soul-saving is pushed into the background. The crowds are perishing at their gates; the multitudes with their sins defile the air; the age is getting worse and worse, and man, by a process of evolution, is evolving a devil; and yet these people want pleasant things preached to them. They eat the fat and drink the sweet, and they crowd to the feast of fat things full of marrow, and of wines on the lees well refined — spiritual festivals are their delight: sermons, conferences, Bible-readings, and so forth, are sought after, but regular service in ordinary ways is neglected. Not a hand’s turn will they do. They gird on no armor, they grasp no sword, they wield no sling, they throw no stone. No, they have gotten their possession; they know they have, and they sit down in carnal security, satisfied to do nothing. They neither work for life, nor from life: they are arrant sluggards, as lazy as they are long. Nowhere are they at home except where they can enjoy themselves, and take things easy. They love their beds, but the Lord’s fields they will neither plough nor reap. This is the sin pointed out in the text — “If ye do not go forth to the battles of the Lord, and contend for the Lord God and for his people, ye do sin against the Lord: and be sure your sin will find you out.” The sin of doing nothing is about the biggest of all sins, for it involves most of the others. The sin of sitting still while your brethren go forth to war breaks both tables of the law, and has in it a huge idolatry of self, which neither allows love to God or man. Horrible idleness! God save us from it!

This sin may be viewed under another aspect, as selfishness and unbrotherliness. Gad and Reuben ask to have their inheritance at once, and to make themselves comfortable in Bashan, on this side Jordan. What about Judah, Levi, Simeon, Benjamin, and all the rest of the tribes? How are they to get their inheritance? They do not care, but it is evident that Bashan is suitable for themselves with their multitude of cattle. Some of them reply, “You see, they must look to themselves, as the proverb hath it, ’Every man for himself, and God for us all.’” Did I not hear some one in the company say, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” I know that gentleman. I heard his voice years ago. His name is Cain, and I have this to say to him: it is true that he is not his brother’s keeper, but he is his brother’s killer. Every man is either the keeper of his brother, or the destroyer of his brother. Soul-murder can be wrought without an act or even a will; it can be, and is constantly, accomplished by neglect. Yonder perishing heathen — does not the Lord enquire, “Who slew all these?” The millions of this city unevangelized — who is guilty of their blood? Are not idle Christians starving the multitude by refusing to hand out the bread of life? Is not this a grievous sin?

The Sluggard is not Right

20 Saturday Oct 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in Charles Spurgeon, Preaching

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Charles Spurgeon, Charles Spurgeon, Preaching, Proverbs, Righteousnses, Sluggard

Note then, first of all, that a slothful man is the opposite of a righteous man. In the text they are set in opposition. “The way of the slothful man” is placed in contrast, not with the way of the diligent man, but with “the way of the righteous “; as if to show that the slothful man is the very opposite of being a righteous man. A sluggard is not a righteous man, and he cannot be, he misses a main part of rightness. It is very seldom that a sluggard is honest: he owes at least more labor to the world than he pays. He is guilty of sins of omission, for he fails in obedience to one of the laws laid upon manhood since the fall: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.” He aspires to eat his bread without earning it: he would, if he could, eat bread for nought, or eat the bread for which others toil, and this verges upon coveting and stealing, and generally leads up to one or both of these sins. The sluggard evades the common law of society; and equally does he offend against the rule which our apostle promulgated in the church: “If any would not work, neither should he eat.” The sluggard is not righteous, for he does not render to God according to the strength lent to him, nor to man according to the work assigned him. A slothful man is a soldier who would let others fight the battle of life while he lies under the baggage-wagon asleep, until rations are served out. He is a husbandman who only husbands his own strength, and would eat the grapes while others trim the vines. He would, if possible, be carried on his bed into the kingdom of heaven; he is much too great a lover of ease to go on pilgrimage over rough and weary ways. If the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence from others, it will never suffer violence from him. He is too idle to be importunate, too slothful to be earnest.

He cannot be a righteous man, for slothfulness leads to the neglect of duty in many ways, and very soon it leads to lying about those neglects of duty, and no liar can have a portion in heaven. Idleness is selfishness, and this is not consistent with the love of our neighbor, nor with any high degree of virtue. Every good thing withers in the drought of idleness. In fact, all kinds of vices are comprehended in the one vice of sloth; and, if you tell me that a man is a sluggard, I have his whole character before me in the blackest of letters. His fallow fields are well adapted for evil seed; and, no doubt, Satan will raise a fine crop of weeds in every corner of his life. What this world would have been if we had all been gentlemen, with nothing to do, I cannot tell. The millions that have to work are largely kept out of mischief by their toil; and although crimes are abundant enough in our great city as it is, what would they have been if there had not been daily tasks to keep men from excessive indulgence in drink, and other forms of evil? Without labor the ale-houses would have been crammed every one of the twenty-four hours; folly would have held unbroken carnival, and licentiousness would have burst all bounds. Amongst the sanitary and salutary regulations of the moral universe there is none much better than this — that men must work. He who does not work is not a righteous man, for he is out of accord with that which makes for righteousness. In some form or other, with either brain or hand, either by working or enduring, we share the common labors of the race appointed them of heaven; and if we are not doing so, we are not righteous. I call to your remembrance the remarkable words of the Savior, “Thou wicked and slothful servant.” Those two adjectives are nearly related — “wicked and slothful.” Might not our Lord have said “slothful” alone? He might, but he knew how much of wickedness goes with sloth, and is inherent in it; and, therefore, he branded it with the condemning word.

Charles H. Spurgeon, Spurgeon’s Sermons: Volume 33, “The Hedge of Thorns and the Plain Way”, sermon no. 1948.

The Sluggard in Proverbs

18 Saturday Feb 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in Biblical Counseling, Discipleship

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Biblical Counseling, Discipleship, Homework, Laziness, Proverbs, proverbs, Sloth, Sluggard

The sluggard is a common sort.He even comes to church. He can be identified in part by the problems in his life. He will personally suffer for in laziness: “A lazy man does not roast his prey” (12:27). He is too lazy to even eat! (19:24²). His whole is characterized by sloth (26:15; 10:4-5; 14:4; 20:4; 21:5; 28:19; cf, 12:14; 13:23; 22:9). It overshadows everything in his life (19:15). He can be easily found, for his vineyard is filled with thorns:

I passed by the field of the sluggard.³ And by the vineyard of the man lacking sense, And behold, it was completely overgrown with thistles; Its surface was covered with nettles, And its stone wall was broken down. When I saw, I reflected upon it; I looked, and received instruction. “A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest,” Then your poverty will come as a robber. And your want like an armed man. (Proverbs 24:30-34, NASB95)

Obviously, a man who cannot take the time to care for his property, or his business will not have anything to eat. Yet the problem will be greater than just the problem immediately before him, say a field or a hedge. Proverbs 15:19 makes plain that the scope if greater, as seen from the contrasting clause:

The way⁴ of the lazy is as a hedge of thorns⁵

But the path of the upright is a highway.

The contrast is between the lazy and the upright; between a hedge of thorns and a highway. The merely literal interpretation is quite problematic and obviously suggests a broader principle.Waltke explains, “The sluggard wants to achieve his goals and surmount his obstacles, but his spiritual disposition prevents him from doing anything; in his eyes everything is too difficult, painful and/or dangerous to expend effort . . . .But the path . . . of upright people . . . who have the spiritual disposition to conform their lives to the sage’s teaching, is a highway . . . . built up, prepared and cleared of obstacles to facilitate travel”.⁶

Waltke’s comment opens up the basic problem with the lazy sluggard: (1) he fills his mind with delusions, and thus (2) will not receive counsel. The sluggard’s delusions are of two kinds: (1) excuses, and (2) expectations. The excuses of the sluggard make for some of the most entertaining sections in the book: In Proverbs 26:13, the sluggard worries that a lion will be in the city.⁷Solomon apparently has no time for this excuse, for he immediately compares the sluggard to an inanimate object (hinges) turning in his bed (26:14).

This does not mean that the sluggard lacks desire, he is filled with it. In Proverbs 28:19-20, the sluggard is called one “who follows worthless pursuits” to the point of poverty. (ESV). The NIV calls him “one who chases fantasties”.The parallel line in verse 20 tells us that he is “one who makes haste to be rich.” (NASB).⁸Proverbs 13:4 tells us, “The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing”. Proverbs 21:25 says it plainly, “The desire of the sluggard puts him to death, For his hand refuses to work.”

Having become full of his own expectations, fantasies, hopes, the sluggard is notoriously difficult to counsel: “The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes, Than seven men who can give a discreet answer” (26:16). The Sage first tells the sluggard to go receive instruction (6:6-9).Such instruction must include the fact that laziness is a sin and must be treated as any other sin.⁹

I have found that successful counseling of lazy men (a very common problem in the Singles group) is first repetition of counsel. The repetition of the exact same proverbs (with slight variation) demonstrates the need for such repetition. The hope is that the sluggard will take the counsel to heart, that sheer repetition will break through the veneer of words and desire.

Another aspect of counseling reality: The laziness proverbs continual point toward the outcome of the laziness¹⁰: There is a constant reinforcement of the idea that if you continue in this path you will have this end. Moreover, the damage will not merely be linear: it will create an overarching degree of difficulty in your life (this is a springboard to point to the other problems in his life and note how they have a genesis in laziness).

In order to break through the excuses for laziness, the excuses must be shown and seen to be excuses. At times humor used to underscore the ridiculousness of the excuses is necessary: There is a lion in the street! The laughter attached to the excuse makes the excuse very difficult to maintain¹¹.

The counselor must also realize the desire which lies at the back of laziness: it is a self-centeredness for one’s own “needs”. The desire can so override all other considerations, that reality can have difficulty intruding.“He thinks to live by wishing, not by working.”¹² The refusal to work is “the epitome of folly”.¹³ Paul instructs that such people not eat (2 Thess. 3:10).

If reason or ridicule cannot move the sluggard into action, then perhaps hunger will provide a sufficient motivation. The sluggard leads a life divorced from reality. His dreams and aspirations form a bulwark which supports his laziness. Until reality can breach the wall of his delusion, he will continue in his conduct. When a sluggard presents for counseling, due to the problems in his life, one must be careful to not help remove the problems so that the sluggard merely returns to his ease without a change.

As shown in the Proverbs cited above, such a one is damaging and a shame to the entire community.Therefore, the community may eventually need to act to protect itself : “The hand of the diligent will rule, But the slack hand will be put to forced labor (12:24)”¹⁴

As is the case for other such fools, the only hope for this kind of fool is that he will eventually hear: “A fool rejects his father’s discipline, But he who regards reproof is sensible (15:5)”. Unfortunately, such a one will likely not receive instruction. “Wisdom is too high for a fool (20:3).” Even when he is confronted by a wise man, he is likely only to argue (29:9, 20:3).Thus, when counseling a lazy man , one must be prepared to simply send the sluggard on his way to eat the fruit of his ways. I can think of one specific instance where such was necessary. He left angry. Hopefully, he will eventually listen and learn.

² “Some people are too lazy to eat. This humorous portrayal is certainly an exaggeration. It probably was meant more widely for anyone who starts a project but lacks the energy to complete it (Whybray, Book of Proverbs, p. 111). The sluggard “buries” (taman perhaps a cleverly chosen metaphor) his hand in the dish and is too lazy to pull it out—even to feed himself” (Allen P. Ross, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Volume 5. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1991) 1037).

³“It has been said, and truly said, that ‘wise men profit more by fools, than fools by wise men: for wise men will learn how to avoid the fault of fools, but fools will not learn to imitate the virtues of wise men.’” (Ralph Wardlaw, D.D., Lectures on the Book of Proverbs (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1869), 138).

⁴“Where another person would proceed with easy alacrity, he seems held back by invisible obstacles; his garments are always getting caught in briars; there is not impetus enough to carry him over the slightest difficulty; and after frequent and somnolent pauses, the end of the day finds him more weary than the busiest, though he has nothing to show but futile efforts and abortive results” ( R.F. Horton, The Expositor’s Bible: The Book of Proverbs (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1895), 264).

⁵“Everything requiring effort becomes painful and uneasy to him who indulges in slothful habits” (A. Elzas, The Proverbs of Solomon (London: Charles Goodall, J.W. Bean & Son, 1871), 34).

⁶Bruce Waltke, The Book of Proverbs Chapters 1-15 (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2004), 629.

⁷ “The sluggard uses absurd excuses to get out of work (see 22:13). This verse begins the Book of Sluggards (vv.13-16). Kidner provides a helpful overview of the section by explaining that the sluggard does not think he is lazy and so is self-deceived: he would say that he is a realist and not a shirker (v.13), that he is below his best in the morning and not self-indulgent (v.14), that his inertia is an objection to being hustled (v.15), and that he is sticking to his guns and not mentally indolent (v.16) (Proverbs, p. 163).” Ross, Allen P. “V. Proverbs of Solomon Collected by Hezekiah (25:1-29:27)” (The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Volume 5 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1991) 1991; see, also, Prov. 22:13).

⁸ Waltke explains, “The B versets present a person hurrying to get rich, apart from hard work and without character. He is chasing an empty dream, for he will become poor, and more than that, the Lord will punish him” (Bruce Waltke, The Book of Proverbs Chapters 15-31 (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2005), 423).

⁹I have found that when teaching through Pilgrim’s Progress that the sin of Christian at the arbor on the Hill of Difficulty needs some explanation, because Christian is guilty of laziness and even otherwise well taught Christians find Bunyan’s use of laziness to be quaint and antiquated.

¹⁰ By developing the outcome of laziness, the counselor can undercut the unrealistic expectations of the sluggard – which expectations fuel and undergird his current laziness.

¹¹ “But in addition to his laziness, the sad part is the sluggard will not listen to reason (v. 16).He knows better than everyone else . . . . Perhaps it is for this reason Solomon uses ridicule and sarcasm; he is trying to motive the sluggard by shaming him. You ought to learn this methodology as it applies to such persons counseling. Reasonable approaches simply fail” (Jay Adams, The Christian Counselor’s Commentary on Proverbs (Woodruff: Timeless Texts, 1997), 199-200).

¹² Charles Bridges, Proverbs, 1846; repr. (Carlisle: The Banner of Truth, 1998), 388.

¹³ Tremper Longman III, Proverbs (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006), 561.

¹⁴“Diligence at work determines success and advancement. To put it bluntly, the diligent rise to the top and the lazy sink to the bottom. At the bottom they may be forced to work as if they owed it (Ross, 973).” Or as Stuart explains it, the sluggard “is obliged to become a tributary or a servant to the diligent” (Moses Stuart, A Commentary on the Book of Proverbs (Andover: Warren F. Draper, 1870), 261).