Take your Bibles, if you would, and turn to Proverbs chapter 24. Proverbs chapter 24, and I'll read verses 30 through 34. This is the Word of God. I went by the field of the lazy man and by the vineyard of the man devoid of understanding. And there it was, all overgrown with thorns. Its surface was covered with nettles. Its stone wall was broken down. When I saw it, I considered it well. I looked on it and received instruction. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, so shall your poverty come like a prowler and your need like an armed man. If you've been a Christian for any amount of time, I'm certain that you will agree with what I'm going to say about the Bible. The Bible is an extremely unique book. We use that word unique so much that we kind of lose its uniqueness. But this is the only book where God speaks. He speaks authoritatively. Holy men of God were moved by the Holy Spirit to write this book. And remember, this book just wasn't written here in the United States of America. Saving religion began on the other side of the world in Israel, and it's come all the way to us here in Southern California. And God has been pleased to preserve His word throughout all ages and the Bible basically teaches two things when you go to read your Bibles or you hear a minister preaching there's two things the Bible teach and that is what man is to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of man or kids to make it easier for you what it is that you are to believe and and what it is that you are to do. And within this book, God testifies of Jesus Christ fully. Everything that we need to know about Jesus Christ, the saving religion of Jesus Christ, his work before he came to the earth, found in the Old Testament, as well as his work while he was here on the earth, is perfectly brought out in the Holy Scriptures. We happen to be right now in a portion of God's Word called the Poetic Books, where you have Job and Psalms, Ecclesiastes, which means preacher, Song of Solomon, and Proverbs. And we find that David wrote Psalms, majority of the Psalms, Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and the majority of the Proverbs. When you take a look at the book of Proverbs, you see that there's quite a contrast. It's a very simple book in terms of how it teaches. Very short verses from chapter 10 all the way to chapter 30. And they are direct and to the point. And they show a difference between the fool and the wise man. the rich and the poor, those who are justified and those who are condemned, those who are righteous, those who are wicked. So when we approach this book, we're looking at it with the idea that there is going to be some contrast here between the righteous and the wicked. When you consider chapters one through nine of Proverbs, that's more conversational with a father dealing with his son or as Solomon is dealing with the people of Israel to show them the blessedness of having the wisdom of God. That is the beginning of the fear of God. the beginning of wisdom, is the fear of God. We just read that. I noticed that in your call to worship. So when we finally come now to this particular portion of God's word, we find that Solomon, in the first point found in verse 30 and 31, he is now going to, your first point is, Solomon's going to investigate a report about a lazy man, and it is true. It is true. Based on a report, the king hears of a lazy man. He has a reputation of being lazy. Solomon went to see if it was true. And what was the evidence of this accusation? It's something that is obvious to the naked eye. This man had something that was physical that could be seen with the naked eye. And it was true. The charges were right. This house was in disrepair. His field was in disrepair. Now, some may say, well, why do you say that, Solomon? Why do you say that he is lazy, but also that he lacks understanding? That's the two characteristics of this man, that he is lazy and he lacks understanding. Well, his house stood out, and this lazy man lacked understanding. Let me ask you this. How do you think this man acquired this land? Chances are, back during this time, he inherited the land. And he could look around him and see his neighbors and see how they kept their fields and how their fields were able to provide for them and their families, as well as the king, as well as for those who were poor. He lacked that understanding. He did not lift his hand to take care of his property. And all he saw was sleep. That's what he wanted to do, was to sleep. So this man acquires his land. He looks around him and sees his neighbors working, the hard work that goes into these fields, understanding would teach. If you want to profit and be able to provide for your own, you need to work your field. Remember, this is an agrarian society that the people of God were living in. This is agricultural. Everything was agricultural. They didn't have a Costco or a Ralph's. They had to go out and either buy from someone else that was farming, or they had to do it themselves. However, foolishness gives birth to laziness. And I want you to notice, it's just not a weed here or a weed there, but it was all overgrown with weeds. Even if there was fruit, even if there was a vineyard there that was producing fruit, I can almost hear the man making excuses, saying, well, the wall's broken down. If I go ahead and harvest and make a lot of provisions, the beast is just going to come in and consume it. And so he reasons himself out of it. Now, granted, I'm taking a lot of liberty here in his understanding. But the chances are is that his understanding lacks any type of wisdom whatsoever. The wise man foresees evil. He looks down the road. He sees if certain things are not done, and he hides himself. But the simple, they pass on without this knowledge, and they are punished for it. You know, it would have been good for this man to have considered our very first father, Adam. Before Adam fell, his job was to tend the garden. This is before sin. And unfortunately, this man did not learn well from Adam. And remember this, brethren, even in heaven, we're not laying around sleeping. We are serving God. You do not see in the book of Revelation where the great congregation comes together, they're not snoozing. They are praising the Lord. See also what a blessing upon the world for those who took care of their fields during this man's life. As I mentioned, kings and the poor were provided, but they're imitating God. Remember, God causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. Our God is not lazy. He is sending blessing to the world, to all mankind. And this man should have seen God as his creator, as his example, and he should have been tending to his field. I want you to notice in Verse 27, these appear to be somewhat connected. The command is given, prepare your outside work, make it fit for yourself in the field, and afterward build your house. This is right before Solomon comes to the lazy man. It's almost as if Solomon is quoting this to the lazy man. And he doesn't do anything at all about it. Instead, he's seeking his chief good, and that is for his sleep. Well, secondly, I want you to notice that Solomon meditates on this in verse 32. When I saw it, I considered it well, looked on it, and received instruction. He meditates upon this situation, and he receives instruction. He desired to receive good out of a very, very bad example. And if Solomon is going to be a faithful teacher, he needs to be teachable and always learning, and he does that by God's word as well as by what it is that he sees. There's a quote here. It says, wise men profit more from fools than fools do in observing the wise. The wise gain understanding by avoiding the bad habits of the fool, and the fool avoids the virtue and the good habits of the wise. The wise is made better from the fool, but the fool becomes worse in spite of the wise in his presence. Well, here Solomon looks upon what this man has done. Next, he considers it. Then he asks the question. You have to ask the question you're considering it, because he looks at it. He says right there, and then I considered it. He had asked the question, why is this man doing that? How did this man get in this type of condition to where he is so lazy, where he won't even take care of his goods and take a look at his neighbors? His neighbors are doing everything. They're doing the work. He's considering it. He's asking those questions. Then he goes back and he views it again. You see that in 32. I saw it. I considered it well. I looked on it. He was not done yet. And then he says, and received instruction. Instead of mocking this man, he gains understanding from this gross picture. And now he's able to speak to him. And it appears between verse 32 and verse 33, Solomon may have responded to this man's ways and asked him, why didn't you learn this earlier? Why didn't you learn this earlier in life? Or why didn't you learn this earlier in my teaching? Flip back to Proverbs chapter 6, and you will see almost identical language that's being used by Solomon. And in chapter 6, he's still teaching his children. Remember, the first nine chapters, Solomon is teaching his children as well as the nation of Israel. And look at chapter 6. He says to the lazy man verse 6 is go to the ant you sluggard It's not a very nice term to call someone a slugger, but that's what he does He calls him the slugger consider her ways and be wise having no captain overseer or ruler Provides her supplies in the summer and gathers her food in the harvest. He's telling this lazy man in chapter 6 I want you to go and look at God's creation, a small ant, about that big, okay? And I want you to learn from the ant. And then he says, a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, so shall your poverty come on you like a prowler and your need like an armed man. That sound familiar? That's exactly what he says here. And it looks like, This man is coming up with an excuse in verse 33. But again, remember, I think that there is some interaction with Solomon and this man between verse 32 and verse 33. What we can say with the understanding that we have is that work needs to be done. But this one here was content with laziness as if that was a supreme good was to pursue sleep. His pursuit of laziness is achieved, but his usefulness never begins, and any kind of exercise at work is his chief dread. And now we look at his response. The lazy man's response found in verse 33. The fool lies dozing in the middle of the day and cries out his excuses. This is an excuse. Do you know what an excuse is? Excuse is a reason, and it's packed. And then when you unpack it, you open up the present, and boom, it's a lie. An excuse is a reason to do something, but it's a lie. And that is what he's doing here. He says it's a little sleep. It's a little slumber. It's a little folding of the hands. It's a little rest. I want you to notice the progression of laziness. Remember, just a day-by-day maintenance would have taken care of his property, and he would have been able to provide for himself and for others. A day-by-day work is what he could have done, but he didn't do that. Now, the lazy man may make excuses by saying, hey, it's only just a little sleep. It's just a little slumber. There's no sin in activity, is there? It's OK for me to do nothing, right? There's no sin in that. Well. We are to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbor. The Christian life is not one of inactivity, but is one of activity, of loving God and loving our fellow man. And remember, praise to our God is a duty. It's something that we are to do. Again, this man calls it little. a little sleep, got to ask the question, why do you think God gives us sleep? It's pretty obvious. It refreshes our body. It refreshes our mind. And this is such depravity here, to take something as useful as sleep, as needed as sleep, and turn it into an occasion for sin. Now, some need four hours of sleep. I don't know how they do it, but they do it. Some need six, some need eight, some need 10, whatever it may be, but it's so that we would be able to do our duties. And this one is using sleep as an excuse to keep from his duties. This man has taken that which is lawful, sleep, and he's perverted it. Lazy man deludes himself into thinking that he is so wise with his response. It's just a little sleep, Solomon. It's just a little slumber, Solomon. It's a little folding of the hands to rest. Well, the fool here takes no delight in understanding but in expressing his own heart. That's found in Proverbs 18 too. And now we get the end result. The end result, verse 34. So shall your poverty come like a prowler, or literally a one who walks about, and your need like an arm man. Interesting language. I'll explain what those two men are. Just give me a minute here. But I want you to notice that even though Solomon received no good response from this man, he now pronounces a woe, a woe that he had pronounced earlier in chapter 6, what we just read. What's the end result? It's a violent poverty and domination by his need. It's a violent poverty and domination by his need. He becomes his own enemy, is what he does. Now, notice it says, so your poverty shall come like a prowler. That's what my translation says. It literally means one who walks about. I want you to just get an idea that you've got this man that's got poverty written across his chest. And you see him a great way off, and he's slowly walking towards you. He keeps walking and walking. Nothing's going to hinder him. He keeps walking and walking and walking now. He's right there and now he's an armed man And he's now gonna take this man by force and reward his laziness with poverty With poverty so we see that this is more powerful than him laziness here gains momentum like a boulder that man coming and he has no chance of overcoming it because he's lazy and I couldn't help but think of the great example of Noah. Noah built an ark. What a task that was to build an ark. Just to give us a general idea of what the ark looked like, it was the size of a football field. And it was just Noah and his three sons that were building the ark. That's it. This arc was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, 45 feet tall. That's quite a task, right, to have to build something like that? Well, he did it. And if he didn't do it, his need would come like an armed man and take him away in that great flood. You know how long it took Noah to build that arc? About 75 years. 75 years. That's our lifetime here. Well, anyway, that's the exposition of Proverbs 24, 30 through 35. I'm sure we have plenty of application here. And I just want to bring out the truth that the Holy Spirit is not only concerned with keeping fields and walls. There is to be application for our souls as well as for that which is physical, but we mustn't pass by and miss the obvious. We shouldn't miss the obvious. And the first thing that we should apply this to is that we should oppose our own laziness. Proverbs 13, 4 says, the soul of a lazy man desires and has nothing, but the soul of the diligent shall be made rich. What is man's precious possession, according to the Proverbs? It is diligence. Diligence is man's precious possession. Diligent in our work. Diligent in whatever work that has been given to us, we should be diligent in that work. Work is obtained, is ordained by God. God has ordained work. and his man's precious possession for him to be diligent in his work. God provides for our needs through work, whether it's husbands and wives taking care of their children, singles taking care of themselves, children being obedient to their parents, there needs to be diligence in their particular work. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. What he's bringing out is that After six days of labor, rest. There should be labor. And the Sabbath brings that out. Diligence is a remedy against idleness, which is, as my grandmother told me when I was growing up, the devil's workshop. Remember this, because of idleness, David fell into adultery. He didn't go out with his men. He's wandering around on his roof, sees a woman, he falls into adultery. Work keeps us out of trouble. Remember this, kids. Whenever your parents give you a job to do, make sure you do it. It keeps you out of trouble. Plus, it's the fifth commandment. Obey your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land, which the Lord your God is giving you. We should be the best employees, the best students, the best homemakers, the singles that are working, they should be the best workers there as well. Our work should not be a monument of laziness, but to glorify God, to glorify God in all that we do. Diligence that's the first thing I suppose our own laziness and the solution of that is diligence secondly God has created and designed our bodies for work not to be spent in nothing but leisure and Sleep our bodies get stronger as we use them the body the mind the soul all seem to be connected and Even Paul gave the admonition to Timothy, little exercise is profitable for man, a little exercise is profitable for a man. And it just seems like a sharp body sometimes gives you a sharp mind, keeps things clear for you. And exercise seems to give more energy, or there is atrophy. I had cancer nine years ago, and it was in the throat area, so the treatment is rather extreme. And I had the option of either inserting a feeding tube or just drinking my calories. So the last two months of my treatment, I drank my calories is what I did. What I didn't realize, the wisdom or the, I'm glad I did this by God's mercy, I did this. I had a lot of my friends that had the similar cancer and they went with the feeding tube instead. Now when they get ready to start eating, guess what they haven't been using for two months? Their swallowing muscle became atrophied. They were gagging and it took a long time for that to happen. Did I learn anything from that? Well, I learned, I was taught that by using something, by exercising my muscles, they would be better for me and I will have a better quality of life. Now, we need balance here, not to make too much of the physical to where we build an idol out of our bodies. Our body is to serve the soul and we are not to fall in love with our mirrors, if you will. We just cannot jump to the conclusion that someone that's in shape or has a clean house or a good job must be godly. There's two ditches to avoid. The one being lazy, doing nothing. The other is you're at the gym six days a week, working out six, seven hours a day, if that's even possible. But all you're consumed with is your body. The world is overly concerned with the physical. They're overly concerned with big houses and high-paying jobs. Not that there's anything wrong with a big house or high-paying jobs, but that is all that they are concerned with. There is something more important than our rotting flesh. And that's what we have. All you do is just go visit a cemetery. That's where you're going to end up at. So the soul is much more important than the body. But do not neglect how the body can be of help and benefit to our souls. Thirdly, beware of spiritual laziness. Our Lord Jesus says, strive to enter the narrow gate. He didn't say you float in like a jellyfish into the kingdom of heaven. He says, strive to enter through the narrow gate. We were not lazy in coming to Jesus Christ. We saw our great need for Christ. We were looking for a savior. If we were convicted of our sins, we want to know, what can I do in order to be saved? Where must I go in order to be saved? And we did not go lazily to Jesus Christ. Peter even says, give all diligence to make your calling and election sure. Our tendency, my brethren, is to be lazy. Now, maybe I'm the only one. You're probably all very spiritual. But I fight with laziness. I battle against that. We must be aware of it. We must fight against it through Jesus Christ, by his spirit, and through the scriptures. There's private means and public means. And there's an example our Lord brings out in Matthew chapter 25, if you're taking notes, verses 14 through 30. I won't go there and read it, but you can make a note of that. Our Lord brings out an illustration. of a wicked servant. And he calls him a wicked and lazy servant because what he had, he did not do anything with. He did not pursue God at all. And so he calls him wicked and lazy. So beware of spiritual laziness. Our Lord should strive to enter through the narrow gate and give all diligence to make your calling and election sure. Fourthly, learn from things around you. Learn from things around you and make spiritual conclusions of those things. Solomon learned a lesson from this lazy man. Our Lord was a master at that. He would just take the common affairs of life, and he would be able to teach on it, whether it was a mustard seed, whether it was the wheat and tares, whether it was the sower and seed. Remember, agricultural society, people saw that. Our Lord took those illustrations, and he taught the people spiritual truths from those examples. Read the seasons, our Lord said, anticipating the end of the age. We do that here because we're into winter now. Granted, California, we have two seasons and they're very, very much the same. But we need to remember as we see the seasons go along, remember this is a reminder to us that the end is coming. The end of our life is coming. The end of the world as we know it is indeed coming. And so we need to use some amount of spiritual discernment to be able to draw spiritual conclusions with regards to those things. But you can't do that without the Word of God. If you don't have the Word of God, you're not going to be able to jump to those particular conclusions and make those particular truths come to mind. I'm reminded, I'm just on my bike and I'm riding my bike going down to the beach, and I see a dead rodent on the road. Now, I can just drive by and just not even think about it, but I did think about that for a little bit. That doesn't mean every time you go by a dead animal you're supposed to do this. I'm just saying that when I rode by it, it struck me. I said, that animal's dead because of the sin of Adam. Nothing wrong with that, is there? But I'm drawing a proper spiritual conclusion from that. How I apply that will be up to me, realizing that I have a body that's decaying. I'm not as young as I used to be. I've fallen apart as you get older. I warn you, don't get older. It's bad for your age, by the way. But still, there's the thing that we need to be constantly learning from things around us. Matthew Henry, the famous Bible commentator, he was robbed. And this is what he learned. He was thankful that his life was spared. He was thankful that the thief could not steal his inheritance, his soul. And he was thankful that he was not the one doing the robbing. So he just took something like this, a sanctified imagination, he was able to draw conclusions from it. Fathers, it's up to you to figure that out as you raise your children, fathers and mothers, coming up with everyday illustrations to teach your children about the things of God. I was standing in line, my son was real little at the time, and the kid in front of me was really acting up. And I could feel my pant leg being tugged at and bent down low. And he said, dad, I think someone needs a spanking. Well, you have to be careful sometimes of how you teach your children. At least I taught him, be discreet. If he would have yanked on it or said, hey, he needs a spanking, that's one thing. But he just learned something from being raised that we are to be obedient, children are to be obedient to the parents anyway. That's that particular point. Fifthly, our reputation, while not infallible, still needs our attention. What is our reputation? What do others think of it? That doesn't mean you're dominated by that. I wonder what they're thinking about me. I'm not talking about that. But our reputation, what we are known for, is something that we can learn from as well. This lazy man's reputation moved Solomon to see if the report was accurate, and it was. Now, imagine this man repents of his laziness. It's going to take him a long time to get that house, that field, Taking care of it's gonna take a lot of time and people may still go by the fields. Oh, yeah. I remember him He was the lazy man remember Rahab the harlot Even after her conversion in the book of Hebrews, the writer still calls her the harlot Rahab. It's tough to lose a bad reputation. Again, it's not infallible, but it should make us examine our walk. And then lastly, in conclusion, Proverbs says before us, the wise and the fool, the lazy one that lacks understanding, the one that has wisdom. They are different in that the wise learns from the fool, but the fool does not learn from the wise. The wise profits from viewing the fool in light of God's revelation, but the fool does not profit from the wise or his word. And this is how they are the same. The wise avoids the ways of the fool, and the fool avoids the ways of the wise. So I went by the field of the lazy man, by the vineyard of the man, devoid of understanding. And there it was, all overgrown with thorns. Its surface was covered with nettles. Its stone wall was broken down. When I saw it, I considered it well. I looked on it and received instruction. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. So shall your poverty come like a prowler and your need like an armed man. Let's pray. Well, Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you that you have been merciful unto us and caused us to be under the ministry of your word and the ministry of your spirit. All glory and praise be unto you. We do pray your blessing to be upon this congregation, that we would all grow in your grace and knowledge, that our children would be converted. We pray that you would have mercy upon us this day. We thank you for this first day of the week, whereby we remember the resurrection and the dead of our Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ. So hear our prayers, do good to our souls. We look to you for blessing this entire day, for we pray all these mercies in Jesus name. Amen.