Covenant Theology: Blessings, Curses, and Sanctions: The Hallelujah of Confession

Biblical Wealth - Part 2 of 8

Transcript: AI Transcript

Professor: John Weaver

Subject: Covenant Theology

Genre: Sermon

Dictation Name:

Date: 2004-07-11

Synopsis: John Weaver continues his series on biblical wealth by examining the sovereignty of God over the subjects of wealth. He argues that wealth is not always a sign of God's favor, as God sometimes curses the wicked with riches for their destruction. The door of God's blessing swings on two hinges: covenantal obedience (obeying God's commands) and individual responsibility (diligent labor). Believers are called to seek God's kingdom first, trusting that He gives power to get wealth.

[John Weaver] Deuteronomy, chapter eight, Deuteronomy, chapter eight. And once again, let's read this passage, Deuteronomy, chapter eight. And let's begin reading there with verse one, Deuteronomy eight, verse one, all the commandments which I command thee this day, shall you observe to do that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land which your which the Lord swear to your fathers. And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not. Neither did thy fathers know that he might make thee to know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. Thy arraignment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell these forty years. Thou shalt also consider in thine heart that as a man chastened his son, so the Lord thy God chastened thee.

[John Weaver] Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God to walk in his ways and to fear him. For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks and of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley and vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of oil, olive and honey, a land where thou shalt eat bread without scarceness. Thou shalt not lack anything in it. A land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass. When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God, for the good land which he hath given thee. Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, his judgments, his statutes, which I command thee this day. Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein, and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied, Then thy heart be lifted up, and now forget the Lord thy God, who brought thee

[John Weaver] forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage, who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water, who brought thee forth water out of the rock of Flint, who fed thee in the wilderness with manner which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee to do thee good at thy latter end. And now say in thine heart, My power And the light of my hand hath gotten me this well. But thou shalt remember the Lord by God, for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sweareth unto thy fathers, as it is this day. And it shall be, if thou do it all, forget the Lord by God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them. I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. As the nations which the Lord destroyed before your face, so shall you perish, because you would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God.

[John Weaver] Now, I want to ask that you turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel, chapter 2. I dealt with this passage last week. I'm just simply going to read it again this week because we're still dealing with sovereignty. Last week, it was the sovereignty and the source of wealth. This week, the sovereignty and the subjects of wealth. So in 1 Samuel 2, look please at verse 7 and verse 8.

[John Weaver] Here the word of God says the Lord maketh poor and maketh rich. He bringeth low and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill to set them among princes and to make them inherit the throne of glory for the pillars of the earth of the Lord's and he hath set the world upon them. Verse 7 says it is the Lord that maketh poor and of course it is the Lord that maketh rich. Now, as you go back to Deuteronomy 8 in verse 18, you remember, he says, But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is he that giveth thee power to get well.

[John Weaver] Now, last week, I began with a rather long introduction because I dealt with a philosophy known as Thomism, which, of course, is the teaching of Thomas Aquinas, who is a Roman Catholic theologian, logician and philosopher. And of course, the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas was accepted and received in 1879, I believe it is, by the Pope and established as the official philosophy of the Roman Catholic Church. Now, I pointed out in my introduction what Thomas Aquinas had tried to do was this. He tried to synthesize, that is to draw and bring together and bind together the teachings of Greek philosophy and of the teachings of the Bible, particularly the teachings of Plato and Aristotle. Now, you've got to remember that in the teachings of Plato and Aristotle, and especially in Greek philosophy, the Greeks were dualistic.

[John Weaver] That is, they believed that there were two spheres. There was the sphere of matter, which was inherently evil, and there was the sphere of spirit or form or ideas, which was inherently good. And so what Thomas did was he took the teachings then, especially of Plato and Aristotle, and he said that, look, you can talk to men about the Bible using philosophy, especially Greek philosophies, even if those men do not accept the Bible as a supernatural revelation of God.

[John Weaver] And of course, because he is the one that made this teaching popular, it has come down through the Roman Catholic Church and has infected countless millions of Christians. A lot of Christians who have never been to a Roman Catholic Church would never dream of going to a Roman Catholic Church or good Roman Catholics in their philosophy and they don't even realize it because they have been affected and infected with Thomism or the teachings of Thomas Aquinas. He was the one that began separating everything into two spheres, the secular and the sacred. I told you last week that is where churchanity developed, because now people can come to church on Sunday morning and they feel spiritual and pious and holy, and then they'll go out Monday through Saturday and live as if God does not exist, or God had never spoken, and their lives are totally alienated from the truth of God Monday through Saturday. Why? Because they've fallen to the concept that life is divided into two spheres.

[John Weaver] Now let me emphasize today, for the child of God, there is no such division. The biblical philosophy teaches that there is only one sphere, and that is the sacred. Look in your Bibles, hold Deuteronomy 8, but look in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 31. Then we're going to the book of Colossians 3. So look first of all in 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 31. Here's a passage connected with the passage in Colossians that ought to show you emphatically that there is only one sphere for the child of God. First Corinthians chapter 10.

[John Weaver] Note, if you would please. And verse 31, the Bible says, whether therefore you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Now, note, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, dig in a ditch. washing dishes, flying an airplane, driving an automobile, selling insurance. Whatever you do, do all to the honor and glory of God. One sphere, not two spheres. Then if you look in the book of Colossians chapter 3 and verse 23, here it is again stated rather bluntly. Colossians 3, verse 23, the Bible says, And whatsoever you do, doesn't matter what you're doing, and whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men. Why?

[John Weaver] Knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ. So it says, Whatever you do, you do it for God's honor and God's glory.

[John Weaver] Now, let me make this principle exceedingly clear. For the Christian, there is no such thing as a Keen's X. There is no such thing as neutral territory. There is no such thing as time out. For the Christian, every activity, every attitude, every action is to be brought in submission to the Lord Jesus Christ.

[John Weaver] Now, I've quoted this verse and I can quote it now, but I want you to turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 and look at verse 5. Let me just show you 2nd Corinthians 10 and verse 5. I'm just demonstrating the fact that there is only one sphere for the child of God, and that is the sacred. To us, everything is sacred. Notice 2nd Corinthians 10 in verse 5.

[John Weaver] He says, casting down imaginations. and every high thing or literally every high thought that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity, help me out now, every thought to the obedience of Christ. How many thoughts are you and I allowed that are unbiblical? None. Which means everything we do in word or deed, whatever we do, is to be done for God's honor and God's glory.

[John Weaver] Now, there can only be one sphere since God is the creator of all things in heaven and in earth. Now, there are many implications of the doctrine of creation. But one of those implications is simply this, that God reigns sovereignly and supremely over all of his creation. Therefore, as his creatures, he demands that we honor and glorify him. And certainly, if we are His children by faith in Jesus Christ, we have a double demand laid upon us that we bring honor and glory to Him.

[John Weaver] Now, let me reduce it down for you to this simple truth. Our Christian worldview, our biblical philosophy is to guide, regulate, and control our lives 24 hours a day seven days per week. In other words, we must be godly in our homes as well as in our hearts. We must be godly at work as well as at play. Our Lord said it like this in Second Timothy, chapter two, in verse 19.

[John Weaver] He said, Nevertheless, the foundation of God standing sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his and let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. Did you hear that? Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. So we have an obligation. We have a command that we are to depart from iniquity. In fact, we're not only to depart from iniquity, we are also to depart from anything that has the appearance of evil. For the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 22, abstain from every appearance of evil.

[John Weaver] To make it short, we cannot be pagan in any area of our lives. There is no such thing as a secular where God has no influence and no control and we have no obligations to Him. His word is to rule our lives, our conducts in every area, in every sphere. It's just that simple. God is sovereign and God rules over His creature and over His creation. Today, I'm going to pick up where I left off last week, last week dealing with the sovereignty and the source of wealth. Today, the sovereignty and the subjects of wealth. So if you look back in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 8, and once again, look at verse 18, the Word of God says this, But thou shalt remember the Lord by God. Note, for it is he that giveth power to get wealth. It is He that giveth power to get wealth. Now, you don't have to turn there, but you do need to remember 1 Samuel 2 verse 7, where he says, The Lord maketh poor and the Lord maketh rich.

[John Weaver] Then in verse 8, It is the Lord that lifts up the beggar out of the dumb hill. That is an illustration of how God makes one rich.

[John Weaver] Now, Since God is sovereign and since he is the source of wealth, you need to consider then momentarily the subjects of wealth. Because when you understand that God makes one rich and God makes one poor, there is a question that automatically arises and is inherent in that truth. And that question is this, can wealth or riches or prosperity always be regarded as a sign of God's favor or as a sign of God's blessings. Now, let me make. A statement.

[John Weaver] It is true, especially in the Old Testament economy, and it could be also true in the New Testament economy that generally speaking. Material blessings were indeed a sign of God's favor now. Please understand, I said generally speaking, there are general principles in the Bible. There are always exceptions to those general principles. For instance, when you come to Proverbs 23, the Bible says, beat thy child with a rod. If thou beatest him with a rod, he shall not die, but thou shalt deliver his soul from hell. Does that mean that every child has ever been beat with a rod is going to heaven? No. All that means is, generally speaking, If you will discipline your child based upon the teaching of the Word of God with God's blessing upon those means and with God's blessing upon that discipline, then the child may be converted. But that does not mean that every child that's ever been whipped with a rod is going to heaven. If it does mean that, the best evangelistic method that you and I could choose would be get a rod in each hand and go out and just beat the devil out of everybody.

[John Weaver] You see what I'm saying? It's a general principle. And so we've got a general principle, yes, in the Old Testament, usually wealth was a sign of God's favor and God's blessings. I know there are exceptions to that. I'm going to deal with those in just a moment. But let me show you. I want you to consider Abraham with me just for a moment. Go to Genesis 13. And let me just show you, generally speaking, how that wealth was indeed a favor and a blessing of God. Genesis chapter 13.

[John Weaver] And notice, if you would please. Beginning there with verse two. Genesis 13. The Bible says that Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver and in gold. Abram. was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. Look in chapter 14, beginning there, verse 13. This is where, of course, Abraham rescues his brother Lot, actually his nephew. Verse 13, Genesis 14, And there came one that escaped and told Abram the Hebrew, for he dwelt in the plain of Mamre, the Amorite, brother of Eschol, and brother of Aner. And these were confederate with Abram. And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, 318, and pursued them unto Dan. Now, wait a minute.

[John Weaver] Let me just stop there. We're talking about Abraham being wealthy. 318 trained servants or trained slaves. They were born in his own house. So if he had 318 slaves that were born in his own house, how many did he have that were not born? There is the extreme possibility where the family of Abraham was probably several thousand. But now watch this. Verse 15, And he divided himself against them, he and his servants by night, and smoked them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus.

[John Weaver] And he brought back all the goods And also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people. And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Kedro-Leomer, and the kings that were with him in the valley of Sheba, which is the king's dale. And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine, and he was the priest of the Most High God. And he blessed him and said, Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth. And he blessed, and blessed be the Most High God, who hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand, and he gave him tithes of all. And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the person, and take the goods to thyself. And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lifted up mine hand unto the Lord, the Most High God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou shouldst say, I.

[John Weaver] have made Abram rich. Save only that which the young men have eaten and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre. Let them take their portion. What did Abram say? I'm not going to take a penny from you because I don't want you to say that you made me rich. You did not make me rich. Look at Genesis 24 and verse 1.

[John Weaver] You know the story how Abraham is seeking a bride for his son Isaac. The Bible said Abram was old, Abraham was old and well stricken in age, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. Note that phrase, the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things.

[John Weaver] Now, skip down in the same chapter to verse 34, because here the servant is telling how God has blessed him. Verse 34, the Bible says, and he said, I am Abraham's servant. And the Lord hath blessed my master greatly, and he is become great, and he hath given him flocks, and herds, and silver, and gold, and menservants, and maidservants, and camels, and asses, and Sarah my master's wide bearer, son to my master when she was old, and unto him hath he given all that he hath." I mean, look at the extreme wealth that Abraham had, and God gave it to him. Now, remember, there was another title given Abraham. He was called the friend of God. But look at Isaac. Look at Genesis, Chapter 26, very quickly, beginning there, verse 12. You remember, Isaac, of course, was the son of Abraham. Notice Genesis, Chapter 26, beginning there, verse 12. Then Isaac sowed in the land and received the same year a hundredfold. And the Lord blessed And the man waxed great and went forward and drew until he became very great, for he had possession of flocks and possession of herds and a great store of servants.

[John Weaver] And the Philistines envied him. Look down in verse 16 what the Philistines finally said, And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us, for thou art much mightier than we. Now he was living in the land of the Philistines. I told you Abraham probably had several thousand people in his household. And now the Philistines are telling Isaac, you're stronger than we are. You have more people than we do.

[John Weaver] You have more wealth than we do. Go from us.

[John Weaver] Now, I'm not going to spend my time this morning just showing you how God blessed these individuals materially. If I were to take the time for you and I to consider Jacob, David, Solomon, Job, and a multitude of others, we'd literally be here all day long. It is true that God blessed these men with wealth, and He blessed them with a great deal of it. There's no arguing that. So I'm just saying, generally speaking, generally speaking, there is a general rule that it is true that the blessings of God and the favor of God are sometimes evidenced by great wealth.

[John Weaver] You say, wait a minute, Pastor. As I read the Bible, I also find that there were others who were extremely wealthy, who were ungodly, unholy, and were not interested in anything that was righteous. Moreover, some hated God and hated his law, and yet they were wealthy. How do we explain that? Well, you've got to remember, that that which is a blessing to one person could also be a curse to another. Let me explain that. Do you realize the very blessings of God when they are abused and misused become a snare and a destruction?

[John Weaver] Look in your Bibles Psalm 69. Psalm 69. I want you to note this. Prayer of the Psalmist Psalm 69 verse 22. Psalm 69 verse 22. David is praying against the wicked. And he makes this prayer request in verse 22. Let their table become a snare before them. And that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap. Now, look, let their table become a snare.

[John Weaver] Now, the table simply refers to that which they're given, that which they're supplied with, that which they're blessed with. And instead of being thankful unto God, the giver of all things, what does the table become? It becomes a carnal security to those who trust in the table. So he says, let their table, let that which has been given unto them, let it become a snare unto them, and that which should have been for their benefit, let it become a trap unto them.

[John Weaver] The Puritans had a say. It went like this. God oftentimes curses his enemies with riches. God oftentimes curses his enemies with riches. How could they say such a thing? Because wealth and riches, misused and abused, always become a source of self-confidence, transgression, condemnation and destruction. Let me show you. Look in your Bibles, first of all, to the book of Job chapter 12. Job chapter 12, and then we're going to the Psalms and then to the Proverbs. Job 12 and verse 6.

[John Weaver] Here's a passage that's Most people do not even know this in the Bible. And yet here it is. Proverbs or Job 12 verse 6. The tabernacles of robbers prosper and they that provoke God are secure in whose hand God bringeth abundantly. Now, why would God bring abundantly into the hands of someone who is a robber or a thief or someone who is wicked and wrong? Why would God bring material wealth and riches into their hands.

[John Weaver] And the answer is for their own condemnation and destruction. Go back in your Bibles or turn over, I should say, to Psalm 62. Psalm 62. And look in verse 10. Psalm 62, verse 10. Look what God says. Trust not in oppression. Don't trust in fraud and deceit and oppressing people. And become not vain in robbery. Don't go to that. If riches increase, now look, set not your heart upon them. If riches increase, set not your heart upon them. What is he saying? You don't sit back and glory the fact, well, I've got millions. I've got hundreds of thousands. Now, you don't set your heart upon wealth. Our hearts are to be set upon God and God alone. Look in the book of Proverbs chapter 11. Proverbs 11. Notice if you would please verse 4 to begin with. Proverbs 11 verse 4. Proverbs 11 verse 4.

[John Weaver] Riches profit not in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivered from death. Now watch. Riches profit not in the day of wrath. Let me ask you a question. What do you suppose the Kennedy wealth or the Rockefeller wealth will do for them the day they die? Nothing. Profit not in the day of wrath. Do you realize all the wealth in the world cannot extend your life one minute beyond the time that God has ordained for you to die? I can't. Richest prophet not of the day of wrath.

[John Weaver] Look in verse 28 of the same chapter. Proverbs 11 verse 28. He that trusted in his riches shall fall. For the righteous shall flourish as a branch. He that trusted in his riches shall fall. What do rich men normally do? Trust in their riches.

[John Weaver] Now I told you in the first sermon, and I'm just repeating it right here, riches per se are not condemned in the scripture. Wealth is not condemned in the scripture. It is the abuse and the misuse of riches and wealth that is condemned. God said, if riches increase, let not your heart upon it. And now here he is saying very obviously, he that trusts in his riches shall fall. So some will not take heed to God's warning and they trust in that which God has given them.

[John Weaver] It is for their own destruction. Look in Proverbs 18 and verse 11. Proverbs 18, verse 11. Look what the Bible says, the rich man's wealth is his strong city. As the high wall is his own conceit. The rich man's wealth is his strong city. I can show you verses in the Bible where the rich say, and I shall show you, I shall never be in adversity as other men are.

[John Weaver] Lords, they don't think anything's going to ever happen to them. The wicked say that. They don't think God will ever judge them. God will ever chastise them. God will ever condemn them. But yet what they do is they trust in their wealth. Prosperity in and of itself is not a sign of godliness. Often times it is a sign of destruction depending upon how the prosperity is handled.

[John Weaver] Now I want you to turn in your Bibles if you would to Psalm 73 because I want to show you a passage that is exceedingly applicable today. Psalm 73 is the Psalm of Asaph. A-S-A-P-H. Asaph. Asaph wrote Psalm 73. David, by the way, did not write all of the Psalms. He wrote most of them. Solomon wrote some. Asaph wrote some. A few others wrote some as well. But notice Psalm 73.

[John Weaver] Now let me just point out That we have today in one sense of the word, the same perplexity. That ASAP and some of the others had in the Old Testament. You say, what are you talking about? Well, I've mentioned this to you before. I want you to stop and think about this in light of Christianity. And I'm not crying when I tell you this. I'm just using this as an illustration, okay?

[John Weaver] Here we sit in a little building with the truth, doing everything we can to get the truth out. We send, I don't know how many Audio tapes out every week, CDs, DVDs, all the sermons are on sermonaudio.com. I've gotten letters and I'm thankful from just about every country in the world who've listened to the messages either on the Internet or CD or DVD or audio. But the point I'm trying to make is here we are limited. We don't have much. And we have the truth and we really want to get it out.

[John Weaver] Now you compare our situation with the money that the Crystal Cathedral gets. Or the money of someone who denies the deity of Christ. You see what I'm saying? Here are humongous church buildings with thousands of people that do nothing rather than build buildings. Like Hosea says, Israel had forgotten their maker had built temples.

[John Weaver] Now, is that not perplexing? Can you not ask yourself, well, Lord, why do you not give us millions? Why don't you give it to them? Look what we could do with it. Well, the point I'm trying to make is Asaph had the same problem. And you've got to come to the answer that Asaph came to. Let's look at verse one, Psalm 73. Asap says, truly, God is good to Israel, even such as are of a clean heart.

[John Weaver] Now, he roots his conclusion at the very beginning. Truly, God is good to Israel, even such as are of a clean heart. But as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well and I slipped.

[John Weaver] Now, why did Asap get in a period of depression, discouragement and despair? Here's why. He says, for I was envious of the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. I mean, the wicked were prospering, he said, and I wasn't. There are no bands in their death, but their strength is firm. Now, look what he says. They're not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men. I mean, the ungodly don't have the problems we have.

[John Weaver] Therefore, pride compassed them about as a chain. Violence covered them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness. They have more than their heart could wish. Most of us would like a decent automobile, and they drive Jaguars. You follow me? Their eyes stand out with fatness. They have more than the heart could wish. They are corrupt. They speak wickedly concerning oppression. They speak loftily. Watch this.

[John Weaver] They set their mouth against the heavens and their tongue walking through the earth. In other words, they curse God and man as well. It doesn't matter to them. Therefore, as people return hither, and waters are full of cup wrung out for them, and they say, here's the wicked now, and they say, how does God know? And is their knowledge in the Most High? He says, behold, these are the ungodly who prosper in the world. They increase in riches.

[John Weaver] Think of the Bilderbergers, the CFR, the Skull and Bone Society. Do you know any poor people among those? No. Their eyes stand out with fatness. They have more than their heart could wish. These are the ungodly who prosper in the world. They increase in riches.

[John Weaver] Now look what Asap says in verse 13. Verily, I have cleansed my heart in vain, and I have washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning. He says, Verily, I have cleansed my heart in vain. What good has it done me to be obedient? What good has it done me to be godly and holy? What good has it done me to live by God's Word? Man, he said, I've cleansed my heart in vain. I've washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long, I have been plagued and chastened every morning. He said, man, instead of being blessed, instead of being prosperous, I'm the one that's suffering. I'm the one that's trying to do what's right. Look at the wicked.

[John Weaver] They've got everything and they hate God. He said in verse Fourteen, for all the day long I've been plagued and chastened every morning. If I say I will speak thus, behold, I shall offend against the generation of this people. Now, look what he said in verse 16. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me. I just couldn't figure this out until, until, until I went into the sanctuary of God, then understood I their end.

[John Weaver] Surely thou didst set them in slippery places, thou castest them down into destruction, how they brought into desolation, as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrors, as a dream when one awakens, so, O Lord, when thou awakenest, thou shalt despise their image. Thus my heart was grieved, I was pricked in my reins, so foolish was I, and ignorant I was as a beast before thee. He said, O God, when I saw their end, I was thanking God I was not one of them and had everything that they had. Because you will despise them and you will destroy them.

[John Weaver] But I will have you. Asap said, I'd rather be a Christian, I'd rather be a child of God and suffer and do without than have the riches of the wicked.

[John Weaver] Now listen to me, folks. God often times curses his enemies with riches. Why? For their own condemnation. For their own destruction. That's what he said in Psalm 73. But let me just show you very quickly a couple of verses. I want you to understand something. Then in reality, It really doesn't matter what the wicked have in you. You know why? Because ultimately, we're going to end up with all of it.

[John Weaver] You say, what are you talking about? Well, let me show you. Look in your Bibles for Proverbs, chapter 13, verse 22. Proverbs 13, verse 22. Proverbs 13, verse 22.

[John Weaver] But the Bible says, a good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children, and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. Well, who's going to ultimately end up with everything? The just. The just. You know, it is so amazing. You can take a child and hold up a quarter and say, you see this quarter? Yes, sir. I will either give you this quarter right now, or if you will wait a week from now, I'll give you a $10 bill. You know what the child's going to normally do? He's going to take the quarter. Doesn't understand, doesn't want to wait. But you know a lot of adults are like that.

[John Weaver] That's why we're dead up to our eyeballs. We want what we want right now. We don't want to wait. God says you just wait because the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. Look in your Bibles to Proverbs 28 and verse 8. Proverbs 28 verse 8. Here it is again stated a different way. Proverbs 28 verse 8. He that by usury, interest, and unjust gain increaseth his substance.

[John Weaver] He shall gather for him that will pity the poor. So what are the ungodly doing? They're actually just collecting it all together for those who are going to be obedient to God. And if you want a plainer verse, look in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. And let's begin reading there with verse 21. I wish I had time to give you the entire context of 1 Corinthians 1 through 4, but let me just give you 1 Corinthians 3, beginning there of verse 21. Look what the Apostle Paul says.

[John Weaver] Therefore, let no man glory in men, for all are yours. So he says, look, doesn't matter who's the best preacher. Who's got the best oratory? Who's got the best sermons? Every man or every minister is for you. Verse 22, whether it be Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, now watch, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours! And you're Christ's, and Christ is God's.

[John Weaver] So let me ask you, how much of this Christian going to end up with everything? You see what I'm saying? I'd rather wait and get everything than be sinful and just get a little. You follow me? Why in the world would you be envious of the wicked when you understand that they're just laying it up for you and you're going to eventually get it in you because everything in this world is ours. Now.

[John Weaver] I've said all that to say this. Prosperity cannot be viewed or regarded as a sign of God's blessing in every instance. But as a general rule, it is true that God does bless his own. If I were to ask you, how many in this room are blessed today? Every one of us. None of us have gone hungry. God does bless his own. There's no two ways about that.

[John Weaver] Now, we may not be multimillionaires. But we're not hungry. And we're not naked. We're not sick. God does bless his own.

[John Weaver] Now, let me ask you a question, and this is the whole point of the message today. What do God's blessings hinge upon?

[John Weaver] Now, it may not be possible to answer that question totally, exclusively. It may not even be possible to answer it in every individual case, but I can give you two hinges upon which the door of God's blessings usually swings. The door of God's blessing usually swings upon two principles. What are they? The first hinge, and I'll explain it, is covenantal obedience. And the second hinge is individual responsibility. So let's cover, first of all, the first hinge, covenantal obedience.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to turn back in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter eight, because we're going to be looking at this passage a little more closely in just a moment. But let me tell you what I mean by covenantal obedience. Covenantal obedience simply refers to the bringing of our lives into submission to God's word which literally means just obeying him in every area of our lives.

[John Weaver] Now, John Owen, he's been called the prince of the Puritans and the prince of preachers, he said this in giving the nature of a covenant. He said an absolute, complete covenant is a voluntary convention, pact, or agreement between distinct persons about the ordering and dispensing of things in their power unto mutual concern and advantage.

[John Weaver] Now, I can explain what he just said. I can reduce it even further and say that a covenant is when you enter into a mutual agreement, a benefit being assured on the fulfillment of certain conditions. Let me put it like this. In a covenant, if you want the benefits, you fulfill the conditions. Isn't that simple? If you want the benefits of a covenant, you fulfill the conditions.

[John Weaver] Alice and I are married. That is a covenantal relationship. If I want the benefits of a wife, I must fulfill my responsibilities as a husband. You got me? So, if I want the blessings, If I want the benefits, I must meet the conditions.

[John Weaver] Now, look in Deuteronomy 8 and verse 11 at what I'm talking about, covenantal obedience. Begin with verse 11. Deuteronomy 8, verse 11. God gives us a warning. He says, Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments and his judgments and his statutes which I command thee this day. Now, I want you to know verse 11 is indeed a warning, and it is a warning about forgetting God. Forgetting God does not mean that you fail to think about him 24 hours a day. It is impossible to think about God 24 hours a day. It is. Because next thing you know, there's going to be a thought in your mind saying, what am I going to eat for dinner? What am I going to have for supper? Forgetting God does not mean that you keep Him on your mind 24 hours a day. Forgetting God is more than that. He is saying that forgetting God is disobedience in this context of Deuteronomy 8. Forgetting God is a refusal to obey His law.

[John Weaver] Look at it. Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, and not keeping His commandments, and His judgments, and His statutes, which I command thee this day.

[John Weaver] Now, if I ask what I'm going to have for dinner, I'm going to say, well, how do I honor God in this selection? How do I honor God? and eating this meal. You see what I'm saying? I think about him, but I think about him as I obey him, and you cannot obey him without thinking about him. And when you forget him, it means that you disobey him. You disobey his commandments, his judgments and his statutes.

[John Weaver] Now watch in verses 12 through 16. Moreover, a forgetting God is not just simply disobedience, but forgetting God Includes a failure to recognize and acknowledge his blessings. And it is a despisement of his providential dealings. Look at verse 12. Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses and dwelt therein, And when my herds and my flocks multiply, and my silver and my gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied, then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, who brought thee

[John Weaver] forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water, who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint, who fed thee in the wilderness, what manner which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, that he might prove thee to do thee good at thy latter end."

[John Weaver] Now look what he says, beginning there, verse 12. Lest when you have eaten and are full, and you've got your life all laid out, you've got a good house, and you've got Healthy herds and flocks and your silver and your gold is multiplied. Everything you have is multiplied. Your freezer's full. Then your heart being lifted up. What is the lifting up of the heart? What does it culminate in? Look in verse 17. And thou say in thine heart, my power and the might of mine hand have gotten me this wealth. I earned it. I work for it. It's mine.

[John Weaver] Now, let me make a statement. Listen carefully. Wealth is not by natural right. It is God's gift. I can prove that. Just ask yourself one question. What do you deserve from God? The answer is, if you deserve anything, it's justice. And you don't want that. Which means anything that you have, God gave you. So your wealth, no matter how small or how great, is God's gift. Everything that you receive outside of justice is God's gift. God's mercy and God says you better beware lest you forget that one simple thing that I give you everything now I Don't have time this morning to go into this, but I want to encourage you and I'll probably refer back to it later But I want to encourage you to read Deuteronomy 28. I want to encourage you to read Leviticus 26 In those passages you have the blessings and the curses Just when you get to Deuteronomy 28, the first 14 verses talk about the blessings of God.

[John Weaver] Those of you who were not here last week, I told everybody, and I brought pictures by the way, that one of our cows had twins. I told everybody that Alice was a grandma again. These are our grand calves. But anyhow, Tripp, our youngest grandson, said, Papa, do cows normally have twins? And my answer was no. They do occasionally, but it's rare. I said, but I want you to understand, son, this is just part of the blessings of God. Because if you read Deuteronomy 28, when you obey God and honor Him, His blessings will be upon your cattle and everything else. So I said the very fact that we had a cow that had twins is a sign of God's blessing and you give God the honor and glory for these two calves.

[John Weaver] And of course, He's already claimed one of them, but that's alright too. But I'm just simply pointing out, here are the blessings and the curses. I'm not about covenantal obedience. Someone's going to object and say, oh, but Brother Weaver, you told me to read Deuteronomy 28. You told me to read Leviticus 26. You're preaching from Deuteronomy 8 yourself. These are all Old Testament passages. Well, it doesn't matter. The Old Testament is equally the Word of God as the New Testament is. And both the Old Testament and the New Testament are covenantal in nature. It is true the Old Testament is a covenant, but it is equally true the New Testament is a covenant. In Luke chapter 22, verse 20, our Lord actually uses the word covenant. He says, Likewise, also, he took the cup after the supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you. The word testament is the word diapheke in the Greek. It's the same word that is translated as covenant in Hebrews 8 and 9 and a multitude of other places.

[John Weaver] In fact, when you get to Hebrews 8 and verse 6, the Bible talks about the New Testament as a better covenant. Now, when you talk about the covenants, and one of these days I'm going to have to preach a series on them, but I don't care if you're talking about the Adamic covenant, the Noahic covenant, the Sinaitic covenant, the Davidic covenant, the Abrahamic covenant, I don't care which covenant you're talking about. All covenants are nothing more than an aspect of and a manifestation of the everlasting covenant. that is spoken of in Hebrews chapter 13 verse 20 when the word of God says now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant. So it is true the New Testament is coming at you just like the Old Testament and it seems like I remember reading somewhere in my Bible Then our Lord said something like this.

[John Weaver] If you love me, what? Keep my commandments. Covenantal. Covenantal obedience. The first hinge is covenantal obedience. The second hinge is individual responsibility. Let me explain that. I'm not going to take long, but listen carefully. Covenantal obedience does not negate personal responsibility. Somebody says, well, we've obeyed. Let's just sit back and wait for the blessings to pour in. No, it's not enough to obey. We must obey God, but we also must fulfill all of our responsibilities in every sphere and in every area of our lives.

[John Weaver] Look in your Bibles to the book of Proverbs 28 and verse 20. We're going to be looking at a number of passages here in the book of Proverbs. Look at Proverbs 28 and verse 20. Look what the Bible says. Proverbs 28, verse 20. A faithful man shall abound with blessings, but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.

[John Weaver] Now note the first part. A faithful man shall abound with blessings. I want you to understand it is only thankful men that abound with blessings, not the lazy, not the indolent, not the haphazard, not the worthless, not the slothful, not the wasteful. Only thankful men shall abound with blessings. Look in Proverbs 27, beginning there in verse 23. Proverbs 27, verse 23, Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks. and look well to thy herds.

[John Weaver] For riches are not forever, and doth the crown endure to every generation. The hay appeareth, and the tender grass showeth itself, and the herbs of the mountains are gathered. The lambs are for thy clothing, and the goats for the price of the field. And thou shalt have goat's milk enough for thy food, and for the food of thy household, and for the maidens thou maidens." Now, wait a minute. How in the world are we going to have clothing enough and food enough?

[John Weaver] Go back to verse 23. Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks and look well to thy herds.

[John Weaver] Now, let me point something out. Diligence is not something that you do occasionally. Diligence is something that requires a continuous activity. It seems to me like our Lord told Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 2, that he was to preach the word. He was to be instant when in season and out of season. In other words, he was to be diligent. So diligence is something that requires a continual activity.

[John Weaver] Let me go back to this illustration of this calf. One of the calves we are raising on a bottle. And, you know, they like to eat every four hours. But let's suppose that Alice and I were diligent, diligent in feeding that calf every four hours for the first week. And the next two weeks we ceased to be diligent and we just did feeding. Would you like to tell me what the state of my calf is going to be? Dead.

[John Weaver] You see what I'm saying? You and I can't sit back and say, well, I was diligent one time in my life. I used to be diligent. No. Diligence requires a constant and a continual activity. Look in your Bibles to Proverbs 6. You know this passage and you probably knew I was going to get to it. Proverbs 6, we're talking about individual responsibility. Proverbs 6, beginning there, verse 6. What does God say?

[John Weaver] Go to the aunt, thou sluggard, consider her ways, and be wise. Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provided their meat in the summer, and gathered their food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou rise out of thy sleep? Yet little sleep, a little slumber, little folding of the hands of the fleet, so shall thy poverty come as one that traveleth, and thy want as an armed man. Go to the aunt, thou sluggard, consider her ways, and be wise.

[John Weaver] Have you ever seen an ant resting? No. Those ants diligently store up in the summer so they'll have something for the winter. And they're diligent even in seeking food during the winter down south. They're even diligent in building their nest in your yard. Especially the fire ants. Everywhere. But look what he says. Go to the ant house, look. Consider her ways and be wise. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands. Wait a minute. Look in chapter 10 of Proverbs verses 4 and 5. Let's see. Proverbs 10 verse 4, he becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand, but the hand of the diligent maketh rich. He that gathereth in summer is a wise son, but he that sleepeth and harvests is a son that causeth shame. So he says, he that dealeth with the poor, he becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand, but it's only the hand of the diligent that becometh rich. Look in your Bibles to Proverbs 24. Proverbs 24. beginning there in verse 30.

[John Weaver] Proverbs 24, verse 30. The wise man said, I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding, and though it was all grown over with thorns and nettles and covered and had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall there was broken down. Then I saw, and I considered it well, I looked upon it, and received instruction, to get a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, so shall my poverty come as one that traveleth, and my want as an armed man."

[John Weaver] So what does he say? The slothful does not take care of his guard. There's another verse, the slothful man roasted not that which he took in honey. The point I'm trying to make is this. Diligent labor produces wealth when the blessings of God rest upon that labor. Let me spell something else out for you. Sloth is wickedness. Laziness is sin. The blessings of God are promised to the faithful only as they diligently fulfill their responsibilities before God. I have known people, and you have known people, that will lay out of work when there's no reason to lay out of work. Let me tell you something. There's a difference between being sick and sorry. When I'm sick, I want the bed, and I want my wife.

[John Weaver] Bring me tea, and wait on me, and doctor me, and humor me, and go by and pet me every now and then and say, poor baby, poor baby, poor baby. And when that happens, I'm sick. But I want to tell you something. If I just got up one morning and said, oh, well, I'm not sick, but I just don't feel like doing anything. I'm just going to stay in bed. That's sorryness. When you get up and start doing what you're obligated and responsible to do, that's when you start feeling better.

[John Weaver] God has ordained it where our feelings are never ever to lead us, but to follow. And whenever we do what is right, we feel right. God is saying it is the diligent that shall be made rich.

[John Weaver] Now listen, lawful wealth, biblical wealth, It's wealth that comes to man as he abides by and as he obeys God's law, applying work, thrift, and forethought to his activities. So the door of God's blessings swings upon two hinges, covenantal obedience and individual responsibility.

[John Weaver] Now, let me make just a couple of applications. The first one is this. I've already said it. I'll show it to you in the Bible. Wealth, in and of itself, is not necessarily a sign of God's blessing or God's favor. It can be a sign of fraud, theft, and wickedness. If you look in your Bibles to the book of James, chapter 5, you'll see where wealth can become destruction and condemnation. James 5, beginning there with verse 1, look how James condemns the rich men.

[John Weaver] Now, he's not condemning them for being rich, but he's condemning them for abusing what God has given them. James 5, verse 1, Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are mothy. Your gold and silver is cankered. Why? And the rest of them shall be witness against you. Why? And shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Why?

[John Weaver] You have heaped up treasure together for the last days. Why? Here's why. Behold, the higher of your labors who have reaped down your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry it. And the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of the Sabbath. You have lived in pleasure on earth. You have been wanton. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter.

[John Weaver] You have condemned and killed the just. and he doth not resist you. What are they doing? They're abusing and misusing the wealth that God has given them. The Bible says in Proverbs 16 and verse 19, better it is to be of a humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoiled with the proud. So riches in and of itself does not mean that someone has the blessing and the favor of God.

[John Weaver] The second application is this. A general rule can be stated based upon individual responsibility. Where there is no character, there is no capitalization. Where there is no character, there is no capitalization. When a man will not work, when a man will not think, when a man will not plan, when a man will not use forethought, When he does not have the character to do those things, usually there's not going to be any capitalization. He's not going to get wealthy, he's not going to get rich, because he does not have the character to follow through on what needs to be done.

[John Weaver] Where these unbiblical attributes exist, that is laziness, slothfulness, indolence, you can mark her down. God is not going to honor those unbiblical attributes. And lastly, I pointed out last week and will point it out again, although it is true that God blesses obedience and honest labor, yet riches are not to be sought as an end in themselves, but only as a means to the end. And as God said in Matthew 6 and verse 33, seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

[John Weaver] And then all these other things shall be added unto you. It's not riches we seek, but God. And as we obey Him and fulfill our responsibility, we seek His blessings upon our work, upon our obedience, upon our efforts. And He is the one that giveth us power to get well. The subjects of wealth Generally speaking, those who are covenantally obedient and who fulfill their individual responsibilities. Let's pray.

[John Weaver] Father, we do ask that you would help us and teach us, build us up in the most holy faith. Lord, may we understand the importance and the necessity of covenantal obedience as well as individual responsibility. Teach us, Lord, to do thy will to do thy work, and to obey thy word. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.

Biblical Wealth - Part 2 of 8

John Weaver | SermonAudio

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	SermonAudio
Media ID	7190495445
Subject	Covenant Theology
Course	Covenant Theology: Blessings, Curses, and Sanctions: The Hallelujah of Confession
Genre	Sermon
Date	2004-07-11
Dictation Name
Book	Book 052: Biblical Wealth — Chapter 2
Source Timed Segments	104

Formatted Transcript

Introduction: One Sacred Sphere

Weaver refutes the Thomistic dualism of sacred and secular, asserting that for the Christian, every activity must be done for God's glory, as taught in 1 Corinthians 10:31 and Colossians 3:23.

Deuteronomy chapter 8. Deuteronomy chapter 8. And once again, let's read this passage, Deuteronomy chapter 8. And let's begin reading there with verse 1. Deuteronomy 8, verse 1:

Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 8:1-20

"All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers. And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years. Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee." "Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him. For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey; a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass. When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee. Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day: lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee" "forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint; who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end; and thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day. And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish. As the nations which the Lord destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God."

Now, I want to ask that you turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter 2. I dealt with this passage last week. I'm just simply going to read it again this week because we're still dealing with sovereignty. Last week, it was the sovereignty and the source of wealth. This week, the sovereignty and the subjects of wealth. So in 1 Samuel 2, look please at verse 7 and verse 8. Here the word of God says:

Scripture Reading — 1 Samuel 2:7-8

"The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and he hath set the world upon them."

Verse 7 says it is the Lord that maketh poor, and of course it is the Lord that maketh rich. Now, as you go back to Deuteronomy 8 and verse 18, you remember, he says, "But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth."

Now, last week, I began with a rather long introduction because I dealt with a philosophy known as Thomism, which, of course, is the teaching of Thomas Aquinas, who is a Roman Catholic theologian, logician, and philosopher. And of course, the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas was accepted and received in 1879, I believe it is, by the Pope and established as the official philosophy of the Roman Catholic Church. Now, I pointed out in my introduction what Thomas Aquinas had tried to do was this: he tried to synthesize, that is to draw and bring together and bind together, the teachings of Greek philosophy and of the teachings of the Bible, particularly the teachings of Plato and Aristotle. Now, you've got to remember that in the teachings of Plato and Aristotle, and especially in Greek philosophy, the Greeks were dualistic.

That is, they believed that there were two spheres. There was the sphere of matter, which was inherently evil, and there was the sphere of spirit or form or ideas, which was inherently good. And so what Thomas did was he took the teachings then, especially of Plato and Aristotle, and he said that, look, you can talk to men about the Bible using philosophy, especially Greek philosophies, even if those men do not accept the Bible as a supernatural revelation of God. And of course, because he is the one that made this teaching popular, it has come down through the Roman Catholic Church and has infected countless millions of Christians. A lot of Christians who have never been to a Roman Catholic Church, would never dream of going to a Roman Catholic Church, are good Roman Catholics in their philosophy and they don't even realize it because they have been affected and infected with Thomism or the teachings of Thomas Aquinas. He was the one that began separating everything into two spheres, the secular and the sacred. I told you last week that is where churchanity developed, because now people can come to church on Sunday morning and they feel spiritual and pious and holy, and then they'll go out Monday through Saturday and live as if God does not exist, or God had never spoken, and their lives are totally alienated from the truth of God Monday through Saturday. Why? Because they've fallen to the concept that life is divided into two spheres.

Now let me emphasize today, for the child of God, there is no such division. The biblical philosophy teaches that there is only one sphere, and that is the sacred. Look in your Bibles, hold Deuteronomy 8, but look in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 31. Then we're going to the book of Colossians 3. So look first of all in 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 31. Here's a passage connected with the passage in Colossians that ought to show you emphatically that there is only one sphere for the child of God. First Corinthians chapter 10.

Note, if you would please, and verse 31, the Bible says, "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." Now, note, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do—dig in a ditch, washing dishes, flying an airplane, driving an automobile, selling insurance—whatever you do, do all to the honor and glory of God. One sphere, not two spheres. Then if you look in the book of Colossians chapter 3 and verse 23, here it is again stated rather bluntly. Colossians 3, verse 23, the Bible says, "And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men." Why? "Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ." So it says, whatever you do, you do it for God's honor and God's glory.

Now, let me make this principle exceedingly clear. For the Christian, there is no such thing as a king's X. There is no such thing as neutral territory. There is no such thing as time out. For the Christian, every activity, every attitude, every action is to be brought in submission to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, I've quoted this verse and I can quote it now, but I want you to turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 10 and look at verse 5. Let me just show you 2 Corinthians 10 and verse 5. I'm just demonstrating the fact that there is only one sphere for the child of God, and that is the sacred. To us, everything is sacred. Notice 2 Corinthians 10 and verse 5. He says,

Scripture Reading — 2 Corinthians 10:5

"Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."

How many thoughts are you and I allowed that are unbiblical? None. Which means everything we do in word or deed, whatever we do, is to be done for God's honor and God's glory.

Now, there can only be one sphere since God is the creator of all things in heaven and in earth. Now, there are many implications of the doctrine of creation. But one of those implications is simply this, that God reigns sovereignly and supremely over all of his creation. Therefore, as his creatures, he demands that we honor and glorify him. And certainly, if we are His children by faith in Jesus Christ, we have a double demand laid upon us that we bring honor and glory to Him.

Wealth as a Sign of God's Favor: General Principle

In the Old Testament, material blessings often indicated God's favor, as seen in the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and others, though exceptions exist.

It is true, especially in the Old Testament economy, and it could be also true in the New Testament economy, that generally speaking, material blessings were indeed a sign of God's favor. Now, please understand, I said generally speaking. There are general principles in the Bible. There are always exceptions to those general principles. For instance, when you come to Proverbs 23, the Bible says, "Beat thy child with a rod; if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell." Does that mean that every child that's ever been beat with a rod is going to heaven? No. All that means is, generally speaking, if you will discipline your child based upon the teaching of the Word of God, with God's blessing upon those means and with God's blessing upon that discipline, then the child may be converted. But that does not mean that every child that's ever been whipped with a rod is going to heaven. If it does mean that, the best evangelistic method that you and I could choose would be get a rod in each hand and go out and just beat the devil out of everybody.

You see what I'm saying? It's a general principle. And so we've got a general principle, yes, in the Old Testament, usually wealth was a sign of God's favor and God's blessings. I know there are exceptions to that. I'm going to deal with those in just a moment. But let me show you. I want you to consider Abraham with me just for a moment. Go to Genesis 13. And let me just show you, generally speaking, how that wealth was indeed a favor and a blessing of God. Genesis chapter 13.

And notice, if you would please, beginning there with verse 2. Genesis 13. The Bible says that

Scripture Reading — Genesis 13:2

Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.

Look in chapter 14, beginning there, verse 13. This is where, of course, Abraham rescues his brother Lot, actually his nephew. Verse 13, Genesis 14, "And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew; for he dwelt in the plain of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner: and these were confederate with Abram. And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan." Now, wait a minute.

Let me just stop there. We're talking about Abraham being wealthy. Three hundred and eighteen trained servants or trained slaves. They were born in his own house. So if he had 318 slaves that were born in his own house, how many did he have that were not born? There is the extreme possibility that the family of Abraham was probably several thousand. But now watch this. Verse 15, "And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus."

"And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people. And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king's dale. And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: and blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all. And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself. And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I"

Scripture Reading — Genesis 14:13-23

"have made Abram rich: save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion."

What did Abram say? I'm not going to take a penny from you because I don't want you to say that you made me rich. You did not make me rich. Look at Genesis 24 and verse 1. You know the story how Abraham is seeking a bride for his son Isaac. The Bible said, "And Abraham was old, and well stricken in age: and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things." Note that phrase, "the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things."

Scripture Reading — Genesis 24:1, 34-36

Now, skip down in the same chapter to verse 34, because here the servant is telling how God has blessed him. Verse 34, the Bible says, "And he said, I am Abraham's servant. And the Lord hath blessed my master greatly; and he is become great: and he hath given him flocks, and herds, and silver, and gold, and menservants, and maidservants, and camels, and asses. And Sarah my master's wife bare a son to my master when she was old: and unto him hath he given all that he hath." I mean, look at the extreme wealth that Abraham had, and God gave it to him. Now, remember, there was another title given Abraham. He was called the friend of God. But look at Isaac. Look at Genesis chapter 26, very quickly, beginning there, verse 12. You remember, Isaac, of course, was the son of Abraham. Notice Genesis chapter 26, beginning there, verse 12. "Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the Lord blessed him. And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great: for he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants."

"And the Philistines envied him." Look down in verse 16 what the Philistines finally said, "And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we." Now he was living in the land of the Philistines. I told you Abraham probably had several thousand people in his household. And now the Philistines are telling Isaac, you're stronger than we are. You have more people than we do. You have more wealth than we do. Go from us.

Now, I'm not going to spend my time this morning just showing you how God blessed these individuals materially. If I were to take the time for you and I to consider Jacob, David, Solomon, Job, and a multitude of others, we'd literally be here all day long. It is true that God blessed these men with wealth, and He blessed them with a great deal of it. There's no arguing that. So I'm just saying, generally speaking, generally speaking, there is a general rule that it is true that the blessings of God and the favor of God are sometimes evidenced by great wealth.

Wealth as a Curse to the Wicked

Wealth can become a snare and destruction for the ungodly who trust in riches rather than God, as illustrated in Psalm 69, Job 12, and Proverbs.

You say, wait a minute, Pastor. As I read the Bible, I also find that there were others who were extremely wealthy, who were ungodly, unholy, and were not interested in anything that was righteous. Moreover, some hated God and hated his law, and yet they were wealthy. How do we explain that? Well, you've got to remember that that which is a blessing to one person could also be a curse to another. Let me explain that. Do you realize the very blessings of God when they are abused and misused become a snare and a destruction?

Look in your Bibles Psalm 69. Psalm 69. I want you to note this. Prayer of the Psalmist, Psalm 69 verse 22. Psalm 69 verse 22. David is praying against the wicked. And he makes this prayer request in verse 22: "Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap." Now, look, let their table become a snare.

Now, the table simply refers to that which they're given, that which they're supplied with, that which they're blessed with. And instead of being thankful unto God, the giver of all things, what does the table become? It becomes a carnal security to those who trust in the table. So he says, let their table, let that which has been given unto them, let it become a snare unto them, and that which should have been for their benefit, let it become a trap unto them. The Puritans had a saying. It went like this: God oftentimes curses his enemies with riches. God oftentimes curses his enemies with riches. How could they say such a thing? Because wealth and riches, misused and abused, always become a source of self-confidence, transgression, condemnation, and destruction. Let me show you. Look in your Bibles, first of all, to the book of Job chapter 12. Job chapter 12, and then we're going to the Psalms and then to the Proverbs. Job 12 and verse 6.

Here's a passage that most people do not even know is in the Bible. And yet here it is. Job 12 verse 6: "The tabernacles of robbers prosper, and they that provoke God are secure; into whose hand God bringeth abundantly." Now, why would God bring abundantly into the hands of someone who is a robber or a thief or someone who is wicked and wrong? Why would God bring material wealth and riches into their hands? And the answer is for their own condemnation and destruction. Go back in your Bibles or turn over, I should say, to Psalm 62. Psalm 62. And look in verse 10. Psalm 62, verse 10. Look what God says:

Scripture Reading — Psalm 62:10

"Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery: if riches increase, set not your heart upon them."

If riches increase, set not your heart upon them. What is he saying? You don't sit back and glory in the fact, well, I've got millions. I've got hundreds of thousands. No, you don't set your heart upon wealth. Our hearts are to be set upon God and God alone. Look in the book of Proverbs chapter 11. Proverbs 11. Notice if you would please verse 4 to begin with. Proverbs 11 verse 4.

"Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivereth from death." Now watch. Riches profit not in the day of wrath. Let me ask you a question. What do you suppose the Kennedy wealth or the Rockefeller wealth will do for them the day they die? Nothing. Profit not in the day of wrath. Do you realize all the wealth in the world cannot extend your life one minute beyond the time that God has ordained for you to die? It can't. Riches profit not in the day of wrath.

Scripture Reading — Proverbs 11:4, 28

Look in verse 28 of the same chapter. Proverbs 11 verse 28: "He that trusteth in his riches shall fall: but the righteous shall flourish as a branch." He that trusteth in his riches shall fall. What do rich men normally do? Trust in their riches.

Now I told you in the first sermon, and I'm just repeating it right here, riches per se are not condemned in the scripture. Wealth is not condemned in the scripture. It is the abuse and the misuse of riches and wealth that is condemned. God said, if riches increase, set not your heart upon them. And now here he is saying very obviously, he that trusts in his riches shall fall. So some will not take heed to God's warning and they trust in that which God has given them. It is for their own destruction. Look in Proverbs 18 and verse 11. Proverbs 18, verse 11. Look what the Bible says:

Scripture Reading — Proverbs 18:11

"The rich man's wealth is his strong city, and as an high wall in his own conceit."

The rich man's wealth is his strong city. I can show you verses in the Bible where the rich say, "I shall never be in adversity as other men are."

Lord, they don't think anything's going to ever happen to them. The wicked say that. They don't think God will ever judge them, God will ever chastise them, God will ever condemn them. But yet what they do is they trust in their wealth. Prosperity in and of itself is not a sign of godliness. Oftentimes it is a sign of destruction depending upon how the prosperity is handled.

Now I want you to turn in your Bibles if you would to Psalm 73 because I want to show you a passage that is exceedingly applicable today. Psalm 73 is the Psalm of Asaph. A-S-A-P-H. Asaph. Asaph wrote Psalm 73. David, by the way, did not write all of the Psalms. He wrote most of them. Solomon wrote some. Asaph wrote some. A few others wrote some as well. But notice Psalm 73.

The Perplexity of the Righteous: Psalm 73

Asaph envied the prosperity of the wicked until he understood their end—destruction—and realized that the righteous will ultimately inherit all things.

Now let me just point out that we have today, in one sense of the word, the same perplexity that Asaph and some of the others had in the Old Testament. You say, what are you talking about? Well, I've mentioned this to you before. I want you to stop and think about this in light of Christianity. And I'm not crying when I tell you this. I'm just using this as an illustration, okay? Here we sit in a little building with the truth, doing everything we can to get the truth out. We send, I don't know how many audio tapes out every week, CDs, DVDs, all the sermons are on sermonaudio.com. I've gotten letters, and I'm thankful, from just about every country in the world who've listened to the messages either on the Internet or CD or DVD or audio. But the point I'm trying to make is here we are limited. We don't have much. And we have the truth and we really want to get it out.

Now you compare our situation with the money that the Crystal Cathedral gets. Or the money of someone who denies the deity of Christ. You see what I'm saying? Here are humongous church buildings with thousands of people that do nothing rather than build buildings. Like Hosea says, Israel had forgotten their maker and built temples.

Now, is that not perplexing? Can you not ask yourself, well, Lord, why do you not give us millions? Why don't you give it to them? Look what we could do with it. Well, the point I'm trying to make is Asaph had the same problem. And you've got to come to the answer that Asaph came to. Let's look at verse 1, Psalm 73. Asaph says,

Scripture Reading — Psalm 73:1-22

"Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart."

Now, he roots his conclusion at the very beginning. Truly, God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. "But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped." Now, why did Asaph get in a period of depression, discouragement, and despair? Here's why. He says, "For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked." I mean, the wicked were prospering, he said, and I wasn't. "For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men." I mean, the ungodly don't have the problems we have.

"Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish." Most of us would like a decent automobile, and they drive Jaguars. You follow me? Their eyes stand out with fatness. They have more than heart could wish. "They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily." Watch this. "They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth." In other words, they curse God and man as well. It doesn't matter to them. "Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High? Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches."

Think of the Bilderbergers, the CFR, the Skull and Bones Society. Do you know any poor people among those? No. Their eyes stand out with fatness. They have more than heart could wish. These are the ungodly who prosper in the world. They increase in riches.

Now look what Asaph says in verse 13. "Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning." He says, Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain. What good has it done me to be obedient? What good has it done me to be godly and holy? What good has it done me to live by God's Word? Man, he said, I've cleansed my heart in vain. I've washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long I have been plagued and chastened every morning. He said, man, instead of being blessed, instead of being prosperous, I'm the one that's suffering. I'm the one that's trying to do what's right. Look at the wicked.

They've got everything and they hate God. He said in verse 14, "For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning. If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end." "Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image. Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins. So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee." He said, O God, when I saw their end, I was thanking God I was not one of them and had everything that they had. Because you will despise them and you will destroy them.

But I will have you. Asaph said, I'd rather be a Christian, I'd rather be a child of God and suffer and do without than have the riches of the wicked. Now listen to me, folks. God oftentimes curses his enemies with riches. Why? For their own condemnation. For their own destruction. That's what he said in Psalm 73. But let me just show you very quickly a couple of verses. I want you to understand something. Then in reality, it really doesn't matter what the wicked have. And you know why? Because ultimately, we're going to end up with all of it.

You say, what are you talking about? Well, let me show you. Look in your Bibles for Proverbs chapter 13, verse 22. Proverbs 13, verse 22.

But the Bible says, "A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just." Well, who's going to ultimately end up with everything? The just. The just. You know, it is so amazing. You can take a child and hold up a quarter and say, you see this quarter? Yes, sir. I will either give you this quarter right now, or if you will wait a week from now, I'll give you a $10 bill. You know what the child's going to normally do? He's going to take the quarter. Doesn't understand, doesn't want to wait. But you know a lot of adults are like that.

That's why we're dead up to our eyeballs. We want what we want right now. We don't want to wait. God says you just wait because the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. Look in your Bibles to Proverbs 28 and verse 8. Proverbs 28 verse 8. Here it is again stated a different way. Proverbs 28 verse 8: "He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance"

"he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor." So what are the ungodly doing? They're actually just collecting it all together for those who are going to be obedient to God. And if you want a plainer verse, look in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. And let's begin reading there with verse 21. I wish I had time to give you the entire context of 1 Corinthians 1 through 4, but let me just give you 1 Corinthians 3, beginning there at verse 21. Look what the Apostle Paul says.

"Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's." So let me ask you, how much is the Christian going to end up with? Everything. You see what I'm saying? I'd rather wait and get everything than be sinful and just get a little. You follow me? Why in the world would you be envious of the wicked when you understand that they're just laying it up for you and you're going to eventually get it? And you, because everything in this world is ours. Now.

I've said all that to say this. Prosperity cannot be viewed or regarded as a sign of God's blessing in every instance. But as a general rule, it is true that God does bless his own. If I were to ask you, how many in this room are blessed today? Every one of us. None of us have gone hungry. God does bless his own. There's no two ways about that.

The Two Hinges of God's Blessing

God's blessings generally depend on covenantal obedience (submission to His commands) and individual responsibility (diligent, faithful labor).

Now, it may not be possible to answer that question totally, exclusively. It may not even be possible to answer it in every individual case, but I can give you two hinges upon which the door of God's blessings usually swings. The door of God's blessing usually swings upon two principles. What are they? The first hinge, and I'll explain it, is covenantal obedience. And the second hinge is individual responsibility. So let's cover, first of all, the first hinge, covenantal obedience.

Now, I want you to turn back in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 8, because we're going to be looking at this passage a little more closely in just a moment. But let me tell you what I mean by covenantal obedience. Covenantal obedience simply refers to the bringing of our lives into submission to God's word, which literally means just obeying him in every area of our lives. Now, John Owen, he's been called the prince of the Puritans and the prince of preachers, he said this in giving the nature of a covenant. He said an absolute, complete covenant is a voluntary convention, pact, or agreement between distinct persons about the ordering and dispensing of things in their power unto mutual concern and advantage.

Now, I can explain what he just said. I can reduce it even further and say that a covenant is when you enter into a mutual agreement, a benefit being assured on the fulfillment of certain conditions. Let me put it like this. In a covenant, if you want the benefits, you fulfill the conditions. Isn't that simple? If you want the benefits of a covenant, you fulfill the conditions. Alice and I are married. That is a covenantal relationship. If I want the benefits of a wife, I must fulfill my responsibilities as a husband. You got me? So, if I want the blessings, if I want the benefits, I must meet the conditions.

Now, look in Deuteronomy 8 and verse 11 at what I'm talking about, covenantal obedience. Begin with verse 11. Deuteronomy 8, verse 11. God gives us a warning. He says, "Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day." Now, I want you to know verse 11 is indeed a warning, and it is a warning about forgetting God. Forgetting God does not mean that you fail to think about him 24 hours a day. It is impossible to think about God 24 hours a day. It is. Because next thing you know, there's going to be a thought in your mind saying, what am I going to eat for dinner? What am I going to have for supper? Forgetting God does not mean that you keep Him on your mind 24 hours a day. Forgetting God is more than that. He is saying that forgetting God is disobedience in this context of Deuteronomy 8. Forgetting God is a refusal to obey His law.

Look at it. "Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day." Now, if I ask what I'm going to have for dinner, I'm going to say, well, how do I honor God in this selection? How do I honor God in eating this meal? You see what I'm saying? I think about him, but I think about him as I obey him, and you cannot obey him without thinking about him. And when you forget him, it means that you disobey him. You disobey his commandments, his judgments, and his statutes.

Now watch in verses 12 through 16. Moreover, a forgetting God is not just simply disobedience, but forgetting God includes a failure to recognize and acknowledge his blessings. And it is a despisement of his providential dealings. Look at verse 12. "Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee" "forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint; who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end."

Now look what he says, beginning there, verse 12. Lest when you have eaten and are full, and you've got your life all laid out, you've got a good house, and you've got healthy herds and flocks and your silver and your gold is multiplied. Everything you have is multiplied. Your freezer's full. Then your heart being lifted up. What is the lifting up of the heart? What does it culminate in? Look in verse 17. "And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth." I earned it. I worked for it. It's mine.

Now, let me make a statement. Listen carefully. Wealth is not by natural right. It is God's gift. I can prove that. Just ask yourself one question. What do you deserve from God? The answer is, if you deserve anything, it's justice. And you don't want that. Which means anything that you have, God gave you. So your wealth, no matter how small or how great, is God's gift. Everything that you receive outside of justice is God's gift. God's mercy. And God says you better beware lest you forget that one simple thing, that I give you everything. Now, I don't have time this morning to go into this, but I want to encourage you, and I'll probably refer back to it later, but I want to encourage you to read Deuteronomy 28. I want to encourage you to read Leviticus 26. In those passages you have the blessings and the curses. Just when you get to Deuteronomy 28, the first 14 verses talk about the blessings of God.

Those of you who were not here last week, I told everybody, and I brought pictures by the way, that one of our cows had twins. I told everybody that Alice was a grandma again. These are our grand calves. But anyhow, Tripp, our youngest grandson, said, "Papa, do cows normally have twins?" And my answer was no. They do occasionally, but it's rare. I said, but I want you to understand, son, this is just part of the blessings of God. Because if you read Deuteronomy 28, when you obey God and honor Him, His blessings will be upon your cattle and everything else. So I said the very fact that we had a cow that had twins is a sign of God's blessing and you give God the honor and glory for these two calves.

And of course, He's already claimed one of them, but that's alright too. But I'm just simply pointing out, here are the blessings and the curses. I'm talking about covenantal obedience. Someone's going to object and say, oh, but Brother Weaver, you told me to read Deuteronomy 28. You told me to read Leviticus 26. You're preaching from Deuteronomy 8 yourself. These are all Old Testament passages. Well, it doesn't matter. The Old Testament is equally the Word of God as the New Testament is. And both the Old Testament and the New Testament are covenantal in nature. It is true the Old Testament is a covenant, but it is equally true the New Testament is a covenant. In Luke chapter 22, verse 20, our Lord actually uses the word covenant. He says, "Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you." The word testament is the word diatheke in the Greek. It's the same word that is translated as covenant in Hebrews 8 and 9 and a multitude of other places.

In fact, when you get to Hebrews 8 and verse 6, the Bible talks about the New Testament as a better covenant. Now, when you talk about the covenants, and one of these days I'm going to have to preach a series on them, but I don't care if you're talking about the Adamic covenant, the Noahic covenant, the Sinaitic covenant, the Davidic covenant, the Abrahamic covenant, I don't care which covenant you're talking about. All covenants are nothing more than an aspect of and a manifestation of the everlasting covenant that is spoken of in Hebrews chapter 13 verse 20 when the word of God says, "Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant." So it is true the New Testament is coming at you just like the Old Testament. And it seems like I remember reading somewhere in my Bible that our Lord said something like this.

"If ye love me, keep my commandments." Covenantal. Covenantal obedience. The first hinge is covenantal obedience. The second hinge is individual responsibility. Let me explain that. I'm not going to take long, but listen carefully. Covenantal obedience does not negate personal responsibility. Somebody says, well, we've obeyed. Let's just sit back and wait for the blessings to pour in. No, it's not enough to obey. We must obey God, but we also must fulfill all of our responsibilities in every sphere and in every area of our lives.

Look in your Bibles to the book of Proverbs 28 and verse 20. We're going to be looking at a number of passages here in the book of Proverbs. Look at Proverbs 28 and verse 20. Look what the Bible says. Proverbs 28, verse 20: "A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent."

Now note the first part. A faithful man shall abound with blessings. I want you to understand it is only faithful men that abound with blessings, not the lazy, not the indolent, not the haphazard, not the worthless, not the slothful, not the wasteful. Only faithful men shall abound with blessings. Look in Proverbs 27, beginning there in verse 23. Proverbs 27, verse 23: "Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds." "For riches are not for ever: and doth the crown endure to every generation? The hay appeareth, and the tender grass sheweth itself, and herbs of the mountains are gathered. The lambs are for thy clothing, and the goats are the price of the field. And thou shalt have goats' milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy household, and for the maintenance for thy maidens." Now, wait a minute. How in the world are we going to have clothing enough and food enough?

Go back to verse 23. "Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds." Now, let me point something out. Diligence is not something that you do occasionally. Diligence is something that requires a continuous activity. It seems to me like our Lord told Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 2, that he was to preach the word; he was to be instant in season, out of season. In other words, he was to be diligent. So diligence is something that requires a continual activity.

Let me go back to this illustration of this calf. One of the calves we are raising on a bottle. And, you know, they like to eat every four hours. But let's suppose that Alice and I were diligent, diligent in feeding that calf every four hours for the first week. And the next two weeks we ceased to be diligent and we just quit feeding. Would you like to tell me what the state of my calf is going to be? Dead.

You see what I'm saying? You and I can't sit back and say, well, I was diligent one time in my life. I used to be diligent. No. Diligence requires a constant and a continual activity. Look in your Bibles to Proverbs 6. You know this passage and you probably knew I was going to get to it. Proverbs 6, we're talking about individual responsibility. Proverbs 6, beginning there, verse 6. What does God say?

"Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: so shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man." Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Have you ever seen an ant resting? No. Those ants diligently store up in the summer so they'll have something for the winter. And they're diligent even in seeking food during the winter down south. They're even diligent in building their nest in your yard. Especially the fire ants. Everywhere. But look what he says. Go to the ant, thou sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands. Wait a minute. Look in chapter 10 of Proverbs verses 4 and 5. Let's see. Proverbs 10 verse 4: "He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich. He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame." So he says, he that dealeth with a slack hand becometh poor, but it's only the hand of the diligent that becometh rich. Look in your Bibles to Proverbs 24. Proverbs 24, beginning there in verse 30.

Proverbs 24, verse 30. The wise man said, "I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; and, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: so shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man."

So what does he say? The slothful does not take care of his garden. There's another verse, "The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting." The point I'm trying to make is this: diligent labor produces wealth when the blessings of God rest upon that labor. Let me spell something else out for you. Sloth is wickedness. Laziness is sin. The blessings of God are promised to the faithful only as they diligently fulfill their responsibilities before God. I have known people, and you have known people, that will lay out of work when there's no reason to lay out of work. Let me tell you something. There's a difference between being sick and sorry. When I'm sick, I want the bed, and I want my wife.

Bring me tea, and wait on me, and doctor me, and humor me, and go by and pet me every now and then and say, poor baby, poor baby, poor baby. And when that happens, I'm sick. But I want to tell you something. If I just got up one morning and said, oh, well, I'm not sick, but I just don't feel like doing anything. I'm just going to stay in bed. That's sorriness. When you get up and start doing what you're obligated and responsible to do, that's when you start feeling better.

God has ordained it where our feelings are never ever to lead us, but to follow. And whenever we do what is right, we feel right. God is saying it is the diligent that shall be made rich. Now listen, lawful wealth, biblical wealth, it's wealth that comes to man as he abides by and as he obeys God's law, applying work, thrift, and forethought to his activities. So the door of God's blessings swings upon two hinges, covenantal obedience and individual responsibility.

Applications and Conclusion

Wealth is not inherently a sign of blessing; character and diligence are essential; riches should be sought only as a means to glorify God, not as an end.

Now, let me make just a couple of applications. The first one is this. I've already said it. I'll show it to you in the Bible. Wealth, in and of itself, is not necessarily a sign of God's blessing or God's favor. It can be a sign of fraud, theft, and wickedness. If you look in your Bibles to the book of James, chapter 5, you'll see where wealth can become destruction and condemnation. James 5, beginning there with verse 1, look how James condemns the rich men.

Now, he's not condemning them for being rich, but he's condemning them for abusing what God has given them. James 5, verse 1: "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days." Why? "Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you."

What are they doing? They're abusing and misusing the wealth that God has given them. The Bible says in Proverbs 16 and verse 19, "Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud." So riches in and of itself does not mean that someone has the blessing and the favor of God. The second application is this. A general rule can be stated based upon individual responsibility. Where there is no character, there is no capitalization. Where there is no character, there is no capitalization. When a man will not work, when a man will not think, when a man will not plan, when a man will not use forethought, when he does not have the character to do those things, usually there's not going to be any capitalization. He's not going to get wealthy, he's not going to get rich, because he does not have the character to follow through on what needs to be done.

Where these unbiblical attributes exist, that is laziness, slothfulness, indolence, you can mark her down. God is not going to honor those unbiblical attributes. And lastly, I pointed out last week and will point it out again, although it is true that God blesses obedience and honest labor, yet riches are not to be sought as an end in themselves, but only as a means to the end. And as God said in Matthew 6 and verse 33, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness." And then all these other things shall be added unto you. It's not riches we seek, but God. And as we obey Him and fulfill our responsibility, we seek His blessings upon our work, upon our obedience, upon our efforts. And He is the one that giveth us power to get wealth. The subjects of wealth: generally speaking, those who are covenantally obedient and who fulfill their individual responsibilities. Let's pray.

Father, we do ask that you would help us and teach us, build us up in the most holy faith. Lord, may we understand the importance and the necessity of covenantal obedience as well as individual responsibility. Teach us, Lord, to do thy will, to do thy work, and to obey thy word. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.

Study Guide

Major Themes

Sovereignty of God over Wealth

Summary: God is the ultimate source of wealth, making both rich and poor according to His sovereign will.

Evidence: Deuteronomy 8:18 and 1 Samuel 2:7-8 are cited to show that God gives power to get wealth and determines poverty or riches.

Unity of the Sacred Sphere

Summary: For Christians, there is no division between sacred and secular; all of life must be lived for God's glory.

Evidence: 1 Corinthians 10:31 and Colossians 3:23 are used to argue that every action, including eating and drinking, should honor God.

Wealth as a Potential Snare

Summary: Riches can become a trap leading to self-confidence and destruction, especially for the wicked who trust in them.

Evidence: Psalm 69:22, Job 12:6, and Proverbs 11:28 are referenced to show that wealth can be a curse and a source of downfall.

Covenantal Obedience

Summary: Blessings are contingent upon obeying God's commandments and remembering Him as the source of all provision.

Evidence: Deuteronomy 8:11-18 warns against forgetting God through disobedience and self-reliance.

Individual Responsibility and Diligence

Summary: Faithful, diligent labor is required alongside obedience for God's blessings; laziness is condemned as sin.

Evidence: Proverbs 28:20, 27:23-27, and 6:6-11 emphasize that the diligent prosper while the slothful suffer poverty.

Key Arguments

Wealth is not always a sign of God's favor

Summary: While generally a blessing, wealth can also be a curse to the wicked, given for their condemnation.

Evidence: Psalm 73 shows the wicked prospering but facing destruction; Job 12:6 says robbers prosper as God brings abundance into their hands.

The righteous will ultimately inherit all wealth

Summary: The wealth of the wicked is stored up for the just, so believers should not envy the ungodly.

Evidence: Proverbs 13:22 and 28:8 state that the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just; 1 Corinthians 3:21-23 says all things belong to believers.

Covenantal obedience is essential for blessing

Summary: God's blessings are conditional upon keeping His commandments and acknowledging Him as the source of wealth.

Evidence: Deuteronomy 8:11-18 warns that forgetting God through disobedience and pride leads to loss of blessing.

Diligence is a non-negotiable requirement

Summary: Only the faithful and diligent abound with blessings; slothfulness leads to poverty.

Evidence: Proverbs 28:20, 6:6-11, and 24:30-34 contrast the diligent with the sluggard, showing that poverty comes from laziness.

Scripture References

Deuteronomy 8:1-20

Context: Read as the primary text, emphasizing remembrance of God as the giver of wealth and warning against pride.

1 Samuel 2:7-8

Context: Cited to show God's sovereignty in making poor and rich, lifting the needy to positions of honor.

1 Corinthians 10:31

Context: Used to argue that all activities, including eating and drinking, must be done for God's glory, rejecting a sacred-secular divide.

Colossians 3:23

Context: Reinforces that whatever we do should be done heartily as to the Lord, not men.

2 Corinthians 10:5

Context: Shows that every thought must be brought into captivity to Christ, supporting the one-sphere view.

2 Timothy 2:19

Context: Commands those who name Christ to depart from iniquity, emphasizing holy living.

1 Thessalonians 5:22

Context: Instructs believers to abstain from all appearance of evil.

Genesis 13:2

Context: Shows Abraham was very rich in cattle, silver, and gold as a sign of God's blessing.

Genesis 14:13-23

Context: Illustrates Abraham's wealth through his 318 trained servants and his refusal to take spoils from the king of Sodom.

Genesis 24:1, 34-36

Context: States that the Lord blessed Abraham in all things, giving him great wealth.

Genesis 26:12-16

Context: Isaac's wealth grew so great that the Philistines envied him and asked him to leave.

Psalm 69:22

Context: A prayer that the table of the wicked become a snare, showing blessings can become traps.

Job 12:6

Context: Notes that robbers prosper and those who provoke God are secure, with God bringing abundance into their hands.

Psalm 62:10

Context: Warns not to trust in oppression or set the heart on increasing riches.

Proverbs 11:4, 28

Context: Riches do not profit in the day of wrath; those who trust in riches will fall.

Proverbs 18:11

Context: The rich man's wealth is his strong city in his own conceit.

Psalm 73:1-22

Context: Asaph's struggle with the prosperity of the wicked, resolved by understanding their final destruction.

Proverbs 13:22

Context: The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.

Proverbs 28:8

Context: Those who increase wealth by usury gather it for him who will pity the poor.

1 Corinthians 3:21-23

Context: All things belong to believers, including the world, life, death, and things present and to come.

Historical References

Thomas Aquinas and Thomism

Context: Weaver critiques Thomas Aquinas for synthesizing Greek philosophy with the Bible, leading to a sacred-secular dualism that infected Christianity.

Puritan saying on riches

Context: The Puritans said, 'God oftentimes curses his enemies with riches,' meaning wealth misused leads to destruction.

John Owen on covenant

Context: John Owen defined a covenant as a voluntary agreement between persons for mutual benefit, with conditions to be fulfilled.

Important Quotes

For the Christian, there is no such thing as a king's X. There is no such thing as neutral territory. There is no such thing as time out. For the Christian, every activity, every attitude, every action is to be brought in submission to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Significance: Emphasizes the all-encompassing lordship of Christ over every area of life, rejecting any secular-sacred divide.

God oftentimes curses his enemies with riches.

Significance: Summarizes the paradoxical truth that wealth can be a form of judgment when it leads to self-reliance and destruction.

Wealth is not by natural right. It is God's gift.

Significance: Affirms God's sovereignty as the source of all wealth, countering human pride and self-sufficiency.

A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.

Significance: Highlights the biblical principle that diligent faithfulness, not greedy haste, leads to true prosperity.

Where there is no character, there is no capitalization.

Significance: Connects moral integrity and diligence with economic success, a key application of individual responsibility.

Discussion Questions

How does the concept of a single sacred sphere challenge the way we typically separate our 'spiritual' and 'secular' activities?

Context: Weaver argues that for Christians, every action must be done for God's glory, based on 1 Corinthians 10:31 and Colossians 3:23.

Why might God allow the wicked to prosper, and how should this affect our attitude toward wealth and success?

Context: Psalm 73 and Job 12:6 show that prosperity can be a snare or a curse, leading to destruction.

What does it mean to 'forget God' in the context of Deuteronomy 8, and how can we guard against it in times of abundance?

Context: Forgetting God is equated with disobedience and failing to acknowledge His blessings, leading to pride.

How do covenantal obedience and individual responsibility work together in experiencing God's blessings?

Context: Weaver presents these as the two hinges on which the door of blessing swings, requiring both submission to God's commands and diligent labor.

In what ways does our culture promote laziness or a 'get rich quick' mentality, and how can we cultivate biblical diligence?

Context: Proverbs 6:6-11 and 24:30-34 warn against slothfulness and emphasize the ant's example of diligent preparation.

Applications

Live all of life for God's glory

Summary: Reject the sacred-secular divide; every activity, from work to leisure, must be done in submission to Christ and for His honor.

Evidence: 1 Corinthians 10:31 and Colossians 3:23 command doing all to God's glory; 2 Corinthians 10:5 calls for taking every thought captive.

Guard against trusting in riches

Summary: Do not set your heart on wealth or view it as ultimate security; riches can become a snare leading to pride and destruction.

Evidence: Psalm 62:10 warns not to set the heart on riches; Proverbs 11:28 says those who trust in riches will fall.

Remember God as the source of all provision

Summary: Acknowledge that every blessing comes from God, not from your own power, to avoid the pride condemned in Deuteronomy 8.

Evidence: Deuteronomy 8:17-18 warns against saying 'my power and might have gotten me this wealth'; instead, remember the Lord.

Pursue diligent labor as a duty

Summary: Work faithfully and consistently, avoiding laziness, because God blesses the diligent and slothfulness leads to poverty.

Evidence: Proverbs 6:6-11 and 28:20 contrast the diligent with the sluggard; diligence requires continuous activity.

Seek God's kingdom first, not riches

Summary: Make obedience to God and His righteousness the primary pursuit; material needs will be added as He sees fit.

Evidence: Matthew 6:33 is cited as the principle that seeking God's kingdom results in all other things being added.

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-06T03:17:20Z

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T16:13:36Z

Clean Transcript

Biblical Wealth - Part 2 of 8

Clean readable transcript. This view follows the Commentary.net cleaned segment text while preserving timestamps for audio follow-along.

Deuteronomy chapter 8. Deuteronomy chapter 8. And once again, let's read this passage, Deuteronomy chapter 8. And let's begin reading there with verse 1. Deuteronomy 8, verse 1: "All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers. And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years. Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee."
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"Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him. For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey; a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass. When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee. Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day: lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee"
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"forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint; who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end; and thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day. And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish. As the nations which the Lord destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God."
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Now, I want to ask that you turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter 2. I dealt with this passage last week. I'm just simply going to read it again this week because we're still dealing with sovereignty. Last week, it was the sovereignty and the source of wealth. This week, the sovereignty and the subjects of wealth. So in 1 Samuel 2, look please at verse 7 and verse 8.
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Here the word of God says: "The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and he hath set the world upon them." Verse 7 says it is the Lord that maketh poor, and of course it is the Lord that maketh rich. Now, as you go back to Deuteronomy 8 and verse 18, you remember, he says, "But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth."
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Now, last week, I began with a rather long introduction because I dealt with a philosophy known as Thomism, which, of course, is the teaching of Thomas Aquinas, who is a Roman Catholic theologian, logician, and philosopher. And of course, the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas was accepted and received in 1879, I believe it is, by the Pope and established as the official philosophy of the Roman Catholic Church. Now, I pointed out in my introduction what Thomas Aquinas had tried to do was this: he tried to synthesize, that is to draw and bring together and bind together, the teachings of Greek philosophy and of the teachings of the Bible, particularly the teachings of Plato and Aristotle. Now, you've got to remember that in the teachings of Plato and Aristotle, and especially in Greek philosophy, the Greeks were dualistic.
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That is, they believed that there were two spheres. There was the sphere of matter, which was inherently evil, and there was the sphere of spirit or form or ideas, which was inherently good. And so what Thomas did was he took the teachings then, especially of Plato and Aristotle, and he said that, look, you can talk to men about the Bible using philosophy, especially Greek philosophies, even if those men do not accept the Bible as a supernatural revelation of God.
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And of course, because he is the one that made this teaching popular, it has come down through the Roman Catholic Church and has infected countless millions of Christians. A lot of Christians who have never been to a Roman Catholic Church, would never dream of going to a Roman Catholic Church, are good Roman Catholics in their philosophy and they don't even realize it because they have been affected and infected with Thomism or the teachings of Thomas Aquinas. He was the one that began separating everything into two spheres, the secular and the sacred. I told you last week that is where churchanity developed, because now people can come to church on Sunday morning and they feel spiritual and pious and holy, and then they'll go out Monday through Saturday and live as if God does not exist, or God had never spoken, and their lives are totally alienated from the truth of God Monday through Saturday. Why? Because they've fallen to the concept that life is divided into two spheres.
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Now let me emphasize today, for the child of God, there is no such division. The biblical philosophy teaches that there is only one sphere, and that is the sacred. Look in your Bibles, hold Deuteronomy 8, but look in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 31. Then we're going to the book of Colossians 3. So look first of all in 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 31. Here's a passage connected with the passage in Colossians that ought to show you emphatically that there is only one sphere for the child of God. First Corinthians chapter 10.
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Note, if you would please, and verse 31, the Bible says, "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." Now, note, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do—dig in a ditch, washing dishes, flying an airplane, driving an automobile, selling insurance—whatever you do, do all to the honor and glory of God. One sphere, not two spheres. Then if you look in the book of Colossians chapter 3 and verse 23, here it is again stated rather bluntly. Colossians 3, verse 23, the Bible says, "And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men." Why?
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"Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ." So it says, whatever you do, you do it for God's honor and God's glory.
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Now, let me make this principle exceedingly clear. For the Christian, there is no such thing as a king's X. There is no such thing as neutral territory. There is no such thing as time out. For the Christian, every activity, every attitude, every action is to be brought in submission to the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Now, I've quoted this verse and I can quote it now, but I want you to turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 10 and look at verse 5. Let me just show you 2 Corinthians 10 and verse 5. I'm just demonstrating the fact that there is only one sphere for the child of God, and that is the sacred. To us, everything is sacred. Notice 2 Corinthians 10 and verse 5.
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He says, "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." How many thoughts are you and I allowed that are unbiblical? None. Which means everything we do in word or deed, whatever we do, is to be done for God's honor and God's glory.
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Now, there can only be one sphere since God is the creator of all things in heaven and in earth. Now, there are many implications of the doctrine of creation. But one of those implications is simply this, that God reigns sovereignly and supremely over all of his creation. Therefore, as his creatures, he demands that we honor and glorify him. And certainly, if we are His children by faith in Jesus Christ, we have a double demand laid upon us that we bring honor and glory to Him.
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Now, let me reduce it down for you to this simple truth. Our Christian worldview, our biblical philosophy is to guide, regulate, and control our lives 24 hours a day, seven days per week. In other words, we must be godly in our homes as well as in our hearts. We must be godly at work as well as at play. Our Lord said it like this in 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 19.
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He said, "Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." Did you hear that? Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. So we have an obligation. We have a command that we are to depart from iniquity. In fact, we're not only to depart from iniquity, we are also to depart from anything that has the appearance of evil. For the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 22, "Abstain from all appearance of evil."
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To make it short, we cannot be pagan in any area of our lives. There is no such thing as a secular where God has no influence and no control and we have no obligations to Him. His word is to rule our lives, our conduct, in every area, in every sphere. It's just that simple. God is sovereign and God rules over His creature and over His creation. Today, I'm going to pick up where I left off last week, last week dealing with the sovereignty and the source of wealth. Today, the sovereignty and the subjects of wealth. So if you look back in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 8, and once again, look at verse 18, the Word of God says this, "But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth." It is He that giveth power to get wealth. Now, you don't have to turn there, but you do need to remember 1 Samuel 2 verse 7, where he says, "The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich."
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Then in verse 8, it is the Lord that lifts up the beggar out of the dunghill. That is an illustration of how God makes one rich.
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Now, since God is sovereign and since he is the source of wealth, you need to consider then momentarily the subjects of wealth. Because when you understand that God makes one rich and God makes one poor, there is a question that automatically arises and is inherent in that truth. And that question is this: can wealth or riches or prosperity always be regarded as a sign of God's favor or as a sign of God's blessings? Now, let me make a statement.
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It is true, especially in the Old Testament economy, and it could be also true in the New Testament economy, that generally speaking, material blessings were indeed a sign of God's favor. Now, please understand, I said generally speaking. There are general principles in the Bible. There are always exceptions to those general principles. For instance, when you come to Proverbs 23, the Bible says, "Beat thy child with a rod; if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell." Does that mean that every child that's ever been beat with a rod is going to heaven? No. All that means is, generally speaking, if you will discipline your child based upon the teaching of the Word of God, with God's blessing upon those means and with God's blessing upon that discipline, then the child may be converted. But that does not mean that every child that's ever been whipped with a rod is going to heaven. If it does mean that, the best evangelistic method that you and I could choose would be get a rod in each hand and go out and just beat the devil out of everybody.
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You see what I'm saying? It's a general principle. And so we've got a general principle, yes, in the Old Testament, usually wealth was a sign of God's favor and God's blessings. I know there are exceptions to that. I'm going to deal with those in just a moment. But let me show you. I want you to consider Abraham with me just for a moment. Go to Genesis 13. And let me just show you, generally speaking, how that wealth was indeed a favor and a blessing of God. Genesis chapter 13.
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And notice, if you would please, beginning there with verse 2. Genesis 13. The Bible says that Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. Look in chapter 14, beginning there, verse 13. This is where, of course, Abraham rescues his brother Lot, actually his nephew. Verse 13, Genesis 14, "And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew; for he dwelt in the plain of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner: and these were confederate with Abram. And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan." Now, wait a minute.
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Let me just stop there. We're talking about Abraham being wealthy. Three hundred and eighteen trained servants or trained slaves. They were born in his own house. So if he had 318 slaves that were born in his own house, how many did he have that were not born? There is the extreme possibility that the family of Abraham was probably several thousand. But now watch this. Verse 15, "And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus."
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"And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people. And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king's dale. And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: and blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all. And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself. And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I"
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"have made Abram rich: save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion." What did Abram say? I'm not going to take a penny from you because I don't want you to say that you made me rich. You did not make me rich. Look at Genesis 24 and verse 1.
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You know the story how Abraham is seeking a bride for his son Isaac. The Bible said, "And Abraham was old, and well stricken in age: and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things." Note that phrase, "the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things."
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Now, skip down in the same chapter to verse 34, because here the servant is telling how God has blessed him. Verse 34, the Bible says, "And he said, I am Abraham's servant. And the Lord hath blessed my master greatly; and he is become great: and he hath given him flocks, and herds, and silver, and gold, and menservants, and maidservants, and camels, and asses. And Sarah my master's wife bare a son to my master when she was old: and unto him hath he given all that he hath." I mean, look at the extreme wealth that Abraham had, and God gave it to him. Now, remember, there was another title given Abraham. He was called the friend of God. But look at Isaac. Look at Genesis chapter 26, very quickly, beginning there, verse 12. You remember, Isaac, of course, was the son of Abraham. Notice Genesis chapter 26, beginning there, verse 12. "Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the Lord blessed him. And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great: for he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants."
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"And the Philistines envied him." Look down in verse 16 what the Philistines finally said, "And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we." Now he was living in the land of the Philistines. I told you Abraham probably had several thousand people in his household. And now the Philistines are telling Isaac, you're stronger than we are. You have more people than we do.
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You have more wealth than we do. Go from us.
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Now, I'm not going to spend my time this morning just showing you how God blessed these individuals materially. If I were to take the time for you and I to consider Jacob, David, Solomon, Job, and a multitude of others, we'd literally be here all day long. It is true that God blessed these men with wealth, and He blessed them with a great deal of it. There's no arguing that. So I'm just saying, generally speaking, generally speaking, there is a general rule that it is true that the blessings of God and the favor of God are sometimes evidenced by great wealth.
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You say, wait a minute, Pastor. As I read the Bible, I also find that there were others who were extremely wealthy, who were ungodly, unholy, and were not interested in anything that was righteous. Moreover, some hated God and hated his law, and yet they were wealthy. How do we explain that? Well, you've got to remember that that which is a blessing to one person could also be a curse to another. Let me explain that. Do you realize the very blessings of God when they are abused and misused become a snare and a destruction?
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Look in your Bibles Psalm 69. Psalm 69. I want you to note this. Prayer of the Psalmist, Psalm 69 verse 22. Psalm 69 verse 22. David is praying against the wicked. And he makes this prayer request in verse 22: "Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap." Now, look, let their table become a snare.
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Now, the table simply refers to that which they're given, that which they're supplied with, that which they're blessed with. And instead of being thankful unto God, the giver of all things, what does the table become? It becomes a carnal security to those who trust in the table. So he says, let their table, let that which has been given unto them, let it become a snare unto them, and that which should have been for their benefit, let it become a trap unto them.
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The Puritans had a saying. It went like this: God oftentimes curses his enemies with riches. God oftentimes curses his enemies with riches. How could they say such a thing? Because wealth and riches, misused and abused, always become a source of self-confidence, transgression, condemnation, and destruction. Let me show you. Look in your Bibles, first of all, to the book of Job chapter 12. Job chapter 12, and then we're going to the Psalms and then to the Proverbs. Job 12 and verse 6.
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Here's a passage that most people do not even know is in the Bible. And yet here it is. Job 12 verse 6: "The tabernacles of robbers prosper, and they that provoke God are secure; into whose hand God bringeth abundantly." Now, why would God bring abundantly into the hands of someone who is a robber or a thief or someone who is wicked and wrong? Why would God bring material wealth and riches into their hands?
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And the answer is for their own condemnation and destruction. Go back in your Bibles or turn over, I should say, to Psalm 62. Psalm 62. And look in verse 10. Psalm 62, verse 10. Look what God says: "Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery: if riches increase, set not your heart upon them." If riches increase, set not your heart upon them. What is he saying? You don't sit back and glory in the fact, well, I've got millions. I've got hundreds of thousands. No, you don't set your heart upon wealth. Our hearts are to be set upon God and God alone. Look in the book of Proverbs chapter 11. Proverbs 11. Notice if you would please verse 4 to begin with. Proverbs 11 verse 4.
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"Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivereth from death." Now watch. Riches profit not in the day of wrath. Let me ask you a question. What do you suppose the Kennedy wealth or the Rockefeller wealth will do for them the day they die? Nothing. Profit not in the day of wrath. Do you realize all the wealth in the world cannot extend your life one minute beyond the time that God has ordained for you to die? It can't. Riches profit not in the day of wrath.
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Look in verse 28 of the same chapter. Proverbs 11 verse 28: "He that trusteth in his riches shall fall: but the righteous shall flourish as a branch." He that trusteth in his riches shall fall. What do rich men normally do? Trust in their riches.
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Now I told you in the first sermon, and I'm just repeating it right here, riches per se are not condemned in the scripture. Wealth is not condemned in the scripture. It is the abuse and the misuse of riches and wealth that is condemned. God said, if riches increase, set not your heart upon them. And now here he is saying very obviously, he that trusts in his riches shall fall. So some will not take heed to God's warning and they trust in that which God has given them.
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It is for their own destruction. Look in Proverbs 18 and verse 11. Proverbs 18, verse 11. Look what the Bible says: "The rich man's wealth is his strong city, and as an high wall in his own conceit." The rich man's wealth is his strong city. I can show you verses in the Bible where the rich say, "I shall never be in adversity as other men are."
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Lord, they don't think anything's going to ever happen to them. The wicked say that. They don't think God will ever judge them, God will ever chastise them, God will ever condemn them. But yet what they do is they trust in their wealth. Prosperity in and of itself is not a sign of godliness. Oftentimes it is a sign of destruction depending upon how the prosperity is handled.
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Now I want you to turn in your Bibles if you would to Psalm 73 because I want to show you a passage that is exceedingly applicable today. Psalm 73 is the Psalm of Asaph. A-S-A-P-H. Asaph. Asaph wrote Psalm 73. David, by the way, did not write all of the Psalms. He wrote most of them. Solomon wrote some. Asaph wrote some. A few others wrote some as well. But notice Psalm 73.
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Now let me just point out that we have today, in one sense of the word, the same perplexity that Asaph and some of the others had in the Old Testament. You say, what are you talking about? Well, I've mentioned this to you before. I want you to stop and think about this in light of Christianity. And I'm not crying when I tell you this. I'm just using this as an illustration, okay?
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Here we sit in a little building with the truth, doing everything we can to get the truth out. We send, I don't know how many audio tapes out every week, CDs, DVDs, all the sermons are on sermonaudio.com. I've gotten letters, and I'm thankful, from just about every country in the world who've listened to the messages either on the Internet or CD or DVD or audio. But the point I'm trying to make is here we are limited. We don't have much. And we have the truth and we really want to get it out.
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Now you compare our situation with the money that the Crystal Cathedral gets. Or the money of someone who denies the deity of Christ. You see what I'm saying? Here are humongous church buildings with thousands of people that do nothing rather than build buildings. Like Hosea says, Israel had forgotten their maker and built temples.
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Now, is that not perplexing? Can you not ask yourself, well, Lord, why do you not give us millions? Why don't you give it to them? Look what we could do with it. Well, the point I'm trying to make is Asaph had the same problem. And you've got to come to the answer that Asaph came to. Let's look at verse 1, Psalm 73. Asaph says, "Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart."
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Now, he roots his conclusion at the very beginning. Truly, God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. "But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped."
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Now, why did Asaph get in a period of depression, discouragement, and despair? Here's why. He says, "For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked." I mean, the wicked were prospering, he said, and I wasn't. "For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men." I mean, the ungodly don't have the problems we have.
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"Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish." Most of us would like a decent automobile, and they drive Jaguars. You follow me? Their eyes stand out with fatness. They have more than heart could wish. "They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily." Watch this.
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"They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth." In other words, they curse God and man as well. It doesn't matter to them. "Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High? Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches."
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Think of the Bilderbergers, the CFR, the Skull and Bones Society. Do you know any poor people among those? No. Their eyes stand out with fatness. They have more than heart could wish. These are the ungodly who prosper in the world. They increase in riches.
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Now look what Asaph says in verse 13. "Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning." He says, Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain. What good has it done me to be obedient? What good has it done me to be godly and holy? What good has it done me to live by God's Word? Man, he said, I've cleansed my heart in vain. I've washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long I have been plagued and chastened every morning. He said, man, instead of being blessed, instead of being prosperous, I'm the one that's suffering. I'm the one that's trying to do what's right. Look at the wicked.
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They've got everything and they hate God. He said in verse 14, "For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning. If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end."
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"Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image. Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins. So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee." He said, O God, when I saw their end, I was thanking God I was not one of them and had everything that they had. Because you will despise them and you will destroy them.
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But I will have you. Asaph said, I'd rather be a Christian, I'd rather be a child of God and suffer and do without than have the riches of the wicked.
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Now listen to me, folks. God oftentimes curses his enemies with riches. Why? For their own condemnation. For their own destruction. That's what he said in Psalm 73. But let me just show you very quickly a couple of verses. I want you to understand something. Then in reality, it really doesn't matter what the wicked have. And you know why? Because ultimately, we're going to end up with all of it.
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You say, what are you talking about? Well, let me show you. Look in your Bibles for Proverbs chapter 13, verse 22. Proverbs 13, verse 22.
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But the Bible says, "A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just." Well, who's going to ultimately end up with everything? The just. The just. You know, it is so amazing. You can take a child and hold up a quarter and say, you see this quarter? Yes, sir. I will either give you this quarter right now, or if you will wait a week from now, I'll give you a $10 bill. You know what the child's going to normally do? He's going to take the quarter. Doesn't understand, doesn't want to wait. But you know a lot of adults are like that.
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That's why we're dead up to our eyeballs. We want what we want right now. We don't want to wait. God says you just wait because the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. Look in your Bibles to Proverbs 28 and verse 8. Proverbs 28 verse 8. Here it is again stated a different way. Proverbs 28 verse 8: "He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance"
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"he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor." So what are the ungodly doing? They're actually just collecting it all together for those who are going to be obedient to God. And if you want a plainer verse, look in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. And let's begin reading there with verse 21. I wish I had time to give you the entire context of 1 Corinthians 1 through 4, but let me just give you 1 Corinthians 3, beginning there at verse 21. Look what the Apostle Paul says.
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"Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's."
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So let me ask you, how much is the Christian going to end up with? Everything. You see what I'm saying? I'd rather wait and get everything than be sinful and just get a little. You follow me? Why in the world would you be envious of the wicked when you understand that they're just laying it up for you and you're going to eventually get it? And you, because everything in this world is ours. Now.
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I've said all that to say this. Prosperity cannot be viewed or regarded as a sign of God's blessing in every instance. But as a general rule, it is true that God does bless his own. If I were to ask you, how many in this room are blessed today? Every one of us. None of us have gone hungry. God does bless his own. There's no two ways about that.
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Now, we may not be multimillionaires. But we're not hungry. And we're not naked. We're not sick. God does bless his own.
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Now, let me ask you a question, and this is the whole point of the message today. What do God's blessings hinge upon?
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Now, it may not be possible to answer that question totally, exclusively. It may not even be possible to answer it in every individual case, but I can give you two hinges upon which the door of God's blessings usually swings. The door of God's blessing usually swings upon two principles. What are they? The first hinge, and I'll explain it, is covenantal obedience. And the second hinge is individual responsibility. So let's cover, first of all, the first hinge, covenantal obedience.
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Now, I want you to turn back in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 8, because we're going to be looking at this passage a little more closely in just a moment. But let me tell you what I mean by covenantal obedience. Covenantal obedience simply refers to the bringing of our lives into submission to God's word, which literally means just obeying him in every area of our lives.
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Now, John Owen, he's been called the prince of the Puritans and the prince of preachers, he said this in giving the nature of a covenant. He said an absolute, complete covenant is a voluntary convention, pact, or agreement between distinct persons about the ordering and dispensing of things in their power unto mutual concern and advantage.
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Now, I can explain what he just said. I can reduce it even further and say that a covenant is when you enter into a mutual agreement, a benefit being assured on the fulfillment of certain conditions. Let me put it like this. In a covenant, if you want the benefits, you fulfill the conditions. Isn't that simple? If you want the benefits of a covenant, you fulfill the conditions.
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Alice and I are married. That is a covenantal relationship. If I want the benefits of a wife, I must fulfill my responsibilities as a husband. You got me? So, if I want the blessings, if I want the benefits, I must meet the conditions.
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Now, look in Deuteronomy 8 and verse 11 at what I'm talking about, covenantal obedience. Begin with verse 11. Deuteronomy 8, verse 11. God gives us a warning. He says, "Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day." Now, I want you to know verse 11 is indeed a warning, and it is a warning about forgetting God. Forgetting God does not mean that you fail to think about him 24 hours a day. It is impossible to think about God 24 hours a day. It is. Because next thing you know, there's going to be a thought in your mind saying, what am I going to eat for dinner? What am I going to have for supper? Forgetting God does not mean that you keep Him on your mind 24 hours a day. Forgetting God is more than that. He is saying that forgetting God is disobedience in this context of Deuteronomy 8. Forgetting God is a refusal to obey His law.
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Look at it. "Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day."
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Now, if I ask what I'm going to have for dinner, I'm going to say, well, how do I honor God in this selection? How do I honor God in eating this meal? You see what I'm saying? I think about him, but I think about him as I obey him, and you cannot obey him without thinking about him. And when you forget him, it means that you disobey him. You disobey his commandments, his judgments, and his statutes.
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Now watch in verses 12 through 16. Moreover, a forgetting God is not just simply disobedience, but forgetting God includes a failure to recognize and acknowledge his blessings. And it is a despisement of his providential dealings. Look at verse 12. "Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee"
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"forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint; who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end."
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Now look what he says, beginning there, verse 12. Lest when you have eaten and are full, and you've got your life all laid out, you've got a good house, and you've got healthy herds and flocks and your silver and your gold is multiplied. Everything you have is multiplied. Your freezer's full. Then your heart being lifted up. What is the lifting up of the heart? What does it culminate in? Look in verse 17. "And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth." I earned it. I worked for it. It's mine.
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Now, let me make a statement. Listen carefully. Wealth is not by natural right. It is God's gift. I can prove that. Just ask yourself one question. What do you deserve from God? The answer is, if you deserve anything, it's justice. And you don't want that. Which means anything that you have, God gave you. So your wealth, no matter how small or how great, is God's gift. Everything that you receive outside of justice is God's gift. God's mercy. And God says you better beware lest you forget that one simple thing, that I give you everything. Now, I don't have time this morning to go into this, but I want to encourage you, and I'll probably refer back to it later, but I want to encourage you to read Deuteronomy 28. I want to encourage you to read Leviticus 26. In those passages you have the blessings and the curses. Just when you get to Deuteronomy 28, the first 14 verses talk about the blessings of God.
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Those of you who were not here last week, I told everybody, and I brought pictures by the way, that one of our cows had twins. I told everybody that Alice was a grandma again. These are our grand calves. But anyhow, Tripp, our youngest grandson, said, "Papa, do cows normally have twins?" And my answer was no. They do occasionally, but it's rare. I said, but I want you to understand, son, this is just part of the blessings of God. Because if you read Deuteronomy 28, when you obey God and honor Him, His blessings will be upon your cattle and everything else. So I said the very fact that we had a cow that had twins is a sign of God's blessing and you give God the honor and glory for these two calves.
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And of course, He's already claimed one of them, but that's alright too. But I'm just simply pointing out, here are the blessings and the curses. I'm talking about covenantal obedience. Someone's going to object and say, oh, but Brother Weaver, you told me to read Deuteronomy 28. You told me to read Leviticus 26. You're preaching from Deuteronomy 8 yourself. These are all Old Testament passages. Well, it doesn't matter. The Old Testament is equally the Word of God as the New Testament is. And both the Old Testament and the New Testament are covenantal in nature. It is true the Old Testament is a covenant, but it is equally true the New Testament is a covenant. In Luke chapter 22, verse 20, our Lord actually uses the word covenant. He says, "Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you." The word testament is the word diatheke in the Greek. It's the same word that is translated as covenant in Hebrews 8 and 9 and a multitude of other places.
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In fact, when you get to Hebrews 8 and verse 6, the Bible talks about the New Testament as a better covenant. Now, when you talk about the covenants, and one of these days I'm going to have to preach a series on them, but I don't care if you're talking about the Adamic covenant, the Noahic covenant, the Sinaitic covenant, the Davidic covenant, the Abrahamic covenant, I don't care which covenant you're talking about. All covenants are nothing more than an aspect of and a manifestation of the everlasting covenant that is spoken of in Hebrews chapter 13 verse 20 when the word of God says, "Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant." So it is true the New Testament is coming at you just like the Old Testament. And it seems like I remember reading somewhere in my Bible that our Lord said something like this.
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"If ye love me, keep my commandments." Covenantal. Covenantal obedience. The first hinge is covenantal obedience. The second hinge is individual responsibility. Let me explain that. I'm not going to take long, but listen carefully. Covenantal obedience does not negate personal responsibility. Somebody says, well, we've obeyed. Let's just sit back and wait for the blessings to pour in. No, it's not enough to obey. We must obey God, but we also must fulfill all of our responsibilities in every sphere and in every area of our lives.
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Look in your Bibles to the book of Proverbs 28 and verse 20. We're going to be looking at a number of passages here in the book of Proverbs. Look at Proverbs 28 and verse 20. Look what the Bible says. Proverbs 28, verse 20: "A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent."
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Now note the first part. A faithful man shall abound with blessings. I want you to understand it is only faithful men that abound with blessings, not the lazy, not the indolent, not the haphazard, not the worthless, not the slothful, not the wasteful. Only faithful men shall abound with blessings. Look in Proverbs 27, beginning there in verse 23. Proverbs 27, verse 23: "Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds."
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"For riches are not for ever: and doth the crown endure to every generation? The hay appeareth, and the tender grass sheweth itself, and herbs of the mountains are gathered. The lambs are for thy clothing, and the goats are the price of the field. And thou shalt have goats' milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy household, and for the maintenance for thy maidens." Now, wait a minute. How in the world are we going to have clothing enough and food enough?
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Go back to verse 23. "Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds."
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Now, let me point something out. Diligence is not something that you do occasionally. Diligence is something that requires a continuous activity. It seems to me like our Lord told Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 2, that he was to preach the word; he was to be instant in season, out of season. In other words, he was to be diligent. So diligence is something that requires a continual activity.
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Let me go back to this illustration of this calf. One of the calves we are raising on a bottle. And, you know, they like to eat every four hours. But let's suppose that Alice and I were diligent, diligent in feeding that calf every four hours for the first week. And the next two weeks we ceased to be diligent and we just quit feeding. Would you like to tell me what the state of my calf is going to be? Dead.
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You see what I'm saying? You and I can't sit back and say, well, I was diligent one time in my life. I used to be diligent. No. Diligence requires a constant and a continual activity. Look in your Bibles to Proverbs 6. You know this passage and you probably knew I was going to get to it. Proverbs 6, we're talking about individual responsibility. Proverbs 6, beginning there, verse 6. What does God say?
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"Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: so shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man." Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.
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Have you ever seen an ant resting? No. Those ants diligently store up in the summer so they'll have something for the winter. And they're diligent even in seeking food during the winter down south. They're even diligent in building their nest in your yard. Especially the fire ants. Everywhere. But look what he says. Go to the ant, thou sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands. Wait a minute. Look in chapter 10 of Proverbs verses 4 and 5. Let's see. Proverbs 10 verse 4: "He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich. He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame." So he says, he that dealeth with a slack hand becometh poor, but it's only the hand of the diligent that becometh rich. Look in your Bibles to Proverbs 24. Proverbs 24, beginning there in verse 30.
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Proverbs 24, verse 30. The wise man said, "I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; and, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: so shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man."
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So what does he say? The slothful does not take care of his garden. There's another verse, "The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting." The point I'm trying to make is this: diligent labor produces wealth when the blessings of God rest upon that labor. Let me spell something else out for you. Sloth is wickedness. Laziness is sin. The blessings of God are promised to the faithful only as they diligently fulfill their responsibilities before God. I have known people, and you have known people, that will lay out of work when there's no reason to lay out of work. Let me tell you something. There's a difference between being sick and sorry. When I'm sick, I want the bed, and I want my wife.
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Bring me tea, and wait on me, and doctor me, and humor me, and go by and pet me every now and then and say, poor baby, poor baby, poor baby. And when that happens, I'm sick. But I want to tell you something. If I just got up one morning and said, oh, well, I'm not sick, but I just don't feel like doing anything. I'm just going to stay in bed. That's sorriness. When you get up and start doing what you're obligated and responsible to do, that's when you start feeling better.
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God has ordained it where our feelings are never ever to lead us, but to follow. And whenever we do what is right, we feel right. God is saying it is the diligent that shall be made rich.
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Now listen, lawful wealth, biblical wealth, it's wealth that comes to man as he abides by and as he obeys God's law, applying work, thrift, and forethought to his activities. So the door of God's blessings swings upon two hinges, covenantal obedience and individual responsibility.
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Now, let me make just a couple of applications. The first one is this. I've already said it. I'll show it to you in the Bible. Wealth, in and of itself, is not necessarily a sign of God's blessing or God's favor. It can be a sign of fraud, theft, and wickedness. If you look in your Bibles to the book of James, chapter 5, you'll see where wealth can become destruction and condemnation. James 5, beginning there with verse 1, look how James condemns the rich men.
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Now, he's not condemning them for being rich, but he's condemning them for abusing what God has given them. James 5, verse 1: "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days." Why?
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"Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you."
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What are they doing? They're abusing and misusing the wealth that God has given them. The Bible says in Proverbs 16 and verse 19, "Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud." So riches in and of itself does not mean that someone has the blessing and the favor of God.
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The second application is this. A general rule can be stated based upon individual responsibility. Where there is no character, there is no capitalization. Where there is no character, there is no capitalization. When a man will not work, when a man will not think, when a man will not plan, when a man will not use forethought, when he does not have the character to do those things, usually there's not going to be any capitalization. He's not going to get wealthy, he's not going to get rich, because he does not have the character to follow through on what needs to be done.
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Where these unbiblical attributes exist, that is laziness, slothfulness, indolence, you can mark her down. God is not going to honor those unbiblical attributes. And lastly, I pointed out last week and will point it out again, although it is true that God blesses obedience and honest labor, yet riches are not to be sought as an end in themselves, but only as a means to the end. And as God said in Matthew 6 and verse 33, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness."
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And then all these other things shall be added unto you. It's not riches we seek, but God. And as we obey Him and fulfill our responsibility, we seek His blessings upon our work, upon our obedience, upon our efforts. And He is the one that giveth us power to get wealth. The subjects of wealth: generally speaking, those who are covenantally obedient and who fulfill their individual responsibilities. Let's pray.
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Father, we do ask that you would help us and teach us, build us up in the most holy faith. Lord, may we understand the importance and the necessity of covenantal obedience as well as individual responsibility. Teach us, Lord, to do thy will, to do thy work, and to obey thy word. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.
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Biblical Wealth - Part 2 of 8

John Weaver | Freedom Ministries

John Weaver continues his series on biblical wealth by examining the sovereignty of God over the subjects of wealth. He argues that wealth is not always a sign of God's favor, as God sometimes curses the wicked with riches for their destruction. The door of God's blessing swings on two hinges: covenantal obedience (obeying God's commands) and individual responsibility (diligent labor). Believers are called to seek God's kingdom first, trusting that He gives power to get wealth.

Introduction: One Sacred Sphere

Weaver refutes the Thomistic dualism of sacred and secular, asserting that for the Christian, every activity must be done for God's glory, as taught in 1 Corinthians 10:31 and Colossians 3:23.

Deuteronomy chapter 8. Deuteronomy chapter 8. And once again, let's read this passage, Deuteronomy chapter 8. And let's begin reading there with verse 1. Deuteronomy 8, verse 1:

Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 8:1-20

"All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers. And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years. Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee." "Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him. For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey; a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass. When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee. Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day: lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee" "forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint; who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end; and thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day. And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish. As the nations which the Lord destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God."

Scripture Reading — 1 Samuel 2:7-8

"The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and he hath set the world upon them."

Scripture Reading — 2 Corinthians 10:5

"Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."

How many thoughts are you and I allowed that are unbiblical? None. Which means everything we do in word or deed, whatever we do, is to be done for God's honor and God's glory.

Wealth as a Sign of God's Favor: General Principle

In the Old Testament, material blessings often indicated God's favor, as seen in the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and others, though exceptions exist.

And notice, if you would please, beginning there with verse 2. Genesis 13. The Bible says that

Scripture Reading — Genesis 13:2

Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.

Scripture Reading — Genesis 14:13-23

"have made Abram rich: save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion."

Scripture Reading — Genesis 24:1, 34-36

Now, skip down in the same chapter to verse 34, because here the servant is telling how God has blessed him. Verse 34, the Bible says, "And he said, I am Abraham's servant. And the Lord hath blessed my master greatly; and he is become great: and he hath given him flocks, and herds, and silver, and gold, and menservants, and maidservants, and camels, and asses. And Sarah my master's wife bare a son to my master when she was old: and unto him hath he given all that he hath." I mean, look at the extreme wealth that Abraham had, and God gave it to him. Now, remember, there was another title given Abraham. He was called the friend of God. But look at Isaac. Look at Genesis chapter 26, very quickly, beginning there, verse 12. You remember, Isaac, of course, was the son of Abraham. Notice Genesis chapter 26, beginning there, verse 12. "Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the Lord blessed him. And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great: for he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants."

Wealth as a Curse to the Wicked

Wealth can become a snare and destruction for the ungodly who trust in riches rather than God, as illustrated in Psalm 69, Job 12, and Proverbs.

Scripture Reading — Psalm 62:10

"Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery: if riches increase, set not your heart upon them."

Scripture Reading — Proverbs 11:4, 28

Look in verse 28 of the same chapter. Proverbs 11 verse 28: "He that trusteth in his riches shall fall: but the righteous shall flourish as a branch." He that trusteth in his riches shall fall. What do rich men normally do? Trust in their riches.

Scripture Reading — Proverbs 18:11

"The rich man's wealth is his strong city, and as an high wall in his own conceit."

The rich man's wealth is his strong city. I can show you verses in the Bible where the rich say, "I shall never be in adversity as other men are."

The Perplexity of the Righteous: Psalm 73

Asaph envied the prosperity of the wicked until he understood their end—destruction—and realized that the righteous will ultimately inherit all things.

Scripture Reading — Psalm 73:1-22

"Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart."

You say, what are you talking about? Well, let me show you. Look in your Bibles for Proverbs chapter 13, verse 22. Proverbs 13, verse 22.

The Two Hinges of God's Blessing

God's blessings generally depend on covenantal obedience (submission to His commands) and individual responsibility (diligent, faithful labor).

Applications and Conclusion

Wealth is not inherently a sign of blessing; character and diligence are essential; riches should be sought only as a means to glorify God, not as an end.

Biblical Wealth - Part 2 of 8

John Weaver | SermonAudio

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	SermonAudio
Media ID	7190495445
Subject	Covenant Theology
Course	Covenant Theology: Blessings, Curses, and Sanctions: The Hallelujah of Confession
Genre	Sermon
Date	2004-07-11
Dictation Name
Book	Book 052: Biblical Wealth — Chapter 2
Source Timed Segments	104

Lecture Guide

Outline

Introduction: One Sacred Sphere: Weaver refutes the Thomistic dualism of sacred and secular, asserting that for the Christian, every activity must be done for God's glory, as taught in 1 Corinthians 10:31 and Colossians 3:23.
Wealth as a Sign of God's Favor: General Principle: In the Old Testament, material blessings often indicated God's favor, as seen in the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and others, though exceptions exist.
Wealth as a Curse to the Wicked: Wealth can become a snare and destruction for the ungodly who trust in riches rather than God, as illustrated in Psalm 69, Job 12, and Proverbs.
The Perplexity of the Righteous: Psalm 73: Asaph envied the prosperity of the wicked until he understood their end—destruction—and realized that the righteous will ultimately inherit all things.
The Two Hinges of God's Blessing: God's blessings generally depend on covenantal obedience (submission to His commands) and individual responsibility (diligent, faithful labor).
Applications and Conclusion: Wealth is not inherently a sign of blessing; character and diligence are essential; riches should be sought only as a means to glorify God, not as an end.

Major Themes

Key Arguments

Wealth is not always a sign of God's favor

While generally a blessing, wealth can also be a curse to the wicked, given for their condemnation.

Psalm 73 shows the wicked prospering but facing destruction; Job 12:6 says robbers prosper as God brings abundance into their hands.

The righteous will ultimately inherit all wealth

The wealth of the wicked is stored up for the just, so believers should not envy the ungodly.

Proverbs 13:22 and 28:8 state that the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just; 1 Corinthians 3:21-23 says all things belong to believers.

Covenantal obedience is essential for blessing

God's blessings are conditional upon keeping His commandments and acknowledging Him as the source of wealth.

Deuteronomy 8:11-18 warns that forgetting God through disobedience and pride leads to loss of blessing.

Diligence is a non-negotiable requirement

Only the faithful and diligent abound with blessings; slothfulness leads to poverty.

Proverbs 28:20, 6:6-11, and 24:30-34 contrast the diligent with the sluggard, showing that poverty comes from laziness.

Scripture References

Deuteronomy 8:1-20: Read as the primary text, emphasizing remembrance of God as the giver of wealth and warning against pride.
1 Samuel 2:7-8: Cited to show God's sovereignty in making poor and rich, lifting the needy to positions of honor.
1 Corinthians 10:31: Used to argue that all activities, including eating and drinking, must be done for God's glory, rejecting a sacred-secular divide.
Colossians 3:23: Reinforces that whatever we do should be done heartily as to the Lord, not men.
2 Corinthians 10:5: Shows that every thought must be brought into captivity to Christ, supporting the one-sphere view.
2 Timothy 2:19: Commands those who name Christ to depart from iniquity, emphasizing holy living.
1 Thessalonians 5:22: Instructs believers to abstain from all appearance of evil.
Genesis 13:2: Shows Abraham was very rich in cattle, silver, and gold as a sign of God's blessing.
Genesis 14:13-23: Illustrates Abraham's wealth through his 318 trained servants and his refusal to take spoils from the king of Sodom.
Genesis 24:1, 34-36: States that the Lord blessed Abraham in all things, giving him great wealth.
Genesis 26:12-16: Isaac's wealth grew so great that the Philistines envied him and asked him to leave.
Psalm 69:22: A prayer that the table of the wicked become a snare, showing blessings can become traps.
Job 12:6: Notes that robbers prosper and those who provoke God are secure, with God bringing abundance into their hands.
Psalm 62:10: Warns not to trust in oppression or set the heart on increasing riches.
Proverbs 11:4, 28: Riches do not profit in the day of wrath; those who trust in riches will fall.
Proverbs 18:11: The rich man's wealth is his strong city in his own conceit.
Psalm 73:1-22: Asaph's struggle with the prosperity of the wicked, resolved by understanding their final destruction.
Proverbs 13:22: The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.
Proverbs 28:8: Those who increase wealth by usury gather it for him who will pity the poor.
1 Corinthians 3:21-23: All things belong to believers, including the world, life, death, and things present and to come.

Historical References

Thomas Aquinas and Thomism: Weaver critiques Thomas Aquinas for synthesizing Greek philosophy with the Bible, leading to a sacred-secular dualism that infected Christianity.
Puritan saying on riches: The Puritans said, 'God oftentimes curses his enemies with riches,' meaning wealth misused leads to destruction.
John Owen on covenant: John Owen defined a covenant as a voluntary agreement between persons for mutual benefit, with conditions to be fulfilled.

Important Quotes

For the Christian, there is no such thing as a king's X. There is no such thing as neutral territory. There is no such thing as time out. For the Christian, every activity, every attitude, every action is to be brought in submission to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Emphasizes the all-encompassing lordship of Christ over every area of life, rejecting any secular-sacred divide.

God oftentimes curses his enemies with riches.

Summarizes the paradoxical truth that wealth can be a form of judgment when it leads to self-reliance and destruction.

Wealth is not by natural right. It is God's gift.

Affirms God's sovereignty as the source of all wealth, countering human pride and self-sufficiency.

A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.

Highlights the biblical principle that diligent faithfulness, not greedy haste, leads to true prosperity.

Where there is no character, there is no capitalization.

Connects moral integrity and diligence with economic success, a key application of individual responsibility.

Discussion Questions

[Question]

How does the concept of a single sacred sphere challenge the way we typically separate our 'spiritual' and 'secular' activities?

[Context]

Weaver argues that for Christians, every action must be done for God's glory, based on 1 Corinthians 10:31 and Colossians 3:23.

[Question]

Why might God allow the wicked to prosper, and how should this affect our attitude toward wealth and success?

[Context]

Psalm 73 and Job 12:6 show that prosperity can be a snare or a curse, leading to destruction.

[Question]

What does it mean to 'forget God' in the context of Deuteronomy 8, and how can we guard against it in times of abundance?

[Context]

Forgetting God is equated with disobedience and failing to acknowledge His blessings, leading to pride.

[Question]

How do covenantal obedience and individual responsibility work together in experiencing God's blessings?

[Context]

Weaver presents these as the two hinges on which the door of blessing swings, requiring both submission to God's commands and diligent labor.

[Question]

In what ways does our culture promote laziness or a 'get rich quick' mentality, and how can we cultivate biblical diligence?

[Context]

Proverbs 6:6-11 and 24:30-34 warn against slothfulness and emphasize the ant's example of diligent preparation.

Applications

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